84 Badr, Battle of
instead, a reader, writer, and rhetorician on behalf of the
utility of science. His works mention flying machines,
self-driven boats, and an “instrument small in size, which
can raise and lower things of almost infinite weight.” He
studied the heavens. Most important he studied the
refraction of light under experimental conditions. His so-
called science of experience did not make any significant
advances into what is today called physics, and he did
not produce any practical inventions.
Soon after writing the works mentioned, Bacon sum-
marized his views in the Communium naturalium(The
Union of natural things). Valuing the study of languages,
he wrote a Greek grammar and a Hebrew grammar, and
in 1292 he published Compendium of the Study of Philoso-
phy(Compendium studii theologiae). In that the old,
angry, polemical Bacon reemerges. His imprisonment in
the final years of his life probably stemmed from this
Compendium,in which he claimed to see in the warring
factions of Christendom the presence of the ANTICHRIST
and the apocalyptical views identified with JOACHIMof
Fiore.
The length of his imprisonment and the causes of his
release were not clear. He was not imprisoned at the time
of his death, which occurred in 1294, according to one
account, on June 11.
Further reading:Roger Bacon, Roger Bacon’s Philoso-
phy of Nature: A Critical Edition, with English Translation,
Introduction, and Notes, ofDe Multiplicatione Specierum
andDe Speculis Comburentibus, ed. David C. Lindberg
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983); Roger Bacon, Roger
Bacon and the Origins ofPerspectiva in the Middle Ages: A
Critical Edition and English Translation of Bacon’sPerspec-
tiva, with Introduction and Notes,ed. David C. Lindberg
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996); Stewart C. Easton,
Roger Bacon and His Search for a Universal Science(West-
port, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1970); Jeremiah Hackett,
ed., Roger Bacon and the Sciences: Commemorative Essays
(New York: Brill, 1997).
Badr, Battle of (Badr Hunayn)Between March 13 and
17 in 624, the followers from MEDINAof MUHAMMADwon
an almost miraculous victory over those from MECCA
who had opposed his teaching. The followers of Muham-
mad were greatly outnumbered, perhaps four to one, but
with the assistance of a squadron of angels, according to
the QURAN, they won this battle southwest of Medina.
Several important Meccans were killed and others were
later assassinated in the city itself. It did not end Meccan
resistance but was the first step in that direction. For
Muslims this defeat of polytheism was a sign of divine
guidance and a vindication of their cause. It produced
additional conversions from among the local Bedouins.
There was much more conflict ahead, but this was the
beginning of Muhammad’s political success in his home
region and the heartland of ISLAM.
Further reading: Maxime Rodinson, Muhammad,
trans. Anne Carter (New York: Pantheon Books, 1971
[1961]); W. Montgomery Watt, “Badr,” Encyclopedia of
Islam, 1.867–868; W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad’s
Mecca: History in the Quran(Edinburgh: Edinburgh Uni-
versity Press, 1988); W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at
Medina(New York: Oxford University Press, 1981).Baghdad (Madinat al-Salam)A city in present-day
Iraq, Baghdad was founded as the capital of the ABBASID
Empire in 762 by the second caliph of the dynasty, AL-
MANSUR, on the banks of the Tigris River in IRAQ. His
purposes were to escape from the turbulent city of al-
Kufa and to create a town that would be the symbol of
the new regime.
Located on a site with both strategic and commercial
advantages Baghdad was originally a circular fortified city
bordering the Tigris and connected with the Euphrates by
a canal. On the inner square stood the caliph’s palace and
an adjacent Great Mosque. Markets were originally part
of this but were moved in 773 to a suburb to the south,
Karkh. In 773, on the east bank of the Tigris, the town of
Rusafa was founded for an heir. Rusafa and the other sub-
urbs developed more rapidly than expected because in
812–813 Baghdad suffered a siege that destroyed the old
round aspect of the city. The caliphs, when they returned
to Baghdad in 892 after temporarily moving to nearby
Samarra, settled in palaces south of Rusafa. New palaces
were later built by the BUYIDSand the SELJUKS.MADRASAS
or colleges of religious science were established in the
late 11th century. Baghdad, the seat of the Abbasid
caliphate and still an intellectual, literary, and artistic
center, was sacked by the MONGOLSin 1258. It then con-
tinued only as a stagnant provincial capital in the Mongol
khanate of Persia.
Further reading:A. A. Duri, “Baghdad,” Encyclopedia
of Islam,1.894–908; Jacob Lassner, The Topography of
Baghdad in the Early Middle Ages: Text and Studies
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970); Philip K.
Hitti, “Baghdad: The Intellectual Capital,” in Capital
Cities of Arab Islam (Minneapolis: University of Min-
nesota Press, 1973), 85–109; Reuben Levy, A Baghdad
Chronicle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1929); George Makdisi, History and Politics in Eleventh-
Century Baghdad(Aldershot: Variorum, 1990).bailiff This was an administrative office employed on
the feudal estates of French-speaking Europe and in
medieval ENGLAND.NORMAN AND FRENCH
The office was developed in the duchy of NORMANDY
in the 11th century. There the dukes and great lords
appointed such stewards to administer their estates. The
post included the supervision of such lesser officers,