Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

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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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Yāʾ

(817 words)

Author(s): Blois, F.C. de
, the 28th letter of the Arabic alphabet, with the numerical value 10. It stands for the semivowel y and for the long vowel ī , which the grammarians analyse as short i ( kasra ) plus yāʾ . For the shortening of final before hamzat al-waṣl , see wāw . ϒāʾ is also used, like alif and wāw, as a “support” for medial or final hamza [ q.v.], reflecting presumably the ancient Ḥid̲j̲āzī dialect loss of hamza in certain positions with concomitant glides. In word-final position, alif maḳṣūra (that is to say: long ā not followed by hamza) is written sometimes with alif and sometimes with yāʾ. In the latter c…

al-Yābānī

(709 words)

Author(s): Sato, T.
, the modern Arabic term for a person of Japanese descent. 1. Islam in Modern Japan. The Japanese began to receive information about the Islamic world through Chinese sources beginning in the 8th century. However, it was not until the early 18th century that a substantial introduction to the Middle East and Islam was written in Japanese by a Confucian intellectual and politician, Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725), mainly based on questions asked of the Italian Jesuit missionary Giovanni Battista Sidotti. From the …

Yabg̲h̲u

(525 words)

Author(s): Bosworth, C.E.
(t.) (perhaps also Yavg̲h̲u, the Old Turkish so-called “runic” alphabet not differentiating b and v), an ancient Turkish title, found in the Ork̲h̲on [ q.v.] inscriptions to denote an office or rank in the administrative hierarchy below the Kag̲h̲an. The latter normally conferred it on his close relatives, with the duty of administering part of his dominions. It was thus analogous to the title S̲h̲ad̲h̲, whom the Yabg̲h̲u preceded in the early Türk empire [see turks. I. History. 1. The pre-Islamic period]. It seems to have lost some importance after this time (8th century), …

Yābisa

(771 words)

Author(s): Soucek, S.
, the mediaeval Arabic name for Ibiza (Catalan, Eivissa), an island in the western Mediterranean, part of al-Ḏj̲azāʾir al-s̲h̲arḳiyya “the Eastern islands” [of al-Andalus], sc. the Balearics [see mayūrḳa ; minūrḳa and their Bibls.], and also the name of its chief town and port. Ibiza is the smallest of the trio (area 572 km2), and lies 85 km to the southwest of Mallorca halfway to the Spanish ¶ coast (at Cabo de la Nao, with Denia nearby). It is flanked by the still smaller island of Formentera 4 km to its south, and the name Pityusic Islands, applied to these …

Yabrīn

(323 words)

Author(s): G.R. Smith
, a sandy region of Eastern Arabia belonging to Banū Saʿd. It is situated within the area of al-Baḥrayn [ q.v.], three stages from al-Falad̲j̲ and two stages from al-Aḥsāʾ [ q.v.] and Ḥad̲j̲r (Yāḳūt, Buldān , ed. Beirut, v, 427). The editors of al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Iṣfahānī, Bilād al-ʿarab , Riyāḍ 1968, 276 n. 3, sc. Ḥamad al-D̲j̲āsir and Ṣāliḥ al-ʿAlī, state that Yabrīn is still known as an area in the west of al-Aḥsāʾ and the name is corrupted (or more probably, hypercorrected, since d̲j̲ > y in the speech of that area) in modern works to D̲j̲abrīn. It does not, however, appe…

Yabrūḥ

(492 words)

Author(s): Johnstone, Penelope C.
(a.), Mandragora, the Mandrake, Mandragora officinarum, Solanaceae ; also called Atropa mandragora L. and M. officinarum Mill (Moldenke); Hebr., dūdāʾīm or yabrūah̲ . A perennial herbaceous plant common in the Mediterranean region, its dark green leaves, about one foot long, spread out at ground level; the flowers are purplish or whiteish-green, and the fruit are small globular berries, orange to red in colour. Its root is often forked, and is the part known as yabrūḥ , while the plant itself is generally called luffāḥ . Ibn al-Bayṭār explains mandrāg̲h̲ūra s of Dioscorides as yabrūḥ, a…

Yābura

(872 words)

Author(s): Picard, Ch.
, the Arabic name of the modern town of Evora in southern Portugal. The Liberalitas Julia of the Roman period had become Elbora or Erbora in the time of the Visigoths, a name revived unchanged, in the form of Yābura, by Arab authors. The history of the Arab town poses numerous enigmas. Very little is known of its history from the time of the Arab conquest to the beginning of the 10th century. Ibn al-Faraḍī makes it the seat of a ḳāḍī , and the city was located in the district of Beja, capital of a d̲j̲und and seat of a governor since the conquest. Al-Rāzī alludes to i…

al-Yadālī

(1,091 words)

Author(s): Leconte, F.
(1096-1166/1685-1753), the cognomen of Muḥammad b. al-Muk̲h̲tār b. Muḥammad (Maḥamm) Saʿīd b. al-Muk̲h̲tār b. ʿUmar b. ʿAlī b. Yaḥyā b. Yiddād̲j̲ Igd̲h̲aburg̲h̲a b. Yad̲h̲rinan Tags̲h̲umt (Aḥsanuhum Bas̲h̲arat an), Mauritanian scholar. His nisba shows his ethnic affiliation to one of the Zawāyā tribes forming the pentarchical alliance of the Tas̲h̲ums̲h̲a: the group of the Īdāw-dāy (eponymous founder Yiddād̲j̲ = D̲j̲addu ʿAlī). He was born and died at Tandagsammi, in the heart of the Gibla (south-eastern Mauritania) in the region of Iguidi; his tomb is s…

Yada Tas̲h̲

(1,032 words)

Author(s): Bosworth, C.E.
(t.), lit. rain stone, in Arabic texts appearing as ḥad̲j̲ar al-maṭar , this being a magical stone by means of which rain, snow, fog, etc., could be conjured up by its holder(s). In particular, knowledge and use of such stones has been widespread until very recent times in Inner Asia. Belief in the existence of stones and other means of controlling the weather has been widespread throughout both the Old and New Worlds (see Sir J.G. Frazer, The golden bough, a study in magic and religion, abridged ed., London 1922, 75-8). Belief in a stone seems to have been general amongst the e…

Yādgār

(3,675 words)

Author(s): Darley-Doran, R.E.
(p.), lit. “a souvenir, a keepsake” and, by extension, in numismatics any special issue of coins struck for a variety of non-currency purposes. In Islamic history the striking of coins was a special responsibility and prerogative of the ruler [see sikka ] together with having his name mentioned in the Friday bidding prayer [see k̲h̲uṭba ]. In general, coinage serves two major purposes. Primarily it is a medium of exchange between a government and its people, i.e. to facilitate taxation payments or to support internal and international commerce. Gover…

Yād̲j̲ūd̲j̲ wa-Mād̲j̲ūd̲j̲

(3,523 words)

Author(s): E. van Donzel and Claudia Ott
, sc. Gog and Magog, the names of apocalyptic peoples known from biblical (Ezekiel xxxviii, xxxix, Apocalypse, xx. 7-10) and Ḳurʾānic eschatology. Ḳurʾān, XVIII, 93-8, refers to D̲h̲u ’l-Ḳarnayn erecting a barrier/rampart ( sadd/radm) against them, which, at the end of time, God Himself will raze. Ḳurʾān, XXI, 96, is an apocalyptic metaphor: “Till, when Gog and Magog are unloosed, and they slide down ( yansilūna ) out of every slope” (tr. A.J. Arberry). Names . The reading ϒād̲j̲ūd̲j̲ wa-Mād̲j̲ūd̲j̲ (without hamza ) was preferred by most of the Ḥid̲j̲āzī and ʿIrāḳī ḳurrāʾ , while ʿĀṣim [ q.…

Yāfā

(1,628 words)

Author(s): F. Buhl, F. | Bosworth, C.E.
, Yāfa , conventionally Jaffa, older Joppa, a port on the Palestinian seaboard, in pre-modern times the port of entry for Jerusalem, since 1950 part of the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo in the State of Israel (lat. 32° 05′ N., long. 34° 46′ E.). Situated on a 30 m/100 feet-high promontory on the otherwise straight coastline of central Palestine, Jaffa is a very ancient town. Thutmosis III’s forces seized the Canaanite town of ϒ-pw in the 15th century B.C. and it became a provincial capital during the Egyptian New Kingdom; since the 1950s, archaeological excavations h…

Yāfiʿ

(402 words)

Author(s): G.R. Smith
, an ancient and important collection of tribes of the Yemen who established themselves in the lofty mountain ranges in Sarw Ḥimyar to the north and north-east of Aden [see ʿadan ], about 120 km/75 miles distant. Yāfiʿ is divided into the Upper and Lower Sultanates (see map of Serjeant, in ϒāfiʿ , 84), with al-Maḥd̲j̲aba the capital of the former and al-Ḳāra, the old capital of the sultans of the Banū Ḳāsid, that of the latter. The former has five tribes: Kaladī, Saʿdī, Yazīdī, Yaharī and Nāk̲h̲ibī. The latter also has five: Muflaḥī, Mawsaṭī, Ẓabī, Buʿsī and Ḥaḍramī. They were certainly pre-I…

al-Yāfiʿī

(733 words)

Author(s): Geoffroy, E.
, Abū ʿAbd Allāh b. Asʿad , Abu ’l-Saʿāda ʿAfīf al-Dīn (b. in Yemen ca. 698/1298, d. at Mecca 768/1367), scholar and Ṣūfī. His father, impressed by his son’s intellectual and spiritual precociousness, sent him to study at Aden. After his first Pilgrimage in 712/1313, he returned to Yemen, taking up life as an ascetic and anchorite and becoming a disciple of the Ṣūfī master ʿAlī al-Ṭawās̲h̲ī, to whom he remained close until the latter’s death. In 718/1319 he moved to Mecca and completed his education in the Is…

Yāfit̲h̲

(426 words)

Author(s): Heller, B. | Rippin, A.
, the Japheth of the Bible. He is not mentioned by name in the Ḳurʾān (although he is alluded to in VII, 64, X, 73, XI, 40, XXIII, 27 and XXVI, 119), but the exegetes are familiar with all the sons of Noah [see nūḥ ]: Ḥām, Sām [ q.vv.] and Yāfit̲h̲ (the pronunciation Yāfit is mentioned as possible in al-Ṭabarī, i, 222). The Biblical story (Gen. ix. 20-7) of Ḥām’s sin and punishment and the blessing given to Sām and Yāfit̲h̲ is known in Muslim legend, but it is silent about Noah’s planting the vine and becoming intoxicated. Al-Kisāʾī totally tr…

Yaʿfurids

(5 words)

[see yuʿfirids ].

Yāg̲h̲istān

(683 words)

Author(s): Siddiq, Mohammad Yusuf
(p.), lit. “the land of the rebels”, ( yāg̲h̲ī “rebel”, istān “region”) referred to different sanctuaries used by Mud̲j̲āhidūn [see mud̲j̲āhid ] against the British authorities in the 19th and early 20th centuries, in the various independent tribal areas, mainly inhabited by the Pak̲h̲tūns, in the hinterland of what became the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of British India such as the Mohmand Agency, Bunēr, Dīr, Swāt, Kohistān, Hazāra and Čamarkand (extending into the Kunār province of Afg̲h̲ānistān and Bad̲j̲…

Yag̲h̲ma

(569 words)

Author(s): Bosworth, C.E.
, in Arabic orthography Yag̲h̲mā, a Turkish tribe of Central Asia mentioned in accounts of the early Turks and their component tribal groups. P. Pelliot thought that the Chinese ϒang-mo presupposed a nasalised form * ϒangma ( Notes sur le “Turkestan” de M.W . Barthold, in T’oung-Pao , xxvii [1930], 17). There are sections on the Yag̲h̲ma in Ḥudūd al-ʿālam , tr. 95-6 § 13, cf. comm. 277-81, and Gardīzi, Zayn al-ak̲h̲bār , ed. Ḥabībī, Tehran 1347/1968, 260. Abū Dulaf does not mention them by name in his First Risāla , but Marquart thought that his Bug̲h̲rād̲j̲ tri…

Yag̲h̲mā D̲j̲andaḳī

(693 words)

Author(s): Minorsky, V.
, the tak̲h̲alluṣ or pen-name of the Persian poet Mīrzā Abu ’l-Ḥasan Raḥīm ( ca. 1196-1276/ ca. 1782-1859), often called by his fellow-poets Ḳaḥba-zan “whore” from the expression repeated monotonously in his obscene verse. He was born at K̲h̲ūr in the D̲j̲andaḳ oasis in the central desert of the Das̲h̲t-i Kawīr, roughly half-way between Yazd and Simnān. He began his life as a camel-herd but by the age of seven his natural gifts had been noticed by the owner of the oasis, Ismāʿīl K̲h̲ān ʿArab-i ʿĀmirī, whose secretary ( muns̲h̲ī-bās̲h̲ī ) he ultimately became. Hi…

Yag̲h̲māʾī

(611 words)

Author(s): Ali Gheissari
, Ḥabīb (b. K̲h̲ūr, 17 December 1898, d. Tehran, 14 May 1984), Persian poet and literary editor. A descendant of the early Ḳād̲j̲ār poet Yag̲h̲mā D̲j̲andaḳī [ q.v.], Ḥabīb Yag̲h̲māʾī was born in the small town of K̲h̲ūr near D̲j̲andaḳ and Bīyābānak in the central desert of Persia. He first studied with his father, Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ Asad Allāh Muntak̲h̲ab al-Sādāt K̲h̲ūrī, and subsequently left K̲h̲ūr in 1916-17 for the nearby towns of Dāmg̲h̲ān and S̲h̲āhrūd in order to pursue his education. In Dāmg̲h̲ān he studied at the Nāẓimi…
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