GLOSSARYshahiida (Ar.): "witness," the formula in which Muslims declare that
there is only one God and Mul:J.ammad is His messenger.
shahr (N. P.), shatr (M.P.): kingdom, city, district of which a city was
the administrative center, equivalent to a kura.
shahrtj (N.P.), shatrtk (M.P.): the governor of a shahr.
Shahrtjiin (N.P. pi.): an intermediate class of Persian aristocrats, used
in Arabic in a broken plural, Shahiirija.
shahristiin (N.P.), shatristiin (M.P.): the capital city of an administra-
tive district, also the citadel or administrative center in a city.
shartf (Ar., pi. ashriif): a person of high status in Arab society, espe-
cially the leader of a tribe or clan.
shartrii (Syr., pi. shartrl): a confidante, informer, or trusted agent,
probably a cognate of sarii'ir (Ar. pi.) "secrets."
shirk (Ar.): "association," the Islamic term for polytheism.
shurta (Ar.): the Islamic urban police force.
stra (Ar.): practice or way of life, considered to be exemplary.
sirwiil (M.P.): trousers, a loanword in Arabic (pi. sariiwtl) from shal-
war (M.P., N.P.), "thigh protector," probably via sarbalii (A.).
$piihbadh or i$piihbadh (M.P.): the military governor of one of the
. four quarters of the late Sasanian empire, general, used in Arabic
from spiihpat (M.P.). The New Persian form is sipiihbad.
$ulal;ii' (Ar. pi.): "upright" people, notables, people with high status
based on personal moral qualities.
sultan (Syr.): political authority, government, a loanword in Arabic
from shOLtiinii (Syr.).
sunna (Ar.): exemplary precedent, especially examples set for Muslims
by Mul:J.ammad.
tiibi7 (Ar., pi. 'tiibi'un): "followers," especially second-generation
Muslim religious authorities.
tana$ukh (Ar.): transmigration, reincarnation.
tasqa (A.): an annual rent tax on agricultural land proportional to the
yield, used as a loanword in Arabic as tasq.
tassuj (M.P.): a "division" or "quarter," loanword in Arabic (pi. ta-
sastj) used for an administrative subdistrict from tasok (M.P.),
probably via tassugii (Syr.), sometimes equivalent to a rustiiq or
a niil;iya.
tawakkul (Ar.): confidence in God among Muslims.
tawqt'a (Ar., pi. tawqt'iit): the instructions or decisions of a ruler or
official written at the bottom of a petition presented to him.
tawwaf (Ar.): circumambulation as a religious ritual.