Encyclopaedia Islamica
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Subject: Middle East And Islamic Studies
Edited by: Farhad Daftary and Wilferd Madelung
Encyclopaedia Islamica Online is based on the abridged and edited translation of the Persian Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif-i Buzurg-i Islāmī, one of the most comprehensive sources on Islam and the Muslim world. A unique feature of the Encyclopaedia Islamica Online lies in the attention given to Shiʿi Islam and its rich and diverse heritage. In addition to providing entries on important themes, subjects and personages in Islam generally, Encyclopaedia Islamica Online offers the Western reader an opportunity to appreciate the various dimensions of Shiʿi Islam, the Persian contribution to Islamic civilization, and the spiritual dimensions of the Islamic tradition.
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Encyclopaedia Islamica Online is based on the abridged and edited translation of the Persian Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif-i Buzurg-i Islāmī, one of the most comprehensive sources on Islam and the Muslim world. A unique feature of the Encyclopaedia Islamica Online lies in the attention given to Shiʿi Islam and its rich and diverse heritage. In addition to providing entries on important themes, subjects and personages in Islam generally, Encyclopaedia Islamica Online offers the Western reader an opportunity to appreciate the various dimensions of Shiʿi Islam, the Persian contribution to Islamic civilization, and the spiritual dimensions of the Islamic tradition.
Subscriptions: see Brill.com
Aḥdāth
(3,191 words)
Aḥdāth, plural of
ḥadath, is a term with several different meanings: young men, temporal events, calamities and innovations. In the history of Islam it has taken on a range of technical meanings, although how some of these applied in particular circumstances is not entirely clear. The historical sources indicate that the term appears to have been introduced during the time of the second caliph, ʿUmar, when a position was created with the title of commander or
amīr of the
aḥdāth. The holder of the post was required to investigate affairs that were deemed to be innovations o…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Ahl-i Ḥaqq
(7,504 words)
Ahl-i Ḥaqq (people of the truth), a Persian religious sect with mystical leanings. Although some of their rites, ceremonies, scriptures and beliefs are deemed to be in conflict with orthodox and legal conceptions of Islam, the sect has flourished in various Muslim contexts, with a significant following among Kurds, Lurs and Azeris. It has an obvious affinity with both mainstream and unorthodox Shiʿi groups because of its great reverence for ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. Some of its defining themes are also …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Ahl al-Kitāb
(2,238 words)
Ahl al-Kitāb (the ‘People of the Book’ or the ‘Possessors of Scripture’), is a term applied to the adherents of the religions who believe in revealed scripture. In Islamic culture it refers chiefly to Jews and Christians.Legal Strictures Concerning Relations between Muslims and the Ahl al-Kitab—the Views of the JuristsWith regard to peaceful co-existence with the People of the Book, Q 5:5 sanctions their food as being lawful for Muslims (without entering into details) and the marriage of Muslim men with chaste women from the People of the Book…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Aḥmad
(3,547 words)
Aḥmad, one of the most distinguished names for the Prophet, which also appears in the Qurʾān. Grammatically, it is the elative form derived from the trilateral root ḥ-m-d, and is understood as the comparative or superlative of either the passive
maḥmūd, meaning ‘more worthy, most wor-thy of praise’, or the active
ḥāmid, meaning ‘praising to a higher or the highest degree’ (for a further discussion of the elative in Arabic grammar see Girod, passim). Although the latter meaning is considered preferable according to the rules of Arabic morphology,…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Aḥmad al-ʿAlawī
(3,860 words)
Aḥmad al-ʿAlawī, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Muṣṭafā al-ʿAlawī (1869–1934), occasionally referred to as Ibn ʿAlīwa (Aḥmad al-ʿAlawī,
Nūr al-ithmid, 6), was one of the most distinguished and influential shaykhs of the main branch of the Shādhiliyya Sufi order (
ṭarīqa). His life, teachings and spiritual legacy played a pivotal role in the revival of the Shādhiliyya in North Africa and the surrounding regions, and he was considered by many to be the ‘renewer’ (
mujaddid) of Islamic spirituality in his time (Lings, ‘Ibn ʿAlīwa’, 701). After his death, a short autobiography th…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Mastūr
(2,404 words)
Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Mastūr, was an Ismaili imam in the period of concealment (
satr) and a descendant of Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl b. Jaʿfar. The authorship of the
Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (
Epistles of the Brethren of Purity) has been attributed to him in Ismaili tradition. The complications and ambiguities that shroud the period of concealment in early Ismaili history, which lasted for more than a century, precludes a clear understanding of Ismaili leaders and their activities during those years. It is, however, known that during the gap betwe…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Aḥmad b. Abī Duʾād al-Ibādī
(2,367 words)
Aḥmad b. Abī Duʾād al-Ibādī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh (ca. 160–Muḥarram 240/777–June 854), was a well-known Muʿtazilī jurist and judge, and the initiator of the
miḥna (literally, ‘ordeal’ or inquisition) process in the first period of the reign of the ʿAbbāsids. As his lineage shows, he came from the large tribe of Ibād. His father’s name is said to have been Faraj or Duʿmā, but according to one of his descendants, his name was identical with his
kunya, that is, Abū Duʾād b. Jarīr (al-Khaṭīb, 4/141, 142; cf. al-Dhahabī,
Siyar, 11/169, where Ḥarīz is a corruption of Jarīr). Aḥmad’s family are…
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Encyclopaedia Islamica
Aḥmad al-Badawī
(1,815 words)
Aḥmad al-Badawī, Abū al-Fityān Aḥmad b. ʿAlī (596–675/1200–1276), was a prominent Sufi in Egypt, and the founder of the Badawiyya Sufi order (
ṭarīqa). Al-Badawī’s other
nisbas are ‘al-Maqdisī’ (Ibn Taghrībirdī, 7/252), ‘al-Qudsī’ (al-Suyūṭī, 1/522) and ‘al-Qurashī’ (Ibn Iyās, 1(1)/335). Al-Badawī was probably born and brought up in Fez (al-Shaʿrānī, 1/183; Ibn al-ʿImād, 5/345). His mother, Fāṭima, was a North African Berber (ʿĀshūr, 44; see Ibn Iyās, 1(1)/335). He was referred to as al-Sharīf, denoting that he was a descendant of the…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Aḥmad b. Ayyūb
(1,136 words)
Aḥmad b. Ayyūb, Ḥāfiẓ Nakhjawānī, a 7th–8th/13th–14th century architect. Little is known about his life but an insciption in a mausoleum in the city of Bardaʿa (Barda), in the Republic of Azerbaijan, bears his name.The mausoleum, thought to be the resting place of a certain Shirwān Shāh (Khanikoff, 71), consists of a conical tower made of brick on a decagonal base (14m high and 10m in diameter) and it was completed in 722/1322 (Kalantarian, 639). The exterior of the tower up to a height of 8.5m is decorated with glazed brick in …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal
(8,859 words)
Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ḥanbal b. Hilāl al-Shaybānī al-Marwazī (Rabīʿ I or Rabīʿ II 164–12 Rabīʿ I 241/November or December 780–31 January 855), founder of the Ḥanbalī
madhhab of Sunni Islam, one of the leaders of the
aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth (‘people of traditions’ or traditionalists) and a renowned
muḥaddith (traditionist) who acquired great fame because of his opposition to the doctrine of the createdness of the Qurʾān (
khalq al-Qurʾān) during the period of the
miḥna (literally, ‘ordeal’ or inquisition). Ibn Ḥanbal defended and propagated traditional…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Aḥmad b. ʿĪsā
(843 words)
Aḥmad b. ʿĪsā (3rd/9th century), one of the earliest experts in optics (
ʿilm al-manāẓir) in the Islamic world. Nothing is known of his life, and his
al-Manāẓir wa al-marāyā al-muḥriqa (‘Optics and Burning Mirrors’) is the only work of his to have survived. In this book, Aḥmad b. ʿĪsā first examines the eye and how it works. He argues that a luminous power (
quwwa nūriyya) emanates from the eye, producing a cone of light, the apex of which is in the eye and the base lies at the visible object. He then describes the structure of the eye, how rays of light from …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Aḥmad b. ʿĪsā b. Zayd
(2,029 words)
Aḥmad b. ʿĪsā b. Zayd, Abū ʿAbd Allāh (c. 157–247/773–861), grandson of Zayd b. ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, was one of the well-known ʿAlids during the early ʿAbbāsid caliphate and a prominent Zaydī scholar. He became known as
al-mukhtafī (‘the hidden one’) because he lived in hiding for a period. The sources are at variance over the details of his life. His mother was ʿĀtika, daughter of Faḍl b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-ʿAbbās b. Rabīʿa b. al-Ḥārith b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (al-Bukhārī, 65). According to al-Bukhārī (p. 66), he was born in 158/775 …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Aḥmad b. Khiḍrawayh (Khiḍrūya) al-Balkhī
(1,390 words)
Aḥmad b. Khiḍrawayh (Khiḍrūya) al-Balkhī, Abū Ḥāmid (d. 240/854), was a Sufi from Khurāsān who followed the path of
futuwwa (spiritual chivalry). Although there is no precise information about the date of his birth, he was brought up in Balkh (Anṣārī, 82; Jāmī, ¶ 54) and given that he is said to have been ninety-five years old when he died, he may have been born ca. 145/762 (Abū Nuʿaym, 10/42; al-Qushayrī, 410; Ibn al-Jawzī,
Ṣifat, 4/164). There is also little information about his life, how he came to the spiritual path, or his teachers. The sources only mention Ḥātim …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā
(1,456 words)
Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā, Abū Jaʿfar al-Ashʿarī, was a Shiʿi traditionist of the 3rd/9th century. According to the report given by al-Najāshī (p. 338), his father, Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā, who was given the titles of ‘Shaykh al-Qummiyyīn’ and ‘Wajh al-Ashāʿira’, had studied
ḥadīth with Imam ʿAlī b. Mūsā al-Riḍā and transmitted reports from the latter’s son, Imam Muḥammad al-Jawād; he enjoyed a position of eminence in the court of the ‘sultan’ (probably the governor of Qumm), and was the author of a work entitled
al-Khuṭab. Little is known of the life of Aḥmad b. Muḥammad. Accord…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Aḥmad b. Mūsā b. Jaʿfar
(3,578 words)
Aḥmad b. Mūsā b. Jaʿfar (d. ca. 203/818), was one of the sons of Imam Mūsā b. Jaʿfar al-Kāẓim, and was known as ‘Sayyid al-Sādāt’ and ‘Shāh Chirāgh’. There is very little biographical information about him, and the historical sources only refer to parts of his life. Regarding Aḥmad’s relationship with his father, the sources show that Mūsā b. Jaʿfar al-Kāẓim treated him with great respect and gave him a piece of land, apparently called ‘Yasīra’. It is also known that he was praised for his generosity, courage and piety (see al-Shaykh al-Mufīd, 303; al-Bayhaqī, fol. 87a). As regards his part…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Aḥmad b. al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī
(2,077 words)
Aḥmad b. al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī, Abū al-ʿAbbās, known as Ibn al-Farāʾiqī (d. 286/899), was a Persian philosopher, logician, man of letters, traditionist, musicologist and translator of Greek works into Arabic. Aḥmad b. al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī was born in the city of Sarakhs in Khurāsān. He travelled to Iraq to study under the philosopher al-Kindī (d. 258/872), eventually becoming one of his most devoted students (Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, 1/214; Ibn al-Nadīm, 320; Yāqūt,
Udabāʾ, 3/98; al-Shahrastānī, 2/158). No source mentions his date of birth, although Henry Corbin (p. 221…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Aḥmad Jām
(3,211 words)
Aḥmad Jām, Shaykh Abū Naṣr Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Abī al-Ḥasan al-Nāmiqī, who was given the
laqab Zhandah Pīl (or Zandah Fīl) (440–536/1048–1142), was a well-known Sufi who was held to be a descendant of one of the Prophet’s Companions, Jarīr b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī. He was therefore also known as Aḥmad al-ʿArabī or Aḥmad al-Bajalī (Ghaznawī, 16; Abū al-Makārim, 10–11; Būzjānī, 26). Aḥmad was born in the village of Nāmiq (or Nāmaq, Namik), a dependency of Turshīz in Khurāsān, but there is no information about his childhood and adolescence. He was renowned f…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Aḥmad Kāsānī
(1,442 words)
Aḥmad Kāsānī, son of Jalāl al-Dīn (866–949/1461–1542), was one of the great spiritual masters of the Khwājagān-Naqshbandiyya order in Transoxiana in the 9th–10th/15th–16th century. His
laqabs were Khwājagī Aḥmad and Makhdūm Aʿẓam, and he was also known as Dahbīdī because of the place where he was buried (Samarqandī, 179; Chishtī, 1/319, 322; Rashād, 76). Born in 866/1461, he came from Kāsān, a town situated to the north of the Jaxartes (Syr Daryā) in the Farghāna valley (Yāqūt, 4/227; Rashād, 73). Kāsānī is said to have traced his ancestry through …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Aḥmad Kātib
(689 words)
Aḥmad Kātib (alive in 897/1492), known as Fakhr al-Dīn, was a calligrapher skilled in the
nastaʿlīq,
riqāʿ and
thulth scripts. His known works are as follows: 1. A manuscript of
Kulliyyāt by Kamāl Khujandī in medium bas-relief
nastaʿlīq script, with titles inscribed in fine
riqāʿ script, signed ‘
aqall ʿibād Allāh al-Wāhib Fakhr al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Kātib’, and dated 865/1461, which is kept in the Museum of Islamic and Turkish Art in Istanbul (Bayānī, 1/43, 4/18). 2. An inscription (
katība) on lustre tiles (
kāshī-yi muʿarraq) in white
thulth script on a navy blue background. This
katība is on…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica