Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

, Dhū ’l-Ṣawārī , G̲h̲azwat al-Ṣawārī , “the Battle of the Masts”, the names given in the Arabic sources to a naval battle between the Arabs and Byzantines in the latter part of ʿut̲h̲mān’s caliphate. The locale of the engagement is not wholly certain, but was probably off the coast of Lycia in southern Anatolia near the place Phoenix (modern Turkish Finike, chef-lieu of the kaza of that name in the vilayet of Antalya). As governor of Syria, Muʿāwiya [ q.v.] seems to have inaugurated a policy of building up Arab naval power in order to counter Byzantine control of the Easte…

, Muḥammad Ibrāhīm S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ , Urdū poet b. Dihlī 11 D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 1204/18 December 1790 (so Āzād; in 1203 according to a contemporary Calcutta newspaper, cf. Nawā-i Adab , 45), the only son of S̲h̲. Muḥammad Ramaḍān, a trusted servant of Nawwāb Luṭf ʿAlī K̲h̲ān of Dihlī. His early schooling in Persian and Arabic was in the mosque-school of Ḥāfiẓ G̲h̲ulām Rasūl S̲h̲awḳ, a poet and a pupil of S̲h̲āh Naṣīr (S̲h̲eftā, 150), who inspired the young learner with a love for reading and writing poetry…

, “taste”, is a technical term used in philosophy, in aesthetics (especially literature), and in Ṣūfism. 1. In philosophy [see falsafa ] d̲h̲awḳ is the name for the gustatory sense-perception. Following Aristotle, it is defined as a kind of sub-species of the tactual sense, localized in the gustatory organ, the tongue. It differs from tactual sense, however, in that mere contact with skin is not sufficient for gustation to occur: besides contact, it needs a medium of transmission, viz. the saliv…

[see čas̲h̲nagīr ].

, “the wolves”, a South Arabian tribe whose lands lie between the territory of the Lower ʿAwāliḳ [ q.v.] and the Lower Wāḥidī [ q.v.]. There are also considerable settlements of the D̲h̲iʾāb in the country of the Lower Wāḥidī itself, the villages of which are largely occupied by them. The soil is unfertile and mostly prairie-like pasture land. In the east of the distict is a mountain of some size, the D̲j̲abal Ḥamrā, over 4000 ft. high. The chief place is the fishing village of Ḥawra (al-Ulyā) with an important harbour. The D̲h̲iʾāb are a very wild, warlike tribe of ¶ robbers, and are therefore…

, the wolf. Most of the cognate forms in other Semitic languages have the same significance. Numerous synonyms and sobriquets are found in Arabic, such as sirḥān , uways , sīd , abū d̲j̲aʿda , etc. In local usage, d̲h̲iʾb may also denote the jackal (Jayakar, Malouf), yet Hommel’s assumption (303, n. 1) that this was the only meaning of the word in ancient Arabic (so also Jacob) is inconsistent with its use in the Sūra of Joseph (Ḳurʾān, XII, 13, 14, 17), where it stands for the biblical ‘evil beast’ (Gen. xxxvii 20, 33). Ample mention of the d̲h̲iʾb is made in ancient Arabic poems, proverbs, …

, Bayburtlu , Turkish folk-poet, b. towards the end of the 12th/18th century in Bayburt. Educated in Erzurum and Trabzon, he spent ten years in Istanbul and later travelled in the provinces on minor governmental duties; he was for a short time in the service of Muṣṭafā Res̲h̲īd Pas̲h̲a. He spent the last four years of his life in Trabzon and died in a village nearby while on his way to his home town (1275/1859). His background, somewhat different from that of the usual folk poet, led him to imitate classical poets, and he even composed a complete dīwān of traditional poetry in ʿarūḍ …

, reminding oneself. “Remind thyself of ( ud̲h̲kur ) thy Lord when thou forgettest” ( Ḳurʾān , XVIII, 24). Thus: the act of reminding, then oral mention of the memory, especially the tireless repetition of an ejaculatory litany, finally the very technique of this mention. In taṣawwuf the d̲h̲ikr is possibly the most frequent form of prayer, its muḳābal (“opposite correlative”) being fikr [ q.v.], (discursive) reflection, meditation. In his Ṭawāsīn , in connexion with Muḥammad’s “nocturnal ascension”, al-Ḥallad̲j̲ declares that the road which passes through “the garden of d̲h̲ikr” …

, Zikrīs , a Muslim sect of southern Balūčistān, especially strong amongst the Balūč of Makrān [ q.v.], but also with some representation amongst the Brahūīs of further north. The sect’s name derives from the fact that its adherents exalted the liturgical recitations of formulae including the name and titles of God, sc. d̲h̲ikr [ q.v.], above the formal Muslim worship, the ṣalāt or namāz . The D̲h̲ikrīs were believed by Hughes-Buller to stem from the North Indian heterodox movement of the Mahdawiyya, the followers of Sayyid Muḥammad Mahdī of D̲j̲awnpūr (847-91…

, The term d̲h̲imma , in its legal sense, bears two meanings, the first of which, that of the works on Uṣūl (legal theory), is equivalent to the notion of capacity, and such is the definition of it given by the classical doctrine. The d̲h̲imma is the legal quality which makes the individual a proper subject of law, that is, a proper addressee of the rule which provides him with rights or charges him with obligations. In this sense the d̲h̲imma may be identified with the legal personality. It is for this reason that every person is endowed with a d̲h̲imma from the moment of birth. Eaually it fo…

, the term used to designate the sort of indefinitely renewed contract through which the Muslim community accords hospitality and protection to members of other revealed religions, on condition of their acknowledging the domination of Islam. The beneficiaries of the d̲h̲imma are called d̲h̲immīs , and are collectively referred to as ahl al-d̲h̲imma or simply d̲h̲imma. An account of the doctrinal position of Islam vis-à-vis the religions in question, and of the polemics between the two sides, is given in the article ahl al-kitāb ; for a detailed account of …

[see ahl al-d̲h̲imma ].

, originally the part of the arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, then the measure of the cubit, and at the same time the name given to the instrument for measuring it. The legal cubit is four handsbreadths ( ḳabḍa = index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger put together), each of six fingerbreadths ( aṣbaʿ = middle joint of the middle finger) each the width of six barley corns ( s̲h̲aʿīra ) laid side by side. A considerable number of different cubits were in common use in Islam. Roughly speaking they can be grouped ar…

[see gud̲j̲arāt ].

, the fly. Some authors state that word is used also for other insects, such as bees, hornets, butterflies or moths ( farās̲h̲ ), etc. According to Arab lexicographers, it is either a singular or else a collective noun, in which case d̲h̲ubāba is used for the singular. Cognate synonyms are found in other Semitic languages, e.g., Hebrew , Aramaic . The fly is often mentioned and described in ancient Arabic poems and proverbs. A ḥadīt̲h̲ has it that there are flies in hell to torture the condemned. Numerous kinds are mentioned by Arab zoologists, so…

[see g̲h̲aṭafān ].

, demonstrative forms based on the demonstrative element d̲h̲ . The variety of their uses precludes these forms from being regarded as a single declined word; thus: D̲h̲ū was the relative pronoun, invariable, of the Ṭayyiʾ; corresponding to the Hebrew zū , the poetic form of the relative pronoun. Ḏh̲ī forms part of the masc. relative pronoun allad̲h̲ī ; but allatī in the feminine. The opposition d̲h̲/ t marks the gender. Corresponding to d̲h̲ī are the Aramaic biblical relative, invariable, dī ( de in syr.), the Geez masc. demonstrative ze, acc. za. D̲h̲ā masc. sin…

, name of a watering-place near Kūfa, in the direction of Wāsiṭ (Yāḳūt, iv, 10), where one of the most famous Arab ayyām [ q.v.] took place. In contrast with most other clashes between Arabian tribes, this one had a historical importance because the Bakr b. Wāʾil tribe (a coalition of all its clans except the Banū Ḥanīfa) put other Arabs to flight (Tag̲h̲lib, Iyād, etc.) among whom, significantly, were regular Persian troops. Even if the battle was no more than a skirmish (though sources speak of several thousand comba…

, the name of the famous sword which Muḥammad obtained as booty in the battle of Badr; it previously belonged to a heathen named al-ʿĀṣ b. Munabbih, killed in the battle. It is mentioned in the Sīra (ed. Saḳḳā, etc., 1375/1955), ii, 100, and in several ḥadīt̲h̲s (see for example Ibn Saʿd, ii, 2, section: fī suyūf al-Nabī . The expression D̲h̲u ’l-Faḳār is explained by the presence on this sword of notches ( fuḳra ) or grooves (cf. the expression sayf mufaḳḳar ). According to a tradition, the sword bore an inscription referring to blood-money which ended with the words lā yuḳtal Muslim bi-kāfir …

, (alternatively Faḳāriyya , Zulfaḳāriyya ); a Mamlūk household and political faction in Egypt during the 17th and 18th centuries. (1) Origin and first ascendancy. The eponymous founder of the household, D̲h̲u ’l-Faḳār Bey, is a shadowy figure, who seems to have flourished in the first third of the 17th century, but is not mentioned by contemporary chroniclers. The account (in Ḏj̲abartī, ʿAd̲j̲āʾib al-Āt̲h̲ār , i, 21-3) which makes D̲h̲u ’l-Faḳār and the rival eponym, Ḳāsim, contemporaries of sultan Selīm I is legendary. The political importance of the Faḳāriyya began with the amīr al-…

[see taʾrīk̲h̲ , i].

or d̲h̲āt al-himma , name of the principal heroine of a romance of Arab chivalry entitled, in the 1327/1909 edition, Sīrat al-amīra D̲h̲āt al-Himma wa-waladihā ʿAbd al-Wahhāb wa ’l-amīr Abū ( sic) Muḥammad al-Baṭṭāl wa-ʿUḳba s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-ḍalāl wa-S̲h̲ūmadris al-muḥtāl , which, in the subtitle, describes itself as “the greatest history of the Arabs, and the Umayyad and ʿAbbāsid caliphs, comprising the history of the Arabs and their wars ..... and including their amazing conquests”. Also known is the title Sīrat al-mud̲j̲āhidīn wa-abṭāl al-muwaḥḥidīn al-amīra D̲h̲ū ( sic) ’l-Himma w…

[see taʾrīk̲h̲ , i].

, Turkmen dynasty, which ruled for nearly two centuries (738/1337-928/1522) from Elbistan over the region Marʿas̲h̲-Malatya, as clients first of the Mamlūk and later of the Ottoman Sultans. Name: The use in Arabic sources of the spellings Dulg̲h̲ādir and Tulg̲h̲ādir and in one of the dynasty’s inscriptions of Dulḳādīr (see R. Hartmann, Zur Wiedergabe türkischer Namen ..., Berlin 1952, 7; this spelling occurs also in Bazm u Razm , Istanbul 1918, 456) indicates that the Arabicized forms D̲h̲u ’l-Ḳadr and D̲h̲u ’l-Ḳādir, usual in the later Ott…

[see iskandar ].

(or K̲h̲ulaṣa ). D̲h̲u ’l-K̲h̲alaṣa refers to the sacred stone (and the holy place where it was to be found) which was worshipped by the tribes of Daws, K̲h̲at̲h̲ʿam, Bad̲j̲īla, the Azd of the Sarāt mountains and the Arabs of Tabāla. “It was a white quartziferous rock, bearing the sculpture of something like a crown. It was in Tabāla at the place called al-ʿAblāʾ, i.e., White Rock ( TʿA , viii, 3) between Mecca and the Yemen and seven nights’ march from the former ( i.e., approximately 192 kilometres or 119 miles). The guardians of the sanctuary were the Banū Umāma of the Bāhila…

, a personage twice mentioned in the Ḳurʾān (XXI, 85 and XXXVIII, 48, probably second Meccan period), about whom neither Ḳurʾānic contexts nor Muslim exegesis provides any certain information. John Walker ( Who is D̲h̲u ’l-Kifl ?, in MW, xvi (1926), 399-401) would like the name to be understood in the sense of “the man with the double recompense” or rather “the man who received recompense twice over”, that is to say Job (Ayyūb [ q.v.]; cf. Job xlii, 10). Without being certain, this explanation does not lack probability; in any case, no better suggestion has been put fo…

T̲h̲awbān b. Ibrāhīm al-Miṣrī . This early Ṣūfī was born at Ik̲h̲mīm, in Upper Egypt, about 180/796. His father was a Nubian and D̲h̲u ’l-Nūn was said to have been a freedman. He made some study of medicine and also of alchemy and magic and he must ¶ have been influenced by Hellenistic teaching. Saʿdūn of Cairo is mentioned as his teacher and spiritual director. He travelled to Mecca and Damascus and visited the ascetics at Lubbān, S. of Antioch; it was on his travels that he learnt to become a master of asceticism and self-discipline. He met with hostility from the Muʿtazila [ q.v.] because he up…

, in Arabic Bānū D̲h̲i ’l-Nūn, a prominent family of al-Andalus, originally Berbers of the tribe of Hawwāra. Their name appears to be the Arabicization of an earlier Zannūn (cf. Ibn ʿId̲h̲ārī, Bayān , iii, 276) which would explain the alternative spelling D̲h̲unnūn (ad̲j̲ D̲h̲unnūnī). In the 5th/11th century, during the first period of the Tarty Kings’ ( Mulūk al-Ṭawāʾif ), the D̲h̲u ’l-Nūnids ¶ ruled, with Ṭulayṭula (Toledo) as their capital, from Wādi ’l-Ḥid̲j̲āra (Guadalajara) and Ṭalabīra (Talavera) in the N. to Murcia in the S. The original territory of the Banū D̲h̲i ’l-Nūn …

, lit. ‘he who wears a piece of cord’, nickname given to the famous Arab poet G̲h̲aylān b. ʿUḳba, who died in 117/735-36. He earned the name on account of a small charm which he hung around his neck by a piece of string. He was from the Saʿb b. Milkān clan, an offshoot of the ʿAdī tribe which originated from the ʿAbd Manāt peoples of Central Arabia. On his mother’s side he was related to the Asad tribe. If we accept that he died at the age of forty, his date of birth would be 77/696. This information is however open t…

is the soubriquet of a god borrowed from the Nabataeans, known in Aramaic as ds̲h̲r , Dusares (E. Littmann, T̲h̲amūd und Ṣafā , 30). These soubriquets for gods formed from the pronoun d̲h̲ū (feminine d̲h̲āt ) were of frequent use in Southern Arabia (G. Ryckmans, Les religions arabes préislamiques 2, 44-5; W. Caskel, Die alten semitischen Gottheiten , 108-9). According to Ibn al-Kalbī, D̲h̲u ’l-S̲h̲arā was a divinity of the Banu ’l-Hārit̲h̲ of the tribe of the Azd ( Kitāb al-Aṣnām , ed. Aḥmad Zakī 2, 37). Ibn His̲h̲ām records that D̲h̲u ’l-S̲h̲arā “was an image belonging to Daus and the ḥimā …

[see d̲h̲u’l-nūnids ].

, burial of offences, a nomadic practice which consists of a make-believe burial of the offences or crimes of which an Arab is accused. According to S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn al-ʿUmarī ( al-Taʿrīf bi ’l-muṣṭalaḥ al-sharīf , Cairo 1312, 165 ff.), almost the only source, this curious ceremony was practised as follows. A delegation consisting of men who had the full confidence of the culprit appeared before an assembly of notables belonging to the tribe of the victim, to whom they said: “We wish you to perform the dafn for So-and-so, who admits the truth of your accusati…

, Yūsuf As̲h̲ʿar , pre-Islamic king of the Yemen. According to a tradition probably deriving from Wahb b. Munabbih ( Tīd̲j̲ān , 2 ff.) and repeated by the Arab chroniclers (Ibn Ḳutayba, Maʿārif , 277; al-Dīnawarī, Ak̲h̲bār , 63; al-Ṭabarī, i, 540 ff.; Ibn K̲h̲aldūn, ʿIbar , i, 90; al-Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲ , i, 129 etc.), Lahayʿa b. Yanūf (Lak̲h̲īʿa, Lak̲h̲īʿa Yanūf D̲h̲ū S̲h̲anātir; al-Ṭabarī, i, 540; see also Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, ii, 250) abandoning himself to unnatural practices with the sons of the aristocracy, the young D̲h̲ū Nu…

[see sayf ].

[see ʿarabiyya and other languages].

[see almās ].

[see ʿāmir b. ṣaʿṣaʿa ].

[see ḳumās̲h̲ ].

, an extensive gravel plain in northeastern Arabia, bounded roughly on the east by the depression of al-S̲h̲aḳḳ (which forms the western boundary of the Saudi Arabia-Kuwait Neutral Zone), on the west by the wādī of al-Bāṭin, and on the south by the gravel ridge of al-Warīʿa. The plain extends northward from Saudi Arabia into the Shaikhdom of Kuwait for a distance of about 20 kms. It has an area of c. 30,000 sq. kms. and is remarkable for its firm, almost featureless surface, sprinkled with pebbles of limest…

, poetic nickname of abū ʿalī muḥammad b. ʿalī b. razīn al-k̲h̲uzāʿī . ʿAbbāsid poet, born 148/765 and died 246/860. His birthplace is uncertain; the cities of Kūfa and Ḳarḳīsiya are given as his places of birth. According to the accounts in the Kitāb al-Ag̲h̲ānī , he spent his youth in Kūfa from which he was forced to flee because of some mischievous activity. Diʿbil’s apprenticeship as a poet was under the tutelage of Muslim b. al-Walīd [ q.v.]. However, he soon made a reputation for himself as is indicated from his relationship with K̲h̲alaf al-Aḥmar (d. 180/796) and M…

[see ḳāmūs , muʿd̲j̲am ].

, ναντίον, “contrary” is one of the four classes of opposites, ἀντικείμενα, mutaḳābilāt , as discussed by Aristotle in his Categories x (and also in his Metaphysics v, 10). There are four classes of opposites: 1) relative terms; 2) contraries; 3) privation and possession; 4) affirmation and negation. The fact that there are contraries implies that there must be a substratum in which they inhere, for it is impossible, even for God, to change, e.g., the White into the Black, although a white thing may become black. There are things which have necessarily one of two contraries, e.g., illness a…

, the Arabic name (used always without the article al-) of the easterly of the “Two Rivers” of ʿIrāḳ, the Tigris. The name is a modernized and Arabicized form of the Diglat of the Cuneiform, and occurs as Ḥiddeḳel in the Book of Genesis. The river (Dicle Nehri in modern Turkish) rises in the southern slopes of the main Taurus, ¶ south and south-east of Lake Golcük. Its upper course, with its many constituent tributaries, drains a wide area of foothills and plain, which formed the northern half of the ʿAbbāsid province of D̲j̲azīra) in which stood the imp…

, a people comprising five small Ibero-Caucasian Muslim nationalities, whose total number reaches, according to a 1955 estimate, some 18,000. Ethnically close to the Andi [ q.v.] and the Avar [ q.v.], they inhabit the most elevated and inaccessible regions of Central Dāg̲h̲istān, near to the Georgian frontier. It is necessary to distinguish: 1. The Dido proper (T̲s̲ez T̲s̲unta), numbering about 7,200, distributed in 36 awls along the upper reaches of the Ori-T̲s̲kalis. 2. The Bežeta (Kapuči, Kapčui, Bes̲h̲ite, K̲h̲wanal), the most developed of the Dido peoples (2,500…

, a town in the Sudan Republic, 360 km. SW of Timbuctoo and 200 km. ENE of Segou. Geographical position: lat. 13° 55′ N.—long. 4° 33′ W. (Gr.). Altitude: 278 m. The etymology of this name (often wrongly spelt Djenné) is unknown but the most likely is Dianna = the little Dia (Dia is an ancient Sudanese town, 70 km. to the NW.). Dienné was mentioned for the first time in 1447 by the Genoese Malfante, under the name Geni. The town is situated in the flood-area of the Niger and the Bani, 5 km. from the left bank of the latter river, to which it is connected by a navigable chann…

[see diwrīgī ].

[see ḥisāb al-ʿaḳd ].

, the title of the hereditary ruler of the Banī ʿĀmir tribal group in the Agordat district of western Eritrea and in the eastern Sudan; he is also senior member of the aristocratic Nabtab class or caste, who, for historical reasons no longer possible to elucidate, form the superior stratum in every Banī ʿĀmir section. The title is believed of Fund̲j̲ origin, and may recall days when the tribe was, in the 10th/16th and 11th/17th centuries, intermittently tribute-paying to the Nilotic but Muslim F…

[see ossetes ].