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An explanation of the doctrine of the Christians Al-Ashʿarī Date: Unknown, between 932 and 935 Original Language: Arabic Description The work is lost, and its original title is unknown. All that is known is this brief description of it in a list of al-Ashʿarī’s late works by Ibn Fūrak, which Ibn ʿAsākir incorporated into his list ( Tabyīn, p. 135; McCarthy, Theology, p. 227, no. 84). As the reference indicates, it set out what were in all likelihood the main Christian teachings of the Trinity and Incarnation, possibly going into details about the differen…

Al-Ahwāzī, Abū al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm b. Yazdād b. Hurmūz b. Shāhiq (27 Muḥarram 362–Dhū al-Ḥijja 446/7 November 972–6 March 1055), was a Qurʾān reader ( qāriʾ, pl. qurrāʾ ) and author of a critique of al-Ashʿārī. He was born in Ahwāz in Iran and was, as the names of his forefathers show, of Persian descent. He began his education in Ahwāz, and then studied Qurʾān reading ( qirāʾa) and ḥadīth in various places (Ibn al-Jazarī, Ghāya, 1/220). In 391/1001 (or, by one account, in 394/1004) he went to live in Damascus; and it was there that he eventually died (Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīkh, 4/475–477; Ibn…

Abū al-ʿĀliya, Rufayʿ b. Mihrān al-Baṣrī (d. ca. 93/712), was a client of the Banū Riyāḥ and a notable of the first rank amongst the tābiʿūn (‘followers’, the generation following that of the Companions). The date of his birth is unclear: Abū Nuʿaym reckoned that he was four years old at the time of the Prophet's death (1/314); however, this is at variance with the report that he became a Muslim two years after the Prophet's death (al-Bukhārī, 2(1)/326). The majority of sources place his death in the year 90/709 or 93/7…

In Band XVI: Schöngeistige Literatur, Teil 1, Poetik, Rhetorik und Literaturtheorie, Dichterbücher, Anthologien, Kunstprosa | IV. Kunstprosa | B. Autoren previous section ṬĀHIR B. AL-ḤUSAIN Abu ṭ-Ṭaiyib Ṭāhir b. al-Ḥusain b. Muṣʿab al-Ḫuzāʿī Ḏu l-Yamīnain, Statthalter des Kalifen al-Maʾmūn in Ḫurāsān, war der Gründer der dortigen Dynastie der Ṭāhiriden. Trotz seiner persischen Herkunft galt er als ein hervorragender Stilist in der arabīschen Sprache (gest. 207/822, s. GAS II, 611). Šābuštī, Diyārāt S. 92-95; Taʾrīḫ Baġdād IX, 353-355; Ibn al-Abbār, Iʿtāb al-kuttābS. 122-124…

Ashʿarīs, the dissemination of Ashʿarī theology. The 2nd–3rd/8th–9th centuries mark a crucial period in the history of the theological thought of Sunni Islam, during which a significant portion of its subject matter came to be formed and elaborated. The Sunni theologians of this period can be divided into two categories as regards their general approach to the discipline. Firstly, the Muʿtazilīs and other related schools of thought, who were responsible for propagating ʿilm al-kalām and, with their predilection for rationalism, for producing a methodical and analytic…

ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr, Abū Bakr or Abū Ḥabīb (2–73/624–692), a major figure in early Islamic history. He declared himself caliph, and for a while he was recognised as such by the opponents of the Umayyads in various parts of the Islamic territories. His father, al-Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwām, who is regarded as one of the most famous Companions of the Prophet, was from the Qurayshī clan of Banū Asad (see Ibn Qudāma, 255). ʿAbd Allāh was the first person to be born in Medina to the Emigrants from Mecca ( muhājirūn) (Khalīfa, 1/25; al-Ṭabarī, 2/389, 400, 401; Ibn ʿAsākir, 28/145 ff.). His mo…

Abū Zurʿa ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAmr al-Dimashqī (d. 282/895) was born into a family of Damascene muḥaddiths, sometime before 200/815. Few details of his life are preserved. He apparently travelled with his father to Ḥimṣ and Rāmallāh in 211/826 and later travelled to other Syrian cities in order to pursue ḥadīth transmitters. He reportedly visited Egypt in 219/834 and probably visited Baghdad, Kufa, and Basra as well. He died in Damascus in 281/895. He was a noted muḥaddith, whose teachers included Ibn Ḥanbal (164–241/780–855), Yaḥyā b. Maʿīn (158–233/775–848), and a number…

Bashīr b. Saʿd (d. c. 12/633) was one of the Anṣār and a Companion of the prophet Muḥammad. He belonged to a branch of the Khazraj—one of the two main Arab tribes of Medina, the Aws being the other—called al-Ḥārith b. al-Khazraj, and, more precisely, to a subdivision of the Ḥārith called Mālik al-Agharr (Caskel, 1:188). Bashīr, who was one of the few who were literate before Islam (Ibn Saʿd, 3:531), became famous for his role in the meeting that was held after Muḥammad’s death at the saqīfa of the Banī Sāʿida (the roofed assembly hall of the Sāʿida, another branch of the Khazraj). At that meeting …

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…

ʿAbbād b. Ziyād b. Abī Sufyān (d. 100/718; sometimes designated by the sources as Ibn Sumayya and other times, but more rarely, as Ibn Abī Sufyān) was one of four sons of Ziyād b. Abīhi (d. 53/673), ʿUbaydallāh (d. 67/686), ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and Salm (d. 73/692) being the others. All four brothers served as generals or governors under the Sufyānids. It is not certain how old ʿAbbād was at the time of his death in 100/718 (Ibn ʿAsākir, 26:234; al-Dhahabī, 398), but from the following accounts it can be assumed he was at least in his early seventies. In 41/6…

In Band 8 | III. Lexikographen im Irak previous section al-Laiṯ al-Laiṯ b. al-Muẓaffar (oder Rāfiʿ) b. Naṣr b. Saiyār, ein Enkel des Statthalters von Ḫurāsān (ca. 120/738), war Sekretär der Barmakiden in Bagdad. Er wird als ein Gelehrter beschrieben, der in Lexikographie, Grammatik und Überlieferung der Poesie bewandert war. Es kam zwischen ihm und al-Ḫalīl b. Aḥmad zu einer engen Freundschaft. Einem Bericht zufolge soll al-Ḫalīl vom Ruhm des Laiṯ gehört, ihn aufgesucht und für ihn das K. al-ʿAin als Zeichen seiner Freundschaft verfaßt und es ihm auch gewidmet haben (s. Yāqūt, Iršād VI,…

ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. al-Ḥajjāj b. ʿAbd al-Malik (d. 126/744) was an Umayyad prince who was married to a daughter of the caliph Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik (d. 125/743). Al-Ṣafadī and Ibn ʿAsākir report that his mother was Rayṭa bt. ʿUbaydallāh b. ʿAbdallāh, making him a half-brother to the first ʿAbbāsid caliph Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Saffāḥ (d. 136/754). Other sources note only that his mother was an umm walad. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. al-Ḥajjāj is seldom mentioned in historical sources before he became involved in the third fitna, in which he supported the efforts of Yazīd b. al-Walīd (Yazīd III, re…

Abū Muslim al-Khawlānī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Thuwab, also known as Ibn Mishkam, was a renowned follower ( tābiʿ) (al-Kalbī, 1/215; al-Balādhurī, 2/277; Ibn Manjawayh, 1/357). He was from the Qaḥtānī clan of the Banū Khawlān tribe of Yemen, the majority of whom eventually settled in Greater Syria (al-Shām) (al-Samʿānī, 5/234; Ibn Khallikān, 1/142, 2/511). His father's name was also recorded as Ayyūb or ʿAwf (Ibn Ḥazm, 418; al-Bukhārī, 3(1)/59; Ibn Manjawyah, 1/357, cf. 2/401), a confusion which stemmed from a misreading…

Abū Yūsuf al-Qazwīnī, ʿAbd al-Salām b. Muḥammad b. Yūsuf b. Bundār (393–488/1003–1095), was a Muʿtazilī judge, scholar and author of a large commentary on the Qurʾān. He was born in Qazwīn (al-Subkī, 5/121), and apart from the generally accepted date of birth given above, 391/1001 (al-Rāfiʿī, 3/180) and 411/1020 (Ibn al-Athīr, 10/253) have also been cited. His father al-Qāḍī Abū Bakr, who was also a scholar, apparently died in 413/1022 (for his biography see al-Rāfiʿī, 2/59–60). Abū Yūsuf is repor…

Al-Najāshī al-Ḥārithī (d. c.40/660 or 49/669) is the sobriquet of Qays b. ʿAmr, a renowned Yemeni poet who sided with the fourth Muslim caliph, ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (r. 35–40/656–61), against the ruler of Syria and future caliph Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān (r. 41–60/661–80). He was born into the al-Ḥārith b. Kaʿb b. ʿAmr tribe of Yemen from the Najrān region of southwest Arabia (Kaḥḥāla, 1:231). His nickname, najāshī, comes from the Ge’ez word for ‘king’ (used in early Islam for the Ethiopian ruler) because his mother was Ethiopian and also, apparently, because of his d…

Khālid b. ʿAbdallāh al-Qasrī (d. 126/743) served as the Umayyad governor of Mecca either during the reign of ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 65–86/685–705), al-Walīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 86–96/705–15), or Sulaymān b. ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 96–9/715–7). He later served as governor of Iraq, and viceroy over the entire eastern portion of the Umayyad empire for most of the reign of Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 105–25/724–43). Details of his service in both of these important posts are poorly preserved and, in many cases, …

In Band 6 | III. Arabische Astronomen previous section az-Zīǧ al-ʿatīq Im Zusammenhang mit der Berechnung des Breitengrades von Bust weist al-Bīrūnī in seinem Taḥdīd nihāyāt al-amākin (S. 268) darauf hin, daß er in Ġazna einen Zīǧ auf altem Pergament mit Angaben nach der diokletianischen Ära gesehen habe, in dessen Anhang sich Zusätze eines Gelehrten – Notizen und Daten von Sonnenfinsternissen – befunden hätten, die zwischen 90 und 100 nach der Hiǧra beobachtet worden seien. Nachdem al-Bīrūnī die Angaben über den Breitengrad von Bust aus dem alten Zīǧ, der auch den Wert der Schief…

, nickname of a satirical poet of Baṣra named Ḵh̲idās̲h̲ b. Bis̲h̲r al-Mud̲j̲ās̲h̲iʿī. Though held to be the greatest orator of the Tamīm, Ibn Sallām places him in the second class of the great Islamic poets. The critics, however, consider that his relative obscurity was only due to the renown of Ḏj̲arīr; al-Baʿīt̲h̲’s activity is in fact associated with that of the two rivals Ḏj̲arīr and al-Farazdaḳ: for many years he exchanged invectives with the former, but was obliged to call the latter to h…

, surnom du poète satirique de Baṣra nommé Ḵh̲idās̲h̲ b. Bis̲h̲r al-Mud̲j̲ās̲h̲iʿī. Considéré comme le meilleur orateur des Tamīm, il est rangé par Ibn Sallām dans la deuxième classe des grands poètes islamiques, mais les critiques pensent que son obscurité relative est seulement due à la gloire de Ḏj̲arīr; l’activité d’al-Baʿīt̲h̲ est en effet associée à celle des deux rivaux Ḏj̲arīr et al-Farazdaḳ: avec le premier, il échangea des invectives pendant de longues années, mais il dut appeler à l’a…

Abū Ṭalḥa, Zayd b. Sahl b. al-Aswad b. Ḥarām al-Khazrajī, was a renowned Companion of the Prophet Muḥammad and one of the Anṣār (the ‘Helpers’) of Medina. He was mostly known as a valiant fighter and skilful archer of the early Islamic period. He was at the Prophet's side during the oath of allegiance at al-ʿAqaba and in the battles of Badr, Uḥud and Khandaq (Ibn Saʿd, 3/504). At the battle of Uḥud he stood by the Prophet, shooting arrow after arrow and shouting such terrifying war-cries that the…