Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Shīʿī (d. 298/911) was the major architect of the initial revolt that established the Fāṭimid caliphate in North Africa. Although he was known in the Maghrib as al-Shīʿī, among other names applied to him there, one indicated that he had come from Ṣanʿāʾ. In fact, however, he originally entered the Ismāʿīlī daʿwa in his native town of Kufa. Abū ʿAbdallāh, whose full name was al-Ḥusayn b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Zakariyyāʾ, was recruited around 278/891, along with his older brother, Abū l-ʿAbbās Muḥammad (d. 298/911), by a dāʿī identified in Fāṭimid sources as Abū ʿAlī b…

Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥusayn b. Ḥamdān al-Khaṣībī (d. 358/969), was the principal founder of the Nuṣayrī sect, known from the twentieth century as the ʿAlawī minority in Syria, Turkey, and Lebanon. Al-Khaṣībī was born in Junbulāʾ, Iraq, in the second half of the third/ninth century, and brought up in a Shīʿī family. He was nicknamed after his grandfather al-Khaṣīb. His father Ḥamdān and his uncle Aḥmad were Shīʿī scholars. He was taken to Mecca in 282/895, while still a child, to perform the ḥajj. His education gave him a command of Arabic and religious sciences, especially Qurʾān…

Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Abī Shujāʿ Fātik al-Baṭāʾiḥī (more accurately Ibn al-Baṭāʾiḥī; d. 522/1128), known as al-Maʾmūn b. al-Baṭāʾiḥī, was wazīr to the Fāṭimid caliph al-Āmir (r. 495–524/1101–30). He rose to this position in 515/1122, following the assassination of the wazīr al-Afḍal, and he held it until 519/1125, when he was himself arrested and imprisoned. His wazīrate was especially important and noteworthy, and his evident skill at governing was held in high regard then and later. Curiously, he was himself an Imāmī Shīʿī, unli…

ʿAbdallāh b. Maymūn (d. second half of the second/eighth century) was a companion of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 148/765), and numerous ḥadīths of this Imām are reported on his authority, in the canonical collections of Imāmī ḥadīths (Ivanow, Alleged founder, 11–60). ʿAbdallāh’s father, Maymūn al-Qaddāḥ al-Makkī, a mawlā of the Banū Makhzūm and a resident of Mecca, was a disciple of the Imām Muḥammad al-Bāqir (d. c.114/732) and transmitted a few ḥadīths from him. ʿAbdallāh and his father may also have taken care of these ʿAlid Imāms’ properties in Mecca. In Imāmī Shīʿī sources, ʿAbdallāh b.…

Abū l-ʿAbbās ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib b. Hāshim b. ʿAbd Manāf al-Qurashī al-Hāshimī (d. c. 68/687–8), known usually as Ibn ʿAbbās, was a paternal cousin and a Companion of the Prophet. 1. The life of Ibn ʿAbbās. The making of a Companion—between history and myth The sources tell us much about Ibn ʿAbbās, both historical and mythical. Given the importance attributed to his contribution to religious science, the period of his birth and childhood is surrounded by an aura of legend and fantasy, like those of the prophet Muḥammad h…

ʿAbdallāh b. al-Zubayr, a son of the famous Companions al-Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwām and Asmāʾ bt. Abī Bakr, was the first child born to the Muslim community in Medina after the hijra, in 2/624. He played a key role in the Second Civil War or fitna (strife), ruling from Mecca for approximately nine years as caliph before being killed by Umayyad forces in 72–3/691–2. This part of the Second Civil War is often referred to in Arabic sources as “the fitna of Ibn al-Zubayr.” 1. Family ties and early experience Genealogical connections are crucial to understanding Ibn al-Zubayr's later career. A…

ʿAbdallāh b. Ṭāhir (c. 182–230/798–845) was a son of the ʿAbbāsid general Ṭāhir Dhū l-Yamīnayn, governor of Khurāsān and the eastern lands of the caliphate for the seventeen years 213–30/828–45, the most illustrious of the Ṭāhirid line of governors there, and the outstanding patron of Arabic culture and literature of his time in the Iranian lands. The Ṭāhirid family were originally of Iranian mawlā stock and had risen in the service of the first ʿAbbāsid caliphs. ʿAbdallāh early distinguished himself at the side of his father in military campaigns during th…

ʿAlī b. ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (c. 37–c. 117/c. 658–c. 735) was the father of the ʿAbbāsid dynasty. Very little is known about ʿAlī for certain. All the traditions about his life were reconstructed after the ʿAbbāsids came to power to fit the historical position he acquired as the patriarch of the ʿAbbāsid caliphs. The date of his birth is put as early as 37/657–58 and as late as 40/661, i.e., at the beginning and end of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib's caliphate respectively. The first date is based on the acc…

Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh b. Yazīd al-Fazārī (b. c. 130/748, d. after 179/795) was a Kufan Ibāḍī kalām theologian of the Ibāḍī subsect of the Khārijīs. He was born in Kufa, probably not later than 130/748, into a family of the Arab tribe of Fazāra. His training as an Ibāḍī scholar most likely took place in Basra under Abū ʿUbayda Muslim b. Abī Karīma (d. before 158/775), whom he recognised as the spiritual leader of the early Ibāḍiyya, after Jābir b. Zayd al-Azdī (d. c. 93/712). In Kufa al-Fazārī owned a silk trad…

Abū Ismāʿīl Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Azdī al-Baṣrī (d. c.210/825) was an early historian (akhbārī) who is credited with one of the oldest preserved historical works in Arabic, the Futūḥ al-Shām (“The conquests of Syria”). Al-Azdī is barely mentioned in the biographical literature (see Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Thiqāt, 9:84; Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī, Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ, 3:128; for two more entries most likely referring to al-Azdī’s father, see al-Bukhārī, al-Taʾrīkh al-kabīr, 3:134; Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Thiqāt, 8:343). His full name is derived from later sources (fourth/tenth century …

Abū Ṭālib (d. c. 619 C.E.) was the son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib b. Hāshim and Fāṭima bt. ʿAmr of the Makhzūm of Quraysh, and a full brother of ʿAbdallāh, the father of the prophet Muḥammad. He was reportedly born thirty-five years before Muḥammad. His proper name was ʿAbd Manāf. His sons Ṭālib, ʿAqīl, Jaʿfar, and ʿAlī, were born to him by his wife Fāṭima bt. Asad of the Banū Hāshim. After the death of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, Abū Ṭālib inherited from him the offices of siqāya and rifāda (providing water and food for the pilgrims). His eldest son, Ṭālib, reportedly participated in the battle …

ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad Abū Hāshim (d. c. 98/716–7?), a grandson of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and son of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya, is an enigmatic Shīʿī figure known principally for his alleged “testament” transferring the imāmate from the ʿAlids to the ʿAbbāsids. He is said to have died without male issue. Most of the information we have about him seems to support the ʿAbbāsid claim that they had acquired from him hereditary rights to the caliphate, while some texts support counter-claims by their opponents. The authenticity of the information is thus suspect. Abū Hāshim's father, Ibn al-Ḥanaf…

Abū Mikhnaf Lūṭ b. Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd b. Mikhnaf al-Azdī (d. 157/774), of Kufa, in Iraq, was an early Muslim historian. His grandfather Mikhnaf b. Sulaym al-Azdī, who gave his name to this Azdī clan to which Abū Mikhnaf belonged, was considered a Companion of the Prophet. He ranked among the dignitaries of his kinfolk of the Azdī tribe and so, accompanied by two of his brothers, he joined the Azdī delegation that went to Mecca to meet the Prophet and pay homage to him and to embrace Islam. Soon after the death of the Prophet, Mikhnaf b. Sulaym responded to the call for jihād made by the second caliph,…

Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (d. 13/634) was the first caliph, the successor to the Prophet Muḥammad in his political function as leader of the young Muslim community in Arabia. He was known as ʿAbdallāh b. ʿUthmān and was probably born after 570, the year of the Prophet’s birth, as he was said to be almost three years younger than the Prophet. His father, ʿUthmān, was known as Abū Quḥāfa b. ʿĀmir, and was a member of the Qurashī clan of Banū Taym. His mother, Salma bt. Ṣakhr, was also of Qurashī origin, a…

Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān b. Thābit b. Zūṭā al-Fārisī was a second/eighth-century theologian and jurist and the eponym of the Ḥanafī law school. 1. Life Abū Ḥanīfa was born in Kufa circa 80/699 and died in Baghdad in 150/767, reportedly at the age of seventy. His grandfather Zūṭā, who lived in Kābul, had been taken captive and become a slave of the Arab tribe Taymallāh b. Thaʿlaba. Zūṭā was later brought to Kufa, where he was manumitted, whereupon he and his descendants became mawlās of that tribe. This account was contested, however, by Abū Ḥanīfa’s grandson Ismāʿīl (d. 212/827–8…

Abū Yazīd al-Nukkārī Makhlad b. Kaydād b. Saʿd Allāh b. Mughīth b. Kirmān b. Makhlad b. ʿUthmān b. Wurīmt b. Tabaqrāsan b. Samīdār (b. Wirghit b. Ḥuwinfir b. Samīrān) b. Yafran b. Jānā b. Yahyā al-Zanātī (b. between 267/880 and 272/885, d. 336/947) was a Khārijī leader belonging to the al-Nukkār branch of the Ibāḍiyya. The Nukkār (“deniers”) had refused to recognise the second Ibāḍī Imām of Tāhart, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Rustam (d. 209/823). Abū Yazīd was born in Gao (Kawkaw), on the Niger River, in present-day eastern Mali, in the Bilād al-Sūdān. According …

Abū Ḥāmid Aḥmad b. Abī Ṭāhir Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Isfarāyīnī al-Shāfiʿī, also called Ibn Abī Ṭāhir or al-Shaykh Abū Ḥāmid (b. 344/955–6, d. Saturday 19 Shawwāl 406/31 March 1016), was a Shāfiʿī scholar born in Isfarāyīn, in northwestern Khurāsān. Two Abū Ḥāmids must be distinguished in the Shāfiʿ ī literature besides Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, al-Shaykh Abū Ḥāmid (al-Isfarāyīnī) and al-Qāḍī Abū Ḥāmid (al-Marwarrūdhī, d. 362/973) (al-Dhahabī, 16, 166–7, 184; al-Nawawī, Majmūʿ, 1:113). Such is the case, for instance, in Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī's (d. 476/1083) al-Lumaʿ (no. 31, for the se…

Abū Bakr ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Qurashī al-Qayrawānī al-Mālikī was a historian, Mālikī and Ashʿarī jurist, and traditionist who was an ardent supporter of Mālikism and contributed to the diffusion of Ashʿarism in Ifrīqiya. His only book, Riyāḍ al-nufūs (“The gardens of the souls”), lists the biographies of Mālikī scholars in Ifrīqiya. Al-Mālikī died after 449/1057, when the Banū Hilāl entered al-Qayrawān (as al-Dabbāgh, d. 699/1300, identified him as one of the scholars who remained in al-Qayrawān after its destruction by the Banū Hilāl in his Maʿālim al-īmān, commen…

Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh al-Jannān al-Junbulānī (235–87/849–900) was a prominent ʿAlawī dignitary and the second successor to Ibn Nuṣayr (fl. mid-third/ninth century), the founder of the ʿAlawī Shīʿī sect and the bāb (“gate” to ʿAlī's esoteric essence). Ibn Nuṣayr was first succeeded by Muḥammad b. Jundab, about whom nothing is known other than his name, followed by al-Junbulānī. Al-Junbulānī was the teacher of al-Khaṣībī (d. 346/957 or 358/968), who would later go on to formulate the sect's doctrine and write several books. T…

Aḥmad Faḍīl al-Nazāl al-Khalāyla, better known by the alias Abū Muṣʿab al-Zarqāwī (1966–2006), was the founder and leader of the Iraqi affiliate of al-Qāʿida (al-Qaeda), known as al-Qāʿida in Iraq, the predecessor of the so-called Islamic State. Born in 1966 in the Jordanian city al-Zarqā as a member of the East Bank Bedouin tribe of Banī Ḥasan, al-Zarqāwī grew up in his native city. He dropped out of school when he was 17 and became involved in criminal activities. Indirectly, it was his involvement in crime that led him to religi…