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Aḥmed Ḥilmī

(386 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
Efendi , 19th century Turkish translator. Born in Üsküdar, he was trained in the language chamber [see terd̲j̲üme odasi̊ ] of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and subsequently held a number of official appointments. He is mentioned as having been Ottoman Consul in Tabrīz and a member of the Embassy in Tehrān, and in 1876 was elected a deputy in the first Ottoman parliament. He died in 1878 of typhus, contracted while caring for refugees from the Russo-Turkish war, and was buried at the Karacaahmet cemetery in Üsküdar. Aḥmed Ḥilmī played a pioneer role as a tra…

Ḥasan Fehmī

(1,110 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
efendi, known as Aḳs̲h̲ehirli, an Ottoman S̲h̲eyk̲h̲ al-Islām. The son of ʿOt̲h̲mān Efendi of Ilgin, he was born in 1210/1795-6, and held various appointments in the teaching branch of the ʿIlmiyye [ q.v.] profession. In 1275/1858-9, on the death of Yaḥyā Efendi [ q.v.], he was appointed to the office of Ders Wekīli , with the duty of teaching and preaching on behalf of the S̲h̲eyk̲h̲ al-Islām. Ḏj̲ewdet, who had reason to be hostile to Ḥasan Fehmī, indicates that the appointment was made for want of any one better, and says that he was known among the students as kad̲h̲ūbī —the liar ( Tezâkir 13-…

Ibn al-ʿAdīm

(624 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, Kamāl al-Dīn Abu ’l-Ḳāsim ʿUmar b. Aḥmad b. Hibat Allāh , historian of Aleppo, born there in 588/1192, died in Cairo in 660/1262. A wealthy and prominent family of ʿIrāḳī Arab origin, the Banu ’l-ʿAdīm acquired property in and around Aleppo, and a number of them rose to eminence or office under the successive dynasties that ruled in that city. For five generations they held the office of ḳāḍī; the historian’s father was a chief ḳāḍī under Zangid and then Ayyūbid rule. He himself, after studies in Aleppo, Damascus, Jerusalem, Bag̲h̲dād and the Ḥid̲j̲āz, served in Aleppo as a secretary, as a ḳāḍī…

Bard̲j̲awān

(962 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, abu ’l-futūḥ , a slave who was for a while ruler of Egypt during the reign of al-Ḥākim. He was brought up at the court of al-ʿAzīz, where he held the post of intendant ( Ḵh̲iṭaṭ ii, 3; Ibn Tag̲h̲ribirdī, Cairo, iv, 48; Ibn Ḵh̲allikān. ii, 201). He was a eunuch, and was known by the title Ustād̲h̲ [ q.v.]. His ethnie origin is uncertain—Ibn Ḵh̲allikān calls him a negro, Ibn al-Ḳalānisī simply a white ( abyaḍ al-lawn ), al-Maḳrīzī either a Slav or a Sicilian, the readings Saḳlabī and Siḳillī both occurring in the MSS. of the Ḵh̲iṭaṭ (cf. S. de Sacy, Chrestomothie , i, 130). Bard̲j̲awān was appointed g…

Ḥurriyya

(6,429 words)

Author(s): Rosenthal, F. | Lewis, B.
, “freedom,” an abstract formation derived from ḥurr “free” corresponding to Hebrew ḥōr , Aram. ḥēr ( ḥerūt̲ā ), widely used also in Muslim languages other than Arabic. Already in pre-Islamic times, “free” was known not only as a legal term denoting the opposite of “unfree, slave” ( ʿabd [ q.v.]) but also as an Ethical term denoting those “noble” of character and behavior. The legal concept of “freedom” continued to be used as a matter of course by Muslim jurists, who were inclined to give preference to the presumption of a free status for individuals in doubtful cases [see ʿabd …

Ayyūb Ṣabrī Pas̲h̲a

(104 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, Ottoman naval officer and author. A graduate of the naval college, he held various appointments, and served for a while in both the Ḥid̲j̲āz and Yemen. He died in Istanbul in 1308/1890. He was the author of a number of historical and descriptive works on Arabia, including an account of Mecca and Medina ( Mirʾāt al-Ḥaramayn , 3 vols., Istanbul 1301-6), and a history of the Wahhābīs ( Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Wahhābiyyān , Istanbul 1296). Besides these he wrote a biography of the Prophet called Maḥmūd al-Siyar (Edirne 1287). (B. Lewis) Bibliography Babinger 372-3 Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī, i, 451 Ot̲h̲mānl…

Di̇rli̇k

(126 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, a Turkish word meaning living or livelihood. In the Ottoman Empire it was used to denote an income provided by the state, directly or indirectly, for the support of persons in its service. The term is used principally of the military fiefs (see timar), but also applies to pay (see ʿulūfa ), salaries, and grants of various kinds in lieu of pay to officers of the central and provincial governments. It does not normally apply to tax-farms, the basis of which is purchase and not service. (B. Lewis) Bibliography Ḏj̲aʿfer Čelebi, Maḥrūse-i Istanbul fetḥnāmesi, TOEM suppl. 1331, 17 Koçi Bey Risale…

Emīn

(576 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, from Arabic amīn [ q.v.], faithful, trustworthy, an Ottoman administrative title usually translated intendant or commissioner. His function or office was called emānet . The primary meaning of emīn , in Ottoman official usage, was a salaried officer appointed by or in the name of the Sultan, usually by berāt , to administer, supervise or control a department, function or source of revenue. There were thus emīns of various kinds of stores and supplies, of mints, of mines, of customs, customs-houses and other revenues, and of the taḥrīr [ q.v.], the preparation of the registers of la…

Bāb

(439 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, a term applied in early S̲h̲īʿism to the senior authorised disciple of the Imām. The hagiographical Uterature of the Twelver S̲h̲īʿa usually names the bābs of the Imāms. Among the Ismāʿīliyya [ q.v.] bāb was a rank in the hierarchy. The term was already in use in pre-Fāṭimid times, though its significance is uncertain (cf. W. Ivanow, The Alleged Founder of Ismailism , Bombay 1946, 125 n. 2, citing al-Kas̲h̲s̲h̲ī, Rid̲j̲āl , 322; idem, Notes sur l’Ummu ’l-Kitab , in REI, 1932, 455; idem, Studies in early Persian Ismailism 2, Bombay 1955, 19 ff.). Under the Fāṭimids in Egypt the bāb cornes imme…

Bazi̊rgan

(113 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, Bezirgan, Turkish forms of the Persian Bāzargān , a merchant. In Ottoman Turkish usage the term Bāzi̊rgān was applied to Christian and more especially Jewish merchants. Some of these held official appointments in the Ottoman palace or armed forces; such were the Bazi̊rganbas̲h̲i̊ , the chief purveyor of textiles to the Imperial household (D’Ohsson, Tableau général , vii, Paris 1824, 22; Gibb-Bowen, 1/1, 359), and the Od̲j̲aḳ Bāzi̊rgāni̊ , the stewards, usually Greek or Jewish, who handled the pay and supplies of the corps of Janissaries. T…

Bostānzāde

(600 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, the name of a family of Ottoman ʿulemāʾ who achieved some prominence in the 16th and early 17th centuries. The founder of the family was (1) Muṣṭafā Efendi, born in Tire, in the province of Aydi̊n, ¶ in 904/1498-9, and known as Bostān (or Būstān); his father was a merchant called Meḥmed (thus in the text of ʿAṭāʾī and on the tombstone preserved in the Türk-Islam Eserleri Müzesi in Istanbul; the heading Muṣṭafā b. ʿAlī in ʿAṭāʾī is no doubt an error due to confusion with his namesake Muṣṭafā, known as Küçük Bostān; ʿAṭāʾī 132. cf. Hüseyin Gazi Yurdaydin in Bell . xix, 1955…

Ibn al-Dawādārī

(389 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, Abū Bakr b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Aybak al-Dawādārī , Egyptian historian. His father, D̲j̲amāl al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh, was in the service of the Amīr Sayf al-Dīn Balabān al-Rūmī al-Ẓāhirī, the Dawādār of Baybars, whence the by-name Dawādārī. His grandfather, lord of Sark̲h̲ad. was tentatively identified byṢ. Munad̲j̲d̲j̲id as ʿIzz al-Dīn Aybak al-Ustādār al-Muʿaẓẓamī (d. 645/1247-8), the patron of the medical biographer Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa [ q.v.]. The family is described, somewhat improbably, as of Sald̲j̲ūḳid descent. The author’s family lived in Cairo, in the Ḥārat al-Bāṭiliyya. Hi…

ʿAlī al-Riḍā

(833 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, Abu ’l-ḥasan b. mūsā b. dj̲aʿfar eighth Imām of the Twelver S̲h̲īʿa, was born in Medina in 148/765 (al-Ṣafadī) or, according to other and probably better informed authorities, in 151/768 or 153/770 (al-Nawbak̲h̲tī, Ibn Ḵh̲allikān. Mīrk̲h̲w ānd). He died in Ṭūs in 203/818; the sources agree on the year, but differ as to the day and month (end of Ṣafar—al-Ṭabarī, al-Ṣafadī; 21 Ramaḍān—al-Ṣafadī; 13 Ḏh̲ū ’l-Ḳaʿda or 5 Ḏh̲ū ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a—Ibn Ḵh̲allikān). His father was the Imām Mūsā al-Kāẓim, his mother a Nubian umm walad whose name is variously given (S̲h̲ahd or Nad̲j̲iyya—al-N…

Bād-i Hawā

(282 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, literally ‘wind of the air’; in Ottoman fiscal usage a general term for irregular and occasional revenues from fines, fees, registration charges, and other casual sources of income. The term does not a appear in the Ḳānūns of the 9th/15th century, but is found in a Ḳānūnnāme of Gelibolu of 925/1519, where mention is made of penalties and fines, bride-tax, fees for the recapture of runaway slaves, ‘and other bād-i hawā’ (Barkan 236). It also appears, in similar terms, in Ḳānūnnāmes of Ankara (929/1522-Barkan 34), Ḥamīd (935/1528-Barkan 33), Aydīn (935/…

Bīrūn

(101 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, in Persian ‘outside’, the name given to the outer departments and services of the Ottoman Imperial Household, in contrast to the inner departments known as the Enderūn [ q.v.]. The Bīrūn was thus the meeting-point of the court and the state, and besides palace functionaries included a number of high officers and dignitaries concerned with the administrative, military, and religious affairs of the Empire. (B. Lewis) Bibliography D’Ohsson, Tableau général de l’Empire Othoman, vii, Paris 1824, 1-33 Ismail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı, Osmanlı Devletinin Saray Teşkilâtı, Ankara 1945, 358 ff. Gib…

Ẓulm

(2,783 words)

Author(s): Badry, Roswitha | Lewis, B.
(a., verbal noun of form I), basically meaning, according to the authoritative lexicologists, “putting a thing in a place not its own” (Lane, LA, TA), i.e. displacement. In the moral sphere, it denotes acting in such a way as to transgress the proper limit and encroach upon the right of some other person. In common usage, ẓulm has come to signify wrongdoing, evil, injustice, oppression and tyranny, particularly by persons who have power and authority. Frequently it is therefore used as the antonym to ʿadl [ q.v.], inṣāf [ q.v.] and ḳisṭ and (sometimes by expressi…

Dindān

(476 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, the laḳab of Abū D̲j̲aʿfar Aḥmad b. Ḥusayn, a S̲h̲īʿī traditionist of the 3rd/9th century. His father was a reliable authority who related traditions of the Imāms ʿAlī al-Riḍā, Muḥammad al-D̲j̲awād, and ʿAlī al-Hādī; originally from Kūfa, he lived for a while in Ahwāz, where Dindān was born. Dindān also related traditions on the authority of his father’s masters, but was regarded as a g̲h̲ālī , extremist, and his reliability as a relator was impugned. He wrote several books, among them Kitāb al-iḥtid̲j̲ād̲j̲ , K. al-anbiyāʾ , K. al-mat̲h̲ālib , and K. al-muk̲h̲taṣar fi ’l-daʿwāt

Bahd̲j̲at Muṣṭafā Efendi

(388 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, Ottoman scholar and physician, grandson of the Grand Vezir Ḵh̲ayrullah Efendi and son of Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Meḥmed Emīn S̲h̲ukūhī. Born in 1188/1774, he entered upon the ladder of the religious institution, becoming a mudarris in 1206/1791-2. Specialising in medicine, he rose rapidly, and in 1218/1803 became chief physician to the Sultan (Ḥekīmbas̲h̲ǐ or, more formally, Reʾīs-i Eṭibbā-i Sulṭānī ). In 1222/1807 he was dismissed from this office, but was reappointed in 1232/1817. In 1237/1821 he was disgraced and banished, but was reinsta…

Ḍābiṭ

(270 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, in Turkish zabit , an Ottoman term for certain functionaries and officers, later specialized to describe officers in the armed forces. In earlier Ottoman usage Ḍābiṭ seems to indicate a person in charge or in control of a matter or of ( ? the revenues of) a place ( e.g. Ewḳāf ḍābiṭi , Wilāyet ḍābiṭi etc.; examples, some with place-names, in Halit Ongan, Ankara’nın I Numaralı Şer’iye Sicili , Ankara 1958, index, and L. Fekete, Die Siyāqat-Schrift , i, Budapest 1955, 493 ff.; cf. the Persian usage in the sense of collector — Minorsky, Tad̲h̲kirat al-Mulūk , index). The…

Hās̲h̲imiyya

(797 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, a term commonly applied in the 2nd-3rd/8th-9th centuries to members of the ʿAbbāsid house and occasionally to their followers and supporters. From early ʿAbbāsid times it was understood to denote the descendants of Hās̲h̲im b. ʿAbd Manāf [ q.v.], the common ancestor of the Prophet, ʿAlī, and al-ʿAbbās; its use by the ʿAbbāsids was thus interpreted as expressing a claim to the Caliphate based on kinship with the Prophet in the male line. Van Vloten, followed by other scholars, showed that the name had in fact a different origin. Fro…

ʿAzīz Miṣr

(262 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, the mighty one of Egypt. In the Kurʾān (xii, 30, 51) the title al-ʿAzīz is given to the unnamed Egyptian who buys Yūsuf. In later legend and commentary he is called Kiṭfīr [ q.v.], from the Biblical Potiphar. The title al-ʿAzīz seems to connote the office of chief minister under Pharoah, as the same title is applied to Yūsuf himself when he reaches that position (Kurʾān, xii, 78, 88). In some of the Arabic dictionaries the term is defined as meaning the ruler of Egypt (Miṣr) and Alexandria (Lane, s.v.). In Ottoman texts the epithet ʿAzīz Miṣr is sometimes applied to the Mamlūk sultans of Egypt ( e.g…

Mas̲h̲wara

(2,004 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
(a.) or Mas̲h̲ūra , a common term for consultation, in particular by the ruler of his advisers, the latter being various defined. The term sometimes also appears to mean some kind of deliberative gathering or assembly. The practice of consultative decision was known in pre-Islamic Arabia [see mad̲j̲lis , and malaʾ in Suppl). Two passages in the Ḳurʾān (III, 153/159, was̲h̲āwirhum fi ’l-amr and XLII, 36/38, wa-amruhum s̲h̲ūrā baynahum) are commonly cited as imposing a duty of consultation on rulers. The merits of consultation ( mus̲h̲āwara and mas̲h̲wara) and the corresponding defe…

Bilād-i T̲h̲alāt̲h̲a

(144 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, the three towns, a term employed in Ottoman legal and administrative usage for Eyyūb, Galata, and Üsküdar, i.e., the three separate urban areas attached to Istanbul. Each had its own ḳāḍī, independent of the ḳādī of Istanbul, though of lower rank. Every Wednesday the ḳāḍīs of the ‘three towns’ joined the ḳāḍī of Istanbul in attending the Grand Vezir. This judicial autonomy of the three towns goes back to early Ottoman times, probably even to the conquest. The three towns also enjoyed some autonomy in police mat…

Ḍabṭiyya

(178 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, in Turkish zabtiyye , a late Ottoman term for the police and gendarmerie. Police duties, formerly under the control of various janissary officers, were placed under the jurisdiction of the Serʿasker ([ q.v.] see also bāb-i serʿaskerī ) in 1241/ 1826, and in 1262/1846 became a separate administration, the Ḍabṭiyee Mus̲h̲īriyyeti (Ḷutfī iii 27-8). At about the same time a council of police ( med̲j̲lis-i ḍabṭiyye ) was established, which was later abolished and replaced by two quasi-judicial bodies, the dīwān-i ḍabṭiyye and med̲j̲lis-i taḥḳīḳ- After several further changes the mus̲h̲īr…

Deved̲j̲̇i̇

(197 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, a Turkish word meaning cameleer, the name given to certain regiments of the corps of janissaries [see yeni čeri ], forming part of the D̲j̲emāʿat , and performing escort duties with the supply columns. They were also called by the Persian term s̲h̲uturbān . The Deved̲j̲is originally formed the first five ortas of the Ḏj̲emaʿat (four according to D’Ohsson), and were later augmented to include many others. They wore heron’s feathers in their crests (see sorguč ); when attending the dīwān they wore velvet trimmed with sable and lynx fur. Deved̲j̲i officers enjoyed high precedence among the or…

Ḏj̲emʿiyyet-i ʿIlmiyye-i ʿOt̲h̲māniyye

(372 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
the Ottoman Scientific Society, was founded in Istanbul in 1861 by Munīf Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.]. Modelled on the Royal Society of England, and perhaps inspired by the reopening of the Institut d’Egypte [ q.v.] in Alexandria in 1859, it consisted of a group of Turkish officials, dignitaries and scholars, some of them educated in Europe. It was the third such learned society to appear in 19th century Turkey, having been preceded by the End̲j̲umen-i Dānis̲h̲ in 1851 (see and̲j̲uman ), and by the ‘learned society of Bes̲h̲iktas̲h̲’ in the time of Maḥmūd II (see D̲j̲ewdet, Taʾrīk̲h̲ 2

Tunali̊ Ḥilmī

(226 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, Turkish writer and politician. Born in Eskid̲j̲uma in 1863, he became involved in illegal political activities while still a medical student. After serving a brief term of imprisonment, he fled to Europe in 1895, and joined the Young Turk group in Geneva, where in 1896 he founded, with others, the Ottoman Revolutionary Party ( ʿOt̲h̲mānli̊ Ik̲h̲tilāl Fi̊rḳasi̊ ); he was particularly effective as a writer and propagandist with a simple and direct popular appeal. In 1900, together with ʿAbd Allāh D̲j̲ewdet and Isḥāḳ Sükūtī [ qq.v.], he made his peace with the Sultan and was appoi…

Daftardār

(728 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, in Turkish defterdār , keeper of the daftar [ q.v.], an Ottoman term for the chief finance officer, corresponding to the Mustawfī [ q.v.] in the eastern Islamic world. According to Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī ( Ṣubḥ , iii, 485, 494, 525, 526), the title Ṣāḥib al-Daftar already existed in the Fāṭimid administration, for the official in charge of the Daftar al-Mad̲j̲lis , that is, of accounts and audits. The title Daftark̲h̲ w ānDaftar -reader—appears in the time of Saladin (B. Lewis, Three Biographies from Kamāl ad-Dīn , in Fuad Köprülü Armağanı , Istanbul 1953, 343), and r…

Duyūn-i ʿUmūmiyye

(706 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, the Ottoman public debt, more particularly the debt administration set up in 1881. The Ottoman government had made its first attempts to raise money by internal loans in ¶ the late 18th and early 19th centuries (see ashām and ḳāʾime ). The needs and opportunities of the Crimean War brought a new type of loan, floated on the money markets of Europe. The first such foreign loan was raised in London in 1854, the second in the following year. They were for £ 3,000,000 at 6% and £ 5,000,000 at 4% respectively. Betwee…

Bayt al-Māl

(8,636 words)

Author(s): Coulson, N.J. | Cahen, Cl. | Lewis, B. | R. le tourneau
, in its concrete meaning “the House of wealth”, but particularly, in an abstract sense, the “fiscus” or “treasury” of the Muslim State. I. The Legal Doctrine. ‘Bilāl and his companions asked ʿUmar b. al-Ḵh̲aṭṭāb to distribute the booty acquired in Iraq and Syria. “Divide the lands among those who conquered them”, they said, “just as the spoils of the army are divided”. But ʿUmar refused their request . . . saying: “Allāh has given a share in these lands to those who shall come after you” ’ ( Kitāb al-Ḵh̲arād̲j̲ , 24. Le Livre de l’Impot Foncier , 37). In this alleged d…

Derebey

(1,591 words)

Author(s): Mordtmann, J.H. | Lewis, B.
, ‘valley lord’, the Turkish name popularly given to certain rulers in Asia Minor who, from the early 12th/18th century, made themselves virtually independent of the Ottoman central government in Istanbul. The Ottoman historians usually call them mutag̲h̲allibe , usurpers, or, when a politer designation was needed, K̲h̲ānedān . great families. The derebeys became in effect vassal princes, ruling over autonomous and hereditary principalities. In time of war they served, with their own contingents, in the Ottoman armies, w…

Baladiyya

(9,924 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B. | Hill, R.L. | Samaran, Ch. | Adam, A. | Lambton, A.K.S. | Et al.
, municipality, the term used in Turkish ( belediye ), Arabic, and other Islamic languages, to denote modern municipal institutions of European type, as against earlier Islamic forms of urban organisation [see madīna ]. The term, like so many modern Islamic neologisms and the innovations they express, first appeared in Turkey, where Western-style municipal institutions and services were introduced as part of the general reform programme of the Tanẓīmāt [ q.v.]. (1) turkey. The first approaches towards modern municipal administration seems to have been made by Sultan …

ʿAlids

(1,706 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, descendants of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, who had eighteen sons (according to most works on ʿAlid genealogy, but fourteen according to another version given by al-Ṭabarī and eleven according to al-Masʿūdī), and seventeen daughters. His sons were as follows: By Fāṭima; al-Ḥasan, al-Ḥusayn, and al-Muḥsin (or Muḥassin). The third does not appear in all sources. By Ḵh̲awla; Muḥammad, known as Ibn al-Ḥanafiyya. By Umm al-Banīn; ʿAbbās the elder, ʿAbd Allāh, ʿUt̲h̲mān the elder, Ḏj̲aʿfar the elder. By al-Ṣaḥbāʾ, called Umm Ḥabīb; ʿUmar. By Laylā bint Masʿūd; Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, ʿUbayd Allāh. B…

Bazīg̲h̲ b. Mūsā

(189 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, called al-ḥāʾik , S̲h̲īʿite heretic. A disciple of Abu ’l-Ḵh̲aṭṭāb [ q.v.], he was, like his master, denounced by the Imām Ḏj̲aʿfar al-Ṣādiḳ as a heretic and was even, according to Nawbak̲h̲tī, disowned by Abu ’l-Ḵh̲aṭṭāb himself. Kas̲h̲s̲h̲ī reports a tradition that when Ḏj̲aʿfar al-Ṣādiḳ was told that Bazīg̲h̲ had been killed, he expressed satisfaction. This would place Bazīg̲h̲’s death before that of D̲j̲aʿfar in 148/765. Like many of the early extremist S̲h̲īʿites, Bazīg̲h̲ was an artisan—a weaver of …

Ḥātim b. Hart̲h̲ama

(381 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, the son of Hart̲h̲ama b. Aʿyan [ q.v.], held a number of appointments in the service of the Caliphs. In a letter from al-Amīn to Ṣāliḥ, dated S̲h̲awwāl 192/July-August 808, i.e., nearly a year before the death of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd, the heir apparent advises his brother to confirm Ḥātim b. Hart̲h̲ama, like his father a man of proved loyalty, in his post, and to entrust him with the guarding of the Caliphal palaces (Ṭabarī, iii, 769; cf. Gabrieli, Documenti relativi al califfato di al-Amīn in aṭ-Ṭabarī , in Rend. Lin ., Ser. vi, vol. iii (1927), 203). Later, al-A…

Dustūr

(44,385 words)

Author(s): Ed. | Lewis, B. | Khadduri, M. | Lambton, A.K.S. | Caldwell, J.A.M. | Et al.
, in modern Arabic constitution. A word of Persian origin, it seems originally to have meant a person exercising authority, whether religious or political, and was later specialized to designate members of the Zoroastrian priesthood. It occurs in Kalīla wa-Dimna in the sense of “counsellor”, and recurs with the same sense, at a much later date, in the phrase Dustūr-i mükerrem , one of the honorific titles of the Grand Vizier in the Ottoman Empire. More commonly, dustūr was used in the sense of “rule” or “regulation”, and in particular the code of ru…

Biñbas̲h̲i̊

(326 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, ‘head of a thousand’, a Turkish military rank. The word appears at an early date among the Western Turks, and is already used in connexion with the military reorganisation said to have been made by Ork̲h̲ān in 729/1328-9 ( e.g., Saʿd al-Dīn, Tād̲j̲ al-Tawārīk̲h̲ , i, 40— ‘onbas̲h̲i̊s , yüzbas̲h̲i̊s , and biñbas̲h̲i̊s were appointed to them ...’). In the form miñbas̲h̲i̊ the term also occurs among the Eastern Turks, and is used, for example, of a rank in the Ṣafawid forces in Persia (V. Minorsky, Tad̲h̲kirat al-Mulūk , London 1943, 36, 74, 155). The title miñ-begi , wi…

al-ʿAyyās̲h̲ī

(192 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, abu ’l-naṣr muḥammad b. masʿūd b. muḥammad b. ʿayyās̲h̲ , a S̲h̲īʿite writer of the 3rd/9th century. He was a native of Samarḳand, and was said to have been descended from the tribe of Tamīm. Originally a Sunnī, he was converted while still young to S̲h̲īʿism, and studied under the disciples of ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan b. Faḍḍāl (d. 224/839-al-Ṭūsī 93) and of ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Ḵh̲ālid al-Ṭayālisī (al-Astarābādī, 211). He spent his patrimony of over 300,000 dīnārs on scholarship and…

Ḥukūma

(18,623 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B. | Ahmad, F. | Lambton, A.K.S. | Vatikiotis, P.J. | Tourneau, R. le | Et al.
, in modern Arabic “government”. Like many political neologisms in Islamic languages, the word seems to have been first used in its modern sense in 19th century Turkey, and to have passed from Turkish into Arabic and other languages. Ḥukūma comes from the Arabic root ḥ.k.m , with the meaning “to judge, adjudicate” (cf. the related meaning, dominant in Hebrew and other Semitic languages, of wisdom. See ḥikma ). In classical usage the verbal noun ḥukūma means the act or office of adjudication, of dispensing justice, whether by a sovereign, a judge, …

ʿAyn Ḏj̲ālūt

(947 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, spring of Goliath, mentioned by the mediaeval geographers as a village between Baysān and Nābulus, in the Ḏj̲und of Filasṭīn. It stood at the head of the Wādī Ḏj̲ālūt, and is said to have owed its name to a tradition that by it David slew Goliath (cf. A. S. Marmardji, Textes géographiques arabes sur la Palestine , Paris 1951, 152; G. Le Strange, Palestine, 384, 461). In the chronicles of the Crusaders the neighbourhood is called Tubania or Tubanie. It first achieves mention in ḎJ̲um. II 578/Sept. 1183, when the armies of Saladin and of the Franks camped th…

al-Ḥaramayn

(811 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, the two holy places, usually referring to Mecca and Medina, occasionally, in both Mamlūk and Ottoman usage, to Jerusalem and Hebron [see al-ḥaram al-s̲h̲arīf , al-k̲h̲alīl , al-ḳuds , al-madīna , makka . On the title Servant (or Protector) of the two holy places see k̲h̲ādim al-Ḥaramayn ]. The following article deals with the administration of Ottoman waḳfs in favour of the Holy Places. Such waḳfs were established, from early times by the Ottoman Sultans and by members of their household and court, and in the 9th/15th century were already administered by spe…

ʿArūs Resmi

(383 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, also resm-i ʿarūs, resm-i ʿarūsāne, ʿādet-i ʿarūsī, etc., in earlier times gerdek deg̲h̲eri and gerdek resmi; an Ottoman tax on brides. The standard rates were sixty aspers on girls and forty or thirty on widows and divorcees. There are sometimes lower rates for persons of medium and small means. In some areas the tax is assessed in kind. Non-Muslims are usually registered as paying half-rates, but occasionally double rates. On timar lands the tax was normally payable to the timar-holder, thou…

Tafarnud̲j̲

(497 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
(a.), from Ifrand̲j̲ [ q.v.], lit. “adopting, imitating or aping the manners and customs of the Franks, i.e. the Europeans”. The term was used by the pioneer journalist Ḵh̲alīl al-Ḵh̲ūrī in his satirical novella Way id̲h̲an lastu bi-Ifrand̲j̲ī (“Alas then, I am not a European”), published in the magazine Ḥadīḳat al-Ak̲h̲bār in 1860, and may be older. The Turkish alafranga [ lik ], from Italian alla franca, and the Persian g̲h̲arbzada [ ], literally “West-struck[ness]”, convey the same meaning. The latter term has been variously rendered as “Westosis” and “Westoxication”. During the…

Ḏj̲umhūriyya

(1,646 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, in Turkish d̲j̲ūmhūriyyet , republic, also republicanism, a term coined in Turkey in the late 18th century from the Arabic d̲j̲umhūr , meaning the crowd, mass, or generality of the people, and first used in connexion with the first French Republic. In classical Arabic, as for example in Arabic versions and discussions of Greek political writings, the usual equivalent of the Greek πολιτεία or Latin res publica, i.e., polity or commonweal, was madīna ; thus, the ‘democratic polity’ of Plato’s classification is called, by Fārābī and others, madīna d̲j̲amāʿiyya (Fārābī, Arāʾ ahl al-madī…

Ifrand̲j̲

(2,995 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B. | Hopkins, J.F.P.
or Firand̲j̲ , the Arabic term for the Franks. This name, which probably reached the Muslims via the Byzantines, was originally used of the inhabitants of the empire of Charlemagne, and later extended to Europeans in general. In medieval times it was not normally applied to the Spanish Christians [see andalus , d̲j̲illīḳiyya and below], the Slavs [see ṣaḳāliba ] or the Vikings [see mad̲j̲ūs ii], but otherwise was used fairly broadly of continental Europe and the British Isles. The land of the Franks was called ifrand̲j̲a (Persian and Turkish Firangistān ). The earliest Muslim notions o…

Di̇lsi̇z

(371 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, in Turkish tongueless, the name given to the deaf mutes employed in the inside service ¶ ( enderūn ) of the Ottoman palace, and for a while also at the Sublime Porte. They were also called by the Persian term bīzabārī , with the same meaning. They were established in the palace from the time of Meḥemmed II to the end of the Sultanate. Information about their numbers varies. According to ʿAṭāʾ, three to five of them were attached to each chamber ( Kog̲h̲us̲h̲ ); Rycaut speaks of ‘about forty’. A document of the time of Muṣṭafā II (d. 1115/1703), cited by U…

ʿĀs̲h̲iḳ

(282 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, an Arabic word meaning lover, frequently in the mystical sense. Among the Anatolian and Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ānī Turks, from the late 9th/15th or 10th/16th century, it is used of a class of wandering poet-minstrels, who sang and recited at public gatherings. Their repertoire included religious and erotic songs, elegies and heroic narratives. At first they followed the syllabic prosody of the popular poets, but later were subjected to Persian influence, both directly and through the Persian-influenced…

Daftar

(4,995 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, a stitched or bound booklet, or register, more especially an account or letter-book used in administrative offices. The word derives ultimately from the Greek διφθέρα “hide”, and hence prepared hide for writing. It was already used in ancient Greek in the sense of parchment or, more generally, writing materials. In the 5th century B.C. Herodotus (v, 58) remarks that the lonians, like certain Barbarians of his own day, had formerly written on skins, and still applied the term diphthera to papyrus rolls; in the 4th Ctesias ( in Diodorus Siculus ii, 32; cf. A. Christensen, Heltedigtning og …

Čes̲h̲mīzāde

(199 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, Muṣṭafā Ras̲h̲īd , Ottoman historian and poet, one of a family of ʿulamāʾ founded by the Ḳāḍīʿasker of Rumelia, Čes̲h̲mī Meḥmed Efendi (d. 1044/1634) A grandson of the S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islām Meḥmed Ṣāliḥ Efendi, and the son of a ḳāḍī in the Ḥid̲j̲āz, he entered the ʿIlmiyye profession, and held various legal and teaching posts. After the resignation of the Imperial historiographer Meḥmed Ḥākim Efendi [ q.v.], he was appointed to this office, which he held for a year and a half. He then returned to his teaching career, which culminated in his appointment as müderris at…

Elči

(636 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, a Turkish word meaning envoy, from el or il, country, people, or state, with the occupational suffix či (= d̲j̲i ). In some eastern Turkish texts the word appears to denote the ruler of a land or people; its normal meaning, however, since early times, has been that of envoy or messenger, usually in a diplomatic, sometimes, in mystical literature, in a figurative religious sense. In Ottoman Turkish it became the normal word for an ambassador, together with the more formal Arabic term sefīr . From an early date the Ottoman sultans exchanged occasional diplo…

al-ʿAskarī

(607 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAli b. Muḥammad. the tenth Imām of the Twelver S̲h̲īʿa. He is commonly known as al-Naḳī and al-Hādī. He was the son of the ninth Imām Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Riḍā [ q.v.], and was born in Medīna. Most S̲h̲īʿite authorities give the date of his birth as Rad̲j̲ab 214/Sept. 829, though others say that he was born in Ḏh̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 212 or 213/Feb.-March 828 or 829. His mother, according to some sources, was Umm al-Faḍl, the daughter of al-Maʾmūn; according to others she was a Mag̲h̲ribī Umm Walad called Sumāna or Sūsan. The latter story seems more l…

Babadag̲h̲i̊

(771 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
a town in the Dobrud̲j̲a, now part of Rumania. Its Turkish name refers to the semi-legendary dervish (Baba) Sari̊ Salti̊ḳ, who is said to have led a number of Anatolian Turcomans to the Dobrud̲j̲a in the mid-thirteenth century, and to have settled with them in the neighbourhood of Babadag̲h̲i̊. (On this settlement see Paul Wittek, Yazijiog̲h̲lu ʿAlī on the Christian Turks of the Dobruja , in BSOAS, 1952 xvi, 639 ff.). There are several tombs of Sari̊ Salti̊ḳ in various towns; the most generally accepted is that of Babadag̲h̲i̊. What appears to be the first refer…

Ḥasan Fehmī

(190 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, a Turkish journalist who achieved a brief celebrity in 1909 as editor of the newspaper Serbestī , in which he made violent attacks on the Committee of Union and Progress [see ittiḥād we teraḳḳī ]. His murder on the Galata bridge by an unknown assailant on the night of 6-7 April 1909 (n.s.) was blamed by both the liberals and the Muhammadan Union [see ittiḥād-i muḥammedī ] jon the Committee, and his funeral was made the occasion for hostile demonstrations and speeches. A period of mounting tension followed, culminating in the mutiny of troops of the First Army Corps on 31 March o.s. = 13 April n.s. (…

K̲h̲alaf b. Mulāʿib al-As̲h̲habī

(263 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, with the laḳab sayf al-dawla , ruler of Ḥimṣ and Afāmiya in the late 5th/11th century. He was ¶ accused of various misdeeds, including brigandage, and is said, during a siege of Salamiyya, to have thrown the S̲h̲arīf Ibrāhīm al-Hās̲h̲īmī against the tower from a mangonel. In 483/1090, complaints were sent to the Sultan Maliks̲h̲āh, who ordered his brother Tutus̲h̲, the ruler of Damascus, and other rulers of Syrian cities to proceed against him. A joint expedition captured Ḥimṣ, and K̲h̲alaf was sent in an iron c…

ʿĀsḳalān

(1,173 words)

Author(s): Hartmann, R. | Lewis, B.
, a town on the coast of southern Palestine, one (Hebrew: ʾAs̲h̲ḳelōn) of the five Philistine towns known to us from the Old Testament; in the Roman period, as oppidum Ascalo liberum , it was (according to Schrürer, Geschichte des Jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu 2, ii, 65-7) "a flourishing Hellenistic town famous for its cults and festal games" (Dercetis-Aphrodite-shrine); in the Christian period a bishop’s see (tomb of the tres fratres martyres Aegyptii ). ʿAsḳalān was one of the last towns of Palestine to fall into the hands of the Muslims. It was taken şulḥ an by Muʿāwiya shortly aft…

D̲j̲ānīkli Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲i ʿAlī Pas̲h̲a

(459 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, Ottoman soldier and founder of a Derebey [ q.v.] family. He was born in Istanbul in 1133/1720-21, the son of Aḥmed Ag̲h̲a, a ḳapi̊d̲j̲i̊-bas̲h̲i̊ at the Imperial palace. As a youth he accompanied his elder brother Suleymān Pas̲h̲a to D̲j̲ānīk, where he eventually succeeded him as ruler with the title, customary among the autonomous derebeys, of muḥaṣṣil [ q.v.]. During the Russo-Turkish war of 1182/1768-1188/1774. he held a number of military commands. Serving first in Georgia, he was appointed in D̲j̲umādā II 1183/September-October 1769 to the staff …

Başvekil

(147 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
( bas̲h̲wakīl ), theTurkish for Prime Minister. The term was first introduced in 1254/1838, when, as part of a general adoption of European nomenclature, this title was assumed by the Chief Minister in place of Grand Vezir or Ṣadr-i Aʿẓam [ q.v.]. The change of style was of short duration, lasting only for 14½ months, after which the old title was restored. A second attempt to introduce the European title was made during the first constitutional period. Introduced in Ṣafar 1295/Feb. 1878, it was dropped after 114 days, restored in S̲h̲…

Čas̲h̲nagīr-Bas̲h̲i̊

(245 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
chief taster, a high official of the Ottoman court. Already under the Sald̲j̲ūḳids and other Anatolian dynasties the čas̲h̲nagīr , amīr čas̲h̲nagīr or amīr-i d̲h̲awwāḳ appears among the most important officers of the Sultan. Ibn Bībī ( Al-Awāmir al-ʿAlāʾiyya , edd. Necati Lugal and Adnan Sadık Erzi, Ankara 1957, 164) mentions the čas̲h̲nagīr together with the mīr āk̲h̲ūr and the amīr mad̲j̲lis . In the Ḳānūnnāme of Meḥemmed II ( TOEM Supplement 1330 A.H. 11-12) the čas̲h̲nagīr-bas̲h̲i̊ appears as one of the ag̲h̲as of the stirrup, in the group headed by the ag̲h̲a

Ibn ʿAttās̲h̲

(504 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, ʿAbd al-Malik , an Ismāʿīlī dāʿī who in the mid-5th/11th century was in charge of the Daʿwa in ʿIrāḳ and western Persia. Information about him is scanty. According to the autobiography of Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ [ q.v.], he went to Rayy in Ramaḍān 464/May-June 1072, and enrolled Ḥasan in the Daʿwa. He is also said to have won over the Raʾīs Muẓaffar of Girdkūh, later one of the most active leaders of the Nizārīs. Ẓahīr al-Dīn and Rāwandī also allude to his relations with Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ. According to this version, ʿAbd al-Malik, a resident of Iṣfahān, …

Čaki̊rd̲j̲i̊-Bas̲h̲i̊

(142 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, chief falconer, a high official of the Ottoman court. In the Ḳānūnnāme of Meḥemmed II ( TOEM Supp. 1330 A.H., 12) he is mentioned among the ag̲h̲a s of the stirrup, immediately before the čas̲h̲nagīr-bas̲h̲i̊ [ q.v.]. During the 16th century the numbers and sub-divisions of the ag̲h̲as of the hunt ( s̲h̲ikār ag̲h̲alari̊ ) increased greatly, and the Čaki̊rd̲j̲i̊-bas̲h̲i̊ is joined by separate officers in charge of the peregrines, lanners, and sparrow-hawks ( S̲h̲ahind̲j̲i-bas̲h̲i̊ , Dog̲h̲and̲j̲i̊-bas̲h̲i̊ , and Atmad̲j̲ad̲j̲i̊-bas̲h̲i̊ ). Until the ti…

Abu ’l-K̲h̲attāb Muḥammad b. Abī Zaynab Miḳlaṣ al-Ad̲j̲daʿ al-Asadī

(493 words)

Author(s): Lewis, B.
, Muslim heresiarch. According to al-Kas̲h̲s̲h̲ī, his father was Miḳlaṣ b. Abi ’l-Ḵh̲aṭṭāb, and he himself used the kunyas Abū Ismāʿīl and Abu ’l-Ẓubyān. He was a Kūfan and a mawlā of the tribe of Asad. In the Nuṣayrī writings he is also called al-Kāhilī. He was one of the chief dāʿīs of the Imām Ḏj̲aʿfar al-Ṣādik, but fell into error and taught false doctrines, as a result of which he was repudiated and denounced by the Imām. Seventy of his followers, assembled in the mosque of Kūfa, were attacked by order of the governor …
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