(a.), circumcision. The term is used indifferently for males and females, but female excision is particularly called k̲h̲ifāḍ or k̲h̲afḍ [ q.v.]. In the dual, al-k̲h̲itānāni are “the two circumcised parts” (viz. that of the male and that of the female), and according to tradition “if the two circumcised parts have been in touch with one another, g̲h̲usl is necessary” (Buk̲h̲ārī. G̲h̲usl , bāb 28; Muslim, Ḥayḍ , trad. 88; Abū Dāwūd, Ṭahāra , bābs 81, 83). Some words connected with the root k̲h̲-t-n denote the father-in-law, the son-in-law, the daughter-in-law ( k̲h̲atan , k̲h̲atana …

[see k̲h̲itān ]

, the Russian form of the Turkish ḳi̊mi̊z “fermented mare’s milk”, “koumiss”, the staple drink of the steppe peoples of Eurasia from the earliest time. Herodotus refers to its manufacture by the Scyths and the Chinese sources to its use amongst the Ancient Turks and the K̲h̲itan. William of Rubruck, who calls it cosmos , describes in detail the production of this drink by the 13th-century Mongols: and we read in the Secret history of the ¶ Mongols how the youthful Čingiz-K̲h̲ān, fleeing from the Tayičiʾut, sought refuge in a tent “in which koumiss w…

or k̲h̲ifāḍ (a.), female excision, corresponding to the circumcision of boys ( k̲h̲atn or k̲h̲itān [ q.v.], terms which may be applied equally to both sexes). There is no mention of it in the Ḳurʾān, but more or less authentic ḥadīt̲h̲ s attest to the practice in pre-Islamic Arabia and in a certain measure justify it. Tradition attributes to the Prophet the expression muḳaṭṭiʿat al-buẓūr “cutter of clitorises”, and the following words addressed to Umm ʿAṭiyya, id̲h̲ā k̲h̲afaḍti ( k̲h̲afatti ) fa-ʾas̲h̲immī wa-lā tanhakī (i.e., do not excise everything), fa- ʾinnahu adwaʾ li’l-wad̲j̲…

or ögödey , the second Great K̲h̲ān of the Mongol Empire. Born probably in 1186, he was the third son of Činggis K̲h̲an (Čingiz K̲h̲ān [ q.v.]) by his principal wife Börte. He was the first of the Mongol rulers to adopt the title Ḳaʾan: D̲j̲uwaynī ¶ always refers to him thus, almost as though it was regarded as a personal name. Činggis had during his lifetime indicated that Ögedey should succeed him, in preference to his other surviving sons Čag̲h̲atay and Toluy. It is often suggested that Ögedey was a generally acceptable conciliatory figu…

(A.), two terms denoting blood-letter ( faṣṣād , lit. “phlebotomist” and ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ām , lit. “cupper”). Al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ indicates that ḥid̲j̲āma (cupping) and faṣd (phlebotomy) are similar professions. Some pseudo-scientific books on phlebotomy and blood-letting were written by reputable physicians in ʿAbbāsid Bag̲h̲dād and Ag̲h̲labid Ḳayrawān in the 3rd/9th century, e.g., Yuḥannā b. Māsawayh (d. 243 H./857) wrote a Kitāb al-Faşd wa’l-ḥid̲j̲āma (“Book of phlebotomy and blood-letting”), and Isḥāḳ b. ʿUmrān (d. 279/892) wrote in Ḳayrawān a medical treatise called Kitāb al-Faşd …

, Yūsuf , an important, highly renowned Ottoman poet of the second half of the 11th/17th and beginning of the 12th/18th centuries. He came from Urfa (Ruhā, hence Ruhāʾī); on the members of his family cf. M. Diriöz, Nâbî’nin âilesine dâir yeni bilgiler , in Türk Kültürü , xiv, 167 (1976), 668-73. From mentions in his writings, we know that he was born in 1052/1642-3 and that he moved to Istanbul in his early twenties, i.e., during the reign of sultan Meḥemmed IV (1058-99/1648-87). In Istanbul he enjoyed the patronage of Muṣāḥib Muṣṭafā Pas̲h̲a (cf. Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī …

, the name of a tribe whose original home was in the eastern part of the present-day Mongolian Peoples’ Republic. In the 7th/13th and 8th/14th centuries, under Čingiz-K̲h̲ān [ q.v.] and his successors, they established by military conquest the most extensive continuous land empire known to history. At its greatest extent, it stretched from Korea to Hungary, including most of the mainland of Asia apart from India and the south-east of the continent. What is perhaps a form of the Mongol name has been found in Chinese sources of the Tʾang Dynasty (A.D. ¶ 618-907), but they became prominent…

(a.), lit. “an instrument or apparatus for providing shade, ẓill ,” apparently synonymous with the s̲h̲amsa , s̲h̲amsiyya , lit. “an instrument or apparatus for providing shelter from the sun”, probably therefore referring to the sunshade or parasol born on ceremonial occasions and processions [see mawākib ] over early Islamic rulers. 1. In the ʿAbbāsid and Fāṭimid caliphates. The historical sources provide a few references on practice in the ʿAbbāsid caliphate. Thus the official Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik al-Zayyāt [see ibn al-zayyāt ] was responsible in al-Muʿtaṣim’s time fo…

(a.) “hair, pelt”. 1. General. The Arab poets, pre-Islamic as well as post-Islamic, often describe the hair of the women with whom they have fallen in love (al-ʿAskarī, Dīwān al-maʿānī , ii, 229; al-Raffāʾ, al-Muḥibb wa ’l-maḥbūb , i, 16-58; al-Nuwayrī, Nihāya , fann 2, ḳism 1, bāb 2; J. Sadan, Maiden’s hair and starry skies, in IOS, xi [1991], 57-88). The context in which these descriptions are found shows a fairly clear situation: the hair of the heads of beautiful women is observed by lovers away from the house, in the open air, on the public road,…

, the founder of the Mongol world-empire, was born in 1167 A.D. on the right bank of the Onon in the district of Deli’ün-Boldoḳ in the present-day Chita Region in eastern Siberia. The ultimate sources for the details of his early life are two Mongolian works, the Secret History of the Mongols , composed in 1240 (or perhaps as late as 1252), and the Altan Debter or "Golden Book", the official history of the Imperial family. This latter work has not survived in the original, but the greater part of it is reproduced in the Ḏj̲āmiʿ al-Tawārīk̲h̲ of Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn and the…

, the usual designation in mediaeval Arabic for China; properly, it means the Chinese people, but is normally used, with the prefixed bilād , for the land of China itself. 1. The name. The initial consonant of the word represents the customary rendering of Persian čīm into early Arabic as ṣād. Thus the forms Čīnistān and Čin appear in the Persian Ḥudūd al-ʿālam ( ca. 372/982), the first form going back to the 2nd century A.D. Sogdian letters and appearing subsequently in Middle Persian and Armenian; in New Persian, the form Čīn is more common. The Arabic version al-Ṣīn appears in geographical ¶ …

(Islam in). The union of Indochina, created by a decree of 19 October 1887, was definitively completed and organized under the governorship of Paul Doumer (February 1897-March 1902). Embracing a vast territory of 740,000 square km., with no geographical unity, extending from China to Siam and bordered by both the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, it ceased to exist in 1945, to become the states of Cambodia in the south west, Laos in the north west and Vietnam in the east. The population of this region, estimated at 16 millions at the beginning of the 20th century, has grown…

(a.), infant, child, minor (opp. bālig̲h̲ [ q.v.]), one who has not attained to puberty (opp. kabīr ). Minority ends with the onset of physical maturity, and the ability to control one’s own affairs (see al-Wans̲h̲arīsī, ii, 269). In the absence of signs of physical maturity, fifteen was generally regarded as the age that divided between majority and minority for males and females alike (see bālig̲h̲ and Goldziher, Muh. Studien , ii, 17, Eng. tr. Muslim studies, ii, 29). Entrusting a boy or a girl with their respective adult functions was the accepted way to examine mental maturity ( rus̲h̲d …

(a., sing, mawkib ), processions. 1. Under the ʿAbbāsids and Fāṭimids The basic meaning of procession (mounted or unmounted), cortège, is found in ḥadīt̲h̲ (al-Buk̲h̲ārī. Badʾ al-k̲h̲alḳ , 6; Ibn Ḥanbal, iii, 213; al-Dārimī, 2695). This is the precise sense given in the dictionaries, and that used by the Umayyads, ʿAbbāsids and Fāṭimids, often to describe the cortège of an amīr , wazīr , or other official (see, e.g., al-Ṭabarī, ii, 1731; Hilāl al-Ṣābī, Rusūm dār al-k̲h̲ilāfa , 9-10, 12, 14ff.). By the 4th/10th century, it had acquired the broader meaning of audience as well …