, the main left bank affluent of the Jordan river [see al-urdunn. 1], famed in history as the site of a historic battle between the Arabs and Byzantines. 1. Geography. The Yarmūk flows into the Jordan some 9 km/5 miles to the south of Lake Tiberias, with headwaters on the southwestern slopes of the Ḥawrān [ q.v.] in southern Syria. It follows a deeply-incised valley which nevertheless provides the main access through the eastern wall of the Jordan rift valley, the G̲h̲awr or G̲h̲ōr, to the north-south routes along the western fringes of the Syrian De…

b. Abī waḳḳās al-Zuhrī abū ʿUmar , a Companion of the Prophet and a neph w of the more famous Saʿd b. Abī Waḳḳāṣ [ q.v.]. Converted to Islam on the day of the conquest of Mecca, he distinguished himself at the battle of the Yarmūk, where he lost an eye, and held important commands under his uncle at Ḳādisiyya and Ḏj̲alūlā. where he led the Arab forces. He was killed fighting on the side of ʿAlī at Ṣiffīn. (Ed.) Bibliography Caetani, Annali, index Tabarī, index.

, the last of the G̲h̲assānid dynasts whose personality dominates the scene in the story of Arab-Byzantine relations during the Muslim Conquests and may evidence the resuscitation of the G̲h̲assānid Phylarchate after its destruction during the Persian invasion in A.D. 614. As the ally of Byzantium, D̲j̲abala fought against Muslim arms but lost twice, first at Dūmat al-D̲j̲andal and later at Yarmūk, after which battle he made his exit from military annals. But tradition has remembered him in beautiful anecdotes whether as a Muslim who c…

general in the service of Muʿāwiya. He belonged to the powerful tribe of Sulaym (hence "al-Sulamī"); his mother was a Christian and his father had fought at Uḥud in the ranks of the Ḳurays̲h̲. The son, who does not seem to have belonged to the closest circle of the Prophet, went, probably with the army commanded by Yazīd b. Abī Sufyān, to Syria. In the battle of the Yarmūk he was in charge of a detachment, and from that time he followed faithfully the fortunes of the Umayyads. He thus exposed hi…

b. al-Walīd al-mak̲h̲zūmī , the only surviving son of the famous Arab general. At the age of eighteen he commanded a squadron at the battle of the Yarmūk. Muʿāwiya subsequently appointed him governor of Ḥimṣ and he commanded several of the later Syrian expeditions ¶ into Anatolia. During the civil war, after successfully opposing an ʿIrāḳī expedition into the Ḏj̲azīra. he joined Muʿāwiya at Ṣiffīn and was made standard-bearer. According to the received tradition, Muʿāwiya, fearing that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān might be a rival of Yazīd for the succ…

b. ʿabd allāh al-zubaydī , abū thawr , famous Arab warrior and muk̲h̲aḍram poet. Born of a noble Yamanite family, he is depicted as a fighter of uncommon strength who, armed with his legendary sword al-Ṣamṣāma, took part in many battles during the d̲j̲āhiliyya . In 10/631, he went to Medina and was converted to Islam, without, however, making any radical change in his way of life; on the death of the Prophet, he apostatised and took part in the rebellion of al-Aswad al-ʿAnsī [ q.v.]; taken prisoner in the course of the suppression of the ridda by Abū Bakr, he was free…

, conventionally Zarka or Zerka, a city of modern Jordan, situated 23 km/15 miles to the northeast of the capital ʿAmmān (lat. 32° 04’ N., long. 36° 06’ E., altitude 619 m/2,030 feet). It lies on a plateau bordering the desert and intersected by various small valleys which, in the winter, pour water into the Zarḳāʾ river, the main east-bank tributary of the Jordan after the Yarmūk river. The site is also known for its underground water and springs, recognised by mediaeval geographers and travellers, and Pilgrimage caravans used to halt there to replenish their water supplies. There does not…

b. Rabīʿa , mother of Muʿāwiya; this Meccan woman, who belonged to the clan of the ʿAbd S̲h̲ams (see the list of her maternal ancestors in Muḥ. b. Ḥabīb, Muḥabbar , 19), had mairied as her third husband Abū Sufyān b. Ḥarb, to whom she bore other children besides the future caliph. Traditions hostile to the Umayyads draw an extremely repellant portrait, apparently something of a caricature, of this short, stout woman who quite certainly had a highly passionate temperament and who on different occasions m…

, of the family of Balḥārit̲h̲, of the Ḳuras̲h̲ite tribe of Fihr, one of the early Meccan converts to Islām, and one of the ten Believers to whom Paradise was promised (see al-ʿAs̲h̲ara al-Mubas̲h̲s̲h̲ara ). He took part in the emigration to Abyssinia, and is said to have been distinguished for courage and unselfishness and to have been given the title of amīn by Muḥammad for that reason. He was 41 years of age at the battle of Badr, and took part in the later campaigns, distinguishing himself at Uḥud, and as the commander of severai …

(a. “wolf), the name of a wadi in North Arabia, which runs southeastwards from the fortress of al-Azraḳ, at the southern end of Ḥawrān [ q.v.], to the wells of Maybūʿ (see Musil, Arabia Deserta , 167). It has a length of about 140 km/187 miles and a breadth of 5 to 18 km/13 to 11 miles. Musil ( ibid., 120-1) calls it a depression and “a sandy, marshy lowland, above which protrude low hillocks”. Al-Azraḳ is known for its large, permanent pond. Since ancient times, the wadi has been used as an important trade route. Already King Esarhaddon (699-680 B.C.) …

, district of Transjordania, bounded on the north by. the Yarmūḳ, to the east by the Ḥamād, to the south by the Wādī al-Zarḳāʾ and to the west by the G̲h̲awr, partly corresponding to the old territory of Gilead, and occupied in Roman times by the towns of the Decapolis. The name seems to be of Aramaic origin. A mountanous and wooded district, it was first called Ḏj̲abal Ḏj̲aras̲h̲, later Ḏj̲abal ʿAwf from the name of the turbulent tribe which occupied it in the Fāṭimid period. It was pacified by the amīr ʿIzz al-Dīn Usāma, who, having been g…

b. Mālik al-Tamīmī , a warrior of the early Islamic period who, after the death of the Prophet, joined Sad̲j̲āḥ [ q.v.] for a time and became the lieutenant of K̲h̲ālid b. al-Walīd [ q.v.], taking part in the battle of Buzāk̲h̲a [ q.v.] as early as 11/632. After the capture of al-Ḥīra, he commanded a detachment which won a victory over the Persians in the region of al-Anbār, probably in 12/633. In Rad̲j̲ab 13/August-September 635, he took part in the conquest of Damascus and the following year led a troop of cavalry at the battle of Yarmūk [ q.v.]. He fought with distinction at al-Ḳādisiyya [ q.v.], …

abū muḥammad maʿdīkarib b. ḳays b. maʿdīkarib , of the clan of al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. Muʿāwiya, a chief of Kindain Ḥaḍramawt. The nickname, by which he is most commonly known, means “with unkempt or dishevelled hair”; he is also called, but less frequently, al-As̲h̲ad̲j̲d̲j̲ , “the scar-faced”, and ʿUrf al-Nār , said to be a South-Arabian term for “traitor”. In earlier life he led an expedition against the tribe of Murād, who had murdered his father, but was taken prisoner and ¶ had to pay 3000 camels for his ransom. In 10/631 he was leader of the delegation ( wafd ) which offer…

or ʿamawās , the ancient Emmaus, still marked by a large village, was situated in the plain of Judæa at the foot of the mountains, some 19 miles from Jerusalem, and commanding one of the principal approach routes to the latter. The site of a victory won by Judas Maccabaeus in 166 B.C., it was fortified by the Seleucid general in 160 B.C. and became under Caesar the chief town of a toparchy, only to decline to the size of a small market-town after being burnt by Varus in 4 B.C…

, an Arab tribe which in Umayyad times claimed descent from Kahlān b. Sabaʾ of Yemen and relationship with Lak̲h̲m and ʿĀmila; this certainly corresponded with the prevailing political alliances. However, the North Arab tribes claimed that D̲j̲ud̲h̲ām, Ḳuḍāʿa and Lak̲h̲m were originally of Nizār but had later assumed Yemenī descent. D̲j̲ud̲h̲ām were among the nomads who had settled in pre-Islamic times on the borders of Byzantine Syria and Palestine; they held places like Madyan, ʿAmmān, Maʿān a…

(or Daḥya ) b. K̲h̲alīfa al-Kalbī , Companion of the Prophet and a somewhat mysterious character. He is traditionally represented as a rich merchant of such outstanding beauty that the Angel Gabriel took his features; and, when he arrived at Medina, all the women ( muʿṣir , see LA, root. ʿṣr ) came out to see him (Ḳurʾān, LXII, n, may be an allusion to this occurrence). There is no reason to accept the suggestion put forward by Lammens ( EI 1, s.v.) of some commercial connexion with Muḥammad; we only know that a sudden death put ¶ a stop to a projected marriage between a niece of Diḥya and …

, a district in southern Syria bounded on the west by the Jordan, on the north by the spurs of Hermon, on the east by the Nahr al-ʿAllān and on the south by the Yarmūk. The northern part lies at a certain altitude and presents the appearance of a wild, hilly region, covered with blocks of lava and oak forests which were once magnificent but are now extremely impoverished. The southern part is fairly low-lying and differs but little from the plain of Ḥawrān, with a soil of volcanic detritus, more even and of greater fertility. The territory of Ḏj̲awlān corresponds with the ancient Gaulaniti…

, the Compass Dial, mediaeval fortress in Palestine whose name has been corrupted into “Coquet” by the Frankish authors who also cite it by the name of Belvoir. Constructed not far from Mount Tabor (al-Ṭūr) on a promontory 297 m above the Valley of the Jordan and situated 4 km to the south of the Lake of Tiberias and 14 km to the north of Baysān [ q.v.], a watchpost in the G̲h̲awr, it controlled the province of ¶ the Jordan and guarded the fords into Galilee, notably below the confluence of the Yarmūk, the D̲j̲isr al-Mad̲j̲āmiʿ (Bridge of the Confluence). The castle presents a plan of Byzantine…

, the ancient Paneas, owed its name to the presence in the vicinity of a sanctuary of Pan, established in a grotto and sanctifying one of the main sources of the Jordan. The present place, situated 24 km. north-west of al-Ḳunayṭra, on the road running along the southern frontier of the Syrian Republic, occupies a pleasant site, with plentiful water and rich vegetation, in a smiling valley of Mt. Hermon. Its neighbourhood, moreover, has always been praised by Arab writers for its fertility, and especially for its lemons, cotton and rice cultivation. The town, though doubtless possessing…

, “depression”, “plain encircled by higher ground”, a geographical term denoting various regions in the Muslim countries. 1. The best known is the G̲h̲awr in Palestine, which corresponds with the deep hollow, called Aulôn in the Septuagint, through which the Jordan flows, between Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea, and which is merely a section of the central Syro-Palestinian rift-valley. At first, the G̲h̲awr consists of a plain, overshadowed by the mountains of Samaria on the one side and Mount ʿAd̲j̲lūn on …