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b. hās̲h̲im , of the aristocratic dihḳān family Kāmkāriyān (who had settled near Marw), which boasted of Sāsānian descent, governor of Ḵh̲urāsān. In order to avenge the death of his brother, fallen in a fight between Persians and Arabs (in Marw), he had under ʿAmr b. al-Layt̲h̲ stirred up a rising of the people. He was taken prisoner and brought to Sīstān, whence he escaped by means of an adventurous flight, and after a new attempt at a rising in Marw he fled for refuge to th…

, Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Ḥayy b. al-Ḍaḥḥāk b. Maḥmūd , Persian historian who flourished in the middle of the 5th/11th century. Nothing is known of his life. His nisba shows that he came from Gardīz [ q.v.]; since he says that he received information about Indian festivals from al-Bīrūnī [ q.v.], he may have been his pupil. His work, entitled Zayn al-ak̲h̲bār, was written in the reign of the G̲h̲aznawid Sultan ʿAbd al-Ras̲h̲īd (440/1049-443/1052). It contains a history of the pre-Islamic kings of Persia, of Muḥammad and the Caliphs to the year 423/1032, and a d…

, a town on the north bank of the Oxus river [see āmū daryā ] near the mouth of its tributary, the Surk̲h̲ān river (lat. 37° 15’ N., long. 67° 15’ E.), now the town of Termez in the southernmost part of the Uzbekistan Republic. As Samʿānī, who spent 12 days there, testifies, the name was pronounced Tarmīd̲h̲ in the town itself ( K. al-Ansāb , ed. Ḥaydarābad, iii, 41) which is confirmed by the Chinese Ta-mi (e.g. Hüan Tsang, tr. St. Julien, Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales, i, 25). Russian officers in 1889 also heard the pronunciation Termiz or Tarmi̊z ( Sbornik materialov po Azii …

al-ḥād̲j̲ib , abū saʿīd (his alleged second name Hārūn which occurs in a single passage of Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, ix, 294, is probably due to an error of the author or of a copyist), Turkish slave, later general of the G̲h̲aznawid Sebuk Tegīn and his two successors and governor of Ḵh̲wārizm. Already under Sebuk Tegīn he attained the highest rank in the bodyguard, that of a "great ḥād̲j̲ib "; under Maḥmūd he commanded the right wing in the great battle against the Ḳarak̲h̲ānids (22 Rabīʿ II 398/4 Jan. 1008, and in 401/1010-1 he is mentioned as governor of Harāt. After the conquest of k̲h̲wārizm in 408/1…

, a Persian historian, wrote in 1233/1818 a short summary of the geographical relations of Central Asiatic countries (Afg̲h̲ānistān, Buk̲h̲ārā, Ḵh̲īwā, Ḵh̲oḳand, Tibet and Kas̲h̲mīr), and of historical events in those countries from 1160 (accession of Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Durrānī) down to his own times. ʿAbd al-Karīm had already left his native country in 1222/1807-8 and accompanied an embassy to Constantinople; he remained there till his death, which took place after 1246/1830, and wrote his book for t…

, the name of two amīr s of the Sāmānid dynasty of Tranoxania and K̲h̲urāsān. 1. Manṣūr b. Nūḥ I, Abū Ṣaliḥ, ruler of K̲h̲urāsān and Transoxania (350-65/961-76), succeeded his brother ʿAbd al-Malik b. Nūḥ I. Ibn Ḥawḳal is able ¶ to describe the internal conditions of the Sāmānid kingdom under Manṣūr as an eye-witness; cf. especially BGA, ii, 341: fī waḳtinā hād̲h̲ā ; 344 on the character of Manṣūr “the justest king among our contemporaries, in spite of his physical weakness and the slightness of his frame”. On the vizier Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad Balʿamī, see balʿamī , where a…

(his real name was Muḥammad Ḥaydar; as he himself says, he was known as Mīrzā Ḥaydar; Bābur calls him Ḥaydar Mīrzā), a Persian historian, author of the Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ras̲h̲īdī , born in 905/1499-1500, died in 958/1551 (for his descent see dūg̲h̲lāt ); through his mother he was a grandson of the Čag̲h̲atāy K̲h̲ān Yūnus and a cousin of Bābur. Most of our knowledge of his life is gleaned from his own work; Bābur (ed. Beveridge, p. 11) devotes a few lines to him; the Indian historians Abu ’l-Faḍl and Firis̲h̲ta give some information about his later years. After the assassination of his father (91…

, Turko-Mongol word for “town” = or “castle” (also written bāliḳ and bālig̲h̲ ); appears frequently in compound names of towns, such as Bīs̲h̲bāliḳ (“Five Towns”, at the present day in ruins at Gučen in Chinese Turkestan), Ḵh̲ānbāliḳ (the “Ḵh̲ān’s Town”), Turko-Mongol name for Pekin (also frequently used by European travellers in the middle ages in forms like (Cambalu), Ilibāliḳ (on the River Ili, the modern Iliysk) etc. As the town of Bās̲h̲bāliḳ is mentioned as early as the Ork̲h̲on i…

, ruler of the Özbegs [see uzbeks ] and founder of the power of this nation, descendant of S̲h̲aybān, Ḏj̲uči’s youngest son [see s̲h̲aybānids ], born in the year of the dragon (1412; as the year of the hid̲j̲ra 816/1413-4 is erroneously given). At first he is said to have been in the service of another descendant of S̲h̲aybān, Ḏj̲amaduḳ Ḵh̲ān. The latter met his death in a revolt; Abu ’l-Ḵh̲ayr was taken prisoner, but was released and shortly after proclaimed k̲h̲ān in the territory of Tura (Siber…

, according to Radloff ( Versuch eines Wörterbuches der Türk-Dialecte , St. Petersburg 1899, ii, 924) “a Turkish tribe in Turkistan”; the same authority gives the Kirgiz (i.e. Ḳazaḳ) word ḳurama (from ḳura , “to sew together pieces of cloth”) with the meaning “a blanket made of pieces of cloth sewn together”. In another passage ( Aus Sibirien 2, Leipzig 1893, i, 225) Radloff himself says that the Kurama are “a mixed people of Özbegs and Kirgiz” and their name comes from the fact, asserted by the Kirgiz, that “they are made up of patches from many tribes” ( kura to “patch…

, a S̲h̲aybānid [ q.v.], the greatest prince of this dynasty, born in 940/1533-4 (the dragon year 1532-3 is given, probably more accurately, as the year of the cycle) at Āfarīnkent in Miyānkāl (an island between the two arms of the Zarafs̲h̲ān). The father (Iskandar Ḵh̲ān), grandfather (Ḏj̲ānī Beg) and great-grandfather (Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Muḥammad, son of Abu ‘l-Ḵh̲ayr [ q.v.]) of this ruler of genius are all described as very ordinary, almost stupid men. Ḏj̲ānī Beg (d. 935/1528-9) had at the distribution of 918/1512-3 received Karmīna and Miyānkāl; Iskandar …

, older form tāzīk or tāžīk (in Maḥmūd Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī, i., 324: Težik), the name of a people originally used with the meaning “Arab” (later this meaning became confined to the form Tāzī), afterwards “Iranian” in contrast to “Turk”. The word is derived from the Arab tribal name of Ṭaiy. The nearest Arab tribe to the Iranians was the Ṭaiy, hence the name of this tribe came to be applied to the whole Arab people. The Ṭaiy are “mentioned as early as the beginning of the third century by an Edessene along with the Saracens as representatives of all the Beduins” (Cureton, Spicil. Syr., p. 16 ult. in Nö…

, also written S̲h̲irwān and S̲h̲arwān (e.g. in Yāḳūt, iii. 282, 7, according to al-Samʿānī, ed. Margoliouth, f. 333a), a district on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, east of the Kura, originally a part of the ancient Albania or the Arrān [q. v.] of the early middle ages. According to Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, p. 192 = Yāḳūt, iii. 317 19, the road from Bard̲h̲aʿa [q. v.] led via S̲h̲īrwān and S̲h̲amāk̲h̲iya (in Yāḳūt: S̲h̲amāk̲h̲ī) to Derbend [q. v.]. The distance between S̲h̲amāk̲h̲iya and “S̲h̲arwān”, according to Iṣṭak…

(usually written Akkerman, Akjerman) is the capital of a district in the Government of Bessarabia. The name signifies “white castle”. In the Middle Ages the place was called Mon Castro, in Polish and Russian authorities Byelgorod (“white city”). It was first in the possession of the Venetians, afterwards of the Genoese. In 1484 it was captured by the Turks. The cossacks took it several times after that, and in 1595 it was destroyed by German troops. By the peace of Bucarest Akkerman along with the rest of Bessarabia was yielded to Russia. (W. Barthold).

, a name for Siberia in the Mongol period; in this form in S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn al-ʿOmarī (cf. Brockelmann, G. A. L., ii. 141), text in W. Tiesenhausen, Sbornih materialov, otnosyas̲h̲čik̲h̲sya k istorii Zolotoi Ordi̊, p. 217 at top; the same source has also Bilād Sibir or al-Sibir (ibid., l. 6 and 221 below). More frequently Ibir-Sibir; e. g. Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, Ḏj̲āmiʿ-al-Tawārīk̲h̲, ed. Berezin, in Trudi̊ Vost. Otd. Ark̲h̲-Obs̲h̲č., vii. 168 (Ibīr Sībīr, mentioned in connection with the Ḳīrḳīz people and the river Angara) and the Chinese Yüans̲h̲i ¶ (I-bi-rh Si-bi-rh, quoted in Bretsch…

, a prince of the house of Tīmūr, grandson of its founder. He was 12 years old at the death of his grandfather (S̲h̲aʿbān 807 = February 1405) so he must have been born about 795 (1392-1393) His father ʿOmar S̲h̲aik̲h̲ had predeceased Tīmūr. Baiḳarā is celebrated by Dawlat-S̲h̲āh (ed. Browne, p. 374) for his beauty as a second Joseph and for his courage as a second Rustam; he was prince of Balk̲h̲ for a long period. In the year 817 (1414) he was granted Lūristān, Hamadān, Nihāwand and Burūd̲j̲īr…

, Arabic name for Talas, a river in Central Asia and the town on it probably near the modern Awliyā Atā [q. v.]. The town was of pre-Muḥammadan, presumably Sog̲h̲dian origin [cf. sog̲h̲d]; Sog̲h̲dian and Turkī were spoken in Ṭarāz and in Balāsāg̲h̲ūn [q.v.] as late as the fifth (eleventh) century (Maḥmūd Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī, Dīwān Lug̲h̲āt al-Turk, i. 31). As a town ( k̲h̲ōron) Talas is first mentioned in the report of the embassy of the Greek Zēmark̲h̲os ( Fragm. Hist. Greac., iv. 228) in 568. About 630 Talas (Chin. Ta-lo-sse) was described by Hiuen-Thsang as an important commercial town ( Mémoires…

an Uig̲h̲ur word for “castle, palace”, probably borrowed from a native language of Eastern Turkestān and later adopted by the Mongols. The town of Nak̲h̲s̲h̲ab or Nasaf [q. v.] has taken its modern name of Kars̲h̲ī from a palace built for the Ḵh̲ān Kabak (1318—1326; see the art. čag̲h̲atāi k̲h̲ān), 2 farsak̲h̲ from the town, all trace of which has long since disappeared. Cf. S̲h̲araf ad-Dīn Yazdī, Ẓafar Nāme, ed. Muḥ. Ilāhdād, Calcutta 1887—1888, i. 111; G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Cambridge 1905, p. 470 sq. (W. Barthold)

, ʿAlā al-Dīn ʿAṭā Malik b. Muḥammed, a Persian governor and historian, author of the Tāʾrīk̲h̲-i Ḏj̲ihān-Kus̲h̲āi; it is from this work that almost all our knowledge of the author (to 654 = 1256) and his ancestors is derived. The family belonged to the village of Āzādwār in the district of Ḏj̲uwain [q. v., N°. 2], ¶ in the western part of Ḵh̲orāsān (it is mentioned as early as the ivth (xth) century and was a day’s journey north of the town of Bahmanabād which still exists under this name, cf. Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, ed. de Goeje, p. 284); according to Ibn al-Ṭiḳṭaḳā ( at-Fak̲h̲rī, ed. Ahlwardt, p. 209) ʿA…

(Arab.) «that which (lies) beyond the river”; the name for the lands conquered by the Arabs and subjected to Islām north of the Amū-Daryā [q. v.]. The frontiers of Mā warāʾ al-Nahr on north and east were where the power of Islām ceased and depended on political conditions; cf. the statements of the Arab geographers on Mā warāʾ al-Nahr in G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Cambridge 1905, p. 433 sq.; W. Barthold, Turkestan (G. M. S., N. S., v., London 1928), p. 64 sqq. The phrase Mā warāʾ al-Nahr passed from Arabic literature into Persian. As late as the ninth (xvth) century, Ḥāfiẓ-…

A Central Asian Turkī word of uncertain etymology (it does not seem to appear in other dialects), which is applied to the predatory raids of Turkish nomads. The importance of this peculiar feature of nomad life as well as the conditions of warfare ( Ḏj̲au) necessitated thereby has been most fully described by W. Radloff ( Aus Sibirien, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1893, i. 509 et seq. and Kudatku Bilik, Part i., St. Petersburg, 1891, p. LII et seq.). As long as there was no strong governing authority in the steppes, as long as the force of legal decisions depended only on the perso…

or Derbend-i Āhanīn, Arabic Bāb al-Ḥadīd, Old Turkish Tamir-Ḳapig̲h̲ = “Iron Gate” — a frequently recurring name in the Muḥammadan world for important passes and ravines. The best known is the ravine, about 2 miles long and only 12—20 yards broad, in the Baisun-taw range, through which runs the main road from Samarḳand and Buk̲h̲ārā to Balk̲h̲. This ravine is first mentioned under its Persian name by Yaʿḳūbī (ed. de Goeje, p. 290, 5); Yaʿḳūbī’s statement that a “town” bore this name is not confirmed by …

b. Sahl b. Hās̲h̲im, of the aristocratic Dihḳān family Kāmkāriyān (who had settled near Merw), which boasted of Sāsānian descent, ¶ governor of Ḵh̲orāsān. In order to avenge the death of his brother, fallen in a fight between Persians and Arabs (in Merw), he had under ʿAmr b. al-Lait̲h̲) stirred up a rising of the people. He was taken prisoner and brought to Sīstān, whence he escaped by means of an adventurous flight, and after a new attempt of a rising in Merw he fled for refuge to the Sāmānide Ismāʿīl b. Aḥmed in…

(Turkish “warm lake”), the most important mountain lake in Turkistan and one of the largest in the world, situated in 42° 30′ N. Lat. and between 76° 15′ and 78° 30′ E. Long., 5116 feet above sea level; the length of the lake is about 115 miles, the breadth up to 37 miles, the depth up to 1381 feet, and the area 2400 square miles. From the two chains of the Thian-S̲h̲an, the Kungei-Alatau (in the north) and the Terskei-Alatau (in the south) about 80 large and small mountain streams pour into th…

Muḥammad Ḵh̲wārizms̲h̲āh, founder of a dynasty in Ḵh̲wārizm [q. v.]. His father Anūs̲h̲tagīn (or Nūs̲h̲tagīn) G̲h̲arča was in charge of the silver and crockery ( ṭas̲h̲t-k̲h̲āna) at the court of the Sald̲j̲ūḳs; the expenses of this branch of the court household were defrayed out of the tribute from Ḵh̲wārizm just as the expenses of administration of the clothing-depot ( d̲j̲āma-k̲h̲āna) were defrayed by the tribute from Ḵh̲ūzistān; Anūs̲h̲tagīn therefore, without actually governing Ḵh̲wārizm. held the title of a military governor ( s̲h̲ak̲h̲ne) of this country. He had his so…

, a town in Mongolia on the Ork̲h̲on, in the thirteenth century for a short time (about 1230—1260) the capital of the Mongol Emperors, now in ruins. The fullest accounts of the town are given among European travellers by Rubruk (Latin edition in Recueil de Voyages et de Mémoires, 1839, iv. 345 sq.; transl. by W. W. Rockhill, Hakluyt Society, 2nd series, especially p. 220 with the translator’s notes) and among Muslim historians by Ḏj̲uwainī [q. v.], Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ḏj̲ihān Gus̲h̲āi, ed. Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḳazwīnī, especially i. 169 sq. and 192. The fullest account of the ruins (by the memb…

, the fourth sovereign of the dynasty of the Ḏj̲alāirides (784—813 = 1382—1410) was the fourth son of Sultan Uwais. During the reign of his elder brother Ḥusain he became governor of Baṣra in 776 (1374-1375). In 784 (1382) he raised the banner of insurrection, took possession of the capital, Tibrīz, and had his brother executed. He was not however recognized as sovereign in all parts of the realm until after severe combats with his other brothers (786 = 1384). During the course of the following …

, Russian Azow, a town near the mouth of the Don; it is first mentioned in the fourteenth century (after 1316) as a Genoese, then (after 1332) as a Venetian colony under the name of Tana (from the ancient Tanaïs). The Turkish name has appeared on coins since 717 (1317). In the year 797 (1395) the town was destroyed by Tīmūr and taken possession of by the Ottomans in 880 (1475). The Russians (Cossacks) appeared before Azaḳ for the first time in 1589; in 1637 the town was captured and the whole Mu…

, sovereign of the Özbegs and founder of the power of this nation, a descendant of S̲h̲aiban, Ḏj̲uči’s youngest son, born in the year of the dragon (1412; as the year of the Hegira 816 = 1413-1414 is erroneously given). At first he is said to have been in the service of another descendant of S̲h̲aibān, Ḏj̲amaduḳ Ḵh̲ān. The latter found his death in a revolte; Abu ’l-Ḵh̲air was taken prisoner, but was released and shortly after proclaimed k̲h̲ān in the territory of Tura (Siberia) at the age of 17…

, properly Aḥmad b. Faḍlān b. al-ʿAbbās b. Rās̲h̲id b. Ḥammād, Arab author, composer of an account ( risāla) of the embassy sent by the Caliph al-Muḳtadir to the king of the Volga Bulg̲h̲ārs [cf. bulg̲h̲ār, i. 786 sqq.]. As he was a client ( mawlā) of the Caliph and of the conqueror of Egypt Muḥammad b. Sulaimān [see Cairo, i. 818a] he was certainly not of Arab origin. He seems to have taken part in the embassy as a theologian and authority on religious matters. The real ambassador appointed by the government was Sūsan al-Rassī, a client of Nud̲h̲air al-Ḥ…

b. al-Lait̲h̲ al-Ṣaffār, the Ṣaffārid; he is said to have been in his youth first a mule-driver, then later a mason, and later to have attached himself to his brother Yaʿḳūb. Proclaimed commander at his death by the latter’s army (265 = 879), ʿAmr submitted to the Caliph and was invested with the provinces of Ḵh̲orāsān, Fārs, Iṣpahān, Sīstān, Karmān and Sind. He only obtained unquestioned mastery of Ḵh̲orāsān after strenuous struggles with his opponents Aḥmed b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḵh̲ud̲j̲ustānī, Rāfiʿ…

(Barmecides), a Persian family, which produced the first Persian ministers of the Caliphate. “Barmak” was not a personal name but denoted the rank of hereditary chief priest in the temple of Nawbahār in Balk̲h̲. The lands belonging to the temple were also in the hands of this family. These estates comprised an area of about 740 square miles (8 farsak̲h̲s long by ¶ 4 broad), or somewhat more than the principalities of Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe together. These estates or part of them remained the property of the Barmakids at a later period; Yāḳūt (ii. 942) …

a large river in Siberia, in the basin of the Ob. Its two sources, the Blue and the White Irtis̲h̲, rise in the Great Altai; after their junction the river as far as Lake Zaisan bears the name “Black Irtis̲h̲”; after leaving the lake it flows for about 180 miles through steppe country as the “White” or “Slow Irtis̲h̲”, then for 60 miles with a stronger current as the “Rapid Irtis̲h̲” through a hilly country. At the town of Ustkamenogorsk it enters the Great Siberian plain which sinks away towar…

, a town in the upper Ili [q. v.] valley. A Muḥammadan kingdom is first mentioned in this region in the viith (xiiith) century: its founder, who is said to have previously been a brigand and horse-thief, is called Ōzār in Ḏj̲uwainī ( G. M. S., xvi., p. 57) and Būzār in Ḏj̲amāl Ḳuras̲h̲ī (in Barthold, Turkestan, i. 135 sq.). According to the latter, he assumed the title of Tog̲h̲rul Ḵh̲ān as ruler. The capital of the kingdom was Almali̊g̲h̲, first mentioned in this connection and later a great and wealthy commercial city. We owe our information about its…

, usually written bāṭmān or bātmān, in Ḳirghiz batpan, a Turkī word, applied to a “heavy weight” ( batpandai = “weighing a hundredweight”); it is probably connected with the verbal root bat “to sink” although F. W. K. Müller ( Sitzungsberichte Preuss. Akad., 1907, p. 847) says that the word is Middle Persian and “like many other Iranian words has reached Mongolian through Uigur” (examples are not given). What weight was originally meant by this word, is unknown; at the present day in the Turkī dialects as elsewhere (cf. the European “pound”, the Arabic “ mann” and “ riṭl” etc.), the same wor…

b. Iskandar, a S̲h̲aibānide, the greatest prince of this dynasty, born in 940 (1533-1534; the dragon year 1532-1333 is probably more accurately given as the year of the cycle) at Āfarīnkent in Miyānkāl (an island between the two arms of the Zarafs̲h̲ān). The father (Iskandar Ḵh̲ān), grandfather (Ḏj̲ānī Beg) and great-grandfather (Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Muḥammed, son of Abu ’l-Ḵh̲air [s. d.]) of this ruler of genius are all described as very ordinary, almost stupid men. Ḏj̲ānī Beg (d. 935 = 1528-1529) had at the distribution of 918 (1512-1513) received Karmī…

, an Armenian town, the ruins of which are found on the right bank of the Arpa-Cai (called by the Armenians Ak̲h̲uryan) at a distance of about 20 miles from the point where that river flows into the Araxes. The origin of the name is unknown, though the suggestion has been made that the town may owe its name to a temple of the Irānian goddess Anāhita (the Greek Anaϊtis). It is certain at any rate that the district was inhabited in the pre-christian period, pagan tombs having been found in the imm…

, a Turkish people in Persia. The name is said to be the Turkish ḳas̲h̲ḳā “horse with a white spot on its forehead” (W. Radloff, Versuch eines Wörter buches der türk. Dialecte, ii. 395). The Ḳas̲h̲ḳāi are said to be descended from the Turkish Ḵh̲alad̲j̲ (cf. also B. G. A., i. 158: Ḵh̲ald̲j̲) mentioned by al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī ( B. G. A., vol. i.) and later writers in the country between India and Slstān. The Ḵh̲alad̲j̲ are said to have migrated first to the Persian ʿIrāḳ where a district near Sāwa is still called Ḵh̲alad̲j̲istān; there is still said to be a Turkish speaking people there ¶ (private informa…

, a ruler of the Tīmūrid dynasty, grandson of Tīmūr, son of Mīrān-s̲h̲āh and Suyūn-beg Ḵh̲ānzāda, grand-daughter of the Ḵh̲ān of the Golden Horde, Özbeg; born in 786 ¶ (1384), died Wednesday, Rad̲j̲ab 16, 814 (Nov. 4, 1411), reigned in Samarḳand 807—812 (1405—1409). His education was entrusted to Tīmūr’s eldest wife, Sarāi Mulk Ḵh̲ānum. He is said to have distinguished himself on Tīmūr’s India campaign (1399) when only 15 years of age; he also took part in the so-called “Seven Years” (actually only 802—807=1399—1404) war i…

, a city in Turkestān, on the lower course of the Zarafs̲h̲ān. We have only the scantiest notices of the history of the city in pre-Muḥammadan times. There can be little doubt, however, that the Iranians had settlements and even towns on the Zarafs̲h̲ān at a very early period; even in the time of Alexander the Great of Macedon there was another town in Sogdiana besides Matakanda (Samarḳand) on the lower course of the river; but whether this town corresponded to the modern Buk̲h̲ārā may be questi…

al-Ḥād̲j̲ib (Abū Saʿid; his alleged second name Hārūn is only mentioned in one passage by Ibn al-At̲h̲īr (ed. Tornb., ix. 294), probably as the result of an oversig̲h̲t of the ¶ author or of a copyist), was a Turkish slave, later general to the G̲h̲aznawid Sebuk-Tegīn and to his two successors. Even while under Sebuk-Tegīn he attained the highest rank in the bodyguard of his sovereign, that of a “Great Ḥād̲j̲ib”; under Maḥmūd be commanded the right wing in the great battle against the Ḳarak̲h̲ānids (22 Rabīʿ II 398 = 4 Jan. …

, the ancient capital of Ḵh̲wārizm, the modern Ḵh̲īva; according to Yāḳūt, Muʿd̲j̲am, ed. Wüstenfeld, iv. 222, the name meant a wall ( ḥāʾiṭ) in the desert in the language of the Ḵh̲wārizmīs, even if there were no buildings within this. The fullest accounts of the old town and citadel of Fīl or Fīr, which was gradually washed away by the Āmū-Daryā (the last traces of it are said to have disappeared in 384 = 994), are given in al-Bīrūnī’s [q.v.] Kitāb al-Āt̲h̲ār al-Bāḳiya, p. 35, on which E. Sachau based his Zur Geschichte una Chronologie von Ḵh̲wārizm ( Sitzungsber. der phil. hist. Cl. d. K.K…

, a town on the north bank of the Āmū Daryā [q. v.] near the mouth of the Surk̲h̲ān. As Samʿānī, who spent 12 days there, testifies, the name was pronounced Tarmīd̲h̲ in the town itself ( G. M. S., xx., fol. 105b) which is confirmed by the Chinese Ta-mi (e. g. Hiouen Thsang, Mémoires sur Its contrées occidentales, I, 25). Russian officers in 1889 also heard the pronunciation Termiz or Tarmi̊z ( Sbornik materialov po Azii, lvii. 393 and 399). The town is now officially known as Termez. Tirmid̲h̲ does not seem to have been touched by Alexander the Great and is not mentioned in antiqui…

, a Mongol prince in Central Asia, great-grandson of Čag̲h̲atāi [q. v.] grandson of the Mütügen who had fallen at Bāmiyān in 1221 [see above, p. 644]. His father Yisūn-Tuwa had taken part in the events of the year 1251 [cf. the article bātū k̲h̲ān, p. 681] and shared the fate of the other rebellious princes. Like the rest of the children of Čag̲h̲atāi and Ügedei, Burāḳ and his brothers were educated in Mongolia; some years after the accession of the Great Ḵh̲ān Ḵh̲ubilāi (1260—1294) they received permission to return to their home and to …

, originally an old Turkish word for “merchant”: it is used with this meaning in the Ḳuḍatḳu-Bilik (quotations in Radloff, Versuch eines Wörtcrbuches der Türk. Dialecte, iv. 335) and by Maḥmūd Kas̲h̲g̲h̲ārī (e. g. i. 286). In the Uighur translation (from the Chinese, of the Saddharma puṇḍarīḳa the Sanskrit word sārthavāha or sārthalūha “caravan-leader” is translated sartpau; this word is explained as the “senior merchant” sati̊ḳči̊ uludg̲h̲i). Radloff therefore concludes that Turk, sart is an Indian loan-word ( Kuan-si-in Pusar, Bibl. Buddh, St. Petersburg 1911, xiv. p. 37).…

, the name of two Ḵh̲āns of the Crimea in the eighteenth century. 1. Ḳaplān Girāy I reigned three times: 1119—1120 (1707—1708), 1125—1128 (1713—1716) and 1143—1149 (1730—36). He died on the island of Chios in S̲h̲aʿbān, 1151 (Nov.-Dec, 1738). Immediately after the death of his father Salīm I, in S̲h̲aʿbān, 1116 (Nov.-Dec., 1704), he set up as a claimant to the throne but was not proclaimed Ḵh̲ān till after the death of his brother G̲h̲āzī III. His own three depositions were on each occasion the result of the u…

(literally Great China), Arabic and Persian name (the Arabic ṣīn is of course for the Persian čīn) for the seaport of Canton in the Mongol period; it is known especially from the travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa [q. v.] (ed. Defrémery and Sanguinetti, iv. 271 sq.) but is used by other Muslim (Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, Waṣṣāf) and also by Western writers (Odoric de Pordenone, Marignolli, also in the Cartu Catalana; cf. the quotations in Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, London 1866, p. 105, and Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, Ḏj̲āmiʿ al-Tawārīk̲h̲, ed. Blochet, 1911, p. 493). For Ṣīn-i Kalān Ibn Baṭṭūṭa also has Ṣ…

(Turḳ, “father-herdsman”), a ridge of hills on the south bank of the Zarafs̲h̲ān near Samarḳand. The modern name is apparently connected with the legend given in the Kitāb-i Ḳandīya. Samarḳand is said to have been attacked by a hostile force over a 1000 years before Muḥammad; the inhabitants prayed to God and his prophets for help; when they awoke on the following morning, nota trace was left of the enemy’s army, but before the city was a mountain which no had seen before and on it a shepherd was grazing his sheep. It appe…

, Russian Kura, in the Arab geographers Kurr, the largest river in the Caucasus, over 600 miles in length, according to Ḥamd Allāh Ḳazwīnī ( Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb, G.M.S., XXIII/i., p. 218) 200 farsak̲h̲. Iṣṭak̲h̲rī ( B.G.A., i. 189) describes the Kur as navigable and full of fish; even at the present day very little would require to be done to make the river accessible to modern steamers from Mingečaur (a little below the mouth of the Alazan) to the Caspian Sea. The Araxes, regarded as a separate river in ancient times, always appears…

, a district on the upper course of Āmū-Daryā between the rivers Pand̲j̲ and Wak̲h̲s̲h̲, called Ḏj̲aryāb and Wak̲h̲s̲h̲āb in the middle ages; on the situation cf. also i., p. 339 sq. The pronunciation Ḵh̲uttal is given by Yāḳūt ( Muʿd̲j̲am, ii. 402); for the frequently used plural form we have evidence for the pronunciation Ḵh̲uttalān in the lampoon preserved by Ṭabarī (ii. 1492, 1494 and 1602) on the reverses suffered by the governor Asad b. ʿAbd Allāh (d. 120 = 738). On the other hand in later Persian poetry the pronunciation Ḵh̲atl…