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
Bā ʿAlawī
(1,754 words)
Bā ʿAlawī or Āl Bā ʿAlawī, a prominent clan of South Arabian
sayyids, many of them distinguished scholars and Sufis, living primarily in Ḥaḍramawt and in the town of Tarīm in particular. The clan’s name refers to an eponymous forebear, ʿAlawī b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad. According to the sources, the first member of the clan was Aḥmad b. Ḥusayn al-ʿAlawī (d. 345/956), the chief of the ʿAlids of Ḥaḍramawt, who traced his lineage back to Imam ʿAlī via Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq. He was born into a family of scholars in Baṣra and subsequently emigrated to the Yemen (al-Shāṭirī, 1/142, ¶ 152). Aḥmad b. Ḥusayn stu…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bā ʿAlawī
(1,740 words)
Bā ʿAlawī or Āl Bā ʿAlawī, a prominent clan of South Arabian
sayyids, many of them distinguished scholars and Sufis, living primarily in Ḥaḍramawt and in the town of Tarīm in particular. The clan’s name refers to an eponymous forebear, ʿAlawī b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad. According to the sources, the first member of the clan was Aḥmad b. Ḥusayn al-ʿAlawī (d. 345/956), the chief of the ʿAlids of Ḥaḍramawt, who traced his lineage back to Imam ʿAlī via Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq. He was born into a family of scholars in Baṣra and subsequently em…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bāb
(1,753 words)
Bāb, a high rank in the
daʿwa organisation and religious hierarchy (
ḥudūd al-dīn) of the Ismailis. The hierarchical organisation of the Ismaili
daʿwa and the functions of its different ranks were always important but secret and obscure aspects of the Ismaili movement. Ismaili works generally maintain silence on the subject because of the esoteric and often secretive nature of the Ismaili
daʿwa. The enmity of many Sunni emirs, rulers and religious scholars generally obliged the Ismailis to conduct their
daʿwa activities in utmost secrecy (except within the dominions of the …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bāb
(1,762 words)
Bāb, a high rank in the
daʿwa organisation and religious hierarchy (
ḥudūd al-dīn) of the Ismailis. The hierarchical organisation of the Ismaili
daʿwa and the functions of its different ranks were always important but secret and obscure aspects of the Ismaili movement. Ismaili works generally maintain silence on the subject because of the esoteric and often secretive nature of the Ismaili
daʿwa. The enmity of many Sunni emirs, rulers and religious scholars generally obliged the Ismailis to conduct their
daʿwa activities in utmost secrecy (except within the dominions of the …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bābā Afḍal
(4,384 words)
Bābā Afḍal Kāshānī, Afḍal al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥasan Maraqī Kāshānī, was a Persian philosopher, gnostic (
ʿārif) and poet who lived in the second half of the 6th/12th and the first half of the 7th/13th century. While he is particularly renowned in Iran, his philosophical works and poetry being written in Persian, there is a dearth of information about his life.The first mention of his name seems to be in the works of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274), who writes that he studied under one of Bābā Afḍal’s students, the mathematician Kamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad al…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bābā Faraj Tabrīzī
(934 words)
Bābā Faraj Tabrīzī (d. 568/1172 or 1173), was the son of Badal b. Faraj and a prominent Sufi shaykh of the 6th/12th century. He is also called Gajīlī since his
khāniqāh (Sufi lodge) and tomb were located in the Gajīl district of Tabrīz. The little extant information on his life is primarily based upon the account in
Rawḍāt al-jinān by Ibn Karbalāʾī, whose father was one of the caretakers of Bābā Faraj’s tomb and was known as Bābā Farajī.It is reported that he was oblivious to the world, on account of his vision of God (Shabistarī, 224). Bābā Faraj’s state of divine raptur…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bābā Faraj Tabrīzī
(939 words)
Bābā Faraj Tabrīzī (d. 568/1172 or 1173), was the son of Badal b. Faraj and a prominent Sufi shaykh of the 6th/12th century. He is also called Gajīlī since his
khāniqāh (Sufi lodge) and tomb were located in the Gajīl district of Tabrīz. The little extant information on his life is primarily based upon the account in
Rawḍāt al-jinān by Ibn Karbalāʾī, whose father was one of the caretakers of Bābā Faraj’s tomb and was known as Bābā Farajī. It is reported that he was oblivious to the world, on account of his vision of God (Shabistarī, 224). Bābā Faraj’s state of divine raptur…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bābā Farīd al-Dīn Ganj Shikar
(2,705 words)
Bābā Farīd al-Dīn Ganj Shikar, or Shakar-Ganj (ca. 569–664/1174–1265), was one of the most revered and distinguished medieval Sufi mystics in India. Originally called Masʿūd, he was born in either 569/1174 or 571/1175 in the town of Kuthwāl in the district of Multān (Nizami,
Life and Times, 11; Mīr Khurd, 101). Both Firishtah (2/383) and Ghulām Sarwar (1/304) cite 584/1188 as the year of his birth.The three primary sources for Bābā Farīd’s life and teaching come from the circle of Shaykh Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyāʾ, who was his devoted student for over eight years a…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bābā Ilyās Khurāsānī
(1,305 words)
Bābā Ilyās Khurāsānī, Abū al-Baqāʾ Ilyās b. ʿAlī, was a prominent Turkoman Sufi shaykh of the early 7th/13th century, associated with the Bābāʾī Movement and Order (q.v.). He was known both as Bābā Ilyās-i ʿAjam and Bābā Ilyās-i Dīwānah (Âşıkpaşazade, 46, 191; Neşri, 6/47; see also Çelebi, 13; Ocak, 2, 4; Sibṭ b. al-Jawzī, 2/733).Nothing is known about him prior to his arrival in Asia Minor. He is said to have left greater Khurāsān for Anatolia as a result of the Mongol conquests and their annexation of the Khʷārazm-Shāhid territories. He took up residence in the village of Chāt in…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bābā Ilyās Khurāsānī
(1,313 words)
Bābā Ilyās Khurāsānī, Abū al-Baqāʾ Ilyās b. ʿAlī, was a prominent Turkoman Sufi shaykh of the early 7th/13th century, associated with the Bābāʾī Movement and Order (q.v.). He was known both as Bābā Ilyās-i ʿAjam and Bābā Ilyās-i Dīwānah (Âşıkpaşazade, 46, 191; Neşri, 6/47; see also Çelebi, 13; Ocak, 2, 4; Sibṭ b. al-Jawzī, 2/733). Nothing is known about him prior to his arrival in Asia Minor. He is said to have left greater Khurāsān for Anatolia as a result of the Mongol conquests and their annexation of the Khʷārazm-Shāhid territories. He took ¶ up residence in the village of Chāt in th…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bābāʾī Movement
(1,445 words)
Bābāʾī Movement, a socio-religious insurrectionist movement that arose in Anatolia during the reign of the Saljūqs of Rūm in the first half of the 7th/13th century, at the time of the Mongol invasion. The founder of this movement seems to have been one Bābā Ilyās Khurāsānī (q.v.), a prominent Turkoman Sufi shaykh, who came to Anatolia from Khurāsān at the beginning of the 7th/13th century. Ibn Bībī, the contemporary court chronicler of the Saljūqs of Rūm, refers instead to a certain Bābā Isḥāq of…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bābāʾī Movement
(1,454 words)
Bābāʾī Movement, a socio-religious insurrectionist movement that arose in Anatolia during the reign of the Saljūqs of Rūm in the first half of the 7th/13th century, at the ¶ time of the Mongol invasion. The founder of this movement seems to have been one Bābā Ilyās Khurāsānī (q.v.), a prominent Turkoman Sufi shaykh, who came to Anatolia from Khurāsān at the beginning of the 7th/13th century. Ibn Bībī, the contemporary court chronicler of the Saljūqs of Rūm, refers instead to a certain Bābā Isḥāq of Kafarsūd in northern Syri…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bābā Jān Ḥāfiẓ-i Turbatī
(1,123 words)
Bābā Jān Ḥāfiẓ-i Turbatī (d. 944/1537), a prominent calligrapher of
nastaʿlīq, who was also a poet and musician. He was the son of Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-ʿAlī Turbatī and brother of the noted singer Ḥāfiẓ Qāsim; the Turbatī family was originally from Zāwah (Turbat-i Ḥaydariyya) in Khurāsān. During the reign of the Tīmūrid ruler of Herat, Sulṭān-Ḥusayn Bāyqarā (r. 873–911/1469–1506), his father Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-ʿAlī, along with the family members, travelled to Herat and became attached to the Tīmūrid court (Budāq Qazw…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bābā Kamāl-i Jandī
(941 words)
Bābā Kamāl-i Jandī (d. 672/1273), was an eminent master of the Kubrawiyya Sufi order, whose full name, ancestry, dates and places of birth and death have until recently been completely unknown, in contrast to other disciples of Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 618/1221) such as Najm al-Dīn Dāya Rāzī (d. 654/1256), Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamawayh (d. 650/1252) or Sayf al-Dīn Bākharzī (d. 659/1261). The two best-known early sources for any information on Bābā Kamāl, as for other disciples of Najm al-Dīn al-Kubrā, are Ḥusayn Khʷārazmī’s
Jawāhir al-asrār, written after 833/1430, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī’…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bābā Kamāl-i Jandī
(948 words)
Bābā Kamāl-i Jandī (d. 672/1273), was an eminent master of the Kubrawiyya Sufi order, whose full name, ancestry, dates and places of birth and death have until recently been completely unknown, in contrast to other disciples of Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 618/1221) such as Najm al-Dīn Dāya Rāzī (d. 654/1256), Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamawayh (d. 650/1252) or Sayf al-Dīn Bākharzī (d. 659/1261). The two best-known early sources for any information on Bābā Kamāl, as for other disciples of Najm al-Dīn al-Kubrā, are Ḥusayn Khʷārazmī’s
Jawāhir al-asrār, written after 833/1430, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī’…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bābak Khurram-Dīn
(3,446 words)
Bābak Khurram-Dīn (d. Ṣafar 223/January 838), was the leader of the Khurramiyya revolt during the first part of the 3rd/9th century. Although he was extremely well-known, the scant information on his genealogy, beliefs and doctrines in primary sources makes it difficult to construct a unified picture of him. While the bias of early historians and chroniclers of the period somewhat diminishes the value of their writings, the diversity of perspectives and interpretations of this historical characte…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bābā Luqmān, Mausoleum
(916 words)
Bābā Luqmān, Mausoleum. A mausoleum associated with Bābā Luqmān al-Sarakhsī, the well-known 4th/10th-century mystic, located in Sarakhs (see Fig. 1a). His mausoleum bears many similarities with other Khurāsānī mausolea associated with Sufi masters such as Abū al-Faḍl al-Sarakhsī, Abū Saʿīd b. Abī al-Khayr (q.q.v.) and Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī al-Ṭūsī. Anecdotes recorded about Bābā Luqmān identify him as one of
al-ʿuqalāʾ al-majānīn (‘holy fools’) (see Muḥammad b. al-Munawwar, 24–25, 217, 42, 199, 244–225, 264; Jāmī, 301–303), and he became the object of such…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bābā Luqmān, Mausoleum
(895 words)
Bābā Luqmān, Mausoleum. A mausoleum associated with Bābā Luqmān al-Sarakhsī, the well-known 4th/10th-century mystic, located in Sarakhs (see Fig. 1). His mausoleum bears many similarities with other Khurāsānī mausolea associated with Sufi masters such as Abū al-Faḍl al-Sarakhsī, Abū Saʿīd b. Abī al-Khayr (q.q.v.) and Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī al-Ṭūsī. Anecdotes recorded about Bābā Luqmān identify him as one of
al-ʿuqalāʾ al-majānīn (‘holy fools’) (see Muḥammad b. al-Munawwar, 24–25, 217, 42, 199, 244–225, 264; Jāmī, 301–303), and he became the object of such …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bābā Qāsim, Mausoleum
(1,090 words)
Bābā Qāsim, Mausoleum. The mausoleum of Bābā Qāsim al-Iṣfahānī, a prominent mystic of the 8th/14th century, is located in the Shahshahān area of Iṣfahān (see Fig. 2). According to an inscription over the entrance, and several within the mausoleum, the building was erected in 741/1340 by Sulaymān b. Abī al-Ḥasan b. Ṭālūt Dāmghānī, one of Bābā Qāsim’s disciples and an official of the late Īlkhānid and post-Īlkhānid era (see Iṣfahānī, 73; Rafīʿī, 785–786; Godard, ‘Le tombeau de Bābā Ḳāsem et la Madrasa Imāmī’, 165, ‘Le tombeau’, 38). The architectural style of the Bābā Qāsim mausoleu…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bābā Qāsim, Mausoleum
(1,115 words)
Bābā Qāsim, Mausoleum. The mausoleum of Bābā Qāsim al-Iṣfahānī, a prominent mystic of the 8th/14th century, is located in the Shahshahān area of Iṣfahān (see Fig. 2). According to an inscription over the entrance, and several within the mausoleum, the building was erected in 741/1340 by Sulaymān b. Abī al-Ḥasan b. Ṭālūt Dāmghānī, one of Bābā Qāsim’s disciples and an official of the late Īlkhānid and post-Īlkhānid era (see Iṣfahānī, 73; Rafīʿī, 785–786; Godard, ‘Le tombeau de Bābā Ḳāsem et la Madrasa Imāmī’, 165, ‘Le tombeau’, 38).The architectural style of the Bābā Qāsim mausoleu…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17