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(Lac), l’une des séries de marais et de lagunes du Delta oriental, en Egypte (actuellement dans la muḥāfaẓa de Ismāʿīliyya) à travers lequel passe le canal de Suez sur sa route du sud de Port-Saʿīd à Suez. Le canal entre dans le lac au 80ème kilomètre. Sur le rivage septentrional s’étend la ville d’Ismāʿīliyya [ q.v.]. Le lac a une surface d’environ 18 km carrés; il était, avant la construction du canal, saumâtre et couvert de roseaux. Il offre actuellement un aspect très pittoresque avec ses eaux bleues et brillantes découpées sur un fond de collin…

— le plus ancien nom de Nīs̲h̲āpūr [ q. v.] —, était la capitale de l’un des quatre districts de la province de Ḵh̲urāsān. Son nom en persan, selon les géographes musulmans, signifierait «cité du nuage», mais l’étymologie proposée par Marquart ( Ērānshahr, 74), le «district des ’Aπαρνοι» (comparer l’arménien Apar ašχart) est plus vraisemblable. On lui a donné quelquefois le titre honorifique d’Īrān-S̲h̲ahr «Cité de l’Īrān». Sa marque de frappe sur les monnaies sassanides est Apr, Aprš ou Apršt, formes qui continuent de figurer sur les d…

, le roi Salomon de la Bible, est une personnalité de premier plan dans les légendes musulmanes. Il y eut, au dire des historiens arabes, quatre grands conducteurs de peuples, deux infidèles, Nemrod et Nabuchodonosor, et deux croyants, Alexandre le Grand et Salomon. Ce dernier est de tous le plus glorieux. On insista tout spécialement sur ses merveilleux pouvoirs magiques et divinatoires. Les énigmes les plus insolubles, les questions les plus absconses étaient un jeu pour lui. La perspicacité e…

, nom, communément donné au Proche-Orient à un membre de certaines tribus tziganes. Une vocalisation plus correcte serait peut-être Nawarī (ainsi Hava, Steingass, etc.), avec un pluriel Nawar. Avec le déplacement de l’accent, nous trouvons aussi la forme Nawār pour le pluriel (par ex. dans Jaussen, Coutumes des Arabes, 90, et Handbooks de l’Amirauté britannique, Syria, Londres 1919, 196, Arabia, Londres 1916, 92, 94). En Perse, le nom courant pour Tzigane est Lōrī, Lūrī ou Lūlī [ q.v.]. Il n’est pas improbable que par une transformation phonétique naturelle, la forme nūrī dérive de lūrī…

, charmeur de serpents ou charlatan ambulant, de ḥayya, serpent. Le pluriel est ḥuwā (ainsi chez Lane) ou, plus généralement, ḥāwiyyūn. En Égypte, certains membres des tribus tziganes [voir Nūrī] exercent ce métier. Souvent les fellahs ont recours à eux, en particulier quand ils sont affligés de diverses formes de maladies de peau ( karfa) ou d’eczéma ( ḳūba). Le procédé général de ces charlatans consiste à réciter des mots incompréhensibles au-dessus d’un verre contenant de l’huile d’olive et un blanc d’œuf, et à cracher dedans. Le mélange visqueux es…

, poids d’une balance (exactement sanad̲j̲āt al-mīzān); également appliqué aux balances, aux balances romaines; de même aux poids d’une horloge; singulier: ṣanad̲j̲a. On trouve aussi les formes avec un ṣād (ṣanad̲j̲āt et ṣand̲j̲ā), mais les premières sont les plus pures (voir Lane, s.v.). Il y a deux formes reconnues pour le pluriel: ṣanad̲j̲āt et sinad̲j̲ (en arabe égyptien moderne sinag, pluriel de singa). Le mot est d’origine persane, car il est apparenté à sang, qui signifie à la fois pierre et poids, vu que dans l’antiquité les poids n’étaient pas en métal (cf. …

, ville de la République du Soudan, sur la rive Est du Nil, à environ 160 km au Nordest de Ḵh̲arṭūm, Sa population en 1956 était de 11 500 habitants, en 1980 de 24 000 habitants et en 1995 probablement de plus de 30 000 habitants. Les origines et les débuts de l’histoire de S̲h̲andī sont inconnus. Elle est située dans la région centre de l’ancien royaume de Meroë. La ville moderne fut l’une des principales villes des Ḏj̲aʿaliyyūn [ q.v.] qui ¶ conservèrent un petit royaume dans la région, au moins du XVIe siècle à l’an 1821. Quoi qu’il en soit, la ville n’apparaît dans les sources histo…

, the biblical King Solomon, is an outstanding personality in Islamic legends. There were, as the Arab histories recount, four great world-rulers, two of whom were infidels, Nimrod and Nebuchadnezzar; and two of whom were believers, Alexander the Great and Solomon. Of these, the last was the most resplendent figure. Special emphasis was placed on his wonderful powers of magic and divination. The most puzzling riddles and the most abstruse subjects were within his ken. Perspicacity and discernment dwelt in h…

, snake-charmer or itinerant mountebank, from ḥayya , snake. The plural is ḥuwā (so Lane) or more generally ḥāwiyyūn . In Egypt certain members of the Gipsy tribes (see nūrī ) act in this capacity. The fellāḥīn often have recourse to them, particularly when afflicted with various forms of skin-disease ( karfa ) or eczema ( ḳūba ). The general procedure of these quacks is to recite some rigmarole over a glass containing olive-oil and the white of an egg, and then to spit into it. The slimy mixture is thereafter applied as an ointm…

, the more ancient name of Nīs̲h̲āpur [ q.v.], was the capital of one of the four quarters of the province of Ḵh̲urāsān. Its name in Persian, according to the Muslim geographers, is said to mean "Cloud-city", but Marquart’s etymology ( Ērānšahr , 74), the "district of the ᾿Απαρνοι" (comparing Armenian Apar ašχart) is more reliable. It was sometimes given the honorific title of Īrān-S̲h̲ahr "City of Īrān". Its mint-signature on Sassanian coins is Apr, Aprš or Apršs , forms which continue to appear on the dirhams of Arab-Sassanian type struck by the Mu…

, a common name in the Near East for a member of certain Gipsy tribes. A more correct vocalisation would perhaps be Nawarī (so Hava, Steingass, etc.), with plural Nawar . Minorsky [see lūlī , [see at V, 817a] gives Nawara . By displacement of accent we also find the plural form as Nawār (e.g. in Jaussen, Coutumes des Arabes , 90, and British Admiralty, Handbook , Syria , London 1919, 196, Arabia , London 1916, 92, 94). In Persia, the current name for Gipsy is Lōrī , Lūrī or Lūlī [ q.v.]. It is not unlikely that by a natural phonetic transformation the form nūrī derives from lūrī ,…

, a name associated with a variety of places and islands on the east coast of Africa, but chiefly applicable nowadays, ¶ generally, to a district in Tanganyika Territory, and, particularly, to two sea-ports: a. Kilwa Kivinje, 133 miles south of Dār al-Salām (in 8° 45′), on the mainland on the north side of Kilwa Bay, a sea-port with fine gardens and many European houses, the start of the caravan route to Lake Nyasa, with a population of about 5,000, mostly Swahilis; and b. Kilwa Kisiwani, 150 miles south of Dār al-Salām (in 8° 58′), and about 200 south of Zanzibar [q. v.]. The…

, the “swift metre”, so named because of its swiftness of scansion and swiftness of appeal to taste (Freytag, Darstellung der arabischen Vers-kunst, p. 137), is the ninth in the prosody of the Arabs. It is the first of the six metres of the fourth circle, which is called “the intricate” ( dāʾirat al-mus̲h̲tabih) on account of its metrical intricacy (Palmer, Arabic Grammar, London 1874, p. 346 sag.). The paradigm is: mustafʿilun, mustaf-ʿilun, mafʿūlātu (bis), which is rarely, if ever, found. According to the native system, the Ṣarīʿ is of four kinds and has seven varieties (De Sacy, Traité d…

b. al-Muʿizz, brother of the fifth Fāṭimid caliph al-ʿAzīz, is said to have been born c. 337 (948—949). He was noted in his day for his liberality and interest in belles lettres. A prince of culture and elegance with a reputation amongst his contemporaries as a poet of refinement and skill. He missed nomination as heir apparent, his brother al-ʿAzīz being preferred to him. Al-ʿAzīz seems to have been very fond of him, judging from his grief at the latter’s death, which is stated to have taken place at Cairo in Ḏh̲u ’l-Ḳaʿda 3…

, first Fāṭimid Caliph (297—322 = 909—934). His origins are obscure. He is also known as Saʿīd, and is believed to have been the grandson of the celebrated Persian sectarian ʿAbd Allāh b. Maimūn al-Ḳaddāḥ (the oculist), the Ismāʿīlian leader; but he claimed to be a true descendant of the Prophet through his daughter Fāṭima. By some he was supposed to be the brother of the twelfth Imām; according to others, the son of one of the strange “hidden” Imāms of the Ismāʿīlīs. His spectacular rise to power was coincident with a sudden outburst of S̲h̲īʿite fervour centred in the ve…

, a village in the Egyptian Delta, with a station on the Cairo-Zaḳāzīḳ-Ismāʿīlīya-Suez line, about 30 km. distant from Zaḳāzīḳ, 50 from Ismāʿīlīya. The station is some distance from the village on the north bank of the Ismāʿīlīya Canal. A market is held every Thursday. The Bedouin tribes of the neighbourhood ¶ are the Ḥanadī, the Nafaʿāt and the Ṭūmīlāt. Wide stretches of sand-dunes and undulating desert land extend north and south of the Wādī, with traces of ancient fortifications and the mounds of buried cities. In the depression here, known a…

or simply Ḥalfa, a modern town in the Anglo-Egyptian Sūdān, 21° 55′ N. 31° 19′ E., on the right bank of the Nile, c. 770 miles south of Cairo and 5 miles north of the Second Cataract, is the chief town of the province or mudīrīya of that name. It includes the village of Tawfīḳīya, a new suburb with fine bazaars, and its inhabitants, inclusive of the Nubian villagers of Dabarōsa, number almost 3,000. Besides the Muslim places of worship there are the churches of the Copts, Greeks and English. The Government offices and hospital, and the off…

, S̲h̲indī, 18° 1′ N. 33° 59′ E., a town on the right bank of the Nile, about 104 miles north of Ḵh̲arṭūm, on the old caravan-route between Egypt and Sennaar. It also gives its name to a district in the Berber Province. Nowadays it is an important station on the Wādī-Ḥalfa-Ḵh̲arṭūm Railway, with many locomotive and leather and iron works. Although still a thriving city, in the olden times it was one of the outstanding marts in the whole of the Eastern Sudan with over 50,000 inhabitants. In the course of history it has suffered at the hands of ruthless invaders and merciless marauders. The ¶ result h…

, the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, often erroneously designated the Mosque of ʿOmar. In the first place, it is not a mosque but a shrine or oratory erected above the sacred rock ( ṣak̲h̲ra) and similar to the other domed edifices scattered over the ḥarām area; in the second place, it was not built by ʿOmar but by the fifth Umaiyad Caliph, ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān. Jew, Christian and Muslim alike revere the sacred rock which they regard as the omphales of the world. It is even said to be 18 miles nearer heaven than any other spot. Muslims set it next to the Kaʿba in order of sanctity. Although there is no…

or Saiyidat al-Mulk, “Lady of the Empire”, the Princess Royal, sister of al-Ḥākim bi-ʾAmri-’llāh, vith Fāṭimid Caliph. Historians also refer to her as Sitt al-Mulūk and Sitt al-Naṣr. She was a very clever woman and an exceedingly capable ruler as was seen during the short period of her regency. Slanderous tongues have attacked her honour and even imputed to her the assassination of her brother the Caliph. According to the popular account, al-Ḥākim was in the habit, during his journeys throughout his kingdom, …