Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition
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ʿAmādiya
(395 words)
, a town in Kurdistān, at about 100 klm. north of Mosul in the basin of the Gāra river (a right tributary of the Great Zāb). The town stands on a hill and is dominated by the citadel built on a steep rock. The water supplying the citadel comes from cisterns hewn in the rock. The stronghold is situated at a point which, in the east, controls communications with valleys of the left affluents of the Zāb (Shamdīnān, Rū-Kučūk, Rawānduz) and, in the west, those within the Ḵh̲ābūr basin. The climate of ʿAmādiya is hot and unhealthy. According to Ibn al-At̲h̲īr the fortress received its name from ʿ…
Orāmār
(874 words)
, urmar , modem Turkish Oramar, a district (
nahiye ) of the extreme south-east of Turkey, just to the north of the frontier with ʿIrāḳ, and in the modern
ilçe or district of Gawar (Yüksekova) in the
il or province of Hakkari, with its chef-lieu of the same name (lat. 37°23′ N., long. 44°04′ E., altitude 1,450 m/4,756 ft.). In 1955 the settlement of Oramar itself had a population of 943, whilst the nine villages comprising the
nahiye had a total population of 3,632. The boundaries of Orāmār are on the north Is̲h̲tāzin and Gawar; on the south Rēkān; on the west D̲j̲ilū, Bāz and T…
Bīred̲j̲ik
(1,088 words)
, a town in Mesopotamia, on the left bank of the Euphrates. The name Bīred̲j̲ik (amongst the local population, Beled̲j̲ik; also, according to Sachau, Bārād̲j̲īk in the Ḥalabī (Aleppo) dialect) means “little Bīra”,
i.e., “small fortress” (Arabic
bīra , with the Turkish diminutive suffix). The Arabic name “al-Bīra” ([
q.v.]; Bīreh in the later Syriac writers) derives from the Aramaic “Bīrt̲h̲ā” = “fortress”. Bīred̲j̲ik, known to the Romans as “Birtha”, is to be identified (according to Cumont) with a certain Makedonopolis mentioned in some of th…
Ergani
(1,058 words)
( Arg̲h̲anī , sometimes Argani , in European sources Arghana until recent times), centre of a
kaza in the
vilâyet of Diyār-Bakr [
q.v.], called for a time ʿOt̲h̲māniyya (Osmaniye), situated on the highroad from Diyār-Bakr to Harput. 18 kms. to the north-west, on the river Tigris, lies the mining town of Erg̲h̲ani-Maʿden(i), which is the centre of a
kaza of the
vilâyet of Elazi̊g̲h̲ (El-ʿAzīz) called after Erg̲h̲ani. Although the two towns lie apart, they are confused in some sources. The name ʿOt̲h̲māniyya given to Erg̲h̲ani had to be abandoned because it gave rise to confus…
Mahābād
(1,130 words)
, a town and district (
s̲h̲ahrastān ) in the modern Iranian province (
ustān ) of West Ād̲h̲arbayd̲j̲ān, situated in lat. 36° 45′ N. and long. 45° 43′ E. and lying to the south of Lake Urmia or Riḍāʾiyya. The town comes within the Mukrī region of Iranian Kurdistān, and acquired its present name in the time of Riḍā S̲h̲āh Pahlavī (1925-41). Previously, it was known as Sāwad̲j̲ or Sāwd̲j̲-Bulāḳ; accordingly, for the earlier history of the town, see sāwd̲j̲-bulāḳ . The present article deals with the post-1945 history of the town. With a population of 16,000 in 1945, 20,332 in 1956 and 44,…
Mākū
(3,458 words)
, a former k̲h̲ānate in the Persian province of Ad̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān, and now the name of a town and of modern administrative units around it (see below). Mākū occupies the north-western extremity of Persia and forms a salient between Turkey (the old
sand̲j̲aḳ of Bāyazīd, modern
vilayet of Ağri) and Soviet Transcaucasia. In the west the frontier with Turkey follows the heights which continue the line of the Zagros in the direction of Ararat. The frontier then crosses a plain stretching to the south of this mountain (valle…
Urmiya
(4,267 words)
, the name of a lake and of a town and district in western Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān. 1. The lake Lake Urmiya, also called Daryā-yi S̲h̲āhī or, in the Pahlawī period, Daryā-yi Riḍāʾiyya or Lake Reza’iyeh, is the largest lake in the Middle East. It is about 140 km/87 miles long and from 40 km/25 miles to 56 km/35 miles wide and lies at an altitude of 1,275 km/4,183 feet. Its maximum depth is 16 m/53 feet, and the southern part of the lake contains numerous small islands, but most important is the mountainous S̲h̲āhī penins…
Kurds, Kurdistān
(55,434 words)
¶ i.—General Introduction The Kurds, an Iranian people of the Near East, live at the junction of more or less laicised Turkey, S̲h̲īʿi Iran, Arab and Sunnī ʿIrāḳ and North Syria, and Soviet Transcaucasia. The economic and strategic importance of this land, Kurdistān, is undeniable. Since the end of the First World War, the Kurdish people, like all the rest of their neighbours, have undergone considerable transformations as much in the political order as in the economic, social and cultural domain. …
Ṭūr ʿAbdīn
(5,793 words)
, “mountain of the [Christian] devotees”, a mountainous plateau region of northern Mesopotamia, in early Islamic times coming within the province of Diyār Bakr [
q.v.] and now, in the Turkish Republic, coming within the
il of Mardin. It has been notable throughout the Islamic period for the survival—at least until the later 20th century—of a vigorous Syriac Christianity, with many churches and monasteries. 1. Geography. Ṭūr ʿAbdīn stretches roughly from Mārdīn [
q.v.] in the west to D̲j̲azīrat Ibn ʿUmar [
q.v.], the modern Turkish town of Cizre, in the east. To its north and …
Sāsānids
(15,368 words)
, a pre-Islamic Persian dynasty that ruled a large part of western Asia from A.D. 224 until 651. In Arabic and modern usage, the dynastic name is derived from Sāsān, who is mentioned as a “lord” in the inscription of S̲h̲āpūr I [
q.v.] on the Kaʿba of Zoroaster (SKZ). The inscription of Narseh at Paikuli also refers to the royal clan of Sāsānagān. Theophoric names in the Parthian period suggest that Sāsān may have been a minor deity or perhaps a deified ancestor. According to the late Sāsānid
Kārnāmag , Sāsān was the son-in-law of Pāpak, who gave him his daughte…