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, grandson of the Kalbī chief Baḥdal b. Unayf [ q.v.] and cousin of the caliph Yazīd I, his father being the brother of Maysūn, the famous wife of Muʿāwiya (it has been thought, erroneously, that he was the uncle of Yazīd I, because he is often referred to simply as Ibn Baḥdal). This relationship, the nobility of his clan (the Banū Ḥārit̲h̲a b. D̲j̲anāb) and the power of the Kalb tribe earned for him under Muʿāwiya and Yazīd the governorships of Palestine and of Jordan. Before this, he had fought at Ṣiffīn in the ranks of the Syrian army, in command of the Ḳuḍāʿa of Damascus (Naṣr b. Muzāḥim, Waḳʿat Ṣif…

, (modern al-S̲h̲arāʾiʿ?), a deep and irregular valley with clusters of palm trees, situated a day’s journey from Mecca on one of the roads to al-Ṭāʾif [ q.v.], the scene of the famous battle, the second mentioned by name in the Ḳurʾān (IX, 25-26), fought early in S̲h̲awwāl 8/630 soon after the conquest ( fatḥ ) of Mecca. The confederate tribe of Hawāzin with its subsection of T̲h̲aḳīf began mobilizing its forces soon after the Prophet left Medina. The confederates apparently hoped to attack the Muslim force investing Mecca. As…

, of the Kindī tribe of the Sakūn, a general of the Sufyānids. At Ṣiffīn, he fought in the Umayyad ranks. On the accession of Yazīd I, he was governor of the important district of Ḥimṣ. He then had to intervene with Yazīd for Ibn Mufarrig̲h̲ [ q.v.], who had been imprisoned by ʿUbayd Allāh b. Ziyād. When the expedition against the holy cities of the Ḥid̲j̲āz was planned, Ḥuṣayn was appointed lieutenant of the commanderin-chief Muslim b. ʿUḳba al-Murrī [ q.v.] and, in this capacity, distinguished himself at the battle of the Ḥarra [ q.v.]. During the march on Mecca, the dying Muslim, in or…

(cf. Αδροα), more rarely uḏh̲ruḥ , a place between Maʿān and Petra, a magnificent Roman camp (the surviving monuments are described by Brünnow and Domaszewski), supplied by a gushing spring. This place, situated in pre-Islamic times in the Ḏj̲ud̲h̲ām country, was visited by the Ḳurays̲h̲ite caravans. It submitted to Muḥammad on payment of tribute during the expedition to Tabūk (9/631); the treaty of capitulation handed down by our authorities is probably authentic. Muʿāwiya is s…

, the ninth Umayyad caliph, r. 101-5/720-4. He was born in Damascus ca. 71/690-1. His mother was ʿĀtika bt. Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya, and he was named after his Sufyānī grandfather, the caliph Yazīd I. Thus Yazīd II joined in his person the Marwānid and the Sufyānid branches of the Umayyad family, making him a natural candidate for the succession. Like most other Umayyad princes, he appears to have travelled outside of Syria only to the Ḥid̲j̲āz. Also, he seems to have received neither administrative nor military …

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-T̲h̲aḳafī, Companion of the Prophet who exercised various political functions under the Patriarchial Caliphs and the early Umayyads. He belonged to the Aḥlāf section of the T̲h̲aḳīf, and was a member of the clan of the Banū Muʿattib, guardians of the sanctuary of the shrine of al-Lāt [ q.v.] in al-Ṭāʾif, and nephew of ʿUrwa b. Masʿūd [ q.v.], Companion and martyr. For having attacked and plundered some travelling companions during their sleep, he was forced to leave Ṭāʾif, his native town, and came to Medina to offer his services to Muḥ…

of the Banū Murra [ q.v.], famous commander of the Sufyānid caliphs. We know very little about the early stages of his career. We find him early established in Syria, to which he probably came with the first conquerors. Completely devoted to the Umayyads and of great personal valour, he led a division of Syrian infantry at the battle of Ṣiffīn [ q.v.], but he failed in an attempt to take the oasis of Dūmat al-D̲j̲andal [ q.v.] from ʿAlī. The caliph Muʿāwiya appointed him to take charge of the k̲h̲arād̲j̲ , the finances, of Palestine, a lucrative office in which h…

, a poet, contemporary with the Prophet. He was the brother of Malik b. Nuwayra [ q.v.], chief of the Banū Yarbūʿ, a large clan of the Banū Tamīm. Mutammim owes his fame to the elegies in which he lamented the tragic death of his brother Mālik (gathered together at the opening of the 3rd/9th century by Wat̲h̲īma b. Mirsāl, see Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ , xix, 248; whilst his dīwān was put together by Abū ʿAmr al-S̲h̲aybānī, al-Aṣmaʿī and al-Sukkarī, see Fihrist , 158), and these poems have made the latter’s name immortal. The Arabs said there was nothing comparable…

(Lebanon). The Arabs have a somewhat confused, almost mysterious idea of Lebanon. Here they place the sojourn of the Abdāl [q. v.]. They do not distinguish it from the Anti-Lebanon for which they have no special name. “Ḏj̲abal Sanīr” means to the Arabs the section of Anti-Lebanon to the north of the valley of the Baradā [q. v.]. The massif of Hernion has been known since the time of Ḥassān b. T̲h̲ābit as Ḏj̲abal al-T̲h̲ald̲j̲; it is the Ḏj̲abal al-S̲h̲eik̲h̲ of modern writers. Nor are the Arab geographers agreed about the northern boundary of Lebanon. Some include al-Lukkā…

b. Abī Arṭāt or b. Arṭāt (there is less authority for the latter form), an Arab general of the Ḳorais̲h̲ clan of the Banū ʿĀmir, was born in Mecca in the last decade before the Hid̲j̲ra. Only traditions which have been influenced by S̲h̲īʿite prejudices deny him the title of Ṣaḥābī. He went with the relief column into Syria under Ḵh̲ālid b. al-Walīd, distinguished himself there by his bravery and afterwards took part in the conquest of Africa. His bravery earned him a duʿāʾ and rewards from ʿOmar. During the civil war he vigorously declared himself on the side of Muʿāwiya for …

b. ʿAbd al-Malik, Umaiyad Caliph (88—98 = 705—715). On the death of his father, the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik (Oct. 705), al-Walīd, his successor, was over 30. A prince of only average culture, he brought to the throne an aristocratic outlook and a display of religious fervour unknown among his predecessors. In the history of the Umaiyads he ranks as the great builder of the dynasty. One of his first cares was to give his capital Damascus a magnificent mosque. Walīd cast his eyes on the basilica of St.…

, a place-name often corrupted in books and manuscripts. In place of Baḥr, Baḥrāʾ or Nad̲j̲rāʾ, Bak̲h̲rāʾ ought to be read, as the etymological conjectures of the Chroniclers, who derjve the name from bak̲h̲ara, “to have an evil smell”, show. An ancient fortress on the limes protecting the southern frontier of Palmyra, afterwards in possession of the family of Noʿmān b. Bas̲h̲īr. It was there that the Caliph Walīd II met his death while fleeing from the rebels who were pursuing him. The erroneous statements of Yāḳūt would lead one to look …

1. Before the Hid̲j̲ra. About the time of the Hid̲j̲ra all the clans of this tribe, which then held pride of place in Mecca, thought they could claim a common ancestor. Was. he called Fihr or Ḳurais̲h̲. or perhaps al-Naḍr, surnamed Ḳurais̲h̲? They did not take the trouble to examine closely the problem of the name. Did the names given to the eponymous ancestor refer to a historical personage? Were they not “names without substance” like those which the Meccans according to Ḳurʾān liii. 23 gave to their divinities? The only authority, the nassāba, the Meccan genealogists, ¶ could give was th…

, the daughter of Muḥammad and the aged Ḵh̲adīd̲j̲a, born in Mecca. Unlike the other children of the Prophet, we have solid grounds for believing in her existence, not so much in reliable documents as in her descendants. She possesses a biographical literature of her own, in which however historical facts are rather scarce, a slight but appreciable advantage over her sisters, notably Ruḳayya and Umm Kult̲h̲ūm, always associated as sisters and confused even in the most trifling incidents of their lives. The poetry of the first century a. h., however, entirely omits to mention her. Th…

, the principal residence of the Ḏj̲afnid Amīrs of G̲h̲assān, whence called “Ḏj̲ābiya of the Kings”, in Ḏj̲awlān, a day’s journey S. E. of Damascus. It covered several small hills, whence perhaps is derived the poetical form Ḏj̲awābī of the plural, with an allusion to the etymological meaning of “reservoir”, as a metaphor for generosity, (cf. Miskīn al-Dārimī, Ag̲h̲ānī, xviii. 72, 5). It was the perfect type of the ancient Ḥirthā, the Ḥīra of the Beduins, of the bādiya, a large encampment, a collection of dwellings, half nomad and half sedentary, a confused ¶ mass of tents and buildings…

b. Warḳāʾ, chief of the Banū Ḵh̲uzāʿa, a tribe living near Mecca, who served Muḥammad as spies, kept him informed of the enterprises of the Ḳorais̲h̲. and after the agreement at Ḥudaibiya (6 = 628) were his allies. Budail appears for the first time in the camp at Ḥudaibiya to tell Muḥammad that the Meccans were armed to resist him. On his return he carried the Prophet’s offers to Mecca, where he had a dār. The Banū Ḵh̲uzāʿa fled thither during their war with the Banū Bakr, when the Ḳorais̲h̲ took the side of the latter, their clients, against the former. This was a br…

, a town in Arabia. It lies 75 miles S. E. of Mecca about 5,000 feet above sea level in the mountains of Sarāt. Of the country round with its walled gardens Burckhardt says that it is “the most attractive that he had seen since his departure for Lebanon in Syria”. The Beduins also describe it as a corner of Syria transported and placed under the inclement sky of the Ḥid̲j̲āz and say this marvel is due to the all powerful intercession of Abraham, the friend of Allāh. This healthy and windy site —…

of the tribe of the Banū Murra, a famous leader in the armies of the Sufyānid caliphs. We know very little about the early stages of his career. We find him early established in Syria to which he probably came with the first conquerors. Completely devoted to the Umaiyads and of great personal valour, he led a division of Syrian infantry at the battle of Ṣiffīn. But he failed in an attempt to take the oasis of Dūmat al-Ḏj̲andal [q. v.] from ʿAlī. The caliph Muʿāwiya appointed him to take charge of the k̲h̲arād̲j̲, the finances, of Palestine, a lucrative office in which he refused to enri…

, a bare and rocky massif — the summit is over 4,000 feet high — commanding in the north-east the G̲h̲ūṭa [q.v.] and dominating Ṣāliḥīya, the suburb of Damascus. It lies between the valley of the Baradā [q. v.] and that of the Ḥalbūn. The Nahr Yazīd which flows out of the Baradā runs along the foot of Ḳāsiyūn. “There they venerate the birthplace of Abraham on the slope adjoining the village of Barza. This mountain has been famous since remote antiquity as a place of ascension and retreat of prop…

b. Yūsuf, an Omayyad statesman, was born at Ṭāʾif about 41 = 661, the grandson of the T̲h̲aḳafī Ṣaḥābī ʿUrwa b. Masʿūd. His father, Yūsuf b. al-Ḥakam had married the divorced wife of Mug̲h̲īra b. S̲h̲uʿba. According to one tradition, which is corroborated by lampoons, he at first so far mistook his vocation as to begin life as a teacher. His early years, the history of his first appearances in public life, which arc viciously travestied by hostile historians, are not much known. He left Arabia at…