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
Bāqir Khān
(2,902 words)
Bāqir Khān (d. 1335/1917), known as Sālār-i Millī, was an influential popular leader in Tabrīz during the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 (q.v.), and a close associate of Sattār Khān (1866–1914), known as Sardār-i Millī (see Fig. 15). He was born in the Khiyābān district of Tabrīz in 1240 Sh./1861. There is little information about his life prior to his involvement in the Constitutional Revolution, apart from the fact that in his early years he apparently worked in the construction trade. In his locality, he was known as a courag…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Barāʾa
(2,591 words)
Barāʾa, an important principle in various schools of jurisprudence, and one of the four ‘procedural principles’ (
al-uṣūl al-ʿamaliyya) in later Shiʿi
fiqh. It denotes the release or exemption from legal obligation (
taklīf); and the removal of a punishment of a
mukallaf (a person ‘obligated’ by the law, on account of being fully capacitated) in cases where the latter either commits an action which is probably forbidden, or else omits to perform an action which is probably prescribed. This principle comes into operation in cases where there is no ‘real’ or ‘actual’ legal ruling (
ḥukm wāqi…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Al-Barāʾ b. ʿĀzib
(1,184 words)
Al-Barāʾ b. ʿĀzib (d. 71 or 72/690 or 691), was a Companion of Prophet Muḥammad. He was one of the Helpers (Anṣār) and from the Banū Ḥārith branch of the Aws tribe of Yathrib (Medina) (Khalīfa,
al-Ṭabaqāt, 1/186; al-Bukhārī, 1(2)/117; for his lineage see al-Mizzī,
Tahdhīb, 4/34–35). Several
kunyas are given for him, the most famous being Abū ʿUmāra (Khalīfa,
al-Ṭabaqāt, 1/303; Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj, 77; Abū Nuʿaym, 3/71; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, 1/155).Al-Barāʾ converted to Islam as a very young man before the Prophet’s migration to Medina (Ibn Saʿd, 4/367–368), his father h…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Al-Barāʾ b. ʿĀzib
(1,192 words)
Al-Barāʾ b. ʿĀzib (d. 71 or 72/690 or 691), was a Companion of Prophet Muḥammad. He was one of the Helpers (Anṣār) and from the Banū Ḥārith branch of the Aws tribe of Yathrib (Medina) (Khalīfa,
al-Ṭabaqāt, 1/186; al-Bukhārī, 1(2)/117; for his lineage see al-Mizzī,
Tahdhīb, 4/34–35). Several
kunyas are given for him, the most famous being Abū ʿUmāra (Khalīfa,
al-Ṭabaqāt, 1/303; Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj, 77; Abū Nuʿaym, 3/71; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, 1/155). Al-Barāʾ converted to Islam as a very young man before the Prophet’s migration to Medina (Ibn Saʿd, 4/367–368), his father h…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Al-Barāʾ b. Mālik
(976 words)
Al-Barāʾ b. Mālik (d. ca. 20/641), a Companion of the Prophet. Al-Barāʾ belonged to the Banū al-Najjār branch of Khazraj, and was the brother of Anas b. Mālik (q.v.), the renowned Companion and servant of the Prophet (Ibn Saʿd, 7/16–17; Khalīfa, 1/438; Ibn Ḥibbān, 3/26–27; al-Dhahabī, 1/195). He is said to have been one of the Companions of the Tree (
aṣḥāb al-shajara), those who swore an oath of allegiance to the Prophet under an acacia tree at Ḥudaybiyya, a pact which became known as the
bayʿat al-shajara (‘pledge of the tree’) or
bayʿat al-riḍwān (‘pledge of [divine] good pleasure’) (…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Barāhīn Ithbāt al-Bāriʾ
(11,139 words)
Barāhīn Ithbāt al-Bāriʾ (Proofs of God’s existence [lit. ‘proofs affirming the Creator’]). Relying upon rational methods to establish the existence of God is considered one of the ways to attain religious conviction, but at the same time, a number of Islamic thinkers, not only the Sufis and those who reject discursive philosophy, have acknowledged the superiority of innate and intuitive knowledge. Similarly, many of those who have engaged in rational efforts to prove the existence of God have stre…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Barāhūyī (Brahui)
(2,874 words)
Barāhūyī (Brahui), the confederacy of the tribes found scattered throughout the provinces of Sīstān and Baluchistan in southeast Iran and parts of the neighbouring countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan.Although the etymology of the name is unclear, there are two hypotheses concerning its origin. The term Barāhūyī usually denotes people living in the mountain areas of Kalāt (Qallat) (Tate, 368), and it is said to have been derived from a Persian–Sindhi hybrid word
ba-rōhī, meaning ‘on the mountain’. However, according to Dames (p. 630), such a word cannot have existe…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Baraka
(1,300 words)
Baraka (blessing), a term denoting a religious concept that holds a prominent place in both the Qurʾān and
ḥadīth and is widely used in popular Muslim cultures. The trilateral root
b-r-k is found in most Semitic languages with the same two core meanings. The simple form of the verb in both Arabic and Hebrew conveys the action of kneel-ing (Lane, entry on
baraka; Gesenius, entry on
barekh; cf. Psalms 95:6). This meaning is also found in cognate languages (Assyrian: birku, Ethiopic: ብርክ, Aramaic בִּרְכָּא; Syriac: ܒܪܟ; Ugaritic: ) and in Arabic the IV form of th…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Baraka
(1,312 words)
Baraka (blessing), a term denoting a religious concept that holds a prominent place in both the Qurʾān and
ḥadīth and is widely used in popular Muslim cultures. The trilateral root
b-r-k is found in most Semitic languages with the same two core meanings. The simple form of the verb in both Arabic and Hebrew conveys the action of kneel-¶ ing (Lane, entry on
baraka; Gesenius, entry on
barekh; cf. Psalms 95:6). This meaning is also found in cognate languages (Assyrian: birku, Ethiopic: ብርክ, Aramaic בִּרְכָּא; Syriac: ܒܪܟ; Ugaritic: 𐎁𐎗𐎋) and in Arabic the IV for…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Baraka (Barakat) Hamadānī
(1,200 words)
Baraka (Barakat) Hamadānī, was a Sufi authority from the 5th/11th to the 6th/12th century, and one of the spiritual masters of ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī (d. 525/1131; q.v.). He has remained little known probably because he was unlettered (
ummī), does not seem to have been affiliated to any particular Sufi order, and lived far from Khurāsān, which was one of the main centres of Sufism at the time. Information about this charismatic master, who inspired such renowned figures as ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī and possibly Aḥmad al-Ghazālī (d. 520/1126), can only be found in ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s letters (
Nām…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Baraka (Barakat) Hamadānī
(1,188 words)
Baraka (Barakat) Hamadānī, was a Sufi authority from the 5th/11th to the 6th/12th century, and one of the spiritual masters of ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī (d. 525/1131; q.v.).He has remained little known probably because he was unlettered (
ummī), does not seem to have been affiliated to any particular Sufi order, and lived far from Khurāsān, which was one of the main centres of Sufism at the time. Information about this charismatic master, who inspired such renowned figures as ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī and possibly Aḥmad al-Ghazālī (d. 520/1126), can only be found in ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s letters (
Nām…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Barāq Bābā
(1,573 words)
Barāq Bābā (655–707/1257–1307), a well-known dervish from the Īlkhānid period. Barāq, meaning long-haired dog in Qipchāq Turkish, was a common name among the Mongolian- and Turkic-speaking peoples from the 7th/13th to the 9th/15th century. However it is reported that this title was given to him because on one occasion he swallowed a piece of food which his master, Ṣārī Ṣaltūq, had expecto-¶ rated (Kāshgharī, 1/315; İnan, 151). In Arabic sources this unvocalised word has been confused with the Arabic word ‘
burāq’ (al-Ṣafadī,
al-Wāfī, 10/106,
Aʿyān, 1/226; al-Dhahabī, 4/13; Ibn T…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Barāq Bābā
(1,562 words)
Barāq Bābā (655–707/1257–1307), a well-known dervish from the Īlkhānid period.Barāq, meaning long-haired dog in Qipchāq Turkish, was a common name among the Mongolian- and Turkic-speaking peoples from the 7th/13th to the 9th/15th century. However it is reported that this title was given to him because on one occasion he swallowed a piece of food which his master, Ṣārī Ṣaltūq, had expecto-rated (Kāshgharī, 1/315; İnan, 151). In Arabic sources this unvocalised word has been confused with the Arabic word ‘
burāq’ (al-Ṣafadī,
al-Wāfī, 10/106,
Aʿyān, 1/226; al-Dhahabī, 4/13; Ibn Ta…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
al-Barbahārī
(2,644 words)
al-Barbahārī, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Khalaf (d. 329/941), was a radical Ḥanbalī theologian, jurist and preacher (
wāʿiẓ), who instigated several sectarian riots in Baghdad. His
nisba means someone who sells a kind of Indian medicine called
barbahār (al-Samʿānī, 1/307; Ibn al-Athīr,
al-Lubāb, 1/133).Although the year of his birth is not known, he must have been born in either 233/847 or 252/866, the former if we accept the account which states that he died at the age of ninety-six (lunar years), the latter, if we accept the accoun…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Barbaṭ
(1,387 words)
Barbaṭ, a stringed instrument of the lute family, plucked with a plectrum, having a relatively large resonating body and a smaller neck. The
barbaṭ is an early musical instrument of Iran. Its name and pictures can be found on items dating from antiquity. For example, a silver goblet from the Sāsānid period, held in the National Museum of Iran, shows a minstrel playing a
barbaṭ (Furūgh, 14) and in the Pahlawī text ‘Khusraw Qibādān wa Rīdak’ the name
barbaṭ is mentioned as the same class of instruments as the
chang (harp), the
wan (a harp-like instrument made of chestnut wood) and the
tambūr (fret…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Barbaṭ
(1,399 words)
Barbaṭ, a stringed instrument of the lute family, plucked with a plectrum, having a relatively large resonating body and a smaller neck. The
barbaṭ is an early musical instrument of Iran. Its name and pictures ¶ can be found on items dating from antiquity. For example, a silver goblet from the Sāsānid period, held in the National Museum of Iran, shows a minstrel playing a
barbaṭ (Furūgh, 14) and in the Pahlawī text ‘Khusraw Qibādān wa Rīdak’ the name
barbaṭ is mentioned as the same class of instruments as the
chang (harp), the
wan (a harp-like instrument made of chestnut wood) and the
tambūr (fre…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bard al-ʿAjūz
(777 words)
Bard al-ʿAjūz (‘old woman’s cold’), or
ayyām al-ʿajūz (‘old woman’s days’) is a traditional term used to describe a period of five or seven days towards the end of the cold of winter (Saʿdī, 101; Muḥammad Pādishāh, 1/659). This period is also referred to as
rūzgār-i ʿajūz (‘old woman’s days’) or
sarmā-yi pīr-zan (‘old woman’s chill’) (al-Bīrūnī,
al-Tafhīm, 262–263) in both Persian culture and literature.
Bard al-ʿajūz begins on the 26th day of the month of Sebat (the second winter month and the fifth Syriac month): three of the days occur in Sebat and four in …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bard al-ʿAjūz
(772 words)
Bard al-ʿAjūz (‘old woman’s cold’), or
ayyām al-ʿajūz (‘old woman’s days’) is a traditional term used to describe a period of five or seven days towards the end of the cold of winter (Saʿdī, 101; Muḥammad Pādishāh, 1/659). This period is also referred to as
rūzgār-i ʿajūz (‘old woman’s days’) or
sarmā-yi pīr-zan (‘old woman’s chill’) (al-Bīrūnī,
al-Tafhīm, 262–263) in both Persian culture and literature.
Bard al-ʿajūz begins on the 26th day of the month of Sebat (the second winter month and the fifth Syriac month): three of the days occur in Sebat and four in …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bār-i Amānat
(2,936 words)
Bār-i Amānat (‘the burden of trust’), a Sufi term also known as the Lordly Covenant (
amānat-i rabbānī) or the Trust of Divine Lordship (
amānat-i rubūbiyya). In Sufi terminology it is a Divine Trust by means of which humans acquire both the knowledge and friendship of God (al-Samʿānī, 277; Najm al-Dīn,
Mirṣād, 145,
Marmūzāt, 15–16; al-Nasafī, 252). It is also an innate and God-given ability that enables man to realise all the Divine Names and Attributes (al-Farghānī, 414, 643; Jāmī, 90; al-Kāshānī, 7/378). In a general sense the Qurʾānic notion of
amāna can be understood as having thr…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Bār-i Amānat
(2,922 words)
Bār-i Amānat (‘the burden of trust’), a Sufi term also known as the Lordly Covenant (
amānat-i rabbānī) or the Trust of Divine Lordship (
amānat-i rubūbiyya). In Sufi terminology it is a Divine Trust by means of which humans acquire both the knowledge and friendship of God (al-Samʿānī, 277; Najm al-Dīn,
Mirṣād, 145,
Marmūzāt, 15–16; al-Nasafī, 252). It is also an innate and God-given ability that enables man to realise all the Divine Names and Attributes (al-Farghānī, 414, 643; Jāmī, 90; al-Kāshānī, 7/378).In a general sense the Qurʾānic notion of
amāna can be understood as having thr…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17