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, Ḳalaʿī , the name used by the Arabs for tin (or for an especially good quality of tin), which is sometimes also called al-raṣāṣ al-ḳalʿī and al-raṣāṣ al-abyaḍ , that is, “ ḳalʿī lead” or “white lead” (see LA, s.v.; Dozy, Supplément, s.v.; Vullers, Lex. pers.- lat ., ii, 735; Quatremère, in Journal des Savants , 1846, 731). For the other names for tin in Arabic ( ḳaysar = κασσἰτερος etc.), see, for example, al-Dimas̲h̲ḳī, Cosmographie , ed. Mehren, 54. The word probably comes from the Far East, whence the Arabs could have borrowed it directly, with…

, or bād̲j̲armaḳ , under the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate was the name of a district east of the Tigris between the Lesser Zāb in the North and the D̲j̲abal Ḥamrīn in the South. The chief town in the middle ages was Kirkūk (Syr. Kark̲h̲ā de Bēt̲h̲ Slōk̲h̲). It formed a district of the province of Mosul (cf. Ibn Ḵh̲urradād̲h̲bih, 97, 7). Bād̲j̲armā is an Arabic rendering of the Aramaic Bēt̲h̲ (Be) Garma while Bād̲j̲armaḳ goes back to some Middle Persian form of the name of the district, …

, D̲j̲abal , the name which the mediaeval Arabic geographers give to the mountain chain which is situated in the northern part of Syria and for long formed the frontier between the Islamic and the Byzantine lands. In classical times it was known as the Amanos/Amanus (K̲h̲amanu in the cuneiform inscriptions), but by the Turks as Alma Dag̲h̲ī (Elma Daǧı in modern Turkish); since it has not been treated under elma dag̲h̲i̊ , it has seemed useful to consider it here, even though the D̲j̲abal al-Lukkām does not correspond exactly to these ramificati…

, one of the sub-districts ( ṭassūd̲j̲ ) of ʿIrāḳ, according to the Sāsānid division adopted by the Arabs, belonging to the district (P. astān , A. kūra ) Ḵh̲usra S̲h̲ād̲h̲ Bahmān (the district of the Tigris) and comprising a tract of land along the western frontier of Ḵh̲uzistān, between Wāsiṭ and Baṣra. The name is derived from the Sāsānid king Kawād̲h̲ (Ḳubād̲h̲) I. The first part of the name is probably Abar (P. abar or abr "cloud" is often seen at the beginning of place-names) and not Abaz or Abād̲h̲ as the Arab geographers have it. Some Arab authors give A…

, pl. of ḳanāt [ q.v.], is found as a toponym in Syria. It designates particularly “a canal of Roman origin which leaves the Barada upstream from Rabwa on the right bank, and divides into five branches which pass across Damascus, supplying the southern part of the city with water” (Ibn ʿAsākir, Description de Damas , tr. N. Elisséeff, Damascus 1959, 252). Ḳanawāt is also the name of a place that lies 85 km. south of Damascus, on the west slope of the Ḥawrān. Because of its wealth of water this very ancient settlement cannot be identif…

, a fortress in Fārs, in 30° 10′ N. Lat. and 51°30′ E. Long. (Greenwich). It is built on a mountain with a flat top, in the eastern part of the valley of Kohra, which falls steeply down on all sides. On its summit, which can only be reached by cliff-paths, lies an extensive well-wooded plateau watered by numerous springs. A strong garrison is necessary for its defence, as is noted in the Fārsnāma . Descriptions of the fortress and the country round it are given, among Oriental writers for example, by Ibn al-Balk̲h̲ī in the Fārsnāma (the pertinent passage is copied by Mustawfī, Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb …

, site of ruins in Mesopotamia, on the Western bank of the Ḵh̲ābūr, to the South of the Ḏj̲abal ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, situated under 36° 10′ N. Lat. and 40° 50′ E. Long. (Greenw.). The remains of the old town are hidden under several hills, after one of which the site is also called Tell ʿAd̲j̲āba. It was here that H. A. Layard found several winged bulls with human heads, products of the genuinely Mesopotamian civilization which is closely related to that of …

( ʿAḍēm ), an eastern tributary of the Tigris (Did̲j̲la, [ q.v.]). It is formed of the junction of several rivers which have their sources in the range east of and parallel to the Ḏj̲abal Ḥamrīn and which in their course from N.E. to S.W. break through deeply cut ravines. The most important of these rivers are: the river of Kirkūk, viz. the Ḵh̲āṣa (Kaza, Kissa) -čay (on some maps it figures also under the name of Ḳara-ṣū), which rises from several sources north of Kirkūk; further the river of Tāʾūk (Daḳūkā [ q.v.]), viz. the Tāʾūk-ṣū (or -čay), the most important of all, which joins the…

, town in ʿIrāḳ situated in about 33° 35′ N. and 42° 48′ E. on the right bank of the Euphrates, on a hill which may be man-made. The mediaeval Arab travellers estimate the distance between Hit and Bag̲h̲dād at 33 parasangs ( ca. 130 miles) or 5½-6 days’ journey, cf. M. Streck, Babylonien nach den arab. Geographen , i, 8. Some Arab geographers (al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī and Ibn Ḥawḳal) include Hīt in the D̲j̲azīra; it was generally considered, however, to be a frontier town of ʿIrāḳ. In al-Muḳaddasī’s time (4th/10th century) it was of some imp…

, Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Sulaymān, Tunisian author of the 19th century (1204-74/1789-1857). He stemmed from a family of scholars in Tūnis, his grandfather having been a manuscript copyist who had gone on the Pilgrimage to Mecca and had then setded at Sennar [see sinnār ] in the Sūdān, thus establishing a family connection between that region, Cairo (where Muḥammad’s father became naḳīb al-riwāḳ , i.e. superintendent of the Mag̲h̲ribī students at al-Azhar) and Tūnis. Muḥammad was born in Tūnis in 1204/1789, and after studying at al-Azhar, made his way to the Sūdān, where …

, under the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate a district south-west of Bag̲h̲dād, the land south of the Nahî Ṣarāt, a branch of the Euphrates canal Nahr ʿĪsā [ q.v.]. The Ṣarāt separates it from the Ḳaṭrabbul district; the southern part of the western half of Bag̲h̲dād (the so-called town of al-Manṣūr) as well as the suburb of Kark̲h̲ were situated within the bounds of the district of Bādūrayā; the latter formed, like the district of Ḳaṭrabbul, a subdivision of the circle of Astān al-ʿĀlī. (M. Streck*) Bibliography Muḳaddasī, iii, 119, 120 Ibn Ḵh̲urradād̲h̲bih, 7, 9, 235, 237 Balād̲h̲urī, Futuḥ, 250, 254…

(also Ḳarḳīsiya ), a town in al-D̲j̲azīra on the left bank of the Euphrates, close to the confluence of the K̲h̲ābūr, a little above 35° N. Lat. Ḳarḳīsiyā is simply an Arabic reproduction of the Graeco-Roman name (τό) Κιρκήσιον, (τό) Κιρτήσιον κάστρον or Κιρκίσιον (Κιρκισία in the Notit. episcop ., ed. Parthey, 87), Circesium, Syriac Kerkusion, Latin = castrum Circense, “the castle with the circus”; cf. Nöldeke, op. cit. (see Bibl .), p. 3. Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī in Yāḳūt, iv, 65, 11. 21 ff., still knew the etymology of the place-name (Ḳarḳīsiyā, arabicised from Kirkīsiyā, from kirkīs = Ar. ḥalba…

, pl. ḳanāṭir , means in Arabic (1) bridge, particularly a bridge of masonry or stone, one of the most famous of which is that of Sand̲j̲a [ q.v.]; also (2) aqueduct (especially in the plural), dam, and finally (3) high building, castle (similarly ḳasātil = aqueduct from ḳastal = castellum; see ḳanāt ); cf. TA, iii, 509; Dozy, Supplément, ii, 412; de Goeje, BGA, iv, 334; and particularly R. Geyer in the SB Ak. Wien , cxlix/6 (1905), 114-9. The original meaning of the word “arch, stone archway”, is found in the earliest Arabic lexicographers; cf. Dozy-de Goeje, Description de l’Afrique et de l’…

, in the Arab middle ages, a small strongly fortified town in Mesopotamia, south of Ḥarrān, a short distance east of Balīk̲h̲, situated on the road to Raʾs al-ʿAyn, with famous gardens. It is no longer mentioned by the geographers of the 3rd-4th/9th 10th centuries. The Aramaic name () denotes “house of fortune”; cf. perhaps, an ʿAyn-gaddā = “source of fortune” in the Damascene and the Gadda of the Tabula Peutingeriana in Syria. See thereon Nöldeke in the ZDMG, xxix, 441. (M. Streck) Bibliography Yāḳūt, i, 453 Balād̲h̲urī. Futūḥ, 174, 72, where Bād̲j̲addā, not Bād̲j̲uddā. is to be read Le Stra…

(also ḳayṣāriyya ), plur. ḳayāsīr , the name of a large system of public buildings laid out in the form of cloisters with shops, workshops, warehouses and frequently also living-rooms. According to de Sacy, Relation de l’Egypte par Abd Allaṭif , Paris 1810, 303-4, the ḳaysāriyya was originally distinguished from the sūḳ probably only by its greater extent, and by having several covered galleries around an open court, while the sūḳ consists only of a single gallery. At the present day in any case, the term ḳaysāriyya is not infrequently quite or almost identical in meaning with th…

, the name of several places, generally in districts where Aramaic was once spoken, for al-Bīra is a translation of the Aramaic bīrt̲h̲ā — “fortress”, “citadel”. The best known is al-Bīra on the east bank of the Euphrates in North-west Mesopotamia, the modern Bīred̲j̲ik [ q.v.]: on other places, bearing the name Bīra, cf. Yāḳūt, Muʿd̲j̲am (ed. Wüstenfeld), i, 787; Nöldeke in the Nachr. der Götting . Ges. der Wiss. , 1876, 11-12 and in De Goeje, BGA, iv, (gloss.), 441; Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems (1890), 423. (M. Streck)

( Kalāh , Kalā , Kilā , Killah ), the mediaeval Arab geographers’ name for an island or peninsula ( d̲j̲azīra ) which played an important intermediary role in commercial and maritime relations between Arabia, India and China. It was particularly well-known for its tin mines, and the Arabic word ḳalʿī / ḳalaʿī [ q.v.] for this metal derives from Kalah; the place was also portrayed as the centre of trade in camphor, bamboo, aloes, ivory etc. Its capital also was named Kalah (cf. e.g., al-Dīmas̲h̲kī, Cosmographie , 152, 170); so too the sea which washed its shor…

, a place in ʿIrāḳ the exact situation of which cannot now be fixed. According to Masʿūdī it belonged to the Ṭaff [q. v.], the frontier district between Babylonia and Arabia and was 16 parasangs (about 60 miles) from Kūfa. Yāḳūt says it was nearer Kūfa than Wāṣiṭ. Bāk̲h̲amrā is famous in the history of the ʿAbbāsids from the decisive battle which took place there between the army of the Caliph al-Manṣūr commanded by ʿĪsā b. Mūsā and the troops of the ʿAlid Ibrāhīm b. ʿAbd Allāh, in which the lat…

(in Arabie authors also Ḳaiṣārīya and Ḳaiṣārīya), a town in Asia Minor (Rūm), in 35° E. Long. (Greenwich) and 33° 15′ N. Lat. at the northern base of the Ard̲j̲īs̲h̲-Dag̲h̲ [q. v.], 3,500 feet above sea-level on a treeless plateau, watered by the Ḳara-Ṣū, a tributary of the Ḳizil Yrmaḳ (Halys) — the latter flows about 14 miles North of Ḳaiṣarīya. At the present day it is the chief town of a sand̲j̲aḳ of the wilāyet of Angora [q. v.]. The mediaeval and modern town is the successor of the ancient Mazaca…

, the name of various places in Mesopotamia: 1. a town in the wilāyet of Mōṣul, about 50 miles E. S. E. of Mōṣul, 12 hours N. of Altyn Köprü (see i. 322b) in 36° 11′ N. Lat. and 42° 2′ E. Long. (Greenw.). Irbil (Erbil, in the common language also Arbīl) is the Arba-ilu of the Babylonian-Assyrian and the Arbira of the Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions. This place, which is mentioned as early as in Assyrian documents of the ixth century b. c, played no special political role in antiquity. Its main importance was rather based in the pre-Achaemenid period on the possession of a h…