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(a.), the title of governors of the provinces of Egypt, called mudīriyya . The use of the word mudīr in this meaning is no doubt of Turkish origin. The office was created by Muḥammad ʿAlī, when, shortly after 1813, he reorganised the administrative structure of Egypt, instituting seven mudīriyyas; this number has been changed several times. The chief task of the mudīr is the controlling of the industrial and agricultural administration and of the irrigation, as executed by his subordinates, viz. the maʾmūr , who administers a markaz , and the nāẓir who controls the ḳism …

, the river Nile. The Nile is one of the large rivers (length ca. 6,648 km./4,132 miles) which from the beginning have belonged to the territory of Islam, and the valleys and deltas of which have favoured the development of an autonomous cultural centre in Islamic civilisation. In the case of the Nile, this centre has influenced at different times the cultural and political events in the Islamic world. Thus the Nile has, during the Islamic period, continued to play the same part as it did during the centuries that preceded the coming of Islam. The name al-Nīl or, very often, Nīl Miṣr, goe…

(824-48, 850-5/1421-44, 1446-51), sixth ruler of the Ottoman Empire, was born in 806 (1403-4) and ascended the throne in D̲j̲umādā I 824/May 1421, when he arrived in Edirne some days after his father Meḥemmed I’s death; his decease had been kept secret on the advice of the vizier ʿIwaḍ Pas̲h̲a until the new sultan’s arrival. As crown prince he had resided at Mag̲h̲nisa, and he had taken part in the suppression of the revolt of Simawna-Og̲h̲lu Bedr al-Dīn [ q.v.]. Immediately after his accession he had to face the pretender known in Turkish history as Düzme Muṣṭafā [ q.v.] and his ally D̲j̲un…

, a town of mediaeval ʿIrāḳ situated in the Euphrates-Tigris delta region at the head of the Persian Gulf and famed as the terminal for commerce from India and further east. It lay to the east of al-Baṣra [ q.v.] on the right bank of the Tigris and on the north side of the large canal called Nahr al-Ubulla, which was the main waterway from al-Baṣra in a southeastern direction to ¶ the Tigris and further to ʿAbbādān and the sea. The length of this canal is generally given as four farsak̲h̲ s or two barīd s (al-Muḳaddasī). Al-Ubulla can be identified with ’Απολόγου ’Εμπόριον, mentioned in the Periplus m…

, the fifteenth Ottoman sultan (1026-7/1617-18 and 1031-2/1622-3), was born in the year 1000/1591 as son of Meḥemmed III [ q.v.]. He owed his life to the relaxation of the ḳānūn authorising the killing of all the brothers of a new sultan, and was called to succeed his brother Aḥmed I [ q.v.] at the latter’s death on 23 D̲h̲u ’l-Ḳaʿda 1026/22 November 1617. But his weakmindedness —which is said to have him made escape death on account of superstitious fear of Aḥmed— made him absolutely incapable of ruling. Aḥmed’s son ʿOt̲h̲mān, who felt himself e…

, the desert region that lies west of Kūfa 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 Yāḳūt, Buldān , iii, 359, al-ṭaff means an area raised above the surrounding country or fringe, edge, bank; the name is not found after the 13th century. The district contains a number of springs, the waters of which run ¶ southwest (cf. Ibn al-Faḳīh, 187). The best known of these wells was al-ʿUd̲h̲ayr. From its geographical position al-Ṭaff w…

, or in the official style, Telk̲h̲īṣī , was the individual of the Ottoman Turkish administration appointed to prepare the précis called telk̲h̲īṣ [ q.v.] and to take it to the palace, where it was handed over to the chief of the eunuchs. The telk̲h̲īṣd̲j̲i was therefore an official of the Grand Vizier’s department; in addition to preparing the telk̲h̲īṣ, he took part in several official ceremonies. The telk̲h̲īṣd̲j̲i of the S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islām was not—at least in the later period—in direct communication with the palace; documents presented by him had to pass first …

, the twenty-second Ottoman sultan (1106-15/1695-1703), was a son of Meḥemmed IV [ q.v.]. Born in 1664, he succeeded to his uncle Aḥmed II on D̲j̲umādā II 1106/6 February 1695, at a time when the empire was at war with Austria, Poland, Russia and Venice. The new sultan in a remarkable k̲h̲aṭṭ-i s̲h̲erīf proclaimed a Holy War and carried out, against ¶ the decision of the Dīwān , his desire to take part in the campaign against Austria. Before his departure a mutiny of the Janissaries had cost the grand vizier Defterdār ʿAlī Pas̲h̲a his life…

, the Turkish word for “black” or “dark colour” in general. It is commonly used with this meaning as the first component of geographical names e.g., Ḳarā Āmid (on account of the black basalt of which this fortress is built), Ḳarā Dag̲h̲ (on account of its dark forests), etc. Besides Ḳarā we find in place names the diminutive form Ḳarad̲j̲a. In personal names, ḳarā may refer to the black or dark brown colour of hair or to a dark complexion. It has, however, at the same time the meaning “strong, powerful”, and should be interpreted in th…

, a small town in southern ʿIrāḳ, on the right bank of the Euphrates (lat. 30° 53′ N., long. 46° 28′ E.). It lies some 40 km/25 miles to the south-east of al-Nāṣiriyya [ q.v.] and at the western end of the K̲h̲awr al-Ḥammār lake and marshlands region, about 160 km/100 miles as the crow flies from Baṣra. The town is surrounded by date-groves extending along the river bank, but the marshy country, that extends into Baṣra, makes the air very unhealthy. Sūḳ al-S̲h̲uyūk̲h̲ was founded in the first half of the 18th century as a market-place ( sūḳ) of the confederation of the Muntafiḳ [ q.v.] Arabs; 4 hour…

, grand vizier under Aḥmad I. He was a Bosnian by origin and a relation of Meḥmed Soḳollu Pas̲h̲a. The year of this birth is not given. After having had higher education ¶ in the palace, he was mīr-āk̲h̲ūr , and became in 1003/1595 ag̲h̲a of the Janissaries. In the next year he took part in the Austrian wars as beglerbegi of Rūmili and was commander of Esztergom (Gran, Turkish: Usturg̲h̲on) when this town capitulated to the Austrian army in Muḥarram 1004/September 1595. During the following years, Lala Meḥmed was several times ser-ʿasker in Hungary and when, in Ṣa…

, the name of a region lying to the west of Farg̲h̲āna [ q.v.] in mediaeval Islamic Transoxania, now falling in the region where the eastern part of the Uzbekistan Republic, the northernmost part of the Tajikistan Republic and the easternmost part of the Kirghiz Republic meet. The form Usrūs̲h̲ana is the best known, although Yāḳūt (i, 245) says that Us̲h̲rūsana is preferable. In the Persian versions of the text of al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī and in the Persian text of the Ḥudūd al-ʿālam we find more often Surūs̲h̲ana, while Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih sometimes has S̲h̲ur…

, nineteenth sultan of the Ottoman dynasty in Turkey, known as awd̲j̲i̊ "the hunter" from his excessive passion for the chase, reigned 1058-99/1648-87. Born on 30 Ramadan 1051/2 January 1642, he was the son of Sultan Ibrāhīm [ q.v.] and Ḵh̲adīd̲j̲a Turk̲h̲ān Sulṭān. He was placed on the throne in Istanbul at the age of seven after the deposition in 18 Rad̲j̲ab 1058/8 August 1648 of the sensualist and possibly mentally deranged “Deli” Ibrāhīm, at a moment when Ibrāhīm was the sole surviving adult male of the house of ʿOt̲h̲mān, but i…

(761-91/1360-89), according to the common tradition the third ruler of the Ottoman state, was a son of Ork̲h̲ān and the Byzantine lady Nīlūfer. Although some Ottoman sources profess to know the year of his birth ( Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī , i, 74, gives the year 726/1326), this date, like all dates given by Turkish sources relating to this period, is far from certain. The name Murād (Greek sources such as Phrantzes have ’Αμουράτης, from which later Latin sources make Amurath, while contemporary Latin sources from…

, sixteenth sultan of the Ottoman empire (regn. 1027-31/1618-22), was born on 19 D̲j̲umādā II 1012/15 November 1603; cf. Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī , i, 56), the son of Sultan Aḥmed I. After the death of his father in November 1617, the brother of the latter had been proclaimed sultan as Muṣṭafā I [ q.v.] but ʿOt̲h̲mān, taking advantage of the weak character of his uncle and supported by the Muftī Esʿad Efendi and the Ḳi̊zlar Ag̲h̲asi̊ . Muṣṭafā, seized the throne on 26 February 1618 by a coup d’état. The youth of the new sultan at first assured the promoters of the coup d’état of cons…

, the twenty-sixth sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1171-87/1757-74), was one of the younger sons of Aḥmed III [ q.v.] and was born on 14 Ṣafar 1129/28 January 1717 ( Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī , i, 80). When he succeeded to the throne, after ʿOt̲h̲mān III’s [ q.v.] death, on 16 Ṣafar 1171/30 October 1757, his much more popular brother and heir to the throne, Meḥemmed, had recently died, in Rabīʿ I 1170/December 1756. Turkey enjoyed at that time, since the peace of Belgrade of 1739, a period of peace with her neighbours. Since December 1756 the very able Rāg̲h̲ib Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.] was grand vizier and …

is the arabicised form of the Persian name Kūhistān meaning a mountainous country (derived from kūh , “mountain” with the sufix -istān ) and corresponds to the Arabic designation al-D̲j̲ibāl. As the Iranian plateau is very mountainous, we find many more or less extensive areas in it to which the name Ḳūhistān has been given, as Yāḳūt has already remarked (iv, 204). Many of these names have disappeared in course of time. Thus Ḳazwīnī (ed. Wüstenfeld, 228) says that the term Ḳūhistān is used for Media, which other geographers always call al-D̲j̲ibāl. In the S̲h̲āh-nāma …

(t.), the name of a corps of guards, who were especially attached to the person of the sultan at the Ottoman Turkish court. The name is also applied to a member of the guard. Their occupations were similar to those of the Čawus̲h̲ [ q.v.], not of military character, nor for court service only, but they were used for more or less important public or political missions. Like the Čawus̲h̲, the Müteferriḳa were a mounted guard. The name appears early, e.g., in a waḳfiyya of 847/1443, one Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāḳ is mentioned as being one. In later times there were ¶ two classes, the gedikli or ziʿāmetli …

, the twenty-ninth sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1222-3/1807-8), was a son of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd I and was born on 26 S̲h̲aʿbān 1193/19 September 1778 (Meḥmed T̲h̲üreyyā, Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī , i, 81). When the anti-reform party, headed by the ḳāʾim-maḳām Mūsā Pas̲h̲a and the muftī, and supported by the Janissaries and the auxiliary troops of the Yamaḳs, had dethroned Selīm III [ q.v.] on 21 Rabīʿ I 1222/29 May 1807, Muṣṭafā was proclaimed sultan. Immediately afterwards, the niẓām-i d̲j̲edīd ¶ [ q.v.] corps was dissolved and Ḳabaḳd̲j̲i-og̲h̲lu, the leader of the Yamaḳs, was mad…

, famous Ottoman commander of the 10th/16th century, d. 988/1580. The date of his birth is not given. He was a native of Soḳol, and began his service in the imperial palace. He rose in rank under the grand vizier Aḥmed (960-2/1553-5), but was not in favour with the latter’s successor Rüstem Pas̲h̲a, who made him in 963/1556 lālā to prince Selīm with the object of ruining him. The outcome of this nomination was the contrary of what was expected; Muṣṭafā became the chief originator of the intrigues by which Selīm came into conflict …