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«la mer des Grecs», ou al-Baḥr al-Rūmī «la mer Grecque», c’est-à-dire la Méditerranée, les deux noms étant employés de bonne heure pour désigner surtout la Méditerranée orientale où l’on pouvait rencontrer des flottes byzantines. Au fur et à mesure que les conquêtes musulmanes s’étendirent, ces noms furent appliqués à la Méditerranée tout entière, pour laquelle on emploie encore l’expression Baḥr al-Rūm. La Méditerranée était également appelée al-Baḥr al-S̲h̲āmī ou Baḥr al-S̲h̲ām «la mer de Syrie», et Baḥr al-Mag̲h̲rib «la mer de l’Ouest». La mer ainsi diversement nommée comm…

, ‘the Sea of the Greeks’, or al-baḥr al-rūmī , ‘the Greek Sea’, i.e. the Mediterranean, both names being in use from an early date to denote especially the E. Mediterranean, where Byzantine fleets were liable to be encountered. As ¶ the Muslim conquests extended, these names were applied to the whole Mediterranean, for which Baḥr al-Rūm is still in use. The Mediterranean was also called al-Baḥr al-S̲h̲āmī, or Baḥr al-S̲h̲ām, ‘the Sea of Syria’, and Baḥr al-Mag̲h̲rib, ‘the Sea of the West’. The sea thus variously named began, according to Arabic geographers, considerably to th…

Leader of an Arab invasion of the lower Euphrates region in which the Savād of Iraq was ravaged, in about A.D. 589, toward the end of the reign of Hormozd IV. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 1, pp. 79 ʿABBĀS AḤVAL, leader with ʿAmr al-Azraq (Masʿūdī: al-Afvah) of an Arab invasion of the lower Euphrates region in which the Savād of Iraq was ravaged, about A.D. 589, toward the end of the reign of Hormozd IV. This event is represented by some ancient historians as part of a coalition of the enemies of Iran. Th…

Rebel in western Iran in 744-47. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 2, pp. 183-184 ʿABDALLĀH B. MOʿĀVĪA B. ʿABDALLĀH B. JAʿFAR AL-ṬAYYĀR B. ABŪ ṬĀLEB, a Talebid rebel in western Iran in 127-29/744-47. Of his birth and early life the sources tell us only that he was of noble H āšemī descent on both sides. His grandfather, ʿAbdallāh b. Jaʿfar, a courtier of Moʿāvīa I, lost favor under ʿAbd-al-Malek and died, apparently in straightened circumstances, in 80/699-700 at Medina. The grandson m…

Arab military leader, governor of Khorasan (d. 691-92). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 2, pp. 181-182 ʿABDALLĀH B. ḴĀZEM B. ẒABYĀN B. AL-ṢALT AL-SOLAMĪ, ABŪ ṢĀLEḤ, Arab military leader, governor of Khorasan, partisan of ʿAbdallāh b. al-Zobayr, d. 72/691-92. His adventurous life illustrates the possibilities open during the Arab conquests to men with the requisite qualities, irrespective of birth. Ebn Ḵāzem was apparently the son of a black mother whose name is variously given: ʿAǰla (Ebn Qotayba, Ketāb al-maʿāref, ed. F. Wüstenfeld, Göttingen,…

Governor of Khorasan, executed in 142/759. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 2, pp. 118-119 ʿABD-AL -JABBĀR B. ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN AL- AZDĪ, governor of Khorasan, executed in 142/759. An ʿAbbasid partisan, he was in command at Ṭūs in 130/748. Under the caliphs Saffāḥ and Manṣūr, he served as chief of police ( ṣāḥeb al-šorṭa); he vacated that office in favor of his brother ʿOmar when Manṣūr appointed him governor of Khorasan in 140/758. Soon after his arrival there (Rabīʿ I, 141/July, 758), ʿAbd-al-Jabbār reported ʿAlid activ…

AL-AʿSAR (“the Left-handed”), a noted singer at the ʿAbbasid court under Hārūn al-Rašīd and his successors, ca. 184-230/800-54. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 8, pp. 804 ʿALAWAYH (or in Ṭabarī, III, p. 1149) AL- AʿSAR (“the Left-handed”), ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALI B. ʿABDALLĀH B. SAYF, a noted singer at the ʿAbbasid court under Hārūn al-Rašīd and his successors, ca. 184-230/800-54. His grandfather, a captive from Soḡd, had been an Omayyad freedman ( mawlā). ʿAlawayh was a pupil of Ebrāhīm al-Mawṣelī and is often mentioned with the latter’s son,…

a freedman of Banū Ḥamdān, regarded as the first ʿAbbasid propagandist in Khorasan. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 3, pp. 272 ABŪ ʿEKREMA ZĪĀD B. DERHAM AL-SARRĀJ, otherwise known as ABŪ MOḤAMMAD AL-ṢĀDEQ, a freedman of Banū Ḥamdān, regarded as the first ʿAbbasid propagandist in Khorasan (Madāʾenī quoted by Ṭabarī, II, p. 1501). His activity there in the ʿAbbasid cause began shortly after 100/718-19. Earlier Abū ʿEkrema had been a supporter of Abū Hāšem ʿAbdallāh b. Moḥammad b. al-Ḥanafīy…

the name usually given to Abu Noʿmān Ebrāhim b. Mālek al-Aštar b. al-Hāreṯ al-Naḵaʿi (i.e., of al-Naḵaʿ, a branch of the South Arabian Maḏḥej tribal group), Arab chief and Shiʿite military leader (d. at Maskin on the Tigris, in Jomādā I 72/September-October 691). EBN AŠTAR, the name usually given to Abu Noʿmān Ebrāhim b. Mālek al-Aštar b. al-Hāreṯ al-Naḵaʿi (i.e., of al-Naḵaʿ, a branch of the South Arabian Maḏḥej tribal group), Arab chief and Shiʿite military leader (d. at Maskin on the Tigris, in Jomādā I 72/September-October 691). His f…

b. ʿAlī b. Marzbān Ṭabīb Marzbānī (d. Tostar, February-March 1006), administrative official under the Buyids. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 39 EBN MARZOBĀN (Marzbān), ABŪ AḤMAD ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN. b. ʿAlī b. Marzbān Ṭabīb Marzbānī (d. Tostar, Jomādā I 396/February-March 1006), administrative official under the Buyids. Ebn al-Qefṭī and Ebn al-Aṯīr, the only two sources providing scanty information on Ebn Marzobān, consider him a descendent of a family originally based in Isfahan. He appears, however, to ha…

poet, man of letters, musician, wit, and bon vivant at the court of several ʿAbbasid caliphs, hence sometimes called al-Nadīm. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 641 AḤMAD B. JAʿFAR B. MŪSĀ B. YAḤYĀ B. ḴĀLED B. BARMAK, ABU’L-ḤASAN, poet, man of letters, musician, wit, and bon vivant at the court of several ʿAbbasid caliphs, hence sometimes called al-Nadīm (“the boon-companion”); born in 224/839, he lived to a great age and died in Šaʿbān 324 or 326/July, 936, or June, 938. The laqab or nickname Jaḥẓa by which he was usually known was given to hi…

a Persian noble family prominent at Baghdad in the 5th/11th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 761-762 ĀL-E MĀKŪLĀ, a Persian noble family prominent at Baghdad in the 5th/11th century, including: 1. Abū Saʿd (or Saʿīd) ʿAbd-al-Wāḥed b. Aḥmad b. Jaʿfar b. Mākūlā, vizier to the Buyid Jalāl-al-dawla, ruler of Baṣra, from whom Abū Saʿd received the name ʿAlam-al-dīn—the second man in Islam to have a laqab employing “dīn”; the father of Jalāl-al-dawla, Bahāʾ-al-dawla, was the first (Rokn-al-dīn). After the failure of Jalāl-al-…