Search

b. al-Ahtam al-Tamīmī al-Minkarī, a member of a poetically gifted family; and himself fond of using metre and rhyme. He must have been born shortly before the Hid̲j̲ra; for in the year 9 (630) when he came to Medīna with the embassy of his tribe, he is said to have been a youth. In the year 11 (632) he followed the prophetess Sad̲j̲āḥ, but was later converted to Islām and took part in the wars of conquest. He informed ʿOmar in verse of the capture of Rās̲h̲ahr. — Little of his poetry is preserved; …

, the name of a man, who is twice mentioned in the Ḳurʾān. Sūra xix. 57 sq.: “Mention Idrīs in the book. Verily he was an upright man, a prophet and we raised him to a high place”. And Sūra xxi. 85, mentions him alorig with Ismāʿīl and Ḏh̲u ’l-Kifl as one of the patient ( ṣābirūn) ones. These passages are not calculated to give any explanation of this character. Even the name was for long a puzzle to orientalists till Nöldeke pointed out that it probably concealed the name Andreas ( Zeitschr. für Assyr., xvii. 84 sq.). That this Andreas who was raised to a high place, is Alexander’s cook wh…

(a.), lord, God, master of a slave. Pre-Islāmic Arabia probably applied this term to its gods or to some of them. In this sense the word corresponds to the terms like Baʿal, Adon in the Semitic languages of the north where rabb means “much, great”. — In one of the oldest sūras (cvi. 3) Allāh is called the “lord of the temple”. Similarly al-Lāt bore the epithet al-Rabba, especially at Ṭāʾif where she was worshipped in the image of a stone or of a rock. — In the Ḳurʾān rabb (especially with the po…

, the palladium of Islām, situated almost in the centre of the great mosque in Mecca. I. The Kaʿba and its immediate neighbourhood. The name, not originally a proper name, is connected with the cube-like appearance of the building. It is however only like a cube at the first impression; in reality the plan is that of an irreguiar rectangle. The wall facing northeast, in which the door is (the front of the Kaʿba) and the opposite wall (back) are 40 feet long: the two other are about 35 feet long. The height is 50 feet. The Kaʿba is built of layers of the grey stone produced by the hills sur…

(a.), infintive V of s̲h̲-h-d, the recitation of the s̲h̲ahāda [q.v.], especially in the ṣalāt. It must, however, be kept in mind that in this case s̲h̲ahāda comprises not only the kalimatāni, but l°. the following formula: “To Allāh belong the blessed salutations and the good prayers”; 2°. the formula: “Hail upon thee, O Prophet, and Allāh’s mercy and His blessing; hail ¶ upon us and upon Allāh’s pious servants”; 3°. the s̲h̲ahāda proper, consisting of the kalimatāni. The above form of tas̲h̲ahhud is in keeping with a tradition on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, beginning t…

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad b. S̲h̲uʿaib b. ʿAlī b. Baḥr b. Sinān, author of one of the six canonical collections of traditions [cf. ḥadīt̲h̲], d. 303 (915). Very little is known about him. He is said to have made extensive travels in order to hear traditions, to have settled in Egypt, afterwards in Damascus, and to have died in consequence of ill-treatment to which he was exposed at Damascus or, according to others, at Ramla, in consequence of his feelings in favour of ʿAlī and against the Umaiyads. On account of this u…

(a.), the pilgrimage to Mecca, ʿArafāt and Minā, the last of the five “pillars” of Islām. I. The islāmic Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲. a. The journey to Mecca. According to the law every adult Muslim, of either sex, has to perform the Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ at least once in the course of his life, provided he is able to do so (cf. Sūra iii. 91). The fulfilment of the last proviso depends on various circumstances. Lunatics and slaves are exempted from the obligation; likewise women who have not a husband or a relative ( d̲h̲ū maḥram) to accompany them. The want of the necessary means of subsistence, the inability …

(P.), master, teacher, artisan. This word has passed into Arabic, with the plural ostād̲h̲ūn, asātid̲h̲a. It also means eunuch, musician, merchant’s ledger, in the modern language particularly teacher. Combined with dār the form ostādār, “master of the house”, major-domo, was applied to one of the great dignitaries of the Mamlūk sulṭāns [q. v.]. We also find the abbreviated forms ostā, osṭā, ōsṭā, plural ostawāt, osṭawāt, ōstawāt, which in Cairo is applied to coachmen. (A. J. Wensinck) Bibliography the lexicons of Vullers, Lane, Dozy C. A. Nallino, Varabo parlato in Egitto, second e…

(a.), the recommendation, or permission to perform the ritual ablution with sand instead of water in certain cases, is based on two passages in the Ḳurʾān, Sūra iv. 46 and v. 9. The latter passage runs as follows: “And if ye be impure, wash yourselves. But if ye be sick, or on a journey or if ye come from the privy or ye have touched women and ye find no water, take fine clean sand and rub your faces and hands with it. Allāh will not put a difficulty upon you but He will make you pure and comple…

(a.). According to some Arabie lexicographers the meaning of this term is time of birth in contra-distinction to mawlid which may denote also “place of birth”. The latter is the usual term for birthday, especially in connection with the birthday of Muḥammad and Muslim saints [cf. the art. mawlid]; mīlād denotes also Christmas. For other special meanings cf. Dozy, Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, s. v. (A. J. Wensinck) Bibliography the Arabic lexicons.

(a.), infinitive III of ḳāsa, deduction by analogy. The term is used with a multitude of meanings; cf. the lexicons, especially Dozy, Supplément, s. v. Here we shall confine ourselves to ḳiyās as one of the “roots” of the fiḳh, i. e. the deduction of legal prescriptions from the Ḳurʾān and the sunna by reasoning by analogy. — The death of Muḥammad deprived the community of the means of obtaining revelations and at the same time of its guide in matters political and religious. At first they relied on the book of Allāh and the example of the Prophet. The Ḳurʾān and the sunna naturally became the gu…

(a.), etymologically: what is apparent to the eye, as a technical term: text. In this sense the word does not occur in the Ḳurʾān nor in the Ḥadīt̲h̲. Al-S̲h̲āfiʿī, on the other hand, appears to be acquainted with it. In his Risāla he uses it chiefly in the sense of naṣṣu kitābin (p. 7, 16, 30, 41) or naṣṣu ḥukmin (p. 5) “what has been laid down in the Ḳurʾān”. In other passages naṣṣ al-kitāb is distinguished from sunna (p. 21, 4, infra, 24, 7, paen., 30, 21, 63, 31). The combination naṣṣ sunna occurs, however, also (p. 50, 14, 66, 2). From these passages it may also appear that al-S̲h̲…

(the forms Yaʾd̲j̲ūd̲j̲ and Maʾd̲j̲ūd̲j̲ occur also), Gog and Magog (cf. Gen. x. 2; Ez. xxxviii., xxxix), two peoples who belong to the outstanding figures of Biblical and Muslim eschatology. Magog in Gen. x. is reckoned among the offspring of Japheth; this notion is also found in Arabic sources (e. g. Baiḍāwī on sūra xviii. 93, where also different traditions are mentioned); this much only may be said here, that the Bible as well the Arabic sources connect these peoples with the North-East of the ancient world, the dwelling-p…

(a.), Ethiopie loanword (cf. Nöldeke, Neue Beilräge, p. 49 sq.; the forms miṣḥaf and maṣḥaf occur also; According to some grammarians they are less correct, especially the latter), codex, or, according to the definition of Arabic lexicographers, leaves ( ṣuḥuf plural of ṣaḥifa), when they are bound together between two covers. In the tradition on the redaction of the Ḳurʾān [q. v.] by Hud̲h̲aifa b. al-Yamān during ʿUt̲h̲mān’s caliphate, it is said indeed, that the collection of leaves that had been made by Zaid b. T̲h̲ābit at ʿUmar’s instigation, was copied and arranged into maṣāḥif. The…

, i. e. lord of the faithful. ʿOmar was the first to bear this title. In the East the Umaiyad and ʿAbbāsid caliphs followed his example, as did those of their opponents who thought themselves entitled to claim the Caliphate (ʿAlids, Ḳarmaṭes, Fāṭimids). It was not till the fall of Bag̲h̲dād (656 = 1258) ¶ that the smaller rulers in the East also styled themselves Amīr al-Muʾminīn. In the West the title occurs more frequently: it was borne by the Rostemids, Ag̲h̲labids, Zīrids, Ḥammādids, the Umaiyads after 316 (928) and some of the petty Spanish kings. On the o…

, 1. name of a fountain in Paradise, occurring in the Ḳurʾān, Sūra lxxxiii. 27, where it is said, that its water will be drunk by the muḳarrabūn, “those who are admitted to the divine presence”, and that it will be mixed with the drink of the mass of the inhabitants of Paradise. The commentaries are uncertain, whether tasnīm is a proper name — which, according to the Lisān is inconsistent with its being a diptote — or a derivative from the root s-n-m, a root conveying the meaning of “being high”. In the latter case the meaning of the verse would be: “and it (viz. the drink of …

(plur. k̲h̲aṭāyā and k̲h̲aṭīʾāt), sin, synonymous with d̲h̲anb. The root k̲h̲-ṭ-ʾ has the meaning of stumbling (in Hebrew: Proverbs, xix. 2), committing an error ( ak̲h̲ṭaʾa is said e.g. of the bowman whose arrow misses the aim); see the art. k̲h̲aṭaʾ. The definition of k̲h̲aṭīʾa is “a sin committed on purpose”; that of k̲h̲iṭʾ (see Sūra xvii. 33) simply “a sin”, whereas it̲h̲m is applied to heavy sins. Probably these theological distinctions belong to the Islāmic period only; it seems doubtful whether the pagan Arabs were acquainted with the term k̲h̲aṭīʾa at all. It occurs in the dīwān of…

occurs in the Ḳurʾān only in Sūra 89, 6: “(5) Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with ʿĀd, (6) Iram d̲h̲āt al-Imād, the like whereof hath not been created in the lands”. — The connection between ʿĀd and Iram in these verses may be interpreted in various ways, as the commentaries explain at length. If Iram is taken in contrast to ʿĀd, it is intelligible why Iram also has been taken as a tribal name; Imād could then be taken in the sense of “tent-pole”. According to others, the poles are a description of the giant figure of the Iram, which is thus particularly emphasised. If Iram stands in iḍāfa to ʿĀd,…

(a., plural Ṣulub, Ṣulbān), the cross. This general meaning occurs in several special applications, e. g. to the wasm branded in the skin of camels in the form of a cross etc. In the sense of the chief Christian symbol the word may have been taken over from Aramaic where it has the same form. It does not occur in the Ḳorʾān. In Ḥadīt̲h̲ it is used in eschatological descriptions. ʿĪsā (Jesus) will reappear in the last days, combat the Antichrist (al-Dad̲j̲d̲j̲āl), kill the swine and break the cross into pieces (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Anbiyāʾ, bāb 49; Muslim, Īmān, Trad. 242, 243; Ibn Mād̲j̲a, Fitan, bāb 3…

I On the eve of the Hid̲j̲ra. It is with the birth of Muḥammad — between 570-580 a.d. — that Mecca suddenly emerges from the shadows of the past and thrusts itself upon the attention ¶ of the historian. The geographer Ptolemy seems to know it under the name Macoraba; but it must have been in existence long before his time. Mecca was probably one of the stations on the “incense route”, the road by which the produce of the East especially valuable perfumes, came to the Mediterranean world. It owes its importance to its position at the Intersection of great commercial routes. The town that had …