, Dimas̲h̲ḳ al-S̲h̲ām or simply al-S̲h̲ām , (Lat. Damascus, Fr. Damas) is the largest city of Syria. It is situated at longitude 36° 18′ east and latitude 33° 30′ north, very much at the same latitude as Bag̲h̲dād and Fās, at an altitude of nearly 700 metres, on the edge of the desert at the foot of Diabal Ḳāsiyūn, one of the massifs of the eastern slopes of the Anti-Lebanon. To the east and the north-east the steppe extends as far as the Euphrates, while to the south it merges with Arabia. A hundred or more kilometres from the Mediterranean behind the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, a doubl…

[see al-ḳazwīnī ].

[see dimas̲h̲ḳ ].

, the author of a work on the Raids ( mag̲h̲āzī [ q.v.]), used by such later authors as Ibn Sayyid al-Nās and al-D̲h̲ahabī. His given name was Muḥammad. His kunya is variously given as Abū ʿAbd Allāh or Abū Aḥmad, and his grandfather’s name as Saʿīd or ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Born in Damascus in 150/767, he died there on Thursday, 25 Rabīʿ II 233/8 December 847 (or in D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 232/July-August 847, or in 234/848), having been the tax collector for the G̲h̲ūṭa under al-Maʾmūn. As a historian, he stand…

, name given in Syria to abundantly irrigated areas of intense cultivation surrounded by arid land. A g̲h̲ūṭa is produced by the co-operative activity of a rural community settled near to one or several perennial springs, whose water is used in a system of canalization to irrigate several dozen or several hundred acres. Each g̲h̲ūṭa has its own particular system of irrigation based on cycles of varying length. The soil in a g̲h̲ūṭa is usually laid out in platforms which form terraces of watered zones, the level sections of which are supported by stone walls two to s…

, name of an Og̲h̲uz tribe ( boy ). They are mentioned in the Og̲h̲uz-nāme (the account of the life of the Og̲h̲uz people before they embraced Islam, see F. Sümer, Oǧuzlar’a ait destanî mahiyette eserler , in Ank. Ün. DTCFD , xvii/3-4), where it is said that some prominent beys of the Og̲h̲uz rulers belonged to This tribe. According to the Syrian historian S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Muḥammad al-D̲j̲azarī (658/1260-739/1338), the Artuk [ q.v.] dynasty, ruling the Mardin-Diyārbekir region, belonged to the Döger tribe (F. Sümer, op. cit., 405, n. 171), which must therefore have taken part in th…

(D̲j̲abal), mountain which forms part of the Anti-Lebanon and rises to the northwest of Damascus [see dimas̲h̲ḳ ]. Two tributaries of the Baradā [ q.v.], the Nahr T̲h̲awra and the Nahr Yazīd, up until the middle of the 20th century used to irrigate the orchards of Nayrab, which rose in tiers on its southern flank. This mountain has a sacred character because God is said to have spoken to it and also due to ancient traditions which relate to some grottoes opening in the midst of the slope. Three of them, Muṣallāt al-K̲h̲iḍr, Mag̲h̲ārat al-D̲j̲awʿ and…

, the name of various places in the Middle East. These include: 1. A settlement of Diyār Muḍar in al-Ḏj̲azīra, placed by Yāḳūt in the district of al-Ruhā [ q.v.] or Edessa and said to have been laid out by the ʿAbbāsid governor of Syria ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ṣāliḥ. He also quotes a (now lost) history of Mawṣil by the Ḵh̲ālidiyyāni [ q.v.] that the caliph al-Mahdī began the work of fortification there. Bibliography Yāḳūt, Buldān, ed. Beirut, iii, 389-90. 2. A settlement to the north of the old city of Damascus, on the slopes of Mount Ḳāsiyūn [ q.v.]. Yāḳūt describes it as a large village with markets and ¶ a …

, the name currendy given to a town of Syria, and also to an administrative region ( minṭaḳa idāriyya ), to a smaller administrative unit ( nāḥiya ) composed of eight villages and six farms ( mazraʿa ), and to a river which flows from the north through the town. Various fanciful etymologies have been suggested from zabad , some of them alluding to its fertility. Whatever the case, Zabadānī was and still is known for the abundance of its apple trees. Under the Byzantines, the town of Zabadānī was attached to the bis̲h̲opric of the town of Abilla in Sūḳ Wādī Baradā, but after t…

( Čobanids ), a family of Mongol amīr s claiming descent from a certain Sūrg̲h̲ān ¶ S̲h̲īra of the Suldūz tribe who had once saved the I life of Čingiz Ḵh̲ān. The most notable members of this family were: (1) Amīr Čūbān . An able and experienced military commander, Amīr Čūbān, according to Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī, fought his first battle in Rabīʿ II 688/April-May 1289 ( Tāʾrīk̲h̲-i Guzīda (GMS), 588); thereafter he served with distinction under the Ilk̲h̲āns Arg̲h̲ūn, Gayk̲h̲ātū, G̲h̲āzān and Uld̲j̲āytū [ qq.v.]. He was appointed amīr al-umarāʾ by Abū Saʿīd in 717/…

, al-Hilālī , Arabic poet of the 1st/7th century. Aṣmaʿī (Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīk̲h̲ Dimas̲h̲ḳ , iv, 457) calls him a poet of (early) Islamic times, whose language is correct, but he does not consider him a classic. Marzubānī ( Muwas̲h̲s̲h̲aḥ , 80), D̲j̲umaḥī ( Ṭabaḳāt , 113) and Ibn Ḳutayba ( S̲h̲iʿr , 230) call him islāmī . Amongst his poems is a dirge on the murder of ʿUt̲h̲mān (Ibn ʿAsākir, 458) and verses addressed to the caliph Marwān. Later authorities, however, thought that he was a companion of the Prophet and died in the reign of ʿUt̲h̲mān. His poems ( s̲h̲iʿr ) were …

, Abū ʿUmar ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿĀmir al-Yaḥṣubī , “reader” of the Ḳurʾān whose ḳirāʾa [ q.v.] is counted among the seven canonical “readings”. Of south Arabian origin, he belonged to the first class of the Tābiʿūn [ q.v.], his guarantors being ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān, Abu ’l-Dardāʾ [ q.v.] and other less famous Companions. He settled in Damascus, where he was appointed ḳāḍī , by al-Walīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik and chief of police by Yazīd b. al-Walīd and Ibrāhīm b. al-Walīd; his “reading” was adopted by the inhabitants of Damascus. He died in 118/736…

, Abu ’l-Farad̲j̲ ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Kātib , secretary of the chancery, man of letters, poet and physician, a native of Rayy but educated at Nis̲h̲āpūr, where he was introduced to Greek science. He belonged at first to the dīwān of ʿAḍud al-Dawla, for whom he wrote a number of letters; he appears at Arrad̲j̲ān in 354/965 during the visit of al-Mutanabbi, and he seems to have remained in the service of the Buwayhids until his death, probably in 410/1019 rather than 420/1029. In addition to a Dīwān , which is in part preserved in later anthologies, he was the …

(a.), a Fāṭimid administrative term. It denoted an intermediary between the Fāṭimid ruler— the Imām—and the ruling establishment and people. The title of wāsiṭa conferred on chief administrators implied more limited powers and lower rank than that of vizier. The terms wāsiṭa/wasāṭa are attested in 5th/11th-century literary and documentary sources. The first person upon whom it was bestowed was the Kutāmī chief Ibn ʿAmmār, at the time of al-Ḥākim’s coronation. Several administrators during the rule of al-Ḥākim (386-411/996-1021) and al-Ẓāhir (411-27/1021-36) [ q.vv.] were appo…

Pas̲h̲a (1272-1343/1855-1924), late Ottoman statesman and close counselor of Sultan ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd II [ q.v.]. Born in Damascus (hence his nickname “ʿArab”) as the son of a wealthy local notable, Hōlō Pas̲h̲ā, he was educated in his hometown and in Beirut and became proficient in Turkish and French. Counted among the reformers, he edited a weekly in Arabic and Turkish, named Dimas̲h̲ḳ . Moving to Istanbul, he eventually joined the ranks of the chamberlains ( ḳurenā ) of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd and then became a Second Secretary ( ikind̲j̲i kātib ) of the Mābeyn [ q.v.]. He gained great influence ¶ at co…

b. fātik b. al-ak̲h̲ram al-asadī , Arab poet of the Umayyad period, son of the Companion of the Prophet Ḵh̲uraym al-Nāʿim, whose ḥadīt̲h̲s he has handed down. After settling at Kūfa, he composed, like many of the poets of that town g̲h̲azal poems, but also panegyrics on the Umayyad princes ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and Bis̲h̲r, son of Marwān; although he contracted tubercular leprosy ( abraṣ ), his poetry allowed him to enjoy their intimate friendship, and this favour won him the surname of k̲h̲alīl al-k̲h̲ulafāʾ (the friend of caliphs). In some of his poems he touch…

, the name of two tenth-century historians, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Ḏj̲aʿfar (b. 282/895-6, d. 362/972-3) and his son, Abū Manṣūr Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh (327/939-398/1007). ʿAbd Allāh’s great-grandfather had been brought to the ʿIrāḳ from Farg̲h̲āna and had become a Muslim under al-Muʿtaṣim. ʿAbd Allāh himself was a student of the great Ṭabarī, whose works he transmitted, and he achieved high rank in the army. ¶ He went to Egypt where his son, it seems, was born, and he and his family remained there. He wrote a continuation of al-Ṭabarī’s historical work, entitled al-Ṣila or al-Mud̲h…

, Abū Sulaymān Ayyūb b. Zayd , of the Zayd Manāt (al-Ḳirriyya was probably the name of his mother or of one of his grandmothers), is presented as an illiterate Bedouin whose eloquence, however, became proverbial to the extent of eclipsing the fame of Saḥbān Wāʾil [ q.v.]. Tradition relates that he lived in the entourage of al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ [ q.v.], and adab books contain discourses, generally rhymed, which he is said to have given on various occasions or in reply to questions from his master. He is reported however to have joined the party of Ibn al-As̲h̲ʿat̲h̲ [ q.v.], drawing up his lett…

, with the laḳab sayf al-dawla , ruler of Ḥimṣ and Afāmiya in the late 5th/11th century. He was ¶ accused of various misdeeds, including brigandage, and is said, during a siege of Salamiyya, to have thrown the S̲h̲arīf Ibrāhīm al-Hās̲h̲īmī against the tower from a mangonel. In 483/1090, complaints were sent to the Sultan Maliks̲h̲āh, who ordered his brother Tutus̲h̲, the ruler of Damascus, and other rulers of Syrian cities to proceed against him. A joint expedition captured Ḥimṣ, and K̲h̲alaf was sent in an iron c…

, 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…