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, grandson of the Kalbī chief Baḥdal b. Unayf [ q.v.] and cousin of the caliph Yazīd I, his father being the brother of Maysūn, the famous wife of Muʿāwiya (it has been thought, erroneously, that he was the uncle of Yazīd I, because he is often referred to simply as Ibn Baḥdal). This relationship, the nobility of his clan (the Banū Ḥārit̲h̲a b. D̲j̲anāb) and the power of the Kalb tribe earned for him under Muʿāwiya and Yazīd the governorships of Palestine and of Jordan. Before this, he had fought at Ṣiffīn in the ranks of the Syrian army, in command of the Ḳuḍāʿa of Damascus (Naṣr b. Muzāḥim, Waḳʿat Ṣif…

, (modern al-S̲h̲arāʾiʿ?), a deep and irregular valley with clusters of palm trees, situated a day’s journey from Mecca on one of the roads to al-Ṭāʾif [ q.v.], the scene of the famous battle, the second mentioned by name in the Ḳurʾān (IX, 25-26), fought early in S̲h̲awwāl 8/630 soon after the conquest ( fatḥ ) of Mecca. The confederate tribe of Hawāzin with its subsection of T̲h̲aḳīf began mobilizing its forces soon after the Prophet left Medina. The confederates apparently hoped to attack the Muslim force investing Mecca. As…

, of the Kindī tribe of the Sakūn, a general of the Sufyānids. At Ṣiffīn, he fought in the Umayyad ranks. On the accession of Yazīd I, he was governor of the important district of Ḥimṣ. He then had to intervene with Yazīd for Ibn Mufarrig̲h̲ [ q.v.], who had been imprisoned by ʿUbayd Allāh b. Ziyād. When the expedition against the holy cities of the Ḥid̲j̲āz was planned, Ḥuṣayn was appointed lieutenant of the commanderin-chief Muslim b. ʿUḳba al-Murrī [ q.v.] and, in this capacity, distinguished himself at the battle of the Ḥarra [ q.v.]. During the march on Mecca, the dying Muslim, in or…

(cf. Αδροα), more rarely uḏh̲ruḥ , a place between Maʿān and Petra, a magnificent Roman camp (the surviving monuments are described by Brünnow and Domaszewski), supplied by a gushing spring. This place, situated in pre-Islamic times in the Ḏj̲ud̲h̲ām country, was visited by the Ḳurays̲h̲ite caravans. It submitted to Muḥammad on payment of tribute during the expedition to Tabūk (9/631); the treaty of capitulation handed down by our authorities is probably authentic. Muʿāwiya is s…

, the ninth Umayyad caliph, r. 101-5/720-4. He was born in Damascus ca. 71/690-1. His mother was ʿĀtika bt. Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya, and he was named after his Sufyānī grandfather, the caliph Yazīd I. Thus Yazīd II joined in his person the Marwānid and the Sufyānid branches of the Umayyad family, making him a natural candidate for the succession. Like most other Umayyad princes, he appears to have travelled outside of Syria only to the Ḥid̲j̲āz. Also, he seems to have received neither administrative nor military …

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-T̲h̲aḳafī, Companion of the Prophet who exercised various political functions under the Patriarchial Caliphs and the early Umayyads. He belonged to the Aḥlāf section of the T̲h̲aḳīf, and was a member of the clan of the Banū Muʿattib, guardians of the sanctuary of the shrine of al-Lāt [ q.v.] in al-Ṭāʾif, and nephew of ʿUrwa b. Masʿūd [ q.v.], Companion and martyr. For having attacked and plundered some travelling companions during their sleep, he was forced to leave Ṭāʾif, his native town, and came to Medina to offer his services to Muḥ…

of the Banū Murra [ q.v.], famous commander 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 Umayyads and of great personal valour, he led a division of Syrian infantry at the battle of Ṣiffīn [ q.v.], but he failed in an attempt to take the oasis of Dūmat al-D̲j̲andal [ q.v.] from ʿAlī. The caliph Muʿāwiya appointed him to take charge of the k̲h̲arād̲j̲ , the finances, of Palestine, a lucrative office in which h…

, a poet, contemporary with the Prophet. He was the brother of Malik b. Nuwayra [ q.v.], chief of the Banū Yarbūʿ, a large clan of the Banū Tamīm. Mutammim owes his fame to the elegies in which he lamented the tragic death of his brother Mālik (gathered together at the opening of the 3rd/9th century by Wat̲h̲īma b. Mirsāl, see Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ , xix, 248; whilst his dīwān was put together by Abū ʿAmr al-S̲h̲aybānī, al-Aṣmaʿī and al-Sukkarī, see Fihrist , 158), and these poems have made the latter’s name immortal. The Arabs said there was nothing comparable…

b. unayf b. wald̲j̲a b. ḳunāfa belonged to the clan of the Banū Ḥarit̲h̲a b. Ḏj̲anāb, which was also called al-Bayt or the aristocracy of Kalb. A Christian like the great majority of his tribe, his chief claim to fame is that he was the father of ¶ Maysūn, mother of Yazīd I. His nomad clan lived to the south of the ancient Palmyra, whither Maysūn afterwards brought the young Yazīd, and where the Umayyads reunited after the congress of D̲j̲ābiya and the battle of Mard̲j̲ Rāhiṭ. Baḥdal was thus the founder of the great pr…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh or Abū ʿĪsā, son of the famous Companion of the Prophet al-Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwām [ q.v.] and brother of the anti-caliph ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr [ q.v.]. Handsome, chivalrous, generous to the utmost ¶ degree of prodigality, he resembled his older brother and the Zubayrid family only in his courage and outbursts of severity in repression. He began his military career at the outset of the caliphate of Marwān b. al-Ḥakam, with an ill-conceived expedition in Palestine. His name has gone down in history chiefly owing to his campaign, in his capa…

(or Daḥya ) b. K̲h̲alīfa al-Kalbī , Companion of the Prophet and a somewhat mysterious character. He is traditionally represented as a rich merchant of such outstanding beauty that the Angel Gabriel took his features; and, when he arrived at Medina, all the women ( muʿṣir , see LA, root. ʿṣr ) came out to see him (Ḳurʾān, LXII, n, may be an allusion to this occurrence). There is no reason to accept the suggestion put forward by Lammens ( EI 1, s.v.) of some commercial connexion with Muḥammad; we only know that a sudden death put ¶ a stop to a projected marriage between a niece of Diḥya and …

, daughter of the Kalbī chief Baḥdal b. Unayf [ q.v.], mother of the caliph Yazīd I. We do not know if after her marriage with Muʿāwiya she retained the Christian religion which had been that of her family and of her tribe. A few verses are attributed to her in which she sighs for the desert and shows very slight attachment for her husband (see Nöldeke, Delectus , 25). But the attribution to Maysūn of this fragment of poetry, which is in any case old, has been rightly disputed. She took a great interest in the education of her son Yazīd and…

, an Arab tribe, especially influential in the pre-Islamic period. With the exception of the Lak̲h̲mid family [see lak̲h̲mids ] in ʿIrāḳ, so frequently celebrated in the old Arab poetry, the pre-Islamic history of this family is not well-known and is full of legend. According to the traditional genealogy, Lak̲h̲m was of Yemenī origin and was the brother of D̲j̲ud̲h̲ām and ʿĀmila [ q.vv.]. Yemenīs and Maʿaddīs claimed descent from the powerful Lak̲h̲mid dynasty of ʿIrāḳ. Of the three sister-tribes, Lak̲h̲m was undoubtedly the most illustrious and the oldest also. Legend …

, Syria, etymologically, “the left-hand region”, because in ancient Arab usage the speaker in western or central Arabia was considered to face the rising sun and to have Syria on his left and the Arabian peninsula, with Yaman (“the rig̲h̲thand region”), on his right (cf. al-Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲ ., iii, 140-1 = § 992; al-Muḳaddasī, partial French tr. A. Miquel, La meilleure répartition pour la connaissance des provinces , Damascus 1963, 155-6, both with other, fanciful explanations). In early Islamic usage, the term bilād al-S̲h̲ām covered what in early 20th-…

, the principal residence of the amīrs of G̲h̲assān, and for that reason known as “D̲j̲ābiya of kings”, situated in D̲j̲awlān [ q.v.], about 80 km. south of Damascus, not far from the site of the modern Nawā. It extended over several hills, hence perhaps the poetic form of plural D̲j̲awābī, with an allusion to the etymological sense of “reservoir”, the symbol of generosity (cf. Ag̲h̲ānī , xviii, 72). It was the perfect type of ancient bedouin ḥirt̲h̲ā/ḥīra , a huge encampment where nomads settled down, a jumble of tents and buildings; there is even a…

general in the service of Muʿāwiya. He belonged to the powerful tribe of Sulaym (hence "al-Sulamī"); his mother was a Christian and his father had fought at Uḥud in the ranks of the Ḳurays̲h̲. The son, who does not seem to have belonged to the closest circle of the Prophet, went, probably with the army commanded by Yazīd b. Abī Sufyān, to Syria. In the battle of the Yarmūk he was in charge of a detachment, and from that time he followed faithfully the fortunes of the Umayyads. He thus exposed hi…

, an old tribe in North-Western Arabia. The reports concerning their past (al-Ṭabarī, i, 685; Ag̲h̲ānī 2, xi, 155) are unworthy of belief. In the later geuealogic system the ʿĀmila are reckoned as belonging to the South-Arabian Kahlān [cf. d̲j̲ud̲h̲ām ]. At the time of the Muslim invasion we find them settled S. E. of the Dead Sea; they are mentioned among the Syro-Arabian tribes which joined Heraclius (al-Balād̲h̲urī, 59; al-Ṭabarī, i, 2347); but do not appear again in the history of the conquest. Shortly afterw…

b. Saʿd b. Rabīʿa al-Naṣrī , Bedouin chief and contemporary of Muḥammad, who belonged to the clan of the Banū Naṣr b. Muʿāwiya of the powerful Ḳaysī tribe of the ¶ Hawāzin, whom he commanded at the battle of Ḥunayn [ q.v.] against the Muslims; it is mainly through this rôle that he has achieved a place in history. We know little about his early history, but one may assume that he early found opportunities to display his personal bravery. He was still amrad , beardless, that is, barely out of his first years of adolescence ( Ag̲h̲ānī 1, xix, 81) when he commanded a detachment of the Hawāzin i…

poet and notable of the Tamīmī clan of the Banū G̲h̲udāna, at Baṣra. Born probably shortly before the Hid̲j̲ra, he appears while still young to have been a follower of the prophetess Sad̲j̲āḥi [ q.v.] and then, having settled in Baṣra, he fought at the battle of the Camel [see al-d̲j̲amal ] against ʿAlī, but afterwards joined his cause; however, as soon as Ziyād arrived in ʿIrāḳ in 45/666 he became a fervent supporter of the new governor, who finally entered him on the tribal pay-roll of the Ḳurays̲h̲ to increase his emolum…

, chief of the Banū Ḵh̲uzāʿa, a tribe living near Mecca, who served Muḥammad as spies, kept him informed of the enterprises of the Ḳurays̲h̲, and, after the agreement at Ḥudaybiya (6/628), were his allies. Budayl appears for the first time in the camp at Ḥudaybiya, to tell Muḥammad that the Meccans are armed to resist him. On his return he carried the Prophet’s proposals to Mecca, where he had a dār . The Banū Ḵh̲uzāʿa took refuge there during their war with the Banū Bakr, when the Ḳurays̲h̲ took the side of the latter, their clients, against t…