(a.), reform, reformism. i.—The Arab world In modern Arabic, the term iṣlāḥ is used for “reform” (cf.: RALA, xxi (1386/1966), 351, no. 15) in the general sense: in contemporary Islamic litera-Jure it denotes more specifically orthodox reformism of the type that emerges in the doctrinal teachings of Muḥammad ʿAbduh, in the writings of Ras̲h̲īd Riḍā, and in the numerous Muslim authors who are influenced by these two masters and, like them, consider themselves disciples of the Salafiyya (see below). Iṣlāḥ will be examined under the foliowing general head…

v. Central Asia Central Asia (here basically understood in the sense of the pre-modern Mā warāʾ al-Nahr [ q.v.]), notwithstanding its regional pecularities, historically is to be regarded as an integral part of the Islamic world. Hence, in one way or another, its Muslim community—at least until the Russian “October Revolution” of 1917—was influenced by and/or contributed to reformist trends and movements current in other Muslim regions, in particular, those of Russia, Ottoman Turkey, the Arab world and also India. Basic features of the religious discourse on iṣlāḥ …

, from the form II Arabic verb lak̲h̲k̲h̲aṣa “to make a précis”, meant in the official language of Ottoman Turkey a document in which the most important matters are summed up for presentation to the sultan. The officials who had these papers prepared and presented them to the sultan were the Grand Vizier and the S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islām . On account of its change of significance, telk̲h̲īṣ is included among the g̲h̲alaṭāt-i̊ mes̲h̲hūre [ q.v.] “popular solecisms”, cf. Muḥammad Ḥafīd, al-Durar al-muntak̲h̲aba al-mant̲h̲ūra fī iṣlāḥ al-g̲h̲alaṭāt al-mas̲h̲hūra , Is…

, abū muḥammad , the astronomer Geber of the middle ages; he was often confused with the alchemist Geber, whose full name was Abū ʿAbd Allāh D̲j̲ābir b. Ḥayyān al-Ṣūfī. He belonged to Seville; the period in which he flourished cannot certainly be determined, but from the fact that his son was personally acquainted with Maimonides ¶ (d. 1204), it may be concluded that he died towards the middle of the 12th century. He wrote an astronomical work which still survives under two different titles; in the Escurial Ms. it is called Kitāb al-Hayʾa (the Book of Astronomy), in the Berlin copy it is entitled I…

(dialectal pron.: Ben Badīs), ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. al-Muṣṭafā b. Makkī , founder of the orthodox reformist movement in Algeria, born at Constantine in 1889. After studying at the Islamic university of Tunis (al-Zaytūna), he devoted himself to private teaching in a mosque in his native town and ¶ led an unspectacular life until 1925, when he turned to journalism. He founded a newspaper, al-Muntaḳid (“The Critic”), which went out of circulation after a few months. Immediately afterwards he founded a new newspaper, al-S̲h̲ihāb (“The Meteor”), which soon took th…

, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad , 26th s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ of al-Azhar. He was born in the village of Biblāw near Dayrūṭ in Upper Egypt in Rad̲j̲ab 1251/November 1835. After a period of study and teaching at al-Azhar [ q.v.], he was employed at the Khedivial Library and became its Director ( nāẓir ) for a short period in 1881 and 1882. In the wake of the ʿUrābī insurrection in 1882, he was removed from this office, to which he had been appointed thanks to the help of his friend Maḥmūd Sāmī al-Bārūdī [ q.v.], one of the insurrection’s principal protagonists. Subsequently he held the office of Ḵh̲aṭīb …

, muḥammad ḥasanayn mak̲h̲lūf , Azharī scholar and administrator, one-time s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ of the Aḥmadī mosque in Ṭanṭā, born on 5 Ramaḍān 1277/18 March 1861 in the village of Banī ʿAdī, near Manfalūṭ in the Upper Egyptian province of Asyūṭ. After the completion of his studies at al-Azhar [ q.v.] in 1305/1887-8, when he was granted the degree of ʿālim [see ʿulamāʾ ], and a short period of teaching at that institution, he was appointed Director of al-Azhar Library which was established and organised at his initiative. His commitment to th…

, ʿAwn al-Dīn Abu ’l-Muẓaffar Yaḥyā b. Muḥammad al-S̲h̲aybānī al-Dūrī al-Bag̲h̲dādī , wazīr for sixteen years without interruption, until his death, under the ʿAbbāsid Caliphs al-Muḳtafī (530/1136-555/1160) and al-Mustand̲j̲id (555/1160-566/1170). He was born in Rabīʿ II 499/Dec. 1105-Jan. 1106, in the village of Dur in the ¶ district of Dud̲j̲ayl, northwest of Bag̲h̲dād, where he spent the early part of his youth. He went to Bag̲h̲dād as a young man, and studied Ḥanbalī fiḳh under Abū Bakr al-Dīnawarī (d. 532/1138) and adab under the renowned Ḥanbalī p…

, Aḥmad b. Ḥamdān , early Ismāʿīlī author and missionary ( daʿī ) of Rayy. Born in the district of Bas̲h̲āwūy near Rayy ¶ and well versed in Ḥadīt̲h̲ and Arabic poetry, he was chosen by G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲. dāʿī of Rayy, as his lieutenant, G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ was succeeded by Abū Ḏj̲aʿfar. whom. however, Abū Ḥātim contrived to oust, thus becoming himself the leader of the daʿwa in Rayy. It is reported that he succeeded in converting Aḥmad b. ʿAlī, governor of Rayy (304-11/916-24). After the occupation of Rayy by the Sāmānid troops (311/923-4) Abū Ḥāti…

, Ḥamd (> Aḥmad ) b. Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. al-K̲h̲aṭṭāb Abū Sulaymān al-K̲h̲aṭṭābī al-Bustī , traditionist of S̲h̲āfiʿī tendencies and poet, who is said to have been a descendant of Zayd b. al-K̲h̲aṭṭāb, brother of ʿUmar, but this genealogy has been questioned. Born at Bust in 319/931, he travelled throughout the Muslim world, from K̲h̲urāsān and Transoxania to ʿIrāḳ and the Ḥid̲j̲āz, “in search of learning” and also engaged in trade; he studied, particularly in Bag̲h̲dād, with famous teach…

, Abū Ayyūb Sulaymān b. Yaḥyā (in Hebrew: S̲h̲elōmōh ben Yehudāh; the Latin Avencebrol; Gabirol, or rather Gebirol, is perhaps Ḏj̲ubayr plus the Romance diminutive suffix - ol), Jewish poet and philosopher, born at Malaga circa 411/1021-2, died at Valencia 450/1058 (but this date is not absolutely certain). In addition to his works, mainly poetry, written in Hebrew, which do not concern us here, Ibn Gabirol wrote in Arabic a short treatise on morals ( Iṣlāḥ al-ak̲h̲lāḳ ), which summarizes without much originality (but adapting them to the needs of t…

, Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Ṣāʿid b Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Tag̲h̲libī, called al-Ḳāḍī Ṣāʿid (420-62/1029-70), Spanish Muslim author. He was born at Alméria, where his parents had taken refuge during the civil wars which devastated Cordova, their place of origin, and his grandfather had been ḳaḍī of Sidonia. His father died as judge of Toledo in 449/1057, and Ṣāʿid was to succeed him there in 460/1068 till his death there in 462/1070. The sweep of his life reflected these circumstances. Born of a line of legal officials, he re…

, al-Ḥusayn , Egyptian scholar and teacher (1815-90) from a family originating from the village of Marṣafā, near Banha; his father taught at the al-Azhar Mosque. Al-Ḥusayn became blind at the age of three; however, he underwent the programme of studies usual for boys destined to teach at al-Azhar and reached the rank of master in 1840-5. He was remarkable for the interest that he showed in his classes in belles-lettres, something rare among teachers at that period in Egypt. In 1872, ʿAlī Pas̲h̲a Mubārak [ q.v.] Minister of Public Education, appointed him professor of Arabic lingu…

(a.) a term of Islamic law meaning punishment in all its forms, encompassing both discretionary punishments and those designated by a text as ḥadd [ q.v.]. The root meaning of the word, from ʿaḳaba , indicates a following or consequential ¶ object or action. The word itself took on the meaning of punishment that follows from a crime or prohibition ( LʿA , i, 611-24). Frequently it is confused with d̲j̲azāʾ which, unlike ʿuḳūba , can be both punishment or reward. The rationale behind the Islamic legal theory of punishment seems to oscillate betwee…

, Amīn al-Dawla Abū ’l-Farad̲j̲ b. Muwaffaḳ al-Dīn YaʿḲūb b. Isḥāḳ , known as al-Malikī al-Masīḥī (the Melkite Christian) al-Karakī , physician and surgeon. He was born at Karak [ q.v.] in 630/1233. His father, Muwaffaḳ al-Dīn Yaʿḳūb, was a learned court clerk under the Ayyūbids, who excelled his peers in Arabic philology, literature, calligraphy, poetry and history. Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, in his ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ , Cairo 1882, ii, 273-4, gives the first and only complete, contemporary biography of Ibn al-Ḳuff, brief though it is. From it we lea…

, surnamed al-Aʿsam “the one with the withered limbs”, translator of Greek medicinal writings into Arabic. He was a Christian and a nephew of the master-translator Ḥunayn b. Isḥāḳ [ q.v.], who esteemed him highly as a collaborator and considered him very talented but not particularly assiduous. The quality of his translations was so high that later they were held often for Ḥunayn’s work; because of the similarity of the consonant ductus, uncritical users are even said to have been of the opinion that the name Ḥubays̲h̲— the …

, Abū Yūsuf Yaʿḳūb b. Isḥāḳ , a celebrated Arabic philologian and lexicographer, came from a family who were natives of Dawraḳ, in K̲h̲ūzistān, but apparently he was born in Bag̲h̲dād in about 186/802. His father, nicknamed al-Sikkit (the Taciturn), is reputed to have been an expert in poetry and lexicography; it was he who started his son’s education, which was later continued under the direction of Abū ʿAmr al-S̲h̲aybānī, al-Farrāʾ, Ibn al-Aʿrābī and other famous teachers; like…

, the Young Ottomans, a political grouping which strove for the establishment of a constitutional régime in the Ottoman empire. The group was formed in 1865 by a group of six young civil servants who had been trained in the new government offices created under the Tanẓīmāt , ¶ and specifically in the Translation Bureau of the Porte. Some of the leading members of the group, such as Nami̊ḳ Kemāl [ q.v.], also pioneered modern journalism in the empire. The Young Ottomans opposed the leading statesmen of their day, Meḥmed Amīn ʿAlī Pas̲h̲a and Fuʾād Pas̲h̲a [ q.vv.], accusing them of establish…

(a.), a notion in Islamic law. 1. In classical Islamic law. The basic meaning of lafaḳa and form II laffaḳa is “to sew (a garment) together (by joining two lengths of cloth)”, whence “to patch together”, and by an extension of meaning, “to piece together (a verse or story), to concoct”, which is close to the legal meaning. In legal jargon, talfīḳ connotes the bringing together of certain elements of two or more doctrines in such a manner as to create therefrom yet another, different doctrine. It is to be noted that no technical dicti…

, Abū Zakariyyāʾ Yuḥannā , famous physician of the 3rd/9th century, died in 243/857. His career was begun under al-Ras̲h̲īd and lasted until the reign of al-Mutawakkil. He contributed to the translation of Greek scientific works which provided material for the famous bayt al-ḥikma [ q.v.]. But Ibn Māsawayh was known particularly in his capacity as court physician, attending the high society which surrounded the caliph. His patients regarded him in particular as a specialist ¶ on diet. He lacked neither patrons nor wealth: he approached Ibrāhīm b. al-Mahdī, the unsucces…