, al-Malik al-Nāṣir Abu ’l-Muẓaffar Yūsuf b. Ayyūb ( Saladin ), the founder of the dynasty of the Ayyūbids [ q.v.], and the champion of the d̲j̲ihād against the Crusaders (born 532/1138, died 589/1193). Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, or Saladin as he is normally known in Europe, was a Kurd, whose family originated from Dvīn in Armenia. His father Ayyūb and his uncle S̲h̲īrkūh [ q.v.] found service in the Sald̲j̲ūḳ state, and Saladin was born at Takrīt on the Tigris above Bag̲h̲dād while Ayyūb was acting as governor there. The family transferred its services to Zangī [ q.v.] and then to his son and successo…

[see ṣalāḥ al-dīn ].

, Taḳī ’l-Dīn Abū ʿAmr ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Kurdī al-S̲h̲ahrazūrī , who belonged to the S̲h̲āfiʿī mad̲h̲hab , was born in 577/1181 at S̲h̲arak̲h̲ān, a village in the Irbil district near S̲h̲ahrazūr, and died in Damascus in 643/1245. He studied fiḳh at S̲h̲ahrazūr with his father, who later took him to Mosul where he studied ḥadīt̲h̲ . He continued his studies in a number of centres such as Bag̲h̲dād, Naysābūr, Merv, Damascus, Aleppo, Ḥarrān and Jerusalem, with distinction. Ibn K̲h̲allikān, who studied under him for a ye…

[see ṣalāḥ al-dīn ].

, the fifth ruler of the Turkmen Artuḳid dynasty [ q.v.] in Ḥiṣn Kayfā and most of Diyār Bakr, d. in Rabīʿ I 581/June 1185. He succeeded on his father Ḳara Arslan’s death, in 562/1166-7 according to the chronicles (although numismatic evidence suggests that the latter may have lived till 570/1174-5), having promised his father to continue support for the Zangid ruler Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd’s [ q.v.] d̲j̲ihād against the Franks, a commitment which he in fact honoured by bringing troops to Niṣibīn in 566/1170-1. But after the Zangid’s death in 56…

, the greatest of the mediaeval Nizārī Ismāʿīlī leaders in Syria, d. 588/1192 or 589/1193. Also referred to as Sinān Rās̲h̲id al-Dīn by the Nizārīs, his full name was Rās̲h̲id al-Dīn Sinān b. Salmān (or Sulaymān) b. Muḥammad Abu’ ’l-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī. He was born into an Imāmī S̲h̲īʿī family during the 520s/1126-35, near Baṣra, where he converted to Nizārī Ismāʿīlism in his youth. Subsequently, Rās̲h̲id al-Dīn Sinān went to the central headquarters of the Nizārī daʿwa at Alamūt [ q.v.], in northern Persia, to further his Ismāʿīlī education. There, Sinān became a close compani…

, Ḥasan b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b. Ak̲h̲ī turk (d. 683/1284), favourite disciple and second k̲h̲alīfa of Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī [ q.v.], was born of a family which had come from Urmiya to settle at Konya (Aflākī, Manāḳib al-ʿārifīn , ii, 759; tr. Huart, ii, 242). Since he became a murīd of D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn as a young man and knew S̲h̲ams al-Dīn al-Tabrīzī (d. 642/1244), it may be assumed that he was born in about 623/1226 (cf. op. cit., ii, 738; tr. ii, 223). His father and grandfathers were prominent ak̲h̲īs of Anatolia. Ḥusām al-Dīn lost his father at an early age…

, the eleventh and last Fātimid caliph of Egypt. His name was Abū Muhammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Yūsuf , and was the grandson of the caliph al-Ḥāfiẓ; his father had been killed by the vizier ʿAbbās b. Abi ’l-Futūḥ on the very day of the enthronement of the caliph al-Fāʾiz. Al-ʿĀḍid succeeded this latter, his cousin, a sickly child who died at the age of eleven and a half. He himself came to the throne on 17 Rad̲j̲ab 555/23 July 1160, and was chosen by the all-powerful minister al-Ṣāliḥ Ṭalāʾiʿ [ q.v.], who had been governing Egypt for more than six years, because of his tender age. Al-ʿĀḍid w…

b. Bahāʾ al-Dīn Sulṭān al-ʿulamāʾ Walad b. Ḥusayn b. Aḥmad K̲h̲aṭībī , known by the sobriquet Mawlānā (Mevlânâ), Persian poet and founder of the Mawlawiyya order of dervishes, which was named after him, was born on Rabīʿ I 604/30 September 1207 in Balk̲h̲, and died on 5 D̲j̲umāda II 672/1273 in Ḳonya. The reasons put forward against the above-mentioned date of birth (Abdülbaki Gölpinarli, Mevlânâ Celâleddîn 3, 44; idem, Mevlânâ Şams-i Tabrîzî ile altmiṣ iki yaşinda buluştu , in Şarkiyat Mecmuasi , iii, 153-61; and Bir yazi üzerine , in Tarih Coǧrafya Dünyasi , ii/1…

Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Kātib al-Iṣfahānī , famous stylist and historian, born at Iṣfahān in 519/1125 of a distinguished family to which belonged also the famous kātib al-ʿAzīz, whose biography is given in Ibn K̲h̲allikān. Wafayāt , ed. Wüstenfeld no. 77 (cf., concerning him, Houtsma. Recueil , ii, preface, XIX ff.). He spent his youth in his native town and at Ḳas̲h̲ān, but studied in Bag̲h̲dād, in particular fiḳh , and made a journey to Mosul and other places. When the Sald̲j̲ūḳid sultan Muḥammad II laid siege unsuccessfully to Bag̲h̲dād …

, honorific title of several Zaydī imāms . I. Among the Caspian Zaydīs, this title was borne by 1. al-Nāṣir al-Kabīr al-Uṭrūs̲h̲ [see Ḥasan al-uṭrūs̲h̲ ] and his great-grandson 2. al-Nāṣir al-Ṣag̲h̲īr al-Ḥusayn b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī . The latter gained for himself a dominion beginning in Hawsam, where he could find associations with the earlier period of Zaydī rule. He laid great emphasis on the religious character of Zaydism; he gave out of the state treasury funds to support people who learned the Ḳurʾān by he…

, Abu l’-Yumn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad al-Ḥanbalī al-Maḳdisī, Arab historian, born in Jerusalem in 810/1456. After his studies in Cairo, he was first appointed judge in Ramla, then became ḳaḍī ’l-ḳuḍāt in Jerusalem, which office he held until 922/1516. He died in the town of his birth in 928/1522. He is the author of a commentary on the Ḳurʾān ( Fatḥ al-Raḥmān fī tafsīr al-Ḳurʾān ) in two volumes, of a collection of biographies of Ḥanbalī fuḳahāʾ ( al-Manhad̲j̲ al-aḥmad fī tarād̲j̲īm aṣḥāb al-Imām Aḥmad ), probably also of a guide for the visiting of the Prophet’s tomb in Medina ( Itḥāf al-zāʾ…

Ismāʿīl b. al-Malik al-ʿĀdil, an Ayyūbid prince, who was twice sultan of Damascus for short periods. One of the many sons of al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr [ q.v.], he was probably born just before ca. 600/1203-4, although no precise date has been recorded. His father assigned him Boṣrā and al-Sawād (the area east of Lake Tiberias) as an iḳṭāʿ . He continued to hold these lands under his brother al-Muʿaẓẓam ʿĪsā [ q.v.], although in 622/1225 he was brought to Damascus, temporarily under a cloud, because of his possible involvement in a plot by a local magnate, Ibn al-Kaʿkī, to …

, Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad (reigned 575-622/1180-1225), 34th ʿAbbāsid caliph, was born in 553/1158. Son and successor of al-Mustaḍīʾ bi-Amr Allāh [ q.v.], he had strained relations with his conservative father, who had kept him in seclusion for a while for fear that he might be influenced by harmful innovations. Yet, after his father’s death, he successfully defended his claim to the throne against the court clique. His relations with his ¶ mother, a Turkish slave called Zumurrud K̲h̲ātūn, were more balanced. During al-Mustaḍīʾ’s and al-Nāṣir’s caliphates, she made a n…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. al-Ḥusayn, one of the most celebrated theologians and exegetists of Islam, born in 543/1149 (or perhaps 544) at Rayy. His father, Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn Abu ’l-Ḳāsim, was a preacher ( k̲h̲aṭīb ) in his native town, from whose name comes his son’s appellation, Ibn al-K̲h̲aṭīb. He was also conversant with kalām and, among other works, wrote the G̲h̲āyat al-marām , in which he showed himself a warm partisan of al-As̲h̲ʿarī. Al-Subkī who gives him a brief review ( Ṭabaḳāt al-S̲h̲āfiʿiyya , iv, 285-6) names among the list of his masters…

, Zankid or Zangid sultan and successor to Zankī (d. 565/1174), who was murdered during the siege of Ḳalʿat D̲j̲aʿbar [ q.v.] in Rabīʿ I 541/September 1146. The succession posed a series of problems since there were four heirs: Sayf al-Dīn G̲h̲āzī, the eldest, represented his father at Mawṣil [ q.v.], the second son, Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd, had accompanied his father in the majority of his military operations, the third, Nuṣrat al-Dīn Amīr-Amīrān, was to be governor of Ḥarrān [ q.v.], the fourth son, Ḳuṭb al-Dīn Mawdūd [ q.v.] was to succeed his eldest brother at Mawṣil. There was also …

, Sayf al-Dīn, Zangid prince of al-Mawṣil from 565/1170 to 576/1180. See al-mawṣil , nūr al-dīn , salāḥ al-dīn , zangids .

, Ḳuṭb al-Dīn , Atabeg [see atabak ] of al-Mawṣil. ʿImād al-Dīn Zankī, on his death on 6 Rabīʿ II 541/15 September 1146, left four heirs: of these Mawdūd b. ʿImād al-Dīn Zankī, Ḳuṭb al-Dīn al-Aʿrad̲j̲, the youngest of his sons, was only sixteen years old. The eldest, Sayf al-Dīn G̲h̲āzī represented his father at al-Mawsīl of which Zankī [ q.v.] held only the usufruct; the second son, Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd [ q.v.], twenty-nine years old, accompanied his father in his campaigns; the third, Nuṣrat al-Dīn Amīr-Amīrān was named as heir presumptive when the former was ill, in…

, a title and name of a number of Zaydī imāms of the Yemen. About 250 years after al-Hādī ila ’l-Ḥaḳḳ Yaḥyā, the founder of the Zaydiyya in the Yemen, his direct descendant, al-Mutawakkil ʿala ’llāh Aḥmad, had, between 532/1137 and 566/1170, restored Zaydī territory to its extent in al-Hādī’s time, with Ṣaʿda, Nad̲j̲rān and, for a time, also Zabīd and Ṣanʿāʾ. A generation later (593-614/1197-1217) the mountainous region from Ṣaʿda in the north to D̲h̲amār, south of Ṣanʿāʾ, was again ruled by the Zaydī al-Manṣ…

al-anṣāri , asʿad b. naṣr , minister and poet, hailing from Abzār, south of S̲h̲īrāz. He was in the service of Saʿd b. Zangī, atabeg of Fārs; was sent by his master as an ambassador to Muḥammad Ḵh̲wārizms̲h̲āh, refused the offers which were made to him, succeeded Rukn al-Dīn Salāḥ Kirmānī as minister and held his position until the death of Saʿd. Saʿd’s son and successor, Abū Bakr, had him arrested on the charge of having held a correspondence with the ruler of Ḵh̲wārizm and of having acted as a spy for him. He was imprisoned in the fortress of Us̲h̲kunwān, near Iṣṭak̲h̲r and …