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, the desert region that lies west of Kūfa along the alluvial plain of the Euphrates. It is higher than the low-lying ground by the river and forms the transition to the central Arabian plateau. According to the authorities quoted by Yāḳūt (iii. 359), al-ṭaff means an area raised above the surrounding country; the name is not found after the xiiith century. The district contains a number of springs, the waters of which run southwest (cf. Ibn al-Faḳīh, p. 187). The best known of these wells was al-ʿUd̲h̲air. From its geographical position al-Ṭaff was the …

, the Turkish word for black or dark colour in general. It is commonly used with this meaning as the first component of geographical names, for example Ḳara Āmīd (on account of the black basalt of which this fortress is built), Ḳara Dag̲h̲ (on account of its dark forests), etc. Beside Ḳara we find in place-names the form Karad̲j̲a. In personal names it refers to the black or dark brown colour of hair or to a dark complexion. It has, however, at the same time also the meaning “strong, powerful” and has ¶ to be interpreted in this sense in the name Ḳara Osmān or in names like Ḳara Arslān…

, a town in Mesopotamia, in 44° 25′ E. Long, and 35° 25′ N. Lat., the largest town in the district bounded by the Little Zāb in the north-west, the Ḏj̲abal Ḥamrīn to the southwest, the Diyālā to the south-east, and the chain of the Zagros to the north-east. This territory, which even in the days of the ancient Babylonian empire and later in the Assyrian empire was much exposed to the raids of the hill-peoples of the north-east, was called under the Sāsānids, Gamarkān (Moses of Ḵh̲urene) and in Syriac sources Bēth Garmē; the town of Kirkūk is called in these sources Kark̲h̲ā de Bēth Selōk̲h̲. The pro…

is the name by which the author of the most important general historical work written in Turkey is known. His real name was Aḥmad Efendi, son of Luṭf Allāh, a native of Eregli near Ḳonya. He was born in Selānik, in the first half of the xvith century, received a scholarly education and served in his youth for fifteen years in the Mewlewī-k̲h̲āne of Ḳāsim Pas̲h̲a under S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Ḵh̲alīl Dede ( Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī, ii. 287). Afterwards he studied astronomy and astrology and became court astrologer ( munad̲j̲d̲j̲im bas̲h̲i̊) in 1078 (1667—1668). In 1086 (1675—1676) he was admitte…

, also written Sifri Ḥiṣār, i.e. strong castle (cf. Aḥmed Wefīḳ, Lehče-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī, p. 459), the name of two places in Asia Minor. 1. A little town lying in the centre of the plateau bounded on south and east by the upper course of the Saḳariya and in the north by the Pursāḳ, c. 85 miles southwest of Angora. Siwri Ḥiṣār is on the northern slope of the Günes̲h̲ Dag̲h̲; the citadel of the town was built on this mountain. The town does not date beyond the Sald̲j̲ūḳ period and has no remains of archaeological interest. But it was already known as a strong place to Ḳazwīnī ( Geography, ed. Wüstenfeld, p. …

, a town on the right bank of the Sīr Daryā (Saiḥūn), a little south of its ¶ tributary the Aris. The name is found as a geographical term for the first time in Yāḳūt (i. 310) as Uṭrār but Ṭabarī (iii. 815—816) already knows of a prince called Utrār-banda as a rebel vassal of the Caliph al-Maʾmūn. The place that Maḳdisī calls Tarār Zarāk̲h̲ ( B G A, iii. 263, 274) in the district of Isbīd̲j̲āb must be quite a different place. Otrār may perhaps be the same as the capital of the district of Fārāb [q. v.], a town which replaced the older one of Kadar (mentioned by …

(sometimes Ṣaḳārya), a river in Asia Minor. It rises near Bayāt in the northeast of Āfiyūn Ḳara Hiṣār. In its eastward course it enters the wilāyet of Angora through which it runs to a point above Čaḥmaḳ after receiving on its left bank the Saiyid G̲h̲āzī Ṣū and several other tributaries on the same side. It then turns northwards describing a curve round Siwri Hiṣār. Here it receives on the right bank the Engürü Sūyu from Angora and near this confluence the Pursaḳ on the opposite bank. A little to the south of this point is the bridge of the Eski-S̲h̲ehir-Angora railway. ¶ Farther on, towards th…

Christians, more especially the adherents of the Oriental churches living under Muslim rule (differentiated from Rūm “Greek Christians”, Ifrand̲j̲ “Western Christians”). The word is derived from the Syriac Naṣrāyā (Horovitz, Koran. Untersuchungen, p. 144 sqq.); the Arabic singular is Naṣrānī. A. Before Islām. A complete investigation of the materials for the history of Christianity in Arabia and among the Arabs before the rise of Islām has not yet been made, and only the principal facts can be summarily given here. Christianity naturally spread into Arabia from Syria and al…

, grand vizier, was born about 1660 in the town of ʿOt̲h̲mānd̲j̲i̊ḳ and, after an education in the imperial palace, entered the corps of the balṭad̲j̲i̊s,. On account of his beautiful voice he acted for some time as müʾed̲h̲d̲h̲in: later on he became a scribe and rose rapidly in this career. In 1703, at Aḥmad III’s accession, he became mīr-āk̲h̲or and was made Ḳapudan Pas̲h̲a in November 1704. In December of the same year he obtained the grand vizierate as successor of Ḳalayli̊ Aḥmad Pas̲h̲a, against whom, although he had been at one time his fellow balṭad̲j̲i̊, he had used all his power o…

, grand vizier, was born about 1660 in a village near Sīnūb as son of a ship’s captain. After having been attached to the service of the Pas̲h̲a of Tripolis, he was educated in the k̲h̲aṣṣ oda of the palace and became in 1687 silaḥdār; soon afterwards he became nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲ī and obtained the rank of vizier. In Aḥmad II’s reign he was Pas̲h̲a in Bosnia, but did not yet play a prominent part, though he is said to have been one of that sulṭān’s favourites. After Muṣṭafā II’s accession he was appointed ḳāʾim-maḳām of the imperial stirrup and, when a revolt of the Janissaries had cost the g…

, a small town in Macedonia, situated about 40 miles to the S. W. of Selānīk, on the Ana Dere, a tributary of the Ind̲j̲e Ḳara Ṣu, in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Salonica. The ancient Greek name is Βέροια, in modern Greek Vérria (Slav. Ber), to which form the Turks have added the adjective Ḳara. According to the Byzantine authors the town was sacked as early as 1331 by Turkish pirates belonging to the country of Ḳarasī. They landed with 70 ships and laid waste the region of Vérria and Traja…

, the river Nile. The Nile is one of the large rivers which from the beginning have belonged to the territory of Islām, and the valleys and deltas of which have favoured the development of an autonomous cultural centre in Islāmic civilisation. In the case of the Nile this centre has influenced at different times the cultural and political events in the Muḥammadan world. Thus the Nile has, during the Islāmic period, continued to play the same part as it did during the centuries that preceded the coming of Islām. The name al-Nīl or, very often, Nīl Miṣr, goes back to the Greek name Νεĩ…

, sixteenth sulṭān of the Ottoman empire, was born on the 19th Ḏj̲umādā II 1012 (Nov. 15, 1603; cf. Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī, i. 56), the son of Sulṭān Aḥmad I. After the death of his father in Nov. 1617, the brother of the latter had been proclaimed sulṭān as Muṣṭafā I [q. v.] but ʿOt̲h̲mān, taking advantage of the weak character of his uncle and supported by the mufti Esʿad Efendi and the Ḳi̊zlar Ag̲h̲a Muṣṭafā, seized the throne on Feb. 26, 1618 by a coup d’état. The youth of the new sulṭān at first assured the pr…

(a. mad̲j̲alla). Under this name the Civil Law Code of Turkey; is generally known it is an abbreviation of Med̲j̲elle-i aḥkām-i ʿadlīye. The elaboration of this Civil Code took place between 1869 and 1876 and was a part of the legislative programme of the Tanẓīmāt [q. v.]. It had been preceded by a Penal Code (1858) and a Commercial Code (1861), but, while these two codifications had been based in a large measure on the laws of European countries, the Med̲j̲elle was a codification of that part of Ḥanafite fiḳh, which treats of obligations ( muʿāmalāt). The codification was done by a commi…

, twelfth ruler of the Ottoman Empire, was born on the 5th Ḏj̲umādā I 953 (4th July 1546; Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī, i. 76) as son of the later sulṭān Selīm II and the k̲h̲āṣṣekī Nūr Bānū. He arrived at Constantinople on Dec. 21st, 1574, after Selīm II’s death and reigned until his death on January 16, 1595 or a few days later. His reign is not characterized by great conquests in Europe. The peaceful relations with Austria were officially maintained; peace was several times confirmed (in 1575 and 1584) by a new treaty and by extraordinary…

, a town in Turkish Armenia, built on a rock to the north of a great plain in the area bounded by the west and south by the Euphrates, in the north by the Murād Ṣu and in the east by the chain of the Armenian Taurus; the site of the town itself lies in the Antitaurus. From the time of Diocletian this territory formed part of the Armenian districts incorporated in the Roman Empire and from the time of Justinian to the Roman province of „Fourth Armenia” which occupied the banks of the Arsanias (Murād Ṣu) and which the earliest Arab geographers still ¶ knew under this name. This district is often rec…

, grand vizier under Aḥmad I. He was a Bosnian by origin and a relation of Muḥammad Soḳolli Pas̲h̲a. The year of his birth is not given. After having had his education in the palace, he was mīr-ak̲h̲or and became in 1595 ag̲h̲a of the Janissaries. Two years later he took part in the Austrian wars as beylerbey of Rūm-ili and was commander of Esztergom (Gran; Turkish: Usturg̲h̲on) when this town capitulated to the Austrian army in September 1595. During the following years Lala Muḥammad was several times ser-ʿasker in Hungary and when, in July 1604, the grand vizier Yawuz ʿAlī had di…

, the name of a district in Transoxania. The form Osrūs̲h̲ana is the best known although Yāḳūt (i. 245) says that Os̲h̲rūsana is preferable. In the Persian versions of the text of al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī and in the Persian text of the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam (ed. Barthold) we find more often Surūs̲h̲ana while Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih sometimes has S̲h̲urūsana; the original form may have been Srōs̲h̲ana. This district lies to the northeast of Samarḳand between this tow D and Ḵh̲od̲j̲and, to the south of the Sīr Daryā (Saiḥūn) so that it forms the approach to th…

, an Arab author and poet who flourished at the end of the second and beginning of the third century a. h. (= beginning of the ninth century a. d.). According to the Fihrist, he was of Persian descent and born in Dastmaisān, between Baṣra and Wāṣiṭ. Al-Ḥuṣrī makes him come from Maisān, which is quite near it, and gives him also the kunya Abū ʿAmr (on the margin of the ʿIḳd, ii. 190). The name of his grandfather is variously given: Rāmnūy, Rāhyūn (both in the Fihrist) or Rāhīyūnī (al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ, Kitāb al-Bayān, i. 24; cf. also van Vloten’s note to p. 10 of his edition of al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ’ Kitāb al-Buk̲h̲alāʾ). S…

, a town in Upper Egypt on the east bank of the Nile. The form Ḳūṣ (Ḳūs in al-Farg̲h̲ānī and Ibn Rusta) comes from the Coptic Kōs (or Kōs Berbir) which a popular etymology later connected with the Coptic verb meaning “to bury”. In the Roman period the town was ¶ called Apollinopolis Parva and sometimes Diocletianopolis. In the early centuries of Islām, Ḳūṣ seems to have been of much less importance than the adjoining town of Ḳifṭ [q.v.]. Some of the early geographers like Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih do not mention it although it is found in the tables of al-Ḵh̲wārizmī (ed. by von Mžik, p. 9) and al-Fa…

, Turkish grand vizier in 1808, was the son of a wealthy Janissary at Rusčuḳ, born about 1750. He distinguished himself in the war with Russia under Muṣṭafā III, and acquired in these years the surname of bairaḳdār. After the war he lived on his estates near Rusčuḳ, and acquired the semiofficial position of aʿyān of Hezārgrād and later of Rusčuḳ. With other aʿyāns he took part in an action against the government at Adrianople, but became finally a reliable supporter of the government. ¶ Having already received the honorary offices of ḳapi̊d̲j̲i̊ bas̲h̲i̊ and of mīr ak̲h̲or, he was, in 1806,…

was the name, in the old military organisation of the Ottoman Empire, of the archers of the Sulṭān’s bodyguard. The word ṣolaḳ is an old Turkish word meaning “left-handed”. The relation of this meaning to that of archer is not quite clear. The solaks belonged to the Janissaries, of which they formed four orta’s (60th -63rd), each of 100 men under the command of a Ṣolaḳ Bas̲h̲i̊, and two lieutenants ( rekiab ṣolag̲h̲i̊). They were, however, used exclusively as bodyguards, a duty they shared with the peik’s [q. v.]. They had the same uniform as the Janissaries, except that they wore a cap ( uskiuf) …

, a place in al-ʿIrāḳ (lat. 32° 30′ N., long 45° 50′ E.), on the left bank of the Tigris, between Bag̲h̲dād and ʿAmāra, 100 miles south-east of Bag̲h̲dād as the crow flies. Kūt is the Hindustānī word kōt meaning “fortress” [see kōt́wāl ] found in other place-names in al-ʿIrāḳ, like Kūt al-Muʿammir; Kūt al-ʿAmāra is often simply called Kūt. Kūt lies opposite the mouth of the S̲h̲aṭṭ al-Ḥayy, also called al-G̲h̲arrāf, the old canal connecting the Tigris with the Euphrates, which has several junctions with the Euphrate…

, a town of mediaeval ʿIrāḳ situated in the Euphrates-Tigris delta region at the head of the Persian Gulf and famed as the terminal for commerce from India and further east. It lay to the east of al-Baṣra [ q.v.] on the right bank of the Tigris and on the north side of the large canal called Nahr al-Ubulla, which was the main waterway from al-Baṣra in a southeastern direction to ¶ the Tigris and further to ʿAbbādān and the sea. The length of this canal is generally given as four farsak̲h̲ s or two barīd s (al-Muḳaddasī). Al-Ubulla can be identified with ’Απολόγου ’Εμπόριον, mentioned in the Periplus m…

(also known in the Arabicised form Marzubān-nāma ), a work in Persian prose containing a variety of short stories used as moral examples and bound together by one major and several minor framework stories. It is essentially extant in two versions written in elegant Persian with many verses and phrases in Arabic. They were made from a lost original in the Ṭabarī dialect independently of each other in the early 13th century. The oldest version, entitled Rawḍat al-ʿuḳūl , was completed in 598/1202 by Muḥammad b. G̲h̲āzī al-Malaṭyawī (or Malaṭī) and was …

, the twenty-ninth sultan of the Ottoman Empire, reigned from 1808 until 1839. He was the son of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd I and was born on the 20th July 1784 (13th Ramaḍān 1199, cf. Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī, i. 73). He succeeded to Muṣṭafā IV on July 28, 1808, directly after the tragic events, which had led to the assassination of Salīm III [q. v.]. Maḥmūd himself had a narrow escape from the fate of Salīm. Until his coming to the throne he had lived in seclusion and during the preceding year his intercourse with the ¶ dethroned sultan had undoubtedly exercised a great influence on Maḥmūd’s ideas, …

is the name — derived from the Turkoman dynasty of the Ḳaramān-Og̲h̲lu [q.v.] — 1) of a district in Asia Minor, 2) of a town in Turkey, capital of a Ḳaḍā of the same name. The boundaries of the district of Ḳaramān (Ḳaramān-ili, Caramania) have varied. All the lands which were permanently under the Ḳaramānids are occasionally so called, that is Lycaonia, the Cilician Taurus and the whole southern Anatolian coast territory as far as Adalia. When the Ḳaramānids were finally overthrown, their lands became one Ottoman province (wilāye…

, the name of the members of an irregular militia, which formed part of armed forces of the Ottoman empire during the early centuries of its existence; they were chiefly ¶ employed as soldiers on the fleet in the period when the Turkish navy consisted mainly of the corsair vessels, which the Sulṭāns employed for their naval expeditions. The word lewendi seems to have been borrowed like many other naval terms from the Italian. The Italian word would have been levantino (Sāmī, Ḳāmūs-i Türki) or levanti (Ḏj̲awdat Pas̲h̲a) and was originally used by the Venetians for the soldiers wh…

, with the surname Abū ’l-Fatḥ, or, more popularly, Fātiḥ, seventh ruler of the Ottoman Empire, reigned from 1451 until his death in 1481. He was born, according to Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī, i. 67, in Rad̲j̲ab 832 (April 1429) and resided during his father Murād II’s lifetime as governor in Mag̲h̲nisa; after the death of his brother ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn in 1444 he became heir to the throne. Before his final enthronement Muḥammad had twice resided in Adrianople as sulṭān, on account of the abdication of Murād II; the first time in June…

or Maḥalla Kabīr is the modern name of an important town in the Delta of the Nile at some distance to the west of the Damietta arm, north-east of Tanta. It lies on the Turʿat al-Milāḥ canal, a branch of the Baḥr S̲h̲ībīn. In view of the large number of Egyptian geographical names compounded with Maḥalla, the identification of the town with the names mentioned by earlier Arabic writers is a matter of some difficulty. Maspero and Wiet indentify it with the Coptic Tis̲h̲airi (Amélinau, La géographie de l’Egypte à l’époque copte, Paris 1893, p. 262), but this identification is rendered do…

, a small town in Syria in the district east of the Orontes, about twenty-five miles S. E. of Ḥamā and thirty-five (a day’s journey) N. E. of Ḥimṣ (for the exact situation cf. Kiepert’s map in Oppenheim, Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf, i. and part ii. 401). It lies in a fertile plain 1500 feet above sea level, south of the Ḏj̲abal al-Aʿlā and on the margin of the Syrian steppe. The older and more correct pronunciation was Salamya (al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, B. G. A., i. 61; Ibn al-Faḳīh, B. G. A., v. 110) but the form Salamīya is also found very early (al-Muḳaddasī, B.G.A., iii 190; Ibn Ḵh̲ordād̲h̲beh, B.G.A.…

, title of the governors of the Egyptian provinces, called mudīrīya. The use of the word mudīr in this meaning is no doubt of Turkish origin. The office was created by Muḥammad ʿAlī, when, shortly after 1813, he reorganised the administrative division of Egypt, instituting seven mudīrīyas; this number has been changed several times [s. k̲h̲edive]. At the present day there are 14 mudīrīyas. The chief task of the mudīr is the controlling of the agricultural administration and of the irrigation, as executed by his subordinates, viz. the maʾmūr, who administers a markaz and the nāẓir who cont…

Res̲h̲ād, thirty-fifth Ottoman Sulṭān, was born on November 2, 1844 as a son of Sulṭān ʿAbd al-Mad̲j̲īd. During the reign of his brother ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd II he lived in seclusion; his very existence inspired ʿAbd al-Hamid with such terror that even the mentioning of persons with the name Res̲h̲ād had to be avoided ¶ in his presence (cf. Snouck Hurgronje, Verspreide Geschriften, iii. 232). He was a man of mild character, who owed his accession to the throne (April 27, 1909) only to the victory of the Young Turks; moreover he was the first constitutional ruler…

, small village in Lydia in Asia Minor, the ancient Sardes (αἱ ΣάρδειΣ of the classical authors, which makes Sāmī write Sārd), capital of the Lydian Kingdom, situated on the eastern bank of the Ṣart Čai (Pactolus) a little southward to the spot where this river joins the Gedīz Čai (Hermus). Although in the later Byzantine period Sardes had lost much of its former importance (as a metropolitan see) and been outflanked by Magnesia (Turkish Mag̲h̲nīsā) and Philadelphia (Ālā S̲h̲ehr, q. v.), it still was one of the larger towns, when the Seld̲juḳ Turks, in the xith century, made incursions int…

, according to the current view, the fifth Sulṭān of the Ottoman Empire, reigned, after the Empire’s restoration in 1413, as sole acknowledged ruler until his death in 1421. Like many details of the first century of Ottoman history, the year of the birth of this Sulṭān is unknown; Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī, i. 66 gives 781 or 791 (1379 or 1389). It is commonly agreed, that he was the youngest of the six sons of Bāyazīd I, which probably has made von Hammer accept the later date. At the time of Timur’s invasion, Muḥammad resided at Amasia, but he w…

, Arabic form of the title of provincial governors in the Sāsānian empire, especially of the “wardens of the marches”, the “markgraves”. The word is derived from marz which still means in Persian a frontier district (Horn, Grundriss der neupersischen Etymologie, p. 218) and is found in Pehlevi in the form maržpān (in the Kār-nāmak; cf. H. S. Nyberg, Hilfsbuch des Pehlevi, i., Upsala 1928, p. 54) which suggests a north Īrānian origin (cf. Lentz, Z. I. I., iv. 255, 295), as we find alongside of marz also mard̲j̲ in Persian (Horn, loc. cit.). The ¶ title is not found, however, before the Sās…

, a Turkish poet of the second half of the xvith century. His proper name was Muḥammad Bey and he was a descendant of Āyās Pas̲h̲a [q. v.] who was Grand Wazīr under Suleimān I. His life was not eventful; according to Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī he was mutafarriḳa and sand̲j̲āḳ-bey. Ḵh̲āḳānī owes his fame to a not very long māt̲h̲namī called Ḥilya-i S̲h̲arīfa, written in a tripodic ramal-metre. This poem is a paraphrase of an Arabic text known as al-Ḥilya al-Nabawīya containing a traditional account of the prophet’s personal appearance; each of the enumerated features is comment…

, an Arabic maṣdar meaning to make a précis, means in the official language of Turkey a document in which the most important matters are summed up for presentation to the Sulṭān. The officials who had these papers prepared and presented them to the Sulṭān were the grand vizier and the S̲h̲aik̲h̲ al-Islām. On account of its change of significance, talk̲h̲īṣ is included among the g̲h̲alaṭāt-i mas̲h̲hūra, cf. Muḥammad Hafīd, al-Durar al-muntak̲h̲abāt al-mant̲h̲ūra fī Iṣlāḥ al-G̲h̲alaṭāt al-mas̲h̲hūra (1221 a. h., p. 115). (J. H. Kramers)

(a., t.); this word, the Arabic meaning “distribution” of which is a synonym of iḳtisām later came to mean lot, portion and developed as a third meaning “the lot which is destined for every man°. It is this meaning of the Turkish that is best known. In Turkish however ḳismet is not so much an expression of theological doctrines concerning predestination (cf. ḳadar) as of a practical fatalism which accepts with resignation the blows and vicissitudes of fate. The same sentiment is often expressed among Persian and Turkish poets by the words falak and čark̲h̲ to express the irrational and i…

(a.), 1. a title which first appears in the fourth (xith) century in the sense of a powerful ruler, an independent sovereign of a certain territory. The word is of frequent occurrence in the Ḳurʾān, most often with the meaning of a moral or magical authority supported by proofs or miracles which afford the right to make a statement of religious import. The prophets received this sulṭān from Allāh (cf. e. g. Sūra xiv. 12, 13) and the idolators are often invited to produce a sulṭān in support of their beliefs. Thus the dictionaries (like the Tād̲j̲ al-ʿArūs, v. 159) explain the word as synony…

is the name by which the national hero of Albania is generally known in Europe. It is based on an Italianised or Latinised form of the name Iskandar Beg, which was given him in his youth when he was serving at the Ottoman court; the name contains an allusion to that of Alexander the Great. His real name was George Kastriota, of the family of the Kastriotas of Serbian origin, who had once ruled Epirus and Southern Albania. Born about 1404, he and his three elder brothers were given as hostages to Sulṭān Murād II, so that he was brought up in the Muslim religion as ič og̲h̲lan. His ability won him the …

, twentieth Ottoman Sulṭān, reigned from 1687 to 1691. He was born in 1052 (1642) (on 15th Muḥarram = April 15, according to von Hammer, G. O. R., the Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī gives the 25th Ṣafar = May 25), and was the son of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm; from the accession of his brother Muḥammad IV he lived the life of a prisoner in the palace with his brother Aḥmad. On the deposition of Muḥammad IV, the result of the defeat of the Turkish army at Mohács, Sulaimān was placed on the throne on Nov. 8, 1637, mainly through the efforts of the ḳāʾim-maḳām Köprülü Muṣṭafā Pas̲h̲a. In the precarious position of t…

, Siʿird or Saïrd, a little town in the frontier region between Armenia and Turkish Kurdistān, situated in a valley formed by the Bohtān Ṣu and the river of Bidlis about 30 miles S.W. of Bidlis and about 18 north of the Tigris. The little river Kezer runs near Seʿerd; but it is the Bohtān Ṣu which is sometimes called Seʿerd Ṣu (Söʿörd Su in von Moltke). litis name is also found in al-Masʿūdī, the earliest Arab geographer to mention Seʿerd; he calls the Bohtān Ṣu ¶ (ed. Paris 1840, i. 227); likewise al-Idrīsī (transl. Jaubert, ii. 172). The orthography varies much: (al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, Ibn al-At̲h̲īr…

I. Historical and Ethnographical Survey. (J. H. Kramers) II. Language and Dialects. (H. W. Bailey) III. Modern Persian Literature. (E. Berthels) I. Historical and Ethnographical Survey. Name. The name Persia is of Western origin and probably only in the Middle Ages began to be used for the countries occupying the Iranian plateau (in Plautus Persia is found once instead of Persis). It is derived from the Greek-Roman appellation “Persae” for the Achæmenids, an appellation that goes back to the name of the region of Persis …

is one of the honorific titles which first appear in the second half of the fourth century a. h. While other honorific titles compounded with Islām (like ʿIzz-, Ḏj̲alāl-, Saif al-Islām) were borne by persons exercising secular power (notably the viziers of the Fāṭimids, cf. van Berchem, Z. D. P. V., xvi., p. 101), the title of S̲h̲aik̲h̲ al-Islām has always been reserved for ʿulamāʾ and mystics, like other titles of honour whose first part is S̲h̲aik̲h̲ (e. g. S̲h̲aik̲h̲ al-Dīn; the surname of S̲h̲aik̲h̲ al-Fatyā is given by Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn to the jurist Asad b. al-Furāt; cf. Muḳaddima, transl.…

, Ḥakīm Mad̲j̲d al-Dīn Abū Isḥāḳ (or Abu ’l-Ḥasan) Kisāʾī, a Persian poet of the second half of the fourth century a. h. belonging to the first period of Persian poetry. He was ¶ born in Merw on Wednesday 26th S̲h̲awwāl 341 (March 16, 953) and according to most authorities died in 392 (1002); one source however (Wāliḥ, quoted by Ethé), says that he reached a very advanced age. A few of his poems have been preserved in the different tad̲h̲kīra: they have been published by Ethé ( Die Lieder des Kisâʾî, S.-B. Bayr. Ak., 1874, p. 133—149). These poems illustrate the whole repertory of Persia…

, the name of a Persian province and of its present capital. The name of the town was derived later from that of the province. The usual pronunciation is Kirmān, although, according to the tradition of Arab scholarship (Yāḳūt, iv. 263) the form Karman is more correct; the name, in any case, goes back to the form Carmania, which is found in Strabo (xv. 2, 14), and which in its turn is said to be derived from the name of an ancient capital, Carmana (Ptolemy, Geography, vi. 8; Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii. 6, 48). According to Marquart ¶ ( Ērānšahr, p. 30) the name Carmania replaced that of Yūti…

, the twenty-second Ottoman sulṭān, was a son of Muḥammad IV. Born in 1664, he succeeded to his uncle Aḥmad II on February 6, 1695, at a time when the empire was at war with Austria, Poland, Russia und Venice. The new sulṭān in a remarkable k̲h̲aṭṭ-i s̲h̲erīf proclaimed a Holy War and carried out, against the decision of the Dīwān, his desire to take part in the campaign against Austria. Before his departure a mutiny of the Janissaries had cost the grand vizier Defterdār ʿAlī Pas̲h̲a his life (April 24, 1693) and the campaign was led by the new grand viz…

, S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Bannāʾ al-S̲h̲aʾmī al-Muḳaddasī al-maʿrūf bi ’l-Bas̲h̲s̲h̲ārī as he is called on the first page of the Berlin manuscript (Cat. Ahlwardt, N°. 6034), is the author of the most original and at the same time one of the most valuable geographical treatises in Arabic literature. The name-form al-Muḳaddasī, denoting his origin from Jerusalem, goes back to Sprenger, who brought the Berlin manuscript from India and made this author first known in Europe (A. Sprenger, Die Post-und Reiserouten des Orients, Leipzig 1864, p. xviii.…

, thirteenth ruler of the Ottoman Empire, was born on May 16,1567, the son of Murād III and the Venetian lady Baffa, and reigned from January 27, 1593 until his death, December 22, 1603. He was the last sulṭān who, as crown prince, had resided as governor in Mag̲h̲nisa. During his short reign he does not seem to have exercised any great influence on the policy of the Empire, being mostly under the influence of his mother who, as wālide sulṭān, intervened in affairs of state through her protégés within and without the palace. Much against her will but on the insistence of a …