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, 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…

(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…

(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 …

(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 …

(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…

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…

(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…

, 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’…

(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 p…

(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 …

, 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 …

, the archangel Michael [see also malāʾika…

…

(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 , mahomét…

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(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…

, “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…

, 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 …

, 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 ha…

(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-ʿAnbariyya reaches the market-place Barr al-Munāk̲h̲a (cf. Burton, Personal narrative, plan opp. i, 256; picture of the muṣallā as well as of the mosque of ʿUmar situated on the place, opp. i, 329; al-Batanūnī, al-Riḥla al-Ḥid̲j̲āziyya , 2nd ed., plan of Medina opp. 252; part of the Barr al-Munāk̲h̲a, ibi…

, 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…

, 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, …

…

(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…

(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)…

(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…

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 …

(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…

, 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 day). As is evident from the names of the quarters of the heavens, the whole life of the Semitic peoples was turned eastwards. The Essenes prayed in the direction of the rising sun and the Syriac Christians also turned eastwards at prayer ( Ancient Syriac documents, ed. Cureton, …

, 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 embellis…

(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…

, …

…

(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…

(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…

(pls. k̲h̲aṭāyā and …

( sinān ) b. sumayy al tamīmī al-minḳarī , an eminent Tamīmite famous for his poetic and orat…

, 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 …

(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 …

, 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 …

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 …

, 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…

(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…

, 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 i…

(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…

, 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 he travelled to Transoxania and succeeded in converting the Sāmānid ruler Naṣr b. Aḥmad and several dignitaries of the court to the Ismāʿīlī faith. This success, however, was short lived, and the fortunes of Ismāʿīlīs were reversed when the Turkish army revolted and effected a complete reversal of policy under Naṣr’s successor Nūḥ. Al-Nasafī, along with a large number of Ismāʿīlīs and their sympathisers, was massacred in 332/943. For this reason Nāṣir-i K̲h̲usraw calls him…

, 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…

, 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 …

(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, …

…

(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 usuall…

(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 …

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(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…

(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 possibility of possible agreement on an error or of collusion in a forgery. The Ḳurʾān, e.g., is clearly transmitted by tawātur [ q.v.]. The works on ḥadīt̲h̲ methodology do not devote much a…

, 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…

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…

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…

, 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…