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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…
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