Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

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Ḳisma
(502 words)

(a.), Ḳismet (t.), a term used for “fate, destiny”. In Arabic, ḳisma means literally “sharing out, distribution, allotment”, and one of its usages is as the arithmetical term for “division of a number”. It later came to mean “portion, lot”, and was then particularised to denote “the portion of fate, good or bad, specifically allotted to and destined for each man”. It is in this final sense, and especially via Turkish, that ḳismet has become familiar in the West as a term for the fatalism popularly attributed to the oriental (the first attestation in English being, a…

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Bosworth, C.E., “Ḳisma”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_4406>
First published online: 2012
First print edition: ISBN: 9789004161214, 1960-2007



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