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, mediaeval name of a Syrian fortress now in ruins and called Ḳalʿat al-Muhaylba, which was built on one of the first spurs of the D̲j̲abal Anṣāriya, and, with the castle of Ṣahyūn, commanded the plain of al-Lād̲h̲iḳya and guarded the road from the Orontes to D̲j̲abala, “its port” according to al-Dimas̲h̲ḳī. According to the Arabic sources, it is supposed to have been begun by the clan of the Banu ’l-Aḥmar, then continued by the Byzantines who obtained possession of it and, in the time of Basil II, based the protection of the coastal region, in w…

, former town in northern Syria, which was both a port on the Western bank of the Euphrates and an important stage, 100 km. from Aleppo and at the entrance to the D̲j̲azīra, of the road from Antioch and the Mediterranean leading, via al-Raḳḳa, to Bag̲h̲dād and ʿIrāḳ. The commercial and agricultural prosperity of the town was doubtless due to its situation at a point of intersection of river and land highways, and in a warm valley where the irrigation possibilites favoured the development of husbandry. Known in antiquity under the Aramaic and Greek names of BYT BLS and Barbalissos…

, Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Hilāl , known also under the name of Ibn al-Sitrī, famous calligrapher of the Buwayhid period who died in Bag̲h̲dād in 413/1022 (This date is more probable than 423/1031). He frequented the governmental circles of the period, as he was closely attached to the vizier Fak̲h̲r al-Mulk Abū G̲h̲ālib Muḥammad b. K̲h̲alaf at Bag̲h̲dād and was for some time in charge of the library of the Buwayhid Bahāʾ al-Dawla at S̲h̲īrāz. He was also an illuminator (at least one…