, the Prophet of Islam. 1. The Prophet’s life and career. 2. The Prophet in popular Muslim piety. 3. The Prophet’s image in Europe and the West. 1. The Prophet’s life and career. Belief that Muḥammad is the Messenger of God ( Muḥammadun rasūlu ’llāh ) is second only to belief in the Oneness of God ( lā ilāha illā ’llāh ) according to the s̲h̲ahāda [ q.v.], the quintessential Islamic creed. Muḥammad has a highly exalted role at the heart of Muslim faith. At the same time the Ḳurʾān and Islamic orthodoxy insist that he was fully human with no supernatural powers. That Muḥammad was one of the greate…

, pl. bakkāʾūn , bukkāʾ , “weepers”, ascetics who during their devotional exercises shed many tears. Older Islamic asceticism and mysticism are characterised by a strong consciousness of sin, by austere penance, humility, contrition and mourning. Laughter was denounced. An outward sign of this attitude is the act of weeping. The Ḳurʾān (Sūra xvii, 109: “and they fall down on their chins, weeping”, and Sūra xix, 58: “when the signs of the Merciful were recited before them, they fell down, prostrating themselves, weeping”), and then, above all, the ḥadīt̲h̲ ackn…

, Abū Unays (or Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ), son of a blood-letter ( ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ām , Ibn Rusta, BGA vii, 215), head of the house of Ḳays. He is reported to have been of a vacillating character ( d̲j̲aʿala yuḳadd̲j̲mu rid̲j̲l an wa-yuʾak̲h̲k̲h̲iru uk̲h̲rā , Ag̲h̲ānī xvii, 111) and this is ¶ borne out by his changing attitude towards the ruling Umayyad house, in which he proved easy to influence. He was a keen follower of Muʿāwiya, first as head of the police ( ṣāḥib al-s̲h̲urṭa ), and then as governor of the d̲j̲und of Damascus. In the year 36/656, al-Ḍaḥḥāk defeated the ʿ…

b. al-Ward, Abū Bisṭām al-ʿAtakī, a mawlā from Baṣra with the honorific s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-islām , was an eminent scholar and collector of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.]. Born during the years 82-6/702-7, his death from the plague is generally taken to have occurred in 160/776. Originally from Wāsiṭ, he came to live in Baṣra, where he sought out al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī [ q.v.]. S̲h̲uʿba is recorded to have studied masāʾil (= juridical problems) with him, so if that is historical he may be assumed to have arrived there in or before 110/728, the year in which Ḥasan…

(a.), a generic term in Arabic literature applied in mediaeval sources to love poetry. In its modern understanding it denotes the amatory prologue of the ḳaṣīda [ q.v.], the polythematic ode, as distinguished from g̲h̲azal [ q.v.], the independent love-poem. According to Arabic lexicography, the term is derived from the root n-s-b in its special meaning nasaba bi ’l-nisāʾi “to make amatory verses about women” ( s̲h̲abbaba bi-hinna fi ’l-s̲h̲iʿr wa-tag̲h̲azzala; LA , i, 756a). Another derivation is suggested by R. Blachère, who considers a connection with the term nasb …

(a.), lit. “barber”, “hairdresser”, synonymous with muzayyin ; the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ām (“cupper”) [see faṣṣād, in Suppl.] also used to be a part-time barber. The ḥallāḳs formed a group of skilled workers, of mixed social origins. The well-known barber in the Islamic society of Medina was Ḵh̲irās̲h̲ b. Umayya, who shaved the Prophet Muḥammad’s hair. The Prophet had his hair shaved at Minā at the time of the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ , and Muslims have followed this practice during the Greater and Lesser Pilgrimages ever since. Some barber’s work at the time of the Pilgrimage received attention from…

, abū ʿamr ʿabd al-raḥmān b. ʿamr , the main representative of the ancient Syrian school of religious law. His nisba is derived from al-Awzāʿ, a suburb of Damascus, so called after a South Arabian tribe, or an agglomeration ( awzāʿ ) of clans, who lived there (Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīk̲h̲ . Dimas̲h̲ḳ , ed. al-Munad̲j̲d̲j̲id, ii, 1954, 144; Yāḳūt, ¶ i, 403 f.). An ancestor of his had been made a prisoner in Yaman (al-Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲ , vi, 214). He seems to have been born in Damascus, and he did part of his studies at least in al-Yamāma, where he went in…

, i.e., “the transmitter”, Ibn Abī Laylā, a collector of Arabic poems, especially the Muʿallḳāt [ q.v.]. He was born at Kūfa in 75/694-5 (the date 95 is a misreading). He was of Iranian stock, his father being a captive from al-Daylam, named Sābūr or Hurmuz or Maysara. Ḥammād, like his namesakes and boon-companions Ḥammād ʿAd̲j̲rad and Ḥammād b. al-Zibriḳān, belonged to a set of beaux-esprits at Kūfa, who at their merry gatherings used to drink wine and recite verses and were in the eyes of the pious suspect of heresy ( zandaḳa ). Ḥammād was very fond of poetry; ma…

, a group of Arab tribes of obscure origin. The opinions of the genealogists about their origin are contradictory. Some of them assert that they were descendants of Maʿadd, others say that they were from Ḥimyar. Both parties had recourse to traditions and utterances attributed to the Prophet, in which he is said either to have declared that Maʿadd’s kunya was Abu Ḳuḍāʿa, or to have stated explicitly that Ḳuḍāʿa is a descendant of Ḥimyar. Harmonising traditions reported that the mother of Ḳuḍāʿa was the wife of Mālik b. ʿAmr b. Murr…

(a.), “the rightly guided one” is the name of the restorer of religion and justice who, according to a widely held Muslim belief, will ¶ rule before the end of the world. The present article will trace the history of this belief and will deal with the political history of Mahdist movements only in so far as relevant (for the Sudanese movement, see al-mahdiyya). Origin and early development during the Umayyad age. The term mahdī as such does not occur in the Ḳurʾān; but the name is clearly derived from the Arabic root h-d-y commonly used in it in the meaning of divine guidance. As an hon…

, son of the famous Mālik b. al-Ḥārit̲h̲ al-Nak̲h̲aʿī [see al-as̲h̲tar ] and himself a soldier attached to the ʿAlid party. It is said that he had already fought at Ṣiffīn [ q.v.] in the ranks of ʿAlī, but his historical importance is based on his action in support of al-Muk̲h̲tār b. Abī ʿUbayd [ q.v.]. In fact he seems to have hesitated before joining the agitator, and the chroniclers themselves consider that it was necessary for the latter to forge a letter which purported to be written by Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyya to Ibrāhīm before the latter agr…

, dynasty which reigned in North Africa, and later in Egypt, from 297/909 until 567/1171. ʿUbayd Allāh (al-Mahdī), 297-322/909-34. Al-Ḳāʾim, 322-34/934-46. Al-Manṣūr, 334-41/946-53. Al-Muʿizz, 341-65/953-75. Al-ʿAzīz, 365-86/975-96. Al-Ḥākim, 386-411/996-1021. Al-Ẓāhir, 411-27/1021-36. Al-Mustanṣir, 427-87/1036-94. Al-Mustaʿlī, 487-95/1094-1101. Al-Āmir, 495-525/1101-30. Al-Ḥāfiz, 525-44/1130-49. Al-Ẓāfir, 544-9/1149-54. Al-Fāʾiz, 549-55/1154-60. Al-ʿĀḍid, 555-67/1160-71. The dynasty takes its name from Fāṭima, for the Fāṭimid caliphs trac…

(a.), the first month of the Muslim year. The name is originally not a proper name but an adjective, as the article shows, qualifying Ṣafar. In the pre-Islamic period, the first two months of the old Meccan year were Ṣafar [ q.v.] I and II, which is reflected in the dual a potiori of al-Ṣafarān for al-Muḥarram and Ṣafar; in the old Arab year, the first half year consisted of “Three months of two months each” (Wellhausen), as the two Ṣafars were followed by two Rabīʿs and two D̲j̲umādās. The first of the two Ṣafars, as the one that belonged to the sacred months, was given the adjectival epithet al-muḥar…

b. Abī ʿĀmir al-Anṣārī , one of the leaders of the revolution that broke out in Medīna against the caliph Yazīd I. Posthumous son of a Companion killed at Uḥud and surnamed G̲h̲asīl al-Malāʾika, ʿAbd Allāh is also known as Ibn al-G̲h̲asīl. In 62/682 he took part in the deputation sent to Damascus by the governor of Medina, ʿUt̲h̲mān b. Muḥammad, to bring about a reconciliation between the malcontents of Medina and the Umayyads. Yazīd showed special consideration for the envoys, but they, nevertheles…

, Persian mystic, born 1 Muḥarram 357/7 December 967 in Mayhana (Mēhana, Mehna), the present-day Meʾāna in Ḵh̲urāsān, between Abīward and Sarak̲h̲s; died there 4 S̲h̲aʿbān 440/12 January 1049. His biography was written by his descendant Muḥ. b. Abī Rawḥ Luṭf Allāh b. Abī Saʿīd b. Abī Ṭāhir b. Abī Saʿīd b. Abi ’l-Ḵh̲ayr under the title Ḥālāt u-Suk̲h̲unān-i S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Abī Saʿīd b. Abi ’l-Ḵh̲ayr , ed. V. Zhukowski, St. Petersburg 1899 (a manuscript, under the title Čihil Maḳām , Aya Sofya 4792, 29 and 4819, 4, Turkish translation Istanbul Univ. Libr., Yi…

, the first caliph. i. Name, family, and early life.—Abū Bakr was probably born shortly after 570 as he is said to have been three years younger than Muḥammad. His father was Abū Ḳuḥāfa (ʿUt̲h̲mān) b. ʿĀmir of the clan of Taym of the tribe of Ḳurays̲h̲, and he is therefore sometimes known as Ibn Abī Ḳuḥāfa. His mother was Umm al-Ḵh̲ayr (Salmā) bint Ṣak̲h̲r of the same clan. The names ʿAbd Allāh and ʿAtīḳ (‘freed slave’) are attributed to him as well as Abū Bakr, but the relation of these names to on…

, a component group of the Meccan clan of Umayya or ʿAbd S̲h̲ams, the term being a plural of the founder’s name, a son of Umayya b. ʿAbd S̲h̲ams b. ʿAbd Manāf b. Ḳuṣayy called al-ʿĪṣ or Abu ’l-ʿĪṣ or al-ʿĀṣ(ī) or Abu ’l-ʿĀṣ(ī) or ʿUwayṣ, these being given in the genealogical works as separate individuals, but doubtless in fact one person (on the two orthographies al-ʿĀṣ and al-ʿĀṣī, the former explicable as an apocopated Ḥid̲j̲āzī form, see K. Vollers, Volksprache und Schriftsprache im alten Arabien , Strassburg 1906, 139-40). The group formed a branch of th…

, Abū S̲h̲arāḥīl (or S̲h̲uraḥbīl ) al-Rammāḥ b. Abrad (Yazīd in Ibn Ḳutayba) b. T̲h̲awbān al-Murrī , of the Banū Murra b. ʿAwf, Bedouin poet who lived in the Ḥid̲j̲āz and in Nad̲j̲d from the reign of His̲h̲ām b. ʿAbd al-Malik (105-25/724-43) to the period of the early ʿAbbāsids; he died during the caliphate of al-Manṣūr, about 136/754 according to al-Bag̲h̲dādī, in 149/766 according to Yāḳūt. His mother Mayyāda (= one who swings) was a slave, said to have been of Berber or Slav origin, who…

b. al-D̲j̲awn al-K̲h̲uzāʿī, Abu (’l-)Muṭarrif, leader of the pro-ʿAlid Tawwābūn (“penitents”) movement [ q.v.]. There is disagreement whether he was a ṣaḥābī or a ṭābiʿī . The former is the prevalent view; according to most biographical sources he was originally called Yasār, was given the name Sulaymān by the Prophet, and was 93 years old when he died. Lammens suggested that reports of Sulaymān’s longevity were circulated in order to reinforce the claim that he was a Companion ( Le califat de ϒazīd I er , Beirut 1921, 129, n. 3). Sulaymān was among the early settlers of Kūfa, where he built a dā…

(a.), poetry. 1. In Arabic. (a) The pre-modern period. It is the supreme ornament of Arab culture and its most authentically representative form of discourse. The ideas articulated by poetry and the emotional resonances which it conveys earn it, even in the present day, where numerous new literary forms are in competition with it, the approval of scholars and the populace alike. Despite the phonetic resemblance, s̲h̲iʿr is totally unconnected with the Hebrew s̲h̲īr , the ʿayn is a “hard” consonant which persists in the roots common to the two langu…