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 …

[see d̲j̲aʿfar b. abī ṭālib ; d̲j̲aʿfar al-ṣādiḳ ; al-kattānī ; al-ḳazzāz ; al-k̲h̲arāʾiṭī ; al-muntaṣir bi’llāh ; al-rāḍī ].

or al-Naws̲h̲ari , Abū Mūsā ʿĪsā b. Muḥammad, general (said to be Turkish, but perhaps an Iranian from K̲h̲urāsān, since al-Samʿānī, Ansāb , ed. Ḥaydarābād, xiii, 201-2, derives the nisba al-Nūs̲h̲ārī ( sic) from Nūs̲h̲ār, a village in the district of Balk̲h̲) from the guard of the ʿAbbāsid caliphs at Sāmarrā and governor of Damascus on various occasions during the caliphates of al-Muntaṣir, al-Mustaʿīn and al-Muʿtazz [ q.vv.] from 247/861 onwards. At the accession of al-Muʿtazz in 252/866, he expanded southwards into Palestine, displacing the Arab governor of Ramla [ q.v.], ʿĪsā b. …

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…

(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…

, Abū Ibrāhīm al-Muntaṣir , the last of the Sāmānids of Transoxania and Ḵh̲urāsān. When in 389/999 the Ḳarak̲h̲ānid Ilig Ḵh̲ān Naṣr occupied the Sāmānid capital Buk̲h̲ārā. Ismāʿīl and other members of the family were carried off to Uzkend. He contrived, however, to escape to Ḵh̲wārazm, and for the next four years kept up a series of attacks on the G̲h̲aznavids in northern Ḵh̲urāsān and the Ḳarak̲h̲ānids in Buk̲h̲ārā. In 393/1003 he obtained the help of the Og̲h̲uz, traditional allies of the Sāmānids, and according to Gardīzī, it was at thi…

, a town of mediaeval Transoxania, in the region of Soghdia, and lying on a canal which led southwards from the Nahr Ṣug̲h̲d and on the Samarḳand-Karmīniyya-Buk̲h̲ārā road. The site is marked by the ruins of Ḳalʿa-yi Dabūs near the modern village of Ziyaudin (=Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn), according to Barthold, Turkestan3 , 97. It lay in a prosperous and well-watered area, say the mediaeval geographers, and Muḳaddasī, 324, cf. R.B. Serjeant, Islamic textiles, material for a history up to the Mongol conquest, Beirut 101, mentions in particular the brocade cloth known as Wad̲h̲ārī produced there. Dabūsi…

, a name given in early Islamic geographical, travel and maritime literature to an eastern region of South Asia, most likely in the ancient Suhma region in the western part of Bengal [see bangāla ]. There is considerable confusion about its location; readings vary from Ruhmī (al-Yaʿḳūbī, 106) to Rahma (Ibn al-Faḳīh, 15) and Dahum ( Sharaf al-Zamān Ṭāhir Marvazī on China , the Turks and India, ed. and tr. V. Minorsky, London 1942, text 35). Of these, the closest to Bengali is Dharma (a spelling used by Sulaymān al-Tād̲j̲ir), a possible reference to a famous Ben…

b. Saʿīd al-Kātib , Abū ʿUt̲h̲mān, ʿAbbāsid scribe, epistolographer and poet. His exact dates are unknown, but he was probably born in the last years of the 3rd century A.H. and died after 257/871 (or 260/874), the year of Faḍl al-S̲h̲āʿira’s death [ q.v. in Suppl.]. His family came from the lower Persian nobility—he himself is sometimes called al-dihḳān —and he claimed royal Persian descent. He seems to have held various lower provincial offices, before stepping into the limelight as the kātib of Aḥmad b. al-K̲h̲aṣīb, vizier to al-Muntaṣir (r. 247-8/861-2 [ q.v.]), for whom he drew up the ba…

, 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…

(Banū) or Midrārids , minor Berber dynasty which was established in Sid̲j̲ilmās(s)a [ q.v.] and which enjoyed relative independence until its final collapse in 366/976-7. The history of this dynasty can be briefly outlined, thanks to al-Bakrī [ q.v.], who lived in the 5th/11th century and thus possessed quite recent information in order to write the chapter that he devotes to it ( Mug̲h̲rib , 148 ff., Fr. tr. 282 ff.), before Ibn ʿId̲h̲ārī (7th-8th/13th-14th century [ q.v.]), Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn (8th/14th century [ q.v.]) and several historians of the Mag̲h̲rib and Mas̲h̲riḳ were abl…

, patronymic deriving from the locality of D̲j̲ard̲j̲arāyā in ʿIrāḳ (on the Tigris, south of Bag̲h̲dād), borne by several viziers of the ʿAbbāsid and Fāṭimid caliphs. 1.—Muḥammad b. al-Faḍl, former secretary of al-Faḍl b. Marwān [ q.v.], was vizier to al-Mutawakkil at the beginning of the reign, after Ibn al-Zayyāt’s disgrace, but was soon discarded by reason of his negligence. Recalled to the vizierate by al-Mustaʿīn in S̲h̲aʿbān 249/September-October 863, he died soon afterwards in the year 250/864-5, aged about eighty (see Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī , iv, 4, ed. Dedering, no. 1878). 2.—Aḥmad …

, “house of wisdom”, used by Arab authors to denote in a general sense the academies which, before Islamic times, spread knowledge of the Greek sciences, and in a particular sense the institute founded in Cairo in 395/1005 by the Fāṭimid caliph al-Ḥākim. Since the short-lived appearance of the Bayt al-Ḥikma [ q.v.] of al-Maʾmūn, several libraries had been founded in ʿIrāḳ and Persia providing not only information on traditional learning, but also an introduction to classical sciences ( ʿulūm al-awāʾil ) (see Dār al-ʿilm ). Such establishments were very successful in Egypt under t…

, “the Media of Basra”, the district of Nihāwand [ q.v.], the taxes of which contributed to the support of the military population at al-Baṣra after the Muslim conquest of al-D̲j̲abal. Although Sayf ascribes this arrangement to the time of ʿUmar I (13-23/634-44), according to al-Balād̲h̲urī, al-Dīnawar and Nihāwand were occupied by Baṣran and Kūfan forces respectively after the battle of Nihāwand in 21/642. By the caliphate of Muʿāwiya (41-60/661-80), the Muslim population at al-Kūfa had increased and required an increase ¶ in revenues for their support, so al-Dīnawar was re…

, a town in the urban district ( baladiyya ) of the same name in southern Libya and in the province of Fezzān or Fazzān [ q.v.]. The town is situated in lat. 25° 55′ 55″N. and long. 14° 7′ 5″ E. The district includes the sub-districts of Agar ʿAtaba, al-G̲h̲atrūn. Murzuḳ, Trāg̲h̲an, Umm al-Arānib and Zuwayla. In antiquity, Murzuḳ was within the territory of the Garamantes, whose centre Garama was 60 miles/100 km northeast of Murzuḳ (see C.M. Daniels, The Garamantes of southern Libya, Stoughton, Wise. 1970). It has always been on the important trans-Saharan caravan route linking…

(I) bi ’llāh , Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Muḥammad , ʿAbbāsid caliph, reigned 248-52/862-6, grandson of the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim [ q.v.] and the son of a slave concubine of Ṣaḳlabī origin named Muk̲h̲āriḳ. When his cousin al-Muntaṣir [ q.v.] died, the Turkish commanders in Sāmarrā plucked al-Mustaʿīn from a life of obscurity (he is said to have made a living as a copyist of manuscripts) to become caliph (6 Rabīʿ II 248/9 June 862). The choice aroused discontent in Sāmarrā and unrest broke out among those who supported al-Muʿtazz [ q.v.] which was only put down after much bloodshed and fina…

, name given to Aḥmad b. ʿUbayd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. al-K̲h̲aṣīb . vizier of al-Mukṭadir and al-Ḳāhir, who was probably the grandson of al-Muntaṣīr’s vizier Aḥmad b. al-K̲h̲aṣīb [see al-d̲j̲ard̲j̲arāʾi ]. He was originally secretary to the caliph’s mother, and then suddenly was made vizier after the fall of al-K̲h̲āḳānī, but only filled this office for a few months (Ramaḍān 313-D̲h̲u ’l-Ḳaʿda 314/Nov. 925-Jan. 927). Faced with the hostility of the military leaders, and treating adminis…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. D̲j̲aʿfar , ʿAbbāsid caliph, reigned 252-5/866-9, and son of the earlier caliph al-Mutawakkil [ q.v.] by his favourite slave concubine Ḳabīḥa. The reign of al-Muʿtazz’s predecessor, his cousin al-Mustaʿīn [ q.v.], ended in strife and violence stirred up by the Turkish guards in Sāmarrā. Al-Mustaʿīn was forced to abdicate at Bag̲h̲dād, and on 4 Muḥarram 252/25 January 866, al-Muʿtazz, having been brought out of jail, was hailed as caliph. The first part of the succession arrangements envisaged towards t…

, banū , three brothers (in order of seniority) Muḥammad, Aḥmad and al-Ḥasan, who were among the most important figures in the intellectual life of Bag̲h̲dād in the 3rd/9th century. We do not know their dates of birth, but Muḥammad died in 259/873 and could hardly then have been less than 70 years old because the youngest brother al-Ḥasan was already a brilliant geometrician in the reign of al-Maʾmūn (198-218/813-33 [ q.v.]). Their father, Mūsā b. S̲h̲ākir, was said to have been in his youth a resourceful highwayman who made the roads in K̲h̲urāsān unsafe. By all a…

, al-Muwaffaḳ b. ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿĀmiri , Abu ’l-D̲j̲ays̲h̲, ruler of Denia (Dāniya [ q.v.]) and the Balearics from early 405/late 1014 until 436/1044-5. Mud̲j̲āhid was a “Slav” (a. ṣaḳlabī [ q.v.]), bought, converted to Islam (his patronymic “b. ʿAbd Allāh” represents a semi-legal formality, not his real father) and given an education by al-Manṣūr Muḥammad b. Abī ʿĀmir [ q.v.], the great ḥād̲j̲ib [ q.v.] of His̲h̲ām II [ q.v.] al-Muʾayyad, the third Umayyad caliph in al-Andalus [ q.v.] at the end of the 4th/10th century. He entered the service of the ʿĀmirids, and may have …