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, «les gens du fossé», expression très difficile à interpréter, au début de la sourate LXXXV. Les versets 4-7 disent: «Périssent ceux du fossé (sillon), du feu alimenté! (Ah!) Quand ils sont assis là, tous près (du feu), témoignant de ce qu’ils font (faisaient) aux croyants.» Les anciens commentateurs du Coran et historiens rattachent ce passage, ainsi que d’autres, à la persécution des Chrétiens de Nad̲j̲rān sous le roi juif Ḏh̲ū Nuwās [ q.v.] d’Arabie du Sud; il est permis de situer cette persécution — dans la mesure de son historicité — en l’an 523. On affirme que…

, «[la sourate] qui ouvre», plus exactement, Fātiḥat al-Kitāb «[la sourate] qui ouvre le Livre [de la Révélation]», désignation de la première sourate du Ḳurʾān. Parfois, on trouve aussi les expressions umm al-Kitāb (d’après III, 7, XIII, 39, XLIII, 4) et al-sabʿ al-mat̲h̲ānī (d’après XV, 87). En prenant en considération la dernière expression, on est obligé de compter la basmala placée en tête de la sourate pour un verset, afin d’atteindre le nombre total de sept versets (= mat̲h̲ānī). Tandis que les autres sourates sont ordonnées assez exactement d’après leur longueur (c…

, guide du pèlerinage à La Mekke. Ce terme désigne au sens propre quelqu’un qui sert de guide pour le ṭawāf [ q.v.], mais la sphère des obligations du muṭawwif ne se limite en aucune manière à enseigner aux pèlerins étrangers qui se confient à lui les cérémonies réglementaires lors de la circumambulation autour de la Kaʿba. Il sert de guide surtout pour le saʿy ainsi que pour l’ensemble des autres cérémonies qui sont prescrites ou simplement recommandées pour le ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ ou la ʿ umra [ q.vv.]. En outre, les muṭawwifs s’occupent dans la plus large mesure du bien-être des pèlerins. D…

, expression coranique ayant trait à la doctrine de la Salvation (sotériologie). Le mot se rencontre dans le Ḳurʾān dans des contextes différents et est généralement traduit par «discrimination», «discernement», «critérium», «séparation» ou ¶ «délivrance», «salvation». Le mot araméen purḳān, sur lequel il est formé, signifie «délivrance», «rédemption» et (dans le sens chrétien) «salvation». La racine arabe faraḳa, que l’on doit, sans aucun doute, considérer comme le second élément constitutif du terme ḳurʾānique furḳān, signifie «séparer», «distinguer». Dans la sourate V…

, «les gens de la caverne». Sous cette appellation se trouvent désignés dans le Coran et dans la littérature arabe postérieure les jeunes gens qui portent dans l’Occident chrétien le nom de «sept dormants d’Ephèse». Selon la légende, au moment des persécutions qui eurent lieu sous l’empereur Dèce (249-51), sept jeunes Chrétiens se réfugièrent dans une caverne, près d’Ephèse; ils s’endormirent pendant des siècles d’un mystérieux sommeil, s’éveillèrent sous l’empereur chrétien Théodose et furent d…

, l’animal que Muḥammad aurait monté lorsqu’il fit son miraculeux «voyage nocturne». Selon ḷa sourate XVII, 1, «le voyage nocturne» mena le Prophète du lieu d’adoration sacré, c’est-à-dire la Mekke, au «lieu d’adoration lointain». Ce dernier emplacement a été identifié par B. Schrieke et J. Horovitz avec un endroit dans les cieux, et par A. Guillaume, récemment, avec une ¶ localité proche de Ḏj̲iʿrāna à la limite de l’enceinte sacrée de la Mekke. L’adjonction de la phrase «dont nous avons béni les environs» rend toutefois vraisemblable le fait que Muḥam…

, le Livre Saint des Musulmans contenant les révélations transmises par Muḥammad puis rassemblées et conservées sous une forme fixée par l’écriture. ¶ Plan de l’article A. — Étymologie et synonymes a. — Origine et usage kurʾānique b. — Synonymes dans le Ḳurʾān. B. — Muḥammad et le Ḳurʾān. C. — Histoire du Ḳurʾān après 632. a. — La «collecte» du Ḳurʾān. b. — Variantes et recueils des Compagnons. c. — Établissement du texte et des lectures canoniques. D. — Structure a. — Les sourates et leurs titres b. — Les versets. c. — La basmala. d. — Les lettres mystérieuses. E. — Chronologie du texte. a. — Référ…

(a.), nom donné à la journée du 8 d̲h̲ū l-ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a ( yawm al-tarwiya). Le ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ islamique commence précisément ce jour-là. Les pèlerins se rendent alors de la Mekke à Minā, et après une brève station repartent généralement passer la nuit à ʿArafāt. Le propos essentiel du ḥadīt̲h̲ (et plus tard des ouvrages de fiḳh) relativement au yawm al-tarwiya concerne ce que le pèlerin doit exactement faire et dire ce jour-là, notamment en matière d’accomplissement des prières rituelles et de la prise d’ iḥrām ; voir p. ex. al-Buk̲h̲ārī, 4 ( wuḍūʾ) 30; 25 ( ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲), 26, 33, 36, 145, etc.;…

, l’Abraham de la Bible, joue un rôle important dans l’histoire religieuse de l’Islam en tant que fondateur ou réformateur du culte monothéiste de la Kaʿba. Il est mentionné, avec plus ou moins de détails, dans 25 sourates du Ḳurʾān, et Moïse est le seul personnage biblique à être cité plus souvent, mais cela ne veut pas dire qu’Abraham soit considéré comme venant après lui en importance. Dans deux sourates, qui doivent être datées de la première période mekkoise, on trouve une référence aux «feuilles» ou «rouleaux» ( ṣuḥuf) d’Abraham et de Moïse, ce qui désigne probablement des te…

(S̲h̲anbūd̲h̲, S̲h̲annabūd̲h̲) Abū l-Ḥasan Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Ayyūb b. al-Ṣalt al-Bag̲h̲dādī, voyageur, savant «lecteur» du Ḳurʾān et professeur de lectures ḳurʿāniques, mort en ṣafar 328/novembre-décembre 939, introduisit dans la prière publique ( fī l-miḥrāb) des lectures d’Ibn Masʿūd, d’Ubayy et d’autres qui différaient de la recension de ʿUt̲h̲mān; pour ce motif, et peut-être à l’instigation de son puissant collègue Ibn Mud̲j̲āhid (qu’il détestait), il passa en jugement, en 323/935, devant un tribunal spécial présidé par l…

(a.), lecture. Appliqué au Ḳurʾān, le mot ḳiraʾa signifie aussi «récitation». Dans le présent article, le terme ḳirāʾa est employé dans les trois cas suivants pour indiquer — 1, dans un sens général, la récitation (a) de parties individuelles du Ḳurʾān, telle qu’elle est prescrite pour la prière rituelle ( ṣalāt), ou bien la récitation (b) du Ḳurʾān entier, telle qu’elle est devenue, dans le cours du temps, d’usage courant comme exercice spirituel ( ḳirāʾa = action de réciter); — 2. la lecture spéciale d’un seul mot ou d’un passage ḳurʾānique déterminé ( ḳirāʾa, pi. ḳirāʾāt = variante); — …

, sorte d’hôtel de ville à la Mekke au temps de Muḥammad, L’édifice se trouvait au Nord de la Kaʿba, de l’autre côté de la place où avait lieu le ṭawāf, et servait de lieu de réunion aux notables ( malaʾ). La construction du Dặr alNadwa est attribuée à Ḳuṣayy [ q.v.], qui est con- sidéré comme l’ancêtre des Ḳurays̲h̲ites et le fondateur de la Kaʿba. ʿAbd al-Dār l’aurait héritée de lui, puis ʿAbd Manāf et son fils Hās̲h̲im et les descendants de ce dernier. C’est à l’intérieur du Dār al-Nadwa qu’auraient eu lieu «toutes les affaires importantes de…

, deux méthodes d’argumentation dans les uṣūl al-fiḳh [ q.v.] en liaison avec la doctrine du ḳiyās [ q.v.] qui donnèrent lieu à de nombreuses discussions. Ces deux concepts, en raison de leur ressemblance intérieure, sont souvent mêlés l’un avec l’autre (cf. al-S̲h̲āṭibī, IV, 116-8; Ibn Taymiyya, V, 22). Mais il semble que personne ne soit arrivé à donner une définition parfaitement claire de leurs rapports mutuels. I. Les exemples cités en faveur de l’ istiḥsān que les partisans de cette méthode tirent du Ḳurʾān (XXXIX, 18, 55), du ( ḥadīt̲h̲ (mā raʾāh al-Muslimūn ḥasanan fa-huwa ʿi…

(génitif ʿilliyyin) est employé dans la sourate LXXXIII, 18, pour désigner la place du Livre où sont notés les actes des pieux ( abrār). Dans les deux versets suivants (19 sq.) ʿilliyyūn est qualifié d’écrit marqué ( kitāb marḳūm). Dans le verset 21, il est dit de cet écrit que ceux qui sont admis à la proximité (de Dieu) ( al-muḳarrabūn) en portent témoignage. D’autre part, dans le verset 7 de la même sourate, l’endroit du livre où sont consignés les actes des méchants ( fud̲j̲d̲j̲ar) est appelé sid̲j̲d̲j̲īn. Dans les deux versets suivants (8 sq.), sid̲j̲d̲j̲īn est aussi désigné comme éta…

(a.), plur. de ʿ urf, «lieu élevé», «crête». Dans une scène eschatologique relative au Jugement, dans la sourate VII, 46, il est question d’une cloison qui sépare les hôtes du Paradis de ceux de l’Enfer, et des hommes «qui sont sur les aʿrāf et reconnaissent chacun à son signe» (v. 48: «ceux des aʿrāf»). Le sens de ce passage est controversé. Bell suggère une lecture conjecturale iʿrāf, et traduit: «(Presiding) over the récognition are men, who recognise .». D’après T. Andrae, les «hommes des crêtes» sont vraisemblablement les habitants des degrés les plus éle…

(Dāʾūd), le David de la Bible. Dans le Ḳurʾān, David est mentionné en divers endroits, parfois avec son fils et successeur encore plus célèbre Salomon (Sulaymān). Il tue Goliath (Ḏj̲ālūt, sourate II, 251). Dieu lui attribue le pouvoir royal ( ibid.) et le consolide (XXXVIII, 20). Il le fait « k̲h̲alīfa sur la terre» (c’est-à-dire successeur d’une génération plus ancienne de souverains, XXXVIII, 26). Il lui accorde le savoir ( ʿilm), la sagesse ( ḥikma) et la capacité de rendre la justice ( ḥukm, particul. XXI, 78 sq., XXXVIII, 21-24, 26; faṣl al- k̲h̲iṭāb, XXXVIII, 20). Il lui donne un zabūr (…

, vaste roman populaire arabe qui est présenté comme étant la biographie du sultan mamlūk Baybars Ier (1260-77). C’est un fait qu’un certain nombre de personnages et d’événements dont il est fait mention dans la Sīra sont historiques. Néanmoins, le caractère d’ensemble de la Sīra et la plupart des détails sont romanesques. Ils n’ont de valeur historique que dans la mesure où ils représentent la pâture intellectuelle de vastes couches de la population musulmane du Caire à la fin du moyen âge et au cours des siècles suivants. C’est dans le …

, soteriological expression used in the Ḳurʾān. The word occurs in various connexions in the Ḳurʾān and is usually translated as “discrimination”, “criterion”, “separation”, “deliverance”, or “salvation”, where it is translated at all. The Aramaic word purḳān on which it is modelled, ¶ means “deliverance”, “redemption”, and (in the Christian sense) “salvation”. The Arabic root faraḳa , which must be considered as another element in the furḳān of the Ḳurʾān, means “to separate”, “to divide”, “to distinguish”. Sūra VIII, 29 runs: “O believers, if you fear God, He will assign you a furḳān…

(a.), is the name for the day 8 D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a ( yawm al-tarwiyd). The Islamic Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ begins on this day; on it the pilgrims go from Mecca to Minā and as a rule after a short stay there go on again to be able to pass the night at ʿArafa. The chief focus on the “Day of Tarwiya” in the Ḥadīt̲h̲ (and later law books) is what the pilgrim should properly do and say on that day, especially with respect to performance of ritual prayers and assumption of iḥrām: see e.g. al-Buk̲h̲ārī, 4 ( Wuḍūʾ ), 30; 25 ( Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ ). 26, 33, 36, 145, etc.; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ , 15 ( Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲). 25, 136, 138, etc.; Ibn Abī…

, a kind of town hall in Mecca in the time of Muḥammad. The building was to the north of the Kaʿba, on the other side of the square in which the ṭawāf took place. It was the gathering place of the nobles ( malaʾ ). The Dār al-Nadwa is said to have been built by Ḳuṣayy [ q.v.], who is taken to be the ancestor of the Ḳurays̲h̲ and founder of the Kaʿba. He bequeathed it to ʿAbd al-Dār and then to ʿAbd Manāf and his son Hās̲h̲im and Hās̲h̲im’s descendants. “All matters of import to the Ḳurays̲h̲” are said to have taken place there up to the coming of Islam…

(a.), the “lesser pilgrimage”, al-ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ al-ṣag̲h̲īr , one of the acts of devotion ( ʿibāda [ q.v.]) forming part of the Muslim ritual. 1. Etymology Muslim scholars claiming authority in linguistic matters put forward two possible original senses of the word ʿumra . The first is that the term is said to have had, like the word ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ . [ q.v.] “pilgrimage”, the sense of “making one’s way towards some place or person” ( al-ḳaṣd ). The second, more frequently proposed, is that the term would mean more precisely “visit” ( al-ziyāra ). See al-Azharī, al-Zāhir fī alfāẓ al-S̲h̲āfiʿī …

( S̲h̲anbūd̲h̲ , S̲h̲annabūd̲h̲ ), Abu ’l-Ḥasan Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Ayyūb b. al-Ṣalt al-Bag̲h̲dādī , widely travelled and learned ¶ “reader” of the Ḳurʾān and teacher of Ḳurʾānic reading, died Ṣafar 328/November-December 939, introduced in the public prayer ( fi ’l-miḥrāb ) readings of Ibn Masʿud, Ubay and others which varied from ʿUt̲h̲mān’s recension; for this, perhaps at the instigaion of his influential colleague Ibn Mud̲j̲āhid (whom he detested), he was brought to trial in 323/935 before a special court presi…

, “those of the trench”, an expression at the beginning of Ḳurʾān, LXXXV, which is difficult to understand. The verses 4-7 run: “Slain be those of the trench, of the fire fed with fuel, (lo) when they are sitting by it (i.e. the fire), while they are witnesses of what they do (were doing) with the believers!” The ancient Ḳurʾān commentators and historians refer the passage inter alia to the persecution of the Christians in Nad̲j̲rān under the Jewish king of South Aiabia Ḏh̲ū Nuwās [ q.v.] which—as far as is historically established— is to be placed in the year 523. It is alleged …

or Waḳfa (a.), “halt”, means in particular the halting of the pilgrims at any spot they choose within the plain of ʿArafa; it begins on the afternoon of the 9th Ḏh̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a and lasts till sunset. This wuḳūf is considered the most essential part of the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲. The imām of the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ usually introduces it (before the beginning of the combined ẓuhr and ʿaṣr ṣalāt) with a k̲h̲uṭba; his words can of course only be heard by those in his immediate neighbourhood. The pilgrims for their part recite portions of the Ḳurʾān, say prayers — mainly for forgiveness of sins — and cry labbaika [q. …

is a special name for the last three days of the Muḥammadan Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ (11th-13th Ḏh̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a: Aiyām al-Tas̲h̲rīḳ), during which the pilgrims, having finished their regular rites, stay in Minā and have to throw seven stones daily on each of the three piles of stones there. In the early period of Islām the name tas̲h̲rīḳ was also given to the solemn ṣalāt on the morning of the 10th Ḏh̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a. The term is probably a survival from the pre-Islāmic period and therefore could no longer be explained by the Muslims with certainty. For example the obvi…

, the pilgrim’s guide in Mecca. The word literally means one who leads the ṭawāf [ q.v.]. The task of the muṭawwif is, however, by no means limited to assisting pilgrims from foreign lands, who entrust themselves to their guidance, to go through the ceremonies required at the circumambulation of the Kaʿba. On the contrary, they act as guides at the saʿy also and at all other ceremonies which are prescribed or only recommended for the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ or ʿumra [ q.vv.]. The muṭawwifs also cater very completely for the physical welfare of the pilgrims. As soon a…

, “those of the cave”. This is the name given in the Ḳurʾān, and further in Arabic literature, to the youths who in the Christian Occident are usually called the “Seven Sleepers of Ephesus”. According to a legend, in the time of the Christian persecution under the Emperor Decius (249-51), seven Christian youths fled into a cave near Ephesus and there sank into a miraculous sleep for centuries, awoke under the Christian Emperor Theodosius, were discovered and then went to sleep for ever. Their re…

, Meccan pilgrims’ guide. The word literally means one who leads the ṭawāf [q. v.]. The task of the muṭawwif is however by no means limited to assisting pilgrims from foreign lands, who entrust themselves to their guidance, to go through the ceremonies required at the circumambulation of the Kaʿba. On the contrary they act as guides at the saʿy also and at all other ceremonies which are prescribed or only recommended for the ḥad̲j̲di or ʿumra [q. v.]. The muṭawwifs also cater very completely for the physical welfare of the pilgrims. As soon as the pilgrims arrive in Ḏj̲…

Abu ’l-Faḍl (according to others Abū ʿAbd allāh or Abū d̲j̲aʿfar) Muḥammad b. Ṭaifūr al-G̲h̲aznawī, reader of the Ḳorʾān, died about 560=11164/5. While he also occupied himself with Ḳorʾān exegesis and grammar, he is mainly known by his works on the recitation of the Ḳorʾān. At quite an early period a beginning was made with distinguishing different kinds of pauses in reciting the Ḳorʾān [see the article ḳirāʾa]. Al-Sad̲j̲āwandl further developed the system in his work on this subject entitled Kitāb al-Waḳf wa’l-Ibtidāʾ. He divided the possibilities of allowing a pause to int…

, Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. Zaid b. Saiyār (or: Yasār) al-S̲h̲aibānī (= Mawlā of the Banū S̲h̲aibān), an Arab grammarian, although regarded as of the “Kūfa” school (see below), spent his life in Bag̲h̲dād. Born in 200 (815), at the age of 16 he began to devote himself to the study of the Arabic language. Abū ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Aʿrābī, al-Zubair b. Bakkār were among his teachers. He also studied with great enthusiasm the works of al-Kisāʾī and especially of al-Farrāʾ; he is said to have known all the lat…

, Abū Ḏj̲aʿfar Mūḥammad b. Ḏj̲arīr, the Arab historian, was born probably in 839 (end of 224 or beg. 225 a. h.) at Āmul in the province of Ṭabaristān. He began to devote himself to study at a precociously early age, and is said to have known the Ḳurʾān by heart by the time he was seven. After receiving his early education in his native town, he received from his father who was quite well off the necessary means of visiting the centres of the Muslim learned world. He thus visited Raiy and its vicinity, then Bag̲h̲dād…

, two methods of reasoning much discussed in the books on the Uṣūl al-Fiḳh [q. v.] in connection with the doctrine of ḳiyās [q. v.]. The two conceptions as a result of their close relationship are sometimes confused (cf. S̲h̲āṭibī, iv. 116—118 5 Ibn Taimīya, v. 22). But no one ever seems to have reached a clear and lucid definition of their mutual relationship. 1. The authorities for istiḥsān which the followers of this method quote from the Ḳurʾān (xxxix. 19, 56), Ḥadīt̲h̲. ( mā raʾāhu ’l-muslimūn ḥasanan fa-huwa ʿinda ’llāhi ḥasanun) and id̲j̲māʿ (going to the bath without previous ar…

(a.), originally means quite generally interpretation, exposition. In some of the passages in which the word occurs in the Ḳurʾān it refers definitely to the revelation delivered by Muḥammad. The use of the word taʾwīl afterwards became more and more limited to this special meaning and it meant exposition of the Ḳurʾān, and was for a time synonymous with tafsīr. In time the term seems to have become more specialised although not yet confined to this one meaning; it became a technical term for the exposition of the subject matter of the Ḳurʾān. In this latter sense taʾwīl formed a valuable a…

, Abū ʿAlī al-Muḥassin, an Arab writer, was born in 939 or (according to Yāḳūt) in 940—941 a. d., the son of a learned ḳāḍī in Baṣra, and received his early education ¶ there, from al-Ṣūlī [q. v.] and Abu ’l-Farad̲j̲ al-Iṣfahānī [q.v.] and others. He chose a judicial career and rose to be ḳāḍī, first in Bag̲h̲dād and then in Ahwāz; as a result of a change in the vizierate in Bag̲h̲dād his office was taken from him in 969—970 and his property confiscated. He was not allowed to follow his profession for three years.” During this…

Sirād̲j̲ al-Dīn Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Ras̲h̲īd, jurist, belonging to the Hanaft school and flourishing about the year 1200 a. d. His Kitāb al-Farāʾiḍ, known as al-Farāʾiḍ al-Sirād̲j̲īya or briefly al-Sirād̲j̲īya, which deals with the law of inheritance, is celebrated and widely used and regarded as the principal work on this field. The author himself was the first to write a commentary on it and since then it has been frequently edited and annotated by other scholars down to the present time, sometimes also in Turkish and Persian. (R. Paret) Bibliography Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Ḵ…

b. ʿĀdiyā, more accurately al-Samawʾal b. G̲h̲arīḍ b. ʿĀdiyā, a Jewish-Arab poet, whose residence was in the strong castle of al-Ablaḳ [q.v.] near Taimāʾ. Being a contemporary of Imruʾ al-Ḳais [q. v.] he must have flourished about the middle of the sixth century a. d. One of his grandsons is said to have adopted ¶ Islām and to have lived into the Caliphate of Muʿāwiya when he was then very old. Except his name there is hardly a trace in tradition of his being a Jew; it is not even certain that he was of Jewish descent. All the poems ascribed to al-Samawʾal have been collected by Cheikho in …

, an epithet of Muḥammad in the Ḳurʾān, connected in some way with the word umma [q. v.]. It does not seem however to be a direct derivative, as it only appears after the Hid̲j̲ra and has a different meaning from umma, which is already common in the period before the Hid̲j̲ra. In Sūra iii. 19, Muḥammad invites the ahl al-kitāb and the ummīs to adopt Islām ( ḳul li ’llad̲h̲īna ūtu ’l-kitāb wa ’l-ummīyīn...). Ummīyūn here means “heathen”, as it does in the same Sūra, verse 69, where the word is put with this meaning into the mouths of the ahl al-kitāb. The latter passage makes it probable that ummī or ummīy…

, “the little pilgrimage”. 1. The ceremonies of the (Muslim) ʿumra. The ʿumra, like the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ [q. v.], can only be performed in a state of ritual purity ( iḥrām [q.v.]). On assuming the iḥrām, the pilgrim ( muʿtamir) must make up his mind whether he is going to perform the ʿumra by itself or in combination with the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ and express his intention in an appropriate nīya [q. v.]. If he combines the ʿumra with the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ (see below) he can assume the iḥrām for both pilgrimages at once; in the other case the iḥrām must be specially assumed for the ʿumra in the unconsecrated area ( ḥill) outs…

, of the Ḥimyarite royal line, played a part in Arabian history in the expulsion of the Abyssinians from South Arabia, where they had held sway since the time of Ḏh̲ū Nuwās. Native tradition records that he first sought assistance against the foreign yoke of the Abyssinians at the Byzantine court and later at the court of the Persian Ḵh̲usraw. The latter, however, would not risk anything in an enterprise with such hopeless prospects; so he only gave Saif a number of criminals out of the jails un…

, the Ḳurʾānic word for people, community, is not to be derived from the Arabic root ʾmm, but to be explained as a loanword from the Hebrew ( ummā) or Aramaic ( ummet̲h̲ā). It has therefore no direct connection with the homonyms also found in the Ḳurʾān, which mean “a period” (Sūra xi. 11; xii. 45) and “descent” (Sūra xliii. 21 sq.). Perhaps the loanword found its way into Arabic at a comparatively early period (see Horovitz’s citation of the Ṣafā inscription, lii. 407). In any case the word was taken up by Muḥammad and henceforth becomes a specifically Islāmic term. The passages in the Ḳurʾān,…

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…

(a.), plur. of ʿurf , "elevated place", "crest". In an eschatological judgement scene in Ḳuʾrān, vii, 46 a dividing wall is spoken of which separates the dwellers in Paradise from the dwellers in Hell, and men, "who are on the aʿrāf and recognise each by his marks" (v. 48: "those of the aʿrāf"). The interpretation of this passage is disputed. Bell makes the doubtful conjecture iʿrāf and translates: ¶ "(Presiding) over the recognition are men, who recognize…". According to T. Andrae the "Men on the elevated places" are probably the dwellers in the highest degrees…

(a.), the Muslim scripture, containing the revelations recited by Muḥammad and preserved in a fixed, written form. ¶ 1. Etymology and Synonyms a. Derivation and Ḳurʾānic usage. The earliest attested usage of the term ḳurʾān is in the Ḳurʾān itself, where it occurs about 70 times with a variety of meanings. Most Western scholars have now accepted the view developed by F. Schwally ( Gesch . des Qor ., i, 33 f.) and others that ḳurʾān is derived from the Syriac ḳeryānā , “scripture reading, lesson”, as used in Christian liturgy (see for example the 6th cent…

, the Abraham of the Bible, plays in Islamic religious history an important role as the founder or reformer of the monotheistic Kaʿba cult. He is mentioned, in greater or less detail, in 25 sūra s of the Ḳurʾān. Moses is the only Biblical character who is mentioned more frequently, though this does not mean that Abraham is considered second to him in importance. In two sūras, which are to be dated from the first Meccan period, there is a reference to the “leaves, scrolls” ( ṣuḥuf ) of Abraham and Moses, by which presumably texts of revelation are meant (LXXXV…

, 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…

an extensive Arabic folktale purporting to be the life-story of the Mamlūk sultan Baybars I (1260-77). Many of the people and the events in the sīra are historical, but its overall character, as well as most of the descriptive detail, is fictitious. Its only historical value lies in the fact that it represents the type of intellectual nourishment accepted by large parts of the Muslim population in Cairo in the late Middle Ages and in the following centuries. Its real interest lies rather in the fields of sociology, folklore, and history of literature. The novel opens with a description …

, “the opening (Sūra)”, or, more exactly, Fātiḥat al-Kitāb “(the Sūra) which opens the scripture (of revelation)”, designation of the first Sūra of the Ḳurʾān. Occasionally the terms umm al-kitāb (according to Sūra III, 7; XIII, 39; XLIII, 4) and al-sabʿ al-mat̲h̲ānī (according to Sūra XV, 87) are also found. With reference to the last-named term one must count the Basmala which comes before the Sūra as a verse on its own, to make up the total of seven verses (= mat̲h̲ānī ). While the other Sūras are arranged fairly accurately according to length (that is to say, the longer th…

, the biblical David. David is mentioned in several places in the Ḳurʾān, sometimes together with his more famous son and successor Solomon (Sulaymān). He kills Goliath (D̲j̲ālūt, Sūra II, 251). God grants him the rule of the kingdom ( ibid.) and enforces it (XXXVIII, 20). He makes him a “k̲h̲alīfa on earth” ( i.e., the successor of an earlier generation of rulers, XXXVIII, 26). He gives him knowledge ( ʿilm ) and wisdom ( ḥikma ), and the ability to do justice ( ḥukm , esp. XXI, 78 f.; XXXVII, 21-24, 26: faṣl al-k̲h̲iṭāb , XXXVII, 20). He gives him a zabūr (book, psalter, …

, the beast on which Muḥammad is said to have ridden, when he made his miraculous “night-journey”. According to Sūra xxii, 1, the “night-journey” led the Prophet from the sacred place of worship, i.e., Mecca, to the “remote place of worship”. This latter place has been identified by B. Schrieke and J. Horovitz with a point in the heavens, and by A. Guillaume, recently, with a locality near D̲j̲iʿrāna on the border of the sacred precinct of Mecca. The addition of the phrase “the environs of which we have blessed” makes it probab…

, two methods of reasoning much discussed in the books on the- Uṣūl ¶ al-Fiḳh [ q.v.] in connection with the doctrine of ḳiyās [ q.v.]. The two conceptions as a result of their close relationship are sometimes confused (cf. S̲h̲āṭibī, iv, 116-118; Ibn Taymiyya, v, 22). But no one ever seems to have reached a clear and lucid definition of their mutual relationship. I. The authorities for istiḥsān which the followers of this method quote from the Ḳurʾān (XXXIX, 18, 55), ḥadīt̲h̲ ( mā raʾāhu ’l-muslimūn ḥasanan fahuwa ʿinda ʾ llāh i ḥasanun ) and id̲j̲māʿ (going to the b…