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, Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAntar al-Ḥillī, best known under his Sibylline surname of S̲h̲umaym, usually without the definite article, littérateur of mediaeval ʿIrāḳ (511-601/1117-1204). Originally from the Mazyadid centre of al-Ḥilla [ q.vv.], he later moved to Bag̲h̲dād where he studied and tried to earn his living, but we know very little of this period of his life. In any case, he did not stay there long but preferred to move to Syria and Diyār Bakr, where he found generous patrons whom he eulogised in return for substantial presents; finally, he settled at Mawṣil, where he died. H…

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, Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Kamāl al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Muʾmi…

(a.), originally, the formal expression of the oracular pronouncement. 1. As magical utterances in pre-Islamic Arabian usage. Here, sad̲j̲ʿ was the rhythmical style practised by the Arab kāhin s [ q.v.] and kāhina s [see al-kāhina ], a style intermediate between that of the versified oracular utterances of the Sibylls and Pythians and that of the prose utterances of Apollo (see P. Amandry, La mantique apollinienne à Delphes . Essai sur le fonctionnement de l’oracle, diss. Paris 1950, 15). These utterances are "formulated in short, rhymed phrases, with rhythmical caden…

(a.), poet. ¶ 1. In the Arab world. A. Pre-Islamic and Umayyad periods. Among those endowed with knowledge and with power in ancient Arabia stands the figure of the …