, Abu ’l-Faḍl D̲j̲aʿfar b. Muḥammad , ʿAbbāsid caliph. He was born in S̲h̲awwāl 206/Feb.-March 822, son of the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim [ q.v.] and a K̲h̲wārazmī slave-girl called S̲h̲ud̲j̲āʿ. There is no sign that he had early political ambitions, and he seems to have lived in obscurity until the death of his brother, the caliph al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ [ q.v.] in D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 232/Aug. 847. Al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ left a young son but no designated adult successor. The succession was decided by a council consisting of the wazīr ibn al-Zayyāt and the chief ḳāḍī Aḥmad b. Abī Duwād [ q.vv.], two other bureaucrats…

, Ibn al-Afṭas , ¶ ʿUmar b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh, fourth and last ruler of the Afṭasid [ q.v.] dynasty in the petty state [see mulūk al-ṭawāʾif. 2.] of Badajoz (Baṭalyaws [ q.v.]), in south-western al-Andalus [ q.v.], in the 5th/11th century. ʿUmar al-Mutawakkil came to power as a result of intrigues against his brother Yaḥyā in 461/1068-9 (the date emerges from two passages in the D̲h̲ak̲h̲īra of Ibn Bassām, iv, 650 and v, 252); Yaḥyā himself appears to have reigned for some four or five years (the chronology of the dynasty still presen…

, S̲h̲araf al-Dīn Yaḥya b. S̲h̲ams al-Dīn b. al-Imām al-Mahdī Aḥmad , 10th/16th century Zaydī imām in whose time the Ottoman Turks first became established in Yemen. Born in northwestern Yemen on 27 Ramaḍān 877/25 February 1473, S̲h̲araf al-Dīn announced his claim ( daʿwa ) to the imāmate during D̲j̲umādā I 912/September 1506, after years of study to achieve the necessary recognition as a Zaydī mud̲j̲tahid . It was another three decades ( ca. 941/1535), however, before he was able to impose his religious and political authority upon the majority of Zaydī communities,…

, Ismāʿīl b. al-Manṣūr bi’llāh al-Ḳāsim ( b. ca . 1019/1610), the first Ḳāsimī Zaydī imām to rule Yemen completely independent of the Ottoman Turks. Ismāʿīl’s claim to the imāmate, following the death ¶ of his brother, Imām al-Muʾayyad bi’llāh uḥammad [ q.v.], at S̲h̲ahāra in Rad̲j̲ab 1054/September 1644, was challenged by three other aspirants, most seriously by his older brother, Abu Ṭālib Aḥmad b. al-Ḳāsim (1007-66/1598-1656). Despite some initial regional support for the latter, Ismāʿīl’s claim ultimately won acceptance among the ʿulamāʾ , owing to br…

, al-Yamāmiyya al-ʿAbdiyya , Mawlāt al-Mutawakkil , Arab poetess, died in 257/871 (or 260/874). Born probably as a muwallada and brought up in Baṣra, she was presented to and later on freed by al-Mutawakkil. She was called the “most gifted poetess of her time” by Ibn al-Sāʿī and, being a good songstress and lute player too, held a famous literary circle in Bag̲h̲dād. Amongst her admirers were the poet Ṣaʿīd b. Ḥumayd and the musician Bunān b. ʿAmr al-Ḍārib. Ibn al-D̲j̲arrāḥ (quoted by Ibn al…

was the son of K̲h̲āḳān b. ʿUrṭūd̲j̲ (or G̲h̲urṭūd̲j̲) of the Turkish ruling family at Farg̲h̲ānā and chief of the Turkish soldiers from Central Asia who formed part of the troops of the guard of the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim. Biographical information concerning him is scarce: he must have been born ca. 200/817-8, because he was probably the same age as al-Mutawakkil, son of al-Muʿtaṣim, with whom he was educated since infancy at the court of the caliph, who had adopted him at the age of seven. Hardly had al-Mutawakkil been elected caliph in 232/846-7 when he made him his secretary ( kātib , and not wazī…

(d. 235/849), a K̲h̲azar military slave or g̲h̲ulām [ q.v.] who had been bought in 199/815 by the future caliph al-Muʿtaṣim, and who played an important role in the reigns of his master, of al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ and of al-Mutawakkil. At the opening of al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ’s caliphate, he was, with As̲h̲nās, the “mainstay of die caliphate”. After being commander of die guard in Sāmarrā, in 233/847 he was made governor of Egypt, but delegated his powers there to Hart̲h̲ama b. Naṣr (Ibn Tag̲h̲rībardī, Nud̲j̲ūm , ii, 265; al-Maḳrīzī, K̲h̲iṭaṭ , ed. Wiet, v, 136). It was he who, in…

, name of several secretaries and viziers of the ʿAbbāsid period. (1) Yaḥyā b. K̲h̲āḳān , secretary of K̲h̲urāsānī origin, was in the service of al-Ḥasan b. Sahl [ q.v.] under the caliphate of al-Maʾmūn and became, under al-Mutawakkil, secretary to the office for land-taxes, and then director of the maẓālim -court, when his son ʿUbayd Allāh became vizier. (2) ʿUbayd Allāh b. Yaḥyā was the first member of the family to become a vizier. Patronized by the caliph al-Mutawakkil, who had appointed him as his private secretary, he succeeded i…

(stephanos), the first translator of the Materia medica of Dioscorides. Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa speaks of him in two passages in his book: in the first he is cited along with Mūsā b. Ḵh̲ālid as one of the experienced scribes ( kuttāb naḥārīr ), skilled in the art of translating, whom the caliph al-Mutawakkil placed at the disposal of Ḥunayn b. Isḥāḳ [ q.v.], who was responsibie for checking ( yataṣaffah ) their work; the second and more important reference to him is derived from information provided by Ibn D̲j̲uld̲j̲ul in his lost book on the Explanation of the names of simples according to the t…

(the elder), a Turkish military leader who played a political rôle during ¶ a troubled period under the ʿAbbāsid caliphate. Under al-Muʿtaṣim and his successors, he distinguished himself in several expeditions against rebellions tribes in the region of Medina in 230/844-45, in Armenia in 237/851-52, and against the Byzantines in 244/857. Absent at the time of the assassination of al-Mutawakkil in 247/861, he returned subsequently to Sāmarrā and, making common cause with the other Turkish officers, compelled the succession of al-Mustaʿīn in 248/862. He died in the same year. His son,…

bi ’llāh , Abū D̲j̲aʿfar Muḥammad b. D̲j̲aʿfar , ʿAbbasid caliph, reigned 247-8/861-2, and son of the preceeding caliph al-Mutawakkil by a Greek slave concubine Ḥubs̲h̲iyya. Towards the end of al-Mutawakkil’s reign, it had been the aim of his vizier ʿUbayd Allāh b. Yaḥyā b. K̲h̲āḳān to get the succession changed from the caliph’s original choice as walī al-ʿahd to another son al-Muʿtazz. Al-Muntaṣir was involved in the conspiracy of the Turkish soldiery which led to the caliph’s death [see al-mutawakkil ], and himself received the bayʿa [ q.v.] at the palace of al-D̲j̲aʿfariyya on …

b. badr b. al-ḏj̲ahm al-sāmī , Arab poet, of Banū Sāmā b. Luʾayy, a tribe from Baḥrayn, whose claim to descent from Ḳurays̲h̲ was disputed. His father al-Ḏj̲ahm moved from Ḵh̲urāsān to Bag̲h̲dād and was appointed to various offices under al-Maʾmūn and al-Wāt̲h̲ik; the poet’s brothers also were prominent in official and literary circles. ʿAlī was born probably c. 188/804, and received his education in Bag̲h̲dād. Under al-Muʿtaṣim (218-27/833-42) he held maẓālim jurisdiction in Ḥulwān, but, perhaps because of his support of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal in op…

, ʿAmr , famous singer, poet and musician of Bag̲h̲dād, mawlā of the T̲h̲aḳīf, died in 278/891 at Sāmarrā. His father was a famous secretary and a high official. His mother, Bāna, whose name he bears, was the daughter of Rawḥ, secretary of Salāma al-Waṣīf. Ibn Bāna was a very cultured, yet a very proud man. He was the supporter and protégé of Ibrāhīm b. al-Mahdī and among the most bitter enemies of Isḥāḳ al-Mawṣilī, whom he accused of regarding music merely as a profession, whereas f…

, a town in the region of Bādg̲h̲īs [q.v.] of modern northwestern Afg̲h̲ānistān and, according to Ibn Ḥawḳal (4th/10th century), the biggest town of the region after the capital Harāt. It had a Friday mosque and was famed for its fruits, especially apricots and raisins. Its particular claim to fame in mediaeval times was as an enduring centre of the K̲h̲awārid̲j̲ on the eastern Iranian fringes. In 259/873 the Ṣaffārid amīr Yaʿḳūb b. al-Layt̲h̲ had to cope with a serious rebellion of the eastern K̲h̲awārid̲j̲ centred on K…

(the cup-bearer), also called al-ṣag̲h̲īr (the younger) a Turkish military leader who bore the title mawlā amīr al-muʾminīn , and who is not to be confused with his contemporary of the same name, Bug̲h̲ā al-Kabīr. After having fought, under al-Mutawakkil, against the rebels of Ād̲h̲arbayd̲j̲ān, he led the plot against this caliph, whom he suspected of wishing to reduce the influence of the Turkish officers, and had him assassinated. With his ally Waṣīf, he subsequently held power under al-Mu…

b. Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Salām b. Isḥāḳ b. Muḥammad al-Buhlūlī al-Abnāwī , Zaydī, scholar and ḳāḍī . His ancestors, including his father, were Ismāʿīlī ḳāḍīs of Ṣanʿāʾ under the Ṣulayḥids and Ḥātimids. His brother Yaḥyā (d. 562/1167) served the Ismāʿīlī Zurayʿids of ʿAdan as a panegyrist and judge. D̲j̲aʿfar converted to Zaydism at an unknown date and at first adhered to the doctrine of the Muṭarrifiyya [ q.v.]. After the arrival of the Ḵh̲urāsānian Zaydī scholar Zayd b. al-Ḥasan al-Bayhaḳī in Ṣaʿda in 541/1146, D̲j̲aʿfar studied with him. Al-Bayhaḳī represented the…

, name of the members of the family of the Banū Ḥamdūn, a line of “boon-companions” ( nudamaʾ ) of the caliphs, who flourished mainly in the first half of the 3rd/9th century. A great deal of information is available on Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm b. Dāwūd b. Ḥamdūn , a contemporary of the caliphs al-Muʿtaṣim, al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ and al-Mutawakkil, but very little on the other members of the family. Unfortunately the Arabic sources, accepting the claims of the Banū Ḥamdūn to noble descent, have endowed them with a disproportionately long genealogical tree in which it is difficult to distinguish ¶ the fictitiou…

, one of the renowned female singers at the ʿAbbāsid court, was born ca. 200/815 in Baṣra as a muwallada of an Arab father and a non-Arab mother. She died after 256/870, probably in Sāmarrā. While still a young girl, she was acquired by Ibrāhīm b. al-Mahdī [ q.v.], who refined her musical education and made her a competent transmitter of his own compositions. After the death of her master in 224/839, she first served al-Muʿtaṣim, and she reached the zenith of her career under the caliph and musician al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ. Under al-Mutawakkil, an open c…

( banu ’l-afṭas ), small Hispano-Muslim dynasty of the 5th/11th century, which reigned during the period of the mulūk al-ṭawāʾif of al-Andalus over a vast territory in the western part of the Iberian peninsula, with Badajoz (Baṭalyaws) as its capital. On the dismemberment of the caliphate of Cordova, the "Lower March" of al-Andalus ( al-t̲h̲ag̲h̲r al-adnā ), consisting of the middle valley of the Guadiana (Wādī Ānā) and the central portion of modern Portugal, passed into the possession of a liberated slave of al-Ḥakam II, Sābūr,…

, abu ’l-ḥasan ʿalī b. ʿabd allāh b. sayf , court musician in early ʿAbbāsid times, died in or shortly after 235/850. He was of Soghdian origin, mawlā ( al-ʿitḳ ) of the Umayyads and mawlā ( al-k̲h̲idma ) of the ʿAbbāsids. Ibrāhīm and Isḥāḳ al-Mawṣilī taught him the “classical” ḥid̲j̲āzī music, but he prefered the “romantic” style of Ibrāhīm b. al-Mahdī and introduced “Persian melodies” ( nag̲h̲am fārisiyya ) into Arab music. As a court musician, he started in the third class ( ṭabaḳa ) under Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd and continued to serve the caliphs up to al-Mut…