, the epic genre in Islamic literature. vi. In Swahili Literature . In Swahili literature, the word hamasa occurs rarely and has the meaning of “virtue, courage, energy”. The normal words for “courage, valour” in Swahili literature are ushujaa , ujasiri , usabiti and uhodari , all words of Arabic version, and so is the word for virtue, fadhila . There are only a few non-narrative heroic poems known in Swahili literature, most of them self-praises in true African fashion. The most famous of these is the Ukawafi of Liongo, praising h…

b. K̲h̲uwaylid b. Nawfal , from the Bedouin Banū Faḳʿas, a part of the tribe of Asad, one of the false prophets who arose in Arabia during the lifetime of the Prophet Muḥammad and afterwards. ¶ Details of Ṭulayḥa’s life and activity before Islam are virtually unknown. Whereas certain clans of the Asad were connected with the religious and economic institutions of pre-Islamic Mecca, Ṭulayḥa’s clan, Faḳʿas, had no such links. Neither does it seem to have taken a side in the struggle between Mecca and Muḥammad until the last phase of…

, name of a district in West Pakistan, lying between 33° 44′ and 35° 10′ N. and 72° 33′ and 74° 6′ E. at the base of the western Himalayas with an area of 6,292 sq. miles, and a population of 1,050,374 (1961), of whom the overwhelming majority, i.e., 99.98%, are Sunnī Muslims, with many accretions and deviations from othodoxy as the entire population is under the influence of the local mullās . In shape the district is like a long tongue, 120 miles in length, extending from the south-west to the north-west, its tip, the Kāg̲h̲ān valley, running…

, the name of a Pat́hān or Afg̲h̲ān tribe on the North-West Frontier of what was formerly British India, now forming the boundary between Pakistan and Afg̲h̲anistān. The Mohmands in fact straddle the frontier, and their members, estimated at ca. 400,000, are divided between the two countries. The Mohmand territories extend from northwest of the Pes̲h̲āwar district, with Mālākand and the Yūsufzay territories on the east, up to and beyond the Afg̲h̲an frontier on the west, and northwards towards the princely state of Dīr [ q.v.]. The Mohmand Agency, created by Pakistan (see below)…

, Zāwiyat Mawlāy Idrīs , town in Morocco, an urban settlement of some 10,000 inhabitants situated on the west bank of D̲j̲abal Zarhūn and attached to the slopes of the Farṭ al-Bīr. It is a mountain city, in contrast to the ancient Roman city of Volubilis (Walīlā/Walīlī) which stands nearby, in the plain on the north-western side. In spite of this contrast between the two towns, their histories are linked and neither can be studied in isolation. First of all, it is necessary to dismiss the belief according to which Mawlāy Idrīs was founded by Idrīs I when he came to take …

, the name of a large and powerful Paṭhān tribe, with an estimated fighting strength of 50,000, on the northwest frontier of Pākistān. The territories inhabited by the Afrīdīs stretch from the eastern spurs of the Safīd Kūh through the northern half of Tirāh and the Khyber (Ḵh̲aybar) [ q.v.] pass to the west and south of the Pes̲h̲āwar district. On the east they are bounded by the settled districts of Pākistān; on the north by the territories of the Mohmunds; on the west by the S̲h̲inwārīs; and on the south by the Ōrakzays and Bangas̲h̲ tribes…

, Samm (a.), poison, venom, pl. sumūm , adj. sāmm , poisonous; Pers. zahr. Al-sāmm or al-sāmma was also a term for “death”. Sources of poison included bites or stings of venomous creatures, especially vipers and scorpions; and substances of plant, animal, or mineral origin, accidentally ingested or deliberately administered. Arabic writings on poisons concentrate largely on detecting and avoiding them, on their origins, identification, and most importantiy, treatment and remedies. Early Islam . The poison from scorpions and snakes was recognised in pre-Islamic times, …

, the concept in Islam of the public interest or welfare. Maṣlaḥa (pl. maṣāliḥ ) is the abstract noun of the verb ṣalaḥa (or ṣaluḥa ), “to repair or improve”. Strictly speaking, maṣlaḥa , like manfaʿa , means “utility” and its antonyms are maḍarra and mafsada (“injury”); but generally speaking, maṣlaḥa denotes “welfare” and is used by jurists to mean “general good” or “public interest”. Anything which helps to avert mafsada or ḍarar and furthers human welfare is equated with maṣlaḥa. As a legal concept, maṣlaḥa must be distinguished from istiṣlāḥ , a method of legal reasoning through which ma…

name of a group of Northern Arabian tribes, belonging to the Ḳays ʿAylān [ q.v.] and represented in the genealogical system as the descendants of G̲h̲aṭafān b. Saʿd b. Ḳays b. ʿAylān. Their lands lay between the Ḥid̲j̲āz and the S̲h̲ammar mountains in that part of the Nad̲j̲d which is drained by the Wādī al-Rumma. Here lived from West to East their principal tribes: the Banū As̲h̲d̲j̲aʿ, the Ḏh̲ubyān (with the sub-tribes Fazāra, Murra, and T̲h̲aʿlaba), the ʿAbs, and—in the region al-Ḳasīm— the Anmār. Of these…

, an Arab tribe. They were reckoned by the genealogists among the sons of ʿAmr b. Udd b. Ṭābik̲h̲a. of ʿAdnān; the nisba is Muzanī. At the time of the Prophet Muḥammad, when Muzayna first becomes visible to the historian, it resided south of Medina and consisted predominantly of poor nomads; some members of the tribe may have resided in small villages in the area. It seems fair to assume that they were dependent on Medina for market goods and, perhaps, occasional employment as herdsmen or labour…

, Muḥammad b. Isḥāḳ b. Yasār b. K̲h̲iyār (according to some sources, b. K̲h̲abbār , or Kūmān , or Kūtān ), one of the main authorities on al-sīra al-nabawiyya , along with Mūsā b. ʿUḳba and al-Wāḳidī. His kunya is variously given as Abū ʿAbd Allāh or Abū Bakr. On the whole, the former is the better substantiated and the confusion may have resulted from the fact that he had a brother called Abū Bakr ( Udabāʾ , vi, 400). He was born in Medina in about 85/704, and, according to the majority of the sources, died in Bag̲h̲dād in 150/767 —alternative dates for his death are 151, 153 and, in one case ( Wafayāt …

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…

(a.), literally, “enjoyment”, used in Islamic law in the sense of temporary marriage (according to the Arab lexicographers “marriage of pleasure”), a marriage which is contracted for a fixed period on rewarding the woman. I. Before Islam. According to Ammianus Marcellinus, xiv. 4, 4, temporary marriage was in use among the Arabs already in the 4th century A.D.; but this can hardly be a reference to mutʿa , as the woman brings a lance and tent to the man and can leave him if she likes after the period has elapsed. It is also doubtful if there is a distinct mutʿa character in the marriage of Hās…

, scholar of wide learning in the fields of Arabic language, poetry and adab , rhetoric, kalām [ q.v.] and of the early history of Islam; in addition he was an uṣūlī jurist [see uṣūl ] and an eminent writer of prose and poetry. Born at al-Madāʾīn on 1 D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 586/30 December 1190, he died at Bag̲h̲dād in 655/1257 or 656/1258, i.e., either immediately before or immediately after the capture of the city by the Mongols (20 Muḥarram 656/28 January 1258); since Ibn al-Fuwaṭī states that he was able to escape the massacre by the invaders by taking refuge in the house of the wazīr Ibn al-ʿAlḳ…

(a.) “metamorphosis”, that is, according to LA, s.v., “transformation of an exterior form ( ṣūra ) into a more ugly form”; the product of the metamorphosis is itself called mask̲h̲ / misk̲h̲ or masīk̲h̲ / mamsūk̲h̲ . Belief in the fact that, as a result of supernatural intervention—divine punishment in the majority of cases—humans have been transformed into animals, statutes or even into stars was as widespread, before Islam, among the Arabs as among the peoples of Antiquity whose mythologies are known to us. The growth of the conc…

(a., lit. “witness”, pl. s̲h̲uhadāʾ ), a word ¶ often used in the sense of “martyr”. In the Ḳurʾān it is attested in its primary meaning (e.g. II, 282, XXIV, 4) and also occurs as one of the divine names (e.g. V, 117). Muslim scholars maintain that in a number of verses s̲h̲uhadāʾ means “martyrs”, as in III, 140 (“So that God may know those who believe and may take s̲h̲uhadāʾ from among you”), IV, 69 (“Whoever obeys God and the messenger—they are with those whom God has blessed, prophets, just men, s̲h̲uhadāʾ and the righteous”), XXXIX, 69 and LVII, 19; and they explain in various ways…

, the name of two tribal groups in northern Arabia: a branch of Ḵh̲uzāʿa [ q.v.] and a branch of the so-called Northern Arabian federation Ḳays ʿAylān [ q.v.], more precisely, the Hawāzin [ q.v.] 1. The lineage of the Salūl who were a branch of Ḵh̲uzāʿa was: Salūl b. Kaʿb b. ʿAmr b. Rabīʿa b. Ḥārit̲h̲a. The genealogists list, beside Salūl himself, ¶ the following descendants of his as eponyms of tribal groups (the term employed is baṭn ): Ḳumayr b. Ḥabs̲h̲iya (variants: Ḥabs̲h̲iyya, Ḥabas̲h̲iyya, Ḥubs̲h̲iyya), Ḥulayl b. Ḥabs̲h̲iya, including the desce…

, 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. “uplands”), conventionally defined as the plateau region of the Arabian peninsula lying to the east of the Red Sea lowlands (al-Tihāma [ q.v.]) and the mountain barrier running down through the western side of the peninsula (al-Ḥid̲j̲āz [ q.v.]). 1. Geography and habitat. ¶ The exact application of this originally topographical conception is very differently understood, and sometimes it means more generally the elevated country above the coastal plain or the extensive country, the upper part of which is formed by the Tihāma and the Yam…

, the common collective (sing. ϒahūdī ) in Arabic for “Jews”. A less common plural Hūd is also used (e.g. Ḳurʾān, II, 111, 135, 140). The word is borrowed from Aram. ϒahūd , and ultimately from late bibl. Heb. yehūdīm , “Judaeans”, the latter itself derived from members of the tribe of Judah). The Ḳurʾān also uses a stative verb hāda , “to be Jewish” or “to practice Judaism”. 1. In the D̲j̲āhiliyya. Jews had lived in various parts of the Arabian Peninsula since Antiquity, and the numbers of those living in northwestern Arabia must have been swelled by refugees from J…