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, Yaḥyā b. ʿUmar b. Saʿdūn al-Azdī , poet and Mālikī jurist, born in Cordova in 486/1093. He travelled extensively in the east, visiting Cairo, Bag̲h̲dād and Damascus for the purpose of study. He died in Mawṣil on the ʿĪd al-Fiṭr in 567/1172. His chief surviving literary works are ¶ Dalāʾil al-aḥkām , ʿAḳīdat al-Imām ʿAlī , and the poem on Muslim religious observances, the Urd̲j̲ūzat al-wildān , also known as al-Muḳaddima al-Ḳurṭubiyya , for which he is best known. The Urd̲j̲ūza sets out in summary form the basic observances of the five “Pillars of Isla…

(a.), a legal term denoting “duress”. The jurists distinguish two kinds: unlawful ( ikrāh g̲h̲ayr mas̲h̲rūʿ ), and lawful ( ikrāh bi-ḥaḳḳ ). Only the first of these is recognised by the Ḳurʾān ( lā ikrāh fi ’l-dīn , II, 256), and has legal effects. Unlawful duress may be of two degrees, being grave ( ikrāh tāmm or mulad̲j̲d̲j̲iʾ ) if it involves severe bodily harm, or slight ( ikrāh nāḳiṣ or g̲h̲ayr mulad̲j̲d̲j̲iʾ ) if it only involves verbal threats or minor buffets. Lawful duress, which has no legal effect, may take the form, for example, of a …

(a.), a legal term meaning “relinquishment”, specifically of a right ( ḥaḳḳ ). In general, four conditions must be met to make the relinquishment of a right valid: (a) that the right should exist at the time it is relinquished (e.g. the right to collect a debt to be incurred in the future may not be relinquished); (b) that the right relinquished does not concern milk al-ʿayn (i.e. the ownership of the substance of a thing, whether movable or immovable, is not subject to relinquishment, but only to transfer, naḳl ); (c) that the interest of the person entitled to…

(a.), a legal term denoting a lease of agricultural land with profit-sharing. In this widespread type of verbal or written contract the owner of the land arranges with a husbandman ( ʿāmil ) for the latter to have the use of his land for a specified period, during which the husbandman sows, tends and harvests an agricultural crop. The seed may be provided by either the landowner or the husbandman. When the crop is harvested the two parties to the contract divide the proceeds in agreed snares, the share of the landowner constituting the rent ( ud̲j̲ra ) for the lease of his land. To comply with the…

, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ b. Muḥammad , a leading Bosnian Muslim and Arabic author who was born in Saray Bosna about 1909. He received his early education in Bosnia, and his higher education at al-Azhar in Cairo, where he was admitted to the degree of al-ʿālimiyya . After this he performed the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ with his father, and returned to his native country to teach. He belonged to the Ḥanafī mad̲h̲hab , and followed the teachings of Ibn Taymiyya in fiḳh . He died at Saray Bosna on 29 July, 1944. During his short literary career he contributed both to the intemational literature of…

, S̲h̲ams al-Milla wa ’l-Dīn Abū l-Nadā Maʿadd b. Naṣr Allāh , ʿIrāḳī composer of maḳāmāt ; a native of D̲j̲azīrat al-ʿUmar, he died in 701/1301. His al-Maḳāmāt al-Zayniyya , which were written in 672/1273 for the author’s son Zayn al-Dīn Abu’l-Fatḥ Naṣr Allāh, are a good example of the imitations of the Maḳāmāt of al-Ḥarīrī. The external form of the work follows that of al-Ḥarīrī precisely: there are 50 maḳāmāt, most of which are named after towns. The various episodes are linked together by a common hero, Abū Naṣr al-Miṣrī, and a common narrator, called al-Ḳāsim…

, an inferior species of d̲j̲inn [ q.v.]. Masʿūdī ( Murūd̲j̲ , iv, 11 = § 1340) states that many people believe that the Ḥinn are a sub-species of the d̲j̲inn who are of a weaker and lowlier kind, but condemns the belief in them as a delusion. Belief in the Ḥinn, is, however, accepted by the Druzes (see H. Guys, Théogonie des Druses , Paris 1863, n. 78, p. 106; Taḳsīm Ḏj̲abal Lubnān (Leeds Arab. MS 178, fol. 14b); C.F. Seybold, Die Drusenschrift : Kitāb Alnoqaṭ Waldawāir. Das Buch der Punkte und Kreise , Kirchhain 1902, 71), and they are occasionally mentioned elsew…

, a term of the Druze religion. In this, the Binn were conceived of as one of a number of earlier races or sects whose names are also mentioned in the Druze writings, such as the Rimm and the Ṭimm. The Binn were said to have been a group of inhabitants of Had̲j̲ar in the Yemen who believed in the message of S̲h̲aṭnīl, the incarnation of Ḥamza ¶ in the Age of Adam. According to the Druzes, the city was originally called Ṣurna (meaning “Miracle” according to Ḥamza), and S̲h̲atnīl came there from India. He called on the people to renounce polytheism and worship al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh [ q.v.] as their sole…