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, s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Taḳī al-Dīn Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Abī Bakr, a Syrian author of the 6th/12th century and celebrated ascetic and pilgrim who, after a life of travelling, spent his last days at Aleppo, at the court of the Ayyūbid ruler al-Malik al-Ẓāhir G̲h̲āzī [ q.v.]. This ruler held him in high regard and built for him, at the gates of the town, the S̲h̲āfiʿī madrasa in which he taught and which still houses the remains of his tomb. The Arabic sources mention this “wandering ascetic” ( al-zāhid al-sāʾiḥ ) and devote varying biographical notes to him, though without…

is the name given to the dynasty of Turkish origin which was founded by Sebüktigin, a General and Governor of the Sāmānids [ q.v.]. With G̲h̲azna [ q.v.] for long its capital, the dynasty lasted for more than 200 years, from 367/977-8 to 583/1187, in eastern Īrān and what is now Afg̲h̲ānistān, and finally only in parts of the Pand̲j̲āb (with Lahāwur/Lahore as centre). For a long time its rulers held the official title of Amīr, ¶ although historians call them Sulṭān from the start; on coins, Ibrāhīm (no. XII below) was the first to bear this title. From the time when Alptigin established himself in the region of G̲h̲azna in 344/955-6 and made himself to a great extent independent of the Sāmānids, the area surrounding this town remained in the hands of Turkish rulers (for details see g̲h̲azna ). In 367/977-8 (I) Sebüktigin gained power, and continued to rule until his death in 387/997. The new ruler, on the evidence of his coinage, acknowledged the overlordship of the Sāmānids, and gave them help against the Sīmd̲j̲ūrids [ q.v.] in 992 and 995. He also turned his attention to the Hindū Empires in the Pand̲j̲āb [ q.v.] and in particular the S̲h̲āhū dynasty, whose head, Ḏj̲aypāl, he defeated in 979 and 988, thereby acquiring the fortresses on the Indian frontier. His empire furthermore included northern Balūčistān, G̲h̲ūr, Zābulistān and Bactria (Tuk̲h̲aristān) (on the subject of these and all further geographical references in this article see the entries under individual words). In this way, Sebüktigin, an extraordinarily powerful …

, Governor of Ḵh̲urāsān at the beginning of the caliphate of ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān. A former lieutenant of ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḵh̲āzim [ q.v.], this Tamīmī of the tribe of the Banū Saʿd made himself noticed during the troubled time which was marked by the insurrections of the Tamīm, both when he commanded the troops of Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḵh̲āzim at Harāt and when he was the delegate of the governor in Marw after the recapture of the town from the rebels. In 72/691-2 the triumph of the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik, w…

in particular denotes a little plain situated north of the Biḳāʿ [see buḳʿa ] and southeast of the Ḏj̲ebel Anṣariyé, at an average altitude of 250 m. It is characterised by an abundance of springs which there give birth to the Nahr al-Kabīr. It was known in the time of the Crusades by the name Boquée and was dominated by the Ḥiṣn al-Akrād [ q.v.] whose ruins still overlook it today (see M. van Berchem and E. Fatio, Voyage en Syrie , Cairo 1914-5, 42; R. Dussaud, Topographie historique de la Syrie , Paris 1923, 92; J. Weulersse, Le pays des Alcouites , Tours 1940, index s.v. Bouqaïa). The name Buḳayʿa …

, name given by the Arab authors either to the whole of the Transjordanian territory corresponding approximately to the ancient countries of Ammon, Moab and even Gilead, or to the middle part of it, having, depending on the period, ʿAmmān, [ q.v.], Ḥusbān or al-Ṣalt as its chief town. Although a certain lack of precision still persists to-day in the use of the term, its geographical meaning is usually restricted to the limestone plateau (average altitude from 700 to 800 m.), comprised between the Wādī ’l-Zarḳāʾ (or Jabbok) in the North and the Wādi ’l-Mūd̲j̲ib (or Arnon) in the South. This is a region of tabular relief on the desert side, but the ground is considerably broken along the subsidence zone of the Dead Sea and the Jordan (pea…

, the ancient Paneas, owed its name to the presence in the vicinity of a sanctuary of Pan, established in a grotto and sanctifying one of the main sources of the Jordan. The present place, situated 24 km. north-west of al-Ḳunayṭra, on the road running along the southern frontier of the Syrian Republic, occupies a pleasant site, with plentiful water and rich vegetation, in a smiling valley of Mt. Hermon. Its neighbourhood, moreover, has always been praised by Arab writers for its fertility, and especially for its lemons, cotton and rice cultivation. …

or baḳʿa , denotes according to lexicographers a region which is distinguishable from its surroundings, more particularly a depression between mountains, and baḳʿa was applied especially to a place where water remains stagnant. The word appears frequently as a toponym, as well as its diminutive buḳayʿa . (J. Sourdel-Thomine)

, ancient site of Palmyrena, well known in the Umayyad period. Al-Walīd II is. known to have stayed there on several occasions and died there in 126/744. The Arab sources describe the military camp ( fusṭāṭ ) which the Persians are said to have erected there in former times and the inner castle ( ḳaṣr ) where the Companion al-Nuʿmān b. Bas̲h̲īr lived and in which the Caliph, besieged by the rebels, took refuge. The site has been identified with the ruins of al-Bk̲h̲ara, standing 25 km. to the south of Palmyra, visited and descr…

(a.), writing. i.—In the Arab world…

, the “bridge of the daughters of Jacob”, name of a bridge over the Upper Jordan, above the sea of Galilee and to the south of the former marshy depression of the lake of al-Ḥūla, now dry. At This point, which was that of an old ford known at the time of the Crusades under the name of the “ford of Yaʿḳūb” ( Vadum Jacob of William of Tyre) or “ford of lamentations” ( mak̲h̲āḍat al-aḥzān of Ibn al-At̲h̲īr and Yāḳūt), the Via maris from Damascus to Ṣafad and ʿAkkā crossed the river, following a trade route which was especially frequented in Mamlūk times and which coincided also with a barīd …

, “iron bridge”, name of a bridge over the Orontes in the lower part of its course, at the point where the river, emerging from the valleys of the calcareous plateau and widening towards the depression of al-ʿAmḳ [ q.v.], turns sharply westwards without being lost in that marshy depression whose waters it partly drains to the sea. The fame of This toponym, frequently mentioned in mediaeval documents but of obscure origin (perhaps local legend), is explained by the strategic and commercial importance of This stage, through which, in a…

, or sometimes d̲j̲ibrīl : a large Palestinian village of the Shephela, situated at an altitude of 287 m. south-west of Jerusal…

or steam bath, often still referred to as “Turkish bath” (and in French as “bain maure”), is a building typical of the Islamic world where archaeological remains witness to its existence as early as the Umayyad period (in addition to references in texts which mention the construction of baths in the first towns founded after the conquest: the bath of ʿAmr at Fusṭāṭ in Ibn Duḳmāḳ, i, 105; the first three baths of Baṣra, in al-Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ , 353) and where it has continued until the present day to occupy a position of primary importance, recogni…

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, plural of al-Baḳʿa, the proper name of the elongated plain commonly called the Bekaa, which, at a mean altitude of 1,000 metres, lies between the mountains of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. The ancients had clearly defined it by the term Coele Syria (Hollow Syria) of which the application was subsequently extended. It is a depression of tectonic origin filled in by sediment, and is an extension of the Jordan rift along the north-south axis which forms one of the basic features of the structure of t…

, Arabic name, attested by Yāḳūt, of a fortress to which modern writers, following a reference to it by Anna Comnena, prefer to apply the name Bourzey. The local people call it Ḳalʿat Marza. The ruins of this castle, standing on the eastern slope of the Alaouite massif, still dominate the marshy depression of the G̲h̲āb. It had a troubled history from Hellenic times, when the impregnable position of Lysias was known. At the tim…

(or bizāʿā ), a locality in northern Syria about forty kilometres east of Aleppo in the rich valley of the Nahr al-D̲h̲ahab or Wādī Buṭnān [ q.v.], which has lost its former prosperity in favour of its western suburb Bāb al-Buzāʿa, today the small town of al-Bāb. The freshness of its gardens and its commercial activity attracted the a…

, place in northern Syria, belonging to what is called the region of the “dead towns”, in the centre of the limestone plateau, some fifteen kms. west of the important township of Maʿarrat al-Nuʿmān. In the Middle Ages, as attested by the Arabic and Western texts, it served as a fortified cathedral town and its site is stilJ marked today by extensive ruins, among which the modern villages of al-Kafr and al-Bāra (names corresponding to the ancient Greek and Syriac terms, Kapropēra and kpr’d brt’) r…

(a.), term (proved by various lexicographical investigations to be identical with ḥayr , see H. Pérès, La poésie andalouse en arabe classique , Paris 1937, 129) whose meaning is clarified by the study of the remains of ḥayrs still surviving around ancient princely residences of the Islamic Middle Ages. The frequent references by Arab authors, which lead to the conclusion that they were either parks or pleasure-gardens, provided sometimes with a sumptuous pavilion, or more exactly zoological gardens like those which are recorded at Sāmarrā or at Madīnat al-Zahrāʾ (cf. H. Pérès, op. cit., index s.vv. ḥāʾir and ḥayr), ar…

(a.), inscriptions. 1. Islamic epigraphy in general. The study of Arabic inscriptions today constitutes a science full of promise, an auxiliary science to be sure, but a science indispensable to the scholarly exploitation of a whole category of authentic texts capable of throwing light on the civilisation in the context of which they were written. From a very early period, seeing that the fir…