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, Abū YaʿḲūb yūsuf b. Abī Bakr b. Muḥammad al-K̲h̲wārazmī Sirād̲j̲ al-Dīn, influential rhetorician writing in Arabic. He was born in K̲h̲wārazm on 3 D̲j̲umādā I, 555/11 May 1160 according to most sources, or in the year 554, according to his contemporary Yāḳūt ( Irs̲h̲ād , ed. Rifāʿī, xx, 59). He died toward the end of Rad̲j̲ab 626/mid-June 1229 in Ḳaryat al-Kindī near Almālig̲h̲ in Farg̲h̲āna. In spite of his fame already during his lifetime, the circumstances of his life are shrouded in obscurity—a fact most likely …

(a.), intact, sound, i.e. free of damage or blemish, thus "well" as opposed to "ill," and therefore a synonym of ṣaḥīḥ . The word is used as a technical term in various fields: 1. Applied to money, sālim means unclipped coins of full weight, or a sum of money free from charges and deductions. 2. In grammar, it denotes two things: in ṣarf (morphology) a "sound" root, i.e., one in which none of the radicals is a "weak" letter ( ḥarfʿilla , see ḥurūf al-hid̲j̲āʾ ), nor a hamza , nor a geminate; in naḥw (syntax) a word with a "sound" ending, no matter whether the preced…

b. Ḥumayd b. Salāma al-Ḳurashī , Abū ʿAmr (d. 564/1169), Hanbalī jurist and mystic, known as Ibn marzūḳ . He studied with Ibn al-Ḥanbalī (d. 536/1141, not “Ibn al-D̲j̲īlī”, as in Ibn Rad̲j̲ab, i, 306) at Damascus, though whether he was born there is not clear; he is also said to have met ʿAbd al-Ḳādir al-D̲j̲īlānī [ q.v.] and to have held him in high esteem. He lived mainly in Egypt and died there, aged over seventy years old. Only one work of his seems to be mentioned, an abridgement of Abū Nuʿaym’s Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ , which bears the same title as Ibn al-D̲j̲awzī’s abridgement of the same work, Ṣafwa…

, Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn Abu ’l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān b. ʿAbd al-Ḳawī b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Ṣarṣarī al-Bag̲h̲dādī (b. 675/1276-77 [?], d. Rad̲j̲ab 716/Sept. Oct. 1316), Ḥanbalī legal scholar, especially in uṣūl , known in modern times particularly for his maṣlaḥa (public interest) theory. The vocalisation “al-Ṭawfī”, used in Brockelmann and a number of other Western sources, is incorrect (see Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar, Durar , ii, 249). He was born in an otherwise unattested town Ṭūfā, near Ṣarṣar, which in turn is not far from Bag̲h̲dād. He had his first education in grammar and Ḥanbalī fiḳh …

b. Saʿīd al-Kātib , Abū ʿUt̲h̲mān, ʿAbbāsid scribe, epistolographer and poet. His exact dates are unknown, but he was probably born in the last years of the 3rd century A.H. and died after 257/871 (or 260/874), the year of Faḍl al-S̲h̲āʿira’s death [ q.v. in Suppl.]. His family came from the lower Persian nobility—he himself is sometimes called al-dihḳān —and he claimed royal Persian descent. He seems to have held various lower provincial offices, before stepping into the limelight as the kātib of Aḥmad b. al-K̲h̲aṣīb, vizier to al-Muntaṣir (r. 247-8/861-2 [ q.v.]), for whom he drew up the ba…

(a.) means the use of the phrase aʿūd̲h̲u bi ’llāhi min ... “I take refuge with God against...”, followed by the mention of the thing that the utterer of the phrase fears or abhors. The term istiʿād̲h̲a “seeking refuge”, is often used as a synonym. The phrase, with variants, is well attested in the Ḳurʾān, in particular in the last two sūras which each consist of one extended taʿawwud̲h̲ [see al-muʿawwid̲h̲atān 1 ]. The litany-like enumeration of evil things in the first of the two foreshadows similar strains in a number of Prophetic invocations recorded in the Ḥadīth …

al-Ṭāʾī al-Sinbisī, Abu ’l-Maḥāsin (b. 5 Rabīʿ II 677/26 August 1278 [according to al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xviii, 482, 6-7, and most other sources] ¶ or D̲j̲umādā II, 678/Oct.-Nov. 1279 [according to al-Birzālī (d. 739/1339; q.v.) who claims to have received this information from al-Ḥillī himself, see Ḥuwwar, 20], d. probably 749/1348), the most famous Arab poet of the 8th century A.H. In spite of his fame, information about his life is rather scarce; even the year of his death is variously given (see Bosworth, Underworld , i, 138, n. 26). Born in al-Ḥilla [ q.v.], a centre of S̲h̲īʿī learning…

(a laḳab , his father’s name being Yaḥyā), Abū ʿĀmir al-Kinānī al-Layt̲h̲ī, Arab poet from Medina (fl. later 1st/7th century into the early 2nd/8th century) famous for his love poetry ( g̲h̲azal), but also billed as a traditionist and legal scholar; Mālik [ q.v.] is said to have transmitted from him (Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ḏj̲arḥ wa ’l-taʿdīl , Ḥaydarābād 1360, iii/1, 396; al-Buk̲h̲ārī, al-Taʾrīk̲h̲ al-kabīr , Ḥaydarābād 1941-64, iv, 33; al-D̲h̲ahabī, Mīzān al-iʿtidāl , ed. ʿA.M. al-Bid̲j̲āwī, Cairo n.d., iii, 63 [ ṣadūḳ ], cf. also Ibn Ḳutayba, S̲h̲iʿr , 580 [ t̲h̲iḳa …

(a.), a technical term in a number of different disciplines. 1. In astronomy. Here it corresponds to Gr. διάμετρος, in the Almagest άχρόνυκτος, Lat. oppositio, the term for the opposition of a planet and the sun or of two planets with one another. In opposition, the difference in longitude between the two heavenly bodies is 180°; while the modern use is to take no note of the deviations of latitude from the ecliptic, al-Battānī expressly emphasises ( Opus astronomicum, ed. Nallino, iii, 196) that we can only have the true muḳābala when both bodies are either in …

, Abu Muḥammad al-Ḳāsim b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Anṣārī, Arab literary theorist, known for his highly original work al-Manzaʿ al-badīʿ fī tad̲j̲nīs asālīb al-badīʿ (ed. ʿAllāl al-G̲h̲āzī, Rabat 1401/1980). In the colophon of the Tetuan ms., the author states that he finished his work on 21 Ṣafar 704/23 November 1304. No other bio-bibliographical details are known. His nisba and the provenance of the two extant mss. of his work show him to be a Mag̲h̲ribī scholar. More particularly, as the approach of his book clearly shows,…

(a.), pl. asbāb , literally "rope" ( ḥabl ), the basic sense as given by the lexicographers (cf. LʿA ), coming to designate anything which binds or connects. It is "anything by means of which one gains an end ( maḳṣūd ; al-Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ānī) or an object sought" ( maṭlūb ; in the Baḥr al-d̲j̲awāhir ). One can mention asbāb with the sense of "bonds" in Ḳurʾān, II, 166: "When the bonds [which unite them] are broken...". Ibn ʿAbbās interpreted this as friendship ( mawadda ); Mud̲j̲āhid, "alliance" ( tawāṣul ) in this context. The sense is also found of "a means of achi…

al-tamīmī , Abu ’l-Ḏj̲aḥḥāf (Abū Muḥammad also occurs), an Arab poet of the Umayyad and early ʿAbbāsid era (d. 145/762), the greatest exponent of the rad̲j̲az [ q.v.] ḳaṣīda . The name Ruʾba, by which he was called after his grandfather, is attested seven times, and its diminutive Ruʾayba eight times, in Ibn al-Kalbī’s genealogy (see Caskel-Strenziok ii, 489b). There is no clear cluster of attestations in Eastern Arabia, which makes Krenkow’s contention (see EI 1, s.n.) that the name is the Persian rōbāh “fox” less likely. Arabic phi…

, Muḥammad b. ʿUmar, author of the first Persian treatise on rhetoric, the Kitāb Tard̲j̲umān al-balāg̲h̲a . The little that can be inferred about the author’s life is known from the Tard̲j̲umān itself; no other source mentions him. According to the researches of A. Ateş, he seems to have lived in Transoxania, and his book was written between 481/1088, the beginning of the Karak̲h̲ānid Aḥmad K̲h̲ān’s incarceration at the hand of Malik S̲h̲āh, as mentioned in one of the poems quoted, and 507/1114, the date of the unique ms. of the Tard̲j̲umān, the mad̲j̲mūʿa …

In literary criticism, “plagiarism”. Although the term sariḳa is used, no “theft” in the legal sense of the word is implied, as Islamic law does not recognise intellectual property. A modern booklet on intellectual theft stresses the moral turpitude involved, but does not invoke any S̲h̲arīʿa norms or punishments (ʿAbd al-Mannān, al-Sariḳāt al-ʿilmiyya ). The victim of plagiarism could only have recourse to public opinion or approach a man of power ( istiʿdāʾ ) to redress the situation. Literary theft occurred and was discussed predominantly, though not exclusively, in th…

(a.), lit. “creating an image, or an illusion ( k̲h̲ayāl )” a technical term with various meanings but all broadly in the field of hermeneutics. It occurs in (a) theory of imagery, (b) philosophical poetics, (c) Ḳurʾānic exegesis, and (d) among rhetorical figures. Whether any or all of these usages have a common root remains to be seen. It should be noted that, like any maṣdar , tak̲h̲yīl can also act as a verbal noun of the passive. Since in everyday language the verb was predominantly used in the passive ( k̲h̲uyyila ilayhi “an illusion was…

(a.), “chest, breast, bosom” (pl. ṣudūr ), a peculiarly Arabic word, not attested in other Semitic languages, except as a borrowing from Arabic. Its semantic connection with other derivatives of the root ṣ-d-r within Arabic is unclear; it may be derived from the basic notion of the verb ṣadara , i.e. “to come up, move upward and outward, from the waterhole” (opposite: warada ). Most concretely, it refers to the chest as part of the body, and as such is dealt with in the ¶ lexicographical monographs on the human body called Ḵh̲alḳ al-insān (al-Aṣmaʿī, 214-18; T̲h̲āb…

(a.) indicates an Arab metre. The proper meaning of the word is “tremor, spasm, convulsion (as may occur in the behind of a camel when ¶ it wants to rise)”. It is not clear how this word became a technical term in prosody. The other etymological meaning of rad̲j̲az “thunder, rumble, making a noise”, may perhaps be taken into consideration. In that case, there might be an allusion to the iambic, monotonous and pounding rhythm of these poems (cf. ka-mā samiʿta rad̲j̲aza l-ṣawāʿiḳī , Abū Nuwās, ed. E. Wagner, ii, 299; for the etymology, see also T. Fahd, La divination arabe, Leiden 1966, 153-8). …

, a term originally referring to the Biblical personage, in modern times used also with linguistic reference. 1. The Biblical personage. Here, Sām denotes in Arabic lore and tradition Shem, the son of Noah [see nuḥ ]. The Ḳurʾān does not mention any of the sons of Noah by name but alludes to them in VII, 64, X, 73, XI, 40, XXIII, 27 and XXVI, 119. The Islamic tradition develops many details regarding Shem. His mother was ʿAmzūrah (cf. Jubilees, iv, 33) and he was born 98 years before the flood. He and his wife Ṣalīb were saved from the Deluge by entering the a…

, the fourth letter in the Arabic alphabet. In the abd̲j̲ad order [ q.v.] it has a numerical value of 500. The phoneme represented by this letter may be defined as the voiceless member of the apico-interdental triad of fricatives, as opposed to the voiced /d̲h̲/ [see d̲h̲āl ] and the “emphatic”, i.e. velarised, /ẓ/ [see ẓāʾ ]. Sībawayh (ed. Hārūn, Cairo 1395/1975, iv, 433) describes the point of articulation for the triad as “between the tip of the tongue and the tips of the incisors” and he is followed herein by— inter alios—Ibn D̲j̲innī ( Sirr ṣināʿat al-iʿrāb , ed. Ḥ.…

, Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Muḥammad (d. 416/1025), Arab poet. His nisba points to the Tihāma [ q.v.], the coastal plain on the Red Sea coast of Arabia, or to Mecca, which is sometimes synecdochically called “Tihāma”. Ibn K̲h̲allikān (iii, 381) admits his ignorance as to which of these two locations is intended. He is said to have come from the lower classes ( min al-sūḳa , al-Bāk̲h̲arzī, i, 188-9). The poet spent most of his life in Syria, where he attached himself in particular to the D̲j̲arrāḥids [ q.v.], who tried, with limited success, to consolidate their little principality in Pal…