ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE QUR'AN
Clothing
Garments worn for modesty (q.v.), utility, protection and decoration. Explicit references to clothing appear 23 times in the Qurʾān. Qurʾānic terms for clothing are libās and thiyāb (clothing, garment), zīna (finery), ḥilya (ornament) andrīsh (attire). Only rarely are specific items mentioned: (mail) shirts ( sarābīl, q 16:81), sandals ( naʿl, q 20:12), robes (jalābīb, q 33:59) and shirt ( qamīṣ, q 12:18, 25-8, 93). A wrap or cloak ( dithār) is evoked in q 74, which is entitled “The Cloaked One” (Sūrat al-Muddaththir). In the Qurʾān ḥijāb denotes a curtain or separation rather than a female head wrap or face-veil (see barrier; veil ). As presented in the Qurʾān, clothing is made from various materials, including animal hides and furs (see camel; animal life ). The making of coats of mail ( ṣanʿat labūs) is alluded to in q 21:80 (seesolomon ); and mountains are likened to carded cotton (al- ʿihn al-manfūsh) in q 101:5 (see apocalypse ).
On the whole, the Qurʾān provides little information regarding specific forms of dress, though it is categorical regarding women who should “draw their hooded robes (jalābīb) close around themselves” ( q 33:59; cf. 24:31; see women and the qurʾān ). Yet the Qurʾān's use of clothing imagery in a metaphorical sense is noteworthy. The verse, “We have revealed (anzalnā) to you clothing (libās) to conceal your nudity/pudenda ( sawʾāt), and attire ( rīsh),” for example, continues “but the garment (libās) of piety is superior” ( q 7:26; see nudity; piety ). Indeed, the “first” garments were not Adam and Eve's “leaves of the garden” ( waraq al-janna) but rather the “garment” of honor stripped away by Iblīs ( q 7:22;20:121; see adam and eve; fall of man; devil; garden; paradise ). And in q 2:187 men and women are described as garments for one another (see marriage and divorce ). The night ( q 25:47; 78:10) and hunger and fear ( q 16:112) are also described as garments.
The Qurʾān's most symbolic garment is the shirt (qamīṣ) of Joseph (Yūsuf; see joseph ). It is produced by Joseph's brothers as bloodstained proof of his death ( q 12:18; see brother and brotherhood ); it is rent by Zulaykhā as she attempts to seduce him ( q 12:25-8) and is used to restore his father Jacob's (Yaʿqūb; see jacob ) sight ( q 12:93). The shirt, a synecdoche for Joseph, serves each time to establish truth (q.v.) or restore honor (q.v.). q 12:18 explains that the shirt is in fact stained with false or lying blood ( dam kadhib). The discovery in q 12:28 that it is torn from behind proves Joseph's innocence; and in q 12:94, in proclaiming to Jacob that Joseph is still alive, prophecy and kingship are validated (see prophets and prophethood ). A similar validation is echoed in q 27:44 where the Queen of Sheba (seebilqīs; sheba ), mistaking Solomon's crystal palace-floor for a deep pool, raises her garment and thus immodestly exposes her legs. On discovering her error, she is forced to acknowledge Solomon's superior knowledge. Her act of uncovering results in a validation of Solomon as prophet and ruler.
Shīʿī exegesis of q 3:61-2 and q 33:33 relates the tradition of Muḥammad's embracing his daughter Fāṭima (q.v.), his son-in-law ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (q.v.) and their sons Ḥasan and Ḥusayn under his cloak, a group subsequently honored as the “people of the cloak” ( ahl al-kisāʾ, cf. W. Schmucker, Mubāhala; A. Tritton, Ahl al-kisāʾ; see shīʿism and the qurʾān). This bestowal of favor highlights a connection between clothing and reward (see reward and punishment; virtues and vices ). Indeed, the reward in heaven (q.v.) for the righteous includes garments of silk and brocade ( sundus, istabraq,ḥarīr). These luxurious fabrics are in contrast to the clothing of the inhabitants of this world — Muḥammad proscribed the wearing of silk for men — and in stark contrast to the fire-dwellers' garments of fire ( q 22:19; see hell; fire ).
Shawkat M. Toorawa
Bibliography:
F. Altheim and R. Stiel, Die Araber in der Alten Welt, 5 vols. in 6, Berlin 1965, ii
H. Algar, Āl-e ʿAbā, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, London 1985, i, 742
R. Dozy, Dictionnaire détaillé des noms des vêtements chez les Arabes. Ouvrage couronné et publié par la troisième classe de l'Institut Royal des Pays-Bas, Amsterdam 1845
W. Schmucker, Mubāhala, in ei 2, vii, 276-7
Y.K. Stillman, Arab dress. From the dawn of Islam to modern times, Boston 2000
id., Libās, in ei 2, v, 732-50
Y.K. Stillman and N. Micklewright, Costume in the Middle East, in Middle East Studies Association bulletin 6 (1992), 13-38
S.M. Toorawa, Every robe he dons becomes him, in Parabola 19.3 (1994), 20-8
A. Tritton, Ahl al-Kisāʾ, in ei 2, i, 264
Cite this pageToorawa, Shawkat M.. "Clothing." Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-the-quran/clothing-SIM_00083>
Trips and Voyages
Travel episodes of long or short duration. Instances and descriptions of travel may be real, e.g. trips undertaken by qurʾānic characters, or figurative, e.g. following the straight path (see path or way ) to earn God's pleasure. Both feature prominently in the Qurʾān. Common also are references to modes of and motives for travel and allusions to the journeys (see journey ) undertaken by Muḥammad (e.g. the night journey; see ascension ) and by the early Muslim community (e.g. the hijra from Mecca [q.v.] to Medina [q.v.]; see emigration ).
The Qurʾān acknowledges the fact that the course of human activity includes the undertaking of trips and voyages. Among God's gifts to humanity is the ability to travel upon the earth (q.v.): “And he has set upon the earth… rivers and roads (anhāran wa-subulan) that you may guide yourselves, and sign-posts too; and stars by which to be guided” ( q16:15-16; see planets and stars; grace; blessing; nature as signs ). These trips may be commercial, military, diplomatic, religious or political (see expeditions and battles; markets; caravan ). Indeed, in the context of certain ritual practices (see ritual and the qurʾān ), this translates into explicit provisions. Fasting (q.v.) in the month of Ramaḍān (q.v.), for instance, is enjoined on believers (see belief and unbelief ) but those on a trip ( ʿalā safarin, also identified as wayfarers, ʿābirī sabīl, in q 4:43) and the sick (see illness and health ) are exempt from this obligation ( q 2:184, 185; see also cleanliness and ablution ). Ritual prayers may also be curtailed by reason of travel (wa-idhā ḍarabtum fī l-arḍ…, q 4:101; cf. 5:106; see prayer ). The hazards of travel are the reason for such provisions and are frequently invoked by the Qurʾān. One danger facing travelers in the late antique world was ambush, either on the road or at sea. This helps explain the Qurʾān's harsh view of pirates and highway robbers (see theft ), the threat of the latter being mentioned in one place together with sexual relations between men (see homosexuality; sex and sexuality ) and the giving of wicked counsel ( q 29:29; see also boundaries and precepts ).
The danger posed by weather (q.v.) conditions (sometimes evoked directly, as in q 77:1-4) and the vagaries of nature are implicit in the Qurʾān's frequent reference to the fact that God's grace is what allows ships (q.v.; in twenty-three places) to travel without difficulty and for humanity's profit upon the seas ( q 17:66; cf. 2:164; 17:70). From God's bounty also come the means by which to navigate: “He is the one who placed the stars so you may be guided by them through the darkness (q.v.) of land and sea” (wa-huwa l-ladhī jaʿala lakumu l-nujūma li-tahtadū bihā fī ẓulumāti l-barri wa-l-baḥri, q 6:97) — although it should be noted that in some Shīʿī commentary these stars are identified as the imāms (see Ṭabarsī, Majmaʾ, iv, 132; see shīʿism and the qurʾān; imām ). The most famous ship mentioned in the Qurʾān is Noah's (q.v.) ark (q.v.), which God instructs him to build to save himself, his kin and the righteous from the flood he will send as punishment ( q 11:36-49; see chastisement and punishment; punishment stories ). Noah's appeals to God to save his unbelieving son ( q 11:45-7) are rejected by God; Noah's wife, too, is not spared ( q 66:10) and so neither makes the momentous trip to safety and grace (see Zamakhsharī, Kashshāf, ii, 218-19; iv, 118). There is one instance of a journey in the belly of a fish: the prophet Jonah (q.v.; Yūnus, also called Dhū l-Nūn) is thrown overboard, swallowed by a fish and cast forth on a barren shore ( q 37:139-48).
Danger during trips also helps explain the Qurʾān's use of safe passage and of public safety as a metaphor (q.v.). At q14:35, Abraham (q.v.) prays for a secure land; at q 95:3 God swears by a safe city (q.v.; wa-hādha l- baladi l-amīn); and at q 34:18, God tells the people of Sheba (q.v.), “Travel (sīrū) between [the cities] in all security ( āminīn), day or night.” Sheba is the place to which Solomon's (q.v.) hoopoe travels and returns, bringing news of its people and queen (q 27:22; see bilqīs ). Solomon then dispatches both a human and jinn (q.v.) embassy ( q 27:37-40) prompting the queen's visit ( q 27:42). Her people are the ones who had covetously asked God to place greater distances between their way stations ( q 34:19) because they wished to monopolize trade and benefit from the hardship to others (Jalālayn,430; see trade and commerce ). The latter is one of countless references to trade in the Qurʾān, a revelation vouchsafed, it should be remembered, to a merchant of the Quraysh (q.v.) tribe (see e.g. q 35:29 for a metaphorical use of tijāra,commerce; see also tribes and clans ).
The Quraysh and their caravans are described in q 106, a short early Meccan revelation (see revelation and inspiration;chronology and the qurʾān ). Although this sūra (q.v.) does not explicitly mention the animals used in the caravans, they are enumerated elsewhere (see animal life ): q 16:5-8, for example, mentions the creation of cattle ( anʿām) which “carry your heavy loads (see load or burden ) to lands that you would not otherwise reach except with great distress.” Animals are beneficial also because their skins can be used to make tents, in particular for use on trips ( yawma ẓaʿnikum wa-yawma iqāmatikum, q 16:80; see hides and fleece ). Horses, mules and donkeys (wa-l- khayl wa-l-bighāl wa-l-ḥamīr, q 16:8) are also identified. q 59:6 makes reference to the use of horses and camels in battle, and in q105, a short Meccan sūra which describes the unsuccessful attempt of the Abyssinian governor Abraha (q.v.) to besiegeMecca and take the Kaʿba (q.v.), war elephants are mentioned (see also camel; pre-islamic arabia and the qurʾān;abyssinia; people of the elephant ).
That humankind may be involved in struggles, both unarmed and armed, is evoked in formulations such as “go forth lightly or heavily equipped and struggle with your wealth (q.v.) and your persons in the cause/way of God” (infirū khifāfan wa-thiqālan wa-jāhidū bi-amwālikum wa-anfusikum fī sabīli llāhi, q 9:41; see expeditions and battles; jihād). Of special significance here is the use of the term sabīl Allāh — sabīl (way, cause), and its plural subul, occur in 176 places in the Qurʾān. At q 4:94, the Qurʾān addresses those who do God's work (fī sabīl Allāh), such as those calling people to Islam (q.v.; see also invitation ). These righteous and pious folk are occasionally specifically described, likesāʾiḥāt ( q 66:5), women who travel for faith (q.v.; cf. al- sāʾiḥūn at q 9:112; see also piety; visiting; fasting ).
q 16:9 reads: “And unto God leads straight the way” (wa-ʿalā llāhi qaṣdu l-sabīl), highlighting the fact that one's very life is a journey (cf. Gimaret, Jubbāʾī, 543 for a reading of this as God's imparting of knowledge; see knowledge and learning ) and that life's destination is God: innā lillāhi wa-innā ilayhi rājiʿūn ( q 2:156). The path to God is called by the Qurʾān al- ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm. Though typically described as straight, most famously at q 1:6 (ihdinā l-ṣirāṭa l-mustaqīm, “guide us to the straight path”), it is also described as “the path of [God], the mighty, the praised” (ṣirāṭ al-ʿazīz al-ḥamīd, q 14:1; see god and his attributes; praise; power and impotence ), contra the path to hellfire ( ṣirāṭ al-jaḥīm, q 37:23; see hell and hellfire; reward and punishment ) and contra the path of those who have earned God'swrath (al- maghḍūb ʿalayhim, q 1:7; see Āzād, Tarjumān al-Qurʾān, i; see anger ). The possibility that one can be ledastray (q.v.) is in one instance expressed by the righteous (see good and evil ) who ask whether they should be “like the one whom the demons have made into a fool (see ignorance ), wandering bewildered through the earth” (ka-lladhī istahwathu l-shayāṭīnu fī l-arḍi), averring that God's guidance is the only guidance (inna hudā llāhi huwa l-hudā, q6:71; cf. 10:23). The human need for guidance on earth even extended to Muḥammad: God asks the despairing Prophet (see despair; hope ) in q 93:7, “did he not find you wandering and guide you” (wa- wajadaka ḍāllan fa-hadā)— though this is understood by some commentators to mean that Muḥammad was ignorant of God's law (see e.g. Zamakhsharī, Kashshāf, iv, 219; see law and the qurʾān ).
In this worldly life, one desirable destination is God's house, i.e. the Kaʿba in Mecca (see house, domestic and divine ). When the prophet Abraham leaves his home in Mesopotamia because of the idol worship there (see idolatry and idolaters ), he travels to Mecca where he rebuilds God' house, first erected by the prophet Adam (cf. q 3:96; see adam and eve ) and by the angels (see angel ) before him (Jalālayn, 62), where worship (q.v.) of the one true God then resumes ( q 2:125). The pilgrimage (q.v.) to Mecca is enjoined on believers several times (e.g. q 2:196). And blocking the path to God or that of the pilgrims to the holy precincts (see sacred precincts; fighting ) is described as a grave offence (wa- ṣaddun ʿan sabīli llāhi wa-kufrun bihi wa-l-masjid al-ḥarām, q 2:217). The peril associated with the trip to Mecca is suggested in the following appeal at q 22:27: “And proclaim the pilgrimage among people: they will come to you on foot ( rijālan) and on every kind of mount (wa-ʿalā kulli ḍāmirin), from distant mountain highways (min kulli fajjin ʿamīq).”
Many of the messengers and prophets in the Qurʾān travel about the earth on foot (see messenger; prophets and prophethood ), calling people to belief or leading their people to safety, such as Moses (q.v.; see also myths and legends in the qurʾān ). Moses' own life begins with a fateful trip when his mother places him in a basket upon the river to protect him from Pharaoh (q.v.; q 20:39) who is killing newborn boys ( q 28:4); but Moses is saved when he is picked up and adopted by Pharaoh's wife (identified in commentary as Āsiya, q 28:9). Moses will in adult life lead the Israelites (see children of israel ) away from Egypt to the holy and promised land ( q 5:21; see also e.g. q 28:29). That trip includes surviving another body of water ( q 7:138; 10:90), namely the Red Sea; traveling by night ( q 20:77; seeday and night ); and wandering in the desert for forty years ( q 5:26; cf. 28:29). Joseph (q.v.; see q 12) is also cast out (by his plotting brothers; see brother and brotherhood ). He is picked up by a caravan and transported to Egypt (q.v.), where he eventually rises to a position of authority (q.v.). He is later reunited with his brothers and father who had traveled to Egypt to seek food and sustenance (q.v.) in times of difficulty (see Beeston, Baiḍāwī's commentary).
Though less momentous for the religious history of the Israelites, Moses takes another well-known trip in the Qurʾān when he sets out on a journey in search of one of God's elect ( q 18:60-82). He eventually finds this man — unnamed but identified as al-Khaḍir/Khiḍr (q.v.) by Muḥammad — at a confluence and implores him to let him accompany him ( q 18:66). The man reluctantly agrees and they journey along a river (see q 18:71 for a boat and its passengers) and then on to an unnamed town. Their trip comes to an end when Khiḍr demonstrates to Moses that he (Moses) is unable to abide him and his actions. Earlier, the sūra recounts the story of the companions of the cave ( aṣḥāb al-kahf, q 18:9-26; see men of the cave ), whose trip is the earliest example of “time travel” in Arabic literature (see time; spatial relations ). Later in the same sūra ( q 18:83-101) are described the travels of Dhū l-Qarnayn, many features of whosestory resemble those of Alexander (q.v.). In the qurʾānic account, he journeys to the east to deal with Gog and Magog(q.v.), building an iron wall to contain them ( q 18:94). The terrestrial travels of Jesus (q.v.) are not described in the Qurʾān but the fact that he was not captured or crucified but rather raised alive to be with God is mentioned ( q 3:55; see crucifixion; polemic and polemical language; resurrection ).
A number of the trips taken by Muḥammad are mentioned in the Qurʾān (see sīra and the qurʾān ). His hijra or emigration, together with the small Muslim community, north from Mecca to Yathrib/ Medina is explicitly mentioned at q 48:11 where those who opted out of the trip for selfish reasons (al- mukhallafūna mina l-aʿrābi) are criticized. At q59:8-9 and elsewhere those who did emigrate are praised, as are those who strive in the way of God ( q 2:218; seeemigrants and helpers ; hypocrites and hypocrisy ). On his way to Yathrib/ Medina, Muḥammad is reported to have hidden in a cave (q.v.), together with Abū Bakr, to escape Meccan pursuers. This is alluded to at q 9:40 and foreshadows the reference a few verses later to unbelievers and hypocrites desperately seeking caves in which to hide from God ( q 9:57; see Suyūṭī, Durr, iii, 436, 447). Of all Muḥammad's voyages, the most spectacular is the nocturnal one from Mecca to Jerusalem (q.v.), called the isrāʾ (and thence to heaven [see heaven and sky ], called the miʿrāj). Theisrāʾ, or night journey, is the subject of a whole chapter ( q 17, Sūrat al-Isrāʾ), which opens “Glory to God who took his servant for a journey by night ( asrā bi-ʿabdihi laylan) from the sacred mosque (Mecca) to the farthest mosque” (Jerusalem; q 17:1; see glorification of god ).
At q 29:20, God asks believers to proclaim, “Travel through the earth and see how God originated creation” (q.v.; qul sīrū fī l-arḍi fa-nẓurū kayfa badaʿa l-khalq; see Ghazālī, Jewels, 126; and cf. e.g. q 3:137 for travel that reveals the consequences of those who rejected God's messengers; see trial ). And at q 55:33 God urges “O company of jinn and men, if you are able to break through the regions of the heavens and the earth (q.v.), then break through, but (know that) you will not do so without our sanction.” This has been interpreted by certain modernists to be an invitation to space travel (see e.g. Haeri, Keys, iv, 73; see exegesis of the qurʾān: early modern and contemporary; science and the qurʾān ). Terrestrial or otherwise, the prophet Muḥammad recommended the following passage be recited when setting out on a journey: “Glory be to the one who has subjected these [modes of travel] to our use because we could not have accomplished this by ourselves” ( subḥāna lladhī sakhkhara lanā hādhā wa-mā kunnā lahu muqrinīn, q 43:13). The possibility that one may die (see death and the dead ) on a trip is adumbrated at q 31:34: “and no soul (q.v.) knows in what land it will die” (wa-mā tadrī nafsun bi-ayyi arḍin tamūt; see also farewell pilgrimage; festivals and commemorative days; hospitality and courtesy ).
Shawkat M. Toorawa
Bibliography, Primary:
A. Azad, The Tarjumān al-Qurʾān, vol. 1, trans. S. Abdul Latif, Hyderabad 1978
A.F.L. Beeston, Baiḍāwī's commentary on sūrah 12 of the Qurʾān, Oxford 1963
al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad b. Muḥammad, The jewels of the Qurʾān. Al-Ghazālī's theory, trans. M. Abul Quasem, London 1983
Gimaret, Jubbaʾī
F. Haeri, Keys to the Qurʾān, 5 vols., Reading, UK 1993
Jalālayn
Suyūṭī, Durr
Ṭabarsī, Majmaʿ
Zamakhsharī, Kashshāf
Secondary:
C.E. Bosworth, Travel literature, in J. Meisami and P. Starkey (eds), Encyclopedia of Arabic literature, London 1998, 778-80
M. Cooperson, Remembering the future. Arabic time travel literature, in Edebiyat 8 (1998), 171-89
D. Eickelman and J. Piscatori, Introduction, in ids. (eds), Muslim travelers. Pilgrimage, migration and the religious imagination, Berkeley 1990, 3-25
J.E. Montgomery, Salvation at sea? Sea faring in early Arabic poetry, in G. Borg and E. de Moor (eds.),Representations of the divine in Arabic poetry, Amsterdam 2001, 25-48
I.R. Netton, Seek knowledge. Thought and travel in the house of Islam, Richmond, Surrey 1996
S.M. Toorawa, Travel in the medieval Islamic world, in R. Allen (ed.), Eastward bound. Travel and travellers 1050-1550, Manchester 2004, 86-120
H. Touati, Islam et voyage au Moyen Age. Histoire et anthropologie d'une pratique lettrée, Paris 2000
B.M. Wheeler, Prophets in the Qurʾān. An introduction to the Qurʾān and Muslim exegesis, London 2002
Cite this pageToorawa, Shawkat M.. "Trips and Voyages." Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-the-quran/trips-and-voyages-SIM_00429>
Clothing
Garments worn for modesty (q.v.), utility, protection and decoration. Explicit references to clothing appear 23 times in the Qurʾān. Qurʾānic terms for clothing are libās and thiyāb (clothing, garment), zīna (finery), ḥilya (ornament) andrīsh (attire). Only rarely are specific items mentioned: (mail) shirts ( sarābīl, q 16:81), sandals ( naʿl, q 20:12), robes (jalābīb, q 33:59) and shirt ( qamīṣ, q 12:18, 25-8, 93). A wrap or cloak ( dithār) is evoked in q 74, which is entitled “The Cloaked One” (Sūrat al-Muddaththir). In the Qurʾān ḥijāb denotes a curtain or separation rather than a female head wrap or face-veil (see barrier; veil ). As presented in the Qurʾān, clothing is made from various materials, including animal hides and furs (see camel; animal life ). The making of coats of mail ( ṣanʿat labūs) is alluded to in q 21:80 (seesolomon ); and mountains are likened to carded cotton (al- ʿihn al-manfūsh) in q 101:5 (see apocalypse ).
On the whole, the Qurʾān provides little information regarding specific forms of dress, though it is categorical regarding women who should “draw their hooded robes (jalābīb) close around themselves” ( q 33:59; cf. 24:31; see women and the qurʾān ). Yet the Qurʾān's use of clothing imagery in a metaphorical sense is noteworthy. The verse, “We have revealed (anzalnā) to you clothing (libās) to conceal your nudity/pudenda ( sawʾāt), and attire ( rīsh),” for example, continues “but the garment (libās) of piety is superior” ( q 7:26; see nudity; piety ). Indeed, the “first” garments were not Adam and Eve's “leaves of the garden” ( waraq al-janna) but rather the “garment” of honor stripped away by Iblīs ( q 7:22;20:121; see adam and eve; fall of man; devil; garden; paradise ). And in q 2:187 men and women are described as garments for one another (see marriage and divorce ). The night ( q 25:47; 78:10) and hunger and fear ( q 16:112) are also described as garments.
The Qurʾān's most symbolic garment is the shirt (qamīṣ) of Joseph (Yūsuf; see joseph ). It is produced by Joseph's brothers as bloodstained proof of his death ( q 12:18; see brother and brotherhood ); it is rent by Zulaykhā as she attempts to seduce him ( q 12:25-8) and is used to restore his father Jacob's (Yaʿqūb; see jacob ) sight ( q 12:93). The shirt, a synecdoche for Joseph, serves each time to establish truth (q.v.) or restore honor (q.v.). q 12:18 explains that the shirt is in fact stained with false or lying blood ( dam kadhib). The discovery in q 12:28 that it is torn from behind proves Joseph's innocence; and in q 12:94, in proclaiming to Jacob that Joseph is still alive, prophecy and kingship are validated (see prophets and prophethood ). A similar validation is echoed in q 27:44 where the Queen of Sheba (seebilqīs; sheba ), mistaking Solomon's crystal palace-floor for a deep pool, raises her garment and thus immodestly exposes her legs. On discovering her error, she is forced to acknowledge Solomon's superior knowledge. Her act of uncovering results in a validation of Solomon as prophet and ruler.
Shīʿī exegesis of q 3:61-2 and q 33:33 relates the tradition of Muḥammad's embracing his daughter Fāṭima (q.v.), his son-in-law ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (q.v.) and their sons Ḥasan and Ḥusayn under his cloak, a group subsequently honored as the “people of the cloak” ( ahl al-kisāʾ, cf. W. Schmucker, Mubāhala; A. Tritton, Ahl al-kisāʾ; see shīʿism and the qurʾān). This bestowal of favor highlights a connection between clothing and reward (see reward and punishment; virtues and vices ). Indeed, the reward in heaven (q.v.) for the righteous includes garments of silk and brocade ( sundus, istabraq,ḥarīr). These luxurious fabrics are in contrast to the clothing of the inhabitants of this world — Muḥammad proscribed the wearing of silk for men — and in stark contrast to the fire-dwellers' garments of fire ( q 22:19; see hell; fire ).
Shawkat M. Toorawa
Bibliography:
F. Altheim and R. Stiel, Die Araber in der Alten Welt, 5 vols. in 6, Berlin 1965, ii
H. Algar, Āl-e ʿAbā, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, London 1985, i, 742
R. Dozy, Dictionnaire détaillé des noms des vêtements chez les Arabes. Ouvrage couronné et publié par la troisième classe de l'Institut Royal des Pays-Bas, Amsterdam 1845
W. Schmucker, Mubāhala, in ei 2, vii, 276-7
Y.K. Stillman, Arab dress. From the dawn of Islam to modern times, Boston 2000
id., Libās, in ei 2, v, 732-50
Y.K. Stillman and N. Micklewright, Costume in the Middle East, in Middle East Studies Association bulletin 6 (1992), 13-38
S.M. Toorawa, Every robe he dons becomes him, in Parabola 19.3 (1994), 20-8
A. Tritton, Ahl al-Kisāʾ, in ei 2, i, 264
Cite this pageToorawa, Shawkat M.. "Clothing." Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-the-quran/clothing-SIM_00083>
Trips and Voyages
Travel episodes of long or short duration. Instances and descriptions of travel may be real, e.g. trips undertaken by qurʾānic characters, or figurative, e.g. following the straight path (see path or way ) to earn God's pleasure. Both feature prominently in the Qurʾān. Common also are references to modes of and motives for travel and allusions to the journeys (see journey ) undertaken by Muḥammad (e.g. the night journey; see ascension ) and by the early Muslim community (e.g. the hijra from Mecca [q.v.] to Medina [q.v.]; see emigration ).
The Qurʾān acknowledges the fact that the course of human activity includes the undertaking of trips and voyages. Among God's gifts to humanity is the ability to travel upon the earth (q.v.): “And he has set upon the earth… rivers and roads (anhāran wa-subulan) that you may guide yourselves, and sign-posts too; and stars by which to be guided” ( q16:15-16; see planets and stars; grace; blessing; nature as signs ). These trips may be commercial, military, diplomatic, religious or political (see expeditions and battles; markets; caravan ). Indeed, in the context of certain ritual practices (see ritual and the qurʾān ), this translates into explicit provisions. Fasting (q.v.) in the month of Ramaḍān (q.v.), for instance, is enjoined on believers (see belief and unbelief ) but those on a trip ( ʿalā safarin, also identified as wayfarers, ʿābirī sabīl, in q 4:43) and the sick (see illness and health ) are exempt from this obligation ( q 2:184, 185; see also cleanliness and ablution ). Ritual prayers may also be curtailed by reason of travel (wa-idhā ḍarabtum fī l-arḍ…, q 4:101; cf. 5:106; see prayer ). The hazards of travel are the reason for such provisions and are frequently invoked by the Qurʾān. One danger facing travelers in the late antique world was ambush, either on the road or at sea. This helps explain the Qurʾān's harsh view of pirates and highway robbers (see theft ), the threat of the latter being mentioned in one place together with sexual relations between men (see homosexuality; sex and sexuality ) and the giving of wicked counsel ( q 29:29; see also boundaries and precepts ).
The danger posed by weather (q.v.) conditions (sometimes evoked directly, as in q 77:1-4) and the vagaries of nature are implicit in the Qurʾān's frequent reference to the fact that God's grace is what allows ships (q.v.; in twenty-three places) to travel without difficulty and for humanity's profit upon the seas ( q 17:66; cf. 2:164; 17:70). From God's bounty also come the means by which to navigate: “He is the one who placed the stars so you may be guided by them through the darkness (q.v.) of land and sea” (wa-huwa l-ladhī jaʿala lakumu l-nujūma li-tahtadū bihā fī ẓulumāti l-barri wa-l-baḥri, q 6:97) — although it should be noted that in some Shīʿī commentary these stars are identified as the imāms (see Ṭabarsī, Majmaʾ, iv, 132; see shīʿism and the qurʾān; imām ). The most famous ship mentioned in the Qurʾān is Noah's (q.v.) ark (q.v.), which God instructs him to build to save himself, his kin and the righteous from the flood he will send as punishment ( q 11:36-49; see chastisement and punishment; punishment stories ). Noah's appeals to God to save his unbelieving son ( q 11:45-7) are rejected by God; Noah's wife, too, is not spared ( q 66:10) and so neither makes the momentous trip to safety and grace (see Zamakhsharī, Kashshāf, ii, 218-19; iv, 118). There is one instance of a journey in the belly of a fish: the prophet Jonah (q.v.; Yūnus, also called Dhū l-Nūn) is thrown overboard, swallowed by a fish and cast forth on a barren shore ( q 37:139-48).
Danger during trips also helps explain the Qurʾān's use of safe passage and of public safety as a metaphor (q.v.). At q14:35, Abraham (q.v.) prays for a secure land; at q 95:3 God swears by a safe city (q.v.; wa-hādha l- baladi l-amīn); and at q 34:18, God tells the people of Sheba (q.v.), “Travel (sīrū) between [the cities] in all security ( āminīn), day or night.” Sheba is the place to which Solomon's (q.v.) hoopoe travels and returns, bringing news of its people and queen (q 27:22; see bilqīs ). Solomon then dispatches both a human and jinn (q.v.) embassy ( q 27:37-40) prompting the queen's visit ( q 27:42). Her people are the ones who had covetously asked God to place greater distances between their way stations ( q 34:19) because they wished to monopolize trade and benefit from the hardship to others (Jalālayn,430; see trade and commerce ). The latter is one of countless references to trade in the Qurʾān, a revelation vouchsafed, it should be remembered, to a merchant of the Quraysh (q.v.) tribe (see e.g. q 35:29 for a metaphorical use of tijāra,commerce; see also tribes and clans ).
The Quraysh and their caravans are described in q 106, a short early Meccan revelation (see revelation and inspiration;chronology and the qurʾān ). Although this sūra (q.v.) does not explicitly mention the animals used in the caravans, they are enumerated elsewhere (see animal life ): q 16:5-8, for example, mentions the creation of cattle ( anʿām) which “carry your heavy loads (see load or burden ) to lands that you would not otherwise reach except with great distress.” Animals are beneficial also because their skins can be used to make tents, in particular for use on trips ( yawma ẓaʿnikum wa-yawma iqāmatikum, q 16:80; see hides and fleece ). Horses, mules and donkeys (wa-l- khayl wa-l-bighāl wa-l-ḥamīr, q 16:8) are also identified. q 59:6 makes reference to the use of horses and camels in battle, and in q105, a short Meccan sūra which describes the unsuccessful attempt of the Abyssinian governor Abraha (q.v.) to besiegeMecca and take the Kaʿba (q.v.), war elephants are mentioned (see also camel; pre-islamic arabia and the qurʾān;abyssinia; people of the elephant ).
That humankind may be involved in struggles, both unarmed and armed, is evoked in formulations such as “go forth lightly or heavily equipped and struggle with your wealth (q.v.) and your persons in the cause/way of God” (infirū khifāfan wa-thiqālan wa-jāhidū bi-amwālikum wa-anfusikum fī sabīli llāhi, q 9:41; see expeditions and battles; jihād). Of special significance here is the use of the term sabīl Allāh — sabīl (way, cause), and its plural subul, occur in 176 places in the Qurʾān. At q 4:94, the Qurʾān addresses those who do God's work (fī sabīl Allāh), such as those calling people to Islam (q.v.; see also invitation ). These righteous and pious folk are occasionally specifically described, likesāʾiḥāt ( q 66:5), women who travel for faith (q.v.; cf. al- sāʾiḥūn at q 9:112; see also piety; visiting; fasting ).
q 16:9 reads: “And unto God leads straight the way” (wa-ʿalā llāhi qaṣdu l-sabīl), highlighting the fact that one's very life is a journey (cf. Gimaret, Jubbāʾī, 543 for a reading of this as God's imparting of knowledge; see knowledge and learning ) and that life's destination is God: innā lillāhi wa-innā ilayhi rājiʿūn ( q 2:156). The path to God is called by the Qurʾān al- ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm. Though typically described as straight, most famously at q 1:6 (ihdinā l-ṣirāṭa l-mustaqīm, “guide us to the straight path”), it is also described as “the path of [God], the mighty, the praised” (ṣirāṭ al-ʿazīz al-ḥamīd, q 14:1; see god and his attributes; praise; power and impotence ), contra the path to hellfire ( ṣirāṭ al-jaḥīm, q 37:23; see hell and hellfire; reward and punishment ) and contra the path of those who have earned God'swrath (al- maghḍūb ʿalayhim, q 1:7; see Āzād, Tarjumān al-Qurʾān, i; see anger ). The possibility that one can be ledastray (q.v.) is in one instance expressed by the righteous (see good and evil ) who ask whether they should be “like the one whom the demons have made into a fool (see ignorance ), wandering bewildered through the earth” (ka-lladhī istahwathu l-shayāṭīnu fī l-arḍi), averring that God's guidance is the only guidance (inna hudā llāhi huwa l-hudā, q6:71; cf. 10:23). The human need for guidance on earth even extended to Muḥammad: God asks the despairing Prophet (see despair; hope ) in q 93:7, “did he not find you wandering and guide you” (wa- wajadaka ḍāllan fa-hadā)— though this is understood by some commentators to mean that Muḥammad was ignorant of God's law (see e.g. Zamakhsharī, Kashshāf, iv, 219; see law and the qurʾān ).
In this worldly life, one desirable destination is God's house, i.e. the Kaʿba in Mecca (see house, domestic and divine ). When the prophet Abraham leaves his home in Mesopotamia because of the idol worship there (see idolatry and idolaters ), he travels to Mecca where he rebuilds God' house, first erected by the prophet Adam (cf. q 3:96; see adam and eve ) and by the angels (see angel ) before him (Jalālayn, 62), where worship (q.v.) of the one true God then resumes ( q 2:125). The pilgrimage (q.v.) to Mecca is enjoined on believers several times (e.g. q 2:196). And blocking the path to God or that of the pilgrims to the holy precincts (see sacred precincts; fighting ) is described as a grave offence (wa- ṣaddun ʿan sabīli llāhi wa-kufrun bihi wa-l-masjid al-ḥarām, q 2:217). The peril associated with the trip to Mecca is suggested in the following appeal at q 22:27: “And proclaim the pilgrimage among people: they will come to you on foot ( rijālan) and on every kind of mount (wa-ʿalā kulli ḍāmirin), from distant mountain highways (min kulli fajjin ʿamīq).”
Many of the messengers and prophets in the Qurʾān travel about the earth on foot (see messenger; prophets and prophethood ), calling people to belief or leading their people to safety, such as Moses (q.v.; see also myths and legends in the qurʾān ). Moses' own life begins with a fateful trip when his mother places him in a basket upon the river to protect him from Pharaoh (q.v.; q 20:39) who is killing newborn boys ( q 28:4); but Moses is saved when he is picked up and adopted by Pharaoh's wife (identified in commentary as Āsiya, q 28:9). Moses will in adult life lead the Israelites (see children of israel ) away from Egypt to the holy and promised land ( q 5:21; see also e.g. q 28:29). That trip includes surviving another body of water ( q 7:138; 10:90), namely the Red Sea; traveling by night ( q 20:77; seeday and night ); and wandering in the desert for forty years ( q 5:26; cf. 28:29). Joseph (q.v.; see q 12) is also cast out (by his plotting brothers; see brother and brotherhood ). He is picked up by a caravan and transported to Egypt (q.v.), where he eventually rises to a position of authority (q.v.). He is later reunited with his brothers and father who had traveled to Egypt to seek food and sustenance (q.v.) in times of difficulty (see Beeston, Baiḍāwī's commentary).
Though less momentous for the religious history of the Israelites, Moses takes another well-known trip in the Qurʾān when he sets out on a journey in search of one of God's elect ( q 18:60-82). He eventually finds this man — unnamed but identified as al-Khaḍir/Khiḍr (q.v.) by Muḥammad — at a confluence and implores him to let him accompany him ( q 18:66). The man reluctantly agrees and they journey along a river (see q 18:71 for a boat and its passengers) and then on to an unnamed town. Their trip comes to an end when Khiḍr demonstrates to Moses that he (Moses) is unable to abide him and his actions. Earlier, the sūra recounts the story of the companions of the cave ( aṣḥāb al-kahf, q 18:9-26; see men of the cave ), whose trip is the earliest example of “time travel” in Arabic literature (see time; spatial relations ). Later in the same sūra ( q 18:83-101) are described the travels of Dhū l-Qarnayn, many features of whosestory resemble those of Alexander (q.v.). In the qurʾānic account, he journeys to the east to deal with Gog and Magog(q.v.), building an iron wall to contain them ( q 18:94). The terrestrial travels of Jesus (q.v.) are not described in the Qurʾān but the fact that he was not captured or crucified but rather raised alive to be with God is mentioned ( q 3:55; see crucifixion; polemic and polemical language; resurrection ).
A number of the trips taken by Muḥammad are mentioned in the Qurʾān (see sīra and the qurʾān ). His hijra or emigration, together with the small Muslim community, north from Mecca to Yathrib/ Medina is explicitly mentioned at q 48:11 where those who opted out of the trip for selfish reasons (al- mukhallafūna mina l-aʿrābi) are criticized. At q59:8-9 and elsewhere those who did emigrate are praised, as are those who strive in the way of God ( q 2:218; seeemigrants and helpers ; hypocrites and hypocrisy ). On his way to Yathrib/ Medina, Muḥammad is reported to have hidden in a cave (q.v.), together with Abū Bakr, to escape Meccan pursuers. This is alluded to at q 9:40 and foreshadows the reference a few verses later to unbelievers and hypocrites desperately seeking caves in which to hide from God ( q 9:57; see Suyūṭī, Durr, iii, 436, 447). Of all Muḥammad's voyages, the most spectacular is the nocturnal one from Mecca to Jerusalem (q.v.), called the isrāʾ (and thence to heaven [see heaven and sky ], called the miʿrāj). Theisrāʾ, or night journey, is the subject of a whole chapter ( q 17, Sūrat al-Isrāʾ), which opens “Glory to God who took his servant for a journey by night ( asrā bi-ʿabdihi laylan) from the sacred mosque (Mecca) to the farthest mosque” (Jerusalem; q 17:1; see glorification of god ).
At q 29:20, God asks believers to proclaim, “Travel through the earth and see how God originated creation” (q.v.; qul sīrū fī l-arḍi fa-nẓurū kayfa badaʿa l-khalq; see Ghazālī, Jewels, 126; and cf. e.g. q 3:137 for travel that reveals the consequences of those who rejected God's messengers; see trial ). And at q 55:33 God urges “O company of jinn and men, if you are able to break through the regions of the heavens and the earth (q.v.), then break through, but (know that) you will not do so without our sanction.” This has been interpreted by certain modernists to be an invitation to space travel (see e.g. Haeri, Keys, iv, 73; see exegesis of the qurʾān: early modern and contemporary; science and the qurʾān ). Terrestrial or otherwise, the prophet Muḥammad recommended the following passage be recited when setting out on a journey: “Glory be to the one who has subjected these [modes of travel] to our use because we could not have accomplished this by ourselves” ( subḥāna lladhī sakhkhara lanā hādhā wa-mā kunnā lahu muqrinīn, q 43:13). The possibility that one may die (see death and the dead ) on a trip is adumbrated at q 31:34: “and no soul (q.v.) knows in what land it will die” (wa-mā tadrī nafsun bi-ayyi arḍin tamūt; see also farewell pilgrimage; festivals and commemorative days; hospitality and courtesy ).
Shawkat M. Toorawa
Bibliography, Primary:
A. Azad, The Tarjumān al-Qurʾān, vol. 1, trans. S. Abdul Latif, Hyderabad 1978
A.F.L. Beeston, Baiḍāwī's commentary on sūrah 12 of the Qurʾān, Oxford 1963
al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad b. Muḥammad, The jewels of the Qurʾān. Al-Ghazālī's theory, trans. M. Abul Quasem, London 1983
Gimaret, Jubbaʾī
F. Haeri, Keys to the Qurʾān, 5 vols., Reading, UK 1993
Jalālayn
Suyūṭī, Durr
Ṭabarsī, Majmaʿ
Zamakhsharī, Kashshāf
Secondary:
C.E. Bosworth, Travel literature, in J. Meisami and P. Starkey (eds), Encyclopedia of Arabic literature, London 1998, 778-80
M. Cooperson, Remembering the future. Arabic time travel literature, in Edebiyat 8 (1998), 171-89
D. Eickelman and J. Piscatori, Introduction, in ids. (eds), Muslim travelers. Pilgrimage, migration and the religious imagination, Berkeley 1990, 3-25
J.E. Montgomery, Salvation at sea? Sea faring in early Arabic poetry, in G. Borg and E. de Moor (eds.),Representations of the divine in Arabic poetry, Amsterdam 2001, 25-48
I.R. Netton, Seek knowledge. Thought and travel in the house of Islam, Richmond, Surrey 1996
S.M. Toorawa, Travel in the medieval Islamic world, in R. Allen (ed.), Eastward bound. Travel and travellers 1050-1550, Manchester 2004, 86-120
H. Touati, Islam et voyage au Moyen Age. Histoire et anthropologie d'une pratique lettrée, Paris 2000
B.M. Wheeler, Prophets in the Qurʾān. An introduction to the Qurʾān and Muslim exegesis, London 2002
Cite this pageToorawa, Shawkat M.. "Trips and Voyages." Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-the-quran/trips-and-voyages-SIM_00429>
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ISLAM
SIKBAJ
(a.), a vinegar- and flour-based meat stew or broth cooked with vegetables, fruits, spices and date-juice. It was apparently a popular ʿAbbāsid dish but very likely considered simple folk’s food, as borne out by the many anecdotes that make satirical mention of it. Its origins, however, seem to have been royal, namely the Sāsānid court: Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāḳ (d. second half 4th/10th century) mentions, in his K. al-Ṭabīk̲h̲, ed. K. Öhrnberg and S. Mroueh, Helsinki 1987, 132, that K̲h̲usraw Anūs̲h̲irwān [q.v.] once asked several cooks to prepare the finest dish they knew and all independently cooked sikbād̲j̲. (This perhaps explains the interest of certain ʿAbbāsid caliphs in the dish.) It merits inclusion here for its interesting appearances in: (1) numerous 3rd/9th- and 4th/10th-century collections (e.g. al-S̲h̲ābushtī, al-Diyārāt, ed. ʿAwwād, Bag̲h̲dād 1386/1966, 92; al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, al-Buk̲h̲alāʾ, ed. al-Ḥād̲j̲irī, Cairo 1971, 24, 122, 288, 335; al-Azdī, al-Risāla al-Bag̲h̲dādiyya, ed. al-S̲h̲āld̲j̲ī, Beirut 1400-1980, 159, 167; al-Masʿūdī, Murud̲j̲, § 2905; (2) important adab collections of later centuries (e.g. Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ, Cairo 1400/1980, xiii, 102; al-Ibs̲h̲īhī, MustaṭrafBeirut 1988, i, 261); (3) two cookbooks, Ibn Sayyār, op. cit., 132-7, and Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Bag̲h̲dādī (d. 637/1239), K. al-Ṭabīk̲h̲, ed. al-Bārūdī, Beirut 1964, 13-14; (4) ʿAbbāsid proverbs (al-Ṭālaḳānī, Risālat al-Amt̲h̲āl al-Bag̲h̲dādiyya allatī tad̲j̲rī bayn al-ʿāmma (d̲j̲amaʿahā fī sanat 421), ed. Massignon, Cairo n.d.); and (5) poetry—in one of Ibn al-Rūmī’s satires, for instance (Dīwān, ed. Naṣṣār, Cairo 1973, 1062), and also in some verses by al-Ḳisāfī the younger, who, according to an anecdote reported by Ibn Abī Ṭāhir [q.v.], was present one day when a certain Abū Ayyūd presented a pot of sihbād̲j̲ to Ibn Mukarram (Mukram?) (Ibn al-D̲j̲arrāḥ, al-Waraḳa, ed. ʿAzzām and Farrād̲j̲, Cairo 1953, 9).
Sikbād̲j̲ is an Arabicised word deriving from the Persian sik, meaning “vinegar”, and bāhā (or bād̲j̲) meaning “type”, i.e. of meat; TA also suggests a derivation from sirka (vinegar) and bāča (trotters) (Lane, i, 1389). In al-K̲h̲aṭīb al-Bag̲h̲dādī, al-Taṭfīl wa-ḥikāyāt al-ṭufayliyyīn, Damascus 1346/1927, 86-7, sikbād̲j̲ is described as most delicious with eggplant (al-bad̲h̲ind̲j̲ān). But, in keeping with the sarcasm that often accompanies the mention of sikbād̲j̲, the gloss to the epithetic proverb surmat baḳrā, used to describe an arrogant man, reads “the cow’s anus is the best thing insikbād̲j̲” (al-Ṭālaḳānī, op. cit., 18, no. 264). It is likely, therefore, that the opening line in a letter from Ibn Mukarram to the wit Abu ’l-ʿAynā [q.v.], which reads “I have a sikbād̲j̲ stew that is the envy of its connoisseurs ...” (al-Raḳīḳ al-Ḳayrawānī, Ḳuṭb al-surūr, ed. al-D̲j̲undī, Damascus n.d., 352), is tongue-in-cheek.
The preparation of sikbād̲j̲ has generated the verb sakbad̲j̲a and prompted the writing of at least two works, both lost, praising its virtues: the K. Faḍāʾil al-sikbād̲j̲ of ʿUbayd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Abī Ṭāhir [q.v.] (Fihrist, 147) and that of the great wit, D̲j̲aḥẓa [q.v.] (Fihrist, 145, 317).
The proverbs ilā kam al-sikbād̲j̲! “What! Sikbād̲j̲ again!”, and Yā bārid kam sikbād̲j̲! loosely, “You blockhead! How much more sikbād̲j̲ (al-Ṭālaḳānī, op. cit., 8, no. 123, and 36, no. 597), are explained by al-Ṭālaḳānī as proverbs to be used when one has had enough of ¶ something. Indeed, it seems from the anecdotal literature that, satirically or otherwise, people either had enough, or could not get enough, of sikbād̲j̲.
(Shawkat M. Toorawa)
Bibliography(in addition to references in the article): al-Rāg̲h̲ib al-Iṣfahānī, Muḥāḍarāt al-udabāʾ Beirut 1961, i, 610
A.J. Arberry, A Baghdad cookery book, in IC, xiii (1939), 34 (recipe), 200
Ṣ. al-Munad̲j̲d̲j̲id, Bayn al-k̲h̲ulafāʾ wa ’l-k̲h̲ulaʿāʾ, Beirut 1957, 79
M.M. Ahsan, Social life under the Abbasids, London 1982, 83, 143, 148, 236
D. Agius, Arabic literary works as a source of documentation for technical terms of the material culture, Berlin 1984, 265-9
Claudia Roden, Mediterranean cookery, New York 1987, 159 (recipe)
D. Waines, In a Caliph’s kitchen, London 1988, 13, 76-7 (recipe).
Cite this pageToorawa, Shawkat M.. "Sikbād̲j̲." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/sikbadj-SIM_7026>
(a.), a vinegar- and flour-based meat stew or broth cooked with vegetables, fruits, spices and date-juice. It was apparently a popular ʿAbbāsid dish but very likely considered simple folk’s food, as borne out by the many anecdotes that make satirical mention of it. Its origins, however, seem to have been royal, namely the Sāsānid court: Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāḳ (d. second half 4th/10th century) mentions, in his K. al-Ṭabīk̲h̲, ed. K. Öhrnberg and S. Mroueh, Helsinki 1987, 132, that K̲h̲usraw Anūs̲h̲irwān [q.v.] once asked several cooks to prepare the finest dish they knew and all independently cooked sikbād̲j̲. (This perhaps explains the interest of certain ʿAbbāsid caliphs in the dish.) It merits inclusion here for its interesting appearances in: (1) numerous 3rd/9th- and 4th/10th-century collections (e.g. al-S̲h̲ābushtī, al-Diyārāt, ed. ʿAwwād, Bag̲h̲dād 1386/1966, 92; al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, al-Buk̲h̲alāʾ, ed. al-Ḥād̲j̲irī, Cairo 1971, 24, 122, 288, 335; al-Azdī, al-Risāla al-Bag̲h̲dādiyya, ed. al-S̲h̲āld̲j̲ī, Beirut 1400-1980, 159, 167; al-Masʿūdī, Murud̲j̲, § 2905; (2) important adab collections of later centuries (e.g. Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ, Cairo 1400/1980, xiii, 102; al-Ibs̲h̲īhī, MustaṭrafBeirut 1988, i, 261); (3) two cookbooks, Ibn Sayyār, op. cit., 132-7, and Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Bag̲h̲dādī (d. 637/1239), K. al-Ṭabīk̲h̲, ed. al-Bārūdī, Beirut 1964, 13-14; (4) ʿAbbāsid proverbs (al-Ṭālaḳānī, Risālat al-Amt̲h̲āl al-Bag̲h̲dādiyya allatī tad̲j̲rī bayn al-ʿāmma (d̲j̲amaʿahā fī sanat 421), ed. Massignon, Cairo n.d.); and (5) poetry—in one of Ibn al-Rūmī’s satires, for instance (Dīwān, ed. Naṣṣār, Cairo 1973, 1062), and also in some verses by al-Ḳisāfī the younger, who, according to an anecdote reported by Ibn Abī Ṭāhir [q.v.], was present one day when a certain Abū Ayyūd presented a pot of sihbād̲j̲ to Ibn Mukarram (Mukram?) (Ibn al-D̲j̲arrāḥ, al-Waraḳa, ed. ʿAzzām and Farrād̲j̲, Cairo 1953, 9).
Sikbād̲j̲ is an Arabicised word deriving from the Persian sik, meaning “vinegar”, and bāhā (or bād̲j̲) meaning “type”, i.e. of meat; TA also suggests a derivation from sirka (vinegar) and bāča (trotters) (Lane, i, 1389). In al-K̲h̲aṭīb al-Bag̲h̲dādī, al-Taṭfīl wa-ḥikāyāt al-ṭufayliyyīn, Damascus 1346/1927, 86-7, sikbād̲j̲ is described as most delicious with eggplant (al-bad̲h̲ind̲j̲ān). But, in keeping with the sarcasm that often accompanies the mention of sikbād̲j̲, the gloss to the epithetic proverb surmat baḳrā, used to describe an arrogant man, reads “the cow’s anus is the best thing insikbād̲j̲” (al-Ṭālaḳānī, op. cit., 18, no. 264). It is likely, therefore, that the opening line in a letter from Ibn Mukarram to the wit Abu ’l-ʿAynā [q.v.], which reads “I have a sikbād̲j̲ stew that is the envy of its connoisseurs ...” (al-Raḳīḳ al-Ḳayrawānī, Ḳuṭb al-surūr, ed. al-D̲j̲undī, Damascus n.d., 352), is tongue-in-cheek.
The preparation of sikbād̲j̲ has generated the verb sakbad̲j̲a and prompted the writing of at least two works, both lost, praising its virtues: the K. Faḍāʾil al-sikbād̲j̲ of ʿUbayd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Abī Ṭāhir [q.v.] (Fihrist, 147) and that of the great wit, D̲j̲aḥẓa [q.v.] (Fihrist, 145, 317).
The proverbs ilā kam al-sikbād̲j̲! “What! Sikbād̲j̲ again!”, and Yā bārid kam sikbād̲j̲! loosely, “You blockhead! How much more sikbād̲j̲ (al-Ṭālaḳānī, op. cit., 8, no. 123, and 36, no. 597), are explained by al-Ṭālaḳānī as proverbs to be used when one has had enough of ¶ something. Indeed, it seems from the anecdotal literature that, satirically or otherwise, people either had enough, or could not get enough, of sikbād̲j̲.
(Shawkat M. Toorawa)
Bibliography(in addition to references in the article): al-Rāg̲h̲ib al-Iṣfahānī, Muḥāḍarāt al-udabāʾ Beirut 1961, i, 610
A.J. Arberry, A Baghdad cookery book, in IC, xiii (1939), 34 (recipe), 200
Ṣ. al-Munad̲j̲d̲j̲id, Bayn al-k̲h̲ulafāʾ wa ’l-k̲h̲ulaʿāʾ, Beirut 1957, 79
M.M. Ahsan, Social life under the Abbasids, London 1982, 83, 143, 148, 236
D. Agius, Arabic literary works as a source of documentation for technical terms of the material culture, Berlin 1984, 265-9
Claudia Roden, Mediterranean cookery, New York 1987, 159 (recipe)
D. Waines, In a Caliph’s kitchen, London 1988, 13, 76-7 (recipe).
Cite this pageToorawa, Shawkat M.. "Sikbād̲j̲." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/sikbadj-SIM_7026>
TAHIR IBN MUHAMMAD
b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Ibrāhīm, Abu ’I-ʿAbbās, al-muhannad al-bag̲h̲dādī, poet and letter-writer (one biographer mentions interesting ones, rasāʾil ʿad̲j̲ība), born in Bag̲h̲dād in Ramaḍān 315/November ¶ 927. In 340/951, in his mid-twenties, al-Muhannad left Bag̲h̲dād for Cordova in search of fame and patronage, both of which he found as panegyrist and companion to the ʿĀmirid ruler al-Manṣūr b. Abī ʿĀmir [q.v.]. His biographers are consequently Andalusian. The earliest notice occurs in Ibn al-Faraḍī (d. 403/1013 [q.v.]), Taʾrīk̲h̲ ʿUlamāʾ al-Andalus, ed. al-Abyārī, Cairo-Beirut 1983, i, 361, in a section devoted to foreign scholars (ʿulamāʾ) in Spain.
Ibn al-Faraḍī provides details such as al-Muhannad’s full name, his date and place of birth, the date of his departure for Cordova, and the date of his death in his adoptive city in Muḥarram 390/December 999. However, he makes no mention of the assertion made by al-Ḥumaydī (d. 488/1095 [q.v.]), Ḏj̲iad̲h̲wat al-muḳtabis fī taʾrīk̲h̲ ʿulamāʾ al-Andalus, ed. al-Abyārī, Cairo-Beirut n.d., i, 383, no. 516, that al-Muhannad was a descendant of Ibn Abī Ṭāhir Ṭayfūr [q.v.], “the author of Taʾrīk̲h̲ Bag̲h̲dād [sic]”. Ibn al-Faraḍī either simply does not record the connection or is unaware of it, though he is otherwise very informed about al-Muhannad. Ibn Abī Ṭāhir and his K. Bag̲h̲dād would no doubt have reached Ibn al-Faraḍī’s attention, if through nothing else but the history of Cordova by al-Rāzī (d. 340/955 [q.v.]), said to be modelled on that work. The genealogy in Ibn al-Faraḍī does argue against descent but the fact that al-Ḥumaydī claims to have composed his work entirely from memory in Bag̲h̲dād lends some credence to the assertion. Al-Ḥumaydī’s contemporary, Ibn Ḥayyān al-Ḳurṭubī (388-469/987-1076 [q.v.]), records al-Muhannad in al-Muḳtabis, ed. al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ī,Beirut 1983, 31, 120, 156 ff, but, like Ibn al-Faraḍī, does not tie him to Ibn Abī Ṭāhir. The al-Ḥumaydī notice is quoted verbatim by the much later al-Ḍabbī (d. 599/1202-3 [q.v.]), Bug̲h̲yat al-multamis fī taʾrīk̲h̲ rid̲j̲āl ahl al-Andalus, Cairo 1968, 326, no. 859.
The biographers remark that reports (ak̲h̲bār) are told about al-Muhannad’s spiritual contemplations and how his espousal of the ways of the “heretic” mystic al-Ḥallād̲j̲ led people to have a low opinion of him. As these stories are uncorroborated (ḥuhyat ʿanhu), al-Ḥumaydī adds that “God knows best!”
(Shawkat M. Toorawa)
Bibliography: Given in the article. See also Sezgin, GAS, ii, 690.
Cite this pageToorawa, Shawkat M.. "Ṭāhir b. Muḥammad." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/tahir-b-muhammad-SIM_7308>
ʿUbayd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Abī Ṭāhir
, Abu ’l-Ḥusayn, son of the historian, littérateur and bookman Ibn Abī Ṭāhir (d. 280/893 [q.v.]), and a historian and author in his own right. Ibn al-Nadīm describes the father as a superior author (Fihrist, 147) but al-Ḳifṭī considers him equally "assiduous in [his] reporting" (Ḥukamāʾ, 111). He died in his home town, Bag̲h̲dād, in 313/925; his date of birth is unknown.
The mention of ʿUbayd Allāh in the biographical literature rests on the fact that he is his father’s son and that he wrote a continuation of his father’s K. Bag̲h̲dād, a history, properly a regnally-organised ak̲h̲bār collection, on Bag̲h̲dād and its caliphs; consequently, he is mentioned in the principal notices devoted to Ibn Abī Ṭāhir. The only extant biographical notices devoted exclusively to him are in Taʾrīk̲h̲ Bag̲h̲dād (iv, 211, x, 348) and in the Fihrist (147). However, neither provides much information ¶ about his life, focusing rather on the supplement to K. Bag̲h̲dād. Ibn Abī Ṭāhir wrote until the end of al-Muhtadī’s reign, and ʿUbayd Allāh added ak̲h̲bār about al-Muʿtamid, al-Muʿtaḍid and al-Muktafī; he did not complete the section on al-Muḳtadir. He also wrote works entitled al-Sikbād̲j̲ wa-faḍāʾiluhā("The virtues of Sikbād̲j̲" [q.v.]) and al-Mutaẓarrifāt wa ’l-mutaẓarrifūn ("Women and men who affect elegance").
Extracts from ʿUbayd Allāh’s history survive. The Fihrist quotes one dealing with the later life, capture, and execution of the mystic al-Ḥallād̲j̲ (d. 309/922 [q.v.]). Ibn Ḵh̲allikān quotes a section on the Ṣaffārids, but in an abridged version because of "ʿUbayd Allāh’s prolixity" (Ibn Ḵh̲allikān, Wafayāt, ed. ʿAbbās, vi, 416), an example of which may be found in the long extract on al-Muʿtaḍid preserved by al-Maḳrīzī (Ḵh̲iṭaṭ, i, 263-70). See also al-Ḏh̲ahabī, Siyar, xiii, 200, xiv, 55, and Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar, Lisān, i, 190, 373.
Prominent students include ʿAlī b. Hārūn al-Munad̲j̲d̲j̲im (d. 352/963) and Abū ʿUmar b. Ḥayyawayh (295-381/907-91). Contact with the former comes as no surprise, as Abū Aḥmad Yaḥyā b. ʿAlī al-Munad̲j̲d̲j̲im (241-300/855-913 [q.v.]) is recorded in extant isnāds as a primary transmitter to ʿUbayd Allāh (e.g. al-Azdī, Badāʾiʿ, 69-70, 79-80).
Like his father, or perhaps because of him, ʿUbayd Allāh also came into contact with prominent literary personalities such as al-Buḥturī [q.v.], as attested in an anecdote where al-Buḥturī declaims seven verses to him (al-Tanūk̲h̲ī,Nis̲h̲wār, vi, 145, and al-Sarrād̲j̲, Maṣāriʿ al-ʿus̲h̲s̲h̲āḳ, ii, 195).
(Shawkat M. Toorawa)
Bibliography (in addition to references in the text):
Fihrist, 210
Elijah of Nisibis, History, 132-5
Ibn al-Kāzarūnī, Muk̲h̲taṣar al-taʾrīk̲h̲ min awwal al-zamān ilā muntahā ’l-dawla al-ʿAbbāsiyya, Bag̲h̲dād, 1390/1970, 148
al-Ras̲h̲īd b. al-Zubayr, Ḏh̲ak̲h̲āʾir, 53
Yāḳūt, Irs̲h̲ād, i, 610, iii, 3-8, v, 102
idem, Buldān, i, 153, ii, 788
Maḳrīzī, Ḵh̲iṭaṭ, Cairo 1270, i, 273
Azdī, Badāʾiʿ, 89
K. ʿAwwād, Fihrist mak̲h̲ṭūṭāt k̲h̲izānat Yaʿḳūb Sirkīs, Bag̲h̲dād 1385/1966, 17, no. 47
Rosenthal, Historiography, 81-3.
Cite this pageToorawa, Shawkat M.. "ʿUbayd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Abī Ṭāhir." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/ubayd-allah-b-ahmad-b-abi-tahir-SIM_7665>
Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn
, Abū Muḥammad, 51st dāʿī al-muṭlaḳ, or absolute dāʿī (addressed as Bāwa Ṣāḥib and Sayyidnā), vicegerent of the 21st Imām’s (al-Ṭayyib) descendants, and leader of the small, predominantly Gud̲j̲arātī, Ismāʿīlī merchant community of Dāwūdī Bohorās [q.v.]. He was born in Bombay in 1304/1886, assumed headship of the dawat (= daʿwa) from ʿAbd Allāh Badr al-Dīn in 1330/1912, and ruled till his death in Matheran in 1384/1965, when he was succeeded by his son, Muḥammad Burhān al-Dīn (b. 1334/1915). He is buried in the “Rawḍat Ṭāhira” mausoleum built by his son, now aziyāra site for Bohorās.
Though he is not a descendant, recent Bohorā literature identifies Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn’s ancestors as “the Fāṭimī Imāms” and describes the Bohorās as “Fāṭimī”. This re-establishment of links with the Fāṭimids was important to Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn and was underscored by his successful negotiation with the Egyptian government for stewardship of the Mosque of al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh [q.v.] in Cairo. Indeed, his active cultivation of diplomatic contacts with heads of state brought to the office of dāʿī the bearing of a princeship it had not hitherto enjoyed.
Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn came under much criticism from Bohorā reformist elements about management of dawat funds, but Privy Council decisions guaranteed him the ¶ right to manage “as sole trustee with wide discretionary powers”. The reformers are right that the dāʿī al-duʿāt (chief dāʿī), his Fāṭimid analogue, did not have similar sweeping powers—but that was before the Occultation of the Imām. The dāʿī’s right to excommunicate, frequentiy and prominendy exercised in India as elsewhere (e.g. in Tanzania), also provoked outcry and judicial intervention.
Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn was responsible for the expansion of the al-Ḏj̲āmiʿa al-Sayfiyya in Sūrat [q.v.] into a large-scale Academy for the training of ʿāmils (the modern successors to the Fāṭimid regional dāʿīs) in Arabic and religious matters. It is said to be inspired by the Dār al-Ḥikma [q.v.] of the Fāṭimid caliph al-Ḥākim and by al-Azhar [q.v.].
(Shawkat M. Toorawa)
BibliographyF. Daftary, The Ismāʿīlis, Cambridge 1992
Dawat-e-Hadiyah, The Fatimi tradition, Bombay 1988
idem, The Dawoodi Bohras, Bombay n.d.
idem, Believers and yet unbelievers
A. A. Engineer, The Bohoras, Bombay 1980, esp. 156-9, 167-75, 209-13
S.C. Misra, Muslim communities in Gujarat, London 1964
S. Stern, The succession of the Fāṭimid Imām al-Āmir, the claims of the later Fāṭimids to the Imāmate, and the rise of Ṭayyibī Ismailism, in Oriens, iv (1951), 193-255
Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn, Nūrul Hakkul Mubīn, Bombay 1335/1917
idem, Saḥīfat al-ṣalāt, Bombay n.d.
H. Halm, Shiism, Edinburgh 1991, 193-200, 204-5.
Cite this pageToorawa, Shawkat M.. "Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/tahir-sayf-al-din-SIM_7309>
, Abū Muḥammad, 51st dāʿī al-muṭlaḳ, or absolute dāʿī (addressed as Bāwa Ṣāḥib and Sayyidnā), vicegerent of the 21st Imām’s (al-Ṭayyib) descendants, and leader of the small, predominantly Gud̲j̲arātī, Ismāʿīlī merchant community of Dāwūdī Bohorās [q.v.]. He was born in Bombay in 1304/1886, assumed headship of the dawat (= daʿwa) from ʿAbd Allāh Badr al-Dīn in 1330/1912, and ruled till his death in Matheran in 1384/1965, when he was succeeded by his son, Muḥammad Burhān al-Dīn (b. 1334/1915). He is buried in the “Rawḍat Ṭāhira” mausoleum built by his son, now aziyāra site for Bohorās.
Though he is not a descendant, recent Bohorā literature identifies Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn’s ancestors as “the Fāṭimī Imāms” and describes the Bohorās as “Fāṭimī”. This re-establishment of links with the Fāṭimids was important to Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn and was underscored by his successful negotiation with the Egyptian government for stewardship of the Mosque of al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh [q.v.] in Cairo. Indeed, his active cultivation of diplomatic contacts with heads of state brought to the office of dāʿī the bearing of a princeship it had not hitherto enjoyed.
Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn came under much criticism from Bohorā reformist elements about management of dawat funds, but Privy Council decisions guaranteed him the ¶ right to manage “as sole trustee with wide discretionary powers”. The reformers are right that the dāʿī al-duʿāt (chief dāʿī), his Fāṭimid analogue, did not have similar sweeping powers—but that was before the Occultation of the Imām. The dāʿī’s right to excommunicate, frequentiy and prominendy exercised in India as elsewhere (e.g. in Tanzania), also provoked outcry and judicial intervention.
Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn was responsible for the expansion of the al-Ḏj̲āmiʿa al-Sayfiyya in Sūrat [q.v.] into a large-scale Academy for the training of ʿāmils (the modern successors to the Fāṭimid regional dāʿīs) in Arabic and religious matters. It is said to be inspired by the Dār al-Ḥikma [q.v.] of the Fāṭimid caliph al-Ḥākim and by al-Azhar [q.v.].
(Shawkat M. Toorawa)
BibliographyF. Daftary, The Ismāʿīlis, Cambridge 1992
Dawat-e-Hadiyah, The Fatimi tradition, Bombay 1988
idem, The Dawoodi Bohras, Bombay n.d.
idem, Believers and yet unbelievers
A. A. Engineer, The Bohoras, Bombay 1980, esp. 156-9, 167-75, 209-13
S.C. Misra, Muslim communities in Gujarat, London 1964
S. Stern, The succession of the Fāṭimid Imām al-Āmir, the claims of the later Fāṭimids to the Imāmate, and the rise of Ṭayyibī Ismailism, in Oriens, iv (1951), 193-255
Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn, Nūrul Hakkul Mubīn, Bombay 1335/1917
idem, Saḥīfat al-ṣalāt, Bombay n.d.
H. Halm, Shiism, Edinburgh 1991, 193-200, 204-5.
Cite this pageToorawa, Shawkat M.. "Ṭāhir Sayf al-Dīn." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/tahir-sayf-al-din-SIM_7309>
Zābad̲j̲, Zābid̲j̲, Zābag
, the name of an island placed in the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean by the Arabic geographical writers. It appears as early as the Akabār al-Ṣīn wa ’l-Hind of Sulaymān al-Tād̲j̲ir and in the K. al-Masālik wa ’lmamālik of Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih (3rd/9th century) and then in almost all subsequent texts, and the title of its ruler, the Mahārād̲j̲[ā], is also regularly used from an early date.
The location of Zābad̲j̲ in Southeast Asia is certain. The Arabic authors describe it as a trading empire, and place it in relation to known places, such as India, Ḳimār [q.v.] (Khmer = Cambodia) and Kalāh. From this there emerges that we have a country on the route between India and China, but further south than these; al-Bīrūni, K. al-Tafhīm, ed. R.R. Wright, London 1934, 16, actually places it on the equator. The authors state that the ruler of the country of Zābad̲j̲ ruled from a capital of the same name over the islands of the “Eastern Sea”, and amongst a considerable number of these islands are listed D̲j̲āwa, Kalāh and Wākwāk [q.vv.]. The Mahārād̲j̲ā appears as main king in the land, but with subordinate governors (maliks) owing allegiance to him, and with a powerful army and navy. Abū Zayd, in G. Ferrand,Relations de voyages et textes relatifs à l’Extrême Orient, Paris 1913-14, ii, 95-7, has a long account of his attack on Cambodia, the only historical fact mentioned. One ¶ source describes people from dependent islands, and also from Cambodia, turning their faces towards Zābad̲j̲ and prostrating themselves as a sign of their allegiance.
The capital Zābad̲j̲ was a flourishing commercial centre and a rendezvous for foreign ships, those of the Arabs, the Indians and Chinese. The Zābad̲j̲īs are said to have traded as far as Africa and to have brought iron from there to sell on the Asian mainland (al-Idrīsī, tr. A. Jaubert, Paris 1836-40, 58). Foreign traders provided the state with much revenue. Local customs mentioned are ordeal by fire and the ceremony of bersila (i.e. sitting cross-legged out of politeness: the actual Malay word is used in the Arabic texts) before the Mahārād̲j̲ā (Ad̲j̲āʾib al-Hind, ed. Van der Lith, 154, tr. Freeman-Grenville, 90).
The exact identification of Zābad̲j̲ from the Arabic sources is virtually impossible, although it is almost certainly somewhere in the Western Indonesian archipelago. Early European scholars preferred Java, because of a similarity in names (Skr. yava, Gk. iabadiou) and the fact that extensive ruins there showed the previous existence of a large empire, but a strong case can also be made from these sources for Sumatra (since its products gold and camphor are described as coming from Zābad̲j̲) and a defensible case for Borneo. Ferrand produced the Indian term D̲j̲āwaka as the equivalent of Zābad̲j̲ and of Chinese She-pʾotʾi = Sumatra. See further on this, W. Mahdī, Wie hiessen die Malaien,bevor sie “Malaien” hiessen?, in Sudostasien und Wir: Grundsatzdiskussionen und Fachbeiträge. Tagung des Arbeitskreises Südostasien und Ozeanien Hamburg 1993, Austronesiana, ed. A. Bormann et al, Munster 1993, 162-76.
Modern scholars have linked the Mahārād̲j̲ā with the Buddhist Sailendra rulers of Southeast Asia, who seem to have been the only rulers to call themselves by this title before the 10th century; it is therefore probable that, when Arabic writers speak of the Mahārād̲j̲ā, they are referring to that dynasty. Around this we must build all our hypotheses. The present theory with regard to the history of the Sailendras is that they first appeared in Java, and became the dominant dynasty there, soon after the reign of the Hindu Sanjaya about A.D. 760. By about 860, a younger branch of the family established itself on the throne of Šrīvijaya centred at Palembang and perhaps in later times at Malayu (Jambi), a throne which they held for over three centuries, or at least, the title of Mahārād̲j̲ā remained with this kingdom until its dissolution. The Sailendra dynasty in Java had lost its control of Java by the beginning of the 10th century, hence all references originating after this time would apparently refer to the Sumatran kingdom. Similarly, all references before 860 would refer to Java. Any Arabic writer therefore who uses sources before 860 referring to the kingdom of the Mahārād̲j̲ā would be dealing with the Sailendras in Java, and any Arabic writer using sources originating from the 10th century onwards would be talking about Sumatra. Thus the references of Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih and possibly those of the other early geographers would refer to Java and not to Sumatra.
A major problem is identifying the place which Ibn Khurradād̲h̲bih. 46 (quoted by al-Idrīsi and in other texts), calls D̲j̲āba, near Salāhit, Harang (H.z.l.d̲j̲. in al-Idrīsī, Opus geographicum, i, 81) and Māʾit, fifteen days’ journey from the Spice Islands, with a king apparently a Buddhist, and producing coconuts, bananas and sugar-cane. From this text alone, it would appear that D̲j̲āba and the three neighbouring places were near ¶ the southern tip of the Malay peninsula, since they fall on the route to China between the ports of Kalāh and Ḳimār. But there is a complication in that in both places where the Ak̲h̲bār al-Ṣīn wa ’l-Hind mentions Zābad̲j̲, Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih, 17, mentions D̲j̲āba; thus the former states that Kalāh is a kingdom of Zābad̲j̲ and the latter that it belongs to the kingdom of D̲j̲āba al-Hindī. Also, Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih mentions Buddhism as the religion of D̲j̲āba, but the expression D̲j̲āba al-Hindī could be expected to refer to a Hindu king there; possibly there were two D̲j̲ābas, one Buddhist and one Hindu in faith. In fact, the name D̲j̲āba occurs in no other original text except in Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih/al-Idrīsī, and if D̲j̲āba was in Sumatra, as the evidence suggests, it cannot be the same as Zābad̲j̲ if this last, at this early stage, was located solely in Java. In any case, no more is subsequently heard of the name D̲j̲āba, unless its name is echoed in the later name of D̲j̲āwa. This is complicated by the fact that Java and Sumatra were frequendy confused with one another and sometimes thought of as one island.
The next two relevant Arabic texts, those of Abū Zayd and al-Masʿūdī, stem from the mid-10th century, i.e. the time when the Sailendras ruled from Šrīvijaya (in Arabic, Sirbuza) only, but seem to show a mixture of earlier and later material. Thus mention of Sirbuza as an island in the empire of the Mahārād̲j̲ā could stem from the period when the seat of the Mahārād̲j̲ā was still in Java but the kingdom of Srīvijaya was under his sway. Abū Zayd’s account of the attack on Cambodia obviously comes from the Java period. Cambodia was subject to attacks like this from Java in the later 8th century (767-87), but after 802, the accession date of Jayavarman, threw off all relics of allegiance to Java. Also, Abū Zayd’s account does not stress the importance of maritime trade, as one would expect with Šrīvijaya, but rather, of agricultural prosperity, which one would connect with Java. Al-Masʿūdīʾs information sounds more up-to-date and deals with a Zābad̲j̲ which could quite easily be Sumatra. He stresses the importance of sea trade and that sailors from the Persian Gulf continually voyaged to Kalāh and Zābad̲j̲, all this connecting easily with Šrīvijaya, the later seat of the Sailendra Mahārād̲j̲ā.
Thus the texts seem to suggest that Zābad̲j̲ was formerly a toponym attached to the island of Java, and then the Arabic sources attached it to the Sailendra Mahārād̲j̲ās as a kind of title, i.e. the king of Zābad̲j̲, and then to the empire which he controlled. After the fall of the Sailendras in Java ca. 907, the main court of the dynasty was transferred to Šrīvijaya but Zābad̲j̲ still remained as a loose term for the Sailendra empire in general. Almost contemporary with this transfer of the name to the Sumatran empire, the Arabic sources begin to mention Šrīvijaya in the geographical and travel accounts as Sirbuza (with various readings). The position of this last is fairly obvious from the texts. The ʿAd̲j̲āʾib al-Hind, ed. Van der Lith, 176, tr. Freeman-Grenville, 104, places it at the extremity of the island of Lamūrī and on a bay which penetrates 50 farsak̲h̲s into the island. Apart from the exaggerated distance, the description could well apply to Palembang in southeast Sumatra. The local crocodiles are frequently mentioned. Arab sailors would apply the name of the town to the whole island.
Thus it appears that, from the time of al-Masʿūdī in particular, the Arabic authors had two names for the same thing, sc. Sirbuza and Zābad̲j̲ Insensible to or unaware of political conditions, they are interested ¶ primarily in Sirbuza for its trade, and regarded it as merely a province of the Mahārād̲j̲ā’s empire with its own governor or petty king, who levied dues on ships bound for China (ʿAajāʾib, 111). The description of the place and its products is just what one would expect of the port of Palembang at this time. The term Zābad̲j̲, on the other hand, remained connected with the Mahārād̲j̲ā and became more the name of an empire and less that of a place, so that even Sirbuza became “an island of Zābad̲j̲”. The capital of the empire is unnamed, but is obviously a Sumatran town on an estuary. It is in fact only through studying non-Arabic sources that the Arabic Sirbuza can be shown as the capital of the Mahārād̲j̲ā’s empire. On Arabic evidence alone, one might think that the capital was further north and nearer the Malacca Straits, although it is possible that there were periods in the history of the empire when the capital was in fact further north, so that these sources may have in them an element of truth.
A further development in the history of Zābad̲j̲ can be seen in Yāḳūt’s mention (early 6th/12th century) of D̲j̲āwa (thus spelt with wāw, not the earlier bāʾ), which, he says, is the first part of China and is on the sea coast; merchants do not go to China, but only to D̲j̲āwa. This is likely to be Sumatra, since direct trade with China had been cut off and Arabic ships only went as far as Kalāh and Sirbuza at this time. The new D̲j̲āwa was an important trading centre, and this new reference tallies with the information of Marco Polo and other European authors that the island we know as Sumatra was called Java [the Less] (see Yule-Cordier, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, London 1903, ii, 284, 286 n. 1). Authors like the historian Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn and the traveller Ibn Baṭṭūṭa (cf. Riḥla, iv, 224, 228 ff., tr. Beckingham, iv, 873, 876 ff.) show that D̲j̲āwa meant for them Sumatra. Also, contemporary information in Ibn Saʿld (d. 672/1274) provides a full description of the island, although placed to the south of the islands of the Mahārād̲j̲ā; he gives a town of D̲j̲āwa in the centre of the island, but has no mention here of Sirbuza. The Chinese annals mention no embassies to China from San-fo-chʾi between 1178 and 1370, although the Ming annals say that this place continued to send embassies until the end of the Sung dynasty, and it is possible that, during the 13th century, Šrīvijaya lost its importance in Southeast Asian trade, the state of Malayu on the Jambi river possibly taking its place, especially as other sources than the Arab ones do not mention Šrīvijaya at this time. The popular Filipino belief that Zābad̲j̲ and “Sanfotsi” (San-fo-chʾi) are in fact to be located in the Philippines is based on uncritical readings of the terms in the sources (e.g. the 13th century Chu fan-chi, 75 ff.) and would appear rather to be the product of nationalist zeal.
(G.R. Tibbetts and Shawkat M. Toorawa)
Bibliography: In addition to the Bibl. in G. Ferrand, EI1 art. Zābag, and to references given in the article, see
Buzurg b. S̲h̲ahriyār,Kitāb ʿAd̲j̲āʾib al-Hind. Livre des merveilles de l’Inde, ed. P.A. van der Lith, Fr. tr. L.M. Devic, Leiden 1883-6, ed. Y. al-S̲h̲ārūnī, London 1990, Eng. tr. G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, Captain Buzurg ibn Shahriyar of Ram Hurmuz. The book of the wonders of India, mainland, sea and islands, London-The Hague 1980
H. Yule and A.C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson. A glossary of Anglo-Indian colloquial words and phrases, 2London 1903, 454-6
G. Gerini, Researches on Ptolemy’s geography of Eastern Asia, London 1909
J.L. Moens, Srivijaya, Yava en Kataha, in Tijdschr. voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Batavia, lxxvii (1937)
G. Coedès, Les états hindouisés. ¶ d’Indochine et d’Indonésie, Paris 1948, Eng. tr. W.F. Vella, Honolulu 1968
S. Maqbul Ahmad, EI2 art. d̲j̲ug̲h̲rāfiyāʾ
Chau Ju-Kua, Chu fan-chi, ed. and tr. Fr. Hirth and W.W. Rockhill, Amsterdam 1966
O.W. Wolters, Early Indonesian commerce. A study of the origins of Sri Vijaya, Ithaca, N.Y. 1967
idem, The fall of Sri Vijaya in Malay history, London 1970
F. Viré, L’Océan indien d’après le géographe... AL-IDRISI. . . Extraits traduits et annotés du «Livre de Roger», in P. Ottino (ed.), Etudes sur l’Océan indien, St. Denis de la Réunion 1979
G.R. Tibbetts, A study of Arabie texts containing material on South-East Asia, London 1979, 104 and n. 14
A. Abeydeera, Taprobane, Ceylan ou Sumatra? Une confusion féconde, in Archipel, xlix (1994), 87-124.
Cite this pageTibbetts, G.R.; Toorawa, Shawkat M.. "Zābad̲j̲, Zābid̲j̲, Zābag." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/zabadj-zabidj-zabag-SIM_8056>
, the name of an island placed in the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean by the Arabic geographical writers. It appears as early as the Akabār al-Ṣīn wa ’l-Hind of Sulaymān al-Tād̲j̲ir and in the K. al-Masālik wa ’lmamālik of Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih (3rd/9th century) and then in almost all subsequent texts, and the title of its ruler, the Mahārād̲j̲[ā], is also regularly used from an early date.
The location of Zābad̲j̲ in Southeast Asia is certain. The Arabic authors describe it as a trading empire, and place it in relation to known places, such as India, Ḳimār [q.v.] (Khmer = Cambodia) and Kalāh. From this there emerges that we have a country on the route between India and China, but further south than these; al-Bīrūni, K. al-Tafhīm, ed. R.R. Wright, London 1934, 16, actually places it on the equator. The authors state that the ruler of the country of Zābad̲j̲ ruled from a capital of the same name over the islands of the “Eastern Sea”, and amongst a considerable number of these islands are listed D̲j̲āwa, Kalāh and Wākwāk [q.vv.]. The Mahārād̲j̲ā appears as main king in the land, but with subordinate governors (maliks) owing allegiance to him, and with a powerful army and navy. Abū Zayd, in G. Ferrand,Relations de voyages et textes relatifs à l’Extrême Orient, Paris 1913-14, ii, 95-7, has a long account of his attack on Cambodia, the only historical fact mentioned. One ¶ source describes people from dependent islands, and also from Cambodia, turning their faces towards Zābad̲j̲ and prostrating themselves as a sign of their allegiance.
The capital Zābad̲j̲ was a flourishing commercial centre and a rendezvous for foreign ships, those of the Arabs, the Indians and Chinese. The Zābad̲j̲īs are said to have traded as far as Africa and to have brought iron from there to sell on the Asian mainland (al-Idrīsī, tr. A. Jaubert, Paris 1836-40, 58). Foreign traders provided the state with much revenue. Local customs mentioned are ordeal by fire and the ceremony of bersila (i.e. sitting cross-legged out of politeness: the actual Malay word is used in the Arabic texts) before the Mahārād̲j̲ā (Ad̲j̲āʾib al-Hind, ed. Van der Lith, 154, tr. Freeman-Grenville, 90).
The exact identification of Zābad̲j̲ from the Arabic sources is virtually impossible, although it is almost certainly somewhere in the Western Indonesian archipelago. Early European scholars preferred Java, because of a similarity in names (Skr. yava, Gk. iabadiou) and the fact that extensive ruins there showed the previous existence of a large empire, but a strong case can also be made from these sources for Sumatra (since its products gold and camphor are described as coming from Zābad̲j̲) and a defensible case for Borneo. Ferrand produced the Indian term D̲j̲āwaka as the equivalent of Zābad̲j̲ and of Chinese She-pʾotʾi = Sumatra. See further on this, W. Mahdī, Wie hiessen die Malaien,bevor sie “Malaien” hiessen?, in Sudostasien und Wir: Grundsatzdiskussionen und Fachbeiträge. Tagung des Arbeitskreises Südostasien und Ozeanien Hamburg 1993, Austronesiana, ed. A. Bormann et al, Munster 1993, 162-76.
Modern scholars have linked the Mahārād̲j̲ā with the Buddhist Sailendra rulers of Southeast Asia, who seem to have been the only rulers to call themselves by this title before the 10th century; it is therefore probable that, when Arabic writers speak of the Mahārād̲j̲ā, they are referring to that dynasty. Around this we must build all our hypotheses. The present theory with regard to the history of the Sailendras is that they first appeared in Java, and became the dominant dynasty there, soon after the reign of the Hindu Sanjaya about A.D. 760. By about 860, a younger branch of the family established itself on the throne of Šrīvijaya centred at Palembang and perhaps in later times at Malayu (Jambi), a throne which they held for over three centuries, or at least, the title of Mahārād̲j̲ā remained with this kingdom until its dissolution. The Sailendra dynasty in Java had lost its control of Java by the beginning of the 10th century, hence all references originating after this time would apparently refer to the Sumatran kingdom. Similarly, all references before 860 would refer to Java. Any Arabic writer therefore who uses sources before 860 referring to the kingdom of the Mahārād̲j̲ā would be dealing with the Sailendras in Java, and any Arabic writer using sources originating from the 10th century onwards would be talking about Sumatra. Thus the references of Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih and possibly those of the other early geographers would refer to Java and not to Sumatra.
A major problem is identifying the place which Ibn Khurradād̲h̲bih. 46 (quoted by al-Idrīsi and in other texts), calls D̲j̲āba, near Salāhit, Harang (H.z.l.d̲j̲. in al-Idrīsī, Opus geographicum, i, 81) and Māʾit, fifteen days’ journey from the Spice Islands, with a king apparently a Buddhist, and producing coconuts, bananas and sugar-cane. From this text alone, it would appear that D̲j̲āba and the three neighbouring places were near ¶ the southern tip of the Malay peninsula, since they fall on the route to China between the ports of Kalāh and Ḳimār. But there is a complication in that in both places where the Ak̲h̲bār al-Ṣīn wa ’l-Hind mentions Zābad̲j̲, Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih, 17, mentions D̲j̲āba; thus the former states that Kalāh is a kingdom of Zābad̲j̲ and the latter that it belongs to the kingdom of D̲j̲āba al-Hindī. Also, Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih mentions Buddhism as the religion of D̲j̲āba, but the expression D̲j̲āba al-Hindī could be expected to refer to a Hindu king there; possibly there were two D̲j̲ābas, one Buddhist and one Hindu in faith. In fact, the name D̲j̲āba occurs in no other original text except in Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih/al-Idrīsī, and if D̲j̲āba was in Sumatra, as the evidence suggests, it cannot be the same as Zābad̲j̲ if this last, at this early stage, was located solely in Java. In any case, no more is subsequently heard of the name D̲j̲āba, unless its name is echoed in the later name of D̲j̲āwa. This is complicated by the fact that Java and Sumatra were frequendy confused with one another and sometimes thought of as one island.
The next two relevant Arabic texts, those of Abū Zayd and al-Masʿūdī, stem from the mid-10th century, i.e. the time when the Sailendras ruled from Šrīvijaya (in Arabic, Sirbuza) only, but seem to show a mixture of earlier and later material. Thus mention of Sirbuza as an island in the empire of the Mahārād̲j̲ā could stem from the period when the seat of the Mahārād̲j̲ā was still in Java but the kingdom of Srīvijaya was under his sway. Abū Zayd’s account of the attack on Cambodia obviously comes from the Java period. Cambodia was subject to attacks like this from Java in the later 8th century (767-87), but after 802, the accession date of Jayavarman, threw off all relics of allegiance to Java. Also, Abū Zayd’s account does not stress the importance of maritime trade, as one would expect with Šrīvijaya, but rather, of agricultural prosperity, which one would connect with Java. Al-Masʿūdīʾs information sounds more up-to-date and deals with a Zābad̲j̲ which could quite easily be Sumatra. He stresses the importance of sea trade and that sailors from the Persian Gulf continually voyaged to Kalāh and Zābad̲j̲, all this connecting easily with Šrīvijaya, the later seat of the Sailendra Mahārād̲j̲ā.
Thus the texts seem to suggest that Zābad̲j̲ was formerly a toponym attached to the island of Java, and then the Arabic sources attached it to the Sailendra Mahārād̲j̲ās as a kind of title, i.e. the king of Zābad̲j̲, and then to the empire which he controlled. After the fall of the Sailendras in Java ca. 907, the main court of the dynasty was transferred to Šrīvijaya but Zābad̲j̲ still remained as a loose term for the Sailendra empire in general. Almost contemporary with this transfer of the name to the Sumatran empire, the Arabic sources begin to mention Šrīvijaya in the geographical and travel accounts as Sirbuza (with various readings). The position of this last is fairly obvious from the texts. The ʿAd̲j̲āʾib al-Hind, ed. Van der Lith, 176, tr. Freeman-Grenville, 104, places it at the extremity of the island of Lamūrī and on a bay which penetrates 50 farsak̲h̲s into the island. Apart from the exaggerated distance, the description could well apply to Palembang in southeast Sumatra. The local crocodiles are frequently mentioned. Arab sailors would apply the name of the town to the whole island.
Thus it appears that, from the time of al-Masʿūdī in particular, the Arabic authors had two names for the same thing, sc. Sirbuza and Zābad̲j̲ Insensible to or unaware of political conditions, they are interested ¶ primarily in Sirbuza for its trade, and regarded it as merely a province of the Mahārād̲j̲ā’s empire with its own governor or petty king, who levied dues on ships bound for China (ʿAajāʾib, 111). The description of the place and its products is just what one would expect of the port of Palembang at this time. The term Zābad̲j̲, on the other hand, remained connected with the Mahārād̲j̲ā and became more the name of an empire and less that of a place, so that even Sirbuza became “an island of Zābad̲j̲”. The capital of the empire is unnamed, but is obviously a Sumatran town on an estuary. It is in fact only through studying non-Arabic sources that the Arabic Sirbuza can be shown as the capital of the Mahārād̲j̲ā’s empire. On Arabic evidence alone, one might think that the capital was further north and nearer the Malacca Straits, although it is possible that there were periods in the history of the empire when the capital was in fact further north, so that these sources may have in them an element of truth.
A further development in the history of Zābad̲j̲ can be seen in Yāḳūt’s mention (early 6th/12th century) of D̲j̲āwa (thus spelt with wāw, not the earlier bāʾ), which, he says, is the first part of China and is on the sea coast; merchants do not go to China, but only to D̲j̲āwa. This is likely to be Sumatra, since direct trade with China had been cut off and Arabic ships only went as far as Kalāh and Sirbuza at this time. The new D̲j̲āwa was an important trading centre, and this new reference tallies with the information of Marco Polo and other European authors that the island we know as Sumatra was called Java [the Less] (see Yule-Cordier, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, London 1903, ii, 284, 286 n. 1). Authors like the historian Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn and the traveller Ibn Baṭṭūṭa (cf. Riḥla, iv, 224, 228 ff., tr. Beckingham, iv, 873, 876 ff.) show that D̲j̲āwa meant for them Sumatra. Also, contemporary information in Ibn Saʿld (d. 672/1274) provides a full description of the island, although placed to the south of the islands of the Mahārād̲j̲ā; he gives a town of D̲j̲āwa in the centre of the island, but has no mention here of Sirbuza. The Chinese annals mention no embassies to China from San-fo-chʾi between 1178 and 1370, although the Ming annals say that this place continued to send embassies until the end of the Sung dynasty, and it is possible that, during the 13th century, Šrīvijaya lost its importance in Southeast Asian trade, the state of Malayu on the Jambi river possibly taking its place, especially as other sources than the Arab ones do not mention Šrīvijaya at this time. The popular Filipino belief that Zābad̲j̲ and “Sanfotsi” (San-fo-chʾi) are in fact to be located in the Philippines is based on uncritical readings of the terms in the sources (e.g. the 13th century Chu fan-chi, 75 ff.) and would appear rather to be the product of nationalist zeal.
(G.R. Tibbetts and Shawkat M. Toorawa)
Bibliography: In addition to the Bibl. in G. Ferrand, EI1 art. Zābag, and to references given in the article, see
Buzurg b. S̲h̲ahriyār,Kitāb ʿAd̲j̲āʾib al-Hind. Livre des merveilles de l’Inde, ed. P.A. van der Lith, Fr. tr. L.M. Devic, Leiden 1883-6, ed. Y. al-S̲h̲ārūnī, London 1990, Eng. tr. G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, Captain Buzurg ibn Shahriyar of Ram Hurmuz. The book of the wonders of India, mainland, sea and islands, London-The Hague 1980
H. Yule and A.C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson. A glossary of Anglo-Indian colloquial words and phrases, 2London 1903, 454-6
G. Gerini, Researches on Ptolemy’s geography of Eastern Asia, London 1909
J.L. Moens, Srivijaya, Yava en Kataha, in Tijdschr. voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Batavia, lxxvii (1937)
G. Coedès, Les états hindouisés. ¶ d’Indochine et d’Indonésie, Paris 1948, Eng. tr. W.F. Vella, Honolulu 1968
S. Maqbul Ahmad, EI2 art. d̲j̲ug̲h̲rāfiyāʾ
Chau Ju-Kua, Chu fan-chi, ed. and tr. Fr. Hirth and W.W. Rockhill, Amsterdam 1966
O.W. Wolters, Early Indonesian commerce. A study of the origins of Sri Vijaya, Ithaca, N.Y. 1967
idem, The fall of Sri Vijaya in Malay history, London 1970
F. Viré, L’Océan indien d’après le géographe... AL-IDRISI. . . Extraits traduits et annotés du «Livre de Roger», in P. Ottino (ed.), Etudes sur l’Océan indien, St. Denis de la Réunion 1979
G.R. Tibbetts, A study of Arabie texts containing material on South-East Asia, London 1979, 104 and n. 14
A. Abeydeera, Taprobane, Ceylan ou Sumatra? Une confusion féconde, in Archipel, xlix (1994), 87-124.
Cite this pageTibbetts, G.R.; Toorawa, Shawkat M.. "Zābad̲j̲, Zābid̲j̲, Zābag." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 22 August 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/zabadj-zabidj-zabag-SIM_8056>