Page:The Oriental Biographical Dictionary.djvu/184

 Maria 172 Masa'udi Maria, *-J^5 one of the wives of Muhammad by whom he had a son named Ibrahim who died when an infant. She was called Kabtf or Egyptian, because she was sent as a present to Muhammad by Makoukas, king of Alexandria. She died in 637 A. D., 16 A. H. Mariam, This word in Arabic signifies Mary, and is only applied to the Virgin Mary. The Kuran, in the chapter called Al-Amran, or the family of Amran, and in Sura Mariam, confounds Mary the mother of Jesus with Mariam the daughter of Amram and sister of Moses and Aaran. In the book called Al-Sahih, there is a tradition, that the Apostle of God said, among men there have been many perfect ; but among women only four : 'Asia, the wife of Pharaoh ; Mary, the daughter of Amran, Khudyja, the daughter of Khawylid and Fatima, daughter of Mu- hammad. Mariam Makani, (♦ir*j a title of Hamfda Bano Begam, the mother of the emperor Akbar, which she received after her death. See Hamida Bano. Mariam Zamani, c^^^'^j (♦ir** She was the daughter of llaja Behari Mai Kachwaha, was married to the emper- or Akbar Shah. Her proper name is not known. She was the mother of the emperor Jahangir ; she died at Agrah in the time of her son Jahangir in 1623 A. D., 1032 A. H., and the mausoleum at Agrah ia Sikandra which was erected by her son over her grave, is called by the people of Agrah, Eauza Mariam. Ma'ruf, poetical name of Ilahi Bakhsh Khan, younger brother of Fakhr-uddaula ISTawab Ahmad Bakhsh Khan, son of Mirza 'Arif Khan. He died ia the year 1242 A. H., and left two Diwans in Urdu. Ma'ruf Karkhi, LS^J^ he was by birth a Chris- tian, but being convinced that there are not three Gods as the Christians say, but one, he became a convert to Muhammadanism, and his parents followed his example. He afterwards became a very pious Musalman ; was co- temporary with Daud Tai and Ibrahim Adham, and became master of Sari Sakati. He died in the reign of Mamun, the son of Hariin al-Rashid on the 31st of Au- gust, 815 A. D., 20th Muharram, 200 A. H., and lies buried in a place called Karkh in Baghdad. The heart of Ma'ruf (tliat is to say the letter li, which is the nu- meral for 200) is the chronogram for the Hijrl year of his demise. Marwan ibn-Hafsa, e^t ^hy, an eminent Arabian poet, on whom the khalif Mahdf, on one occa- sion, bestowed the sum of 70,000 dii-hams (£1600) as a reward for merit. Marwan I, (♦^■^t ui cj'jL/'*, son of Hakam, was the fourth khalif of the race of Umayya. He was proclaimed khalif at Damascus after the death of Mu'awia II, in 68i A. D., 64 A. H. He was also called, "Ibn-Tarfd," the son of the expelled, because Muhammad had banished his father Hakam for divulging a secret. He died after a reign of 298 days on the 12th April, 685 A. D., 2nd Eamazan 65 A. H. He is said by some authors to have been poisoned by his wife, Zainab, the widow of Mu'awia II. Her, he had married, with a promise that her son Khalid should succeed him, but afterwards altering the succession in favour of his own son 'Abdul Malik, young Khalid reproached him with his breach of promise : upon this Marwan calling him bastard, the child complained to his mother, who to be revenged for this affront, is said to have poisoned him or smothered him with a pillow. Marwan II, j'**"*! lyL?^'*, surnamed Himar or the ass, was the son of Muhammad the son of Hakam, and the fourteenth and last khalif of the house of Umayya. He was nephew to Marwan I. After deposing Ibrahim the son of Walid II, he ascended the throne of Damascus in 745 A. D., 26th Zil-hijja, 132 A. H., and was defeated and slain on the 5th August, 750 A. D. in a battle fought against Abu'l Abbas al-Saffah who was predously pro- claimed khalif by the inhabitants of Kiifa on Friday the 29th of November, 749 A. D., 13th Rabi' II, 132 A. H. Mai'wan before his accession to the throne, had been governor of Mesopotamia, and had received, by his Geor- gian warfare, the honorable epithet of the ass of Meso- potamia or Al-Himar, a warlike breed of asses, that never fly from an enemy. Masa'ud I, Sultan? Jj' ot>*'~*cj^^^'-', son of Sultan Mah* mud of Ghazni. He after cruelly depriving his brother Muhammad of sight, mounted the throne of Ghazni 1030 A. D., 421 A. H. He made several incursions into India to maintain the tranquillity of those possessions which his father had subdued. But he had no time to attack others : all his means were required to defend himself from a formidable tribe of Tartars, called Saljuki, who had, for a considerable time past, made predatory incm-- sions into Khurasan, and other parts of his dominions. He carried on a petty war against different branches of this powerful tribe for some time, and with various suc- cess, till he was completely defeated in a great action fought in Khurasan with Tughral Beg Saljuki on Friday the 16th of June, 1038 A. D., 9th Ramazan, 429 A. H., and was obliged to fly towards Labor, which he resolved to make the future capital of his government. On his march, he was deposed by his mutinous army, and his brother Muhammad Makahul the blind, was again placed on the throne. Masa'iid remained in confinement for several years, and was afterwards assassinated by Ahmad the son of Muhammad Makahul 1041 A. D., 433 A. H. Masa'ud II, S U It a n, ij^^ O^y*^"' son of Sultan Maudud, a child of four years old, was raised to the throne of Ghazni after the death of his father in Decem- ber, 1049 A. D. but was soon deposed after a nominal reign of six days, and Abii'l Hasan 'Ali, the son of Sultan Masa'ud I, was proclaimed emperor. Masa'ud III, Sultan, ^^i^^*^^^^, the sonof Sultan Ibrahim ascended the throne of Ghazni after the death of his father in 1098 A. D., 492 A. H. He reigned over Ghazni and Labor 16 years ; had for his wife the sister of Sultan Sanjar, the Saljiikide who had made peace with his father. Sultan Masa'ud died in 1114 A. D., 508 A. H., and was succeeded by his son Sherzad or Sher- nazad. Masa'ud IV, Sultan, lb J)>*~"'C(i>'ii^*>, the son of Sultan IMuhammad Saljuki, and brother of Tughral II, whom he succeeded to tlie throne of Hamdan. He began to reign about the year 1134 A. D., 529 A. H., and died 1152 A. D., 1st Rajab, 547 A. H., Atabak Eldiguz was his minister. Masa'udi, cS'>i>*'~^, the famous historian who visited India, Ceylon and the coast of China in the year 915 A. D. He is the author of the work entitled " Ma' dan ul-Jawahii'" Mines of Gems, of which the first part has been well translated by Dr. A. Sprenger. The first of his compositions is " Akhbar uz-Zaman," an enormous work of at least twenty volumes ; the second is the " Kitab ul-Ausath," being the complement to the Akh- bar ; and the third " Mines of Gems" or as some call it the " IMeadows of Gold," forming at the same time the extract and the supplement of the two others. He died 956 A. D., 345 A. H. In describing the early discoveries of his countrymen inside the Great Pyramid in Egypt,