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Nafzāwa

(1,299 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, a tribe belonging to the group which the genealogists distinguished under the name of the Butr [ q.v.] and which formed one of the two great Berber peoples, the other being the Barānis [ q.v.]. They seem to have become fixed fairly early in Libya and to have spread over all the Mag̲h̲rib, where the elements which are encountered there sporadically were largely sedentaries or sedentarised. Mediaeval authors mention Nafzāwa as far as Sid̲j̲ilmāsa and even as far as Awdag̲h̲ost [ q.vv.], but this tribe is known above all today for having given its name to a region of Tunisia t…

Ibn Mufarrig̲h̲

(749 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Abū ʿUt̲h̲mān Yazīd b. Ziyād b. Rabīʿa b. Mufarrig̲h̲ al-Ḥimyarī , minor poet of Baṣra in the 1st/7th century. There are doubts about his Ḥimyarī origin, and it is possible that his ancestor Mufarrig̲h̲ was a slave. Ibn Mufarrig̲h̲’s ¶ date of birth is not known, and the earliest traditions about him tell of his romantic attachment to a Persian woman of Ahwāz in approximately the years 36-40/657-60. Later he was attached to ʿUbayd Allāh b. Abī Bakra [ q.v.] and Saʿīd b. ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān, but his career took a completely different direction from the time when he decided…

Ibn D̲j̲urayd̲j̲

(383 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Abu ’l-Walīd/Abū Ḵh̲ālid ʿAbd al-Malik b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. D̲j̲urayd̲j̲ al-Rūmī al-Ḳuras̲h̲ī al-makkī (80-150/699-767), Meccan traditionist of Greek slave descent (the ancestor being called Gregorios) and probably a mawlā of the family of Ḵh̲ālid b. Asīd. ¶ After having first of all become interested in gathering together traditions of philological, literary and historical interest, he brought together ḥadīt̲h̲s from the mouths of ʿAṭāʾ b. Abī Rabāḥ, al-Zuhrī, Mudd̲j̲āhid, ʿIkrima and other famous persons, and passed them on, notably to Wakīʿ, Ibn al…

Mirkās

(914 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
or Mirḳās (a.), a kind of mutton sausage. There would probably be no reason to devote an article to this culinary speciality had it not enjoyed for some time in Europe, and especially in France, an unexpected success, being known as “merguez”, after the arrival of a considerable number of Mag̲h̲ribī immigrants and above all, repatriates from the lands of North Africa, where the word and the thing itself were not widespread, it seems, until a relatively recent period. Thus there is a problem worthy of examination. Sausages are not unknown in the East, where they are called by the Turkish name sud…

al-Fārūḳī

(287 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, ʿAbd al-Bāḳī , an ʿIrāḳī poet and official, born in Mosul in 1204/1790, who traced back his ancestry to ʿUmar b. al-K̲h̲aṭṭāb, whence his nisba of al-Fārūḳī or al-ʿUmarī. While still very young, he became an assistant of the wālī of Mosul and was later appointed governor of the town by Dāwūd Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.]; when the Porte decided to restrict the independence which Dāwūd had until then enjoyed in Bag̲h̲dād, ʿAbd al-Bāḳī at first accompanied his uncle Ḳāsim Pas̲h̲a, who failed in his mission, and then ʿAlī Riḍā Pas̲h̲a who made him his deputy; he r…

Ibn al-Ḳaṭṭān

(197 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Hibat Allāh b. Abī ʿAbd Allāh al-Faḍl b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī al-Bag̲h̲dādī , traditionist, oculist, and especially poet, of Bag̲h̲dād, born in 478 or 479/1086, died 28 Ramadān 558/30 August 1163. Although he was the author of medical works which have not survived, and also transmitted ḥadīt̲h̲s without incurring the reproof of critics, Ibn al-Ḳaṭṭān is known chiefly for his vigorous satires which, as Goldziher says ( Muh . St., ii, 60), “spared neither the caliph nor anyone else”, for his mud̲j̲ūn and for his wit, as we…

Ḳāṣṣ

(2,081 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
(a.), pl. ḳuṣṣāṣ , “popular story-teller or preacher, deliverer of sermons” whose activity considerably varied over the centuries, from preaching in the mosques with a form of ḳurʾānic exegesis to downright charlatanism. This term does not appear in the Ḳurʾān, although the verb ḳaṣṣa is quite often used (see Flügel, Concordantiae ) always, except in VI, 57, with the meaning “to recount, to relate, to report” a generally edifying narration [see ḳiṣṣa ] and frequently in the first person, when the narrator is God Himself. The LA (root ḳṣṣ ) reproduces ḥadīt̲h̲s in which appear the word ḳāṣṣ

Bag̲h̲l

(601 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, mule (pl. big̲h̲āl , fem. bag̲h̲la ; but some think that bag̲h̲l denotes the hybrid without distinction of sex, and that bag̲h̲la is a singulative form which applies both to the male and female); the same word denotes both the hinny, the offspring of a stallion and a she-ass (cf. however kawdar in al-Masʿūdī, ii, 408; contra : al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, Big̲h̲āl 120; al-Danīrī, s.v.; cf. al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, Tarbīʿ , ed. Pellat, index, s.v.), and the mule, the offspring of a he-ass and a mare, the morphological characteristics of the two varieties being midwa…

Ibn His̲h̲ām al-Lak̲h̲mī

(793 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
al-Sabtī , Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. His̲h̲ām b. Ibrāhīm b. Ḵh̲alaf , lexicographer, grammarian, adīb and versifier. He was probably born at Seville, and certainly died in that city in 577/1182, after having lived for a long time at Ceuta. We know very little of his life, but his biographers list his masters and his pupils and indicate the titles of his works, amongst which one notes several commentaries; one may merely remark that these included a s̲h̲arḥ on the Maḳṣūra of Ibn Durayd, which was especially appreciated by al-Ṣafadī ( Wāfī , ii, 1301) and al-Bag̲h̲dādī ( Ḵh̲izāna

Abū Yaʿḳūb al-K̲h̲uraymī

(510 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Isḥāḳ b. Ḥassān b. Ḳūhī , Arab poet, died probably under the caliphate of al-Maʾmūn, about 206/821. The scion of a noble family of Sogdiana, which he sometimes mentions with pride (Yākūt, v, 363), al-Ḵh̲uraymī (the form al-Ḵh̲uzaymī is erroneous) derived his nisba from his being a mawlā , not directly of Ḵh̲uraym al-Nāʿim, as most of his biographers ¶ have it, but of his descendants, viz. Ḵh̲uraym b. ʿĀmir and his son ʿUt̲h̲mān (see Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīk̲h̲ , ii, 434-7; v, 126-8). He seems to have lived in Mesopotamia, Syria, al-Baṣra, where he frequented dissolute poets su…

Baliyya

(258 words)

Author(s): Hell, J. | Pellat, Ch.
(Ar. pl. balāyā ), a name given, in the pre-Islamic era, to the camel (more rarely the mare) which it was the custom to tether at the grave of its master, its head turned to the rear and covered with a saddle-cloth (see al-D̲j̲āḥịz, Tarbīʿ , ed. Pellat, index), and to allow to die of starvation; in some cases, the victim was burnt and, in other cases, stuffed with t̲h̲umām (Ibn Abiʾ l-Ḥadīd, S̲h̲arḥ Nahd̲j̲ alBalāg̲h̲a , iv 436). Muslim tradition sees in this practice proof that the Arabs of the d̲j̲āhiliyya believed in the resurrection, because the animal thus s…

Ḥāʾiṭ al-ʿAd̲j̲ūz

(367 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
“the wall of the Old Woman” (the form Ḥāʾiṭ al-Ḥad̲j̲ūz is sometimes found, ¶ notably in al-Harawī) the name given by Arabic writers to a wall said to have been built by the mythical queen of Egypt, Dalūka [= al-ʿAd̲j̲ūz], who is said to have mounted the throne after the army of al-Walīd b. Muṣʿab [ sic = the Pharaoh of Moses], in pursuit of the Israelites, had been engulfed by the Red Sea. In order to protect the surviving women, children and slaves from the attacks of the peoples of the East and of the West, Dalūka is said to have surrounded the Ni…

Nakūr

(2,124 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
(Nukūr) was the name of a town in northern Morocco (Rīf) situated approximately 140 km./90 miles (by road) to the west of Melilla [ q.v.], in a plain which extends between two small coastal rivers, joining at a place called Agdal [on this term, see āgdāl ], then separating before flowing into the Mediterranean, the Nakūr and the G̲h̲ays/G̲h̲īs: a riḅāt [ q.v.] had been constructed on an elevation. The town itself was built some 10 km/7 miles from the Mediterranean coast among inlets which sheltered a number of small harbours. The best known, al-Mazimma, wa…

al-Ḳumā or al-Ḳawmā

(364 words)

Author(s): Ben Cheneb, M. | Pellat, Ch.
, the name of one of the seven types of post-classical poetry [see kān wa-kān ]. It was invented by the people of Bag̲h̲dād, and is connected with the saḥūr , i.e. the last part of the night when, during the month of Ramaḍān, it is still permitted to eat and drink and to take meals at that time; it derives its name from the expression ḳūmā li ’l-saḥūr which the singers recite after each strophe of a ramal or zad̲j̲al in praise of the master of the house. Contrary to what is generally believed, it does not seem that ḳūmā is the imperative dual, “Arise, both of you!”, but the singular ḳūman >ḳūmā

al-Ḥakam b. ʿAbdal

(477 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
b. Ḏj̲abala al-Asadī , satirical Arab poet of the 1st/7th century. Physically deformed, for he was hunch-backed and lame, he possessed some spitefulness, which shows in his diatribes, but he had a lively wit, prompt repartee, humour, and the subtlety of the G̲h̲āḍira clan to which he belonged [cf. al-g̲h̲āḍirī ]. He was born ¶ at Kūfa and lived there till ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr drove out the Umayyad authorities (64/684) whom he followed to Damascus where he was admitted to the intimacy of ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān. He then went back to Kūfa and was closely connected with Bis̲h̲r b. Marwān [ q.v.] …

Fallāḳ

(462 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, an Arabic word used particularly in the Beduin dialect form fəllāg , pl. fəllāga (in the western press principally in the pl., with the spelling: fellagar fellagah, fellagha ), and denoting in the first place the brigands and subsequently the rebels who appeared in Tunisia and Algeria. A connexion with falaḳa [ q.v.] “instrument of torture”, of which the etymology is, in any case, obscure (see Arabica , 1954/3, 325-36), is certainly tobe ruled out. On the other hand, the Arabic root FLḲ (comp. FLD̲J̲, FLḤ, etc.) seems worthy of retention; Tunisian rural and nomadic dialects make use of fləg

Rabīʿ b. Zayd

(1,352 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Arabic name of a Mozarab Christian [see mozarabs ] whose true name was Recemundo (Recemundus in Latin = Raymond) and who owes his place in the EI to the role which he ¶ played in the service of the Umayyad caliphs of Spain ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III al-Nāṣir (who reigned from 300 to 350/912-61 [ q.v.]) and al-Ḥakam II al-Mustanṣir (350-68/961-76 [ q.v.]), and to his involvement in the presentation of the well-known Calendar of Cordova . Recemundo was a Cordovan who, with his command of Latin and of Arabic, was able to render considerable services to the caliphal chancellery wh…

Mud̲j̲ūn

(485 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
(a.) is one of those words whose richness discourages any attempt at exact translation. In its weakest sense, it approximates to hazl “jest” as opposed to d̲j̲idd “seriousness” [see al-d̲j̲idd wa ’l hazl ] and corresponds in an appreciable degree to frivolity. But its semantic field extends widely to the point that it can mean the most shameless debauchery, including vulgarity, coarseness, impudence, libertinage, obscenity and everything that may provoke coarse laughter, such as scatological humour. This word embarrassed the Arab lexicographers, who connected it with the root m-d̲j…

al-Maʿḳil

(2,810 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Arab tribe, probably of Yemeni origin, who, having come from Arabia at the same time as the Banū Hilāl [ q.v.], crossed Egypt and Libya, entered the Mag̲h̲rib towards the middle of the 5th/11th century, led a nomadic life for a short time to the west of Gabès (Ibn K̲h̲aldūn. Berbères , i, 36), but left only a small number of their members in the south of Ifrīḳiya ( Berbères, i, 116; cf. R. Brunschvig, Ḥafṣides , ii, 170); in fact, they proceeded towards the west ( tag̲h̲riba ), following the northern border of the Sahara (cf. al-Zayyānī, Turd̲j̲umāna , Fr. tr. Confourier, in AM, vi [1906], 448, w…

Muṭīʿ b. Iyās

(1,731 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
al-Kinānī , a minor poet of Kūfa who lived in the last years of the Umayyads and the first ones of the ʿAbbāsids, making him a muk̲h̲aḍram [ q.v.] al-dawlatayn. G.E. von Grunebaum ( Three Arabic poets of the earlyAbbasid age, in Orientalia , Rome) brought together, in the first part of his study (xvii/2 [1948], 167-204) 77 poetical fragments attributed to al-Muṭīʿ and also provided an exemplary critical study of the materials given by the biographers, anthologists and other authors of adab works, concerning this poet, whose personality is difficult to e…

Ibn Kaysān

(401 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Abu ’l-Hasan Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm , Bag̲h̲dādī philologist who according to all the known sources, died in 299/311-12; this date is nevertheless challenged by Yāḳūt who, believing that al-Ḵh̲aṭīb al-Bag̲h̲dādī is in error, opts for 320/932. He was the pupil of al-Mubarrad and T̲h̲aʿlab [ q.vv.], and is said to have brought together the doctrines of the grammatical schools of both Baṣra and Kūfa, though his own preference was for the former; he was moreover the author of a work, no longer surviving, a K. al-Masāʾil ʿalā mad̲h̲hab al-naḥwiyyīn mimmā k̲h̲talafa fīhi al-Kūfi…

Muḥammad b. Yasīr al-Riyās̲h̲ī

(1,127 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Abū D̲j̲aʿfar , a minor poet who was born and lived in Baṣra. He was born at some time in the middle of the 2nd/8th century and died at a similarly uncertain date, probably during the caliphate of al-Maʾmūn (198-218/813-33) or during that of al-Muʿtaṣim (218-27/833-42). ¶ His existence, of which barely nothing is known, has attracted scant attention on the part of biographers in that he seems to have followed an unremarkable and leisurely career, in an atmosphere untroubled by events of any magnitude. On the other hand, it has only been po…

Fahrasa

(695 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, the name given in Muslim Spain to kinds of catalogues in which scholars enumerated, in one form or another, their masters and the subjects or works studied under their direction. The word fahrasa is an Arabicization of the Persian fihrist by means of a double vocalization -a- and the closing of the final tāʾ , a fairly frequent modification. In al-Andalus, it is completely synonymous with barnāmad̲j̲ , which is also Persian, while in the east it corresponds with t̲h̲abat , mas̲h̲īk̲h̲a ( mas̲h̲yak̲h̲a ) or muʿd̲j̲am (this last word is also used in the west)…

Midrār

(4,565 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
(Banū) or Midrārids , minor Berber dynasty which was established in Sid̲j̲ilmās(s)a [ q.v.] and which enjoyed relative independence until its final collapse in 366/976-7. The history of this dynasty can be briefly outlined, thanks to al-Bakrī [ q.v.], who lived in the 5th/11th century and thus possessed quite recent information in order to write the chapter that he devotes to it ( Mug̲h̲rib , 148 ff., Fr. tr. 282 ff.), before Ibn ʿId̲h̲ārī (7th-8th/13th-14th century [ q.v.]), Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn (8th/14th century [ q.v.]) and several historians of the Mag̲h̲rib and Mas̲h̲riḳ were abl…

al-Ḥuṭayʾa

(828 words)

Author(s): Goldziher, I. | Pellat, Ch.
, nickname of the Arab poet D̲j̲arwal b. Aws , who traced back his genealogy sometimes to the ʿAbs, sometimes to the D̲h̲uhl, but who, in reality, was probably the natural son of a woman named al-Ḍarrāʾ; his nickname probably derives from his ugliness and appears to signify “deformed”. He belonged to the muk̲h̲aḍramūn [ q.v.], and Ibn Sallām places him in the second class of the poets of the d̲j̲āhiliyya since he is regarded as the rāwī of Zuhayr b. Abī Sulmā [ q.v.], he must have been born about forty years before the hid̲j̲ra , and his earliest poetic activities pro…

Abū Zayd al-Ḳuras̲h̲ī

(525 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, muḥammad b. abi ’l-k̲h̲aṭṭāb , adīb of the end of the 3rd/9th or of the beginning of the 4th/10th century, and known only as the author of the Ḏj̲amharat ashʿār al-ʿArab (ed. Būlāḳ 1308/1890). No personal details about the author can be derived from this collection, and the only relevant data are two isnād s, one (p. 13) going back to al-Hayt̲h̲am b. ʿAdī (d. ca. 206/821 [ q.v.]) through two intermediaries, and the other (p. 14) going back to Ibn al-Aʿrābī (d. 231/846 [ q.v.]) through one intermediary; these isnāds would thus allow us to date the Ḏj̲amhara approximatel…

Abū Duʾād al-Iyādī

(328 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Ḏj̲uwayra , Ḏj̲uwayriyya or Ḥārit̲h̲a b. al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ (or again Ḥanẓala b. al-S̲h̲arḳī , which was more probably, however, the name of Abu ’l-Ṭamaḥān al-Ḳayni, see S̲h̲iʿr , 229), pre-Islamic poet of al-Ḥīra, contemporary of al-Mund̲h̲ir b. Māʾ al-Samāʾ (about 506-554 A.D.), who put him in the charge of his horses. The expression d̲j̲ārun ka-d̲j̲ārl Abī Duʾād , which appears in a line of Ḳays b. Zuhayr and has become proverbial, gave rise to several traditions showing Abū Duʾād as the “protégé” of a noble and generous d̲j̲ār, who is either al-Mund̲h̲ir, al-Ḥarit̲h̲ b. Ḥamm…

al-Aswad b. Yaʿfur

(191 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
(also called Yuʿfur and Yaʿfir) b. ʿAbd al-Aswad al-Tamīmī, Abu ’l-Ḏj̲arrāḥ, pre-Islamic Arab poet who lived probably at the end of the 6th century A.D. He is said to have travelled about among the tribes, composing eulogies or satires in verse, and was for some time the companion of al-Nuʿmān b. al-Mund̲h̲ir. He is sometimes called al-Aʿs̲h̲ā of the Banū Nahs̲h̲al, because he was night-blind, but he lost his sight at the end of his life, which is thought to have been extremely long. Of the poems which have come down to us, the most celebrated are a ḳaṣīda in dāl dating p…

Ibn Abī ʿAtīḳ

(621 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
is the usual appellative of the great-grandson of the Caliph Abū Bakr, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad (= Abū ʿAtīk) b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Bakr . All that is known of him is that, after al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, he married, among others, Umm Isḥāḳ, the daughter of Ṭalḥa b. ʿUbayd Allāh. He led an idle existence in Medina, dividing his time between meetings with poets such as ʿUmar b. Abī Rabīʿa [ q.v.] or Kut̲h̲ayyir ʿAzza [ q.v.] and seeking the company of wits such as As̲h̲ʿab [ q.v.] or musicians and singers like Ibn ʿĀʾis̲h̲a [ q.v.]. Being a member of the Ḳurays̲h̲ī aristocracy, he was able in…

al-Masālik Wa ’l-Mamālik

(1,044 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
(a.) “routes and kingdoms”, name given by R. Blachère ( Extraits des principaux géographes arabes du Moyen Age , Beirut-Algiers 1934, 110-200; 2nd corrected printing by H. Darmaun, Paris 1957) to what he considered as a particular genre of Arabic geographical literature, because several works, which bear the title of Kitāb al-Masālik wa “ l-mamālik , present common characteristics. Nevertheless, not all those which, in his eyes, constitute this genre were given the title which has been retained, and furthermore, the K. al-Masālik wa ’l-mamālik which is per…

Muʿāwiya b. His̲h̲ām

(185 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
b. ʿAbd al-Malik , Umayyad prince. As the eldest son of His̲h̲ām [ q. v.], caliph from 105 to 125/724-43, he was designated heir presumptive by his father, but died prematurely, at a date variously located between 117 and 119/735-7, at about thirty years of age. Although he did not himself accede to the throne, he was the father of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān [ q.v.], known as al-Dāk̲h̲il. who fled to Spain where he restored the dynasty founded in Damascus by Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān [ q.v.]. Muʿāwiya b. His̲h̲ām, who had thirteen sons, was thus the ancestor of the amīrs and caliphs wh…

D̲j̲amīla

(253 words)

Author(s): Schaade, A. | Pellat, Ch.
, a famous singer of Medina at the time of the first Umayyads. Tradition has it that she taught herself the elements of music and singing by listening to her neighbour Sāʾib K̲h̲āt̲h̲ir [ q.v.] (d. 63/682-3). It became unanimously recognized that her great natural talent put her in a class of her own, and she founded a school where, among numerous lesser-known singers and ḳiyān , Maʿbad [ q.v.], Ibn ʿĀʾis̲h̲a [ q.v.], Ḥabāba and Sallāma received their training. Artists as great as Ibn Surayd̲j̲ [ q.v.] would come to hear her, and would accept her critical judgments, while her salo…

ʿAbd Allāh b. Hammām

(246 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
al-Salūlī , Arab poet of the 1st/7th century (he is said to have died after 96/715), who played a political role under the Umayyads. He was attached from 60/680 to Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya, condoled with him upon the death of his father and congratulated him at his accession. He persuaded Yazīd to proclaim his son Muʿāwiya as heir presumptive and later he was the first to greet al-Walīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik with the name of caliph (86/705). During the reign of ʿAbd al-Malik (65-86/685-…

Kuskusū

(996 words)

Author(s): Cour, A. | Pellat, Ch.
(a.), a word probably of Berber origin meaning couscous, a culinary preparation containing semolina which is the national dish of the peoples of North Africa. It appears with the article and with a final nūn in an anecdote depicting an Oriental being advised by the Prophet, in a dream, to treat with al-kuskusūn a sick Mag̲h̲ribī; this anecdote, related by Dozy ( Suppl., s.v.) is very well known and is probably responsible for leading Moroccan scholars to adopt the form attributed to the Prophet. L. Bauer ( Wörterbuch der arabischen Umgangsprache 2, Wiesbaden 1957, 402), heard kusukson/ kusk…

Mihyār

(552 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
b. Marzawayh (Marzōye) al-Daylamī , Abu ’l-Ḥusayn (Ibn K̲h̲allikān) or Abu ’l-Ḥasan (other sources), poet who used the Arabic language, originally a Zoroastrian but becoming a convert to Islam in 394/1004 at the hands of al-S̲h̲arīf al-Raḍī (359-406/970-1016 [ q.v.]), dying in 428/1037. The famous S̲h̲īʿī poet and naḳīb of the descendants of the Prophet took charge of the education of his protégé, into whom he inculcated not only the basic principles of S̲h̲īʿism but also the necessary skills for him to act as a secretar…

G̲h̲aylān b. Muslim

(397 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Abū Marwān al-Dimas̲h̲ḳī al-Ḳibṭī , is chiefly known as one of the first advocates of free will [see Ḳadariyya ], at the same time as Maʿbad al-Ḏj̲uhanī [ q.v.]. The son of a freed slave of ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān, he appears, like Maʿbad, to have been the disciple of a Christian from ʿIrāḳ, but he lived in Damascus where he held the position of secretary in the chancellery. Al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ ( Bayān , iii, 29) mentions him on the same footing as Ibn al-Muḳaffaʿ, Sahl b. Hārūn and ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, and even one so strictly orthodox as al-ʿAsḳalānī acknowledged his professional ability ( Lisān al-Mizān

al-Balaṭī, Abu ’l-Fatḥ ʿUt̲h̲mān

(513 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
b. ʿīsā b. Manṣūr b. Muḥammad , Tād̲j̲ al-Dīn , grammarian, poet and adīb , originally from the town of Balad on the Tigris, which also had the name of Balaṭ (see Yāḳūt, i, 721), whence his nisba of al-Balaṭī, sometimes given in the diminutive form of al-Bulayṭī. Abu ’l-Fatḥ went first of all to teach in Syria, and then, when Saladin assumed power in Egypt (567/1171), he migrated to Cairo where the new sultan allotted to him a fixed stipend and appointed him to teach grammar and the Ḳurʾān in one of the mosque…

G̲h̲urāb

(938 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, (a.) “crow”. In view of the diversity of their meanings the Arabic words formed from the three consonants g̲h̲ , r and b cannot be traced to a single root, and it is probable that in the course of the history of the language there came about a convergence of terms with different origins; thus, g̲h̲urāb is too reminiscent of the Latin corvus for us to consider it a mere coincidence; moreover, early Arab philologists considered g̲h̲urāb to be independent, ¶ since they made to derive from it such words as g̲h̲urba , ig̲h̲tirāb , etc. which imply an idea of estrangemen…

Abū Sayyāra

(303 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, ʿumayla b. al-aʿzal b. k̲h̲ālīd al-ʿadawanī , a personage of the end of the D̲j̲āhiliyya, said have been the first to fix the diya or pecuniary composition for murder at 100 camels and the last to lead the pilgrims, either at the departure for ʿArafāt ( ifāḍa ) or from al-Muzdalifa to Minā ( id̲j̲āza ), since the sources disagree on this point, and the more careful authors merely use the expression dafaʿa bi ’l-nās . This man, who probably owed his kunya to this function of his, a privilege of the Ḳaysī tribe of ʿAdwān (see Ibn al-Kalbī-Caskel, Tab. 92 …

Ibn Abī K̲h̲ayt̲h̲ama

(258 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. Zuhayr (= Abū K̲h̲aythama) b. Ḥarb b. S̲h̲addād al-Nasāʾī al-Bag̲h̲dādī , traditionist, genealogist, historian and poet, born at Nasāʾ in 185/801, died at Bag̲h̲dād in 279/892 (the dates 205/820 and 299/911-2 are probably too late). The son of Abū K̲h̲ayt̲h̲ama (d. 243/857), who was the author of a K. al-Musnad and a K. al-ʿIlm ( Fihrist , Cairo ed., 321), he was the pupil of Ibn Ḥanbal in ḥadīt̲h̲ and fiḳh , of Muṣʿab al-Zubayrī in genealogy, of al-Madāʾinī in history and of Muḥammad b. Sallām in literature. The Fihrist mentions among his works K. al-Muntamīn (?), K. al-Aʿrā…

Kaʿb b. Ḏj̲uʿayl al-Tag̲h̲labī

(726 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, a minor Arab poet of the 1st/7th century whom Ibn Sallām ( Ṭabaḳāt , 485-9) places in the 3rd rank of Islamic poets. His genealogy varies with the different authors (Ibn al-Kalbī-Caskel, Tab. 165, no doubt provides the most accurate one), and very little is known of his life. Probably born during the earliest years of the Hid̲j̲ra , he made his appearance at the time of the battle of Ṣiffīn (37/657) as an intimate of Muʿāwiya, of whom, like most of the Tag̲h̲lib [ q.v.], he was a passionate supporter. The conflict with ʿAlī inspired him to write a number of poems, in particular…

ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḏj̲udʿān

(402 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, Ḳurays̲h̲ite notable of the clan of Taym b. Murra, at the end of the 6th c. A.D. He acquired such wealth from the caravan and slave trade that he possessed one of the largest fortunes in Mecca (Ps.-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ, Maḥāsin (van Vloten), 165; Ibn Rusta, 215; Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲ , vi, 153 ff.; Lammens, La Mecque à la veille de l’Hégire , index). He surrounded himself with unusual luxury (being nick-named ḥāsī ‘l-d̲h̲ahab , because he used to drink from a golden cup), and was the owner of the two singing-girls called "Locusts of ʿĀd" ( Ḏj̲arādatā ʿĀd ) whom he offered to Umayya b…

al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. Ḥilliza

(603 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
al-Yas̲h̲kurī , a pre-Islamic Arab poet to whom is attributed principally a ḳaṣīda which mediaeval critics regarded as the seventh of the muʿallaḳāt [ q.v.]. The information that we possess in respect of his life deserves no credence, and the poem that is the cause of his renown is in itself so suspect that Ṭāhā Ḥusayn considers it to be totally apocryphal (cf. also al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ, Ḥayawān , iii, 449, on the questions of other verses). This ḳaṣīda, in k̲h̲afīf metre and with -āʾū rhyme (with an iḳwāʾ in one verse in -āʾī ), is said by legendary tradition to have been …

al-K̲h̲ubzaʾaruzzī

(371 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
(many possible vocalisations), Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Naṣr b. Aḥmad b. al-Maʾmūn , ¶ popular poet of Baṣra, who probably died in 327/938. He made rice bread ( k̲h̲ubz aruzz ) in a shop at the Mirbad [ q.v.], where his biographers show him as surrounded by a circle of admirers who were especially attracted by his g̲h̲azal verses on boys, these being his speciality. It does not seem that he should be included in the list of those poets whose belligerence involved them in contests and controversies, nor does he seem to have been inclined, l…

Ayman b. K̲h̲uraym

(242 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
b. fātik b. al-ak̲h̲ram al-asadī , Arab poet of the Umayyad period, son of the Companion of the Prophet Ḵh̲uraym al-Nāʿim, whose ḥadīt̲h̲s he has handed down. After settling at Kūfa, he composed, like many of the poets of that town g̲h̲azal poems, but also panegyrics on the Umayyad princes ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and Bis̲h̲r, son of Marwān; although he contracted tubercular leprosy ( abraṣ ), his poetry allowed him to enjoy their intimate friendship, and this favour won him the surname of k̲h̲alīl al-k̲h̲ulafāʾ (the friend of caliphs). In some of his poems he touch…

Muṣʿab b. al-Zubayr

(986 words)

Author(s): Lammens, H. | Pellat, Ch.
, Abū ʿAbd Allāh or Abū ʿĪsā, son of the famous Companion of the Prophet al-Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwām [ q.v.] and brother of the anti-caliph ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr [ q.v.]. Handsome, chivalrous, generous to the utmost ¶ degree of prodigality, he resembled his older brother and the Zubayrid family only in his courage and outbursts of severity in repression. He began his military career at the outset of the caliphate of Marwān b. al-Ḥakam, with an ill-conceived expedition in Palestine. His name has gone down in history chiefly owing to his campaign, in his capa…

Abū ʿImrān al-Fāsī

(1,137 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, mūsā b. ʿīsā b. abī ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲/ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ (?), Mālikī faḳīh , probably born between 365/975 and 368/978 at Fās into a Berber family whose nisba is impossible to reconstruct. No doubt to complete his studies, but perhaps also because of other reasons hard to discern, he went to settle in al-Ḳayrawān, where his master was in particular al-Ḳābisī (d. 403/1012 [ q.v.]). He is known to have stayed in Cordova with Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr [ q.v.] and to have profited by the chance to follow the lectures of various scholars there, which his biographers list, without however gi…

Hart̲h̲ama b. Aʿyan

(477 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
, a general and governor of the ʿAbbāsid period, a native of K̲h̲urāsān. As a supporter of ʿĪsā b. Mūsā [ q.v.] in the reign of al-Manṣūr, he was brought to Bag̲h̲dād in chains and remained in obscurity throughout the reign of al-Mahdī. He then became the confidential adviser of al-Hādī who is even said to have ordered him to kill Hārūn, and was stopped from doing so only by al-K̲h̲ayzurān’s intervention. However, on the death of al-Hādī, it was he who brought Hārūn out of prison and took part in his enthronement. T…

Maṭmūra

(868 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
(a), from ṭamara , which signifies in particular “to hide”, denotes a natural or man-made cavity used for the concealment of victuals ( ṭaʿām ) or of riches ( māl ); such is the definition adopted by the ¶ LA (s.v.), which specifies that it is the plural maṭāmīr which should be applied to underground silos where grain is stored. In fact, the singular currently denotes a silo, and the plural, a group of silos garded by a ṭammār and called mərs in Morocco ( rətba in Takrūna, where the guardian is known as rattāb ; W. Marçais, Glossaire de Takroûna , v, 2408-9, with discussio…

Aḥmad b. Ḥābiṭ

(360 words)

Author(s): Pellat, Ch.
(rather than Ḥāʾiṭ, if the position in the alphabetical order given to him by al-ʿAsḳalānī is taken into consideration), a theologian ranked among the Muʿtazilites; he was the pupil of al-Naẓẓām [ q.v.], and the teacher, in particular, of al-Faḍl al-Ḥadat̲h̲ī. Nothing is known about his life, and only his "innovations" are partly known to us. His doctrine, evolved before 232/846-7, seems to differ from Muʿtazilite teaching on the following two fundamental dogmas, which are borrowed from systems alien to Islam but which, in the…
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