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(Lebanon). The Arabs have a somewhat confused, almost mysterious idea of Lebanon. Here they place the sojourn of the Abdāl [q. v.]. They do not distinguish it from the Anti-Lebanon for which they have no special name. “Ḏj̲abal Sanīr” means to the Arabs the section of Anti-Lebanon to the north of the valley of the Baradā [q. v.]. The massif of Hernion has been known since the time of Ḥassān b. T̲h̲ābit as Ḏj̲abal al-T̲h̲ald̲j̲; it is the Ḏj̲abal al-S̲h̲eik̲h̲ of modern writers. Nor are the Arab geographers agreed about the northern boundary of Lebanon. Some include al-Lukkā…

b. Abī Arṭāt or b. Arṭāt (there is less authority for the latter form), an Arab general of the Ḳorais̲h̲ clan of the Banū ʿĀmir, was born in Mecca in the last decade before the Hid̲j̲ra. Only traditions which have been influenced by S̲h̲īʿite prejudices deny him the title of Ṣaḥābī. He went with the relief column into Syria under Ḵh̲ālid b. al-Walīd, distinguished himself there by his bravery and afterwards took part in the conquest of Africa. His bravery earned him a duʿāʾ and rewards from ʿOmar. During the civil war he vigorously declared himself on the side of Muʿāwiya for …

b. ʿAbd al-Malik, Umaiyad Caliph (88—98 = 705—715). On the death of his father, the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik (Oct. 705), al-Walīd, his successor, was over 30. A prince of only average culture, he brought to the throne an aristocratic outlook and a display of religious fervour unknown among his predecessors. In the history of the Umaiyads he ranks as the great builder of the dynasty. One of his first cares was to give his capital Damascus a magnificent mosque. Walīd cast his eyes on the basilica of St.…

, a place-name often corrupted in books and manuscripts. In place of Baḥr, Baḥrāʾ or Nad̲j̲rāʾ, Bak̲h̲rāʾ ought to be read, as the etymological conjectures of the Chroniclers, who derjve the name from bak̲h̲ara, “to have an evil smell”, show. An ancient fortress on the limes protecting the southern frontier of Palmyra, afterwards in possession of the family of Noʿmān b. Bas̲h̲īr. It was there that the Caliph Walīd II met his death while fleeing from the rebels who were pursuing him. The erroneous statements of Yāḳūt would lead one to look …

1. Before the Hid̲j̲ra. About the time of the Hid̲j̲ra all the clans of this tribe, which then held pride of place in Mecca, thought they could claim a common ancestor. Was. he called Fihr or Ḳurais̲h̲. or perhaps al-Naḍr, surnamed Ḳurais̲h̲? They did not take the trouble to examine closely the problem of the name. Did the names given to the eponymous ancestor refer to a historical personage? Were they not “names without substance” like those which the Meccans according to Ḳurʾān liii. 23 gave to their divinities? The only authority, the nassāba, the Meccan genealogists, ¶ could give was th…

, the daughter of Muḥammad and the aged Ḵh̲adīd̲j̲a, born in Mecca. Unlike the other children of the Prophet, we have solid grounds for believing in her existence, not so much in reliable documents as in her descendants. She possesses a biographical literature of her own, in which however historical facts are rather scarce, a slight but appreciable advantage over her sisters, notably Ruḳayya and Umm Kult̲h̲ūm, always associated as sisters and confused even in the most trifling incidents of their lives. The poetry of the first century a. h., however, entirely omits to mention her. Th…

, the principal residence of the Ḏj̲afnid Amīrs of G̲h̲assān, whence called “Ḏj̲ābiya of the Kings”, in Ḏj̲awlān, a day’s journey S. E. of Damascus. It covered several small hills, whence perhaps is derived the poetical form Ḏj̲awābī of the plural, with an allusion to the etymological meaning of “reservoir”, as a metaphor for generosity, (cf. Miskīn al-Dārimī, Ag̲h̲ānī, xviii. 72, 5). It was the perfect type of the ancient Ḥirthā, the Ḥīra of the Beduins, of the bādiya, a large encampment, a collection of dwellings, half nomad and half sedentary, a confused ¶ mass of tents and buildings…

b. Warḳāʾ, chief of the Banū Ḵh̲uzāʿa, a tribe living near Mecca, who served Muḥammad as spies, kept him informed of the enterprises of the Ḳorais̲h̲. and after the agreement at Ḥudaibiya (6 = 628) were his allies. Budail appears for the first time in the camp at Ḥudaibiya to tell Muḥammad that the Meccans were armed to resist him. On his return he carried the Prophet’s offers to Mecca, where he had a dār. The Banū Ḵh̲uzāʿa fled thither during their war with the Banū Bakr, when the Ḳorais̲h̲ took the side of the latter, their clients, against the former. This was a br…

, a town in Arabia. It lies 75 miles S. E. of Mecca about 5,000 feet above sea level in the mountains of Sarāt. Of the country round with its walled gardens Burckhardt says that it is “the most attractive that he had seen since his departure for Lebanon in Syria”. The Beduins also describe it as a corner of Syria transported and placed under the inclement sky of the Ḥid̲j̲āz and say this marvel is due to the all powerful intercession of Abraham, the friend of Allāh. This healthy and windy site —…

of the tribe of the Banū Murra, a famous leader in the armies of the Sufyānid caliphs. We know very little about the early stages of his career. We find him early established in Syria to which he probably came with the first conquerors. Completely devoted to the Umaiyads and of great personal valour, he led a division of Syrian infantry at the battle of Ṣiffīn. But he failed in an attempt to take the oasis of Dūmat al-Ḏj̲andal [q. v.] from ʿAlī. The caliph Muʿāwiya appointed him to take charge of the k̲h̲arād̲j̲, the finances, of Palestine, a lucrative office in which he refused to enri…

, a bare and rocky massif — the summit is over 4,000 feet high — commanding in the north-east the G̲h̲ūṭa [q.v.] and dominating Ṣāliḥīya, the suburb of Damascus. It lies between the valley of the Baradā [q. v.] and that of the Ḥalbūn. The Nahr Yazīd which flows out of the Baradā runs along the foot of Ḳāsiyūn. “There they venerate the birthplace of Abraham on the slope adjoining the village of Barza. This mountain has been famous since remote antiquity as a place of ascension and retreat of prop…

b. Yūsuf, an Omayyad statesman, was born at Ṭāʾif about 41 = 661, the grandson of the T̲h̲aḳafī Ṣaḥābī ʿUrwa b. Masʿūd. His father, Yūsuf b. al-Ḥakam had married the divorced wife of Mug̲h̲īra b. S̲h̲uʿba. According to one tradition, which is corroborated by lampoons, he at first so far mistook his vocation as to begin life as a teacher. His early years, the history of his first appearances in public life, which arc viciously travestied by hostile historians, are not much known. He left Arabia at…

, a valley a short day’s journey ( marḥala) from Mecca, i. e. about 9 miles distant. A portion of it was included in the ḥaram of Mecca, which extended farthest in this direction. About the time of the Hid̲j̲ra this barren valley was the centre of a local cult with a well and a sacred tree. A modest village afterwards arose here as the centre of the surrounding lands, which were rich in subterranean water. It was towards the last months of the year 6 a. h., after the destruction of the Jewish clans and the humbling of the munāfiḳūn in Medīna, that Muḥammad was able to consider himself master o…

b. Ḵh̲ālid b. al-Walīd, the Bar Ḵh̲ālid of the Syriac chroniclers, seemed to have inherited the ascendancy and military faculties of his father, “The Sword of God“. When barely 18, he commanded a division at the battle of al-Yarmūk, and later at Ṣiffīn, where he distinguished himself by the side of Muʿāwiya. He figures also at the head of the principal expeditions in Anatolia. The memory of his father, who died and was buried at Ḥimṣ (Emesa), and the government of this important province to which M…

ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, son of the second Marwānid caliph. “His chivalrous figure seems to have made a vivid impression on the popular imagination; one might think he came out of a popular romance” (C. H. Becker). Few of the Marwānid princes were so active and gifted in so many diverse directions. He lived long enough to give proof that he was not unworthy of the high hopes placed upon him. His gifts earned him the confidence of all the Marwānid rulers, to whom he was a Nestor whose counsels were alway…

b. Manṣūr. This powerful and energetic tribe belonged to the group of Ḳaisīs or Ḳais-ʿAilān [q. v.]. It does not appear in Arab history until the middle of the vith century a. d. Its lands lay along the frontiers of Nad̲j̲d and the Ḥid̲j̲az and were bordered on the north by the territory of Medīna and on the south by that of Mecca. On the east its neighbours were its relations, the tribes of G̲h̲aṭafān, Hawāzin and Hilāl. Down to the end of the Omaiyad period the district of the Sulaimīs seems to have enjoyed very considerable prosperity. It was a succession of volcanic ḥarras, of mining centres a…

, a mountain in Syria, famous as the site of a “memorable battle” of the ancient Arabs, probably the modern Ḏj̲ebel Bis̲h̲rī, a long chain running in a northeasterly direction from Palmyra to the Euphrates. R. Kiepert’s map shows a place-name Reḥūb in the centre of the Ḏj̲ebel Bis̲h̲rī. The battle of Bis̲h̲r was also known by this name and this corroborates the identification of Bis̲h̲r with the Ḏj̲ebel Bis̲h̲rī. An aqueduct brings the water from this range to Oriza. Ak̲h̲ṭal describes Bis̲h̲r as a place on the oute…

, an Arab tribe belonging to the Yemenite or South Arabian group. The eponyme ʿĀmila is considered by some nassābūn as masculine, but by most as feminine ( Ag̲h̲ānī, viii. 179; ʿIḳd. ii. 86; Ṭabarī, i. 225); the latter hypothesis ¶ is the more plausible. The Banū ʿĀmila are said to have formed part of the tribes settled at Ḥīra and also of the subjects of the legendary Zabbā-Zenobia (Ṭabarī, i. 685; Ag̲h̲ānī, xi. 161; xvi. 73; Masʿūdī Murūd̲j̲, iii. 189). At the time of the Muslim invasion we find them settled S. E. of the Dead Sea; they are mentioned among the Syro-Arabi…

b. Maslama, a Meccan of the clan of Banū Fihr, one of the Caliph Muʿāwiya’s greatest generals. He is generally recognised as a companion of the Prophet except by the Medīna school, who are infatuated by their anti-Umaiyad prejudices. The chronology confirms the correctness of this view. For, as he must have been about 15 years old at Muḥammad’s death, there is no reason to suppose that he was not personally acquainted with him. He very early took part in the first fighting in Syria and vigorously…

, as it is now written, the Botrys of the Byzantine writers; Arab geographers prefer to omit the article and frequently write Bat̲h̲rūn; it was a small fortress in Syria on the coast between Ḏj̲ubail and Tripolis. Under the Mamlūks of Egypt, the district gained importance from the niyāba of the latter town. The absence of a harbour and the proximity of the lofty summits of Lebanon did not allow it to develop. A modest village at the beginning of the xixth century, Batrūn has since the creation of the autonomous mutaṣarrifat of Lebanon become the chief place of the Ḳaimaḳāmat…