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, “the Island of the Arabs”, the name given by the Arabs to the Arabian Peninsula. ¶ (i) preliminary remarks Although the Peninsula may not be the original cradle of the Arab people,, they have lived there for thousands of years and regard it in a very special sense as their homeland. For students of Islam, Western Arabia occupies a unique position as the land in which the Prophet Muḥammad was born, lived, and died. It was there that the inspiration of Allāh descended upon the Prophet, and to this Holy Land come ma…

, the birthplace and still the spiritual centre of Islam, is the north-western part of the Arabian Peninsula. As the site of the Kaʿba, as the home of the Prophet Muḥammad and the scene of Allāh’s revelations to him ( manzil al-waḥy ), and as the capital district of the early Islamic state, al-Ḥid̲j̲āz is for Muslims as much the Holy Land ( al-bilād al-muḳaddasa ) as Palestine is for Jews and Christians. Muslims are, in fact, even more zealous in guarding the inviolate character of their chief shrines; the areas surrounding Mecca (Makka)…

a town in Ḥaḍramawt under the eastern wall of Wādī al-Kasr, just north of the confluence of the three valleys of ʿAmd, Dawʿan [ q.v.], and al-ʿAyn. The town is dominated by a large castle and a watchtower on the heights above. The population, reckoned by Ingrams to number 1,500, has a strong Indonesian infusion. The leading citizens are of the family of Bā Wazīr; there are also descendants of Badr Bū Ṭuwayriḳ, the founder of Kat̲h̲īrī power in Ḥaḍramawt. Ḥawra is, nevertheless, a Ḳuʿayṭi enclave in Kat̲h̲īrī territory,…

, the name of a number of towns in Arabia, the more important of which will be cited here. Those lying in the southern part of the peninsula contain the shrines of famous saints (see the article immediately preceding). Ḥawṭat al-Ḳaṭn, under the south wall of Wādī Ḥaḍramawt some 20 km. west of S̲h̲ibām, belongs to the Ḳuʿayṭī sultanate of al-S̲h̲iḥr and al-Mukallā, the paramount state of the eastern British Protectorate of South Arabia, and the palace there has served as the residence of the Ḳuʿa…

, a tribe which has played an important role in the history of the Ibāḍiyya [ q.v.] in ʿUmān. Descendants of Yaḥmad, a branch of al-Azd [ q.v.], members of the tribe migrated to ʿUmān in pre-Islamic times and established themselves in a valley which came to bear their name. Wādī Banī K̲h̲arūṣ runs down from the heights of the western mountain range of al-Ḥad̲j̲ar to join Wādī al-Farʿ before debouching on the plain of al-Bāṭina and then ¶ into the Gulf of ʿUmān. On the right bank not far below the juncture of the two valleys is the famous Ibāḍī stronghold of al-Rustāḳ [ q.v.]. Yaḥmad provided most of…

is properly the name of a pariah tribe with its main centre in northwestern Arabia, but Hutaym is also used imprecisely at times as a designation for any of the pariah tribes in the eastern Arab lands. The definite article prefixed to the name Hutaym in some Arabic and Western sources is incorrect; the initial radical is h, not ḥ as in EI 1, iv, 512; the usual pronunciation in Arabia is ihtēm ; and the plural is Hitmān rather than the forms given in EI 1, ii, 348. None of the many versions explaining the origin and lineage of Hutaym seems particularly plausible. About the only state…

, a large confederation of tribes in the highlands of northern Yaman. For well over two millennia the confederation has kept its identity and territory with little change. The article on the confederation by J. Schleifer in EI 1, based in the main on al-Hamdānī’s survey (4th/10th century) and on E. Glaser’s visit to the land of Ḥās̲h̲id in 1884, sets forth many details not repeated here. Since the dawn of history the confederation has occupied a large part of the region between Ṣanʿāʾ and Ṣaʿda, with Ḥās̲h̲id generally established on the western side and Bakīl …

(also Barahūt or Balahūt), a wādī in Ḥaḍramawt, in one wall of which is the famous Biʾr Barhūt, now known to be a cave rather than a well. The wādī, which lies east of the town of Tarīm, empties into al-Masīla, the lower stretch of Wādī Ḥaḍramawt, from the south. At the mouth of Barhūt is Ḳabr Hūd [see hūd ], the most sacred shrine in southern Arabia, which is the object of a ziyāra every S̲h̲aʿbān. Early Islamic traditions describe Biʾr Barhūt as the worst well on earth, haunted by the souls of infidels. Barhūt probably came to be known throughout Arabia because of its …

, a dynasty based in al-Aḥsāʾ [ q.v.] in eastern Arabia in the 9th-10th/15th-16th centuries. The Banū D̲j̲abr descended from ʿĀmir b. Rabīʿa b. ʿUḳayl. The founder of the dynasty was Sayf b. Zāmil b. D̲j̲abr, who supplanted the D̲j̲arwānids of ʿUḳayl [see al-ḳaṭīf ]. Sayf’s brother and successor Ad̲j̲wad was born in the desert in the region of al-Aḥsāʾ and al-Ḳaṭīf in Ramaḍān 821/October 1418. Ad̲j̲wad in his fifties was strong enough to become involved in ¶ the politics of Hormuz on the other side of the Gulf. He told the Medinan historian al-Samhūdī how he had visited …

a colloquial variant of the classical ik̲h̲āwa (“brotherliness”), is a term formerly used in the Arabian Peninsula for payments made in return for the right to enter alien territory and for protection while staying there. Whenever there was no central authority strong enough to guarantee freedom of transit for all, travellers or wanderers coming into the dīra or range of a powerful tribe would hand over k̲h̲āwa , which usually consisted of livestock such as g̲h̲anam , or foodstuffs such as ghee, in amounts determined by negotiations. Refusal by merchant caravans to pay k̲h̲āwa could lea…

(sometimes Dūʿan), one of the principal southern tributaries of Wādī Ḥaḍramawt. Dawʿan, a deep narrow cleft in al-D̲j̲awl, runs c. 100 km. almost due north to join the main wādī opposite the town of Haynan. The precipitous walls of Dawʿan are c. 300 m. high; its towns nestle against the lower slopes with their palm groves lying in the valley bed below. The valley is formed by the confluence of two branches, al-Ayman (pronounced layman ) and al-Aysar (pronounced laysar ), with al-Ayman often reckoned an integral part of Dawʿan proper. Among the cluster …

, the central district of Nad̲j̲d. Originally applied to the long mountainous, barrier Ṭuwayḳ [ q.v.], the name al-ʿĀriḍ is still very commonly used in this sense. In a more restricted sense it refers to the central part of the barrier, the district between al-Ḵh̲ard̲j̲ to the south and al-Maḥmal to the north. On the west al-ʿĀriḍ is bounded by the western escarpment of Ṭuwayḳ and the district of al-Baṭīn below it, in which lie Ḍarmā, al-G̲h̲aṭg̲h̲aṭ, etc. On the east Wādi ’l-Sulayy, the escarpment of Ḏj̲āl Hīt, and the land of al-ʿArama separate al-ʿĀriḍ from al-Dahnāʾ. The district is tra…

(“the Brothers”), Arab tribesmen joining a religious and military movement which had its heyday in Arabia from 1330 to 1348/1912-30 under the rule of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ¶ Āl Suʿūd, popularly known as Ibn Suʿūd [see suʿūd, āl ]. The movement, inspired by a resurgence of the Wahhābiyya , bore a strong resemblance to the original welling up of Islam among the tribes of Arabia in the t/h century. In both cases the strength of tribal ties, the amazingly rapid spread of religious fervour in an attempt to f…

, the name of a wadi, a port, and a muḳāṭaʿa (district or province) on the Red Sea in south-western Saudi Arabia. The classical form, D̲j̲āzān, is still often used, especially by writers from the province itself. Variant pronunciations are Ḏj̲ē-Ḏj̲ī-, D̲j̲ō-, and rarely Zē-(among the tribe of the Masāriḥa). ¶ The form Qīzān, which occurs on many maps, is spurious; it is said to be the plural of ḳawz (sand hill), whereas the plural of this word is actually aḳwāz . The name appears to have belonged originally to the wadi, which rises in D̲j̲abal Rāziḥ and the territory of K̲h̲a…

( al-Hawās̲h̲im ), the dynasty of Ḥasanid S̲h̲arīfs who ruled Mecca almost without interruption from the 4th/10th century until 1343/1924. After the First World War the dynasty provided kings for Syria and Iraq, which later became republics, and gave its name to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (see following article). The eponym of the dynasty was Hās̲h̲im b. ʿAbd Manāf [ q.v.], the great-grandfather of the Prophet. The majority of the S̲h̲īʿa recognized as their Imāms descendants of ʿAlī’s martyred younger son al-Ḥusayn. Descendants of the elder son al-Ḥasan f…

, a well in the environs of Mecca. Although the well was famous in early Islamic times, the name no longer occurs in the Meccan area. Available sources fail to show whether Biʾr Maymūn has been abandoned or is still in use under another name. The location of the ancient well is also uncertain. Much of the evidence places it between the Great Mosque and Minā, somewhat closer to the latter. The account given by al-Ṭabarī, iii, 456, of the death of the Caliph al-Manṣūr at Biʾr Maymūn in 158/775 indicates that the well lay inside the Sacred Zone ( al-Ḥaram ) and suggests that …

(pl. Ḥawās̲h̲ib), a South Arabian tribe and sultanate. The land of the tribe, north of Aden in the western British Protectorate of South Arabia, is a rough quadrilateral with one of the shorter sides abutting on the Yaman, whence the land extends southeastwards to the Faḍlī sultanate [ q.v.], which cuts it off from the sea. North of the Ḥaws̲h̲abī sultanate are the ʿĀmirī and ʿAlawī states [ qq.v.], while to the south lies the ʿAbdalī state [ q.v.] of Laḥd̲j̲ with its dependent Ṣubayḥī tribe [ q.v.]. The Ḥaws̲h̲abī sultanate is of strategic importance for its command of the main r…

, banū (sing. K̲h̲aḍīrī). a generic term in Nad̲j̲d [ q.v.] for Arabs of dubious ancestry, i.e. not recognised as descendants of either ʿAdnān or Ḳaḥṭān [see d̲j̲azīrat al-ʿarab. vi. Ethnography]. The derivation of the term is uncertain. ¶ In any case, it is not to be taken as the name of a tribe, though there are sections of Banū K̲h̲aḍīr in various towns of Nad̲j̲d (see the tentative list in Lorimer, ii, 1004). Many of Banū K̲h̲aḍīr are tillers of the soil for Arabs of pure descent who own the land they work. Rarely is a K̲h̲aḍīrī himself a landowner. Banū K̲h̲aḍīr …

(singular: Dawsarī), a large tribe based in central Arabia. The Dawāsir are remarkable for the way in which many of them have spread abroad and won success in areas and endeavours remote from their original environment, while at the same time even the settled elements among them have retained an unusually strong sentiment of tribal solidarity and attachment to the mores of their Bedouin forebears. Whatever the origins of the tribe, the Dawāsir became primarily identified with Wādī al-Dawāsir in southern Nad̲j̲d (the closest of the populated districts there to…

, a valley in Nad̲j̲d, the northernmost of those cutting through the western wall of the cuesta of Ṭuwayḳ. It is a true wādī with a strong flood whenever there is enough rain. The valley forms the dividing line between the district of Sudayr to the north and the district of al-Maḥmal to the south. Its head ( farʿa ) is in the low ground west of Ṭuwayḳ in the vicinity of the oasis of al-Ḳaṣab, south of which there is a large salt pan ( mamlaḥa or sabk̲h̲a ). After passing north of the hills of al-Bakarāt (pl. of bakra=she-camel 3-5 years old), the valley goes through the escarpment of Ṭuwayḳ by…

, a large oasis in Saudi Arabia on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf. 1. Geography and demography. The oasis fronts on Tārūt Bāy, named after the island facing its centre. Although al-Ḳaṭīf was for centuries a seaport of considerable importance, it is now, due to the shallowness of its waters, used only by small craft. Most of the maritime traffic had been diverted to the oil-shipping port of Raʾs Tannūra (Ras Tanura) on the narrow peninsula which forms the north side of the bay and to the commercial port of al-Dammām [ q.v.] at the southern extremity of the bay. The oasis stretches about 2…

(commonly written Abū Ḏh̲abī), a town (54° 22′ E. long., 24° 29′ N. lat.) and s̲h̲ayk̲h̲dom on the Trucial Coast of Arabia. The population of the town, the only settlement of any size in the s̲h̲ayk̲h̲dom, is several thousand. The most prominent structure is the ruler’s fortresslike palace. The town is said to have been founded about 1174-5/1761 by Banī Yās [ q.v.], a tribe then ranging in the interior of al-Ẓafra [ q.v.]. No evidence points ¶ to any earlier settlement on the site, which lies on the seaward side of a triangular island separated from the mainland by a nar…

, a district in the Yaman mountains southwest of Ṣanʿāʾ. The district, which is divided into al-Ḥayma al-K̲h̲ārid̲j̲iyya (Outer or Western al-Ḥayma) and al-Ḥayma al-Dāk̲h̲iliyya (Inner or Eastern al-Ḥayma), straddles the main route to Ṣanʿāʾ from the seaport of al-Ḥudayda. Ascending from Tihāma, one passes through the district of Ḥarāz [ q.v.] to reach al-Ḥayma. Manāk̲h̲a, the capital of Ḥarāz, lies ca. 2300 m. above sea level. Eastwards the way drops some 800 m. into the sink or graben of Mafḥaḳ, named after the main town of Outer al-Ḥayma. Glaser identi…

, tribe with its main centre in northwestern Saudi Arabia and southern Jordan. The tribal range extends from the vicinity of al-Karak in the north to the vicinity of Taymāʾ [ q.v.] in the south, and from the Red Sea in the west to Wādī al-Sirḥān and al-Ḏj̲awf [ qq.v.] in the east. The eastern part of this range is properly the homeland of Banū ʿAṭiyya, with whom the Ḥuwayṭāt as good allies share watering and grazing rights. This whole area corresponds in a general way to that occupied by the tribes of ʿUd̲h̲ra and D̲j̲ud̲h̲ām [ qq.v.] in the late D̲j̲āhiliyya and the early days of Islam [see the map in EI…

, a town about 30 years old some 20 km. south of Kuwayt City. During the early days of exploration for oil in Kuwayt, the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), then owned in equal shares by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later renamed British Petroleum) and by the Gulf Oil Corporation of the United States, established its base camp at Magwa (al-Makwa) not far north-west of the ridge known as Dhahr (al-Ẓahr), which with an elevation of ca. 120 m. is one of the few fairly high places in the state. In 1356/1938 KOC discovered oil south of the ridge at Burgan (Burḳān), destined to bec…

, a district in Nad̲j̲d [ q.v.], the central province of Saudi Arabia. Al-K̲h̲ard̲j̲ stretches from al-ʿĀriḍ [ q.v.] in the north southwards to the area east of the oasis of al-Ḥawṭa [ q.v.] in Wādī Burayk (Wādī ’l-Ḥawṭa). To the west the crags of ʿUlayya, a section of the range of Ṭuwayḳ [ q.v.], rise above the vale of al-K̲h̲ard̲j̲, which is closed in on the east by the steppe desert of al-Bayāḍ. As the confluence of many wādīs (also called s̲h̲aʿībs ), al-K̲h̲ard̲j̲ is one of the most fertile places in Saudi Arabia. Wādī Ḥanīfa (classical al-ʿIrḍ) and …

, a tribe of Northern Arab descent in the vicinity of Mecca and al-Ṭāʾif. Belonging to the branch of Muḍar known as K̲h̲indif. Hud̲h̲ayl was closely related to Kināna and consequently to Ḳurays̲h̲ [ qq.v.]. Since early times ¶ Hud̲h̲ayl has occupied much of the territory immediately west and east of Mecca and on up into the mountains towards al-Ṭāʾif; there is no tradition of its having migrated here from elsewhere. This territory, which has been called “The heart of Ḥid̲j̲āz”, includes the valley of Baṭn Marr or Marr al-Ẓahrān (mod…

(sing. D̲j̲unaybī), one of the leading tribes of Oman. Apparently at one time the strongest of all the Bedouin tribes there, the D̲j̲anaba still number enough nomadic members to rank as peers of the Durūʿ [ q.v.] and Āl Wahība [ q.v.] in the desert. The main divisions of the D̲j̲anaba are the Mad̲j̲āʿila (sing. Mad̲j̲ʿalī, pronounced Mēʿalī), the Fawāris, Āl Dubayyān, and Āl Abū G̲h̲ālib, of which the first is recognized as paramount. The present chief ( ras̲h̲īd ) of the tribe is D̲j̲āsir b. Ḥamūd, whose predecessors were the descendants of al-Murr b. Manṣūr. Covering a wide territory, th…

(usually shortened to K̲h̲ārg; K̲h̲ārak in Arabic), a coral island in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Persia at lat. 29° 16′ N, long. 50° 19′ E. Lying 55 km. northwest of Būs̲h̲ahr [ q.v.], the island is 8 km. long from north to south and 4 km. broad. Much of it is covered by treeless hills with a maximum height of 75 m. Four km. to the north is the smaller island of K̲h̲ārgū (Arabic K̲h̲uwayrik). Between the two islands and also west of K̲h̲ārag are banks where pearls of exceptional value were sometimes found until commercial pearling withered away in the present century. Whether K̲h̲ārag is to b…

, the title of Sūra xlvi of the Ḳurʾān, and a geographical term the meaning and application of which have been generally misunderstood. The Sūra derives its title from verse 21, which speaks of ʿĀd as warning his people in al-Aḥḳāf. The word aḥḳāf is usually interpreted in dictionaries, books of tafsīr , and translations of the Ḳurʾān as meaning curved sand dunes. Medieval Arab geographers considered al-Aḥḳāf to be the name of a sand desert in Southern Arabia, said to lie between Ḥaḍramawt and ʿUmān, i.e., in the eastern part of al-Ramla or al-Rubʿ al-Ḵh̲âlî [ q.v.]. Modern Western geograph…

, a district in northern Nad̲j̲d in the central part of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Lying west of the northern end of the long scarp of Ṭuwayḳ: [ q.v.], the district is intersected by the lower reaches of Wādi ’l-Rumah [ q.v.] shortly before that great watercourse loses itself in the eastern sands. In classical Arabic the term ḳaṣīm (nom. unit.: ḳaṣīma ) is applied to sandy areas where the g̲h̲aḍā bush abounds. This description fits the district, which has large masses of sand to the north (ʿIrḳ al-Maẓhūr), the east (Nafūd al-Thuwayrāt), and …

, a town in Oman (ʿUmān [ q.v.]) in eastern Arabia. ʿIbrī is the capital of al-Ẓāhira, the highland district stretching from the inland slopes of the mountain range of al-Ḥad̲j̲ar westwards to the sands of al-Rubʿ al-K̲h̲ālī. The town lies in the great wadi coursing down from the mountains to the sands near the point where its name changes from Wādī al-Kabīr to Wādī al-ʿAyn. Higher up in the wadi are the towns of al-ʿArāḳī and al-Darīz. Just east of ʿIbrī is the settlement of al-Sulayf, while farther e…

( sing.Ḳāsimī), the ruling family of al-S̲h̲āriḳa (S̲h̲arjah) and Raʾs al-K̲h̲aymā [ qq.v.], two of the member states of the United Arab Emirates. The Ḳawāsim, who claim to be s̲h̲arīf s, are an offshoot of the Huwala, Arabs long established on the Persian side of the Persian Gulf, some of whom have returned to their original homeland. It is not known when the Ḳawāsim came back. Raʾs al-K̲h̲ayma under its older name D̲j̲ulfār was the native town of the noted Arab pilot S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Mād̲j̲id [see ibn mād̲j̲id ]. Writing in the late 9th/15th century, h…

D̲j̲amāl ( Nad̲j̲m ) al-Dīn Abu ’l-Fatḥ Yūsuf b. Yaʿḳūb b. Muḥammad al-S̲h̲aybānī al-Dimas̲h̲ḳī , reputed author of Tāʾrīk̲h̲ al-Mustabṣir (or al-Mustanṣir ), an important source for the geography, history, and customs of western and southern Arabia in the early part of the 7th/13th century. Yūsuf b. Yaʿḳūb, a native of Damascus said to have been of Persian descent, was born in 601/1204-5 and died in 690/1291. The brief biographical notices of him give little information on his career. The author of Tāʾrīk̲h̲ al-Mustabṣir does not tell enough about himself to satisfy our curio…

, the name of a number of valleys, mines, and other places in Arabia and elsewhere. When applied to valleys, ʿAḳīḳ is used in the sense of a bed cut out by a stream; when applied to mines, it may refer either to stones such as the cornelian ( ʿaḳīḳ) or more generally to any mineral cut away from its source. The name is much used by the Arab poets, who do not always make clear which of the many ʿAḳīḳs they have in mind. The best known of the ʿAḳīḳs is the valley passing just west of Medina, from which it is separated by Ḥarrat al-Wabra. It continues northwards to join Wādī al-Ḥamḍ [ q.v.], the classical Iḍam,…

, a sacred hill on the eastern edge of Mecca. Rising abruptly from the valley floor, it overlooks the Great Mosque a few hundred meters away. The Kaʿba corner containing the Black Stone points towards the hill, at the foot of which is al-Ṣafā, the southern end of al-Masʿā. Buildings now hem the hill in on nearly every side. Muslim tradition holds that this was the first mountain created by God. Adam and other ancients are sometimes said to be buried there. The hill’s older name was al-Amīn, give…

, the name of four S̲h̲arīfs of Mecca (1) Barakāt I b. Ḥasan b. ʿAd̲j̲lān belonged to the seventh generation after Ḳatāda b. Idrīs [see al-ʿarab , d̲j̲azīrat ; makka ], the founder of the last line of S̲h̲arīfs. As a youth Barakāt was associated ¶ with his father in the rule (809-21/1407-18), which was challenged by several cousins. The father abdicated because of his age in 821/1418, though he lived on until 829/1426. After being confirmed in office by Barsbāy, the Mamlūk sultan of Egypt, who had made himself the supreme authority over Me…

, the straits between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They are divided by the volcanic island of Mayyūn [ q.v.], called Perim by Westerners, into Large Strait, c. 14 km. wide, and Small Strait, c. 2.5 km. wide, the former being generally used by large vessels. Water runs out of the Red Sea during the south-west monsoon from June to September and into it during the north-east monsoon from November to April, causing currents which make the passage dangerous for sailing craft. The hill of al-Manhalī (270 m.) on the Ar…

(or al-Darʿiyya), an oasis in Wādī Ḥanīfa [ q.v.] in Nad̲j̲d, the capital of Āl Saʿūd [ q.v.] until its overthrow in 1233/1818. The oasis lies c. 20 km. north-west of al-Riyāḍ, the present capital. The wadi flows south-east through the upper part of the oasis and then bends to the east before passing the main settlements. Beyond these settlements the high cliff of al-Ḳurayn forces the wadi to make a sharp turn to the south-west. The road from al-Riyāḍ descends the cliff by Nazlat al-Nāṣiriyya to enter the wadi o…

, an oasis in western Saudi Arabia situated at lat. 21° 54′ N and long. 42° 2′ E, which became prominent in Arabian politics during the first quarter of this century. The oasis lies in the middle reaches of Wādī Taraba or Turaba (also shown on maps as Wādī Subayʿ). The companion oasis of Taraba [ q.v.], capital of the tribe of the Buḳūm, is farther up the valley about 75 km. to the south-west. Another 75 km. downstream from al-K̲h̲urma the valley passes by the wells of al-Ḳunṣuliyya and then ends at ʿIrḳ Subayʿ, whose sands keep the flood-waters from…

(sometimes given in Western sources as ʿAfar ), a small tribe in Oman in eastern Arabia. ¶ The nisba is ʿIfārī. The tribesmen, who are nomads, range through the sayḥ or steppe east of the southeastern corner of al-Rubʿ al-K̲h̲ālī. One of the landmarks in This district is Ḳārat al-Kibrīt (the Sulphur Hill). West of the hill is Wādī al-ʿUmayrī, one of a number of valleys which run down to the quicksands of Umm al-Samīm [ q.v.]. North of al-ʿIfār is the tribe of al-Durūʿ [ q.v.], while to the east are sections of al-D̲j̲anaba [ q.v.] and the tribes of Āl Wahība [ q.v.] and al-Ḥikmān. Other sections o…

, a small town close to the southern boundary of the Yaman Arab Republic (Northern Yaman) in the administrative district of Ibb [ q.v.]. A short distance to the south of the other side of the boundary lies al-Ḍāliʿ, formerly the capital of the ʿĀmirī amīrate [ q.v.] and now a forward base of the People’s Democratic Republic of the Yaman (Southern Yaman). Ḳaʿṭaba is located between the upper reaches of the Wādīs Tuban and Banā. Terraced fields in the surrounding rocky terrain produce cereals, fruit, coffee and ḳāt [ q.v.]. At an altitude of over 1200 m. Ḳaʿṭaba is still much lower tha…

, Bedouin tribe of Eastern Arabia. Its members (sing. Hād̲j̲irī) trace their ancestry to Ḳaḥṭān through Hād̲j̲ir and Manṣūr, eponym of al-Manāṣīr tribe. The two groups, known together as ʿIyāl Manṣūr, have frequently been allies. Banū Hād̲j̲ir, according to their traditions, migrated to Eastern Arabia from the Tat̲h̲līt̲h̲ area in southwestern Arabia. They claim kinship with the Ḏj̲anb and Āl S̲h̲urayf tribes of Eastern ʿAsīr. Their move to the east, said to have been made for economic advantage…

Abū ʿAbd Allāh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī Wad̲j̲īh al-Dīn al-S̲h̲aybānī al-Zabīdī al-S̲h̲āfiʿī , Arab historian and religious scholar, was born in 866/1461 in Zabīd and died there in 944/1537. Older biographers call him Ibn al-Daybaʿ, but al-D̲j̲irāfī refers to him simply as al-Ḳāḍī al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Daybaʿ. Daybaʿ, said to mean “white” in Nubian, was the laḳab of his remote ancestor ʿAlī b. Yūsuf. Ibn al-Daybaʿ, whose father died in India without having seen him, was brought up by his maternal grandfather in Zabīd [ q.v.], the centre of S̲h̲āfiʿite learning in Tihāmat al-Y…

(in modern, also some ancient, dialects pron. bīr plur. biʾār , abʾur , ābār ) is the most comprehensive Arabic word for the well; very often it appears as the genus proximum of its numerous synonyms (like ḳalīb , rakiyya etc.), and the number of its various epithets is considerable. The word is of common Semitic origin (Accad. bēru , Hebr. b e ēr , Aram. bērā ) and, as in the other Semitic languages, of feminine gender (for exceptions in modern Ar. dialects see Fleischer, Kl. Schriften , i, 265; Bräunlich, Well 3212). In general, however, biʾr embraces a much wider co…

(officially written Bahrain) is a British protected state in the Persian Gulf consisting of an archipelago of the same name lying between the peninsula of Ḳaṭar and the mainland of Saudi Arabia, as well as another group of islands, of which Ḥuwār is the largest, just off the west coast of Ḳaṭar. The Ruler of al-Baḥrayn and the Ruler of Ḳaṭar disagree regarding the status of a small area surrounding al-Zubāra in north-western Ḳaṭar. The variety of explanations, none of them convincing, of the name al-Baḥrayn in the Arabic sources indicates that its origin remains unkno…

, an oasis in eastern Arabia, the principal town of which bears the same name and lies in Lat. 24° 14ʹ N, Long. 53° 46ʹ E. The town of Ḥamāsā lies west of al-Buraymī town and on the edge of the same grove of date palms. The only other centre in the oasis which might be considered a town, by virtue of its market, is al-ʿAyn, the south-easternmost of all the settlements. The oasis covers an area of roughly 6 km. by 9 km. and includes also the villages of Ṣaʿrā, Hīlī, al-Ḳaṭṭāra, al-Ḳīmī (pronounce…

( aflād̲j̲ al-dawāsir ), a district in southern Nad̲j̲d athwart the great cuesta of Ṭuwayḳ, roughly bounded by Wādī Birk (N), the plain of al-Bayāḍ (E), Wādī al-Maḳran (S), and the sands of al-Daḥy (W). The most populous oasis and present capital is Laylā (46° 44′ 35″ E, 22° 16′ 45″ N). The district contains a remarkable group of spring-fed pools called ʿUyūn al-Sayḥ and the extensive remains of a system of channels which once irrigated a more prosperous land. The pools, the largest of which is nearly a kilometre long, are the most noteworthy fea…

, a region in Western Arabia named after a confederation of tribes in al-Sarāt [ q.v.]. The concept of a separate region intervening between al-Ḥid̲j̲āz and the Yaman developed in the 19th century and is now sanctioned by official Saudi Arabian practice, which uses the name ʿAsīr for the highlands southwards from al-Nimās to Nad̲j̲rān, and Tihāmat ʿAsīr for the lowlands bordering the Red Sea between al-Ḳaḥma and the Yaman frontier. From al-Ṭāʾif to the Yaman there is no gap in the bold range of al-Sarāt. The core is crystalline rock, but in certain fault zones volc…