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(i)—the poll-tax which, in traditional Muslim law, is levied on non-Muslims in Muslim states. The history of the origins of the d̲j̲izya is extremely complex, for three different reasons: first, the writers who, in the ʿAbbāsid period, tried to collect the available materials relating to the operation of the d̲j̲izya and the k̲h̲arād̲j̲ found themselves confronted by texts in which these words were used with different meanings, at times in a wide sense, at others in a technical way and even then varying, so that in order to …

, a town in Bessarabia; the name appears on a coin of Mengli Gerey dated 905/1499-1500. It is found in the Tatar documents as Bender Kerman (V. Zernov, Materiaux , 16). Bender, from Persian Bandar , was called earlier Tigina or Tighinea which may have a Kuman origin. That the town was first established by the Genoese is a legend ( Chronique d’ Ureche , ed. Giurescu). Its rise as a trading town with important customs revenue was due to its being on the “Tatar-route” on which an active trade was carried on between Lvov and the Crimea and Ak Kirmān [ q.v.] in the 14th century. The place seems to pa…

, Ottoman Grand Vizier in 906/1501. Mesīḥ and his elder brother Ḵh̲āṣṣ Murād were sons of a brother of Constantine IX Palaeologus (Babinger, Eine Verfügung ). Apparently Mesīḥ and Murād were captured during the conquest of Constantinople and brought up as pages in Meḥemmed II’s seraglio. The Greek faction under this Sultan first came to power when he decided to conquer the Greek island of Euboea (Eg̲h̲riboz) in 875/1470. Mesīḥ distinguished himself for the first time during this campaign as sand̲j̲aḳ begi of Gelibolu [ q.v.] and admiral of the navy. But soon afterwards he offere…

, agriculture. Falḥ , the act of cleaving and cutting, when applied to the soil has the meaning of “to break up in order to cultivate”, or “to plough”. Fallāḥ “ploughman”, filāḥa “ploughing”. But from pre-Islamic times the word filāḥa has assumed a wider meaning to denote the occupation of husbandry, agriculture. In this sense it is synonymous with zirāʿa , to which the ancients preferred filāḥa (all the earlier writers called their works on agriculture Kitāb al-Filāḥa ). At the present time this latter word is very widely used in North Africa, both …

, Russian Azov; called Tana by the Italians after the ancient Tanaïs (the Old-Tana of Jos. Barbaro) is first found on an Italian map of 1306. The Turkish name Azaḳ has appeared on coins since 717/1317. First the Genoese around 1316, then the Venetians in 1332, established trade colonies in Azaḳ. It appears, however, to have remained essentially a Muslim-Tatar city which was administered by Tatar governors such as Muḥammad Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a about 1334, Sichi-beg in 1347 and 1349, Tolobey about 1358. A mint of the k̲h̲āns was active there as late as 1411. An emporium of th…