Encyclopaedia Islamica
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Subject: Middle East And Islamic Studies
Edited by: Farhad Daftary and Wilferd Madelung
Encyclopaedia Islamica Online is based on the abridged and edited translation of the Persian Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif-i Buzurg-i Islāmī, one of the most comprehensive sources on Islam and the Muslim world. A unique feature of the Encyclopaedia Islamica Online lies in the attention given to Shiʿi Islam and its rich and diverse heritage. In addition to providing entries on important themes, subjects and personages in Islam generally, Encyclopaedia Islamica Online offers the Western reader an opportunity to appreciate the various dimensions of Shiʿi Islam, the Persian contribution to Islamic civilization, and the spiritual dimensions of the Islamic tradition.
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Encyclopaedia Islamica Online is based on the abridged and edited translation of the Persian Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif-i Buzurg-i Islāmī, one of the most comprehensive sources on Islam and the Muslim world. A unique feature of the Encyclopaedia Islamica Online lies in the attention given to Shiʿi Islam and its rich and diverse heritage. In addition to providing entries on important themes, subjects and personages in Islam generally, Encyclopaedia Islamica Online offers the Western reader an opportunity to appreciate the various dimensions of Shiʿi Islam, the Persian contribution to Islamic civilization, and the spiritual dimensions of the Islamic tradition.
Subscriptions: see Brill.com
Balʿamī
(2,919 words)
Balʿamī, the name (
nisba) of a number of Khurāsānī scholars and courtiers, two of whom served as viziers to the Sāmānid dynasty. Their lineage can be traced back to an Arab tribesman of the Banū Tamīm: Ibn Mākūlā (7/278) takes the kinship of Abū al-Faḍl Balʿamī back to Zayd Manāt, son of Tamīm, hence the Tamīmī
nisba (see al-Dhahabī,
Siyar, 15/292). However, since the figures appearing in this genealogy are not recognised by any extant Arab biographical works, the linkage is problematic. According to Ibn Mākūlā, one of the family’s ancestors called Rajā…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Balʿamī
(2,900 words)
Balʿamī, the name (
nisba) of a number of Khurāsānī scholars and courtiers, two of whom served as viziers to the Sāmānid dynasty. Their lineage can be traced back to an Arab tribesman of the Banū Tamīm: Ibn Mākūlā (7/278) takes the kinship of Abū al-Faḍl Balʿamī back to Zayd Manāt, son of Tamīm, hence the Tamīmī
nisba (see al-Dhahabī,
Siyar, 15/292). However, since the figures appearing in this genealogy are not recognised by any extant Arab biographical works, the linkage is problematic. According to Ibn Mākūlā, one of the family’s ancestors called Rajā…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Balkh
(13,408 words)
Balkh, was an ancient city and political region in Greater Khurāsān, a district whose boundaries and territory differ from those of modern Balkh. The territory of Balkh is now a small province (about 12,800 km2) in northern Afghanistan, the capital of which is the city of Mazār-i Sharīf (Raʾīs al-Sādāt, 204; Dawlatābādī, 30).The city of Balkh was regarded as one of the most important centres of Persian culture, its importance deriving from its opportune location at the convergence of trade routes uniting the East and the West, Its proximity to th…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Balūch
(7,398 words)
Balūch, a people inhabiting the area termed Balūchistān that includes parts of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. They are also to be found in countries outside Balūchistān proper, particularly in the states along the Persian Gulf.Ethnic OriginViews about the ethnic origin of the Balūch vary, and the most likely appears to be the one placing them in the Iranian plateau. Studies of their physical anthropology suggest that their physical features are similar to those found on the anthropological finds made on the Iranian plateau. Ivan…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Balūchī Literature
(1,761 words)
Balūchī Literature, the Balūchī literary heritage, which is partially oral, consists of poetry on epics, love, history, society, ethics, advice and admonition. Their corpus of oral poetry forms part of the Balūch nation’s collective memory in verse form and describes both fictional and factual issues such as episodes of epic heroism and love as well as the ethnic and geographic origins of the Balūch people.Muhammad Sardar Khan Baluch points out that the Balūch had neither a written literature nor poets such as Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī or Saʿdī. However, like the Be…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Balyānī, Amīn al-Dīn
(1,720 words)
Balyānī, Amīn al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Masʿūd (d. 11 Dhū al-Qaʿda 745/16 March 1345), was a scholar and Sufi who lived in the era of the Īnjū dynasty of Fārs. The earliest and most important source covering his biography is
Miftāḥ al-hidāya wa miṣbāḥ al-ʿināya by his disciple Maḥmūd b. ʿUthmān. Amīn al-Dīn’s familial lineage stretches back through ten generations to the well-known Sufi Shaykh, Abū ʿAlī al-Daqqāq (q.v., d. ca. 405/1015) (Maḥmūd b. ʿUthmān,
Miftāḥ al-hidāya, 6; see also Ibn Ḥajar, 6/7), but his spiritual lineage, through his uncle Awḥad al-Dīn Balyānī (q…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Balyānī, Awḥad al-Dīn
(1,360 words)
Balyānī, Awḥad al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd b. Muḥammad (d. 683 or 686/1284 or 1287), was a Sufi and scholar from Kāzarūn. His
laqab is also given as Aṣīl al-Dīn (Aḥmad Zarkūb, 186), although this may be a confusion with that of his father’s teacher, Shaykh Aṣīl al-Dīn Shīrāzī (see Jāmī, 258–259).His grandfather Najm al-Dīn Muḥammad, who was a descendant of the well-known Sufi master Abū ʿAlī al-Daqqāq (q.v., d. ca. 405/1015), migrated to Kāzarūn and married the daughter of one of his disciples, Qāḍī Muḥammad Balyānī. Their marriage resulted in a…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bam, Arg
(4,920 words)
Bam, Arg, the largest adobe structure in the world prior to the earthquake of October 2003, with a surface area of approximately 200,000 sq m. The
arg, or citadel, was the original site of the city of Bam, which is situated in a desert environment on the southern edge of the Iranian high plateau (at an altitude of 1060 m). It is 200 km south-east of Kirmān, and 120 km north-east of Jīruft. Life in the oasis was sustained by the underground irrigation canals (
qanāts), of which some of the earliest evidence in Iran is preserved in Bam. The
arg is the most representative example of a fortified m…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Banākatī
(843 words)
Banākatī, Abū Sulaymān Fakhr al-Dīn Dāwūd b. Muḥammad (d. 730/1330), was a Persian historian and poet of the Īlkhānid period. He himself mentions his
laqab Fakhr al-Dīn Banākatī (p. 465). He was born in Banākat, which later became Shāhrukhiyya in Transoxania (Aḥmadī, 567–568; Elliot, 3/55), and was raised in a scholarly family. His father Tāj al-Dīn Abū al-Faḍl Banākatī, who was known as a religious scholar (Ṣafā, 3(2)/1266), was the author of
Kitāb al-maysūr, a commentary on
Maṣābīḥ by Abū Muḥammad al-Baghawī and
Miṣbāḥ al-ḍamīr min Ṣiḥāḥ al-tafsīr by Tāj al-Dīn Abū al-Faḍl Banāk…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Banākatī
(849 words)
Banākatī, Abū Sulaymān Fakhr al-Dīn Dāwūd b. Muḥammad (d. 730/1330), was a ¶ Persian historian and poet of the Īlkhānid period. He himself mentions his
laqab Fakhr al-Dīn Banākatī (p. 465). He was born in Banākat, which later became Shāhrukhiyya in Transoxania (Aḥmadī, 567–568; Elliot, 3/55), and was raised in a scholarly family. His father Tāj al-Dīn Abū al-Faḍl Banākatī, who was known as a religious scholar (Ṣafā, 3(2)/1266), was the author of
Kitāb al-maysūr, a commentary on
Maṣābīḥ by Abū Muḥammad al-Baghawī and
Miṣbāḥ al-ḍamīr min Ṣiḥāḥ al-tafsīr by Tāj al-Dīn Abū al-Faḍl Banā…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Banū Isrāʾīl
(1,856 words)
Banū Isrāʾīl (‘The Children of Israel’) are mentioned some forty times in the Qurʾān as a general designation for the Jewish people. The term was exclusively used during the Meccan period (the term al-Yahūd, ‘Jews’, being used in verses from the Medinan period), and mostly in reference to the story of Moses—this may help explain the form of the phrase, ‘children of Israel’, which parallels the usage
bnei-yisraʾel (בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל) in the Book of Exodus. However, the Banū Isrāʾīl are not depicted in the Qurʾān simply as the historical people of Moses, but also…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Banū Isrāʾīl
(1,867 words)
Banū Isrāʾīl (‘The Children of Israel’) are mentioned some forty times in the Qurʾān as a general designation for the Jewish people. The term was exclusively used during the Meccan period (the term al-Yahūd, ‘Jews’, being used in verses from the Medinan period), and mostly in reference to the story of Moses—this may help explain the form of the phrase, ‘children of Israel’, which parallels the usage
bnei-yisraʾel (בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל) in the Book of Exodus. However, the Banū Isrāʾīl are not depicted in the Qurʾān simply as the historical people of Moses, but also…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Banū al-Munajjim
(2,703 words)
Banū al-Munajjim, or Āl al-Munajjim, the name given to the family descended from Ibn Abī Manṣūr, a Persian court astrologer (
munajjim) and mathematician who embraced Islam during the reign of the seventh ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 198–218/813–833). Over five generations the Banū al-Munajjim made their mark at the ʿAbbāsid court, initially in the field of astrology and the mathematical sciences, but later in music as well as literature and Arabic poetry.The original ancestor of the family, Abān Ḥasīs or Fīrūzān (known as Abū Manṣūr), who claimed descent from the…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Banū al-Munajjim
(2,720 words)
Banū al-Munajjim, or Āl al-Munajjim, the name given to the family descended from Ibn Abī Manṣūr, a Persian court astrologer (
munajjim) and mathematician who embraced Islam during the reign of the seventh ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 198–218/813–833). Over five generations the Banū al-Munajjim made their mark at the ʿAbbāsid court, initially in the field of astrology and the mathematical sciences, but later in music as well as literature and Arabic poetry. The original ancestor of the family, Abān Ḥasīs or Fīrūzān (known as Abū Manṣūr), who claimed descent from the…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Banū Mūsā
(9,615 words)
Banū Mūsā, the name applied to three brothers, Muḥammad, Aḥmad and al-Ḥasan, the sons of Mūsā b. Shākir al-Khurāsānī, sometimes also referred to as the Banū Shākir. They are important because of their foundational work in mathematical sciences, the role they played in the Graeco-Arabic translation movement, and, more generally, in the political, cultural and scientific life of the first half of the 3rd/middle of the 9th century in the ʿAbbāsid empire.BiographyThe dates of birth for the brothers are not known. The year of the death of Muḥammad, the eldest of the thr…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
al-Baqīʿ
(2,083 words)
al-Baqīʿ, also known as ‘Baqīʿ al-Gharqad’ is the oldest and most famous cemetery of the Islamic era in Medina. In more recent times it is popularly known as ‘Jannat al-Baqīʿ.According to lexicographers, the name of the cemetery indicates that prior to the advent of Islam, the field in which the burial-ground lay was originally covered with prickly shrubs, called
al-gharqad—possibly the boxthorn or the nitre bush (
Nitraria retusa), and that the word
baqīʿ indicates ‘a place in which are roots of various kinds of trees’ (Abū ʿUbayd, 1/265; Yāqūt, 1/703; about this na…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
al-Baqīʿ
(2,065 words)
al-Baqīʿ, also known as ‘Baqīʿ al-Gharqad’ is the oldest and most famous cemetery of the Islamic era in Medina. In more recent times it is popularly known as ‘Jannat al-Baqīʿ. According to lexicographers, the name of the cemetery indicates that prior to the advent of Islam, the field in which the burial-ground lay was originally covered with prickly shrubs, called
al-gharqad—possibly ¶ the boxthorn or the nitre bush (
Nitraria retusa), and that the word
baqīʿ indicates ‘a place in which are roots of various kinds of trees’ (Abū ʿUbayd, 1/265; Yāqūt, 1/703; about this n…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bāqī bi’llāh
(2,232 words)
Bāqī bi’llāh, Abū Muʾayyid Raḍī al-Dīn Muḥammad (971–1012/1564–1603), was the son of Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Salām b. Khiljī Samarqandī Qurayshī, and one of the propagators of the Naqshbandī Sufi Order in India, with the pen-name
Bīrang. He was born in Kabul, with one source (Ikrām, 192) giving the date as 5 Dhū al-Ḥijja 971/15 July 1564, on the basis of the unpublished
Sīrat-i Bāqī, although the earliest biographies only give the year 971/1564.His father, who was both a Sufi and a scholar, played a significant role in his education. His mother, a descendant of the famous Sufi Shaykh Khʷājah ʿUbayd Al…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
al-Bāqillānī, Abū Bakr
(6,769 words)
al-Bāqillānī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Ṭayyib (d. 23 Dhū al-Qaʿda 403/5 June 1013), a renowned Ashʿarī theologian. Some sources include the appellation al-Rabaʿī (al-Sakūnī, 253), indicating his Arab origins. His precise date of birth is not known, but some scholars have proposed that it was around the year 328/940 (Watt, 76; Sezgin,
GAS, 1/608; cf. al-Khuḍayrī’s introduction to
al-Tamhīd, 2). It is probable the he was born in Baṣra (al-Khaṭīb, 5/379). As to his
laqab, al-Samʿānī’s claim that it derives from Bāqillā (2/52) would seem to be incorrect, since this would g…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bāqir Khān
(2,906 words)
Bāqir Khān (d. 1335/1917), known as Sālār-i Millī, was an influential popular leader in Tabrīz during the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 (q.v.), and a close associate of Sattār Khān (1866–1914), known as Sardār-i Millī (see Fig. 15).He was born in the Khiyābān district of Tabrīz in 1240 Sh./1861. There is little information about his life prior to his involvement in the Constitutional Revolution, apart from the fact that in his early years he apparently worked in the construction trade. In his locality, he was known as a courag…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17