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, name of a family of high-officials and revenue officers, originating from ʿIrāḳ, who held important positions in Egypt and Syria between 266/879 and 335/946. The nisba is derived from a village Mād̲h̲arāya, in the neighbourhood of Wāsiṭ (see al-Samʿānī, Kitāb al-Ansāb , fol. 499a; Yāḳūt, Muʿd̲j̲am , iv, 381). Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Mād̲h̲arāʾī with the nickname al-Aṭras̲h̲ ("the partially deaf one", see Lane, Lexicon , s.v.), was given the control of finances of Egypt and Syria in 266/879 by Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn, and so became the founde…

(Banū Ḥamawiya) were originally an Iranian family of ṣūfīs and S̲h̲āfīʿī fuḳahā , a branch of whom emigrated to Syria and became influential under the later Ayyūbid kings, al-Malik al-Kāmil (615-35/1218-38) and his sons. The member of the clan earliest known, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Ḥamawiya (Pers. form Ḥamawayh) al-Ḏj̲uwaynī, died in 530/1135-6, was a celebrated ṣūfī, faḳīh and author of several works on mysticism (al-Samʿāni; Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, xi, 30; Abu ’l-Farad̲j̲ Ibn al-Ḏj̲awzī, al-Muntaẓam , Ḥaydarābād, x, 63-4; Yāḳūt, ii, 425; Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ī …

, a collection of poetry or prose [see ʿarabiyya ; persian literature ; turkish literature ; urdū literature and s̲h̲iʿr ], a register, or an office. Sources differ about linguistic roots. Some ascribe to it a Persian origin from dev , ‘mad’ or ‘devil’, to describe secretaries. Others consider it Arabic from dawwana , to collect or to register, thus meaning a collection of records or sheets. (See Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Ṣubḥ , i, 90; LA, xvii, 23-4; Ṣūlī, Adab al-kuttāb , 187; Māwardī, al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyya , 175; D̲j̲ahs̲h̲iyārī, Wuzarāʾ , ¶ 16-17; cf. Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ ,…

(the nisba varies between al-Bag̲h̲dādī , al-Ḵh̲urāsāni and al-Anṣārī ), grammarian, Kurʾānic scholar and lawyer, was born at Harāt about 154/770, his father, of Byzantine descent, being a mawlā of the tribe of Azd. He studied first in his native town, and in his early twenties (about 179/795) went to Kūfa, Baṣra and Bag̲h̲dād where he completed his studies in grammar, ḳirāʾāt , ḥadīt̲h̲ and fiḳh . In none of these fields did he adhere to one school or group, but chose a middle position in an eclectic way. Returning home he became tutor in two influential fami…

( al-Malik ), title of two Ayyūbid princes. 1) al-Malik al-Kāmil Nāṣir al-Dīn Abu ’l-Maʿālī Muḥammad , the eldest son of al-ʿĀdil [ q.v.] Abū Bakr b. Ayyūb, born 573/1177 or 576/1180. In 595/1199 he left the Ḏj̲azīra, where he had begun his political career as his father’s representative (from 587/1191), to come to the aid of al-ʿĀdil at Damascus in his struggle against al-Afḍal b. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn. After the latter’s defeat, father and son marched into Egypt, entering Cairo on 22 Ramaḍān 596/6 July 1200. Al-ʿĀdil was pro…

, the name of two brothers, Abu ’l-Ḥasan Aḥmad and Abū Isḥāḳ (Abū Yusr) Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Mudabbir, who played an important part as high officials, courtiers and men of letters as well as poets at Sāmarrā and in Egypt and Syria during the middle of the 3rd/9th century. The family seems to have been of Persian origin; it is not mentioned which of the two brothers was the elder. (1) Abu ’l-Ḥasan (d. 270/883 or 271/884) directed the dīwān al-diays̲h̲ in the reign of the caliph al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ (227/842-232/847); during the first years of al-M…