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The city of Abhā is situated in Wādī Abhā, in the highland region of ʿAsīr. It is the capital of the Saudi Arabian province of ʿAsīr. In 2004 it had an estimated population of 200,000. Abhā did not rise to prominence before the fourth decade of the nineteenth century when it became the seat of government for the local tribal dynasty of Āl ʿĀʾiḍ al-Mughaydī. In 1870–1 Abhā was conquered by the Ottomans and served as a regional base for their government in northern Yemen until their withdrawal in 1918. After a short return to indep…

Al-ʿAwāzim (sing. al-ʿĀzimī) is a tribe with several subgroups in Kuwait and the northern part of the Saudi Arabian province of al-Aḥsāʾ, not to be confused with minor tribal groups bearing the same name, such as subgroups of the ʿUtayba and al-Sharārāt (al-Jāsir, 2:572–4). The ʿAwāzim may have been originally a subgroup of the Hutaym, located between Khaybar and Ḥāʾil. They themselves traced their genealogical origin back to the Ḥarb (Lorimer, 2A:189) yet were reckoned by others to be an inferior tribe of unknown descent (ghayr aṣīl), with whom others would not intermarry. Membe…

The Bā ʿAlawī are a kinship group that traces its genealogy back to the prophet Muḥammad, through his grandson al-Ḥusayn (4–61/626–80). The Bā ʿAlawī has been based in Ḥaḍramawt, in southern Arabia, since the first half of the fourth/tenth century, then later spread to other regions, mainly the Islamic lands around the Indian Ocean. There are no authentic sources on the early history of the Bā ʿAlawī. The Bā ʿAlawī themselves assert that their ancestor in Ḥaḍramawt was Aḥmad b. ʿĪsā (d. 345/956), called al-Muhājir (the Emigrant). He is said to have…

ʿĀmir I b. Ṭāhir b. Maʿūḍa, al-Malik al-Ẓāfir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, was the younger brother of al-Malik al-Mujāhid ʿAlī, together with whom he built up the rule of the Sunnī Ṭāhirids in Yemen from 858/1454. Until his voluntary abdication as ruler in 864/1460, ʿĀmir I ruled jointly with his brother. During these six years, Ṭāhirid coins were minted in his name. From 864/1460 until his death in 870/1466, ʿĀmir I devoted himself to the conquest of Ṣanʿāʾ and its incorporation into the Ṭāhirid territories. A…

Aden (Ar. ʿAdan), a seaport on the Gulf of Aden, in the south of the Republic of Yemen, was known as a port as early as pre-Islamic times (Löfgren, ʿAdan, EI2; Shihāb, chaps. 2–5). During the first Islamic centuries it came under the de jure rule of the Umayyad and early ʿAbbāsid caliphates, through their governors, who ruled Yemen from Ṣanʿāʾ. The Ziyādids of Zabīd, nominally ʿAbbāsid vassals, took control of the town in the third/ninth century. After a phase of independent rule by the local Banū Maʿn dynasty, about whom li…

Abyan is a region in Yemen northeast of Aden (Ar. ʿAdan) on the Gulf of Aden, with its centre in the delta of Wādī Banā and Wādī Ḥassān. During the Middle Ages, as the hinterland of Aden, Abyan came to be ruled de jure by the powers dominating the seaport, that is, the Ziyādids, Banū Maʿn, Ṣulayḥids, Zurayʿids, Ayyūbids, Rasūlids, and Ṭāhirids. During the first Ottoman occupation of Yemen, Abyan fell under Turkish sway for a time. In 1644 it became part of the expanding Zaydī imāmate until local…

Al-ʿAydarūs is a lineage belonging to the Bā ʿAlawī kinship group that traces its genealogy back to the prophet Muḥammad (through his grandson al-Ḥusayn) and has been centred on Ḥaḍramawt, in southern Arabia, since the first half of the fourth/tenth century. The al-ʿAydarūs lineage split into several sub-branches, whose members migrated to other regions of the Islamic world. Some became widely known for their Ṣūfī activities. 1. Development of the lineage The eponymous ancestor of the lineage was ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saqqāf (811–65/1409–61), c…

Aḥmad b. Zaynī b. Aḥmad Daḥlān (d. 1304/1886) was a sayyid of the Ḥasanid line (that is, a descendant of the prophet Muḥammad through his grandson al-Ḥasan) and one of the most influential scholars in Mecca through the 1870s until his death. He was born in Mecca sometime between 1231/1816 and 1233/1818 and died in Medina. He completed his education in the jurisprudential tradition of the four schools of law ( madhhab, pl. madhāhib) in Sunnī Islam solely in Mecca, where he also made a career as a scholar of the Shāfiʿī school. A moderate Ṣūfī (mystic) in the style of …

Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Ḥiwālī al-Qāḍī a l-Akwaʿ(1903–99) was a Yemeni scholar, historian, and politician. He was born in Dhamār, the son of a Zaydī judge. He studied in Dhamār and Ṣanʿāʾ, then worked as a teacher in a village near Ibb. In Ibb, al-Akwaʿ became actively involved in local opposition to the autocratic regime of the Zaydī Imām Yaḥyā, a campaign that was part of the wider Yemeni reform movement. As leader of the Ibb-based Jamʿiyyat al-iṣlāḥ, al-Akwaʿ was jailed from 1944 through 1947. At the end of 1947 he was one of a group of thirty-five scholars who signed a fatwā declaring legal the…

Al-Aḥsāʾ is a cluster of oases in the Eastern Province (al-Minṭaqa al-Sharqiyya) of Saudi Arabia. The name al-Aḥsāʾ (or al-Ḥasā) has frequently been applied to the eastern coastal region in general. Its most important settlements in modern history are the capital, al-Hufūf, and al-Mubarraz. The population has traditionally been divided almost evenly between Sunnīs and Twelver Shīʿīs. Al-Aḥsāʾ has always been one of the largest agricultural areas of the Arabian Peninsula (more than twelve thousand hectares). Its economy was based mainly on date cultiva…

[German Version] Wahhabis, adherents of a theological school in Sunni Islam (II), founded in the center of the Arabian Peninsula by the Ḥanbalite scholar Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdalwahhāb (1703–1792). They originally called themselves al-muwaḥḥidūn, “affirmers of the singularity of God.” The core of Ibn ʿAbdalwahhāb’s teachings is a more restrictive interpretation of the requirements for fulfilling the obligation to affirm the singularity of God ( tauḥīd) and eschew its opposite, the “partnering” of anyone or anything else with God ( širk), than the interpretation of the traditi…

[English Version] Wahhābiten, Anhänger einer dogmatischen Richtung im sunnitischen Islam (: II.), die durch den ḥanbalitischen Gelehrten Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdalwahhāb (1703–1792) im Zentrum der Arabischen Halbinsel begründet wurde. Die urspr. Eigenbez. der W. ist »al-muwaḥḥidūn«, »die Bekenner der Einheit Gottes«. Im Zentrum der Lehren Ibn ʿAbdalwahhābs steht eine gegenüber der Tradition der sunnitischen Rechtsschulen restriktivere Auslegung der Bedingungen zur Erfüllung der Pflicht des Bekenntnis…

, a term used to denote (a) the doctrine and (b) the followers of Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (1115-1206/1703-92 [see ibn ʿabd al-wahhāb ]). The term is derived from Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb’s father’s name “ʿAbd al-Wahhāb” and was originally used by Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb’s opponents to denounce his doctrine as mere personal opinion. Probably the first appearance the term made is in the title of the K. al-Ṣawāʿiḳ al-ilāhiyya fi ’l-radd ʿalā ’l-Wahhābiyya (first ed. Bombay 1306/1888-9) of Sulaymān b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (d. 1208/1793-4) who up to…

, terme employé pour désigner (a) la doctrine et (b) les disciples de Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (1115-1206/1703-92 [voir Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb]). Le terme dérive du nom “ʿAbd al-Wahhāb”, du père de Muhamraad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb et qui fut d’abord utilisé par les opposants à Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb pour critiquer sa doctrine en la traitant de simple opinion personnelle. Le terme apparut probablement pour la première fois dans le titre du K. al-Ṣawāʿiḳ al-ilāhiyya fī l-radd ʿalā l-Wahhābiyya (1ère édit. Bombay 1306/1888-9) de Sulaymān b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (m. en 1208/1793-94) qu…

[English edition] الوهّابيّة عبارة تحيل في معناها على المذهب الوهّابيّ، وتُطلق أيضاً على أتباع محمّد بن عبد الوهّاب (1115/1206هـ – 1703/1792م) [راجع مدخل ابن عبد الوهاب]. اشتُقّ المصطلح من اسم والد محمّد بن عبد الوهّاب، واستَعمله في الأصل خصومُه للتّنديد بمذهبه الّذي لم يكن في نظرهم سوى رأي شخصيّ. وقد وردت هذه العبارة لأوّل مرّة في «كتاب الصّواعق الإلهيّة في الرّدّ على الوهّابيّة» (نُشر أوّل مرّة في بومباي سنة 1306/9–1888) لسليمان بن عبد الوهّاب (توفّي سنة 1208هـ/1793–1797م) الذي عارض فيه بشدّة حتّى العام 1190هـ/1776م…

1. Mekka und Medina (al-Ḥaramain) 1.1. Die Basis der Verehrung 1.1.1. Die beiden heiligen StädteDer Koran ist im Islam das Wort Gottes, geoffenbart an seinen Propheten Mohammed/Muḥammad (gest. 632); daran glauben alle Muslime. Im Lauf der Geschichte sind um den Koran zahlreiche theologische Streitigkeiten entstanden, die nicht von einheitlicher Interpretation der Offenbarung zeugen. Unumstritten aber war immer ihr konkreter Ort. Dass der Koran in und um Mekka und Medina im Westen der Arab. Halbinsel herabgesandt wurde, ist unauflöslicher Bestandteil aller islam.…