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
Bohra
(6,904 words)
According to the generally accepted etymological explanation, the name
bohrā (or
bohorā) is derived from the Gujarati term
vohorvū (
vyavahār), meaning ‘to trade’. The term was applied to the Ismailis of Gujarat probably because they were originally a trading community, trade having also been the occupation of the earliest Gujarati converts to Islam. According to another explanation, the Bohras were so designated because they had been converted to Ismailism from the Hindu caste of Vohra. The bulk of the Ismaili Boh…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Brotherhood
(5,326 words)
From a sociological point of view, both the lifestyle of pre-Islamic Arabs and the severe scarcity of the means of livelihood in the Arab peninsula served to bond clan members and thus the whole tribe together in their struggle for survival. The overarching exigencies of family in Arabia prior to the advent of Islam generated two conflicting tendencies: a flagrant disregard on the part of parents towards their children (Q 6:137, 140, 151; 17:31), on the one hand; and a reinforcement of the ties …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Budayl b. Warqāʾ
(758 words)
Before the advent of Islam, Budayl b. Warqāʾ was a highly-respected person in Mecca but there is little information about his life (ʿAlī, 4/15). After the commencement of the Prophet’s mission, especially after the Ḥudaybiyya peace treaty, the name of Budayl frequently appears in the accounts related to the early history of Islam (al-Wāqidī, 1/581; Ibn Saʿd, 2/96; al-Ṭabarī, 2/625). He and his fellow tribesmen, the Banū Khuzāʿa, were considered to be among the most loyal supporters of the Prophe…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Buhlūl
(1,817 words)
The historical Buhlūl appears to have been a contemporary of the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Mahdī (r. 158–169/775–785), with the first accounts on him being found in the first half of the 3rd/9th century, i.e., within fifty years of his reported death. In his report on Buhlūl, al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 255/869) relates a telling conversation (1/182) that took place between Buhlūl and Isḥāq b. Ṣabbāḥ, the ruler of the Ḥijāz during al-Mahdī’s reign, which reveals his Shiʿi sympathies. Al-Jāḥiẓ’s other two reports (1/1…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bujnūrdī
(2,124 words)
He was born into a family of
sayyids (descendants of the Prophet) in Khurāshā, a village near the town of Bujnūrd in the Iranian province of Khurāsān. Through his father, Āqā Buzurg, his lineage can be traced back to Ibrāhīm al-Mujāb, a grandson of Mūsā b. Jaʿfar al-Kāẓim, the seventh in the line of the Ithnā ʿAsharī Shiʿi imams, and his mother was also descended from the same imam (see Bujnūrdī, Muḥammad, ‘Sharḥ’, 1; Burūjirdī, 7).At the age of fourteen, after completing his preliminary studies in Bujnūrd, he moved to Mashhad to continue his training. There he soon jo…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bukāʾ
(1,212 words)
In his famous work on Sufis,
Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ, Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī (5/4, 84, 91) writes about four Sufis of Kūfa, Abū Sinān Ḍirār b. Murra, Muḥammad b. Sūqa, Muṭarrif b. Ṭarīf and ʿAbd al-Malik b. Abjar, who were called the ‘Weepers’ (
al-bukkāʾūn). Elsewhere he writes that two of them, Abū Sinān Ḍirār b. Murra and Muḥammad b. Sūqa, used to search for each other on Fridays and, upon finding one another, would sit down and start weeping. He also refers to a gathering of the
bukkāʾūn which the famous Sufi Muḥammad b. Wāsiʿ attended (2/347). In his biography of a number of the S…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bukayr b. Māhān
(3,108 words)
The Shiʿi anti-Umayyad
daʿwa was led by a network of individuals who worked in secrecy, therefore accounts about this organisation and about the person of Bukayr b. Māhān, who until his death was its most prominent
dāʿī, are shrouded in obscurity. Al-Ṭabarī, who probably took his account from Abū al-Ḥasan al-Madāʾinī, provides scant but significant information about this period of the
daʿwa up to the death of Bukayr (e.g. see 7/49–50). Other authors and historians of the 3rd/9th century, such as al-Balādhurī (d. 279/892), provide similar information. However, it is the work known as
Akhb…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bukhārā
(23,164 words)
NomenclatureOpinions diverge with regard to the etymology of the name ‘Bukhārā’: some scholars hold that the word is derived from the Soghdian Bukhārak, from which came the Old Turkic
buqaraq (land of the bull) (Altheim, pp. 111–112). In al-Narshakhī’s (4th/10th century) text other names are given for the city, with the 6th/12th-century Persian editors adding that it was referred to in Arabic as ‘madīnat al-ṣufriyya’ (the city of the coppersmiths) and also ‘madīnat al-tujjār’ (the city of merchants) (al-Narshakhī, English t…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bukhārī Arfinjī
(692 words)
There is one extant work by Bukhārī Arfinjī,
Tāj al-qiṣaṣ dar tārīkh al-anbiyāʾ, which is considered one of the earliest versions of the literary genre of stories of the prophets.
Tāj al-qiṣaṣ, which has come down to us in its entirety, chronicles the lives of the prophets in the following order: the Creation and Adam, Idrīs (variously identified in Islamic tradition with such figures as Enoch, Elijah and Hermes; see Erder, 484) Noah, Hūd, Ṣāliḥ (both of the latter being Arabian prophets), Shuʿayb (Jethro), Abraham, Ishmael, …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad
(8,869 words)
Al-Bukhārī and the Sciences of
Ḥadīth and
RijālThere is no doubt that professionally al-Bukhārī has always been known as a traditionist (
muḥaddith) and so any activity outside the field of
ḥadīth was an avocation for him. Although all the biographical books of the
ahl al-sunna mention al-Bukhārī’s name and acknowledge his major contribution to the field, it is very difficult to illustrate his high standing only through the words of a few references. Perhaps the most eloquent account belongs to one of his teachers, Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, who say…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bukhārī, Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn
(1,602 words)
Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn was born in the village of Uch (Uch Sharif) in the Punjab region of what is now Pakistan, a descendant of Imam ʿAlī b. Muḥmmad al-Naqī, also known as al-Hādī, the tenth in the line of Twelver Shiʿi Imams (Laʿlī Badakhshī, 689–690; Chishtī, 970; Ghulām Sarwar, 29, 30). Whereas Qāḍī Nūr Allāh al-Shūshtarī described the Sayyids of Bukhārā as Shiʿis (1/146), other sources identify Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn and his family as being Ḥanafī in orientation (Laʿlī Badakhshī, 690; al-Ḥasanī, …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bulgha
(501 words)
While many works are attributed to him by sources contemporary with or later than Abū Yūsuf al-Nīshāpūrī, and in particular that of his friend, the writer and belletrist al-Bākharzī (980/2; see also al-Qifṭī, 51/4; al-Yamānī, 384), none of them mentions the
Kitāb al-Bulgha and ʿImād al-Dīn al-Kātib al-Iṣfahānī (519–597/1125–1201) is the first person to name him as its author (84/2). Ibn Shākir al-Kutubī (686–764/1288–1363), following in al-Iṣfahānī’s footsteps, also attributes this work to him (334/4), and then this attribution found it…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bulūk
(1,127 words)
In the Ottoman ContextIn the later Ottoman period the term designated a corps of regular soldiers, both foot and horse, commanded by a captain (
yūz-bāshī). Earlier it was also used to refer to units of the Ottoman military
kapı-kulus (
qāpī qūlū, the household servants of the sultan, here specifically the personal guard or military force directly answerable to the sultan), who were originally composed of captives taken in war but later recruited under the
devshirme system of levies taken mainly from the Christian population of the Balkans, as well as for provincial reg…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bunah
(2,974 words)
DefinitionIn 1910 G. P. Tate, who worked on the Survey of India, including Sistān, Baluchistān and Afghanistān, gave the first definition of
bunah as a rural network for collective farming. He stated that in each village the villagers were divided into groups of sharecroppers called
pāgū (or
pāgāw). Each group cultivated a patch of land that was designated for them on an equal basis. The number of individuals in each group depended on the area and use of the farmed land. The number in each township, district or the country generally also varied each year. There were two types of
pāgū: the firs…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bundār
(1,792 words)
Arabic and Persian lexical sources provide a multiplicity of meanings for the word
bundār, which has been used to denote a tax-collector, customs officer, notable or headman. The word also has extended commercial connotations such as hoarder or profiteer (Awḥadī, 30; Ānandrāj, 1/773;
Burhān, 1/304–305; Nafīsī, 1/648; see also Muʿīn, 1/584 who defines this term as ‘postmaster’,
ṣāḥib al-barīd, or ‘courier’).
Bundār appears in works of Persian poetry with the meaning of ‘notable person’, ‘headman’, ‘leader’ or someone who monopolises goods (Nāṣir-i Khusraw,…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bundar Ābād, Complex
(805 words)
The buildings of the complex are constructed entirely of mud bricks, the standard building material of the Iranian plateau (see Fig. 3, in plate section). At present access to the compound is via three entrances located on the northern side. The adjoining court, the
khāniqāh, has a two-storey facade. There were originally four
īwāns, but the east and west ones have been transformed into two storeys of niches. The presence in the middle of the court of a
kalak (a low hexagonal platform on which fires were kindled in winter; see Afshār,
Wāzhah-nāmah, 139) suggests that this screened cour…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bundār b. al-Ḥusayn Shīrāzī
(1,080 words)
When he was young, he is said to have been sent by his father to Baghdad with merchandise costing 40,000 dinars to engage in commerce, but while there he met the famous Sufi Abū Bakr al-Shiblī (d. 334/945) and became overawed by his presence. Al-Shiblī encouraged him to give away all his wealth as alms and embark upon the Sufi path. As a result, Bundār b. al-Ḥusayn began practising asceticism (
zuhd) and spiritual detachment (
tajrīd) (Ibn ʿAsākir, 180–181; al-Dhahabī, 16/108–109). Although this report is not mentioned in the earlier sources, what is certain is that he …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
al-Bundārī
(2,478 words)
In the course of his translation, under different pretexts, from time to time al-Bundārī refers to his personal circumstances. For example, a remark he makes in the story of Qubād (see al-Bundārī,
al-Shāhnāmah, 1/97) leads to the conclusion that he was brought up in Iṣfahān. It is not clear, however, how al-Ziriklī (5/134) and Jalīlī (p. 18) establish the year of his birth as 586/1190. We do not have any information about al-Bundārī’s life before his arrival in Syria in 620/1223, when, according to his own testimony, he was re…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Bunīchah
(2,543 words)
The term
bunīchah was used in two specific cases:1. The assessment of the total tax burden a village was liable to pay, which the villagers distributed amongst themselves per head. Each then paid their share either in kind (produce or military service) or in cash via the
ṣāḥib-i bunīchah, who was usually the village headman or one of the main landlords. The inhabitants of each village from the territory of the
bunīchah were still liable even if they left and settled elsewhere, unless they had received a special dispensation (Lambton,
Landlord 425,
Qājār 76; Floor,
A Fiscal History, 133–134,…
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17
Burayda b. al-Ḥuṣayb
(848 words)
It seems that Burayda had a position of seniority among his tribe. When the members of his extended family approached the Prophet to embrace Islam, Burayda headed that delegation (al-Yaʿqūbī, 2/79; cf. Ibn Saʿd, 1(2)/82) and was charged by the Prophet with the task of collecting alms from his tribe (al-Dhahabī, 2/469). Burayda is reported to have taken part in sixteen battles under the Prophet (Ibn Ḥajar,
al-Iṣāba, 1/146; al-Wāqidī, 404 et passim). He also participated in the
bayʿat al-riḍwān (‘pledge of satisfaction’; also known as the ‘pledge of the tree’) at Ḥudaybiyya …
Source:
Encyclopaedia Islamica
Date:
2021-06-17