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[English edition] العراق دولة ذات سيادة، دينها الإسلام. يتكلّم أغلب سكّانها العربيّة، وتقع في أقصى الشّرق من الهلال الخصيب. 1. الجغرافيا من المفارقة أن يستمدّ العراق تميّزه في تركيبته الجغرافيّة من كونه يشكّل جزءًا من كتلة جغرافيّة واسعة. فهو يستمدّ، من ناحية أولى، خصائصه الجغرافيّة العامّة ومناخه من هضبة بادية الشّام (الصّحراء العربيّة السّوريّة) التي يقع على طول سفحها الجنوبيّ الغربيّ، ومن جهة أخرى يشترك في الاتّجاه والتّضاريس مع سلاسل الجبال المنفرجة في آسيا الغربية التي تتقاسم، على طول تخومها الشّماليّة الشّرقيّ…

[English edition] الفن هو المقابل العربيّ الحديث لـ Art. ونجد معالجة فرديّة لمظاهر من الفنّ الإسلاميّ في المقالات الواقعة تحت العناوين التالية مع العلم أنّنا نقدّم هذه الأمثلة على سبيل الإنارة وليست الغاية استقصاءها: 1. الصناعات: مثال بناء، فخّار، فسيفساء، قالي (زربيّة)، خطّ، قماش، صناعة المعادن، تصوير. 2. الموادّ: مثال عاج، بلّور، جبس، خزف، عرق اللؤلؤ، لباس، الخ. فضلاً عن وصف الموادّ في المقالات المتعلّقة بالتقنية. 3. الأشياء، أصناف البناءات، الخصائص الفنيّة مثال: قلمدان، باؤولي (البئر المدرّجة)، برج، بستان، حمّام، حصن، قنطرة، مقبرة، منارة، مسجد، سبيل (نافورة)…

, 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…

is the name given to the dynasty of Turkish origin which was founded by Sebüktigin, a General and Governor of the Sāmānids [ q.v.]. With G̲h̲azna [ q.v.] for long its capital, the dynasty lasted for more than 200 years, from 367/977-8 to 583/1187, in eastern Īrān and what is now Afg̲h̲ānistān, and finally only in parts of the Pand̲j̲āb (with Lahāwur/Lahore as centre). For a long time its rulers held the official title of Amīr, ¶ although historians call them Sulṭān from the start; on coins, Ibrāhīm (no. XII below) was the first to bear this title. From the time when Alptigin established hims…

, 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…

(a.), writing. i.—In the Arab world. The Arabic writing used, according to tradition, as early as the lifetime of Muḥammad, for setting down the sacred text of the Ḳurʾān, subsequently underwent a diffusion corresponding to the expansion of the Islamic faith and to the development of the Islamic civilisation in which it came to full fruition. A script of alphabetic and phonological type, belonging to the vast family of Semitic scripts, it shows in this capacity the characteristics of a consonantal script, with vocalisation signs added in the form of …

, 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 …

or steam bath, often still referred to as “Turkish bath” (and in French as “bain maure”), is a building typical of the Islamic world where archaeological remains witness to its existence as early as the Umayyad period (in addition to references in texts which mention the construction of baths in the first towns founded after the conquest: the bath of ʿAmr at Fusṭāṭ in Ibn Duḳmāḳ, i, 105; the first three baths of Baṣra, in al-Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ , 353) and where it has continued until the present day to occupy a position of primary importance, recogni…

, 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.,…

(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…

, 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.), tomb was first applied to the pit used as a burial place for a corpse, as was the term ḍarīḥ , giving rise to its habitual use in the text of numerous epitaphs containing the expression hād̲h̲ā ḳabru ... “This is the grave of . . .”. Originally distinguished from the term ṣandūḳ , “cenotaph” (cf., J. Sauvaget, “ Les perles choisies” d’Ibn ach-Chihna , Beirut 1933, 212 and “ Les trésors d’or ” de Sibt al-ʿAjamī , Beirut 1950, 184), it had the more general meaning of the tumulus or construction covering the grave to bring it to notice, a custom c…

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…

, 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 …

or D̲j̲isr al-S̲h̲ug̲h̲ūr , the modern name of a place in north Syria, the site of a bridge over the Orontes which has always been an important centre of communications in an area that is mountainous and difficult to traverse. It was in fact at This spot that the most direct route from the Syrian coast to the steppes in the interior and the Euphrates, passing over the D̲j̲abal Nuṣayri and the Limestone Massif, crossed the line of communications that ran north-south and followe…

(in Arabic Iṣbahān), a town and province in Persia, whose name, according to Hamza al-Iṣfahānī, means “the armies” (Māfarruk̲h̲ī, Kitāb Maḥāsin Iṣfahān , ed. Sayyid D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Tihrāni, Tehran n.d., 5-6). 1. history The province, whose precise boundaries have varied at different times, is bounded on the north-east and east by the central desert. In the south-east by Yazd and Fārs, in the south and south-west by the Bak̲h̲tiyārī mountains, with peaks rising to over 11,000 ft., in the north-west by Luristān, Kazzāz, Kamara, a…

, a small town in inland Lebanon, situated at about 3,700 ft. on the edge of the high plain of the Biḳāʿ [ q.v.], surrounded by an oasis of gardens watered by the large spring of Raʿs al-ʿAyn, which emerges at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon range. The freshness of its climate and the beauty of its vegetation have won the admiration of Arab authors, who have always extolled its g̲h̲ūṭa as reminiscent of that at Damascus. Various hypotheses have been made as to the etymology of its name, in which the Semitic Baal [see baʿl ] can be seen, but none seems entirely satisfactory. Baʿlabakk is chiefly famous…

name of the foundered trough, about 200 m./650 ft. above sea-level, crossed by the Orontes half-way along its course, between the plain of Ḥamāt and the narrow valley of Ḏj̲isr al-S̲h̲ug̲h̲r [ q.v.], characterized by unhealthy swampland. The faulted rock ledges of the Ḏj̲abal Anṣāriyya in the west and the Ḏj̲abal Zāwiya in the east stand out in sharp relief against the absolute flatness of the sedimentary levels where the river stretches out and receives yet more waters rising from many springs. Thus is presented the strange l…

, 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…

or difrīgī , now divrigi, a small town in modern Turkey, situated on the confines of Armenia and Cappadocia on one of the routes leading from Syria and Upper Mesopotamia to the Anatolian plateau. Through it runs a torrent which flows into the Çaltı Irmak, a tributary of the Kara Su (northern Euphrates). This chief town of a ḳaḍāʾ in the province of Sivas, situated among market gardens and orchards which make it a pleasant resort—archaeological remains alone testify to its former prosperity in the Middle Ages—is now no more than a …

, properly “abode of (the tribe of) Bakr”, the designation of the northern province of the D̲j̲azīra. It covers the region on the left and right banks of the Tigris from its source to the region where it changes from its west-east course to flow in a south-easterly direction. It is, therefore, the upper basin of the Tigris, from the region of Siʿirt and Tell Fāfān to that of Arḳanīn to the north-west of Āmid and Ḥiṣn al-Ḥamma (Čermük) to the west of Āmid. Yāḳūt points out that Diyār Bakr does not extend beyond the plain. Diyār Bakr is so called because it became, during the 1st/7th century…

“the animal kingdom”, Arabic word derived from a Semitic root (cf. Hebrew ) implying a notion of life ( ḥayāt [ q.v.]). It is attested only once in the Ḳurʾān (XXIX, 64), where it means “the true life” and is used of the other world; the dictionaries state that a spring of Paradise is also called by this name, but the most usual meaning of ḥayawān , used as a singular or a collective, is an animal or animals in general, including man, who is more precisely called al-ḥayawān al-nāṭiḳ . 1. Lexicography. The fauna of the Arabian peninsula has been covered under al-ʿarab , d̲j̲azīrat …

, the name of a coastal plain in Palestine, and later in particular the name of a famous fortress of the time of the Crusades, is to be found in the works of Arab authors with both these meanings. The Hebrew dārōm from which it is derived and to which it corresponds in the Arabic version of Deuteronomy, XXXIV, 3°, appeared in a few passages of the Old Testament for south as a cardinal point, or any country situated in the south (F. M. Abel), and it was later applied especially to the south-west of Judea, a low-lyi…

or ʿamawās , the ancient Emmaus, still marked by a large village, was situated in the plain of Judæa at the foot of the mountains, some 19 miles from Jerusalem, and commanding one of the principal approach routes to the latter. The site of a victory won by Judas Maccabaeus in 166 B.C., it was fortified by the Seleucid general in 160 B.C. and became under Caesar the chief town of a toparchy, only to decline to the size of a small market-town after being burnt by Varus in 4 B.C…

, a place, no longer extant, in northern Syria, whose name is very probably a word of Syriac origin meaning “mosquito”, from which fact H. Lammens has inferred that the region was a marshy one. It figures in the Arabic texts of the first centuries of Islam. Nothing is known of its more ancient history, but it is mentioned in the narratives of the conquest by Abū ʿUbayda of the provinces of Antioch and Ḳinnasrīn, and appears to have had a certain importance in Umayyad times. Then it was near the …

, a sovereign State, of the Muslim religion, for the most part Arabic-speaking, situated at the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent. i.—Geography The structure of ʿIrāḳ paradoxically derives its originality from the fact that it forms part of a large geographical block of territory. From the Arabo-Syrian desert tableland which it faces along its south-western flank, it takes its general aspect and its climate. All along its frontiers on the North-East, on the other hand, it shares the orientation and ¶ relief of the folded mountain-chains of western Asia, which give it its t…

(or Buluniyās ), the ancient Balanea, which also bore the name of Leucas; attempts have several times been made to identify it with an “Apollonia which never existed on this site” (R. Dussaud). It is today a small township on the Syrian coast situated some fifty kms. to the south of Latakiya. This ancient Phoenician settlement, which became a Greek city minting its own coinage and, later, the seat of a bishopric, was incorporated in the d̲j̲und of Ḥims at the time of the Arab conquest. It was, however, especially at the time of the Crusades, that i…

, an ancient and important site in the Biḳāʿ [ q.v.] and an Umayyad residence, the Arab name of which, now pronounced ʿAnd̲j̲ar, corresponds to the Greek and Syriac Gerrha and ʿIn Gero. The main source of the Litani, which comes forth at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon, not far from the modern road from Beirut to Damascus, for a long time formed a swampy lake there stretching to Karak Nūḥ, which was only finally drained in the Mamlūk period. The remains of a temple, later converted into a small fort (hence the expression ḥiṣn Mad̲j̲dal used at the period of the Crusades…

, mediaeval name of a Syrian fortress now in ruins and called Ḳalʿat al-Muhaylba, which was built on one of the first spurs of the D̲j̲abal Anṣāriya, and, with the castle of Ṣahyūn, commanded the plain of al-Lād̲h̲iḳya and guarded the road from the Orontes to D̲j̲abala, “its port” according to al-Dimas̲h̲ḳī. According to the Arabic sources, it is supposed to have been begun by the clan of the Banu ’l-Aḥmar, then continued by the Byzantines who obtained possession of it and, in the time of Basil II, based the protection of the coastal region, in w…

, former town in northern Syria, which was both a port on the Western bank of the Euphrates and an important stage, 100 km. from Aleppo and at the entrance to the D̲j̲azīra, of the road from Antioch and the Mediterranean leading, via al-Raḳḳa, to Bag̲h̲dād and ʿIrāḳ. The commercial and agricultural prosperity of the town was doubtless due to its situation at a point of intersection of river and land highways, and in a warm valley where the irrigation possibilites favoured the development of husbandry. Known in antiquity under the Aramaic and Greek names of BYT BLS and Barbalissos…

, Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Hilāl , known also under the name of Ibn al-Sitrī, famous calligrapher of the Buwayhid period who died in Bag̲h̲dād in 413/1022 (This date is more probable than 423/1031). He frequented the governmental circles of the period, as he was closely attached to the vizier Fak̲h̲r al-Mulk Abū G̲h̲ālib Muḥammad b. K̲h̲alaf at Bag̲h̲dād and was for some time in charge of the library of the Buwayhid Bahāʾ al-Dawla at S̲h̲īrāz. He was also an illuminator (at least one…

aujourd’hui Di̇vri̇gi̇, petite ville de l’actuelle Turquie, située, aux confins de l’Arménie et de la Cappadoce, sur une des routes d’accès de la Syrie et de la Haute Mésopotamie au plateau anatolien. Traversé par un torrent qui se jette dans le Çalta Irmak, affluent du Kara Su (Euphrate septentrional), ce chef-lieu de ḳaḍāʾ de la province de Sivas, où des vestiges archéologiques attestent seuls l’ancienne prospérité de la localité médiévale, n’est plus, au milieu de jardins maraîchers et de vergers qui en font un agréable lieu de séjour, qu’une …

, petite ville du Liban intérieur située à 1150 m. d’altitude en bordure de la haute plaine de la Biḳāʿ [ q.v.] et entourée d’une oasis de jardins entretenue par la source abondante de Raʾs al-ʿAyn, jaillie au pied de l’Anti-Liban. La fraîcheur de son climat et la beauté de sa végétation ont suscité l’admiration des auteurs arabes qui ont toujours vanté sa g̲h̲ūṭa qualifiée d’« abrégé de Damas». L’étymologie de son nom, où se reconnaît le sémitique Baʿal, a fait l’objet d’hypothèses dont aucune ne paraît entièrement satisfaisante. Baʿlabakk est surtout célèbre par les ruines antique…

, «pont de Fer», nom d’un pont sur l’Oronte, situé dans la dernière partie de son cours, à l’endroit où le fleuve, sorti des défilés du plateau calcaire et débouchant dans la dépression d’al-ʿAmḳ [ q.v.], tourne franchement vers l’Ouest sans se perdre dans cette plaine marécageuse dont il draine une partie des eaux vers la mer. L’importance stratégique et commerciale d’une étape où a toujours passé, dans l’antiquité comme au moyen âge, la route unissant Antioche à Chalcis/Ḳinnasrīn, puis à Alep (route qu’empruntait parfois, au te…

ou Baḳʿa désigne, selon les lexicographes, une région qui se distingue de ses environs, une dépression entre des montagnes, et Baḳʿa s’appliquerait spécialement à un lieu où l’eau séjourne à l’état stagnant. Le mot apparaît fréquemment comme toponyme, ainsi que son diminutif al-Buḳayʿa. (J. Sourdel-Thomine)

ou bain à étuves, souvent désigné encore sous le nom de «bain maure», qui apparaît comme un édifice typique du monde de l’Islam où des vestiges archéologiques en attestent l’existence dès l’époque umayyade (sans compter les mentions des textes qui nous signalent la construction de bains dans les premières villes fondées après la conquête: bain de ʿAmr à Fusṭāt, Ibn Duḳmāḳ, I, 105; trois premiers bains de Baṣra, al-Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ, 353) et où il ne cessa de jouer jusqu’à l’époque actuelle un rôle de premier plan, reconnu par les ¶ auteurs arabes eux-mêmes (mention des ḥammāms parmi les …