BEHA UD-DIN [ABU-L-MAHASIN YUSUF IBN RAFI' IBN SHADDAD BEHA UD DIN] (1145-1234), Arabian writer and statesman, was born in Mosul and early became famous for his knowledge of the Koran and of jurisprudence. Before the age of thirty he became teacher in the great college at Bagdad known as the Nizamiyya, and soon after became professor at Mosul. In 1187, after making the pilgrimage to Mecca, he visited Damascus. Saladin, who was at the time besieging Kaukab (a few miles south of Tiberias), sent for him and became his friend. Beha ud-Din observed that the whole soul of the monarch was engrossed by the war which he was then engaged in waging against the enemies of the faith, and saw that the only mode of acquiring his favour was by urging him to its vigorous prosecution. With this view he composed a treatise on _The Laws and Discipline of Sacred War_, which he presented to Saladin, who received it with peculiar favour. From this time he remained constantly attached to the person of the sultan, and was employed on various embassies and in departments of the civil government. He was appointed judge of the army and judge of Jerusalem. After Saladin's death Beha-ud-Din remained the friend of his son Malik uz-Zahir, who appointed him judge of Aleppo. Here he employed some of his wealth in the foundation of colleges. When Malik uz-Zahir died, his son Malik ul-'Aziz was a minor, and Beha ud-Din had the chief power in the regency. This power he used largely for the patronage of learning. After the abdication of Malik ul-'Aziz, he fell from favour and lived in retirement until his death in 1234. Beha ud-Din's chief work is his _Life of Saladin_ (published at Leiden with Latin translation by A. Schultens in 1732 and 1755). An English translation was published by the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, London, 1897. Entry: BEHA
According to an early tradition Mahomet said that Islam would be divided into seventy-three parties (sects),[4] of which seventy-two would perish and one would be saved. The orthodox Arabian writers on heretical sects of Islam feel compelled by this tradition to make up their number to seventy-two, and, as different writers adopt different divisions or are familiar with different parties, the names of sects amount to some hundreds. Each writer, however, adopts certain main classes under which he attempts to group the others. Abu Muti` Makhul at the beginning of the 10th century in his "Refutation" (MS. in Bodleian Library) has six such chief classes: Harurites (i.e. Kharijites), Rafidites (i.e. Shi`ites), Qadarites, Jabarites, Jahmites and Murjiites. Ibn Hazm (q.v.) adopts four classes: Mu`tazilites (Motazilites), Murjiites, Shi`ites and Kharijites. Shahrastani (q.v.) complains of the want of system in earlier writers, and suggests as bases of classification the position of parties with regard to the doctrines as to (1) the divine attributes, (2) predestination and free-will (3) promises and threats, faith and error, (4) revelation, reason, the imamate. In one part of his preface he gives as the chief parties the Qadarites, Sifatites, Kharijites and Shi`ites, proposing to divide these classes according to leaders who agreed with the main doctrines of their class but differed in some points. In another place he mentions four opposite pairs of sects: (1) the Qadarites with their doctrine of free-will, and the Jabarites, who are necessitarians; (2) the Sifatites, who maintain the eternal nature of the attributes of God, and the Mu`tazilites, who deny it; (3) the Murjiites, who postpone judgment of actions until the Last Day, and the Wa`idites, who condemn in this life; (4) the Kharijites, who consider the caliphate a human institution, and the Shi`ites, who deify their ruler. In his detailed treatment of the sects Shahrastani arranged them under the headings: Mu`tazilites, Jabarites, Sifatites, Kharijites, Murjiites and Shi`ites. About the same time as Shahrastani two other Arabian writers wrote on the sects--Tahir ul-Isfaraini (d. 1078), whose MS. is in the Berlin library, and `Abd ul-Qadir ul-Jilani (1078-1166) in his _Kitab ul-Ghaniyya li-Talibi Tariq il-Haqqi_ (Cairo, 1871). Both adopt as main classes Rafidites (or Shi`ites), Qadarites (or Mu`tazilites), Kharijites, Murjiites, Najjarites, Dirarites, Jahmites, Mushabbiha, to which Tahir adds Bakrites, Karramites, and a class including those sects which are not reckoned as Moslem though they have sprung from Islam. Jilani adds to the eight the Kilabites. Entry: THE
The first of the Delhi school of poets was Zuhuruddin Hatim, who was born in 1699 and died in 1792. In the second year of Muhammad Shah (1719), the _diwan_ of Wali reached Delhi, and excited the emulation of scholars there. Hatim was the first to imitate it in the Urdu of the north, and was followed by his friends Naji, Mazmun and Abru. Two _diwans_ by him survive. He became the founder of a school, and one of his pupils was Rafi us-Sauda, the most distinguished poet of northern India. Khan Arzu (1689-1756) was another of the fathers of Urdu poetry in the north. This author is chiefly renowned as a Persian scholar, in which language he not only composed much poetry, but one of the best of Persian lexicons, the _Siraju-l-lughat_; but his compositions in Urdu are also highly esteemed. He was the master of Mir Taqi, who ranks next to Sauda as the most eminent Urdu poet. Arzu died at Lucknow, whither he betook himself after the devastation of Delhi by Nadir Shah (1739). Another of the early Delhi poets who is considered to have surpassed his fellows was In'amullah Khan Yaqin, who died during the reign of Ahmad Shah (1748-1754), aged only twenty-five. Another was Mir Dard, pupil of the same Shah Gulshan who is said to have instructed Wali; his _diwan_ is not long, but extremely popular, and especially esteemed for the skill with which it develops the themes of spiritualism. In his old age he became a _darwesh_ of the _Naqshbandi_ following, and died in 1793. Entry: 3
The disturbances in Khorasan were caused by the malversations of the governor of that province, Ali b. 'Isa b. Mahan. The caliph went in person to Merv, in order to judge of the reality of the complaints which had reached him. Ali b. 'Isa hastened to meet the caliph on his arrival at Rai (Rhagae), near the modern Teheran, with a great quantity of costly presents, which he distributed with such profusion among the princes and courtiers that no one was anxious to accuse him. Harun confirmed him in his post, and, after having received the chiefs of Tabaristan who came to tender their submission, returned through Bagdad to Rakka on the Euphrates, which city was his habitual residence. In the following year Rafi' b. Laith, a grandson of Nasr b. Sayyar, raised the standard of revolt in Samarkand, and, at the head of a numerous army, defeated the son of Ali b. 'Isa. Thereupon Ali fled from Balkh, leaving the treasury, which was plundered by the populace after his departure. The caliph on learning that the revolt was due to Ali's tyranny, sent Harthama b. A'yan with stringent orders to seize Ali and confiscate his possessions. This order was carried out, and it is recorded that 1500 camels were required to transport the confiscated treasures. The caliph's hope that Rafi' would submit on condition of receiving a free pardon was not fulfilled, and he resolved to set out himself to Khorasan, taking with him his second son Mamun. On the journey he was attacked by an internal malady, which carried him off, ten months after his departure from Bagdad, A.H. 193 (March 809), just on his arrival at the city of Tus. Harun was only forty-five years of age. He was far from having the high qualifications of his grandfather Mansur; indeed he did not even possess the qualities of his father and his brother. When the latter asked him to renounce his right of succession, he was willing to consent, saying that a quiet life with his beloved wife, the princess Zobaida, was his highest wish, but he obeyed his mother and Yahya b. Khalid. As long as the Barmecides were in office, he acted only on their direction. After their disgrace he was led into many impolitic actions by his violent and often cruel propensities. But the empire was, especially in the earlier part of his reign, in a very prosperous state, and was respected widely by foreign powers. Embassies passed between Charlemagne and Harun in the years 180 (A.D. 797) and 184 (A.D. 801), by which the former obtained facilities for the pilgrims to the Holy Land, the latter probably concessions for the trade on the Mediterranean ports. The ambassadors brought presents with them; on one of these occasions the first elephant reached the land of the Franks. Entry: 5