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Ḥawḍ

(477 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, the basin at which on the day of the resurrection Muḥammad will meet his community. This idea is not found in the Ḳurʾān, but in Tradition, which supplies a great variety of details of which the following are the more important. Muḥammad is called the precursor ( faraṭ ) of his community On the day of the resurrection the latter, in the first place the poor who have not known the pleasures of life, will join him near the basin. So far as one can judge, the question is one of admittance: Muḥammad pleads with Allāh for hi…

al-Nasāʾī

(356 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. S̲h̲uʿayb b. Baḥr b. Sinān , author of one of the six canonical collections of traditions [see Ḥadīt̲h̲ ], b. 215/830, 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 t…

K̲h̲abar

(270 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), plural ak̲h̲bār , ak̲h̲ābir , report, piece of information. The word is not used in any special context in the Ḳurʾān. In the ḥadīt̲h̲ it occurs among other passages in the tradition which describes how the d̲j̲inn by eavesdropping obtain information from heaven ( k̲h̲abar min al-samaʾ ) and how they are pelted with fiery meteors to prevent them from doing so (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ad̲h̲ān , bāb 105; Muslim, Ṣalāt , tr. 149); al-Tirmid̲h̲ī, Tafsīr , Sūra Ixxii, trad. 1). In his collection al-Buk̲h̲āri has a chapter entitled Ak̲h̲bār al-āḥād , which, as the tard̲j̲ama

Ḥawārī

(459 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, apostle. The word is borrowed from Ethiopie, in which language ḥawāryā has the same meaning (see Nöldeke, Beiträge z . sem . Sprachwissenschaft , 48). The suggested derivations from Arabic, attributing to it the meaning “one who wears white clothing” etc., are incorrect. Tradition delights to endow the earliest Islamic pioneers with foreign bynames which were familiar to the “people of the Book”. Abū Bakr is called al-Ṣiddīḳ , ʿUmar al-Fārūḳ , al-Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwām al-Ḥawārī Moreover, the collective term al-Ḥawāriyyūn occurs, denoting twelve persons …

Miswāk

(764 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), a term denoting the toothbrush as well as the tooth-pick. The more usual word is siwāk (plural suwuk ) which denotes also the act of cleansing the teeth. Neither of the two terms occurs in the Ḳurʾān. In Ḥadīt̲h̲ , miswāk is not used, siwāk, on the other hand, frequently. In order to understand its use, it is necessary to know that the instrument consists of a piece of smooth wood, the end of which is incised so as to make it similar to a brush to some extent. The piece of wood used as a tooth-pick must have been smaller and thinner,…

ʿIzrāʾīl

(1,086 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(in European literature one also finds ʿAzrāʾīl), the name of the an gel of death, one of the four archangels (next to D̲j̲ibrīl, Mīk̲h̲āʾīl, Isrāfīl). Like Isrāfīl, whose office of trumpet-blower at the last judgment is sometimes given to him, he is of cosmic magnitude; if the water of all the seas and rivers were poured on his head, not a drop would reach the earth. He has a seat ( sarīr ) of light in the fourth or seventh heaven, on which one of his feet rests; the other stands on the bridge between paradise and hell. He is however also said to have 70,000 feet. The description of his appearance a…

al-Masd̲j̲id al-Ḥarām

(1,213 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, the name of the Mosque of Mecca. The name is already found in the pre-Islamic period (Horovitz, Koranische Studien , 140-1) in Ḳays b. al-K̲h̲aṭīm, ed. Kowalski, v. 14: “By Allāh, the Lord of the Holy Masd̲j̲id and of that which is covered with Yemen stuffs, which are embroidered with hempen thread” (?). It would be very improbable if a Medinan poet meant by these references anything other than the Meccan sanctuary. The expression is also fairly frequent in the Ḳurʾān after the second Meccan period (Horovitz, op. cit.) and in various connections; it is a grave sin on the part ¶ of the polythei…

Ḳawm

(470 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), plural aḳwām , aḳāwim , aḳāyim , people. The word occurs also in Nabataean, Palmyrene and Ṣafaitic inscriptions in the name of the deity S̲h̲ayʿ al-Ḳawm “support of the people”, see Lidzbarski, Ephemeris für semitische Epigraphik , i, Index s.v. According to some lexicographers, the word applies in the first place to men; evidence for this opinion is afforded by passages from literature where Ḳawm is used in opposition to nisāʾ (women). The term does not primarily suggest the meaning of nation. A man’s Ḳawm are his s̲h̲ī ʿa and his ʿas̲h̲īra . In this limited…

Ṣafar

(210 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, name of the second month of the Islamic year, also called Ṣ al-k̲h̲ayr or Ṣ al-muẓaffar because of its being considered to be unlucky (C. Snouck Hurgronje, The Atchehnese , i, 206; idem, Mekka , ii, 56). The Muslim Tigrē tribes pronounce the name S̲h̲afar, the Achehnese Thapa. According to Wellhausen, in the old Arabian year, Ṣafar comprised a period of two months in which al-Muḥarram (which name, according to this scholar is a Muslim innovation) was included. As a matter of fact, tradition reports that the early Arabians called al-Muḥarram Ṣafar and considered an ʿumra

Witr

(855 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), also watr , a term found in ḥadīt̲h̲ and fiḳh in connection with performance of the ṣalāt or worship and concerned with the odd number of rakʿa s which are performed at night. Witr does not occur in this sense in the Ḳurʾān, but frequendy in ḥadīt̲h̲, which in this case also discloses to us a part of the history of the institution in three stages, itself probably a continuation of the history of the fixing of the daily ṣalāts, as the traditions on witr presuppose the five daily ṣalāts, Some traditions even go so far as to call witr an additional ṣalāt of an obligatory nature (see also below…

Āṣāf b. Barak̲h̲yā

(156 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(Hebrew Āsāf b. Bērek̲h̲yā), name of the alleged wazīr of King Solomon. According to the legend he was Solomon’s confidant, and always had access to him. When the royal consort Ḏj̲arāda was worshipping idols Āṣāf delivered a public address in which he praised the apoştles of God, Solomon among them, but only for the excellent qualities he had manifested in his youth. Solomon in anger at this took him to task, but was reproved for the introduction of idol-worship at the court. This was then done away with and the consort punished; the king became repentant. (A.J. Wensinck) Bibliography Ṭabarī,…

Kunya

(1,146 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), patronymic, an onomastic element composed of Abū (m.) “father” or Umm (f.) “mother” plus a name. We have here a metonymic designation corresponding to a general tendency among primitive peoples to consider an individual’s name as taboo and not to pronounce it unless exceptionally (see J. G. Frazer, The golden bough, ch. xxii). The kunya was therefore accordingly the name which should be used, but in historical times, the original intention here was forgotten, and al-Ḏj̲āḥiẓ (see JA [1967], 70, 82), far from seeing here any ¶ connection with sympathetic magic, counts the kunya

S̲h̲awwāl

(284 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, the name of the tenth month of the Muslim lunar year. In the Ḳurʾān (sūra X, 2), four months are mentioned during which, in the year 9/630-1, the Arabs could move in their country without exposing themselves to attacks (cf. “the sacred months” in v. 5). These four months were, according to the commentaries, S̲h̲awwāl, D̲h̲u ’l-Ḳaʿda, D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a and Muḥarram. In Ḥadīt̲h̲ , S̲h̲awwāl is therefore among “the months of pilgrimage mentioned in Allāh’s Book” (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ , bāb 33, 37). In pre-Islamic times, S̲h̲awwāl was considered ill-omened for the conclus…

Nāfīʿ b. al-Azraḳ

(521 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
al-Ḥanafī al-Ḥanẓalī, Abū Rās̲h̲id (said to be the son of a freedman of Greek origin who was a blacksmith; al-Balād̲h̲urī. Futūḥ , 56), K̲h̲arid̲j̲ite who played quite a considerable role in Islamic history as leader of an extremist fraction of that sect known after him as the Azāriḳa [ q.v.] or Azraḳīs, which lived on substantially after his death; he is furthermore said to have laid down their doctrines. The sequence of events in which he was involved is difficult to establish, since there is a certain confusion in the narratives involving him. From them one le…

al-K̲h̲aḍir (al-K̲h̲iḍr)

(4,132 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, the name of a popular figure, who plays a prominent part in legend and story. Al-K̲h̲aḍir is properly an epithet (“the green man”); this was in time forgotten and this explains the secondary form K̲h̲iḍr (approximately “the green”), which in many places has displaced the primary form. (i) In the Ḳurʾān and in oriental legend Legends and stories regarding al-K̲h̲aḍir are primarily associated with the Ḳurʾānic story in Sūra XVIII, 59-81, the outline of which is as follows. Mūsā goes on a journey with his servant ( fatā ), the goal of which is the mad̲j̲maʿ al-baḥrayn . …

Tarāwīḥ

(409 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), pl. of tarwīḥa , the term for ṣalāt s which are performed in the nights of the month of Ramaḍān. Tradition says that Muḥammad held these prayers in high esteem, with the precaution, however, that their performance should not become obligatory (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Tarāwīḥ , trad. 3). ʿUmar is said to have been the first to assemble behind one ḳāriʾ those who performed their prayers in the mosque of Medina singly or in groups ( loc. cit., trad. 2); he is also said to have preferred the first part of the night for these pious exercises. The religious law recommends the performance of the tarāwīḥ

Āsiya

(253 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
This is the name given by the commentators to Pharaoh’s wife, who is twice (xxviii, 9 and lxvi, 11) mentioned in the Ḳurʾān. She plays the same part as Pharaoh’s daughter in the Bible, so that there is obviously confusion. In the second passage these words are put into her mouth: "My Lord, build me a house with thee in Paradise, and deliver me from Pharaoh and his doings and deliver me from the wicked". In connexion with this passage it is related that Āsiya endured many cruelties at the hands o…

Bāḥīra

(312 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
a she-camel or a ewe with slit ears. The Ḳurʾān and ancient poetry (cf. Ibn His̲h̲ām, 58) show that the ancient Arabs used to carry out certain religions cérémonies with respect to their cattle, which consisted firstly in letting the animal go about loose without making any use of it whatever, and secondly in limiting to males permission to eat its flesh (after it had died). In the varions cases the animais bore special names ( Baḥīra , Sāʾiba , Waṣīla , Ḥāmī ; on these names cf. Wellhausen as cited below). The lexicographers are not quite agreed on the p…

Niyya

(829 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), intention. The acts prescribed by the Islamic s̲h̲arīʿa , obligatory or not, require to be preceded by a declaration by the performer, that he intends to perform such an act. This declaration, pronounced ¶ audibly or mentally, is called niyya . Without it, the act would be bāṭil [ q.v.]. The niyya is required before the performance of the ʿibādāt , such as washing, bathing, prayer, alms, fasting, retreat, pilgrimage, sacrifice. “Ceremonial acts without niyya are not valid”, says al-G̲h̲azālī ( Iḥyāʾ , Cairo 1282, iv, 316). Yet a survey of the opinions of the lawyers regarding the niyya

Isrāfīl

(385 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, the name of an archangel, which is probably to be traced to the Hebrew Serāfīm as is ¶ indicated by the variants Sarāfīl and Sarāfīn ( Tād̲j̲ al-ʿArūs , vii, 375) The change of liquids is not unusual in such eudings. His size is astounding; while his feet are under the seventh earth, his head reaches up to the pillars of the divine throne. He has four wings: one in the west, one in the east, one with which he covers his body and one as a protection against the majesty of God. He is covered with hair,…

K̲h̲uṭba

(2,038 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), sermon, address by the k̲h̲aṭīb [ q.v.]. The k̲h̲uṭba has a fixed place in Islamic ritual, viz. in the Friday-service, in the celebration of the two festivals, in services held at particular occasions such as an eclipse or excessive drought. On the Friday it precedes the ṣalāt , in all the other services the ṣalāt comes first. A short description of the rules for the k̲h̲uṭba according to al-S̲h̲īrāzī ( Tanbīh , ed. Juynboll, 40), one of the early S̲h̲āfiʿī doctors [ q.v.], may be given here. (a.) One of the conditions for the validity of the Friday service is that it must be…

Ṣabr

(2,521 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), usually rendered "patience, endurance". The significance of this conception can hardly be conveyed in a West European language by a single word, as may be seen from the following. According to the Arabic lexicographers, the root ṣ-b-r , of which ṣabr is the nomen actionis, means to restrain or bind; thence ḳatalahu ṣabr an “to bind and then slay someone”. The slayer and the slain in this case are called ṣābir and maṣbūr respectively. The expression is applied, for example, to martyrs and prisoners of war put to death; in the Ḥadīt̲h̲ often to animals that— c…

Tasnīm

(319 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.). 1. The name of a fountain in Paradise, occurring in the Ḳurʾān, 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 al-ʿArab , is inconsistent with its being a diptote—or a derivative from the root s-n-m, a root conveying the meaning of “being high” (cf. sanām “camel’s hump”). In the latte…

Muṭlaḳ

(484 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), passive participle of form IV verb ṭ-l-ḳ , “to loose the bond ( ḳayd ) of an animal, so as to let it free” (e.g. Muslim, D̲j̲ihād , trad. 46; Abū Dāwūd, D̲j̲ihād, bāb 100). The term is also applied to the loosening of the bowstring (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, D̲j̲ihād, bāb 170), of the garments, the hair, etc. Thence the common meaning absolute, as opposed to restricted ( muḳayyad ), and further the accusative muṭlaḳ an “absolutely”. The use of the term is so widely diffused that a few examples only can be given. In grammar, the term mafʿūl muṭlaḳ denotes the absolute object (…

Mawḳif

(236 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), nomen loci from w-ḳ-f “to stand” hence “place of standing”. Of the technical meanings of the term, three may be mentioned here: (a) The place where the wuḳūf [ q.v.] is held during the pilgrimage, viz. ʿArafāt [ q.v.] and Muzdalifa [ q.v.] or D̲j̲amʿ. In well-known traditions, Muḥammad declares that all ʿ Arafāt and all Muzdalifa is mawḳif (Muslim, Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ , trad. 149; Abū Dāwūd, Manāsik , bāb 56, 64, etc.; cf. Wensinck, Handbook of early Muhammadan tradition, s.v. ʿArafa). Snouck Hurgronje ( Het mekkaansche feest , 150 = Verspreide Geschriften , i, 99) ha…

Sutra

(797 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), covering, protection, shelter, especially at the ṣalāt , where sutra means the object which the worshipper places in front of himself or lays in the direction of the ḳibla , whereby he shuts himself off in an imaginary area within which he is not disturbed by human or demoniacal influences. “The fictitious fencing off of an open place of prayer, the sutra, seems to have had among other objectives that of warding off demons” (Wellhausen, Reste 2, 158). In one tradition, the man who deliberately penetrates into this imaginary area is actually called a s̲h̲ayṭān (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ṣalāt , bāb

Hudhud

(741 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, the hoopoe, belongs to the order Scansores and bears a remarkable tuft of feathers on its head. Only a part of what is related concerning its habits and character can be mentioned here. Its piety is particularly emphasized. In Umayya b. Abi ’l-Ṣalt (ed. Schulthess, in Beiträge zur Assyriologie , viii, 26, 84 f.; cf. also Ibn Ḳutayba, al-S̲h̲iʿr , 279 f.) there is a story that the hoopoe enshrouded its dead mother and carried the body on its back and head till it found a resting-place for it; this is why its back is brown; but it i…

Takbīr

(357 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), verbal noun of form II from the root k-b-r in the denominative sense, to pronounce the formula Allāhu akbar . It is already used in this sense in the Ḳurʾān (e.g. LXXIV, 3; XVII, 111 with God as the object). On the different explanations of the elative akbar in this formula, see LʿA , s.v., and the Ḳurʾānic elative akram also applied to God (XCVI, 3) and aʿlā (XCII, 20; LXXXVII, 1). The formula, as the briefest expression of the absolute superiority of the One God, is used in Muslim life in different circumstances, in which the idea of God, His greatness and go…

ʿUtba b. Rabīʿa

(315 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
b. ʿAbd s̲h̲ams b. ʿAbd manāf , Abu ’l-Walīd , one of the chiefs of the Meccan tribe of Ḳurays̲h̲, who refused to follow Muḥammad. He met his death in the battle of Badr. His daughter Hind [ q.v.] was the wife of Abū Sufyān [ q.v.], and she avenged herself at Uhud on her father’s killer Ḥamza b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. S̲h̲ocked by the number of adherents of Muḥammad, ʿUtba, having consulted the other chiefs of the Ḳurays̲h̲, went to the Prophet to offer him anything he would care to ask if he would only abandon his propaganda. According to the traditional stor…

Nāfila

(736 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), pl. nawāfil , from n-f-l “to give something freely”, a term of law and theology meaning’ supererogatory work. 1. The word occurs in the Ḳurʾān in two places. Sūra XXI, 72, runs: “And we bestowed on him [viz. Ibrāhīm] Isaac and Jacob as an additional gift” ( nāfilatan ). In XVII, 81, it is used in combination with the vigils, thus: “And perform vigils during a part of the night, reciting the Ḳurʾān, as a nāfila for thee”. In ḥadīt̲h̲ it is frequently used in this sense. “Forgiveness of sins past and future was granted to him [Muḥammad] and his wor…

Munkar wa-Nakīr

(952 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(the forms with the article are also found), the names of the two angels who examine and if necessary punish the dead in their tombs. To the examination in the tomb the infidels and the faithful—the righteous as well as the sinners—are liable. They are set upright in their tombs and must state their opinion regarding Muḥammad. The righteous faithful will answer that he is the Apostle of Allāh; thereupon they will be left alone till the Day of Resurrection. The sinners and the infidels, on the ot…

Mīlād

(71 words)

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

Ḳunūt

(1,028 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), a technical term of Islamic religion, with various meanings, regarding the fundamental signification of which there is no unanimity among the lexicographers. “Refraining from speaking”, “prayer during the ṣalāt ”, “humility and recognition that one’s relation to Allāh is that of a creature to his creator”, “standing” — these are the usual dictionary definitions which are also found in the commentaries on different verses of the Ḳurʾān where ḳunūt or derivatives from the root ḳ-n-t occur. There is hardly one of these for which the context pro…

ʿAmr b. Hind

(246 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, son of the Lak̲h̲mid prince al-Mund̲h̲ir and of the Kindite woman Hind; after the death of his father, he became "king"of al-Ḥīra (554-570 A.D.). He was a warlike and cruel prince; the story of how he sent the poets al-Mutalammis and Ṭarafa to the governor of Baḥrayn with letters ¶ containing their own death warrants, is well-known. The severity of his character earned him the surname of Muḍarriṭ al-Ḥid̲j̲āra ("he who makes the stones emit sounds"). He was also called Muḥarriḳ ("burner"); in explanation of this surname, the Arabs recount that…

Nad̲j̲is

(658 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), impure, the opposite of ṭāhir [see Ṭahāra ]. According to the S̲h̲āfiʿī doctrine, as systematised by al-Nawawī ( Minhād̲j̲ , i, 36 ff.; cf. G̲h̲azālī, al-Wad̲j̲īz , i, 6-7), the following are the things impure in themselves ( nad̲j̲āsāt ): wine and other spirituous drinks, dogs, swine, mayta , blood and excrements; and milk of animals whose flesh is not eaten. Regarding these groups, the following may be remarked. On wine and other spirituous drinks cf. the arts, k̲h̲amr and nabīd̲h̲ .—Dogs are not declared impure in the Ḳurʾān; on the contrary, in…

Tahad̲j̲d̲j̲ud

(749 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), verbal noun of form V from the root h-d̲j̲-d , which is one of the roots with opposed meanings ( addād [ q.v.]), as it signifies "sleep" and also "to be awake", "to keep a vigil", "to perform the night ṣalāt or the nightly recitation of the Ḳur’ān". The latter two meanings have become the usual ones in Islam. The word occurs only once in the Ḳurʾān, sūra XVII, 81: "And in a part of the night, perform a ṣalāt as a voluntary effort", etc., but the thing itself is often referred to. We are told of the pious (LI, 17) that they sleep little by night and pray to God for for…

S̲h̲aʿbān

(578 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, name of the eighth month of the Islamic lunar year. In classical ḥadīt̲h̲ it has already its place after Rad̲j̲ab Muḍar. In Indian Islam it has the name of S̲h̲ab-i barāt (see below), the Atchehnese call it Kandūri bu and among the Tigrē tribes of Eritrea it is called Maddagēn , i.e. who follows upon Rad̲j̲ab. In early Arabia, the month of S̲h̲aʿbān (the name may mean “interval”) seems to have corresponded, as to its significance, to Ramaḍān. According to the ḥadīt̲h̲, Muḥammad practised superogatory fasting by preference in S̲h̲aʿbān (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ṣawm , bāb 52; Muslim, Ṣiyām

ʿUt̲h̲mān b. Maẓʿūn

(405 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
b. Ḥabīb, Abu ’l-Sāʾib , of the Ḳurays̲h̲ clan of D̲j̲umaḥ, one of the earliest Companions of Muḥammad, the thirteenth man to adopt Islam and brother-in-law of the second caliph ʿUmar b. al-K̲h̲aṭṭāb. He took part in the hid̲j̲ra to Abyssinia, returned, like some other refugees, on the false news of a reconciliation between Muḥammad and his pagan enemies, and became for some time the client of al-Walīd b. al-Mug̲h̲īra. Soon he renounced this privilege, because he preferred to bear his share in the insults offered to his co-religionists ¶ in Mecca. On a quarrel between ʿUt̲h̲mān and …

Matn

(207 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), a term with various meanings, of which that of text of a ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.] is to be noted. Matn already appears with the sense of “text” in pre-Islamic poetry, and has been used thus in Arabic literature up to the present day. It denotes especially the text of a book as distinguished from its oral explanation or its written or printed commentary. In connection with traditions, matn denotes the content or text itself, in distinction from the chain of traditionists who have handed it down ( isnād [ q.v.]). The choice of this term to designate the body of a ḥadīt̲h̲ led Goldziher to put forwar…

Rasūl

(783 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a., pl. rusul ), messenger, apostle. 1. In the religious sense. According to the Ḳurʾān, there is a close relation between the apostle and his people ( umma [ q.v.]). To each umma God sends only one apostle (sūra X, 48, XVI, 38 cf. XXIII, 46, XL, 5). These statements are parallel to those which mention the witness whom God will take from each umma at the Day of Judgment (IV, 45, XXVIII, 75 and cf. the descriptions of the rasūl who will cross the bridge to the other world at the head of his umma: al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ad̲h̲ān , bāb 129; Riḳāḳ , bāb 52). Muḥammad is sent to a people to whom Allāh has not ye…

Amīr al-Muslimīn

(108 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, i.e. lord of the Muslims, a title which the Almoravids first assumed, in contra-distinction to Amīr al-Muʾminīn [ q.v.]. The latter title was born by the independent dynasties; the Almoravids, however, recognized the supremacy of the ʿAbbāsids and did not wish to arrogate to themselves this title of the Caliphs. So they established a kind of sub-caliphate with a title of their own. Afterwards the African and Spanish princes bore either the one or the other of these titles, according as they sought after the independent caliphate or recognized any supremacy. (A.J. Wensinck) Bibliography…

K̲h̲id̲h̲lān

(437 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), nomen actionis from the root k̲h̲-d̲h̲-l , “to leave in the lurch”, a technical term in Islamic theology, applied exclusively to Allāh when He withdraws His grace or help from man. The disputes regarding it first appear in connection with the quarrel over ḳadar [ q.v.]. A starting point is found in Sūra III, 154/160: “but if He abandon you to yourselves ( yak̲h̲d̲h̲ul-kum ), who will help you after Him? Let the faithful therefore trust in God”. On this al-Rāzī observes: “The Companions deduce from this verse that belief is exclusiv…

Samūm

(588 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), yielding Fr. simoun and Eng. simoom, a hot wind of the desert accompanied by whirlwinds of dust and sand, and set in motion by moving depressions which form within the trade winds or calm zones of the high, subtropical depressions. This wind is especially characteristic of the Sahara, in Egypt, in Arabia and in Mesopotamia. The word occurs in three passages of the Ḳurʾān, where it is, however, not especially applied to the wind. In sūra XV, 27, it is said that the Ḏj̲ānn were created from the fire of Samūm. In LII, 27, the punishment of the Samūm is …

Subḥa

(1,031 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), in Egyptian colloquial pronunciation sibḥa ; in Persian and Muslim Indian usage, more often tasbīḥ , Ottoman Turkish tesbīḥ , modern tespih , rosary. It is used at present by nearly all classes of Muslims, except the Wahhābīs who disapprove of it as a bidʿa and who count the repetition of the sacred names on their hands. There is evidence for its having been used at first in Ṣūfī circles and among the lower classes (Goldziher, Rosaire , 296); opposition against it made itself heard as late as the 9th/15th century, when al-Suyūṭī composed an apology for it (Goldziher, Vorlesungen über den …

Rātib

(124 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a., pl. rawātib ), a word meaning what is fixed and hence applied to certain non-obligatory ṣalāts or certain litanies. The term is not found in the Ḳurʾan nor as a technical term in Ḥadīt̲h̲ . On the first meaning, see nāfila . As to the second, it is applied to the d̲h̲ikr [ q.v.] which one recites alone, as well as to those which are recited in groups. We owe to Snouck Hurgronje a detailed description of the rawātib practised in Acheh [ q.v.]. (A.J. Wensinck) Bibliography C. Snouck Hurgronje, De Atjèhers, Batavia-Leiden 1893-4, ii, 220. English tr. O’Sullivan, The Achehnese. Leiden 1906, ii…

K̲h̲ubayb

(876 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
b. ʿAdī al-Anṣārī , one of the first martyrs of Islām. The main features of his story common to all versions are as follows: After the battle of Uḥud [ q.v.] (on the chronology of which, see below) a small body of ten of the Prophet’s followers was discovered and surrounded between Mecca and ʿUsfān by 100 (or 200) Liḥyānīs who belonged to the Hud̲h̲ayl. The leader of the hard-pressed little band, ʿĀṣim b. T̲h̲ābit al-Anṣārī (according to others, the leader was al-Mart̲h̲ad), proudly refused to yield. He and six others were k…

Muʿd̲j̲iza

(567 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), active participle of Form IV of the root ʿ-d̲j̲-z , lit. “that by means of which [the Prophet] confounds, overwhelms, his opponents”, has become the technical term for miracle. It does not occur in the Ḳurʾān, which denies miracles in connection with Muḥammad, whereas it emphasises his “signs”, āyāt , later taken to mean the verses of the Ḳurʾān [see ḳurʾān. 1]. Even in later literature, Muḥammad’s chief miracle is the Ḳurʾān (cf. Abū Nuʿaym, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa , 74). Muʿd̲j̲iza and aya have become synonyms; they denote the miracles performed by Al…

K̲h̲ādim

(839 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, from Arabic k̲h̲adama “to serve (a master)”, means properly “servant, domestic”, but it has acquired the euphemistic sense, first in Arabic and then in the other Islamic languages, of “eunuch”; hence the word is often ambiguous. In this article, only servants of free status are covered; for slaves, see ʿabd and for eunuchs k̲h̲aṣī . At the side of the slaves, there have always been free servants (coll. k̲h̲adam , pl. k̲h̲uddām ). Anas b. Mālik [ q.v.] entered Muḥammad’s service as a youth (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ḏj̲ihād , bāb 74 etc.) and he records it to his master’…

Nad̲h̲īr

(381 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a., pl. nud̲h̲ur , Ḳurʾān, LIII, 57), from form IV of n-d̲h̲-r , with the meaning of warner; sometimes also as a verbal noun, e.g. LXVII, 17. The plural nud̲h̲ur is also found in the sense of an infinitive, e.g. LXXVII, 6. The term occurs frequently in the Sacred Book, where it is even said to be synonymous with rasūl ; its opposite is bas̲h̲īr , mubas̲h̲s̲h̲ir . Nad̲h̲īr as well as bas̲h̲īr are applied to the prophets, the former when they are represented as warners, the latter as announcers of good tidings (cf. XVII, 106; XXV, 58; XXXIII, 44; XLVIII, 8; mubas̲h̲s̲h̲iran wa-nad̲h̲īran

K̲h̲itān

(3,041 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), circumcision. The term is used indifferently for males and females, but female excision is particularly called k̲h̲ifāḍ or k̲h̲afḍ [ q.v.]. In the dual, al-k̲h̲itānāni are “the two circumcised parts” (viz. that of the male and that of the female), and according to tradition “if the two circumcised parts have been in touch with one another, g̲h̲usl is necessary” (Buk̲h̲ārī. G̲h̲usl , bāb 28; Muslim, Ḥayḍ , trad. 88; Abū Dāwūd, Ṭahāra , bābs 81, 83). Some words connected with the root k̲h̲-t-n denote the father-in-law, the son-in-law, the daughter-in-law ( k̲h̲atan , k̲h̲atana

Ḳurbān

(373 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, sacrifice, sacrificial victim. The word goes back to the Hebrew ḳorbān , perhaps through the intermediary of the Aramaic (cf. Mingana, Syriac influence on the style of the Ḳurʾān , in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library , xi (1927), 85; S. Fränkel, De vocabulis in ... corano peregrinis, 20). The language of the Ḳurʾān, as is well known, shows a preference for religious technical terms ending in -ān and some of them are not always used with their original significations. This is true of ḳurbān , which occurs three times in the Ḳurʾān. In sūras III, 179 and …

Mīkāl

(994 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, the archangel Michael [see also malāʾika ], whose name occurs once in the Ḳurʾān, viz. in II, 92: “Whosoever is an enemy to God, or his angels, or his apostles, or to Gabriel or to Michael, verily God is an enemy to the unbelievers.” In explanation of this verse two stories are told. According to the first, the Jews, wishing to test the veracity of the mission of Muḥammad, asked him several questions, to all of which he gave the true answer. Finally, they asked him, who transmit…

Rahbāniyya

(503 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), monasticism. The term is derived from rāhib [ q.v.] “anchovite, monk”; it occurs in the Ḳurʾān once only, in a complicated passage (sūra LVII, 27) that has given rise to divergent interpretations: “And we put in the hearts of those who followed Jesus, compassion and mercy, and the monastic state ( rahbāniyya ); they instituted the same (we did not prescribe it to them) only out of a desire to please God. Yet they observed not the same as it ought truly to have been observed. And we gave unto such of them as believed, their reward; but many of them have been doers of evil.” According to some of …

Muslim

(261 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a.), the active participle of the IVth form of the root s-l-m, designates the person who professes Islam [ q.v.], islāmī being exclusively used today for what is relative to Islam and having, as a corresponding term, the forms in western languages islamic , islamique , islamisch , etc. However, in the 4th/10th century the theologian al-As̲h̲ʿarī [ q.v.] called his heresiographical work Maḳālāt al-Islāmiyyīn in order not to prejudice the question which of the various sects could or could not be called muslim . Whilst forms like mohammedan , mahométan , maomettano ,…

Rāhib

(275 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(a., pl. ruhbān , rahābīn , rahābina ), a monk. The figure of the monk is known to pre-Islamic poetry and to the Ḳurʾān and Tradition. The pre-Islamic poets refer to the monk in his cell, the light of which the traveller by night sees in the distance and which gives him the idea of shelter. In the Ḳurʾān, the monk and the ḳissīs , sometimes also the aḥbār , are the religious leaders of the Christians. In one place it is said that rabbis and monks live at the expense of other men (sūra IX, 34) and that the Christians have taken as their masters instead of God their aḥbār and their monks as well as al-Mas…

ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ

(962 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
(al-ʿĀṣī) al-sahmī , a contemporary of Muḥammad of Ḳurays̲h̲ite birth. The part which he played in Islāmic history begins with his conversion in the year 8/629-630. At that time he must already have been of middle age, for at his death which took place circa 42/663 he was over ninety years old. He passed for one of the most wily politicians of his time, and we must endorse this verdict. The more clear-sighted inhabitants of Mekka already foresaw shortly after the unsuccessful…

Aṣḥāb al-Rass

(166 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, “the people of the ditch” or “of the well”, are twice mentioned in the Ḳurʾān (xxv, 38; L, 12), along with ʿĀd, T̲h̲amūd and other unbelievers. The commentators know nothing for certain about them, and so give widely divergent explanations and all manner of fantastic accounts. Some take al-Rass to be a geographical name (cf. Yāḳūt, s.v.); some hold that these people, a remnant of T̲h̲amūd, cast (rassa) their prophet Ḥanẓala into a well ( rass ) and were consequently exterminated. It is also related that the mountain of the bird ʿAnḳāʾ [ q.v.] was situated in their region. Al-Ṭabarī men…

al-ʿAs̲h̲ara al-Mubas̲h̲s̲h̲ara

(175 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J.
, the ten, to whom Paradise was promised. The term does not occur in canonical ḥadīth , to which however the conception goes back. The traditions in question usually have the form: “Ten will be in Paradise”, whereupon the names are enumerated. There are differences in the lists. Those who appear in the various forms extant are: Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUt̲h̲mān, ʿAlī, Ṭalḥa, Zubayr, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf, Saʿd b. Abī Waḳḳāṣ, Saʿīd b. Zayd. In some traditions Muḥammad himself is put before these nine (Abū Dāwūd, Sunna , bāb 8; Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, i, 187, 188 bis ). In others Muḥa…

Iblīs

(1,881 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Gardet, L.
, proper name of the devil, probably a contraction of διάβολος. A different etymology has been suggested by D. Künstlinger, in RO, vi, 76 ff.; ¶ the Arab philologists consider that Iblīs derives from the root bls , “because Iblīs has nothing to expect ( ublisa ) from the mercy of God”. He is also known as ʿAduww Allāh (the enemy of God) and al-ʿAduww (the Enemy). Finally he is given the common name of al-s̲h̲ayṭān [ q.v.]. In the Ḳurʾān he appears at two points in the story of the beginning of the world. (1) When God had created Adam [ q.v.] from clay and had breathed into him the spirit of life…

Muṣallā

(1,957 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Hillenbrand, R.
(a.), the noun of place from ṣallā “to perform the Muslim worship, ṣalāt [ q.v.]”, hence the place where the ṣalāt is performed on certain occasions. 1. Historical and legal aspects. ¶ When Muḥammad had fixed his abode in Medina, he performed the ordinary ṣalāts in his dār , which was also his masd̲j̲id (not in the sense of temple). The extraordinary ṣalāts, however, were performed on a place situated southwest of the city in the territory of the Banū Salima, outside the wall, northeast of the bridge on the wādī , where at present the street from the suburb of al…

Maryam

(3,993 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Johnstone, Penelope C.
, Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Arabic form of the name is identical with po and μαριάμ. which are used in the Syriac and the Greek Bible, in the New as well as in the Old Testament. In the latter it corresponds to the Hebrew . Al-Bayḍāwī considers the name to be Hebrew; but the vowelling would seem to indicate a Christian source, according to A. Jeffery, Foreign vocabulary of the Quʾān , Baroda 1938, s.v. The name Maryam, like others with the same suffix, such as ʿAmram, Bilʿam, points to the region between Palestine and Northwestern Arabia as…

Hūd

(740 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Pellat, Ch.
, the name of the earliest of the five “Arab” prophets mentioned in the Ḳurʾān (Hūd, Ṣāliḥ, Ibrāhīm, S̲h̲uʿayb and Muḥammad). In his history, which is related three times (on this repetition, see al-Diāḥiẓ, Bayān , ed. Hārūn, i, 105) in slightly different forms (in chronological order: XXVI, 123-40, XI [ Sūra of Hūd ], 52-63/50-60, VII, 63-70/65-72, XLVI, 20/21, merely a restatement), the Ḳurʾān represents him as an ʿĀdī sent to this people [see ʿād ] to exhort them to adore the One God; but, like Muḥammad later in Mecca, he found only incredulity …

al-Ṣalīb

(1,743 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Thomas, D.
(a.) pls. ṣulub , şulbān , a cross, and, particularly, the object of Christian veneration. The term is used for cross-shaped marks e.g. brands on camels and designs woven into cloth, and in legal contexts for the instrument of execution. The Ḳurʾān refers in six places to the act of crucifying as a punishment. Four of these are set in ancient Egypt: in sūra XII, 41, Yūsuf predicts that one of the men jailed with him will be crucified and birds will eat from his head; in VII, 124, XX, 71, and XXVI, 49, Pharaoh vows to crucify the magic…

Mawlā

(10,427 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Crone, P.
(a.), pl. mawālī , a term of theological, historical and legal usage which had varying meanings in different periods and in different social contexts. Linguistically, it is the noun of place of the verb waliya , with the basic meaning of “to be close to, to be connected with someone or something” (see LA, xx, 287ff.; TA, x, 398-401), whence acquiring the sense “to be close to power, authority” > “to hold power, govern, be in charge of some office” (see Lane, s.v.) and yielding such administrative terms as wālī “governor”, and wilāya [ q.v.] “the function of governor” or, in a legal conte…

Rabb

(296 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Fahd, T.
(a.), lord, God, master of a slave. Pre-Islamic Arabia probably applied this term to its gods or to some of them. In this sense the word corresponds to the terms like Baʿal, Adonis, etc. in the Northwestern Semitic languages, where rabb means “much, great” (see A. Jeffery, The foreign vocabulary of the Qurʾān , Baroda 1938, 136-7). 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 possessive suffix)…

Naṣṣ

(288 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Burton, J.
(a.), a religio-legal term. The meaning of the root appears to be “to raise”, especially “to elevate a thing so that it is visible to all”. The word does not occur with this sense in either Ḳurʾān or Ḥadīt̲h̲ , but it may be etymologically connected with naṣaba . In the technical vocabulary of uṣūl al-fiḳh , the term refers to a text whose presence in either Ḳurʾān or Ḥadīt̲h̲ must be demonstrated to justify an alleged ruling. In his Risāla , al-S̲h̲āfiʿī uses it to refer to rulings textually referred to in either Ḳurʾān or Sunna , (81, 83, 88, 138, 149, 158-9, 166, 17…

Ilyās

(537 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Vajda, G.
is the name given in the Ḳurʾān (VI, 85 and XXXVII, 123, with a variant Ilyāsīn, perhaps prompted by the rhyme, in verse 130), to the Biblical prophet Elijah; the form Ilyās derives from ’Ελιας, a Hellenized adjustment, but attested also in Syrian and Ethiopic, of the Hebrew name Eliyāh (ū): cf. Jos. Horovitz, Koranische Untersuchungen , 81, 99, 101. In the Ḳurʾān, the figure of Ilyās scarcely shows any outstanding features, except for one allusion (in XXXVII, 125) to the worship of Baal. In the Muslim legend related by later au…

Tas̲h̲ahhud

(330 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Rippin, A.
(a.), verbal noun of form V of s̲h̲-h-d , the recitation of the s̲h̲ahāda [ q.v.], especially in the ṣalāt [ q.v.]. It must, however, be kept in mind that in this case s̲h̲ahāda comprises not only the kalimatān i, but (1) the following formula: “To God belong the blessed salutations and the good prayers”; (2) the formula “Hail upon thee, O Prophet, and God’s mercy and His blessing; hail upon us and upon God’s pious servants”; and (3) the s̲h̲ahāda proper, consisting of the kalimatān i. The above form of the tas̲h̲ahhud is in keeping with a tradition on the authori…

Ḳibla

(5,614 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | D. A. King
, the direction of Mecca (or, to be exact, of the Kaʿba or the point between the mīzāb or water-spout and the western corner of it), towards which the worshipper must direct himself for prayer, j i.—Ritual and Legal Aspects From very early times the direction at prayer and divine service for the worshippers was not a matter of choice among the Semitic peoples. There is already an allusion to this in I Kings, viii, 44 and it is recorded of Daniel (Dan., vi, 11) that he offered prayer three times a day in the direction of Jerusalem (which has remained the Jewish ḳibla to this …

Binyāmīn

(167 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Vajda, G.
, the Benjamin of the Bible. In its nairation of the history of Joseph (Yūsuf, [ q.v.]), the Ḳurʾān gives a place to the latter’s uterine brother (xii, 8, 59-79), without ever mentioning him by name. Tradition embellishes without any great variation the biblical story concerning him (it is aware notably that his birth cost his mother her life) and receives also Aggadic additions (summarised notably in the Encyclopaedia Judaica , iv, 112-14), such as the etymological connexion of the names of his sons with the lost elder brother. In Muslim mys…

K̲h̲amr

(4,620 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Sadan, J.
(a.), wine. The word, although very common in early Arabic poetry, is probably a loanword from Aramaic. The Hebrew yayn has in Arabic ( wayn ) the meaning of black grapes. The question has been fully treated by I. Guidi in his Della sede primitiva dei popoli semitici , in Memorie della R. Acad. dei Lincei , series iii, vol. iii, 603 ff. 1. Juridical aspects Arabia and the Syriac desert are, in contradistinction to Palestine and Mesopotamia, not a soil fit for the vine; there are, however, exceptions, among which may be mentioned al-Ṭāʾif (see H. Lammens, Ṭāif , 35 ff. = MFOB, viii, 146 ff.), S̲h̲…

Ḳaynuḳāʿ

(839 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Paret, R.
, banū , one of the three main Jewish tribes of Yat̲h̲rib. The name differs from the usual forms of Arabic proper names but has nothing Hebrew about it. Nothing certain is known regarding their immigration into Yat̲h̲rib. They possessed no land there but lived by trading. That their known personal names are for the most part Arabic says as little regarding their origin as the occurrence of Biblical names among them; but there seem to be no valid reasons for doubting their Jewish origin. In Yat̲h̲rib they lived in the south-west part of the town, near the Muṣallā and clo…

Ṣūra

(3,576 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Fahd, T.
(a.), image, form, shape, e.g. ṣūrat al-arḍ , “the image of the earth”, ṣūrat ḥimār , “the form of an ass” (Muslim, Ṣalāt , trad. 115), or face, countenance (see below). Taṣāwīr are rather pictures; see for these, taṣwīr . Ṣūra and taṣwīra are therefore in the same relation to one another as the Hebrew demūt and ṣelem . 1. In theological and legal doctrine. The Biblical idea according to which man was created in God’s ṣelem (Gen. i. 27) has most probably passed into Ḥadīt̲h̲. It occurs in three passages in classical Ḥadīt̲h̲; the exegesis is uncertain and in general unwilling to adopt i…

Firʿawn

(1,237 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Vajda, G.
(pl. Farāʿina ), Pharaoh. The Arabic form of the name may derive from the Syriac or the Ethiopie. Commentators on the Ḳurʾān (II, 46-49) explain the word as the permanent title ( laḳab ) of the Amalekite kings [see ʿamālīk ], on the analogy of Kisrā, title of the sovereigns of Persia, and Ḳayṣar of the emperors of Byzantium. As the designation of the typical haughty and insolent tyrant, the name Firʿawn gave rise to a verb tafarʿana “to behave like a hardened tyrant”.—If one disregards certain verses of Umayya which are probabl…

Ḥūr

(1,358 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Pellat, Ch.
(a.), pl. of ḥawrāʾ and its masc. aḥwar , adjective from the root ḥ.w.r ., with the general idea of ‘whiteness’ (the root ḥ.y.r ., signifying ‘perplexity’ or ‘astonishment’, which has occasionally been suggested, is to be rejected); ḥawrāʾ is applied more particularly to the very large eye of the gazelle or the oryx, the clear whiteness of which arises from the contrast with the blackness of the pupil and the iris; by extension, ḥawrāʾ signifies a woman whose big black eyes are in contrast to their ‘whites’ and to the whiteness of the skin. The plural ḥūr is a substant…

K̲h̲aṭīʾa

(3,567 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Gardet, L.
(pls. k̲h̲aṭāyā and k̲h̲aṭīʾāt ), moral lapse, sin, a synonym of d̲h̲anb (pl. d̲h̲unūb ). The root k̲h̲ ṭʾ means “to fail, stumble” (in Hebrew, Prov. xix, 2), “make a mistake” (e.g., one says ak̲h̲ṭaʾa of an archer whose arrow misses the target); [see k̲h̲aṭaʾ ]. The form k̲h̲aṭiʾa appears five times in the Ḳurʾān, and the root k̲h̲ ṭ ʾ is frequently found there. It combines within itself the three meanings of “error” ( k̲h̲aṭāʾ , e.g., XVII, 33), “culpable lapse” ( k̲h̲iṭʾ e.g., XVII, 31; cf. k̲h̲āṭiʾa , XCVI, 16), and “sin” ( k̲h̲aṭīʾa , II, 81, IV, 112, VII, 161; X…

ʿAmr b. al-Ahtam

(202 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Pellat, Ch.
( sinān ) b. sumayy al tamīmī al-minḳarī , an eminent Tamīmite famous for his poetic and oratorical talent, and also for his physical beauty which earned him the surname of al-Mukaḥḥal (“anointed with collyrium”). ¶ Born a few years before the hid̲j̲ra , he made his way to Medina in 9/630 with a delegation from his tribe; in 11/632, he was a follower of the prophetess Sad̲j̲āḥi [ q.v.], but he was converted to Islam and took part in the wars of conquest; he conveyed the news of the capture of Ras̲h̲ahr to ʿUmar in verse; he is said to have died in 57/676. His poe…

Kaʿba

(6,726 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Jomier, J.
, the most famous sanctuary of Islam, called the temple or house of God ( Bayt Allāh ). It is situated almost in the centre of the great mosque in Mecca. Muslims throughout the whole world direct their prayers to this sanctuary, where every year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims make the greater ( ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ ) or lesser ( ʿumra ) pilgrimage. Around it they gather and make their ritual circuits; around the Kaʿba the young Muslim community spent the early years of Islam. For the Muslim community the Kaʿba holds a place analogous to that of the temple in Jerusalem for ancient Jewry. I. The Kaʿba and …

Waḥy

(2,912 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Rippin, A.
(a.), a term of the Ḳurʾān, primarily denoting revelation in the form of communication without speech. Cognates in other Semitic languages include Palmyrene Aramaic twḥytʾ ( tawḥītā ) “decree [of the government]” and Mehri hewḥū “to come to someone’s help”. In the Ḳurʾān, waḥy is presented as an exceptional modality of God’s speaking to His creatures. This waḥy forms a concept of inspiration and communication without linguistic formulation, conveying the will of God, as in VII, 117: “And We suggested/put the idea into the head ( awḥaynā ) to Moses: ‘Cast thy …

ʿĀs̲h̲ūrāʾ

(1,188 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Marçais, Ph.
, name of a voluntary fast-day which is observed on the 10th Muharram. I. When Muḥammad came to Madīna he adopted from the Jews amongst other days the ʿĀs̲h̲ūrāʾ. The name is obviously the Hebrew ʿāsōr with the Aramaic determinative ending; in Lev. xvi, 29 it is used of the great Day of Atonement. Muḥammad retained the Jewish custom in the rite, that is, the fast was observed on this day from sunset to sunset, and not as in other fasts only during the day. When in the year 2 Muḥammad’s relations with the Jew…

Anas b. Mālik

(410 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Robson, J.
abū ḥamza , one of the most prolific traditionists. After the hid̲j̲ra his mother gave him to the prophet as servant; according to his own statement he was then ten years of age. He was present at Badr, but took no part in the battle, and is therefore not counted among the combatants. He remained in Muḥammad’s service up to the time of the Prophet’s death; later he took part in the wars of conquest. He also played small parts in the civil wars. In the year 65/684 he officiated as imām of the ṣalāt at Baṣra oh behalf of the rival caliph ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr. When …

Iḥrām

(1,013 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Jomier, J.
, maṣdar of the verb aḥrama , is an “act of declaring (or making) sacred or forbidden”. The opposite is iḥlāl “act of declaring permitted”. The word iḥrām had become a technical term for the state of temporary consecration of someone who is performing the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ or the ʿumra ; a person in This state is referred to as muḥrim . The entering into This holy state (also called iḥlāl) is accomplished, for men and women, by the statement of intention, accompanied by certain rites and in addition, for men, by the donning of the ritual garment. When making the intenti…

Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲

(8,598 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Wensinck,A.J. | Jomier,J. | Lewis,B.
(a.), pilgrimage to Mecca, ʿArafāt and Minā, the fifth of the five “pillars” ( arkān ) of Islam. It is also called the Great Pilgrimage in contrast to the ʿumra [ q.v.] or Little Pilgrimage. Its annual observance has had, and continues to have, a profound influence on the Muslim world. Those not taking part follow the pilgrims in thought; the religious teachers, and nowadays the press, radio and television help them in this by providing doctrine and news bulletins. For the Muslim community itself this event is the occasion fo…

ʿArafa

(596 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Gibb, H.A.R.
, or ʿarafāt , plain about 21 km. (13 miles) east of Mecca, on the road to Ṭāʾif, bounded on the north by a mountain-ridge of the same name. The plain is the site of the central ceremonies of the annual Pilgrimage to Mecca; these are focussed on a conical granite hill in its N.E. corner, under 200 feet in height, and detached from the main ridge; this hill also is called ʿArafa, but more commonly Ḏj̲abal al-Raḥma (Hill of Mercy). On its eastern flank, broad stone steps (constr…

Lawḥ

(1,051 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Bosworth, C.E.
(a.), board, plank; tablet, table. Both ranges of meaning are found in other Semitic languages such as Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac and Ethiopie, and Jeffery thought that, whilst the sense “board, plank” might be an original Arabism, the second sense was almost certainly from the Judaeo-Christian cultural and religious milieu (see The foreign vocabulary of the Qur’ān , Baroda 1938, 253-4). The word occurs five times in the Ḳurʾān. The first meaning is found in sūra LIV, 13, where Noah’s ark is called d̲h̲āt alwāḥ . The second meaning is that of lawḥ as writing material, e.g. the tablets of the lawḥ…

al-Nasafī

(1,494 words)

Author(s): Poonawala, I. | Wensinck, A.J. | Heffening, W.
, the nisba of several religious figures and scholars from Nasaf or Nak̲h̲s̲h̲ab [ q.v.] in the environs of Buk̲h̲ārā (see al-Samʿānī, Ansāb , ed. Ḥaydarābād, xiii, 92-4). I. Abu ’l-Ḥasan Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Bazdawī or al-Bazdahī (i.e. from the village of Bazda near Nasaf), distinguished philosopher-theologian of the Ismāʿīlīs in Sāmānid K̲h̲urāsān and Transoxania, who is generally credited with the introduction of Neo-Platonic philosophy into Ismāʿīlī circles. He succeeded Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī al-Marwazī in the headship of the daʿwa [ q.v.] of Nīs̲h̲āpūr. As a dāʿī

al-Masīḥ

(583 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Bosworth, C.E.
, the Messiah; in Arabic (where the root m-s-ḥ has the meanings of “to measure” and “to wipe, stroke”) it is a loanword from the Aramaic, where m e s̲h̲īḥā was used as a name of the Redeemer. Horovitz ( Koranische Untersuchungen , 129) considers the possibility that it was taken over from the Ethiopic ( masīḥ ). Muḥammad of course got the word from the Christian Arabs, amongst whom the personal name ʿAbd al-Masīḥ was known in pre-Islamic times, but it is doubtful whether he knew the true meaning of the term (see K. Ahrens, Christliches im Qoran , eine Nachlese , in ZDMG, lxxxiv [1930], 24-5; A. Je…

ʿAd̲hāb al-Ḳabr

(1,330 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Tritton, A.S.
, the punishment in the tomb, also called punishment in barzak̲h̲ [ q.v.]. The idea is based on the conception that the dead had a continued and conscious existence of a kind in their grave. So arose the doctrine of the two judgements, one which involves punishment or bliss in the grave and a subsequent judgement on the Day of Resurrection [for which see al-Ḳiyāma ]. There are various ideas of what happens between death and resurrection. 1. The grave is a garden of paradise or a pit of hell; angels of mercy come for the souls of believers and angels of punishment for the…

Baḳīʿ al-G̲h̲arḳad

(683 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
(also called D̲j̲annat al-Baḳīʿ or simply al-Baḳīʿ), is the oldest and the first Islamic cemetery of al-Madīna. The name denotes a field which was originally covered with a kind of bramble called al-g̲h̲arḳad ; there were several such Baḳīʿs in al-Madīna. The place is situated at the south-east end of the town, at a short distance from the Prophet’s tomb, outside the town-wall, now demolished, through which a gateway, Bāb al-Baḳīʿ gave admittance to the cemetery (see the map of Madīna in Caetani, Annali , ii, 173). The first to be buried in al-Baḳīʿ, from among the muhād̲j̲irūn

Mīḳāt

(5,585 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | King, D.A.
(a., mifʿāl form from w-ḳ-t , plural mawāḳīt ) appointed or exact time. In this sense the term occurs several times in the Ḳurʾān (II, 185; VII, 138, 139, 154; XXVI, 37; XLIV, 40; LVI, 50; LXXVIII, 17). 1. Legal aspects. In ḥadīt̲h̲ and fiḳh, the term is applied to the times of prayer and to the places where those who enter the ḥaram are bound to put on the iḥrām . For the latter meaning of the term, see iḥrām. Although some general indications for the times at which some ṣalāt s are to be performed occur in the Ḳurʾān (cf. II, 239; XI, 116; XVII, 80; XXIV, 29), i…

S̲h̲afāʿa

(2,474 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Gimaret, D. | Schimmel, Annemarie
(a.), intercession, mediation. He who makes the intercession is called s̲h̲āfiʿ and s̲h̲afīʿ . The word is also used in other than theological language, e.g. in laying a petition before a king ( LʿA s.v.), in interceding for a debtor (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Istiḳrāḍ , 18). Very little is known of intercession in judicial procedure. In the Ḥadīt̲h̲ it is said: “He who by his intercession puts out of operation one of the ḥudūd Allāh is putting himself in opposition to God” (Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad , ii, 70, 82; cf. al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Anbiyāʾ 54/11; Ḥudūd , 12). 1. In official Islam. The word is usually found in …

Sad̲jd̲j̲āda

(5,401 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Hall, Margaret | Knysh, A.
(a., pl. sad̲j̲ād̲j̲id , sad̲j̲ād̲j̲īd , sawād̲j̲id ), the carpet on which the ṣalāt [ q.v.] is performed. The word is found neither in the Ḳurʾān nor in the canonical Ḥadīt̲h̲; the occasional use of a floor-covering of some kind was, however, known at quite an early period. 1. Early tradition. In the Ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.] we are often told how Muḥammad and his followers performed the ṣalāt on the floor of the mosque in Medina after a heavy shower of rain, so that their noses and heads came in contact with the mud (e.g. al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ad̲h̲ān , bāb s 135, 151; Muslim, Ṣiyām , trads…

Tayammum

(636 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Reinhart, A.K.
(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, IV, 43/46 and V, 7/9. The latter passage runs as follows: “And if you are in a state of impurity ( d̲j̲unub an ) purify ( fa-ṭṭahharū ) yourselves. But if you are ill, or on a journey or if you come from the privy or you have touched women and you find no water, take fine clean sand ( saʿīd an ṭayyib an ) and rub your faces and hands with it.” Sūra IV, 43/46, is nearly identical except that the phrase “with it…

Mawsim

(447 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Bosworth, C.E.
(a., from the root w-s-m “to mark, imprint”), market, festival. In this sense the term is used in ḥadīt̲h̲ , especially in connection with the markets of early Arabia, such as those which were held in ʿUkāẓ, Mad̲j̲anna, D̲h̲u ’l-Mad̲j̲āz, ʿArafa, etc. (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ , bāb 150; Tafsīr , sūra II, bāb 34). At these markets, the worst elements of Arabia gathered ( al-mawsim yad̲j̲maʿ raʿāʿ al-nās , al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ḥudūd , bāb 31). Advantage was also taken of these assemblies to make public proclamations and inquiries, e.g. in order to regulate the affairs of d…

Mutawātir

(717 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Heinrichs, W.P.
(a.), active participle of Form VI of w-t-r, “that which comes successively”. It is used as a technical term in two senses: (a) In the methodologies of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v., and for the term see Vol. III, 25b] and of law, the term is the counterpart of k̲h̲abar al-wāḥid [ q.v.] and denotes a Prophetic tradition (or, in general, any report) with multiple chains of transmission [see isnād ]. Concerning the requisite number of concurrent chains that would make a report mutawātir , there is no unanimity; it is supposed to be a sufficient number to preclude the po…

Aʿs̲h̲ā Hamdān

(328 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Grunebaum, G.E. von
, properly ʿabd al-raḥmān b. ʿabd allāh , Arab poet, who lived in Kūfa in the second half of the 1th/7th century. In his early career a traditionist and Ḳurʾān reader he was married to a sister of the theologian al-S̲h̲aʿbī, who in turn had married a sister of al-Aʿs̲h̲ā. Later he concentrated on poetry, acting on occasion as the spokesman of the Yamanite faction. He was active in the wars that marked the governorship of al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ and his health appears to have suffered d…

Saʿīd b. Zayd

(600 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Juynboll, G.H.A.
b. ʿAmr b. Nufayl ... b. ʿAdī b. Kaʿb b. Luʾayy, a Companion of the Prophet from the tribe of Ḳurays̲h̲ [ q.v.] and one of Muḥammad’s earliest converts. His mother was Fāṭima bint Baʿd̲j̲a b. Umayya of the clan of K̲h̲uzāʿa. His kunya was Abu ’l-Aʿwar or Abū T̲h̲awr. He was one of ʿUmar b. al-K̲h̲aṭṭāb’s ¶ cousins and at the same time his brother-in-law through his wife, who was ʿUmar’s sister, as well as through ʿUmar’s wife who was his sister. He assumed Islam before Muḥammad entered the house of Zayd b. al-Arḳam and ʿUmar’s conversion is said to ha…

Ḳayṣar

(1,543 words)

Author(s): Fischer, A. | Wensinck, A.J. | Schaade, A. | Paret, R. | S̲h̲ahîd, Irfān
1. In early Islam. The usual name in Arabic for the Roman and Byzantine emperor. The word represents the Greek Καῖσαρ and came to the Arabic through the intermediary of the Aramaic (see Fraenkel, Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen , Leiden 1886, 278 f.). The borrowing must have taken place at quite an early period, as the word in Syriac later appears almost in the form Ḳesar (see Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus , s.v.). The Arabs, centuries before Muḥammad, had relations with Roman and to a greater extent with Byzantine emperors. As earl…

Makka

(45,581 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery | Wensinck, A.J. | Bosworth, C.E. | Winder, R.B. | King, D.A.
(in English normally “Mecca”, in French “La Mecque”), the most sacred city of Islam, where the Prophet Muḥammad was born and lived for about 50 years, and where the Kaʿba [ q.v.] is situated. 1. The pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods Geographical description. Mecca is located in the Ḥid̲j̲āz about 72 km. inland from the Red Sea port of Jedda (D̲j̲udda [ q.v.]), in lat. 21° 27′ N. and long. 39° 49′ E. It is now the capital of the province ( manātiḳ idāriyya ) of Makka in Suʿūdī Arabia, and has a normal population of between 200,000 and 300,000, which …

Miṣr

(46,751 words)

Author(s): Wensinck, A.J. | Bosworth, C.E. | Becker, C.H. | Christides, V. | Kennedy, H. | Et al.
, Egypt A. The eponym of Egypt B. The early Islamic settlements developing out of the armed camps and the metropolises of the conquered provinces C. The land of Egypt: the name in early Islamic times 1. Miṣr as the capital of Egypt: the name in early Islamic times 2. The historical development of the capital of Egypt i. The first three centuries, [see al-fusṭāṭ ] ii. The Nile banks, the island of Rawḍa and the adjacent settlement of D̲j̲īza (Gīza) iii. The Fāṭimid city, Miṣr al-Ḳāhira, and the development of Cairo till the end of the 18t…
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