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( ?-926/1520)—the “Zafir agà, eunuco” listed in the index to Marino Sanuto, Diarii , xxv, col. 832—was Sand̲j̲aḳ Beg of Gallipoli, i.e., Ḳapudān or High Admiral of the Ottoman naval forces. He was appointed to this office, not (as Ḳāmūs al-aʿlām and Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī assert) in 917/1511 but in 922/1516. His tenure of the office coincided with the Ottoman conquest of Syria and Egypt (922-3/1516-7) and with the extensive naval preparations that Sultan Selīm I (918-26/1512-20) urged forward during the last of his …

, Bali̊kesir, a town of north-western Asia Minor, in the region known in ancient times as Mysia. The name Bālikesrī derives from the Greek “Παλαιοκάστρον”. Al-ʿUmarī, in his Masālik alAbṣār , ¶ refers to this locality as “Akīrā” (= ‘‘ ’Oχυρά’’, a name current in the period of the Comneni). The Roman Hadrianuthera is believed to have been situated in this same district. Bālikesrī was one of the chief towns in the emirate of Ḳarasī [ q.v.], which came into being when the Turks wrested this area from the Byzantines in the years around 699-700/ 1300. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, who travel…

, located at the site of Burdipta, a fortress of the ancient Thracians (cf. Tomaschek, 325), is called Τζερνομιάνον in the chronicle of the Byzantine historian Kantakuzenos (cf. also Chalkokondyles, who mentions a Kερμιανόν χῶρον and Črŭnomêcĭ in the Serbian sources. It lies on the south side of the river Maritsa, not far above Adrianople (Edirne) and was, at the time of the earlier Ottoman conquests in the Balkans, a point of some strategic importance, since it commanded a ford across the river…

i. — general In Arabic, the word nafṭ (Persian nafṭ) is applied to the purest form ( ṣafwa ) of Mesopotamian bitumen ( ḳīr —or ḳār — bābilī ). Its natural colour is white. It occasionally occurs in a black form, but this can be rendered white by sublimation. Nafṭ is efficacious against cataract and leucoma; it has the property of attracting fire from a distance, without direct contact. Mixed with other products (fats, oil, sulphur etc.) which make it more combustible and more adhesive, it constituted the basic ingredient of “Greek fire”, a liquid incendiary compo…

(?-1031/1622), Ottoman Grand Vizier, was of Croat origin. He rose in the Palace service to the rank of Čās̲h̲nigīr Bas̲h̲i̊, ¶ becoming thereafter Beglerbeg of Cyprus and then, in D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 1022/January 1614, Beglerbeg of Bag̲h̲dād. As Beglerbeg of Diyārbekir—an appointment bestowed on him in 1024/1615—he shared in the Erivān campaign of 1025/1616 against the Ṣafawids of Persia. His subsequent career until 1030/1621 is somewhat obscure. The Ottoman chronicles (cf. Pečewī, ii, 366; Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī K̲h̲alīfa, …

(the Βηλόκωμα of Byzantine times) is a small town in north-western Asia Minor on the Ḳara Ṣu, an affluent of the Saḳāryā. It is thought that the site of the ancient Agrilion (Agrillum, in the Peutinger Tables) lies not far from Biled̲j̲ik. The Ottomans seized Biled̲j̲ik from the Byzantines in the reign of ʿOt̲h̲mān Beg. Biled̲j̲ik, under Ottoman rule, was included in the eyālet of Anadolu, but later became the administrative centre of the sand̲j̲aḳ of Erṭog̲h̲rul in the wilāyet of Ḵh̲udāvendigār (Brusa). It is now the centre of the present province of…

, now a small village on the site of the ancient Miletos in Caria. The word Balāṭ derives from "Παλάτια", the name used for this locality at least from the first years of the 13th century. Balāṭ ¶ came under the control of the Begs of Mentes̲h̲e [ q.v.] towards the close of this century and, because of its favourable situation near the mouth of the river Maiandros (Büyük Menderes), served them as a point of departure for their raids into the Aegean Sea and, later, as a commercial centre of some importance. The Venetians had a church and a con…

(? — 1004/1595), Ottoman Grand Vizier. One Venetian relazione of 1585 gives his then age as about 50 years, while other Venetian relazioni of 1590-4 describe him as a man of about 65 or 70 years. Ferhād Pas̲h̲a was of Albanian origin (some of the Venetian accounts refer to him as “di nazion schiavone”, “di nazione schiava”) and, according to Lazaro Soránzo, a native of “Andronici Castello dell’ Albania”. After he had gone out from the enderūn-i humāyūn towards the end of the reign of Sultan Süleymān Ḳānūnī (d. 974/1566), his career embraced the offices of Mīr Ak̲h̲or-i Kebīr, i.e. …

, (?-1041/1632), Ottoman Grand Vizier. The date of his birth is uncertain. Simone Contarini, in his relazione of 1612 to the …

(Pozantı) lies on the Çakit Çay (called Pozantı Suyu in its higher reaches), about 13 km. to the N.N.E. of the celebrated pass through the Taurus mountains which is known as the Cilician Gates (Pylae Ciliciae: the Darb al-Salāma of Ibn Ḵh̲urradād̲h̲bih, and now, in Turkish, Külek Boğazı). It is the Podandos (Ποδανδός, Ποδενδός, Ποδυανδός, Ποδανδέυς, ‛Ρεγεποδανδός) of the Romans and the Byzantines, the al-Bad̲h̲andūn, (Badandūn, Budandūn) of the Arab geographers. The mediaeval Western sources present the name in a number of different forms, e.g., Podando, Poduando, Opodanda, Botentron, Bothentrot, etc. After the rise of Islām, and with the repeated incursions of the Muslims through the Pylae Ciliciae into Asia Minor, Bozantı became, for the Byzantines, a military strong-point of great importance. It was included in the Κλεισοῦρα of Καππαδοκία ἡμικρά, but seems to have been raised later to the rank of an autonomous Κλεισοῦρα. It was at Bozantı that the ʿAbbāsid Caliph al-Maʾmūn died in 218/833, while on campaign against the Byzantines. …

, a small town situated on the west coast of Asia Minor, opposite the island of Istanköy (Kos). It stands near the site of the ancient Halicarnassus in Caria. When the Turks overran western Asia Minor in the years around 1300, this region came under the rule of the Begs of Mentes̲h̲e [ q.v.]. The Ottomans seized the emirate of Menteshe in 792/1390, lost it after their defeat in battle against Tīmūr Lang at Ankara in 804/1402 and did not recover full and direct possession of Mentes̲h̲e until 829/1425-1426. This second and definitive annexation of the emirate was not, however, destined to include the old Halicarnassus, for the Knights of St John at Rhodes, under their Grand Master Philibert de Naillac (…

( doğu-bayazit ), a small town belonging to the Turkish Republic and situated a little to the south of Mount Ararat (Ag̲h̲ri̊-Dāg̲h̲), close to the frontier with Iran. It has been suggested that the town was named after the Ottoman Sulṭān Bāyazīd I (791-805/1389-1403), who, according to this view, fortified the site as a post of observation against Tīmūr Beg. A more recent interpretation is that the name derives in fact from a prince of the D̲j̲alāyirid dynasty, i.e., from Bāyazīd, the brother of Sulṭān Aḥmed (784-813/1382-1410). The Ottomans captured the town in 920/1514…

(bayburt), known to the Byzantines in the time of Justinia…

, war. i.— Legal Aspect Ḥarb may mean either fighting ( ḳitāl ) in the material sense or a “state of war” between two or more groups; both meanings were implied in the legal order of pre-Islamic Arabia. Owing to lack of organized authority, war became the basis of inter-tribal relationship. Peace reigned only when agreed upon between two or more tribes. Moreover, war fulfilled such purposes as vendetta and retaliation. The desert, adapted to distant raids and without natural frontiers, rendered the Arabs habituated to warfare and fighting became a function of society.…

the wooden dart or javelin used in the game of D̲j̲erīd, …

, (c. 993 ?-1065/1585 ?-1655), Ottoman Grand Vizier, was of Čerkes (Circassian) origin. As ketk̲h̲udā of Ṭabāni̊ Yassi̊ Meḥmed Pas̲h̲a, Grand Vizier (1041-6/1632-7) in the reign of Sulṭān Murād IV (1032-49/1623-40), he shared in the Eriwān campaign of 1044-5/1635 against the Ṣafawīds of Persia and became thereafter Beglerbeg of S̲h̲ām, an appointment that he held, according to Ibn D̲j̲umʿa, in 1046/1636-7. At the time of Mu…

(belen), a village situated in the Amanus mountains (Elma-Dāg̲h̲) on the main line of communication from Iskenderun (Alexandretta) eastwards into northern Syria. The site seems to have had no great importance during the earlier centuries of Muslim rule, the chief town in this local area being then Bag̲h̲rās (Πάγραι). The neighbouring pass of Baylān, …

( Izmail ), an Ottoman fortress town situated in the Bud̲j̲ak [ q.v.] region of Bessarabia, on the left bank of the Kilya arm of the river Danube. Ewliyā Čelebī states that a certain ḳapudān named Ismāʿīl brought this area under Ottoman domination …

, (? -1125/1713), Ottoman Grand Vizier. The sources refer to him sometimes as “Moralī”, i.e., “from the Morea” and sometimes as “Enis̲h̲te”, i.e., “brother-in-law” (of the sultan, in this instance). He became a čokadār and then, in 1095/1683-4, rose to the rank of silāḥdār . On the accession to the throne of Süleymān II in Muḥarrem 1099/November 1687…

(pers. Andarūn, “inside”; turk. Enderūn). The term Enderūn (or Enderūn-i Humāyun) was used to designate the “Inside” Service (asopposed to Bīrūn [ q.v.…