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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…

, 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…

(Ottoman orthography Saḳārya or Ṣaḳārya, modern Turkish Sakarya), a river in Turkey. It rises near Bayāt in the northeast of Āfyūn Ḳara Hiṣār. In its eastward course it enters the wilāyet or il of Ankara, through which it runs to a point above Čaḳmaḳ after receiving on its left bank the Sayyid G̲h̲āzī Ṣū and several other tributaries on the same side. It then turns northwards describing a curve round Siwri Ḥiṣār. Here it receives on the right bank the Engürü Sūyu from Ankara and near this confluence the Porsuk on the opposite …

, twenty-fifth sultan of the Ottoman empire (regn. 1168-71/1754-7) and son of Muṣṭafā II, succeeded his brother Maḥmūd I on 14 December 1754. He was born on 2 January 1699 ( Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī, i, 56) and had therefore reached an advanced age when he was called to the throne. No events of political importance took place in his reign. The period of peace which had begun with the peace of Belgrade in 1739 continued; at home only a series of seditious outbreaks in the frontier provinces indicated the weakness of the empire. In the absence of any outstanding personality, the sultan was able to ¶ r…

, the name of a group of Kākāʾīs or Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ [ q.v.] living in northern ʿIrāḳ, in a group of six villages, four on the right bank of the Great Zab and two on its left one, not far from its confluence with the Tigris and 45 km/28 miles to the south-southeast of Mawṣil. The principal village, where the chief lives, is called Wardak, and lies on the right bank; the largest village on the left bank is Sufayya. The Ṣārlīs, like the other sects found in northern ʿIrāḳ (Yazīdīs, S̲h̲abaks, Bād̲j̲ūrān), are very uncommunicative with regard to their belief and religious practices,…

, the name of part of the sultan’s bodyguard in the old Ottoman military organisation. It comprised four infantry companies or ortas of the Janissaries [see yeñi čeri ], and these were originally ¶ archers ( ṣolaḳ “left-handed”, presumably because they carried their bows in the left hand); they comprised ortas 60-63. Each orta had 100 men and was commanded by a ṣolaḳ bas̲h̲i̊ , assisted by two lieutenants ( rikāb ṣolag̲h̲i̊ ). The ṣolaḳs were used exclusively as bodyguards, together with the smaller (150 men) od̲j̲aḳ of the peyks (“messengers”) under the peyk bas̲h̲i̊ …

Derwīs̲h̲ Aḥmed Dede b. Luṭf Allāh (?-1113/?-1702), Turkish scholar, Ṣūfī poet and, above all, historian, being the author of a celebrated and important general history in Arabic, the D̲j̲āmiʿ al-duwal . His father Luṭf Allāh was a native of Eregli near Ḳonya. He was born in Selānik, in the first half of the 12th/18th century, received a scholarly education and served in his youth for fifteen years in the Mewlewī-k̲h̲āne of Ḳāsi̊m Pas̲h̲a under S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ K̲h̲alīl Dede ( Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī , ii, 287). Afterwards he studied astronomy and astrology and became court astrologer ( müned̲j…

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 …

(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…

, 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 town in Mesopotamia, in 44° 25′ E. Long, and 35° 25′ N. Lat., the largest town in the district bounded by the Little Zāb in the north-west, the Ḏj̲abal Ḥamrīn to the southwest, the Diyālā to the south-east, and the chain of the Zagros to the north-east. This territory, which even in the days of the ancient Babylonian empire and later in the Assyrian empire was much exposed to the raids of the hill-peoples of the north-east, was called under the Sāsānids, Gamarkān (Moses of Ḵh̲urene) and in Syriac sources Bēth Garmē; the town of Kirkūk is called in these sources Kark̲h̲ā de Bēth Selōk̲h̲. The pro…

is the name by which the author of the most important general historical work written in Turkey is known. His real name was Aḥmad Efendi, son of Luṭf Allāh, a native of Eregli near Ḳonya. He was born in Selānik, in the first half of the xvith century, received a scholarly education and served in his youth for fifteen years in the Mewlewī-k̲h̲āne of Ḳāsim Pas̲h̲a under S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Ḵh̲alīl Dede ( Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī, ii. 287). Afterwards he studied astronomy and astrology and became court astrologer ( munad̲j̲d̲j̲im bas̲h̲i̊) in 1078 (1667—1668). In 1086 (1675—1676) he was admitte…