Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

, Sayyid Aḥmad b. Zaynī , born in Mecca towards the beginning of the 19th century, was from 1288/1871 Muftī of the S̲h̲āfiʿīs and S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-ʿUlamāʾ (head of the corporation of scholars and therefore of the body of teachers in the Ḥaram ) in his native city. When the Grand S̲h̲arīf ʿAwn al-Rafīḳ, because of a dispute with the Ottoman Governor ʿUt̲h̲mān Pas̲h̲a, removed himself to Madīna, Daḥlān followed him there but died soon afterwards from the fatigue of the journey in 1304/ 1886. Particularly in his later ye…

—in Saʿūdī Arabia—a long, narrow arch of nafūd or dune desert, varying in width from 10 to 75 km., extending around an eastward curve for a total length of over 1,000 km., connecting the Great Nafūd of the northwest with the Empty Quarter (al-Rubʿ al-K̲h̲ālī [ q.v.]) of the south, lacking in natural water sources except along the fringes, but furnishing a favourite area of pasturing. In the past separating the interior area of al-Yamāma from the coastal region of al-Baḥrayn, al-Dahnāʾ today serves as an informal boundary between the Province of Nad̲j̲d and the…

, Persian dahna , dahāna , marmar-i sabz (‘green marble’), Turkish dehne-i frengi, malachite, the well known green copper-ore. The description of the mineral in the Rasāʾil Ik̲h̲wān al-Ṣafā goes back to the pseudo-Aristotelian lapidary. According to that, the malachite is formed in copper mines from the sulphur fumes which combine with ¶ copper to form layers. Its colour is compared to that of the chrysolith ( zabard̲j̲ad ), although it does appear in different shades: dark green, veined, the shade of peacock’s feathers, and pale green, wit…

, a corridor 418 miles long by 125 miles wide, between Togoland and Nigeria, is one of the earliest known countries on the Gulf of Guinea. The coast is low-lying, fringed with lagoons, while the central zone is formed of table-land and isolated mountains; the northern part is higher, slanted across by the mountains of Atacora, which rise to about 800 metres. In the south especially, the humidity is high and the temperature fairly constant although there are two rainy and two dry seasons. The population of Dahomey, nearly two million inhabitants, is chiefly composed of Fon (cent…

, time, especially infinitely extended time (cf. Lane; al-Bayḍāwī on K. 76.1). The pre-Islamic Arabs, as is shown by many passages in their poetry, regarded time (also zamān , and al-ayyām , the days) as the source of what happened to a man, both good and bad; they thus give it something of the connotation ¶ of Fate, though without worshipping it (W. L. Schrameier, Über den Fatalismus der vorislamischen Araber , Bonn 1881; Th. Nöldeke, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics , i, 661 b; for possible parallels cf. A. Christensen, Iran , 149 f., 157—Zurvān as both time …

, holders of materialistic opinions of various kinds, often only vaguely defined. This collective noun denotes them as a whole, as a firḳa , sect, according to the Dictionary of the Technical Terms , and stands beside the plural dahriyyūn formed from the same singular dahrī , the relative noun of dahr, a Ḳurʾānic word meaning a long period of time. In certain editions of the Ḳurʾān it gives its name to sūra LXXVI, generally called the sūra of Man; but its use in XLV, 24 where it occurs in connexion with the infidels, or rather the ungodly, erring and blinded, appears to …

, a place in the province of D̲j̲īza, some 40 kms. south of Cairo, to the west of the Nile on the edge of the desert. A necropolis and pyramids dating from the first dynasties of the Old Kingdom are situated there. These relics of the age of the Pharaohs are mentioned by al-Harawī and al-Maḳrīzī without a precise description being given. Abū Ṣāliḥ speaks of a great church and an important monastery there. The present-day hamlet is insignificant and the name continues to be well known solely on account of the pyramids. (G. Wiet) Bibliography Ibn Mammātī, 138 al-Harawī, Ziyārāt, 39 Abū Ṣāliḥ, fol.…

, aḥmad b. ibrāhīm , Turkish poet of the end of the 8th/14th and the beginning of the 9th/15th century. The scanty information about his life is scattered in his works and in ted̲h̲kires . A ḳādī by profession, he began to gain prominence as a poet at the court of the Germiyān in Kütahya under princes Sulaymān and Yaʿḳūb II. He seems to have travelled a great deal in Anatolia and in the Balkans. During the chaotic years of struggle between the sons of Bāyezīd I after the battle of Ankara (804/1402), he entered the service of one of them, amīr Sulaymān in Edirne, whose court had become a gatheri…

(rarely, dāʿiya ), “he who summons” to the true faith, was a title used among several dissenting Muslim groups for their chief propagandists. It was evidently used by the early Muʿtazilites [ q.v. in EI 1]; but became typical of the more rebellious among the S̲h̲īʿīs. It appears in the ʿAbbāsid mission in K̲h̲urāsān; and in some Zaydī usage. It was ascribed to followers of Abu ’l-K̲h̲aṭṭāb. It was especially important in the Ismāʿīlī and associated movements (which were called daʿwa , “summons”), where it designated generically the chief authorized representatives of the imām . Among the …

[see al-d̲j̲arḥ waʾl taʿdīl ].

, the term used for the administration of crown lands in the Ottoman Empire during the last quarter of the 19th century. Saniyya lands were the mulk (private freehold) of the Sultan. They were administered by a well-organised establishment, the Dāʾira Saniyya , which had branch offices in areas where these lands were abundant. After the revolution of 1908, Sultan ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd II ceded his private properties to the state. The lands continued to be called saniyya , but they were transferred to the newly-formed department of al-Amlāk al-mudawwara . Within months of the accession to the…

, name of an Egyptian province in the eastern region of the Delta. It owes its name, which is an Arabicized form of the Coptic Tkehli, to the town called Daḳahla which was situated between Damīra and Damietta, a little closer to the latter than the former. At one time famous for its paper mills, it is now but an insignificant village. The province was created at the end of the 5th/11th century and it has survived till today with some changes in its boundaries. At present it extends along the eastern bank of the Damietta branch of the Nile, which marks its …

, the capital of Senegal, is situated at the tip of the Cape Verde peninsula. Its position ¶ is the westernmost outpost of the ancient world (its longitude reaches 17° 16′ W. at the point of the Almadies). The region of Dakar, which covers almost the whole of the peninsula, is subdivided into three parts: (1) An eastern highland area (more than 100 m. in altitude); the N’Diass range rises some 70 m. above lake Tanma; to the east, the relief consists of hills or low plateaux with very gentle…

[see daḳahliyya ].

(deccan). This word is derived from the Sanskrit word daks̲h̲iṇa ‘right (hand)’, hence ‘south’, since the compass points were determined with reference to the rising sun. The conventional line dividing north India from the south is formed by the south-western spurs of the Vindhyas along with their continuation called the Satpuŕās; peninsular India to the south of this line is usually further divided into (i) Deccan proper, extending up to the Tungabhadra, and (…

[see urdū ],

The dictionaries ( LA, TA, etc.) give a general meaning, “interior, inward, intimate”, and two particular derived meanings, (1) guest, to whom protection should be assured, and (2) stranger, passing traveller, person of another race. The first of the particular meanings relates to an institution of nomadic common law which guarantees protection, in traditional ways, to whoever requests it. Although the concept has at all times existed, it has never been incorporated into Islamic law, which has no te…

, [see ʿabd al-raḥmān ].

[see al-wāḥāt ].

[see urdū ].