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Muḥammad Jawād al-Balāghī (d. 1933) was an Iraqi Imāmī Shīʿī scholar, religious writer, polemicist, and poet. Born in Najaf in 1865–6 to a prominent family of scholars and littérateurs, he was educated first in his hometown, then, from 1888–9 until 1894–5, in al-Kāẓimiyya, afterwards again in Najaf, and then (1908–18) in Sāmarrāʾ. Soon after a second stay in al-Kāẓimiyya, during which he participated in the revolt of 1920, he returned to Najaf, where he led an ascetic life, devoting his time to te…

Anwar al-Jundī (1917–2002) was an Egyptian journalist and literary critic known for his bio-bibliographical reference works and monographs on individual Arab Muslim writers as well as his polemical works against Western cultural influence in the Arab World in general and secularism in particular. Born in the town of Dayrūṭ, al-Jundī first worked as a bank clerk, but managed to develop a keen interest in literary studies outside of work. His early articles appeared in the Egyptian journal Apollo, a short-lived (1932–4) but influential avant-guard literary magazine (Kocarev, Pisatel…

The modern history of Medina, the second, after Mecca, of the holiest cities of Islam, is marked by the end of Ottoman rule, in 1919, a few years of Hashemite control, and the seizure of power by the Āl Suʿūd dynasty in December 1925. Following the Arab Revolt staged by the Hashemite amīrs of Mecca in June 1916, the Ottoman government made considerable efforts to maintain its rule over Medina. Under the command of general Fahreddin (Fakhr al-Dīn) Paşa, the Ottomans successfully defended Medina until the armistice of Mudros (30 October 1918) and, …