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
Elias/Elijah
(2,673 words)
Elias/Elijah (
Ilyās), a prophet of the Children of Israel, who is mentioned twice or possibly three times in the Qurʾān. The early philologists recognised that the name Elias (Ilyās) was not an Arabic word (e.g. see al-Jawālīqī, 102), and that it must have been derived, via a Greek or Syriac Christian source which introduced the final ‘s’, from the Hebrew Elijāhū which means ‘Yaweh is God’ and was perhaps symbolic of his prophetic mission (Jeffery, 68; Gutmannn [Sperling], 6/331).According to Q 6:84–85, Elias was descended from Noah and is considered one of ‘the righteous’ (
al-ṣāliḥīn). …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Empedocles
(3,518 words)
Empedocles (Empedoklēs, variously spelt as Anbāduqlīs, Anbādhuqlīs or Banduqlīs etc.), was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, whose supposed teachings became well known in the Islamic world as a demonstration of the underlying connections between Greek philosophy and the Semitic tradition of revelation.Little is known about his actual life apart from scattered fragments of information. Our only significant source is
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius (fl. 3rd century CE) (8/51–77, pp. 366–391). Empedocles is also given as the …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Enoch (Idrīs)
(8,755 words)
Enoch (Idrīs), one of the divine messengers mentioned in the Bible who is identified with Idrīs in the Qurʾān. According to traditions he was descended from Seth (Shīth), the son of Adam, and in the period between Adam and Noah (Nūḥ) taught the doctrine of monotheism; In the brief references to Idrīs in the Qurʾān, he is called ‘a man of truth’ (
ṣiddīq) among the prophets (Q 19:56), and his name is set beside those of two other prophets (Ismāʿīl and Dhū al-Kifl) as examples of ‘those who have fortitude’ (
ṣābirūn) and are ‘upright’ (
ṣāliḥūn) (Q 21:85–86). It is also stated that he was adm…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17