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, the desert region that lies west of Kūfa along the alluvial plain of the Euphrates. It is higher than the low-lying ground by the river and forms the transition to the central Arabian plateau. According to the authorities quoted by Yāḳūt (iii. 359), al-ṭaff means an area raised above the surrounding country; the name is not found after the xiiith century. The district contains a number of springs, the waters of which run southwest (cf. Ibn al-Faḳīh, p. 187). The best known of these wells was al-ʿUd̲h̲air. From its geographical position al-Ṭaff was the …

, the Turkish word for black or dark colour in general. It is commonly used with this meaning as the first component of geographical names, for example Ḳara Āmīd (on account of the black basalt of which this fortress is built), Ḳara Dag̲h̲ (on account of its dark forests), etc. Beside Ḳara we find in place-names the form Karad̲j̲a. In personal names it refers to the black or dark brown colour of hair or to a dark complexion. It has, however, at the same time also the meaning “strong, powerful” and has ¶ to be interpreted in this sense in the name Ḳara Osmān or in names like Ḳara Arslān…

, a town in Mesopotamia, in 44° 25′ E. Long, and 35° 25′ N. Lat., the largest town in the district bounded by the Little Zāb in the north-west, the Ḏj̲abal Ḥamrīn to the southwest, the Diyālā to the south-east, and the chain of the Zagros to the north-east. This territory, which even in the days of the ancient Babylonian empire and later in the Assyrian empire was much exposed to the raids of the hill-peoples of the north-east, was called under the Sāsānids, Gamarkān (Moses of Ḵh̲urene) and in Syriac sources Bēth Garmē; the town of Kirkūk is called in these sources Kark̲h̲ā de Bēth Selōk̲h̲. The pro…

is the name by which the author of the most important general historical work written in Turkey is known. His real name was Aḥmad Efendi, son of Luṭf Allāh, a native of Eregli near Ḳonya. He was born in Selānik, in the first half of the xvith century, received a scholarly education and served in his youth for fifteen years in the Mewlewī-k̲h̲āne of Ḳāsim Pas̲h̲a under S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Ḵh̲alīl Dede ( Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī, ii. 287). Afterwards he studied astronomy and astrology and became court astrologer ( munad̲j̲d̲j̲im bas̲h̲i̊) in 1078 (1667—1668). In 1086 (1675—1676) he was admitte…

, also written Sifri Ḥiṣār, i.e. strong castle (cf. Aḥmed Wefīḳ, Lehče-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī, p. 459), the name of two places in Asia Minor. 1. A little town lying in the centre of the plateau bounded on south and east by the upper course of the Saḳariya and in the north by the Pursāḳ, c. 85 miles southwest of Angora. Siwri Ḥiṣār is on the northern slope of the Günes̲h̲ Dag̲h̲; the citadel of the town was built on this mountain. The town does not date beyond the Sald̲j̲ūḳ period and has no remains of archaeological interest. But it was already known as a strong place to Ḳazwīnī ( Geography, ed. Wüstenfeld, p. …

, a town on the right bank of the Sīr Daryā (Saiḥūn), a little south of its ¶ tributary the Aris. The name is found as a geographical term for the first time in Yāḳūt (i. 310) as Uṭrār but Ṭabarī (iii. 815—816) already knows of a prince called Utrār-banda as a rebel vassal of the Caliph al-Maʾmūn. The place that Maḳdisī calls Tarār Zarāk̲h̲ ( B G A, iii. 263, 274) in the district of Isbīd̲j̲āb must be quite a different place. Otrār may perhaps be the same as the capital of the district of Fārāb [q. v.], a town which replaced the older one of Kadar (mentioned by …

(sometimes Ṣaḳārya), a river in Asia Minor. It rises near Bayāt in the northeast of Āfiyūn Ḳara Hiṣār. In its eastward course it enters the wilāyet of Angora through which it runs to a point above Čaḥmaḳ after receiving on its left bank the Saiyid G̲h̲āzī Ṣū and several other tributaries on the same side. It then turns northwards describing a curve round Siwri Hiṣār. Here it receives on the right bank the Engürü Sūyu from Angora and near this confluence the Pursaḳ on the opposite bank. A little to the south of this point is the bridge of the Eski-S̲h̲ehir-Angora railway. ¶ Farther on, towards th…

Christians, more especially the adherents of the Oriental churches living under Muslim rule (differentiated from Rūm “Greek Christians”, Ifrand̲j̲ “Western Christians”). The word is derived from the Syriac Naṣrāyā (Horovitz, Koran. Untersuchungen, p. 144 sqq.); the Arabic singular is Naṣrānī. A. Before Islām. A complete investigation of the materials for the history of Christianity in Arabia and among the Arabs before the rise of Islām has not yet been made, and only the principal facts can be summarily given here. Christianity naturally spread into Arabia from Syria and al…

, grand vizier, was born about 1660 in the town of ʿOt̲h̲mānd̲j̲i̊ḳ and, after an education in the imperial palace, entered the corps of the balṭad̲j̲i̊s,. On account of his beautiful voice he acted for some time as müʾed̲h̲d̲h̲in: later on he became a scribe and rose rapidly in this career. In 1703, at Aḥmad III’s accession, he became mīr-āk̲h̲or and was made Ḳapudan Pas̲h̲a in November 1704. In December of the same year he obtained the grand vizierate as successor of Ḳalayli̊ Aḥmad Pas̲h̲a, against whom, although he had been at one time his fellow balṭad̲j̲i̊, he had used all his power o…

, grand vizier, was born about 1660 in a village near Sīnūb as son of a ship’s captain. After having been attached to the service of the Pas̲h̲a of Tripolis, he was educated in the k̲h̲aṣṣ oda of the palace and became in 1687 silaḥdār; soon afterwards he became nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲ī and obtained the rank of vizier. In Aḥmad II’s reign he was Pas̲h̲a in Bosnia, but did not yet play a prominent part, though he is said to have been one of that sulṭān’s favourites. After Muṣṭafā II’s accession he was appointed ḳāʾim-maḳām of the imperial stirrup and, when a revolt of the Janissaries had cost the g…

, a small town in Macedonia, situated about 40 miles to the S. W. of Selānīk, on the Ana Dere, a tributary of the Ind̲j̲e Ḳara Ṣu, in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Salonica. The ancient Greek name is Βέροια, in modern Greek Vérria (Slav. Ber), to which form the Turks have added the adjective Ḳara. According to the Byzantine authors the town was sacked as early as 1331 by Turkish pirates belonging to the country of Ḳarasī. They landed with 70 ships and laid waste the region of Vérria and Traja…

, the river Nile. The Nile is one of the large rivers which from the beginning have belonged to the territory of Islām, and the valleys and deltas of which have favoured the development of an autonomous cultural centre in Islāmic civilisation. In the case of the Nile this centre has influenced at different times the cultural and political events in the Muḥammadan world. Thus the Nile has, during the Islāmic period, continued to play the same part as it did during the centuries that preceded the coming of Islām. The name al-Nīl or, very often, Nīl Miṣr, goes back to the Greek name Νεĩ…

, sixteenth sulṭān of the Ottoman empire, was born on the 19th Ḏj̲umādā II 1012 (Nov. 15, 1603; cf. Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī, i. 56), the son of Sulṭān Aḥmad I. After the death of his father in Nov. 1617, the brother of the latter had been proclaimed sulṭān as Muṣṭafā I [q. v.] but ʿOt̲h̲mān, taking advantage of the weak character of his uncle and supported by the mufti Esʿad Efendi and the Ḳi̊zlar Ag̲h̲a Muṣṭafā, seized the throne on Feb. 26, 1618 by a coup d’état. The youth of the new sulṭān at first assured the pr…

(a. mad̲j̲alla). Under this name the Civil Law Code of Turkey; is generally known it is an abbreviation of Med̲j̲elle-i aḥkām-i ʿadlīye. The elaboration of this Civil Code took place between 1869 and 1876 and was a part of the legislative programme of the Tanẓīmāt [q. v.]. It had been preceded by a Penal Code (1858) and a Commercial Code (1861), but, while these two codifications had been based in a large measure on the laws of European countries, the Med̲j̲elle was a codification of that part of Ḥanafite fiḳh, which treats of obligations ( muʿāmalāt). The codification was done by a commi…

, twelfth ruler of the Ottoman Empire, was born on the 5th Ḏj̲umādā I 953 (4th July 1546; Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī, i. 76) as son of the later sulṭān Selīm II and the k̲h̲āṣṣekī Nūr Bānū. He arrived at Constantinople on Dec. 21st, 1574, after Selīm II’s death and reigned until his death on January 16, 1595 or a few days later. His reign is not characterized by great conquests in Europe. The peaceful relations with Austria were officially maintained; peace was several times confirmed (in 1575 and 1584) by a new treaty and by extraordinary…

, a town in Turkish Armenia, built on a rock to the north of a great plain in the area bounded by the west and south by the Euphrates, in the north by the Murād Ṣu and in the east by the chain of the Armenian Taurus; the site of the town itself lies in the Antitaurus. From the time of Diocletian this territory formed part of the Armenian districts incorporated in the Roman Empire and from the time of Justinian to the Roman province of „Fourth Armenia” which occupied the banks of the Arsanias (Murād Ṣu) and which the earliest Arab geographers still ¶ knew under this name. This district is often rec…

, grand vizier under Aḥmad I. He was a Bosnian by origin and a relation of Muḥammad Soḳolli Pas̲h̲a. The year of his birth is not given. After having had his education in the palace, he was mīr-ak̲h̲or and became in 1595 ag̲h̲a of the Janissaries. Two years later he took part in the Austrian wars as beylerbey of Rūm-ili and was commander of Esztergom (Gran; Turkish: Usturg̲h̲on) when this town capitulated to the Austrian army in September 1595. During the following years Lala Muḥammad was several times ser-ʿasker in Hungary and when, in July 1604, the grand vizier Yawuz ʿAlī had di…

, the name of a district in Transoxania. The form Osrūs̲h̲ana is the best known although Yāḳūt (i. 245) says that Os̲h̲rūsana is preferable. In the Persian versions of the text of al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī and in the Persian text of the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam (ed. Barthold) we find more often Surūs̲h̲ana while Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih sometimes has S̲h̲urūsana; the original form may have been Srōs̲h̲ana. This district lies to the northeast of Samarḳand between this tow D and Ḵh̲od̲j̲and, to the south of the Sīr Daryā (Saiḥūn) so that it forms the approach to th…

, an Arab author and poet who flourished at the end of the second and beginning of the third century a. h. (= beginning of the ninth century a. d.). According to the Fihrist, he was of Persian descent and born in Dastmaisān, between Baṣra and Wāṣiṭ. Al-Ḥuṣrī makes him come from Maisān, which is quite near it, and gives him also the kunya Abū ʿAmr (on the margin of the ʿIḳd, ii. 190). The name of his grandfather is variously given: Rāmnūy, Rāhyūn (both in the Fihrist) or Rāhīyūnī (al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ, Kitāb al-Bayān, i. 24; cf. also van Vloten’s note to p. 10 of his edition of al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ’ Kitāb al-Buk̲h̲alāʾ). S…

, a town in Upper Egypt on the east bank of the Nile. The form Ḳūṣ (Ḳūs in al-Farg̲h̲ānī and Ibn Rusta) comes from the Coptic Kōs (or Kōs Berbir) which a popular etymology later connected with the Coptic verb meaning “to bury”. In the Roman period the town was ¶ called Apollinopolis Parva and sometimes Diocletianopolis. In the early centuries of Islām, Ḳūṣ seems to have been of much less importance than the adjoining town of Ḳifṭ [q.v.]. Some of the early geographers like Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih do not mention it although it is found in the tables of al-Ḵh̲wārizmī (ed. by von Mžik, p. 9) and al-Fa…