Search

Al-Muṭarrifiyya was a social and religious Zaydī Shīʿī movement or network of Zaydī practitioners in the highlands of Yemen named after their alleged founder, Muṭarrif b. Shihāb (d. 459/1067). The Muṭarrifiyya lasted for around two centuries until it was put down by force in 611/1214 by the Zaydī imām al-Manṣūr bi-llāh ʿAbdallāh b. Ḥamza (r. 583–614/1187–1217). He explicitly condemned the Muṭarrifiyya as unbelievers (kuffār), allegedly due to their theological position of affirming the theory of natural causality instead of upholding God’s constant and dire…

al-ḥusayn b. nāṣir b. al-ḥusayn , al-nāṣir li-dīn allāh , Zaydī Imām. There are some variants in the sources in regard to his own, his father’s and his grandfather’s personal names. He belonged to a Hasanid family which had been prominent in Abhar for some generations. Nothing is known about his life before he came to the Yaman after 429/1038 claiming the Zaydī imāmate. He gained some tribal support in northern Yaman and established himself in the Ẓāhir Hamdān region where he built the fortress and town of Ẓafār [ q.v.] near Dhū Bīn. In 437/1045-6 he entered and pillaged Ṣaʿda, the s…

, a Zaydī sect in the Yemen named after its founder Muṭarrif b. S̲h̲ihāb b. ʿAmr al-S̲h̲ihābī, who died after 459/1067 at an advanced age. They constituted a pietist movement striving to adhere strictly to the teachings of Imām al-Ḳāsim b. Ibrāhīm, ¶ his sons, and of the early Yemenite Imāms al-Hādī, Muḥammad al-Murtaḍā, Aḥmad al-Nāṣir, al-Manṣūr al-Ḳāsim al-ʿIyānī and al-Ḥusayn al-Mahdī, while rejecting the doctrine of the Caspian as well as the contemporary Yemenite Zaydī Imāms. In implementing the religious duty of hid̲j̲ra , emigration from the abode of injustice ( dār al-ẓulm …

Abū al-Fatḥ al-Daylamī, al-Nāṣir b. al-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad (d. 444/1052), was a Yemeni Zaydī scholar and statesman and the author of a famous work of Qurʾān commentary. There are different versions of his name and lineage in the sources: some follow his line of descent back to al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī and others back to Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (al-ʿArshī, 36; al-Muḥallī, 2/99; Yaḥyā, 1/246; Zabāra, Aʾimma, 1/90); and his name has been recorded as either al-Ḥusayn b. al-Nāṣir or Abū al-Fatḥ b. al-Nāṣir (al-Muḥallī, 2/99; Yaḥyā, 1/246). It is not known exactly when or where in Persia Abū al-Fatḥ was …

In volume 2 | book 3, The Decline of Islamic Literature | Section 2, From the Conquest of Egypt by Sultan Selīm I in 1517 to the Napoleonic Expedition to Egypt in 1798 previous chapter | German edition Just as South Arabian culture fell into decay in the first century CE as a result of developments in trade on which its flourishing had been based, the Muslim culture of Yemen too, was adversely influenced by shifts in world trade that occurred around the beginning of the fifteenth century. From the moment that the affluence of the country was no…

, secte zaydite du Yémen qui tire son nom de Muṭarrif b. S̲h̲ihāb b. ʿAmr al-S̲h̲ihābī, mort après 459/1067 à un âge avancé. Elle constituait un mouvement piétiste qui s’efforçait de suivre strictement les enseignements de l’Imām al-Ḳāsim b. Ibrāhīm, de ses fils et des Imāms yéménites anciens, al-Hādī, Muḥammad al-Murtaḍā, Aḥmad al-Nāṣir, al-Manṣūr al-Ḳāsim al-ʿIyānī et al-ḥusayn al-Mahdī, tout en rejetant la doctrine des Imāms de la Caspienne, ainsi que les Imāms zaydites contemporains. En remplissant le devoir religieux de hid̲j̲ra, émigration de la demeure de l’injustice ( dār al…

Al-Mahdī li-Dīn Allāh al-Ḥusayn b. al-Qāsim al-ʿIyānī, known as al-Ḥusayn al-Mahdī (d. 404/1013), was a Zaydī Imām born in 378/988 (or 376/986) in Upper Yemen. He was the youngest son of Imām al-Qāsim al-ʿIyānī (d. 393/1003), of the offspring of al-Qāsim al-Rassī (d. 246/860). When his father died, al-Ḥusayn, the youngest of five brothers, was still a minor. For unknown reasons, his elder brother Jaʿfar (d. 450/1059), who had been entrusted with leadership positions under his father, did not come forward …

Idrīs ʿImād al-Dīn b. al-Ḥasan al-Qurashī (d. 872/1468) was nineteenth in the chain of Ismāʿīlī-Fāṭimid-Ṭayyibī dāʿīs (agents of the religio-political mission called the daʿwa), who were vicegerents of the Concealed Imāms (the full title is al-dāʿī al-muṭlaq, “the dāʿī with absolute authority”). An able religious, political, and military leader, he was also an eminent historian, poet, and theologian. 1. Life Idrīs was born in 794/1392 in the citadel of Shibām, in the Ḥarāz Mountain region of Yemen, into a family of dāʿīs whose line stretched back to the fifth incumbent, ʿAlī…

In volume S2 | book 3, The Decline of Islamic Literature | Section 2, From the Conquest of Egypt by Sultan Selīm I in 1517 to the Napoleonic Expedition to Egypt in 1798 previous chapter | German edition 1 Poetry and Belles Lettres 1a. Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn Mūsā b. Yaḥyā Bahrān al-Ṣaʿdī, ca. 950/1543. Dīwān, qaṣīdas and muwashshaḥāt in praise of Imām al-Mutawakkil ʿala ’llāh Yaḥyā b. Shams al-Dīn (912–65/1506–57) and his son, Br. Mus. Suppl. 1072, ii, Cairo2III, 106, a qaṣīda, Br. Mus. Suppl. 540, f. 28b. 3. Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Yamanī al-Sharjī, ca. 999/1590. Tuḥfat al-aṣḥāb wa-nuzhat dhawi ’l…

(a.), lit. “theory, philosophical speculation”, probably did not receive until the 9th century A.D. the meaning of research in the sense of scientific investigation as translation of the Greek θεωρία. With Aristotle, e.g. Metaph . 1064 b2 (translated by Eustathius/Uṣtāth at the beginning of the 9th century), and the Greek Prolegomena (Προλεγόμενα τῆς φιλοσοφίας) to the commentaries on Prophyry’s Isagoge , the philosophies were then divided into theoretical ( naẓariyya ) and practical ( ʿamaliyya ); the latter seek to obtain the useful or the good …

|¹⁸⁰In volume 2 | book 3, The Decline of Islamic Literature | Section 1, From Mongol Rule Until the Conquest of Egypt by Sultan Selīm I in the Year 1517 previous chapter | German edition The peace that reigned in Yemen under the Rasūlids (626–858/1229–1454) and the Ṭāhirids (850–923/1446–1517) allowed a lively literary culture, whose focal point was the academies in Zabīd. In spite of its isolation, the country enjoyed close relations with the other lands of Islam. Only the Zaydīs, who produced a rich literary heritage, primarily…

Ḥadīth (‘tradition’, pl. aḥādīth), an Islamic technical term that denotes a saying or an account of actions, manners, or tacit approval attributed to the Prophet, or in Twelver Shiʿi Islam additionally to any one of those deemed ‘Infallible’ ( maʿṣūm), namely Fāṭima (q.v.) and the twelve Imams. Together with the Prophet, these personages are referred to as the ‘Fourteen Infallibles’. Over the course of fourteen centuries of Islamic history, the ḥadīth have played an axial role, alongside the Qurʾān, in the development of religious law ( sharīʿa) at the hands of the jurists ( fuqahāʾ  ), …

At present, the Shīʿīs, who differ from the Sunnī majority concerning the legitimacy of the political and spiritual succession to Muḥammad, comprise about ten percent of the Islamic community. Like the Sunnīs, they enjoy a rich tradition of scholarship in Islamic sciences, including both ḥadīth collection and classification as well as qurʾānic exegesis. Just as their conception of the legitimate leadership of the Muslim community evolved differently from that of their Sunnī counterparts, so, too, did their understanding of the Qurʾān itse…

, a major branch of the S̲h̲īʿa with numerous subdivisions. It branched off from the Imāmiyya [see it̲h̲nā ʿas̲h̲ariyya ] by tracing the imāmate through Imām D̲j̲aʿfar al-Ṣādiḳ’s son Ismāʿīl, after whom it is named. History: Pre-Fāṭimid and Fāṭimid times. After the death of D̲j̲aʿfar al-Ṣādiḳ in 148/765 a group of his followers held fast to the imāmate of his son Ismāʿīl, who had been named by him as his successor but had predeceased him. Some of them maintained that Ismāʿīl had not died and would reappear a…

In volume S1 | book 2, Islamic Literature in the Arabic Language | Section 2, The post-Classical Period of Islamic Literature, from ca. 400/1000 until ca. 656/1258 previous chapter | German edition 1. Aṣbagh b. Muḥammad al-Gharnāṭī b. al-Samḥ, who died on 18 Rajab 426/30 May 1035. Suter, 85, Nachtr. 168, Sarton, Intr. I, 715. 2. al-Kāfī fi ’l-ḥisāb al-ḥāwī, Berl. 6010 (anon.), Esc.2 973 (Renaud, Isis XVIII, 171).—4. From his Zīj is probably derived De cuemo puede ell ome fazer una lámina a cada planeta, in Libros del Saber III, 241/71, which calculates the apogees for 416/1025. 2. Abū Naṣr M…

(ʿEdrūs, often misunderstood as Idrīs; etymology obscure, cf. S̲h̲illī, Mas̲h̲raʿ , ii, 152) a family of learned sayyid s and ṣūfī s in South Arabia, India and Indonesia, belonging to the Saḳḳāf branch of the Bā ʿAlawī [ q.v.] and still playing an important rôle in Ḥaḍramawt. Wüstenfeld ( Çufiten , 29 ff.) quotes from al-Muḥibbī the details on more than thirty members of the family down to the 11/17th century. In the 19th century there ¶ were in Ḥaḍramawt five ʿAydarūs manṣab s, at Ḥazm, Bawr, Ṣalīla, T̲h̲ibī and Ramla. Among the numerous members of the c…

(a.) (or karra ), lit. “return”, a term that has several distinct meanings in the doctrines of S̲h̲īʿī groups: (1) The passing of the soul into another body either human or animal (i.e. metempsychosis), or (2) the transmigration of the spirit of holiness from one Imam to the next. Both are more usually referred to as tanāsuk̲h̲ . It was mainly members of various g̲h̲ulāt sects [ q.v.] that believed in them. (3) Return of power to the S̲h̲īʿa (see further under no. 5). (4) Return from concealment, usually of a particular Imām at the end of his occultation ( g̲h̲ayba [ q.v.]). Already ʿUmar is sai…

According to the generally accepted etymological explanation, the name bohrā (or bohorā) is derived from the Gujarati term vohorvū ( vyavahār), meaning ‘to trade’. The term was applied to the Ismailis of Gujarat probably because they were originally a trading community, trade having also been the occupation of the earliest Gujarati converts to Islam. According to another explanation, the Bohras were so designated because they had been converted to Ismailism from the Hindu caste of Vohra. The bulk of the Ismaili Boh…

The Muslim conception of the Gospel (Ar. Injīl) is of a revelation originally given to Jesus for the Christian community but later either corrupted in some way or lost and reconstructed and therefore no longer accessible in its original form. Muslims have adopted a range of attitudes towards the Gospel as Christians hold it, ranging from acceptance, depending on proper interpretation, to wholesale rejection because the text is distorted beyond recovery. The Qurʾān refers to the Injīl (the original, true Gospel) in several places, always as a revelation sent down by God.…

In volume S2 | book 3, The Decline of Islamic Literature | Section 1, From Mongol Rule Until the Conquest of Egypt by Sultan Selīm I in the Year 1517 previous chapter | German edition The rich Zaydī literature of Yemen has been extensively explored in the writings of Strothmann, van Arendonk, and E. Griffini. 1 Poetry 1a. ʿAbdallāh Abū Bakr b. Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā b. Aḥmad al-Zaylaʿī died in 762/1362, in Luḥayya in Yemen. Dīwān or al-Jawhar al-fāʾiq fī madḥ khayr al-khalāʾiq, qaṣīdas on the Prophet, Mashh. XV, 9, 26. 1b. The lifetime of Abū Ḥanīfa cannot be determined with any precision. …