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, site of ruins in Mesopotamia, on the Western bank of the Ḵh̲ābūr, to the South of the Ḏj̲abal ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, situated under 36° 10′ N. Lat. and 40° 50′ E. Long. (Greenw.). The remains of the old town are hidden under several hills, after one of which the site is also called Tell ʿAd̲j̲āba. It was here that H. A. Layard found several winged bulls with human heads, products of the genuinely Mesopotamian civilization which is closely related to that of …

("Mukram’s Camp"), formerly a town built on the site of a camp pitched by an Arab leader named Mukram whom al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ had sent to Ḵh̲ūzistān to suppress a revolt near al-Ahwāz. This camp or cantonment adjoined the ruins of Rustam Ḳawād̲h̲ (corrupted by the Arabs into Rustaḳubād̲h̲), a Sāsānian tpwn which the Muslim Arabs had destroyed. ʿAskar Mukram was situated on both sides of the Masruḳān canal (the modern Āb-i Gargar) just above the point where it now flows into the S̲h̲aṭayṭ (= S̲h̲…

, a town in Mesopotamia, on the left bank of the Euphrates. The name Bīred̲j̲ik (amongst the local population, Beled̲j̲ik; also, according to Sachau, Bārād̲j̲īk in the Ḥalabī (Aleppo) dialect) means “little Bīra”, i.e., “small fortress” (Arabic bīra , with the Turkish diminutive suffix). The Arabic name “al-Bīra” ([ q.v.]; Bīreh in the later Syriac writers) derives from the Aramaic “Bīrt̲h̲ā” = “fortress”. Bīred̲j̲ik, known to the Romans as “Birtha”, is to be identified (according to Cumont) with a certain Makedonopolis mentioned in some of th…

, "the cities" (pl. of al-madīna ), the Arabic translation of the Aramaic Māḥōzē or Medīnāt̲h̲ā referring to the Sāsānid metropolis on the Tigris about 20 miles southeast of Bag̲h̲dād where several adjacent cities connected by a floating bridge stretched along both banks of the river. This was the imperial administrative capital, the winter residence of the king, the home of the Jewish Exilarch and the seat of the Nestorian Catholikos. Among the mixed population of Aramaeans, Per…

( ʿAḍēm ), an eastern tributary of the Tigris (Did̲j̲la, [ q.v.]). It is formed of the junction of several rivers which have their sources in the range east of and parallel to the Ḏj̲abal Ḥamrīn and which in their course from N.E. to S.W. break through deeply cut ravines. The most important of these rivers are: the river of Kirkūk, viz. the Ḵh̲āṣa (Kaza, Kissa) -čay (on some maps it figures also under the name of Ḳara-ṣū), which rises from several sources north of Kirkūk; further the river of Tāʾūk (Daḳūkā [ q.v.]), viz. the Tāʾūk-ṣū (or -čay), the most important of all, which joins the…

, the name of several places in ʿIrāḳ and al-D̲j̲azīra. The Mus̲h̲tarik of Yāḳūt (337) lists five places of that name of which the two most important were situated near Sāmarrā and al-Kūfa. The history of these places is most difficult to trace. 1. A town in ʿIrāḳ, on the Eastern bank of the Tigris, 8 miles S.E. of Sāmarrā. It seems to have been closely connected with the latter in its period of prosperity. We do not know what special part al-Ḳādisiyya played at that time. Herzfeld, ( Reise , i, 107) suggests it is really identical with the town of al-Ḳātūl whic…

, the name of several places, generally in districts where Aramaic was once spoken, for al-Bīra is a translation of the Aramaic bīrt̲h̲ā — “fortress”, “citadel”. The best known is al-Bīra on the east bank of the Euphrates in North-west Mesopotamia, the modern Bīred̲j̲ik [ q.v.]: on other places, bearing the name Bīra, cf. Yāḳūt, Muʿd̲j̲am (ed. Wüstenfeld), i, 787; Nöldeke in the Nachr. der Götting . Ges. der Wiss. , 1876, 11-12 and in De Goeje, BGA, iv, (gloss.), 441; Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems (1890), 423. (M. Streck)

or kūh-i alwand ( elwend ), is an isolated mountain-group lying to the south of Hamad̲h̲ān, and rising to a height of 11,717 feet. To the north and north-east the Alwand Kūh drops steeply off to the plain; to the north-west it is united to the Kūh-i Dāʾim al-Barf, a mountain-mass of almost equal height, which is joined to the Kūh-i Almu Ḳulak̲h̲ by lower mountain-chains. The latter forms the north-western extremity of the entire Alwand system. The core of the real Alwand consist…

( Kalāh , Kalā , Kilā , Killah ), the mediaeval Arab geographers’ name for an island or peninsula ( d̲j̲azīra ) which played an important intermediary role in commercial and maritime relations between Arabia, India and China. It was particularly well-known for its tin mines, and the Arabic word ḳalʿī / ḳalaʿī [ q.v.] for this metal derives from Kalah; the place was also portrayed as the centre of trade in camphor, bamboo, aloes, ivory etc. Its capital also was named Kalah (cf. e.g., al-Dīmas̲h̲kī, Cosmographie , 152, 170); so too the sea which washed its shor…

, name of two towns: (1) A town in the south-west corner of the east Māzandarān plain; it stands on the west bank of the Harhāz river, 12 miles south of the Caspian Sea, in the district which, according to the Classical writers, was the home of the Μάρδοɩ (’Αµάρδοɩ) (Āmul may be the Modem Persian form of the (hypothetical) Old Persian Amardha). Ibn Isfandiyār ( Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ṭabaristān , Teheran 1941, 62 f.) states that Āmul was founded by Āmula, daugther of a Daylamite chieftain and wife of King Fīrūz of Balk̲h̲. while Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī ( Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb , 159) maintain…

, town in ʿIrāḳ situated in about 33° 35′ N. and 42° 48′ E. on the right bank of the Euphrates, on a hill which may be man-made. The mediaeval Arab travellers estimate the distance between Hit and Bag̲h̲dād at 33 parasangs ( ca. 130 miles) or 5½-6 days’ journey, cf. M. Streck, Babylonien nach den arab. Geographen , i, 8. Some Arab geographers (al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī and Ibn Ḥawḳal) include Hīt in the D̲j̲azīra; it was generally considered, however, to be a frontier town of ʿIrāḳ. In al-Muḳaddasī’s time (4th/10th century) it was of some imp…

, Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Sulaymān, Tunisian author of the 19th century (1204-74/1789-1857). He stemmed from a family of scholars in Tūnis, his grandfather having been a manuscript copyist who had gone on the Pilgrimage to Mecca and had then setded at Sennar [see sinnār ] in the Sūdān, thus establishing a family connection between that region, Cairo (where Muḥammad’s father became naḳīb al-riwāḳ , i.e. superintendent of the Mag̲h̲ribī students at al-Azhar) and Tūnis. Muḥammad was born in Tūnis in 1204/1789, and after studying at al-Azhar, made his way to the Sūdān, where …

town in al-Ḏj̲ibāl, 7 farsak̲h̲s or 54 kms. southwest of Hamad̲h̲ān. on the western slope of the Alwand Kūh at the entrance to a fruitful well-tilled plain (5659 ft. high). As a permanent caravan-station on the famous, ancient highway Hamad̲h̲ān (Ekbatana)-Bag̲h̲dād (or Babylon), it is a settlement reaching back into antiquity, and (according to Tomaschek) is probably the ’Αδραπάνα of Isidor of Charax and the Beltra of the Tabula Peutingeriana (cf. Weissbach, in Pauly-Wissowa’s iii, 264). In the Arab Middle ages, and even into the Mongol per…

, the name of a town in ʿIrāḳ. When al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ [ q.v.], the governor of ʿIrāḳ appointed by the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik had put down the rebellion there, he began in 83-6/702-5 to build a new town which was called Wasiṭ (“centre”) because it was midway between the two older Arab capitals of this province, al-Kūfa in the north and al-Baṣra in the south. For the site of the town he chose the vicinity of Kaskar, on the Tigris, which had played a not unimportant part in the Sāsānian period. The new Muslim …

, a town in ʿIrāḳ (Babylonia) and, in the mediaeval division of this province, the capital of a district ( ṭassūd̲j̲ ) of the S̲h̲ād̲h̲-Ḳubād̲h̲ circle to the east of the Tigris, was a station on the important K̲h̲urāsān road, the main route between Babylonia and Īrān, and was at about an equal distance (7 parasangs = 28 miles) from Dastad̲j̲ird [ q.v.] in the south-west and from K̲h̲āniḳīn in the northeast. It was watered by a canal from the Diyālā (called Nahr D̲j̲alūlāʾ), which rejoined the main stream a little further down near Bād̲j̲isrā [ q.v.]. Near this town, which seems from the s…

, a town and one of the most celebrated S̲h̲īʿī places of pilgrimage in ʿIrāk. It is a little over one km. from the right bank of the Tigris, which here describes a loop, being separated from the river by a series of gardens. Kāẓimayn itself is prettily situated among palmgroves. It is connected with the west side of Bag̲h̲dād, about three miles away, by regular bus and taxi services, replacing the horse-tramway laid down by the governor Midḥat Pās̲h̲ā (1869-72), who did a great deal for Bag̲h̲d…

, in ʿAbbāsid times one of the sequence of small towns on the main route between Niṣībīn and Mawṣil, in the Ḏj̲azīra province, the others being Ad̲h̲rama to the west, and Bāʾaynāthā and Balad (where the Mawṣil-Sind̲j̲ar road bifurcated south-westward) to the east. Barḳaʿīd, of which the modern Tall Rumaylān, north of the railway Une (and near to Tall Kochek station thereon) may possibly mark the site, was probably just inside the Bec de Canard (eastward extremity of the modern Syrian province of…

, the highest point in the mountains on the borders of Northern Persia (cf. Alburz ), somewhat below 36° N. Lat. and about 50 miles north-east of Tehran. According to de Morgan it rises out of the plateau of Rēhne to a height of 13,000 feet above it. The various estimates of its height differ: Thomson estimates it at 21,000 feet (certainly too high), de Morgan at 20,260 feet, Houtum Schindler at 19,646, Sven Hedin at 18,187, and in the last edition of Stieler’s Handatlas (1910) it is given as 18,830 feet. Its summit, perpetually snow-clad and almost always…

, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn , Tunisian scholar ( fl. in the first half of the 19th century) who travelled in the Sūdān and wrote on Dār Fūr and Wadāī [ q.vv.]. He was an Azharī by training who in 1818 or 1819 set out for the Sūdān and spent some ten years there. From Sennar [see sinnār ] and Kordofān [ q.v.] he went to Dār Fūr and Wadāī, returning eventually via Fezzān to Tūnis. He recorded his experiences and observations there in an Arabic work of modest length which was translated into Turkish and thence into German by G. Rosen as Dos Buck des Sudan oder Reisen des Scheich Zain el-Âbidîn in Nigritien …

, Arabicised form of antiocheia, town in northern Syria, situated on the Orontes (ʿĀṣī) river, 14 m. from the Mediterranean coast. Founded about 300 B.C. by Seleucus I, and occupied by Pompey in 64 B.C., it became the largest and most important Roman city in Asia and capital of the Asian provinces of the Roman empire. Its gradual decay dates from the foundation of the Sāsānid empire, which diminished its political and economic influence in the Tigris-Euphrates basin and made it the object of repeate…

(sometimes also eghri̊ dag̲h̲ ), mountain (extinct volcano) with a double peak on the eastern frontier of the Turkish Republic, 39° 45 N 44° 20 E, the highest point in the plateau of the region of the Aras (Araxes) and Wan (high plateau of Ararat), in Armenian Masis or Masik, in Persian Kūh-i Nūḥ; by Europeans it is called Ararat, as it was identified with the mountain of this name (Hebrew Arārāṭ, originally the name of the country of Urarṭu, later understood as the name of a mountain), on which Noah’s ark is said to have alighted. (Originally Ararat was identified with Ḏj̲abal Ḏj̲ūdī [ q.v.] near …

a town in Central Babylonia, on the east bank of the Tigris, a few hours’ journey above Kūt al-ʿAmāra, and five parasangs (about twenty miles) south-east of Nuʿmāniya (the modern Tell Naʿmān). It is described as a flourishing place by the older Arab geographers; but, by Yāḳūt’s time (beginning of the 7th/13th century) it had considerably declined. In course of time—we have no details of its decay—it fell utterly into ruins. This town must date from a very remote period; for the name of the Gambū…

, (taken to mean ʿArabgīr, i.e. «conquest of the Arabs"), in modern Turkish orthography Arapkir, in Armenian Arabkēr, in the Byzantine sources Arabrakes, a town in eastern Anatolia, 19° 3′ north, 38° 30′ east, about 70 km. north of Malaṭya, situated on the Arapkir Su, a tributary of the Karasu, which later becomes the northern Euphrates, 1,200 m. above sea-level. Capital of a ḳaḍā in the wilāyet of Malaṭya, with 6,684 inhabitants (1945); the ḳaḍā itself has 23,612 inhabitants. The town is situated on a hill in a lowland which is surrounded by steeply rising walls of basalt…

, a place in medieval ʿIrāḳ, the exact situation of which cannot now be fixed. According to al-Masʿūdī it belonged to the Ṭaff [ q.v.], the frontier district between Babylonia and Arabia, and was 16 parasangs (about 60 miles) from Kūfa. Yāḳūt says it was nearer to Kūfa than to Wāṣiṭ. Bāk̲h̲amrā is famous in the history of the ʿAbbāsids for the decisive battle which took place there in 145/762 (while the Caliph was designing the new city of Bag̲h̲dād) between the army of al-Manṣūr, commanded by ʿĪsā b. Mūsā, and the tro…

, the largest river in southern Persia. It rises in the north-eastern part of the district of ʿArabistān (earlier called K̲h̲ūzistān), a little above Lat. 32º N. on the Zarda-Kūh, which belongs to the Bak̲h̲tiyārī mountain system or, to be more accurate, on one of the ranges named Kūh-i Rang, one of the highest mountains in south-western ¶ Persia (estimated at 13,000 feet). The actual source of the river, according to Sawyer ( Bibl ., op. cit., 486, with a picture), is about 10 miles above the place called Ser-i Čes̲h̲me-i Kurang “main source of the Kurang (Kuran)”. The…

a loan word from Aramaic karka meaning “fortified City”, “city (Fraenkel, ¶ Fremdwörter , xx; Pauly-Wissowa, iv, 2122, 2124; Supplement, i, 275, 283). In Islamic times, the word is associated with various towns. Found in areas of Aramaic culture before the Islamic conquest, such towns are distinguished from one another by adding the name of their geographic location, e.g., Kark̲h̲ Bag̲h̲dād, Kark̲h̲ Sāmarrā (cf. Yāḳūt, Mus̲h̲tarik , 368-70; Muʿd̲j̲am , iv, 252-7). In Bag̲h̲dād, al-Kark̲h̲ refers to a specific area (Bāb al-Kark̲h̲) and more generally to the whole of …

, under the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate a district south-west of Bag̲h̲dād, the land south of the Nahî Ṣarāt, a branch of the Euphrates canal Nahr ʿĪsā [ q.v.]. The Ṣarāt separates it from the Ḳaṭrabbul district; the southern part of the western half of Bag̲h̲dād (the so-called town of al-Manṣūr) as well as the suburb of Kark̲h̲ were situated within the bounds of the district of Bādūrayā; the latter formed, like the district of Ḳaṭrabbul, a subdivision of the circle of Astān al-ʿĀlī. (M. Streck*) Bibliography Muḳaddasī, iii, 119, 120 Ibn Ḵh̲urradād̲h̲bih, 7, 9, 235, 237 Balād̲h̲urī, Futuḥ, 250, 254…

(also Ḳarḳīsiya ), a town in al-D̲j̲azīra on the left bank of the Euphrates, close to the confluence of the K̲h̲ābūr, a little above 35° N. Lat. Ḳarḳīsiyā is simply an Arabic reproduction of the Graeco-Roman name (τό) Κιρκήσιον, (τό) Κιρτήσιον κάστρον or Κιρκίσιον (Κιρκισία in the Notit. episcop ., ed. Parthey, 87), Circesium, Syriac Kerkusion, Latin = castrum Circense, “the castle with the circus”; cf. Nöldeke, op. cit. (see Bibl .), p. 3. Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī in Yāḳūt, iv, 65, 11. 21 ff., still knew the etymology of the place-name (Ḳarḳīsiyā, arabicised from Kirkīsiyā, from kirkīs = Ar. ḥalba…

, pl. ḳanāṭir , means in Arabic (1) bridge, particularly a bridge of masonry or stone, one of the most famous of which is that of Sand̲j̲a [ q.v.]; also (2) aqueduct (especially in the plural), dam, and finally (3) high building, castle (similarly ḳasātil = aqueduct from ḳastal = castellum; see ḳanāt ); cf. TA, iii, 509; Dozy, Supplément, ii, 412; de Goeje, BGA, iv, 334; and particularly R. Geyer in the SB Ak. Wien , cxlix/6 (1905), 114-9. The original meaning of the word “arch, stone archway”, is found in the earliest Arabic lexicographers; cf. Dozy-de Goeje, Description de l’Afrique et de l’…

, in the Arab middle ages, a small strongly fortified town in Mesopotamia, south of Ḥarrān, a short distance east of Balīk̲h̲, situated on the road to Raʾs al-ʿAyn, with famous gardens. It is no longer mentioned by the geographers of the 3rd-4th/9th 10th centuries. The Aramaic name () denotes “house of fortune”; cf. perhaps, an ʿAyn-gaddā = “source of fortune” in the Damascene and the Gadda of the Tabula Peutingeriana in Syria. See thereon Nöldeke in the ZDMG, xxix, 441. (M. Streck) Bibliography Yāḳūt, i, 453 Balād̲h̲urī. Futūḥ, 174, 72, where Bād̲j̲addā, not Bād̲j̲uddā. is to be read Le Stra…

town in Fārs. According to the Arabic authors it was founded by the Sāsānid king, Ḳawād̲h̲ I (488, 496-531), who settled there the prisoners of war from Āmid (Diyārbakr) and Mayyā-fāriḳīn, and gave to the new settlement the official name Weh Āmid-i Ḳawād̲h̲=“Good (or Better)-Āmid of Ḳawād̲h̲”, run together and arabicised into Wāmḳubād̲h̲ or usually simply Āmid-Ḳubād̲h̲ (Marquart proposed to read so in al-Ṭabarī, i, 887, 888)! Some Arabic writers have erroneously given to Arrad̲j̲ān the name Abar…

(also ḳayṣāriyya ), plur. ḳayāsīr , the name of a large system of public buildings laid out in the form of cloisters with shops, workshops, warehouses and frequently also living-rooms. According to de Sacy, Relation de l’Egypte par Abd Allaṭif , Paris 1810, 303-4, the ḳaysāriyya was originally distinguished from the sūḳ probably only by its greater extent, and by having several covered galleries around an open court, while the sūḳ consists only of a single gallery. At the present day in any case, the term ḳaysāriyya is not infrequently quite or almost identical in meaning with th…

, (“the marshland”), the name applied to a meadowlike depression which is exposed to more or less regular inundation and is therefore swampy. It is particularly applied by the Arab authors of the ʿAbbāsid period to the very extensive swampy area on the lower course of the Euphrates and Tigris between Kūfa and Wāṣiṭ in the north and Baṣra in the south, also frequently called al-Baṭāʾiḥ (plural of al-Baṭīḥa) and occasionally, after the adjoining towns, the Baṭīhat ( Baṭāʾiḥ ) al-Kūfa , al-Wāṣiṭ or al-Baṣra . The existence of considerable swamps in southern Babylonia goes back to hi…

, a town in Fārs. The real name was probably Stak̲h̲r, as it is written in Pahlavi; the Armenian form Stahr and the abbreviation S T on Sāsānian coins point in the same direction. The form with prosthetic vowel is modern Persian; it is usually pronounced Istak̲h̲ar or Iṣtaḥar, also with inserted vowel Sitak̲h̲ar, Siṭak̲h̲ar, Siṭark̲h̲; cf. Vullers, Lex. Pers.- Lat ., i, 94a, 97a, ii, 223, and Nöldeke in Grundr. der Iran. Philol ., ii, 192. The Syriac form is Isṭahr (rarely Isṭaḥr), in the Talmud probably Istahar (, Megilla 13a, middle). According to the statements of Persian authors, …

, Ḳalaʿī , the name used by the Arabs for tin (or for an especially good quality of tin), which is sometimes also called al-raṣāṣ al-ḳalʿī and al-raṣāṣ al-abyaḍ , that is, “ ḳalʿī lead” or “white lead” (see LA, s.v.; Dozy, Supplément, s.v.; Vullers, Lex. pers.- lat ., ii, 735; Quatremère, in Journal des Savants , 1846, 731). For the other names for tin in Arabic ( ḳaysar = κασσἰτερος etc.), see, for example, al-Dimas̲h̲ḳī, Cosmographie , ed. Mehren, 54. The word probably comes from the Far East, whence the Arabs could have borrowed it directly, with…

, a town in ʿIrāḳ in ʿAbbāsid times. According to the Arab geographers it was situated some 15 miles north of Bag̲h̲dād on the main road to Sāmarrā and at some distance from the east bank of the Tigris, a little above the confluence of the Nahr al-Ḵh̲āliṣ and the latter. The Ḵh̲āliṣ canal, a branch of the Nahrawān (or Ḏj̲yāla) flowed immediately past Baradān. The caliph al-Manṣūr held his court here for a brief period, before he definitely resolved on building a new capital on the site of the modern Bag̲h̲dād (cf. Yaʿḳūbī, Buldān , 256). There was a bridge in Bag̲h̲d…

, town in the south-western part of the district of Ardilān or Persian Kurdistān in 34°30′ N. lat. and 45°30′ E. long. (Greenwich) on the right bank of the Hulwānrūd. To the west and south-west of Ḳaṣr-i S̲h̲īrīn lies the great range of Ag̲h̲-Dag̲h̲; in the S.E. also on the left bank of the river run imposing mountain chains. Ḳaṣr-i S̲h̲īrīn was an important caravan station from the earliest times. The most important route through it is the very old road from Bag̲h̲dād to the Iranian highlands—t…

, a town in Kurdistān, at about 100 klm. north of Mosul in the basin of the Gāra river (a right tributary of the Great Zāb). The town stands on a hill and is dominated by the citadel built on a steep rock. The water supplying the citadel comes from cisterns hewn in the rock. The stronghold is situated at a point which, in the east, controls communications with valleys of the left affluents of the Zāb (Shamdīnān, Rū-Kučūk, Rawānduz) and, in the west, those within the Ḵh̲ābūr basin. The climate of ʿAmādiya is hot and unhealthy. According to Ibn al-At̲h̲īr the fortress received its name from ʿ…

, in Muslim cosmology, the name of the mountain range surrounding the terrestrial world. There is little doubt that this conception is borrowed from Iranian traditions. These make the Alburz [ q.v.] the mythical mountain at the edge of the world, and the home of the gods. All the other mountains in the world have come from the Alburz by underground ramifications. This mountain (the high mountain: Hara-berezayti) surrounds all the world, but also a lake with the name of Wurukas̲h̲a; however, according to the Bundahis̲h̲n , this lake itself, although confined …

, town on the left bank of the Euphrates, 43° 43’ E, 33° 22.5’ N. Arab geographers give the distance from Bag̲h̲dād to al-Anbār on the mail route as twelve (Yāḳūt: ten) farsak̲h̲s (cf. Streck, Babylonien , i, 8); as measured by Musil (p. 248) it is 62 km. = 38 m. Al-Anbār lies on the north-western projection of the Sawād on a cultivable plain near the desert, near the first navigable canal from the Euphrates to the Tigris (the Nahr ʿĪsā), and controlled an important crossing on the Euphrates (cf. Musil, 267-9, 307; Le Strange, in JRAS, 1895, 66). The town is pre-Sāsānid. Maricq identifies i…

, or bād̲j̲armaḳ , under the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate was the name of a district east of the Tigris between the Lesser Zāb in the North and the D̲j̲abal Ḥamrīn in the South. The chief town in the middle ages was Kirkūk (Syr. Kark̲h̲ā de Bēt̲h̲ Slōk̲h̲). It formed a district of the province of Mosul (cf. Ibn Ḵh̲urradād̲h̲bih, 97, 7). Bād̲j̲armā is an Arabic rendering of the Aramaic Bēt̲h̲ (Be) Garma while Bād̲j̲armaḳ goes back to some Middle Persian form of the name of the district, …

, D̲j̲abal , the name which the mediaeval Arabic geographers give to the mountain chain which is situated in the northern part of Syria and for long formed the frontier between the Islamic and the Byzantine lands. In classical times it was known as the Amanos/Amanus (K̲h̲amanu in the cuneiform inscriptions), but by the Turks as Alma Dag̲h̲ī (Elma Daǧı in modern Turkish); since it has not been treated under elma dag̲h̲i̊ , it has seemed useful to consider it here, even though the D̲j̲abal al-Lukkām does not correspond exactly to these ramificati…

, the early Islamic form for the ancient site of Susa in the south-west Persian province of K̲h̲ūzistān, modern Persian S̲h̲ūs̲h̲. It lies on the plain between the two main rivers of K̲h̲ūzistān, the Kārūn and the Kerk̲h̲ā [ q.vv.], which were once connected by canals, and the S̲h̲āwūr river runs along the western side of the site. From at least the second millennium B.C., it was the capital of the Elamite kingdom, destroyed by the Assyrian Ashurbanipal in the 7th century B.C., but rebuilt by the Achaemenids and a flourishing town under the Sāsānids; S…

, “mountain of the [Christian] devotees”, a mountainous plateau region of northern Mesopotamia, in early Islamic times coming within the province of Diyār Bakr [ q.v.] and now, in the Turkish Republic, coming within the il of Mardin. It has been notable throughout the Islamic period for the survival—at least until the later 20th century—of a vigorous Syriac Christianity, with many churches and monasteries. 1. Geography. Ṭūr ʿAbdīn stretches roughly from Mārdīn [ q.v.] in the west to D̲j̲azīrat Ibn ʿUmar [ q.v.], the modern Turkish town of Cizre, in the east. To its north and …

, the region along the lower Tigris River in southeastern al-ʿIrāḳ. This region is called Μεσήνη by Strabo, Mēs̲h̲an in the Babylonian Talmud, Mays̲h̲an in Syriac. Mēs̲h̲ān in Middle Persian, Mēs̲h̲un in Armenian, Maysān in Arabic, and T’iao-tche (Chaldaea) in the Han sources. The earliest references from the first century A.D. indicate that Μεσήνη was an ethnic toponym, the land of the people called Μεσηνός who lived along the Arabian side of the coast at the head of the Persian Gulf (Μαισανιτη…

, one of the sub-districts ( ṭassūd̲j̲ ) of ʿIrāḳ, according to the Sāsānid division adopted by the Arabs, belonging to the district (P. astān , A. kūra ) Ḵh̲usra S̲h̲ād̲h̲ Bahmān (the district of the Tigris) and comprising a tract of land along the western frontier of Ḵh̲uzistān, between Wāsiṭ and Baṣra. The name is derived from the Sāsānid king Kawād̲h̲ (Ḳubād̲h̲) I. The first part of the name is probably Abar (P. abar or abr "cloud" is often seen at the beginning of place-names) and not Abaz or Abād̲h̲ as the Arab geographers have it. Some Arab authors give A…

, pl. of ḳanāt [ q.v.], is found as a toponym in Syria. It designates particularly “a canal of Roman origin which leaves the Barada upstream from Rabwa on the right bank, and divides into five branches which pass across Damascus, supplying the southern part of the city with water” (Ibn ʿAsākir, Description de Damas , tr. N. Elisséeff, Damascus 1959, 252). Ḳanawāt is also the name of a place that lies 85 km. south of Damascus, on the west slope of the Ḥawrān. Because of its wealth of water this very ancient settlement cannot be identif…

, a fortress in Fārs, in 30° 10′ N. Lat. and 51°30′ E. Long. (Greenwich). It is built on a mountain with a flat top, in the eastern part of the valley of Kohra, which falls steeply down on all sides. On its summit, which can only be reached by cliff-paths, lies an extensive well-wooded plateau watered by numerous springs. A strong garrison is necessary for its defence, as is noted in the Fārsnāma . Descriptions of the fortress and the country round it are given, among Oriental writers for example, by Ibn al-Balk̲h̲ī in the Fārsnāma (the pertinent passage is copied by Mustawfī, Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb …

, Nuffar , a ruined site, ancient Nippur, in southern ʿIrāḳ, situated in lat. 32°7′ N. and long. 45° 10′ E., now in the liwā or province of al-Ḳādisiyya; close by lies the K̲h̲ōr al-ʿAfak. The site is very extensive. Rising 20 m above the ¶ plain, it has proved to be one of the earliest cities to have developed in the region. Even before neighbouring Uruk and Akkad became political centres in the last centuries of the third millennium Nippur seems to have been a religious centre for the independent communities, no doubt because, according …

, a town and lesser administrative district under the ʿAbbāsids. With four others it formed part of the rich and populous circle ( astān ) east of Tigris, that of Bāzīyān Ḵh̲usraw, in which the town of Bandanīd̲j̲īn (now vanished without trace) was a principal headquarters. Bākusāyā is usually grouped with the adjacent district of Bādarāyā [ q.v.] (the modern Badra) by the Arab geographers, and like it enjoyed good water from the hills which mark the present Persian frontier. A modern village, within Persia, known as Baksaiyyeh, a few miles S.E. of Ba…

, in ʿAbbāsid times the name (adopted, with the organisation, from the Sāsānid Persians) of three districts ( Astān , Arabic Kūra ) of the province of ʿIrāḳ, all situated on the eastern branch (modern Ḥilla branch) of the Euphrates. The name means “the Goodness (or godd lands?) of ¶ Ḳubād̲h̲”, a Sāsānid king who reigned in the 5th century A.D. The districts bordered, to the south, on that of Kūfa, and on the Great Swamp of the Lower Euphrates. The three districts, sometimes referred to jointly as the Bihḳubād̲h̲āt, were t…

2. History and development since 1914. In the course of the 20th century, Mas̲h̲had has become a regional metropolis (2,155,700 inhabitants in 2004), the capital of the vast province of Ḵh̲urāsān, and well integrated into the economic and public life of Iran. At the same time, it has kept its character as a goal of pilgrimage, dominated by the strength of the economic and political authority of the Āstānayi ḳuds-i riḍawī, the administration of the Shrine waḳf , probably the most important in the Muslim world. In 1914, despite its religious importance, Mas̲h̲had was a marginal tow…

Ḏj̲abal D̲j̲ūdī or Ḏj̲ūdī Dag̲h̲ , a lofty mountain mass in the district of Bohtān, about 25 miles N.E. of D̲j̲azīrat Ibn ʿUmar, in 37° 30′ N. D̲j̲ūdī owes its fame to the Mesopotamian tradition, which identifies it, and not Mount Ararat, with the mountain on which Noah’s ark rested. It is practically certain from a large number of Armenian and other writers that, down to the 10th century, Mt. Ararat was in ¶ no way connected with the Flood. Ancient Armenian tradition certainly knows nothing of a mountain on which the ark rested; and when one is mentioned in later Ar…

, a canal to the south of Baṣra (called after a client of the caliph al-Manṣūr), the most important among the canals that in the Middle Ages flowed from the west into the main channel of the Tigris, the Did̲j̲a al-ʿAwrāʾ of Arabic authors, i.e. the modern S̲h̲aṭṭ al-ʿArab. Its bed still exists. It was on its bank that the Zand̲j̲ rebels built in the 3rd/9th century the great fortress of al-Muk̲h̲tāra. (M. Streck) Bibliography Le Strange, 47 f. M. Streck, Babylonien nach den arab. Geogr., Leiden 1900, i, 42. ¶