Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

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Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs

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The Encyclopaedia of Islam (Second Edition) Online sets out the present state of our knowledge of the Islamic World. It is a unique and invaluable reference tool, an essential key to understanding the world of Islam, and the authoritative source not only for the religion, but also for the believers and the countries in which they live. 

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Fāʾ

(167 words)

Author(s): Fleisch, H.
, 20th letter of the Arabic alphabet, transcribed f; numerical value 80, as in the Syriac (and Canaanite) alphabet [see abd̲j̲ad ]. Definition: fricative, labio-dental, unvoiced; according to the Arabic grammatical tradition: rik̲h̲wa , s̲h̲afawiyya (or s̲h̲afahiyya ), mahmūsa ; f is a continuation of a p in ancient Semitic and common Semitic. For the phonological oppositions of the phoneme f, see J. Cantineau, Esquisse , in BSL (no. 126), 94, 1°; for the incompatibilities, ibid., 134. Modifications: some examples exist of the passage of f to t̲h̲ , as in the doublet: nukāf and nukāt̲h̲

Fable

(9 words)

[see ḥikāya , ḳiṣṣa , mat̲h̲al ].

Faḍāʾil

(5 words)

[see faḍīla ]

Fadak

(2,417 words)

Author(s): Veccia Vaglieri, L.
, an ancient small town in the northern Ḥid̲j̲āz, near K̲h̲aybar and, according to Yāḳūt, two or three days’ journey from Medina. This place-name having disappeared, Ḥāfiẓ Wahba in his Ḏj̲azīrat al-ʿArab (Cairo 1956, 15) identified the ancient Fadak with the modern village of al-Ḥuwayyiṭ (pron. Ḥowēyaṭ), situated on the edge of the ḥarra of K̲h̲aybar. Inhabited, like K̲h̲aybar, by a colony of Jewish agriculturists, Fadak produced dates and cereals; handicrafts also flourished, with the weaving of blankets with palm-leaf borders. Fadak owes its fame in the history of Islam to…

Faḍāla

(390 words)

Author(s): Adam, A.
, town and port on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, 25 km. to the north-east of Casablanca, in the lands of the Zanāta tribe. The origin of the name is unknown; the etymology given by Graberg de Hemsö and by Godard ( fayḍ Allāh = “bounty of God”) is obviously fanciful. The name is perhaps to be compared with that of a section of the neighbouring Ziyāyda tribe, the Faḍḍāla. The toponym appears as early as al-Idrīsī and the Genoese and Venetian portulans. It appears that Christian merchants visited the anchorage in the …

al-Faḍālī

(101 words)

Author(s): Schacht, J.
, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-S̲h̲āfiʿī , a writer on Islamic dogmatics and teacher of al-Bād̲j̲ūrī [ q.v.], d. 1236/1821. Both of his works, Kifāyat al-ʿAwāmm fīmā yad̲j̲ib ʿalayhim min ʿilm al-kalām , and a commentary on the profession of monotheism, Risāla ʿalā lā ilāha illa ’llāh , have been commented upon by al-Bād̲j̲ūrī and have been often printed together with the commentaries. (J. Schacht) Bibliography Brockelmann, II, 641 S II, 744 D. B. Macdonald, in EI 1, s.v. translations of his Kifāya by Macdonald, Development of Muslim theology, etc., 1903, 315 ff., and by M. Horten, Muhammedanis…

Faddān

(5 words)

[see misāḥa ].

Fad̲h̲laka

(101 words)

Author(s): Ed.
, sum, total, from the Arabic fad̲h̲ālika , “and that [is]”, placed at the bottom of an addition to introduce the result. Besides its arithmetical use, the term was also employed for the summing up of a petition, report, or other document, as for example for the summarized statements of complaints presented at the Dīwān-i humāyūn [ q.v.]. By extension it acquired the meaning of compendium and is used, in this sense, in the titles of two well-known works on Ottoman history, written in the 17th century by Kātib Čelebi and in the 19th by Aḥmad Wefīḳ Pas̲h̲a [ qq.v.]. (Ed.)

Faḍīla

(1,628 words)

Author(s): Sellheim, R.
(Arab., pl. faḍāʾil ) an excellence or excellent quality, a high degree in (or of) excellence. The plural faḍāʾil indicates a definite category of literature, related to but distinct from the so-called “disputes for precedence”. Faḍāʾil literature exposes the excellences of things, individuals, groups, places, regions and such for the purpose of a laudatio . The polemical comparison or dialogue, characteristic of the “disputes for precedence”, is lacking. Faḍāʾil literature, the opposite to which is mat̲h̲ālib literature, may be divided into various branches: Ḳurʾān. Faḍāʾil li…

Fāḍil Bey

(344 words)

Author(s): Mordtmann, J.H.
, Ḥüseyn (ca. 1170/1757-1225/1810) also known as Fāḍil-i Enderūnī , Ottoman poet celebrated for his erotic works, was a grandson of Ẓāhir Āl ʿUmar [ q.v.] of ʿAkkā, who rebelled against the Porte in the seventies of the 18th century. Taken to Istanbul in 1190/1776 by the ḳapudān pas̲h̲a G̲h̲āzī Ḥasan after his grandfather and father had been slain in battle, he was brought up in the Palace. An amatory intrigue led to his expulsion in 1198/1783-4, and for twelve years he led a vagabond life in poverty in Istanbul. Ḳaṣīde s addressed to Selīm III and the statesmen …

Fad̲j̲r

(5 words)

[see ṣalāt ].

Fad̲j̲r-i Ātī

(7 words)

[see fed̲j̲r-i ātī ].

Faḍl Allāh

(746 words)

Author(s): Salibi, K.S.
, a family of Mamlūk state officials who traced their descent from the Caliph ʿUmar I, hence their nisba al-ʿUmarī, al-ʿAdawī al-Ḳuras̲h̲ī. The family received its name from its founder Faḍl Allāh b. Mud̲j̲allī b. Daʿd̲j̲ān, who was living in al-Karak (Transjordan) in 645/1247. S̲h̲araf al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, a son of Faḍl Allāh, held office as kātib al-sirr (head of the chancery) in Damascus, and was transferred to the same office in Cairo by the Sultan al-As̲h̲raf K̲h̲alīl in 692/1293. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb continued to head the central chancery of the Mamlūk state until 711/1311, when he …

Faḍl Allāh

(7 words)

[see ras̲h̲īd al-dīn ].

Faḍl Allāh Ḥurūfī

(3,079 words)

Author(s): Gölpinarli, Abdülbâkî
, the founder of the sect, or more properly, the religion of the Ḥurūfīyya [ q.v.]. The information given about Faḍl Allāh in the histories closest to his period in no way conforms to the information about him given by those who belonged to his sect and were contemporary with him and those who were inspired by his teachings. While the sources are agreed that he lived in the 8th/14th century, the reports that his name was D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn, that he was put to death in 804/1401-2, and especially the statement of later sources like the Riyāḍ al-ʿārifīn of Riḍā Kulik̲h̲ān Hi…

Faḍlawayh

(438 words)

Author(s): Spuler, B.
, Banū , a Kurdish dynasty which ruled in S̲h̲abānkāra [ q.v.] from 448/1056 to 718/1318-9. Very little is known about them except for the founder of the dynasty Faḍlawayh (in Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, x, 48: Faḍlūn) and for members of the family during the Ilk̲h̲ān period [ q.v.]. Faḍlawayh, son of the chief ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan b. Ayyūb of the Kurdish tribe Rāmānī in S̲h̲abānkāra, was originally a general (Sipāh-Sālār) under the Buwayhids [ q.v.] and closely connected with their vizier Ṣāḥib ʿĀdil. When the latter was executed after a change of government, Faḍlawayh eliminated th…

Faḍl, Bā

(501 words)

Author(s): Ghūl, M.A.
, a family of mas̲h̲āyik̲h̲ of Tarīm in Ḥaḍramawt claiming descent from the Saʿd al-ʿas̲h̲ira clan of Mad̲h̲ḥid̲j̲. The name Bā Faḍl seems to derive from an ancestor called al-faḳīh Faḍl b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad, whose genealogy cannot be traced beyond that. They seem to have had supreme authority in religious matters in ¶ Tarīm until superseded by the Bā ʿAlawī sayyid s around the 9th/15th century. They have long been prominent as ṣūfī s and faḳīh s, jurists. In the 10-11th/16th-17th centuries one branch existed in Aden. The most famou…

al-Faḍl b. Aḥmad al-Isfarāʾinī

(201 words)

Author(s): Nazim, M.
Abu’l-ʿAbbās , the first wazīr of Sulṭān Maḥmūd of G̲h̲azna, was formerly the ṣāḥib-i barīd (see barīd ) of Marw under the Sāmānids. At the request of Subuktigīn, Amīr Nuḥ b. Manṣūr the Samānid sent Faḍl to Nīs̲h̲āpūr in 385/995 as the wazīr of Maḥmūd, who had been appointed to the command of the troops in K̲h̲urāsān the previous year. Faḍl managed the affairs of the expanding empire of Sulṭān Maḥmūd with great tact and ability until 404/1013, when he was accused of extorting money from the subjects of the Sultan. Instead of answering t…
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