Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Get access Subject: Middle East And Islamic Studies
General Editor: Johanna Pink, Universität Freiburg.

Associate Editors: Saqib Hussain, Loyola Marymount University, Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Université de Strasbourg,  Suleyman Dost, University of Toronto, Nimet Seker, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

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The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online is an encyclopaedic dictionary of qur’ānic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur’ānic studies. The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online is the first comprehensive, multivolume reference work on the Qur’ān to appear in a Western language.
Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online includes direct access to 62 Early Printed Western Qur’āns Online and the Electronic Qurʾān Concordance, a unique online finding aid for textual research.

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Zabūr

(9 words)

  see psalms; scripture and the qurʾān Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Zakāt

(5 words)

  see almsgiving Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

al-Zamakhsharī

(4,990 words)

Author(s): Kifayat Ullah
Abū l-Qāsim Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar b. Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī Jār Allāh (467-538/1075-1144) was one of the last famous and original Ḥanafī Muʿtazilī scholars, and he made significant contributions in the fields of Arabic linguistics, theology, and Qurʾānic exegesis. He was born on 27 Rajab 467/18 March 1075 in Zamakhshar, a small town in Khwārazm (modern Khiva, Uzbekistan), from which his nisba al-Zamakhsharī is derived. He died on 8 Dhū l-Ḥijja 538/12 June 1144 in Jurjāniyya, the capital of Khurāsān.Al-Zamakhsharī was lame (aʿraj) due to one of his feet having been amputa…
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Date: 2017-01-04

Zaqqūm

(812 words)

Author(s): Awa, Salwa M.S.
The tree of Zaqqūm, or the cursed tree mentioned four times in the Qurʾān, with three explicit references (q 37:62; 44:43; 56:52) and one implicit (q 17:60). Unlike the beautiful trees with clustered fruits in paradise (q.v.; q 69:23), the good tree of “the good word” (q 14:24) and the heavenly tree of eternity (q.v.) from which Adam and Eve (q.v.) were prohibited to eat (q 20:120), the tree of Zaqqūm stands out as the ugliest and the most terrifying tree described in the Qurʾān (see trees; agriculture and vegetation). It grows at the bottom of hellfire (see hell and hellfire ), its blossom (ṭalʿu…
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Zayd b. Ḥāritha

(10 words)

  see family of the prophet Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Zayd b. Muḥammad

(2,295 words)

Author(s): David S. Powers
Zayd b. Muḥammad, né Zayd b. Ḥāritha b. Sharāḥīl al-Kalbī (b. ca. 580, d. 7 or 8 AH/629 CE), is the only Muslim apart from Muḥammad who is mentioned by name in the Qurʾān (Q 33:37). The reference to Zayd in this verse generated a substantial number of narrative reports that are scattered across Qurʾān commentaries, ḥadīth collections, sīra texts, biographical dictionaries, and historical chronicles. When these reports are assembled and arranged in chronological order, there emerges the rich and colourful life of a man who played an important role in the emergence of Islam.Zayd was born a…
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Date: 2017-01-04

Zayd b. Thābit

(10 words)

  see companions of the prophet Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Zaydīs

(8 words)

  see shīʿism and the qurʾān Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Zaynab bt. Jaḥsh

(1,614 words)

Author(s): Omar, Sara
Zaynab is said to be the subject of a cluster of Qurʾānic passages (Q 33:36, 33:37-8, 33:53, 66:1-4), some of which are addressed to the Prophet Muḥammad. Later historians and exegetes equated this unnamed woman in the Qurʾān with the figure of Zaynab bt. Jaḥsh al-Asadiyya (d. 20/641). She was Muḥammad's first cousin; the daughter of his paternal aunt Umayma bt. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and Jaḥsh b. Riyāb, who was from the tribe of Asad b. Khuzayma and a client of the clan of ʿAbd Shams.1. Zaynab's Marriage to Zayd (Q 33:36)The biographer Ibn Saʿd (230/845) describes her as a beautiful woma…
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Date: 2023-11-23

Zaynab bt. Jaḥsh

(10 words)

  see wives of the prophet Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Zealotry

(814 words)

Author(s): El-Awa, Salwa M.S.
Religious and/or political fanaticism. The main qurʾānic stand on zealotry is expressed in q 2:143 where the Muslim community is described as a “community of the middle,” a community that is “in the middle between any two extremes,” thereby assigning to its members the responsibility of maintaining a community that is just and moderate in all its beliefs and practices (Quṭb, Ẓilāl, 130-2; see ¶ moderation ). This characteristic is, according to the exegetes (see exegesis of the qurʾān: classical and medieval ), what makes the Muslim community the “best community” applauded in q 3:110, “…
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Zechariah

(1,194 words)

Author(s): Marshall, David
The father of John the Baptist (q.v.) in both the Bible and Qurʾān. Zechariah (Zakariyyā) is mentioned in four qurʾānic passages (q 3:37-44; 6:85 [a passing reference]; 19:2-15; 21:89-90). He is not directly named as a prophet (nabī) but by implication is included in the collective references to prophets at q 19:58 and prophethood (nubuwwa) at q 6:89 (see prophets and prophethood ). The qurʾānic story (see narratives ) of Zechariah and John is always linked to that of Mary (q.v.) and Jesus (q.v.). The fullest account of Zechariah occurs at q 19:2-15. There he is portrayed as a pious o…
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān