, a name given to two monasteries in ʿIrāḳ. The first stands in the district ( ṭassūd̲j̲ ) of Maskin, which is watered by the Dud̲j̲ayl canal. This canal flows off from the west bank of the Tigris south of Sāmarrā and takes a southward course on almost the same line as modern Dud̲j̲ayl till it reaches the neighbourhood of Bag̲h̲dād. Maskin is to be located about 9-10 parasangs (50-55 km.) north of Bag̲h̲dād. Its ruins seem to keep their old name and are called K̲h̲arāʾib (ruins of) Maskin; they are by the west bank of the modern Dud̲j̲ay some 3 km. south of Smeika village (see Sousa, Ray y Sāmarrā …

, son of the famous Mālik b. al-Ḥārit̲h̲ al-Nak̲h̲aʿī [see al-as̲h̲tar ] and himself a soldier attached to the ʿAlid party. It is said that he had already fought at Ṣiffīn [ q.v.] in the ranks of ʿAlī, but his historical importance is based on his action in support of al-Muk̲h̲tār b. Abī ʿUbayd [ q.v.]. In fact he seems to have hesitated before joining the agitator, and the chroniclers themselves consider that it was necessary for the latter to forge a letter which purported to be written by Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyya to Ibrāhīm before the latter agr…

b. al-Ḥakam , Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, son of the first Marwānid caliph by a slave mother, hence half-brother to the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik [ q.v.], Umayyad commander and governor. In 65/684-5, he was sent by his father to al-D̲j̲azīra, probably with the aim of securing Armenia once more, and in the battle of Dayr al-D̲j̲āt̲h̲alīḳ in 72/691 in which ʿAbd al-Malik defeated Muṣʿab b. al-Zubayr, he commanded the advanced guard of the Syrian army. In the following year, ʿAbd al-Malik gave him the governorship of al-D̲j̲azīra and Armen…

, ʿUbayd Allāh (not ʿAbd Allāh, which was the name of his brother) b. Ḳays b. S̲h̲urayk̲h̲ . Arab poet of the Umayyad period. He belonged to the Banū ʿĀmir b. Luʾayy, one of the lesser clans of the Ḳurays̲h̲. He was born at Mecca, perhaps in the twenties (the anecdote Ag̲h̲ānī 3, v, 158, 20 which points to 12/633 is not authentic) and grew up in the Ḥid̲j̲āz. In 37/657 after the battle of Ṣiffīn he moved with some of his kinsmen to al-Raḳḳa in the D̲j̲azīra (Mesopotamia); amongst them was ʿAbd al-Wāḥid b. Abī Saʿd, whose daughter Ruḳayya is the l…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh or Abū ʿĪsā, son of the famous Companion of the Prophet al-Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwām [ q.v.] and brother of the anti-caliph ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr [ q.v.]. Handsome, chivalrous, generous to the utmost ¶ degree of prodigality, he resembled his older brother and the Zubayrid family only in his courage and outbursts of severity in repression. He began his military career at the outset of the caliphate of Marwān b. al-Ḥakam, with an ill-conceived expedition in Palestine. His name has gone down in history chiefly owing to his campaign, in his capa…

, fifth Caliph of the Umayyad line, reigned 65-86/685-705. According to general report he was born in the year 26/646-7, the son of Marwān b. al-Ḥakam [ q.v.], his mother being ʿĀʾis̲h̲a bint Muʿāwiya b. al-Mug̲h̲īra. As a boy of ten he was an eye-witness of the storming of ʿUt̲h̲mān’s house, and, at the age of sixteen Muʿāwiya appointed him to command the Madinian troops against the Byzantines. He remained at Medina until the outbreak of the rebellion against Yazīd I (62-3/682-3). When the Umayyads were expelled by the rebels, he left the town with his ¶ father, but on meeting the Syrian …

, the name of a prominent family from Kūfa. Bis̲h̲r al-Kalbī and his sons al-Sāʾib, ʿUbayd and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān took part in the Battle of the Camel [see al-d̲j̲amal ] on ʿAlī’s side (36/656); al-Sāʾib b. Bis̲h̲r embraced the cause of Muṣʿab b. al-Zubayr and, despite numerous defections in the ¶ ranks of the Kūfans, was slain beside him at Dayr al-D̲j̲āt̲h̲alīḳ [ q.v.] in 71/690 by Warḳāʾ al-Nak̲h̲aʿī (al-Ṭabarī, ed. M. Ibrahim, Cairo 1964, vi, 103, seems to date his death to 67/686 and places it during the battle between Muṣʿab b. al-Zubayr and al-Muk̲h̲tār;…

D̲j̲azīrat Aḳūr or Iḳlīm Aḳūr (for AḲūr or At̲h̲ūr see Yāḳūt, i, 119, 340; ii, 72) is the name used by Arab geographers to denote the northern part of the territory situated between the Tigris and the Euphrates. But the D̲j̲azīra also includes the regions and towns which are across the upper Tigris in the north (Mayyāfāriḳīn, Arzan, Siʿirt) and which lie to the east of the middle stretch of the river (Bāʿaynāt̲h̲ā, the K̲h̲ābūr al-Ḥasaniyya, the two Zāb). In the same way, a str…

Bag̲h̲dād is situated on both banks of the Tigris, at 33° 26 18″ Lat. N. and 44° 23 9″ Long. E. respectively. Founded in the 8th century A.D. it continued to be the centre of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate till its fall, and the cultural metropolis of the Muslim world for centuries. After 1258 it became a provincial centre and remained under the Ottomans the centre of the Bag̲h̲dād wilāyet . In 1921 it became the capital of modern ʿIrāḳ. History . The name Bag̲h̲dād is pre-Islamic, related to previous settlements on the site. Arab authors realise this and as usual look for Persian origins (cf. Maḳdisī, al-B…

, plural of Naṣrānī, rarely Naṣrān, Naṣrāna in the feminine form, a noun which currently denotes Christians in the Muslim Arab world, is used fifteen times in the Ḳurʾān and is interpreted, by the majority of commentators and Arab geographers and lexicographers, as derived from the name of the locality of Nazareth (al-Nāṣira [ q.v.] ) (A. Jeffery, The foreign vocabulary of the Qurʾan , Baroda 1938, 280-1). This designation refers to the name given to Jesus by his contemporaries, who called him Jesus of Nazareth, or the Nazarene, whence his disciples were initial…