Search

, a nickname given, allegedly because of his ruddy cheeks, to an early Persian ḥadīt̲h̲ scholar, Abū Aḥmad ʿĪsā b. Mūsā al-Taymī al-Buk̲h̲ārī , who died at the end of the year 186/802. The Arabo-Persian word does mean “rouged”, but it is, of course, highly doubtful whether this is the origin of the name. The nickname was transferred to a later scholar who spent much effort upon collecting ʿĪsā’s traditions and who is known as the author of a History of Buk̲h̲ārā . His name was Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Sulaymān al-Buk̲h̲ārī, known as (al-)G̲h̲und̲j̲ār. He flourished in ¶ the…

, ḥadīt̲h̲ scholar and historical informant (b. 130/748, d. 29 S̲h̲aʿbān 219/8 Sept. 834). He was a client of the family of Muḥammad’s Companion Ṭalḥa. He lived in al-Kūfa and made occasional visits to Bag̲h̲dād, where he was once received by al-Maʾmūn. Dukayn’s actual name is said to have been ʿAmr. A son of Abū Nuʿaym, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (perhaps the author of the Ḳurʾān commentary, referred to in Fihrist , 34), and a grandson, Aḥmad b. Mīt̲h̲am, are mentioned. Abū Nuʿaym is considered a very reliable transmitter of traditions. He is also highly praised…

, ( Ḥamza b. al-Ḥasan , [ Ibn ] al-Muʾaddib ), philologist and historian of the 4th/10th century. Born about 280/893, he died after 350/961 (the year in which his Chronology was completed; note also that ʿAḍud al-Dawla, for whom he is supposed to have written one of his works, was so named only in 351) and, it is said, before 360/970-71. Most of his life was spent in his native Iṣfahān. He mentions three visits to Bag̲h̲dād, one dated in 308/920-1, and another, his third, in 323/935. He had contact with…

, S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn Ibrāhīm b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥamawī , historian and S̲h̲āfiʿī jurist. Born in Ḥamāt on 21 Ḏj̲umādā I 583/29 July 1187, he studied in Bag̲h̲dād, taught in Ḥamāt, Aleppo, and Cairo, and finally was appointed judge in his native city. He went to Bag̲h̲dād in 641 on an embassy for the ruler of Ḥamāt, al-Malik al-Muẓaffar, and, in the following year, when he was again on his way to Bag̲h̲dād to announce there the death of al-Malik al-Muẓaffar, he was stricken with dysenter…

(a.) “connection, pedigree, genealogy” designates the most fundamental organising principle of Arab society. It would seem to be an inheritance from the earliest times. Since no convincing cognate has as yet been determined in other Semitic languages, it is not entirely implausible to suggest a prehistoric relationship between the roots s-b-b and n-s-b, unconsciously reflected in the parallelism of nasab and sabab “rope, connection” in the ḥadīt̲h̲ ( Concordance , ii, 388). Genealogy provides the historical validation of kinship and all that it involves. Kinship alw…

, “freedom,” an abstract formation derived from ḥurr “free” corresponding to Hebrew ḥōr , Aram. ḥēr ( ḥerūt̲ā ), widely used also in Muslim languages other than Arabic. Already in pre-Islamic times, “free” was known not only as a legal term denoting the opposite of “unfree, slave” ( ʿabd [ q.v.]) but also as an Ethical term denoting those “noble” of character and behavior. The legal concept of “freedom” continued to be used as a matter of course by Muslim jurists, who were inclined to give preference to the presumption of a free status for individuals in doubtful cases [see ʿabd …

al-Madanī , a slave from the Yaman, possibly of Indian parentage, who purchased his freedom and lived in Medina. He was considered a rather "weak" ḥadīt̲h̲ scholar, but he is deservedly famous as the author of a Kitāb al-Mag̲h̲āzī. Numerous fragments of it have been preserved by al-Wāḳidī and Ibn Saʿd. Among his authorities he mentions Nāfiʿ, the mawlā of Ibn ʿUmar, Muḥammad b. Kaʿb al-Ḳurazī, and other scholars of Medina. In the year 160/776-7, he left Medina and remained in Bag̲h̲dād until his death in Ramaḍān (?) 170/787. There…

, aḥmad b. yaḥyā b. ḏj̲ābir b. dāwūd , one of the greatest Arabic historians of the 3rd/9th century. Little is known of his life. Neither the year of his birth nor that of his death is directly attested. From the dates of his teachers, it is evident that he cannot have been born later than the beginning of the second decade of the 9th century A.D.; for the date of his death, Muslim authors suggest, as the latest and most likely date, ca. 892 A.D. As he is said to have been a transl…

(a.), a technical term in a number of different disciplines. 1. In astronomy. Here it corresponds to Gr. διάμετρος, in the Almagest άχρόνυκτος, Lat. oppositio, the term for the opposition of a planet and the sun or of two planets with one another. In opposition, the difference in longitude between the two heavenly bodies is 180°; while the modern use is to take no note of the deviations of latitude from the ecliptic, al-Battānī expressly emphasises ( Opus astronomicum, ed. Nallino, iii, 196) that we can only have the true muḳābala when both bodies are either in …

, one of many Arabic words used to express the concept of “gift”, and the preferred legal term for it, see following article. The giving of gifts, that is, the voluntary transfer of property, serves material and psychological purposes. In the pre-history of man, it probably antedates the contractual payment for goods and services. In Islam, it has retained its inherited functions as an important component of the social fabric and has exercised a considerable influence on political life. Literature (in the narrow sense…