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, the Ḳurʾānic term (XXIV, 33) for prostitution. “Prostitute” is rendered by bag̲h̲iyy (pl. bag̲h̲āyā ), mūmis (pl. -āt , mayāmis/mayāmīs , mawāmis/ mawāmīs ), ʿāhira (pl. ʿawāhir ), zāniya (pl. zawānīs ). etc.; a more vulgar term, although we have here a euphemism, is ḳaḥba (pl. ḳiḥāb ), which the lexicographers attach to the verb ḳaḥaba “to cough”, explaining that professional prostitutes used to cough in order to attract clients. Although M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes ( Mahomet 2, Paris 1969, 48) saw in the legend of Isāf and Nāʾila [ q.v.] the “reminiscence of sacred prostitution”, no…

, philosopher and historian who wrote in Arabic, born in Rayy around 320/932. His full name was Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Yaʿḳūb, which seems to refute Yāḳūt, who describes him as “Mazdaean converted to Islam”, whereas it was probably one of his ancestors who was converted. Miskawayh (Miskōye/Mus̲h̲kōye), and not Ibn Miskawayh as he is commonly designated, performed the tasks of secretary and librarian under the viziers al-Muhallabī (340-52/950-63) [ q.v.], Abu ’l-Faḍl (353-60/951-70) and Abu ’l-Fatḥ (360-6/970-6) [see ibn al-ʿamīd ] and finally under the Būyid …

(a.), verbal noun of the form II verb ḳaddara , used variously as a technical term. 1. Grammatical usages. (a) The predominant meaning of taḳdīr is “the imaginary utterance which the speaker intends as if he were saying it, when expressing a given literal utterance”. This definition needs some elucidation. In this meaning, taḳdīr is a grammatical technical term belonging to the terminology of one of the main theories of Arabic grammar, which we may call here “the theory of taḳdīr”. Since Arabic texts on grammar do not include any systematic discussion of this theory, its pr…

, Libyan nationalist who, after having sought refuge in Tunisia, hastened from November 1914 onwards to assume leadership of the revolt fomented by the Sanūsīs [ q.v.] against Italian domination. The rebels soon achieved some spectacular successes against the Italians [see lībiyā ], and K̲h̲alīfa speedily attempted to raise the Tunisians against France. On 16 August 1915, in a letter to the head of the postal service in Dehibat (southern Tunisia), he called upon the latter to send back to him his family, which had …

, a weight used in India (Skr. tulā , Hindi tōlā “balance, scales”) for both gold and silver. In earlier times, 1 tōlā = 96 rattīs , the rattī being the old Indian unit of weight, according to E. Thomas = 1.75 ¶ grains. In British India, by a regulation of 1833, the tōlā of 180 grains, being also the weight of the rupee [see rūpiyya ], was established as the unit of the system of weights, with 3,200 tōlās = 1 man or maund. (Ed.) Bibliography Yule-Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, a glossary of Anglo-Indian colloquial words and phrases, 2London 1903, 928. See also makāyil. 2. and its Bibl.

transliteration according to the EI rules of the name of a person who is supposed to have played an important rôle in the Iranian epic, in Persian Kāveh< Kāvag̲h̲, in Arabic Kāwah, Kāwī, Kābī. This person was a blacksmith who, after having had his son put to death by the tyrant Zohak (in Arabic, al-Ḍaḥḥāk; see zuhāk ), raised the population of Iṣfahān against the usurper, taking as a banner his leather apron, which as the drafs̲h̲-i Kāwiyān became the Iranian national flag. Having thus brought about the fall of Zohak, he set up Farīdūn [ q.v.] on the throne and was himself nominated comman…

(a.), the honorific title which became characteristic of the rulers of the Indo-Muslim state of Ḥaydarābād [ q.v.], derived in the first place from the fuller title Niẓām al-Mulk borne by the Mug̲h̲al noble Ḳamar al-Dīn Čīn Ḳilič K̲h̲ān [see niẓām al-mulk ], who became governor of the Deccan in 1132/1720 and ¶ who also bore the title of Āṣaf D̲j̲āh. The process of the identification of the title Niẓām with the rulership of Ḥaydarābād was strengthened by the long reign there (1175-1217/1762-1802) of Āṣaf D̲j̲āh’s fourth son Niẓām ʿAlī K̲h̲ān, and …

, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Mak̲h̲lūf al-D̲j̲azāʾirī, Abū Zayd, Mālikī theologian and Ḳurʾānic scholar of North Africa (786-873/1384-1468). Born in Algiers, he studied in the eastern Mag̲h̲rib and Cairo, and made the Pilgrimage, before returning to teach in Tunis, where he died. His main work is a Ḳurʾānic commentary, al-Ḏj̲awāhir al-ḥisān fī tafsīr al-Ḳurʾān (printed Algiers 1323-8/1905-10), but he wrote several other works on aspects of the Ḳurʾān, on the Prophet’s dreams, on eschatology, etc., most of them still in manuscript. (Ed.) Bibliography Aḥmad Bābā al-Tinbuktī, Nayl…

al-Ṭūsī , ʿAbbāsid general who was chiefly responsible for the victory of al-Maʾmūn over Ibrāhīm b. al-Mahdī; he died, poisoned, in 210/825. His generosity and his magnificence were celebrated by several poets, in particular by ʿAlī b. D̲j̲abala [see al-ʿakawwak ]. His sons, themselves poets though producing little (see Fihrist , Cairo ed. 235), became in their turn patrons, eulogized in particular by Abū Tammām and al-Buḥturī. Muḥammad b. Ḥumayd, sent against Bābak [ q.v.] and killed in 214/829, was lamented by Abū Tammām, over whose tomb his brother Abū Nahs̲h̲al er…

, D̲j̲amāl al-Dīn Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Abī Manṣūr Ẓāfir b. al-Ḥusayn al-Azdī , Egyptian chancery secretary and man of letters, born in Cairo in 567/1171. He was the pupil of his father, who was a teacher at the Mālikī madrasa al-Ḳumḥiyya, and eventually succeeded him. He was next employed in the chancery of al-ʿAzīz (589-95/1193-8), then in that of al-ʿĀdil (596-615/1200-18), and finally in that of the latter’s son, al-As̲h̲raf (d. 635/1237), at Damascus. In 612/1215, he gave up his office a…

b. al-Ṣāmit al-Anṣārī , Abū Maʿn or Saʿīd or ʿUmar ), Companion of the Prophet who took part in the conquest of Egypt and remained in the country with the Muslim occupying forces. Subsequently, loyal to the memory of ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān and hostile to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, whose accession to the caliphate he had not recognised (see al-Ṭabarī, i, 3070), he opposed, with Muʿāwiya b. Ḥudayd̲j̲ [ q.v.], the arrival of Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr [ q.v.] who, having had a hand in the murder of the third caliph, had been appointed governor of Egypt, and it is probable that he was involve…

, an extensive, low-lying area of quicksands and salt-flats ( sabk̲h̲a [ q.v.]) in the interior of ʿUmān and on the fringes of the "Empty Quarter" [see al-rubʿ al-k̲h̲ālī ], centred on lat. 21° 50′ N. and long. 56° E. It spans the undefined border beween the Sultanate of Oman and the easternmost part of Saudi Arabia. To the north and east of Umm al-Samīm lie the territories of the mainly Ibāḍī G̲h̲āfirī tribe of al-Durūʿ or al-Dirʿī and the Sunnī tribe of ʿIfār [ q.vv.]. (Ed.) Bibliography See those to al-durūʿ, al-ʿifār and al-rubʿ al-k̲h̲ālī.

, a region of the northeastern part of the Mag̲h̲rib. In mediaeval Islamic times it comprised essentially the province of Ifrīḳiya [ q.v.]. Under the Ottomans, the Regency of Tunis was formed in the late 10th/16th century, continuing under local Beys with substantial independence from Istanbul until the establishment of the French Protectorate in 1881, which in turn gave way in 1957 to the present fully independent Tunisian Republic. I. Geography, Demography and Economy . (a) Geography. Tunisia, situated between 6° and 9° degrees of longitude east, and between 32° and 37…

, Moroccan grand vizier whose real name was Aḥmad b. Mūsā b. Aḥmad al-Buk̲h̲ārī. His grandfather was a black slave belonging to the sultan Mawlāy Sulaymān (1206-38/1792-1823), whose ḥād̲j̲ib he had become [see Ḥād̲j̲ib in Suppl.]. His father likewise became Ḥād̲j̲ib to Sayyidī Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (1276-90/1859-73), and then became grand vizier during the reign of Mawlāy al-Ḥasan (1290-1311/1873-94); he enjoyed a miserable reputation, but his immense fortune allowed him to connect his name with the Bāhiya palace in Marrākus̲h̲, …

(a.), also aṣbaʿ , “finger”, as a measurement of length the breadth of the middle joint of the middle finger, conventionally one twenty-fourth of the cubit, d̲h̲irāʿ . See d̲h̲irāʿ, penultimate paragraph and bibliography. (Ed.) In Arab navigational texts iṣbaʿ is unit of measurement of star altitude ( ʿilm al-ḳiyās ). Latitude on the Ocean was indicated by the altitude of certain stars, usually the Pole Star or one of the Bears, above the horizon at certain times. Complete tables of Pole Star, Little Bear and Great Bear altit…

(a.), from k̲h̲azana, “to shut up, to preserve, to hoard”. The word is believed to have been first used in North Africa as an official term in the second century a. h. applied to an iron chest in which Ibrāhīm b. al-Ag̲h̲lab, emīr of Ifrīḳiya, kept the sums of money raised by taxation and intended for the ʿAbbāsid caliph of Bag̲h̲dād. At first this term, which in Morocco is now synonymous with the government, was applied more particularly to the financial department, the Treasury. It may be said that the term mak̲h̲zen meaning the Moroccan government and everything more or less connec…

[see d̲j̲ināḥ ]. The name, commonly believed to be from Arabic d̲j̲anāḥ , is in fact from jheeṇā , Gujerati for “thin”. (Ed.)

, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḳuras̲h̲i al-S̲h̲ād̲h̲ilī al-Marrākus̲h̲ī , a cobbler of Marrakesh to whom thaumaturgic gifts were attributed and who died in an odour of sanctity in 1204/1789. His tomb, situated in his own residence at Bāb Aylān, has been continuously visited because of its reputation of curing the sick. Although he had not received a very advanced education, Ibn ʿAzzūz nevertheless succeeded in leaving behind an abundant body of works, dealing mainly with mysticism a…

(a.) “knowledge”, the opposite of d̲j̲ahl “ignorance”, is connected, on the one hand, with ḥilm [ q.v.], and on the other hand with a number of terms a more precise definition of which will be found in the relevant articles: maʿrifa , fiḳh , ḥikma , s̲h̲uʿūr ; the most frequent correlative of ʿilm is however maʿrifa. The verb ʿalima is used in the Ḳurʾān both in the perfect and in the imperfect, and also in the imperative, with the meaning of “to know”, but in the imperative and in the perfect it seems often to mean basically “to learn” (without effort, the fifth form taʿallama …

, a cape in eastern Saudi Arabia on the Persian Gulf, in lat. 26° 40ʹ N., 50° 13ʹ E., north of al-Ḳaṭīf [ q.v.]. The word tannūr occurs in Kurʾān, XI, 42, and XXIII, 27, in the story of Noah, meaning “oven”. It also indicates any place from which water pours forth (Lane, Lexicon , s.v.). In July 1933 King ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz gave the concession for drilling oil in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia to the Standard Oil Company of California. The first consignment of Saudi oil was sent away from Raʾs Tannūra in 1939. Its refinery is connected by a pipeline with the Dammām field, about 60 km/37 miles away. (Ed.) Bibl…