Search

Introduction Humor is one of the most difficult words to define and to study, based on the extensive literature on humor that all repeatedly emphasize the difficulty in defining the concept and its implications. Despite the abundance of literary proof of the existence of an Arab or Muslim sense of humor and wit, the western perception of Muslim humor remains stereotypical and simplistic. Humor is an intelligent way of looking at life. Humor starts from the brain, tickling it and creating a laugh.…

al-Ḥākim al-Nīsābūrī (also Nīshāpūrī, Nīshābūrī), Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḍabbī al-Ṭahmānī (Rabīʿ I 321–Ṣafar 405/March 933–August 1014), compiler of the ḥadīth collection al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn, who acquired fame for authoring Taʾrīkh Nīsābūr. This is the earliest history of Nīsābūr and was written in Arabic.His laqab (sobriquet) al-Ḥākim refers to his official position as a judge ( qāḍī), while the nisbas al-Ḍabbī and al-Ṭahmānī refer to his kinship through the maternal line to one ʿĪsā b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Sulaymān al-Ḍabbī an…

Ḥaqq, a key term in Islamic thought that is used in a wide range of contexts and with a variety of meanings to denote the certainty or reality of a thing, or to signify practical rights and duties. Further, as one of the divine names, al-Ḥaqq is used as one of the primary designations for Allāh in Sufism.Ḥaqq - Esoteric PerspectivesESOTERIC PERSPECTIVES Al-Ḥaqq is one of the central terms and themes in Sufi writings. The ecstatic utterance ‘ anā al-Ḥaqq’ (‘I am the Truth’) of Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj (q.v.) and his subsequent execution have loomed large over many discussions of al-ḥaqq, provoking cri…

Ḥikma / Ḥikmat, a term signifying ‘wisdom’, ‘knowledge’, ‘learning’ and ‘gnosis’. As a term in Islamic philosophy, ḥikma encompasses the two branches of human knowledge: the theoretical ( naẓarī) and the practical ( ʿamalī). It also appears in Islamic ethics as the virtue of the practical faculty ( al-quwwa al-ʿamaliyya) that sits between the two extremes of deviousness and foolishness. Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037; Dānishnāmah, 99) writes: ‘ Ḥikma applies to two things; complete knowledge… and to an action that is done proficiently’ (see below). To these definitions…

Ḥashwiyya, a pejorative designation for a range of political-doctrinal tendencies in Islamic history to whom opponents have attributed ignorance and a disregard for rational methods or true faith. It is therefore necessary to be cautious about statements concerning the doctrines of the Ḥashwiyya, since these are often simply the doctrines attributed to them by their opponents. Etymologically speaking, the name ‘Ḥashwiyya’ is derived from the root ḥ-sh-w, meaning ‘to fill’ or ‘to stuff’. The expressions al-ḥashw min al-nās or ḥushwat al-nās denote the popular ‘masses’ or t…

Historiography, in its technical sense may be defined to cover the description and recording of various aspects of human life in the fields of politics and society. The definition of historiography in this article is the study of the motives, goals, uses, methods, schools, and genres of history writing, the views of historians of the Islamic world in describing the conditions of its inhabitants, and the methods they used in compiling and organising history. This article concentrates on h…

al-Ḥārith b. Abī Usāma, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥārith b. Muḥammad b. Abī Usāma al-Tamīmī (Shawwāl 186–Dhū al-Ḥijja 282/October 802–January 896), was a prominent traditionist ( muḥaddith) of Baghdad. Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463/1071) records his complete lineage in his Taʾrīkh Baghdād (see 8/218; see also al-Samʿānī, 1/479).As was common for the ḥadīth scholars of his day, al-Ḥārith left his hometown and travelled to different lands and cities to pursue the study of traditions. Because he personally attended the ḥadīth circles of some of the foremost traditionists of the tim…

al-Ḥārith b. Khālid al-Makhzūmī, Abū Wābiṣa (d. end of 1st/7th century), was a poet and governor of Mecca during the Umayyad period. Early sources trace his lineage to Kaʿb b. Luʾayy, the great-grandfather of the Prophet Muḥammad (Abū al-Faraj, 3/311). Al-Ḥārith’s grandfather, ʿĀṣ b. Hishām, was the leader of the Makhzūm tribe and a senior member of the Quraysh who had fought on the side of the pagans against the Prophet at the Battle of Badr (q.v.) in the year 2/624, where he was killed either by ʿUmar b. al…

Ḥumayd b. Zanjawayh, Abū Aḥmad al-Azadī al-Nasāʾī (d. 251/865) was an ascetic, a jurist of the traditionalist school ( aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth) in Khurāsān, and the author of the key legal work al-Amwāl (‘On Public Finance’).Zanjawayh was the title of Ḥumayd’s father, Makhlad. According to al-Dhahabī (12/20), Ḥumayd was born ca. 180/792 in the city of Nasā in Khurāsān and began his studies there under the tutelage of figures such as ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn b. Wāqid (d. 211/826). It was not long before he set out from Khurāsān in search of knowledge from teachers in other regions.Given that he narrates dir…

Ḥulmāniyya, the followers of Abū Ḥulmān al-Dimashqī (flor. 3rd/9th century). Very little information survives concerning either the Ḥulmāniyya or its founder, except that his name was ʿAlī, his teknonym ( kunya) was Abū al-Ḥasan, and his honorific ( laqab) was Abū Ḥulmān. He spent most of his life in Syria and was therefore known by the toponyms ( nisbas) al-Dimashqī (‘of Damascus’) and al-Ḥalabī (‘of Aleppo’) (al-Baghdādī, 156; Ibn ʿAsākir, 66/153–154; Ibn al-ʿAdīm, 10/4427; al-Sarrāj, 289). He appears to have been of Persian extraction and origi…

al-Ḥasan al-Muthannā, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. ca. 97/716), an ʿAlid traditionist ( muḥaddith) and head of an important branch of Ḥasanids. The title ‘al-Muthannā’ (‘twofold’: i.e. twice Ḥasan) is not mentioned in the early sources; it first appears in works dating from the 6th/12th century. Biographers seem to have applied this name to distinguish him from his son, who was also ‘al-Ḥasan’, and sometimes referred to as al-Ḥasan al-Muthallath (threefold: al-Ḥasan b. al-Ḥas…

Ḥammawayh Family (written as ḥmwya, al-ḥmwwyh, al-ḥmwwʾy, al-ḥmwyy; vocalised variously as Ḥamūya, Ḥamawayh, Ḥamuwayī, Ḥamawiyya, Ḥamuwī, Ḥamūyaʾī, etc.), were members of a family of Shāfiʿī scholars that produced noted traditionists, jurists, and Sufis. They originated in the Juwayn region of Khurāsān. Members of the family migrated to Greater Syria and Egypt, where they became influential and high-ranking officials in the service of the Ayyūbids. The family’s origin has been debated by schol…

al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, son of Imam ʿAlī and Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ, and grandson of the Prophet Muḥammad. Al-Ḥusayn (3 Shaʿbān 4–10 Muḥarram 61/8 January 625–10 October 680) was the third Shiʿi imam and the most notable martyr of the battle of Karbalāʾ, whose killing is considered one of the foundational events in the early history of Islam. It plays an important part in the collective memory of the Shiʿa to this day, and has become part of a rich religious and cultural heritage. He is one of the members of the Prophet’s family, known as ahl al-kisāʾ, meaning ‘people of the cloak’, these…

Ḥulūl wa ittiḥād (‘incarnation and unification’), a pair of terms that are discussed in the fields of Islamic theology ( kalām) and heresiography ( firaq) as well as in Sufism ( taṣawwuf), and whose respective meanings are close to one another. Ḥulūl (‘indwelling, incarnation’) refers to the process by which a metaphysical entity enters the body of another, while ittiḥād (‘unification’) denotes the union of two beings in such a way that they become indistinguishable from one another.Etymologically, the term ḥulūl is derived from the root ḥ-l-l, meaning to untie [a load], and hen…

Ḥujr b. ʿAdī, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 51/671), of the Yemeni tribe of Kinda, was a military leader and ardent supporter of Imam ʿAlī (d. 40/661), who fought for him at the Battle of the Camel (35/656), at Ṣiffīn (36/657) and also at Nahrawān (37/658). After ʿAlī’s death, he took a stand against the consistent cursing of ʿAlī from the pulpit by Mughīra b. Shuʿba, the Umayyad governor of Kūfa (41–50/661–670), as well as the governor of Baṣra, Ziyād b. Abīh, who subsequently took charge of K…

Ḥujjat al-Islām (lit. ‘Proof of Islam’), an honorific that has been bestowed on religious scholars by various schools of thought over the centuries, and which is today most commonly used as a title of rank amongst Twelver Shiʿi clerics. A common variant of this title is the extension ḥujjat al-Islām wa al-Muslimīn (‘Proof of Islam and the Muslims’) (for example, see al-Fārisī, 83; Yazdī, Suʾāl, 415).The Arabic word ‘ḥujja’, which constitutes the first half of the honorific, denotes an argument or proof ( burhān) that is used to refute an opponent in a dispute (Ibn Manẓūr, 779). A ḥujja, the…

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  ), …

Ḥammād al-Rāwiya (d. 155/772) was an important narrator of ancient Arabic poetry. Some sources give his father’s name as Hurmuz, while others say it was Shāpūr (Sābūr) (Ibn Qutayba, al-Maʿārif, 541; Ibn Nadīm, 104; Abū al-Faraj, 6/79; Ibn Khallikān, 2/206), both names pointing to his Persian roots. However, like all other Iranian converts to Islam, he became the client ( mawlā) of an Arab tribe and gave himself an Arab lineage, calling himself Ḥammād b. Maysara b. Mubārak b. ʿAbīd and adopting the teknonym ( kunya) Abū al-Qāsim (Yaghmūrī, 269; Yāqūt, 10/258; Ibn Khallikān, 2/2…

al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf al-Thaqafī (d. Ramaḍān 95/June 714), an important Umayyad commander and governor of Iraq from the second half of the 1st/7th century.Al-Ḥajjāj belonged to the Aḥlāf clan of the Banū Thaqīf of Ṭāʾif (for his lineage, see Ibn al-Kalbī, 385, 388; al-Balādhurī, Ansāb, 13/352–353; Ibn Ḥazm, 267). Biographers give the year of his birth as ca. 41/661 (Abū Zurʿa, 2/700; Khalīfa, 1/236; al-Ṭabarī, 5/172; Ibn al-ʿAsākir, 12/115; Ibn al-ʿAdīm, 5/2039–2040). He is said to have taught the Qurʾān in his younger years (al-Balādhurī, Ansāb, 13/425; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, 5/13; see …

al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, early Shiʿi imam (3–50/625–670), grandson of the Prophet Muḥammad, son of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (q.v.), and his successor as both the second Imāmī Shiʿi imam and fifth caliph of Islam. His reign as caliph was brief and ended with his abdication in favour of Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān, in accordance with the terms of their peace treaty ( ṣulḥ). This treaty was arguably one of the most significant events in al-Ḥasan’s life and the early history of Islam as it led to the unification of the Muslim empire under the Umayyad dynasty. It wa…