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, a small Syrian town, 195 m. above sea-level, on the right bank of the Euphrates. A suspension bridge 450 m. long, completed in 1931, crosses the river a short distance down-stream from the town. In 1867 it became the chief town of a sand̲j̲aḳ and later of a muḥāfaẓa , and today it has a modern aspect about it. The majority of its 22,000 inhabitants are Sunnī Muslims, and the small Christian minority comprises mainly Armenian refugees from former Turkish possessions. There are three mosques and several Orthodox and Roman …

, a small port in Lebanon situated between Bayrūt and Tripoli on the site of the ancient Byblos (or Gebal in the Old Testament), formerly a centre at once maritime, commercial and religious, closely connected with Egypt since the 4th millennium B.C., and as celebrated for the worship of Adonis, of a syncretistic nature, as for its specialization in woodwork and products from the forests on the mountains nearby. If Byblos remained truly prosperous in the Roman period and later became the seat of a bishopric, it appears to have greatly ¶ declined by the time when it was conquered by the…

, Abū ʿAbd allāh Ṃuhammad b. ʿAbdūs , a scholar born in al-Kūfa, who played a political rôle at the beginning of the 4th/10th century on account of his relations with the viziers of the time. He succeeded his father in the office of ḥād̲j̲ib to the vizier ʿAlī b. ʿIsā, of whose personal guard he was in command in 306/912. Later, he is found among the supporters of Ibn Muḳla whom he helped to be proclaimed vizier and whom he concealed after his fall; several times he was imprisoned and fined, either by the viziers or by the amīrs Ibn Rāʾiḳ and Bad̲j̲kam. He died in 331/942. Al-D̲j̲ahs̲h̲iyārī is princi…

, name of several secretaries and viziers of the ʿAbbāsid period. (1) Yaḥyā b. K̲h̲āḳān , secretary of K̲h̲urāsānī origin, was in the service of al-Ḥasan b. Sahl [ q.v.] under the caliphate of al-Maʾmūn and became, under al-Mutawakkil, secretary to the office for land-taxes, and then director of the maẓālim -court, when his son ʿUbayd Allāh became vizier. (2) ʿUbayd Allāh b. Yaḥyā was the first member of the family to become a vizier. Patronized by the caliph al-Mutawakkil, who had appointed him as his private secretary, he succeeded i…

Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Dāwūd b. al-D̲j̲arrāḥ . secretary of state of the ʿAbbāsid caliphs and uncle of the famous vizier ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā [ q.v.]. He belonged to a family of Iranian origin which had formerly been converted to Christianity and then embraced Islam. His father Dāwūd had been secretary under al-Mutawakkil and he himself began his career in government service during the caliphate of al-Muʿtaḍid and the vizierate of ʿUbayd Allāh b. Sulaymān, whose son-in-law he became. He was director of taxes for the eastern …

, the ancient Gerasa, a place in Transjordan situated south-east of the Ḏj̲abal ʿAd̲j̲lūn, in a well-wooded hilly district, standing on the bank of a small tributary of the Wādi ’l-Zarḳāʾ, the Wādi ’l-Dayr or Chrysoroas of the Greeks. Founded in the Hellenistic era at a centre of natural communications, later to be followed by Roman roads, it was captured by the Jewish leader Alexander Jannaeus in about 80 B.C., but freed by Pompey; it then belonged to the towns of the Decapolis, being incorpora…

(Ar.), a word with a number of varied meanings due to its dual etymology, Latin or Greek as the case may be. Deriving from palatium it means “palace” (Masʿūdī, al-Tanbīh , 167; Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Zubda , ed. Dahan, i, 142 and 145; Muḳaddasī, 147, and Ibn Ḥawḳal 2, 195, mentioning the Dār al-Balāṭ at Constantinople; cf. M. Canard, Extraits des sources arabes , ap. A. A. Vasiliev, Byzance et les Arabes , ii/2, Brussels 1950, 412, 423 and n. 2). Deriving from πλατεῖα (through the intermediary of Aramaic), it has two principal meanings corresponding to…

, name of several secretaries or viziers of the ʿAbbāsid period, who did not however all belong to the same family. al-Ḥasan b. Mak̲h̲lad b. al-D̲j̲arrāḥ was a secretary of Christian origin and recently converted to Islam, who served the caliph al-Mutawakkil and became vizier under al-Muʿtamid, for the first time in 263/877, then in 264-5/878-9, and was dismissed from the government on the insistence of the regent al-Muwaffaḳ. He seems to have been exiled to Egypt, where he was at first welcomed by…

, secretary to al-Maʾmūn, was of Syrian origin and the son of a secretary of Abū ʿUbayd Allāh. He took advantage of his former connections with the Barmakids to enter the service of al-Faḍl b. Sahl. Indeed the Barmakids were already under an obligation to his father, and he himself had managed to be of service to the disgraced Yaḥyā. Apparently even before the capture of Bag̲h̲dād he went to Ḵh̲urāsān and, as the result of a letter of recommendation which Yaḥyā had given to him before his death, he was placed in charge of several dīwāns at Marw. After the return of th…

, the name borne by several physicians of a celebrated Christian family originally established at D̲j̲undaysābūr. It was from there that Ḏj̲urd̲j̲īs b. D̲j̲ibrīl b. Buk̲h̲tīs̲h̲ūʿ, who was director of the hospital of this town and well known for his scientific writings, was called to Bag̲h̲dād in 148/765 to attend the caliph al-Manṣūr, ill with a stomach complaint. By successful treatment he won the confidence of the sovereign, who asked him to remain in the capital, but he wished to revisit his native land in 152/769. Buk̲h̲tīs̲h̲ūʿ b. Ḏj̲urd̲j̲īs. to whom …

, name given to Aḥmad b. ʿUbayd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. al-K̲h̲aṣīb . vizier of al-Mukṭadir and al-Ḳāhir, who was probably the grandson of al-Muntaṣīr’s vizier Aḥmad b. al-K̲h̲aṣīb [see al-d̲j̲ard̲j̲arāʾi ]. He was originally secretary to the caliph’s mother, and then suddenly was made vizier after the fall of al-K̲h̲āḳānī, but only filled this office for a few months (Ramaḍān 313-D̲h̲u ’l-Ḳaʿda 314/Nov. 925-Jan. 927). Faced with the hostility of the military leaders, and treating adminis…

, abū hās̲h̲im , propagandist of the ʿAbbāsids at the end of the Umayyad caliphate, was a native of Sid̲j̲istān and had at first been secretary of the governor of Sind’ al-Ḏj̲unayd b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. In 102/720-1 he was converted to the anti-Umayyad cause by Maysara ¶ al-ʿAbdī and Muḥammad b. Ḵh̲unays, and he put at the disposition of their party the fortune which he had amassed in business in Sind. After the death of Maysara he was entrusted with the direction of the movement in 105/723-4 and he was unusually active i…

, town in central Syria, 54 km. north of Ḥimṣ and 152 km. south of Ḥalab on the road which connects these two towns, and built on both banks of the Nahr al-ʿĀṣī [ q.v.] or Orontes, which at this point winds a great deal. The steppe plateau which surrounds the town is in part made into ploughed land (cereals), Mediterranean-type orchards and market gardens, thanks to the hydraulic installations which bring water from the river to its fertile soil. The town of Ḥamāt goes back to early antiquity: it was occupied by the Hittites, who left inscriptions there, then, in about the …

, the name given by the Arab authors to a locality situated, on the borders of Anatolia and Syria, in the upper valley of the Nahr Karzīn, at the foot of the Anti-Taurus (Kurd Dag̲h̲), north-west of ʿAynṭāb. It was the ancient Doliche, famous for the cult of a Semitic divinity who in the Graeco-Roman period received the name of Zeus Dolichenos. Being at the intersection of the routes from Germanicia, Nicopolis and Zeugma, it had been conquered by ʿIyāḍ b. G̲h̲ānim and became one of the fortresse…

, 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…

, secretary and writer of the Buwayhid period, belonging to a family of Sabean scholars and secretaries which had come from its native Ḥarrān to settle in Bag̲h̲dād and which included among its members the historian T̲h̲ābit b. Sinān. Hilāl’s grandfather, Abu Isḥāḳ Ibrāhīm [see al-ṣābiʾ ], was director of the Chancery at Bag̲h̲dād and it was in his service that Hilāl (b. at Bag̲h̲dād in 359/969) began his ¶ career in the time of the amīr Ṣamṣām al-Dawla ( K. al-Wuzarāʾ , 151). Little is known however of the details of his career, except that he became in…

, patronymic deriving from the locality of D̲j̲ard̲j̲arāyā in ʿIrāḳ (on the Tigris, south of Bag̲h̲dād), borne by several viziers of the ʿAbbāsid and Fāṭimid caliphs. 1.—Muḥammad b. al-Faḍl, former secretary of al-Faḍl b. Marwān [ q.v.], was vizier to al-Mutawakkil at the beginning of the reign, after Ibn al-Zayyāt’s disgrace, but was soon discarded by reason of his negligence. Recalled to the vizierate by al-Mustaʿīn in S̲h̲aʿbān 249/September-October 863, he died soon afterwards in the year 250/864-5, aged about eighty (see Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī , iv, 4, ed. Dedering, no. 1878). 2.—Aḥmad …

, vizier to the ʿAbbāsid al-Muʿtaṣim, and an ʿIrāḳi of Christian origin. He began his career modestly as a retainer of Hart̲h̲ama, the commander of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd’s guard. Later, as a result of his particular talents, he became a secretary in the Land Tax office under the same caliph and subsequently he retired to ʿIrāḳ to the estates he had acquired during the civil war. It was there, in the region of al-Baradān, that he had an opportunity, during the reign of al-Maʾmūn, to gain the attentio…

, ʿalī b. abī ʿalī b. muḥ. al-tag̲h̲labī sayf al-dīn ), Arab theologian, born at Āmid in 551/1156-7; at first a Ḥanbalite, he later, at Bag̲h̲dād, entered the ranks of the S̲h̲āfiʿites; he embarked on a study of philosophy which he continued in Syria, became a teacher at the madrasa of al-Ḳarāfa al-Ṣughrā adjoining the mausoleum of al-S̲h̲āfiʿī in Cairo, and in 592/1195-6 became professor at the Ḏj̲āmiʿ al-Ẓāfirī. His intellectual powers and his knowledge of the "rational sciences" ( ʿaḳliyya ) gave him a brilliant reputation, but caused him to be accus…

, a village in the Biḳāʿ of Lebanon, situated at the foot of Mount Lebanon not far from Zahlé on the road to Baʿlabakk. Authors of the Ayyūbid period call it al-Karak, but then in the Mamlūk period it was called Karak Nūḥ. It was actually considered as the locality of the prophet Nūḥ’s tomb, which is still shown and which was apparently already mentioned in the 4th/10th century by the geographer al-Muḳaddasī. The structure which is considered to contain the stone cenotaph of Nūḥ and which is unu…

, Abū Isḥāḳ Muḥammed b. Aḥmad al-Karāriṭī secretary and vizier during the ʿAbbāsid era. Born in Iskāf on the Nahrawān, in ʿIrāḳ, he appears for the first time in 320/932 as the secretary of the police chief of Bag̲h̲dād, Ibn Yāḳūt; he was arrested at the sa me time as his master, in Ḏj̲umādā I 323/April 935, and had to pay a large fine. He was appointed vizier by the Caliph al-Muttaḳī in S̲h̲awwāl 329/July 941, but was dismissed by the great amīr Kūrankīd̲j̲ as early as D̲h̲u’l-Ḳaʿda 329/July-August 941. Having regained his post under Ibn Rāʾiḳ after the flight of the amīr, he was arrested soon …

, “house of wisdom”, used by Arab authors to denote in a general sense the academies which, before Islamic times, spread knowledge of the Greek sciences, and in a particular sense the institute founded in Cairo in 395/1005 by the Fāṭimid caliph al-Ḥākim. Since the short-lived appearance of the Bayt al-Ḥikma [ q.v.] of al-Maʾmūn, several libraries had been founded in ʿIrāḳ and Persia providing not only information on traditional learning, but also an introduction to classical sciences ( ʿulūm al-awāʾil ) (see Dār al-ʿilm ). Such establishments were very successful in Egypt under t…

, or Muḥammad b. Rāʾiḳ , first amīr al-umarāʾ [ q.v.] of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate. The son of an officer of the caliph al-Muʿtaḍid, and of K̲h̲azar origin, Ibn Rāʾiḳ had been chief of police, and then chamberlain during the reign of al-Muḳtadir. On the accession of al-Ḳāhir, at first in disgrace for having supported the former caliph and having fled from Bag̲h̲dād, he succeeded in being made governor of Baṣra. When, on the accession of al-Rāḍī, he was made governor also of Wāsiṭ, he became one of the most p…

b. al-ḳāsim b. ṣubayḥ , abū ḏj̲aʿfar , secretary to al-Maʾmūn. He belonged to a mawālī family of secretaries and poets originating from the neighbourhood of al-Kūfa. His father, Yūsuf, was secretary to ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAlī, ¶ then to Yaʿḳūb b. Dāwūd, and finally to Yaḥyā the Barmakid. It appears that Aḥmad held a secretarial post in ʿIrāḳ at the end of the caliphate of al-Maʾmūn. He was presented to al-Maʾmūn by his friend Aḥmad b. Abī Ḵh̲ālid, and soon attracted notice by his eloquence. He became an intimate of al-Maʾmūn, and at a date impossible to determine accurately, was placed in charge of the d…

, a town in southern Palestine which from ancient times had been an agricultural and caravan centre, situated 4 km. from the sea, on the route leading from Palestine to Syria and at the junction of the caravan-routes coming from Arabia. A frontier-town which often changed hands through the course of the centuries, the ancient ʿAzza , which had been one of the capitals of the Philistines, later became, under the Greek name Gaza , a flourishing Hellenistic city, and afterwards a Roman town belonging to Judaea. In the Byzantine period it formed part…

, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik , vizier of the ʿAbbāsid period. Belonging to a family of merchants who held official positions at the court, Ibn al-Zayyāt attracted attention for his qualities as a secretary and a man of letters, was appointed vizier by the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim in about 221/833, and, with the chief ḳāḍī , Ibn Abī Duʾād, contributed to the direction of the general policy of the empire. Remaining vizier during the caliphate of al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ (227-32/842-7), he encouraged the caliph to impose heavy fines on several secretaries, in particular on the assistan…

, a Ḳurʾānic word of Iranian origin denoting an armed troop. In the Umayyad period the term applies especially to military settlements and districts in which were quartered Arab soldiers who could be mobilized for seasonal campaigns or for more protracted expeditions. Quite naturally it also denotes the corresponding army corps. According to the chroniclers, the caliph Abū Bakr is said to have set up four d̲j̲unds in Syria, of Ḥimṣ, Damascus, Jordan (al-Urdunn, around Tiberias) and Palestine (around Jerusalem and ʿAsḳalān and, afterwards, al-Ramla). Later, the d̲j̲und of Ḳinnasrīn ¶ …

, “house of science”, the name given to several libraries or scientific institutes established in eastern Islam in the 3rd/9th and 4th/10th centuries. After the disappearance of al-Maʾmūn’s Bayt al-Ḥikma [ q.v.], a man of letters called ʿAlī b. Yaḥyā al-Munad̲j̲d̲j̲im (d. 275/888), friend of al-Mutawakkil and, later, al-Muʿtamid, built a library at his own expense in his residence at Karkar, near Bag̲h̲dād. It was called K̲h̲izānat al-Kutub , and was open to scholars of all countries (Yāḳūt, Irs̲h̲ād , v, 459, 467). Another writer and poet, the S̲h̲āfiʿī faḳīh …

, the eldest son of Yaḥyā al-Barmakī, played an important part during the reign of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd, in the first years of the domination of the Barāmika [ q.v.]. As tutor to the crown prince al-Amīn, on whose behalf he caused the customary oath of loyalty to be sworn by the notables, he was particularly distinguished by the benevolence he showed towards the inhabitants of the eastern provinces and by his policy of conciliation with regard to the ʿAlids, perhaps going so far as to support the establishment of an independe…

, a fortress situated to the east of the Dead Sea, in the ancient Moab and at an altitude of ca. 3,000 feet. The name comes from Aramaic kark̲h̲ā “town” and is found in the form χαραχμωβα in Ptolemy (v, 16, 4), on the mosaic map of Mādaba and in Stephen of Byzantium. Its situation on a steep-sided spur, separated from the mountain by a narrow and artificially-deepened moat, makes it an extraordinarily strong site. It is remarkable that we do not hear of it at the time of the Musl…

, 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…

Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan , secretary of the ʿAbbāsid period, who was director of the Treasury during the vizierate of ¶ Ḥāmid b. al-ʿAbbās [ q.v.] from 306/918 to 311/923. He wrote a “Book of the Viziers”, which has not survived but which is referred to by various authors, notably al-Masʿūdī. (D. Sourdel) Bibliography D. Sourdel, Vizirat, index.

, large alluvial plain of northern Syria, situated N-E of Antioch and framed in the tectonic depression which separates the Elma Dag̲h̲, or Amanus, from the Kurd Dag̲h̲, and which stretches as far as the lower spurs of the Taurus. With a mean elevation of 260 ft. above sea level, it is largely covered by a lake fringed with marshes, called Buḥayrat Anṭākiyya (“the lake of Antioch”) or Buḥayrat Yag̲h̲rā, and in Turkish Aḳ Deniz; fed from the north by the ʿAfrīn [ q.v.] and the Ḳara Su, streams which are violent when in spate, the lake discharges its waters in the direction of t…

, an ancient fortress in Arabia Petraea situated on the Roman road leading from Buṣrā to the Red Sea, about one mile north ot Ad̲h̲ruḥ [ q.v.]. Like Ad̲h̲ruḥ, it submitted to Muḥammad, in 9/631, on condition of payment of tribute. The distance between Ad̲h̲ruḥ and al-D̲j̲arbāʾ, estimated at “three days’ journey”, has been mentioned frequently in the ḥadīt̲h̲ as an indication of the size of the basin ( ḥawḍ [ q.v.]) where the Prophet will stand on the day of Judgment. The expression “between Ad̲h̲ruḥ and al-D̲j̲arbāʾ“ has thus become proverbial to denote a considerable distance. The place ca…

, an Iranian religious agitator who, in the later period of Umayyad rule —about 129/747—set himself up as a new prophet at Ḵh̲awāf in the district of Nīs̲h̲āpūr. He gathered about him a large following and was put to death with his disciples on the orders of Abū Muslim in 131/749. Before this he is believed to have lived in China for seven years and on his return, to have revealed himself to certain people as resurrected and descended from heaven. Legend also has it that he pretended to be dead …

, 19th ʿAbbāsid Caliph, who reigned from 320/932 to 322/934 in succession to his brother al-Muḳtadir [ q.v.]. He had previously been temporarily chosen as caliph after the abortive palace revolution in Muḥarram 317/March 929. Al-Muḳtadir’s death followed after the sortie he made at the head of his troops against the amīr Muʾnis [ q.v.] in 320/932. When the dignitaries came to nominate a new caliph, Muʾnis’s judgement in favour of Aḥmad, the son of al-Muḳtadir, was ignored and Muḥammad, son of al-Muʿtaḍid, was proclaimed on 27 Shawwāl 320/31 October…

, 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…

, ʿIzz al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Ḥalabī , Syrian author of topographical and historical works, born in 613/1217 in Aleppo, died in Cairo in 684/1285. A famous secretary of the chancellery and a skilful administrator, he was employed by the ruler of Aleppo, al-Malik al-Nāṣir, who sent him in 640/1242-3 on a mission to inspect the finances in Ḥarrān. Later, when the Mongols were approaching, in 657/1259, he was instructed to accompany the ruler’s family from Damascus to…

, vizier to the ʿAbbāsid caliphs al-Ras̲h̲īd and al-Amīn, was the son of al-Manṣūr’s chamberlain al-Rabīʿ b. Yūnus [ q.v.]. Born in 138/757-8, he very soon won the esteem of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd, who in 173/789-90 placed him in charge of the Expenditure Office and then in 179/795-6 made him chamberlain. After the disgrace of the Barāmika [ q.v.] in 187/803, he succeeded Yaḥyā as vizier, though without being granted such wide powers; his part was confined to keeping check on public expenditure and in presenting letters and petitions ( ʿarḍ ), while another secretary…

, a word of Syriac origin denoting the Christian monasteries which continued to function after the Arab conquest of the Middle East. If we are to believe the lists drawn up by Arab writers, they were very numerous, particularly in ʿIrāḳ (along the Tigris and Euphrates valleys), Upper Mesopotamia, Syria (Stylite sanctuaries in the vicinity of the “dead cities”), Palestine and Egypt (along the whole length of the Nile valley). They were often named after a patron saint (Dayr Mār Yuḥannā near Takrī…

, ʿAbbāsid prince, born end of 162/July 779, d. in Ramaḍān 224/July 839. The son of the caliph al-Mahdī [ q.v.] and of a concubine of Daylamī origin named S̲h̲ikla, he was in Bag̲h̲dād at the time when the caliph al-Maʾmūn [ q.v.], who was then living at Marw, nominated as his successor ʿAlī al-Riḍā. The inhabitants of Bag̲h̲dād and the ʿAbbāsid aristocracy, in revolt against this decision which seemed to them to be contrary to the legitimist principle established by the first caliphs of the dynasty, then rejected the authority of al-Ma…

, mediaeval ruined town of Upper Mesopotamia (within the borders of modern Turkey), situated 20 km. south-west of Mārdīn on a tributary of the K̲h̲ābūr, the site of which is today marked by the Kurdish village of Koč Ḥiṣār, the Kosar of the western chroniclers. A fortress of former times, generally identified with the Adenystrai of Dio Cassius, Dunaysir is not noted as an important place in the early years of Islam, and was subsequently never a fortress. Not until the 4th/10th century does its name appear, in a ms. of Ibn Ḥawḳ…

, district in Syria with Ad̲h̲riʿat [ q.v.] as capital. It is bounded by the Ḏj̲abal al-Drūz to the east, the Lad̲j̲āʾ plain and the Ḏj̲aydūr to the north, the Ḏj̲awlan to the west, and the hills of al-Ḏj̲umal to the south, where the boundary is a little imprecise. Also called al-Nuḳra, “the hollow”, it corresponds to the ancient Batanaea mentioned together with Trachonites, Auranites and Gaulanites as part of the old kingdom of Bashan and referred to in the Old Testament. The region is fertile, as its name derived from bat̲h̲na (stoneless and even plain) indicat…

, ruined site in Jordan, situated in 30° N′. and about 35° 20′ E., some 50 km. south-east of the town of Maʿān, halfway between there and the gulf of ʿAḳaba. This place, mentioned by the Arab geographers as belonging to the d̲j̲und of Dimas̲h̲ḳ and to the region of al-S̲h̲arāt, is famous in history chiefly as having been used as a residence by the ʿAbbāsid claimants between 68/687-8 and 132/749. It was after the death of ʿAbd Allāh b. al-ʿAbbās at Ṭāʾif in 68/687-8 that his son ʿAlī, who had given his support to th…

, a locality in the ʿAzāz region of northern Syria. It lies on the road from Manbid̲j̲ to Anṭākiya (Ṭabarī, iii, 1103) upstream from Aleppo on the river Nahr Ḳuwayḳ. In Assyrian times its name was Dabigu , to become Dabekôn in Greek. It lies on the edge of the vast plain of Mard̲j̲ Dābiḳ where, under the Umayyads and ʿAbbāsids, troops were stationed prior to being sent on operations against Byzantine territory. The Umayyad caliph Sulaymān b. ʿAbd al-Malik lived in Dābiḳ for some time, and after his death and buri…

, Abuʾl-Ṣaḳr , vizier of the ʿAbbāsid Caliph al-Muʿtamid [ q.v.]. Of Persian or Mesopotamian origin, he was born in 230/844-5 and claimed to belong to the Arab tribe of the S̲h̲aybān. Abu ’l-Ṣaḳr, who had been a secretary and had been in charge of the dīwān of the Royal Domains, appeared on the political scene in 265/878, when the regent al-Muwaffaḳ had him appointed vizier, a post which he had to abandon shortly afterwards only to regain it at the end of the year. But Ismāʿīl played a minor role while the regent had Ṣāʿid b. Mak̲h̲lad [ q.v.] as his personal secretary, and it was only from t…

, a locality in ʿIrāḳ some 90 km. south of Bag̲h̲dād and a mile from the left bank of the Tigris. The name comes from a large monastery still flourishing in ʿAbbāsid times; it consisted of a church, a hundred cells, and extensive olive and palm plantations, all enclosed by thick walls. On the occasion of the feast of the Holy Cross many people flocked to the monastery. It seems that it was abandoned at the time of the Sald̲j̲ūḳid occupation, and geographers of the 7th/13th century record that only the ruins then remained. Dayr Ḳunnā is famous primarily on account of…

, the name of various places in Syria, often confused by writers past and present, which corresponded to the sites of Christian monasteries still flourishing during the first centuries of Islam. Among the monasteries to which the name Simeon, common in Syria, was given, were Dayr Murrān [ q.v.] near Maʿarrat al-Nuʿmān, whose name Dayr Samʿān was also incorrectly applied to the Dayr Murrān at Damascus, and the Byzantine constructions built on hill-tops (called in every case D̲j̲abal Samʿān) in the region of Antioch. The most important of the m…

, wife of the caliph al-Maʾmūn and daughter of the Persian secretary al-Ḥasan b. Sahl [ q.v.]. According to some her real name was Ḵh̲adīd̲j̲a and Būrān simply an appellation. Born in Ṣafar 192/December 807, she was married from the age of ten to the caliph whom her father had faithfully served during the first part of his reign. The wedding celebrations, the splendours of which are described with relish by many authors, did not take place until Ramaḍān 210/December 825-January 826, on al-Ḥasan’s estate at Fam …

, a town in Upper Mesopotamia, situated about 80 km. east-south-east of al-Mawṣil (36° 11′ N., 42° 2′ E.), in the centre of a region known as Adiabene, bounded on the north by the course of the Gṛeat Zāb and on the south by that of the little Zāb. Irbil is a site which has been inhabited since very early times, being referred to in cuneiform inscriptions under the name Arbaīlu; the religious centre of the kingdom of Assyria with a sanctuary of the godd…

b. saʿīd b. ṣūl , secretary of al-Maʾmūn, was of Turkish origin, and was a relative of Ibrāhīm b. al-ʿAbbās al-Ṣūlī [ q.v.]. His father had been secretary of chancellery under al-Manṣūr. He himself served the Barmakides, and was later for many years one of al-Maʾmūn’s chief assistants, in charge of the Chancellery and also of various financial posts which seem to have brought him substantial profits, but he never received the title of wazīr . He accompanied the Caliph to Damascus and on his expedition into Byzantine territory, and died at Adana in…

, Muḥibb al-Dīn Abu ’l-Faḍl Muḥammad , Ḥanafī chief ḳāḍī in Cairo between 866/1463 and 876/1471, died in 890/1485. He belonged to an important family of Aleppo, whose ancestor was a freedman called Maḥmūd al-K̲h̲utluḳī or b. al-K̲h̲utlū who was s̲h̲iḥna of Aleppo in the time of the Ayyūbid ruler al-Malik al-ʿAzīz in about 616/1219. His father was ḳāḍī of Aleppo at the beginning of the 9th/15th century, and is remembered for having founded a waḳf for the benefit of the mosque of the citadel of Aleppo, commemorated by an inscription which still exis…

, ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā b. Māhān , governor and military leader of the ʿAbbāsid period, who appears first as commander of the caliph’s guard and secretary to the army during the caliphate of al-Mahdī [ q.v.]. He remained commander of the guard under Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd, who, in 180/796, appointed ¶ him as governor of K̲h̲urāsān, in spite of opposition from Yaḥyā al-Barmakī. It is said that he then followed a policy of oppressing the people, which was probably the cause of the revolt of Rāfiʿ b. al-Layt̲h̲; this obliged the caliph to lead an expedition hi…

(the cup-bearer), also called al-ṣag̲h̲īr (the younger) a Turkish military leader who bore the title mawlā amīr al-muʾminīn , and who is not to be confused with his contemporary of the same name, Bug̲h̲ā al-Kabīr. After having fought, under al-Mutawakkil, against the rebels of Ād̲h̲arbayd̲j̲ān, he led the plot against this caliph, whom he suspected of wishing to reduce the influence of the Turkish officers, and had him assassinated. With his ally Waṣīf, he subsequently held power under al-Mu…

, a fortress in northern Syria, situated on the right bank of the Euphrates, which in the medieval period commanded the route from Ḥalab to Ḥarrān, in Upper Mesopotamia, via Manbid̲j̲. This fortress stood at a point where the Euphrates was relatively easy to cross, owing to the existence of two small islands which facilitated the construction of pontoon bridges. It is thought that the fortress stands on a Classical site, but the identification of this presents some problems: the most tenable hypothesis appears to be the identification of the site with the Caeciliana of Roman itineraries. In…

or Ḥawwārīn , place in Syria between. Damascus and Palmyra, half way between Ṣadad and al-Ḳaryatayn. On the site of an antique town, Ḥuwwārīn is known mainly for the fact that the Umayyad caliph Yazīd I had his residence, died and was buried there, as is attested by the poets of the period. A building still existing there, and still known today as Ḳaṣr Yazīd, may be considered as the partial remains of the residence of the caliph, who is known to have planned to irrigate the …

, name of a number of persons who held the offices of secretary or vizier under the ʿAbbāsid caliphs or the Ik̲h̲s̲h̲īdid amīr s and who belonged to a S̲h̲īʿī family. The earliest member of the family of whom anything is known is ʿUmar b. al-Furāt, who represented the ʿAlīd ʿAlī al-Riḍā and ¶ was executed in Bag̲h̲dād in 203/818-9, on the orders of Ibrāhīm b. al-Mahdī at the time when the ʿIrāḳīs were in revolt against the S̲h̲īʿī policy of al-Maʾmūn. A certain Muḥammad b. Mūsā seems to have been the first to hold important administrative office, …

, nisba made especially famous by three brothers, sons of a postmaster of al-Baṣra, and called Banu ’l-Barīdī for that reason. They played an important rôle at Bag̲h̲dād and in ʿIrāḳ during the Caliphate of al-Manṣūr and his successors. S̲h̲īʿī tax-farmers and military leaders, they distinguished themselves by their ambition and acts of prevarication and had eventful careers, very characteristic of the period preceding the advent of the Buwayhids. The eldest of the three brothers, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad, appeared on the political scene during the second vizierate o…

, a ruined fortress situated on the left bank of the middle ¶ Euphrates, almost opposite Ṣiffīn. Also called Ḳalʿat Dawsar from the name by which this locality was known in the pre-Islamic period and in the early days of Islam (Pauly-Wissowa, iv, 2234: to Dawsarōn , which explains the Arab traditions connecting this name Dawsar with the king of al-Ḥīra, al-Nuʿmān b. al-Mund̲h̲ir), it was described by ancient Arabic authors as a stopping-place on the route leading from al-Raḳḳa to Bālis (Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih. 74; al-Ṭa…

, Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad b. ʿAlī , vizier of the ʿAbbāsid period. Born in Bag̲h̲dād in 272/885-6, he began his career as a collector of land-taxes in Fārs, then was given an important post as secretary in the central administration when Ibn al-Furāt [ q.v.] became vizier in 296/908; he was in fact in charge of the opening and the despatch of official letters. He also collaborated closely with Ibn al-Furāt during the latter’s second vizierate (from 304/917 to 306/919), but had no compunction about working against the interests of his master, wh…

, regnal name of the fourth ʿAbbāsid caliph Mūsā, son of al-Mahdī, who had been proclaimed heir in 159/775-6. His accession took place in Muḥarram 169/August 785, but it did not pass off smoothly. Al-Mahdī died when he was actually on the way to D̲j̲urd̲j̲ān intending to force Mūsā, resident in that province, to renounce his rights in favour of his brother Hārūn, who had been appointed second heir in 166/782-3. Although the chamberlain al-Rabīʿ procured that the oath of allegiance to Mūsā was sw…

, “House of Wisdom”, a scientific institution founded in Bag̲h̲dād by the caliph al-Maʾmūn, undoubtedly in imitation of the ancient academy of D̲j̲undaysābūr. Its principal activity was the translation of philosophical and scientific works from the Greek originals which, according to tradition, a delegation sent by the caliph had brought from the country of Rūm. Its directors were Sahl b. Hārūn [ q.v.] and Salm, assisted by Saʿīd b. Hārūn. It included an important staff of translators, of whom the most famous were the Banu ’l-Munad̲j̲d̲j̲im, as well as cop…

, rod, one of the insignia of sovereignty of the caliph. As early as the Umayyad era, the rod ( ḳaḍīb ) or staff ( ʿaṣā ) was already, along with the seal, one of the badges of rank which was conveyed with speed to the new caliph on the death of his predecessor. This custom was adhered to under the first ʿAbbāsid caliphs, notably after the death of al-Manṣūr, who ended his life at Mecca, and after the deaths of al-Mahdī and Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd, who perished during an expedition to the eastern provinces; in these cases a special messenger, bearing the ḳaḍīb and the seal, was despatched to the heir …

(the elder), a Turkish military leader who played a political rôle during ¶ a troubled period under the ʿAbbāsid caliphate. Under al-Muʿtaṣim and his successors, he distinguished himself in several expeditions against rebellions tribes in the region of Medina in 230/844-45, in Armenia in 237/851-52, and against the Byzantines in 244/857. Absent at the time of the assassination of al-Mutawakkil in 247/861, he returned subsequently to Sāmarrā and, making common cause with the other Turkish officers, compelled the succession of al-Mustaʿīn in 248/862. He died in the same year. His son,…

, 25th caliph of the ʿAbbāsid dynasty, who reigned from 381/991 to 422/1031. Born in 336/947-8, Abu’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Isḥāḳ was the grandson of the Caliph al-Muḳtadir [ q.v.] and cousin of the Caliph al-Ṭāʾiʿ, who was deposed in 381/991 by the amīr Bahāʾ al-Dawla. Called to assume the caliphate by the latter, Abu ’l-ʿAbbās received the regnal name of al-Ḳādir bi’llāh. The amīr, who had met with some vestiges of resistance in al-Ṭāʾiʿ, hoped to find a more tractable ruler in the person of al-Ḳādir, who had had to flee from …

al-Ḥarrānī , vizier of the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Hādī. The caliph, on his accession, had appointed as vizier and chamberlain the powerful al-Rabīʿ, but he soon replaced him by Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarrānī, who had been his adviser when he was governor of D̲j̲urd̲j̲ān. Some historians however do not give Ibrāhīm the title of vizier, but refer to him only as director of finance. (D. Sourdel) Bibliography D. Sourdel, Vizirat, index.

b. muḥammad b. ʿalī b. ʿabd allāh b. al-ʿabbās . ʿAbbāsid prince, nephew of the first two caliphs of the dynasty. Governor of al-Kūfa in the reign of al-Saffāḥ [ q.v.], he was then designated as the second heir after Abū Ḏj̲aʿfar. and it was he who, at al-Anbār, administered the oath of allegiance on behalf of al-Manṣūr, who was in Mecca at the time when al-Saffāḥ died. ¶ ʿĪsā b. Mūsā kept his post of governor during the reign of al-Manṣūr. He directed military operations against the ʿAlids Muḥammed b. ʿAbd Allāh, and then Ibrāhīm, who were …

, a term designating, in the geographers and in official documents, an administrative unit within a province. It was felt as being a loan ¶ word, certain authors giving it an Iranian origin, although a Greek origin (from χώρα) seems more likely. The exact definition of a kūra varies according to authors. Thus Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih enumerates, in the same region, that of Ḥimṣ in Syria, kūras and iḳlīm s at the same time, so that in this case, the two terms seem to be equivalent [see iḳlīm ). But most of the geographers reserve the term iḳlīm for a region or province, call the districts kūras, and di…

, word derived from the Latin veredus/ Greek beredos (of uncertain origin, perhaps Assyrian) “post horse”, usually applied to the official service of the Post and Intelligence in the Islamic states, and likewise to the mount, courier and post “stage”. The institution of the state postal service was known to the Byzantine and Sāsānid Empires, from which it would appear the first Caliphs only required to borrow it, its foreign origin being confirmed by a partly Persian terminology. The barīd operated from the Umayyad period and ʿAbd al-Malik is consider…

, 26th ʿAbbāsid caliph, whose rule lasted from 422/1031 to 467/1075, corresponding with the end of the Buwayhid period and the beginnnig of the Sald̲j̲ūḳ period in ʿIrāḳ. Born in 391/1001, the son of an Armenian concubine, he was named heir shortly before the death of his father, al-Ḳādir [ q.v.] and succeeded to the throne unopposed. The usual oath of allegiance was taken on 13 D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 422/12 December 1031. At this period, although the caliph had only very limited personal resources at his command, he had recovered a measure of freedom, to the extent …

, vizier to the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Maʾmūn, had originally been in the service of the Barāmika [ q.v.]. His father, of Iranian origin and Zoroastrian by religion, had been converted to Islam and had entrusted the Barāmika with his two sons, al-Faḍl and al-Ḥasan [ q.v.]. Al-Faḍl, who immediately attracted attention on account of his intelligence, was taken into the service of D̲j̲aʿfar al-Barmakī, then tutor to prince al-Maʾmūn, and took over this position from him after the fall of the Barāmika; it was in the presence of al-Maʾmūn that he i…

, head of the Ḵh̲urramī sect [see k̲h̲urramīs ]; his name is an arabicised form of the Iranian Pāpak. The son of an oil-merchant from al-Madāʾin (or, according to some, the descendant of Abū Muslim), he was following an obscure calling in Ad̲h̲arbayd̲j̲ān when he was noticed by Ḏj̲āwīd̲h̲ān b. Sahl, head of the Ḵh̲urramīs. who died shortly afterwards. Bābak claimed that the spirit of Ḏj̲āwīd̲h̲ān had entered into him, and began to stir up the people living in the region of al-Bad̲h̲d̲h̲, a place, not extant to-day, situated in the mountainous region of Arrān, not far from the Araxes [see ād̲h̲a…

, region of southern Syria bounded to the east by the volcanic massif of the D̲j̲abal al-Durūz, to the north by the plateau of the Lad̲j̲āʾ and the Damascus plain, to the west by D̲j̲awlān [ q.v.] and to the south by the Yarmūk, a region which | corresponds roughly to the administrative area, or liwāʾ , of the same name and which extends for about 100 kilometres from north to south and 75 from east to west. The term Ḥawrān was applied formerly to the whole of the basaltic region which separates Syria from Transjordania and thus …

, secretary of and governor for the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Maʾmūn, and brother of the vizier al-Faḍl b. Sahl [ q.v.]. Iranian by birth, the son of a Zoroastrian convert, al-Ḥasan entered the service of the Barmakid al-Faḍl b. Yaḥyā [ q.v.] during the reign of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd. He later took part in al-Maʾmūn’s action against his brother al-Amīn, and when al-Maʾmūn assumed the title of caliph in 196/814 he was put in charge of taxation ( al-k̲h̲arād̲j̲ ) in the provinces which the new ruler controlled. After al-Maʾmūn’s troops had captured Bag̲h̲dād, hi…

, “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 …

or Fiḥl , an ancient town in Transjordania situated 12 km. south-east of Baysān [ q.v.], was known in earliest antiquity, at the time of el-Amarna, under the name Bik̲h̲il , corresponding to a Semitic p ḥ l. Macedonian colonists settled there in about 310 B.C., giving it the name of the Macedonian town of Pella, which resembled the native name. After the Roman conquest, Pella was one of the towns of the Decapolis, and the Christians took refuge there during the disturbances which followed the destruction of Je…

or āl barmak (Barmakids), an Iranian family of secretaries and wazīrs of the early ʿAbbāsid Caliphs. 1. Origins. The name Barmak , traditionally borne by the ancestor of the family, was not a propei name, according to certain Arab authors, but a word designating the office of hereditary high priest of the temple of Nawbahār, near Balk̲h̲. This interpretation is confirmed by the etymology which is now accepted, deriving the term from the Sanskrit word parmak — “superior, chief. The term Nawbahār, moreover, likewise derives from Sanskrit ( nōva vihāra —”new monast…

(A., pl.. g̲h̲ilmān ), word meaning in Arabic a young man or boy (the word is used for example of the ʿAbbāsid princes al-Muʿtazz and al-Muʾayyad, sons of al-Mutawakkil, at the time when their brother, the caliph al-Muntaṣir, attempted to make them renounce their rights to the succession (al-Ṭabarī, iii, 1485), while the son of al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ, whom they hesitated to proclaim caliph because of his youth, is described as g̲h̲ulām amrad “beardless” (al-Ṭabarī, iii, 1368)); then, by extension, either a servant, sometimes elderly (cf. Ch. Pellat, Milieu , Paris 1953,…

(a.) pl. kuttāb , secretary, a term which was used in the Arab-Islamic world for every person whose rôle or function consisted of writing or drafting official letters or administrative documents. In the Middle Ages this term denoted neither a scribe in the literary sense of the word nor a copyist, but it could be applied to private secretaries as well as to the employees of the administrative service. It can denote merely a “book-keeper” as well as the chief clerk or a Secretary of State, directly responsible to the sovereign or to his vizier. The use of kātib is theref…

, term which may be translated approximately as chamberlain, used in Muslim countries for the person responsible for guarding the door of access to the ruler, so that only approved visitors may approach him. The term quickly became a title corresponding to a position in the court and to an office the exact nature of which varied considerably in different regions and in different periods. Basically the Master of Ceremonies, the ḥād̲j̲ib often appears as being in fact a superintendent of the Palace, a chief of the guard or a righter of wrongs, s…

(i) The history of the institution of the caliphate A study of the caliphate, its institution and subsequent developments, has never been attempted in its entirety until the present. The principal reason is that it has not seemed possible to conduct such a survey independently of historical studies relating to different reigns, which are still in most cases insufficient, or even non-existent, whereas studies of doctrine, while more advanced, have not been developed to the same extent with regard to the v…

, a sovereign State, of the Muslim religion, for the most part Arabic-speaking, situated at the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent. i.—Geography The structure of ʿIrāḳ paradoxically derives its originality from the fact that it forms part of a large geographical block of territory. From the Arabo-Syrian desert tableland which it faces along its south-western flank, it takes its general aspect and its climate. All along its frontiers on the North-East, on the other hand, it shares the orientation and ¶ relief of the folded mountain-chains of western Asia, which give it its t…