Search

b. S̲h̲āhak , mawlā of the ʿAbbāsids, who seems to have defended their cause with talent and perseverence, but of whose life very few precise details are known. His father, al-Sindi b. S̲h̲āhak, whose origins are obscure, was probably a former slave from Sind who had risen to hold important offices; he is said to have been ḳāḍī (Ibn Ḳutayba, ʿUyūn , i, 70) and governor ( wālī ) in Syria (al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, Ḥayawān , v, 393), but his main role seems to have been that of a police officer giving especial allegiance to Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd, who entrusted him…

al-Bāhilī , Abū ʿAlī , with the nicknames As̲h̲ḳar and, more particularly, al-K̲h̲alīʿ “the Debauched”, a Baṣra poet who spent almost the whole of his life in the entourage of the ʿAbbāsid caliphs and who can be regarded as the perfect type of court poet, at least at a court dominated by the taste for pleasure, indeed for debauchery. His family, which originated in K̲h̲urāsān, had for a long time been connected with the ¶ mawālī of the Bāhila when Ḥusayn was born, probably in the 150’s, since he could remember an incident that occurred in 160/775. With his childhood friend Abū Nuwās [ q.v.] he stu…

(or simply al-Iflīlī ), Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad b. Zakariyyāʾ al-Zuhrī , philologian, teacher and man of ¶ letters, born in Cordova in 352/963 of a family from al-Iflīl, in Syria(?). After receiving a classical education, he acquired the reputation of a great connoisseur of Arabic poetry, grammar and g̲h̲arīb [ q.v.]; though he was ignorant, it is said, of prosody, he prided himself on his poetry, but al-Ḥid̲j̲ārī ( apud Ibn Saʿīd, Mug̲h̲rib , 73) criticizes his verse and prose compositions as too lifeless, and will not allow more than two verses of his to be acceptable. To judge by …

, al-Ḥusayn b. Muṭayr b. Mukammil al-Asadī , Arabic poet of the 2nd/8th century. A mawlā of the Banū Asad (following the manumission or the mukātaba [ q.v.] of his grandfather Mukammil), he was a native of al-T̲h̲aʿlabiyya [ q.v.]; from there he seems to have travelled around in the Arabian peninsula and to have gone in particular to Medina, where he appears on one occasion with the governor of the town; he may even have had the opportunity of reciting poems before al-Walīd b. Yazīd; but his fortune dates from his stay in the Yemen, where he entered the entourage of Maʿn b. Zāʾida [ q.v.], governor …

(a.), plural substantive (sing manḳaba ) featuring in the titles of a quite considerable number of biographical works of a laudatory nature, which have eventually become a part of hagiographical literature in Arabic, in Persian and in Turkish. To define this term, the lexicographers make it a synonym of ak̲h̲lāḳ , taken in the sense of “natural dispositions (good or bad), innate qualities, character”, and associate it with naḳība , explained by nafs “soul”, k̲h̲alīḳa or ṭabiʿa , likewise signifying “trait of character, disposition”, but also with nafād̲h̲ al-raʾy …

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥ. b. Sallām , traditionist and philologist of the Baṣra school. He was a mawlā of Ḳudāma b. Maẓʿūn al-D̲j̲umaḥī and was born at Baṣra in 139/756. It was in his native town that he began the traditional studies—religious sciences and adab in general— particularly with his father, who was very well versed in poetry and lexicography. He was in contact, at Baṣra and also at Bag̲h̲dād, with a considerable number of the scholars of the period, among them the great names of Arabic literature, al-Aṣmaʿī Ab…

(a.), “shame, opprobrium, dishonour”, has undergone in North Africa a semantic evolution ¶ analogous to that of the root d̲h̲.m.m . of classical Arabic, arriving at a sense close to that of d̲h̲imma [ q.v.], that is to say, of “protection”, with nuances which should be taken into account. A formula such as ʿārī ʿalayk/ʿalīk , “my shame upon you”, contains visibly a threat against the person to whom it is addressed and means in effect “the shame shall be yours if you do not grant my request” (cf. W. Marçais, Textes arabes de Takroûna , Paris 1925, 200, 215-6, where th…

, Abu ’l-Walīd, Arab poet of the end of the 2nd/8th century. An orphan, he settled at an early age at Baṣra with his mother, and, when he showed signs of talent, the Ḳaysites of the town who, since the death of Bas̲h̲s̲h̲ār b. Burd (a mawlā of the Banū ʿUḳayl) had not possessed any poet of eminence, adopted him and fabricated for him a Ḳaysite genealogy. His formative period at an end, he went to al-Raḳḳa to Ḏj̲aʿfar b. Yaḥyā al-Barmakī, who presented him to al-Ras̲h̲īd, and, from then on, he became the panegyrist of t…

or Libn (coll.; singular labina , libna ) designates in Arabic the unfired brick whose use in building dates back to the earliest antiquity; to speak only of the present domain of Islam, some traces have survived above-ground on the Iranian plateau, in Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt, where this material was used in the Pharaonic period to build palaces and royal tombs as well as poor hovels; it is certain that it was also in use in the Arabian peninsula and North Africa. The hog-backed bricks of Mesopotamia appear to be no longer used, and the labina generally has a geometric, fairly reg…

, ʿAbd al-Masīḥ b. ʿAmr b. Ḳays b. Ḥayyān b. Buḳayla al-G̲h̲assānī , legendary character who is supposed to have lived for 350 years (only 320 according to al-Ibs̲h̲īhī, Mustaṭraf , ii, 44) and thus takes his place among the muʿammarūn [ q.v.]. The name of his ancestor, who is credited with the construction of al-Ḳaṣr al-abyaḍ at al-Ḥīra, is often corrupted to Nufayla, but the correct reading is furnished by the tradition according to which this Buḳayla owed his surname to a green silk garment, which was the reason for his nickname of “little cabbage”. It is possible that Ibn Buḳayla was a…

al-Aṣg̲h̲ar, Abu ’l-Ḥad̲j̲nāʾ (not to be confused with Nuṣayb b. Rabāḥ [ q.v.], who is sometimes given the kunya of Abu ’l-Had̲j̲nāʾ), a negro poet of the Arabic language originally from Yamāma. He is described as mawlā ’l-Mahdī to distinguish him from his homonym, because the future ʿAbbāsid caliph had bought him and freed him during the reign of al-Manṣūr (136-58/754-75). It was he who gave him his kunya and married him to a female slave named D̲j̲aʿfara. Once established on the throne (158/775), al-Mahdī, whose companion he had become, offered him property in…

(a.), a noun of place from the verb ḥalla , which means notably “to untie (a knot, luggage, etc.)”, and by extension, “to make a halt”, whence the meaning of “a place where one makes a halt, where one settles (for a longer or shorter time)”. This term constitutes the first element of names of towns or villages in Egypt, where a hundred places were designated by an expression formed from Mahalla followed by an adjective or a proper noun; ʿAlī Pas̲h̲a Mubārak cites more than thirty of them in al-K̲h̲iṭaṭ al-d̲j̲adīda (xv, 21 ff.), apart from the city of al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā [ q.v.]. Maḥalla …

, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz , Indo-Muslim Arabic scholar, known by the name Memon . His family probably came originally from Maymana [ q.v.], but he was born at Rād̲j̲(a)kūt (Kāt́hiyāwāŕ) in 1888 and died at Karachi on 27 October 1978. The major part of his teaching career was undertaken at the Muslim University of ʿAlīgaŕh, where he was Reader from 1924 to 1942, then Professor until his retirement in 1950; previously, having graduated in Arabic and Persian in 1909, he was Lecturer in Arabic, from 1913 onward, at the Edward College of Pes̲h̲āwar…

, abū ʿabd al-raḥmān , celebrated traditionist and exegete of Cordova, probably of Christian origin, born in 201/817, died In 276/889. Like many Spanish Muslims, he visited the principal cities of the Orient, where he frequented the society of representatives of various mad̲h̲āhib , in particular Ibn Ḥanbal; on his return to Cordova, he displayed such independence in doctrinal matters ¶ (some count him however as a S̲h̲āfiʿī and he is Tegarded as having introduced the Ẓāhirī doctrines into Spain) and opposition to taḳlīd , that he soon found himself regarded with hostility by the Mālikī fu…

, or simply Bint al-K̲h̲uss , name by which is known a woman of the pre-Islamic era, whose eloquence, quickness of repartee and perspicacity became legendary. According to al-S̲h̲iblī ( Ākām al-murd̲j̲ān , Cairo 1326, 71), the word k̲h̲uss denotes the son of a man and of a d̲j̲inniyya (while ʿamlūḳ is applied to the offspring of a d̲j̲inn and a woman), and thus we perceive the origin of the legend which arose probably from the belief of the intervention of d̲j̲inns in the generation of human beings endowed with exceptional gifts. In spite of affirmations such as that of LA (s.v.) in respect of…

b. Rabīʿa b. ʿAmr b. ʿĀmir b. Şaʿṣaʿa al-ʿĀmirī , muk̲h̲aḍram poet who is said to have attacked Ḳurays̲h̲ because his father had been killed in the War of Fid̲j̲ār [ q.v.] ; it is possible that he himself took part in this struggle, and it is precisely in the chapter devoted to this war that the Ag̲h̲ānī (ed. Beirut, xxii, 70 ff., cf. iii, 219) cites him at greatest length, since several pieces of his are given there, one of them considered as a ḳaṣīda munṣifa (see Ch. Pellat, in Mélanges Marcel Cohen , 279-80), but he boasts there of a victory of the Hawāzin over Ḳ…

, Abu ’l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān b. Mūsā b. Sālim al-Ḥimyarī al-Balansī , often known as Ibn Sālim al-Kalāʿī , a Mālikī scholar, historian, orator and poet from al-Andalus who traced back his genealogy to the Ḥimyarite family of D̲h̲u ’l-Kalāʿ. Born in Ramaḍān 565/May-June 1170, in the neighbourhood of Murcia, he was still a child when his family moved to Valencia, where he began his studies, pursuing them in other Spanish cities, especially Cordoba. A pupil of Ibn Maḍāʿ [ q.v.], Ibn Ḥubays̲h̲, Ibn Zarḳūn and a number of other celebrated teachers, he discharged the office of k̲h̲aṭīb …

, Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm (= Abū S̲h̲ayba) b. ʿUt̲h̲mān al-ʿAbsī al-Kūfī , ʿIrāḳī traditionist and historian (159-235/775-849) who came of a family of religious scholars; his grandfather Abū S̲h̲ayba was already ḳāḍī of Wāsiṭ, but he is described as ḍaʿīf (Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar, Lisān al-Mīzān , vi, 395). Abū Bakr studied ¶ at al-Ruṣāfa, travelled “in search of learning” and died at Kūfa after having resided at Bag̲h̲dād. He had many pupils, among them Ibn Mād̲j̲a [ q.v.], and wrote several works, which are listed in the Fihrist : K. al-Taʾrīk̲h̲ , K. al-Fitan , K. Ṣiffīn , K. al-Ḏj̲am…

(Ar.; also vocalised bak̲h̲l , bak̲h̲al , buk̲h̲ul ) and bak̲h̲īl (pl. buk̲h̲alāʾ less often bāk̲h̲il , pl. buk̲h̲k̲h̲āl ) mean respectively ‘avarice’ and ‘avaricious, miserly’. Just as in the ancient poems the virtue of generosity is constantly sung, so avarice furnishes a theme for satire which is widely exploited by the poets, though it seems that this fault, at least in its most sordid forms, was scarcely widespread among the ancient Arabs. It is however a fact that it is castigated in a …

“the two locusts”, the name given to two slave singing girls who, according to legend, lived in the time of the people of ʿĀd [ q.v.] and belonged to a certain Muʿāwiya b. Bakr al-ʿImlāḳī (see al-Ṭabarī, i, 235-6 and al-Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲ ., index). When the delegates of the people of ʿĀd came to make the pilgrimage to Mecca in order to obtain rain, the two girls so charmed them that Muʿāwiya had to make up some verses to recall them to the object of their mission; but they forgot in the end to make the ṭawāf , and it was This failure of duty which led to the destructio…