, Abu ’l-Faḍl al-Minḳarī al-Tamīmī, early S̲h̲īʿī historian (though probably not, as Sezgin rightly observes, the first one) and traditionist; his date of birth is uncertain, but he died in 212/827. He lived originally in Kūfa but later moved to Bag̲h̲dād; amongst those from whom he heard traditions was Sufyān al-T̲h̲awrī [ q.v.]. His own reputation as an ak̲h̲bāri and muḥaddit̲h̲ was, however, weak, and he was regarded by some Sunnī authors as a fervent ( g̲h̲ālī ) S̲h̲īʿī. He is best known for his Kitāb Waḳʿat Ṣiffīn (this has been reconstructed, from the p…

(a.), the pl. of ṭalīḳ , which means “a person loosed, set free, e.g. from imprisonment or slavery” (Lane, 1874). The plural becomes a technical term in earliest Islam for denoting the Meccans of Ḳurays̲h̲ who, at the time when Muḥammad entered Mecca in triumph (Ramaḍān 8/January 630), were theoretically the Prophet’s lawful booty but whom he in fact released (al-Ṭabarī, i, 1642-3: ḳāla ’d̲h̲habū fa-antum al-ṭulaḳāʾ . Gf. Glossarium , p. CCCXLII, and Mad̲j̲d al-Dīn Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, Nihāya , ed. al-Zāwī and al-Ṭannāḥī, Cairo 1383/1963, iii, 136). It was subsequently used opprobriousl…

b. Umayya, a member of the Aʿyāṣ [ q.v. in Suppl.] component group of the Umayyad clan in Mecca and, later, governor of Kufa and Medina, died in 59/678-9, according to the majority of authorities. His father had fallen, a pagan, fighting the Muslims at the battle of Badr [ q.v.] on 2/624 when Saʿīd, his only son, can only have been an infant. He nevertheless speedily achieved great prestige in Islam not only as the leader of an aristocratic family group but also for his liberality, eloquence and learning. He ¶ was in especially high favour with ʿUt̲h̲mān, and was appointed by that cal…

, a great and powerful Bedouin tribe of Central Arabia, second only in importance to the ʿAnaza or ʿUnayza [ q.v.], and playing a significant role in the history of Arabia in the last 150 years or so. Doughty describes them as having pasture grounds extending from al-Ṭāʾif [ q.v.] in the Ḥid̲j̲āz in the west to al-Ḳaṣīm [ q.v.] in northern Nad̲j̲d in the east. The name appears in various renderings in the travel accounts of Europeans, e.g. the ʿAteyba, pl. elʿAteybân of Doughty, and the ʾOṭeybah of Palgrave; according to J.J. Hess, the modern pronunciation use…

a large tribal group, now inhabiting in the main the areas of Ḏh̲amār and Radāʿ in the modern Yemen Arab Republic. The traditional genealogy, given by e.g. Ibn Durayd, Is̲h̲tiḳāḳ , ed. ¶ Wüstenfeld, 237 ff., and by Yāḳūt, Beirut 1374-6/1955-7, v, 89, is from Mālik b. Udad b. Zayd b. Yas̲h̲d̲j̲ub b. ʿArïb b. Zayd b. Kahlān b. Sabaʾ b. Yas̲h̲d̲j̲ub b. Yaʿrub b. Ḳaḥtān. The numerous component ḳabāʾil of Mad̲h̲ḥid̲j̲ are listed in full by al-Malik al-As̲h̲raf ʿUmar, Ṭurfat al-aṣḥāb fī maʿrifat al-ansāb , ed. K. V. Zetterstéen, Damascus 1949, 9; those most frequ…

, 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-…