b. ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān I, Umayyad caliph for approximately six months in 126/744. He is known in tradition as al-Nāḳiṣ (the Depriver, or the Deficient; various explanations are given). He is said to have boasted that through his mother, one of Yazdagird Ill’s granddaughters captured in Transoxania, he had inherited both Sāsānid and Byzantine blood. He has a reputation for asceticism and piety, and was accepted as a righteous Imām not only by his immediate supporters but by some later theorists too (al-Ḳāḍī ʿAbd al-D̲j̲abbār, Mug̲h̲nī , Cairo n.d., xx/2, 150). Yazīd obtained the cal…

, the name of two caliphs of the Marwānid line of the Umayyads. ¶ 1. al-Walīd (I) b. ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān (r. 86-96/705-15). He was probably born ca. 54/674 in Muʿāwiya’s reign. His mother was Wallāda bt. al-ʿAbbās b. D̲j̲azʾ of a well-known family of ʿAbs b. Bag̲h̲īḍ of Ḳays. He was his father’s nominee to inherit the caliphate and the death of his uncle ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Marwān in 85/704 meant that he succeeded unopposed. After the struggles of his father’s reign, al-Walīd’s caliphate was generally a period of internal…

, Umayyad general, son of the caliph al-Walīd I. Al-ʿAbbās owes his celebrity principally to the energetic part he took in the continual struggles of the Umayyads with the Byzantines. Concerning the details, the Arabic and Byzantine sources do not always agree. In the early part of the reign of al-Walīd I, he and his uncle Maslama b. ʿAbd al-Malik, took Ṭuwāna, the most important fortress of Cappadocia. The Muslims had begun to be discouraged and ʿAbbās had to display the greatest energy to succ…

b. ʿAbd al-Malik , Abū Isḥāḳ , son of the caliph al-Walīd I [ q.v.] and of a slave (Suʿār in al-Yaʿḳūbī, Dayrā in al-Masʿūdī), was appointed as walī al-ʿahd by his brother Yazīd [ q.v.] three days after the latter succeeded to the caliphate (20 D̲j̲umādā II 126/9 April 744). According to al-Ṭabarī, this appointment was made on the insistence of the Ḳadariyya [ q.v.], who wanted to ensure an heir to the throne who would be favourable to them. When Yazīd succeeded in imposing his authority in Urdunn, Ibrāhīm was appointed governor ( amīr ) of this district. After the de…

b. al-mug̲h̲īra al-mak̲h̲zūmī Arab commander at the time of the early conquests. Muslim tradition gives his career as follows. He fought against Muḥammad at Uḥud, but was converted in 6/627 or 8/629 and participated in the expedition to Muʾta and the conquest of Mecca, both in 8 A.H. The Prophet charged him with the destruction of the idol of al-ʿUzzā at Nak̲h̲la and later sent him to the B. D̲j̲ad̲h̲īma, whom he wrongfully attacked. In 9/630 the Prophet sent him from Tabūk to Dūmat al-D̲j̲andal [ q.v.] where he captured the ruler al-Ukaydir and sent him to Medina. In 10/631 he w…

al-Tag̲h̲libī al-S̲h̲aybānī al-S̲h̲ārī, K̲h̲ārid̲j̲ite rebel in al-D̲j̲azīra in 178-9/794-5, i.e. during the reign of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd. The Arabic sources tell us much about al-Walīd and his outbreak, although some details are contradictory; the most explicit sources are K̲h̲alīfa b. ¶ K̲h̲ayyāṭ, the Ag̲h̲ānī , Ibn al-At̲h̲īr and Ibn K̲h̲allikān. Starting from Naṣībīn, al-Walīd swept through Armenia and Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān into al-D̲j̲azīra, an old K̲h̲ārid̲j̲ite stronghold, defeating several caliphal armies. Hence in 179/795 Hārūn sent against …

, Abū Rakwa, a pseudo-Umayyad pretender who led a revolt against the Fāṭimid caliph al-Ḥākim [ q.v.]. He was an Arab, probably of Andalusian origin, who for some time had earned his living as a schoolteacher in al-Ḳayrawān and Miṣr (Old Cairo) and then went into service with the Arab Bedouin clan of Banū Ḳurra (of the Hilāl tribe) whose pasture-grounds were the hilly country of Cyrenaica south-east of Barḳa (modern al-Mard̲j̲); there he taught the boys of the clan to read and write. His nickname Abū Rakwa “the …

, son of the caliph al-Walīd I. In 91/709-10, he took part in the campaign against the Byzantines, under the orders of his uncle, Maslama b. ʿAbd al-Malik, and during the following years, he also participated in the battles against the same enemies. In 96/714-5, al-Walīd, whose designated successor was Sulaymān b. ʿAbd al-Malik, tried to exclude Sulaymān from the succession in favour of his son ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, but his attempt failed. After the death of Sulayman at Dābiḳ, 99/717, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz wan…

b. ʿAbd Allāh , member of the powerful and numerous clan of Mak̲h̲zūm [ q.v.] in pre-Islamic Mecca, opponent of the Prophet Muḥammad and uncle of another opponent, Abū D̲j̲ahl [ q.v.] ʿAmr b. His̲h̲ām b. al-Mug̲h̲īra, d. just after the Hid̲j̲ra. Little is known of his life, but he clearly represented the aristocratic interests of his clan and was himself prosperous, seen in the fact that he is said to have owned a garden in Ṭāʾif which he planted for pleasure only and never gathered the fruit in it (Sprenger, i, 359). According to the c…

al-Anṣārī (called Ṣarīʿ al-G̲h̲awānī “he who is laid low by the fair maidens”, as was al-Ḳuṭāmī [ q.v.] before him), an Arab poet of the early ʿAbbāsid period, born in Kūfa ca. 130-40/747-57, d. 208/823 in D̲j̲urd̲j̲ān. His father, a mawlā of the Anṣār, was a weaver. Nothing is known of the poet’s education. He probably got his literary training not from particular teachers or from books but in the busy life of the ʿIrāḳī cities, the intellectual life of which had risen to a still higher level with the advent of …

, Abu ’l-Walīd , called al-Riḍā , the second Umayyad ruler of Muslim Spain, succeeded his father ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I [ q.v.] on Ḏj̲umādā I 172/October 788, or according to Ibn al-Abbār one year earlier. He was then 30 years old, having been born in Cordova in 139/757, i.e. after his father’s arrival in al-Andalus. Though the designated heir, His̲h̲ām I was obliged to fight for his inheritance and campaigned successfully in person against his elder brother Sulaymān and another brother, ʿAbd Allāh al-Balansī, ‘the Valencian’, in 172 and 173/788-89…

b. Abi ’l-ʿAṣ , Abu ’l-Ḳāsim and then Abū ʿAbd al-Malik, first caliph of the Marwānid branch of the Umayyad dynasty [ q.v.], reigned for several months in 64-5/684-5. Marwān, born of al-Ḥakam’s wife Āmina bt. ʿAlḳama al-Kināniyya, stemmed from the same branch of the Umayyad clan of Ḳurays̲h̲, se. Abu ’l-ʿĀṣ, as the Rightly-guided caliph ʿUt̲h̲mān, and was in fact ʿUt̲h̲mān’s cousin. The sources generally place his birth in A.H. 2 or 4 ( ca. 623-6), but it may well have occurred before the Hid̲j̲ra in any case, he must have known the Prophet and was accounte…

, the second caliph ( r. 13/634-23/644), one of the great figures of early Islam, a driving force behind the early conquests and the creation of the early Islamic empire. There is some contradiction among the historical and biographical traditions on ʿUmar b. al-Ḵh̲aṭṭāb, and many of these contain exaggerated or legendary deails. However, a consistent character emerges out of this material: stern, strong-willed, prone to anger, devoted to Muḥammad, the Ḳurʾān and Islam, ʿUmar seems to have had a coherent political programme during and even before his caliphate. ʿUmar reportedly bega…

, the name given to an orator and poet of the tribe of Wāʾil, “whose seductive eloquence has passed into a proverb and who, it is said, whilst addressing an assembly for half-a-day, never used the same word twice” (Kazimirski, Dictionnaire , i, 1057; see LʿA and the other lexica). Speaking of the random effects of chance, whereby some person became a household word whereas others, equally meritorious, do not, al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ ( Ḥayawān , ii, 104), cites Saḥbān Wāʾil, who was eclipsed by his contemporary Ibn al-Ḳirriyya, murdered by al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ in 84/703 ( loc. cit., n. 5). In his eulogy o…

was the ancestor of the ʿAbbāsids. According to Muslim tradition, ʿAlī was born in the year 40/661, the very same night in which the caliph ʿAlī was assassinated; but there are also other statements concerning the year of his birth. His mother was called Zurʿa bint Mis̲h̲raḥ. His grandfather al-ʿAbbās was the uncle of the Prophet, and on account of his high birth and his personal gifts ʿAlī attained to great distinction. He was looked upon as the handsomest and most pious Ḳurays̲h̲ite of his tim…

, an old tribe in North-Western Arabia. The reports concerning their past (al-Ṭabarī, i, 685; Ag̲h̲ānī 2, xi, 155) are unworthy of belief. In the later geuealogic system the ʿĀmila are reckoned as belonging to the South-Arabian Kahlān [cf. d̲j̲ud̲h̲ām ]. At the time of the Muslim invasion we find them settled S. E. of the Dead Sea; they are mentioned among the Syro-Arabian tribes which joined Heraclius (al-Balād̲h̲urī, 59; al-Ṭabarī, i, 2347); but do not appear again in the history of the conquest. Shortly afterw…

(‘the fresh [voice]’) was the nickname given to Abū Zayd (? Yazīd) or Abū Marwān ʿAbd al-Mālik, a renowned singer of the Umayyad era. He was a half-breed of a Berber slave and a mawlā of the famous ʿAbalāt sisters of Mecca who were noted for their elegies. It was one of these—T̲h̲urayya, of whom ʿUmar b. Abī Rabīʿa sang in praise—who placed al-G̲h̲arīḍ under the tutelage of the famous singer Ibn Surayd̲j̲ [ q.v.] but the former soon outshone his teacher as an elegiast ( nāʾiḥ ), so much so that the latter abandoned that career for that of an ordinary singer ( mug̲h̲annī ), alt…

, in mediaeval times known as Minya or ʿAyn Minyat His̲h̲ām, is the name for the ruins of an apparently unfinished Umayyad mansion about 230 m. west of the northern end of Lake Tiberias. The ruins were excavated in 1932 by A. E. Mader and between 1936-9 by A. M. Schneider and O. Puttrich-Reignard. During July-August 1959 the western section of the palace was excavated by O. Grabar in collaboration with the Israel Department of Antiquities. The building consists of an irregular rectangular enclosure (66.40 m. × 73 m. × 72.30 m.) facing the four cardinal points. Like othe…

, name of two former Christian monasteries in Syria. The name is of obscure origin; the Arab etymology dayr al-murrān , “ashtree convent”, is suspect, and Syriac does not offer a satisfactory explanation. The better known of the two monasteries was near Damascus, though its exact location cannot be determined. It was on the lower slopes of the D̲j̲abal Ḳaysūn, overlooking the orchards of the G̲h̲ūta, near the gateway of Bàb al-Farādīs and a pass ( ʿaḳaba ) where we may see in all probability the Baradā [ q.v.] gorge. It was a large monastery, embellished with mosaics in the Umayyad…

I. early muslim architecture (1) The Time of the Prophet Arabia, at the rise of Islam, does not appear to have possessed anything worthy of the name of architecture. Only a small proportion of the population was settled, and these lived in dwellings which were scarcely more than hovels. Those who lived in mud-brick houses were called ahl al-madar, and the Bedawīn, from their tents of camel’s-hair cloth, ahl al-wabar. The sanctuary at Mecca, in the time of Muḥammad, merely consisted of a small roofless enclosure, oblong in shape, formed by four walls a little highe…