, Naẓīr al-samt (a.), Eng. and Fr. nadir, the bottom, the pole of the horizon (invisible) under the observer in the direction of the vertical, also the deepest (lowest) point in the sphere of heaven. The nadir is the opposite pole to the zenith [see samt al-raʾs ]. The word naẓīr (from naẓara “to see”, “to observe”) originally (and generally) means the point diametrically opposite a point on the circumference of a circle or the surface of a sphere; we find muḳābal as a synonym of naẓīr in this general meaning [see also muḳābala ]. (W. Hartner)

(t.), Heaven, God. In the eastern Turkish dialects the vocalisation is usually palatal: Čag̲h̲atay, tengri (written ) and similar forms in the other dialects. The trisyllabic forms in Teleut ( täñärä ) and in the Altai dialect ( täñäri ) are worthy of note; the Kazan Tatar dialect has alongside of tängri (god) a word täri = image of a saint, ikon (we may here mention the proper name Täri-birdi , where täri of course means God). The Og̲h̲uz dialects (Ottoman Turkish, Azerbaijani and Turkmen) have a non-palatal vocalisation, as has Yakut ( tañara ) and Chuvas̲h̲ ( tură < tañri̊ ). For the lexicogr…

(genitive ʿilliyyīn ) is used in Sūra LXXXIII, 18 to mean the place in the book where the deeds of the pious ( abrār ) are listed. In the two following verses (19 ff.) ʿilliyyūn is described as an inscribed book ( kitāb marḳūm ). In verse 21 it is said of this book that those close (to God) bear witness to it. Correspondingly in verse 7 of the same Sūra the place in the book where the deeds of evil-doers are chronicled is called sid̲j̲d̲j̲īn . In the two following verses (8 ff.) sid̲j̲d̲j̲īn too is defined as an inscribed book. In Ṭabarī’s view ʿilliyyūn may be identified with the seventh heaven or…

(a.), literally "the upper part of anything, the sky, the heavens". 1. As a cosmological and theological term. According to Arabic lexicography (see Lane, s. v.), the word samāʾ is derived from the root s-m-w ( = being or becoming high, elevated). As a noun, it may be used for anything that is "the higher or the highest" part of any physical or metaphysical reality, but it generally denotes the cosmological and theological entity which in English, with equal vagueness, is described as "heaven" or "sky". Fittingly, samāʾ is predominandy masculine, but it can be masculine or feminin…

(a.), board, plank; tablet, table. Both ranges of meaning are found in other Semitic languages such as Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac and Ethiopie, and Jeffery thought that, whilst the sense “board, plank” might be an original Arabism, the second sense was almost certainly from the Judaeo-Christian cultural and religious milieu (see The foreign vocabulary of the Qur’ān , Baroda 1938, 253-4). The word occurs five times in the Ḳurʾān. The first meaning is found in sūra LIV, 13, where Noah’s ark is called d̲h̲āt alwāḥ . The second meaning is that of lawḥ as writing material, e.g. the tablets of the lawḥ…

, the beast on which Muḥammad is said to have ridden, when he made his miraculous “night-journey”. According to Sūra xxii, 1, the “night-journey” led the Prophet from the sacred place of worship, i.e., Mecca, to the “remote place of worship”. This latter place has been identified by B. Schrieke and J. Horovitz with a point in the heavens, and by A. Guillaume, recently, with a locality near D̲j̲iʿrāna on the border of the sacred precinct of Mecca. The addition of the phrase “the environs of which we have blessed” makes it probab…

, also Namrūd̲h̲ , Nimrūd , the Nimrod of the Bible, is associated in Muslim legend, as in Haggada, with the story of the childhood of Abraham. The Ḳurʾān, it is true, does not mention him but probably, as in many other cases, only from dislike of mentioning names. That the legend of Namrūd was known is evident from the following verses. “Do you not see how he disputed with Ibrāhīm about the Lord who had granted him dominion? When Ibrāhīm said: It is my Lord who gives life and d…

originally means time in an absolute sense and is synonymous with dahr [ q.v.; see also Zamān ]. When under the influence of Greek philosophy the problem of the eternity of the world (see Ḳidam ) was discussed in Islam, abad (or abadiyya ) became a technical term corresponding to the Greek term ἀφθαρτός, incorruptible, eternal a parte post, in opposition to azal (or azaliyya ) corresponding to the Greek term ἀγενητός, ungenerated, eternal a parte ante. (Ibn Rus̲h̲d—cf. ed. Bouyges, index—uses azaliyya for "incorruptible"]. [For azal see Ḳidam.] As to the problem concerned, viz. if …

(a.), originally designates “a ladder”, and then “an ascent”, and in particular, the Prophet’s ascension to Heaven. 1. In Islamic exegesis and in the popular and mystical tradition of the Arab world. The Ḳurʾān (LXXXI, 19-25, LIII, 1-21) describes a vision in which a divine messenger appears to Muḥammad, and LIII, 12-18, treats of a second mission of a similar kind. In both cases, the Prophet sees a heavenly figure approach him from the distance, but there is no suggestion that he himself was carried away to Heaven. However, i…

In one of its admonitions to the unbelieving Jews of Medina, the Ḳurʾān (II, 102/96) expresses itself thus (from A. J. Arberry’s translation): “[the children of Israel] follow what the Satans recited over Solomon’s Kingdom. Solomon disbelieved not, but the Satans disbelieved, teaching the people sorcery, and that which was sent down upon Babylon’s two angels Hārūt and Mārūt; they taught not any man, without they said, “We are but a temptation; do not disbelieve …””. The Ḳurʾānic narrative, linked somewhat artificially with Solomon, whose relations with demons are well-known [see sulay…

, an extremist S̲h̲īʿī sect of the 2nd/8th century named after its founder Abū Manṣūr al-ʿId̲j̲lī. The latter is also called al-Mustanīr in some sources, but the reading is uncertain. Abū Manṣūr was a native of the sawād of Kūfa and, a tribesman rather than a peasant, grew up in the desert. Later, he owned a house in Kūfa. The statement of some sources that he belonged to ʿAbd al-Ḳays is not necessarily wrong, since ʿId̲j̲l is often counted as a branch of ʿAbd al-Ḳays. His following came chiefly from he traditionally S̲h̲īʿī tribes of ʿId̲j̲l, Bad̲j̲īla and Kinda, and included also mawālī …

(a.), plural ak̲h̲bār , ak̲h̲ābir , report, piece of information. The word is not used in any special context in the Ḳurʾān. In the ḥadīt̲h̲ it occurs among other passages in the tradition which describes how the d̲j̲inn by eavesdropping obtain information from heaven ( k̲h̲abar min al-samaʾ ) and how they are pelted with fiery meteors to prevent them from doing so (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ad̲h̲ān , bāb 105; Muslim, Ṣalāt , tr. 149); al-Tirmid̲h̲ī, Tafsīr , Sūra Ixxii, trad. 1). In his collection al-Buk̲h̲āri has a chapter entitled Ak̲h̲bār al-āḥād , which, as the tard̲j̲ama …

, an Iranian religious agitator who, in the later period of Umayyad rule —about 129/747—set himself up as a new prophet at Ḵh̲awāf in the district of Nīs̲h̲āpūr. He gathered about him a large following and was put to death with his disciples on the orders of Abū Muslim in 131/749. Before this he is believed to have lived in China for seven years and on his return, to have revealed himself to certain people as resurrected and descended from heaven. Legend also has it that he pretended to be dead …

6. In Persian literature. The ascension of the Prophet of Islam is, for Persian literature, an account, Ḳiṣṣa-i miʿrād̲j̲ , one drawn from a long tradition, ḥadīt̲h̲-i miʿrād̲j̲ and an account that takes an autonomous form, miʿrād̲j̲-nāma . This account thus has a history. The progressive organisation of the narrative elements constituting the whole is derived from the world to which the text belongs. The world of Persian literature cannot be detached from its Muslim context (Ḳurʾān, tradition and exegesis) nor from its original milieu (Iranian and, furthermore, millennial). The cel…

or Bag̲h̲būr , title of the Emperor of China in the Muslim sources. The Sanskrit * bhagaputra and the Old Iranian * bag̲h̲aput̲h̲ra , with which attempts have been made to connect this compound, are not attested, but a form bg̲h̲pwhr (= * bag̲h̲puhr ), signifying etymologically “son of God”, is attested in Parthian Pahlavī to designate Jesus, whence Sogdian bag̲h̲pūr , Arabicized as bag̲h̲būr and fag̲h̲fūr ; these forms were felt by the Arab authors as the translation of the Chinese T’ien tzŭ “son of heaven” (cf. Relation de la Chine et de l’Inde , ed. and tr. J. Sau…

or al-D̲j̲awzahr , technical term occurring in Arabic and Persian astrological and astronomical texts. 1. It indicates primarily the two lunar nodes, al-ʿuḳdatāni , i.e., the two diametrically opposite points of intersection between the moon’s orbit and the ecliptic: the ascending node or “head”, raʾs , and the descending node or “tail”, d̲h̲anab ( scil . of the ¶ dragon, al-tinnīn ). In many cases it refers only to the “head”; in some mss. a special word, nawbahr , is used for the “tail” [see below]. The word Ḏj̲awzahar, though explained differently in the Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm …

, Maḥmūd , Ilk̲h̲an [ q.v.] from 694/1295 until 713/1304, was born on 20 Rabiʿ I 670/5 November 1271, being the eldest son of Arg̲h̲ūn [ q.v.], then only in his thirteenth year. Upon his father’s accession G̲h̲āzān was appointed governor of Ḵh̲urāsān, Māzandarān and Ray, which provinces he continued to administer during the reign of Gayk̲h̲ātū [ q.v.]. He had been brought up as a Buddhist and, whilst governor, had ordered the construction of Buddhist temples in Ḵh̲abūshān (Ḳūčān); but shortly before his accession, during the war with Bāydū [ q.v.], he had been persuaded by his general…

, “the Two Seas”, a cosmographical and cosmological concept appearing five times in the Ḳurʾān (once in the nominative, xxxv, 12). The two seas are described as being one fresh and sweet, and one salt and bitter (xxxv, 12; xxv, 53). Fresh meat and ornaments are taken from the two seas, and on them boats are seen (xxxv, 12). Ṭabarī ( Tafsīr , xxv, 55) says the fresh and sweet denote the waters of rivers and of rain, the salt and bitter the waters of the sea. The two seas are divided by a barrier, called a barzak̲h̲ (xxv, 53; lv, 20) and a ḥād̲j̲iz (xxvii, 61). Muslim scholars …

(Ar.), the feminine of the elative adjective meaning ‘nearer, nearest’, is used in the Ḳurʾān, often combined with ‘life’ to mean This world. It had more or less This sense before Islam (Noeldeke, Muʿallaḳāt des ʿAmr und des Ḥārith , 49). The heaven of the dunyā is the lowest of the seven; dunyā is what is contained in the succession of night and day, is overshadowed by the sky and upheld by the earth, is all that the eye can see, the world of the seen ( s̲h̲ahāda ). In the realm of the spirit it includes all that Christians mean by the world and the flesh and…

(a.), one of the mysterious words of the Ḳurʾān, appearing in XI, 84/82; XV, 74; and CV, 4. The derivation in the Arabic sources from Persian sang “stone” and gil “mud” did not satisfy Horovitz. It seems to designate stones resembling lumps of clay, fired or sun-dried, since this is corroborated by LI, 33-4, “... That we may loose on them stones of clay, marked by your Lord for the prodigal”. Some commentators add that these stones had been baked in the fire of Hell, and the expre…

(a.), royal power, is used in the Ḳurʾān with reference to God and to certain pre-Islamic personages, who all appear in the Old Testament, and in the former case is synonymous with malakūt ; the latter word, however, occurs only four times in the Ḳurʾān and always with a dependent genitive ( kull s̲h̲ayʾ or al-samawāt wa ’l-arḍ ) while mulk is often used absolutely. To God alone belongs mulk, He has no associate therein; to Him belongs mulk over heaven and earth as well as over the judgment. He gives mulk to whom ¶ He will; the unbelievers have no share in it. S̲h̲ayṭān promised Adam imperishable mulk…

, Saptagrāma in Sanskrit, a famous medieval port city and administrative centre in southwestern Bengal. Located at the junction of the rivers Bhagirat̲h̲i and Saraswati and adjacent to both Triveni—a holy place to the Hindus—and Čhōt́a Pānd́uʾā [see pānd́uʾā ], the city existed long before its conquest by a famous Muslim army commander Ẓafar K̲h̲ān G̲h̲āzī during the reign of Sultan Kaykāwūs S̲h̲āh (689-700/1290-1301). A thriving port city and commercial place during the Sultanate period, Sātgāʾon also became an…

(in European literature one also finds ʿAzrāʾīl), the name of the an gel of death, one of the four archangels (next to D̲j̲ibrīl, Mīk̲h̲āʾīl, Isrāfīl). Like Isrāfīl, whose office of trumpet-blower at the last judgment is sometimes given to him, he is of cosmic magnitude; if the water of all the seas and rivers were poured on his head, not a drop would reach the earth. He has a seat ( sarīr ) of light in the fourth or seventh heaven, on which one of his feet rests; the other stands on the bridge between paradise and hell. He is however also said to have 70,000 feet. The description of his appearance a…

, extremist S̲h̲īʿī sect in al-Kūfa founded by Abu ’l-K̲h̲aṭṭāb al-Asadī [ q.v.] (killed ca. 138/755). Abu ’l-K̲h̲aṭṭāb claimed that the Imām Ḏj̲aʿfar al-Ṣādiḳ [ q.v.] had appointed him as his deputy and legatee ( waṣī ) and taught him the Greatest Name of God. He was at first encouraged by the Imām, but later, probably still before 130/748, was repudiated and cursed by D̲j̲aʿfar. As a result, his followers split up into several subsects. The reports of the heresiographers about these early sects are based on…

(a.), literally “that which rises”. 1. Astronomical aspects. Al-ṭāliʿ is that point of the ecliptic which is rising over the horizon at a given moment, called the ascendent or horoscopus (and sometimes, incorrectly, the horoscope); see the diagram in maṭāliʿ . The determination of the ascendent is necessary in mathematical astrology [see nud̲j̲ūm , aḥkām al- ] before one can calculate the instantaneous positions of the 12 astrological houses ( al-buyūt ); with these determined, one can then investigate in which houses the sun, moon and five na…

, proper name of the devil, probably a contraction of διάβολος. A different etymology has been suggested by D. Künstlinger, in RO, vi, 76 ff.; ¶ the Arab philologists consider that Iblīs derives from the root bls , “because Iblīs has nothing to expect ( ublisa ) from the mercy of God”. He is also known as ʿAduww Allāh (the enemy of God) and al-ʿAduww (the Enemy). Finally he is given the common name of al-s̲h̲ayṭān [ q.v.]. In the Ḳurʾān he appears at two points in the story of the beginning of the world. (1) When God had created Adam [ q.v.] from clay and had breathed into him the spirit of life…

a Persian poet of the first half of the 6th/12th century. His dīwān , which has been published twice (ed. ʿAlī Ḳawīm, Tehran 1331 S̲h̲ ./1952-3, and ed. M.ʿA. Nāṣiḥ, Tehran 1343 S̲h̲./1964), consists almost entirely of panegyrics praising the Sald̲j̲ūḳ sultan Sand̲j̲ar (511-52/1118-57), the Ḵh̲wārazms̲h̲āh Atsi̊z (521-68/1127-72) and various persons at their respective courts, in particular Sand̲j̲ar’s raʾīs-i Ḵh̲urāsān , Mad̲j̲d al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Ḏj̲aʿfar al-Musawī, the poet’s principal patron. The rivalry between his two royal master…

, a branch of the S̲h̲īʿī “exaggerators” ( g̲h̲ulāt [ q.v.]). Its adherents believed that ʿAlī and Muḥammad were so like in physical features as to be confused, as like “as one crow ( g̲h̲urāb ) is to another” (a proverbial expression for great similarity, cf. Zeitschr. f. Assyr ., xvii, 53), so that the Angel Gabriel when commissioned by God to bring the revelation to ʿAlī gave it in mistake to Muḥammad. ʿAlī was, they say, appointed by God to be a Prophet and Muḥammad only became one through a mistake. According to Ibn …

, “Garden”, is the term which, used antonomastically, usually describes, in the Ḳurʾān and in Muslim literature, the regions of the Beyond prepared for the elect, the “Companions of the right”. E.g.: “These will be the Dwellers in the Garden where they will remain immortal as a reward for their deeds on earth” (Ḳurʾān, XLVI, 14). Other Ḳurʾānic terms will be considered later either as synonyms or as particular aspects of the “Garden”: ʿAdn and D̲j̲annāt ʿAdn . (Eden, e.g., LXI, 12), Firdaws (“Paradise”, sg. farādis , cf. παράδεισος XXIII, 11), the Dwelling of Salvation or of Peace ( dār al-Sa…

(a.), originally: “he who stands upright”, then (with bi, ʿalā , li or the genitive alone), he who takes something upon himself, takes care of something or someone and hence also has authority over them. Thus we find the pre-Islamic poet al-Ḳuṭāmī ( Dīwān , ed. Barth, Leiden 1902, no. 26) already speaking of a “ ḳayyim of water”, i.e. apparently the man in charge of it, the supervisor, and the poet Bāʿit̲h̲ b. Ṣuraym ( Ḥamāsa of Abū Tammām, ed. Freytag, 269, verse 2) speaks of the ḳayyim of a woman, i.e. he who provides for her, her husband. The first mentioned meaning, (supervisor etc…

(a.), “the lote tree on the boundary” as described in Ḳurʾān, LIII, 14: “Indeed, he [Muḥammad] saw him [D̲j̲ibrīl] another time [other than that referred to in Ḳurʾān, LIII, 1-12] by the lote tree of the boundary nigh which is the garden of the refuge ... Indeed, he saw one of the greatest signs of his Lord.” The full exegesis of this passage arises in a prominent ḥadīt̲h̲ report (repeated, for example, in al-Buk̲h̲ārī, K. manāḳib al-anṣār and K. badʾ al-k̲h̲alḳ Muslim, K. al-īmān also see al-Ṭabarī, i, 1158-9) which speaks at length of the miʿrād̲j̲ [ q.v.]. After Muḥammad (who was accompa…

(or Kās̲h̲ānī or Ḳās̲h̲ī or Kāsānī ), celebrated Ṣūfī author, died according to Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Ḵh̲alīfa (ed. Flügel, iv, 427), in 730/1329. Hād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Ḵh̲alīfa, however, confusing him with the historian of the same name, the author of the Maṭlaʿal-Saʿdain , says in another place (ii, 175) that he died in 887/1482 and, besides, gives his name as Kamāl al-Dīn Abu ’l-G̲h̲anāʾim ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ b. Ḏj̲amāl al-Dīn al-Kās̲h̲ī al-Samarḳanḍī. Little is known of ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ’s life; according to Ḏj̲āmī ( Nafaḥāt al-Uns , quoted by St. Guyard), he was a pupil of N…

, name of the eighth month of the Islamic lunar year. In classical ḥadīt̲h̲ it has already its place after Rad̲j̲ab Muḍar. In Indian Islam it has the name of S̲h̲ab-i barāt (see below), the Atchehnese call it Kandūri bu and among the Tigrē tribes of Eritrea it is called Maddagēn , i.e. who follows upon Rad̲j̲ab. In early Arabia, the month of S̲h̲aʿbān (the name may mean “interval”) seems to have corresponded, as to its significance, to Ramaḍān. According to the ḥadīt̲h̲, Muḥammad practised superogatory fasting by preference in S̲h̲aʿbān (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ṣawm , bāb 52; Muslim, Ṣiyām …

(or al-Fawṭī ), a Muʿtazilī of Baṣra, where he was the pupil of Abu ’l-Hud̲h̲ayl [ q.v.]. After having probably been a wandering propagator of Iʿtizāl (Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist , ed. Fück, in Prof. Muḥ. S̲h̲afīʿ presentation volume, Lahore 1955, 68-9), he went to Bag̲h̲dād during the caliphate of al-Maʾmūn and died there at a date not known exactly, but probably before 218/833. His personal doctrine, which had a certain influence on al-As̲h̲ʿarī [ q.v.], differs appreciably, accoiding to Ibn al-Nadīm ( op. cit.), from the teachings of the other Muʿtazila, but the data given by th…

(a.), in Islamic art, “ornament, ornamentation”. The word is connected with the noun zuk̲h̲ruf “gold” > “ornamental work” used in Ḳurʾān, XVII, 95/93, bayt min zuk̲h̲ruf, and there is an adjective muzak̲h̲raf “ornamented”; the origin of zuk̲h̲ruf seems to be in a deformation, via Syriac, of Grk. zōgrapheō “to paint”, see Jeffery, The foreign vocabulary of the Qurʾān , Baroda 1938, 150. ¶ Islamic ornament possesses certain qualities that, even if not exclusive to this art, are sufficiently distinct to be recognisable. One is that it is independent from the u…

, mythical second king of the line of Kayānids [ q.v.] whose name contains twice over the royal title kay (Kay Ūs> Kāʾūs). His history has been delineated by A. Christensen from the Iranian religious tradition and from the national tradition echoed by the later Muslim historians ( Les Kayanides , Copenhagen 1931, 73-90, 108-14). This Islamic historical tradition makes him the son of Kay Abīwēh > Abīh (except for Balʿamī, Firdawsī and al-T̲h̲aʿālibī, who make him the son of Kay Kubād [ q.v.]). He was a warrior-king who, according to Firdawsī, led a campaign into Māzandarān, whi…

(a.), lit. a “group (of people)”, or a “host”, or a “crowd”, like d̲j̲amāʿa , ḳawm [ q.vv.], nafar , rahṭ , and more generally, “the public”, and hence, fī malaʾ , fi ’l-malaʾ “publicly” (e.g. al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ṣaḥīḥ , 9 vols., Cairo 1958, ix, 148 = kitāb 97, bāb 15). The word also denotes decisions taken as a result of collective consultation, as in the phrase ʿan [ g̲h̲ayri ] malaʾin minnā “[not] as a result of our consultation” (Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Musnad , 6 vols., Cairo 1313/1895, repr. Beirut n.d., i, 463). Since collective decisions are usually taken by the leaders of the group, al-malaʾ very often…

, person mentioned twice in the Ḳurʾān (second Meccan period): XIX, 57/56-58/57, “And mention in the Book Idrīs; he was a true man ( ṣiddīḳ ), a Prophet. We raised him up to a high place”, and XXI, 85-86, “And [make mention of] Ismāʿīl, Idrīs, D̲h̲u ’l-Kifl—each was of the patient, and We admitted them into Our mercy; they were of the righteous” (tr. A. J. Arberry). Among the explanations suggested for This name, obviously foreign and adapted, like the name Iblīs [ q.v.], to the pattern ifʿīl , may be mentioned that of Casanova (in JA, cciv, 358, followed by Torrey, The Jewish foundation of Islam, N…

, āl al-bayt , "the people of the House", āl al-nabī , "the family of the Prophet", all mean the same; the term Āl Yāsīn also occurs. The origin of the phrase is to be found in the strong clan sense of the pre-Islamic Arabs, among whom the term al-bayt was applied to or adopted by the ruling family of a tribe (by derivation from an ancient right of guardianship of the symbol of the tribal deity, according to H. Lammens, Le Culte des Bétyles , in L’Arabic occidentale avant l’Hégire , Beirut 1928, 136 ff., 154 ff.), and survived into later centuries in the plural form al-buyūtāt f…

, (b. 18 June 1863 in Bag̲h̲dād, d. 23 February 1936), neo-classical poet and eminent representative of the Nahḍa [ q.v.] in ʿIrāḳ. A son of the Kurdish élite family of al-Bābān from Sulaymāniyya [ q.v.]—his father Muḥammad Fayḍī was Muftī of Bag̲h̲dād and his mother of Kurdish upperclass origin also—he spent his childhood with his mother, who lived separately from his father. At about 7 years old he became his father’s pupil in traditional Arabic learning at a time when modern-type Arabic schools did not exist i…

(a.), lit. “foregoers”: a term occasionally applied in S̲h̲īʿism to the Prophet, Imāms, and Fāṭima in recognition of their status as preexistent beings and the first of God’s creatures to respond to the demand “Am I not your Lord?” ( a-lastu bi-rabbikum ?). The term derives primarily from Ḳurʾān, LVI, 10-11 ( wa ’l-Ṣābīḳūn al-Ṣābīḳūn ulāʾika ’l-muḳarribūn ); there are also examples of verbal usage (e.g. “how could we not be superior to the angels, since we preceded them ( sabaḳnāhum ) in knowledge of our Lord?” al-Kirmānī, Mubīn , i, 304). The S̲h̲īʿī concept o…

(a.), pl. waẓāʾif , literally “task, charge, impose obligation” (see Dozy, Supplément, ii, 820-1). 1. As an administrative term. In the early Islamic period, the form II verb waẓẓafa and the noun waẓīfa are used as administrative-fiscal terms with the sense of imposing a financial burden ¶ or tax, e.g. of paying the k̲h̲arād̲j̲ , ʿus̲h̲r or d̲j̲izya [ q.vv.], cf. al-Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ , 73, 193 (the waẓāʾif of the provinces of al-Urdunn, Filasṭīn, Dimas̲h̲ḳ, Ḥimṣ, etc.) and other references given in the Glossarium , 108. But as well as this loose sense, waẓīfa had a more specific one, a…

(a., pl. ʿālamūn , ʿawālim ), world. 1. The word is found as early as the Ḳurʾān, where in borrowed formulae we have references to the rabb al-ʿālamīn and the seven samawāt . Allāh is its lord and creator who has created it for man as a sign of his omnipotence. This transitory world [ dunyā ) is of little value—"not worth the wing of a midge" is the traditional expression—in comparison with the next ( āk̲h̲ira ). We are told very little about the structure of the world [cf. the article k̲h̲alḳ ]; the subjects of interest, in the Ḳurʾān as well as in Tradition, are God, the spiritual world and man. This bec…

(originally dew , Avestan daeva , Sanskrit dēva ), in Persian the name of the spirits of evil and of darkness, creatures of Ahriman, the personification of sins; their number is legion; among them are to be distinguished a group of seven principal demons, including Ahriman, opposed to the seven Ams̲h̲aspand (Av. aməša spənta , the “Immortal Holy Ones”). “The collective name of the daiva designates ... exclusively the inimical gods in the first place, then generally other supernatural beings who, being by nature evil, are opposed to the good and true faith .... These daiva, these dēv …

famous Ottoman Turkish saz poet of the 11th/17th century, d. 1119/1707. Apart from one or two sources, information on him stems mainly from what he says in his own dīwān . Basing themselves on such statements, some scholars (Bursali̊ Meḥmed Ṭāhir, Fuad Köprülü and Cahit Öztelli) have regarded him as coming from Gözleve (Gezlevi) in Konya province, whilst others (S. Nüzhet Ergun and, especially, Şükrü Elçin) place his home at Gözleve in the Crimea. Information in the Menāḳi̊b-nāme of Ketk̲h̲udāzāde ʿĀrif (94), in a poem discovered by Üsküdārli̊ Ṭalʿat (Ergun, 6), in the Med̲j̲mūʿa-yi tew…

, the name of the earliest of the five “Arab” prophets mentioned in the Ḳurʾān (Hūd, Ṣāliḥ, Ibrāhīm, S̲h̲uʿayb and Muḥammad). In his history, which is related three times (on this repetition, see al-Diāḥiẓ, Bayān , ed. Hārūn, i, 105) in slightly different forms (in chronological order: XXVI, 123-40, XI [ Sūra of Hūd ], 52-63/50-60, VII, 63-70/65-72, XLVI, 20/21, merely a restatement), the Ḳurʾān represents him as an ʿĀdī sent to this people [see ʿād ] to exhort them to adore the One God; but, like Muḥammad later in Mecca, he found only incredulity …

, the Joshua of the Bible. The Ḳurʾān does not mention him by name but alludes to him. When Moses wished to lead his people into the holy land and Israel was afraid to fight with the giants, they were encouraged by two God-fearing men (V, 20-6) who may be recognised as Joshua and Caleb. Neither can it be doubted that the young man ( fatā = naʿar , Exod. xxxiii. 11) who accompanies Moses on a journey to al-K̲h̲aḍir [ q.v.] (not named) in XVIII, 60-64, is any other than Joshua (see al-Ṭabarī, i, 428). Al-Ṭabarī was certainly well informed of the features of the biblical tradition concerning …

b. Ḳayyis b. ʿAbd S̲h̲ams , Muḥammad’s second wife, was one of the early converts to Islam. She was of the noble tribe of Ḳurays̲h̲ [ q.v.] on her father’s side, and her mother al-S̲h̲amūs bt. Ḳayyis b. ʿAmr of the Banū ʿAdī, was from the Medinan Anṣār [ q.v.], supporters of the Prophet. She accompanied her first husband al-Sakrān b. ʿAmr to Abyssiniya, along with her brother and his wife, with the second party of Muslims who emigrated there. The couple returned to Mecca before the hid̲j̲ra [ q.v.], and al-Sakrān, who had become a Christian in Abyssinia, died there. Sawda’s marriage to Muḥammad…

, Mīr Abu ’l-Ḳāsim b. Mīrzā Ḥusaynī Astarābādī , known in Persia as Mīr Findiriskī, Persian scholar and philosopher. He was probably born in Iṣfahān, where he studied and spent much of his life. He also travelled extensively in India, and died in Iṣfahān in 1050/1640-1. His tomb is located in the Tak̲h̲t-i Fūlād cemetery, and this shrine is visited by many devotees throughout the year. Mīr Findiriskī was one of the most famous of the philosophers and scientists of the Ṣafawid perio…

(Ar.), literally “to send, set in motion”; as a technical term in theology it means either the sending of prophets or the resurrection. 1. The Muʿtazila [ q.v.] said that God could not have done otherwise than send prophets to teach men religion as He must do the best He can for men; orthodoxy denied this but held that the sending of prophets was dictated by divine wisdom. One of the reasons for condemning Brahmins and the Sumaniyya was that they denied the existence of prophets. 2. Philosophy taught that resurrection ( baʿt̲h̲ , nas̲h̲r , nus̲h̲ūr ) was of the soul on…

, the nickname given to a person who rebelled in Transoxania during the caliphate of al-Mahdī (158-69/775-85 [ q.v.]) and who hid his face beneath a ḳināʿ , i.e., a veil (of silk), or, as a plausible tradition holds, a mask of gold which he had made for himself. His real name is not known with certainty, and there is a choice between ʿAṭāʾ, Ḥakīm, His̲h̲ām b. Ḥakīm and Hās̲h̲im; it is moreover related that he assumed this latter name for himself and that his partisans’ war-cry was “O Hās̲h̲im, help u…

, a Muslim mystic, descendant of the famous ṣūfī ʿAbd al-Ḳādir al-Ḏj̲īlānī, was born in 767/1365 and died about 832/1428. Little is known of his life, as the biographical works do not mention him. According to some of his own statements in al-Insān al-Kāmil , he lived from 796/1393 until 805/1402-3 in Zabīd in Yaman together with his s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ S̲h̲araf al-Dīn Ismāʿīl al-Ḏj̲abartī. In 790/1387 he was in India. He wrote about thirty books and treatises, of which al-Insān al-Kāmil fī Maʿrifat al-Awāk̲h̲ir wa ’l-Awāʾil is the best known (several editions prin…

, “the Ḳāʾim of the family of Muḥammad”, in S̲h̲īʿī terminology commonly denotes the Mahdī [ q.v.]. The term ḳāʾim , “riser”, was used in S̲h̲īʿī circles at least from the early 2nd/8th century on in referring to the member of the family of the Prophet who was expected to rise against the illegitimate regime and restore justice on earth, evidently in contrast to the ḳāʿid , or “sitting”, members of the family, who refused to be drawn into ventures of armed revolt. The term thus was often qualified as al-Ḳāʾim bi ’l-sayf , “the one who shall rise with the sword”. It…

, or D̲j̲ibrīl , Hebrew Gabrīʾēl , “Man of God”, is mentioned for the first time in the Old Testament, Dan. viii, 15 ff.; ix, 21 as flying to Daniel in the shape of a Man, sent by God in order to explain the vision of Daniel about the future. In post-biblical Judaism Gabriel plays an outstanding part among thousands of angels representing nations and individuals and natural phenomena. He belongs to the archangels and is governor of Paradise and of the serpents and the cherubs (Enoch, xx, 7). He is one of “The angels of the face”, standing at the ¶ left side of the Lord, and he dominates all forces ( ibid.,…

, daughter of Muḥammad and K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a, wife of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, mother of al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, was the only one of the Prophet’s daughters to enjoy great renown. She became the object of great veneration by all Muslims. This may be because she lived closest to her father, lived longest, and gave him numerous descendants, who spread throughout the Muslim world (the other sons and daughters of Muḥammad either died young or, if they had descendants, these soon died out); or it may be because…

(a.), a term of the Ḳurʾān, primarily denoting revelation in the form of communication without speech. Cognates in other Semitic languages include Palmyrene Aramaic twḥytʾ ( tawḥītā ) “decree [of the government]” and Mehri hewḥū “to come to someone’s help”. In the Ḳurʾān, waḥy is presented as an exceptional modality of God’s speaking to His creatures. This waḥy forms a concept of inspiration and communication without linguistic formulation, conveying the will of God, as in VII, 117: “And We suggested/put the idea into the head ( awḥaynā ) to Moses: ‘Cast thy …

, the father of mankind (Abu’l-Bas̲h̲ar). In the Ḳurʾān it is related that when God had ¶ created what is on the earth and in the heavens he said to the angels: "I am about to place a substitute ( k̲h̲alīfa ) on earth", and they said: "Wilt thou place thereon one who will do evil therein and shed blood, whereas we celebrate thy praise and sanctify thee?" Then God taught Adam the names of all things, and as the angels did not know the names Adam taught them these (ii, 28-33 Fl.). Thereafter God ordered the angels t…

, or Yazi̊d̲j̲i̊-zāde , Meḥmed, a venerated religious figure and poet of the first half of the 9th/15th century. He was the son of Yazi̊d̲j̲i̊ (i.e. scribe) Ṣāliḥ b. Süleymān [ q.v. in Suppl.], who wrote a Turkish met̲h̲newī on astrology called the S̲h̲emsiyye . The date of his birth is unknown and its place is uncertain, but may have been Ḳāḍī Köy in the Thracian district of Malḳara [ q.v.]. After he had gone to Persia and Transoxania to complete his studies, he setded in Gallipoli (Gelibolu). He met Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Bayrām [ q.v.], probably whilst the latter was passing through Gelibolu, a…

, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Ismāʿīl Ḥaḳḳī al-Brūsawī or al-Uskudārī (1063/1652-1137/1725), Turkish scholar, mystic and poet, born at Aydos near Edirne, where his family had moved after a fire destroyed their house in Istanbul. His Kitāb al-Silsila (Ms Beyazid Library No. 3384), the ultimate source for all subsequent biographies, gives his grandfather’s name as Bayram Čawush, the son of S̲h̲āh Ḵh̲udā-bende, and his father’s name as Muṣṭafā. He lost his mother at an early age and, en the suggestion of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ ʿOt̲h̲mān …

(κάλαμος, reed), the reed-pen used for writing in Arabic script. It is a tube of reed cut between two knots, sliced obliquely (or concave) at the thicker end and with the point slit, in similar fashion to the European quill and later the steel pen. The reed has to be very firm so that it does not wear away too quickly; the best kind comes from Wāsiṭ and grows in the marshes ( baṭāʾiḥ ) of ʿIrāḳ, but those from the swamps of Egypt (al-Muḳaddasī, BGA, iii, 203, 1. 13) or from Fāris were also recommended. Those from a rocky ground were called ṣuk̲h̲rī , those from the seashore baḥrī (Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIḳd…

, an Arabic word borrowed from Aramaic (Syriac form kurseyāʾ , in Hebrew: kissé ; see Th. Nöldeke, Mandäische Grammatik , 128; Fraenkel, De vocabulis peregrinis, 22; L. Koehler, W. Baumgarten, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti libros, 446) which can signify seat, in a very general sense (chair, couch, throne, stool, even bench). In the daily life of mediaeval Muslims it refers more specifically to a stool (i.e. seat without back or arm-rests), and there are a number of other terms which are applied to a throne ( sarīr and tak̲h̲t , for example). Kursī is found on two o…

, nicknamed Abu ’l-ʿAynayn , founder of the Dasūḳiyya order, also known as the Burhāniyya or Burhāmiyya, the ¶ followers being generally called Barāhima. Born most probably at the village of Marḳus in the G̲h̲arbiyya district of Lower Egypt in the year 633/1235 according to S̲h̲aʿrānī in Lawāḳiḥ (but 644/1246 according to Maḳrīzī in Kitāb al-Sulūk and 653/1255 according to Ḥasan b. ʿAlī S̲h̲āmma the commentator on his ḥizb ) he spent most of his life in the neighbouring village of Dasūḳ or Dusūḳ where he died at the age of 43 and was buried. His father (buried at Marḳus) was a famous local walī …

, ʿAzmī-zāde Muṣṭafā (977/1570-1040/1631), Ottoman poet and scholar, considered the master of the rubāʿī in Turkish literature. He was born in Istanbul, the son of Pīr Meḥmed ʿAzmī (d. 990/1582), the tutor of the prince Meḥmed (later Meḥmed III), who left, besides poems in Turkish, Eastern Turkish, Arabic and Persian, an expanded translation of the Anīs al-ʿārifīn of Ḥusayn Wāʿiẓ and an unfinished translation (later continued by his son) of the mat̲h̲nawī Mihr u Mus̲h̲tarī of the Persian poet Muḥammad ʿAṣṣār (see Rieu, Cat. Persian MSS , ii, 626; Pertsch, Kat ., 843 ff.). …

, the archangel Michael [see also malāʾika ], whose name occurs once in the Ḳurʾān, viz. in II, 92: “Whosoever is an enemy to God, or his angels, or his apostles, or to Gabriel or to Michael, verily God is an enemy to the unbelievers.” In explanation of this verse two stories are told. According to the first, the Jews, wishing to test the veracity of the mission of Muḥammad, asked him several questions, to all of which he gave the true answer. Finally, they asked him, who transmit…

, ruler in Transoxania of the Uzbeks or Özbegs [ q.v.] 940-6/1533-9. He was the son of Maḥmūd Sulṭān, son of S̲h̲āh-Būdāg̲h̲, son of the founder of the Uzbek confederacy, Abu ’l-Ḵh̲ayr Ḵh̲ān, a descendant of Čingiz Ḵh̲ān’s grandson S̲h̲ībān (hence the epithet “S̲h̲ībānī,” or “S̲h̲aybānī” [see s̲h̲ībānids ]). During his youth, ʿUbayd Allāh accompanied his uncle Muḥammad S̲h̲ībānī Ḵh̲ān ( r. 905-16/1500-10) on his sweeping victories over the Tīmūrids throughout Central Asia and Ḵh̲urāsān in order to re-establish Čingizid rule in the area. On 7 Muḥarram 913/…

(a.), an abstract noun formed from the ad̲j̲ective ṭabīʿī “natural” (antonym, maṣnūʿ ), physics, or natural sciences. Aristotle divided the theoretical sciences into mathematics, physics and metaphysics. Islamic philosophers, starting from al-Kindī [ q.v.], were familiar with this division and it forms part of the various classifications of the sciences that were drawn up by Islamic scholars, such as in the Iḥṣāʾ al-ulūm by al-Fārābī [ q.v.] and in many subsequent ones. In these classifications, physics was subdivided into parts that mostly corresponded to the…

, the Noah of the Bible, is a particularly popular figure in the Ḳurʾān and in Muslim legend. Al-T̲h̲aʿlabī gives 15 virtues by which Nūḥ is distinguished among the prophets. The Bible does not regard Noah as a prophet. In the Ḳurʾān, Nūḥ is the first prophet of punishment, who is followed by Hūd, ¶ Ṣāliḥ, Lūṭ, S̲h̲uʿayb and Mūsā. Ibrāhīm is one of his following ( s̲h̲īʿa ) (XXXVII, 81). He is the perspicuous admonisher ( nad̲h̲ir mubīn , XI, 27; LXXI, 2), the rasūl amīn “the true messenger of God” (XXVI, 107), the ʿabd s̲h̲akūr , “the grateful servant of God” (XVII, 3…

, i.e. Ẓafār i, the name of the ancient capital of the South Arabian kingdom of Ḥimyar. The present small village of the same name on the ruins of the ancient town is located approximately 8 km/5 miles to the south of the town of Yarīm; the geographical co-ordinates of Ẓafār are lat. 14° 13′ N. and long. 44° 24′ E. The identity of the site has been known in Yemen since Antiquity and is confirmed by Late Sabaic inscription ¶ found at this place. The site of Ẓafār is located at the foot of a hilltop with the ruins of an ancient castle, and remains of foundations and walls can…

, one of the most celebrated Islamic mystics. With the exception of short periods, during which he was obliged to live far from his home town owing to the hostility of orthodox theologians, he spent his life in Bisṭām in the province of Ḳūmis. There he died in 261/874 or 264/877-8. The Ilk̲h̲ānid Uld̲j̲aytu Muḥammad Ḵh̲udābanda is reputed to have had a dome erected over his grave in the year 713/1313. He wrote nothing, but some five hundred of his sayings have been handed down. In part they are …

, a town in the Sudan Republic, 360 km. SW of Timbuctoo and 200 km. ENE of Segou. Geographical position: lat. 13° 55′ N.—long. 4° 33′ W. (Gr.). Altitude: 278 m. The etymology of this name (often wrongly spelt Djenné) is unknown but the most likely is Dianna = the little Dia (Dia is an ancient Sudanese town, 70 km. to the NW.). Dienné was mentioned for the first time in 1447 by the Genoese Malfante, under the name Geni. The town is situated in the flood-area of the Niger and the Bani, 5 km. from the left bank of the latter river, to which it is connected by a navigable chann…

( Ḳadam Rasūl Allāh ). Among the miracles ( muʿd̲j̲izāt ) popularly attributed to Muḥammad was the fact that when he trod on a rock, his foot sank into the stone and left its impress there. This miracle is usually referred to along with others, e.g., that he cast no shadow, that if one of his hairs fell in the fire, it was not burnt, that flies did not settle on his clothes etc. (cf. al-Ḥalabī, al-Sīra al-Ḥalabiyya , Būlāḳ, 1292, iii, 407), or that his sandals left no imprint on the sand (cf. Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar al-Haytamī, commentary on al-Ḳaṣīda al-Ḥamziyya , 1. 176. (Ind. Off,…

(a.), pl. arzāḳ , literally, “anything granted by someone to someone else as a benefit”, hence “bounty, sustenance, nourishment”. 1. As a theological concept. Rizḳ , and the nominal and verbal forms derived from it, are very frequent in the Ḳurʾān, especially in reference to the rizḳ Allāh , God’s provision and sustenance for mankind from the fruits of the earth and the animals upon it (e.g. II, 20/22, 23/25, 57/60, etc.) (see further, section 2. below). Hence one of God’s most beautiful names [see al-asmāʾ al-ḥusnā ] is al-Razzāḳ , the All-Provider. The ultimat…

, two characters who figure prominently in a series of pre-modern philosophical and mystical allegories written in Arabic and Persian. The characters are first mentioned by Ibn Sīnā [ q.v.], in the ninth chapter of his Kitāb al-Is̲h̲ārāt wa’ l-tanbīhāt , where he discusses the “Stages of the Gnostics” ( maḳāmāt al-ʿārifīn ). Here he states that: Gnostics have stages and degrees by which they are favoured over others while in their earthly life. It is as if their bodies were garments that they had removed and striped away (to move) toward the Realm of Sanctity ( ʿālam al-ḳuds …

(a.), in Egyptian colloquial pronunciation sibḥa ; in Persian and Muslim Indian usage, more often tasbīḥ , Ottoman Turkish tesbīḥ , modern tespih , rosary. It is used at present by nearly all classes of Muslims, except the Wahhābīs who disapprove of it as a bidʿa and who count the repetition of the sacred names on their hands. There is evidence for its having been used at first in Ṣūfī circles and among the lower classes (Goldziher, Rosaire , 296); opposition against it made itself heard as late as the 9th/15th century, when al-Suyūṭī composed an apology for it (Goldziher, Vorlesungen über den …

b. Ḥabīb, Abū T̲h̲umāma , a man of Banū Ḥanīfa who lived in al-Yamāma and led a large section of his tribe in revolt during the wars of the ridda [ q.v.]. The suggestion of some European scholars (as in the article in EI 1) that Musaylima is a contemptuous diminutive of Maslama appears to be mistaken. Because he claimed to be a prophet he is often called al-Kad̲h̲d̲h̲āb, the liar or false prophet. He is also said to have been called al-Raḥmān (al-Balād̲h̲urī, 105; al-Wāḳidī, 82); but this seems unlikely since al-Raḥmān was a name of God. …

, the planet Saturn. The name Zuḥal (diptote) is said to be connected with the Arabic root z-ḥ-l meaning “to withdraw or become distant”; according to various lexicons (e.g. LA, TA), the planet takes its name from the fact that it is “far removed, in the seventh heaven”. This etymology clearly postdates the knowledge among Arabic writers of Greek cosmology, for whom Saturn is the farthermost planet in the cosmos; it would have made little sense within the context of the limited astronomy of the pre-Islamic Arabs. According to the Muḥīṭ al-muḥīṭ , zuḥal was used as a metaphor for exaltedness ( ʿu…

(a.) (sometimes also pronounced lifām ), the mouth-veil, is a piece of material with which the Bedouins concealed the lower part of the face, the mouth and sometimes also part of the nose (see the commentary on al-Ḥarīrī, ed. de Sacy, Paris 1821, 374, 2). According to the LA, lifām is a mouth-veil which also covers the nose top ( arnabat al-anf) and is worn by women. It served the practical purpose of protecting the organs of respiration from heat and cold as well as against the penetration of dust (cf. D̲h̲u ’l-Rumma, no. 5, 43, also no. 39, 24 and 73, 1…

(a, pl. of maṭlaʿ ), ascensions, an important concept in mediaeval spherical astronomy and astronomical timekeeping [see mīḳāt ]. Ascensions represent a measure of the amount of apparent rotation of the celestial sphere, and are usually measured from the eastern horizon, hence the name ascensions. Two kinds were used: (1) right ascensions, or ascensions in sphaera recta; and (2) oblique ascensions, or ascensions in sphaera obliqua [see also falak and maṭlaʿ ]. (1) Right ascensions refer to the risings of arcs of the ecliptic over the horizon of a locality with latit…

(Turkish D̲j̲elwetiyye), the name of a ṭarīḳa founded by Sheyk̲h̲ ʿAzīz Maḥmūd Hudāʾī of Üsküdar (Scutari, nr. Istanbul). The name is said to come from d̲j̲alwa (leaving one’s native country, emigrating), which, as a ṣūfī term, denotes a creature’s emergence from solitary withdrawal ( k̲h̲alwa ) through contemplation of God’s attributes and its annihilation in God’s Being (Sayyīd S̲h̲arīf, Taʿrīfāt , 3). An alternative or simultaneous derivation from d̲j̲ilwa [ q, v.], can also be put forward. The D̲j̲ilwatiyya were a purely Sunnī ṭarīḳa, based on the d̲h̲ikr [ q.v.] of seven of the…

or mart̲h̲āt (A., pl. marāt̲h̲ī ) “elegy”, a poem composed in Arabic (or in an Islamic language following the Arabic tradition) to lament the passing of a beloved person and to celebrate his ¶ merits; rit̲h̲āʾ , from the same root, denotes both lamentation and the corresponding literary genre. 1. In Arabic literature. The origin of the mart̲h̲iya may be found in the rhymed and rhythmic laments going with the ritual movements performed as a ritual around the funeral cortège by female relatives of the deceased, before this role bec…

(a.), pl. nīrān , denotes fire, whereas nūr , pl. anwār , denotes light. In Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic, the root n-w-r simply denotes “flash”, “dazzlement”, “florescence”, “tattooing”, anything, in short, which gives light and anything which stands out clearly. The other Arabic term which signifies light, ḍawʾ , is to be associated with the Sanskrit dev/w which appears in Zeus, Dieu, dies , and expresses the notion of the personification of the luminous and calorific phenomena of nature. Nār occurs 129 times in the Ḳurʾān, of which 111…

, two terms of Islamic theology which stand for different discourses about God, tas̲h̲bīh roughly meaning “anthropomorphism” and tanzīh “transcendentalism” (Greek ἀφαίρεσις). They are, however, not used on the same level; tanzīh has a positive connotation whereas tas̲h̲bīh, together with ¶ its derivatives mus̲h̲abbih and mus̲h̲abbiha (denoting a person or a group practising tas̲h̲bīh ), is used in polemical language, as a derogatory term. The negative equivalent to tanzīh is taʿṭīl , divesting God of his attributes; as the positive pendant to tas̲h̲bīh, it̲h̲bāt …

(a.), light, synonym ḍawʾ , also ḍūʾ and ḍiyāʾ (the latter sometimes used in the plural). 1. Scientific aspects According to some authors, ḍawʾ ( ḍiyāʾ) has a more intensive meaning than nūr (cf. Lane, Arabic-English dictionary, s.v. ḍawʾ); this idea has its foundation in Ḳurʾān, X, 5, where the sun is called ( ḍiyāʾ and the moon nūr. The further deduction from this passsage that ḍiyāʾ is used for the light of light-producing bodies (sun) and nūr on the other hand for the reflected light in bodies which do not emit light (moon), is not correct, if we remember the primiti…

, Muḥammad , was born in 1873 (or more probably 1876) in Sialkot, Pand̲j̲āb. During his studies in Lahore he became acquainted with Sir Thomas Arnold, who was partly responsible for his coming to England in 1905. In Cambridge, Iḳbāl, already a noted romantic and Indian-nationalist poet in Urdu, studied philosophy under the Hegelian J. M. E. McTaggart, and law. In 1907 he visited Germany and obtained his Ph. D. in Munich with F. Hommel. His thesis The development of metaphysics in Persia shows already his interest in Islamic mystical philosophy, which he …

(a.), evil spirit, demon, devil. 1. In pre-Islamic Arabia. According to the lexicographers, s̲h̲ayṭān is derived from the verb s̲h̲aṭana “to detain somebody in order to divert him from his intention and his destination”, s̲h̲aṭan being “a cord” and s̲h̲āṭin “an evil man”. The verbs s̲h̲ayṭana and tas̲h̲ayṭana signify “to behave like the shayṭan ”. The s̲h̲ayṭān is an evil, rebellious spirit, inhabiting Hell-Fire; he cannot be seen, but he is imagined as a being of great ugliness (al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, Ḥayawān , vi, 213). Proverbs underline his wickedness, his c…

, an early Arabian monotheist and contemporary of the Prophet. Biographical details concerning Waraḳa are few in number and legendary in character, since in one way or another they all relate to his kerygmatic role in the narrative of Muḥammad’s earliest revelation. Waraḳa was the son of Nawfal b. Asad b. ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā b. Ḳuṣayy, who is said to have been killed in the last “Battle of the Sacrilege” ( yawm al-Fid̲j̲ār al-āk̲h̲ir ) (Ibn al-Kalbī, D̲j̲amharat al-nasab , Beirut 1986, 68-9), and of Hind bt. Abī Kat̲h̲īr. He was thus the cousin of the Prophet’s first wife K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a [ q.v.], but u…

(Yawm al-), the weekly day of communal worship in Islam. The only reference to it in the Ḳurʾān, LXII, 9-11, clearly indicates that the term is pre-Islamic, for v. 9 says: “When you are called to prayer on the day of the assembly”, and not “to the Prayer of the Assembly”. The decisive proof for the correctness of This interpretation is the fact that Ibn Ubayy read yawm al-ʿarūba al-kubrā for yawm al-d̲j̲umʿa , the former being another pre-Islamic name for Friday, meaning eve of the Sabbath, cf. A. Jeffery, Text of the Qurʾān , 1937, 170; R. Blachère, Le Coran , 1950, 825. The expression yawm al-d̲j̲…

(a.) or Zāʾirad̲j̲a , a divinatory technique which, in the same manner as geomancy [see k̲h̲aṭṭ ] and d̲j̲afr [ q.v.], and under various outside influences, had a wide diffusion in the mediaeval Islamic lands. It involved a mechanical means of calculating portents, strongly imbued with magic and astrology, in which were strongly mingled the talismanic sciences, based on the ʿilm al-k̲h̲awāṣṣ “knowledge of secret properties”, the ʿilm al-awfāḳ “knowledge of conjunctions”, ʿilm al-ṭilasmāt “knowledge of talismans” and ʿilm al-ḥurūf “knowledge of letters” [see ḥurūf ]. D̲j̲afr and ḥur…

, maṣdar of aḥdat̲h̲a , from the root . t̲h̲ ., which expresses the idea of an innovation in time. Ḥadīt̲h̲ is the opposite of ḳadīm , “ancient”, whence “eternal” a parte ante; ḥudūt̲h̲ is the opposite of ḳudma . In the Ḳurʾān the fourth form ( yuḥdit̲h̲ , muḥdat̲h̲ ) is used with the direct object d̲h̲ikr . Commenting on XX, 113, Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī considers why the Word of God produces a d̲h̲ikr and not a taḳwā ; the reason, he suggests, is that “ taḳwā denotes the act of not doing evil, and it consists in remaining in a fundamental negativeness” ( wa-d̲h̲ālika ‘stimrār ʿala ’l-ʿadam al-aṣlī …

(a.), an adjective generally meaning "righteous", "virtuous", "incorrupt", used in the science of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.] criticism as a technical term indicating a transmitter who, although otherwise praised for his upright conduct, is known to have brought into circulation one or more traditions spuriously ascribed to the Prophet Muḥammad. It is the contents of such traditions, as well as their underlying meaning, that characterise their recognized inventor as ṣāliḥ rather than as waḍḍāʿ , i.e. "forger", or kad̲h̲d̲h̲āb , "liar". Transmitters labelled ṣāliḥ, or its presumably slig…

(a.), dance. The following article deals with the dance in Ṣūfism. During recent decades, one could sometimes read in American newspapers about “Courses in Sufi Dance”, and “Sufi dance” became a fashionable way of cultivating one’s soul. However, the topic of dancing is frowned upon in Islam, for dancing is connected, in the history of religions in general, with ecstasy. It takes the human being out of his/her normal movement and makes him/her gyrate, so to speak, around a different centre of gravity. To b…

(a.), pl. mad̲j̲ānīn , possessed, mad, madman; the passive participle of d̲j̲anna , “to cover, conceal”, passive, d̲j̲unna , “to be possessed, mad, insane”. Its meaning and usage have been closely related to belief in the Ḏj̲inn [ q.v.]. In pre-Islamic Arabia, soothsayers were believed to have received messages from the d̲j̲inn during ecstatic experiences, after which they delivered oracles in short, enigmatic verses of rhymed prose called sad̲j̲ʿ [see kāhin ], and poets were believed to have been inspired by their individual d̲j̲inn, similar to the Greek idea of Muses [see s̲h̲āʿir ]. …

, the Dome of the Rock, at times called the Mosque of ʿUmar, is the oldest remaining monument of Islamic architecture, and probably the first conscious work of art of Islamic civilisation. Location and description. The Dome of the Rock is located on an artificial platform, roughly but not exactly in the centre of the Ḥaram al-S̲h̲arīf [ q.v.] in Jerusalem. The shape and emplacement of the platform were probably determined by the ruined state of the old Jewish Temple area, together with whatever Roman constructions may have been left; it is also possibl…

, also s̲h̲ad̲h̲irwān , is an Arabised Persian word which originally meant a precious curtain or drapery suspended on tents of sovereigns and leaders and from balconies of palaces and mansions. But in mediaeval sources it often occurs as an architectural term designating either a wall fountain or its most important element—the inclined and carved marble slab upon which water flows—perhaps in reference to the fabric-like texture of water rippling down the oblique surface (Laila Ibrahim and M.M. Amin, Architectural terms in Mamluk documents, Cairo 1990, 66, 68-9; G. Marçais, Salsabīl e…

(a.), “prophecy”, Hebrew nəb̲ūʾa , substantive derived from nabī “prophet”, Hebrew nābī (ʾ), term denoting in the first instance the precognition given by the divinity (Yahweh, the Baʿl, Allāh) to the prophet and the prediction made by the latter of future contingencies. In the second instance, nubuwwa is identified with waḥy , “revelation”, which simultaneously comprises dogmas, cultic regulations, moral education, precepts of social and political order. In fact, for the early Muslims, prophecy was regarded as being the so…

, ʿabd al-salām b. salīm al-faytūrī , 16th century revivalist of the ʿArūsiyya order, was born on 12 Rabīʿ I 880/16 July 1475 in the coastal oasis of Zlīṭen (Zalīṭan, Zlīṭan; obsolete forms, Zalītan, Yazlītan, Yazlītīn, Izlītan) in Tripolitania. He belonged to the Faytūriyya (Fawātir) tribe, whence his laḳab , while the nickname al-Asmar was given to him by his mother who had been ordered to do so in a dream. He received his early mystical training from ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Dūkālī, a k̲h̲alīfa [ q.v.] of the ʿArūsiyya order, who initiated him into this ṭarīḳa [ q.v.] and to whose circle of dis…

, the name in Arabic for the Biblical prophet Moses. 1. In the Ḳurʾān. Here, Mūsā is considered as the precursor of, the model for, and the annunciator of Muḥammad (VII, 156). The two prophets share the same belief (XLIII, 11). Mūsā is also conceived in Muḥammad’s image. Charges are brought against him similar to those made against Muḥammad and he is said to want to pervert people from the faith of their fathers (X, 79); he practises magic (XXVIII, 18). Mūsā and Hārūn seem rather to be sent to the stubborn Pharaoh [see firʿawn ] than to the believing Israelites. Revelation is granted him: tawrāt , ki…

( Matthew’ Chinese-English dictionary , Revised American edition 1969, characters nos. 4093, 933), also known as Liu Chiai-lien ( Matthews’ , nos. 4093, 629, 4003), 12th/18th century Chinese Muslim scholar (translator, theologian, philosopher and biographer of the Prophet Muḥammad), the most prolific Chinese Muslim author and probably the best-known literary figure yet produced by the Chinese Muslim community. A Hui (Chinese-speaking) Muslim, Liu Chih was born in Nanking ca. 1081/1670. Little is known of his class background or early childhood, but it is safe to…

, pl. bakkāʾūn , bukkāʾ , “weepers”, ascetics who during their devotional exercises shed many tears. Older Islamic asceticism and mysticism are characterised by a strong consciousness of sin, by austere penance, humility, contrition and mourning. Laughter was denounced. An outward sign of this attitude is the act of weeping. The Ḳurʾān (Sūra xvii, 109: “and they fall down on their chins, weeping”, and Sūra xix, 58: “when the signs of the Merciful were recited before them, they fell down, prostrating themselves, weeping”), and then, above all, the ḥadīt̲h̲ ackn…

, appeal, invocation (addressed to God) either on behalf of another or for oneself ( li...), or else against someone ( ʿalā ...); hence: prayer of invocation, calling either for blessing, or for imprecation and cursing, connected with the Semitic idea of the effective value of the spoken word. Cf. Ḳurʾān XVII, 11: “Man prays for evil as he prays for good”.— Duʿāʾ therefore will have the general sense of personal prayer addressed to God, and can often be translated as “prayer of request”. I.—The scope and practice of duʿāʾ . 1. In the Ḳurʾān, duʿāʾ always keeps its original meaning of invo…