(a.), poetry. 1. In Arabic. (a) The pre-modern period. It is the supreme ornament of Arab culture and its most authentically representative form of discourse. The ideas articulated by poetry and the emotional resonances which it conveys earn it, even in the present day, where numerous new literary forms are in competition with it, the approval of scholars and the populace alike. Despite the phonetic resemblance, s̲h̲iʿr is totally unconnected with the Hebrew s̲h̲īr , the ʿayn is a “hard” consonant which persists in the roots common to the two langu…

5. In Malay and in Indonesian. In line with their strong preference for theology and Ṣūfī mysticism over literature and philology, the interest of the Muslims of the Malay-Indonesian world in Arabo-Persian s̲h̲iʿr has been predominantly drawn by religious poetry as found in the Arabic ḳaṣīda and its derivative verse forms. It was initially mainly in the north Sumatran kingdom of Aceh [see atjeh ]— in the early 17th century the dominant power in the region around the Straits of Malacca and an important centre of Islamic learning—that thi…

[see asad ].

( ca. 1823-79), Amīr of Afg̲h̲ānistān 1863-79. He was the fifth son and successor of Amīr Dūst Muḥammad (d. 9 June 1863). His mother, K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a, was both Dust Muḥammad’s favourite wife and a Bārakzay (daughter of Raḥmat Allāh K̲h̲ān Popalzay) and probably for these reasons he was nominated heir following the death of his full brother, G̲h̲ulām Ḥaydar, on 2 July 1858, having previously served as governor of G̲h̲aznī. In 1863 S̲h̲īr ʿAlī’s claims were opposed by his elder half-brothers, Muḥammad Afḍal…

[see navāʾī ].

[see nis̲h̲ān . 1].

[see mīr ʿalī s̲h̲īr nawāʾī ].

, Niẓām al-Dīn ʿAlī S̲h̲īr, later called Mīr ʿAlī S̲h̲īr or ʿAlī S̲h̲īr Beg, with the pen-name ( tak̲h̲alluṣ ) of Nawāʾī (844-906/1441-1501), outstanding 9th/15th century Čag̲h̲atāy poet and important Central Asian cultural and political figure of the reign of the Tīmūrid sulṭān Ḥusayn Bāyḳarā (873-911/1469-1506 [ q.v.]). He was born in Harāt (Herat) on 17 Ramaḍān 844/9 February 1441, the scion of a cultured Turkic family of Uyg̲h̲ūr bak̲h̲s̲h̲īs, hereditary chancellery scribes, who had long been in the service of the Tīmūrid family. ʿAlī S̲h̲īr’s father, G̲h̲iyā…

, Farīd al-Dīn , son of Miyān Ḥasan Sūr, the founder of a line of Dihlī Sultans, the Sūrīs [ q.v.], which ruled during the interval between the first and second reigns of the Mug̲h̲al Humāyūn [ q.v.], sc. 947-62/1540-55, S̲h̲īr S̲h̲āh’s own reign spanning 947-52/1540-5. The Sūrs were a small Afg̲h̲ān tribe from Rōh [ q.v.], the north-west frontier region of India. His father Miyān Ḥasan seems to have been in the service of one of the leading nobles of the Lōdī Sultans of Dihlī, the K̲h̲ān-i Aʿzam ʿUmar Sarwānī and then from 901/1496 was in D̲j̲awnpur [ q.v.], where he received the pargana …

[see germiyān-og̲h̲ullari̊ ].

[see bannāʿī ].

[see s̲h̲iʿr ].

[see ʿalī s̲h̲īr nawāʾī ].

[see adab ; ʿarabiyya ; g̲h̲azal ; madīḥ ; maḳāma ; mart̲h̲iya ; s̲h̲iʿr ; taʾrīk̲h̲ , etc.]

[see abū Ḥayya al-numayrī in Suppl., and add to the Bibl. there: Y. al-D̲j̲ubūrī, S̲h̲iʿr Abī Ḥayya al-Numayrī, Damascus 1975; R.Ṣ. al-Tuwayfī, S̲h̲iʿr Abī Ḥayya al-Numayrī, in al-Mawrid, iv/1 (1975), 131-52 (55 fragments), with the additions of S. al-G̲h̲ānimī, in ibid., vi/2 (1977), 311-12. See also Sezgin, GAS, ii, 464-5, ix, 288].

, a fortress in the Jhelum District of the Pand̲j̲āb province of Pākistān (lat. 32° 55′ N., long. 73° 48′ E.), 16 km/10 miles to the northwest of Jhelum town. It was built by S̲h̲īr S̲h̲āh Sūr [ q.v.] in 949/1542 after his victory over the Mug̲h̲al Humāyūn [ q.v.] and named after S̲h̲ēr S̲h̲āh’s other fortress in Bihār, Rōhtāsgaŕh [ q.v.]. (ed.) Bibliography Imperial gazetteer of India 2, xxi, 332.

, the fourth son of S̲h̲īr ʿAlī, Amīr of Afg̲h̲ānistān, and brother of Yaʿḳūb Ḵh̲ān. Like all rulers of Afg̲h̲ānistān, S̲h̲īr ʿAlī had trouble with his sons. When, in 1873, he nominated his favourite son ʿAbd Allāh Ḏj̲ān as his heir-apparent, Ayyūb Ḵh̲ān fled to Persia. In 1879, when Yaʿḳūb Ḵh̲ān succeeded S̲h̲īr ʿAlī as amïr, Ayyūb Ḵh̲ān returned to Afg̲h̲ānistān and was appointed governor of Harāt. Towards the end of the Second Afg̲h̲ān War (1878-80) Lord Lytton’s government selected a Sadōzai prince, named S̲h̲īr ʿAlī, as the wālī of Ḳandahār. From this pos…

or Sūrī dynasty, a line of Dihlī Sultans (947-62/1540-55) founded by the Afg̲h̲ān commander S̲h̲īr S̲h̲āh Sūr b. Miyān Ḥasan [ q.v.], who had been in the service of the preceeding Lōdī sultans [ q.v.]. This brief Indian dynasty’s period of rule spanned the interval between the first reign of the Mug̲h̲al Humāyūn [ q.v.] (937-47/1530-40) and his second reign and the final consolidation of Mug̲h̲al rule (962/1555). From a base in Bihār, S̲h̲īr S̲h̲āh in the 1530s made himself master of northern India, including Bengal, and twice repelled invasions from Agra by Hum…

the name generally given to two poets of Sayf al-Dawla’s [ q.v.] entourage, the two inseparable brothers abū ʿut̲h̲mān saʿd / saʿīd (d. 350/961) and abū bakr muḥammad (d. 380/990), sons of Hās̲h̲im b. Saʿīd b. Waʿla. They came originally from a village of the region of al-Mawṣil called al-K̲h̲ālidivva (Yāḳūt, ii, 390), and possibly lived for some time in Baṣra (Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ , xi, 208 affirms this and attributes to Abū ʿUt̲h̲mān the ethnic designation of al-Baṣrī), but became celebrated above all as the librarians of Sayf al-Dawla, to …

, 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 …