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Abū Hāshim al-Jubbāʾī, ʿAbd al-Salām b. Abī ʿAlī Muḥammad, was a well-known Muʿtazilī theologian who lived in the 3rd/9th and 4th/10th centuries. He was one of the founders of this early school of thought in Islamic theology. Some historians have recorded the date of his birth as 247/861 (Ibn Khallikān, 2/355; Ibn al-Wardī, 1/396). However, through two intermediary reporters, al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī quotes Abū Hāshim to the effect that he was born in 277/890; and cites the statement of Aḥmad b. Yūsu…

al-Dārimī, Abū Saʿīd ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd (ca. 200–Dhū al-Ḥijja 280/816–February 894) was a theologian and leading ḥadīth scholar. His nisba ‘al-Dārimī’ indicates that he was a descendant of Dārim b. Mālik, of the Banū Tamīm (al-Dhahabī, Taʾrīkh, 20/396; al-Samʿānī, 2/440; Ibn al-Athīr, 1/404; al-Subkī, 2/302). He is also known by the title al-Sijistānī (Ibn Abī Ḥātim, 6/153), because his family derived from Sijistān, although he eventually settled in Herat.He travelled far and wide in the Islamic lands and learnt many ḥadīths. In his pursuit of learning he joined the audiences…

Abū al-Khayr Khān Qazāq b. Āyrash b. Āchah (1104–1161/1693–1748), chief of one of the Qazaq tribes who, by becoming a subject of the Russians, paved the way for the Russian penetration of Turkestan. In the course of the 17th century, the unity of the Qazaqs disintegrated and according to their hierarchy, the tribal branches divided into three ‘camps’ ( urdūs): Ūlūgh (Great), Ūrtā (Medium), and Kīchī (Small), the last of which, despite its name, was numerically larger than the other two. Abū al-Khayr Khān was the leader of this particular urdū which occupied the regions between the Ar…

Barmakids, the title of the most famous family of dīwān-sālār (chancellors) and viziers during the ʿAbbāsid period. They were actively involved in the political history of Islam between 132/750 and 187/803.Conversion to IslamThere are many obscure aspects to the Muslim conquest of Balkh and the Barmaks’ conversion to Islam. There are differences of opinion among historians about the date of this incident (see Gibb, 16, 31–32) and it is still not clear how the Barmaks converted to Islam, or whether the first Muslim Barmakid was…

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…

Abū al-Fatḥ al-Iṣfahānī, Maḥmūd b. Qāsim b. al-Faḍl (d. after 513/1119) was an Iranian mathematician. Some sources refer to him by the name Muḥammad b. al-Qāsim (Suter, 98; Steinschneider, 184; cf. Qurbānī, 92). It is known that some time around 513/1119 he was in Yazd staying at the court of ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla Abū Kālījār Garshāsp b. ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla Amīr ʿAlī, one of the kings of the Kākūyid dynasty, during which time Abū al-Fatḥ wrote for him (Abū al-Fatḥ, fol. 3a, and last fol.). Abū al-Fatḥ's name rarely appears in the writings of Muslim mathematicians. Moreover, he remained un…

Bay ʿ (contract of sale) in Islamic Jurisprudence. A contract of sale is immediately effective and legally binding after the documentation of the mutual consent of the engaging parties, that is the seller ( bāyiʿ) and the buyer ( mushtarī). The legal impera-tive imposed by the contract of sale does not rely on any other factor, and the contract of sale is an irrevocable undertaking that cannot be annulled without good reason. The bayʿ has the quality of tamlīk (transfer of ownership, conveyance of property) and thus it makes it distinct from many other types of contract ( ʿuqūd); in other w…

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…

Bāb, a high rank in the daʿwa organisation and religious hierarchy ( ḥudūd al-dīn) of the Ismailis. The hierarchical organisation of the Ismaili daʿwa and the functions of its different ranks were always important but secret and obscure aspects of the Ismaili movement. Ismaili works generally maintain silence on the subject because of the esoteric and often secretive nature of the Ismaili daʿwa. The enmity of many Sunni emirs, rulers and religious scholars generally obliged the Ismailis to conduct their daʿwa activities in utmost secrecy (except within the dominions of the …

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…

Abū Shāma, Abū al-Qāsim Shihāb al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Ismāʿīl b. Ibrāhīm al-Maqdisī (23 Rabīʿ II 599–19 Ramaḍān 665/9 January 1203–13 June 1267), was a Shāfiʿī jurist, traditionist, man of letters and historian from Damascus. Having a large mole ( shāma) on his left eyebrow, he became known as Abū Shāma. He was also known as Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (Ibn al-Ṣābūnī, 215). His great-grandfather was Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Ṭūsī. According to Abū Shāma, this great-grandfather was a Sufi and the imam of the mosque of the Dome of t…

Al-Abrār, an Arabic term which can be translated as meaning ‘the pious’ or ‘the righteous’. It appears several times in the Qurʾān, and has entered into the terminology of Sufism and mysticism.In Sufism Abrār, in the terminology of the Sufis, refers to those who are midway along the mystical path, having attained some degree of knowledge of God and having reached certain spiritual stations (Ibn al-ʿArabī, 2/740; al-Baqlī, 2/353). However, there is a variety of opinions among Sufi authors regarding the precise definition of the term. In some early sources, the abrār are considered sain…

Faqr (literally, ‘poverty’) is a term denoting different modalities and stages of material, psychological and spiritual want and neediness which a wayfarer on the Sufi path may adopt as a means to progress in earning God’s love and compassion and of acquiring purity and mystical knowledge.The term  faqr is derived from the Arabic root  f-q-r, literally meaning ‘to hollow out’, ‘to perforate’, ‘to make/become poor’, ‘to be in need’ or ‘to be/become needy’. Hence  faqr carries a general sense of being in a state of penury or destitution. This and other derivatives of …

Aḥmad Mujtahid, son of Luṭf ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Ṣādiq (d. 1265/1849), was a religious scholar and a Shiʿi jurist ( faqīh) in Ādharbāyjān. His date of birth is not mentioned in the sources. How-ever, Adīb al-Mulk’s account (p. 148) states that ‘for a period of eighty-one years he was in charge of sharīʿa cases in the Dār al-Salṭana of Tabrīz’, and since this most probably refers to his lifespan, his date of birth may be estimated as 1184/1770. His ancestors came from Mughān (Mudarris, 5/176). They were descended from the Mughānlū sub-tribe in Shāhsawan (Mujtahidī, 67). It has…

Al-ʿAbbādī, Abū ʿĀṣim Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbbād (d. Shawwāl 458/September 1066), was a Shāfiʿī qāḍī from Herat and the author of the first ṭabaqāt (a biographical dictionary arranged by generations) about Shāfiʿī fuqahāʾ (jurists). He also figured prominently in the intellectual confrontations between the Shāfiʿīs and the Ḥanafīs. The title ‘al-ʿAbbādī’ was derived from a forebear some five generations earlier, ʿAbbād (al-Samʿānī, 4/123). It would appear that the ʿAbbādī family were included among the dignitaries of Hera…

Bāṭiniyya, a designation applied to certain groups of Muslims, especially to Ismailis, who make a distinction between the exoteric ( ẓāhir) and the esoteric ( bāṭin), and hold that the esoteric aspects of the Qurʾān and religious law are of much greater significance than their outward aspects (Daftary, 130–131).The word derives from the Arabic root letters bāʾ, ṭāʾ and nūn, and means ‘inward,’ ‘hidden’ ‘concealed’ and ‘esoteric’ (Lane, 1/221). It refers to one of the divine attributes as mentioned in the verse of the Qurʾān, ‘He is the First, and the La…

ʿAlī b. Jaʿfar, Abū al-Ḥasan, the youngest son of Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, transmitter of ḥadīths and author of the famous al-Masāʾil. Various nisbas have been attributed to him: al-Hāshimī, al-ʿAlawī, al-Madanī, and the one by which he is best known, al-ʿUrayḍī (Ibn Shahrāshūb, Manāqib, 3/399; al-Ṭūsī, al-Rijāl, 244; Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Tahdhīb, 7/258). He lived in a village named ʿUrayḍ in the vicinity of Medina, as a result of which his descendants became known as al-ʿUrayḍiyyūn (al-Najāshī, 2/72). The village was the property of Imam al-Bāqir…

Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, Saʿd b. Mālik b. Sinān (10 before hijra–74/612–693), was a Companion of the Prophet. Abū Saʿīd's nisba, ‘al-Khudrī’, derives from his great-grandfather's name, Khudra, also known as al-Abjar (al-Ṭabarī, 11/525). The Banū Khudra were a branch of the Banū ʿAwf, who were Helpers (Anṣār). Abū Saʿīd's father was one of the Prophet's Companions, and his mother was Anīsa bint Abī Ḥāritha from the Banū al-Najjār tribe (Khalīfa, 1/216). At the time of the battle of Uḥud, Abū Saʿīd was thirteen years ol…

ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī, Taqī al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid b. ʿAlī (c. 541–600/1146–1204), was a Ḥanbalī muḥaddith (traditionist) and faqīh (jurist). He was born in Jammāʿīl near Nablus (al-Dhahabī, Siyar, 21/444), but moved with his family to Damascus when very young, where he was brought up and where he spent the rest of his life. As was the custom with muḥaddithūn, after starting his study of ḥadīths in Damascus, ʿAbd al-Ghanī undertook a series of journeys to expand his learning, and left Damascus on many occasions in order to hear ḥadīths. His first trip to Baghdad was i…

Abū al-Muṭarrif, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmayra al-Makhzūmī (582–658/1186–1260), was a man of letters, a scribe, a jurist and a poet during the era of the Almohads (al-Muwaḥḥidūn) in al-Andalus and the Maghrib. It has been held that Abū al-Muṭarrif's ancestral name is ʿUmayra, a seemingly incorrect assumption (see Ibn Sharīfa, 33). His lineage goes back to the Banū Makhzūm, a clan of the Quraysh tribe, although some of his contemporaries traced his lineage to a Jewish family (Ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, 1(1)/150–151; Ibn al-Khaṭīb, al-Iḥāṭa, 1/179); according to some accounts, however, h…