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( ʿIlm al- ), “The science of letters”, is a branch of d̲j̲afr [ q.v.] which was originally concerned with onomatomancy in the strict sense; but, among some esoteric sects, it became a sort of magical practice, to such an extent that Ibn K̲h̲aldūn ( Muḳaddima , iii, 137-61, Fr. tr. 188-200, Rosenthal 171-82) gave it the name of sīmiyāʾ (σημεῖα), which is usually reserved for white magic. It is based on the occult properties of the letters of the alphabet and of the divine and angelic names which they form. Three basic elements are …

, a technique of inductive divination which permits the foretelling of moral conditions and psychological behaviour from external indications and physical states: al-istidlāl bi’l-k̲h̲alḳ al-Ẓāhir ʿala’l-k̲h̲ulḳ al-bāṭin (cf. al-Rāzī, Firāsa , ed. Mourad, 4; Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī K̲h̲alīfa, ii, p. VIII; iv, 388 ff.; al-Ḳazwīnī, i, 318; cf. Ps.-Diāḥiẓ. ʿIrāfa , ed. Inostrant̲s̲ev, 17 ff.). These indications are provided by colours, forms and limbs; they reveal to experts the secrets of characters and minds. “Peculiarities of charac…

, Abū Bakr Muḥammad , the first renowned Muslim interpreter of dreams, was also, according to Ibn Saʿd (vii/1, 140), a traditionist “of great trustworthiness, who inspired confidence, great and worthy, well-versed in jurisprudence. He was an imām of great scholarship and piety”. Born two years before the end of the caliphate of ʿUt̲h̲mān, i.e., in 34/654, he was the contemporary and friend of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī [ q.v.] and died in the same year as he, in 110/728. His father, a tinker from Ḏj̲ard̲j̲arāyā. had been taken prisoner in ʿIrāḳ (at Maysān or at ʿAyn al-…

, the name given to an orator and poet of the tribe of Wāʾil, “whose seductive eloquence has passed into a proverb and who, it is said, whilst addressing an assembly for half-a-day, never used the same word twice” (Kazimirski, Dictionnaire , i, 1057; see LʿA and the other lexica). Speaking of the random effects of chance, whereby some person became a household word whereas others, equally meritorious, do not, al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ ( Ḥayawān , ii, 104), cites Saḥbān Wāʾil, who was eclipsed by his contemporary Ibn al-Ḳirriyya, murdered by al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ in 84/703 ( loc. cit., n. 5). In his eulogy o…

(a.), derived from the Semitic root r-ʾ-y which gives rise to formations expressing “sight” ( ruʾya ( t)) and “vision” ( ruʾyā ), one of the aspects of vision being nocturnal vision, the dream. 1. In the meaning of dream. On relations between “seer” ( rōʾe - Aram, ḥōzē = Ar. ḥāzī ), “soothsayer” ( kāhin , ʿarrāf , etc.) and “prophet” ( nabī ), see the articles kāhin, kihāna , nubuwwa. The Semitic terminology of the dream and of the vision evolves in two fundamentally different semantic zones: (1)The first is situated in the space extending between sleep and waking and is consequentl…

(a.) or Zāʾirad̲j̲a , a divinatory technique which, in the same manner as geomancy [see k̲h̲aṭṭ ] and d̲j̲afr [ q.v.], and under various outside influences, had a wide diffusion in the mediaeval Islamic lands. It involved a mechanical means of calculating portents, strongly imbued with magic and astrology, in which were strongly mingled the talismanic sciences, based on the ʿilm al-k̲h̲awāṣṣ “knowledge of secret properties”, the ʿilm al-awfāḳ “knowledge of conjunctions”, ʿilm al-ṭilasmāt “knowledge of talismans” and ʿilm al-ḥurūf “knowledge of letters” [see ḥurūf ]. D̲j̲afr and ḥur…

, the Arabic term for the rainbow, formed from ḳaws “bow” ( Ḳws in the inscriptions of Jordan; Ḳaws̲h̲ in the inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser, Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal; Ḳūsu in Babylonian inscriptions of the time of Darius and Artaxerxes I; Ḳūsu, Ḳūs̲h̲u , Ḳīs̲h̲i , Ḳūs̲h̲i , in the Old Testament; Kos / Kōs /Κοξε, amongst the Nabataeans; Ḳaws , Ḳays , in Arabia), an Edomite deity known during the first millennium and later venerated by the Nabataeans (cf. Vriezen, The Edomitic deity Qaus , 330 ff.). He was a war-god, symbolised by the bow, just as Adad…

, G̲h̲ars al-Dīn K̲h̲alīl , born in Cairo (or Jerusalem) in 813/1410, son of a mamlūk of the Burd̲j̲ī sultan Sayf al-Dīn Tatar, studied in Cairo and achieved a brilliant administrative career under Barsbay and Čaḳmaḳ (cf. Ziriklī, Aʿlām 2, iii, 367). In about 857/1453 he composed a major work, Kas̲h̲f al-mamālik wa-bayān al-uruḳ , wa ’l-masālik , of which only an abridged version, Zubdat Kas̲h̲f al-mamālik ... has survived. This vivid and exact picture of Egypt under the Mamlūks, the interest of which was first emphasized by Volney in the appendix to the Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie 3, ed. Dug…

(a.), evil spirit, demon, devil. 1. In pre-Islamic Arabia. According to the lexicographers, s̲h̲ayṭān is derived from the verb s̲h̲aṭana “to detain somebody in order to divert him from his intention and his destination”, s̲h̲aṭan being “a cord” and s̲h̲āṭin “an evil man”. The verbs s̲h̲ayṭana and tas̲h̲ayṭana signify “to behave like the shayṭan ”. The s̲h̲ayṭān is an evil, rebellious spirit, inhabiting Hell-Fire; he cannot be seen, but he is imagined as a being of great ugliness (al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, Ḥayawān , vi, 213). Proverbs underline his wickedness, his c…

(a.), the casting of stones. R-d̲j̲-m is a Semitic root, derivatives from which are found in the Old Testament with the meaning of “to stone, to drive away or kill by throwing stones” an abominable creature; rad̲j̲ma is “a heap of stones, an assembly of men, cries, tumult”. In Arabic, the root means “to stone, to curse”; rad̲j̲m , “heap of stones”, also means simply the stones placed upon tombs either as flagstones or in a heap, a custom which ḥadīt̲h̲ condemns, recommending rather that a grave should be level with the surface of the ground. On the ḥadīt̲h̲ of ʿAbd Allāh b. Mug̲h̲fal, it is …

, a rogatory rite still practised at the present day (notably in Jordan and Morocco) and dating back to the earliest Arab times (ʿĀdite according ¶ to Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, i, 61; Abrahaniic according to Ibn Saʿd, i/1, 22) which is a supplication for rain during periods of great drought. The rite must have been both astral and magical in nature. Obliged to retain it because of its great popularity, primitive Islam tried to remove these features. A precise ritual was established—as in the case of istik̲h̲āra [ q.v.], another custom deriving from pagan cultic practices —so that the faithf…

or Nabīṭ (coll.), Nabaṭī (sing.), Anbāṭ (pl.), the name given by the Arabs to the Nabataeans , amongst whom they distinguished the Nabaṭ al-Sham (i.e. of Syria), installed at Petra towards the end of the Hellenistic imperial era and at the beginning of the Roman one, and the Nabaṭ al-ʿIrāḳ (i.e. of ʿIrāḳ). [The Editors of the EI have decided to retain unchanged the following two articles, despite the inevitable overlappings in their present forms.] 1. The Nabaṭ al-S̲h̲ām. The Arabic term, occuring in Aramaic inscriptions, nbṭ / nbṭw , appears very often in the …

(a.), lord, God, master of a slave. Pre-Islamic Arabia probably applied this term to its gods or to some of them. In this sense the word corresponds to the terms like Baʿal, Adonis, etc. in the Northwestern Semitic languages, where rabb means “much, great” (see A. Jeffery, The foreign vocabulary of the Qurʾān , Baroda 1938, 136-7). In one of the oldest sūras (CVI, 3) Allāh is called the “lord of the temple”. Similarly, al-Lāt bore the epithet al-Rabba , especially at Ṭāʾif where she was worshipped in the image of a stone or of a rock. In the Ḳurʾān, rabb (especially with the possessive suffix)…

(a.), the sun (f). 1. In Pre-Islamic Arab lore. This was a divinity worshipped in the Semitic world, especially in Assyria-Babylonia (cf. its attributes in K. Tallqvist, Akkadische Götterepitheta , Helsinki 1938, 453 ff.) and in South Arabia, where the plurals s̲h̲ums (for s̲h̲umūs ) given by Yāḳūt (ed. Beirut, iii, 362) for this ṣanam or idol, ʾs̲h̲ms and the dual s̲h̲msy (G. Ryckmans, Les noms propres sudsémitiques , Louvain 1934-5, i, 33; A. Jamme, Le panthéon sud-arabe préislamique d’après les sources épigraphiques , in Muséon , lx [1947], 101 ff.) ¶ denote the titulary divinities…

(a.). 1. In pre- and early Islamic usage. The root ṭ -g̲h̲-w yields several forms with the general meaning of "to go beyond the measure, be very lofty, overflow, be tyrannical, rebellious, oppressive, proud, etc.", from which two may be noted here: ṭag̲h̲w , designating a height or mountain summit, and ṭag̲h̲ūt , pl. ṭawāg̲h̲īt , meaning the great pre-Islamic Arabian deities like al-Lāt at Ṭāʾif and al-ʿUzzā at Mecca. The term was then applied to Satan, sorcerer and rebel, and to any power opposed to that of Islam. One may also cite ṭag̲h̲wa "excess of injustice, impiety", as opposed to the s̲h̲…

(a.), image, form, shape, e.g. ṣūrat al-arḍ , “the image of the earth”, ṣūrat ḥimār , “the form of an ass” (Muslim, Ṣalāt , trad. 115), or face, countenance (see below). Taṣāwīr are rather pictures; see for these, taṣwīr . Ṣūra and taṣwīra are therefore in the same relation to one another as the Hebrew demūt and ṣelem . 1. In theological and legal doctrine. The Biblical idea according to which man was created in God’s ṣelem (Gen. i. 27) has most probably passed into Ḥadīt̲h̲. It occurs in three passages in classical Ḥadīt̲h̲; the exegesis is uncertain and in general unwilling to adopt i…

(a.), literally “that which rises”. 1. Astronomical aspects. Al-ṭāliʿ is that point of the ecliptic which is rising over the horizon at a given moment, called the ascendent or horoscopus (and sometimes, incorrectly, the horoscope); see the diagram in maṭāliʿ . The determination of the ascendent is necessary in mathematical astrology [see nud̲j̲ūm , aḥkām al- ] before one can calculate the instantaneous positions of the 12 astrological houses ( al-buyūt ); with these determined, one can then investigate in which houses the sun, moon and five na…

1. S̲h̲iḳḳ is the name of two diviners or kāhins who allegedly lived shortly before the rise of Islam. According to the Abrégé des merveilles , S̲h̲iḳḳ the Elder was the first diviner among the ʿArab al-ʿĀriba. He is a completely fabulous personage. Like the Cyclops, he had only one eye in the middle of his forehead or a fire which split his forehead into two ( s̲h̲aḳḳa “to split”). He is also confused with al-Dad̲j̲d̲j̲āl [ q.v.], Antichrist, or at least Dad̲j̲d̲j̲āl is of his family. He is said to have lived chained to a rock on an island where volcanic phenomena occur…

, a legendary diviner ( kāhin ) of pre-Islamic Arabia, whom tradition connects with the beginnings of Islam; in reality, we are dealing here with a quite mythical personage like the other kāhin in whose company he appears in most stories, S̲h̲iḳḳ al-Saʿbī, who is simply the humanisation of a demoniacal monster in appearance like a man cut in two ( s̲h̲iḳḳ al-insān : cf. van Vloten, in WZKM, vii [1893], 180-1, and s̲h̲iḳḳ ). Saṭīḥ, whose name means “flattened on the ground and unable to rise on account of the weakness of his limbs” ( Lisān al-ʿArab 1, iii, 312), is described as a monster with…

, in form like kibriyāʾ , belongs to old Arabic ¶ beside sīmā , sīmāʾ (Ḳurʾān, XLVIII, 29 etc.; al-Bayḍāwī, ed. Fleischer, i, 326, 14, 15), in the sense “mark, sign, badge” (Lane 1476a; Ṣaḥāḥ , s.v., ed. Būlāḳ, 1282, ii, 200; Ḥamāsa , ed. Freytag, 696; LʿA , xv, 205). But the word, as a name for certain genres of magic, had a quite different derivation; in that sense it is from σημει̂α, through the Syriac sīmya (pl), and means “signs, letters of the alphabet” (Dozy, Suppl., i, 708b, and references there; Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus , ii, col. 2614). In Bocthor, Dictionnaire français-arabe …