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, D̲j̲abal . a limestone escarpment running from the Libyan Mediterranean coast slightly to the west of the Tripolitanian town of al-K̲h̲ums in a west-south-western direction to Nalut ( Kharīṭa al-D̲j̲amāhiriyya al-ʿArabiyya al-Lībiyya al-S̲h̲aʿbiyya al-Is̲h̲tirākiyya , Beirut, n.d.). Thereafter the highlands break up as a set of lower tablelands lying on an axis oriented to the north-west, eventually merging into the Monts des Ksour. The D̲j̲abal is an important and complex geological feature of North Afric…

, a town in the urban district ( baladiyya ) of the same name in southern Libya and in the province of Fezzān or Fazzān [ q.v.]. The town is situated in lat. 25° 55′ 55″N. and long. 14° 7′ 5″ E. The district includes the sub-districts of Agar ʿAtaba, al-G̲h̲atrūn. Murzuḳ, Trāg̲h̲an, Umm al-Arānib and Zuwayla. In antiquity, Murzuḳ was within the territory of the Garamantes, whose centre Garama was 60 miles/100 km northeast of Murzuḳ (see C.M. Daniels, The Garamantes of southern Libya, Stoughton, Wise. 1970). It has always been on the important trans-Saharan caravan route linking…

(a. “uplands”), conventionally defined as the plateau region of the Arabian peninsula lying to the east of the Red Sea lowlands (al-Tihāma [ q.v.]) and the mountain barrier running down through the western side of the peninsula (al-Ḥid̲j̲āz [ q.v.]). 1. Geography and habitat. ¶ The exact application of this originally topographical conception is very differently understood, and sometimes it means more generally the elevated country above the coastal plain or the extensive country, the upper part of which is formed by the Tihāma and the Yam…

(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…

i.—Geography The geological background: The alignments of Iran’s principal topographie features, represented by the Kūhhā-yi Alburz and the Zagros Chain, are west to east and north-west to south-east, respectively. In broad context, the Alburz is a continuation of the European Alpine structures, while the Zagros chain has been linked through Cyprus with the Dinaric Alps (Fisher, 1956). The structure of the mountain rim of the country has been influenced strongly by tectonic movements which have n…