Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

, surname of the Syrian Arabic poet ʿAbd al-Salām b. Rag̲h̲bān b. ¶ ʿAbd al-Salām b. Ḥabīb b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Rag̲h̲bān b. Yazīd b. Tamīm. This latter had embraced Islam at Muʾta [ q.v.] under the auspices of Ḥabīb b. Maslama al-Fihrī [ q.v.], whose mawlā he became. The great-grandfather of the poet, Ḥabīb, who I was head of the dīwān of salaries under al-Manṣūr, gave his name to a mosque at Bag̲h̲dād, masd̲j̲id Ibn Rag̲h̲bān (al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, Buk̲h̲alāʾ , ed. Ḥād̲j̲irī 327, trans. Pellat, index; al-Ḏj̲ahs̲h̲iyārī, 102; Le Strange, Baghdad , 95). Dīk al-Ḏj̲inn, born at…

[see māʿ ].

, or dikkat al-muballig̲h̲ . During the prayer on Fridays (or feast-days) in the mosque, a participant with a loud voice is charged with the function of muballig̲h̲ . While saying his prayer he has to repeat aloud certain invocations to the imām, for all to hear. In mosques of any importance he stands on a dikka . This is the name given a platform usually standing on columns two to three metres high, situated in the covered part of the mosque between the miḥrāb and the court. In Cairo numerous undated platforms are to be found. The oldest dated inscription, with the word d-k-t, dates back to Sulṭā…

, an ancient place in the Middle Atlas region of Morocco which owed its existence to the foundation in the last quarter of the 10th/16th century of a zāwiya [ q.v.], a “cultural” centre meant for teaching the Islamic sciences and Arab letters, and at the same time spreading the doctrine of the S̲h̲ād̲h̲iliyya [ q.v.] order, more precisely the branch known as the D̲j̲azūliyya [see al-d̲j̲azūlī , abū ʿabd allāh muḥammad ], and also sheltering the needy and travellers. In 1048/1638, the zāwiya dilāʾiyya or bakriyya (from the founder’s name, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Abū Bakr …

, founder of the kingdom of Mālwa [ q.v.], whose real name was Ḥasan (Firis̲h̲ta, Nawalkishore ed., ii, 234); or Ḥusayn (Firis̲h̲ta, Briggs’s tr., iv, 170; so also Yazdani, op. cit. below); or ʿAmīd S̲h̲ah Dāwūd ( Tūzuk-i Ḏj̲ahāngīrī . tr. Rogers and Beveridge, ii, 407, based on the inscriptions of the D̲j̲āmiʿ masd̲j̲id (= Lāt́ masd̲j̲id) in Dhār, cf. Zafar Hasan, Inscriptions of Dhār and Mānḍū , in EIM, 1909-10, 11-2 and Plates III and IV). He was believed to be a lineal descendant of ¶ Muʿizz al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Sām, S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn G̲h̲ūrī, and this belie…

(?-1031/1622), Ottoman Grand Vizier, was of Croat origin. He rose in the Palace service to the rank of Čās̲h̲nigīr Bas̲h̲i̊, ¶ becoming thereafter Beglerbeg of Cyprus and then, in D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 1022/January 1614, Beglerbeg of Bag̲h̲dād. As Beglerbeg of Diyārbekir—an appointment bestowed on him in 1024/1615—he shared in the Erivān campaign of 1025/1616 against the Ṣafawids of Persia. His subsequent career until 1030/1621 is somewhat obscure. The Ottoman chronicles (cf. Pečewī, ii, 366; Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī K̲h̲alīfa, …

, in Turkish tongueless, the name given to the deaf mutes employed in the inside service ¶ ( enderūn ) of the Ottoman palace, and for a while also at the Sublime Porte. They were also called by the Persian term bīzabārī , with the same meaning. They were established in the palace from the time of Meḥemmed II to the end of the Sultanate. Information about their numbers varies. According to ʿAṭāʾ, three to five of them were attached to each chamber ( Kog̲h̲us̲h̲ ); Rycaut speaks of ‘about forty’. A document of the time of Muṣṭafā II (d. 1115/1703), cited by U…

, Dimas̲h̲ḳ al-S̲h̲ām or simply al-S̲h̲ām , (Lat. Damascus, Fr. Damas) is the largest city of Syria. It is situated at longitude 36° 18′ east and latitude 33° 30′ north, very much at the same latitude as Bag̲h̲dād and Fās, at an altitude of nearly 700 metres, on the edge of the desert at the foot of Diabal Ḳāsiyūn, one of the massifs of the eastern slopes of the Anti-Lebanon. To the east and the north-east the steppe extends as far as the Euphrates, while to the south it merges with Arabia. A hundred or more kilometres from the Mediterranean behind the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, a doubl…

S̲h̲ams al-Dīn abū ʿAbd allāh muḥammad b. Abī Ṭālib al-Anṣārī al-Ṣūfī , known as Ibn S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Ḥittīn, author of a cosmography and other works. He was s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ and imām at al-Rabwa, described by Ibn Baṭṭūṭa as a pleasant locality near Damascus, now the suburb of al-Ṣāliḥiyya, and d. at Ṣafad in 727/1327. Al-Dimas̲h̲ḳī’s best known work, Nuk̲h̲bat al-dahr fī ʿad̲j̲āʾib al-barr wa ’l-baḥr is a compilation dealing with geography in the widest sense, and somewhat closely resembling the ʿAd̲j̲āʾib al-mak̲h̲lūḳāt of al-Ḳazwīnī. Though the author’s standp…

, also called Dimotiḳa , a town in the former Ottoman Rumeli. Dimetoḳa lies in western Thrace, in a side valley of the Maritsa, and at times played a significant role in Ottoman history. The territory has belonged to Greece since the treaty of Neuilly (27 November 1919), again bears its pre-Ottoman name of Didymóteikhon, and lies within the administrative district (Nomos) of Ebros. It has a population of about 10,000, and is the seat of a bishop of the Greek church as well as o…

(Damietta), a town of Lower Egypt situated on the eastern arm of the Nile, near its mouth. Dimyāṭ, which was an important town before the Muslim conquest, was captured by a force under al-Miḳdād b. al-Aswad, sent by ʿAmr b. ¶ al-ʿĀṣ. As a Muslim town, it suffered repeated naval raids, at first from the Byzantines and subsequently from the Crusaders. After an attack in D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 238/June 853, al-Mutawakkil ordered the construction of a fortress at Dimyāṭ as part of a general plan to fortify the Mediterr…

Nūr al-Dīn or Aṣīl al-Dīn ; his dates are uncertain but almost certainly not before the end of the 7th/13th century; author of a ḳaṣīda in lām on the names of God (see al-asmāʾ al-Ḥusnā and d̲h̲ikr ); each verse of this ḳaṣīda is reputed to possess mysterious virtues, given in detail by the commentaries of which the text has several times been the object (the best-known is that by the Moroccan mystic, Aḥmad al-Burnusī Zarrūḳ, d. 899/1493). The ḳaṣīda Dimyāṭiyya holds a considerable place in the worship of the semiliterate, in particular in North Africa…

, al-Bannāʾ . Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-G̲h̲anī al-Dimyāṭī , known as al-Bannāʾ, Though he had some local reputation in Lower Egypt as a pillar of the Naḳs̲h̲bandiyya order of dervishes, owes his fame to his work Itḥāf fuḍalāʾ al-bas̲h̲ar on the Ḳurʾānic variants of the Fourteen Readers. He was born at Dimyāṭ where he had the usual education of a Muslim youth under local teachers, till he was able to journey to Cairo, where he studied ḳirāʾāt , ḥadīt̲h̲ and S̲h̲āfiʿī fiḳh under al-Muzāḥī and al-S̲h̲abrāmulsī, and was able to hear such …

, traditionist born in 613/1217 on the island of Tūnā between Tinnīs and Damietta; at the end of his career he was professor at the Manṣūriyya and at the Ẓāhiriyya in Cairo, where he died in 705/1306. Apart from the works listed by Brockelmann, to be supplemented by the recent study of A. Dietrich, ʿAbdalmuʾmin b. Xalaf ad-Dimyāṭī’nin bir muhācirūn listesi , in Şarkiyat Mecmuasi , iii (1959), 125-55) he has left a dictionary of authorities, often cited and used by subsequent historians and biographers, called Muʿd̲j̲am S̲h̲uyūk̲h̲ ; it only survives at the pre…

, I. Definition and general notion. It is usual to emphasize three distinct senses of dīn : (1) judgment, retribution; (2) custom, usage; (3) religion. The first refers to the Hebraeo-Aramaic root, the second to the Arabic root dāna , dayn (debt, money owing), the third to the Pehlevi dēn (revelation, religion). This third etymology has been exploited by Nöldeke and Vollers. We would agree with Gaudefroy-Demombynes ( Mahomet , 504) in not finding it convincing. In any case, the notion of “religion” in question is by no means identical in Maz…

a district in East Pakistan; population (1951) 1,354,432. In 1947 the district was partitioned, and its southern part was given to India. The name has been wrongly derived from Dinwad̲j̲ or Danud̲j̲, identified with king Danud̲j̲a Mardana Deva, whose coins are dated in Sáka 1339-40=A.D. 1417-18. This king has nothing to do with Rād̲j̲ā Ganesá, whose original estate was at Bhatoriya in this district and who played an important role in the early 9th/15th century Muslim history of Bengal. Dīnād̲j̲ is a non-Aryan term, which with the Sanskrit ending pur makes the f…

( Malik ), name of one of the Og̲h̲uz chieftains who set themselves up at K̲h̲urāsān after the dislocation of the kingdom of the Sald̲j̲ūḳid Sand̲j̲ar; unable to maintain his position there before the pressure of the K̲h̲wārizmian state, he found a way to profit from the dissensions among the Sald̲j̲ūḳids of Kirmān to lay hands on that principality (582/1186) and to hold it, in spite of hostilities on the borders of Sistān, Fārs, and the Persian Gulf, until his death in 591/1195. After his death, however, Kirmān in its turn became absorbed within the K̲h̲wārizmian empire, on account of in…

(pl. danānir ), the name of the gold unit of currency in early Islam. The word derives from Greek δηνάριον (Latin, denarius ), originally signifying a silver coin but in post-Constantinian times commonly synonymous with solidus , denarius aureus or νóμισμα χρυσοῦν The Arabs were familiar with thә word and with the Roman and Byzantine gold coin before Islam ( Ḳurʾān , ed. Flügel, iii, 68; and cf. ¶ J. Stepková in Numismatický Sbornik , iii, 1956, 65). The earliest type of Arab dīnār, undated but attributable to approximately the year 72/691-2, and struck almost certainly a…

(sometimes incorrectly written Daynawar) in the middle ages was one of the most important towns in D̲j̲ibāl (Media); it is now in ruins. The exact location is 34° 35′ Lat. N. and 47° 26′ E. Long. (Greenwich). The ruins are situated on the north-eastern edge of a fertile plain 1600 metres above sea level which is watered by the Čam-i Dīnawar. This stream, after traversing the precipitous Tang-i Dīnawar, joins the Gamas-Āb near the rock of Bisitūn; the G…

, Abū Ḥanīfa aḥmad b. Dāwūd , Arab scholar of the 3rd/9th century. The name of his grandfather, Wanand, indicates that he was of Iranian origin. In spite of the great value attached to his work by later authors very little has been handed down about his life except a short notice by Ibn al-Nadīm ( Fihrist , 78), copied by Yāḳūt with additional notices about the year of his death, which according to various sources fell in 281 or 282/894-5 or before 290/902-3; an appreciation of his work quoted from the K. Taḳrīẓ al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ by Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī and an anecdote a…