, the imāmate in the meaning of “supreme leadership” of the Muslim community after the death of the Prophet. The present article will deal with the theological and judicial theory. For the institutional development see k̲h̲ilāfa . Early development. The establishment of Abū Bakr after the death of Muḥammad as K̲h̲alīfat Rasūl Allāh , “Vicar of the Messenger of God”, affirmed the continued unity of the Muslim community under a single leader. It favoured a preferential right to the imāmate for the early Meccan, Ḳurays̲h̲ite Com…

[see libās ].

[see ʿimāma ].

[see imāma , tanāsuk̲h̲ ].

[see imāma , masd̲j̲id ].

[see imāma , it̲h̲nā ʿas̲h̲ariyya ].

, Abū Marwān ʿAbd al-Malik b. Muḥammad al-Bād̲j̲ī , Andalusian author of an important history of the Almohads entitled al-Mann bi ’l-imāma ʿala ’l-mustaḍʿafīn bi-an d̲j̲aʿalahum Allāh al-aʾimma wa-d̲j̲aʿalahum al-wārit̲h̲īn (ed. ʿAbd al-Hādī al-Tāzī, Beirut 1964). Practically nothing is known of This Ibn Ṣāḥib al-Ṣalāt nor of his connexion with several other men of the same name. Ibn Ṣāḥib al-Ṣalāt seems himself to have been an Almohad ḥāfiẓ and clearly was closely ¶ involved in the events which he describes. Brockelmann’s statement, presumably taken from Amari, tha…

, the common Turkish pronunciation of Persian Dulband , a sash or wrapper for the head, thence turban, the typical form of traditional headdress in the eastern Islamic lands, the Iranian world, and the Muslim and Sikh parts of the Indian subcontinent. The turban of English, French and German, the turbante of Spanish and Italian, etc., come via forms like tulband , tulbant ; in French and Italian the word is attested from the later 15th century, and in English from the mid-16th century. See Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson . A glossary of Anglo-Indian words and phrases 2, London 1903, 943-4. It s…

, the Basques, a people of uncertain origin inhabiting the W. end of the Pyrenees and the adjacent part of the Cantabrian Mountains, with the Atlantic coast to the N. ‘Bas̲h̲kunis̲h̲’ is evidently from Latin ‘Vascŏnes’, with the phonetic change v < b as elsewhere. The Basque language is called al-bas̲h̲ḳiyya ( Al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār , ed. Lévi-Provençal, 56). The principal centre of the Bas̲h̲kunis̲h̲ was Pampeluna (Arabic Banbalūna, from an original Pompeiopolis), which became eventually the capital of Navarre. Their territory was invaded by Mūsā b. Nuṣayr…

, a major branch of the Ismāʿīliyya [ q.v.], whose beginnings can be traced to the succession dispute following the death of the Fāṭimid [ q.v.] Imām and caliph al-Mustanṣir bi’llāh (d. 487/1094). Those who gave their allegiance to Nizār, al-Mustanṣir’s eldest son, as the designated successor and imām , and subsequently to those claiming descent from him, were called Nizāriyya. One of the most important figures in consolidating Nizārī identity in its early phase, particularly in Persia, was the well-known figure and dā ʿī Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ [ q.v.], under whose leadership the Nizārīs w…

bi-amr Allāh , Abu ’l-Ḳāsim ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad, 27th ʿAbbāsid caliph (reigned 467-78/1075-94), grandson of the caliph al-Ḳāʾim ¶ (d. 467/1075 [ q.v.]) whom he succeeded. Trying to arrive at a carefully balanced policy between the dogmatic and juridical trends of Sunnī Islam—he himself belonged to the S̲h̲āfiʿī mad̲h̲hab of the traditional Bag̲h̲dād stamp—he shortly after assuming power brought about in Bag̲h̲dād a mediation between Hanbalīs and As̲h̲ʿarīs and later, in 476/1083, he caused the vizieral family of the Banū D̲j̲ahīr [ q.v.] to be expelled. However, he was unab…

, the first post-Alamūt Nizārī Ismāʿīlī imām . Born in the late 640s/1240s, he was the sole surviving son of Rukn al-Dīn K̲h̲urs̲h̲āh [ q.v.], the last lord of Alamūt. The youthful S̲h̲ams al-Dīn was taken into hiding during the final months of the Nizārī state, shortly before ¶ the surrender of Alamūt to the Mongols in D̲h̲u ’l-Ḳaʿda 654/December 1256. He succeeded to the Nizārī imāmate on the death of his father in the late spring of 655/1257. S̲h̲ams al-Dīn reportedly lived his life clandestinely in Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān as an embroiderer, whence his ni…

, (a.), technical term in ʿilm al-kalām (scholastic theology). Its use is common (see the commentators on al-Taftazānī, al-Bad̲j̲ūrī etc.), as expressing a certain concept, and to denote a genus of theological dissertations, which go back at least to the 6th/12th century with Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī, and are clearly stated in the 8th/14th century by al-Īd̲j̲ī, al-Taftazānī and al-Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ānī. The term refers to the earlier expression al-ʿulūm al-ʿaḳliyya , derived from falsafa , signifying the rational (and natural) knowledge which the reason ( ʿaḳl) can acquire by itself. All…

, Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Ismāʿīl b. S̲h̲uʿayb b. Mīt̲h̲am (often read as al-Hayt̲h̲am) b. Yaḥyā al-Tammār (whence the less common name for him, Ibn al-Tammār ), al-Asadī (al-Ṣābūnī, according to Ibn Ḥazm, Fiṣal , iv, 181), Imāmī theologian of the 2nd/8th century. Mīt̲h̲am was a Companion of the Prophet (Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar, Iṣāba , no. 8472) who had adopted the cause of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and had settled at Kūfa, where his great-grandson was born at an uncertain date; nor is the date of his death known. Having left his natal town for B…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh , traditionist and Zaydī theologian of whose life little is known. It seems that he was born in 100/718-9 and, after giving his daughter in marriage to the son of Zayn al-ʿĀbidin, ʿĪsā b. Zayd b. ʿAlī, went into hiding with his son-in-law, so eluding al-Mahdī’s search until his death which occurred at Kūfa in 168/784-5. According to the Fihrist (178; Cairo ed., 253), he was the author of several works, among which are mentioned: Kitāb al-Tawḥīd , Kitāb Imāmat wuld ʿAlī min Fāṭima , al-Ḏj̲āmiʿ fi’l-fiḳh , etc. With his two brothers ʿAlī and Ṣāliḥ,…

, an Umayyad general who played a decisive part in the consolidation of the conquest of Ifrīḳiya by storming Carthage and finally defeating al-Kāhina [ q.v.]. It is difficult, however, to trace the course of his actions on account of the uncertainty of the chronology and a host of discrepancies. The dates given for his arrival in Ifrīḳiya are Muḥarram 68/July-August 687, 69/688-9, 73/692-3, 74/693-4, 78/697-8; and for his fall 76/695-6, 77/696-7, 78/697-8, 79/698-9, 82/701-2, 84/703-4 and 89/707-8. The chronology given by the earliest chroniclers, i.e. by Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam and t…

, al-Ḥasan b. Mūsā , Abū Muḥammad, scholar and theologian, and proponent of Imāmī S̲h̲īʿism, member of the renowned Nawbak̲h̲t family [ q.v.] (d. between 300 and 310/912-22). His ancestor, Abū Sahl b. Nawbak̲h̲t, a famous astronomer, converted to Islam, and participated with al-Manṣūr in the constructing of Baghdad. On the family Nawbak̲h̲t. see also ʿAbbās Iḳbāl (Eg̲h̲bal), K̲h̲āndān-i Nawbak̲h̲tī . Al-Ḥasan b. Mūsā was a nephew of Abū Sahl Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī al-Nawbak̲h̲tī, a prominent Imāmī theologian (d. 311/923; see Brockelmann, S …

, the primary meaning is “putting to the proof, discriminatory test”, as gold, al-Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ānī says in his Taʿrīfāt (ed. Flügel, Leipzig 1845, 171), is tested by fire. Hence the idea of a temptation permitted or sent by God to test the believer’s faith, which, for the man wedded to his desires, would have the appearance of an invitation to abandon the faith. “Your goods and children are fitna ” (Ḳurʾān, VIII, 28; LXIV, 15). The term fitna occurs many times in the Ḳurʾān with the sense of temptation or trial of faith (“tentation d’abjurer”, according to R. Blachère’s tra…

, Abū D̲j̲aʿfar Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh , a Muʿtazilī of the Bag̲h̲dād branch and a native of Samarḳand. The date of his birth is unknown, but he is known to have reached a great age and to have died in 240/854. He began life as a tailor, and his parents prevented him from continuing his studies, but Ḏj̲aʿfar b. Ḥarb [ q.v.] took him under his care and initiated him in the Iʿtizāl . Possessing a lively intelligence, knowledge of many subjects, and a lofty moral sense, he enjoyed the esteem and respect of al-Muʿtaṣim, who seems to have used him as …

, Abu ’l-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Mālik al-Anbārī, called (Ibn) S̲h̲irs̲h̲īr, poet and Muʿtazilī theologian who died in 293/906. All we know about his life refers to the period when he lived in Bag̲h̲dād, obviously as a state official ( kātib ); when he left ʿIrāḳ before 280/893, possibly in connection with the downfall of the vizier Ibn Bulbul in 279/892, in order to go to Egypt, he disappears from our sources. He was a man of vast culture, but he used his knowledge mainly for criticism and therefore did not always win friends. He attacked the philosopher al-Kindī [ q.v.] as …