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1. Matrimony, as a bond between one husband and one wife (monogamy), one husband and several wives (polygamy—more specifically, polygyny), or, rarely, one wife and a number of husbands (polyandry), has always reflected the religious and social norms of its respective societies, usually together with their social classes. Sociologically, a distinction is made between endogamy (marriage within a family or group) and exogamy (marriage beyond these bounds). Homogamy is matrimony within the same social class, which for women of noble families can …

Origins of the Concept 1. ‘Erotic’ is derived from the Greek Eros, the god of heterosexual love, homosexual persons, and pedophiles, as also of the longing of love, and is frequently applied as a concept fluctuating between ‘Platonic’ → love and → sexuality. Plato's Symposium during a merry ‘drinking bout’ among men, presents, in seven ‘poetic philosophical‘ discourses, and in rich facets, the image of eroticism as a motor of life. It includes the physical desire of the senses, and even the witty-and-ugly—here, that of Socrates—just as mu…

Genre and History 1. Literary scholars designate narratives of popular origin containing elements of the wondrous and supernatural as ‘folktales’ or ‘fairytales.’ Anthropologists often use the same term to designate all oral narrative (→ Oral Tradition). While fairytales of popular origin are always anonymous, literary fairytales, which have appeared in Europe since the Rococo, have authors. Originally, fairytales and folktales were stories recounted freely to an adult audience by a storyteller, usually based on well-known motifs and materials, geare…

General 1. The Qur'an (in Ar., al-Qur'ān) is the sacred book of Islam. For Muslim believers, it is the word of the one God, Allah, revealed to the Prophet → Muhammad, ‘in clear Arabic,’ by the Archangel Gabriel. Its content may therefore not be touched. But through the centuries, it has been subject to various interpretations, just as it is today. Its 114 ‘suras’ (‘chapters’), comprising from 3 to 286 or 287 ‘verses’ (in Ar., āyāt, ‘signs’) are ordered in roughly decreasing length. The verses, as well, are of varying length. There are still two different verse-numberin…

The word ‘fatalism,’ derived from the Latin fatum (‘saying,’ ‘dictum of the gods’) denotes the belief that a higher power determines the inevitability of human ‘destiny,’ often enough blindly, and the consequent challenge of loyalty to that destiny. In Greek and particularly Roman antiquity, the concept of fatum was combined with the philosophical and religious idea of Heimarmenê and Tuchê (→ Destiny/Fate). Jewish and Christian philosophers and theologians generally stress human responsibility for human activity. In the Qur'an, God's determination is of…

History 1. Intellectuals of the Islamic Middle East came in contact with socialist thought at the close of the nineteenth century, while studying in France and England. Beginning in 1908, and influenced by French models and anti-imperialist convictions, socialist notions stamped the Turkish National Movement under Ziya Gökalp. The first socialist party in Turkey was founded in 1910, shortly after the Young Turks' Revolution of 1908, but dissolved three months later. In 1912 it formed anew, for one year. The term ishtirāk-e emwāl (‘redistribution of wealth’) at a time when neo…

, (b. 18 June 1863 in Bag̲h̲dād, d. 23 February 1936), neo-classical poet and eminent representative of the Nahḍa [ q.v.] in ʿIrāḳ. A son of the Kurdish élite family of al-Bābān from Sulaymāniyya [ q.v.]—his father Muḥammad Fayḍī was Muftī of Bag̲h̲dād and his mother of Kurdish upperclass origin also—he spent his childhood with his mother, who lived separately from his father. At about 7 years old he became his father’s pupil in traditional Arabic learning at a time when modern-type Arabic schools did not exist i…

, (né le 18 juin 1863 à Bag̲h̲dād. m. le 23 février 1936), poète néo-classique et représentant éminent de la Nahḍa [ q.v.] au ʿIrāḳ. Fils de la famille de l’élite kurde d’al-Bābān, de ¶ Sulaymāniyya [ q.v.] — son père Muḥammad Fayḍī était Muftī de Bag̲h̲dād et sa mère venait aussi de la haute bourgeoisie kurde —, il passa son enfance auprès de sa mère, qui vivait séparée de son père. Vers l’âge de sept ans, il devint l’élève de son père pour l’apprentissage traditionnel de l’arabe à une époque où les écoles arabes de style moderne n’exist…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Traditionally research on religion has rarely dealt with women. Exceptions include Moriz Winternitz ( Die Frau in den indischen Religionen, 1915–1916) and F. Heiler ( Die Frau in den Religionen der Menschheit, 1977). In the 1970s, gender studies introduced a broad paradigm shift, which also affected religious studies. The principle that has guided this change from the traditional approach is that homo religiosus is not coincident with vir religiosus but equally has to include femina religiosa. The various questions can be assigned to th…