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(a.), lit. “barber”, “hairdresser”, synonymous with muzayyin ; the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ām (“cupper”) [see faṣṣād, in Suppl.] also used to be a part-time barber. The ḥallāḳs formed a group of skilled workers, of mixed social origins. The well-known barber in the Islamic society of Medina was Ḵh̲irās̲h̲ b. Umayya, who shaved the Prophet Muḥammad’s hair. The Prophet had his hair shaved at Minā at the time of the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ , and Muslims have followed this practice during the Greater and Lesser Pilgrimages ever since. Some barber’s work at the time of the Pilgrimage received attention from…

(A.), two terms denoting blood-letter ( faṣṣād , lit. “phlebotomist” and ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ām , lit. “cupper”). Al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ indicates that ḥid̲j̲āma (cupping) and faṣd (phlebotomy) are similar professions. Some pseudo-scientific books on phlebotomy and blood-letting were written by reputable physicians in ʿAbbāsid Bag̲h̲dād and Ag̲h̲labid Ḳayrawān in the 3rd/9th century, e.g., Yuḥannā b. Māsawayh (d. 243 H./857) wrote a Kitāb al-Faşd wa’l-ḥid̲j̲āma (“Book of phlebotomy and blood-letting”), and Isḥāḳ b. ʿUmrān (d. 279/892) wrote in Ḳayrawān a medical treatise called Kitāb al-Faşd …

(a.), pl. ḥāka , also ḥayyāk (synonym, nassād̲j̲ ), weaver. Given the supreme importance of textiles in mediaeval Islamic life and economy [see e.g. ḥarīr and bisāṭ in Suppl.], the class of weavers was probably the most numerous and certainly one of the most important groups of artisans. The weavers of Damascus, Bag̲h̲dād, Egypt, the Yemen, and a host of other towns throughout the Islamic ¶ world wove fabrics ranging from the coarse and workaday types to the finest and most delicate (cf. R.B. Serjeant, Islamic textiles, material for a history up to the Mongol conquest, Beirut 1972, passim …

, Iskāfī (a., pl. asākifa ), “shoemaker”, the tradesman who in pre-modern Islamic times produced ordinary shoes ( k̲h̲uff , pl. k̲h̲ifāf ), nailed boots used by the common people ( lālaka , pl. lawālik ) and also s̲h̲amus̲h̲kāt (sing. s̲h̲amus̲h̲k ), a type of boots of Coptic Arab origin (cf. al-Subkī, Ṭabaḳāt al-s̲h̲āfiʿiyya , Cairo 1966, 360). The shoemakers’ use of leather gave rise ¶ to a proverbial expression bayt al-iskāf “the shoemaker’s house” which looked like a “house of hides” because of the pieces of leather everywhere. Like other …

1. In the central Islamic lands and North Africa. Add to the articles mentioned there the following article. In the caliphal lands. The emergence of Islam is known to have coincided with the disappearance of wheeled carts or wagons [see ʿad̲j̲ala ] in many parts of the Middle East, although the extinction of such transport cannot be conclusively proved. In fact, wheeled vehicles were in existence in the Middle East for many centuries after the rise of Islam, although they were rarely used. The wheel was replaced by the camel in the Middle East during the era of the caliphates. Camels [see ibil …

(a.), pl. ṣāg̲h̲a and ṣawwāg̲h̲ūn , goldsmith, denotes a group of skilled craftsmen in Islamic society. In the early centuries of Islam, according to al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ and al-K̲h̲uzāʿī, the goldsmiths were mainly artisans of Jewish and Christian faith, but some Arab writers also recognised the existence of Muslim goldsmiths. The earliest recorded goldsmiths known to Islamic history, according to Kattānī, belonged to the Jewish tribe of Banū Ḳaynuḳāʿ [ q.v.] of Medina during the Prophet’s time. Their skill was highly rated in society, yet the mediaeval Arabs thought th…

(a.), the seller of snow or ice ( t̲h̲ald̲j̲ ) in the mediaeval caliphate (the nisba al-T̲h̲ald̲j̲ī, known for a certain number of traditionists, relates to the Banū T̲h̲ald̲j̲, a branch of Kināna; see Ibn al-Kalbī-Caskel, Ğamharat an-nasab , i, Table 280, ii, 553; al-Samʿānī, Ansāb , ed. Ḥaydarābād, iii, 144-5; for traditionists with the nisba of al-T̲h̲allād̲j̲, see ibid., iii, 156-8). T̲h̲ald̲j̲ is mentioned in ḥadīt̲h̲ , there being attributed to the Prophet the sayings Allāhumma barrid ḳalbī bi ’l-t̲h̲ald̲j̲ . “O Lord, cool my heart with snow!” and Allāhumma ag̲h̲sil k̲h̲aṭāyāya…

(a.), lit. drummer; owner of a drum; a drumming expert who earned his livelihood by playing various kinds of drums [see ṭabl ]. The drummers ( ṭabbālūn ) as a group emerge in Arabic historical writings of the ʿAbbāsid period. Al-Iṣfahānī noted that people used to sing with drumbeats. Drummers performed in various celebrations and festivities. Birthdays were celebrated by the wealthy who feasted with friends and fed the poor amidst ¶ musical entertainment. In one particular instance, the drummers beat drums and musicians played clarions ( būḳāt ) while celebrat…

(a.), “slaughterer”, of camels, sheep, goats and other animals. These formed a distinct group of workers in mediaeval Arab society, quite apart from the ḳaṣṣāb and laḥḥām , the two terms used for the butcher. In modern times, however, the d̲j̲azzār is synonymous with the latter terms. D̲j̲āḥiẓ and other writers use the words d̲j̲azzārūn and ḳaṣṣābūn alongside each other to ¶ show them as separate groups; there were dār al-d̲j̲azzārīn in Medina and Mecca during the 1st century A. H.; while there were many sūḳ al-d̲j̲azzārīn as well as sūḳ al-ḳaṣṣābīn in Bag̲h̲dād …

(a.), lit. water-carrier, was a term denoting manual workers who carried water in a leather-bottle ( ḳirba ) or jar ( kūz ) on their shoulders or on a mule (and even on a camel in rare circumstances) in pre-modern towns and large villages as well as pilgrimage centres throughout the Middle East and North Africa. A leather bottle during the early Islamic period reportedly cost a modest sum of about 3 dirhams. The necessity for supplying drinking water to the thirsty and the poor members of the community was regarded, according to a tradition ( ḥadīt̲h̲ ), as a work of excellent charity ( ṣadaḳa …

(a.) “weaver, textile worker”, synonymous with ḥāʾik , and including sedentary weavers of the towns and villages and also those of the pastoralists and Bedouins. These were usually freemen, but sometimes slaves. Nassād̲j̲ was a less derogatory term than ḥāʾik but on the whole the status of the weaver was low in Islamic society, an attitude crystallised in a saying attributed to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālīb, “Walking with a weaver ( nassād̲j̲ ) on the road increases a man’s livelihood; talking to him is inauspicious, and visiting his workshop stupefies a person” (al-Rāg̲h̲ib al-Iṣfahānī, Muḥāḍarāt a…

(a.), lamp (synonyms miṣbāḥ , ḳindīl , etc., from Pers. čirāg̲h̲ via Syriac s̲h̲rāgā or s̲h̲rāg̲h̲ā ). In the Ḳurʾān, the word sirād̲j̲ occurs four times, and miṣbāḥ three times, in the sense of lamp or beacon. In LXXI, 15/16, the sun is characterised as a sirād̲j̲, and XXXIII, 45/46, the Prophet is called a “shining lamp”, sirād̲j̲ munīr . The most famous reference is, however, in the “light verse”, XXIV, 35, where God’s light is compared with a niche in which is a lamp [see nūr . 2.]. Later in Islam, Ibn ʿArabī [ q.v.] interpreted the allegory of the Ḳurʾānic “fourfold light”, expressed by mis̲h̲k…

(a.), lit. dyer, is a technical term which was applied to a group of skilled craftsmen in Islamic Middle East and North Africa. In a polemical ¶ writing, the Arab writer al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ argued that the dyers, tanners, cuppers, etc. were exclusively Jewish in the early Islamic period, but historians like al-Ḵh̲aṭīb al-Bag̲h̲dādī and other writers have indicated names of Muslims bearing the name al-Ṣabbāg̲h̲ which may indicate the involvement of Muslims in the dyer’s profession at least during later Islamic centuries. A stateme…

5. In mediaeval ʿIrāḳ. Before the Arab conquest of ʿIrāḳ there were markets frequented by Arabs in ancient cities, such as al-Ḥīra and al-Madāʾin [ q.vv.]. There was also a so-called “sūḳ Bag̲h̲dād” on the west bank of the Tigris, where a monthly market was held during the Sāsānid period. The latter was raided by Arab troops as early as the caliphate of Abū Bakr (Le Strange, Baghdad , 12, 101). Following the Arab conquest of ʿIrāḳ, the founders of the garrison towns of Baṣra and Ḳūfa designated an open space close to the mosque for use as a market. ¶ In this they were emulating the Prophet Muḥ…

(a.), two antithetical terms which, as here, and also in the plural al-k̲h̲āwaṣṣ wa’l-ʿawāmm , denote in a general way the élite and commonalty, the notables and the plebs, or the aristocracy and the masses. It is, however, extremely difficult to be more precise about these two elements of the population. Despite the equalitarianism preached by Islam, the existence of social classes within the community is indisputable, and it is certain that the use of these two general terms, by both a…

(A.), lit. sweeper, is a term synonymous with kassāḥ ; other words used in the Arab Orient for the same occupation are sammād and zabbāl , which denote “dung collectors” or scavengers who collected garbage, such as animal dung, to be used as fertiliser. The kannāsūn , the sanitary workers, swept public squares ( riḥāb ) and other places such as prisons ( sud̲j̲ūn ), dungeons ( maṭābiḳ ) and latrines ( kunūf ), and transported garbage in boats or by other means to places outside the cities. The earliest known report in Islamic literature of scave…

(a.) “tailor”, “dressmaker”. In classical Arabic literature, tailors formed a group of skilled artisans who made the clothing for all social classes in the Near East. A maxim attributed to the Prophet runs ʿamal al-abrār min al-rid̲j̲āl al-k̲h̲iyāṭa wa-ʿamal al-abrār min al-nisāʾ al-g̲h̲azal “the occupation of pious men is tailoring, and that of pious women is spinning. Though this saying is of dubious authenticity, it does establish a division of labour between men and women, and it furthermo…

(a.), “tanner”, frequent as a nisba in mediaeval and modern Arabic. In pre-Islamic Arabia, the tanners were Jewish craftsmen. During the lifetime of the Prophet, his Companions, such as al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. Ṣabīra, Sawda, Asmāʾ bint ʿAmīs and others, were associated with tanning. Saʿd b. ʿĀʾid̲h̲ al-Ḳaraẓ, one of the Companions of Muḥammad, was busy trading in fruit of the acacia ( ḳaraẓ ) which was widely used as a material for the processing of leather. During the Umayyad, ʿAbbāsid and Mamlūk periods, there were many Jewish and Arab trade…

(a.), cook, a professional term, although rarely used as a laḳab in early Islamic times; however, the ṭāhī or s̲h̲āwī “roaster” is mentioned in ancient poetry describing feasts, but these were probably slaves deputed to do the job, and not professionals. The early Arabs’ diet used to include dates, milk, vegetables, mushroom, lentils, onion, honey, coarse bread, and meat of various animals like lamb, goats, camels, rabbits, reptiles, etc. Most of the food they ¶ ate did not require much cooking, hence the profession of cook only appears with the political expansion of…

(a.), lit. “a washer of clothes and also of the dead”, is nearly synonymous with the word ḳaṣṣār (al-Ḵh̲aṭīb, cf. Taʾrik̲h̲ Baghdād , vi, 127). In classical Arabic there are a number of terms for corpse-washer such as g̲h̲assāl al-mawtā , g̲h̲āsil al-mawtā and simple g̲h̲āsil. The modern Arabic term for a washer of clothes is g̲h̲assāl, but the corpse-washer ( g̲h̲āsil) in Syria is also called mug̲h̲assil . The act of washing the corpse, putting a shroud on it, attending the funeral prayers and burying the deceased are some of the obligations on all Muslims, according to the S̲h̲arīʿa …