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, s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Taḳī al-Dīn Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Abī Bakr, a Syrian author of the 6th/12th century and celebrated ascetic and pilgrim who, after a life of travelling, spent his last days at Aleppo, at the court of the Ayyūbid ruler al-Malik al-Ẓāhir G̲h̲āzī [ q.v.]. This ruler held him in high regard and built for him, at the gates of the town, the S̲h̲āfiʿī madrasa in which he taught and which still houses the remains of his tomb. The Arabic sources mention this “wandering ascetic” ( al-zāhid al-sāʾiḥ ) and devote varying biographical notes to him, though without…

, Governor of Ḵh̲urāsān at the beginning of the caliphate of ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān. A former lieutenant of ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḵh̲āzim [ q.v.], this Tamīmī of the tribe of the Banū Saʿd made himself noticed during the troubled time which was marked by the insurrections of the Tamīm, both when he commanded the troops of Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḵh̲āzim at Harāt and when he was the delegate of the governor in Marw after the recapture of the town from the rebels. In 72/691-2 the triumph of the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik, w…

in particular denotes a little plain situated north of the Biḳāʿ [see buḳʿa ] and southeast of the Ḏj̲ebel Anṣariyé, at an average altitude of 250 m. It is characterised by an abundance of springs which there give birth to the Nahr al-Kabīr. It was known in the time of the Crusades by the name Boquée and was dominated by the Ḥiṣn al-Akrād [ q.v.] whose ruins still overlook it today (see M. van Berchem and E. Fatio, Voyage en Syrie , Cairo 1914-5, 42; R. Dussaud, Topographie historique de la Syrie , Paris 1923, 92; J. Weulersse, Le pays des Alcouites , Tours 1940, index s.v. Bouqaïa). The name Buḳayʿa …

, name given by the Arab authors either to the whole of the Transjordanian territory corresponding approximately to the ancient countries of Ammon, Moab and even Gilead, or to the middle part of it, having, depending on the period, ʿAmmān, [ q.v.], Ḥusbān or al-Ṣalt as its chief town. Although a certain lack of precision still persists to-day in the use of the term, its geographical meaning is usually restricted to the limestone plateau (average altitude from 700 to 800 m.), comprised between the Wādī ’l-Zarḳāʾ (or Jabbok) in the North…

, the ancient Paneas, owed its name to the presence in the vicinity of a sanctuary of Pan, established in a grotto and sanctifying one of the main sources of the Jordan. The present place, situated 24 km. north-west of al-Ḳunayṭra, on the road running along the southern frontier of the Syrian Republic, occupies a pleasant site, with plentiful water and rich vegetation, in a smiling valley of Mt. Hermon. Its neighbourhood, moreover, has always been praised by Arab writers for its fertility, and especially for its lemons, cotton and rice cultivation. The town, though doubtless possessing…

or baḳʿa , denotes according to lexicographers a region which is distinguishable from its surroundings, more particularly a depression between mountains, and baḳʿa was applied especially to a place where water remains stagnant. The word appears frequently as a toponym, as well as its diminutive buḳayʿa . (J. Sourdel-Thomine)

, ancient site of Palmyrena, well known in the Umayyad period. Al-Walīd II is. known to have stayed there on several occasions and died there in 126/744. The Arab sources describe the military camp ( fusṭāṭ ) which the Persians are said to have erected there in former times and the inner castle ( ḳaṣr ) where the Companion al-Nuʿmān b. Bas̲h̲īr lived and in which the Caliph, besieged by the rebels, took refuge. The site has been identified with the ruins of al-Bk̲h̲ara, standing 25 km. to the south of Palmyra, visited and descr…

, the “bridge of the daughters of Jacob”, name of a bridge over the Upper Jordan, above the sea of Galilee and to the south of the former marshy depression of the lake of al-Ḥūla, now dry. At This point, which was that of an old ford known at the time of the Crusades under the name of the “ford of Yaʿḳūb” ( Vadum Jacob of William of Tyre) or “ford of lamentations” ( mak̲h̲āḍat al-aḥzān of Ibn al-At̲h̲īr and Yāḳūt), the Via maris from Damascus to Ṣafad and ʿAkkā crossed the river, following a trade route which was especially frequented in Mamlūk times and which coincided also with a barīd …

, “iron bridge”, name of a bridge over the Orontes in the lower part of its course, at the point where the river, emerging from the valleys of the calcareous plateau and widening towards the depression of al-ʿAmḳ [ q.v.], turns sharply westwards without being lost in that marshy depression whose waters it partly drains to the sea. The fame of This toponym, frequently mentioned in mediaeval documents but of obscure origin (perhaps local legend), is explained by the strategic and commercial importance of This stage, through which, in a…

, or sometimes d̲j̲ibrīl : a large Palestinian village of the Shephela, situated at an altitude of 287 m. south-west of Jerusalem on the borders of the limestone mountains of Judaea and the coastal plain, in a region rich in quarries and ancient remains which attracted the interest of Arab authors. Called Begabri by Josephus who regarded it as a village of Idumaea, and Betogabri by Ptolemy and the Tabula Peutingeriana , it was a successor to the town of Mares̲h̲a/Marisa, often referred to in the Old Testament and destroyed by the Parthians in …

, a village in Transjordania, known by the Arab geographers, and situated about 3 km. N. of Irbid in the district of ʿAd̲j̲lūn [ q.v.], on an eminence (589 m.) surrounded by ruins which mark the deserted site of the ancient Capitolias. This town of the Decapolis, the name of which corresponds to the Arabic name which outlived it and doubtless relates to its dominant position in a less hilly region, was noted by the early itineraries along along with Ad̲h̲riʿāt (Derʿa), Abila (Tall Abil) and Gadara (Umm Kaya), which wer…

, plural of al-Baḳʿa, the proper name of the elongated plain commonly called the Bekaa, which, at a mean altitude of 1,000 metres, lies between the mountains of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. The ancients had clearly defined it by the term Coele Syria (Hollow Syria) of which the application was subsequently extended. It is a depression of tectonic origin filled in by sediment, and is an extension of the Jordan rift along the north-south axis which forms one of the basic features of the structure of t…

, Arabic name, attested by Yāḳūt, of a fortress to which modern writers, following a reference to it by Anna Comnena, prefer to apply the name Bourzey. The local people call it Ḳalʿat Marza. The ruins of this castle, standing on the eastern slope of the Alaouite massif, still dominate the marshy depression of the G̲h̲āb. It had a troubled history from Hellenic times, when the impregnable position of Lysias was known. At the time of the Syrian expedition of the Emperor Tzimisces in 365/975, it pa…

(or bizāʿā ), a locality in northern Syria about forty kilometres east of Aleppo in the rich valley of the Nahr al-D̲h̲ahab or Wādī Buṭnān [ q.v.], which has lost its former prosperity in favour of its western suburb Bāb al-Buzāʿa, today the small town of al-Bāb. The freshness of its gardens and its commercial activity attracted the attention of Ibn D̲j̲ubayr who stopped there in 580/1184, on the caravan route from Manbid̲j̲ to Aleppo. Half town and half village according to that writer, and dominated by a citadel from w…

, place in northern Syria, belonging to what is called the region of the “dead towns”, in the centre of the limestone plateau, some fifteen kms. west of the important township of Maʿarrat al-Nuʿmān. In the Middle Ages, as attested by the Arabic and Western texts, it served as a fortified cathedral town and its site is stilJ marked today by extensive ruins, among which the modern villages of al-Kafr and al-Bāra (names corresponding to the ancient Greek and Syriac terms, Kapropēra and kpr’d brt’) rise on both sides of a wādī . In bygone days, local trade as well as …

(a.), term (proved by various lexicographical investigations to be identical with ḥayr , see H. Pérès, La poésie andalouse en arabe classique , Paris 1937, 129) whose meaning is clarified by the study of the remains of ḥayrs still surviving around ancient princely residences of the Islamic Middle Ages. The frequent references by Arab authors, which lead to the conclusion that they were either parks or pleasure-gardens, provided sometimes with a sumptuous pavilion, or more exactly zoological gardens like those which are recorded at Sāmarrā or at Madīnat al-Zahrāʾ (cf. H. Pérès, op. cit.,…

, large Palestinian village and celebrated centre of pilgrimage situated in the limestone mountains of Judaea 800 m. above sealevel and approximately 10 kms. south of Jerusalem, corresponds to the ancient Bethlehem of biblical fame. Honoured and visited by Christians from the 4th century on, it became equally venerated by Muslims as the birthplace of ʿĪsā b. Maryam [ q.v.]. The Arab geographers who never failed to refer to this fact and who often expressed admiration for the Byzantine basilica which (founded by Constantine in 325 and restored under Just…

, name formerly given by Arab authors to that portion of Arabia Petrea situated directly south of the Wādī al-Ḥasā, an affluent of the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, which from its lofty summits (rising to 1400 or 1600 m.) dominates the depression of the Wādī al-ʿAraba [ q.v.], the southern prolongation of the Jordan Fault. This important mountain system, continued afterwards by that of al-S̲h̲arāt [ q.v.] with which it is often confused, thus corresponds to the broken ¶ border of the steppe desert, in a region where the Transjordan plateau perceptibly rises. Its tortu…

, a ruined city in Sid̲j̲istān, among whose imposing remains are the two principal groups of Ḳalʿa-i Bist and Las̲h̲kar-i Bāzār. It lies in the south of Afg̲h̲ānistān on the now deserted banks of the Hilmand, near its confluence with the Arg̲h̲andāb, on the stretch of the route through Giris̲h̲k between Harāt and Ḳandahār. Its present isolation, to which recent American efforts to rehabilitate the region will no doubt put an end, stands in contrast to the ancient prosperity of the area, celebrat…

, a little Palestinian township in the valley of the Jordan, situated 30 kms. (18 miles) south of Lake Tiberias and 98 ms. above sea-level on a terrace raised 170 ms. above the low-lying ground through which, some distance away, the Jordan winds its way. Avoiding thus the extreme tropical heat which reigns elsewhere in the G̲h̲awr [ q.v.], it has all the same a hot and humid climate which Arab geographers did not fail to criticise, at the same time deploring the poor quality of its water (they nevertheless point out the merits of ʿAyn al-Fulūs, a well …