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, the art of drawing prognostications from verses of the Ḳurʾān to which beneficial effects are attributed. The sacred text is used here in the same spirit as in rhapsodomancy ( ʿilm al-ḳurʿa ) and onomatomancy [see d̲j̲afr and ḥurūf. ] But it is here more particularly a case of the “natural properties” (φυσικά) which certain formulae of a magical and superstitious nature can have, based upon suitable Ḳurʾānic verses, letters drawn from these verse, words, names of angels, prophets or God, prayers bearing celebrated names and poems ( e.g. the Burda ). Hence these …

(a.), a term having various significations. The root s̲h̲-ʿ-r involves, inter alia, the ideas of knowing something; being aware of something; being a poet; being hairy; notifying, making aware of something; marking something; etc. S̲h̲iʿār stems from the latter semantic field. It denotes: 1. The rallying signal for war or for a travel expedition, war cry, standard, mark indicating the place of standing ( wuḳūf ) of ¶ soldiers in battle or pilgrims in the Pilgrimage (ʿArafa: the idea of “recognising” this mark). The warcry of the Prophet’s Companions was “Amit , amit! O victorious ones,…

(a.), derived from nas̲h̲ada “to search (especially for a stray camel), designates a set form of oath, at the beginning of a prayer of petition, sometimes involving a threat or coercion, directed at God. A certain Abū Sammāl of Banū Asad set out once in search of his camel; after a long, vain search, he turned to God, entreating him in these words: aymunuka laʾin lam taruddahā ilayya lā aʿbudka , “I swear if you do not return it to me, I will not worship you”; and he found it. The man was not a saint, so that his success could be attributed t…

(A.), deriving from a root k̲h̲-y-r which expresses the idea of option or choice, consists of entrusting God with the choice between two or more possible options, either through piety and submission to His will, or else through inability to decide oneself, on account of not knowing which choice is the most advantageous one. To the first category belong the ak̲h̲yār or “chosen”, who regulate their lives according to the model inspired by God in the Ḳurʾān and the Law; to the second belong the mustak̲h̲īrūn , those who seek to escape from indecision with the h…

, apparently the name of an idol of the pre-Islamic Arabs. In a marginal addition to Ibn al-Kalbī’s K. al-Aṣnām (ed. Klinke-Rosenberger, 2), the following ḥadīt̲h̲ is given: “Fulfill your legal alms obligations, for God has freed you from al-Sud̲j̲d̲j̲a and al-Bad̲j̲d̲j̲a” (missing from the Concordance ). The commentator says that al-Sud̲j̲d̲j̲a was an idol. As for al-Bad̲j̲d̲j̲a, This is the blood drawn from an incision ( faṣīd ) of a camel’s vein, on which the Arabs used to feed in times of dearth. But according to TʿA , ii, 6, al-Bad̲j̲d̲j̲a was an idol too…

, spontaneous pulsations, tremblings or convulsions which occur in all parts of the body, in particular in the limbs, the eyelids and the eyebrows and which provide omens the interpretation of which as a divinatory sign is known as the ʿilm al-ik̲h̲tilād̲j̲ or “palmoscopy”. Palmoscopy forms part of physiognomy and, like it, formed part of medical diagnosis by the physicians of classical antiquity, among them Galen, who established a distinction between “palpitation” and “trembling, shudder, convulsion”. As a divinatory practice, Islamic palmoscopy seems to have as its s…

(A.), 10th form of the root ḳ-s-m which embraces two groups of meanings, the one of a magical nature and the other divinatory. The first is applied to formulae and methods for conjuring up demons, for adjuration and exorcism; this latter is the meaning acquired by the 2nd and 4th forms, ḳassama and aḳsama , particularly in the Christian Arab world, clearly influenced by the Hebrew ḳesem ( e.g., Deut. xxiii, 23), which has the same meaning. This usage is late, colloquial, and most frequently found among Christian Arabs, who also employ ḳisām , “adjuration, exorcism …

(or K̲h̲ulaṣa ). D̲h̲u ’l-K̲h̲alaṣa refers to the sacred stone (and the holy place where it was to be found) which was worshipped by the tribes of Daws, K̲h̲at̲h̲ʿam, Bad̲j̲īla, the Azd of the Sarāt mountains and the Arabs of Tabāla. “It was a white quartziferous rock, bearing the sculpture of something like a crown. It was in Tabāla at the place called al-ʿAblāʾ, i.e., White Rock ( TʿA , viii, 3) between Mecca and the Yemen and seven nights’ march from the former ( i.e., approximately 192 kilometres or 119 miles). The guardians of the sanctuary were the Banū Umāma of the Bāhila…

(a.), in early Arabia, the guardian of a shrine (abstract noun, sidāna ). The root s - d - n contains the sense of "veil, curtain", which puts sādin on a level with ḥād̲j̲ib , the first term denoting the guardian of a shrine, and the second, the "door-keeper" of a palace, hence "chamberlain". The ḥād̲j̲ib acts under the orders of someone else, whereas the sādin acts on his own initiative ( LʿA , xvii, 69, citing Ibn Barrī). However, the two terms may be found juxtaposed, e.g. in Ibn His̲h̲ām, who says, "The Arabs possessed, as well as the Kaʿba, tawāg̲h̲īṭ which were shrines ( buyūt : cf. Fahd, La divin…

(a.), from rīf , pl. aryāf , “cultivated and fertile region”, generally designates the lands along a river or the sea and the fertile plains bordering the desert [see further rīf ]. The noun riyāfa , a recent formation on the model of ḳiyāfa (note that al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ, K. al-Tarbīʿ wa ’l-tadwīr , ed. Pellat, 91-2, § 176, gives for ḳiyāfa [ q.v.] the sense of the detection of paternity, the whereabouts of water, atmospheric phenomena and the earth), designates the water-diviner’s art which estimates the depth of water under the earth through the smell of the ea…

(a.), from the root s-ʿ-y , used 30 times in the Ḳurʾān in such senses as “to work, apply oneself to, denounce, seek to earn one’s living, run after s. th.” etc., but in the sense concerning here denoting the pilgrim’s running between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwa. These are two hills to the south and north-west of the Kaʿba respectively, linked by a masʿā , course, which the pilgrim follows after having made the sevenfold circuit of the Kaʿba, at his or her arrival and his or her departure. This following of the course, the saʿy , is likewise sevenfold; it starts in al-Ṣafā, and goes to al-Marwa, ca. 300 m a…

, preferably to be read as Saʿīr, although the former is more common, an idol of the pre-Islamic Arabian tribe of ʿAnaza (Ibn al-Kalbī, 48-9), coming from ʿw.ṣ , an Aramaean eponym denoting in the Bible (refs. in Gesenius-Buhl, 573) the land of Edom and the group of tribes living there (W. Robertson Smith, Kinship and marriage in early Arabia , 260-1; Nöldeke, in ZDMG, xl [1887], 183). Saʿīr, which followed the same evolution as ʿAwḍ, denotes in the Bible the land of Edom before its occupation by the sons of Esau. Gen. xxxvi.9 speaks of the hill country Seʿir, o…

(a.), the science of physiognomancy and the examination of traces on the ground. In their concern for the purity of race and the ¶ correctness of genealogical lines, the ancient Arabs perfected a technique which permitted them to verify, and, where necessary, to research into, lines of parentage. This technique consisted partly in experience and partly in divinatory intuition. In primitive times, a specialised personnel maintained the practice: but the progressive decline, in pre-Islamic Arabia, of personnel skilled i…

, a rogatory rite still practised at the present day (notably in Jordan and Morocco) and dating back to the earliest Arab times (ʿĀdite according ¶ to Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, i, 61; Abrahaniic according to Ibn Saʿd, i/1, 22) which is a supplication for rain during periods of great drought. The rite must have been both astral and magical in nature. Obliged to retain it because of its great popularity, primitive Islam tried to remove these features. A precise ritual was established—as in the case of istik̲h̲āra [ q.v.], another custom deriving from pagan cultic practices —so that the faithf…

, a term denoting hydromancy, according to Doutté, Magie et religion dans l’Afrique DU Nord (Algiers 1909), 389; but in Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn. Muḳaddima , iii, 137 ff., istinzāl rūḥāniyyāt al-aflāk is a technique belonging to sīmyāʾ [ q.v.], natural or phantasmagoric magic (cf. T. Fahd, Divination, 49, n. 1). The Pseudo-Mad̲j̲rīṭī prefers to use istid̲j̲lāb (cf. Sources Orientales , vii (1966), 170 ff.). Elsewhere, in al-Būnī and Ibn al-Muwaḳḳiʿ, istinzāl al-arwāḥ wa-’ stiḥḍāruhā fī ḳawālib al-as̲h̲bāḥ denotes the techniques of spiritism, although these are generally denoted by the name ʿilm…

(a.) “water”. The present article covers the religio-magical and the Islamic legal aspects of water, together with irrigation techniques, as follows: 1. Hydromancy A a vehicle for the sacred, water has been employed for various techniques of divination, and in particular, for potamonancy (sc. divination by means of the colour of the waters of a river and their ebbing and flowing; cf. FY. Cumont, Études syriennes , Paris 1917, 250 ff., notably on the purification power of the Euphrates, consulted for divinatory reasons); for pegomancy (sc…

(a) in modern times designates an epic [see haṃāsa ] and also corresponds to a usage already in evidence in the Old Testament, where milḥamōt is applied to the wars of Yahweh (I Sam. xviii, 17, xxv, 28), but in the Islamic Middle Ages this word meant a writing of a divinatory character, the Malḥamat Dāniyāl [cf. dāniyāl ]. It is a question of a collection of meteorological signs with their divinatory meanings, derived from the day of the week on which 1 January falls (from the Saturday to the Friday), eclipses of the moon, followi…

(a.), the sun (f). 1. In Pre-Islamic Arab lore. This was a divinity worshipped in the Semitic world, especially in Assyria-Babylonia (cf. its attributes in K. Tallqvist, Akkadische Götterepitheta , Helsinki 1938, 453 ff.) and in South Arabia, where the plurals s̲h̲ums (for s̲h̲umūs ) given by Yāḳūt (ed. Beirut, iii, 362) for this ṣanam or idol, ʾs̲h̲ms and the dual s̲h̲msy (G. Ryckmans, Les noms propres sudsémitiques , Louvain 1934-5, i, 33; A. Jamme, Le panthéon sud-arabe préislamique d’après les sources épigraphiques , in Muséon , lx [1947], 101 ff.) ¶ denote the titulary divinities…

(a.), a term with many meanings, including those of thirst, voice, echo, and screech-owl in the sense of hāma , which denotes a bird charged with taking shape in the skull of someone who has been murdered, etc. (see the lexica). It is this latter sense which interests us here. In effect, the pre-Islamic Arabs believed that after death, above all after a violent death, out of the blood of the skull ( hāma) and parts of the body there arose a bird called hāma (or hām , the male owl; see Yāḳūt, Buldān , iii, 376), which returned to the tomb of the dead man until vengea…

, a term of controversial origin (cf. T. Fahd, Divination arabe , 91 ff.), belonging to Canaanite, Aramaic and Arab traditions. At the earliest stage known to us it appears to have been used by the “Western Semites” to designate the possessor of a single function with related prerogatives, that is to say, the offering of sacrifices in the name of the group, the representing of this group before the deity, the interpretation of the will of the deity, and in addition the anticipation an…

(a.), pl. nīrān , denotes fire, whereas nūr , pl. anwār , denotes light. In Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic, the root n-w-r simply denotes “flash”, “dazzlement”, “florescence”, “tattooing”, anything, in short, which gives light and anything which stands out clearly. The other Arabic term which signifies light, ḍawʾ , is to be associated with the Sanskrit dev/w which appears in Zeus, Dieu, dies , and expresses the notion of the personification of the luminous and calorific phenomena of nature. Nār occurs 129 times in the Ḳurʾān, of which 111…

, name of one of the three most venerated deities of the pre-Islamic pantheon, the two others being Manāt and al-ʿUzzā [ q.vv.]. The deep attachment felt by the T̲h̲aḳīf towards al-Lāt, the Aws and the K̲h̲azrad̲j̲ towards Manāt and the Ḳurays̲h̲ towards al-ʿUzzā, constituted the greatest obstacle in the path of the peaceful implantation of Islam in the regions of the Ḥid̲j̲āz. This obstacle was so difficult to overcome that the Prophet seems, for a brief period, to have consented to the continuation of the cult of these three deities, called al-g̲h̲arānīḳ al-ʿulā (see T. Fahd, Panthéon …

(a.). 1. In pre- and early Islamic usage. The root ṭ -g̲h̲-w yields several forms with the general meaning of "to go beyond the measure, be very lofty, overflow, be tyrannical, rebellious, oppressive, proud, etc.", from which two may be noted here: ṭag̲h̲w , designating a height or mountain summit, and ṭag̲h̲ūt , pl. ṭawāg̲h̲īt , meaning the great pre-Islamic Arabian deities like al-Lāt at Ṭāʾif and al-ʿUzzā at Mecca. The term was then applied to Satan, sorcerer and rebel, and to any power opposed to that of Islam. One may also cite ṭag̲h̲wa "excess of injustice, impiety", as opposed to the s̲h̲…

(a.), image, form, shape, e.g. ṣūrat al-arḍ , “the image of the earth”, ṣūrat ḥimār , “the form of an ass” (Muslim, Ṣalāt , trad. 115), or face, countenance (see below). Taṣāwīr are rather pictures; see for these, taṣwīr . Ṣūra and taṣwīra are therefore in the same relation to one another as the Hebrew demūt and ṣelem . 1. In theological and legal doctrine. The Biblical idea according to which man was created in God’s ṣelem (Gen. i. 27) has most probably passed into Ḥadīt̲h̲. It occurs in three passages in classical Ḥadīt̲h̲; the exegesis is uncertain and in general unwilling to adopt i…

, Abū Ṭāhir Ibrāhīm b. Yaḥyā b. G̲h̲annām al-Ḥarrānī al-Numayrī al-Ḥanbalī al-Maḳdisī (d. 693/1294), is the author of a treatise on oneiromancy that was widely circulated, on account of its alphabetical arrangement which makes it rapid and simple to consult. He was thus the innovator of a system which, after his time, became widely adopted. His treatise, entitled al-Muʿallam ʿalā ḥurūf al-muʿd̲j̲am , led oneiromancy away from the traditional paths by renouncing the plan inspired by that of the Book of Dreams of Artemidorus of Ephesus (ed. T. Fahd, Damascus 1964, PIFD) and sanctioned b…

(a.), literally “that which rises”. 1. Astronomical aspects. Al-ṭāliʿ is that point of the ecliptic which is rising over the horizon at a given moment, called the ascendent or horoscopus (and sometimes, incorrectly, the horoscope); see the diagram in maṭāliʿ . The determination of the ascendent is necessary in mathematical astrology [see nud̲j̲ūm , aḥkām al- ] before one can calculate the instantaneous positions of the 12 astrological houses ( al-buyūt ); with these determined, one can then investigate in which houses the sun, moon and five na…

, name of a deity ofancient Arabia. This IVth form maṣdar from the root n-w-f is connected with the Qatabanite nwfn “the exalted”, an epithet describing ʿAt̲h̲ar-Venus at its zenith, as opposed to s̲h̲rḳn “the eastern” and g̲h̲rbn “the western”. From the same root is derived tanūf “that which climbs high in the firmament”, an epithet of the sun, as opposed to ms̲h̲rḳtym “that which rises”, and tadūn “that which sets” (cf. A. Jamme, Le panthéon sud-arabe préislamique’d’après les sources épigraphiques , in Le Muséon , lx [1947], 88 and n. 225, 102, 106; on th…

, G̲h̲ars al-Dīn K̲h̲alīl , born in Cairo (or Jerusalem) in 813/1410, son of a mamlūk of the Burd̲j̲ī sultan Sayf al-Dīn Tatar, studied in Cairo and achieved a brilliant administrative career under Barsbay and Čaḳmaḳ (cf. Ziriklī, Aʿlām 2, iii, 367). In about 857/1453 he composed a major work, Kas̲h̲f al-mamālik wa-bayān al-uruḳ , wa ’l-masālik , of which only an abridged version, Zubdat Kas̲h̲f al-mamālik ... has survived. This vivid and exact picture of Egypt under the Mamlūks, the interest of which was first emphasized by Volney in the appendix to the Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie 3, ed. Dug…

(a.), “prophecy”, Hebrew nəb̲ūʾa , substantive derived from nabī “prophet”, Hebrew nābī (ʾ), term denoting in the first instance the precognition given by the divinity (Yahweh, the Baʿl, Allāh) to the prophet and the prediction made by the latter of future contingencies. In the second instance, nubuwwa is identified with waḥy , “revelation”, which simultaneously comprises dogmas, cultic regulations, moral education, precepts of social and political order. In fact, for the early Muslims, prophecy was regarded as being the so…

, name of a person to whom are attributed a number of works and whose full name is said to have been Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Ḳays (omitted in Fihrist , 311, which adds: b. al-Muk̲h̲tār b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Ḏj̲art̲h̲iya b. Badniyā b. Barṭāniyā b. ʿĀlāṭiyā) al-Kasdānī (omitted in MS Istanbul, Beyazit 4064 [see below]) al-Ṣūfī (added in Fihrist and some manuscripts) al-Ḳussaynī (added in MSS Beyazit 4064 and Leiden, vocalized thus in Beyazit, read al-Ḳasītī or al Ḳusaytī by M. Plessner; cf. Fihrist: min ahl Ḳussīn ), known as Ibn Waḥs̲h̲iyya, but of whose existenc…

(a.) “vulture”, one of the five deities said to date from the time of Noah and to have been adored by the people then (Ḳurʾān, LXXI, 23). Ibn al-Kalbī, Aṣnām , our sole source regarding this, makes it the idol of the Ḥimyarites, who worshipped it at Balk̲h̲aʿ in the land of Sabaʾ ( TA, iii, 572, at the end, cites al-D̲j̲awharī, who says that Nasr was the idol of D̲h̲u ’l-Kilāʿ of the Ḥimyarite country). It was Maʿdī-Karib, of the sub-group of D̲h̲ū Ruʿayn, who received it from ʿAmr b. Luḥayy, the first known reformer of the cult in Arabia; he disco…

1. S̲h̲iḳḳ is the name of two diviners or kāhins who allegedly lived shortly before the rise of Islam. According to the Abrégé des merveilles , S̲h̲iḳḳ the Elder was the first diviner among the ʿArab al-ʿĀriba. He is a completely fabulous personage. Like the Cyclops, he had only one eye in the middle of his forehead or a fire which split his forehead into two ( s̲h̲aḳḳa “to split”). He is also confused with al-Dad̲j̲d̲j̲āl [ q.v.], Antichrist, or at least Dad̲j̲d̲j̲āl is of his family. He is said to have lived chained to a rock on an island where volcanic phenomena occur…

(a.), magic. This term is applied (1) to that which entrances the eye and acts on the psyche of the individual, making him believe that what he sees is real when it is not so. This is called al-uk̲h̲d̲h̲a , “charm, incantation” [see ruḳya ], “artifice, stratagem” [see nīrand̲j̲ , sīmiyā ]; in short, everything that is known as “white” or “natural magic”. It also refers (2) to things, the apprehension ( maʾk̲h̲ad̲h̲ ) of which is fine and subtle; this applies, for example, to certain poetry and certain eloquence, that of the Ḳurʾān in particular. The Prophet was allegedly told, inna min al-bayāni …

( Aḥkām al- ), “decrees of the stars”, expression denoting astrology [see also munad̲j̲d̲j̲im ]. Astrology comprises two branches: natural astrology, consisting in the observation of the influences of the stars on the natural elements, and judicial astrology, consisting in the observation of the influences of the stars on human destiny. The scientific term which describes them is Ptolemaism (derived from the astrological work of Ptolemy, entitled Κλαυδίου Πτολεμαίου τῶν πρὸς Σύρον ἀποτελεσματικῶν, ed. F. Boll and Ae. Boer, in Bibliotheca Teubneriana , Le…

(a.) “lamentation”, the noun of action from nāḥa “to weep with great cries, lamentations, sighings and affliction”. The term is used to designate the activity of professional mourners who play a great role in funeral ceremonies all around the Mediterranean. If it is mentioned here, it is because this practice, considered to be a legacy of paganism, was condemned by the Prophet. Indeed, he is made to say “Three pre-Islamic customs ( ak̲h̲lāḳ ; Usd al-g̲h̲āba , fiʿl ) are not to be retained by the Muslims. They are: invoking the planets in order to receive rain ( istisḳāʾ bi ’l-kawākib …

(a.), “The interpretation of dreams”. As well as this expression, tafsīr al-aḥlām is employed, with taʿbīr , basically “the passage of one thing to another, one sense to another”, hence “explanation” and tafsīr , lit. “commenting, explaining”, from roots occurring in other Semitic languages and with the two Arabic verbal nouns found, once each, in the Ḳurʾān, at XII, 43, and XXV, 33, with taʾwīl [ q.v.] also at XII, 44-5. In current usage, taʿbīr is confined to the sense of “interpretation of dreams”, whilst tafsīr [ q.v.] is used for commentaries on e.g. the Bible and the Ḳurʾān. For the ter…

(a.), pl. anṣāb , Hebrew maṣṣeb̲ōt . The plural, more often used, denotes the blocks ofstone on which the blood of the victims sacrificed for idols ( awt̲h̲ān , aṣnām ) was poured, as well as sepulchral stones and those marking out the sacred enclosure ( ḥimā ) of the sanctuary (cf. J. Wellhausen, Reste2 , 101-2; W. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites , 201 ff.). In nomadic circles, the nuṣub has been regarded in a few rare instances as the symbol of the divinity (cf. Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaḳāt , iv/1, 159-60; R. Dozy, Essai sur l’histoire de l’Islamisme , translated from the…

, invisible being whose cry rends the night, transmitting a message; a prophetic voice which announces in an oracular style a future happening. Already in the Bible this voice is confused with that of the prophet (Ezekiel, XXI, 2, 7; Amos, VII, 16). On the eve of Muḥammad’s call, mysterious voices were proclaiming his coming. These were the voices of “one who was calling” ( munādī ) or “who was shouting” ( ṣāʾiḥ : Ag̲h̲ānī 1, xv, 76; in the legend of Mad̲j̲nūn, hātif is the equivalent of munādī and of ṣāʾiḥ: ibid., i, 169; ii, 4; i, 174; a third equivalent, tālī , is found in al-Ṭabarī, iii4, 2337). I…

(a.) means divination in general. Lā kihāna baʿd al-nubuwwa “there is no divination after the prophetic mission”; if it were necessary to be content with this dictum, frequently repeated in the Tradition, such an article as this would be out of place in an Encyclopaedia of Islam . But once the precise sense of this term has been established and the range of concepts which it covers outlined, the reader will agree that it is, on the contrary, far from superfluous. The word itself, both in terms of the conceptual aspect ( kihāna ) and the pragmatic aspect ( hahāna ) is a le…

(a.) “shoulder”; ʿilm al-katif or al-aktāf denotes scapulomancy or omoplatoscopy, i.e. divination by the use of the shoulder-bones. This art forms a part of the practices of physiognomy. It is universal in scope, inasmuch as it provides for the foretelling of what will happen in the different regions of the earth towards which the four sides of the scapula are pointed according to the signs revealed by it. From this point of view the ʿilm al-aktāf is to be linked with the practice of cleromancy of the d̲j̲afr [ q.v.] and the malāḥim (cf. T. Fahd, La divination arabe, 219 ff.). How was this skil…

(a.), poet. ¶ 1. In the Arab world. A. Pre-Islamic and Umayyad periods. Among those endowed with knowledge and with power in ancient Arabia stands the figure of the s̲h̲āʿir , whose role is often confused with that of the ʿarrāf ( s̲h̲aʿara and ʿarafa having the same semantic value: cf. I. Goldziher, Abhandlungen , i, 3 ff.) and of the kāhin [ q.v.]. They were credited with the same source of inspiration, the d̲j̲inns (Goldziher, Die Ǧinnen der Dichter , in ZDMG, xlv [1891], 685 ff.). However, the s̲h̲āʿir was, originally, the repository of magical rather than divinatory knowledge; …

, Abū saʿīd ( Saʿd ) Naṣr b. Yaʿḳūb , is a writer chiefly remembered as author of al-Ḳādirī fi ’l-Taʿbīr (composed in 397/1006 and dedicated to al-Ḳādir Bi’llāh 381-422/991-1020), which is the oldest authentic Arabic treatise on oneirocriticism and an excellent synthesis of everything that was known on the subject at the time. Its sources were Arabic: Ibn Sīrīn [ q.v.] to whom innumerable interpretations are attributed; Greek: Artemidorus of Ephesus, whose Oneirocritica translated into Arabic by Ḥunayn b. Isḥāḳ (died 260/873; cf. Fihrist, 255, MS A 4726 in the Istanbul Universi…

(a.), a verbal noun from the root s̲h̲-r-f indicating elevation, nobility, pre-eminence in the physical and the moral senses. Hence the s̲h̲arīf [ q.v.] is a person who is placed above those who surround him on account of his prestigious and noble origin. In pre-Islamic Arabia and in early Islam, s̲h̲araf and mad̲j̲d both denote “illustriousness on account of birth”, while hasab , “individual quality, merit” (as opposed to nasab ) and karam denote “illustriousness acquired by oneself” ( LA, s.w. and see ḥasab wa-nasab ). According to the historians of Islam…

(a.), the invocation made in a loud voice and repeatedly by the pilgrim when he enters the state of ritual taboo ( iḥrām ) for the Pilgrimage at Mecca [see ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ ]. This moment begins on entering the Ḥaram or sacred area and at the points where the pilgrims gather together ( mawāḳīt ) on the boundaries of the enclosure. Amongst the practices to be followed by the pilgrims are prayers and movements (see T. Fahd, Les pratiques musulmanes , in Atlas des religions , Encylopaedia Universalis, Paris 1988, 319-23). On entering the sacred territory, the pilgr…

, an idol of the tribes of Ḳuḍāʿa, Lak̲h̲m, Ḏj̲ud̲h̲ām, ʿĀmila and G̲h̲aṭafān [ q.vv.], venerated in northern Arabia, across which these tribes ranged, as far as the Syrian borders (Ibn al-Kalbī, 24, 30). Pilgrimage was made to it by devotees with shaven heads; with each lock of hair, a handful of meal was offered, all this thrown into a large trench or a dried-up well ( ḥafr ). The Hawāzin, neighbours of the Ḳuḍāʿa, used to come and collect the meal, either at the time of the offering or after it was mixed with the hair. The deity seems to have been embodied in several betyles. The poet Zu…

(a.), as opposed to faʾl [ q.v.] which denotes human omens (cledonism), is applied in a general sense to animal omens (zoomancy) and, in the strict sense, to ornithomancy, that is to say the art of divining omens in the names of birds, their cries, their flight and their posture ( TA, vi, 207, l. 24 ff.). With certain names of birds a fatal quality is associated, though why this is so is not always known; in general, black and greenish plumage and down constitute the only justification. This is the case with the crow, the roller, the jay, and with …

, (a.) from the root r-ḳ-y meaning “to ascend” (cf. Ḳurʾān, XVII, 93, XXXVIII, 10; to this, LXXV, 27, adds the idea of “enchanter”, “one who cures” and “magician” rāḳ in, a term often found in the Sīra , in Ḥadīt̲h̲ and in the Sunna), “enchantment, magical spell”. Since casting a spell was usually by means of a magical formula pronounced or written on an amulet of parchment or leather, rāḳ in is to be connected with ḳāriʾ and riḳḳ [ q.v.]. The term tarāḳī of the preceding verse, 26, from the root r-ḳ-w/y , variously understood by the commentators, means “collar bones” (see TA and Lane, s.v.; Steingass…

(a.), derived from Persian nayrang , nīrang , pl. nīrand̲j̲āt , nīrand̲j̲iyyāt (Ibn Sīnā, ms. Paris; Brockelmann, S I, 828), nārand̲j̲iyyāt (al-D̲j̲ināʿī, ms. Strasbourg 4212, fol. 102b), designates, in the two languages, the operations of white magic, comprising prestidigitation, fakery and counter-fakery, the creating of illusions and other feats of sleight-of-hand ( ḥiyal ). A certain al-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad al-Iskandarī al-Kūs̲h̲ī al-ʿAbdari described the whole set of these operations in his work Fi ’l-ḥiyal al-bābiliyya li ’l-k̲h̲izāna al-kāmiliyya …

(a.), a noun derived from y-s-r "to be easy, simple", a root from which derives, by antiphrasis, a qualificative of the left hand, al-yusrā , with which the ḥurḍa (cf. Hebrew ḥ-r-ṣ and Akkadian ḫarāšu "decide, fix, determine"), the equivalent of the sādin of the istiḳsām [ q.v.], shot arrows one by one. Hence the term maysir could be rendered by "the game of the left-handed", although its present morphological state is inexplicable. The game consisted of dividing a slaughtered beast into ten parts, for which the game was played: these being the thighs and shins of bo…

( ʿilm-i ), a divinatory process which belongs to the realm of physiognomy [see firāsa ], and designates more specifically chirognomy, or the art of deducing the character of a person according to the shape and appearance of the hands, whereas chiromancy proper is designated by ʿilm al-asārīr (lines of the hand) or k̲h̲uṭūṭ al-yad . One can also say naẓar fi ’l-yad , firāsat al-kaff , ʿalāmāt asārīr al-kaff (cf. T. Fahd, Divination arabe , 393 ff.). But the use of the term ʿilm al-kaff has become general, and this has supplanted the others. It covers both c…

(a.), the name of two rather mysterious groups in early Islamic times: 1. Ṣābiʾat al-baṭāʾiḥ . The Mesopotamian dialectal pronunciation of ṣābiʿa , where the ʿayn has been transformed into y or ī , also occurs in Mandaean (cf. Lidzbarski, Ginzā ; Nöldeke, Mandäische Grammatik ; R. Macuch, Handbook , 94, 1. 16: ṣabuia ). This substantive, which became current in Mecca during the period of Ḳurʾānic preaching, irrespective of its etymology, derives from the Semitic root ṣ-b-ʿ (Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac; Ethiopic ṣabk̲h̲a ), corresponding to ṣ-b-g̲h̲ in Arabic. Th…

(a.), literally, "the fortunate and the unfortunate". These concepts are based on the influence exerted by the planets and the signs of the Zodiac on earthly events. The astrologers describe the stars as being either . saʿd or naḥs . Thus Jupiter, Venus and the Moon are said to be saʿd, Saturn is naḥs and the Sun and Mercury are at times called one or the other. But this can vary as a function of their positions in the ecliptic and of their conjunctions (cf. Abū Maslama Muḥammad al-Mad̲j̲rīṭī, G̲h̲āyat al-ḥakīm , ed. H. Ritter, Leipzig 1933, 198 ff. = M. Plessner, Picatrix , London 1962, 209 ff.; L’ag…

, in form like kibriyāʾ , belongs to old Arabic ¶ beside sīmā , sīmāʾ (Ḳurʾān, XLVIII, 29 etc.; al-Bayḍāwī, ed. Fleischer, i, 326, 14, 15), in the sense “mark, sign, badge” (Lane 1476a; Ṣaḥāḥ , s.v., ed. Būlāḳ, 1282, ii, 200; Ḥamāsa , ed. Freytag, 696; LʿA , xv, 205). But the word, as a name for certain genres of magic, had a quite different derivation; in that sense it is from σημει̂α, through the Syriac sīmya (pl), and means “signs, letters of the alphabet” (Dozy, Suppl., i, 708b, and references there; Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus , ii, col. 2614). In Bocthor, Dictionnaire français-arabe …

(a.), image, representation and, especially, idol (from the Common Semitic root ṣ-l-m , cf. Akk. ṣalmu , Aram, ṣalmā , Hebr. ṣelem , etc., by a shift of l into n, see Gesenius-Buhl, 684); for Old Testament parallels, see inter alia, Num. xxxiii. 52; II Kings xi. 18; Ezek., vii. 20; Amos, v. 26). It is in this sense that it is found in the Ḳurʾān, where the pl. aṣnām is cited five times (VI, 74; VII, 138; XIV, 35; XXI, 57; XXVI, 71). Ṣanam progressively replaces nuṣub (pl. anṣāb , Hebr. maṣṣebōt̲ , Gen. xxxv. 14), a term denoting “carved stones over which the blood …

(a.), a term of the Ḳurʾān and of Islamic religion. The root s̲h̲-k-n (Akkadian, Hebrew, Aramaic) or s-k-n (Arabic) means basically “to go down, rest, be quiescent, inhabit”, and the corresponding Later Hebrew form to Arabic sakīna is s̲h̲ek̲h̲īnā and the Jewish Palestinian Aramaic one s̲h̲ e k̲h̲īnā, Syriac s̲h̲ekīntā . Cf. Hebr. ham-mis̲h̲kan , mis̲h̲kan Yhwh , Syr. mas̲h̲kan zab̲h̲nā / zab̲h̲nō , Ar. ḳubbat al-zamān (al-Ḳardāḥī, Lubāb , Beirut 1887, ii, 546-7), referring to Moses’ tent sanctuary, Exod. xxv. 22). The Hebrew usage is genera…

, a legendary diviner ( kāhin ) of pre-Islamic Arabia, whom tradition connects with the beginnings of Islam; in reality, we are dealing here with a quite mythical personage like the other kāhin in whose company he appears in most stories, S̲h̲iḳḳ al-Saʿbī, who is simply the humanisation of a demoniacal monster in appearance like a man cut in two ( s̲h̲iḳḳ al-insān : cf. van Vloten, in WZKM, vii [1893], 180-1, and s̲h̲iḳḳ ). Saṭīḥ, whose name means “flattened on the ground and unable to rise on account of the weakness of his limbs” ( Lisān al-ʿArab 1, iii, 312), is described as a monster with…

(a.), evil spirit, demon, devil. 1. In pre-Islamic Arabia. According to the lexicographers, s̲h̲ayṭān is derived from the verb s̲h̲aṭana “to detain somebody in order to divert him from his intention and his destination”, s̲h̲aṭan being “a cord” and s̲h̲āṭin “an evil man”. The verbs s̲h̲ayṭana and tas̲h̲ayṭana signify “to behave like the shayṭan ”. The s̲h̲ayṭān is an evil, rebellious spirit, inhabiting Hell-Fire; he cannot be seen, but he is imagined as a being of great ugliness (al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, Ḥayawān , vi, 213). Proverbs underline his wickedness, his c…

, more precisely al-k̲h̲aṭṭ bi-raml , the original name for Arab geomancy. In the Islamic era, raml (or ʿilm al-raml ) was dominant, but with the growing influence of astrology on the occult sciences, the term s̲h̲akl (pl. as̲h̲kāl ), “figure” was used (see below, the expression as̲h̲kāl al-raml, as̲h̲kāl al-turāb , ḥulūl al-as̲h̲kāl ), From s̲h̲akl are derived “squill” a figure in geomancy, and “to squill”, to practise divination by sand, cf. G. Ferrand, in JA, 10th Series, vi (1905), 195. In Madagascar, the words sikili and skidy also denote geomantic figure…

(a.), a term connected with nuḳāwā , a generic noun denoting alkaline plants utilised for washing linen and whitening cloths. These are plants which grow stems without any leaves; as soon as they dry up, they become white. They give linen a dazzling white colouring. By analogy, the term denotes also a “rite of reconciliation” which was used in the Ḥid̲j̲āz and which was used for righting injuries. This was done in the following manner: The party causing the offence stops on the threshhold of the aggrieved party, holding a knife in each hand, and says: al-naḳā naḳānā wa ’l-naḳā naḳiyyu ’l-r…

( ʿIlm al- ), “The science of letters”, is a branch of d̲j̲afr [ q.v.] which was originally concerned with onomatomancy in the strict sense; but, among some esoteric sects, it became a sort of magical practice, to such an extent that Ibn K̲h̲aldūn ( Muḳaddima , iii, 137-61, Fr. tr. 188-200, Rosenthal 171-82) gave it the name of sīmiyāʾ (σημεῖα), which is usually reserved for white magic. It is based on the occult properties of the letters of the alphabet and of the divine and angelic names which they form. Three basic elements are …

, a technique of inductive divination which permits the foretelling of moral conditions and psychological behaviour from external indications and physical states: al-istidlāl bi’l-k̲h̲alḳ al-Ẓāhir ʿala’l-k̲h̲ulḳ al-bāṭin (cf. al-Rāzī, Firāsa , ed. Mourad, 4; Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī K̲h̲alīfa, ii, p. VIII; iv, 388 ff.; al-Ḳazwīnī, i, 318; cf. Ps.-Diāḥiẓ. ʿIrāfa , ed. Inostrant̲s̲ev, 17 ff.). These indications are provided by colours, forms and limbs; they reveal to experts the secrets of characters and minds. “Peculiarities of charac…

, Abū Bakr Muḥammad , the first renowned Muslim interpreter of dreams, was also, according to Ibn Saʿd (vii/1, 140), a traditionist “of great trustworthiness, who inspired confidence, great and worthy, well-versed in jurisprudence. He was an imām of great scholarship and piety”. Born two years before the end of the caliphate of ʿUt̲h̲mān, i.e., in 34/654, he was the contemporary and friend of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī [ q.v.] and died in the same year as he, in 110/728. His father, a tinker from Ḏj̲ard̲j̲arāyā. had been taken prisoner in ʿIrāḳ (at Maysān or at ʿAyn al-…

, the name given to an orator and poet of the tribe of Wāʾil, “whose seductive eloquence has passed into a proverb and who, it is said, whilst addressing an assembly for half-a-day, never used the same word twice” (Kazimirski, Dictionnaire , i, 1057; see LʿA and the other lexica). Speaking of the random effects of chance, whereby some person became a household word whereas others, equally meritorious, do not, al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ ( Ḥayawān , ii, 104), cites Saḥbān Wāʾil, who was eclipsed by his contemporary Ibn al-Ḳirriyya, murdered by al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ in 84/703 ( loc. cit., n. 5). In his eulogy o…

(a.), originally, the formal expression of the oracular pronouncement. 1. As magical utterances in pre-Islamic Arabian usage. Here, sad̲j̲ʿ was the rhythmical style practised by the Arab kāhin s [ q.v.] and kāhina s [see al-kāhina ], a style intermediate between that of the versified oracular utterances of the Sibylls and Pythians and that of the prose utterances of Apollo (see P. Amandry, La mantique apollinienne à Delphes . Essai sur le fonctionnement de l’oracle, diss. Paris 1950, 15). These utterances are "formulated in short, rhymed phrases, with rhythmical caden…

(a.), dérivé de la racine sémitique r ʾy donnant lieu à des formations exprimant la «vue» ( ruʾ yat) et la vision ( ruʾyā). Cet article concerne l’un des aspects de la vision, à savoir la vision nocturne, le songe, le rêve. 1. Dans le sens de «rêve». Sur les rapports entre «voyant» (rō ʾe = aram. ḥōzē= arabe ḥāzī), «devin» ( kāhin, ʿarrāf etc.) et «prophète» ( nabī), voir les art. Kāhin, Kihāna, Nubuwwa. La terminologie sémitique du rêve et de la vision évolue dans deux zones sémantiques foncièrement différentes: 1)La première se situe dans l’espace s’étendant entre le sommeil et le r…

(a.), pi. anṣāb, héb. maṣṣebōt. Le pluriel, plus fréquemment utilisé, désigne les pierres dressées sur lesquelles on versait le sang des victimes immolées pour les idoles ( awt̲h̲ān, aṣnām), ainsi que les pierres tumulaires et celles délimitant l’enceinte sacrée ( ḥimā) du sanctuaire (cf J. Wellhausen, Reste 2, 101, sq.; W. R. Smith, Religion of the Sémites, 201 sqq.). Il arrive, mais rarement chez les nomades, que le nusub soit pris pour le symbole de la divinité (cf. Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaḳāt, IV/1, 159 sq.; R. Dozy, Essai sur l’histoire de l’Islamisme, trad. du hollandais par V. Chauvin, …

(a.), mauvais esprit, démon,diable. 1. En Arabie préislamique. Les lexicographes font dériver s̲h̲ayṭān du verbe s̲h̲aṭana, «retenir quelqu’un pour le détourner de son intention et de sa destination», le s̲h̲aṭan étant «une corde», et le s̲h̲āṭin, «un homme mauvais». Les verbes s̲h̲ayṭana et tas̲h̲ayṭana signifient «agir comme le s̲h̲ayṭān». Le s̲h̲ayṭān est un esprit mauvais, rebelle, habitant le Feu; on ne le voit pas, mais on le conçoit comme un être d’une grande laideur (Ḏj̲āḥiz, Ḥayawān, VI, 213). Des proverbes en soulignent la méchanceté, la ruse, l’inimitié. Il …

, plur. S̲h̲āmāt, «naevi ou taches de peau». Ce terme semble avoir désigné, à l’origine, les taches de couleur sur le corps d’un cheval, surtout là où elles le déprécient ( TʿA, VIII, 362, 11.12-13); il s’applique à toute tache de couleur différente de celle du corps qu’elle dépare, et à toute empreinte noire sur le corps ou sur le sol ( TʿA, loc. cit., 11.3-4). Mais, dans l’état actuel de nos textes, il n’y a pas de différence entre s̲h̲āmāt et k̲h̲īlān, sg. k̲h̲āl (les deux termes sont attestés en accadien : cf. ḫālu, dans Bezold, Babylonisch-Assyriches Glossar, Heidelberg 1926, 120, et sāmūti,…

, Abū Ṭāhir Ibrāhīm b. Yaḥyā b. G̲h̲annām al-Ḥarrānī al-Numayrī al-Ḥanbalī al-Maḳdisī (m. 693/1294) est l’auteur d’un traité d’onirocritique largement répandu, en raison de son arrangement alphabétique qui en rend la consultation rapide et aisée. Il devint ainsi le promoteur d’un procédé qui connaîtra après lui une large diffusion. Son traité, intitulé al-Muʿallam ʿalā ḥurūf al-muʿd̲j̲am, tire l’onirocritique des voies traditionnelles, en renonçant au plan, inspiré par celui du Livre des Songes d’Artémidore d’Éphèse (éd. T. Fahd, Damas 1964) et consacré par Naṣr b.…

Son nom est associé à la ville légendaire d’Iram d̲h̲āt al-ʿImād, dont on lui attribue la fondation. Voir les art. ʿĀd et Iram. (T. Fahd)

Nom donné à un orateur et poète de la tribu de Wāʾil [ q.v.] «dont l’éloquence entraînante a passé en proverbe, et qui, dit-on, haranguant pendant une demi-journée une assemblée, ne s’est pas servi deux fois du même mot» (Kazimirski, I, 1057; voir L ʿA et d’autres dictionnaires). Parlant de la chance qu’ont certains d’être connus du commun des gens, alors que d’autres, aussi méritants, ne l’ont pas, al-Ḏj̲āḥiz ( Ḥayawān, II, 104) cite Saḥbān Wāʾil, éclipsé par son contemporain Ibn al-Ḳirriyya, assassiné par al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ en 84/703 ( ibid., n. 5). Dans son éloge du livre ( al-kitāb), le…

(a.), dans la racine s d n, il y a le sens de «voile», «rideau»; ce qui met sādin au niveau de ḥād̲j̲ib, le premier désignant le gardien d’un sanctuaire, le second, le «portier» d’un palais, le «chambellan». Le ḥād̲j̲ib agit sous les ordres d’un autre, alors que le sādin agit sous ses propres ordres» ( LʿA, XVII, 69, citant Ibn Barri). Toutefois, on trouve ces deux termes juxtaposés, par exemple, chez Ibn His̲h̲ām qui dit: «Les Arabes avaient, outre la Kaʿba, des ṭawāg̲h̲īt qui étaient des sanctuaires ( buyūt: cf. La divination arabe, 132 sqq.) qu’ils vénéraient comme ils vénéraient la …

(Aḥkām al-), «décrets des astres», expression désignant l’astrologie [voir aussi Munad̲j̲d̲j̲im]. L’astrologie comprend deux branches: l’astrologie naturelle, consistant dans l’observation des influences des astres sur les éléments naturels, et l’astrologie judiciaire, consistant dans l’observation des influences des astres sur la destinée humaine. Le nom scientifique qui les désigne est l’apotélesmatique (dérivant de l’ouvrage astrologique de Ptolémée intitulé: Κλαυδίου Пτολεμαίου τῶν πρὸΣ Σύρον ἀποτελεσματικῶν, éd. F. Boll et Ae. Boer, dans Bibliotheca Teubneria…

, nom d’action de nāha «pleurer avec de grands cris, lamentations, gémissements et affliction». Ce terme est utilisé pour désigner l’action des pleureuses professionnelles qui jouèrent un grand rôle dans le cérémonial funéraire tout autour de la Méditerranée. S’il est mentionné ici, c’est parce que cet usage, considéré comme un héritage du paganisme, est interdit par le Prophète. En effet, on lui fait dire: «Trois coutumes ( ak̲h̲lāq [dans Usd al-G̲h̲āba: fīʿl]) préislamiques ne seront point conservées par les Musulmans. Ce sont: invoquer les Planètes pour obtenir la pluie ( istisḳāʾ…

, appellatif d’un personnage considéré comme l’auteur d’un certain nombre d’ouvrages et dont le nom complet serait Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Ḳays ( om. Fihrist, 311, qui ajoute: b. al-Muk̲h̲tār b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Ḏj̲art̲h̲iya b. Badniyā b. Barṭāniyā b. ʿĀlaṭiyā) al-Kasdānī ( om. Umûmî 4064) al-Ṣūfī ( ad. Fihrist et quelques mss) al-Ḳussaynī ( ad. Umûmî 4064 et Leyde, ainsi vocalisé in Umûmî, lu al-Ḳasītī ou al-Ḳusaytī par Plessner; cf. Fihrist: min ahl Ḳussīn), connu sous le nom d’Ibn Waḥs̲h̲iyya, mais dont l’existence n’est attestée jusqu’ici par aucun indice historiq…

, plus précisément al-Ḵh̲aṭṭ bi-l-Raml, nom primitif de la géomancie arabe; à l’époque islamique, raml (ou ʿilm al-raml) a prévalu. Avec l’influence croissante de l’astrologie sur les sciences occultes, c’est le terme s̲h̲akl (plur. as̲h̲kāl) «figure», qui fut utilisé (cf. infra des titres contenant les expressions as̲h̲kāl al-raml, as̲h̲kāl al-turāb, ḥulūl al-as̲h̲kāl). De s̲h̲akl dérivent «squille» (figure de géomancie) et «squiller» (pratiquer la divination par le sable; cf. G. Ferrand, dans JA, VI (1905), 195; il en est de même des sikili et des skidy désignant des figures …

(A.), rite rogatoire, pratiqué encore de nos jours (notamment en Jordanie et au Maroc) et remontant à la plus haute antiquité arabe (ʿādite, d’après Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, I, 61, abrahamique, d’après Ibn Saʿd, I/1, 22), et destiné à implorer la pluie en temps de grande sécheresse. Il devait avoir à la fois un caractère astral et magique. L’Islam primitif, contraint de le conserver en raison de sa grande popularité, tenta de lui ôter ce caractère. Un rituel précis lui fut établi, ainsi qu’à l’ istik̲h̲āra [ q.v.], autre usage issu du culte paϊen, afin que les fidèles ne succombent pas à…

(a.), terme en rapport avec nuḳāwā, nom générique désignant des plantes alcalines utilisées pour le lavage du linge et le blanchissage des tissus. Ce sont des plantes qui poussent en tiges sans feuilles; dès qu’elles se dessèchent, elles blanchissent. Elles donnent au linge une blancheur éclatante ( LA, s.v.). Le terme désigne, par analogie, un «rite de réconciliation» qui était en usage au Ḥid̲j̲āz, et auquel on recourait pour réparer des injures. Cela se faisait de la manière suivante: l’offenseur s’arrêtait sur le seuil de l’offensé, tenant un couteau dans chaque main, et disait: «al-…

, de même forme que kibriyāʾ, appartient à l’ancien arabe, avec sīmā, sīmāʾ (Ḳurʾān, XLVIII, 29 etc.; Bayḍāwī, éd. Fleischer, I, 326), dans le sens de «marque, signe, insigne» (Lane, 1476a; Ṣaḥāḥ, s.v., II, 200 de l’éd. de Būlāḳ 1282; Ḥamāsa, éd. Freytag, 696; Lisān, XV, 205). Mais le mot, comme tout mot désignant certains genres de magie, a eu une dérivation entièrement différente; dans ce sens, il dérive de amieia, à travers le mot syriaque , et signifie «signes, lettres de l’alphabet» (cf. Dozy, Suppl., I, 708b, et les références qui s’y trouvent; Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus, II, col…

(a.), du persan nayrang, nīrang, plur. nīrand̲j̲āt, nīrand̲j̲iyyāt (Ibn Sīnā, ms. Paris-GAL S I, 828), nārand̲j̲iyyāt (al-Ḏj̲ināʿī, ms. Strasbourg 4212, fol. 102b), désigne, dans les deux langues, les opérations de magie blanche, consistant en prestidigitations, trucages et contre-trucages, illusionisme et autres tours d’adresse ( ḥiyal). Un certain al-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad al-Iskandarī al-Kūs̲h̲ī al-ʿAbdarī décrit en quinze chapitres l’ensemble de ces opérations, dans un ouvrage intitulé Fī l-ḥiyal al-bābiliyya li-l-k̲h̲izāna al-kāmiliyya (ms. Bursa, Fonds Haççioǧlu…

, G̲h̲ars al-dīn Ḵh̲alīl, né au Caire (ou à Jérusalem) en 813/1410, fils d’un mamlūk du sultan burd̲j̲ite Sayf al-dīn Tatar, étudia au Caire et fit une carrière administrative brillante sous Barsbay et Čaḳmak (cf. al-Ziriklī, Aʿlām 2, III, 367). Vers 857/1453, il composa un grand ouvrage, Kas̲h̲f al-mamālik wa-bayān al-ṭuruḳ wa-l-masālik, dont seul l’abrégé, Zubdat kas̲h̲f al-mamālik , est parvenu jusqu’à nous. Ce tableau vivant et précis de l’Égypte sous les Mamlūks, dont Volney le premier a souligné l’intérêt dans l’appendice du Voyage en Égypte et en Syrie 3, éd. Dugour et Durand…

(A.), «épaule»; ʿilm al-katif ou al-aktāf désigne l’omoplatoscopie ou scapulomancie. Cet art fait partie des procédés physiognomoniques et il a une portée universelle, en ce sens qu’il permet de prévoir ce qui va se produire dans les diverses régions de la terre vers lesquelles sont dirigés les quatre côtés de l’omoplate, d’après les signes révélés par celle-ci. De ce point de vue, le ʿilm al-aktāf est à rapprocher des procédés cléromantiques du d̲j̲afr [ q.v.] et des malāḥim (cf. T. Fahd, La divination arabe, 219 sqq.). En quoi cet art consiste-t-il? Trois méthodes nous sont con…

(a.), lapidation. R-d̲j̲-m est une racine sémitique dont on trouve des dérivés dans l’Ancien Testament avec le sens de «lapider, chasser ou tuer à coups de pierres» un être abominable; rad̲j̲ma est «tas de pierres, réunion d’hommes, cris, tumulte». En arabe, la racine signifie «lapider, maudire»; rad̲j̲amun «tas de pierres» désigne aussi simplement les pierres posées sur le tombeau en dalles ou en monceaux, que le ḥadīt̲h̲ réprouve, pour conseiller la tombe au ras du sol. Sur le ḥadīt̲h̲ de ʿAbd Allāh b. Mug̲h̲fal, on discute si lā turad̲j̲d̲j̲imū ḳabrī signifie «ne construisez pas …

(a.), image, forme, silhouette, ainsi ṣūrat al-arḍ «l’image du globe», ṣūrat ḥimār «la forme d’un âne» (Muslim, Ṣalāt, trad., 115) ou visage, figure [cf. plus bas]. Taṣāwir signifie plutôt reproductions. Les mots ṣūra et taṣāwir sont entre eux comme les mots hébreux demūt et şelem. L’idée biblique d’après laquelle l’homme aurait été créé au ṣelem de Dieu ( Gin., I, 27) est très vraisemblablement passée dans le ḥadīt̲h̲. Elle apparaît dans trois passages du ḥadīt̲h̲ classique; l’exégèse est hésitante, et d’une façon générale très peu favorable à des conceptions analogu…

, Abū Saʿīd (Saʿd) Naṣr b. Yaʿḳūb, écrivain surtout connu comme auteur d’ al-Ḳādirī fī l-taʿbīr (composé en 397/1006 et dédié à al-Ḳādir bi-llāh [381-422/991-1020]), qui est le plus ancien traité onirocritique arabe authentique et une excellente synthèse de tout ce qui était connu, sur ce sujet, à l’époque de l’auteur. Ses sources sont, pour les Arabes, Ibn Sīrīn [ q.v.], au nom duquel d’innombrables interprétations sont attachées; pour les Grecs, Artémidore d’Ephèse, dont l’ Oneirocritica, traduite en arabe par Ḥunayn b. Isḥāḳ (m. 260/873; cf. Fihrist. 255, ms. A 4726 de la Bibl…

(a.) divination en général. Lā kihānata baʿd al-nubuwwa «plus de divination après le prophétat»: s’il fallait s’en tenir strictement à ce dicton fréquemment répété dans la tradition, un tel ¶ article serait mal à propos dans une Encyclopédie de l’Islam. Mais une fois établi le sens précis de ce terme et délimité le concept qu’il recouvre, le lecteur constatera qu’il est, au contraire, loin d’être superflu. Le terme en lui-même, qu’il s’agisse de l’aspect conceptuel ( kihāna) ou de l’aspect pragmatique ( kahāna), est un héritage, du moins par sa racine, de l’antiquité sémitiqu…

, être invisible dont le cri déchirant la nuit transmet le message, voix prophétique qui annonce, dans un style oraculaire, un événement futur. Déjà dans la Bible, cette voix se confond avec celle du prophète (Ez. XXI, 2, 7; Amos, VII, 16). A la veille de la vocation du fondateur de l’Islam, des voix mystérieuses annonçaient son avènement. C’étaient les voix de «quelqu’un qui appelait» ( munādī) ou «qui criait» ( ṣāʾiḥ; Ag̲h̲ānī 1, XV, 76; dans la légende de Mad̲j̲nūn, ḥātif est l’équivalent de munādī et de ṣāʾiḥ, ibid., I, 169, II, 4, I, 174; un troisième équivalent, tālī, se trouve chez al-…

, devin ( kāhin) légendaire de l’Arabie antéislamique, que la tradition met en rapport avec l’avènement de l’Islam; en réalité il s’agit d’un personnage exclusivement mythique, tel que l’autre kāhin en compagnie duquel il paraît dans la plupart des récits, S̲h̲iḳḳ al-Ṣaʿbī, qui n’est autre chose que l’humanisation d’un monstre démoniaque à l’aspect d’un homme coupé par moitié ( s̲h̲iḳḳ al-insān voir Van Vloten, WZKM, VII (1893), 180-1). Saṭīḥ, dont le nom signifie «aplati par terre et incapable de se lever à cause de la faiblesse de ses membres» ( Lisān, III, 312), est décrit comme u…

, divinité safaϊtique, connue également dans les inscriptions nabaṭéennes et palmyréniennes (G. Ryckmans, Les religions arabes préislamiques, 2e éd., Louvain 1953/ Bibliothèque du Muséon, 26 = Quillet, Histoire Générale des Religions, 2e éd., Paris 1960, II, 199-228), inconnue dans le panthéon de l’Arabie Centrale. Mais le théophore arabe de S̲h̲ayʿ-Allāh, probablement une dépaganisation de ce nom divin, qu’on trouve dans les lexiques (cf. TA, V, 398, 1. 29) pourrait l’expliquer. En effet, s̲h̲ayʿ désigne le lionceau ou même le lion; d’où S̲h̲ayʿ-Allāh est comparabl…

, nom de l’une des trois divinités les plus vénérées du panthéon arabe pré-islamique, les deux autres étant Manāt [ q.v.] et al-ʿUzzā [ q.v.]. L’attachement profond qu’avaient les T̲h̲aḳīf pour al-Lāt, les Aws et Ḵh̲azrad̲j̲ pour Manāt et les Ḳurays̲h̲ pour al-ʿUzzā constitua l’obstacle majeur à l’implantation pacifique de l’Islam dans les régions du Ḥid̲j̲āz. Cet obstacle était si difficile à vaincre que le Prophète semble avoir, pour un bref moment, consenti à laisser subsister le culte de ces trois divinités appelées al-g̲h̲arānīḳ al-ʿulā (voir T. Fahd, Panthéon, 88-90, mais cf. al-…

, (a.), interprétation des songes, également nommée tafsīr al-aḥlām. Taʿbīr, maṣdar de ʿabbara, «exprimer, éclaircir», dérive de la racine ʿ- b-r commune à l’akkadien, l’araméen, l’hébreu et l’arabe. Elle exprime le passage d’un endroit à l’autre, d’un sens à l’autre, alors que tafsīr, maṣdar de fassara, équivalent de awwala (restituer son sens premier à un mot, une phrase ou un rêve), et qui signifie «commenter, expliciter», dérive de l’akkadien pašāru, de l’araméen pašar et du syriaque fšar «expliquer, interpréter, résoudre». Les deux racines se retrouvent dans le Ḳur…

, ṭīra et zad̲j̲r se confondent pour se compléter et exprimer adéquatement la notion de l’ omen et de l’οìωνóΣ. Le faʾl, terme propre à l’arabe et équivalent de l’hébreu neḥas̲h̲īm et du syriaque neḥs̲h̲ē, désignait, à l’origine, l’ omen naturel, le clédonisme. Il revêt des formes très variées, allant du simple éternûment (al-Ibs̲h̲īhī, Mustaṭraf, trad. Rat, II, 182), de certaines particularités des personnes et des choses que l’on rencontre (al-Nuwayrī, Nihāya, 133 sqq., trad. dans Arabica, VIII/1 (1961), 34-7) jusqu’à l’interprétation des noms des personnes et des cho…

(a.), de la racine s-ʿ-y utilisée 30 fois dans le Ḳurʾān dans diverses acceptions, notamment : travailler, s’appliquer, dénoncer, chercher à gagner sa subsistance, courir après quelque chose, etc. Ce qui nous intéresse ici c’est la course que fait le pèlerin entre al-Ṣafā et al-Marwa, deux collines situées au Sud et au Nord-ouest de la Kaʿba, reliées par un masʿā (parcours) qu’emprunte le pèlerin, après avoir accompli la septuple déambulation autour de la Kaʿba, à l’arrivée et au départ. Cette course, appelée saʿy, est aussi septuple : on part vers Marwa qui se trouve à une d…

pulsations spontanées, tressaillements ou convulsions qui se produisent dans toutes les parties du corps, en particulier dans les membres, les paupières, les sourcils et qui fournissent ¶ des omens dont l’interprétation divinatoire forme le ʿilm al-ik̲h̲tilād̲j̲ ou palmomancie. La palmomancie appartient aux procédés physiognomoniques et, comme ces derniers, elle intervenait dans le diagnostic médical chez les médecins de l’antiquité classique dont Galien, lequel établit une distinction entre « palpitation » et « tremblement, frission, convulsion ». En tant que pratique …

(a.), lit. «l’ascendant». 1. En astronomie. Al-ṭāliʿ est le point de l’écliptique qui s’élève au-dessus de l’horizon à un moment donné, appelé l’ascendant (et. quelquefois, par erreur, horoscope); ¶ voir le diagramme dans Maṭāliʿ. La détermination de l’ascendant est nécessaire en astrologie mathématique [voir Nud̲j̲um, Ahkam al-] afin de pouvoir calculer les positions instantanées des 12 maisons astrologiques ( al-buyūt); une fois celles-ci déterminées, on peut chercher dans quelles maisons sont situés le soleil, la lune et les cinq planètes visibles à …

1. S̲h̲iḳḳ est le nom de deux devins ayant vécu un peu avant les origines de l’Islām. D’après l’Abrégé des Merveilles S̲h̲iḳḳ l’ancien est le premier devin chez les Arabes ʿĀriba. C’est un personnage très fabuleux. Comme le Cyclope, il n’avait qu’un œil au milieu du front, ou un feu qui lui fendait le front en deux ( s̲h̲aḳḳa, fendre). Il est confondu aussi avec le Dad̲j̲d̲j̲āl, l’Antéchrist, ou tout au moins le Dad̲j̲d̲j̲āl est de sa famille. Il aurait vécu enchaîné sur un roc, dans une île où se produisaient des phénomènes volcaniques. — Le second S̲…

, nom arabe de l’arc-en-ciel, formé sur Ḳaws ( Ḳws dans les inscriptions de Jordanie; Ḳaws̲h̲ dans les inscriptions de Tiglath-Pilesser, d’Esarhaddon et d’Assurpanipal; Ḳûsu, dans les inscriptions babyloniennes de l’époque de Darius et d’Artaxerxès Ier; Ḳûsu, Ḳûs̲h̲u, Ḳîs̲h̲i, Ḳūs̲h̲i, dans l’Ancien Testament; Kos/Kōs/ Kοξε, chez les Nabatéens; Ḳaws, Ḳays, en Arabie), divinité édomite largement connue au cours du Ier millénaire avant notre ère et vénérée ensuite par les Nabaṭéens (cf. Vriezen, The Edomitic deity Qaus, 330 sqq.). C’est un dieu de la guerre, symbolisé pa…

(a.) nom dérivé de y s r «être facile, aisé», racine dont dérive, par antiphrase, un qualificatif de la main gauche, al-yusrā, avec laquelle le ḥurḍa (comp. l’héb. ḥ r ṣ et l’accadien ḫarāšu «décider, fixer, déterminer»), l’équivalent du sādin dans l’ istiḳsām [ q.v.], tirait les flèches une à une. D’où l’on pourrait rendre le terme maysir par «le jeu du gaucher», sans qu’il soit possible d’en expliquer le présent état morphologique. Le jeu consistait à partager une bête égorgée en dix parts sur lesquelles on jouait: ce sont les deux gigots, les deux cuisses, les deu…

, divinité arabe dont le culte fut développé à la Mekke par le Ḵh̲uzāʿite ʿAmr b. Luḥayy [ q.v.], dans la première moitié du IIIe siècle. Représentée d’abord par un béyle comme la plupart des autres divinités arabes, elle fut ensuite personnifiée, sous des traits humains, par une statue de cornaline, amputée du bras droit (comp. Juges III, 15, XX, 16) que les Ḳurays̲h̲ites auraient remplacé par un bras en or (al-Azraḳī, Ak̲h̲bār Mak̲ka, éd. Wüstenfeld, Leipzig 1858, 74). C’est d’une ville d’eaux thermales ( ḥamma) qu’elle aurait été apportée au Ḥid̲j̲āz. Guéri d’une maladie grav…

, le soleil. 1. Chez les Arabes préislamiques. Divinité adorée dans le monde sémitique, particulièrement en Assyro-Babylonie (cf. ses attributs dans Knut Tallqvist, Akkadische Götterepitheta, Helsinki 1938, 453 sqq.) et en Arabie du Sud, où les pluriels syncopés s̲h̲ums (pour s̲h̲umūs, donné par Yāqūt éd. Dār Ṣādir, III, 362), ʾshms et le duel shmsy (G. Ryckmans, Les noms propres sud-sémitiques, I-III, Louvain 1934-5, ¶ I, 33; A. Jamme, Le panthéon sud-arabe préislamique d’après les sources épigraphiques, dans Le Muséon 60/1947, 101 sqq.) désignent les divinités titulaire…