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Khaybar is a settlement in the Ḥijāz, approximately 150 kilometres north of Medina. According to al-Masʿūdī (d. 345/956)—followed by Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī (d. 487/1094) and Yāqūt (d. 626/1229)—the distance from Medina equated to eight postal stations (al-Masʿūdī, 256; al-Bakrī, 2:521; Yāqūt, 2:503). Islamic-era sources place it within the administrative dependencies (aʿrāḍ) of Medina (Ibn Khurradādhbih, 129, 248; Ibn Rusta, 177; al-Muqaddasī, 53). Al-Hamdānī (writing in the early fourth/tenth century) adds, perhaps somewhat tentatively, that it w…

Dāghistān, Caucasus, 502 Dākī, Yūsufzāʾī District, 428 Dāman, Dīrah Ismāʿīl Khān, 355, 356, 372, 378, 379, 479 Dand District, see Banūn District Darāban, 373, 382 Darakī, 391 Dār al-Amān, Kabul, 224, 264 Dār al-Ḥabīb (formerly Dār a…

Kabul, 65, 100, 101 ṣūbah of, 347, 351 Balūchīs in, 411 Ethiopians in, 410 Kashmīrīs in, 408 Qalmāqs in, 411 state of mind of people of, 117, 161, 282 Kābulistān, 347 Kabul River, 362, 364, 386, 401, 429, 458, 480-81 Kāfiristān (Nūristān), …

al-Ḥudaybiyya, a village about nine miles outside Mecca which owed its importance to the eponymous peace treaty that was signed there ( ṣulḥ al-Ḥudaybiyya) between the Prophet of Islam and the polytheists of Mecca (Yāqūt, 2/222; Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī, 3/811). The treaty has been described as ‘the turning point in Muḥammad’s political career’ (Donner, 230). Some works of history and Prophetic biography ( sīra) also refer to the events surrounding this as ‘the Campaign of al-Ḥudaybiyya’ ( ghazwat al-Ḥudaybiyya) (e.g. see Ibn Saʿd, 2/95; al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 2/207; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya, …

previous section /55/ The Sarbanī Tribes1 ¶ The peoples and tribes of the (1) Tarīn, (2) Shayrānī, (3) Barīch, (4) Ūrmur, and (5) Miyānah are of the lineage of Sharaf al-Dīn, better known as Sharkhbūn, son o…

In Volume 1: The Poetry of ad-Dindān | Appendix of Place Names previous section: y ¶ The names of places, mountains, wells, desert areas and other geographical features which occur in the poetry and narrative parts are listed according to the Arabic alphabet together with a reference to the narrative section or poem and verse where they occur and any relevant additional information I have been able to gain from available geographical works and other sources. The abbreviations for these sources are: Ḥm Ḥmēr, ʿAbdallah Sāyir ad-Dōsiri, Wāḥat as̲h̲-s̲h̲iʿr as̲h̲-s̲h̲aʿbī, ii, Riyadh 19…

Ḥafṣa bint ʿUmar (d. 45/665), daughter of the second caliph, ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb, who became one of the Prophet Muḥammad’s wives.According to the sources, Ḥafṣa was born in 604 CE, five years before the beginning of the Prophet’s mission (Ibn Saʿd, 8/81; al-Dhahabī, 2/227, 230). Her mother was Zaynab bint Maẓʿūn of the Banū Jumaḥ clan, one of the branches of the Quraysh tribe, and the sister of a prominent Companion of the Prophet, ʿUthmān b. Maẓʿūn. Zaynab was also the mother of Ḥafṣa’s brothers ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar (q.v.) and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿUmar (Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Ṭabaqāt, 334; Ibn Ḥ…

Ḥabs, a legal term that is generally synonymous with waqf except in Twelver Shiʿi jurisprudence. It has widest use in the sense of waqf among Mālikī jurists. Ḥabs is a verbal noun with the literal meaning of ‘to withhold, restrict, detain’, and is the opposite of takhliya (‘granting unrestricted access’) (al-Jawharī, 3/915; Ibn Manẓūr, 6/44). In modern usage, the term ḥubs or ḥubus (especially in North Africa, and Fr. habous) is used to signify a pious endowment, while ḥabs tends to refer to the act of sequestration or detaining, but in the early period of Islam such a d…

one of the most eminent Iranian scholars of the early Abbasid era, author of a celebrated commentary on the Qorʾān as well as the most important of the classical Arabic historical texts still extant. ṬABARI, ABU JAʿFAR MOḤAMMAD B. Jarir (224-310/839-923), one of the most eminent Iranian scholars of the early Abbasid era, author of a celebrated commentary on the Qorʾān as well as the most important of the classical Arabic historical texts still extant.BIOGRAPHY Sources. Despite Ṭabari’s intellectual fame and enduring significance, there are numerous problems involved in…

previous section /65/ Afghan Clans and Tribes ¶ Afghans name their children and [in general] refer to descendants by the name of the founding father [eponym] with the addition of –zāʾī or khayl. For example, they call the progeny of…

al-Ḥijāz , a toponym for the territory lying parallel to the Red Sea coast on the western side of the Arabian peninsula. From the root ḥ-j-z meaning ‘to prevent’, the word Ḥijāz means a barrier that, according to Ibn Manẓūr, demarcates the geographical area bordered to the north by the Ghawr (the Jordan Rift Valley) and al-Shām and reaching southwards into the greater Arabian desert and steppe (al-Bādiya); it may also refer to the land between the eastern uplands of Najd and the Sarāh (the Sarawāt mountain range)…

previous section 7 An Account of the Tribes and Clans of Afghanistan1 ¶ In 1340 Hijrī [in this case January–May 1922] when I journeyed to Afghanistan my only purpose for this long trip was first to pay my respects…

Introduction Humor is one of the most difficult words to define and to study, based on the extensive literature on humor that all repeatedly emphasize the difficulty in defining the concept and its implications. Despite the abundance of literary proof of the existence of an Arab or Muslim sense of humor and wit, the western perception of Muslim humor remains stereotypical and simplistic. Humor is an intelligent way of looking at life. Humor starts from the brain, tickling it and creating a laugh.…