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[German Version] A quranic school (Arab. kuttāb) is a neighborhood institution in a town or village, often connected with a mosque, in which Muslim boys and girls between the ages of four and 14 acquire familiarity with the Qurʾān (Education: IX). Traditionally they begin with the first sura, al-Fāti ḥa, then go to the 114th, the last and shortest sura of the Qurʾān, followed by the remaining suras in reverse order. The suras are always learned by heart in Arabic, even when that is not the children’s mother tongue, through constant repetition…

[German Version] I. Folk/Folk Religion – II. Religious Studies – III. Judaism – IV. Christianity – V. Islam I. Folk/Folk Religion In the English-speaking realm, the adjective “folk” marks common cultural pheonomena as expressions of a peas-¶ ant population. The superordinated term “folk-lore,” coined in 1846 by William John Thomas and popularized by the establishment of Folklore Societies (England 1878, USA 1888), in its customary, more restricted definition encompasses the pre-literary tradition, i.e. the narratives and songs…

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[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. History of Christianity I. History of Religions 1. Pre-Islam The geographical term Afghanistan occurs first in 10th-century Arabic and Persian sources. The political boundaries of Afghanistan were established in the 2nd half of the 19th century by the colonial powers of England and Russia. Although the realm of modern Afghanistan tends to be described as a buffer zon…

[German Version] In Sudan, Egypt, and (through migration) some countries of the Persian Gulf region, cults centered on possession and healing (Sickness and healing: II), which probably originated in sub-Saharan Africa, are called Zār cults, a term deriving from the Arabic verb zāra, “visit.” Today Zār is found primarily in the rural areas of these countries or in the traditional quarters of the large cities. It is practiced primarily by women of Muslim but also Christian background who are exposed to strong social pressures. Peter Heine Bibliography I.M. Lewis et al., eds., Women’s Med…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies and History of Religions – II. Death and the Realm of the Dead in the Old Testament – III. Judaism – IV. New Testament – V. Philosophy – VI. Philosophy of Religion – VII. History of Dogma and Dogmatics – VIII. Ethics – IX. Practical Theology – X. Art – XI. Islam – XII. Buddhism – XIII. Hinduism…

[German Version] (“caution, fear”) means concealment or denial of one’s affiliation with a particular school of Islam (II, 1), often heterodox; it can also mean active participation in the rituals of a majority religion on the part of a sectarian to protect against danger to life and limb. This dissimulation can go so far that secret adherents of the heterodox beliefs adopt names typical of the majority religion. Taḳiyya is especially significant in religio-social contexts in which the danger of persecution and obliteration of the religious minority is reinforced by an inherent tendency to pursue martyrdom (Martyr: VII). In the Muslim context, advocates of ¶ taḳiyya can cite the Qurʾān in support of it (e.g. suras 5:5; 6:119). They can also appeal to some traditions of the Prophet. Although taḳiyya is also discussed by Sunni jurists (Sunna), it is primarily a phenomenon of Shiʿite Islam (Šīʿa), where it goes back to the Umayyad period. In Sunni Islam, some major jurists point out that denial of one’s religious affiliation is permitted if one’s inner attitude is not affect…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. History of Doctrine and Dogmatics – IV. Judaism – V. Islam – VI. Buddhism – VII. History of Art and Literature I. Religious Studies The history of the term “paradise” is informative for determining its meaning. The word “paradise” is derived from the ancient Iranian * paridaēza, literally “surrounding wall.” It appears as a loanword in many other languages, for example as the Akkadian …

[German Version] I. History Religious education (RE) in schools, in modern usage of the term (for RE in a broader sense see Christian doctrine classes, Confirmation classes), is the result of the general differentiation process that led to the promotion of religious learning beyond the contexts of family and worship. The schools of the European cultural sphere arose largely in the area of the church (School and church, Church schools, Monastery schools); for a long time, schooling was essentially based on religious texts. Since each country established its own particular forms…