, at the present time a town in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia about 70 km/45 miles south-east of the capital al-Riyāḍ [ q.v.] and situated in the region of al-K̲h̲ard̲j̲ within the al-Riyāḍ emirate, close to Maḥaṭṭat al-K̲h̲ard̲j̲ on the al-Riyāḍ to al-Ẓahrān (Dhahran) railway (Hussein Hamza Bindagji, Atlas of Saudi Arabia , Oxford 1980, 49; Zaki M.A. Farsi, National guide and atlas of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1989, 71). The town is now relatively small and has a population of less than 50,000 (Bindagji, 3). The origin of the name may be yamāma , singular of the collective yamām …

, lit. “the blue-eyed woman of Yamāma”, a semi-legendary figure of early Arabic lore. She was endowed with such piercing eyesight that she could descry an object some thirty miles away, hence the proverb absạru min Zarḳāʾ al-Yamāma . She belonged to the tribe of Ṭasm [ q.v.], but was married to a member of the sister tribe D̲j̲adīs. After the massacre of the former by the latter, a survivor, her brother, invoked the aid of the South Arabian king Ḥassān, who marched against D̲j̲adīs in Yamāma. Al-though Ḥassān’s army was camouflaged with leaf…

, Banū , an ʿAlid dynasty ruling in al-Yamāma, i.e. in Eastern Arabia, from 253/867 until at least the middle of the 5th/11th century. The founder was Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Uk̲h̲ayḍir b. Ibrāhīm b. Mūsā al-Ḏj̲awn b. ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Ḥasan b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, born in 210/825-6. His brother Ismāʿīl led a rebellion in the Ḥid̲j̲āz and took possession of Mecca in 251/865. He died in Rabīʿ I 252/March-April 866 of smallpox and was succeeded by Muḥammad. The latter was defeated by an army under Abu ’l-Sād̲j̲ al-…

, a valley of Nad̲j̲d [ q.v.], now in Saudi Arabia, named after the tribe of Ḥanīfa [see Ḥanīfa b. lud̲j̲aym ], who in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times occupied the region. It runs in a northwestern to southeastern direction to the east of the massifs of central Nad̲j̲d, rising on the crest of the D̲j̲abal al-Ṭuwayḳ [see al-Ṭuwayḳ , d̲j̲abal ] and following to the west of modern al-Riyāḍ. The wadi is ca. 150 km/90 miles long and 300 to 600 m wide, and cuts through various gaps in the ridges of the region. After reaching the region of al-K̲h̲ard̲j̲ [ q.v.], it becomes known as the Wādī al-Sahbāʾ [see a…

, ancient Arab tribe, part of Bakr b. Wāʾil [ q.v.] on a level with T̲h̲aʿlaba and ʿId̲j̲l. The chief subdivisions were al-Dūl (or al-Duʾil), ʿAdī, ʿĀmir, Suḥaym. They were partly nomadic, partly agricultural (date-palms and cereals), and also partly pagan, partly Christian. The town of al-Had̲j̲r, capital of al-Yamāma, belonged chiefly to them, also the town of Ḏj̲aww (later al-K̲h̲idrima). Other localities mentioned as belonging to them (and as chiefly occupied by them) include: the wādī of al-ʿIrḍ, al-Awḳa, Fays̲h̲ān, al-Kirs, Ḳurrān, al-Manṣif …

, a sandy region of Eastern Arabia belonging to Banū Saʿd. It is situated within the area of al-Baḥrayn [ q.v.], three stages from al-Falad̲j̲ and two stages from al-Aḥsāʾ [ q.v.] and Ḥad̲j̲r (Yāḳūt, Buldān , ed. Beirut, v, 427). The editors of al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Iṣfahānī, Bilād al-ʿarab , Riyāḍ 1968, 276 n. 3, sc. Ḥamad al-D̲j̲āsir and Ṣāliḥ al-ʿAlī, state that Yabrīn is still known as an area in the west of al-Aḥsāʾ and the name is corrupted (or more probably, hypercorrected, since d̲j̲ > y in the speech of that area) in modern works to D̲j̲abrīn. It does not, however, appe…

Muḥammed b. al-Ḳāsim b. Ḵh̲allād b. Yāsir b. Sulaimān al-Hās̲h̲ihī , an Arabian littérateur and poet. He was born about the year 190/805 in al-Ahwāz (his family came from al-Yamāma) and grew up in Baṣra, where he received instruction from the most famous philologists, Abū ʿUbaida, al-Aṣmaʿī, Abū Zayd al-Anṣārī and others. He was renowned amongst his contemporaries not only for his linguistic attainments, but also for his quickness at repartee. Ibn Abī Ṭāhir collected anecdotes concerning him in a special work entitled Ak̲h̲bār Abi ’l-ʿAynāʾ , many of which are to be found in the al-Ag̲h̲ān…

, an oasis in Nad̲j̲d [ q.v.]. now in Saudi Arabia (lat. 25° 0′ N., long. 46° 06′). It lies near the upper end of the Wādī Ḥanīfa [ q.v.] some 50 km/30 miles northwest of the modern capital al-Riyāḍ. In pre- and early Islamic times, al-ʿUyayna lay in ¶ the territory of the Banū Ḥanīfa [see Ḥanīfa b. lud̲j̲aym ], although it is not mentioned as such by early geographers like al-Hamdānī (who mentions another ʿUyayna in the territory of the Balḥārit̲h̲ in the Nad̲j̲rān region), al-Bakrī and Yāḳūt. Nearby at T̲h̲aniyyat al-Aḥīsā, identi…

, an ancient pre-Islamic walled site in northeastern Arabia, some 90 km/56 miles ¶ almost due west of the port of D̲j̲ubayl on the Arabian Gulf (see General map, Potts, Arabian Gulf, xx). Located in Wādī al-Miyāh, the site covers an area of about 990 m by 825 m and lay on the trans-Arabian route linking southern Arabia with ʿIrāḳ, and in Islamic times both al-Hamdānī and Ibn Khurradād̲h̲bih mention the route, called by the 7th/13th century traveller Ibn al-Mud̲j̲āwir (214) Ṭarīḳ al-Raḍrāḍ , the “Gravel Road”. It has in recent years been suggested that the…

, ancient Arabian tribe, reckoned part of Bakr b. Wāʾil [ q.v.]. Their common ancestor ʿId̲j̲l b. Lud̲j̲aym was proverbially noted for his stupidity (Goldziher, Muh . St., i, 48n; Eng. tr. i, 52n.). The tribe as a whole had a reputation for niggardliness (Masʿūdī, vi, 138f.; Yāḳūt, i, 183). They originally lived in al-Yamāma and in the region about the roads from Kūfa and Baṣra to Mecca. Among the settled localities belonging to them were Arāka, D̲j̲awk̲h̲āʾ and al-K̲h̲aḍārim; while their waters included Buḳayʿ, Tuḳayyid,…

, minor Arab poet of the middle Umayyad period, whose exact dates are unknown. As the ak̲h̲bār on Ṭahmān’s biography in his dīwān (ed. al-Muʿaybid, 39, 42, 50, 52-5, related at length in EI 1, IV, 665-6) cannot be corroborated from his poems, but on the contrary are possibly read into them, his poetry remains the only reliable source for his life. A laudatory poem on the Umayyad caliph al-Walīd (no. 5) probably refers to al-Walīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik (cf. no. 8, 1. 7); hence Ṭahmān was alive at some time between the years 86 and 96/…

, or simply Bint al-K̲h̲uss , name by which is known a woman of the pre-Islamic era, whose eloquence, quickness of repartee and perspicacity became legendary. According to al-S̲h̲iblī ( Ākām al-murd̲j̲ān , Cairo 1326, 71), the word k̲h̲uss denotes the son of a man and of a d̲j̲inniyya (while ʿamlūḳ is applied to the offspring of a d̲j̲inn and a woman), and thus we perceive the origin of the legend which arose probably from the belief of the intervention of d̲j̲inns in the generation of human beings endowed with exceptional gifts. In spite of affirmations such as that of LA (s.v.) in respect of…

, name of one of the legendary extinct tribes of the Arabs, al-ʿarab al-bāʾida . These tribes are genealogically directly linked up to Biblical genealogies and thus precede the split into Northern and Southern Arabs, symbolised by the eponyms “Adnān ¶ and Ḳaḥṭān. According to one of our earliest sources, Ibn al-Kalbī [ q.v.], Ṭasm’s relationship to the other tribes (in small capitals) is as follows: (see W. Caskel, Ǧamharat an-nasab , Leiden 1966, i, 40, which see also for the vocalisation of “Immīm”; and cf. Ibn Ḥabīb, Muḥabbar , ed. I. Lichtenstädter, Ḥaydarābād 1361/1942, 384; Ibn Ḥazm, Ḏ…

ancient Arabic group of tribes in Central, East, and (Later) Northern Arabia. The Bakr belonged to the same people—later known as Rabīʿa—as the ʿAbd al-Ḳays [ q.v.]. Their place in the tribal genealogy is three grades lower than that of these. The T̲h̲aʿlaba (b. ʿUkāba) are to be regarded ¶ as the core of the Bakr. Joshua Stylites (§ 57) mentions them under the year 503 as being the leading tribe of the northem Arabian Kinda Empire, and shortly afterwards they appear in a South Arabian inscription (Ryckmans 510, Le Muséon 1953). In the genealogy of Bakr, the T̲h…

, a district in Nad̲j̲d [ q.v.], the central province of Saudi Arabia. Al-K̲h̲ard̲j̲ stretches from al-ʿĀriḍ [ q.v.] in the north southwards to the area east of the oasis of al-Ḥawṭa [ q.v.] in Wādī Burayk (Wādī ’l-Ḥawṭa). To the west the crags of ʿUlayya, a section of the range of Ṭuwayḳ [ q.v.], rise above the vale of al-K̲h̲ard̲j̲, which is closed in on the east by the steppe desert of al-Bayāḍ. As the confluence of many wādīs (also called s̲h̲aʿībs ), al-K̲h̲ard̲j̲ is one of the most fertile places in Saudi Arabia. Wādī Ḥanīfa (classical al-ʿIrḍ) and …

(a. “uplands”), conventionally defined as the plateau region of the Arabian peninsula lying to the east of the Red Sea lowlands (al-Tihāma [ q.v.]) and the mountain barrier running down through the western side of the peninsula (al-Ḥid̲j̲āz [ q.v.]). 1. Geography and habitat. ¶ The exact application of this originally topographical conception is very differently understood, and sometimes it means more generally the elevated country above the coastal plain or the extensive country, the upper part of which is formed by the Tihāma and the Yam…

, the central district of Nad̲j̲d. Originally applied to the long mountainous, barrier Ṭuwayḳ [ q.v.], the name al-ʿĀriḍ is still very commonly used in this sense. In a more restricted sense it refers to the central part of the barrier, the district between al-Ḵh̲ard̲j̲ to the south and al-Maḥmal to the north. On the west al-ʿĀriḍ is bounded by the western escarpment of Ṭuwayḳ and the district of al-Baṭīn below it, in which lie Ḍarmā, al-G̲h̲aṭg̲h̲aṭ, etc. On the east Wādi ’l-Sulayy, the escarpment of Ḏj̲āl Hīt, and the land of al-ʿArama separate al-ʿĀriḍ from al-Dahnāʾ. The district is tra…

, an Arab tribe forming part of the great group of the Banū ʿĀmir b. Ṣaʿṣaʿa [ q.v.] whose fortunes we find them almost continuously sharing in the period before as well as after Islam. They had particularly close associations with the tribes of ʿUḳayl and D̲j̲aʿda, whose genealogical table makes them brothers. Their genealogy is Ḳus̲h̲ayr b. Kaʿb b. Rabīʿa b. ʿĀmir b. Ṣaʿṣaʿa. Tradition makes the mother of Ḳus̲h̲ayr Rayṭa bint Ḳunfud̲h̲ b. Mālik of the tribe of the Banū Sulaym [ q.v.]. During the pre-Islamic period, the Banū Ḳus̲h̲ayr settled in al-Yamāma were involved in all …

, a poet, contemporary with the Prophet. He was the brother of Malik b. Nuwayra [ q.v.], chief of the Banū Yarbūʿ, a large clan of the Banū Tamīm. Mutammim owes his fame to the elegies in which he lamented the tragic death of his brother Mālik (gathered together at the opening of the 3rd/9th century by Wat̲h̲īma b. Mirsāl, see Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ , xix, 248; whilst his dīwān was put together by Abū ʿAmr al-S̲h̲aybānī, al-Aṣmaʿī and al-Sukkarī, see Fihrist , 158), and these poems have made the latter’s name immortal. The Arabs said there was nothing comparable…

, a small town of 50-60 dwellings located in Nad̲j̲d at 24° 54′ N, 46° 28′ E, on the left bank of Wadī Ḥanīfa between al-ʿUyayna and al-Dirʿiyya. Yāḳūt mentions a place called al-D̲j̲ubayla as the chief town of Banū ʿĀmir of ʿAbd al-Ḳays, but there is no evidence definitely linking this place with the present town. According to Ibn Bulayhid and local tradition, the site of ʿAḳrabāʾ [ q.v.] is near the present town. Mounds on the right bank of Wādī Ḥanīfa, called locally Ḳubūr al-Ṣaḥāba, are believed to be the graves of Companions fallen in the battle of ʿAḳrabāʾ,…