, a province of India on the north-west of its coastline, lying east of the Raṇ of Kaččh [ q.v.] and broadly divided into Mainland Gud̲j̲arāt and Peninsular Gud̲j̲arāt (Kāt́hīāwāŕ, the ancient Sawrās̲h̲t́ra, modern Sōrat̂h). Mainland Gud̲j̲arāt is approximately the area of the plains in the lower reaches of the rivers Sābarmatī, Mahī, Narbadā and Tāptī, bounded north by the Mārwāŕ desert, east by the line of hills running south-east from Ābū to the Vindhyas. It takes its name (Sanskrit Gurjarātra ) from the widespread Gūd̲j̲ar (Skt. Gurjara ) tribe, who, it ha…

(a.), the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam. It is the maṣdar of Form V of the radical ṣ-w-f indicating in the first place one who wears woollen clothes ( ṣūf ), the rough garb of ascetics and mystics. Other etymological derivations which have been put forward in Western and, especially, Islamic sources, are untenable. Hence a mystic is called ṣūfī or mutaṣawwif , colls, ṣūfiyya or mutaṣawwifa . 1. Early development in the Arabic and Persian lands. Already among the Companions of the Prophet Muḥammad there were persons who wanted more than just to strive after the out…

I Military architecture in the Islande Middle East The different forms of tower s which the word burd̲j̲ signifies in its usual sense (especially in inscriptions) have always formed the principal elements in the fortifications which were erected in Islamic territories from the years following the Conquest and which were to remain of real importance until changes gradually arose in military ideas as a result of the development of heavy and field artillery. The importance of the protective ro…

, the premier language of Islamic religious and cultural expression in modern South Asia. In its contemporary significance in the wider Islamic world, it may be ranked immediately after Arabic and English. Urdū is the national language of Pākistān and it has official status under the eighth schedule of the Constitution in India, the home of the majority of its native speakers. Its great geographical range is now extended to the South Asian diaspora, notably in Arabia and the Gulf states, in the …

(or maḳbura , maḳbira , miḳbara , maḳbar and maḳbur ) (a.), “cemetery”. The word occurs only in the Ḳurʾān in the plural form maḳābir : “Rivalry distracts you, until you visit the cemeteries” (CII, 2). Its synonyms d̲j̲abbāna , madfan and turba do not figure in the Holy Book. 1. In the central Arab lands The Arab authors supply little information of use in ¶ tracing the history of Muslim cemeteries. Works of fiḳh refer only to prohibitions concerning tombs ( ḳabr , pl. ḳubūr [ q.v.]) and the visiting of burial-places ( ziyāra [ q.v.]). At the most, a few occasional references may be gleane…

(a.), the raised structure or pulpit from which solemn announcements to the Muslim community were made and from which sermons were preached. 1. Early historical evolution and place in the Islamic cult. In contrast to the miḥrāb [ q.v.], the minbar was introduced in the time of the Prophet himself. The word, often pronounced mimbar (cf. Brockelmann, Grundriss , i, 161), comes from the root n-b-r “high”; it could be derived from the Arabic quite easily with the meaning “elevation, stand”, but is more probably a loanword from the Ethiopie (Schwally, in ZDMG, lii [1898], 146-8; Nöldeke, Neue Be…

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…

, a dynasty which ruled in Persia as “sovereigns 907-1135/1501-1722, as fainéants 1142-8/1729-36, and thereafter, existed as pretenders to the throne up to 1186/1773. I. Dynastic, political and military history. The establishment of the Ṣafawid state in 907/1501 by S̲h̲āh Ismāʿīl I [ q.v.] (initially ruler of Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān only) marks an important turning-point in Persian history. In the first place, the Ṣafawids restored Persian sovereignty over the whole of the area traditionally regarded as the heartlands of Persia for the first ti…

i.—Geography The geological background: The alignments of Iran’s principal topographie features, represented by the Kūhhā-yi Alburz and the Zagros Chain, are west to east and north-west to south-east, respectively. In broad context, the Alburz is a continuation of the European Alpine structures, while the Zagros chain has been linked through Cyprus with the Dinaric Alps (Fisher, 1956). The structure of the mountain rim of the country has been influenced strongly by tectonic movements which have n…