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Baghdâd: Imago Mundi, and Other Foundation-Lore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Charles Wendell
Charles Wendell
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
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Great cities, no less than small books, have their fates. Some are capable of self renewal from seemingly unsalvageable shards of their older phases, like Alexandria; some continue to add new rings to their girth, preserving alike the evidences of alternating greatness and mediocrity, like Cairo; some disappear entirely into memory and literature, like the Round City of al-Mansûr, which today has as little to do with its living descendant, Baghdâd, as do the City of Brass or Qur'ânic Iram. Despite an absolute dearth of archaeological spade-work on the site, and a correspondingly absolute dependence on written sources, the scholarly literature dealing wholly or in part with al-Mansûr's Baghdâd is by now fairly extensive. For the most part, this literature has restricted itself to discussion of technical and architectural problems, or to those of historical and social geography. This paper proposes to look into the symbology of the city's immediately striking plan, the cross within the circle, as another instance of the imago mundi, a fitting pattern for this capital of the world-bestriding 'Abbâsid Empire. In the course of investigation, some treatment, however summary, of a number of folkloric/literary motives was found requisite, all, it is to be hoped, tending toward the definition of a clear and plausible design.

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International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , April 1971 , pp. 99 - 128
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

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page 103 note 1 Ibid. p. 60: ‘A première vue, il nous paraît evident qu'un sanctuaire représente la zone sacrée par excellence. Précisons, pourtant, que ce n'est pas toujours le sanctuaire qui consacre le lieu: mainte fois, c'est justement le contraire: la sacralité du lieu précède la construction du sanctuaire.’

page 103 note 2 Eliade, Mircea, The Sacred and the Profane (New York, 1961), p. 45: ‘It follows that every construction or fabrication has the cosmogony as paradigmatic model. The creation of the world becomes the archetype of every creative human gesture, whatever its plane of reference may be.’Google Scholar

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page 104 note 1 Creswell, K. A. C., Early Muslim Architecture (Oxford, 1932–1940), vol. 2, pp. 18–22.Google Scholar

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page 104 note 5 Ibid.

page 104 note 6 Ibid. p. 4.

page 104 note 7 Ibid. p. 3 and pp. 9 f. Yâqut, , Mu'jam al-Buldân, ed. Wustenfeld, F. (Leipzig, 1866–1873), vol. II, p. 282, states that al-Hdadr was founded by a branch of the Qud'a'a after they dispersed.Google Scholar

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page 106 note 1 Streek, Maximilian, Die alte Landschaft Babylonien nach den arabischen Geographen (Leiden, 1900), vol. I, p. 56, suggests that even the surviving ruins of Babylon, as well as Ctesiphon, may have served as a model for Baghdâd.Google Scholar Also Lassner, Jacob, ‘Some Speculative Thoughts on the Search for an 'Abbâsid Capital’, Part 2, Muslim World, vol. 55, No. 3 (1965), p. 205: ‘This is not to say that the Caliph consciously attempted to emulate a given Sâsânian monarch, but rather that he attempted to associate himself with that particular style of grand rule which characterized the great empires before him, and from which lingering Sâsânian forms provided his most convenient models.’CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Beaudoin, E. E. and Pope, A. U., ‘City Plans’, Survey, vol. 3, pp. 1393 ff.Google Scholar

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page 106 note 5 Tabarî, , Annales, ed. de Goeje, M. J. (Leiden, 1964), vol. 3, I, pp. 272 ff.Google Scholar Summarized by Lassner, J., ‘Some Speculative Thoughts on the Search for an 'Abbâsid Capital’, Part 1, Muslim World, vol. 55, No. 2 (1965), pp. 137 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 106 note 6 Annales loc. cit. p. 273, where the Caliph is described as searching for a site ‘centrally located, convenient for both the people and the army’(mawdi' ân wâsitan râfiqan bi l-‘ammati wa ’l-jundi). Below, on the same page, he says: ‘I simply want a location which people (al-nâs) will find advantageous, and which will suit them as well as myself; where prices will not mount too high nor the cost of living be burdensome to them. If I settle in a place to which nothing can be imported [easily] by land and sea, prices will rise, supplies will be scarce, the cost of living will be burdensome, and all this will become unbearable for them.’Google Scholar

page 107 note 1 Ibid. p. 323.

page 107 note 2 This settlement, or the remains of it, was called al-Khurayba by the Arabs and may be the site of Sasanian Wahishshtâbâd Ardashir. See Reitemeyer, Else, Die Städtebegründungen der Araber im Islam (Munich, 1912), p. 11;Google ScholarPellat, Charles, ‘Al-Basra’, El 2, vol. 1, pp. 50 f.;Google Scholar'qubî, Yâ, Les Pays, transl. Wiet, Gaston (Cairo, 1937), p. 167, says it was a rectangular city, one by two parasangs, and founded in A.H. 17/638.Google Scholar

page 107 note 3 Al-Balâdhurî, , Futuh al-Buldân, ed. de Goeje, M. J. (Leiden, 1968), p. 346. He also supplies an additional list of three others of the Sahâba who might have done so.Google Scholar

page 107 note 4 Ibid pp. 346 ff.

page 107 note 5 Ibid. pp. 347 f. Ziyâd claimed that it was unseemly for the 'imâm to have to make his way through the people, so henceforth he emerged from the Dâr through the new gate directly into the mosque. See also Mu'jam, vol. 1, p. 642.Google Scholar

page 108 note 1 Reitemeyer, op. cit. p. 25;Google ScholarMustawfî, Hamd Allâh, The Geographical Part of the Nuzhat-al-Quhub, ed. and transl. Le Strange, G. (London, 1919), vol. 2, p. 37.Google Scholar

page 108 note 2 Futuh, p. 275, gives A.H. 27/638 as the foundation date; Annales, vol. I, 5, p. 2360, gives the date A.H. 24/635; on p. 2389, A.H. 25/636; on p. 2484, A.H. 17/638, or the beginning of A.H. 18/639–640.Google Scholar

page 108 note 3 Annales, vol. I, 5, p. 2389;Google ScholarFutiuh, p. 276;Google ScholarMu'jam, vol. 4, pp. 322 f., which also says that the old name of the site was Sârastân.Google Scholar

page 108 note 4 Annales, vol. 1, 5, pp. 2483 f.Google Scholar

page 108 note 5 Ibid. p. 2484: ‘O God, Lord of the heavens and what they cover; And Lord of the earth and what it carries; And the wind and what it scatters; And the stars and the course of their setting; And the seas and the course of their flowing; And the devils and what [whom?] they mislead; And the reed-huts and what they conceal; Bless this kâfa for us and make it a secure habitation.’ ‘Kufa’ here is used as a common noun: ‘round tract or hillock of sand’, the commonest meaning provided by the medieval geographers and lexicographers.

page 108 note 6 al-Baghdâdî, Al-Khatîb, Ta'rîkh Baghdâd (Beirut, n.d.), vol. 1, p. 164, tells us that he was believed to have lived for 350 years, of which, he assures us, at least 250 are not to be doubted, by reckoning of the ‘savants’ ('ahl al-'ilm).Google Scholar

page 109 note 1 al-Faqîh, Ibn, Kitâb al-Buldân, vol. 5 of the Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorurn, ed. de Goeje, M. J. (8 vols., Leiden, 1870–1894), pp. 162 f.Google Scholar

page 109 note 2 Futuh, p. 276;Google ScholarAnnales, vol. 1, p. 2489;Google ScholarMu'jam, vol. 4, p. 323.Google Scholar

page 109 note 3 In Sa'd, Ibn, Kitâb al-Tabaqât al-Kabîr (Leiden, 1905–1940), vol. 3, I, pp. 99 f.,Google Scholar Sa'd says: ‘I was the first man of the Arabs to shoot an arrow in God's wars (fî sabîli 'llâhî).’ Oddly enough, he is not cited at all in a collection of hadîth from the tenth to eleventh centuries A. D. dedicated to the praise of archery which has been translated by Baqi, Fazlur Rahman in ‘Kitabu Fada'il ir-Ramyi fi Sabili 'llah’, Islamic Culture, vol. 34 (1960), pp. 195–207.Google Scholar

page 109 note 4 Annales, vol. 1, 5, p. 2489.Google Scholar

page 109 note 5 Massignon, Louis, ‘Explication du plan de Kûfa (Irak)’, Mélanges Maspéro (Cairo, 1935–1961), vol. 3, pp. 342 f.Google Scholar

page 109 note 6 Futuûh, p. 280,Google Scholar where we are told that 4000 Daylamites turned Muslim after the Battles of Qâdisiyya, al-Madâ'in, and Jalulâ, and settled in al-Kufa with the Arabs. The site was close to old Sasanian foundations such as al-hîra, Sadîr, and al-Khawarnaq, while the columns of the portico (zulla) built for the congregational mosque were of Persian work taken from nearby buildings or ruins: ‘wa kânat zullatuhâ mi'atay dhirâ'in ‘alâ 'asâtîni rukhftmin kanat li 'l-'Akâsirati’, Annales, vol. 1, 5, p. 2489.Google Scholar

page 109 note 7 Ibid.

page 110 note 1 Ibid. pp. 2491f.

page 110 note 2 Creswell, , Early Muslim Architecture, vol. 1, pp. 3 ff., where he discusses the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, and pp. 16 ff., where he discusses Sa'd's mosque in al-Kâufa.Google Scholar

page 110 note 3 Ibid. p. 11, Creswell points out that from the historical standpoint the earliest mosques were derived from domestic, not religious, architecture. Muhammad's ‘house’ and courtyard represented in essence the private dwelling of a well-off Arab, not a religious edifice. The only serious religious building in the Hijâz at that time was the Meccan Ka'ba, and its form was never imitated. Annales, vol. 1, 5, p. 2489, describing Sa‘d’s mosque, says: ‘This is the way mosques were [built], except for the Sacrosanct Shrine [al-Masjid al-Harâm]; they never built mosques to resemble it, in order to exalt its sanctity.’Google Scholar

page 110 note 4 Annales, vol. 1, 5, p. 2491.Google Scholar

page 110 note 5 For numerous examples of center-symbolism and the sacralization of space by projection toward the four cardinal points from a center, see Eliade, M., The Sacred and the Profane, pp. 20–65;Google Scholaridem, Patterns in Comparative Religion (New York, 1967), pp. 367–87; idem Images et symboles (Paris, 1952), pp. 33–72; Müller, Werner, Kreis und Kreuz (Berlin, 1938).Google Scholar

page 111 note 1 'Ishâq, Ibn, The Life of Muhammad, transl. Guillaume, Alfred (London, 1955), pp. 79 ff. On p. 79: ‘A monk had always occupied that cell. There he gained his knowledge from a book that was in the cell, so they allege, handed on from generation to generation.’Google Scholar

page 111 note 2 Ibid. p. 90; on p. 104 the alleged prediction of the coming of Muhammad as ‘the Comforter’ in the Gospels. See also Qur'ân, LXI, 6. The motive is immemorially old, being already a familiar device in ancient Egyptian literature, e.g. the prediction of the advent of the V Dynasty in the ‘Tale of Khufu and the Magician Djedi’, and the ‘Prophecies of Neferrohu’, predicting the rulers of the XII Dynasty. See Lefebvre, Gaston, Romans et contes égyptiens de l'époque pharaonique (Paris, 1949), pp. 80–90, 96–105.Google Scholar

page 111 note 3 'Ishâq, Ibn, Life of Muhammad, p. 241.Google Scholar

page 112 note 1 The incident is quite in the style of The Thousand and One Nights, in which the hero is compelled, in one tale after another, because of the strange behavior of one of the other characters, to demand an explanation that will satisfy his curiosity.Google Scholar

page 112 note 2 Annales, vol. II, 3, p. 1126.Google Scholar See also Périer, Jean, Vie d'al-Hadjdjâdj ibn Yousof (Paris, 1904), p. 206;Google ScholarStreck, op. cit. vol. II, p. 324.Google Scholar

page 112 note 3 Mu'jam, vol. IV, p. 883.Google Scholar

page 112 note 4 Ibid. vol. I, pp. 678 f.

page 112 note 5 Annales, vol. III, I, p. 272.Google Scholar

page 112 note 6 Perhaps merely ‘The Bend (of the River)’, as so many other localities seem to have been named in Mesopotamia. See Le Strange, op. cit. p. 11.Google Scholar Also Massignon, loc. cit. p. 351 n. 4, on the meaning of ‘Aqôlâ, the Aramaic for al-KâfaGoogle ScholarGuidi, Ignazio, Chronica Minora, vol. II: Chronicon Anonymum (Louvain, 1955), p. 30: ‘…Sa'd b. ['Ab â[sic]] Waqqâ‘Aqôlâ aedificavit, alterum domicilium Arabum, “Kufa” appellatam propter sinum (Kěfifuthâ) Euphratis.’ This may dispose of the Arab lexicographers’ ‘round hillock of sand’!Google Scholar

page 113 note 1 Annales, vol. III, I, p. 276.Google Scholar

page 113 note 2 Ibid. pp. 277 f.

page 113 note 3 Ibid. p. 321; al-Khatîb, vol. I, p. 75; Mu'jam, vol. I, p. 684. The geographers in the BGA offer few new facts, and those minor ones. Al-Muqaddasî, 'Ahsan al-Taqâsîm fî Ma‘rifat al-' Aqâlîm', vol. III, BGA, p. 121, tells us that the gates of the inner wall were ‘small’, and those of the outer wall ‘large’.Google Scholar

page 113 note 4 Annales, vol. III, I, p. 321.Google Scholar

page 113 note 5 Mu'jam, vol. IV, p. 884;Google ScholarFutâuh, p. 290,Google Scholar differs only in the names of the plundered localities, giving the variant forms of Zandaward, al-Dawqara, Dâr Wasât (not in the Mu'jam), Dayr Mâsirjisân, and Sharâbît. The people's plaint is also differently worded: ‘We were guaranteed the security of our cities!’ However, in Mu'jam, vol. III, p. 63, Yâqât also mentions five towns, still in variant forms from those of Balâdhurî, though he attributes them to the Futâh. In Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, vol. II, p. 14, E. Littmann is cited as suggesting that ‘Mâsirjisân’ be amended to ‘Mâr Sarjîs’.Google Scholar

page 113 note 6 See Labourt, J., Le Christianisme dans l'empire perse (2d ed., Paris, 1904), p. 98 and p. 329;Google ScholarStreck, op. cit. vol. II, pp. 321 f.Google Scholar

page 114 note 1 Futâh, p. 242.Google Scholar

page 114 note 2 Ibid. p. 251; Annales, vol. I, 4, p. 2018, and on pp. 2169 f.: ‘God routed the Persians, Narsî fled, and his camp and territory were taken. 'Abu ‘Ubayd devastated the region of Kaskar which surrounded his encampment and took booty.’ On p. 2170 Tabarî tells u that al-Muthannâ devastated Zandaward and seized prisoners of war.

page 114 note 3 Ya'qubî, Les Pays, pp. 165 f.;Google ScholarSafar, Fuad, Wâsit: the Sixth Season's Excavations (Cairo, 1945), pp. 1 f.Google Scholar

page 114 note 4 For example, Samson's famous exploit in Gaza, Judg. xvi. 3, and late in the Islamic period, as a symbol of the triumphant faith of Islam, the incorporating of the portal of the Cathedral of St Jean d'Acre by the fourteenth century Mamlâk al-Malik al-Nâsir in the wall of his tomb-mosque in Cairo.Google Scholar

page 114 note 5 Beaudoin, E. E. and Pope, A. U., ‘City Plans’, Survey, vol. 3, p. 1392: ‘The actual portals were often massive iron doors, but in other cases they were of wood, or of heavy wood faced with metal plates. Sometimes these were richly ornamented. Thus the gates of Herât in the fourteenth century were covered with strips of iron embellished with incised patterns and a number of learned inscriptions. At the end of the century (1381 (783 H.)) they were carried off to Kash, where they were used for a long time, an indication of how highly they were prized.’Google Scholar

page 114 note 6 See Forbes, R. J., Metallurgy in Antiquity (Leiden, 1950), pp. 338 and 392;Google ScholarRead, Thomas T., ‘The Early Casting of Iron’, Geographical Review, vol. 24 (10 1934), pp. 544 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 114 note 7 Read, loc. cit. for the Classical references.Google Scholar

page 115 note 1 Forbes, op. cit. p. 409 and pp. 440 ff.; Read, loc. cit. pp. 547 f., and for a possible explanation of the technical reasons for Chinese pre-eminence in this field, pp. 550 f.;Google ScholarRead, Thomas T., ‘Chinese Iron—A Puzzle’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 2 (1937), p. 406: ‘The fact remains that men made well-executed objects of cast bronze at least as early as 3000 B.C. while iron does not come into general use until nearly two thousand years later. Cast iron did not come into common use in Europe till the Middle Ages.’CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 115 note 2 The famous Iron Pillar at Delhi, dating back to the third or fourth century A.D., was produced by welding soft ‘blooms’—tough, spongy masses of iron produced in crude furnaces—of almost pure iron together. See Read, ‘Early Casting…’, p. 550.Google Scholar

page 115 note 3 See Lassner, ‘Some Speculative Thoughts…’, Part 2, p. 210,Google Scholar and Creswell, , Early Muslim Architecture, vol. 2, p. 14, cite no Muslim sources for this statement, Creswell offering only a reference to M. Streck.Google ScholarHowever, in Guidi, Chronicon Anonymum, p. 26: 'Iŝo'yabh autem catholicus cum vidisset Mâhhôzê [al-Madâ'in] ab Arabibus devastatam, et portas ad urbem ‘Aqôlâ delatas, …’ See also Labourt, op. cit. p. 246.Google Scholar

page 115 note 4 Annales, vol. I, 5, p. 2497. The episode immediately recalls the expulsion of the Banu al-Nadîr from Medina in A.H. 4/624, recounted in Ibn 'Ishâq, Life of Muhammad, p. 437: ‘Men were destroying their houses down to the lintel of the door which they put upon the back of their camels and went off with it.’Google Scholar

page 115 note 5 Streck, op. cit. I, p. 58. The statement is made for the time of al-Mansur; how much more does it hold true for the time of al-Hajjâj!Google Scholar

page 116 note 1 Ibid.

page 116 note 2 The account is that of Tabarî, Annales, vol. III, I, p. 321.Google Scholar

page 116 note 3 Sarre, Friedrich and Herzfeld, Ernst, Archäologische Reise im Euphrat- und Tigris-Gebiet (Berlin, 1911–1920), vol. 2, p. 128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 116 note 4 Annales, vol. III, I, p. 321.Google Scholar

page 116 note 5 Supra, p. 113, n. 3Google Scholar

page 116 note 6 Annales, vol. III, I, p. 321 Al-Khat;îb, vol.I, p. 75; Mu'jam, vol. I, p. 684. Streck, op. cit. vol. I, p. 58, says that the Kufa Gate was of Sasanian origin, but without citing a source.Google Scholar

page 117 note 1 Creswell, , Early Muslim Architecture, vol. 1, p. 78.Google Scholar

page 117 note 2 Annales, vol. I, 5, p. 2378.Google Scholar

page 117 note 3 Al-Khatîb, vol. I, p. 108; Lassner, loc. cit. p. 208;Google ScholarGrabar, Oleg, ‘Al-Mushatta, Baghdâd and Wâsit’, The World of Islam: Studies in Honour of Philip K. Hitti, ed. Kritzeck, J. and Winder, R. B. (London, 1960), p. 105Google ScholarCreswell, , Early Muslim Architecture, vol. 2, pp. 3 f. and pp. 30 f.;Google Scholaridem, ‘The Great Mosque of Al-Mansur at Baghdâd’, Iraq, vol. I (1934), pp. 105–11. How much al-Mansur may have borrowed from 'Abu Muslim's palace in Marw is not determinable, but Creswell's remarks are instructive.

page 118 note 1 Based on Creswell's reconstruction, A Short Account…, pp. 59–73.Google Scholar

page 118 note 2 'Asâkir, Ibn, Ta'rîkh Madînat Dimashq, ed. al-Munajjid, Salâh al-Dîn (Damascus, 1951–1954), vol. 2, Part I, p. 13. Other traditions of similar import are to be found on pp. 25, 49, and 52.Google Scholar

page 118 note 3 Jubayr, Ibn, Rihla, ed. Wright, William (2nd ed., London, 1907), pp. 268 f.Google Scholar

page 118 note 4 'Asâkir, Ibn preserves traditions substantiating either view, loc. cit. pp. 133 f., and p. 138.Google Scholar

page 118 note 5 Pope, Arthur Upham, Persian Architecture (New York, 1965), pp. 46–75;Google ScholarSmith, E. Baldwin, The Dome (Princeton, 1950), pp. 8 f., pp. 41 ff. et passim;Google ScholarSoper, A. C., ‘The “Dome of Heaven” in Asia’, Art Bulletin, vol. 29, No.4 (1947), p. 225.Google Scholar

page 118 note 6 Lehmann, Karl, ‘The Dome of Heaven’, Art Bulletin, vol. 14, No. 1 (1945), pp. 1–56;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSmith, op. cit. pp. 1–25et passim.Google Scholar

page 118 note 7 Smith, op. cit. pp. 50 ff., pp. 6169 et passim; Soper, loc. cit. pp. 22–9–35 et passinm.Google Scholar

page 118 note 8 Creswell, , Early Muslim Architecture, vol. 1, pp. 289–303;Google ScholarLehmann, loc. cit. p. 25.Google Scholar

page 119 note 1 Pope, Persian Architecture, p. 74;Google ScholarAckerman, Phyllis, ‘Sâsânian Jewelry’, Survey, vol. 2, pp. 775 ff.Google Scholar

page 119 note 2 Lassner, ‘Some Speculative Thoughts…’, Part 2, p. 210.Google Scholar

page 119 note 3 For Sasanian domed palaces and fire-temples, see Pope, Persian Architecture, pp. 47–60; for the Christian and Byzantine material, see Lehmann, loc. cit. pp. 26 ff., Smith, op. cit. passim;Google ScholarHautecoeur, Louis, Mystique et architecture (Paris, 1954).Google Scholar

page 119 note 4 Creswell, , Early Muslim Architecture, vol. 2, pp. 3 f., for a reconstructed plan and discussion of 'Abu Muslim's palace, based largely on the description of al- 'Istakhhrî, Kitâb Masâlik al-Masâlik, vol. I, BGA, p. 259.Google Scholar

page 119 note 5 Pope, Persian Architecture, p. 80.Google Scholar

page 119 note 6 Morabia, Albert, ‘Recherches sur quelques noms de couleur en arabe classique’, Studia Islamica, vol. 21 (1964), p. 70.Google Scholar He also points out that only in modem Arabic dictionaries (nineteenth and twentieth centuries) are blue, orange, and violet included in the spectrum. As will be seen infra, in the discussion of Mount Qâf, ‘blue-green’ is probably what is meant by ‘sky-color’. Cf. Goya, Sarwar, ‘The Mausoleum of the Timurid Princes’, Afghanistan, vol. 2, p. 15, n. referring to the ‘Green Dome’ of Herat: ‘Actually this dome is not green, but rather a blue-green in colour.’Google Scholar

page 120 note 1 Morabia, loc. cit. pp. 94 f.;Google ScholarLane, Edward W., Arabic-English Lexicon (London, 1863–1993), parts I, II, p. 756.Google Scholar

page 120 note 2 Lassner, ‘Some Speculative Thoughts…’, Part 2, p. 208;Google ScholarReuther, , ‘Sâsânian Architecture’, Survey, vol. 1, p. 575.Google Scholar

page 120 note 3 Wensinck, A. J., ‘The Ideas of the Western Semites Concerning the Navel of the Earth’, Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wettenschappen, Aftdeeling Letterkunde, 2nd series, vol. 17, No. 1 (1917), pp. 11–20.Google Scholar

page 120 note 4 Ibid. p. 221.

page 120 note 5 Ibid. pp. 38 f.

page 121 note 1 West, E. J., ‘The Bundahish’, Part I of Pahlavi Texts; vol. v of Sacred Books of the East, ed. Müller, F. Max (50 vols., Delhi, 1962–1965), p. 22.Google Scholar

page 121 note 2 Ibid. p. 34 and pp. 29 f.

page 121 note 3 Ibid. ‘Selections of Zâd-Sparam’, p. 174. See also Maximilian Streck, ‘Kaf’, EI1, pp. 614 ff.

page 121 note 4 Mustawfî, op. cit. p. 182.Google Scholar

page 121 note 5 Ibid. p. 227.

page 121 note 6 Mu'jam, vol. IV, p. 18: ‘Qâlu: wa huwa min zabarjadatin khadrâ'a wa 'inna khudrata 'l-samâ'i min khudratahi.’Google Scholar See also al-Qazwînî, Kitâb 'Ajâ'ib al-Makhlâuqât, ed. Wüstenfeld, F. (Göttingen, 1849), p. 180.Google Scholar

page 121 note 7 Ibid. p.227; Al-Bîrunî, , Kitâb al-Jamâhir fî Ma'rifat al-Jawâhir (Hyderabad, 1936–1937), pp. 160 ff.Google Scholar

page 122 note 1 Ibid pp. 169 ff.

page 122 note 2 Ibid. p. 232.

page 122 note 3 Donaldson, Dwight M., ‘The Qualities of the Planets: Astrology in Islam’, Muslim World, vol. 29 (1939), p. 156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 122 note 4 Al-Khatîb, vol. I, p. 67; Mu'jam, vol. I, pp. 684 f.Google Scholar See also Massignon, Louis, ‘Le Symbolisme médiéval de la destinée de Bagdâd’, Bagdâd‘ (Volume spécial, Leiden, 1962), pp. 249 f.Google Scholar

page 122 note 5 West, ‘Selections of Zâd-Sparam’, Pahlavi Texts, Part I, p. 165.Google Scholar

page 122 note 6 West, E. J., ‘Dâdistân-i-Dînik’, Part II of Pahlavi Texts; vol. XVIII of Sacred Books of the East, p. 259.Google Scholar

page 123 note 1 Al-Khatîb, vol. I, p. 67: ‘fa maththala lahum sifatahâ 'llatî fî nafsihi.’Google Scholar

page 123 note 2 Ibid. ‘thumma 'khtattahâ wa ja'alahâ mudawwaratan.’

page 123 note 3 Annales, vol. III, I, p. 320: ‘Khâlid b. Barmak khatta madînata 'Abi Ja'far lahu wa 'ashâra bihâ ‘alayhi.’Google Scholar

page 123 note 4 Bouvat, Lucien, Les Barmécides d'après les historiens arabes et persans (Paris, 1812), pp. 37–43.Google Scholar

page 123 note 5 Al-Jahshiyâriî, , Kitâb al-Wuzarâ' wa 'l-Kuttâb (Cairo, 1938), p. 89.Google Scholar

page 123 note 6 Ibid. p. 244.

page 123 note 7 Ibid. p. 244.

page 124 note 1 Ibn, al-Faqîh, op. cit. pp. 322 f.; Mu'jam, vol. IV, pp. 817 f.; Bouvat, op. cit. pp. 26 ff.;Google ScholarBarthold, W., Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion (London, 1958), p. 77.Google Scholar

page 124 note 2 al-Yazdî, 'Abd al-Jalîl, Ta'rikh-i-' Āl-i-Barmak, in vol. 2 of Chrestomathie persane, ed. Schefer, Charles (Paris, 1883–1885), p. 3.Google Scholar

page 124 note 3 Ibid.: ‘wa az ânjâ kashîshân-i-bisyâr wa ruhbânân-i-bî shumâr mutawattin gashtand.’

page 124 note 4 Nadvi, Syed Sulaiman, ‘The Origin of the Barmakids’, Islamic Culture. vol. 6 (01 1932), pp. 19–28.Google Scholar

page 124 note 5 Ibid. p. 251.

page 124 note 6 Bouvat, op. cit. p. 26, n. 3.Google Scholar

page 124 note 7 Brown, Percy, Indian Architecture, vol. I: Buddhist and Hindu Periods (2nd ed., Bombay, 1944), p. 16.Google Scholar

page 124 note 8 Ibid.

page 125 note 1 Beal, Samuel, Si- Yu-Ki (London, n.d.), pp. 44 ff. I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness in matters of Far Eastern bibliography to Professors Wilbur Fridell and Chauncey S. Goodrich of the University of California at Santa Barbara.Google Scholar

page 125 note 2 Ibid. p. xxv.

page 125 note 3 Ibid p. xxvii.

page 125 note 4 See Bouvat, op. cit. p. 30, where he cites the suggestion of M. H. Kern that ‘Barmak’ is probably a corruption of Skt. ‘paramaka’ (‘superior’); also Nadvi, loc. cit. pp. 26 f.Google Scholar

page 125 note 5 Godard, A.Godard, Y., and Hackin, J., Les Antiquités bouddhiques de Bâmiyân (‘Mémoires de la délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan’, vol. 2; Paris, 1928), p. 19.Google Scholar

page 126 note 1 See Bell, Charles, The Religion of Tibet (Oxford, 1931), p. 65,Google Scholar speaking of the Sa-kya (Sa-skya) sect: ‘Its Hierarchs traced their descent from “the inner Minister” of the great king, Ti-song De-tsen. They were not celibate; a son could succeed his father in the post.’ Also, pp. 75 ff. et passim. Also Waddell, L. Austine, The Buddhism of Tibet (Cambridge, 1959), pp. 68 f., p. 72 et passim;Google Scholar and Sir Eliot, Charles, Japanese Buddhism (London, 1964), pp. 269 ff. for certain sub-sects of ‘Pure Land’ Buddhism.Google Scholar

page 126 note 2 Mu'jam, vol. IV, pp. 818 f.; Ibn al-Faqîh, op. cit. pp. 322 f.; al-Yazdî, op. cit. p. 3.Google Scholar

page 126 note 3 Futuh, p. 409; Mu'jam, vol. IV, p. 819. The deed was perpetrated by the Muslim general ‘Atâ’ b. Sâ'ib in A.H. 42/663–4. Though supposedly ‘restored’ by the Barmak, it could never have been re-endowed with its old magnificence.Google Scholar

page 126 note 4 Al-Jahshiyârî, op. cit. p. 191.Google Scholar

page 127 note 1 Waddell, op. cit. pp. 77 ff.Google Scholar

page 127 note 2 West, ‘Bundahish’, Pahlavi Texts, Part I, p. 22. Cf. Waddell, op. cit. p. 78.Google Scholar

page 127 note 3 Annales, vol. III, I, p. 320.Google Scholar

page 127 note 4 Luckenbill, Daniel David, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia (New York, 1968), vol. 1, p. 175.Google Scholar

page 127 note 5 Mu'jam, vol. I, 109.Google Scholar

page 128 note 1 Ibid. vol. I, 809.

page 128 note 2 Streck, , Die alte Landschaft…, vol. 1, p. 122. See also vol. II, pp. 259 f.Google Scholar

page 128 note 3 Annales, vol. III, I, p. 277.Google Scholar

page 128 note 4 Ibid. p. 321: ‘wa ja'ala 'abwâbahâ 'arba'atan 'alâ tadbîri 'l-'askarî fî 'l-hurubi.’

page 128 note 5 Ibid. p. 274.

page 128 note 6 Eliade, ‘Centre du monde, temple, maison’, p. 60.Google Scholar