612 SIMANCAS SlMIYA'
SIMANCAS [see SHANT MANKASH]. beside simd, simd3 (Kur'an, XLVIII, 29 etc.; al-Baydawi,
SIMAW, modern Turkish SIMAV, a town of
northwestern Anatolia, lying on the river of the
same name and just to the south-east of the Simav
Golii, 90 km/58 miles as the crow flies to the south-
west of Kiitahya [q.v.] and on the road connecting
Bahkesir with Usak (lat. 39 05' N., long. 28 59' E.,
altitude 823 m/2,700 feet). In later Ottoman times,
it was the chef-lieu of a kadd3 of the same name, and
is now the centre of the ilfe or district of Simav in
the il or province of Kiitahya. One should not con-
fuse it, as did Babinger in his EP art., with Simawna
in eastern Thrace, the birthplace of the early Ottoman
rebel, Shaykh Badr al-Dm b. Kadi Simawna [q.v.].
In Antiquity, it was the Synaos of western Phrygia,
and vestiges of the town's classical past remain. In
Byzantine times it was the seat of a bishop, and there
are relics of the Byzantine citadel. In the 8th/14th
century it came within the beylik or principality of the
Germiyan Oghullari [q.v.], but was ceded to the Otto-
man sultan Murad I in 783/1381 (see N. Vatin, in
R. Mantran (ed.), Histoire de I'empire ottoman, Paris 1989,
43). Simaw was the birthplace of several well-known
Ottoman scholars, such as Shaykh cAbd Allah Ilahf
(d. 896/1491) and Kara Shams al-Dm (see Ewliya
Celebi, Seydhat-ndme, iii, 377). It was visited by sev-
eral 19th-century scholars, including Wm. Hamilton,
A.D. Mordtmann Senr., K. Buresch and Th. Wiegand.
Modern Simaw was rebuilt after a fire of 1911.
After the First World War, it was occupied by the
Greek army from July 1921 to September 1922.
Carpet-weaving has been one of its industries. In 1965
the population was 7,877.
Bibliography: PW, 2nd ser., iv. A.2, cols. 1326-7
(Ruge); Ewliya Celebi, Seydhat-ndme, ix, Istanbul
1935, 44-50; WJ. Hamilton, Researches in Asia Minor,
London 1842, ii, 124; Sh. Samf Frasheri, Kdmus
al-acldm, iv, 2625; V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, iv,
222 ff.; K. Buresch, Aus Lydien, Leipzig 1898, 142
ff.; Th. Wiegand, in Athenische Mitteilungen, xxix
(Athens 1904), 324 (with view); A.D. Mordtmann,
ed. F. Babinger, Anatolien, Hanover 1925, 40-1;
Admiralty Handbooks, Turkey, London 1942-3, i,
129, ii, 207, 421-2, 581; Belediyeler yilligi, Ankara
1945, iii, 334-40; I A, art. Simav (Besim Darkot).
(C.E. BOSWORTH)
SIMDJURIDS, a line of Turkish comman-
ders and governors, originally of slave origin, for
the Samanids in 4th/1 Oth-century Khurasan.
The founder, Abu Imran Sfmdjur, was the amir
Isma'il b. Ahmad's [q.v] ceremonial ink-stand bearer
(dawdfi). He became Samanid governor of Slstan [q.v]
in 300-1/913-14 when the local dynasty of the Saffarids
[q.v] were temporarily driven out. Thereafter, the fam-
ily was prominent as governors of Khurasan for the
amirs, involved in warfare with the Samanids' rivals
in northern Persia such as the Buyids, and they ac-
quired a territorial base of estates in Kuhistan [q.v].
They were active in the tortuous politics and cam-
paignings of the last decades of the Samanids. The
last-mentioned member of the family is Abu '1-Kasim
'All, commander in Khurasan till 392/1002.
Bibliography: Sam'anf, Ansdb, ed. Haydarabad,
vi, 351-5; Barthold, Turkestan; 246 ff.; Erdogan
Mercil, Simcunler. I-IV, Istanbul n.d. [ca. 1986], origi-
nally published in various journals; C.E. Bosworth,
The history of the Saffarids of Sistan and the Maliks of
Mmruz, Costa Mesa and New York 1994, 271-3;
idem, The New Islamic dynasties, Edinburgh 1996,
no. 86. (C.E. BOSWORTH)
SIMIYA', in form like kibriyd3, belongs to old Arabic
ed. Fleischer, i, 326, 14, 15), in the sense "mark, sign,
badge" (Lane 1476a; Sahdh, s.v., ed. Bulak, 1282, ii,
200; Hamdsa, ed. Freytag, 696; L'A, xv, 205). But the
word, as a name for certain genres of magic,
had a quite different derivation; in that sense it is
from oTijieia, through the Syriac simya (pi.), and means
"signs, letters of the alphabet" (Dozy, SuppL, i, 708b,
and references there; Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus,
ii, col. 2614). In Bocthor, Dictionnaire Jranf ais-arabe, i,
154b, under Chiromancie, simiyd3 is given as one of
three Arabic renderings. By Barhebraeus (d. 685/1286)
the Syriac and Arabic forms are used together (Chron.
Syr., ed. Paris, 14, 7; Mukhtasar, ed. Pococke, 33); ac-
cording to these passages the science (cilni) was
"invented" in the time of Moses by a certain ^^Jyl,
which Bruns and Kirsch rendered "Eunumius", but
he seems to be quite unknown. The Muhit al-muhtt,
ii, 1032b, suggests a derivation from TOtf "name of
Allah", and the Names of Allah certainly play a large
part in simiyd3 (Doutte, Magie et religion, 344, who also
suggests, 102, that the form of the word has been
affected by kimiyd3; but see above).
The term, apart from this dubious sense of "chiro-
mancy", has been and is applied to two quite different
branches of magic. (1) It is very widely applied at
the present day to what is often called "natural magic",
but is evidently hypnotism. Ibn Khaldun (Mukaddima,
ed. Quatremere, iii, 126, tr. Rosenthal, iii, 158) gives
this as the third division of magic (sihr) in his arrange-
ment and says that the philosophers (al-faldsifa) call it
shacwadha and shacbadha [q.v]. Ibn Khaldun expresses
it very clearly as a working of the nafs of the magi-
cian on the imagination of his subject, conveying cer-
tain ideas and forms which are then transferred to
the senses of the subject and objectify themselves exter-
nally in appearances which have no external reality.
Well-described cases of this will be found in Lane's
Arabian nights, ch. i, n. 15, ii, Modern Egyptians, ch. xii;
Ibn Battuta, iii, 452, iv, 277; Noldeke, Doctor und
Garkoch, 5 and passim. Cf. also Doutte, Magie et religion,
102, 345, who calls it also mranfi; Muhit, ii, 1032b;
Chauvin, Bibl. ar., part vii, 102, and references there.
(2) The second is dealt with at length by Ibn
Khaldun in a special section (ed. Quatremere, iii,
137 ff., tr. Rosenthal, iii, 170 ff.). In Ibn Khaldun's
time (d. 808/1405) it was called distinctly simiyd3. Ibn
Khaldun prefers to call it the science of the secret
powers of letters (huruf [q.v]} because simiyd3 was origi-
nally a broader term applied to the whole science of
talismans and this limited use only originated in the
extremist school of Sufi's, who professed to be able
to control (tasarrafa) the material world by means of
these letters and the names and figures compounded
from them. It was thus considered a possible study
and practice for pious Muslims. But the Suits who
took it up were of the speculative and pantheistic
school and claimed control of the elemental world
and power to invade its order (khawdrik al-cdda) and
asserted that all existence descended in a certain
sequence from a Unity (the Neoplatonic Chain). In
their system the entelechy (kamdl) of the Divine Names
proceeds from the help of the spirits of the spheres
and of the stars, and the natures and secret powers
of the letters circulate in the Names built out of them.
Then they circulate similarly in the changes of tran-
sient becoming (al-akuudn) in this world and these akwdn
pass from the first initial creation (al-ibdd{) into the
different phases of that creation and express clearly
its secrets. This seems to mean that letters contain
the primal secrets of creation and the secret powers
 SIMIYA5 SIMNAN
which still circulate in the akwan and that the Divine
Names and Allocutions (kalimdt [q.v]) are produced
from letters; therefore the elemental world and the
akwan in it can be controlled by these names and
allocutions when used by spiritual souls (nufus rab-
bdniyyd). That is the doctrine of al-Bunf [q.v], Ibn
c
ArabI [q.v.] and their followers. As to the nature and
origin of this secret power in letters, there is dispute.
Some assign it to an elemental nature or constitution
(mizddj.) and divide letters into four classes according
to the four elements. Others ascribe it to a numeri-
cal relationship (nisba cadadiyya] based on the value of
the letters as numbers (abajad). Ibn Khaldun admits
that there does exist such control of the material world
but it is by divine grace in the kardmdt [q.v.] of the
waits [q.v.], and when those who lack that divine grace
and insight endeavour to exert the same control by
means of these names and allocutions, they are in
the same class as the workers of magic by means of
talismans, except that they have not the scientific train-
ing and system of these magicians. They may pro-
duce effects through the influence of the human nafs
and purpose (himma)which for Ibn Khaldun is the
basis of all such working, licit and illicitbut these
effects are contemptible besides those of the profes-
sional magicians. Ibn Khaldun, therefore, disapproves
of this attempt by al-Bunl and others to produce a
pious and licit magic; but there is no question that
al-Bunf has imposed his system upon Islam. The best
description of this state of mind which sees in letters
relations to the universe and a science of the uni-
verse is in Louis Massignon's Al-Halldaj, 588 ff.; see
also Doutte, 172 ff. It is evident that this is a sister
phase of thought to the Jewish Kabbala of the alpha-
betic and thaumaturgic type connected with the divine
names, teaching that the science of letters is the sci-
ence of the essences of things and that by letters God
created and controls the world and that men by suit-
able knowledge of these can control material things
(see C.D. Ginsburg, The Kabbalah, 127; art. KABBALA,
by H. Loewe, in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Rel and
Ethics, vii, 622-8).
Finally, one should note that the term simd, men-
tioned in the Kur'an (II, 273, VII, 46, 48, XLVIII,
29, LV, 41), denotes a mark of recognition of the
believer, either physical (mark on the forehead from
practising the Muslim worship) or moral (the result
of his good or bad behaviour). Likewise in Hadith,
simd, simd3, denotes the distinctive mark of Muslims
in relation to other peoples (umam) (Muslim, Tahdra,
36-7) and the mark resulting from the effects of the
worship on their foreheads, allowing one to distin-
guish them from other peoples on the Day of
Resurrection (al-Tirmidhf, Dfum'a, 74). This term has
thus no connection with simiyd3, a transliteration of
CTrpeux, a derivative of muieiov, with the same sense
as simd. But just as simiyd3 evokes sihr "magic, white
or phantasmagoric", simd evokes firdsa [q.v] "physiog-
nomy". In Persian, simyd "natural magic" is distin-
guished from simyd3 "mark, sign", according to
Steingass, Dictionary, 718.
Bibliography: On simiyd3, see Ibn Khaldun.
Mukaddima, ed. Quatremere, iii, 137-61, tr. idem,
iii,'188-200 (pp. 147-91 of text not tr. by him),
Eng. tr. Rosenthal, iii, 182-227; Hadjdjr Khalifa,
Kashf, iii, 646-7. There are several works on simiyd3,
from which one may cite Abu '1-Kasim Ahmad al-
TrakT, known as al-Sfmawf (7th/13th century), cUyun
al-hadd3ik wa-lddh al-tard3ik, Cairo 1321/1906;
Ahmad b. Muh b. al-Banna' (d. ca. 721/1321),
c
Uyun al-hadd3ikfi cilm al-simiyd3, B.N. of Tunis, ms.
613
431, fols. 131-54; Ibn al-Hadjdj al-Maghribl al-
Tilimsanf (d. 736/1336), R.fi 'l-Simiyd3, Cairo, Fihris,
vi, 418; Djlli (d. 831/1428), cUyun al-hadd3ik fi Ml
md yuhmal min cilm al-tard3ik, B.N. Paris ms. 2595.
There are three anonyma in the B.N., Paris: al-
Shardsim al-hindiyya Ji cilm al-simiyd'', mss. 2634-5; al-
Shacbadha wa 'l-simiyd3, ms. 2595, fols. 136-48; and
Simiyd3, ms. 2357, fols. 143-56.
On these texts, see the refs. in M. Ullmann, Die
Natur- und Geheimwissenschajten im Islam, HdO, Leiden-
Cologne 1972, 391 ff.; A. Kovalenko, Magie et Islam.
Les concepts de magie (sihr) et de sciences occultes ('Urn al-
ghayb) en Islam, diss. Strasbourg 1979, publ. Geneva
1981, 22 ff., 434.
(D.B. MAcDoNALD-[T. FAHD])
SIMNAN, a town of northern Persia (long.
53 24' E., lat. 35 33' N., alt. 1,138 m/3,734 ft),
in mediaeval Islamic times coming within the province
of Kumis [q.v] and lying on the great highway con-
necting Rayy with the administrative centre of Kumis,
sc. Damghan [q.v], and Khurasan. To its north is
situated the Elburz Mountain chain and to its south,
the Great Desert.
1. History.
Simnan comes within what was the heartland of
the Parthians (whose capital almost certainly was at
Shahr-i Kumis, southeast of Damghan on the Simnan
road), but nothing is known of any pre-Islamic his-
tory for the town, even though legend later attrib-
uted its foundation to Tahmurath (Mustawfi, Nuzha,
161, tr. 157). At the time of the Abbasid Revolution
(131/748-9) it was described as a mere village, occu-
pied by the forces of the ddci Kahtaba's son al-Hasan
in the course of the march westwards in pursuit of
the Umayyad governor Nasr b. Sayyar [q.v] (al-Tabarl,
iii, 2-3). In 267/880-1 the soldier of fortune Ahmad
al-Khudjistanl, who had seized Khurasan from the
Saffarid cAmr b. al-Layth, reached as far as Simnan
in an abortive attack on Rayy (ibid., iii, 2008).
By the time of the 4th/10th century geographers,
however, Simnan had become a flourishing town, with
fertile gardens and agricultural lands watered by the
stream which came down from the Elburz and ran
through it. The waters were canalised and allotted to
the users in rotation, and also stored in cisterns.
Simnan is mentioned in the accounts of the fighting
between various Caspian princes and the generals of
the Samanids in the early 4th/10th century (see Ibn
al-Athlr, ed. Beirut, viii, 191, 390). In Ghaznawid
times, the local governor Abu Harb Bakhtiyar car-
ried out building works in the town (see 2. below),
and although in 427/1036 it was plundered by the
so-called '"Iraki" Turkmens en route for Rayy and
Adharbaydjan '(Ibn al-Athlr, ix, 379), by 437/1046 it
must have been rebuilt enough for Nasir-i Khusraw
to have halted there on his Pilgrimage westwards and
to have had learned discussions with local scholars
(Safar-ndma, ed. M. Dabir-Siyakl, Tehran 1335/1956,
3, Eng. tr. W.M. Thackston, Albany 1986, 2-3). When
Yakut described Simnan (probably utilising earlier
information of al-Sam'&nf), there were signs of ruin
and decline (Mu'ajam dtl-bulddn, ed. Beirut, iii, 251-2),
which must have been intensified by the devasta-
tion in 618/1221 of the Mongol commander Siibetey
(Djuwaynf-Boyle, i, 146-7).
Simnan has nevertheless survived as a town of mod-
erate importance, largely because of its position on
the Khurasanian highway. It was the home town of
the famous Sunn! mystic cAlaJ al-Dawla Simnam (659-
736/1261-1336 [q.v]). At the end of the 19th century,
Curzon found it prosperous enough, with tobacco