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(a.), verbal noun of the form II verb ʿarraba , literally, Arabisation or Arabicisation. It is used primarily as a grammatical term, in reference to the method or process by which foreign words are incorporated into Arabic; more broadly and loosely, it means the translation of foreign scientific, literary and scholarly works into Arabic. 1. In the sense of the rendering of foreign notions or words in Arabic. Like most languages, Arabic was subject, since pre-Islamic times, to the impact of interference by other idioms, spoken by peoples with whom the Arabs had c…

(a.), the name of one of several militant Islamic groups which appeared in Egypt from the early 1970s onwards, against the background of a material and spiritual crisis. The name, literally meaning “charging [Muslims] with unbelief, and emigration [from an un-Islamically ruled state]” (reflecting two pillars of the group’s ideology), was given to it by the media, while its own members called it d̲j̲amāʿat al-muslimīn “The Society of Muslims”. Al-Takfīr wa ’l-Hid̲j̲ra was founded in 1971 by S̲h̲ukrī Muṣṭafā, a former Muslim Brotherhood [see al-ik̲h̲wān al-muslimūn …

(a.), the heir-designate to a caliph or ruler, literally “successor [by virtue of] a covenant” [see ʿahd ]. Heirs to the caliphate were more formally entitled walī ʿahd al-muslimīn . It is not ¶ entirely clear when the title came into use. Historians from the 3rd/9th century (e.g. Ibn Ḳutayba, 155 ff.) apply it to the Umayyad ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Marwān and subsequent heir-designates of that dynasty, but this may be anachronistic. Coins from the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Mahdī’s period (158-69/775-85), proclaiming his heir Mūsā (al-Hādī) as walī ʿahd al-muslimīn , categor…

(a.), literally “substitute, delegate” ( nomen agentis from n-w-b “to take the place of another”), the term applied generally to any person appointed as deputy of another in an official position. 1. In pre-modern usage. The term was used, more especially, in the Mamlūk and Dihlī Sultanates, to designate ( a) the deputy or lieutenant of the sultan, and ( b) the governors of the chief provinces. In the Mamlūk system the former, entitled nāʾib al-salṭana al-muʿaẓẓama wa-kāfil al-mamālik al-s̲h̲arīfa al-islāmiyya , was the vice-sultan proper, who administer…

, the Arabie word for king (pl. mulūk ), stemming from the old Semitic root m-l-k (the Hebrew equivalent is melek̲h̲ ; Aramaic malkā ; Akkadian malku ; Assyrian malku, maliku ), which signifies “possession” and, by extension, “rule” or “government”. As a kingly title, the term appears repeatedly in pre-Islamic inscriptions from southern Arabia and the Syrian desert fringes (e.g. the Namāra epitaph of Imruʾ al-Ḳays, “King of the Arabs”, from 328 A.D. [see lak̲h̲mids ]). The Ḳurʾān mentions several historical and legendary kings ( mulūk), among them Pharaoh and Saul (II, 246-7; XII…

1. In pre-Islamic South Arabia this term (spelt s 2ʿb in the musnad script) denotes a unit of social organisation for which there has grown up among specialists a convention of using the translation “tribe”; but this can be misleading for non-specialists. ¶ The South Arabian s 2ʿb was antithetic on one hand to the term ʿs 2 r (= Arabic ʿas̲h̲āʾir ) applied by the South Arabian sedentary communities to the nomad bedouin of central Arabia; and on the other hand, within the South Arabian sedentary culture itself, to the “house” ( byt ), a family group based on kinship …

(a.), uprising, revolt, or revolution, from the root t̲h̲-w-r “to rise/arise” or “to stir/be stirred up” (Turkish inkillap ; Persian inḳilāb ). In the 20th century, t̲h̲awra has come to imply a praiseworthy venture, a quest for political liberation and socio-economic justice. In earlier times, however, the term and the notion it expresses went through certain vicissitudes of import. Revolt against a ruling authority, known in Islamic political experience from the outset, was at first regarded with ambivalence. It was condemned—often, though not always, …

or mas̲h̲īk̲h̲a , one of several plural forms of A. s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ , literally “an elder, i.e. a distinguished person usually of an advanced age [ q.v.]. In its classical usage, mas̲h̲yak̲h̲a also served as an abstract noun denoting a s̲h̲ayk̲h̲’s position or authority (e.g. in mas̲h̲yak̲h̲at al-Islām , the authority of the s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islām [ q.v.]). In the Muslim West mas̲h̲yak̲h̲a was used to designate the collectivity of urban elders and notables often wielding considerable political influence in the cities. Such groups of dignitaries sometimes acted a…

(a.), the modern Arabic word for “citizen”, in the legal sense of the term (meaning “one holding the citizenship or nationality of a sovereign state”). It was coined around the turn of the 20th century from waṭan —initially a place of residence and, by extension, a country or patrie . Until the 20th century, there existed no Arabic expression for citizen. The usual term indicating the status of members of the political community was raʿiyya [ q.v.], or its plural form raʿāyā , a collective noun best translated as “subjects”, with an emphasis on submissio…

(a.), together with mas̲h̲wara , mas̲h̲ūra , a nominal form connected with the form IV verb as̲h̲āra “to point out, indicate; advise, counsel” (see Lane, s.v.), with the meaning “consultation”. 1. In early Islamic history. Here, s̲h̲ūrā is especially used of the small consultative and advisory body of prominent Ḳuras̲h̲īs which eventually chose ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān as the third caliph over the Muslim community after the assassination of ʿUmar b. al-K̲h̲aṭṭāb [ q.v.] in D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 23/November 644. The practice of consultation by the sayyid or s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ …

(a., “ambassador”, “messenger”). 1. In S̲h̲īʿism. Here, this is a term used to refer to the deputies of the twelfth imām during the Lesser Occultation (260-329/874-941) [see g̲h̲ayba ]; there were four such deputies. The doctrine that the hidden imām is represented by a deputy appears to have taken shape in the circles of the Nawbak̲h̲t family [ q.v.], whose members played a prominent role in the ʿAbbāsid court in the early 4th/10th century. According to a recent study, it was Ibn Rawḥ (Rūḥ) al-Nawbak̲h̲tī [ q.v.], regarded by the Twelver S̲h̲īʿīs as the third safīr ,…