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(i) Arab countries. Mad̲j̲maʿ , pl. mad̲j̲āmiʿ , lit. “a place of collecting, a place in which people collect, assemble, congregate” (Lane i/2, 459), became in the second half of the 19th century, as mad̲j̲maʿ ʿilmī , a technical term for Academy of Science, mad̲j̲maʿ al-lug̲h̲a being an Academy of [Arabic] language. There is thus a close relationship between both kinds of mad̲j̲maʿ , since the striving for science takes place in an Arabic language made capable of it. Whereas mad̲j̲lis [ q.v.] had been the current term in earlier Arab civilisation for [the place of] an inform…

, sayyid aḥmad , Iranian historian, linguist, jurist and ideologist. Born on 29 September 1890 and educated in Tabrīz, he entered the theological profession in 1910, but soon left it because of his liberal ideas and modernistic tendencies. In 1919, he entered the Ministry of Justice, which he left in 1929 to practise law, soon after returning a verdict against Riḍā S̲h̲āh’s royal court in favour of a group of peasants. He also taught history in the University of Tehrān, which he left in 1934 on an issue involving academic freedom. Kasrawī wrote several books on history and on language…