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b. al-salīl , abū mūsā al-d̲h̲ulī al-s̲h̲aybānī no doubt belonged to the Rabīʿa (Bakr) tribe of the Banū S̲h̲aybān of D̲j̲azīra (for which see al-Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Nihāyat al-arab fī maʿrifat ansāb al-ʿArab , Bag̲h̲dād 1332, 259; idem, Ṣubḥ al-Aʿs̲h̲ā , i, 338; al-Nuwayrī, Nihāya , ii, 335-6; Ibn Ḳutayba, Kitāb al-maʿārif , Cairo 1300, 32-3, ed. Okāsha 2 1969, 97; cf. M. Canard, Hist . de la dynastie des H’amdānides , 134 ff., 141). We do not know the exact name of his father, who was called al-S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ or S̲h̲ayk̲h̲, and elsewhere Aḥmad (Ibn Tag̲h̲rībirdī, iii, 46 note, and Defrémery, Recherc…

, properly “abode of (the tribe of) Bakr”, the designation of the northern province of the D̲j̲azīra. It covers the region on the left and right banks of the Tigris from its source to the region where it changes from its west-east course to flow in a south-easterly direction. It is, therefore, the upper basin of the Tigris, from the region of Siʿirt and Tell Fāfān to that of Arḳanīn to the north-west of Āmid and Ḥiṣn al-Ḥamma (Čermük) to the west of Āmid. Yāḳūt points out that Diyār Bakr does not extend beyond the plain. Diyār Bakr is so called because it became, during the 1st/7th century…

(“pearl”), a noun often given as proper name to a person of servile origin, a guard or an officer or a leader of a special body of g̲h̲ulāms [ q.v.] in the service of a prince. Thus a Luʾluʾ was the g̲h̲ulām of Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn (al-Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲ , viii, 69 = § 319b); a Luʾluʾ was chief of police in Bag̲h̲dād in 324/935-6 (Miskawayh, i, 351); another was governor of Ḥimṣ for the Ik̲h̲s̲h̲īd, and it was he who was to capture al-Mutanabbī when the latter proclaimed himself a prophet and attracted a numerous following of partisans in the Syrian desert (Ibn K̲h̲allikān, ed. Būlāḳ, 1299, i, 44). Luʾluʾ al-…

, Abu ’l-Farad̲j̲ YaʿḲūb b. Yūsuf , famous Fāṭimid vizier of the caliph al-ʿAzīz [ q.v.]. He was by origin a Jew, born in Bag̲h̲dād in 318/930. He went with his father to Syria and settled at Ramla, becoming an agent for various merchants; but, according to one tradition, having appropriated their money and being unable to repay it, he fled to Egypt, where he entered the service of Kāfūr [ q.v.], who thought highly of him and whose complete confidence he gained by enabling him to appropriate various inheritances whose existence he brought to his notice and in addit…

nizār abū manṣūr , fifth Fāṭimid Caliph and the first whose reign began in Egypt. He was born on 14 Muḥarram 344/10 May 955 and had been designated as his successor by his father al-Muʿizz after the death of his brother ʿAbd Allāh in 364/974. He succeeded his father on n Rabīʿ II 365/18 December 975 (or 14 Rabīʿ II/ 21 December) after the latter had had him recognised as his successor by his family and dignitaries on the preceding day. The official proclamation, however, only took place on 10 Ḏh̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 365/9 August 976. The sources describe him as tall, with red hair and blue ey…

al-S̲h̲īrāzī , Abu ’l-Faḍl , vizier. At the death of al-Muhallabī in 352/963, al-ʿAbbās, head of the Dīwān of Expenses, was charged by the Būyid Muʿizz al-Dawla with the functions of a vizier, together with another secretary, Ibn Fasānd̲j̲as, but without succeeding to the title. After the death of Muʿizz al-Dawla in 356/967, he was appointed vizier by the son and successor of Muʿizz al-Dawla, Bak̲h̲tiyār. He succeeded in suppressing the rebellion of another son of Muʿizz al-Daw…

, Christian Armenian general who served the Fāṭimids in Egypt and was wazīr of the sword from 529-31/1135-7 to the caliph al-Ḥāfiẓ (525-44/1130-49). The circumstances and date of his entry into Fāṭimid service are unknown. Many Armenians, in the 5th/11th century, went to Egypt, taking advantage of the fact that the wazīrate was on several occasions held by men of Armenian origin such as Badr al-D̲j̲amālī (466-87/1074-94), his son al-Afḍal (487-515/1094-1121), the latter’s son (525-6/1130-1) and Yānis (526/1131-2). Perhaps these circumstances brought Bahrām to Egypt. According to ¶…

, Tag̲h̲libī Arab family which, in the 4th/10th century, provided two minor dynasties, which arose, owing to the decadence of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate, in Mesopotamia or D̲j̲azīra (Mosul) and in Syria (Aleppo), and whose most distinguished representative was the amīr of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla. The Ḥamdānids are descended from ʿAdī b. Usāma... b. Tag̲h̲lib, which is why they are called Tag̲h̲libīs and ʿAdawīs (see their genealogical tree in Wüstenfeld, Tabellen , C, 32 and in M. Canard, Histoire de la dynastie des H’amdânides de Jazîra et de Syrie , i, Algiers 195…

, famous Ḳarmaṭī leader of Baḥrayn, born at al-Aḥsā in 278/891, died at Ramla in 366/977. His father Aḥmad b. Abī Saʿīd al-Ḥasan al-D̲j̲annābī was the brother of Abū Ṭāhir Sulaymān [see al-d̲j̲annābī ]; he died by poisoning in 359/970. Al-Ḥasan al-Aʿṣam probably never held power alone, it being, after the death of Abū Ṭāhir, held collectively by the latter’s brothers; but he was on several occasions in command of the Ḳarmaṭī armies. In 357/968, he took Damascus and defeated the Ik̲h̲s̲h̲īdid governor. He fell into disgrace for …

, a word used to denote the spy, concurrently with ʿayn , observer, literally “eye”, with the result that it is not always possible to distinguish between the two words and one can hardly discuss the one without speaking of the other. However, it seems that d̲j̲āsūs is used more particularly to refer to a spy sent among the enemy. Dictionaries also give for d̲j̲āsūs the sense of bearer of an unfavourable secret ( ṣāḥib sirr al-s̲h̲arr ) as opposed to nāmūs , the bearer of a favourable secret ( ṣāḥib sirr al-k̲h̲ayr ; see LA, vii, 337, Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, Nihāya , i, 163). The Ḳurʾān (XLIX, 12) ordains…

, (Aspar the son of Shēroē), a Daylamite condottiere , to be more exact a Gīlite, who played an important rôle in the civil wars which followed the death in 304/917 of the ʿAlid Ḥasan al-Uṭrus̲h̲ [ q.v.], the master of Ṭabaristān, and put an end to the domination of the ʿAlids in this region. He made his appearance with another Daylamite condottiere, Mākān b. Kākūy (Ar. another Daylamite brigand, Mākān b. Kākūy (Ar. Kākī), in 311/923, in the struggles which brought al-Uṭrus̲h̲’s son-in-law and successor, Ḥasan b. al-Ḳāsim, surnamed al-dāʿī al-ṣag̲h̲īr , “the littl…

(Mardaïtes). This name, the singular of which is D̲j̲urd̲j̲umānī (cf. Ag̲h̲ānī 1, v, 158, Ag̲h̲ānī 2, v, 150, in a poem of Aʿs̲h̲ā Hamdān), according to Yāḳūt, ii, 55 denotes the inhabitants of the town of Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ūma, situated in the Amanus (Lukkām), and of the marshy districts north of Antioch between Bayās and Būḳā. This word could aho be connected with Gurgum, the old name of a legendary province in the region of Marʿas̲h̲, on which see Dussaud, Topogr . hist , de la Syrie , 285, 469. On the other hand Father Lammens recorded a village called D̲j̲ord̲j…

, a eunuch—as is indicated by the epithet ustād̲h̲ generally appended to his name—and slave who played an important part under the first Fāṭimid caliphs. Even in the time of the last Ag̲h̲labid he was already working in his service and, while still young, was marked out by al-Mahdī when he came to al-Raḳḳāda. By his devotion he won the favour of the caliph and his son al-Ḳāʾim. During the latter’s reign he became director of the Treasury and Textile ¶ Stores, but in addition was the intermediary ( safīr ) of the caliph, that is to say in charge of relations betw…