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( Hōl ), "father of terror", the Arabic name for the sphinx of Ḏj̲īza (Gizeh). Some authors simply call it al-ṣanam , "the idol", but the name Abu ’l-Hawl is already attested for the Fāṭimid ¶ period. At that time the Coptic name Belhīt ( Belhīb ), or as al-Kuḍāʿī (quoted by al-Maḳrīzī) has it: Belhūba ( Belhawba ), was also still known. The Arabic Abu ’l-Hawl is most probably a popular etymology based on the Coptic designation; the initial B probably represents the Coptic article, which has been transformed in Arabic, as often happened, into Abū. In the old tradition the n…

is a town in Egypt. ʿAyn S̲h̲ams is the Arabic name of the ancient Egyptian town of Ōn, which the Greeks called Heliopolis because of its famous sun-temple. A recollection of this cult is contained in the Arabic name (“the spring, or the eye, of the sun”), which must be a popular arabicised form of an old name. In the first centuries of Islam ʿAyn S̲h̲ams was still, according to some authorities, an important town, and the capital of a district ( kūra ), but according to others, a collection of ruins used as a public quarry. The Fāṭimid al-ʿAzīz built cas…

Yaḥyā b. Tamīm b. Muʿizz b. Bādīs al-Ṣinhād̲j̲ī , al-Afḍal Rukn al-Dīn Abu ’l-Faḍl , Fāṭimid vizier, a descendant of the Zīrids [ q.v.] of North Africa. He seems to have been born shortly before 509/1115, for in that year he was still a nursling. His father was then in prison and was banished in 509 to Alexandria, whither his wife Bullāra and the little ʿAbbās accompanied him. After Abu ’l-Futuḥ’s death his widow married Ibn Sallār [see al-ʿĀdil ibn Sallār ], commandant of Alexandria and al-Buḥayra, one of the most powerful generals of the Fāṭimid empir…

, town in Upper Egypt. Asyūṭ, the largest and busiest town of Upper Egypt, is situated Lat. 27º 11′ N. on the wast bank of the Nile. Owing to its situation in one of the most fertile and sheltered districts of the cultivable Nile valley, and also to its being the natural terminus of great desert highways it was in antiquity an important town (Syowt, Greek: Lykopolis) and the chief town of a Nomos. Under Islām Asyūṭ remained the chief town of a kūra (modern markaz , "district"), and on the inauguration of the division into provinces became the capital of a province ( ʿamal , now mudīriyya ). Asyūṭ is th…

(Bābalyūn), a town in Egypt. The name Babylon of the mediaeval Egyptian town in the neighbourhood of the modern Caïro is according to Casanova the Graëcised form of an ancient Egyptian Pi-Hapi-n-On through assimilation to the Asiatic βαβυλών which was familiar to the Greeks. This etymology is not quite free from objections but there is no doubt that some ancient Egyptian place-name underlies it. By the name is meant the ancient town and fortification of the Greeks which — situated on the borders…

, a tributary of the White Nile and the name of a province in the Egyptian Sūdān. The Baḥr al-G̲h̲azāl, “the river of gazelles”, arises from the union of numerous small streams which flow north and north-east from the watershed between the Congo and the Nile and receives its most important tributary the Baḥr al-Arab, from Dārfūr. After its junction with the Baḥr al-Ḏj̲abal which flows from the Central African lakes, the name of Baḥr al-Abyaḍ i. e. White Nile is given to the river they form. The …

is a town in upper Egypt. Ak̲h̲mīm is the old-Egyptian Epu or Ḵh̲entē-Min, hence Coptic S̲h̲min, Arabic Ak̲h̲mīm or Ik̲h̲mīm; the Greeks called it Chemmis or Panopolis. It lies on the eastern bank of the Nile 26° 35ʹ N. Lat. and has now 28 000 inhabitants. In the early Arabian time it was the metropolis of a separate canton ( kūra), from the end of the time of the Fāṭimides until the time of the Mamelukes it was the capital of the province of Ik̲h̲mīmīya. To-day it belongs to the district Sōtāg in the province of Girgā. In the Middle Ages Ak̲h̲mīm was a flourishing town, surrounded by arabl…

, town in Upper Egypt. Al-As̲h̲mūnain, more correctly al-Us̲h̲mūnain, lies between the Nile and the Bahr Yūsuf, about 27° 47′ N. Lat., not far from the railway-station Rōḍa in Upper Egypt. It is a small country-town ( Nāḥiya) of 3855 (including 3 dependencies, 7729) inhabitants, and belongs to the district ( Markaz) of Mallawī in the province of Asyūṭ. This place which is now quite unimportant was formerly one of the chief towns of Egypt. The name — an Arabic dual — corresponds to die old Egyptian Ḵh̲mūnu, the Coptic S̲h̲mūn; the Greeks and Romans calle…

(Barābira) is the plural of Barbarī and in Egypt denotes the Nubians or as they are now usually called, Berbers. Their home is the upper valley of the Nile from the neighbourhood of Assuan to Dongola. The visitor to any portion of this district is struck by the small number of men met with; one sees only women, children and old men. The fertile area is not large but the population is numerous, so the men go to Egypt where they find employment as domestic servants, cooks, coachmen, doorkeepers, r…

, town in Middle Egypt.Aṭfīḥ (also written with t instead of ṭ), is a small town of 4300 inhabitants on the East bank of the Nile on the eminence of the Faiyum. The old-Egyptian name of the town was Tep-yeh or Per Hathor nebt Tep-yeh, i. e. “house of Hathor, lady of Tepyeh”. From this the Copts obtained the form Petpeh, the Arabs Aṭfīḥ; the Greeks identifying Hathor with Aphrodite called the town Aphroditopolis, abbreviated to Aphrodito. The town must still have possessed importance in the Christian period…

, town in Upper Egypt. Asyūṭ, the largest and most commercial town of Upper Egypt, is situated 27° 11’ N. Lat. on the west bank of the Nile. Owing to its situation in one of the most fertile and compact districts of the cultivable Nile-valley, and also to its being the natural terminus of great desert-highways it was in antiquity an important town (Syowt, Greek: Lykopolis) and the chief town of a Nomos. Under Islām Asyūṭ remained the chief town of a Kūra (modern markaz, “district”), and on the inauguration of the division into provinces became the capital of a province ( ʿAmal, now Mudīrīya). The …

, more correctly Berbe, the Arab name for the ruins of Egyptian temples. Every pagan temple and every ancient building is called Barbā ( Kull haikal wa kull maṣnaʿ ḳadīm: Ibn Ḏj̲ubair, Riḥla, ed. de Goeje, 61, 3). The word is borrowed from Coptic in which p’erpe means temple. Among travellers and geographers the temples of Ak̲h̲mīm are the Barābā (the plural form barbayāt also appears) par excellence. Maḳrīzī, Ibn Ḏj̲ubair and others use the word while describing Ak̲h̲mīm. It is next applied to all temples and even to pagodas. The word has survived in Egypt in …

The name Egypt — the etymology is more correctly preserved in the German form Ägypten — is derived from the Greek ΑἴγυπτοΣ of which only the abbreviation Ḳibṭ survived into the Muhammadan period as the name of the inhabitants of the country. The land itself is known by the old Semitic name the Arabic form of which is Miṣr; from this the colloquial language has made Masr. The Muslim conquest began at the end of the year 18 = 639. From that year to the present day Egypt has been one of the centres of the political, cultural…

, Muslim statesman and general. Abū Yaḥyā ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿd b. Abī Sarḥ al-ʿĀmirī belonged to the clan of ʿĀmīr b. Luʾayy of Ḳurays̲h̲ and was as foster brother of the subsequent caliph ʿUt̲h̲mān a chief partisan of the Umayyads. He was less a soldier than a financier. The judgements of historians on his character vary greatly. His name is connected in many ways with the beginnings of Islam. First he is mentioned as one of Muḥammad’s scribes: he is supposed to have arbitrarily altered the revel…

, formerly much the commonest Arabic name for the Red Sea, from Ḳulzum [ q.v.], the ancient Clysma, near Suez; the article is usually omitted when the name of the town is written alone, but retained when the sea is mentioned. It was also called Baḥr al-Ḥid̲j̲āz, a common name which survived to modern times, al-Ḵh̲alīd̲j̲ al-ʿArabī, and, in Turkish, S̲h̲āb deñizi (Ṣap denizi), “the Coral Sea’. The names Ḵh̲alīd̲j̲ Ayla, strictly the Gulf of ʿAḳaba, and Baḥr al-Yaman, properly applicable to the southern part of…

(Babylon), a town in Egypt. The name Babylon, denoting the mediaeval Egyptian town in the neighbourhood of the modern Cairo, is, according to Casanova, the Graëcised form of an ancient Egyptian Pi-Hapi-n-On through assimilation to the Asiatic βαβυλών which was familiar to the Greeks. This etymology is not quite free from objections but there is no doubt that some ancient Egyptian place-name underlies it. By the name is meant the ancient town and fortification of the Greeks which — situated on th…

(ar.) “broker”, “agent”. Dallāl , literally “guide”; is the popular Arabic word for simsār , sensal . In the Tād̲j̲ al-ʿArūs we find, on the word simsār: “This is the man known as a dallāl ; he shows the purchaser where to find the goods he requires, and the seller how to exact his price”. Very little is known from the Arabic sources about the origins of these brokers, who have been of such great importance in economic affairs. The dallāl corresponded to the Byzantine μεδίτης. In the absence of any systematic earlier studies, only certain items of information collected at r…

(Borollos, Burlus), a district and lake in the Nile Delta. While the main branches of the Nile flow directly into the sea, many of its smaller streams flow into the lakes which lie to the north of the fertile land of the Delta and are only separated from the Mediterranean by a narrow chain of sand hills. The large salt lake lying between the Rosetta and Damietta arms of the Nile, is called Lake Burullus at the present day. Throughout the year it covers an area of 180,000 acres and about twice thi…

, al-Malik al-ʿAzīz ʿImād al-Dīn Abu ’l-Fatḥ ʿOt̲h̲mān, an Aiyūbid, son of Saladin was born in Cairo on the 8 Ḏj̲umādā I 567 (6 February, 1172). In 582 (1186-1189), when 15 years old, he became governor of Egypt. On the death of his father he inherited Egypt, where he reigned from 589 till his early death on the 27 Muḥarram 595 (29 November 1198). The events of his reign are dealt with in the articles al-ʿādil I and al-afḍal. He was an amiable but weak prince. He did his best to be just but could not be master of the difficult political situation in which Egypt was then p…

or Dār Fōr, a territory and Sulṭanat in the Eastern Sūdān, is one of the still unopened areas in Central Africa, nominally belonging to the English sphere of influence and even paying tribute (cf. the annual Reports on Egypt and the Sūdān) but still practically independent. Its boundaries can only be roughly defined as: in the north the 15° and in the south the 10° N. Lat., in the west the 22° and in the east the 27° E. Long. (Greenw.). Dār Fūr is bounded on the west by the Sultanat of Wadāʾi under French influence, in the south and ea…

, name of different places: 1. Capital of a canton ( nāḥiya) of the same name, with 2083 inhabitants (3844 with its twenty-five dependencies) in Lower Egypt, province of S̲h̲arḳīya, district of Zaḳāzīḳ where the Wādī Ṭūmīlāt discharges its waters into the Delta, between Abū Ḥammad, a station on the Ismāʿīlīya railway, and Tell-el-Kebīr, which is renowned for the defeat of ʿArabī Pas̲h̲a. Now it is an insignificant ¶ village, but in the Middle Ages it held a decided importance in that it was the first Egyptian town on the road from Syria, and the place where more…

, a town in Egypt. Now an unimportant village of 150 (with two dependent villages 300) inhabitants in the district of Benī Mazār, in the Province of Minya, al-Bahnasā (the Egyptian Permezet, Coptic Pemd̲j̲e and the Greek Πέμπτη or ’ΟξύρυνχοΣ) was in antiquity a famous town and even in the early Muḥammadan period it was one of the most important towns in Central Egypt. It lies somewhat north of 28° 30’ n. between the Baḥr Yūsuf and the edge of the Lybian desert and at the present day is almost buried in sand. As one of the chief towns of Christian Egypt—it is said to have once had 360 churches ¶ and was …

, tributary of the Nile. The ʿAtbara (Astaboras of the ancients) is the only important tributary of the united Blue and white Nile. It comes from Abyssinia and has its origin not far from lake Tana. Between 17° and 18° N. Lat. it discharges its waters slightly to the south of Berber into the Nile. Whilst in the season of the Nile-flood it flows in fertilising volume, from April to June it is almost dry. The Battle of the Atbara (8. April, 1898) is famous, in which Kitchener defeated the emir Maḥmūd, the leader of the Mahdists, thus opening the way to Ḵh̲arṭūm. ¶ The name ʿAtbara is now given also…

, an Arab tribe. The Ḏj̲uhaina are near relatives of the Balī, Bahrā, Kalb and Tanūk̲h̲ and belong like them to the great South-Arabian group the Ḳuḍāʿa. In the pre-Islāmic period we find them first in Nad̲j̲d, then in the neighbourhood of Medīna, between the Red Sea and the Wādi ’l-Ḳurā (cf. the map in Caetani’s Annali, ii. 376). They were settled there when Muḥammad’s power began to extend. They adopted the Prophet’s religion and were incorporated in the Islāmic community without resistance. They did not take part in the Ridda, but remained strong …

, a small town in Egypt, lying on the eastern bank of the Nile between Minia and Mallawi somewhat south of 28° N. lat.; it is famous for its Egyptian antiquities, the so called Speos Artemidos (Arab, ṣṭabl ʿAntar) and the rock tombs of the Middle kingdom. The present Banī Ḥasan al-S̲h̲urūk was founded about the end of the xviiith century by the inhabitants of the now abandoned Banī Ḥasan al-Ḳadīm and now has about 1800 inhabitants. For administrative purposes it belongs to the district of Abū Ḳerḳāṣ in the province of Minia. Not far to the north is an u…

b. Saʿīd b. Sulṭān, Sulṭān of Zanzibar, succeeded his elder brother Mad̲j̲īd on the 7th October 1870 and reigned till his death on the 27th March 1888. On the death of his father in 1856 on his way home from ʿOmān, he had attempted to seize the throne and even after the official recognition of Mad̲j̲īd he again attempted in 1859 to stir up unrest with the help of discontented Arabs. He had a hair-breadth escape disguised as a woman under the protection of his sisters, one of whom, Salme, afterwards Emily Rüte, has give…

b. Saʿd, Muslim statesman and general. Abū Yaḥyā ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿd b. Abī Sarḥ al-ʿĀmirī belonged to the clan of ʿĀmir b. Luʾaiy of Ḳorais̲h̲ and was as foster brother of the subsequent caliph ʿOt̲h̲mān a chief partisan of the Umaiyads. He was less a soldier than a financier. The judgements of historians on his character vary greatly. His name is connected in many ways with the beginnings of Islām. First he is mentioned as one of Muḥammed’s scribes: he is supposed to have arbitrarily altered the…

, town in Upper Egypt. Assuan, in Arabic character Uswān (Uṣwān also appears), popularly known in the Middle Ages as Aswān, is situated 24° 5′ 30″ N. Lat. on the east bank of the Nile to the north of the first cataract, and is the capital (13000 inhabitants) of the Egyptian province of Nubia and chief town of the district (Markaz) of the same name. The district of Assuan inclusive of the island of Elephantine bore in antiquity the name Yēbu, “land of elephants”, a name which the island still bea…

b. ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān, son of the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwan [q. v.], was born about the year 60 (680-681), perhaps somewhat earlier, as he is said to have been 27 years old in the year 85 (704). He grew up in Damascus and accompanied his father in several campaigns. We first meet him as an independent general in the year 81 (700-701), in one of the usual razzias against the Eastern Romans. Then in the year 82 (701-702), he was sent with Muḥammed b. Marwān to help al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ against…

, Fāṭimid vizier. Abu ’l-Farad̲j̲ Yaʿḳūb b. Yūsuf, called Ibn Killis, was a Bag̲h̲dād Jew, an excellent business man, whose ability raised him to the highest civil post in the Fāṭimid empire. Born in 318 (930-1), he came early in life with his father to Syria and in 331 (942-3) to Egypt, where he began to play a part at Kāfūr’s (q. v.) court and by his financial ability won an influential position in politics. He remained a Jew till 356 (967), when he adopted Islām, as he saw a chance of becoming vizie…

(a.) “broker, commission agent”. Dallāl, literally “a finger-post”, is the popular Arabic word for simsār, sansal. The Tād̲j̲ al-ʿArūs says on simsār: “this is the man whom the people call dallāl; he points the way for goods to the buyer and for prices to the seller”. The Arabic notices of the occupation of sansal, which is of great importance in the history of commerce, and corresponded to the Byzantine μεσίτηΣ, are very scanty; as there are no systematic materials available, we can only give here a few casual notes. In the law-books, the sansals…

, the chief town and seat of the government in Egypt; it is situated in 30° 6′ N. Lat. and 31° 26′ E. Larg. (Greenw.), about 13 miles south of the head of the Delta at the point where the Muḳaṭṭam range is at its nearest to the Nile. This site is of great strategic importance as it commands the approach to Upper Egypt and was settled and fortified even in ancient times. It was not, however, till after the Arab invasion, that it became of special importance, when the great military camp of Fusṭāṭ…

, means treasury, especially that of the state and is applied not only to the actual building in which the financial business of the state is transacted but also in a figurative sense to the national exchequer or Fiscus. The beginnings of the institution of a Bait al-Māl ¶ may be traced to the time of Muḥammad; for by his time there had arisen the conception of property common to the Muḥammadan community. The Caliph ʿOmar is traditionally regarded as the official founder. It was he who first drew up Dīwāns i. e. lists of payments and institut…

, a province ( mudīrīya), district ( markaz) and town in Upper Egypt. The etymology is uncertain. The name of Saint Girgis (George) is presumably concealed in Girgā. ʿAlī Mubārak connects it with a Dagirgā or Digirgā known in the same district (the latter place is also mentioned by Ibn Ḏj̲iʿān, p. 189 and Ibn Duḳmāḳ, v. 27). The older Egyptian sources do not seem to be acquainted with Girgā so that it is not mentioned in Ḳuḍāʿīʾs list of kūra’s; it is given by Yāḳūt however. The name first appears as that of a province in the Description de l’Egypte (1212 = 1798); it is not yet found in the Rōk Nāṣirī of …

(Behera) is the name of the north-western province of Egypt. It comprises the whole territory west of the Rosetta arm of the Nile. It is bounded on the north by the sea and on the south by the hills at the southeast end of the Wādī Naṭrūn which separate it from the province of Ḏj̲īza 30° 25’ n. B. In 1899 the population was 631,225 persons and the province is divided into the following seven districts ( Marākez): Abū Ḥamnuṣ, S̲h̲ubrā Ḵh̲īt, Damanhūr, Kafr al-Dawār, al-Nad̲j̲īla, Ras̲h̲īd, and Etyaʾi (pronounced Teh) al-Barūd. These districts comprise 365 towns and villag…

, the Nubian tribute. Baḳṭ, probably an ancient Egyptian word meaning slave, appears in Arabic literature as the technical term for the tribute which the Christian kingdom of Nubia had to deliver to the Egyptian governor for the Caliphs by a treaty of Ramaḍān 31 (April— May 652). This tribute at first consisted of 360 slaves, a number and form of payment, which we frequently meet with in the levies of tribute in ancient Islām. In addition there were 40 slaves for the intermediary officials and o…

, also dār. al-ṣanāʿa and dār al-ṣanʿa, the Arabic word for dockyard. The literal translation is “house of work”. With so general a meaning, it is natural that Dār al-Ṣināʿa not only means dockyard but also simply workshop (e. g. of goldwork cf. Dozy, Supplément, s. v.), but the meaning Dār Ṣināʿat al-Baḥr is by far the commonest and has passed into the Romance languages from the Arabic like so many other nautical and commercial terms. In Italian it appears as darsena and arsenate, in Spanish as arsenal and thence has passed into almost all European languages (Dozy and Engelmann, Glossaire des…

, name of three Aiyūbids. 1. Al-Malik al-As̲h̲raf Muhẓaffar al-Dīn Abu ’l-Fatḥ Mūsā was a son of al-ʿĀdil I. [q. v.], and thus a nephew of Saladin. Born in Cairo or in Karak in the year 578 (1182-1183), he received from his father in the year 598 (1201-1202) the governorship of Edessa to which Ḥarrān was added Liter. He quarrelled with the Zengid Nūr al-Dīn Arslān-S̲h̲āh of Mosul, and defeated him in the year 600 (1204) in the battle of Bain al-Nahrain. Later his father transferred to him also Ḵh̲ilāṭ, Maiy…

a town in mediaeval Egypt famous for its manufactures of cloth, belonging to the district of Damietta and later to the province of G̲h̲arbīya (Ibn Duḳmāḳ, Kitāb al-Intiṣār, v. 89; Ibn Ḏj̲īʿān, al-Tuḥfa al-Sanīya, p. 76). The name is variously given (cf. Idrīsī, ed. de Goeje and Dozy, p. 156 note r; Yāḳūt, Muʿd̲j̲am, ii., 546, 548). As no exact details of its situation are given and as Dabīḳ is regarded as one of the manufacturing towns belonging to Damietta and Tinnīs, it may perhaps be identified with the modern Dabīd̲j̲ (pronounced Debīg or Dibī…

The name Bed̲j̲a or Bod̲j̲a — more correctly pronounced Bega or Boga — is applied to a group of Hamitic tribes, who live between the Nile and the Red Sea, and whose influence was formerly felt from as far north as Cairo to the Abyssinian frontier. The name Bega is met with in pre-Muḥammadan times in the Aizanas inscription (E. Littmann and D. Krencker, Vorbericht der Deutschen Aksum-expedition, Berlin, 1906, p. 6 et seq.) between 300 and 500 A.D.; in the Greek text King of the Βουγαειτῶν corresponds to the “King of the Bega” (D. H. Müller, Epigraphische Denkmäler in Denkschr. Ak. Wiss., phil. …

, name of two Aiyūbides: 1. al-Malik al-ʿĀdil I Abū Bekr Muḥammed b. Aiyūb, with the honorific title Saif al-Dīn („the sword of religion“), the Saphadin of the crusaders, the brother, assistant and spiritual heir of Saladin. He was born in Muḥarram 540 (June-July 1145), or according to others in 538 (1143-1144) in Damascus or in Baalbek, thus ¶ 6—8 years younger than his celebrated brother, whose confident and representative he remained till the latter’s death. Having always been loyal towards Saladin, he followed after the latter’s death his own perso…

, capital of German East Africa. Daressalam is built in 6° 49′ South Lat. and 39° 16′ East Long. (Greenw.) in the form of a semicircle around a deep arm of the sea which here forms an excellent harbour; whence its name, a contraction of Bandar al-Salām (“haven of welfare”) as educated natives still call it. The form Dār al-Salām is due to a popular etymology invented by Europeans. In spite of its favourable situation Daressalam is quite a modern town. In mediaeval times the most important town i…

, the Red Sea. The ancient names for the Red Sea were not adopted by the Arabs although the Hebrew name for the “Sea of Reeds” was known to them and they erroneously applied it to the whole Red Sea. They much preferred to call it after the town of Ḳulzum, the ancient Clysma, at its northern end, near Suez. The name Baḥr al-Ḥid̲j̲āz is very popular and even appears in the Turkish Muḥīṭ and in modern maps, while Baḥr Suez only denotes the Gulf of Suez. The Gulf of ʿAḳaba was called Ḵh̲alīd̲j̲ Aila, now Baḥr ʿAḳaba. Aila and Ḳulzum have shared the fate of all harbours b…

is the name of a dynasty in Egypt, Syria and Yemen, one of the most powerful of the mediaeval east, so called after Aiyūb b. S̲h̲ādī, the father of Saladin (Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn). The latter was its actual founder, but after his death the realm was divided into various isolated principalities, which were only temporarily reunited into a vast dominion. The separate branches of the race flourished in Egypt till 650 (1252), in Damascus and Ḥalab (Aleppo) till 658 (1260), in Mesopotamia till 643 (1245), in…

By the Baḥr al-Zand̲j̲ the Arabs mean the western part of the Indian Ocean, Baḥr al-Hind [q. v.] which washes the East coast of Africa from the Gulf of Aden i. e. the Ḵh̲alīd̲j̲ al-Barbarī to Sofāla and Madagascar which was as far as the scanty knowledge of the Arabs extended. The name is derived from the adjoining coast which is called the Bilād al-Zand̲j̲ or Zanguebar, Land of the Zand̲j̲. The name Zand̲j̲ is applied by the Arabs to the black Bantu negroes who are sharply distinguished from the Berbers ¶ and Abyssinians. The name Zand̲j̲ is very old, even Ptolemy knows Ζήγγισα ’άκρα…

, the name of several places in Egypt. According to Boinet Bey’s Dictionnaire Géographique there are two places in modern Egypt of this name, which is however pronounced Buwiṭ. 1. A nāḥiya with 527 inhabitants in the district of Damanhūr, in the province of Buḥaira, and 2. a nāḥiya with 1449 inhabitants in the district of Badārī in the province of Asiūṭ. ʿAlī Mubārak mentions a third place of this name in his Ḵh̲iṭaṭ Ḏj̲adīda in the province of Banī Suēf in the administrative district of al-Zāwiya. This appears in Boinet Bey as Abouiṭ and belongs to the district of Wa…

b. al-Salār, with his full name al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Salār, a vizier alleged to have been of Kurdish descent. When the celebrated Fāṭimide general al-Afḍal S̲h̲āhins̲h̲āh took Jerusalem from the Ortokides in 491 (1097-1098), a part of the mercenaries of the latter entered into the Egyptian service. Amongst these was al-ʿĀdil’s father, who later, like his son, entered the body-guard of the powerful vizier. As al-ʿĀdil distinguished himself by his intelligence and skill, he soon…

b. Badr al-Ḏj̲amālī, a Fāṭimide general and vizier. Abu’l-Ḳāsim S̲h̲āhins̲h̲āh, surnamed al-Malik al-Afḍal, was the son of the minister for many years of the Fāṭimide caliph al-Mustanṣir, the Armenian Badr al-Ḏj̲amālī, who, shortly before it was too late, brought the Fāṭimide empire once more to a flourishing state. Badr al-Ḏj̲amālī, simply known under the title of Emīr al-Ḏj̲uyūs̲h̲, knew how to make for himself such an independent position beside the throne that the caliph, in spite of his avers…

is a port on the African coast of the Red Sea. In the Middle Ages ʿAid̲h̲āb was a well-known harbour for the Mecca pilgrims, and an import-market for goods from Central Africa and for those from India which were shipped via ʿAden. The Arabian geographists describe its situation as having been just opposite Ḏj̲idda, at a distance of 15 days’ march by caravan from Assuan and 17 from Ḳūṣ. It must not be identified with one of the well-known Ptolemaic ports, but almost certainly with the borough of…

, a Fāṭimid commander-in-chief and vizier. The once so brilliant Fāṭimid kingdom was on the verge of its downfall under the incapable Caliph Mustanṣir (427— 487 = 1036—1094). The Seld̲j̲uḳs were pressing forward into Syria, in Egypt the Turkish slave-guards were fighting with the negro-corps, a seven years’ famine was exhausting the resources of the country, all state authority had disappeared in the general struggle, hunger and disease carried off the people, license and violence destroyed all …

b. Ṭūlūn, founder of the dynasty of the Ṭūlūnides [q. v.], the first governor of Egypt and Syria who was only nominally dependent upon the caliph. The career of this Turk is typical — the founders of all the small states on the ruins of the Caliphate, crumbled to pieces, acted in the same way. — His father Ṭūlūn was brought in 200 (815-816) as a slave to the Court of Bagdad, but rose soon to an important position. Aḥmed is supposed to have been born on the 23d Ramaḍān 220 (20th September 835), but perhaps a little later, and he received a thorough military and theological education — …

, Arab tribes in the Eastern-Sūdān. By the Baggāra (i. e. Baḳḳāra, cattleherds) are meant the cattle-rearing Arab or Arabicised nomad or semi-nomad tribes of the Eastern Sūdān, who have received their name in contradistinction to the Abbāla i. e. the camel-breeding Arab tribes of these lands. The distinction is not absolute for the Baḳḳāra also have camels to a certain extent. The keeping of cattle seems to begin south of the sub-tropical border. Various Baḳḳāra tribes, e. g. the Rizēḳāt, have northern rel…

, English misspelling of the Arabic Abū Ṭlīḥ, the name of a watering place on the caravan road, which runs from Dongola through Kūrtī (Korti, on the Nile), avoiding the Nile curve of Berber, directly to al-Metamma, on the Upper Nile, and then further to the Sudan. Abū Ṭlīh is situated between 17° and 18° north lat., a little north-west of al-Metamma. Its renown is merely due to a brilliant military feat of the English against the troops of the Sudanese Mahdī Muḥammed b. ʿAbd Allāh. In order to r…

(Būḳīr), name of various places in Egypt: 1. A small Egyptian seaport of 1168 inhabitants on the Mediterranian Sea, after which are called the bay, the island — also called Nelson Island — and the lake (see No. 4) near it. It is situated 23 kilometres (15 miles) east of Alexandria on the Rosetta (Ras̲h̲īd) railroad, and belongs now to the district of the environs of Alexandria, in the government of the latter town; formerly it belonged to the district of Damanhūr in the province of al-Buḥaira. This pla…

, leader of the Egyptian Nationalist party. — Aḥmad ʿArābī al-Maṣrī (= al-Miṣrī, ‘the Egyptian’), as he called himself with pride, was the son of a fellāḥ of Lower Egypt. He entered the army and under the Khedive Tawfīḳ (Tewfiḳ) rose to the rank of colonel and commander of the 4th regiment. He took a subordinate part in the officers’ revolt of 1879 under Ismāʿīl, and later in the great military revolt of 1881-1882 he headed the movement which is known to history by his name. The occasion which first gave ʿArābī political prominence arose out of the difficult relations which for a…

(also written Abūṣīr and in the true form Abu ’l-Ṣīr) the name of several localities in Egypt. The name is connected with the God Osiris, who was originally worshipped in the Delta, so that the name occurs more frequently in northern Egypt. The ruins of the ancient Taposiris Magna have retained the name Abūṣīr; likewise a village with 336 inhabitants in the district of Sinbellawain in the province of Daḳahlīya. Better known is a place of this name with 6271 inhabitants in the district of Maḥalla al-Kubrā…

, a village in Egypt. Bībān al-Mulūk i. e. “Gates of the Kings” is the modern Arabic name for the graves of the kings of Ancient Egypt of the xviiith—xixth dynasty on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor. (C. H. Becker) Bibliography Baedeker: Egypt, 6th ed.

is a town in Egypt. ʿAin S̲h̲ams is the Arabic name of the ancient Egyptian town of Ōn, which the Greeks called Heliopolis because of its famous sun-temple. A recollection of this cult is contained in the Arabic name (sun-spring, -eye), which seems to owe its form to popular etymology of an old name. In the early Arabian era ʿAin S̲h̲ams was, according to some authorities, on important town, and the capital of a separate district ( kūra); but others assert that at that period the place had already fallen to decay and was used as a public quarry. The Fāṭimide ʿAzīz built …

, a rocky wall on the left bank of the Nile, between the first and second cataracts, 22° 22′ north lat., famous on account of two temples hewn in the live rock from the time of Raamses II. The chief sanctuary was consecrated to Amon Rē of Thebes and Rē Harmachis of Heliopolis, yet Ptah of Memphis and the king himself were also worshiped there. The smaller (northern) temple was sacred to Hathor and Queen Nefret-ere. The large temple in particular, with its matchless façade of four Raamses colosse…

, an Egyptian dynasty. On the general place in history of the dynasty see above ii. p. 8b. The name of the dynasty is derived from the old Persian princely tide Ik̲h̲s̲h̲īd which the Caliph al-Rāḍī was induced to grant to the founder Muḥammad b. Ṭug̲h̲d̲j̲ in 326 = 937. It was the title of the old rulers of Farg̲h̲āna (see ii. p. 62b) from which the dynasty claimed descent. Ik̲h̲s̲h̲īd is said to mean “king of kings”, although others interpret it as “servant” (cf. Ibn Saʿīd, ed. Tallqvist, Arab, text, p. 23 sq.; transl. p. 41), presumably in the same sense as ʿAbd Allāh was used as an h…

, his full name, Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Malik al-Afḍal Nūr al-Dīn, an Aiyūbide, the eldest son of Saladin, s̲h̲ared in the sad fate of most of the sons of that great man. He was born in 565 (1169-1170) and was initiated into Islāmic science by the best teachers in Cairo and Alexandria. In 579 (1183-1184), when he was only 14 years old, he was entrusted with the representation of Saladin in Egypt. Taḳī al-Dīn ʿOmar was appointed his mentor. As they did not agree together, Saladin recalled both of them in 582…

, a town in Egypt 12 miles south of the mouth of the eastern arm of the Nile. Damietta, Arabic Dimyāṭ, also popularly pronounced Dumyāt, has at the present day (census of 1897) 31—32,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the gouvernement ( muḥāfẓa) of the same name, which has 43—44,000 inhabitants. In spite of the railway, post and telegraph it is at the present day a moribund town and only holds the tenth place among Egyptian towns as regards number of inhabitants. In the middle ages on the other hand Damietta was a florishing industria…

, Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. Ḏj̲ābir al-Balād̲h̲urī was one of the greatest Arab historians of the third century. Little is known of his life. He was an intimate friend of the caliphs Mutawwakkil and Mustaʿīn and educated ʿAbd Allāh the brilliant son of the caliph al-Muʿtazz. Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā is said to have died mentally deranged in 279 (892), after drinking the juice of the anacardia, ( balād̲h̲ur) not knowing its effect, and from the manner of his death has received the name Balād̲h̲urī. This is probably only an etiological legend and besides, it is not certain that th…

, a town in Lower Egypt, northeast of Cairo on the edge of the desert. The name Bilbīs appears in many forms e. g. Balbīs, Bulbīs, Bilbais and is derived from the Coptic Phelbes. As a halting-place on the road from Syria to Cairo, Bilbīs played a certain part during the period of the conquest. Tradition connects a daughter of Muḳauḳīs with it. In the year 109 (727) the first regular settlements of Arab tribes took place in the neighbourhood of Bilbīs. It is again mentioned in 386 (996) as the place where the F…

b. Muḥammed, successor of the Mahdī in the Sudan. ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammed al-Taʿāʾis̲h̲ī, the notorious Ḵh̲alīfa and successor of the Sudanese Mahdī Muḥammed Aḥmed [q. v.], was born, it seems, in the middle of the forties of the 19th century. He was a native of the South-West Dārfūr and belonged to the tribe of the Arab-Sudanese Baggāra (Baḳḳāra), more particularly to the Ḏj̲ubarāt and here again to the group of the Awlād Umm Surra. His father Muḥammed al-Faḳīh left his home in the seventies with his whole family with the intention to…

(Hōl), i. e. „Father of Terror“, the Arabic designation for the sphinx of Ḏj̲īza (Gizeh). Certain authors call it simply al- Ṣanam "the idol", but its proper name was already notorious in the Fāṭmide epoch. At that time it was also known under the Coptic name Belhīt ( Belhīb), or, according to Ḳuḍāʿi in Maḳrīzī, Belhūba ( Belhawba). Abu’l-Hawl is probably an Arabic popular etymology deriving from the Coptic name; the initial B contains probably the Coptic article, which in Arabic is often transformed into Abū. Ancient tradition understands under Abu’l-Hawl only the …

li-Dīn Allāh, the last Fāṭimide caliph. His real name was Abū Muḥammed ʿAbd Allāh, and he was the son of Sulaimān, whom ʿAbbās b. Abi’l-Futūḥ [q. v.] killed, and the grandson of the caliph Ḥāfiẓ. He was a cousin of his predecessor al-Fāʾiz, who died on the 17th Rad̲j̲ab 555 (23d July 1160) at the age of 11½ years, after having „reigned“ 6½ years. Al-ʿĀḍid was born on the 20th Muḥarram 546 (9th May 1151), thus at the time of his accession to the throne he was 9 years old. From the beginning till his death at the age of 20 (10th Muḥarram 567 = 13th September 1171) he was an unconscious instrument in …

, a variegated silk cloth (satin). Dībād̲j̲ is an Arabicised form of the Persian dībā or dībāh, which means a coloured cloth in which warp and woof are both, made of silk ( abrīs̲h̲am, Arabic ibrīsam). dībād̲j̲ probably first entered Arabic through the Aramaic; in any case the word was known by Muḥammad’s time, for it appears in a poem by Ḥassān b. T̲h̲ābit ( kitāb al-Ag̲h̲ānī, iv. 17, 1 according to Fraenkel, aram. Fremdwörter, p. 41). The derivation from dīwbaf = nisād̲j̲at al-d̲j̲inn = “cloth of the spirits” ( tād̲j̲ al-ʿarūs) is of course a popular etymology. In spite of the interdiction…

b. ʿAmr al-G̲h̲anawī, general and governor of note of the ʿAbbāside caliphs towards the end of the third century of the Hegira (about 900), known principally for the defeat suffered by him at the hands of the Karmathians, for his captivity and for his release. He was born in the country of Raḳḳa. Being the governor of Yamāma and Baḥrain, he was sent by the caliph al-Muʿtaḍid, against the celebrated Karmathian general, Abū Saʿīd al-Ḏj̲annābī, by whom, after a sanguinary battle, he was taken prisone…

(a.) “tribute, poll-tax”, the name given in Muḥammadan Law to the indulgencetaxes levied on the ahl al-d̲h̲imma. 1. The Theory of the d̲j̲izya in the Fiḳh. In the Fiḳh-books, the d̲j̲izya is discussed in connection with the holy war ( d̲j̲ihād, q. v., p. 1041 et seq.). While pagans only have the choice between Islām or death, the possessors of a scripture ( ahl al-kitāb) may obtain security and protection for themselves, their families and goods by paying the d̲j̲izya. This dogma is founded on Ḳorʾān ix. 29, where it is laid down: “Fight them, that believe not in God and t…

b. Abi ’l-Futūḥ, his full name, al-Afdal Rukn al-Dīn Abu ’l-Fadl ʿAbbās b. Abi ’l-Futuḥ b. Tamīm b. Muʿizz b. Bādīs al-Ṣinhād̲j̲ī, a descendant of the well known princely house of the Banū Bādīs [q. v.] of Northern Africa. He seems to have been born shortly before 509 (1115), for in that year be was still a nursling. His father, Abu ’l-Futūḥ, was then in prison, and was banished in 509 to Alexandria, whither his wife Bullāra and the little ʿAbbās accompanied him. After Abu ’l-Futūḥ’s death his widow married ʿAlī b. …

, a group of oases in the Lybian desert. The Baḥrīya is the most northerly of the Lybian desert. The Wāḥāt Baḥrīya (also singular) i. e. the northern oases are distinguished from the Wāḥāt Ḳiblīya, the southern oases i. e. the Dāk̲h̲la [q. v.] and Ḵh̲ārga [q. v.]. Between these two groups lie the little oases of Farafra (included in the Dāk̲h̲la by some), called al-Farāfira by al-Bakrī and al-Farfarūn by al-Yaʿḳūbī. The three large oases are also distinguished as inner, middle and outer, the inn…

(written Banī Suaif) a town in Egypt, on the west bank of the Nile opposite the Faiyūm; it has only attained importance in recent ¶ times. According to Sak̲h̲āwī (902 = 1497) the old name of the town was Binimsuwaih, from which the form Banī Suaif arose through a popular etymology. This name may be compared with in Ibn Ḏj̲īʿān, al-Tuḥfa al-sanīya, 172 and the false reading given by Ibn Duḳmāḳ, Kitāb al-intiṣār, v. 10, whereby a considerable age would be proved for the town. In still more ancient times Ahnās (Heracleopolis Magna) was the capital of this district, whi…

, Egypt A. The eponym of Egypt B. The early Islamic settlements developing out of the armed camps and the metropolises of the conquered provinces C. The land of Egypt: the name in early Islamic times 1. Miṣr as the capital of Egypt: the name in early Islamic times 2. The historical development of the capital of Egypt i. The first three centuries, [see al-fusṭāṭ ] ii. The Nile banks, the island of Rawḍa and the adjacent settlement of D̲j̲īza (Gīza) iii. The Fāṭimid city, Miṣr al-Ḳāhira, and the development of Cairo till the end of the 18t…

, a Fātimid commanderin-chief and vizier. The formerly brilliant Fāṭimid empire was on the verge of downfall under the incapable Caliph Mustanṣir (427-487/1036-1094). The Sald̲j̲ūḳs were pressing forward into Syria, in Egypt ¶ the Turkish slave-guards were fighting with the negro-corps, a seven years’ famine was exhausting the resources of the country; all state authority had disappeared in the general struggle; hunger and disease were carrying off the people, licence and violence were destroying all prosperity and it appeared…

(Beni Suef, Beni Souef) a town in Egypt, on the west bank of the Nile, 75 m. (120 km.) south of Cairo. According to al-Sak̲h̲āwī (902/1497) the old name of the town was Binumsuwayh, from which popular etymology derived the form Banī Suwayf (the of Ibn Ḏj̲īʿān, al-Tuḥfa al-Saniyya , 172, and the of Ibn Duḳmāḳ, Intiṣār , v, 10, ought probably to be read ). In still more ancient times the capital of this district was Heracleopolis Magna, 10 m. (16 km.) west of Banī Suēf, which only attained importance under Muḥammad ʿAlī. From the time of the division of Egypt into provinces ( mudīriyya …

, a group of oases in the Lybian desert. The Baḥriyya is the most northerly of the Lybian desert. The Wāḥāt Baḥriyya (also singular), i.e., the northern oases, are distinguished from the Wāḥāt Ḳibliyya, the southern oases, i.e., the Dāk̲h̲la [ q.v.] and Ḵh̲ārga [ q.v.]. Between these two groups lie the little oases of Farafra (included in the Dāk̲h̲la by some), or al-Farāfira, called al-Farfarūn by al-Bakrī and al-Yaʿḳūbī. The three large oases are also distinguished as inner, middle and outer; the inner is the Baḥrīyya which is also calle…

, aḥmad b. yaḥyā b. ḏj̲ābir b. dāwūd , one of the greatest Arabic historians of the 3rd/9th century. Little is known of his life. Neither the year of his birth nor that of his death is directly attested. From the dates of his teachers, it is evident that he cannot have been born later than the beginning of the second decade of the 9th century A.D.; for the date of his death, Muslim authors suggest, as the latest and most likely date, ca. 892 A.D. As he is said to have been a transl…

, town in Middle Egypt. Aṭfīḥ (also written with t instead of ṭ ) is a small town of 4,300 inhabitants on the east bank of the Nile at the latitude of Fayyūm. The name of the town in old Egyptian was Tep-yeh or Per Hathor nebt Tepyeh, i.e., "house of Hathor, lady of Tepyeh". The Copts changed this name to Petpeh, the Arabs to Aṭfīḥ. The Greeks, identifying Hathor with Aphrodite, called the town Aphroditopolis, abbreviated to Aphrodito. The town must still have possessed importance in th…

b. saʿīd b. sulṭān , sultan of Zanzibar, succeeded his brother Mad̲j̲īd, 7 Oct. 1870, and reigned till his death, 27 March 1888. He tried to seize power on his father’s death in 1856, and again in 1859 when he was defeated by British intervention and sent to Bombay for two years. The British supported his accession but he at once resisted their efforts to suppress the Slave Trade, for he relied partly on the Ibāḍī Mlawa faction which was hostile to all European intervention in …

b. Marwān , son of the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān [ q.v.], was born about the year 60/680-1, perhaps somewhat earlier, as he is said to have been 27 years old in the year 85/704. He grew up in Damascus and accompanied his father in several campaigns. We first meet him as an independent general in the year 81/700-1, in one of the usual razzias against the Eastern Romans. Then in the year 82/701-2, he was sent with Muḥammad b. Marwān to help ¶ al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ against al-As̲h̲ʿat̲h̲ and played a part in the negotiations of Dayr al-Ḏj̲amād̲j̲im. Thereup…

By the Baḥr al-Zand̲j̲ the Arabs mean the W. part of the Indian Ocean, Baḥr al-Hind [ q.v.] which washes the E. coast of Africa from the Gulf of Aden i.e., the Ḵh̲alīd̲j̲ al-Barbarī to Sufāla and Madagascar, which was as far as the scanty knowledge of the Arabs extended. The name is derived from the adjoining coast, which is called the Bilād al-Zand̲j̲ or Zanguebar, ‘land of the Zand̲j̲’. The name Zand̲j̲ is applied by the Arabs to the black Bantu negroes, who are sharply distinguished from the Berbers and Abyssinians. The n…