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(a.), an administrative function found in mediaeval Islamic Spain. Documentation for this is almost exclusively found in regard to al-Andalus. The Granadan jurist Ibn Sahl [ q.v.], in his al-Aḥkām al-kubrā , mentions it amongst the six traditional functions ( k̲h̲uṭṭa or “magistratures”) which gave their holders the right to pronounce judgements (the ḳāḍī , the ṣāḥib al-s̲h̲urṭa , the s. al-maẓālim , the ṣ. al-radd , the ṣ. al-madīna and the ṣ. al-sūḳ ). According to the Valencian Ibn al-Abbār [ q.v.], there existed until the 7th/13th century two distinct magistratures, se. the ṣāḥib al-…

, Banū , an Arab family, several members of which achieved distinction in Muslim Spain both under the Umayyads and in the period of the Mulūk al-Ṭawāʾif [ q.v.], when two taifas led by them emerged, the Banū Hās̲h̲im of Saragossa and the Banū Ṣumādiḥ of Almeria. ¶ Ibn Ḥazm in his Ḏj̲amhara classifies the tribe of Tud̲j̲īb as part of Ḳaḥṭān or Yemen, established since the Arab conquest in the regions of Saragossa, Calatayud and Daroca, i.e. in the north-east of the peninsula, the Ebro valley, the “Upper Frontier” ( al-t̲h̲ag̲h̲r al-aʿlā [see t̲h̲ug̲h̲ūr. 2.]. The nisba …

, Umayyad caliph of al-Andalus, proclaimed at Cordova in 400/1009, died in 407/1016. The two phases of his reign are located in the period of the Andalusī fitna following the “Revolution of Cordova”, at the time of the serious political crisis which was to lead to the demise of the Umayyad caliphate in 422/1031. When the Cordovans put an end to the ʿĀmirid régime in D̲j̲umādā II-Rad̲j̲ab 399/February-March 1009, and replaced the incompetent caliph His̲h̲ām II with one of his cousins, Muḥammad al-Mahdī, the latter, on account of his political blunde…

, an expression which denotes, in the mediaeval Arabic texts and also in contemporary historical usage, the eastern region, adjacent to the Mediterranean, of Muslim Spain. In both cases, the term has a geographical and not an administrative application, and it is difficult to demonstrate a priori which regions of the peninsula are being referred to. The centre of the S̲h̲arḳ al-Andalus is the region of Valencia (Balansiya [ q.v.]), but the expression probably has a wider sense than the modern one of Levante . The unfavourable attitude of the Valencians to …

(a.), pl. aswāḳ , market. 1. In the traditional Arab world. Sūḳ , market, is a loanword from Aramaic s̲h̲ūḳā with the same meaning. Like the French term marché and the English market , the Arabic word sūḳ has acquired a double meaning: it denotes both the commercial exchange of goods or services and the place in which this exchange is normally conducted. Analysis of the sūḳ is thus of interest to the economic and social historian as well as to the archaeologist and the urban topographer. The substantial textual documentation which is available has as yet been …

, sing. Ṣaḳlabī, Ṣiḳlabī, the designation in mediaeval Islamic sources for the Slavs and other fair-haired, ruddy-complexioned peoples of Northern Europe (see A.Z. Velidi Togan, Die Schwerter der Germanen , 19-38). 1. The Ṣaḳāliba of Northern and Eastern Europe. The actual name was a borrowing from Middle Greek Σλάβος, “Slav.” this, in turn, is to be connected with the self-designation of the Slavs, Slověne (cf. the Rus’ usage Slověne, Slovyane , Sloven’ski̊y yazi̊k “Slavs”, “Slavic nation” in the Povest’ vremyanni̊k̲h̲ let , in PSRL, i, 5-6, 28, Mod. Russ. Slavyane , Ukr. Slov’yani̊ …

, Banū , Arab dynasty of al-Andalus, ruling in Almeria from 420/1038 to 484/1091, in the epoch of the “party kings” [see mulūk al-ṭawāʾif ]. The Banū Ṣumādiḥ were a branch of the powerful Arab family of the Banū Tud̲j̲īb of the Upper March (region of Saragossa). At a time when the caliphate was in disarray, a certain Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Ṣumādiḥ was governing Huesca, but, before 414/1023, he was expelled from there by his distant cousins of Saragossa, and took refuge in Valencia as a guest of the local sovereign, the ʿĀ…