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soap (cf. English soap), has penetrated through Latin sapo and Greek σαπών as a loanword to the East also. According to Pauly-Wissowa, ( Realenz. d. klass. Altert., second series, iii. 1112, the ancients were not acquainted with our soap; in Pliny sapo means a hair-dye ( rutilandis capillis) and also medical salves; for cleansing purposes certain poor earths were used, which were sometimes perfumed. There can, however, be no doubt that soap came into use in the middle ages along with other lathery lotions and in addition to its uses for clea…

(a.), “the gnome’s lamp” or according to Idrīsī, “the glow-worm’s lamp”, (for other meanings of ḳuṭrub see Lane, vii. 2543), the name for the mandragora ( mandragora officinalis, l.), one of the Solanaceae indigenous to the whole Mediterranean area, with a turnipshaped root often in two parts, thickly covered with root-fibres, bearing a clump of large, eggshaped, sinuate leaves, between which grow the axillary petiolated bell-shaped flowers. The fruit is a reddish yellow berry about the size of a cherry which from ancient time…

, the teak tree, tectona grandis, a large tree belonging to the verbenaceae with broad lancet-like leaves, “like the shields of the Dailam”. It is found principally in the drier parts of Further India, in Burma, Siam and Java and, according to Arabic sources, also in East Africa (Zand̲j̲). The dark coloured hard wood resists, as no other does, the effects of sea-water and has therefore from ancient times been the best wood for shipbuilding. Nor is it attacked by insects. The main markets for it were …

, the Twins, the constellation Gemini. According to al-Ḳazwīnī, it contains 18 stars and seven which do not belong to the figure, and represents two men with their heads to the N. E. and their feet to the S. W. The two bright stars in the head are also called al-Dhirāʿ al-mabsūṭa, the outstretched arm, and form the seventh station of the moon; the two at the feet of the second twin form the station of the moon called al-Hanʿa. The whole constellation is also called al-Ḏj̲awzā, like Orion; hence the name Ras algeuse for the star β (Pollux). In Ptolemy the stars now known as Castor…

, the ear (of corn), the usual name for the constellation of the Virgin ( al-ʿAd̲h̲rā ʾ) from its most brilliant star, the ear of corn in the hand of the Virgin which is still called Spica. According to al-Ḳazwīnī, the constellation consists of 26 stars with a further six lying outside the figure. The head of the Virgin lies south of al-Ṣarfā (β Leonis); the feet are pointed towards the two pans of the Scales. The brightest star is also called either Sunbula or al-Simāk al-aʿzal, the unarmed Simāk, in contrast to al-Simāk al-rāmiḥ, Simāk with the lance ( Aramech on the star-maps). (J. Ruska) Bibliog…

, capital of the province of Lūristān with 6,000 inhabitants, situated in 33° 32′ N. Lat. and 48° 15′ East Long. (Greenwich) about 4700 feet above the sea-level between Iṣfahān and Kirmāns̲h̲āh on the river of the same name. On an isolated ridge of rock between the town and the river lie the ruins of a castle Dīz-i Siyāh, “black castle”, in the middle ages the residence of the governor, with annexes called Falak al-Aflāk which at the beginning of the xixth century were the residence of the governor of Lūristān. At the foot of the old castle is the modern residency, built abo…

, the tortoise, or turtle. Land (tortoise) and sea (turtle) varieties are distinguished as al-barrī and al-baḥrī. Al-Damīrī and al-Ḳazwīnī give practically the same fables about their habits. The turtle attains the size of an island. As it cannot hatch its eggs on account of the hardness and coldness of the shell on its belly, it looks after the eggs until God allows the young ones to come out. If the eggs fall into water, turtles are born from them. Magical qualities are attributed to them by the Kitāb al-Ḵh̲awāṣṣ of Balīnās and healing properties are mentioned by al-Ḳazwīnī and al…

(a.), donkey (fem, atān and ḥimāra ). The Arabs make a distinction between the domestic donkey ( ahlī ) and the wild donkey ( waḥs̲h̲ī , faraʾ , ʿayr al-ʿāna ). Domestic donkeys are used to turn mills, as beasts of burden and as mounts, but although the Prophet is said to have owned one, named Yaʿfūr, and although the animal has been esteemed by famous persons, it is not ridden by Arabs of high rank, who even employ a formula of apology ( ḥas̲h̲ā-kum , aʿazza-kum Allāh , etc.) when they utter its name. The zoological works provide details of its characteristic…

Abū Bakr b. Badr , with the by-name al-Bayṭār al-Nāṣirī , was grand master and chief veterinary surgeon of the stables of the Mamlūk sultan of Egypt al-Nāṣir, Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḳalāwūn (who ruled in 693/1294, from 698/1299 to 708/1309-10 and from 709/1310 to 741/1341). It was at This ruler’s request that Ibn al-Mund̲h̲ir wrote, in about 740/1339-40, his treatise on hippology entitled Kās̲h̲if hamm al-wayl fī maʿrifat amrāḍ al-k̲h̲ayl , a compilation from earlier sources and in particular from the Kāmil al-ṣināʿatayn ( al-bayṭara wa ’l-zarṭafa ) of a cer…

, the turquoise, a well-known precious stone of a bright green or “mountain green” to sky-blue colour with a gloss like wax; in composition it is a hydrated clay phosphate with a small but essential proportion of copper and iron. The colour is not permanent in all stones, and is said to be particularly affected by perspiration. It is almost always cut as an ornament en cabochon, i.e., with a convex upper surface; only stones with an inscription are given a flat upper surface. The provenance of serviceable stones is limited to a few places whose history may be t…

, iron. According to the Sūrat al-Ḥadīd (LVII, 25) God sent iron down to earth for the detriment and advantage of man, for weapons and tools are alike made from it. According to the belief of the Ṣābians, it is allotted to Mars. It is the hardest and strongest of metals and the most capable of resisting the effects of fire, but it is the quickest to rust. It is corroded by acids; for example, with the fresh rind of a pomegranate it forms a black fluid, with vinegar a red fluid and with salt a yellow. Collyrium ( al-kuḥl ) burns it and arsenic makes it smooth and white. Ḳa…

(a.), butter, made from cows’, goats’ and ewes’ milk, heated over the fire to extract its impurities, and hence called clarified butter (as distinct from zubd which is butter made from churned milk). Mediaeval dietetic texts state a preference for clarified butter made from cows’ milk over goats’ milk. Its medicinal benefits were as an antidote against poisons and snake bites, if ingested alone or mixed with honey, and as an ointment for the cure of boils and abscesses, including haemorrhoids. Samn was also used in the kitchen and, according to the anonymous Kanz al-fawāʾid …

(a,), ambergris ( ambre gris, ambra grisea, to distinguish it from ambre jaune = amber ), a substance of sweet musk-like smell, easily fusible and burning with a bright flame; highly valued in the East as a perfume and as a medicine. It is found floating on the water in tropical seas, (spec, gravity 0.78-0.93), or on the shore, sometimes in large lumps. Ambergris probably is a morbid secretion of the gall-bladder of the sperm-whale in whose intestines it is found. Ḳazwinī mentions it amon…

, also tilsim , tilism , tilasm , etc. from the Greek τέλεσμα, a talisman, i.e. an inscription with ¶ astrological and other magic signs or an object covered with such inscriptions, especially also with figures from the zodiacal circle or the constellations and animals which were used as magic charms to protect and avert the evil eye. The Greek name is evidence of its origin in the late Hellenistic period and gnostic ideas are obviously reflected in the widespread use of such charms. The sage Balīnās or Balīnūs [ q.v.], i.e. Apollonius of Tyana ( fl. 1st century A.D.), is said to have been…

, S̲h̲araf al-Dīh Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Yūsuf al-Ḳaysī, Egyptian scholar and man-of-letters (580-651/1184-1253). Al-Tīfās̲h̲ī is the author of a few works on sexual hygiene, the most well-known and quite representative being the Kitāb Rud̲j̲ūʿ al-s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ ilā ṣibāh fi ’l-ḳūwa ʿalā ’l-bāh (tr. into English by an anonymous writer under the tide The old man young again, Paris 1898) which is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the physiology of the sexual organs and beneficial and noxious aspects of sexual intercourse, provides a large n…

(a.) “snake”, generic name of the ophidians, embracing all kinds of reptiles ( mā yansāḥ ) from the most poisonous to the most harmless, the viper ( afʿā ) appearing to be the most clearly distinguished species among them. Terms such as ḥanas̲h̲ , aym , t̲h̲uʿbān , aswad , raḳs̲h̲āʾ , ṣill , etc. are given in classical Arabic to species which are not always easily identifiable from the descriptions in the early zoological works, there being a certain amount of confusion in this field; and present-day terminology is still far …

(a.), measurement, means of measuring, any simple measuring instrument; in Egypt the name of the Nilometer, i.e. the gauge in which the annual rise of the river can be measured. Originally the rising of the Nile was measured by the gauge ( al-raṣāṣa ). According to Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, al-Ḳuḍāʿī, and others, Joseph, the son of Jacob, built the first Nilometer at Memphis; at a later date, the “aged Dalūka” built Nilometers in Ak̲h̲mīm and Anṣinā (Antinoë). These were the Nilometers in use throughout the Hellenistic per…