Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

[see buk̲h̲l ].

(awar, from Ād̲h̲ari̊ Turkish avarali: "unstable", "vagabond") Ibero-Caucasian people, inhabiting the mountainous part of the autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Dāg̲h̲istān (basins of the rivers Ḳoysu of Andi, Ḳoysu Awar, Ḳara-Ḳoysu and Tleyseruk̲h̲) and the northern part of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan. The Avars are Sunnī Muslims of the S̲h̲āfiʿī rite. In 1955 their numbers were estimated at 240,000, of whom 40,000 approximately were in the Belokani̊ and Zakatali̊ districts of Azerbaijan. The Avars are divided into two major groups—formerly feder…

[see ibn bād̲j̲d̲j̲a ].

[see ibn zuhr ].

[see ibn rus̲h̲d ].

[see ibn sīnā ].

[see camondo ].

[see hawrāmān ].

( Āvah , Āveh ), the name of two towns in central Iran. 1) A town of Āwa, at present called Āwad̲j̲, lies 70 m. (111 km.) S.-W. of Ḳazwīn on the road to Hamadān, ca. 35° 35′ N. lat. and 49° 15′ E. long. (Greenw.). The town is reckoned in the cold zone ( sardsīr ) because of its altitude. In 1950 it had ca. 1800 Persian and Turkis̲h̲ speaking inhabitants. There are only short notices of the town in medieval geographers. Yāḳūt, i, 387, mentions a savant called Āwaḳī from there. The only old building in the vicinity is a caravanseray from the time of S̲h̲āh ʿAbbās. 2) Another town, also called Ābeh …

(oudh), a tract of country comprising the Lucknow and Fayḍābād divisions of the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. It has an area of 24, 168 square miles and a population of 15, 514, 950, of which 14, 156, 139 are to be found in the rural districts. (Census of India, 1951). From very early times Awadh, which forms part of the great alluvial plain of northern India, has been the peculiar home of Hindu civilisation. It corresponds roughly to the Middle Country, the Madhya-desha of the sacred Hindu writings, where dwelt the gods and heroes of the Epic Period whose deeds are recorded in the Mahābhārata …

[see ʿawd̲h̲ila ].

Plural of awwal "first", technically used to denote various ideas such as the "primary data" of philosophical or physical phenomena; the "ancients" of either pre-Islamic or early Islamic times; and the "first inventors" of things (or the things invented or done first). In the last mentioned connotation, the term characterises a minor branch of Muslim literature with affinities to adab , historical, and theological literature. Among the Muslims themselves, only the 10th/17th-century Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Ḵh̲alīfa (Flügel), i, 490; Istanbul 1941-3, col. 1996, defines the awāʾil …

[see ʿawlaḳī ].

, al- (sg. ʿĀmirī), a tribe of Bedouins and villagers in Southern and Eastern Arabia. The tribe is split into three main groups living in the following areas: (1) al-Ḳaff between the southern edge of al-Rubʿ al-Ḵh̲ālī and Wādī Ḥaḍramawt, (2) southern al-Ẓafra between Ḳaṭar and al-Buraymī, and (3) ʿUmān. The groups are completely separate and have little intercourse with each other, though they recognize their common kinship, and the two main divisions of the tribe, Āl Badr and Āl Lazz, exist in a…

, Arabic historian, d. 147/764 or 153/770. His genealogy and descent are disputed. His father’s name is given as al-Ḥakam b. ʿAwāna b. ʿIyāḍ b. Wizr (Yāḳūt, vi, 93; cf. Ḏj̲amhara (Lévi-Provençal), 428, and Fihrist 134); Abū ʿUbayda, however, asserted that al-Ḥakam’s father was a slave tailor (Yāḳūt, ibid., citing verses by Ḏh̲u ’l-Rumma, for which cf. Ibn Sallām, Ṭabaḳāt al-S̲h̲uʿarāʾ (M. S̲h̲ākir), 482, and Ag̲h̲ānī , xvi, 121). Al-Ḥakam was the lieutenant of Asad al-Ḳasrī in Ḵh̲urāsān in 109/727 (Ṭabarī, ii, 1501; Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ , 428) and later gover…

[see avars ].

A term used under the Ottoman régime down to the second quarter of the nineteenth century to denote contributions of various types exacted by the central government in the sultan’s name, and hence often referred to as ʿawāriḍ-i dīwāniyye . The Ottoman fief-system dispensed the central government from the collection of revenues for the payment of the feudal militia and many officers and officials, while the institution of waḳf likewise relieved it of responsibility for the initiation and upkeep of public works of all kinds. But both deprived…

, name of a part of the frontier zone which extended between the Byzantine Empire and the Empire of the Caliphs in the North and North-East of Syria. The forward strongholds of this zone are called al-T̲h̲ug̲h̲ūr [ q.v.] or frontier. strongholds properly so called, whilst those which were situated further to the rear, are called al-ʿAwāṣim , literally "the protectresses" (sing, al-ʿāṣima ). Following their quick successes in Syria and Mesopotamia, the Arabs for a while made no attempt to extend their conquests and confined themselves to making raids into Byz…

, al- (sg. ʿĀzimī), a Bedouin tribe in North-eastern Arabia of reputedly ignoble origin, in that its descent is not regarded by other tribes as pure ( aṣīl ). Although Arabs of pure stock do not intermarry with the ʿAwāzim, the tribe has earned their esteem for its desert lore and courage in battle, having been one of the most loyal and effective supporters of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Āl Saʿūd during his conflicts with other tribes in Eastern Arabia in 1333-48/1915-29. During this period the ʿAwāzim broke away f…

(or Awdag̲h̲os̲h̲t) African town, now no longer extant. According to al-Bakrī, it was situated between the country of the Blacks and Sid̲j̲ilmāssa, at about 51 days’ march from this oasis and 15 from G̲h̲āna. Barth thinks that it must have been situated between long. 10°-11° W. and lat. 18°-19° N., not far from Ḳṣār and Barka, that is to say to the South-West of the post of Tid̲j̲ikja in French Mauritania. Little is known about this town, which seems to have been at the outset a trading colony established by the Zenāga (Ṣanhād̲j̲a) on the Northern border of the Kin…