Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

(?-1065/1655), Ottoman Grand Vizier, was related to the “rebel” Ābāza Meḥmed Pas̲h̲a (see ābāza , i) (his sister’s son according to Naʿīmā (ed. of 1282), ii, 302, iii, 194, v, 196; his uncle’s son, according to Ḥadīḳat al-d̲j̲awāmiʿ , i, 182); his nickname Ips̲h̲ir is probably due to his belonging to the Apsil tribe of the Abk̲h̲āz [ q.v.] (see Ismail Berkok, Tarihde Kafkasya , Istanbul 1958, 142). He was brought up by Ābāza Meḥmed Pas̲h̲a, who, as governor of Aleppo, procured him the post of sand̲j̲aḳ-begi of Tarsus in 1026/1617 (Naʿīmā, v, 196). He was wit…

, a technical term in Arabic grammar. It is sometimes found translated as “inflexion”, as by G. Flügel ( Die gram. Schulen , 15), who also unjustifiably extended the sphere of this “inflexion”. ¶ Nevertheless in translating thus, one comes up against the way in which the Arab grammarians envisaged this “inflexion”. It should be pointed out, first of all, that these grammarians had no proper term for “declension” and “conjugation”, and no general term for “case” and “mood”. They proceed in a purely formal manner. Taking sounds into consideration, they make the following division: (a) rafʿ = …

, literally “will”, a term adopted in Ottoman official usage from 1832 to designate decrees and orders issued in the name of the Sultan. The formal procedure was for draft decrees prepared by ministers and officials to be addressed to the Sultan’s chief secretary ( Serkātib-i s̲h̲ahriyārī ), who read them to the Sultan and received and noted his comments. If he approved, the chief secretary then communicated the text to the Grand Vizier, as the Sultan’s will. Under the constitution, the Sultan’s function was limited to giving his assent to the decisions of the government. The term Irāde …

[see ʿarīf , kihāna ].

, a sovereign State, of the Muslim religion, for the most part Arabic-speaking, situated at the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent. i.—Geography The structure of ʿIrāḳ paradoxically derives its originality from the fact that it forms part of a large geographical block of territory. From the Arabo-Syrian desert tableland which it faces along its south-western flank, it takes its general aspect and its climate. All along its frontiers on the North-East, on the other hand, it shares the orientation and ¶ relief of the folded mountain-chains of western Asia, which give it its t…

[see al-d̲j̲ibāl ]. ¶

, Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn Ibrāhīm ʿIrāḳī Hamadānī , eminent Iranian poet and mystic. In spite of its lack of precision, the best source of information on this author, who gives very few autobiographical details in his own works, is an anonymous muḳaddima (introduction), composed in the manner and style of ʿIrāḳī’s own period (the end of the 7th/13th century) or the beginning of the following period. D̲j̲āmī ( Nafaḥāt al-uns ) and Mir K̲h̲wānd ( Ḥabīb al-siyar ) have obtained their information on ʿIrāḳī from this introduction. According to Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī Kazwini, who wrote his Tārīk̲h̲-i guzīd…

, Sayyid S̲h̲ams al-Dīn , religious leader active in the evangelisation of Kas̲h̲mīr. He was the son of Sayyid Ibrāhīm, a Mūsawī Sayyid, and was born in the small town of Kund-Sūlḳān, situated near Tehran on the road to Ḳazwīn. He received a good education, and, while still young came under the influence of Sayyid Muḥammad Nūr Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ (795-869/1393-1464), the founder of the Nūrbak̲h̲s̲h̲iyya Order [see kubrā , nad̲j̲m al-dīn ]. Impressed by his eloquence and learning, Sultan Ḥusayn Mīrzā Bāyḳarā (873-911/1469-1506) took ¶ him into his service and sent him as his envoy to Su…

, name of a tribe or place: (1) A tribe called Iram is mentioned several times in ancient poems (over a dozen references are given by J. Horovitz, Koranische Untersuchungen , Berlin 1926, 89 f.). It is mostly coupled with ʿĀd, but sometimes also with T̲h̲amūd. Ḥimyar, etc., and is said to have been destroyed by a man called Ḳudār al-Aḥmar (Uḥaymir). In this meaning Iram is an ajicient Arabian tribe. In his Muʿallaḳa , 68, al-Ḥārīth b. Ḥilliza uses the adjective iramī in the sense of ‘a man of ancient race’ (cf. al-Tibrīzī, ad loc). When Muslim scholars came to link up traditional Arab gen…

i.—Geography The geological background: The alignments of Iran’s principal topographie features, represented by the Kūhhā-yi Alburz and the Zagros Chain, are west to east and north-west to south-east, respectively. In broad context, the Alburz is a continuation of the European Alpine structures, while the Zagros chain has been linked through Cyprus with the Dinaric Alps (Fisher, 1956). The structure of the mountain rim of the country has been influenced strongly by tectonic movements which have n…

iii. Languages (a) Pas̲h̲to [see afg̲h̲ān . (ii). The Pas̲h̲to language] (b) Kurdish [see kurds , kurdistān . v. Language] (c) Zaza [ q.v.] (d) Ḵh̲wārazmian (e) Sogdian and Bactrian in the early Islamic period (f) New Persian (g) New Persian written in Hebrew characters [see judaeo-persian . ii. Language] (d) Ḵh̲wārazmian. Ḵh̲warazmian, last attested late in the 8th/14th century (before yielding to Turkish), belonged to the Eastern branch of the Iranian language family, being most closely related to Sogdian, its southeastern neighbour. Pre-Islami…

[see Mug̲h̲als].

(Ayt > At̲h̲ Yiratən; Ar. Banū Ratən), a Berber tribal group of Great Kabylia, whose territory is bounded on the north by the Sebaw, in the west by the Wādī Aïssi (Wādī ʿAysī), which separates them from the Ayt Yenni, in the south by the Ayt Yaḥyā and in the east by the Ayt Frawsen. It is a hilly country from 3000 to 3500 feet in height, producing olives and figs and some cereals. The ¶ inhabitants are settled in several villages, of which the most important are Adni, Tawrirt Ameḳḳran, Usammer and Agemmun. The Iraten numbered some ten thousand, belonging to the commune mixte of Forth-National. We kno…

, the name of two places: I: (Irbid/Arbad), the centre of the ḳaḍāʾ of ʿAd̲j̲lūn [ q.v.] in Transjordania (32°33′ N., 35° E.). According to al-Ṭabarī, the Umayyad caliph Yazīd II died at Irbid which, the chronicler states, at that time formed part of the region of the Balḳāʾ [ q.v.]. ¶ Several traditions place the residence of Yazīd II at Bayt Rās [ q.v.], situated about 3 km. to the north of Irbid. In the Mamluk period, Irbid was a halting-place of the barīd [ q.v.]. Today it is a small town of about 3000 inhabitants with basalt houses. II: (Ḵh̲irbat Irbid, Arbad, Erbed), vestiges of the anci…

, a town in Upper Mesopotamia, situated about 80 km. east-south-east of al-Mawṣil (36° 11′ N., 42° 2′ E.), in the centre of a region known as Adiabene, bounded on the north by the course of the Gṛeat Zāb and on the south by that of the little Zāb. Irbil is a site which has been inhabited since very early times, being referred to in cuneiform inscriptions under the name Arbaīlu; the religious centre of the kingdom of Assyria with a sanctuary of the godd…

(pl. aʿrāḍ ), Arabic term corresponding approximately to the idea of honour, but somewhat ambiguous and imprecise, as the hesitations of the lexicographers testify. It does not appear in the Ḳurʾān, and the contexts in which it figures in ḥadīt̲h̲ do nothing to clarify its precise meaning. Al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ does not seem to have attempted to analyse the idea of ʿirḍ , while Ibn Ḳutayba sees in it a reference sometimes to the soul, sometinies to the body, an interpretation attacked by al-Ḳālī, Amālī , Cairo 1323, i, 118. In fact, apart from such material meanings…

, abū yaḥyā zakariyyāʾ , chief of the Berber tribe of Nafūsa and last Ibāḍī-Wahbī imām in North Africa. He is probably the same person as R. Basset refers to in error as Abū Zakariyyāʾ Yaḥyā al-Ird̲j̲ānī, confusing him with his son, Abū Zakariyyāʾ b. Abī Yaḥyā al-Ird̲j̲ānī, who also was chief ( ḥākim ) of the Ḏj̲abal Nafūsa. According to the Ibāḍī document known under the name of Tasmiyat s̲h̲uyūk̲h̲ Ḏj̲abal Nafūsa wa-ḳurāhum (6th/12th century), Abū Zakariyyāʾ (error for Abū Yaḥyā Zakariyyaʾ) of Irkān (Ird̲j̲ān) was elected imām after Abū Ḥātim (that is Abū Ḥātim Yūsuf b. Abī ’l-Ya…

, also Erič , Erač , on modern maps Erachh, a small town of north-central India, situated on the south bank of the Betwā river, 65 km/40 miles northeast of Jhansi and 100 km/62 miles southeast of Gwalior (lat. 25° 47′ N., long. 79° 9′ E.). It is now in the Jhansi District in the extreme southwest of Uttar Pradesh Province of the Indian Union. Although now within a region largely Hindu, the area round Irič is rich in Indo-Muslim remains and monuments. It was in Muslim hands by 709/1309, when the Ḵh̲ald̲j̲ī commander Malik Kāfūr [ q.v.] stayed at Irič, then renamed Sulṭānpūr, en route southwa…

, an Arabic word which, etymologically, has the basic meaning of “root”, but other acceptations have been grafted on to this original meaning so that it eventually approximates to the idea of race. It is clear, as far as can be judged from the rare documents which can be collected, that such a concept is nowhere clearly attested, and it would be more correct, in this respect, to speak of a stock: “I trace my origins ( ʿurūḳ ) to the root ( ʿirḳ ) of the land” said Imruʾ ’l-Ḳays ( LA s.v. ʿrḳ ). But the idea of race seems to be present in outline behind this substanti…

, [see ṣaḥrāʾ ].