, an Umayyad general who played a decisive part in the consolidation of the conquest of Ifrīḳiya by storming Carthage and finally defeating al-Kāhina [ q.v.]. It is difficult, however, to trace the course of his actions on account of the uncertainty of the chronology and a host of discrepancies. The dates given for his arrival in Ifrīḳiya are Muḥarram 68/July-August 687, 69/688-9, 73/692-3, 74/693-4, 78/697-8; and for his fall 76/695-6, 77/696-7, 78/697-8, 79/698-9, 82/701-2, 84/703-4 and 89/707-8. The chronology given by the earliest chroniclers, i.e. by Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam and t…

b. al-Mund̲h̲ir b. Ḥarām , of the K̲h̲azrad̲j̲ tribe of Yat̲h̲rib (later Medīna), traditionally known as the “poet laureate” of the Prophet, is more correctly the most prominent of several poets who were associated with the rise of Islam, and one who already had an established reputation in the D̲j̲āhiliyya. When ¶ Muḥammad arrived at Medina, Ḥassān was of mature age (though probably not yet 60—which is the age given by most authorities including Ibn Isḥāḳ who relies directly on Ḥassān’s grandson Saʿīd—or even 52 or 53 year…

, the last Lak̲h̲mid king of Ḥīra [ q.v.] and vassal of Sāsānid Persia. He was the son of al-Mund̲h̲ir IV [ q.v.] and Salmā, the daughter of a Jewish goldsmith from Fadak. In the annals of the Lak̲h̲mids [ q.v.], his reign ( ca. A.D. 580-602) was the most memorable after that of his grandfather, al-Mund̲h̲ir III (d. 554). His accession to the throne of Ḥīra he owed to ʿAdī b. Zayd [ q.v.], the famous Christian poet and statesman of Ḥīra, and the Sāsānid Hormuzd celebrated that accession with an especially splendid crown. Al-Nuʿmān was an assertive and strong ruler, and his reign witnessed…

al-Ṭāʾī , a pre-Islamic individual who played a certain role in the relations between Arabs and Persians, but whose biography is not absolutely clear. According to Ibn al-Kalbī-Caskel ( Ǧamharat an-nasab, Tab. 252, and ii, 361), his genealogy appears to be as follows: Iyās b. Ḳabīṣa b. Abī ʿUfr/ʿAfrā b. al-Nuʿmān b. Ḥayya b. Saʿna b. al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. al-Ḥuwayrit̲h̲ b. Rabīʿa b. Mālik b. Safr b. Hinʾ b. ʿAmr b. al-G̲h̲awt̲h̲ b. Ṭayyiʾ (thus his nisba is to be amended in the article d̲h̲ū Ḳār ). This Arab chieftain succeeded in gaining the favour of Ḵh̲usraw Aparwīz (Kisrā Abarwīz), …

, a legendary diviner ( kāhin ) of pre-Islamic Arabia, whom tradition connects with the beginnings of Islam; in reality, we are dealing here with a quite mythical personage like the other kāhin in whose company he appears in most stories, S̲h̲iḳḳ al-Saʿbī, who is simply the humanisation of a demoniacal monster in appearance like a man cut in two ( s̲h̲iḳḳ al-insān : cf. van Vloten, in WZKM, vii [1893], 180-1, and s̲h̲iḳḳ ). Saṭīḥ, whose name means “flattened on the ground and unable to rise on account of the weakness of his limbs” ( Lisān al-ʿArab 1, iii, 312), is described as a monster with…

b. ʿAbd al-Rāḥmān b. Zayd al-Lak̲h̲mī (or al-Bakrī ) Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān , conqueror of the western Mag̲h̲rib and of Spain. He was born in 19/640; his father had been in the immediate entourage of Muʿāwiya [ q.v.]. Mūsā was at first appointed by the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik to collect the k̲h̲arād̲j̲ at al-Baṣra, but having been suspected of embezzlement, he fled and took refuge with the caliph’s brother, the governor of Egypt ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Marwān; the latter took Mūsā to Syria to the caliph, who fined him 100,000 dīnārs. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz provided half of this sum for Mūsā and brought him…

, fifth Caliph of the Umayyad line, reigned 65-86/685-705. According to general report he was born in the year 26/646-7, the son of Marwān b. al-Ḥakam [ q.v.], his mother being ʿĀʾis̲h̲a bint Muʿāwiya b. al-Mug̲h̲īra. As a boy of ten he was an eye-witness of the storming of ʿUt̲h̲mān’s house, and, at the age of sixteen Muʿāwiya appointed him to command the Madinian troops against the Byzantines. He remained at Medina until the outbreak of the rebellion against Yazīd I (62-3/682-3). When the Umayyads were expelled by the rebels, he left the town with his ¶ father, but on meeting the Syrian …

, one of the two main Arab tribes in Medina. With the other tribe, al-Aws [ q.v.], it formed the Banū Ḳayla in pre-Islamic times and the Anṣār [ q.v.] or “helpers” (sc. of Muḥammad) under Islam. The ancestors of al-K̲h̲azrad̲j̲ are given under al-Aws. The following are the main subdivisions of the tribe: Al-K̲h̲azrad̲j̲ and al-Aws settled together in Yat̲h̲rib or Medina after leaving the Yemen, and for a time were subordinate to the Jews there. The ¶ leader in gaining independence from the Jews was Mālik b. al-ʿAd̲j̲lān of the clan of Sālim (Ḳawāḳila) of al-K̲h̲azrad̲j̲. …

, nisba Ṭāʾī, an Arab tribe, which like others such as al-Azd and Kinda, emigrated from the Arabian south and settled in the north, in the plateau of S̲h̲ammar [ q.v.], which contained the two ranges Ad̲j̲aʾ and Salmā, called after the tribe D̲j̲abalā Ṭayyiʾ As a result of their occupation of S̲h̲ammar, the north Arab tribe of Asad lost some of its territory but the two tribes fraternised and were called “the two allies”, al-Ḥalīfān. The two main subdivisions of the tribe were al-G̲h̲awth and D̲j̲adīla, part of whom lived on…

, one of the three most famous ayyām [ q.v.], battle-days of the Arabs in pre-Islamic times, the other two being the First Day of al-Kulāb and D̲h̲ū Ḳār [ q.v.]. The yawm is variously dated to around A.D. 550 or 570. The two main contestants in this yawm were the tribes of Tamīm and ʿĀmir, in which ʿĀmir emerged victorious over Tamīm. The chief instigator of the yawm was the Tamīmī chief Laḳīṭ b. Zurāra, who wanted to avenge the ¶ death of his brother Maʿbad at the hand of ʿĀmir after he had been captured at the yawm of Raḥraḥān during the preceding year. Laḳīṭ was able …

(“the Sorceress”) was the guiding spirit of Berber resistance to the Arab invaders led by Ḥassān b. al-Nuʿmān [ q.v.] after the collapse of Byzantine power marked by the fall of Carthage (73/692-3). ¶ Her true personality—which must have been highly complex—is very difficult to discern, for only the distorted reflections of her real features can be detected behind the legend. There is no agreement even on her real name, for al-Kāhina is only a nickname given to her by the Arabs. It is said that she was named Dihya—Ibn K̲h̲aldūn (tr. de Slane, Berbères , i, 172) mentions a Berber tribe know…

(ancient Vaga; modern orthography: Béja), important town in Ifrīḳiya, situated about 100 km. west of Tunis. Its population at the present time is nearly 23,000. Resting against the fertile slopes of the valley of the Médjerda, it constitutes “the most considerable town of the region, which existed in ancient times and has continued to exist down to our time….. its strategie position, of supreme importance, on the road from Tunis to Algeria, was constantly emphasised throughout the Muslim period” (R. Brunschvig, Ḥafṣides , i, 300). Capital of the province richest in cereal crops,…

, an Arab dynasty of Kilābī origin, founded by Ṣāliḥ b. Mirdās. The latter and some of his descendants were, on several occasions between 415/1024 and 473/1080, either tolerated or recognised as princes of Aleppo. In succession to the Ḥamdānids, they maintained a tradition of autonomy in northern Syria, thanks to the tacit protection of the Byzantine Empire, which they accepted in order to ward off pressure from the Būyids of Bag̲h̲dād and the Fāṭimids of Egypt. However, they did not hesitate on…

a division of the great tribal group al-Azd who migrated from South Arabia, wandered in the Peninsula, and finally settled within the Roman limes ca. A.D. 490, having accepted Christianity and agreed to pay tribute. After a short period of co-existence with Salīḥ [ q.v.] as tributaries, ύπόφοροι, they overpowered the latter group and superseded them as the new Arab allies, σύμμαχοι, of Byzantium in A.D. 502-3. Their relations with the Empire were regulated by a treaty, foedus , according to which they received annual subsidies, annonae foederaticae, and in return they contributed …

, sixth Fāṭimid caliph, whose name was Abū ʿAlī al-Manṣūr, one of the most famous caliphs because of his excesses, his cruelty, his persecutions, particularly of the Christians, the divine character which certain of his supporters attributed to him and which is an article of faith with the Druzes, and because of his mysterious end. It is difficult to form an exact idea of his personality, so strange and even inexplicable were many of the measures which he took, and so full of contradictions does…

, D̲j̲āmiʿ al- , the celebrated mosque-university in the city of Tunis. 1. Archaeological survey and construction of the mosque. Foundation . ʿAbd Allāh al-Bakrī (5th/11th century) gives two facts: the building by ʿUbayd Allāh b. Ḥabḥāb [ q.v.] in 114/732-3 of a Friday mosque, d̲j̲āmīʿ , and the building of a masd̲j̲id by Ḥassān b. al-Nuʿmān [ q.v.] at the time of his capture of Tunis ca. 79/698-9 ( K. fī d̲h̲ikr al-bilād Ifrīḳiya wa ’l-Mag̲h̲rib , Algiers 1911, 37). This account has given rise to two theses, taken up by modern historians. Most of t…

, or ḳaṣṭīliya , or ḳasṭīla . 2. A place name of Tunisia which in the Middle Ages sometimes designated a town (Tawzar or Tūzar), but more often the district of which this town was the chief centre. It is the modern region of the D̲j̲arīd, which now forms part of the governorate of Ḳafṣa [ q.v.] (population 321,000, density of pop. 17.45 per km2, according to the 1966 census), and forms the region of the Shotts. As in the past, the region’s main resource is the date palm: one million trees, of which 31% are of the highly-esteemed “degla” variety (1962 enquiry…

(also, but more rarely: Dār al-ṣanʿa ). Etymologically, this compound can be translated “industrial establishment, workshop”. In fact it is always applied to a State workshop: for example, under the Umayyads in Spain to establishments for gold and silver work intended for the sovereign, and for the manufacture and stock-piling of arms. But the sense most widely used is that of “establishment for the construction and equipment of warships”: dār ṣināʿa li-ins̲h̲āʾ al-sufun ; or simply dār al-ins̲h̲āʾ , which also occurs. This does not include the arsen…

, the adherents of a doctrinal stance which originated at the same time and over the same question as K̲h̲ārid̲j̲ism and S̲h̲īʿism, but which did not survive beyond the 4th/10th century. Its history can be divided into four stages: 1. Loyalism. The stance originated in response to the killing of ʿUt̲h̲mān [ q.v.]. Had the rebels done right? The ʿUt̲h̲māniyya were those who denied it. ʿUt̲h̲mān had in their view remained a legitimate ruler whose life it had been wrong to take. “By God, ʿUt̲h̲mān was killed unjustly ( maẓlūman )” (al-Ṭabarī, i, 3434; cf. 3243.9-12…

, pl. ḳaynāt or ḳiyān “female singing slave”. The Arab lexicographers do not completely agree on the primitive meaning of the term (see LA, TA, etc. s.v.), the real origin of which is unknown to them. They tend to apply it in the first place to a female slave ( ama , d̲j̲āriya ), charged in general with various tasks; secondly, and more specifically, to the female singer who had a servile status ( ama or d̲j̲āriya mug̲h̲anniya ). Some lexicographers are inclined to connect ḳayna with a Vth form taḳayyana “to embellish oneself” (al-Was̲h̲s̲h̲āʾ, Muwas̲h̲s̲h̲ā , 164, uses the expression al-imāʾ a…