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, Armenia, a country of Hither Asia. I. Geographical Outline. Armenia is the central and most elevated part of Hither Asia. Encompassed between two mountain chains, the Pontic chain to the north and the chain of the Taurus to the south, it lies between Asia Minor to the west of the Euphrates, Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān and the region south-west of the Caspian (on a level with the confluence of the Kurr [Kura] and the Araxes) to the east, the Pontic regions to the north-west, the Caucasus (from which the line of the…

, locusts. The word is a collective noun, the nom. unit, being d̲j̲arāda , which is applied to the male and the female alike. No cognate synonym seems to exist in the other Semitic languages. For the different stages of the locust’s development the Arabic language possesses special names (such as sirwa , dabā , g̲h̲awghāʾ , k̲h̲ayfān , etc.) which, however, are variously defined by different authorities. Being found in abundance in the homeland of the Arabs, locusts were often mentioned and described in ancient Arabic poetry and proverbs. In the Ḳurʾān they figu…

(a.) “water”. The present article covers the religio-magical and the Islamic legal aspects of water, together with irrigation techniques, as follows: 1. Hydromancy A a vehicle for the sacred, water has been employed for various techniques of divination, and in particular, for potamonancy (sc. divination by means of the colour of the waters of a river and their ebbing and flowing; cf. FY. Cumont, Études syriennes , Paris 1917, 250 ff., notably on the purification power of the Euphrates, consulted for divinatory reasons); for pegomancy (sc…

, a name formed in the same way as Diyār Bakr [ q.v.], is the province of the Ḏj̲azīra whose territory is watered by the Euphrates and its tributary the Balīk̲h̲ as well as by the lower reaches of the K̲h̲ābūr. It extends on both banks of the Euphrates from Sumaysāṭ (Samosata) in the north to ʿAnā (ʿĀnāt) in the south. The principal town of the Diyār Muḍar was al-Raḳḳa on the left bank of the Euphrates; other major towns were Ḥarrān on the Balīk̲h̲, Edessa (al-Ruhā, Urfa), capital of Osrhoene, and Sarūd̲j̲ …

, by-name first given to Aḥmad b. ʿUmar (d. 415/1024), of the family of the Āl al-Raḳil, and name by which his descendants were known until the 6th/12th century. The most important member of the family was his grandson, Abu ’l-Ḳāsim ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn, known also by the honorific title of raʾīs al-ruʾasāʾ , vizier to the caliphate from 437 to 450/1045-58, concerning whom there have arisen a number of important questions which have not yet been satisfactorily answered. The conquest of Bag̲h̲dād by the Būyids in 334/945 had led …

, governor of Fārs under the Sald̲j̲ūḳs. Būz-Abeh was one of the amīr s of Mengubars, the governor of Fārs, for whom he administered the province of Ḵh̲ūzistān. He was also in the army of his superior when the latter, accompanied by other amīrs, moved against the Sald̲j̲ūḳ sultan Masʿūd and was made prisoner at the battle of Kurs̲h̲anba (other sources call the scene of the encounter Pand̲j̲ Angus̲h̲t), later being put to death, in 532/1137-38. Since, after their victory, the sultan’s troops began to plunder the enemy camp, Būz-Abeh attacked and dispersed them. Several prominent amīrs of th…

, the most important of the dynasties which, first in the Iranian plateau then in ʿIrāḳ, side by side with the Sāmānids of Ḵh̲urāsān and of Māwarāʾ al-Nahr, marked the “Iranian intermezzo” (Minorsky) between the Arab domination of early Islam and the Turkish conquest of the 5th/11th century. Its name derives from Buwayh or Būyeh, the father of three brothers who founded it, ʿAlī, al-Ḥasan, and the youngest, Aḥmad. Condottieri of humble birth, they belonged to the population of the Daylamites [ q.v.] who, newly won over to (S̲h̲iʿī) Islam, were at that time enlisting in large …

, Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamza b. Asad ... al-Tamīmī ( ca. 465-555/1073-1160), a member of an important family of Damascus, who for a time was raʾīs of that town, and above all was its historian for the period extending from the middle of the 4th/10th century to 555/1160. The History of Ibn al-Ḳalānisī, known simply by the title D̲h̲ayl tāʾrīk̲h̲ Dimas̲h̲ḳ , consists of two parts, the limits being somewhat imprecise. The first part, the opening pages of which are lost, and which goes down approximately to the time of the author’s youth, is based…

, better known by his laḳab of Rukn al-Dīn, one of the sons and successors of K̲h̲usraw II (1246). It was at the beginning of the period of the Mongol protectorate that, the three sons of the late sovereign all being minors, the senior amirs, in order to safeguard the unity of the state, sought to install, under their own executive power, a sultanate shared jointly between the three young princes; Ḳi̊li̊d̲j̲ Arslan was sent on a mission to the Mongol chief Batu to persuade him to accept this solution. This very mission alone established a…

, the term used to designate the sort of indefinitely renewed contract through which the Muslim community accords hospitality and protection to members of other revealed religions, on condition of their acknowledging the domination of Islam. The beneficiaries of the d̲h̲imma are called d̲h̲immīs , and are collectively referred to as ahl al-d̲h̲imma or simply d̲h̲imma. An account of the doctrinal position of Islam vis-à-vis the religions in question, and of the polemics between the two sides, is given in the article ahl al-kitāb ; for a detailed account of …

(and not Abak), was one of the chiefs of the Turkomāns (perhaps of the tribe of the Īwāī and perhaps at the beginning of the Sald̲j̲ūḳid expansion established in Ḵh̲wārizm), who in 1070 had followed Erisgen (?), husband of a daughter of Alp-Arslan, into Asia Minor in his flight to Byzantine territory; but he refused to take service in the Christian army, and had responded to the appeal made to him by the Fāṭimid government, requesting him to come and bring some of the Palestine Bedouin to heel (…

, pl. ḳaṭāʾīʿ , a Muslim administrative term designating, on the one hand, those concessions made to private individuals on state lands in the first centuries of the Hid̲j̲ra (see ḍayʿa ), and, on the other hand, the fixed sum of a tax or tribute, in contradistinction to taxation by proportional method or some variable means. The verb ḳaṭaʿa is also used to mean “to impose”, normally followed by ḳaṭīʿatan . (C. Cahen)

, a name formed in the same way as Diyār Bakr [ q.v.], is the most eastern and the largest province of the D̲j̲azīra. It includes three regions: that of the K̲h̲ābūr and its tributary the Hirmās (D̲j̲ag̲h̲d̲j̲ag̲h̲) and their sources, i.e., the slopes of the Ṭūr ʿAbdīn; that which is contained between the Hirmās and the Tigris, the former Bēt̲h̲ ʿArabāyē with the D̲j̲abal Sind̲j̲ār; and that on both banks of the Tigris between Tell Fāfān and Takrīt, which marks the boundary with ʿIrāḳ. The lower reaches of the two Zābs are also include…

, son and successor of Masʿūd I, and one of the most important sultans of Rūm (1155-92). Masʿūd had, in dealing with the Greeks, succeeded in restoring the position of the Sald̲j̲ūḳs in relation to the Dānis̲h̲mendids who were divided by quarrels over the succession. Ḳi̊li̊d̲j̲ Arslan at first maintained this policy, and carried it to the extent of offering the Basileus Manuel Comnenus at Constantinople in 1162 a form of allegiance which, in concrete terms, cost him nothing. He was then able to make himself mast…

, in Persian, ‘taster’, title of an official, generally an amīr , at the court of the Muslim sovereigns (including the Mamlūks) from the time of the Sald̲j̲ūkids. It is not always clear in what way he is connected with the overseer of the food, k̲h̲ w ānsalār ; perhaps the two are often confused. The title does not appear to be found, even in Iran, under previous dynasties, although caliphs and princes did undoubtedly have overseers for their food, and even had it tasted before they eat, as the dishes were always suspected of being poisoned. The term čās̲h̲na-gīr is also…

, a term invented in about the 2nd/8th century as the counterpart of muruwwa [ q.v.], the qualities of the mature man, to signify that which is regarded as characteristic of the fatā , pl. fityān , literally “young man”; by this term it has become customary to denote various movements and organizations which until the beginning of the modern era were wide-spread throughout all the urban communities of the Muslim East. The study of these movements is made difficult by the fact that, in the course of history, t…

, a mediaeval artillery engine. In general, from Europe to China, there were everywhere in existence two main types of engines of projection which were operated by more than one man. In the case of the one, the heavy type of engine, the projectile was hurled from a great distance by virtue of the centrifugal force produced by the rocking of a great arm: these were the mand̲j̲anīḳ or mangonels; in the case of the other, a lighter engine, the projectile was discharged by the impact of a shaft forcibly impelled by the release of a rope: these were the ʿarrāda . The principle of the ʿarrāda only differs…

, "gift", the term most commonly employed to denote, in the early days of Islam, the pension of Muslims, and, later, the pay of the troops. It is impossible to give here the history of the system of pay throughout the Muslim world, and this article will be confined to a general outline. The traditional starting-point is the organisation of the pensions by ʿUmar b. al-Ḵh̲aṭṭāb. The first Muslims had derived no material advantage except their share of the booty from successful expeditions. The flow of taxes into the coffers of the nascent caliphate …

Originally applied to military and religious expeditions organized in Western Europe and intended to take back from and defend against Islam the Holy Places of Palestine and nearby Syria, the term was later extended to all wars waged against "infidels" and even to any undertaking carried out in the name of a worthy or supposedly worthy cause; naturally these extensions of meaning are not part of our present concern. The first Crusade (1096-99), following on from expeditions against the Muslims in the West, led to the establishment around Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antio…

, al-malik al-amd̲j̲ad , b. Farruk̲h̲ S̲h̲āh b. S̲h̲āhāns̲h̲āh b. Ayyūb, grand nephew of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, was appointed by the latter to succeed his father at Baʿlbak when the latter died in 578/1182 (ʿImād al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī, al-Barḳ al-S̲h̲āmī , Bodl. MS. Marsh 425, 36r°, followed by Abū S̲h̲āma, Rawḍatayn 1, Cairo, 33-4), and kept Baʿlbak when the Ayyūbid territories were divided up after the death of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn. From then on he seems always to have been a faithful vassal of the Ayyūbid ruling at Damascus (Ibn Wāṣil, Mufarrid̲j̲ , years 599, 603, 606, 618, 62…