Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

Get access Subject: Middle East And Islamic Studies
Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs

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The Encyclopaedia of Islam (Second Edition) Online sets out the present state of our knowledge of the Islamic World. It is a unique and invaluable reference tool, an essential key to understanding the world of Islam, and the authoritative source not only for the religion, but also for the believers and the countries in which they live. 

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Aaron

(5 words)

[see hārūn ]

Āb

(5 words)

[see taʾrīk̲h̲ ]

ʿAbāʾ

(5 words)

[see kisāʾ ]

ʿAbābda

(1,011 words)

Author(s): Hillelson, S.
(sg. ʿAbbādī ), an Arabic-speaking tribe of Bed̲j̲a [ q.v.] origin in Upper Egypt with branches in the northern Sudan. The northern limis of their territory in Egypt is the desert road leading from Ḳena to Ḳusayr, and their nomad sections roam the desert to the east of Luxor and Aswān. The original ʿAbābda stock is most truly represented by the nomads but there are also sedentary sections who have intermarried with the fallaḥīn and adopted much of their way of life. On the Red Sea coast there is a small clan of fisher-folk, the Ḳirayd̲j̲āb, who by some are not recognized as true ʿAbābda. Like the r…

Abad

(491 words)

Author(s): Bergh, S. van den
originally means time in an absolute sense and is synonymous with dahr [ q.v.; see also Zamān ]. When under the influence of Greek philosophy the problem of the eternity of the world (see Ḳidam ) was discussed in Islam, abad (or abadiyya ) became a technical term corresponding to the Greek term ἀφθαρτός, incorruptible, eternal a parte post, in opposition to azal (or azaliyya ) corresponding to the Greek term ἀγενητός, ungenerated, eternal a parte ante. (Ibn Rus̲h̲d—cf. ed. Bouyges, index—uses azaliyya for "incorruptible"]. [For azal see Ḳidam.] As to the problem concerned, viz. if …

Ābādah

(149 words)

Author(s): Minorsky, V.
, a small town in Persia, on the eastern (winter) road from S̲h̲īrāz to Iṣfahān. By the present-day highway Ābādah lies at 280 km. from S̲h̲īrāz, at 204 km. from Iṣfahān, and by a road branching off eastwards (via Abarḳūh) at 100 km. from Yazd. In the present-day administration (1952) Ābādah is the northernmost district ( s̲h̲ahristān ) of the province ( astān ) of Fārs. The population is chiefly engaged in agriculture and trade (opium, castor-oil; sesame-oil). Iḳlīd (possibly * kilid "key [to Fārs]") is another small town belonging to Ābādah. The whole…

Ābādān

(5 words)

[see abbādān ]

Abāḍites

(5 words)

[see ibāḍiyya ]

Abāḳa

(5 words)

[see ilk̲h̲āns ]

Abān

(5 words)

[see taʾrīk̲h̲ ]

Abān b. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd

(257 words)

Author(s): Stern, S.M.
al-Lāḥiḳī (i.e. son of Lāḥiḳ b. ʿUfayr), also known as al-Raḳās̲h̲ī, because his family (originally from Fasā) were clients of the Banū Raḳās̲h̲, Arabic poet, died about 200/815-6. He was a court poet of the Barmakids and wrote panegyrics in their praise and the praise of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd. He also defended in some verses the ʿAbbāsids against the pretensions of the ʿAlids. In the usual manner of the epoch he engaged in vigorous exchanges of lampoons with his fellow poets (among them Abū Nuwās). His enemies accused him, without justification, it seems, of Manicheism (see G. Vajda, in RSO, 19…

Abān b. ʿUt̲h̲mān

(203 words)

Author(s): Zetterstéen, K.V.
b. ʿAffān , governor, son of the third caliph. His mother was called Umm ʿAmr bint Ḏj̲undab b. ʿAmr al-Dawsiyya. Abān accompanied ʿĀʾis̲h̲a at the battle of the Camel in Ḏj̲umāda I 36/Nov. 656; on the battle terminating otherwise than was expected, he was one of the first to run away. On the whole, he does not seem to have been of any political importance. The caliph ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān appointed him as governor of Madīna. He occupied this position for seven years; he was then dismissed and his place was taken by His̲h̲ām b. Ismāʿīl. Abān owes his celebrity not so ¶ much to his activity as an…

Abanūs

(384 words)

Author(s): Hell, J.
(variants: Ābinūs , Ābunūs , Abnūs and Ābnūs ), ebony. The word is derived from the Greek ebenos , which passed to the Aramean ( abnūsā ) and from there to Arabic, Persian, Turkish etc. Although ebony had been already known in the old days in the East, where it was imported from India and Ethiopia, it was very little used at the early times of Islam, on account of its rarity and the scanty demand for artistic goods. Absolute faith must not be given to the story according to which, when the Mosque of…

Abarḳubād̲h̲

(171 words)

Author(s): Streck, M.
, one of the sub-districts ( ṭassūd̲j̲ ) of ʿIrāḳ, according to the Sāsānid division adopted by the Arabs, belonging to the district (P. astān , A. kūra ) Ḵh̲usra S̲h̲ād̲h̲ Bahmān (the district of the Tigris) and comprising a tract of land along the western frontier of Ḵh̲uzistān, between Wāsiṭ and Baṣra. The name is derived from the Sāsānid king Kawād̲h̲ (Ḳubād̲h̲) I. The first part of the name is probably Abar (P. abar or abr "cloud" is often seen at the beginning of place-names) and not Abaz or Abād̲h̲ as the Arab geographers have it. Some Arab authors give A…

Abarḳūh

(211 words)

Author(s): Minorsky, V.
, a small town belonging to Yazd and lying on the road from S̲h̲īrāz to Yazd (at 39 farsak̲h̲s from the former and at 28 fars. from the latter) and also connected by a road with Ābādah [ q.v.]. It lies in a plain, and according to Mustawfī, Nuzha , 121, its name ("on a mountain") refers to its earlier site. In 443/1051 Ṭug̲h̲ri̊lbeg gave Yazd and Abarḳūh to the Kākūyid Farāmarz (Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, ix, 384) as a compensation for the loss of Iṣfahān. His successors continued to rule these towns as atābeks . In the 8th/14th century Abarḳūh is frequently mentioned in the …

Abars̲h̲ahr

(224 words)

Author(s): Walker, J.
, the more ancient name of Nīs̲h̲āpur [ q.v.], was the capital of one of the four quarters of the province of Ḵh̲urāsān. Its name in Persian, according to the Muslim geographers, is said to mean "Cloud-city", but Marquart’s etymology ( Ērānšahr , 74), the "district of the ᾿Απαρνοι" (comparing Armenian Apar ašχart) is more reliable. It was sometimes given the honorific title of Īrān-S̲h̲ahr "City of Īrān". Its mint-signature on Sassanian coins is Apr, Aprš or Apršs , forms which continue to appear on the dirhams of Arab-Sassanian type struck by the Mu…

Abaskūn

(203 words)

Author(s): Minorsky, V.
(or Ābaskūn ), a harbour in the south-eastern corner of the Caspian. It is described as a dependency of Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ān/Gurgān (Yāḳūt, i, 55: 3 days’ distance from Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ān; i, 91: 24 farsak̲h̲s). It might be located near the estuary of the Gurgān river (at Ḵh̲od̲j̲a-Nefes?). Al-Istak̲h̲rī, 214 (Ibn Ḥawḳal, 273) calls Abaskūn the greatest of the (Caspian) harbours. The Caspian itself was sometimes called Baḥr Abaskūn . Abaskūn possibly corresponds to Ptolemy’s Σωκανάα in Hyrcania (Gurgān). Several times Abaskūn ¶ was raided by Rūs pirates (some time between 250-70/864-84, a…

Ābāza

(922 words)

Author(s): Huart, Cl.
, Turkish name for the Abazes (see abk̲h̲āz ), given as a surname to many persons in Ottoman history who descended from those people. 1) Ābāza pas̲h̲a , taken prisoner at the defeat of the rebel Ḏj̲anbulād, whose treasurer he was, was brought before Murād Pas̲h̲a and had his life spared only through the intercession of Ḵh̲alīl, ag̲h̲a of the Janissaries, who, having become ḳapūdān-pas̲h̲a , gave him the command of a galley, and conferred upon him the government of Marʿas̲h̲ when he was promoted to the dignity of grand vizier. Later he be…

ʿAbbādān

(335 words)

Author(s): Lockhart, L.
( Ābādān ) stands on the south-west side of the island of the same name, on the left bank of the S̲h̲aṭṭ al-ʿArab. It is believed to have been founded by a holy man named ʿAbbād in the 8th or 9th century A.D. (the people of Baṣra used to add the termination "ān" to a proper name in order to change it into a place name). In those days ʿAbbādān was on the sea coast, but with the gradual extension of the delta of the S̲h̲aṭṭ al-ʿArab, it is now over 30 miles from the head of the Persian Gulf. In the early ʿAbbāsid period ʿAbbādān was a center of ascetics living in ribāṭ (L. Massignon, Essai, 135; Abu ’l-Atāhiya, Dīw…
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