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Mēwāŕ

(1,634 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, the name given in the Indian chronicles to the south-western region of Rād̲j̲āsthān [ q.v.]: approximately the region now known, from its principal town, as Udaypur (although the town of Udaypur [ q.v.] was not founded until 966/1559), hilly with considerable forest tracts, separated from its Rād̲j̲pūt neighbour Mārwāŕ on the west by the Aravallī hills, and bordered on the south by Gud̲j̲arāt, on the south-east and east by Mālwā, on the north-east by the Dihlī sultanate (see Map s.v. rād̲j̲āsthān ). The region is more celebrated for its defences agains…

Nagar

(287 words)

Author(s): Burton Page, J.
, the name of many towns and cities in India (Skr. nagara “city”). Those of significance for Islam are as follows: 1. Nagar, familiar name locally for Aḥmadnagar [ q.v.], being even used on signposts. C.R. Singhal, Mint-towns of the Mughal emperors of India , Bombay 1953, 7, describes a coin of typical Aḥmadnagar fabric where the mint-name is simply Nagar. 2. Nagar, a large town in Karnāt́aka, some 55 miles west of S̲h̲imōgā, once a capital of local rād̲j̲ās , captured in 1176/1763 by Ḥaydar ʿAlī [ q.v.], and so for a short time known as Ḥaydarnagar; Ḥaydar ʿAlī ¶ established his principal ars…

Mīr

(228 words)

Author(s): Levy, R. | Burton-Page, J.
, a Persian title abbreviated from the Arab amīr and approximating in meaning both to it and to the title mīrzā [ q.v.]. (For the dropping of the initial alif cf. Bū Sahl for Abū Sahl, etc.). Like amīr the title is applied to princes (Manūčihrī, ed. A. de Biberstein-Kazimirsky, ¶ Menoutchehri , poète persan du onzième siècle de notre ère , Paris 1886, 96, speaks of Sultan Masʿūd of G̲h̲azna, as “Mīr”), but it is also borne by poets and other men of letters (e.g. Mīr ʿAlī S̲h̲īr, Mīr K̲h̲wānd, Mīr Muḥsin; cf. the following arts.). In India and Pakistan, Sayyids sometimes call themselv…

Mus̲h̲rif

(1,376 words)

Author(s): Bosworth, C.E. | Burton-Page, J.
(a.), active participle from the form IV verb as̲h̲rafa , literally “overseer, supervisor, controller”, the title of an official who appears at various times and with various duties in the history of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate and its successor states, from the Mag̲h̲rib to the eastern Islamic lands. 1. In the Arab and Persian lands. ¶ The office of is̲h̲rāf seems basically to have been a financial one. The supervision of financial operations was in the first century or so of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate usually entrusted to the dīwān al-zimām/al-azimma [see dīwān. i. The caliphate]; in the re…

Hariyānā

(865 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, name given to the tract of country in the Indian Pand̲j̲āb to the north-west of Dihlī, surrounding the towns of Hānsī [ q.v.] and Ḥiṣār Fīrūza [ q.v.] in the present Ḥiṣār district and extending east into the Rohtak [ q.v.] district; it lies south of the Ghaggar stream—which partly coincides with the ancient Saraswatī river which once joined the Indus [see sindhu ], now little more than a monsoon drainage channel whose waters are lost in the Rād̲j̲āst̲h̲ān sands—and is traversed by Fīrūz S̲h̲āh Tug̲h̲luḳ’s West Ḏj̲amnā canal [for the history of this see references s.v. d̲j̲amnā …

Mīrzās

(1,390 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, the name commonly given by Indian historians to a turbulent family of Tīmūrid descent, troublesome especially in the 10th/16th century, in the reign of the Mug̲h̲al emperor Akbar, to whom they were mostly sixth cousins, as descendants of ʿUmar S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Mīrzā, the second son of Tīmūr (Akbar was descended from D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Mīrān S̲h̲āh. the third son of Tīmūr). Abu ‘l-Faḍl and Badāuʾnī refer to them as mīrzāyān , and Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī al-Dābir as awlād Mīrzā Muḥammad Tīmūr Sulṭān . There may be confusion in the texts when one of them is spoken of in th…

Hānsawī

(435 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ D̲j̲amāl al-Dīn Aḥmad , also called Ḳuṭb D̲j̲amāl al-Dīn, a Ṣūfī mystic of the Indian Čis̲h̲tiyya [ q.v.] order, b. 580/1184-5, d. in. Hānsī 659/1260-1. He was a descendant of the theologian and religious lawyer Abū Ḥanīfa, and was a senior k̲h̲alīfa of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Farīd al-Dīn Masʿūd “Gand̲j̲-i S̲h̲akar” [ q.v.] during the time the latter spent at Hānsī [ q.v.]. He is said to have been the k̲h̲aṭīb of Hānsī when he joined Farīd al-Dīn, and to have resigned this post and its consequent material benefits as a necessary condition of his spiritual discipline. He is known as the aut…

Marātib

(797 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
(a.), literally “ranks, degrees” (sing. martaba ), a term applied especially in Muslim India to the “honours” or “dignities”, aṭbāl wa- ʿalamāt , drums and standards, borne by the sultan or conferred by him on the great amīrs (Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, iii, 106; tr. Gibb (1971), iii, 599), later elaborated (ibid., iii, 110; tr. iii, 601) as “standards, kettledrums, trumpets, bugles and reedpipes” as carried by two ¶ ships among the fifteen of the governor of Lāharī Bandar. The practice of Fīrūz S̲h̲ah’s troops marching with 90,000 cavalry under 180 marātib and nis̲h̲āna-yi har d̲j̲ins (ʿAfīf, Taʾrīk̲h…

It́āwā

(941 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
( et́ājā ), a district in the south-west of Uttar Prades̲h̲, India, lying between 26° 21′ and 27° 1′. N., 78° 45′ E.; and also the principal town of that district, 26° 46′ N., 79° 1′ E., on the river D̲j̲amnā [ q.v.]. The common spelling of the name is Etawa; other forms are Etaya (Elphinstone), Itay (de Laet), and sometimes Int́āwa in the Muslim chronicles. Popular etymology connects the name with īnt́ āwā , “brick kiln”. The region of It́āwā was probably within the kingdom of Kanawd̲j̲ [ q.v.] at the time of the raid on that kingdom by Maḥmūd of G̲h̲azna in 409/1018, and again at …

Bahmanīs

(2,732 words)

Author(s): Sherwani, H.K. | Burton-Page, J.
A line of eighteen Muslim sultans who ruled, or claimed to rule, in the Deccan from 748-933/1347-1527, after a group of Muslim nobles led by Ismāʿīl Muk̲h̲ had successtally rebelled against the sultan of Dihlī, Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luḳ. The more vigorous Ḥasan Gangu supplanted Ismāʿīl and was proclaimed Sulṭān ʿAlā al-Dīn Ḥasan Bahman S̲h̲āh. (On the latter’s origin see Major W. Haig, Some Notes on the Bahmanī Dynasty , A SB LXXIII Pt. 1 (Extra No.) 1904, 463; Proceedings of Indian History Congress , 1938, 304-8; H. K. Sherwani, Gangu Bahmani , in Journal of Indian History

Humāyūn Shāh Bahmanī

(815 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, the eleventh Bahmanī dynast and the third of the line to rule from Bidar, 862/1458 to 865/1461. He was the eldest son of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Aḥmad II, who designated him his heir shortly before his death, at the same time giving him s̲h̲rewd if idealistic advice about the management of the kingdom (Niẓām al-Dīn Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ī, Ṭabaḳāt-i Akbarī , Bibl. Ind. ed., Calcutta 1913, i, 421). Party faction was rife in the Deccan, and even before his accession, on rumours of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Aḥmad’s death in 859/1455, the king’s brother-in-law D̲j̲alā…

Ḳadam S̲h̲arīf

(1,039 words)

Author(s): Arnold, T.W. | Burton-Page, J.
( Ḳadam Rasūl Allāh ). Among the miracles ( muʿd̲j̲izāt ) popularly attributed to Muḥammad was the fact that when he trod on a rock, his foot sank into the stone and left its impress there. This miracle is usually referred to along with others, e.g., that he cast no shadow, that if one of his hairs fell in the fire, it was not burnt, that flies did not settle on his clothes etc. (cf. al-Ḥalabī, al-Sīra al-Ḥalabiyya , Būlāḳ, 1292, iii, 407), or that his sandals left no imprint on the sand (cf. Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar al-Haytamī, commentary on al-Ḳaṣīda al-Ḥamziyya , 1. 176. (Ind. Off,…

Namāzgāh

(454 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
(p.), “place of prayer”, in India an alternative name for ʿīdgāh , the open structure built usually to the west of a town, consisting solely of what in a mosque would be the western wall, with miḥrāb (s) and minbar and, essentially, within a spacious enclosure which should be capable of accommodating the entire adult male Muslim population; the wallstructure may stand at the western end of a large paved area ( ṣaḥn ), but there is usually no ḥawḍ for ablutions. The structure is used only for the celebration of the two ʿīd festivals ( ʿīd al-aḍḥā and ʿid al-fiṭr [ q.vv.]), and no special sanctity…

Dwārkā

(195 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a town in the Okhāmandal district in the north-west of the Kāt́hiāwād peninsula of Gud̲j̲arāt, India, associated in Hindū legend with the god Kris̲h̲na and hence considered to be of special sanctity by Hindūs. It is known also by the names of Dwārawatī and D̲j̲agat, and was notorious for its pirates until the 19th century. Under the name Bāruwī ( < dwārawatī ) it is referred to by al-Bīrūnī ( K. Taʾrīk̲h̲ al-Hind , tr. E. Sachau, London 1888, ii, 105 ff.). It was sacked by the Gud̲j̲arāt sultan Maḥmūd I “Begd́ā” in 877/1473 as a reprisal for an attack by pirates on the schol…

Hindū

(1,216 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, the name given to the largest religious community of India, conquered by the Muslims in the 6th/12th century. Early Muslim knowledge about the religious belief of India was very small: and no wonder, for Hinduism is utterly different from Islam in most of its ways. It is essentially polytheistic, has no official scripture (although many sacred books), no canon, many different schools of belief and of philosophy and yet really no orthodoxy, and above all no prophecy; it tolerates the worship of…

Mēdinī Rāʾī

(769 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a leader, as Rāʾī C̀and Pūrbīya, of the Pūrbīya (= "eastern") Rād̲j̲pūts, with tribal possessions in the Čāndērī [ q.v.] district and hence feudatories of the sultans of Mālwā [ q.v.], who became prominent in Mālwā-Gud̲j̲arāt-Mēwār-Dihlī politics early in the 10th/16th century. The Mālwā succession had been fiercely contested after the death of Nāṣir al-Dīn S̲h̲āh Ḵh̲ald̲j̲ī in 916/1510, who had designated his third son, Aʿẓam Humāyūn, as his heir. He duly succeeded, as Maḥmūd S̲h̲āh Ḵh̲ald̲j̲ī II [ q.v.], with his elder brothers S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn and Ṣāḥib Ḵh̲ān as active …

D̲j̲awnpur

(1,529 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
( Jaunpur ), city on the Gumtī in Uttar Pradesh, north India, lat. 25° 48′ N., long. 82° 42′ E., and the surrounding district. The city was founded in 760/1359 by Fīrūz S̲h̲āh Tug̲h̲luḳ [ q.v.], near the ancient Manāyč reduced by Maḥmūd of G̲h̲azni in 409/1018 and renamed Ẓafarābād by Ẓafar K̲h̲ān, its governor under G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn Tug̲h̲luḳ after 721/1321. Muslim historians derive the name Ḏj̲awnpur from Ḏj̲awna S̲h̲āh, Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luḳ’s title before his accession; but D̲j̲amanpur is known as a by-form of the name (? connexion with Ḏj̲awn=D̲j̲amnā, [ q.v.]; Skt. Yamunendrapura…

Īdar

(440 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, name of a fortified town in northern Gud̲j̲arāt, 100 km. north-east of Aḥmadābād, and of its surrounding territory, largely mountainous. The former rād̲j̲ā s of Īdar were in the 8th/14th century a constant thorn in the flesh of the first governors in Gud̲j̲arāt of the Dihlī sultanate, and military action was almost always required to collect the tribute the governors exacted. After Gud̲j̲arāt became an independent sultanate Aḥmad S̲h̲āh I was similarly troubled, and the strength of Īdar, so near…

Ḥaydarābād

(5,009 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
( a) the name of a city in the Deccan (Dakhan) of India, situated 17° 22′ N., 78° 27′ E., now the capital city of the Indian state of Āndhra Pradēs̲h̲, and formerly the capital successively of the later Ḳuṭb S̲h̲āhī kings of Golkond́ā, of a Mug̲h̲al ṣūba after Awrangzīb’s conquest of the Deccan, of the Niẓām, and of the state of Ḥaydarābād after the independence of India; ( b) the name of a former state of the Indian Union, now absorbed within the provinces of Āndhra Pradēs̲h̲, Mahārās̲h̲tra, and Mysore (Mahisur); formerly the territory of H.E.H. (‘His ¶ Exalted Highnes…

Kitābāt

(26,210 words)

Author(s): Sourdel-Thomine, J. | Ory, S. | Ocaña Jiménez, M. | Golvin, L. | Bivar, A.D.H. | Et al.
(a.), inscriptions. 1. Islamic epigraphy in general. The study of Arabic inscriptions today constitutes a science full of promise, an auxiliary science to be sure, but a science indispensable to the scholarly exploitation of a whole category of authentic texts capable of throwing light on the civilisation in the context of which they were written. From a very early period, seeing that the first dated Arabic inscription available to us goes back to the year 31/652 and that we are aware of previous inscr…

Māhūr

(398 words)

Author(s): Bosworth, C.E. | Burton-Page, J.
, a small town of mediaeval India in the extreme north of the former Hyderabad State of British India. It is situated in lat. 19° 49′ N. and long. 77° 58′ E. just to the south of the Pengangā river, a left-bank affluent of the Godavari, where it forms the boundary between the former regions of northern Hyderabad [see ḥaydarābād ] and Berār [ q.v.] in Central India. In pre-Muslim times, Māhūr had the shrine of Śrī-Dattātreya. In the middle years of the 8th/14th century, the territory up to Māhūr was conquered by the Deccani power of the Bahmanīs [ q.v.]. In 857/1453 Maḥmūd I K̲h̲ald̲j̲ī [ q. v. ] of Mā…

al-Mīzān

(7,402 words)

Author(s): Wiedemann, E. | Burton-Page, J.
(a.) balance, is the nomen instrumenti from wazana “to weigh”, which means to weigh in the ordinary sense and also to test the level of something, like the Latin librare . Here we shall discuss: 1. The various instruments used for weighing in the ordinary sense; brief notes are added on the ascertainment of specific gravities. 2. Levelling instruments. 3. Aspects of the balance in Indian Muslim art. 1. balances. The steelyard ( al-ḳarasṭūn [ q.v.]) has already been dealt with, and the general principles of the balance are also discussed in that article.—The usual balan…

Ḳandahār

(292 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
(Deccan), locally often spelt Ḳand̲h̲ār, Kand̲h̲ār to distinguish it from its illustrious Afg̲h̲ān namesake, is a plains fort and the surrounding taʿalluḳ , mainly agricultural, known to have been part of the Bahmanī [ q.v.] dominions, from whom it later passed to the ʿĀdil S̲h̲āhīs. It seems, however, to have known previous Muslim occupation, since the main gate bears an inscription of Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luḳ [ q.v.] ( EIM 1919-20, 16-7) and was presumably occupied by him on his expedition to south India. The fort, 25 miles south-west of Nandeŕ, is remarkable for i…

Hūlāgū

(179 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a Mongol noble of Lāhawr (Lahore), whose brief rise to power in that city in about 735/1335 was symptomatic of the general resentment felt at Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luḳ’s rule. When the sultan had left Dihlī for the south of India to put down the ¶ rebellion of D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Aḥsan [ q.v.] Hūlāgū killed Tātār Ḵh̲ān, governor of Lāhawr, appointed Gul Čandra (?) the Khokar his minister, and proclaimed his independence. On the news reaching Dihlī, the wazīr K̲h̲wād̲j̲a D̲j̲ahān, who had not yet followed the sultan south, marched to Lāhawr with an army and put down the rebellion…

Makāyil (a.),

(6,350 words)

Author(s): Ashtor, E. | Burton-Page, J.
“measures of capacity” (sing. mikyal( a); var. makāyīl, sing. mikyāl), and Mawāzīn(a.) “weights” (sing. mīzān ). On the measures of length and surface area, see misāḥa . 1. In the Arabic, Persian and Turkishlands. In the history of Oriental metrology, the spread of ¶ Islam meant no abrupt break. Whereas Charlemagne imposed in his empire a uniform system of weights and measures and introduced a much heavier pound than the Roman libra of 327.45 g, neither Muḥammad nor ʿUmar made such a reform; and as later rulers could not claim canonical …

Mīrzā

(518 words)

Author(s): Levy, R. | Burton-Page, J.
or Mirzā , a Persian title, from Mīr-zāda or Amīr-zāda , and originally meaning “born of a prince’’ (cf. Malik-zāda and Sarhang-zāda , which occur in Saʿdī, etc.). 1. In Persian usage. The title, in addition to bearing its original significance, was also given to noblemen and others of good birth, thus corresponding to the Turkish Āg̲h̲ā. Since the time of Nādir S̲h̲āh’s conquest of India, it has been further applied to educated men outside of the class of mullās or ¶ ʿulamāʾ . In modern times, but not formerly, the title is placed after the name of a pri…

Mug̲h̲als

(37,500 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J. | Islam, Riazul | Athar Ali, M. | Moosvi, Shireen | Moreland, W.H. | Et al.
an Indo-Muslim dynasty which ruled, latterly with decreasing effectiveness, 932-1274/1526-1858. 1. History. This article, like the section on History in hind, iv, above, aims at being no more than a guide to the numerous articles on the history of the Mug̲h̲al dynasty in India to be found elsewhere in the Encyclopaedia , and to relate these to a chronological framework. The Mug̲h̲als were given their first foothold in Indian territory in 800/1398 when Pīr Muḥammad, governor of Kābul and a grandson of Tīmūr, attacked Uččh and Multān, and established a gov…

Dāl

(521 words)

Author(s): Fleisch, H. | Burton-Page, J.
, 8th letter of the Arabic alphabet, transcribed d; numerical value 4, in accordance with the order of the letters in the Syriac (and Canaanite) alphabet, where d is the fourth letter [see abd̲j̲ad ]. It continues a d of common Semitic. Definition: voiced dental occlusive; according to the Arab grammatical tradition: s̲h̲adīda , mad̲j̲hūra . For the mak̲h̲rad̲j̲ : niṭʿiyya according to al-K̲h̲alīl (al-Zamak̲h̲s̲h̲arī, Mufaṣṣal , 2nd ed. J. P. Broch, 191, line 1), who places the point of articulation at the niṭʿ (or niṭaʿ ), the anterior part of the hard pala…

Dūrbās̲h̲

(403 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
(Persian, lit. “be distant”), the mace or club used as an emblem of military dignity; in Persian and Turkish usage the dūrbās̲h̲ can also be the functionary who carries the mace [see čāʾūs̲h̲ , sarhang ]. The čūbdārs described by Niẓām al-Mulk, Siyāsat-nāme , ch. xxxix, who seem to have been similar functionaries, carried gold and silver staffs; ʿAwfī, D̲j̲āmiʿ al-ḥikāyāt (passage cited by M. Fuad Köprülü, Bizans müesseselerin Osmanlı müesseselerine tesiri hakkında bazı mülâhazalar , in Türk Hukuk ve Iktisat Tarihi Mecmuası , Istanbul 1931, 213; Ital. tr., Alcune osservazioni

Katahr

(512 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a district of India to the east of Dihlī lying between the Rāmgangā and S̲h̲āradā rivers and hence the eastern part of the tract which, in ¶ the first third of the 18th century, came to be known as Rohilkhand [ q.v.]; but in Mug̲h̲al times the name seems to have been applied loosely to the whole of that tract. The name ( Katahr in the oldest Muslim sources, but recte Kaṭahr ) is variously derived: W. Crooke, Tribes and castes of the North West Provinces and Oudh , Calcutta 1896, iii, 176, takes it as the name of the common soil of the tract, “a brownish loam …

Gangā

(653 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, the Ganges (also Gang , in the Muslim historians of India), the principal river of Upper India [see hind ] which rises in the snows of the Himālaya in the district of Gaŕhwāl at an altitude of some 3100 m., flows through the present provinces of Uttar Prades̲h̲, Bihār and Bengal, and falls in the Bay of Bengal after a course of about 2500 km., the last 500 km. through the Bengal delta. Above the delta it receives successively the waters of the Rāmgangā, Yamunā (Ḏj̲amnā. [ q.v.]), Gōmatā, Gōgrā, Sōn, Gandak and Kōsī; above the Ḏj̲amnā confluence at Prayāg (Allāhābād, [ q.v.]) it is fordable. The…

Čāmpānēr

(447 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a ruined city of Gud̲j̲arat in Western India, Lat. 22° 29′ N., long. 73° 32′ E., about 78 miles south-east of Aḥmadābād, taken by the Gūd̲j̲arāt sulṭān Maḥmūd S̲h̲āh I ‘Begadā’ on his conquest (889/1484) of the adjoining stronghold ¶ of Pāwāgaŕh, which had successfully resisted Aḥmad S̲h̲āh I in 821/1418. The Begadā occupied Čampānēr forthwith, building a city wall with bastions and gates (called Ḏj̲ahānpanāh; inscription EIM 1929-30, 4-5), and a citadel ( bhādar ). He renamed the city Maḥmūdābād, and it was his favourite residence until his deat…

Māʾ

(34,897 words)

Author(s): Fahd, T. | Young, M.J.L. | Hill, D.R. | Rabie, Hassanein | Cahen, Cl. | Et al.
(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…

Dars̲h̲an

(116 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, also less correctly darsan, a Sanskrit word ( darśana , from the root dṛś “see”) meaning “showing, being visible”; hence, the ceremonial appearance of a king to his subjects. This Hindū practice was adopted by the Mug̲h̲al emperor Akbar ( Āʾīn-i Akbarī , i, 73) and his immediate successors. The English traveller Coryat records that Ḏj̲ahāngīr in Āgra used to present himself three times a day from a canopied window. The failure of S̲h̲āhd̲j̲ahān to appear during his illness at the end of 1067/September 1657 led to rumours of his death. The practice of dars̲h̲an was …

Gud̲j̲rāt

(563 words)

Author(s): Burton Page, J.
, a town, taḥṣīl and district in the northern plains of the Pākistān Pand̲j̲āb lying between the rivers Ḏj̲ehlam and Čanāb. The district is thought to have once formed part of the ancient Gurd̲j̲ara kingdom; but it is not specifically referred to in Islamic historical writing until the time of Bahlōl Lodī (855-94/1451-89) when the town of Bahlōlpur, 36 km. north-east of Gud̲j̲rāt town, was founded; the settlement of the district was continued by S̲h̲īr S̲h̲āh in the middle of the 10th/16th century, and completed by Akbar with the refounding of Gud̲j̲rāt town. There seem to have been at …

Gulbargā

(384 words)

Author(s): Burton Page, J.
, a town and district in the north of Mysore state in India on the western borders of what is known as “the Deccan” (Dakkhan [ q.v.]); the town is situated at 17° 21′ N., 76° 51′ E. Of some antiquity in the Hindū period, it formed part of the domains of the Kākatīyas of Warangaḷ before the Islamic conquest. It was annexed for the Dihlī sultanate by Ulug̲h̲ Ḵh̲ān, the future Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luḳ, early in the 8th/14th century, to pass first to the Bahmanī dynasty on its establi…

Hindī

(3,031 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, the national language of the Republic of India, is now generally regarded as that form of the central north Indian speech which draws its erudite vocabulary from Sanskrit and its culture from Hinduism, and for literary purposes as including not only the standard dialect (Khaŕī bolī) but also the eastern Awadhī, the central Brad̲j̲, and the bardic poetry of Rād̲j̲āsthān [see also hind , Languages]. Formerly, and as late as the 19th century, it was also used to describe the speech of north Indian Muslims, those of Hind as opposed to Dakhan , the speech of the Hindūs being distinguished as Hindaw…

Nārnawl

(533 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, an ancient town of India, in lat. 28°3′N. and long. 76°10′E., in the modern Haryana State, some 80 miles south-west of Dihlī. It was probably (Ishwari Prasad, Life and times of Humayun , 95) the birthplace of S̲h̲īr S̲h̲āh, his family having been associated with the place for some time. But Nārnawl has much older Islamic associations, with the inscription at the dargāh of S̲h̲āh Wilāyat showing that the saint was living here in and before 531/1137, i.e. over fifty years before the Muslim conquest of Dihli; his dargāh shows signs of the pre-Muslim style of cofferedroof construction…

K̲h̲āndēs̲h̲

(1,514 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a region of west-central India lying to the north-west of the Deccan [see dakhan ], the upper valley of the river Tāptī (also called Tāpī), and the surrounding plain and forest country bounded on the north by the Satpuŕā hills and the river Narbadā, on the west separated from mainland Gud̲j̲arāt ¶ [ q.v.] by the northern ranges of the Western G̲h̲āt́s, on the south by the Sātmalā hills which separate it from the Deccan tableland, and on the south-west by the Laling and Gālnā hills which divide it from the Nāsik district of Mahārās̲h̲t́ra. There i…

Nandurbār

(452 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, an ancient townoflndiain west K̲h̲āndēs̲h̲ [ q.v.; Map], situated in lat. 21°22′N., long. 74°4′E., in the valley of the River Tapti and formerly an important trade centre. As Nandigara it is said to have been founded by Nanda Gawlī, a local tribal chief, and it is asserted that it remained in his family “until conquered by the Muhammadans under Muin-ud-din Chishti” ( IGI 2, xviii, s.v. 362-3, Nandurbar ) ; this sounds improbable, and perhaps refers to an early Ṣūfī settlement. Its possession seems to have changed at various times between Gud̲j̲arāt and K̲h̲āndēs…

Mēʾō

(213 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a mixed Indian tribe of largely north-eastern Rad̲j̲put stock, a branch of whom were converted to Islam in the mid-8th/14th century. Their conversion seems to have been nominal, as they are described as offering animal sacrifices to a mother-goddess, worshipping at shrines of the Hindū god of the homestead Bhūmiyā, and following the Pačpiriyā (Pānč Pīr [ q.v.]), especially Sālār Masʿūd, whose banner was an object of their devotion at the s̲h̲ab-i barāt (eve of 14 S̲h̲aʿbān), as well as the Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Ṣāḥib of Ad̲j̲mēr (Muʿīn al-Dīn Čis̲h̲tī [ q.v.]); they celebrated Hindū festivals…

Burd̲j̲

(8,617 words)

Author(s): Sourdel-Thomine, J. | Terrasse, H. | Burton-Page, J.
I Military architecture in the Islande Middle East The different forms of tower s which the word burd̲j̲ signifies in its usual sense (especially in inscriptions) have always formed the principal elements in the fortifications which were erected in Islamic territories from the years following the Conquest and which were to remain of real importance until changes gradually arose in military ideas as a result of the development of heavy and field artillery. The importance of the protective ro…

Mān Singh

(752 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, Mahārad̲j̲ā ot Amber, outstanding general of the Mug̲h̲al armies under Akbar, later governor of Mug̲h̲al provinces. He was born in 1607 V.S. = 975/1550, the son of Bhagwant Dās, eldest son and heir apparent of the reigning Mahārād̲j̲ā Bhārah Mali, a Rād̲j̲pūt [ q.v.] of the Kaččhwāha clan; the Muslim sources (Niẓām al-Dīn, Badāʾūnī, Firis̲h̲ta, Abu ’l-Faḍl, and D̲j̲ahāngīr in his Tūzuk ) garble the names and confuse Man Singh’s parentage, but there seems no reason to doubt the contemporary Rād̲j̲pūt records. After a young martial tra…

Karnāt́́ak

(437 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, properly the Kanarese (Kannadá) speaking district of southern India, Sanskrit karnāṭaka the word seems to be derived from Dravidian roots meaning “black country”, i.e., the country with the “black cotton soil” which characterizes the south Deccan plateau. The region is approximately that of the modern Mysore (Mahisur) state; but it was already applied in mediaeval times to part of the Telugu-speaking region as well, as in the time of the Vid̲j̲ayanagara [ q.v.] kingdom. After the Deccan confederacy had defeated the Vid̲j̲ayanagara forces at the battle of Tālīkot́a …

Hūs̲h̲ang S̲h̲āh G̲h̲ūrī

(1,098 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
ruler of Mālwā [ q.v.] from 808/1405 to 835/1432. He is first mentioned as Alp K̲h̲ān, the eldest son of Dilāwar K̲h̲ān [ q.v.], by Firis̲h̲ta, who represents him as ambitious for Mālwā’s independence from Dihlī and resentful of his father’s homage to Maḥmūd K̲h̲ald̲j̲i of Dihlī when the latter was a fugitive in Dhār from the Tīmūrid invasion in 801/1398; indeed, during Maḥmūd’s presence at Dhār he withdrew from the court to Mānd́ū [ q.v.] where he put in order the fortifications of the old Paramāra stronghold, and after Maḥmūd’s return to Dihlī in 804/1401 he encourag…

Ḏj̲amnā

(287 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, the usual modern Muslim spelling of the Indian river which rises in Tehrī in the Himālaya and falls into the Ganges at Allāhābād. Generally called Jamnā (older Jumna) on western maps, its Sanskrit name Yamunā has been largely re-adopted in modern India; it was known to Ptolemy as Διαμούνα, to Arrian as ’Ιωβαρής, and to Pliny as Iomanes the spellings Gemini (Roe) and Gemna (Bernier) occur among early European travellers. Early Muslim historians of India refer to it as . Its depth and width have made it a natural frontier in the division of territory in north India, between …

Nānak

(435 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, commonly called Gurū Nānak , Hindū religious reformer, born in the village of Talwandī some 50 km/30 miles south-west of Lāhawr, in 874/1469, some half a century after Kabīr [ q.v.] and died in 945/1538; there is much in common between the two teachers, both in the rejection of formal Hinduism and in the acceptance of ideas derived from Islam, especially an uncompromising monotheism. The Talwandī district was well forested, and the young Nānak is said to have resorted often to the religious recluses who had setded there, Hi…

Kalyāni

(283 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a fortified town of the Deccan [see dakhan ], 17 53′ N., 76 57′ E., about 37 miles west of Bīdar [ q.v.]. In the 4th/10th and 5th/11th centuries, it was the capital of the Late Western Čālukya rād̲j̲ās, passing later to the Yādavas of Devagiri (= Dawlatābād, [ q.v.]); after the foundation of the Bahmanī [ q.v.] dynasty at Devagiri, Kalyāni was annexed as one of the strongholds on their northern borders; but there had presumably been a previous ¶ Muslim conquest of the town since an inscription is preserved of a d̲j̲āmiʿ masd̲j̲id founded by Ulug̲h̲ K̲h̲ān (later su…

Niʿmat-Allāhiyya

(4,036 words)

Author(s): Algar, Hamid | Burton-Page, J.
, a Persian Ṣūfī order that soon after its inception in the 8th/14th century transferred its loyalties to S̲h̲īʿī Islam. The Niʿmat Allāhiyya first took root in south-eastern Persia where it continued to prosper until the time of S̲h̲āh ʿAbbās. For the next two centuries it survived only in the Deccani branch that had been established in the 9th/15th century. Reintroduced into Persia with considerable vigour in the early 13th/late 18th century, the Niʿmat Allāhiyya became the most widespread Ṣūfī order in the country, a position it has retained until recent times. 1. The founder and th…

Narnālā

(305 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a hill-fort in the Barār region of ¶ India [see berār ], in lat. 21°15′N. and long. 77°4′E., in the former Ḥaydarābād native state (now in Maharās̲h̲tra State), at the southernmost end of the Satpura hills. The fortress is presumably pre-Muslim, since Firis̲h̲ta ( Guls̲h̲an-i Ibrāhīmī ), states that it was restored and repaired by Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Bahmanī between 828-31/1425-8, and the earliest buildings there appear to be of the Bahmanī period, although later the fort passed into ʿImād S̲h̲āhī [ q.v.] hands. It played an important role in the warfare of the rulers in the Decca…

Elurā

(155 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
The Elurā (Ellora) caves, near Dawlatābād [ q.v.], appear in the history of Muslim India only as the scene of the capture of the Gud̲j̲arāt princess Deval Devī, the future bride of Ḵh̲iḍr Ḵh̲ān [ q.v.], for ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Ḵh̲ald̲j̲ī by Alp Ḵh̲ān. who had given his forces leave to visit the cave temples (Firis̲h̲ta, Lucknow lith., i, 117). These caves were justly famous and were described by some early travellers, e.g., Masʿūdī, iv, 95, copied with much distortion of names by Ḳazwīnī, cf. Gildemeister, Scriptorum Arabutn de rebus Indicis , text 79, trans. 221; Musl…

Gāwilgaŕh

(839 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, in the histories also Gāwīl , Gāwīlgaŕh , a fortress “of almost matchless strength” (Abu ’l-Faḍl, Āʾīn -i Akbarī , Eng. tr. Jarrett, ii, 237) in Berār, Central India, lat. 21° 20′ N., long. 77° 18′ E., seven kos (about 25 km.) north-west of Eličpur (Iličpur [ q.v.]). According to Firis̲h̲ta the fortress was built by Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Walī [see bahmanīs ] in 829/1425-6; but from its name it appears to have been a former stronghold of the Gāwalī chiefs, and it is more likely that Aḥmad S̲h̲āh merely strengthened the fortifications during t…

Ḍarība

(18,908 words)

Author(s): Cahen, Cl. | Hopkins, J.F.P. | İnalcık, Halil | Rivlin, Helen | Lambton, Ann K.S. | Et al.
, one of the words most generally used to denote a tax, applied in particular to the whole category of taxes which in practice were added to the basic taxes of canonical theory. These latter ( zakāt or ʿus̲h̲r , d̲j̲izya and k̲h̲arād̲j̲ , etc.) and their yield in the “classical” period, have been covered in a general survey in an earlier article, Bayt al-māl , and a detailed description of the methodes of assessment and collection will be given under their respective titles, in particular under k̲h̲arād̲j̲; along with k̲h̲arād̲j̲ and zakāt will be included associated taxes and payments…

Lōdīs

(3,396 words)

Author(s): Imamuddin, S.M. | Burton-Page, J.
, a North Indian Afghān tribe and dynasty, 855-932/1451-1526. 1. History. Afg̲h̲ān tribes from the mountainous Sulaymān regions regularly migrated to the plain of the Indus; they joined the invading armies as auxiliaries in war, and came as traders or herdsmen during peace. They moved to the hills in summer and to the plains at the onset of winter. Among these emigrants were the ancestors of the Lōdī sultans of India. For the Afg̲h̲āns in India generally, see pathān and rohila. The Lōdīs are related to a clan of the G̲h̲ilzay tribe of Afg̲h̲ānistān [see g̲h̲alzay ] an…

Misāḥa

(3,688 words)

Author(s): Bosworth, C.E. | Burton-Page, J. | Andrews, P.A. | Ed.
(a.), the measurement of plane surfaces, also in modern usage, survey, the technique ofsurv eying. In this article, measures of length and area will be considered, those of capacity, volume and weight having been dealt with under makāyīl wamawāzīn . For the technique of surveying, see misāḥa, ʿilm al- . 1. In the central Islamic lands. In pre-modern times, there were a bewildering array of measures for length and superficial area, often with the same name but differing locally in size and extent. As Lane despairingly noted, “of the measures and…

Ḏh̲āl

(502 words)

Author(s): Fleisch, H. | Burton-Page, J.
, 9th letter of the Arabic alphabet, here transcribed d̲h̲ ; numerical value 700, in the Eastern system [see abd̲j̲ad ]. Definition: voiced interdental fricative; according to the Arabic grammatical tradition: rik̲h̲wa mad̲j̲hūra . For the mak̲h̲rad̲j̲ : lit̲h̲awiyya in al-K̲h̲alīl (al-Zamak̲h̲s̲h̲ari, Muf ., 191, line 2, 2nd ed. J. P. Broch) indicates a position of the tongue on the lit̲h̲a “gum”, therefore gingival . Ibn Yaʿīs̲h̲ (1460, line 21, ed. G. Jahn) records a position quite close to this, “the base of the central incisors”, and therefore alveolar . S…

D̲j̲ālor

(645 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a town in the Indian state of Rajasthan, some 75 miles south of D̲j̲odhpur on the left bank of the Sukrī river. Although the troops of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn K̲h̲ald̲j̲ī had passed through D̲j̲ālor on their return from the conquest of Gud̲j̲arāt in 696/1297, it was not then occupied by them. In Ḏj̲umādā I 705/December ¶ 1305, however, that king sent ʿAyn al-Mulk, governor of Multān, on an expedition to D̲j̲ālor, Ud̲j̲d̲j̲ayn and Čandērī; he was opposed by an army of 150,000 Hindūs on his entry into Mālwā, and his victory over them, which brought Ud̲j̲d̲j̲ayn, D̲h̲ār, Mānd́ū, and Čandērī [ qq.v.] into M…

Ḥabs̲h̲ī

(2,688 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, term used in India for those African communities whose ancestors originally came to the country as slaves, in most cases from the Horn of Africa, although some doubtless sprang from the slave troops of the neighbouring Muslim countries. The majority, at least in the earlier periods, may well have been Abyssinian, but certainly the name was applied indiscriminately to all Africans, and in the days of the Portuguese slave-trade with India many such ‘Ḥabs̲h̲īs’ were in fact of the Nilotic and Bantu races. There is little detailed information concerning the numbers, the status an…

Ḥarb

(27,665 words)

Author(s): Khadduri, M. | Cahen, Cl. | Ayalon, D. | Parry, V.J. | Bosworth, C.E. | Et al.
, war. i.— Legal Aspect Ḥarb may mean either fighting ( ḳitāl ) in the material sense or a “state of war” between two or more groups; both meanings were implied in the legal order of pre-Islamic Arabia. Owing to lack of organized authority, war became the basis of inter-tribal relationship. Peace reigned only when agreed upon between two or more tribes. Moreover, war fulfilled such purposes as vendetta and retaliation. The desert, adapted to distant raids and without natural frontiers, rendered the Arabs habituated to warfare and fighting became a function of society. Islam, prohibiting …

Bāʾolī

(739 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, Urdū and Hindī word for step-well, of which there are two main types m India, the northern and the western. The northern variety is the simpler, consisting essentially of one broad flight of stone steps running from ground level to below the waterline, the whole width of the site; subsidiary flights may run opposite and at right angles to these below water-level, thus constricting the cistern itself into successively smaller squares, and these may be supplemented by cross-flights reducing the …

Maḳbara

(7,066 words)

Author(s): Ory, S. | Brown, K.L. | Laqueur, H.-P. | Burton-Page, J.
(or maḳbura , maḳbira , miḳbara , maḳbar and maḳbur ) (a.), “cemetery”. The word occurs only in the Ḳurʾān in the plural form maḳābir : “Rivalry distracts you, until you visit the cemeteries” (CII, 2). Its synonyms d̲j̲abbāna , madfan and turba do not figure in the Holy Book. 1. In the central Arab lands The Arab authors supply little information of use in ¶ tracing the history of Muslim cemeteries. Works of fiḳh refer only to prohibitions concerning tombs ( ḳabr , pl. ḳubūr [ q.v.]) and the visiting of burial-places ( ziyāra [ q.v.]). At the most, a few occasional references may be gleane…

Miẓalla

(4,558 words)

Author(s): Bosworth, C.E. | Holt, P.M. | Chalmeta, P. | Andrews, P.A. | Burton-Page, J.
(a.), lit. “an instrument or apparatus for providing shade, ẓill ,” apparently synonymous with the s̲h̲amsa , s̲h̲amsiyya , lit. “an instrument or apparatus for providing shelter from the sun”, probably therefore referring to the sunshade or parasol born on ceremonial occasions and processions [see mawākib ] over early Islamic rulers. 1. In the ʿAbbāsid and Fāṭimid caliphates. The historical sources provide a few references on practice in the ʿAbbāsid caliphate. Thus the official Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik al-Zayyāt [see ibn al-zayyāt ] was responsible in al-Muʿtaṣim’s time fo…

Hindustānī

(390 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, also Hindūstānī , Hindostāni , is or has been used in India, confusingly, to mean at least three different forms of language, the first two of which are common. i.—As a synonym for Urdū [ q.v.] as spoken in North India; i.e., the Muslim speech of Hindustān as opposed to the Deccan; antonym Dakhnī. ii.—As a name for that speech which is the common denominator of Urdū and Hindī [ q.v.], coloured neither by recondite loanwords from Persian nor by loanwords from Sanskrit: the sort of language in which a Muslim villager might converse with a Hindū villager, and vice versa; in this sense, also the …

D̲j̲ayn

(454 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, The D̲j̲ayn (Jain) community (followers of Mahāvīra, called the Jina) was much more widely distributed over the Indian sub-continent at the time of the Muslim conquest than in later times, as is shown by the re-utilization of D̲j̲ayn material in early Islamic building. Although they were fairly widespread in the Deccan, their particular stronghold ¶ was peninsular Gud̲j̲arāt. Allusions to the D̲j̲ayns in earlier histories have probably been obscured by their being not distinguished from their Hindū neighbours and described with them as “unbeliever…

Mawākib

(21,397 words)

Author(s): Sanders, P. | Chalmeta, P. | Lambton, A.K.S. | Nutku, Özdemir | Burton-Page, J.
(a., sing, mawkib ), processions. 1. Under the ʿAbbāsids and Fāṭimids The basic meaning of procession (mounted or unmounted), cortège, is found in ḥadīt̲h̲ (al-Buk̲h̲ārī. Badʾ al-k̲h̲alḳ , 6; Ibn Ḥanbal, iii, 213; al-Dārimī, 2695). This is the precise sense given in the dictionaries, and that used by the Umayyads, ʿAbbāsids and Fāṭimids, often to describe the cortège of an amīr , wazīr , or other official (see, e.g., al-Ṭabarī, ii, 1731; Hilāl al-Ṣābī, Rusūm dār al-k̲h̲ilāfa , 9-10, 12, 14ff.). By the 4th/10th century, it had acquired the broader meaning of audience as well …

Gud̲j̲arāt

(7,269 words)

Author(s): Burton Page, J.
, a province of India on the north-west of its coastline, lying east of the Raṇ of Kaččh [ q.v.] and broadly divided into Mainland Gud̲j̲arāt and Peninsular Gud̲j̲arāt (Kāt́hīāwāŕ, the ancient Sawrās̲h̲t́ra, modern Sōrat̂h). Mainland Gud̲j̲arāt is approximately the area of the plains in the lower reaches of the rivers Sābarmatī, Mahī, Narbadā and Tāptī, bounded north by the Mārwāŕ desert, east by the line of hills running south-east from Ābū to the Vindhyas. It takes its name (Sanskrit Gurjarātra ) from the widespread Gūd̲j̲ar (Skt. Gurjara ) tribe, who, it ha…

Māhīm

(397 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a port of India, with an island fort and two creeks forming a harbour, about 60 miles/90 km. north of Bombay. The large village of Kēlvē on the opposite bank of one creek is now incorporated with it in one municipality named Kēlvē-Māhīm, which distinguishes it from the suburb of Māhīm on Bombay island. The name is also spelt Mahīm and, in Bahmanī records, Mahāʾim. It was known to have been included in the possessions of the Dihlī sultanate in the mid-8th/14th century, from which it passed to the Gud̲j̲arāt sultanate, of which it became the southernmost port …

Hind

(56,925 words)

Author(s): Ed. | S. Maqbul Ahmad | Mayer, A.C. | Burton-Page, J. | Nizami, K.A. | Et al.
, the name currently employed in Arabic for the Indian sub-continent. The current names in Persian were Hindūstān, Hindistān, “land of the Hindūs” [ q.v.], whence Ottoman Turkish Hindistān. The present article comprises the following sections: For Anglo-Muhammedan law, see s̲h̲arīʿa ; for political parties, see ḥizb ; for the development of the apparatus of modern government, see ḥukūma ; for the events leading to partition and for the history of Pakistan since independence, see pākistān . (Ed.) i.— The Geography of India according to the mediaeval muslim geographers. (a) The term “ Hin…

Dāwūd K̲h̲ān Kararānī

(192 words)

Author(s): Burton Page, J.
, younger son of the governor of Bengal under S̲h̲īr S̲h̲āh, Sulaymān ¶ Kararānī, who later asserted his independence, was raised to the Bengal throne in 980/1572 by the Afg̲h̲ān nobles who had deposed his elder brother Bāyazīd. Intoxicated by a sense of power he defied the Mug̲h̲al emperor Akbar and attacked his outpost at G̲h̲āzipur in 982/1574. Munʿim K̲h̲ān [ q.v.], sent to oppose him, occupied his capital at T́ānd́ā and compelled him to retreat into Uŕisā; he counterattacked at the important battle of Tukarōʾī [ q.v.] (= Mug̲h̲almārī), but when Mug̲h̲al reinforcements arrived…

Mud́́gal

(780 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, ancient fort in India situated in 13° 5′ N., 75° E., in the modern state of Karnāt́aka; together with Rāyčūr [ q.v.], it formed a principal defence of the Rāyčūr dōʾāb , i.e. that between the rivers Kris̲h̲na and Tungabhadra, that continuous bone of contention between the Hindū kingdom of Vid̲j̲ayanagara [ q.v.] and the Deccan sultanates. The date of its foundation is unknown, but it seems to have passed from the possession of the Yādava rulers of Dēwgir [see dawlatābād ] to the Kākatīya kings of Warangal, and from the appearance of the cyclopean mason…

Manēr

(1,145 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a former town, now no bigger than a village, 22 miles/32 km. west of Patnā [ q.v.] in Bihār state, India, by the junction of the rivers Sōn and Ganges (it was reported to be at the junction in 1722, 3 miles/5 km. south of it by 1812, 7 miles /10 km. south by 1907); it had therefore some strategic and mercantile advantage, and was one of the earliest and most important sites of Muslim colonisation in this part of India. By Mug̲h̲al times, it had become the chief town of a pargana of some 80,000 bīghas [see misāḥā 2. India] in the ṣūba of Bihār ( Āʾīn-i Akbarī , tr. Jarrett, Calcut…

Minbar

(8,958 words)

Author(s): Pedersen, J. | Golmohammadi, J. | Burton-Page, J. | Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P.
(a.), the raised structure or pulpit from which solemn announcements to the Muslim community were made and from which sermons were preached. 1. Early historical evolution and place in the Islamic cult. In contrast to the miḥrāb [ q.v.], the minbar was introduced in the time of the Prophet himself. The word, often pronounced mimbar (cf. Brockelmann, Grundriss , i, 161), comes from the root n-b-r “high”; it could be derived from the Arabic quite easily with the meaning “elevation, stand”, but is more probably a loanword from the Ethiopie (Schwally, in ZDMG, lii [1898], 146-8; Nöldeke, Neue Be…

D̲j̲īm

(1,889 words)

Author(s): Marçais, W. | Fleisch, H. | Burton-Page, J.
5th letter of the Arabic alphabet, transcribed d̲j̲ ; numerical value 3, so agreeing, like dāl , with the order of the letters of the Syriac (and Canaanite) alphabet [see abd̲j̲ad ]. It represents a g (occlusive, postpalatal1, voiced) in the ancient Semitic (and in common Semitic). In Arabic, This articulation has evolved: the point of articulation has been carried forward, in an unconditioned way 2, to the middle and prepalatal region, as a consequence of which it readily developed elements of palatalization ( g y and d y) and affrication ( d̲j̲). A simplification of the articulation …

Dār al-Ḍarb

(4,784 words)

Author(s): Ehrenkreutz, A.S. | İnalcık, Halil | Burton-Page, J.
, the mint, was an indispensable institution in the life of mediaeval Middle Eastern society because of the highly developed monetary character of its economy, particularly during the early centuries of Muslim domination. The primary function of the mint was to supply coins for the needs of government and of the general public. At times of monetary reforms the mints served also as a place where obliterated coins could be exchanged for the new issues. The large quantities of precious metals which were stored in the mints helped to make them serve as ancillary treasuries. Soon after their c…

Mathurā

(367 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
(earlier English spelling, now discarded, “Muttra”), an Indian city lying between Dihlī and Āgrā, of considerable antiquity and of high reputation in India as a place of high religious sanctity for Hindūs and, formerly, for D̲j̲ayns and Buddhists also; it was already a place of some renown when it became the eastern of the two Kus̲h̲āna capitals. It is, surprisingly, not mentioned in the Ḥudūd al-ʿālam , and only incidentally by al-Bīrūnī, although for Ptolemy it had been Μόδουρα τῶν Θηῶν. Its great reputation led to its being plundered b…

Naldrug

(765 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a small town in the former ʿUt̲h̲mānābād district of Ḥaydarābād State, situated in 17°49′N., 76°29′E., now in Mahāras̲h̲t́ra; its fort, standing above the ravine of the Bōrī river, is one of the best fortified strongholds in the Deccan. The name also appears as Naldurg, perhaps the better form ( durg = Skr. durga “ fort “). It does not figure in the Deccan campaign of Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luk, and so probably came into Bahmanī possession after the imperial forces had withdrawn, in the late 8th/14th century; its stone fortifications, which appear to be …

Kalpī

(478 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, once a powerful town in Uttar Prades̲h̲, northern India, 26 8′ N., 79 45′ E. The old town and fort stand on clay cliffs overlooking the river Ḏj̲amnā [ q.v.]; there is a modern town to the south-east of the old one, which has some commercial importance and where a fine quality paper is still made by hand. The town was traditionally founded by a rād̲j̲ā of Kannawd̲j̲ in the 4th century A.D., and fell into Muslim hands in the first conquest in 593/1196. The high fort, walled on three sides and defended on the fourth by the cliffs and rive…

Naḳl

(1,528 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
(a.), transport. 1. In the central Islamic lands and North Africa. See for this ʿaraba ; barīd ; d̲j̲āmūs in Suppl.; faras ; fīl ; ibil ; kārwān ; k̲h̲ān ; mawākib ; milāḥa ; safīna ; tid̲j̲āra . 2. In India. Travel on foot is obviously such an everyday occurrence between village and village that it receives scant mention in the texts; pilgrimages might be made on foot entirely, for pietistic reasons, such as Akbar’s to the tomb of Muʿīn al-Dīn Čis̲h̲tī from Āgrā to Ad̲j̲mēr, but generally foot-journeys are the accompaniment to a baggag…

Ḥusayn Niẓām S̲h̲āh

(545 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, the third ruler of the Niẓām S̲h̲āhī sultanate of Aḥmadnagar, reg . 961-72/1554-65. He was the eldest son of Burhān I Niẓām S̲h̲āh, whose example he followed in adopting the S̲h̲īʿa forms of worship (for the political implications of this in the Deccan see niẓām s̲h̲āhīs ); he succeeded him as al-Muʾayyad min ʿind Allāh Ḥusayn S̲h̲āh (regnal title from Burhān-i maʾāt̲h̲ir ; no coins of this reign are known) without difficulty, having been able to remove other possible claimants from Aḥmadnagar city during his father’s lifetine, but w…

K̲h̲wādja-i Ḏj̲ahān

(805 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, title of high dignitaries in various sultanates of India, notably the sultanate of Dihlī, the Bahmanids, and the sultanate of Madura. It seems to have first been used during the time of Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luḳ (724-52/1324-51), gradually replacing ṣadr-i ʿālī as the honorific title of the wazīr (I. H. Qureshi, The administration of the sultanate of Dehlī4 , Karachi 1958, 85, with further references); the title was later accorded to other very high officials. Many such officials are known to history by this title (sometimes qualified by a nisba or laḳab ) rather th…

Mīrzā ʿAskarī

(472 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, Mug̲h̲al prince, the third son (neglecting infant deaths), of the emperor Bābur [ q.v.], full brother of Kāmrān Mīrzā [ q.v.] and halfbrother of the emperor Humāyūn [ q.v.] and Hindāl Mīrzā [ q.v.], born 922/1516 in camp, as his sobriquet indicates, died 965/1558. He received his first military command at the age of 12, during Bābur’s eastern campaigns beyond the Ganges. After Humāyūn’s succession in 937/1530, Kāmrān was assigned Kandahar, but left ʿAskarī in command there when he moved to attack Humāyūn’s possessions in Lāhawr; but a co…

Bihār

(752 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a province of India lying between 23° 48ʹ and 27° 31ʹ N. and 83° 20ʹ and 88° 32ʹ E., bounded by Uttar Prades̲h̲ on the west, Nepāl on the north, Bengal and East Pakistan on the east and Orissa on the south; area, with Čhotā Nāgpur, 67,164 sq.m., population 38,784,000. The dialects of the predominantly Hindū population, Bihjpurī, Maithilī and Māgahī, are referred to as Bihārī, and are more akin to Bengali than to Hindī; the latter is, however, the official language of administration and educati…

Marāsim

(20,279 words)

Author(s): Sanders, P. | Chalmeta, P. | Lambton, A.K.S. | Groot, A.H. de | Burton-Page, J.
(a), official court ceremonies, both processional and non-processional. The whole range of ceremonial, including protocol and etiquette, is called also rusūm other terms found frequently are mawsim [ q.v.] and mawkib . Mawākib [ q.v.] refer specifically to solemn processions, but seem also to have had the more general meaning of audiences (for the ʿAbbāsids, see references in D. Sourdel, Le vizirat ʿabbāside de 749 à 946, Damascus 1960, ii, 684, n. 3; for the Fāṭimids, see e.g. al-Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Ṣubḥ , iii, 494: d̲j̲ulūs [ al-k̲h̲alīfa ] fi ’l-mawākib; ayyām al-mawākib ). 1. Under the …

Nūn

(975 words)

Author(s): Troupeau, G. | Ed. | Burton-Page, J.
, the 25th letter of the Arabic alphabet, transcribed / n/, with the numerical value 50, according to the oriental order [see abd̲j̲ad ]. Nūn is also a name of the 68th sūra [see Ḳurʾān , sūra ]. 1. In Arabic ¶ Definition: an occlusive, dental, voiced nasal (Cantineau, Études , 38-40; Fleisch, Traité , i, 58, 84-5). Sībawayh distinguishes two kinds nūn: (a) the one whose point of articulation is the tip of the tongue and the region a little above the incisors; this is a clear ( mad̲j̲hūr ) and hard ( s̲h̲adīd ) “letter”, but it is accompanied by a resonance ( g̲h̲unna ) of the nose ( anf ). (b) the light ( k̲h…

Čandērī

(690 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, town and old fort in north-central India, 24° 42′ N., 78° 9′ E., on a tableland overlooking the Betwā valley on the east. Early references by al-Bīrūnī (421/1030) and Ibn Baṭṭūṭa do not mention the fort and probably relate to a site some 15 km. north-north-west known now as Būŕhī [Urdū, ‘old’] Čandērī; here there are ruined Islamic fortifications among Hindū and Ḏj̲ayn remains, probably of the early 8th/14th century, for although the city fell in 649/1251 to G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn Balban, then nāʾib of Nāṣir al-Dīn, whose aim was the seizure of booty and ca…

Manāra, Manār

(11,039 words)

Author(s): Hillenbrand, R. | Burton-Page, J. | Freeman-Greenville, G.S.P.
(a.) minaret. 1. In the Islamic lands between the Mag̲h̲rib and Afg̲h̲anistan. Unlike the other types of Islamic religious building, such as the mosque and the madrasa , the minaret is immediately and unambiguously recognisable for what it is. The reasons for this are worth investigating. It seems on the whole unrelated to its function of the ad̲h̲ān [ q.v.] calling the faithful to prayer, which can be made quite adequately from the roof of the mosque or even from a house-top. During the lifetime of the Prophet, his Abyssinian slave Bilāl [ q.v.], was responsible for making the call to …

Mīrzā ʿAzīz “Kōka”

(1,004 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
( ca. 949-1033/ ca. 1542-1624) (the sobriquet occurs also in the Turkī form kokaltas̲h̲ or kokaldas̲h̲ , “foster-brother”), the son of the Mug̲h̲al Emperor Akbar’s wet-nurse D̲j̲īd̲j̲ī Ānaga, who rose to prominence in the Mug̲h̲al court, army and administration. His exact date of birth is not recorded, but it must have been within a month or two of Akbar’s in 949/1542; his father was S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Aḥmad G̲h̲aznawī, who had been advanced to favour after saving Humāyūn’s life in the river c…

Marāt́́hī

(265 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, the main Indo-Aryan language [see hind. iii. Languages] spoken by some 40 million in Bombay and the surrounding state of Mahārās̲h̲t́rā. It differs from the “central” Hindī-Urdū language especially by its retention of the three genders of Old Indo-Aryan, by retroflex - n- and - l- consonants, by the presence of a past tense with - l- infix, and by a vocabulary more dependent on Sanskrit than on Arabic and Persian. As the chief language of Barār and the north-west Deccan, it was the regular demotic language for the populations of the old Niẓām S̲h̲āh…

Dihlī Sultanate, Art

(540 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
With the exception of the coinage [see sikka ] and a very few ceramic fragments (a few described in J. Ph. Vogel, Catalogue of the Dehli museum of archaeology, Calcutta 1908; for the pottery fragments of the ʿĀdilābād excavations see H. Waddington, in Ancient India , i, 60-76), the only body of material for the study of the art of the Dihlī sultanate is monumental. Most of the ¶ monuments are in Dihlī itself and are described s.v. dihlī . The remainder are mostly described under the appropriate topographical headings, and are listed here in more or less chronological order. The first major und…

Nāndeŕ

(262 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, a town situated in 19°9′N., 77°20′E., a former district headquarters in Ḥaydarābād State, now in Mahārās̲h̲t́ra, on the north bank of the River Godāvarī. Once a fort of the Kākatīya dynasty, it was conquered early in the 8th/14th century by ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn K̲h̲ald̲j̲ī [see dihlī sultanate ], passing through Tug̲h̲luḳ hands to the Bahmanīs; on the disintegration of the Bahmanī state it passed to the Ḳuṭb S̲h̲āhīs of Golkond́ā, forming a defence on their north-east frontier with the Niẓām S̲h̲āhīs of Aḥmadnagar, and apparently was later in the …

Masd̲j̲id

(77,513 words)

Author(s): Pedersen, J. | Hillenbrand, R. | Burton-Page, J. | Andrews, P.A. | Pijper, G.F. | Et al.
(a.), mosque, the noun of place from sad̲j̲ada “to prostrate oneself, hence “place where one prostrates oneself [in worship]”. The modern Western European words (Eng. mosque , Fr. mosquée , Ger. Moschee , Ital. moschea ) come ultimately from the Arabic via Spanish mezquita . I. In the central Islamic lands A. The origins of the mosque up to the Prophet’s death. The word msgdʾ is found in Aramaic as early as the Jewish Elephantine Papyri (5th century B.C.), and appears likewise in Nabataean inscriptions with the meaning “place of worship…

Mīrat́́h

(899 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
(old Anglicised spelling Meerut), (i) a district in the modern province of Uttar Prades̲h̲, India, immediately to the north-east of Dihlī, and entirely within the D̲j̲amnā-Ganges dōʾāb . Its principal towns are Mīrat́h city itself; Sardhānā (the chief residence of the Begam Samrū, widow of the adventurer Walter Reinhardt called “Sombre”; see samrū ); G̲h̲āzīābād; Baŕnāwā; and Hāpur, an important grain market, (ii) Mīrat́h city (29°0′N., 77°43′E.), a town of considerable antiquity. The city was the site of a pillar of As̲h̲oka, one of the two taken by Fīrūz S̲h̲āh th…

Malik Aḥmad Baḥrī

(372 words)

Author(s): Burton-Page, J.
, later styled Aḥmad Niẓām S̲h̲āh Baḥrī and regarded as the first independent ruler of the Niẓām S̲h̲āhī [ q.v.] sultanate, was the son of Malik Ḥasan Niẓām al-Mulk Baḥrī, the converted Hindū who eventually became a wazīr of the Bahmanī sultanate after the murder of Maḥmūd Gāwān [ q.v.] in 886/1481. There is no reliable evidence concerning his date of birth or his early years, but he is known to have accompanied his father when the latter was appointed governor of Telingānā in 875/1471. Here his ability and promise were so conspicuous that Maḥmūd…

Nahr

(878 words)

Author(s): Bosworth, C.E. | Burton Page, J.
(a.), pis. anhār , anhur , etc., running water, hence a perennial watercourse, river, stream of any size (thus opposed to a wādī , a watercourse filled only at certain times of the year or a sayl , periodic torrent). 1. In the Middle East. Al-Masʿūdi lays down that “all running water is a nahr , the place where water flows out is a spring ( ʿayn ); and the place where a great amount of water is found is a baḥr’ ” ( Murūd̲j̲ , i, 281 = §304). In fact, the latter term [ q.v.], or its equivalent borrowed from the Hebrew, yamm , was accordingly applied not only to the seas and oce…
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