(a.), "mine, ore, mineral, metal". In modern Arabic, the word mand̲j̲am denotes "mine", while muʿaddin means "miner" and d̲j̲amād is a mineral. In the vast Islamic empire, minerals played an important part. There was a great need for gold, silver and copper for the minting of coins and other uses. Iron ore was indispensable for the manufacture ¶ of iron and steel for arms and implements. Other minerals such as mercury, salt and alum, as well as pearls and precious stones, were necessary for everyday life. The empire was richly endowed with the various…

(a.), mosque, the noun of place from sad̲j̲ada “to prostrate oneself, hence “place where one prostrates oneself [in worship]”. The modern Western European words (Eng. mosque , Fr. mosquée , Ger. Moschee , Ital. moschea ) come ultimately from the Arabic via Spanish mezquita . I. In the central Islamic lands A. The origins of the mosque up to the Prophet’s death. The word msgdʾ is found in Aramaic as early as the Jewish Elephantine Papyri (5th century B.C.), and appears likewise in Nabataean inscriptions with the meaning “place of worship…

(a.), in Islamic law, the act of founding a charitable trust, and, hence the trust itself. A synonym, used mainly by Mālikī jurists, is ḥabs , ḥubus or ḥubs (in French often rendered as habous ). The essential elements are that a person, with the intention of committing a pious deed, declares part of his or her property to be henceforth unalienable ( ḥabs, taḥbīs ) and designates persons or public utilities as beneficiaries of its yields ( al-taṣadduḳ bi ’l-manfaʿa , tasbīl al-manfaʿa ). The Imāmī S̲h̲īʿa distinguish between waḳf and ḥabs, the latter being a precarious type of waḳf in which th…

, often contracted to māristān , from Persian bīmār ‘sick’ + the suffix -istān denoting place, a hospital. In modern usage bīmāristān is applied especially to a lunatic asylum. ¶ i. Early period and Muslim East . According to the Arabs themselves (cf. Maḳrīzī, Ḵh̲iṭaṭ , ii, 405), the first hospital was founded either by Manāḳyūs, a mythical king of Egypt, or by Hippocrates, the latter of whom is said to have made for the sick in a garden near his house a xenodokeion , literally ‘lodging for strangers’. The authority for this statement is given by Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa ( ʿUyūn , …

(a.), “wise fools”, a general denomination for individuals whose actions contradict social norms, while their utterances are regarded as wisdom. It is not altogether clear whether or not wise fools were particularly numerous in the early ʿAbbāsid period. At any rate, several authors of classical Arabic literature have treated the phenomenon in specific works that belong to the literary genre dealing with unusual classes of people, such as the blind or misers. While the first collection devoted specifically to wise fools was apparently a work written by al-Madāʾinī (d. 228/843 [ q.v.])…

, (Arabic form Ḏj̲undaysābūr) a town in Ḵh̲ūzistān founded by the Sāsānid S̲h̲āpūr I (whence the name wandēw S̲h̲āpūr “acquired by S̲h̲āpūr”, cf. Nöldeke, Geschichte der ¶ Perser , 41, n. 2), who settled it with Greek prisoners. It is the town known as Bēth-Lāpāt in Syriac, corrupted to Bēl-Ābād̲h̲, now almost unrecognizable in the form nīlāb and nīlāṭ ; the site is marked at the present day by the ruins of S̲h̲āhābād (cf. Rawlinson in the Journ . of the Royal Geogr . Soc , ix, 72; de Bode, Travels in Luristan , ii, 167). The town was taken by the Muslims in the ca…

(t.), in Ottoman usage the complex of buildings with varying purposes centred round a mosque. The concept of a külliyye was inherent in the earliest form of the mosque or d̲j̲āmiʿ where one building housed the place of prayer and teaching as well as serving as a hostel [see EI1, art. Masd̲j̲id ]. Later, other services were incorporated under one foundation document, and each was housed in its own building within an enclosure. This did not preclude the foundation of hospitals, etc., as separate institutions, as in 7th/13th century Anatolia. The early grouping of a külliyye was often due to…

(a.), leprosy or Hansen’s disease. I. Terminology . A number of Arabic terms that may refer to leprosy were created on the basis of the symptomatology of the disease. Aside from the distinctive symptoms of advanced lepromatous leprosy, various terms were adopted that were descriptive of leprous lesions, but they were not restricted exclusively to leprosy. No clinical cases of leprosy are reported in the mediaeval medical literature that might clarify the terminology. There can be little doubt, however, that d̲j̲ud̲h̲ām referred to leprosy, particularly…

(a., pl. of rawḍa “garden”), the capital of Saudi Arabia (estimated population, 1993: 1.5 million). 1. Natural setting. Al-Riyāḍ is situated in the centre of the Arabian peninsula, in the region of Nad̲j̲d [ q.v.], at 453 km/280 miles from Baḥrayn on the Gulf coast and 1,061 km/660 miles from D̲j̲udda [ q.v.] on the Red Sea coast. The actual site is on a plateau with an average height of 600 m/1,968 ft. made up of sedimentary deposits, mainly calcareous, and of the Jurassic period. This plateau is intersected by valleys with scarped edges, notabl…

(a.), medicine. 1. Medicine in the Islamic world. Medical care in the Islamic world was pluralistic, with various practices serving different needs and sometimes intermingling. This medical pluralism allowed pre-Islamic traditional and magical practices to flourish alongside medical theories inherited from the Hellenistic world and drug lore acquired from India and elsewhere. The medical practices of pre-Islamic Arabia appear to have continued as the dominant form of care into the early days of the Umay…

, also eyvān and at times in spoken Arabic līwān , a Persian word adopted by the Turkish and Arabic languages and then by western travellers, archaeologists and art historians to refer to certain characteristic features of Near Eastern and especially Islamic architecture. Since there are notable differences in the meanings given to this term in mediaeval texts and in modern scholarship, the two must be clearly separated. It has been suggested that the word itself derives from Old Persian apadana (E. Herzfeld, Mythos und Geschichte , in Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran …

, Muslims in. 1. The pre-colonial period Originally, Islam came into Uganda from three directions, i.e. the east and south along the established caravan routes of what is today Tanzania and Kenya [ q.vv.] and from the north, along the Nile in what is today Sudan [see sūdān ]. Later, Indian Muslims came into Uganda. Initially the contacts were almost exclusively with the kingdom of Buganda around the north-western end of Lake Victoria. Muslim traders who had established themselves in the Tabora region of present-day Tanzania by 1825 were trading at Koki in southern Bu…

(usual Ar. form, Bud̲j̲a), nomadic tribes, living between the Nile and Red Sea, from the Ḳina-Ḳuṣayr route to the angle formed by the ʿAṭbarā and the hills of the Eritrean-Sudanese frontier. The principal modern tribes are the ʿAbābda [ q.v.], Bis̲h̲ārīn [ q.v.], Ummarār, Hadanduwa and Banī ʿĀmir. The ʿAbābda now speak Arabic; the others (except the Tigre-speaking sections of B. ʿĀmir) speak tu-Beḍawiye, a Hamitic language. The Bed̲j̲a subsist mainly on their herds of camels, cattle, sheep and goats. Since grazing is sparse, they move u…

, fortress and town of Central India. 1. History. Once the fortress-capital of Mālwā [ q.v.] and now a village 34 km. south of Dhār in Madhya Pradesh, in lat. 22° 21′ N and long. 75° 26′ E. The first rulers took full advantage of a natural outcrop of the Vindhya range, overlooking the Nimar plain to the south. A deep and jagged ravine, the Kakra Khoh, isolates it on the sides. The plateau, well-supplied with lakes and springs, stretches unevenly over 5 km. and more f…

, born in 895/1490, the chief Ottoman court architect from 945/1538 until his death in 996/1588. Although the names of several other Ottoman court architects are known, none match his fame. Combining a long life with the opportunities afforded by the resources of the Ottoman empire at its zenith, he produced an œuvre that is unmatched in quantity and quality, not just in Ottoman, but in Islamic architecture as a whole. Of Christian Greek origin, he was recruited in the devs̲h̲irme levy within the reign of Sultan Selīm I (1512-20). He first participated…

, a town on the northern, Black Sea coast of Asia Minor, in the eastern part of classical Pontus and in the later mediaeval Islamic Lazistān [see laz ], now in the Turkish Republic (lat. 41° 03′ N., long. 40° 31′ E.). In Byzantine times, Rhizus/Rhizaion was a place of some importance and was strongly fortified. With the Ottoman annexation of the Comneni empire of Trebizond in 865/1462 [see ṭarabzun ], it became part of the Ottoman empire. A list of Orthodox Church metropolitanates still in existence at the end of the 9th/15th century mentions…

, one of five Deccani dynasties, with its capital at Aḥmadnagar [ q.v.] which emerged in South India as the Bahmanī [ q.v.] kingdom disintegrated. The chroniclers of the Niẓām S̲h̲āhīs emphasise territorial and power disputes and religious (and possibly racial) tensions. The history of the dynasty splits into four periods. Under the first four rulers, 895-994/1490-1586, there was the vigorous establishment of the kingdom. Under the five rulers from 994-1008/1586-1600, there was intensive internal dissension. The peri…

, one of the various forms of long-term lease of waḳf property. Originally, the aim of these contracts was to give tenants an incentive to maintain and ameliorate dilapidated waḳf properties, which are inalienable. In exchange, the tenant is granted—according to different schools of law or interpretations—priority of lease, the right of permanent lease, the usufruct of the property or even co-proprietorship with the waḳf Ḥikr contracts, which were common in Egypt and Syria, are perpetual or made for a long duration. The tenant may erect …

, “the Muslim Brethren”, Muslim movement, both religious and political, founded in Egypt by Ḥasan al-Bannāʾ . History. Many facets of the history of the Muslim Brethren are still unknown, which is to be expected since the movement engaged in many secret activities, on several occasions threatening the established régimes and being persecuted by them, many notorious militant members of it being now (1969) either in exile or living under police supervision in their own countries. The history of the movement may be divided into various periods: (1) A formative period (1928-36) domina…

( demi̇r ), modern Turkish novelist (1910-1973). Born on 13 March 1910 ¶ in Istanbul, his father’s family came originally from Alişar village of Şebinkarahisari (in north-eastern Anatolia), where most of their relatives still live. They were known as Demircioğulları, hence the family name Demir, which however Kemal Tahir never used in his writings. His father Ṭāhir Efendi (d. 1957), a naval officer risen from the ranks, was an aide-decamp to the Sultan ( k̲h̲ünkār yāveri ), and also worked in the carpentry shop of the Yıldız Palace (a privileged po…