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, Sp. ronda, the chef-lieu of the district ( kūra , sometimes iḳlīm ) in mediaeval al-Andalus of Tākurunnā, situated to the north-west of Rayya [ q.v.] (modern Malaga). This is a very mountainous region, well watered by rivers and abundant rain, allowing the development of agriculture and stockrearing. The town of Runda is described in the Arabic sources as an impregnable fortress, and this fact, in addition to its geographical situation, has moulded its history. The northern part of the town is protected by a ravine ( tajo ) formed by the river, a kilometre lo…

(a.) “date, dating, chronology, era”, then also “annals, history”. ¶ I. Dates and Eras in the Islamic World 1. In the sense of “date, dating”, etc. i. Etymology . The non-Arabic origin of this word was recognised by the mediaeval philologists, but the often-cited derivation of the participle muʾarrak̲h̲ “dated”, from a supposed Persian compound māh-rōz “month-day”, is naturally fanciful. In fact, it clearly belongs to the common Semitic root for “moon” and “month”; cf. Akkadian ( w) arḫu , Sabaic wrḫ , Ethiopic wärḫ , Mehri wark̲h̲ , or, with the usual Northwe…

, modern Silves in southern Portugal, a town of medieval al-Andalus in the kūra of Uks̲h̲ūnuba. Arabic geographers describe it as being in a fertile region, with many trees, especially pines, orchards and watercourses. The town itself is on a slight hill at the side of a river (the nahr S̲h̲ilb , modern Arade), which supplied the town with water. It was linked to the roads of the south-west of the Peninsula, and its nearness to the sea (15 km/9 miles) gave access to maritime produce and trade. Roman remains have been found …

, the name of three dynasties of mediaeval Islam. 1. A line of governors for the ʿAbbāsid caliphs in K̲h̲urāsān and the holders of high offices in ʿIrāḳ, who flourished in the 3rd/9th century (205-78/821-91). The founder of the line was the Persian commander, of mawlā origin, Ṭāhir (I) b. al-Ḥusayn D̲h̲u ’l-Yamīnayn [ q.v.], who became governor of K̲h̲urāsān in 205/821 but who died almost immediately afterwards, after showing signs of asserting his independence of Bag̲h̲dād. Nevertheless, the caliph—possibly being unable to find anyone else with th…

, the name of several places in the Islamic world, from Cordova in the west to Nīs̲h̲āpūr in the east (see Yāḳūt, Buldān , ed. Beirut, iii, 46-50). Amongst the Ruṣāfa settlements of ʿIrāḳ were: 1. Ruṣāfat Abi ’l-ʿAbbās (ʿAbd Allāh al-Saffāḥ), begun by the first ʿAbbāsid caliph in lower ʿIrāḳ on the banks of the Euphrates, near al-Anbār [ q.v.], and probably identical with that town called al-Hās̲h̲imiyya. Bibliography Yaʿḳūbī, Buldān, 237, tr. Wiet, 9 Yāḳūt, Buldān, iii, 46. 2. al-Ruṣāfa, the name of a quarter of the city of Bag̲h̲dād [ q.v.] founded soon after the caliph al-Manṣūr [ q.v.] buil…

, the modern Xàtiva or Játiva, a town of the S̲h̲arḳ al-Andalus [ q.v.], to the south of Valencia. The ancient Roman town (Saetabis) was situated on the Via Augusta; the Arab town saw a shift to the slope of the mountain, which was crowned by a powerful fortress. The surrounding region, irrigated by several rivers, was devoted to agriculture. S̲h̲āṭiba is described by the Arab geographers as a commercial centre which had trading links with North Africa and with G̲h̲āna; its location in the network of communi…

, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad ... b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib al-Sabtī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abu ’l-Ḳāsim (697-760/1297-1359), philologist, grammarian and poet of Muslim Spain. He was born at Sabta (Ceuta) and deeply educated in Arabic language and the law. At an unknown date he went to Granada and worked in the dīwān al-ins̲h̲āʾ of the Naṣrid Muḥammad IV (725-37/1325-37), and became friendly with the eminent poet Ibn al-D̲j̲ayyāb [ q.v.]. He then embarked on a legal career and in 737/1336 became ḳāḍī of Malaga and then six years later followed Ibn Burṭāl as ḳāḍī ’l-d̲j̲amāʿa …

al-Bas̲h̲kunsiyya , so-called on account of her Basque origin, was a singing slave girl belonging to the second Umayyad caliph of al-Andalus, al-Ḥakam al-Mustanṣir (350-62/961-76 [ q.v.]), who loved her dearly (calling her D̲j̲aʿfar) and to whom she bore two sons, thus becoming an umm walad and taking the tide of sayyida . ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Ḥakam was born in 351/962; he was the first son of the caliph, who was already 46 years old at the time. Although ʿAbd al-Raḥmān died at an early age (359/969-70), his brother His̲h̲ām…

(a.), a military-administrative term most conveniently translated as police. The basic meaning of the root s̲h̲-r-ṭ is “to separate or to distinguish something out of a larger entity”, thus an élite force within an army or, according to some sources, criminals who separate themselves from the social order, and thence those whose function it is to bring them to book. An individual in such a unit is a s̲h̲urṭī , plural s̲h̲uraṭ or more popularly s̲h̲urṭiyya . 1. In the central lands of the caliphate. The term s̲h̲urṭa is among the earliest of the Arabic sources…

, Abu ’l-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ Yūsuf b. Sulaymān al-Andalusī al-Naḥwī, Spanish Muslim grammarian and philologist, known as al-Aʿlam al-S̲h̲antamarī (the first epithet from his hare-lip; it became a family name, and his eldest son, ḳāḍī at S̲h̲antamariyya, became known as Ibn al-Aʿlam), born at S̲h̲antamariyyat al-G̲h̲arb [ q.v.] (modern Faro, on the southern coast of Portugal) in 410/1019, died at Seville in 476/1083. In 433/1041 he moved from his home town to Cordova, where he studied, and became, in his turn, a famed master in the fields of gr…

(a.), together with mas̲h̲wara , mas̲h̲ūra , a nominal form connected with the form IV verb as̲h̲āra “to point out, indicate; advise, counsel” (see Lane, s.v.), with the meaning “consultation”. 1. In early Islamic history. Here, s̲h̲ūrā is especially used of the small consultative and advisory body of prominent Ḳuras̲h̲īs which eventually chose ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān as the third caliph over the Muslim community after the assassination of ʿUmar b. al-K̲h̲aṭṭāb [ q.v.] in D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 23/November 644. The practice of consultation by the sayyid or s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ …

Domingo Badía y Leblich (1767–1818) was a renowned Spanish traveller, born in Barcelona. Self-educated, he was early interested in scientific matters and in travelling to distant countries. In 1801 he presented a project of travelling to Muslim countries to the Spanish government, who supported a trip involving geographical exploration as well as political aims, especially concerning Morocco. Badía left Spain in May 1802, and, after a stay in Paris and London (where he was circumcised), arrived in …

Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Yaḥyā b. Farḥ Ibn al-Jadd al-Fihrī (496–586/1103–90) was the most prominent member of the Banū l-Jadd, a wealthy family of landowners in southwestern al-Andalus. The Banū l-Jadd claimed to be of Arab origin; although they adopted the tribal nisba al-Fihrī, the claim is dubious. Nothing is recorded in Arab sources about the Banū l-Jadd before the fifth/eleventh century, when the first distinguished members of the family appear as scholars and jurists in the princely courts of the period. The Banū l-Jadd, l…