compilation, which is drawn up with no inferior talent, was explained by arRushâti himself to his pupils: it is arranged on the same plan as the Ansub, a genealogical treatise composed by Abû Saad as-Samâni. Ar-Rushâti was born at Oriuwâla (Orihuela), a town in the dependencies of Murcia, on Saturday morning, the 8th of the latter Jumâda, A. H. 466 (February, A. D. 1074): he died a martyr at Almeria when that city was taken by the enemy on Friday morning, the 20th of the first Jumâda, A.H. 542 (17th October, A.D. 1147) (4). -Rushati; this relative adjective is derived neither from the name of a tribe nor from that of a place, but originated, as he himself states in his work, from the following circumstance: One of his ancestors had a mole on his body, and when a child he was nursed by a Persian (or a foreign) slave, who when playing with him used to call him Rushtâla (2), whence he became known by the name of Rushâti.

(1) Almeria was then one of the most important sea-ports of the Spanish Moslims and the centre of a vast system of piracy which desolated the shores of the Mediterranean. It was taken by the Christians after a long siege, during which Alfonzo Raimond, king of Arragon and Catalonia, aided by his Moslim ally Ibn Ghânia and by the king of Arragon, blockaded it by land, whilst the count of Barcelona, with the combined fleet of the Genoese and Pisans, attacked it by sea. We find here, for the first time, the precise date of that event. (2) I here follow the reading of the autograph MS., but Rushata, as given in the printed text, seems preferable, as the relative adjective Rushati is regularly derived from it, which is not the case with Rushtala, where the relative adjective would take the form of Rushtâli. The meaning of this word is unknown to me, but the Portuguese roxo (red) or the French rousse appears to form a part of it.

IBN BARI.

Abu Muhammad Abd Allah Ibn Abi 'l-Wahsh Bari Ibn Abd al-Jabbar Ibn Bari was a native of Egypt, but his family belonged to Jerusalem. His talents as a grammarian and philologer, the abundance and exactness of the oral information which he transmitted, and his general instruction obtained for him. the reputation of the most learned man of the time, the greatest hafiz of the age, 578 and the phenix of the epoch. He studied grammar under Abû Bakr Muham

mad Ibn Abd al-Malik as-Shantarìni (1), Abu Talib Abd al-Jabbar Ibn Muham- 378 mad Ibn Ali al-Maâfiri al-Kortubi (2), and other masters in that art; he was taught Traditions by Abù Sâdik al-Madini, Abû Abd Allah ar-Râzi, and others. The greater part of the language spoken by the Arabs of the Desert was familiar to him, and he composed a book of excellent notes on al-Jawhari's lexicon, the Sahah, in which he brought forward many curious examples and pointed out numerous mistakes committed by that author; this work is a proof of his extensive information, his great abilities, and his profound learning. Amongst the crowd of pupils who studied under him and profited by his tuition, one of the most conspicuous was Abû Mûsa (Isa) al-Jazûli, the author of the Mukaddama, or introduction to the science of grammar, of whom further notice shall be taken (in this volume). Al-Juzùli speaks of his master in the Mukaddama, and towards the end of it he gives some traditional information, which he had learned from him. Ibn Bari was well acquainted with Sibawaih's Kitab and with the examples adduced by that grammarian in support of his doctrines (3). He was supervisor of the Chancery Office (of Egypt, and every letter addressed by the government to foreign princes had to pass through his hands before it could be sent off; his duty being to peruse it and correct the faults which might have escaped notice. Such also was the post held by Ibn Babshad, as we have already stated (vol. I. page 648). I met in Egypt a number of persons who had studied under him, and they communicated to me some of the traditional information which they had obtained from him; in testimony of this, I procured from them certificates of license. It is related that Ibn Bari spoke his language very carelessly and that he paid little attention to the final vowels, using whichever came uppermost. This he carried to such an extent, that he said one day to a pupil who was studying grammar under him: "Buy me a small quantity of "spinage with the roots on hindaba biorûka)." The other replied (in correcting him): "Yes, hindabah biorûkih." Provoked with the observation, he exclaimed: "Do not take it without the roots (bioruka);"-(repeating the fault, "if it be without roots, I will not have it." He used many other expressions of a similar kind, being quite indifferent to the manner in which he spoke, and paying no attention to the final vowels. I have seen a collection of notes made by him on al-Hariri's Durrat al-Ghawâss; there is also a little book by him in which he points out the mistakes into which jurisconsults have fallen.

Besides these works he composed an able defence of al-Hariri against Ibn alKhashshâb, who had written a work in order to expose the blunders committed in the Makamas. Ibn Bari was born at Cairo on the 5th of Rajab, A. H. 499 (March, A. D. 1106); he died in the same city on the eve of Sunday, the 27th of Shawwal, A. H. 582 (January, A. D. 1187).-Bari is a proper name, though by its form it resembles a relative adjective.

(1) Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Malik, surnamed Ibn as-Sarraj, was born at Santarem, but he fixed his residence at Seville. He studied grammar under Ibn Abi 'l-Aâfiya and Ibn al-Akhdar, and received Traditions from Abû 'l-Kasim an-Nafti from whom also he learned (the imam Malik's work) the Mu

watta, which he then transmitted orally to his own disciples. In the year 515 (A. D. 1121-2) he travelled to Egypt, where he taught the reading of the Koran and the Traditions. He then made a visit to Yemen. His works are the Tanbih al-Albab (a hint to the wise), treating of the Desert Arabs and their excellencies; a treatise on prosody; an abridgment of Ibn Rashik's work the Omda (see vol. I. page 384), in which he points out the mistakes committed by that writer. He died at Old Cairo, A. H. 545 (A. D. 1150—1).—(Ibn alAbbâr's Takmila.)

(2) Abú Tâlib Abd al-Jabbâr Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ali al-Maâfiri was born at Cordova, but he fixed his residence in Egypt. He learned the Makamas from Abû Muhammad Abd Allah, the son of the celebrated alHariri, and he taught them on his authority. In the year 552 (A. D. 1157) Abû Muhammad Ibn Abi Bakr al-Judami as-Sibti learned them from Abú Tâlib in Egypt.- (Takmila.)

(3) Those examples are generally single verses quoted from ancient poems, and to understand them well it is necessary to study the pieces to which they belong.

AL-AADID.

Abu Muhammad Abd Allah was the son of Yûsuf Ibn al-Hafiz Ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Mustansir Ibn az-Zahir Ibn al-Hâkim Ibn al-Aziz Ibn al-Moizz Ibn alMansûr Ibn al-Kâim Ibn al-Mahdi. He bore the surname of al-Aâdid and was the last Obaidite (Fatimite) sovereigns of Egypt. We have already given notices on some members of his family and shall speak of the others in the ensuing portion of this work. Al-Aâdid was raised to the throne on the death of his cousin al-Faiz (in the month of Rajab, A. H. 555). His father Yûsuf was one of the two brothers who were assassinated by Abbas on the

death of az-Zafir, an event already noticed (vol. I. page 222). Al-Aâdid held merely a nominal authority, all the real power being in the hands of as-Sâlih Ibn Ruzzik. This prince was a violent shiite, most bitter in his execrations on the companions of Muhammad (who were not partisans of Ali), and whenever he met a Sunnite he ordered him to be put to death. During his reign, the vizir as-Salih Ibn Ruzzik pursued a line of conduct highly reprehensible, forestalling all the provisions in order to raise their price, assassinating the great officers of the empire lest they should turn against him, and weakening all the resources of Egypt. He put the bravest of its officers to death, and left not a man of prudence or resolution in the country, whilst he displayed great ardour in seizing on the property of others and inflicting heavy fines on persons who never had the slightest business with 579 him. In the reign of al-Aâdid, his relation [Abû Abd Allah] al-Husain Ibn Nizâr Ibn al-Mustansir advanced from Western Africa with a large body of troops, but, on approaching the Egyptian territory, he was betrayed by his followers and delivered up to al-Aàdid, by whose orders he was put to death. This event occurred in the month of Ramadan, A. H. 557; but according to another statement, it happened in the reign of al-Hafiz Abd al-Mujid (1). Al-Husain had assumed the title of al-Muntasir billah.—In the life of Shawar and in that of Shirkuh we have noticed the causes which contributed to the fall of the Fatimite dynasty and placed the Ghozz family on the throne of Egypt; further observations on the same subject shall be presented to the reader in the life of Salâh ad-din; it is therefore unnecessary for us to enter into a long exposition of them here.—I have heard a number of Egyptians relate that when these people (the Fatimites) commenced their reign, they told one of the learned to write on a leaf of paper a series of surnames fitted to be borne by khalifs, so that they might select one of them for each of their princes when he came to the throne. This person wrote down a great many surnames, and the last on the list was al-Addid; a singular coincidence with the fact, the last of their sovereigns bore that very title; it was observed also that, as a word employed in the language, al-addid means the cutter, and in fact it might be said that this al-Aâdid cut short their dynasty. I was also informed by a learned Egyptian that, towards the end of his reign, al-Aâdid dreamt, when in Old Cairo, that a scorpion came out of a well-known mosque there and stung him. him. When he awoke, he reflected with 10

VOL. II.

dread on what he had seen, and caused an interpreter of dreams to be brought in, to whom he related the vision. The answer he received was, that he should receive harm from a person sojourning in that mosque. Al-Aâdid immediately sent for the governor of Old Cairo and ordered him to make a perquisition in a certain mosque which he named, and if he found any person sojourning in it, to bring him into his presence. The governor went thither and found a sûfi, whom he brought before al-Aâdid. On seeing him, the prince asked where he was from, how long he had been in that country, and what motive had induced him to come there; to these questions he received satisfactory answers. Struck with the (apparent) veracity of the sûfi, and believing that a person so miserable as he could not possibly do him any harm, he said to him: "O shaikh! pray for "us;" and then dismissed him with a present. The sûfi returned again to his mosque, but when the sultan Salâh ad-din became master of the country and formed the intention of seizing on al-Aâdid and his partisans, he consulted the doctors of the law on the legality of the measure; they declared it lawful, inasmuch as al-Aâdid followed heterodox opinions, to the perversion of the true belief, and frequently insulted the memory of the Prophet's companions in the most public manner. Now the strongest fatwa of any was that given by the sufi who lived in the mosque just mentioned, and he was no less than the shaikh Najm ad-din al-Khubûshâni, the jurisconsult whose life will be found in this volume. In his declaration, he summed up at great length the misdeeds of those people (the Fatimites) and declared them infidels. Al-Aâdid's dream was thus fulfilled. This prince was born on Tuesday, the 20th of Muharram, A.H. 546 (May, A. D. 1151); he died on the eve of Monday, the 12th of Muharram, A. H. 567 (September, A.D. 1171). It is reported that, in a paroxysm of rage against Shams ad-Dawlat Tûrân Shâh, he ended his days by poison. According to some accounts, he expired on the night of Aashûra (the night preceding the tenth day of Muharram).

(1) This event is not noticed by any of the historians whom I have consulted; in the Nujum, Abû 'l-Mahâsin merely cites Ibn Khallikân's words, when giving the sketch of the life of al-Aâdid; but under the year 357, he takes no notice of such an occurrence. The revolt of Nizâr against al-Mustali in A.H. 487 (see vol. I. page 160), may have been confounded with the death of al-Hasan the son of al-Hâfiz, in 329, and given rise to the discordant statements here brought forward by Ibn Khallikân.