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(a.), pl. waẓāʾif , literally “task, charge, impose obligation” (see Dozy, Supplément, ii, 820-1). 1. As an administrative term. In the early Islamic period, the form II verb waẓẓafa and the noun waẓīfa are used as administrative-fiscal terms with the sense of imposing a financial burden ¶ or tax, e.g. of paying the k̲h̲arād̲j̲ , ʿus̲h̲r or d̲j̲izya [ q.vv.], cf. al-Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ , 73, 193 (the waẓāʾif of the provinces of al-Urdunn, Filasṭīn, Dimas̲h̲ḳ, Ḥimṣ, etc.) and other references given in the Glossarium , 108. But as well as this loose sense, waẓīfa had a more specific one, a…

, a branch of the S̲h̲ādhiliyya [ q.v.] Ṣūfī order named after Muḥammad b. Ḥasan b. Ḥamza Ẓāfir al-Madanī (1194-Ḏj̲umādā I 1263/1780 - April-May 1847), who was originally a muḳaddam [ q.v.] of Mawlāy Abū Aḥmad al-ʿArbī al-Darḳāwī [see darḳāwa ]. From 1240/1824-5 al-Madanī presented himself as independent head of a ṭariḳa [ q.v.] in his own right (ʿAbd al-Ḳādir Zakī, al-Nafḥa al-ʿaliyya fī awrād al-S̲h̲ād̲h̲iliyya , Cairo 1321/1903-4, 233) while retaining the essentials of S̲h̲ād̲h̲ilī teaching and liturgical practice (see Muḥammad Aḥmad Sayyid Aḥmad, al-Anwār al-d̲h̲ahabiyya li ’l-…

(i) The history of the institution of the caliphate A study of the caliphate, its institution and subsequent developments, has never been attempted in its entirety until the present. The principal reason is that it has not seemed possible to conduct such a survey independently of historical studies relating to different reigns, which are still in most cases insufficient, or even non-existent, whereas studies of doctrine, while more advanced, have not been developed to the same extent with regard to the v…

, a communal nightly liturgical ritual in which the recital of supplications for divine grace for the Prophet [see ṣalawāt ] is central. Such sessions were originally introduced as a mystical method [see ṭarīḳa ] by Nūr al-Dīn al-S̲h̲ūnī (d. 944/1537; cf. Brockelmann, II, 438, for the tides and additional details about the ṣalawāt composed by him), a s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-S̲h̲aʿrānī [ q.v.] at the mosque of Aḥmad al-Badawī in Ṭanṭā and at al-Azhar mosque in Cairo in the year 897/1491-2 (ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-S̲h̲aʿrānī, al-Ṭabaḳāt al- kubrā , Cairo 1954, …

(a.), the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam. It is the maṣdar of Form V of the radical ṣ-w-f indicating in the first place one who wears woollen clothes ( ṣūf ), the rough garb of ascetics and mystics. Other etymological derivations which have been put forward in Western and, especially, Islamic sources, are untenable. Hence a mystic is called ṣūfī or mutaṣawwif , colls, ṣūfiyya or mutaṣawwifa . 1. Early development in the Arabic and Persian lands. Already among the Companions of the Prophet Muḥammad there were persons who wanted more than just to strive after the out…

(Turkish: Halvetiyye), a highly ramified and widespread ṭarīḳa [ q.v.]. History and branches. The K̲h̲alwatiyya is mentioned as a branch of al-Abhariyya al-Zāhidiyya by Kamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Ḥarīrī ( Tibyān , i, 343b), who gives as its founder ʿUmar al-K̲h̲alwatī (born in Lāhid̲j̲, D̲j̲īlān, died in Tabrīz, 800/1397). However, Muṣṭafā Kamāl al-Dīn al-Bakrī [ q.v.] stresses that ʿUmar’s s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ , Muḥammad b. Nūr al-Bālisī, who was called al-K̲h̲alwatī because of his frequent retreats, is the first in the K̲h̲alwativva silsila (cf. Muḥammad Ḥasanayn Mak̲h̲lūf al-ʿAdawī, Awrā…

, a branch of the K̲h̲alwatiyya Ṣufī order [ q.v.] in Egypt, named after Marwān b. ʿĀbid al-Mutaʿāl (d. 1329/1911). His father, ʿĀbid al-Mutaʿāl b. ʿAbd al-Mutaʿāl (d. 1299/1881-2), had been initiated into the K̲h̲alwatiyya order by Ḥusayn al-Muṣaylihī (cf. Mubārak, K̲h̲iṭaṭ . xv, 45), a k̲h̲alīfa [ q.v.] of Muḥammad al-Ḥifnī’s disciple Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-S̲h̲intināwī. ʿĀbid al-Mutaʿāl later obtained al-k̲h̲ilāfa and acted as a s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ of his own K̲h̲alwatiyya order, which had not yet differentiated itself, either in name or in p…

(pl. mawālid ), is the term for (1) the time, place or celebration of the birth of a person, especially that of the Prophet Muḥammad or of a saint [see walī ], and (2) a panegyric poem in honour of the Prophet. 1. Typology of the mawlid and its diffusion through the Islamic world. From the moment when Islam began to bring the personality of Muḥammad within the sphere of the supernatural, the scenes among which his earthly life had been passed naturally began to assume a higher sanctity in the eyes of his followers. Among these, the house in which he was born, the Mawlid al-Nabī …

(a.), pole. 1. As an astronomical term In Arabic, ḳuṭb covers nearly the same field of semantic aspects as Greek ὁ πόλος: a pivot around which something revolves (in Arabic, especially the pivot for mill stones), which was extended to the revolution of the sky, designating the axis of the celestial east-west movement and, more specifically, its two “poles” ( LA, Beirut 1955, i, 681b f.; Lane, Lexicon , s.v. ḳuṭb; Liddell and Scott, Greek-English lexicon, s.v. πόλος). Hence later, in Arabic translations of Greek works, ḳuṭb was often used as a rendering of πόλος c, (e.g. Ptolemy, Almagest …

, an Islamic mystical tradition which probably originated in 3rd/9th century Nīs̲h̲āpūr. 1. In the Central Islamic Lands The foundation of this tradition has been attributed to Ḥamdūn al-Ḳaṣṣār (d. 271/884-5 [ q.v. and see further on him below, section 2]). One of the main sources for the study of its doctrine is the Risālat al-Malāmatiyya by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn al-Sulamī (330-412/941-1021). This treatise (see Bibl .) contains a number of sayings by early authorities concerning the Malāmatiyya and an enumeration of the principles ( uṣūl ) of M…

, a town in northern Albania, lying around the foot of a precipitous rock, a spur of the steep Krujë Range, with the fertile plain of the Ishm river to the south and west. Under the Ottoman administration the town was officially known as Aḳ Ḥiṣār [ q.v.]. It was the chief administrative centre of the wilāyet and after 1466 of the ḳaḍāʾ of this name. For most of the second half of the 19th century the ḳaḍāʾ was part of the wilāyet and of the sand̲j̲aḳ of Skutari (cf. Th. Ippen, Beiträge zur inneren Geschichte Albaniens im XIX. Jahrhundert , in L. von Thallóczy, Illyrisch-Albanische Forschungen …

, a Ṣūfī order or ṭarīḳa , in Turkish Mewlewiyye, modern Mevlevî, which takes its name from the Mawlānā (“Our Master”), the sobriquet of D̲j̲alal al-Dīn Rūmī [ q.v.]. Although not called by this name, it appears that such a ṭarīḳa was formed already in the Mawlānā’s time, and this view is reinforced by the existence of a group of disciples around the Mawlānā, by his concern for their education and by his appointment of deputies to carry out this task during his absences. However, like many ṭuruḳ (e.g. the K̲h̲alwatiyya [ q.v.]), this ṭarīḳa acquired its name at a later stage. There is no…

, a nisba referring to the Egyptian town of Manūf [ q.v.]. The vocalisation of the name of the town and the nisba varies. In the older texts (cf. Mubārak, K̲h̲iṭaṭ , xvi, 47) the name is vocalised as Manūf. The recent official vocalisation is Minūf; cf. Wizārat al-Māliyya (Maṣlaḥat al-Misāha), al-Dalīl al-d̲j̲ug̲h̲rāfī li-asmāʾ al-mudun wa ’l-nawāḥī al-miṣriyya , Cairo [Būlāḳ], 1941, 220, and Muḥammad Ramzī, al-Ḳāmūs al-d̲j̲ug̲h̲rāfī li ’l-bilād al-miṣriyya , Cairo 1958, i/2, 222. The biographical dictionaries of Kaḥḥāla and al-Ziriklī give th…