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[English edition] اسم في صيغة الجمع (مفرده منقبة)، يظهر في عناوين عدد هام من التراجم ذات الطابع المدحيّ والتي يبدو أنّها أصبحت تمثّل جزءًا من أدب السيرة في اللغة العربيّة والفارسيّة والتركيّة. وأصحاب المعاجم في تعريفهم لهذا اللفظ يجعلون منه مرادفا للأخلاق بمعنى «استعدادات طبيعيّة وخصال فطريّة ومزاج» ويجمعون بينه وبين لفظ نقيبة بمعنى نفس وخليقة أو طبيعة وكذلك بمعنى «سمة وطبع واستعداد فطري» ولكنهم يجمعون أيضاً بينه وبين نفاذ الرأي بطريقة تصبح معها العلاقة بالجذر نـ.قَـ.ب الذي يعبّر بشكل خاص عن المعنى الحسّي لثَقب (الجدارَ، مثلاً) وكذلك …

(a.), a name given to a poem whose rhyme is constituted by an alif maḳṣūra (). According to al-Masʿūdī ( Murūd̲j̲ , viii, 307 = § 3462), the first author of a piece of this type was the S̲h̲īʿī Naṣr b. Nuṣayr al-Ḥulwānī [ q.v.], who preceded the most famous versifier in this field, Ibn Durayd (died 321/933 [ q.v.]. The author of the Murūd̲j̲ also cites someone called Ibn Warḳāʾ (unidentified) who had composed a maḳṣūra on that of Ibn Durayd, and declares that the latter had often been imitated ¶ ( ʿāraḍahā … d̲j̲amāʿa min al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ ; viii, 305 3461), but he only nam…

, one of the two terms used by the Arabs to denote the Persians, the other being al-ʿAd̲j̲am [ q.v.]. In the following lines we shall attempt to show in precisely what way the Arabs were acquainted with the Persians and their civilization; for other aspects, see īrān . From remotest antiquity, the Arabian peninsula had maintained relations with Persia; shortly before Islam, these connexions were established, in the north-east, through the Lak̲h̲mids [ q.v.] of al-Ḥīra, and, in the south, through the medium of the Yemen, a vassal of Persia, and the Abnāʾ [ q.v.] who were settled in the cou…

, Abū Yaḥyā Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh (= Kunāsa ) b. ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Māzinī al-Asadī , poet, philologist and rāwī of the ʿAbbāsid period. Born at Kūfa in 123/741, he studied in his native town poetry, ḥadīt̲h̲ and the other traditional sciences under the most distinguished members of the Banū Asad and became the transmitter of the works of several poets, among whom the most famous was al-Kumayt [ q.v.]. He also transmitted a certain number of ḥadīt̲h̲s to such important traditionists as al-Aʿmas̲h̲ [ q.v.] and Sufyān al-T̲h̲awrī [ q.v.]. Although he lived at Bag̲h̲dād he does not seem t…

b. d̲h̲irrīḥ ( d̲h̲arīḥ ) b. saʿd al-ḍubaʿī , pre-Islamic Arab poet of the Bakrite tribe of Ḳays b. T̲h̲aʿlaba. The only biographical details we possess concern bis disputes with his uncle Mart̲h̲ad b. Saʿd, whose wife had tried to seduce him, and his journey to Byzantium with Imru ’l-Ḳays [ q.v.]. According to Ibn Ḳutayba ( S̲h̲iʿr , 45), he lived in the entourage of Ḥud̲j̲r, father of Imru ’l-Ḳays, but according to the Ag̲h̲ānī (xvi, 165-6), the two poets met when ʿAmr had already reached an advanced age, and ʿAmr died in Byzantine territory (be…

(a.; pl. k̲h̲uyūs̲h̲ , ak̲h̲yās̲h̲ , n. of unity, k̲h̲ays̲h̲a ), a coarse, loose linen made with flax of poor quality and used in the manufacture of sacks, wrappings and rudimentary tents. The Arabic dictionaries only mention, in its literal sense, this meaning; Dozy ( Suppl., s.v.) renders it by “canevas; linon; serpillière; treillis”, and de Goeje ( BGA, iv, 355) remarks that this linen is manufactured in Ṭabaristān. Sometimes, the expression ʿArab al-k̲h̲ays̲h̲ is used to designate the Bedouins (Quatremère, Mém. géogr. ethi st. sur l’Égypte , Paris 1811, i…

, Arabic name of the ancient Hatra (Atra, “Aτραι, situated in the desert to the west of the T̲h̲art̲h̲ār, three short days’ march to the southwest of al-Mawṣil. The Arab geographers, who no longer knew the exact site of this former caravan and commercial centre, provide certain legendary details regarding its ancient greatness. According to Yāḳūt (ii, 282), it was built entirely of hewn stone and possessed 60 large towers, each of which was separated from the next by nine smaller towers and link…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAmr b. Ḥammād b. ʿAṭāʾ b. Yāsir , a satirical poet and humorist who lived in Baṣra in the 2nd-3rd/8th-9th centuries. Nephew of Salm al-K̲h̲āsir [ q.v.], pupil of Abū ʿUbayda, and friend of Abū Nuwās, of whom he has left an exceptionally accurate portrait (see al-Ḥuṣrī, Zahr al-ādāb , 163; idem, D̲j̲amʿ al-d̲j̲awāhir , 115). Unlike many of his contemporaries, he does not seem to have gained entrance to the court of Bag̲h̲dād, despite his attempt during the reign of the caliph al-Ras̲h̲īd. He therefore re…

, Abū S̲h̲arāḥīl (or S̲h̲uraḥbīl ) al-Rammāḥ b. Abrad (Yazīd in Ibn Ḳutayba) b. T̲h̲awbān al-Murrī , of the Banū Murra b. ʿAwf, Bedouin poet who lived in the Ḥid̲j̲āz and in Nad̲j̲d from the reign of His̲h̲ām b. ʿAbd al-Malik (105-25/724-43) to the period of the early ʿAbbāsids; he died during the caliphate of al-Manṣūr, about 136/754 according to al-Bag̲h̲dādī, in 149/766 according to Yāḳūt. His mother Mayyāda (= one who swings) was a slave, said to have been of Berber or Slav origin, who…

(often followed by mug̲h̲rib as an epithet or in iḍāfa ) a fabulous bird approximating to the phoenix, which was also located by the Greeks in the deserts of Arabia. The belief in this creature is of long-standing among the Arabs, who connect it with the Aṣḥāb al-Rass [ q.v.], but it received its confirmation in a ḥadīt̲h̲ reported by Ibn ʿAbbās (al-Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲ , iv, 19 ff.), which states that, created by God, the ʿanḳāʾ , in the beginning endowed with all perfections, had become a plague; one of the prophets of the "Interval" ( fatra ), either Ḵh̲ālid b. Sinān o…

, Wahb b. Zamʿa , Ḳurays̲h̲ite poet of Mecca, who started to compose poetry before 40/660 and died after 96/715. He is included among the erotic poets of the Ḥid̲j̲āz by his poems devoted to three women: ʿAmra, of a noble Meccan family, a Syrian woman who led him into a breach with his family, and especially ʿAtīka, daughter of Muʿāwiya, whom he first saw during a pilgrimage. His verses, soon becoming famous, attracted the attention of the princess, whom he followed to Damascus…

(whence the name ibn al-ahtam sometimes given to him) al-tamīmī al-minḳarī , abū ṣafwān , of Baṣra (d. 135/752), the companion of ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, His̲h̲ām b. ʿAbd al-Malik, K̲h̲ālid b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḳasrī and probably also of Abu ’l-ʿAbbās al-Saffāḥ, was a transmitter of historical traditions, poetry and memorable orations, but was especially famed for his eloquence, since he fulfilled a rôle parallel to that of the poets, in that he was able to improvise a homily or description …

al-Ḥimyarī al-Kūfī , a magician of Kūfa, contemporary of al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲, with whom he was in relations after the building of the palace in Wāsiṭ (Yāḳūt, iv, 885; cf. also an adventure with a concubine of the caliph, Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar, Lisān al-Mīzān , iii, 372-3). Ag̲h̲ānī 1, i, 167 quotes verses by ʿUmar b. Abī Rabīʿa that bear witness to a connection between the poet and the magician. He abtained his powers from a magic ring given to him by Satan to thank him for having defended him from children who were insulting him. He was also though…

, Abu ’l-Ḳāsim ʿAbd al-Ṣamad b. al-Muʿad̲h̲d̲h̲al b. G̲h̲aylān b. al-Ḥakam al-ʿAbdī , an Arab satirical poet of Baṣra (d. 240/854-5) who belonged to a family of the ʿAbd al-Ḳays, many members of which wrote poetry. His grandfather G̲h̲aylān is mentioned in the sources as a poet, and his father al-Muʿad̲h̲d̲h̲al exchanged epigrams with Abān al-Lāḥiḳī [ q.v.] in particular, one of which was considered sufficiently original to be included in the Dīwān of Abū Nuwās (1277 ed.; 79; 1332 ed., 151; the Cairo ed. 1953 omits it; metre ramal , rhyme ānā ). Ibn al-Nadīm ( Fihrist, Cairo, 234) attribute…

b. ʿAmr b. ʿIlād̲j̲ al-T̲h̲aḳafī (d. 13/634-5), traditionally considered as the oldest known Arab physician. It is nevertheless difficult to pin down his personality. He came originally from al-Ṭāʾif, where he was probably born a few years after the middle of the 6th century A.D., and is said to have been a lute-player (trained in Persia?) before studying medicine at Gondēs̲h̲āpūr [ q.v.] and, adds Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī ( Ṭabaḳāt al-umam , ed. Cheikho, Beirut 1912, 47, tr. Blachère, Paris 1935, 99) with small probability, in the Yemen. He became …

, the name given to a pre-Islamic poet whose personality is hard to define, in so far as his historical existence is ¶ not actually in doubt. His father is called al-Ḥārit̲h̲, Masʿūd, ʿUbayd and even ʿAmr, and he does not appear in the genealogical table (no. 141) of Ibn al-Kalbī’s D̲j̲amhara concerning the Yas̲h̲kur; two men with the name of al-Munak̲h̲k̲h̲al are cited in this work (see Register , ii, 428), but neither of them seems to correspond to the poet treated in this present article. Furthermore, one wonders whether the carefulness t…

(K̲h̲adīd̲j̲ in the D̲j̲amhara of Ibn al-Kalbī, Tab. 240) b. D̲j̲afna al-Sakūnī al-Tud̲j̲ībī , Abū Nuʿaym or Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Companion of the Prophet who took part in the conquest of Egypt and remained in the country with the Muslim occupying forces. He was an ʿUt̲h̲mānī, much attached to the memory of ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān and hostile to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib; also, when Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr [ q.v.], who had been involved in the murder of ʿUt̲h̲mān, arrived at Fusṭāṭ in mid-Ramaḍān 37/24 February 658, in order to govern Egypt in the name of ʿAlī, Ibn Ḥudayd̲j̲ sho…

, tābiʿī and ascetic of Baṣra. His way of life attracted the attention of the agent of ʿUt̲h̲mān, Ḥumrān b. Abān, who denounced him to the Caliph; ʿĀmir was interrogated by ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿĀmir and exiled to Damascus where he died, probably during the caliphate of Muʿāwiya. His way of life seems to have consisted of various kinds of abstinence (he despised wealth and women) and pious works, and it is possible that the measures taken against him were dictated by the desire to prevent the advocacy of celibacy at a time when Islam needed fighting men; Ibn Ḳutayba, Maʿārif , 19…

, usual by-name of a Bedouin of the 1st/7th century, who became proverbial for his knowledge of the genealogies of the Arabs. His name was Abū Kilāb ʿUbayd Allāh b. al-Ḥuṣayn (ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥiṣn) or Warḳāʾ b. al-As̲h̲ʿar, and he belonged to the Banū Taym al-Lāt b. T̲h̲aʿlaba. Ḥummara means a red-headed sparrow, the ammomanes or “Isabelline lark” ( Ammomanes deserti), of the family of the alaudidae , but the origin of his father’s by-name (and of his own, for he is sometimes called simply Lisān al-Ḥummara) is unknown. Practically nothing is …

( ca, 115-80/ ca. 733-96), famous rāwiya of Baṣra. His parents came originally from Farg̲h̲āna and had been brought as captives to ʿIrāḳ, and then freed by Bilāl b. Abī Burda [see al-As̲h̲ʿarī ], whose mawlā K̲h̲alaf remained. He had a prodigious memory, and knew perfectly Bedouin life, their language, traditions and legends, and he gathered together all the poetic works set before him in order to transmit them to his successors. He is said to have been the pupil of ʿĪsā b. ʿUmar and Abū ʿAmr b. al-ʿAlāʾ [ q.vv.], but did not pride himself on his knowledge of philology and was conten…

( məlḥūn ) designates the state of the language which served for the expression of certain forms of dialectal poetry in the Mag̲h̲rib, as well as this poetry itself. Although the verse composed may be generally intended to be intoned and chanted by amateurs or professionals with a momentary musical accompaniment, this term does not come from laḥn “melody”, as Muḥammad al-Fāsī ¶ would have it ( Adab s̲h̲aʿbī , 43-4), but from laḥana (cf. D̲j̲irārī. Ḳaṣīda , 55-7) understood in the sense of “to stray from the linguistic norm” i.e. from literary Arabic [see laḥn al-ʿāmma …

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…

, surname of viziers of the Sāmānids [ q.v.], of whom one at least wrote a famous Kitāb al-Masālik wa ’l-mamālik which has never been found in spite of the hopes raised by S. Janicsek ( al-Djaihani’s lost Kitab al-masalik valmamalik: is it to be found at Mashhad ? in BSOS, v/1 (1926), 14-25; see also V. Minorsky, A false Jayhānī , in BSOAS, xiii (1949), 89-96). The identity of the author of this work poses a problem difficult to solve. Ibn Faḍlān ( Risāla , ed. A.Z.V. Togan, Ibn Faḍlāns Reisebericht , Leipzig 1939, text § 4, tr. 6, tr. M. Canard, in AIEO Alger , xvi (1958), 54)…

(the son of the little lame man), Abu ’l-Ḥasan Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. D̲j̲aʿfar al-Baṣrī , minor poet of Baṣra who died ca. 360/970. Very little is known of his life except that he went to Bag̲h̲dād, where he was the transmitter of a poem by Diʿbil [ q.v.] and lived for some time in the circle of al-Muhallabī [ q.v.]; it was probably at the vizier’s suggestion that he addressed a number of epigrams to al-Mutanabbī at the time of the latter’s visit in 351/962. His poems were collected in a Dīwān , and al-Ṣāḥib Ibn ʿAbbād was still able to appreciate them, but there…

, ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr (or ʿĀmir) b. al-Ḥaḍramī , an agent of Muʿāwiya who is remembered for an incident in 38/658, during the period which followed the battle of Ṣiffīn [ q.v.] and the arbitration. After the occupation of Egypt by ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀs [ q.v.], Muʿāwiya, turning his attention towards ʿIrāḳ, realised that he had to begin with Baṣra, where he could count on more adherents than in Kūfa. After consulting ʿAmr, he then decided to send Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī to Baṣra and gave him precise instructions: his agent was to base his propaganda on the …

b. Rās̲h̲id al-Nād̲j̲ī , partisan of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib who fought in his ranks at Ṣiffīn [ q.v.], but who rebelled against him when the first results of the arbitration were known after having accepted, it appears, the principle of arbitration. He was chief of the Banū ʿAbd al-Bayt b. al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. Sama b. Luʾayy (most usually called the B. Nād̲j̲iya, after the name of ʿAbd al-Bayt’s mother), who had only recently been converted to Islam, where they had not kept their original Christianity. He informed ʿAlī of h…

, a fortress situated on that part of the eastern shore of the Persian Gulf called the Sīf ʿUmāra, not far from the island of Ḳays [ q.v.], and famous in the 4th/10th century. It was known under three designations, Ḳalʿat al-Dīkdān, Ḥiṣn Dikbāya and Ḥiṣn Ibn ʿUmāra, as well as the Persian one Diz-i Pisar-i ʿUmāra ( Ḥudūd al-ʿālam , tr. 126). It stood guard over a village of fishermen and a port which could shelter some 20 ships, and according to Ibn Ḥawḳal (tr. Kramers and Wiet, 268-9), following Iṣṭak̲h̲rī (140), no-one could get u…

b. Ḳurra al-Muzanī , Abū Wāt̲h̲ila, was appointed ḳāḍī of Baṣra during the caliphate of ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz in 99/718 (the date 95/714 given by Wakīʿ is incorrect, for ʿUmar did not succeed to the caliphate until 99, and also it was ʿAdī b. Arṭāt, governor of the town from 99-101, who chose Iyās for the post on the caliph’s orders); he did not accept this post very enthusiastically (see especially an anecdote related by Ibn Ḳutayba, ʿ Uyūn , i, 62, which shows incidentally that parallel jurisdictions were still in existence), and in fact gave it up …

, name of the members of a family of Cordova, the Banū D̲h̲akwān, which produced several ḳāḍīs . (1) The first was ʿAbd Allāh b. Hart̲h̲ama b. D̲h̲akwān b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbdūs b. D̲h̲akwān al-Umawī who, in 370/981, was appointed ṣāḥib al-radd (that is, his duty was to pronounce judgements on matters on which the ordinary ḳāḍīs were in doubt); see Ibn al-Faraḍī, no. 722; E. Lévi-Provençal, Hist. Esp. Mus ., iii, 145. (2) The most famous member of the family was the son of the above, Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh, who, after having been ḳāḍī of Faḥṣ al-Ballūṭ, succeeded his father as ṣāḥib al-rad…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Sulaymān al-Ruʿaynī al-Ḳurṭubī al-Kafīf , Andalusian poet and kātib , considered one of the greatest scholars of the early 5th/11th century in the field of Arabic language and literature. Son of a grain merchant (hence the name by which he was commonly known, often wrongly written Ibn al-K̲h̲ayyāṭ), he owed his chance to study to a family of ḳuḍāt at Cordova, the Banū D̲h̲akwān [see ibn d̲h̲akwān ], who had taken him under their care. He was afflicted from birth by a malformation of the eyes and lost his sight at an …

, patronymic of an Andalusian family, several members of which played an important rôle during the Umayyad caliphate. The most famous of them is without doubt Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī Ibn Ḥazm [see the following article], but some brief details on the Banū Ḥazm are given here, since confusions often arise. (1) ʿAlī’s father was Abū ʿUmar Aḥmād b. Saʿīd b. Ḥazm b. G̲h̲ālib b. Ṣāliḥ b. K̲h̲alaf . A dignitary at the court of the ḥād̲j̲ib al-Manṣūr Ibn Abī ʿĀmir and that of his son al-Muẓaffar, he was greatly affected by the serious events which occurred in 399/1009 [see al-andalus …

, Abū Bakr al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. Bas̲h̲s̲h̲ār b. Ziyād Ibn al-ʿAllāf (so called because his father was a seller of ḳatt ) al-Nahrawānī , poet and traditionist who lived to be a hundred (218-318/833-930), becoming blind in his old age. He frequented the court at Bag̲h̲dād and was an intimate particularly of al-Muʿtaḍid and Ibn al-Muʿtazz. He knew much poetry and composed a great deal himself, so much indeed that his works, collected by a member of his family and accompanied by accounts of his relations with the persons on whom he had written panegyrics, occupied four hundred waraḳa …

, muḥammad b. isḥāḳ b. ibrāhīm b. abi ’l-mug̲h̲īra b. māhān (213-75/828-88), a famous humorist of the ʿAbbāsid court, who was also a faḳīh , astrologer, oneiromancer, poet and man of letters, and who wrote some forty works, both serious and jesting, even burlesque and obscene. Of Kūfan origin, he was first of all ḳāḍī in the district from which he derived his nisba , Ṣaymara, near Baṣra, at the mouth of the Nahr Maʿḳil, but his vivid penchant for coarse humour very early earned him a reputation as a buffoon sufficient for him to be admi…

, pre-Islamic Arab poet. The name Laḳīt does not necessarily mean that the person bearing it was a foundling; but in the present instance, whilst the genealogists know all the poet’s ancestors (see Ibn al-Kalbī-Caskel, D̲j̲amhara , Tab. 174 and Register, ii, 377), the ductus of his father’s name has given rise to divergent readings; maʿbad (Ibn al-Kalbī, loc. cit.; al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, Bayān , i, 42, 43, 52; Ibn Durayd, Is̲h̲tiḳāḳ , 104; al-Āmidī, Muʾtalif , 175); maʿmar (Ibn Ḳutayba, S̲h̲iʿr , 152-4; LA, s.v. l-ḳ-ṭ ); and yaʿmar/yaʿmur (al-S̲h̲ammāk̲h̲, apud al-Mubarrad, Kāmil …

, Abū D̲j̲aʿfar, also known as Ibn Abi ’l-ʿAzāḳir , a heretic of the ʿAbbāsid period (d. 322/934), who went so far as to claim that the deity was incarnated in himself. Initially an Imāmī committed to the study of alchemy, he devoted to this discipline several works such as Kitāb al-K̲h̲amāʾir , K. al-Ḥad̲j̲ar , S̲h̲arḥ K. al-Raḥma of D̲j̲ābir [ q.v.]. He subsequently formulated the doctrines of the ʿAzāḳiriyya, borrowing elements from various philosophical and religious groups: antinomians ( ibāḥiyya [see ibāḥa ]), upholders of ḥulūl [ q.v.], Mazdaeans, Manichaeans, etc. He had som…

(a.) generic term (nomen unitatis: k̲h̲ubza ) meaning bread, whatever the cereal employed, e.g. corn [see ḳamḥ ], barley [see s̲h̲aʿīr ], rice [see ruzz ] etc., and whatever the quality, the shape and the method of preparation. There exists nevertheless, in literary Arabic and, to a greater degree in the various dialects, a certain number of metaphors and of specific terms which cannot all be mentioned in this brief article, and the ellipsis of the word k̲h̲ubz , in expressions denoting a particular type, causes the semantic range of the fundamental notion to be appreciably enlarged: thus k̲…

, asʿad b. ʿiṣma , one of the most famous informants of the Baṣran philologists in the 2nd/8th century, notably, of al-Aṣmaʿī [ q.v.]. This Bedouin teacher, settled in southern ʿIrāḳ, may have received his curious kunya ( baydāʾ = “desert”) from the admirers forming a circle around him. He also wrote poetry, transmitted by another teacher, a certain Abū ʿAdnān, who is allegedly the author of several works (in particular, of a K. al-Naḥwiyyīn and a K. G̲h̲arīb al-ḥadīt̲h̲ , ¶ Fihrist , 68), and whom al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ praised greatly for his erudition and his fine language ( Bayān …

, surname given to an Arab poet who lived in the 6th century A.D., belonged to ¶ the tribe of Dubayʿa and was called D̲j̲arīr b. ʿAbd al-Masīh; another name, ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā, given to his father in some sources, appears to signify that this polytheist had been the first of his family to convert to Christianity. Al-Mutalammis was the maternal uncle of Ṭarafa [ q.v.], and both figure in a narrative which may contain only an essence of truth but that the philologists and anthologists of the Middle Ages considered to be a trustworthy account of a series of perfect…

, Abu ’l-Ḥakam (229-76/844-88), sixth Umayyad amīr of Cordova and the son of a slave belonging to Muḥammad I b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān II (d. 273/876). During his father’s lifetime, he filled military functions on various occasions, somewhat honorific to begin with, since it is mentioned that, as early as 242/856, he had gone to blockade—without great success—Toledo [see ṭulayṭula ] which had rebelled. Over the next years, he had occasion to command some summer expeditions ( ṣāʾifa ) against the Christians, notably in 251/865. In 263/877 he marched against Merida (see mārida …

, Abū Miḥd̲j̲an, a negro poet of the Arabic language who is said to have belonged, originally, to a Kinānī of Waddān, a small village close to Medina (see al-Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲ , Arabic index, s.v.); it could, however, be supposed that the locality in question is rather the main settlement of the oasis of D̲j̲ufra [ q.v.] which bears the same name, since the available information regarding the biography of Nuṣayb indicates that he was a native of Africa. In any case, attempting to establish his origin would be futile, since this has been the object of…

(pl. ʿatāʾir ) denoted, among the Arabs of the d̲j̲āhiliyya , a ewe (and by extensions its sacrifice) offered as a sacrifice to a pagan divìnity, either as a thanksgiving following the fulfilment of a prayer (concerning in particular the increase of flocks), or when a flock reached the total of a hundred head (cf. the word faraʿa ) ; the head of the idols before which the sacrifice was performed was smeared with the blood of the victims. If one bears in mind on the one hand that these sacrifices (which were also called rad̲j̲abiyya ; hence the phrase rad̲j̲d̲j̲aba ʿatīrat an) took place in the m…

b. Abi K̲h̲alīfa Muḥammad b. S̲h̲uʿayd b. Ṣak̲h̲r al-D̲j̲umaḥī , (d. 305/917-18), littérateur, poet, traditionist and ḳaḍī of Baṣra. He was a mawlā of D̲j̲umaḥ of Ḳurays̲h̲ and the nephew, on his mother’s side, of Ibn Sallām [ q.v.]. He was born in and died at Baṣra, where he made himself the transmitter of a fairly extensive number of religious, historical, literary and genealogical traditions. He also received a legal training sufficient for him to act as the ḳāḍī of Baṣra towards 294/907 with functions delegated by the Mālikī ḳāḍī Abū Muḥammad Yūsuf b. Yaʿḳū…

, Abu ’l-Ḥusayn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Ḏj̲ubayr al-Kinānī , Andalusian traveller and writer, born at Valencia 540/1145, into a family which had settled in Spain in 123/740. He studied at Játiva, where his father was a civil servant, and received the traditional instruction of young men of his class, that is to say he learnt the rudiments of the religious sciences and of belles-lettres at the same time, but not without learning how to exercise his poetic skill. His talents won for him …

(a.), collective noun indicating the two main species of the camelidae , the camelus dromedarius, or dromedary, with a single hump, and the camelus bactrianus, or camel proper, with two humps. The latter species, common in Central Asia, in western China and in northern Persia, was known to the Arabs under the name of fālid̲j̲ (pl. fawālid̲j̲ ); the crossing of two-humped stallions with Arab female camels ( ʿirāb ) produced the species called buk̲h̲t (sing, buk̲h̲tī , pl. bak̲h̲ātī ) which did not breed and which was used mainly as a beast of burden (see al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, Ḥayawān …

, Maḥmūd b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Sindī b. S̲h̲āhak , Abu ’l-Fatḥ , poet of the 4th/10th century whose death is variously given in the sources between 330/941 and 360/971, but which must have taken place ca. 350/961. Originally from a family of Sind [see ibrāhīm b. al-sindī ], he was born at al-Ramla and lived at al-Mawṣil at the court of Abu ’l-Hayd̲j̲āʾ ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥamdān [see ḥamdānids ], and then at Aleppo, in the entourage of Sayf al-Dawla [ q.v.]; he also made several journeys to Egypt, Bag̲h̲dād, Damascus and Jerusalem. His verses are described by R. Blachère, Motanabbî …

, Abu ’l-Ḥasan aḥmad b. D̲j̲aʿfar b. Mūsā b. Yaḥyā al-Barmakī al-Nadīm (and also al-Ṭunbūrī , because he played the tunbūr , lute (Fr.: “pandore”)). A philologist and transmitter of traditions, singer and musician, poet and wit and a descendant of the Barmakids. He was reputedly born in 224/839, and died at the age of a hundred, at Wāsiṭ in S̲h̲aʿbān 324/June-July 936. A man of very varied culture, but little religion, of doubtful morals and repulsive appearance (he was dirty and ugly, and owed…

, ʿabd al-g̲h̲affār b. ʿabd al-wāḥid b. wahb , Arab poet of ʿIrāḳ, born at al-Mawṣil ¶ about 1220/1805, died at al-Baṣra 1290/1874. After settling in Bag̲h̲dād, he established a connection with the wālī Dāwūd Pās̲h̲ā. The latter, at his request, sent him to India for treatment to correct the defective power of speech which had gained him his sobriquet of al-Ak̲h̲ras ("the mute"), but he refused to undergo the operation. The panegyrics which he addressed to Dāwūd Pās̲h̲ā and ʿAbd al-Bā…

, Abū Isḥāḳ Ibrāhīm b. Ismāʿīl b. Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṭarābulusī, philologist, native of Ad̲j̲dābiya (between Barḳa and Tripoli), who lived in the 6th/12th century and died in about 650/1251. He is the author of a number of works, of which reference is made particularly to his Kitāb al-Anwāʾ (ed. Damascus 1964, by ʿIzzat Ḥasan, as al-Azmina wa’l-anwāʾ ) and to a short treatise on lexicography entitled Kifāyat al-mutaḥaffiẓ wa-nihāyat al-mutalaffiẓ , printed in Egypt in 1285/1868 and in Beirut in 1305/1887. (Ch. Pellat) Bibliography Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ, i, 130 Suyūṭī, Bug̲h̲ya, 178 Ḥād̲j̲d̲…

(A), technical term of the Ḵh̲awārid̲j̲ [ q.v.], used, in a general sense, of religious murder, the putting to death in particular by the Azāriḳa [ q.v.] of Muslims and pagans who objected to their still rudimentary doctrine. However this meaning seems to be the result of a semantic evolution (even an involution), the verb istaʿraḍa (tenth form) meaning “to ask someone to display his possessions” and, thence, “to give an account of his opinions”; the istiʿrāḍ is thus the interrogation to which the enemies of these sectarians were subjected on falli…

, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. ʿAmmār b. Ḥusayn b. ʿAmmār , poet and vizier of al-Andalus. Born in 422/1031 in a village near Silves, he belonged to a poor and obscure family and his claim to be of Yemenī origin is doubtful. After beginning his studies at Silves, he received at Cordova an advanced literary education and then tried to make his literary talent pay, travelling throughout Spain in search of patrons. Nothing appears to have survived of his first panegyrics, addressed, it seems wi…

al-ḥimmānī al-rād̲j̲iz , a poet of Baṣra who owed his name to the fact that his mother gave birth to him by a palm tree ( nak̲h̲la ). He was given the kunya s of Abu ’l-Ḏj̲unayd and Abu ’l-ʿIrmās and the name of Yaʿmar (or Ḥazn, or Ḥabīb b. Ḥazn) b. Zāʾida b. Laḳīṭ, but it is possible that he forged a fictitious genealogy to attach himself to the Saʿd b. Zayd Manāt of Tamīm; in fact, al-Farazdaḳ, angry at being released from jail at his intervention, ¶ calls him a daʿī , and Ibn al-Kalbī does not cite him in his D̲j̲amhara . It is said that he was ejected by his father, on ac…

(Ṣuraymī in Ibn al-Kalbī), (al-)ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ b. ʿAbd Allāh (d. 40/660), a Ḵh̲ārid̲j̲ī who is said to have been the first to proclaim that “judgement belongs only to God” ( taḥkīm ; cf. al-Mubarrad, Kāmil , Cairo edn., 917), but who is famed in history because of his being one of the three plotters sworn to kill simultaneously ʿAlī b. Abi Ṭālib [see ibn muld̲j̲am ], ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ, [ q.v.] and Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān. Al-Burak accordingly proceeded to Damascus and stabbed Muʿāwiya whilst he was praying, but only managed to wound him in the hip. According to trad…

, pl. ḳaynāt or ḳiyān “female singing slave”. The Arab lexicographers do not completely agree on the primitive meaning of the term (see LA, TA, etc. s.v.), the real origin of which is unknown to them. They tend to apply it in the first place to a female slave ( ama , d̲j̲āriya ), charged in general with various tasks; secondly, and more specifically, to the female singer who had a servile status ( ama or d̲j̲āriya mug̲h̲anniya ). Some lexicographers are inclined to connect ḳayna with a Vth form taḳayyana “to embellish oneself” (al-Was̲h̲s̲h̲āʾ, Muwas̲h̲s̲h̲ā , 164, uses the expression al-imāʾ a…

, the usual cognomen of a Tamīmite noble of Baṣra named abū baḥr ṣak̲h̲r (sometimes, but erroneously, called al-Ḍaḥḥāk) b. ḳays b. muʿāwiya al-tamīmī al-saʿdī , of the family of Murra b. ʿUbayd; through his mother, he was descended from the Bāhilite clan Awd b. Maʿn. He was born before Islam and, probably at an early age, lost his father, killed by the Banū Māzin. His biographers state that he was deformed from birth and that he had undergone an operation. His cognomen ( al-aḥnaf ) derives from the fact that his feet were misshapen, but he also had other ab…

, Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bassām al-S̲h̲antarīnī , Andalusian poet and anthologist, a native of Santarem. Forced to flee from his native town when it was taken by Alfonso V of Castile (485/1092-3), he went to Cordova for the first time in 493/1100 and, during the following years, undertook at Seville the compiling of his D̲h̲ak̲h̲īra and the collecting of the dīwāns of some great poets of the 5th/11th century: al-Muʿtamid, Ibn Wahbūn, Ibn ʿAmmār; he also collected the correspondence of the prince of Murcia, Ibn Ṭāhir, and collected in o…

al-Namarī (al-Numayrī), appellative of a family of Cordovan scholars, the principal representative of which is Abū ʿUmar Yūsuf b. ʿAbd Allāh , born in 368/978. He studied in his native city under masters of repute, engaged in correspondence with scholars of the East and travelled all over Spain “in search of knowledge”, but never went to the East. Considered the best traditionist of his time, he was equally distinguished in fiḳh and in the science of genealogy. After displaying Ẓāhirī tendencies at first, in which he resembled his friend Ibn …

, abu ’l-s̲h̲aʿt̲h̲āʾ ʿabd allāh b. ruʾba , Arab poet of the Tamīm tribe, who resided mainly in al-Baṣra; it is probable that he was born during the caliphate of ʿUt̲h̲mān (23-35/644-56), and he died in 97/115. Little is known about his life, except that he had to joust with his Kūfan rival Abu ’l-Nad̲j̲m al-ʿId̲j̲lī [ q.v.]. The main characteristic of al-ʿAd̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲’s poetry—like that of his son Ruʾba [ q.v.]—is the constant and exclusive use of the rad̲j̲…

, a tribe belonging to the group which the genealogists distinguished under the name of the Butr [ q.v.] and which formed one of the two great Berber peoples, the other being the Barānis [ q.v.]. They seem to have become fixed fairly early in Libya and to have spread over all the Mag̲h̲rib, where the elements which are encountered there sporadically were largely sedentaries or sedentarised. Mediaeval authors mention Nafzāwa as far as Sid̲j̲ilmāsa and even as far as Awdag̲h̲ost [ q.vv.], but this tribe is known above all today for having given its name to a region of Tunisia t…

, Abū ʿUt̲h̲mān Yazīd b. Ziyād b. Rabīʿa b. Mufarrig̲h̲ al-Ḥimyarī , minor poet of Baṣra in the 1st/7th century. There are doubts about his Ḥimyarī origin, and it is possible that his ancestor Mufarrig̲h̲ was a slave. Ibn Mufarrig̲h̲’s ¶ date of birth is not known, and the earliest traditions about him tell of his romantic attachment to a Persian woman of Ahwāz in approximately the years 36-40/657-60. Later he was attached to ʿUbayd Allāh …

, Abu ’l-Walīd/Abū Ḵh̲ālid ʿAbd al-Malik b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. D̲j̲urayd̲j̲ al-Rūmī al-Ḳuras̲h̲ī al-makkī (80-150/699-767), Meccan traditionist of Greek slave descent (the ancestor being called Gregorios) and probably a mawlā of the family of Ḵh̲ālid b. Asīd. ¶ After having first of all become interested in gathering together traditions of philological, literary and historical interest, he brought together ḥadīt̲h̲s from the mouths of ʿAṭāʾ b. Abī…

or Mirḳās (a.), a kind of mutton sausage. There would probably be no reason to devote an article to this culinary speciality had it not enjoyed for some time in Europe, and especially in France, an unexpected success, being known as “merguez”, after the arrival of a considerable number of Mag̲h̲ribī immigrants and above all, repatriates from the lands of North Africa, where the word and the thing itself were not widespread, it seems, until a relatively recent period. Thus there is a problem worthy of examination.…

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, Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Hibat Allāh b. Abī ʿAbd Allāh al-Faḍl b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī al-Bag̲h̲dādī , traditionist, oculist, and especially poet, of Bag̲h̲dād, born in 478 or 479/1086, died 28 Ramadān 558/30 August 1163. Although he was the author of medical works which have not survived, and also transmitted ḥadīt̲h̲s without incurring the reproof of critics, Ibn al-Ḳaṭṭān is known chiefly for his vigorous satires which, as Goldziher says ( Muh . St., ii, 60), “spared neither the caliph nor anyone else”, for his mud̲j̲ūn and for his wit, as we…

(a.), pl. ḳuṣṣāṣ , “popular story-teller or preacher, deliverer of sermons” whose activity considerably varied over the centuries, from preaching in the mosques with a form of ḳurʾānic exegesis to downright charlatanism. This term does not appear in the Ḳurʾān, although the verb ḳaṣṣa is quite often used (see Flügel, Concordantiae ) always, except in VI, 57, with the meaning “to recount, to relate, to report” a generally edifying narration [see ḳiṣṣa ] and frequently in the first person, when the narrator is God Himself. The LA (root ḳṣṣ ) reproduces ḥadīt̲h̲s in which appear the word ḳāṣṣ …

, mule (pl. big̲h̲āl , fem. bag̲h̲la ; but some think that bag̲h̲l denotes the hybrid without distinction of sex, and that bag̲h̲la is a singulative form which applies both to the male and female); the same word denotes both the hinny, the offspring of a stallion and a she-ass (cf. however kawdar in al-Masʿūdī, ii, 408; contra : al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, Big̲h̲āl 120; al-Danīrī, s.v.; cf. al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, Tarbīʿ , ed. Pellat, index, s.v.), and the mule, the offspring of a he-ass and a mare, the morphological characteristics of the two varieties being midwa…

al-Sabtī , Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. His̲h̲ām b. Ibrāhīm b. Ḵh̲alaf , lexicographer, grammarian, adīb and versifier. He was probably born at Seville, and certainly died in that city in 577/1182, after having lived for a long time at Ceuta. We know very little of his life, but his biographers list his masters and his pupils and indicate the titles of his works, amongst which one notes several commentaries; one may merely remark that these included a s̲h̲arḥ on the Maḳṣūra of Ibn Durayd, which was especially appreciated by al-Ṣafadī ( Wāfī , ii, 1301) and al-Bag̲h̲dādī ( Ḵh̲izāna …

, Isḥāḳ b. Ḥassān b. Ḳūhī , Arab poet, died probably under the caliphate of al-Maʾmūn, about 206/821. The scion of a noble family of Sogdiana, which he sometimes mentions with pride (Yākūt, v, 363), al-Ḵh̲uraymī (the form al-Ḵh̲uzaymī is erroneous) derived his nisba from his being a mawlā , not directly of Ḵh̲uraym al-Nāʿim, as most of his biographers ¶ have it, but of his descendants, viz. Ḵh̲uraym b. ʿĀmir and his son ʿUt̲h̲mān (see Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīk̲h̲ , ii, 434-7; v, 126-8). He seems to have lived in Mesopotamia, Syria, al-Baṣra, where he frequented dissolute poets su…

“the wall of the Old Woman” (the form Ḥāʾiṭ al-Ḥad̲j̲ūz is sometimes found, ¶ notably in al-Harawī) the name given by Arabic writers to a wall said to have been built by the mythical queen of Egypt, Dalūka [= al-ʿAd̲j̲ūz], who is said to have mounted the throne after the army of al-Walīd b. Muṣʿab [ sic = the Pharaoh of Moses], in pursuit of the Israelites, had been engulfed by the Red Sea. In order to protect the surviving women, children and slaves from the attacks of the peoples of the East and of the West, Dalūka is said to have surrounded the Ni…

(Nukūr) was the name of a town in northern Morocco (Rīf) situated approximately 140 km./90 miles (by road) to the west of Melilla [ q.v.], in a plain which extends between two small coastal rivers, joining at a place called Agdal [on this term, see āgdāl ], then separating before flowing into the Mediterranean, the Nakūr and the G̲h̲ays/G̲h̲īs: a riḅāt [ q.v.] had been constructed on an elevation. The town itself was built some 10 km/7 miles from the Mediterranean coast among inlets which sheltered a number of small harbours. The best known, al-Mazimma, wa…

b. Ḏj̲abala al-Asadī , satirical Arab poet of the 1st/7th century. Physically deformed, for he was hunch-backed and lame, he possessed some spitefulness, which shows in his diatribes, but he had a lively wit, prompt repartee, humour, and the subtlety of the G̲h̲āḍira clan to which he belonged [cf. al-g̲h̲āḍirī ]. He was born ¶ at Kūfa and lived there till ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr drove out the Umayyad authorities (64/684) whom he followed to Damascus where he was admitted to the intimacy of ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān. He then went back to Kūfa and was closely connected with Bis̲h̲r b. Marwān [ q.v.] …

, an Arabic word used particularly in the Beduin dialect form fəllāg , pl. fəllāga (in the western press principally in the pl., with the spelling: fellagar fellagah, fellagha ), and denoting in the first place the brigands and subsequently the rebels who appeared in Tunisia and Algeria. A connexion with falaḳa [ q.v.] “instrument of torture”, of which the etymology is, in any case, obscure (see Arabica , 1954/3, 325-36), is certainly tobe ruled out. On the other hand, the Arabic root FLḲ (comp. FLD̲J̲, FLḤ, etc.) seems worthy of retention; Tunisian rural and nomadic dialects make use of fləg …

, Arabic name of a Mozarab Christian [see mozarabs ] whose true name was Recemundo (Recemundus in Latin = Raymond) and who owes his place in the EI to the role which he ¶ played in the service of the Umayyad caliphs of Spain ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III al-Nāṣir (who reigned from 300 to 350/912-61 [ q.v.]) and al-Ḥakam II al-Mustanṣir (350-68/961-76 [ q.v.]), and to his involvement in the presentation of the well-known Calendar of Cordova . Recemundo was a Cordovan who, with his command of Latin and of Arabic, was able to render considerable services to the caliphal chancellery wh…

(a.) is one of those words whose richness discourages any attempt at exact translation. In its weakest sense, it approximates to hazl “jest” as opposed to d̲j̲idd “seriousness” [see al-d̲j̲idd wa ’l hazl ] and corresponds in an appreciable degree to frivolity. But its semantic field extends widely to the point that it can mean the most shameless debauchery, including vulgarity, coarseness, impudence, libertinage, obscenity and everything that may provoke coarse laughter, such as scatological humour. This word embarrassed the Arab lexicographers, who connected it with the root m-d̲j…

, Arab tribe, probably of Yemeni origin, who, having come from Arabia at the same time as the Banū Hilāl [ q.v.], crossed Egypt and Libya, entered the Mag̲h̲rib towards the middle of the 5th/11th century, led a nomadic life for a short time to the west of Gabès (Ibn K̲h̲aldūn. Berbères , i, 36), but left only a small number of their members in the south of Ifrīḳiya ( Berbères, i, 116; cf. R. Brunschvig, Ḥafṣides , ii, 170); in fact, they proceeded towards the west ( tag̲h̲riba ), following the northern border of the Sahara (cf. al-Zayyānī, Turd̲j̲umāna , Fr. tr. Confourier, in AM, vi [1906], 448, w…

al-Kinānī , a minor poet of Kūfa who lived in the last years of the Umayyads and the first ones of the ʿAbbāsids, making him a muk̲h̲aḍram [ q.v.] al-dawlatayn. G.E. von Grunebaum ( Three Arabic poets of the early ¶ Abbasid age, in Orientalia , Rome) brought together, in the first part of his study (xvii/2 [1948], 167-204) 77 poetical fragments attributed to al-Muṭīʿ and also provided an exemplary critical study of the materials given by the biographers, anthologists and other authors of adab works, concerning this poet, whose personality is difficult to e…

, Abu ’l-Hasan Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm , Bag̲h̲dādī philologist who according to all the known sources, died in 299/311-12; this date is nevertheless challenged by Yāḳūt who, believing that al-Ḵh̲aṭīb al-Bag̲h̲dādī is in error, opts for 320/932. He was the pupil of al-Mubarrad and T̲h̲aʿlab [ q.vv.], and is said to have brought together the doctrines of the grammatical schools of both Baṣra and Kūfa, though his own preference was for the former; he was moreover the author of a work, no longer surviving, a K. al-Masāʾil ʿalā mad̲h̲hab al-naḥwiyyīn mimmā k̲h̲talafa fīhi al-Kūfi…

, Abū D̲j̲aʿfar , a minor poet who was born and lived in Baṣra. He was born at some time in the middle of the 2nd/8th century and died at a similarly uncertain date, probably during the caliphate of al-Maʾmūn (198-218/813-33) or during that of al-Muʿtaṣim (218-27/833-42). ¶ His existence, of which barely nothing is known, has attracted scant attention on the part of biographers in that he seems to have followed an unremarkable and leisurely career, in an atmosphere untroubled by events of any magnitude. On the other hand, it has only been po…

, the name given in Muslim Spain to kinds of catalogues in which scholars enumerated, in one form or another, their masters and the subjects or works studied under their direction. The word fahrasa is an Arabicization of the Persian fihrist by means of a double vocalization -a- and the closing of the final tāʾ , a fairly frequent modification. In al-Andalus, it is completely synonymous with barnāmad̲j̲ , which is also Persian, while in the east it corresponds with t̲h̲abat , mas̲h̲īk̲h̲a ( mas̲h̲yak̲h̲a ) or muʿd̲j̲am (this last word is also used in the west)…

(Banū) or Midrārids , minor Berber dynasty which was established in Sid̲j̲ilmās(s)a [ q.v.] and which enjoyed relative independence until its final collapse in 366/976-7. The history of this dynasty can be briefly outlined, thanks to al-Bakrī [ q.v.], who lived in the 5th/11th century and thus possessed quite recent information in order to write the chapter that he devotes to it ( Mug̲h̲rib , 148 ff., Fr. tr. 282 ff.), before Ibn ʿId̲h̲ārī (7th-8th/13th-14th century [ q.v.]), Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn (8th/14th century [ q.v.]) and several historians of the Mag̲h̲rib and Mas̲h̲riḳ were abl…

, muḥammad b. abi ’l-k̲h̲aṭṭāb , adīb of the end of the 3rd/9th or of the beginning of the 4th/10th century, and known only as the author of the Ḏj̲amharat ashʿār al-ʿArab (ed. Būlāḳ 1308/1890). No personal details about the author can be derived from this collection, and the only relevant data are two isnād s, one (p. 13) going back to al-Hayt̲h̲am b. ʿAdī (d. ca. 206/821 [ q.v.]) through two intermediaries, and the other (p. 14) going back to Ibn al-Aʿrābī (d. 231/846 [ q.v.]) through one intermediary; these isnāds would thus allow us to date the Ḏj̲amhara approximatel…

, Ḏj̲uwayra , Ḏj̲uwayriyya or Ḥārit̲h̲a b. al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ (or again Ḥanẓala b. al-S̲h̲arḳī , which was more probably, however, the name of Abu ’l-Ṭamaḥān al-Ḳayni, see S̲h̲iʿr , 229), pre-Islamic poet of al-Ḥīra, contemporary of al-Mund̲h̲ir b. Māʾ al-Samāʾ (about 506-554 A.D.), who put him in the charge of his horses. The expression d̲j̲ārun ka-d̲j̲ārl Abī Duʾād , which appears in a line of Ḳays b. Zuhayr and has become proverbial, gave rise to several traditions showing Abū Duʾād as the “protégé” of a noble and generous d̲j̲ār, who is either al-Mund̲h̲ir, al-Ḥarit̲h̲ b. Ḥamm…