Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

[see kihāna , also d̲j̲afr , faʾl , ik̲h̲tilād̲j̲ , raml , taʿbīr ].

[see al-ḳaḍāʾ wa-’l-ḳadar ].

[see ṭalāḳ ].

(originally dew , Avestan daeva , Sanskrit dēva ), in Persian the name of the spirits of evil and of darkness, creatures of Ahriman, the personification of sins; their number is legion; among them are to be distinguished a group of seven principal demons, including Ahriman, opposed to the seven Ams̲h̲aspand (Av. aməša spənta , the “Immortal Holy Ones”). “The collective name of the daiva designates ... exclusively the inimical gods in the first place, then generally other supernatural beings who, being by nature evil, are opposed to the good and true faith .... These daiva, these dēv …

, a collection of poetry or prose [see ʿarabiyya ; persian literature ; turkish literature ; urdū literature and s̲h̲iʿr ], a register, or an office. Sources differ about linguistic roots. Some ascribe to it a Persian origin from dev , ‘mad’ or ‘devil’, to describe secretaries. Others consider it Arabic from dawwana , to collect or to register, thus meaning a collection of records or sheets. (See Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Ṣubḥ , i, 90; LA, xvii, 23-4; Ṣūlī, Adab al-kuttāb , 187; Māwardī, al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyya , 175; D̲j̲ahs̲h̲iyārī, Wuzarāʾ , ¶ 16-17; cf. Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ ,…

, the title of high officials in the Central Asian k̲h̲ānates in the 16th-19th centuries. The title appears first, apparently, in the Tīmūrid period, when its bearer, a Turkic amīr of one of the tribes of the Čag̲h̲atāys, was in charge of military affairs and of the affairs of the Turkic subjects, and stood at the head of dīwān-i imārat (or dīwān-i aʿlā ) (see H.R. Roemer, Staatsschreiben der Timuridenzeit , Wiesbaden 1952, 169-71). The title had the same meaning in the state of the Aḳ Ḳoyunlu [ q.v.] (see J.E. Woods, The Aqquyunlu , Minneapolis-Chicago 1976, 11). In the Ṣafawī state in Iran, the d…

[see k̲h̲aṭṭ ].

, the name given to the Ottoman imperial council, until the mid 11th/17th century the central organ of the government of the Empire. Evidence on the dīwān under the early Sultans is scanty. According to ʿĀs̲h̲iḳpas̲h̲azāde (ch. 31; ed. N. Atsız, Osmanlı tarihlerı , Istanbul 1949, 118; German trans. R. Kreutel, Vom Hirtenzeit zur hohen Pforte , Graz 1959, 66), the practice of wearing a twisted turban ( burma dülbend ) when attending the dīwān was introduced during the reign of Ork̲h̲ān. Probably a kind of public audience is meant. The Egyptian physician S̲h̲ams al-Dīn …

, a town of central ʿIrāḳ, on the Ḥilla branch of the Euphrates, (at 44° 55′ E, 32° N.), midway between Ḥilla and Samāwa. With a population of some 12,000, almost all S̲h̲īʿī Arabs, it is the headquarters of a liwāʾ (total population, 508,000 according to the ‘preliminary figures’ of the 1957 census with the dependent ḳaḍās of Samāwa, ʿAfak, S̲h̲āmiyya, Abū Ṣuk̲h̲ayr, and Dīwāniyya itself; the tribes included in the liwāʾ are among the largest and least amenable of the middle Euphrates, and whether in Turkish times or the British occupation (notably in 1336/39, 191…

[see mad̲j̲lis al-s̲h̲ūrā ].

or difrīgī , now divrigi, a small town in modern Turkey, situated on the confines of Armenia and Cappadocia on one of the routes leading from Syria and Upper Mesopotamia to the Anatolian plateau. Through it runs a torrent which flows into the Çaltı Irmak, a tributary of the Kara Su (northern Euphrates). This chief town of a ḳaḍāʾ in the province of Sivas, situated among market gardens and orchards which make it a pleasant resort—archaeological remains alone testify to its former prosperity in the Middle Ages—is now no more than a …

, a specified amount of money or goods due in cases of homicide or other injuries to physical health unjustly committed upon the person of another. It is a substitute for the law of private vengeance. Accordingly it corresponds exactly to the compensation or wergeld of the ancient Roman and Germanic laws. Etymologically the term signifies that which is given in payment. The diya is also called, though very much more rarely, ʿaḳl . In a restricted sense—the sense which is most usual in law— diya means the compensation which is payable in cases of homicide, the compensation payabl…

[see Ḍayf , mihmān , musāfir ].

[see gökalp, ziya ].

, an important river of east-central ʿIrāḳ. Its name, of unknown origin and meaning, is ancient, appearing in antiquity as Σίλλα or Δέλας or Dialas; its upper waters are known as the Sirwān or (originally and more correctly) S̲h̲irwān, as known to Yāḳūt, and this name is in common use for most of its length. It forms a left-bank tributary of the Did̲j̲la (Tigris), navigable only by small craft, and with a discharge formidable in the flood season (March-May), slight in the later summer and autumn. The river rises in western Persia, where the many hill-streams (often dry in the sum…

[see ziya ].

, properly “abode of (the tribe of) Bakr”, the designation of the northern province of the D̲j̲azīra. It covers the region on the left and right banks of the Tigris from its source to the region where it changes from its west-east course to flow in a south-easterly direction. It is, therefore, the upper basin of the Tigris, from the region of Siʿirt and Tell Fāfān to that of Arḳanīn to the north-west of Āmid and Ḥiṣn al-Ḥamma (Čermük) to the west of Āmid. Yāḳūt points out that Diyār Bakr does not extend beyond the plain. Diyār Bakr is so called because it became, during the 1st/7th century…

, Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan , 10th/16th century author of a once popular history of Muḥammad, entitled Taʾrīk̲h̲ al-k̲h̲amīs fī aḥwāl nafs nafīs and preserved in numerous MSS and printed twice (Cairo 1283, 1302). The work is furnished in addition with a brief sketch of subsequent Muslim history. The brief enumeration of Ottoman rulers at the end stops in some MSS with Süleymān Ḳānūnī but usually ends with Murād III (982/1574). The author is also credited with a detailed description of the sa…

, a name formed in the same way as Diyār Bakr [ q.v.], is the province of the Ḏj̲azīra whose territory is watered by the Euphrates and its tributary the Balīk̲h̲ as well as by the lower reaches of the K̲h̲ābūr. It extends on both banks of the Euphrates from Sumaysāṭ (Samosata) in the north to ʿAnā (ʿĀnāt) in the south. The principal town of the Diyār Muḍar was al-Raḳḳa on the left bank of the Euphrates; other major towns were Ḥarrān on the Balīk̲h̲, Edessa (al-Ruhā, Urfa), capital of Osrhoene, and Sarūd̲j̲ …

, a name formed in the same way as Diyār Bakr [ q.v.], is the most eastern and the largest province of the D̲j̲azīra. It includes three regions: that of the K̲h̲ābūr and its tributary the Hirmās (D̲j̲ag̲h̲d̲j̲ag̲h̲) and their sources, i.e., the slopes of the Ṭūr ʿAbdīn; that which is contained between the Hirmās and the Tigris, the former Bēt̲h̲ ʿArabāyē with the D̲j̲abal Sind̲j̲ār; and that on both banks of the Tigris between Tell Fāfān and Takrīt, which marks the boundary with ʿIrāḳ. The lower reaches of the two Zābs are also include…

, is the most correct transcription of the Greek Διοσχορίδης; other forms, such as Diyāsḳūridūs, allow a certain Syriac influence to be admitted. In Islam the name always refers to Pedanius Dioscorides (Ist. century B.C.), born at Anazarbe in Cilicia, whose name when fully arabicized is Diyusḳuridīs al-ʿAyn Zarbī. What the Muslims in the Middle Ages knew of him and his work can be found summarized in the Ṭabaḳāt al-aṭibbāʾ wa ’l-ḥukamāʾ by Ibn D̲j̲uld̲j̲ul, ed. Fuʾad Sayyid, Cairo 1955, 21). After Galen (D̲j̲ālīnūs [ q.v.]) (377/987), he is the doctor most frequently quoted by M…

, the capital of the district ( s̲h̲ahristān ) of the same name in the Vlth ustān (K̲h̲ūzistān) of Persia, is situated in 32° 23′ N. Lat. and 48° 24′ E. Long. (Greenwich), on the left bank of the Āb-i Diz or Dizfūl-rūd. This river, which rises in the neighbourhood of Burūd̲j̲ird, flows into the Kārūn [ q.v.] at Band-i Ḳīr (ʿAskar Mukram, [ q.v.]). The town, which stands 200 metres above sea level, is built on a conglomerate formation; many of the inhabitants have made cellars ( sardābs ) under their houses in this formation, into which they retire during the he…

(1) A group of tribes in the Republic of the Sudan. The principal tribes of this group, mainly sedentary in their way of life, inhabit the banks of the main Nile from the Dongola [ q.v.] region southwards to the Fifth (Sabalūka) Cataract. Other tribes and clans in Kurdufān (Kordofan) and elsewhere attach themselves to this group. The link among the tribes of the D̲j̲aʿaliyyūn is traditionally expressed in genealogical form: their eponymous founder (rather than ancestor) is said to have been a certain Ibrāhīm known as D̲j̲aʿal ( i.e., “he made”, because he made himself a following fr…

[see bennāk ].

(variants: Ibn Rusta: N. d̲j̲āba Yaʿḳūbī: N.h.nāya , Kanbāya al-Idrīsī: D̲j̲āfa : ibid, MS. Cairo: Ḥāba again, ʿĀba , G̲h̲āba , ʿĀna , etc. occurring in the same list of kings separately in Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih and al-Idrīsī are perhaps a dittography of D̲j̲āba ) represents the name of the former hill-state of Chamba (old name Čampā ). The ancient capital of the state was Brahmapura (or Vayrāt́apat́t́ana). Hiuen Tsang describes the kingdom as 667 miles in circuit, and it must have included the whole of the hilly country between the Alaknanda and Karnālī rivers (Law, Historical geography).…

, Mountain, see under the name of the Mountain.

[see al-d̲j̲ibal ].

, D̲j̲eblé, Lat. Gabala, Fr. Gibel, Zibel (not to be confused with Giblet-Ḏj̲oubayl) is a small port on the Syrian coast, situated 30 km. to the south of al-Lād̲h̲iḳiya, facing the island of Ruwad; it is one of the termini of the main road from K̲h̲urāsān, through the valley of the ʿAya al-S̲h̲arḳī in contact with D̲j̲abal Bahirā and G̲h̲āb, where there are roads towards Apamée and Aleppo. This town was an important commercial centre from the time of the Phoenicians, a Dorian colony in the 5th century B.C. and then a prosperous Roman town, surrounded by a coasta…

an isolated mountain (known locally as a ḥaḍba ) located in Nad̲j̲d at about 24° 48′ N, 43° 54′ E, some 60 km. north-west of al-Dawādimī, 25 km. south and east of Nafī, and 15 km. west of Wādī al-Ris̲h̲āʾ. The mountain, which consists of reddish stone, rises abruptly from the surrounding gravel plains. About seven km. in length and three km. wide, D̲j̲abala runs from south-west to northeast with three main wādīs descending from its slopes…

, the last of the G̲h̲assānid dynasts whose personality dominates the scene in the story of Arab-Byzantine relations during the Muslim Conquests and may evidence the resuscitation of the G̲h̲assānid Phylarchate after its destruction during the Persian invasion in A.D. 614. As the ally of Byzantium, D̲j̲abala fought against Muslim arms but lost twice, first at Dūmat al-D̲j̲andal and later at Yarmūk, after which battle he made his exit from military annals. But tradition has remembered him in beautiful anecdotes whether as a Muslim who c…

, Ghassānid chieftain [see G̲h̲assān ] of the pre-Islamic period, who made his début in G̲h̲assānid - Byzantine relations ca. 500 A.D., when he mounted an offensive against Palestina Tertia but was beaten by Romanus, the dux of that province. Shortly afterwards in 502, Byzantium concluded a treaty with the G̲h̲assānids and recognised them as its new allies ( foederati ). Throughout the remaining part of the reign of the emperor Anastasius (491-518), the sources are silent on D̲j̲abala, who was probably not yet the G̲h̲assānid king b…

[see ag̲h̲ridāg̲h̲ and d̲j̲udī ]

[see yarpūt].

, the name of a volcanic mountain in Syria situated ca. 105 km. southeast of Damascus. Around its west and south sides runs a small valley opening to the southeast into a large volcanic crater. In years with normal rainfall, this crater is filled with water for about eight months. A reservoir near its centre makes D̲j̲abal Says one of the few secure waterplaces in the region, where sometimes more than a hundred nomad families camp in autumn. At the mouth of the valley on the southeast-slope of D̲j̲abal Sa…

, Gibraltar , the promontory of calcareous rock, a British possession, south-west of the Spanish province of Cádiz, almost at the southern extremity of Spain (length 4.6 km., breadth reaching 1.2 km.; area, 4.9 sq. km.; highest point 425 m.); the town extends the length of the western slope, which is fairly gradual, and numbers 28,000 inhabitants (British, Spanish, Jews and Moroccans) (including the garrison); it is as it were the key to the Mediterranean, and is fortified an…

, a ruined fortress situated on the left bank of the middle ¶ Euphrates, almost opposite Ṣiffīn. Also called Ḳalʿat Dawsar from the name by which this locality was known in the pre-Islamic period and in the early days of Islam (Pauly-Wissowa, iv, 2234: to Dawsarōn , which explains the Arab traditions connecting this name Dawsar with the king of al-Ḥīra, al-Nuʿmān b. al-Mund̲h̲ir), it was described by ancient Arabic authors as a stopping-place on the route leading from al-Raḳḳa to Bālis (Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih. 74; al-Ṭa…

, the name of the Muslims of Ethiopia. Originally the name of a region (D̲j̲abara or D̲j̲abart) in the territories of Zaylaʿ and Ifāt (cf. al-Maḳrīzī, al-Ilmām , Cairo 1895, 6 ff.), later applied to all the Muslim principalities of southern Ethiopia and, ultimately, to all Muslims living in Ethiopia. The term D̲j̲abart is sometimes also used by the Christian population of Ethiopia with reference to the Muslims of the Arabian peninsula and thus becomes identical with the term Muslim in general. In mod…

, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Ḥasan , the historian, b. 1167/1753, d. 1825 or early 1826, was a descendant of a Ḥanafī family from al-D̲j̲abart [ q.v.]. According to al-D̲j̲abartī the people of that region were very strict in their religion and were inclined to asceticism. Many of them went on foot to the Ḥid̲j̲āz, either as pilgrims or as mud̲j̲āwirūn . They had three riwāḳs , of their own: one in the mosque of Medina, one in the mosque at Mecca, and one in the mosque of al-Azhar at Cairo. The forefather of the Egyptian branch of the family of al…

[see ʿālam ].

[see nud̲j̲ūm ].

, the ancient Gabbula, a place eastsouth-east of Ḥalab, watered by the Nahr al-D̲h̲ahab. The salt-mines there lent D̲j̲abbūl a certain economic importance in the middle ages as they still do, to which it probably also owed its position as an administrative centre in the political division of the Mamlūk kingdom. (R. Hartmann) Bibliography M. Streck, Keilinschriftl. Beiträge zur Geogr. Vorderasiens, 20 Schiffer, Die Aramäer, 131 ff. Yāḳūt, ii, 29 Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Ḍawʾ al-ṣubḥ, Cairo 1324, 295 von Kremer, Beiträge z. Geogr. des nördl. Syrien, 18 Le Strange, Palestine, 460 Ritter, Erdkunde…

a town in Central Babylonia, on the east bank of the Tigris, a few hours’ journey above Kūt al-ʿAmāra, and five parasangs (about twenty miles) south-east of Nuʿmāniya (the modern Tell Naʿmān). It is described as a flourishing place by the older Arab geographers; but, by Yāḳūt’s time (beginning of the 7th/13th century) it had considerably declined. In course of time—we have no details of its decay—it fell utterly into ruins. This town must date from a very remote period; for the name of the Gambū…

b. ʿAmr b. Ḥarām b. Kaʿb b. G̲h̲anm b. Salima , Abū ʿAbd Allāh (or Abu ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, or Abū Muḥammad) al-Salamī al-K̲h̲azrad̲j̲ī al-Anṣārī , Companion of the Prophet. His father, ʿAbd Allāh, was one of the seventy men of Aws and Ḵh̲azrad̲j̲ who gave the Prophet the oath of allegiance at the ʿAḳaba Meeting [see al-ʿaḳaba ] and committed themselves to defend him. His father is also recorded in the list of the twelve nuḳabāʾ , the chosen group from among the seventy; D̲j̲ābir himself had attended the Meeting as a very young boy, and is therefore cou…

, abū muḥammad , the astronomer Geber of the middle ages; he was often confused with the alchemist Geber, whose full name was Abū ʿAbd Allāh D̲j̲ābir b. Ḥayyān al-Ṣūfī. He belonged to Seville; the period in which he flourished cannot certainly be determined, but from the fact that his son was personally acquainted with Maimonides ¶ (d. 1204), it may be concluded that he died towards the middle of the 12th century. He wrote an astronomical work which still survives under two different titles; in the Escurial Ms. it is called Kitāb al-Hayʾa (the Book of Astronomy), in the Berlin copy it is entitled I…

b. ʿAbd allāh al-Kūfī al-Ṣūfī , one of the principal representatives of earlier Arabic alchemy. The genealogy quoted above is taken from the Fihrist, where on p. 354 the oldest biography of D̲j̲ābir is preserved. His kunya given there is not Abū Mūsā, as usual, but Abū ʿAbd Allāh, although Ibn al-Nadīm himself states that al-Rāzī (d. 313/925 or 323/935) used to quote: “Our master Abū Mūsā D̲j̲ābir b. Ḥayyān says . . .”. The biography shows not only complete uncertainty regarding facts, but also legendary ele…

, Abu ’l-s̲h̲aʿthāʾ al-azdī al-ʿumānī al-yaḥmidī al-d̲j̲awfī (al-D̲j̲awf in Baṣra) al-baṣrī , a famous traditionist, ḥāfiẓ and jurist, of the Ibāḍī sect. He was born in 21/642 in Nazwā (in ʿUmān), and, according to tradition, became head of the Ibāḍī community of Baṣra upon the death of ʿAbd Allāh b. Ibāḍ [ q.v.]. He carried on the latter’s policy of maintaining friendly relations with the Umayyads, and kept on good terms with the ruthless persecutor of the Azāriḳa, al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲, through whom he even succeeded in obtaining regular payments …

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh or Abū Muḥammad b. Yazīd b. al-Ḥārit̲h̲ , Kufan S̲h̲īʿī traditionist of Arab descent. His chief teacher seems to have been al-S̲h̲aʿbī [ q.v.] (d. 100/718-19). Among other well-known traditionists, from whom he related, were ʿIkrima, ʿAṭāʾ b. Abī Rabāḥ and Ṭāwūs. Initially, he held the moderate S̲h̲īʿī views widespread among the Kūfan traditionists. Later he joined the more radical S̲h̲īʿī circles looking to Muḥammad al-Bāḳir (d. ca. 117/735) and his son D̲j̲aʿfar al-Ṣādiḳ for religious guidance. According to some Sunnī heresiologists, he became th…

[see supplement ].

, the principal residence of the amīrs of G̲h̲assān, and for that reason known as “D̲j̲ābiya of kings”, situated in D̲j̲awlān [ q.v.], about 80 km. south of Damascus, not far from the site of the modern Nawā. It extended over several hills, hence perhaps the poetic form of plural D̲j̲awābī, with an allusion to the etymological sense of “reservoir”, the symbol of generosity (cf. Ag̲h̲ānī , xviii, 72). It was the perfect type of ancient bedouin ḥirt̲h̲ā/ḥīra , a huge encampment where nomads settled down, a jumble of tents and buildings; there is even a…

[see d̲j̲abriyya ].