, Banū , one of the three main Jewish tribes of Yat̲h̲rib (Medina), with lands towards the south-east of the oasis. As in the case of the other Jewish groups, it is not known whether they were descended from refugees of Hebrew stock or from Arabs who had adopted Judaism. They adhered firmly to the Jewish religion, but at the same time had adopted many Arab practices and had intermarried with Arabs. According to a genealogy given by al-Samhūdī, Ḳurayẓa, Hadl and ʿAmr were sons…

, the site of a battle about 617 A.D. between most sections of the two Medinan tribes of Aws and Ḵh̲azrad̲j̲. It lay in the south-eastern quarter of the Medinan oasis in the territory of the Banū Ḳurayẓa. The battle was the climax of a series of internal conflicts. The Aws, whose position had deteriorated, were joined by the two chief Jewish tribes, Ḳurayẓa and al-Naḍīr, and by nomads of Muzayna; their leader was Ḥuḍayr b. Simāk. The opposing leader ʿAmr b. al-Nuʿmān of Bayāḍa was supported by most of the Ḵh̲azrad̲j̲, and by some nomadic D̲j̲uhayna and As̲h̲d̲j̲aʿ, but ʿAbd Allāh b. Ubayy [ q.v.] a…

, an Arab tribe which in Umayyad times claimed descent from Kahlān b. Sabaʾ of Yemen and relationship with Lak̲h̲m and ʿĀmila; this certainly corresponded with the prevailing political alliances. However, the North Arab tribes claimed that D̲j̲ud̲h̲ām, Ḳuḍāʿa and Lak̲h̲m were originally of Nizār but had later assumed Yemenī descent. D̲j̲ud̲h̲ām were among the nomads who had settled in pre-Islamic times on the borders of Byzantine Syria and Palestine; they held places like Madyan, ʿAmmān, Maʿān a…

, opponent of Muḥammad at Medina, reckoned to belong to his mother’s clan al-Naḍīr, though his father was an Arab of the Nabhān section of Ṭayyiʾ. He presumably followed the Jewish custom of taking his religion from his mother, but it is doubtful if he was a scholar, as the words in a poem sayyid al-aḥbār (Ibn His̲h̲ām, 659, 12) would imply, if the poem were genuine. Aroused by the deaths of many leading Meccans at Badr, he went to Mecca and used his considerable poetic gifts (he is called faḥl faṣiḥ in K. al-Ag̲h̲ānī ) to incite Ḳurays̲h̲ to fight the Muslims. On hi…

b. Salūl (Salul being Ubayy’s mother), chief of Ba ʾl-Ḥublā (also known as Sālim), a section of the clan of ʿAwf of the Ḵh̲azrad̲j̲, and one of the leading men of Medīna. Prior to the hid̲j̲ra he had led some of the Ḵh̲azrad̲j̲ in the first day of the Fid̲j̲ār at Medīna, but did not take part in the second day of the Fid̲j̲ār nor the battle of Buʿāt̲h̲ since he had quarreled with another leader, ʿAmr b. al-Nuʿmān of Bayāḍa, over the latter’s unjust killing of Jewish hostages, perhaps because he r…

, chief of the clan of Sāʿida at Medina. The clan appears to have been small since it is not mentioned in the fighting leading to the battle of Buʿāth [ q.v.], but it may have been more influential than its size warranted, perhaps because it was wealthy. Only two members of the clan were at the second meeting with Muḥammad at al-ʿAḳaba [ q.v.], but both were included among the nuḳabāʾ or representatives. One of these was Saʿd b. ʿUbāda, who had become a Muslim at an early date. Saʿd was badly treated by some Meccans on his way back from al-ʿAḳ…

, Banu ’l- , one of the two main Jewish tribes of Medina, settled in Yat̲h̲rib from Palestine at an unknown date, as a consequence of Roman pressure after the Jewish wars. Al-Yaʿḳūbī (ii, 49) says they were a section of the D̲j̲ud̲h̲ām Arabs, converted to Judaism and first settled on Mount al-Naḍīr, whence their name; according to the Sīra Ḥalabiyya (Cairo, iii, 2) they were a truly Jewish tribe, connected with the Jews of K̲h̲aybar [ q.v.]. This seems the more probable, but a certain admixture of Arab blood is possible; like the other Jews of Medina, they bore Arabic na…

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…

bt. Ḥuyayy b. Ak̲h̲ṭab . Muḥammad’s eleventh wife, was born in Medina and belonged to the Jewish tribe of the Banu ’l-Naḍīr [see al-naḍīr ]; her mother Barra bt. Samawʾal, the sister of Rifaʿa b. Samawʾal, was of the Banū Ḳurayẓa [ q.v.]. Her father and her uncle Abū Yāsir were among the Prophet’s most bitter enemies. When their tribe was expelled from Medina in 4 A.H., Ḥuyayy b. Ak̲h̲ṭab was one of those who settled in K̲h̲aybar [ q.v.], together with Kināna b. al-Rabīʿ, to whom Ṣafiyya was married at the end of 6 or early in 7 A.H.; her age at this time was about 17. The…

, one of the two main Arab tribes in Medina. The other was al-Ḵh̲azrad̲j̲, and the two, which in pre-Islamic times were known as Banū Ḳayla from their reputed mother, constituted after the Hid̲j̲ra the ‘helpers’ of Muḥammad or Anṣār [ q.v.]. The genealogy as given by Ibn Saʿd (iii/2,1) is: al-Aws b. T̲h̲aʿlaba b. ʿAmr (Muzayḳiyāʾ) b. ʿĀmir (Māʾ al-Samāʾ) b. Ḥārit̲h̲a b. Imriʾ al-Ḳays b. T̲h̲aʿlaba b. Māzin b. al-Azd b. al-G̲h̲awt̲h̲ b. Nabt b. Mālik b. Zayd b. Kahlān b. Sabaʾ b. Yas̲h̲d̲j̲ub b. Yaʿrub b. Ḳaḥṭān. The following table giv…

(also mag̲h̲āzī ’l-nabī , mag̲h̲āzī rasūl allāh ), a term which, from the time of the work on the subject ascribed to al-Wāḳidī (d. 207/823), if not earlier, has signified in particular the expeditions and raids organised by the Prophet Muḥammad in the Medinan period. The first such sortie is reported by al-Waḳidī to have involved a party of thirty men led by Ḥamza b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, which in 1/623 briefly intercepted a Ḳurashī caravan heading for Mecca from Syria on the coastal route (other accounts differ). The last was an expedition i…

, an Arabian tribe, a branch of the so-called Northern Arabian federation of Ḳays ʿAylān [ q.v.]. Its genealogy is given as Sulaym b. Manṣūr b. ʿIkrima b. K̲h̲aṣafa b. Ḳays ʿAylān. The tribe’s territory was in al-Ḥid̲j̲āz [ q.v.]. The ḥarra or basalt desert [see ḥarra. 1] that was once called Ḥarrat Banī Sulaym , and is now called Ḥarrat Ruhāṭ , is roughly located at the centre of their former territory. The Ḥarra was easy to defend because cavalry could not operate in it, and the ḥimā s [ q.v.] or protected pasturing areas of Sulaym were along its eastern and western slopes. The Baṣr…

, the common collective (sing. ϒahūdī ) in Arabic for “Jews”. A less common plural Hūd is also used (e.g. Ḳurʾān, II, 111, 135, 140). The word is borrowed from Aram. ϒahūd , and ultimately from late bibl. Heb. yehūdīm , “Judaeans”, the latter itself derived from members of the tribe of Judah). The Ḳurʾān also uses a stative verb hāda , “to be Jewish” or “to practice Judaism”. 1. In the D̲j̲āhiliyya. Jews had lived in various parts of the Arabian Peninsula since Antiquity, and the numbers of those living in northwestern Arabia must have been swelled by refugees from J…

(a.) has among its meanings that of voluntary alms, often referred to in Islamic literature as ṣadaḳat al-taṭawwuʿ "alms of spontaneity", or ṣadaḳat al-nafl "alms of supererogation", in distinction to obligatory alms, frequently also termed ṣadaḳa , but more commonly known as zakāt [ q.v.]. Both ṣadaḳa and zakāt are considered by Muslim writers to be of purely Arabic derivation; alms being called ṣadaḳa as indicating the sincerity ( ṣidḳ) of the almgiver’s religious belief (e.g. Ibn al-ʿArabi, Aḥkām al-Ḳurʾān , ed. al-Bid̲j̲āwī, Cairo 1387/1967, ii, 946-7; al-S̲h̲irbīnī, al-Iḳnāʿ …

(a.), the Islamic legal term for exchanges of gold for gold, silver for silver, and gold and silver for each other. Although ṣarf in this sense appears in the ḥadīt̲h̲ , it is generally regarded as a term of art without prescriptive significance (Ibn al-ʿArabī, Kitāb al-Ḳabas , ed. Walad Karīm, Beirut 1992, ii, 822-3; al-Subkī, Takmilat al-mad̲j̲mūʿ , Cairo n.d., x, 99; but see Ibn al-Murtaḍā, al-Baḥr al-zak̲h̲k̲h̲ār , Beirut 1409/1988, iii, 386). According to another well-established usage (al-Baʿlī, al-Muṭliʿ , Beirut 1401/1981, 239; al-ʿAynī, ʿUmdat al-ḳārī …

, a term of Greek origin, πάπυρος, is one of the world’s oldest writing materials; it seems to have been used in Egypt, the land of its provenance, since the 6th dynasty, ca. 2470-2270 A.D. As an equivalent for this word the Arabs, after their conquest of this country, used bardī , abardī , or better still waraḳ al-bardī . However, these expressions were not of widespread usage, and in Egypt the term employed was fāfīr , corresponding more closely to the original Greek. Elsewhere, the word ḳirṭās was also used, derived from the Greek χάρτης through the intermediary of the Aramaic ḳarṭīs …

(usually Medina in English, Médine in French), residence of the Prophet Muḥammad after the ḥid̲j̲ra and one of the sacred cities of Islam. Medina is situated in the Ḥid̲j̲āz province of Saʿūdī Arabia in latitude 24° 28′ N, longitude 39° 36′ E, about 160 km. from the Red Sea and about 350 km. north of Mecca. It has developed from an oasis on relatively level ground between the hill of Uḥud on the north and that of ʿAyr on the south. East and west are lava flows (in Arabic ḥarra [ q.v.] or lāba ). There are several wādī s or watercourses which cross the oasis from south to…

, the name of a famous oasis, and of its principal settlement, about 95 miles/150 km. from Medina; the district owes its renown to events which took place there in the years 7 and 20 A.H., not to natural features which distinguish it from other oases in the region. For this reason the ¶ ancient Arab geographers, although they do mention it, provide only the briefest of information about it, giving special praise to the abundance of its palm trees. 1.— Geographical information. Only al-Bakrī and Yāḳūt have devoted to K̲h̲aybar as much as two pages in their Muʿd̲j̲am s: th…

[see naẓīr al-samt ].

(a.) nickname, and at a later date under Islam and with a more specific use, honorific title (pl. alḳāb ). For suggestions about its etymology, see L. Caetani and G. Gabrieli, Onomasticon arabicum . i. Fonte-introduzione , Rome 1915, 144-5; and for its place in the general schema of the composition of Islamic names, see ism. The laḳab seems in origin to have been a nickname or sobriquet of any tone, one which could express admiration, be purely descriptive and neutral in tenor or be insulting and derogatory. In the latter case, it was often termed nabaz , pl. anbāz , by-form labaz …