802 al-Maṭwī, Aḥmad, 109.
803 al-Maṭwī, Aḥmad, 110.
804 al-Maṭwī, Aḥmad, 137–38.
GLOSSARY
ʿAbd al-Majīd, Sultanthirty-first Ottoman sultan, reigned 1839–61.
ʿAbd al-Qādir (ibn Muḥyī l-Dīn al-Jazāʾirī), Emir(1808–83) from 1834 the most successful leader of resistance to French rule in Algeria; exiled to France in 1847.
Abū l-Ḥasan al-Tihāmī al-Ḥasanīa poet of Arabian origin who died (416/1025) in Cairo.
Abū NuwāsAbū Nuwās Al-Ḥasan ibn Hāniʾ al-Ḥakamī (ca. 140–ca. 198/755–813), Abbasid poet, best known for his poetry in praise of wine and boys.
Abū TammāmAbū Tammām Ḥabīb ibn Aws al-Ṭāʾī (ca. 189/805 to ca. 232/845), Abbasid court poet and anthologist, teacher and rival of al-Buḥturī.
Aḥmad Pasha BāyAḥmad I ibn Muṣṭafā (r. 1837–55).
Akhfash (al-)‘Abd al-Ḥamīd ibn ‘Abd al-Majīd al-Akhfash al-Akbar (d. 177/793), a noted grammarian of the school of Basra, teacher of Sībawayh and others.
ʿAmr ibn Kulthūma pre-Islamic poet and tribal chieftain (sixth century AD), whose only surviving poem is that included among the muʿallaqāt (the “suspended odes”).
Andalus (al-)those parts of the Iberian Peninsula that were under Islamic rule from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries.
Ashʿarī (al-)ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ashʿarī (260–324/873–936), a theologian famed for his rational argumentation in the defense of Islamic orthodoxy.
Ashmūnī (al-)ʿAli ibn Muḥammad al-Ashmūnī (838–918/1434–35—1512–13), author of a well-known commentary on Ibn Mālik’s Alfiyyah, a poem of a thousand lines containing the principal rules of Arabic grammar.
ʿAyn Tirāza village in Mount Lebanon (“Ain Traz”) southeast of Beirut and the site, from 1790 to 1870, of a Greek Melkite seminary.
Baalbeka town in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, east of the Litani River, site of the celebrated ruins of a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter-Baal.
badīʿan innovative style appearing in poetry starting in the third/ninth centuries featuring complex wordplay; eventually, the term evolved to mean “rhetorical figures” collectively.
Bag-men (khurjiyyūn)the author’s term for Protestant missionaries in the Middle East, whether the American Congregationalists of the Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions with whom he first came into contact in Beirut or the British Anglicans of the Church Missionary Society for whom he worked later in Malta, Egypt, and London. The Congregationalists established their first mission station in Beirut in 1823 (Makdisi, Artillery, 81, 83). In December 1823, when their intention to proselytize became clear, Maronite patriarch Yūsuf Ḥubaysh (1787–1845), who had initially received them cordially, ordered his flock to avoid all contact with what he referred to as “the Liberati” or “Biblemen” (Makdisi, Artillery, 95–97).
Barāmikahthe Barāmikah family held high office at the court of the early Abbasid caliphs and became known for the extravagance of their lifestyle.
BilqīsQueen of Sabaʾ (Sheba) in Yemen, the story of whose visit to Sulaymān (Solomon) is told in the Qurʾān (Q Naml 27:22–44).
Buḥturī (al-)Abū ʿUbādah al-Walīd ibn ʿUbayd (Allāh) al-Buḥturī (206/821 to 284/897), Abbasid court poet, student and rival of Abū Tammām.
BūlāqCairo’s river port.
Chodźko, AlexandreAleksander Borejko Chodźko (1804–91), Polish poet, Slavist, and Iranologist, who worked for the French ministry of foreign affairs from 1852 to 1855 and was later appointed to the chair of Slavic languages at the Collège de France.
Church Missionary Societyan evangelical Protestant missionary society founded in London in 1799 and active in Egypt (as a mission to the Copts) as of 1825.
Committee, thethe Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, which oversaw many of the translation projects, including that of the Bible, in which al-Shidyāq was involved.
Dayr al-Qamara village in south-central Lebanon, site of the residence of the governors of Lebanon from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.
Derenbourg, Joseph(1811–95) a Hebraist and Arabist.
de Sacysee Silvestre de Sacy.
Desgranges, ConteAlix Desgranges (d. 1854) held the post of secrétaire interprète to the French state, in addition to being, as of 1833, professor of Turkish at the Collège de France; in his former capacity “he welcomes and escorts all Orientals who pass through Paris” (Pouillon, Dictionnaire, 292).
dhikrthe repetition of the name of God as an exercise intended to bring the one who pronounces it closer to Him.
Dhū l-Rummahnickname (“He of the Frayed Cord”) of Abū Ḥārith Ghaylān ibn ʿUqba, an Umayyad poet (d. 117/735?).
emir (amīr)a title (literally, “commander” or “prince”) assumed by local leaders in the Arab world; as used in this work, the term most often refers to the emirs of the Shihābī dynasty of Mount Lebanon.
Fāriyāq, thethe hero of the events described in the book and the author’s alter ego, the name itself being a contraction of Fāri(s al-Shid)yāq.
Fātiḥah, thethe opening sūrah (“chapter”) of the Qurʾān.
Fīrūzābādī (al-)Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Fīrūzābādī (d. 817/1415), compiler of the Qāmūs (q.v.).
Ḥalq al-Wādthe port of Tunis, also known as La Goulette.
Ḥarīrī (al-)Abū Muḥammad al-Qāsim ibn ʿAli al-Ḥarīrī (446/1054 to 516/1122), Iraqi poet, man of letters, and official, best known for his collection of fifty maqāmāt (see maqāmah).
ḤimṣHoms, a city between Damascus and Aleppo.
Ibn Abī ʿAtīqMuḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr (1st–2nd/7th–8th century), usually referred to as Ibn Abī ʿAtīq, was the great-grandson of the caliph Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq and “a friend of many poets and singers, who appears in many stories and anecdotes as a kind of wit” (Van Gelder, Classical, 379, 460); it is not obvious why the author brackets him with Ibn Ḥajjāj (q.v.), as unlike the latter he was irreverent rather than foulmouthed.
Ibn al-FāriḍʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Fāriḍ (576–632/1181–1235), an important Egyptian Sufi poet, celebrated for his blending of erotic and divine imagery.
Ibn Ḥajjājal-Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad Ibn (al-)Ḥajjāj (ca. 333–91/941–1000): a Baghdadi poet best known for his obscene poetry.
Ibn Khālawayh, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn(d. 370/980–81) a leading philologist of Baghdad.
Ibn MālikMuḥammad ibn Mālik (600 or 601 to 672/1203 or 1205 to 1274), a scholar best known for his Alfiyyah (Thousand-Line Poem), in which he presents the rules of Arabic grammar.
Ibn NubātahJamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Shams al-Dīn (686/1287 to 768/1366), an Egyptian poet.