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, town in Egypt on the western bank of the Suez Canal and on the northern shore of Lake Timsāḥ. The town originated from huts of workers and engineers engaged in excavating the Suez Canal. Its foundations were laid by the Inspector General of the Suez Canal Company on 27 April 1862. After the succession of the Khedive Ismāʿīl to the throne on 18 January 1863 it was called Ismāʿīliyya. In 1864 a network of streets and quarters, a central square ( maydān ), a government building ( sarāy ) and a pump for water-supply were established, and in 1868 the town was conn…

This Persian term “master of the house, head of the family”, Pahlavi katak-xvatai, acquired, in addition to the above meanings, those of husband, chief of a tribe, headman of a village and tithe-officer in a town (Chardin, Voyages , ed. 1811, iv, 77, “dixenier de quartier”) responsible to the kalāntar [ q.v.] (cf. M. Muʿīn, Persian dictionary, Tehran 1345, iii, 2921). In Ottoman Turkish, it evolved into the form k y ahya , with the meanings “steward of a household”, “head of an artisans’ gild” (see below). (i) In Ottoman Turkish administrative usage Already in Il-K̲h̲ānid Persia we find the ka…

or Abʿādiyya (pl. abāʿid ) was the term used in 19th century Egypt for land surveyed in 1813 under Muḥammad ʿAlī, but not included in the cadaster and not taxed because it was uncultivated. These lands extended over an area of 0.75 to 1.0 million feddān s (a feddān amounted, at the end of Muḥammad ʿAlī’s rule, to 4,416.5 square metres). To increase the country’s wealth he made free grants of ibʿādiyya to high officials and notables, exempting them from taxes on condition that they improved the land and prepared it for cultivation. The first re…

, the term used for the administration of crown lands in the Ottoman Empire during the last quarter of the 19th century. Saniyya lands were the mulk (private freehold) of the Sultan. They were administered by a well-organised establishment, the Dāʾira Saniyya , which had branch offices in areas where these lands were abundant. After the revolution of 1908, Sultan ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd II ceded his private properties to the state. The lands continued to be called saniyya , but they were transferred to the newly-formed department of al-Amlāk al-mudawwara . Within months of the accession to the…

, the élite or veterans of an Ottoman guild or army unit ( od̲j̲aḳ ). Ik̲h̲tiyār , “choice” in Arabic, had acquired the meaning of “old” both in Turkish and in modern Arabic, and thus came to designate the chosen and the elders of certain units, two attributes which in traditional society were virtually identical. The od̲j̲aḳ ik̲h̲tiyārlari̊ in Ottoman Egypt consisted of retired officers and veterans of the od̲j̲aḳs, and their function was mainly ceremonial and advisory. They were headed by a bās̲h̲ ik̲h̲tiyār . In the guilds the informal group of ik̲h̲tiyāriyya wa…

, or in Ottoman Turkish also Ḥaṣi̊r , were the words used for monopolies and restrictive practices of Ottoman guilds, the full term being inḥiṣār-i beyʿi ve s̲h̲irā . These monopolies included restrictions concerning the number or kind of people allowed to perform a trade or a profession, as well as limitations imposed on production or on commerce. Restrictions of this kind were considered necessary and beneficial to society. As against this, monopolistic hoarding or cornering was condemned and prohib…

, one of the two subdivisions of Muḍar, which along with Rabīʿa was reckoned as constituting the sons of ʿAdnān, the so-called Northern Arabs [see d̲j̲azīrat al-ʿarab ]. The other subdivision of Muḍar was K̲h̲indif or al-Yās. ʿAylān is sometimes said to be the father of Ḳays, but it is more likely that the double name means “Ḳays (owner) of ʿAylān” (sc. a horse, dog or slave). The following is an abbreviated genealogical table: ¶ Ḳays ʿAylān does not appear to have functioned as a unit before Islam, and in the accounts of “the days of the Arabs” o…

, a system whereby a debtor landowner transfers part of his plot, and the right to cultivate it, as security on a loan until redemption. Other Arabic terms for the same system were rahn ḥiyāzī and bayʿ bi’l- istig̲h̲lāl , and in Ottoman Turkey istig̲h̲lāl (Pakalın, ii, 97). This is the French antichrèse . It is not identical with al-bayʿ bi’l- wafāʾ (the French vente à réméré ), i.e. a “conditional sale” to the lender to be nullified as soon as the debt is redeemed, a system preferred by fellahs who hesitate to part with the material posse…

, one of the various forms of long-term lease of waḳf property. Originally, the aim of these contracts was to give tenants an incentive to maintain and ameliorate dilapidated waḳf properties, which are inalienable. In exchange, the tenant is granted—according to different schools of law or interpretations—priority of lease, the right of permanent lease, the usufruct of the property or even co-proprietorship with the waḳf Ḥikr contracts, which were common in Egypt and Syria, are perpetual or made for a long duration. The tenant may erect …

, commercial privileges, capitulations. i. The earliest documentary evidence for commercial privileges emanating from Muslim chanceries in the Mediterranean world dates from the 6th/12th century. While it is unlikely that these documents represent the earliest manifestation of that diplomatic and commercial activity between rulers of Islam and Christendom which culminated in the Ottoman Capitulations, it is probably useless to speculate upon either the form or the language of chancery instruments bef…