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
ʿAbāʾ
(1,167 words)
The
ʿabāʾ is a long, loose-fitting, outer garment worn over other clothing, sometimes a form of cloak intended for men, but also sometimes worn by women. It is used by Arabs and non-Arabs alike. The
ʿabāʾ has been used a variety of ways in different circumstances and variously called
ʿabāya, ʿabāʾa, ʿabāh etc. (Dozy, 292). Garments such as the
ʿabāʾ were habitually used by every social class but in different ways, depending on circumstance or occasion (Ibn Saʿd, 4/62; al-Masʿūdī, 2/305). The finest
ʿabāʾs are woven from camel hair, and come in a light brown, natural shade (Yūs…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Abābīl
(2,279 words)
Abābīl is a Qurʾānic word meaning ‘flocks’ or ‘herds’ (e.g. of birds, horses, camels etc.). This is a rare word in the Arabic language and is only mentioned once in the Qurʾān, in the
Sūrat al-Fīl (‘The Elephant’, 105:3):
wa arsala ʿalayhim ṭayran abābīl, ‘And He sent against them flights of birds’, and for this reason considerable discussion of the term is found in Qurʾānic commentaries and lexicons. The word seems to have appeared in some verses by the pre-Islamic Arab poets. Imruʾ al-Qays was the first poet to use it, doing so in the phrase
abābīlu ṭayrin. Al-Aʿshā, another famous Arab p…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Ābādah
(1,108 words)
Ābādah, a town (
shahr) and a district (
shahristān) in the province (
ustān) of Fārs, Iran.Ābādah (town)The centre of the district of Ābādah, it lies on 52° 39' longitude, 31° 9' latitude, at an altitude of 2005 m (Pāpulī, 31), between two moderately high mountains (Jaʿfarī, 2/3). Its climate is temperate, with cold, windy periods in autumn and winter. Precipitation is low, less than 100 mm (
FJAKI, 82/3).Historical Background: Although Ābāśdah of Iqlīd is not specifically referred to in the old sources on geography, Ābādah, Bardankān and Chāhak, small towns lyin…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Ābādān
(3,113 words)
Ābādān is the name of an island, a district (
shahristān) and a city in south-west Khūzistān, the latter being a province (
ustān) in south-west Iran.EtymologyPrior to the adoption of its present form, which was proposed by the Iranian Acad-emy of Persian Language and Literature (
Farhangistān-i Īrān) and approved by the government in 1314 Sh./1935, this name was written and pronounced as ‘ʿAbbādān’. All former Muslim historians and geographers referred to this region using the earlier spelling and pronunciation. They used ʿAbbādān both for t…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Abān b. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Lāḥiqī
(2,474 words)
Abān b. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Lāḥiqī (d. 200/816) was a man of letters of Persian origin who wrote poetry in Arabic. His forebear Lāḥiq b. ʿUfayr was a narrator of
ḥadīth and a
mawlā (client) of the tribe of Banū Raqqāsh. His forefathers lived in Fasā, a city in the province of Fārs (al-Ṣūlī, 40). Their designation as Jews (Fariq, 46), a notion originating with Abū ʿUbayda (al-Ṣūlī, 36; Abū al-Faraj, 23/165), is unfounded. Nothing is known of Abān's childhood. He was probably born in Baṣra which is where he grew up and studied literature, jurisprudence, logic and mathemat…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Abān b. Taghlib
(1,535 words)
Abān b. Taghlib, Abū Saʿīd b. Rabāḥ al-Bakrī al-Jurayrī al-Kindī al-Rabaʿī al-Kūfī (d. 141/758) was a man of letters, Qurʾān reciter, jurist, Qurʾānic commentator and well-known Shiʿi traditionist (al-Najāshī 7–8). Most sources give his name as Abū Saʿīd, while some use Abū Saʿd (al-Mizzī, 2/6; al-Ṣafadī 5/300) or Ibn Saʿīd (al-Ḥillī, 12). Other sources give the name Abū Umayma (al-Suyūṭī 1/404, quoting al-Dānī; Ibn al-Jazarī, 1/4). He was called al-Jurayrī because he was a
mawlā (client) of the Banū Jurayr b. ʿUbāda, while his other
nisba, al-Bakrī, refers to Bakr b. Wāʾil, a f…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Abāqā Khān
(9,477 words)
Abāqā Khān, also known as Abqā Khān or according to Arab historians Abghā, was the second of the Mongol Īlkhāns, who ruled Persia in the 7th/13th and 8th/14th centuries, and the eldest son of Hūlāgū Khān. He was born in Jumādā I 631/February 1234 and ascended the throne on 3 Ramaḍān 663/19 June 1265 (Rashīd al-Dīn, ed. ʿAlī Zādah, 3/95). Abāqā was in Māzandarān when Hūlāgū died on 19 Rabīʿ II 663/8 February 1265 near the River Jaghātū (now also called the Zarrīnarūd) in the vicinity of Marāgha. As was common Mongol practice, the emirs immediately ordered…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Abarqūh
(2,240 words)
Abarqūh or Abarkūh is an old town in Fārs that today is the centre of the district also called Abarkūh, in the province of Ābādah. It is 72 km from Ābādah, 216 from Yazd and 299 from Shīrāz.Historical backgroundAlthough there is no precise information as to when Abarqūh was built, it can be inferred from geographical and historical sources that the city was already in existence in the pre-Islamic period. Some sources refer to the existence of this city during the reign of Kay Kāwūs (the second Kiyānid ruler) and Siyāwūsh (Yāqūt 1/70…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbasa
(733 words)
ʿAbasa (‘He Frowned’),
sūra (Chapter) eighty of the Qurʾān, a
sūra that was revealed in Mecca. It is generally held to consist of forty-two verses and four
rukūʿs (subdivisions within a
sūra). This chapter was revealed after the
Sūrat al-Najm (‘The Star’) and is also known by other names, such as
al-Safara (‘The Scribes’),
al-Ṣākhkha (‘The Deafening Noise’ or ‘The Blast’) and
al-Aʿmā (‘The Blind Man’) (al-Sijistānī, 501, al-Ālūsī, 30/39). The opening verses of this
sūra (1–10) recount the story of a blind man approaching the Prophet and requesting to be taught about th…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Ābaskūn
(1,219 words)
Ābaskūn or Ābuskūn, or Ābiskūn or Abaskūn, an island or an ancient port on the southeast of the Caspian Sea and northwest of Astarābād at the mouth of the Gurgān river, at 79° 45’ eastern longtitude and 37° 10' northern latitude, as calculated by the classical geographers (Abū al-Fidāʾ, 36; Wuthūq Zamānī, 29, quoting from Khwāja Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī). Despite this, its exact location is now unknown. It has been suggested that Ābaskūn was situated on the site of the present-day village of Khwāja Nifis or on the Āshūrādih islands; or its whereabouts are connected to the Sokānda …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Al-ʿAbbādī, Abū ʿĀṣim
(1,689 words)
Al-ʿAbbādī, Abū ʿĀṣim Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbbād (d. Shawwāl 458/September 1066), was a Shāfiʿī
qāḍī from Herat and the author of the first
ṭabaqāt (a biographical dictionary arranged by generations) about Shāfiʿī
fuqahāʾ (jurists). He also figured prominently in the intellectual confrontations between the Shāfiʿīs and the Ḥanafīs. The title ‘al-ʿAbbādī’ was derived from a forebear some five generations earlier, ʿAbbād (al-Samʿānī, 4/123). It would appear that the ʿAbbādī family were included among the dignitaries of Hera…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbādids
(4,581 words)
ʿAbbādids (Banū ʿAbbād), a dynasty of Muslim rulers in al-Andalus (414–484/1023–1091) who were the most powerful of the group of
mulūk al-ṭawāʾif/los reyes de taifas (party kings) and who ruled over important parts of south-western Spain as the Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba collapsed. The beginning of the 5th/11th century saw important changes in Spain, the disintegration of Umayyad rule, the emergence of petty kings in the regions of the Christian controlled north, and then the coming to power of a host of greater or lesser Muslim rulers…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbādī, Muẓaffar
(2,152 words)
ʿAbbādī, Muẓaffar, Quṭb al-Dīn Amīr Abū Manṣūr Muẓaffar ʿAbbādī, the son of Ardashīr Abū Manṣūr ʿAbbādī Marwazī (d. 547/1152), was an ascetic, a traditionist, and a well-known orator and preacher from Khurāsān, who wrote works with Sufi tendencies. He is referred to by such titles as ‘Amīr-i Imām’ (the emir who is also the imam), ‘Amīr-i ʿĀlam’ (ruler of the world), ‘Wāʿiẓ-i Kabīr’ (the great preacher), ‘ʿAllāma-yi Rūzgār wa Khwāja-yi Maʿnī wa Sulṭān-i Sukhan’ (learned scholar of the time and the lord of spiritual meaning and the sultan of discourse) and ‘Quṭb ʿA…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbāsa (a city in eastern Egypt)
(1,260 words)
ʿAbbāsa was a city in eastern Egypt in the Islamic period, 15
farsangs (90 km) from Cairo. It was situated at the farthest habitable point in this part of eastern Egypt, on the road to Greater Syria (al-Shām) between Bilbays and al-Ṣāliḥiyya, and was considered a part of Wādī al-Sadīr (Abū al-Fidāʾ, 108; al-Maqrīzī,
al-Khiṭaṭ, 1/232). The foundation of the city is ascribed to ʿAbbāsa (q.v.), daughter of Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn. When Khumārawayh b. Aḥmad married his daughter, Qaṭr al-Nadā, to the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Muʿtaḍid, the bride set out for Iraq escorted…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbāsa (a woman of the ʿAbbāsid court)
(1,238 words)
ʿAbbāsa was a famous woman of the ʿAbbāsid court. She was a daughter of the caliph al-Mahdī and a sister of Hārūn al-Rashīd and al-Hādī. Nothing is known of ʿAbbāsa's life, as with most other women in medieval Muslim courts, and her fame stems from a story concerning her and Jaʿfar al-Barmakī—a story which purports to explain the murder of Jaʿfar and the overthrow of the Barmakids by Hārūn al-Rashīd. According to this story, which has been reported at length and in great detail by some sources, …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib
(2,473 words)
Al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, with the
kunya Abū al-Faḍl (d. Rajab or Ramaḍān 32/February or April 653), was the Prophet's paternal uncle and the progenitor of the ʿAbbāsids. He was a son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and grandson of Hāshim b. ʿAbd Manāf. His mother, Nutayla bint Janāb b. Kulayb, came from the tribe of Banū Taym Allāh (Ibn al-Kalbī, 28; Ibn Hishām, 1/114; Ibn Saʿd, 4/5). According to a well-known report, he was born three years before the ‘Year of the Elephant’ (
ʿām al-fīl) (al-Wāqidī, 1/70; Ibn Saʿd, 4/5; al-Balādhurī,
Ansāb, 3/1). The responsibility for
siqāya, providing drinkin…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbās b. Abī al-Futūḥ
(1,545 words)
ʿAbbās b. Abī al-Futūḥ, al-Afḍal Rukn al-Dīn of the Zīrids, a vizier of the Fāṭimids from 548 to 549/1153 to 1154. He was originally a prince of the family of Ibn Bādīs al-Ṣanhājī (of Banū Zīrī), who had been governors of Ifrīqiya in the 6th/12th century. As a result of conflicts within the family, his father Abū al-Futūḥ was expelled from Ifrīqiya in 509/1115 by his brother ʿAlī b. Yaḥyā, and he was forced to go with his wife Bullāra and his young son ʿAbbās to Alexandria, where they were warmly a…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Al-ʿAbbās b. al-Aḥnaf
(2,364 words)
Al-ʿAbbās b. al-Aḥnaf, Abū al-Faḍl, renowned ʿAbbāsid poet, was from the Banū Ḥanīfa tribe of Yamāma. Some sources regard him or his family line as deriving from the Arabs settled in Khurāsān (Abū al-Faraj, 8/353, citing al-Akhfash); but they add that he was brought up in Baghdad (Abū al-Faraj, 8/353; see also Ibn al-Muʿtazz, 254; Ibn Qutayba, 707; Hell, 273). The biography written by Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī (Ibn al-Nadīm, 215) is unfortunately no longer available, although a significant portion of it is copied in Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī's
al-Aghānī. At present what is known of Ibn al-A…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAlī
(4,293 words)
1. Historical BackgroundAbū al-Faḍl al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAlī (killed in the massacre at Karbalāʾ on 10 Muḥarram 61/10 October 680), known as ‘
Qamar Banī Hāshim’ (‘Moon of the Banū Hāshim’), was a famous son of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, and half-brother of al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī.His mother, Umm al-Banīn (see Abū Naṣr al-Bukhārī, 88, where she is given the name Fāṭima), the daughter of Ḥizām b. Khālid b. Rābīʿa from the Arab tribe of Banū Kilāb, was the mother of three more of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib's sons, and for this reason she became known as Umm al-Banīn (‘m…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAmr al-Ghanawī
(583 words)
Al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAmr al-Ghanawī (d. 305/917), a military commander and provincial governor in the late 3rd/9th century, during the ʿAbbāsid era. Nothing is known of his life prior to 286/899, when he was governor of Fārs. In that year, as the missionary activity (
daʿwa) of Abū Saʿīd al-Jannābī (q.v.) in Bahrain was intensifying, and the Qarmaṭīs were mounting attacks against the regions of Hajar, advancing as far as the vicinity of Baṣra, the caliph al-Muʿtaḍid appointed al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAmr as governor of Yamāma and Bahrain, and charged him w…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbās b. Firnās
(863 words)
ʿAbbās b. Firnās, Abū al-Qāsim (d. 274/887), was an Andalusian poet, man of letters, musician, inventor and engineer. He also had some knowledge of astronomy, philosophy and alchemy (al-Zubaydī, 269; Ibn Ḥayyān, 279; Ibn Saʿīd, 1/333). Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih (d. 328/940) thought it sufficient to simply quote some of his verses (4/495–496), without giving any further explanation as to who he was. Most of the limited, and sometimes contradictory, information available on Ibn Firnās was initially put together by Ibn Saʿīd (d. 685/1286) in his
al-Mughrib. Ibn Firnās was of Berber origin fro…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Al-ʿAbbās b. Mirdās
(1,869 words)
Al-ʿAbbās b. Mirdās (d. after 23/644), was an Arab poet and one of the Prophet's Companions and was known as a
mukhaḍram poet, that is, one who lived part of his life before, and part of it after the advent of Islam. His
kunya is given as Abū al-Faḍl and Abū al-Haytham. His great grandfa-ther's name is given in the sources as Abū ʿĀmir or Abū Ghālib b. Rifāʿa b. Ḥāritha (Ibn Ḥazm, 263; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, 2/817; al-Marzubānī,
Muʿjam al-shuʿarāʾ, 102). Blachère (p. 274–275) estimates his date of birth at ca. 570. Little is known about his life, and the accounts found in the so…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbās Ḥilmī II
(805 words)
ʿAbbās Ḥilmī II, son of Tawfīq Pasha, was the last khedive of Egypt (r. 1892–1914). He was born on 14 July 1874 in Alexandria. He studied under an English tutor until the age of six and then attended the ʿĀbidīn school, built by his father next to the ʿĀbidīn palace in Cairo, where he studied alongside other children of the country's ruling elite (ʿAbbās Ḥilmī, 56; Fahmī, 70). He and his brother were later sent to Vienna where they attended the royal college known as the Theresianum to complete th…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbās I
(4,171 words)
ʿAbbās I (Shāh), styled ‘the Great’, the fifth reigning monarch of the Ṣafawid dynasty (r. Dhū al-Qaʿda 996–Jumādā I 1038/September 1587–January 1628), a son of Shāh Muḥammad Khudā-Bandah and grandson of Shāh Ṭahmāsb I. ʿAbbās Mīrzā, the future king, who was the third son of Shāh Muḥammad Khudā-Bandah by his wife Khayr al-Nisāʾ Begum, was born on the first night of Ramaḍān 978/27 January 1571 in Herat. His mother was the daughter of Mīr ʿAbd Allāh Khān, the governor of Māzandarān (ascribed to Mīr Qawām al-Dīn Marʿashī), and he w…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Al-ʿAbbāsī, ʿAbd al-Raḥīm
(1,601 words)
Al-ʿAbbāsī, ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badr al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ (d. 963/1556), an Egyptian man of letters and commentator who is mostly known for his magnum opus, the
Maʿāhid al-tanṣīṣ. Although he never met al-ʿAbbāsī, al-Khafājī (d. 977/1569) heard a number of reports about him (2/60), and the information he conveys about al-ʿAbbāsī's life is restricted to these. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, the editor of
Maʿāhid al-tanṣīṣ, also confined himself to using al-Khafājī's accounts without making any additions. Al-Sakhāwī and al-Ghazzī are the other writers who provide fu…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbāsids
(23,142 words)
ʿAbbāsids, an important branch of the Banū Hāshim clan, and also the longest lasting caliphate of the Islamic world. The genealogy of the ʿAbbāsids goes back to al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, grandson of Hāshim b. ʿAbd Manāf. After the ʿAbbāsids' rise to power, their claim to legitimacy was centred on al-ʿAbbās, as the Prophet's uncle, and it was therefore essential for his historical image—and that of some of his children and grandchildren—to be in accordance with the requirements of the political agenda of his s…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbās II
(1,883 words)
ʿAbbās II (Shāh), the great-grandson of Shāh ʿAbbās the Great and the seventh monarch of the Ṣafawid dynasty (r. 1052–1077/1642–1666). He was the eldest son of Shāh Ṣafī I. His mother, Ānā Khānum, was according to some sources a Circassian (Chardin, 7/314; Falsafī, 146) and to others a Georgian princess (Tavernier, 148–149). He was known as Sām Mīrzā (Shāmlū, 1/264) or Sulṭān Muḥammad Mīrzā (Wālih, 153; Roemer, 339) before he became king. The sources disagree over the date of his birth (Waḥīd, 12; Shāmlū, 1/214), b…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbāsiyya
(762 words)
ʿAbbāsiyya is the name given to several different cities, small towns and ancient villages in the Muslim world. The best-known of them is in North Africa, near al-Qayrawān, and was built by Ibrāhīm b. al-Aghlab, the founder of the Aghlabid dynasty. According to al-Balādhurī (1/233–234), a city of this name was originally established by ʿUmar b. Ḥafṣ b. ʿUthmān al-Muhallabī, known as ‘one thousand men’, who had been appointed by the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Manṣūr to rule Ifrīqiya; in the course of fig…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbās Mīrzā
(1,662 words)
ʿAbbās Mīrzā (1203–1249/1789–1833) was a son of Fatḥ ʿAlī Shāh Qājār and crown prince during his father's reign. He was born on 4 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1203/26 August 1789 in the village of Nawā, near Damāwand. ʿAbbās Mīrzā's mother was Āsiya, daughter of Fatḥ ʿAlī Khān Qājār Dawallū. This match was part of Āghā Muḥammad Khān's strategy of unifying the two main Qājār clans, namely the Āshāqī Bāshī and Yukhārī Bāshī (Iʿtiḍād al-Salṭana, 292–293; Nafīsī, 2/2–3; Gīlānshāh, 2–8). It was perhaps for this reaso…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbbās Pasha
(597 words)
ʿAbbās Pasha, also known as ʿAbbās Ḥilmī I, was one of the khedives of Egypt (r. 1264–1270/1848–1854). ʿAbbās, born in Jeddah in 1228/1813, was the only child of Aḥmad Ṭūsun, the son of Muḥammad ʿAlī Pasha. After his father died, his grandfather Muḥammad ʿAlī Pasha became his guardian, with particular responsibility for his education (Sāmī, 1(3)/71; Fahmī 40; Jawāhir Kalām, 84; Holt, 193). During this period ʿAbbās accompanied his paternal uncle, Ibrāhīm Pasha, on campaigns in Syria, took charge of certain gover…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Abbreviations and Frequently-Cited Works
(721 words)
Abbreviations
AO
Acta Orientalia (Leiden)
Acta. Orient. Cop.
Acta Orientalia (Copenhagen)
AIUON
Annali dell'Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli
ASP
Arabic Science and Philosophy
BSOAS
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
BEO
Bulletin des Études Orientales
CAJ
Central Asiatic Journal
CHI
Cuadernos de Historia del Islam
FJI
Farhang-i jughrāfiyā-yi Īrān
FJAKI
Farhang-i jughrāfiyā-yi ābādīhā-yi kishwar-i (Jumhūrī-yi Islāmī-yi) Īrān
FJKK
Farhang-i jughrāfiyā-yi kūhhā-yi kishwar
HI
Hamdard Islāmīcus
IA
Islāmīc Art
IC
Islāmīc Culture
IJMES
Internation…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-04-15
ABBREVIATIONS AND FREQUENTLY-CITED WORKS
(626 words)
Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī,
al-Aghānī = Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī, ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn,
al-Aghānī (Beirut, 1407/1986)
Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss = Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften der königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, ed. W. Ahlwardt (Berlin, 1887–1899)
Āqā Buzurg, al-Dharīʿa = Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, Muḥammad,
al-Dharīʿa ilā taṣānīf al-Shīʿa, 26 vols. (Beirut, 1983)
Āstān-i Quds, Bibliography = Fihrist-i alifbāʾī-yi kutub-i khaṭṭī-yi Kitābkhānah-yi Markazī-yi Āstān-i Quds-i Raḍawī, ed. Mohammad Asef Fikrat (Mashhad, 1369 Sh./1990)
Āstān-i Quds, Fihrist =
Fihrist-i kut…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
ABBREVIATIONS AND FREQUENTLY-CITED WORKS
(215 words)
AO
Acta Orientalia (Leiden)
Acta. Orient. Cop.
Acta Orientalia (Copenhagen)
AIUON
Annali dell’Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli
ASP
Arabic Science and Philosophy
BSOAS
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
BEO
Bulletin des Études Orientales
CAJ
Central Asiatic Journal
CHI
Cuadernos de Historia del Islam
FJI
Farhang-i jughrāfiyā-yi Īrān
FJAKI
Farhang-i jughrāfiyā-yi ābādīhā-yi kishwar-i ( Jumhūrī-yi Islāmī-yi) Īrān
FJKK
Farhang-i jughrāfiyā-yi kūhhā-yi kishwar
HI
Hamdard Islamicus
IA
Islamic Art
IC
Islamic Culture
IJMES
International Journal of…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Abbreviations and Frequently-Cited Works
(835 words)
Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī, al-Aghānī = Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī, ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn,
al-Aghānī (Beirut, 1407/1986)
Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss =
Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften der königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, ed. W. Ahlwardt (Berlin, 1887–1899)
Āqā Buzurg, al-Dharīʿa = Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, Muḥammad,
al-Dharīʿa ilā taṣānīf al-Shīʿa, 26 vols. (Beirut, 1983)
Āstān-i Quds, Bibliography =
Fihrist-i alifbāʾī-yi kutub-i khaṭṭī-yi Kitābkhānah-yi Markazī-yi Āstān-i Quds-i Raḍawī, ed. Mohammad Asef Fikrat (Mashhad, 1369 Sh./1990)
Āstān-i Quds, Fihrist =
Fihrist-i kut…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
ʿAbda b. al-Ṭabīb
(867 words)
ʿAbda b. al-Ṭabīb was a
mukhaḍram poet (one who lived in both pre-Islamic and Islamic eras). Some sources say he was of Abyssinian origin. He is also said to have been one of the sons of Ḥishām b. ʿAbd Shams (ʿAbshams) of the Tamīm tribe (Ibn al-Kalbī, 247). His father's name was Yazīd b. ʿAmr al-Ṭabīb, of which the last part is given as al-Ṭayyib in some sources (Abū al-Faraj, 21/28; Ibn Ḥajar, 3/100). Our limited information on the poet's life is derived exclusively from the short account provided …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Abdāl
(2,969 words)
Abdāl, the plural of
badal or
bidl meaning ‘substitute’ or ‘successor’, which can also mean ‘generous’ (
karīm) and ‘noble’ (
sharīf). This name is given to a group of God's servants who, amongst the
awliyāʾ (‘friends of God’, saints), have attained a special spiritual station. The term attained particular importance in Sufi literature. The
abdāl are deemed to comprise a group of a fixed number of individuals, such that whenever one of them dies, his place is filled by someone from a lower rank of the saints. There are differences of opinion about the reasons for choosing the term
abdāl to ref…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Abdāl Beg
(1,218 words)
Abdāl Beg (d. after 917/1511), was a member of the Dhū al-Qadar tribe, one of the ‘Seven Sufis’ and a companion of Sulṭān Ḥaydar and Sulṭān ʿAlī Ṣafawī. He gave considerable support to the Ṣafawids during the establishment of their state. In Ṣafawid sources, his name appears in many forms: Abdāl Beg, Abdāl ʿAlī Beg, Abdāl Beg Qūrchī Bāshī, Abdāl Beg Dadah, Dadah Beg Ṭālish, and Dadah Beg Qūrchī Bāshī. It is unclear, however, whether Abdāl Beg and Dadah Beg are al-ways meant to be the same person:…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Abdāl Chishtī
(652 words)
Abdāl Chishtī, Khwāja Abū Aḥmad (260–355/874–966) was one of the great shaykhs of the Chishtī
ṭarīqa (Sufi order) during the 3rd/9th and 4th/10th centuries, and bore the honorific title (
laqab) of Qudwat al-Dīn (lit. ‘the exemplar of religion’). He was a Ḥasanī Sayyid, his line stretching back through seven generations to al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī (Chishtī, 58–59; Aḥmad ʿAlī, 87). He became known as Abdāl Chishtī; since, in his
ṭarīqa, he was deemed to have attained the spiritual degree of the ‘Substitutes’ (
abdāl, q.v.) (Aḥmad ʿAlī, 87), that is, one of the ranks in the spiritual hi…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Abdālī
(4,555 words)
Abdālī was the name of a famous Afghan tribe (later known as the ‘Durrānī’), which founded an independent regime in Herat, and proceeded to extend its rule over what became known as Afghanistan. The descendants of this tribe governed the country for over two centuries.The Abdālīs derived their name from their ancestor, Abdāl b. Tarīn b. Sharakhbūn (Sharaf al-Dīn) b. Sarahban b. Qays (Abdāl being pronounced by Afghans as Awdāl or Awdal) (al-Harawī, 548–556). There are no definite facts about this Abdāl and the period in which he lived. Wakīlī considers Abdāl a title which was given by Khwāja …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib
(667 words)
ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the Prophet Muḥammad's father, an ʿAdnānī Arab and a well-known Hāshimid which was one of the clans of Quraysh. He is said to have originally been given the name ʿAbd al-Dār or ʿAbd Quṣayy, before being called ʿAbd Allāh by his father, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (al-Yaʿqūbī, 2/6; al-Zubayrī, 5–17; Ibn Saʿd, 1/55–56). His father was one of the prominent figures amongst the Quraysh of Mecca, and following his father, Hāshim, took over the rights of wa-tering the pilgrims and of levying the tax to feed them (
siqāya and
rifāda). His mother was Fāṭima bint ʿAmr b. ʿĀʾi…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal
(714 words)
ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (213–290/828–903) was the son of the founder of the Ḥanbalī school, and played an important role in promoting the works and teachings of his father. He pursued his education under the supervision of his father in his place of birth, Baghdad, and also studied the science of
ḥadīth under the likes of Yaḥyā b. Maʿīn, Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān the sons of Abū Shayba, Abū Khaythama Zuhayr b. Ḥarb and Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Zahrānī (Ibn Abī Ḥātim, 2(2)/7; al-Khaṭīb, 9/375; al-Dhahabī, 13/517–520).The sources insist upon the reliability of his
ḥadīths (Ibn Abī…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAlī
(2,403 words)
ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAlī, Abū Muḥammad (d. 147/764), one of the well-known figures of the ʿAbbāsid dynasty and governor of Greater Syria (al-Shām) during the reign of Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Saffāḥ (q.v.), and who laid claim to the caliphate when the ʿAbbāsid al-Manṣūr was caliph. He was a grandson of ʿAbd Allāh b. al-ʿAbbās, and as his father had long been living in al-Ḥumayma, a village near the port of al-ʿAqaba (Yāqūt, 2/342;
Akhbār al-dawla, 108, 154), he was probably born there. Considering his age at the time of his death (al-Balādhurī,
Ansāb, 4/154; al-Ṭabarī, 8/9), he must have been born …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿĀmir b. Kurayz
(910 words)
ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿĀmir b. Kurayz, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (4–59/625–679) was a military commander and governor of the early Islamic period, and one of the conquerors of Khurāsān. He was descended from the ʿAbd Shams clan of the Quraysh tribe, and related to the third caliph, ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān (Ibn Saʿd, 5/44; al-Zubayrī, 147; al-Balādhurī,
Ansāb, 9/356). ʿAbd Allāh was born in Mecca, and according to some accounts, his father ʿĀmir took him to the Prophet while he was performing the
ʿumra, or lesser pilgrimage, and the Prophet received the child with kindness and attention (Ibn Saʿd…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ
(1,215 words)
ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ, Abū Muḥammad (7 before
hijra–65/616–685) was a junior Companion of the Prophet as well as one of the first to write down Prophetic sayings (
ḥadīths).Unlike other Companions, most of his life unfolded after the advent of Islam. He thus played a significant role during the period in which there was a need for the presence of the Companions and their narration of the Prophet's sayings and recounting of his deeds (Ibn Saʿd, 2/376). He was one of the few individuals who, both during and after the Pro…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbd Allāh b. Dhakwān
(1,038 words)
ʿAbd Allāh b. Dhakwān, Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Bashīr al-Dimashqī (173–242/789–856), was one of the two transmitters of the Qurʾān ‘reading’ (
qirāʾa) of Ibn ʿĀmir, who was one of the ‘Seven Readers’ (
al-qurrāʾ al-sabʿa). Ibn al-Jazarī (
Ghāya, 1/404) details his Qurayshī lineage at length. Some sources mention his
kunya as Abū Muḥammad (see Ibn ʿAsākir, 296). He lived in Damascus and was for a while the imam of the congregational mosque there (Ibn ʿAsākir, 296).Ibn Dhakwān learnt Ibn ʿĀmir's
qirāʾa from Ayyūb b. Tamīm as transmitted by Yaḥyā b. Ḥārith al-Dhamārī (Ibn M…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥanẓala
(1,058 words)
ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥanẓala, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān or Abū Bakr, who played a leading role in the uprising of al-Ḥarra in Medina. He came from the Banū ʿAwf, a branch of the Aws tribe (Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, 1/303; Ibn Saʿd, 5/65). He was born in Medina, a few months after his father, Ḥanẓala b. Abī ʿĀmir, was killed at the battle of Uḥud, receiving the martyr's
ghusl (ritual ablution) from the angels. Thus in some sources ʿAbd Allāh is called Ibn al-Ghasīl (Ibn Saʿd, 5/65–66; al-Balādhurī, 4 (2)/37, 43; al-Dhahabī, 3/321; Ibn Ḥajar,
al-Iṣāba, 2/299). The second caliph, ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb, allotted ʿ…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥasan, Abū Muḥammad
(2,071 words)
ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥasan, Abū Muḥammad (d. 145/762), known as ʿAbd Allāh al-Maḥḍ, a prominent ʿAlid of the 2nd/8th century, grandson of al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī. His father was al-Ḥasan, son of al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī, and his mother was Fāṭima, daughter of al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (Ibn Saʿd, 8/473; idem,
Juzʾ mutammim (Supplement), 250; al-Balādhurī, 3/350; Abū al-Faraj, 179). The epithet ‘
al-Maḥḍ’ (the Pure) is an indication of the purity of his kinship, on both his paternal and maternal sides, with the household of the Shiʿi imams (Ibn al-Ṭiqṭaqā, 64).Since his death is given as occurring between the age…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbd Allāh b. Jaʿfar
(1,919 words)
ʿAbd Allāh b. Jaʿfar, Abū Muḥammad (d. 80/699), was one of the younger Companions of the Prophet, the son of Jaʿfar b. Abī Ṭālib (known as ‘al-Ṭayyār’), the husband of Zaynab bint ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, and a well-known, influential figure among the Banū Hāshim who, besides holding political positions, transmitted
ḥadīths from the Prophet and his Household. His
kunya is given as Abū Jaʿfar (al-Bukhārī, 5/7; see also Ibn Ḥibbān, 27) and sometimes as Abū Muḥammad (Ibn ʿAsākir, 27/252). However, he is not often referred to by his
kunya (Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, 196). There is also disagreement over t…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
ʿAbd Allāh b. Jaḥsh
(270 words)
ʿAbd Allāh b. Jaḥsh, Abū Muḥammad (d. Shawwāl 3/March 625) was one of the Companions of the Prophet Muḥammad. He was from the tribe of Banū Asad b. Khuzayma. His mother, Umayma, was the daughter of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and therefore the Prophet's aunt (Ibn Saʿd, 3/89; al-Balādhurī, 11/190). Before the Prophet took up residence in al-Arqam's house, ʿAbd Allāh and his two brothers converted to Islam, and along with their sister, Zaynab, who later married the Prophet (Ibn Saʿd, 8/101 et passim), emigrated to Abyssinia (Ibn Hishām, 1/274, 346; al-Bal…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17