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Efendi , 19th century Turkish translator. Born in Üsküdar, he was trained in the language chamber [see terd̲j̲üme odasi̊ ] of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and subsequently held a number of official appointments. He is mentioned as having been Ottoman Consul in Tabrīz and a member of the Embassy in Tehrān, and in 1876 was elected a deputy in the first Ottoman parliament. He died in 1878 of typhus, contracted while caring for refugees from the Russo-Turkish war, and was buried at the Karacaahmet cemetery in Üsküdar. Aḥmed Ḥilmī played a pioneer role as a tra…

efendi, known as Aḳs̲h̲ehirli, an Ottoman S̲h̲eyk̲h̲ al-Islām. The son of ʿOt̲h̲mān Efendi of Ilgin, he was born in 1210/1795-6, and held various appointments in the teaching branch of the ʿIlmiyye [ q.v.] profession. In 1275/1858-9, on the death of Yaḥyā Efendi [ q.v.], he was appointed to the office of Ders Wekīli , with the duty of teaching and preaching on behalf of the S̲h̲eyk̲h̲ al-Islām. Ḏj̲ewdet, who had reason to be hostile to Ḥasan Fehmī, indicates that the appointment was made for want of any one better, and says that he was known among the students as kad̲h̲ūbī —the liar ( Tezâkir 13-…

, Kamāl al-Dīn Abu ’l-Ḳāsim ʿUmar b. Aḥmad b. Hibat Allāh , historian of Aleppo, born there in 588/1192, died in Cairo in 660/1262. A wealthy and prominent family of ʿIrāḳī Arab origin, the Banu ’l-ʿAdīm acquired property in and around Aleppo, and a number of them rose to eminence or office under the successive dynasties that ruled in that city. For five generations they held the office of ḳāḍī; the historian’s father was a chief ḳāḍī under Zangid and then Ayyūbid rule. He himself, after studies in Aleppo, Damascus, Jerusalem, Bag̲h̲dād and the Ḥid̲j̲āz, served in Aleppo as a secretary, as a ḳāḍī…

, abu ’l-futūḥ , a slave who was for a while ruler of Egypt during the reign of al-Ḥākim. He was brought up at the court of al-ʿAzīz, where he held the post of intendant ( Ḵh̲iṭaṭ ii, 3; Ibn Tag̲h̲ribirdī, Cairo, iv, 48; Ibn Ḵh̲allikān. ii, 201). He was a eunuch, and was known by the title Ustād̲h̲ [ q.v.]. His ethnie origin is uncertain—Ibn Ḵh̲allikān calls him a negro, Ibn al-Ḳalānisī simply a white ( abyaḍ al-lawn ), al-Maḳrīzī either a Slav or a Sicilian, the readings Saḳlabī and Siḳillī both occurring in the MSS. of the Ḵh̲iṭaṭ (cf. S. de Sacy, Chrestomothie , i, 130). Bard̲j̲awān was appointed g…

, Ottoman naval officer and author. A graduate of the naval college, he held various appointments, and served for a while in both the Ḥid̲j̲āz and Yemen. He died in Istanbul in 1308/1890. He was the author of a number of historical and descriptive works on Arabia, including an account of Mecca and Medina ( Mirʾāt al-Ḥaramayn , 3 vols., Istanbul 1301-6), and a history of the Wahhābīs ( Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Wahhābiyyān , Istanbul 1296). Besides these he wrote a biography of the Prophet called Maḥmūd al-Siyar (Edirne 1287). (B. Lewis) Bibliography Babinger 372-3 Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī, i, 451 Ot̲h̲mānl…

, a Turkish word meaning living or livelihood. In the Ottoman Empire it was used to denote an income provided by the state, directly or indirectly, for the support of persons in its service. The term is used principally of the military fiefs (see timar), but also applies to pay (see ʿulūfa ), salaries, and grants of various kinds in lieu of pay to officers of the central and provincial governments. It does not normally apply to tax-farms, the basis of which is purchase and not service. (B. Lewis) Bibliography Ḏj̲aʿfer Čelebi, Maḥrūse-i Istanbul fetḥnāmesi, TOEM suppl. 1331, 17 Koçi Bey Risale…

, from Arabic amīn [ q.v.], faithful, trustworthy, an Ottoman administrative title usually translated intendant or commissioner. His function or office was called emānet . The primary meaning of emīn , in Ottoman official usage, was a salaried officer appointed by or in the name of the Sultan, usually by berāt , to administer, supervise or control a department, function or source of revenue. There were thus emīns of various kinds of stores and supplies, of mints, of mines, of customs, customs-houses and other revenues, and of the taḥrīr [ q.v.], the preparation of the registers of la…

; from ʿaskar , soldier; in Ottoman technical usage a member of the ruling military caste, as distinct from the reʿāyā —the subject population of peasants and townspeople ( reʿāyā sometimes means the subjects generally, sometimes only the peasants). The term ‘askarī denoted caste rather than function; it included retired or unemployed ʿaskarīs, the wives and children of ʿaskarīs, manumitted slaves of the Sultan and of the ʿaskarīs, and also the families of the holders of religious public offices in attendance ( mulāzemet ) on the Sultan. The Ottoman ʿaskarī class comprised both th…

, formerly also başbakanlik arşivi , the Archives of the Prime Minister’s office, the name now given to the central state archives of Turkey and of the Ottoman Empire. The formation of the Ottoman archives begins with the rise of the Ottoman state, but the present collection, though containing a number of individual documents and registers from earlier times, dates substantially from after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The archives became really full from about the middle of the 16th century, and continue to the end of the Empire. The organisation of the Ottoman reco…

(a., verbal noun of form I), basically meaning, according to the authoritative lexicologists, “putting a thing in a place not its own” (Lane, LA, TA), i.e. displacement. In the moral sphere, it denotes acting in such a way as to transgress the proper limit and encroach upon the right of some other person. In common usage, ẓulm has come to signify wrongdoing, evil, injustice, oppression and tyranny, particularly by persons who have power and authority. Frequently it is therefore used as the antonym to ʿadl [ q.v.], inṣāf [ q.v.] and ḳisṭ and (sometimes by expressi…

, a town on the coast of southern Palestine, one (Hebrew: ʾAs̲h̲ḳelōn) of the five Philistine towns known to us from the Old Testament; in the Roman period, as oppidum Ascalo liberum , it was (according to Schrürer, Geschichte des Jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu 2, ii, 65-7) "a flourishing Hellenistic town famous for its cults and festal games" (Dercetis-Aphrodite-shrine); in the Christian period a bishop’s see (tomb of the tres fratres martyres Aegyptii ). ʿAsḳalān was one of the last towns of Palestine to fall into the hands of the Muslims. It was taken şulḥ an by Muʿāwiya shortly aft…

, “freedom,” an abstract formation derived from ḥurr “free” corresponding to Hebrew ḥōr , Aram. ḥēr ( ḥerūt̲ā ), widely used also in Muslim languages other than Arabic. Already in pre-Islamic times, “free” was known not only as a legal term denoting the opposite of “unfree, slave” ( ʿabd [ q.v.]) but also as an Ethical term denoting those “noble” of character and behavior. The legal concept of “freedom” continued to be used as a matter of course by Muslim jurists, who were inclined to give preference to the presumption of a free status for individuals in doubtful cases [see ʿabd …

, ‘valley lord’, the Turkish name popularly given to certain rulers in Asia Minor who, from the early 12th/18th century, made themselves virtually independent of the Ottoman central government in Istanbul. The Ottoman historians usually call them mutag̲h̲allibe , usurpers, or, when a politer designation was needed, K̲h̲ānedān . great families. The derebeys became in effect vassal princes, ruling over autonomous and hereditary principalities. In time of war they served, with their own contingents, in the Ottoman armies, w…

or Firand̲j̲ , the Arabic term for the Franks. This name, which probably reached the Muslims via the Byzantines, was originally used of the inhabitants of the empire of Charlemagne, and later extended to Europeans in general. In medieval times it was not normally applied to the Spanish Christians [see andalus , d̲j̲illīḳiyya and below], the Slavs [see ṣaḳāliba ] or the Vikings [see mad̲j̲ūs ii], but otherwise was used fairly broadly of continental Europe and the British Isles. The land of the Franks was called ifrand̲j̲a (Persian and Turkish Firangistān ). The earliest Muslim notions o…

, "the sons", a denomination applied to the following: (I) The descendants of Saʿd b. Zayd Manāt b. Tamīm, with the exception of his two sons Kaʿb and ʿAmr. This tribe inhabited the sandy desert of al-Dahnāʾ. (Cf. F. Wüstenfeld, Register zu den geneal. Tabellen der arab. Stämme ). (II) The descendants born in Yaman of the Persian immigrants. For the circumstances of the Persian intervention in Yaman under Ḵh̲usraw Anūs̲h̲irwān (531-79) and the reign of Sayf b. Ḏh̲ī Yazan, as told by the Arabic authors, cf. sayf b. d̲h̲ī yazan. After the withdr…

, in its concrete meaning “the House of wealth”, but particularly, in an abstract sense, the “fiscus” or “treasury” of the Muslim State. I. The Legal Doctrine. ‘Bilāl and his companions asked ʿUmar b. al-Ḵh̲aṭṭāb to distribute the booty acquired in Iraq and Syria. “Divide the lands among those who conquered them”, they said, “just as the spoils of the army are divided”. But ʿUmar refused their request . . . saying: “Allāh has given a share in these lands to those who shall come after you” ’ ( Kitāb al-Ḵh̲arād̲j̲ , 24. Le Livre de l’Impot Foncier , 37). In this alleged d…

(a.), pilgrimage to Mecca, ʿArafāt and Minā, the fifth of the five “pillars” ( arkān ) of Islam. It is also called the Great Pilgrimage in contrast to the ʿumra [ q.v.] or Little Pilgrimage. Its annual observance has had, and continues to have, a profound influence on the Muslim world. Those not taking part follow the pilgrims in thought; the religious teachers, and nowadays the press, radio and television help them in this by providing doctrine and news bulletins. For the Muslim community itself this event is the occasion fo…

, municipality, the term used in Turkish ( belediye ), Arabic, and other Islamic languages, to denote modern municipal institutions of European type, as against earlier Islamic forms of urban organisation [see madīna ]. The term, like so many modern Islamic neologisms and the innovations they express, first appeared in Turkey, where Western-style municipal institutions and services were introduced as part of the general reform programme of the Tanẓīmāt [ q.v.]. (1) turkey. The first approaches towards modern municipal administration seems to have been made by Sultan …

, in modern Arabic constitution. A word of Persian origin, it seems originally to have meant a person exercising authority, whether religious or political, and was later specialized to designate members of the Zoroastrian priesthood. It occurs in Kalīla wa-Dimna in the sense of “counsellor”, and recurs with the same sense, at a much later date, in the phrase Dustūr-i mükerrem , one of the honorific titles of the Grand Vizier in the Ottoman Empire. More commonly, dustūr was used in the sense of “rule” or “regulation”, and in particular the code of ru…

, in modern Arabic “government”. Like many political neologisms in Islamic languages, the word seems to have been first used in its modern sense in 19th century Turkey, and to have passed from Turkish into Arabic and other languages. Ḥukūma comes from the Arabic root ḥ.k.m , with the meaning “to judge, adjudicate” (cf. the related meaning, dominant in Hebrew and other Semitic languages, of wisdom. See ḥikma ). In classical usage the verbal noun ḥukūma means the act or office of adjudication, of dispensing justice, whether by a sovereign, a judge, …