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, Abu ’l-Ḥusayn (or Abu ’l-Ḥasan ) Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Bag̲h̲awī, Ṣūfī mystic, of K̲h̲urāsānī background, was born (probably ca. 226/840, as he had met Dhu ’l-Nūn) in Bag̲h̲dād, where he spent most of his life. He died in 295/907. The most extensive information about him is given by al-Sarrād̲j̲ and al-Kalābād̲h̲ī; the brief biographies of al-Sulamī and Abū Nuʿaym agree almost verbatim, as do the Persian notes in Anṣārī and Jāmī. ʿAṭṭār’s biography elaborates on otherwise little-known details; Baḳlī devotes five chapters (§§ 95-9) of his S̲h̲arḥ-i s̲h̲aṭḥiyyāt to al-Nūrī. It is said …

(a.), seven, is a number of greatest importance in both the Semitic and the Iranian traditions as it combines the spiritual Three and the material Four. Its history probably begins in Babylon with the observation of four lunar phases of seven days each. The seven planets (including sun and moon) have reigned supreme in human thought since Antiquity. Each of them is connected with a specific colour, scent and character. Niẓāmī’s (d. in the early 7th/13th century [ q.v.]) Persian epic Haft paykar is the finest elaboration of these ideas. The imagined seven stations between the …

(a.), dance. The following article deals with the dance in Ṣūfism. During recent decades, one could sometimes read in American newspapers about “Courses in Sufi Dance”, and “Sufi dance” became a fashionable way of cultivating one’s soul. However, the topic of dancing is frowned upon in Islam, for dancing is connected, in the history of religions in general, with ecstasy. It takes the human being out of his/her normal movement and makes him/her gyrate, so to speak, around a different centre of gravity. To b…

, Muḥammad , was born in 1873 (or more probably 1876) in Sialkot, Pand̲j̲āb. During his studies in Lahore he became acquainted with Sir Thomas Arnold, who was partly responsible for his coming to England in 1905. In Cambridge, Iḳbāl, already a noted romantic and Indian-nationalist poet in Urdu, studied philosophy under the Hegelian J. M. E. McTaggart, and law. In 1907 he visited Germany and obtained his Ph. D. in Munich with F. Hommel. His thesis The development of metaphysics in Persia shows already his interest in Islamic mystical philosophy, which he …

, the name given to a rather enigmatic dervish who deeply influenced and transformed D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī [ q.v.], and whose real name was, according to D̲j̲āmī, Nafaḥāt al-uns , ed. Nassau Lees, 535, S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Malik-dād-i Tabrīzī. His prose writings, Maḳālāt , as well as the notes by Rūmī’s elder son Sulṭān Walad [ q.v.], reveal him as a man of overwhelming spiritual power. He must have been in his forties or fifties when he reached Konya on 26 D̲j̲umādā II 642/23 October 1244, but next to nothing about his spiritual pedigree i…

(a.), intercession, mediation. He who makes the intercession is called s̲h̲āfiʿ and s̲h̲afīʿ . The word is also used in other than theological language, e.g. in laying a petition before a king ( LʿA s.v.), in interceding for a debtor (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Istiḳrāḍ , 18). Very little is known of intercession in judicial procedure. In the Ḥadīt̲h̲ it is said: “He who by his intercession puts out of operation one of the ḥudūd Allāh is putting himself in opposition to God” (Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad , ii, 70, 82; cf. al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Anbiyāʾ 54/11; Ḥudūd , 12). 1. In official Islam. The word is usually found in …

, the Prophet of Islam. 1. The Prophet’s life and career. 2. The Prophet in popular Muslim piety. 3. The Prophet’s image in Europe and the West. 1. The Prophet’s life and career. Belief that Muḥammad is the Messenger of God ( Muḥammadun rasūlu ’llāh ) is second only to belief in the Oneness of God ( lā ilāha illā ’llāh ) according to the s̲h̲ahāda [ q.v.], the quintessential Islamic creed. Muḥammad has a highly exalted role at the heart of Muslim faith. At the same time the Ḳurʾān and Islamic orthodoxy insist that he was fully human with no supernatural powers. That Muḥammad was one of the greate…

an Indo-Muslim dynasty which ruled, latterly with decreasing effectiveness, 932-1274/1526-1858. 1. History. This article, like the section on History in hind, iv, above, aims at being no more than a guide to the numerous articles on the history of the Mug̲h̲al dynasty in India to be found elsewhere in the Encyclopaedia , and to relate these to a chronological framework. The Mug̲h̲als were given their first foothold in Indian territory in 800/1398 when Pīr Muḥammad, governor of Kābul and a grandson of Tīmūr, attacked Uččh and Multān, and established a gov…