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“the two sūras of taking refuge [from evil]”, the name given to the two last sūras (CXIII and CXIV) of the Ḳurʾān, because they both begin with the words ḳul : aʿūd̲h̲u bi-rabbī . . . min . . . , “Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of. . . against . . . “, and are pronounced as prayers intended to dispel the evils engendered by the devil, evil spirits, the practice of magic, etc. The plural al-muʿawwid̲h̲āt is also found equally applied to these two sūras and to ¶ the preceding one, set forth in the form of a credo; this plural appears especially in al-Buk̲h̲ārī ( daʿawāt , bāb 12) in re…

(a.), a dish of meat cooked in sour milk, sometimes with fresh milk added, and with spices thrown in to enhance the flavour. This dish, which Abū Hurayra [ q.v.] is said to have particularly appreciated (see al-Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲ , viii, 403 = § 3562, where a piece of poetry in praise of maḍīra is cited), must have been quite well sought-after in mediaeval times (al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ, however, does not cite it in his K. al-Buk̲h̲alā ’; see nevertheless al-T̲h̲aʿālibī, Laṭāʾif , 12, tr. C. E. Bosworth, 46). Its principal claim to fame comes from al-Hamad̲h̲ānī’s al-Maḳāma al-maḍīriyya …

, conventionally Taroudant, a town in the Sūs region of southern Morocco situated in lat. 30° 31′ N., long. 8° 55′ W. at an altitude of 250 m/820 feet. It lies 4 km/2½ miles from ¶ the right bank of the Wādr Sūs and some 83 km/51 miles from Āgādīr [ q.v.] and the Adantic coast. The old town is enclosed by a lengthy, high, early 18th-century crenellated wall with five gates. Tārūdānt was an important town in mediaeval Islamic times. It formed part of the Almoravid empire from 421/1030 onwards, but a century later was conquered by the Almohads. It was at Tārūdānt that…

, the name by which the author of the Descrittione dell’ Africa is generally known, who was in fact originally called al-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad al-Wazzān al-Zayyātī (or al-Fāsī). He was born in Granada between 894 and 901/1489 and 1495 into a family which had to emigrate to Morocco after that city’s fall [see g̲h̲arnāṭa ], and was brought up in Fās, where he received a good education and very soon entered the service of the administration there. Whilst still a student, he was employed for two years in the mental hospital, which he describes in detail ( Description , tr. Epaulard, i, 188 [see bīmāristān…

, a city of the Pegu district of Burma and the country’s capital, situated on the Rangoon (Hlaing) River (lat. 16° 47′ N., 96° 10′ E.). It was developed as a port in the mid-18th century by the founder of the last dynasty of Burmese kings, with a British trading factory soon established there and with flourishing groups of Parsee, Armenian and Muslim merchants. In 1852, during the Second Anglo-Burmese War, it passed definitively under British ¶ control, and Rangoon became a more modern city, and also, through immigration, largely Indian in composition. These last includ…

or Bag̲h̲būr , title of the Emperor of China in the Muslim sources. The Sanskrit * bhagaputra and the Old Iranian * bag̲h̲aput̲h̲ra , with which attempts have been made to connect this compound, are not attested, but a form bg̲h̲pwhr (= * bag̲h̲puhr ), signifying etymologically “son of God”, is attested in Parthian Pahlavī to designate Jesus, whence Sogdian bag̲h̲pūr , Arabicized as bag̲h̲būr and fag̲h̲fūr ; these forms were felt by the Arab authors as the translation of the Chinese T’ien tzŭ “son of heaven” (cf. Relation de la Chine et de l’Inde , ed. and tr. J. Sau…

(a.), literally “the fact of being pleased or contented; contentment, approval” (see Lane, 1100), a term found in Ṣūfī mysticism and also in early Islamic history. 1. In mystical vocabulary. In the Ḳurʾān, the root raḍiya and its derivatives occur frequently in the general sense of “to be content”, with nominal forms like riḍwān “God’s grace, acceptance of man’s submission” (e.g. III, 156/61, 168/174; IV, 13/12; IX, 73/72; LVII, 20, 27), although the actual form riḍā does not occur. In the writings of the proto-Ṣūfī al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī [ q.v.], it is a moral state, contentment with t…

, nationalist and reformist Tunisian writer, considered as the pioneer of the movement for feminine liberation in his country. Born in Tunis ca. 1899 into a family of modest status originally from the Ḥāma of Gabès, he studied at the Zaytūna [ q.v.] from 1911 to 1920 and gained the taṭwīʿ (corresponding to the diploma for completing secondary education). He then took part in the trade union movement and was put in charge of propaganda in an organisation founded in 1924, the D̲j̲āmiʿat ʿumūm al-ʿamala al-tūnisiyya , ¶ whose chief promoters were hunted down and banished in 1925. His…

, literally “action army”, the name usually given to the striking force sent from Salonica on 17 April 1909, under the command of Maḥmūd S̲h̲ewket Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.], to quell the counter-revolutionary mutiny in the First Army Corps in Istanbul. The striking force also known as the Army of Deliverance, reached the capital on 23 April (n.s.) ¶ and, after some clashes with the mutineers, occupied the city on the following day. (Ed.) Bibliography B. Lewis, The emergence of modern Turkey 3, London 1965, 212-3. See further ḥusayn ḥilmī pas̲h̲a and ittiḥād we teraḳḳī.

(t.), literally “lad of the interior”, i.e. “page of the inner service ( Enderūn [ q.v.])”, Ottoman term for those boys and youths, at first slaves, recruits through the devs̲h̲irme [ q.v.], and occasionally hostages, later (from the 11th/17th century) also free-born Muslims, who were selected for training in the palaces of Edirne and Istanbul in order to occupy the higher executive offices of the state. For details, see g̲h̲ulām , iv; ḳapi̊-ḳulu ; sarāy-i hümāyūn . (Ed.)

, a term employed in Algerian Arabic (cf. βαύκαλις) to denote a two-handled pottery vase used by women in the course of the divinatory practices to which it gave its name. The operation consisted, basically, of the woman who officiated improvising, after an invocation, a short poem which was also called būḳāla and from which portents were drawn. These practices, which seem to have enjoyed a certain vogue during the period when piracy was at its height (women wanted to have news of their men who were at sea), developed into …

(t.), the Ottoman Turkish term for the outer, more public rooms of a traditionally arranged house, used e.g. for the reception of guests and non-family members; it thus contrasted with the inner rooms which constituted the ḥaram or harem for the womenfolk. The term selāmli̊ḳ dāʾiresi is also found. A further use of the word selāmli̊ḳ is in the expression selāmli̊ḳ ālāyi̊ to denote the sultan’s ceremonial procession from the palace to the mosque for Friday worship, a practice kept up by the Ottomans up to and including Meḥemmed V Res̲h̲ād [ q.v.] in the second decade of the 20th century. (Ed.) Bi…

(a.), an Arabic technical term borrowed in the Middle Ages by Western astronomers, under the form almícantarat , to denote the parallel circles at the horizon and normally called circles of height or parallels of height. On the flat astrolabe, the ṣafīḥa bears the stereographic projection of different circles and notably of the muḳanṭarāt [see aṣturlāb ]. On a spherical astrolabe, only the visible ( ẓāhir ) hemisphere is generally provided with circles of height; these number 90, but one can equally well mark one of them only in Three, in five, etc. The use of the muḳanṭarāt is fairly clear…

, aḥmad zakī (1892-1955), Egyptian physician, journalist, writer and poet, a man of an astonishing variety of diverse activities. Born in Cairo on 9 February 1892, he had his primary and secondary education in his natal city, and then in 1912 went to study medicine in London, where he specialised in microbiology; at the same time, he became especially interested in apiculture and acquired quite an extensive knowledge of Anglo-Saxon culture and life which was to exert a deep influence on his literary production. On…

, known as Nāmī , historian of Sind in the Mug̲h̲al period. He was the son of a s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islām from the island in the Indus river in Sind of Bhakkar [see bakkar ], born in the middle years of the 10th/16th century. After a stay in Gud̲j̲arāt, he entered the service of the Mug̲h̲al emperor Akbar [ q.v.] in 1003-4/1595-6 and received a manṣab [ q.v.] or land-grant of 250, being employed on a diplomatic mission to the court of the Ṣafavid S̲h̲ah ʿAbbās I of Persia. He returned to Bhakkar in 1015/1606-7 and died there soon afterwards. His Persian Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Sind , often referred to as the Taʾrīk̲h̲-i…

(a.), literally, “one who gives right guidance, rus̲h̲d , irs̲h̲ād , in Ṣūfī mystical parlance, the spiritual director and initiator into the order ( ṭarīḳa ) of the novice or murīd [ q.v.] who is following the Sūfi path; synonyms are baba , pīr and s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ [ q.vv.]. As part of the guidance for the postulant, the murs̲h̲id bestows various tokens of spiritual grace and attainment upon the seeker [see murīd for details]. ¶ A special use of the term within the Persian world, in the compound form murs̲h̲id-i kāmil “perfect spiritual director”, occurred amongst the Ṣafawids [ q.v.] who ruled d…

b. aḥmad al-ḥasanī al-ʿalamī al-fāsī , Moroccan astronomer and physician of the 19th century who lived in Fās, dying there in 1313/1895. Like some others of his fellowcountrymen, he tried to improve the instruments used for calculating the hours of the prayers ( tawḳīt [ q.v.]), and he describes one of these invented by himself in his Irs̲h̲ād al-k̲h̲ill li-taḥḳīḳ al-sāʿa bi-rubʿ al-s̲h̲uʿāʿ wa ’l-ẓill . Besides some commentaries (in particular, on al-Wazzānī, called Abdaʿ al-yawāḳīt ʿalā taḥrīr al-mawāḳīt , Fās 1326/1908), he wrote a Dustūr abdaʿ al-yawāḳīt ʿalā taḥrīr al-mawāḳīt …

, a term commonly used in Ottoman administrative parlance for a ward or quarter of a town. As listed in the Ottoman registers [see daftar-i k̲h̲āḳānī ], the maḥalle s are of various kinds. Characteristically, the Ottoman maḥalle consisted of a religious community grouped around its mosque (or church or synagogue) and headed by its religious chief. In addition to its place of worship, the maḥalle normally had its own market, school and water fountain, these normally being supported by pious endowments. In many provincial towns, the maḥalle also had its own outer wall with a limited…

, aTurkicized Arabic expression meaning sacred trust or deposit, the name given to a collection of relics preserved in the treasury of the Topkapi palace in Istanbul. The most important are a group of objects said to have belonged to the Prophet; they included his cloak ( k̲h̲irḳa-i s̲h̲erīf [ q.v.]), a prayer-rug, a flag, a bow, a staff, a pair of horseshoes, as well as a tooth, some hairs (see liḥya ), and a stone bearing the Prophet’s footprint. In addition there are weapons, utensils and garments said to have belonged to the ancient prophets, to the early Caliph…

, in Turkish, “the New Fortress”, a fortress in the southeastern Crimea. It was founded by the Ottoman sultan Muṣṭafā II [ q.v.] in 1114/1702 to protect the nearby port of Kerč [ q.v.] and provide a counterweight to Azov, which had been conquered by Peter the Great in 1696 (and held by Russia for 17 years) [see azaḳ ]. When Catherine the Great’s armies marched into the Crimea in 1771, Yeñi Ḳalʿe and Kerč fell into Russian hands without resistance and in the Treaty of Küčük Ḳaynard̲j̲a [ q.v.] of 1774, the Porte ceded its rights to them, thus giving Russia control of the northern Black Sea shores. (Ed.)…