Full text of "Encyclopaedia Dictionary Islam Muslim World, etc, Gibb, Kramer, scholars. 13 vols & 12 vols. 1960-2004.1875.2009."

THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM

NEW EDITION

PREPARED BY A NUMBER OF
LEADING ORIENTALISTS

EDITED BY

PJ. BEARMAN, TH. BIANQUIS, C. E. BOSWORTH,
E. van DONZEL and W. P. HEINRICHS

UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF
THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ACADEMIES

VOLUME X

T — U

LEIDEN

BRILL

2000

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:

r. P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, J.T.P. de Bruijn, A. Dias Farinha, E. van Donzel,
.n Ess, W.P. Heinrichs, RJ. Kasteleijn, A.K.S. Lambton, B. Lewis, F. Rosenthal, F. Rundgren,
A.L. Udovitch.

Associated members: Haul inalcik, S.H. Nasr, M. Talbi.

The preparation of this volume of the Encyclopaedia of Islam was made pos-
sible in part through grants from the Research Tools Program of the National
Endowment for the Humanities, an independent Federal Agency of the United
States Government; the British Academy; the Oriental Institute, Leiden; Academie
des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres; and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.

The articles in this volume were published in double fascicules of 1 1 2 pages, the dates of publication being:

1998: Fascs. 163-168, pp. 1-336 1999: Fascs. 169-174, pp. 337-672

2000: Fascs. 175-178, pp. 673-968

ISBN 90 04 11211 1

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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS

AUTHORS OF ARTICLES IN THIS VOLUME

For the benefit of readers w]
decided to list after each coi
other addresses are given (for
In this list, names in squa
edition of this Encyclopaedia

i the t.

may wish to follow up an individual contributor's articles, the Editors have
ibutor's name the pages on which his signature appears. Academic but not
retired scholar, the place of his last known academic appointment),
brackets are those of authors of articles reprinted or revised from the first
from the Shatter Encyclopaedia of Islam. An asterisk after the name of the author
reprinted from the first edition which has been brought up to date by the
where an article has been revised by a second author his name appears within square
ne of the original author.

Jamil M. Abun-Nasr, University of Bayreuth. 464,

466, 826
Iradj Afshar, Tehran. 136, 234
Feroz Ahmad, University of Massachusetts, Boston.

r University, Hamilton,
University, Bloomington.

Virginia Aksan, McMasi
Salman H. Al-Ani, Indian

M.A. al-Bakhit, Al al-Bayt University, Mafraq, Jordan.

51, 616
Hamid Algar, University of California, Berkeley. 498
R.M.A. Allen, University of Pennsylvania,

Philadelphia. 388, 799
Sajida S. Alvi, McGill University. 442
A.A. Ambros, University of Vienna. 872
Edith G. Ambros, University of Vienna. 720, 737
Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Ecole Pratique des

Hautes Etudes, Paris. 746
R. Amitai, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 164, 564,

569, 608, 619, 814
Barbara Watson Andaya, University of Hawaii at

Manoa. 419
P.A. Andrews, University of Cologne. 701
W.G. Andrews, University of Washington, Seattle.

478
A. Arazi, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 3, 788, 910
the late M. Athar Ali, Aligarh Muslim University.

188, 297, 552
Francoise Aubin, Centre d'Etudes de Recherches

Internationales, Paris. 339
A. Ayalon, Tel Aviv University. 123, 241, 445
[F. Babinger, Munich]. 539, 672
Taieb Baccouche, University of Tunis. 660
T. Bachrouch, University of Tunis. 760
Roswitha Badry, University of Freiburg. 159, 201,

373, 385, 497
Eva Baer, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 397
J. Baldick, University of London. 958
Qigdem Balim, University of Manchester. 186, 235,

423, 446, 678, 721
P. Ballanfat, University of Lyons. 547
[W. Barthold, Leningrad], 544
F. Bauden, University of Liege. 17
Th. Bauer, University of Erlangen. 909
L. Bazin, Ecole des Langues Orientales, Paris. 689
M. Bazin, University of Reims. 414, 560, 628
J. Becka, University of Prague. 66
the late A.F.L. Beeston, Oxford. 576
M.AJ. Beg, Cambridge. 24, 25, 67, 102, 179, 435
A. Ben Abdesselem, Institut National des Langues et

Civilisations Orientales, Paris. 587, 740
Lilia Ben Salem, University of Tunis. 663
Omar Bencheikh, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Paris. 179
H. Bencheneb, Paris. 181

J. P. Berkey, Davidson College, Davidson, North

Carolina. 81
Monique Bernards, University of Nijmegen. 433
Th. Bianq_uis, University of Lyons. 151
G. Biger, Tel Aviv University. 128
J. Bisson, University of Tours. 52
[W. Bjorkman, Uppsala]. 58, 615
Sheila S. Blair, Richmond, New Hampshire. 50
F.C. de Blois, Royal Asiatic Society, London. 1, 133,

188, 232, 264, 302, 600
S.A. Bonebakker, University of California, Los

Angeles. 396
M. Bonner, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

821
N. van den Boogert, University of Leiden. 347,

478
Marilyn Booth, University of Illinois, Urbana. 640
C.E. Bosworth, University of Manchester. 5, 15,

23, 49, 60, 63, 67, 80, 103, 105, 110, 111, 1

115, 125, 141, 144, 157, 163, 166, 171, 212, '<

215, 223, 238, 307, 310, 312, 349, 369, 393, ■

402, 415, 419, 426, 435, 439, 442, 444, 447, '.

466, 479, 480, 483, 496, 502, 529, 530, 553, ;

555, 578, 590, 596, 600, 602, 603, 623, 624, (

665, 667, 670, 675, 678, 680, 686, 737, 745, ;

761, 767, 768, 773, 778, 787, 800, 815, 839, i

882, 885, 893, 899, 909, 927, 944, 945, 955, <

967
A. Boukous, University of Rabat. 345
IJ. Boullata, McGill University. 95
Brahim Boutaleb, University of Rabat. 309
[H.H. Brau]. 434
Sonja Brentjes, Max Planck Institute for the

History of Science, Berlin. 794
J.T.P. de Bruijn, University of Leiden. 54, 123, 132,

764, 870
[R. Brunschwig, Paris]. 642
J. Bujard, Fondation Max van Berchem, Geneva.

856, 859
[F. Buhl, Copenhagen]. 376
R.W. Bulliet, Columbia University. 304
P. Buresi, University of Lyons. 71, 794
Kathleen R.F. Burrill, Columbia University. 352,

428
P. Cachia, Columbia University. 96
the late N. Calder, University of Manchester. 102,

138, 934
Y. Callot, University of Tours. 167
J. Calmard, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Paris. 22, 493
M.G. Carter, University of Oslo. 82, 103, 180, 241,

930
J.-Cl. Chabrier, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Paris. 628, 770, 773
Mounira Chapoutot-Remadi, University of Tunis.

E. Chaumont, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Aix-en-Provence. 16, 866
P. Chelkowski, New York University. 408
Moncef Chenoufi, Kuwait University. 425
Mohamed-Hedi Cherif, University of Tunis. 651
W.C. Chittick, State University of New York, Stony

Brook. 324
V. Christides, University of Ioannina, Athens. 213,
790

920
J. Cler, University of Strasbourg. 734
W.L. Cleveland, Simon Fraser University, British

Columbia. 908
J.F. Coakley, Harvard University. 899
P.M. Cobb, University of Notre Dame. 822, 884
Merce Comes, University of Barcelona. 837
D. Commins, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Penn. 133
S. Conermann, University of Kiel. 186
M. Cote, University of Aix-en-Provence. 358, 580,

590
J. Couland, University of Paris. 7
D. Crecelius, California State University, Los

Angeles. 834
Patricia Crone, Institute for Advanced Study,

Princeton, NJ. 954
Stephanie Cronin, London. 23
Yolande Crowe, Geneva. 767

F. Daftary, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. 404,
855

Radhi Daghfous, University of Tunis. 648
H. Daiber, University of Frankfurt. 750

B. van Dalen, University of Frankfurt. 271
Virginia Danielson, Harvard University. 856

R.E. Darley-Doran, Winchester. 185, 410, 527,
621

G. David, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest. 417
D. Davis, Ohio State University, Columbus. 672
R.H. Davison, George Washington University. 209
F.M. Denny, University of Colorado, Boulder. 75,

385, 398, 863
[J. Deny, Paris]. 598

D. DeWeese, Indiana University, Bloomington. 563

E. Dickinson, Yale University. 935

A. Dietrich, University of Gottingen. 23, 587, 768,

868, 946
Moktar Djebli, University of Paris. 108, 136, 431
G. Doerfer, University of Gottingen. 188
Anne-Marie Edde, University of Reims. 600
D.F. Eickelman, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New

Hampshire. 225
R. Eisener, University of Bamberg. 67
Taieb El Acheche, University of Tunis. 142, 386,

429, 463, 542, 782
Mohamed El Mansour, University of Rabat. 185
W. Ende, University of Freiburg. 140
G. Endress, University of Bochum. 53, 530

C. Ernst, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
337

H. Fahndrich, University of Zurich. 193

[H.G. Farmer, Glasgow]. 34, 38, 626, 770, 894

Suraiya Faroq_hi, University of Munich. 113, 21

l Fierro, C.S.I.C., Madrid. 1

R. Firestone, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles.

169
Kais M. Firro, University of Haifa. 192
Barbara Flemming, University of Leiden. 352, 718
W. Floor, Bethesda, Maryland. 926
P. Fodor, University of Budapest. 166
Ch.-H. de Fouchecour, University of Paris. 831
B.G. Fragner, University of Bamberg. 64
G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, SherifT Hutton, York. 301,

622
M. Gaborieau, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Paris. 39, 580

A. Gacek, McGill University, Montreal. 409, 871
Expiracion Garcia-Sanchez, C.S.I.C., Granada. 480
J.-Cl. Garcin, University of Aix-Marseille. 938
GJ.H. van Gelder, University of Oxford. 4, 5, 79,

123, 180, 341
E. Geoffroy, University of Strasbourg. 61, 117, 246,

854, 864
Cl. Gilliot, University of Aix-en-Provence. 10, 805
D. Gimaret, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris.

2, 139, 183, 389, 931
Altan GOkalp, University of Paris. 126, 736
P.B. Golden, Rutgers University. 303, 371, 417, 552,

557, 623, 691, 693
Lisa Golombek, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

523, 524
G. Goodwin, Royal Asiatic Society, London. 569
M.S. Gordon, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. 618
W.A. Graham, Harvard University. 312, 357
W. Granara, Harvard University. 662
Vincenza Grassi, University of Naples. 240
P. Guichard, University of Lyons. 584
J.-P. Guillaume, University of Paris. 193, 376, 835
D. Gutas, Yale University. 231
the late U. Haarmann, Free University, Berlin. 796
Mohammad Hajji, Rabat. 56, 77
H. Halm, University of Tubingen. 814
Wael B. Hallaq, McGill University, Montreal. 161
S. Nomanul Haq, Cambridge, Mass. 28
G.R. Hawting, University of London. 99, 432, 847
G. Hazai, University of Cyprus. 715
[W. Heffening, Cologne]. 53, 469, 907
W.P. Heinrichs, Harvard University. 7, 53, 70, 132,

360, 424, 452, 482, 589, 670, 910, 928, 951
CJ. Heywood, University of London. 801
Carole Hillenbrand, University of Edinburgh. 528
M. Hofelich, University of Frankfurt. 146
V. Hohfeld, University of Tubingen. 571, 759

C. Holes, University of Oxford. 818
P.M. Holt, Oxford. 622

[E. Honigmann, Brussels]. 481

M.B. Hooker, Australian National University,
Canberra. 430, 807

D. Hopwood, University of Oxford. 389, 873

B. Hourcade, Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique, Paris. 496

[M.T. Houtsma, Utrecht]. 554

R.S. Humphreys, University of California, Santa

Barbara. 276, 280, 283
J.O. Hunwick, Northwestern University. 89, 122, 134,

143, 299, 340, 510, 810

C. Imber, University of Manchester. 420, 738
Halil Inalcik, Bilkent University, Ankara. 507
B. Ingham, University of London. 957
Svetlana Ivanova, National Library, Sofia. 547
Mawil Y. Izzi Dien, University of Wales, Lampeter.

77, 93, 304, 358, 406, 800
P. Jackson, University of Keele. 552, 591, 593
Renate Jacobi, Free University, Berlin. 400, 776
JJ.G. Jansen, University of Leiden. 62, 938

Penel

752

E C. j,

University of Oxford. 740,

ie Jong, University of Utrecht. 326
G.H.A. Juynboll, Leiden. 78, 81, 382, 399, 446, 546
O. Kahl, Sheffield. 476

Mehmet Kalpakli, Bilkent University, Ankara. 478
N. Kaptein, University of Leiden. 257
A.T. Karamustafa, Washington University, St. Louis.

716
Barbara Kellner-Heink

rsity, Bcrlii

949
[H. Kindermann, Cologne]. 786
D.A. King, University of Frankfurt. 55, 133, 163, 313
G.M.H. King, University of Oxford. 438

F. Klein-Franke, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 461
Sigrid Kleinmichel, Free University, Berlin. 733

A. Knysh, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 922
Timur Kocaoglu, Koc University, Istanbul. 686
Ebba Koch, University of Vienna. 60
E. Kohlberg, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 40, 41
Linda Komaroff, Los Angeles County Museum of

Art. 525
M.G. Kossmann, University of Leiden. 242
[J.H. Kramers, Leiden]. 82, 416, 417, 766, 925
Remke Kruk, University of Leiden. 148, 379
P. Kunitzsch, University of Munich. 531
H. Kurio, Staatsbibliothek Berlin. 181
Abderrahmane Lakhsassi, Mohammed V University,

Rabat. 551
J. Lambert, Musee de FHomme, Paris. 211
Ann K.S. Lambton, Kirknewton, Northumberland.

290, 551
J.M. Landau, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 177, 365
Ella Landau-Tasseron, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

604
D.M. Last, University College, London. 951
J.D. Latham, University of Manchester. 449, 873
M. Lavergne, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Paris. 19, 216
A. Layish, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 157, 161,

354
the late Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, Hebrew University,

Jerusalem. 112, 395, 960
O.N.H. Leaman, John Moores University, Liverpool.

83
M. Lecker, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 93, 116,

176, 401, 432, 774, 784, 960
S. Leder, University of Halle. 827
J.L. Lee, Leeds University. 158
R. van Leeuwen, University of Amsterdam. 194, 211

G. Leiser, Vacaville, California. 170, 412, 413, 570
T. Leisten, Princeton University. 675

Amalia Levanoni, University of Haifa. 7, 925

[G. Levi Della Vida, Rome]. 401

[E. Levi-Provencal, Paris]. 83, 171, 913

A. Levin, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 121

B. Lewis, Princeton University. 81

L. Lewisohn, University of London. 332, 378
G. Libson, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 888
Chang-Kuan Lin, National Cheng-chi University,

Taipei. 476, 575, 808
B. Lory, Institut National des Langues Orientales

Vivantes, Paris. 372, 624
P. Lory, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris.

M.C. Lyons, University of Cambridge. 436, 955
M.C.A. Macdonald, University of Oxford. 438, 968
D. MacEoin, University of Durham. 41
W. Madelung, University of Oxford. 89, 162, 431,

762, 792, 916, 927
Ali Mahjoubi, University of Tunis. 654
Ammar Mahjoubi, University of Tunis. 644
Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Indiana University, Blooming-

.. 587

ux-Marst

/, Medford, Mas:

5. 566

[G. Marcais, Paris]. 405

Manuela Marin, University of Madrid. 106, 285

Y. Marq_uet, University of Paris. 546

P.J. Marshall, King's College, London. 533

[L. Massignon, Paris]. 1, 498

R. Matthee, University of Delaware. 756

Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen, University of Paris. 190

Daniela Merolla, University of Leiden. 119

L.B. Miller, New Paltz, N.Y. 241

[V. Minorsky, Cambridge]. 486, 487, 673, 744, 896,

917
J.-P. Molenat, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Paris. 607, 765
L. Molina, University of Granada. 243, 586, 777,

853
G. Monnot, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris.

J.E. M<

823, 839, 946
P.F\ de Moraes Farias, Ui

ity of Cambridge. 220, 586,
of Birmingham.

248
P. Losens:

, Indiar

Univ<

■, Bloomingto

R. Morelon, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Paris. 429
D.O. Morgan, University of London. 412
M. Morony, University of California, Los Angeles.

361
D.W. Morray, University College Dublin. 167
Abderrahmane Moussaoui, Oran, Algeria. 758
J.-M. Mouton, University of Picardy, Amiens. 532
M. Muranyi, University of Bonn. 840
R. Murphey, University of Birmingham. 812
j Silvia Naef, University of Basel. 366
| Laila Nehme, College de France, Paris. 968
! I.R. Netton, University of Leeds. 869
i E. Neubauer, University of Frankfurt. 144, 759, 810
j AJ. Newman, University of Edinburgh. 937
, C. Nijland, Leiden. 619
[B. Nikitine, Paris]. 398
I the late K.A. Nizami, Aligarh Muslim University. 257,
I 807, 896

i G. Nonneman, Lancaster University. 854
j A. Northedge, University of Paris. 792
I Annette Oevermann, University of Tubingen. 97
R.S. O'Fahey, University of Bergen. 4, 250
K. Ohrnberg, University of Helsinki. 190
! G. Oman, University of Naples. 212, 214
I T. Penchoen, Hood River, Oregon. 170
| Ch. Picard, University of Toulouse. 795
j D. Pingree, Brown University. 28
] [M. Plessner, Jerusalem], 179, 548
j I. Poonawala, University of California, Los Angeles.

J A. Popovic, Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique, Paris. 255, 574, 923

Catherine Poujol, Institut National des Langues et
J Civilisations Orientales, Paris. 222, 351, 560, 681

K.-G. Prasse, University of Copenhagen. 381
j I. Proudfoot, Australian National University,
| Canberra. 302

Nasser Rabbat, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Cambridge. 538
B. Radtke, University of Utrecht. 317
FJ. Ragep, University of Oklahoma. 752
Munibur Rahman, Oakland University, Rochester,

Michigan. 104, 114, 164, 165, 439, 599, 872
R. Rashed, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris.

429
S.A. al-Rashid, King Saud University, Riyadh. 759,

959
A.K. Reinhart, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New

Hampshire. 99, 114, 400
R.C. Repp, University of Oxford. 805
A. Rieck, University of Hamburg. 1 1 7
A. Rippin, University of Calgary. 88, 341, 359, 434,

765

Ruth Roded, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 855,

856
Fatima Roldan Castro, University of Seville. 145,

149, 242
B.A. Rosenfeld, Pennsylvania State University. 834
F. Rosenthal, Yale University. 165, 168, 348
A. Rouaud, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Paris. 72
E.K. Rowson, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

428
DJ. Roxburgh, Harvard University. 519
P.C. Sadgrove, University of Manchester. 233, 679
J. Samso, University of Barcelona. 942

F. Sanagustin, University of Lyons. 926
Paula Sanders, Rice University, Houston. 538
T. Sato, University of Tokyo. 919

Emilie Savage-Smith, University of Oxford. 356,

460
R.M. Savory, University of Toronto. 110, 137
A. Sawides, Centre for Byzantine Studies, Athens.

414, 422, 572
Ayman F. Sayyid, The Egyptian National Library,

Cairo. 916
Jennifer M. Scarce, National Museums of Scotland,

Edinburgh. 88
[J. Schacht, New York], 155, 859
A. Schippers, University of Amsterdam. 216
[O. Schirmer]. 368

G. Schoeler, University of Basel. 306, 434, 913
D. Schroeter, University of California, Irvine. 406
R. Schulze, University of Berne. 168

O. Schumann, University of Hamburg. 420, 475

P. Sebag, Paris. 639

T. Seidensticker, University of Jena. 108, 224

R. Sellheim, University of Frankfurt. 98, 399, 462

Hafedh Sethom, University of Tunis. 643

C. Shackle, University of London. 881

R. Shaham, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 354

Irfan Shah!d, Georgetown University, Washington,

DC. 192, 403, 436, 789
Maya Shatzmiller, University of Western Ontario.

475
S. von Sicard, Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. 197,

781
Mohammad Yusuf Siddiq, Islamic University, Kushtia,

Bangladesh. 541, 550, 574, 598
H.J.AJ. Smeets, University of Leiden. 574, 766
G.R. Smith, University of Manchester. 10, 107, 118,

303, 392, 430, 449, 482, 673, 815, 817, 868, 913,

960
P. Smoo

, University of Amsterdam. 172, 8

Susan A. Spectorsky, City University of New York.

30
I. Steblin-Kamensky, St. Petersburg State College. 65
F.H. Stewart, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 95, 443,

892
J. Stewart-Robinson, University of Michigan, Ann

Arbor. 55
the late Yedida K. Stillman, University of Oklahoma,

Norman. 538
W. Stoetzer, University of Leiden. 390
[M. Streck, Jena]. 641, 665, 668
G. Strohmaier, Berlin. 928
fR. Strothmann, Hamburg]. 183
Zeinab A. Taha, American University in Cairo. 4
Mohamed Talbi, University of Tunis. 101, 172,

411
W.M. Thackston, Harvard University. 517, 760, 835

F. Thiesen, University of Oslo. 236

D. Thomas, Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. 18,

375
Amin Tibi, University of Oxford. 357, 825, 916
Shawkat M. Toorawa, University of Mauritius. 103,

104, 762
Comi M. Toulabor, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Bordeaux. 558
J.L. Triaud, University of Aix-Marseilles. 575
M. Tuchscherer, University of Aix-en-Provence.

940
[V. Vacca, Rome]. 913
D.M. Varisco, Hofstra University. 147

G. Veinstein, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences
Sociales, Paris. 959

Chantal de La Veronne, Centre National de la

Recherche Scientifique, Paris. 149
C.H.M. Versteegh, University of Nijmegen. 361
Maria J. Viguera, University Complutense of Madrid.

304, 390, 739, 753
the late F. Vire, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Paris. 118, 396, 433, 510, 784

D. Waines, University of Lancaster. 115, 32, 529
[J. Walker, London]. 510

S.M. Wasserstrom, Reed College, Portland. 778

B.G. Weiss, University of Utah. 867

A. Welch, University of Victoria. 595

[A.J. Wensinck, Leiden]. 98, 119, 222, 360, 945, 952

Mary C. Wilson, University of Massachusetts,

Amherst. 887
Christine Woodhead, University of Durham. 295,

352, 450, 679, 738, 908, 920
Mohammed Yalaoui, University of Tunis. 20, 499,

500, 657, 791

E. Yarshater, Encyclopaedia Iranica, New York.
167

St. Yerasimos, Institut Francais d'Etudes Anatoliennes,

Istanbul. 539, 616, 924
Alexandra Yerolympos, Aristotelian University, Thes-

saloniki. 540
A. Zaborski, University of Cracow. 582
Elizabeth A. Zachariadou, University of Crete. 777,

867
Th. Zarcone, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique, Paris. 253, 334, 963
[K.V. Zettersteen, Uppsala]. 555
Ming Zhu, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine

and Pharmacy. 461
P. Zieme, Free University, Berlin. 715
EJ. Zurcher, University of Leiden. 418, 697

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA

VOLUME II

P. 274 a , DIHLl SULTANATE, 1. 9 from foot, add to Bibi: P. Jackson, The Delhi Sultanate, a political and
military history, Cambridge 1999.

P. 1055 a , GHAZNAWIDS, Art and monuments, 1. 12, add to Bibi: Roberta Giunta, Les inscriptions de la ville
de Gazni (Afghanistan), these de doctorat N.R., Univ. de Provence Aix-Marseille 1999, 3 vols.,
unpubl.; R. Hillenbrand, The architecture of the Ghaznavids and Ghurids, in Carole Hillenbrand (ed.),
Studies in honour of Clifford Edmund Boswotth. 2. The Sultans turret, Leiden 2000, 124-206.

P. 1104 a , GHURIDS, 1. 13, add to Bibi: Roberta Giunta, Les inscriptions de la ville de Gazni (Afghanistan), these
de doctorat N.R., Univ. de Provence Aix-Marseille 1999, 3 vols., unpubl.; R. HiUebrand, The
architecture of the Ghaznavids and Ghurids, in Carole HiUebrand (ed.), Studies in honour of Clifford Edmund
Bosworth. 2. The Sultan's turret, Leiden 2000, 124-206; P. Jackson, The fall of the Ghurid dynasty, in
ibid., 207-37.

P. 1142 a , GURGANDJ, 1. 40, add after "iv, 260 f.)": A building surviving there, on stylistic grounds attrib-
utable to the later 6th/ 12th century, is by popular local tradition considered as the tomb of the
Kh w arazm Shah Tekish b. II Arslan (567-96/1172-1200 [q.v.]), but is more probably a palace or
government building, perhaps part of a larger complex (see S. Chmelnizkij, The mausoleum of Tekesh
in Kunya Urgench, in F. Reroche et alii, Art tun I Turkish art. 10th International Congress of Turkish
Art... Geneva 17-23 September 1995, Geneva 1999, 217-23).

VOLUME III

P. 1178 b , IMRU' al-KAYS, add to Bibi: Irfan Shahid, Byzantium and Kinda, in Byzantinische Zeitschr., liii (1960),
57-73; idem, Byzantium and the Arabs in the sixth century, Washington D.C. 1995; idem, The last days
of Imru' al-Qays: Anatolia, in Issa J. Boullata and T. De Young (eds.), Tradition and modernity in Arabic
literature, Fayetville, Ark. 1997, 207-22; Sezgin, GAS, ii, 122-6, ix, 266.

VOLUME IV

P. 915 a , KHAKAN, 1. 33, and KHAN, p. 1010 b , 1. 23 from foot, add to Bibi: G. Moravcsik, Byzantino-tur-
cica, ii, Sprachreste der Turkvolker in der byzantinischen Quellen, 2 Berlin 1958, 148-9, 332-4; A.G.C.
Sawides, Some notes on the terms Khan and Khagan in Byzantine sources, in I.R. Nettorn (ed.), Studies in
honour of Clifford Edmund Bosworth. 1. Hunter of the East, Leiden 2000, 267-79.

VOLUME V

P. 71», KHURYAN-MURYAN, 1. 13 from foot, add to Bibi: G.R. Smith, The Kurk Muria Islands, 1959-

60. A footnote of British colonial history, in I.R. Netton (ed.), Studies in honour of Clifford Edmund Bosworth.

I. Hunter of the East, Leiden 2000", 280-96.
P. 707 b , LAWN, 1. 11, add to Bibi: P. Shinar, Quelques observations sur le role de la couleur bleue dans le Maghreb

traditionel, in A. Borg (ed.), The language of color in the Mediterranean, Acta Universitatis Stockholmensis,

Stockholm 1999, 175-9.
P. 724% LEO AFRICANUS, add to Bibi: D. Rauchenberger, Johannes Leo der Afrikaner. Seine Beschreibung des

Raumes zwischen Ml und Niger nach dem Urtext, Wiesbaden 1999.
P. 1134 b , MADRAS A. I, add to Bibi.: Nicole Grandin and M. Gaborieau (eds.), Madrasa. La transmission du

savoir dans k monde musulman, Paris 1997.

VOLUME VII

P. 506 b , MUKARNAS, add to Bibi: W. Heinrichs, The etymology of Muqamas: some observations, in Asma
Afsaruddin and A.H.M. Zahniser (eds.), Humanism, culture, and language in the Near East. Studies in
honor of Georg Krotkoff Winona, Ind. 1997, 175-84.

VOLUME VIII

P. 67 a , NIZAK, TARKHAN, add to Bibi.: Emel Esin, Tarkhan Nlzak or Tarkhan Tirek? An enquiry concerning

the prince of Badhghis who in A.H. 91/A.D. 709-710 opposed the 'Omayyad conquest of Central Asia, in

JAOS, xcvii (1977), 323-31.

VOLUME IX

P. 7 b , al-SAN'ANI, 'ABD al-RAZZAK, 1. 13 from the foot, after tafsir, add: ed. Mustafa Muslim

Muhammad, 4 vols., Riyad 1989, and ed. 'Abd al-Mu'ti Amln Kal'adjI, 2 vols., Beirut 1991.

P. 84 a , SATIH b. RABI'A, 1. 24 from bottom, for spitting in their months, read spitting in their mouths

P., 118 b , SAYYID KUTB, add to Bibi: Sayyid Kutb's articles containing social criticism, published in peri-
odicals during the Second World War, have been collected and edited, with an elaborate introd.
by A. Roussillon: Sayyid Kutb, al-Muajtama' al-Misn. Djudhuruhu wa-afakuhu, i'dad wa-takdim Alan
Rusijun, Cairo 1994, p. 388. '

P. 174% SHADHILIYYA, 1. 10, for Yashruti (d. 1891), read Yashruti (d. 1899)

P. 377 b , SHAWK, add to Bibi: Nasr Allah Purdjawadi, Shawk-i didar, in Nashr-i Danish, Tehran, xiv/4
(1994); idern^ Kibla-yi shawk, in ibid., xiv (1994).

P. 378 a , AL-SHAWKANI, add to Bibi: Husayn 'Abd Allah al-'Amn, al-Imam al-Shawkdm, ra'id 'asrihi. Dirasa
ft fikhihi wa-fkrihi, Damascus 1410/1990; idem, art. Muhammad b. 'All al-Shawkdm {1760-1834), in
al-Mawsu'a al-yamaniyya, Beirut-San'a 1 1412/1992, ii, 828-9; B. Haykel, Al-Shawkani and the jurispru-
dential unity of Yemen, in RMMM, lxvii (1993), 53-65, with bibi. and references.

P. 462 a , SHI'R. 1 (a), add to Bibi: Renate Jacobi, Studien zur altarabischen Qaside, Wiesbaden 1971; eadem,

XVII ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA

Lhchtung und Luge in der aiabischen Literaturtheone, in hi, xhx (1972), 85-99; eadem, Ibn al-Mu'tazz:
Dair 'Abdun, a structural analysts, in JAL, \i (1975;, 35-56, eadem. The Camel-section of the panegyrical
ode, in ibid, \m (1982), 1-22, eadem, Neue Forschungen zur altarabuchen Qaside, in BiOr, xl (1983), 5-
16, eadem. Die Anfange der arabischen Gazalpoesie Abu Du'aib al-Hudali, in 1st., lxi (1984), 218-50;
eadem, Tune and riahtv in Nasib and Ghazal, in JAL, \\i (1985), 1-17, eadem, The Khayal motif in
early Arabic poetry, in Oruns, xx\n (1990), 50-64, eadem, Altarabische Topoi in der Abbasidendichtung. ^ur
Techmk und Funktion der " Verfremdung" , in M Forstner fed), Festgabe fur Hans-Robert Singer, Frankfurt
1991, n, 757-71, eadem. Theme and variations m Umayyad Ghazal poetry, in JAL, xxiii (1992), 109-19;
eadem, Und der Lagerplatz ruft Wo ist Labid' Interpretation einer Luzumlya, in Alma Giese and J.Chr.
Burial (eds ), Got/ i\t schon und Er liebt die Schonheit Festschrift fur Annemane Schimmel, Bern 1994, 291-
303, eadem, Z 1 " Gazalpoesie des Watid ibn lazld, in W Heinnchs and G Schoeler (eds.), Festschrift
Ewald Wagner zum 65 Geburtstag, u, Studien zu arabischen Dichtung, Beirut 1994, 145-61; eadem, Von
der Uammesduhtung zur Hofdhhtung Probteme des Mohimandels m der jruhen arabischen Literatur, in Ibn an-
Nadim und die mittelalterltche arabische Literatur Beitrage zum I Johann Uithelm Fiick-Kolloquium (Halle
1987), Wiesbaden 1996, 103-10, eadem, Al-Khayalant—a larmtion of the khayal motif in JAL, xxvii
(1996), 2-12, eadem. The origins of the Qasida form, in S Sperl and C Shackle (eds.), Qasida poetry
in Islamic Asia and Africa, i. Classical traditions and modem meanings, Leiden 1996, 21-34; Irfan Shahid,
The authenticity of pre-Islamu poetry the linguistic dimension, in al Abhath, \h\ (1996), 3-29.

VOLUME X

P. 18 b , al-TABARI, add to Bibl J -M Gaudeul, Riposte aux Chretiens par 'Ali Al-Tabari, Rome 1995 (French

tr of al-Radd 'aid 1-Nasdra)

P. 32 b , TABKH, add to Bibl Th Bianquis, Une ense frumentaire dam 1'Egypte fatimide, in J ESHO, xxiii (1978),

67-101, J CI Da\id, La cuisine, manger a Damas, dans Damas, miroir bnse d'un Orient arabe, Paris 1993,
226-39

P. 70 b , TADJNIS, add to Bibl M Grunert, Die Begriffsverstarkung dutch das Ehmon im iltarabisehen, in Sb

hais Akad d Wiss Wien, Philos -hist A7, cxx\, \, Vienna 1892, H Reckendorf Lber Paronomasie in
den semitischen Spraehen, Giessen 1909, H Kindermann, Uber das Ehmologisieren und das Denken in
Bildem im Arabischen, in WO, n (1959), 528-30

P. 83 a , TAFILALT, add to Bibl H Peies, Les relations entre le Tafilalt it le Soudan a haters le Sahara du XII

au XIV smle, in Melanges de geographic et d'onentahsme offerts a EF Gautier Tours 1937, J Margat
Donnees sur I'habitat du Tafilalt Contribution a I'etude demographique des palmeraus du sud maroiain in Notes
marocaines, Rabat, no 11-12 (1959), A Zerhouim, Maitrtse des eaux dans le penmelre du Tafilalt in
Hommes, terres et earn, Rabat, no 42 (1981), D Jacques-Meume, Le \Iaroc sahanen des engines a 1670
Pans 1982, G S Colin, Un voyage au Tafilalt en 1787, in Revue de la Geogr du \Iaroc Jan 1984),
M. Boubekraoui and C. Carcemal, Le Tafilalt aujourd'hui. Regression aolution et societe dune palmoau
du sud marocain, in Revue Geogr. Pyrenees et Sud-ouest, no. 47 (1986) 449-63 L Mezzine Lt Tafilalt
Contribution a t'histoire du Maroc aux XVII' et XVIII' siecles, Pubis, de la Faculte des Lettres de 1 Unn
de Rabat, Rabat 1987.

P. 136% TAKIYYA, add to Bibl.: E. Kohlberg, Taqiyya in Shi'i theology and religion in H G kippenberg and
G.G. Stroumsa (eds.), Secrecy and concealment. Studies in the history of Mediterranean and Near Eastern nil
gions, Leiden 1995, 345-80 (provides excellent survey of both sources and secondary literature)

P. 151 a , TALAT b. RUZZIK, add to Bibl.: See also Tala'i' b. Ruzzfk, Druan alua^ir Tala'i' al Malik al
Salih, ed. A.A. Badawi, Cairo 1958, ed. M.H. al-Amim, Nadjaf 1964 SB Dado V an The Fatimid
Armenians. Cultural and political interaction in the Near East, Leiden 1997 (for Tala'i' s Nusavnsm)

P. 176\ TA'MIM, 1. 1, for milli, kardan read milti kardan.

P. 290 b , TA'RJKH. 2. In Persian, 1. 9 from foot, add to Bibl: C.E. Bosworth The Persian contribution to
Islamic historiography in the pre-Mongol period, in R.G. Hovannissian and G Sabbagh (eds ) The Persian
presence in the Islamic world, Thirteenth Giorgio Levi Delia Vida Biennial Conference 1991 m honor of Ehsan
Yarshater, Cambridge 1998, 218-36; Julie Scott Meisami, Why write history in Persian? Historical Writing
in the Samanid period, in Carole Hillenbrand (ed.), Studies in honour of Clifford Edmund Bosuorth 2 The
Sultan'sjurret, Leiden 1999, 348-74.

P. 360 b , TASNIM, add at end of article: For the opposition between Fatimid Shi 'is and Shafi'is from Damascus
on the tasnim of tombs, see Th. Bianquis, Damas et la Syrie sous la domination fatimide n Damascus
1989, 627.

P. 378% TAWAKKUL, 1. 19, add to Bibl.: L. Lewisohn, The way of Tawakkul The ideal of Trust in God
in classical Persian Sufism, in IC, lxxiii/2 (1999), 27-62.

P. 376", TAWAF, 1. -9, for keeping the Ka'ba on the right at all times, read for keeping the Ka'ba on
the left at all times;

P. 435 a , al-THA'LABIYYA, 1. 7, after al-MukaddasI add Yakut, Buldan, vi, 53 et passim.

1. 10, before Today, add the sentence Many incidents which took place from the lst/7th to 6th/ 12th
centuries are recorded by Ibn al-Athlr, al-Kamd; Fihnst, 440.

P. 435 a , THALLADT, 1. -3 from bottom, after cf. add Musabbihl, Akhbar Mm, ed. Savyid-Bianquis, Cairo
1978, 68;

P. 436 b , THAMUD, replace 2nd paragraph, 11. 9-21, with: As the following article thamudic shows, the term
"Thamudic" is a purely comentional one, actually a misnomer, and has no demonstrable con-
nection with the historical tribe of Thamud; nor is there any evidence that the various scripts
described as "Thamudic" are derived from Sabaic rather than their being parallel developments.

P. 461 b , al-TIBRIZI, 11. 15-17, in place of what is umttm in the text, read 458/1065), and in Sur [q.v.] or
Tyre, Sula>m b. Ayyub al-Razi (d. 447/1055), who as a philologist had specialised in hadith, tafiu,
and above all Shafi'I law.

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA XVIII

P. 547% TIRMIDHl, add to Bibb. B. FurQzanfar (ed.), Ma'arif. Madjmu'a-yi mawa'iz wa kalimati-i Sayyid Burhan
al-Din Muhakkik-i Tirmidhi, 2 Tehran 1377.

P. 547 b , TiRNOWA, 1. 28 from foot, for At some point in the later 15th century, the Kawak Baba lekke
had been established round the former church of the Forty Martyrs by a wakf read According to
the latest evidence, the church of the Forty Martyrs was converted into the Kawak Baba tekke
after the conquest of Tirnowa. Recent studies prove that the Kawak Baba tekke, with an 'imaret
and a medrese, belonged to the wakf of Bayazid I. The tekke was established there towards the end
of the 17th or at the beginning of the 18th century, when the church was abandoned,

P. 567 b , TOPKAPI SARAYI, 1. -8, for Mehemmed III, read Mehemmed IV

P. 568 a , 1. 33, 'for Mehemmed III, read Mehemmed IV

P. 914 b , 'USHAK, add to BibL, H. Inalcik, The Yuruks: their origins, expansion and economic role, in Oriental Carpet
and Textile Studies, ii (1986), 39-66.

SUPPLEMENT

P. 411 a , ILAK, 1. 51, add In the later 4th/10th century and early 5th/llth centuries, the dihkans of Dak
took the side of the incoming Karakhanids [see ilek-khans] against their Samanid overlords. It
now seems possible to place the fulus minted during this period, going up to 403/1012-13, as
emanating from three apparently successive dihkans. See M. Fedorov, A rare fals of AH 401 struck
at Ildq (new data about the "Dihqdns of Ilaq" dynasty), in Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter, n°. 162
(winter 2000), 11-13.

TA' and TA', the third and sixteenth letters
of the Arabic alphabet, with the numerical val-
ues in the abdjad system of 400 and 9 respectively.
In the modern standard pronunciation, the former
represents a voiceless, slightly aspirated, dental (or
dento-alveolar) stop; the latter a voiceless, unaspirated,
dental (dento-alveolar) stop with simultaneous velari-
sation, i.e. with the back of the tongue lifted towards
the soft palate. Slbawayh and his successors classify
ta" as madjhur, which most modem scholars have under-
stood to mean "voiced" [see huruf al-hidja' and the
references cited there], but the evidence of modem
Arabic dialects and of the other Semitic languages
seems hardly reconcilable with the alleged voiced
articulation of ta'. It is true that in a large area of
central Yemen, including San'a', the reflex of clas-
sical ta' is in fact realised as a voiced [d] in pre- and
inter-vocalic positions, but in many of these dialects
ta' is also voiced in the same positions (see P. Behnstedt,
Die nordjemenitischen Diakkte. Teil 1. Atlas, Wiesbaden
1985, 13 and Karte 6). Thus the Yemenite evidence
does not really support the supposedly ancient voiced
realisation specifically for "emphatic" ta'.

In words of Greek or Latin origin which entered
Arabic via Aramaic original [t] is normally repre-
sented by ta'; this continues the scribal practice in
Aramaic, where the letter taw represents the (origi-
nally aspirated, later fricative) Greek 0, while the let-
ter teth is reserved for the Greek (unaspirated) z.
Similarly in borrowings from Iranian languages, orig-
inal [t] is very often represented by ta' in Arabic (e.g.
in place-names like Tabaristan, Tus, Istakhr), possi-
bly suggesting that in early New Persian [t] was still
(as in Old Iranian) unaspirated. However, in modern
Persian [t] is pronounced almost exactly like Arabic
[t] , i.e. with some degree of aspiration, and when the
Persians began to write their own language in Arabic
script they consistently used ta' for their [t], restrict-
ing ta' to words borrowed from Arabic.

Turkic languages, when written in Arabic script,
generally use ta' for the more or less palatalised [t]
occurring in the vicinity of front vowels and ta' for
the same phoneme next to back vowels. Urdu uses
ta' for its voiceless, unaspirated dental [t] and puts
(at least in the modem orthography) a miniaturised
ta' over the letters ra', dal and unpointed ta' to indi-
cate the Indian retroflex consonants [f], [d] and [t];
ordinary ta' is used (as in Persian) only in Arabic
words and is not distinguished from ta' in pronunci-

Bibliography: W.H.T. Gairdner, The phonetics of
Arabic, London 1925; J. Cantineau, Cours de phone-
tique arabe, in Etudes in linguistique arabe. Memorial Jean
Cantineau, Paris 1960, 31 ft".; H. Fleisch, Traite de
pkilologie arabe, i, Beirut 1961, 57 ff.; A. Roman,
Etude de la pkonologie et de la morphologic de la koine

arabe, Aix-en-Provence 1983, i, 155 ff., 254-6, 311-

13, ii, 604 ff.; T.F. Mitchell, Pronouncing Arabic, i,

Oxford 1990, 33-45. (F.C. de Blois)

TA-HA, two isolated letters at the head of sura XX

in the Kur'an. It has been proposed to explain them

as an abbreviation, either of an imperative (from the

root w-t-'; al-Hasan al-Basn) or from a proper name

(Talha; Abu Hurayra), meaning the Companion of the

Prophet, who supplied this sura to the first compilers

of the Kur'an.

The important thing to note is that Muslim tradi-
tion since the 3rd/9th century has made Ta-Ha one
of the names of the Prophet, and as a result, to this
day we find boys in Egypt and 'Irak given the name
Muhammad Ta-Ha. From the 4th/ 10th century, mys-
tics unanimously see in Ta-Ha the purity (tahara) and
rectitude (ihtida') of the heart of the Prophet. Such
are in djafr [q.v.] the classical meanings of the two

On the other hand, the two letters ta-sin (found at
the head of sura XXVII), following the methods of
djafr which sees in them abbreviations of tahara + sana,
have been taken by certain early mystics to designate
Iblis, whose monotheistic preaching among the angels
was parallel with the monotheistic mission of Ta-Ha
(= Muhammad) among men (see al-Halladj, Tasin al-
azal. In this connection, it may be asked whether ta-
sin was not formed by the inversion of sht-tan and
this after the year 309/922, date of the death of al-
Halladj, for numerically ta + sin = 300 + 9).

The personal name, reduced to Taha, has not ac-
quired a comparatively frequent usage in the Islamic
lands. This is particularly seen in the name of the
famous Egyptian man of letters and politics, Taha
Husayn [q.v.].

Bibliography. MaydanI, s.v. rudda min taha ila
bismillah; Baklr, Tqfsir, Cawnpore 1883, ii, 18-19 (tr.
in Massignon, Essai sur les origines du lexique technique
de la mystique musulmane 2 , Paris 1954, 99, and idem,
La passion d'al Halldj, Paris 1922, 884, n. 1); ibid.,
Eng. tr. H. Mason; Raghib Pasha, Saflna, Cairo
1282, 395; Noldeke-Schwally, Geschichte des Qorans,
ii,_70-9. (L. Massignon)

TA'A (a., pi. ta'at), a term of the theological
vocabulary for an act of obedience to God,
contrasted with ma'siya, pi. ma'asi, act of disobedience
to God, hence sin. The two terms represent respec-
tively good and bad actions, but add, or substitute
for, these purely moral ideas the religious concept of
conformity or non-conformity to the divine Law.

Ta'a

a Kur'a

ally called salihat, or much more rarely, hasana, pi.
hasanat (see V\, 160; XI, 114; XXV, 70; XXVII, 89;
XXVIII, 84). On the other hand, the verb ata'a "to
obey", is very common (74 attestations), and in 31
instances it involves, in effect, obedience to God; but

- TA'ABBATA SHARRAN

one should note that this obedience to God, when
expressly formulated, is always linked with obedience
to the Prophet (see III, 32, 132; IV, 13, 59, 69, 80;
V, 92; VIII, 1, 20, 46; etc.). In seven cases, it is a
question of obeying tout court, without further preci-
sion (II, 285; IV, 46; V, 7; XXIV, 47, 51; XLVIII,
16; LXIV, 16), and, once, obedience involves only
the Prophet (XXTV, 56). It is not, however, the same
with the verb 'asa "to disobey", for which there are
seven mentions, in various ways, of disobedience to
God alone (VI, 15; X, 15; XI, 63; XIX, 44; XX,
121; XXXIX, 13; LXVI, 6). One should neverthe-
less mention that the noun ma'siya, which appears in
a unique passage (LVIII, 8-9), figures only in the
expression ma'siyat al-rasul.

In Hadith, so far as one can judge, obedience to
God is expressed exclusively in the explicit formula
ta'at Allah, with the plural never found. On the other
hand, the pi. ma'asi is already used, in an absolute
form, for sinful actions (see e.g. al-Bukhari, buyu', 2;
tafsir sura II, 47).

It would indeed be futile to claim to be able to
say at exactly what moment the usage of ta'a and
ma'siya, used absolutely, for good and bad actions,
came to be employed. One can only say that, in the
theological writings which are presumed to be the
oldest (end of the 1st century A.H.), this usage seems
to be already firmly established (thus in the Risdla
attributed to al-Hasan al-Basn, ed. Ritter, in Isi, xxi
[1933], 74,11.6-7, 76,11. 7-20, 78,1.5; in that attrib-
uted to the caliph 'Umar II, ed. J. van Ess, in his
Anfdnge muslimischer Theologie, Beirut 1977, §§ 14-16).

On the exact meaning of ta'a, Sunm and Mu'tazili
theologians were opposed, as a corollary of the debate
which divided them on the crucial question whether
God willed the evil actions of men or not. For the
Mu'tazilis, God — by the fact of His justice — only wills
men's good acts. He wills neither their unbelief nor
their sins. In other words, there is no difference
between what God wills and what He ordains, and
to obey Him is thus the equivalent of conforming to
His will. For the Sunn! theologians, on the contrary,
God — from the fact of His all-powerfulr
sarily wills everything which exists, including
evil acts. Hence there cannot be in
an equivalence between His will and His order; to obey
Him is to do what He ordains, and not necessarily
to do what He wills. On this question, see 'Abd al-
Djabbar, Mughni, vi/a, 39, 11. 17 ff.; Ps. 'Abd al-Djabbar,
Shark al-usul al-khamsa, Cairo 1965, 457, 11. 16 ff.; Ibn
Furak, Muajarrad makalat al-Ash'afi, Beirut 1987, 70,
11. 20-3, 157, 11. 12-18; al-Baghdadl, Fark, ed. 'Abd al-
Hamld, Cairo n.d., 183, 11. 4-11; D. Gimaret, in SI,
xli (1975), 69-71; idem, La doctrine d'al-Ash'ari, Paris
1990, 298-9.

Another question, connected with the foregoing, is
that of knowing whether every act of obedience to
God only merits being called thus if it is an act of
conscious obedience to a divine order known as such.
Certain theologians — admittedly a very small minor-
ity — held that the answer was no, and admitted (at
the time when there is, objectively, a coincidence
between the act and such-and-such divine prescrip-
tion) the existence of "acts of obedience in which God
is not intended" (ta'at la yuradu biha Allah): thus the
Mu'tazilr Abu '1-Hudhayl [q.v.] and certain Ibadis (see
Gimaret-Monnot, Lime des religions et des seeks, i, Paris
1986, 409, 411). Most of the Mu'tazila rejected this
thesis (see al-Ash'arl, Makalat, 2nd ed. Ritter, 429,
11. 12 ff.). For his part, al-Baghdadr affirms that, in the
eyes of the Sunms, there is only one solitary case of

unintentional obedience to God, sc. when a man who
does not yet have knowledge of God uses reason-
ing power (al-nazar wa 'l-istidlal) which leads him to
this (Fark, 126, 11. 1-7; Usui al-dln, Istanbul 1928, 267,
11. 6-10).

According to 'Abd al-Djabbar, ta'a can be said of
every act willed by God (in the Mu'tazili sense of
the expression), by which he means it to be under-
stood as either an obligatory act (wadjib) or a recom-
mended one (nadb). It cannot be said of an act simply
permitted (mubah) (Mughni, vi/a, 39, 11. 12-14). Al-
Baghdadl is more explicit, and distinguishes four cate-
gories of ta'a: (1) the most important is faith, which
will vouchsafe to the believer entry to Paradise; (2)
the affirmation of faith bi 'l-lisan, which will enable
him to enjoy all the privileges reserved for Muslims
in this present life; (3) involves performing all oblig-
atory acts and eschewing grave faults, which will
preserve him from Hell; and (4) the practice of
supererogatory acts (nawqfil), which will guarantee him
an extra reward in Paradise (Usui al-din, 268, 11. 3-12).
Bibliography: Given in the article.

(D. Gimaret)

TA'ABBATA SHARRAN, the nickname of the
pre-Islamic su'luk poet Thabit b. Djabir b. Sufyan
of the Banu Sa'd b. Fahm (of the group Kays 'Aylan,
see Ibn Hablb, Alkab, 307). The traditions which have
attempted to explain this nickname ("he carried an
evil under his arm") should not be taken at face value;
the evil that was carried round by this very young
man possessed a legendary significance, whether it
concerned snakes, a sabre or a ghul [q.v.]. This name
was intended to convey a particular image of a poet
dominated by an inborn tendency to cause nuisance
as well as to suggest the presence of an unconquer-
able determinism.

There are details in his biography which could well
pass for authentic, but they are mixed with "traditions"
(or rather literary episodes) which attempt to illustrate
or enhance the essential themes of his poems. These
narratives seem to have taken shape from the 2nd/8th
century onwards. Muhammad b. Hablb (d. 245/859)
speaks about numerous extraordinary stories connected
with the raids he made, but he declines to report
them (al-Muhabbar, 196); al-Baghdadi (Khizanat, i, 138)
speaks of numerous stories which remain perplexing
because of their fantastical nature. In this list are
recorded his encounters and victorious batdes with
the ghul (Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 175, a theme which is
found again in 'Ubayd b. Ayyub al-'Anban, a su'luk
of the Umayyad period, see Husayn 'Atwan, al-Shu'ara'
al-sa'dUkfi 'l-'asr al-islami, Beirut 1407/1987, 155-7),
his legendary speed, and his effectiveness in handling
weapons and in the art of making raids. Similarly,
the whole account accompanying the poem by Abu
Kabir al-Hudhali in al-Tibrizi (al-Hamasa, Bonn 1828,
41-4) aims to illustrate the mutual hatred between
Ta'abbata Sharran and the Hudhalls, who were re-
sponsible for the death of the poet (see below).

The more authentic biographical details indicate
that the poet possessed a good lineage; his mother
was an Arab of the Banu Kayn (Fahm); one of his
sisters, Umayya, was married to Nawfal b. Asad b.
'Abd al-'Uzza (of Kuraysh), and she bore him a son
'Adi b. Nawfal (Ibn Hazm, Qamharat ansdb al-'Arab,
Cairo 1382/1962, 120)! It is also known that he mar-
ried a woman of the Banu Kilab.

Ta'abbata Sharran was a brigand, but despite his
activities, just like 'Urwa b. al-Ward [q.v.], he was
one of the very few sa'aUk al-'Arab who managed to
remain integrated within his own tribe. Thus he never

TA'ABBATA SHARRAN — TA'ADDI

suffered the reproaches of thai' (repudiation by the
tribe) and was never recorded as being called a khali'.
His band of men seem also to have belonged to the
Fahm: his alleged maternal nephew al-Shanfara, 'Amir
b. al-Akhnas, al-Musayyab b. Kilab, Murra b. Khulayf.
Sa'd b. al-Ashras and 'Amr b. Barrak.

His incursions seem to have been directed in the
main against the BadjTla, from whom he helped him-
self to camels and sheep (jghanam), against the Hudhayl
and the Azd, as in the episode of an escape helped
by honey which he poured on to the slope of a moun-
tain, and down which he was then able to slide to
safety, and against the Khath'am.

Brigands and their booty used to find refuge in the
Sarat mountains, escaping pursuit by the clans they
had raided. He met his death pierced in the heart
by the arrows of a mere youth (duwayn al-hilm) of the
Banu Hudhayl. His mortal remains were thrown to
the bottom of the cave of al-Rakhman (for the nar-
rative detail see Ibn Hablb, MughtaKn, 215). He was
mourned by his sister Umayya or Rayta and his
mother (Sezgin, GAS, ii, 139).

The latter paints a very engaging portrait in a
famous threnody of the perfect Djahili hero who was
also a careful and perceptive leader of his men. Because
of his attentive care, he was eulogised as umm al-'iyal,
mother of the hearth and home (al-Tibrfzi, 523), and
also as 'ayr al-'ana, the wild ass who has a herd of
females (ibid., 526), because of his courage and relent-
less intransigence.

There were two chains of scholars who specialised
in transmitting the poetry of Ta'abbata Sharran: 1.
Abu 'Amr al-Shaybani (d. 206 AH) >'lbn Habib >
al-Sukkarl; 2. al-Mufaddal al-DabbT > Ibn al-A'rabT.
A good part of the poet's work is said to have been
cited in al-Durra al-fakhira (al-Baghdadr, Khizdna, iii,
344). This transmission was actually a little later than
Khalaf al-Ahmar (d. 180/821-2). It has been suggested
that it is legitimate to have a certain distrust towards
this poetry (238 verses divided into 32 fragments and
pieces), and some caution should be observed con-
cerning Khalaf, one of the grand masters in the art
of forgery.

However, this poetry reflects in an exemplary fashion
the usual ideas of the life of the su'luk. The work of
Ta'abbata Sharran expresses the fierce claims of the
"me", and a no less absolute contesting against col-
lectivity, against the "us". Typical terms used in pre-
Islamic poetry such as kawm, hayy, kabtla, kabil and
the pronouns of the first person plural are totally
absent from these texts; more precisely he uses them
to describe his enemies and those he attacks and pil-
lages. Nevertheless, these texts fit naturally into the
three parameters of all poetry of the su'luk type [see
su'luk]: the apologetic, the lyric and the therapeutic
parameters, and can be divided thus:

1. apologetic parameter (Yusuf ShukrT Farhat,
Diwan Ta'abbata Sharran, in Diwan al-sa'alik, Beirut
1413/1992, nos. I, II, VI, IX, X, XII, XIII, XV,

xvi, xx, xxi, xxii, xxrv, xxv, xxvi, xxvn,

XXVIII, XXLX, XXX, XXXI);

2. lyric parameter: (nos. VII, VIII, XII, XVIII,
XIX, XXV);

3. therapeutic parameter: (nos. Ill, V, XI, XII,
XVI, XVII, XVIII, XXV, XXIX).

The most beautiful piece is the kafiyya (al-Mufad-
daliyyat, no. 1; Diwan, no. XVIII). Gabrieli, however,
considers it an accumulation of heterogeneous verses.
According to him, it creates the impression of a mosaic
of which the pieces have been arbitrarily collected by
later rhapsodists (F. Gabrieli, Ta'abbata Sharran, Shanfara,

Khalaf al-Ahmar, in Atti della Accademia Nazionale da Lined,
8th series [1946], i, 49-50).

Goethe translated the lamiyya of the brigand poet
into verse in 1819 (Goethes Werke, ii, Gedichte und Epen,
Hamburg 1952, 130-3), using Freytag's Latin transla-
tion. After carrying out a study of the structure of
the poem, in which he detected a profound order
and harmony, the great German artist concluded in
his analysis that this bare style reflected the serious
element of the work. After a careful reading of the
text, he wrote, the event unfolded to the smallest de-
tail before the eyes of our imagination (ibid., 133-4).
(Lyall, however, thought that Goethe's interpretations

Bibliography: Zubayn, K. Nasab Kuraysh, Cairo
1982, 209; Muhammad b. Habfb, K. al-Muhabbar,
Haydarabad 1361/1942, 192, 196-7, 200; idem,
K. Asma' al-mughtaUn min al-ashraffi 'l-Djdhiliyya wa
'l-hlam, in Nawadir al-makhtutat, vi, Cairo 1393/1973,
215-7; idem, K. Kuna al-Shu'ara', in ibid, 292;
Sukkarl, K. Sharh ash'ar al-Hudhaliyyin, Cairo 1384/
1965, 239, 595, 844, 847, 1240; Tibrizi, Sharh U-
tiyarat al-Mufaddal, Damascus 1391/1971, 93-140,
523, 526, 1482; Ibn Kutayba, al-SM'r wa-'l-shu'ara',
Leiden 1904, 174-7, 422-5, 437; Abu '1-Faradj al-
Isfahani, al-Aghani\ xviii, 209-18; Hisham Ibn al-
Kalbi, Nasab Ma'add wa 'l-Taman al-kabir, Beirut
1408/1988, 555; 'Abd al-Kadir al-Baghdadr, Khiza-
nat al-adab, Cairo 1406/1986, i, 134, 137-9, 201,
iii, 344, 345, vi, 177, vii, 4, 487, 502-3, 506-7, viii,
194-7, 219, 356; Ibn Sa'Id al-Andalusi, Nastwat al-
tarabji ta'rikh Djahiliyyat al-'Arab, 'Amman 1982, ii,
587-90, 790; al-Sharlf al-Murtada, Amali al-Murtada,
Cairo 1387/1967, i, 280, ii, 72, 176-7, 185; Sulay-
man b. 'Abd al-Kawr al-Tuff, Mawa'id al-hays ft
fawd'id Imri' al-Kays, 'Amman 1414/1994, 164, 166,
216; Nallino, La literature arabe, Paris 1950, 40,41,
144, 185; Blachere, HLA, ii, 286, 413; Sezgin, GAS,
ii, 137-9; Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych, The mute
immortals speak, Ithaca 1993, 87-118; A. Arazi, La
realite et la fiction dans la poesie arabe ancienne, Paris
1989, 51-2, 83; Yusuf Khulayf, al-Shu'ara' al-sa'alik
fi 'l-'asr al-djahiR, Cairo 1959, 34-9, 41-3, 46-8, 50-
5, 75-6, 80-4, 111-13, 158, 160, 162-3, 171, 174-5,
182, 186-7, 191-3, 195, 201, 204-9, 215, 222-3, 227,
231-2, 238-40, 245, 259-60, 265, 294-5, 305, 307;
Salman al-Karaghuli and Djabir Ta'ban, SMi'r Ta'ab-
bata Sharran, Baghdad 1973; Nasir al-Dln al-Asad,
Masadir al-shi'r al-gjdhili wa-kimatuha al-ta' nkhiyya,
Cairo, 1956, 452-3, 458-62; 'Abd al-Hahm Hifni,
Shi'r al-sa'alik manhadjuhu wa-khasd'isvhu, Cairo 1987,
60, 64, 69, 92, 113-14, 194, 212-5, 232-4, 243,
244, 260, 269; Ibrahrm al-Nadjdjar, Madfma' al-
dtakira, i, Thakafat al-badiya wa-masalikuha, Tunis
1987, 41-55, 63-75; Mayy Yusuf Khulayf, al-Kasxda
al-d}ahiliyya ft 'l-Mufaddaliyyat, Cairo 1989, 113-18.

(A. Arazi)
TA'ADDI (a., masdar of the form V verb), literally
"act of going beyond, passing over... to", a term
of Arabic grammar denoting transitivity; the
related form ta'diya is also found.

The term is understood in terms of the syntactic
effect of the transitive verb which goes beyond and
passes over the agent to fall on the direct object
(Levin, 1979). In that sense, the verb is considered
an operator which governs the syntactic inflections of
the agent and the direct object. Verbs such as kana
("to be"), lanna ("to suppose"), which is a verb that
introduces what were originally the subject and pred-
icate of a nominal sentence and keeps them in the
now verbal proposition as its objects, and daraba ("to

TA'ADDl — TA'AM

hit") which is a transitive real verb — are each called
muta'add™ by all Arab grammarians. By definition,
muta'add" verbs cause the agents to be in the nomi-
native and the verb complements to be in the accu-
sative. The term muta'add™ is therefore subsumed under
the concept of 'amal or government.

Arab grammarians regarded the morphological pat-
terns of verbs as essential in determining verb tran-
sitivity. Therefore, the patterns were always related to
the concepts of ta'addl. However, the emphasis on how
much the morphology of the verb could be the deter-
mining element of its transitivity or intransitivity
decreased significantly by the 4th/ 10th century espe-
cially with the writing of Ibn al-Sarradj's al- Usui ft
'l-nahw. Ibn al-Sarradj (d. 316/928) gave more empha-
sis to the meaning denoted by the verb over the
meaning denoted by the morphological pattern (Bohas
and Guillaume, 1990).

Starting with the work of al-Mubarrad (d. 285/898
[q.v.]) and continuing very clearly in the work of Ibn
al-Sarradj, the use of the word muta'add" as a tech-
nical, structural term was based on purely syntactic
processes. These processes concerned case inflections
not only on the verb's agent and direct object, but
also on all the other accusative complements used
with the verb. In this manner, ta'addl reflected the
verb's power to govern the nouns surrounding it.

On the other hand, al-Mubarrad introduced the
term wasil ("reaching") which Ibn al-Sarradj later used
consistendy to refer to a different level of interaction
between the action denoted by the verb, the doer,
and the semantic object. This interaction covers the
semantic side of verb transitivity which the structural
term ta'addl does not (Taha, 1995).

Bibliography: A. Levin, Ta'adda '1-fi'l ila in
Sibawayhi's al-Kitab, in Studia orientalia D.H. Baneth
dicata, Jerusalem 1979, 195-210; G. Bohas and
S. Guillaume, The Arabic linguistic tradition, London
and New York 1991; Z. Taha, Transitivity and gram-
matical connections, a comparative study of Sibawayhi, al-
Mubarrad, and Ibn al-Sarraj, Ph.D. diss., Georgetown
Univ., Washington D.C. 1995, unpubl.

(Zeinab A. Taha)
TA'A DTDIU B (a.), lit. "amazement", a term of
rhetoric. Though sometimes given a separate place
in lists of badi' [q.v.], as in RadQyam's [q.v.] Tarqjumdn
al-bakigha or Rashid al-Dm Watwat's [q.v.] Hada'ik al-
sihr, it is far more often mentioned, in more general
discussions of poetry, as one of the basic effects or
aims of the poetic process, especially of imagery. It
is found, together with its active counterpart ta'ajlb
("causing amazement") in the Aristotelian tradition
(Ibn Slna, Hazim al-Kartadjannl [q.w.]) and, in a some-
what different sense, in the poetics of 'Abd al-Kahir
al-Djurdjam [q.v.]. This "amazement", which is in fact
usually "feigned amazement", is related to concepts
such as igtrab or istighrab "[evoking] wonder", found
in works of poetics since Kudama b. Dja'far [q.v.],
and lies at the basis of the common figure of badi'
called taajahul al-'arif "feigned ignorance".

Bibliography: G. Schoeler, Einige Grundprobkme
da autochthonen und der aristotelischen arabischen Litera-
turtheork, Wiesbaden 1975, index s.v. ta'gib; W. Hein-
richs, Arabische Dichtung und griechische Poetik, Beirut
1969, index s.v. ta'gib; M. Ajami, 77k alchemy of glory,
Washington 1988, index s.w. ta'ajjub and ta'jib. For
'Abd al-Kahir, see e.g. his Asrar al-baldgha, Istanbul
1954 (in brackets, the pagination of Ritter's trans-
lation, Die Geheimnisse der Wortkunst, Wiesbaden 1959),
115-16 (144-5), 121 (150), 281-4 (327-32), 317 (369).
(GJ.H. van Gelder)

TA'A'ISHA, one of a series of Arabic-speak-
ing ethnic groups collectively called Bakkara [q.v.]
"catde people", who live in the Sudan Republic across
the southern Gezira, Kordofan [q.v.], Dar Fur [q.v.]
and eastern Chad. The Ta'a'isha tribal home is in
the far southwest of Dar Fur, neighbouring on the
east the Habbaniyya, with whom they are closely
linked. Little is known of the history of the Bakkara;
nor can much be said about how and when the
present groupings emerged, although in Dar Fur they
were already in conflict with the sultanate to the north
by the late 18th century.

The Ta'a'isha rose to power when one of their
number, 'Abdullahi b. Muhammad Karrar [see 'abd
allah B. muhammad al-ta'a'ishi] , a member of a holy
family affiliated to the Sammaniyya tarlka, became a
follower of the Sudanese Mahdr, Muhammad Ahmad
[see al-mahdiyya] before his public manifestation in
1882. During the revolution, 'Abdullahi became the
strongman of the movement and was designated as
senior khatifa by the Mahdr. Following the Mahdi's
death in June 1885, the Khalifa 'Abdullahi ruled the
Mahdist state until its destruction by an Anglo-Egyptian
army. He himself was hunted down and killed at
Umm Diwaykarat on 24 November 1899.

During the Khalifa's rule, he made extensive use
of his relatives and other fellow-Ta'a'isha as soldiers
and administrators, leading to what P.M. Holt has
called "The Ta'a'isha autocracy" (77k Mahdist state
in the Sudan, 1881-1898, 'Oxford 1970, 204-22).
Throughout the Mahdist period there was constant
tension between the Ta'a'isha leaders and the riverain
Sudanese.

Bibliography: In addition to Holt, Mahdist state,
see H.A. MacMichael, A history of the Arabs in the
Sudan, 2 vols., Cambridge 1922, repr. London 1967,
i, 271-306; Farah 'Isa Muhammad, al-Turath al-
sha'bi li-kabllat al-Ta'a'isha, Institute of African and
Asian Studies, University of Khartoum 1 982 (a folk-
lore _study). (R.S. O'Fahey)
TA'AM (a.), food, nourishment. For foods and
food habits, see ghidha'; for cookery and the culi-
nary art, see tabkh. The present article deals with
the restricted topic of food etiquette.

Since pre-Islamic times, the rules of food etiquette
were divided between host and guests, the prime rules
being that the former should be as generous as pos-
sible and the latter should not appear too greedy.
Much may be learned from the numerous anecdotes
on those who sinned against these rules: see the mono-
graphs and chapters in adab anthologies on misers
(buhhala'), especially the book by al-Djahiz [q.v.], and
parasites and cadgers (tufayliyyuri), e.g. the K. al-Tatfil
by al-Khatib al-Baghdadr [q.v.], Djudda 1986. Explicit
prescriptions, all but absent from the Kur'an (cf.
XXIV, 61), are found in Hadlth literature, e.g. al-
Bukhan, al-Sahih, At'ima, or Muslim, al-Sahlh, Ashriba
(bob adab al-ta'am), where one is enjoined to begin
with pronouncing the basmala, to eat with the right
hand, not to condemn any food but merely to leave
it if one dislikes it, to praise God after a meal, etc.
More detailed and comprehensive treatment of "table
manners" — although instead of a table (khiwan), a mat
(sufra or simat) is often preferred — is found primarily
in religious works as well as secular texts. To the for-
mer category belongs the Kitab Adab al-akl, which
opens the second "quarter" of al-Ghazalf's [q.v.] Ihya'
(cf. the section on the Prophet's eating behaviour,
adabuhu ft 'l-ta'am, in K. Adab al-ma'isha wa-akhlak al-
nubuwwa, which closes the same "quarter"). Aimed
particularly at Sufis are the similar but shorter chapter

on adab al-akl in 'Umar al-Suhrawardfs 'Awarif al-
ma' anf and the lengthy chapters (39-40) in Abu Talib
al-Makkfs Kut al-kulub, tr. R. Gramlich, Die Ndhrung
des Herzen, iii, Stuttgart 1995, 266-390. The secular
category, never devoid of religious elements, includes
sections in all of the large adab anthologies that have
chapters on eating and food. A K. Adab al-mawa'id by
al-RamhurmuzI (d. ca. 370/971) is mentioned in the
Fihrisl but is now lost. His contemporary Ibn Sayyar
al-Warrak concluded his cookery manual K. al-Tabikh
(ed. Helsinki, 1987) with chapters on table manners.
Yahya b. 'Abd al-'Azim al-Djazzar (d. 669/1270 or
679/1281), butcher and poet, wrote Fawa'id al-mawa'id,
still unpublished but discussed by Traini (see Bibi).
'Abd al Ra'uf al-Munawi [g.v.] was the author of the
unpublished K. Adab al-akl wa 'l-shurb wa-'l-malbas. . . .
In the entertaining R. Adab al-mu'akala by Badr al-
Dln al-GhazzI (d. 984/1577), ed. in RAAD, xlii (1967),
503-23, 732-57, many forms of bad eating behaviour
are exposed in a fashion already found in al-Djahiz's
BukhaUl'. On eating with kings, see Pseudo-Djahiz,
K. al-Tddj (Cairo 1914: bob Jt muta'amal al-muluk).

In general, eating etiquette seems to have been sim-
ilar in many ways to what is expected of polite soci-
ety in the West, stressing an aversion from unsavoury
noises and messy or greedy behaviour. During com-
munal meals, always preferred to solitary eating,
particular care is to be taken to avoid contact with
one another's saliva. Conversation during meals is
generally encouraged, in spite of what seems a wide-
spread practice in modern Arab countries, where food
is consumed quickly and silently.

Bibliography: H. Kindermann, Uber die guten
Sillen beim Essen und Trinken. Das 11. Buck von al-
GhazzaU's Hauptwerk. Ubersetzung und Bearbeitung ah
an Beitrag zur Geschichte unserer Tischsitten, Leiden 1964
(richly annotated); Habfb Zayyat, Adab al-ma'ida fi
'l-Islam, in al-Mashrik, xxxvii (1939) 162-76; R. Traini,
Un Irattatello di galateo ed etica comikiale: le Fawa'id
al-mawa'id di Ibn al-Gazzar, in Studi in onore di Fr.
Gabrieli.. ., Rome 1984, ii, 783-806; GJ. van Gelder,
Arabic banqueters: literature, lexicography and reality, in
Rika Gyselen (ed.), Banquets d'Orient (= Res Orientates,
IV), 85-93. Much information is given in Sulayman
Mahdjub's lengthy introduction to the edition of
Ibn al-'Adim, al-Wusla Ha 'l-habib ft wasf al-tayyibdt
wa 'l-tlb, Damascus 1986. On the contemporary
Middle East, see e.g. D. Hawley, Dcbrell's manners
and correct form in the Middle East, London 1984.
(GJ.H. van Gelder)
TA'ARRUB (a.), the verbal noun of a denomina-
tive verb formed from 'Arab, pi. A'rab, in the sense
of "nomads, Bedouins" (the Kur'anic sense of this lat-
ter term, cf. e.g. IX, 98/97, XLIX, 14; ta'arrub itself
does not occur in the Kur'an). In earliest Islam,
ta'arraba and its synonym tabaddd denote the return
to the Arabian desert after hidjra [q.v.] to the
garrison towns {amsdr [see misr. B]) and participation
in the warfare to expand the Arab empire and the
Abode of Islam. Some of this movement back to the
desert was doubtless legitimate, but on occasion it was
denounced by circles of pietistic town dwellers as a
kind of apostasy, the reversion to a life where the
full, town-oriented Islamic cult could not be practised
and its obligations fulfilled. See the full discussion in
C.E. Bosworth, A note on ta'arrub in early Islam, in JSS,
xxxiv (1989), 355-61.

Bibliography: Given in the article.

TA'AWUN (a.), co-operation in all modern
senses of the term; a noun of activity and sometimes
an abstract noun, parallelled, in the latter case, by
ta'awuniyya (co-operativism). It was established in the
early years of the 20th century as the term designat-
ing this field of meaning, by transference from the
sense of mutual aid (still valid), with the adjective
ta'awunl (co-operative), the active participle muta'awin
(co-operator), then, later, the substantive ta'awuniyya
(co-operative, principally agricultural, but also organ-
ised on the basis of supply of goods, housing, credit,
crafts and manufacture). Since the middle of the 20th
century it has been applied to the activities and insti-
tutions of international co-operation. It is attested in
Persian (ta'awn), although contemporary Turkish trans-
lates co-operative by kooperatif, retaining le'awun (cur-
rently teavun) in the sense that it possessed at the turn
of the century (of mutual aid, solidarity), a sense for
which Arabic prefers la'adud.

The co-operative movement was inaugurated in
Egypt by the Watani Party. Confronted by the finan-
cial crisis of 1907 which devastated the countryside,
'Umar Lutfi made inquiries in Italy regarding that
country's experience of the agrarian co-operative move-
ment and the judicial aspects of co-operative credit. It
was above all a case of protecting medium and well-
to-do landowners from usurers and of major landowners
protecting themselves against state fiscal policies. In
1912, a Nikaba 'amma li 'l-ta'awun united the score of
co-operatives instituted since December 1909, agrar-
ian ones (Mkabat zird'iyya [see nikaba]), credit and ser-
vices into a sharikal (Sharikal al-ta'awuri).

It was only during the 1920s that legislation concern-
ing associations of this type was passed, and then to
little effect. The same applied elsewhere, the Maghrib
under French domination representing an exceptional
case (reference to co-operativism by European labour
organisations from the turn of the century, a number
of successful foundations, outside this affiliation, pri-
marily agricultural and restricted to the European

The concept was re-launched during the 1940s, in
association with the movement of decolonisation. It was
the peasants — to whom the present survey is limited —
who were principally concerned, the United Nations
(and the United States) insisting on the necessity of
agrarian reforms and the formation of co-operatives
for a dual purpose, preventive and developmental.
However, the movement proved genuinely successful
only in tandem with policies of economic and social
planning, whether these had the object of guarantee-
ing independent and autonomous development or of
promoting liberally-oriented growth. From the associa-
tive form, the co-operative sector has thus, in most
cases, advanced to the status of a category of owner-
ship (alongside public, private, and sometimes mixed
ownership).

The first experiments were made in Nasserite Egypt.
The law of agrarian reform of September 1952 (revised
in 1961 and 1969) obliged landowners and small-
holders to belong to Qfam'iyydt ta'awuniyya. When the
process was completed, this consisted of pyramidal
groupings, with examples at local, cantonal and provin-
cial levels and a governing council. In the 1960s, the
system was extended to include sectors of land unaf-
fected by the reform (village co-operatives) or upgraded
in parallel with the progress of construction of the
Aswan Dam, these sectors, open to landless peasants,
remaining, however, included within state farms. Spe-
cialised co-operatives also appeared. The liberalisation
(infitdh) introduced by President Anwar al-Sadat had

the effect of limiting the role of co-operatives (credit,
logistics and commerce), as well as the representation
of small landowners (previously 80%) in the admin-
istrative councils in order to stimulate the profitabil-
ity of land and to permit foreign involvement. A new
law regulating co-operativism (since revised) was passed
in 1 980. The number of local co-operatives, formally
subject to centrally-imposed regulation of production
and prices, is in decline, whilst that of the specialised
co-operatives is steadily growing.

Other countries are related to this "model" (with
its genuine, but relative social effects), conceiving this
sector as a method of organising the agrarian branch
of the public sector, depending on state planning (with
its relative or negative effects).

In Syria, the agrarian reform of September 1958,
suspended after the breaking of the union with Egypt
(February 1958— October 1961), was the object of a
new law in June 1963, since amended. The obliga-
tion to form co-operatives was maintained, but redis-
tribution was sporadic, even with the addition of the
upgraded land. In April 1974, agricultural co-operatives
were combined with peasant associations (small land-
owners, farmers and labourers) in a National Union,
a consultative body, but also the agrarian wing of cen-
tral planning.

In 'Irak, the law of agrarian reform (August 1 958),
which followed the revolution of 'Abd al-Karim
Kasim [q.v.], was applied only to a limited extent
until the Ba'thists returned to power (July 1968).
A new law (May 1970) made "collective" exploitation
(state, collective, co-operative farms) the framework of
a "total agrarian revolution". If resistance in Kurdistan
is discounted, the co-operative sector has been effec-
tive. In 1977, peasant and co-operative associations
were combined in one organisation. Here too, and to
an even greater extent since the fragmentation of the
Front in 1979, it is the Ba'thist structure which is
dominant in serving the objectives of central planning.

Algeria was slow to introduce such measures. From
1962 to 1970, the formula of self-management, exer-
cised over vacant land and nationalised colonial terri-
tories, developed into nothing more than the agrarian
branch of the state's public sector. Preceded by par-
tial texts, the Charter of Agrarian Revolution (1972)
opted for global and progressive agrarian reform and
for the creation of co-operatives of various kinds, and
later of Agrarian Revolution villages, in liaison with
the Combined Agricultural Co-operatives with which
self-managed holdings and the private sector were to
be associated. But this experiment did not achieve the
hoped-for results, and during the 1980s a return to
privatisation has been observed.

In Tunisia, the recovery of colonial territory and
agrarian reforms coincided with the choice of a state-
run and centralised planned development (1961-9). The
agrarian programme was structured on "co-operative
units" (all forms of production, development and serv-
ices). The decision to extend this co-operative system
to the entirety of agricultural enterprise (January 1969),
provoked a crisis. The return to liberalism has led,
in this case, to the dissolution of the co-operatives.

In Morocco, the recovery of colonial territory pro-
ceeded in stages (1963, 1973). As envisaged by 'Allal
al-FasF [q.v. in Suppl.] as early as 1952, a law of agrar-
ian reform was passed in 1966, but it was the Code
of Agricultural Investment (1969) which, by the en-
couragement of more favourable credit arrangements,
boosted the formation of co-operatives (of utilisation
of materials and of market-gardening). But this tended
to favour major and medium-sized landowners, or at

least, family groupings. Once subsidies were received,
a number of them disintegrated.

The choice made by Iran, at the beginning of the
1960s, for a policy of planned growth, was accom-
panied by agrarian reform (1962). A central organi-
sation of rural co-operatives was created in 1963 in
order to serve the interests of the latter. Conditions
of repurchase or leases tended, however, to favour
farmers backed by capital. The same has been the
case in Turkey, where until 1 960 laws of reform were
sporadic or unimplemented; the agrarian co-operative
structure is poorly developed there. In Sukarno's
Indonesia, under the agrarian law of 1960, the use
of co-operatives was no longer obligatory, but it was
among the demands of the rural movements during
the unrest preceding the coup of 1965.

The experience of the two Yemens before their
unification (1990) deserves mention. In the North, the
co-operative movement was the result of popular ini-
tiatives at the time of the civil war (1962-70) and had
the object of filling the gaps in matters of infrastruc-
ture and local services. In 1963 and 1969, laws were
passed with the object of harmonising the regulations,
and in March 1973 the Ha/at al-Ta'awun al-Ahll were
combined in a Federation. Incorporated into the single
party (People's General Congress, 1982-), it supplied
a basic framework of organisation. It was through the
expedient of elections of local councils of co-opera-
tive development (tatwir) (1985) that the country was
endowed with municipal and communal councils. In
South Yemen, as agreed in principle in the months
which followed independence (1967), agrarian reform
and the constitution of a co-operative sector were the
object, from October 1970 onwards, of peasant intifadat
which took possession of land and extended the co-
operative sector, to include fishing and some sections
of industry. The radical Arab nationalists in power
(1969- ) supported a new law, passed in November
1970, which encouraged this movement. The merg-
ing of the radical Left into the Marxist Socialist Party
(1978), confirmed the interest taken in this sector. In
1988, there were the beginnings of public consulta-
tion on the issue of ownership in the countryside, but
it was after the unification of the two Yemens that
moves were made in the direction of privatisation.
The defeat of the Yemenite Left in the civil war of
1994 led to the overall collapse of the co-operative
often to the benefit of the former land-

Bibliography: M. 'Abd al-Fadil, al-Tahawwulat
al-iktisadijya wa 'l-idjtima'ijya ft 'l-rif al-Misri (1952-
1970), Cairo 1978; Annuaire de I'Ajrique du Nord, Paris
1962- ; R. Antoun and I. Harek (eds.), Rural politics
and social change in the Middle East, Bloomington-
London 1972; P. Procheux (ed), Histoire de I'Asie
du Sud-Est. Revoltes, reformes, revolutions, Lille 1981;
J. Chelhod (ed.), L'Arabie du Sud, histoire et civilisa-
tion, ii, Paris 1984; Coquery-Vidrovitch (ed.), Societes
paysannes du Tiers-Monde, Lille 1981; B. Destremau-
Zeitz, La Republique Arabe du Yemen entre I'm vert et tor
noir, thesis, Univ. of Amiens 1988, unpubl.; T. El
Khyari, Agriculture au Maroc, Mohammedia 1987;
'A. al-Fasi, al-Nakd al-dhaB, Cairo 1952; G. Haupt
and M. Reberioux (eds.), La Deuxieme Internationale
et I'Orient, Paris 1967; A.K.S. Lambton, The Persian
land reform, Oxford 1969. J. Poncet, La Tunisie a la
recherche de son avenir, Paris 1974; 'A.-R. al-RafiT,
Muhammad Farid, ramz al-islah wa 'l-tadhiya, Cairo
1948; A. Raymond (ed.), La Syrie d'aujourd'hui, Paris
1980; J. Thobie and S. Kancal (eds.), Industriali-
sation, communication et rapports sociaux en Turquie et en

TA'AWUN — TABAKAT

Mediterranee orientak, Paris 1994; D. Warriner, Land
reform in principle and practice, Oxford 1969; Publica-
tions and documents of the relevant states and
organisations, as well as those of international and
regional institutions, in particular: International Co-
operative Alliance (1895- ), Geneva; Organisation
Arabe pour le Developpement Agricole (League of
Arab States, 1970- ), Khartum. (J. Couland)
TA'AWWUDH (a.) means the use of the
phrase a'udhu bi 'llahi min ... "I take refuge with
God against . . .", followed by the mention of the thing
that the utterer of the phrase fears or abhors. The
term isti'ddha "seeking refuge", is often used as a syn-
onym. The phrase, with variants, is well attested in
the Kur'an, in particular in the last two suras which
each consist of one extended ta'awwudh [see al-
mu'awwtdhataV]. The litany-like enumeration of evil
things in the first of the two foreshadows similar strains
in a number of Prophetic invocations recorded in the
Hadith collections (see e.g., several abwdb in the kitdb
al-da'awdt of al-Bukharfs Sahlh, which actually have
the terms ta'awwudh or, less frequendy, isti'ddha in their
tides). With such precedent it is not surprising that
ta'awwudh becomes a clearly recognisable subgenre of
du'a' "invocation", in the devotional literature (see
C.E. Padwick, Muslim devotions, London 1961, 83-93).
Remarkably, ta'awwudh here often forms part of a two-
pronged prayer in which the praying person asks for
the good in the thing that is the object of the prayer
and takes refuge against the evil in that very same
thing (ibid., 89). If it is God's wrath (ghadab) that the
praying person wants to guard against, refuge can
only be taken with God's good pleasure (rida), which
leads to the mysterious formula "I seek refuge from
Thee with Thyself' (ibid., 90-2).

More specifically, ta'awwudh is also used to denote
the formula a'udhu bi 'llahi mina 'l-shaytani 'l-radjjm
which usually precedes any Kur'anic recitation (and
thus also the saldt) as a safeguard against misspeaking,
omission of words, and other such mistakes. It is the
counterpart of the formula sadaka 'llahu 'l-'agim which
follows any formal recitation. The works on Kur'anic
readings [see kira'at] have extended chapters on the
ta'awwudh, dealing with its exact wording, its correct
delivery, and its legal status (see e.g. Ibn al-Djazan,
al-Nashrji 'l-kira'at al-'ashr, ed. 'A.M. al-Dabba', 2 vols.,
Cairo n.d., i, 243-59).

Bibliography: Given in the article.

(W.P. Heinrichs)
TABAKA (a., pis. tibak or atbak), a term of
Mamluk military organisation. The tibak were
the barracks in the Cairo Citadel, Kal'at al-Djabal,
where the Mamluk sultans (648-922/ i250-151 7) had
their Royal Mamluks quartered and which also housed
the military academies where newly-bought mamluks
received their training. We first learn of the tibak dur-
ing the reign of al-Zahir Baybars who "established . . .
barracks for the mamluks which overlooked the great
al-Dirka gate, and inside the al-Karafa gate he put
up . . . a large building with small halls for the mam-
luks' quarters, and above them barracks for those who
were married" (Ibn Shaddad, 341, 343). According
to the sources, there were seventeen tibak during the
third reign of al-Nasir Muhammad (709-41/1310-41
[g.v.]), but their number may have varied, as old ones
were habitually demolished to make room for new
ones and barracks could bear more than one name.
The historian al-Zahin speaks of twelve barracks in
the next century, each of which could house 1,000
mamluks. Some of the better-known tibak were Tabakat
al-Rafraf, Tabakat al-Zimam or al-Zimamiyya, Tabakat

al-Hawsh, Tabakat al-Taziyya, Tabakat al-Mukaddam,
Tabakat al-Sandaliyya and Tabakat al-Ashrafiyya.

As their appellation indicates, many of the tibak
were named after the eunuchs who had the overall
responsibility for their administration. The tibak's staff
of teachers and instructors, too, was mainly composed
of eunuchs, according to a strict hierarchy: at the
bottom were the tawashiyya, or khuddam al-tibak, respon-
sible for training small groups of mamluks only; placed
above them were the mukaddamu 'l-tibdk, each of which
stood at the head of a tabaka, and at the apex stood
the mukaddam al-mamaUk al-sultaniyya, who carried the
responsibility for all Royal Mamluks. Then there were
religious scholars (faklh, pi. fukaha') who were charged
with the religious education of the mamluk trainees.
One of the adult mamluks of each tabaka was appointed
as leader (agha, pi. aghdwat, lit. "elder brother") of the
younger mamluks (inl, pi. iniyyat, lit. "younger brother")
whose task it was mainly to help them acclimatise to
the life and discipline of the tabaka. Ties between
guardian and trainee were often kept up long after
the period of training at the tibak had come to an
end. Upon entering the military academies, mamluks
were divided into peer groups, according to age and
ethnic origin, and further split up into smaller groups
so as to make their instruction as efficient as pos-
sible. Two principal stages characterised a mamliik's
education: the first lasted into adolescence and con-
centrated on religious studies, e.g., reading the Kur'an,
the Islamic prescriptions and the shari'a, so as to make
him a Muslim, while the second began at adolescence
and was only concluded when the young mamliik's
professional skill in the arts of war was deemed to
have reached the highest level of accomplishment. The
period of training at the tibak culminated in a spe-
cial ceremony ('itk) during which mamluks of one and
the same age group (kharaf) were released from servi-
tude and became members of the Mamluk household
of the Sultan at the Citadel.

Bibliography: Ibn Shaddad, Ta'rtkh al-Malik al-
Zahir, ed. A. Hutayt, Wiesbaden 1983, 341, 343;
Maknzi, Khitat, Cairo 1987, ii, 213-14; Khalil al-
Zahin, Z^da, Paris 1894, 27; D. Ayalon, L'esclavage
du Mamelouk, in Oriental Notes and Studies, i, Jerusalem
1951, 9-22, repr. in The Mamluk military society, Vario-
rum, London 1979, no. I; A. Levanoni, A turning
point in Mamluk history, Leiden 1995, 14-19.

(Amalia Levanoni)
TABAKAT (a.), pi. of tabaka, "everything which is
related to another and which is similar or analagous
to it, which comes to mean a layer of things of
the same sort (Flugel, Classen, 269, n. 1). From
this a transition can be made to the idea of a "rank,
attributed to a group of characters who have played
a role in history in one capacity or another, classed
according to criteria determined by the religious, cul-
tural, scientific or artistic order etc." (Hafsi, i. 229; cf.
al-TahanawT, Kashshaf, 917). In biographical literature
it is the "book of classes" of characters arranged
by "categories" and organised into "generations".
A. Lexicography and literature.
1. This term does not appear in the Kur'an, but
two other expressions approaching it do: tabak and
tibak "analagous things which follow each other"
(in a temporal or qualitative sense) or "placed on top
of each other" (in a spatial sense); "You shall surely
ride stage after stage" (LXXXIV, 19, tr. Arberry:
tabak"" 'an tabak" from one state to another, or from
one calamity to another; see al-Taban, TafsTr); "[God]
who created seven tibak m " (the ranks or stages of the
heavens, LXVII, 3^ LXXI, 15). The common point

of reference is the idea of covering everything by
something equivalent, of applying oneself to it (Kamus,
s.v.). The idea of equivalence is again found in tabaka
"a similar epoch" (al-karn min al-zaman). According to
al-Asma'I, tibk designates a "group of people"; for Ibn
al-A'rabl (d. 231/846) tabak reflects "a given state [or
category] whatever its sort" (al-hal 'aid 'khtildfihaj. So
does tabaka, according to al-Layth: kdna fuldn™ 'aid
tabakat"' shatta min al-dunya: ay haldt; K. al-'Ayn; M.-N.
Khan, Die exegetischen Teile des Kilab al-'Ayn, Berlin 1994,
220, or again al-umma ba'd al-umma "one community
succeeding another". For Ibn Siduh, tabak is "a group of
people who correspond to an analogous group". The
variant tibk designates a vast number of people, grass-
hoppers, camels, etc. (LA and al-Saghani, Takmila . . .,
ed. Mustafa al-HidjazI, Cairo 1988, s.v.; Ibn Siduh,
Mukhassas, ix, 118). According to al-Layth, tabaka,
which may be tabak in the masculine, is used as a
unitary form of the noun of action tibak. Numerous
other meanings are to be found in Lane, s.v.

2. In adab and historiography, tabaka is in
common use in the sense of category or class, in par-
ticular of society: Ibn al-Mukaffa', Risala fi 'l-sahaba,
ed. and tr. Ch. Pellat, Paris' 1976, §31; Ibrahim b.
M. al-Shaybam (d. 298/911) according to al-'Ikd al-
fand, ed. Tarhmr, iv, 262-3; G. Makdisi, The rise of
humanism, Edinburgh 1990, 233-4. As for al-Djahiz,
he uses it in the sense of degree, as in al-stakk fi
tabakat™ "doubt is made up of degrees" (Hayawdn, vi,
35, 37, Jahiz, Le cadi el la mouche, tr. L. Souami, Paris
1988, 74, 75); tabakat ma'dmhd "degree or level (of
meaning)" (op. cit., i, 10, Jahiz, 231; cf. i, 98). (Cf.
Ibn Khaldtin, Mukaddima, 1073, tr. Rosenthal, ii, 344:
tabakat al-kaldm.) What is more, in his work the mean-
ing of "social categories/classes" is often associated
with types of character: misers, singers, singing slave
girls, traders, secretaries, Turks, etc. (Ch. Pellat, Arabische
Geisteswelt, Zurich 1967, 48-9, 436 ff.; S. Enderwitz,
Gesellschqftlicher Rang und ethnische Legitimation, Berlin 1979,
72-3, passim: al-Djahiz on the Africans, the Persians
and the Arabs). Finally, the notion of tabaka applied
to poets has been attested at least since the second
half of the 2nd/8th century; see al-AsmaT (d. 213/828),
K. Fuhulat al-shu'ara', ed. Torrey, in ^DMG, lxv (191 1),
495, 499.

As to the following Prophetic tradition reported by
Anas, it is very obviously spurious: "My community
will be made up of five classes: firsdy forty years with
charitable and pious people; they will be followed for
the next 150 years by people who will live in com-
passion and mutual harmony; then for 160 years more
there will come people who will turn their backs on
each other and will separate themselves; then will
come a period of scattering (haraj) [and of war or of
flight] and every-man-for-himself (nadja)". In another
version it is said that each class would last for forty
years and that another class would be added between
year 40 and year 80 to arrive at the number of five
(Ibn M5dja, Sunan, 36, Fitan, no. 4058; cf. Ibn al-
Djawzr, Mawdu'at, iii, 196; idem, Talkih, 714, several
versions). It is possible that it may have been mod-
elled on the following tradition: "The best of men
are those of my century (karni), and below them are
those of the next century" (al-Bukhan, 62, Fada'il al-
sahaba, i, tr. Houdas, ii, 583).

In modern texts, the term is accepted most clearly
to designate a "social class", as in sira' al-kabakat "the
class struggle".

B. The division into "classes".

1. Origin and meaning.

For several scholars, the origin of this division in

Arab biographical literature is found in the criticism
of tradition (Loth, 594 ff.). It has even been written
that the genre of the tabakat "was born within the
framework of the hadtth and is inseparable from it"
(Hafsi, i, 227). What supports the thesis of Hafsi is that
the first book of classes was perhaps the K. Tabakat
al-muhaddithln of al-Mu'afa b. 'Imran al-Mawsill (d.
184/800; Sezgin, i, 348; Hafsi, i, 241). One argument
against his position would be the K. Tabakat ahl al-
Hlm wa 'l-iahl of Wasil b. 'Ata> (d. 131/748), but the
subject matter is not known: was it the "orthodox"
believers, i.e. the Kadarls and the "ignorant", i.e.
the predestinationists (Van Ess, TG, v, Berlin 1993,
137-8)?

For Heffening, on the other hand, this grouping
"much rather owes its origin to the interest of the
Arabs in genealogy and biography". Rosenthal, 93-5,
for his part, considers that the division is genuinely
Islamic and that it would seem to be the oldest chrono-
logical division which presented itself to Muslim his-
torical thinking. It was the natural consequence of the
concept of the Companions of Muhammad, the "Fol-
lowers", etc., which in conjunction with the isnad crit-
icism of traditions developed in the early second
century of the hidjra.

Without denying the fundamental role which it
played in the birth and development of the genre, it
does not seem that it originated from the genre, as
the semantic survey above (cf. Heffening) would sug-
gest. The ideas of covering, of egality, of analogy (cf.
also kam, which perhaps preceded tabaka in the sense
of "generation", Rosenthal, 93, and which also has
the connotation of analogy) and of succession which
this term conveys, correspond well to the Muslim con-
cept of "the history of salvation", with the succession
of pious men, beginning with the "prophets", whose
characters were so many models to be imitated. Even
if tribal genealogy continued to exist, it gave way
more and more to a particular form of spiritual or
intellectual genealogy which also appeared, of course,
in the hadTth, "the transmission of knowledge", but
also in other disciplines. In addition, by the use of
certain types of tabakat every effort was made to main-
tain the link with the primitive community which was
widely mythologised. Finally, the fact that al-Asma'T
(see above) had already used the term tabaka, however
loosely, to compare two poets, and that al-Djumahi
(d. 232/846) organised his Tabakat al-shu'ara" (see
Kilpatrick) according to an order which has nothing
to do with religious merit, about the same epoch as
Ibn Sa'd (d. 230/845) composed his own work, sug-
gests that the genre in its origins was part of a global
preoccupation of all scholars in different fields: to give
to society the canons for transmitting knowledge,
whether sacred or secular, and in particular by means
of a biographical tool. This concern for continuity
(Khalidi, 46-8, 205 and n. 50) insists at one and the
same time on "sacred history continued" and on the
equally secular aspects of the genre deeply rooted in
its origins, also apparent in the genre of the awa'il
[q.v.], which was attested at least since the time of
Ibn Shayba (d. 235/849; see book 34 of his Musannaf,
Beirut 1995, vii, 247-76). It is not fortuitous if in
Talkih, 461-8, the section concerning them follows that
on the tabakat.

The interest in "genealogy" understood in that way
was specified above, and can also be observed in the
role which local stories play in the evolution of the
genre, with certainly a touch of regional pride, but
especially in order to justify the juridical practices in
use in one place or another (Rosenthal, 94). Already

by this time, Ibn Sa'd had given a special place to the
grouping according to the capital cities and towns
(Mecca, Medina, Basra, Kufa), or even events (Badr)
but the History of Wasit of Bahshal (d. 292/905 [g.v.];
ed. K. 'Awwad, Baghdad 1967; Rosenthal, 166-7) is
essentially a work about the classes of traditionalists
in this town. Later this division was extended to all
sorts of persons, but generally scholars.

2. Criteria of classification.

For the classification of the Companions, especially
in the work of Ibn Sa'd, see sahaba. For the Suc-
cessors, see tabi'. For both, see al-Hakim al-Nisabun,
Ma'rifat 'ulum al-hadith, chs. 7, 14 (twelve classes of Com-
panions, fourteen classes of Successors); al-Suyuff, Tadrib
al-rawi, 221-2, 234 ff., ch. 39-40, according to prece-
dent; Marcais, 222-4; Hafsi, i, 242-4, 236-8.

It is difficult to give general criteria for classification
for all the tabakat; four can be distinguished: moral
and chronological, relationship with the Prophet for
the first generations, chronological, and finally a late
classification where alphabetical order is used (Hafsi,
i, 234-6).

For the classes of traditionalists, the "encounter"
(lukya) between master and disciple is a fundamen-
tal criterion for distinguishing between the two classes
('UmarT, 51). The principles of hierarchisation and
also of illustration of the forged hadtth cited above,
are seen in the original grouping which goes back to
Abu Talib al-Makki (d. 386/996). He distinguished
five classes of forty years up to his era, citing five
names for each one: caliph, jurist, traditionist, reader
and ascetic (Talkih, 714-17, takes up this classification
which was continued by others until 560 A.H., per-
haps some 40 classes).

The organisation of works into classes did not seem
very practical, as would appear in the work of al-
DhahabT: Tadhkirat al-huffaz comprised twenty-one (80
years); Ma'rifat al-kurra', seventeen; Siyar a'ldm al-nubala',
about forty (from seven to thirty years); Ta'rikh al-
Islam [i-xxvii (up to 400 A.H.). ed. 'U.'A. Tadmurl,
Beirut 1987-92; i-iv (611-40 A.H.), ed. B.'A. Ma'riif
et alii, Beirut 1988]; seventy (in general ten years). In
this work he associates chronological organisation
with organisation into classes, but in that way the tra-
ditional principle of the "encounter" is abandoned.
Furthermore, in two of his works he designates each
class by one of its illustrious representatives, cf. "the
class of al-Zuhn". Thus he continues in al-Mudjarrad
ft asma' ri§al K. Ibn Maaja (eight classes, Ma'ruf, 103;
'Umari 49-50; Sezgin, i, 148; ed. Faysal al-Djawabira,
Riyad 1988) and in al-Mu'in ft tabakat al-muhaddithin
[Gilliot, in MIDEO, xix, no. 105, mistaken by Hafsi,
31, for Tadhkirat al-huffaz], where the first classes
have names, e.g. "the class of al-A'mash and of Abu
Hanifa", then from the 3rd/9th centuries onwards he
has recourse to the classes of twenty to thirty years.

C. Works in the genre.

See Hadjdji Khalifa, ed. Fliigel, nos. 7879-7932.
The lines which follow are the addenda (sometimes
the corrigenda) to Hafsi, in particular the editions of
texts which have appeared since.

Philologists (Hafsi, ii, 155-61) and poets (iii, 50-61):
Ibn al-Anban, Nuzhat al-alibba' ft tabakat al-udabd',
ed. I. al-SamarraT (Baghdad 1970 2 ); Ibn Kadi Shuhba
(d. 851/1448 [g.v.]), Jabakat al-nuhat wa 'l-lughawiyyin,
ed. M. Ghayyad, Nadjaf 1974.

Readers and exegetes (Hafsi, ii, 2-7): Ibn al-Djazan
[g.v.], K. Ma'rifat al-kurra' al-kibar 'ala 'l-tabakat wa 'l-a'sar,
i-ii, ed. M.S. Djad al-Hakk, Cairo 1969; Dawudi
(M. b. 'A., d. 945/1538), Tabakat al-mufassirln, ed.
'A.M. 'Uinar, Cairo 1972, Beirut 1983.

Traditionists and associates (Hafsi, i, 241-65): Khalrfa
b. Khayyat [g.v.]; Muslim, K. al-Tabakat (Hafsi, i, 248-
9), ed. S.'A.M. al-Kazaki, announced in ATA, xxxv
(1988), 17; Bardrdjr (A. b. Harun, d. 301/816; Sezgin,
i, 166; Hafsi, i, 249-50), Tabakat al-asma' al-mufrada
ft 'l-sahaba wa 'l-tabi'in wa-ashab al-hadith, ed. S. al-
Shihabi, Damascus 1987; contrary to Sezgin, i, 350,
al-Azdi (Abu Zakariyya' Yazid b. M., d. 334/935),
K. al-Tabakat, lost work, which is different from Ta'nkh
al-Mawsil, ed. 'A. Habiba, Cairo 1967, 11; Abu Shaykh
('Al. b. M. b. Dja'far, d. 369/979; Hafsi, 25), Jabakat
al-muhaddithin bi-Isbahan, ed. 'A.S. al-Bundan, i-iv, in
two vols., Beirut 1989; 'All b. al-Mufaddal (al-Makdisi
al-Iskandaram al-Malikl, d. 611/1214; Hafsi, i, 256), al-
Arba'un al-murattaba 'ala tabakat al-arba'in, ed. announced
in ATA, xl-xli (1989), 15.

Hanafls (Hafsi, ii, 11-17): Ibn Abi 'l-Waia' al-
Kurashl (d. 775/1373), i-v, ed. 'A.M. al-Hulw, Cairo
1993 2 , see Gilliot in MIDEO, xxii, 191; M. b. 'U. al-
Hanaii (d. 959/1551), add. Hafsi, ii, 15, n. 4: ms. Ali
Emiri 2510; al-Hinna'i (d. 979/1572), Tabakat al-
hanafiyya: add. Hafsi, ii, 16, n. 1: Baghdad, Awkaf 929-
30; al-Ghazzi (A. b. 'Ak. al-Tamimi, d. 1004/1595),
al-Tabakat al-saniyya fi taraqjim al-hanafiyya, ed. 'A.M.
al-Hulw, Cairo 1989 2 (1970 1 ).

Malikls (Hafsi, ii, 9-1 1): 'Iyad b. Musa [g.v], Tartib al-
madarik, i-viii, ed. M.T. al-TandjT et alii, Rabat 1966 ff.
(1983 2 ), preferable to the edition of A. Baku- Mahmud,
i-iii, Beirut 1965-8; Ibn Farhun, al-Dibagj. al-mudhahhab,
i-ii, ed. M. al-Ahmadl Abu '1-Nur, Cairo 1972; con-
tinued by Ahmad Baba al-Takrun al-Tinbutktr (d.
1036/1627; Brockelmann, II, 176), Nayl al-ibtihaaj, ed.
'A. b. 'Al. al-Harlama, Tripoli (Libya) 1989.

ShafiTs (Hafsi, ii, 17-24; introduction to al-'Abbadi
by G. Vitestam, K. Tabakat al-Jukaha" al-shafi'iyya, Leiden
1 964, 3-5; introduction of Khan, see below under Ibn
Kadi Shuhba): MutawwiT ('U. b. 'A., d. ca. 440/1048);
Abu '1-Tayyib Sahl al-Su'lukr (d. 404/1013-14); Khan,
10, according to Hadjdjr Khalrfa, no. 7900; al-Subki
(Tadj al-Dln, g.v.): Tabakat al-shqfi'iyya al-kubra, i-x, ed.
al-Tannahl and al-Hulw, Cairo 1964-76; al-Asnawi
('Abd al-Rahlm b. al-Hasan, d. 772/1370), Tabakat
al-shafi'iyya, i-ii, ed. 'Al. al-Djuburi, Baghdad 1970-1
(Riyad 1981); Ibn Kadr Shuhba, Tabakat al-shafi'iyya,
i-iv, Haydarabad 1978-80, i-iv in 2 vols., ed. H.'A.
Khan, Beirut 1987; Ibn KathTr ('Imad al-Din, d. 774/
1373), Tabakat al-fukaha' al-shafi'iyyin, with the Dhaylof
al-Matan al-'Ubadi (d. 765/1363), i-iii, ed. M.Z.M.
'Azab, Cairo 1993 (Gilliot, in MIDEO, xxii, no. 192,
and corr. in MIDEO, xxiii, add. Hafsi, ii, 21: Ibn
Mulakkin (A. Hafs 'U. b. 'A., d. 804), al-'Ikd al-
mudhahhab fi hamalat [corr. Hafsi: ajumkt] al-madhhab,
ms. DK 579 ta'nkh).

Hanbalis (Hafsi, ii, 24-6): Ibn al-Mabrid (or Ibn
'Abd al-Hadi, d. 909/1503), al-Djawhar al-munaddad fi
tabakat rmita'akhkhiri ashab Ahmad, ed. A.S. al-'Uthaymin,
Cairo 1987 (Gilliot, in MIDEO, xix, no. 106); al-
'Ulaymi ( c Ar. b. M. al-'Amn (d. 928/1521), al-Manhadj.
al-ahmadfi tabakat al-imam Ahmad, ed. M.M. 'Abd al-
Hamrd, Cairo 1965.

Mu'tazilTs (Hafsi, iii, 175-6, Madelung, 330): M. b.
Yazdadh al-Isfahani (last wrote 3rd/9th century;
Madelung), K. al-Masabih; Abu '1-H. b. Farzawayh, a
disciple of Abu 'All al-DjubbaT, K. al-Mashayikh; 'Abd
al-Djabbar, Tabakat al-mu'tazila (ten classes), with the
addition of two supplementary classes by al-Hakim al-
Djishumi, in Fadl al-i'&zal wa-tabakat al-mu'tazila, ed.
F. Sayyid, Tunis 1974; Ibn al-Murtada, Tabakat al-
mu'tazila, ed. S. Diwald-Wilzer, Wiesbaden 1961. Over-
all, see Gilliot in MIDEO, xix, no. 56.

Ash'arfs: Ibn Furak, K. Tabakat al-mutakallimin, prob-

l-TABARANI

ably the oldest (Hafsi, iii, 180; Madelung 334), and
Kamal al-Din b. Imam al-Kamaliyya (d. 864/1460;
al-SakhawT, Daw', ix, no. 259), Tabakat al-ashd'ira are
not preserved (Hafsi, ii, 26; Madelung, ibid.); Ibn
'Asakir [q.v.], Tabyin kadhib al-muftari, divides them into

Ibadis (Hafsi, iii, 176): al-Dardjrnl (d. 626/1229
[q.v.]), K. al-Mashdyikh fi 'l-Maghnb (Tabakat mashayikh
al-ibddiyya), i-ii, Beirut 1974.

Shi* Is and Zaydfs (Hafsi, iii, 171-5): al-Barki (Abu
Dja'far, d. 280/893), K. al-Ridjal, ed. Dj. Muhaddith
Urmawl, Tehran 1964; al-Kashshr [q.v.], K. al-Ridjal,
ed. S.A. al-Husaym, Karbala ca. 1960/ Ikhtiydr ma'ri-
fat al-ridjal (summary by al-Tusi), ed. H. Mustafawr,
Mashhad 1970.

Ascetics and mystics (Hafsi, ii, 27-41): Ibn al-
Mulakkin, Tabakat al-awliya', ed. N. SharTba, Beirut
1986 2 "(1973'); al-Munawi ('Abd al-Ra'iif [q.v.]), al-
Kawdkib al-durriyyafi taradjim al-sdda al-sufiyya (al-Tabakat
al-kubra; first complete ed.), i-iv, in 2 vols., ed.
'A.S. Hamdan, Cairo 1994 (see Gilliot, in MIDEO

Physicians and sages (Hafsi, iii, 161-5): Sa'id al-
AndalusT (d. 462/1070), Tabakat al-umam, add. Hafsi, iii,
161, ed. L. Cheikho, Beirut 1912; ed. H. Bu 'Alwan,
Beirut 1985; M.S. Khan, Qadl Sa'id al-Andalusi's Taba-
kat al-umam, in Islamic Studies, xxx/4 (1991), 517-40;
missing from Hafsi are the Siwdn al-hikma, wrongly
atributed to Abu Sulayman al-Sidjistam [q.v.] , and Tatim-
mat Siwdn al-hikma of Zahir al-Din al-Bayhakl [q.v.],
new ed. R. al-'Adjam, Beirut 1992.

Others: MalikT (A. Bakr 'Al. b. M., d. 453/1061;
Hafsi, iii, 166), K. Riyad al-nufus fi tabakat 'ulamd' al-
Kayrawdn wa-Ifrikiya, i-iii, ed. B. al-Bakkush, Beirut
1983; BurayhT ('Abd al-Wahhab b. 'Ar. al-Saksakr,
d. 904), Tabakat al-muqjtahidTn, ed. Abu 'Abd al-Rahman
Ibn 'Akfl, in Risalatdn li-Ibn Kamal Bdshd wa-T&shkub-
rizadah, Cairo 1976.

Bibliography: W. Ahlwardt, Verzeichnis, x, index,
s.v. Tabaqdt; P. Auchterlonie, Arabic biographical dic-
tionaries. A summary guide and bibliography, Durham
1987; G. Fliigel, Die Classen der hanefitischen Rechts-
gelehrten, in Abh. Akad. Wien, philol.-hist. CI., viii/3
(1861), 260-358; I. Hafsi, Recherches sur le genre des
"tabaqat" dans la litterature arabe, in Arabica, xxiii-iv
(1976-7); W. Heffening, Tabakat, in EV Suppl.; Ibn
al-DjawzI, Talklh fuhul ahl al-athar, Cairo 1979;
KannawdjT, Abajad al-'ulum, ii, Damascus 1978, repr.
Beirut n.d., 362-5; T. Khalidi, Arabic historical thought
in the classical period, Cambridge 1994; H. Kilpatrick,
Criteria of classification in the Tabaqat fuhul al-shu'ara'
of Muhammad b. Salldm al-Jumahl, in Procs. of the Ninth
Congress of the UEAI, Leiden 1981, 141-52; O. Loth,
Ursprung und Bedeutung der Tabakat, in £DMG, xxiii
(1869), 593-614; W. Madelung, Der Kalam, in
H. Gatje (ed.), GaP, ii, Wiesbaden 1987, 326-37;
G. Makdisi, Tabaqat-Biography. Law and orthodoxy in
classical Islam, in Islamic Studies, xxxii (1993), 371-96;
W. Marcais (tr. and notes), Le Taqrib de en-Nawawi,
Paris 1902 [= offprint from JA with index]; Ma'ruf
(B. 'Awwad), introd. to Dhahabi, Siyar a'ldm al-
nubala', ed. Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut et al, Beirut 1981-8,
in i, 7-140 (ed. idem, al-Dhahabi wa-manhaaj kitdbihi
Ta'rtkh al-Islam, Cairo 1976); F. Rosenthal, A his-
tory of Muslim historiography 2 , Leiden 1968, A.D. al-
'UmarT, introd. to his ed. of Khalifa b. Khayyat,
K. al-Tabakat, Baghdad 1967, 2 Riyad 1982; Talklh,
see Ibn al-Djawzi; F. Wiistenfeld, Der Imam el-Schdfi'i,
seine Schuler, in Abh. G.W. Gbtt., hist.-phil. CI., xxxvi
(1889-90), 1-106, xxxvii (1891), pp. VIII + 1-100,
1-131. (Cl. Gilliot)

TABALA, a town and wadi just within the
northern boundaries of the 'Aslr emirate of present-
day Saudi Arabia, situated about 200 km/ 125 miles
as the crow flies from the Red Sea coast line and
less than 100 km/62 miles due west of Blsha (Zaki
M.A. Farsi, National guide and atlas of the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia, map 34, G5).

The town is an ancient one, and is mentioned in
the literature on the Prophet. Al-WakidI (ed. Marsden
Jones, London, 1966, ii, 853-4 and iii, 981) twice
mentions his raids against Khath'am in Tabala in
8/629 and 9/630. It is stated in more than one source
that the town is on the Yemeni pilgrim route, with
al-Harbr (K. al-Manasik wa-amakin turuk al-hadjd} wa-
ma'alim al-Djazlra, ed. Hamad al-DJasir, Riyad 1969,
644) expressly placing the town between Bisha and
Adjrab. The mediaeval geographers describe the town
as large, with springs and wells which water date-
palm groves and agricultural lands. Al-Hamdam (127,
258) adds that it was the centre of the pre-Islamic
idol Dh u '1-Khalasa and that most of its inhabitants
were from Kuraysh. The story is also told that, when
he was sent as governor by the caliph 'Abd al-Malik
b. Marwan, al-Hadjdjadj b. Yusuf [q.v.] thought it
too insignificant a place since it was hidden from his
route by a hill. Consequently, he turned back and
never entered the town.

Bibliography: Apart from the sources mentioned
in the text, see Ibn Khurradadhbih, 134, 188; IdrisT,
Opus geographicum . . ., ed. E. Cerulli et alii, facs. 2,
Leiden 1970-84, 146, 151; Yakut, Mu%am al-buldan,
ed. Beirut 1979, ii, 9. (G.R. Smith)

al-TABARANI, Abu 'l-Kasim Sulayman b. Ayyub
b. Mutayyir al-Lakhmi, one of the most impor-
tant traditionists of his age (260-360/873-971).
He is said to have begun his studies in hadlth at
the age of 13, with his education spanning his native
Syria, 'Irak, the Hidjaz, Yemen and Egypt, and he
is said to have frequented several thousand masters
in the course of a nhla fi talab al-'ilm which lasted for
33 years. Amongst these were Abu Zur'a al-Dimashkl,
al-Tabarl and al-Nasa'I [q.v.]. He died at Isfahan,
where he had lived for sixty years under the aegis of
the governor Abu 'All Ahmad b. Muhammad b.
Rustum, even though at the end of his life he left it
because of having held suspect views on Abu Bakr
and 'Umar. Amongst his numerous disciples were Abu
Nu'aym al-Isfahani [q.v.] and Ibn Manda.

He is known above all for three works on hadtth:
al-Mu'ajam al-kabir ['ala asma' al-sahaba], ed. Beirut 1983,
10 vols., from which he excluded the traditions from
AbQ Hurayra, which he treated in a separate work,
al-Mu'ajam al-awsat [fihi ahddlth al-afrad wa '1-gh.ara'ib],
classed according to the names of his masters; and
al-Mu'gjam al-saghlr, which gave a hadxth from each of
his masters. Amongst his numerous other works in the
same field, one may mention the K al-Du'a', K al-
Manasik, K al-Sunna, K al-Nawadir, K. Dala'il al-nubuwwa,
Musnad Shu'ba, Musnad Sujyan and K al-Awd'il. He also
wrote a Tafslr, a Radd 'aid 'l-Mu'tazila and a K al-
Salat 'aid 'l-nabi. There are lists of his extant works
in Brockelmann, S I, 279, and Sezgin, i, 196-7, as well
as a complete list of his works in al-Dhahabi, Huffdi,
iii, 912-17. Ibn Hadjar, Lisdn al-mtzdn, iii, 73-5 no.
275 gives some unfavourable reports on his work as
a traditionist.

Bibliography (in addition to references in the
article): Ibn 'Asakir, T Dimashk (not seen); Ibn
Khallikan, ed. 'Abbas, ii, 407 no. 274; Dhahabi,
Siyar a'ldm al-nubala', xvi, 119-30 no. 86; Safadi,
Waft, xv, 244-6 no. 492; Ibn Taghribirdi, Nuajum,

a.-TABARANI — al-TABARI

iv, 59-60; Ibn al-'Imad, Shadharat, iii, 30; Hadjdjr
Khalifa, v, 629; Kahhala, Mu'alliftn, iv, 253, xiii,
391. (Maribel Fierro)

al-TABARI, Abu Dja'far Muhammad b. DjarIr
b. YazTd, polymath, whose expertises included tradi-
tion and law but who is most famous as the supreme
universal historian and Kur'an commenta-
tor of the first three or four centuries of
Islam, born in the winter of 224-5/839 at Amul,
died at Baghdad in 310/923.
1. Life.

It should be noted at the outset that al-Tabari's
own works, in so far as they have been preserved for
us, give little hard biographical data, though they
often give us leads to his teachers and authorities and
help in the evaluation of his personality and his schol-
arly attitudes. Several persons who knew him directly
wrote on his life and works at an early date, though
none of the works in question has survived in extenso,
and they are only known from excerpts preserved by
later authors. Thus the judge Abu Bakr Ahmad b.
Kamil (d. 350/961) was close to al-Tabari and was
an early adherent of al-Tabari's own madhhab, the
Djaririyya (see below), whilst Abu Muhammad 'Abd
Allah al-Farghanl (d. 362/972-3 [q.v.]) knew al-Tabari
when al-Farghani was a student, prepared an edition
of the latter's History and wrote a sila [g.v.] or con-
tinuation to it which contained a long obituary notice
of al-Tabarf. The Egyptian historian Abu Sa'Id b.
Yunus'al-Sadafi (d. 347/958 [see ibn yCnus] included
a section of al-Taban in his K. al-Qiuraba' "Book of
strangers [coming to Egypt]" because al-Tabarl visited
Egypt for study (see below). But there seems to have
then been an hiatus until al-Kiftl (d. 646/1248
[q.v.]) compiled an enthusiastic biography, al-Tahrir ft
akhbar Muhammad b. Djarir. For knowledge of these lost
works, we rely on the authors' material cited in the
general biographical works of al-Khatlb al-Baghdadl,
in his Ta'rikh Baghdad, and of Ibn 'Asakir, in his
Ta'nkh Dimashk (because al-Taban came to the Syrian
capital for study; see Annales, Introductio, pp. LXIX ff.),
and, above all, the literary biographical work of Yakut,
the Irshad al-anb.

Al-Tabarl stemmed from Amul [q.v.] in Tabaristan,
where his father Djarir seems to have been a mod-
erately prosperous landowner. He provided his son
with a steady income during the early part of his life,
brought to the latter from Tabaristan to Baghdad by
the annual Pilgrimage caravan from Khurasan, and
when he died (at an unknown date), al-Tabarl inher-
ited a share of his estate. Whether the family was of
indigenous stock or descended from Arab colonists in
Tabaristan is unknown. At all events, al-Tabari's mod-
est degree of financial family support enabled him to
travel extensively as a student and then, when he was
an established scholar, gave him some independence
from outside pressures and influences and from the
necessity which poorer scholars experienced of seek-
ing patronage.

He was a precocious student who was, as he him-
self states, a hafii or memoriser of the Kur'an aged
seven, qualified as an imam or leader of the Muslim
worship aged eight and studied the Prophetic tradi-
tions aged nine. It seems well-authenticated that he
left home aged twelve ft talab al-'ilm, and during a
stay of five years in the metropolis of northern Persia,
Rayy, he received an intellectual formation which
gave him solid grounding for his future career. The
most significant of his teachers there was 'Abd Allah
b. Humayd al-Razi (d. 248/862), who as Ibn Humayd
figures as an oft-quoted authority in al-Tabarf's History,

above all, for information going back to Ibn Ishak,
since Ibn Humayd was an authorised transmitter of
Ibn Ishak's Kitdb al-Magh.azi through Salama b. al-
Fadl (d. after 190/805-6). From Rayy, al-Tabari pro-
gressed naturally, at the age of less than seventeen,
to the intellectual centre of the Islamic world, Baghdad,
according to one story, in the expectation of study-
ing with Ahmad b. Hanbal (unfulfilled, at it happened,
since Ibn Hanbal died at that point). After a year in
Baghdad, he seems to have left for southern 'Irak (by
242/856-7) to study with the leading scholars of Wasit,
Basra and Kufa, whom he was afterwards to cite in
his own works, such as Muhammad b. 'Abd al-A'la
al-San'anl (d. 255/869) and Muhammad b. Bashshar,
called Bundar (d. 252/866, see Sezgin, i, 113-24) in
Basra, and Abu Kurayb Muhammad b. al-'Ala' (d.
247 or 248/861-2) in Kufa. He probably returned to
Baghdad after less than two years away and spent
eight further years there, including a spell as tutor to
one of the sons of the caliph al-Mutawakkil's vizier
'Ubayd Allah b. Yahya b. Khakan [see ibn bjakan.
2], hence at some point between 244/858-9 and
248/862.

He then embarked on his major educational and re-
search journey, this time to Syria, Palestine and Egypt.
His precise itinerary is unknown, but he was certainly
in Beirut and the considerable number of scholars
from or connected with such towns as Hims (a par-
ticularly important centre, with its own special tradi-
tion of hadtth transmission), al-Ramla and 'Askalan
probably points to stays in those places and an inter-
change of views and information with the local schol-
ars. Al-Tabari's entry into Egypt seems to be fixable
with some certainty as the year 253/867; he made a
side-trip to the Syrian lands and then came back to
Egypt, possibly in 256/870, though this is much less
sure than the first date. In Egypt he met the lead-
ing Egyptian muhaddzth and authority on the kira'at
Yunus b. 'Abd al-A'la (d. 264/877, see Sezgin, i, 38),
and profited especially from contacts with the leading
authorities there on Malikism and Shafi'ism, includ-
ing with the Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam [q.v.] family, which
had been especially close to the Imam Muhammad
al-Shafi'T and whose head was the eminent scholar
Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah b. 'Abd al-Hakam.

Al-Tabari returned from Egypt to Baghdad around
the year 256/870. He may at some point have made
the Pilgrimage but cannot have made a prolonged stay
there for study, since HidjazI scholars do not seem
to figure amongst his teachers. His return to Baghdad
marked the end of his student Wanderjahre, and he
now settled down for the remaining fifty years of his
life in order to devote himself to teaching and author-
ship, producing an amount of high-quality scholarship
such as to evoke the admiration, in an age of pro-
lific authors anyway, of both contemporaries and sub-
sequent generations. During this half-century, he merely
made two journeys to his native Tabaristan, the sec-
ond in 289-90/902-3. See, in general, for al-Tabari's
years of learning and study, with lists of his teachers,
CI. Gilliot, La formation intellectuelle de Taban, in JA,
cclxxvi (1988), 203-44, and idem, Exegese, langue et the-
ologie en Islam. L'exegese coranique de Tabari (m. 311/923),
Paris 1990, ch. I, 19-37 (adds additional references to
the preceding a

He v

v able h

plicity of branches of knowledge. This was to embrace
not only history, Kur'an exegesis, hadith and fikh, but
he also possibly wrote in the field of ethics and had
an educated person's interest in Arabic poetry. His
comfortable, if not luxurious, financial and economic

s enabled him to follow an even tenor
of life in which he seems to have eaten temperately,
dressed modestly and generally to have avoided excess
in all things. Anecdotal evidence suggests that he never
accepted any official employment (such as that of kadi
or judge, for which he would have been supremely
well-equipped), although his post as tutor to the son
of a vizier would doubdess have given him the entree
to such a career had he wished for it. These stories
also stress his high moral standards and his great pro-
bity, with a reluctance to accept in return for ser-
vices costly gifts which he did not feel he had earned
or for which he could not give equally valuable pre-
sents in return. He did probably add to his income
from teaching a wide circle of students, one increas-
ingly attracted by his fame, although he does not
seem energetically to have sought after such sources
of income; and he may perhaps have received fees
for legal advice and opinions, one apparent instance
being for services rendered to the caliph al-Muktafi
[q.v.]. It does not appear that he ever married, but
was wed to his scholarship; his continuator and biogra-
pher, the Andalusian Maslama b. al-Kasim al-Kurtubi
(d. 353/964) says that he lived as an hasur, one lead-
ing a celibate life. On the sketchy evidence of one
story, he may conceivably have had a son by a slave
mother; his having a kunya, Abu Dja'far. does not of
course imply in any way that he was a biological
father. No progeny of his is mentioned, as one would
certainly expect of a man of his celebrity, and all
the evidence points to the fact that al-Tabarl never
married.

In Baghdad, he apparently installed himself on the
eastern side of the city, in al-Shammasiyya, certainly
in this quarter by the year 290/903, and lived there
till he died, aged about 85 lunar years, on Monday,
27 Shawwal 310/17 February 923. He was buried in
his house on the next day, much eulogised by the schol-
ars of his day; one of these encomia, by al-Tabari's
acquaintance the philologist Ibn Durayd [q.v.], is pre-
served in its entirety.

The Baghdad years were filled with his various
scholarly activities which, as noted above, embraced
not only the traditional "Arab" sciences in which he
excelled and with which he was primarily concerned,
but also the "foreign" science of medicine; he pos-
sessed a copy of the medical encyclopaedia, the Firdaws
al-hihna, of his older contemporary and compatriot
•All b. Rabban al-Tabari (d. in the 850s or early
860s? [q.v.]), and occasionally prescribed medical treat-
ment for friends and students. All his surviving works
indicate that he had a reverence for scholarship and
wished to present what must have already become,
over the course of some two-and-a-half centuries, a
formidable body of knowledge in such fields as fikh,
tafsir, haaith and akhbar in as concise and accurate a
manner as possible. An anecdote says that he origi-
nally intended his History and his Commentary to be
much lengthier and more detailed, but cut them down
to more manageable proportions for his students and
later scholars; the tale is very probably apocryphal,
but indicates al-Tabari's concern for conveying essen-
tials in a form which could be used by the follow-
ing generations.

In his approach to scholarship, most notable is his
emphasis on idjtihad [q.v.] or independent exercise of
judgement. After quoting his sources — in his major
works, he depended essentially on existing written
works and reports — he gives what he considers to be
the most acceptable view. His own dogmatic beliefs
appear to have been basically within the framework

of "orthodox" Islam as conceived, e.g. in the envi-
ronment of Ibn Hanbal just before al-Tabari's time
and that of al-Ash'ari after him. This is clear from
his extant dogmatic writings such as the Sarih al-sunna
and the partly-preserved Tabsir utl 'l-nuhd wa-ma'alim
al-huda (see below, section 3., nos. v, vi) and he fur-
ther appears as a firm opponent of all "heretical inno-
vations" (bida') [see bid'a]. On the question of the
imamate or headship and leadership of the Muslim
community, the most hotly-disputed dogmatic ques-
tion of his time, when Shi'ism was becoming a force
not only in peripheral areas like the Caspian provinces
and Yemen but also in the heartland of the caliphate
itself, he was a resolute defender of the pre-eminence
of all four of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, venerating
Abu Bakr and 'Umar and defending the rights of 'All
equally. Nevertheless, since accusations of Shi'i sym-
pathies, however ill-founded, were a standard weapon
at this time against opponents, al-Tabari seems to
have found himself accused of such sympathies by his
Hanbali opponents, who were to stir up the Baghdad
mob against al-Tabari on more than one occasion.
Yet despite his origins from Tabaristan — which had
not, in any case, become in the early 3rd/9th cen-
tury so closely identified with ZaydT Shi'ism as it was
later to become — there is no evidence whatever of
any inclination by al-Tabari towards Shi'ism beyond
the admiration for 'Air as a person which was often
found in the staunchest of Sunnls. In fikh, al-Tabari
was at first a Shafi'i, but as his views developed into
a distinct and self-sustaining corpus of law, he and
his followers came to constitute themselves as a sep-
arate madhhab, that of the Djaririyya (named after his
father, a not uncommon feature of the nomenclature
of sects and schools, cf. the Kharidjite 'Adjarida and
Azarika [q.w.]). In al-Taban's later years, his students
were considered as adherents of the Djanriyya, and
the school's ranks included several leading scholars of
the age; but its principles do not seem to have been
distinctive enough from Shafi'ism to have ensured its
future growth and development after al-Taban's death,
especially since the intellectual environment was one
in which the three well-established Sunn! madhahib of
the Malikiyya, Hanafiyya and Shafi'iyya were by now
firmly entrenched and competing for supremacy in
various regions of the Islamic world.

Al-Taban had debates and altercations with Abu
Bakr Muhammad b. Dawud, son of the founder of
the Zahiri law school with whom al-Tabarl had in
fact studied [see dawud b. 'ali b. khalaf], but these
took place on the level of courtesy and mutual respect.
His conflicts with the belligerent and uncompromis-
ing Hanbalis were, on the other hand, acerbic and
may well have had a disturbing and unsettling effect
on al-Taban's life. Hanbalism was at this time strug-
gling to carve a niche for itself alongside the exist-
ing three main madhahib and its advocates were
pugnacious and often unscrupulous, being ready to
whip up the mindless Baghdad mob. Al-Tabari him-
self had originally been drawn to study at Baghdad
by the presence there of Ahmad b. Hanbal (see above),
and he always regarded him with great respect; he
and Ibn Hanbal's youngest son 'Abd Allah, the trans-
mitter of his father's teaching, had many common
teachers. The break with the Hanbalis seems to have
occurred over al-Tabarfs legal work, the lkhlilif
al-fukaha' (see below, section 3. no. iii) in which al-
Taban totally disregarded Ibn Hanbal as being es-
sentially a hadtth scholar and not a jurist. This was
a perfectly valid and sustainable judgement, but it
enraged the touchy Hanbalis. The ensuing dispute —

only known to us in the form of conflicting reports
from both sides — involved such rallying-points for the
Hanbalis as the interpretation of Kur'an, XVII, 81/79,
with its mention of the "praiseworthy position" (makam™
mahmud m ) promised to the Prophet: did this mean, as
a tradition from the Successor Mudjahid b. Djabr
[q.v.] stated, that Muhammad would be seated with
God on the divine throne, as the Hanbalis asserted?
Al-Tabari discussed the interpretation of the phrase
at great length in his Commentary (ed. Bulak, x, 97-
100, partial tr. Rosenthal, in 77k History of al-Tabari,
i, General introduction and from the Creation to the Flood,
Albany, N.Y. 1989, 149-51), and in a circumspect and
reasoned manner, but — perhaps aroused by HanbalT
intransigence and misinterpretation — is said publicly
to have denied the credibility of Mudjahid's tradition,
and this led to Hanbalis stoning his house in a riot
which had to be put down by the Baghdad shurta.
The Hanbalis may have been behind occasional dif-
ficulties which al-Tabari had in delivering his lectures
and may have deterred students from coming to him
from outside Baghdad. Violence around al-Tabarl's
house is reported at the time of his death, again
involving the controversial makdnf mahmud"" formula,
although the reports of HanbalT hostility at the time
of his funeral may be exaggerated; if al-Tabarl's funeral
was a quiet one, attended by few people, it was prob-
ably because al-Tabari had thus requested it.

2. Al-Tabarl's methodology.

This topic has already been broached in regard to
al-Tabarfs emphasis on idjtihad after a thorough con-
sideration of his sources, these being essentially writ-
ten ones. The great virtues of his History and Commentary
are that they form the most extensive of extant early
works of Islamic scholarship and that they preserve
for us the greatest array of citations from lost sources.
They thus furnish modern scholarship with the rich-
est and most detailed sources for the political history
of the early caliphate, above all for the history of the
eastern and central lands of the Dar al-Islam during
the first centuries of the Hidjra, and also for the early
stages of the development and subsequent variety and
vitality of Islam as a religious institution and corpus
of legal knowledge and practice.

In the building-up of these two great syntheses of
knowledge, al-Tabari relied, as by this time had be-
come possible, on a wide spectrum of written sources
which were available to him. When he introduced
sources by such formulae as haddathana, akhbarana or
kataba, this meant that he had the idjaza [q.v.] for the
book from which the passage in question was quoted,
whilst when he relied on older books for which he had
no firm transmission tradition on which he could rely,
he used words like kdla, dhakara, rawa, huddithtu, etc.
Hence al-Tabarl's works are above all compilations
of material written down during the two centuries
from ca. 50/670 to ca. 250/864, and he did not in
general use the works of his contemporaries. In his
Commentary, when he does not trace traditions back to
the Prophet, this means that al-Tabarfs sources were
books which enshrined the interpretations or exegesis
of their authors or their contemporaries.

We must not suppose that al-Tabari worked single-
mindedly on a particular work, completed it and then
went on to a fresh project. It is likely that all his
major works first took shape as dictated lectures (see,
concerning this technique, mustamlI), and developed
and grew over lengthy periods of his life, especially
when the subject-matter concerned allowed of its
treatment in self-contained, component sections. This
meant that a work might reach its final form on a

certain date but parts of it might well have been in
circulation at earlier times. This accounts for the facts
that the same work appears under different titles, or
that what seem to be works with separate titles are
in fact component parts of greater works. But in any
case, al-Tabari rarely gives formal titles when he him-
self cites his works, but rather, he refers to them by
their subject-matter; formal titles may never have
existed for some (or the majority) of them. All these
uncertainties make it difficult to arrange his works
chronologically, although there is a certain amount of
evidence, internal and external, regarding their times
of composition and their issue in final, complete copies.

3. Works.

Only al-Tabarl's major works are mentioned here.
A complete listing of titles as mentioned in the sources,
including those which seem to denote parts of larger
works only or which appear to be wrongly attributed
to al-Taban, is given by Rosenthal, in his General intro-
duction, 81-134, with a classification by subject and an
attempt at placing the works in chronological order,
is given in his Appx. B at 152-4. Likewise valuable
is Gilliot, Us mvres de Tabari, in MIDEO, xix (1989),
49-90 (Gilliot must have been writing contemporane-
ously with Rosenthal), concentrating with great detail
on al-Tabarfs works in the field of the legal sciences;
Gilliot points out (49-50) how great a confusion there
exists regarding the number, titles and contents of
al-Tabarfs works as listed in the sources, in large
measure due to the fact that kitab is used both for
complete works and also for chapter titles only. Ch. II
of his Exegese, kngue et the'ologie en Islam (39-68) modifies
his MIDEO article in some points. Of older listings,
see Brockelmann, l\ 148-9, S I, 217-18, and Sezgin,
i, 326-8.

i. The History, usually simply referred to as such
because of its fame; its most authentic title, as given
by al-Taban himself in the colophon of one of the
manuscripts, would appear to be Mukhtasar ta'nkh al-
rusul wa 'l-muluk wa 'l-khulafa", but others are found.
The use of the term mukhtasar "short version, epitome"
apparently reflected the author's own modesty and
may also have reflected the report that the fuller, origi-
nal version was ten times as long as the extant version,
which itself fills twelve-and-a-half volumes in the
printed Leiden edition made by the team of editors
brought together by M.J. de Goeje in the later 19th
century (Annates quos scripsit Abu Djafar Mohammed ibn
Djarir at-Tabari, 1879-1901, 15 vols, including Introduc-
tio, Glossarium, Addenda et corrigenda, Indices, etc.).

In form it is a universal history, dealing firstly with
the Creation, the Old Testament patriarchs and pro-
phets, the rulers of ancient Israel and of the ancient
Persians, and the culmination of the prophets before
Muhammad, Jesus, before arriving at the history of
the Persian Sasanids. Then, after the account of the
career of the Prophet Muhammad, the History is
arranged annalistically, with very great detail on the
conquests period, the Umayyads and 'Abbasids, ups
to the date 22 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 902/6 July 915. Al-
Tabarfs sources included an Arabic version of the
Persian Kh w atay-namag or "Book of Kings" for pre-
Islamic Persian history and an array of akhbariyyun for
early Islamic history, such as al-Zuhrl, Abu Mikhnaf,
al-Mada'im, Sayf b. 'Umar, Nasr b. Muzahim, 'Umar
b. Shabba, Ibn Ishak, Ibn Sa'd, al-Wakidi, Ibn Abi
Tahir Tayfur [q.vv.], etc. (Sezgin, i, 324 n. 1, mentions
a study published as articles from 1950 to 1961 by
the 'Iraki scholar Djawad 'All, on al-Tabarfs sources,
Mawarid Ta'nkh al-Tabari). Al-Taban gave parallel ac-
counts from all these last authorities of earlier Islamic

times, rather than attempting to furnish a conflated,
connected story of historical events, even when the
parallel accounts could not easily be harmonised or
were even contradictory. His aim was, rather, to pre-
sent the evidence for the course of the early Islamic
history of the lands between Egypt and the far east-
ern fringes of the Iranian world so that others could
evaluate it in a more critical fashion should they so
wish. Hence a later historian like Ibn al-Athir was to
use the History very extensively, in general simplifying
it, endeavouring to harmonise disparate accounts and
trying to supply gaps from other sources. It was, in-
deed, through intermediaries like Ibn al-Athir that
subsequent historians continued indirectly to use the
History, at a time when complete manuscripts of the
original were less and less copied and were becom-
ing harder to find: Ibn KhaldOn at first copied the
famous wasiyya or charge of Tahir Dhu '1-YamTnayn
to his son 'Abd Allah from Ibn al-Athir, and was
only later able to collate this with the original text
of al-Tabarf (actually itself stemming from Ibn AbT
Tahir Tayfur) (see Mukaddima, tr. Rosenthal, ii, 139
n. 751). The specific relationship between al-Tabarf' s
History and Ibn al-Athir's Kamil was examined by
C. Brockelmann in his dissertation Das Verhaltnis von
Ibn al-Atirs Kamil fit-ta'rih zu Tabaris Ahbar er-rusul wal
muluk (Strassburg 1890).

The work's fame speedily led to continuations by
other Arabic scholars, such as the Sila of the Anda-
lusian scholar 'Arlb b. Sa'd al-Kurtubi; the Mudhayyil
or Sila of al-Tabarf s pupil Abu Muhammad 'All al-
Fargham, who had his master's idjaza to transmit the
History; the Tabnila of Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Malik
al-Hamadham; continuations by Hilal b. al-Muhassin
al-Sabi' and his son Ghars al-Ni'ma; etc. A Persian
adaptation was made in 352/963 by the Samanid
vizier Abu 'All Muhammad al-Bal'ami [see bal'ami]
which epitomised the original but added a certain
amount of new matter, making it to some extent an
additional historical source besides being of philo-
logical interest for students of early New Persian (see
G. Lazard, La langue des plus anciens monuments de la
prose persane, Paris 1963, 38-41; E.L. Daniel, Manuscripts
and editions of Bal'ami's Tarjamah-i tarfkh-i Tabari, in
JRAS [1990], 282-308), with further Arabic and
Turkish translations made from this last. See Sezgin,
i, 327, and sila, at vol. IX, 604b; and for knowl-
edge of the History in the West, and previous trans-
lations of parts of it before the appearance of the
English translation under the general editorship of
Ehsan Yarshater (The History of al-Tabari, an annotated
translation, Albany N.Y. 1985-, to be completed in 38
vols.), see Rosenthal, General introduction, 135-47. See
also on the History, D.S. Margoliouth, Lectures on Arabic
historians, Calcutta 1930, 110-12; Rosenthal, A history
of Muslim historiography' 1 , Leiden 1 968, index.

ii. The Commentary, the official title of which, DJami'
al-bayan 'an ta'vvil al-Kur'an, is mentioned in the History
but was never apparently much in general use, the
work being simply known as the Tafsir par excellence.
Al-Tabarf worked on this, too, over many years, and
it was not ready for dissemination till some date
between 283/896 and 290/903. It was immediately
regarded very highly, and probably considered as al-
Taban's outstanding achievement, even more so than
his works on law and tradition; it has retained its
importance for scholars till the present day. The
Jacobite Christian philosopher and theologian Yahya
b. 'Adr (d. 363/974 [q.v.]) reportedly copied it twice
for sale to provincial rulers. Also like the History, it
is said to have been longer than its present very

extended form; an authority cited in Yakut's Irshad
says that he saw a manuscript of it in Baghdad of
4,000 folios, although this does not seem to be extra-
ordinarily longer than the 3,000 and more closely-
printed pages of the text which we have.

In his work, al-Tabarf in general treated the Kur'anic
verses from a grammatical and lexicographical stand-
point, but also made dogmatic theological and legal
deductions from the Kur'an text. After the commen-
tary of Mukatil b. Sulayman (d. 150/767 [q.v.]) al-
Taban's is the first major commentary to have
survived — perhaps one should say that it is the first
major running commentary tout court to have sur-
vived — other ones antedating al-Tabari, such as those
of al-Hasan al-Basrf [q.v.] , having to be reconstructed
or such as those of Mudjahid b. Djabr and 'Abd al-
Razzak b. Hammam al-Himyarf al-San'ani (d. 21 1/827
[q.v.]) having survived only fragmentarily in late, pos-
sibly reconstituted manuscripts. Al-Tabari took over
al-Himyari's commentary in its entirety for his own
work. H. Horst, in his %ur Oberlieferung im Korankommentar
at-Tabafis, in ZDMG, ciii (1953), 290-307, surmised that
al-Tabari in fact used several, complete, older com-

The Commentary's great value and its popularity en-
sured that supercommentaries upon it and epitomes
early appeared, with an abridgement speedily made
by the Baghdadr scholar of Turkish origin, Ibn al-
Ikhshrd (d. 326/938, cf. Sezgin, i, 624, and D. Gimaret,
EIr art. Ebn al-Eksid). A Persian translation was com-
missioned by the Samanid amir Mansur I b. Nuh I
(d. 365/976) and made by a group of scholars in
Transoxania; this translation, or rather, adaptation,
has survived in far fewer copies than al-Bal'amr's
Tard}ama-yi Ta'rikh-i Tabari, but these manuscripts are
old and the text likewise of great philological inter-
est (see Lazard, op. cit., 41-5). A French abridged
translation and an English translation have recently
started to appear (see Rosenthal, Introduction, 111),
though it may be doubted whether any modern trans-
lation can convey the subdety of al-Tabarf's thought
and scholarship except in a very circuitous and prolix
fashion. See further, tafsir, and the extensive works
on early Kur'an exegesis by Gilliot, including his Textes
anciens edites en Egypte, in MIDEO, xix (1989) to xxii
(1996), Les debuts de I'exegese coranique, in RMMM, lviii
(1990), 82-100, Exegese, langue et theologie en Islam, and
Mythe, recit, histoire du salul dans le commentaire coranique
de Tabari, in JA, cclxxxii (1994), 235-68. The Com-
mentary was first printed in 30 vols, at Cairo, 1321/
1903, with a further edition (considered the better of
these two) in 1323/1905, and more recendy edited
by Mahmud Muhammad Shakir and A.M. Shakir,
16 vols.' Cairo 1954-68, incomplete (up to sura XIV,
27); the best, complete edition is now that of A.S.
'All, Mustafa al-Sakka et alii, Cairo 1954-7, repr. Beirut
with indices, 30 vols.

iii. The Ikhtilaf al-jukaha' , partially preserved, seems
to have had the full tide Ikhtilaf 'ulama' al-amsar ji
ahkam shara'i' al-Islam. In this work on the differences
between the approaches and doctrines of the "ortho-
dox" great jurists of early Islam, al-Tabari, accord-
ing to Yakut, presented the legal scholarship of Malik
b. Anas, al-Awza'I, Sufyan al-Thawri, al-Shafi'i, Abu
Hamfa, Abu Yusuf, Muhammad al-Shaybam and (?)
Abu Thawr Ibrahim al-Kalbi, but excluded any rep-
resentation of the Mu'tazila (and, as noted above, in
section 1., he excluded Ibn Hanbal as not primarily
a fakih). Yakut also reports that the original ran to
about 3,000 folios. The Cairo fragment was edited
by F. Kern, Cairo 1902, and the Cairo one by

J. Schacht,' Das Konstantinopkr Fragment des Kitab ihtilaf
al-fuqaha', Leiden 1933. See Rosenthal, General intro-
duction, 103-5; Gilliot, Les mares de Tabari, 52-6.

iv. Tahdhib al-athar [wa-tafsil ma'am al-t/sabit 'an Rasul
Allah min al-ahkbar] was al-Taban's most ambitious
work on traditions, arranged according to the latest
transmitter of the hadiths, and also according to the
Prophet's Companions, but apparently never completed.
It is more than a mere collection of traditions like
Ibn Hanbal's Musnad, but examines exhaustively the
philological and legal implications of each tradition,
discussing its meaning and characteristics (e.g. whether
it has any 'ilal or weaknesses) as well as its significance
for religious practice; its contents thus amount to mon-
graphs on a number of topics. Only fragments are
preserved, including those in which al-Taban took
material from the Musnads, of traditions going back to
the Companions 'Umar b. al-Khattab, 'All and 'Abd
Allah b. al-'Abbas [see musnad, at vol. VII, 706 a,
middle]. What remains of the Musnads going back
to the second and third of these three authorities
has been published by Mahmud Muhammad Shakir,
3 vols. Beirut n.d., introd. dated 1982. See Rosenthal,
op. cit., 128-30; Gilliot, op. cit., 68-70; idem, Le traite-
ment du hadlt dans le Tahdfb al-atar de Tabari, in
Arabica, xii (1994), 309-51.

v. Tabsir uli 'l-nuha wa-ma'alim al-huda, partly pre-
served and still in manuscript, is a statement of the
principles of the faith (usul al-din) written at the re-
quest of the scholars of his home town of Amul. See
Rosenthal, op. cit., 126-8.

vi. Sank al-sunna, a brief profession of faith or creed
('akida), preserved, and published with a French trans-
lation by D. Sourdel, Une profession de foi de I'historien
al-Tabarl, in REI, xxxvi (1968), 177-99. See Rosenthal,
op. cit., 125-6.

vii. al-Fasl bayn al-kira'a, preserved but unpublished,
on Kur'anic readings, also mentioned under the title
al-Djami' ft 'l-kira'at, this last was conceivably, but im-
probably, a separate work. Yakut quotes Abu 'Air al-
Hasan al-Ahwazi (d. 446/1054-5) that the latter had
seen a copy of it in 18 volumes, admittedly in a large
script. See Rosenthal, op. cit., 95-7; Gilliot, op. cit, 73.

viii. Dhayl al-mudljayyal, only surviving in a brief
selection (muntakhab), was a supplement to al-Tabarf s
History, with historical information on the religious
scholars needed in connection with the History. The
surviving text was appended to the Leiden edition of
the History at iii, 2295-2561. The whole work would
appear to be that often mentioned by the literary
biographers, etc., as the Ta'rikh al-Ridjal, i.e. of reli-
gious scholars. See Rosenthal, op. cit., 89-90; Gilliot,
op. cit., 72.

Numerous other, substantially lost works are men-
tioned both within al-Tabari's own works or in later
literature, including a Latif al-kawl ft shara'i' al-Islam
(many variants of this tide), a "slim" work on the laws
and principles of the Islamic faith; separate works on
the fada'il or merits of the first four caliphs and of
the Prophet's uncle al-' Abbas, on which al-Taban seems
at times to have lectured and for which he gathered
material, without living long enough to put this into
a single, compendious work; on the interpretation of
dreams, 'Ibarat al-ru'ya; a refutation of the founder of
the Zahiriyya, Dawud b. 'All, al-Radd 'aid dhi 'l-asfar;
a refutation of some of Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam's view
on Malik, originating during his stay in Egypt; etc.
There were also various works which were probably
falsely attributed to al-Tabarl, including, e.g., al-Radd
'old 'l-Hurkusiyya; cf. on this last work, Rosenthal,
op. cit., 123-4 (accepting the possibility that it was by

al-Tabari), and Gilliot, op. cit., 24-6 (sceptical of the

attribution).

Bibliography: For earlier works, see the Bibl. to
R. Paret's EI' art. The more recent bibl. is given
by Rosenthal — combined with that for his tr. of
the first 201 pp. of the History — in his General intro-
duction . . ., 373-8, and Gilliot has a very detailed
bibliography appended t(

n Islam. Refere:

within the

body of the present article, which is based substan-
tially on Rosenthal's exhaustive General introduction.
Finally, one should note, of most recently-appeared
works, Gilliot, Tabari et les Chretiens tagEbites, in Univer-
site Saint-Joseph, Faculte des Lettres et des Sciences
Humaines, Annates du Department des Lettres Arabes,
vi/B (1991-2) [1996] (= In memoriam Professeur Jean
Maurice Fiey, o.p., 1914-1995), 145-59 (al-Taban held
that the People of the Book should be expelled
from the whole of the Dar al-Islam when they were
no longer of use to the Muslim community); and
idem, Al-Tabari and "The history of salvation", in
H. Kennedy (ed.), Procs. of the conference on the life
and works of Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari, St. Andrews
30 August-2 September 1995, forthcoming.

(C.E. Bosworth)
al-TABARI, al-Kadi al-Imam Abu 'l-Tayyib Tahir
b. 'Abd Allah b. 'Umar b. Tahir, principal au-
thority of his time in the 'Iraki branch of
Shafi'ism [see shafi'iyya], born at Amul in Taba-
ristan in 348/959-60, died in Baghdad in RabT' I
450/May 1058.

At fourteen years of age, Abu 'l-Tayyib al-Tabarl
began his legal training under the tutelage of Abu
'Air al-Zadjdjadjr, who had been a pupil of Ibn al-
Kass, in his turn a disciple of the great Ibn Suraydj
[q.v.]. Al-Taban completed his education with various
Shafi'i masters, primarily Abu '1-Hasan al-Masardjisi
but also Abu Ishak al-Isfara'ini, who taught him the-
ology and usul al-frkh, and Abu Hamid al-Isfara'Inl,
in Djurdjan, Nrsabur and Baghdad, where he estab-
lished himself definitively.

"The Judge" (al-Kadi), as he was called by 'Iraki
Shafi'Is, pursued parallel careers as an educator and
a judge. He apparently composed a considerable body
of work in various branches of legal sciences but only
a fragment of one of his texts, al-Ta'Uka (it is either
a commentary which he wrote on the Mukhtasar of
al-Muzanl or his commentary on the furu' of Ibn al-
Haddad), has survived to this day in manuscript form
(Istanbul, Ahmet III, no. 850, see G. Makdisi, Ibn
'Aqil, Damascus 1963, 204). In fact, as is indicated
by the manner in which al-Tabari is introduced by
al-Nawawi ("the master of the author of the Muhadh-
dhab": Tahdhib al-asma' wa 'l-lughat, Beirut n.d., ii, 247),
his renown was rapidly eclipsed by that of his more
famous disciple, Abu Ishak al-Shirazi [q.v.], who
devoted to him one of the most laudatory notices in
his Tabakdt al-fukaha', describing him as "the greatest
mudjtahid" whom he had ever encountered (Beirut n.d.,
135). Only the tides of his other works have been
preserved (besides the two above-mentioned works:
al-Mudjarrad, al-Minhddj ft 'l-khilaftyyat and Tabakdt al-
shafi'iyya, Beirut 1988, 210-11). Al-Taban conducted
his lectures in a masdjid in the Bab al-Mardtib quar-
ter of Baghdad, attracting large numbers of students.
Among his disciples or pupils who are still renowned,
are included the Shafi'i historian and traditionist al-
Khatlb al-Baghdadi and the Hanbali Ibn 'Akil [q.vv.].
An important personality of Baghdad (madinat al-
salam), and already well advanced in age, al-Tabarl was
appointed to the post of judge {kadi) of the Karkh

quarter at the time of the death, in 436/1045, of his
predecessor in this function, the Hanafi al-Saymari.
Abandoning teaching, al-Tabari remained kadi of al-
Karkh until his death. According to al-Shlrazi, although
a centenarian "his reason was not disturbed nor his
understanding impaired". His funeral was conducted
on a lavish scale in the mosque of al-Mansur and he
was interred in the cemetery of Bab al-Harb.
Bibliography: In the corpus of Shafi'i biogra-
phical literature, it is invariably the notice devoted
to al-Taban by al-Shlrazi (see above) which is re-
produced as such, usually without any addition.
The notice devoted to him by al-Subkl (Tabakat
al-shafiHyya al-kubrd, Cairo n.d., v, 12-50) is consid-
erably longer because it is augmented by, firstly,
lengthy quotations from poems of al-Tabari; sec-
ondly, the text of the controversies in which he was
opposed by the Hanaffs (Abu '1-Hasan al-Talikani,
who was kadi of Balkh, and Abu '1-Husayn al-
KudQrl); and thirdly, a brief account of the special
features of the master's legal thinking.

(E. Chaumont)
al-TABARI, Ahmad b. 'Abd Allah b. Muhammad
b. Abi Bakr Muhi'bb al-Din Abu Dja'far and' Abu '1-
'Abbas, ShafiT traditionist and jurist, b. 27
Djumada II 615/20 September 1218, d. 2 Djumada
II 694/19 April 1295.

Considered as the greatest scholar of his century
in the Hidjaz, he was born into a family who had
recently settled in Mecca and who were destined to
become one of the most important buyutdt. His great-
grandfather, Abu Bakr, had emigrated from Tabaristan
to the Holy City in the seventies of the 6th/' 12th cen-
tury. There he married and had seven sons and one
daughter. From the second generation onwards the
family became well established, with several of his sons
already occupying prestigious positions (khatlb, kadi
and imam of the makam Ibrahim [q.v.] ; in fact, this last
position became the almost exclusive privilege of this
family until the 18th century).

Al-Taban was educated essentially at Mecca. Sources
do not take into account any rihla fl lalab al-'ilm. His
principal teachers were the Hanbali traditionist Ibn al-
Mukayyar (545-643/1 151-1246, al-Fasi, Dhayl al-takyid,
ii, 189-90), Ibn Abi Harami (d. 645/1247, Brockel-
mann, S I, 607), the Maliki scholar Sharaf al-Dm al-
Mursr (569-655/1173-1257, Brockelmann, I, 312; S I,
546), the Shafi'i traditionist Ibn al-Djummayzi (559-
649/1 164-1251, al-Safadl, al-Wafi, xxii, 284), the mys-
tic Bashlr b. Hamid al-Tibrlzi (570-646/1174-1248,
al-Safadr, x, 161-2), and finally 'Air b. Abi Bakr al-
Taban (576-640/1180-1242, al-Fasi, al-'Ikd al-thamln,
vi, 143-4) and Ya'kQb b. Abi Bakr al-Tabari (592-665/
1195-1266, al-Fasi, vii, 473), both uncles of his father.
He went to Kus [q.v.] to complete his education as a
legal expert with the Maliki Madjd al-Din al-Kushayri
(581-667/1185-1268, al-Safadl, xxii, 298-303).

Al-Tabari maintained privileged relations with the
Rasulid dynasty of the Yemen. Sultan al-Muzaffar
(r. 647-94/1250-95) appointed him as teacher in the
madrasa of al-Mansuriyya, which had been founded by
his father al-Mansur within the precincts of the Ka'ba.
Al-Tabari travelled repeatedly to the Yemen to impart
a knowledge of the tradition and of some of his own
works to the sultan himself and to his children. He
was the author of about forty works that have largely
disappeared. The most important of them can be c
veniently classified according to their main then
Kur'an, Fikh, Hadith, History, Poetry, Mysticism ;
Miscellaneous,
a. Kur'an

(1) al-Kabas al-asna fl kashf al-gfrarib wa 'l-ma'na; (2)
al-Kafi fl gharib al-Kur'an al-djami' bayn al-'Uzayzi wa
'l-bayan; (3) K Marsum al-mushaf al-'uthmani al-madani;
(4) a tafsir.

b. Fikh

(5) 'Awatif al-nusra fl al-tawaf wa 'l-'umra, 3. fatwa on
the preferences available for the circumambulation or
the minor pilgrimage (imicum at Princeton, no. 2275);
(6) Istiksd' al-baydn fl mas'ala Shddhirwdn, fatwa on the
Shadhirwan of the Ka'ba; (7) a madjmu' fi 'l-khilaf in
the style of the ancients; (8) a summary (al-Maslak al-
nabih fl talkhis al-Tanbih) and a commentary on the
Tanbih by al-Shirazi.

c. Hadith

(9) Ghdyat al-ihkam fl ahddith al-ahkam, a collection
of precepts drawn from the canonic corpus or other-
wise in six volumes (the work is preserved in its
entirety in manuscript); (10) al-Tabari produced two
abridged versions of this: al-Ahkam al-wusta and al-
Ahkam al-sughra; (11) al-Kira li-kasid umm al-kura, a text
on the rites of pilgrimage (ed. M. al-Sakka, Cairo
1367/1948); (12) Safwat al-kira fl sifat hidjdjat ' al-Mustajd,
partly abridged from al-Kira (ed. R.M. FUdwan, Cairo
1354/1935); (13) £ Gharib %dmi' al-usul, commentary
on the rara of Qidmi' al-usul of Madjd al-Din Ibn al-
Athir [q.v.] (ms. Ragib Pasa Musalla Medresesi 1950/
60); (14) al-Muharrar li 'l-Malik al-Muzaffar, a collec-
tion of precepts of the two Sahihs dedicated to the
Rasulid sultan al-Muzaffar; (15) al-Umda, an abridged
version of the previously-mentioned work; (16) two
alphabetic rearrangements of al-Gharib fi 'l-hadith of
Abu 'Ubayd al-Kasim b. Sallam [q.v.]: al-Durr al-
manthur li 'l-Malik al-Mansur and Takrib al-mardm fl
gjtafib al-Kasim b. Sallam; (17) Tartib Qami' al-masamd wa
'l-alkdb, an edition of the work of Ibn al-Djawzi [q.v.] .

d. History

(18) Khulasat siyar sayyid al-bashar, a compendium on
the life of the Prophet (Indian edition 1343/1924-5);
(19) al-Riyad al-nadirafi manakib al-'ashara al-mubashshann
bi 'l-djanna, a work on the Ten Destined for Paradise
(ed. Cairo 1327/1909, many reprints); (20) Dhakha'ir
al-'ukbd fl manakib dhawl 'l-kurba, a work on the close
agnatic relationship of the Prophet (first annotated
edition based on six manuscripts by F. Bauden, see
Bibl. below); (21) al-Simt al-thamln fl manakib ummahdt
al-mu'mimn, a work on the wives of the Prophet (ed.
M.R. al-Tabbakh, Aleppo 1346/1928, with many
reprints).

(22) Diwdn (fragments in the mss. Leiden Or. 2427,
ff. 78a-b, and Berlin, Sprenger 872, ff. 173-7).

f. Mysticism

(23) Mukhtasar 'Awarif al-ma'arif, an abridged version
of the work of al-Suhrawardi [q.v.].

g. Miscellaneous

(24) two mashyakhas edited at the request of the
sultan al-Muzaffar, al-Ta'rif bi-mashyakhat al-Haram al-
sharif and al-'Ukud al-durriyya wa 'l-mashyakha al-makkiyya
al-muzaffariyya.

The attractiveness of al-Tabari lies especially in the
method which he adopted. He omitted the isnad of
the traditions which he cited but took care to give
his sources. He probably thought that the isnad dis-
tracted the reader and stopped him from coming
directly to the point which interested him, in other
words, the matn. As far as al-Tabari was concerned,
anyone preoccupied with the isnad had only to refer
to the source which he mentioned. If al-Tabari did
not innovate in regard to this method, it appears that
he was the first to make use of it on such a scale,
since he applied it to most of his works. This was

essentially why he gave a bibliographical list (170 titles)
in his introduction to al-Riyad al-nadira. He was to use
this list for his other works without having to repeat
it. Several later traditionists (al-Yafi'i, iv, 224; al-Fasi,
al-'Ikd al-thamin, iii, 62-3) reproached him for not indi-
cating which traditions were weak (da'if) or fabricated
(mawdu') as such, and this despite his method. Nonethe-
less, al-Taban remains an extremely interesting author,
if only for his sources, most of which are lost today
and which only live on in the citations which he made
of them.

Bibliography: On the family of al-Tabari at
Mecca, see F. Bauden, Les Tabariyya. Histoire d'une
importimte famille de la Mecque {Jin Xll'-fm XV s.), in
U. Vermeulen and D. De Smet (eds.), Egypt and
Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk eras, Louvain
(OLA 73), 1995, 253-66 (a preliminary study with
a family tree of 164 members of the family, from
a more extensive study which includes the family
history from the 12th to the 18th centuries. The
most thorough study of Muhibb al-Dm al-Taban
is that of Bauden, Les Tresors de la Posterite ou les
fastes des proches parents du Prophete (Kitab Daha'ir al-
'ukba ft manakib dawi al-kurba) par Muhibb al-din
Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Taban al-
Makki (ob. 694/1295). Edition critique accompagnee
d'une traduction annotee et d'une etude sur la vie et I'ceuvre
de I'auteur, unpubl. doctoral diss, in 4 volumes,
University of Liege, 1 996. Vol. i contains the biog-
raphy, a complete inventory of his works listing the
manuscripts that are still extant, and a study of the
sources in al-Riyad al-nadira and Dhakha'ir al-'ukba.
Biographical sources: Ibn Rashid, Mil' al-
'ayba, ed. Muhammad al-Khudja, v, 233-52; Bir-
zalT, Ta'rikh, ms. Berlin Sprenger 61, fol. 416a;
Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Dimashki, Tabakat 'ulama'
al-hadith, ed. I. Zaybak, iv, 258-9 no. U44; Dha-
habr, Mu'djam al-shuyukh, ed. al-Suyufi, 37 no. 34;
idem, Huffaa, iv, 1474-5; idem, 'Ibar, v, 382; 'Umari,
Masalik al-absar, facs. Frankurt, xxvii, 377; SafadI,
Waft, vii, 135-6 no. 3064; Yafi'i, Mir'at al-'djanan,
iv, 224-5; Subkr, Tabakat, v, 8-9; Asnawi, Tabakat al-
ihqfi'iyya, ed. K. al-Hut, ii, 72 no. 796; Ibn Kathlr,
Tabakat al-fukaha' al-shafi'iyyin, ms. Chester Beatty
3390, fol. 79; idem, Bidaya, xiii, 340-1; Ibn Habrb,
Durrat al-aslak, ed. Weijers and Meursinge, 1846,
290; idem, Tadhkirat al-nablh, i, 1 76; Khazradji, al-
'Ukud al-lu'lu'iyya, tr. Redhouse, i, 233, iv, ed. 'Asal,
277; Fast, al-'Ikd al-thamin, iii, 61-72; idem, Dhayl
al-takyid, i, 323 no. 643; Makrizi, Suluk, ed. Ziyada,
iii, 811, tr. Quatremere, Hist, des sultans mamlouks,
ii, 28; idem, al-Mukaffa al-kabir, i, 516-17 no. 503;
Ibn Kadi Shuhba, Tabakat al-shafi'iyya, ii, 162-4 no.
459; 'Ayni, 'Ikd al-ajuman, iii, 284-5; Ibn Taghribirdi,
al-Dalll al-shaft, ed. F. Shaltut, i, 54 no. 184; idem,
al-Manhal al-safi, i, 342-9; idem, Mdjum, viii, 74-5;
Sakhawi, al-Tuhfa al-latifa, ed. al-Fiki, i, 194; Suyuff,
Tabakat al-huffai, ed. 'A.M. 'Umar, 510-1 1 no. 1131;
Ibn al-Tmad, v, 425-6; Ibn al-Ghazzi, Diwan al-
islam, ed. S.K. Hasan, iv, 160-1 no. 1877; Baghdad!,
Hadiyyat al-'arifin, i, col. 101; ZiriklT, i, 159; Kahhala,
i, 298-9; Brockelmann, I 2 , 444-5, S I, 615; Biiadi,
Nashr al-rayyahin, i, 36-9; M. al-Hablb al-Hila, al-
Ta'rikh wa 'l-mu'arrikhun bi-Makka, 53-8.

(F. Bauden)
al-TABARI, 'All b. Rabban, a 3rd/9th century
convert from Christianity to Islam, who was
known for his writings on medical topics and for two
works in which he demonstrated the weaknesses of
his former faith and the truth of the one he embraced.
'All's father's name is recorded in a variety of

forms. Ibn al-KiftT explains that the word read by
various authors and their copyists as a name was
really the Jewish title al-rabban, which was given to
experts on the religious law, and that 'Air's father
was a distinguished Jewish scholar (T. al-Hukama',
Cairo 1326, 128, 155, repeated by Ibn Abi Usaybi'a,
'Uyun al-anba', ed. Miiller, i, 309-10). This, however,
must be regarded as an ex post facto reconstruction in
view of the fact that for most of his life 'All himself
was a Christian (e.g. Abu Dja'far al-Tabari, Ta'rikh,
iii, 1276, 1283, 1293, and Ibn Khallikan, tr. de Slane,
iii, 312, in addition to the evidence of 'Air's own
works cited below), and in all probability so was his
father's brother ('Air al-Tabari, K. al-Dln wa 'l-dawla,
ed. A. Mingana, Manchester 1923, 129). In fact, with-
out showing any religious self-consciousness, 'All ex-
plains that his father was given this tide because of
his dedication to learning (Firdaws al-hikma, ed. M.Z.
Siddiqi, Berlin 1928, 1; M. Meyerhof, 'AH ibn Rabban
at-Tabarl, ein persischer Arzt des 9. Jahrhumkrts n. Chr.,
in ZDMG, N.F. x [1931], 44, suggests it was a Syriac
tide). It seems safe to say that 'Air's full name was
Abu '1-Hasan 'All b. Sahl Rabban al-Taban.

As a native of Tabaristan, 'All is mentioned as sec-
retary to the governor Mazyar b. Karin [see karinids],
whom he represented more than once in negotiations
(al-Taban, iii, 1276-7; Fihrist, 296). He stayed loyal
throughout Mazyar's insurrection against al-Mu'tasim,
though when the governor was captured and executed
in 225/840 he was admitted to the caliph's service
in the new capital Samarra' (Fihrist, 296; Ibn Isfandiyar,
History of Tabaristan, tr. E.G. Browne, Leiden 1905, 43).
He evidently remained at court through the reigns of
al-Mu'tasim, al-Wathik and al-Mutawakkil, and the
latter made him a table companion (Fihrist, 296). Given
these connections and dates, it is difficult to identify
him with the Abu '1-Fadl 'All b. Rabban al-Nasrani,
who was secretary to the Nestorian Patriarch Timothy
I (Islamochristiana, i [1975], 158-9), since Timothy died
as early as 208/823, although 'All very probably was
a Nestorian (S.K. Samir, La reponse d'al-Saft ibn al-
'Assal a la refutation des Chretiens de 'All al-Tabari, in
Parole de I'Orient, xi [1983], 284-6).

At some point in this period he became a Muslim.
Ibn al-Nadrm suggests that this was under al-Mu'tasim
(Fihrist, 296), thus between 225/840 and the caliph's
death in 227/842; but 'All himself implies that al-
Mutawakkil played an important part in his conver-
sion, when he records this thanks for what the caliph
has done (K. al-Din wa 'l-dawla, 144).

The evidence of 'All's works themselves supports
what he says here. For elsewhere in the K. al-Din wa
'l-dawla (86, 93) he refers to an attack he has writ-
ten on Christian doctrines, the Radd 'aid al-Nasara,
and at the beginning of this earlier work he explains
that he was a Christian for the first seventy years of
his life (ed. I.A. Khalife and W. Kutsch, Ar-Radd 'ala-
n-Nasara de 'AU at-Tabari, in MUSJ, xxxvi [1959], 1 19).
This valuable item of information makes it much more
likely that he converted in al-Mutawakkil's reign, since
a conversion under al-Mu'tasim means that he would
have been improbably old by the time he came to
write the K. al-Din wa 'l-dawla, which is quite defi-
nitely linked with al-Mutawakkil. It is likely that he
converted in or after 235/850, since in the Firdaws
al-hikma, which he says he completed in this year, he
mentions al-Mutawakkil without any sign of intimacy
or thanks for kindness (Firdaws, 2).

The K. al-Din wa 'l-dawla may well have been writ-
ten in 241/855 (see A. Mingana, The book of religion
and empire, Manchester 1922, 138, n. 1), making it

0.-TABARI — JABARIYYA

possible that 'Air's conversion took place a few years
earlier, and giving 165/781 or just after as a possi-
ble date for his birth. The date of his death cannot
be fixed, though if he was over seventy in the late
230s/early 850s he cannot have survived long after
250/864.

According to this dating, it is quite possible that
the reports which link 'Air with the historian Abu
Dja'far al-Tabaif [q.v.] are correct. According to Yakut
{Udaba' vi,' 460, and cf. 429), Abu Dja'far, who was
bora in 224-5/839, took down his own copy of the
Firdaws al-hikma from 'Air's dictation. But 'All's link
with the great physician Abu Bakr Muhammad b.
Zakariyya al-RazT [q.v.], as reported by Ibn al-Kifti
(155), Ibn AbT Usaybi'a, (309) and Ibn Khallikan {loc.
cit), is problematic in view of the fact that al-RazI was
not bom until 250/864, and could not have begun
his education until 'All would have been extremely
old. This link, and particularly Ibn al-Kifti's vivid
portrayal of it, must presumably be ascribed to the
tendency to make connections between well-known
scholars in a shared discipline, and maybe also to al-
Razi's knowledge and use of 'All's medical writings.

Of 'Alfs works, twelve titles are known. These
are, according to Ibn al-Nadim (Fihrist, 296, repeated
by Ibn al-Kifti, 155), the Firdaws al-hikma, K. Tuhfiat
al-muluk, K. Kunndsh al-hadra, K. Manafi' al-a'tima wa
'l-ashriba wa 'l-'akakir, in addition, from Ibn Abi
Usaybi'a (309), K. Irfak al-hayat, K. Hifz al-sihha, K. fi
'l-rukan, K. fi 'l-hidjama, K. fit tarSb al-agjidhiya; from
Ibn Isfandiyar {History, 80), Bohr al-fawa'id; cited by
'All in the Firdaws al-hikma (113), K. al-Idah min al-
siman wa 'l-huzal wa-tahayyudj al-bah wa-ibtalihi; and the
two apologetic works, K. al-Din wa 'l-dawla, and al-
Radd 'aid al-Nasara (which 'All also calls al-Radd 'ala
asnaf al-Nasara, K. al-Din wa 'l-dawla, 86). If he is iden-
tical with the 'Air b. Rabban al-Nasrani mentioned
by Ibn al-Nadim {Fihrist, 316), then that author's
K. fi 'l-addb wa 'l-amthal 'ala madhahib al-Furs wa 'l-Rum
wa 'l-'Arab is a further tide. Of these, some may well
be alternative names for the same work.

Three of these works have been published, the
Firdaws al-hikma, the K. al-Din wa 'l-dawla and the Radd
'ala al-Nasard. The Firdaws was employed by many
later medical authors, and enjoyed considerable cir-
culation (see Meyerhof, 'AH at-Tabari's "Paradise of
Wisdom", one of the oldest Arabic compendiums of medicine,
in las, xvi [1931], 16-46). The anti-Christian works,
however, did not gain a comparable popularity. The
Radd is incomplete, but its latter sections can be recon-
structed in part from the quotations preserved in the
4th/ 10th century al-Radd 'ala al-Nasdra of another con-
vert from Christianity al-Hasan b. Ayyub (quoted at
length in Ibn Taymiyya, al-DJawdb al-sahih li-man bad-
dala din al-Masih, Cairo 1905, ii, 312 ff., ed. and
Dutch tr. F. Sepmeijer, Een Weerlegging van het Christendom
uit de lOe eeuw. De brief van al-Hasan b. Ayyub aan zijn
broer 'AH, Kampen 1985), and from the refutation
made by the 7th/ 13th century Copt al-Safi Ibn al-
'Assal (see Samir, art. cit). Also, the authenticity of
the K. al-Din wa 'l-dawla has been questioned ever
since it was translated and edited in 1922-3. Despite
strong defences of the work by a number of schol-
ars, it has always been surrounded by the suspicion
that it is a modern forgery. However, its antiquity is
virtually setded by two convincing pieces of evidence,
which are that the unique ms. which contains the
work is undoubtedly old, and that it was almost
certainly used by the 4th/ 10th century authors al-
Hasan b. Ayyub (see Sepmeijer, op. cit., 4-8) and Abu
'1-Hasan Muhammad b. Yusuf al-'Amin (d. 381/992

[a.v. in Suppl.]) So its age should no longer be ques-
tioned and its authorship not seriously disputed (see
D. Thomas, Tabari's Book of Religion and Empire, in
BJRUL, lxix [1986], 1-7, adducing this evidence and
citing the major participants in the debate).

These two anti-Christian works show great inven-
tiveness in their arguments, and reflect 'All's learning
in his former faith. It could be that his informed
approach was not well understood by Muslims whose
knowledge of Christian teachings and beliefs was less
extensive, and this may account for their compara-
tive lack of direct influence in later discussions.

Bibliography: See also Brockelmann, S I, 414-

15; Sezgin, GAS, iii, 236-40; 'A.-M. Sharff, al-Fikr

al-isldmifi 'l-radd 'ala al-Nasara, Tunis 1986, 128-35.
(D. Thomas)

TABARISTAN, in northern Persia, the name for
the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, com-
prising both the narrow coastal plain region and the
steeply-rising mountainous interior of the Elburz chain.
It was bounded in mediaeval Islamic times by Gilan
and Daylam on the west and by Gurgan on the east.

The name Tabaristan enshrines a memory of the
ancient people of the ToOTupoi, but received a popular
etymology as "land of the axe (tabar)" because wood-
cutting was an activity in this heavily-wooded region.
Tabaristan {nisba, al-Taban) was the designation for
the region up to Saldjuk times, but thereafter the
name Mazandaran comes in and becomes general
from the Mongol period onwards. Hence for the his-
torical geography, history, coins, etc. of the region,

see MAZANDARAN. (Ed.)

TABARIYYA, Tiberias, modern Israeli Te-
verya, a town of Palestine situated on the edge
of the Sea of Galilee (Yam Kinnereth in Hebrew,
Buhayrat Tabariyya in Arabic) in the Jordan valley,
already at this point 208 m/680 feet below sea level
(lat. 32° 48' N., long. 35" 32' E.).

According to some traditions, the town which Herod
Antipas founded in ca. A.D. 87 as a capital, which
he called Tiberias after the Emperor Tiberius, was
built on the site of the Biblical Rakkath of Josh. xix.
35. It was built on the model of Hellenistic towns,
with temples, an amphitheatre, etc., and with the royal
palace described by Josephus almost certainly on the
mount of Herod (in recent times called Kasr Bint al-
Malik) within the ancient walls. Strictly-observant Jews
at first avoided Tiberias, hence it had a mixed pop-
ulation of people forcibly settled there by Herod and
people attracted by the privileges which he conferred
on them. However, it later became a centre of Tal-
mudic studies, where a strict Jewish life could be lived,
and where the Sanhedrin sat. It was here that the
famous Mishna or collection of legal prescriptions
was composed, and here that, at the opening of the
4th century, the Palestine Gemara (also called the
Jerusalem Talmud) was put together. There were a
series of tombs of great Jewish scholars, and one of
them, that of Rabbi Meir Ba'al ha-Nes, was to become
a place of pilgrimage. After the conversion of Constan-
tine, Christianity appeared in Galilee. The town walls,
which had been destroyed, were rebuilt by Justinian.

In 16/635 Tiberias fell into the hands of the Mus-
lims, surrendering to Shurahbfl b. Hasana [q.v.], who
guaranteed to the inhabitants their security and pos-
session of half their houses and churches. They were
also to hand over for every djarib of cultivated land
a djarib of wheat or barley and a dinar for each head
of animals. Shurahbfl also reserved for himself the
place where a mosque was to be built. In 'Uthman's
time, the inhabitants broke the agreement but were

TABARIYYA — TABARKA

subdued by 'Amr b. al-'As (or by Shurahbil again)
and accepted the former conditions. As capital of the
province of al-Urdunn [q.v.], the town is described by
the mediaeval Arab geographers, including by al-
Mukaddasi, 161-2, who describes it as a mile in length,
stretched between the mountains and the Sea. When
Nasir-i Khusraw passed through the town in 438/1047
he described it as surrounded by walls except on the
lake side, with a principal mosque and another one
on the western side called the Masdjid al-Yasamin,
which had the tombs of Joshua, son of Nun, and of
70 prophets killed by the Israelites, as well as the
tomb of the Companion Abu Hurayra [q.v.] (Safar-
nama, ed. Schefer, 16, tr. W.M. Thackston, Albany
1986, 18-19).

At the time of the Crusades, the town was given
as a fief to Tancred, before falling finally to Raymond
of Tripoli. Al-Idrisi, who visited it in 549/1 154, praises
it as a fine town and mentions the making of rush
mats there and the activity of boats provisioning it.
On 23 Rabf II 583/2 July 1187 Salah al-Dlh took
possession of the town and burnt it. The Crusader
troops encamped nearby at Saffuriyya let themselves
be convinced by the Grand Master of the Templars
to make a move to rescue the town, despite the warn-
ings of Raymond, and this attempt led to the disas-
ter of Hattm [q.v.], with the fall of Jerusalem and the
reduction of much Crusader authority in the Levant.
In 1240 it was recovered by the Christians, only to
fall to Kh w arazmian troops in 1247. According to Ibn
Battuta, in 725/1325 the town was still in ruins.

After the Ottoman conquest of Syria, in ca. 1560
an attempt to revive the town by introducing the
manufacture of silk, begun by Don Joseph Nasi, Duke
of Naxos (to whom the town and its area had been
granted by the sultan for Jewish settlement), failed,
the exact reason for this being unknown. The mod-
em town was founded in 1740 by the shgykk Zahir
al-'Amr, later the governor of Acre, who built a for-
tified wall with towers, the remains of this being still
visible today. But the town suffered two severe earth-
quakes, in 1759 and above all in 1837.

The hot springs (al-hammamat) to the south of the
town, the most important in Palestine, have always
played a prominent role in Tiberias's history, being
mentioned by Pliny (Natural history, V. 1 5) and often in
the Talmud. They are described by the Arab geog-
raphers (their average temperature is 60° C); al-Idrm
mentions especially the great baths called al-Damakir
and others called al-Lu'lu' which were reportedly not
saline. The springs were much frequented by those
suffering from paralysis, chest complaints and wounds,
who remained for three days in the waters and came
out cured. The mild winter climate contributed much
to making the town a famed centre for treatment. In
1703, the springs reportedly dried up for a period.
Since the old baths had fallen into ruins, new premises,
described by Burckhardt, were built at the opening
of the 19th century. Ibrahim Pasha built a second
one, splendidly decorated, in 1833, and a third, fur-
ther to the south, was built in 1890.

But up to the First World War, the nearby region
was almost desert, with traffic on the lake much re-
duced from what it had been in Antiquity. Only from
ca. 1900 did the town revive, with the foundation in
1920 of the suburb of Qiryat Shemuel (named after
Sir Herbert Samuel, the first High Commissioner for
Palestine under the British Mandate) for Jewish set-
ders, some 80 m/260 feet above the old Arab walled
town. There was fighting at Tiberias during the war
of 1948, with Arab and Jewish quarters of the old

town largely destroyed, and the Arab population was
evacuated in April 1948 by British troops. Since then
it has come within the State of Israel, and has become
essentially a centre for tourism and recreation, with
the role of industry deliberately kept small. In 1970
the population was ca. 23,000.

Bibliography: Sir George Adam Smith, Historical
geography of the Holy Land, London 1895, 447-55; Le
Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 30-2, 334-41; H.C.
Luke and E. Keith-Roach, The handbook of Palestine
and Trans-Jordan, London 1930, 206, 208-9, 363,
367-8; Naval Intelligence Division. Admiralty Hand-
books, Palestine and Transjordan, London 1943, 338-9
and index; A.S. Marmardji, Textes geographiques arabes
sur la Palestine, Paris 1951, 127-33. For other older
references, see F. Buhl, EP s.v. For the town in
modern Israel, see Yehuda Karmon, Israel, a regional
geography, London 1971, 171-3; and for archaeologi-
cal excavations there, E.M. Meyers (ed.), The Oxford
encyclopedia of archaeology in the Near East, New York
1996, v, 203-6. (M. Lavergne)

TABARKA, Tabarca, known locally as Tbarka, a
town on the north-west coast of Tunisia, 170
km/ 105 miles west-north-west of Tunis, 17 km/ 10 miles
to the east of the Algerian frontier and 60 km/37
miles to the north of Djanduba, the chief town of
the governorate of the region, of which Tabarka is
a subdivision of 12,600 inhabitants. The layout of the
road network which serves it is based on the two
great ancient major axes, east-west and north-south,
and since 1993 it has had an international airport.
The railway line, which was the main link with the
capital, now transports only freight. Tabarka also
enjoys the asset of being a fishing port which is acces-
sible to large trawlers, and has a marina frequented
by holidaymakers in the Mediterranean.

Tabarka is built around a fertile sandy beach
watered by the Oued-el-Kebir, the ancient Tusca,
which rises in the mountains of Khumayr [?.»■]• The
modern town is a tourist centre as well as a fishing
resort where the most sought-after product for a long
time has been coral. Citrus groves are also found
there, and livestock is bred on the farms. Several
timber-based industries have been established which
produce fibreboard and cork stoppers (out of a total
area of 37,000 ha there are 27,000 ha of forest in
the district); briar blocks used in the manufacture of
pipes, as well as tiles, cardboard, carved wooden objects
and coral are all produced locally.

Tabarka was chiefly known in history as a rocky
islet of 40 ha, which rises some 40 m from the shore,
and this is the Tabarca of Western narratives. It is
separated from the mainland by a small strait, but
this has now been filled in to make a causeway, up
to the Genoese fort; this fort was built by the Lomellini
in about 1535 by order of Charles V.

This coastal locality did not find favour in the
eyes of the Muslim travellers. For Ibn Hawkal, Surat
al-ard, Beirut 1979, 76, it had a notoriety because of
the intense commercial transactions which made it
"the port of the Andalusians". He added that they
had formerly been compelled to pay tithes [ta'shlr).
For al-Idrlsi, ed. Beirut 1989, 289, it was a coastal
fort with only a few constructions round it, but it was
also a very busy port. Al-Himyarl, al-Rawd al-mi'tar,
ed. 'Abbas, Beirut 1984, adds that it was here the
galleys were armed for their incursions against the
Christians. He is in fact the only writer to mention
the coral there, "several hundred quintals of which
were gathered every year". Most of these authors
agree that it had been possible to divert the Oued

TABARKA — TABARRU'

el-Kebir to the gates of the city, and even in 1725
a French agent wrote to the minister Maurepas "that
the river could be navigated with large flat boats
(Denise Brahimi, Temoignages sur Vile de Tabarque au
XVIII' stick, in ROMM, i [1970], 30). Today, the cur-
rent of this river is much reduced. Al-Bakri, Masalik,
ed. Van Leeuwen-Ferre, Tunis 1992, did not say
much about it, but located here the scene of the
heroic death of Kahina [q.v.], or in a nearby place
since called "Bir el-Kahina" (the Well of Kahina); but
M. Talbi, L'Epopk de la Kahina, in CT [1971], 47,
casts doubt on that location.

It is, however, an ancient site. Roman and Byzantine
Thabraca was the port where Numidian marble was
loaded from the quarries of Simitthu (Chemtou, 20 km
from Djendouba on the left bank of the Medjerda),
as well as other products from the hinterland such as
cereals, oil, construction timber, minerals and even
wild animals for the circus games at Rome (P. Gauckler,
Mosaiques tombales . . . a Thabraca, 1906, repr. CT, 1972,
154). Even writers as early as al-Bakn, Yakut and al-
Himyari speak about the ancient ruins; the excavations
undertaken since the end of the 19th century have
brought to light more than one Christian necropolis
where some of the sarcophagi were discovered to have
been overlaid with mosaic, just like the semi-circular
pavements from the trifolium of the "Godmet farm"
(now in the Bardo Museum in Tunis). Ancient cis-
terns still exist in modern times; one of these has pre-
served the name basilica, because it was used until
recently as a parish church, and is today the home
of the Festival of Tabarka.

The modern population of the region certainly seems
to have very ancient antecedents. Libyan inscriptions
and Punic inscriptions have been discovered in the
burial chambers (hwanet, pi. of hanut) which are found
in underground caves hollowed out of the cliff and
covered with bichrome drawings. In a place called
Keff Bllda one of these drawings represents a naval
scene (Monique Selmi-Longerstay, Les Houdnet, in Bull,
dactyl, de la Soc. hist, el archeol. de la Khroumirie el des
Mogods, Tabarka 1980, 21) which would be evidence
to support very ancient maritime activity.

From the 17th century onwards, however, Tabarka
gained more importance thanks to the Isle of Tabarca
and' the richness of the coral beds surrounding it.
J. Ganiage, Les origines du Prolectorat fianfais en Tunisie,
Paris 1959, 62, talks of the sole fishing rights granted
to the French from the reign of Henri IV onwards,
but what is most certain is that the island was retro-
ceded by the Spanish in 1530 or 1540 to the Lomellini
of Genoa, who were given the responsibility for build-
ing a fort there. This was built in 1553 (Lt.-Col.
Hannezo, Tabarca, in RT [1916]) to accommodate a
garrison and to pay a rent in coral (J. Pignon, Genes
et Tabarka au XVII™ sikle, in CT [1979], 26).

But commercial enterprise was not restricted to
coral. Tabarca soon became the base from which forty
coral-gathering frigates operated and a trading post
from where the products of the region were sent to
Europe: wheat, animal hides, leathers, honey, wax, live-
stock and horses. The island was also used as a stag-
ing post for the Christian prisoners being redeemed,
an operation in which the Genoese probably played
the role of intermediary. This concession was granted,
it is said, in payment of the ransom for the famous
Dragut who was captured by a pirate ship belonging
to the same Lomellini (A. Rousseau, Annates tunisiennes,
124; Ch.-A. Julien, Histoire de I'Ajrique du Nord, Paris
1931, 572). The benefits gained under the Genoese,
which had enhanced the strategic value of the island,

succeeded in arousing the jealousy of the French com-
panies established after 1561 in the French bastion
near La Calle (the governor of this trading post, the
adventurous Sanson Napollon, even tried to take pos-
session of the island and was killed in the course of
the operation), and of the French companies in Cap
Negre (where the Compagnie d'Afrique used to fix
as it pleased the purchase price of local products
which it then exported without even paying any duty
to the Bey, cf. art. xiii of the treaty of August 1766).
The other powers, however, England, Spain, the king-
dom of Naples, etc., also wanted to appropriate the
coral reefs. The Lomellini were harrassed by their
consuls and their agents and consented to get rid of
the island at the risk of being thought traitors to their
faith and to their country, according to Italian au-
thors (see A. Gallico, Tunis el les consuls sardes, tr. L. and
M. Yalaoui, Beirut 1992, 105, and the Fragments his-
toriques et statistiques sur la Regence de Tunis du consul
Filippi, ed. Ch. Monchicourt, 1929, 171).

'Air Bey, acting on a warning, decided to liberate
the island (June 1741) after two centuries of Christian
occupation. The inhabitants, who since that time had
been called Tabarcans, generally went to repopulate
the Sardinian island of San Pietro or setded in Tunis,
but 168 of them converted to Islam. Two women,
Sofia Bosso and Salvatora Paona, even became the
wives of the beys Sldi Muhammad and SrdI Mustafa
(A. Riggio, Cronaca Tabarchina dal 1756 ai primordi
dell'Ottocento, in RT [1937], 10). The capture of the
island by Yunus Bey was the subject of two different
narratives: the memoirs of A. Napoly, published by
Plantet, Correspondance des Beys de Tunis avec la com de
France, ii, 324, and the chronicle of Saghlr b. Yusuf,
al-Mashra' al-malakt, ms. BN (from Tunis) 18,688, fol.
194b, tr. V. Serres and M. Lasram, Paris 1900, 196.
The latter document confirmed that the Bey had the
fortifications demolished and had the arm of the sea
separating the island from the shore filled in with
rubble, though al-Himyan had already said that there
was such a causeway visible above the surface, except
in winter when the waves sometimes covered it.

Within the Genoese fort there is accommodation
for barracks and a working lighthouse. In 1742 De
Saurins, a French naval officer, attempted an abor-
tive raid on the island (Rousseau, op. cit., 130). But
the island remained Tunisian until April 1881 when,
using the Khumayr tribal incursions into Algerian
territory as a pretext, the French military authorities
organised an expedition by land and sea which ended
in the occupation of the region concomitantly with
the occupation of the whole of Tunisia.
Bibliography: Given in the text.

(G. Yver-[M. Yalaoui])

TABARRU' (a.), a term of Islamic religious
polemics, derived from form V of the verb bari'a.
The term tabarru' or tabarrl, which can also be found
in the apparendy incorrect but not uncommon Arabo-
Persian form tabarra (see below), primarily denotes the
general idea of exemption or of disengagement,
in particular exemption from responsibility.
Among the Arabs bara'a, which is also called khal' or
tabarru', is a pre-Islamic social and legal phenomenon,
which has persisted in Bedouin society (Kohlberg,
1986, 139 ff.).

In the text of the Kur'an it seems that bara'a

appears very

late in the career of Muhammad. Bara'a

and adhdn {[q.v.], the call to prayer) were declared
following the day of the great farewell pilgrimage.
This gave rise to many commentaries, especially
because of the association between the bara'a and the

surrogatory prayers known as kunut [q.v.], taken in
the sense of imprecations or supplications (Rubin, 25;
Kohlberg, 1986, 140 ff.). ShT'i traditions attribute the
proclamation of the bara'a to 'All b. Abl Talib, acting
on orders from Muhammad, and this would have in-
volved the Islamisation of pagan allies of Muhammad
(Rubin, 26 ff.).

With successive exegeses and other commentaries,
bara'a passed in meaning from dissociation to disuni-
fication or repudiation, these ideas being taken up in
different separatist or sectarian movements. The Khari-
djites were apparently the first to develop an impor-
tant point of doctrine from bara'a (dissociation from
'All and from all their enemies; Kohlberg, 1986, 142
ff.). The expressions tabarra'a min/'an, or often bari'a
min/'an in the sense of "to regard as an enemy", was
used very early on by various groups of Kharidjites
(see al-Shahrastanl, 198, 203, 206, etc., tr. Gimaret, 366,
371, 372-3; see also Gimaret, index, under tawalla).

The Shl'i use of bara'a developed step by step,
firsdy in non-doctrinal terms, concerning the hostility
between 'All and his opponents, during and after the
conflict with Mu'awiya, on the occasion of his disso-
ciation in connection with Abu Bakr and 'Umar, which
implied an allegiance (walaya) to 'All. The association
of walaya with bara'a (or sometimes 'adawa, enmity)
became a central idea for the ShI'Ts, although it had
its opponents among the 'Alids of Kufa (Kohlberg,
1986, 144 ff).

The Imams, however, in particular Dja'far al-Sadik,
made it, for various reasons, an article of faith. The
bara'a/'aaawa was also expressed as a wrong against
the Companions, sabb al-sahaba, an idea which had to
remain played down during the Occultation in the
name of takiyya (Kohlberg, 1986, 145 ff.; Amir-Moezzi,
217 ff.).

The idea of bara'a/ tabarri/tabarru' could apply - to
various opposing parties, even at the heart of Imamism,
including the members of the families of the Imams
(Kohlberg, 1986, 158-67). The concept of juxtapos-
ing tawalti—tabam which Gimaret (64-5, 142, 435 and
index), prefers to translate as avowal — disavowal, had
various connotations among the Shi" Is. But it was the
Imamls especially, often known as the Rafidis [see
al-rafida], who were distinguished by their practice
of walaya — bara'a which was condemned as a whole
by the hard line of Sunnism, as particularly expressed
in Hanbalism (see H. Laoust, La profession de foi d'Ibn
Batta, Damascus 1958, 162).

Although the idea of bara'a and its variants (tabri'a,
mubara'a, istibra', berat [q.v.] in Turkish, barat in Persian)
have preserved the technical and legal connotations
included in Imamism, the ImamTs have been particu-
larly characterised by their partisan practice of the
walaya — bara'a.

In Persian usage, instead of tabarru' I tabarrf, in accord-
ance with Arab grammar, the term tabarra is often
used in association with tawalla. This terminology, and
especially the expression tabarra in the sense of "to
abstain" or "to dissociate oneself from" was used by
the great classical Persian poets (see the entry Tabarra
in Dihkhuda, Lughat-nama). The practice of tawalla —
tabarra has been attributed to the Ilkhancid Ghazan
[q.v.] regarding his so-called conversion to Imamism
(see Calmard, 1993, 119). But it was particularly dur-
ing the imposition of Twelver Imamism as the state
religion by the Safawid Shah Isma'Tl (1501-24, [q.v.])
at the beginning of the 10th/ 16th century that the
use of the term tabarra was widely extended beyond
the closed circles of scholars and the 'ulama'. In its
use as a sort of euphemism for insult

(sabb, ta'n, la'ri) this term had the advantage of pro-
viding an agent noun, tabarra'l, execrator, with a usage
current in Safawid Persia.

The doctrine and practices of exclusion, or even
excommunication of the Companions (takjir al-sahaba),
were ancient in Imamism (see Kohlberg, 1984, 148 ff.).
Various methods were used to slander or curse the
Great Companions by the Imamls, the Ghuldt, the
ZaydTs and the Isma'llls (Kohlberg, 1984, 160 ff).
Despite differences of opinion, the ancient Imaml
bara'a was aimed especially at AbO Bakr, 'Umar and
'Uthman. Other enemies of the Ahl al-Bqyt were in-
cluded in this dissociation, in particular the Umayyad
caliphs and the women 'A'isha, Hafsa, Hind and
Umm al-Hakam (Kohlberg, 1986, 144 ff). However, the
Rafidis were denigrated and condemned (Calmard,
1993, 121), most particularly for the execration or
insulting of the Companions (sabb al-sahaba), and more
especially of the first two caliphs (sabb al-shaykhayri),
which certain people practised more or less openly.

The imposition of Safawid ShI'ism on a popula-
tion which was largely SunnI posed various political
and religious problems, and these were only partly
resolved, in particular concerning the tabarra'is and
the contents of their imprecations. These official exe-
crators — delators, whose social origin remains uncer-
tain — seem to have practised their profession first of
all at Tabriz during the proclamation of ShI'ism in
1501. But they were practised above all at Harat in
1510, at the time of the dramatic circumstances sur-
rounding that proclamation (where acknowledging their
presence under this name poses, however, prob-
lems), and especially at the time of the Uzbek-Safawid
conflicts. In the course of these the town changed
hands several times, and then the tabarra'is and their
collaborators were seen at work. The latter were
I instructed, under pain of death, to curse and have
cursed the first two or three caliphs, the Ottomans
(there was some confusion in regard to the caliph
'Uthman), Yazld (who was particularly denigrated in
the heterodox and popular circles, both SunnI and
ShI'I, in the Turco-Iranian area), and the Sunnls (Cal-
mard, 1993, 121 ff; on Yazld among the Ghulat, see
Moosa, index).

The cursing persisted under Shah Tahmasp I (1524-
76 [q.v.]), including in his correspondence with Siiley-
man KanunI, which caused diplomatic complications
with the Ottomans as well as with the Uzbeks (Calmard,
1993, 126 f). These practices also annoyed the Imaml
'ulama' living in the territories under Ottoman con-
trol. Some of them condemned the doctrinal stance
taken by the mua^tahids, who had gone over into the
service of the Safawids, and particularly al-Karakl
(Newman, 82 ff). Despite the undertaking given to
the Ottomans by Tahmasp at the peace of Amasya
(962/1555) to stop the ritual cursing, it persisted at
least until Isma'Il II decreed its abolition. He also
had suspended the tabarra'is, who were officially ap-
pointed and took measures against certain execrators,
among whom were the 'ulama', who had a reputation
for fanaticism (Calmard, 1993, 126; Calmard, 1996,
161). After this decree the tabarra'is, do not seem to
have functioned as official agents in Safawid Persia.
The execrators included under this name nevertheless
continued to practise, especially in the rawda-kjfants
[q.v.] and other Shi 'I religious festivals.

The efficacy of the tabarra'is can be measured by
the very wide dissemination of the practice of cursing
followed by the preachers and faithful Shi'Is, which
was to last at least until the Kadjar period in Persia.
Among the opponents of the Ahl al-Bayt was above

TABARRLP

all the caliph 'Umar, who was both privately and
publicly increasingly execrated and vilified, especially
at the time of the ritual feast ('Umar-kushan) celebrated
on 9 Rabf I, in the course of which his effigy was
burned, and also sometimes at ceremonies of Muhar-
ram; he is then confused with 'Umar b. Sa'd, one of
those chiefly responsible for the massacre of Karbala
(see Calmard, 1996, 161 ff.).

But in their hatred of the Sunnls and the Ottomans,
the 'ulama' of Safawid Persia made every effort to
extend the ritual cursing to Abu Hanifa, the founder
of the official Ottoman madhhab (Arjomand, 166). His
tomb in Baghdad was desecrated and destroyed by
Shah Isma'il (1508), ornamented with a cupola by
Siileyman Kanuni (1534), destroyed again by Shah
'Abbas (1623), and reconstructed by Murad IV (1638).
Amid the almost permanent socio-religious troubles,
the execratory character of Imamism continued in 'Irak,
which from then on was under Ottoman control, and
among the strong Persian community in Istanbul until
the end of the 1 9th century (see S. Derengil, The struggle
against Shiism in Hamidian Iraq. A study in Ottoman counter-
propaganda, in WI, xxx [1990], 45-62).

Shi'ism with its sectarian practices was to some
extent exported to India, notably in the ShT't sultan-
ates of the Deccan which resulted from the decline
of the Bahmanids (1347-1527 [q.v.]). This is particu-
larly the case for the 'Adilshahis of Bidjapur (1490-
1686), the first ShiT state in India (see R.E. Eaton,
art. 'Adelsahis, in EIr). The rituals of the tawalla —
tabarra also persisted in the popular Shr'ism of the
state of Awadh [q.v.] in the north of India (see J.R.I.
Cole, Roots of North Indian Shi'ism in Iran and Iraq.
Religion and state in Awadh, 1722-1859, Berkeley and
Los Angeles 1988, 108, 239 ff.). The adoption or
rejection of these practices in other Shr'r states in
India (which were often more moderate) remains to
be determined.

In the use that they made of the terms tabarra/
tabarra' T for elaborating and propagating Shi'ism,
the Safawids largely went beyond takiyya during the
Occultation of the Imam. This was not accepted by
all the Imamr 'ulama'. For some, insult (sabb, i.e. the
effective content of the Safawid bara' a/tabarra) was
worse than bara'a in the sense of dissociation (see
Kohlberg, 1986, 156, n. 89; Calmard, 1993, 145).
Bibliography: This subject, which has only been
briefly oudined here, and the related concepts which
cover a very wide period, plus numerous references
to primary sources, are given in the works cited in
the text and in the following: Shahrastam, K. al-
Milal wa 'l-nihal, ed. Fath Allah Badran, Cairo 1366-
75/1947-55, tr. D. Gimaret, with introd. and notes
by idem and G. Monnot, Le Livre des religions et des
seeks, i, Louvain-Paris 1986; S.A. Arjomand, The
Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam, Chicago 1984;
U. Rubin, Bara'a. A study of some Quranic passages,
in JSAI, v (1984), 13-32; E. Kohlberg, Some Imami
Shi'i views on the Sahaba, in ibid., 143-75; idem,
Bara'a in Shi'i doctrine, in ibid., vii (1986), 139-75;
Matti Moosa, Extremist Shiites. The Ghulat sects,
Syracuse 1988; M.A. Amir-Moezzi, Le Guide divin
dans le shfisme originel, Lagrasse 1992; A J. Newman,
77k myth of the clerical migration to Safawid Iran: Arab
Shiite opposition to 'Ati al-Karaki and Safawid Shiism, in
WI, xxxiii (1993), 66-112; J. Calmard, Les rituels shi-
ites et le pouvoir. L'imposition du shiisme safavide: eulogies
et maledictions canoniques, in idem (ed.), Etudes safa-
vides, Paris-Tehran 1993, 109-50; idem, Shi'i rituals
and power. II The consolidation of Safavid Shi'ism: folk-
lore and popular religion, in C. Melville (ed.), Safavid

Persia, Pembroke Papers, Cambridge, IV, London-
New York 1996, 139-90. (J. Calmard)
TABARSARAN (in Yakut, Bulddn, ed. Beirut, iv,
16, Tabarstaran), a district of the eastern
Caucasus, essentially the basin of the Rubas river
which runs into the Caspian Sea just south of Dar-
band [see derbend], the early Islamic Bab al-Abwab
[q.v.]. It now comes within the southernmost part of
Daghistan (see map in kabk, at IV, 344). Its popula-
tion comprises Caucasian mountaineers plus a con-
siderable admixture of Iranian speakers of Tati dialect
[see tat].

At the time of the Umayyad prince Marwan b.
Muhammad's raids through the Caucasus, there was
a Tabarsaran Shah (known also with this tide in pre-
Islamic times), who agreed to pay tribute to the Arabs
(al-Baladhun, Futuh al-bulddn, 196, 208; al-Mas'Odi,
Muru$, ii, 2 = § 442). It is frequendy mentioned in
the Ta'rikh Bab al-Abwab from the 4th/ 10th century
onwards, being ruled at various times by the Hashi-
mid amirs of Darband and the Yazidr Shirwan Shahs;
see V. Minorsky, A history of Sharvan and Darband in
the lOth-llth centuries, Cambridge 1958, 91-2 and index.
Bibliography: Given in the article. See also kabk
and shIrwan shah. (C.E. Bosworth)

al-TABARSI [see al-tabrisi].
TABAS, the name of two places in eastern
Persia, denoted in the early mediaeval Islamic sources
by the dual form al-Tabasan' (e.g. in al-Sam'ani, An-
sab, ed. Haydarabad, ix, 45, and Yakut, Bulddn, ed.
Beirut, iv, 20) and distinguished as Tabas al-Tamr
"T. of the date-palms" and Tabas al-'Unnab "T. of
the jujube trees", later Persian forms Tabas Gilaki
and Tabas Maslnan respectively. Tabas al-Tamr lay
to the west of Kuhistan [q.v.] in the central Great
Desert at a junction of routes between the Dasht-i
Lot in the south and the Dasht-i Kawfr in the north
and west. Tabas al-'Unnab lay farther to the east in
Kuhistan, adjacent to the modern border of Persia
with Afghanistan. It is the first which has been more
important and which has played a role in Islamic
history.

Tabas al-Tamr was reached in 'Umar's caliphate
by Arab raiders from Kirman under 'Abd Allah b.
Budayl al-Khuza'i. and a peace treaty made with the
inhabitants (al-Baladhun, Futuh, 403). In the 4th/ 10th
century it was a fortified place with a mosque, notable
for its extensive date-palms and supplied with water
brought to reservoirs by kanats. Nasir-i Khusraw passed
through it in 444/1051 and noted that it was called
Tabas Gilaki after its ra' is, Abu '1-Hasan b. Muham-
mad Gilaki (Safar-nama, ed. M. Dabir-siyakT, Tehran
1335/1956, 125-6, tr. W.M. Thackston, Albany 1986,
100). In the later 5th/ 11th century it passed under
the control of the Isma'ilis of Kuhistan, and in 494/
1 102 was attacked and pardy destroyed by a Saldjuk
army sent by Sultan Sandjar (Farhad Daftary, The
Isma'ilis, their history and doctrines, Cambridge 1 990, 34 1 ,
354). In the time of the Safawid Shah 'Abbas I it
was devastated by the Ozbegs. It was soon after this,
in 1621, that the first European to visit Tabas reached
there, the Silesian nobleman Heinrich von Poser
(A. Gabriel, Die Erforschung Persiens, Vienna 1952, 58).
In the early 19th century, according to Sir John
Malcolm, History of Persia, ii, 43-4, the virtually inde-
pendent ruler in Tabas was the Arab chief Mir Husayn
Khan, who maintained a powerful army there; by
Curzon's time, however, the hereditary chief Mirza
Bakir 'Imad al-Mulk supplied only 150 cavalrymen to
the Kadjar army (Persia and the Persian question, London
1892, i, 202-3).

TABAS — TABBAKH

Modern Tabas (GilakT) (lat. 33° 37' N., long. 56°
54' E.) is now the chef-lieu of a bakhih in the ustan
of Khurasan. In ca. 1950 it had a population of 8,1 14,
which had risen in 1991 to 17,071 (Preliminary results
of the 1991 census, Statistical Centre of Iran, Popula-
tion Division). Tabas (Masinan), also in Khurasan
province (lat. 32° 48' N., long. 60° 14' E.), is a vil-
lage in the Johnston of Birdjand; in ca. 1950 it had
a population of 1,513, but in 1991 only 468 {ibid).
Bibliography: (in addition to references in the
article): Hudud al-'dlam, tr. Minorsky, 103, comm.
326-7; Hamd Allah Mustawff, Nuzhat al-kulub, ed.
Le Strange, 145, tr. 143; Barbier de Meynard,

Diet de la Perse, 388; Le Strange, The lands of

the Eastern Caliphate, 359-63; Sir C. MacGregor,
Narrative of a journey through Khorasan in 1875, London
1879, i, 137 ff.; P.M. Sykes, Fifth journey in Persia,
in GJ, xxviii (1906), 447 ff., 561-4; Razmara (ed.),
Farhang-i djughrafya-yi Iran-zamin, xi, 258.

(C.E. Bosworth)
TABASfflR, a medicament used in medi-
aeval Islam. It is a crystalline concretion in the
internodes of the bamboo (Bambusa arundinacea Willd.,
Gramineae). The concretions, also known as "bamboo
sugar", consist of silicic acid, silicates, and carbonate
of calcium. They are extracted by burning the bam-
boo stems, often also through auto-combustion due
to the heat by mutual friction of the stems when
moved by strong winds (yahtarik win dhatihi li 'htikdk
ba'diha bi-ba'd bi-rih shadlda). Some believed the con-
cretions to be burnt elephant bones; most likely this
is just a falsification using elephant teeth. Falsifications
were also done with the burnt bones of ram's heads,
whenever the price for tabashtr, which in its Indian
place of origin was practically worthless, was higher
in the outside world. Others consider tabdshir to be
the roots of "Indian cane" (al-kasab al-hindi). The white,
light, and soft concretions which were easily crushed
and pulverised were considered the best (according
to others those with a blueish hue). The Indians
held especially the "knots" ('ukad) and the dirham-size
disks inside the stems in high esteem. Tabashtr had
been part of the Indian materia medica as of old; the
Persian-Arabic name is supposed to be a translation
of a Sanskrit word. The idea that tabashtr is simply
Dioscorides' aditxapov is no longer held. Popularly in
Egypt and Syria tabashjr denotes "chalk."

The medicinal effects attributed to tabashtr are mani-
fold. Taken internally or externally, it is used against
inflammations of the gall bladder; it fortifies the sto-
mach, is efficacious against high fever and thirst, low-
ers the heat of the liver, is beneficial against ulcers,
pustules, haemorrhoids, and stomatitis of children. It
is astringent, tonic, and a mild expectorant due to its
slight bitterness. It is beneficial against eye inflamma-
tions, fortifies the heart, calms down heart palpita-
tions and soothes stomach troubles of all kinds. Its
application is also recommended in cases of diarrhoea
and chronic liver ailments.

Bibliography: RazT, al-Hawt, Haydarabad, xxi,
162-3 (no. 545); Madjusi, al-Kamil, Bulak 1294, ii,
130, 11. 27-32; Biruni, al-Saydana, Karachi 1973,
252, Russian tr. Karimov, no. 658; Ibn al-Djazzar,
al-I'timad, facs. ed. Frankfurt 1985, 103-4; Ibn
'AbdOn, 'Umdat al-tablb, ms. Rabat, Bibl. Gen. 3505
D, fol. 76b, 11. 4-13; Idrlsl, al-Djami' li-sifat ashtat
al-nabat, facs. ed. Frankfurt 1995, 197, 11. 15-23;
Ibn al-Baytar, al-Djami', Bulak 1291, iii, 96, 11.
9-29; French tr. Leclerc, no. 1447; Ducros, Essai
sur le droguier popuhire arabe, Cairo 1930, no. 148,
and pi. IX, 4; A. Dietrich, Die Ergdnzung Ibn Gulgul's

zur Materia medica des Dioskurides, Gottingen 1993,

no. 18. (A. Dietrich)

TABATABA'I, Sayyid Diya' al-Din, Persian
statesman (1888-1969).

He was born in Yazd into a conservative, clerical
family, and spent much of his childhood and youth
in Shiraz, where he received a traditional education,
and then embarked upon a career in journalism, edit-
ing a pro-constitutional newspaper, the Mda-yi Islam.
He moved to Tehran where he continued his work
as a journalist, editing the newspaper Ra'd.

In Tehran, Sayyid Diya"s reputation as a reformer
grew and he became the centre of a group of like-
minded individuals. He also assiduously cultivated the
confidence of the British military and diplomatic es-
tablishment. In late 1919-early 1920 he was sent by
the then Prime Minister, Wuthflk al-Dawla, to Baku
to negotiate with the anti-Bolshevik Musawat party.
As a result of this mission his prominence in official
circles increased significandy.

In the circumstances of political collapse prevail-
ing in Persia in late 1920-early 1921, Sayyid Diya'
entered into a conspiracy with Rida Khan [see rida
shah], commander of the Cossack force then stationed
under British control at Kazwln, and with certain
officers of the nationalist Government Gendarmerie.
On 20-21 February 1921 these elements marched on
and captured Tehran and overthrew the government
of Sipahdar, Sayyid Diya' becoming the new Prime
Minister. The programme of his government con-
tained far-reaching proposals for the reform and re-
construction of the state with, as its centrepiece, the
creation of a national army. Many members of the
landed aristocracy, whose overthrow Sayyid Diya'
had consistently advocated, were arrested and impris-
oned, Sayyid Diya' intending to extract money from
their families with which to finance the government's
reforms.

Sayyid Diya' remained Prime Minister for three
months, being forced out of office and into exile in
early May 1921 as a result of the growth and combi-
nation of opposition from a variety of sources, includ-
ing the Shah and the court, the notables, state officials
and the 'ulama", and, decisively, from Rida Khan, now
War Minister. Sayyid Diya' was given refuge in
Palestine, then under British mandatory rule, where
he devoted his attention to Islamic issues, partici-
pating in the Islamic Congress in 1931, and also to
farming and agriculture.

In 1943 Sayyid Diya' returned to Persia and re-
sumed his political and journalistic activity on a right-
wing and pro-British basis. He founded the National
Will party, and was elected to the Madjlis. In the
early 1950s he opposed both Musaddik [q.v.] and the
Tudah party. Subsequently he withdrew from politics.
He died in 1969.

Bibliography: J.M. Balfour, Recent happenings in

Persia, Edinburgh and London 1922; H. Hakim

Ilahi, Asrar-i siydst-yi kuditd va zindigdni-yi Sayyid Diya'

al-DTn Tabataba't, Tehran 1943.

(Stephanie Cronin)

TABATTUL [see zuhd].

TABBAKH (a.), cook, a professional term, although
rarely used as a lakab in early Islamic times; how-
ever, the tahi or sham "roaster" is mentioned in ancient
poetry describing feasts, but these were probably slaves
deputed to do the job, and not professionals.

The early Arabs' diet used to include dates, milk,
vegetables, mushroom, lentils, onion, honey, coarse
bread, and meat of various animals like lamb, goats,
camels, rabbits, reptiles, etc. Most of the food they

TABBAKH — TABBAL

ate did not require much cooking, hence the profes-
sion of cook only appears with the political expansion
of the Arabs. The Umayyad governor of 'Irak and
Khurasan. al-Hadjdjadj b. Yusuf, apparently had a
taste for good food and employed a cook named
Bashir from eastern Persia (Ta'rikh Baghdad, xiv, 86).
The Arabs became familiar with the life-styles of their
non-Arab subjects, including cooking tasteful food. By
the time the 'Abbasids came to power in 132/750,
the Arabs and Persians co-operated in social, eco-
nomic and cultural activities. They also learnt a good
deal of ancient culinary art and about applying colour
to food. Al-Djahiz (d. 255/869) observed that a pro-
fessional cook (tabbakh) would talk about his ability to
dye food, and the many ways of cooking chicken and
making sweets (cf. al-Bayan wa 'l-tabyin, ed. Sandubf,
i, 222). However, muktasibs denied cooks the license
to dye food as they wished, and only approved saf-
fron as the dye for food. Moreover, in the urban cen-
tres of the caliphate like Baghdad, Fustat and Cairo
there were food markets (suk al-ta'am) wherein a per-
son could buy and eat cooked food. However, mar-
ket inspectors inspected the quality of food sold in
cookshops and fined offenders who failed to observe
the legal and customary guidelines for cooks. The hisba
officials demanded cleanliness of cooks for the sake
of public hygiene, and even recommended the cooks
to follow instructions in al-Kindi's culinary pamphlet
Kimiya' al-tabd'ikh "The chemistry of cooked foods".
Cooks of both sexes are cited in Arabic proverbs
and literary works. In Fatimid Egypt there were female
slaves (djawari) working as professional cooks who were
praised for their culinary skill, and in modern Egypt
cooks have formed guilds.

Bibliography: Tha'alibi, Bard al-akbad fi 'l-a'dad,
in Khams rasa'U, Constantinople 1883, 129; Tawhrdi,
al-Basa'ir wa 'l-dhakhd'ir, ed. Ibrahim al-Kaylam,
ii/2, Damascus n.d., 642-3; Shabushti, K. al-Diyarat,
ed. Gurgis 'Awwad, Baghdad 1966, 218; al-Khatib
al-BaghdadT, Ta'nkh Baghdad, Cairo 1931, i, 113,
xxii, 448, xiv, 86; idem, K. al-Tatfil, Damascus
1946, 144-5; Ibn rButlan, Risalafi shira' al-rakik, ed.
'A.S. Harun, in Nawadir al-makjjtutat, Cairo 1954,
386-7; 'Abd al-Rahman b. Nasr al-Shayzarl, Mhdyat
al-rutba fi talab al-hisba, ed. al-Baz al-'ArlnT, Cairo
1946, 34-5; Ibn al-Ukhuwwa, Ma'alim al-kurba ft
talab al-hisba, ed. R. Levy, London 1938, 106-8
(Arabic); 'Abd al-Latlf al-Baghdadr, K. al-Ifada wa
'l-i'tibar, tr. K.H. Zand et alii as The Eastern Key,
London 191-9; Bustam, Da'irat al-ma'arif xi, Cairo
1900, 299-303; A.J. Arberry, A Baghdad cookery book,
in IC, xiii (1939), 21-47, 189-214; C. Elgood (tr.),
Tibb al-Mabbi (sic) or Medicine of the Prophet, in Osiris
(1962) 67-119; 'Abd al-Hayy al-Kattam, TarMb al-
idariyya, ii, Beirut n.d. (1960s), 107-10; Zirikli, al-
A'ldm, 2 Cairo 1955, 359; M.S. al-KasimT et alii,
Kamus al-sina'dt al-Shamiyya, Paris and The Hague
i960, ii, 276-7, 310-11; G. Baer, Egyptian guilds in
modem times, Jerusalem 1964, 36; Khalifa b. 'Abd
Allah al-HamidT, Akwal al-'Uman li-kull al-azman,
Muscat 1987, ii, 124, 269. See also ghidha'; ta'am;
tab™. (M.AJ. Beg)

TABBAL (a.), lit. drummer; owner of a drum;
a drumming expert who earned his livelihood
by playing various kinds of drums [see tabl].
The drummers (tabbalun) as a group emerge in
Arabic historical writings of the 'Abbasid period. Al-
Isfaham noted that people used to sing with drum-
beats. Drummers performed in various celebrations and
festivities. Birthdays were celebrated by the wealthy
who feasted with friends and fed the poor amidst

musical entertainment. In one particular instance, the
drummers beat drums and musicians played clarions
(bukdt) while celebrating the birth of a son to the ca-
liph al-Muktadi (467-87/1075-94) {al-Muntazam, ix, 14).
Some Christians attended a funeral procession carry-
ing crosses, accompanied by relatives, mourners and
drummers in Baghdad in 403/1012 (ibid., vii, 262).

Al-Djahiz cited the drums (tubul) as a characteris-
tic musical instrument of the Turks, who were recruited
into the 'Abbasid army and housed in special bar-
racks in Samarra' from the reign of al-Mu'tasim on-
wards. Drummers often accompanied the army on the
battlefield and, despite their humble position, were
required to wear coats of mail to protect themselves,
because the outcome of the battle often depended on
the standard-bearers and spirit-stirring drummers.
Victory celebrations by the public also brought the
drummers to the fore, as was the case in celebrating
al-Ka'im's victory over the rebel al-Basasm in 451/
1059 when men and women played kettledrums
(dabadib), tambourines (dufuf) and clarions in daylight
hours and carried torches at night. In times of emer-
gency, the drummers awakened the public to impend-
ing danger, as they did at midnight during a Karmatr
military threat to the 'Abbasid capital in 320/932
(cf. The Eclipse, i, 132).

The custom of beating drums in front of the caliph's
palace at the five times of prayer was recorded during
the 4th/ 10th century. The Buwayhid Amirs, especially
Mu'izz al-Dawla and 'Adud al-Dawla, requested the
same privilege from the Khalifa. After prevarication,
the latter granted a reduced privilege of beating the
drum away from the gate of Mu'izz al-Dawla's palace
for three times: at dawn, sunset and night prayers.
Al-Ta'i' allowed 'Adud al-Dawla to employ drummers
in front of his palace in the Shammasiyya district of
Baghdad at three of the times of prayer. Under the
Saldjuks, a certain Sa'd al-Dawla, according to Ibn
al-Athlr, also enjoyed the privilege of being serenaded
by drummers in front of his residence in 471/1078.
The Persian traveller Nasir-i Khusraw witnessed an
impressive display of beating of drums and blowing
of trumpets by a thousand soldiers (perhaps an exag-
gerated number) in front of the royal palace at the
sunset prayer (maghrib) in Cairo in 439/1047. The cus-
tomary beating of drums thrice a day at prayer times
(rasm al-tabl al-nawbafi 'l-salawat al-thalath) for amirs, ac-
cording to Ibn al-Fuwati, was practiced until 634/1236.

During the Mamluk period the drummers were
employed as part of a military band at tabl-khana [q.v.]
where they performed at fixed hours and regular occa-
sions for the sultans. In Yemen during the Rasulid
period (628-723/1228-1323), the tabl-khana existed,
wherein drums were beaten with other musical instru-
ments like cymbals at processions as well as on various
celebrations for three or seven days. Some members
of the military band were of African descent. The
privilege of having tabl-khanas, was sometimes extended
to various amirs. A place in San'a' was known as the
quarter of the drum-band (harat tabl-khana).

The drummers' status in society was low. In Safawid
Isfahan, they were grouped with people of other
demeaning professions like dancers, singers, pigeon-
trainers and brothel keepers. Inferior social status pro-
moted solidarity among the drummers, who formed
guilds in Safawid Persia and early modern Egypt.

In Syria, the drummers earned their livelihood by
performing their art at the circumcision of male chil-
dren, at mock sword-plays for folk-entertainment and
in marriage ceremonies for three days. During the
harvesting seasons of olives and grapes, they per-

TABBAL — TABl'A

formed ritual beating of drums and sang songs to eke
out a meagre wage. The drummers' work in pre-
modern Syria, as elsewhere in the Middle East, was
treated as a demeaning profession (hirfa danl'a).

Bibliography: Djahiz, Manakib al-atrak, in Rasa'il,
ed. Harun, Cairo 1964, i, 19, 53; Ibn al-Djawzr,
al-Muntazam, vii, 262, viii, 57, ix, 14; Hilal b.
Muhassin al-Sabl, Rusum dar al-khilafa, Baghdad
1964, 24, 136-7, tr. Elie A. Salem, The rules and
regulations of the 'Abbasid court, Beirut 1977, 24, 115;
idem, Wuzara', ed. Amedroz, Leiden 1904, 377;
Isfahan!, Aghanl', xvi, 138-9; Miskawayh, in Eclipse
of the 'Abbasid caliphate, i, 132, ii, 264, 396, tr. iv,
147, v, 281, 435; Nasir-i Khusraw, Safar-nama, tr.
Thackston, Albany 1986, 45; Ibn al-Athir, Kamil,
ed. Beirut, vii, 299, viii, 126; Yakut, Irshad, ed.
Margoliouth, v, 164; LA, Beirut 1956, xi, 398-9;
Ibn al-Fuwatr, al-Hawadith al-djami'a, Baghdad 1932,
93; Ibn TaghnbirdT, Mudjum, Cairo 1933, iv, 132;
M.S. al-Kasimi et at., Kamus al-sina'at al-Shamiyva,
Paris and' The Hague 1960, ii, 288-9; R.B. Serjeant
et at, San'a'-an Arabian Islamic city, London 1983,
146 n.; Mehdi Keyvani, Artisans and guild life in the
later Safavid period, Berlin 1982, 54-5; Muhammad
Abdul Jabbar Beg, The Islamic city from al-Madinah
to Samarra, in Historic cities of Asia, ed. with introd.
by idem, Kuala Lumpur 1986, 250-61; M. Sham-
suddin Miah, The reign of al-Mutawakkil, Dacca 1969,
67, 216; H.G. Farmer, A history of Arabian musk to
the 13th century, London 1929, 206-11. See also the

Bitl. tO TABL-KHANA. (M.AJ. Beg)

TABI' [see posta].

TABl'A (a.), literally "nature", functional equiva-
lents tiba' and tab', a term of Islamic science,
philosophy and theology. Numerous Arabic-writ-
ing authors have defined the term, and a first survey
shows that in a large number of cases these defini-
tions betray Aristotelian origins. In such cases, there-
fore, it would be legitimate to analyse tabl'a in the
context of Aristotle's <ptioi<;, a term usually translated
as "nature", provided that the distinct and varying
conceptual range of the Arabic term is kept in view
and it is not considered identical to its Greek source.

1. Appropriations of the Greek <ptiovq tra-

Ibn Sina [q.v.] writes in his K. al-Hudud that "tabl'a
is an essential first principle (mabda' awwal) for the
essential movement of that in which it is present; in
short, for every essential change (taghayyur) and every
essential persistence (thabat)" (Rasa'il, Cairo 1326, 86;
cf. A.-M. Goichon, Lexique de la langue philosophique dTbn
Sina, Paris 1938, 201). This is clearly an Aristotelian
definition; in fact, in the 'Uyun al-hikma, we find Ibn
Sina providing a fairly faithful Arabic paraphrase of
Aristotle's Physics, ii/ 1, 192,b.20-3: "Tabl'a is a cause
(sabab = aitia) in that it is a certain essential princi-
ple (mabda' = dpxn) of motion and rest to that in
which it is inherent, essentially and not by accident"
(Arabic text in Goichon, 201). Similarly, to take an-
other example, the Ghayat al-haklm of pseudo-Maslama
b. Ahmad al-Madjntr [q.v.] also defines tabl'a as a
cause and an essential principle; and in conformity
with Aristotle it is expressly called a potentiality: we
are told that tabl'a is a certain kuwwa (Swauu;) exist-
ing in physical bodies by means of which their forms
and acts are preserved for a finite period of time —
"natural philosophers (tabl'iyyun) call this kuwwa the
constraining cause (al-sabab al-mumsik) by means of
which bodies persist without collapsing, disintegrating,
or calcining. . . . The definition of tabl'a is that it is
the essential first principle ... of motion and rest"

(ed. H. Ritter, Berlin 1933, 284). Recall Aristotle's
Metaphysics, ix/8, 1049.b.9-10: "<piiovq is in the same
genus as 8tivaui<;; for it is a principle of movement".
Ibn Hazm [q.v.'], too, in his polemical discourses on
tabl'a, says that it is a potentiality, and so do the
Ikhwan al-Safa' [q.v.] (see below).

But pseudo-Madjnti continues to give the defini-
tions of tabl'a according to others, and here the ques-
tion of sources, though they remain evidently Greek,
becomes rather complex. According to the philoso-
phers, he says, tabl'a is a corporeal form (sura djismiyya)
and "it is in physical bodies (al-badan) through the
mediation of the Sphere lying between this [corpo-
real form] and the Soul" (lee. cit.). Plato, he tells us,
defined tabl'a as a natural substance (qjawhar tabl'i).
And like Ibn Sina — and here the texts of the Hudud
(Goichon, 201) and Ghaya are practically identical —
he gives the definition of the physicians: "They apply
the term tabl'a to humour, natural heat (al-harara al-
ghanziyya), aspects of the bodily organs (hay'at al-a'da'),
movements, and the vegetative soul" (lee. cit.).

Indeed, the term is widely used by Arabic physi-
cians and, as Goichon points out (200), in this usage
it carries the broad sense of the Latin natura rerum
In this connection, one should note what seems tc
be a fairly common feature of Arabic encyclopaedic
works on animals: found in these writings is a sec
tion devoted to the taba'i' of each animal, followed
by its properties (khawass) (see, for example, Ibn Abi
'1-Hawafir (d. 701/1301), Bada'i' al-akwdn fl manafi'
al-hayawan, ms. Chester Beatty 4325; Tsa b. 'All
(Jl. 3rd/9th century), K. Manafi' al-hayawan, ms. Berlin
6240; cf. Sezgin, GAS, iii, Leiden 1970). Also, i:
ural historical writings sometimes the term used is
tiba', which functions as the equivalent of tabl'a. Thus
Aristotle's title History of animals is translated Ft ma'ri-
fat tiba' al-hayawan al-bani wa 'l-bahri (ed. A. BadawT,
Kuwait 1977). Again, in the Arabic translation of
Aristode's Generation of animals attributed to Yahya b.
al-Bitrlk, 911011; is consistently rendered tiba' (see ed.
J. Brugman and HJ. Drossaart Lulofs, Leiden 1971,
249). But the use of tiba' is not restricted to this par-
ticular context, since, for example, in a discourse on
the souls of heavenly bodies Ibn Sina speaks of their
tiba' in which, he says, inheres the principle of change
and multiplicity (Arabic text in Goichon, 201).

An unmistakably Neoplatonic account of tabl'a is
found in the Rasa'il of the Ikhwan al-Safa' which con-
tains a whole chapter on the quiddity (mahiyya) of
tabl'a. "Those among the sages and philosophers who
used to talk about cosmic phenomena occurring in
the sublunar realm", we read in the Rasa'il, "attrib-
uted all natural events and processes to tabl'a . . . Know,
O my brother, . . . that tabl'a is only one of the poten-
tialities of the Universal Soul, a potentiality spread-
ing through all sublunar bodies, flowing through each
of their parts". Then we are told that, expressed in
terms of Divine Law, tabl'a is a group of "angels who
are assigned the task of protecting the world and carry-
ing out natural creation (tadblr al-k/jatlka) by the per-
mission of God" (Rasa'il, Beirut 1957,' ii, 63). This is
an interesting appropriation of the Neoplatonic doc-
trine of emanation, particularly as it is found in the
historically important Theologia Aristotelis, a pseudo-
Aristotelian text whose ultimate substratum is Ploti-
nus' Enneads, iv-vi in Porphyry's arbitrary arrangement.
In this text tabl'a is spoken of as an emanation ulti-
mately radiating forth from the First Cause, through
the successive emanations of the hypostases of the
Intellect and Soul (ed. A. Badawi, in idem, Pletinus
apud Arabes, Cairo 1955, 6). Note that both Plotinus

and the Ikhwan agree on the intermediary roles of
the Intellect and Soul in the creation of the natural
world. God's method was to act indirectly, and for
the Ikhwan, this meant that He carried out the
afFairs of the world through His angelic agents — and
tabl'a was one of them: "tabl'a is only one of God's
angels, His supporters and His obedient slaves, doing
whatever they are commanded to do" (Rasa'il, ii, 127;
d! I. Netton, Muslim Neoplatonists, Edinburgh 1982, 38).
We have already seen that pseudo-Madjntl assigns this
role to the Sphere.

Given the hierarchical ethos of Neoplatonic meta-
physics, one frequently finds in the Islamic philo-
sophical literature elaborate discourses on the ranks
of created beings, and man's place on this scale. An
example is the ethical treatise K. al-Nafs wa 'l-ruh (ed.
M.S.H. Ma'sQmf, Islamabad 1968) of Fakhr al-Din
al-RazI [q.v.]. In this work, the author organises his
four ranks of beings on the basis of, inter alia, the
existence or non-existence of tabl'a in a given being.
Angels were on the top, endowed with intellect but
no tabi'a; next came lower animals possessing tabl'a
and desire, but no intellect; then inanimate objects,
having none of the three; and finally the fourth place
belonged to human beings, possessing all three, tabl'a,
intellect, and desire. But then, we are told that it is
the privilege only of human beings to be God's vice-
gerents, because they had faculties of which other
beings were deprived (see M. Fakhry, Ethical theories
in Islam, Leiden 1991, 186); and in this sense man
becomes the highest created being. Here it is inter-
esting to note that al-RazI does not admit of tabl'a
in inanimate objects, and this clearly means that he
is thinking of it exclusively in psychological terms; for
him, tabi'a was a faculty which necessarily implied
volition, and this is certainly not Aristotle's ipwsii;.

2. In Kalam.

In the kaldm literature [see 'ilm al-kalam], the term
tabl'a is often used interchangeably with tab'. Thus,
in his own reformulation of the meaning of the two
terms, the mutakallim al-Ash'an [q.v.] conflates them:
when, he says, one is accustomed to seeing the occur-
rence (huduth]) of some specific accidents (a'rad ) invari-
ably ('aid watirat" wahidat") in some specific bodies,
one calls them "tab' and tabl'a" (Ibn Furak, Mudjarrad
makalat al-Ash'an, ed. D. Gimaret, Beirut 1987, 131-
2). But this does not mean that here we have a total
conceptual equivalence, for frequently one finds in
kaldm a distinction between tab' and tabl'a. In gen-
eral, the latter term in its standard non-kaldm usage
is understood by the mutakallimun to mean the nat-
ural disposition of a physical entity which necessarily
determines its particular behaviour, and here tabi'a is
practically synonymous with the khilka of the mutakallim
al-Nazzam as reported by al-Shahrastani [q.v]: "Every-
thing that lies beyond [the action of human beings] . . .
is the work of God by the necessitation of a khilka"
(al-Shahrastani, 38). Again, in a qualified manner, the
term is functionally equivalent to the ma'na of Mu'am-
mar (see R. Frank, Al-ma'nk Some reflections on the tech-
nical meaning of the term in the Kaldm and its use in the
physics of Mu'mmar, in JAOS, lxxxvii [1967], 248; cf.
H.A. Wolfson, Philosophy of the kaldm, Cambridge, Mass.
1976, 566). On the other hand, the mutakallimun view
the standard notion of tab' in a distinct generic sense
of a natural causal agency which brings about the
real phenomena of the world (see below). It would
appear, then, that here tabl'a is a special case of
tab'; and since both of them were equally considered
to imply natural causation for physical processes, as
opposed to direct divine will or command, they were

both equally unacceptable to practically all mutakallimun.
It is for this reason, it seems, that they sometimes do
not bother to keep the two terms distinct from each

Mentioned among those whom the mutakallimun cen-
sure for believing in natural causation is a group of
thinkers called ashab al-taba'i', espousers of taba'i' —
and this seems to be a rather broad designation for
those who pursue natural philosophy (see A. Dhan-
ani, The Physical theory of kaldm, Leiden 1994, 4, 182).
However, it is clear that the mutakallimun attribute to
these ashab such views on tab'/tabl'a as are shared
also by the alchemists, for the alchemists did believe
in tab'/tabl'a as an agency of natural causation (see
3. below). But it is an interesting fact that in the Sirr
al-khaUka of pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana [see balinus],
a fundamentally important source of early Arabic
alchemy [see rukn], we find mentions of ashab al-
taba'i' as a group of people who deify and worship
taba'i' and whom the author of the text strongly
condemns (K. Sirr al-khallka wa-san'at al-tabl'a, ed.
U. Weisser, Aleppo 1979, 30, 60). Further, in his
K. al-Sab'ln, Djabir b. Hayyan [q.v], too, refers to
ashab al-taba'i', whom he evidently considers outsiders
to his field of alchemy (see P. Kraus, Jdbir ibn Hayyan,
ii, Cairo 1942, 17). Thus the self-perception of some
alchemists was that they are not among this group;
but they do nonetheless fulfill the mutakallimun's cri-
terion of what definitively characterises ashab al-taba'i'.

Tabi'a and tab' as causality. It should be noted that
the kaldm discourses on tab'/tabl'a, and they are volu-
minous, are always carried out in the larger context
of the problem of causality. Indeed, one would agree
with the claim that for the mutakallimun the "term
[tab'/tabl'a is] the equivalent of causality" (Wolfson,
op. cit., 559). Ibn Rushd [q.v.] expresses this the other
way around, but categorically: denial of causality is,
in effect, a denial that things have a tabl'a (Tahdfut
al-tahdfut, ed. M. Bouyges, Beirut 1930, xvii/5, 520).
A lucid explanation of the mutakallimun's position on
this matter is to be found in the Daldlat al-ha'irln of
MQsa b. Maymun (Maimonides) [see ibn maymCn].
Here one reads the report of the kalam doctrine
that all physical bodies consist of atoms (a^awhar, pi.
djawahir/ djuz' , pi. aajza') and accidents ('arad, pi.
a'rad) created by God through His will. All attributes
of bodies (colour, smell, motion, growth, decay, life,
death, etc.) are accidents. But these accidents do not
arise out of, even less, are necessarily caused by, a
tab' or tabl'a inhering in bodies and acting naturally
without God's direct creative causal action. Everything
in the world that comes into being comes into being
by an act of free creation by God as He wills. The
object of this doctrine, Maimonides tells us, is to guard
against the idea that there is in any sense a tabi'a in
things and that this tabl'a of a thing requires neces-
sarily that there should be joined to it such and such
accident (Le Guide des egares, ed. and tr. S. Munk, Paris
1856-66, i, 375 ff.).

In other words, tab'/tabl'a, in its standard usage,
is considered by the mutakallimun to signify a real prin-
ciple of natural causation, and this is in conformity
with Aristotle. Again, Ibn Khaldun [q.v.], speaking of
the mutakallimun's denial of causality, characterises them
succincdy by his statement "They denied tabl 'a" (Mukad-
dima, iii, 114). Ibn Hazm says of the Ash'arls that
they used the term 'ada (custom) instead of tabl'a to
designate the natural course of events not broken off
by miracles (K. al-Fisal fi 'l-milal, Cairo 1320, v, 15).
To be sure, in the Makalat al-Ash'an declares: "One
who holds tabl'a to be necessitating (al-mudjiba) and

tab' to be that which causally engenders (al-muwallid)
is mistaken" (Ibn Furak, 131; note here the distinc-
tion between tab' and (abl'a). He then explains his
position by saying that it is simply a matter of lin-
guistic usage that people say, "the tab' of so and so
is good" and that "the tab' of so and so is evil". They
do so because they are accustomed to (i'tadu) seeing
some specific accidents occurring invariably in cer-
tain bodies (132). Thus tab'/tabl'a has no ontological
significance. Again, "He [al-Ash'ari] used to reject
the views of the philosophers, the espousers of taba'i'
(taba'i'iyyun), and the Mu'tazila, all of whom argue
for their belief in causality (tawallud) by saying that
there exists in fire a tendency {i'timad) which causally
engenders its upward motion, and a tendency in stone
which causally engenders its downward motion. He
would say: all that is in these bodies is the creation
of the Ail-Powerful, the Wise, Who does whatever He
wills to do, without cause (sabab) and without any media-
ting processes {mu'aladja). Indeed, we have already elu-
cidated his views concerning his denial of the doctrine
of taba'i'" (276).

In explaining the regularity and predictability of
natural phenomena, Abu Hamid al-Ghazah" [q.v.] also
substitutes 'ada for tab'/tabl'a. But his explanation is
more sophisticated. Why is it that fire always burns,
and (to take one of his own examples) a boy never
turns into a dog? His answer is twofold: (a) God cre-
other events; this
ay since God has
{'add), and (b) God

i the

has created in us the knowledge of (a), namely that
the custom will continue, and that fire will continue
to burn, and a boy will not turn into a dog. Thus
natural phenomena are not caused, of necessity, owing
to a tab', but due to a divinely-created custom, a cus-
tom of which we possess a divinely-created knowledge.
{Tahajut al-faldsifa, ed. Bouyges, Beirut 1927, 270-86).

But the substitution of 'ada for tab'/tabl'a came
under heavy criticism in the hands of Ibn Hazm.
Thus arguing on grounds of linguistic usage, he says,
"'ada in the Arabic language" is used with regard to
something which may either be avoided {tarkuhu) or
not avoided, and whose absence (zawaluhu) is possi-
ble {mumkin), in contradistinction to the term tabl'a,
which is used with regard to something the avoid-
ance of which {al-kJiuruqj 'anha) is impossible {mumtani')
{Fisal, v, 15-6). Thus unlike tabl'a, 'ada cannot explain
the regularity in the processes of the world, since they
always happen in the same way. He then explicates
the term: tabl'a — which is, he tells us, synonymous
{mutaradifd) to khaUka, satika, bahlra, ghariza, sadjiyya,
slma, and djibilla — only means the potentiality {kuwwa)
of a thing whereby the qualities therein, such as they
are, come to pass {Fisal, v, 15). But Ibn Hazm goes
on to say that this does not mean that bodies act
independendy by virtue of their tabl'a, for tabl'a so
defined has no intelligence {'akl) and therefore actions
of things are not created by the things themselves.
Of necessity, says Ibn Hazm, we know that with re-
gard to these actions, their creation is due to some-
thing outside of the things in which they appear, and
that can be none other than God. Thus by rejecting
the ontological equivalence of tabl'a and natural cau-
sation, Ibn Hazm makes tabl'a a potentiality whose
actualisation is caused directly by divine will, even
though for him the tabl'a of a thing is fixed once
and for all by God {"al-kaldm Ji 'l-tawallud" , Fisal, v,
59-60; cf. Wolfson, op. at., 576-7).

3. Taba'i' in the alchemical tradition.

In the Islamic alchemical literature there exists a

rigorously systematic and rich theory of taba'i', and
the grand corpus of tantalising Arabic texts attributed
to Djabir b. Hayyan remains its supreme representa-
tive. Indeed, so central is the doctrine of taba'i' in
the alchemy of Djabir that his entire natural scien-
tific system can be reduced to a theory of taba'i',
their place, and their combinations; and in the devel-
opment of this theory the Sin al-khaUka of pseudo-
Apollonius seems to have served as a direct source
(cf. Kraus, op. cit).

"All things", says the author of the Sin, "arise out
of the four taba'i', and they are: Hot (al-han [else-
where al-harara]), Cold {al-bard [elsewhere al-buruda]),
Moist {al-Hn [elsewhere al-rutuba/billa]), and Dry {al-
yubs [elsewhere al-yubusa])" (ed. Weisser, 3). Identical
declarations are to be found throughout the Djabirian
corpus (e.g., see K. al-AhaJar, ed. S.N. Haq, in idem,
Names, natures and things, Dordrecht and London 1993,
passim). Indeed, for both pseudo-Apollonius and Djabir,
the four taba'i' constituted the fundamental principles
of the natural world; they were the First Simple
Elements {al-'anasir al-basa'it/al-basa'it al-uwal) of all
bodies. They were uncompounded entities {al-mujra-
dat) out of which the first compound elements (al-
murakkabat), Fire, Air, Water, and Earth were formed,
and these latter were Second Elements {'andsir thawanl)
(see Mukhtar rasa'il, ed. P. Kraus, Paris 1935, passim;
Ahd^ar, ed. Haq, 38-4; Sin, ed. Weisser, passim). Again,
"when these four taba'i' enter into combination, they
give rise to Fire, Water, Air {al-rlh), and Earth (al-
lurab), and they are then called ustukussat; they are
the generators (al-ummahat) and principles (al-usul) of
all individual things {al-ajradf {Sin, 187).

The temptation to read Aristotle's four qualities
into these taba'i' must be resisted; for even though
some isolated similarities do exist here, the two sets
of entities remain both metaphysically and function-
ally distinct from each other. Aristotle's qualities were
conceptual entities, taba'i' were real elements; the for-
mer were not to be found in isolation from the four
Empedoclean primary bodies in which they inhered,
the latter were independently existing entities cap-
able of physical acts, such as motion, combination,
and separation. In the Sin, each of the taba'i' is
sometimes referred to as a kuwwa (e.g. 186, 330, 372),
but in the context the term seems to have a pecu-
liar sense of a motive force, something that is con-
ceptually far removed from Swam; or itoio-rn; (Ar.
kayfiyyai). As for the Djabirian corpus, Aristotelian
appellations in this particular matter are almost to-
tally absent; indeed, the author of the corpus some-
times explicitly distinguishes taba'i' from kayfiyyai (see
K. Ikhradi ma fi 'I kuwwa ila 'l-fi'l, ed. Kraus, 92).

In both the Sin and the Djabirian corpus, the gen-
eration of bodies out of taba'i' is explained in mech-
anistic terms. Thus: "When the Sphere {al-Jalak) [which
encloses the world] moves perpetually and becomes
vigorous in its motion, the four taba'i' form pairs
(izdawa^at), one with the other. They become differ-
ent, and one knows one pair from the other by its
essence {'ayn) and form {sura) . . . Thus come to pass
by their combination the four compound taba'i',
namely, Fire . . . Water ... Air ... and Earth" [Sin, 187).
The explanation is more elaborate in Djabir who
speaks in Neoplatonic terms: At the root of the gen-
eration of the corporeal world lies the Desire {shahwa)
of the Soul which endows substance {djawhar) with
formative power; thus substance attaches to taba'i',
and the four elementary bodies come to pass. The
Djabirian taba'i' get themselves "implanted" in sub-
stance, they "attack" substance, and "act upon" it;

TABI'A — TABI'UN

they "shape" it, "embrace" it, and "compress" it (see
Haq, 57-62). All this stands in sharp contradistinction
to Aristode.

It should be noted that the Djabirian taba'i' were
indeed the true material elements of things; things
could be decomposed into their constituent taba'i';
they could be made to undergo transmutation by aug-
mentations, suppressions, and rearrangements of taba'i';
and like all material entities, taba'i' possessed weights
and all other physical properties too (see K. al-Sab'in,
ed. Kraus, 473). Indeed, the elixir was only a sub-
stance in which the four taba'i' existed in a perfect
numerical proportion (see ed. Haq, passim). Aristotle
had said that to each elementary body there was only
one affection (Generation and corruption, ii/3, 331.a.3-6);
this meant that when, say, Fire is deprived of Hot,
the contrary quality, Cold, always appeared — Fire
which was hot and dry, thus became Earth which
was cold and dry. But in the Djabirian system, we
could, through alchemical procedures, extract Hot
from Fire, and in this way reduce the latter to pure
Dry; and of course there did exist bodies which were
only hot, or only cold, and so on (see Kraus, Jabir
ibn Hayydn, ii, 135-85). To be sure, the whole of
alchemy consisted in nothing other than systematic
operations on, and manipulations of, taba'i'.

In the Islamic alchemical literature, the words tab'
and tabi'a do occur in their ordinary sense of the
natural properties or disposition of a thing, or the
temperament of a person. But when so employed,
these words do not seem to function as technical
terms; rather, they are used informally in the way in
which al-Ash'ari describes them — that is, as they are
uttered in ordinary linguistic usage.

Bibliography. In addition to works cited in the
text, see Abu Rashid, K. al-Masa'il fi 'l-khildf bayn
al-Basriyyin wa 'l-Baghdadiyyin, ed. and tr. A. Biram,
Leiden 1902; A. Altmann and A.M. Stern, Isaac
Israeli, London 1958; BaghdadT, Fark, ed. 'Abd al-
Hamid, Cairo n.d.; idem, K. Usui al-din, Istanbul
1346; Bakillanr, al-Tamhid, ed. RJ. McCarthy, Beirut
1957; Djuwaym, al-Irshad fi usul al-i'tikad, ed. and
tr. J.D. Luciani, Paris 1938; M. Fakhry, A History
of Islamic philosophy, New York 1983; R. Frank, Notes
and remarks on the taba'i' in the teaching of al-Maturidi,
in Melanges d'islamologie. Volume dedie a la memoire de
Armand Abel par ses collegues, ses Sieves et ses amis, ed.
P. Salmon, Leiden 1974, 137; Ghazali, Ihya' 'ulum
al-din, Cairo 1315; A.-M. Goichon, Introduction a
Avicenne, Paris 1933; idem, La distinction de I'essence
et de I'existence d'apres Ibn Sina, Paris 1937; B. Hane-
berg, Ibn Sina und Albertus Magnus, in Abh. der
Phihs.-philol. Classe der Kbniglich Bayerischen Akad. der
Wiss., xi [1868], 191; Job of Edessa, Book of treasures,
ed. and tr. A. Mingana, Cambridge 1935; Khayyat.
K. al-Intisar, ed. and tr. A.N. Nader, Beirut 1957;
Fakhr al-Din al-RazT, Muhassal afkar al-mutakaddimin
wa 'l-muta'a/chkhirin, with the commentary of Nasir
al-Dfn al-TusT, TalUlis al-muhassal, ed. A. Nuram,
Tehran 1980; U. Weisser, Das "Buck iiber das Geheim-
nis der Schopfung" von Pseudo-Apollonius von Tyana, Berlin
and New York 1980. (S. Nomanul Haq.)

4. In astronomy.

It seems that the non-Ptolemaic planetary models
of the 7th/ 13th to 10/ 16th centuries largely grew out
of metaphysical speculations on the tabi'a of heavenly
bodies. Recall that Ptolemy in Book ii of his Planetary
hypotheses explains the diurnal rotation of the heavenly
spheres by the tabi'a of the outermost Sphere and
that of all the other spheres, which move uniformly
and simultaneously in a circular motion. But the

motions of the spheres within each planetary sphere
he attributes to the will of the soul of that planet as
well as to the tabi'a of ether (see A. Murschel, The
structure and function of Ptolemy's physical hypotheses of plan-
etary motion, in Journal for the History of Astronomy, xxvi
[1995], 33). In the system of Ptolemy, then, simple
bodies had composed motions.

Ibn al-Haytham [q.v.] was troubled by this, con-
sidering it to be a violation of the tabi'a of celestial
bodies. Thus in ms. Y of his Fi hay'at al-'alam (ed.
and tr. Y.T. Langermann, New York 1990, 66-7,
230-1) he is quoted as saying that stars are natural
(tabi'iyya) bodies that by themselves can have only one
natural motion. There are four premises on which
explanations of planetary motions must be based:

1. A natural body does not move by its nature
with more than one natural motion,

2. A simple natural body does not move with a
varying motion,

3. The body of the heavens does not admit of
being acted upon,

4. A void does not exist.

Ibn al-Haytham's argument runs something like this:
since each star is of a simple substance, its motions
must be regular and uniform. And given that there
cannot be a void, each planet has a sphere whose
circular motion carries it about. But since each planet
has several motions, all planets have a separate sphere
to account for each of their motions.

Much of this is accepted by Nasir al-Din al-TQsI
[q.v.] in his Tadhkira, i/2. Of interest is i/2, 2:' "If
the motion of a self-moved mobile is monoform, its
principle of motion is called a nature (tab'), whether
the motion is natural and elemental or voluntary and
celestial. Otherwise its [principle of motion] is called
a soul (nafs), whether the [motion] be vegetative or
animal" (ed. and tr. F.J. Ragep, New York 1993,
100). It is in ii/7, 25, that al-Tiisr enumerates the
ways in which Ptolemy's lunar model violates the prin-
ciple of simple motion for simple bodies (for Mercury,
see ii/8, 19, and also 'utarid) — a violation, that is,
of their tabi'a.

(D.E. Pingree and S. Nomanul HaqJ

TABIB [see tibb].

fABriYYAT [see Suppl.].

TA'BIR [see ru'ya].

TABI'UN (a.) (sing, mbi' or tdbi'i), usually trans-
lated as Successors, means the Successors of the
Companions of the Prophet [see sahaba]. The
Successors are the members of the generation of Mus-
lims that followed the Companions, or those Muslims
who knew one or more of the Companions but
not the Prophet himself. They played a significant
role in the early stages of Kur'an commentary [see
tafsir], the biography of the Prophet including the
history of his campaigns [see maghazi; sIra; ta'rIkh],
jurisprudence [see fikh] and the collection and dis-
semination of traditions [see haditb]. In all these
fields, the earliest material consists of reports about
the actions and sayings of the Prophet, his family and
his Companions. The Companions transmitted this in-
formation to the Successors, who in turn transmitted
it, both in writing and orally, to one another, to their
students and to the leadership of the larger Muslim
world of the Umayyad and early 'Abbasid periods.
Chronologically, the last of the Successors were those
who knew the Companions who lived for the longest
time after the Prophet's death. Among these are included
those who studied and worked with the Companion
Anas b. Malik [q.v.], who did not die until 91-3/
709-11 and was the last Companion to die in Basra.

There are biographies of the Successors in tabakat
[g.v.] works, as well as in the biographical diction-
aries devoted specifically to establishing the reliability
of hadith transmitters [see al-djarh wa 'l-ta'dil; 'ilm
al-ridjal]. In tabakat works, Successors are ranked
chronologically; ridjal works tend to list transmitters
alphabetically (e.g. al-Bukharfs Kitdb al-Ta'rikh al-kablr).

In his Kitab al-Tabakat al-kubra, Ibn Sa'd (d. 230/845
[q.v.]) divides his biographies of the Successors into a
number of classes corresponding to the places in which
they taught and studied and to their contact with the
most important Companions. The first class consists
of Medinan Successors who transmitted from either
Abu Bakr or 'Umar or both; the second, of Medinan
Successors who transmitted from 'Uthman and 'All,
as well as from eight other well-known Companions.
After the Medinans come the Successors of Mecca
(starting with those who transmitted from 'Umar), and
then a few who were active in other parts of Arabia.
He then moves on to notices of Successors active in
Kufa, Basra and Baghdad, then in Syria and North
Africa and finally he mentions one person, Mu'awiya
b. Salih (d. 158/774), in al-Andalus.

Some of the Successors are especially noted for
their contribution to one or another of the fields of
learning mentioned above. In tafsir, for example, among
the students of the Companion 'Abd Allah b. 'Abbas
(d. 68/687 [q.v.]), SaTd b. al-Djubayr (d. 95/714) and
Mudjahid b. Djabr (d. 104/722 [q.vv.]) were particu-
larly important; in maghazi, Aban b. 'Uthman (d. 105/
723) and 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr (d. ca. 94/713 [q.vv.]).
A great many of them are known for their contri-
butions to several fields. Ibn Shihab al-Zuhn (d. 124/
742 [q.v.]) is possibly the most famous polymath
among the Successors. As an historian, he was one
of the foremost early authorities on the life of the
Prophet [see sira; maghazi] and he was a teacher of
al-Wakidl (d. 207/823 [q.v.]); as a traditionist, he played
a crucial role in the written transmission of hadith.
Al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 1 10/728 [q.v.]) is claimed as a
seminal figure by virtually all branches of religious
learning (although Sezgin lists him with the theolo-
gians; see Bibl.).

As jurists, the Successors were considered the link
to the early period of Islam that made it possible to
ascertain the established practice, the surma [q.v.], of
the Prophet and of the early community. Certain of
them are associated with the legal development of a
particular place. In Medina, prominent among the
many Successors mentioned in early Malik! texts [see
malikiyya] are the Medinan Sa'id b. al-Musayyab
(d. 94/713) and Nafi' b. 'Umar (d. 117/735). In Kufa,
the legal opinions of Ibrahim al-Nakha'I (d. 96/715
[q.v.]) form the basis of early Hanafl doctrine. They
were compiled by his student Hammad b. Abi Sul-
ayman (also a Successor, d. 120/738), with whom
Abu HanTfa (d. 150/767 [q.v]) studied. In Mecca,
'Ata' b. Abi Rabah (d. 114/732 [q.v.]) stands out; in
Damascus, Kabisa b. Dhu'ayb (d. 86/705).

As the repositories of the legacy of the Prophet
and the Companions, all the Successors were poten-
tially traditionists. Distinguishing among them to deter-
mine exactly who each was and whether he could be
considered a reliable transmitter in the link of an isnad
chain is the most important component of the sci-
ences of Tradition ('ulum al-hadith) [see hadith. iv].
Thus their biographers are particularly careful about
their genealogies, the time and place of their birth,
the cities where they spent their active lives and their
teachers. Once it is ascertained with whom they stud-
ied, then the precise nature of the contact must be

explored. In the case of the Successors who knew one
or more Companions, for example, the question is
whether they associated with them or simply encoun-
tered them, and whether they actually heard (samd')
traditions from those Companions, or merely trans-
mitted on their authority (rawa 'an, or only 'an) [see
mu'an'an; also again hadItjj].

The hadlth collections of a number of Successors
happen to have survived in manuscript; they are listed
in Sezgin (see Bibl). Two examples are Humayd b.
al-Tawil (d. 142/759), and Hisham b. 'Urwa b. al-
Zubayr (d. 146/763). The biographical information
about them that can be gleaned from various sources
(see Bibl.) will serve to illustrate what we find for the
vast majority of Successors. The Basran Humayd trans-
mitted on the authority of the Companion Anas b.
Malik (see above), and is said to have taken and
copied al-Hasan al-Basri's books and then returned
them. However, the jurist and traditionist Yahya b.
Sa'id (d. 143/760) is reported to have said that, when-
ever he asked Humayd anything about al-Hasan's
fatwas, he would say he could not remember. It is
not clear whether Humayd actually heard 'Umar b.
al-Khattab or only transmitted on his authority; sim-
ilarly, he may have only transmitted on the author-
ity of Anas b. Malik without actually having known
him, despite the fact that he was a younger con-
temporary of Anas's in Basra (al-Hakim al-Naysaburl
[see Bibl.] mentions Humayd as one of those Succes-
sors guilty of tadlis [q.v.], or improperly altering isnads).
Hisham was born in Medina and died in Baghdad.
He related from his father, the Successor 'Urwa b.
al-Zubayr, and from his uncle 'Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr
(d. 73/692 [q.v.]), a nephew of 'A'isha's. The noted
Kufan traditionist Wakl" b. al-Djarrah (d. 197/812)
reported that at a certain point he spent some time
among the scholars of Kufa.

In his work on hadlth methodology, K. Ma'rifat 'ulum
al-hadith, al-Hakim al-Naysaburl (d. 404/1014 [q.v.]),
like Ibn Sa'd, divides the Successors into a number
of classes, although his classification system is not the
same as Ibn Sa'd's (and is not fully explained). His
first class is comprised of the Successors who trans-
mitted from those Companions to whom the Prophet
promised Paradise (al-mubashshara al-'ashara). Other
classes include one made up of the seven jurists of
Medina [see fukaha' al-madIna al-sab'a, in Suppl.];
Successors born in the period of the O^dhiliyya [q.v],
al-mukhadramun [see mukhadram]; and people falsely
credited with actually hearing (samd') one of the
Companions when they in fact had heard only a
fellow Successor.

Al-Hakim prefaces his section on the Successors by
saying that whoever does not know who the Successors
are will not be able to distinguish between them and
the Companions, nor will he be able to distinguish
between them and the Successors of the Successors
{tab? al-tabi'in or atba' al-tabi'in). These, al-Hakim ex-
plains, are the third generation (tabaka) of Successors
after the Prophet and among them are found such
people as Malik b. Anas (d. 179/795 [q.v.]), Sufyan
al-Thawn (d. 161/778 [q.v.]), Shu'ba b. al-Hadjdjadj
(d. 160/776 [q.v.]) and Ibn Djuraydj (d. 150/767).

With this group we move to the scholars in the
forefront of the development of Islamic law who were
known both as jurists and traditionists and whose use
of traditions in legal reasoning, exemplified by al-
ShafiT (d. 204/820 [q.v.], made hadith studies an in-
extricable part of jurisprudence [see again fikh; also
usul]. During this period, when the lives of the Prophet
and the Companions were becoming part of the dis-

- TABKH

tant past, the authority of the Successors as heirs to
the knowledge of those times increased. Concern that
their knowledge might be lost led the Umayyad caliphs
of the early 2nd/8th century to patronise the efforts
made by hadith scholars, most notably al-Zuhri, to
collect and write down as many traditions as possible.
In Muslim scholarship both of the pre-modern and
modern periods, biographical information about isndd
transmitters is utilised to assess the worth of each trans-
mitter's contribution. The fact that many transmitters
are known to have been inaccurate about their con-
tacts and scholarly activities is considered proof of the
veracity of the biographies. In secular and oriental-
ist scholarship, most, if not all, of this information is
viewed as later fabrication, and it is utilised to figure
out how, when and for what purposes the scholars
of the generations after the Successors chose to par-
ticipate in the practice of depending upon and elab-
orating isnads; the Successor and Companion links in
the isnads that go back to the Prophet are considered
particularly problematic.

Bibliography: For biographies of Successors, see
Bukharf, K. al-Ta'rlkh al-kablr, Haydarabad 1361-5,
8 vols.; Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalam, K. Tahdhib al-
tahdhib, Haydarabad 1325-7, 12 vols.; Ibn Hanbal,
K. al-'Ilal wa-ma'rifat al-ridjal, eds. Talat Kocyigit and
Ismail Cerrahoglu, Ankara 1963; Ibn Sa'd, K. al-
Tabakat al-kubra. For individual Successors and pri-
mary and secondary sources about them, see Sezgin,
GAS, i. For hadith methodology, see al-Hakim al-
Naysabun, K. Ma'rifat 'ulum al-hadith, Beirut n.d.
For a reaction to the critical view of the role of
the Successors, see Nabia Abbott, Studies in Arabic
literary papyri, Chicago 1967, ii, and Sezgin, op. cit.
For critical studies of their role, see M. Cook, Early
Muslim dogma, Cambridge 1981, ch. 11 "The dat-
ing of traditions"; G.H.A. Juynboll, Muslim tradition,
Cambridge 1983; J. Schacht, The origins of Muham-
madan jurisprudence, Oxford 1950; H. Motzki, Die
Anfange der islamischen Jurisprudenz. Ihre Entwicklung in
Mekka bis zur Mitte des 2.18. Jahrhunderts, AKM 50,
2, Stuttgart 1991. (Susan A. Spectorsky)

TABKH (a), the action of cooking either in
a pot, by boiling or stewing; or by roasting, broiling,
frying or baking. Beyond the narrow sense of cook-
ing only fleshmeat, tabkh meant the transforma-
tion from a raw state of every conceivable
foodstuff for consumption. Possibly the Arabic
substantive for "cook" (tabbakh [q.v.]) also contained
the Hebrew sense of serving food at table, in addi-
tion to its preparation. According to some lexicons,
cooked food, tabikh, was distinguished from kadlr, the
latter specifying fleshmeat cooked in a pot seasoned
with pepper, cumin and the like, while the former
meant meat not thus seasoned; or, tablkh meant flesh-
meat cooked with broth or gravy, while a different
term applied to meat prepared without such liquid
(Lane, s.v. t-b-kh). It is evident, however, from the
extant mediaeval culinary manuals (kutub al-tabikh) that
such distinctions did not obtain in practice, the term
"cooked" applying to a dish comprising any combi-
nation of ingredients prepared by any of the meth-
ods noted above. Food as nourishment, and factors
determining diet in pre- and classical Islamic times,
are treated in the art. gnrajA', while matbakh describes
the kitchen, its major appliances and utensils employed
therein. Here, cooking techniques will be dealt with,
together with the main categories of ingredients used.
Cooking techniques varied somewhat according to
the social location of the "kitchen". Bread making, an
activity common to all segments of the population,

illustrates the point well. J.L. Burckhardt observed the
following method among the Bedouin of the Arabian
peninsula in the early 19th century. First, a circular
"element" of stones was heated. The fire was then
removed and dough made from coarse-ground grain
was set on the stones over which the glowing ashes
were placed until the bread was cooked (Notes on the
Beduins and Wahabys, London 1831, 58). Unleavened
bread made in this fashion was called khubz malla or
"roasted" bread, malla referring to the hot ash and
embers (Ibn Durayd, Djamhara, Haydarabad, 1925-33,
s.v.). Another method was a kind of grilling process
which involved the cooking of large thin loaves on a
concave metal plate (sadj) inverted and supported on
stones over a fire, with the dough placed on the con-
vex side (A. Musil, The manners and customs of the Rzvala
Beduins, New York 1928, 92). Bread was also pre-
pared in the communal oven {film) employed by house-
holds among settled hamlet and village as well as the
less affluent urban populations; either the dough was
prepared in the home and baked in the fum, the
baker retaining a portion of the dough as payment,
or else a poorer quality bread could be purchased
directly from the baker. By contrast, bread made for
a comfortable urban household was prepared in its
own kitchen from the best wheat flour; the appliance
used was the tannur, the bee-hive shaped baking oven
of Mesopotamian origin. Another general contrast
between the urban and rural-nomadic techniques may
be found in methods of food preservation. In the
latter tradition, sun- and wind-drying of raw materials
like meat were common, desiccation being nature's
own way of preservation. In the urban kitchen, ingre-
dients such as salt, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and
other spices and the process of smoking were used in
addition to the more "natural" means of preserva-
tion. Finally, there was a contrast in the use of condi-
ments accompanying a dish and flavourings in food.
Complicated preparations like muni and kawamikh
were commonplace in the urban "high" cuisine, while
natural plant flavourings, where they could be had,
were employed elsewhere. The cookbooks which have
survived reflect the urban milieu of a leisure class,
although they undoubtedly contain as well traces of
regional or rural oral cooking traditions. For exam-
ple, the preparation sauMk [q.v.] was traditionally made
of barley, parched and dried for use on long jour-
neys; the meal was reconstituted with water or milk
when required. Food by the same name was sold in
the markets of Baghdad as a poor man's staple made
from powdered chickpeas. However, in more affluent
households this rustic fare was made from fine wheat
flour sweetened with sugar or mixed with other ingre-
dients like pomegranate seeds. In the two extant cook-
books of Andalusl-North African provenance, regional
tastes appear reflected in the frequent use of eggs in
a range of substantial dishes, in the traditional dish
of Berber origin, couscous [see kuskusu], and in dishes
associated with particular locales (D. Waines, The culi-
nary culture of al-Andalus, in The legacy of Muslim Spain,
ed. S.K. Jayyusi, Leiden 1992). The processes and
ingredients discussed below are, however, derived solely
from the culinary manuals.

The most characteristic cooking method for creat-
ing substantial dishes was the "stew" or "casserole"
preparation where the ingredients (e.g. meat, vegeta-
bles, seasonings) were cooked in liquid in a pot over
the heat of a fire. Recipes for meat dishes other than
fowl usually use only the word "meat" (lahm) which,
appearing unqualified, should be assumed to mean
mutton, a meat preference supported by medical opin-

ion. It is impossible to tell at what age the mutton
was deemed best for eating, whether as hoggets
(between one and two years) or older. Lamb and kid
were also enjoyed. Beef is only infrequently mentioned
in recipes, possibly mirroring the medical view that,
owing to its coarse nature, it was more suited to the
toiling and labouring classes. Game meat such as rab-
bit, hare, wild cow, wild ass, gazelle, horse, moun-
tain goat, oryx and stag were all considered edible.
Dishes containing fowl, especially chicken, were also
popular. In one recipe for the famous Persian dish
sikbadj [?•»•], mutton, beef and chicken are cooked
together (al-Warrak, 132).

Typically, these are meat dishes with vegetables and
seasonings, but also with dried fruit in many cases.
The meat in the first stage of the cooking process
may be sauteed briskly in hot oil to which water is
then added, furthering the cooking, while other ingre-
dients and seasonings are placed in the pot; con-
versely, the meat may first be boiled in a stock of
water and oil to which other ingredients are added
while the cooking process is brought slowly to an (
A recipe for zirbddj follows the second procedure

Take a fine quality chicken, joint and clean it and
place in a clean pot. Then pour over one-half rati of
fresh water and a half ukiyya of good quality oil, s(
white of onion and boil all together. When boiled,
pour in white vinegar of half a rati and two ukiyya
of white sugar and one ukiyya peeled almonds and
one ukiyya of rose water. Add the spices, pepper, cin-
namon and ginger tied up in a fine cloth so that
they do not alter the dish's colour. Leave on the fire
a little, allowing it to thicken (al-Warrak, 153).

This recipe illustrates a number of interesting points

t the mediae

, the c

clear, step-by-step descripti
ration. Thirdly, zirbddj is a
practice of "meat substitu
main feature of the dish is
recipes for zirbddj call for
t and fowl,

Persian, indicating its strong influence upon the cos-
mopolitan character of the urban "high cooking cul-
ture"; many other dishes, such as tharid, masliyya and
madira [q.v.] , are contributions of traditional Arab pro-
venance. Second, the recipe gives measures of ingre-
dients, a rare feature of the corpus where measures
and proportions were left to the cook's discretion,
c of the recipes is their usually
n of the process of prepa-
1 example of the common
ion" in dishes; while the
ts sweet-sour flavour, other
neat (lahm) or a combina-
practice found today, for
example, in North African cooking. Fourthly, recipe
references to slaughtering and cleaning an animal or
bird indicate that fresh meat could be had from live-
stock, for example goats and chickens, kept by the
household. Finally, a word on the use of spices in
cooking. A spice combination in common use through-
out the Middle East was cinnamon, coriander (often
plus cumin), with pepper and saffron widely employed
as well, while regional preferences probably also existed.
The essential oils of pepper and cinnamon were known
for their antiseptic, preservative properties. Their use
was likely as much a matter of aesthetics as anything,
their preservative function being useful when left over
food could be served the following day, with the
flavour of the dish perceptibly enhanced. This "spice
spectrum" was inherited from the Middle East and
transformed much of the European cuisine from the
14th century onward (T. Peterson, The Arab influence
on western European cooking, in J. of Medieval History, vi
[1980], 317-41). The achievement of balance in bou-
quet and flavour between "aromatic" (e.g. cinnamon)
and "pungent" (e.g. coriander) spices was another fea-

Popular meat dishes were also prepared in milk or
with milk products; for example, masliyya was a dish
of lamb (or kid) with finely-chopped dried curd cheese
(masl) sprinkled on top, while madira was meat cooked
in soured milk.

Other dishes containing meat were known, how-
ever, by a vegetable or fruit highlighted in it. Thus
isfanakhiyya was a spinach (and meat) dish, tuffahiyya
an apple dish, and saldjamiyya a dish of turnip, chicken,
onion, cheese and seasonings. In the gardens and
orchards of the urban Middle East, vegetables and
fruits were seasonally available the year round. In the
mediaeval culinary lore, vegetables (bukul) included
edible plants which today would be considered herbs
such as mint, dill, fresh coriander and fennel. Fruits
(fawakih) were classified as dried and fresh; dried fruits
included soft fruit like apples and apricots as well as
nuts like almonds, pine seeds and pistachios. Fresh
fruit, the most common being dates, of which there
were said to be more than three hundred varieties,
was also used in cooked dishes or else consumed
before or after a meal. Plant food classified as "grains"
or "seeds" (hubub) included chick peas, lentils and the
mungo bean (mash) and the grasses wheat, barley and

Vegetables prepared alone without meat formed
another broad category of victuals for the table. They
could be served hot or cold. One process was to stew
the vegetable and then blend into it a quantity of oil
into which seasonings had been lightly heated, and
finally fold a beaten egg into the mixture while heat-
ing it in a pan. Cold dishes were called bawdrid, and
were prepared not only from vegetables, but also from
meat, fowl and fish. Frequent ingredients of vegetable
bawdrid were vinegar and a sweetening agent, sugar

Fish dishes were popular as well. Rather than being
stewed, they were generally prepared in a (frying) pan.
Fresh fish rather than salted or dried fish appear to
be the norm; it was recommended washing the fish
thoroughly first, including scaling and gutting, lightly
flouring and then frying it. The dish might be simple,
prepared for example with pepper, garlic, finely
chopped fresh coriander and onion cooked into a kind
of sauce which was served over the fish at table. Or
else the cleaned fish could be filled and covered with
a highly seasoned pasty stuffing and baked slowly in

The cereals wheat, barley and rice were probably
common to the tables of the urban leisure class and
poor alike. The difference between them was that the
daily bread of poor was made from inferior quality
wheat or other cereals while in times of real hard-
ship, "secondary grains" such as pulses and nuts (acorn
and chestnut) had to sufFice. The well-to-do had access
to the finest wheat for even their plainest loaf; the
same kitchen could also produce "glass-bread" a loaf
baked in a thin glass mould which was broken upon
completion of the baking. Wheat flour was also used
to prepare many varieties of pastry and sweetmeats.

The culinary manuals include not only prepara-
tions for immediate consumption. The preservation of
foodstuffs by pickling made mealtime planning more
flexible. A preparation called hallam describes the
steps for slaughtering either a kid or calf and boiling
the jointed carcass in vinegar until cooked; the meat
was then soused overnight in a mixture of vinegar,
cinnamon, galingal, thyme, celery, quince, citron, and
salt and then stored in glass or earthenware vessels.
Again, chicken lightly boiled whole in water, salt and

oil was then jointed and the portions placed in jars
filled with vinegar and seasonings; when ready for use
it was fried in oil and served. Vinegar, which was
genuine vin aigre, was also the preserving agent for a
wide variety of vegetable mukhallalat which included
pickled onions, capers, cucumber, turnip, garlic, egg-
plant and mint. These dishes were offered during
meals to "cleanse the palate of greasiness, to appe-
tize, to assist the digestion, and to stimulate the ban-
queter" (A.J. Arberry (tr.) A Baghdad cookery book, in
IC, xiii [1939], 205).

Another variety of relish or condiment was called
kawamikh. They may have been served, several at a
time, in small bowls into which bread or morsels of
food could be dipped. Certain kinds of kamakh or
kamakh juice (ma' kamakh) were added to the pot as
seasoning during cooking. One of the most important
of this class of condiment was mum, a cereal-based
preparation often mistakenly referred to as garum, the
fish-based condiment of the classical world (D. Waines,
Mum: the tale of a condiment, in al-Qantara, xii, [1991],
371-88). It required a long, complicated process which
took some three months from the end of March when
preparation commenced. The condiment could then
be stored for future use; shorter methods lasting only
two days were also known which could have been
employed the year round.

Activities in the mediaeval kitchen were not merely
concerned with the preparation of food for pleasure
but also with matters of bodily equipoise (see R. Kuhne
Brabant, Un tratado inedito de diektka de al-Razi, in
Anaquel de estudios arabes, ii [1991], 35-55). Recipes for
main dishes as discussed above often add a brief note
as to its benefit for the regime and hygiene. One dish
might be recommended to stimulate the appetite and
strengthen the stomach, another for cooling the body.
A certain class of meadess dish called muzawwar was
identified for its aid to those with fever (D. Waines
and M. Marin, Muzawwar: counterfeit fare for fasts and
fevers, in Isl, lxix [1992], 289-301). Moreover, other
preparations were intended more directly to alleviate
the consequences of over-indulgence of food, as well
as to stimulate other bodily functions and desires;
these included such "home remedies" as electuaries,
stomachics and medicinal powders and syrups, all pre-
pared in the kitchen for immediate or future use.

Finally, a word on "forbidden" beverages (sharab
muskir). Explicit religious injunctions notwithstanding,
intoxicating beverages were consumed at every level
of society, although never by those who strictly
observed the shan'a code. Recipes are found in the
cookbooks for a barley beer called Jukka' which was
simply and cheaply made; fermentation was achieved
by placing the barley wort in a skin container and
leaving it for two days so that it was ready for drink-
ing on the third. Moreover, wine (nabidh [q.v]) was
made in fermented and unfermented varieties. Some
medical writers noted the medicinal benefits of sharab
muskir, although they warned against its possible addic-
tive qualities or even shorter term dangers.

This brief survey of operations in the domestic
kitchens of the urban leisure classes has covered the
period from about the 3rd/9th to 8th/ 14th centuries.
The major innovation of this "high cooking tradition"
was in the collection, transformation, elaboration of
and experimentation with hundreds of traditional, local,
regional dishes within a dynamic cosmopolitan con-
text. Although the culinary manuals are a rich resource
for the study of this aspect of domestic life, they still
do not yield answers to all a historian's questions.
While the names of two cooks, one male the other

female, are known to have held honourable positions
in 'Abbasid court circles, one would like to know
much more about those who performed the myriad
operations in this, the most important space of the
domestic household, the kitchen; but see further

TABBAKH.

Bibliography: In addition to works cited in the
article, the following items have been selected which
deal with cooking activities in the broadest sense.
The most important primary sources are A. Huici
Miranda (ed.), La cocina hispano-magrebi en la epoca
almohade segiin un manusaito anonimo, Madrid 1965;
Fadalat al-khiwan ft tayyibat al-ta'am wa 'l-alwdn,
ed. M. Benchekroun, Beirut 1984; Ibn Sayyar
al-Warrak, K. al-Tablkh, ed. K. Ohrnberg and
S. Mroueh, Helsinki 1987; Ibn al-'Adim, al-Wusla
ila 'l-hablb ft wasf al-layyibal wa 'l-tib, ed. S. Mahdjub
and D. al-Khatib, Aleppo 1988; Kanz al-fawa'id ft
tanwi' al-mawa'id, ed. M. Marin and D. Waines,
Beirut-Stuttgart 1993. Two recent anthologies of
essays are La alimentacion e las culturas isldmicas,
ed. M. Marin & D. Waines, Madrid 1994; Culinary
cultures of the Middle East, ed. S. Zubaida and
R. Tapper, London 1994; see also M. Rodinson,
Recherches sur les documents arabes relatifs a la cuisine,
in REI (1949), 95-165, and E. Garcia Sanchez,
Fuentes para el estudio de la alimentacion en la Andalucia
Isldmica, in Actas del XII Congreso de la U.EA.I,
Malaga 1984, 269-88. (D. Waines)

TABL, the generic name for any instrument of
the drum family. Islamic tradition attributes its
"invention" to Tubal b. Lamak (al-Mas'Qdi, Murudj,
viii, 88-9 = § 3213, and see lamak), whilst another
piece of gossip says that Isma'il, the founder of the
musta'riba Arabs [q.v.], was the first to sound it (Ewliya
Celebi, Travels, i/2, 239). The word is connected
with Aramaic tabid. According to al-Fayyumi (733/
1333-4), the term tabl was applied to a drum with a
single membrane (apld) as well as to that with two
membranes. This, however, does not include the duff
or tambourine [q.v.]. It is certainly an ancient Middle
Eastern instrument, and players of large and small
kettle drums appear on the Sasanid period Tak-i
Bustan reliefs (near Kirmanshah), including as part of
a military band, what in Islamic times would have
been called a tabl-khana [q.s.] (H.G. Farmer, The instru-
ments of music on the Taq-i Bustan bas-reliefs, in JRAS
[1938], 404-5, 410).

The tabl family may be divided into two classes,
viz.: 1. the cylinder type; and 2. the bowl type.
1. The cylinder type. There are two kinds of
cylinder drums, viz.: a. the single membrane; and b.
the double membrane. Of the former we have several
shapes, although generally the body ($ism) is either
cylindrical or goblet-shaped. The earliest name for the
cylindrical drum with a single membrane would
appear to be kabar which we find mentioned as early
as Ya'kub al-Madjishun (d. 164/780-1) (Ibn Khallikan,
tr. de Slane, iv, 270, ed. 'Abbas, vi, 376). It is iden-
tified by al-Mufaddal b. Salama (d. 308/920) as a
drum (Ancient Arabian musical instruments as described by
al-Mufaddal ibn Salama (9th century) in the unique Istanbul
manuscript of the Kitab al-malahi in the handwriting ofYaqut
al-Musta'siml (d. 1298). Text in facsimile and transla-
tion edited with notes by James Robson (= Collection
of Oriental Writers on Music, ed. H.G. Farmer, iv),
Glasgow 1938, 17: "... the tabl, which is the kabar
and the kuba . . ."), and Ibn Khallikan (tr. de Slane,
iv, 272, ed. 'Abbas, vi, 378) affirms that it had one
membrane. The Arabic lexicographers confuse this
word (cf. also the Glossarium Latino-Arabicum, 85, 562,

and Farmer, Studies in oriental musical instruments, 59;
see now WKAS, i, 24b). The name was probably
derived from the Ethiopic kabaro, and we know that
the Arabs borrowed at least one drum from Abyssinia
(Lane, Lexicon, col. 2013). A more definite clue to the
identity of this particular kind of drum is to be found
in al-Shakundr (d. 629/1231-2 [?•»•]), where an in-
strument called the akwal is mentioned (al-Makkarf,
Anakctes, ii, 144). It still exists in the Maghrib. Dozy
(Supplement, i, 30) says that it is a Berber word and
Meaken writes it agwal. It is delineated by Host who,
however, gives it as a goblet-shaped drum and calls
it the akwal {Machrichten von Marokos und Fes, Copenhagen
1781, 262, tab. xxxi, 9). The akwal/agwal is also known
in Algeria as the gullal and it is generally about 60
cm long. In Tripolitania, a similar instrument called
the tabdaba is used among the folk (Delphin and Guin,
Notes sur la poesie et de la musique arabes, Paris 1 886, 39;
Lavignac, Encycl. de la musique, 2794, 2932).

The goblet-shaped instrument may have been the
dirridj mentioned by earlier Arabic writers such as al-
Mufaddal b. Salama (op. cit., fol. 21), although he
thought that it was a pandore (tunbur), as do many
of the Arabic lexicographers. That it was a drum we
know from al-Maydam (d. 518/1124). According to
Ibn Manzur (d. 711/1311), the proper vocalisation is
durraydj, and to-day it is this name, with colloquial
variants, which is heard in the Maghrib (Crosby Brown,
Cat. of the Crosby Brown collection of musical instruments,
New York, iii, 51, 53: AM, xx, 239). East of Morocco,
the instrument has come to have a different name.
In Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripolitania, it has long been
called the darbuka (Salvador-Daniel, La musique arabe,
Paris 1879, 79; Christianowitsch, Esquisse historique de
la musique arabe, Paris, 31; Delphin and Guin, 43;
Laffage, La musique arabe, Tunis, vi, xxxii; Lavignac,
2935), whilst in Egypt and Syria it carries the name
darbukka [q.v.] , darabukka, dirbakka, darabukka, or darabukka
(Villoteau, Description de I'Egypte. Etat modeme, i, 996;
Lane, Modem Egyptians, ch. xviii; Darwish Muhammad,
Safa" al-awkat, Cairo, 13; El-Hefny, Congres de musique
arabe, Cairo, 660; H. Hickmann, La daraboukkak, in
Bull, de I'Inst. de I'Egypte, xxxiii [1952]). For illustra-
tions of both these instruments, see the authorities
quoted above, whilst specimens may be found in most
museums, notably Paris (nos. 954-7, 1457), Brussels
(nos. 112, 330-4, 680), and New York (nos 335, 345,
etc.). In some parts, the darbuka is known as the labia
(Farmer, Studies, i, 86).

In Persia, the instrument is known as the dunbak or
tanbak, although wrongly registered by lexicographers
as a bagpipe. See Advielle, La musique chez les Persons,
Paris, 13, and pi.; Kaempfer, Amoenitatum exoticarum . . .
fasciculi 5, Lemgoviae 1716, 742, fig. 6; Lavignac,
3076.

The double-membrane drum is also found in sev-
eral shapes. We read of the kuba, a drum shaped like
an hour-glass which was forbidden to be used by
Muslims, as early as <Abd Allah b. 'Umar (d. 18/639)
(see WKAS, i, 420b-421a). It is condemned by sev-
eral legists, including Ibn Abi '1-Dunya (d. 281/894)
because of its association with people of low charac-
ter (Dhamm al-malahl, ed. and tr. J. Robson, London
1938, ed. M. 'Abd al-Kadir, Cairo 1987, 55, 59).
The Ikhwan al-Safa' (10th century) call it the tabl
al-mukhannith (ed. Bombay, i, 91). According to al-
Djawhan (d. ca. 392/1002) it was "a small drum,
slender in the middle", although al-Ghazali says that
it was "long" (Ihya', Cairo 1908, ii, 186). Mediaeval
designs of the kuba may be seen in the 6th/ 12th-
century woodwork at Palermo (BZ, ii, 384), a 7th/

1 3th-century bowl from al-Mawsil (Victoria and Albert
Museum, London 1856, 2734/56), and in a ms. of
al-Djazari (dated 755/1354) at Istanbul (Martin, Minia-
ture painting and painters of Persia, ii, pi. 2). The tabl of
which we read so frequently in the Kitab al-Aghanl (ed.
Bulak, viii, 161, ix, 162) as a rhythmic instrument in
concert music, was probably either the kuba or dirridj
(= darbuka). It is rarely seen nowadays in the Islamic
East, except in India.

The cylindrical or barrel-shaped drum has been
more favoured. The former was probably the shape
of the early warlike drum of which we read among
the 'Abbasids in the 3rd/9th century (Agham, xvi, 139).
It is to be seen in several mss. on automata by al-
Djazan dating from the 7th/ 13th and 8th/ 14th cen-
turies (Schulz, Die persisch-islamische Miniaturmalerei, tab.
ii; The legacy of Islam, 1st edn., Oxford 1931, fig. 91;
D.R. Hill (tr. and comm.), The Book of knowledge of
ingenious devices (Kitab fi ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya)
by Ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari, Dordrecht-Boston 1974, 43
(= fig. 34), showing the "water-clock of the drum-
mers" with kettledrum, cylindrical drums (with drum-
stick, sawlaajan), trumpet and cymbals). This long-bodied
cylindrical drum was popular until the beginning of
the 19th century and designs may be seen in Host
(tab. xxxi) and Niebuhr (tab. xxvi); Villoteau (be. cit.)
calls it the tabl al-turld. Since mediaeval times it has
been played with a curiously crooked drumstick. By
the 18th century, a second percussive implement, a
switch, was in use. In modem times, this drum has
been superseded by a drum with a shorter body. In
early times, this seems to have been known in Persia
and Arabic-speaking lands as the duhul. It is men-
tioned by Nasir-i Khusraw (d. in the 1070s) as one of
the martial instruments of the Fatimids (Safar-nama,
ed. Schefer, 43, 46, 47), and by al-Zahiri (d. 872/1468)
among the Mamluk sultans (al-MakrizI, Khitat, i/1,
173-4). That it was different from the tabl we know
from both Nasir-i Khusraw and Djalal al-Dln Rumi
(Mathnawi, tr. R.A. Nicholson, iii, 159). In Egypt of
modern times it is known as the tabl al-baladi (Villoteau,
loc. cit.; Lane, op. cit, ch. xviii). Specimens may be
seen at Brussels (nos. 336, 338, 341) and New York
(nos. 417, 1321). Kaempfer (740, fig. 4) calls the Per-
sian cylindrical drum the danbdl and delineates it. The
tablr of Firdawsi may have been similar. See also the
dhol of India. The dawul in Turkey is said by Ewliya
Celebi (Travels, i/2, 226) to have been first used by
Orkhan (724-61/1324-60), but we know of it in the
time of his predecessor 'Othman I. The Turks, like
the Arabs, used a drumstick (cangal) and a switch (day-
nak) to play this drum.

In modern Persia, the dohol is a barrel-shaped drum
(Advielle, be. cit.; Lavignac, 3076; cf. Kaempfer, 743,
fig. 12). The Arabic tabl or the Persian tablr was the
parent of the European label, atabal, tabor, tambour, etc.

2. The bowl type. This is represented by the
ketdedrum. Although tradition says that Baba Sawindfk,
the Indian, played the kettledrum (kus, for which see
WKAS, i, 436a, nakkara) in the wars of the Prophet
Muhammad (Ewliya Celebi, be. cit., 226), it is more
likely, as Ibn Khaldun tells us (Mukaddima, ed. Quatre-
mere, ii, 44, tr. Rosenthal, ii, 50) that the Arabs did
not use drums in wartime at this period. The early
Muslim legists discriminate between the tabl al-harb
(war drum), the tabl al-hadjaj (pilgrimage drum), and
the tabl al-lahw (pastime drum). The first two were
allowable but the last was not (al-Ghazalr, Ihya', ii,
186). The two former were doubtless identical with
the modern nakkara and tabl al-sJsaml.

The largest of the kettledrums used by Islamic

TABL — TABL-KHANA

peoples was the kurga which was greatly favoured by
the Mongols. It was the royal drum which conveyed
commands. The tabl al-kabir mentioned by Ibn Battuta
(Rihla, ii, 127, tr. Gibb, ii, 343) was doubtless the
kurga. We get an idea of the size of this drum from
the A'ln-i Akbari (tr. H.G. Blochmann, i, 50-2), where
it is nearly the height of a man. Abu '1-Fadl 'AUamf
says here that the kurga and damama were identical
(i, 50), but the damama of India is a much smaller
kettledrum (see specimen at New York, 26). <Abd al-
Razzak al-Samarkandr (d. 1482) clearly distinguishes
between the kurga, damama and nakkara (Math' al-
sa'dayn, in M, xiv, 129, 321). See also Farmer, Studies,
ii, 12-13.

The kettledrum next in size was the kus which,
among the Arabs of the 4th/ 10th century, was the
largest of their ketdedrums (Ikhwan al-Safa', i, 91).
This also was a martial instrument; for its use, see
tabl-khana. There is a 7th/ 1 3th-century Arabic ms.
reproduced by Schulz (op. cit., pi. 8) showing three
pairs of kusat.

The ordinary kettledrum was what the Ikhwan al-
Safa' call the tabl al-markab (mounted drum). They say
that its tone was softer than that of the tabl al-kus.
Another early name for this drum was dabdab or dab-
daba. Later, it came to be known as the nakkara, a
word, together with the instrument, which was adopted
by Europe as the naker, nacaire, etc., whilst Persian
tinbal became the European timbale, tymbala. For medi-
aeval designs of the nakkara, see Schulz (op. cit., tab.
ii), The legacy of Islam, 1st edn. (fig. 91), the Kitab al-
Burhan (Bodleian ms., Or. 133, fol. 38), and the DJami'
al-tawankh (Edinburgh University, fols. 54b, 157). See
also tabl-khana. Early 19th-century examples are
delineated by Villoteau (992-3), whilst actual speci-
mens may be seen at Brussels (no. 335) and New
York (no. 1232). For the Turkish dunbalak or tablak,
see Farmer, in JRAS (1936).

In Turkey, a medium-sized kettledrum is known as
the kudum, and it is said to have been played at the
nuptials of Muhammad and Khadrdja (Ewliya Celebi,
i/2, 234). It was to be found in the darwish com-
munities; for an illustration of Mawlawi/Mewlewl
kudumzens or players in these drums, see Oriens, xv
(1962), pi. viii.

The smallest of the ketdedrums is the nukayra or
tubayla, which belongs to concert music. We read of
the former among the 'Abbadids (5th/llth century)
of Moorish Spain (Dozy, Historia Abbadidorum, ii, 243),
and in the Vocabulista Aravigo (1505) the word equates
with the Spanish atabalia. In Russell's Aleppo (1794),
there is a design (pi. iv) of the nakkara (= nukayra),
whilst another may be found in Host (tab. xxxi, 10)
and Christianowitsch (32, pi. 12), the latter being
copied by Fetis (Hist, generate de la musique, Paris, ii,
163) and Lavignac (2793).

Villoteau, speaking of Egypt at the close of the
18th century, mentions a number of small hand
kettledrums but, with the exception of one called
tabl-i baz, most of these names are unknown today
(Villoteau, 994). It was, obviously, a drum used for
decoying birds or recalling the hawk (baz), but by this
time it had become the favourite instrument of the
criers at Ramadan and the darwish fraternities, and
was actually known as the tablat al-musahhira. There
are specimens at Brussels (no. 329) and New York
(nos. 421, 2661). It was held in one hand and beaten
with a short stick held in the other hand. A slightly
larger instrument was the tabl al-mifafi (sic). This was
beaten with a leathern strap.

Shallower types of kettledrums were the tabl al-

shaml and the kas'a. The former was probably the tabl
al-hadj$ so frequendy quoted by the legists. It was
suspended from the neck, the head or membrane
being perpendicular. There is a representation (10th/
16th century) of pilgrims with these drums in a
Bodleian Library ms. (Or. 430, fol. 15). For early 19th-
century designs and details, see Villoteau (992-4) and
Lane (Modem Egyptians, chs. ii, vi, xviii). There are
specimens at New York (nos. 386, 494). The kas'a of
the Maghrib today has a flat bottom like a dish (kas'a),
hence its name. It is played upon with rods called
matarik (Delphin and Guin, 44; Lavignac, 2932); in
the past it was a martial instrument.

Bibliography (in addition to references in the
article): Sachs, Reallexikon der Musikinstrumente; H.G.
Farmer, Studies in oriental musical instruments, London
1931; H. Hickmann, in Orientalische Musik - HdOr,
Abt. 1, Erganzungsband IV, Leiden, 61-3; 77k new
Grove dictionary of music and musicians, i, 514-39, art.
Arab musk; The new Grove dictionary of musical instru-
ments, i, 601-11, art. Drum. (H.G. Farmer*)
TABL-KHANA, Nakkar-Khana, Nakkara-Khana.
Nawba-Khana, literally the "Drum House", "Ketde-
drum House", "Military Band House", the name
given in Islamic lands to the military band and

derived from the drums (tabl, nakkara) which formed
the chief instruments of the military band, and from
the name given to the special type of music (nawba)
performed by this band. Originally, the nakkara-khana
or tabl-khana consisted of drums only, and in some
instances of particular kinds of drums. This we know
from several authorities. Ibn Taghnbirdl (d. 815/1412)
speaks of the "kettledrums (dabadib), i.e. the tabl-khana".
Al-Zahiri (d. 872/1468) alludes to "three sets (ahmal)
of tabl-khana and two trumpets". Ibn Iyas (d. ca. 930/
1524) has a reference to "the tabl-khana and the great
kettledrums (kusat)" (al-Makrizi, Hist, des Sultans Mam-
louks de I'Egypte, tr. Quatremere, Paris 1845, ii/1, 123,
ii/2, 268, al-Khazradji, 77k pearl-strings, GMS, London
1906-18, iii/5, 135, 229). As for the nawba, this was
a special piece of music, which later comprised sev-
eral movements (fusuf), performed by the nakkara-khana
' at the five hours of prayer [see salat] by royalty, but
at the three obligatory hours of prayer by dignato-
ries of lesser rank. The sounding of the nawba was
not only jealously guarded as one of the attributes
of sovereignty, but its performance necessitated re-
spectful silence from auditors (Ibn Battuta, Rihla, ii,
188, tr. Gibb, ii, 377-8; von Hammer, Hist, de I'Empire
Ottoman, Paris 1835, i, 75). The custom of the nawba
is said to have been handed down from the days of
Alexander the Great (al-Nasawi, Hist, du Sultan Djelal
ad-Din Mankobirti, Paris 1895, 21).

The Ancients. Instruments of percussion appear
to have been specially favoured by peoples of the
Orient for their martial display from time imme-
morial. According to the Greeks, who only used the
trumpet and flute in war, instruments of percussion
belonged to the barbarians. Yet in the Syriac version
of Pseudo-Callesthenes of the History of Alexander the
Great (tr. Budge, 96) we find that the world-conqueror
added drums to his martial music. If we turn to the
Pseudo-Aristotelian Arabic treatise the Kitab al-Siyasa
(3rd-4th/8th-9th century) and the contemporary works
of Muristus [q.v.], also in Arabic, it would seem that
Alexander also introduced a monster organ (urghanun)
of the hydraulis type as a means of signalling to his
troops and to spread dismay in the ranks of the enemy
(Farmer, The organ of the Ancients, London 1931, 119-
38). Strabo (1st century B.C.) says that the youth of

TABL-KHANA

:re called to arms by the sound of brazen
its, and that the kings of India moved in
public to the din of drums and cymbals (Geogr., xv.l,
55, xv.3, 18). Plutarch (d. ca. A.D. 120) speaks of the
Parthians using kettledrums to frighten the enemy
(Crassus, xxiii, 10). The pages of the Shlh-ndma of
Firdawsf (d. 411/1020) abound with details of the
military music of Persia of old. Here we read of instru-
ments of the horn and trumpet type (karrandy, shaypur,
buk), the reed and brazen-pipe (nay, ruwin nay), the
drum and great kettledrum (tabira, kus), as well as the
Indian bell, sonette and cymbal (hindi dardy, zang, sindj).

The Arabs of the Djahiliyya. Clement of
Alexandria (2nd century A.D.) says that the Arabs of
pre-lslamic days used cymbals in war (Paedagogus), but
Arabic authors only mention the tambourine (duff
[q.v.]) of the matrons and singing-girls (kiydn [see
kayna]) in battle. This is what we see at Uhud and
Badr, although it is highly probable that the reed-
pipe (mizmar [q.v.]) was also an instrument of martial
music in these days (Farmer, Hist, of Arabian music,
London 1929, 10-11; Kitdb al-Aghdnt, ed. Bulak, ii,
172). That highly imaginative Turkish writer, Ewliya
Celebi (d. ca. 1091/1680) avers that in the time of
Muhammad it was neither the trumpet nor the flute
that sounded in his wars but only the great kettledrum
(kus; Travels, tr. von Hammer, London 1846, i/2,
194). On the other hand, Ibn Khaldun (d. 808/1406)
says that the early Muslims used neither horns (abwdk)
nor drums (tubul; ed. Quatremere, ii, 44, tr. Rosenthal,
ii, 50). It is certain that, although the Arabs used the
horn (buk [q.v.]) in civil life, it was not a military
instrument with them since it is specially mentioned
in the 3rd/9th century as being used by Christians
(al-Djawhari, Sahdh).

Umayyads and 'Abbasids. Under the Umay-
yads, the drum and kettledrum appear to have been
introduced into martial music and served as better
accompaniments to the reed-pipe (mizmar) than the
tambourine (duff; Seyyid Ameer Ali, A short history of
the Saracens, London 1899, 65). Persian influences,
which so strongly asserted themselves under the early
'Abbasids led to the Persian reed-pipe (sumay) being
adopted in place of the more primitive mizmar (Aghdm,
xvi, 139, but read Jc^ instead of yllj-). With the
Persians the sumay (- surydnay) went with the drum
(tabl; al-Mas'udi, Murua}, viii, 90 = § 3214). By the
4th/ 10th century, several types of kettledrums were
in use in martial array: the tabl al-markab or "mounted
drum" which was probably identical with the dabdab
or dabdaba and the nakkdra, and a larger type, the
great kettledrum called the kus (Rasd'il Ikhwdn al-Safd",
ed. Bombay, i, 91). These were used in pairs and
were carried on either side of a horse's or camel's
neck. The buk or horn had also been adopted into
military music by this time. Although originally fash-
ioned out of the natural horn of an animal like the
more primitive kam, it came to be made in metal,
and Ewliya Celebi says that the metal form (pirindj
buru) was introduced by the Saldjukid Alp Arslan (d.
465/1073; Travels, i/2, 238). The trumpet proper was
the nafir. This was first known as the buk al-nafir or "mili-
tary buk" (Ibn al-Tiktaka, al-Fakhrl, ed. Derenbourg 30).

The Buwayhids. Up to the 4th/10th century,
the nakkdra-khana or tail-khdna, which by this time
comprised kettledrums, drums, trumpets, horns and
reed-pipes, was part of the insignia (mardtib) of the
caliph and reserved, with the nawba, for the Com-
mander of the Faithful alone (Ibn Khaldun. ed. Quatre-
mere, ii, 42, tr. Rosenthal, ii, 48; Quatremere, Hist,
des Mongols, 418). With the decline of the caliphate

and the rise of petty rulers there came demands from
all and sundry for the privilege of the nakkdra-khana
and the nawba. Thus the custom arose that, when the
caliph conferred regality on subject rulers, a drum or
kettledrum usually accompanied the other patents or
symbols of authority sent by the caliph, such as a
diploma, banner, or standard; the type of instrument,
the number, and the specific use of the nawba, being
determined by the rank of the recipient. Mu'izz al-
Dawla (d. 356/967), the Buwayhid amir, sought from
the caliph al-Mutr' the privilege of the nakkdra-khana,
but was refused. Yet in 355/966 this caliph allowed
a commander to sound kettledrums (dabddib) during a
campaign, an honour which the latter appears to have
retained. It is said, however, that the first prince to
obtain these coveted musical honours was the amir
'Adud al-Dawla (d. 372/983). He was granted the
nakkdra-khana by the caliph al-Ta'f' in 368/979, but
he was only allowed the three-fold nawba at the oblig-
atory hours of prayer, the five-fold nawba being reserved
for the caliph. One of the Buwayhids, Abu KalTdjar
(d. 440/1048), assumed the five-fold honour in Baghdad
and although asked by the caliph to content himself
with the three-fold one, he refused. Yet the caliph
had already permitted others to have or assume this
privilege. In the year 390/1000, under the caliph al-
Kadir, a minister was allowed to beat a drum (tabl)
for the five-fold nawba, and in 408/1017, Sultan al-
Dawla was allowed or had assumed a similar honour
(Quatremere, op. cit., 418; Margoliouth, The eclipse of
the 'Abbdsid caliphate, ii, 264, 396, iii, 345; H. Busse,
Chalif und Grosskonig, die Buyiden im Iraq (945-1055),
Beirut-Wiesbaden 1969, 186-8).

The Saldjukids. Considerable extensions of the
privileges of the nakkdra-kjtdna were made under these
rulers. The caliph al-Muktadi (d. 487/1094), in appoint-
ing a governor to a province, conferred the great
kettledrums (kusdt) on him, with permission to sound
the five-fold nawba within his province, but only the
three-fold one outside of this. When the two Saldjukid
princes Berk-yaruk and Muhammad took the titles of
sultan and malik respectively in 494/1 101, they adopted
the five-fold and three-fold nawba with these respec-
tive ranks. Both Alp Arslan and the Eldigiizid Kizil
Arslan (d. 587/1191) used the five-fold honour (Ibn
al-Djawzi, Muntazam; al-Bundari, Zubdd).

The Arabs in Islamic times. In Yaman in
the 3rd/9th century the KarmatT al-Mansur b. Hasan
had thirty drums (tubul), and Sa'id al-Ahwal (d.
482/1089) of the Nadjahids [q.v.] had horns (bukdt)
and drums (tubul). Later, we read of the tabl-khdna
and the great kettledrums (kusdt) and kettledrums
(nakkdrdt; H.C. Kay, Yaman, its early mediaeval history,
London 1892, 84; al-Khazradji, op. cit., iii/ 1 , 103, 160,
iii/2, 3, 75, iii/3, 52). At Zufar in 'Uman in the
8th/ 14th century the sultan had reed-pipes (sumdydt),
horns (bukdt), trumpets (anfdr), and drums (tubal) at his
gate. At al-Hilla, the military music consisted of horns
(bukdt), trumpets (anfdr), and drums (tubul) (Ibn Battuta,
ii, 98, 212, tr. Gibb, ii, 325, 390). At the beginning
of the 5th/ 11th century, the 'Ukaylids favoured the
horn (buk) and kettledrum (dabdab) in their martial
music (JRAS [1901], 755, 785), whilst elsewhere we
find a small shallow kettledrum called the kas'a in use.
In the Alf layla wa-layla, the most imposing martial
musical display is made up of reed-pipes (zumur), horns
(bukdt), trumpets (anfdr), drums (tubul), and cymbals
(kdsdt, ku'us).

Egypt. The Fatimids dispensed musical honours
upon subject rulers on very much the same lines as
the caliphs of Baghdad (DjOzdjam, Tabakdt-i Ndsiri, tr.

Raverty, London 1881, ii, 616; Bada'um, Muntakhab
al-tawarikh, tr. Lowe and Ranking, Calcutta 1884-98,
i, 94, 310). When al-'Aziz (d. 386/996) marched into
Syria he had five hundred horns (abwak) sounding
(Ibn Khaldun, ii, 45, tr. Rosenthal, ii, 51). Nasir-i
Khusraw describes the Fatimid military band (ca. 438/
1047), and mentions that it comprised such instru-
ments as the horn (buk), reed-pipe (suma), two kinds
of drum (tabl and duhut), the latter a Persian variety,
kettledrum {kits) and cymbal (kasa; Safar-nama, ed.
Schefer, Paris 1881, 43, 46, 47). In the year 567/1 172,
when Nur al-Dih and Salah al-Dm were together at
Damascus, the former, who was the suzerain of the
latter, sounded the five-fold nawba, whilst the latter
contented himself with the three-fold one (Quatremere,
Hist, des Mongols, 419). Under the Mamluk sultans, the
military band was organised on more elaborate lines
and, similar to the practice in 'Irak and al-Maghrib,
it was linked up with the banners, standards and sim-
ilar emblems of authority, as Ibn Iyas informs us (al-
Makrizi, i/1, 226). According to al-Zahirl, the band
of sultan Baybars I (d. 676/1277) comprised forty
great kettledrums (kusat), four drums (duhul), four reed-
pipes (zumur), and twenty trumpets (anfar). He says
that the duhul and zumur were of recent adoption, but
we have seen them in use under the Fatimids, the
zamr and suma both being reed-pipes. Ibn Taghribirdl
says that under Kalawun (d. 678/1290) a wazlr pos-
sessed a tabl-khdna, and we read of a similar privilege
in 821/1418, although we are told that the custom
was not usual. Ibn Khaldun states that the great kettle-
drums (kusat) were allowed to each amir and general
(ii, 46, tr. Rosenthal, ii, 52), yet according to Ibn
Taghrfbirdl it was only the umara' commanding a
thousand men who were granted this honour. Among
the instruments used in the tabl-khdna of an amir, says
al-Zahin, were the drum or duhul (two), the reed-pipe
or zamr (two), and the trumpet or nafir (four), but not
the great kettledrum (kits). An atabak was allowed twice
this number, whilst an amir mukaddam was only permit-
ted to have a horn or buk. By the 9th/ 15th century,
however, an amir of forty cavaliers was permitted to
possess a tabl-khana, but for a time he was only allowed
to sound it when on duty. When the Ottomans con-
quered Egypt in 923/1517, the bands of the umara'
were suppressed (Quatremere, in al-MaknzT, i/1, 173-
4, i/2, 272). For instruments of martial music in 18th
and 19th-century Egypt see Niebuhr, Voyage en Arable,
1776, i, 145-6, tab. xxvi; Villoteau, Description de I'Egypk.
Elat modeme, fol. ed., i, 701-3, 931-40, 948-9, 976-97
and plates.

The Maghrib. Ibn Khaldun says that the nomadic
Arabs of North Africa employed an improvisator
(munshid) who sang at the head of the troops just as
the Arabs of the Arabian peninsula did in the Djahi-
liyya. The Almohads suppressed bands used by local
governors, and reserved the use of the tabl-khdna for
royalty alone (Ibn Khaldun, ii, 45-6, tr. Rosenthal,
ii, 51-2). This was formed into a separate company
with the standards (bunud) which became known as
the saka. The first Almohad sultan 'Abd al-Mu'min
(d. 558/1163) had more than two hundred drums
(tubul) and among them were such large instruments
that the ground quaked when they were played (al-
Marrakushf, Hist, des Ahnohades, ed. Dozy, Leiden 1881,
165). The Marlnids possessed a large drum of this
type, and this passed into the possession of the Sa'dian
dynasty. It was an enormous instrument and could
be heard a great distance (Nuzhat al-haM, ed. Houdas,
Paris 1888-9, 117). For designs of 18th-century instru-
ments of martial music in Morocco, see G. Host,

Nachrkhten von Marokos und Fes, 1787, tab xxxi, 261.

The Bilad al-Sudan. In the 8th/14th century,
Ibn Battuta was at Mogadishu [see makdishu] in the
Eastern Sudan and heard the tabl-khdna of the sultan,
which comprised reed-pipes (sumayat), horns (abwak),
trumpets (anfar), and drums (atbal). At Mallr in the
Western Sudan [see Mali], the sultan's military band
was made up of horns (abwak) and drums (atbal), the
former being made out of elephant's tusks (ii, 188,
iv, 403 tr. Gibb, ii, 377-8, iv, 958). One of the last
of the Sonni rulers of the Songhay of Gao (1335-
1493), 'All (d. 1492), used a drum as a symbol of
authority. Their successors, the Askiya kings (1493-
1590), also used the drum, and under the Askiya al-
Hadjdj Muhammad troops were assembled in 1493
to the beating of the drum (tabl). In 1500-1, a large
trumpet called the kakaki was adopted by the cavalry
of the Songhay. The Askiya Muhammad Bunkan (d.
1537) invented a horn called the juturiju. There was
also a drum known as the gabtanda, and both this and
the Juturiju were used at Gao. He fixed the limit out-
side a town where no drum save the royal drum (tabl
al-saltana) could be sounded. This royal drum con-
tinued to be used until the end of this dynasty. On
the Moroccan conquest in 998/1590, and the gover-
norship of the pashas in the place of the native kings,
a change came in the martial music. Under Pasha
Ahmad al-Khalrfa (1105-6/1694-5), reed-pipes (ghiydt),
drums (atbal), and other instruments, including the native
tambourines (dufuf al-asaki), were counted among the
martial instruments of the pasha's court. The military
music of the Bambara chiefs were horns (bukat) and
tambourines (dufuf), and one chief had great horns
(bukat al-kibar) as tall as a man (Ta'rikh al-Fattash, ed.
Houdas and Delafosse, Paris 1913, 49, 54-5, 70, 84,
153; Tadhkirat al-nisyan, ed. Houdas, Paris 1901, 43,
45, 93, 120, 152; Ta'rikh al-Sudan, ed. Houdas, Paris
1900, 79, 122, 197).

The Il-Khanids. Under the early Khans, a royal
prince was allowed kettledrums and a drum, whilst a
wazir had a kettledrum. The commander-in-chief was
given drums, and an amir of 10,000 (?) men, as well
as tributary princes were allowed a [kettle] drum
(d'Ohsson, Hist, des Mongols, iii, 581; iv, 96, 187, 566;
Howorth, History of the Mongols, London 1 876-88, iii,
296). Ibn Battuta gives a picturesque account of the
military music of the sultan Abu SaTd (d. 736/1355)
at Baghdad. It consisted of drums [and kettledrums]
(tubul), trumpets (anfar), horns (bukat), reed-pipes (sur-
nayat), and singers. According to this writer, the umara'
had horns (bukat) as well as drums (tubul), and each
royal princess (khatun) had a drum, whilst the Il-Khan
himself had a special monster kettledrum called by
Ibn Battuta the tabl al-kabir ("great drum"), but known
to the 'Mughals as the kurga (ii, 126 tr. Gibb, ii,
342-3). The kurga was the personal musical emblem
of the Il-Khan and at his death it was destroyed, as
Rashrd al-DTn, the historian of the Mongols, has
related. In times of mourning, it was also customary
to refrain from sounding the nawba. This was an old
practice which we find as early as the caliph al-
Muktadl who, when he lost his son Muhammad in
480/1087, forbade the beating at the hours of prayers
(Ibn al-DjawzI, Muntazam). Similarly, Salah al-Dln,
having suffered a reverse at the hands of the Cru-
saders, abandoned the nawba until he had won a vic-
tory (al-Makrizi, Suluk, i, 42). During the Tlmurid
period, according to the apocryphal Tuzukat ("Insti-
tutes"), the military band was carefully regulated. A
beglerbeg had a kettledrum (nakkdra) and a horn (burghu:
for ^jijy. read jijy), and the amir al-umara' and an

JABL-KHANA

amir of the four-tailed tuk had a kettledrum only. A
ming pasha had a trumpet (nafir), and a jv«^ pasha and
on /iasia a drum (tabl), whilst an o_>mai (tribal chief)
had a horn (burghu; Institutes, political and military, ed.
Davy and White, Oxford 1781, 290-2).

In India, the Mughals maintained the nakkara-
khana as one of their attributes of sovereignty. Ibn
BattOta points out that when the Medinan sharif Abu
Ghurra visited India he caused great consternation by
his use of drums (tubul) and trumpets (anfar) because
here, unlike 'Irak, Egypt or Syria, nobody but the
king could use the nakka.ra-khS.na (i, 422-4, tr. Gibb,
i, 259-62). Al-'Umarl (d. 750/1349), in his Masalik al-
absar, speaks of the five-fold nawba of the sultan of
Dihli being played by two hundred pairs of kettle-
drums (nakkarat), forty pairs of great kettledrums (kusat
al-kibar), twenty horns (bukat), and ten pairs of cym-
bals (sunuaj; see Quatremere, in JVE, xiii, 189). The
nakkar-khana of Akbar the Great (d. 1014/1605) is
described by Abu '1-Fadl 'Allanvl. It was made up of
the monster kettledrum called the kuwarga or kurga
(about 18 pairs), the kettledrum or nakkara (about 20
pairs), the drum or duhul (four), the reed-pipe or suma
(nine, both Indian and Persian types), the large trum-
pet known as the karrana or kama (four or more), the
trumpet or nafir (Indian, Persian and European types),
the horn or sing (two) and the cymbals or sindj (three
pairs; A'ln-i Akbarl, tr. H.G. Blochmann, Calcutta 1873-
94, i, 50-2). A description of the nawba is also given
in this latter work. By this time, kettledrums were
sometimes conferred on high civil or military func-
tionaries, but the latter had to be of the rank of
two thousand suwars at least, and they could not be
sounded in the presence of the emperor nor within
a certain distance from his residence. In confer-
ring this privilege, the recipient had miniature drums
placed around his neck (Thorn, Memoir of a war in
India, 1818, 356; JASB [1879], 161). For other details
of the nakkara-khana of the 18th century, see F. Bernier,
Travels in the Mogul Empire 1665-1668, ed. Constable,
363; Manucci, Storia do Mogor, or Mogul India 1653-
1708, tr. W. Irvine. For later information, see Irvine,
The army of the Indian Moghuls, London 1903, 30, 196,
207; Day, The music and musical instruments of Southern
India, London 1891, 96; Meadows-Taylor, in Proceedings,
Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, ix/1.

The Ottomans. Until comparatively recent times,
the Turks made a special feature of their military
music which, like the Mongols, they linked up with
the insignia of flags, banners and tughs. When 'Othman
I, the founder of the dynasty, was made a prince by
the Saldjuk sultan of Rum 'Ala' al-Din in 688/1289,
he was invested with a drum, flag and tugh. At the
ceremony, absolute silence was insisted on during the
performance of the nawba. The large kettledrums called
kusat were used in the time of "Othman I (d. 724/1324)
when they were carried by elephants on some occa-
sions. Ewliya Celebi, who mentions this latter point,
gives a few details of the military music of the 1 1th/
17th century {Travels, i, 225-6, 236-9). Murad IV (d.
1050/1640) introduced the large trumpet called the
kama from Persia. Military music was regularly organ-
ised during this century, and Turkish bands comprised
the large reed-pipe or kaba lilma, the small reed-pipe
or §ura zurna, the flute or nay, the big drum or kaba
duhul, the ordinary drum or duhul, the great kettle-
drum or kus, the kettledrum or nakkara, the cymbal
or zill and the "Jingling Johnny" or caghana (Mahillon,
Catalogue . . . du Musee Instrumental du Conservatoire Royal
de Musique de Bruxelles, 2nd ed., ii, 184). Coeck, in his
Les Mmurs . . . de Turcz, 1553, ed. W.S. Maxwell in

1873 as The Turks in 1553, gives a woodcut of a party
of Janissaries headed by reed-pipes and kettledrums.
In the 18th-century, a pasha of three tails had the
reed-pipe or zuma, the trumpet or bum, the kettle-
drum or nakkara and the cymbal or zill (de Marsigli,
State militaire dell' imperio Ottomanno, 1732, ii, 54-5 (and
pi. xviii). The sultan's military band comprised sixty-
two players under the command of an officer called
the mir mihtar tabl wa-'alam.

Persia. Before the rise of the Il-Khanids, we find
how important the nakkara-khana and the nawba were
in the Middle East. GJiiyath al-Din the Ghurid (d.
599/1203) had great kettledrums (kusat) of gold which
were carried on a chariot (Djuzdjam, Tabakat-i Nasiri,
tr. i, 404). Djalal al-Din Mingburnu (d. 628/1231),
the last Shah of Kh"arazm. had his nawba performed
on twenty-seven drums of gold encrusted with precious
stones, the players being sons of subject rulers (al-
Nasawl, op. cit., 21). A fine pair of bronze kettledrums
from DaghistSn, but probably of Persian manufacture,
were exhibited at the International Exhibition of Per-
sian Art, London 1931, but were not catalogued. They
belonged to the 6th-7th/ 12th- 13th century. Persian
art teems with representations of military bands (see
Bibl., Iconography). For the nakkara-khana under
the Safawids and Kadjars, and its survival into the
Pahlawi period, see nakkara-khana. It would appear
that the English trumpet was known in Persia, as it
was in Turkey (Ewliya Celebi, Travels, i/2, 238). The
instruments used in Persian military music were the
reed-pipe (suma or surnay), the large trumpet (kama),
the trumpet (nafir), the horn (shakh), the large kettle-
drum (kus), the kettledrum (nakkara), and the drum
(duhul). For modern instruments, see Laborde, Essai sur
la musique, 1780; Jourdain, La Perse . . ., 1814; Ouseley,
Travels in various countries in the East, 1819; Fetis, Hist,
generale de la musique, ii; Advielle, La musique chez les
Persans en 1885, 1885; Lavignac, Encyclopedic de la
musique, 3073-7.

Modern conditions. In almost every Islamic
land today, the march of Western civilisation has
brought Western ideas of the military band. Brass and
reed instruments of European manufacture and of
equal temperament are gradually ousting the old con-
ception of the nakkara-khana. Yet in the Middle Ages,
it was Europe that borrowed from the Muslims. The
nakkara-khana was an indispensable factor in military
discipline, exercise, and tactics, as Christian armies
soon found out. It was the rallying-point in battle, and
the silence of the band was a sign that the banners
and standards were in danger. Europe soon adopted
the device, and up till the 17th century at least, the
colours and the regimental music were kept together
(Sir John Fortescue, History of the British Army, London
1899, i, 14-15; Farmer, Rise and development of military
musk, London 1912, 13). The West also borrowed the
nakkara as the naker, nacaire, etc., the tabl as the label,
tabor, etc., the tinbal as the timbale, the kas'a as the
caisse, the [al-]buk as the alboque, the [al-]nafir as the
anafil, whilst such terms as fanfare and tucket may pos-
sibly be derived from anfar and tuka (see Farmer,
Historical facts for the Arabian musical influence, London
1930, 18-19). The percussion instruments in the mod-
ern military bands of Europe were adopted from
Turkey in the early 18th century, and when adopted
in orchestral (string band) music they were for a long
time called "Turkish Music".

The English "Jingling Johnny" (Fr. chapeau chinois,
Germ. Schellenbaum), with its horse-tails, carries a relic
of its Turkish name caghana (> "Johnny"). It has been
superseded by the portable glockenspiel. The fanfares

TABL-KHANA — TABLlGHl DJAMA'AT

of European military bands may very well be sur-
vivals of mediaeval Oriental practice.

Bibliography. The most important references
to the nakkara-khana and nawba are to be found in
the following works: Walley, Tear book of oriental
art 1924-1925, London 1929; al-Makrizi, Hist, des
Sultans Mambuks, as cited; Ibn Khaldun. Mukaddima,
as cited; Ibn Fadl Allah 'Umari, Masalik al-absar ft
mamalik al-amsar, tr. M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes,
La Syrie des Mamelouks, Paris 1927, pp. lvi-lviii;
Quatremere, Hist, des Mongols, as cited; Irvine, 77k
army of the Indian Moghuls, as cited; Farmer, Hist, of
Arabian music, 109, 154, 206-8.— Iconography.
Printed books. Many of the numerous works on
Oriental art and painting contain pictures of the
military band and the nakkara-khana quarters, among
them Martin, 77k miniature painting and painters of
Persia, India and Turkey from die viii lh to the xtdii" 1 cen-
tury, 1912, ii, pi. 12, 183; P. Brown, Indian paint-
ing under the Mughals, 136, pis. xxxi, xlvi; N.C. Mehta,
Studies in Indian painting, Bombay 1926, 93, pi. 38;
Ars Asiatica, xiii, pis. i, xxix, lv. — Manuscripts. In
all the great public collections of illustrated Oriental
mss., examples of both the military band and the
quarters of the nakkara-khana are to be found. —
Instruments. For instruments used in the nakkara-
khana, see the catalogues of museum collections
mentioned in the Bibb, to buk, mizmar, tabl. See
also the Bibl. to nakkara-khana.

(H.G. Farmer*)
TABLlGH [see da'wa].

TABLlGHl DJAMA'AT (in Arabic, Qama'at al-
tabligh), a Muslim missionary organisation
founded in India around 1927 and established
after 1947 throughout the world. The internal desig-
nation is dim da'wat, religious mission, from the term
da'wa [q.v.], taken here in the modern sense of a.prosel-
ytising undertaking.

The movement is founded on five basic principles.
The invitation (da'wat in Urdu, for da'wa) to the prac-
tice of Islam is not the business of an elite of reli-
gious specialists but the individual responsibility of all
Muslims who are required to devote time and money
to this project. One should not wait for people to
come but take the initiative and go to them: preach-
ing is the activity of self-financing itinerant groups,
criss-crossing first India and then the world. The min-
gling of social classes is obligatory within these groups,
since they must lodge together in mosques, eat at the
same tables and engage in mutual instruction. The
primary objective is the deepening of the faith of those
who are already Muslims, preachers as well as con-
gregations; proselytism directed towards non-Muslims
remains a marginal activity. The promotion of Muslim
unity is a fundamental objective; theological contro-
versies are prohibited and the political sympathies of
members must not interfere with the activity of what
is ostensibly an apolitical movement.

However, the history of the movement is firmly rooted
in politics. It was created between 1925 and 1927 at
the time when, in British India, the rift between Hin-
dus and Muslims was becoming irreparable, presag-
ing the partition of the sub-continent which took place
in 1947 with the creation of Pakistan. Both religious
communities felt threatened; each promoted mission-
ary organisations with the object of attracting converts
from the other. Numerous Muslim groups committed
to propagating the faith (tabUgh) were created at this
time; linked to political parties they had an ephemeral
existence. Muhammad Ilyas (1885-1944) [see hind, v, c]
founder of the Tablighi Djama'at, guaranteed its

survival by avoiding any direct political involvement.
Belonging to the scholarly lineage of the Kandhalawi,
he received a religious education in the Deoband [q.v.]
movement, then lived in seclusion at the Sufi sanc-
tuary of Nizamuddin (Nizam al-DTn) at Dihli; there
he created the Tablighi Djama'at with the object of
purifying the religious practices of the Meos, semi-
Islamised peasants from the region of Mewat [q.v.] to
the west of Dihlr. He acquired the support of reformist
schools such as Deoband and the Nadwat al-'Ulama'
[q.v.] and of the merchants of Dihli; he was thus en-
abled to establish his movement in northern and cen-
tral India (United Provinces, Pandjab, Karachi and
Bhopal). In order to avoid political complications, pro-
selytism directed towards non-Muslims was forbidden.
His son and successor, Muhammad Yusuf (1917-65
[see yusuf, muhammad]) refused to transfer to Pakistan
in 1947 and retained his headquarters or "centre"
(markaz) at Nizamuddin. He consolidated the Tablighi
Djama'at throughout the sub-continent with secondary
centres in Pakistan (Raiwind near Lahore) and in East
Pakistan, which in 1971 became Bangladesh (Tongi
near Dhaka). He transformed it into a worldwide move-
ment, extending proselytism to non-Muslims and oper-
ating systematically in five continents: the first missions
were sent into the Arab states and Turkey between
1946 and 1951; the western countries (Britain, the
United States, Japan and continental Europe) were
reached between 1950 and 1961; the Afro-Asiatic
countries (Black Africa and South East Asia) were
explored systematically from 1956 onward; and the
movement is currently active in Western China and
in former Soviet Central Asia. Although omnipresent
at the time of the death of Muhammad Yusuf, the
Tablighr Djama'at remained little known; it became
visible and impossible to ignore under his cousin and
successor In'am al-Hasan (d. 1995) at the end of the
1970s and during the 1980s; since then the annual
gatherings (idjtima') held in India, Pakistan and Bangla-
desh have regularly attracted millions of worship-
pers; in western countries, the Tablighi Djama'at is
often the principal religious organisation for Muslim
immigrants, especially in Britain, France, Belgium
and Canada. Since the death of In'am al-Hasan, the
movement has been led collectively by two sons of his,
Izhar al-Hasan and Zubayr al-Hasan (d. 1996), and
one grandson of Muhammad Yusuf, Sa'd.

A didactic literature which eschews all theological
or political controversy is produced and diffused among
the faithful: it constantly extols the merits (fadd'U) of
canonical religious practices and preaches meticulous
imitation of the Prophet and of his Companions. It
essentially comprises nine monographs written be-
tween 1928 and 1964 by a cousin of Muhammad
Ilyas, Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhalawi (1898-1982)
who taught hadith at Saharanpur [q.v.] (a subsidiary of
Deoband) before moving to Medina, where he died.
These monographs are distributed in the original Urdu
and in English, French and Arabic translations as a
means of reaching all the world's Muslims; most trans-
lations are printed in Dihli. The entire corpus is col-
lected in one or two volumes under the title Tablighi
nisab (officially translated as The teachings of Islam/ Les
enseignements de I'lslam). These texts are read and re-
read, memorised and discussed in order to permeate
the minds of the faithful and to induce them to con-
form to the prestigious models of the Prophet and his
Companions. The movement also distributes publica-
tions of Deoband-affiliated theologians, such as the
Bihishti zewar of Ashraf 'All ThanawT (1863-1943 [q.v.]);
broadly it adheres to the teachings of the Deoband

TABLlGHl DJAMA'AT — al-TABRISI

school, in other words a reformed Hanaff Sunnism
which eschews the cult of saints but accepts a purified
form of Sufism. It enjoins an austere practice of Islam,
with female seclusion, and prohibition of music and
cinema attendance.

The organisation of the TablTghT Djama'at is cen-
tralised and secret. Leadership has been provided since
its inception by the dynasty of the KandhalawTs, three
of whose members have so far been chiefs (amir) of
the movement, with the present collective directorship
(see above) made up of their offspring; they are based
at Nizamuddin (Dihli), where they are also buried.
Here a large building accommodates the central admin-
istration of the movement and the publishing house
from which its literature is distributed throughout the
world. Teams working in other countries are trained
at this centre. In each country, the TablTghT Djama'at
has a chief who in his turn delegates authority, by
stages, to those responsible for provinces, districts and
towns . . . down to the smallest preaching group of
some dozen persons, this group too having its own
hierarchy. Members are trained and indoctrinated; in
order to progress in the organisation they are required
to gives pledges of their commitment, devoting a pro-
portion of their time and their income to missionary
ventures. Only then are they granted access to the
inner circles of the movement, the functioning of which
remains closed to outsiders. The financial apparatus
of this vast world-wide organisation is also a closely-
guarded secret.

This secrecy raises the question of the ultimate
political motivations of the Tablighl Djama'at. At its
inception it had the form of a clan-based Sufi
fraternity; at the end of its universal expansion, its
functioning is more closely related to that of a sect.
It exercises considerable worldwide power, with its
dynamic proselytising, which it conceives as a form
of djihad [q.v.] enabling it to mobilise millions of per-
sons on a global scale. It may be wondered whether
one day it will reveal political ambitions which are
for the time being disguised.

Bibliography: Muhammad Ilyas KandhalawT, A
call to Muslims — message to an All-India Conference of
Ulama, and the Muslim political leaders at Delhi in
April 1944, the year of his death, Lyallpur n.d.; idem,
Makdtib hadrat Mowlam Shah Muhammad Ilyas, ed.
Abu '1-Hasan 'All Nadwl, Dihlr 1952; Muhammad
Zakariyya KandhalawT, Tablighl nisab, Dihli n.d.
(translations: The teachings of Islam, Dihli n.d.; Les
enseignements de I'Islam, Saint-Denis de la Reunion
n.d.); Abu '1-Hasan 'All NadwT, life and mission of
Maulana Mohammad Ilyas, Lucknow 1979 (Urdu origi-
nal, Hadrat Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas awr un-ki dim
da'wat, Lucknow 1946); idem, Mawlana Muham-
mad Zakariyya, Lucknow 1972; Muhammad Thani
Hasani, Sawanih-i hadrat Mawlana Muhammad Yusuf
KdndhalawX, Lucknow 1967; M.A. Haq, The faith move-
ment of Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas, London 1972; 'Aziz
al-Rahman Bidjnawn, Tadhkira-yi Mawlana Muham-
mad Tusuf Sahib, Amir-i tab&gh, Bhera (Sargodha,
Pakistan) 1980; Shams-i Tabriz Khan, Tarikh-i Nad-
watu 'l-'ulama, ii, Lucknow 1984; Chr. W. Troll, Five
letters of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas, the founder of the
Tablighi Jama'at, translated, annotated and introduced, in
idem (ed.), Islam in India. Studies and commentaries, ii,
Dihli 1985, 138-76; idem, Two conceptions of da'wd
in India: Jamd'at-i islami and Tablighi Jama'at, in
Archives de Sciences Sociaks des Religions, lxxxvii (July-
Sept. 1994), 1 15-33; G. Kepel, Us banlieues de I'Islam,
Paris 1987; F. Dassetto, The Tabligh organization in
Belgium, in T. Gerholm and Y.G. Lithman, The new

Islamic presence in Europe, London 1988, 159-73;
M. Ahmad, Islamic fundamentalism in South Asia. The
Jama'at-i-islami and the Tablighi Jama'at, in M.E. Marty
and E.S. Appleby (eds.), Fundamentalisms observed,
Chicago 1991, 457-530; B.D. Metcalf, living Hadith
in the Tablighi Jama'at, in Jnal. of Asian Studies, lii/3
(1993), 584-608; eadem, "Remaking oursehes". Islamic
self-fashioning in a global movement of spiritual renewal,
in Marty and Appleby (eds.), Accounting for funda-
mentalisms. The dynamic character of movements, Chicago
1994, 706-25; P. Lewis, Islamic Britain. Religion, poli-
tics and identity among British Muslims, London 1994;
C. Clementin-Ojha and M. Gaborieau, La month du
proselytisme dans k sous-continent indien, in Archives de
sciences sociaks des religions, lxxxvii (July-Sept. 1994),
13-33; Gaborieau, biographies of 'Abdu '1-Rahman
MewatI, Arshad Peshawarl, Iftikhar FarTdT, Muham-
mad KandhalawT, Muhammad Ilyas KandhalawT,
Muhammad Isma'Tl KandhalawT, Muhammad
Yahya KandhalawT, Muhammad Yusuf KandhalawT,
Muhammad Zakariyya KandhalawT SaharanpurT, in
M. Gaborieau, N. Grandin, P. Labrousse and A. Po-
povic (eds.), Dictionnaire biographique des savants et grandes
figures du monde musulman periphenque, du XIX' sieck a
nos jours, i, Paris 1992; idem, Renouveau de I'Islam ou
strategic politique occulte? La Tabtighi Jama'at dans k
sous-continent indien et dans k monde, in Clementin-
Ojha (ed.), Renouveaux religieux en Ask, Paris 1997, 21 1-
29; idem, The transformation of Tablighi Jama'at into a
transnational movement under the kadership of Muham-
mad Yusuf 1944-1965, in M.K. Masud (ed.), Travellers
in faith. Studies of Tablighi Jama'at as a transnational
movement for faith renewal, in the press (this collective
book, which covers the history and the worldwide
expansion of the movement, is the main reference
work on the subject); Y.S. Sikand, The fitna of
irtidad. Muslim missionary response to the Shuddhi of
Arya Samaj in early twentieth century India, in Journal
of Muslim Minority Affairs, xvii/1 (1997), 65-82;
S. Mayaram, Resisting regimes. Myth, memory and the
shaping of a Muslim identity, Delhi 1997.

(M. Gaborieau)
al-TABRISI (TabarsT), Abu Mansur Ahmad b. 'Ali
b. AbI Talib, Imam! scholar and author. (For
the vocalisation of his nisba see the next entry.) He
lived in the first half of the 6th/ 12th century; the
death-date of ca. 620/1223 given by some late sources
is probably erroneous. Virtually nothing is known of
his life; the claim that he hailed from Sariya [q.v.]
(Kh w ansari, i, 73), like the claim that he was related
to al-Fadl b. al-Hasan al-TabrisT [q.v.], appears to be
uncorroborated. He studied with Abu Dja'far MahdT
b. al-Hasan al-Husaym al-Mar'ashT, and Ibn Shah-
rashub [q.v.] was among his pupils. Some of his legal
opinions are cited by later authors, including al-Shahid
al-Tham [q.v.]. His shrine, in a place named after
him and today called Karyat Shaykh TabarsT, is located
near Barfurush [q.v.] in Mazandaran.

Ibn Shahrashub (in his Ma'alim al-'ulama') lists six
works by al-TabrisT: K. al-Kafi fi 'l-fikh, al-Ihtidjadj,
Mafakjxir (Mufakharat) al-talibiyya, Ta'rikh al-a'imma,
Fada'il al-Zahra' and K. al-Saldt. Of these, only the
Ihtidjadj (more fully, al-Ihtidjadj 'aid ahl al-ladjdaj) is
known to have survived. It opens with the text of
debates which the Prophet held with representatives
of various religions, but its bulk consists of disputa-
tions which the Imams and a number of their fol-
lowers held with opponents of the ShT'a. Also included
are rescripts from the Twelfth Imam to various ShT'T
leaders. Al-TabrisT neither identifies his sources nor
provides the isnads of the traditions cited, except in

the case of the Tafsir attributed to the Imam al-Hasan
al-'Askari [q.v.] which, al-Tabrisi explains, is less
well-known than the other sources he uses (al-Ihtidjddj,
Beirut 1410/1989, 14; it is cited on pp. 15-55, 235-9,
319-21, 330-1, 445-61). The Ihtidjadj was particularly
popular in the Safawid period, when it was twice ren-
dered into Persian (Storey, i/i, 14, 16).

Bibliography: Ibn Shahrashub, Ma'alim al-'ulama\
Nadjaf 1380/1961, 25, § 125; idem, Manakib al Abi
Talib, Beirut 1405/1985, i, 12; 'Abd Allah Afandf,
Riyad al-'ulama', Kumm 1401/1981, i, 48-51; al-Hurr
al-'Amill, Amal al-amil, Nadjaf 1385/1965, ii, 17;
MadjlisI, Bihar al-anwar, Tehran 1376-94/1956-74,
i, 9, 28; YQsuf al-Bahrani, Lu'lu'at al-Bahrayn, Nadjaf
1386/1966, 341-3; idem, al-Kashkul, Nadjaf 1381/
1961, i, 300-3; Tunakabuni, Kisas al-'ulama', n. p.
1320, 302; al-Kh w ansart, Rawdat al-gjannat, Beirut
1411/1991, i, 72-4; al-Nurl al-TabarsT, Musladrak
al-wasa'il, Tehran 1382-4, iii, 485; Mamakanl, Tanklh
al-makal, Nadjaf 1349-52/1930-3, § 397; Muhsin
al-Amin, A'yan al-shi'a, ix, Damascus 1357/1938,
97-101 = Beirut 1406/1986, iii, 29-30; Brockelmann,
S I, 709; 'Abbas al-Kummf, Fawa'id al-radawiyya,
Tehran 1367/1948, 19; idem, al-Kuna wa 'l-alkab,
Beirut 1403/1983, ii, 444-5; Mudarris, Rayhanal
al-adab, iii, Tehran 1369, 18; Isma'Il al-Baghdadi,
Hadiyyat al-'arifin, Istanbul 1951-5, i, 91; 'A.A.
Dihkhuda, iMghat-mma, xxvi, Tehran 1329 .&./1950,
1 39; H. Kariman, Tabrisi wa Madjma' al-bayan, Tehran
1340-1 St., i, 180-1, 320-2; Kahhala, Beirut 1414/
1993, i, 203; Tihrani, al-Thjkat al-'uyun fi sadis al-
kurun, Beirut 1392/1972, 11-2. (E. Kohlberg)
al-TABRISI (Tabarsi), Amin al-Din (or AmIn al-
Islam) Abu 'Ali al-Fadl b. al-Hasan, I ma mi
scholar and author. His nisba refers to Tabris
(Tabrish), which is the Arabicised form of Tafrish, a
village between Kashan and Isfahan mentioned by
'Alf b. Zayd al-Bayhaki (d. 565/1169-70) as the place
of origin of al-Tabrisfs family (Tarikh-i Bayhak, 420).
The pronunciation Tabarsr was first defended by some
17th-century Safawid scholars, who took the nisba
T-b-r-s-r to refer to Tabaristan; and in the following
two centuries, a number of Shr'I authors actually called
themselves Tabarsi (see KarTman, i, 166-205, 313-33).
Al-Tabrisr was born in 470/1077-8 or shortly before
and grew up in Khurasan. Among his masters were
'Abd al-Djabbar b. 'Abd Allah al-Mukri' al-RazI (alive
in 503/1109-10), who was a student of Abu Dja'far
al-Tusi, and al-Tusi's son Abu 'All al-Hasan b.
Muhammad (alive 'in 515/1121-2). Some of al'-TabrisI's
teachers were Sunnls; they included the Kur'an com-
mentator MahmQd b. Hamza b. Nasr al-Kirmanl
(d. ca. 500/1 106-7) and the Shafi'I Abu '1-Fath 'Ubayd
Allah (in most sources, erroneously, 'Abd Allah) b.
'Abd al-Karlm al-Kushayrl (d. 521/1127), a son of
the renowned mystic [q.v.]. For many years al-Tabrisr
lived in Mashhad, where he had close ties with the
Shr'I Zubara family. In 523/1129 he moved to Sab-
zawar [q.v.] and taught in the Madrasat Bab al-'Irak.
He died on 10 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 548/26 February 1 154.
According to al-Bayhaki, his death occurred in
Sabzawar, though others maintain that he died in
Mashhad; but all agree in any event that he was
buried in Mashhad. Kutb al-Din Muhammad b.
al-Husayn al-Bayhaki al-Kaydarl (KaydhuiT) (alive in
610/1213-4) refers to al-Tabrisi as a martyr {shahld),
and this is repeated by some later biographers, who
suggest that he was poisoned. His shrine is at Katl-
gah (or Ghuslgah), said to be the spot where the
Imam 'Ali al-Rida [q.v.] died (or where his body was
washed). Al-Tabrisr's students included some of the

best-known Imami authors of the 6th/ 12th century,
such as Kutb al-Din al-Rawandl (d. 573/1177-8),
Muntadjab al-Dm (d. ca. 585/1189), Ibn Shahrashub
(d. 588/1192) [q.v.] and Shadhan b. DjibraTl al-
Kummi (alive in 593/1 196-7). Al-Tabrisi was a promi-
nent jurist, and some of his legal pronouncements are
cited by later authorities; but he is not known to have
written a work of fikh. In theology, he broadly fol-
lowed the Mu'tazill doctrines adopted by his Imami

The titles of over 20 works by al-Tabrisi are men-
tioned in the sources (cf. Kariman, i, 260-90). Among
the best-known are:

(i) K. Madjma' al-bayan li 'ulum al-Kur'an (or fi ma'ani
'l-Kur'an/fi tafsir al-kur'an), described by Muntadjab
al-Din (145) as comprising 10 volumes. It was writ-
ten for al-Sharif Djalal al-Din Abu Mansur Muham-
mad b. Yahya b. Hibat Allah al-Husaynl al-Zubari
(d. 8 Dhu '1-Ka'da 539/2 May 1145) and completed
on 15 Dhu '1-Ka'da 534/2 July 1140 or 536/11 June
1142; it eventually became one of the most authori-
tative Imamf Kur'an commentaries. In the introduc-
tion, al-Tabrisi acknowledges his debt to al-Tusi's
K. al-Tibyan, but criticises al-TOsi for including unre-
liable material and for occasional stylistic infelicities.
Al-Tabrisi's method is to take up one group of verses
at a time and discuss kira'at, language and grammar
before providing a detailed commentary on the text,
based on both Sunni and Shi'i sources and incorpo-
rating his own views.

(ii) al-Ka.fi al-shafi min kitab al-kashshaf, a one-volume
Kur'an commentary also known as al-Tafsir al-wadjiz.
As its title suggests, it is an abridgement of al-
Zamakhsharf s Kastsiaf—a. work which al-Tabrisi came
to know and admire after completing the Madjma'
al-bayan. The Kofi was still available to 'Ali al-Karaki
[q.v.] (see al-Madjlisi, Bihar al-anwar, cviii, 48).

(iii) Djawami' al-gjami'. This 4-volume work, also
known as al-Tafsir al-wasit, was the last to be written
of the author's three Kur'an commentaries; it was
composed at the request of al-Tabrisf s son al-Hasan
and completed in a single year, on 24 Muharram
543/14 June 1148. The material in the Diawami' is
culled from both the Maapna' al-bayan and the Kofi.

(iv) I'lam al-wara bi-a'lam al-huda, written for the
Ispahbadi 'Ala' al-Dawla 'Ali b. Shahriyar b. Karin
(r. 51 1-34/1 1 17-40) [see bawand]. It comprises biogra-
phies of the Prophet, of Fatima and of the Imams,
and is based on a wealth of Sunni and Shi' I sources.
This work, under its alternative title Rabi ' al-shi'a, was
on occasion erroneously attributed to Radi al-Din Ibn
Tawus (d. 664/1266) (Kohlberg, 65).

(v) al-Adab al-diniyya li 'l-khizana al-mu'iniyya, a work
of adab dedicated to Mu'in al-Din Abu Nasr Ahmad
b. al-Fadl b. Mahmud, who for two years, until his
assassination by Isma'ill>/a'fs in Rabi' I 521 /March-
April 1127, was a vizier of the Khurasanian ruler
Sandjar b. Malikshah (d. 552/1157 [q.v.]).

(vi) TaaJ al-mawaUd, containing succinct biographi-
cal information about the Prophet, Fatima and the
Imams. The work was written in 509/1115-6 (Taaj
al-mawalid, in Madjmu'a nafisafi ta'rikh al-a'imma, Kumm
1406/1985-6, 139, 146).

(vii) Nathr al-la'ati, alphabetically arranged apo-
thegms of 'All. It is sometimes confused with a work
of the same title by 'All b. Fadl Allah al-Rawandi
(alive in 589/1193) (Kohlberg, 298-9).

All of these, with the possible exception of the Kofi,

Al-Tabrisi wrote abridgements (ikhtiydrat) of various
works, including (besides the Kafi) the Muktasad fi

x-TABRISl — TABRIZ

'l-nahw of 'Abd al-Kahir al-Djurdjanl (d. 471/1078)
[q.v., in Suppl.] and the Shark al-Hamasa of al-Marzukl
(d. 421/1030) [q.v.]. He appears to have also written
his own commentary on the Hamasa, entitled al-Bahir
ft shark al-Hamasa, of which an incomplete manuscript
survives (see H. Ritter, in Oriens, ii [1949], 259, whence
F. Sezgin, GAS, ii, 71, no. 26; see also Brockelmann,
S I, 40).

Prominent scholars among al-Tabrisfs descendants
include his son Radi al-Din Abu Nasr al-Hasan b.
al-Fadl (J. mid-6th/12th century), author of' Makarim
al-akhlak, and his grandson Abu '1-Fadl 'All b. al-Hasan
(Jl. late 6th/ 12th century), author of Mishkat al-amvdr.
Bibliography: 'Abd al-Djalll al-KazwInl, K. al-
Nakd, ed. Djalal al-Din Husayni Urmawi, Tehran
1331 &/1952, 304; BayhakI, Tarlkh-i Bayhak,
ed. K. Husayni Haydarabad 1388/1968, 420-1;
Muntadjab al-Din Ibn Babawayh, Fihrist, ed. 'A.-'A.
al-Tabataba'I, Beirut 1406/1986, 144-5; Ibn Shah-
rashub, Ma'alim al-'ulama', Nadjaf 1380/1961, 135,
§ 920; idem, Manakib al Abi Talib, Beirut 1405/
1985, i, 11, 12; Tafrishi, Nakd al-ri&dl, Tehran
1318/1900-1, 266; Madjlisi, Bihar al-anwar, Tehran
1376-94/1956-74, i, 9, cv, 259-61; 'Abd Allah
Afandr, Riyad al-'ulama', Kumm 1401, iv, 340-59;
al-Hurr al-'Amill, Amal al-amil, Nadjaf 1385, ii,
216-7; YQsuf al-Bahram, Lu'lu'at al-Bahrayn, Nadjaf
1386/1966, 346-8; Tunakabunl, Kisas al-'ulama', n.
p. 1320, 301; Kh w ansarl, Rawdat al-ajannat, Beirut
1411/1991, v, 342-9; al-Nurf al-Tabarsi, Mustadrak
al-wasa'il, Tehran 1382-4, iii, 486-7; Mamakanl,
Tanklh al-makal, Nadjaf 1349-52/1930-3, § 9461;
Muhsin al-Amin, A'yan al-shl'a, xlii, Beirut 1377/
1958, 276-82 = Beirut 1406/1986, viii, 398-401;
Brockelmann, I, 513-14, S I, 708-9; 'Abbas al-
Kumml, al-Kuna wa 'l-alkab, Beirut 1403/1983, ii,
444; idem, Fawa'id al-radawiyya, Tehran 1367/1948,
350-2; Storey, i/i, 176, i/ii, 1197, 1252; Mudarris,
Rayhanat al-adab, iii, Tehran 1369, 18-21; Isma'il al-
Baghdadl, Hadiyyat al-'arifin, Istanbul 1951-5, i, 820;
'A.A. Dihkhuda, Lughat-nama, xxvi, Tehran 1329 ffl./
1950, 140; H. Kariman, Tabrisi wa Ma&ma' al-bayan,
Tehran 1340-1 St; Kahhala, Beirut 1414/1993, ii,
622; M.H. al-Dhahabl, al-Tqfslr wa 'l-mufassirun,
Cairo 1381/1961-2, ii, 99-144; al-Tihranl, al-Jhikat
al-'uyun fl sadis al-kuriin, Beirut 1392/1972, 216-7;
Musa O.A. Abdul, The unnoticed mufassir Shaykh Taiarst,
in Id xv (1971), 96-105; idem, The Mqjma' al-Bayan
o/Tabarsl, in I& xv (1971), 106-20; idem, The Qur'an:
Shaykh Tabarsi's commentary, Lahore 1977; E. Kohlberg,
A medieval Muslim scholar at wort Ibn Tawus and his
library, Leiden 1992, index. (E. Kohlberg)

TABRISI (Tabarsi), HAgDj Mirza Husayn b.
Muhammad TakT Nun (1254-1320/1839-1902) Ithna-
'ashan Shr'T scholar and divine considered by
some to have been the greatest Sht'i exponent of
haMth and akhbar since Muhammad Bakir al-MadjlisI
(d. 1699 [q.v.]). Tabrisi first studied in his home prov-
ince of Nur in northern Persia under Shaykh 'Abd
al-Rahman BurudjirdT, with whom he later travelled
to the ShT'7 shrine centres in 'Irak. He studied in
Nadjaf, Karbala' and Samarra for several years (with
intervals in Persia) under Shaykh 'Abd al-Husayn al-
Tihranl (known as Shaykh al-'Irakayn), as well as
under the two leading marddji' of the day, Shaykh
Murtada al-Ansan and Mirza Hasan Shlrazl. He
died in Nadjaf on 21 Djumada II 1320/25 September
1902.

Tabrisfs scholarly interests lay mainly in the spheres
of biography and tradition, specialising in the lives of
'ulama", muhaddithun and ruwat. His books include Nqfs

al-Rahman, a biography of Salman al-Farisi; al-Fayd
al-kudsl, a biography of Muhammad Bakir al-Madjlisr;
Ma'alim al-'abr, a continuation of vol. xvii of Madjlisi's
Bihar al-anwar; and the well-known Mustadrak al-wasa'il
wa mustanbat al-masa'il (3 vols., Tehran 1311-21), a con-
tinuation of al-Hurr al-'Amili's hadlth collection the
Tafstl wasa'il al-SM'a.

Bibliography: Mihdr Bamdad, Tarlkh-i ridjal-i
Iran, i, Tehran, 1347 ^./1969, 430; Miraa Muham-
mad Mihdi al-Lakhnawi al-Kashmin, Nua^um al-
sama': takmila, 2 vols., Kum 1396/1976, ii, 210-15;
Muhammad Hasan Khan I'timad al-Saltana, Kitdb
al-Ma'athir wa 'l-athar, Tehran 1306/1889, 155-6;
Murtada al-Ansan, ^indiganl wa shakhsiyyat-i Shqyth-i
Ansari, PTehran 1380/1960-1, 257-60.

(D. MacEoin)
TABRIZ, the traditional capital of the
Persian province of Adharbaydjan [q.v.] and
now the administrative centre of the ustdn of eastern
Adharbaydjan (lat. 38° 05' N., long. 46° 18' E., alti-
tude ca. 1,340 m/4,400 feet).
1. Geography and history.
Geographical position. The town lies in the
eastern corner of the alluvial plain sloping slightly to-
wards the north-east bank of Lake Urmiya. The plain
is watered by several streams, the chief of which is
the Adji cay ("bitter river") which, rising in the south-
west face of Mount Sawalan, runs along the Karadja
dagh which forms a barrier on the south and enter-
ing the plain runs around on the north-west suburbs
of the town. The left bank tributary of the Adji cay,
Mihran rud (now the Maydan cay), runs through the
town. Immediately to the north-east of the town rise
the heights of 'Aynali-Zaynali (the ziyarat of 'Awn b.
'All and Zayd b. 'All) which (6,000 feet) form 'a link
between the mountain system of the Karadja dagh
(in the north and north-east) and the outer spurs of
the Sahand whose peaks (about 30 miles south of the
town) reach a height of 11,500 feet. As the Karadja
dagh is a very wild and mountainous region and the
great massif of Sahand fills the whole area between
Tabriz and Maragha, the site of Tabriz is the only
suitable pass for communications between east and
north. Lastly, as the outer spurs of the Sahand leave
a rather narrow couloir along the east bank of Lake
Urmiya, communication between north (Transcaucasia,
Karadja dagh) and the south (Maragha, Kurdistan)
must also take place via Tabriz.

This fortunate position predestined Tabriz to be-
come the centre of the vast and rich province lying
between Turkey and the former Russian Transcaucasia
and in general one of the most important cities between
Istanbul and India (only Tiflis, Tehran, Isfahan and
Baghdad fall into the same category).

The climate of Tabriz is very severe in winter with
heavy snowfalls. In summer, the heat is tempered by
the proximity of the Sahand and by the presence of
numerous gardens about the town. The climate is on
the whole healthy.

One feature of Tabriz is the frequent earthquakes.
The most formidable took place in 244/858, in 434/
1042 (mentioned by Nasir-i Khusraw in his Safar-nama
and predicted by the astronomer Abu Tahir Shlrazt),
in 1641, in 1727, in 1780, etc. Seismic shocks are of
everyday occurrence at Tabriz; they may be due to
the volcanic activity of the Sahand. See further, N.N.
Ambraseys and C.P. Melville, A history of Persian earth-
quakes, Cambridge 1982, 37 ff., 57, 62.

The fortifications of the town were razed to the
ground in the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah. The part
of the town called the Kal'a is therefore no longer

of the town and the south-east. The tendency of the
city is to extend to the west and south-west.

The name. According to Yakut, Buldan, i, 822,
the name of the town is pronounced Tibriz. Yakut
gives as his authority Abu Zakariyya' al-TabrlzI
(a pupil of Abu 'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri [q.v.], of whom we
know that he spoke the local Iranian dialect (see Say-
yid Ahmad Kisrawi TabrizI, Adhari ya zaban-i bastan-i
Adharbayagan, Tehran 1304/1925, 11). The pronunci-
ation Tibriz must be one of the peculiarities of this
dialect which is related to those called "Caspian", or,
more probably, Arabic purism assimilating it to the
fi'ttl form of the noun. The modern pronunciation is
exclusively Tabriz (or with a metathesis typical of the
Turkish dialect, now predominant throughout Adhar-
baydjan: Tarblz). The Armenian sources confirm the
pronunciation with a. The popular Persian etymology
explains Tabriz as "making fever run" (- disappear)
(Ewliya Celebi: sitma ddkudju), but it is possible that
the name rather means "that which makes the heat
disappear", in some connection with the volcanic activ-
ities of the Sahand. The Armenian orthography reflects
the peculiarities of Northern Pahlavi T'avrez and this
suggests the origin of the name may go back to a very
early period, pre-Sasanid and perhaps pre-Arsacid.

History. The identification of Tabriz with some
ancient city of Media has given rise to much dis-
cussion (cf. the resume in Ritter, Erdkunde, ix, 770-9).
According to the Armenian historian Vardan (14th
century), Tabriz was founded on Persian territory by
the Arshakid Armenian Khusraw (217-33) as an act of
revenge against the first Sasanid king Ardashlr (224-
41), who had killed the last Parthian king Artabanus;
this story is not found in any ancient source and is
probably to be explained by popular etymology.

Arab rule. During the conquest of Adharbaydjan
by the Arabs (ca. 22/642) the principal efforts of the
latter were directed against Ardabil. Tabriz is not
mentioned among the towns from which the Persian
Marzuban had levied his troops (al-Baladhuri, Futuh,
326). After the devastation mentioned by Faustus of
Byzantium (4th century), Tabriz must have become a
mere village. The later legend (Mustawfi, Nuzhat al-
kulub, 730/1340) of the "building" of Tabriz in 175/
791 by Zubayda, wife of Harun al-Rashid, is perhaps
based on the fact that after the sequestration of
the Umayyad estates Zubayda had received Warthan
(in Adharbaydjan on the Araxes). According to al-
Baladhuri, 331 and Ibn al-Fakih, 285 (cf. also Yakut,
i, 822), the rebuilding of Tabriz was the work of the
family of al-Rawwad al-Azdl and particularly of the
latter's sons, al-Wadjna' and others who built the walls
round the town. Al-Tabari (iii, 1171 = Ibn al-Athlr,
vi, 315) speaking of the rebellion of Babak (201-20/
816-35 [q.v]) mentions among his conquerors a cer-
tain Muhammad b. Ba'Ith, owner of two castles: Shahl,
which he had taken from al-Wadjna', and Tabriz (no
details given).

When Ibn Khurradadhbih, 119, wrote (232/840),
Tabriz belonged to Muhammad b. al-Rawwad. In 244
the town was destroyed by an earthquake but rebuilt
before the end of the reign of al-Mutawakkil (232-
47/847-61). Tabriz seems then to have changed hands
several times, for, according to al-Istakhri (ca. 340/
951), 181, the strip of territory which included Tabriz,
Djabrawan (or Dih-Kharrakan?) and Ushnuh bore the
name of the ruling tribe BanQ Rudaynl, which had
already disappeared by the time of Ibn Hawkal (ca.
367/978), 289. These owners seem to have ruled in

practical independence, for the history of the Sadjids
[q.v.] (lords of Adharbaydjan 276-317/889-929) con-
tains no reference to their intervention in the affairs
of Tabriz.

After the disappearance of the Sadjids, Adharbay-
djan became the arena of numerous struggles. A for-
mer governor for the Ziyarid Mardawldj, Lashkari b.
Mardi, had seized the province in 326/938. He was
driven out by the Kurd Daysam, who soon came into
conflict with the DaylamI Musafirids [q.v.]. The peo-
ple of Tabriz invited Daysam into their town, which
was at once besieged by the Musafirid al-Marzuban.
Daysam left Tabriz, and the rule of al-Marzuban was
proclaimed in all the towns of Adharbaydjan (ca.
330/942).

The end of the Musafirid dynasty is not quite clear,
but their successors the Rawwadids [q.v.] can be traced
at Tabriz down to 446/1054. The following events
are connected with these Rawwadls: in 420/1029,
Wahsudan b. Mahlan (Mamlan?) had a large number
of Ghuzz chiefs massacred at Tabriz (Ibn al-Athrr,
ix, 279); in 434/1043 an earthquake destroyed Tabriz,
and the amir (probably the same one) went to his
other strongholds for fear of al-Ghuzz al-Saldjukiyya
(ibid., 351); in 438/1046-7 Nasir-i Khusraw found in
Tabriz a king Sayf al-Dawla wa-Sharaf al-Milla Abu
Mansur Wahsudan b. Muhammad (Mamlan?) Mawla
Amir al-Mu'mimn; in 446/1054 the Saldjuk Toghril
received the submission of the lord of Tabriz, al-Amlr
Abu Mansur b. Muhammad al-Rawwadi (ibid., ix, 410).

The geographers and travellers. While Ibn
Khurradadhbih, 119, al-Baladhuri, 331, al-Tabari, iii,
1171, Ibn al-Fakih, 285, and even al-Istakhri, 181,
simply mention Tabriz among the little towns of
Adharbaydjan, al-MukaddasI already sings the praises
of Tabriz, and his contemporary Ibn H aw kal (ca. 367/
978) considers it the most prosperous town in Adhar-
baydjan, with a busy trade. Miskawayh (d. 421/1030)
calls Tabriz a "noble city with a strong wall, sur-
rounded by woods and gardens", and its inhabi-
tants "brave, martial and rich". According to Nasir-i
Khusraw, the area occupied by the town in 438/
1046-7 was 1,400 x 1,400 paces, which is only about
a third of a square mile.

Saldjuk period. Tabriz is very rarely mentioned
in the history of the Great Saldjuks. In the vicinity
of the town, Toghril celebrated his marriage with the
caliph's daughter (Rawandl, Rahat al-sudur, 1 1 1). During
his struggle with his brother Muhammad, Berk-yaruk
retired in 494/1101 to the mountainous region to the
south of Tabriz, but at the reconciliation of the broth-
ers, Tabriz fell to Muhammad, who appointed Sa'd
al-Mulk as wazlr there (498/1104-5). In 505/1111-12
we find Amir Sukman al-Kutbi mentioned as lord of
Tabriz, i.e. the founder of the dynasty of Shahs of
Armenia (Shah-i Arman [q.v.]), which ruled at Akhlat
493-604/1100-1207.

Under the branch of the Saldjuks of 'Irak, whose
capital was at Hamadan, Adharbaydjan played a more
important part. In 514/1120 Sultan Mahmud spent
some time at Tabriz to calm the inhabitants, who
were alarmed at the inroads of the Georgians. The
name of the Atabeg of Adharbaydjan at this period
was Kiin-toghdi. After his death (515/1 121), the Amir
of Maragha Ak-Sunkur Ahmadlli endeavoured to get
Tabriz out of the hands of Toghril (brother of the
sultan), but these intrigues came to nought. Mahmud
appointed to Adharbaydjan the Amir Djuyush of Maw-
sil, who was killed at the gate of Tabriz in 516/1 122.
After the death of Mahmud (525/1131), his brother
Mas'ud occupied Tabriz and was besieged there by

Dawud, son of Mahmud. Finally, DawQd established
himself in Tabriz and from this town ruled (526-33/
1 1 32-9) a great fief composed of Adharbaydjan, Arran
and Armenia. Adharbaydjan and Arran were later
entrusted to Toghril I's old slave, the Atabeg Kara
Sunkur whose capital seems to have been at Ardabfl
(Ibn al-Athir, xi, 52). After his death in 535/1140-1,
the Amir Dja'ull (Cawli) al-Toghrill succeeded him, but
we soon find Ildegfz [q.v.], the founder of the dynasty
of Atabegs which ruled the province till 622/
1225, established in Adharbaydjan. The centre of Ilde-
glzid power was at first to the north-west of Adharbay-
djan, while Tabriz became part of the possessions of
the Ahmadlll [q.v.] Amirs of Maragha, for it was not
till 570/ 1 1 74-5 that the Atabeg Pahlawan b. Ildegiz
[q.v.] took Tabriz from Falak al-Dln, grandson of Ak
Sunkur b. Ahmadll, and gave it to his brother Kizil
Arslan. It was during the period that Kizil Arslan was
Atabeg (582-87/1186-91) that Tabriz definitely took
its place as the capital of Adharbaydjan.

In 602/1205-6 the Amir Kara Sunkur 'Ala' al-Dln
Ahmadlll, in alliance with the Atbeg of Ardabll, made
an attempt to retake Tabriz from Kizil Arslan's suc-
cessor, the bon-vivant Abu Bakr. The attempt failed,
and Kara Sunkur lost Maragha.

The Ildeglzids lived in great style, as we may judge
from the odes addressed to them by poets like NizamI
and Khakani [?.»».], but of their buildings we only
know the remains at Nakhciwan [q.v.].

The Mongols. The Mongols made their appear-
ance before the walls of Tabriz in the winter of 617/
1220-1. The incapable Ildeglzid Atabeg Ozbeg b.
Pahlawan obtained their departure by paying a heavy
ransom. Next year, the Mongols came back again.
The Atabeg fled to Nakhciwan, but a resistance was
organised by the valiant Shams al-Dln al-Tughra'T
and the Mongols departed with a new ransom, after
which Ozbeg returned to Tabriz. In 621/1224 a new
horde arrived from Mongolia and demanded from
Ozbeg the surrender of all the Kh w arazmians in
Tabriz. Ozbeg hastened to yield to this demand.

Djalal al-Dln. The Kh w arazm Shah soon arrived
from Maragha and on 27 Radjab 622/15 July 1225
gained admittance to the town, which Ozbeg had
again abandoned. The inhabitants were glad to find
a valiant defender, especially as Djalal al-Dln was
soon to show his energy by an expedition against
Tiflis and by the punishment of the marauding Tur-
komans of the tribe of Aywa (al-Aywa'iyya). Djalal
al-Dln having married the malika, the former wife of
Ozbeg, held Tabriz for six years, but towards the
close of this period, his position was seriously com-
promised by his failures as well as by his personal
conduct (Ibn al-Athir, xii, 323). As early as 627/1230,
a Turkoman chief of the tribe of Kush-yalwa (?), a
chief of Ruyindiz (near Maragha), dared to plunder
the environs of Tabriz. In 628/1231 Djalal al-Dln
left Adharbaydjan and the Mongols conquered the
whole province, including the town of "Tabriz which
is the very heart (as!) of the country [for] every one
is dependent on it and on those who live there" (Ibn
al-Athir, xii, 328). The malik of the Mongols (Djurma-
ghun noyin) sent for the notables, levied a heavy
indemnity, ordered the weavers to make khata'l stuffs
for the use of the great king (Ogedey) and fixed the
amount of the annual tribute. From the time of Giiyiik,
the effective rule of Arran and Adharbaydjan was in
the hands of Malik Sadr al-Dln, a Persian ally of the
Mongols (see Djuwaynl-Boyle, ii, 518).

The Mongol Il-Khans. After the taking of
Baghdad in 654/1256, Hiilegii went to Adharbaydjan

and settled at Maragha [q.v.]. In 661/1263, after the
defeat inflicted on him in the northern Caucasus by
Berke's troops, Hiilegii returned to Tabriz and mas-
sacred the merchants there of Kipcak origin. In 662/
1264, at the re-distribution of the fiefs, Hiilegii con-
firmed Malik Sadr al-Dln in the governorship of the
province of Tabriz.

Tabriz became the official capital under Abaka
(663-80/1265-82) and kept this position under his suc-
cessors till the coming of Oldjeytii. In 688/1289 under
Arghun, the Jewish vizier Sa'd al-Dawla appointed his
cousin Abu Mansur to Tabriz. Under Gaykhatu, the
revenues of the province of Tabriz were estimated at
80 tumans. In 693/1294 Tabriz was the scene of a
rebellion as a result of the introduction of a paper
currency {Sao). It was in the reign of Ghazan Khan
that Tabriz attained its greatest splendour. This mon-
arch entered Tabriz in 694/1295 and took up his
abode in the palace built by Arghun in the village of
Sham to the west of the town, on the left bank of
the Adji cay. Orders were at once given to destroy the
temples of idols, churches and synagogues, and fire-
altars. These orders are said to have been revoked
in the next year on the appeal of the Armenian king
Hethum. In 699/1299 on his return from the Syrian
campaign, Ghazan began a whole series of buildings.
He intended Sham, already mentioned, as the site of
his eternal rest. A building was erected there higher
than the gunbad of Sultan Sandjar at Marw, which
was then considered the highest building in the Muslim
world. Besides this mausoleum, which was crowned
by a dome, there was a mosque, two madrasas (one
Shafi'i and the other Hanafi), a hostel for Sayyids
{dar al-siyada), a hospital, an observatory like that at
Maragha, a library, archives, a building for the officers
of these establishments, a cistern for drinking-water and
baths with hot water. Wakfs, the revenues from which
amounted to 100 tumans of gold (Wassaf), were set
aside for the maintenance of these foundations. At each
of the gates of the new town was built a caravanserai,
a market and baths. Fruit trees were brought from
distant lands.

In the town of Tabriz itself, great improvements
were also made. Hitherto its wall {baru) was only 6,000
gam ("paces"). Ghazan gave it a new wall 25,000 gams
in length (4V 2 farsakhs). All the gardens and the Kuh-i
Waliyan and Sandjaran quarters were incorporated
in the town. Within the wall on the slopes of the
Kuh-i Waliyan (now Kuh-i Surkhab or 'Aynali-Zaynali)
a series of fine buildings was erected by the famous
vizier Rashld al-Dln, and the quarter was therefore
known as Rab'-i Rashjdl {Mzhat al-kulub, 76, tr. 79-
80). We have a letter from Rashld al-Dln in which
he asks his son to send him from Rum 40 young
men and women to people one of the villages in the
new quarter; cf. Browne, LHP, iii, 82.

As if to emphasise the fact that Tabriz was the
real centre of the empire which stretched from the Oxus
to Egypt, the gold and silver coins and the measures
(kila, gaz) were standardised according to the standards
of Tabriz (d'Ohsson, Hist, des Mongols, iv, 144, 271-7,
350, 466-9).

Tabriz was also at this time an important focus of
Muslim literature, spirituality and mysticism, eulogised
by RumI in his Mathnaxm, Book VI, w. 3106-5, tr.
Nicholson, vi, 429-30. The Sufi poet Mahmud Shabis-
tari (d. ca. 718-20/1317-20 [q.v.] came from a small
town near Lake Urmiya and lived and worked at
Tabriz amongst other places (see L. Lewisohn, The
political milieu of Mongol Persia, in Beyond faith and infi-
delity. The Sufi poetry and teachings of Mahmud Shabistari,

London 1995, 55-103), and another notable Sufi" master
of Tabriz was Kh w adja Muhammad b. Sadlk Kudjudji
(d. 677/1279), whose descendants were later shaykh
al-islams in Tabriz under the early Djalayirids, the
TTmurids and the early Safawids (see J. Aubin, Eludes
safavides. I. Shah Isma'll et les notables de I'Iraq person, in
JESHO, ii [1959], 60-3, and Lewisohn, Palasi's mem-
oir of Shaykh Kujufi, a Persian Sufi of the thirteenth century,
in JRAS, 3rd ser, vi [1996], 345-66).

In 703/1304 Ghazan Khan was buried with great
ceremony in the mausoleum of Sham. In 705/1307
his successor Oldjeytii conceived the idea of creating
a new capital at Sultaniyya [</.».]. It was, however,
not easy to move the inhabitants, as in 715/1315 we
stall find the ambassador from the Ozbegs of Kipcak
following the route by Tabriz instead of the shorter
Mughan-Ardabil-Sultaniyya. It is also noteworthy
that Tadj al-Din 'All Shah (vizier from 711/1312)
had begun the construction of a magnificent mosque
at Tabriz (outside the Mihad-mihih quarter).

In 717/1317 under Abu Sa'Td, the retiring vizier
Rashrd al-Din went to Tabriz and only left it the
following year to meet his fate. His property was con-
fiscated and Rab'-i RashldT sacked (Browne, LHP, iii,
71). His son Ghiyath al-Din, who was called to power
by AbQ Sa'Td himself, continued to enlarge Rab'-i
RashldT. The capital continued to be Sultaniyya, judg-
ing from the fact that Abu Sa'Td was buried there
in a mausoleum which he himself had ordered to be
built (d'Ohsson, iv, 720).

When in 736/1336 his successor Arpa lost the
batde of Taghatu (this to be read for Baghatu), his
vizier Ghiyath al-Din was killed by the conqueror 'Air
Padshah Oyrat. The property of the family of Rashid
al-Din was plundered by the people of Tabriz, and
valuable collections and precious books disappeared

The Djalayirs and the Cobanids. In the
midst of the anarchy which followed these events we
have the rise of the Djalayir [q.v.] dynasty, whose for-
tunes were closely associated with Tabriz. In 736/1336
Hasan Buzurg Djalayir established on the throne of
Tabriz his candidate Sultan Muhammad. In spite of
its temporary nature, this episode marks the restora-
tion of its primacy to the old capital. The Cobanid
Hasan Kucik soon appeared on the scene with his
own candidates. Hasan Buzurg retired to Baghdad and
Hasan Kucik (740/1340) put on the throne Sulayman
Khan with rule over 'Irak-i 'Adjam, Adharbaydjan,
Arran, Mughan and Georgia. The successor of Hasan
Kucik, his brother Ashraf, in 744/1344 proclaimed a
new puppet, Anushirwan, whom he relegated to Sul-
taniyya while he himself remained in Tabriz as the
real ruler and extended his authority as far as Fars.
His cruelty and exactions provoked an "intervention
in the cause of humanity" by Djani Beg Khan of the
Blue Horde (Eastern Kipcak). Ashraf was defeated at
Khoy and Marand and his head suspended over the
door of a mosque in Tabriz (756/1355). The vizier
Akhidjuk whom Djani Beg had left in Adharbaydjan
found his authority disputed on several sides. Tabriz
was temporarily occupied by the Djalayir Uways b.
Hasan Buzurg who came from Baghdad. Hardly had
he been driven out by Akhidjuk than the MuzafFarid
of Fars, Mubariz al-Din Muhammad, quarrelling with
Djani Beg, who had called upon him to recognise his
suzerainty, arrived from Shiraz, defeated Akhidjuk at
Miyana and seized Tabriz in 758/1357. After two
years he retired before Uways, who soon afterwards
reoccupied Tabriz and slew Akhidjuk.

When the news of the death of Uways (776/1377)

reached Fars, the Muzaffarid Shah Shudja', who had
succeeded Mubariz al-Din, set out from Shiraz to
take Tabriz. Husayn, son of Uways, was defeated and
Tabriz occupied, but after a few months, a rebellion
having broken out at Udjan, forced Shudja' to evac-
uate the town which Husayn reoccupied without strik-
ing a blow. Sultaniyya seems to have marked the
limits of the lands of the MuzafFarids in the north-
west (Ta'nkh-i guzida, ed. Browne, 723-5). In 784/1382
Husayn Djalayir was slain at Tabriz, and his brother
Ahmad succeeded him in Adharbaydjan. but his rule
was to be brief, for Tlmur soon after appeared on
the scene.

In spite of all the vicissitudes of their intermittent
rule, the Djalayirs were able to gain the sympathy of
the people of Tabriz. Their rights were implicidy
recognised by the lords of Shlrwan and the Kara
Koyunlu. Among their buildings in Tabriz are recorded
their mausoleum Dimishkiyya and a large building by
Sultan Uways, which, according to Clavijo contained
20,000 chambers ("camaras apartadas e apartamien-
tos") and was called Dawlat-khana ("Tolbatgana . . .
la casa de la ventura").

The period of TimOr. During his first inva-
sion of Persia (786/1384), Tlmur returned to Samar-
kand after taking Sultaniyya. His great rival Toktamish
Khan of the Golden Horde at once sent an expedi-
tion against Adharbaydjan via Darband in 787/1385.
The invaders took Tabriz, which was badly defended
by Amir Wall (the former lord of Djurdjan driven
out by Tlmur) and the Khan of Khalkhal, plundered
the inhabitants, carried off prisoners (including the
poet Kamal Khudjandl) and returned to Darband
(Yazdl, Zafor-nama, i, 392; Browne, LHP, iii, 321).

Hardly had Sultan Ahmad Djalayir recovered Tabriz
than he was driven out again by Tlmur (788/1386),
who came on the pretext of protecting the Muslims.
Tlmur encamped at Sham-Ghazan and levied an
indemnity (mal-i arnan) on the people of Tabriz (see
Yazdl, i, 326).

In 795/1392 the "fief of Hulegu" {takht-i Hulagu),
consisting of Adharbaydjan, al-Rayy, Gilan, Shlrwan.
Darband and the lands of Asia Minor, was granted
to Mlran Shah (ibid., ii, 623) and Tabriz became the
capital of this territory. Three years later, this prince
became insane and committed a series of insensate
actions (execution of innocent people, destruction of
buildings; ibid., ii, 200, 213, and Browne, op. cit., iii,
71). Tlmur immediately on his return from India set
out for Adharbaydjan in 802/1399-1400 and executed
those who shared in Mlran Shah's debauches.

In 806/1403-4, Mlrza 'Umar, son of Mlran Shah,
was placed at the head of the "fief of Hulegu" and
the lands conquered by Tlmur in the west. His father
Mlran Shah (in Arran) and his brother Abu Bakr (in
'Irak) were placed under the authority of Mlrza 'Umar.
After the death of Tlmur, a long struggle began be-
tween 'Umar and Abu Bakr. In 808/1405-6, Abu
Bakr succeeded in levying on Tabriz a tribute of 200
'Iraki tumans. 'Umar returned to Tabriz, but his Tur-
komans harassed the people and AbQ Bakr regained
the town. Hardly had he left Tabriz than the Turko-
man rebel Bistam PjagTr entered it but hurriedly
retreated on the approach of Shaykh Ibrahim of Shlr-
wan [q.v]. In 809/1406-7 the latter handed over
Tabriz to Ahmad Djalayir as to its true sovereign
and the inhabitants showed great joy on this occasion;
see 'Abd al-Razzak Samarkandl, Math' al-sa'dayn, tr.
Quatremere, 109. On 8 RabI' I, Abu Bakr was again
at Sham-Ghazan. but did not dare go into the city
where the plague was raging.

A short time before these latter happenings, the
Ambassador of Henry III of Castile, Clavijo, spent
some time in Tabriz (in 1404 and with intervals 1405,
i.e. from the end of 806 to the beginning of 808
A.H.). In spite of the trials it had undergone, the
town was very busy and conducted considerable trade.
Clavijo speaks highly of the streets, markets and build-
ings of Tabriz.

The Kara Koyunlu [q.v.]. On 1 Djumada I 809/
14 October 1406, Kara Yusuf, the Kara Koyunlu Tur-
koman, inflicted a defeat on Abu Bakr, who in his
retreat handed Tabriz over to plunder, and nothing
escaped the rapacity of his army (Matla' al-sa'dayn, 110).
Kara Yusuf advanced as far as Sultaniyya and carried
off the population of this town to Tabriz, Ardabfl
and Maragha. Abu Bakr soon returned to Adharbay-
djan, but Kara Yusuf assisted by Bistam defeated him
at Sardarud (5 miles south of Tabriz). Mlran Shah
fell in this batde and was buried at Tabriz in the
cemetery of Surkhab.

Kara Yusuf, remembering the agreements on the
redistribution of the territory made with Sultan Ahmad
Djalayir at the time when both were in exile in Egypt,
had recourse to a stratagem. With great ceremony, he
put on the throne of Tabriz his son Plr Budak who
was regarded as Ahmad's adopted son (according to
the Math' al-sa'dayn, Kara Yusuf did not give the title
of Khan to Plr Budak till 814/1411-12). Ahmad to
outward appearance resigned himself to this arrange-
ment but, when Kara Yusuf was absent in Armenia,
he occupied Tabriz. Ahmad was finally defeated in
battle (28 Rabl' II 813/30 August 1410). He was exe-
cuted by Kara Yusuf and buried in the Dimishkiyya
beside his father and mother. Once more the sympa-
thies of the people of Tabriz were with the last
Djalayir king; cf. Huart, La fin de la dynastk des Ilkhaniens,
in JA [1876], 316-62.

Tabriz is regularly mentioned as the centre from
which Kara Yusuf sent out his expeditions. The Timu-
rid Shah Rukh, fearing the influence of Kara Yusuf
in 817/1414, undertook his first expedition against
him but did not advance beyond al-Rayy (Matla' al-
sa'dayn, 238, 250). When in 823/1420 he was renew-
ing his attempt, news reached him of the death of
Kara Yusuf (on 7 Dhu '1-Ka'da 823/12 November
1420). Anarchy broke out in the Turkoman camp,
and a week later Mirza Baysunghur occupied Tabriz.
Shah Rukh arrived there in the summer of 824/1421
after defeating in Armenia the sons of Kara Yusuf.
In 832/1429 Iskandar, son of Kara Yusuf, seized Sul-
taniyya. Shah Rukh again arrived at Sham-Ghazan
at the head of an army and inflicted a defeat on the
Kara Koyunlu at Salinas. In the winter of 833/1429-
30 Adharbaydjan was given to Abu Sa'id b. Kara
Yusuf, who had come to pay homage to Shah Rukh.
In the following year he was slain by his brother Is-
kandar. In the winter of 838/1434, Shah Rukh came
to Adharbaydjan for the third time. Iskandar thought
it wiser to retire before him, but his brother Djahan
Shah hastened to join Shah Rukh. The latter spent
the summer of 839/1436 in Tabriz, and on the ap-
proach of winter gave investiture to Djahan Shah.

Thus began the career of the prince who made
Tabriz the capital of a kingdom stretching from Asia
Minor to the Persian Gulf and to Harat. The most
remarkable building in Tabriz, "the Blue Mosque"
(Gok masdjid} is the work of Djahan Shah (according
to Berezin, of his wife Begum Khatun). It is possible
that the presence in Tabriz in the Surkhab and Caran-
dab quarters of members of the Ahl-i Hakk sect [q.v.]
dates from the time of Djahan Shah, on whose hereti-

cal views see Munedjdjim Bashi, Tkish. tr., iii, 154.

The Ak Koyunlu [q.v.]. On 12 Rabl c II 872/
10 November 1467 Djahan Shah was surprised in
Armenia and slain by Uzun Hasan Bayandurl, chief
of the Ak Koyunlu Turkomans. The two daughters
of Iskandar proclaimed at Tabriz their dervish brother
Husayn 'All, but Begum Khatun, widow of Djahan
Shah, put a stop to this plan. Tabriz was, however,
occupied by Husayn 'All, the mad son of Djahan
Shah (by another wife), who put to death Begum
Khatun and her relatives (Munedjdjim Bashi).

In spite of the assistance which he had received
from the Tlmurid Abu Sa'id, Hasan 'All was defeated
at Marand. Subsequent events led up to the death of
Abu Sa'id himself. In 873/1468 Uzun Hasan seized
Tabriz, which he made his capital (he announced this
decision in a letter to the Ottoman sultan, see Ferldun
Bey, Miinshe'at).

The Venetian sources are of considerable value for
the period of Uzun Hasan. Giosafa Barbaro, sent by
the Republic in 1474, describes the animated life of
Tabriz, to which embassies came from all parts. Bar-
baro was received in a pavilion of the magnificent
palace which he calls "Aptisti" (Haft + ?). The anony-
mous Venetian merchant who visited Tabriz as late
as 1514 (?) still speaks of the splendour of the reign
of Uzun Hasan "who has so far not yet had an equal
in Persia". Uzun Hasan died in 852/1477 and was
buried in the Nasriyya Madrasa which he had built
and which was later to be used for the burial of his
son Ya'kub. During the twelve years of his compar-
atively peaceful reign (883-96/1478-90), the latter at-
tracted to his court many men of letters (the Kurdish
historian Idrls was his secretary) and in 888/1483
built in the garden of Sahibabad the Hasht Bihisht
palace. This palace (Astibisti) was also described by
the Venetian merchant; on the ceiling of the great
hall were represented all the great battles of Persia,
embassies, etc. Beside the Hasht Bihisht there was a
harem in which 1,000 women could be housed, a
vast maydan, a mosque and a hospital to hold 1,000
patients (see also Ewliya Celebi, ii, 249).

The Safawids and the Turco-Persian wars.
Isma'il I occupied Tabriz in 906/1500 after his vic-
tory at Sharur over Mirza Alwand Ak Koyunlu. Of
the 200-300,000 inhabitants of the town, two-thirds
were reported to be SunnI but the new ruler was not
long in imposing ShI'ism upon them and took rig-
orous measures against those who objected (Iskan-
dar MunshI, 'Alam-ara, 31). In his hatred of the Ak
Koyunlu, Isma'il had the remains of his predecessors
exhumed and burned (G.M. Angiolello). The Venetian
merchant speaks of the despair into which the de-
bauches of the young prince had plunged several noble
families. When Isma'il set out for Arzindjan after
Alwand, the latter succeeded in returning to Tabriz
and during his brief stay there "oppressed the rich"
('Akm-ara, 31).

The battle of Caldiran [q.v.] (2 Radjab 920/23
August 1514) opened to the Ottomans the road to
Tabriz. Nine days later the city was occupied by the
vizier Dukagin-oghlu and the defterdar Plri and on 6
September Sultan Sellm made his triumphal entry
into it. In the town, the Turks conducted themselves
with moderation (Browne, LHP, iv, 77) but seized the
treasures amassed by the Persian sovereigns and car-
ried off to Istanbul 1,000 skilled artisans. The sultan
only stayed a week in Tabriz, as he had to return
to his own lands in consequence of the refusal of the
Janissaries to continue the campaign (von Hammer,
GOR 2 , i, 720).

The events of 920/1514 were a grave warning to
the Persians, and under Tahmasp I, the capital was
transferred much farther east to Kazwin. According
to the Venetian Ambassador Alessandri, Tahmasp, as
a result of his avarice, was not popular in the old
capital of the Ak Koyunlu.

At the suggestion of the renegade Ulama (of the
Turkoman tribe of Tekke) the troops of Suleyman I
under the command of the Grand Vizier Ibrahim
Pasha, occupied Tabriz in 941/13 July 1534 and
went to the summer camp at Asadabad (Sa'Tdabad?).
Ibrahim Pasha began to build a fortress at Sham-
Ghazan. The government of Adharbaydjan was en-
trusted to Ulama, who had held the same post under
Tahmasp. On 27 September, Suleyman himself arrived
in Tabriz. A little later, he made a thrust as far as
Sultaniyya and occupied Baghdad. On his return to
Tabriz, he spent 14 days engaged in administrative
business. The cold forced the Turkish army to retreat
and the Persian troops at once advanced as far as
Wan. Again in 955/28 July 1548, at the instigation
of Alkas Mrrza, brother of Shah Tahmasp, Suleyman
occupied Tabriz but only stayed five days there. The
sultan refused Alkas Mlrza's proposal that the inhab-
itants should all be massacred or carried off into cap-
tivity. M. d'Aramon, ambassador of Francis I, was an
eye-witness of the occupation of Tabriz and testifies
to Suleyman's efforts to protect the town (Voyage, ed.
Schefer, Paris 1887, 83). In 962/29 May 1555 there
was signed at Amasiya the first treaty of peace between
Turkey and Persia which lasted about 30 years (von
Hammer, ii, 112, 120, 269; 'Alam-ara, 49-59).

In 993/1585 the Grand Vizier of Murad III
Ozdemir-zade 'Othman Pasha with 40,000 men under-
took the recapture of Tabriz. The governor of Wan,
Cighala-zade, joined him with 6,000 men. Going via
Caldiran and Sofiyan, the Turks arrived before Sham-
Ghazan. The Persian governor 'All Kuli Khan, after
a bold sortie which cost Cighala-zade 3,000 men,
retired during the night. In September the Turks oc-
cupied the town. As a punishment for the murder
of several soldiers, the Turks sacked the town and
massacred its inhabitants for three days. The Persian
chief minister Hamza Mfrza operating around the city
on several occasions inflicted heavy losses on the Otto-
man troops. To defend Tabriz, 'Othman Pasha built
a square citadel, the walls of which were 12,700 ells
long (Ewliya Celebi, mi'mar-i mekki arshuni). This citadel,
which was erected in 36 days, was inside the town.
It was held by a garrison of 45,000 men. The eunuch
Dja'fer Pasha was appointed governor of Tabriz. On
29 October 1585, 'Othman Pasha died. Cighala-zade,
whom he had appointed on his deathbed to com-
mand the Ottoman troops, succeeded in defeating the
Persians, but soon the latter were able to besiege the
Turks within the town. Forty-eight encounters took
place before Ferhad Pasha definitely relieved the gar-
rison (von Hammer, ii, 354). By the disastrous peace
of 998/1590, Shah 'Abbas I had to cede to the Otto-
mans their conquests in Transcaucasia and the west
of Persia. Henceforth, the Turks took their occupa-
tion of Tabriz seriously. Their many buildings, espe-
cially those of Dja'fer Pasha, are mentioned by Ewliya
in Tabriz and its vicinity. But the Persians were keep-
ing a watchful eye on their old capital.

The troubles with the sipahis [q.v.] at the beginning
of 1603 showed the weakness of Sultan Mehemmed
III. In the autumn, Shah 'Abbas left Isfahan unex-
pectedly and entered Tabriz 12 days later. 'AH Pasha
was defeated at Hadjdjf Harami (2 farsakhs from the
town), after which the citadel surrendered. Shah 'Abbas

treated the defeated foe with generosity, but in a re-
vival of Shi'I fanaticism the inhabitants killed a large
number of Turks in the town and neighbourhood
without heed for any bonds of kinship or friendship
that had been formed during the 20 years of Ottoman
occupation. 'Abbas I invited the people to do away
with all traces of Turkish rule and "in a few days
they had left no vestige of the citadel nor of any of
[their] houses, buildings, dwellings, caravanserais, shops,
baths etc." {'Alam-ara, 441, 451).

In 1019/1610, in the reign of the weak Sultan
Ahmed III, the Turks again tried to resume the offen-
sive. The Grand Vizier Murad Pasha unexpectedly
appeared with an army in front of Tabriz, but 'Abbas
I had had time to make his preparations. The town
was defended by the governor PTr Budak Khan. No
fighting took place, but the Turks suffered gready
from want of provisions in the country which the
Persians had laid waste. Five days later, the Turkish
army was retracing its steps, while Shah 'Abbas and
Murad Pasha continued to exchange embassies. This
Turkish invasion hastened the building of a new fortress
at Tabriz, which was built under the shadow of Sur-
khab in the Rab'-i Rasjudr quarter. The materials were
taken from old ruins, particularly at Sham-Ghazan
('Alam-ara, 584, 601). On the other hand, the unsuccess-
ful invasion by Murad Pasha led to the conclusion of
a new treaty in 1022/1612 by which the Persians
succeeded in restoring the status quo as it had existed
in the time of Shah Tahmasp and Sultan Suleyman
('Alam-ara, 600, 611; von Hammer, ii, 736, 745).

In 1027/1618, at the instigation of some Tatar
Khans of the Crimea, the Ottoman troops (60,000
men) of Wan suddenly invaded Adharbaydjan. The
Persians evacuated Tabriz and Ardabil. The Turks,
who were short of supplies, revictualled at Tabriz and
advanced to Sarab, where Karckay Khan, sipahsalar
of Tabriz, won a brilliant victory over them. A new
treaty was made confirming the conditions of that of
1022 ('Alam-ara, 656-61; von Hammer, ii, 773).

After the death of 'Abbas I, the struggle between
Turk and Persian was resumed on a great scale. In
the reign of his successor Shah Saff, Sultan Murad
IV invaded Adharbaydjan in 1045/1635 and entered
Tabriz on 12 September. The aim of this campaign
was plunder rather than conquest. Murad ordered his
soldiers to destroy the town. Having in this way
"knocked down Tabriz" (Ewliya, eyigje brsekyip), Murad,
in view of the advance of the season, hastened to
return to Wan. In the following spring, the Persians
reoccupied their possessions as far as Eriwan and by
the treaty of 1049/1639 secured for themselves the
frontier which has survived in its main lines to the
present day.

Hadjdji Khalffa, who was an eye-witness of the
campaign of 1045/1635, says that after the devasta-
tion wrought by Murad IV the old ramparts had
completely disappeared and "only here and there could
traces of old buildings be seen" (D^Mn-numa, 381).
Even Sham-Ghazan was not spared; the mosque of
Uzun Hasan alone was left intact.

Such then was the state of the town, but a series
of travellers who visited it a few years later say that
it had undergone a splendid revival. The interesting
story of Ewliya Celebi (in the reign of 'Abbas II in
1057/1647) gives detailed statistics of Tabriz, its
madrasas., schools, caravanserais, houses of notables,
dervish tefayyes, gardens and animated public prom-
enades. In the same period, Tavernier says that, in
spite of the damage done by Murad IV, "the town
is almost completely rebuilt". According to Chardin

(ii, 328), in 1673 under Shah Sulayman I, there were
in Tabriz 550,000 inhabitants (the figure seems ex-
aggerated), 15,000 houses and 15,000 shops. It was
"really a large and important town . . . There is plenty
of all the necessaries of life and one can live very
well and cheaply in it". There was a hospice of
Capuchins at Tabriz on which the authorities cast a
kindly eye. The beglerbegi of Tabriz had under his
authority the Khans of Kars, Urmiya, Maragha and
Ardabll and 20 sultans (= local chiefs).

The end of the Safawids and Nadir. The
Afghan invasion of Persia resulted in a state of com-
plete anarchy. The heir to the throne, Tahmasp (II),
who had fled from Isfahan arrived in Tabriz where
he was proclaimed king in 1135/1722. When by the
treaty of 12 September 1723, Tahmasp II ceded
the Caspian provinces to Russia, Turkey announced
that as a precautionary measure she would be forced
to occupy the frontier districts between Tabriz and
Eriwan. After the fall of Eriwan, Nakhciwan and
Marand, the Turks under the ser'asker 'Abd Allah Pasha
Koprulii arrived before Tabriz in the autumn of
1137/1724. The Persians, who made Sham-Ghazan
their base, held out. The Turks had some success,
but the advanced season of the year forced them to
retreat before the end of the month. In the follow-
ing spring, Koprulii returned at the head of 70,000
men. The siege only lasted four days, but the fight-
ing in the seven fortified quarters was very desperate.
The Persians lost 30,000 men and the Turks 20,000.
The survivors of the Persian garrison, to the number
of 7,000, withdrew without hindrance to Ardabll ('All
Hazln, ed. Balfour, 153; Hanway, The revolutions of Persia,
London 1754, ii, 229).

The treaty of 1 140/1727 concluded with the Afghan
Ashraf confirmed to the Ottomans the possession of
northwestern Persia as far as Sultaniyya and Abhar.
Two years later, Nadir defeated Mustafa Pasha's army
at Suhaylan (vulgo Sawalan or Sinikh-kopru) near Tabriz.
He entered this city on 8 Muharram 1 142/3 August
1729 and made prisoner Rustem Pasha, governor of
Hashtariid.

Anxious to take advantage of the domestic troubles
of Turkey, Shah Tahmasp resumed the offensive but
lost the battle of Kuridjan (near Hamadan) and the
ser'asker 'All Pasha returned to Tabriz in the winter
of 1144/1731 and even built a mosque and madrasa
there. By the treaty concluded a little later (16 January
1732), the Persians ceded to the Porte the lands north
of the Araxes but kept Tabriz and the western
provinces. As Tabriz had actually been occupied by
'All Pasha, the Porte very reluctantly agreed to its
restoration to Persia and the signing of the treaty
resulted in the dismissal of the Grand Vizier (von
Hammer, iv, 281). On the other hand, the cession of
the Transcaucasian provinces to Turkey gave Nadir
an excuse for deposing Tahmasp II. After checking
Nadir near Baghdad, the governor of Wan, Rustem
Pasha, re-occupied Tabriz. In 1146/1734, Nadir set
out for Tabriz and as a result of his victories in
Transcaucasia, the treaty of 1149/1736 re-established
the status quo of 1049/1639.

Towards the end of the reign of Nadir, when anar-
chy was again beginning, the people of Tabriz declared
in favour of an obscure pretender who claimed to be
Sam Mlrza. The death of Nadir in 1160/1747 might
have given the Porte an opportunity to intervene in
Persian affairs especially as Rida Khan, son of Fath
'All Khan, Mwan-begi of Tabriz, had come to Erzerum
to beg Turkish support for one of the candidates for
the throne (a Nadirid; von Hammer, iv, 474), but

Turkey maintained complete neutrality.

Nadir Shah had entrusted Adharbaydjan to his
valiant cousin Amir Arslan Khan, who had 30,000
men under him. After Nadir's death, this general aided
Nadir's nephew Ibrahim Khan to defeat his brother
'Adil Shah (Sultan 'All Shah), but Ibrahim at once
turned on his ally, slew him and after collecting 1 20,000
men spent six months in Tabriz where he had himself
proclaimed king (Ta'rikh-i ba'd-Nadiriyya, ed. O. Mann,
36-7). He was soon killed by Shahrukh, grandson of
Nadir.

The history of Adharbaydjan during the rule of
the dynasty of Karim Khan Zand is still little known.
The Afghan Azad Khan was at first lord of the
province. In 1 1 70/ 1 756 it was taken from him by
Muhammad Husayn Khan Kadjar. Next year, Karim
Khan defeated Fath 'All Khan Afshar of Urmiya and
conquered the greater part of Adharbaydjan (Sir John
Malcolm, Hist, of Persia). In 1194/1780 an earthquake
did great damage in Tabriz (see Ambraseys and
Melville, op. tit., 54-5).

The Kadjars.Towards the end of 1 205/ 1 790, Aka
Muhammad, founder of the Kadjar dynasty, set out
to occupy Adharbaydjan. Among the governors who
came to meet him was the hereditary lord of Khoy.
Husayn Khan Dumbull. Aka Muhammad added Tab-
riz to his fief. After the assassination in 1211/1796
of the first Kadjar Shah, troubles broke out in Adhar-
baydjan. Sadik Khan of the ShikakI tribe attempted
to seize the supreme power, and appointed his brother
Muhammad 'All Sultan to Tabriz. The Dumbull
Khans took an active part in suppressing the rising,
and in return, Fath 'All Shah confirmed Dja'far Kull
Khan Dumbull in the governorship of Tabriz. The
latter as soon as he arrived in Tabriz in 1213/1798
formed a coalition with Sadik Khan, who had re-
established himself in Sarab, and the Afshar Khan of
Urmiya, and shaking off "the dependence which was
so slight that it really was absolute independence"
drove out the Shah's representatives. Troops were sent
against Dja'far Khan who, with the help of the Kurds,
held out for some time in Khoy; cf. Sir Harford
Brydges, The dynasty of the Kajars, London 1833, 50,
84, etc. In 1214/1799 the heir to the throne of Persia,
'Abbas Mlrza, established himself in Tabriz with
Ahmad Khan Mukaddam (of Maragha) as his begler-
begi. Dja'far Khan sought refuge in Russia [see shark!] ,
but for some time other members of the Dumbull
family continued to rule in Tabriz.

After the incorporation of Georgia into Russia (1801),
complications between Russia and Persia gradually
increased and Tabriz became the principal centre of
Persian activities. 'Abbas Mlrza set himself the task
of Europeanising the Persian army. An important
English mission, including a number of very notable
explorers of Persia (Ouseley, iii, 399; Ritter, ix, 876-
80), made its headquarters in Tabriz. The English
and Russian diplomatic missions (the secretary and
later head of the latter was the famous writer Gribo-
yedov, later assassinated) also came to the court of
'Abbas Mlrza. The energetic heir to the throne built
arsenals, cannon foundries, depots and workshops.
After the trials it had undergone the town was, how-
ever, but a shadow of the splendid city of the time
of Chardin. Tancoigne (1807) estimated its popula-
tion at 50-60,000 including several Armenian fami-
lies; Dupre (1809) at 40,000 with 50 Armenian families.
Kinneir gives Tabriz ("one of the most wretched
cities") only 30,000 inhabitants. Morier, who in the
account of his first journey (1809) had given the exagge-
rated figure of 50,000 houses with 250,000 inhabitants,

in his second journey confines himself to saying that
Tabriz had only a tenth of its pristine magnificence
and that it had no public buildings of note.

The Russo-Persian wars filled the period to 1828.
During the operations of 1827, the General Prince
Eristov, with the help of certain discontented Khans,
entered Tabriz with 3,000 soldiers on 3 Rabl' II
1243/24 October 1827. 'Abbas Mirza was away and
opinions in the town were divided. Allahyar Khan
Asaf al-Dawla was for continuing the struggle, but an
important cleric, the Imam Mirza Fattah, insisted on
surrender and opened the gates of the town to the
Russians. (After the peace, Mirza Fattah had to leave
Persia and take refuge in Transcaucasia.) The com-
mander-in-chief Count Paskevic then came to Tabriz
and met 'Abbas Mirza at Dih-Kharrakan. An armistice
was signed, but the court of Tehran did not approve
of the terms. The Russians resumed the offensive and
occupied Urmiya, Maragha and ArdabTl. The peace
of Turkman-cay 5 Sha'ban 1243, 22 February 1828
[see Turkmen cjAYfi]], which fixed the frontier on the
Araxes, finally put an end to the Russian occupation
(urusluth).

After the time of 'Abbas Mirza, Tabriz became
the official residence of the heir to the Persian throne.
Down to the accession of Muhammad Shah in 1250/
1834, the British and Russian diplomatic missions
spent most of their time in Tabriz (J.B. Fraser, Travels
in Koordistan, ii, 247). Their transfer to Tehran marked
the definite transference by the Kadjars of the polit-
ical capital to that city. Down to the end of the 19th
century, little of general importance marked the life
of Tabriz. On 27 Sha'ban 1286/8 July 1850, the Bab
[g.v.] was executed in Tabriz at the entrance to the
arsenal (djaba-Uiana). In 1880, the approach of the
Kurds under Shaykh 'Ubayd Allah [see shamdInan]
greatly disturbed the people of Tabriz. Gates were
put up between the quarters to isolate them if nec-
essary, but the Kurds did not go beyond the Binab.

The consolidation of Kadjar power secured peace
for Adharbaydjan, and Tabriz gradually recovered. In
spite of the terrible ravages of cholera and plague in
1830-1, the census made in Tabriz in 1842 recorded
9,000 families or 100-120,000 people (Berezin). In
1895 the number of inhabitants was estimated at 150-
200,000, of whom 3,000 were Armenians (S.G. Wilson,
Persian life and customs, London 1896, 53). Twenty years
later, the population was certainly over 200,000 and,
in spite of the rudimentary nature of the municipal
organisation, the town showed every sign of prosper-
ity. The trade of Tabriz, after a period of stagnation
developed, especially between 1833 and 1836, but the
too great excess of imports from Russia over exports
from Persia produced a great crisis in 1837. The
opening of the route by Transcaucasia (Pod-Baku)
meant considerable competition for the parallel route
Trebizond-Tabriz.

Twentieth century. The history of Tabriz in
the opening years of the century was very stirring.
The Turks of Tabriz (who are the result of inter-
marriage of Persians with Ghuzz, Mongols, Turkomans,
etc.), played a very important part in the Persian
nationalist and revolutionary movement. Open rebel-
lion broke out in Tabriz on 23 June 1908, the day
of the bombardment of the Parliament in Tehran.
The names of Sattar Khan, a former horse-dealer
who became chief of the Amir Khlz quarter, and his
companion Bakir Khan, are closely associated with
the brave defence of Tabriz, but darker sides of their
activity were noted by E.G. Browne, The Persian
Revolution of 1905-1909, Cambridge 1910, 491-2. The

government troops under Prince 'Ayn al-Dawla sur-
rounded the town, and at the beginning of February
1909 blockaded it completely. On 20 April the Cabi-
nets of London and St. Petersburg agreed to send to
Tabriz a Russian force "to facilitate the entrance into
the town of the necessary provisions, to protect the
consulates and foreign subjects, and to help those who
so desired to leave the town". The Russian troops
led by General Snarski entered Tabriz on 30 April
1909 (Browne, op. tit., 274). The negotiations for their
withdrawal lasted till 1911, when the Russian ulti-
matum presented at Tehran on 29 November pro-
voked a new agitation in the country. On 2 1 December
the ftda'is of Tabriz attacked the weak Russian detach-
ment, distributed about the town, and inflicted con-
siderable losses on them. This had the immediate
result of the despatch to Tabriz of a Russian brigade
under Voropanov, which arrived on the eve of the
new year. The Russian military tribunal pronounced
several death sentences (including one on the Thikat
al-Islam, an important member of the ShaykhT sect
[see shaykhiyya]). In October 1912 the Turkish de-
tachments who occupied the "disputed" districts west
of Adharbaydjan were recalled, but the question of
the Russo-Turkish frontier [see Kurds, Kurdistan] re-
mained still undecided. The Russian troops therefore
remained in Adharbaydjan till 1914, when the First
World War broke out [see further on the constitu-
tional movement, dustur, iv. Iran].

At the beginning of December, the Kurdish irreg-
ulars commanded by Ottoman officers began a move-
ment from Sawdj-bulak towards Maragha and Tabriz.
At the same time, Enwer Pasha's raid on Sari-kamish
(south of Kars) threatened the whole Russian army
in the Caucasus. Orders were given to evacuate Adhar-
baydjan. Between 17 December 1914 and 6 January

1915, the Russian troops and, following them, the
bulk of the local Christian population, had left Tab-
riz. On 8 January Ahmad Mukhtar Bey Shamkhal,
at the head of a body of Kurds, entered the town.
The situation changed suddenly, and on 31 January
the Russians, returning in force, re-occupied Tabriz
(see the details in the book by the former German
consul in Tabriz, W. Litten, Persische Flitterwochen, Berlin
1925, 8-127).

Since 1906, a paved road connecting Tabriz with
the Russian frontier (Djulfa. terminus of the Russian
railway) had been constructed by the Russian gov-
ernment company, which had obtained the concession
from the Persian government. The work of changing
this road into a railway was now actively hurried on,
and it was opened to traffic at the beginning of May

1916. The railway (80 miles long, with a branch line
from Sofiyan to Lake Urmiya 25 miles long) was the
first to be built on Persian territory [see sikkat al-

The Russian army on the Persian frontier had
become disorganised on the outbreak of the Revolution
of 1917. Adharbaydjan was evacuated at the begin-
ning of 1918. The representatives of the Persian cen-
tral government, and even the Crown Prince, had
remained all this time at their places, but when the
last Russian detachment left Tabriz on 28 February
1918, the actual power passed into the hands of the
local committee of the Democratic Party and its head
Isma'Il Nawbari.

Meanwhile, the Turks emerging from their inac-
tivity, quickly occupied the frontiers abandoned by
the Russians. On 18 June 1918, the Ottoman advance
guard entered Tabriz. On 8 July General 'Air Ihsan
Pasha arrived, and on 25 August Kazim Kara Bekir

Pasha, who commanded the army corps. The Otto-
man authorities banished NawbarT and supported
the appointment of Madjd al-Saltana as governor of
Adharbaydjan. This troubled situation lasted for a
year, and only with the arrival in Tabriz of the new
Governor-General sipahsaldr (June 1910) did affairs
begin to resume their normal course. Complete order
was only established under Rida Khan [see rida shah],
who became first of all Minister of War and later
ruler of Persia.

By the treaty of 26 February 1921, the Soviet gov-
ernment renounced all the old concessions in Persia,
and the railway from Tabriz to Djulfa built at the
expense of the Russian government thus became the
property of the Persian state.

Tabriz suffered after the Constitutional period from
the decline of the transit trade from Turkey and
Russia, and from a lack of favour by the Pahlawls,
suspicious of Azeri political and linguistic separatist
feelings. From being in the 19th century the second
city of Persia, in 1980 it was the fourth one, with a pop-
ulation of some 600,000, risen by 1991 to 1,088,985
(Preliminary results of the 1991 census, Statistical
Centre of Iran, Population Division). After the Second
World War, however, streets were widened and pub-
lic gardens laid out. Local industries include the
traditional one of carpet-weaving, plus textile manu-
facturing, leatherworking, agriculture and food pro-
cessing, etc. A railway links Tabriz via Zandjan and
Kazwln with the Trans-Persian line at Tehran, whilst
a westwards extension to Van in eastern Turkey has
been constructed.

With the abdication of Rida Shah in September
1941, Russian troops occupied Tabriz and north-
western Persia for military and strategic reasons. Their
control there enabled the Soviets to encourage and
train pro-Communist elements there, so that, although
British troops withdrew from southern Persia in March
1946, Russian troops remained. Tabriz had meanwhile
become the capital, proclaimed there on 10 December
1 945, of an autonomous, potentially secessionist, regime
of the Democrat Party in Adharbaydjan under a vet-
eran Bolshevik leader, Dja'far Plshawarl. The regime
was not wholly kept in power by Soviet manipulation,
but expressed some genuine local grievances against
Rida Shah's centralisation policies and discrimination
against the use of Azeri Turkish. It made a start on
land reform and nationalisation of the larger banks,
and a University of Tabriz was inaugurated, but there
was a real danger of complete secession and possible
union with the Azerbaijan S.S.R. In fact, the diplo-
matic skills of the Prime Minister in Tehran, Ahmad
Kawam al-Saltana, American pressure and unfavour-
able publicity for the Soviet Union in the United
Nations Organisation, brought about a Soviet aban-
donment of their erstwhile proteges. The Imperial
Persian army entered Tabriz on 12 December 1946,
and a purge began of pro-Communist elements, with
Plshawarl fleeing to Baku. In the ensuing years, Tabriz
and Adharbaydjan in general suffered from the pro-
found suspicions of the Tehran government regard-
ing Adharbaydjanl secessionist sentiment, seen inter alia
in a discouragement in schools, etc., of the majority
Azeri Turkish language, an attitude which was only
gradually relaxed somewhat by the 1970s.

Bibliography: For the mediaeval period, see

Le Strange, 77k lands of the Eastern Caliphate, 161-3;

Schwarz, Iran im Mittelalter, 1000 ff., 1955-74;

Barthold, An historical geography of Iran, Princeton

1983, 217-23; the works of Jahn and Mashkur cited

in the Bibl. to 2. below; Judith G. Kolbas, Mongol

money. The role of Tabriz from Chingiz Khan to Uljaytu,
616 to 709 AW 1220 to 1309 AD, U.M.I, dissertation
services, Ann Arbor 1992; also L. Lockhart, Famous
cities of Iran, London 1939, 19-23. For detailed bibl.
of Western travellers to and residents in Tabriz,
see Minorsky's EI' art. s.v. See also those to EP
adharbaydjan and dustur, iv. For the modern
period, see G. Lenczkowski, Russia and the West in
Iran 1918-1948, Ithaca 1949: R. Rossow, 77k batik
of Azerbaijan, 1946, in MEJ, x (1956), 17-32; E. Abra-
hamian, Iran between the two revolutions, Princeton 1982.

(V. Minorsky-[C.E. Bosworth])
2. Architecture.

In the early Islamic period, the city walls around
Tabriz enclosed a small urban area less than half a
mile square on the south bank of the Mihran River.
Twelve gates led to bazaars surrounding the congre-
gational mosque. When the Ilkhanid ruler Ghazan
made Tabriz his capital, the urban area was tripled
within a perimeter wall 25,000 paces around. To judge
from contemporary reports by historians and trav-
ellers, the city's bazaars were particularly flourishing
at this time. The city also had two major suburbs.
The one on the west known as Sham (or Shanb)-i
Ghazan was centred on Ghazan's dodecagonal tomb
and included institutions of learning, a library, a hos-
pital, and a mosque. The suburb on the east known
as the Rab'-i Rashldl was centered on the tomb com-
plex founded by the vizier Rashld al-Dln in 709/1309.
Although almost totally destroyed, it can be recon-
structed from the text of its endowment deed (S.S.
Blair, Ilkhanid architecture and society. An analysis of the
endowment deed of the Rab'-i Rashldl, in Iran, xxii [1984],
67-90). Surrounded by ramparts, the quarter had a
monumental entrance leading to the founder's tomb
complex, a hospice, a khanakah, a hospital and ser-
vice buildings. The endowment provided upkeep for
the buildings, support for more than 300 employees
and slaves, and for the copying of luxury manuscripts
of the Kur'an, hadlth and Rashld al-Dln's own works
(eadem, Patterns of production and patronage in Ilkhanid
Iran. The case of Rashid al-din, in Oxford Studies in Islamic
Art, x, 1996).

The only monument to survive from Ilkhanid Tabriz
is the congregational mosque founded ca. 710/1310
by the vizier Tadj al-Din 'Alishah just outside the
southern gate to the city. Now known as the Arg or
fortress, it comprised a huge barrel-vaulted hall (30
x 65 m with walls 10 m thick), flanked by a madrasa
and zawiya and fronting on a large, lavishly-decorated
courtyard with a pool (reconstruction in D. Wilber,
The architecture of Islamic Iran. The Il-Khanid period,
Princeton 1955, no. 51). The vault, meant to surpass
the fabled Sasanian Iwan at Ctesiphon, fell soon after

Tabriz continued to be a major metropolis and
artistic centre after the demise of the Ilkhanids. The
Dawlatkhana, the palace built by the Djalayirid sultan
Uways (r. 757-76/1356-74), for example, was reported
to have had 20,000 rooms decorated with paintings.
After the Tfmurids took the city several times, many
of its public monuments were destroyed and its arti-
sans carried off to Central Asia, but building was
resumed under the Turkmen confederations of the
Kara Koyunlu and the Ak Koyunlu, and the garden
suburbs north of the river were developed. The most
famous was the garden created by the Ak Koyunlu
ruler Uzun Hasan (r. 857-82/1453-78 [?.».]), known
from a lengthy description by a Venetian merchant
who visited the city in the 1460s (summarised in
L. Golombek and D. Wilber, The Timurid architecture

TABRIZ — TABUK

of Iran and Turan, Princeton 1988, 178-9). A vast area
lined by populars, the garden centred on a large octago-
nal palace called Hasht Bihisht ("Eight Paradises").
Set on a raised marble plinth, it measured some 63
to 72 m in circumference and had a central domed
hall surrounded by 32 rooms. Other amenities in-
cluded an adjacent pool, a guest house with many
rooms to the east and a covered hall overlooking the
garden.

The best surviving example of the rich architec-
tural patronage left by the Turkmens is the Blue
Mosque or Masdjid-i kabud, so-called because of the
extraordinary blue tile revetment that covered both
interior and exterior surfaces (F. Sarre, Denkmaler per-
sischer Baukunst, Berlin 1901-10, 27-32; Dj.T. Taba-
taba'i, Makshhd va nigdshtihd-yi masdjid-i kabud-i tabriz,
Tabriz 1348/1969; Golombek and Wilber, no. 214).
Located outside the south-east entrance to the city,
it was part of the complex erected in 870/1465 by
Khatun Djan, wife of the Kara Koyunlu sultan Djahan-
shah. According to an endowment deed dating from
the previous year, the complex included a hospice for
Sufis with two pools fed by a canal and was intended
as a mausoleum for the queen and her family. The
mosque has an unusual plan, with a domed square
hall (diameter 16 m) enclosed on three sides by a
U-shaped corridor covered with nine domes. Behind
the square hall on the axis of the main entrance is
a smaller domed hall containing a mihrab. The tile
revetment is unequalled in variety and technical vir-
tuosity and includes not only the standard floral and
arabesque designs but also medallion-shaped panels
set against a background of unglazed brick tiles. The
hall with the mihrab was particularly lavishly decorated,
with a white marble dado surmounted by a revetment
of small purple-glazed hexagonal tiles accented with
designs in gold leaf.

Wars between the Safawids and Ottomans in the
16th century took their toll on the city's monuments,
as did repeated earthquakes, but with the growing
importance of the Russian frontier, Tabriz again be-
came of special interest under the Kadjars. New boule-
vards were cut through the city core, and mosques
and caravanserais were erected after the devastating
earthquake of 7 January 1780, the strongest ever to
hit the city. Large gardens, such as the Bagh-i Shimal
on the north, were added and became the stage for
intriguing among foreigners.

Bibliography: In addition to the studies on indi-
vidual sites cited in the text, see K. Jahn, Tdbris,
ein mittelalterliches Kulturzentrum zwischen Ost und West,
in Oskrreichische Akademie der Wissauchajien, Anzeiger
der phil.-hist. Klasse, cv/16 (1968), 201-12; 'A. Karang,
Athar-i bastani-yi Adjmrbaydjan, i, Tehran 1351/1972;
M.Dj. Mashkur, Tdrikh-i Tabriz ta paydn-i kam-i
nuhum-i hidfri, Tehran 1352/1973; C. Melville, His-
torical monuments and earthquakes in Tabriz, in Iran, xix
(1981), 159-77; and art. Tabriz, in 77k dictionary of
art, London 1996. (Sheila S. Blair)

TABRIZI, the nisba normally to be expected
from the name of the city in Adharbaydjan of
Tabriz [q.v.]. This was, however, hypercorrected by
early Arab writers to al-TibrizI. Hence in the EI early
scholars writing in Arabic appear under this latter
form, whereas those writing in Persian during later
times or emanating from Tabriz appear under Tabriz!.
TABRIZ!, Ahmad KasrawI [see kasrawi tabrIzi].
TABRIZ!, Kasim-i Anwar [see kasim-i anwar],
TABRIZ!, Muhammad 'Assar [see 'assarI.
TABRlZI, Muhammad Husayn [s

TABRIZ^ Shams-i [see shams-i tabrIz(i)].

al-TABRIZI, Muhammad Husayn b. Khalaf
[see burhan].

TABSHlR [see Suppl.].

TABUK, a town of northwestern Arabia,
now the centre of an imdra or province of Saudi
Arabia (lat. 28° 22' N., long. 36° 32' E., altitude
6,500 m/2,250 feet), some 233 km/ 145 south-south-
east of Ma'an and separated from the Red Sea and
Gulf of 'Akaba by the Hisma mountains.

It seems to be the Thapaua of Ptolemy, and formed
part of the Roman Provincia Arabia set up in A.D.
106. It was in the tribal area of the Banu Kalb, and
later had a Byzantine military post, in the environs
of which lived Arabs of the Lakhm, 'Amila and
Djudham tribes [q.w.]. In the summer of 9/630, the
Prophet Muhammad ordered preparations for a raid
from Medina on Tabuk, where he had heard the
Byzantines and Arab tribes were assembling., this being
his second attempt in this direction after the abortive
Mu'ta [q.v.] expedition of the previous year. However,
many Muslims were reluctant to go on the expedi-
tion in the summer heat and during the harvest period,
so that it was referred to as the ghazwat al-'usra "raid
of hardship"; the laggards were denounced in Sflrat
al-Tawba, IX, of the Kur'an. The Prophet did not
make contact with hostile forces at TabOk, but received
the submission of some local chiefs of the region and
the Gulf of 'Akaba-Red Sea coastal region (sc. Midian
[see madyan shu'ayb]). An expedition was sent out
under Khalid b. al-Walid against Ukaydir b. 'Abd al-
Malik al-Kindl, the Christian ruler of Dumat al-
Djandal [q.v.], who also submitted and agreed to pay
the djizya. Muhammad then appointed 'Amr (or al-
Hakam) b. al-'As to govern northwestern Arabia, with
Mu'adh b. Djabal as collector (djabi) of the sadaka.
In 98/716 the caliph 'Ulnar b. 'Abd al-'Aziz built a
mosque at Tabuk, the Masdjid al-Tawba, on the spot
where the Prophet had prayed, a mosque revered
through the centuries by pilgrims passing through the
town en route for Medina. This was several times
repaired, with the present mosque built by King Faysal
Al Su'ud in 1393/1973.

Tabflk's importance as a station of the Syrian hadjdj
route was because of the availability of water in its
well, which was blessed by the Prophet. Pilgrims and
travellers used to encamp there to fill their water
skins, and occasionally, as in 937/1530, marauding
Arab tribes attacked the pilgrims and prevented them
from reaching the water in Tabuk or elsewhere. The
region has a great amount of underground water,
which accounts for the notable agricultural schemes
which have been implemented there. The well was
well maintained by the Ottomans, who provided it
with a pumping machine to keep the water clean, as
part of their project to build the Hidjaz Railway
[q.v.]. References in geographical texts indicate that
there had been palm, olive, lemon, and grape trees
at Tabuk; grapes from Tabuk were well-known in the
Hidjaz.

Two years after Bedouin attacks against the
Pilgrimage caravan in 965/1557, Sultan Suleyman the
Magnificent ordered the construction of a number of
fortresses along the pilgrimage routes, including one
at Tabuk. A surviving inscription states that it was
rebuilt in 1064/1653. It had a mosque and a well,
and was flanked by two ponds. Tabuk enjoyed secu-
rity because of the fortress, with its permanent gar-
rison that was provided even with cannons. This
explains the degree of prosperity that it enjoyed, as
is reflected in the 17th century travellers' accounts;

TABUK — TADALLIS

Syrian merchants went at Tabuk to meet the pilgrims
on their return and sell them provisions, sweets, and
clothing.

Tabuk was visited by a number of European trav-
ellers, sc. Georg August Wallin (1850) and Charles
Doughty (1877), who provided a grim picture of it
as a place with few residents, while Charles Huber
(1884) stated that it had been totally deserted by its
inhabitants. This changed by the start of the 20th cen-
tury as a result of the construction of the Hidjaz Rail-
way, to which Tabuk was connected. It was selected
as one of the workshop stations, a new suburb was
built, and a hospital and medical quarantine were
established. Eight buildings referred to as the Kal'a,
which are still extant, were constructed, and as noted
above, water resources were managed and the mosque
was rebuilt.

When the Kingdom of the Hidjaz was declared
following the Arab Revolt, Tabuk was part of the
new province of Ma'an that was created in 1432/1924
by King Husayn b. 'All. Two years after the Hidjaz
was annexed by King 'Abd al-'Aziz in 1344/1925,
an amir was appointed over Tabuk and took up res-
idence in the fortress. A number of governors, mostly
members of the Sudayrl family and the Su'udi royal
family, succeeded to this office.

During the 19th century, the inhabitants of Tabuk
were from the Hamfdat clan, but with passage of
time and its growth, people of diverse origins settled
in the city, which was surrounded by a number of
different tribes, viz. the 'Atiyya, Bali, Huwaytat, and
'Anaza. It has developed, thus, from a small settle-
ment into an urban centre due to development schemes,
and today it is the northern-western gateway of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Bibliography: CM. Doughty, Travels in Arabia
Deserta, Cambridge 1888, index s.v. Tebukr, Govern-
ment of India, General Staff, Routes in Arabia, Simla
1915; A. Musil, The northern Hegaz, a topographical
itinerary, New York 1926; C. Guarmani, Northern
Najd. A journey from Jerusalem to Anaiza in Qasim,
London 1938; H.St J. Philby, The land of Midian,
London 1957, 1 1 1-31; 'Abd al-Kadir b. Muhammad
al-DjazIif al-Ansarl, Durar al-fawd'id al-munazzama ft
akjibdr al-haq}$ wa-tarik Makka al-mu'azzama, Cairo
1384/1964; Hamad al-Djasir, Ft sbimal gharb al-
djazira, nusus, mushahadai, intibd'dt, Riyad 1390/
1970, 423-49; idem, al-Mu'fiam al-a^ughraft' li 'l-bilad
al-'arabiyya al-su'udiyya. Shimal al-mamlaka, Riyad
1400/1980; Abdullah al-Wohaibi, The northern Hijaz
in the writings of the Arab geographers 800-1150, Beirut
1973, 272-6; Muhammad b. 'Air al-Harfi, Tabuk,
Riyad 1410/1989. (M.A. al-Bakhit)

TABUR (t.) (a word which has passed into French
in the form tabor), from Eastern TurkI tapkur and
tapkur, denoting a pallisade formed of waggons
arranged in a circle or square; a body of

talion; or a body of about 1,000 men com-
manded by a binbashi (chief of a thousand).

In Morocco, from the mid- 19th century, it denoted
the first permanent military units. Under the French
Protectorate, the term was applied to a group made
up of several goums {gum, an armed group of ca. 150
men commanded by officers of the Indigenous Affairs
Department), hence parallel to a battalion. Several
taburs could make up a regiment. The Moroccan taburs
acquitted themselves gloriously in the Italian campaign
(1944) and that of Indo-China (1945-54). Goums and
tabors have formed the nucleus of the Royal Moroccan
Army since Independence.

Bibliography: H. Vambery, Caghataische Sprach-
studien, Leipzig 1867, 253; Pavet de Courteille, Diet,
turc-oriental, Paris 1870, 192; Ahmed WefTk Pasha,
Lehdje-yi 'othmant, Istanbul 1293/1876, ii, 739; C. Bar-
bier de Meynard, Diet, turc-franeais, Paris 1881-6, ii,
250; Siileyman Efendi, Lughai-i Caghatay, Istanbul
1297-1300/1880-3, 97; Radloff, Versuch eines Worter-
buch, iii, 953, 978; J. Augarde, Tabor, Paris, ed. France-
Empire, 1952. (Cl. Huart-[Ed.])
TADALLIS, Tedelles, the town now known
as Dellys on the Algerian coast in the wildya
of Tizi-Ouzou (lat. 36° 57' N., long. 3° 55' E.). It is
110 km/70 miles east of Algiers and 5 km/3 miles
to the east of the mouth of the Sebaou (Wadi Sabaw),
the main river of Kabylia, from which it is separated
by a mountain massif.

The urban centre has developed on a slope towards
the sea. It falls into three parts. In the north, the
Arab-Kabyle town is the most densely populated and
the only ancient quarter existing in Lower Kabylia;
then, bordering on the ravine and developing to the
south of that, is the town from colonial times; and to
the east, there is the port quarter linked to the upper
town by stairways or sinuous, very steep ways, as well
as by the road which describes a hairpin bend to avoid
the abrupt change of levels. Finally, the suburban
zone of the gardens, attributed to the arrival of the
Andalusians, has developed on the old, raised bank
which looks northward; a centre for new development
(dating from the War of Independence), the Garden
City, has been formed with solid houses built within
little patches of ground enclosed by reed hedges. As for
the small blocks of apartments, these appeared after
the years 1958-62 in order to accommodate an influx
of rural population and as a result of the strengthen-
ing of the administrative infrastructure. The little port
(designed by the colonial authorities with the aim of
making Dellys both the administrative centre of Lower
Kabylia, easy of access, and also an entrepot and
landing-place in case of troubles) is protected from
the north-west winds by a promontory; hence is of a
type of site for ports frequent along the Algerian coast.

Before 1860, Dellys was the only town of Lower
Kabylia. In 1844 it had 1,150 inhabitants, in 1886,
3,900, and in 1968, 20,000. The people are of Kabyle
Berber origin, but like the majority of tribes in the
neighbourhood, speak only Arabic.

2. History.

The site of Dellys was occupied in the Roman
period by the town of Rusucurru, a few traces of
which have been discovered (remains of walls, cis-
terns, etc.). This town must have been destroyed at
the Arab conquest, and for long the site remained
uninhabited. Al-Bakri (Description de I'Afrique, tr. de
Slane, 135) does mention a port situated to the east
of Marsa '1-Hadjadj which he calls the town of the
Banu Djannad.

The name itself under the form Tadellast, Tadellist
("the cottage") does not appear till the period when
the Hammadid sovereigns [see hammadids] established
their capital in Bougie. Owing to its position, which
enabled relations to be easily established with the peo-
ple of the valley of the Sebaou, this little town acquired
a certain commercial and military importance; it even
had a Hammadid governor. In 496/1102-3, the sul-
tan al-Mansur gave this office to a prince of Almeria
who had taken refuge in Africa. Al-Idrisi (104) describes
Tada'ills as a town on an eminence and surrounded
by a strong wall. He mentions the fertility of the
country around, the low cost of living, and the abun-

TADALLIS — TADBIR

dance of cattle which were exported to the adjacent
regions. After the fall of the Hammadid kingdoms,
Dellys passed under the rule of the Almohads, was
taken by Yahya b. Ishak Ibn Ghaniya (622/1226-7),
and then its possession was disputed among the Almo-
hads, Zayyanids, Hafsids and the Mannids, who took
it in 796/1394. In the 9th/ 15th century, according to
Leo Africanus (bk. iv, tr. Schefer, iii, 69), Dellys shared
the fate of Algiers. Like all the towns on the coast, it
received a number of refugees from Spain who must
have contributed to the economic and intellectual life
of the town. Leo (loc. cit.) says that the inhabitants
engaged in dyeing, traded successfully and were noted
for their skill in playing the lute. As to their fashion
of dress, he says it is like that of the people of al-
Djaza'ir. When the Algerians had submitted to Spain
(1510), the people of Dellys followed their example,
but in 1517 it was retaken by 'Arudj [q.v.]. The Turks
put a garrison there and made the town a base of
operations against the tribes of the valley of Sebaou.
Although the inhabitants kept up a constant inter-
course by sea with Algiers, Dellys only vegetated under
Turkish rule. It was a wretched village when the
French occupied it on 7 May 1844. A European quar-
ter was established there two years later. The con-
quest of Kabylia, which was followed by the transfer
of the military establishment to Tizi-Ouzou and Fort-
National, arrested its development. In the course of
the insurrection of 1871, Dellys was blockaded on the
land side by the Kabyles (April-May), but maintained
its own communication by sea so that it could not
be taken by the rebels.

After that time, peace reigned, with only a little Euro-
pean colonisation developing on the town's outskirts.
Because of its tripartite nature, with three distinct
nuclei, the town hardly possesses a centre, unless it
be the square which, together with the municipal
headquarters and the post office, forms the geomet-
ric centre of the three quarters. Most of the shops
and commercial activity are aligned on the street
which runs to the north-east of the square, in the
direction of Algiers; others (and also some of the
administrative services) are along the road which goes
down towards the coast in a southwest direction, and
also in the little street which one takes for going in
the direction of the Djebel Bou Arbi. Finally, some
businesses and cafes are grouped at the port, with-
out any of these three poles being exclusive for these
various activities; thus, e.g. some small booths can be
found in the narrow streets of the old town. Some
buildings are on the periphery, such as the technical
high school and the collective apartments. Finally,
some small units of production (shoes, food process-
ing) are spread out within the whole urban area.
Dellys nevertheless suffers from its position away from
the main axes of development in contemporary Algeria;
since the last century, the building of the Algiers-Tizi-
Ouzou railway has strongly affected the commercial
activities linked to the presence of the port.

In sum, Dellys forms an authentic small town, with
firm roots and with a relative firm social coherence.
Its original feature lies in the fact that it has an active
population, anciently established, better educated and
less agricultural in origin than in the other towns of
Lower Kabylia.

Bibliography: Col. Robin, Notes sur I'organisation
militaire des Turcs dans k Grande Kabylie, in RAfr.
(1873); S.A. Boulifa, Le Djurdjura a trovers I'histoire,
Algiers 1925; P. Peillon, L'occupation humaine en Basse-
Kabylie. Peuplement et habitat dans une zone intermediaire
du Tell algerim, diss. Univ. of Lyons II, 1972, unpubl.

See also the Bibls. to EP kabylia and EP al-
djaza'ir. (G. Yver-[J. Bisson])

TADBIR (a.), masdar or verbal noun of form II of

1. In the sense of "direction, administra-

The Arabic lexicographers explain dabbara as a verb
from the noun dubur "the hindmost, the end" (oppo-
site, kubul), meaning "to consider the end, or result,
of an affair" (see LA, s.r., an tanzura ila ma ta'ulu ilayhi
'akibatuhu "to heed what one attains at the end of the
matter"; cf. Lane, 844), hence "to manage, or con-
duct the affairs (as of a country, umur al-bilad)". But
it is most likely a loanword from Aramaic, cf. Syriac
dabbar "to run, govern, administer (something)", though
strangely not listed in Fraenkel's Die aramaischen Fremd-
worter im Arabischen.

As a technical term, tadbir is used: (a) in the sense
of "government, administration", synonymously with
siyasa [q.v.] (e.g. in the title of an ethical-political com-
pendium by Ibn Abi '1-RabT', Suluk al-malik ft tadbir
al-mamalik), and (b) in the phrase tadbir al-manzil =
oiKovonia, "administration, management of a house-
hold". (This, in its turn, is called al-siyasa in Ibn Sura's
treatise on the subject, see below.) Thus for example,
Ibn Khaldun says in his Mukaddima (ed. Quatremere,
i, 62, cf. iii, 127, on siyasa madaniyya, and tr. F. Rosen-
thal, The Muqaddima, i, 78): "Political government (al-
siyasa al-madaniyya) is the administration of a household
or of a city (tadbir al-manzil aw al-madina) in accord-
ance with the demands of ethics (akhlak) and philos-
ophy (hikma) for the purpose of directing the mass
towards behaviour that will result in the preservation
of the [human] species".

The Tadbir al-manzil is one of the three subdivisions
of practical philosophy in the Hellenistic tradition;
ethics ('Urn al-akhldk), economics ('ilm tadbir al-manzil),
and politics ('ilm al-siyasa); going back to Aristotle,
Nkomachean ethics, VI 8-9, 1141b31-2, 1142a9-10, this
tripartition is well attested in later Greek and Syriac
introductions to philosophy. In Arabic classifications,
it is regularly referred to from the late 4th/ 10th cen-
tury onwards, as in e.g. the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa'
(Beirut 1957, i, 274: 'ilm al-siyasa al-khassiyya), al-
KfTarazmi. Mafdtih al-'ulum, ed. van Vloten, 132, and
in Ibn Sum's Risalafi aksam al-'ulum al-'akliyya (in Tis'
rasa'il, Constantinople 1298/1881, 73, and ed. Hasan
'Asi, Beirut 1986, 85).

The pseudo-Aristotelian (Economka, dealing with the
family household as a pre-political form of society,
left few direct traces in the Arabic treatments of the
topic. It is mentioned as a textbook by Abu '1-Faradj
Ibn al-Tayyib (d. 435/1043) in his prolegomena to
Aristotelian philosophy, heavily dependent on Alex-
andrian Greek sources (Tafsir Utah Katigjiuriyas, ms.
Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, Mustafa Fadil hikma 1, fol. 5a3),
and also by Sa'id al-Andalusi, Tabakat al-umam (ed.
L. Cheikho, 39). Ibn al-Tayyib most probably wrote
the epitome of CEcon. book 1, entitled Thimdr makalat
Aristu fi tadbir al-manzil, extant in two mss. (Escurial 2
888, among similar tkimar/istithmar compendia by Ibn
al-Tayyib, and Zahle (Lebanon), Ma'luf collection, ed.
<Isa' Iskandar al-Ma'luf, in RAAD, i [1921], 377-85).

All other Arabic treatments of economics depend
directly or indirectly upon the Oikonomikos of the neo-
Pythagorean philosopher Bryson (2nd century A.D.?),
a small work dealing in four chapters with the main
topics set by ps.-Aristotle: 1. the necessity, acquisition,
preservation and spending of property (mdl), 2. the
treatment of slaves, 3. the tasks of women in the
household and the role of man and woman in mat-

TADBlR — TADHKIRA

rimony, and 4. the education of children — everything
being regarded in view of attaining the greatest pos-
sible good fortune. The unique ms. of the original
(4th/ 10th century?) Arabic version (Kitab Brsys fl tad-
Mr al-radjul li-manzilihi, Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, Taymur
akjsldk 290, pp. 62-96) was edited by L. Cheikho (in
Madaiq, xix [1921], 161-81; idem, Amiens traiks arabes,
Beirut 1920-3, 13-33) and re-edited— with the medi-
aeval Hebrew and Latin versions and a German trans-
lation—by M. Plessner, Der Oikovouiko.;, 144-259.
"Bryson" (Burusun, also Ubrusun, Burusis and other vari-
ants) is first quoted as the standard textbook of eco-
nomics by Miskawayh (Tahdhib al-akhlak, ed. K. Zurayk,
Beirut 1966, 55 ff.), and Ibn Sina (R. fl aksam al-
'ulum al-'akliyya, in lis' rasa'il, loc. at.), and then in
many later encyclopaedias and classifications of the
sciences, as by Ibn al-Akfam (d. 749/1348), Irshad al-
kasid (ed. J.J. Witkam, De egyptische arts Ibn al-Akfam
en zijn bidding van de weknschappen, Leiden 1989, 64,
1, 845), followed by Tashkopriizade (d. 968/1561) in
his Miftdh al-sa'ada (ed. Kamil Bakn and 'Abd al-
Wahhab Abu '1-Nur, Cairo n.d, i, 407). Important
excerpts are found in Miskawayh's Tahdhib (be. cit.),
used also by al-Ghazali (Ihya' 'ulum al-dtn, books 12-
14, see Plessner, 131 ff.), in the K. al-Siydsa of Ibn
Sina (ed. L. Ma'lQf, in Madaiq, ix [1906] = idem,
Traites inedits d'anciens philosophes arabes, Beirut 1911,
1-17), and in the Ishara ila mahasin al-tidjara, a hand-
book on trade written between the end of the 4th/ 10th
and the middle of the 5th/ 10th century by Dja'far
b. 'All al-Dimashki (analysed by H. Ritter, Handbuch
der Handelswissenschqft). Independent use of the same
source was made by Nasir al-Dln al-TusI in the sec-
ond part of his Akjilak-i Nasiri, expanded from other
Muslim Arabic and Iranian sources (Plessner, 52-103).
All later treatments of the subject — as in the ethical
manuals of al-Idji, al-Amulr, al-Dawani, etc. — depend
on al-TusT's exposition of economics.

Bibliography: Christel Hein, Definition und Einki-
lung der Philosophie : von der spatanliken Einkitungslikratur
zur arabischen Enzyklopddie, Frankfurt am Main etc.,
1985, 226-32, 320, 324; M. Plessner, Der OkovouiKoq
des Neupythagoreers Bryson und sein Einfluss auf die isla-
mische Wissenschaft, Heidelberg 1928 (diss., Breslau
1925); idem, art. Bryson, in PW, Suppl. 11, Stuttgart
1968, 356-7; M. Steinschneider, Die hebrdischen Uber-
setzungen des Mitklalters, Berlin 1893, 227-9; H. Ritter,
Ein arabisches Handbuch der Handelswissenschqft, in hi,
vii (1917), 4-14; Nasir al-Dln al-TusI, Akhldk-i
Nasiri, ed. Mudjtaba Mlnuwl and 'All-Rida Hay-
daii, Tehran 1356/1977 (M373/1995), 205-44; 77k
Nasirean Ethics, tr. G.M. Wickens, London, 1964,
151-84. See also tidjara. 2, 3.

(W. Heffening-[G.

of ;

This is a type of manumission which, however,
only becomes operative after the death of the mas-
ter. Dabbara is in this case a verb formed from the
noun dubur "(life's) end", i.e. death, see L'A, v, 358;
al-Mutarrizi, Mugfcrib, s.v. The manumitted slave (mu-
dabbar) is in the same legal position as the urara walad
[g.v.], except that, in the calculating of a dead man's
estate for inheritance purposes, the cost of the man-
umission of an umm walad is to be debited wholly to
the man's assets, but only one-third of the cost of
manumitting a mudabbar.

Bibliography: D. Santillana, Istituzioni di diritto

musulmano malichita, Rome 1926, i, 122; J. Schacht,

An introduction to Islamic law, Oxford 1964, 129, 169.

See also 'abd. (W. Heffening*)

TADHKIRA (a.), "memorandum" or "aide-
memoire". The word is considered a verbal noun
of the form II verb dhakkara "to remind", but already
in its nine occurrences in the Kur'an it tends to mean
a concrete "reminder" rather than a verbal "reminding".

1. In Arabic literature.

Tadhkira occurs not infrequently in the titles of
books. From a closer scrutiny of these titles, two clus-
ters of books emerge that represent two different
"genres" of text presentation: (1) handbooks and (2)
notebooks. It should be noted that, in most cases,
the word is not yet used as a strict technical term,
although in its second meaning it comes close to being
such.

In the sense of "handbook", the term appears in
the titles of books in a large variety of fields. Here are
a few characteristic examples: (a) adab encyclopaedia:
al-Tadhkira al-Hamduniyya by Ibn Hamdun (d. 562/
1166 [q.v.]), ed. I. and B. 'Abbas,' Beirut 1996; (b)
poetic anthology of the Hamdsa [q.v.] type: al-Tadhkira
al-Sa'diyyafi 'l-ash'ar al-'arabiyya by Muhammad b. 'Abd
al-Rahman b. 'Abd al-MadjId al-'Ubaydi (8th/ 14th
century), [vol. i], ed. 'A. al-Djuburi, Baghdad 1391/
1972; (c) hadlth transmission: al-Tadhkira fl 'ulum al-
hadlth by Ibn al-Mulakkin (d. 804/1401), ed. 'A.H.'A.
'Abd al-Hamld, 'Amman 1 988; (d) Kur'an readings:
al-Tadhkira fi i-kira'at (title varies) by Ibn Ghalbun (d.
389/999), ed. 'A.B. Ibrahim, Cairo 1990; (e) theology:
al-Tadhfira fi 'l-ajawahir wa 'l-a'rad by Ibn Mattawayh
(5th/ 11th century [q.v. in Suppl.]), ed. S.N. Lutf and
F.B. 'Awn, Cairo [1975]; (f) medicine: Tadhkirat uli
'l-albab wa 'l-djami' li 'l-'adjab al-'udjab by Dawud al-
Antaki (d. 1008/1599 [q.v]); (g) ophthalmology: Tadh-
kirat al-kahhalin by 'Air b. Tsa al-Kahhal (5th/ 11th
century [g.v.]), ed. Ghawth Muhyi '1-Din al-Sharafi,
Haydarabad 1383/1964; (h) astronomy: al-Tadhkira fl
'Urn al-hay'a by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 672/1274
[q.v.]), ed. F.J. Ragep, New York 1993; (i) biography:
Tadhkirat al-hujfaz by al-Dhahabr (d. 748/1348 [q.v.])
and Tadhkirat al-nuhat by Abu Hayyan (d. 745/1344
[q.v.]), ed. 'A. 'Abd al-Rahman, Beirut 1986. The
Persian and Turkish use of the term for a biog-
raphical dictionary of poets (see below) is attested in
Arabic too, but is probably due to Ottoman influ-
ence, thus al-Tadhkira by al-Fayyurm ('Abd al-Barr b.
'Abd al-Kadir, d. 1071/1660 in Istanbul, cf. Brockel-
mann, IP, 377).

In its second meaning the word refers to, some-
times huge, collections of text snippets that the com-
piler found of interest to himself and gathered mainly
for his own use. Some of these have been at least
partially preserved, the best known perhaps being al-
Tadhkira al-Salahiyya of al-Safadi (d. 764/1363 [q.v.])
in thirty volumes, of which a stray number is found
in various libraries. The oblong book format of the
safina seems to be popular for these notebooks, in
which case the word may appear in the title (cf. e.g.
Brockelmann, IF, 391, 558, S II, 55, 387, 402, 416,
912). These collections often contain valuable mate-
rials not found elsewhere. Thus the Safina of 'Ali b.
Mubarakshah (mid-9th/15th century) has yielded
unknown zadjak by Ibn Kuzman and others (see
W. Hoenerbach and H. Ritter, Meue Materialien zum
local. I, in Oriens, iii (1950), 266-316, see 267).
Bibliography: Given in the article.

(W.P. HErNMCHs)

2. In Persian literature.

Although most often concerned with the lives of
poets, some works called tadhkira deal with calligra-
phers, the Ahl al-Bayt, Sufi shaykhs or other categories
of memorable persons (see e.g. the variety of the

works mentioned by Storey). Actually, the oldest book
carrying this term in its title is Fand al-Dfn 'Attar's
Tadhkirat al-awliya' ("Memoirs of the saints"), a col-
lection of hagiographies. The special connotation of
a work on literary biography was derived from the
Tadhkirat al-shu'ara' ("Memoirs of the poets"), com-
pleted by Dawlatshah [q.v.] in 892/1487, which set
an authoritative example for future generations. Basic
to the genre is the combination of biography and
anthology, although the importance of the latter fre-
quently outweighs that of the former. Tadhkiras have
often been criticised on account of their unreliability,
especially as far as darings are concerned, and accused
of recording legend rather than historical fact.
Whatever limitations they may have as historical
sources, it cannot be denied that the tadhkiras. consti-
tute the only form of literary history created by the
tradition itself.

If each of its two aspects is considered separately,
Dawlatshah's work cannot be regarded as a com-
plete innovation. Already during the preceding cen-
turies, anthologies had been assembled in many dif-
ferent forms [see mukhtarat]. 'Awfi's [q.v.] Lubab
al-albab (composed at Lahore, 617/1220-1), a precur-
sor of the tadhkira, is still predominantly an anthol-
ogy, but a biographical interest can be found also in
other mediaeval genres. In the Cahar makdla (written
ca. 550/1155), Nizami 'Arudl [q.v.] related anecdotes
on a number of great poets, which typify different
sides of court poetry. Hamd Allah MustawfT [q.v.]
added a separate chapter on the poets to his Ta'nkh-i
guzida (tr. E.G. Browne, in JRAS [1900], 721-62 and
[1901], 1-32), and other historiographers equally paid
attention to the lives of poets. Short biographies of
poets who were the pride of their native towns can
be found in the geography Athar al-bildd wa-akhbar al-
'ibad by Zakariyya' al-Kazwini [q.v.]. The most impor-
tant Sufi poets were dealt with separately by DjamI
[q.v.] at the end of his hagiographical work JVafahat
al-uns, and he inserted a section on poets into the
elegant prose work Baharistan.

The genre of the tadhkira proliferated in the
10th/16th century and afterwards. A rough distinc-
tion can be made between general works, surveying
the entire history of Persian poetry up to the time of
the author, and those which are focussed on a spe-
cific period (usually the compiler's own), a region or
a special kind of poetry; among the latter there are,
e.g., works devoted to women poets only. General
tadhkiras are often chronologically divided into sections
on poets of the early period (mutakaddimin), of the mid-
dle period (mutawassitin) and recent times (muta'akh-
khirin). The information concerning older poets tends
to be handed down cumulatively from one tadhkira to
another, but even in a 19th century work like the
comprehensive Madjma' al-fusaha' by Rida-Kuh" Khan
Hidayat [q.v.] there are data not to be be found in
earlier works still extant. The most valuable data are,
of course, those which refer to the author's contem-
poraries. (For further details on the history of the
tadhkiras, see mukhtarat.)

The tadhkiras have been drawn upon by modern
writers on the history of Persian literature ever since
Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall chose Dawlatshah's work
as the main' source for Die schonen Redekunste Persiens
(Vienna 1818). Nathaniel Bland introduced to Orien-
talist scholarship 'Awff s Lubab al-albab, as well as many
other tadhkiras. This new material stimulated the study
of the beginnings of Persian poetry, pursued notably
by Hermann Ethe in a great number of articles. The
tadhkiras have further provided a wealth of factual

information to the authors of catalogues of Persian
manuscripts.

Bibliography. The most comprehensive survey
of Persian tadhkiras is A. Gulcin-i Ma'anT, Tarlkh-i
ladhkiraha-yi first, 2 vols., Tehran 1348-50 .&./1969-
71. See further N. Bland, On the earliest Persian biog-
raphy of poets, . . . and some other works of the class called
Tazkirat ul Shudrd, in JRAS, ix (1848), 1 1 1-76; H. Ethe,
in GIPh, ii, 213-7 ("Ubersicht liber die QueUen");
E.G. Browne, 77k sources of Dawlatshah . . ., in JRAS
(1899), 37-60; Storey, i/2, 781-922; F. Tauer, in
J. Rypka et alii, History of Iranian literature, Dordrecht
1968, 453 ff. (J.T.P. de Bruijn)

3. In Turkish literature.

The first Turkic biography of poets was produced
by MFr 'All Shir Nawa'r in the Caghatay dialect in
897/1491-2. His Madjalis al-nafi'is, along with two
Persian works of this genre, Djami's Baharistan (883/
1478) and Dawlat Shah's Tadhkirat al-shu'ara' (892/
1487) were known to, and used as models by, the
first Ottoman biographer of poets, Sehi of Edirne
(d. 955/1548 [q.v.]) who composed his Heshl bihishl in
Ottoman Turkish and finished it in 945/1538. There
are, altogether, twenty-four of these collections of biog-
raphies of note. The last one was completed in 1930
by Ibnulemin Mahmud Kemal. Generally referred to
as Tedhkere-yi shu'ara' by the Ottomans, this uninterrupted
series has contributed considerable detail to the his-
tory of Ottoman literature.

The compilers were mostly members of the 'ulema'
class and reflected the mentality, interests and tastes
of this class. The tedhkeres themselves constitute the
chief source of biographical detail on the biographers.
Nearly all the biographers were poets in their own
rights, and as such were featured in the works of col-
leagues who were their contemporaries or continua-
tors. Biographical matter on the poets included in the
tedhkeres was generally obtained from previous tedhkeres,
secondary documentary sources and oral sources of
one kind or another. The biographers, like the his-
torians, demonstrate a desire to satisfy the need for
an unbroken chain of recorded facts placed in works
that could be serialised by means of dheyk. The poetic
citations that were invariably added to the end of the
biographies were acquired mainly from diwans and

The arrangement and length of individual notices
vary between a few words to identify the poet to sev-
eral folios. Each entry is identified most frequently by
the nom-de-plume or makhlas or, in the case of sultans,
statesmen or administrators, by the given name. This
is followed by the name of the town where they orig-
inated or the one in which they reside. There is little
information given about ancestry and date of birth,
but more information is supplied on the date of death.
Generally, details concerning the education and train-
ing of poets are restricted to the 'ulema', and citations
pertaining to careers and professions range from sin-
gle words like "judge" and "janissary", to much longer
descriptions of the careers of better-known poets. There
is hardly any reference to character or appearance,
but the longer tedhkeres sometimes include additional
biographical, anecdotal and incidental material.

The Ottoman Turkish biographies of poets, like
their Arabic and Persian counterparts, felt the need
to tabulate, serialise, describe and preserve the best
of the literary enterprises of the Ottomans for the
benefit of posterity. As far as the compilers them-
selves were concerned, it may be suggested that a
second reason for and an objective of compiling these
biographical dictionaries was to create opportunities

TADHKIRA -

for the compilers to exercise their very mild critical
prowess as well as to praise the creativity of their fel-
low-bards. The following are the twenty-four major
kdhkeres, listed in chronological order: (1) Sehi (of
Edirne), d. 1548; Hesht bihisht, comp. 1538; covers ca
1400-1538. (2) Latrfr ('Abd ul-LatTf of Kastamonu),
d. ca. 1582; Tedhkere-yi shu'ara', comp. 1546; covers
ca. 1400-1546. (3) 'AhdT (Ahmed of Baghdad), d. ca.
1593; Gulshen-i shu'ara', comp. 1563; covers ca 1520-
63. (4) 'Ashik Celebi (Plr Mehmed of Prizrin), b. 1519,
d. 1571; Mesha'ir ul-shu'ara' , comp. 1569; covers ca.
1400-1569. (5) Klnalizade (Hasan Celebi of Bursa), b.
1546, d. 1603; Tedhkere-yi shu'ara', comp. 1585; covers
ca. 1400-1585. (6) BeyanT (Mustafa of Ruscuk), d. 1597;
Tedhkere-yi sku'ara', comp. ca. 1595; covers ca. 1400-
1585. (7) Riyadi (Mehmed of Istanbul), b. 1572, d.
1644; Riyad al-shu'ara', comp. 1609; covers ca. 1400-
1609. (8) Rida (Zehrr-i Marzade Seyyid Mehmed of
Edirne), d. 1671; Tcdhkere-yi shu'ara", comp. 1 640; cov-
ers 1591-1640. (9) Yiimni (Mehmed Salih of Istanbul),
d. 1662; Tedhkere-yi shu'ara', comp ca. 1662; covers ca.
1600-62. (10) Gufti ('Air of Edirne), d. 1677; Teshnfat
ul-shu'ara', comp. ca. 1669; covers ca. 1600-69. (11)
Miidjlb (Mustafa), b. 1671, d. 1726; Tcdhkere-yi shu'ara',
comp. 1710; covers 1609-1710. (12) Safa'i (Mustafa
of Istanbul), d. 1725; Tcdhkere-yi shu'ara', comp. 1719;
covers 1640-1719. (13) Salim (Mirza-zade Mehmed
Emm of Istanbul), b. 1687, d. 1743; Tedhkere-yi shu'ara' ,
comp. 1721; covers 1687-1720. (14) Beligh (Seyyid
Isma'Il of Bursa), b. 1668, d. 1729; Nukhbet ul-athar
li-dheyl-i Zubdet ul-ash'ar, comp. 1726; covers 1620-1726.
(15) Ramiz (Hiiseyin of Istanbul), d. ca. 1785; Adab-i
zurafa', comp. second half of 18th century; covers
1721-84. (16) Esrar Dede (Seyyid Mehmed of Istanbul),
d. 1796; Tedhkere-yi shu'ara-yi Mewlewiyye, comp. 1796;
covers ca. 1400-1790. (17) Shefkat ('Abd ul-Fettah of
Baghdad), d. 1826; Tedhkere-yi shu'ara', comp. 1813;
covers ca. 1730-1813. (18) 'Akif (Mehmed), d. ca. 1796;
Mir'at-i shi'r, comp. 1796; covers his contemporaries.

(19) Es'ad (Mehmed of Istanbul), b. 1786, d. 1847;
Baghce-yi safa-enduz, comp. 1835; covers 1722-1835.

(20) 'Arif Hikmet (Seyyid Ahmed of Istanbul), b. 1786,
d. 1858; Tedhkere-yi shu'ara', comp. ca. 1836; covers
1589-1836. (21) Fatln (Dawud of Drama), b. 1814,
d. 1867; Khatimet ul-esh'ar, comp. 1852; covers 1722-
1852. (22) TewfTk (Mehmed of Istanbul), b. 1843, d.
1893; KSfile-yi shu'ara', comp. 1873; incomplete. (23)
'Alt Emm (of Diyarbakir), b. 1857, d. 1923; Tedhkere-
yi shu'ara' -yi Amid, ca. 1878; covers the principal poets
of Diyarbakir. (24) Inal (Ibnulemin Mahmud Kemal),
b. 1870, d. 1957; Son asir turk sairkri, comp. 1930;
covers 1852-1930.

Bibliography: J. Stewart-Robinson, The Ottoman
biographies of poets, in JNES, xxiv (1965), 57-74.
(J. Stewart-Robinson)
al-TA'DIL (a.), in planetary astronomy the cor-
rection or equation (corresponding to medieval
Latin aequatio) applied to mean positions of the
sun, moon and planets to derive the true
positions [see kamar; shams, i.; takwIm; zIej].
Muslim astronomers generally tabulated these func-
tions in the same way as Ptolemy had done in the
Almagest [see batlamiyus] but occasionally introduced
more extensive sets of tables to facilitate the tedious
application of more than one equation (as in the case
of the moon and planets).

Bibliography: E.S. Kennedy, Solar and lunar tables
in early Islamk astronomy, in JAOS, lxxxvii (1967),
492-7, and M. Tichenor, Late medieval two-argument
tables for planetary longitudes, in JNES, xxvi (1967),
126-8, both repr. in Kennedy et alii, Studies in the

Islamu exact sciences, Beirut 1983, 108-13 and 122-4;
D.A. King, A double-argument table for the lunar equa-
tion attributed to Ibn Tunus, in Centaurus, xviii (1974),
129-46, repr. in idem, Islamic mathematical astronomy,
London 1986, 2 Aldershot 1993, V; G. Saliba, The
double-argument lunar tables of Cyriacus, in Jnal. for the
Hist, of Astronomy, vii (1976), 41-6, and idem, The plan-
etary tables of Cyriacus, in Jnal. of the Hist, of Arabk
Science, ii (1978), 53-65; and B. van Dalen, A tabk
for the true solar longitude in the Jami' Zfj, in A. von
Gotstedter, (ed.), Ad radices. Festband zum funfzigjah-
ngen BesUhen des Instituts fur Geschichk der Naturwissen-
schaften Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart 1994, 171-90.

(D.A. King)
al-TA'DIL BAYN al-SATRAYN (a.), literally, cor-
recting between the two lines, a

Islar

lather

nterpolation. Muslim
used linear and non-linear procedures for calculating
intermediate values in mathematical and astronomi-
cal tables.

Bibliography: J. Hamadanizadeh, A survey of
medieval Islamk interpolation schemes, in D.A. King and
G. Saliba (eds.), From deferent to equant. Studies ... in
honor of E.S. Kennedy, New York 1987, 143-52. See
also King, Ibn Tunus' Very Useful Tabks for reckoning
time by the sun, in Archive for History of Exact Science,
x (1973), 342-94 (repr. in idem, Islamk mathematkal
astronomy, London 1986, 2nd ed. Aldershot 1993, X),
especially 354-7, for a highly sophisticated double-
order procedure advocated by Ibn Yunus ca. 400/
1010, and J.-P. Hogendijk, The Qibla tabk in the
Ashrafi Zrj, in A. von Gotstedter (ed.), Ad radkes.
Festband zum funfzigjahrigen Bestehen des Instituts fur
Geschkhte der Miturwissenschaften Frankfurt am Main,
Stuttgart 1994, 81-94, for an example of a 8th/ 14th-
century table where the interpolation has gone awry.

(D.A. King)
TA'DIL al-ZAMAN (a.), or ta'dil al-ayyam bi-laydtha,
the equation of time, a fundamental notion in
mathematical astronomy. Times derived from obser-
vations of the sun [see mikat] need to be corrected
by a function which takes into consideration the fact
that the true sun does not move on the celestial equa-
tor but on the ecliptic [see mintakat al-burudj] and
the fact that its motion on the ecliptic is not uniform.
This correction, which varies throughout the year, is
the equation of time, and it was tabulated in Islamic
astronomical handbooks [see ziej] . Since tables of this
function are dependent on three different parameters
(the obliquity of the ecliptic [see mayl] and the solar
apogee and eccentricity [see shams, i.]), they present
a particular challenge to modern investigators.

Bibliography: E.S. Kennedy, A survey of Islamk
astronomica tables, in Trans. Amer. Philosophical Society,
N.S. xlvi (1956), especially 141; and B. van Dalen,
Ancient and mediaeval astronomkal tables. Mathematical
structure and parameter values, Utrecht 1993, 97-152.

(D.A. King)
al-TADILI, Ibrahim b. Muhammad b. 'Abd al-
Kadir al-Ribati (1242-131 1/1827-94), scholar from
f adla, in particular, in the field of music.
He was descended from Sidi Djabir, whose mau-
soleum is on the left bank of the Umm al-Rabi' and
who was of Djusham Arab origin, a group which had
been established in that region since the 7th/ 13th
century. For generations, his ancestors had lived in
Rabat, which confirms the belief that they had emi-
grated in the course of the 17th century, fleeing the
troubles which shook Tadla after the death of Sultan
Mawlay Isma'il.

The Tadills of Rabat were renowned for their
knowledge, their dignity and their distinction, and they
were among the most illustrious families in the town;
they were put on the same footing as those who were
originally from al-Andalus.

Ibrahim al-Tadili was unique among his contempo-
raries for his encyclopaedic mind and his familiarity
with European and oriental languages. Having finished
the basic cycle of education which was usual for that
period, he went to Fas to continue his studies. For
fifteen years he attended courses in the Karawiyyfh
[q.B.]. Among his teachers he had illustrious scholars
such as al-WalTd al-Trakl, Ahmad Bennam, Hamdun
b. Hadjdj al-Sularm, and several others.

As well as following the linguistic and Islamic dis-
ciplines, together with a few other students he applied
himself to studying the rational disciplines, which were
generally passed over and were no longer offered for
study except in smaller mosques or in particular places,
including, mathematics, astronomy, equations, astrology,
medicine and logic, with music also included. In his
writings he reserves a place for the teachers of music
at Fas, whom the biographers have totally neglected,
such as Hadjdj Haddu Bendjellun, Rashid Djamal and
his brother al-Ghah" Djamal, Muhammad al-Sabban
and al-Makki Mahrush. Al-Tadilr was therefore the
only one to have recorded first-hand the facts of music
teaching at Fas in the second half of the 19th century.

On his return journey he stopped off several times
at Meknes, and then derived learning from the local
'ulama' of Marrakush. When he reached Rabat again,
he busied himself with his tasks as a teacher. But
feeling that he had not yet learned enough he decided
to travel and hear the 'ulama' of the East, once in
1862, and again in 1867.

At the Azhar he deepened his knowledge of the
disciplines of lafilr and hadith with the shaykh 'UUaysh.
At Mecca, he studied law according to the different
schools: Maliki, with which he had already famil-
iarised himself in Morocco; Hanaff, with the skqykh
Djamal al-Din al-Hindl; and Shaft' i, with the shaykh
al-Hamzawi. He also put his stay in Mecca to good
use by following other courses on different specialities
with the shaykhs Siddik Hasan Khan al-Kannawdjr
[see nawwab sayyid siddIk hasan khan] and al-
Nahrawi, and finally with a Moroccan scholar who
was resident in the Holy City, shaykh Muhammad b.
Dahhu al-Zammuri, who issued him with an uijaza
which sanctioned his transmission of the most authen-
tic hadiths. On his return to his homeland, he taught
at Rabat for three decades, delivering five to eight
lectures daily.

His works number more than 120, and can be
divided into three categories. First, there are the didac-
tic materials, which group together his commentaries
on old texts and his own lectures. Most of these were
unfinished for lack of time, and today quite a num-
ber of them are known only by their titles. Then
there are books on current Muslim disciplines. To his
work on MaiikT fikh he added commentaries on Shafi'I
fikh. Finally, there are the books on subjects which
appeared to be new for that period, such as geogra-
phy, astronomy, medicine, etc. The tides of three of
these works are $nat al-nahr fi 'ulum al-bahr, in which
he deals with the technique of navigating sailing boats
and steam boats; Hisdn al-haka'ik wa 'l-raka'ik fi hisab
al-duradj wa 'l-daka'ik, which deals with the mathemati-
cal measurement of spheres, constellations, latitude
and longitude; and Aghani al-sika wa-ma'ani al-musika
or al-Irtikd' ila 'Urn al-musika. The subject of this third
book, music, which formed an important aspect in

the life of the author, did not attract any particular
attention from his biographers.

In fact, Aghani al-sika was finished in 1891, and it
appeared at a time when Tetuan was experiencing a
resurgence of musical activity. This was crowned in
1885 by the compilation of Kunnash al-ha'ik, which
grouped together the eleven nawbat of Andalusian
music still in use today. All this suggests that al-TadilT
contributed to the composition of the Tetuan book-
let, for in fact the origin of these eleven nawbat, their
time patterns, their cadences as well as the methods
of playing and singing them based on the Fas model
are set out in Aghani al-sika in ch. iv and those which
follow in that book. His music courses in Rabat were
to produce several musicians, such as Muhammad al-
Rtal the singer, al-Hadjdj Kasim b. 'Asna the player
of the kanun, and the lute player Makkl al-Figtgi.

In Rabat, al-Tadili led a peaceful life. But his pres-
tige and his audiences earned him jealousy from his
enemies; no-one understood what were the prime mo-
tives behind his incarceration, when 'Abd al-Rahman
al-Bribn, the kadi of Rabat, intervened. His biogra-
phers all bear witness to his courage in denouncing
iniquity, so it was not surprising that in the course
of his lectures, in which some members of the makhzan
were present, he became indignant about the illegal
imposition of the maks, an unpopular tax which had
been levied for a long time in Morocco when prod-
ucts of commercial value were brought into the towns.
He was fearless, too, when he declined, for health
reasons, the invitation from the king to participate in
the religious evening at the Great Mosque in Rabat
on the occasion of the night of 27 Ramadan 1302.
What is more, he seized the opportunity to ask the
chamberlain to beg Sultan Hasan I to abolish the
maks. Five months later, in the zahir of 13 Rabf I,
1303/20 December 1885, this tax was abolished.

In 1886 al-Tadili undertook a third voyage to the
East, but this time with a political aim. He went to
Turkey in an attempt to bring together the Ottoman
khalifa and the Shanfi khalifa, and was warmly received
in Istanbul. For him this was a chance to meet poli-
ticians and Muslim scholars and to appreciate the
progress in modernisation and development that had
been made by the Turks. From there he went on to
Beirut, where he met Muhammad 'Abduh [q.B.], who
was in exile and whose reformist ideas had aroused
his admiration, and then to Palestine, where he lec-
tured at the al-Aksa mosque.

He died in Rabat on the night of Thursday and
Friday 18 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 131 1/15 June 1894.

Bibliography: Several of al-Tadili's own works
remain in ms., but see Ibn Suda, Dalxl mu'arrikh
al-Maghrib al-Aksa, Casablanca 1960; 'Abbas b.
Ibrahim, al-l'lam, i, Rabat 1974; 'Abd al-'AzIz Ben
'Abd Allah, in Encychpedie marocaine, Fedala 1975, s.v.;
'Abd al-Wahhab Ben Mansur, A'ldm al-Maghrib al-
'arabl, i, Rabat 1979; 'Abd Allah al-Djirari, Abu
Ishak al-Tadili, Casablanca 1980; Muhammad Lam-
num, Mazahir yakzat al-Maghrib al-haaith, Beirut 1985;
Mohammad Hajji, Catalogue de la Bibliotheque sbihiyya,
Kuwait 1985; Muhammad Larbi al-Khattabi. Cata-
logue de la Bibliotheque Rqyale (Hasaniyya), iv, Rabat
1985; Muhammad Dinya, Madjalis al-inbisat, Ra-
bat 1986; Muhammad Bu Djandar, al-Ightibat, Rabat
1987; 'Abd al'-Ilah al-Fasi, art. al-Tadili, Ibrahim, in
Encychpedie du Maroc, Sala 1992; 'Abd al-Rahman
Lahrishl, Catalogue abrege des mss. de la Fondation 'AIM
al-Fasi, i, Casablanca 1991; 'Abd al-Salam b. Suda,
Ithaf al-mutali', Beirut 1996.

Hajji)

J.-TADILI, Yusuf b. Yahya, Ibn al-Zayyat [sei

ST].

n Persi

TADI { t
going back to the Old Persian *tag; cf. Ar
Aramaic tags. From it are formed in Arabic the bro-
ken plural RdjSn and the corresponding verb t-w-dj,
forms II "to crown", V "to be crowned", and ta'idj,
"crowned" (Horn, Grundriss der neupersischen Etymologic,
Strassburg 1893, 81; Siddiqi, Studien iiber die persischen
Fremdwbrkr im klassischen Arabisch, Gottingen 1919, 74,
84, Fraenkel, Die aramSischen Fremdwbrkr im Arabischen,
Leiden 1886, 62). Like the name, the object itself
comes from old Persia. The form of the crowns of
the old Persian kings, which we know best from their
coins, was not unknown in Arabic literature. Al-
Mas'udr, for example, tells us he had seen an old
book with coloured pictures of Persian kings wearing
their crowns, which was translated into Arabic for the
Umayyad Hisham b. 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan (Tanbih,
106). A whole series of books now lost with titles like
Kitab Siyar al-muluk and Kitab al-Tadj seem to have
been of similar content. The Kitab al-Tadj edited by
Ahmad ZakT Pasha (Cairo 1332/1914) is a compila-
tion of Arab and especially Sasanid Persian traditions;
its translator, Ch. Pellat (Le lime de la couronne, Paris
1954, Introd.), thought that its author was an Arabised
Persian, conceivably Muhammad b. al-Harith al-
Taghlibr/al-Tha'labi, but certainly not al-Djahiz (see
also Brockelmann, S I, 246; nasihat al-muluk; and
al-tha'labi). It is presumably on such sources that
are based the statements on the Persian crown in
Hamza al-Isfahanl, Ta'rlkji Sim muluk al-ard wa '1-anbiyS'
(Berlin, Kaviani Press, 17, 24-5, 32, 35 ff), and the
Persian Mudjmil al-tawankh which utilises him and the
statements in al-Tabarl also (on the relation of their
sources, cf. Noldeke, Geschichte der Perm und Araber,
Leiden 1879, Introd. (on the crown among the Persians,
cf. especially, 95, 221, 304, 385, 453); A. Christensen,
L'empire des Sasanides, Copenhagen 1907, 14, 89 ff.,
106; idem, Le regne du roi Kawadh I et le communisme
mazdakite, Copenhagen 1925, 22 ff.). In the Arabic
AwS'il [q.v.] literature, we are told that the first to
wear a crown was al-Dahhak (see al-Kalkashandi, Subh
al-a'shS, i, 415).

On Islamic miniatures which depict the old Persian
kings, the latter wear regular crowns, but their form
is, of course, in no way authentic. On the miniatures,
crowns are also worn by the angels, and notably by
the Prophet Muhammad and Burak in the Mi'rSdj
(see the miniature in the edition of the Uyghur Mi'rSdj-
nSme', ed. Pavet de Courteille, Paris 1882).

The Arabs made their first acquaintance with crowns
before Islam, for the Persian kings occasionally gave
their Arab vassal kings crowns as a token of their
rank, e.g. to the Lakhmid Imru' al-Kays (d. 328 A.D.
(if tg in the Namara inscription really equals tad},
which is by no means certain); cf. Clermont-Ganneau,
Recueil dArchiol. Or., vi, 307: Le roi de "tous les Arabes"
and vii, \76: Le Tddj-ddr Imrou 'l-Qais et la rcyaute generate
des Arabes; U. Monneret de Villard, II Tag di Imru'
l-Qais, in RCAL, CI. di Sc. morali, storiche e filo-
logiche, viii [1953], 224-9; Man Shahid, Byzantium and
the Arabs in the fourth century, Washington D.C. 1984,
36-7, 413-14; Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, ii, 35, 375: also
on the difference between ik&l and tadj; the latter
seems to mean a simple chaplet only), and to the
Lakhmid Nu'man III (see G. Rothstein, Die Dynastk
der Lahmiden in al-Hira, Berlin 1899, 128) and to the
Dhu 'l-Tddj Hawdha b. 'All, the Christian ruler of
Yamama in the time of Muhammad, to whom the
Prophet is said also to have sent a demand to become

converted to Islam (Ibn Hisham, ed. Wustenfeld, 971;
al-Kalkashandi, vi, 379; Fraenkel, 62; al-TabarT, i,
985; Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser u. Araber, 258). Crowns
and bearers of crowns were often celebrated by the
poets (see Siddiqi, 84; al-Mubarrad, Kamil, 289-90,
where the crown is said to be a peculiarity of the
Yemen, possibly a reminiscence of the old relations
between Yemen and the Abyssinians; on the crown
of the latter, cf. Noldeke, Geschichte, 225, 233).

The celebrated crown of Khusraw II Aparwlz was
among the booty which the Arabs took at Ctesiphon
(Christensen, L'Empire, 106). But the crown continued
to be something foreign and rare among the Arabs.
There is a hadilh which says al-'amS'im tidjSn al-Arab,
"the turbans are the crowns of the Arabs", i.e. accord-
ing to the usual explanation in the LisSn al-Arab and
elsewhere, turbans are as rare amongst them as crowns,
for most Bedouins do not wear turbans but only kald-
nis (caps, see kalansuwa) or no headdress at all.

Islam knows no regular royal crown or coronation
in our sense as a symbol of regal power. When we
find mention of crowns, the reference is to foreign
rulers like those of the old Persian Great Kings, of
Christian rulers, etc. The tadj al-BSba is the tiara of
the Pope and the tadj al-uskuf the mitre of a bishop.
Only in the case of the so-called tad} al-khattfa do we
seem at first sight to have a Muslim ruler's crown.
This crown of the caliph, which is included among
the insignia (Slat al-mulukiyyd) of sovereignty, is not
found till the 'Abbasid period, and it has been sug-
gested that this dynasty imitated the Persian tradition
in deliberate contrast to the early caliphs and Umay-
yads (Noldeke, Geschichte, 453). The caliph wore this
tad), on ceremonial occasions (mawSkib [q.v.]) on the
great feast-days. Al-Kalkashandi (iii, 472, 484 - Wus-
tenfeld, Cakaschandi, 172, 182) describes the tad} of
the Fatimid caliph of Egypt. It is evident from him
that it was not a proper crown but a turban richly
studded with gems, including a particularly large one
called al-yatima, weighing seven dirhams, of the colour
of the Fatimids, namely white, for the elaborate wind-
ing of which (shadd al-tadj al-shanf) a special official
(the shadd, later called laffaf) was appointed (cf.
Inostrantsev, The ceremonial procession of the Fatimid caliphs
[in Russian], St. Petersburg 1905, 64; Ibn al-Sayraff,
KSnun dtwSn al-rasS'il, ed. Bahdjat, 27'). The Hafsid
sultan, too, wore a tadj on his mawakibs (see Ibn Fadl
Allah, Masalik al-absar, extract, Wasf Ifrlkiya wa H-
Andalus, ed. Hasan Husm 'Abd al-Wahhab, Tunis [ca.
1922], 23, no. 2).

Among the robes of honour which the caliph or
the sultan used to send to governors, ambassadors,
etc., there was usually a tadj, as is often expressly
mentioned. Thus according to al-Kalkashandi, viii,
375, on his accession the caliph presents a crown set
with jewels (tadj murassa'; cf. also Wustenfeld, Statthalter,
iii, 38). A similar tadj seems also to appear as an
emblem on the arms of amirs of the Mamluk period
[see rank].

The name tadj was also given to the headdress of
the Ottoman sultans. Even 'Othman I is said to have
worn a tdaj-i Ehurasanl (d'Ohsson, ii, 135). We know
exactly the kind of headdress worn by the conqueror
of Constantinople from the paintings by Bellini. He
wears a large turban, and the tadj; the inner cap of
this turban is in the shape of a truncated cone and
is usually red and rippled (? stitched). Round this is
wound the turban proper (sank) of thin cloth. The
form of the turban of Mehemmed Fatih found on his
paintings is also shown on the medals. When we find,
on the reverse of a medal, three regular crowns, which

TADJ — TADJ MAHALL

are believed to represent the three kingdoms of Asia,
Greece and Trebizond united under Ottoman rule,
the explanation probably is simply that the medal was
designed and executed by a European artist (cf. G.F.
Hill, in JVC [1926], 287-98 and pi. xiv). Karabacek
has dealt fully with the tadj of the Ottoman sultans.
According to him, the Perso-Turkish tadj corresponds
to the tartur of Arabic-speaking lands, a rather high
cap which is found represented as early as a papyrus
of the 7th century A.D., and assumed many varying
forms in the course of time. In remarkable agreement
with these forms are the headdresses (hen[n]in) of the
14th- 16th centuries of ladies in France and Spain,
which according to Karabacek came direct from the
east (the name, Arabic kanini, as well as the object
itself). Particular forms of this headdress have sur-
vived on women to the present day, e.g. among the
Druses of the Lebanon and in Algeria and Tunis. In
modern Egypt, there has developed from this the kurs
as a woman's headdress. This is a plate-like orna-
ment of gold and gems, which is sewn on the crown
of a rather high cap and is sometimes of consider-
able weight. This kurs is put on the top (shahid) of
the bier of dead women, as is done with the turban
in the case of men (cf. Lane, Manners and customs of
the modem Egyptians, Appendix A; idem, Arabian society
in the Middle Ages, 218, 234). The use of a special
crown for brides, which is found all over the world,
is also sometimes found in the Muslim world (Lane,
The thousand and one nights, i, 424; Lagarde, Arabes mitrati,
in Xachrichten . . . Gottingen [1891], 160 ff.; and the title
of the well-known dictionary Tadj al-'arus; cf. for Eastern
Turkestan, Brockelmann, in Asia Major, ii, 122).

The tadj was given a special religious significance
as a headdress among the dervishes. The assumption
of the tadj was an essential part of the shadd [q.v.].
The different dervish orders each had their tadj of
distinct form and colour, frequently with 12 seams
(terk) from the number of the Imams, or with 9, 7 etc.,
and there were numerous names and symbolical in-
terpretations associated with them (see Ahmed Rifat,
Mir' at al-makasid, Istanbul 1293, 212-15; Brown, The
Danishes, 148 ff.; pictures in d'Ohsson, ii, 292; there
is also a large coloured table of the 14 most impor-
tant dervish orders with pictures of their tdaj and
accounts of the silsik of their founders, printed in the
Istanbul press of Mahmud Bey, publ. by the Sana'i'-i
neflse resim-khanesi of Ziya Bey, dated 15 Sha'ban
1314). In Persia, under Shaykh Haydar [q.v.; whence
Tadj-i Haydarl] and Shah Isma'ri [q.v.], we find the
Sufi tadj as a kind of official headdress for the king,
the court, the army and the officials, granted with a
special ceremonial, but it probably existed before them
(see Karabacek, op. cit., 87; and hzil-bash).

We find tadj used in many ways with a metaphor-
ical application. Names of honour (alkab) combined
with tadj are very common in later times, and were
probably most popular in the Mamluk period. At first
they were content with simple epithets like Tadj al-
Din for soldiers (al-Kalkashandi, v, 488) or Ta<jj al-
Dawla for Christian secretaries {ibid., v, 487); then we
get double epithets like 'Adud al-Dawla wa-Tadj al-
Milla (v, 492), Tadj al-'Ulama' wa 'l-Hukkam for kadis
(vi, 41) and many others. For infidel kings, forms of
address like Bakiyyat Abnd' al-Tukhut wa 'l-Tldjan (vi,
85), Mukhawwil al-Tukhut wa 'l-Tldjan (vi, 175), Warith
al-Asirra wa 'l-Tldjan (vi, 177) were used. Perhaps the
custom, of which there are countless examples, of giv-
ing books titles in the form of Tadj with a genitive
is connected with this.

In astronomy, Tadj-i Sa'dan = Saturn [see zuhal];

Tadj al-Djabbar =■ a star near Orion. Tadj 'amud is the
capital of a column (see Sarre-Herzfeld, Archaeol. Reise,
ii, 185); tadj is also the name given to the comb of
a cock and similar birds. A famous palace of the
caliphs was called Kasr al-Tadj. It was built under the
caliphs al-Mu'tadid and al-Muktafl out of the ruins
of a palace in al-Mada'in, one of the seven wonders
of the world, burnt down in 549/1154 after being
struck by lightning, rebuilt but not finished, and com-
pletely destroyed in 574/1178-9 (Yakut, i, 806-9, tr.
in ZDMG, xviii, 403-6; Sacy, Chrestomathie, i, 74; von
Kremer, Kulturgeschkhte, ii, 54; Sarre-Herzfeld, i, 92,
ii, 63, 148). Among the pleasure houses (manazir) of
the caliphs in Cairo there was one called Manzarat
al-Tadj, built by Badr al-DjamalT [q.v.], which was in
ruins by the time of al-Makrizi (al-MakrlzI, i, 481,
ii, 129; Yakut, suppl., v, 15; Sacy, Chrestomathie, i, 224,
228).

Bibliography: In addition to the particular works
mentioned in the text, see in general: Dozy, Dk-
tionnaire des vetements, s.v. Tadj- Hastings' Encyclopaedia
of Religion and Ethics, s.v. Crown; Karabacek, Abend-
landische Kunstler in Konstantinopel im 15. u. 16. Jahr-
hundert, I. Italienische Kiinstler am Hofe Muhammeds II. des
Eroberers 1451-1481, in Denkschriften d. k. Akad. d. Wiss.
Wien, lxii/1 (1918). See also kizJl-bash and libas
and their Bibls. (W. Bjorkman*)

TADJ MAHALL, the mausoleum which the
Mughal emperor Shah Djahan [q.v.] (r. 1037-68/1628-
58) built for his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahall at
Agra [q.v.]. This is the grandest in a series of mon-
umental dynastic mausoleums that have become syn-
onyms of Mughal architecture. Mughal imperial tombs
are the most spectacular exponents of a funerary tra-
dition which creatively synthesised and developed
ideas of its Timurid heritage and local Indian build-
ing conventions.

The architecture. The success of the Tadj
Mahall lies not only in its aesthetic, romantic and
symbolic appeal but in the fact that it expresses in
a canonical form the architectural principles of the
period. The Mughals had no written architectural
theory; it was laid down here in a built form: (1)
A rational and strict geometry brought about by mod-
ular planning using grid systems based on the Shah-
djaham gaz (varying in length between 80 and 82 cm
or ca. 32 inches) (see R.A. Barraud, Modular gaz plan-
ning of the Taj Mahal, Agra, unpubl. ms. 1995; Begley's
and Desai's grids [Taj Mahal, figs. 13, 17] are not
correct); (2) Consistent symmetrical planning with
emphasis on bilateral symmetry on both sides of a
central axis (karma) into which are integrated central-
ised schemes; (3) A hierarchical grading of material,
forms and colour down to the most minute orna-
mental detail; and (4) A sophisticated symbolism in
the architectural programme.

The mausoleum is set at the northern end of the
main axis of a vast oblong walled-in complex (ca.
1,114.5 x 373 gaz) formed of three units: the tomb
and its garden with elaborate water works (Fig. 3, A,
B, E), and two courtyard complexes to its south with
subsidiary structures (C, D), only one of which sur-
vives. The preserved Tadj complex measures ca. 561
m x 300 m (690 x 313 gaz). In its layout the tomb
garden (A and B) is the monumentalised version of
the Shahdjahani expression of the waterfront garden,
a type specific to Mughal architecture (Koch, The
Mughal water front garden, in A. Petruccioli (ed.), Theory
and design of gardens during the times of the great Muslim
empires, Leiden 1997). The plan shows the character-
istic configuration of a raised rectangular terrace (kursT,

A) on which are placed the main buildings and a
lower centrally planned four-part garden (cahar bagh)
(B); its square, measuring 368 x 368 gaz/296.3\ x
296.31 m, formed the basis for developing the grid
of the plan. The two complexes with the subsidiary
structures are arranged according to the same com-
positional scheme of a rectangle (C) combined with
a centrally-planned unit (D) but here the buildings
consist of open courtyards formed of narrow wings
and arcades, typical of the residential and utilitarian
architecture of the period (for the function of the
buildings see muchals. 7. architecture, at Vol. VII,
332). The courtyard complex adjoining the tomb gar-
den contains also subsidiary tombs for other women
of Shah Djahan's zanana. These tombs are set in
miniature replicas of the main garden (C, 9a, b). (Their
form revives an older Sultanate type of a domed octa-
gon surrounded by arcades, translated into the lighter
architectural vocabulary of the period; see mutoamman;
Koch, Mughal architecture, 101, and figs. 34, 35.) Outside
the walled enclosure is another small tomb complex
varying this pattern (9c) and a tomb and a mosque

12).

e of the bazars and the karwansara'h of
the subsidiary complexes (8, 10) — together with that of
thirty villages from the district of Agra — was devoted
by imperial command to the upkeep of the mausoleum.

In the tomb garden, emphasis is on the features
on the central axis: the grandiose group of the mau-
soleum (rawda) (1) and its four minarets, flanked by
a mosque (2) and a "guest house" (mihman-khana),
rather an assembly hall (3), set the main accent. Radial
symmetry is observed in the gatehouse (darwaza, 5)
and the tomb proper. Both follow the ninefold plan
(Fig. 4), the favourite plan of Mughal architecture
with TTmurid antecedents (L. Golombek, From Tamer-
lane to the Taj Mahal, in Islamic art and architecture. Essays
in Islamic art and architecture in honor of Katharina Otto-
horn, ed. A. Daneshvari, Malibu 1981, i, 43-50;
E. Koch, Mughal architecture, 44-50, 80-1, 99-100). The
plan of the mausoleum is inscribed in a square with
chamfered corners or irregular octagon, described in
the contemporary texts as muthamman [q.v.] baghdadt.
The elevation follows — in the interior — the Tlmurid
concept of two super-imposed tomb chambers sur-
mounted by a high double dome (Fig. 2). The exte-
rior — composed of monumental pishtah [q.v.] flanked
by double-storey niches — brings the cubical tomb of
the Dihli tradition enhanced by Deccani features (bul-
bous profile of the dome) to a formal apotheosis of
unparalleled elegance and harmony (Fig. 1). The bal-
anced proportions are highlighted by the sophisticated
facing of the brick structure: the white marble in-
laid with pietre dure reacts to atmospheric changes and
enhances the mystical and mythical aura of the build-
ing. All the subsidiary structures of the Tadj complex
are faced with red sandstone; special features, such
as domes may be clad in white marble. This hierar-
chically graded colour dualism — generally characteris-
tic of imperial Mughal architecture but here explored
with unparalled sophistication — connects with ancient
Indian sastric traditions, laid down in the Visnudhar-
mottara (8th century?) (tr. P. Shah, Ahmedabad 1990,
268, 271) where white-coloured stones are assigned
to brahmans and red ones to ksatriyas. The marble for
the Tadj was brought from Makrana in Radjasthan
and the sandstone from the quarries of the Vindhyan
system in the region of Fathpur Srkri and Rupbas.

The architectural decoration with naturalistic flow-
ers and plants executed in relief (Fig. 5) and in the
famous Italianate inlay with semi-precious stones

(pietre dure, Mughal parcln kari [q.v.]) (Koch, Shah Jahan
and Orpheus, Graz 1988, esp. 15-22, 39 n. 24) finds
its richest and most artistic expression in the central
chamber of the tomb (Fig. 6). It symbolises eternal
bloom and supports thus the architectural programme
of the building as an earthly replica of the abode of
the pardoned Mumtaz in the gardens of heavenly
Paradise. The elaborate Kur'anic inscriptions designed
by Amanat Khan al-Shirazi focus accordingly on the
Day of Resurrection, Last Judgement, and the Reward
of the Faithful.

The architect. The question about the identity
of the architect of the building has as yet not been
entirely solved, since contemporary sources minimise
the role of the architects and emphasise the involve-
ment of the patron. Mir 'Abd al-Karfm, Djahanglr's
leading architect and the Mughal official Makramat
Khan are named as overseers of the construction;
Ustad Ahmad LahawrT is also reported to have been
connected with the building (Begley and Desai, Taj
Mahal, pp. xli-xliii, 260-86). The craftsmen made their
contribution known with numerous mason marks,
which still await systematic study.

History. Mumtaz died on 17 Dhu '1-Ka'da 1040/
17 June 1631 in BurhanpQr [q.v.] and was temporarily
buried there. The construction on the Tadj started
in Djumada II 1041 /January 1632 after the take-
over of the site had been negotiated with its then
owner, Radja Djai Singh Kachwaha of Amber. The
body of Mumtaz was brought in December 1631 from
BurhanpQr to Agra and temporarily reburied in
January 1632 on the construction site. In June 1632
Shah Djahan commemorated the first death anni-
versary Curs) in the sahn (courtyard [djilaw khdna]?) of
the building with rites aimed at obtaining divine par-
don for the deceased. The second 'urs in May of the
following year was already held on the monumental
platform (cabutra) on the terrace (kursi) raised over the
third and final burial place of Mumtaz; the place of
the tombstone was on this occasion surrounded by a
screen of enamelled gold, the work of the imperial
goldsmiths' department supervised by Blbadal Khan
(replaced in 1643 by the present inlaid marble screen).
At this time, the domed tomb structure had not as
yet been raised. According to two inscriptions in the
interior of the mausoleum and one in the portal of
the west facade, the main mausoleum was completed
in 1048/1638-9. The histories report that the entire
complex was finished in 1052/1643 but — according
to an inscription on the garden facade of the main
gateway — work on the decoration went on at least
until 1057/1647. Muhammad Salih Kanbo even
reports that the entire complex took twenty years to
be completed. The cost amounted to 50 lakhs (4 to
5 millions) rupees (see S. Moosvi, Expenditure on build-
ings under Shahjahan — a chapter of imperial financial history,
in Procs. of the Indian History Congress, 46th session Amritsar,
1985, 285-99).

The 'urs celebrations are mentioned intermittently
until the fourteenth death anniversary. Of particular
importance was the 12th 'urs on 17 Dhu '1 Ka'da
1052/6 February 1643, when the tomb was officially
reported as being complete, on which occasion LahawrT
and Kanbo provided detailed descriptions of the entire
complex which — with regard to exactitude, detail and
consistent terminology — are unparalleled in all of
Mughal writing on architecture. After the 14th 'urs,
Shah Djahan spent over two years in the north of his
empire and moved his capital in 1648 to the newly-
constructed Shahdjahanabad at DihlT. The last doc-
umented imperial visit to the Tadj is that of Safar

TADJ MAHALL — TADJALLl

1065/December 1654. When Shah Djahan died in
1076/1666, after having spent the last years of his
life in captivity at Agra, he was buried in the tomb
at the side of his wife.

After Shah Djahan's burial little is known about
the mausoleum until the later 18th century when it
began to enter the awareness of the west through the
depictions and descriptions of British visitors to India
in search of the picturesque (Pal, 199 ft.). In 1803
the British conquered Agra and the tomb became the
focus of their selective restoration of monuments, which
was put on a more systematic basis at the begin-
ning of the 20th century when the Archaeological
Survey of India (founded in 1860) also took on the
agenda of conservation. Today, the Tadj Mahall is
included in the Monuments of World Heritage in
India and also, sadly, appeared on the 1996 list of
the world's hundred most endangered historic sites,
according to World Monuments Watch (tourism and
uncontrolled industrial growth in its surroundings).
Despite India's uneasiness with its Islamic past, the
Tadj Mahall has become India's national symbol,
advertising in particular tourism.

Bibliography (including references given above):
1. Original sources. All known 17th century
sources — Mughal and Western — related to the Tadj
Mahall have been compiled and translated by W.E.
Begley and Z.A. Desai, Taj Mahal: the illumined tomb,
Cambridge, Mass. 1989; the work includes also a
detailed photographic documentation.

2. Studies. The vast literature on the Tadj
Mahall comprises surprisingly few serious scholarly
studies. There is as yet no monograph dedicated
to its architecture; J.A. Hodgson's plan (1828) pub-
lished in Memoir on the length of the Illahee guz, or
imperial land measure of Hindostan, in JRAS, vii (1843),
42-63, remained until recently the most accurate
survey of the Tadj complex and the basis of all
later plans. A new plan based on measurements
taken in 1995 by R.A. Barraud and E. Koch is
published here as PI. IV. Pioneering studies are
M. Moin-ud-Din, The history of the Taj and the build-
ings in its vicinity, Agra 1905; and M.A. Chaghtai,
Le Tadj Mahal d'Agra (Inde): histoire el description,
Brussels 1938. In addition to the works mentioned
in the text, see R. Nath, The immortal Taj Mahal,
The evolution of the tomb in Mughal architecture, Bombay
1972; R.A. Jairazbhoy, The Taj Mahal in the context
of East and West: a study in the comparative method, in
Jnal. of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, xxiv (1961),
59-88; Begley, Amanat Khan and the calligraphy on the
Taj Mahal, in Kunst des Orients, xii (1978-9), 5-39;
idem, The myth of the Taj Mahal and a new theory of
its symbolic meaning, in The Art Bulletin, lxi (1979),
7-37; P. Pal, J. Leoshko et alii, Romance of the Taj
Mahal, Los Angeles and London 1989; and for
excellent photographs, see J.L. Nou, A. Okada and
M.C. Joshi, Taj Mahal, Paris and New York 1993.
For the most recent treatment in the context of
Mughal architecture, see Ebba Koch, Mughal archi-
tecture: an outline of its history and development (1526-
1858), Munich 1991, and C.B. Asher, Architecture of
Mughal India, Cambridge 1992. See also the bibls.
to Agra and mughals. 7. Architecture.

(Ebba Koch)
TADJ al-DAWLA [see tutush].
TADJ al-DIN [see al-subkI].
TADJ al-DIN YILDIZ Mu'izzi, Turkish slave
commander of the Ghurid sultan Mu'izz or Shihab
al-Dln Muhammad, who after that ruler's death in
602/1206, made himself, with the support of a group

of other Turkish soldiers, independent i
eastern Afghanistan. Mu'izz al-Din's
Ffruzkuh [q.v.], Mahmud b. Ghiyath al-Dln Muham-
mad, had to manumit Yildiz and recognise him as
governor in Ghazna. During his nine years' rule there,
Yildiz treated another Mu'izzi slave commander
Iltutmish [q.v.], who had established himself in north-
ern India, as his subordinate. But in the end, Yildiz
was driven out of Ghazna in 611/1215 by the
KrTarazmian forces of Djalal al-Din; he fled to India,
but was defeated there in battle by Iltutmish and
executed.

Bibliography: The main source is DjuzdjanI,

Tabakat-i Msiri, ed. Habfbr, i, 410-14, tr. Raverty,

i, 496-506. See also M. Habib and K.A. Nizami

(eds.), A comprehensive history of India, v. The Delhi

Sultanat [A.D. 1206-1526), Delhi, etc. 1970, 198-214.
(C.E. Bosworth)

TADJ al-MULUK [see burids].

TADJALLl (a.), a masdar formation from form V
of the root dj-l-w, which means "to appear, to come
to light, to be clear or brilliant". Rabah b. 'Amr al-
Kaysr (d. ca. 180/796) of 'Irak seems to have been
the first to use this term to designate the manifesta-
tion of God to a person at the time of the Judgement
and then in Paradise (L. Massignon, Essai sur les ori-
gines du lexique technique de la mystique musulmane, Paris
1922, 217).

Sahl al-Tustari (d. 283/896) introduced it into Sufism,
giving it a meaning which is reproduced in the man-
uals of the 10th and 11th centuries (G. Bowering,
The mystical vision of existence in classical Islam, 172-5 and
index s.v. tagalU; al-Kalabadhi, al-Ta'arruf li-madhhab ahl
al-tasawwuf Damascus 1986, 121-2; al-Kushayn, Risala,
Damascus 1988, 74; al-Sarradj, al-Luma' fi 'l-tasawwuf
ed. Nicholson, Leiden 1914, 362, etc.). The tadjalU con-
sists of mukashafa, an "unveiling", which allows divine
light to "irradiate" the heart of the meditator; it there-
fore releases human nature from its darkness in the
same way that the sun chases away gloom (cf. Kur'an,
XCII, 2).

The influence of al-Tustari is also equally noticeable
in the Salimiyya, a spiritual movement which grew
from him, as in his disciple al-Halladj (L. Massignon,
Passion, 2 Paris 1975, i, 432, 568, 621, iii, 181-2; but
note that Massignon has a tendency to "Christianise"
the word tadjalU by translating it as "transfiguration",
and in fact Christian Arabs use this same term to
denote the Transfiguration of Christ).

Later mystics retain the meaning of "unveiling" in
the term (cf. Ibn al-'ArabT, Istilah al-sufiyya, in Rasa'il,
Haydarabad 1948, 9, and this is often taken up again
by other authors) while also exploring its range of
meaning for initiation. TadjalU reveals divine knowl-
edge which is in the heart of man, thus opening to
him the pathway to gnosis. Such theophany is so
powerful (according to Kur'an, VII, 143, it reduced
Mount Sinai to dust before the eyes of Moses) that
it made the human ego volatile. Mystics then experi-
ment by attempting to annihilate the "Sinai of the
soul", according to the formula of Kubrawi Sufis (cf.
the introduction of H. Landolt to N. Isfararayini,
Revelakur des mysteres, Lagrasse 1986, 106; and see also
M. de Miras, La methode spirituelle d'un maitre du Soujisme
iranien, Nur Ali-Shah, Paris 1973, 295, 322). Therefore a
person can only tolerate theophanies of divine attrib-
utes, names and acts, and these paradoxically form
"so many protective veils between the divine essen-
tial being and the creature".

The term tadjalU also has a metaphysical and a
cosmogonic meaning; as the correlative of the first, it

tL.

i 1 #

£i

Fig. 1. Tadj Mahall 1041-52/1632-43

Fig. 2. Section (Drawing R.A. Barraud/E. Koch)

Si,r (>],.,! DtiHunn R.A. U.i, r.uul/K. korh

A terrace (torn)

H mini) garden [\cakar\bagh)

(.: (oiii|jlr\ of foii.Touil f/irr'tjii- Mono)

I) complex will) miss-shaped tar .a bazar and

four \karwan\sara'is
E water works

1 mausoleum irawdat

'II mosque imn\d}id\

3 assembly hall [rmhman kbana)

■I Lj'LLCrl.n pavilion

6 tower pavilion ffargl

i quarters for limit) auuidaiits ikhawasspura)

A subsirliai-j inmh .maklima

Fig. 4. Overall plan of preserved complex showing main levels of the individual buildings (Drawing R.A. Barraud/E. Koch)

Fig. 5. Main mausoleum, northern portal (Photo: E. Koch, 1979)

Fig. 6. Tombstones in main tomb chamber (Photo: E. Koch, 1981)

TADJALLl

appears in Sufism, especially from Ibn al-'Arabi on-
wards. The Arab philosophers were already using tadjalll
in such a perspective. For Ibn Sina, souls and the
tangible world flow by "irradiation" from the actu-
ating intellect, which itself comes from God, the supreme
light (L. Gardet, La pensee religieuse dAvicennt, Paris
1951, 52, 166). In the work of the faldsifa, as in that
of the later mystics, the notion of tadjalti shows affini-
ties with that offayd, the theory of "emanation", bor-
rowed from Plotinus.

Ibn al-'Arabi, who distinguishes the two terms, made
the first one of them the foundation for his meta-
physical doctrine. Ibn Khaldun puts tadjalti elsewhere
as a characteristic tenet of the major representatives
of "the school of theophany" (ahl or ashab al-tadjalti)
which in his opinion represents the major current of
thought in "modern" Sufism (Shift' al-sa'il li-tahdhib
al-masd'il, Tunis 1991, 212; Mukaddima, tr. V. Monteil,
Discours sur I'Histoire universelk, Beirut 1968, 1017-22;
however, the poet Ibn al-Farid, who is also included
in this changing hierarchy, favours the term fayd). Ac-
cording to Ibn al-'Arabi, multiplicity extends gradu-
ally outwards from unity, through a long unbroken
line of theophanies, which assume countless different
forms; the world continues to exist thanks to "perpet-
ual creation" (khalk djadid). By the "irradiation" of the
Divine Essence on them, creatures pass from nothing-
existence. Everything or every being is therefore a
"theophanic locus" (mazhar, madjla), a receptacle (kabil)
which receives this "irradiation" according to its pre-
dispositions (isti'ddd). Consequently, man sees only his
own image in the divine mirror.

Elsewhere, most of the masters deny that God is
revealed to objects in His Essence (tadjalti dhdti; cf.,
e.g. Ibn al-'Arabi, al-Futuhat al-makkiyya, Cairo 1329,
ii, 606). For Tadj al-Dm al-Subki (Tabakat al-sMfi'iyya
al-kubra, Cairo 1964, ii, 312), an author as early as
al-Kushayri had this perception of tadjalll, but he was
afraid to divulge its esoteric implications in his Risdla
(loc. cii).

Ibn al-'Arabi develops the metaphysics of tadjalti in
many passages of his works (in particular the Fusus
al-hikam and the K. al-Tadjalliyat; for this last work,
use the edition of O. Yahia in al-Mashrik [1966-7]).
This doctrine has clearly diffused mainly into the
school of Ibn al-'Arabi (Kasham, Djllr, Kaysan, etc.)
but also into more orthodoxly Sunn! Sufism (cf. for
example K. al-Tadjalliyat of the Shadhih" Ibn Zagh-
dan, ms. Berlin We II, 1505), Imamite gnosis (cf. La
philosophic shi'ile, texts by H. Amoli, ed. H. Corbin
and O. Yahia, Paris-Tehran 1969), and also to Isma'flr
gnosis ('Aziz-i Nasaff, Le lime de I'homme parfait, ed.
M. Mole, Paris-Tehran 1962; H. Corbin, Trilogie ismaeli-
enne, Paris-Tehran 1961); the Isma'tlis already pro-
fessed the doctrine of the cycles of occulation (satr)
and of manifestation (tadjalll).

Bibliography: The occurrences of the term tadjalR
in mystical literature, particularly in that which is
later than Ibn al-'Arabi, are too numerous to be
recorded here. But a discussion of the teaching of
the master on this subject is presented by Su'ad
al-Hakim, al-Mu'djam al-sufi, Beirut 1981, 257-69;
similarly see H. Corbin, L'imagination creatrice dans
le soufisme d'Ibn 'Arabl, Paris 1958, 324 (index);
G. Bowering, The mystical vision of existence in Classical
Islam. The Qur'anic hermeneutics of the Sufi Sahl At-
Tustari (d. 283/896), Berlin and New York 1980;
W.C. Chittick et alii, Les Illuminations de la Mecque,
The Meccan Illuminations, Paris 1988, 501 n. 7 (with
copious references to passages on tadjalti in al-Futuhat

- TADJDlD 61

al-Makkiyya of Ibn al-'Arabr); Chittick, The Sufi path

of knowledge, Albany 1 989, index s. v. jilwa.

(E. Geoffroy)

TADJDID (a.) "renewal", verbal noun of the form
II verb djaddada "to renew", a term of both clas-
sical and modern Islamic politico-religio-
social vocabulary.

A well-known tradition preserved in Abu DawQd's
hadith collection (Wensinck, Concordance, i, 364) reports
how the Prophet predicted that at the beginning of
each century, God will send someone who will renew
the religion of that century: 'aid ra'si kulli mi'ati sanat"
man yudjaddidu lahd dtnaha.

The title of mudjaddid [q.v.] "renewer" has been
bestowed, amongst others, on the Umayyad caliph
'Umar II (r. 717-20) and the famous theologian al-
Ghazall (d. 1111). The great writer al-Suyutl (d. 91 1/
1505) expected his contemporaries to recognise him
as the renewer of the 10th/ 16th century [see further,
mudjaddid].

In modern times, the idea of a renewer for each
century of the Muslim era has remained alive. It may
be more a part of popular Islam than of the High
Islam of the established official 'ulamd'. The first day
of the first month of the Muslim year 1400 fell on
21-2 November 1979. On the eve of the 15th cen-
tury A.H., a number of candidates for the title of
Renewer of the century were under discussion.

One of these was Ruh Allah al-Khumaynl, who
had come to power in Iran earlier that year. But the
Egyptian Muslim reformer and cult leader Shukrl
Mustafa (b. 1942, executed March 1978 for his in-
volvement in an assassination which had taken place
in July 1977) was, earlier in the 1970s, seen by
many as, possibly, the Renewer of Islam of the 15th

Also, the word tadjdid is repeatedly used in the title
of books about the renewal of the Arab Muslim world
in its confrontation with the West. One of the most
famous of such books is Tadjdid al-fikr al-'arabi (1971)
by the Egyptian neopositivist philosopher Zaki Nadjib
Mahmud (1905-93). This book argues that every cul-
ture is a collection of techniques, values, beliefs, uten-
sils, etc., and that modern Arab culture should not
simply imitate the West but has carefully to select the
elements which it wants to take over from the West
in order to create a new, cohesive culture that is truly
both modern and Arab at the same time.

The tension between High and Low Islam, it has
been repeatedly pointed out, especially eloquently and
convincingly in the writings of Ernest GeUner (d. 1995),
has been responsible for the frequent launching of
internal purification and renewal movements. Perio-
dically, High Islam would attempt to impose itself on
the whole of society. In the long run, this could not
be successful, so that the resulting pattern has been
one that might be called cyclical reformation.

In the confrontation with the West, this state of
affairs has created a particular development. Should
Muslim countries, it was now asked, emulate those
with whom they wished to be equal in power (thereby
spurning their own tradition), or should they, on the
contrary, affirm the values of their own tradition, even
at the price of material and military weakness?

The dominant and persuasive answer did not recom-
mend emulation of the West, nor idealisation of some
folk virtue and wisdom. It commended a return to,
or a more rigorous observance of, High Islam. Self-
renewal did, in this case, not have to go outside the
society. Society could find self-renewal in its own per-
fectly genuine and real Higher Culture which had

TADJDID — TADJIK

been recognised, though not implemented, as a valid
norm by the rest of Muslim society.

It is this vision which is now conquering the Muslim
world. The many books and articles about renewal
of the Muslim world which are written and published
in the Middle East often do not do much more than
present a version of this view. In the West, since the
seventies, such views, especially when violent, are usu-
ally called "fundamentalist".

Bibliography. J.J.G. Jansen, The philosophical devel-
opment qfZafdJVagib Mahmud, in Bi Or, xxxiv (1977),
298-300; idem, The significance of modem Muslim rad-
icalism, in C. van Dijk and A.H. de Groot (eds.),
State and Islam, Leiden 1995, 115-23 (on Shukri
Mustafa); E. Gellner, especially his Postmodernism,
reason and religion, London and New York 1992.
. . (J.J.G. Jansen)

TADJIK, the later form of a word Tazik or Tazik
used in the Iranian and Turkish worlds. In Islamic
usage, it eventually came to designate the Persians,
as opposed to the Turks.

1. Etymology and early linguistic develop-
ment of the term.

The traditional explanation of the term goes back
at least to E. Quatremere, Histoire des sultans mamelmks
de I'Egypte, ii/2, Paris 1845, 154-5, and was set forth,
e.g., in Barthold's EX art. This derives Tazik, etc./
Tadjik from the name of the Arab tribe of Tayyi'
[q.v.], Syriac Tayyaye, meaning "Arabs", said to have
been the first Arab tribe encountered by the Persians
in pre-Islamic times (this would presumably be from
contacts with the Lakhmids [q.v.] of al-Hira, who used
the Tayyi' as frontier guards in 'Irak, with Iyas b.
Kabisa al-la'i in A.D. 602 actually taking over the
wardenship of the marches from the Lakhmids), so
that the Persians then applied it to the Arabs in gen-
eral. The usage of the term may, however, be older
than the 6th century. It spread eastwards with the
Arab advance through Persia in the 7th century A.D.,
and when Arab troops reached Transoxania and first
encountered members of the Western Turkish empire,
the latter gradually took over the term, at first apply-
ing it to all Muslims (between whose component
ethnic groups they did not as yet distinguish) but sub-
sequently to the Iranian peoples of Transoxania and
then Persia proper, as the Muslim people with whom
they were, by that time, most in contact. From the
Turkish side, the Turks' nomadic, steppe background
led them to use Tazik, etc., as applied essentially to
sedentary agriculturists and town dwellers, somewhat
disparagingly (for similar processes at work here with
other terms from the same milieu and period, see
sart and tat). However, it also begins to be used
by the Persians themselves. In the mid- 11th century,
the Ghaznawid historian Abu '1-Fadl Bayhaki in his
Ta'rikh-i Mas'udt, ed. Ghani and Fayyad, Tehran 1 324/
1945, 594 ult., has a Persian official at the court
speaking of his people as "we tdzikdn", i.e. it was by
then a self-designation of the Persians in their rela-
tions with the Turkish ruling and military classes.

In a thoroughgoing study of more than half-a-
century ago, H.H. Schaeder examined the origins and
development of the terms Tat and Tadjik. He noted
the MP form tacik (and the Armenian one tacik), which
would normally yield in NP *tdzig. The transition is
visible in languages of the Further East, where the
term begins to be borrowed from MP: Old Turkish
tazik, twice appearing in the Orkhon [q.v.] inscriptions
of the first half of the 8th century to denote non-
Turkish peoples of Central Asia, such as Transoxania;
Chinese ta-she, and Tibetan stag-gzig = ta-zig. Hence

when New Persian evolved, Tazik appears from the
first half of the 1 1th century, and especially from the
Mongol period, e.g. in the contrasting pair of terms
Turk u Tazik. The Old Turkish form tazik must come
not from NP but from MP taclk >^4azik > tazik (tazik
in Mahmud Kashghari, and forms with z in the Cairo
ms. of the Kutadghu bilig [q.v.]). At the side of tazik
we have in NP the word tazi for the Arabs (hence
Firdawsi speaks of taziyani, i.e. Arab, horses, see Ph.
Wolff, Glossar zu Firdosis Schahname, Berlin 1935, s.v.).
Here, the process of development from the name of the
Arab tribe Tayyi' seems clear, and Schaeder felt that
tazi and tazik could only spring from a common origin.

The form Tadjik would thus be a later develop-
ment, but seems to have become the standard one
by the 15th century; the oldest citation for it which
Schaeder could find was in verses of Djalal al-Din
Rumi (13th century [q.v.]). He suggested that the tran-
sition tazik > taapk first took place in western Persia
via an intermediary form tazik.

The topic has since been taken up by V.A. Livshits
and Werner Sundermann. The implication now is that
NP tazi "Arab" goes back to a MP *tdzik/g and
Middle Parthian *tazik/g which was an Iranian caique
on Tayyaye arising quite early in the Christian era
(possibly on analogy with MP razik/g as the ethnic
adjective from the city of al-Rayy, rhyming closely
with Tayyi', and especially with its truncated form
Tayy). Thus coined in western Persia to denote "Arab",
the term would then have been carried by Persians
and Parthians, traders and others, into various parts
of Central Asia, but more probably by Parthians, the
western neighbours of Sogdia, given the Sogdian
spelling t'zyk = tazik/g. When, on the other hand,
Arabs or Muslims in Central Asia are referred to, in
the sources from the 8th century onwards, as Tazik
with z, it must have been Persians who introduced
the name or confirmed it by then established Persian
pronunciation with z- The majority of Persian invaders
of Transoxania in early Islamic times were, however,
no less Muslim than their Arab commanders, to whom
they, for ethnic and not for religious distinction from
themselves, referred as Tazik/g. Hence Barthold and
Schaeder thought it possible that the name Tadjik,
as today applied to and used by native speakers of
the form of Persian language current in what is now
the former Tadjikistan SSR, finds its ultimate expla-
nation in a restriction to the meaning "Persian", by
the still un-Islamised Turks of Inner Asia, of a term
originally meaning "Arab", which they had come to
use in the sense of "Muslim".

There is, however, a complication in that popular
speech in the western province of Fars was at the
end of the 19th century using the term tdqfik (not
with z or z) to designate the everyday Persian koine
spoken there, in order to show its distinctiveness from
the true Iranian dialects of Fars (see O. Mann, Die
Tajik-Mundarten der Provinz Fars. Kurdisch-persische For-
schungen, Abt. 1., Berlin 1909, p. XXVIII). This pecu-
liar usage may go back as far as Sasanid times.
W. Henning (cited in M. Mu'in's ed. of the Burhan-i
kati', Tehran, i, 455) therefore concluded that tadjik
in the sense of "Persian" has nothing to do with MP
tazik/g and MParth tazik/g, which exclusively mean
"Arab", and convincingly postulated an origin for
tadjik in *Tat-cik, originally *Tad-cik. Persians migrat-
ing from Fars to Transoxania would have brought
with them their own name for themselves and their
language, a name quite distinct from Tazik and Tazik,
names by which the Persians and Parthians respec-
tively called the Arabs.

In later centuries of the Islamic period, as with the
term Sart [q.v.], Tadjik became for some Turkish peo-
ples of Inner Eurasia especially associated with the
Iranians in their role as traders. Thus amongst the
Volga Tatars, Tadjlk/Tazik came to be used as a
common noun "merchant, trader"; according to one
of the original sources for the Russian conquest of
Kazan [g.v.] in 1552 (Prince Kurbskiy's account), the
citadel of Kazan was defended by the "ditch of the
Tezik" (tezitskiy/ teshitskiy rov), with Tezik explained as
meaning "merchant".

By the 19th century, Tadjik was sometimes used
to denote the Eastern Iranian peoples of Khurasan
and Transoxania, as distinct from the Persians proper
of central and western Persia; hence its particular
usage during the 20th century in the designation of
the Tadjikistan Autonomous SSR, set up in 1924 (in
1929 a SSSR), the present independent Tadzhikistan
Republic, and the language used there [see below,
tadjIki 1.; and Tadjikistan].

Bibliography: In addition to references in the
article, see Barthold, Ef art. s.v.; H.H. Schaeder,
Turkische Namen der Iranier, in G. Jaschke (ed.),
Festschrift F. Giese, Sonderband der Welt des Islams,
Leipzig 1941, 1-34; V.A. Livshits, Sogdiisku dokumenti
s gori Mug II, Moscow 1962, cited in Sundermann
(see below); W. Sundermann, An early attestation of
the name of the Tajiks, in Medioiranka. Procs. of the
Internal. Colloquium . . . Katholieke Universiteit Leuven . . .
1990, Leuven 1993, 163-71. (C.E. Bosworth)
2. Historical development of the term from
Timurid times onwards.

In the usage of early Islamised Turks in Central
Asia (Mahmud Kashghan, Diwan lughat al-turk, and in
the Kutaaghu bilig [g.v.]) the word Tezik (alongside Tat)
appears as a designation for the "Persians". In Persian
documents up to the 19th century (in historiograph-
ical works since BayhakT) the word appears regularly
with the meaning of "Persians", almost always in a
delimiting or contrastive combination with Turk. In this
context, the comprehensive term Turk u Tadjik may
mean something like "the totality of the subjects", the
focus here being on social rather then ethnic differ-
entiations. This situation becomes particularly clear in
Timurid times (9th/ 15th century). According to the
stereotypical imaginations typically formulated in this
period, the following was generally accepted: The Turk
are the warriors (ahl-i sayf), organised in tribes and
being conscious of their tribal affiliations; the Tadjik
are free of all tribal connections and are sedentary
(peasants or urban dwellers); in the expectations of
others they are not warriors, but rather tradesmen
and, most particularly, merchants and bureaucrats
(ahl-i kalam). The use of Persian is no differentiating cri-
terion: at least those Turks that belonged to the elite
were just as well in command of it as were the Tadjik.
They had, however, one linguistic advantage: they
spoke, in addition to Persian, their own Turkish ver-
nacular which the Tadjik learned only in exceptional
circumstances. At least, this is the way the contrast
appeared to the Turk politician and poet Mir 'Air
Shir Nawa'I [g.v.] in the courtly society of the late
Timurid state; he belonged to the class of the amirs,
i.e. the ahl-i sayf, although he himself was no active
military man. The functional segregation of Turk and
Tadjik was explicitly regulated in the government and
court of the TTmurids: there were two princely coun-
cils (diwan), the "Turkish Diwan" (in Persian diwan-i
umara', in Turkish Turk diwanl) for the tribal and mil-
itary leaders, and the "Persian Diwan" of the bureau-
crats (in Persian diwan-i tddjikan, in Turkish sart aiwani;

see Roemer, Staatsschreiben, 169 ff.). Sart [q.v.] was a
further designation of the Tadjik, taken from Turkish
usage, originally having the explicit meaning of "trader",
"merchant" (for the semantic development of the term
Sart see Baldauf, 79 ff.).

Thus from the time of the TTmurids onward (and
in Persia proper and Central Asia certainly up to the
19th century) the term Tadjik was used, first and fore-
most, in the contrastive pair Turk vs. Tadjik, without
any specific regional correlation. The two terms had,
if at all, only partially an ethnolinguistic semantic com-
ponent. Turk implied also military prowess, tribal nobil-
ity, and other such attributes, whereas Tadjik (with its
synonym Sart) denoted, alongside the use of Persian,
also sedentariness, lack of tribal affiliation, and often
an urban way of life and the occupation of merchant
(Bregel, Turko-Mongol influences, 63). Members of Persian-
speaking tribes were never called Tadjik.

This state of affairs changed with Russia's colonial
rule over Central Asia. During the repeated censuses
of the Russian colonial administration, observations
of ethnographers were used as statistical categories
throughout the empire. Thus it became current among
the Russian bureaucrats to use Tadjik for those inhab-
itants of Transoxania, Farghana, and the Pamirs who
spoke Iranian languages and dialects, while sedentary
people living in towns and rural areas and speaking
predominantly Turkish (often, however, being bilingual)
were statistically assigned the term Sart. This was based
to a large extent on a misunderstanding, given that
until then the two terms had denoted the same type
of inhabitants. Even the fact that the major part of
the urban Sart/TadjTk of the Zarafshan [q.v.] valley
(Samarkand, Bukhara) and of the Farghana valley had
become bilingual during the last three hundred years,
had not been taken into account with this new ter-
minology. During Russian rule, Sart and Tadjik were
considered to be designations for two ethnolinguistic
groups that were conceived of as quite distinct.

In the early Soviet period, this differentiation
was further developed. Literati like Sadr al-Dln 'Ayni
(Becka, Sadriddin Ayni, passim) and the "regionalist" and
Turkestanist 'Abd al-Ra'uf Fitrat (Becka, Tajik litera-
ture, following Bertel's) [see tadjiki. 2. Literature] super-
imposed the notion of Tadjik on to the linguistic term
Tadjik! (todjiki), which denoted a modernised form of
the Persian literary language as adapted to the col-
loquial language of the inhabitants of Bukhara and
Samarkand. 'Ayni was also representative of a tendency
favoured by the Soviets, to separate the TadjTk as a
Persian-(Tadjrki-)speaking nation from the Uzbeks,
who were conceived as Turkophone. The term Uzbek,
up to that time a tribal name, from now on also cov-
ered the Russian colonial term Sart. With the found-
ing of the Soviet Republic of Tadjikistan (Todjikiston)
in 1929, Tadjik finally became the official name of
a Soviet titular nation and, since 1991, that of the
majority nation of an independent republic [see Tadji-
kistan]. In Uzbekistan, Tadjik indicates the minority
of Persian-(TadjTkT-)speakers in Bukhara, Samarkand,
the Kashka Darya region and in parts of Farghana,
which are mostly bilingual (Uzbek, Tadjik). Since the
"national delimitation" of Central Asia in 1924, the
Tadjik of the Uzbek part of the Zarafshan valley have
been exposed to an extensive process of Uzbekisation.
Following the usage of Russian colonial times, speak-
ers of non- Persian Iranian languages and dialects
were also called Tadjik, a fact which led to further
confusion (Bregel, Motes, 15). For the sake of differ-
entiation, terms like "Mountain Tadjiks" (a synonym
of Galea) were introduced; these were all foreign des-

TADJIK — TADJlKl

ignations, which were, however, adopted by the peo-
ples concerned under the influence of colonial, later
Soviet, language regulation.

In the People's Republic of China, Tadjik today
almost exclusively means speakers of Iranian Pamir
languages in Xinjiang (Sinkiang [q.v.]), in particular,
speakers of Sarikuli. In Afghanistan, to the present
day, it is the Persian-speaking, traditionally sedentary,
and in no way tribally-bound population that is called
Tadjik. As a self-designation this term, which earlier on
had been more or less pejorative, has become accept-
able during the last twenty years, particularly as a
conscious and comprehensive delimitation of Persian-
speaking Afghans. The self-designation of Persian-
speakers in Afghanistan had been for a long time most
commonly Farsiwan, Farsiban, or Farsi-gu(y). However,
even today Tadjik does not comprise all Persian-speak-
ing groups in Afghanistan; it has obviously preserved
a socio-cultural semantic component. The Uzbeks in
northern Afghanistan, mostly bilingual and thus also
Persian-speaking, consider themselves, as can be ex-
pected, clearly distinct from the Tadjik, and so do
the Persian-speaking ShT'I Hazara [see hazaras, in
Suppl.] and some other tribes.

Until today, under the influence of the ethnogra-
phers, a meaning of the term Tadjik has been pre-
served in scholarly literature on regions outside the
Republic of Tajikistan, one which corresponds closely
to the concept of the Russian colonial administration.
This may be helpful as a convention among scholars,
but has little to do with the historical and the mod-
ern meanings of the term and the self-understanding
of the Tadjik.

Bibliography: 'All Shir Nawa'T, Muhakamat al-
lughatayn, introd., tr. and ann. R. Devereux, Leiden
1966; I. Baldauf, Some thoughts on the making of the
Uzbek nation, in Cahiers du Monde russe et sovietique,
xxxii/1 (1991), 79-96; V.V. Bartol'd, Tadzhiki. Istori-
ceskrji ocerk, in idem, Socineniya, ii/1, 451-70; H. Bauer,
A. Kappeler and Brigitte Roth, Die JVationalitdten des
Russischen Reiches in der Volkszahkng von 1897, Stuttgart
1991; J. Becka, Sadriddin Ayni. Father of modern Tajik
culture, Naples 1980; idem, Tajik literature from the
16th century to the present, in Rypka et alii, History of
Iranian Literature, Dordrecht 1968; A.K. Borovkov,
Tadzhiksko-uzbeksoye dvukhyazlcie i vopros vzqymovliyanii
tadzhikskogo i uzbekskogo yazlkov, in Uceniye zapiski insti-
tuta Vostokovedeniya, iv (1954), 165-200; Y. Bregel,
Notes on the study of Central Asia, Bloomington, Ind.
1996 (= Papers on Inner Asia, 28); idem, Turko-
Mongol influences in Central Asia, in R.L. Canfield
(ed.), Turko-Persia in historical perspective, Cambridge
1991, 53-77; B.G. Fragner, Nationalization of Uzbeks
and Tajiks, in A. Kappeler, G. Simon, G. Brunner
and E. Allworth, Muslim communities re-emerge, Durham
and London 1994, 13-32; Fragner, Sowjetmacht und
Islam: die Revolution von Buchara, in U. Haarmann
and P. Bachmann (eds.), Festschrift H.R. Roemer, Beirut
1979, 146-66; B.Gh. Ghafurov, Todjikon, 2 vols.
Dushanbe 1983-5; B.Kh. Karmisheva, Ocerki etni-
ceskoy istorii yuzhnikh rayonov Tadzhikistana i Uzbekistana
(po etnogrqficeskim dannim), Moscow 1974; N. Khanikov,
Opisaniye bukharskiye khanstva, St. Petersburg 1843;
H.R. Roemer, Staatsschreiben der Timuridenzeit — das
Saraf-nama des 'Abdallah Marwand in krilischer Auswert-
ung, Wiesbaden 1952; M. ShukQrzada, Tadjlkan dar
masir-i tarlkh, Tehran 1373 h.sh/ 1994-5; Maria A.
Subtelny, The symbiosis of Turk and Tajik in Central
Asia, in J. Critchlow and Beatrice Manz (eds.), Soviet
Central Asia in historical perspective, Boulder, Colo. 1994;
O.A. Sukhareva, Bukhara: XlX—nacalo XX v., Moscow

1966; N. Ne'matov, Todjikon-Todjik stoni tarikhi—

Todjikistoni muosir, Dushanbe 1993.

(B.G. Fragner)

TADJIKl.

1. Language.

Tadjlkl is the name of an Iranian (Irano-Aryan)
language commonly applied to the official language
of Tadjikistan (formerly a republic of the Soviet Union
which declared its independence on 8 September 1991).
Closely-related varieties of the spoken language called
Tadjlkl are used by different ethnic groups (not nec-
essarily sometimes identifying themselves Tadjiks) in
many places over Central Asia, northern Afghanistan,
Pakistan and the Sinkiang-Uygur province of China.
All these genetically South-Western Iranic dialects go
back to the classical New Persian language of the
9th- 16th centuries, the common ancestor of modern
Persian, Tadjik! and modern Darl of Afghanistan. In
Tadjikistan, South- Western forms of Iranian supplanted
indigenous Eastern Iranian languages (Bactrian, Sog-
dian and others) over a long period of time, mainly
after Islamisation of the area (8th-9th centuries) [see
further, Iran. 3. Languages, in Suppl.].

The total number of speakers can be estimated at
about 7-8 millions (over 3 millions in Tadjikistan). In
Central Asia, dialectically differentiated are so-called
groups of "northern" (Bukhara, Samarkand, Khudjand.
Farghana), "central" (Zarafshan, Hisar, Dushanbe),
"southeastern" (Badakhshan, Darwaz) and "south-
western" (Kulyab — Khatlan) dialects.

The first indications of Tadjlkl grammatical pecu-
larities may be traced in literary texts originating in
Central Asia and written in Arabo-Persian script from
the 16th century onwards. After the introduction in
1929 of a Latinised alphabet into Tadjikistan, the
phonetical features of Tadjlkl became obvious. This
Latinised alphabet was replaced in 1 940 by the Cyrillic
(Russian) one, with 6 additional letters. Appeals for
the restoration of the Arabo-Persian script are now
being mooted.

The written variety of Tadjlkl is characterised by
a phonetic system of 6 vowels and 24 consonants
(compared to the modern Persian 8 vowels — 6 monoph-
thongs and 2 diphthongs — and 23 consonants' system).
In morphological structure, Tadjlkl is differentiated
from Persian by the existence of a developed system
of verb formation, including several specific forms for
definite tenses (such as xonda istoda-ast "he is reading
now", xonda istoda bud "he was reading at some def-
inite time in the past"), subjunctive participles in -gl
(xondagt-st "he is supposed to have read"), composite
verbal aspectual formations of various types {xonda mond
"he finished reading") and also other peculiar verbal
constructions (auditive, i.e. "non-obvious" perfect and
other forms).

Written Central Asian Tadjlkl is clearly orientated
more to the spoken dialect variety of the "northern"
group. Some dialects of this group are strongly under
Turkic influence, and intermediate Uzbek-Tadjik ver-
naculars exist in the region of active Uzbek-Tadjik
bilingualism where Uzbek is supplanting Tadjlkl in all
spheres of life (not only in the bazaars but also amongst
families at home). In the south, on the contrary, the
process of Tadjlkl's supplanting local Eastern Iranic
(i.e. Pamir) languages continues (especially as Tadjlkl
till recently remained the only written language of the
Western Pamir area).

Naturally, there is much Russian influence and a
great amount of loanwords and Russian loanword-for-
mations in the sphere of official and journalistic lan-
guage; but attempts are now being made to substitute

for Russian loanwords Persian ones (sometimes, ones
coming from other European languages).

The dialectal spoken varieties of Tadjik! become
closer to Persian ones as one goes towards the south-
west (sc. towards Khurasan). Among the Turkicised
varieties of the north, some can be classified as Turkic
by morphology, but lacking such Turkic features as
vowel harmony (together with some Iranised Uzbek
dialects).

The authors of important works on Tadjik! and its
dialects include the Russian scholars M.S. Andreyev,
A.A. Semenov, I.I. Zarubin, V.S. Rastorgueva and
A.Z. Rosenfeld, and the Tadjik scholars M. Shukurov,
Sh. Rustamov and R. Ghafforov.

Bibliography: V.S. Rastorgueva, A short sketch of
Tajik grammar, Bloomington 1963; eadem, Opit srav-
nitelnogo izuceniya tadzikskikh govorov, Moscow 1964.
I.M. Oranskij, Die neuiranischen Sprachen der Sowjetunion,
The Hague 1975; V.A. Efimov, V.C. Rastorgueva
and E.N. Shrova, Persidskiy, dari, tadzikskiy, Osnovi
iranskogo yazikoznaniya. Novoiranskie yaziki, Mos-
cow 1982, 5-230; Grammatikai zaboni adabii hozirai tojik,
ed. Sh. Rustamov and R. Ghafforov. Dushanbe 1985;
G. Lazard, Le person, Compendium Linguarum Ira-
nicarum, ed. R. Schmitt, Wiesbaden 1989, 263-93
(with bibl.). (I. Steblin-Kamensky)

2. Literature.

Tadjlkl is an indivisible part of Persian literature
[see Iran, vii], but its thousand-year existence and its
historical circumstances justify treating it as a sepa-
rate entity. In the Central Asia where the Tadjiks
live, there originated, in the 10th and 11th centuries,
the first Persian poets, whence the oldest style of
Persian literature is called sabk-i turkistani, but until
the 15th century at least, Persian literature was homo-
geneous, and the classic works of Sa'dl, NizamI, Hafiz,
and Rum! [q.vv.] have always been considered a part
of the literature of the Tadjiks in Central Asia.

From the 16th century onwards, a certain separa-
tion in culture from Shl'T Persia and Central Asia
began. Some authors used local dialects at times, and
the influence of the large TurkT population was also
felt. Literary production was more and more influ-
enced by the so-called Indian style, sabk-i hindl [q.v.].
From the region sprang authors like Hilali, Wasifi",
Banna'I [q.v.] and 'Abd al-Rahman Mushfikl (932-
94/1525-85 [q.v.]), author of several mathnaiws and a
dxwan-i mutd'ibat, which won him place among the
popular jesters. Mir Abld Sayyida Nasaff, was the
representative of the so-called artisanal poetry, author
of the often-imitated dastdn, the Baharyyat or Haywanat-
nama. Central Asian literature in Persian was com-
pletely taken over by the style of the Indo-Persian
author Bldil [q.v.], unknown at that period in Western
Persia, and from the 18th century onwards, there was
no poet or writer in Central Asia or in Afghanistan
who did not imitate him. A prominent representative
of derwish poetry was Sufi Allahyar KattakurghanI
(d. 1136/1723), who, in verse written in Persian and
TurkF, preached the renunciation of the earthly life.
In the 19th century were notable the Bukharan poets
'Abd al-Kadir Kh w adja Sawda (1239-90/1823-73) and
Muhammad Shams al-Dln Shahin (1274-1312/1857-
94), the author of a diwan and of the mathnawl Layla
wa Maajnun, the Tuhfat-i dustdn and the prose work
Bada'i al-sana'i. A new spirit was brought into the
poetry by Tashkhudja Asm of Khodjand (1261-1315/
1864-1916), and new ideas are discernible in Ahmad
Danish Kalla (1242-1315/1827-97) [see azadi, in
Suppl., at 109], author of the prose work Nawddir al-
wakd'i' containing new opinions on education, culture

and technology. His Risala contains a condemnation
of the Bukharan ruling dynasty. Danish was a pre-
decessor of the so-called Djadid or Young Bukharan
movement, whose theoretician then became 'Abd al-
Ra'Qf Fitrat [q.v.] . An important follower of theirs was
a pupil from the madrasas of Bukhara, Sadr al-Dln
'Ayni (1878-1954 [q.v.]), who was, for his reformist
educational methods (maktab-i usul-i djadid), condemned
to 75 strokes of the cane in 1917 and narrowly escaped

Tadjiki literature takes a new path after the
Bukharan revolution in 1920. 'Ayni, Fitrat and others
welcomed in their verse the fall of the amirate; its
backwardness was described by 'Ayni in his story
Adina about the life of a poor Tadjik boy, the first
truly realist piece of prose in the Tadjik language.

In 1926 'Aynl's Namuna-yi adabiyyat-i tadjtk was pub-
lished, a traditional-type tadhkira that brought together
samples of and short notices about 500 Central Asian
poets and several writers, such as the Persian LahQtl
[q.v.], who participated prominently in the formation
of post-revolutionary Tadjik poetry. In the poetry of
the 1920s, the leading place belongs to the innova-
tor Payraw SulaymanI (1899-1933).

A serious estrangement from the mainstream of
Persian literature was caused by the substitution of a
Latin script for the Arabic-Persian one in 1929 and
later, 1940, a Cyrillic alphabet. In these years 'Ayni
and the Tadjik language scholars were fixing the
norms of their language, which showed differences in
phonology, morphology, syntax and vocabulary from
the Persian of Iran and Afghanistan; these differences
are above all evident in works of prose, especially in
journalistic language.

'Aynl's novels DokJiunda (1930) (a transcription from
the Tadjik Cyrillic script is used from here onwards)
and Qhulomon (1934) form, together with Odina, a tril-
ogy about the destiny of the Tadjik nation. It was
followed by the successful satirical novel Margi sudkjiur
(1939, new version 1953). Tadjik poetry is marked
by the arrival of poets brought up in post-revolution
schools, who published poetry which, in a less tradi-
tional form, praises the liberation of women, the growth
of education, victory over the Basmacis [q.v.] and the
so-called success of the Soviet development, including
eulogies of Lenin and Stalin. As everywhere in the
Soviet Union, so in Tadjikistan there were in the
1930s repressions; some writers were imprisoned, ex-
iled or even lost their lives, and 'Ayni himself was
persecuted. He then, in the 1940s and early 1950s,
wrote his fundamental work, a book of recollections,
ToddosMtho, a chronicle of the Bukharan society at the
turn of the 1 9th century. 'Aynl's followers are younger
writers like Djalol IkromI (1909-93), with a short novel
Tirmor (1939), an autobiographic novel Subhi djavonii
mo (1954) and others works, and also several plays
for the theatre on historical and contemporary sub-
jects. The 1960s brought a certain detente. In poetry,
the leading place belongs to Mirzo Tursunzoda (191 1-
77), who was for a long time President of the Tadjik
Writers Union. He published several books of poetry
denouncing colonialism, stressing the brotherhood
between the eastern nations, and also some intimate
lyrics. There are series of lyrical epic poems (dostons)
about the changes in Tadjik life: Hasani arobakash
(1954), Az Gang to KremL, about the journey of Raja
Pratap to Moscow, or Caroghi abaat (1958), in honour
of Sadriddin Ayni. Mirsaid Mirshakar (1911-93) pub-
lished collections of poems as well as poetry for chil-
dren or dostons like Ktshloki tilloi (1944) a legend from
the Pamir region, and others, as well as his n

TADJlKl — TADJIKISTAN

Tordi yori mehrubon (1979). Mu'min Kanoat (b. 1932)
wrote Korvoni nur, and the dostons Surudi Stalingrad,
Gahvorai Ibni Sino, etc. To the distinguished poets of
this time belong Ghaffor Mirzo, Abdudjabbor Kahhori,
the poetess Gulrukhsor Safiyeva, Loik Sherall, Bozor
Sobir and others.

Although poetry was dominant, Tadjik prose is now
gaining more prominence. Ikroml published his novel
on contemporary themes £oghhoi badmwt (1977), and
the crimes against humanity during the Stalinist era
are treated in his short story Duvozdah kilometr (1967),
published only in 1988. Ulughzoda published histori-
cal works such as FirdusI (1978); Rahim Djalil (1909-
89) wrote about the formation of socialism, and Foteh
Niyozl (1914-91) treated mostly of war events. An
author of some promise was Fazliddin Muhammadiyev
(1928-91), with his novel Palatal kundja/a ("The corner
room") showing a more liberal civil standpoint. Con-
temporary life is the theme of authors like Yusufdjon
Akobirov, Muhiddin Khodjayev. Amindjon Shukuhi
or Djum'a Odina, whose novel Guzashti ayyom (1978)
was prohibited because of its critical attitude to a
Communist party functionary; and there are many
other authors, like Urun KQhzod, Sorbon, Bahrom
Firuz, Adash Istad, etc. The plays of GhanI Abdullo
(1912-84) and those of authors like Ulughzoda, Ikroml,
Shukuhi, Muhammadiyev, including the poets Mirsha-
kar and Fayzullo Anson, have been staged in Tadjikis-
tan theatres.

In 1989 the Tadjikistan Parliament accepted a law
about the priority of the "todjiki (forst)" language,
which is expected to mean a return to the traditional
script, but this has not so far been implemented. At
the University of Dushanbe there has been created a
department for the study of adabiyoti naviniforsii todjik.
Political liberation at the end of the 1980s resulted
in an outpouring of patriotic poetry, verses praising
the mother-tongue, the national traditions, including
Islam, and condemning the Soviet regime, the losses
of Bukhara and Samarkand, etc. After civil war broke
out in 1991, a quarter of a million Tadjiks, mostly
intelligentsia, left the country, and from Russia, Persia
and other countries are now resounding proclama-
tions and verses of protest: doston Mu'min Kanoat's
Hamosai dod (1994), the verses of Bozor Sobir, the col-
lection of sorrowful poems ^pdruzi dard (Moscow 1994)
by the poetess Gulrukhsor, and others.

Bibliography: S. 'Aynl, Namuna-i adabiyyat-i tadjik,
Moscow 1926; J. Becka, in J. Rypka et alii, History
of Iranian literature, Dordrecht 1968, 483-605, J. Becka,
Adabiyyat-i first dar Tajikistan, Tehran 1372/1993;
A. Abdulloyev and S. Sa'diyev, Adabiyoti forsu todjik
dar nimai duyumi asri XI va avvali asri XII, Dushanbe
1986; A. Abdulloyev, Adabiyoti forsu todjik dar nimai
awali asri XI, Dushanbe 1986; Usmon Karimov, Ada-
biyoti todjik dar asri XVI, Dushanbe 1985; U. Kari-
mov, Adabiyoti todjik dar nimai dumumi asri XVIII va
awali asri XIX, Dushanbe 1974; Rasul Hodizoda,
Adabiyoti todjik dar nimai duvvumi asri XIX, Dushanbe
1968; J. Becka, Sadriddin Ayni. Father of modem Tajik
culture, Naples 1980. (J. BEeKA)

TADJIKISTAN (Djumhurii Todjikiston), a modern
republic in Central Asia bordering on China
(fronder of 430 km), Afghanistan (1,030 km), Uzbe-
kistan (950 km), and Kirgizstan (590 km). 93% of its
territory (in total 143,000 km 2 ) is covered by moun-
tains, almost half of them higher than 3,000 m/9,840
feet above sea level. Its capital is Dushanbe, renamed
1929-61 Stalinabad. The state language is, according
to the constitution of 1994, TadjikI (under Soviet rule
officially promoted as a distinct Iranian language, nowa-

days generally regarded as a variant of New Persian)
[see tadjIki. 1.], and besides that, Russian for "inter-
national relations". The population amounts to ca. 5.5
million consisting, according to the last census (1989),
of 62.3% Tadjrks, 23.5% Uzbeks, 7.6% Russians, and
others (these figures may partly have changed due to
developments connected with the civil war of 1992).

As already the topography of the country suggests,
the titular nation of the Tadjrks is of a regionally
rather diverse character. It ranges between, on the
one hand, a population of mixed Turkic-Iranian extrac-
tion (prior to the 1920s, in the Russian sphere of in-
fluence usually referred to as Sarts [q.v.]), not seldom
bilingual in Turkic and Persian, and originating in
the densely-populated agricultural regions and urban
centres of the lowland; and, on the other hand, popula-
tion remnants of Eastern Iranian elements, which have
survived in the refuge areas of remote high mountain
valleys, and have in part preserved their archaic lan-
guages (such as YaghnabI, Yazghulami, ShughnI and
Wakhr). Even though certain popular traditions and
religious practices were more or less radically sup-
pressed in Soviet times, the local population, espe-
cially the rural one, to a certain extent kept up their
customs and beliefs (predominantly SunnI of the Ha-
naff law school, with an Isma'IlI community in Gorno-
Badakhshan).

The creation of the state of Tadjikistan was brought
forth under Soviet auspicies by the so-called national-
territorial delimitation of Central Asia in 1924. The
Tadjik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR),
functioning as a part of the Uzbek SSR, was made
up of Eastern Bukhara — till then belonging to the
Bukharan People's Republic (removed by the above-
mentioned delimitation; until September 1920 the
Emirate of Bukhara); a part of the Pamirs [q.v.] (since
1895 under Russian dominion), and twelve districts
(volost') of the Turkestan ASSR (also removed by the
delimitation of 1924; until 1917, a governor-general-
ship of Russia). In October 1929 the province and
city of Khudjand [q.v.] (renamed Leninabad) was added
to the territory of Tadjikistan, which at the same time
received the status of a Union Republic (SSR).

Tadjikistan was included in the general develop-
ment schemes of the Soviet Union (collectivisation,
industrialisation, etc.) and became subject to various
campaigns — all of them, more or less extensively, for
the first time launched from 1927-8 — such as the elim-
ination of illiteracy, the changeover to the Latin then
to the Cyrillic alphabet [see tadjiki. 1], the unveil-
ing and liberation of women, the promotion of athe-
ism, resettlement operations and political purges.
During the first decade of these policies, there were
waves of emigration (mainly to Afghanistan) and anti-
Soviet, traditionalist, armed resistance by the Basmacis
[q.v.]; one of the most prominent Basmaci leaders was
Ibrahim Beg (arrested 1931, executed 1932).

In the decades Mowing World War II, Tadjikistan,
although continuing to be considered as the poorest
republic of the Soviet Union, in a technical sense rep-
resented a relatively developed country, with a certain
amount of industrial and agricultural production, a
basic infrastructure, and broad networks of public
health and education. At the breakdown of the Soviet
Union (August 1991), Tadjikistan declared itself inde-
pendent but soon fell into a precarious situation.
Regional animosities and political quarrels led to a
civil war (1992). These conflicts and their manifold
consequences are not yet (1996) finally resolved. The
economy, apart from its having been a integral and
therefore heavily dependent part of the centralised

TADJIKISTAN — TADJNlS

economy of the USSR, has almost come to a halt,
thereby fostering further social disruption.

Bibliography: There exists an ample amount of
biased Soviet literature on Tadjikistan. For general
information see, e.g., Istoriya Tadzhikistana (Ukazatel'
sovetskoy lileraturi 1917-1983), i ff., Dushanbe 1986
ff.; Taazhikskaya Sovetskaya Socialisticeskaya Respublika,
Dushanbe 1974. For a post-Soviet assessment of the
recent situation, see Respublika Tadjikistan. Otcet po
celoveceskomu razvitiyu 1995, Bishkek 1995. Well-
informed, comprehensive Western studies are not
available. For certain aspects, see T. Rakowska-
Harmstone, Russia and nationalism in Central Asia. The
case of Tadjikistan, Baltimore and London 1970;
M. Atkin, 77k subtlest battle. Islam in Soviet Tajikistan,
Philadelphia 1989; Le Tadjikistan, existe-t-il? Destins
politiques d'une "nation imparfaite" (Cahiers d'Etudes sur
la Mediterranee Orientate el le Monde Turco-Iranien, no.
18, 1994). (R. Eisener)

TADJIK (a.), merchant, trader, further defined
by Arabic authors as a person engaged in the
buying and selling of commodities. The ety-
mology of the term and the attitude towards merchants
and trading in early Islamic society, with the evidence
from the Kur'an and from Hadlth and then from
subsequent writers, is considered below in tidjara. 2.
Hence here will be given only some few comments
on the role of the merchant; for an extended treat-

The trader was certainly a well-known figure in
the urban societies of pre-Islamic Arabia and Arabia
at the time of the Prophet, even if some aspects of
the significance of trading within the global society
of Arabia and its Near Eastern environment are mat-
ters for controversy (see Patricia Crone, Meccan trade
and the rise of Islam, Princeton 1987). Muhammad him-
self acted as a trader in the earlier part of his life,
and Companions such as Abu Bakr, 'Uthman b. 'Affan,
'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Awf, Talha b. 'Ubayd Allah and
'Amr b. al-'As [q.w.] likewise followed this avocation.
Yet, as Islamic society developed, traders often had
something of an ambivalent status within it. There
was a hierarchy within them, with perfume sellers and
clothiers somewhere near the top, and the customary
prescriptions of kafa'a, social compatibility for mar-
riage, meant that e.g. a weaver was not regarded as
the equal of a jeweller (ajawhan) or money-changer
(sayrqfi). Senior government officials were considered
to be higher in status than traders. Abu Hayyan al-
Tawhrdf [a.v.] was probably voicing public opinion of
his time when he said that these last lacked refine-
ment (adab) and moral virtue (muruwwa), so that they
ranked below the elite or khdssa of the ruler and his
courtiers (al-ImW wa 'l-mu'anasa, Cairo 1944, iii, 60-1).
A proverbial saying echoed such beliefs, that traders
were like wolves beneath their outward clothing (ahl
al-suk dhi'ab taht al-Myab).

The cognomen of al-Tadjir was known for merchants

who traded outside their own towns or lands on a

large scale (cf. al-Sam'anl, Ansab, facs. ed. fol. 102a-b =

ed. Haydarabad, iii, 2-4), such as the trader with the

Far East cited by Ibn al-Fakrh, 1 1, Sulayman al-Tadjir.

Bibliography: This is substantially given in

tidjAra, but see also S.D. Goitein, The rise of the

Near Eastern bourgeoisie in early Islamic times, in Jnal.

of World Hist., iii (1957), 596-604; M.AJ. Beg, Social

mobility in Islamic civilization, Kuala Lumpur 1981,

28-30. (M.A.J. Beg)

TADJMIR (a.), the verbal noun of form II of

dj-m-r meaning basically "to come together".

In early Islamic military and administra-

tive usage, djammara had the meaning of "to keep
the troops quartered on distant frontiers, far away
from their families" (see L'A\ v, 217). The caliph
'Umar is said to have disapproved of this, as lead-
ing to discontent and rebelliousness amongst the Arab
warriors. But once the initial phase of the Arab con-
quests was over, the mukatila found themselves fight-
ing in distant, climatically and topographically difficult
environments like Central Asia and Afghanistan, so that
complaints grew. It was discontent at al-Hadjdjadj's
[q.v.] policy in the late 690s of stationing troops on
the far eastern frontiers in permanent garrisons (tadjmir
al-bu'uth) which sparked off the revolt of the "Peacock
Army" under <Abd al-Rahman b. al-Ash'ath in 82/701
and almost toppled the Umayyad caliphate (see ibn
al-ash'ath and C.E. Bosworth, 'Ubaidatldh b. Abi Bakra
and the "Army of Destruction" in Zabulistan (79/698), in
Isl., 1 [1973], 268-83).

Bibliography: Given in the article.

(C.E. Bosworth)
TADJMS (a.), a technical term for a rhetorical
figure (alternative names, all from the same root, are
djinas [very common], muqjanasa, mudjanas, and tadjanus),
variously translated as paronomasia, pun, homony-
my, and alliteration. The last two terms, how-
ever, do not cover all the types that have traditionally
been subsumed under this heading, while "pun" has
also been used to render tawriya [q.v.], the difference
being that tawriya is a one-term pun (double entendre).
A general definition of tadjnis would be: a pair of
utterances (mostly, but not necessarily single words),
within a line or colon, which are semantically differ-
ent but phonetically, either completely or partially,
identical. The alternative "completeness or lack of
such" is the basis for distinguishing the various sub-
types that the rhetoricians have discovered. Since words
that are only partially identical are very likely to be
semantically different anyway, it becomes clear that
two notions have merged in the tadjnis concept: a
narrow one which covers only the case of complete
phonetic identity (this is the tadjnis tamm, which some
say, or imply, is the original and "correct" meaning
of the term), and a broader one in which the two
terms of the tadjnis show any kind of lesser degrees
of assonance, down to root-repetition (ishtikak, fgura
etymologica). Some authors deny that ishtikak is a sub-
type of tadjnis.

Tadjnis is without doubt one of the most popular
and sought-after rhetorical figures, especially in later
Arabic poetry and ornate prose, whence it became
also a favourite in other Islamic literatures. Word plays
are, of course, universal in all languages and liter-
atures. In world-views that consider names not to be
arbitrary, puns are used to discover and express hid-
den relationships between similarly named things, while
those who do not believe in "natural" names, may
still use puns the same way, though tongue in cheek,
or else employ them to create witty and unexpected
connections. However, Arabic, as a Semitic language,
has particularly ample possibilities here due to its root-
and-pattern structure. Different derivations from the
same root play an important role even in everyday
syntax, as shown by such constructions as the cog-
nate accusative (e.g. kala kawl m ), the participial expres-
sion of an indefinite subject (e.g. kala kd'il""), and the
strengthening of a noun with an etymologically related
but per se meaningless adjective (e.g. layl m la'iV'/alyal";
laylaf" layld'u) (see Reckendorf and Griinert, in Bibl.).
This kind of repetition (Jigura etymologica in Classical
terms, and ishtikak in the later rhetorical fc

but see below) thus comes naturally to artisans of the
language and is made the starting-point for other more
artistic uses of root-derivations. Examples collected by
the rhetoricians from early, pre-"modern" poetry show
that this particular type is moderately well attested.
Particularly rich are the Umayyad raqjaz poets: Ru'ba
[g.v.] has more than 1,200 cases in his Diwan (ed.
Ahlwardt, p. xciii; and see the specimens, pp. xciv-
xcvii). One specific use of this figure is to extract
"meaning" from a personal or geographic name, a
method that remains popular also in later poetry (cf.
Djarir [q.v], Diwan, ed. al-Sawi, 326, 1. 6: fa-ma zala
ma'kul™ 'Ikalun 'ani 'l-uld — wa-ma zala mahbus" 'ani
'l-madjdi Habisu, a closure line in a hidja' against al-
Farazdak that resounds with its two malicious name
games). Apart from root repetition, there are also
other, less extended, phonetic repetitions that were
clearly intended by the poets, but which find their
way into the later taajnis category only in part (see
Renate Jacobi, Studien zur Poetik der altarabischen Qaside,
Wiesbaden 1971, 183-93; Th. Bauer, Altarabische
Dichtkunst, Wiesbaden 1992, i, 163-71). Word repeti-
tion is not uncommon in early poetry (ibid.), but rarely
has the second word a different meaning; thus the
repetition does not constitute a taints in the later tax-
onomies. The rhetoricians who can be trusted to have
looked very hard cannot muster more than four or
five examples of tadjnis tamm in ancient poetry (e.g.
al-Afwah al-Awdl [g.v.] apud Ibn Rashtk, al-'Umda, i,
322: wa-akta'u 'l-hawqjala musta'nis® 1 — bi-hawdjal'" 'ayra-
naf 'aytamus "I cut through the pathless desert [hawajal]
taking comfort — in an onager-like magnificent fleet
camel mare [hawajal]").

With the rise of the "modern" poetry of the 'Abbasid
era, tadjnis became a bone of contention, as it was
one of the phenomena in the centre of the badi' con-
troversy. As Ibn al-Mu'tazz (d. 296/908 [g.v.]) cor-
rectly explains (Boat', 1), poets like Abu Tammam
(d. 231/845 or 232/846 [g.v.]), who was the focus of
the debate, "exaggerated" the use of this and other
figures of speech and thus shifted the character of
these figures from being a means of poetic style to
becoming an essential part of the poetic endeavour.
For a study of tadjnis in this period in general, see
J.E. Bencheikh, Poetique arabe. Precedee de Essai sur un
discours critique, Paris 1989, 186-202 (who deals only
with the ishtikak variety), and for individual poets, see
E. Wagner, Abu Nuwas. Eine Studie zur arabischen Literatur
derfruhen 'AbbasidmzeU, Wiesbaden 1965, 432-36; Magda
M. al-Nowaihi, 77k poetry of Ibn Khafaja. A literary analy-
sis, Leiden 1993, 71-96; and, on al-Ma'arn, S. Sperl,
Mannerism in Arabic poetry, Cambridge 1989, 142-51
(who includes phonetic repetition). Although the figura
etymologka can probably claim the lion's share, the
taajnis tamm and, in particular, its murakkab variety gain
much in popularity and soon have their own spe-
cialists, such as Abu '1-Fath al-Bustl (d. 400/1010 or
later [g.v.]). His friend, the arch-adib al-Tha'alibr
(d. 429/1038 [g.v.]), declared the tadjnis murakkab to
be the crowning achievement in this field and he
compiled a sizable anthology of thematically arranged
verse displaying this particular variety of punning (Anis,
see Bibl.), in which al-Busti figures prominently (e.g.
Anls, 452: had tafa'altu bi 'l-araki fa-lamma — an ra'aytu
'l-araka kultu arakt—kha'ifan mm salahihi li-siwakin — an
yakuna 'lladhi arahu siwaki "I took the arak-tree [araki]
for a good omen and when — I saw the arak-tree, I
said: I shall see you [ara-ki], — (though) fearing that,
due to its being good for (the making of) tooth-sticks
[siwaki(n)], — the one I shall see will be someone other
than you [siwa-ki]."). Actually, the Ants contains also

a number of instances of taajnis tamm. One particu-
lar use made of both varieties is homonymous rhyme.
Examples of this artifice, which retained a certain
popularity through the centuries, are already attested
for the 3rd/9th century (an inshad of Tha'lab [q.v]
quoted by Abu Hilal al-'Askan, K. al-Sina'atayn, 438-
40, with eleven instances of the rhyme-word khali).
What is remarkable here is the fact that the tadjnis
stretches over more than one line.

In another work (K. al-Mutashabih, see Bibl), al-
Tha'alibr devotes a large part to the tadjnis musahhaf,
for which he adduces numerous examples, this time
not only from poetry but also from prose, mostly cola
from ornate epistles of well-known people of eloquence.
A poetic example is the following verse by Ibn al-
Ruml: Id asriku 'l-shi'ra wa-ghqyri kalah—yakfinrya 'ntikha-
luhu 'ntihalah "I do not steal poetry, when another
has said it; — sifting it prevents me from lifting it"
(Mutashabih, 22), i.e. it is not good enough for me.
The popularity, among the scribes, of this ingenious
artifice is easy to understand. Al-Tha'alibi does, how-
ever, express his dislike for texts that consist exclu-
sively of pairs of tadjnis musahhaf, such as gharraka
'izzuka fa-sara kusaru dhalika dhullaka . . . (Mutashabih, 24,
and see below, II. Terminology, B, 1-2), where in
every pair the words exhibit the same rasm. None-
theless, even this odd self-imposed hardship found its
adherents and reached its apogee in al-Risala al-
taw'amiyya, the "Twin Epistle," of Safi al-Din al-Hilli
(d. ca. 749/1348 [g.v.]).

In post-classical poetry, the tadjnis, together with its
cousin, the tawriya [q.v.], becomes ever more central.
Al-Safadi (d. 764/1362 [q.v.]) wrote independent stud-
ies on both figures of speech and, in the Djinan al-
ajinas, included as its third part an anthology of his
own djinas poetry. Studies are, however, still few. For
AyyGbid poetry, see the few remarks in J. Rikabi, La
poesie profane sous ks Ayyubides et ses principaux repre-
sentants, Paris 1949, 264-8; on Mamluk poetry, see
Muhammad Zaghlul Salam, al-Adabft 'l-'asr al-mamluki,
2 vols., Cairo n.d. [1971], index of technical terms,
s.w. tadjnis and djinas. Salam makes the point that
the Syrians were more interested in tadjnis, while the
Egyptian poets concentrated their efforts on the tawriya
(op. cit., ii, 126).

It is interesting to note that the taajms, which is
often taken as a symbol of the late artificial, ossified
state of pre-Modern Arabic poetry, also made it into
many genres of folk poetry, particularly the mawaliya
[g.v.], where it often is a feature of the rhyme scheme.
This is to some extent already attested in pre-Modern
sources (cf. a mawaliya by al-Shihab al-HidjazI with a
tadjnis murakkab rhyme "kallam", apud al-Suyuti [d. 911/
1505], Djand, 141). In modern Egyptian mawwals, the
rhyme paronomasia is generally achieved by wilfully
distorting the words; this feature is called zahr "flow-
ers" (see mawaliya, and P. Cachia, Popular narrative
ballads of modem Egypt, Oxford 1989, see index s.w.
"paronomasia" and "zahr").

II. Terminology

Whether the early poets had terminological ways
of talking about paronomasia is unclear. The earliest
attestations from late Umayyad times onward show
various terms, some of which do not find acceptance
in the later terminology. Thus al-'Adjdjadj [g.v.], in
an argument with his son Ru'ba [q.v.], emphatically
tells him that he, al-'Adjdjadj, taught him 'atf al-raajaz,
and as an example he adduces a line with triple
paronomasia (apud Ibn RashTk, 'Umda, i, 331, and cf.
G. Kanazi, Studies in the Kitdb as-Sind'atayn, 64). It is
not certain, but very likely, that the enigmatic 'atf (m

the sense of "folding back" or "adding on"?) meant
"paronomasia." Similarly, 'Umara b. 'AkTl, great-grand-
son of the Umayyad poet Djarlr [q.v.] , compared Abu
Tammam's paronomasias to those of his famous fore-
bear and called them raddat "echos" (?). The first term
seems to be taken up again in the term ta'attuf of
Abu Hilal al-'Askan (d. 395/1005 [q.v.]) (Sind'atayn,
438-40; see below), whereas raddat may have meta-
morphosed into the later term tardid, which however
refers to a repetition of the same word with the same
meaning in different syntactic contexts to create a
contrast and is thus not a paronomasia.

The first theorists are less than homogeneous in
their technical language. Tha'lab (d. 291/904) uses
the term mutabak, and although he defines it as the
repetition of the same word with a different mean-
ing, he includes a fair amount oi Jigura etymologica cases
(Kawd'id, 64-7). Interestingly, his one-time disciple
Kudama (d. 337/948 [q.v.]) takes up this term but
combines it with mudjanas and assigns the meaning of
"pun" to the former and the meaning of "Jigura ety-
mohgica" to the latter. Thus, although he considers
both as one phenomenon, he seems to feel uneasy in
lumping the two subcategories together. At about the
same time, Ibn al-Mu'tazz uses the term tadjnls;
whether he introduced the term (some say he "in-
vented" it) is unclear. Abu Hilal al-'Askan, who as a
compiler is, of course, very much dependent on his
predecessors, nonetheless veers off by using tadjms for
the Jigura etymologica and excluding the word-repetition,
which he says is called ta'attuf (see above, on 'atf). But
the later theorists grosso modo understand tadjnls, or the
equally frequent djinas, as covering both phenomena.
There are numerous subcategories with a plethora
of synonymous technical terms. The most important
subcategories are the following, taking al-Khatib al-
Kazwmi (d. 734/1338 [q.v.]) as the basis:

A. Tamm, complete agreement in nature, number,
and arrangement of consonants and vowels between
two words of different meaning.

1. Mufrad, either term is one word.

(a) mumathil, both words belong to the same word
'1-suUani 'l-djd'iri ka-zd'iri 'l-laythi

l unjust ruler

like s

3. composite.

visiting a roaring lio

(b) mustawfd, the two words belong to different word
classes, as in ma mata min karami 'l-zamdni fa-innahu
yahya lada Yahya bni 'Abdi lldhi (Abu Tammam) "what-
ever dies of the nobility of Time, that lives on with
Yahya b. 'Abd Allah" [yahya verb and Yahya proper

2. Murakkab, one term i:

(a) malfuf, the composite
pendent words.

(b) marfuw, the composite term consists of one word
and a fragment of another. An additional considera-
tion is the question whether the two terms are spelled
the same way (mutastdbih) or differently (majruk).

Example of malfuf mutashabih:

Idha malik" lamyakun djia hibah—fa-da'hu fa-dawlatuhu
dhahibah (al-Busti)

"When a king is not generous (lit. one of gift),
leave him, for his rule is transient".

Example of malfuf majruk:

kullukum kad ajshadha 'l-djama wa-la ajama land — ma
lladhi darra mudira 'l-djdmi law djamalana (al-Busti)

"Each of you has received the goblet, but there is
none for us — what harm would have been done to
the one who makes the goblet go around, if he had
been friendly to us?"

Example of marfuw majruk:

wa-la talhu 'an tadhkari dhanbika wa-'bkihl — bi-dam'in
yuhaki 'l-muzna hala masabihl — wa-maththil li-'aynayka
'l-himama wa-wak'ahu — wa-raw'ata malkdhu wa-mat'ama
sabihl (al-Hariri)

"Don't fail to be mindful of your sins and mourn
them with tears that are like the rainclouds at the
time of a downpour — and put before your eyes the
fall of death, the terror o" '

3. Mulajfak, both terms are composites, as in Ha
hatfl sa'a kadami — ara kadami ardka dami (al-Busti)
"Toward my ruin ran my foot: I see my foot hav-
ing spilled my blood".

B. "Imperfect" paronomasia (there is no generally
accepted cover term for this), which means lack of
agreement (1) in the pronunciation of the consonants,
(2) in their number, (3) in their arrangement, and (4)
in individual consonants of the two terms.

1. Muharraf difference in vocalisation, as in al-daynu
shaynu 'l-din "debt is a blemish on religion".

2. Musahhqf (or djinas al-khatt), difference in dia-
critics, as in idha zuhara 'l-zina wa-'l-riba ji karyat"
adhina 'lldhu Jt halakihd "when fornication and usury
appear in a town, God will permit its ruin".

Often both types are mixed, systematically, e.g. in
the following pairing of terms: giarraka 'izzuka fa-sara
kusdru dJialika dhullaka fa-khsha jahisha ji'lika fa-'allaka
tuhdd bi-hadha wa 'l-salam (from an alleged letter of
'All to Mu'awiya). "Your might has deluded you, so
the outcome of that became your humiliation. Fear
therefore your abominable deeds, perhaps you will be
guided by that. Peace".

3. Mkis, one term incomplete by one or two let-
ters, which may be at the beginning or end or in
the middle of the term.

Example for incompleteness at the end of the word:
yamudduna min ayd" 'awdf 'awasim™ — tasulu bi-asyaf"
kawad" kawddibi (Abu Tammam) "they stretch out
hands that attack and defend, which wield cutting
sharp swords".

If several letters are "appended" to one term, the
tadjnis is called mudhayyal, as in inna 'l-buka'a huwa
'l-shijd'u mma 'l-a^awa bayna 'l-djawanih fal-Khansa') "cry-
ing is the medicine against love passion between the

4. D)inas al-kalb, difference in the arrangement of
the letters, as in husdmuka Jthi li 'l-ahbdbi fath m — wa-
rumhuka jihi li 'l-a'dd'i hat/u (al-Ahnaf ) "Your sword
carries victory for your friends, your lance carries
death for your enemies".

If the distribution of the two terms is the beginning
and the end of a verse, it is called mua^annah, as in
Idha anwdru 'l-nada min—kaffihtfi kulli hali "the rays
of generosity shone from his hand in every situation".

5. One divergent consonant.

(a) mudari', homorganic, i.e. similar articulation area,
as in bayni wa-bayna Hnnl layl m damis™ wa-tarik m Mmts(™)
(Makdmdt al-Hann) "Between me and my inn is a
dark night and an effaced road".

(b) lahik, non-homorganic, as in wayl m li-kulli huma-
zat'" lumazah "woe unto every calumniator and libeller"

6. Terms are derivations of the same root (or seem-
ingly the same root) {Jigura etymologica) [tadjms al-ishtikak],
as in fa-akim wadjhaka li 'l-dini 'l-kayyim "so turn your
face toward the straight religion".

Bibliography: A. Monographs on tadjnxsl
djinas: Tha'alibl, al-Mutash&bih, ed. Ibrahim al-
Samarra'I, in Madjallat Kulliyyat al-Adab, Djdmi'at
Baghdad, x (1967), 5-33; idem, al-Anis fi ghurar al-
tadjnis, ed. Hilal Nadji, in Maajallat al-Madjma' al-

TADJNIS — TADJUH

'Ilml al-'lrdkl, xxxiii (1402/1982), 369-480; Safadl,
Djindn al-djinds, Constantinople 1299/[1881-2], and
ed. Samlr Husayn HalabT, Beirut 1407/1987; SuyutT,
Djand al-ajinas, ed. Muh. 'All Rizk al-Khafadji, n.p.
n.d. [1986] [with important introd.]; DjarmanGs
Farhat (d. 1145/1732), Bulugh al-arab Jt 'ilm al-adab.
'Ilm al-djinds, ed. In'am Fawwal, Beirut 1990.

B. All works on rhetoric and literary criticism
have a chapter on taints, the earlier and the more
extensive ones are listed here: Tha'lab, Kawd'id al-
shi'r, ed. Ramadan 'Abd al-Tawwab, Cairo 1966,
64-7; Ibn al-Mu'tazz, K al-Badl', ed. I. Kratchkov-
sky, London 1935, 25-35; Kudama, K Nakd al-shi'r,
ed. S.A. Bonebakker, Leiden 1956, 93-5; idem,
Djawdhir al-alfiz, ed. Muh. Muhyi '1-Din 'Abd al-
Hamrd, Beirut 1399/1979, 3, 4-5; Ishak b. Ibrahim
Ibn Wahb al-Katib (1st half 4th/ 10th cent.), al-
Burhdn Jt wudjuh al-baydn, edd. Ahmad Matlub and
Khadidja al-Hadlthi, Bagdad 1387/1967, 181 (al-
mutdbaka wa 'l-mushdkala); Amidi (d. 371/981), al-
Muwdzana bayn shi'r Abi Tammdm wa 'l-Buhturl, ed.
al-Sayyid Ahmad Sakr, Cairo 1380-4/1961-5, i, 14
[badt' > isti'dra, tibdk, tadjnls], 265-71 [bad tadjnls in
Abu Tammam]; Rummani (d. 386/997), al-Nukal
Jt i'djdz al-Kur'an, edd. Muh. Khalaf Allah and
Muh. Zaghlul Salam, in Thaldth rasd'il Jt i'djdz al-
Kur'an, Cairo n.d., 91-2 (tadjdnus); Hatimi (d. 388/
998), Hilyat al-muhddara, ed. Dja'far al-Kattani, 2
vols., [Baghdad] 1979, i, 146 [fragmentary]; Kh w a-
razmr, MafiSh al-'ulum, ed. van Vloten, Leiden 1895,
repr. 1968, 72-3 (in the section on muwdda'dt hut-
tab al-rasd'iL ishtikdk = in poetry: mudjdnasa), 94 (in
the section on nakd al-shi'r: mudjdnasa); al-Kadi al-
Djurdjani, al-Wasdta bayn al-Mutanabbl wa-khusumih,
edd. Muh. Abu '1-Fadl Ibrahim and 'All Muh. al-
Bidjawl, 3 Cairo n.d., 41-4 (tadjnls mutlak, t. must-
aujd, I. ndkis), 46 (tashlj); Ibn WakT' (d. 393/1003),
K al-MunsiJ li 'l-sdrik wa 'l-masruk minhu Jt izhdr
sarikdt Abi 'l-Tayyib al-Mutanabbl, ed. Muh. YQsuf
Nadjm, part 1, Kuwait: 1404/1984, 50-2 (mudjdnasa);
Abu Hilal al-'Askan, K. al-Sind'atayn al-kitdba wa
'l-shi'r, edd. 'All Muh. al-Bidjawi and Muh. Abu
'1-Fadl Ibrahim, 2 Cairo n.d. [1971], 330-45 (tadjms),
438-440 {ta'attuj), cf. also G. Kanazi, Studies in the
Kitdb as-Sind'atayn of Abu Hildl al-'Askari, Leiden
1989, index; BakillanI, I'gjdz al-Kur'an, ed. al-
Sayyid Ahmad Sakr, Cairo 1963, 83-7, cf. also von
Grunebaum (tr.), A tenth-century document, 20-5; Ibn
Rashik, al-'Umda Jt mahdsin al-shi'r wa-dddbih wa-
nakdih, ed. Muh. Muhyi '1-Dln 'Abd al-Hamid,
3 Cairo 1383/1963-4, i, 321-32; Yazdadi (d. after
403/1012-13), Kamal al-balu&a wa-huwa rasd'il Shams
al-Ma'dU Kdbus b. Wushmgir, Cairo 1341/ [1922-3],
20-1 {mudjdnis, sic voc), 24 (explanation of term
mudjdnis); Ibn Sinan al-Khafadjr (d. 466/1074), Sin
al-Jasdha, ed. 'Abd al-Muta'al al-Sa'Idi, Cairo 1389/
1969, 185-91 {mudjdnas); 'Abd al-Kahir al-Djurdjam,
K. Asrdr al-baldgha, ed. H. Ritter, Istanbul 1954,
5-19, cf. also Ritter (tr.), Die Geheimnisse der Wortkunst,
Wiesbaden 1959, 5-36; SakkakI, Mijtah al-'ulum, ed.
Nu'aym Zarzur, Beirut 1403/1983, 429-30; Diya'
al-Dln Ibn al-Athir, al-Djami' al-kabtr Jt sina'at al-
manzum min al-kaldm wa 'l-manthur, edd. Mustafa
Djawad and Djamfl Sa Td, Baghdad 1375/1956,
256-63; idem, al-Mathal al-sd'ir Jl adab al-kdtib wa
'l-shd'ir, edd. Ahmad al-HufT and Badawi Tabana,
2 Riyad 1403/1983, iii, 229-32 (ishtikdk); Ibn al-
Zamlakam (d. 651/1253), al-Tibydn Jt 'ilm al-bayan
al-mutli' 'aid i'qjaz al-Kur'an, edd. Ahmad Matlub and
Khadidja al-Hadlthi, Baghdad 1383/1964, 166-9
(tadjnls), 169-70 (ishtikdk); Ibn Abi '1-Isba' (d. 654/

1256), Badl' al-Kur'an, ed. Hifm Muh. Sharaf, 2 Cairo
n.d., 27-30; idem, Tahrir al-tahbtr 'jt sina'at al-shi'r
wa 'l-nathr wa-baydn i'qjdz al-Kur'dn, ed. Sharaf,
Cairo 1963, 102-10; al-Muzaffar b. al-Fadl al-'Alawi
al-Husaym (d. 656/1258), Nadrat al-ighrid Jt nusrat
al-karid, ed. Nuha 'Arif al-Hasan, Damascus 1396/
1976, 49-97; Zandjam {J. 660/1262), K Mi'ydr al-
nuzzdr Jt 'ulum al-ash'dr, ed. Muh. 'AIT Rizk al-
Khafadjr, Cairo 1991, ii, 73-82; Sidjilmasi (d. after
704/1304-5), al-Manza' al-badt' Jt tadjms asdUb al-
badl', ed. 'Allal al-Ghazi, Rabat 1401/1980, 481-
98; Nuwayrl, Mhdyat al-arab Jt Junun al-adab, vii,
Cairo n.d., 90-8; al-Khatib al-Kazwim (d. 739/
1338), al-Iddh Jt 'ulum al-baldgha, ed. Muh. 'Abd
al-Mun'im Khafadji, 'Beirut 1391/1971, 535-43
(djinds); idem, al-TalkhisJt 'ulum al-baldgha [i.e. Tatkhis
al-Miftdh], ed. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Barkuki, n.p. n.d.
[Beirut 1982], 388-92 {ajinds).— Hebrew literature
(text in Judaeo-Arabic): Moshe ibn 'Ezra, K al-
Muhddara wa 'l-mudhdkara, ed. and tr. Montserrat
Abumalhan Mas, Madrid 1985-6, i, 257-60 [mudjd-
nasa), ii, 275-80.— Persian texts: Raduyam, Taraju-
mdn al-baldgha, ed. Ahmet Atef, Istanbul 1949, 10-15
(tadjnls); Shams-i Kays, al-Mu'ajamJt ma'dyir ash'dr al-
'adjam, ed. Muh. ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab Kazwihi,
Leiden and London 1909, 309-17 (tadjms); Rashid
al-Din Watwat, Haddyik al-sihr Jt dakdyik al-shi'r, ed.
'Abbas Ikb'al, '[Tehran] 1362/1983^ 5-14 (tadjnls).

C. Taajnls in modern presentations: (a)
Arabic: HifnT Muhammad Sharaf, al-Suwar al-
badl'iyya bayn al-nazariyya wa 'l-tatblk, [Cairo] 1385/
1966, ii, 5-49 (ajinds); 'Air al-Djundl, Farm al-djinds.
Baldgha— adab— nakd, Cairo n.d. [1954]— (b) Per-
sian: Djalrl Tadjlil, Djinds dar pahna-yi adab-i first,
[Tehran] 1367/1988— (c) Turkish:— Muallim Naci,
Ishlahat-t edebiyye. Edebiyat terimleri, edd. A. Yalcin
and A. Hayber, Ankara n.d. [1984], 124-129 (cinas),
29-30 (iftikdk); W.G. Andrews, Jr., An introduction to
Ottoman poetry, Minneapolis 1976, 86-92 (cinas, tecnis).

(W.P. Heinrichs)
TADJUH, the Tagus river, wddl Tdajuh (Port.
Tejo, Span. Tajo), together with the Ebro [see ibruh],
the Douro and the Guadalquivir (al-wddl al-kablr), one
of the great rivers of the Iberian peninsula.
Rising in the Serrania of Cuenca in Aragon, its course
of over 1,000 km/600 miles, crosses the Castilian
Meseta and Estremadura and then enters Portugal,
to debouch into the Atlantic in the Bay of Lisbon.

It is mentioned by Arabic geographers essen-
tially in passages dealing with the towns of Toledo
(Tulaytula), Talavera (Talablra), Santarem (Shantarm)
and Lisbon (UshbQna [y.»t>.]). Most of them mention a
bridge dating from Antiquity, crossing it downstream
from Toledo, probably that of Alcantara (al-Kantara).
Al-Himyarf alone, taking up al-Razi, devotes a com-
plete notice, though brief, to the river in his K al-
Rawd al-mi'tdr. He compares the Tagus to the Nile
for its floods and the alluvium which it deposits on
the plain of Santarem. Al-Idnsi mentions mills along
its course as well as a piece of hydraulic machinery
meant to draw water to an aqueduct.

With the Muslim conquest in the early 8th cen-
tury, the Tagus came within the dar al-Isldm. For two
centuries, the neighbouring regions were characterised
by the implantation of numerous Berber tribesmen in
the mountainous regions along its upper and middle
zones (MasmQda, Nafza, Hawwara, Miknasa, etc.). At
the end of this period, the territory effectively occu-
pied by the Muslims must have begun more or less
with the line of sierras separating the Tagus from the
Douro basin. But there was probably hardly any stable,

TADJUH — TADJURRA

dense population before the Tagus valley itself, where
the line of fortresses of the Middle and Lower Marches
were established to defend the Muslim territory:
Santarem, Alcantara, Nafza and above all Talavera
and Toledo [see al-thuohOr. 2] . Other places, recently
revealed by archaeological excavations, reinforced this
line: e.g. the town of Vascos (the Nafza of the Arabic
texts?) not far from Talavera de la Reina, whose ruins
stretch over more than 6 ha and are enclosed by an
imposing wall of dressed stone, but there were also
a certain number of fortifications in the rural districts
along the Tagus (Castros, Alija, Espejel, etc.) whose
architecture suggests a probable Berber occupation.

Further to the north, between the Tagus and the
sierras, some advanced points like Coria must have
controlled a land where there was no-one but a few,
fairly widely-spaced Berber tribesmen, perhaps still
semi-nomadic. Against the image sketched out by Levi-
Provencal in his Hist. Esp. mus. of marches strongly
controlled from Cordova and having a well-defined
administrative status, recent historians like Eduardo
Manzano have opposed that of a mosaic of Berber
or indigenous populations who were for most of the
time outside the authority of the Asturian-Leonese
kings and the amirs of Cordova. These territories com-
paratively independent of the central power were in
practice governed by local families, often Berber like
the Dhu '1-Nunids and the Banu Razln [?.»».], whose
authority Cordova simply recognised rather than for-
mally entrusting it to them.

Toledo was the capital of the Middle March until
the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Rahman III al-Nasir
decided to transfer its functions nearer to the scene
of operations at Medinaceli. But after Alfonso VI of
Castile's capture of Toledo in 1085, it was along the
approaches to the Tagus that the Christian and Mus-
lim positions finally became stabilised. In the western
part, the river remained within Islamic territory. In
the modern Portugal and in Estremadura, Muslim
Santarem faced Christian Leiria and Coria faced
Salamanca, but each side had bridgeheads on the
other bank. On the other hand, upstream from Toledo,
after half-a-century of fierce fighting to control the
course of the Tagus or to defend it, this last really
did separate Muslims from Christians. The Christian
victory at Las Navas de Tolosa (al-'Ikab [q.v.]) in 1212
marks the definitive conquest of the river's course by
the Christian kingdoms, the opening-up of the gates
of Andalusia to their armies and the fixing of the
frontier in the southern parts of the Peninsula.

Bibliography: See the geographers mentioned,
and Levi-Provencal's work; J. Gautier-Dalche, Islam
et chretiente en Espagne au XII' stick, in Hesperis, xlvii
(1959), 183-217; P. Guichard, Structures societies "orien-
taks" et "occidentales" dans I'Espagne musulmane, Paris
1977; J. Vallve Bermejo, La division territorial de la
Espana musulmana, CSlC Madrid 1986; S. Martinez
Lillo, Arquitectura militar de dmbito rural de la Marca Media
(al-thagjir al-awsat). Antecedents y evolucion, in Boletin de
arqueologia medieval, iv (1990), 135-71; E. Manzano
Moreno, Lajrontera de al-Andalus en epoca de los Omeyas,
CSIC Madrid 1991; R. Izquierdo Benito, Ciudad
hispanomusulmana "Vascos", Madrid 1994.

(P. Buresi)
TADIURRA, in English conventionally Tadjura;
in French, Tadjoura; in Italian, Tagiura; etc., a small
coastal port on the gulf of the same name
in the Republic of Djibouti and residence of
the dardar ("sultan") of Tadjura, one of the traditional
'Afar chieftains.

The Arabic name Tadjurra is itself a corruption of

the name given to the locality by its inhabitants in
their own 'Afar dialect, sc. Tagorri. This last name
is derived from tagor, pi. of tagra (a leather bucket for
drawing water). The town is thus "tagor [le 'eekj",
meaning "[the well] with buckets", "the place of abun-
dant water". Tadjura is, in fact, primarily an oasis.

Flanked by a palm-grove to the west and over-
shadowed by the Goda mountains from which it is
separated by a plain traversed by wadis, the settle-
ment is located on an impressive site. It consists of
solidly built, single-storey white houses, interspersed
with shacks constructed from vegetal material.

Islam has a long history in Tadjura and is well
entrenched, even if the practice of it is hardly con-
spicuous. A degree of revival is, however, perceptible
and non-Islamic practices are in decline. The last sac-
rifice to the genies of the sea (baddi maskin), for exam-
ple, is said to date back to 1973. Kur'anic education
depends on women and on men, some of whom have
left an indelible mark, such as Hajji Kaamil who
was active during the 1970s. Tadjura is traditionally
known as "the town of the seven mosques", a sub-
stantial number by the standards of the region; in
fact Tadjura had nine of them (almost all endowed
with a short and square minaret), including the
Khoroojib mosque and the Djaami' mosque, but the
Tdi mosque was replaced in 1987 by a landing strip.
The town possesses a kadi. Sufi brotherhoods seem

The waits or saints revered in the region are: shaykh
Gonduruhmaan, shaykh Abazeed, also known as Abu
Yazld al-Bistami and shaykh Muhammad Ibrahim al-
Zarben. The first is reckoned to have arrived from
Sudan around 1880. Having died once at Balo in
Ethiopia, he came to Ambabbo, some 10 km to the
west of Tadjura, where he was betrothed to a Hasooba
girl, but finally died for the second time before mar-
rying. His tomb is the object of a siyyaara on 27
Ramadan. The second, who allegedly lived from 188
to 261 A.H., is honoured on the peak of Barra'barre
in the Goda mountains, where his tomb (or his ceno-
taph?) attracts pilgrims not only from the surround-
ing region but also from Yemen and Somalia. The
third, doubdess of Arab origin, threw his spear from
Zayla' (Saylac) towards Tadjura. The place where it
fell, at Marsaaki, is marked by a heap of dry stones.
The inhabitants of Tadjura come to this place to
appeal to the saint for prosperity and fertility.

The "sultanate" of Tadjura which is defined as
"the area [subject to] the dardar of Tadjura" (Tagorri
dardarih deddar) is the only 'Afar chiefdom, the terri-
tory of which is entirely enclosed within the frontiers
of the Republic of Djibouti. It occupies part of the
northern shore of the eponymous gulf and is bor-
dered by the 'Afar sultanates of Rahayto (which has
in the past grown at its expense) to the north and
east, of the Awsa to the north and west, and of
Gooba'ad to the south-west.

The 'Afar clans occupying the territory are the
Ad'ali, the Hasooba, the 'Able (the most numerous?),
the Ayrolasso, the Songo Goda, the Ma'andiyta, the
Seeka and the Mafa. 'Afar society recognises trans-
versal associations, the fima, which counterbalance
tribal divisions. In Tadjura there are four, the two
male being Diinekala and Farrada, the two female
Amrisa and Mahaysa.

It is very difficult to construct a continuous history
of Tadjura and of the sultanate. The first mention of
the town would seem to be in the writings of al-
Idnsi, and it is shown on the earliest Portuguese maps.
Arab and European travellers mentioned it regularly.

TADJURRA — TADJWID

The Ad'ali, for their part, trace their origin from
the miraculous appearance in the tree overshadowing
the wells of 'Adaylu, 30 km to the north of Tadjura,
of Hadalmaahis, "he who was in contact with (i.e.
"on", "under" "beside", etc.) the tree in the morn-
ing". This individual, traditionally regarded as being
of Arab origin, established himself in this place and
married there. The Ad'ali are descended from his sec-
ond son, Adaa'al. Calculations based on the study of
genealogies make it possible to locate the event towards
the end of the 8th/ 14th century. In fact, it is known
that at about this time there was an Ad'ali chiefdom
in the upper Wee'ima which soon extended its power
to Tadjura, expelling ca. 1600 from the place another
'Afar group, the Ankaala.

The Ad'ali constitute the majority of the 'Adoh-
yammara (the "Whites"), a major grouping of families
rivalling another assemblage, that of the 'Asahyam-
mara (the "Reds"), of whom numerous elements, the
Moodayto of Awsa and the Dammohoyta of Bidu,
for example, nevertheless also claim descent from
Hadalmaahis.

The sultanate's connections with France date back
to 1705, in which year Bretons on their way towards
Mokha arrived, as a result of navigational error, in the
gulf of "Tagora" and made contact with the sultan
Muhammad b. Dini. In the following century, after
first contemplating competition on the Arabian shore
of the Gulf with Great Britain, which had occupied
Aden since 1839, France began to take an interest
in the African shore. On 11 March 1862, the sultans
of Tadjura, Rahayto and Gooba'ad agreed to a con-
vention acknowledging French possession of Obock
(Oboki, in 'Afar: Hayyu), an anchorage which was
not effectively occupied until the summer of 1884. It
was then that Leonce Lagarde, newly-appointed gov-
ernor of Obock, signed protectorate treaties: on 9
August with the sultan of Gooba'ad, and on 21
September with the sultan of Tadjura, Ahmad b.
Muhammad. In 1896 these 'Afar chiefdoms were
joined to Somali territory to form a new colony, mis-
leadingly called the French Coast of the Somalis. In
March 1949, Tadjura became the provincial capital
of an administrative division of 13,000 km 2 , currently
one of the five districts of the Republic of Djibouti.
Since the 19th century and until independence (1977),
the population — always difficult to estimate — has var-
ied around the 3,000 mark. At present (1997), it may
reach 10,000 (70,000 for the district). Tadjura is, in
any case, the most important town of the northern
shore of the gulf, ahead of Obock and of the 'Afar
region of Djibouti.

Tadjura has always benefited by its position as a
transit centre. On the landward side, the town is a
point of convergence and a bartering site for nomads.
It is also the point of arrival and departure of cara-
vans heading towards Shoa, and in this capacity it
was for many years the regional bridgehead for the
traffic in slaves. This trade was still active after the
First World War, supplying in particular the market
in Djedda. The sultan himself was implicated, as were
his counterparts in Awsa and Gooba'ad. It was as a
result of a press campaign launched in 1922, and of
abolitionist edicts issued by the Tafari ras with the
aim of easing Ethiopia's admission to the League of
Nations (1923) that this resource of the inhabitants of
Tadjura steadily dwindled before finally disappearing.

On the seaward side, Tadjura is a cabotage-port
linked to Djibouti (by a ferry of often dubious relia-
bility), as well as to ports on the Arabian and African
shores of the Red Sea. There is also a small-scale

boat-building operation, managed by expatriates from

Today, the community subsists on coastal fishing,
various trades (including the traffic in kat [q.zi.]) and
supplies and posts for various local officials.

The dardar, whose title, mis-translated as "sultan",
derives from the Arabo-Persian sardar, is assisted by
a banoyta (or "vizier"). These two functions alternate
within two clans, the Burhanto and the Diinite; when
the dardar is a Burhanto, the banoyta is a Diinite and
vice-versa. At one time, the dardar ruled over a vast
domain. Today his power is much reduced and his
control is confined to his personal property.

After the year of traditional mourning which fol-
lowed the death of the Diinite dardar Habib Ahmed
(enthroned in 1964), the dardar Abdoulkader Houmed
and the banoyta Chehem Ahmed were enthroned on
8 April 1985 in the presence of 40,000 persons and
the significant absence of the Somali President of the
Republic, Hassan Gouled. When unrest erupted in
1991, Abdoulkader was asked by the government to
intervene with the aim of obtaining the surrender of
3,000 mutinous soldiers. He refused vehemently, thus
regaining some of the prestige which he had earlier
forfeited as a result of his obsequious appeasement of
the authorities.

Bibliography. In addition to the titles cited below,
information regarding Tadjura and its population
is to be found in works relating to the 'Afar and
to the territory of Djibouti, as well as in the accounts
of travellers who made their way by caravan from
the coast to the Ethiopian plateau or who navigated
the southern reaches of the Red Sea. On these
subjects, the existing bibliographies may be con-
sulted, with the addition of useful and recently-pub-
lished titles such as D. Morin, Le Ginnili, Paris 1991,
and idem, Des paroles douces comme la sole, Paris 1995.
But a monograph on Tadjura which would lead
to progress in 'Afar studies has yet to be written.
Ahmed Dini Ahmed, Unfait social 'afar: laji'ma, in
Pount (Djibouti), iii (1967), 31-6; M. Albospeyre, Us
Danakil du Cerck de Tadjoura, Memoire du CHEAM,
2154, 1953 (unpubl., extracts in Mer Rouge-Afrique
Orientate, Paris 1959, 103-61); Aramis Houmed Soule,
Le sultanat de Tadjourah, in Pount, xvii (1987), 3-11;
N. de Callieres, L'abolition de I'esclavage a Tadjourah,
in L'lllustration, no. 2543 (1 March 1890); E. Chede-
ville, Quelques faits de ^organisation sociale des 'Afars in
Africa (London), xxxvii/2 (1966), 173-96; M. Chailley,
Notes sur les 'Afar de la region de Tadjoura, Paris, Acad,
des Sc. d'O.M., 1980; Mohamed Kadamy, L'intro-
nisation du "dardar" de Tadjourah, etc. in Bull, des it.
qfiic. de IWALCO, xi (1986), 155-8.

(A. Rouaud)
TADJWlD (a.), verbal noun from djawwada, liter-
ally means "to make better" in the sense of tahsin "to
embellish, beautify", but has come to be understood
generally as the art of reciting the Kur'an,
known as Him al-tadjmd. The term does not occur in
the Kur'an, but it was used early. For example, 'All
b. AbT Talib, son-in-law of the Prophet and fourth
caliph, is reported to have replied in answer to a
question about the meaning of the Kur'anic phrase
in sura LXXIII, 4, wa-rattili 'l-kur'ana tarSl m ("and
recite the Kur'an by means of tarRl") that it means
tadjwid al-huruf wa-ma'rifat al-wukuf ("excellent render-
ing of the consonant sounds and knowledge of the
pauses"). In this terse definition we see the impor-
tance of both the phonetics and the semantics of
Kur'anic recitation: giving each letter its due and
knowing where to pause in the recitation, which also

entails knowing where to resume it. This latter aspect
came to be known as al-wakf ("pause", pi. wukuf) wa
'l-ibtida' ("and beginning, resumption"), and occupies
an important place in 'ilm al-tadjwld. Modern copies
of the Arabic text of the Kur'an contain symbols indi-
cating the pauses and their several kinds, as well as
whether they are obligatory or optional.

Although tadjwid is principally concerned with the
rules and skills of the oral performance of recitation,
it also extends to knowledge and practices that are
not strictly phonetic in nature. For example, in addi-
tion to the semantically and syntactically-oriented pause
and beginning (al-wakf wa 'l-ibtida') is the etiquette of
recitation (adab al-tildwa), covered in many tadjwid man-
uals as an important part of the piety if not strictly
the performance practices of recitation.

1. Other terms. Another term for Kur'anic recita-
tion is kira'a, lit. "recitation, recital", in the general
sense of reciting passages during the prayer or recit-
ing the entire Kur'an, as well as "reading", i.e. among
variants. In this last sense, the discourse has to do
not with the rules of
the text itself— its m;
admitted of variation
the Arabic script had reached
of readings" ('ilm al-kira'at [see kira'a] became an
important, complex discourse with first seven, then ten,
and later fourteen canonical readings of the Kur'anic
text, although it is the seven which remain impor-
tant. The multiplicity of readings does not mean that
there are different versions of the Kur'an, but that
there are variant readings — most very minor — of the
same basic text. The question of whether reciters
should mix variant readings in recitation performance
has been much discussed, with a general tendency
toward not doing so in the presence of listeners un-
familiar with these matters, whose confidence in the
revealed text might thereby be endangered through

The teacher of "readings and recitation" (al-kira'at
wa 'l-kira'a) is known as a mukri' (pi. mukri'un), and a
reciter of the Kur'an is called a kari' (pi. kurra'). The
former is a member of a relatively small professional
elite, whereas the latter is a much more common per-
former, albeit highly respected for mastery of tadjwid
and, often, full memorisation of the Kur'an as a hafiz.
Every mukri' must be a kari', but only rarely is a kari'
also a mukri' in the strict sense of being a certified
expert in the science of readings and recitation.

Probably the most generic term for recitation of
the Kur'an is tildwa "to follow, to read/read out loud,
to recite". The term, like toff/, is Kur'anic (II, 121,
"those unto whom We have given the Scripture, who
read it [yatlunahu] with the right reading [hakka
lildwalihi], those believe in it"). But tildwa does not
specify anything concerning performance; that is the
domain of tadjwid and, to a lesser extent, kira'a. Abu
Hamid Muhammad al-QhazalT's gloss of tildwa (from
his Ihya', as cited in 'Amir b. al-Sayyid 'Uthman,
Kayfa yutld 'l-Kur'dn, Cairo 1394/1974, 9), contextu-
alises Kur'anic recitation within scriptural piety rather
than merely skilled technical oral performance: "[The
Kur'an's] true recitation (tildwa) is that the tongue,
the intellect and the heart share in it. The portion
of the tongue is to render the consonants authentic
by toff/, the portion of the intellect is the explana-
tion of the meaning, and the portion of the heart is
admonishment". The lexical meanings of tildwa con-
vey the double senses of reading and being obedient
to — "following"-

s of tadjwi

The

typical handbook quickly gets right into the technical
matters of the phonetics of Kur'anic recitation, most
of which require demonstrations to comprehend fully.
First the letters of the Arabic alphabet are discussed,
along with their places of articulation (makhdrujj al-
huruf) in the human vocal anatomy and their man-
ners of articulation (sifat al-huruf). With respect to
makharidj al-huruf, modem manuals sometimes contain
illustrations of the mouth, throat, teeth and lips with
indications of precisely where each letter's utterance
originates. One influential Indonesian manual has
lessons with thoughtfully arranged sequences of jux-
taposed sounds — using nonsense patterns — so that the
non-Arabic speaking student will be able to master
the difficult muscular and auditory skills of Arabic
pronunciation. The sifat al-huruf treat groups of the
alphabet in pairs of opposites, according to their char-
acteristics as pronounced (some examples follow):
whether they are gently uttered (e.g. thd', kha', sin,
kqf, ha') or fully voiced (e.g. bd', ddl, ra', za', 'ayn, kqf
lam, mim, waw, yd'), whether the letters are pronounced
with confidence in their place of origin (e.g. djvn, ddl,
kqf, td') or with some lack of confidence in the exact
point (e.g. Ola', fa", waw, ha"), whether they are pro-
nounced with tongue elevated (kha', sad, dad, ghqyn,
td', kqf, za') or lowered (the remainder) in the mouth,
whether they are "covered" (sad, dad, td', za') or
"opened" (the remainder) with respect to the tongue
being closely covered by contact with the hard palate,
and whether the pronunciation is light — coming from
the tip of the tongue and lips (fa', ra', mim, nun, lam,
bd') or hard (the remainder). Some fine points under
sifat include kalkala, strong pronunciation of certain
letters when they are quiet (sdkin), e.g. kqf, td', ddl);
taknr, trilling the ra' at certain times; and istitala
"stretching" the sound from one side of the tongue
to the other when pronouncing dad.

The manuals then proceed to treat a number of
additional matters pertaining to tadjwid: ghunna, nasal
sound of certain letters in excess of ordinary speech;
assimilation (idgham [q.v.]) of certain letter sounds, for
example, silent nun and tanwin when followed by tan-
win and ra', as in II, 5, where 'aid huda" min rabbi-
him is rendered 'aid hudammirrabihim; madd "extending"
the duration of a syllable; ikldb "alteration" of a let-
ter's sound, as in quiescent nun followed by bd', where
the phrase min ba'd becomes mim ba'd; and others.

3. Styles of recitation. Recitation style is deter-
mined in some degree by the pace of performance,
ranging from very slow to rapid. The ideal form,
which has dominated the discourse since earliest times,
is called toff/, after the Kur'anic passage quoted above.
A contemporary manual defines toff/ as "recitation . . .
done at a slow pace . . . and the kari' observes with
great care the clarity in pronunciation of each letter
from its makhradj, place of origin, strictly follows all
the rules of al-tadjwld, uses a melodious voice, exer-
cises pauses and enables the listeners to comprehend
each letter and meaning of the words for their reflec-
tion . . . ." (Muh. I.H.I. Surty, A course in the science of
reciting the Qur>an, Leicester 1988, 197).

Another term for slow recitation is tahkik "meticu-
lousness". It is in the class of toff/ but slower than
ordinary toff/, and used principally in learning and
practising tadjwid. Medium-paced recitation is known
as tadwir, whereas rapid recitation is called hadr. The
latter is generally reserved for private use, as when
the reciter wishes to maintain the text in memory
through frequent repetition. One reciter in East Java
informed the present writer that he profitably and
pleasantly passes the time on the slow train from

Surabaya to Yogyakarta by reciting the whole Kur'an
in hadr style. All the styles are strictly governed by
the rules of tagjwtd.

Certain kinds of recitation are considered as de-
testable and others are unlawful. An example of the
first is lengthening the short vowels and then stretch-
ing the elongated (madd) vowels even more, and one
of the second is transforming the recitation into singing
(other examples, together with a table of words whose
mispronunciation will change the meaning of the text
and lead the reciter into unbelief, are in Surty, op.
at., 201-2).

4. Melodic recitation of the Kur'an. There
is an ancient, absorbing and continuing discourse con-
cerning the place and propriety of musical perfor-
mance in Kur'anic and other types of pious recitation
in Islam, such as the dhihr and soma' practices of Sufi
orders. We do not know what the earliest Kur'anic
recitation sounded like, so far as melodies and modes
are concerned. A famous prophetic hadith. is: "He is
not one of us who does not chant the Kur'an" (al-
Bukhan). The word translated as "chant" is yataghanna,
which can also mean "sing", although some com-
mentators prefer "be content with" (yastaghni). Muham-
mad enjoyed listening to the Kur'anic recitation of
others and declared, according to another haaith, that
Abu Musa al-Ash'arfs recitation was like "a flute of
the people of David", where al-Nawawi glosses "flute"
(mizmar) as "beautiful voice" (al-sawt al-hasan) (Sahih
Muslim, bi-sharh al-JVawawl, Cairo 1964, vi, 80). Ibn
Khaldun's interpretation (tr. Rosenthal, ii, 401) is that
it "does not refer to cadence and melodious music,
but ... to a beautiful voice, a clear pronunciation",
that is, to strict ladjwid. There are reports in early
Muslim history of recitation of the Kur'an using pop-
ular melodies (alhan), but the influence of art song on
the practice seems to have been relatively short-lived.
It came under the severe censure of the 'ulama' quite

Although the musical dimension of Kur'anic recita-
tion is a diverse, complex discourse, sustained over
many centuries, the practice of tadjwld came univer-
sally to be independent of any kind of popular singing,
with set melodies. In contemporary Egypt, which has
great influence on recitation everywhere, the word
tadjwid may be understood to designate melodic and
highly embellished Kur'anic recitation as well its more
generic meaning, discussed above. A more precise
term for melodic recitation is mudjawwad style, as dis-
tinguished from muratlal style (from tarttl). It employs
musical modes/pitches (makam, pi. makamat) and largely
improvised melodic chants (naghamat). But even muajaw-
wad recitation should ideally be spontaneous, without
set melodies, and obeying the rules of taajwid (see
the detailed exposition by Kristina Nelson, 77k art
of reciting the Qur'an, Austin 1985, 32-51, 101-35 and
passim).

Sound recordings of Kur'anic recitation have
become important means for learning the art, as well
as for enjoying its many expressions. Two influential
reciters of this century were the Egyptians Shaykh
'Abd al-Basit 'Abd al-Samad, renowned for his mudjaw-
wad performances, and Shaykh Mahmud Khalil al-
Husari, whose recitation in murattal style was greatly
admired. A respected contemporary woman reciter is
the East Javanese reciter Mariya Ulfa, who is active
in Kur'an recitation educational affairs, including the
famous biennial Musabaqah Tilawatil Qur'an ("Contest
in the Recitation of the Kur'an") in Indonesia. Per-
formance recordings of all three reciters, and many
more besides, are widely available.

5. Other performance matters and exam-
ples of the etiquette of recitation. Recitation
of any portion of the Kur'an should be preceded by
ta'awwudh [q.v.] "seeking protection" by saying the for-
mula a'udhu billahi min al-shaytan al-raapm "I seek refuge
in God from the accursed Satan". After seeking refuge,
the reciter utters the basmala (regardless of whether
the recitation begins at the beginning of or within a
sura), "In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Com-
passionate". Then the portion to be recited is com-
menced. At the end of recitation is said sadaka 'llahu
'l-offm "God the Mighty has spoken truthfully".

Another matter is weeping during recitation, which
is recommended both by the Kur'an (XVII, 109) and
in hadith.. One should induce weeping if it does not
come spontaneously, because thereby it brings more
forcefully to mind, as al-Ghazali wrote, the "threats,
warnings, covenants and promises ... in the Kur'an",
noting that the "greatest of all misfortunes" is a "lack
of grief and tears" for which, if nothing else, a per-
son should weep (M.A. Quasem, 77k recitation and inter-
pretation of the Qur'an: al-Qhazati's theory, Kuala Lumpur
1979, 44).

The best context for recitation is generally agreed
to be while standing at the salat worship service. In
any event, one should recite facing the kibla in a clean
location and, if handling a Kur'an copy (mushaf), be
ritually pure. It is permissible to recite the Kur'an
from memory without first performing ivudu', whether
sitting, standing, reclining or walking. At certain points
in the text prostration (sadjda), as in the salat, is
observed after reciting an aya such as VII, 206, "They
celebrate His praises, and bow down before Him".
The classical Sunm madhhabs recognise 11 to 15 oblig-
atory sadjda verses, and most printed copies contain
a rubric designating each prostration verse. In addi-
tion to prostrations are various uttered words and
phrases at certain points in the text, e.g. Subhan Allah
"Praise God!" when a verse glorifying Him is recited.

Opinions vary as to the amount to be recited at
one time. Some people recite the entire Kur'an in
one night, but it is more common for the text to be
recited in its entirety over three days, a week, or a
month. In an oft-quoted ftadilh, the Prophet declared
that one who completes a recitation of the Kur'an
in less than three days does not understand it (e.g.
Ibn Madja, Sunan, al-Riyad 1404/1984, i, 244-5,
"Ikama", no. 1341). Kur'an copies have marginal indi-
cations for divisions and subdivisions of the text into
equal portions for weekly or monthly completions. It
is common for a group of reciters to perform by tak-
ing turns, completing the entire Kur'an according to
differing time-frames, which depend in part on whether
the style adopted is tarRl or the much slower-paced

it the si

training, with sufficient time for correction and o
mentary. In any recitation, both reciters and listen-
ers have the duty to stop the proceedings for correction
when an error is noticed.

A completion of the recitation of the entire text is
called a khatma, whereupon it is recommended imme-
diately to recite sura I "al-Fatiha", and the first five
verses of sura II "al-Bakara", ending with ula'ika humu
'l-muflihun "these are the successful". It is common at
this point to recite appropriate litanies and supplica-
tions (du'a' [q.v.]), for which there is an established
literature.

Bibliography (besides works cited in full in the
text): Musa b. 'Ubayd Allah b. Khakan, Kasida ft
'l-tadjwid, the oldest surviving treatise on the subject,
published with tr. and comm. in P. Boneschi, La

TADJWlD — TADLA

qaslda fi 't-tajund attribute a Musa b. 'Ubayd Allah b.
Khaqdn, in RCAL, Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche
e Filologiche, ser. 6, xiv (1938), 51-92; Ghazali,
Ihyd' 'ulum al-din, Cairo 1358/1939, Kitab adab tildwat
al-Kur'an, i, 279-301 (especially helpful in under-
standing — with copious ha&lh citations — the deep
piety of reading and interpreting the Kur'an; tr. in
M.A. Quasem, The recitation and interpretation of the
Qur'an); Husayn al-Baghawf, expanded by Wall al-
Dm al-Khatib al-Tibnzi, Mishkat al-masdblh, section
Fada'il al-Kur'an, various Arabic editions available
(valuable and varied collection of hadtth on recita-
tion and related matters), Eng. tr. under romanised
Arabic title by J. Robson, Lahore 1965, ii, 446-70;
Kastallam, Lata'if al-isharat li-funun al-kira'at, Cairo
1392/1972, i (treats both readings and recitation
in detail); Ahmad 'Abd al-Kanm al-Ashmum, Manor
al-huda ft bayan wakfwa 'l-ibtida', Cairo 1393/1973;
Nawawi, al-Tibydn fi adab hamalat al-Kur'an, Cairo
1379/1960 (probing and authoritative discussions
of etiquette); Shams al-Dln Muhammad Ibn al-
Djazan, Qhayat al-nihaya fi tabakdt al-kurra', 2 vols,
ed. G. Bergstrasser, Cairo' 1352/1933; idem, al-
Nashrfi 'l-kira'at al-'ashr, 2 vols. Beirut n.d.; Muham-
mad Makki Nasr, Mhayat al-kawl al-mufid fi 'Urn
al-tadjwld, Cairo 1349/1930 (comprehensive and
authoritative); Muhammad al-Sadik al-KamhawI, al-
Burhan fi tadjwid al-Kur'an, Cairo 1971-2 (widely
used contemporary manual); Mahmud al-Husarl,
Ma'a al-Kur'an al-Kanm, Cairo n.d. (comprehensive
discussion of Kur'anic etiquette by a leading mod-
ern reciter); Lablb al-Sa'rd, al-Djam' al-sawtl al-awwal
li'l-Kur'an al-Kanm, aw al-mushaf al-murattal, bawa'ithuhu
wa-mukhattatatuhu, Cairo 1387/1967, tr. and adapted
B. Weiss, M.A. Abdul Rauf and M. Berger as The
recited Koran: a history of the first recorded version,
Princeton, N.J. 1975; G. Bergstrasser, Die Koranlesung
in Kairo, in 1st, xx (1932), 1-42, xxi (1933), 110-
40; J. Cantineau and L. Barbes, La recitation coranique
a Damas et a Alger, in AIEO Alger, vi, 66- 1 07 ( 1 942-7);
M. Talbi, La qira'a bi H-alhan, in Arabica, v (1958),
183-90; F. Denny, The adab of Qur'an recitation: text
and context, in International Congress for the Study
of the Qur'an, Proceedings, Canberra 1980, 143-60;
idem, Qur'an recitation training in Indonesia: a survey of
contexts and handbooks, in A. Rippin, Approaches to the
history of the interpretation of the Qur'an, Oxford 1988,
288-306. (F.M. Denny)

TADLA, a vast region of central Morocco.
It is a landscape of plains, foothills and mountains.
In the east it starts at the sources of the Umm al-
Rabi' (Wansifane) and the Moulouya, and in the
Middle-Atlas (Fazaz) it follows the upper course of
the former river to its confluence with the Wad al-
'Abrd. From there the plains of the Tadla stretch on
both sides of the two rivers until they reach the fields
of phosphates in the north; then they skirt the sills
of the Sraghna and the Shawiya in the west. South-
wards, Tadla thrusts towards the slopes of the High
Atlas (Drane). It has a Mediterranean type climate,
semi-arid to dry with an average precipitation of 350
mm, except in the foothills where humidity is more
noticeable. The geological evolution of the region has
endowed Tadla with an alluvial plain which is par-
ticularly rich in water resources and highly fertile.

There are still divided opinions about how this voca-
ble should be written (Tadla, Tadila, Tidle, etc.) and
what it means. The Amazigh language of Morocco,
Algeria, and the Touareg includes terms derived from
the root t-d-l which indicate the colour "black" or
"dark green". The morphological parallel which may

exist between the vocables Tadila and Dila', denoting
the mountainous zone in the north-east with the famous
Zawiya of Dili', has already been emphasised else-
where by the present writer, and can also be found
in the writings of historians such as 'Abd al-'AzTz al-
Fishtalr (d. 1031/1622-1) in Mandhil al-safa', and Abu
al-Kasim al-Zayyani (d. 1241/1883) in al-Bustan al-
larlf. The word Tadla, as it is pronounced locally,
means "a sheaf of corn", which fits in well with the
preponderant agricultural realities of the region. In
Classical Arabic the ethnic name is tadiU, and in
dialect it is tadlawi.

The ancient inhabitants of the Tadla were Berbers,
with the Zenata agriculturalists in the plains, and the
Haskura-Snaga shepherds in the mountains. The first
contact the Tadla had with the Arabs was when 'Ukba
b. Nafi' (d. 63/683 [?.».]) passed through on his way
back from Sus. But when Idris I conquered Tadla in
172/789 he found only a small number of Muslims;
the majority of the population were either Jews or
Christians. In 202/818 the Andalusian Arabs on their
flight from Spain after the revolt of the Rabad at
Cordova settled in Tadla. Some years later, other Arabs
from Fas followed them when an Idrisid armrate was
created in that region. However, the main Arab migra-
tion took place only at the end of the 6th/ 12th cen-
tury, when the Almohads decided to make the Arab
Bedouin of the Banu Hilal and Sulaym, who had set-
tled in Tunisia, move towards Morocco. The Arabs
then spread out within the country. On this subject
Ibn Khaldun wrote that "the immigrant Arabs of
the Djusham and Riyah have made their home in
the plains and Morocco is being submerged by count-
less clans".

After the assassination of the Almohad Yahya b.
Nasir in 633/1236, the Banu Djabir, another group
of the Djusham, flocked to Tadla and settled in the
foothills neighbouring the Snaga, who were established
in the hilltops and the plains. Sometimes the Banu
Djabir risked going to the plains but when they learned
of danger coming from the central power or a ruth-
less leader they withdrew to the mountains to their
Berber allies. The Sa'dians, in their turn, brought in
the Ma'kil Arabs who originally came from the Yemen
to Tadla.

In time, a heterogeneous Arabo-Berber population
grew up. Because of its strategic situation between the
north and the south, and its control of the road link-
ing the two imperial cities, Fas and Marrakush, and
its natural resources, Tadla has been the object of
constant interest on the part of all the dynasties of
Morocco, and each has tried to strengthen its hold
there by nominating representatives from it to high
levels of power.

Nevertheless, conflicts affected the region badly;
some towns were destroyed and rebuilt, but others
just disappeared and new ones were built on their
ruins. That is how, in the Middle Ages, the town of
Tadla was a metropolis which gave its name to the
whole province; al-Himyarl wrote in his al-Rawd al-
mi'tar that "it is an ancient town where relics of an-
cient times can be found". Al-IdnsT adds that "the
city of Tadla held a prime position for the production
of cotton and exported large quantities of it in all
directions; it was the principal raw material used in the
production of cotton fabric in the Maghrib al-Aksa".

Only the town of Day at the foot of the moun-
tain could be compared to it. Al-Bakri, calling it him,
a stronghold, describes a lively trade there, with traders
from Fas, Basra and Sidjilmasa. Al-Idrisi noted that
Day had an advantage over the town of Tadla in its

rich mineral resources, above all, its mine of pure
copper. This was probably the reason why the IdrTsids
chose Day as the chief town of their amfrate and
prince Yahya (or Ahmad), the son of Idris II, settled
there when the sultan of Fas, Muhammad b. IdrTs,
shared out the provinces of Morocco among his
brothers in 213/829. The IdrTsids had been very suc-
cessful in penetrating into the mountains of Tadla
and setting up there several mints, at Wazekkur, Mrirt,
Wawahna and Tagarag.

When the BanO Yafran, the Zenata Berber princes
governing Sala and Shalla, had hounded the IdrTsids
from power, they seized the province of Tadla, which
they held until it was wrested from them by the
Almoravids. It would seem that Day suffered enor-
mously from these events and that the Almoravids
did so much restoration work that it looked like a
newly-created town. They also built the fortress of
Tagrart in the neighbourhood. Scarcely a century
later, the Almohads ousted the Almoravids from Day
and Tagrart, and completely razed the two cities to
the ground. At the same time, the city of Tadla per-
ished, never to rise again; perhaps this was because
of the opposition of the population to such tenden-
cies of the Almohads as Mahdism and the impecca-
bility of their Imam.

When he visited the province of Tadla at the be-
ginning of the 16th century Leo Africanus (who
called it Tidle) spoke of new towns built at a high
altitude. He mentions "Tafza, the chief town, built
on the mountain side about five leagues away from
the plains; the town of Afza, two leagues from the
previous town; between them flows the WadT Darna.
The town of Ayt 'Itab, to the south-west of that place,
was approximately forty leagues distant. Finally there
is the town of Ayt 'Iyat, built on a small mountain
in the Atlas range". These towns all disappeared in
their turn as a consequence of the many military
actions on the battlefields of Tadla, in which the
Wattasids were engaged against the Sa'dians.

When the Sa'dT prince Zaydan was named viceroy
of Tadla by his father Ahmad al-Mansur al-Dhahabr
in 1584, he had a kasha built on the left bank of the
Umm al-RabT', where he settled and which bore the
name of Kasba Zaydaniyya. It was also destroyed,
during the military operations which took place be-
tween the sons of Ahmad al-Mansur after the death
of their father. However, the remains of this kasba
are still standing.

One of the objectives in the political strategy of
the 'AlawT sultan Mawlay Isma'Tl was the establish-
ment of law and order. He therefore had fortified
kashas built all across Morocco. He built one on the
right bank of the Umm al-RabT' in 1688, and gar-
risoned it with about 1,000 cavalrymen conscripted
from the 'Abld. Then in 1700 he named his heir-
presumptive Ahmad al-Dhahabl to act as his gover-
nor of Tadla, gave him 3,000 soldiers and ordered
him to undertake the extension of the precincts of the
kasba. He built another kasba, in addition to the kasba
of his father, within the precincts of which he built
a palace for himself. The two fortifications together
bore the name Kasba-Tadla, and they played impor-
tant political and military roles in the course of the
18th and 19th centuries; several times they changed
masters and would pass from the hands of dissidents
to the hands of refugees or conquerors, before being
totally abandoned.

Charles de Foucauld visited Kasba-Tadla on 17
September 1883 and gave a detailed description of it,
but without mentioning the kasba of Mawlay Isma'Tl,

indicating that there was no trace of it at that time.
As for the kasba of Ahmad al-Dhahabl, de Foucauld
only found the walls, the doors, the towers, the mosque
and the palace of the Makhzan. Everything was deserted
and devastated. In the suburbs people had set up
homes in dwellings with mud walls, whilst others were
living in tents and huts.

Early in its history, Tadla witnessed much cultural
and mystical activity, possibly because of its contacts
with the great intellectual centres from Sabta/Ceuta
and Fas to Aghmat and Marrakush on the one hand,
and on the other hand because of their constant con-
frontation with their heretical neighbours, the Bargha-
wata [q.v.], who dominated the plains of the Tamasna.

This cultural and mystical activity was reflected in
the 6th/ 12th century by the work of Ibn al-Zayyat
al-TadilT, al-Tashawwuf, which comprises more than
twenty biographies of Sufis originating from Tadla,
ranking first among whom was Abu Ya'za Yalannur
al-Haskun (d. 573/1 177). His qualities and his miracles
gave rise to important literary works, and his mau-
soleum, otherwise known as Mawlay Bu 'Azza, still
receives a constant stream of pilgrims and visitors.

There are some zawiyas scattered across Tadla, six
of which are very important: the Zawiya Ahansal, on
the banks of Assif Ahansal, one of the tributaries of
the WadT al-'AbTd, was founded in the 7th/ 1 3th century
by the shaykh Sa'Td Ahansal the Great; the Zawiyat
al-Sawma'a was erected on the ruins of the town of
Day, near the minaret of the Almoravid mosque,
which had been spared; this zawiya remained until
the beginning of the century as a centre of learning
and mystical exercises; the Zawiya of Dila' [q.v. in
Suppl.] was a religious and cultural influence on the
whole of Morocco for about a hundred years, before
it was devastated in 1668 by the young 'AlawT sultan
Mawlay RashTd; the Zawiya of Bu Dja'd, called the
Zawiya al-Sharkawiyya, still enjoys great esteem
throughout the Tadla; the Zawiya of Tamadjdjut,
about 30 km to the east of the town of Bani-Mellal,
was founded by the shaykh 'AIT b. 'Abd al-Rahman
al-Dar'T (d. 1091/1680); it was destroyed but was
later reconstructed, and a mawsim is organised there
every summer; finally, there is the Zawiyat al-Shaykh,
the foundation of which was encouraged by Mawlay
Isma'Tl with the aim of counteracting the influence
of the Zawiya Bu Dja'd, a branch from the Zawiyya
Nasiriyya of Tamgrut, in the Dar'a.

Most of the scholars and Sufi's bore the ethnic
name of al-TadilT, whilst some of them were known by
an appellation like al-Sawma'T, al-Dila'T, al-SharkawT,
al-Djabin. al-BzIwT, al-'UtabT, al-'Umayn, al-Ma'danl,
etc., according to which zawiya or with which tribe
of the region they were associated. Others belonged
to part of a tribe or some forgotten corner of the
region, so that their origin can only be discovered by
reading biographical and genealogical works. Such is
the case for Abu VAbbas al-GarrawT (d. 609/1212),
for example, the famous poet of the Almohad court,
who at the request of Ya'kub al-Mansur composed
Sqfivat al-adab wa-diwan al-'Arab, an example of heroic
Maghrib! poetry distinct from the heroic poetry of
the East.

In the 20th century, the plain of Tadla has under-
gone an important agricultural revolution, principally
due to the introduction of a modern irrigation sys-
tem. As a result of the construction of the Kasba-
Tadla barrage in 1929, the Umm al-RabT' was able
to irrigate 34,500 ha of the territory of the Bam
'Amir on its right bank; and in 1953 the Bin al-
Wldan barrage on the WadT al-'Abld irrigated 69,500

TADLA — TADLlS

ha of the land of the Bam Musa on the left bank
of the Umm al-Rabr c ; in all a total of some 104,000
ha. After the independence of Morocco, interest in
irrigation grew, so that the total surface area under
irrigation increased to 120,000 ha. As a result there
has been economic and social development, as well
as a growth in the network of urban centres which
have been created to absorb and organise the flow
of emigrants from the different regions.

The decree of 19 December 1955 announcing the
first administrative divisions of independent Morocco
promised thirteen provinces, one of which was the
province of Bam-Mellal, to be made up of most of
the territories in Tadla, plains and mountains. But in
1974, this vast province was divided, and the province
of Bam-Mellal, which would encompass only the plains,
was separated from the province of Azilal, which was
to include the mountainous regions throughout Tadla.
The province of BanI Mellal actually includes ten
urban centres, the majority of which bear the names
of the tribes who live there. The chief town of the
province is Bam-Mellal with 130,000 inhabitants (in
1988); the others are Fklh ben Salah, Kasba-Tadla,
Sebt Ulad al-Namma, Ulad 'Iyyad, Ulad Mbarek, Dar
Wald Ziduh, Ulad Ya'ish, Had al-Bradya and SrdT
Djaber.

The province of Azilal has six urban centres; Azilal
is the chief town, and the others are Demnat, Afurar,
Wawizaght, Fum al-Djumu'a and Bzu.

There are other tribes or parts of tribes not men-
tioned above which also live in the two provinces. In
the plains are the Ban! Shagdal, Ayt al-Rba', Bam
Ma'dan, Gtaya, Semkat, Ulad Hamdan, Ulad Sa'id,
and the Ulad Gnaw; and in the mountains are the
Berber Ayt 'Itab, Ayt Mhammad, Ihansalane, Fatwaka,
Ayt 'Atta-u-Malu, Ayt Buzld, Ayt Utfarkal, Ayt Bugum-
maz, and the Ayt 'Abbas.

Bibliography: See the geographers and travel-
lers (Bakrl; IdnsI; Himyari; Leo Africanus) and the
historians (Ibn KhaldQn, 'Ibar; anon, K. al-Istibsar;
Baydhak, Akbbdr al-Mahdi, Rabat 1971; al-Muktabas
min Kitdb al-ansab, Rabat 1971; Ahmad al-Zayyani
al-Mansuri, Ta'rikh baldat Khunifra, ed. Amahzuh,
Casablanca 1986). Also Ch. de la Foucauld, Recon-
naissance au Maroc, Paris 1988; L. Massignon, Le Maroc
dans les premieres amies du 16""' siecle, Algiers 1900;
R. Peyronnet, Histoire du Tadla des origines a 1910,
Algiers 1924; Tadla, Moyen-Atlas, pays £«a«, Algiers
1923; H. Terrasse, Hist, du Maroc, Casablanca 1950;
J. Martin el alii, Geographic du Maroc, Paris 1964;
Muhammad Hadjdjr, al-Zawiya al-dild'iyya, Rabat
1964; Mustafa 'Arbush, Min ta'rikh mintakat iklim
Tadla wa-Bani Malldl, Casablanca 1989; Muhammad
Tamim, art. Azilal, in Encyclopedic du Maroc, Sala
1989; Ahmad 'Amalak, art. Tadla, in ibid.; 'Abd
al-Fattah Abu 'l-'Izz, al-Djihaz al-hadari bi-Tadla,
diss. 1989-90; Actes du collogue de la Faculte des Lettres
de Beni-Mellal on the theme Tadla, histoire, espace et
culture, Casablanca 1993. (Mohammad Hajji)
TADLlS (a.), a term of Islamic law, verbal
a Form II verb dallasa which means, accord-

ing

3 L'A, '

i fault

ity", with a not obviously related noun form
"darkness".

1. In the law of sale and contract.

According to a generally-accepted view, found e.g.
in Coulson, the term stems from the Byzantine Greek
word dolos (< Latin dolus) with the idea of fraudulent
concealment of defects in merchandise. Ryner points
out that both tadUs and taghrir [q.v.] appear to be
almost synonymous and used interchangeably by clas-

sical authors. TadUs is the term adopted by the Malikr
school for the concept of taghfir, although this school
represents only a part of the Medinan law, and the
main term used for fraud, taghrir, is a native Arabic
word. TadUs is quoted by Ryner as parallel to the
English legal term of "misrepresentation", as used in
Bahrain law (article 20). The difference between taghfir
and tadUs remains subtle, and perhaps one can trace
it in the nature of the action contained in each word.
Although both refer to fraudulent actions, tadUs is more
concerned with the object of the contract, mahall al-
'akd, whereas taghrir is a fraudulent action that takes
place against a second person who buys or enters into
the contract. TadUs, according to Shaykh al-Dardir,
occurs "when the buyer does not explain a fault that
he is aware of in his commodity". The distinction
between the two might be less ambiguous when we
observe their other usage in Arabic; tadUs often seems
to be used to describe abstract concepts like a weak
hadith (see 2. below), while taghrir is used to describe
a physical action like deception in marriage. Although
tadUs is not found in the primary Islamic sources (e.g.
the Kur'an) or frequently mentioned in early texts,
the L'A quotes Sa'id b. al-Musayyab as having used
a word of the same root to describe temporary mar-
riage as a cause that leads to the evil of fornication,
dhari'at al-zina. Sa'id b. al-Musayyab used the term
dawlasi instead of dhari'a, the means of evil. This can
be seen as one of the instances that views evil from
a positive angle [see further sadd al-dharaY] .

Bibliography: L'A, Beirut n.d., vi, 86; Ibn al-
Athlr, Mhaya, Cairo 1963, ii, 130; N.J. Coulson, A
history of Islamic law, Edinburgh 1 964, 28; Ahmad
b. Muhammad al-'AdawI al-Dardir, al-Sharh al-saghir
'aid akrab al-masalik Ud madhhab Malik, ed. Mustafa
Kamal Wasfl, Cairo 1973, iii, 160-4, iv, 43-5; Nur
al-Dln 'Itr, Lexique des terms techniques de la science du
Hadith, Fr. tr. and adaptation by 'Abd al-Lafff al-
ShlrazI al-Sabbagh and Dawud Gril, Damascus
1977, 25-7; S.E. Ryner, The theory of contracts in
Islamic law, London 1991, 194, 204, 208.

(M.Y. Izzi Dien)
2. In the science of hadith.
Here, tadUs is a generic term indicating a number
of deceitful methods used by hadith transmitters
to make isnads [q.v.], with which traditions had to be
authenticated, acceptable.

The term used in a hadith context developed out
of the original connotation of deceit, e.g. of a man
who pretends that he is a free-born but is in reality
a slave (al-Kulaym, Kofi, ed. Ghifari, v, 405, 1. 1, 410).
Goldziher (Muh. Stud., ii, 48) states that the word is
connected etymologically with dolus. By general con-
sensus, this tampering with isnads was considered a
kind of fraud but less objectionable than outright men-
dacity (= kadhib). In mediaeval Muslim hadith sources,
it is recorded that tadlis was already resorted to among
the second earliest generation of hadith transmitters,
that of the Successors. Examples of such Successors
mentioned are al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 110/728 [q.v.])
and Katada b. Di'ama (d. 117/735 [q.v.]) among many
others. In fact, all through the first two and a half
centuries after the Hidjra, during which time tradi-
tions were transmitted that eventually found a place
in the canonical collections, tadlis was practised on
varying scales of deceitfulness by very many trans-
mitters whose activities, however, hardly ever escaped
detection, if the large number of cases recorded is
anything to go by. Apparently the first hadith scholar
to catalogue the diverse tadlis methods used was al-
Hakim al-Naysaburi (d. 405/1014 [q.v.]), cf. his Ma'rifat

TADLlS — TADMlN

'ulum al-hadfti, ed. Mu'azzam Husayn, Haydarabad-
Cairo 1937, 103-12. He distinguished six categories.
Several of these showed up so much overlap in the
eyes of the mediaeval hadtth expert Ibn al-Salah al-
ShahrazurT (d. 643/1245 [q.v.]) that he summarised
those six under only two headings: (1) tadUs in the
isnad amounting to mentioning an informant but with-
out adding that between that informant and oneself
there were one, two or more other transmitters left
unmentioned; and (2) tadUs in the identification of
one's informant in an isnad by deliberately using a
name, patronymic or agnomen by which the person
was generally not known in order that he might not
be recognised. The first category became the more
severely criticised of the two, even prompting Shu'ba
b. al-Hadjdjadj [g.v.] to label it "the brother of men-
dacity". It eventually gave rise to some casuistry on
how to deal with such ta/fo-affected traditions. The
second category was seen to be less infamous, and
qualifying this form as tadUs depended on the overall
measure of (un)reliability of the transmitter once
that man's identity was denuded of mystification.
Possibly the earliest collection solely devoted to ridjal
[q.v.] accused or suspected of tadUs is the Kitab al-
Mudallisin of Husayn b. 'All al-Karabisr (d. 245/859
or 248/862 [q.v.], cf. Sezgin, GAS, i, 599-600), which
is preserved in some fragments in later works, but
the Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim also mentions a similar
collection ascribed to 'All Ibn al-Madim (d. 234/849)
of which there does not seem to be a trace. In all
the later riajal lexicons, the term shows up frequently.
Bibliography: Ibn Abi Hatim, K. al-Maqyuhin,
Haydarabad 1970, 77, lists some famous thikdt [q.v.]
among the mudallisun; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, K. al-
Kifaya ft 'Urn al-riwdya, Haydarabad 1357, 355-71;
Ibn al-Salah al-Shahrazun, Mukaddima [ft 'Urn al-
hadlth], ed. 'A'isha 'Abd al-Rahman Bint al-Shati',
Cairo 1974, 165-72; Ibn Radjab, Shark 'ilal al-
Tirmidhl, ed. al-Sayyid Subhr Djasim al-Humaydi,
Baghdad 1396, 264-8; SuyutV, Tadrib al-raim fi shark
Takrib al-Nawauii, ed. 'Abd al-Wahhab 'Abd al-Latif,
2 Cairo 1966, i, 223-31; G.H.A. JuynboU, Muslim
tradition. Studies in chronology, provenance and authorship
of early hadith, Cambridge 1983, index s.w. Karabisr
and tadlis. (G.H.A. Juynboll)

TADMAKKAT (also Tadmakkat, Tadmakka,
Tadimakka, and Tadmak, in Arabic transcription;
Tadmakkat in modern Tamashak), name of a medi-
aeval urban crossroads between Black Africa
and North Africa and al-Andalus. According
to Ibn Hawkal (i, 84, 105), the Tadmakkat area was
ruled by Muslim Berbers of the Banu Tanmak. Yakut
(ii, 938), probably borrowing from the lost work of
al-Muhallabr (d. 380/990), mentions "Zakram" (pos-
sibly a textual corruption of *Akram, from the Berber
aghrem "settlement") as the capital of the "kingdom of
Tadmak". Since al-Bakn (460/1067-8), the name
"Tadmakkat" has been glossed as "The likeness of
Mecca", or "This is Mecca", on account of the town's
topography and role as Islamic centre.

Tadmakkat's ruins and cemeteries, rich in Arabic
inscriptions, are in the Adagh-n-Ifoghas, Mali, at lat.
18° 46' N., long. 1° 11' E., at the site called 3ssuk
in Tamashak (possibly from the Arabic al-suk "The
Market") which also displays rock engravings and in-
scriptions in Tifinagh [q.v., and see Berbers, vi]. The
earliest Arabic inscription so far published dates from
404/1013-4. But trans-Saharan contacts started much
earlier. 3ssuk is on an ancient chariot route from
the Fazzan. Later, from the late 2nd/8th century to
the late 5th/ 11th century, Tadmakkat was frequented

by Ibadiyya [q.v.] Maghrib! traders coming from
Tahart (until its fall in 296/909), the Djabal Nafusa,
Sadrata and Warglan. The military intervention by
Ghana and the Murabitun [q.vv.] in 476/1083-4 or
503/1109-10 was a setback to Ibadi influence in
Tadmakkat. But even before this, the town's Magh-
ribi contacts had been not only with Ibadi centres
but also with Kayrawan and Tripoli. Its principal
sources of slaves, gold, and ivory were Gawgaw
(Kawkaw or Djawdjaw), i.e. Gao on the Niger, and
Ghana.

By 737-8/1337-8 al-'Umarl mentions Tadmakkat
no longer as a major trans-Saharan crossroads but in
the context of a mainly pastoralist economy. How-
ever, this perhaps reflected a temporary situation. Two
confused passages in Ibn Khaldun, 'Ibar vi, 202, vii,
51-2, dating from 754-76/1353-75, purportedly about
Takadda (Tagadda, in the Ahir/Ayar area), are like-
lier to refer in part to Tadmakkat. If so, they suggest
a renewal of this town's long-distance contacts — with
the Mali empire and Ibadi and other areas of the
Maghrib. In any case, 3ssuk/Tadmakkat remained on
the caravan route transporting Saharan salt to Gao,
and up to the mid-1 lth/17th century retained a degree
of urban life though perhaps not without interruptions.
The 19th-century writings of the Kal-3ssuk Tuareg
depict the town as a seminal centre of dispersion of
Sufi (KadirT) mystics in the Sahel in the late 9th/ 15th
and the 10th/ 16th centuries, following ruinous attacks
by Songhay armies. It was finally abandoned after the
Moroccan conquest of Songhay (999/1591) down-
graded the route to Gao, and following the 1 1 th/ 1 7th-
century droughts and conflicts in the Adagh-n-Ifoghas.
Bibliography: See also Bakri, al-Masalik wa-
'l-mamdlik, ed. and tr. de Slane, 181-3/338-43; Zuhn"
A". al-Dja'rqfiyya, ed. Mahammad Hadj-Sadok, in
BEt. Or., xxi (1968), 180-1, 183-4; "Umari, Masalik
al-absar, excerpt, tr. J.F.P. Hopkins and N. Levtzion,
in Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African his-
tory, Cambridge 1981, 274; H. Lhote, Contribution a
I'etude des Touaregs soudanais, in BIFAJV, xvii B (1955),
334-70; H.T. Norris, The Tuaregs, Warminster 1975,
passim; idem, The Arab conquest of the Western Sahara,
Harlow and Beirut 1986, 81-90; J.O. Hunwick, Gao
and the Almoravids, in B.-K. Swartz Jr. and R.E.
Dumett (eds.), West African culture dynamics, The
Hague 1979, 413-30; T. Lewicki, Les origines et
I'islamisation de la villi de Tadmakka, in Le sol, la parole
et I'ecrit. Melanges en hommage a Raymond Mauny, i,
Paris 1981, 439-44; E. Hodgkin, Social and political
relations on the Kxger Bend in the 17 til century, Ph.D.
thesis, Birmingham University 1987, unpubl., 67-8,
444-9; P.F. de Moraes Farias, The oldest extant writ-
ing of West Africa, in Journal des Africanistes, lx (1990),
65-1 13._ (P.F. de Moraes Farias)

TADMIN (a.), quotation, enjambment, impli-

This t.
fere

i ("inclus

n") has a number of dif-

i Arabic

poet

stylis.

It is used for the incorporation in a poem of
a line, or part of a line, by another poet by way of
quotation rather than plagiarism [see sarika. In litera-
ture, in Suppl.]. Felicitous quotation was included
by Ibn al-Mu'tazz [q.v] in his seminal K. al-Baai' among
the "beauties of speech" and was therefore adopted
by many later authors, who often discuss it together
with related phenomena such as the literary quotation
of Kur'an or Tradition [see iktibas]. Related terms
are isti'ana ("seeking help") and Ida' ("depositing"),
sometimes as synonyms of tadmln in order to avoid
confusion with other senses of the term. It was par-

TADMIN — TADMUR

ticularly appreciated if a different twist

the quoted part in its new context. W

are found already in Abu Nuwas [q.v.]:

of tadmin is found in parody. The khardja of the

muwashshah normally poses as a quotation, which it

Tadmin meaning enjambment, the syntactical de-
pendence of a line on a following line, is usually con-
demned by the prosodists, especially the more extreme
forms (the standard example is al-Nabigha al-Dhubyanf's
innil shahidlu "I/have witnessed", a phrase that strad-
dles two consecutive lines). The same restrictions were
sometimes made to apply to sadj' [q.v.]. Some forms
were, however, condoned and even appreciated, such
as the structure exemplified by the same poet in ma
'l-Furatu . . . bi-adjwada minhu ("The Euphrates ... is
not more generous than he"), with several lines inter-
vening, a structure often found. The short lines of
some metres from 'Abbasid times and strophic forms
such as muwashshah and zadjal [q.w.] brought about a
relaxation of the strict rules of the prosodists. Ignoring
the caesura between hemistichs (idradj or ladwir) is not
condemned; in some metres (e.g. khafif), words often
straddle the two halves of a line.

Tadmin meaning "implication" is listed in al-Nukat
ft i'djaz al-Kur'an by al-Rummam [q.v.] as one of the
ten elements of Kur'anic eloquence; it is explained as
either a form of brevity (idjaz, also separately listed
among the ten elements) or the connotation of word
or expression (e.g. muhdath "created" implying a muhdith
"creator"). This sense was rarely taken over by writ-
ers on stylistics and rhetoric.

Bibliography: TahanawT, al-Kashshaf/A dictionary
of the technical terms, 896-8; A.F.M. von Mehren, Die
Rhetorik der Araber, Copenhagen-Vienna 1853, 138-40;
A. Jones, Final tadmin in the poems of Abu Nuwas,
in Arabicus felix . . . (Festschrift A.F.L. Beeston), Oxford
1991, 61-73; Amidu Sanni, On tadmm (enjambment)
and structural coherence in classical Arabic poetry, in BSOAS,
lii (1989) 463-6; J.E. Bencheikh, Poetique arabe, Paris
1975, 148-55; Sayed Al-Bahrawi, L'enjambemenk des
restrictions prosodiques a la liberie du vers, in Actes du
XI' Congr. ae L'Assoc. Intern, de Lilt. Comp. (Paris,
1985), vi, 205-12; GJ. van Gelder, Beyond the line,
Leiden 1982 (see index); idem, Breaking rules for fun:
making lines that run/ on, in I.A. El-Sheikh et alii (eds.),
The challenge of the Middle East, Amsterdam 1982,
25-31, 184-6; A. Arazi, Metrique et langage poetique:
le cas de Halid al-Katib et des poetes ae muwassah, in
IOS, xi (1991) 107-36. (GJ.H. van Gelder)
TADMUR, Tadmor, the ancient name, and that
of modern Arabic usage, for the city of Palmyra.
It lies in the Syrian Desert some 145 km/90 miles
east of Hims and 240 km/ 150 miles west of the mid-
dle Euphrates (lat. 34° 36' N., long. 38° 15' E., alti-
tude 407 m/ 1,336 feet).

From early times, Tadmur must have been a sta-
tion on the caravan route connecting Mesopotamia
with Syria, since the road on which it lay could pass
through a gap in the southwest to northeastwards-
running chain of hills: to the southwest of Tadmur,
the Djabal al-Khanazir. and to the north and north-
east, the Djabal Abu Radjmayn running on to the
Djabal al-Bishn and the Euphrates. It was clearly of
importance in the late second millennium B.C., when
letters from Mari record that Tiglath-Pileser I (1116-
1076) defeated men from Tadmur in the land of
Amurru, and it was significant enough for the Old
Testament author of II Chron. viii. 4 to attribute its
building to King Solomon.

Under the Romans, the place was of international

significance because of its position facing the lands of
the Romans' enemies, the Parthians and the Sasanid
Persians. In the troubled 3rd century A.D., the city-
state of Palmyra was able to develop a wide-ranging
policy and become a military power of significance
under its energetic prince Septimius Odenathus II
(Udhayna b. Hayran b. Wahb Allat), who drove the
Persian emperor Shapur I [q.v.] back as far as his
capital Ctesiphon and who acquired from the Roman
emperor the title corrector totius orientis "governor of all
the East". After Odenathus's assassination in 267 or
268, his widow Zenobia (Zaynab) and her son Vabal-
lathus (Wahb Allat) continued Odenathus's activist pol-
icy, but in 272 Palmyra had to open its gates to the
emperor Aurelian and Roman control. Zenobia, famed
equally for her beauty and her intellect, entered later
Arabic folklore under the name of al-Zabba; inter alia,
she was said to have enticed and then killed the king
of al-Hlra, predecessor there of the Lakhmids, Dja-
dhrma'al-Abrash [q.v.] (al-Tabari, i, 757-61; al-Mas'udr,
Muring, iii, 189-99 - §§ 1046-57; cf. R.A. Nicholson,
A literary history of the Arabs, London 1907, 35-7). Pal-
myra subsequently became a legionary station on the
strata Diocletiana linking Damascus with the Euphrates.
In 325 its bishop, Marinus (who could conceivably
be, in the surmise of Irfan Shahtd, an Arab, since
we know of a famous Arab clan in al-Hira, the Banu
Marina; see his Byzantium and the Arabs in the fourth
century, Washington D.C. 1984, 345), attended the
Council of Nicaea, and Justinian later built a church

Its great days ended with the Arab overrunning of
Syria. In the 630s, it surrendered sulk"" to Khalid b.
al-Walld but later rebelled and had to be conquered
'anwaf" (al-Baladhuri, Futuh, 111-12; Yakut, Buldan, ed.
Beirut, ii, 18-19). It now became a settlement of the
Kalb, who dominated central Syria under the Umay-
yads. It was one of the towns which, under the
claimant Sulayman b. Hisham, rebelled against Mar-
wan II al-Himar in 127/744-5 (al-Tabari, ii, 1896,
1912), and according to Ibn al-Fakrh, 110, cf. Yakut,
ii, 17, Marwan had part of Tadmur's walls pulled
down. Soon afterwards, its people were involved in
the pro-Sufyanid, anti-'Abbasid movement in Syria of
Abu '1-Ward al-Kilabi (al-Tabari, iii, 53).

The town suffered in later times from earthquakes,
especially that of 552/1157, and Benjamin of Tudela's
assertion, only sixteen years later, that there were
2,000 Jews at Tadmur seems unlikely. It now sank
to the status of a miserable village amongst the exten-
sive ruins of ancient Palmyra. It was rediscovered by
the West when in 1678 two traders from the English
Levant Company's factory at Aleppo visited the site,
and this last was explored in detail by Robert Wood
in 1751 and splendidly described and illustrated by
him in his The ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tedmor, in the
desert, London 1753. The town has now revived in
the 20th century through its position during the inter-
War period and the post-Second World War years
on the Iraq Petroleum Company's Kirkuk-Tripoli oil
pipeline and through the growing tourist trade; it is
now a town of over 30,000 inhabitants in the muhafaza
or govemorate of Hims.

Palmyra was of significance in the development of
early Arabic culture. Although the inscriptions, num-
bering almost 2,000, found at Palmyra include many
in what is a continuation of Imperial Aramaic and
although Greek must also have been a language of
cultural prestige, the everyday language of the towns-
people in the early Christian centuries was probably
Arabic and the people themselves ethnically Arab.

This is shown by the Arab names of its rulers dur-
ing the period of its florescence in the 3rd century
A.D. and the fact that over half the personal names
occurring in the inscriptions (naturally, from the class
of notables and leading merchants) can be explained
etymologically as Arabic; they include, e.g. many theo-
phoric names with the god Arsu and the pan-Arab
goddess Allat [see al-lat]. As well as Arsu, whose
name is an adaptation of Ar. Ruda "the Favourable,
Benevolent One", and Allat, other Arab deities are
prominent, such as Ma'n, 'Azizu, Sa'r or Sa'd, Salman
and RahTm. The whole region of Palmyrene, passing
under the control of the Lakhmids of al-Hira, must
have become substantially Arabised; in 328, at al-
Namara [q.v.] some 220 km/ 140 miles to the south-
southwest of Palmyra, the king Imru' al-Kays b. 'Amr's
funerary inscription was written not in Aramaic but
in Arabic language with the Nabataean alphabet (see
F. Briquel-Chatonnet, in L'Arabie antique de Karib'il
a Mahomet. Nouvelks donnees sur I'histoire des Arabes grace
aux inscriptions, ed. Ch. Robin = RMMM, no. 61
[1991-3], 40-3).

Bibliography: For older bibl., see EI' art. Palmyra
(F. Buhl): See now Le Strange, Palestine under the
Moslems, 540-2; R. Dussaud, La topographs historique
de la Syrie antique et medievale, Paris 1927, 247 ff.;
A. Musil, Pahnyrena. A topographical itinerary, New York
1928, 136-43 and index; Christine P. Grant, The
Syrian Desert. Caravans, travel and exploration, London
1937, index; Naval Intelligence Division. Admiralty
Handbooks, Syria, London 1943, 230 and index;
Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the fourth century,
20-2; I. Browning, Palmyra, London 1974; J. Starcky
and M. Gawlikowski, Palmyre, Paris 1985; J. Texidor,
Un port romain du desert, Paris 1985; D.N. Freedman
(ed.), The Anchor Bible dictionary, New York 1992, v,
136-7; Gawlikowski, Les Arabes en Palmyrene, in Helene
Lozachmeur (ed.), Presence arabe dans le Croissant fer-
tile avant I'Hegire, Paris 1995, 103-8; E.M. Myers (ed.),
The Oxford encyclopedia of archaeology in the Near East,
New York 1996, iv, 238-44.

(C.E. Bosworth)
TADRIS (a.), the masdar of the form II Arabic
verb darrasa "to teach". One who teaches is known
as a mudarris. In contemporary usage, the term is an
unfocussed one, referring to instruction of different
varieties. The term mudarris thus indicates a "teacher"
in its most general sense, although it can also have
e specific meaning: in the hierarchy of modern
universities, for example, a mudarris is an
r holding the Ph.D., but ranking below an
ustadh and ustadh musa'id — roughly analogous, therefore,
to an assistant professor in an American university.

In the classical and mediaeval periods, the term
tadrls, as well as various other technical terms derived
from the same root, had more precise connotations.
Tadrls usually referred specifically to the teaching of
the religious law, that is, fikh [q.v.], and in this was
distinct from other terms used to describe the trans-
mission of knowledge: the relatively uncommon tasdlr,
for instance, when used to mean instruction, had a
more general application, while ta'Rm, which also indi-
cated teaching, usually referred to instruction at a
more basic level (hence mu'allim, a primary school
instructor or Kur'an teacher). The term tadrls could
be used with regard to instruction in other subjects,
especially when it was combined with a qualifying
phrase; thus, for example, tadrls al-tafslr ("teaching
Kur'anic exegesis"), or even tadrls al-tibb ("teaching
medicine").

The methodology of instruction in the law has

Egyptia

been thoroughly studied in a number of works by
G. Makdisi, and discussed more fully in other entries
of this Encyclopaedia [see esp. madrasa]. After an
invocation, a class (dars, pi. durus) consisted of lecture
and dictation, with the instructor providing an exe-
gesis of the text or question under discussion. At more
advanced levels, instruction focused on disputation
(mundzara), in which the mudarris explored fine points
of legal doctrine with his students and probed their
understanding of the issues and their ability to solve
difficult legal problems. As in all the traditional Islamic
sciences (as, indeed, in pre-modern education more
generally), memorisation played an important role. As
the purpose of instruction in the law was the train-
ing of qualified jurists and professors, legal education
culminated in the issuing to the student of an idjdza
[q.v.] (the term was borrowed from the conventions
for the transmission of hadtth [q.v.]) acknowledging his
qualifications to teach the law himself {idjftza li 'l-tadris)
or to issue fatwds (idjdza li 'l-iftd'), or sometimes one
encompassing both practices (idjazat al-ifta' wa 7-
tadris) (examples in al-Kalkashandi, Subh al-a'shd, xiv,
322 ff.).

The establishment of institutions devoted principally
or exclusively to higher education (both mosques with
endowments supporting organised classes, and, from
the 5th/ 1 1 th century, madrasas) had little effect on the
process of tadrls itself. Methods of instruction remained
the same, as did the measure of a pupil's success (the
idjdza, usually awarded by his teacher or teachers):
no system of institutional degrees took root before the
modern period. But the spread of educational insti-
tutions, and of the endowments which supported them,
did have a profound impact on the social context in
which tadrls took place. Most importantly, tadrls came
to signify not merely an activity but an office, in
effect, a professorship, one to which a learned indi-
vidual could be appointed, and from which he might
derive valuable emoluments. The reification of tadrls
is reflected in the appearance in the sources of a
plural form, taddrls, which was used to indicate the
separate "professorships" in different fields [fikh, hadlth,
tafslr, Arabic grammar, etc.) which an institution might
support, or the multiple teaching posts held by a sin-
gle individual (al-Kalkashandr, Subh, iv, 39).

The social and even political consequences of this
process of reification were enormous. Many of the new
schools and endowed mosques were the creation of
the ruling elite, and the founders might retain con-
trol of appointments to their institutions' professor-
ships. So, for example, when Nizam al-Mulk called
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali to Baghdad and appointed
him to the tadrls of Shafi'I fikh in the Nizamiyya
madrasa, bestowing on him the honorifics "Zayn al-
Din" and "Sharaf al-A'imma" (Ibn al-Djawzi, al-
Muntazam, ix, 55), his action was as much a political
statement as an expression of personal piety. Sultans
in MamlQk Cairo routinely interfered in the appoint-
ment process, naming scholars to professorships not
only in madrasas which they themselves had founded
but in older institutions as well.

From the standpoint of academic instruction, a more
important issue concerned the way in which scholars
themselves learned to control and manipulate profes-
sorial posts. On one level, of course, the academic
elite benefited from the proliferation of endowed pro-
fessorships. Not only were they guaranteed a stipend
for their instructional efforts, but a respected scholar
might acquire and hold multiple positions simultane-
ously. In the mid 8th/ 14th century, TakI al-Dfn al-
Subki held professorships in fikh in sev

TADRIS — TAFARNUDJ

in Cairo, which he then passed on to his son Baha'
al-Din (Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalam, al-Durar al-kamina,
Cairo 1966-7, i, 225-6; Ibn Taghrlbirdi, al-Manhal al-
safi, Cairo 1984, i, 409) — indicating that scholars, as
well as sultans and viziers, had learned how to play
the game of patronage. Another member of the Subki
family, Tadj al-Din 'Abd al-Wahhab, was critical of
scholars holding professorships in two or more schools
(Mu'id al-ni'am wa-mubid al-nikam, ed. D.N. Myhrman,
London 1908, 164), but in fact the practice was com-
mon, and led to the frequent appointment of substi-
tutes to fulfill the duties of an absent or over-burdened
mudarris. Alternatively, a lucrative professorship might
be divided among several difFerent scholars; the sources
frequently report that some individual "held half the
professorship" (lahu nisf al-tadris) in a given institution.
Moreover, the financial lure of a well-paid tadris could
be deleterious to the quality of instruction by attract-
ing unqualified individuals. Tadj al-Din al-Subkl wor-
ried about lazy professors who would simply memorise
two or three lines of a text, deliver them to the assem-
bled class, and leave; such individuals, he said, were
"not fit for a professorship [of law]" (ghayr salih li
'l-tadrts) and did not deserve a professor's stipend (ibid.,
153). Such problems did not necessarily pose a seri-
ous threat to the transmission of knowledge in medi-
aeval Islamic societies, but they did result from the
transformation of tadris into an institutionalised and

Bibliography: G. Makdisi, The rise of colleges. Insti-
tutions of learning in Islam and the West, Edinburgh
1981; J. Berkey, The transmission of knowledge in medieval
Cairo. A social history of Islamic education, Princeton
1992. (J.P. Berkey)

TADWIN (a.), the verbal noun from dawwana "to
register", most probably a denominal verb from the
Persian noun diwan [q.v.]. For tadwin in the connota-
tion of "drawing up lists for military and adminis-
trative purposes", see diwan. For its use as "gathering
poetry of a certain poet or tribe", see shi'r.

In the science of hadith, the term indicates the col-
lecting of traditions in writing in order to derive
legal precepts from them and not as a mere mem-
ory aid, for which rather the terms kitdbat al-'ilm or
k. al-hadith were used. The period of tadwin al-hadith
is generally assumed to have started at the end of
the lst/7th century with the order issued by the
Umayyad caliph 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'AzFz to Ibn Shihab
al-Zuhri (d. 124/742) to repair to Medina and col-
lect all the traditions he could lay his hands on.
Another person receiving a similar order is Abu Bakr
b. Muhammad b. 'Amr b. Hazm (d. sometime be-
tween 110/728 and 120/738),' cf. Ibn Hadjar, Tahdhib
al-tahdhib, Haydarabad 1327, xii, 39, Suyuti, al-Wasa'il
ft musamarat al-awa'il, ed. M.S.B. Zaghlul, Beirut 1986,
100. This resulted in as yet unstructured collections
which difFered from those made during the kitaba stage
in that they aimed at completeness. The Meccan tra-
ditionist 'Abd al-Malik b. 'Abd al-'Azfz Ibn Djuraydj
(d. 150/767) is also mentioned as one of the first to
collect 'Um in this manner. Out of tadwin there arose
the tabwib: there we see the first attempts at bringing
the material together in chapters (Ar. bah, pi. abwab)
under certain subject headings of gradually increasing
detail and sophistication. Alongside this we find the
first structural division of hadtths into collections
ascribed to certain ancient individuals, Companions
or Successors, which resulted in the first musnad [q.v.]
collections, while the tabwib gave rise to the first
musannaf [q.v.] works.

Bibliography:: For a detailed account of the

Muslim point of view, cf. Muhammad 'Adjdjadj al-
Khatib, al-Sunna kabl al-tadwin, Cairo 1963, 293-382;
G. Schoeler published on this subject four articles
in IsL, lxii (1985), 201-30; lxvi (1989), 38-67, 213-51;
and lxix (1992), 1-43; G.H.A. JuynboU, Muslim tra-
dition. Studies on chronology, provenance and authorship of
early hadith, Cambridge 1983, 21-2.

(G.H.A. JUYNBOLL)

TAFARNUDI (a.), from Ifrandj [q.v.], lit. "adopt-
ing, imitating or aping the manners and customs of
the Franks, i.e. the Europeans". The term was used
by the pioneer journalist KhaM al-Khuri in his satir-
ical novella Way idhan kstu bi-Ifrandji ("Alas then, I
am not a European"), published in the magazine
Hadlkat al-Akhbar in 1860, and may be older. The
Turkish alafranga[lik], from Italian alia franca, and the
Persian gharbzada[gi], literally "West-struck[ness]", con-
vey the same meaning. The latter term has been var-
iously rendered as "Westosis" and "Westoxication".

During the 19th century, Muslims in significant
numbers became aware of the culture, as well as of
the political, military and commercial power of Europe,
and reacted to it in various ways. Some responded
eagerly, learning a European language, reading and
even translating European books, and sometimes even
adopting European dress and some European social
usages. Others responded negatively, and called for
the rejection of these alien and infidel innovations.
Tafarnudj, with its equivalents in other Islamic languages,
was a term used by the latter to designate — and
denigrate — the former. The first European language
to be widely used in the Middle East was Italian, fol-
lowed by French and finally English. The stages of
cultural penetration can be traced in the sequence
and distribution of loanwords. Senate and Parliament
in Ottoman Turkish are Senato and Parlamento, because
it was in Italian that the Ottomans first heard of
these physically and culturally remote institutions. It
was not until late that Turks met senators, and that
reports of parliaments reached the Arab provinces —
hence Turkish senator and Arabic barlaman. By that
time, French had replaced Italian as the European
lingua franca of the Levant. In the late 20th century,
both were being replaced by English, usually in its
American form.

Like the Frenchified fop in English, German and
other European literatures in the period of French
cultural ascendancy, the imitator of European ways
became a figure of fun in Arabic, Persian and Turkish
literature. Sometimes the attack is directed against
any and every form of Western influence or borrow-
ing. More often, in modern literature, it is concerned
with the mindless imitation of everything Western,
good, bad and indifFerent alike.

Bibliography: Rotraud Wielandt, Das Bild der
Europaer in der modemen arabischen Erzahl- und Theater-
literatur, Beirut-Wiesbaden 1980, esp. 131 ft, 146 ff.,
151-2; Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Plagued by the West (Gharb-
zadegi). Translated from the Persian by Paul Sprachman,
New York 1982; Hasan Mukaddam, Djafar Khan
az Farang amada (Fr. and Pers.), Oakland, Calif.
1984. On earlier Muslim perceptions of Europe
and Europeans, see B. Lewis, The Muslim discovery
of Europe, New York 1982. On Ottoman reactions
to the first inroads of French language and cul-
ture, see idem, The impact of the French Revolution in
Turkey, in Jnal. of World History, i (1953), 105-25,
revised version in G.S. Metraux and F. Crouzet
(eds.), The new Asia. Readings in the history of mankind,
New York and London 1965, 31-59.

(B. Lewis)

TAFDlL — TAFILALT

TAFDIL (a.), literally "superiority, the act of rais-
ing something to a higher level or degree". In gram-
mar, it is the raising of a quality to a degree
combining both the "comparative" and "superlative"
functions of European adjectives, hence usually trans-
lated as "elative". Formally, the elative has the pat-
terns af'al" (masc.) and fu'ld (fem.) with sound plurals
(also afd'iP and fu'al" respectively), in an obvious but
still unexplained parallelism with the colour and defect
adjective patterns af'al" and fa'la'". The origins of the
patterns remain obscure: Wehr, 598 ff. (summarised in
Fleisch, 409 ff.) provides some circumstantial evidence
to connect afal" with exclamatory formulae; Bravmann,
34, speculates, with no evidence at all, that ahsan is
a variant of Hasan produced by a different resolution
of the initial consonant cluster in *hsan which would
underlie both forms. However, no theories can account
for the feminine forms, still less for the syntax and
possible links with the fi'l al-ta'adjdjub or "verb of sur-
prise", which also has the form af'al (in ma af'alahu,
or af'il in af'il biJii).

The comparative and superlative senses are distin-
guished only syntactically, broadly a distributive struc-
ture (af'al' miri) for our comparative, and annexation
(af'al" shay"", af'al" H-shay", af'al" 'l-ashya") for the
superlative (see Wehr, 572, and reference grammars
for details), which is thus seen to have the same syn-
tax as hull "all" and ayy "which". Wehr, 612, makes
the important point that af'al" forms are derived not
only from simple "positive" adjectives but from^any
kind of word, even a verb.

The semantic and rhetorical features of the elative,
as in other languages, are most complex. An inter-
esting case is the occurrence of af'al'' in isolation, of
which the best known example is Allah" akbar";
Sibawayhi's [q.v.] "comparative" paraphrase akbar" min
kuW shay™ (Kitab, ed. Bulak, i, 233, ed. Derenbourg,
i, 199) clearly reflects the intuitive understanding of
this expression, but is remarkable also for the way it
delicately avoids the heresy implicit in a "superlative"
paraphrase akbar" shay""/ 'l-ashya", even though logically
the two formulations might appear synonymous (wa
'lldh" a'lam). Nor was Sibawayhi unaware of syntacti-
cal problems caused by comparing a thing with itself,
as in ma ra'ayf radjul" ahsan" 1 " fi 'aynihi 'l-kuhf minhu
ft 'ayn' zayd m (ibid., i, 232/i, 199), a topic which
detached itself as the "Kuhl question" (mas'alat al-kuhl)
in later literature (see al-Mubarrad [q.v.], al-Muktadab
iii, 248 ff., where there are also further references).
Bibliography: H. Reckendorf, Arabische Syntax,
Heidelberg 1921, index, s.v. Elaliv, Komparaliv,
Superlata; H. Wehr, Der arabische Elaliv, Wiesbaden
[1953]; W. Wright, A grammar of the Arabic language,
index, s.v. Adjectives; M.M. Bravmann, The Arabic
elative. A new approach, Leiden 1968; al-Mubarrad,
K. al-Muktadab, ed. M.'A.Kh. "Udayma, Cairo
1964-8; H. Fleisch, Traite de philologie arabe, Beirut
1961-79, i, 408-15; M. UUmann, Arabische Kompara-
tivsdtze, in Nachrkhten der Akad. der Wiss. in Gottingen
(1985), no. 7; V. Cantarino, Syntax of Modem Arabic
prose, Bloomington-London 1974-5, ii, 467-86.

(M.G. Carter)
al-TAFF, the desert region that lies west of
Kufa along the alluvial plain of the Euphrates. It is
higher than the low-lying ground by the river and
forms the transition to the central Arabian plateau.
According to the authorities quoted by Yakut, Buldan,
iii, 359, al-tqff means an area raised above the sur-
rounding country or fringe, edge, bank; the name is
not found after the 13th century. The district con-
tains a number of springs, the waters of which run

southwest (cf. Ibn al-Faklh, 187). The best known of
these wells was al-'Udhayr. From its geographical posi-
tion al-Taff was the scene of the first encounter be-
tween the Arabs and Persians (al-Tabarl, i, 2210,
2247; Ibn al-AthTr, iii, 345, 351). The Sasanid kings
had stationed there feudal guardians of the frontier
which was defended by forts (maslaha) and a great
ditch (khandak) which began at Hit (Ibn Rosta, 107).
On al-Taff lay al-Kadisiyya [q.v.] and also Karbala'
[q.v.], famous as the scene of the death of al-Husayn
(Yakut, loc. at., and Bakri, Mu'djam, ii, 456). The lat-
ter is accordingly referred to as al-Maktul bi 'l-Jqff
(cf. al-Mukhtar, in Ibn al-AthTr, iv, 140; cf. also the
poem quoted by Yakut, loc. cit., and Ibn al-AthTr, iv,
267). In later centuries, al-Taff is rarely mentioned
(e.g. in Ibn al-AthTr, vii, 379 in connection with the
Karmatian troubles), and the majority of the Arab
geographers make no mention of it.

Bibliography: Given in the article; see also
A. Musil, The Middle Euphrates, a topographical itiner-
ary New York 1927, 48, 351. (J.H. Kramers)
TAFILALT, with the nisba Filali, pi. Filala, the
name of a district of southeastern Morocco,
essentially comprising the broad basin of the Wadl
ZTz, which runs into the fringes of the Sahara Desert
(roughly between lats. 31° and 32° N. and longs. 3°
30' and 4° W.).

It consists of an alluvial plain 20 km/ 1 2 miles long
and 16 km/ 10 miles broad, over which are scattered
200 ksur (or fortified dwellings of clay) surrounded by
gardens and cultivated fields. Where irrigation from
wells is possible, the soil is wonderfully fertile. The
chief product of Tafflalt is the palm-tree, of which
there are several hundred thousand, and the most
developed industry is the preparation of goat-skins by
the use of the bark of the mimosa which yields a tan-
ning gall. FilalT leather is famous and sought after
throughout all North Africa. The population is dense,
in the ksur of Tafflalt it was estimated in 1920 at 150-
200,000. The historical capital of Tafflalt was Sidjil-
masa ([q.v.] for the pre-modem political history of
Tafflalt). Here one may simply state that the district
was the cradle of the dynasty of the 'AlawT or Filali
Sharifs, who have ruled Morocco from 1041/1631
and the time of Mawlay Mahammad I al-Sharif up
to the present day [see 'alawis]. Many of these Sharifs
after the accession of their family to the throne
remained in or returned to settle in Tafflalt, where
they may be counted by thousands. A khalifa of the
Moroccan sultan traditionally represented the author-
ity of the makhzen among them and in the valley of
the ZTz.

After the establishment of the French Protectorate
over Morocco, a French mission arrived at TTghmart,
which has defences built at the end of the 19th century
by Mawlay al-Hasan; but its presence was immedi-
ately challenged by the local Ayt Atta confederation of
Berbers under a claimant to power, al-SemlalT. The dis-
trict was not re-occupied, by troops under Col. Giraud,
till 1932.

The main urban centres of Tafflalt are the adminis-
trative chef-lieu, Er-Rachida (al-Rashida), formerly Ksar
Es-Souk (Ksar al-Suk) and, to its south, Erfoud, both
now linked by a road across the High Atlas and Mid-
dle Atlas to Azrou (Azru) and then Fes (Fas) and
Meknes (Miknas). At 1 5 km/ 1 miles south of Erzou
is Rissani, a ksar built in the 18th century by Mawlay
Isma'Tl and an ancient centre for the caravan trade
between southern Morocco and the Sahara and West-
ern Sudan. In its environs are a large market, Bu 'Amm;
the z^wiya of Mawlay 'AIT al-Sharif, ancestor of the

ESCARPMENTS
WADIS

POLITICAL FRONTIER f
DATE PALM GROVES /

TAFILALT — TAFSIR

Filall ruling house (ca. 1050/1640); and the ruinous
site of Sidjilmasa, whose kasba was finally destroyed
by the Ayt Atta in 1818.

Bibliography: See those to 'alawTs and sidjil-
masa, and also P. Ricard, revised Ch. Bacquet, Guide
Bleue. Maroc, 8th ed. Paris 1954, 424-31 and map
at p. 416. (E. Levi-Provencjal*)

TAFKHIM (a.), the verbal noun from jakhkhama
meaning "to make thick, to emphasise or to make
grand". In Arabic, it is a phonetic phenomenon involv-
ing the pronunciation of the emphatic consonants,
mujakhkhama (sing, mujakhkham), /t A, d je, s ^, 6 i/and
also includes the marginal emphatics /r, ]/. Kur'anic
orthoepists used the term tajkhim to describe certain
variants of /r/ when it occurs next to low and back
vowels; however, they designated the term taghliz,
thickening, which they used synonymously with tajkhim,
for the description of certain variants of IV. The l\l ,
as an emphatic variant, has a limited environment
and is primarily used with the word Allah when not
preceded by /i, \l .

The earliest occurrence of the term tajkhim was
when Sibawayhi used it to describe what he called
alif al-tajkhim and he considered it as a variant, not
a phoneme. According to him, alif al-tajkhim is found
in a limited number of words such as salat, prayers;
zakat, the giving of alms to the poor; and hayat, life,
especially in the dialect of Hidjaz {al-Kitdb, iv, 432).
The four primary emphatic consonants /s, d, t 5 /
are not referred to by Sibawayhi as mujakhkhama but
as mutbaka (sing, mutbak), a tradition followed by Arab
grammarians and Kur'anic orthoepists. The verbal
noun itbak "act of covering or putting on a lid", is used
to describe the position of the tongue in the pronun-
ciation of the mutbaka. The mutbaka, along with the
velar/uvular group /x £, y £, q j/, are referred to by
the generic term musta'liya, high or raised. The musta'liya
consonants are described as preventing the occurrence
of imala [}.».], "inclination" of /a/ towards l\l .

Contemporary Arabists and linguists use the term
tajkhim to describe the emphatic consonants, mujakh-
khama, /t, d, s, <5 / and the marginal emphatics /r
and 1/. Tajkhim is often characterised by pharyngeal-
isation or velarisation, but the mujakhkhama consonants
are best characterised by the phonetic feature of re-
traction which involves moving the tongue up and
further back toward the velum and upper pharynx.
Tajkhim is not restricted to the environment of the
emphatics, but rather spreads to any adjacent vowel
or consonant making it emphatic. It is this feature of
retraction that makes this group of consonants opaque

Bibliography: For related articles on tajkhim in
EP, see imala, masjartdj al-huruf and sawtiyya.
Also Salman H. Al-Ani, and Mohamed S. El-Dalee,
Tajkhim in Arabic. The acoustic and physiological para-
meter, in M.P;R. Van den Broecke and A. Cohen
(eds.), Proceedings of the Xth International Congress of
Phonetic Sciences, Utrecht 1984, 385-9; Ibn Djinni,
Sirr sina'at al-i'rab, Damascus 1985, i, 45-67; Ibn
al-Djazan, al-Nashr ji 'l-kira'at al-'ashr, Cairo n.d.,
i, 210-4, ii, 90-119. R. Jakobson, Mujaxxama. The
"emphatic" phonemes in Arabic, in Studies presented to
Joshua Whatmough, ed. E. Pulgram, The Hague 1957,
105-15; Sibawayhi, al-Kilab, ed. 'Abd al-Salam
Muhammad Harun, Beirut 1975, iv.

(Salman H. Al-Ani)

TAFRA (a.), lit., "leap or impulsive movement",

from tafara "to jump, leap", a term of Islamic

philosophy, which became an important part of

': theories brought into play during the

of the Basra Mu'tazili cosmology, and
which is attributed in particular to Ibrahim b. Sayyar
al-Nazzam (and also to Hisham b. al-Hakam). Al-
Nazzam [q.v.] is taken to have argued that it is pos-
sible to move over a distance without going through
all the parts of the distance, by leaping over those
parts. Although this theory came in for a lot of crit-
icism by those sympathetic to atomism, al-Nazzam was
successful in pointing to difficulties in the minimal
parts discrete geometry of the atomists. This is a ver-
sion of the paradoxes which Zeno first discussed in
connection with the existence of indivisible magni-
tudes. The paradox of the flying arrow is that every
thing which is moving is really resting at each stage
of the movement. The movement itself is hidden in
the substance and only appears when the substance
itself is moving. Hisham al-Fuwati (Jl. early 3rd/9th
century) is said to have abandoned the theory of leaps
once he realised that, if it is valid, then a creature
which had dipped its legs in ink would produce a
discontinuous rather than a continuous track when it
covered a particular distance (see Ibn Mattawayh, 1 69).
This sort of example played a large part in contem-
porary disputes over the plausibility of atomism and
its alternatives as a theory of the nature of physical
reality.

Bibliography: Ash'arl, Makalat al-Islamiyyin,
Istanbul 1929-30, 61, 321; Baghdad!, Fork, 113;
Shahrastani, 38-39; Ibn Hazm, Fisal, Cairo 1899,
64, 92; Isfara'inl, Tabsir, Cairo 1955, 68; H. Daiber,
Das theologisch-philosophische System des Mu'ammar ibn
'Abbad as-Sulami, Beirut 1975, 300-2; Ibn Mattawayh,
Tadhkirafi ahkdm al-a^awahir wa 'l-a'rad, ed. S. Lutf
and F. c Awn, Cairo 1975; H. Wolfson, The philoso-
phy of the Kalam, Cambridge, Mass. 1976, 514-7;
J. van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3.
Jahrhundert Hidschra, Berlin and New York 1991-7,
iii, 310-24, and index s.v. t-j-r at iv, 1001;
A. Dhanani, 77k physical theory of kalam. Atoms, space
and void in Basrian Mu'tazili cosmology, Leiden 1994,
176-81. (O.N.H. Leaman)

TAFSIR (a.), pi. tafasir "interpretation" (as a
process and a literary genre), generally, but not always,
of the Kur'an. The word is used for commentaries
on Greek scientific and philosophical works, being
equivalent to shark [q.v.]; the term is applied to the
Greek and Arabic commentaries on the works of
Aristotle, for example. Jews and Christians writing in
Arabic also use the word in the context of transla-
tions and commentaries on the Bible, as some of the
works of Saadia Gaon demonstrate. The most signifi-
cant usage of the word, however, and the focus of
this article, is its reference to the branch of Islamic
learning concerned with the Kur'an. An essential part
of madrasa training, the study of tafasir of the Kur'an
stands alongside the study of hadith and jikh as ele-
ments of the traditional curriculum.

The emergence of the word tafsir as a technical
term is unclear. It is used once in the Kur'an at
XXV, 33, "They [the unbelievers] bring not to thee
[Muhammad] any similitude [mathal] but that We
bring thee the truth and the best tafsir". This follows
on a verse which states, "The unbelievers say, 'Why has
the Kur'an not been sent down all at once?' Even so,
that We may strengthen thy heart thereby, and We
have chanted it very distinctly". The idea would appear
to be that God has provided an explanation, tafsir,
of why the Kur'an is being revealed piece-by-piece.
Of course, other technical terms in Muslim religious
thinking frequently have no special status within the
Kur'an, so the lack of a firm reference point for the

term tafsir is not particularly surprising (see J. Wans-
brough, Quranic studies. Sources and methods of scriptural
interpretation, Oxford 1977, 154-8). For the first three
Islamic centuries, there appears to be no consistent
differentiation between tafsir, ta'wil [q.v.] and ma'na
[q.v., section 1] when used in titles of books or as a
technical term within works of tafsir (and, indeed, this
is the attitude of the lexicographers: see Lane, i, 2397;
for the ambiguities of the differentiation between the
terms in early times, see N. Kinberg, A lexicon of al-
Farra"s terminology in his Qur'an commentary, Leiden 1996,
40-2, 503-27, 563-6). After some time, tafsir was dis-
tinguished from ta'wil by the latter being considered
the product of research and investigation, the former
dependent upon transmission from Muhammad and
his companions. In its developed sense, ta'wtl became
limited to interpretation which leaves the "obvious"
(gahir) sense and delves into more speculative levels
of language (batiri). Ma'na, on the other hand, became
more constrained and limited primarily to lexico-
graphical aspects of interpretation.

A tafsir of the Kur'an is a work which provides an
interpretation of the Arabic text of the scripture. There
are formal characteristics of such works which help
to define the literary genre further. In most cases, a
work entided Tafsir will follow the text of the Kur'an
from the beginning to the end, and will provide an
interpretation (tafsir) of segments of the text (word-
by-word, phrase-by-phrase, or verse-by-verse) as a
running commentary. The major exceptions to this
fundamental characteristic are to be found in the for-
mative and the contemporary periods of Islam; in the
formative period, one finds works of tafsir which cover
only isolated segments of the text, and in the con-
temporary period, thematic (mawdu'i) tafasir have
become quite popular (see J.J.G. Jansen, The interpre-
tation of the Koran in modern Egypt, Leiden 1974, 13-4).
But the presence of scriptural text and commentary
as two elements interplaying remains. A number of
sub-disciplines are often included within the broad
scholarly enterprise itself and these have resulted in
books which concentrate on asbab al-nuzul, gharib al-
Kur'an, kisas al-anbiya', kira'at, marsum al-khatt, al-nasikh
wa 'l-mansukh, al-wakf wa 'l-ibtidd' and al-wuajuh wa
'l-naza'ir. These works are best understood as a part
of the overall 'ulum al-Kur'an (to which books are
devoted as summaries of the various sub-disciplines,
e.g., al-Zarkashr (d. 794/1392 [q.v.]), al-Burhan Jt 'ulum
al-Kur'an, and Djalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505
[q.v]), al-Itkdnji 'ulum al-Kur'an). However, the contents
of these books have often been derived from the major
works of tafsir (and then subsequendy have acted as
a source for them in many instances), so, in that sense,
such works are a part of the intellectual discipline
while not formally being a part of the literary genre.

Within the genre attempts have been made to
classify the various books. Attempts to describe
the "method" of the books predominate in Muslim
discussions, and such classifications have also found
their way into scholarly works (e.g., I. Goldziher, Die
Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung, Leiden 1920).
The basic separation between tafsir bi 'l-ma'thur (or
riwaya) and tafsir bi 'l-ra'y (or diraya), with the occa-
sional addition of tafsir bi 'l-ishara, reflects a tension
which runs throughout the Muslim community and
its intellectual disciplines, that of the authority of the
community (ma'thur) versus that of the intellect (ra'y)
(ishara being the speculative "hint" or "allusion" gen-
erally connected to Sufism and outside these two main
classifications). This separation does not, however, pro-
vide a sufficient analytical tool by which one may

characterise the wide variety of books and approaches
which are contained within the broadly-defined genre
of tafsir, since it concentrates on a superficial under-
standing of the form of the works with little atten-
tion to their underlying substance.

Recent scholarly attempts to define the genre have
concentrated on isolating the variety of elements which
come together within a given text in varying pro-
portions (see N. Calder, Tafsir from Tabari to Ibn Kathir:
problems in the description of a genre, illustrated with reference
to the story of Abraham, in G.R. Hawting and A.-K.A.
Shareef (eds.), Approaches to the Qur'an, London 1993,
101-40; P. Heath, Creative hermeneutics: a comparative analy-
sis of three Islamic approaches, in Arabica, xxxvi [1989],
173-210). Different mufassirun have different concerns
and goals, and this is reflected in the relative weight
they put upon elements such as history, grammar,
semantics, law, theology, or folklore. All commenta-
tors are concerned with the process of analysing the
text in light of the "external world", however that be
defined for the individual author, with the aim of
resolving any apparent conflict and making the text
"clear". Each element that comes into play within a
text of tafsir acts both to prompt exegesis (in the sense
that a conflict is perceived between the world and
the text) and to characterise the emphasis of a given
interpretative approach.

Pride of place in the tools used in the interpreta-
tive process has been given to grammar (including
elements of lexicography and orthography). As an im-
plement for asserting the scholar's status and author-
ity, arguments over grammar have had no rival (see
M.G. Carter, Language control as people control in medieval
Islam: the aims of the grammarians in their cultural context,
in Al-Abhath, xxxi [1983], 65-84). Grammar became
a specialisation within tafsir, producing works such
as Ma'ani 'l-Kur'an wa i'rabuhu by al-Zadjdjadj (d.
311/923; see GAS, viii, 99-101), I'rab al-Kur'an by al-
Nahhas (d. 338/950; see GAS, ix, 207-9) and Mushkil
i'rab al-Kufan by Makki al-Kays! (d. 437/1045 [q.v.]).
The historical origins of grammar and lexicographi-
cal comparison within the framework of tafsir have
become a matter of scholarly controversy in light of
Wansbrough's arguments for the relatively late intro-
duction of both aspects (see Quranic studies, 216-27);
for example, C.H.M. Versteegh, Arabic grammar and
Qur'anic exegesis in early Islam, Leiden 1993, and
M. Muranyi, Neue Materialien zur tafsir-Forschung in der
Moscheebibliothek von Qairawan, in S. Wild (ed.), The
Qur'an as text, Leiden 1996, 225-55, both argue against
Wansbrough's point, citing grammar and poetical ref-
erences in texts understood to be early in date. Much
of the dispute depends upon dating of texts (see
A. Rippin, Studying early tafsir texts, in Isi, lxxii [1995],
310-23).

Rivalling grammar but yet itself often thought of
as dependent upon it, the framework of legal analy-
sis emerges quite clearly in some works, achieving a
status reflected in titles such as the Ahkam al-Kur'an
written by the Hanafi al-Djassas (d. 370/981 [q.v.]),
the Maliki Ibn al-'ArabT (d. 543/1148 [q.v.]) and the
Malikf al-Kurtubr (d. 671/1272 [q.v.]). Aiming to
demonstrate that the body of Islamic law may be
derived in the first instance from the Kur'an, such
works include, out of necessity, grammatical and his-
torical elements within interpretation in order to argue
their legal points.

Theology, on the other hand, frequendy remained
subsumed within the overall contents of tafsir, although
certain works attributed to prominent theologians (e.g.
the Hakd'ik al-ta'wilfi mutashabih al-tanzil by al-Shanf

al-Radr, d. 406/1016 [q.v]) tend to provide a thorough-
going emphasis on a certain theological perspective.
The famous work of al-Zamakhsharl (d. 538/1144
[q.v.]), renowned for its Mu'tazili perspective, is dis-
tinctive primarily for its special outlook and not for
the presence of an overall theological argument per
se, nor for the quantity of such argumentation. Other
works, especially those from Shi'T writers such as al-
Tusi (d. 460/1067) and al-Tabrisi (d. 548/1153), pro-
vide more detailed and thorough-going examples of
the Mu'tazili tendency, as does the work only avail-
able in "reconstructed" form from al-Djubba'I (d. 303/
915 [q.v.]) (see D. Gimaret, Urn lecture mu'taziUte du Coran.
Le tafsTr d'Abu All al-Djubba'i [m. 303/915], Louvain-
Paris 1994). All other major works of tafsir have a
theological perspective as well (see e.g. C. Gilliot, Exe-
gese, langue, et theohgie en Islam. L'exegese coranique de Tabari
(m. 311/923), Paris 1990, 207-78) but are not so "dis-
tinctive" as to gain a reputation in that regard. The
observation regarding al-Zamakhshan's distinctiveness
(but not uniqueness) is confirmed by the frequent use
of that book within the madrasa context, regardless of
its theological perspective.

The genius of Muslim tafsir is perhaps best seen
in its historicisation of the text through the general
tools of narrative provided by prophetic history, both
of the distant past as found in the kisas al-anbiya', and
of the contemporary as found in the sira of Muham-
mad. Designed both to prove the fact of revelation
and to embody an interpretation that would relate
the text to a context (see Rippin, The Junction of asbab
al-nuzul in Qur'anic exegesis, in BSOAS, li [1988], 1-20),
historicisation grounded the text in the day-to-day life
of the Muslim community. In that manner, the extrac-
tion of law was facilitated, the sense of moral guid-
ance was emphasised and the "foreign" made Islamic.
Whether this was a matter of filling in the details on
the life of the former prophets with incidents to which
Muslims could relate (see e.g. J. Lassner, Demonizing
the Queen of Sheba. Boundaries of gender and culture in post-
biblical Judaism and medieval Islam, Chicago 1993), a
concern with identifying the unknown within the con-
text of the life of Muhammad (ta'yin al-mubham) (see
U. Rubin, The eye of the beholder: the life of Muhammad
as viewed by the early Muslims: a textual analysis, Princeton
1995), or a polemical impulse from the context of
Sunni-Shf'i interaction (see e.g. U. Rubin, Prophets and
progenitors in the early Shi'a tradition, in JSAI, i [1979],
41-65), historicisation of the text was comprehensive
and compelling. Of course, this is not the history of
contemporary historians, but a history which is both
controlled by, and productive of, the meaning of the
text of the Kur'an.

It is in the flight from the constraints of sacred his-
tory, however, that symbol, allegory and inspiration
gained their status, especially in tafsir from within the
context of Sufism, but by no means limited to that
area. The appreciation of the literary qualities of the
text of the Kur'an in terms of literary figures and
general stylistic concerns may well have led, over the
course of time, to more wide-ranging symbolic and
allegorical readings of the text. In the hands of Sufis,
such readings became supported by notions of insight
derived from mystical experience; this is reflected in
the text of their tafasir in the way in which a pas-
sage of the Kur'an can be the jumping-off point (a
"keynote") for a meditation on a topic seemingly
unconnected to the text itself but derived from images
contained within the personal experience of the indi-
vidual Sufi: (on Sufi interpretation, see P. Nwyia, Exegese
coranique el langue mystique, Beirut 1970).

Within all these aspects and procedures, there are
changing emphases over time. Variability in the mat-
ter of citation of authorities is one such factor, and
the one which Muslims seized upon in their efforts
at classification, as noted above. Expansion and con-
traction in the number of meanings provided is
another, independent variable which appears to vary
over time. It is perhaps one of the ironies (but also
one of an author's celebrations) that the reliance on
the citation of authorities tended, in some hands at
least, to proliferate meanings. There was a continual
building upon the past which was being accumulated
for future generations within these works. Al-Kurtubi,
for example, exemplifies the tendency towards multi-
plicity of meanings with little indication of what is to
be preferred. The Kur'an, it is being suggested, incor-
porates all these potentialities. Named authorities are
an important element within this proliferation of alter-
natives. But even then, it needs to be remembered that
all this is done within a certain framework of the
author, his concerns and allegiances (e.g. his concept of
what "Sunn!" Islam encompasses). The citations are
always subject to choice, the authorities subject to selec-
tion. Time, location, sectarian and popular beliefs will
all have affected the selections and choices. The selec-
tion of material is precisely what defines the tradition
within which an author is working (and thus for the
purposes of this overview of tafsir as a genre, distinc-
tions such as Sunni versus Shr'T are irrelevant; on the
specific characteristics of the latter, see G. Monnot,
Islam: exegese coranique, in Annuaire EPHE, V section, xci
[1982-3], 309-17).

Another such variable may be seen in the expan-
sion and contraction in the amount of supplementary
material provided within a tafsir. This is especially so
in the contemporary context, but it is a tendency
which has roots in the mature stage of Muslim tafsir
for a variety of reasons. Some authors clearly aimed
their works at more popular (although not neces-
sarily less learned) audiences with the result of pro-
ducing concise works suitable for easy copying and
detailed study. Such works (e.g. Djalal al-Din al-
Mahalli, d. 864/1459 [q.v.] and Djalal al-Din al-Suyuti
[d. 911/1505], Tafsir al-^alalayn) end up being tech-
nical and presumptive of a great deal of knowledge
in areas of grammar and the like. Other authors,
however, reacted to the accumulation of exegetical
material with a more negative attitude, feeling that
much of it was "getting away" from the meaning of
the Kur'an. Categories of material emerged which
were deemed to be extraneous and were to be cen-
sured: the movement against Isra'lliyyat [q.v.], a tech-
nical term within tafsir apparently first employed as
such by Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328 [q.v.]), serves as
the prime example of this tendency. Rigorous isnad
criticism and a prioritising of knowledge by its prox-
imity in time to Muhammad also provided criteria
by which the treasure trove of material from the gen-
erations of past exegetes was whittled down to pro-
duce more limited ranges of meaning.

In tracing the historical developments of the genre,
it is possible to separate out four periods of expres-
sion: formative, classical, mature and contemporary.
The separation is artificial, particularly fuzzy at the
edges and certainly in need of refinement. It does,
however, provide a means by which to summarise the
contents of the genre by its highlights.

A debate has raged for a century now in schol-
arly literature concerning the origins of tafsir as a pro-
cedure and as written works. To some extent, this is
debate within Islam itself concern-

ing authority in tafstr: did Muhammad authorise inter-
preting the Kur'an? If so, then interpretations from
him and his closest companions might be thought to
be of the highest importance in establishing what the
text means. It may be observed in passing that such
an argument tends to be a restraining one, suggest-
ing a limited range of legitimate meanings; these argu-
ments become closely associated in mediaeval times
with Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Kathfr (d. 774/1373 [q.v]).
On the other hand, an early reluctance to interpret
the Kur'an is to be noted, especially associated with
statements attributed to the caliph 'Umar b. al-Khattab
[q.v.]. An attempt to reconcile these two ideas is found
in the notion that 'Umar was only against interpre-
tation of "unclear" verses. The lack of documentary
evidence makes the debate a difficult one to adjudi-
cate, and the debate among the views of Goldziher,
Richtungen; H. Birkeland, Old Muslim opposition against
the interpretation of the Koran, Oslo 1955; N. Abbott,
Studies in Arabic literary papyri: Qur'anic commentary and
tradition, Chicago 1967; and Wansbrough, Quranic studies,
remains unresolved (see Gilliot, Les debuts de I'exegese
coranique, in RMMM, lviii. 4 [1990], 82-100).

One response to this uncertain historical situation
has been the attempt on the part of a number of
contemporary editors to reconstruct texts on the basis
of attributions found in later texts. Such "books" are
historically said to have existed (as Sezgin documents
in GAS, i, 6-8, 25-35 esp.) but are no longer found
in manuscript copies. Thus the only choice has been
to reconstruct them. Such publications have recently
proliferated and a number of examples can be cited:
al-Hasan al-Basrl (d. 110/728 [q.v.] and see Gilliot,
Textes arabes anciens edites en Egypte au corns des annees
1992 a 1994, in MIDEO, xxii [1994], 295-6, no. 36);
Ibn Abi Talha (d. 120/737; see Gilliot, Textes arabes
anciens edites en Egypte au corns des annees 1990 a 1992,
in MIDEO, xxi [1993], 439-40, no. 78); al-Suddl (d.
128/745; see Gilliot, Textes arabes anciens edites en Egypte
au cows des annees 1992 a 1994, 296, no. 37, and
E. Kohlberg, A medieval Muslim scholar at work. Ibn
Tawus and his library, Leiden 1992, 348, no. 574); and
Sufyan b. 'Uyayna (d. 196/811 [q.v.], and see Gilliot,
Les debuts de I'exegese coranique, 89-90). In some senses,
these reconstructions may be no different from the
supposedly early works found in late manuscript form
ascribed to Mudjahid b. Djabr (d. ca. 100-4/718-22
[q.v.], and see Gilliot, Textes arabes anciens edites en Egypte
au cours des annees 1990 a 1992, 440, no. 79) and
Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 161/778 [q.v.], and see Gilliot,
Les debuts de I'exegese coranique, 89). A fundamental issue
exists regarding the fragmentary nature of these books:
should it be interpreted as evidence of the fragmen-
tary nature of early tafstr per se, or as evidence of a
mediaeval attempt to extract these books from later
works? On this, see Rippin, Al-^uhri, naskh al-Qur'an
and the problem of early tafstr texts, in BSOAS, xlvii (1985),
22-43.

We are on somewhat firmer ground for discussion
of the formative period of tafstr with a series of books
the character of which is more cohesive and thus
more likely to be authentic, although certainly not
free of later interpolation, reformulation and editorial
intrusion. Works ascribed to Mukatil b. Sulayman
(d. 150/767 [q.v.]), al-Farra' (d. 207/822 [q.v.]), 'Abd
al-Razzak al-San'anl (d. 211/827; see GAS, i, 99), and
al-Akhfash al-Awsat (d. 215/830; see Gilliot, Textes
arabes anciens edites en Egypte au cours des annees 1990 a
1992, 441-2, no. 81) may all be thought to fit into
this category. However, the work ascribed to al-Kalbi
(d. 146/763 [q.v.]) — and at the same time ascribed to

'Abd Allah b. al-'Abbas (d. ca. 68/687 [q.v.]) and al-
FTruzabadi (d. 817/1415 [q.v.])— indicates the diffi-
culty in accepting an ascription without detailed
examination and comparison; in this particular case,
the work is more likely attributed to the 4th/ 10th
century (see Rippin, Tafstr Ibn 'Abbas and criteria for
dating early tafstr texts, in JSAI, xviii [1994], 38-83). It
should be noted that the fragmentary nature of the
works ascribed to Ibn Wahb (d. 197/812 [q.v.]) has
been argued by Muranyi, 'Abd Allah b. Wahb (125/743-
197/812). al-Gami'. Tafstr al-Qur'an [Die Koranexegese),
Wiesbaden 1993-5, i, 2, to be evidence that this for-
mative stage of tafstr is not as uniform as the above
summary may suggest, but the nagging question of
assessing the date of all these early texts still remains.

The classical period of tafstr is often considered to
come into existence with the Djami' al-bayan 'an ta'wil
ay al-Kur'an of Abu Dja'far al-Tabart (d. 311/923
[q.v.]). Al-Tabarl's work, the focus of a series of stud-
ies by Gilliot (esp. Exegese, langue et theologie en Islam),
is a vast compendium of traditions and analysis in
which grammar plays its role as the major arbitrator
between rival meanings. However, this period was
clearly one of intense development of works of tafstr,
and several significant works from authors who lived
roughly in the same period as al-Tabarf still exist and
need to be viewed as a part of this expression of
classical tafstr. Notably, a number of other works that
express differing theological viewpoints need close at-
tention, especially when viewed in light of the polem-
ical aspects of al-Taban: Hud b. Muhkim (d. towards
the end of the 3rd/9th century; see GAS, i, 41), Tafstr,
an Ibadi work; Furat b. Furat al-Kufi (d. ca. 310/
922; see GAS, i, 539), Tafstr, Shi'I; al-'Ayyashi (d. ca.
320/932 [q.v.]), Tafstr al-'Ayyashi, ShiT; al-Kummi (d.
end 4th/ 10th century; see GAS, i 45-6), Tafstr al-
Kur'an, a brief and markedly Shf'i work; al-Tustan
(d. 283/896; see GAS, i, 647, and G. Bowering, The
mystical vision of existence in classical Islam. The Qur'anic
hermeneutics of the Sufi Sahl al-Tustarl {d. 283/896), Berlin
1980), Tafstr. More subtle in its theological variance
but significant none the less is al-Matundf (d. 333/944
[q.v.]), Ta'wildt ahl al-sunna (only vol. i published).

Within the mature phase of tafstr there is an abun-
dant number of works, the full dimensions of which
have not been fully catalogued. Among the most
famous are al-Tha'labi (d. 427/1035 [q.v.]), al-Kashf
wa 'l-bayan 'an tafstr al-Kur'an (unpublished except for
its bibliographic introduction, ed. I. Goldfeld, Acre
1984), a vast compendium of material whose inter-
ests are partially reflected in the author's work, 'Ara'is
al-maajalis ft kisas al-anbiya'; al-Sulamf (d. 412/1021;
see GAS, i, 671-4, and G. Bowering, The Qur'an com-
mentary of al-Sulamt, in W.B. Hallaq and D.P. Little
(eds.), Islamic studies presented to Charles J. Adams, Leiden
1991, 41-56), Haka'ik al-tafslr, a work characterised
by SufT interpretations (al-Sularm's ^iyadat haka'ik al-
tafslr has now been published, ed. Bowering, Beirut
1995); al-Mawardl (d. 450/1058 [q.v.], and see Gilliot,
Textes arabes anciens edites en Egypte au cours des annees
1992 a 1994, 296-7, no. 38), al-Nukat wa 'l-'uyun; al-
Tusi (d. 460/1067 [q.v.]), al-Ttbyan fi tafstr al-Kur'an,
a significant Shl'T expression; al-Zamakhshan, al-
Kashshaf 'an haka'ik ghawamid al-tanztl; al-Tabrisi (d.
548/1153 [q.v.], and also see M.O.A. Abdul, 77k
Qur'an: Shaykh Tabarsi's commentary, Lahore 1977),
Maapna' al-bayan li-'ulum al-Kur'an, a moderate ShiT
work; Ibn al-Djawzi (d. 597/1201 [q.v], and see Jane
McAuliffe, Ibn al-Jawzi's exegetical propaedeutic: introduc-
tion and translation, in Alif Journal of Comparative Poetics,
viii [1988], 101-13), Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 606/1209

[q.v.] , Kitab zad al-masir ft 'ilm al-tafsir, and also see
the studies by J. Jomier, Les mafatih al-ghayb de I'imam
FaMtr al-Din al-Razi: quelques dates, lieux, manuscrils, in
MIDEO, xiii [1977], 253-90 and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
(m. 606 HJ 1210) el les commentaires du Coran plus anciens,
in ibid., xv [1982], 145-72), Mafatih al-ghayb, a work
generally cited for its vast coverage and philosophi-
cal depth; al-Kurtubi (d. 671/1273 [q.v.]), al-L^ami' li-
ahkam al-Kur'an, one of the most masterly compendia
of interpretational material; al-BaydawI (d. between
685-716/1286-1316; [q.v.]), Anwar al-tanzil wa-asrar al-
ta'wil, a work usually understood as an epitomisation
of that of al-Zamakhsharl, minus the Mu'tazili theo-
logical slant; 'Abd al-Razzak al-Kasham (d. 731/1330
[q.v.], see also P. Lory, Les commentaires esoleriques du
Coran d'apres 'Abd ar-Razzaq al-Qashani, Paris 1980),
usually known under the title Tafsir Ibn al-'Arabi, a
Sufi tafsir, reflecting al-Kasham's mystical forebear Ibn
al-'Arabi (d. 628/1240 [q.v.]); Abu Hayyan al-Ghamati
(d. 745/1344 [q.v.]), al-Bahr al-muhit; Ibn Kathir, Tafsir
al-Kur'an al-'azim; al-MahallT and al-Suyuti, Tafsir al-
Qjaldlayn; al-Suyuti also wrote his own larger work,
al-Durr al-manlhur ft 'l-tafsir bi 'l-ma'thur. This summary
of titles only takes into account some of the major
published works readily available; many more works
exist, both published and unpublished, especially from
the later centuries, of which only a small portion has
been examined with scholarly eyes.

It is in this mature phase that substantial debates
rage within the discipline and have their affect upon
the works produced. Ibn Taymiyya's al-Mukaddima fi
usul al-tafsir is one of the most strident and polemi-
cal of all such presentations and the effect of these
ideas on Ibn Kathir and many contemporary mufas-
sirun is noticeable. Fundamentally antagonistic to in-
tellectual speculation of all types, whether legal or
exegetical, Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Kathlr stand in
contrast to the general tendency in tafsir to allow for
diversity. The latter champions dogmatism in his
attempt to juxtapose and reconcile the Kur'an and
the surma, both understood as revealed books (see
Calder, Tafsir from Tabari to Ibn Kathir, 130; McAuliffe,
Quranic hermeneutics: the views of al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir,
in Rippin, Approaches to the history of the interpretation of
the Qur'an, Oxford 1988, 46-62).

In a manner which may well be unique amongst
the world's religions, Muslims continue down to the
present day to produce tafasir of the classical form,
while also taking the enterprise into new literary re-
gions. The contemporary phase of tafsir, then, is an
important one. The impetus behind much of the writ-
ing of tafasir from the 19th century on has been an
attempt to simplify the content of the texts, making
them more accessible to an increasingly literate but
not necessarily formally religiously-trained population.
As well, there has been the desire to spread religious
and social ideas associated with the various contem-
porary platforms of reform, and an effective vehicle
for doing this has been tafsir (overviews of the sub-
ject are provided by J.M.S. Baljon, Modem Muslim
Koran interpretation (1880-1960), Leiden 1968, andJJ.G.
Jansen, The interpretation of the Koran in modem Egypt).

One can, then, point to a series of tafasir written
in the 19th and 20th centuries that, in basic form,
follow the classical literary genre. It is in their authors'
conceptions of the world around them that the texts
differ so markedly from their classical counterparts.
This has especially led to a displacement of the exeget-
ical tools of grammar and to an emphasis on theol-
ogy and law but with those two disciplines defined
to a large extent outside of their classical modes. Thus

the Tafsir al-Manar of Muhammad 'Abduh (d. 1905
[q.v]) and RashTd Rida (d 1935 [q.v.]) places an
emphasis on law but sees this in general terms of
moral guidance on the practical and social planes.
Perhaps the most famous and influential of all con-
temporary tafasir, Fi zilat al-Kur'an of Sayyid Kutb
(d. 1966 [q.v.]), is an eloquent statement constructing
an Islamic vision of the world that is, at times, bril-
liant in its ability to relate the Kur'anic text to the
contemporary situation often through the tools of alle-
gory and symbolism (see e.g. A.H. Johns, Let my people
go! Sayyid Qutb and the vocation of Moses, in Islam and
Christian-Muslim relations, i [1990], 143-70, and O. Carre,
Mystique et politique. Lecture revolutionnaire du Coran par
Sayyid Qutb, Jrere musuhnan radical, Paris 1984). Like-
wise, works known as tafsir 'ilmi (for example, Tantawi
Djawhan(d. 1940 [see djawhari, tantawi]), al-L^awahir
ft tafsir al-Kur'an al-karim) are characterised by an
emphasis upon the "scientific" elements of the Kur'an
and could be said to introduce a new tool for inter-
pretation, that of the discipline of science.

As well, there has been a tendency among con-
temporary writers to leave the form of classical tafsir
and compose works more limited in scope but embrac-
ing particular methods of approach. 'A'isha 'Abd al-
Rahman (b. 1913) has written (under the pseudonym
Bint al-Shati') al-Tafsir al-bayani li 'l-Kur'an al-Karim,
a study of 14 short suras which focusses on lexical
matters and "original meanings" of individual words
within a framework of attention to Kur'anic stylistic
usage. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Mafhum al-nass. Dirasa
ft 'ulum al-Kur'an, is another recent example in quite
a different vein, for it is a book which raises method-
ological issues (severely challenged by some) about the
understanding of the Kur'an within contemporary
times, in a form structured along the lines of classi-
cal introductions to tafsir (see R. Wielandt, Wurzeln der
Schwierigkeit innerislamischen Gesprachs iiber neue hermeneutische
Zugdrtge zum Korantext, in Wild (ed.), The Qur'an as text,
257-82).

The other important approach in contemporary
times has been thematic (mawdu'i), a form that has
no direct classical counterpart and breaks significandy
from the description of the literary genre since, in
the main, it leaves the principle of following the order
of the scriptural text. The tafsir of Mahmud Shaltut
[q.v.], for example, does follow the Kur'an sura-by-
sura, but emphasises the themes which emerge from
a given sura and then brings that theme into con-
junction with all other passages dealing with the same
theme. The treatment of each sura thus ends up being
organised by theme rather than verse order (see
K. Zebiri, Mahmud Shaltut and Islamic modernism, Oxford
1993). As a technique of interpretation, this does not
move far from Ibn Taymiyya's emphasis on the first
source of interpretation being the Kur'an itself. Nor,
upon close analysis, is it significantly different method-
ologically from the classical exegetes' well-established
willingness to adduce other passages from elsewhere
in the Kur'an which would help in the elucidation
of a problematic verse (al-Taban, for example, pro-
vides many such instances of referring the reader back
to earlier discussions of a given point of dispute). It
is thus the form in which the commentary appears
that gives the contemporary works their distinctive-
ness. The popularity of this method has also led to
the publication of vast numbers of monographs deal-
ing explicidy with single themes within the Kur'an
(e.g. Mahmud Shaltut, Min huda 'l-Kur'an, which con-
tains a number of individual monographs).

It is important to observe as well that in contem-

porary times, the writing of tafasir in languages other
than Arabic has become more significant. While clas-
sical examples of such books exist in languages from
Persian to Malay, such works were frequently (although
not always; cf. the Persian tafsir of al-Maybudi, d. 6th/
12th century [q.v.], Kasfyf al-asrar wa-'uddat al-abrdr)
based around translations from Arabic. In contempo-
rary times there has been a recognition of the need
to express an interpretation of the Kur'an in local
languages and to raise interpretational issues of local
concern. The extent of the material, as reflected in
the example of Indonesia (see H. Federspiel, Popular
Indonesian literature on the Qur'an, Ithaca 1994), indicates
that this will be a significant field of study in the
future. Tafsir has also been an important vehicle for
new religious expressions, notably in the case of the
BabI and Baha'I faiths, once again indicating an
increasing flexibility in the genre within the contem-
porary period.

Bibliography: Largely given in the text. C. Gilliot,
Exegese, langue el theologie en Islam, contains a signif-
icant bibliography of the subject. For further biblio-
graphies, see A. Rippin, The present status of tafsir
studies, in MW, lxxii [1982], 224-38; A. Neuwirth,
Koran, in H. Gatje (ed.), Grundriss der arabischen
Philologie, Band II, Literatunvissenschafl, Wiesbaden
1987, 119-35 (sections 3.7 and 3.8) and Band III,
Supplement (W. Fischer, ed.), Wiesbaden 1992, 262-4.
Still valuable as an overview of the subject is
T. Noldeke and F. Schwally, Geschkhte des Qorans,
ii, Die Sammlung des Qorans, Leipzig 1919, 163-92.
Muhammad Husayn al-Dhahabr, al-Tafsir wa 'l-
mufassirun, 'Cairo 1967, surveys the major tafasir in
a useful manner. (A. Rippin)

TAFTA (p.), a type and weave of fabric used
mainly in dress in Persia and Turkey from the 16th
century onwards. Since the verb tdjian has many mean-
ings, e.g. to twist, turn, be woven, be shining, be
sparkling, there has been much ambiguity and con-
fusion of identification; the term has been used indis-
criminately for both silk cloth and linen garments.
The safest definition is based on technique, and here
the meanings "twisted" and "shining" are important.
Tafta is a silk cloth of technically simple plain or
tabby weave. Fine horizontal silk weft threads pass
over and under single alternating vertical silk warp
threads of equal weight and thickness to produce a
firm textured, but supple and versatile, fabric. Tafta
was usually dyed in one colour only, and has a soft
shimmering appearance, in contrast to the highly-
polished surface of satin.

Tafia was woven in large quantities in Persia dur-
ing the Safawid period as a light silk garment fabric.
The best surviving examples are coats of 17th cen-
tury date, with tight bodices, long sleeves and full
bell-shaped skirts which were all probably woven in
Isfahan, with Yazd and Kirman as important sec-
ondary centres of manufacture. Background colours
include light blue, orange and golden yellow. Variations
in the basic tafia weave depend on the twist of the
silk, which produces a more or less pronounced ribbed
effect. Tafta can be decorated with stamped geomet-
ric motifs or with sprays of flowers woven in sup-
plementary brocade weave in coloured silks and gold
and silver wire. Tafta production continued into the
18th and 19th centuries, brocaded with small repeated
floral motifs. Tafia was used in Turkey from the 16th
century onwards, mainly as a plain fabric decorated
with stamped designs. Here it was used as linings and
facings in contrasting colours to the long, formal kaftan
and entari robes made of velvet or heavy silk brocade.

Tafta passed into Europe as Italian taffeta, German
Taft, where, although possibly represented in 16th cen-
tury paintings, it is best known as a light silk fabric
in fresh colours — blue, green, pink — made into women's
fashionable dresses of the late 17th to 18th centuries.
The tafia weave survives today but it is machine-
woven in synthetic fibres.

Bibliography: Nancy A. Reath and Eleanor B.
Sachs, Persian textiles and their techniques from the sixth
to the eighteenth centuries, including a system for general
textile classification, New Haven 1937; Carol Bier
(ed.), Woven from the soul, spun from the heart, Textile
Museum, Washington D.C. 1987; Hulya Tezcan,
Atlaslar atlast. A catalogue of the Vedat Nedim Tor fab-
ric collection, Istanbul 1993.

(Jennifer M. Scarce)
al-TAFTAZANI, Sa'd al-DIn Mas'ud b. 'Umar
b. 'Abd Allah, renowned scholar and author on
grammar, rhetoric, theology, logic, law and
Kur'an exegesis, born in Safar 722/February-
March 1322 in Taftazan, a village near Nasa in
Khurasan, d. 793/1390 (on the form of this place-
name, see al-Sam'ani, Ansab, ed. Haydarabad, iii, 61-
2; Yakut, Buldan, ed. Beirut, ii, 35).

His family seems to have been distinguished in schol-
arship for several generations, and his grandfather
Fakhr al-Drn 'Umar was a kadi. Nothing certain is
known about his education. Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalam
in his unreliable biographical notice in his Inba' de-
scribes him as a pupil of 'Adud al-Dln al-Idji and
Kutb al-Din al-RazI without specifying a time or place
for his alleged studies with them. It is, in fact, unlikely
that al-Idji ever taught him. In his commentary on
al-Idjf's Shark al-Mukhtasar fi 'l-usul, al-Taftazanr praises
him highly without referring to him as his teacher.
A story reported by Ibn al-'Imad about al-Taftazani's
having at first been the most stupid among al-Idjr's
pupils is entirely fictitious. According to Ibn 'Arabshah,
al-Taftazani and Kutb al-Din al-Razi were both among
the scholars active at the court of the Khans of the
Golden Horde in Saray. If they were there at the
same time, al-Taftazani may have benefited from Kutb
al-Din's learning in philosophy. He was, however,
already an established scholar at that time. More reli-
able is perhaps a note in Ibn Hadjar's biography of
Diya' al-Din 'Abd Allah b. Sa'd Allah al-Kazwini al-
Kirimi that al-Taftazam was among his pupils. Al-
Taftazam's fields of learning, especially his expertise
in both Hanaff and ShafiT law and usul, closely
matched those of Diya' al-Dfn. Al-Taftazam, in any
case, completed his earliest book, a commentary on
al-Tasnf al-'Izzi by al-Zandjanf on Arabic morphology,
in 738/1338 at the age of sixteen, according to Fasih
ai-Kh w afi in Faryumad.

His further peregrinations are better known from
the dates and places of completion of his works. In
742/1342 he was in Djurdjaniyya in Kh w arazm. Then
he became attached to the ruler of Harat, Mu'izz al-
DTn Kart, to whom he dedicated his Sharh al-Talkhis
al-mutaivwal in 748/1347. In 752/1351 he was in
Djam. Next, he joined Djani Beg, Khan of the Golden
Horde, to whom he dedicated his Mukhtasar al-ma'ani,
completed at Ghudjduwan in 756/1355. Two years
later he was in "Giilistan of Turkistan". Giilistan is
known as a mint of the Golden Horde; its exact loca-
tion is uncertain, but it has been thought to be near
New Saray. Al-Taftazanr departed, presumably be-
cause of the troubles following the death of Djani Beg,
and was back in Harat in 759/1358. He completed
boob in Kh w arazm in 768/1367, 770/1369, and 778/
1 367-8 and was evidently attached during this period

.l-TAFTAZANI — TAGHLIB b. WA'IL

to Husayn Sufi, independent ruler of Klfarazm. When
Timur seized Kh w arazm in 781/1379, Mu'izz al-Din
Kart's son Malik Muhammad, ruler of Sarakhs, asked
his nephew, Pir Muhammad b. Ghiyath al-Din, who
was in the suite of Timur, to obtain the latter's
permission for al-Taftazanl to join him in Sarakhs.
Al-Taftazam thus was in Sarakhs in 782/1380. Subse-
quently, learning of his eminence in scholarship, Timur
insisted that he come to Samarkand. He was there
in 784/1382 and, after returning to Sarakhs in 785-6/
1383-4, stayed in Samarkand permanently from 787/
1385 until his death on 22 Muharram 793/30 Decem-
ber 1 390. Timur at first treated him with great hon-
our. A scholarly rivalry, however, arose between him
and the much younger al-Sharif al-Djurdjanl, whom
Timur brought to Samarkand after his conquest of
ShTraz in 789/1387. (The assertion of some modem
scholars that Sa'd al-Din al-Taftazam had earlier intro-
duced al-Djurdjanl to Shah Shudja', the Muzaffand
ruler of Fars, is based on a confusion with another
Sa'd al-Din.) A public debate about al-Zamakhshari's
exegesis of Kur'an, II, 5, took place between them
in the presence of Timur. The Mu'tazill scholar
Nu'man al-Din al-Kh w arazmT judged in favour of al-
Djurdjanl, and Timur backed him. Al-Taftazanl's
severe grief about this defeat is said to have hastened
his end. His body was carried to Sarakhs where he

Al-Taftazanf s fame rests mainly on his commen-
taries on well-known works in various fields of learn-
ing, which came to be widely used in teaching at
madrasas until modern times. Many of them received
supercommentaries by later scholars. His own origi-
nal works are few, such as al-Makasid on theology,
al-Miftah on Shafi'I law, a collection of Hanafl /atoas,
and a Persian commentary on the Kur'an entitled
Kasltf al-asrar wa-'uddat al-abrar. Noteworthy are also a
Turkish versified translation of Sa'dl's Bustdn com-
posed in 755/1354 (Gibb, HOP, i, 202-3) and a polem-
ical refutation of Ibn al-'Arabfs Fusus al-hikam.
Al-TaftazanI wrote on both Hanafl and Shafi'I law,
and is described in some of his biographies as a
Shafi'I. From remarks in his al-Talwih it seems evi-
dent, however, that he personally adhered to the
Hanafl school. In theology he sometimes, especially
in his commentary on the 'Aka'id of the Maturldl
scholar Nadjm al-Din al-Nasafl, upheld Maturldl
positions against Ash'arl criticism, but he also often
endorsed Ash'arl doctrine. Altogether, he backed a
broad, though anti-Mu'tazill Sunnism, which was in
accord with later concepts of SunnI orthodoxy. In
later literature, he is often quoted simply as "al-
'Allama".

Bibliography: Ibn Hadjar, Durar, Haydarabad
1350, iv, 350; idem, Inba' al-ghumr, ed. H HabashI,
Cairo 1969, i, 183, 389-90; Faslh Kh w afl, Mudjmal-
i Fasihi, ed. Mahmud Farrukh, Mashhad 1962, iii,
124; Ibn 'Arabshah, 'Adja'ib al-makdur, ed. 'All
Muhammad 'Umar, Cairo 1979, 83; Ibn al-Tmad,
Shadharat, vi, 319-22; KJTandamlr, Hablb al-siyar,
Tehran n.d. [1954], iii, 544-6; Tashkubrfzada, Miftah
al-sa'ada, ed. K.K. BakrI and 'A. Abu '1-Nur, Cairo
1968, i, 205-8; Laknawl, al-Fawa'id al-bahiyya, Cairo
1324, 128-30, 134-7; Browne, LHP, iii, 353-4; Brock-
elmann, II, 278-80, S II, 301-4; Taftazanl, Shark
al-'aka'id al-Nasafiyya, ed. Klud Salama, Damascus
1974, introd. 6-36; idem, Shark al-Makasid, ed. 'Abd
al-Rahman 'Umayra, Cairo 1984-9, i, introd., 74-146.

(W. Madelung)
TAGHAZA, a Saharan salt pan (sabkha [q.v.]),
situated in lat. 23° 26' N., long. 4" 59' W. (hence

now in southern Algeria), and a major source of
rock salt for West Africa down to the mid-sixteenth
century. It is possible that it is to be identified with
the Tatantal of al-Bakrl [K. al-Masdlik wa 'l-mamalik,
ed. de Slane, Algiers 1857, 171), which is described as
a mine twenty days from Sidjilmasa [q.v.], from which
huge quantities of salt are sent to Sidjilmasa and to
bilad al-sudan. Salt blocks also formed the local building
material. Al-Kazwlnl ('Aqja'ib al-makhlukat, ed. Wiisten-
feld, ii, 16), the first author to mention Taghaza by
name (for Taghara read Taghaza) also notes this feature,
and says the salt was mined by slaves of the Masufa.
Ibn Battuta (iv, 377-8, tr. Gibb and Beckingham, iv,
947), whose journey from Sidjilmasa to Taghaza took
twenty-five days, remarked on the large amounts of
gold dust traded there for the salt. This salt was then
carried to Walata and on to Mali [q.v.] where it was
sold at great profit. He also notes the use of this salt,
cut in pieces, as currency, as it was also in Gao (al-
Bakrl, 183).

At what point Taghaza came under the control of
Songhay [q.v.] is not clear, but already by ca. 946/
1539-40 the Sa'dian sultan Ahmad al-A'radj was
laying claim to it with Askiya Ishak I. Later, in 964/
1556-7, Mawlay Muhammad al-Shaykh attempted to
install his own representative there. The mine was
abandoned in favour of another called Taghaza al-
ghizlan. On his accession in 986/1578, Mawlay al-
Mansur demanded that Songhay hand over to him
the tax revenue from this mine. Askiya Dawud re-
sponded with a generous gift, but in 994/1586 a small
Sa'dian force occupied this Taghaza and exploitation
was moved to a site probably to be identified with
Taoudeni (at lat. 22° 40' N. long. 3° 59' W.). A new
Sa'dian demand to be paid the salt tax revenue in
Safar 998/December 1589-January 1590 was met with
defiance from Askiya Ishak II. This provided the pre-
text for the Sa'dian conquest of Songhay in 1000/1591.
Although the original mines of Taghaza were aban-
doned, the site was used as an occasional caravan
station. As late as 1828 Rene Caillie found Tadjakant
nomads there clearing out wells and saw the ruins of
houses made of salt slabs (Journal d'un voyage a
Tombouctou et a Jenne, Paris 1830, ii, 471-8). Several
superficial archaeological excavations have been car-
ried out there, revealing two villages, one to the south-
east and one to the north-west of the salt pan. In
each, the remains of a mosque was found and, in
the north-westerly one, traces of a fort. Mauny esti-
mates that their total population may have reached
1,200-1,800. Salt is still being mined at Taoudeni and
carried to Timbuktu on camel-back (see J. Skolle, The
road to Timbuctoo, London 1956).

Bibliography: R. Mauny, Tableau geographique de
I'ouest ajricain au mayen age, Dakar 1961 (Mems. IFAN,
no. 61), 116-17, 328-32, 474-5, 485-7; 'Abd al-
Rahman al-Sa'dl, Ta'fikh al-sudan, ed. O. Houdas,
Paris 1898, 99, 111, 121, 137-8; Th. Monod,
Teghaza, la ville en sel gemme, in La Nature, no. 3025
(15 May 1938), 289-96. (J.O. Hunwick)

TAGHLIB b. WATL (also Taghlib Wa'il), an
important, mostly nomadic, tribe of the RabT'a b.
Nizar group [see rabi'a and mudar; near b. ma' add],
A member of this tribe was called TaghlabI or TaghlibI
(for the plural Taghaliba, see al-Tha'alibl, Thimar al-
kulub, ed. Ibrahim, Cairo 1384/1965, 130). The tribe's
pedigree is Taghlib/Dithar b. Wa'il b. Kasit b. Hinb
b. Afsa b. Du'ml b. Djadlla b. Asad b. Rabi'a b.
Nizar b. Ma'add b. 'Adnan.

Until the Basus [q.v.] war which they fought against
their brother-tribe, Bakr b. Wa'il [q.v.], the Taghlib

TAGHLIB b. WA>IL

lived in Nadjd [q.v.]. Following their defeat in the
battle known as Yawm Tahlak al-Limam ("the day
of the shaving ofT of the hair that descends below
the lobe of the ear", also called Yawm al-Tahaluk),
which took place after the death of Kulayb b. Rabl'a
[q.v.; and see bma], the Taghlib dispersed (Ja-tafarraku;
Yakut, s.v. Kida) and settled, together with their "pater-
nal uncles", the Namir b. Kasit and Ghufayla b. Kasit,
on the lower Euphrates, where some of them may
have settled earlier. After 'Amr b. Kulthum [q.v.] had
in 569-70 assassinated the king of al-Hira [q.v.], 'Amr
b. Hind [q.v.], they migrated further up the river to
al-DjazIra [q.v.].

Before Islam the Taghlib were within the sphere
of influence of the Sasanids [q.v.] and their client-
kings, the Lakhmids [q.v.] of al-Hira. Already in the
4th century A.D. Shapur [q.v.] II transferred Taghlibi
captives to Bahrayn, more precisely to Darin, "the
name of which is Haydj"(!), and al-Khatt (al-Tabari,
i, 839, cf. 845; Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser, 56-7, cf. 67).
But the place-name "Haydj" owes its existence to a
scribal error: instead of Darin wa-'smuha h.y.aj, read:
Darin zva-Samahiaj (Ibn al-'Adlm, Bughyat al-talab . . .,
facs. ed. Frankfurt a. M. 1986 ft"., ix, 290; for the
later history of the Taghlib in Bahrayn, see al-Kalka-
shandl, Subh al-a'sha, ed. Shams ai-Dln, Beirut 1407/
1987, i, 395-6). The poet Djabir b. Hunayy al-Taghlibi
complained about the practices of a tax-collector sent
by the king of al-Hira and the customs imposed on
trade at the markets of 'Irak (Mufaddaliyyat, ed. Lyall,
no. xlii). The Taghlib were at some stage part of the
ridafa institution (MJ. Kister, Al-Hira: some notes on its
relations with Arabia, in Arabica, xv [1968], 143-69, at
149, 166, repr. in idem, Studies in Jahiliyya and Early
Islam, Variorum Reprints, London 1980, no. III).

For several decades in the second half of the 5th
century and the first half of the 6th, Taghlib's for-
tunes were connected to the rise of Kinda [q.v.] in
central and northern Arabia. After a major Taghlibi
defeat in the war against the Bakr and the retirement
of their leader, Muhalhil, several tribes, including the
Taghlib and Bakr, agreed to subject themselves to
king al-Harith b. 'Amr b. Hudjr/Akil al-Murar al-
Kindl. There followed a short interregnum of Kinda
[q.v] in al-Hira in the twenties of the 6th century
[see sasanids, vol. IX, at 77a]. After the king's death
two of his sons, Shurahbll and Salama, fought against
each other at al-Kulab (after 530; it was the First
Day of al-Kulab, or the Kulab of the RabT'a; on
WadI '1-Kulab (modern WadI '1-Sha'ra'), see al-'Arab
[Riyad] xiii/1-2 [July-Aug. 1978], 14-29). The two
brother-tribes returned to their feud; the Bakr fought
on Shurahbll's side while the Taghlib and Namir were
with Salama. The latter's cavalry was led by the
Taghlibi warrior al-Saflah (Salama b. Khalid) (Abu
'Ubayda, al-Dibadj, ed. al-Djarbu' and al-'Uthaymln,
Cairo 1411/1991, 100). Shurahbll was killed by 'Amr
b. Kulthum's cousin, Abu Hanash 'Us(u)m b. al-
Nu'man. The war between the Taghlib and Bakr
came to an end [see bakr b. wa'il] around the mid-
dle of the 6th century with the signing of a peace
treaty at the market of Dh u '1-Madjaz near Mecca.

When the Lakhmids regained control of al-Hira,
they could count on Taghlib's support. Al-Wazlr al-
Maghribl (d. 418/1027; see al-maoiribi, vol. V, at
1211b; Sezgin, GAS, viii, 245-6; Ibn al-'Adlm, Bughya,
vi, 27 fT.) corrects a common error with regard to
the famous visit of Imru' al-Kays b. Hudjr [q.v.] to
Byzantium. It was not against the Asad [q.v.], who
had killed his father, that Imru' al-Kays wanted the
Byzantines to support him, but against the king of

al-Hira, al-Mundhir III (b. Ma' al-Sama', ca. 505-54).
Upon his return to the throne in al-Hira, al-Mundhir
sent an army of the Taghlib and Bakr to hunt down
Kinda's leading family, the BanQ Akil al-Murar (Ibn
al-'Adlm, Bughya, iv, 567, confirming the reading
"Taghlib" in Aghani', viii, 64, 1. 17; cf. G. Olinder,
The kings of Kinda, Lunds Universitets Arsskrift, Nova
Series xxiii/1 [1927], 1-118, at 66-7; Caussin de
Perceval, Essai, ii, 85, n. 5).

In the Islamic period, there were Taghlibls in the
Farasan [q.v.] island(s) in the Red Sea near the Yemeni
coast. The name Farasan originally belonged to a
tribal group of the Taghlib which emigrated from
Syria to the Mawza' area (Ahmad b. Muhammad al-
Kurtubl, al-Ta'rif fi 'l-ansab . . ., ed. Zalam, Cairo
[1407/1986], 119-22; cf. Hamad al-Djasir, in al-'Arab
[Riyad] xxvi/3-4 [March-April 1991], 258-67, xxxvi/
5-6 [May-June 1991], 390).

The genealogical literature records the name of
al-Akhzar b. Suhayma, an early Taghlibi genealogist
(nassaba) who transmitted at least part of the infor-
mation on his tribe available to later scholars (cf.
W. Caskel and G. Strenziok, Gamharat an-Nasab, i, 45-
7). Between al-Akhzar's generation and that of the
great philologists of the 2nd Islamic century there
were intermediaries who in most cases remained anony-
mous. Yet we know that one of Abu 'Ubayda's [q.v.]
informants on the Yawm Irab was the Taghlibi Abu
Khayra Afiar b. Laklt (Naka'id Djarir wa-l-Farazdak,
ed. A.A. Bevan, Cambridge 1905, i, 473, 1. 11, ii,
703, 1. 4; his nisba, al-'AdawI, shows that he belonged
to the 'Adi Taghlib, i.e. 'AdI b. Usama b. Malik b.
Bakr). But expertise in Taghlibi history and geneal-
ogy was not an exclusive Taghlibi domain. Ibn al-
Kalbl's informant about the First Day of al-Kulab,
and about 'Amr b. Kulthum, was Khirash b. Isma'il
al-'ldjll [cf. 'rojL] al-rawiya (on Khirash. see Ibn al-
Kalbi, Djamharat al-nasab, ed. Hasan, Beirut 1407/1986,
551; cf. op. cit., 544-5, 547; GAS, ii, 40). Khirash also
gave information about the battle of Sifltn (M. Hinds,
77k banners and battle cries of the Arabs at Sifftn (657
A.D.), in al-Abhath, xxiv [1971], 3-42, at 6, 20), which
indicates that his scholarly interests included both the
pre-lslamic and early Islamic periods. Interestingly, a
passage from Abu 'Ubayda's K. al-Ayyam (taken either
from his K. al-Ayyam al-saghir or K. al-Ayyam al-kabir),
which deals with the killing of 'Umayr b. al-Hubab
al-Sulaml in the war between the Taghlib and the
Kays 'Aylan [q.v.], demonstrates that Abu 'Ubayda's
K. al-Ayyam (at least in its longer version) included not
only pre-lslamic Ayyam but also battles of the early
Islamic period (Bakrl, Mu'djam ma 'sta'djama, ed. al-
Sakka, Cairo 1364/1945 ft"., i, 216, iv, 1362).

Ibn al-Kalbi's interest in the Taghlib is reflected
in the titles of two of his monographs, A". Akhbar Rabi'a
wa 'l-Basus wa-hurub Taghlib wa-Bakr and K. Akhbar bam
Taghlib wa-ayyamihim wa-ansabihim (al-Nadjashi, Ria^dl,
ed. al-Na'mi, Beirut 1408/1988, ii, 400).

The 2nd/8th century scholar 'Allan al-Shu'ubi com-
piled K. JVasab Taghlib b. Wa'il and Abu '1-Faradj al-
Isfaham compiled Nasab bam Taghlib (Yakut, Udaba' 2 ,
ed. 'Abbas, Beirut 1993, iv, 1631, 1709). Other early
collections of reports about the Taghlib were en-
titled Ash'ar [Bant] Taghlib (see Sezgin, GAS, ii, passim;
I. Goldziher, Some notes on the Diwans of the Arabic
tribes, in JRAS [1897], 325-34, at 331, repr. in
idem, Gesammelte Schriften, iv, 1 19-28). Beside poetry,
these monographs also included reports about the
historical background of the verses (cf, e.g., Khizanat
al-adab, ed. Harun, Cairo 1387/1967 ft"., ii, 173-4,
viii, 557-60).

TAGHLIB b. WA'IL

From Taghlib are descended three sons: Ghanm.
al-Aws and 'Imran. But the genealogical literature,
keeping to the essentials, deals almost exclusively with
the descendants of Ghanm b. Taghlib. The six sons
of Bakr b. Hubayb b. 'Amr b. Ghanm formed a
group called al-Arakim (pi. of al-Arkam, a certain
speckled serpent). All six were eponyms of tribes
(kaba'il), the most numerous and prestigious being the
Djusham. Two of the Arakim tribes, the Djusham and
the Malik, were referred to as al-rawkari ("the two
horns" or "the two numerous and strong companies").
Bakr's other sons were 'Amr, Tha'laba, al-Harith
and Mu'awiya. The Arakim were the most important
group among the Taghlib; nearly all the information
about the Taghlib in the genealogy books relates to
them.

Among the Djusham b. Bakr, the Zuhayr b.
Djusham had a nisba of their own, al-Zuhayn. The
Zuhayr included several separate groups, the most
important being the 'Attab b. Sa'd b. Zuhayr. One
of the 'Attab was the mu'allakat [q.v.] poet 'Amr b.
Kulthum. Also, the poet and epistle writer Abu 'Amr
Kulthum b. 'Amr [q.v.] al-Kinnasrim, who lived at
the time of al-Ma'mun and Harun al-Rashid, belonged
to the 'Attab (Yakut, Udaba'\ v, 2243-6). The 'Attab
kept their leading position in Islamic times. When the
Taghlib-Kays war began, the Taghlib were led by
'Amr b. Kulthum's great-great-grandson (Aghani', xx,
128, 1. 4). The 'Attab and their brother-clans, 'Utba
and 'Itban, formed a group called al-'Utab. The other
descendants of Sa'd b. Zuhayr, namely the offspring
of 'Awf and Ka'b, were called Banu '1-Wahad or al-
Awhad.

Still within the Zuhayr b. Djusham, but along the
genealogical line of al-Harith b. Zuhayr, we find
Kulayb b. Rabi 'a and his brother, the poet and leader
Muhalhil. Kulayb was a djarrar, i.e. one who com-
manded 1,000 men, and the same was said of his
father Rabi 'a.

The other component of the rawkari, namely the
Malik b. Bakr, included the Djahili warrior al-Saflah,
whose descendants, like those of 'Amr b. Kulthum,
were prominent in the Islamic period.

There were among the Taghlib at least five more
tribal groups (asnaf) known by a tribal appellation.
Most of them belonged to the Malik b. Bakr: al-
Kamakim, al-Lahazim (probably the 'Awf b. Malik
b. Bakr), al-Abna' (the Rabl'a, 'A'idh and Imru' al-
Kays, sons of Taym b. Usama; J. Barth, Dtwan des
'Umeir ibn Schujeim al-Qutaml, Leiden 1902, no. 31, 1),
al-Ku'ur (the Malik b. Malik b. Bakr and al-Harith
b. Malik b. Bakr) and Rish al-Hubara (the Ku'ayn
b. Malik b. Bakr). The 'Amr b. Bakr were nicknamed
al-Nakhabika.

Rich evidence about Taghlib's tribal divisions in
the Umayyad period is derived from the reports about
the Taghlib-Kays war. Particularly detailed is the
description of the battle of al-Hashshak. Having been
fatally wounded, their commander, Hanzala b. Kays
b. Hawbar al-Kinam (of the Kinana b. Taym) was
replaced by al-Marrar b. 'Alkama al-Zuhayn, who
organised the Taghlibi units under their tribal ban-
ners (rayat) and ordered each clan (banu ab) to place
the women behind them. They were set in war dis->
position by a member of al-Abna'. The Malik b. Bakr
had a banner of their own and one of their groups,
the 'Adl Taghlib, was at the centre of the army (Shi'r
al-Akhtal, ed. Kabawa, Aleppo 1390/1970, i, 75-6).

Before Islam, Taghlib was one of the strongest and
most numerous nomadic tribes. The Taghlibis were
involved in some of the largest battles of pre-Islamic

Arabia and often fought in large military formations.
This indicates a high degree of solidarity among their
subdivisions. Out of the eleven Rabl'a leaders listed
as djarrarun, four belonged to the Taghlib (Ibn Hablb,
Muhabbar, ed. I. Lichtenstadter, Haydarabad 1361/
1942, 249-50; for a fifth djarrar, al-Saflah, see Ibn
Durayd, Ishtikak, ed. Harun, Cairo 1378/1958, 337).
This is also true of Islamic times: in the category of
those who held the command (ri'asa) over whole tribes
or groups of tribes, the following are mentioned in
I connection with the Taghlib-Kays war: Hanzala [b.
Kays] b. Hawbar, Shu'ayth b. Mulayl and Marrar b.
'Alkama al-Zuhayri (Muhabbar, 255-6).

However, after the advent of Islam, Taghlib's polit-
ical importance declined. In the battle of Dhu Kar
[q.a.] around 605, the Taghlib and Namir (under al-
Nu'man b. Zur'a, a descendant of al-Saffah) fought
on the Sasanid side. Since the Taghlib lived far from
the birthplace of Islam, they could not have played
a central role in Islamic history during the Prophet's
life. Only four Taghlibis were found in the biographical
dictionaries dedicated to the Prophet's Companions:

1. 'Atiyya b. Hisn, said to have visited the Prophet;

2. The poet 'Utba b. al-Waghl; 3. A member of al-
Akhtal's [q.v.] clan, the Banu Fadawkas, called Kabrsa
b. Walik, a Kufan sharif and one of al-Hadjdjadj b.
YQsuf 's [q.v.] generals; and 4. Khawla bt. al-Hudhayl
b. Hubayra, a niece of the Companion Dihya b.
Khalifa al-Kalbi and probably a Christian, was report-
edly given in marriage to the Prophet but died on
the way from Syria to Medina.

The Taghlib took part in the ridda. The false
prophetess Sadjah [q.v.], and her TamTmi clan were
clients of the Taghlib in the Djazira, to whom her
mother belonged. It was among the Taghlib that she
began her career. One of her followers was al-Hudhayl
b. 'Imran, a former Christian who led the Taghlibi
unit in an army made of "mixed sorts of men from
Rabl'a" (ajna' Rabl'a) which followed her into Arabia.
Al-Hudhayl, who was one of the djarrarun, was later
involved in fighting against the conquering Muslims
at 'Ayn al-Tamr and elsewhere.

Some wrongly assumed that al-Hudhayl b. 'Imran
was identical to Khawla's father, al-Hudhayl b.
Hubayra of the Tha'laba b. Bakr (or rather, the Hurfa
b. Tha'laba), who was also one of the diarrarun. Now
in order to differentiate between the two famous al-
Hudhayls, al-Hudhayl b. 'Imran was called al-asghar
or "the younger" (Djanr, Diwdn, ed. Taha, Cairo
[1969-71], i, 253), while al-Hudhayl b. Hubayra was
called al-akbar or "the older" (Naka'id I£arir wa 'l-
Farazdak, i, 473, 1. 9). Indeed, whereas "the older"
was connected to the pre-Islamic ayyam, "the younger"
was linked to the conquests and was still alive at the
time of 'Uthman.

The Taghlib fought against the conquering Muslim
armies in western 'Irak and the Djazira. The 'Utba
b. Sa'd b. Zuhayr are specifically known to have taken
part in the fighting. Al-Sahba' Umm Hablb, the daugh-
ter of the TaghlibT leader, Rabl'a b. Budjayr of the
'Utba, was taken captive at al-Tham and sent to
Medina where she was bought by 'All b. AbT Talib
[q.v.]. She bore 'Air twins, a boy and a girl, 'Umar
al-akbar (Ibn al-Taghlibiyya) and Rukayya.

Yet at some stage during the conquests, Taghlibi
troops fought with the Muslims. The most prominent
person among them was 'Utba b. al-Waghl (men-
tioned above as a Companion) of the Sa'd b. Djusham
b. Bakr. At the time of 'Uthman he was a political
activist in Kufa, where the TaghlibT troops had set-
tled. Taghlib's limited support in the conquests and

TAGHLIB b. WA'IL

'Umar b. al-Khattab's Realpolitik guaranteed for Taghlib
a special status with regard to taxation.

In the battle of the Camel [see al-djamal], the
Rabi'a (including the Taghlib) and Kinda fought
under the same banner on 'All's side (Abu 'Ubayda,
al-Dibagj, 153-4). In connection with SiftTn [g.v.], we
hear of the joint ri'asa of Kinda and Rabr'a. Among
the Rabi'a who fought with 'All at Siffih there were
also Taghlibis who had their own banner (Hinds, op.
cit., 21), and the Arakim are specified in a verse (Nasr
b. Muzahim, Wak'at' Siffln, ed. Harun, Cairo 1401/
1981, 486, 1. 13). The Arakim were also involved in
the Taghlib-Kays war (see e.g., Yakut, s.v. al-Rahub).
At Siffih there were Taghlibis on Mu'awiya's side as
well. One of them was "Mu'awiya's poet", Ka'b b.
Dju'ayl {Wak'at Siffln, 549). 'All's reported hostile atti-
tude towards the Taghlib (al-Baladhurl, Futuh, 183, 1.
2; 'Ikd, Cairo 1384/1965, vi, 248, 1. 15) may suggest
that they were not an insignificant factor in the
Umayyad force (cf. Ya'kubl, ii, 218).

A crucial reconciliation between the Taghlib and
Bakr (who at Dhu Kar still fought on opposite sides)
was affected by the pro-Umayyad Hammam b.
Mutarrif, described as the first leader {awwal man soda)
of the Taghlib in Islam. He guaranteed (tahammala)
the payment of the pending blood money (reportedly,
for 1,000 men), giving 200 of his own camels, and
paid the dowers of 500 women from each tribe who
married men from the other tribe (al-Kurtubl, Ta'nf,
1 1 8; the figures are no doubt exaggerated). The recon-
ciliation was presumably brought about by the Taghlib-
Kays war (cf. Barth, Dtwan . . . al-Qutaml, no. 25, 34-5).
With the backing of both the Taghlib and Bakr, the
leader of the former, 'Abd Yasu', addressed the caliph
'Abd al-Malik as a representative of both sons of
Wa'il (Ibn al-Kalbr, Qamharat al-nasab, 567).

At the beginning of the rebellion of 'Abd Allah b.
al-Zubayr [g.s.], the Taghlib supported the Kays, who
were led by Zufar b. al-Harith al-Kilabl and 'Umayr
b. al-Hubab al-Sulaml (on the latter, cf. M. Lecker,
The Banu Sulaym, Jerusalem 1989, index) in their fight
against the Kalb b. Wabara [g.v.]. Then a series of
battles (maghdzT; Agham x , xi, 59, 1. 12) took place between
the Taghlib, often together with the Namir, and the
Kays which continued for some time after Ibn al-
Zubayr's defeat (al-Baladhun, Ansab, v, 308-9, 313-31).
The TaghlibI forces in the battle known as Yawm al-
Hashshak, in which 'Umayr b. al-Hubab was killed,
are of particular interest. First, not only Taghlib's
nomads (badiya) took part in it but also their set-
tled (hadira). Second, Taghlib's forces included 2,000
cavalrymen from their muhadjirun [g.v.] (sic) equipped
with heavy armour who had been called in from
Adharbaydjan (Aghanf, xi, 62, 1. 3).

The settled members among the Taghlib of the
Djazira were few. Reportedly, the Taghlib were badw
and included no hadira at all, but this statement must
be qualified. In early Islam, the Taghlib, while own-
ing no estates (amwal), had fields (hurulh) as well as
cattle (Abu 'Ubayd, al-Amwal, ed. Harras, Cairo 1396/
1976, 37; note also the small villages (kurayyat) along
the Khabur inhabited by the Taghlib in the Umayyad
period; Aghani', xx, 127, 1. 9).

The Taghlib-Kays war was merely an episode in
the struggle between 'Abd al-Malik and 'Abd Allah
b. al-Zubayr. The Taghlib were pro-Umayyad. Ibn
al-Zubayr's governor in al-Mawsil [see al-muhallab
b. abi sufra] threatened to raid them if they did not
pledge their allegiance to Ibn al-Zubayr, but was dis-
missed before he could carry this out. 'Umayr b. al-
Hubab asked Ibn al-Zubayr's brother and governor

of 'Irak, Mus'ab b. al-Zubayr [q.v.], to appoint him
as Taghlib's tax-collector (Aghant, xx, 127, 1. 23).
Moreover, Mus'ab killed the brother of a Bakr b.
Wa'il leader who headed from 'Irak to the Djazira
with reinforcements for the Taghlib. (The military aid
must have followed the Taghlib-Bakr reconciliation.)
The Taghlib are said to have complained to a leader
of the Rabf'a, whose support they sought, about the
official support given to their enemies: "You know
that there is Christianity among us and that the Mudar
are the Mudar. They are the government (sultan) and
we cannot combat the government's stable or treas-
ury". 'Umayr b. al-Hubab's head was reportedly sent
in 70/689-90 to 'Abd al-Malik, who welcomed the
killing of Ibn al-Zubayr's ally.

The conversion of the Taghlib already began in
the early days of Islam. "Mu'awiya's poet", Ka'b b.
Dju'ayl, was a Muslim and the same was true of the
small Taghlibi community in Kufa. The Umayyad
poet al-Kutaml [g.v.] ('Umayr b. Shiyaym or Shuyaym)
was a convert to Islam. Among the Taghlibis living
in Kinnasrin [g.v.] there were early converts to Islam
(see entries on two hadltt transmitters, a father and
a son, in al-Mizzi, Tahdhlb al-kamal, ed. Ma'ruf, Beirut
1405/1985 fF., iv, 141-4, xxiv, 5-6).

But the number of converts during the Umayyad
and early 'Abbasid periods was small. At that time the
Taghlib, mostly Christian and living near the bounda-
ry of a hostile Christian empire, were not given high
positions in the Muslim state. The Taghlib probably
did not take part in expeditions against Byzantium,
and the participation of the poet known as A'sha Bam
Taghlib in one such expedition (Ibn al-'Adim, Bughya,
viii, 11 4) does not indicate the contrary. Yet they did
not lose their military prowess or they would not have
kept so tenaciously to their faith and their vast ter-
ritories, constantly threatened by massive military pres-
sure from immigrating Arabian tribes.

Under the last Umayyad caliph Marwan II, Hisham
b. 'Amr b. Bistam al-Taghlibl (a descendant of al-
Safiah) was governor of al-Mawsil and the Djazira.
(He had a partner who was in charge of the kharaax
[g.v.].) At the time of al-Mansur, Hisham was gover-
nor of Sind. Under al-Mahdl, Bistam b. 'Amr al-
Taghlibl (perhaps Hisham b. 'Amr's brother) was
governor of Sind and later of Adharbaydjan.

Both Hisham and Bistam were no doubt Muslims.
The summer expedition against Byzantium of 177/793
was led by 'Abd al-Razzak b. 'Abd al-Hamid al-
Taghlibr (al-Taban, iii, 629) whose forces must have
included many Muslims from his own tribe.

Later in the 'Abbasid period, the Taghlib became
increasingly Muslim as well as more and more promi-
nent in the government of their own territory. In
197/813 al-Amfh appointed al-Hasan b. 'Umar b. al-
Khattab al-'Adawi (of the 'Adi Taghlib) governor of
al-Mawsil. Al-Hasan took the old town of Adhrama
from its owner, built in it a castle and fortified it.

In the 3rd/9th century there rose a powerful fam-
ily in the Djazira linked through marriage to that of
the above-mentioned al-Hasan b. 'Umar. Tawk b.
Malik (d. 216/831) of the'Attab, who was a descend-
ant of 'Amr b. Kulthum, officiated at the time of al-
Ma'mun as governor of Diyar Rabi'a [g.v.] or the
eastern Djazira (in al-Mu'afa b. Zakariyya', al-QjaRs
al-salih, ed. al-KhulI and I. 'Abbas, Beirut 1407/1987 ff.,
iv, 100, instead of al-d.bar, read al-Diyar).

The former's son, the above-mentioned Malik b.
Tawk b. Malik (d. 260/874; sometimes the sources con-
fuse the two), was governor of Damascus and al-Urdunn
under al-Wathik and al-Mutawakkil (MukJstmar tdnkjj

TAGHLIB b. WA'IL — TAGHUT

Dimashk li-Ibn 'Asakir, ed. al-Nahhas et alii, Damascus
1 404/ i 984 ff., xxiv, 50-4). More importantly, Malik
founded the town of al-Rahba [g.v.] or Rahbat Malik
b. Tawk (modern al-Mayadin; cf. Th. Bianquis, Rahba
et les tribus arabes (want les croisades, in BEt. Or., xli-xlii
[1989-90], 23-53, at 27-8). There is yet another case
of building activity carried out by Taghlibis in the
same area. The offspring of Abu Rimtha al-Taghlibi
(of the 'Attab, a descendant of 'Abd Yasfl') settled
in the ancient castle of Kafartutha, fortified it and
turned it into a madina (Ja-maddanuha). In 261/874-5
Khidr b. Ahmad al-Taghlibi was appointed by al-
Mu'tamid governor of al-Mawsil [see al-mawsil, vol.
VI, at 900a].

The Hamdanids who in the 4th/ 10th century con-
trolled both al-Mawsil and Aleppo, were reportedly
of the 'Adi Taghlib. However, some claimed that they
were mawdU Taghlib (cf. Canard, H'amdanides, 287-9).
Further evidence on this matter goes back to al-Wazir
al-Maghribr, whose father and grandfather were sec-
retaries of Sayf al-Dawla al-Hamdanl. Al-Wazir remarks
that one of those who were envious of the Hamdanids
accused them of having made a false claim regard-
ing their pedigree (da'wa). This unspecified person said
that they were in fact the mawali of Ishak b. Ayyub
al-Taghlibi (on whom, see al-Tabarl, index). Al-Wazir
refutes this, and his defence of the Hamdanids seems
to provide us with valuable evidence concerning a pre-
sumed major conversion to Islam among the Taghlib
in the latter half of the 3rd/9th century: simply, al-
Wazir says, many of them converted to Islam "at the
hands of" [see mawla, vol. VI, at 876a] Ishak (Ibn
al-'Adim, Bughya, vi, 527-9). Roughly in the same
period, Malik b. Tawk convinced al-Akhtal's great-
grandson, Sahl b. Bishr b. Malik b. al-Akhtal, to con-
vert to Islam together with the rest of al-Akhtal's
offspring (Mukhtasar ta'rikh Dimashk, xxiv, 52 (see al-
akhtal, where it is wrongly stated that the famous
poet left no offspring).

Bibliography (in addition to references given in
the article): M. von Oppenheim, Die Beduinen, iv,
Index, s.v. Taghlib; Caskel, Gamharat an-nasab, ii,
27-8, 541-2; Ibn al-Kalbf, Djamharat al-nasab, 564-75;
idem, Nasab Ma'add wa 'l-Taman al-kabir, ed. Hasan,
Beirut 1408/1988, i, 83-94; Ibn Hazm al-AndalusI,
Djamharat ansab al-'arab, ed. Harun, Cairo 1382/
1962, 303-7; Abu 'Ubayd al-Kasim b. Sallam,
K. al-Nasab, ed. Maryam Khayr al-Dar', Damascus
1410/1989, 355-6; Yakut, al-Muktadab min kitab
faamharat al-nasab, ed. Hasan, Beirut 1987, 203-7;
Ibn Kutayba, al-Ma'arif, ed. 'Ukasha, Cairo 1969,
95-6; Naka'id Djarir wa 'l-Farazdak, i, 266, 373;
H. Lammens, Le chantre des omiades, in JA (1894),
94-176, 193-241, 381-459 (for the tribe's history
after al-Akhtal, see 438 ff.). About the Taghlib!
poets, see the relevant entries in GAS, ii. For the
dispute over the question whether or not the Dawa-
sir in contemporary Saudi Arabia are Taghlibis,
see al-'Arab (Riyad) xix/1-2 (April-May 1984), 111-
20. For Taghlibi traditionists of various periods,
see Ibn Nasir al-Din, Tawdih al-musttabih, ed. al-
'Araksusi, Beirut 1407-14/1986-93, ii, 45-9.

(M. Leoker)
TAGHRIR (a.) a term of Islamic law nor-
mally meaning "deception". Its root is commonly
used to refer to personal deceptive attributes of a per-
son, while maghjur is a person who is self-deceived
and an inexperienced person is called ghirr. This per-
spective into the variety of the word's uses may help
to distinguish it from tadHs [q.v.], a word often used
synonymously for deception in contracts.

The Madjalla [see medjelle] encapsulates the
Islamic legal definition of taghrir (art. 164) to refer to
deception (ghislisE)- The example given is when the
vendor offers the purchaser his commodity for a cer-
tain amount, telling him that he will be gaining, since
it is worth more than that. The Madjalla permits a
sale contract if it contains excessive undervaluing (ghabn
Jahish) providing it contains no deception (taghrir). This
clearly reflects a tendency towards a free market econo-
my, which gives the vendor the right to sell at any
price he sees fit. The exception to this rule is when
the buyer is an orphan, or when the buying party is
a religious endowment (wakf), or the treasury which
represents a public interest (art. 356). This provision
has also been adopted by the Promulgated Civil Code
of United Arab Emirates in article 191. By taking
this view on taghrir, the Madjalla follows the standard
Ottoman Hanaff view which divides taghrir into kawU,
verbal (see above), and ft'li, positive action of fraudu-
lence, which takes place by deceiving the purchaser
by misrepresenting the commodity's appearance or
nature. The classical example of taghrir fi'U is when a
substandard part of the merchandise is placed below
the good, giving the impression that the whole is
good. Taghrir can be seen as a prism that reflects the
differences between the personal nature of bay' [g.v.]
or sale in Muslim society and the formal nature of
marriage [see sawm]. Taghrir in marriage is unlike
taghrir in bay' [q.v.] or sale because, once it has taken
place, the contract may be terminated by either party,

rather involves a formal contract that is seen to affect
society. Accordingly, if the man is led to believe that
a woman is beautiful or a virgin when she is not,
the contract can be nullified with ghirra compensation
to be given by the person who caused such a decep-
tion, the gharr. Similar rules apply to a woman deceived
in marriage.

Bibliography: Nasir al-Mutarrizi, al-Mughrib fi
tarSb al-mu'rab, Beirut n.d., 337-8; Wahba al-Zuhaylr,
al-Fikh al-IslSmi wa-adillatuh, Beirut 1985, iv, 527-8,
vii, 123; Sharh al-Maajalla, Beirut repr. 1986, 199;
S.E. Ryner, The theory of contracts in Islamic law,
London 1991, 194, 204. (M.Y. Izzi Dien)

TAGHUT (a).

1. In pre- and early Islamic usage.
The root t-gh-w yields several forms with the gen-
eral meaning of "to go beyond the measure, be very
lofty, overflow, be tyrannical, rebellious, oppressive,
proud, etc.", from which two may be noted here:
taghw, designating a height or mountain summit, and
taghut, pi. tawaghit, meaning the great pre-Islamic
Arabian deities like al-Lat at Ta'if and al-'Uzza at
Mecca. The term was then applied to Satan, sorcerer
and rebel, and to any power opposed to that of Islam.
One may also cite taghwa "excess of injustice, impi-
ety", as opposed to the skari'a and legitimate author-
ity. This usage connects with usages and customs of
various tribes in Yemen at variance with the Aari'a
(see further for this sense, below, 2.).

In the Kur'an, taghut is considered as a plural
when it denotes the idols (II, 256-7; V, 60; XVI,
36; XXXIX, 17) and as a singular when it is the
equivalent of shaytan [q.v.] (IV, 60, 67) or diviner and
magician (IV, 51) with, however, a collective sense.
The sing, ought to be taghw which, according to
al-Djawhan, ii, 620, means "mountain peak" and "any
high place". Thus tawaghit are the high places and
sanctuaries taking their place there and the divinities
worshipped there. But, by assimilation to the Aramaic
root t J -w (= Ar. t-gh-w; T'A, x, 225), found once in

the Bible (Ezek. xii. 10) and meaning essentially "to
lead into error" (not to be confused with t-'-y, Ar.
t-gh-y; T'A, x, 224), whose basic sense is "to be exces-
sive in everything, be despotic", taghut designates,
according to the exegetes and lexicographers, "every-
thing which leads astray and turns aside from the cult
of Allah" (ibid., x, 225). Cf. however, Eth. td'ot "idols",
in Noldeke, Neue Beitrage zur semitischm Sprachwissenschaft,
470, and see this also for al-djibt "idol, magician, impi-
ous person", named with taghut in Kur'an, IV, 51,
and 'amlak gebt, 0eo<; jcpoopara;. See on this W. Atallah,
Gibt et Tagut dans k Coran, in Arabica, xvii (1970), 69-82.
In Hadith, the epithet taghiya is given to Dhu
'1-Khalasa. tdghiyat Daws (al-Bukhan.jSto!, 23), to Manat
(ibid., hadji, 79, and Muslim, hadj4, 261) and al-Lat
(Abu Dawud, saldt, 12; Ibn Madja, masdapA, 3). One
tradition distinguishes between a simple idol (wathan,
see sanam) and a leading deity (taghiya) (Ibn Hanbal,
vi, 6, 366). Faith in Allah presupposes the rejection
of the cult of tawaghit (al-Bukhari, adtdn, 129, tawhid,
24, rikdk, 52; Muslim, iman, 299; Ibn Hanbal, ii, 275,
293, 524; al-Danmi, wasiyya, 4) and refusal to resort
to them for their arbitration (al-Bukhan, iman, 5; Mus-
lim, Man, 6; al-Nasa'i, iman, 10; Ibn Madja, kqffarat,
2; Ibn Hanbal, v, 62).

The cult of the tawaghit, largely similar to that of
the Ka'ba, was made up of worshipping stones, bloody
sacrifices and ritual processions (Ibn Hisham, Sira, 54-
5). In origin, it must have had in it various, comple-
mentary divine mythologies, given shape in different
rituals, whose fusion into two rituals, that of the hadjdj
on one hand and that of the 'umra on the other,
makes these last two incomprehensible through their
composite and fragmentary character.

The hegemony of Mecca ended the ancient rivalry
of the cults outside that of the Ka'ba. An example
of resistance to that hegemony has been studied by
Ihsan 'Abbas in his Two unpublished texts on pre-Islamic
religion, in Signification du has moyen age dans I'histoire et la
culture du monde musulman, Aix-en-Provence 1987, 7-16.
Bibliography: The core of this article is to be
found in T. Fahd, Le pantheon de I'Arabie CenlraU a
la veille de I'hegire, Paris 1968, 240. See, especially,
H. Lammens, Les sanctuaires preislamiks dans I'Arabie
Occidentak, in MUSJ, xi (1926), 39-169; M. Gaude-
froy-Demombynes, Mahomet, I'homme et son message,
Paris 1957, 548 (he was hoping, in vain, that exca-
vations carried out at Masdjid al-Khayf (see Yakut,
i, 507-8) and at Mina would reveal the founda-
tions of ancient temples). (T. Fahd)
2. As a legal term in Yemen.
Here, the term was commonly used by the learned
to refer to the customary law of the tribes, e.g. al-
Shawkani, 73-4 (18th century), Sayyid Mustafa Salim,
209 (decree of the Imam Yahya issued in 1910). This
usage was apparently also known elsewhere in Arabia
(Rossi, 11; Serjeant, Studies, no. Ill, 41). For the
learned, the term was one of opprobrium; but it has
been implied that some tribespeople in their ordi-
nary speech employed the word taghut to refer to the
customary law, presumably without opprobrium, and
furthermore that the word was used to refer to the
arbitrator in customary law not only in Yemen (Land-
berg, Datinah, 815n.; Serjeant, Customary and shan'ah
law, no. Ill, 45) but also (opprobriously) in Saudi
Arabia (al-'Azzawi, i, 403). More certainly, colloquial
terms that can be used to refer to tribal law include
'urf or a'rdf al-kabd'il; sunna; star'; shuru' al-kabd'il al-
sdbika; silf (al-kabd'il); salaf and ahkdm al-asldf and in
the south, sibl "custom", sawdbil "precedents", and
perhaps sdriha.

The word man'(a) is used in literary sources to refer
to the customary law, and hukm al-man' and star' al-
man' are also attested in the colloquial (Obermeyer,
367). The term probably came into use because much
of the law is concerned with the protection (man', cf.
Landberg, Glossaire, s.v.; Adra, 164-5) of those to whom
the tribesman has special obligations, e.g. the djar or
manl' "one who seeks refuge" and the rajik "travel-
ling companion". Educated Yemenis are reported to
have distinguished between star' al-man', customary
tribal law that was compatible with the sharl'a even
though not part of it, and taghut, customary tribal law
that was in contradiction to the stari'a.

The belief that the al-man' is consistent with the
stari'a is expressed in more than one Yemenite trea-
tise concerning the man' (Rossi, 33; Serjeant, Materials,
591). No doubt it was this belief that allowed learned
men to write what were in effect brief codes of custom-
ary law. Several works of this kind — the oldest dating
back several hundred years — are to be found among
the mss. bequeathed by R.B. Serjeant to the library
of the University of Edinburgh. Rossi, 18-29, offers an
invaluable summary of two of these treatises. An-
other code of the man', entitled Ka'idat al-sab'in, has
been published in the form of a photocopy of a dam-
aged and incomplete manuscript (Abu Ghanim.
361-84).

Codes of customary law, which must often have
included matter incompatible with the stari'a, were
also sometimes produced at the behest of the tribes-
men themselves. Those found in the possession of such
codes were severely punished by the government of
the Imam Yahya (1904-48). Nevertheless, some have
survived. One such, from an area not controlled by
the Imam Yahya, is the star' agreed upon between
the Sultan and the tribesmen of the 'Awdhali sultan-
ate; it was published in a "free translation" by R.B.
Serjeant (Naval Intelligence Division, Western Arabia
and the Red Sea, 587-9; Serjeant, Customary and shari'ah
law, no. IV, 91). Another is a code agreed on in the
18th century by the tribes of the Barat area (text with
commentary in 'UlaymT, 118-41; a modern ms. of a
fuller version is photographically reproduced in Abu
Ghanim, 387-400; see also Dresch, 73 n. 23, 352).

The laws of the Yemeni tribes resemble in their
main features the laws of the tribal Arabs of other
parts of Arabia and the Fertile Crescent. See further

Bibliography: C. Landberg, Datinah, Leiden
1905-13; idem, Glossaire datinois, Leiden 1920-42;
'Abbas al-'Azzawi, 'Ashd'ir al-'Irdk, 4 vols., Baghdad
1937-56; Admiralty Handbooks, Naval Intelligence
Division, Western Arabia and the Red Sea, London
1946; E. Rossi, // diritto consuetudinario delk tribu arabe
del Yemen, in RSO, xxiii (1948), 1-36 (fundamental;
includes analyses of all earlier publications); R.B.
Serjeant, Materials for South Arabian history, in BSOAS,
xiii (1950), 281-307, 581-601; C. Rathjens, Taghut
gegen Scheri'a, in Jahrbuch des Museums fur Lander- und
Volkerkunde, Linden Museum, Stuttgart, i (1951), 172-
187; Muhammad b. 'Alt al-Shawkam, al-Dawd' al-
'ddjil, in idem, Starh al-Sudur, ed. Muhammad
al-KibtT, Medina 1389/1969, 59-82; Serjeant, Studies
in Arabian history and civilisation, London 1981; G.J.
Obermeyer, Tagut, man' and sari 'a, in Stadia arabica
et islamica. Festschrift for 'Ihsdn 'Abbas, ed. Wadad al-
Qadi, Beirut 1981, 365-71; Sayyid Mustafa Salim,
Wattd'ik yamaniyya, Cairo 1982; N. Adra, Qabyala,
Ph.D. diss., Temple University 1982 (UMI no.
8311576) (important); Hamza 'All Lukman, Ta'rikt
al-kabd'il al-yamaniyya, i, San'a' 1985; J. Chelhod et

TAGHUT — TAHA HUSAYN

alii, L'Arabie du sud, iii, Paris 1985; Fadl 'Air Ahmad
Abu Ghanim, al-Binya al-kabaliyya fi 'l-Yaman,
Damascus 1985 (repr. San'a' 1991) (important);
Rashad al-'UlaymT, al-Kada' al-kabaU fi 'l-mudjtama'
al-yamam, San'a' (?) 1986 (?) (important); F.H.
Stewart, Tribal law in the Arab world: a review of the
literature, in IJMES, xix (1987), 473-90 (lists publica-
tions 1948-84); P. Dresch, Tribes, government, and his-
tory in Yemen, Oxford 1989 (important); M. Piamenta,
Dictionary of post-classical Yemeni Arabic, Leiden 1990-1;
Serjeant, Customary and shari'ah law in Arabian society,
Aldershot 1991; P. Behnstedt, Glossar der jemenitischen
Dialektworter, Vienna 1993; M. Mundy, Domestic govern-
ment, London 1995. (F.H. Stewart)
TAHA, 'ALl MAHMUD (1902-49), Egyptian
poet, very popular in the 1930s and 1940s. He was
born into a well-to-do family in al-Mansura and edu-
cated there at a technical school, the Madrasat al-
Funun wa 'l-Sana'i'. After he graduated in 1924, he
became a government employee as an architect. He
began writing poetry in 1918 and made the acquaint-
ance of the town's poets, later to earn fame like him,
such as Ibrahim Nadji [q.v.], Muhammad 'Abd al-
Mu'tT al-Hamsharl and Salih Djawdat. He published
his poems in Egyptian periodicals, including al-Risala
and Apollo of Cairo. In the 1930s, he moved to Cairo,
where he held posts at the Ministry of Commerce and
in the Secretariat of the Egyptian parliament, and
joined the Apollo Group of poets. His first collec-
tion of poetry, al-Mallah al-ta'ih, appeared in Cairo
in 1934 and received immediate acclaim. Following
a first summer visit to Europe in 1938 and a second
in 1939, he published LayaU 'l-mallah al-ta'ih in 1940,
mosdy reflecting his frolicking and amatory exploits
in Europe, including a gondola tour in Venice during
a carnival described in his poem "Ughniyat al-Djundul",
which was set to music and sung by Muhammad
'Abd al-Wahhab, adding to his popularity.

Taha published five other books of poetry and a
book of essays and of translated English and French
verse. His wide popularity rested on his first two books
and a few poems from the others, and was basically
engendered by his Romantic view of life and hedo-
nistic love relations, his strong nationalist feeling, and
his alluring musical use of polished Arabic in his
poems. His popularity faded after mid-century with
the rise of the free verse movement and changes in
Arab poetic sensibility.

Bibliography: al-Sayyid Taki al-Din al-Sayyid,
'AH Mahmud Taha: hayatuh wa-shi'ruh, Cairo, 1964;
Nazik al-Mala'ika, Muhadarat ft shi'r 'AH Mahmud
Taha, Cairo 1965; 'Air Mahmud Taha, Dtwan,
Beirut 1972 (contains six poetic collections); M.M.
Badawi, A critical introduction to modern Arabic poetry,
Cambridge 1975, 137-45; Salma Khadra Jayyu'si,
Trends and movements in modem Arabic poetry, Leiden
1977, ii, 397-410; Anwar al-Ma'addawt, 'AH Mahmud
Taha: al-sha'ir . . . wa 'l-insan, Cairo-Baghdad 1986.

(IJ. Boullata)
TAHA HUSAYN (1889-1973): Egyptian critic,
essayist, novelist, short story writer, histo-
rian, literary and political journalist, trans-
lator, editor, publisher and educator.
(1) His formation.

He was born in 'Izbat al-Kflu near Maghagha in
the governorate of Minya, the seventh of thirteen chil-
dren in a family of modest condition. At the age of
two, he lost his eyesight. Local educational resources
equipped him with little more than the memorisation
of the Kur'an. In 1902 he was sent to al-Azhar
University under the care of an elder brother who

was a disciple of its rector, Muhammad 'Abduh [q.v.].
Taha heard the reformer's last two lectures and
attended the literature courses of one of his proteges,
al-Sayyid al-Marsaff (d. 1931); but he antagonised the

degree. He had, however, already transferred his loy-
alty to the modern Egyptian University (later renamed
Fu'ad I, then Cairo University) from its inception,
greatly admiring its Orientalist professors, especially
Carlo Alfonso Nallino; and on presenting a doctoral
dissertation on al-Ma'arn [q.v.] in 1914, he became
its first graduate.

A scholarship to the University of Paris at the
Sorbonne brought him under the influence of such
scholars as Gustave Lanson, but his doctoral work was
on Ibn Khaldun [q.v.]. He graduated in 1918 and
obtained the Doctoral d'Etat in 1919. He also married
the French lady who had been his reader.

Since early in his student -■days, he had made his
mark as a sharp contributor to the press on literary
and social issues, and was particularly associated with
the circle of Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid [q.v.]. Now, en-
amoured both with classical Arabic literature and with
all aspects of French culture, he was soon to emerge
as a leading modernist who held that the application
of Western standards to the Arab-Islamic heritage was
a process not of innovation but of renovation, some-
times even arguing — perhaps reflecting Duhamel —
that Egypt had always been not an Oriental but
a Mediterranean country. A bold and hard-hitting
polemicist, he was often to be at odds with both the
political and the religious establishments, as well as
with some of his fellow-writers.

(2) His public career.

On his return from France, his alma mater appointed
him first Professor of Ancient History in 1919, then
of Arabic Literature in 1925. The following year, how-
ever, his Fi 'l-shi'r al-djahiH "On pre-Islamic poetry",
which argued that the bulk of this highly-prized cor-
pus had been forged, roused fierce controversy, espe-
cially as it adduced religious considerations among the
motives for the fraud. He was accused — but not con-
victed — of heresy, and the book was banned, only to
reappear in superficially emended form and under a
slightly altered title.

The University, headed by Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid
stood by him, and in 1930 he was the first Egyptian
to become Dean of its Faculty of Arts; but it was
now a State institution, and in 1932 his political writ-
ings led to a revival of the controversy and his dis-
missal from all government service. He did later hold
a variety of educational posts, but he lived largely by
his pen. Between 1945 and 1948 he was a very active
director of a publishing house and of its journal, both
called al-Katib al-Misri "The Egyptian Scribe". He was
at the time viewed as vaguely "leftist" because of the
stress he laid on the plight of the poor, but His creed
was a paternalistic one, relying on the good will of
a liberal elite for the realisation of social justice, as
was confirmed in his later polemic against the doc-
trinnaire socialists of the middle 1950s.

He reached the peak of his career as Minister of
Education in the last Wafdist Cabinet, which lasted
two years from January 1 950. In this capacity, he not
only gave effect to the policy he had long advocated
of abolishing fees in State schools but also did much
to extend higher education and cultural representa-
tion abroad.

He remained active in journalism until the middle
1960s; and despite ill-health, he was faithful to the
end to the concerns of the Academy of the Arabic

TAHA HUSAYN — TAHA, MAHMUD MUHAMMAD

Language, to the presidency of which he had suc-
ceeded Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid in 1963.

(3) His writings.

In common with many intellectuals of his genera-
tion, Taha Husayn wrote profusely and on a wide
variety of subjects. He is credited with 1,481 articles
and 61 volumes of original writings (not a few of
which are collected articles). In addition, he edited
eight texts, translated eleven books and thirty articles,
contributed substantially to twenty-one other books,
and wrote introductions to another thirty-six.

In his youth, he wrote some poetry which he later
discounted. On the other hand, not a small contrib-
utor to his popularity was his prose style, for he was
a master of the classical language and a defender of
its purity, while adapting it to new purposes with a
deceptive suppleness and fluency.

It was as a critic that he was most celebrated, for
he produced some major studies and a multitude of
articles covering virtually every period and most major
aspects of classical and modern Arabic literature,
excluding only folk compositions, for he considered
the colloquial forms of the language as corruptions
unworthy of artistic recognition. His aesthetic creed
was never systematically expounded, but the progress
of his thinking can be traced from the early studies,
which claimed scientific rigour and ascribed to social
and psychological factors considerable deterministic
power, leading to an eventual recognition of the crit-
ics's complete subjectivity. And in this respect, Taha
Husayn was decidedly romantic, prizing the evoca-
tion of emotion as the supreme touchstone of liter-
He broke into the narrative field by retelling tales
from early Islamic sources, but not without planting
into them some modernistic seeds, and later wrote
short stories and sketches mainly bearing on con-
temporary social ills. A more signal achievement was
the first volume of his fictionalised autobiography,
al-Ayyam "The Days", serialised in al-Hilal "The
Crescent" in 1926-7. This was the first modern Arabic
literary work to receive international recognition, being
translated into a number of foreign languages. He
followed this up between 1935 and 1944, with six
novels, and started another in 1946, Ma ward' al-nahr
"Beyond the river", which was published posthumously
in its incomplete form. Although he was not at his
best in sustaining a well-integrated plot, he was char-
acteristically bold in his choice of themes, Du'a' al-
karawan "The call of the [mythical bird] Karawan",
being a rare attempt at dealing with the code of honour
that requires the slaughtering of a woman who
offends against sexual mores, and Ahlam Shahrazad
"The dreams of Scheherezade", being an early ex-
ploitation of the Arabian Mights to convey a political
message.

His output includes substantial historical studies of
the first four caliphs and a slighter but revealing early
work, Kaaat al-fikr "Leaders of thought", which cele-
brates the ascendancy of the Western over the Oriental

Finally, in his lesser writings and his translations —
which give a good deal of attention to the theatre —
one may detect an effort to fill gaps in the Arab
literary experience and in his own creative work.

(4) His standing.

He was a charismatic figure in his own time, his
bold initiatives at the cutting edge of intellectual
progress earning him the unofficial title of Dean
of Arabic Letters. The next generation — more self-
assertive towards the West, more rigorous in its crit-

ical perceptions and imbued with socialist doctrines —
has been somewhat less appreciative of his attain-
ments, though they had opened the way to further
development.

Under the Egyptian monarchy, he was awarded
the title of Bey, then that of Pasha. The Republic,
having abolished titles, awarded him the Order of
the Nile in 1965. Internationally, he received countless
honorary doctorates and the French Legion d'Honneur.
In 1949, mainly on the initiative of Andre Gide, he
was nominated for the Nobel Prize. Finally, the United
Nations' Rights of Man prize was delivered to him
on his deathbed.

Bibliography: Taha Husayn, al-Madjmu'a al-kamila
"Collected works", Beirut 1973-4; Hamdi al-Sakkut
and J. Marsden Jones, A'lam al-adab al-mu'dsirfi Misr
"Leaders of contemporary literature in Egypt", i,
rev. ed. Cairo and Beirut 1982; P. Cachia, Taha
Husayn: his place in the Egyptian literary renaissance,
London 1956; D. Semah, Four Egyptian literary crit-
ics, Leiden 1974; Meftah Tahar, Taha Husayn, sa
critique litteraire et ses sources jrancaises, Tunis 1976;
Djabir 'Asfur, al-Maraya al-mutaajawira "Contiguous
mirrors", Cairo 1983; Abdel-Rashid Mahmoudi,
Taha Husain's education. From al-Azhar to the Sorbonne,
Richmond, Surrey 1998. (P. Cachia)

TAHA, MAHMUD MUHAMMAD, free-thinking
Islamic reform theorist, founder and spiritual
leader of the religio-political lay movement
al-Ikhwan al-Djumhuriyyun in Sudan. Born about
1909 in Rufa'a on the Blue Nile, he grew up in a
traditionally mystic-religious environment. Following
graduation as a hydraulics engineer in 1936 from the
Gordon Memorial College in al-Khurtum (Khartoum)
[q.v.], Taha worked until 1941 for the Sudan Railway
Company in 'Atbara.

Taha's thinking was clearly formed by both the
religious nature of his home background and the
intellectual confrontation with European thinking at
the British colonial college and in 'Atbara. In addition
to the traditional literature of his Islamic heritage,
particularly al-Ghazali. Ibn al-'Arabi and al-Halladj,
he also read sociological texts by Benjamin Kid,
Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, as well as works
by European philosophers of the schools of enlight-
enment, logic and dialectic, from Hegel to Marx and

Since the beginning of the Sudanese nationalist
movement in the 1930s, Taha played an active part
in fighting for Sudanese independence. However, his
objective was neither Sudan under British rule, as
advocated by the Umma Party, nor administrative
and political unity with Egypt, as advocated by the
Ashikka' Party, so that together with a few other
intellectuals, he founded his own party in 1945, al-
Hizb al-Djumhuri, and became party chairman. The
objective of this party was an independent, federal
republic of Sudan, where "democratic socialism" would
guarantee individual freedom and perfect social justice.

In 1946, an anti-British leaflet brought Taha into
prison for the first time, accused of anti-government
propaganda. Released prematurely after 50 days, he
was arrested again during the same year and sentenced
to two years' imprisonment for public incitement and
sedition, after preaching a sermon to the population
of Rufa'a in which he incited them to use violence
to free a woman from prison who had had her
daughter circumcised. His followers, the Djumhuriyyun,
see this event as the turning point in their history.

During his imprisonment and subsequent two-year
period of voluntary isolation, khalwa, Taha subjected

TAHA, MAHMUD MUHAMMAD — TAHADJDJUD

himself to stringent Sufi practices of fasting, prayer
and meditation, re-appearing in public in 1951 with
a new understanding of Islam instead of a political
programme. Since recommencing their activities in
1951, the Djumhuriyyun considered themselves to be
more an instructive movement spreading an anti-
legalistic, humanitarian understanding of Islam, rather
than a political party. After the ban on parties following
the bloodless coup of Dja'far al-NumayrT in 1968,
they changed their name to al-Ikhwan al-Djumhuriyyun.
They nevertheless retained their political objectives,
integrating them in their purely Islamic ideological
approach. They propagated their views in lectures,
public discussions, newspaper articles and publications

The core of Taha's teaching — the result of divine
inspiration received during personal worship, according
to Taha — is the opinion that the Kur'an contains two
main messages. The first, reversing the revelation
chronology, consists of the laws of Medina {furii'),
which is the foundation among others for the tradi-
tional shan'a. By contrast, the second message, pro-
claimed in Mecca, contains the basic spiritual principles
(usul) of the Islamic religion: individual liberty and
religious freedom, equality regardless of sex, race or
religion, and equal rights to property (i.e. socialism).
Taha taught that the first message had only limited
validity for the Islamic society in its status during the
lst/ 7 th century, and should be replaced today by
abrogation, naskh [q.v.], by the second, eternally valid
message, in order to create forms of Islamic living
and society which are in line with the changed realities
of the 20th century. In this context, the focal demands
of the Djumhuriyyun were for an individual, spiritu-
alised religion, together with further development of
the shan'a to assume ethical dimensions.

Since the 1960s, Taha's reforms have repeatedly
met with protest and resistance from the institutional
orthodox Islamic religion in Sudan and on an inter-
national dimension, and from the Sudanese Ikhwan
al-Muslimun, who are based on implementing the
shan'a as focal aspect of their ideology and as legiti-
mation of their claims to political power. Taha was
twice accused of committing apostasy: in 1968 with-
out legal consequences, then in 1985 the proceedings
were followed by his execution on 18 January, 1985,
with posthumous annulment of the sentence because of
numerous discrepancies. On the death of their leader,
the Djumhuriyyun ceased all public involvement.

Bibliography: The main titles of Taha's extensive
works, most of which have disappeared from the
market through being banned and destroyed, include:
al-Risala al-thaniya min al-Islam, Umm Durman 1967,
Eng. tr. with introd. by Abdullahi Ahmed an-Na'im,
The Second Message of Islam, Syracuse-New York 1987;
Tank Muhammad, Umm Durman 1966; and Risalat
al-Saldt, Umm Durman 1 966. For Taha's reception,
see al-Mukashifi Taha al-Kabbashi, al-Ridda wa-
muhakamdt Mahmud Muhammad Taha ft 'l-Suddn, Riyad
1987; al-Ustadh Mahmud Muhammad Taha, ra'id al-
tadjdld al-dlm fi 'l-Sudan, ed. Markaz al-Dirasat al-
SQdaniyya, Casablanca 1992; J. Rogalski, Mahmud
Muhammad Taha. %ur Erinnerung an das Schicksal eines
Myslikers und Inkllektuellen im Sudan, in Asien Afrika
Laleinamerika (1996) no. 1; G. Lichtenthaler, Muslih
mystic and martyr: the vision of Mahmud Muhammad
Taha and the Republican Brothers in the Sudan. Towards
an Islamic Reformation?, in Islam et Societes au sud du
Sahara, no. 9 (Paris, Nov. 1995), 57-82. For other
biographical information, see Annette Oevermann,
Die "Republikanischen Bruder" im Sudan. Eine islamische

Reformbewegung im ^wanzigsten Jahrhundert, Frankfurt
am Main, etc. 1993. (Annette Oevermann)
TAHA DTPJU D (a.), verbal noun of form V from
the root h-dj-d, which is one of the roots with opposed
meanings (addad [<?•»•]), as it signifies "sleep" and also
"to be awake", "to keep a vigil", "to per-
form the night salat or the nightly recita-
tion of the Kur'an". The latter two meanings
have become the usual ones in Islam. The word occurs
only once in the Kur'an, sura XVII, 81: "And in a
part of the night, perform a salat as a voluntary
effort", etc., but the thing itself is often referred to.
We are told of the pious (LI, 1 7) that they sleep little
by night and pray to God for forgiveness at dawn.
In XXV, 65, there is a reference to those who spend
the night prostrating themselves and standing before
their Lord.

From the Kur'an it may be deduced that the old
practice in Mecca was to observe two saldts, one by
day and one by night (XVII, 80-1); LXXVI, 25: "And
mention the name of thy Lord in the morning and
in the evening [26] and in the night prostrate thy-
self before Him and praise Him the livelong night";
XI, 116: "And perform the salat at both ends of the
day and in the last part of the night". Tradition is
able to tell us that for a shorter or longer period
(mention is actually made of a "period of ten years",
al-Tabari, Tafslr, XXIX, 68), vigils were so ardently
observed that Muhammad and his companions began
to suffer from swollen feet. The old practice is said
to be based on LXXIII, 1. "O thou enfolded one,
2. stand up during the night, except a small portion
of it, 3. the half or rather less, 4. or rather more
and recite the Kur'an with accuracy"; but its origin
cannot be dissociated from the example of Christian
ascetics. In the end, however, this form of asceticism
became too much for Muhammad's companions. The
revelation of LXXIII, 20 ff., brought an alleviation:
"See, thy Lord knoweth that thou standest praying
about two-thirds, or the half or a third of the night,
thou and a part of thy companions. But God mea-
sureth the night and the day; he knoweth that ye are
not able for this; therefore he turneth mercifully to
you with permission to recite as much of the Kur'an
as is convenient for you". By the institution of the
five daily saldts, the obligatory character of the tahaaj-
djud was then abolished (cf. Abu Dawud, Tatawwu',
bab 17, and al-Baydawi on LXXIII, 20).

Nevertheless, Muhammad is said not to have aban-
doned the vigils (Abu Dawud, Tatawwu', bab 18b);
in hadtih and Jikh this is considered blameworthy for
those who were wont to perform these saldls (Mus-
lim, Siyam, trad. 185; al-Nasa'i, Kiyam al-layl, bab 59;
al-Badjun, Hashiya, i, 165). The performance is in
general regarded as sunna. David is said to have spent
a third of the night in these exercises (Muslim, Siyam,
trad. 189; Abu Dawud, Sawm, bab 67); another rea-
son given in justification of it is that the tahaajdjud
loosens one of the knots which Satan ties in the hair
of a sleeper (Abu Dawud, Tatawwu', bab 18). The
tahaa}a}ud is particularly meritorious in Ramadan and
in the night before each of the two feasts (Ibn Madja,
Siyam, bab 68: al-Nasa'i, Kiyam al-layl, bab 17, where
the term ihyd' al-layl is used [see also tarawIh]).

Even at the present day, the mu'adhdhin in some
lands summons to a night salat (consisting of an even
number of rak'as, and therefore called shaf; see witr)
shortly after midnight by an adhan to which special
formulae are added (Lane, Manners and customs, ch. iii
"Religion and Laws"; cf. Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka;
Juynboll, Handleiding, 74).

TAHADJDJUD — TAHANNUTH

Bibliography: Besides the works quoted, see
Sprenger, Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad, i,
321 ff.; M.Th. Houtsma, lets over den dagelijkschen
caldt der Mohammedanen, in Theol. Tijdschrift (1890),
137 ff.; R. Bell, The origin of Islam in its Christian
environment, London 1926, 143.

For the views of the different law schools, see
also I. Guidi, // "Muhtasar" di ffalil ibn Ishaq, Milan
1919, i, 97; Abu Ishak al-ShTrazi, al-fanblh, ed.
A.W.T. Juynboll, 27; Ramli, Mhayat al-muhtaaj, i,
488 ff.; Ibn Hadjar al-Haytharm, Tuhfa, i, 201 ff;
Abu '1-Kasim al-HillT, Kitab Shara'i' al-Islam, Calcutta
1839, i,' 27; A. Querry, Droit musulman, Paris 1871,
i, 52-3; Nizam, al-Faiawa al-'alamgiriyya, Calcutta
1243/1827-8, i, 157. (A.J. Wensinck)

al-TAHANAWI, Muhammad A'la ('Ala' or 'Ali
are not correct) b. shayjh 'All b. kadi Muhammad
Hamid b. Mawlana atka 'l-'ulama' Muhammad Sabir
al-Faruki al-Sunni al-Hanaff al-TahanawI, originating
from Tohana, a place at about 1 70 km/ 105 miles to the
northwest of Dihli, philologist, especially lexicol-
ogist, and kadi. The years of his birth and death
are unknown; we only know that he finished the draft
of his main work, Kashshaf in the year 1158/1745.
His tomb in his native town is visited until today,
including with the purpose to spend in his presence
days and even weeks in studying scholarly works, in
the expectation to be enlightened by the shaykh.

Among the three works which have come down to
us, is the well-known and often quoted large Kashshaf
istilahat al-funun, a thesaurus of technical terms com-
piled from good sources. Because of the
interpolatibns and parts in Persian, this
work has proved its value for the study of Islamic
scholasticism, especially in India. Under the superin-
tendence of Aloys Sprenger and William Nassau Lees,
and by order of the Asiatic Society, Bengal, the work
was published in altogether 17 fascicules from 1848
onwards) by the MawlawTs Mohammad Wajih, 'Abd
al-Haqq and Gholam K/Qadir, Calcutta 1862, 2 vols.,
the English title being A dictionary of the technical terms
used in the sciences of the Musabnans (Bibliotheca Indica).
In an Appendix, which had already been issued in
1854, Sprenger published the compendium of Nadjm
al-Dlh al-Kaubfs Logic, called al-Risala al-Shamsiyya ft
'l-kawa'id al-mantikiyya, popular in India and repeat-
edly published [see al-katibI, nadjm al-dIn], together
with an English translation, The logic of the Arabians
(cf. C. Ralfs, in Z^MG, ix [1855], 868 f.). The edi-
tion of the Kashshaf (Kashf is incorrect) is based on
two manuscripts, which were both copied from one
and the same of the three autographs of the author
which are available. A first, substantial, part was
printed anew in Istanbul 1317-18/1899-1900. There
is a new edition in four small volumes: i-iv ed. Lutff
'Abd al-Badi', the Persian sections having been
translated into Arabic by Amrn al-Na'im Muhammad
Hasanayn, and i-ii revised by Arain al-Khuli. Cairo
1382/1963, 1969, 1972 and 1977. The editor starts
from the author's draft, with its corrections and addi-
tions, always taking the two prints into consideration.
Most recently, a new edition by Rafik al-'Adjam has
appeared, 2 vols. Beirut 1996.

Of the second work, Ahkam al-aradi, a treatise on
the principles of the shar' regarding the ownership and
taxation of the land, with special reference to India
(some parts are explained in Persian), there is a man-
uscript in the Library of the India Office, London
(R. Levy, Catalogue, ii, 3 [Fiqh], London 1937, no.
1730). — What exacdy is hidden behind the title of the
third work, Sabk al-ghayat ft nask al-ayat, which could

not be traced, remains uncertain. According to Sarkls,
Mu'djam al-matbu'at, i, 645, it was printed in 1316/1898
in India (Hind).

Bibliography: Brockelmann, II 2 , 555, S II, 628;
'U.R. Kahhala, Mu'ajam al-mu'allifln, Damascus
1380/1960, xi, 47; Ziriklr, al-A'ldm, Beirut 1979,
vi, 295; 'Abd al-Hayy al-Hasani, Mzhat al-khawatir,
Haydarabad/Deccan 1376/1957, vi, 278.

(R. Sellheim)
TAHANNUTH (a.), verbal noun, and tahannatha,
verb, are words found in some of the accounts of
Muhammad's first prophetic experience. Already in
the earliest texts which are available to us, they are
accompanied by variant interpretative glosses and
explanations, and their significance has been debated
in both traditional and modern scholarship.

In Ibn Hisham's Sira (151-2), Ibn Ishak reports that
Muhammad used to spend one month each year
making djiwar [q.v.] at Hira' — "that was a part of the
tahannuth of Kuraysh (mimma tahannatha bihi Kuraysh) in
the Djahiliyya". Tahannuth is immediately glossed as
tabarrur ("abstaining from sin"?): wa 'l-tahannuth al-tabar-
rur. Ibn Hisham then intervenes in the text to explain
that "the Arabs" customarily pronounced / as th and
that tahannuth, therefore, is the same as tahannuf. Thus
he links the expression with the pristine monotheism
of the Hamfs [q.v.] and the religion of Abraham.
Another report in the Sira (151), which does not use
either the verb or the noun, tells us that as part of
his preparation for prophethood Muhammad had been
caused by God to love solitude. In Ibn Sa'd's version
(i/1, 129) the report goes on to say that he would
go alone to the cave of Hira' where he would make
tahannuth (jatahannathu fihi) on certain nights (al-laydti
dhawat al-'adad) and then would go back to Khadrdja
to obtain provisions for a similar period [li-mithliha).
It was while he was in the cave doing this that the
revelation came to him. In some of al-Bukhan's
versions of the tradition (see A.J. Wensinck et alii,
Concordance, s.v. tahannatha for references), tahannuth is
glossed by ta'abbud ("devoting oneself to the worship
of God").

Other and later traditionists and commentators pro-
vide further interpretative additions. The most exten-
sive survey of the material was made by MJ. Kister
("Al-tahannuth: an enquiry into the meaning of a term",
in BSOAS, xxxi [1968], 223-36). As well as with tabar-
rur and ta'abbud, tahannuth was equated with such things
as tafakkur (meditation), tahawwub (abstaining from sin),
and ta'alluh (devotion to God). Solitude, (religious)
retreat and withdrawal, devotional practices, gazing
towards the Ka'ba, and feeding the poor are also
mentioned. Since this was before the revelation made
to the Prophet, speculation involved the question which
body of law (shan'd) he followed at the time. Tahannuth
is said to have been practised also by other individ-
uals: Khalid b. al-Harith of Kinana, the Hanif Zayd
b. 'Amr, Hakim b. Hizam and others. The traditions
about these individuals supply further material for
speculation regarding the content of tahannuth.

After his survey of traditional and modern scholar-
ship, Kister concluded that tahannuth was indeed an
ancient custom of Kuraysh and that essentially it
consisted of veneration of the Ka'ba and works of
charity while being withdrawn on Mount Hira'. Others,
such as Caetani (Annali, i, 222, "Introduzione", section
208, n. 2), have suspected that the word was not used
in Mecca in the time of the Prophet. N. Calder has
argued that the word reflects the ideas and practices
of the 2nd century A.H. ("Hinth, birr, tabarrur, tahannuth'-
an inquiry into the Arabic vocabulary of vows", in

TAHANNUTH — TAHART

£50,45, li [1988], 214-39). He has suggested that
tahannuth refers to the condition which, in fikh, one
assumes by making a binding vow — one becomes
"liable" (hanith) to fulfil the vow. (Hanlth also

"breaking a

" and hinth n

perjury

) In the

traditions about the Prophet, the word would reflect
the idea that he had made a vow to enter a period
of retreat (i'tikaf [q.v.]), a practice of early Muslim
times which was becoming less widespread as a result
of juristic disapproval of asceticism. It was because
the practice was in decline that the word was such
a puzzle for later generations.

H. Hirschfeld (New researches into the composition and
exegesis of the Qoran, London 1902, 19, n. 94), saw
tahannuth, not as a genuine Arabic noun form, but as
an arabisation of Hebrew fhinnoth "prayers or voluntary
devotions apart from the official liturgy". His suggestion
was rejected by S.D. Goitein (Studies in Islamic history
and institutions, Leiden 1966, 93, n. 2) on the grounds
that that plural form is known in Hebrew with that
technical sense only at a significantly later time (Goitein
did not adduce his evidence). It may be noted,
however, that the hithpael form of the Hebrew verb
hanan with the meaning "to seek favour" (frequently,
but not exclusively, from God), and the noun form
t'hinna with the meaning "supplication" or "cry for
favour" is relatively well attested in the Hebrew Bible
and at Qumran (GJ. Botterwick and H. Ringgren
(eds.), Theological dictionary of the Old Testament, Eng. tr.,
Grand Rapids, Michigan 1986, v, 22 ff.).
Bibliography: Given in the article.

(G.R. Hawting)

TAHARA (a.), a masdar signifying cleanliness or
freedom from disgusting matter. Some dictio-
naries suggest as a fundamental meaning the notion
of cleanliness (e.g. Abu '1-Baka', al-Kulliyyat, iii, 154)
but the existence of the word in Syriac and Hebrew
with a ritual meaning suggests that from its first usage
in the Kur'an it is a technical term (perhaps for the
cleansing of menstrual blood flow; L'A, iv, 505, s.v.
t-h-r, quoting Ibn 'Abbas). The root may perhaps have
to do with distinction, setting aside through cleansing
(e.g. Kur'an, III, 42).

Tahara is the rubric under which ritual order and
purity are discussed in manuals of fikh. The word
itself seems to have two aspects: material and formal.
The material one would encompass foods and other
substances to be avoided or removed — e.g. pork, faeces,
blood, carcasses — and the means of their removal —
the number of washings, the characteristics of the water
used in washing, and the like.

In general, substances connected with death, most —
but not all — substances from within the body — blood,
urine, semen, etc. — items associated with carrion or
inedible animals — dogs, or pigs, for instances — must
be avoided, and if they cannot be avoided, they must
be removed in an appropriate manner [see nadjas].
To reinstate tahara, the test of whether something has
been successfully removed is its imperceptibility in
taste, smell or colour.

Formal aspects of tahara concern the fitness of
persons to carry out ritual practices and duties. Men-
struation (hayd) and childbirth (ntfas), sexual excite-
ment and consummation, defecation and urination, and
various sorts of loss of control — sleep while reclining,
according to some, quarrelling, violent laughter, etc. —
require appropriate ritual cleansings — ablution (wudu'
[q.v.]) for "minor or transient events" (hadalh [q.v.])-
urination, defecation, breaking wind — the more total
lustration (gtusl [q.v.]) for events that preclude one
from religious community (djandba [q.v.]), such as sex-

ual activity or menstruation. Despite the claims of
certain apologists, the issue here is not cleanliness in
the hygienic sense but in the formal and ritual sense.
Madhhab differences are too various to be detailed
here. In general, however, ImamT and Zaydi purity
rules are more rigorous and they are more likely to
see the nadjas thing or djunub person as contiguously
impure. The Shi 'Is likewise refuse to accept kitdbis
as butchers and food providers.

Bibliography: C.H. Becker, <ar Geschichte des
iskmischen Kultus, in Isl., iii (1912), 374-99; G.-H.
Bousquet, La purete rituelle en Islam (Etude de fiqh et
de sociologie religieuse), in RHR, cxxxviii (1950),
53-71; M. Cook, Early Islamic dietary law, in JSAI,
vii (1987), 217-77; Carol Delaney, Mortal flow.
Menstruation in Turkish village society, in Blood magic,
ed. T. Buckley and Alma Gottlieb, Berkeley 1988,
75-93; I.K.A. Howard, Some aspects of the pagan Arab
background to Islamic ritual, in Bull. British Assoc. Orient-
alists, N.S. x (1978), 41-8; Julie Marcus, Islam, women
and pollution in Turkey, in Jnal. Anthropological Assoc,
of Oxford, xv/3 (1984), 204-18; E. Mittwoch, Z™
Enstehungsgeschichte des iskmischen Gebets und Kultus, in
APA W, Berlin (1913); A.K. Reinhart, Impurity no danger,
in History of Religions, xxx/1 (1990), 1-24 and sources
cited there; R. Rubinacci, La purita rituale secondo gli
IbadiU, in AIUON, N.S. vi (1954-6), 1-41; AJ. Wen-
sinck, Der Herkunft der gesetzlichen Bestimmungen die
Reinigung [istindja'J oder [istitaba] betreffend, in Isl., i
(1910), 101-2; idem, Die Entstehung der muslimischen
Reinheitsgezelzgebung, in Isl., v (1914), 62-80; Abu
'1-Baka' Ayyub b. Musa al-Husayni al-Kaffawr
(d. 1094/1683), al-Kulliyyat, mu'djam fi 'l-mustakhat
wa 'l-furuk al-lughawiyya, ed. 'Adnan Darwfsh and
Muhammad al-Misn, Damascus 1974; Ghazali, Mar-
riage and sexuality in Islam: a translation of al-Ghazali's
book on the etiquette of marriage from the Ihya', Salt Lake
City 1984; idem, The mysteries of purity, Lahore 1966.
See also the first section of any fikh book, e.g. 'Abd
al-Rahman [Muhammad] al-Djazin, al-Fikh 'aid 'l-
madhahib al-arba'a, Beirut n.d.; Muhammad Djawar
Maghniyya, al-Fikh 'aid 'l-madhahib al-khamsa. 2 vols.
Beirut n.d. (A.K. Reinhart)

TAHART (or TIhart, Tahert) known as al-
Haditha (the New), as opposed to al-Kadima (the
Old), situated 9 km/5 miles to the north-east, becom-
ing Tagdemt in Berber, the ancient Tingartia, a town
of Algeria, founded by the Rustamids [q.v.] — accord-
ing to a custom frequent in the mediaeval Muslim
world — and capital of their kingdom. In Berber, Tahart
is said to signify "lioness" or "tambourine" (doff), tak-
ing the word in its first signification a reference to
its location: a wooded plateau formerly inhabited by
wild beasts which had, mysteriously, abandoned the
place, a miracle borrowed from the foundation of
Kairouan or Kayrawan [q.v.].

The beginnings of Tahart were modest. The anec-
dote which tells of the founding Imam busily engaged
in building his house with the aid of a slave, even
if false — which is not necessarily the case — reveals
the initial puritanism and principled egalitarianism of
the Ibadis [see ibadiyya]. In their choice of site, the
Rustamids were guided by several considerations:
the region was populated by tribes — Lamaya, Lawata,
Hawwara, Maghila, Zuwagha, Matmata and Miknasa
Zanata — committed to Ibadism; the site benefited by
the proximity of an existing ancient urban centre,
with fortifications which often provided refuge dur-
ing the disorders which affected New Tahart; water
was abundant there, channelled towards homes and
orchards, and the soil fertile; finally, and perhaps

100

decisively, the land "belonged to the defenceless peo-
ple (li-kawm mustad'afin) of the Marasa" (al-Bakn,
Masalik, ed. A. Leuven and A. Ferre, Tunis 1992, ii,
736). Construction of the town was, however, a labo-
rious business: everything built by the founders dur-
ing the daytime was destroyed at night. A compromise
was eventually found when the ancient proprietors,
the Lamaya, were offered a share of the kharadj.

According to the anonymous author of the K. al-
Istibsar (ed. Sa'd Zaghlul 'Abd al-Hamid, Alexandria
1958, 178) the town was initially a rectangle of approx-
imately 1,100 m by 800 m, traversed from east to
west by a long thoroughfare — cardo maximus? — and
enclosed within a perimeter wall of stone, breached
by four gates at the four cardinal points, creating a
chequered layout irresistibly reminiscent of Roman
urban planning, the "islands" (insulae) thus constituted
being distributed according to ethnic groups. In fact, all
the contemporary geographers stress the segregation
of the population of Tahart by tribal or regional origin.

The town, which was financially supported at the
outset by the Ibadr community of Basra, grew very
rapidly, to such an extent that within a short space
of time it became literally unrecognisable. The Basran
benefactors failed to recognise the place on their sec-
ond visit and were obliged, allegedly, to return home
with their donations intact. Tahart soon became a
powerful magnet for people and an important com-
mercial centre. For the indigenous population, it played
an important role in terms of sedentarisation, and' its
magnetic appeal extended as far as the Orient; so
much so that it was dubbed "the 'Irak of the Maghrib"
(al-Ya'kubl (d. ca. 284/897), Buldan, tr. G. Wiet, Les
Pays, Cairo 1937, 217).

Towards the end of the Rustamid dynasty, the town
had completely changed its appearance, exchanging
its initial puritanism and simplicity for hedonism and
opulence. Although still dominant, Ibadism ceased to
be the faith of the majority. The town became afflu-
ent arid elegant: twelve hammams, numerous suks, parks
and gardens, sumptuous residences etc. "Highways
connected it to the Sudan and to all the lands of East
and West for the purposes of trade and the exchange
of all kinds of commodities" (Ibn al-Saghir, Akhbar al-
a'imma al-rustamiyyin, in CT, xci-xcii [1975], 325). The
road from the Sudan was the source of gold and of
slaves, which accounts for the particular interest taken
in it: the Imam Aflah (208-58/824-72) had sent an
ambassador to the king of Sudan with lavish gifts
(ibid., 340). Jews, subsequendy established in Kairouan,
were actively engaged in commerce (S.D. Goitein, A
Mediterranean society, Berkeley, etc., i, 1967, iii, 1978;
idem, Letters of medieval Jewish traders, Princeton 1974,
index, s.v. Taherti). Wealthy merchants flaunted their
riches ostentatiously and were accompanied in their
travels by considerable entourages, composed principally
of slaves. Predictably, cosmopolitanism and affluence
encouraged moral laxity. "The town was corrupted
(fasadal), as were its inhabitants", notes Ibn al-Saghir
(op. cit, 363), citing as evidence the consumption of
intoxicating liquor (al-muskir), and pederasty (ghilman).
Abu Hatim (281-2/894-5) reacted vigorously, but not
for long; it was in fact his rigorous moral stance which
led to his deposition. As to whether he was equally
intransigent during his second reign (286-94/897-907),
the sources are eloquently silent. The end of the dynasty
was approaching, and it was soon to be swept away
by the Fatimid ride (296/909). The more fervent Ibadis
emigrated towards the south and established them-
selves in the oasis of Sadrata [q.v.] some 8 km to the
south-west of Wardjilan [q.v.] , currently Ouargla, and

finally at Mzab [q.v.], where their community still up-
holds the ancient traditions.

The prosperity of Tahart was maintained for some
time. Al-IstakhrT, writing at the time of the founda-
tion of al-Mahdiyya (308/920), noted that Tahart was
"a large town, surrounded by an extensive fertile plain
with abundant supplies of water", and that Ibadis
were still "the dominant force there" (Cairo 1961,
34). Ibn Hawkal, who visited Sidjilmasa in 340/951,
also depicted it as a prosperous town deriving its
wealth from agriculture, arboriculture, apiculture and
stock-breeding (Sural al-ard, Beirut n.d., 84, 93). Al-
Mukaddasi noted that the "district (kura) of Tahart"
comprised no less than thirty-three towns (madlna) in-
cluding Oran. The town, we are told, "disappears amid
gardens ... a great and very rich city ... of wondrous
appearance ... It is reckoned superior to Damascus",
and also to Cordova, although he does not personally
share this opinion (Description de I'Occident musulman . . .
Arabic text and tr. Ch. Pellat, Algiers 1959, 5, 7, 23).
A century and a half later, al-ldrisl says of the place:
"the city of Tahart was, in times past (kanat Jt-ma
salafa min al-zaman), composed of two large towns . . ."
(Nuzhat al-mushtak, Naples-Rome 1972, as Opus geo-
graphicum, iii, 255-6). Al- c Abdari, who crossed the whole
width of the Maghrib on the Pilgrimage route, does
not mention it in his Rihla (ed. M. al-FasI, Rabat
1968). Ca. 1526, al-Hasan b. Muhammad al-Wazzan
al-Zayyati (i.e. Leo Africanus, d. after 1550) had only
vague impressions of it. He could only have discov-
ered ruins there, "those of the town founded by the
Romans, according to some" he says. Furthermore,
he does not refer to Tahart, but to Tagdemt "which
was a very civilised town", formerly ruled by the
Idrisids (al-Adarisa, sic). He adds that wars have taken
their toll, "so much so that the visitor can see there
only the remnants of the foundations, as I have myself
observed" ( Wasf Ifrikiya, tr. Muhammad Hadjdji and
Muhammad al-Akhdar, Beirut 1983, ii, 40-1). The
mediocre vestiges revealed by excavations (G. Marcais
and A. Dessus-Lamare, Tihert-Tagdemt, in R. Afr., xc
[1946], 24-54), which have not been pursued further,
definitely do not reflect the state of the city at the
height of its prosperity.

Tahart suffered gready as a result of the wars which
raged throughout the central Maghrib following the
accession of the Fatimids. The ability to move rapidly
with tents and livestock was essential; nomadism be-
came the sole means of survival. In 297/910, 312/924,
320/932, 358-60/968-71, the town was constandy sub-
jected to successive assaults. In 360/971, in the process
of avenging his father Ziri, BQluggln carried out a
massacre there of the Zanata, on whose bodies "the
muezzins climbed to proclaim the call to prayer"
(Idrfs, grides, Paris 1962, i, 37). In Ramadan 362/June
973, he took Tahart by storm. "He massacred the
men, reduced women and children to slavery, pillaged
and burned the city" (ibid., i, 48). In 374/984 the
Zirid al-Mansur quelled a rebellion there "with slaugh-
ter and pillage" (ibid., i, 79). In 390/998 the city was
again the scene of carnage. From 408/1017 onwards
it was part of the Hammadid kingdom. The amir 'Abd
al-Kadir [q.v.] established his capital at Tagdemt (1835-
43). It was there that in 1863, General La Moriciere
founded the modern Tihert, currendy provincial cap-
ital of the wildya, i.e. on the site of Roman Tingartia.
The Tahart of the Rustamids does not survive.

Bibliography: See ibadiyya and rustamids.

Supplementary references, besides works cited in

the body of the text and the two afore-mentioned

entries, include:

1. Sources. Maliki, Riyad, Beirut 1983, index;
Yakut, Mu'djam al-buldan, Beirut 1965, ii, 7-9; Sham-
makhl, Kitdb al-Siyar, ed. Muhammad Hasan, Tunis
1995, index.

2. Studies. Brahim Zerouki, L'imamat de Tahart,
Paris 1987; F. Dachraoui, Fatimides, Tunis 1981, 134,
150-4, 206-8, 237-8; L. Golvin, Le Maghrib central
a I'epoque des grides, Paris 1957, index; J. Lethielleux,
Ouargla, cite saharienne, des origines au debut du XX'
siecle, Paris 1983; Ch.A. Julien, Histoire de I'Algerie
contemporaine, Paris 1964, index; A. Laroui, L'histoire
du Maghreb, Paris 1970, index; M. Talbi, Effondrement
demographique au Maghreb du XV au XV siecle, in CT,
xcvii-xcviii (1_977), 51-60. (Mohamed Talbi)
al-TAHAWI, Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Salama

b. 'Abd kl-Malik ai-Azdi al-Hadjri Abu Dja'far, a
HanafT jurist (d. 321/933). He spent most of his
life in Egypt, with only one brief trip to Syria. His
fame depends on his writings which include works of
fikh, works on technical legal and judicial matters,
hadith criticism, and a famous and enduring statement
of the Muslim creed.

Life. Basic biographical details are provided in the
HanafT biographical tradition represented by Ibn Kutlu-
bugha, al-Kurashi and al-Laknawi. The last of these
works incorporates most of the detail of the earlier
ones, as well as extensive reference to the broader
biographical tradition. Four different years of birth
are given: 229/844, 230/845, 238/852 and 239/853.
The last of these dates is given in a report attributed
to al-Tahawi himself, the genealogist al-Sam'ani prefers
229, and Ibn Khallikan prefers 238. His early train-
ing was with his maternal uncle al-Muzani (Isma'il
b. Yahya d. 264/878 [q.v.]), a pupil of al-Shafi'i [q.v.],
but he subsequently transferred to the HanafT madhhab
and trained with Ahmad b. AbT 'Imran MQsa b. Tsa.
He went to Syria' in 268/882, where he worked
for the kadi Abu Khazim 'Abd al-Hamid b. Dja'far
(d. 292/905). He returned to Egypt after a brief stay
and worked again with a kadi, namely Abu Bakra
Bakkar b. Kutayba (d. 270/883 [q.v.]). He continued
to advance his training in the HanafT madhhab, grad-
ually acquiring prominence as an administrator in the
judicial sphere and as a teacher. The lists of his pupils
include a number of names, none of them very famous,
but, perhaps significantly, including two or three figures
identified as judges (kadis) and one who was both a
kadi and leader of the Zahiris in his time. He pro-
duced many books. The most important of these relate
to three broad areas of study: 1. the propagation of
the HanafT madhhab; 2. a specialist interest in practi-
cal judicial activity; 3. hadith criticism. He also pro-
duced his enduring statement of the Muslim creed,
and a history, now lost (al-Ta'nkh al-kabir, possibly a
biographical work). Further details of his role in the
administrative and judicial spheres of Egyptian society
can be gleaned from scattered reports in al-Kindi's
Wuldt Mist. Secular biographies show a number of
characteristic expansions, al-Sam'ani focusing on
genealogy, Ibn Khallikan on the narrative of the split
between al-Tahawi and al-Muzani (most of it incor-
porated into al-Laknawi). Specialists in the science of
hadith tend to criticise him: Ibn 'Asakir and Ibn al-
Djawzi described him as deficient (nakasa) (cit. in Ibn
Kutlubugha), and Ibn Taymiyya said that his knowl-
edge of isndds was not like that of specialists in the
field (cit. in al-Laknawi, who comments that Ibn
Taymiyya was exaggerating as usual). Most of the
material of the biographical tradition is gathered into
the modern biography by al-Kawthari, al-Hamfi sirat
al-imam Abi Djafar al-Tahawi.

Works.

1. The madhhab. Al-Tahawi's work on the pro-
pagation and continuation of the HanafT madhhab is
represented by his commentaries on al-Shaybanfs
al-L^ami' al-kabir and al-Qjami' al-saghir (both lost). Still
extant are his Mukhtasar ft 'l-ftk'h and his Ikhtilaf al-

fukaha'. Both have been published. The Mukhtasar
follows the usual pattern of such works and attracted
a number of commentaries, notably those of al-Djassas
(Ahmad b. 'Alt al-Razi, d. 370/980 [q.v.]) and'al-
Sarakhsi (d. ca. 490/1097 [q.v.]). The Ikhtilaf has
been preserved only partially, and possibly only in a
redaction by al-Djassas (see Sezgin; also Ma'sumi, in
al-Tahawi, Ikhtilaf, ed.' Ma'sumi).

2. Practical judicial works. Al-Tahawi's most
enduring contribution in this area is represented by
his works on formularies, of which three are mentioned,
al-Shurut al-kabir, al-Shurut al-awsat and al-Shurut al-
saghir. A number of treatises are mentioned in the bio-
graphical tradition on topics like mahddir, sidjilldt, wasayd
and fara'id, but these are in fact sections within the
shurut works. Much of the material from these works
was incorporated into later works of the HanafT
madhhab, notably the Hidaya of al-Marghinanl [q.v.]
and the Fatdwd 'Alamgiriyya. The K al-Shurut al-saghir
is preserved in full, the K. al-Shurut al-kabir only in
part, the Awsat not at all. Some fragments of the
K. al-Shurut al-kabir were published by Joseph Schacht
in the 1920s and a major section, the Kitdb al-buyu',
in 1972, by Jeanette A. Wakin in a work which
incorporates a bibliography and introduction. The
whole of the Shurut al-saghir together with all extant
fragments of the Shurut al-kabir were published in 1974
in 'Irak (ed. Ruhr Uzdjan), independently of the
Western editions.

3. Hadith criticism. Al-Tahawi produced two
important works in this area, one of which, the Baydn
mushkil al-hadith (or Mushkil al-athar, or Sharh mushkil
al-athar) was influential and widely admired; the other,
the K. Ma'am 'l-dthar, also admired in the HanafT
tradition, was more problematic. The Mushkil al-athar
corresponds in aims and structure to the Ta'wil mukhtalif
al-hadith of Ibn Kutayba [q.v.], which was clearly an
influence. It is a catalogue of problem cases arising
out of apparent discord between two or more hadith
and/or between hadith and the Kur'an. It is not well-
structured, but individual problems are dealt with by
appeal to a variety of hermeneutical arguments, some
of which are notably elegant or skilful. An abridged
version was produced by Abu '1-Walid Muhammad
b. Ahmad Ibn Rushd (grandfather of the philosopher)
called a mukhtasar, incorporating criticisms. This in
turn was edited by Yusuf b. Musa al-Hanafi (d. 803/
1401) in his al-Mu'tasar min al-Mukhtasar. (The printed
version of this work identifies the intermediate author
as Abu '1-Walrd Sulayman b. Khalaf al-Badjr, whose
nisba is in fact mentioned in the author's introduction,
but this is certainly an error.) The Ma'ani 'l-athdr is
organised under the normal topics of a work of fikh.
It presents Prophetic hadith which are problematic in
so far as they conflict with each other or with the
HanafT madhhab. Al-Tahawl's commentary and analysis
tend to offer arguments that promote harmony between
hadith and madhhab. It is this work that provoked the
negative appreciation of al-Tahawi amongst hadith ex-
perts of a later date, though it also generated defensive
commentaries within the HanafT tradition, notably that
of al-'Ayni (Mahmud b. 'Ali, d. 855/1451 [q.v.]). {The
Mushkil al-athar and the Ma'ani 'l-dthar are discussed
in Calder, Studies, ch. 9.)

4. Creed. Al-Tahawl's presentation of the Muslim

102

al-TAHAWI — TAHIR b. AHMAD b. BABASHADH

creed has always been and still is popular; and has

generated important commentaries.

Bibliography: 1. Works by al-Tahawi: al-
Mukhtasar, ed. Abu 'l-Wafa', al-Afgham, Cairo
1370/1951; Mtildf al-fukaha' ', in Muhammad SaghTr
Hasan Ma'sumF, Tahawi's Disagreement of the Jurists,
Islamabad 1391/1971; Kitab al-Shurut al-kablr, in
Jeanette A. Wakin, The function of documents in Islamic
law, Albany 1972; al-Shurut al-saghlr mudhayyal m bi-
ma 'uthira 'alay-hi min al-Shurut al-kablr, ed. Ruhr
Uzdjan, Baghdad 1394/1974; Sharh ma'anl 'l-athar,
2 vols., Dihll ?1348/1929; Mushkit al-alhar, 4 vols.,
Haydarabad, 1333/1915.

2. Other sources and studies: Sezgin, i,
439-42; Fihrist, ed. Fliigel, 207; Ibn Khallikan, ed.
Wiistenfeld, no. 24, ed. Ihsan 'Abbas, i, 61-2, tr.
de Slane, i, 51-3; Ibn Kudubugha, Tadj al-tardajim,
no. 15; 'Abd al-Kadir b. Abi '1-Wafa' Muhammad
al-Kurashi, al-Djawahir al-mudiyya, Haydarabad 1332,
i, 102-5; Abu '1-Hasanat Muhammad 'Abd al-Hayy
al-Laknawi, al-Fawa'id al-bahiyya, Cairo 1324/1906,
31-4; Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari, al-Hawl fl
slrat al-Imam Abi Qjafar al- Tahdm, Cairo 1 368/ 1 948;
N. Calder, .Studies in early Muslim jurisprudence, Oxford
1993 (chs. 9-10); F. Krenkow, in Ef, s.v.

(N. Calder)
TAHHAN (a.), miller; owner and operator

of mills to grind wheat, and other grains to produce

There were no millers (tahhan) and bread-makers
or sellers (Ijhabbaz) in the Islamic society of Medina
during the era of the Prophet. Instead, every family
used to buy grain, grind and make bread for daily
meals (Kattam, TaraSb, ii, 108-9). Some wives of the
Prophet used to grind grains in hand-mills. A favourite
illustration of this practice was the example of the
Prophet's daughter, Fatima, who used to grind grain
for her own family.

In early Islam, some seasonal farm labourers of
Basra were employed to grind grain, as did some
slave-women of Indian origin. A popular anecdote
from the Umayyad period, repeated by many Arab
writers and historians, speaks of a Damascene miller
who hung a bell (q}uldjul) on the neck of a donkey
working in the mill so that he could know from a
distance whether the animal was at work or whether
it had stopped and was resting.

During the 'Abbasid period, there were a variety
of mills; for these, see tahun.

Some millers were wealthy. During the attack of
the Zandj slaves on Basra in 257/871, a wealthy
miller, al-'Abbas b. al-Faradj al-Riyashi, was killed for
his wealth. Millers' income depended on good or bad
seasonal harvests, which also affected price of grains
and flour. In Fatimid Egypt, when the price of flour
rose high, the government imposed price control meas-
ures, including lashing grain-merchants and millers, to
bring down the price.

A strong influence of Shr'ism was detected among
some millers of Baghdad's Karkh district (Ibn al-
Djawzi, al-Muntazam, x, 267). On the other hand,
there were millers who were strongly Sunn! and who
became well-known as reliable transmitters of tradi-
tions (ahadith)- Many of them were known by their
lakab of al-Tahhan, although it was not uncommon
for some friends of millers to share the same sur-
name, as was the case with Khalid al-Wasitl al-Tahhan.
Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, Tabakat, Beirut 1957,

iii, 347; Ahmad b. Hanbal, al-Musnad, ed. Ahmad

Muhammad Shakir, ' 'Cairo n.d., ii, 149-50; Abu

Yusuf,,A". al-Mara4, Bulak 1884, 52; Sarakhsi, K.

al-Mabsut, 2 Beirut n.d., xvi, 15-18; Djahiz, Bukhala',
ed. al-Hadjirl, Cairo 1958, 129; idem, Rasa'il, ed.
A.S.M. Harun, Cairo 1965, ii, 240-4; idem, Bayan,
ed. Sandubi, ii, 187-8; Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntaiam,
viii, 40, 190, x, 267; Abu Zakariyya' al-Azdr, Ta'rikh
al-Mawsil, ed. 'All Hablba, Cairo 1967, 362; al-
Khatib al-Baghdadl, Ta'rikh Baghdad, i, 91-2, xi, 90,
206, xii, 140, xiii, 301; al-Raghib al-Isfaham, Muha-
darat al-udaba', Beirut 1961, iii, 344; Sam'anI, Ansab,
ed. 'Awwama, Beirut 1976, viii, 214-17; Kazwmr,
Athar al-bilad, Beirut 1960, 202, 241, 260, 462,
477; Safadi, Waft, vii, 270, viii, 15-16, xvi, 364;
Ibshihl, Mustatraf Cairo 1952, ii, 53; Makrizi,
Ighathat al-umma bi-kas_hf al-ghumma, Cairo 1940, 13;
Abu '1-Fida', Takwim al-buldan, Geographie dAboulfeda,
ed. Reinaud, Paris 1840, 340-1; Dimashkr, Nukhbat
al-dahr, ed. Mehren, 181-2; R.B. Serjeant, A Zaidi
manual of Hisba, in RSO, xxviii (1953), 14; A.H. al-
Kattani, al-Taratlb al-iiariyya, Beirut n.d., ii, 108-9;
Ibn al-'Imad, Shadharat, i, 287; Le Strange, Baghdad
during the 'Abbasid caliphate, 145; for mills and millers
in Umayyad Spain, see S.M. Imamuddin, The eco-
nomic history of Muslim Spain (711-1031), Dacca 1963,
181-6; M.A.J. Beg, A contribution to the economic history
of the caliphate: a study of the cost of lining and the eco-
nomic status of artisans in 'Abbasid 'Iraq, in IQ_, xvi
(1972), 153. See also the Bibl. to tahun.

(M.AJ. Beo)
TAHIR b. AHMAD b. BABASHADH, Abu
'1-Hasan, al-Nahwi al-Misn, the most important
Egyptian grammarian of his time, usually
referred to as Ibn Babashadh, d. 469/1077. Of
Daylami origins, his father or grandfather set up in
Cairo, where, after an interlude in 'Irak trading in
precious stones, Ibn Babashadh found well-paid
employment as a katib in the Diwan al-insha', as well
as presiding over Kur'an recitation at the mosque of
'Amr. He died in a fall from the minaret of this
mosque, in which he had secluded himself for some
time in a pious abandonment of his secular liveli-
hood (he may have been a Sufi as well as a Shi'T:
Haarmann, 167).

Only two of his works survive. Among those lost
are a commentary on the K. al-Usul of Ibn al-Sarradj
[</.».] and a large treatise of some fifteen volumes
known as Ta'llk al-ghurfa, after the room in the mosque
where it was composed. It passed through the hands
of several of his pupils and subsequently attracted the
admiration of the Ayyubid Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil
[</.».], but it proved impossible to edit after his death
and has disappeared. An unpublished and highly
regarded commentary on the Journal of al-Zadjdjadji
[q.v.] survives in several copies, though the foreshad-
owed edition (Sezgin, GAS, ix, 90) has not appeared.
His best known work is the Mukaddima, on which
he also wrote his own commentary. The Mukaddima
(see Haarmann, 166, 168, for editions) is conspicuous
for its arbitrary and rigid arrangement of topics into
four sections over ten chapters, in which the princi-
ple of classification is not so much the natural fea-
tures of language as the urge for complete logical
systematisation, probably to serve as a text book in
the madrasa [</.».]. It seems to have enjoyed consider-
able favour in the Yemen, being memorised by the
Rasulid ruler al-Mu'ayyad (Carter, 1 79). The arrange-
ment also attracted imitators: we read of a certain
al-Fa'ishi (d. 697/1296) that he composed a gram-
mar "in the Babashadhi style" (ibid).

Bibliography: Brockelmann, I 2 , 365, S I, 171,
529; Sezgin, GAS, ix, 84, 89-90, 239; N. Moussa,
Les etudes grammaticaies en Egypte des origines a la fin

TAHIR b. AHMAD b. BABASHADH — TAHIR SAYF al-DIN

des Fatanides. Etude bio-bibliographique des gr
Analyse de leurs moires et edition critique d'un traite gram-
maticale, le Kitab al-Muqaddima fi l-nahw d'Ibn Bdbisad,
diss. Paris 1974; U. Haarmann, An eleventh century
precis of Arabic orthography, in W. al-Qadl (ed.), Studia
Arabka et Islamica. Festschrift for Ihsan 'Abbas, Beirut
1981, 165-82; M.G. Carter, The grammatical riddles
of 'AH ibn Muhammad ibn Ya'ls", in A.K. Irvine et alii
(eds.), A miscellany of Middle Eastern articles. In memo-
riam Thomas Muir Johnstone 1924-1983, London 1989,
178-88. (M.G. Carter)

TAHIR b. al-HUSAYN b. Mus'ab b. Ruzayk,
called Dhu '1-Yaminayn (? "the ambidextrous"), b.
159/776, d. 207/822, the founder of a short
line of governors in Khurasan during the high
'Abbasid period, the Tahirids [q.v.]. His forebears had
the aristocratic Arabic nisba of "al-Khuza'i". but were
almost certainly of eastern Persian mawld stock, Mus'ab
having played a part in the 'Abbasid Revolution as
secretary to the da'l Sulayman b. Kathfr [q.v.]. He and
his son al-Husayn were rewarded with the governor-
ship of Pushang [see bushandj], and Mus'ab at least
apparently governed Harat also.

Tahir likewise entered the 'Abbasids' service, and
took part under Harthama b. A'yan in operations
against the rebel in Transoxania Rafi' b. al-Layth
[q.v.] (194/810). In the civil warfare between the two
sons of Harun al-Rashid, al-Amiri and al-Ma'mun
[q.vv.], Tahir led an army of the latter's and defeated
al-Amln's general 'Air b. 'Isa b. Mahan at Hamadhan
in 195/811, pressing on to Baghdad, where his sol-
diers killed the captive al-Amin (198/813). He then
became governor of the western provinces, with his
base at HarQn's old capital of al-Rakka [q.v.] on the
Euphrates, and also became sahib al-shurta [see shurta]
in Baghdad, the basis of the extensive wealth and
power which the Tahirid family was to acquire in
'Irak. In 205/821 he became governor of Khurasan
and the East. Soon after his arrival there, he began
omitting the caliph's name from the khutba, and certain
coins minted by him in 206/821-2 omit al-Ma'mun's
name; both these actions were virtually declarations
of independence from Baghdad, but at this point, in
207/822, Tahir died at Marw. Because of this abrupt
end, we do not know what Tahir's motives were or
how events might have turned out; but the 'Abbasids
did not hesitate to appoint Tahir's sons and later
descendants to high office in Khurasan and 'Irak.

Tahir is said to have been well educated in Arabic
as well as his native Persian, and his epistle to his
son 'Abd Allah on the latter's appointment to his own
old office at al-Rakka in 206/821-2 (text preserved
in Ibn AbT Tahir Tayfur and thence in al-Tabari)
became famed as a modfl of Arabic eloquence.

Bibliography: 1. Sources. The standard Arabic
chronicles, esp. Ibn Abi Tahir's Kitab Baghdad and
Tabari; also Ibn Khallikan, ed. 'Abbas, ii, 517-23,
tr. de Slane, i, 649-55. For the famous epistle, see
the Eng. trs. by F. Rosenthal in his tr. of Ibn
Khaldun, Mukaddima, ii, 139-56, and C.E. Bosworth,
in JXES, xxix (1970), 25-41.

2. Studies. D. Sourdel, Les circonstances de la mort
de Tahir I au Hurasan en 207/822, in Arabka, v
(1958), 66-9; Bosworth, in Camb. hist. Iran, iv, 91-5;
Mongi Kaabi, Les Tahirides au Ifurasan et en Iraq,
Paris 1983, i, 69 ff.' (C.E. Bosworth)

TAHIR b. MUHAMMAD b. 'Abd Allah b.
Muhammad b. Musa b. Ibrahim, Abu 'l-'Abbas, al-
Muhannad al-Baghdadi, poet and letter-writer
(one biographer mentions interesting ones, rasa'il
'adjiba), born in Baghdad in Ramadan 315/November

927. In 340/951, in his mid-twenties, al-Muhannad
left Baghdad for Cordova in search of fame and
patronage, both of which he found as panegyrist and
companion to the 'Amirid ruler al-Mansiir b. Abf
'Amir [q.v.]. His biographers are consequently Anda-
lusian. The earliest notice occurs in Ibn al-Faradi
(d. 403/1013 [q.v]), Ta'rlkh 'Ulama' al-Andalus, ed. al-
Abyarl, Cairo-Beirut 1983, i, 361, in a section devoted
to foreign scholars ('ulama') in Spain.

Ibn al-Faradr provides details such as al-Muhannad's
full name, his date and place of birth, the date of
his departure for Cordova, and the date of his death
in his adoptive city in Muharram 390/December 999.
However, he makes no mention of the assertion made
by al-Humaydl (d. 488/1095 [q.v.]), Qjadhwat al-muktabis
ft ta'rlkh 'ulama' al-Andalus, ed. al-Abyarl, Cairo-Beirut
n.d., i, 383, no. 516, that al-Muhannad was a descen-
dant of Ibn Abf Tahir Tayfur [q.v.], "the author of
Ta'rikk Baghdad [sic]". Ibn al-Faradi either simply does
not record the connection or is unaware of it, though
he is otherwise very informed about al-Muhannad.
Ibn Abi Tahir and his K. Baghdad would no doubt
have reached Ibn al-Faradi's attention, if through
nothing else but the history of Cordova by al-Razi
(d. 340/955 [q.v.]), said to be modelled on that work.
The genealogy in Ibn al-Faradi does argue against
descent but the fact that al-Humaydi claims to have
composed his work entirely from memory in Baghdad
lends some credence to the assertion. Al-Humaydi's
contemporary, Ibn Hayyan al-Kurtubi (3881469/987-
1076 [q.v.]), records al-Muhannad in al-Muktabis, ed.
al-Hadjdji, Beirut 1983, 31, 120, 156 ff., but, like Ibn
al-Faradi, does not tie him to Ibn Abi Tahir. The
al-Humaydl notice is quoted verbatim by the much
later al-Dabbi (d. 599/1202-3 [q.v.]), Bughyat al-multamis
fi ta'rlkh ridjal ahl al-Andalus, Cairo 1968, 326, no. 859.

The biographers remark that reports (akjibar) are
told about al-Muhannad's spiritual contemplations
and how his espousal of the ways of the "heretic"
mystic al-Halladj led people to have a low opinion
of him. As these stories are uncorroborated (hukiyat
'anhu), al-Humaydl adds that "God knows best!"

Bibliography: Given in the article. See also

Sezgin, GAS, ii, 690. (Shawkat M. Toorawa)

TAHIR SAYF al-DIN, Abu Muhammad, 51st
da'l al-mutlak, or absolute da'l (addressed as
Bawa Sahib and Sayyidnd), vicegerent of the 21st Imam's
(al-Tayyib) descendants, and leader of the small,
predominantly GudjaratI, Isma'ili merchant
community of Dawudi Bohoras [q.v.]. He was
born in Bombay in 1304/1886, assumed headship
of the dawat (= da'wa) from 'Abd Allah Badr al-Din
in 1330/1912, and ruled till his death in Matheran
in 1384/1965, when he was succeeded by his son,
Muhammad Burhan al-Din (b. 1334/1915). He is
buried in the "Rawdat Tahira" mausoleum built by
his son, now a ziyara site for Bohoras.

Though he is not a descendant, recent Bohora
literature identifies Tahir Sayf al-Din's ancestors as
"the Fatimi Imams" and describes the Bohoras as
"FatimT". This re-establishment of links with the
Fatimids was important to Tahir Sayf al-Din and was
underscored by his successful negotiation with the
Egyptian government for stewardship of the Mosque
of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah [q.v.] in Cairo. Indeed, his
active cultivation of diplomatic contacts with heads of
state brought to the office of da'l the bearing of a
princeship it had not hitherto enjoyed.

Tahir Sayf al-Din came under much criticism from
Bohora reformist elements about management of dawat
funds, but Privy Council decisions guaranteed him the

104

TAHIR SAYF al-DIN — TAHIRIDS

right to manage "as sole trustee with wide discretionary
powers". The reformers are right that the da'i al-du'at
(chief da'l), his Fatimid analogue, did not have sim-
ilar sweeping powers — but that was before the
Occultation of the Imam. The da'i's right to excom-
municate, frequently and prominently exercised in
India as elsewhere (e.g. in Tanzania), also provoked
outcry and judicial intervention.

Tahir Sayf al-Din was responsible for the expan-
sion of the al-D}dmi'a al-Sajfiyja in Surat [g.v.] into a
large-scale Academy for the training of 'amik (the
modern successors to the Fatimid regional da'is) in
Arabic and religious matters. It is said to be inspired
by the Dar al-Hikma [g.v.] of the Fatimid caliph al-
Hakim and by al-Azhar [q.v.].

Bibliography. F. Daftary, 77k Isma'ilis, Cambridge
1992; Dawat-e-Hadiyah, The Fatimi tradition, Bombay
1988; idem, 77k Dawoodi Bohras, Bombay n.d.; idem,
Believers and yet unbelievers; A.A. Engineer, 77k Boho-
ras, Bombay 1980, esp. 156-9, 167-75, 209-13; S.C.
Misra, Muslim communities in Gujarat, London 1964;
S. Stem, The succession of the Fatimid Imam al-Amir,
the claims of the later Fatimids to the Imamate, and the
rise of Tayyibi Ismailism, in Oriens, iv (1951), 193-
255; Tahir Sayf al-Din, Mrul Hakkul Mubin, Bombay
1335/1917; idem, Sahlfat al-salat, Bombay n.d.;
H. Halm, Shiism, Edinburgh 1991, 193-200, 204-5.

(Shawkat M. Toorawa)
TAHIR WAHID, Mirza Muhammad, Persian

tary, born during the beginning of the llth/17th
century, and died most probably in 1110/1698-9.

He was born at Kazwin into a family whose mem-
bers had served in the state chancery. His father,
Mirza Husayn Khan, was a prominent citizen of
Kazwin. Tahir Wahid learned the traditional subjects
taught during his time, and acquired a good training
in accountancy and secretarial work. He served as
secretary to two successive prime ministers, Mirza
Taki al-Din Muhammad, called I'timad al-Dawla,
and Sayyid 'All al-Din Khalifa Sultan. Through the
intervention of the latter he was appointed official
chronicler in the administration of Shah 'Abbas II
(r. 1052-77/1642-66), and in 1055/1645-6 he became
the court historian of that ruler. In 1101/1689-
90, after a temporary lay-off, he was recalled to fill
the post of prime minister under Shah Sulayman I
(r. 1077-1105/1666-96), and received the title of 'Imad
al-Dawla. He held that position till the early years of
Shah Sultan Husayn's reign (1105-35/1694-1722),
when he resigned because of old age or, according
to some writers, as a result of official censure. He
died soon afterwards at the advanced age of nearly
one hundred years.

Tahir Wahid's intellectual activity covered poetry,
letter-writing and historiography. His verse production
is estimated at some 50,000 couplets (see Dhabih Allah
Safe, Tarikh-i adabiyyat dar Iran, v/2, Tehran 1372/
i 993-4, 1348). It includes, besides kastdas, ghazals and
ruba'is, a number of long and short mathnaivis such
as Khalwat-i raz "The secret solitude"; Naz u niyaz
"Pride and humility"; Saki-nama "Book of the cup-
bearer"; 'Ashik u ma'shuk "Lover and beloved"; Fath-i
Kandahar "Conquest of Kandahar"; and Gulzar-i Abbasi
"The garden of 'Abbas". The poet has been judged
favourably by most literary historians, with the sig-
nificant exceptions of Rida-kuli Khan Hidayat and
Lutf 'All Beg Adhar. who expressed their disapproval

'Abbas II, and his history of the same ruler, pub-
lished in 1329/1951, under the tide Abbas-nama. The
letters were collected by the author himself and have
been published from Calcutta in 1243/1826 and again
from Lakhnaw in 1260/1844. The historical work
was composed in response to the command of Shah
'Abbas II, and the published version covers the first
twenty-two years of the monarch's reign ending with
the year 1073/1662-3.

Bibliography: Mirza Muhammad Tahir Wahid
Kazwini, Abbas-nama, ed. Ibrahim Dahgan, Arak
1329/1951; Muhammad Tahir Nasrabadi, Tadh-
kira-yi Nasrabadi, ed. Wahid Dastgardi, Tehran
1361/1982; Shaykh Muhammad 'All Hazin, Tadh-
kira-yi Hazin (introd. by Muhammad Bakir Ulfat),
Isfahan 1334/1955; Rida-kuli Khan Hidayat, Madjma'
al-fusaha', ed. Mazahir Musafta, Tehran 1339/1960-1,
ii/1; Lutf 'All Beg Adhar, Atashkada, ed. Hasan
Sadat Nasiri, Tehran 1338/1959, iii; Muhammad
Afdal Sarkhush, Kalimat al-shu'ara', Lahore 1942;
Mir Husayn Dust Sanbhali, Tadhkira-yi Husayni,
Lakhnaw 1292/1875-6; Kudrat Allah Gopamawi,
Mta'idJ al-afkar, Bombay 1336/1958; Muhammad
'All Tabrlzl (Mudarris), Rayhdnat al-adab, Tabriz (?)
1371/1952-3, iv; Browne, LHP, iv; Ahmad Gulcin
Ma'ani, Tadhkira-yi paymana, Mashhad 1359/1980;
Sayyid MahmQd Khayri. Tadhkira-yi shu'ard-yi Kaz-
win, Tehran 1370-1991; Rieu, Catalogue of Persian
manuscripts in the British Museum, i, Add. 1 1 ,632;
Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian manuscripts in the
Oriental Public Library at Bankipore, Calcutta 1912, iii;
Storey, i/1; Fihrist-i Kitdbkhana-yi Madrasa-yi Ali-yi
Sipahsaldr, Tehran 1316-18/1937-9, ii; Fihrist-i kutub-
i khatti-yi Kitabkhana-yi Madjlis-i Shura-yi MUM, Tehran
1318-21/1939-42, iii; Dihkhuda, Lughat-nama, s.v.
Wahid Kazwini; Muhammad Mu'in, Farhang-i Farsi,
Tehran 1371/1992,' vi; Muhammad 'Ali Tarbiyat,
Yak safha az risala-yi hadi 'ashar, in Armagjian, xiii/5
( 1 3 1 1 / 1 932). (Munibur Rahman)

TAHIRIDS, the name of three dynasties of
mediaeval Islam.

1. A line of governors for the 'Abbasid caliphs
in Khurasan and the holders of high offices in
'Irak, who flourished in the 3rd/9th century (205-78/
821-91).

The founder of the line was the Persian com-
mander, of mawld origin, Tahir (I) b. al-Husayn Dh u
'1-Yaminayn [q.v.], who became governor of Khurasan
in 205/821 but who died almost immediately after-
wards, after showing signs of asserting his independ-
ence of Baghdad. Nevertheless, the caliph — possibly
being unable to find anyone else with the requisite
prestige and military capability to govern these dis-
tant and potentially difficult regions^ — appointed first
his son Talha (207-13/822-8), who is a somewhat
shadowy figure in the sources, and then another son
'Abd Allah, who left a strong imprint on the history
and culture of his age and who was probably the
greatest of the Tahirids (213-30/828-45 [q.v.]). 'Abd
Allah had achieved great military successes for the
caliphate whilst governor of the western provinces,
securing the surrender of the rebel in al-Djazira Nasr
b. Shabath [q.v.] and suppressing a longstanding
rebellion in Egypt. With his local capital at Nishapur,
'Abd Allah managed to retain the caliphs' favour,
although he prudendy stayed in Khurasan and never
visited the caliphal courts in Baghdad and Samarra'.
His territories extended as far as Transoxania, where
his deputy governors included members of the rising
Samanid family [see samanids] . For details of his gov-
ernorship, see the article on him.

'Abd Allah's son Tahir (II) was eventually ap-
pointed governor after his father's death (230-48/845-
59), and like his father, received glowing praises from
the historians for his benevolent and just rule in
Khurasan, although they have little specific to say
about the events of his time. But we know that it was
during his governorship that direct Tahirid control
over Slstan, hitherto an administrative dependency of
Khurasan, was lost to local 'ayyar leaders, paving the
way for the ultimate triumph in 247/861 of Ya'kub
b. al-Layth and the indigenous Saffarid dynasty [q.v.]
there.

Tahir (II)'s successor at Nishapur was his son
Muhammad [see muhammad b. tahir]. Perhaps because
of his ultimate failure, the sources view him as weak
and pleasure-loving, inferior to his predecessors. He
was unfortunate in that Tahirid rule in the East was
challenged by the Zaydr ShTT rebellion in the Caspian
provinces under al-Hasan b. Zayd, called al-Da'i al-
Kabir, an outbreak provoked by Tahirid financial
oppression in the region. The downfall of Tahirid
authority came, however, from the opposite quarter of
Slstan, where Ya'kub b. al-Layth [q.v.] speedily made
himself strong enough to challenge the Tahirids. In
259/873 he entered Nishapur without a blow being
struck, imprisoned Muhammad and effectively ended
Tahirid authority in the East, although various local
military adventurers in Khurasan subsequently claimed
to be acting in the name of Muhammad (who, after
escaping from Saffarid captivity, was once more
appointed governor of Khurasan but who never dared
to take up the office).

The fortunes of the Tahirids in 'Irak were more en-
during, based as they were on the immense property
and wealth built up by them in Baghdad, epitomised
in the Harim al-Tahir in Baghdad, where the Tahirid
commanders of the police guard (shurta [q.v.]) and gov-
ernors of 'Irak resided, and which enjoyed quasi-regal
administrative and legal status (whence Harim =
"Sanctuary"). The offices in 'Irak were held by mem-
bers of both the line of Tahir (I) and of his cousin
Ishak b. Ibrahim b. Mus'ab. Such governors as Ishak
(207-35/822-49) and then the sons of 'Abd Allah b.
Tahir (I), Muhammad, Sulayman and 'Ubayd Allah,
gained great reputations not only as effective military
commanders at a time when there was intense civic
and ethnic violence enveloping the caliphate but also
as patrons of literature and such arts as music, and
as creative artists themselves; 'Ubayd Allah b. 'Abd
Allah [q.v.] was himself the author of a work on music
and singing. Some Tahirids held intermittent power
in 'Irak at the end of the 3rd/opening of the 10th cen-
tury, but the family then lapsed into obscurity; only
al-Tha'alibi mentions a scion of Tahir II who resided
at the Samanid court in Bukhara on estates granted
to him by the Amirs and who was a litterateur.

Earlier orientalists often regarded the Tahirids of
Khurasan as the first provincial dynasty to arise out
of the enfeebled condition of the 'Abbasid caliphate
in the mid-3rd/9th century, but it is doubtful whether
we should think of them thus. With the single excep-
tion, an apparent aberration, of Tahir (I)'s action at
the end of his life, the Tahirid governors faithfully
acknowledged and fulfilled the constitutional rights of
their overlords the caliphs. Their coins were little dif-
ferent from those of other provincial governors, and
some coins were minted in places definitely under
Tahirid control without mentioning them at all. The
Tahirids seem to have been retained in Khurasan by
the 'Abbasids because they were able to provide firm
government for an important sector of the empire at

a time when the caliphs themselves were increasingly
constricted in their own power.

Bibliography: 1. Sources. See the Arabic and
Persian chronicles (Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur; Ya'kubl;
Tabarl; Mas'udi, Murudj; Gardfzi; Ibn al-Athir)
and adab and biographical works (Shabushti; Ibn
Khallikan).

2. Studies. Barthold, Turkestan', 207-18; G. Roth-
stein, Z u as-Sabusti's Beruht uber die Tahiriden, in
Orientalische Studien Theodor Nbldeke gewidmet, Giessen
1906, i, 155-70; Spuler, Iran, 59 ff.; C.E. Bosworth,
in Comb. hist, of Iran, iv, 90-106; Mongi Kaabi, Les
origines tahirides dans la daSva 'abbaside, in Arabica,
xix (1972), 145-64; idem, Les Tahirides au Hurasan
et en Iraq, 2 vols., Paris 1983 (i = historical study,
ii = texts). On literary and cultural aspects, see
Bosworth, The Tahirids and Arabic culture, in JSS, xiv
(1969), 45-79; idem, The Tahirids and Persian literature,
in Iran, JBIPS, vii (1969), 103-6. For a list of the
governors, see idem, The New Islamic dynasties, a
chronological and genealogical manual, Edinburgh 1996,
no. 82. (C.E. Bosworth)

2. A minor dynasty of Al-Andalus.
The Banu Tahir belonged to one of the most in-
fluential families of Mursiya (currently Murcia), in
the Shark al-Andalus, of Arab origin (Kays 'Aylan) and
celebrated by Arab authors for its wealth and social
status. They were major landowners; the name of the
karyat Bam Tahir, near Murcia, is attested in the sec-
ond half of the 4th/ 10th century, and they added to
their possessions in the course of the following century.
Some of the Banu Tahir distinguished themselves in
literature and the sciences, while simultaneously play-
ing a major role in the administration of the city.
Also, during the periods of disintegration of the cen-
tral power (first and second ta'ifas), members of this
family were the heads of regional government.

The first of the Banu Tahir to take power was
Abu Bakr Ahmad b. Ishak b. Zayd b. Tahir al-Kayst
(d. 455/1063), chosen by the ruler of Almeria, the
slave Zuhayr, who wanted to rid himself of the rep-
resentative of another eminent family, the Banu Khat-
tab. After the death of Zuhayr, Ibn Tahir recognised
the nominal authority of the prince of Valencia, the
'Amirid 'Abd al-'Aziz, grandson of al-Mansur. Until
his death, which occurred at a very advanced age,
Ibn Tahir proved capable of maintaining peace in
his domains, taking responsibility for payment of the
djund applied to the region and keeping fiscal control
of the territory. His son Abu 'Abd al-Rahman Muham-
mad, who had held the post of sahib al-maialim, con-
tinued the policies of Abu Bakr, and his reign is
unanimously commended by Arab historians. However,
he was unable to resist attacks on the part of the
wazir of Seville Ibn 'Ammar, who succeeded in mak-
ing alliances among the nobility of Murcia and ulti-
mately conquered the city. Imprisoned in the castle
of Monteagudo, near Murcia, Muhammad subse-
quently managed to make his way to Valencia, where
he participated in the events which led to the con-
quest of the city by the Cid. Imprisoned again in
488/1095, he died in Valencia in 507/1113-14 and
was buried in Murcia. In addition to his political
activities, Muhammad b. Ahmad was a respected man
of letters. He was the author of numerous rasa'il col-
lected by Ibn Bassam in a book entitled Silk al-djawdhir
min tarsil Ibn Tahir, and reproduced partially in his
Dhakhira. Arabic sources liken the literary output of
Muhammad b. Ahmad to that of al-Sahib Ibn 'Abbad
and convey anecdotes illustrating his wit and his ency-
clopedic knowledge.

106

In Rabf I 540/September 1145, during the period
of the second ta'ifas which followed the Almora-
vid collapse, the people of Murcia united in offering
power to Abu 'Abd al-Rahman Muhammad b. 'Abd
al-Rahman b. Ahmad b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. Tahir.
Once installed in the kasr, this Ibn Tahir at first
accepted the sovereignty of Ibn Hud [see HiiDlDs], but
he was soon to declare himself independent ruler of
Murcia, entrusting command of the cavalry to his
brother Abu Bakr. However, a coup mounted by the
ka'id Ibn "Iyad put an end to the reign of Ibn Tahir
fifty days after his seizure of power. Subsequently, he
became increasingly estranged from the new master
of the Stark, Ibn Mardanish [q.v.], who was present-
ing active resistance to the Almohads. In fact, Ibn
Tahir became an ardent supporter of the Almohad
doctrine, and died in Marrakush in 574/1178-9, hav-
ing travelled to the Moroccan capital to present to
the caliph his risala entided Al-Kafiyaji barahin al-imam
al-Mahdi radiya Allahu ta'ald 'anhu 'akl m wa-nakl™ (repro-
duced by Ibn al-Kattan, Na&n, 101-22). Ibn Tahir's
personal interests were far removed from the politi-
cal activity in which he was a reluctant participant.
After studying fikh in Murcia and in Cordova, he
devoted himself to the "sciences of the ancients" ('a/am
al-awa'il), in which he became an authority acknowl-
edged by the specialists in these branches of knowl-
edge; he also lectured in philosophy. Married to Amat
al-Rahman, daughter of the kadi Abu Muhammad
'Abd al-Hakk b. Ghalib b. 'AtTyya (himself a mem-
ber of an important Granadan family), he had a son
(d. 598/1201) who took the name and kunya of his
maternal grandfather and was a poet and an expert
in the judicial sciences.

As for those members of the Banu Tahir who had
no involvement in public affairs, the biographical dic-
tionaries cite several names, among which the most
important is undoubtedly that of Muhammad b. Tahir
Abi '1-Husam b. Muhammad b. Tahir al-Kaysi al-
Shahfd'(d. 378/988-9)j a scholar of' ascetic inclination
who spent eight years in Mecca perfecting his spiritual
development. After his return to al-Andalus in 366
or 367/976-8, he led a life dedicated to piety and to
the practice of residence in a ribat, initially in the
vicinity of Murcia and then in the frontier zone. He
also involved himself actively in the practice of ajihad
and participated in al-Mansur's expeditions against
Zamora and Coimbra; he was only 42 years old when
he died in the course of the Astorga campaign
(377/988). Muhammad b. Tahir is described by the
sources as a Sufi, and as a performer of miracles dur-
ing the time of his residence in the Mashrik; a book
entided K. al-Idjabal wa 'l-karamat is attributed to him.
Bibliography: 1. Sources. Dabbr, Bughyal al-
multamis, nos. 154, 381; Ibn al-Abbar, al-Hulla al-
siyara', ii, 116-27 and 227-35; Ibn al-Abbar, Takmila,
Cairo 1955, nos. 924, 1418; idem, Madrid 1887,
no. 1807; Ibn Bassam, al-LVtakJiira, ed. 'Abbas, iii,
24-40; Ibn al-Faradi, Ta'rlkh 'Ulama' al-Andalus, no.
1349; Ibn al-Kattan, Mazm al-ajuman, ed. M.'A.
MakkT, Beirut 1990, 101-22; Ibn Khakan, Kala'id
al-'ikyan, ed. M. Ibn 'Ashur, Tunis 1990, 145-71,
443; Ibn al-Khatib, A'mal al-a'lam, ed. E. Levi-
Provencal, Rabat 1934, 232-3, cf. W. Hoenerbach,
Islamische Geschichte Spaniens. Ubersetzung der A'mal al-
A'lam und erganzender Texte, Zurich and Stuttgart 1970,
382-4; Ibn Sa'id, Mughrib, ii, 247-8; Marrakushi,
al-Dbayl wa 'l-takmila, v, no. 1165, vi, no. 896.

2. Studies. 'I. Dandash, al-Andalus Jt nihdyat al-
Murabitin wa-mustahall al-Muwahhidtn, Beirut 1988;
M. Fierro, 77k Qadi as ruler, in Saber religioso y poder

politico en el Islam, Madrid 1994, 71-116; M. Gaspar
Remiro, Historia de la Murcia musulmana, Saragossa
1905, repr. Murcia 1980; P. Guichard, Murcia musul-
mana (sighs IX al XIII), in Historia de la region mur-
ciana, iii, Murcia 1980, 132-85; MJ. Viguera, Los
reinos de taifas y las invasiones magrebies, Madrid 1992;
eadem, Historia politico, in Los reinos de Taifas: al-
Andalus en el sigh XI, Madrid 1994, 31-129.

(Mantjela MarIn)
3. A Sunnl dynasty of South Arabia.
They ruled, as direct successors of the Rasulids
[q.v.], over the southern highlands of the Yemen and
Tihama [q.v.] between the years 858-923/1454-1517.
They take their name from one Tahir b. Ma'uda,
the father of the first Tahirid ruler, who found
favour with the Rasulids in the early 9th/ 15 th cen-
tury (see Schuman, pull-out family tree after p. 142).
They were mashayikh, originating from the area of
Djuban and al-Mikrana, some 80 km/50 miles south
of Rada'.

1 . History. The Tahirids had taken Lahdj, just north
of Aden, in 847/1443, as the Rasulids declined in the
midst of internecine squabbles. Their capture of the
chief port in 858/ 1 454 marks the beginning of their
period of rule. There were four sultans: al-Zafir 'Amir
[q.v.] and al-Mudjahid 'All, a dual sovereignty until
864/1460, when the former relinquished his power;
al-Mansur 'Abd al-Wahhab, 883-94/1478-89 and
finally al-Zafir 'Amir II, 894-923/1517.

The Tahirids were certainly less interested in ex-
panding their territory in San'a' [q.v.] and into the
north of the Yemen than their predecessors had been
(see Smith, Some observations, passim). After initial con-
solidation of territory in the southern highlands and
Tihama, the Tahirids settled down to a regular pat-
tern of government: their summers were spent in
Djuban and al-Mikrana, with their easy access to the
southern highlands, and their winters in Zabid [q.v.]
in Tihama. The latter in part returned to its previ-
ous role as intellectual and educational capital of the
Yemen and a major seat of learning in the Islamic
world. The primary sources indicate much more polit-
ical and military activity in Tihama than in the south-
ern highlands. The history of the period, in fact, is
largely taken up with Tahirid efforts to quell the upris-
ing of recalcitrant Tihama tribes and the punishment
often dealt out to them.

The destruction of the Tahirids was due indirectly
to the activities of the Mamluks of Egypt, whose fleet
in 921/1515 arrived off Kamaran, an island in the
Red Sea off the Yemeni coast. The despatch of the
fleet into the Red Sea was part of the Mamluk strat-
egy to combat the increasing Portuguese threat to the
eastern trade route. The Tahirid sultan, al-Zafir 'Amir,
refused to provision the ships, but was defeated in
batde near Zabid by a combined force of Mamluks
and Zaydls from the north. The Mamluks were able
to capture the Tahirid treasure house at al-Mikrana
and killed al-Zafir 'Amir near San'a' in 923/1517,
thus in effect putting an end to Tahirid rule.

2. Monuments. Although their architectural legacy is
undoubtedly less imposing than the Rasulids', Tahirid
monuments are impressive, and some of them can
still be seen and appreciated to this day. Perhaps the
most famous is the 'Amiriyya madrasa in Rada' built
in 910/1504. Other outstanding architectural exam-
ples can be found in both Djuban and al-Mikrana,
in Zabid and elsewhere.

Bibliography: 1. History. The history of the
Tahirids can be approached in the primary sources
from three sides: (1) the pro-Tahirid Sunnl sources,

TAHIRIDS — TAHKlM

mainly those of their historian, Ibn al-Dayba';
(2) the Zaydi ones; and (3) at least one Isma'ill
source. Most are listed and discussed in G. Rex
Smith, The Tahind sultans of the Yemen (858-923/1454-
1517) and their historian Ibn al-Dayba', in JSS, xxix/1
(1984), 141-54, but add Ibn al-Dayba', Bughyat al-
mustqfid fi tarikh madinat £abid, and idem, al-Fadl
al-mazld 'aid Bughyat al-mustafid, both ed. J. Chelhod,
San'a' 1983. See also L.O. Schuman, Political his-
tory of the Yemen at the beginning of the 16th century,
Groningen 1960; G.R. Smith, Some observations on
the Tahirids and their activities in and around San'a' (858-
923/1454-1517), in Ihsan Abbas et alii (eds.), Studies
in history and literature in honour of Nicola Qadeh . . .,
London 1992, 29-37; Venetia Porter, The history and
monuments of the Tahirid dynasty of the Yemen— 858-
923/1454-1517, unpublished Ph.D. diss. University
of Durham 1992, 2 vols, (an excellent work); C.E.
Bosworth, The New Islamic dynasties, Edinburgh 1 996,
no. 50.

2. Monuments. See Porter, History and monu-
ments, in particular chs. 7 and 8 of i, and ii, passim.

(G.R. Smith)
TAflKIM (a.), arbitration (the masdar of the form
II verb hakkama. It denotes the action of making
an appeal to arbitration by someone involved
with another in a conflict or in some affair of a con-
flicting nature by mutual agreement. It also desig-
nates someone fulfilling the role of an agent with the
power of attorney, or an authorised agent (with full
powers to act) in a different or clear matter. This
person should be qualified as a muhakkam, a person
who is solicited for arbitration. The ancient Arabs
preferred to use the word hakam, arbitrator, from the
verb hakama, to judge (form I), from which the noun
of action is hukm or hukuma, a decision, verdict or judge-
ment, and in modern Arabic is also used to mean
power, government (cf. Kur'an, IV, 35; L'A, xii, 142,
s.v. hakama; TA, Cairo 1888, viii, 252 ff.; Kazimirski,
Dietionnaire arabe-Jrancais, Paris 1960, i, 470; 'A. Harun
et alii, al-Mu'a^am al-wasit, Cairo 1960, i, 189).

Historically, the term tahkim designated the arbitra-
tion which took place between the fourth caliph 'Air
b. Abr Talib and the Umayyad Mu'awiya b. Abf
Sufyan [q.w.] with the intention of effecting a solu-
tion to the grave conflict which had broken out
between the two men.

The advent of "All in the year 35/656, following
the assassination of 'Uthman, certainly took place
under conditions which were, to say the very least,
difficult and complex. The new caliph had immedi-
ately to confront two opposition movements, contest-
ing his legitimacy and accusing him of being involved,
directly or indirectly, in the murder of the deceased
caliph, and also of protecting the assassins. The first
group was led by 'A'isha, widow of the Prophet, who
nevertheless had been an adversary of 'Uthman dur-
ing his lifetime, with the support of Zubayr b. al-
'Awwam and of Talha b. 'Ubayd Allah, two illustrious
companions of the Prophet. The second group was led
by the redoubtable Mu'awiya, with the support of his
ally 'Amr b. al-'As, who was rightly and suitably nick-
named Dahiyat al-'Arab, "the supremely shrewd one of
the Arabs", by reason of his intelligence and skill in
political matters.

For the events which followed, involving the Battle
of the Camel and the Battle of Siffin, see 'alI b. abI
talib; al-dlamal; siffin. This last series of skirmishes
on the banks of the Euphrates in what is now north-
eastern Syria in 36-7/656-7 ended with a final and
most bloody confrontation on the laylat al-harir "night

of clamour", Thursday-Friday Safar 37/27-8 July 658.
After many exchanges of emissaries and mediators,
the two opponents came to an agreement to cease
fighting and designated an arbitrator in each camp,
hoping thus to bring the conflict to a reasonable solu-
tion, following the principles of the Kur'an. 'All in
no way wanted this agreement. He wished to con-
tinue in combat and to defeat once and for all the
forces of his adversary. However, the kurra' [q.v.], the
readers of the Kur'an, who allegedly numbered some
20,000 men of his army although the number sounds
vastly inflated, made him accept the c

pressure from the kurra', was constrained to accept as
his representative Abu Musa al-Ash'an, whom the
Arab authors all depict as an honest though naive
man. It seems 'Air would have preferred his cousin
'Abd Allah b. 'Abbas or failing that, al-Ashtar.

Other voices were again raised in protest among
the supporters of 'Air, chanting the famous formula
la hakam' ilia llah, wa-la hukrrf ilia li-llah, meaning lit-
erally "there is no judge but God and there is no
acceptable judgement but His". They assembled
around 'Abd Allah al-Rasibi and were designated as
the muhakkima al-ula, the first group to have proclaimed
the spoken formula la hukm" ilia li-llah. It was they
who initiated one of the first schismatic movements
in Islam, known a little later by the name of Khawariaj
[see KHARrpjiTEs] , the dissidents, or those coming from
the ranks of the camp of 'All. While awaiting arbi-
tration, the antagonists left Siffin and returned to their
bases, the Umayyads to Damascus and the followers
of 'Ali to Kufa.

The Arbitration (al-tahklm). There is near total
confusion surrounding the role of the two arbitrators
(hakam), as well as the location for the arbitration.
Concerning the place, Arab authors sometimes cite
Dumat al-Djandal (present-day al-Djawf), an inter-
mediate town between Syria and 'Irak, and some-
times Adhruh, situated between Ma'an and Petra. H.
Lammens, referring to a poem by al-Akhtal (Diwan,
Beirut 1309/1891, i, 79) maintained that the meet-
ing took place in the latter town (ET, vol. I, 135-6,
art. adhroh). But many other poets mention Dumat
al-Djandal on different occasions as the place of arbi-
tration (see below). L. Veccia Vaglieri thought that
the arbitrators held two meetings, one at Dumat al-
Djandal and the other at Adhruh (EI 2 vol. I, 384,
art. 'ali b. abi talib). In all probability there were
indeed two meetings for arbitration, but one would
have taken place at the end of the combat, on the
spot, at Siffin; the other would have been held dur-
ing the following year in a place half-way between
Syria and 'Irak. Finally, the choice was fixed on
Dumat al-Djandal.

Ibn Muzahim al-Minkari (d. 212/827), a specialist
in 'Alid affairs and one of the oldest to have devoted
a work to the battle of Siffin (Wak'at Siffin), asserted
authoritatively that several poems support this. For
him the place in question was well and truly Dumat
al-Djandal (see Wak'at Siffin, esp. 616-17 and passim;
cf. Ibn Abi '1-Hadid, Shark, iv, 248-9, 253, 256 and
passim; see also al-Ya'kubr, Ta'rlkh, Beirut 1379/1960
ii, 190; al-Tabari, Cairo 1384/1964, iv, 56-8, 66-7;
al-Mas'udi, Murudj, ed. Pellat, iii, 145; Ibn Kathir,
Bidaya, vii, 282, etc.).

Accompanied by eminent men from each camp,
the two arbitrators held their first talks. This was a
sort of preliminary meeting which led, after numer-
ous attempts, to a treaty drawn up and signed, very

TAHKIM — TAHMASP

probably on Wednesday, 13 Safar 37 in the same
year/31 July 657 (cf. al-Tabari iv, 57; Ibn al-Athir,
ed. Beirut, iii, 321. While guaranteering the safety of
the arbitrators, the text invited the belligerents to
observe a truce for one year to comply with the ver-
dict of the arbitration which was based strictly on
Kur'anic precepts.

In Ramadan 38/February 658, the two arbitra-
tors met again, each escorted by 400 cavalrymen
from their camp. The two adversaries had to be pre-
sent. But only Mu'awiya responded to the appeal. 'All
had his cousin 'Abd Allah b. 'Abbas represent him.
It was 'Amr b. al-'As who according to the accepted
version of pro-'Abbasid and pro-Shl'I historians, mani-
pulated the negotiations. He began by rejecting all
the propositions of the other speaker. Then methodi-
cally and with great skill, he managed to draw him
into undermining the caliph and accepting the removal
from power of both adversaries, 'All and Mu'awiya,
in order to give a free hand to the Muslim commu-
nity to designate the leader of their choice.

At the end of their work, both arbitrators had each
in turn to appear in public and announce their deci-
sion, agreed by common assent. 'Amr feigned a great
respect for Abu Musa on the pretext that he had
been a Companion of the Prophet and was the older
man, and he let him speak first. He hastened to pro-
nounce the verdict. 'Amr followed him to the ros-
trum, and to the great surprise of all, declared: "As
far as I am concerned, I confirm the decision of Abu
Musa about the demotion of his friend ['All] but I
am supporting mine [Mu'awiya]". Thus silenced, al-
Ash'ari set off for Mecca and remained there for the
rest of his days. When this news was announced at
Kufa, 'Air contested the outcome of the arbitration,
considering it contrary to the Kur'an and the surma.
He took the decision to fight Mu'awiya again, mo-
bilised his forces and left immediately to conquer

The ensuing events, the secession of the Kharidjites

and 'All's crushing of the dissidents on the banks of

the Nahr al-Nahrawan on 9 Safar 38/17 July 658,

the continued intransigence of the schismatics and the

final assassination of 'All by the Kharidjite 'Abd al-

Rahman b. Muldjam in the great mosque at Kufa on

17 Ramadan 40/24 January 661, may be followed in

the articles 'alI b. abI talib; ibn muldjam; kharidjites.

Bibliography: See the extensive bibls. in the

articles named above and in siffTn, to which should

be added G.R. Hawting, The significance of the slogan

la hukma ilia li'llah and the references to the hudud in

the traditions about the Fitna and the murder of 'Uthman,

in BSOAS, xli (1978), 453-63; idem, The first dynasty

of Islam. The Umayyad caliphate A.D. 661-750, London

and Sydney 1986, 24-33; H. Kennedy, The Prophet

and the age of the caliphates, London and New York

1986. (MOKTAR DjEBLl)

TAHLIL (a.), the verbal noun from hallala, form
II verb, with two differing etymologies and meanings.

(1) From hildl, the new moon, meaning "jubila-
tion or excitement at seeing the new moon"
[see hilal. i; talbiya].

(2) From the formula Id ildha ilia 'lldh, the first and
main element of the Islamic profession of faith or
shahada [q.v]. The verbal form is here obtained by
the so-called procedure of naht "cutting out, carving
out". The tahUl then denotes the pronouncing, in
a high and intelligible voice, of the formula
in question, which implies formal and basic recog-
nition of the divine unity.

Bibliography: See L'A, ed. Beirut 1375/1956,

705; a

j the I

ibis, to allah; hilal; tawhid.

'(Ed-)

TAHMAN B . 'AMR al-KILABI, minor Arab
poet of the middle Umayyad period, whose
exact dates are unknown. As the akhbar on Tahman's
biography in his diwan (ed. al-Mu'aybid, 39, 42, 50,
52-5, related at length in ET, IV, 665-6) cannot be
corroborated from his poems, but on the contrary are
possibly read into them, his poetry remains the only
reliable source for his life. A laudatory poem on the
Umayyad caliph al-Walrd (no. 5) probably refers to
al-Walrd b. 'Abd al-Malik (cf. no. 8, 1. 7); hence
Tahman was alive at some time between the years
86 and 96/705 and 715. Other lines are indicative
of difficult living conditions: in no. 1, 11. 15 and 19,
prison and shackles are mentioned (cf. no. 15, 1. 4,
only in ed. al-Mu'aybid), in no. 14 he complains of
an enforced stay in the deserted al-Yamama, in no.
15, 1. 10, only in ed. al-Mu'aybid, he calls himself a
stranger in the lands of the Southern Arabian tribe
of Madhhidj. Comparatively well known is poem no.
8, addressed to an Umayyad caliph from the Marwanid
line and containing a complaint about an amputated
right hand; on details such as the identity of the
addressee, the reason for the punishment and the
question as to whether he was punished at all, the
akhbar contradict each other. His diwan, preserved only
in a Leiden manuscript and containing 14 poems,
seems to be a fragment of al-Sukkan's (d. 275/888
[q.v.]) otherwise lost Ash'ar (or Akhbar) al-lusus (Sezgin,
GAS, ii, 63). Besides the poems nos. 5 and 8 (see
above), three kasidas (nos. 1, 3 and 12), an elegy on
a deceased comrade (no. 7), a poem about the killing
of an enemy (no. 13) and two hiaja' pieces (nos. 9
and 10) are worth mentioning.

Bibliography: Diwan, ed. W. Wright, Opuscula
arabica, Leiden 1859, 76-95; ed. M. L^. al-Mu'aybid,
Baghdad 1968 (same sequence of poems, with an
additional poem from other sources); for four addi-
tional lines, cf. RIMA (Kuwayt), xxxi/2 (1987), 445;
German tr. of Wright's edn. by O. Rescher, in
Orientalistische Miszellen, Istanbul 1925, 180-93.

(T. Seidensticker)
TAHMASP (Tahmasb), the name of two Shahs
of the Safawid dynasty [q.v.] in Persia.

1. Tahmasp I, Abu '1-Fath, eldest son of Shah
Isma'il [see isma'il i], born at Shahabad in the dis-
trict of Isfahan on Wednesday, 26 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 919/
22 February 1514 (Hasan-i Rumlu, Ahsan al-tawarikji
(ed. C.N. Seddon, Baroda 1931, 142), died Monday,
15 Safar 984/14 May 1576 [Ahsan al-tawdnkh, 464),
second ruler of the Safawid dynasty [see

Following the early Safawid practice of appointing
princes of the blood royal to be nominal governors
of provinces, in the care of a Klzilbash [q.v.] amir who
was their atabeg/lala (tutor/guardian), in 921/1515 the
infant Tahmasp was appointed governor of Khurasan
in the care of Amir Khan Turkman (Ahsan al-tawarikh,
154).

1. The Klzilbash interregnum (930-40/1524-33).

On the death of Shah Isma'il I, Tahmasp acceded
to the throne on Monday, 19 Radjab 930/23 May
1524 at the age of ten. His extreme youth enabled
the Klzilbash amirs, led by Diw Sultan Rumlu who,
by virtue of the testamentary disposition of the late
shah had become the atabeg of Tahmasp and amir al-
umara' [see EIr, art., Amir al-Omara'. ii. Safavid usage],
to seize power and make themselves de facto rulers of
the state. Civil war ensued as rival Klzilbash tribes
fought for power, and Tahmasp did not succeed in

asserting his authority over the rebellious amfrs until
940/1533 (for details, see R.M. Savory, Studies on the
history of Safawid Iran, Variorum Reprints, London 1987,
no. V, 65-71).

The Ozbegs, led by the powerful chief 'Ubayd
(Allah) Khan [q.v.], took advantage of this Safawid
military weakness to lay siege to Harat (three times)
and to capture it (twice) between 931/1524 and 940/
1533. The signal victory won by Tahmasp over the
Ozbegs at the battle of Djam on 1 1 Muharram 935/25
September 1528 gave the Safawids a brief respite, but
did not remove the Ozbeg threat to the north-east
frontier of the Safawid state (for full details, see M.B.
Dickson, Shah Tahmasp and the Uzbegs: the duel for
Khurasan with 'Ubayd Khan, unpubl. Ph.D. thesis, Univer-
sity of Michigan 1958).

2. Shah Tahmasp in command (940-982/1533-1574).

For over forty years, Tahmasp reigned without fur-
ther challenge to his authority from the Kizilbash amirs.
External forces, however, continued to threaten the
very existence of the Safawid state. The death of
'Ubayd Khan in 946/1539 for a while reduced the
threat in the north-east, but the threat from the
Ottomans in the west and north-west increased after
the accession of Sultan Suleyman KanunI [q.v.], who
launched four full-scale invasions of Persia between
940/1533 and 961/1553-4. In these campaigns, the
Ottomans were aided by Kizilbash renegades [see
takkalus] and also by the Shah's perfidious brother
Alkas [see alkas mirza].

As a military commander, Tahmasp was at a con-
stant disadvantage, in that the armies at his disposal
were numerically inferior to those of his principal ene-
mies, the Ottomans and the Ozbegs. He was there-
fore rarely able to take the offensive or risk a pitched
battle, but was forced to adopt scorched-earth tactics
to blunt the impact of the Ottoman invasions. For
example, on the occasion of Siileyman's third inva-
sion in 955/1548, and again in 960/1553, Tahmasp
laid waste the entire region between Tabriz and the
Ottoman frontier, and the inhabitants of Tabriz
blocked the underground irrigation channels [see
kanat]. As a result, the Ottoman armies, denied sup-
plies of food and water, were unable to effect a per-
manent occupation of the area, and Safawid forces
moved back into it when the Ottomans withdrew to
winter quarters in Anatolia. However, in recognition
of the vulnerability of Tabriz to Ottoman attack, in
955/1548 Tahmasp transferred the capital to KazwTn

The Treaty of Amasya (962/1555) gave Persia a
twenty-year respite from the hostilities with the Otto-
mans which had gone on intermittently for forty years.
Under the terms of the Treaty, Georgia was divided
into "spheres of influence" between the two parties,
and the Ottoman-Safawid frontier in the north-west
was demarcated without the cession by the Safawids
of large areas of territory. These terms, in the cir-
cumstances favourable to the Safawids, are clear evi-
dence of the frustration felt by the Ottoman sultan
at his inability to inflict a decisive defeat on the Safaw-
ids. The success of Tahmasp in preserving the Safawid
state, beset as he was by powerful enemies on two
fronts and plagued by treachery both among the
Kizilbash amirs and in his own family, must be seen
as a remarkable achievement. D'Alessandri's accusa-
tion that Tahmasp "never had inclination for war"
and was "a man of very little courage" (Narrative of
the Most Noble Vincentio d'Akssandri, ambassador to the King
of Persia for the Most Illustrious Republic of Venice, in A
Narrative of Italian Travels in Persia in the fifteenth and six-

teenth centuries, Hakluyt Society, London 1873, 216)
should be disregarded. When only fourteen years of
age, Tahmasp commanded the Safawid centre at the
battle of Djam, and it was his heroism that turned
defeat into victory after most of his men had fled the
field (Dickson, op. at., 134 ff.).

The reassertion of royal authority in 940/1533 had
its effect on the principal offices of state. The office
of amir al-umard', denoting the commander-in-chief of
the Kizilbash. troops, virtually disappeared from the
scene, and the office is not recorded in the list of
appointments made by 'Abbas I [q.v.; see also EIr,
art. 'Abbas I] on his accession (Iskandar Beg Munshi,
Tarikh-i 'Alam-ara-yi 'Abbasi, ed. Iradj Afshar, 2 vols.,
Isfahan 1334-5 A.H.S/1955-6, text i, 384, tr. Savory,
ii, 554). Instead, the title kurcibashi [see kurcI] was
increasingly used. The title wa/al, in the sense of the
alter ego of the Shah with both temporal and spiritual
authority, also fell into disuse. As a direct result of
the lessening of Kizilbash influence in government, the
head of the bureaucracy, the wazir, gained greatly in
power, as is demonstrated by the career of Kadi
Djahan KazwinT, who was appointed by Tahmasp in
942/1535-6 and held office until about 957/1550-1
(see Savory, Studies, no. V, 73 ff.; on allegations that
Kadi Djahan was a crypto-Sunm, see Dickson, op. cit.,
191 ff.). Until about midway through the 10th/ 16th
century, the Safawid state constituted essentially a
Turco-Persian condominium. Between 947/1540-1 and
961/1553-4, however, Tahmasp conducted a series of
campaigns in Georgia, from each of which he brought
back to Persia large numbers of prisoners, mainly
women and children. From the 961/1553-4 campaign
alone he brought back more than 30,000 prisoners,
including a number of Georgian nobles (aznawuran)
(Ahsan al-tawankh, 382). In addition, Armenians and
Circassians were brought back to Persia from Safawid
campaigns in the southern Caucasus. These prison-
ers, and their offspring, introduced new ethnic ele-
ments into Persia which collectively constituted a "third
force" in the Safawid bureaucracy and army which
in time altered the whole balance of power in the
Safawid state (see Savory, Iran under the Safavids,
Cambridge 1980, 67 ff.). The influence of this "third
force" was amply demonstrated in 982/1574, when
Tahmasp fell seriously ill of a fever (tab-i muhrik; pos-
sibly typhoid) for two months, and discord and strife
once again broke out among the amirs (Ahsan al-
tawankh, 458). With the imminence of Tahmasp's
death, ambitious Georgian and Circassian mothers of
princes of the blood royal intrigued with the aim of
securing the succession of their respective sons. Their
scheming increased in intensity after the death of
Tahmasp in 984/1576.

3. Character of Tahmasp.

No comprehensive biography of Shah Tahmasp
exists, and what evidence we have as to his character
is often of a disparaging nature and to some extent
contradictory. Neither Persian nor Western sources
seem willing to credit him with any significant skills
in either the arts of peace or of war. He is portrayed
as miserly and avaricious; as a religious bigot; as puri-
tanical or alternatively as a voluptuary; and as a man
capable of great cruelty. The charge of avarice seems
to be well attested (see Sharaf al-Dln Bidlisi, Sharaf-
nama, ed. Veliaminof-Zernof, St. Petersburg 1860-2,
ii, 251-2; A chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia, 2 vols.,
London 1939, i, 47-8). The evidence also indicates
that Tahmasp was an Ithna 'Asharl zealot. The story
of his reception of the Englishman Anthony Jenkinson,
who had made his way to the Safawid court in

TAHMASP — tahmurath

970/1562 by the extremely hazardous route north of
Scandinavia to Archangel, and thence via Astrakhan,
the Caspian Sea and ShTrwan. bearing a letter from
Queen Elizabeth I to Tahmasp which sought to pro-
mote trade between England and Persia, clearly indi-
cates the Shah's attitude toward infidels {Early voyages
and travels to Russia and Persia, Hakluyt Society, 1st
Series, nos. LXXII and LXXIII, London 1886, vol.
I, 147). In 951/1544, when the Mughal Emperor
Humayun came to Persia as a fugitive, Tahmasp
forced him to embrace Ithna 'Asharf Shf'ism as the
price of sanctuary in Persia and of Safawid military
aid (see Riazul Islam, Indo-Persian relations. A study of
the political and diplomatic relations between the Mughul
Empire and Iran, Tehran 1970, 28 ff., and Appendix
C, Humayun's conversion to Shl'ism, 196-7; see also
humayun). In 939/1532-3 Tahmasp performed his cel-
ebrated act of repentance (tawba) from all "forbidden
acts" (manahl). In 963/1555-6 the great amirs and
courtiers were obliged to follow suit, and their exam-
ple was said to have been followed by the populace
at large {Ahsan al-tawarfkh, 246, 396; Tartkh-i 'Alam-
ara-yi 'Abbast, text, i, 122, tr. i, 203). This puritani-
cal posture in later life influenced his attitude toward
poets in two ways: he regarded them as wine-bibbers,
and no longer considered them to be God-fearing
persons. Consequently, they fell from royal favour.
Secondly, if they wrote occasional poems (kit'a) or
odes {kasida) eulogising the Shah or other members
of the royal family, Tahmasp told them they should
devote their time to writing eulogies of the Imams
(Tartkh-i 'Alam-ara-yi 'AbbM, text, i, 178, tr. i, 274-5;
for an excellent account of Safawid literature as a
whole, see safawids. III. Literature).

When Tahmasp died in 984/1576, his reign was
just nine days short of fifty-two (solar) years; no other
Persian king had reigned for longer, with the excep-
tion of the Sasanid ruler Shapur II (A.D. 309-79).
H.R. Roemer, in CHIran, vi, 248, says that Tahmasp
died "as a result of poison" . . . "whether this was by
accident or design has never been established". The
Ahsan al-tawarikh, 464, says that because one of the at-
tending physicians, Abu Nasr (Gilam), had been guilty
of treachery (Jskiydnat) in the course of the treatment,
he was put to death. The Tartkh-i 'Alam-ara-yi 'Abbast,
text, i, 168, tr. I, 264, says that Abu Nasr Gflam
had a good reputation at court as a physician whose
prescriptions were mostly successful. When Tahmasp
fell ill, he attended him night and day, but "he
unwisely sought recognition of his superior status vis-
a-vis the other physicians; as a result, when Tahmasp
died, Abu Nasr was accused of treachery {khtyanat) in
the treatment he had prescribed, and he was put to
death within the palace by members of the royal
bodyguard".

Tahmasp had thirteen sons: Muhammad (later
Sultan Muhammad Shah: 985-96/1578-88); Isma'Il
[see isma'Il ii]; Haydar; Sulayman; Mustafa; Djunayd;
Mahmud; Imam KulT; 'Air; Ahmad; Murad; Zayn al-
'AbidTn; and Musa, and probably thirteen daughters
(the eight named in the sources are: Gawhar Sultan
Begum; Part Khan Khanum; KhadTdja Sultan Begum;
Zaynab Begum; Maryam Sultan Begum; Fatima Sultan
Begum; Shuhra Banu Begum; and Khanish Begum.
Bibliography: In addition to references in the
text, see CHIran, vi, 233-50; Tqdhkira-yi Shah
Tahmasp, ed. Phillott, Calcutta 1912 (for mss. of
the work, see Storey, i, 305, 1279). For an anno-
tated bibliography of the sources for the period of
Tahmasp, see Dickson, op. cil., Appendix II.

(R.M. Savory)

2. Tahmasp II, one of the last rulers of the
dynasty, ruled 1135-45/1722-32.

Born in 1116/1704, the third son of Shah Husayn
I, he was appointed by his father as crown prince
and heir to the throne during the siege of Isfahan
in 1134/1722 by the Afghans. He broke out of Isfa-
han, and with Husayn's relinquishment of the throne
of Persia to the Ghilzay leader Mahmud, had him-
self proclaimed Shah at Kazwin (Muharram 1135/
November 1722), issuing his own coins and decrees.
He was to reign, more or less nominally, for some
ten years, until 1145/1732, when the infant 'Abbas
III was placed on the throne by Nadir Khan, whose
son Rida Kuli had Tahmasp executed in 1151/1739.

The events of Tahmasp's reign are bound up with
the career of Nadir Khan, who became Tahmasp's
wakil al-dawla and in 1139/1726 received from him
the title of Tahmasp KulT "slave of Tahmasp". For the
course of these events, see nadir shah afshar.

Bibliography: See that to the above-mentioned

article, to whose Bibl. should be added H.R.

Roemer, in Comb. hist, of Iran, vii, 326-8, and C.E.

Bosworth, The Mw Islamic dynasties, no. 148. Cf.

also EI' art. Tahmasp (CI. Huart).

(C.E. Bosworth)

TAHMURATH, generally accounted the second
king of the Pishdadid dynasty [q.v.] in legen-
dary Iranian epic history, coming after the first
world-king Kayumarth or Gayomard and the founder
of the Pishdadids, Hushang [q.v.]. Certain Islamic
sources make him the first king of his line, and the
length of the reign attributed to him — such figures as
an entire millennium or 600 years are given — shows
the importance attached to him. His name appears in
the Avesta as Takhmo urupa azinavia, with the first ele-
ment takhma, meaning "strong, courageous" (cf. the
name Rustam/Rustahm) and urupi.azinavant, meaning (as
recognised by K. Hoffmann, Aufsdtze zur Indo-iranistik,
Wiesbaden 1976, 487-9) "equipped with a fox-skin"
(originally a goat-skin), so that the whole name should
be rendered as "the strong/brave one in the fox-skin".
The Pahlavi spelling, in the Bundahishn and elsewhere,
is thmulp or t'hmwrp, usually read as Tahmorup. There
is no plausible phonetic reason why the final sound
became rendered in the Arabic script as th except
through the erroneous pointing of manuscripts, but
this form was popularised in the Shah-ndma and be-
came universal. A. Christensen put forward the sug-
gestion that Hushang and Tahmurath were adopted
into Iranian national lore from the Scythians of the
Eurasian steppes.

Various features of the ancient Iranian Tahmurath
are taken up in the Islamic sources. Thus his epithet
in the Shah-ndma of dewband comes from his subduing
of the demons, from whom he extorted knowledge of
the various kinds of writing (FirdawsT mentions six by
name: the rumi, the tdzi, the parsl, the soghdt, the dm
and the pahlaivl {Shah-ndma, ed. Vullers, i, 20-2, ed.
Khalikr-Mutlak, i, 35-7; cf. Ph. Wolff, Glossar zu Firdosis
Schahname, Berlin 1935, 593); this may preserve the
memory of the Iranian tribes entering the land from
Inner Asia and acquiring a knowledge of writing
from the original inhabitants there. It is further said
that it was Tahmurath who initiated the domestica-
tion of wild animals, the use of horses for riding, the
weaving of woollen and hair cloth for clothing and
for carpets, the use of birds of prey for hunting, etc.
(see al-Taban, i, 175-61; Bal'ami, Ta'rtkh, ed. M.S.
Bahar, Tehran 1341/1962, 129; al-Tha'alibf, Ghurar
akhbdr muluk al-Furs, ed. and tr. Zotenberg, 8-10; Shah-
ndma, loc. cit.). There was also an attempt to insert

TAHMURATH — TAHRlF

Tahmurath, with his predecessors Kayumarth and
Hushang, into the genealogy of the Biblical prophets,
with e.g. Adam as the first man, and Tahmurath
being equated with Noah, and to locate his residence
at Sabur in Fars (see al-Mas'udl, Muruaj, ii, 111, iii,
252 - §§ 535, 1 1 16).

Unlike other royal names from the Iranian national
epic, such as Rustam, Shahriyar, Hushang, etc.,
Tahmurath did not become popular within Muslim
Persian and Persian-influenced onomastic. However,
it does appear amongst the later line of ShTrwan Shahs
[q.v.] as the name of the brother of the Shah Ibrahim
b. Muhammad b. Kay Kubadh (780-821/1378-1418)
(see C.E. Bosworth, The New Islamic dynasties, a chrono-
logical and genealogical manual, Edinburgh 1996, no. 62).
Also, it was probably these Shahs' fondness for Iranian
epic names that made the Christian kings of Georgia
(not infrequendy allied with the Shahs by marriage)
adopt the name under the form T'eimuraz.

Bibliography (in addition to references given
in the article): Justi, Iranisches Namenbuch, 320-1;
A. Christensen, Les types du premier homme et du pre-
mier roi dans I'histoire legendaire des Iraniens, Stockholm
1917, i, 182-216 (interpretations largely speculative
and now untenable); E. Yarshater, Iranian national
history, in Comb. hist. Iran, iii, 422; V. Minorsky, EI'
art. s.v. (C.E. Bosworth)

TAHNIT (a.), the verbal noun of hannata "to pre-
pare a corpse for burial with embalming substances"
(see Lane, i, 657a). For this process, and the sub-
stances used, see htnata.

TAHRIF (a.), change, alteration, forgery;
used with regard to words, and more specifically with
regard to what Jews and Christians are supposed to
have done to their respective Scriptures (yuharrifuna
'l-kalima 'an mawadi'hi, sura IV, 46, V, 13; see also
II, 75), in the sense of perverting the language through
altering words from their proper meaning, changing
words in form or substituting words or letters for
others. Such substitution is also termed tabdll, a wider
term, used also in other contexts, but in the Kur'an
and later literature practically synonymous with tahnf
(see II, 59, VII, 162, and the commentary of Mudjahid
b. Djabr [q.v.] to IV, 46, where he explains harrafa
by baddala).

The Kur'an accepts the Tawrat and Indjil [q.vv.] as
genuine divine revelations taken from the same
Guarded Tablets as the Kur'an itself and brought by
true messengers to both Jews and Christians respec-
tively. Those, however, did not adhere to their Law,
but tampered with their own Scriptures (III, 78, with
the verb lawa; V, 15, 45). The Kur'an does not state
explicidy how this was done and when, but later com-
mentaries give various explanations. Some relate it to
the times of Moses (see commentaries to II, 58-9,
wherein the Banu Isra'il are accused of having changed
(orally?) the word hitta). Later authors accuse Israelite
Kings or Priests, especially Ezra the Scribe (see below)
or Byzantine rulers, etc. The accusation that Jewish con-
temporaries of Muhammad concealed (kitman) Biblical
material, e.g. the punishment (stoning) for adultery or
the Biblical prediction of Muhammad's prophecy (see
the commentaries on V, 42-9, and Ibn Hisham, ii,
382 ff, 393-5) is also considered to be tahnf.

The accusation of forgery was a widespread polem-
ical motif, already in pre-Islamic times used by pagan,
Samaritan and Christian authors to discredit their
opponents and Scriptures. In the Medinan suras it is
a central theme, apparendy used to explain away the
contradictions between the Bible and the Kur'an and
to establish that the coming of the Prophet and the

rise of Islam had indeed been predicted in the "true"
Bible.

In the first centuries of Islam, tahnf was not a cen-
tral theme, though well-known. Hadith and early com-
mentaries filled out the gaps left by the relevant
Kur'anic verses. Mudjahid explained that those who
hide and distort Biblical verses are the Jewish 'ulama'
(see al-Tabarl on the above verses). Others stated
explicitly that the Jews do so in order to hide the
fact that Muhammad was predicted in their Torah
(Mukatil b. Sulayman, Tafsir, Cairo 1979, i, 118, to
II, 76, see also 461). Some explained that tahnf means
that the Jews "made the lawful forbidden and the
forbidden lawful, and took the truth as falsehood and
the falsehood as truth" (al-Taban, on II, 59).

Muslim authors understood the falsification as
either tahnf al-ma'na, distortion of the meaning of the
text, or tahnf al-nass, falsification of the text itself (see
the Risala of the 3rd/9th century writer Ibn al-Layth,
in A.Z. Safwat, Djamharat rasa'il al-'Arab, iii, Cairo
1356/1937, 296 ff., who seems to know both meanings
and defends the Kur'an against the counter-argument
of having also been altered). Early Christian authors
already defend themselves and their Scriptures against
both accusations (S.H. Griffith, 'Ammar al-Basri's Kitab
al-Burhdn. Christian kalam in the first Abbasid century, in
Le Museon, xlvi [1983], 165-8). Some Muslim authors
take tahnf to mean only the distortion of meaning of
the text, notably al-Kasim b. Ibrahim (d. 246/860;
see I. Di Matteo, Confutazione contro i Christian! dello
Zaydita al-Qasim b. Ibrahim, in RSO, ix [1922], 319)
and Ibn Khaldun, who rejects the idea of actual falsifi-
cation of Jewish or Christian Scriptures "since custom
prevents people who have a (revealed) religion from
dealing with their divine Scripture in such a manner"
(Mukaddima, ed. Quatremere, i, 12-13, tr. F. Rosenthal
i, 20-1; most printed editions omit this remark).

The more common understanding, however, of tahnf
among Muslim authors, especially from the 5th/ 11th
century up to modern times, has been the one which
accused Jews and Christians of having deliberately fal-
sified the text of their own respective Scriptures. Jewish
oral tradition, seen as an unauthorised addition to
Scripture, is also considered to be part of this falsi-
fication. So is Christian canon and other law. In this
context, Muslim authors stressed the differences
between the "three Bibles": the Hebrew Bible of the
Jews; the Samaritan Bible; and the "Greek Bible" (i.e.
the Septuagint) of the Christians (al-Mas'udl, Murudj,
i, 118-19 = § 115; al-Blrum, al-Athar al-bakiya, 20-1,
tr. Sachau, 24; Ibn Hazm, al-Fasl ft 'l-mikl, i, 117,
198, ii, 7-10) as proof of the falsification.

The argument of tahnf is refuted already in an
early polemical text attributed to the Byzantine
Emperor Leo III (A. Jeftery, Ghevond's text of the corre-
spondence between 'Umar II and Leo III, in Harvard Theol.
Review, xxxvii [1944], 269-321) with the statement that
Jews and Christians share the same, widely-known
divine text, and that Ezra, who redacted the Bible,
was a pious, reliable person. The same arguments
appear in later Jewish writings (see Ibn Kammuna
[q.v.], Tankih al-abhath li 'l-milal al-thalath, ed. and tr.
M. Perlmann, Berkeley 1971, 1967, ch. 2). The per-
sonality of Ezra-'Uzayr [q.v.] becomes very involved
in this discussion in the 4th/ 10th century, and espe-
cially with Ibn Hazm [q.v.], who in his Fast expli-
citly accused '"Azra" of having falsified and added
interpolations into the Biblical text. He also ar-
ranged systematically and in scholarly detail the argu-
ments against the authenticity of the Biblical text in
the first (Hebrew Bible) and second part (New Testa-

TAHRIF — TAHRlR

) of his book: chronological and geographical
uracies and contradictions; theological impossi-
bilities (anthropomorphic expressions, stories of forni-
cation and whoredom, and the attributing of sins to
prophets), as well as lack of reliable transmission (tawd-
tur) of the text. He explains how the falsification of
the Pentateuch could have taken place while there
existed only one copy of the Pentateuch kept by the
Aaronid priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. Ibn
Hazm's impact on later Muslim polemics was great,
and the themes which he raised with regard to tahrif
and other polemical ideas — updated only slightly by
some later authors, such as the Jewish convert to
Islam al-Samaw'al al-Maghribr (d. 570/1175) in his
Ijhdm al-Yahud (ed. and tr. M. Perlmann, PAAJR, 32,
1964) — became the standard themes of later Muslim
polemical literature against both Jews and Christians
(see, e.g., al-Karafi's (d. 684/1285) al-Adj.wiba al-fdhhira
'an al-as'ila al-fddjira; Ibn Taymiyya; and Ibn Kayyim
al-Djawziyya).

Modern European Bible criticism is taken by some
Muslim authors as a vindication of the theory of tahrif
(see Rahmat Allah al-Hindf's (1818-91) Izhdr al-hakk;
cf. C. Schirrmacher, Mil den Waffen des Gegners, Christlkh-
muslimische Kontroversen im 19 u. 20 Jahrhundert, Berlin
1992, and M. Khalifa Hasan Ahmad, 'Aldkdt al-Islam
bi 'l-Tahudiyya. Ru'ya Islamiyya fi masadir al-Tawrat al-
hdliyya, Cairo 1986).

In Sunni-Shi'i polemics, the problem of tahrif arose
with regard to the text of the Kur'an. Sunn! authors
accused the Shi'a of believing that the Kur'an had
been falsified. Early Shi"i material on this topic seems
to be lost; apparently only some ShiT authors held
this view mainly with regard to omissions (of Kur'anic
references to 'All and his family) and some minor
changes in Kur'anic verses. Although the ShiTs prac-
tically accepted the existing Kur'anic text, these accu-
sations have been raised sporadically up to modern
times (E. Kohlberg, Some notes on the Imdmite attitude to
the Qur'an, in Islamic philosophy and the Classical tradition.
For R. Walzer, Oxford 1972, 209-24).

Bibliography (in addition to references in the
article): Abu '1-Baka' Salih b. Husayn al-Dja'fan,
Takhdjll man harrafa al-Indjtl, ed. F.J. van den Ham,
Leiden 1877-90; E. Fritsch, Islam und Christentum im
Mittelalter, Breslau 1930, 54-74; Kurtubl (probably
not the Kur'an commentator but an 8th/ 14th cen-
tury author whose first name is not known), al-I'lam
bi-md ft din al-JVasdrd min al-fasdd wa 'l-awhdm, ed.
A. al-Sakka', Cairo 1980; Ibn Kayyim al-Djawziyya,
Hiddyat al-hayara fi 'l-radd 'old 'l-Tahud wa 'l-Nasdra,
ed. S. al-Katib, Beirut 1 980; Ibn Taymiyya, al-Djawdb
al-sahih li-man baddak din al-Masth, ed. A. al-Madam,
Cairo n.d.; C. Adang, Muslim writers on Judaism and
the Hebrew Bible from Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm, Leiden
1996, ch. 7; W. Adler, The Jews as falsifiers, in
Translations of Scripture, Suppl. to JQR (1990), 1-27;
A. Bouamama, La litterature polemique musulmane contre
k christianisme, Algiers 1988; R. Caspar and J.-M.
Gaudeul, Textes de la tradition musulmane concemant k
tahrif (falsification), in Islamochristiana, vi (1980) 61-104;
A. Charfi, al-Fikr al-Isldmi fi 'l-radd 'ala 'l-Nasara,
Tunis 1986; I. Di Matteo, // "tahrif" od alterazwne
della Bibbia secondo i musulmani, in Bessarione xxxviii
(1922), 64-1 1 1, 223-60; I. Goldziher, Ueber muhamme-
danische Polemik gegen Ahl al-Kitab, in ZJiMG, xxxii
(1878), 341-87; A.Th. Khoury, Der theologische Streit
der Byzantiner mit dem Islam, Paderborn 1969;
H. Lazarus-Yafeh, Intertwined worlds. Medieval Islam
andBibk critkism, Princeton 1992, ch. 2; idem, Tahrif
and thirteen Torah scrolls, in JSAI, xix (1995), 81-8;

S.M. Stern, 'Abd al-Jabbdr's account of how Christ's
religion was falsified by the adoption of Roman customs,
in JTS, xix (1968) 128-85; M. Schreiner, Zur Ge-
schkhte der Pokmik zwischen Juden und Muhammedanem,
in ZDMG, xlii (1888) 591-675. See also M. Maimo-
nides, Responsa, ed. J. Blau, Jerusalem 1986, i,
284-5 (no. 149); M.M. Bar-Asher, Studks in early
Imdmi-SJti'i Qur'an exegesis, Ph.D. thesis Jerusalem
1991, unpubl. (in Hebrew), Eng. tr. forthcoming;
idem, Variant readings and additions of the Imam Sl'a
to the Quran, in IOS, xiii (1993), 39-74.

(Hava Lazarus-Yafeh)
TAHRIR (a.), a technical term of Ottoman

Derived from a
ing", this word is
Ottoman Turkish

i Arabic verb which denotes "writ-
at times used in the same sense in
as well. But as a technical term,
tahrir has come to denote the Ottoman tax registers
for the most part compiled during the 9th-10th/15th-
16th centuries (Basbakanltk Osmanh arsivi rehberi, Ankara
1992, 186-228, records them under this term, a syn-
onym being tapu tahrir defterkri). This is one of the
best-known series of the Ottoman archives, which in
turn can be subdivided into defter-i mufassal, defter-i
idjmdl and defter-i ewkdfi In principle, these registers
were to be compiled about once every thirty years;
but in reality, distances in time between different tahrirs
covering a given region varied widely.

The tahrirs were mainly designed to keep track of
that part of Ottoman state revenue which did not
reach the central treasury, but was assigned locally,
to Smdr [q.v.] holders, garrison soldiers, waff admin-
istrators, or even owners of private property (miilk);
the latter might be required to furnish soldiers (eshkindji)
in return for the privilege of official recognition. The
tahrirs also recorded the revenues accruing to the cen-
tral treasury (khdss [q.v.]) and assigned to the sultan
himself, members of his family or provincial gover-
nors. From the late 10th/ 16th century, a tax of vari-
able level, known as the 'awdrid [q.v.], came to occupy
a central place in Ottoman finance. As a result, the
expense of preparing a tahrir must have no longer
seemed justified, particularly since an increasing num-
ber of revenues was now farmed out to the highest
bidder. Tax registers were no longer compiled in co-
herent series after the reign of Murad III. However,
individual registers were occasionally prepared both in
the 11th/ 17th and 12th/ 18th centuries, and a whole
group of Anatolian tahrirs survives from the 1040s/
1630s.

The most extensive form of tahrir is the defter-i
mufassal, which contains an enumeration of taxpayers,
listed by settlement. Muslims precede non-Muslims.
At the end of each setdement, the defter-i mufassal
records certain taxes due from the inhabitants, such
as the tithes ('d'shur), farm taxes (resm-i aft, resm-i bennak,
ispendje), and, where applicable, the djizye. Individual
settlements were grouped by nahiye and kadd, and
kadds by sand^ak. The largest unit, namely the wilayet,
on account of its size does not often occur in the
mufassal; but we possess idjrndh covering one or even
several wildyets. However, this terminology was sub-
ject to considerable variation. Some mufassals do not
distinguish between kadd and nahiye, while, especially
in 9th/ 15th century registers, the term wilayet was
used for small units consisting of no more than a few
villages. After mentioning the name of the setdement
to be described, but before enumerating the taxpay-
ers, the scribes often provided some information on
the tax history of the town or village in question.
Sometimes this consisted of a simple note to the effect

TAHRlR — TAHSIN

that a given village was the timar of a certain per-
sonage, or that this or that town formed part of the
khass-i humdyun. In other instances, the defter might
record that a given village had been wakf that it had
been converted into a Bmar by Mehemmed II, and
that it recently had reverted to its previous status. On
the first pages of the defter-i mufassal we often find a
kanunname, which contained mainly the rules for tax-
ation to be applied in the area, but in some instances
also specified the punishments to be administered in
the case of crimes and misdemeanours.

To facilitate the distribution of tax revenues to
ffm«;-holders and other recipients, the data contained
in the mufassal were summarised in the idfmdl. Here
taxpayers were not enumerated individually, but merely
the total taxpaying population was recorded for each
settlement. However, many idjmals contain informa-
tion on the taxpayers resident in a given kada who
possessed a special tax status, such as unmarried men
(mudjerred), garrison soldiers, people enjoying tax exemp-
tions in return for services to the Ottoman adminis-
tration {tuzdju, derbendaji, yuwadji, etc.). For a published
version, see 438 numarah muhasebe-i vildyel-i Anadolu def-
teri (937/1530), i-ii, Ankara 1993-4.

As the amount of land recognised as wakf in most

rural areas was fairly limited, wakf registers are often

short, and may simply form an appendix to the idjmals.

But some of the oldest surviving registers happen to

concern wakf. Particularly notable is the document

describing the province of Karaman shortly after this

principality had finally been incorporated into the

Ottoman domain (881/1476; published by Feridun

Nafiz Uzluk, Fatih devrinde Karaman eyaleti vahflan fihnsti,

Tapu ve Kadastro Umum Mudurlugii arsivindeki deftere gore,

Ankara 1958). Moreover, in and around major cities,

such as Bursa or Istanbul, the number of wakjs was

considerable, resulting in voluminous documents (Omer

Liitfi Barkan and Ekrem Hakki Av\erdi (eds ), 953

(1546) tanhh Istanbul vahflan tahnr defteri, Istanbul 1970)

Bibliography Balkan (ed ), XV ve XVhnci asirlarda

Osmanli imparatorlugunda zirai ekonommin hukuki ve mall

esaslan, i, Istanbul 1943, M Tavyib Gokbilgin, AT-

XVI asirlarda Edtme ve Pasa lacisi. vakiflar—mulkler—

mukataalar, Istanbul 1952, Hahl Inalcik, Suret-i defter-,

sancak-i Awamd, Ankara 1954, L Fekete, Die Siyaqat-

Schrift m der turkischen Finanzverwaltung, 2 vols , Budapest

1955, Balkan, Essai sur /« donnees statistiques des regi-

stres de recensement dam VEmfire ottoman au XV it

XVI' siedes, in JESHO, i (1958), 9-36, Hahl Inalcik,

Osmanhlarda raiyet rusumu, in Belleten, xxm (1959),

575-610, Refet Yinanc and Mesut Ehbuyuk (eds),

Maraj tahnr defteri (1563), 2 vols, Ankara 1988,

Evangeha Balta, L'Eubee a la fin du XV siecle, economie

et population Lei registres de Vannee 1474, Athens 1989,

Ahmed Akgunduz led ), Osmanli kanunnamelen ve hukuki

tahhllen, 8 vols to date, Istanbul 1990-, Huncihan

Islamoglu Inan, State and peasant in the Ottoman Empire,

Leiden 1994, Hahme Dogiu XVI yuzyilda Eshsehu

ve Sultanonu sancagi, Istanbul 1992, Bahaeddm Yedi-

yildiz and Unal Ustun (eds), Ordu roreu tanhinm

kaynaklan 1455 tanhh tahnr defteri, Ankara 1992, St

Yerasimos, La communaute juive d'Istanbul a la fin du

XVI' siecle, in Turcica, wvii (1995), 101-34

ISURAIYA FAROQ_HIJ

TAHSIL (a), the verbal noun of the foim II verb
hassala "to collect together, acquire" In Indo-Mushm
usage, this term — taken over from previous regimes —
denoted m the British Indian provinces of Bombay,
Madras and the United Provinces the collection of
revenue and, thence, the administrative area
from which this taxation was collected Thus

in the above-mentioned provinces, the tahsil was a
subdivision of a District (ta'alluka, corruptly, taluk) with
an area of up to 600 square miles. Hence in size, a
tahsil came between the pargana [q.v.] and the sarkar
of the Mughal empire [see mughals. 3.]. The official
in charge of it was called the tahsfldar, and was respon-
sible to such superior officials as the District Magistrate
and the Collector.

Bibliography: Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, a
glossary of Anglo-Indian colloquial words and phrases',
London 1903, 888-9; Imperial gazetteer of India', iii,
53-4. (C.E. Bosworth)

TAHSIN, Mir Muhammad Husayn 'Ata Khan,
pioneer in Urdu prose-writing, who lived some-
where in the middle of the 18th century. He was a
native of Etawah | Itawa) in present-day Uttar Pradesh,
and came from a middle-class family of sayyids. His
ancestors reportedly migrated from Gardiz in what is
now eastern Afghanistan, and settled in Kara Man-
ikptir. His father, Mir Muhammad Bakir, moved to
Dihlr at an early age and was employed as com-
mander of 3,000 (sih hazari) in Awrangzlb's admin-
istration; he is said to have been a poet writing under
the pen-name Shawk. During the turbulent times that
followed the death of Awrangzlb, Tahsin left Dihlr
and served for many years under the Mughal viceroys
of Bengal. Later, he was one of the first Indians to
be employed in the service of the East India Company
at Calcutta. He also served as secretary for a British
army officer who is mentioned by him only as General
Smith. When the latter returned to England around
1769, Tahsin took up employment in Patna. After
some time he proceeded to Faydabad where he
gained access to the court of Shudja' al-Dawla, Nawab
of Awadh, being still employed there in 1775 when
the latter died and was succeeded by his son Asaf al-
Dawla (d 1797)

Tahsin is known chiefly for his Kaw tarz-i muraisa'
"A new gold-embroidered style", which has been
characterised as the first book of Uidu prose litera-
ture produced in noithern India (see Nur al-Hasan
Hashimfs introd to it, 23) It was completed around
1775, and contains the stories of four deivishes, it is
believed to be a translation of a Persian book Cahar
danvish, wrongly attributed to Amir Khusraw [qv] It
is written in an ornate style, with an artificial dic-
tion Notwithstanding these diawbacks, one cannot
overlook its importance, if only because it was used
by other writers to pen their own vei sions of the nar-
lative, most notable among them being Mil Aman's
[see aman, mir] Bagh o bahdr which, completed in
1217/1802, became the first classic of Urdu prose

Apart from Kaw tarz-i murassa', Tahsin claims to
have written othei works as well, some of which were
in Persian, and are now known only by name He
is also mentioned as a poet writing in both Persian
and Urdu and as a master calligrapher, whose skill
in fine writing had earned him the title of murasia'
rakam "golden penmanship"

Bibliography Tahsrh, Kaw tarz-i murassa', ed
Nur al-Hasan "Hashiml, Allahabad 1978, Ghulam
Muhyi al-Din Mubtala, Tabakat-i sukhan, ed Nasim
Iktidar 'Air, Lucknow 1991, Abu '1-Hasan Amir al-
Din Ahmad (Amii Allah Allahabadi), Tadhkira-yi
masarrat-ajza, ed Kadi 'Abd al-Wadud, in Mu'asu,
Patna, ii/5,6,7, Karfm al-Din, Tabakat-i ihu'ara-yi
Hind (introd by Mahmud Ilahr), Lucknow 1983
Muhammad Husayn Azad, Ab-i hayat, Lahore 1967,
Garcin de Tassy, Histoire de la hlleralure Hindouie et
Hindoustani, i. Pans 1839, T W Beale, An onental
biographical dictionary, London 1894, TG Bailey, A

TAHSIN — TAHUN

hist, of Urdu literature, London 1932; R.B. Saksena,
A hist, of Urdu literature, Lahore 1975; Sayyid Sajjad,
An early prose-writer of modem Urdu, in IC, xiii/1 (1939);
Hamid Hasan Kadiri, Dastan-i tarikh-i Urdu, Karachi
1966; Gayan Cand Djayn, Urdu ki nathri dastanen,
Karachi 1969; Djarml Djalibr, Tarikh-i adah-i Urdu,
ii/2, Lahore 1982; 'Ubayda Begam, Fort William
College ki adabi khidmat, Lucknow 1983.

(Munibur Rahman)
TAHSIN wa-TAKBIH (a.), "determining some-
thing to be good or repellent", a phrase referring
in shorthand fashion to the controversy over
the sources of the moral assessment of acts.
Some argued for an assessment of things according
to the dictates of common sense ('all) or utility (naj'),
and this led some to hold that the husn or kubh of
an act was part of its ontology as an accident of
essence or as an aspect (waa^h) of the thing itself.
Others argued that it is only the deontic divine com-
mand (star') that gives moral value to acts.

The "sources" of this discussion are impossible to
establish; certainly, the rudiments of the problem are
already found in Plato's Euthyphro but the problem is
common to all of the Revelational religions, whose
Scripture does not reach in literal form to all possi-
ble acts For Muslims, who had come by the 4th/ 10th
century to believe that the Kur'an contained an assess-
ment (hukm) for every act, the problem took a par-
ticularly acute form. The Mu'tazila, in particular, for
whom God's goodness required that He require only
what was best (al-aslah) for His bondsmen, the imme-
diate pointlessness of ritual also constituted an incen-
tive toward the consideration of this problem. There
were consequently two Mu'tazili positions on the ques-
tion. The Baghdadis, especially al-Ka'bl [?.».], took
the position that the 'akl could assess acts, but they
were in fact proscribed (mahzur) before Revelation
came to give mankind permission to perform them.
The Basrans urged that acts could be assessed, and
that they were, in default of some 'akli indication to
the contrary, permitted (mubah). Of course, at issue
was the category of acts which were not mentioned

Despite the attempts of later biographical and
heresiographical sources to conceal early diversity, it
is clear that SunnI school positions for theological/legal
schools did not begin to form until the 5th/ 11th cen-
tury, with Hanballs, for example, defending "Mu'tazili"
positions into the 6th/ 12th century (e.g. Abu '1-Khattab
Mahfuz al-Kalwadham, d. 510/1117). By the 7th/13th
century, the matter had sorted itself out so that Shafi' is
and Hanbalis generally took the Ash'an position that
the intellect could not assess the moral value of acts,
and Hanafis/MatundTs took an intermediate position
that gave common sense the ability to assess acts,
with-out that assessment having soteriological signifi-
cance. Imami and Zaydf ShiTs embraced the Basran
Mu'tazili position that the performance of useful acts,
in default of revelation, was permitted.

Bibliography: R. Brunschvig. Mu'tazihsme et opti-
mum (al-aslah),' in St. hi, xxxix (1974), 5-23; R.M.
Frank, 77k metaphysics of created being according to Abu
l-Hudhayl al-Allaf a philosophical study oj the earliest
kalam, Leuven 1966; G.F. Hourani, 'islamic rational-
ism. The ethics oj 'Abdaljabbar, Oxford 1971; idem,
Reason and tradition in Islamic ethics. Cambridge etc.
1985; idem, The rationalist ethics of 'Abd al-Jabbai, in
Islamic philosophy and the classical tradition, in Essays
presented by his jnends and pupils to Ruhard Waller on
his seventieth birthday, ed. Houiani, Stern and Brown,
Columbia, S.C. 1973, 105-15; A.K. Reinhart, Before

revelation, Albany 1995 (and sources cited therein);
idem, "Thanking the benefactor", in Spoken and unspoken
thanks. Some comparative soundings, ed. J.B. Carman and
FJ. Streng, Cambridge and Dallas 1989, 115-33;
Abu '1-Khattab Mahfuz b. Ahmad al-Kalwadham
al-Hanball (d. 510/1117), al-famhld ft usul al-fikh,
ed. Muhammad b. 'All Ibrahim, 4 vols., Djudda
1406/1985. (A.K. Reinhart)

TAHUN (a.), mill. Lane (s.v. t-h-n) also offers the
readings tahuna as the general word for mill, as well
as watermill, and tahhana meaning an animal-powered
mill. Contemporary Egyptian usage for the noun tahuna
is given variously as grist mill, windmill and, in the
expression tahunit bunn, coffee grinder; tahhana is also
the word for grinder and, as in the expression tahhana
filfil, a pepper mill (Hinds and Badawi, A dictionary of
Egyptian Arabic, Beirut 1986). The root of the word,
meaning crushing or grinding, had instrumental use
both in large scale commercial enterprises and in the
preparation of food in the domestic kitchen. In the
latter case, for example, the term tahun is found, albeit
but once, in a culinary manual. This occurs in a
recipe called zuhnyya containing sandal, anbar and
dried flower petals which are ground or milled (tahana)
together in a tahun with cardamon, cloves and sugar
(Kanz, 235). The employment of a small, domestic
mill or hand rotary quern appears in contrast to the
far more commonly used (in the urban household at
least) mortar (hawun), where the ingredients were
pounded (dakka) with a pestle. It may be assumed,
however, that in instances where the verb tahana is
used in recipes without mention of the specific in-
strument being employed, a domestic grinding mill is
intended.

Mediaeval commercial enterprises, whether private
or government controlled, powered their mills by
exploiting the natural forces of water and wind (in
addition to animals), depending upon which was more
easily or consistently available and cheaper to harness
in any given area; there also existed many different
types of mill. Water-powered mills using either the
undershot, overshot or horizontal type of wheel existed
in pre-Islamic times and were employed throughout
the mediaeval period, while wind-powered mills appear
to have been first used in Islamic Persia in regions
where water was scarcer (see H.E. Wulff, The tradi-
tional crafts of Persia. Their development, technology, and influ-
ence on Eastern and Western civilizations, Cambridge, Mass.
1966, 277-89; M. Harverson, Watermills in Iran, in Iran
JBIPS, xxxi [1993], 149-77). Ship-mills of the under-
shot wheel type, were found moored in mid-stream
of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, while tidal mills
are noted in use at Basra (A. Mez, The renaissance oj
Islam, Patna 1937, 466-7). Mills of the water-driven
trip-hammer type were used in the manufacture of
paper and for husking rice, while others processed
sugar cane, in addition to their primary purpose of
providing adequate supplies of cereal flour for the
major urban centres and even villages of the Middle
East; a milling stage was also involved in the dress-
ing of metal ore. Regardless of the mill type, the
principles of operation were the same, the grinding
being accomplished by means of a stone rotating on
top of a fixed one. Traditional techniques have con-
tinued down to modern times where other sources of
eneigy, such as. fossil fuels, have not replaced those
of water and wind.

Bibliography: See also A.Y. al-Hasan and D.R.
Hill, Islamic technology, an illustrated history, Cambridge
1988; D.R. Hill, Islamic science and engineering,
Edinburgh 1993; Kanz aljawa'idfi tanwT' al-mawa'id,

(eds.) M. Marin and D. Waines, Beirut-Stuttgart

1993. (D. Waines)

al-TAT LI-AMR ALLAH (or Li >llah), 'Abd al-

Karlm b. al-Fadl, faineant 'Abbasid caliph (363-

81/974-91).

His father was the caliph al-Mutl' [q.v.], after whose
deposition on 13 Dhu '1-Ka'da 363/5 August 974
he was proclaimed Commander of the Faithful. His
mother, who survived him, was called 'Utb. As Ibn
al-Athlr justly observes (ix, 56), al-Ta'i' during his
reign had not sufficient authority- to be able to asso-
ciate himself with any enterprises worthy of mention.
He is only mentioned in history, one may safely say,
in connection with certificates of appointment to office,
letters of condolence and such-like formalities, and his
most remarkable feature seems to have been his extra-
ordinary physical strength. The real rulers were at
first the Buyids [see buwayhids] but after the most
important of them, 'Adud al-Dawla [q.v.] who was
the caliph's father-in-law, had died in Shawwal 372/
March 983, his sons began to quanel among them-
selves. In Sha'ban 381/Oct.-Nov. 991 Baha' al-Dawla
[q.v. in Suppl.], who was in financial difficulties and
could not pay his troops, was persuaded by his influ-
ential adviser Abu '1-Hasan Ibn al-Mu'allim to over-
throw the caliph and seize his treasury At an audience
at which the Buyid appeared with a large retinue,
the unsuspecting al-Ta'i' was torn from his throne by
Baha' al-Dawla's orders and taken to the latter s house,
where he was kept a prisoner. He was succeeded as
caliph by his cousin Abu 'l-'Abbas Ahmad, who took
the name al-Kadir [q.v.]. In Radjab 382/September
992 the ex-caiiph was allowed to come to al-Kadii's
palace, where he was well treated. He died on 1
Shawwal 393/3 August 1003.

The eastern Islamic dynasty of the Samanids [q.v.],
and their vassals in Khurasan. Sebuktigin and Mahmud
of Ghazna, refused to acknowledge the accession of
al-Kadir, regarding him as the tool of the Buyids; on
their coins the Samanids continued to their end to
recognise al-Ta'i' as caliph, and he likewise appears
on the coins 'of Mahmud till 389/999.

Bibliography. Ibn Shakir al-Kutubr, Fawat al-
wafaydt, ed. 'Abbas, ii, 375-6 no. 296; Ibn al-Athfr,
viii-ix, see index; Ibn Khaldun, al-'Ibar, iii, 428,
436; Ibn al-Tiktaka, al-Fakhri. ed. Derenbourg, 391;
Weil, Geschuhte der Chahfen, iii, 21-44; Muir, The
caliphate, its rise, decline, and fall\ 582; Le Strange,
Baghdad during the Abbasid caliphate, 162, 270, 271;
C.E. Bosworth, The imperial policy of the early Ghazna-
wids, in Islamic Studies (Karachi), i/3 (1962), 60, repr.
in The medieval history of Iran, Afghanistan and Central
Asia, Variorum, London 1977, no. XI; H. Busse,
Chahf und Grosskomg, die Buyiden im Iraq (945-1055),
Beirut 1969, index.

(K.V. Zettersteen-[C.E. Bosworth])
al-TA'IF, a town in Arabia to the south-east
of Mecca which in the early days of Islam belonged
to the Thakif [q.v.] tribe. Today it is the fourth largest
town in Saudi Arabia, located at a road junction on
the way from Mecca to al-Riyad [q.v.]. In former
times it took two or three days to go from Mecca to
al-Ta'if, depending on the route. Al-Ta'if is in the
Sarat [q.v.] mountains, 1,680 m/5,500 feet above sea
level. Some locate it in Nadjd [q.v.], while others
argue that it is in Hidjaz [q.v.]. Its pleasant climate
during the summei has made it the summer capital
of western Arabia.

Al-Ta'if is surrounded by valleys, the most impor-
tant being the one in which it is situated, Wadjdj,
which gave it its pre-Islamic name (see al-'Arab [Riyad]

ix/7-8 [Feb.-March 1975], 514-31; for up-to-date
information see ibid., xxiv/9-10 [Oct.-Nov. 1989], 604-
16). A clause in the agreement between the Prophet
and the Thakif declared the valley a haram or sacred

On the eve of Islam, a brick wall was built around
al-Ta'if. The initiative and financing reportedly came
from a merchant who had immigrated to al-Ta'if from
Hadramawt [q.v.]. Pre-Islamic al-Ta'if also had fortres-
ses, the origin of which is disputed. Following a joint
Thakafi-Kurashr trade expedition to Persia in which
Ghaylan b. Salama al-Thakafi and Abu Sufyan [q.v.]
took part, Khusraw sent, with the former, someone
(i.e. a skilled constructor) who built for him the first
fortress of al-Ta'if. This construction is variously
referred to as an utum and flisn. This is supposed to
have taken place on the eve of Islam, since both
Ghaylan and Abu Sufyan became Companions of the
Prophet. Another claim for "firstness" points to an
earlier generation by linking the first fortress to Mas'ud
b Mu'attib who was the father of the Prophet s Com-
panion 'Uiwa b Mas'Qd Both Ghaylan and Mas'ud
were members of the Thakif branch called al-Ahlaf
(moreover, they belonged to the same clan, the
Mu'attib) There was fighting between the Ahlaf and
the Malik, who were a rival branch of Thakif At
some stage, Mas'ud sought military aid from a friend
in Yathnb, Uhayha b al-Djulah Instead, Uhayha sent
with him a slave a skilled builder of utumt,, who built
for him the first utum of al-Ta'if (cf G R D King,
Cmwill'i appmiation of Arabian arihituture, in Muqarnas
viii [1991], 94-102, at 98b-99a).

The combination of fertile land and abundant water
supply turned the valleys around al-Ta'if into a pros-
perous agricultural area which grew wheat and vari-
ous fruits and vegetables. One hadilh has it that al-Ta'if
was originally a tract of land in Filastln transferred
by God to Arabia following Abraham's prayer (Kur'an,
XIV, 37). Many dams were constructed around al-
Ta'if, among them one placed some 32 km/20 miles
north-east of al-Ta'if which was built by Mu'awiya I.
A Kufic inscription dates its construction to 58/677-8
(G.C. Miles, Early Islamic inscriptions near Ta'if in the
Hyaz, in JNES, vii [1948], 236-42; A. Grohmann,
Arabic inscriptions, Louvain 1962, 56-8; M. Khan and
A. Al-Mughannam, Ancient dams in the Ta'if area 1981
(1401), in Atlal, vi [1982], 125-35, at 129-31). The dam,
in the construction of which no mortar or mud were
used, is still in good condition.

The Ta'if area produced excellent honey, and the
Liyya valley was famous for its pomegranates. But
grapes were probably the most important product of
the local economy. These figure prominently in the
myth about the eponym of the Thakif. He was adopted
by an old Jewess in WadI al-Kura [q.v.], who gave
him vine twigs which he later planted in the Wadjdj
valley. Naturally, there developed in al-Ta'if a wine
industry. A list of tavern-keepers in Ibn al-Kalbl's
A'. al-Mathalib includes two Ta'iffs who had partners
from the KurashI Banu Umayya. One of them was
Abu Maryam al-SalulI [see salul, at vol. VIII, 1004b].
Being a tavern-keeper, Abu Maryam had links with
women of ill-repute [cf. bicha', in Suppl.] and at the
time of Mu'awiya he testified that Abu Sufyan for-
nicated with Sumayya. The testimony was given in
support of the claim that Ziyad b. Ablhi [q.v.] (as he
was pejoratively called after the Umayyad period) was
Abu Sufyan's son (cf. U. Rubin, al-Walad li-l-firdsh: on
the Islamic campaign against "zina", in SI, lxxviii [1993],
5-26, at 13-15).

Al-Ta'if supplied, and still supplies, most of Mecca's

demand in fruit, hence it was called "the orchard of
the haram" (i.e. of Mecca). Rich Kurashls developed,
already before Islam, large estates in the valleys sur-
rounding al-Ta'if. Their water supply was possibly
based on underground irrigation canals [see kanat].
Among the Kurashl properties in the vicinity of al-
Ta'if, the best known is al-Waht, which is located in
the Wadjdj valley. 'Amr b. al-'As's [q.v.] father already
owned this estate before Islam. 'Amr himself further
developed it and it remained a source of fabulous
revenues for his offspring. At the time of Mu'awiya,
the governor of al-Ta'if, who was the caliph's brother,
tried to seize this estate from 'Amr's son, 'Abd Allah
(M. Lecker, The estates of 'Amr b. al-'As in Palestine: notes
on a new Megev Arable inscription, in BSOAS, lii [1989],
24-37, at 25-6).

Al-Ta'if used to have a famous tanning industry
and the Ta'ifl shoes, for example, were known for

theii

ality.

■side the Thakif, al-Ta'if was also inhabited by
members of other tribes, mainly tribes of the Kays
'Aylan [q.v.] (for an up-to-date report on the tribes
in al-Ta'if and its vicinity, see al-'Arab [Riyad], xiv/
1-2 [June-July 1979], 42-73).

Most of al-Ta'if 's inhabitants before Islam were
idol worshippers and one of the major deities of pre-
Islamic Arabia, al-Lat [q.v.], was situated there. Some
of al-Ta'if 's inhabitants were Christians. Those who
considered the famous physician, al-Harith b. Kalada
[q.v. in Suppl.], a Dhimml (cf. G. Hawting, The devel-
opment of the biography of al-Harith ibn Kalada.. ., in The
Islamic World... essays in honor of Bernard Lewis, ed.
C.E. Bosworth et alii', Princeton 1989, 127-40, at 128),
probably had in mind Christianity. In the first decades
of the Islamic era, the Ta'if district (mikhlaf) was
inhabited by Jews who had been expelled from the
Yemen and Yathrib. Mu'awiya bought his estates in
al-Ta'if from one of them.

The high standard of living enjoyed by the Ta'ifls
before Islam and during its early period was accom-
panied by a level of literacy which was no lower than
that found in Mecca. Consequently, many literate Ta'ifis
could easily be recruited by the administration. The
self-evident link between literacy (including arithmetic
skills) and administration can be demonstrated by de-
tails from the biographies of the two most famous ex-
Ta'ifls, Ziyad b. Ablhi and al-Hadjdjadj b. Yusuf
[q.v.]. The former, whose mother was a slavegirl, was
nevertheless educated in the kuttdb [q.v.] of Djubayr
b. Hayya. Djubayr became a dlwan secretary in 'Irak
and then his ex-pupil, Ziyad, made him governor of
Isfahan. As to al-Hadjdjadj, he was a former teacher, a
shortcoming which his enemies did not fail to mention.
Bibliography (in addition to references given in
the article): H. Lammens, La cite arabe de Ta'if a la
veille de I'higiu, in MFOB, viii (1922), 113-327; M.J.
Kister, Some reports concerning al-Ta'if mJSAI, i (1979),
1-18, repr. in idem, Studies in Jahiliyya and early
Islam, Variorum, London 1980, no. XI; H. Gaube,
M. Scharabi and G. Schweizer, Taif. Entwicklung,
Stmktur und tradilionelle Architektm emer arabischen Stadt
im Umbruch, Wiesbaden 1993. (M. Lecker)

TA'IFA (A.), pi. tawa'if means in general "a group,
party corapan) of men as in Kur an \\I\
2 in later usage often i professional or trade group
corporation the equivalent of sinj [q i ] and in later
mediaeval and modern usage a religious or sectar
lan group whence la ifina [q i ] sectarianism confes
sionahsm Here the extended usage from gioup
to its sense in Sufi mvstiosm will be considered
since Sufis used the term in contexts conformable to

the words basic meaning of "group", dfama'a, or "part
of a whole", gjuz' (see L'A, Beirut 1988, viii, 223).

From the 3rd/9th century, Muslim religious spirits
affirmed their specificity by calling themselves by the
all-encompassing term al-ta'ifa, abbreviated from ta'ifat
al-kawm "the group of the men of God" or "community
of spiritual persons". The term ta'ifa is in this context
often preceded by the demonstrative hadhihi (see e.g.
al-Kushayrf, Risala, Damascus 1988, 36; al-HudjwIrl,
K'ashf al-mahdfiib, Ar. tr. Beirut 1 980, passim). Sometimes,
al-kawm is found tout court. These expressions certainly
reflect an allusive style favoured by Sufis, but their
usage can also be explained by the fact that these
persons were not yet differentiated into separate ways.
Moreover, in certain regions, they were only to des-
ignate themselves as Sufis quite late. The Baghdad
master al-Djunayd (d. 298/911) thus received a nick-
name which was never to leave him, sc. sayyid al-ta'ifa
"master of the Muslim religious spirits" (see e.g. al-
Kushayn, 430; al-HudjwIrl, 419). It was with this ge-
neric sense in view that Ibn al-'Arabl used the term
ta'ifa preceded by the definite article al- (al-Futuhat
al-makkiyya, ed. O. Yahia, e.g. iv, 55,85, 190, 319).
On the other hand, the use of the indefinite form
goes back, in his usage, to the most common mean-
ing of the word, that of religious community or group
(op. cit., iv, 191-2, 276, etc.). Sufis continued to view
themselves as and to be called al-ta'ifa in later times
(cf. Ibn Khaldun, Shifa' al-sa'il li-tahdhib al-masa'il,
Tunis 1991, 183; Ibn Hadjar al-Haytaim, d. 974/1566,
al-Fatawa al-hadithiyya, Beirut n.d., 53).

In the 6th7 12th "and 7th/ 13th centuries, the emer-
gence of spiritual lines claiming spiritual descent from
the eponymous masters brought into being a second
usage of the term, which eventually supplanted the
first one, sc. that of a particular Sufi order, distinct
from the others, or also, in a similar fashion, one of
the professional guilds of the futuwwa [q.v.] . This par-
titive sense appears in the expression al-ta'ifa min
al-fukara' "groups of those poor for God's sake" used
by Ibn Khallikan in regard to the Rifa'i dervishes
(ed. 'Abbas, i, 171). Already, al-HudjwIrl (d. 465/1072)
had used the term to distinguish several groups of
mystics by their attitude over agreement to the divine
will (al-ridd), but here it is a question merely of spir-
itual modalities (Kasjif, 405). In future, ta'ifa was to
incarnate the organic dimension of Sufism. In the
sources, it is used concurrently with tanka [q.v.], with
the two terms often being used indifferently; but the
second one had nevertheless a wider signification.

In later Sufism — in general, from the beginning of
the 8th/ 14th century — the term was used in a con-
crete sense for every branch issuing through ramifi-
cation from a mother-torffaz. This branch would assume
its own autonomy, or this was accorded by the shaykh
of the original tanka; it likewise acquired a specific
name from its initiator. In general, the ta'ifas formed
small-sized orders with a local or regional basis, this
being notably true for the Arab East (L. Pouzet,
Damas au VIP/ XIII' siecle, Beirut 1988, 209, 229;
E. Geoffrey, Le soufisme en Egypte et en Syne sous les
demiers Mamelouks et les premiers Ottomans, Damascus
1995, 276-7) and for the Sufi communities of the
Moroccan South (M Kably, Societe, pouvoir et religion
au Mane a la fin du Moyen \ge Paris 1986) or al-Andalus
(see the introd by R Perez to Ibn Khaldun, La voie
et la loi Pans 1991 26) A ta'ifa which prospered
could in turn give birth to a "sub-branch" and so
on In order to establish their legitimacy, these
branches sometimes placed the name of the original
order in their form of identity.

For J.S. Trimingham, the ta'ifa is characteristic of
the third and last stage of Sufism, during which the
mystical orders provided themselves with a fairly
elaborate organisation; he dates this phase from the
9th/ 15th century, when the Ottoman emphe was con-
stituted (The Sufi orders in Islam, Oxford 1971, 67, 103).
But this idea of things, adopted by researchers work-
ing on the brotherhoods at the piesent time (see e.g.
Les ordres mystiques dans I'lslam, ed. G. Veinstein and
A. Popovic,' Paris 1986, 8, 167, 300), corresponds only
partially to reality. In practice, the mateiial stiucture
of Sufism in many cases only comes about from the
beginning of the 12th/ 18th century.

Bibliography: Given in the aiticle.

(E. Geoffroy)

TA'IFIYYA (a.) "confessionalism" (also tianslated
"sectarianism" by opponents), the system of propor-
tional political power-sharing between diffeient reli-
gious groups (tamd'if, sing, ta'ifa) practiced in the
Republic of Lebanon since the French mandate (1922-
43). According to Art. 95 of the Lebanese constitu-
tion of 1926, it was designed as "a temporary measuie
to assuie a just representation of all Lebanese sects
[the most important being Sunni", Twelver Shr'r and
Druze Muslims and Maronite, Gieek Orthodox and
Greek Catholic Christians] in public offices and in
the formation of cabinets". Its precursors in Ottoman
I^abal Lubncln have been councils representing the six
major sects during the regime of the double ka'im-
makamas 11843-60) and the mutasamfiyya (1861-1915)

Propoitional representation of the sects in parlia-
ment was not mentioned in the constitution prior to
1990. From independence (1943) to the last pre-civil-
war elections (1972), a ratio of six to five in favour
of the Christian sects was maintained in diffeient elec-
toral laws. The ieservation of key-offices foi membeis
of specific sects (Maronite head of state, Sunni prime
ministei, ShrT president of parliament and other stip-
ulations) has been based on unwritten agreements since
the 1930s and confirmed in the unwritten National
Pact of 1943. Their validity has been increasingly
challenged by both Muslim and leftist or Arab nation-
alist Christian political groups since the late 1960s,
many of them demanding the complete abolishment
of political confessionalism. The refusal of Maronite
political leaders to consider a reform of the confes-
sionalist system was one of the causes for the out-
break of the Lebanese civil war (1975-90).

Following the Ta'if Accord adopted by the remain-
ing members of the 1972 Lebanese parliament on 22
October 1989, Art. 95 of the constitution was amended
with validity from 21 September 1990. It henceforth
stipulates a gradual abolishment of political confes-
sionalism, starting with the lower echelon of the civil
service and the armed forces, while representation of
Muslims and Christians in the parliament and in cab-
inets must remain equal during an unspecified interim
period. New electoral laws in 1992 and 1996 have
both maintained the principle of confessional propor-
tionality (64 Christians, i.e. 34 Maronites, 15 Greek
Orthodox, 7 Greek Catholic, 6 Armenians, 2 mem-
bers of other Christian minorities; 64 Muslims, i.e.
27 Sunnts, 27 ShrTs, 8 Druzes, 2 'Alawfs).

Bibliography: Edmond Rabbath, La formation his-

tonque du Liban politique et constitutionnel, Beirut 1973;

Abdo I. Baaklini, Legislative and political development:

Lebanon, 1842-1972, Durham, North Carolina 1976;

Fu'ad Shatnn, al-Ta'ifiyya fi Lubnan. Hadiruha

wa-dfudhurulia al-ta'rikhi wa l-idjtima'i, Beirut 1980;

Georges Charaf, Communautes et pouvoir au Liban,

Beirut 1981; Muhammad Ahmad Tarhinr, al-Usus
al-ta'rikhma h-mzam Lubnan al-ta'ifi, Beirut 1981;
Mas'ud Dahir, al-L^udhur al-ta'rikhma li 'l-mas'ala
al-ta'fiyra al-lubnamyya 1697-1861, Beirut 1981; Yusuf
Kuzma Khurl, a'l-Ta' ifiyya fi Lubnan nun khildl
munakashat madflis al-nuwwa'b 1923-1987, Beirut 1989;
P. Basile Basile, Statut personnel et competence judictaire
des communautes canfesnonelles au Liban, Kaslik 1993;
Antoine Nasri Messara, Theone generate du systeme poli-
tique hbanais, Paris 1994. (A.' Rieck)
al-TA'IR, al-TAYR (a.), any being or thing which
is able to live or to fly above the ground level, either
as a matter of function or for finding sustenance.
Hence immense numbers of insects and birds are
covered by the doublet ta'irltayr (pis. tuyiii, atyilr).
Moreover, with the advent of modern inventions, the

i for ;

ty ma.

living { tayaran), and the flight of such contrivances as
aeroplanes and airships (tayyara, tci'lra), space ships and
rockets and planetary satellites launched from an air-
field (matar). By analogy, tayyaia can also denote a
swiftly-running ship.

Amongst the birds, certain ones are formed by tayi
plus an annexed complement. Thus amongst the most
current, one finds t. al-md' for waterfowl; t. al-timsah
"crocodile bird" for the Egyptian plover (Plavianus
aegyptius) which finds its food between the teeth of the

as the green woodpecker, sharakrak (Picus vmdis); t. al-
djamal "camel bird", for the ostrich; /. al-Iayl "night
bird" for the screech-owl; and t. al-harrath "tiller's
bird" for the lapwing and seagull. As for the /. al-
ababil mentioned in Kur'an, CV, 3, as having pelted
the aimv of Abraha when it was attacking Mecca
[see makka. 1], there are various views: some take
them to be swifts lApus apus) or swallows [Hirundo im-
hca), and others, bats. One might finally mention the
t. Sulayman "Solomon's bird", which is considered to
be the hoopoe [Upupa epops).

Amongst Arabic writers on natural history, it is
really only al-Djahiz who treated at length of birds
and everything connected with ornithology and hunt-
ing with birds, in his K. al-Hayawan (see Bibl.). Amongst
the winged tribe, he distinguishes three categories: (a)
the baha'im al-tayr, plant and seed eaters; (b) the siba'
al-tayr, carnivorous raptors, including the tayr hurr
"noble birds" (falcon, goshawk, sparrow hawk), trained
for hunting by flight [see bavzara]; and (c) the murakkab
and mushtaiak, omnivorous birds like sparrows (Hayawan,
i, 28-9, v, 205-7).

Based on Kur'anic prescriptions, only game which
is winged (the pheasant, partridge, quail) and farm-
yard birds are lawful for human consumption.

In ichthyology, the tayra or murdfan is the Mynpnstis,
a small fish of the Mediterranean and Red Sea.

The diminutive tuwqyr "small bird" can also be
applied to butterflies, and the tuyun "bird seller" deals
in small cage birds (canaries, etc.).

Finally, in astronomy, al-Ta'ir denotes (a) the Swan,
the 20th northern constellation, and (b) the star Altatr
(from al-Nasi al-ta'ir "the flying vulture", sc. a Aquilae,
mg. 0.9, of the 17th northern constellation of Aquila.
Bibliography: Damm, Hayat al-hayawan al-kubra,
Cairo 1 928-9," ii, 91-5, s.v. 'tci'ir; Kazwinr, 'Adja'ib
al-makhlukat, on the margins of Damrrr, ii, 250-2;
A. Malouf, Mu'djam al-hayawan/An Arabic zoological
dictionary, Cairo 1932, passim; Djahiz, K. al-Hayawan,
Cairo 1947, passim; A. Benhamouda, Les noms aiaba
des Holies, in AIEO Alger, ix (1951), s.v. Altair;
P. Kunitzsch, Aiabnche Stemnamen in Europa, Wies-
baden 1959, 138-8 no. 52; H. Eisenstein, Emfuhrung

al-TA'IR — TAKBAYLIT

in die arabische Zoographie, Berlin 1990, index s.v.

Vogel, tair. (F. Vire)

TA'IZZ, now the main town in the southern high-
lands of the Yemen, some 195 km/ 120 miles south,
slightly west, of San'a' [q.v.] and about 140 km/88
miles north-west of Aden [see 'adan]. It is situated
at the foot of Djabal Sabir which rises to a height
of about 3,000 m/9,60b feet. Although the town is
mentioned during the Ayyubid period of Yemeni his-
tory (569-626/1173-1228) [see ayyubids], its main
development came under the Rasulids (628-845/1230-
1441 [q.v.]), who made the town their capital. It seems
that Ta'izz was originally a settlement in the region
of al-Djanad, the seat of the early Islamic governors
in the area, possibly until its rise and growth in the
RasQlid era, and that thereafter right down to the
present day al-Djanad was a settlement in the region
of Ta'izz.

Our knowledge of Ayyubid Ta'izz comes in the
main from Ibn al-Mudjawir, a traveller from the east
who wrote in the early years of the 7 th/ 13th century
(Ta'rikh al-Mustabsir, ed. O. Lofgren, Leiden 1951-4).
He comments (144-5) that the coffers (khizana) of the
port of Aden were taken up each year to the fortress
of Ta'izz, four of them in all, containing the income
of the ships arriving in Aden from India, that from
the entry of madder (fuwwa) into the port, that of
the export of horses to India and that of the ships
travelling to India. Each one contained approximately
150,000 dinars. This practice came to an end in 625/
1227. The fortress itself is described by Ibn al-
Mudjawir on p. 156. It was strong, built of gypsum
and stones and with firm gates and walls. It was a
stronghold placed between two towns, al-Maghriba
and 'Udayna, the latter at the foot of Sabir. A plan
of Ta'izz follows the description on p. 157 of Lofgren's
edition. Ibn al-Mudjawir also mentions the water sup-
ply of Ta'izz (159) which came down from Djabal

The first RasQlid ruler to enlarge and develop Ta'izz
was al-Malik al-Muzaffar Yusuf, the second sultan of
the dynasty, who in 653/1255 made the town the
RasQlid capital. With the expansion of the town, the
RasQlid rulers over the years built in particular fine
mosques and madrasas, many of which can still be
seen to this day. In particular, the Djami' al-Muzaffar
(the founder dying in 694/1295) and the Ashrafiyya
dating from al-Ashraf, regn. 778-803/1377-14Q-

the r

mposing i

d dominate the v

r the

n. IsmaTl al-Akwa' (al-Madaris al-Islamiyya ji 'l-Yaman,
San'5' 1980) provides some good descriptions of a
number of such Rasulid monuments in Ta'izz and
traces also their historical background.

Ta'izz was visited during the Rasulid period in
779/1377 by Ibn Battuta (Travels, ii, tr. H.A.R. Gibb,
Hakluyt Society, Cambridge 1962, 369 ff.) and de-
scribed in some detail. He found the inhabitants ". . .
overbearing, insolent and rude", though perhaps no
more so than is usual in capital cities! He further
mentions three quarters: [al-Maghriba], where was the
residence of the sultan, and where his courtiers and
civil servants live; 'Udayna, where the sultan's amirs
and troops live; and al-Mahalib, where the common
people live and where the market is situated. He says
much about the ceremonial of the RasQlid court.
Other later visitors to Ta'izz included Niebuhr in
1763, Glaser in the late 19th century and Hugh Scott
in 1937.

In the Rasulid context, it should perhaps be men-
tioned that the small village of Tha'bat on the slopes
of Sabir provided a peaceful retreat for a number of

the sultans (see G.R. Smith, The Yemenite settlement of
Tha'bat: historical, numismatic and epigraphic notes, in Arabian
Studies, i [1974], 119-35).

In 1948, Imam Ahmad Hamid al-Dln left the pre-
vious capital, San'a', and moved to Ta'izz. All for-
eign missions and consulates were also established in
the town. It was not until 1962, the time of the rev-
olution in northern Yemen, that San'a' regained her
old position as capital of the Yemen Arab Republic
which replaced the Mutawakkilr kingdom under the
Harmd al-Dins. The importance of Ta'izz, however,
as the chief town of the southern highlands of the
Yemen (perhaps because of its geographical position
in relation to the ports of Mocha and Aden and to
the capital of the country, San'a') and the capital of
ShafiT north Yemen, has continued to this day.

Bibliography: Apart from the sources mentioned
in the text, see also KhazradjI, al-'Ukud al-lu'lu'iyya,
Leiden and London 1906-18, passim; Muhammad
b. Ahmad al-Hadjan, Madjrnu' buldan al-Taman wa-
kaba'ili-ha, ed. IsmaTl b. 'All al-Akwa', San'a' 1984,
145-55; Yusuf 'Abd Allah, Ta'izz, in al-Mawsu'a
al-Tamaniyya, ed. Ahmad Djabir 'ABf et ai, San'a'
1992, i, 240-2. For the RasQlid monuments of
Ta'izz, see the following articles in W. Daum (ed.),
Yemen: 3000 years of art and civilisation in Arabia Felix,
Innsbruck 1988: R. Lewcock, The medieval architec-
ture of Yemen; Venetia Porter, The art of the Rasulids;
and Barbara Finster, The architecture of the Rasulids.

(G.R. Smith)
al-TAKA [see kasala].

TAKBAYLIT, a dialect of Tamazight or
Berber. It is spoken in Kabylia, one of the four
Berberophone areas of Algeria, and a mountainous
region at about 30 km from Algiers and compre-
hending roughly the area between Thenia and Collo
along the Mediterranean sea to the Jurjura Mountains
in the south. The numerical percentage of Berber-
speaking people in Algeria has not been properly
established, but there is a general agreement to esti-
mate the Tamazight-speaking people to be about 20%
of the population (see Chaker 1989). The Takbaylit
speakers should number in the region of three mil-
lion, a moderate figure taking into account the high
rate of emigrants from Kabylia in Algiers and France.
The denomination Takbaylit probably derives from
the Arabic kaba'il "tribes" [see Kabila], but it is dif-
ficult to trace whether, and if so when, the people
in the area now called Kabylia adopted a common
name for the whole region. Today, the terms Lekbayel
("Kabyles") and Takbaylit, Imazighen ("Free men") and
Tamazight are used by the people to define themselves
and their language. This is linked to the development
of a sense of community which, previously based on
a village or a confederation of villages, now comes
to include all the Kabyle region with an extension to
the other Tamazight-speaking areas.

The general description of the Berber language [see
Berbers] applies to Takbaylit notwithstanding some
specific traits of this dialect. Phonetically, Takbaylit is
characterised by the presence of affricadves and by
the spirantisation of the short occlusives. The long-
term contiguity with Arabic-speaking areas has affected
the Takbaylit lexicon, which has about 35% of bor-
rowings' from Arabic (see Chaker 1984, 82, 216-29).
Until the last century, Takbaylit was a spoken lan-
guage while Arabic script was used by a limited num-
ber of religious literates. A system for writing Takbaylit
was developed in Latin script during the French coloni-
sation of Algeria. The colonial school, however, did
not stimulate the acquisition of literacy in Kabyle.

TAKBAVLIT — TAKDIR

Similarly Berber did not find a place in the compul-
sory education system of independent Alpena where
Arabic and French were taught The present diffu
sion of literacy in Takbaylit has resulted from acad-
emic and associated activities that have found logistic
and cultural support in the lands of Kabvle emigra-
tion 1 e France Canada Belgium and the United
States The recent creation of the High Commission
for Amazigh-ness (1995) after years of demonstra
tions and demands of recognition for Takbaylit in par-
ticular and Tamazight in general has marked a change
in the Mgenan language pohcv

The literary production in Takbaylit compnses oral
wutten and audio-visual genres Historical changes
have modified the social and cultural functions of the
oral production but the oral genres are still appre-
ciated in Kabyha and in Kabyle emigrant circles A
prestigious genre is the asefiu a sonnet of nine verses
grouped in three strophes rhyming according to the
scheme AAB Beautiful examples of this genre are the
isefia (pi form) of the famous poet Si Mohand ou
Mhand (see Boulifa 1904) Anothei poetic genre is
the so-called izli a song of two or thiee couplets in
rhyme The production of this genre is anonymous
(see \acine 1988) The lyric genres usually give voice
to individual desires and hopes while a normative
discourse is expressed in the narrative genres For
example the tiqsidm are long narratives in verse re-
counting the adventures of Muslim heroes and saints
the tidyanin are aetiological legends about animals
while the limmuha narrate the adventures of heroes
and heroines who assert the moral and symbolic organ-
isation of the conventional Kabyle souetv (see Lacoste-
Dujaidin 1970)

Turning to the written production texts in Takbaylit
were written by Si Amar ou Said Boulita already at
the begin of the centurv while in the 1940s some
nationalist Kabyle songs had a written origin Les
cahiers de Belaid by Belaid Ait Mi |19b3l is however
considered to be the first literary work written in
Kabyle This work includes the authors personal ver-
sions of timuiuha and narratives spanning the folk
story the novel and the autobiography Since the
1970s many collections of poems written in Kabyle
have been published and six novels in Kabyle have
appeared the first being As/el or Ritual sacrifice by
Rachid Miche (Lvon Federop 1981)

Genres produced in the audio-visual mode l e
supported by technical means of lecording, are also
newcomers on the scene The so-called modern song
is the most important genre as to the amount of pro-
duction and public acclaim The continuity between
modern songs and oral poetry is indubitable but
modifications in music and themes are ilso remark-
able The assertion of Kabyle identity is a pivotal ele-
ment of the modern songs but singers such as *Vjt
Manguellet Idir and D|ura are also radical in then

of S(

The language used in the recent produc
actensed by lexical borrowings trom French and by
neologisms derived from other Berber dialects Synt
tic interactions between Kabyle and French occui
the written genres (see Abrous 1991) Conversely the
Kabvle mother tongue punctuates novels and poen
written in French by authors such as Taos and Jea
Amrouche Tahar D|aoud Nabile Fares Mouloud
Mammen and manv others Taking into consideration
the process of literacy acquisition in Kabyha the works
produced in Kabyle and those written in French by
Kabyle authors should be seen in the tramework of an
encompassing Kabyle literary space (see Merolla 1995)

Bibliography D Abrous Quelgues remarques a
propos du passage a I ecnt in Actes du Collogue Interna-
tional Unite et Diiemte de Tamazight Ghardaia 20-21
Ainl, Algieis 1991 1-14 Belaid Ait Mi Les cahiers
de Belaid, ed JM Dallet and JL Degezelle Fort
National (Algeria) 1963 Si Amar ou Boulifa Recuetl
de poesies kabylts Mgiers 1904, S Chaker Textes en
hnsruistiqut berbere CNRS Pans 1984 S Chaker,
Berberes aupurdhui Pans 1989 G Lacoste-Dujardin,
Le contt kabyle Etude ethnologique Pans 1970, D Me-
rolla Petit on pallet dun espaie litteraire kabylP, in Etudes
et Documentation Berberes xm (1995), 5-25 T \acine
litouh Lizli ou lamout chante en kabyle Pans 1988.

(Daniela Merolla)
TAKBIR (a) verbal noun of form II from the

the formula Allahu akbar It is already used in
this sense in the Kur'an (e g LXXIV, 3 XVII 1 1 1
with God as the object) On the different explana-
tions of the elative akbai in this formula see LA, s.v.,
and the Kur'anic elative akram also applied to God
\CVI 3) and a'la (XCII 20 LXXXVII 1)

The formula as the briefest expression of the
absolute supenontv of the One God is used in Muslim
life in different cncumstances in which the idea of
God His greatness and goodness is suggested When
Muhammad had learned by supernatural means of
the death of the Nadjashi in Abyssinia he proclaimed
the news to those around him arranged them in rows
on the Musalla and had a takbir pronounced four
times (al-Bukhan Djana iz bah 4 55 bl) On other
occasions also Muhammad is said to have called the
takbv four or five times over a funeral bier (Muslim,
Djana'iz trad 72) The tourfold takbir remained or
became usual at the salat for the dead (al-Shirazi,
Kitab alTanbih ed AWT Juynboll 47) The adhan
[g i] is also opened with a tourfold takbir

The Prophet is said to have uttered very frequently
the lakbn during the Hadjdj at the beginning ( Mimad
b Hanbal Mumad n 144) dunng (al-Bukhan DJihad,
babs 132 133 but not too loudly, bab 131) and at
the end of the journey (Ibn Hanbal u 5) at the
sight of the Ka'ba (ibid m 320) at the Black Stone
[ibid i 2b4) between Mina and 'Aiafa (al-Bukhan,
Haqjdj bab 86) on Safa and Marwa (Ibn Hanbal, iii,
320) etc

The takbir is prescnbed bv the law at the beginning
ot the salat (the so-called takbirat al ihram) during the

Bibliography the dictionaries sv kbi T.P.
Hughes A dictionary of Islam 629 Th V\ Juynboll,
Handleiding 61 65 A J \\ ensmck A handbook of early
Muhammadan tradition s v Constance E Padwick,
Muslim delations repr Oxford 1996 29-3b see also

SALAT III 8 (A J WENSINGK)

TAKDIR (a ) verbal noun of the form II verb
kaddara used variously as a technical term

(a) The predominant meaning of takdir is "the
imaginary utterance which the speaker intends as if
he were saving it, when expressing a given literal
utterance This definition needs some elucidation.

In this meaning takdir is a grammatical technical
term belonging to the terminologv ot one of the main
theories of Arabic gi ammar which we may call here
the theory of takdir Since Arabic texts on gram-
mar do not include any systematic discussion of this
theory its principles and notions as well as the sense
of its terminology must be inferred from the data
found in these texts

The theory of takdir is based on the notion of al-

Khalll, Sibawayhi's teacher, that, when pronouncing
given utterances, the speaker simultaneously intends
that it is as if he were expressing another utterance,
differing in construction, but not in its intended mean-
ing from his literal utterance (see Slbawayhi, ii, 137,
11. 8-15). Thus, when the speaker expresses a given
literal utterance, a corresponding imaginary utterance
exists in his mind. If we mark the literal utterance
by X and its corresponding imaginary utterance by
Y, we can say that the main notion of the theory of
takdir is that the speaker intends, or imagines, that
when he says X it is as if he were saying Y. For
example, the grammarians hold that when saying
Zayd"" ft l-dari (= X) "Zayd is in the house", the
speaker intends that it is as if he were saying Z"yd""
istakarra fi 'l-dari (= Y) lit. "Zayd has made his abode
in the house". The imaginary utterance Z a yd m istakarra
ft l-dari is given the name takdir.

The notion of takdir was created by the grammar-
ians in order to solve a theoretical difficulty, and they
apply it when they find that the literal construction
of a given utterance does not accord with one of
their theories. E.g. the later grammarians, from the
10th century onwards, believe that the prepositions
called huruf al-djarr are connective particles which can
only connect a verb or a participle with a noun, as
in the example insaraftu 'an Zflyd" "I went away from
Zayd" (see Levin, in JS.il, x~ 359-60). Since the lit-
eral construction of the utterance Zayd"" ft 'l-dari does
not include a verb, the particle fi apparently connects
a noun with another noun. Hence the grammarians
assume that when the speaker says Zayd 1 " ft 'l-dari,
he intends to say Zayd"" istakarra ft l-dari. In this imag-
inary utterance, the particle fi connects the unex-
pressed verb istakarra with the noun al-dar, thus bringing
the construction of the imaginary utterance called
takdir into line with the theory that huruf al-djarr can
only connect a verb or a participle with a noun.

It can be inferred from the sources that, in the
grammarians' view, the relevant construction as far as
grammatical analysis is concerned is that of the imag-
inary utterance (- al-takdir) and not that of the literal
one (- al-lafi), since it is the construction of the former
which exists in the speaker's mind. This notion led
the grammarians to believe that an imaginary construc-
tion, which accords with their theories, enables the
occurrence of a non-according literal utterance.

(b) It can be inferred that the grammarians assume
takdir to exist in the speaker's mind in the following
four cases:

(i) When they hold that a given part of the sen-
tence is unexpressed by the speaker since it is "con-
cealed" in his mind. In the grammarians' terminology,
the unexpressed part of the sentence is usually called
mudmar "concealed in the mind" (see e.g. Slbawayhi,
i, 32, 1. 2; 42, 1. 9), but sometimes it is denoted by
the full form of the term, which is mudmar ft 1-niyya
"concealed in the mind [of the speaker]" (see e.g.
ibid., i, 106, 11. 12-14), mudmar fi niyyatika (i, 131, 11.
12-14), and mudmar fi nafsika "concealed in your mind"
(Ibn Djinm, al-Khasa'is, i, 103, 11. 11-12). It is also
called mukaddar "intended [in the mind of the speaker]"
(see e.g. Ibn Ya'ish, i, 820, 1. 8), and rarely also
mukaddar ft 1-niyya "intended in the mind" (al-Djurdjam,
i, 275, 1. 3), and mukaddar fi kalbika, lit. "intended in
your heart" (al-Sirafi, according to Jahn, i, 2, 74, n. 7).

The considerations leading the grammarians to hold
that a given part of the sentence is concealed in the
speaker's mind are usually grammatical, but sometimes
they are both grammatical and semantic. Frequently,
they say that a given part of the sentence is unex-

pressed in the literal c
not include a word which can serve as an 'amil, i.e.
as a factor producing the case-ending of a given noun,
or a mood-ending of an imperfect verb. Thus, e.g.,
Ibn Ya'ish says concerning the sentence Zayd"" darab-
tuhu "Zayd (ace.) I hit him": wa-takdiruhu darabtu Zayd"
darabtuhu "That which the speaker intends [when
saying Zayd" darabtuhu] is darabtu Zayd™ darabtuhu (lit.
"I hit Zayd, I hit him)" (Ibn Ya'ish, i, 199, 6). The
form darabtu, occurring at the beginning of the takdir
is unnecessary for understanding the lit-
Zqyd" darabtuhu, but grammatically it is
indispensable, since it is considered as the 'amil pro-
ducing the accusative in Zayd".

(ii) The grammarians believe that there are given
utterances that include a "superfluous" part. In this
case they assume that a corresponding imaginary utter-
ance (- takdir) which does not include this "super-
fluous" part, exists in the speaker's mind. E.g. some
grammarians hold the view that in a sentence con-
taining a badal, the noun which is "replaced" by the
badal {- al-mubdal minhu) does not occur in the takdir
construction. E.g. in the sentence ma dja'ani ahad""
ilia Zpyd"" "Nobody came to me except Zayd", Zayd" 1
is the badal of ahad"". In referring to this example, al-
Mubarrad says: fa-yasiru 'l-takdxru ma dja'ani ilia Zayd"
"the takdir [construction] [of the above utterance] is
ma dja'ani ilia Zayd"" (al-Mubarrad, iv, 394, 11. 5-6).
Al-Mubarrad's illustration of this takdir derives from
the notion that each verb can produce the nomina-
tive in one subject only. Since in the literal con-
struction of ma dja'ani ahad"" ilia Zqyd"", the verb
dja'a is supposed to produce the nominative both in
ahad"" and in Z a yd"", al-Mubarrad assumes that, when
expressing this utterance, the speaker intends that it
is as if he were saying ma dja'ani ilia Zayd""- Thus
the takdir construction contains only one nominative
(Zayd") which is affected by the verb dja'a. Note that
in this case the takdir construction is snorter than the

(iii) The grammarians further believe that, in cer-
tain syntactic constructions, the literal word-order of
the utterance differs from that intended by the speaker.
This view is usually expressed when the literal word-
order does not accord with one of the principles of
the theory of the 3rd person pronoun. E.g. in refer-
ring to the Bedouin proverb fi baytihi yu'ta 'l-hakamu
"The arbitrator must be met in his home", Ibn al-
Sarradj says that this utterance is grammatically per-
missible li-anna 'l-takdir yu'ta 'l-hakamu fit baytihi "because
what the speaker intends [when saying fi baytihi yu'ta
1-hakamu] is yu'ta 'l-hakamu fi baytihi (Ibn al-Sarradj,
ii, 238, 1. 17-239, 1.1). He expresses this view since
the word-order of the literal utterance contradicts
one of the main principles of the theory of the 3rd
person pronoun, namely, that this pronoun cannot
precede its antecedent (see Levin, in JSAI, xii, 40-3).
However, in fi baytihi yu'ta 'l-hakamu the pronoun -hi
precedes its antecedent al-hakamu. This theoretical dif-
ficulty is solved by contending that the takdir of this
utterance is yu'ta l-hakamufi baytihi. Since in the takdir
construction existing in the speaker's mind, the pro-
noun -hi does not precede its antecedent, its word-
order accords with the grammarians' theory of the
3rd person pronoun.

(iv) The grammarians also believe that, when utter-
ing given utterances, the speaker intends to express
another utterance, corresponding in sense to his lit-
eral utterance. This view is held when the literal con-
struction does not accord with one of the grammarians'
theories, or when it needs some theoretical elucida-

expre'

jf the sv

al-Mubairad savs about the example ma ahsana ^jjyd
How good lb Zavd 1 fa takdiruhu shay'un ahsana ^ayd
The utterance the speaker intends [when saving ma
ahsana ^jjyd ] is shay'un ahsana ^ayd (lit something
made Zavd [to be] good I (al-Mubanad iv 173 11
5-9) In al-Mubarrads view this takdir construction
provides evidence that ahsana is a past tense verb form
according to the pattern af'ala and not an accusative
elative form on this pattern is was held b) the gram-
marians ol al-kufa The significance of al Mubairad s
assumption that ma m the hteial constiuction is
regarded bv the speaker as equivalent to shay is that
ma like shay' is here i complete noun which does
not need anv complement (= sila) as opposed to ma

tive pronoun which needs a complement Since in
al-Mubarrad s view ma is a complete noun he deter
mines in his sv Mac tic analysis of ma ahsana Zjiyd tint
ma is virtuallv i nominative occuning as \ subject
(= mubtada' ) ahsana a verb piedicate of ma and ^jiyd"
the direct object of ahsana (see i\ 173 11 7-8)

The grammanans also applv the theorv of takdir
in the domains of phonetics and morphologv Thev
assume that certain vowels which do not occui in the
literal form of given words are intended in the speakers
mind The most salient example illustrating this notion
is that of nouns which cannot take the case-ending
vowels because oi then phonetic construction Here
the grammanans hold that the final sound of the
pausal foim of the noun which is an ahf(= a) includes
an implicit vowel which the speaker intends that it is
as if he were saving it Thus the final alf of the form
fata a voungster includes in implicit case-ending
vowel which is either a damma a Jatha oi a Kasra
according to the eftect of its 'arml (see Ibn Djinni Sin
n b07 11 3-7 cf al-Djurdjam i 10b 11 2-15 Ibn
7-15)

The data in the grammatical texts show Wans
brough s conclusion that the term takdir signifies iecon
struction or iestoration namelv oi a scnptual

context oi passage to be incorrect (see Wansbiough
m BSOiS xxxm [1970] 247 11 17-21 see also 248
11 3-5 259 11 21-5)

3 The process of inferring the takdir con-

I The

tahdi

The following aspects confnm the definition of
the term takdir given at the beginning of this article
(a) The hteial sense of takdir is that which somebodv
intends In this meaning takdir is a verbal noun in
the sense oi a passive participle of the verb kaddara
in the sense oi he intended (for kaddara in this sense
see Tahdhib ix 24\ 11 8-10 L'i v 7bB 11 10-12

or a passive participle see Sibawavhi n 242 11 3 b
Ibn \a c ish i 810 II 7-9) This literal sense of the
term takdir is attested bv the grammatical sources
Thus the great scholar \bu Hayvan al-&harnati (d
1344) notes that in grammatical terrmnologv the sense
oi takdir is the same as that of al myya (Abu Hayvan
147 11 5-b) This lemark is confirmed bv manv texts
where the forms takdir and myya correspond to each
other Similarly a correspondence is frequentl) found
i othei technical terms and phrases derived

a the r.

and n

(b) It can also be inferred that the technical phrase
ka annahu kala it is as if he [l e the speaker] were
saving corresponds to takdir (compare Ibn \a'ish l
199 1 b and Sibawavhi, l 32 1 lj

(c) A combination of the expressions takdir and ka
annahu kala sometimes occurs in the texts as in the
example takdiruhu ka annahu kala h I sami' That which
he [l e the poet] intended is as if he were saving to
the hearer (al-Djuidjam Dala'il 190 1 b which
is a source dealing with rhetoric) It seems safe to
assume that the expressions takdir and ka annahu kala
are in fact elliptical wavs of expressing the rare com-

ntended bv the

The takdir
inieired bv the gramman
struction expressed bv him The takdir of certain elhp
ticil sentences can be inferred from the circumstances
under which these sentences are expressed (see Ibn
Djinni alhhasa'is i 284 1 12-285 1 b)

The process of inferring the takdir is based on the
following principles (a) the sense of the takdir con-
struction must accoid with that oi the hteial one
(b) the takdir construction must agree with the pnn
ciples oi \rabic grammatical theorv and (c) the takdir

occms in speech (see ibid n 408 1 lb-409 1 8)

This survev of the teim takdir is based on data
gathered from grammatical texts The studv of the
term in texts from other domains such as thetonc
an poetrv needs

The teiminologv of the theorv of takdir consists oi
technical terms and phrases mainlv derived from the
loots k d r and n u. y However it also includes terms

and

' Phrase

a the i.

ix h m khy I and i a r also appear if rarelv The
technical terms and phrases derived fiom the above
loots aie discussed in detail in Levin al Takdir kudus
in irahu grammatual thought and terminology

5 Finallv it should be noted that \iabic gram-
matical terrmnologv includes some technical terms and
phrases derived from the root k d r which do not lefei
to the theorv of takdir (some of these are denoted bv
the form takdir itself ) The sense of these is com-
pletely difterent from that of their homonvms used in
association with this theorv For details see the above-
mentioned forthcoming book

Bibliography \zhan Tahdhib al lugha Cairo
19b4 7 Abu Hayvan Manhadj. al salik 4bu Hayyan s
commintary on the ilfiyya of Ibn Malik ed S Glazer
New Haven Conn 1947 <\bd al-kahir al
Djurdjam A al Muktasad fi sharh al Idah Baghdad
1982 idem Dala'il al faja^ Damascus 1407/1987
Ibn Djinni al Masa'is Beirut n d idem Sirr sina'at
ali'rab Damascus 1405/1985 Ibn al-Sarradj
A alUsulji Inahu. i al-Nadjaf 1973 n Baghdad
1973 Ibn \a'ish Ibn Ja'is' [sic] Commmtar z«
Zamathsati i Uujanal ed G Jahn Leipzig 1882-b
Jahn, Sibaaaihis Buch uber die Grammahk ubeisetj und
erklart ion Dr G Jahn 2 vols second pagination
Berlin 1985 A Levin Thi vims oj the irab gram

positions in JS4I x (1987), 342-b7 idem What is
meant by 'akalum 1-baraghithu? in JSil xu (1989)
140-b5 idem al- Takdir Studus in irabic gram
matical thought and tirminology (forthcoming) L'i al-
Mubanad A al Uuktadab Cairo 1385-8 Sibawavhi
Le Lion de Sibaaaihi ed H Derenbourg Pans
1881-9 J Wansbrough Mqa^ al Qur'an Periphrastic
exegesis in BS04S, xxxm (1970) 247-bb

Here it is used tor the process ot estimating the

hence the equivalent of takhmin, in the Arabic-Spanish
Vocabuhsta of Pedro de Alcala, apodar, afireciar See
Dozy, Supplement, u, 312-13, and misaha 1 iEd )

TAKFIR (a), the verbal noun from the form II
verb kaffara "to declare someone a kdjtr 01

unbel

1 defim

From earliest Islamic times onwards, this was an accu-
sation hurled at opponents by sectarians and zealots,
such as the Kharidjites [q.v.]; but a theologian like
al-Ghazali [q.v.] held that, since the adoption of
kufi was the equivalent here of apostasy, entailing the
death penalty [see murtadd], it should not be lightly-
made (Faysal al-tafrika bayn al-Islam wa 'l-zandaka, quoted
in B. Lewis, The political language of Islam, Chicago-
London 1988, 85-6). It has nevertheless continued
to be used into modern times, and forms part of
the vocabulary of abuse of modern Islamic funda-
mentalist groups, such as the Egyptian al-Takflr wa
'l-hidjra group [q.v.].

Bibliography: See that to kafir. (Ed.)

2. In West Africa.

The doctrine of takflr was first enunciated in the
West African context by Muhammad b. <Abd al-
Karim al-Maghill [q.v.] of Tlemcen, who answered
questions for Askiya al-hddjdj Muhammad b. Abi Bakr
[q.v.] of Songhay ca. 1498. Called on to make a judg-
ment on the previous ruler Sunni 'All Ber, he gave
a three-part definition of kufi: holding a belief which
is itself kufi. such as disavowal of the Creator or an
attribute of His without which He would not be
Creator, or the denial of prophecy; doing that which
is only done by an unbeliever even though the act
itself is not itself kufi, such as declaring wine-drink-
ing and adultery to be lawful; or uttering something
which it is known would only emanate from one who
does not know God. On this latter point he admits
there has been difference of opinion, notably about
the status of the Mu'tazila and other innovators (ahl
al bid'a) These positions are evidently based on the
views ot the kadi 'fyad b. Musa of Ceuta [q.v.]
(d 1149), as stated in his A'. al-Shifa'. In his treatise
on the status ot the Jews of Tuwat and their syna-
gogue (see Mubah al arwah ft usul al-faldh, ed. Rabih
Bunar, Algiers, 1968, 103), he also pronounces takflr
against those who befriend the Jews and encourage
or condone their ' rebellion against the laws", based
on a restrictive interpretation of Kur'an, V, 51.

Around the same time, another treatise was writ-
ten for Askiva al Hddjdj Muhammad by al-'Akib al-
Anusammani ot Takidda [q.v.] which, to judge by the
surviving fragment, also dealt extensively with takflr.
He classifies Muslims into several groups based on
the quality of their belief, of which the first four prob-
ablv correspond to perpetrators of the types of kufi
which he cites from the commentary of al-Kirmani"
on the Sahih of al-Bukhan: the kufi of unawareness
(al mkar) of denial (al-djuhud), of obduracy (al-mu'd-
nada), and of hypocnsv (al-nifdk) [see kafir].

In the 19th centurv the Fulani mudjaddid 'Uthman
b Muhammad Fodi>e (Fad!) (d. 1232/1817 [q.v.])
accused the Hausa sultans of kufi, using the argu-
ments ot al-Maghill to show that they ruled in such
a way as to give proof that they were unbelievers,
and that a djihad to overthrow them was incumbent.
These views are expounded in several of his works,
most notably Ta'lim al-ikhwan bi 1-umur allati kqffama

FIR wa l-HIDJRA

biha muluk al-sudan (tr. B.C. Martin, in MES, iv/1
[1967], 50-97). He and his son Muhammad Bello
[q.v.] also accused Muhammad al-Amin al-Kaneml,
Shehu [Shaykh] of Bornu [q.v.] similarly, in a lengthy
correspondence included in Bello's Infak al-maysur (ed.
C.J. Whitting, London 1951, 124-74). All of these
arguments were known to al-hadjdj 'Umar b. SaTd
al-Futi (d. 1280/1864), who used them against Ahmad
Lobbo, ruler of Masina, his most damaging criticism
being that the latter had come to the aid of the unbe-
lieving ruler of Segu [q.v.] against al-hadjdj 'LTmar.

In the 1970s in Nigeria, a general takflr was pro-
nounced against Sufis, and especially adherents of the
Tidjaniyya tanka, 'by the former Grand Kadi of Nor-
thern Nigeria Abu Bakr b. Mahmud Gumi (d. 1992),
on the grounds that Sufi beliefs and practices as a
whole are innovations tantamount to kufi. This evoked
many scholarly responses, the most detailed of which
is al-Takflr akhtar bid'a tuhaddid al-Islam wa 'l-wahda bayn
al-muslimin by Shaykh Sharif Ibrahim Salih of Maidu-
guri (publ. Cairo 1986).

Bibliography: Tyad b. Musa al-Yahsubl, A'. al-
Shifa' bi-ta'nf ixukuk al-Mustafa, ed. 'All Muhammad
al-Bidjawi, Cairo 1977, ii, 1065-87; J.O. Hunwick
(ed. and tr.), Shari'a in Songhay: the replies of al-Alaghili
to the questions of Askia al-hajj Muhammad, Oxford
1985, 72-4, 118-25; idem, Al-'Aqib al-Anusammam's
replies to the questions of Askiya al-hajj Muhammad: the
surviving fragment, in Sudanic Africa, ii (1991), 139-63;
Sidi Mohamed Mahibou and J.-L. Triaud, Voila ce
qui est arrive. Bayan ma waqa'a d'al-Hdgg 'Umar al-Futi,
Paris 1983. On the takflr of Sufis in Nigeria, see
ALA, ii, 550-59. (J.O. Hunwick)

al-TAKFIR wa 'l-HIDIRA (a.), the name of
one of several militant Islamic groups which
appeared in Egypt from the early 1970s onwards,
against the background of a material and spiritual cri-
sis. The name, literally meaning "charging [Muslims]
with unbelief, and emigration [from an un-Islamically
ruled state]" (reflecting two pillars of the group's ideol-
ogy), was given to it by the media, while its own
members called it djama'at al-muslimm "The Society of
Muslims".

Al-Takflr wa 'l-Hidjra was founded in 1971 by Shukrl
Mustafa, a former Muslim Brotherhood [see al-ikhwan
al-muslimun] activist disenchanted with the Brother-
hood's "moderation". Mustafa recruited mostly young
men and (a unique feature of this group) women,
of rural or urban lower middle-class background,
managing to attract as many as 2,000 to 3,000 adher-
ents by 1977. They were organised in a network
throughout the country's major cities and the coun-
tryside, with a hierarchy of command and rigid rules
of loyalty and discipline. Regarding Egyptian society
as corrupt and even atheist, the group sought to
detach itself from it, its members secluding themselves
from family, friends and society's institutions and mov-
ing to reside in communes. The authorities at first
considered them harmless, but arrested some of them
in 1976 and early 1977. In July 1977 the group
abducted the former Minister of Awkafl Muhammad
al-Dhahabi in order to gain the release of detained
members, then killed him when their demands were
not met. This led to a clampdown on the group,
including the arrest and subsequent execution of Shukrl
Mustafa and four other leaders, which devastated the
organisation.

The ideology of al-Takflr wa l-Hidjra comprised ele-
ments drawn from the teachings of Sayyid Kutb [q.v.]
and, through them, the Khawaridj [q.v.]. Central to
it was the idea of takflr, namely, the idea that Islamic

l-HIDJRA — TAKHMlS

society is a whole hid i everted to a state of unbe
lief or djakiliyya (other groups professing tahfir applied
it to the government only) Since society wis beyond
redemption the group advocated hidpa to wit dis
tincing itself fiom society is much as possible — from
its mosques its githenng phces its hibits ind cus
toms Ultimately the group would emignte to mother
country establish a punfied community theie then
return ind conquer the unbelieving society through
dphad I this modern concept of hidfra seems again to
hive been unique to this organisation! The group
;sed idjhhad that is independent judgement

s of i

. pern

pray

and r

ily behind

me of the conventional religious c
Alter the death of Mustafa the orgams

mbers 1
sed then

giated ^

ts fom

•mbers

,ay h

eion

i ideas in the 1980s

and 1990s

Bibliography Saad Eddin Ibiahim Anatomy o,
Egypt t militant Islamic groups mithodologual notts ant
preliminary findings in IJMES xu (December 1980)
423 53 G Kepel Muslim txtiemism in Egypt th,
Prophet and Pharaoh Berkeley 1986 70 102 and passim
zim Ramadan D,ama at al takfu ft Urn

commonly found in Arabic textbooks In the anthol
ogv Lubab al albab compiled in 1220 Awff [q ] uses
phrases like al mulahkab bi whenever he refeis to a
pen name This indicates that they weie regarded as
no more than a special case of the lakab [q ] which
still lacked a proper appellation of its own Only in
the Timund period does the semantic change appeal
to be fully completed as it is attested for instance
by the use ol takhallus in Diwhtshah s Tadhhrat al
shu am

One of the rare reports on the actual adoption of
a pen name is an anecdote telling how the Saldjuk
sultan Malik Shah [q i ] showed his appreciation lor
a t levei improvisation by permitting the poet Mu izzi
[q ] to choose a pen name based on one of his lakabt,
(Nizamiyi Arudi Cahar makala ed Tehran 1957
65 9) Such a denvation from the n.

een quit

s only

> 1995

eself e

In 1

Her.

iry 1

;ib] of the poly them
themes esp the panegyric

exit it miy be abiupt without any attem
paring what follows or effected brusquely
mulas such as da dha leave this (and speak on
something else) From Abbasid times onwards poets

a few lines serving as l hinge between the two sections
In a quisi-narrative takhallus the poet may turn lwiy
horn barren desett or hopeless love to kind and gen
erous patron \ cry often the takhallus is effected by
means of a simile oi metaphor involving i compari
son of the pation with a phenomenon described in
the pieceding e g [ He kissed me all night until]
Morning appeared with a blaze as bright is the caliph s
face when he is praised a line bv Muhammad b
Wuhavb often given as an example of husn al takhallus
C ntics from the time of Abu Ubav da [q i ] onw irds
have studied the takhallus numerous works on badi'
discuss hum al takhallus or husn al khurudf The school
of al Sakkaki and Djahl al Din al Razwini [q i ] con
sideis it with the beginning and the end of the poem
[see ibtid-v' and intiha'] as one of three places merit
ing particular attention

Bibhogiaphy Renate J icobi Studitn ^m Poetik
der altarabisihen Qaside Wiesbaden 1971 49 b5 GJ H
van Gelder Biyond th Ime Leiden 1982 passim
al Zu bi Mustalah al takhallus ft I nakd

arded Howevei oth
also be detected in pen names \ erv often they rehte
to abstract concepts images oi motifs which were
considered to be paiticularly poetic On the othei
hand there are also names indicating geogiaphical
origin tiades or religious affiliations Sometimes poets
c hinged their names m the course of then careeis or
used different names in poems written in diffeient
languages

The application of pen n lines to poetry is best
known from its use in the concluding passages of the
classical Persian gha^al [q ] In the early 6th/ 12th

howe

this

t fully

il Dirasi

il Isla

a Isla

2 In

994) 81 13
the sense

(GJH vai.
of pen name

GELDER)

In Pet

sian hteratu

attached

to takhallus a

nd the synonvmous

makhlas viz

that of a

pen name

as it was adopted

n particular

s a rhetorical devic

Pen nam

s were an element of the poet

from the

very beginn

ng but the semant

c change in

the term

takhallus mi

st have taken plac

paiatively

The Peisian rhetc

.mans only

n the sens

of a transition

established In the poetrv of Sana'i [q i ] for u
„,..„, it only occuis in less than one third of the ghazak
pre whereas pen names aie used with much greater fie
'—• quency in the kasidat At that time apparently lef
erences to the poet s own name were still a free
rhetorical deuce which could be applied to am form
ot poetrv eithei to mark a transition in a poem or
to add i personal touch to the poetical statement An
instance of each of these functions can be found in
the poem Madar i may by Rudaki [q i ] the oldest
complete kasida in Persian which has suivived As this
example shows the device was already well known to
eirly court poets This refutes the attempts (eg bv
E E Bertcl s ind A Ates) to seek its origin in the
rise of Sufi" poetrv Pen names were also used as struc
rural elements in didactical mathnaipii, of which the
convention introduced bv Nizami [q ] to conclude
each makala of his poem Makh^an al asiar with a
takhallus provides a clear example

Bibliography H Ethe m TE Colebrooke On
the proper namis of the Muhammadans in JRAS (1879)
233 5 J Rvpka it alu History of Iranian literature
Dordrecht 1968 99 (with tuithei refeiences) GJ
van Gelder Biyond the Ime Leiden 1982 143 JTP
de Bruyn The namt of the poet in Per Man poetry m
Proteedings of tht Third European Confereme of Iranian
Studies Cambridge Stpkmbei 1995 (forthcoming)

(JTP de Bruijni
TAKHMIS (a pi takhamis) a special kind of
amplification of poetry which flourished as a
genre from the 7/ 13th centurv until the modern era
In the litenrv canon before this period the teim
noimally tetened to the piocess of composing mukham
masat (pentastichic stanznc poems bv a single author of
which the earliest suiviving example is attributed to
\bu Nuwas [see mitsammvt]) It is essential to under
stand a distinction between takhmis when referring to
an amplified poem and mukhammas (though the terms
are sometimes used interchangeablv without ngoui)
Takhmn invokes the addition of three hemistichs

to each bayt of a given poem; the rhyme letter of the
added hemistichs is determined by the first hemistich
of each successive bayt. This extra material usually pre-
cedes the original bayt; however, less commonly the
bayt may be split and" filled (see Cairo, Fihns, iii, 49)—
a process normally referred to as tashtir. (The num-
ber of added hemistichs may in fact be more or less
than three, in which case the term for the poem is
variously tarbl' [2 added hemistichs], tasbi' [5 added
hemistichs], etc.)

The stanzas of a takhmh can be arranged on the
page in one of two ways (upper case letters represent
the rhyme words of the original hemistich; schemata
are to be read from left to right):

xxxxxxA xxxxxxA

xxxxxxb

Mediaeval scribes tended to favour (i); modern
printed texts prefer (ii). The essential point is that the
genre is given to visual manipulation, an aspect of
the poetry especially important in the calligraphic cele-
bration of al-Busiri's Burda ode (see below) and other
religious poems.

Literary value. Takhmh may be viewed, in some
measure, as a logical and natural development in the
post-classical period of the poetic phenomena of tadmin
(quotation) and mu'arada/nazlra (imitation), and of the
pre-existent mukhammas form. Takhmis also feeds off a
tendency towards explication (sharh) in the reception
and diffusion of the poetic tradition (this fact is illus-
trated by the titles often given to these amplifications,
e.g. al-Atharl's (d. 828/1425) Nayl al-murad fi takhmis
Banat Su'ad evokes the title of a straightforward exe-
gesis of Ka'b's original poem, viz. Djalal ad-Din al-
Suyutfs (d. 911/1505) Kunh al-murad fl sharh Banat
Su'ad (Sezgin, ii, 232-4); some takhamis themselves
spawn a sharh — thus several layers of literature cloak
the original (e.g. Mach 4094). With regard to the
Mamluk era, in which period religious takhamh flour-
ished, we must understand that genre in the same light
as other poetic developments fomented largely by the
culture which celebrated the Prophet (broadly the
same religio-literary culture which gave rise to tadhyil,
na'tiyya, and badi'iyya poetry, see Schimmel, And
Muhammad is His messenger). A recent aesthetic judg-
ment — one which explains the dearth of scholarly
attention paid to this literary genre — is as follows:
"The procedure is interesting from a technical point
of view, but it has the drawback that it compels the

amplifier to expound in five (or seven or however
many) lines what the original poet has said quite sat-
isfactorily in two. It is thus no surprise that these
poetic expansions have, as a rule, slight literary merit
and that they are quite frequently copied without indi-
cation of their author . . ." (de Blois). It is, however,
worth drawing a distinction here between secular and
religious poems, two categories which explain differ-
ing levels (or functions) of creativity.

There are seven non-religious amplifications in the
diwan of Safi al-Dln al-Hilli (d. ca. 752/1351 fa.r.]),
which include glosses on the work of Katari b. al-
Fudja'a and Ibn ZaydOn (Vajda further notes the
ascription to him of a takhmis of a poem by Waddah
al-Yaman). It is, in particular, al-Hillfs treatment of
Ibn Zaydun's humyya which illustrates well the possi-
bilities of poetic creativity; for he develops quite art-
fully the antitheses built into the original poem.

In the religious sphere, one must mention Ibn al-
'Arabfs (d. 638/1240 [q.r.]) takhmis upon a 22-line
Sufi poem {kaslda) by Abu Madyan (d. 594/1 197). His
amplification (which is a sharh of sorts) enhances the
meaning and function of the original which sets out
the etiquette of self-effacement and obedience within
the Sufi" tartka. Certain stanzas are especially sensi-
tive, and in some cases constitute clever syntactic inser-
tions. Noteworthy is the way Ibn al-'Arabi refers to
the very process of takhmis in the last verse, suggest-
ing thereby the established nature and function of the
genre (wa 'd'u h-man khammasa 1-asla llaahi hasuna). In
subsequent periods, examples of the genre reflect Sufi
practice, belief and sensitivity more generally, notably
in the feature of devotional repetition (i.e. there is a
striking reminiscence of the dhikr in Mingana 473:
"Every stanza begins with the word Allah . . .").

An earlier takhmis is one of several that survive of
Ka'b b. Zuhayr's Banat Su'ad or "Burda" (see Sezgin,
ii, 234-5), ascribed to Shihab al-Din Yahya al-
Suhrawardi (d. 587/1191 [q.v.]). However, it is the
later "Burda" (also known as al-Kawahb al-durnyya fl
madh khayr al-banyyd] of al-Busm (d. 694/1296 {q.v. in
Suppl.]) which has been the most amplified in this
way (Brockelmann, S I, 467-70); over 80 takhamu of
this poem survive, 69 of them in a single collection
containing some of the most recent examples (see
Cairo, Fihns, iii, 49-57).

Many takhamis of the "Burda" are prefaced in mss.
by a version of the anecdote contained in al-Kutubfs
Fawat al-Wqfayat (ed. 'Abd al-Hamld, Cairo 1951, ii,
418-19) which describes the first realisation of the
poem's healing powers. The point to note is that
the ms. makes no reference to the takhmis itself, as
illustrated symptomatically by the explicit to a copy of
al-Fayyumfs takhmh (Khalili 563): tammat al-burda al-
mu'azzama al-mubad^ala bi-hamdi 'llah ta'ald wa-mannihi.
Thus in the web of individuals which form the culture
of this poem's celebration only the poet (al-Busfn)
and the text of the "Burda" itself are constant; even
the dedicatee of a given ms. has been known to change
with time. The motive is always pious and self-effacing:
the preface in ms. Loth 1044 to Abu Bakr b. Ramadan
b. Muk's takhmis explains the deliverance he experi-
enced through the writing of his "gloss" (fa-ra'avtu
'l-faradja fl athna'ihi). The same sentiments underpin
a whole tradition in the subjection of Ibn al-Nahwfs
(d. 513/1119) invocational al-Kanda al-munfandfa to
numerous takhamis (see Mach 4078-80).

Examination of the Cairo inventory and other
samples of the Burda shows that amplifications tend
to rework the lexicon of the individual bayt; hence
collectively takhamis constitute, as one would expect.

TAKHMIS — TAKHTADJI

variations on a theme. The $am' al-takhamis by Ayt-
mish al-Khidari al-Zahirl (d. 846/1442) (which in the
Chester Beatty ms. (4215) of the 10th/ 16th century
provides a good example of the potential of calli-
graphic creativity and variety) offers an excellent sam-
ple: a vocabulary seems to be established for each
stanza (or section of the Burda); sometimes shared
lexical formulae and conventions appear to have been
established that are in fact independent of the language
of the bayt fand illustrate the exegetical tradition
for the particular section or bayt). For example, the
bayt beginning wa'nsub ila dhatihi ma shi'ta min sharaf'"
(in the section of the poem describing the Isra' has
inspired a number of takhamis (dating back to the
14th century), all of which articulate the role of the
Prophet in the suhuf (or text of the Kur'an).

The same collection— in the very manner of its cal-
ligraphic arrangement — further illustrates the essential
subordination of the amplification to the Burda land
the virtual anonymity of the glossator in such collec-
tive presentations); and, conversely, that certain takhamis
(from various periods) were favourites and had a wide
diffusion: for in the Aytmish collection we find the
three takhamis contained in the Khalili collection (mss.
563, 223 and 79), notably those of one Nasir al-Dfn
Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Samad al-Fayyurm (mid- 14th
century) and the better-known Abu Bakr b. Hidjdja
al-Hamawf (d. 837/1434: see Brockelmann, IP, 16-20,
S II, 8-9).

The great reverence which the poem enjoyed in
the pre-modern period led to the composition of
takhamis with Turkish and Persian intralineation, and
to "variations in the non-Arabic countries like India"
(Schimmel, As through a veil, 187).

Bibliography: A.J. Arberry, Tie Chester Beatty

Library. A handlist of the Arabic manuscripts, v, Dublin

1962; F. de Blois et at.. Tie Nasser D. Khalili Collec-

lands, viii (forthcoming); Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya. Fihris
al-kutub al-'arabiyya, iii, Cairo 1927; Ibn <AtV Allah
al-Iskandarl, 'Unwan al-tanfikfi ddab al-tarlk, Damas-
cus 1962 (tr. 'A'isha 'Abd al-Rahman at-Tarjumana,
Self-knowledge. Commentaries on Sufu songs, Tucson,
Arizona 1978) M\ Kokan Arabic and Persian in
Camatu Madras 1974 [not consulted] O Loth A
catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Library of the
India Office London 1877 R Mich Catalogue of
habit manusinpti in the Oamtt Collection Punceton
1977 A Mingana Catalogue of the \rabu manuscripts
in the John Rylands Libiary Mamhestti Manchestei
1934 Zaki Mubarak al \Iada ih at nabauma
ji ladab al aiabi Cairo 1935 Sule>man NahifT
Takhmis i Laside yi Burde Istanbul 1297/1880 Annt
mane Schimmel And Muhammad it His messengei
Chapel Hill and London 1985 eadim As though a
veil New \ork 1982 Sezgin CAS n G \ ajda
Index general da manustnts aiabis musulmans de la
Biblwtheque hationale de Pans i\ Pans 1953 [Some
errata The alUarda al dhakiyya fi takhmis a I Burda
aUahyya b> Abu Bakr b Ramadan b Muk
(London India Office Loth 1044 ff 279-301) iden
titled in Sezgin (n 234) as i takhmis ol Ka'b b
Zuha\rs Banat Su'ad is in fact \et another ampli
fication ol al Busin s Burda futthei the implifica
tion ol Ibn Za\duns Kunnya listed as anonymous
in Mach 4058 appears to be a cop> of the takhmis
b> SafTalDin al Hilh ] (PF Kenned^

TAKHT-I PJAMSHID [see istakhr].
TAKHT-I TAWUS (p.), the Peacock Throne,
a name given to various highly-decorated and much
bejewelled royal thrones in the eastern Islamic world,

in particular, to that constructed for the Mughal
Emperor Shah Djahan (1037-68/1628-57 [?.».]).

There are relevant accounts in the contemporary
Indo-Muslim sources, e.g. in 'Abd al-Hamid LahawrT's
Badshah-nama and Muhammad Salih's 'Amal-i Salih,
and in the accounts of European travellers who claimed
to have seen the throne, such as Tavernier, Bernier
and Manucci. These last authorities, however, con-
tain serious discrepancies in their accounts of the
throne, which are hard to reconcile with the facts,
leading one to wonder if they really did see it properly.

The first darbar at which the Peacock Throne was
used seems to have been when Shah Djahan cele-
brated the Td al-Fitx and Nawruz together at Agra
in Shawwal 1044/March 1635, and thereafter, the
sources make frequent mention of its use by the
Mughals. A contemporary painting from a royal album
of Shah Djahan's shows the Emperor on a gold-enam-
elled and jewel-encrusted throne which has four legs
and four columns supporting a rectangular domed
canopy with a projecting cornice and two peacocks
perched above. According to Bernier, the peacocks
were made by a French craftsman, possibly Austin of
Bordeaux (see Victoria and Albert Museum, The Indian
heritage. Court life and arts under Mughal rule, London
1982, no. 57; there are other, similar paintings in
existence). Later Mughal emperors, including the
penultimate one, Mu'fn al-Dfn Akbar II b. Shah 'Alam
II (1221-53/1806-37), are said to have had less costly
replicas made of the Peacock Throne.

Shah Djahan's throne was carried off when Nadir
Shah [q.r.] sacked Dihlr in 1151-2/1739. One eye-
witness account of the event, Tihram's Nadir-ndma,
records that the Persian conqueror had 17 thrones
amongst his spoils. Much of the throne, including its
columns and bevelled roof, could have been disman-
tled at Kandahar, during Nadir's return journey, when
many of the plundered Indian jewels were sewn on
to the Shah's tents as symbols of royal authority.

Since then, there has been considerable confusion
regarding thrones to be found in the Persian capital
Tehran. Displayed in the Gulistan Palace of the
Kadjars, and seen in the 19th century by various
European tra\ellers such as Curzon were the so
called Marble Thione Takht i Marmar ol Kanm
Khan Zand and the Peacock Throne actuallv made
lor Fath Wi Shah [qi] b\ the Sadi of Isfahan
Muhammad Husa\n Khan when the Shah mimed
an Isiaham wile known as Taw us Khanum Both ol
these are platform thrones ol tvpical Indo Persian style
Now in the Bank Melh \aults with the Peisian crown
jewels is the Nadir Thione which is ol the chair
tvpe and has no connection with the great conqueioi
I the name to be interpreted is nadir remarkable ? )
and cannot be older than Fath Ah Shah s time prob
abh \ounger in its present form See GN Cuizon
Persia and the Persian question London 1892 i 317 22
with illustration \ B Meen and AD Tushingham
Crown jewels of Iran Toronto 1968 54-7 (for the Nadir

Bibliography (in addition to references in the
article) Abdul Aziz Thrones tents and their furniturt
used by the Indian Uusjiuls Lahore nd [1940s] 35
73 KRN Swam> and Meera Ravi The Peaiock
Thrones of Ih norld A reference authority Bomba> 1993

(CE Bosworth)
TAKHT APT! (Tj, hteralK one who works in
woods and forests, woodcutter, sawyer" (< takhta
"wood"), the name of one of the Turkish
nomadic groups of Anatolia which had a special
legal status in Ottoman times, defined by their nomadic

TAKHTADji — TAKHTlT al-HUDUD

way of life, their specialisation within that group and
their confessional religious connections.

Thus we have Turkmen [q.v.], less an ethnonym
denoting tribes of Oghuz [see cmizz] origin than a
legal status within the Ottoman empire, paying the
Turkmen mukdta'asi to the Ottoman ruling house (khass).
The Takhtadjis enjoyed this khass status also in return
for specialised services to the state of work in woods
and forests, just as the Cepni were concerned with
the transport for the troops and the Yaydji Bedir for
bow-making. Yoruk, foi its part, denoted, and still
denotes, a nomad in general (> yurumek "to travel about,
journey"). Many tribal groups were and are of 'AlewT/
Bektashr/Kizilbash religious confession, for historical
reasons (Ottoman-Persian rivalry) or for structural ones
(the systems of lineage and of internal organisation of
the religious community merging and supporting each
other mutually). The Takhtadjis illustrate this principle
of the complexity of multiple designations, being Turk-
men, though not of the 14 component clans of the
Oghuz and of the above religious affiliation, though
this may be — in principle — held in secret, through
takiyya [q.v.].

A relatively sure criterion of distinctiveness, however,
allows one to bring some system into this, sc. choice
of spouse and marriage relations. Amongst the Takh-
tadjis, 'Alewl belief is the prime condition for any mar-
riage. However, some 'Alewl nomadic groups and some
non-nomad ones (e.g. the Kurds of Dersim) refuse to
exchange daughters with them; whilst the Cepni, 'Alewi
Tiirkmens of Oghuz origin and pastoral nomads, will
accept Takhtadji wives but not give to the latter their
own daughters, whilst admitting the possibility. It is
probably for this reason that there exists a certain
opposition of the two complementary groups, each for
instance accusing the other of being "cattle thieves".

In the early 20th century, Hasluck considered the
"Kizilbash Takhtadji" to be numerous in Lycia. Von
Luschan now locates their centre at Elmah. Each
tribal group is divided into obas (the basic segment in
the Turco-Mongol tribal scheme denoting, according
to historical context, a clan, lineage or local segment
of a clan) of some ten to thirty families, led by a keye
(< kdhya). However reduced in size, the tribal group
has its own baba or dede for religious matters. According
to Ulkiitasjr (1968), the group is said to be made up
of 20,000 hearths representing ca. 100,000 persons.
Two main sections ('ashiret/asiret) are distinguished: the
Caylaklar or "kites" and the Aydinhlar in the province

The former occupy essentially the western zone, the
Karaman plain, Mut, Finike and Fethiye, with three
sub-groups (the Ustiirgeli, Samash and Cingozler). How-
ever, because of the dynamics of the system of obas,
with new names appearing with each new division, so
that the mother-oia often co-exists with the daughter-
oba, one may add other important sub-groups such
as the Gokceli, Danabas, Eseli, Kabakci, gavlak, Kar-
desli and Enseli for the western group (Roux, 1970).
The Aydinhlar also have sub-groups such as the Agac-
eri (an old name for the Takhtadjis meaning "tree
men"; and Karakaya. They live in the east in the
Adana-Mersin region, at Antalya and around Izmir
in the west.

Thus the Takhtadjis occupy the forest zones of the
~ ' ' l in the south as well as the Aegean zone

n the u

t. Their

the state persists to some extent through their con-
nections with the National Dept. for Forests which
looks after the state forestry resources.

~ ' ' ' - s have become definitely seden-

tarised like those of the districts of ganakkale and
Bahkesir, where their arrival coincided with the Crimean
War of the mid- 1 9th century and the vastly-increased
investment in forestry required for shipbuilding pur-
poses during that war.

Bibliography: F.W. Hasluck, Christianity and Islam
undei the sultans, Oxford 1929; Y. Ziya, Anadolu'da
Aleviler ve Tahtaalar, in Iktisat Fak. Mecmuasi (1928-
31); T. Toros, Toroslarda Tahtaa oymaklar, Mersin
1938; Naci Kum (Atabeyli), Antalya Tahtacilanna dair
notlar, in Turk Tarih ve Etnografa Dergisi, iv (1940),
203-12; A. Yilmaz, Tahlacilarda gelenekler, CHP Hal-
kevleri yay. IX, Ankara 1948; Navi Kum, Turkmen,
Yoruk ve Tahtaalar arasinda ktkikler, in Turk Folklor
Arajtirmalan (1949-50); V. Asan, Isparta Tahtacilanna
dair, in Turk lordu (1954); F. Siimer, Oguzlar, Ankara
1962; J.P. Roux, Quelques notes sur la religion des
nomades el bucherons de la Turquie meridionale, in REI
(1964), 45-86; idem, Les traditions des nomades d'Anatolie
mendionale, Paris 1970; K. Ozbaynk, Tahtaalar ve
Torukler, Bibl. Archeol. et hist, de l'Inst. Francais
d'Archeologie, Istanbul, Paris 1972; M.S. Ulktitasir,
Tahtaalar, in Turk Kulturu, no. 71 (Ankara 1978),
840-3; A. Gokalp, Tetes Rouges el Bouches Moires, Paris
1 980; F. von Luschan, Die Tachtadshy und andere Uber-
reste der alien Bevolkerung Lykiens, in Archiv fur Anthro-
pologic, xix (1983), 31-53; Roux, The Tahtaa of
Anatolia, in A. Rao (ed.), The other nomads, Kolner
Ethnologische Mitteilungen VIII, Cologne 1987;
K. Kehj, The Tahtaa, F.U. Berlin, Occasional Papers,
16, Forschungsschwerpunkt Ethnizitat und Gesell-
schaft, Berlin 1988; P.A. Andrews, Ethnic groups in
the Republic of Turkey, Wiesbaden 1989, 68-71, 288-
94 (list of villages). (Altan Gokalp)

TAKHTlT al-HUDUD (a.), lit. "delimiting
boundaries or frontiers", in modern Arabic usage.
International boundaries reflect the historical mo-
ments in the life of a state, when its limits were made
according to its force and ability at that time. Thus
today's boundaries are relics from the past and might
be changed in the future. States have acquired their
boundaries in a variety of ways: in some cases they
marked the territorial limit of a phase of political ex-
pansion and conquest; in other cases, they have been
imposed by external powers, either through acts of
conquest or through negotiation. They function as
barriers to the social and economic process, which
would otherwise transgress the lines without interfer-
ence, as well as holding economic significance through
their association with tariff and quot; ' ' ~"

latter convert an otherwise open world e
work into series of partially closed economic systems.
Boundaries appear on maps as thin lines between
adjacent state territories, marking the limits of state
sovereignties. The lines can be effective with regard
to underground resources, marking the limits of ore,
water and oil deposits, as well as above the ground,
guarding the individual states' air space. In the past,
they were drawn for defensive purposes; as cultural
divisions; according to economic factors; for legal and
administrative purposes; or on ideological bases.
Sometimes they were drawn through essentially unoc-
cupied territories, although they were usually super-
imposed on existing cultural patterns, disturbing the
lives of the people living in the border areas.

Of the many criteria for establishing a boundary
line the ethnic criteria are those applied most often
in modern times. Accordingly, boundaries have been
drawn to separate culturally uniform peoples so that
a minimum of stress is placed upon them. The het-
erogeneous world population, however, cannot define

TAKHTlT al-HUDUD

boundaries that completely and exacth separate peoples
of different chaiacter and as a result, theie aie ethnK
minorities in almost ey eiy state The definition of peo-
ples, according to race, language or religion, has been
used m several cases to delimit a state boundary Other
political boundaries lie along piominent physical
features in the landscape Such physiographic political
boundaries, following nyers, mountain ranges or escarp-
ments, sometimes termed "natural boundanes", seem
to be especially acceptable criteria as such pronounced
physical featutes often also sepaiate culturally distinct
areas In the early days of boundary establishment,
physiographic features were useful as they were
geneially known and could be yisually lecogmsed
Howeyer, many of the boundary lines that were based
on such physiographic features haye subsequently cre-
ated major difficulties between states Rivers tend to
shift then couise, leading to countless disputes over
whether the boundary should be along one of the
nvei banks, along the thalueg (main navigation channel),
through the median line of the water s surface or

thei,

else [se,

e led to w

,t lines

Most of today s political boundaries, e\en those in
Islamic legions, haye been cieated by European
nations In fact, it is difficult to identify any interna-
tional boundary that has not directly myohed a
Euiopean state at some stage of its eyolution The

of the physical landscape, generally solving immediate
territorial conflicts The need for delimitation of the
boundaries emerged when the allocated boiderland

in the area The delimitation of a boundary, which
has usually been decided by agreement between two
states or at a post-war conference, has geneially been
a full definition and has sened as a guide-line foi
the demarcation team Today, when many states aie
energetically seeking to fix and demarcate their bound-
aries, which were not accurately defined in the past
there are still a great many (oyer 100) boundary and
territorial disputes around the woild

In contrast to modern Western ideas of boundanes,
Islamic constitutional theory is concerned only with

t with t.

It IS f<

' this

son that, traditionally, the Islamic woild has
oyerly concerned with precise boundary delimitation
or with territorial sovereignty As fai as territorial con-
trol has been concerned this tends to be a local 01
administratis e matter The issue of boundaries has
only acquired importance in the context of delegated
authority within larger political entities, yet they were
only relevant for administratis e comemence and were
subject to frequent relocation Spheies of different
political authonty were usually separated by boidei
aieas, rather than by pi ease boundary lines It was
only with the explicit introduction of the concept of
the nation-state that concepts of temtonal soyereignty
and boundanes began to emerge in the Islamic areas
The boundanes between most of the Islamic states
and between them and the outside world were mainly
established, not by local rulers, but iather by extei-
nal forces which shaped the world dunng the late
19th and early 20th centunes As most lines weie de-
maicated for the needs of colonial and imperial pow-
eis they often cut through peoples, tubes, etc and

The present boundary between Afghanistan and
Pakistan, the Durand Line, represents such an exam-
ple Its establishment in the late 19th century was the
climax of a lengthy piocess of negotiations over the
extent of Bntish influence in India and Central Asia.
Two Afghan-Bntish wars, and the threat of negotia-

the Afghan rulers, prompted Britain to dispatch Sir
Mortimer Durand to Kabul to negotiate a permanent
boundary line A treaty signed on 12 November 1893
was re-affirmed in 1905 a Treaty of Peace was con-
cluded between the Goyernment of India and Afghan-
istan, aftei the Third Afghan War, on 8 August 1919,
and a final tieaty was signed on 22 November 1921.
In 1947 Pakistan inhented the Durand Line as its
western boundary with Afghanistan. Successive Afghan
goyernments questioned the line's legitimacy, claim-
ing that its sanctions had lapsed with the transfer of
soyereignty from Britain to Pakistan; for the history
of these Afghan-Pakistan disputes, see pashtunistan.
In 1950 and again in 195b the United Kingdom de-
clared that it regarded the Durand Line as the inter-
national boundary, while Pakistan has repeatedly stated
that it has no dispute with Afghanistan over the exact
location of the line, at piesent the Line remains under
quiet dispute

The division of the Arab lands of the Ottoman
empire after the First World War, eventually creating
the Middle Eastern countnes of Trak, Syria, Lebanon,
Jordan and Isiael, had its origin in the secret Sykes-
Picot-Sazanov Agieement of 1916 to create belts of
British and French teintory with two nominally inde-
pendent Arab states while in 1917 Britain issued the
Balfoui Declaration concerning a Jewish national home
in Palestine By the Treaty of Sevres (10 August 1920),
the British and French effectively enacted the Sykes-
Picot Agreement in that France established a Mandate
oyei Syria and Lebanon while the British established
the Mandates of Palestine and Mesopotamia (which
latei became Tiak) [see mandates]. In 1922 Britain
created the Emirate of Tians-Jordan in order to ful-
fil an obligation to then Arab ally. The boundaries
of the newly-cieated terntones were drawn by British
and French officials and they served as the basic
boundanes of the subsequently independent Middle
Eastern countnes, although there have been and still
are numerous disputes concerning those lines, espe-
cially where there are mixed populations. Such has
been the case oyer the former Ottoman wilayet of
Mawsil, between Turkey and newly-mandated Trak,
only settled in 1926 after a League of Nations enquiry'

called Sanjak of Alexandretta, the later Turkish Hatay,
which Turkey, in a calculated move when the Man-
datary powei France's priorities were elsewhere, man-
aged to acqune in 1939 [see iskandarOn]; and above
all oyei the boundaries and very existence of the
newly -created state of Israel and its Arab neighbours
since 1948

The modem Iian-Trak boundary line has a history
of some three centunes Here the local Muslim powers,
Ottoman Tuikey, the piedecessor of 'Irak and Safawid
Persia were myohed in the early stages of delimita-
tion, but the final line was demarcated by a British-
Russian delegation in 1914. The boundary line is
1,458 km long and reaches from the Shatt al-'Arab
at the head of the Persian Gulf to the boundary tri-
point with Tuikey on the Kuh-i-Dalanpar. It is one

TAKHTlT al-HUDUD

of the oldest established boundaries of the world, but
its exact course is still unsettled. In the 1639 Zohab
peace treaty, the Ottomans and Safawids delimited a
boundary in the territory between the Zagros moun-
tains and the Tigris River. Although this was disputed
during the Turkish invasion of Persia in 1724, a peace
treaty of 1746 reaffirmed the 1639 boundary. The
Treaty of Erzerum of 1847, following the Persian-
Turkish War of 1821-22, stipulated that the 1746
boundary was valid. However, it also delimited a bound-
ary in the Shatt al-'Arab for the first time, deter-
mining the boundary on the eastern bank of the Gulf,
leaving the waterway under Turkish sovereignty, but
allowing freedom of navigation. Work on the bound-
ary went forward during 1848-52, and by 1860 a col-
laborative map (Carte identique) was produced to illustrate
the boundary. By the turn of the century, in an effort
at stabilisation, Britain and Russia urged Persia and
Turkey to agree to a detailed delimitation, which was
completed in 1911. The so-called Constantinople
Protocol of 1913 then provided for a further detailed
delimitation of the entire boundary by a commission,
which demarcated it in 1914. The protocol specifically
stated that the Shatt al-'Arab, with the exception of
certain islands, was to come under Turkish sover-
eignty; the demarcated boundary was to follow the
low watermark on the Persian bank of the Shatt,
except for the area around Khurramshahr, where the
line was to follow the thalweg. For the subsequent
course of the Perso-Traki dispute, see shatt al-'arab.
The outstanding issues of the alignment of the inter-
national boundary between Iran and 'Irak, the control
of lands adjacent to the border, and the status of the
Shatt al-'Arab remain unsettled today, so that the
border question persists.

The boundaries of the states and amirates of the
Arabian peninsula (most of these political units having
emerged only in the last century or so) have been
fruitful causes of dispute, given the facts that the pen-
insula has no perennial rivers or other natural bound-
aries and that much of the sparse population was in
the past nomadic, hence with little or no regard for
political frontiers. The 'Iraki invasion of Kuwayt [q.v.]
in 1990 has been the most violent outbreak, in this
case a legacy of uncertainty over the extent of Ottoman
sovereignty in the Upper Gulf coastal region; but there
have also been, and in some cases remain, frontier
disputes between the former North and South Yemens,
between Yemen and Saudi Arabia over the Nadjran
[q.v.] region, between the Sultanate of Oman and
the former PDRSY over Dhofar (Zufar [q.v.]), and
between Saudi Arabia on the one side, and Britain
on behalf of the Sultanate of Oman and Abu Dhabi
on the other, over the oasis of al-Buraymi [q.v.], not
resolved till the late 1950s.

The boundaries between Afghanistan and the newly-
emerged Muslim Republics of Central Asia (Turkmen-
istan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) are also a European
creation. The history of those boundaries dates back
to the second half of the 19th century. At that time,
the British and Russian empires contended for control
in Central Asia, especially as Russia in 1865 extended
her frontier in Central Asia towards British India. In
1869 Britain and Russia decided to create a buffer
zone between their Asian territories. Britain, which
wanted an Afghanistan within the British sphere of
influence, wished Russia to remain at a distance, while
the Russians wished to secure a safe route fromthe
Caspian Sea to Central Asia along the Oxus or Amu
Darya River. The British proposed that the middle
and upper Oxus, south of Bukhara, should serve as

the boundary between the Russian Empire and Afgha-
nistan. The proposal was accepted, but the western
terminus of the line was not clear and the Khanate
of Bukhara, which was under Russian control, owned
territory south of the river. In 1872, after lengthy
debate between the two countries, it was agreed that
Afghanistan be regarded as neutral territory between
the empires, and in 1873 the Oxus was established
as the northern boundary of Afghanistan, south of the
Russian region of Samarkand and of Bukhara. The
boundary line left the river at the town of KrTadja
Salar, and this enabled Bukhara to maintain its control
over its area south of the river. Between 1882 and
1884 there were further negotiations between Britain
and Russia concerning the western section of the
boundary up to the Harf Rud River which forms the
eastern boundary with Persia. A demarcation commis-
sion tried to place the boundary in the ground but
found it difficult to establish the exact line, as it was
agreed to leave some local Turkmen tribes within
Russia although their land was irrigated by canals
originating in Afghan territory. Not until 1888 was
the boundary line finally demarcated and from then
onwards, despite all the political changes, the bound-
ary line has remained where it was established.

Africa also has boundaries created by the Europeans
between Islamic countries. The boundary between
Egypt and Libya extends southward from the Gulf of
Salum on the Mediterranean to the Sudan-Egypt-
Libya tripoint at Jebel Uweinat, about 1,100 km/690
miles south of the Sea. The current line dates from
1841, when the Ottomans confirmed Muhammed 'All
[q.v.] as hereditary governer of Egypt. On a map ac-
companying the London Treaty of 1841, a line along
the 29th meridian marked the boundary between Egypt
and the Ottoman province of Libya. Britain estab-
lished itself in Egypt in 1882, while Libya was occu-
pied by Italy in 1912; in that same year Egyptian
forces captured the coastal town of Salum. Attempts
to formalise the boundary between British Egypt and
Italian Libya first reached fruition in 1919, when the
two countries signed an agreement placing the oasis
of al-Djaghbub in Libya. An agreement concerning
the remainder of the line was signed on 6 December
1925. A chain of permanent beacons was erected in
the northern sector of the boundary in 1938. From
then onwards, despite some objections by both Egypt
and Libya, the boundary line has not changed.

Most other boundaries in Muslim Africa were also
established by colonial regimes, mainly those of the
French, which established the boundaries of Tunisia,
Algeria, Morocco, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, etc. In
most cases, local needs and history were not involved
in the delimitation process, but the results of this still
dominate the boundaries of the African continent with
disputes at times reaching a state of warfare, as with
Morocco and the so-called Polisario Front over the
Spanish Sahara, and between Libya and Chad.

Bibliography. A. Lamb, Asian frontiers, London
1968; H.J. Collier, D.F. and J.R.V. Prescott, Fron-
tiers of Asia and South-East Asia, Melbourne 1977;
J.R.V. Prescott, Boundaries andfioniiers, London 1978;
I. Brownlie, African boundaries. A legal and diplomatic
encyclopaedia, London and Los Angeles 1979; A.J. Day
(ed.), Border and territorial disputes, Detroit 1982; G.H.
Blake and R.N. Scofield (eds.), Boundaries and state
territories in the Middle East and North Africa, Cambridge
1987; C. and R. Schofield (eds.), The Middle East and
North Africa, World Boundaries Series, 2, London 1994;
G. Biger, The encyclopedia of international boundaries,
Fact on Files, New York 1995. (G. Biger)

TAKHYlL (f

i [khayal;

■chnic

nage, o

with v;

ings but all broadly in the field of hei meneutics.
It occurs in (a) theory of imagery, (b) philosophical
poetics, (c) Kur'anic exegesis, and (d) among rhetor-
ical figures. Whether any or all of these usages have
a common root remains to be seen. It should be
noted that, like any masdar, takhyil can also act as a
verbal noun of the passive. Since in everyday lan-
guage the verb was predominantly used in the pas-
sive (khuyyda ilayhi "an illusion was created for him
[that such-and-such was the case]", often in the con-
text of magic), some dictionaries use wahm as a syn-
onym of takhyil (cf. LA, xi, 231a, bottom). However,
as shown by the syntax of the verb khayyala, the term
takhyil in its technical use mostly (always?) implies the
active meaning and as such is sometimes equated with
the causative verbal noun iham (see below).

1. In the discussions of poetic imagery the term
takhyil v* as first employed bv "Abd al-Kahir al-Djurdjam
(d 471/1078 or 474/1081 [q i mSuppl]) who was
also the first to ldentifv the hterarv phe
designated bv this term Bneflv put it con
kind of make-behe\e in the form of giving
stated in the poem a fantastic interpretive tv
explains and supports that fat

closei

a be a

i Thus

the line bv Ibrahim al-Suh (d 243/857) The
is jealous of me because of vou — I had not presumed
it among mv enemies — when I intended a kiss it
blew the wrap back o\er [vour] fate (hrar § 16/
13) the simple fact of the wind blowing the garment
o\er the beloveds face is explained bv attributing
a motivation to the wind and in the process person-
living it <y-Drurdjam mentions {iuai § 10/10) that
the procedures producing takhyil are so \aned and
manifold that an enumeration and classification of all
its subtypes would be impossible Instead he proceeds

mques are mock etiologies fie asuibing a fantastic
cause to a natuial phenomenon as in the example
quotedl and mock analogies fi e proving a point with
the help of a non-pertinent analog) as in al-Buhtun s
(d 284/897 [qi ]) line and the whiteness of the fal-
con is of a truer beauty if vou consider it than the
ra\ en s blackness said to prove that the white hair
of old age is preferable to the black hair of vouth
[israr § lb/3]) Most of these conceits though bv

arv historv of the motif at hand including its figu-

phenomenon of the metaphor understood literallv oi
as al-Djurdjam calls it the tanasi oi the metaphor
l e pretending to be obliv lous oi its metaphoncalness
This mav result in the specific conceits known as
ta'aqjdiub wonderment and taajahul al 'anf feigned
ignorance as when the metaphonsation oi the beloved
as a 'sun is used bv the poet to allege not one but
two real suns and consequentlv wondering how
this might be possible or protesting ignorance as to
which of the two suns is the real thing

Al-Djurdjam contrasts these phantasmagoncal poetic
notions (ma'am takhyikyya) with the realistic common-
sensical ones (ma'am 'alliyya), which, he insists tan
also be poeticallv expressive (eg gnomic verse) Given
that takhyil is a kind of irrealitv — al-Djurdjam applies
ditional maxim khayr al shi'n akdhabuh ' the

best

s that which 1

! the most —it

as verbal alchemy leaves no doubt where his aesthetic
preferences lay.

It should be noted that takhyil is not the only type
of the "fantastic" in 'Abbasid poetry. Another kind,
pointed out by G.E. von Grunebaum (hntik und
Diihtkunst, Wiesbaden 1955, 47-50), is the composite
simile that lesults in an artificial construct, as in al-
Sanawbarfs (d. 334/945 [q.v.]) line- "The red ane-

banners of ruby unfurled on lances of chrysolith"

(Asrc

j 10/1).

Considering that al-Djurdjam identified an all-
important trend in 'Abbasid poetry, which he pro-
ceeded to name, to describe in generative and in
classificatory terms, and to characterise in its over-
all meaning, it is surprising to see that those who
used his work as the basis for their own elaborations
of 'dm al-bayan [see bayan] had no use for the notion
of takhyil. The probable reason for this failure is the
fact that Fakhr al-Dln al-Razr (d 606/1209 [qi])
and al-Sakkaki (d b26/1229 [q i ]) wrote their works
(Nihayat al idjaz fi dimyat al i'djaz and Miftah al'ulum
respectiv elv ) as svstematic contributions to the discus-
sion oi i'd}a* al hur'an [q >], in which poetrv per se
did not plav a role

The term takhyil m its nuba form is indeed used
in al-RazT and al-Sakkaki to denote a specific tvpe
oi metaphor [see isti'ara] The isti'ara takhyiliyya is
characterised bv the lack of a substratum as in the
claws of Death where the metaphor claws is not
tied as other metaphors often are bv an underlvmg
simile to a part of death because death does not
have anv part that could be likened to claws But the
metaphor creates an illusion that there is such a part
The technical term takhnh is thus apt but it has
little to do with al-Djurdjam s notion

Bibliography The basic text is chs 16-18 in
Djurdjam israr al balagha ed H Ritter Istanbul
1954 tr H Ritter Die Gtheimnmi der Uortkunst
Wiesbaden 1959— Studies W Heinnchs iiabische
Duhtune, und eimhmhe Poehk Beirut 1969 61-5

1 'Abbas Ta'nkh al nakd al adabi 'ind al 'aiab Beirut
1391/1971,435-7 K Abu Deeb 41 Jurjam s thion
ofpoetu imagery Warminster, Wilts 1979 157-64 and
see subject index s v takhyil M Ajami Ttie alihemy
of glory The dialeetu of truthfidniss and untruthfulness m
medieial irabu literary intuism Washington DC 1988
87-100 (where rendering takhyil as imagination
is potentiallv misleading) Margaret Lai kin The
theology of meaning Abd al Qahii al Jurjam s thton of
discourse New Haven Conn 1995 132-63

2 In philosophical parlance takhyil is hrst
and foremost, a logical teim the meaning oi which
mav be circumscribed as the evocation oi images oi
things in the minds oi listeners bv means oi figura-
tive language As such it is the central notion of
poetics as a branch oi logic denoting as it does the
differentiating quality oi poetic utterances (akaitil
shi'nyya) as logical constructs The whole idea oi poet-
ic s as part of logic resulted from the late Alexandrian
inclusion oi the Rhetoric and Poetic s among Aristotle s
logical writings the result oi which was an Organon oi
nine books including Porphvrv s Eisaepee isee Walzer
in Bibl) While among the Neo-Platomc Mexandnan

ter of debate as to whethei it was legitimate and if
what grounds in the Aral

wmpli

I the

jossiblv occur m the Kur'an

fact that forces our

establishing the svsterr

atic struc

ure of the

new Orga-

author to assign greater value

to the ma'am 'akhyya

non the two predom

inant one

s were (a)

one pairing

But his enthusiastic chaiactensa

tion of takhyiti poetrv

the logical arts with t

ruth-value

uadd) where

"poetry" equals "entirely false premises", and (b)
another pairing them with man's internal faculties
(td yvviaxiKa. Tfj<; yoxk nopta, al-hawdss al-batina), in
which "poetry" is somehow connected with the Aris-
totelian "imagination." For details see Heinrichs, Ara-
bische Dichtung, 150-2, and especially Deborah L. Black,
Logic, 37-41, 43-4. While the truth-value idea lin-
gered on for a while (esp. in al-Farabl, Ta'allum al-
falsafa, ed. F. Dieterici, Abhandlungen, [text] 52; [tr.]
87, and Kawanin, 267, 11. 10-15), it was soon replaced
by the more satisfactory correlation of the logical
arts with the internal faculties, and it is here that
"poetry" was paired with takhyil, the "creation of
mental images (khaydlat) by the poet for the 'imagina-
tion' (<pavtaaia, al-kuwwa al-mutakhayyila) of the lis-
tener." As there is no exact forerunner to this coupling
in the Greek texts, though similar attempts can be
pointed out, it may possibly have been an Arabic
innovation (see Black, Logic, 44).

While the term takhyil thus originated in the dis-
cussions of the "logical" character of Aristotle's Poetics,
rather than in the book itself, the other key term,
muhakat, is clearly a descendent of Aristotle's ui|tT|aii;
"imitation". But the meaning has drastically changed:
muhakat refers to imitative, i.e. figurative, language
which presents one thing by means of another in the
way of similes and metaphors (this semantic change
may have occurred in the context of the "inclusion"
debate, see G. Schoeler, Svllogismus, 87 and n. 207).
It should be noted that, in al-Farabi (d. 339/950
[q.v.]), the term muhakat is also used in a wider sense

sculpture and painting as parallels in his writings on
poetics, and he uses both this term and takhyil to
characterise aspects of music (see his K. al-Musika
•l-kablr, ed. Gh.'A. Khashaba, Cairo n.d., 62-3, 66 [al-
alhan al-mukhayyila], 67-9, 71, 73).

The three terms "poetry", "evocation of mental
representations", and "imitation" occur together for
the first time in al-Farabr's Shi'r; his Kawanin does
not (yet?) contain the term takhyil and may thus be
an early work. The poetic theory based on these terms
states the following: The poetic text uses imitation
toward its topic and evocation of i

:. I.e.

i topic

whether thini

or fact, by using a similar thii
simile, metaphor, and/or analogy, this similitude being
either attractive or repulsive; it thus produces, in the
mind of the recipient, images that prompt the recip-
ient to aspire to, or recoil from, what is being
described, without first forming an assent (tasdik) to
the proposition offered (the truth or falseness of the
poetic statement being irrelevant). The takhyfl mech-
anism in poetic utterances thus takes the place of
tasdik in all other utterances; both produce action in
the addressee. It is important to stress that poetic
utterances, like all non-demonstrative propositions
formed according to the various logical arts, are
directed to a listener who is meant to be influenced
by them. Consequently, al-Farabi calls the various
branches of logic altogether al-sana'i' al-kiyasiyya wa-
asnaf al-mukhatabat "the syllogistic arts and the kinds
of addresses" (Ihsa\ 45, 11. 4-5). This should be kept
in mind when translating expressions like al-akawil al-
mukhayyila "the image-evoking utterances"; misreading
this term as mukhayyala and mistranslating it as "imag-
inative" has been all too common in works where
these matters are only mentioned in passing by non-
specialists.

Although poetics as a logical discipline is said to be
a syllogistic art, none of the philosophers elaborates

on this aspects, except Ibn Sina, who does exemplify
the poetic syllogism (see Schoeler, Svllogismus; and Black,
Logic, 209-41). With him it seems" to be a metaphor-
generating syllogism as in So-and-so is handsome (minor);
Everyone handsome is a moon (major); So-and-so is a moon
(conclusion). However, only the conclusion appears in
the finished poem; the syllogism is thus an internal
process of the poet, which in a way defeats the pur-
pose of a syllogism of influencing the addressee. What
is more, as appears from various passages in al-Farabi,
the takhyll operation applies not only to propositions,
arrived at as conclusions of syllogisms, but also to sin-
gle concepts, arrived at as results of definitions. In
other words, the takhyil operates on the level of both
tasawwur "conception" and tasdik "assent", although it
brings about no real tasawwur but only a conception
of the image of the thing intended, a takhayyul, nor
does it produce real tasdik, but only the action that
would flow from real assent.

Al-Farabl's most audacious deed was to use a com-
bination of logical poetics and rhetoric as a model to
express his theory of religious language. In brief, he
establishes a parallelism between philosophical tasaw-

ir and religious takhayyul, i.

images, thus making use of logical poetics, and another
parallelism between the certain proof of philosophy
and the persuasion (ikna") of religion, thus drawing
on logical rhetoric. Revelation is thus a language of
images used in rhetorical, persuasive, proofs. Moving
away from poetics on the level of proof was neces-
sary because, as we have seen, the poetic utterances
did not entail tasdik, which is, of course, a sine qua
non of religion. The net result was that religion was
an image of philosophy, as true and as untrue as the
notion of "image" allowed. For details see Heinrichs,
Verknupfung; Black, Logic, index, s.v. "Religion"; and
Lameer, 259-89.

While in al-Farabr muhakat and takhyil were strictly
complementary, Ibn Sina (d. 428/1037 [q.v.]) tried to
get out of the awkward consequence this theory
entailed, to wit, the exclusive figurativeness of poetry,
by considering "imitation" only one of the methods
for "image-evocation". "Wonderment and pleasure"
(ta'adfajub wa 'Itidhadh), derived from the form of the
poetic text, are equally capable of takhyil. Various ver-
bal and mental figures of speech, but also the sheer
power of aptly expressed truth, have this emotive
effect (see Schoeler, Grundprobleme, 57-73; idem, Svllogis-
mus, 67-73). But thus making his theory more in tune
with the existing poetry, he loses the clarity and neat-
ness of al-Farabi's system.

Abu '1-Barakat al-Baghdadi (d. after 560/1164-5
[q.v.]) very reasonably distinguishes between the poetry
of his own time and place and the one that "Aristotle"
(i.e. the Greek tradition, including the commentators)
had in mind. Ibn Rushd (d. 595/1198 [q.v.]) returns
to the Farabian model; he uses muhakat and takhyil
more or less as synonyms. Although he understands
that many of the things described in Aristotle's Poetics
are peculiarly Greek, he is convinced that the First
Teacher wrote something of general validity for all
poetry. He therefore tries to adduce examples from
Arabic literature to clarify what he finds in the text.

In brief accounts of logic it is usually the term
takhyil (or mukhayyil) that survives as the key term of
logical poetics, while muhakat seldom appears.

Whether logical poetics was also used to generate
"poetic" texts rather than characterise existing ones
needs further investigation. P. Heath has suggested
that Ibn Sina, in writing his allegorical works (such
as Htm b. i'ak^an and Risalat al-Tayr), put to use the

the j

egons

on the

concepts into living beings,
level of tasawwur (see abo\ e) seems to be at work here
Unfoitunately, Ibn Slna himself, when discussing the
symbolic mode of presentation, speaks of rumuz
"symbols", and amthal/amthih "images", rather than
of takhyil and muhakat (see D Gutas, Avicenna and the
Aristotelian tradition, Leiden 1988, 299-307)

Bibliography 1 Basic texts FarabI, Risala ft
Kamanin sina'at al-shu'ara', ed and tr AJ Arberry,
Farah's canons of poetry, in RSO, xvn (1938), 266-78
(also ed 'A Badawi, in idem (ed ), Anstutalis, fann
al-shi'r, Cairo 1953, 149-58], Kitab al-Shi'r, ed
M Mahdi, m Shi'r m/4 (1959), 90-5, Risala fima
yanbaghi an yukaddam labia ta'allum al-falsaja, ed
F Dietenci, Alfarabi's philosophische Abhandlungen (Ar
text) Leiden 1890, (German tr ) Leiden 1892, Ihsa'
al-'ulum, ed and tr A Gonzalez Palencia, Catalogo
de las aenaas, Madrid-Granada -1953— Ibn Slna,
A" al-Mad)mu' aw al-hikma al-'arudiyya Ft ma'am Kitab
al-Shi'r, ed MS Sahm, Cairo 1969, Al-Shifi' Kitab
al-Shi'r, ed A Badawi, in Fann al-Sti'r, 159-98, tr
I M Dahiyat, Avuenna's commentary on the Poetics oj
Aristotle, Leiden 1974, — Abu '1-Barakat al-Baghdadi,
al-Mu'tabar ft 'l-hikma, 3 parts, Haydarabad 1357-
8, i, 276-82— Ibn Rushd, Djawami' Kitab al-Shi'r,
ed and tr CE Butterworth, Averroes' three short
tommentarm on Aristotle's "Topics", "Rhetoric", and
"Poetics', Albam, NY 1975, Talkhis Kitab al-Shi'r (Ar
and Hebr ), ed and tr F Lasinio, // commento me-
dio di Averroe alia Poetua di Anstotele, Pisa 1873, ed
'A Badawi, in Fann al-shi'r, 201-50, ed C E
Butterworth and A Handi, Cairo 1985, tr Butter-
worth, Averroes' middle commentary on Aristotle's Poetics,
Princeton 1986

2 Studies R Walzer, ~ur Traditionsgtschicht, der
ansMelischm Poetik, in idem, Gretk into Arabic, Oxford
-1963, 129-36, W Heinnchs, Arabuche Dichtung, 105-
62, idem, Dit antike Verknupjung von phantasm und
Dichtung bei den Arabern, in ^DMG, cxxvni (1978),
252-98, G Schoeler, Eimge Grundprobleme der autoch-
thonen und der anstotehschen arabischen Literatur-
theorie, Wiesbaden 1975, idem, Der poetise he Syllogismus
Em Beitrag zum Verstandms der "logischen" Poetik der
Araber, in ~ZXUG, exxxm (1983), 43-93, Deborah
L Black, Logic and Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics in
medieval Arabic philosophy, Leiden 1990 (fundamen-
tal), S Kemal, The poetics oj Alfarabi and Aruenna,
Leiden 1991, Ulfat K al-Rubl, Nazanyyat al-shi'r
'ind al-jalasija al-mushmin, Beirut 1983, J Lameer,
Al-Farabi and Aristotelian svllogistus Greek theory and
Islamic practice, Leiden 1994, 259-89, S Pines, 'Studies
in Abu '1-Barakat al-Baghdadi's poetics and metaphysics,
in Scnpta Hierosolymitana, lv, Studies in philosophy, ed
SH Bergman, Jerusalem 1960, 120-98
Logical poetics (and rhetoric) did not have much
of an impact on indigenous poetics and literary the-
ory Most authors ignored it and Ibn al-Athir, who
became acquainted with Ibn Siha's theories, scorned
it (al-Mathal al-sa'tr, ed A al-Hufl and B Tabana,
3 vols, Cairo 1379-81/1959-62, 11, 5-6) This is cer-
tainly due inter aha to the sharp dividing line between
indigenous and foreign disciplines It also meant that,
in most books on the division of the sciences, "poetry"
appeared twice, once in the section on logic (of Greek
origin) and again among the linguistic-literary disci-
plines (of Arab origin)

An exception to this rule is formed by a number
of Maghrib! authors from the 1 3th century and later,

who all show an influence of logical poetics Being
very different in their respective approaches, the> can
hardly be called a school It is only their common
interest in philosophy that binds them together The
most articulate among them is Hazim al-Kartadjanni
(d 684/1285 [qv]), who quotes al-Farabi and Ibn
Siha He appropriates the notions muhakat and takhyil,
but in order to make them more easily applicable to
Arabic poetry, he changes the meaning of muhakat
from "figurative language" to "individually descnptive
language" In other words, to "imitate" an object in
poetry means to depict it through an artful enu-
meration of its properties and qualities Within this
general process, figurative language has its place as
one particularly effective way of depicting the object
Hazim also introduces "secondary imitations", by
which he means the stylistic ornamentations which,
he says, imitate the ornaments of other crafts, such
as weaving, the goldsmith's art, etc (as a matter of
fact, most terms denoting figures of speech are taken
from the vocabulary of such crafts)

Al-Sidjilmasi (d after 704/1304 [qv]) uses takhyil
as a general teim for "imagery", thus differing greatly
from Hazim Ibn "Amira (d 656/1258 or 658/1260
[qv]) and Ibn al-Banna' (d 721/1321 [qv]) both
seem to cling closely to the philosophers in con-
sidering takhyil the distinctive feature of poetry, but
they make their remarks more in passing, so that not
much can be deduced from them

Bibliography 1 Texts Ibn 'Armra, al-Tanbihat
'aid ma fi l-Tibyan (of Ibn al-Zamlakanl) mm al-
tammihdt, ed M Ibn SharTfa, Casablanca 1412/1991,
55, 61, 76, 125, Hazim al-Kartadjanni, Minhadj
al-bulagha' wa-siraaj al-udaba', ed M al-H Ibn
al-Khudja, Tunis 1966, 62-129, German tr in
W Hemnchs, Arahsche Dichtung, 173-262, SidjilmasI,
al-Manza' al-badi' fi tadjnis asalib al-badi', ed 'Allal
al-Ghazi, Rabat 1401/1980, 218-61, Ibn al-Banna'
al-Marrakushi, al-Rawd al-mari' fi sina'at al-badi', ed
R Binshakrun, Casablanca 1985, 103-4 {takhayyul
and muhakat)

2 Studies Heinnchs, Arabuche Dchtung, Schoeler,
Grundprobleme (see previous bibl ), S Masluh, Hazim
al-Kartadjanni ma-nazanyyat al-muhakdt wa 'l-takhyil fi
1-shi'r, Cairo 1980, 'A"Djabr, Nazanyyat al-shi'r 'inda
Hazim al-Kartadjanni, Nazareth 1982"
3 In Kur'anic exegesis, the term takhyil was
introduced b> al-Zamakhsharl (d 538/1144 [qv]) m
his Kur'anic commentary al-hashshdf The most explicit

of Swat al-~umar, XXXIX, 67 "The earth altogether
shall be His handful on the Day of Resurrection, and
the heavens shall be rolled up in His right hand" tal-
Kashshaf ed M al-Sadik Kamhawl, 4 vols, Cairo
1392/1972, in, 408-9) This, he says, is a "depiction
(lasuir) of His majesty and putting before our e\es
the essence of His majesr\ and nothing else, without
taking the 'handful' or the 'right hand' into the realm
of the literal or that of the figurative" As a Mu'tazili,
al-Zamakhshan could not let the stark anthropomor-
phism of this passage stand So the literal under-
standing was out of the question, but to consider the
"handful" and the "hand" metaphors would not solve
the problem, either, because then the unanswerable
question would arise what do they stand for' 1 There-
fore, al-Zamakhshari considers the image presented
by the Kur'anic verse hohsticalh takhyil is a visuali-
sation of an abstract notion such as God's majesty
and omnipotence m a comprehensive picture, the parts
of which cannot be individually connected back to
the notion expressed

TAKHYIL — TAKI al-DIN

The histoiy of this hermeneutic tool after al-
Zamakhsharl still needs to be studied, for some leads
and references see Heinnchs, "Takhyil" and its tradi-
tions, in Alma Giese and J Chi Burgel (eds ), Gott 1st
schon und Er liebt die Schonheit Festschrift fur Anneniane
Schimmel, Berne 1994, 227-47

4 As a ihetoncal figure, takhyil is not very
prominent nor veiy uniform It occuis in Abu Hilal
al-'Askarl, K al-Sma'atayn, with the meaning of "giving
the impression of praising while one is lampooning,
and vice versa" (see G Kanazi, Studies in the Kxtab as-
Smd-atayn of Abu Hilal al-'Askan, Leiden 1989, 186-88,
the passage is missing in the printed editions), m Ibn
al-Zamlakanl, al-Tibyan ji 'dm al-bayan, ed A Matlub
and Khadldja al-Hadlthl, Baghdad 1383/1964, 178,
with the meaning it has in al-Zamakhshari {taswir
hakikat al-shay' hatta yutawahham annahu dhu sural"
tusAahad) Finally, in Rashld al-Din Watwat (d 578/
1182-3 [qv]), Hada'ik al-sihr ji daka'ik al-shi'r, ed
•A. Ikbal, Tehran 1339/1960,39-42, it occurs along-
side iham to denote what is otherwise known as taw-
riya [q.v.] or "double entendre." likewise, al-Nuwayrl,
Mihayat al-arab fi funun al-adab, Cairo n.d., vii, 131-2,
lists all three terms as synonymous. The discussions
of tawriya are sometimes strangely permeated by al-
Zamakhshari's takhyil explanations (on this see S.A.
Bonebakker, Some early definitions of the Tawriya, The
Hague 1966, 24-8). It'seems that scholars with a more
Zahiri bent of mind explained the takhyil passages as
tawriyas, i.e. by the assumption of homonyms, as this
would avoid splitting the meaning of the passages into
an outer and an inner sense (see Heinnchs, in Oriens,
xx [1968-9], 404-5). (W.P. Heinrichs)

TAKl AWHADl, or TakI al-Din Muhammad al-
Husaynl al-Awhadl, Persian anthologist, lexi-
cographer and poet. He was born at Isfahan on
3 Muharram 973/31 January 1565, into a family with
a Sufi tradition from Balyan in Fars. One of his pater-
nal ancestors was the 5th/l lth-century Shaykh Abu
'Air al-Dakkak. During his adolescence he studied in
Shlraz, where he presented his early poems to a cir-
cle of poets and was encouraged by 'UrfT [q.v.].
Returning to Isfahan, he attracted the attention of
the young Shah 'Abbas I and joined his entourage.
In 1003/1594-5, TakI retired for six years to the
'atabdt, the holy cities of the Shl'Is in 'Irak. Like many
Persian literati of his times, he left Persia, in Radjab
1015/November 1606, to seek a career at the Indian
courts. After a short stay in Lahore, he went to the
court of Djahanglr [q.n] at Agra, but he also lived
for many years at Ahmadabad in Gudjarat. The date
of his death is not on record. He must have survived
at least till 1042/1632-3, the latest year which he

additi.

d his h

During his journey to India, TakI AwhadI com-
piled for his fellow-travellers an anthology of Persian
poetry, entitled Firdaws-i khayal ("The paradise of fan-
tasy"). At Agra he extended this into a full tadhkira,
the 'Arafat al-'ashikin wa-'arasat al-'arifin ("The places
of assembly for the lovers and the open spaces for
the mystics"), completed between 1022/1613 and
1024/1615. This voluminous work contains more than
3,000 biographical entries, alphabetically arranged in
28 'arias (one for every letter of the alphabet), and
surveys the entire range of Persian poetry. It is a
valuable source, especially for the contemporary his-
tory of Persian letters in India. After its completion,
TakT AwhadI continued to add dates and other pieces
of information to manuscripts of his work, many of
which are based on personal knowledge. At the request
of the Emperor Djahanglr, he prepared in 1036/1626

an abridged version, under the title Ka'ba-yi 'irfan,
("The Ka'ba of mysticism")

TakI Awhadi was a prolific water His learned
prose includes Surma-yi Sulaymani ("Solomon's col-
lynum"), a dictionary of rare Persian words, and trea-
tises on the theory of rhyme and Sufism Of his
poetry, which compnsed seven mathnawU and several
diwans with kasidas on the Imams, satires and ghazak,
little has remained

Bibliography N Bland, in JRAS (1848), 134-6;
Stoiey, i/2, 808-11, in/1, 25-6, Nazir Ahmad, in
IC, xxxii (1958), 276-94, J Marek, in J Rypka et
aln, History of Iranian literature, Dordrecht 1968, 726;
A Gulcln-i Ma'anI, Ta'rikh-i tadhhraha-yi farsi,
Tehran 1350 j/,/1971, n, 1-24, 33-6, Dh Safa,
Ta'rikh-i adabmat dm Iran, v/3, Tehran 1371
sh -71992, 1730-2 (JTP de Bruijn)

TAKI al-DIN [see al-muzaffar]
TAKI AL-DIN b Muhammad b Ma'ruf, sometimes
given the msbas al-Dimashki, al-Sahyum or al-Misrl,

Turkey, b. Cairo or Damascus in 927/1520-1 or
932/1525 (the sources are not consistent), d. Istanbul,
993/1585. He studied theology in Cairo, served as
kadi in Nabulus, and in 979/1571 was appointed
munedfdjim bashi in Istanbul. He was largely responsi-
ble for persuading the Ottoman Sultan Murad III to
build an observatory in Istanbul. This was achieved
in 987/1579. However, the building was pulled down
a few months later in 987/1580 as a result of TakI
al-Dln's incorrect prediction of an Ottoman victory
over the Safawids following the appearance of the
famous comet of 1577.

TakI al-Din wrote two astronomical handbooks with
tables and explanatory text [see zTdj] entitled Kharidat
al-durat wa-dfaridat al-Jikai, completed 1893 Alexander
(A.D. 1581-2), and Sidrat muntaha 'l-afkar fT malakut al-
falak al-dawwar, an extensive treatise on sundial the-
ory [see mizwala] entitled Rayhanat al-rufifi rasm al-sa'at
'ala mustawi 'l-sutuh; a treatise on astrolabe construc-
tion [see asturlab] entitled Tastih al-ukar and full of
tables; and various treatises on arithmetic and alge-
bra. None of these has received the attention they
deserve. His imposing treatise on optics [see manazir]
Nur hadakat al-ibsar wa-nur hadikat al-absar is in the tra-
dition of Kamal al-Din al-FarisI [q.v.]. His treatises
on mechanical clocks entitled al-Kawdkib al-durriyya fi
wad' al-binkamdt al-dawriyya (compiled 966/1552) and
al-Turuk al-saniyya Ji 'l-alat al-ruhaniyya have been pub-
lished and well illustrate the Ottoman reception of
European notions and techniques in his time. He also
compiled a set of tables for astronomical timekeeping
serving the latitude of Istanbul, fully in the Islamic
tradition [see mIkat]. The anonymous treatise on astro-
nomical observational instruments entitled Alat-i
rasadiyya li-^jdf-i Shahanshahiyya has been compared by
S. Tekeli with the treatise of Tycho Brahe compiled
in Denmark towards the end of the 16th century,
and he has underlined the remarkable similarities.

The famous miniature of the Istanbul Observatory
from the Shahanshdh-nama (PI. 1) shows TakI al-Din
with an assistant holding an astrolabe in front of a
bookshelf. Many of his books are now in the University
Library in Leiden, identifiable by his distinctive sig-
nature on the title folios (see Unver, pi. 10-4). They
are overseeing a group of astronomers involved in copy-
ing manuscripts and operating various instruments. The
terrestrial globe, mechanical clock and the sand-glass
are of European inspiration, but all other instruments
are Islamic.

Bibliography: J.H. Mordtmann, Das Observatorium

TAK.I al-DIN — TAKIDDA

des Taqi ed-Din zu Peru, in Isl., xiii (1923), 82-96,
repr. in F. Sezgin et alii (eds.), Arabische Instmmente
in orientalistischen Studien, 6 vols., Fiankfurt 1991, iv,
281-95; H. Suter, Die Mathematiker und Agnomen der
Amber und ihre Wake, in Abh. iur Geschchk der math-
ematischen Wissenschafkn, x (1900) (repr. Amsterdam,
1982, and again in idem, Beitrage zur Geschichte der
Mathematik und Astronomk im Islam, 2 vols., Frankfurt
am Main 1986, i, 1-285 and 286-314), 191-2 (no.
471); A. Sayili, The observatory in Islam, Ankara 1960
(repr. New York 1981), 289-305; S. Unver, Istan-
bul msathanisi Turk Tarih Kurumu Yaymlan VII
Sen Sa>i 54 Ankara 19b9 and D A King -1 sur
in of thi scientific manuscripts m the Egyptian National
Library Winona Lake Ind 198b 171-2 (no H12)
A new listing of all known woiks b> Taki al-Dm
ind their mss is in E Ihsanoglu Osmanh literaturu
tank I istronomi, IRC IC A Studies and sources on
the history of science 7, Istanbul 199b 199-217

On the observational instiuments at the Istanbul
Obsenatorv see S Tekeh, Hat i rasadiyt h ~if i
$ehinsalmt, Ankaia 19b4 and idem \asimddm
Takiyuddm ic Tycho Biafu'ritn lasai aletlenmn mukayesesi
Ankaia 1958 On Taki al-Dm s writings on clocks
see idem The clocks in tht Ottoman Empire in the lbth
cinturt in inkara Inuersitesi Dil le Tan/i ( ogiajya
Fakultesi \aymlan 171 (19bb) 121-339 and \\ i\-
Hasan, Taqi 'l-Din and Aiabic mtihanual tn^inemng,
Aleppo 1976. On his tables lor timekeeping, see
King, Astronomical timektepmg in Ottoman Tuifay, m
Procs. of the Internal. Symposium on tht Obsenalones m
Islam, 19-23 Sept. 1977, Istanbul 1980, 245-b9 liepr
in idem, Islamic mathemahial astronomy London 198b,
XII), especially 248-9. (D A Kincj

TAKI al-DIN Muhammad b Sharaf al-DIn 'Ail
al-Husayni al-Kashani, commonly tailed Taki Kashi,
Persian scholar of the 1 Oth- 1 lth/ lbth- 17 th centuries
He was a pupil of the poet Muhtasham Kashi",

mental compendium of Persian poetrv hhulasat al ash'ai
wa-zubdat al-afkar, of which the first version was com-
pleted in 993/1585 and the enlarged second version
in 1016/1607-8. It contains notices of well over 600
poets from the 5th/ 1 lth tenturv up to the authors
own contemporaries, each with a detailed biogiaphv,
followed by an exceptionally generous selection of
poems. Manuscripts of this gigantic work (some ol
which contain only the biographies) aie rare and it
remains unpublished. Taki's book is a valuable pn- I
mary source for the literature ol the early Safawid
period, but its main impoitance lies in the fact that j
it has preserved a very large number of poems by-
ancient authors which are not known from any inde-
pendent source. In particular, it can be observed that
all the surviving manuscripts of the diwans of such
major poets as 'Unsun, Manucihri, FarrukhT [q.i'P.]
and quite a few others, are not only later than Takr's
compendium but in fact evidently derive from it. It
is thus clear that Takr played a decisive role in col-
lecting what in his time must already have been very
rare works of early Persian poetry and in rescuing
them for posterity.

The importance of the Khuldsat al-ash'ar for the tex-
tual history of early Persian poetry has until now been
neglected; at the same time, its value as a biogiaph-
ical source has been overrated. Taki's notices, like
those in all the so-called biographical dictionaries of
Persian poets, are a jumble of idle legends and largely
scurrilous anecdotes. Taki had the particularly ini-
tating habit of pretending to know the year when
most of his poets died; many of these dates are man-

ifestly wrong and it seems likely that virtually all of
them were invented ad hoc. Unfortunately, these fic-
titious dates have been perpetuated by subsequent
works, among them many of the entries in the pie-

Bibhogt aphy: A. Sprenger, A catalogue oj the Arabic,
Persian and Hindustdny manuscripts, of the libraries of the
King of Oudh, i [=" all published], Calcutta 1854

(repr

Osn;

uck 1979), 13-46

t of

:ussed by Takr, with theii
posed date of death); Storey, i, 803-5; A. Gulcin-i
Ma'am, Tarikh-i tadhhraha-yi first, i, Tehran 1348
S./1969, 524-56 (with a list of mss.)

(F.C. de Blois)
TAKI al-DIN al-NABHANI (1909-77), founder
ind chief ideologue of the Islamic Liberation
Party (hizb al-tahnr al-islami), which has striven since
ts formation in i 952 to establish an Islamic state and
las been particularly active in Jordan. Al-Nabhani
ms born near Haifa, studied at al-Azhar and the Dai
il 'Ulum m Cairo (1927-32), then returned to Palestine,
*here he taught religious sciences and worked in
Islamic law courts In 1952, he sought petmission
10m the Jordanian Intenoi Mimstrv to foim the
Islamic Liberation Party as a legal political parrs, but
:he request was denied on the grounds that its plat-

'■Nabhanfs

3 Syria

1953, ;

nd thre<

r he

permanently resettled n

In over two dozen works (listed in Musa Zayd al-
Kaylani, al Harakat al islamiyya ji 'I Lrdunn, Amman
1990, 117), al-Nabham elaborated his arguments for
the imperative to establish a universal Islamic state,
the charactei of such a state and the means to achieve
it He expresses many of the same concerns as othei
20th centurv revivalists, but he stands out for his
emphasis on the revolutionary role of a vanguard

among the masses guide them to overthrow existing
iegimes and safeguaid the ideological punty of the
Islamic state Al-NabhanI also laid down a detailed
model constitution for such a state, and devoted sep-
arate works to his vision of the Islamic economy and
society While the Islamic Liberation Paity nevei
atti acted a large following in the seveial Arab coun-
tries wheie it established cells, al-Nabham s woiks have
become an important pait of contemporarv Islamist

Bibtn

For analysis

, Taqi ,

of c

thought, see D Con

and the Islamic Liberation Party, in MW, lxxxi/3-4
(1991), 194-211; S. Taji-Faiouki, Islamic discourse and
modem political methods: an analysis of al-Nabhant's read-
ing of the canonual textual sources of Islam, in American
Journal of Islamic Social Science, xi/3 (1994), 365-93.

(D. COMMINS)

TAKI KHAN AMIR-I KABIR [see amir kabir,
in Suppl.].

TAKIDDA or Takedda (Tamadjak tagidda "saline
spring, pool"), a name given by n

■ loca

t of

jth-central Sahara. Ibn
Battuta (iv, 438-45, tr. Gibb, iv, 972-5) described
Takidda as a place where copper was mined, smelted
and forged into rods used locally as currency. The
copper was also exported to Bornti and other places
to the south of Air. Takidda, in his day, was a flour-
ishing commercial centie trading with Egypt, and a
key centre of the slave trade. It had its own kadi and
a resident community of North Africans. It also had

TAKIDDA — TAKIYYA

a sultan who lived in a tented camp and was described
by Ibn Battuta as a Berber.

Ibn Khaldun describes Takidda as a meeting place
for pilgrims from bilad al-sudan and says that its sultan
exchanged gifts with the amirs of the Mzab and of
Wargla (Hopkins and Levtzion, Corpus, 336, 338-9).
His siting of Takidda (variously twenty or seventy days
travel south and to the west of Warghla) indicates
some confusion with Tadmakkat, a Berber town in
Adrar-n-Iforas, some 250 km/ 150 miles north of Gao,
though there is little doubt that his description of the
place actually refers to Takidda.

Other sources portray Takidda as a haunt of schol-
ars. Al-Sa'di, Ta'rikh al-sudan (ed. O. Houdas, Paris
1898, 66), mentions it as a place where some schol-
ars fled, ca. 875/1470-1, to escape the persecution of
Sunni 'Air of Songhay. Ahmad Baba (Nayl al-ibtihaaj,
330-2, 335, 348) records that al-Maghilr '[q.v.] taught
there ca. 1490, and gives biographies of two 10th/ 16th-
century scholars who bear the nisba "al-Takkidawi":
al-'Akib b. Muhammad al-Anusammanl (d. 955/1548)
and al-Nadjib b. Muhammad (d. after 1004/1595).

The precise location of Takidda has been a sub-
ject of dispute, not least because there are several
locations which have "Tagidda" as an element of their
names: Tagidda-n-Tsemt (or Tagidda-n-Tesoum "of
the salt"), Tagidda-n-Tagait ("of the doum palms")
and Tagidda-n-Adrar ("of the mountain"), all to the
west of Agades. At the first of these salt is extracted
on a regular basis, leading Lhote to suggest that Ibn
Battuta's account of copper production should be read
as salt production. More recently, it has been demon-
strated that Azelik (sometimes referred to as Tagiddaz-
zarai "the first Tagidda" according to Dj. Hamani,
op. tit., in Bibl, 98), some 25 km/ 15 miles north-east
of Tagidda-n-Tsemt, is a location near which copper
was smelted over many centuries. It seems likely that
Azelik was the location visited by Ibn Battuta, and
that it was the principal settlement of a small Sanhadja
polity, known to the external world simply as Tagidda.
This general picture seems confirmed by the report
of the Genoese merchant Malfante visiting Tuwat in
1447, who mentioned "Thegida, which comprises one
province and three ksour".

The history of Takidda is sketchy. Ahmad Baba
(Kifdyat al-muhtadj, in Muhammad Bello, Infdk al-maysur,
London 1951, 15) says it was founded by Sanhadja,
and these may well have been members of the Masufa
who settled in several Saharan fringe locations (Walata,
Timbuktu and perhaps Gao) in the 5th-6th/l 1th- 12th
centuries; their descendants would be the Inussufan,
now considered a Tuareg group. Mali probably exer-
cised suzerainty over Takidda in the 8th/ 14th century
(see Ibn Khaldun in Corpus, 336, 339), governing it
indirectly through its sultan. It was destroyed in a
war with Agades in ca. 1561. For more than two cen-
turies, however, it had played an important role in
trade between North Africa and Hausaland, and be-
tween the Niger Bend and Egypt, and had supplied
copper to Hausaland and Bornu, and perhaps to as
far south as Ife (see R. Mauny, in J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria,
ii/3 (1962), 393-5).

Bibliography: N. Levtzion and J.F.P. Hopkins,
Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African history,
Cambridge 1981; Ahmad Baba al-Tinbukti, Nayl
al-ibtihadj bi-tatriz al-diba^, Cairo 1351/1932-3; Ch.
de la Ronciere, La decouverte de I'Afrique au moyen age,
cartographes et explorateurs, Cairo 1925-27, i, 167 ff.
(letter of Antonius Malfante, English tr. in G. Crone,
The voyage of Cadamosto and other documents on western
Africa in the second half of the XVth century, London

1937 (Hakluyt Soc, second series, LXXX), 85-90);
M. Cortier, Teguidda-n-tesemt, in La geographic, xvi
(1909), 159-64; M. Abadie, La colonic du Niger, 1927,
275-7; R. Mauny, Tableau geographique de I'ouest africaine
au moyen age, Dakar 1961, 139-41; H. Lhote,
Recherches sur Takedda, in BIFAN, xxxiv (1972), 429-
70; H.T. Norris, The Tuaregs: their Islamic legacy and
its diffusion in the Sahel, Warminister 1975, 3'5-40;
R. Bucaille, Takedda, pays du cuivre, in Bull, de I'lnst.
francais dAfrique noire, xxxvii (1975), 719-77; S. Bernus
and P. Gouletquer, Du cuivre au sel, in J. Soc. des
Afncanistes, xlvi (1976), 7-68; S. Bernus, Decouvertes,

d'Azelik-Takedda (Niger), in N. Echard (ed.), Metallurgies
africaines, Paris 1983, 153-71; Djibo Hamani, Au car-
refour du Soudan et de la Berberie: le sultanat touareg de
lAyar, Niamey 1989 (Etudes Nigeriennes, no. 55),
95-109, 187-96; S. Bernus and P. Gressier (eds.),
La region d'in Gall-Tegidda n Tesemt Niger), iv, Azeltk-
Takedda et I'implantation sedentaue medievale (= Etudes
nigeriennes 51), Niamey 1991.

(J.O. Hunwick)
TAKIYYA (a.), also tuka", tukdt, takwa and ittika',
"prudence, fear" (see L'A, s.v. w-k-y, Beirut 1956, xv,
401-4; T'A, x, 396-8), and also, from the root k-t-m,
kitman "action of covering, dissimulation", as opposed
to idha'a "revealing, spreading information", denotes
dispensing with the ordinances of religion
in cases of constraint and when there is a
possibility of harm.

The Kur'an itself avoids the question of suffering
in the cause of religion in dogmatics by adopting a
Docetist solution (sura IV, 156) and in everyday life
by the hidjra and by allowing in case of need the
denial of the faith (XVI, 108), friendship with unbe-
lievers (III, 27) and the eating of forbidden foods (VI,
119; V, 5). This point of view is general in Islam.
But, as Muhammad at the same time asserted the
proclamation of his mission to be a duty and held
up the heroic example of the ancient saints and the
prophets as a model (V, 71; III, 40; etc.), no defi-
nite general rule came to be laid down, not even
with the separate sects. Minor questions, which are
very fully discussed, are whether takiyya is simply a
permitted alleviation through God's indulgence (rukhsa)
or a duty, if it is necessary in the interest of the com-

Takiyya was never rejected even by the extreme
wing of the strict Kharidjites [q.v.] although among
the AzrakFs in the related question of divine worship
when danger threatens (salat al-khawf [q.v.]), it is often
given as an example that one should not interrupt
the salat even if his horse or his money be stolen
from him during it. The advice is already old: "God
gave the believers freedom of movement (wassa'a) by
takiyya; therefore conceal thyself!" The principle adop-
ted by the Ibadls, however, was that "takiyya is a
cloak for the believer: he has no religion who has no
takiyya" (Djumayyil, (Camus al-shan'a, xiii, 127-8).

Among the Sunni authorities the question was not
such a burning one. Nevertheless, al-Tabari says on
sura XVI, 108 (Tafsir, Bulak 1323, xxiv, 122): "If any
one is compelled and professes unbelief with his tongue,
while his heart contradicts him, in order to escape
his enemies, no blame falls on him, because God
takes his servants as their hearts believe". The rea-
son for this verse is unanimously said to have been
the case of 'Ammar b. Yasir [q.v.], whose conscience
was set at rest by this revelation when he was wor-
ried about his forced worshipping of idols and objur-
gation of the Prophet. It is more in the nature of

theoretical speculation, when in this
question of hidjra is minutely investigated, that in cer-
tain circumstances, e.g. threat of death, a Muslim who
cannot live openly professing his faith may have to
migrate "since God's earth is wide". Women, children,
invalids and those who are tied by considerations for
them, are permitted muwafaka ("connivance"); but an
independent individual is not justified in takiyya nor
bound to hidfra, if the compulsion remains within
endurable limits, as in the case of temporary impris-
onment or flogging which does not result in death.
The endeavour, however, to represent takiyya as only
at most permitted and not under all circumstances
obligatory, as even some Sunnls endeavour to hold
on the basis of sura II, 191, has resulted in the inven-
tion of admonitory traditions, e.g. ra's at-fi'l al-mudarat
"to be good friends with unbelievers is the beginning
of actual unbelief". To prove that steadfast martyr-
dom is a noble thing, the story is told of the two
Muslim prisoners of Musaylima [q.v.], one of whom
allowed himself to be forced to acknowledge the anti-
prophet, while the other died for the Prophet. The
latter is reported to have said: "The dead man has
departed in his righteousness and certainty of belief
and has attained his glory, peace be with him! But
God has given the other an alleviation, no punish-
ment shall fall upon him".

Takiyya is above all of special significance for the
Sht'a. Indeed, it is considered their distinguishing fea-

al-Tusi in the Talkhls al-Muhassal protests against al-
Razi (see his commentary Muhassal ajkm al-mutakaddimin
wa ■l-muta'akkkhmn, Cairo 1323/1905, 181-2). The
peculiar fate of the Shi 'a, that of a suppressed minor-
ity with occasional open but not always unheroic re-
bellions, gave them even more than the Kharidjites
occasions and examples for extreme takiyya and its
very opposite; even the Isma'TlTs, usually masters in
the art of disguising their creed, made the challenge
to their leaders: "He who has 40 men at his disposal
and does not seek his rights is no Imam". The ZaydFs
give as among the number of helpers who remove
the necessity of takiyya from the Imam, that of those
who fought at Badr. It is a common polemical charge
of the Sunnls, quoted from the writings of the Shr'fs
themselves, that the latter, as followers of fighting mar-
tyrs, are not justified in employing takiyya, while the
Twelvers, in particular, while representing the Imams
as examples compelling one to resoluteness, appeal on
the other hand to the conduct of 'Alt during the reign
of the three first caliphs and to the ghayba of the
Mahdi as examples of takiyya. Belief is expressed by
heart, tongue and hand; a theory of probabilities,
developed with considerable dialectic skill, calculates
under what real or expected injuries, "the permitting
of what is pleasing to God and the forbidding of what
is displeasing to God" can be dispensed with. Observ-
ance with the heart is always absolutely necessary. But
if it is considered as probable to anyone {law ghalaba
'ala zannihi) or if he is certain that an injury will befall
him, his property or one of his co-religionists, then
he is released from the obligation to fight for the
faith with hand or tongue.

In ShiT biographies, concealment is a regular fea-
ture; we are told that the hero broke the laws of reli-
gion like the prohibition of wine under compulsion,
and this is not always reported as excusable. But since
for them also Muhammad is the Prophet, and since
as among the Sunnls a prophet may not practice
takiyya in matters of his office, because otherwise one
could not be certain of the revelation, we have, in

view of the double example of the Imams, in the
code of morals for the ordinary pious men of the
Sht'a, the following sayings of 'All in juxtaposition:
"It is the mark of belief to prefer to practise justice
even if it injures you, rather than injustice when it
is of use to you"; and as an explanation of sura
XLIX, 13: "He among you who is most honoured
before God is the most fearful (of God)", that is, he
who uses takiyya most (atkakum = aktharukum takiyyat"");
and it is also said "Al-kitman is our dfihad", but at
the same time the chapters on djihad are to be read
with the implied understanding that the fighting is
primarily against other Muslims. It is also to be noted
that the takiyya of the Shl'is is not a voluntary ideal
(cf. Kjfansa'ri, Rawdat al-qjannat, Tehran 1306/1888,
iv, 66-7), but one should avoid a martyrdom that
seems unnecessary and useless and preserve oneself
for the faith and one's co-religionists.

In any case, because of their attachment to takiyya,
the Shr'Is have devoted numerous works to it. Tihr'ani,
in al-Dhan'a, iv, 403-4 nos. 1769-83, gives a list of some
26 epistles and other works, including (1) the R. ft
'l-takiyya wa 'l-idjia'a of Abu '1-Mufaddal al-Shaybant
al-KurT (d. 387/997); (2) the Takma of 'All al-Bakn
(d. 940/1533), of which there isa ms. of 1100/1688
in the library of Sh. Dja'far Al Bahr al-'UlQm in
Nadjaf; (3) the R. al-takiyya of Agha Muhammad Bakir
al-Bihbiham (d. 1206/1791), also with a ms. at Nadjaf
belonging to Sh. Mashkur; (4) the Takiyya, in 600
verses, by Mu'izz al-Dln Muhammad al-Hilll (d. 1309/
1891), of which there is a ms. in the library of Sh.
Hibat al-Dtn al-Shahrastani; etc.

In the last resort, takma is based on intention, so
we continually find the appeal made to myya in this
connection. The validity of the profession of faith as
an act of worship is not only settled by the correct
formulation of the intention to do it, but this is the
essential of it, so that it alone counts, if under com-
pulsion a profession of unbelief is made with the lips
or worship performed along with unbelievers. God's
rights alone can be injured by takma. He has the
power to punish the constrainer, and only in certain
circumstances will a slight portion of the punishment
fall upon the one constrained. The wiles used in this
connection, especially in oaths with mental reserva-
tions give, however, ample opportunities to injure one's
fellow-creatures.

The moral dangers of takiyya are considerable, but
it may be compared with similar phenomena in other
religions and even among the mystics. The ethical
question whether such forced lies and denials of the
faith are not still lies and denials of the faith, is not
put at all by the one "who conceals his real views",
as he is not in a state of confidence which would be
broken by lies or denial.

Bibliography: Goldziher, Das Prinzip der takijja
im Islam, in ZDMG, lx (1906), 213-26, where fur-
ther references are given. — Sunnis: Bukhan, A", al-
ikrah; Kuduri, Mukhtasar, Kazan 1880, 162; Nawawl,
Minhadi al-talibin, ed. van den Berg, Batavia 1882-4,
ii, 433.— Kharidjis: al-Basrwi, Mukhtasat, Zanzibar
1304/1886, 123; Djumayyil b. Kharms, Kamiif al-
shan'a, Zanzibar 1297-1304/1880-7, xiii, 127 ff.,
157— Zaydis: mss. Berlin 9665, fol. 35a, 4878, fol.
96b; C. van Arendonk, De opkomst ran het Zoidietische
Imamaat in Yemen, Leiden 1919, see Index; R. Stroth-
mann, Das Staatsrecht der Z a iditen, Strassburg 1912,
90 ff.— I ma mis: Nawbakhtl, Firak al-shl'a, Istanbul
1931, 55 ff.; Ash/an, Makalat al-islamiyyln, Cairo
1396/1976, i, 193 ff., and passm; Shahrastam, al-
Milal wa 1-nihal, Cairo 1387/1967, i, 124 ff., 146

TAKIYYA — TAKKALU

ff.; Ibn Abi '1-Hadrd, .Shark Nah§ al-balagha, Cairo
1385/1965, i, 5 ff.; Ibn Taymiyya, Minhaaj al-sunna,
Cairo 1382/1962, i, 43 ff.; Dja'far b. Husayn al-
Hilli, Shara'i' al-hlam, St. Petersburg 1862, 149 ff.;
Ibn al-Mutahhar al-'Allama al-Hilli, Mukhtalaf al-
Shi'a, Tehran 1323 ff, ii, 158-9;' Horovitz, in hi,
iii, 63-7— Druzes: ms. Berlin, Mq 814 (not in
Ahlwardt), fol. lib; Ibn Hazm, al-Fasl ft 'l-milal,
Cairo 1317/1899-1900, iii, 112 ff, iv, 6; Sha'ram,
Balance de la loi musulmane, ed. Perron, Algiers 1898,
456 ff— Modern general surveys of the
topic: Tihrani, al-Dhari'a, Tehran 1360/1941, iv,
403-5; Kashif al-Ghita', Asl al-Shi'a, Nadjaf 1389/
1969, 176-80; Mahmud ai-Alusi, Mukhtasar al-tuhfa
al-ithna-'ashariyya, Baghdad 1301/1883, 188-94;
Ahmad Amih, Duha al-hlam, Cairo 1384/1964, iii,
246-9; Hasan al-Amm, Da'irat al-ma'arif al-islamiyya
al-shi'iyya, Beirut 1395/1975, xi, 85-99.

(R. Strothmann-[Moktar Djebli])
TAKIZADA, Sayyid Hasan (b. Tabriz, 27 Sep-
tember 1878, d. Tehran, 28 January 1970), Persian
politician and scholar of Iranian studies.

1. Life. The son of Sayyid Taki UrdQbadr, he
received both a traditional Islamic and a modern edu-
cation, including natural science and French and, to
some extent, the English language. In Tabriz he
founded, with three like-minded friends, an ephemeral
journal, Gandjina-yi funun (1903-4), and then travelled
for a year in the Caucasus, Istanbul, Beirut and Egypt,
returning with Western modernist ideas and sympa-
thies. Moving to Tehran at the time of the Consti-
tutional movement [see dustOr. iv], his reputation as
one of the more radical, even revolutionary, activists
secured him election to the first Madjlis as a represen-
tative for Adharbaydjan, arousing the fear of Muham-
mad 'All Shah who plotted, as the sources all agree,
to kill him and five other constitutionalists. Hence
when the Shah replied with his anti-constitutionalist
coup of 1326/1906, Takizada took refuge in the Brit-
ish Legation and then made his way to Europe, to
Paris and London; in the latter place, he worked
with the Iran Committee there, and his friendship
with the famous Persian scholar E.G. Browne dates
from this time.

He returned to Tabriz and then to Tehran, becom-
ing a member of the provisional steering committee
when Muhammad "All Shah was deposed and a mem-
ber of the second Madjlis for the Democrat Party
(hizb-i dimukrai). But he had to leave Persia in 1910
after the murder of Sayyid 'Abd Allah Bihbihani, and
after periods in Turkey, London and the United States,
went in 1914 to Germany at the German govern-
ment's suggestion to help organise an anti-British and
anti-Russian "Committee of Iranian Nationalists",
founding the journal Kama, first as a political but later
as a cultural and literary journal also; he remained
in Germany till 1921.

With the defeat of the Central Powers, the Com-
mittee was dissolved. Takizada returned to Persia and
now filled various government positions, serving also
as a deputy in the fifth and sixth Madjlis. He was
opposed to changing the constitution to allow Rida
Khan (Pahlawl) [q.v.] to assume power. During Rida
Shah's reign he filled such offices as governor of Khu-
rasan and ambassador in London, and as Minister
of Finance was concerned in the negotiations of 1933
for the extension of the Anglo-Persian (after 1935
Anglo-Iranian) Oil Company's agreement. He was
also ambassador in Paris, but becoming persona non
grata to the Shah, went to Berlin and then London,
where he started teaching at London University. On

the abdication of the Shah (1941) he b

Returning home in 1948, he became a member of
the 15th Madjlis and a professor at Tehran University
and in 1949 a senator, acting for a time as President
of the Senate. Amongst his many cultural activities
during the last two decades or so of his life was his
involvement in the Society for National Monuments
and, in conjunction with UNESCO, the Institute for
Translation and Publication of Books (Bungah-i Tardjuma
wa Nashr-i Kitab).

2. Literary work. Amongst his important works
in Persian were his Gah-sjiumari oar Iran-i kadim (Teh-
ran 1315/1937, repr. as vol. x of his collected works,
see below); a study on Firdawsl, in Kama, N.S. i-ii
(1920-1), and works on Nasir-i Khusraw and Mani. His
articles and other writings are collected in Makalat-i
Takizada, ed. I. Afshar, 10 vols. Tehran 1349-57/
1970-8, of which vols, vi-viii contain his writings in
European languages. His writings in European lan-
guages were partly political and partly in the field of
Iranian studies. He had an interest in bibliography,
and with W. Litten published Penisthe Btbhographie,
Berlin 1920. For a complete bibliography, see his own
autobiography ^indigi-yi tufani, -Tehran 1372/1993.
Bibliography: There are references to Takiza-
da's constitutionalist activities in most of the books
on the movement, e.g. E.G. Browne, The Persian
revolution of 1905-1909, Cambridge 1910; Ahmad
Kasrawi, Tankh-i mashruta-vi Iidn, Tehran 1340/
1961; Mahdi Malikzada, Tarikh-i inkilab-i mashru-
tiyyat dot Iran, 7 vols. Tehran 1949-54. See also
W.B. Henning and E. Yarshater, A locust's leg. Studies
in honour of S.H. Taqizadeh, London 1962, esp. S.M.A.
Djamalzadeh, Taqizadeh tel que /<? I'ai connu, 1-18,
and Brief bibliography, 19-20; Habib Yaghma'I (ed.),
Tadnama-yi Takizada ba-munasabat-i salruz-i dar-
gudhasht-i an shadrawan, Tehran 1349/1971.

(Iradj Afshar)
TAKKALU (Takka-lu), the name of a group
of Turcomans originating from the regions of
Mentese, Aydin, Saruhan, Hamit and Germiyan in
southern Anatolia, an area known collectively as
Tekeili [q.v] [Tarikh-i Kizilbashan, ed. Mir Hashim
Muhaddith, Tehran 1361 AHS/1982, 27).

The Turcoman tribes of Anatolia were one of the
primary targets of Safawid propaganda (da'wa) [see
bayazId n; safawids. i], and the Takkalus responded
early to this call and entered the service of the Safawid
shaykhs Djunayd and Haydar [q.v]. In 905/1499, when
Isma'Il [see isma'il i] summoned his supporters to
rally to him at Erzindjan, a Takkalu contingent formed
part of the force of 7,000 men who assembled there
(R.M. Savory, Studies on the history of Safawid Iran,
Variorum Reprints, London 1987,"no. I, 63). At the
time of the establishment of the Safawid state in
907/1501, the Takkalu tribe was listed among the
"great tribes" (buyuk oymaklar) of the Kizilbash [q.v.]
(Faruk Sumer, Osmanh devhtinin kurulu$u ve gelijmesinde
Anadolu Turklmnin rolu, Ankara 1976, 46-7), and the
Takkalus were classified as a tribe "of the right" irnay-
mana), the Safawids having adopted the old Turco-
Mongol system of military organisation (Masashi
Haneda, he Chah et les Qizilbas. Le systime mihtaire safa-
mde, Berlin 1987, 52). After the major revolt in Asia
Minor led by Shahkull Baba Takkalu in 917/1511
had been crushed, a further 1,500 Takkalu tribesmen
emigrated to Persia and joined Shah Isma'il.

After the death of Isma'fl I (930/1524), and the
accession of the young Shah Tahmasp I [q.v.], civil
war erupted between rival coalitions of Kizilbash tribes.

TAkKALU — TAKLID

At first the Takkalus and other tribes acknowledged
the leadership of Drw Sultan Rumlu (Hasan-i Rumlu
ihs.au attauankh ed C N Seddon Baioda 1931
187-8 Budak Munshi kazwim, fyauahtr al akhbai
Leningrad ms Dorn 288 fol 298b i as amir al umara'
[see ait imir al Omara n Saiavid usage in EIr l
970-1] but bv 933/1527 a Takkalu amir Cuha Sultan
had become the vutual rulei of the state v Savorv op
at no V b9 11) Manv Takkalus defected to the
Ottomans and fought alongside Ottoman tioops dur-
ing Sultan Sulev man s \ anous in\ asions of Persia ( ihsan
altauarikh 237 247 ft \ As a result the Takkalus
lost their prestigious position in the Safawid state and
onlv three Takkalu amirs appear in Iskandar Beg s
list of leading amirs at the time of the death of
Tahmasp (984/ 157b) Tankh i 'Ham ara u 'ibbasi text
ii 1084-7 tr Savorv n 1309-15) There was a brief
revival of Takkalu fortunes under Shah Isma'il II
[qr] but once moze the tribe became embroiled m
hizilbash factionalism Their ikta's [qi] in the Hama
dan area were transferred to the Ustadjlu and Shamlu
tribes and once again manv Takkalus took refuge
with the Ottomans From then on thev had the sta-
tus in Persia of onl> a second-class tube (Sumer op
at 144) and no Takkalu amirs aie listed b\ Iskandar
Beg at the death of Shah 'Abbas I (1038/1629) (text
n 1084 fl tr n 1309 fl )

Bibliography (in addition to references in the
aiticle) Adel \llouche Thi origin', and deitlopment oj
the Ottoman fsafavid conjlid [906 962/1500 1555) Beihn
1983 J-L Bacque-Grammont Lis Ottoman lis

tions Internationales dans lomnt tilarmque de 1j14 a
1j24 Nederlands Histonsch-Archeologisch Instituut
te Istanbul 1987 J J Reid, Tribalism and soattv m
Islamic Iran 1500 1629 Malibu Calif 1983

(RM Savor-,)
TAKLID (a), from the verb kallada to imitate
follow obev so meaning ac ceptance of oi sub-
mission to authority The word with this semantic
range is not found in the Kur'an nor in hadith
liteiatuie (as covered bv Wensinck s Concordance) It has
an important role throughout the Muslim iehgious
sciences where it has a predominantly negative mean-
ing implying unreasonable and thoughtless acceptance
of authority It was however capable oi being iescued
and given a positive orientation Different degrees of
positive orientation can be found in the technical
analyses oi authontv that emeiged in pre-modern
Islamic thought in relation to both juristic authontv
and ciedal matters In spite of these developments
the teim retained a geneiallv abusive implication and
might be discovered on anv side in any debate about
authontv and epistemology horn the earliest to the
most recent articulations of Islamic belief The term
has been widelv adopted into Orientalist discouise
where it is almost invaiiabh translated as blind sub-
mission' The same is broadlv true of modernist Islamic
discourse The absence of anv positive assessment of
this term in modern comment