Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936)
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Subject: Middle East and Islamic Studies
Edited by: M. Th.Houtsma, T.W.Arnold, R.Basset and R.Hartmann
The Encyclopaedia of Islam First Edition Online (EI1) was originally published in print between 1913 and 1936. The demand for an encyclopaedic work on Islam was created by the increasing (colonial) interest in Muslims and Islamic cultures during the nineteenth century. The scope of the Encyclopedia of Islam First Edition Online is philology, history, theology and law until early 20th century. Such famous scholars as Houtsma, Wensinck, Gibb, Snouck Hurgronje, and Lévi-Provençal were involved in this scholarly endeavor. The Encyclopedia of Islam First Edition Online offers access to 9,000 articles.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
The Encyclopaedia of Islam First Edition Online (EI1) was originally published in print between 1913 and 1936. The demand for an encyclopaedic work on Islam was created by the increasing (colonial) interest in Muslims and Islamic cultures during the nineteenth century. The scope of the Encyclopedia of Islam First Edition Online is philology, history, theology and law until early 20th century. Such famous scholars as Houtsma, Wensinck, Gibb, Snouck Hurgronje, and Lévi-Provençal were involved in this scholarly endeavor. The Encyclopedia of Islam First Edition Online offers access to 9,000 articles.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Wakap
(221 words)
(Mal., Jav., the form, or with slight modifications, taken by
waḳf [q. v.] among the Muslim peoples of the east Indian Archipelago). The institution is well known; estates made
wakap are however of isolated occurrence only: they always serve religious purposes. The prescriptions of the law are complied with. Clashing with native law results in there being no wakap where single individuals have no private rights (Minangkabau, Central Sumatra) and wherever the individual right to land is restricted by a higher law, no pieces …
Waḳār
(787 words)
, Mīrzā Aḥmad S̲h̲īrāzī with the
tak̲h̲alluṣ Waḳār (Browne vocalises it Wiḳār), a Persian poet, the eldest of the six sons of the poet Wiṣāl. His five brothers also attained fame as poets. Specimens of the poetry of the father Wiṣāl are given in the
Mad̲j̲ma ʿ al-Fuṣaḥāʾ of Riḍā Ḳulī Ḵh̲ān, ii. 528
sqq. and in Browne,
Persian Literature in Modern Times, p. 318; in the last named work on p. 301, 319
sqq. and 323
sqq. are also specimens of the work of Dāwarī and Farhang, two brothers of Waḳār. In the
Mad̲j̲maʿ, ii. 103
sqq. are two further poems of Wiṣāl’s second son Maḥmūd Ḥakīm and in ii. 3…
Waḳf
(7,773 words)
or Ḥabs (a.) is properly an Arabic
maṣdar meaning “to prevent, restrain”. In Muslim legal terminology it means primarily “to protect a thing, to prevent it from becoming the property of a third person (
tamlīk)” (Sarak̲h̲sī.
Mabsūṭ, xii. 27). By it is meant I. state land, which on being conquered passed to the Muslim community either by force or by treaty and remained in possession of the previous owners on payment of the
k̲h̲arād̲j̲ and could neither be sold nor pledged by them (cf. e. g. Mawardī,
Aḥkām, ed. Enger, p. 237
sq.) and 2. commonly a pious endowment, which is defined in vari…
Wak̲h̲ān
(942 words)
(in Arabie Wak̲h̲k̲h̲ān), a district to the south of the Pāmīr [q. v.]. Wak̲h̲ān is a long and narrow valley which runs from east to west and is watered by the upper course of the Oxus (Pand̲j̲a) and by the river Wak̲h̲ān-daryā, which is the most southern source of the Oxus [cf. amū-daryā]. The length of Wak̲h̲ān along the Oxus is 67 miles and of the Wak̲h̲ān-daryā (from Langar-kis̲h̲ to the Wak̲h̲d̲j̲īr pass) 113 miles, Afg̲h̲an sources put the distance from Is̲h̲kās̲h̲im to Sarḥadd at 66
kurōh = 22 farsak̲h̲s. To the south of Wak̲h̲ān rises the wall of the Hindū-Kus̲h̲ through whic…
al-Wāḳiʿa
(185 words)
(a.), the name of Sūra lvi. The title “the befalling, suddenly happening” which is the subject of the first verse is generally taken to refer to the
ḳiyāma (q. v. where the word is translated “the event”) or
sāʿa, both periphrases for the Day of Judgment. The content of the Sūra is in keeping with this. Opinions differ as to the date of its origin. Nöldeke and Schwally put it in the first Meccan period but add that Ḥasan al-Baṣrī regards it as Medlnese. That some verses are Medlnese seems to be generally acknowledged in tradition wh…
al-Wāḳidī
(1,564 words)
, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿUmar, an Arab historian born in 130 in Medīna; according to
Ag̲h̲ānī, vii. 189, his mother was a great-grand-daughter of Ṣāʾib who introduced music into Medīna. Al-Wāḳidī was so called after his grandfather al-Wāḳid, al-Aslamī as a mawlā of ʿAbd Allāh b. Buraida who belonged to the Medīnese family of Aslam. On the occasion of Hārūn’s pilgrimage in 170 (see Ṭabarī, iii. 605) he was recommended to him as the best authority on the holy places of his native town and acted as guide to th…
Wakīl
(23 words)
(a.), mandatary, solicitor, agent, vicegerent, see wakāla ; also one of the names of Allāh, “the Guardian”, see allāh , ii. ¶
Waḳwāḳ or Wāḳwāḳ
(4,141 words)
, in Arabic orthography , or . The pagination which follows the names of Arab authors or titles of Oriental works refers, unless otherwise stated, to G. Ferrand’s
Relations de voyages et textes géographiques arabes, persans et turks (cf. the
Bibliography). I. Wāḳwāḳ of the South or Wāḳwāḳ of Africa The islands of Wāḳwāḳ are situated in the Lārwī sea which washes the western coast of India and the lands inhabited by the Zand̲j̲ (Yaʿḳūbī, p. 49). The Wāḳwāḳ of the south is different from that of China (Ibn al-Faḳīh, p. 55). The lands of Sofāla an…
Walī
(2,438 words)
(a.) 1. From the Arabie root
wala, to be near, and
waliya, to govern, to rule, to protect someone. In ordinary use this word means protector, benefactor, companion, friend and is applied also to near relatives, especially in Turkish [cf. the art. ʿaṣaban wilāya]. When used in a religious connection walī corresponds very much to our title “saint”; but the idea behind it has given rise to a regular theory and in practice has attained sufficient importance for it to be necessary to explain the use of the term. In the Ḳurʾān this theory does not yet exist; the term
walī is found there with several…
al-Walīd
(607 words)
b. Yazīd, Umaiyad Caliph. He was about 35 (Feb. 743) when he succeeded his uncle, the Caliph His̲h̲ām b. ʿAbd al-Malik. “If only for his personal courage, liberality, love of letters and patronage and practice of poetry, Walīd was bound to shine in the first rank among the Umaiyads”. Such is the judgment of the
Kitāb al-Ag̲h̲ānī (vi. 101) the author of which could not be suspected of partiality for the Umaiyads. An artistic and remarkably cultivated young man, which none of his predecessors had been, the son of the hysterical caliph Yazīd II, he was …
al-Walīd
(694 words)
b. ʿAbd al-Malik, Umaiyad Caliph (88—98 = 705—715). On the death of his father, the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik (Oct. 705), al-Walīd, his successor, was over 30. A prince of only average culture, he brought to the throne an aristocratic outlook and a display of religious fervour unknown among his predecessors. In the history of the Umaiyads he ranks as the great builder of the dynasty. One of his first cares was to give his capital Damascus a magnificent mosque. Walīd cast his eyes on the basilica of St.…
al-Walīd
(631 words)
b. al-Mug̲h̲īra b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿOmar b. Mak̲h̲zūm, an opponent of Muḥammad. Little is known of his life but it is certain that he was one of the most powerful men in Mecca and one of the most ardent opponents of ¶ he Prophet. As head of the numerous and prominent family of the Mak̲h̲zūm he naturally represented the aristocratic interests in the city of Muḥammad’s birth and that he was himself very prosperous is evident from the fact that, according to traditionists, he owned a garden in Ṭāʾif which he planted for pleasure only and nev…
Wālide Sulṭān
(6,333 words)
(a.) Turkish pronunciation
vālide or
valde sulṭān; the two words are in apposition, according to Turkish syntax), “the sulṭān Valide” or “sulṭāna mother”, a title borne in the old Ottoman empire by the mother of the reigning sulṭān and only for the duration of her son’s reign. The political history of the Wālide Sulṭān is fairly well known from the Turkish historians, at least as far as those are concerned who took part openly in the government of the country, for example Nūr Bānū, Ṣafīye, Māh-Peiker Kösem and Turk̲h̲an Ḵh̲adīd̲j̲e. We are by no means so well informed about the condi…
Wālihī
(161 words)
, the name of two Ottoman poets of the xth (xvith) century: 1. Wālihī Kurd-zāde of Adrianople (an alleged Wālihī from Gisr Erkene or Ergene Köprü is the same man). On the conclusion of his studies he came as a ḳāḍī to Cairo and was admitted into the Güls̲h̲anī order by Saiyid Ḵh̲ayālī, the son of Ibrāhīm Güls̲h̲anī, the founder of the order. Returning to Adrianople, he worked there as a Ṣūfī preacher, celebrated for his eloquence and command of language. He was given to drinking. He died in 994 (1586) in Adri…
Wāmiḳ Wa-ʿad̲h̲rā
(373 words)
, a Persian romance alleged to come from a Pahlawī original. It is said to have been presented in Nīs̲h̲āpūr to the emīr ʿAbd Allāh b. Ṭāhir (d. in 230 = 844) in the form of an old book dedicated to Ḵh̲usraw I Anūs̲h̲arwān (531—579 a. d.) and the governor is said to have ordered it to be destroyed, because it had been written by Zoroastrians. In any case, it was put into verse by ʿUnṣurī [q. v.] and again by Faṣīḥī of Ḏj̲ūrd̲j̲ān in 441 (1049). In addition to ʿUnṣurī’s version, Ethé (
Grundriss d. iron. Philol., ii. 240) mentions no less than six versions which are all lost. At the end of the xiith (xviiith) …
Wān
(2,087 words)
, a town in Turkey on the Armenian plateau on the eastern shore of Lake Wān. The name Wān is not found in the Arabic sources which deal with the Muslim conquest. Lake Wān is usually named by the Arabs after the towns on the northern shore, Ard̲j̲īs̲h̲ and Ak̲h̲lāṭ. Ibn Ḥawḳal alone (p. 250) mentions the Artsrunid Ibn Dairānī, lord of Zawazān, of Wān and Wosṭān. Yāḳūt, iv. 895, mentions a fortress of Wān but makes it a dependency of Erzerum and locates it between Ak̲h̲lāṭ and Tiflis (?). For the Muslim conquest of Armenia see that article. The important fact is the campaign of Bug̲h̲ā…
Wānḳūli̊
(278 words)
, Meḥmed b. Muṣṭafā al-Wānī, a famous Ottoman jurist in the time of Murād III (982—1003 = 1574—1595) who especially distinguished himself in the field of
fiḳh, lexicography and literature. Born in Wān, he acted in a number of towns (Constantinople, Rhodes, Manissa, Salonika, Amasia, Kutahia, Yenis̲h̲ehir) as müderris, ḳāḍī and mollā and died in 1000 (1591—1592) as mollā of Medīna, to which he had come in 998 (1590) in succession to Suʿūdī. In his long period of 30 years’ service, he displayed great activity in writing and translating. His principal work is the translation of the
Ṣaḥāḥ or
Ṣiḥā…
al-Wans̲h̲arīsī
(590 words)
,
nisba from the land of Wans̲h̲arīs, a mountainous area in western Algeria to the south of the Wādī S̲h̲alaf (Chélif) known to modern geographers in the corrupt transcription Ouarsenis. 1. Abu ’l-ʿabbās aḥmad b. yaḥyā b. Muḥammad b. ʿabd al-wāḥid b. ʿalī al-tilimsānī al-wans̲h̲arīsī, a famous Mālikī jurist of the Mag̲h̲rib, born at Tlemsen, studied under celebrated teachers, like Ibn Marzūḳ al-Kafīf and Abu ’l-Faḍl ¶ Ḳāsim al-ʿUḳbānī. In 874 (1469) after some trouble with the government of Tlemsen of which we do not know the details, he left his native town t…
Waraḳa
(407 words)
b. Nawfal b. Asad al-Ḳuras̲h̲ī, a cousin of Ḵh̲adīd̲j̲a, who encouraged and possibly influenced Muḥammad in the first years of his mission. ¶ All we know concerning him has the colour of legend: he is classed with the (artificial?) group of Meccans known to tradition as the
ḥanīfs, who, abandoning paganism, resolved to seek for the true religion of Abraham. Waraḳa became a Christian; he was abstemious, knew Hebrew, studied the Bible, and had written down the Gospels in Hebrew (in the Hebrew alphabet?). In his relations with Muḥammad he is endowed with supernatural powers, like …
Warāmīn
(1,088 words)
(or Warām, cf. Yāḳūt,
Muʿd̲j̲am, iv. 918), a town about 40 miles (Yāḳūt, c. 30
mīl) S.S.W. of Ṭeherān, now the capital of the district of Ḵh̲wār-wa-Warāmīn. The plain of Warāmīn watered by canals trom the Ḏj̲ād̲j̲arūd is regarded as the granary of Ṭeherān. The town lies to the south of the great road from Raiy to Ḵh̲urāsān passing via Ḵh̲wār (near Ḳis̲h̲lāḳ?) and Simnān (cf. Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih, p. 22; only in the Mongol period did the road from Sulṭānīya to Ḵh̲urasān run via Raiy-Warāmīn-Ḵh̲wār:
Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb, p. 173). On the other hand in the ninth and tenth centuries, Raiy wa…
Wargla
(1,260 words)
(Ouargla), an oasis in the Algerian Sahara 100 miles S. of Tuggūrt in 31° 58′ N. Lat. and 5° 30′ East Long. (Greenw.) at a height of 320 feet above sea-level. Wargla occupies a depression above a sheet of underground water fed by the subterranean course of the wed Myia which can easily be reached by sinking wells 60 to 150 feet deep. This has enabled palmgroves to be planted there, numbering 500,000 trees all in full productivity and an almost equal number of trees which are dying but might be r…
al-Warkāʾ
(1,325 words)
, a ruined site in southern ʿIrāḳ, in 45° 25′ N. Lat. and 31° 19′ East Long. (Greenw.). Yāḳūt (
Muʿd̲j̲am, ed. Wüstenfeld, iv. 922) knows al-Warkāʾ as a place which belonged to the district of Kaskar and the circle of Zawābī in the area of the two south Babylonian Euphrates canals called Zāb (cf. Streck,
Babylonien nach den arab. Geograph., i., Leyden 1900, p. 32; G. Le ¶ Strange,
The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Cambridge 1905, p. 37, 73). According to a Muslim tradition, Ibrāhīm, the Abraham of the Bible, was born in al-Warkāʾ (see Yāḳūt, iv. 922, 14
sq. and cf. also Loftus,
op. cit., p. 161
sq.). …
Warrāḳ
(230 words)
, Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad b. Hārūn, an independent thinker, who finally was accused of
zandaḳa, was like his friend and pupil, Ibn al-Rāwandī [cf. al-rāwandī], at one time a theologian of the Muʿtazila school. Victims of the same persecution, both died in exile in Ahwāz in 297 (909). His theological vocabulary only makes mild concessions to Hellenistic philosophy, but his dialectic is powerful; and his documentation of an objectivity and exactness unknown in this period enabled him to write a manual of the history of religions, the
Kitāb al-Maḳālāt, the only source (unfortunately lost) o…
Was̲h̲mgīr b. Ziyār
(827 words)
, Abū Ṭālib (and according to his coins Ẓahīr al-Dawla) or better Wus̲h̲mgīr, if the name means „catcher of quails” (cf. al-Masʿūdī,
Murād̲j̲, ix. 30, note), second ruler of the Ziyārid dynasty, reigned 935—965. He only left his native land Ḏj̲īlān, after his brother Mardāwīd̲j̲ [q. v.] had come to power, and had lived until that time the primitive mountaineer life of his people (Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, viii. 182). Under Mardāwīd̲j̲ he conquered Iṣfahān and drove from there ʿAlī b. Būye, who had taken that town when he was i…
al-Was̲h̲s̲h̲āʾ
(183 words)
, Abu ’l-Ṭaiyib Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Isḥāḳ b. Yaḥyā, Arabie philologist and bel esprit, pupil of Mubarrad and of T̲h̲aʿlab, who earned his living as a teacher in an elementary school, but in the most important of his works that has survived to us, the
Kitāb al-Muwas̲h̲s̲h̲ā (ed. R. E. Brünnow, Leyden 1886, reprinted as
Kitāb al-Ẓarf wa ’l-Ẓurafāʾ, Cairo 1324), prepared a handbook of rules of good society for the aristocrats of Bag̲h̲dād. In addition there survives by him a letter-writer:
Tafrīd̲j̲ al-Muḥād̲j̲ wa-Sabab al-Wuṣūl ila ’l-Farad̲j̲ or
Surūr al-Muḥād̲j̲ wa ’l-Albāb fī Rasāʾ…
Wāsiʿ ʿAlīsi
(377 words)
or ʿAlī, an Ottoman author, scholar and poet, stylist and calligrapher of Philippopolis. His full name is: ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAlī Čelebi b. Ṣāliḥ or Ṣāliḥ-zāde al-Rūmī, known as ʿAbd al-Wāsiʿ ʿAlīsi or Wāsiʿ ʿAlīsi (from the
müderris Mewlānā ʿAbd al-Wāsiʿ whose assistant [
mülāzim] he had been). He was
müderris in various medreses in Brussa, Adrianopl and Constantinople, then
ḳāḍī. He died in Brussa in 950. His fame is mainly based on the elegant and pompous translation, surpassing even the Persian original, of the
Anwār-i Suhailī of Ḥusain Wāʿiẓ Kās̲h̲ifī [cf. Kās̲h̲īfī] which in turn is …
Wāṣif
(585 words)
, Aḥmad, official historian of the Ottoman empire, belonged to Bag̲h̲dād, early entered the service of high Ottoman dignitaries, for example Kel Aḥmad Pas̲h̲a and Abāza Meḥemmed Pas̲h̲a, for whom he acted as librarian. He was captured by the Russians and his fortune was made when he was sent with letters from Catherine the Great to the grand vizier. He finally acted as secretary (
waḳʿa nuwīs; q. v.) at the peace of Bucharest (1772). In Ḏh̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 1197 (Oct. 1783) he was appointed imperial historian (
waḳāʾi ʿ nuwīs; q. v.) in place of Enwerī [q. v.] Efendi. Five years late…
Wāṣil b. ʿAṭāʾ
(757 words)
, Abū Ḥud̲h̲aifa al-G̲h̲azzāl, the chief of the Muʿtazila [q. v.]. Biographical facts concerning this personality are meagre, especially from early sources, yet without considerable divergencies. Born in Madīna in 80 (699-700), where he was a client of the Banū Ḍabba, or of the Banū Mak̲h̲zūm, he migrated to Baṣra, where he belonged to the circle of Ḥasan al-Baṣrī [cf. al-ḥasan b. abi ’l-ḥasan al-baṣrī], and entered into friendly relations with notable personalities such as Ḏj̲ahm b. Ṣafwān [q. v.] and Bas̲h̲s̲h̲ār b. Burd [q. v.]. With none of these three m…
Wāsiṭ
(4,302 words)
, once one of the most important cities of the ʿIrāḳ in the centre of which it stood. The city was a creation of al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ b. Yūsuf [q. v.]. As to the date of its foundation, the statements of the Arab writers vary between 83 (702) to 84 (703). Yāḳūt is probably right in saying that the building of it occupied the years 83—86 (702—705). Al-Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ was certainly living in his new city by the year 84. On the date of its foundation cf. Streck,
op. cit. (see
Bibl.), p. 324—325; Périer,
op. cit., p. 208; Masʿūdī,
B. G. A., viii. 360. On the immediate reasons which led to the building…
Waṣīya
(1,567 words)
(a.), commission; as a technical term, last will, testament, legacy;
waṣī, the person empowered, particularly the executor of a will. 1. The waṣīya of the pre-Islāmic Arabs was less concerned with the distribution of the estate than with orders and instructions to the survivors; it is the spiritual testament of the dying man sanctified by religion which is to hand on obligations and secure the continuity of tradition. In this sense, according to the S̲h̲īʿa, ʿAlī is the
waṣī of the Prophet and every imām the waṣī of his predecessor, i. e. the continuer of his religious ta…
Waṣṣāf
(198 words)
, a Persian historian, properly Waṣṣāf al-Ḥaḍrat “panegyrist of the court”, the name by which S̲h̲araf al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh b. Faḍl Allāh of S̲h̲īrāz is known. Employed as a taxcollector under the Mongols, he became the protégé of the minister and historian Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, who presented him to Ūld̲j̲āitū (712 = 1312), when the Īlk̲h̲ān was in Sulṭānīya. His history
Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Waṣṣāf is the continuation of the
Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ḏj̲ahān-gus̲h̲ā of ʿAṭā Malik Ḏj̲uwainī; it is called
Tad̲j̲ziyat al-Amṣār wa-Tazd̲j̲iyat al-Aʿṣār “division of the towns and propulsion of the centuries” …
Watad or Watid
(64 words)
, “a peg”, means in prosody I. a group of two vocalised consonants followed by a quiescent consonant (
watad mad̲j̲mūʿ); 2. a group of two vocalised consonants, separated by a quiescent consonant (
watad mafrūḳ). Each foot ought of necessity to have a
watad followed or preceded by one or two
sabab [q. v.]. (Moh. Ben Cheneb) Bibliography See the article ʿArūḍ.
al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ Bi ’llāh
(656 words)
Abū Ḏj̲aʿfar Hārūn b. al-Muʿtaṣim, ʿAbbāsid Caliph. He was given the name Hārūn after his grandfather Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd; his mother was a Greek slave. On the day that his father al-Muʿtaṣim bi ’llāh [q. v.] died (18th Rabīʿ I 227= Jan. 5, 842), al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ was proclaimed as his successor. Before al-Muʿtaṣim’s death an alleged descendant of the Umaiyads, named Abū Ḥarb, usually called al-Mubarḳaʿ “the veiled” from the veil which he always wore, had provoked a dangerous rising in Palestine, and Rad̲j̲āʾ b. Aiyūb al-Ḥaḍārī whom al-Mu…
Waṭṭāsids
(1,236 words)
(Banū Waṭṭās), a Moroccan dynasty of the xvth and xvith centuries. The Banū Wattāṣ were a collateral line of the great family of the Banū Marīn, to which also belonged the Banū ʿAbd al-Ḥaḳḳ, founders of the dynasty generally known as the Marīnid dynasty [q. v.]. After leading a nomadic life on the edge of the Sahara and the high plateaus of the Central Mag̲h̲rib the Banū Waṭṭās settled in the xiiith century in eastern Morocco and soon established themselves in the Rīf, of which they were became practically independent rulers, when their relatives the Banū Marīn had…
Waṭwāṭ
(382 words)
, Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, a Persian poet, a native of Balk̲h̲, whose proper name was Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Ḏj̲alīl al-ʿUmarī (descendant of the Caliph ʿUmar); he was called Waṭwāṭ (the swallow or martin) from his diminutive stature and insignificant appearance. He flourished under the Sald̲j̲ūḳ sulṭān Sand̲j̲ar and the Ḵh̲wārizms̲h̲āh Atsiz (d. 551 = 1156—1157) and was secretary and court poet to Atsiz. While Sand̲j̲ar was besieging the latter in the fortress of Hazārasp in Ḵh̲wārizm (k̲h̲ānate of Ḵh̲īwa) in 542 (1147) he commissioned the poet Anwarl to write insulting verses …
Wāw
(144 words)
, 27th or 26th (when it precedes
hāʾ; this is the sequence in some dictionaries), letter of the Arabic alphabet, with the numerical value of 6. For its palaeographical pedigree, see ababia, plate i. — It belongs to the group of the labials (
al-ḥurūf al-s̲h̲afawīya) as well as to that of the soft letters (
ḥurūf al-līn). It is pronounced like English
w. In the north-Semitic languages and sometimes in Ethiopie, its place at the beginning of words is taken by
y. In a few cases it corresponds with
m (cf.
urd̲j̲uwān “purple” with Aramaic and Hebrew ). (A. J. Wensinck) Bibliography W. Wright,
Comparativ…
al-Waʾwāʾ
(660 words)
al-Dimas̲h̲ḳī, Abu ’l-Farad̲j̲ Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-G̲h̲assānī, an Arab poet of the second rank of the time of the Ḥamdānid Saif al-Dawla [q. v.], who died, probably in Damascus, after the year 370 (980). Of his life we only know that he was a crier in the fruit-market in Damascus (on this
Dār al-Biṭṭīk̲h̲ cf. H. Zaiyāt in
Mach., xxvii., 1929, p. 762—764); whence probably his epithet (cf.
Ibn Āwā, vulg. Syr.-Arab.
wāwī, jackal; according to other statements =
faʾfāʾ, stutterer, stammerer). Arab scholars usually reckon him in the circle of Saif al-Dawla. As he seems never t…
Wazīr
(1,244 words)
, vizier, title of ministers of state and of the highest dignitaries, especially in the Ottoman empire. The word and the idea come from Īrān. In the
Avesta vicira means “decider, judge”, in Pehlevi
v(i)čir “judge, decision”. The Arabs undoubtedly took over the term in the Sāsānian period and it was only in later times that modern Persian took back
wazīr from the Arabic as if it were really Arabic. Under the Umaiyads the usual name of the secretary of state was
kātib; it was later replaced by wazīr (cf. Et. Quatremère,
Histoire des sultans Mamlouks de l’Egypte, ii./2, Paris 1845, p. 317
sqq.; W. B…
Wed̲j̲īhī
(268 words)
, Ḥusain, an Ottoman poet and historian. Ḥusain whose
mak̲h̲laṣ was Wed̲j̲īhī, came from Bag̲h̲če Serāy in the Crimea at an early age to Stambul where he became seal-bearer (
mühürdār) to the later grand vizier, then Ḳapudan Pās̲h̲ā, Ḳara Muṣṭafā Pas̲h̲a. He died in 1071 (beg. Sept. 6, 1660) in Stambul and was buried before the Adrianople gate. Wed̲j̲īhī left a history and a
Dīwān which has not yet been printed. The former begins in the year 1047 (beg. May 20, 1637) with the description of the conquest of Bag̲h̲dād under Murād IV, then describes the reign of …
Wega
(777 words)
(Vega) (al-Nasr al-wāḳiʿ). The Arabic name
al-Nasr al-wāḳiʿ “the falling eagle” — in Latin always reproduced as
Vultur cadens, in Greek γὺψ καθειμένοΣ, although
nasr is undoubtedly the eagle not the vulture — is the name first of the brightest star (first magnitude) α in the constellation of the Lyre and secondly of the whole constellation of the Lyre itself. The name Vega, a corruption of
wāḳiʿ is found in this form as early as the Alfonsine Tables e. g. “Lucida super
pupillam deferentem et est
Alohore et dicitur
Wega”. The expression
pupilla deferens which here occurs for the first ti…