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weights of a balance (in full sanad̲j̲āt al-mīzān); also applied to balances, steelyards; also the weights of a clock; singular: sand̲j̲a. The forms with ṣād also occur ( ṣanad̲j̲āt and ṣand̲j̲a) but the former is the more chaste (see Lane, s. v.). There are two recognised plural ¶ forms: sanad̲j̲āt and sinad̲j̲ (in modern Egyptian Arabic sinag, plural of singa). The word is Persian in origin, being connected with sang, meaning both stone and weight, since in ancient times weights were non-metallic (cf. the Hebrew of Deuteronomy xxv. 13). According to Muslim trad…

, snake-charmer or itinerant mountebank, from ḥaiya, snake. The plural is ḥuwā (so Lane) or more generally ḥāwīyūn. In Egypt certain members of the Gypsy tribes [cf. nūrī] act in this capacity. The fellāḥīn often have recourse to them, particularly when afflicted with various forms of skin-disease ( karfa) or eczema ( ḳūba). The general procedure of these quacks is to recite some rigmarole over a glass containing olive-oil and the white of an egg, and then to spit into it. The slimy mixture is thereafter applied as an ointment. Certain members of…

(Lake), one of the series of swamps and lagoons in the Eastern Delta through which the Suez Canal passes on its way from Port Saʿīd south to Suez. The Canal enters the Lake at the 80th kilometre. On the northern shore lies the town of Ismāʿīlīya [q. v.], an exclusively French residential quarter. The Lake is about 6 sq. miles in area, although before the construction of the Canal it was brackish and reedy. Now it is very picturesque with its bright blue waters and the background of desert hills. The name means Crocodile Lake [cf.…

, an unimpressive, but busy commercial town in the Egyptian Delta, in the administrative division ( mudīrīya) of S̲h̲arḳīya. Along with Damanhūr it is one of the towns which do not constitute fiscal units for purposes of land tax. The town, an important railway centre, has an extensive trade in grain and cotton. There are oil refineries and a large market for dates, oranges and onions. It is 46 miles from Cairo, and is connected with it by rail. Its inhabitants in the time of Boinet Bey numbered 35,715 but in 1…

, a common name in the Near East for a member of certain Gipsy tribes. A more correct vocalization would perhaps be Nawarī (so Hava, Steingass, etc.), with plural Nawar. Minorsky [above, iii. 38] gives Nawara. By displacement of accent we also find the plural form as Nawār (e. g. in Jaussen, Coutumes des Arabes, p. 90, and British Admiralty’s Handbooks, Syria [1919], p. 196, Arabia [1916], p. 92, 94). In Persia the current name for Gipsy is Lōrī, Lūrī, or Lūlī [q. v.]. It is not unlikely that by a natural phonetic transformation the form nūrī derives from lūrī, which, it has been suggested, o…

, an important town in the Egyptian Delta between the Rosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile, capital of the G̲h̲arbīya province, and a busy railway junction, of unprepossessing appearance, about 75 miles from Alexandria. Its Coptic name of has assumed in Arabic the forms Tandiṭā, Ṭantā and Ṭanṭā. Formerly it was an episcopal city. Nowadays the place is famous for the tomb and mosque of the most celebrated of the Muslim saints in Egypt, Aḥmad al-Badawī [q. v.]. Throughout the year no fewer than three Mawālid or birthdays of this Saint are made the occasion of great fairs to wh…

, an Egyptian frontier sea-port town situated at the head of the Gulf of Suez on an arid, sandy plain with the dark ʿAtāḳa Mountains in the West. On account of its physical surroundings it has earned for itself the descriptive sobriquet of “The Stony” al-Ḥad̲j̲ar (see Description de l’Égypte, État Moderne, i. 185). It is 80 miles S.E. of Cairo and 2 miles N. of Port Ibrāhīm, the harbour at the South entrance of the Suez Canal. 29° 58′ 59″ N., 32° 35′ E. Population c. 20,000. Its position on the Canal (opened in 1869) has changed it from a vill…

b. Dāwūd, the biblical King Solomon, is an outstanding personality in Muḥammadan legends. There were, as the Arab histories recount, four great world-rulers, two of whom were infidels, Nimrod and Nebuchadnezzar; and two of whom were believers, Alexander the Great and Solomon. Of these the last was the most resplendent figure. Special emphasis was placed on his wonderful powers of magic and divination. The most puzzling riddles and the most abstruse subjects were within his ken. Perspicacity and d…

, an Egyptian village, 15 miles S. W. of Cairo, Lat. 29° 75′, Long. 31° 13′, situated near the left bank of the Nile halfway between Ḏj̲īze and Dahs̲h̲ūr. It measured 790 feddān (according to Ibn al-Ḏj̲īʿān, al-Tuḥfa al-sanīya, p. 144; see also de Sacy, Relation de l’Égypte, p. 675) and its valuation (according to Ibn Duḳmāḳ, Kitāb al-Intiṣār, Būlāḳ 1309, iv. 133) was 10,000 dīnārs. Pococke in his travels found it a rather poor village at the foot of the hills, with a mosque and a few clusters of date-palms. The name in Arabic means “falcon’s nest”; bu…

b. Rūzzīk al-Mālik al-Ṣāliḥ, Fāṭimid wazīr (495—556 = 1101—1161). The events immediately attendant on the treacherous murder of the 12th Fāṭimid caliph al-Ẓāfir (1154) called him forth, at the request of the ladies of the royal household, from his governorship at Us̲h̲mūnain to play the rôle of strong man essential in the circumstances. Success crowned his march on Cairo with his followers from Upper Egypt. Then, following the deposition of ʿAbbās, he was appointed wazīr to the child caliph al-Fāʾiz in 549 (1154) with the title of al-Ṣāliḥ bi ’llāh. His traitorous predecessor in off…

, weights of a balance (in full sanad̲j̲āt al-mīzān ); also applied to balances, steelyards; also the weights of a clock (sing, sand̲j̲a ). The forms with ṣad also occur ( ṣanad̲j̲āt and ṣand̲j̲a ) but the former is the more chaste (see Lane, s.v.). There are two recognised plural forms, sanad̲j̲āt and sinad̲j̲ (in modern Egyptian Arabic sinag , plural of singa ). The word is Persian in origin, being connected with sang , meaning both stone and weight, since in ancient times weights were non-metallic (cf. the Hebrew of Deut. xxv, 13). According t…

, Lake, one of the series of swamps and lagoons in the Eastern Nile Delta region of Egypt (now administratively in the muḥāfaẓa of Ismāʿīliyya) through which the Suez Canal passes on its way from Port Saʿīd south to Suez. The Canal enters the Lake at the 80th kilometre. On the northern shore lies the town of Ismāʿīliyya [ q.v.]. The Lake is about 6 sq. miles in area, although before the construction of the Canal it was brackish and reedy. Now it is very picturesque, with its bright blue waters and the background of desert hills. The name means “Crocodil…

, a town in the Republic of the Sudan, on the east bank of the Nile, about 160 km/100 miles north-east of K̲h̲arṭūm. Population, in 1956, 11,500; in 1980, 24,000; and in 1995 probably more than 30,000. The origins and early history of S̲h̲andī are unknown. It is situated in the central area of the ancient Kingdom of Meroë. Modern S̲h̲andī has been one of the main towns of the D̲j̲aʿaliyyūn [ q.v.], who since at least the 16th century until 1821 maintained a small kingdom in the area. However, the town of S̲h̲andī does not appear in the historical sources before the …

Bibliographic entry in Chapter 12: The U…

Bibliographic entry in Chapter 13: The U…

Bibliographic entry in Chapter 13: The U…

Bibliographic entry in Chapter 13: The U…

Bibliographic entry in Chapter 25: The U…

Bibliographic entry in Chapter 14: The U…

Bibliographic entry in Chapter 13: The U…