Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: William F. McCants, Encyclopedia of Islam and The Muslim World, bahai-library.com.
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Encyclopedia of

Islam
and the
Muslim World
Editorial Board

Editor in Chief
Richard C. Martin
Professor of Islamic Studies and History of Religions
Emory University, Atlanta

Associate Editors
Saïd Amir Arjomand
Professor of Sociology
State University of New York, Stony Brook

Marcia Hermansen
Professor of Theology
Loyola University, Chicago

Abdulkader Tayob
University of Cape Town, South Africa
International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Netherlands

Assistant Editor
Rochelle Davis
Teaching Fellow, Introduction to the Humanities Program
Stanford University

Editorial Consultant
John O. Voll
Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding
Georgetown University

ii
Encyclopedia of

Islam
and the
Muslim World
Editor in Chief
Richard C. Martin

Volume 1
A-L
Encyclopedia of

Islam
and the
Muslim World
Editor in Chief
Richard C. Martin

Volume 2
M-Z, Index
Encyclopedia of Islam
Richard C. Martin, Editor in Chief

© 2004 by Macmillan Reference USA. For permission to use material from this While every effort has been made to
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim world / edited by Richard C.
Martin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-02-865603-2 (set) — ISBN 0-02-865604-0 (v. 1) — ISBN
0-02-865605-9 (v. 2)
1. Islam—Encyclopedias. I. Martin, Richard C.
BP40.E525 2003
909’.097671—dc21
2003009964

This title is also available as an e-book.
ISBN 0-02-865912-0
Contact your Gale sales representative for ordering information.

Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
List of entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
List of contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
Synoptic outline of entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi
List of maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxv

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ISLAM AND THE MUSLIM WORLD

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Appendix: Genealogies and Timelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

v
Editorial and Production Staff

Kate Millson and Corrina Moss
Project Editors

Joann Cerrito, Melissa Hill, and Mark Mikula
Editorial Support

Jonathan Aretakis
Copy Chief

Nancy Gratton
Copy Editor

Ann McGlothlin Weller
Proofreader

Barbara Cohen
Indexer

Barbara Yarrow
Manager, Imaging and Multimedia Content

Dean Dauphinais
Senior Editor, Imaging and Multimedia Content

Lezlie Light
Imaging Coordinator

Deanna Raso
Photo Researcher

Shalice Shah-Caldwell
Research Associate

Cynthia Baldwin and Jennifer Wahi
Art Directors

Autobookcomp
Typesetter

vi
Editorial and Production Staff

Mary Beth Trimper
Manager, Composition

Evi Seoud
Assistant Manager, Composition

Rhonda Williams
Print Buyer

MACMILLAN REFERENCE USA

Frank Menchaca
Vice President

Hélène Potter
Director, New Product Development

Islam and the Muslim World vii
Introduction

A growing number of scholars and pundits have declared that the twenty-first century will be the
era of Islam. Such predictions, whether intended in a positive or negative light, err in failing to
appreciate the spread and influence of Islam during the past millennium and a half, especially on
the continents of Asia and Africa. Nonetheless, events during the first decade of the new
millennium have underscored the importance of knowing about Islamic history and understanding the great diversity and richness of Muslim social, cultural, and religious practices. Suicide
bomber attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington,
D.C., on September 11, 2001, killed over three thousand persons. These tragic events and the
media coverage of the aftermath as well as of the two wars subsequently fought in the Muslim
countries of Afghanistan and Iraq have dramatically shown how little is known in the West about
Islam and the Muslim world. Islam is, and has been for nearly fifteen centuries, a global religious
and political phenomenon. Muslim networks of communication, from the annual pilgrimage to
Mecca to the vast new power of the World Wide Web, have enabled Muslims to establish
postmodern identities in a rapidly changing world, while at the same time preserving and
reinvigorating a variety of time-honored traditions and practices. The Encyclopedia of Islam and the
Muslim World is a sourcebook of information about Islam, its past and present, addressed to
students and general readers as the twenty-first century begins its first decade.

The Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World presents in two volumes some 504 articles,
alphabetically arranged, in incremental lengths generally of 200, 500, 1,000, 3,000, and 5,000
words. The work of some 500 scholars appears in these pages, carefully reviewed and edited in a
common style for easy access by readers who may presently have limited or no knowledge of
Islam. It has also been prepared as a teaching and learning resource for teachers and students,
from the high school grades through university. The alphabetical ordering of articles that follow,
in the List of Articles, will enable readers to locate topics of interest quickly. A synoptic outline of
the contents of the Encyclopedia, found within the frontmatter on pages xxxi–xxxiv, provides
readers with an overview by topic and subtopic of the range and kinds of information presented in
the main body of the Encyclopedia. Approximately 170 photographs, drawings, maps, and charts
appear throughout the two volumes. A glossary in the back matter of volume two, which lists
commonly used Arabic and other Islamic terms, such as shari
a, or “Islamic law,” will enable
general readers to determine quickly the meaning of essential but perhaps less familiar terms in
Islamic studies.

The Encyclopedia is truly an international work that reflects the diversity of ideas and practices
that have characterize the Islamic world throughout its history. This diversity is reflected among
the editors who organized and compiled this work and the scores of scholars who wrote the
articles contained in it. The associate editors’ national origins are Canada, Iran, and South Africa;
their religious affiliations or backgrounds include Sunni and Shi
ite Islam; and their scholarly
training has been in sociology, the history of religions, and Islamic studies. An even greater

ix
Introduction

diversity exists among the contributing scholars who live and teach in North America, Europe,
Africa, and Asia, including the Middle East. They represent the fields of history, philosophy,
religious studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, and the fine arts, among others. In its
totality, then, this work represents a broad expanse of scholarly knowledge about Islam, accessible
in two volumes.

Islam increasingly is recognized as a vital force in the contemporary world, a source of
collective social identity, and religious expression for over one billion people around the world,
who comprise a fifth of the global population. Public interest in learning about Islam is a very
recent phenomenon, however. Events of the past few decades have generated a demand for
information about Islam on an unprecedented scale in the history of Islamic studies in the West.
In negative terms, these events include violence: the colonial and postcolonial encounters
between Europeans and Muslims in Asia and Africa, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Hindu-
Muslim clashes in South Asia, Serbian ethnic cleansing of Muslim populations in the Balkans, and
the heavily televised American-led wars in the Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In positive terms, the
recent years have seen productive Muslim diaspora communities emerge in Europe and the
Americas, Islamic patterns of democracy and civil society develop in some countries in Africa and
Asia, and venues of dialogue arise among Muslims, Jews, and Christians about their common
moral and social concerns as well as their differences. That non-Muslims are learning more about
Islam and their Muslim neighbors through tools like this encyclopedia must also be counted as a
positive turn, and a much-needed one.

Scholars, journalists, and writers of all sorts have responded robustly to this newly recognized
importance of Islam and the Muslim world, thus creating a wealth of information about Islam
now available in bookstores, libraries, and newsstands around the world. More significant for
readers of this work, the Internet hosts an expanding plethora of Web sites on Islamic teachings,
practices, sectarian groups, and organizations. Many Web sites are sponsored by Muslim
scholars, organizations, and institutions and provide authentic, and sometimes competing,
information about Islamic beliefs and practices. Unfortunately, others offer hostile interpretations of Islam. The Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World is designed to help students and
general readers cope with this growing demand and almost overwhelming supply of information.

The decision to call this work the Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World was made after
considering other, less felicitous alternatives. The editors wanted to produce a work that was
about Islamic cultures, religion, history, politics, and the like as well as the people who have
identified with Islam over the past fourteen centuries. For the scope of the social and cultural
aspects of the subject matter of the Encyclopedia, the editors chose the phrase “Muslim World.”
The label “Muslim World” is not meant to suggest that diversity and variety are lacking in what
Muslims think, believe, and do as Muslims. Nor is the Muslim World as represented in this work
to be thought of as separate from the rest of the world. Indeed, it will be clear to readers of articles
on virtually all topics included below that Islamic history and Muslim people have been deeply
and richly engaged in and interacting with world history and are perhaps even more so in the
modern world, as the late Marshall G. S. Hodgson so persuasively argued in his monumental
three-volume work, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization (1974).

The growing demand for accessible knowledge about Islam in recent decades has produced a
number of histories, encyclopedias, and dictionaries that serve different purposes. In addition to
Hodgson’s comprehensive historical essay on Islamic civilization, The Cambridge History of Islam
(1970) brought together substantial treatments of historical periods and geographical regions of
Islamic societies. Another important and even older work that is widely used by scholars is the
ongoing project known as the Encyclopaedia of Islam. The first edition was published in four
volumes in Leiden (1908–1938); the second and much larger edition recently reached its
completion in twice as many volumes with a significantly expanded list of contributing scholars;
and the third edition is now being planned. The Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World brings
to general readers in accessible form the rich tradition of serious scholarship on Islam and Muslim
peoples found in the Cambridge History and the Encyclopaedia of Islam, and it addresses information
about Islam in the twenty-first century that is not discussed in the older sources. More recently,

x Islam and the Muslim World
Introduction

the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (1995) appeared in four volumes. The focus of
this latter work is, as the title suggests, on Islam in the modern world, generally dated from the
beginning the eighteenth century through the last decade of the twentieth. The Encyclopedia of
Islam and the Muslim World by contrast seeks to contextualize contemporary Islam within the
longer history of Islam, and it includes discussion of significant world events involving the Islamic
world over the past decade.

In preparing this new resource on Islam, the editors sought to frame some of the traditional as
well as the more recent aspects of Islam in newer categories. Thus, for example, readers will find
articles covering “Material Culture,” “Vernacular Islam,” “Identity, Muslim,” “Secularism,”
“Disputation,” and “Expansion of Islam.” A major feature of the Encyclopedia is the large number
of brief biographical sketches (nearly two hundred) of major figures in Islamic history, men and
women, past and present. The editors also included articles on several important and sometimes
contested ethical and social issues, including “Ethnicity,” “Gender,” “Homosexuality,” “Human
Rights,” and “Masculinities,” along with the more traditional entries on gender (usually
concentrating on the feminine roles) and marriage. The events of September 11, 2001, occurred
after the Table of Contents was prepared and authors were commissioned to write the articles.
Nonetheless, new articles on “Terrorism,” “Usama bin Ladin,” and “al-Qa
ida,” among others,
were added.

History, of course, will continue to unfold for humankind worldwide, including Muslims. The
Encyclopedia includes a number of interpretive articles, such as “Ethics and Social Issues,” which
provide frameworks for understanding ongoing events in Islamic history.

Editorial style is a matter of great importance in a work such as the Encyclopedia. Readers can
easily get lost in technical terms and diacritical marks on words borrowed from Arabic and
Persian. Integrating work from a great number of scholars from around the world, each with
differing practices in academic expression and in transliterating Islamic languages into Latin
letters, presented some challenges to the academic editors and the editorial staff at Macmillan.
To make things easier on readers, especially for those not initiated into the argots of Islamic
technical terms, the editors decided to minimize the diacritical marks on loanwords from Arabic,
Persian, Urdu, Turkish, and other Islamic languages. We encouraged authors and copy editors to
romanize those Islamic terms that have made it into the English language, such as jihad, hajj, and
Ramadan, as evidenced by their inclusion in modern dictionaries such as Webster’s Third New
International Dictionary. Where it seemed helpful, editors supplied brief parenthetical definitions
and identifications, both in the text and in the Glossary.

The people who made this project possible brought great ideas to it, are extremely talented
and competent, and were wonderful to work with. Hélène Potter, Macmillan’s Director of New
Product Development, designed the project and brought to it a considerable knowledge about
Islam. More than an industry leader, Hélène became first and foremost a friend and colleague.
She is an accomplished professional with an uncanny understanding of the knowledge industry
she serves. Corrina Moss, an Assistant Editor with Macmillan, worked on the project throughout
and kept in touch daily on editorial matters large and small. To Corrina went the unpleasant task,
pleasantly administered, of keeping the associate editors and especially me on task. Elly
Dickason, who was the publisher in 2000 when this project was approved, and Jonathan Aretakis,
chief copy editor, also deserve expressions of praise and gratitude—Elly for supporting the
project from the moment she reviewed it, and Jonathan for making sure the articles are factually
and stylistically appropriate.

My colleagues Saïd Arjomand, Marcia Hermansen, and Abdulkader Tayob served as Associate Editors. The associate editors brought broad vision and detailed knowledge to their tasks of
helping to organize the contents of the Encyclopedia, and I am indebted to them for making my
own knowledge limitations less problematic in producing it. Rochelle Davis, a specialist in Arabic
and Islamic studies, served as Assistant Editor, responsible for reading page proofs and preparing
the Glossary. However, she contributed much more to the Encyclopedia, with an eye for
grammatical and content errors that greatly improved the penultimate draft. My friend and

Islam and the Muslim World xi
Introduction

colleague of many years, John Voll, Editorial Consultant, kindly advised Hélène Potter and me of
matters we should consider in the formative stages of planning the Encyclopedia, and he
contributed several important articles to it.

On behalf of Saïd, Marcia, Abdulkader, Rochelle, and John, I would like to dedicate this
project to our many Muslim and non-Muslim colleagues around the world, with whom we share
the task of teaching and writing about Islam in a high-tech, troubled world that needs to know
more about itself. To that end we hope this work will help disseminate useful knowledge about
one of the world’s great civilizations to those who have a desire and need to know.

Richard C. Martin
Creston, North Carolina
August 15, 2003

xii Islam and the Muslim World
List of Entries


Abbas I, Shah Abu ‘l-Hasan Bani-Sadr Ahmad Ibn Idris
Rudi Matthee Mazyar Lotfalian Knut S. Vikør


Abd al-Baha Abu ‘l-Hudhayl al-
Allaf Ahmadiyya
William McCants M. Sait Özervarli Avril A. Powell


Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis Abu ‘l-Qasem Kashani Ahmad Khan, (Sir) Sayyid
Claudia Gazzini Mohammad H. Faghfoory David Lelyveld


Abd al-Hamid Kishk (Shaykh)
Ada Ahmad, Mirza Ghulam
Joel Gordon Tahir Fuzile Sitoto Avril A. Powell


Abd al-Jabbar Adab
Aisha
M. Sait Özervarli Barbara D. Metcalf Sa’diyya Shaikh


Abd al-Karim Sorush Adhan Akbar
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi Muneer Goolam Fareed Gregory C. Kozlowski


Abd al-Nasser, Jamal Afghani, Jamal al-Din Akhbariyya
Joel Gordon Sohail H. Hashmi Robert Gleave


Abd al-Qadir, Amir Africa, Islam in Akhlaq
Peter von Sivers David Robinson Azim Nanji


Abd al-Rahman Kawakibi African Culture and Islam
Ali
Sohail H. Hashmi Abdin Chande Diana Steigerwald


Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri Aga Khan Aligarh
Khaled Abou El-Fadl Azim Nanji David Lelyveld


Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad Ibn Ahl al-Bayt Allah
Sohail H. Hashmi Juan Eduardo Campo Daniel C. Peterson


Abduh, Muhammad Ahl-e Hadis / Ahl al-Hadith American Culture and Islam
Sohail H. Hashmi Barbara D. Metcalf Ihsan Bagby

Abu Bakr Ahl al-Hadith Americas, Islam in the
Rizwi Faizer R. Kevin Jaques Sylviane Anna Diouf

Abu Bakr Gumi Ahl al-Kitab Andalus, al-
Roman Loimeier Stephen Cory Aaron Hughes

Abu Hanifa Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi Angels
Brannon M. Wheeler Roman Loimeier Peter Lamborn Wilson

xiii
List of Entries

Arabia, Pre-Islam Bahaallah Calligraphy
Gordon D. Newby John Walbridge Sheila S. Blair
Jonathan M. Bloom
Arabic Language Bahai Faith
Kees Versteegh John Walbridge Capitalism
Timur Kuran
Arabic Literature Balkans, Islam in the
Gert Borg Frances Trix Cartography and Geography
Karen C. Pinto
Arab League Bamba, Ahmad
Juan Eduardo Campo Central Asia, Islam in
Lucy Creevey
Devin DeWeese
Architecture Banna, Hasan al-
Central Asian Culture and Islam
Santhi Kavuri-Bauer Sohail H. Hashmi Devin DeWeese
Art Baqillani, al- Childhood
Sheila S. Blair M. Sait Özervarli Elizabeth Warnock Fernea
Jonathan M. Bloom
Basri, Hasan al- Christianity and Islam

Asabiyya Rkia E. Cornell Patrice C. Brodeur
Aaron Hughes
Ba
th Party Circumcision
Ash
arites, Ash
aira Kathryn Kueny
F. Gregory Gause III
M. Sait Özervarli
Bazargan, Mehdi Clothing
Askiya Muhammad Charlotte Jirousek
Mazyar Lotfalian
Ousmane Kane
Bedouin Coinage
Asnam Abdullah Saeed
Rochelle Davis
Uri Rubin
Colonialism
Bid
a
Assassins Jamal Malik
Nico J. G. Kaptein
Farhad Daftary
Communism
Bin Ladin, Usama
Astrology Richard C. Campany, Jr.
Richard C. Martin
Ahmad S. Dallal
Conflict and Violence
Astronomy Biography and Hagiography A. Rashied Omar
Ahmad S. Dallal Marcia Hermansen
Conversion

Atabat Biruni, al- Peter B. Clarke
Neguin Yavari Marcia Hermansen
Crusades
Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal Body, Significance of Warren C. Schultz
A. Uner Turgay Brannon M. Wheeler
Dar al-Harb
Awami League Bourghiba, Habib John Kelsay
Sufia Uddin John Ruedy
Dar al-Islam
Bukhara, Khanate and Emirate of John Kelsay
Ayatollah (Ar. Ayatullah)
Robert Gleave Florian Schwarz Da
wa
David Westerlund
Azhar, al- Bukhari, al-
Christer Hedin
Diana Steigerwald Asma Afsaruddin
Torsten Janson
Babiyya Buraq Dawla
William McCants Carel Bertram Sohail H. Hashmi
Bab, Sayyed
Ali Muhammad Cairo Death
William McCants Aslam Farouk-Alli Juan Eduardo Campo

Baghdad Caliphate Deoband
Mona Hassan Muhammad Qasim Zaman Barbara D. Metcalf

xiv Islam and the Muslim World
List of Entries

Devotional Life Erbakan, Necmeddin Genealogy
Gerard Wiegers Linda T. Darling Marcia Hermansen

Dhikr Ethics and Social Issues Ghannoushi, Rashid al-
Earle Waugh Ebrahim Moosa Gudrun Krämer

Dietary Laws Ethiopia Ghayba(t)
Muneer Goolam Fareed Haggai Erlich Robert Gleave

Disputation Ethnicity Ghazali, al-
Richard C. Martin Amal Rassam Ebrahim Moosa

Divorce Eunuchs Ghazali, Muhammad al-
Ziba Mir-Hosseini Jane Hathaway Qamar-ul Huda

European Culture and Islam Ghazali, Zaynab al-
Dome of the Rock
Jorgen S. Nielsen Ursula Günther
Sheila S. Blair
Jonathan M. Bloom Europe, Islam in Globalization
Jorgen S. Nielsen Saïd Amir Arjomand
Dreams
John C. Lamoreaux Expansion Grammar and Lexicography
Fred M. Donner Kees Versteegh
Du
a
Muneer Goolam Fareed Fadlallah, Muhammad Husayn Greek Civilization
Mazyar Lotfalian Oliver Leaman
East Asia, Islam in
Jacqueline M. Armijo Falsafa Hadith
Parviz Morewedge Harald Motzki
East Asian Culture and Islam
Jacqueline M. Armijo Farrakhan, Louis Hajj Salim Suwari, al-
Aminah Beverly McCloud Abdulkader Tayob
Economy and Economic Institutions
Nora Ann Colton Fasi, Muhammad
Allal al- Haj
Umar al-Tal, al-
David L. Johnston Abdin Chande
Education
Jonathan Berkey Fatima Hallaj, al-
Ursula Günther Herbert W. Mason
Empires: Abbasid
Matthew Gordon Fatwa HAMAS
Daniel C. Peterson Tamara Sonn
Empires: Byzantine
Fedaiyan-e Islam Harem
Nadia Maria El Cheikh
Fakhreddin Azimi Etin Anwar
Empires: Mogul
Feminism Haron, Abdullah
Iqtidar Alam Khan
Ghazala Anwar Shamil Jeppie
Empires: Mongol and Il-Khanid
Fez Hasan
Charles Melville
Claudia Gazzini Michael M. J. Fischer
Empires: Ottoman Fitna Hashemi-Rafsanjani,
Ali-Akbar
Donald Quataert Sandra S. Campbell Majid Mohammadi
Empires: Safavid and Qajar Fundamentalism Healing
Rudi Matthee Sohail H. Hashmi Abdullahi Osman El-Tom
Empires: Sassanian Futuwwa Heresiography
Henning L. Bauer Reeva Spector Simon Aaron Hughes
Empires: Timurid Gasprinskii, Isma
il Bay Hijra
Paul D. Buell A. Uner Turgay Rizwi Faizer

Empires: Umayyad Gender Hijri Calendar
Alfons H. Teipen Zayn R. Kassam Ahmad S. Dallal

Islam and the Muslim World xv
List of Entries

Hilli,
Allama al- Ibn Hanbal Islamic Jihad
Robert Gleave Susan A. Spectorsky Najib Ghadbian

Hilli, Muhaqqiq al- Ibn Khaldun Islamic Salvation Front
Robert Gleave R. Kevin Jaques David L. Johnston

Hinduism and Islam Ibn Maja Islamic Society of North America
Juan Eduardo Campo Asma Afsaruddin R. Kevin Jaques
Anna Bigelow
Ibn Rushd Isma
il I, Shah
Hisba Oliver Leaman Sholeh A. Quinn
Robert Gleave
Ibn Sina Ja
far al-Sadiq
Historical Writing Shams C. Inati Liyakatali Takim
Konrad Hirschler
Jahannam
Ibn Taymiyya
Hizb Allah Juan Eduardo Campo
James Pavlin
Tamara Sonn
Jahiliyya
Identity, Muslim
Hojjat al-Islam Rizwi Faizer
Daniel C. Peterson
Robert Gleave
Jama
at-e Islami
Ijtihad
Hojjatiyya Society Jamal Malik
Muneer Goolam Fareed
Majid Mohammadi
Jami

Ikhwan al-Muslimin Muneer Goolam Fareed
Holy Cities
David L. Johnston
Aslam Farouk-Alli Jamil al-Amin, Imam
Ikhwan al-Safa Edward E. Curtis IV
Homosexuality
Azim Nanji
Everett K. Rowson Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Hind
Imam Jamal Malik
Hosayniyya
Muhammad Qasim Zaman
Rasool Ja
fariyan Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Islam
Imamate Jamal Malik
Hospitality and Islam
Robert Gleave
Khalid Yahya Blankinship Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Pakistan
Imamzadah Jamal Malik
Hukuma al-Islamiyya, al- (Islamic
Government) Anne H. Betteridge
Janna
Gudrun Krämer Internet Juan Eduardo Campo
Human Rights Bruce B. Lawrence
Jevdet Pasha
Ursula Günther Miriam Cooke
Linda T. Darling
Humor Intifada
Jihad
Irfan A. Omar Philip Mattar
Sohail H. Hashmi
Husayn Iqbal, Muhammad
Jinnah, Muhammad
Ali
Michael M. J. Fischer David Lelyveld
Rasul Bakhsh Rais
Husayni, Hajj Amin al- Iran, Islamic Republic of Judaism and Islam
Philip Mattar Nancy L. Stockdale Gordon D. Newby
Husayn, Taha Ishraqi School Kalam
Sohail H. Hashmi Seyyed Hossein Nasr Parviz Morewedge

Ibadat Islam and Islamic Kano
Gerard Wiegers John O. Voll Thyge C. Bro

Ibn
Arabi Islam and Other Religions Karaki, Shaykh
Ali
William C. Chittick Patrice C. Brodeur Rula Jurdi Abisaab

Ibn Battuta Islamicate Society Karbala
Thyge C. Bro R. Kevin Jaques Diana Steigerwald

xvi Islam and the Muslim World
List of Entries

Kemal, Namek Liberation Movement of Iran Marwa, Muhammad
Linda T. Darling Claudia Stodte Paula Stiles

Khalid, Khalid Muhammad Libraries Marwan
William Shepard John Walbridge Rizwi Faizer

Khamanei, Sayyed
Ali Madani,
Abbasi Masculinities
Majid Mohammadi Claudia Gazzini Marcia Hermansen

Khan Madhhab Mashhad
Gene Garthwaite Brannon M. Wheeler Rasool Ja
fariyan

Khanqa (Khanaqa, Khanga) Madrasa Masjid
Leonor Fernandes Patrick D. Gaffney
John Walbridge
Khan, Reza of Bareilly Maslaha
Mahdi
Barbara D. Metcalf Richard C. Martin
Marcia Hermansen
Kharijites, Khawarij Material Culture
Mahdi, Sadiq al-
Annie C. Higgins Hassan Mwakimako
John O. Voll
Khidr, al- Maturidi, al-
Mahdist State, Mahdiyya M. Sait Özervarli
Hugh Talat Halman
Shamil Jeppie
Khilafat Movement Maududi, Abu l-A
la
Gail Minault Mahr Jamal Malik
Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Khirqa Mazalim
Margaret Malamud Majlis Osman Tastan
Saïd Amir Arjomand
Khiva, Khanate of Mazru
i
Touraj Atabaki Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir Randall L. Pouwels
Rula Jurdi Abisaab
Khoi, Abo l Qasem Medicine
Majid Mohammadi Makassar, Shaykh Yusuf Gail G. Harrison
R. Michael Feener Osman M. Galal
Khojas
Azim Nanji Malcolm X Mihna
Edward E. Curtis IV Muhammad Qasim Zaman
Khomeini, Ruhollah
Nancy L. Stockdale Malik, Ibn Anas Mihrab
Jonathan E. Brockopp Sheila S. Blair
Khutba Jonathan M. Bloom
Patrick D. Gaffney Mamun, al-
Military Raid
Muhammad Qasim Zaman
Kindi, al- Rizwi Faizer
Jon McGinnis Manar, Manara
Minbar (Mimbar)
Knowledge Sheila S. Blair
Richard T. Antoun
Jonathan M. Bloom
Parviz Morewedge
Minorities: Dhimmis
Komiteh Manicheanism
Patrick Franke
Majid Mohammadi Elton L. Daniel
Minorities: Offshoots of Islam
Kunti, Mukhtar al- Mansa Musa
Robert Gleave
Khalil Athamina Ousmane Kane
Miracles
Law Marja
al-Taqlid Marcia Hermansen
Osman Tastan Robert Gleave
Mi
raj
Lebanon Marriage Frederick Colby
Farid el Khazen Ziba Mir-Hosseini Michael Sells

Liberalism Martyrdom Modernism
Charles Kurzman Daniel W. Brown Charles Kurzman

Islam and the Muslim World xvii
List of Entries

Modernity Muhammad, Elijah Nationalism: Iranian
Javed Majeed Edward E. Curtis IV Fakhreddin Azimi

Modernization, Political: Administra- Muhammadiyya (Muhammadiyah) Nationalism: Turkish
tive, Military, and Judicial Reform Robert W. Hefner A. Uner Turgay
Aslam Farouk-Alli
Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi Nation of Islam
Modernization, Political: Authoritari- Stephanie Cronin Aminah Beverly McCloud
anism and Democratization
Claudia Stodte Muhammad, Warith Deen Nawruz
Anne-Sophie Froehlich Edward E. Curtis IV Anne H. Betteridge

Modernization, Political: Muharram Nazzam, al-
Constitutionalism David Pinault M. Sait Özervarli
Sohail H. Hashmi
Muhasibi, al- Networks, Muslim
Modernization, Political: Bruce B. Lawrence
Rkia E. Cornell
Participation, Political Movements, Miriam Cooke
and Parties Muhtasib
Quintan Wiktorowicz Nikah
Robert Gleave
Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Modern Thought Mujahidin
Charles Kurzman Niyabat-e
amma
Amin Tarzi
Robert Gleave
Mojahedin-e Khalq
Mulla Sadra
Juan Eduardo Campo Nizam al-Mulk
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Warren C. Schultz
Mojtahed-Shabestari, Mohammad
Murjiites, Murjia
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi Nizari
Shalahudin Kafrawi
Azim Nanji
Molla
Music
Kamran Aghaie Nur Movement
Munir Beken
Berna Turam
Mollabashi
Mansur Sefatgol Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj
Nuri, Fazlallah
Asma Afsaruddin
Mohammad H. Faghfoory
Monarchy
Saïd Amir Arjomand Muslim Student Association of Nursi, Said
North America
Moravids A. Uner Turgay
Aminah Beverly McCloud
Peter B. Clarke Organization of the Islamic
Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila Conference
Mosaddeq, Mohammad Shalahudin Kafrawi Qamar-ul Huda
Fakhreddin Azimi
Nader Shah Afshar Orientalism
Motahhari, Mortaza
John R. Perry Qamar-ul Huda
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Pakistan, Islamic Republic of
Mu
awiya
Nelly van Doorn-Harder Rasul Bakhsh Rais
Suleman Dangor
Naini, Mohammad Hosayn Pan-Arabism
Mufti
Mohammad H. Faghfoory Sohail H. Hashmi
Muneer Goolam Fareed

Muhammad Najaf Pan-Islam
Rizwi Faizer Mazyar Lotfalian Sohail H. Hashmi

Muhammad Ahmad Ibn
Abdullah Nar Pan-Turanism
Mohamed Mahmoud Juan Eduardo Campo Touraj Atabaki

Muhammad
Ali, Dynasty of Nasai, al- Pasdaran
Joel Gordon Asma Afsaruddin Majid Mohammadi

Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya Nationalism: Arab Persian Language and Literature
Liyakatali Takim Nancy L. Stockdale Franklin D. Lewis

xviii Islam and the Muslim World
List of Entries

Pilgrimage: Hajj Rashidun Sadr
Kathryn Kueny Muhammad Qasim Zaman Andrew J. Newman

Pilgrimage: Ziyara Rawza-Khani Sadr, Muhammad Baqir al-
Richard C. Martin Kamran Aghaie Majid Mohammadi

Pluralism: Legal and Ethno-Religious Refah Partisi Sadr, Musa al-
Irene Schneider Linda T. Darling Majid Mohammadi

Pluralism: Political Reform: Arab Middle East and Sahara
Gudrun Krämer North Africa F. Ghislaine Lydon
Sohail H. Hashmi
Political Islam Saint
Gudrun Krämer Reform: Iran Arthur F. Buehler
Hossein Kamaly
Political Organization Saladin
Linda T. Darling Reform: Muslim Communities of the Warren C. Schultz
Russian Empire
Political Thought Allen J. Frank Salafiyya
Louise Marlow John O. Voll
Reform: South Asia
Polygamy Ahrar Ahmad Saleh bin Allawi
Ziba Mir-Hosseini Abdin Chande
Reform: Southeast Asia
Property Mark R. Woodward Saudi Dynasty
Timur Kuran F. Gregory Gause III
Religious Beliefs
Prophets R. Kevin Jaques Sayyid
Brannon M. Wheeler Robert Gleave
Religious Institutions
Purdah Abdulkader Tayob Science, Islam and
Gail Minault Aaron Hughes
Republican Brothers
Qadhdhafi, Mu
ammar al- John O. Voll Secularism, Islamic
Ali Abdullatif Ahmida Charles Kurzman
Revolution: Classical Islam
Qadi (Kadi, Kazi) Saïd Amir Arjomand Secularization
Ebrahim Moosa Mahmood Monshipouri
Revolution: Islamic
Qa
ida, al- Revolution in Iran Shafi
i, al-
Richard C. Martin Kristian Alexander Christopher Melchert

Qanun Revolution: Modern Shaltut, Mahmud
Khaled Abou El-Fadl Saïd Amir Arjomand Sohail H. Hashmi

Qibla Reza Shah Shari
a
Gerard Wiegers Stephanie Cronin Jonathan E. Brockopp

Qom Riba Shari
ati,
Ali
Rasool Ja
fariyan Timur Kuran Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi

Quran Rida, Rashid Sharif
Farid Esack Sohail H. Hashmi Robert Gleave

Qutb, Sayyid Ritual Shar
it Shangalaji, Reza-Qoli
Sohail H. Hashmi Gerard Wiegers Paula Stiles

Rabi
a of Basra Rumi, Jalaluddin Shaykh al-Islam
Rkia E. Cornell Franklin D. Lewis Robert Gleave

Rahman, Fazlur Rushdie, Salman Shaykhiyya
Marcia Hermansen Amir Hussain Paula Stiles

Rashid, Harun al- Sadat, Anwar al- Shi
a: Early
Sebastian Günther Joel Gordon Devin J. Stewart

Islam and the Muslim World xix
List of Entries

Shi
a: Imami (Twelver) Suyuti, al- Turabi, Hasan al-
David Pinault E. M. Sartain John O. Voll

Shi
a: Isma
ili Tabari, al- Tusi, Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan
Farhad Daftary Christopher Melchert (Shaykh al-Ta
ifa)
Robert Gleave
Shi
a: Zaydi (Fiver) Tablighi Jama
at
Robert Gleave Barbara D. Metcalf Tusi, Nasir al-Din
Zayn R. Kassam
Shirk Tafsir
R. Kevin Jaques Kathryn Kueny Ulema
Robert Gleave
Siba
i, Mustafa al- Tahmasp I, Shah
Paula Stiles Sholeh A. Quinn
Umar
Khalid Yahya Blankinship
Silsila Tajdid
Arthur F. Buehler John O. Voll Umma
Abdullah Saeed
Sirhindi, Shaykh Ahmad Taliban
Arthur F. Buehler Amin Tarzi Umm Kulthum
Kimberly McCloud Virginia Danielson
Socialism
F. Gregory Gause III Tanzimat United States, Islam in the
Linda T. Darling Edward E. Curtis IV
South Asia, Islam in
Scott A. Kugle Taqiyya Urdu Language, Literature,
and Poetry
South Asian Culture and Islam Robert Gleave
Christopher Shackle
Perween Hasan Taqlid
Usuliyya
Southeast Asia, Islam in Robert Gleave
Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi
Nelly van Doorn-Harder Tariqa

Uthman Dan Fodio
Southeast Asian Culture and Islam Carl W. Ernst
Roman Loimeier
Nelly van Doorn-Harder Tasawwuf

Uthman ibn
Affan
Succession Carl W. Ernst
Rizwi Faizer
Mark Wegner Ta
ziya
Veiling
Suhrawardi, al- Kamran Aghaie Ghazala Anwar
John Walbridge Liz McKay
Terrorism
Sukayna Juan Eduardo Campo Velayat-e Faqih
Rizwi Faizer Caleb Elfenbein Robert Gleave
Sultanates: Ayyubid Thaqafi, Mukhtar al- Vernacular Islam
Carole Hillenbrand Christopher Melchert Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger
Sultanates: Delhi Timbuktu Wahdat al-Wujud
Iqtidar Alam Khan Ousmane Kane William C. Chittick

Sultanates: Ghaznavid Touba Wahhabiyya
Walid A. Saleh Lucy Creevey Sohail H. Hashmi

Sultanates: Mamluk Traditionalism Wajib al-Wujud
Warren C. Schultz R. Kevin Jaques Shams C. Inati

Sultanates: Modern Translation Wali Allah, Shah
Hassan Mwakimako Lamin Sanneh Marcia Hermansen

Sultanates: Seljuk Travel and Travelers Waqf
Saïd Amir Arjomand Thyge C. Bro Gregory C. Kozlowski

Sunna Tribe Wazifa
Daniel W. Brown Amal Rassam Mansur Sefatgol

xx Islam and the Muslim World
List of Entries

Wazir Young Ottomans Zand, Karim Khan
Richard C. Martin Murat C. Mengüç John R. Perry

West, Concept of in Islam Young Turks Zanzibar, Sa
idi Sultanate of
John O. Voll Murat C. Mengüç Abdin Chande

Women, Public Roles of Youth Movements Zar
Etin Anwar Ali Akbar Mahdi Adeline Masquelier

Yahya bin
Abdallah Ramiya Yusuf Ali,
Abdullah Zaytuna
Hassan Mwakimako Abdulkader Tayob Claudia Gazzini

Islam and the Muslim World xxi
List of Contributors

Rula Jurdi Abisaab Kristian Alexander Khalil Athamina
University at Akron, OH University of Utah Birzeit Univeristy, Palestine
Karaki, Shaykh
Ali Revolution: Islamic Revolution in Iran Kunti, Mukhtar al-
Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Richard T. Antoun Fakhreddin Azimi
Khaled Abou El-Fadl State University of New York, University of Connecticut
Binghamton Fedaiyan-e Islam
University of California, Los Angeles, Law School Minbar (Mimbar) Mosaddeq, Mohammad

Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri Nationalism: Iranian
Ghazala Anwar
Qanun University of Canterbury, New
Ihsan Bagby
Zealand
Asma Afsaruddin University of Kentucky
Feminism
University of Notre Dame, South American Culture and Islam
Veiling
Bend, IN
Bukhari, al- Henning L. Bauer
Etin Anwar
Ibn Maja Hamilton College, NY University of California, Los Angeles, NELC
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj Harem
Empires: Sassanian
Nasai, al- Women, Public Roles of

Saïd Amir Arjomand Munir Beken
Kamran Aghaie
State University of New York, University of Washington
University of Texas, Austin
Stony Brook Music
Molla
Globalization
Rawza-Khani Jonathan Berkey
Majlis
Ta
ziya (Ta
ziye) Davidson College
Monarchy
Revolution: Classical Islam Education
Ahrar Ahmad
Revolution: Modern
Black Hills State University, SD Carel Bertram
Sultanates: Seljuk
Reform: South Asia University of Texas, Austin
Jacqueline M. Armijo Buraq
Ali Abdullatif Ahmida
Stanford University
University of New England East Asia, Islam in Anne H. Betteridge
Qadhdhafi, Mu
ammar al- East Asian Culture and Islam University of Arizona
Imamzadah
Iqtidar Alam Khan Touraj Atabaki Nawruz
Aligarh Historians Society, Aligarh University of Utrecht, The
India Netherlands Anna Bigelow
Empires: Mogul Khiva, Khanate of Loyola Marymount University
Sultanates: Delhi Pan-Turanism Hinduism and Islam

xxiii
List of Contributors

Sheila S. Blair Richard C. Campany, Jr. Stephen Cory
Boston College Senior Analyst, Harris Corporation University of California, Santa
Art Communism Barbara
Calligraphy Ahl al-Kitab
Dome of the Rock Sandra S. Campbell
Manar, Manara Santa Barbara, CA Lucy Creevey
Mihrab Fitna University of Connecticut,
Torrington
Juan Eduardo Campo Bamba, Ahmad
Khalid Yahya Blankinship
University of California, Santa Touba
Temple University, PA
Barbara
Hospitality and Islam
Ahl al-Bayt Stephanie Cronin

Umar
Arab League University College, Northampton,
Jonathan Bloom Death England
Boston College Hinduism and Islam Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi
Art Jahannam Reza Shah
Calligraphy Janna
Mojahedin-e Khalq Edward E. Curtis IV
Dome of the Rock
Nar University of North Carolina,
Manar, Manara
Terrorism Chapel Hill
Mihrab
Jamil al-Amin, Imam
Abdin Chande Malcolm X
Gert Borg
Sidwell Friends School, Washing- Muhammad, Elijah
University of Nijmegen, The
ton, D.C. Muhammad, Warith Deen
Netherlands
African Culture and Islam United States, Islam in the
Arabic Literature
Haj
Umar al-Tal, al-
Thyge C. Bro Saleh bin Allawi (Jamal al Layl) Farhad Daftary
Stilliitsvej Zanzibar, Sa
idi Sultanate of Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
Ibn Battuta Assassins
William C. Chittick Shi
a: Isma
ili
Kano
State University of New York,
Travel and Travelers
Stony Brook Ahmad S. Dallal
Ibn
Arabi Stanford University
Jonathan E. Brockopp
Wahdat al-Wujud Astrology
Bard College, Annandale, NY
Malik, Ibn Anas Astronomy
Peter B. Clarke
Shari
a Hijri Calendar
King’s College, University of
London
Patrice C. Brodeur Suleman Dangor
Conversion
Connecticut College University of Durban, South Africa
Moravids
Christianity and Islam Mu
awiya
Islam and Other Religions Frederick Colby
Elton L. Daniel
Duke University
Daniel W. Brown University of Hawaii
Mi
raj
Mount Holyoke College, MA Manicheanism
Martyrdom Nora Ann Colton
Sunna Virginia Danielson
Drew University
Harvard University
Economy and Economic Institutions
Arthur F. Buehler Umm Kulthum
Louisiana State Univeristy, Baton Miriam Cooke
Rouge Duke University Linda T. Darling
Saint Internet University of Arizona
Silsila Erbakan, Necmeddin
Sirhindi, Shaykh Ahmad Rkia E. Cornell Jevdet Pasha
University of Arkansas Kemal, Namek
Paul D. Buell Basri, Hasan al- Political Organization
Western Washington University Muhasibi, al- Refah Partisi
Empires: Timurid Rabi
a of Basra Tanzimat

xxiv Islam and the Muslim World
List of Contributors

Rochelle Davis Rizwi Faizer Osman M. Galal
Stanford University Independent Scholar, Canada University of California, Los Ange-
Bedouin Abu Bakr les, School of Public Health
Hijra Medicine
Devin DeWeese Jahiliyya
Indiana University Marwan Patrick Franke
Central Asia, Islam in Military Raid Martin-Luther-Universität,
Central Asian Culture and Islam Germany
Muhammad
Minorities: Dhimmis
Sukayna
Sylviane Anna Diouf Uthman ibn
Affan
New York University Patrick D. Gaffney
Americas, Islam in the University of Notre Dame
Muneer Goolam Fareed
Khutba
Wayne State University, MI
Fred M. Donner Masjid
Adhan
University of Chicago Dietary Laws Gene Garthwaite
Expansion Du
a Dartmouth College
Ijtihad Khan
Nadia Maria El Cheikh
Jami

American University of Beirut,
Mufti F. Gregory Gause III
Lebanon
University of Vermont, Burlington
Empires: Byzantine Aslam Farouk-Alli Ba
th Party
University of Cape Town, South Saudi Dynasty
Caleb Elfebein
Africa Socialism
University of California, Santa
Cairo
Barbara
Holy Cities Claudia Gazzini
Terrorism
Modernization, Political: Administra- Princeton University
tive, Military, and Judicial Reform
Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis
Farid el Khazen
American University of Beirut, Fez
R. Michael Feener
Lebanon Madani,
Abbasi
University of California, Riverside
Lebanon Zaytuna
Makassar, Shaykh Yusuf
Abdullahi Osman El-Tom Najib Ghadbian
Leonor Fernandes
National University of Ireland University of Arkansas
American University in Cairo,
Healing Islamic Jihad
Egypt
Khanqa (Khanaqa, Khanga) Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Haggai Erlich
Tel Aviv University, Israel Georgia State University
Michael M. J. Fischer
Ethiopia
Abd al-Karim Sorush
Massachusetts Institute of
Mojtahed-Shabestari, Mohammad
Technology
Carl W. Ernst Motahhari, Mortaza
Hasan
University of North Carolina, Shari
ati,
Ali
Husayn
Chapel Hill
Tariqa Robert Gleave
Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger
Tasawwuf University of Bristol, England
Emory University
Akhbariyya
Vernacular Islam
Farid Esack Ayatollah (Ar. Ayatullah)
Union Theological Seminary, NY Ghayba(t)
Allen J. Frank
Quran Hilli,
Allama al-
Independent Scholar
Hilli, Muhaqqiq al-
Reform: Muslim Communities of the
Mohammad H. Faghfoory Russian Empire Hisba
Mary Washington College, Hojjat al-Islam
Fredricksburg, VA Anne-Sophie Froehlich Imamate
Abu ‘l-Qasem Kashani Der Spiegel, Germany Marja
al-Taqlid
Naini, Mohammad Hosayn Modernization, Political: Authoritari- Minorities: Offshoots of Islam
Nuri, Fazlallah anism and Democratization Muhtasib

Islam and the Muslim World xxv
List of Contributors

Niyabat-e
amma Modernization, Political: Aaron Hughes
Sayyid Constitutionalism University of Calgary, Canada
Sharif Pan-Arabism Andalus, al-
Shaykh al-Islam Pan-Islam
Asabiyya
Shi
a: Zaydi (Fiver) Reform: Arab Middle East and North Heresiography
Taqiyya Africa Science, Islam and
Taqlid Rida, Rashid
Tusi, Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan Shaltut, Mahmud Amir Hussain
(Shaykh al-Ta
ifa) Qutb, Sayyid California State University,
Ulema Wahhabiyya Northridge
Velayat-e Faqih Rushdie, Salman
Mona Hassan
Matthew Gordon Shams C. Inati
Princeton University
Miami University, Ohio Villanova University, Pennsylvania
Baghdad
Empires: Abbasid Ibn Sina
Jane Hathaway Wajib al-Wujud
Joel Gordon Ohio State University
University of Arkansas Torsten Janson
Eunuchs

Abd al-Hamid Kishk (Shaykh) Lund University, Sweden

Abd al-Nasser, Jamal Christer Hedin Da
wa
Muhammad
Ali, Dynasty of Stockholm University, Sweden
Rasool Ja
fariyan
Sadat, Anwar al- Da
wa
Independent Scholar
Sebastian Günther Hosayniyya
Robert W. Hefner
University of Toronto, Canada Mashhad
Boston University
Rashid, Harun al- Qom
Muhammadiyya (Muhammadiyah)

Ursula Günther R. Kevin Jaques
Marcia Hermansen
University of Hamburg, Germany Indiana University, Bloomington
Loyola University, Chicago
Fatima Ahl al-Hadith
Biography and Hagiography
Ghazali, Zaynab al- Ibn Khaldun
Biruni, al-
Human Rights Islamicate Society
Genealogy
Islamic Society of North America
Hugh Talat Halman Mahdi
Religious Beliefs
University of Arkansas Masculinities
Shirk
Khidr, al- Miracles
Traditionalism
Rahman, Fazlur
Gail G. Harrison Wali Allah, Shah Shamil Jeppie
University of California, Los Ange- University of Cape Town, South
les, School of Public Health Annie C. Higgins Africa
Medicine University of Chicago Haron, Abdullah
Kharijites, Khawarij Mahdist State, Mahdiyya
Perween Hasan
Dhaka University, Bangladesh Carole Hillenbrand Charlotte Jirousek
South Asian Culture and Islam University of Edinburgh, Scotland Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Sultanates: Ayyubid Clothing
Sohail H. Hashmi
Mount Holyoke College, MA Konrad Hirschler David L. Johnston

Abd al-Rahman Kawakibi University of London, England Yale University

Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad Ibn Historical Writing Fasi, Muhammad
Allal al-

Abduh, Muhammad Ikhwan al-Muslimin
Afghani, Jamal al-Din Qamar-ul Huda Islamic Salvation Front
Banna, Hasan al- Boston College
Dawla Ghazali, Muhammad al- Shalahudin Kafrawi
Fundamentalism Organization of the Islamic Binghamton University, NY
Husayn, Taha Conference Murjiites, Murjia
Jihad Orientalism Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila

xxvi Islam and the Muslim World
List of Contributors

Hossein Kamaly Timur Kuran Akbar Mahdi
Columbia University University of Southern California, Ohio Wesleyan University
Reform: Iran Los Angeles Youth Movements
Capitalism
Ousmane Kane Property Mohamed Mahmoud
Columbia University Riba Tufts University, MA
Askiya Muhammad Muhammad
Ahmad Ibn Abdullah
Mansa Musa Charles Kurzman
Timbuktu University of North Carolina, Javed Majeed
Chapel Hill English Scholar
Nico J. G. Kaptein Liberalism Modernity
Leiden University, The Modernism
Netherlands Modern Thought Margaret Malamud
Bid
a Secularism, Islamic New Mexico State University, Las
Cruces
Zayn R. Kassam John C. Lamoreaux Khirqa
Pomona College, CA Southern Methodist University,
Gender Dallas Jamal Malik
Tusi, Nasir al-Din Dreams University of Erfurt, Germany
Bruce B. Lawrence Colonialism
Santhi Kavuri-Bauer Jama
at-e Islami
San Francisco State University Duke University
Internet Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Hind
Architecture Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Islam
Networks, Muslim
Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Pakistan
Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi
Oliver Leaman Maududi, Abu l-A
la
International Institute of Islamic
University of Kentucky
Thought and Civilization,
Greek Civilization Louise Marlow
Malaysia
Ibn Rushd Wellesley College, MA
Usuliyya
Political Thought
David Lelyveld
John Kelsay
William Paterson University, Richard C. Martin
Florida State University,
Wayne, NJ Emory University
Tallahassee
Ahmad Khan, (Sir) Sayyid bin Ladin, Usama
Dar al-Harb
Aligarh Disputation
Dar al-Islam
Iqbal, Muhammad Maslaha
Gregory C. Kozlowski Pilgrimage: Ziyara
Franklin D. Lewis
DePaul University, Chicago Qa
ida, al-
Emory University
Akbar Wazir
Persian Language and Literature
Waqf
Rumi, Jalaluddin
Herbert W. Mason
Gudrun Krämer Roman Loimeier Boston University
Free University of Berlin, Germany University of Bayreuth, Germany Hallaj, al-
Ghannoushi, Rashid al- Abu Bakr Gumi
Hukuma al-Islamiyya, al- (Islamic Adeline Masquelier
Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi
Government) Tulane University, LA

Uthman Dan Fodio
Pluralism: Political Zar
Political Islam Mazyar Lotfalian
Berkeley Philip Mattar
Kathryn Kueny Abu ‘l-Hasan Bani-Sadr U.S. Institute of Peace, Washing-
Lawrence University, KY Bazargan, Mehdi ton D.C.
Circumcision Fadlallah, Muhammad Husayn Husayni, Hajj Amin al-
Tafsir Najaf Intifada
Pilgrimage: Hajj
F. Ghislaine Lydon Rudi Matthee
Scott A. Kugle University of California, Los University of Delaware
Swarthmore College, PA Angeles
Abbas I, Shah
South Asia, Islam in Sahara Empires: Safavid and Qajar

Islam and the Muslim World xxvii
List of Contributors

William McCants Ziba Mir-Hosseini Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Princeton University School of Oriental and African George Washington University

Abd al-Baha Studies, University of London, Ishraqi School
Babiyya England Mulla Sadra
Bab, Sayyed
Ali Muhammad Divorce
Mahr Gordon D. Newby
Marriage Emory University
Aminah Beverly McCloud
Nikah Arabia, Pre-Islam
DePaul University, Chicago
Polygamy Judaism and Islam
Farrakhan, Louis
Muslim Student Association of North Majid Mohammadi Andrew J. Newman
America University of Edinburgh, Scotland
State University of New York,
Nation of Islam Stony Brook Sadr
Hashemi-Rafsanjani,
Ali-Akbar
Kimberly McCloud Jorgen S. Nielsen
Hojjatiyya Society
Monterey Institute for Interna- University of Birmingham,
Khamanei, Sayyed
Ali
tional Studies, CA England
Khoi, Abo l Qasem
Taliban Europe, Islam in
Komiteh
European Culture and Islam
Pasdaran
Jon McGinnis
Sadr, Muhammad Baqir al- A. Rashied Omar
University of Missouri, St. Louis Sadr, Musa al- Notre Dame, IN
Kindi, al-
Conflict and Violence
Mahmood Monshipouri
Liz McKay Quinnipiac University, CN Irfan A. Omar
University of Canterbury, New Secularization Marquette University,
Zealand Milwaukee, WI
Veiling Ebrahim Moosa Humor
Duke University
Christopher Melchert Ethics and Social Issues M. Sait Özervarli
University of Oxford, England Ghazali, al- Center for Islamic Studies, Istan-
Shafi
i, al- Qadi (Kadi, Kazi) bul, Turkey
Tabari, al-
Abd al-Jabbar
Parviz Morewedge Abu ‘l-Hudhayl al-
Allaf
Thaqafi, Mukhtar al-
Rutgers University, New Ash
arites, Ash
aira
Brunswick, NJ Baqillani, al-
Charles Melville
Falsafa Maturidi, al-
Pembroke College, Cambridge Kalam
University, England Nazzam, al-
Knowledge
Empires: Mongol and Il-Khanid James Pavlin
Harald Motzki Rutgers University, New
Murat C. Mengüç University of Nijmegen, The Brunswick, NJ
McGill University, Canada Netherlands Ibn Taymiyya
Young Ottomans Hadith
Young Turks John R. Perry
Hassan Mwakimako University of Chicago
Barbara D. Metcalf University of Nairobi, Kenya Nader Shah Afshar
University of California, Davis Material Culture Zand, Karim Khan
Adab Sultanates: Modern
Yahya bin
Abdallah Ramiya (Shaykh) Daniel C. Peterson
Ahl-e Hadis / Ahl al-Hadith
Brigham Young University, UT
Deoband Azim Nanji Allah
Khan, Reza of Bareilly Institute of Ismaili Studies, Lon- Fatwa
Tablighi Jama
at don, U.K. Identity, Muslim
Aga Khan
Gail Minault Akhlaq David Pinault
University of Texas, Austin Ikhwan al-Safa Santa Clara University, CA
Khilafat Movement Khojas Muharram
Purdah Nizari Shi
a: Imami (Twelver)

xxviii Islam and the Muslim World
List of Contributors

Karen C. Pinto Lamin Sanneh Tamara Sonn
University of Alberta, Canada Yale University Divinity School The College of William and Mary,
Cartography and Geography Translation Williamsburg, VA
HAMAS
Randall L. Pouwels E. M. Sartain Hizb Allah
University of Arkansas American University in Cairo,
Mazru
i Egypt Susan A. Spectorsky
Suyuti, al- City University of New York
Avril A. Powell
School of Oriental and African Ibn Hanbal
Irene Schneider
Studies, University of London,
University of Halle, Germany Diana Steigerwald
England
Ahmadiyya Pluralism: Legal and Ethno-Religious California State University, Long
Ahmad, Mirza Ghulam Beach
Warren C. Schultz
Ali
Donald Quataert DePaul University, Chicago Azhar, al-
Binghamton University, NY Crusades Karbala
Empires: Ottoman Nizam al-Mulk
Saladin Devin J. Stewart
Sholeh A. Quinn Sultanates: Mamluk Emory University
Ohio University
Shi
a: Early
Isma
il I, Shah Florian Schwarz
Tahmasp I, Shah Ruhr University Bochum, Germany Paula Stiles
Bukhara, Khanate and Emirate of University of St. Andrews, Scotland
Rasul Bakhsh Rais
Quaid-i Azam University, Pakistan Marwa, Muhammad
Michael Sells Shar
it Shangalaji, Reza-Qoli
Jinnah, Muhammad
Ali
Haverford College, PA Shaykhiyya
Pakistan, Islamic Republic of
Mi
raj Siba
i, Mustafa al-
Amal Rassam
Mansur Sefatgol
Queens College, City University of Nancy L. Stockdale
New York University of Tehran, Iran
University of Central Florida
Ethnicity Mollabashi
Iran, Islamic Republic of
Tribe Wazifa
Khomeini, Ruhollah
Nationalism: Arab
David Robinson Christopher Shackle
Michigan State University School of Oriental and African
Claudia Stodte
Africa, Islam in Studies, University of London,
England Der Spiegel, Germany
Everett K. Rowson Urdu Language, Literature, and Liberation Movement of Iran
New York University Poetry Modernization, Political: Authoritari-
Homosexuality anism and Democratization
Sa’diyya Shaikh
Uri Rubin Temple University, PA Liyakatali Takim
Tel Aviv University, Israel Independent Scholar

Aisha
Asnam Ja
far al-Sadiq
William Shepard Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya
John Ruedy
University of Canterbury,
Georgetown University Amin Tarzi
Christchurch, New Zealand
Bourghiba, Habib
Khalid, Khalid Muhammad Monterey Institute of International
Studies, CA
Abdullah Saeed
University of Melbourne, Australia Reeva Spector Simon Mujahidin
Coinage Columbia University Taliban
Umma Futuwwa
Osman Tastan
Walid A. Saleh Tahir Fuzile Sitoto Ankara University, Turkey
University of Toronto, Canada University of Natal, South Africa Law
Sultanates: Ghaznavid
Ada Mazalim

Islam and the Muslim World xxix
List of Contributors

Abdulkader Tayob Knut S. Vikør Brannon M. Wheeler
University of Nijmenen, The University at Bergen, Norway University of Washington
Netherlands Ahmad Ibn Idris Abu Hanifa
Hajj Salim Suwari, al- Body, Significance of
Religious Institutions John O. Voll
Madhhab
Yusuf Ali, Abdullah Georgetown University
Prophets
Islam and Islamic
Alfons H. Teipen Mahdi, Sadiq al- Gerard Wiegers
Furman University, SC Republican Brothers Leiden University, The
Empires: Umayyad Salafiyya Netherlands
Tajdid Devotional Life
Frances Trix
Turabi, Hasan al-
Ibadat
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor West, Concept of in Islam Qibla
Balkans, Islam in the
Ritual
Peter von Sivers
Berna Turam University of Utah Quintan Wiktorowicz
McGill University, Canada
Abd al-Qadir, Amir Rhodes College, TN
Nur Movement
Modernization, Political:
John Walbridge
A. Uner Turgay Participation, Political Movements,
Indiana University, Bloomington
McGill University, Canada and Parties
Bahaallah
Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal Bahai Faith Peter Lamborn Wilson
Gasprinskii, Isma
il Bay Libraries Independent Scholar
Nationalism: Turkish Madrasa Angels
Nursi, Said Suhrawardi, al-
Sufia Uddin Mark R. Woodward
Elizabeth Warnock Fernea University of Arizona
University of Vermont, Burlington University of Texas, Austin
Awami League Reform: Southeast Asia
Childhood
Nelly van Doorn-Harder Neguin Yavari
Earle Waugh
Valparaiso University, IN Columbia University
University of Alberta, Canada
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)
Atabat
Dhikr
Southeast Asia, Islam in
Muhammad Qasim Zaman
Southeast Asian Culture and Islam Mark Wegner
Brown University
Tulane University, LA
Kees Versteegh Caliphate
Succession
University of Nijmegen, The Imam
Netherlands David Westerlund Mamun, al-
Arabic Language Uppsala University, Sweden Mihna
Grammar and Lexicography Da
wa Rashidun

xxx Islam and the Muslim World
Synoptic Outline of Entries

This outline provides a general overview of the conceptual structure of the Encyclopedia of Islam
and the Muslim World. The outline is organized under nine major categories, which are further
split into twenty-five subcategories. The entries are listed alphabetically within each category or
subcategory. For ease of reference, the same entry may be listed under several categories.

Biographies: Political and other Saladin Biruni, al-
Public Figures Saleh bin Allawi Bukhari, al-

Abbas I, Shah Shar
it Shangalaji, Reza-Qoli Fadlallah, Muhammad Husayn

Abd al-Qadir, Amir Sirhindi, Shaykh Ahmad Farrakhan, Louis

Abd al-Rahman Kawakibi Tahmasp I, Shah Fatima

Abd al-Hamid Kishk (Shaykh) Uthman dan Fodio Ghannoushi, Rashid al-

Abd al-Karim Sorush Wali Allah, Shah Ghazali, al-

Abd al-Nasser, Jamal Yahya bin
Abdallah Ramiya Ghazali, Muhammad al-

Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri Zand, Karim Khan Ghazali, Zaynab al-
Abu l-Qasem Kashani Hajj Salim Suwari, al-
Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi Haj
Umar al-Tal, al-
Biographies: Religious and Cultural
Ahmad Khan, (Sir) Sayyid Hallaj, al-
Figures
Akbar Haron, Abdullah
Askiya Muhammad
Abd al-Baha
Hasan
Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal
Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis Hashemi-Rafsanjani,
Ali-Akbar
Bourghiba, Habib
Abd al-Jabbar Husayn
Erbakan, Necmeddin
Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad Ibn Husayn, Taha
Fasi, Muhammad
Allal al-
Abduh, Muhammad Husayni, Hajj Amin al-
Gasprinskii, Isma
il Bay Abu Bakr Khidr, al-
Isma
il I, Shah Abu Bakr Gumi Karaki, Shaykh
Ali
Jevdet Pasha Abu Hanifa Hilli,
Allama al-
Kemal, Namik Abu ’l-Hasan Bani-Sadr Hilli, Muhaqqiq al-
Khalid, Khalid Muhammad Abu ’l-Hudhayl al-
Allaf Ibn
Arabi
Mahdi, Sadiq al- Afghani, Jamal al-Din Ibn Battuta
Mansa Musa Aga Khan Ibn Hanbal
Marwan Ahmad, Mirza Ghulam Ibn Khaldun
Mosaddeq, Mohammad Ahmad Gran Ibn Maja
Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi Ahmad ibn Idris Ibn Rushd
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj
Aisha Ibn Sina
Nader Shah Afshar
Ali Ibn Taymiyya
Nizam al-Mulk Bab, Sayyed
Ali Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad
Nuri, Fazlallah Bahaallah Ja
far al-Sadiq
Nursi, Said Bamba, Ahmad Jamil al-Amin, Imam
Qadhdhafi, Mu
ammar al- Banna, Hasan al- Jinnah, Muhammad
Ali
Reza Shah Baqillani, al- Khamanei, Sayyed
Ali
Rushdie, Salman Basri, Hasan al- Khan, Reza of Bareilly
Sadat, Anwar al- Bazargan, Mehdi Khoi, Abol Qasem

xxxi
Synoptic Outline of Entries

Khomeini, Ruhollah Mihrab Ethnicity
Kindi, al- Ta
ziya Eunuchs
Kunti, Mukhtar al- Vernacular Islam Feminism
Madani,
Abbasi Gender
Malik, Ibn Anas Culture: Disciplines and Fields of Harem
Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir Knowledge Healing
Malcolm X Akhlaq Homosexuality
Nasai, al- Astrology Hospitality and Islam
Makassar, Shaykh Yusuf Astronomy Human Rights
Maturidi, al- Falsafa Mahr
Maududi, Abu l-A
la Kalam Marriage
Mojtahed-Shabestari, Mohammad Law Masculinities
Motahhari, Mortaza Medicine Maslaha
Mu
awiya Music Nikah
Muhammad Tasawwuf Polygamy
Muhammad, Elijah Science, Islam and Purdah
Muhammad, Warith Deen Women, Public Roles of
Muhammad Ahmad Ibn
Abdullah Veiling
Culture: Concepts
Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya

Asabiyya
Muhasibi, al- Geography: Regions

Ada
Mulla Sadra Americas, Islam in the
Adab
Naini, Mohammad Hosayn Africa, Islam in
Knowledge
Nasai, al- Balkans, Islam in the
Madhhab
Nazzam, al- Central Asia, Islam in
Sadr
Qutb, Sayyid East Asia, Islam in
Rabi
a of Basra Europe, Islam in
Rahman, Fazlur Culture: Language and Literature South Asia, Islam in
Rashid, Harun al- Arabic Language Southeast Asia, Islam in
Rida, Rashid Arabic Literature United States, Islam in the
Rumi, Jalaluddin Biography and Hagiography West, Concept of
Sadr, Muhammad Baqir al- Grammar and Lexicography
Sadr, Musa al- Persian Language and Literature
Translation Geography: Countries, Cites and
Shafi
i, al- Locales
Shaltut, Mahmud Urdu Language, Literature, and
Poetry Andalus, al-
Shari
ati,
Ali Arabia, Pre-Islam
Siba
i, Mustafa al- Vernacular Islam
Baghdad
Suhrawardi, al- Bukhara, Khanate and Emirate of
Sukayna Culture: Regional Cairo
Suyuti, al- African Culture and Islam Ethiopia
Tabari, al- American Culture and Islam Fez
Thaqafi, Mukhtar al- Central Asian Culture and Islam Holy Cities
Turabi, Hasan al- East Asian Culture and Islam Iran, Islamic Republic of
Tusi, Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan European Culture and Islam Kano
(Shaykh al-Ta
ifa) South Asian Culture and Islam Lebanon
Tusi, Nasir al-Din Southeast Asian Culture and Islam Mashhad

Umar Najaf
Umm Kulthum Culture: Other Pakistan, Islamic Republic of
Uthman ibn
Affan Dreams Qom
Yusuf Ali,
Abdullah Education Sahara
Identity, Muslim Timbuktu
Culture: Arts, Architecture, and Humor in Islam Touba
Culture Libraries Zanzibar
Architecture Rawza-Khani Zaytuna
Art
Calligraphy Family, Ethics and Society Groups, Organizations, Schools,
Clothing Childhood and Movements: Political
Dome of the Rock Conflict and Violence Arab League
Khanqah (Khanaqah, Khanga) Divorce Awami League
Manar, Manara Education Ba
th Party
Material Culture Ethics and Social Issues Communism

xxxii Islam and the Muslim World
Synoptic Outline of Entries

Intifada Coinage and Exchange Riba
Khojas Economy and Economic Institu- Shari
a
Komiteh tions Taqlid
Nahdatul Ulama (NU) Education
Organization of the Islamic Libraries Politics and Society
Conference Religious Institutions Military Raid
Refah Partisi Waqf Minorities: Dhimmis
Taliban Minorities: Offshoots of Islam
Young Ottomans History: Periods, Dynasties, Modernization
Young Turks Governments Monarchy
Arabia, Pre-Islam Nationalism
Groups, Organizations, Schools, Ayyubids Pan-Arabism
and Movements: Religious Bukhara, Khanate and Emirate of Pan-Islam
Aligarh Colonialism Pan-Turanism
Ash
arites, Asha
ira Empires: Abbasid Pasdaran
Assassins Empires: Byzantine Pluralism: Legal and Ethno-
Ahmadiyya Empires: Mongol and Il-Khanid Religious
Deoband Empires: Mogul Pluralism: Political
Fedaiyan-e Islam Empires: Ottoman Political Islam
HAMAS Empires: Safavid and Qajar Political Organization
Hizb Allah Empires: Sassanian Political Thought
Ikhwan al-Muslimin Empires: Timurid Polygamy
Ikhwan al-Safa Empires: Umayyad Reform: Arab Middle East and
Islamic Jihad Expansion North Africa
Islamic Society of North America Hijra Reform: Iran
Majlis Hijri Calendar Reform: Muslim Communities of
Muslim Student Association of Khiva, Khanate of the Russian Empire
North America Mahdist State, Mahdiyya Reform: South Asia
Salafiyya Modernity Reform: Southeast Asia
Shaykhiyya Monarchy Republican Brothers
Tablighi Jama
at Moravids Revolution: Classical Islam
Ulema Muhammad
Ali, Dynasty of Revolution: Islamic Revolution in
Umma Rashidun Iran
Usuliyya Sultanates: Delhi Revolution: Modern
Wahhabiyya Sultanates: Ghaznavid Saudi Dynasty
Youth Movements Sultanates: Mamluk Secularization
Sultanates: Modern Succession
History: Concepts Sultanates: Seljuk Tanzimat

Asabiyya Tribe Velayat-e Faqih
Dawla
Genealogy History: Catalysts of Change Religion: Groups, Movements, and
Historical Writing Globalization Sects
Hukuma al-Islamiyya, al- (Islamic Greek Civilization Ahl al-Bayt
Government) Internet Ahl al-Hadith
Modernity Liberation Movement of Iran Ahl al-Kitab
Orientalism Terrorism Ahl-e Hadis / Ahl al-Hadith
Secularism Mihna Akhbariyya
Socialism Networks, Muslim Babiyya
Traditionalism Succession Bahai Faith
Tajdid Bedouin
History: Events Travel and Travelers Fundamentalism
Religious and Political Futuwwa
Intifada Law Hojjatiyya Society
Mihna
Ada Ishraqi School
Modernization Law Islamic Salvation Front
Muharram Mazalim Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Hind
Mufti Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Islam
History: Institutions Muhtasib Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Pakistan
Caliphate Property Jama
at-e Islami
Capitalism Qanun Kharijites, Khawarij

Islam and the Muslim World xxxiii
Synoptic Outline of Entries

Khilafat Movement Mi
raj Circumcision
Liberalism Modern Thought Da
wa
Madhhab Nar Devotional Life
Modernism Niyabat-e
amma Dhikr
Mojahedin-e Khalq Prophets Dietary Laws
Mujahidin Qibla Disputation
Muhammadiyya (Muhammadiyah) Quran Du
a
Murjiites, Murjia Riba Fatwa
Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila Shirk Fitna
Nation of Islam Silsila
Ibadat
Nizari Sunna Ijtihad
Nur Movement Tafsir Khutba
Qa
ida, al- Taqiyya Martyrdom
Religious Beliefs Taqlid Muharram
Religious Institutions Tasawwuf Nawruz
Shi
a: Early Ta
ziya (Ta
ziye) Pilgrimage: Hajj
Shi
a: Imami (Twelver) Wahdat al-Wujud Pilgrimage: Ziyara
Shi
a: Isma
ili Wajib al-Wujud Ritual
Shi
a: Zaydi (Fiver) Wazifa
Tariqa Zar Religion: Relations with Non-
Traditionalism Muslims
Umma Religion: Institutions Christianity and Islam
Azhar, al- Conversion
Religion: Ideas, Beliefs, Concepts, Caliphate Crusades
and Doctrines Deoband Globalization
Allah Hisba Hinduism and Islam
Angels Khanqa (Khanaqa, Khanga) Islam and Other Religions
Asnam Madrasa Judaism and Islam
Bid
a Masjid Manicheanism
Body, Significance of
Buraq Religion: Places and Sites Religion: Titles and Offices
Dar al-Harb
Atabat Ayatollah (Ar. Ayatullah)
Dar al-Islam Dome of the Rock Hojjat al-Islam
Death Hojjatiyya Society Imam
Ghayba(t) Holy Cities Islam and Islamic
Hadith Hosayniyya Islamicate Society
Harem Imamzadah Khan
Heresy Jami
Mahdi
Imamate Karbala Marja
al-Taqlid
Jahiliyya Mashhad Molla
Janna Mihrab Mollabashi
Jahannam Minbar Qadi (Kadi, Kazi)
Jihad Najaf Saint
Kalam Sayyid
Khirqah Religion: Practices and Rituals Sharif
Mahdi Adhan Shaykh al-Islam
Miracles Bid
a Wazir

xxxiv Islam and the Muslim World
List of Maps

Maps accompany the following entries, and are located on the provided pages.

Africa, Islam in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Arabia, Pre Islam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Balkans, Islam in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Balkans, Islam in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Crusades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Europe, Islam in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Ibn Battuta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Volume one color insert
Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Muhammad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
South Asia, Islam in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
Southeast Asia, Islam in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
Sultanates: Ayyubids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659

xxxv
A

ABBAS I, SHAH (1571–1629) See also Empires: Safavid and Qajar.

Shah
Abbas I, the fifth ruler of the Safavid dynasty, ruled Iran BIBLIOGRAPHY
from 1587 until 1629, the year of his death. Shah
Abbas came Matthee, Rudolph P. The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk
to power at a time when tribal unrest and foreign invasion had for Silver, 1600–1730. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Unigreatly reduced Iran’s territory. Once on the throne he set versity Press, 1999.
out to regain the lands and authority that had been lost by his Savory, Roger. Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge, U.K.:
immediate successors. His defeat of the Uzbeks in the north- Cambridge University Press, 1980.
east and the peace he made with the Ottoman Empire, Iran’s
archenemy, enabled Shah
Abbas to reform Iran’s military Rudi Matthee
and financial system. He diminished the military power of the
tribes by creating a standing army composed of slave soldiers
who were loyal only to him. These so-called ghulams (military
slaves) were mostly Armenians and Georgians captured dur-
ABD AL-BAHA (1844–1921)
ing raids in the Caucasus. In order to increase the revenue
needed for these reforms the shah centralized state control,
Abd al-Baha
Abbas, also known as
Abbas Effendi, was the
which included the appointment of ghulams to high adminis- son of Bahaallah (Mirza Husayn
Ali, 1817–1892), the founder
trative positions. of the Bahai religion. In his final will and testament, Bahaallah designated him as his successor and authoritative expounder
With the same intent he fostered trade by reestablishing of his teachings. Born in Tehran on 23 May 1844, he grew up
road security and by building many caravan series throughout in the household of a father committed to the teachings of the
the country. Under Shah
Abbas, Isfahan became Iran’s Babi movement and consequently shared his father’s fate of
capital and most important city, endowed with a new com- exile and intermittent imprisonment until the Young Turk
mercial and administrative center grouped around a splendid revolution of 1909.
square that survives today. His genius further manifested
itself in his military skills and his astute foreign policy. He As a result,
Abd al-Baha received little formal education
halted the eastward expansion of the Ottomans, defeating and had to manage the affairs of his father’s household at a
them and taking Baghdad in 1623. To encourage trade and very early age. Despite these setbacks, he demonstrated a
thus gain treasure, he welcomed European merchants to the natural capacity for leadership and a prodigious knowledge of
Persian Gulf. He also allowed Christian missionaries to settle human history and thought.
in his country, hopeful that this might win him allies among
European powers in his anti-Ottoman struggle. Famously
Abd al-Baha corresponded with and enjoyed the respect
down to earth, Shah
Abbas was a pragmatic ruler who could of a number of the luminaries of his day, including the
be cruel as well as generous. Rare among Iranian kings, he is Russian author Leo Tolstoy and the Muslim reformer Mutoday remembered as a ruler who was concerned about his hammad
Abduh. He left behind a small portion of what is a
own people. large corpus of still-unexplored writings that include social
commentaries, interpretations, and elaborations of his fa-
A detail from a miniature painting of
Abbas I (1571–1629) ther’s works, mystical treatises, and Quranic and biblical
appears in the volume one color plates. exegeses.


Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis

Upon his release from house imprisonment in 1909,
Abd schools for adults, where traditional Quranic studies could
al-Baha traveled to North Africa, Europe, and North Amer- be taught.
ica advocating a number of reforms for all countries, including the adoption of a universal auxiliary language, global In May 1931 he founded the AUMA (also Association of
collective security, mandatory education, and full legal and Algerian Muslim Ulema), which gathered the country’s leadsocial equality for women and minorities. He also warned of a ing Muslim thinkers, initially both reformist and conservacoming war in Europe and called for a just system of global tive, and subsequently only reformist, and served as its president
government and international courts where disputes between until his death. Whereas the reformist programs promoted
nations could be resolved peacefully. through Al-Shihab had managed to reach an audience limited
to the elite educated class of the country, the AUMA became

Abd al-Baha died on 28 November 1921. According to the tool for a nationwide campaign to revive Islam, Arabic,
his will and testament, his eldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi and religious studies, as well as a center for direct social and
Rabbani, became the head of the Bahai community and the political action. Throughout the country he founded a netsole authorized interpreter of his grandfather and great- work of Islamic cultural centers that provided the means for
grandfather’s teachings. the educational initiatives he advocated and the establishment of Islamic youth groups. He also spearheaded a cam-
See also Baha
allah; Baha
i Faith. paign against Sufi brotherhoods, accusing them of introducing
blameworthy innovations to religious practice, and also of
William McCants cooperating with the colonial administration. He played an
important political role in the formation of the Algerian
Muslim Congress in 1936, which arose in reaction to the
victory of the Popular Front in France, and was active

ABD AL-HAMID IBN BADIS politically in the country until his premature death in 1940.
(1889–1940) Thanks to his activities as leader of the AUMA and to his
writing in Al-Shihab, Ibn Badis is considered by some to be

Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis was the leader of the Islamic the most important figure of the Arab-Islamic cultural revival
reformist movement in Algeria and founder of the Association in Algeria during the 1930s.
des Uléma Musulmanes Algériens (AUMA). He was born in
1889 in Constantine, where he also died in 1940. After See also Reform: Arab Middle East and North Africa;
receiving a traditional education in his hometown, Ibn Badis Salafiyya.
(locally referred to as Ben Badis) studied at the Islamic
University of Zaytuna, in Tunis, from 1908 to 1912. In the BIBLIOGRAPHY
following years he journeyed through the Middle East, par-
Merad, Ali. Le Réformisme Musulman en Algérie de 1925 a
ticularly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where he came into 1940. Paris: Mouton, 1967.
contact with modernist and reformist currents of thought
Safi, Hammadi. “Abdel Hamid Ben Badis entre les exigenspreading within orthodox Sunni Islam.
cies du dogme et la contrainte de la modernité.” In
Penseurs Maghrébins Contemporains. Casablanca: Editions
Ibn Badis became the most prominent promoter of the
EDDIF, 1993.
Islamic reformist movement in Algeria, first through his
preaching at the mosque of Sidi Lahdar in his hometown,
and, after 1925, through his intensive journalistic activity. He Claudia Gazzini
founded a newspaper, Al-Muntaqid (The critic), which closed
after a few months. Immediately afterwards, however, he
began a new and successful newspaper, Al-Shihab (The meteor), which soon became the platform of the reformist
ABD AL-HAMID KISHK (SHAYKH)
thinking in Algeria, until its closure in 1939. Through the (1933–1996)
pages of Al-Shihab, Ibn Badis spread the Salafiyya movement
in Algeria, presented his Quranic exegesis, and argued the A pioneering “cassette preacher” of the 1970s,
Abd alneed for Islamic reform and a rebirth of religion and religious Hamid Kishk was born in the Egyptian Delta village of
values within a society that, in his view, had been too influ- Shubrakhut, the son of a small merchant. Early on he experienced by French colonial rule. He further argued that the enced vision impairment, and lost his sight entirely as a young
Algerian nation had to be founded on its Muslim culture and teen. He memorized the Quran by age twelve, attended
its Arab identity, and for this reason he is also considered a religious schools in Alexandria and Cairo, then enrolled at alprecursor of Algerian nationalism. He promoted the free Azhar University. He graduated in 1962, first in his class, but
teaching of Arabic language, which had been marginalized rather than an expected nomination to the teaching faculty,
during the years of French rule, and the establishment of free he was appointed imam at a Cairo mosque.

2 Islam and the Muslim World

Abd al-Karim Sorush

Kishk ran afoul of the Nasser regime in 1965. He claimed lost books, Sharh al-usul al-khamsa by Qiwam al-Din Mankdim
he was instructed to denounce Sayyid Qutb, refused, and and al-Muhit bi’l-taklif by Ibn Mattawayh, are also available.
subsequently was arrested and tortured in prison. In the early
1970s, cassette recordings of his sermons and lessons began See also Kalam; Mutazilites, Mutazila.
to proliferate throughout Egypt; by the late 1970s he was
arguably the most popular preacher in the Arab world. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Attendance at his mosque skyrocketed, reaching 100,000 for Frank, Richard M. “The Autonomy of the Human Agent
Friday sermons by the early 1980s. In September 1981 he was in the Teaching of
Abd al-Gabbar.” Le Museon 95
arrested as part of Anwar al-Sadat’s crackdown on political (1982): 323–355.
opponents, and was in prison when Sadat was assassinated. Heemskerk, M. T. Suffering in the Mu
tazilite Theology: Abd
Upon his release he regained his following. He published his al-Jabbar’s Teaching on Pain and Divine Justice. Leiden:
autobiography, The Story of My Days, in 1986. He died a Brill, 2000.
decade later, in 1996. Hourani, George F. Islamic Rationalism: The Ethics of Abd al-
Jabbar. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1971.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Peters, J. R. T. M. God’s Created Speech: A Study in the
Jansen, Johannes J. G. The Neglected Duty: The Creed of Sadat’s Speculative Theology of the Mu
tazili Qadi l-Qudat Abul-
Assassins and Islamic Resurgence in the Middle East. New Hasan
Abd al-Jabbar bn Ahmad al-Hamadani. Leiden:
York and London: Macmillan, 1986. Brill, 1976.
Kepel, Gilles. Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and
Pharaoh. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Califor- M. Sait Özervarli
nia Press, 1993.

Joel Gordon

ABD AL-KARIM SORUSH (1945– )

Abd al-Karim Sorush is the pen-name of Hassan Haj-Faraj

ABD AL-JABBAR (935–1025) Dabbagh. Born in 1945 in Tehran, Sorush attended Alavi
High School, an alternative school that offered a rigorous

Abd al-Jabbar was a Mu
tazilite theologian and Shafi
ite curriculum of Islamic studies in addition to the state-mandated,
jurist, known as Qadi
Abd al-Jabbar b. Ahmad al-Hamadani. standardized education in math and sciences. He studied
He was born in Asadabad in Iran about 935, studied kalam Islamic law and exegesis with Reza Ruzbeh, one of the
with Abu Ishaq al-
Ayyash in Basra, and associated with the founders of the school. He attended Tehran University, and
prominent Mu
tazilite scholar Abu
Abdullah al-Basri in in 1969 graduated with a degree in pharmacology. He contin-
Baghdad.
Abd al-Jabbar was appointed as chief judge of Rayy ued his postgraduate education in history and philosophy of
with a great authority over other regions in northern Iran by science at Chelsea College in London. In 1979 he returned to
the Buyid wazir Sahib b.
Abbad in 977. Following his Iran after the revolution, and soon thereafter was appointed
dismissal from the post after the death of Ibn
Abbad, he by Ayatollah Khomeini to the Cultural Revolution Council.
devoted his life to teaching. In 999 he made a pilgrimage to He resigned from this controversial post in 1983.
Mecca through Baghdad, where he spent some time. He
taught briefly in Kazvin (1018–1019) and died in 1025 in Ray. In his most celebrated book, Qabz va Bast-i Teorik-i
Shari
at (The theoretical constriction and expansion of the
As the teacher of the well-known Mu
tazilites of the shari
a), Sorush developed a general critique of dogmatic
eleventh century, such as Abu Rashid al-Nisaburi, Ibn interpretations of religion. He argued that, when turned into
Mattawayh, Abu ’l-Husayn al-Basri, and as the master of a dogma, religion becomes ideological and loses its universal-
Mu
tazilism in its late period,
Abd al-Jabbar elaborated and ity. He held that religious knowledge is inevitably historical
expanded the teachings of Bahshamiyya, the subgroup named and culturally contingent, and that it is distinct from religion,
after Abu Hashim al-Jubbai. He synthesized some of the the truth of which is solely possessed by God. He posited that
Mu
tazilite views with Sunni doctrine on the relation of culture, language, history, and human subjectivity mediate
reason and revelation, and came close to the Shi
ite position the comprehension of the revealed text. Therefore, human
on the question of leadership (imama). He is also a significant understandings of the physical world, through science, for
source of information on ancient Iranian and other monothe- instance, and the changing nature of the shared values of
istic religions. human societies (such as citizenship and social and political
rights) inform and condition religious knowledge.

Abd al-Jabbar wrote many works on kalam, especially on
the defense of the Quran, and on the Prophet of Islam. Some There was a contradiction between Sorush’s understandof his books, including most of his twenty-volume work al- ing of epistemological problems of human knowledge, which
Mughni, have been published. Commentaries on two of his he saw as logical and methodical, and his emphasis on the

Islam and the Muslim World 3

Abd al-Nasser, Jamal

historical contingencies of the hermeneutics of the divine Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez Canal Company. The
text. This contradiction was resolved in his later writing in tripartite British-French-Israeli invasion failed to topple his
favor of a more hermeneutical approach. In his early work, he regime and solidified his reputation. Frustrated with the pace
was influenced by analytical philosophy and skepticism of a of social and economic reform, in the early 1960s Nasser
post-positivist logic, whereas in his later writings he adopted promoted a series of socialist decrees nationalizing key seca more hermeneutical approach to the meaning of the sacred tors of industry, agriculture, finance, and the arts. Egypt’s
text. In his earlier work he put forward epistemological relations with the Soviet bloc improved, but Nasser never
questions about the limits and truthfulness of claims regard- turned entirely away from the West. In regional affairs the
ing knowledge, but in two important later books, Siratha-yi years after Suez were marked by a series of setbacks. The
mustaqim (1998, Straight paths) and Bast-e tajrubih-e Nabavi United Arab Republic (1958–1961) ended with Syria’s cessa-
(1999, The expansion of the prophetic experience), he em- tion, and the Yemeni civil war (1962–1967) entangled Egypphasized the reflexivity and plurality of human understand- tian troops in a quagmire.
ing. In his plural usage of the Quranic phrase “straight
paths,” Sorush offered a radical break with both modernist Many contend that Nasser never recovered from the
and orthodox traditions in Islamic theology. disastrous defeat by Israel in June 1967. Yet he changed the
face of Egypt, erasing class privileges, narrowing social gaps,
In the 1990s, Sorush emerged as one the most influential and ushering in an era of optimism. If Egyptians fault his
Muslim thinkers in Iran. His theology contributed to the failure to democratize and debate the wisdom of Arab socialemergence of a generation of Muslim reformers who chal- ism or the state’s secular orientation, many still recall his
lenged the legitimization of the Islamic Republic’s rule based populist intentions. When he died suddenly of a heart attack
on divine sources rather than on democratic principles and on 28 September 1970, millions accompanied his coffin to
popular consent. the grave.

See also Iran, Islamic Republic of; Khomeini, Ruhollah. See also Nationalism: Arab; Pan-Arabism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sadri, Mahmoud, and Sadri, Ahmad, eds. Reason, Freedom, &
Gordon, Joel. Nasser’s Blessed Movement: Egypt’s Free Officers
Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of
Abdolkarim Soroush.
and the July Revolution. 2d ed. Cairo: American University
Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
in Cairo Press, 1996.
Jankowski, James. Nasser’s Egypt, Arab Nationalism, and the
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
United Arab Republic. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 2002.

Joel Gordon

ABD AL-NASSER, JAMAL
(1918–1970)
The Egyptian leader who dominated two decades of Arab
ABD AL-QADIR, AMIR
history, Jamal
Abd al-Nasser was born 15 January 1918, the (1807–1883)
son of a postal official. Raised in Alexandria and Cairo, he
entered the military academy and was commissioned in 1938. During the early nineteenth century,
Abd al-Qadir governed
Thereafter, he joined a secret Muslim Brotherhood cell, a state in Algeria. His family, claiming descent from Muhamwhere he met fellow dissidents with whom he later founded mad, led a Qadiriyya brotherhood center (zawiya) in western
the Free Officers. On 23 July 1952 the Free Officers seized Algeria. In 1831 the French conquered the port of Oran from
power; within a year they outlawed political parties and the Ottomans. Fighting broke out in the Oranais among
established a republic. In 1954, they dismissed the figurehead those tribes formerly subjected to Turkish taxes and those
president Muhammad Najib (Naguib) and repressed all op- privileged to collect them. The Moroccan sultan, failing to
position. Elected president in June 1956, Nasser ruled until pacify the tribes on his border, designated
Abd al-Qadir’s
his death. Under his leadership Egypt remained a one-party influential but aging father as his deputy. He, in turn, had
state. The ruling party changed names several times; the Arab tribal leaders proclaim his son commander of the faithful
Socialist Union, formed in 1962, survived until 1978 when (amir al-muminin) in 1832.
Nasser’s successor, Anwar al-Sadat, abolished it.
The highly educated and well-traveled new amir negoti-
A charismatic leader, Nasser drew regional acclaim and ated two treaties with France (1834–1837). Happy to cede the
international notoriety for his championship of pan-Arabism job of tribal pacification to an indigenous leader, the French
and his leadership role in the Non-Aligned Movement. His acknowledged him as the sovereign of western Algeria.
Abd
popularity soared during the 1956 Suez Crisis, sparked by al-Qadir received French money and arms with which he

4 Islam and the Muslim World

Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri

organized an administration, diplomatic service, and supply from various Muslim countries aimed at charting the reform
services, including storage facilities, a foundry, and textile of Muslim peoples.
workshops, for a standing army of six thousand men. Unfortunately, frequent disputes, and even occasional battles, punc- See also Modernization, Political: Administrative, Militured the treaties. The final rupture came when
Abd al- tary, and Judicial Reform; Modernization, Political:
Qadir began expanding into eastern Algeria. In response, the Authoritarianism and Democratization; Moderniza-
French decided on a complete conquest of Algeria and tion, Political: Constitutionalism; Modernization,
destroyed
Abd al-Qadir’s state (1839–1847), exiling him to Political: Participation, Political Movements, and
Damascus. During his exile, the amir immersed himself in Parties.
religious studies. He reemerged briefly into the public eye
when riots shook Damascus in July 1860. It was then that BIBLIOGRAPHY
Muslim resentment against perceived advantages enjoyed by Husry, Khaldun S. Three Reformers: A Study in Modern Arab
Christians under the Ottoman reform edict of 1839 exploded Political Thought. Beirut: Khayats, 1966.
into widespread killings and lootings. Virtually alone among
Kramer, Martin. Islam Assembled: The Advent of the Muslim
the notables of Damascus,
Abd al-Qadir shielded Christians Congresses. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.
from Muslim attackers.

See also Tasawwuf. Sohail H. Hashmi

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aouli, Smaï; Redjala, Ramdane; and Zoummeroff, Philippe.
ABD AL-RAZZAQ AL-SANHURI
Abd el-Kader. Paris: Fayard, 1994.
(1895–1971)
Danziger, Raphael. Abd al-Qadir and the Algerians: Resistance
to the French and Internal Consolidation New York: Homes

Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri was one of the most distinguished
& Meier, 1977.
jurists and principal architects of modern Arab civil laws. Al-
Sanhuri, a native of Alexandria, Egypt, obtained his law
Peter von Sivers degree from what was then known as the Khedival School of
Law of Cairo in 1917. He held different public posts including that of assistant prosecutor at the Mixed Courts of
Mansura and as a lecturer at the Shari
a School for Judges. In

ABD AL-RAHMAN KAWAKIBI 1921, he was awarded a scholarship to study law at the
(1849?–1902) University of Lyon in France. In France, he wrote two
doctoral dissertations, one on English law and the other on
An Arab nationalist and reformer,
Abd al-Rahman Kawakibi the subject of the caliphate in the modern age. In 1926, alwas born in Aleppo, Syria, where he was educated and worked Sanhuri returned to Egypt where he became a law professor
as an official and journalist until being forced by Ottoman at the National University (now the Cairo University), and
opposition to relocate to Cairo in 1898. He joined the circle eventually became the dean of the law faculty. Because of his
of Arab intellectuals surrounding Muhammad
Abduh and involvement in politics, and defense of the Egyptian Consti-
Rashid Rida. Kawakibi’s ideas are elaborated in two books, tution, he was fired from his post in 1936, and left Egypt to
Tabai
al-istibdad (Characteristics of tyranny) and Umm al- become the dean of the Law College in Baghdad.
qura (Mother of cities). In the first, he argues that the
Muslims’s political decline is the result of their straying from After one year, he returned to Egypt where he held several
original Islamic principles and the advent of mystical and high-level cabinet posts before becoming the president of the
fatalist interpretations. Such passivity, he argues, plays into Council of State in 1949. Initially, al-Sanhuri supported the
the hands of despotic rulers, who historically have benefited movement of the Free Officers who overthrew the Egyptian
from false interpretations of Islam. The book was a condem- monarch in 1952, but because of al-Sanhuri’s insistence on a
nation of the rule of the Ottoman Turks, and particularly of return to civilian democratic rule and his defense of civil
the sultan
Abd al-Hamid II. A revival of Islamic civilization rights, he was ousted from his position and persecuted. After
could come only after fresh interpretation of law (ijtihad), 1954, al-Sanhuri withdrew from politics and focused his
educational reforms, and sweeping political change, begin- efforts on scholarship and modernizing the civil codes of
ning with the institution of an Arab caliphate in the place of several Arab countries. Al-Sanhuri heavily influenced the
the Ottoman Turks. The theme of renewed Arab leadership drafting of the civil codes of Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and
in the Muslim umma is developed in the second book. The Kuwait. One year before his death in Egypt, al-Sanhuri
title is taken from a Quranic reference to Mecca, where completed a huge multivolume commentary on civil law,
Kawakibi places a fictional conference of representatives called al-Wasit fi sharh al-qanun al-madani, which is still

Islam and the Muslim World 5

Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad Ibn

considered authoritative in many parts of the Arab world. He for intercession with God. More generally, following a line of
also wrote several highly influential works on Islamic con- argument developed much earlier by Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn
Abd
tractual law, the most famous of which are Masadir al-haqq fi al-Wahhab challenged the authority of the religious scholars
al-fiqh al-Islami and Nazariyyat al-aqd fi al-fiqh al-Islami. One (ulema), not only of his own time, but also the majority of
of al-Sanhuri’s most notable accomplishments was that he those in preceding generations. These scholars had injected
integrated and reconciled the civil law codes, which were unlawful innovations (bid
a) into Islam, he argued. In order to
French based, with classical Islamic legal doctrines. For restore the strict monotheism (tawhid) of true Islam, it was
instance, he is credited with making Egyptian civil law more necessary to strip the pristine Islam of human additions and
consistent with Islamic law. speculations and implement the laws contained in the Quran
as interpreted by the Prophet and his immediate companions.
See also Law; Modernization, Political: Constitution- Thus, Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab called for the reopening of ijtihad
alism. (independent legal judgment) by qualified persons to reform
Islam, but the end to which his ijtihad led was a conservative,
BIBLIOGRAPHY literal reading of certain parts of the Quran.
Hill, Enid. Al-Sanhuri and Islamic Law. Cairo: American
University of Cairo Press, 1987. Aspects of Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab’s teachings, including
asceticism, simplicity of faith, and emphasis on an egalitarian
Khaled Abou El-Fadl community, quickly drew followers to his cause. But his
condemnation of the alleged moral laxity of society, his
challenge to the ulema, and to the political authority that
supported them estranged him from his townspeople and,

ABD AL-WAHHAB, MUHAMMAD some claim, even from his own family. In 1740, he returned to
IBN (1703–1792) his native village of
Uyayna, where the local ruler (amir)

Uthman b. Bishr adopted his teachings and began to act on
Muhammad Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab was a religious scholar and some of them, such as destroying tombs in the area. When
conservative reformer whose teachings were elaborated by this activity caused a popular backlash, Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab
his followers into the doctrines of Wahhabism. Ibn
Abd al- moved on to Dir
iyya, a small town in the Najd near present-
Wahhab was born in the small town of
Uyayna located in the day Riyadh. Here he forged an alliance with the amir Muham-
Najd territory of north central Arabia. He came from a family mad b. Sa
ud (d. 1765), who pledged military support on
of Hanbali scholars and received his early education from his behalf of Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab’s religious vocation. Ibn
Abd
father, who served as judge (qadi) and taught hadith and law at al-Wahhab spent the remainder of his life in Dir
iyya, teachthe local mosque schools. Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab left
Uyayna ing in the local mosque, counseling first Muhammad b. Sa
ud
at an early age, and probably journeyed first to Mecca for the and then his son
Abd al-
Aziz (d. 1801), and spreading his
pilgrimage and then continued to Medina, where he re- teachings through followers in the Najd and Iraq.
mained for a longer period. Here he was influenced by the
See also Wahhabiyya.
lectures of Shaykh
Abdallah b. Ibrahim al-Najdi on the neo-
Hanbali doctrines of Ibn Taymiyya.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
From Medina, Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab traveled to Basra, Philby, Harry St. John Bridger. Arabia. New York:
where he apparently remained for some time, and then to Scribners, 1930.
Isfahan. In Basra he was introduced directly to an array of
Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. Islam in Modern History. Princeton,
mystical (Sufi) practices and to Shi
ite beliefs and rituals. This N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1957.
encounter undoubtedly reinforced his earlier beliefs that
Islam had been corrupted by the infusion of extraneous and
Sohail H. Hashmi
heretical influences. The beginning of his reformist activism
may be traced to the time when he left Basra around 1739 to
return to the Najd.

Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab rejoined his family in Huraymila,
ABDUH, MUHAMMAD
where his father had recently relocated. Here he composed (1849–1905)
the small treatise entitled Kitab al-tawhid (Book of unity), in
which he most clearly outlines his religio-political mission. Muhammad
Abduh was one of the most influential Muslim
He castigates not only the doctrines and practices of Sufism reformers and jurists of the nineteenth century.
Abduh was
and Shi
ism, but also more widespread popular customs born in the Nile River delta in northern Egypt and received a
common to Sunnis as well, such as performing pilgrimages to traditional Islamic education in Tanta. He graduated from althe graves of pious personages and beseeching the deceased Azhar University in Cairo in 1877, where he taught for the

6 Islam and the Muslim World
Abu Bakr

next two years. It was during this period that he met Jamal al- philosophers, he argues that reason and revelation are sepa-
Din Afghani, whose influence upon
Abduh’s thought over rate but inextricably linked sources for ethics: “The ground of
the next decade would be profound. When Afghani was moral character is in beliefs and traditions and these can be
expelled from Egypt in 1879,
Abduh was also briefly exiled built only on religion. The religious factor is, therefore, the
from Cairo to his native village. He returned to Cairo the most powerful of all, in respect both of public and of private
following year to become editor of the official government ethics. It exercises an authority over men’s souls superior to
gazette, al-Waqai
al-Misriyya (Egyptian events), and began that of reason, despite man’s uniquely rational powers” (p. 106).
publishing articles on the need for reform in the country.
When the British occupied Egypt following the
Urabi revolt See also Afghani, Jamal al-Din; Reform: Arab Middle
of 1882,
Abduh was sentenced to three years’s exile for East and North Africa; Rida, Rashid; Salafiyya.
assisting the nationalists. He lived briefly in Beirut before
joining Afghani in Paris, where the two would publish the BIBLIOGRAPHY
short-lived but highly influential journal al-
Urwa al-wuthqa
Abduh, Muhammad. The Theology of Unity. Translated by
(“The firmest grip,” based on the Quranic references 2:256 Ishaq Musa
ad and Kenneth Cragg. London: George
and 31:22).
Abduh returned to Beirut following the journal’s Allen & Unwin, 1966.
demise in 1884, and it was during this sojourn that he first met Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798–1939.
Rashid Rida, who would become his chief biographer and Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
most distinguished disciple. Kerr, Malcolm H. Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal
Theories of Muhammad
Abduh and Rashid Rida. Berkeley:
In 1888, following his increasing estrangement from University of California Press, 1966.
Afghani and a consequent rethinking of his earlier revolutionary ideas,
Abduh was allowed to return to Cairo. He soon
Sohail H. Hashmi
began a rapid ascent in Egyptian judicial and political circles.
Beginning as a judge in the new “native courts” created by the
Egyptian government,
Abduh became a member of the
newly created administrative board for al-Azhar University in ABU BAKR (573–634)
1895. In 1899, he was appointed a member of the Legislative
Council, an advisory body serving at the behest of the Abu Bakr b. Abi Quhafa, the first caliph (r. 632–634), and a
khedive, the ruler of Egypt, and more importantly became in member of the clan of Taym of the tribe of the Quraysh, was
the same year the grand mufti, or the chief Islamic jurist, of the first adult male convert to Islam, and the Prophet’s close
Egypt. As the head of Egypt’s religious law courts,
Abduh companion. A merchant and an expert on the genealogies of
championed reforms that he saw as necessary to make shari
a the Arab tribes, Abu Bakr came to be known as al-Siddiq, the
relevant to modern problems. He argued that the early truthful, or the one who trusts, a reference to the fact that he
generations of Muslims (the salaf al-salihin, hence the name alone immediately believed the Prophet’s story of his night
Salafiyya, which is given to
Abduh and his disciples) had journey to Jerusalem. Recognized even in Mecca as the
produced a vibrant civilization because they had creatively foremost member of the Muslim community after Muhaminterpreted the Quran and hadith to answer the needs of mad, he is credited with the purchase and release of several
their times. Such creative jurisprudence (ijtihad) was needed slaves, including Bilal, renowned for proclaiming the first
in the present,
Abduh urged. In particular, modern jurists Muslim call to prayer. Abu Bakr was chosen by Muhammad
must consider public welfare (maslaha) over dogma when to accompany him on his “flight” or hijra to Medina in 622
rendering judgments. The legal opinions (fatwas) he wrote C.E. He became Muhammad’s father-in-law when his young
for the government and private individuals on such issues as daughter,
Aisha, married the Prophet.
polygamy, divorce, and the status of non-Muslims bore the
imprint of his reformist attitudes. Taking the title Khalifat rasul Allah, meaning Successor to
the Messenger of God, Abu Bakr became the first caliph of
During the last years of his life,
Abduh collaborated with Islam upon Muhammad’s death in 632 C.E. Just before his
Rashid Rida in publishing the journal al-Manar, founded by death, Abu Bakr refused to recall the expedition sent to Syria.
Rida in 1898. The journal became a forum for not only At the same time, he was forced to battle the wars of Apostasy,

Abduh’s legal rulings and reformist essays, but also a Quranic or Ridda, against the Yemen, Yamama, and the tribes of Asad,
commentary that had reached the middle of the fourth sura Ghatafan, and Tamim, who refused to pay the tithe or zakat,
(chapter) when
Abduh died in 1905. Rida would continue which was considered an integral part of accepting Islam. It
publishing the journal until his death in 1935. was because of the death of many leaders during these battles
that Abu Bakr, on the advice of
Umar, ordered Zayd b.
The most systematic presentation of
Abduh’s approach Thabit to compile a collection of the Quranic verses.
to Islamic reform is found in his essay Risalat al-tawhid (The
theology of unity). In opposition to European positivist See also Caliphate; Succession.

Islam and the Muslim World 7
Abu Bakr Gumi

BIBLIOGRAPHY See also Modern Thought; Political Islam; Wahhabiyya.
Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphate.
London: Longman Group Ltd., 1986. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Motzki, Harald. “The Collection of the Quran: A Reconsid- Loimeier, Roman. Islamic Reform and Political Change in
eration of Western Views in Light of Recent Methodo- Northern Nigeria. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University
logical Developments.” Der Islam 78 (2001): 1–34. Press, 1997.
Watt, Montgomery W. “Abu Bakr.” In Encyclopedia of Islam. Tsiga, Ismaila A. Sheikh Abubakar Gumi: Where I Stand.
2d ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960. Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum Books Ltd., 1992.

Rizwi Faizer Roman Loimeier

ABU BAKR GUMI (1922–1992) ABU HANIFA (699–767)
Abu Hanifa al-Nu
man b. Thabit b. Zurti was the eponymous
Abu Bakr Gumi, born in Gumi/Sokoto province, northern
founder of the Hanafi school (madhhab) of Islamic law. His
Nigeria, was a leading personality in the development of the
birth dates are given variously but the year 699 is considered
Nigerian Islamic reform movement and author of a number
the most sound based on many biographical dictionaries. Abu
of influential works, such as Al-
aqida as-sahiha bi-muwafaqat
Hanifa died and was buried in Baghdad, though sources differ
ash-shari
a (The sound faith according to the prescriptions of
concerning the month of his death. A shrine was built in 1066
the shari
a) and Radd al-adhhan fi ma
ani al-quran (Reconsidover the site of his tomb, and the quarter of the city is called
ering the meaning of the holy Quran).
the al-A
zamiyyah after Abu Hanifa’s epithet al-Imam al-
Gumi was one of the first northern Nigerians to experi- A
zam, the “Great Imam.”
ence a dual education in the Islamic sciences as well as in the
In his Jawahir al-mudiyya, Ibn Abi al-Wafa provides a
British colonial education system. After completing his
genealogy, on the authority of Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. Muham-
Quranic as well as primary school education, Gumi attended
mad al-Sarifini (d. 1243), which links Abu Hanifa’s family
the Sokoto Middle School from where he went to the Kano
with the Sassanian kings, the Kayyanid kings, and Judah, the
Law School to be trained as a qadi (Muslim judge) from 1942
eldest son of the prophet Jacob. Many sources mention that
to 1947. After graduation he worked briefly as scribe to Alkali
Abu Hanifa was of Persian descent, that his family were
Attahiru in Sokoto. In 1947 he became a teacher at the Kano
sellers of silk. Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi (d. 1374) reports that
Law School and was transferred to Maru, Sokoto Province, in
Abu Hanifa’s grandfather Zurti (also given as Zuta) is said to
1949, where he had a confrontation with a local imam as well
have been a slave brought from Kabul to Kufa where the
as the sultan of Sokoto over the question of tayammum, the
family was attached to the Arab tribe of Taym-Allah b.
ritual ablution with sand. In the context of this confrontation
Tha
laba. Other sources claim that Abu Hanifa’s family was
with the established authorities Gumi was supported by
from Babylon, or the city of Anbar (on the Euphrates about
Ahmadu Bello, the future prime minister of northern Nigeforty miles from Baghdad).
ria, who in 1955 called upon Gumi to act as his advisor in
religious affairs and in 1956 appointed him deputy grand kadi Most Muslim biographical dictionaries focus on the relaof northern Nigeria. In this position, and later (from 1962) as tive authority of Abu Hanifa as a transmitter of hadith
grand kadi, Gumi was able to carry out a number of reforms in reports. It is said that a number of the younger ahaba
the judicial system of northern Nigeria and to fight effec- (Companions) were still alive during the lifetime of Abu
tively against the influence of the Sufi brotherhoods, especially Hanifa but he only transmitted hadith from one of these, the
the Qadiriyya and the Tijaniyya. After Bello’s assassination in well-known Anas b. Malik (d. 709 or 711). Among the tabi
un
1966, Gumi lost his institutional backing and started to (Followers) from whom he transmitted hadith reports are
develop a network of followers that became, in the 1970s,
Ata b. Abi Rabah (d. 732 or 733), al-Sha
bi (d. 724) and
northern Nigeria’s first reformist Muslim organization, the Nafi
, the client of Ibn
Umar. Many authorities regard Abu
Jama
at izalat al-bid
a wa-iqamat as-sunna (Association for Hanifa as a trustworthy transmitter but others question the
the removal of innovation and for the establishment of the authority of his sources. In his Mizan al-i
tidal, al-Dhahabi
sunna, 1978). Gumi remained influential in Nigerian relig- cites opinions that Abu Hanifa should be considered weak as a
ious politics in the 1980s when he acted as advisor to presi- transmitter of hadith, and that his legal opinions rely upon
dents Shehu Shagari (1979–1983) and Ibrahim Babangida personal opinion (ray). Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi (d. 1083) criti-
(1985–1993). From 1962, Gumi was also a member of the cizes Abu Hanifa for having received most of his knowledge
Rabitat al-
alam al-Islami (Muslim World League), where he of hadith reports from Ibrahim al-Nakhai rather than from
sat in the Legal Committee, and a member of the World the sahabah who were still reliable transmitters during his
Supreme Council for the Affairs of Mosques. lifetime.

8 Islam and the Muslim World
Abu ’l-Hasan Bani-Sadr

In terms of his reputation as a jurist, Abu Hanifa is al-
Alim wa al-muta
allim and the Fiqh al-absat, which contain
credited with founding the Hanafi school of law, and is given a series of questions and answers between Abu Hanifa and his
the epithet “imam” because of this role. In his Tadhkirat al- disciple Abu Muti
al-Balkhi (d. 799). Extant is a letter written
huffaz, al-Dhahabi repeats a conversation in which Yazid b. by Abu Hanifa to
Uthman al-Batti, which resembles the
Harun says that Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 778) was more knowl- perspective found in these other works. Also attributed to
edgeable in hadith but Abu Hanifa was more knowledgeable Abu Hanifa is the Fiqh al-akbar, the so-called Fiqh al-akbar II,
in jurisprudence and law. Even Muhammad b. Idris al-Shafi
i and the Wasiyyat Abi Hanifa. The ten creedal articles of the
(d. 820), whose legal opinions often rival those of the Hanafis, Fiqh al-akbar closely parallel the views found in the Fiqh alis reported to have attributed great learning in jurisprudence absat, but scholars such as Arent Jan Wensinck have assigned
to Abu Hanifa. Many sources refer to Hammad b. Abi later dates to the Fiqh al-akbar II and the Wasiyyat Abi Hanifa,
Sulayman (d. 738) as Abu Hanifa’s primary teacher in juris- though they may have been influenced by the earlier works.
prudence, and Joseph Schacht considers Abu Hanifa to have The creedal works of later Hanafis such as Tahawi and Abu
adapted the bulk of his legal opinions from him. Yazid b. al-Layth al-Samarqandi (d. 993) may also show the influence
Harun also states that he did not know anyone more pious of Abu Hanifa’s theology. Because of Abu Hanifa’s close
and rational than Abu Hanifa. Bishr b. al-Walid reports that association to these creedal statements, later scholars have
Abu Hanifa used to pray all night, and that he never learned emphasized the influence of Abu Hanifa on the development
or transmitted a hadith that he did not himself practice. of widespread and officially sanctioned definitions of Muslim belief.
After Abu Hanifa’s death his legal opinions and the hadith
reports that he transmitted were compiled into texts. There See also Law; Madhhab.
are no extant collections of works composed by Abu Hanifa
himself. His legal opinions can be found in the Ikhtilaf Abi BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hanifa wa Ibn Abi Layla and the al-Radd
ala siyar al-Awza
i,
Abu Zahra, Muhammad. Abu Hanifa. 2d ed. Cairo: 1947.
both attributed to Abu Yusuf (d. 798), one of Abu Hanifa’s
closest disciples. To another of Abu Hanifa’s disciples, Muham- Dhahabi, Shams al-Din Muhammad b. Ahmad. Mizan
al-i
tidal fi naqd al-rijal. Beirut: Dar al-Ma
arif, n.d.
mad al-Shaybani (d. 805), is attributed the al-Hujjah fi ikhtilaf
ahl Kufah wa ahl al-Madinah and the Kitab al-asl fi al-furu
, Dhahabi, Shams al-Din Muhammad b. Ahmed. Kitab tadhkirat
both containing the legal opinions of Abu Hanifa which later al-huffaz. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-
Ilmiyya, n.d.
became the basis for Hanafi legal scholarship. Some of the Dhahabi, Shams al-Din Muhammad b. Ahmed. Siyyar a
lam
hadith reports transmitted by Abu Hanifa can be found al-nubala. Beirut: Mu
assasat al-Risala, 1993.
collected in the Sharh ma
ani al-athar and Bayan mushkil al- Ibn Abi al-Wafa,
Abd al-Qadir b. Muhammad. Al-Jawahir
hadith of Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Tahawi (d. 933), and in the al-mudiyya fi tabaqat al-Hanafiyya. Beirut: Muassasat allater Jami
masanid Abi Hanifa compiled by Abu al-Muayyad Risala, 1993.
Muhammad b. Mahmud al-Khwarizmi (d. 1257). Ibn Hajar, Ahmad b.
Ali. Tahdhib al-tahdhib. Beirut: Dar al-
Kutub al-
Ilmiyya, 1994.
Classical Hanafi jurisprudence developed primarily as
Ibn al-
Imad, Abd al-Hayy. Shadharat al-dhahab fi akhbar min
compendia and commentaries on the legal opinions of Abu
dhahab. Beirut: Dar al-Afaq al-Jadida, n.d.
Hanifa and their interpretation by his main students, Abu
Schacht, Joseph. Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence. 2d
Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani. The Mukhtasar fi al-fiqh
ed. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1953.
Abi Hanifa al-Nu
man by Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Quduri (d.
1037) contains a collection of the opinions of these three Wensinck, Arent Jan. The Muslim Creed: Its Genesis and
Hanafi authorities, as does the Kitab al-mabsut of Muhammad Historical Development. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1932.
b. Ahmad al-Sarakhsi (d. 1090). The works of later Hanafi
scholars such as Abu Bakr b. Mas
ud al-Kasani (d. 1191),
Ali
b. Abi Bakr al-Marghinani (d. 1197),
Abdallah b. Ahmad al- Brannon M. Wheeler
Nasafi (d. 1310),
Uthman b.
Ali al-Zayla
i (d. 1342), Ibn
Nujaym (d. 1562), and
Abd al-Hakim al-Afghani (d. 1907)
are largely based upon these earlier compilations of opinions
going back to Abu Hanifa and his immediate disciples. These ABU ’L-HASAN BANI-SADR (1933– )
works, building upon the opinions of Abu Hanifa and his
main students, show the influence of Abu Hanifa upon the Abu ’l-Hasan Bani-Sadr, born in 1933 to a clerical family
development of Islamic legal theory and case law. from the city of Hamadan, became the first president-elect of
the Islamic Republic of Iran after the 1979 revolution. He
Abu Hanifa is also credited with a number of creedal and studied Islamic law and economics at the University of
theological works, though some scholars assign the reaction Tehran, then continued his studies at the Sorbonne, in Paris,
of these to followers of Abu Hanifa. Two such works are the where his focus was on economics and the role of Islam in

Islam and the Muslim World 9
Abu ’l-Hudhayl al-
Allaf

social change. Like many of his contemporaries, who com- beliefs. His nephew and critic Abu Ishaq al-Nazzam as well as
bined western European training with an Islamic education, Yahya b. Bishr and Abu Ya
qub al-Shahham were among his
he developed a focus on interpreting Islam as a “unitarian” closest students.
ideology (towhidi) for economic and cultural independence
from the West, based on the notion of divine unity. Abu ’l-Hudhayl’s numerous works are not extant, though
some of his views are quoted in early kalam sources. His
Bani-Sadr lived in exile in Europe from 1963 until 1979, as metaphysics of created beings, indivisible atoms, motion, and
a result of his political activities at Tehran University. In the cause-effect process of generation (tawallud) provoked
Europe he became one of the most important activists of the intellectual discussions and controversies among Mu
tazilites.
National Front in Iran and abroad and a key organizer of In order to protect the unity (tawhid) of God as the main
Iranian students outside Iran. He came in contact with principle, he denied the essential nature of things as well as
Ayatollah Khomeini first in 1972, in Najaf, and later in the potentiality of being prior to its existence. He also
France where Khomeini spent his last days in exile. In 1980, rejected a division between the essence and attributes of God.
Bani-Sadr became the first president-elect of the Islamic Abu l-Hudhayl found no contradiction between the author-
Republic of Iran with 75 percent of the vote. He did not ity of God and His doing good actions with wisdom, since it is
represent any organization or political party. In contrast, his unthinkable that God does evil or injustice with a total
opponents in the Islamic Republic Party (IRP) were well- absence of deficiency in Him. Therefore, He would only
organized and made advances in the parliamentary election, create the best and the most convenient (aslah) circumstances
and in the spring of 1980 they dominated the parliament. In for His creatures.
1980 and 1981 effective power shifted to the IRP parliamen-
Abu ’l-Hudhayl’s atomistic ontology and highly philotary majority who named Prime Minister Raja I ignoring
sophical terminology shaped the mind of later Mu’tazilites,
Bani-Sadr’s candidates for the cabinet. He later lost his
and his systematic reflections on theological topics make him
presidency to conservative rivals in the IRP, as a result of a
one of the most influential thinkers of Mu
tazilite thought at
parliamentary vote of incompetence and impeachment. Later
the beginning of its classical age.
he fled the country and once again joined the exiled opposition in Paris. See also Mutazilites, Mutazila.
See also Iran, Islamic Republic of; Revolution: Islamic
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Revolution in Iran.
Dhanani, Alnoor. The Physical Theory of Kalam: Atoms, Space,
and Void in Basrian Mu
tazili Theology. Leiden: Brill, 1994.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ess, Josef van. “Abu’l-Hudhayl in Contact: The Genesis of
Keddie, Nikki R. Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History
an Anecdote.” In Islamic Theology and Philosophy: Studies in
of Modern Iran. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
Honor of George F. Hourani. Edited by Micheal Marmura.
Press, 1981.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984.
Frank, Richard M. The Metaphysics of Created Being According
Mazyar Lotfalian to Abu’l-Hudhayl al-Allaf: A Philosophical Study of the Earliest Kalam. Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch
Instituut, 1966.
Frank, Richard M. “The Divine Attributes According to the
ABU ’L-HUDHAYL AL-
ALLAF Teaching of Abu’l-Hudhayl al-Allaf.” Le Museon 82
(750–C. 850) (1969): 451–506.
Frank, Richard M. Being and their Attributes: The Teachings of
Muhammad b. al-Hudhayl b.
Ubaydallah al-Abdi was the Basrian School of the Mu
tazila in the Classical Period. Albany:
first philosophically minded theologian of the Mu
tazilite State University of New York Press, 1978.
school. Born in Basra around 750 C.E., he lived in the neighborhood of foragers (
allafun), where he spent the early part of M. Sait Özervarli
his life. He was a student of
Uthman al-Tawil, who was one
of the disciples of Wasil b.
Ata, the founder of al-Mu
tazila.
He moved to Baghdad in 818 and lived a long life, as various
dates between 840 and 850 are given for his death. Abu ’l- ABU ’L-QASEM KASHANI
Hudhayl opposed some views of his contemporary theologi- (1882–1962)
ans, such as the skeptic dualism of Salih b.
Abd al-Quddus,
the determinism of Dirar b. Amr, the physics of Abu Bakr al- Born in Tehran, Abu ’l-Qasem Kashani studied in Najaf and
Asamm, and the ethical theory of Bishr b. Ghiyas al-Marisi. became a mujtahid (religious scholar) at the age of twenty-
He also engaged in polemical discussions with the followers five. He began his political activities in Najaf against the
of other religions, especially those of the ancient Iranian British domination of Iraq. In 1916, Kashani’s father was

10 Islam and the Muslim World

Ada

killed in an uprising and British authorities condemned law, it is the Quran as God’s revealed word that is rated as the
Kashani to death in absentia. He fled to Iran in 1921 and first primary source. Prophet Muhammad’s sunna, that is, his
began teaching and preaching in Tehran. conduct, authentic sayings, acts, and behavior that he approved is rated as the second primary source. In addition to
Kashani was imprisoned in the 1930s because of his pro- these two sources there other sources (or legal principles)
German activities. In 1949, after an attempt on the Shah’s such as the consensus (ijma
) of Muslim jurists or scholars and
life, he was exiled to Lebanon. In June 1950, he returned to analogical reasoning (qiyas)—these combined then constitute
Iran, was elected to the Majlis, and became its Speaker. what have become the normative formal sources of Islamic law.
During the crisis over the nationalization of Iran’s oil
However, notwithstanding the accepted normative hierindustry and the ensuing conflict with the British (1950–1953),
archy of what constitutes formal sources, Islam’s encounter
Kashani made and broke alliances with the Fedaiyan-e Islam
with other host cultures has compelled Islamic legal theory to
and the National Front of Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq. He
evaluate the status of custom. For example, through such
was instrumental in the assassination of the prime ministers
encounters,
ada, that is, the hitherto ambiguous source, has

Abd al-Husayn Hazhir and Husayn
Ali Razmara.
throughout the history of Islamic legal theory served as a
Kashani was an anti-British, anticolonialist, anticommunist, flexible legal principle that helps Islamic law to evolve and
constitutionalist, nationalist, and pan-Islamist religious- thus meet the challenge of changing circumstances and times.
political leader. Although Kashani’s opinions about Iranian This assertion finds ample support in Muslim juristic thinknationalism, the role and function of the shari
a, and attitude ing. For example, a reflection on the founding jurists of the
toward the West differed from his clerical predecessors and two main Sunni schools of Islamic law, namely, the Maliki
successors, political activities of the Shi
ite ulema after World and Hanafi schools, shows how various legal rules that were
War II were greatly inspired and influenced by his views and passed by the founders of these schools were based on the
activities. Indeed, many of his ideas were elaborated by strength of communal practice and norms. A good example
leaders of the revolution of 1978 and 1979, including Ayatol- here is the ruling passed by Imam Malik b. Anas (d. 795 C.E.)
lah Khomeini, and formed the foundation of the Islamic that a woman cannot contract herself in marriage. On the
government. same question, the Hanafi jurist, Imam Abu Hanifa (d. 767
C.E.) gave a different ruling that allowed a mature woman to
See also Feda
iyan-e Islam; Iran, Islamic Republic of; contract herself. What is crucial to note here, though, is not
Majlis; Mosaddeq, Mohammad. so much the question of which of the two opinions is better,
but rather the fact that the basis of the two legal rulings is
BIBLIOGRAPHY primarily informed by social reality and what is popular
Akhavi, Shahrough. “The Role of Clergy in Iranian Politics, communal practice. Noel James Coulson in his seminal
1949–1954.” In Mosaddiq, Iranian Nationalism, and Oil. article titled “Muslim Case Law” has presented a cogent
Edited by James Bill and Roger Louis. Austin: University argument in which he demonstrates that the opinion of Malik
of Texas Press, 1988. reflects the dominant view of marriage and the position of
Faghfoory, Mohammad H. “The Role of the Ulama in women within a predominantly patriarchal tribal society of
Twentieth Century Iran with Particular Reference to Medina. And by contrast, Abu Hanifa’s judgment mirrors the
Ayatullah Hajj Sayyid Abulqasim Kashani.” Ph.D. diss.,
cosmopolitan nature of Kufa where women enjoyed a slightly
University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1978.
more accommodating environment than in Medina.

Mohammad H. Faghfoory Although often denied, the impact of
ada in Muslim legal
theory is also evident in Muhammad b. Idris al-Shafi
i (d. 819
C.E.), founder of the Shafi
i school. For instance, the force of


ADA communal praxis and the ethos of Egypt obliged al-Shafi
i to
change a range of legal rulings that he sanctioned while in
Like all legal systems and theories, Islamic law and its legal Baghdad before his migration to Egypt.
theory are not free from ambiguity and tensions. Nowhere is
In addition to the aforementioned early jurists, the effi-
such ambiguity more pronounced than in the treatment of
cacy of
ada is also stressed by Abu Ishaq al- Shatibi (d. 1388)

ada or custom (alternatively called
urf) in Islamic legal theory.
whom Wael Hallaq in his A History of Islamic Legal Theories
Generally, the term
ada is derived from Arabic, and regards as representing the “culmination” of maturity in
means local customs, recurring habits, and social mores of the Islamic legal theory. A critical reading of Shatibi’s legal
people. In the context of the epistemology of Islamic law, philosophy illustrates that
ada, though often measured under
especially as it relates to what constitutes formal sources of the concept of maslaha (public good), does occupy a central
law, classical Islamic jurisprudence does not recognize cus- position in his legal thought. For Shatibi, Islamic law in its
tom as a formal source. In the normative structure of Islamic early phase, that is, in the prophetic era of Muhammad,

Islam and the Muslim World 11
Adab

simply confirmed most of the pre-Islamic Arabian customs Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. Principles of Islamic Jurisprupracticed by the people before their acceptance of Islam. For dence. Selangor, Malaysia: Pelanduk Publications, 1989.
example, Islamic laws like diya (blood money), rituals of hajj Libson, Gideon. “On the Development of Custom as a
(pilgrimage), and interestingly even the Jum
a (Muslim Fri- Source of Law in Islamic Law.” Islamic Law and Society 4,
day congregational prayers), though taking a strict Islamic no. 2 (1997): 131–155.
identity, were initially practices that were predominant in Masud, Khalid M. Islamic Legal Philosophy: A Study of Abu
pre-Islamic Arabia. As habitual and popular customs these Ishaq al-Shatibi’s Life and Thought. Delhi: International
were rehabilitated by Islamic law and confirmed as Islamic Publishers, 1989.
practice. Ziadeh, Farhat. “
Urf and Law in Islam.” In The World of
Islam: Studies in Honor of Philip K. Hitti. Edited by J.
Moving away from the formative classical period into the Kritzek and R. Winder. London: Macmillan, 1959.
modern period, especially from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, examples gleaned from Africa and Asia also show Tahir Fuzile Sitoto
that the predominance of custom not only shaped and influenced shari
a, but custom became a law operating on its own
right independent of shari
a. What is discernible here is that
custom in the modern context ceases to be merely a creative ADAB
legal tool whose utility is only limited to make Islamic law
adaptable to changing circumstances, but as “customary law” The term adab fundamentally denotes a custom or norm of
it becomes part of a dual legal system that is on par with conduct. In the early centuries of Islam, the term came to
shari
a. Again, Coulson provides a good example when he convey either an ethical implication of proper personal qualipoints out how in both Africa and Asia local practices, ties or the suggestion of the cultivation and knowledge of a
range of sensibilities and skills. In its plural form, adab
especially as they pertain to land tenure, were mostly “reguacquired the meaning of rules of conduct, often specified for a
lated by customary rules” (p. 261). These either compleparticular social or occupational group, like the aadaab (pl.) of
mented shari
a or simply subsumed it. For instance, in the
the legist or the prince. In addition, adab specified the
Indian subcontinent this is illustrated in the popular “shari
a
accomplishments that made one polished and urbane, an
act of 1937” that was initially designed to cater to all Muslims
expert in the arts not subsumed under the category of religin the region. However, as it turned out, a majority of
ious learning. Often, in recent times, adab has meant simply
Muslims preferred to be exempted from shari
a thus giving
literature in the narrow sense.
primacy to customary laws over the former.
Underlying the concept of adab is a notion of discipline
Finally, it can be concluded that social exigencies, espeand training, indicating as well the good breeding and refinecially in the sociocommercial spheres, have compelled a
ment that results from such self-control and training. In all its
majority of Muslim jurists, albeit reluctantly, to recognize uses, adab reflects a high value placed on the employment of

ada as a reliable legal tool. This recognition has come largely the will in proper discrimination of correct order, behavior,
through what these jurists normally refer to as “creative legal and taste. The term implicitly or explicitly distinguishes
devices.” In particular, it is through these creative legal tools, cultivated behavior from that deemed vulgar, for example,
of which custom is one of the central principles, that popular from pre-Islamic custom. The term’s root sense of proper
religious practices that would otherwise be rejected by shari
a conduct and discrimination, of discipline, and moral forma-
find acceptance. Thus maxims such as: “What is known tion, especially fostered in the Sufi tradition, has been brought
through custom is legally binding” and “what is evident to the fore in many modern reform movements. In that sense,
through custom is as authentic as the text or shari
a” became adab is often coupled with akhlaq (“manners,” “ethics”) and is
acceptable principles in Islamic legal theory. now understood to be within the reach of ordinary people and
not only educated or holy specialists.
See also Africa, Islam in; American Culture and Islam;
Law; South Asia, Islam in; Southeast Asian Culture See also Arabic Literature; Ethics and Social Issues.
and Islam.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY Gabrieli, F. “Adab.” In Vol. 1, Encyclopedia of Islam. 2d ed.
Coulson, Noel James. “Muslim Custom and Case Law.” In Leiden: Brill, 1960.
Islamic Law and Legal Theory. Edited by Ian Edge. New Metcalf, Barbara D., ed. Moral Conduct and Authority: The
York: New York University Press, 1996. Place of Adab in South Asian Islam. Berkeley: University of
Hallaq, Wael. A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduc- California Press, 1984.
tion to Sunni Usul al-Fiqh. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 1993. Barbara D. Metcalf

12 Islam and the Muslim World
Africa, Islam in

political activist by accepting a post in the government of
ADHAN Afghanistan. Over the next thirty years he traveled to or
resided in Istanbul, Cairo, Paris, London, Tehran, and St.
The adhan along with its abridged accompaniment, the iqama, is
Petersburg, frequently being forced to relocate because of his
an oral rite linked to mosques, daily prayer, sacred identity,
reformist views and political activities. Afghani is commonly
and birth rites. The adhan and the iqamah are usually called
viewed as the nineteenth century’s chief ideologue of panoutside and inside mosques, respectively: The former signals
Islamism. But his ideas, many of them expressed through the
prayer times, and the latter the beginning of congregational
journal al-
Urwa al-wuthqa (The firmest grip; a reference to
prayer. The adhan given in public signals the presence of
Quran 2:256, 31:22), which he copublished with Muham-
Islam, and gives members of a largely decentralized faith a
mad
Abduh, never amounted to a coherent ideology. More
sense of belonging. The adhan functions as a disjuncture
than anything else, Afghani was driven by opposition to
between the sacred and the profane, between the Friday
European imperialism in Muslim countries, which he argued
prayer, for instance, and the world of trade. It also distincould be fought only by a rejuvenation of Islamic culture.
guishes Islam from other religions: When Muslims needed
some means to announce the prayer, they asked for a horn, a See also Reform: Arab Middle East and North Africa;
Christian symbol, but were providentially directed to the Pan-Islam.
adhan, instead. Finally, the adhan is chanted into the right ear
of a newborn and the iqama into the left ear. BIBLIOGRAPHY
The adhan consists of invocations and attestations: Four Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798–1939.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
glorify God, two attest to His Oneness, two attest to Muhammad being Messenger, two call to prayer, two call to success, Keddie, Nikki R. An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political
two glorify God, and one declares His Oneness. The Shi
ites and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal ad-Din “al-Afghani.”
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
add:
Ali is the friend of God, and prayer is the best of deeds.
For a while some mosques in Europe replaced the muezzin
who called the adhan with a tape recorder, while in Turkey, in Sohail H. Hashmi
1948, the government decreed that the adhan be given in
Turkish. Both these efforts ultimately failed.

See also Devotional Life; Ibadat; Masjid. AFRICA, ISLAM IN
Islam has an important past and present within Africa. It has
BIBLIOGRAPHY
been present in Africa since the very early days of the faith,
Parkin, David, and Headley, Stephen C., eds. Islamic Prayer and it constitutes the practice of roughly half the population
across the Indian Ocean: Inside and Outside the Mosque.
of the continent, or some 250 million people. While most of
Surrey, U.K.: Curzon, 2000.
the Muslims live in the northern half, important communities
can be found in South Africa, Malawi, and other parts of
Muneer Goolam Fareed
southern Africa. This history and this importance are often
misunderstood in the West and in the Mediterranean centers
of the Islamic world. Scholars and the intelligent lay public do
AFGHANI, JAMAL AL-DIN not naturally identify Africa with Islam.
(1839–1897) Indeed, Africa is usually equated with sub-Saharan or
“black” Africa in most definitions. Egypt and the Maghreb
Jamal al-Din Afghani, one of the most influential Muslim are lumped with the Middle East in the language of the
reformers of the nineteenth century, was most likely born in World Bank, U.S. State Department, and most ministries of
Asadabad, Iran, into a Shi
ite family. Throughout his life, foreign affairs, as well as in this encyclopedia. The defining
however, he emphasized his Afghan ancestry, perhaps to characteristic of Islam is often the Arabic language, as the first
broaden his appeal to Sunni Muslims. Little concrete infor- language of communication in the home, business, governmation is available about his early life, but he probably ment, and the media, as well as identification with the Arab
received a traditional Islamic education in Iran and Iraq. world and thus the origins of Islam. This is not a clear
During a visit to India around 1855, he was exposed to definition, however, since Berber languages are still widely
Western scientific and political thought for the first time. His spoken in the Maghrib and the Sahara, while Arabic is spoken
stay in India coincided with the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 (the by much of the Sudan and important minorities across sub-
Indian revolt against the East India Company), and his Saharan Africa.
attitudes toward European and particularly British imperialism may have begun to form then. Around 1866, Afghani This article focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and deals with
began his peripatetic career as a Muslim intellectual and Muslim societies rather than “Islam” in one area or another.

Islam and the Muslim World 13
Africa, Islam in

These societies, throughout history and to the present, dem- able to coexist with Christians and other non-Muslim comonstrate all of the varieties of the faith that one might expect: munities most of the time.
orthodox practice, radicalism, Sufism, and many creative
combinations with local, non-Islamic practices. Muslims in Gateways of Islam in Africa
Africa have practiced the jihad of the sword from time to The History of Islam in Africa (2000) identifies two main
time, but they have also demonstrated a great deal of toler- “gateways” of Islamization in the continent. One is the East
ance of other practices—“pagan,” Christian, and other. The African coast, which became accessible to sailors and mer-
Maliki school of law has traditionally been dominant in north chants coming down the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, just as
and west Africa, while the Shafi
ite pattern has prevailed it had been for previous centuries for Southeast Asians. The
along the Red Sea and the Swahili coast. other is Egypt, and by extension the Maghreb and the Sahara.

Northeast Africa The first Muslims on the East African coast followed in
The earliest Muslim presence in Africa actually antedates the the wake of a lot of other maritime travelers from the Near
event known as the hijra, when Muhammad left Mecca for East, South, and Southeast Asia. They used an old, well-
Medina in 622 C.E. At a time when the Prophet was already tested technology of sailing close to the coast, down the Red
beginning to feel the hostility of his Meccan compatriots, he Sea or the Persian Gulf, and then along the Indian Ocean.
sent a large portion of his followers—about one hundred Primarily Arab, they were interested in acquiring ivory, gold,
according to the principal hadith—to the Christian emperor other metals, leather goods, and some slaves. They interacted
of Aksum (ancient Abyssinia), an important state in northeast with the fishing and agricultural peoples along the coast who
Africa, for safekeeping in 615 and 616 C.E. This is sometimes spoke the language that today is called Swahili, which takes its
called the first hijra. Muhammad called for this community to name from the plural of sahil, and literally means “people of
return after he established himself in Medina, and there is the coast.” Over time, roughly the last one thousand years,
little evidence of any ongoing Muslim group in Aksum or any the Swahili language evolved to include a considerable Arabic
other part of Ethiopia at this time. But the brief exile demon- vocabulary, in addition to some Malay and other infusions,
strates the presence at that time of Ethiopians, including within a basic Bantu lexicon and language structure.
Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, in Mecca and other areas
around the Red Sea, as well as the good relations between the The language was the basis for a culture, and both were
early Arab Muslims and people in northeast Africa. built around small towns along the ocean, running about two
thousand miles from Mogadishu in the north (today’s Somalia)
Reasonably good ties continued after Muslim communi- to Sofala in the south (today’s Mozambique). Most of the
ties emerged in northeast Africa close to the Red Sea. Most of towns were autonomous city-states, confined essentially to
these communities lived in the lowland and eastern areas, but islands or the coast, with very small hinterlands devoted to
some spread into the mountainous region called Abyssinia, farming. The inhabitants of these city-states were committed
which was dominated by Aksum and then a series of other to the vocations of agriculture, fishing, shipbuilding, and
states that privileged Christianity and the Orthodox Church. trade. They lived in the cosmopolitan world built around the
Relations between the two faith communities worsened when Indian Ocean and practiced Islam, but acknowledged local
these states, with their Christian and Solomonic ideology, gods and customs. The more wealthy Swahili often claimed
expanded to the east in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; paternal origins among the Arabs or Persians. They used
they executed many Muslims and forced the conversion of Islamic forms in the architecture of their homes, as well as for
others. Muslims responded to this in the movement led by mosques and other public buildings. Many of them fulfilled
Ahmad ibn Gran, a cleric and warrior from the coastal region the pilgrimage obligation, which was easier to perform than
in the sixteenth century. This conflict, often characterized by from other parts of the African continent.
the terms “crusade” and “jihad” in the registers of the two
faiths, has often been taken as characteristic of Ethiopia and The most prosperous period for the Swahili city-states ran
the Horn of Africa. Hostile confrontations have certainly roughly from 1250 to 1500 C.E. Lamu, located in an archipeloccurred: for example, cases of forced conversion of Muslims ago along the northern coast of modern Kenya, Mombasa, a
by expansive Christian emperors in the late nineteenth cen- larger city on the southern coast, and Zanzibar, the island
tury, or the conflict over the brief tenure of Lij Iyasu as which forms part of Tanzania, were among the best-known
Menilik’s successor as emperor of Ethiopia between 1913 and and most active cities. The most prosperous was probably
1916. Lij Iyasu came from a family that included both Kilwa, an island off the southern coast of Tanzania. It was tied
Muslims and Christians, and he sought to bring some Mus- in to the interior trade, including the commerce in gold that
lims into positions in his brief government. He failed because tapped into the old Zimbabwe states.
of his own inexperience, the strong Christian and church
predilections of the court, and the conflict between the Axis The main location of the Swahili language, culture, and
and Allies during World War I. But Ethiopia’s population people, and of the practice of Islam, was concentrated on this
today is close to 50 percent Muslim, and Muslims have been East African littoral until very recent times. Most of the

14 Islam and the Muslim World
Africa, Islam in

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Muslims were Sunni, but some belonged to the Kharijite interior who were largely non-Muslim. The spread of Islam
persuasion through their connections with Oman, a small into the interior, and of the Swahili language and culture, did
state at the southeastern end of the Arabian peninsula. The not begin until the late eighteenth century, under the impetus
literate elite, and especially the “professional” Muslims, un- of Omani Arabs, who made Zanzibar their base. The Omani
derstood and wrote Arabic, but Islam was typically taught sultans controlled a significant portion of the Swahili region
orally through Swahili explanations. The recourse to expla- in what we could today call Tanzania and Kenya, primarily
nation in the local language was common practice through- for commercial reasons. They continued to trade in ivory and
out Africa and many parts of the Islamic world. Beginning gold, but now added a significant commerce in slaves. Some
about three hundred years ago some scholars and writers were sent to the Middle East and South Asia, while others
began to adapt the Arabic alphabet to the language, and were used at the coast to produce cloves and grain for export.
thereby create a written or
ajami literature alongside the The Zanzibari system resulted in more active contact beolder oral one. The written corpus contained the same tween coast and hinterland, and the spread of Islam and the
stories, chronicles, and poetry as the one that had been Swahili culture to the entrepôts and towns of the interior.
transmitted orally down the generations.
These networks laid the basis for the widespread practice
The Swahili Muslims did not emphasize the spread of of Islam in East Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth
Islam into the interior, by preaching, colonization, or the centuries. The main agents of islamization were merchants
military jihad. They were generally content to practice their and teachers, not the reform-minded scholars who became so
faith, ply their trades, and interact with the people of the prominent in West Africa. The Omanis themselves were

Islam and the Muslim World 15
Africa, Islam in

A mud brick mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, built in the European medieval period. Timbuktu was founded by a nomadic tribe called the Tuareg,
who only kept loose control of it. Eventually, it became a part of the Muslim empire of Sudan, and functioned as a major trading post that
connected North Africa with West Africa and thereby facilitated the spread of Islam. © WOLFGANG KAEHLER/CORBIS

Kharijites, but most of the older Swahili communities as well became very important in the Saharan and sub-Saharan
as many of the slaves were Sunni. Relations across these interior of West Africa from an early time, and for many
doctrinal lines were not difficult. The jihadic tradition re- centuries was the motor force of Islamic practice.
mained a minor theme, except when it came to resistance to
European domination. North Africans often called sub-Saharan Africa the Bilad
al-Sudan, the “land of the blacks.” Geographers and histori-
The “Egyptian” or North African gateway is usually ans have used this term and divided it into western, central
emphasized in treatments of islamization in Africa. The and eastern portions. The eastern or Nile section corre-
Saharan region obviously marked the “entrance” to sub- sponds to the modern nation of Sudan, while the western
Saharan Africa. It was not an obstacle to trading caravans, but portion corresponds to most of the West African Sahel.
it was to armies. Indeed, there is only one example—the
Moroccan expedition of 1591—of a military force success- The greatest amount of literature about Islamic practice,
fully crossing the desert and winning victories on the south- generated by internal and external observers, deals with the
ern side. Arabs used the expression sahil or “coast” to apply to West African region. Scholars have used this material to
the two edges of the desert. The Arab and Berber Muslims of create a threefold pattern of islamization. Islam was first a
North Africa established networks of trade on both sides of minority religion, practiced essentially by traders; it then
the desert and rhythms of caravan trade that resembled the became the practice of Muslim courts; and finally, either by
movement of ships along the Indian Ocean coast of East processes of military jihad or Sufi orders, or both, it became
Africa. By 1000 it is possible to identify indigenous as well as the practice of those living in the rural areas, farmers and
North African Muslim communities in the towns of West pastoralists. It was at this point that it became the dominant
Africa connected to the trans-saharan trading networks. In religion, in the last two to three centuries. This formula can
contrast to the pattern in East Africa, merchant capital be useful, if it is applied selectively and discretely to the

16 Islam and the Muslim World
Africa, Islam in

different parts of the Sahel and to areas further south in the this belt, along the Swahili coast, and in the East African
continent. interior. Sufi practice was not challenged by reform movements, akin to the Salafiyya or the Wahhabiyya, until the
The eastern Sudan or Sahel, what is called the Sudan mid-twentieth century.
today, is something of an exception to this rule. Adjacent to
the Nile River, it lay along a natural axis of advance from Indeed, Sufism was the principal vehicle by which Islamic
Egypt to the south. Egyptian travelers and armies, whether in practice spread from city to countryside in the Sudan or
ancient or Islamic times, had often advanced up the Nile, Sahel. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was
and communities in the region sometimes returned the fa- accompanied by reform movements, led by scholars who
vor. Once the Muslims had established control of Egypt, increasingly complained of the lax, mixed, or corrupt practice
they confronted the Nubian kingdoms that had adopted of the faith in the cities, courts, and countryside. Increasingly
Monophysite or Orthodox forms of Christianity as the state these scholars, usually with Sufi affiliations of their own,
religion in earlier centuries. Muslims and Christians then resorted to the jihad of the sword and led military movements
worked out a pact, called baqt, by which the weaker Christian to replace the regimes that they criticized. The most successstates paid a small tribute and allowed trade through their ful of these movements, in terms of its breadth, depth, and
areas in exchange for noninterference in their affairs. This literary heritage, was the one led by
Uthman dan Fodio in
arrangement endured for several centuries. It was endan- Hausaland in the early nineteenth century. It resulted in the
gered by the limited participation of some Nubian armies in Sokoto Caliphate, a regime that dominated most of the
the European-led Crusades of the twelfth century, and finally northern part of Nigeria as well as the southern fringe of
ended by the Mamluks in the fifteenth century. After this today’s Niger. Many Muslims of northern Nigeria today see
period Arabic became the dominant language of the northern the caliphate as a kind of social charter for the present day and
Nile valley and the lingua franca of the wider region. have pushed for the establishment of shari
a (Islamic law).

West African Patterns The strongest fusion of Sufi identity and militant reform
In the western and central Sudan the process was different. came in the mid-nineteenth century with the mobilization led
The early Muslim communities were merchants who lived in by Umar Tal, a scholar and pilgrim whose origins were in
good relations with and on the sufferance of non-Muslim Senegal. Umar made the pilgrimage to Mecca, was initiated
courts. These early Muslims were Arab and Berber but they into the highest ranks of the Tijaniyya order by a Moroccan
were soon joined by Soninke, Mandinka, and other commu- in Medina, and returned to West Africa in the 1830s to
nities of local origin. By the time of the empire of Mali (fl. pursue a career of teaching and writing. In 1852, however,
1200–1400), some ruling classes had adopted Islam, although after some campaigns of recruitment, he launched a jihad of
not necessarily to the exclusion of local or “ethnic” religious the sword against the non-Muslim states of the Upper and
practices. Mali in particular is remembered for the pilgrimage Middle Niger and the Upper Senegal Rivers. He particularly
of Mansa Musa in 1324 and for the visit that Ibn Battuta paid targeted the Bambara Kingdom of Segu, which he defeated in
to the court of his brother and successor, Mansa Sulayman, in 1860 and 1861. He also had some encounters with the French
1352 and 1353. The court of the Songhay Empire (fl. c. and an expansive governor named Faidherbe in Senegal, and
1450–1591) is also remembered for adherence to Islam. this has given him and his Tijaniyya affiliation an aura of
Indeed, Askiya Muhammad (1493–1528) is remembered not resistance to European conquest. At the end of his life Umar
just for his pilgrimage but also for his discussions with the attacked the Muslim state of Masina or Hamdullahi, princifamous jurisconsult al-Maghili and for some serious efforts to pally because of their aid for the “pagan” Bambara of Segu.
spread the faith in the Niger Buckle (the area around Timbuktu This conflict between two Muslim armies and communities,
and Gao) in the early years of his reign. The state of Bornu, in both of Pulaar or Fulbe culture, caused great consternation in
the area of Lake Chad in the central Sudan, is remembered the West African Islamic world. It also led to Umar’s death in
for an early adoption of Islam at the court as well as for its 1864 and to the premature limitation of the ambitious movelongevity (about one thousand years, into the nineteenth ment that he launched.
century).
The greatest expansion of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa
In the last 250 years Islam has spread much more widely took place in the colonial period, particularly under the
throughout northern Africa thanks to Sufi orders and reform overrule of the British in Nigeria and the Sudan and the
movements. The oldest order was the Qadiriyya, but its French through most of the old western and central Sudan. In
network for some time consisted principally of an elite group these instances Islam provided an alternative tradition to the
of scholars across the Sudan, the Sahara, and North Africa. A secular or Christian identities of the rulers and the mission-
Qadiriyya revival and spread in the late eighteenth century aries who typically accompanied them. It has often meant
was followed by rivalry with the Tijaniyya and other orders closer approximation to the styles of dress, architecture, and
with strong bases in North Africa and the Holy Cities. The roles of women characteristic of the Middle East. Europeans
competition increased in the nineteenth century, all across rulers, on the other hand, sought to develop institutions and

Islam and the Muslim World 17
Africa, Islam in

practices for dealing with their Muslim subjects. They co- of the prosperity they brought through trade. They were not
opted portions of the Islamic legal and educational systems, about to try transforming the Dar al-kufr in which they lived
tried to control the pilgrimage, and sought to create “colo- into a Dar al-Islam.
nial” forms of Islam. The best-known creation was Islam noir,
the “black Islam,” which was supposed to characterize French Over time the juula colonies developed a theological
rationale for their relations with non-Muslim ruling classes
West Africa. The European colonial authorities often styled
and subjects on the basis of the teachings of Suwari. He made
themselves as “Muslim powers” and made comparisons with
the pilgrimage to Mecca several times and devoted his intelpractices in India, Indonesia, and other areas.
lectual career to reflection upon the situation of Muslim
By the time of independence in most sub-Saharan coun- minorities. Drawing upon Middle Eastern jurists and theolotries in the 1960s, Muslim communities had established gians, he reformulated the obligations of the faithful. Muscloser ties with the faithful in the Middle East, and particu- lims must nurture their own learning and piety, and thereby
larly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The centrality of these areas, furnish good examples to the non-Muslims who lived around
combined with the pilgrimage and institutions such as Al- them. They could accept the jurisdiction of non-Muslim
Azhar University, encouraged this process. At the same time authorities, as long as they had the necessary protection and
conditions to practice the faith. In this position Suwari
the Arab Muslim communities made significant human and
followed a strong predilection in Islamic thought for any
material investments in sub-Saharan Africa. This investment
government, albeit non-Muslim or tyrannical, as opposed to
stimulated some criticism of Sufi and other African Muslim
none. The military jihad was a resort only if the faithful were
practices, particularly in the Sudan, Nigeria, and adjacent
threatened. In essence, Suwari esteemed that God would
areas. In other regions the “Arab” and Saudi influence was
bring non-Muslims to convert in His own time, and it was not
not as pronounced, and patterns such as the “maraboutic” (a
the responsibility of the Muslim minorities to decide when
synonym for a cleric, derived from the term “almoravid”)
ignorance or unbelief would give way to faith.
domination of Islam characteristic of Senegal were maintained.
In practice, of course, the Muslims and non-Muslims did
The Suwarian Pattern not function in isolation. Across the many times and places of
One of the most intriguing and original creations of Muslims the woodlands and forest, they were in constant contact with
in Africa is the Suwarian tradition. This term, coined by the each other, and conceived of the relationship as two estates:
historian Ivor Wilks, goes back to a certain Al-Hajj Salim the merchant estate, which was Muslim, and the ruling
Suwari, a learned cleric from the Middle Niger region who classes, which were “pagan” or at least “ignorant” from the
lived around 1500. The Suwarian tradition expresses the standpoint of Islam. But the ruling classes typically esteemed
rationale used by Muslims who lived as minorities in “pagan” the merchants and their religion, and sought the baraka or
regions, particularly the communities of merchants who blessing that Muslims might bring to the political realm. This
originally left the western Sudan for regions of woodland and esteem was reflected in a number of ways, for example, in the
forest to the south, in search of gold and other items of trade. demand for amulets produced by clerics for their “pagan”
This began in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when hosts. A British traveler in the early nineteenth century,
the Empire of Mali was at its height and sent out colonies of Joseph Dupuis, gives an account of this demand in the
traders, juula, who retained their ties with the state, the Kingdom of Asante (today’s Ghana) in his Journal of a
Mandinka language, and their Muslim identity. It continued Residence in Ashantee:
into the twentieth century.

Juula came to be an ethnic, linguistic, and religious desig- The talismanic charms fabricated by the Muslims, it is
nation for these people, who typically lived in demarcated well known, are esteemed efficacious according to the
various powers they are supposed to possess, and here
neighborhoods within the main commercial towns and oris a source of great emolument, as the article is in public
ganized trade between the forest areas of the south and the
demand from the palace to the slave’s hut; for every
Sahel to the north. They left the realm of “politics” to their man (not by any means exempting the Muslims) wears
local hosts. They constituted a Muslim minority within a them strung around the neck. . . . Some are accounted
non-Muslim majority, corresponding to the first “phase” of efficacious for the cure of gunshot wounds, others for
islamization mentioned above. They worshiped, educated the thrust or laceration of steel weapons, and the
their children, distributed their property, and in almost every poisoned barbs of javelins, or arrows. Some, on the
respect conducted their lives as would Muslims anywhere in other hand, are esteemed to possess the virtue of
Africa or the rest of the world. They were no less learned nor rendering the wearer invulnerable in the field of battle,
and hence are worn as a preservative against the casualpious than believers elsewhere, and they did not compromise
ties of war.
their faith. But they could not afford to, and generally did not
want to, change the religious identities of their hosts, who Besides this class of charms, they have other cabalistic
welcomed their presence and accorded them favors because scraps for averting the evil of natural life: These may

18 Islam and the Muslim World
African Culture and Islam

also be subdivided into separate classes; some, for under increasing criticism in the last two centuries from
instance, are specific nostrums in certain diseases of the movements of reform and the closer integration of subhuman frame, some for their prevention, and some are Saharan Africa with the Middle East.
calculated either to ward off any impending stroke of
fortune, or to raise the proprietor to wealth, happiness See also Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi; Ahmad Ibn Idris;
and distinction. (London, 1824, 1966, appendix, page xi) Hajj Salim Suwari, al-; Suyut, al-; Tariqa; Zar.

The relationship between leading merchants and rulers is BIBLIOGRAPHY
captured well in another passage from the same author, in the Abun-Nasr, Jamil. The Tijaniyya. A Sufi Order in the Modern
same kingdom. Merchants, clerics, and rulers were all resi- World. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1965.
dents of the same city, Kumasi, the capital of Asante. The Brenner, Louis. West African Sufi. The Religious Heritage and
speaker here is the head of the local Muslim community, and Spiritual Search of Cerno Bokar Saalif Tall. London:
he talks of his role with the Muslim estate, mainly through Hurst, 1984.
education, and his ties to the power structure: Brenner, Louis. Controlling Knowledge. Religion, Power and
Schooling in a West African Muslim Society. London:
Hurst, 2001.
“When I was a young man,” said the Bashaw (Pasha), “I
Clarke, Peter. West Africa and Islam. London: Edward
worked for the good of my body. I traded on the face of
Arnold, 1982.
God’s earth, and traveled much. As my beard grew
strong [I became older] I settled at Salgha [a trading Cooper, Barbara. Marriage in Maradi: Gender and Culture in a
center] and lastly removed to this city. I was still but an Hausa Society in Niger, 1900–1989. London: Heinemann
indifferent student [of Islam] when, God be praised, a and Currey, 1997.
certain teacher from the north was sent to me by a Cruise O’Brien, Donal. The Mourides of Senegal. Oxford,
special direction, and that learned saint taught me the U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1971.
truth. So that now my beard is white, and I cannot
Dupuis, Joseph. Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (1824).
travel as before, [but] I am content to seek the good of
London: Frank Cass, 1966.
my soul in a state of future reward. My avocations at
Kumasi are several, but my chief employment is a Hiskett, Mervyn. The Development of Islam in West Africa.
school which I have endowed, and which I preside over London: Longman, 1984.
myself. God has compassionated my labors [i.e., made Last, D. Murray. The Sokoto Caliphate. London: Humanities
them prosper], and I have about 70 pupils and converts Press, 1967.
at this time.
Levtzion, Nehemia, and Hopkins, J. F. P. Corpus of Early
Besides this, the king’s heart is turned towards me, and Arabic Sources for West African History. Cambridge, U.K.:
I am a favored servant. Over the Muslims I rule as qadi, Cambridge University Press, 1981.
conformably to our law. I am also a member of the Levtzion, Nehemia, and Pouwels, Randall, eds. The History of
king’s council in affairs relating to the believers of Islam in Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000.
Sarem and Dagomba [areas to the north with signifi- Mazrui, Ali, and Shariff, Ibrahim. The Swahili: Idiom of an
cant Muslim populations].” (Dupuis, p. 97) African People. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World History, 1994.
Robinson, David. The Holy War of Umar Tal. The Western
The Suwarian tradition was a realistic rationale for Mus- Sudan in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford
University Press, 1985.
lims living in the woodland and forest regions of West Africa
in the last five or six centuries. It suggests the kinds of Robinson, David. Paths of Accommodation. Muslim Societies and
positions which many Muslims throughout the world have French Colonial Authorities in Senegal and Mauritania, 1880
taken when they found themselves in situations of inferior to 1920. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000.
numbers and force, took advantage of their networks for
trade, and enjoyed generally good relations with the local David Robinson
authorities because of the goods and prosperity that they
could attract.

Some Muslims have searched for wisdom and inspira- AFRICAN CULTURE AND ISLAM
tion within African societies. They have established links
with indigenous healing practices, divination systems, and Islam, an Afro-Asiatic faith, has long been known to be a
cosmologies. They have created worlds of mediating spirits religion of great synthesis that has interacted with local
and possession cults, such as the bori of Hausaland or the cultures, enriching them and being enriched by them. It has
gnawa of Morocco. These fused religious worlds have come impacted on African society in various ways for almost a

Islam and the Muslim World 19
African Culture and Islam

millennium, if not longer, adding to the fabric of these put it, for the African, the ethnic group is the matrix in which
cultures. his religion takes shape, the meaning of myth communicated,
and a person’s sacramental relation to nature experienced.
Spread of Islam in Africa This means that when the symbols of the ethnic group are
Islam made its presence felt in much of Africa (the East coast challenged by a new system, recombination of old and new
and Horn of Africa as well as West Africa) mainly through forms may appear to reorganize the group and to compensate
trade and migration. In West Africa, for instance, Islam was for any loss. More specifically, becoming a Muslim and
introduced from North Africa by the Berbers through the joining this universal umma involves offering prayers in a
trans-Saharan trade as early as the ninth century. Later, mosque frequented by members of other ethnic groups,
trading networks developed among local African groups such adoption of Muslim behavior patterns and dress code in some
as the Mande (Dyula/Wangara) whose area of operation cases, and using a certain language (e.g., for quite a long time
spanned a wide area extending from as far west as Senegal to Kiswahili in the case of East Africa). The Kano Chronicle, a
northern Nigeria in the east. This trade network, or diaspora, record of Hausa kings of sixteenth or seventeenth century
was closely associated with the diffusion of Islamic studies, inspiration first written down in the nineteenth century
including mysticism in the later centuries, and enabled Islam whose sources were largely oral, brings out clearly the strugto penetrate peacefully beyond the Sahel—the semiarid re- gle between the two religious systems, the Islamic and the
gion of African between the Sahara and the savannahs—into traditional one, after the symbolic tree is cut down and a
the savannah area. In the coastal trading communities of East mosque built in its place.
Africa the process of interaction between the Middle Eastern
immigrants, mainly south Arabians, and the dominant Afri- Indigenous Culture and Islam
can groups created a new urban ethos in which Islam blended The old forms and symbols of the indigenous system are
with the indigenous local culture to produce Swahili Islam. often not discarded but retrieved and reinforced and recast in
The cross-cultural trade in many parts of Africa, apart from a new form. In the artistic and architectural domains, for
reinforcing cultural self-identity and nurturing religious com- instance, there has been a unique blending of Islamic strucmitment, fostered a pluralist structure in which commerce, ture and African representation. Once a balance had been
Islam, and the indigenous system supported the urban net- reached between the local religious practices and the univerwork. In this way a balance was established between local sal ritual prescriptions of Islam the next step was to cast the
ritual prescriptions and those of universal Islam. imagery and iconography of African ancestral pillars, shrines,
and so on into Islamized form. Where Islam was introduced
Islam in Africa therefore was primarily an urban religion such items as charms, amulets, certain types of clothing, and
(with an urban ethos) that fostered commitment to its relig- prestige goods were incorporated into local societies. More
ious system ranging from ethnic self-identity to Islamic self- importantly, the local altar-shrine was transformed into the
identity, universal and transethnic in scope. Islamic penetra- mosque in such a way that the physical configuration repretion in the rural areas, on the other hand, made piecemeal sented a qualitative leap into verticality. Thus, as Labelle
infiltration over a long period of time with significant gains Prussin notes, the single, towering pyramidal earthen cone
awaiting a much later period. The religion therefore entered became the mihrab (it also served as a minaret) with its system
much of Africa peacefully through the agency of trade and of projecting wooden pickets extending out of this massive
later gained status after the migrant community (purveyors of structure. The ends of these wooden pickets served as a
the written word and the visual symbols of Islam) was inte- scaffold for workers to climb and repair the walls. The
grated into the political setup before finally the ruling elite ancestral conical structure pillar (the Voltaic tradition) was
embraced the faith and appropriated its symbols for political now redirected to a new focal center, that of Mecca. In certain
purposes. cases, as Prussin and Rene Bravmann have observed, some of
the mosques that were built in Mali had mihrabs that evoked
The intensity of Islam varied from one region of Africa to the image of an African mask (which traditionally represents
another and was influenced by a number of factors, including powerful forces). This is how the mosques were constructed
the length of interaction between Islam and the traditional by the Mande of West Africa with Islam clearly inspiring the
religion, the compatibility or incompatibility of the worldviews use of certain architectural features in the spatial configuraof the two religious systems, and the level of resilience of the tion. The Islamic architectural tradition (mediated through
indigenous integrative symbols to sustain traditional struc- the Maghrebian heritage) in turn inspired the architectural
tures of the local religion. Islam has its written scripture, a imagery or style represented by the thatched domes of the
prescribed ritual, a historical and systematized myth, and a Senegal-Guinea area for mosques and maraboutic (referring
supra-ethnic religious identity. Its interaction with African to a Muslim scholar or saint in North Africa or parts of West
traditional religions is therefore governed by the tension Africa) shrines following the example of the domed cities of
between its supra-ethnic universality of its umma and the Tripoli and Cairo. Islamic-type designs were also emulated
ethnocentrism of African traditional religion. As Dean Gilland and led to the adoption of arabesque wall patterning instead

20 Islam and the Muslim World
African Culture and Islam

This was the period when the learned Muslims, as in West
African kingdoms, played a key role in administration and
diplomacy. Eventually, however, a number of these African
rulers adopted Islam and in doing so may partly have undermined the basis of their legitimacy as guardians of African
ancestral religious traditions. Nevertheless, they did not
completely renounce ties with the African traditional religion, which continued to be the religion of many of their
subjects. This arrangement assisted in maintaining order
although it did not please some West African Sufi leaders of
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who launched their
jihads (reform movements) of Islamic revivalism (some of
which had mahdist/messianic overtones) to establish Islamic
states. The theme of Islamic revivalism will be discussed later.

Colonialism
Colonialism facilitated the growth of Islam in areas of Africa
as far apart as Tanzania (Tanganyika) in East Africa and
Senegal in West Africa through the activities of Muslim
brotherhoods (Sufi orders), traders, and others. For some
African groups the loss of power with the onset of colonial
rule made them gravitate toward Islam, which was seen as an
alternative to the prevailing colonial order. The difficulties of
a new life under the colonial system, which uprooted the
African from his traditional universe, presented Islam with an
opportunity to provide a new framework as meaningful and
all-embracing as the old African one. This, for instance,
A mud brick mosque in Mopti, Mali, in Northwest Africa. Africa is happened with Amadou Bamba’s Murid brotherhood in
home to more than one billion Muslims. © CHARLES AND JOSETTE Senegal, which converted thousands of people whose earthly
LENARS/CORBIS kingdoms had been destroyed by colonialism. In 1888 Bamba
established Touba/Tubaa as a great holy city (some say) to
rival Mecca, and he was buried there in 1927. Every year
of the attached African charms. This calligraphy allowed for a
hundreds of thousands of his followers visit his tomb on the
new system of spatial organization. More than this, Islamic
anniversary of his death. For the uprooted African who joined
script was used in decorative ways even in non-Muslim areas
such as modern-day Ghana, where in the nineteenth century the faith, the Muslim supra-ethnic umma provided a solidarthe Asantehene, head of the Asante confederacy, wore clothes ity and a sense of belonging not very different from that of the
with Arabic writing in various colors. Islam had clearly African village/ethnic one. Moreover, while the Islamic pre-
filtered through Asante politicoreligious structure such that scriptions replaced the indigenous ones, in matters of worboth in terms of ideas and in the realm of the arts it provided a ship, however, the Muslim ritual prayer did not completely
medium through which the ideology of the Asante was dislodge the traditional rituals of seeking to appease the
communicated. ancestors. In fact, the Muslim religious leaders and teachers
came to perform the same kind of role as the African healers
Islam, which for many centuries coexisted well with tradi- and medicine men in curving out the domain of popular
tional African religion, gradually over time attempted to religion.
replace it as the dominant faith of some regions without
major clashes. What made this possible was the fact that the Indigenization of Islam
Islamic faith was much more adaptable in Africa with very Yet, despite Muslim efforts to purge African elements from
minimal requirements for new members who at the very least their faith, their religion continued to display a level of
were expected to change their names after reciting the testi- “Africanness” that revealed the indigenization of Islam in
mony of faith. The observance of Islamic duties along with these regions of West Africa. How else would one explain the
the understanding of the faith were supposed to follow later. continued presence of, for instance, the bori cult in northern
For the first generation of Muslims, introduction to Islamic Nigeria? There, women tend to follow the traditional cults
cultural values was what came first whereas Islamization itself even with the sustained impact of Islam in Hausaland for
could take generations to realize. At this level there was centuries, including producing such well-known major religaccommodation to social and political structures of authority. ious Fulani reformers of the nineteenth century such as

Islam and the Muslim World 21
African Culture and Islam

Shaykh
Uthman dan Fodio? There must be a level of affinity acknowledging the entanglements and creative encounters
between the two religious systems that allows this to happen. between and within cultures? It remains to be seen what the
For instance, the belief in mystical powers (jinn/invisible outcome of this clash will be. It is clear though that underlysupernatural creatures) allows Islam to be accommodated to ing the conflict between them are struggles for power and
the African spirit world that is so important to understanding control of the Muslim community by these competing groups.
the African religious universe. In fact, the ancestral beliefs
have been recombined with Muslim practice to form a new Gender and Islam in Africa
“folk” religion with emphasis on, say, saint veneration (which What type of cultural interface has taken place between Islam
and Africa in the area of gender relations? More specifically,
popular Islam and Sufism reinforce) that approximates local
what has been the role of Islam with respect to the status of
ancestor veneration.
women in the regions of Africa where Islam has been intro-
The practice of curing illnesses attributed to occult forces duced? Did Islam introduce patriarchy in Africa? Many
provided an opportunity for the Muslim healing system to African societies were patriarchal (polygamous as well) even
flourish and allowed for the services of Muslim healers/holy before their encounter with Islam. Nevertheless, where Islam
men (who provided additional healing choices to local practi- was introduced and its values incorporated in the socioecotioners) to be in high demand. The appearance of new nomic and political structures of these societies (especially
epidemic diseases such as smallpox and cholera, which arose those with a propensity for state/empire building) a hierarin the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in hinterland East chical social organization resulted in which there were clear
Africa (and which the local people could not adequately deal demarcations of male and female spheres of activity. This, of
with), led the people to turn increasingly to the Muslim course, did vary from society to society. For instance, the
healing system. Muslim prayers and amulets were more Yoruba women of southwestern Nigeria continued to be
market women even after the coming of Islam whereas their
popular than Muslim secular remedies in this atmosphere of
Hausa counterparts in northern Nigeria tended to lead more
suspicion (which took the form of sorcery and witchcraft
secluded lives. It is significant to note that the Mahdiyya
accusations). Apart from the fact that Muslim amulets were
movement, which was established in 1941 in Ijebul-Ode in
believed to embody the words of the Supreme Being and not
southern Nigeria by the southern Muslim scholar, Muhamthat of the intermediary powers (making them therefore
mad Jumat Imam, emphasized the education of women, their
more potent, as the Asante believed), Muslim literacy played
attendance of mosques together with men, and their inclua role as a potential source of healing. Furthermore, Sufi
sion in public affairs (hence no Quranic basis for the practice
masters who had attained a closeness to God through followof purdah, or female seclusion. By way of comparison, among
ing the path of spiritual enlightenment were believed to have
the Tuareg-Berbers of the Sahara (who tend to be matriarspecial powers that made their prayers efficacious. This
chal) their unveiled women continued to enjoy far more
baraka (blessing power that heals) was passed on in families
freedom of movement than their Arab counterparts in
and explains why the scholarly Sufi lineages of the Sahara
North Africa.
have played a pivotal role in mediating Islam between North
and West Africa. The Sufi dhikr (chant) practices and the spirit possession
cults (bori among Hausas in West Africa and zar in Ethiopia
While the influence of the tariqa (Sufi orders) has been and Sudan) have offered women possibilities for autonomous
undermined to some extent in some parts of Africa such as spiritual expression and for creation of networks of mutual
Tanzania, the commitment to Sufistic engagement with faith support. Mysticism in particular has opened the room for the
nevertheless continues to be strong in West Africa and acceptance of female authority (for instance, Sokna Magat
especially in Senegal, although even there it is facing the Diop of the Murids) or religious leadership located within the
challenge of the Salafi reformers. Sufism, far from being a female realm. Moreover, the Qadiriyya order accepted the
predominantly rural phenomenon that would fade away as female leadership of Shaykha Binti Mtumwa (a former slave
Muslim societies became increasingly modernized, has con- or person of low status) who founded a branch of the order in
tinued to thrive and to engage African Muslims of the urban Malawi and was successful in attracting many women. Therecenters as well. Yet for some educated young African Muslims fore, both possession cults and Sufi brotherhoods have alwho are discomfited by magical practices, saint veneration, lowed women to establish a sphere of action in hierarchical
hierarchy, and the authoritarianism of some Sufi orders, the societies where control of the state is a male domain. These
Salafi message has seemed attractive. orders have incorporated women in both East and West
Africa, especially in the area of education, fund raising, and
The Salafi reform is itself at some level quite conservative the like, although women have a much larger scope in Senegal
and traditional; to the extent that this is true, Salafi reform than in Nigeria in leadership of brotherhoods.
and Sufi traditionalism are constantly engaged in an overlapping movement of interaction. Will they creatively synthe- During the period of economic hardships in the last
size from the values of their common Islamic heritage while several decades, issues of cultural authenticity have become

22 Islam and the Muslim World
African Culture and Islam

rooted in Islamic identity in opposition to what has been Muslim judges to apply Islamic civil and family law except in
perceived as Western cultural domination. These women criminal matters, which were tried by European courts. In the
reject Western feminism, which they see as an extension of postcolonial period the scope of Islamic law, where it is
Western cultural domination worldwide, a domination that applied, is limited to religious issues and civil cases; the
makes Western values and ideas be the normative values that modern trend, with its emphasis on equal rights of citizens, is
everyone else should strive for. The role of these women has to have laws that apply across the board without recognizing
expanded as liberalization of the political process and the any distinctions based on religion or gender.
emergence of multiparty politics have led them to establish
organizations and to embrace a particular agenda, including Recognition of Islamic laws in many African states after
the Muslim dress code, and involvement in cultural politics. independence has created tensions and political controversy
The Islamists and radical reformist activists are engaged in especially when the secular elites have sought to forge a
contesting existing gender relations and social justice. They uniform system of law or at least have attempted to modify
use the text (scripture) as their framework whereas the secular Muslim personal law (in aspects such as marriage for girls) to
activists’ frame of reference is based on certain abstract bring it in line with the inherited Western law and African
concepts such as egalitarianism, humanism, human rights, customary practices. There has been a wide variety of reand pluralism, concepts that have emerged from Western sponses to the dilemma of how much scope to give to
discourses on the subject. religious laws. Mozambique, for instance, has made attempts
to recognize traditional and religious marriages (thus doing
The roles of men and women are constantly changing due the basic minimum) whereas Sudan has made shari
a the law
to urbanization, education, and cross-cultural contacts. For of the land. The call by Muslim groups in northern Nigeria
some women these changes have generated new freedom and for nationalization of Islamic law (to apply beyond northern
opportunities for self-improvement.
Nigeria) has unleashed the shari
a debate, a source of tension
Islamic Law and Politics in national politics in a country where at the very least only
As a political force, Islam united much of Africa in the past half or slightly more than half the population is Muslim. In
and was willing to accommodate local (including legal) prac- African Muslim societies in general, however, it has been
tices. Nevertheless, as the level of Islamization deepened the noted that there is often an antistate discourse underlying the
learned Muslim scholars began to call for a strict interpreta- call for Islamic law by Muslim groups, which seek to foster
tion of the shari
a (Islamic law), which they saw as different their religious and cultural autonomy in societies (with failed
from the African legal or customary practices. Some obvious political institutions and secular ideologies such as socialism)
areas of difference included, for instance, Islamic emphasis on in which state and secular institutions have failed to respond
individual ownership of land (and property inheritance through to their needs.
the male side of the family) whereas in various African
societies land belonged to the community. Also, the way
Coexistence of Islam and African Religion
The coexistence of Islam and African traditional religion has
Islamic law was interpreted (some have suggested) tended to
give men considerably more power over property matters cultural and linguistic implications as well. The Arabic lanthan perhaps was the case in some African societies. Scholars, guage has provided abstract concepts, particularly religious
however, need comparative data across a number of African ones, that reveal Islamic modes of thought and expression.
societies to make a meaningful comparison. Islamic influence is, in fact, revealed both at the explicit and
suggestive levels in languages as different as the Berber
Unlike African customary law, which is unwritten, Islamic dialects, Hausa, Swahili, and Somali to name just a few. These
law (which covers both public and private life) is written and languages have absorbed the Islamic worldview (though at
provides an extensive framework within which Muslim qadis some level languages such as Swahili have been progressively
(judges) analyze legal issues and deduce new laws to handle secularized over time during and after the colonial period,
new situations in the umma. Islamic law emphasizes the rights making them more neutral).
or obligations of individuals whereas African customary law
(in which economic and social relations, especially in “state- Islamic culture has generally held the written word in such
less” societies, were regulated by customs maintained by high esteem that wherever Islam has reached in Africa versocial pressure and the authority of elders) is based on kinship sions of its script have been adopted in those regions of
ties in matters of marriage and property. It extends to com- sustained contact. Moreover, Islamic penetration of Africa
mercial and criminal law and also has rules regarding the introduced Arabic as the language of religious discourse
conduct of political leaders or those entrusted with authority. among scholars, official correspondence between Islamized
In their encounter with other legal systems European colo- states, and historical writing during the period of the Muslim
nial powers left these systems functioning in some societies kingdoms. Good examples of important records that were
(for instance, Sudan and Nigeria as part of the Britain’s self- produced by Timbuktu scholars were the monumental Tarikh
serving policy of indirect rule) while in others they allowed al-Fatash and Tarikh al-Sudan. Both East and West Africa

Islam and the Muslim World 23
Aga Khan

have also produced Afro-Islamic literature (from the panegyrics Chande, Abdin. “Radicalism and Reform in East Africa.”
of the Prophet to poetry) based on the local languages, which In The History of Islam in Africa. Edited by Randall Pouwels
have absorbed a lot of Arabic loanwords in the spheres of and Nehemia Levitzion. Athens: Ohio University
religion, politics, and commerce. In some of these areas, Press, 2000.
however, the written word has competed with the oral litera- Clark, Peter. West Africa and Islam. London: Edward Arnold
ture especially among such clan-based people as the Somali. Ltd., 1982.
Dunbar, Roberta Ann. “Muslim Women in African His-
In the linguistic dimension it is often assumed that when tory.” In The History of Islam in Africa. Edited by Randall
Arabic and an African language such as Swahili, Berber, Pouwels and Nehemia Levitzion. Athens: Ohio Univer-
Hausa, Fulani, Harari, Somali, and others come into contact sity Press, 2000.
the latter will invariably be influenced by the former. It is, of Gilland, Dean S. African Religion Meets Islam: Religious Change
course, undeniable that as a result of contact with Arabic in Northern Nigeria. Lanham, Md.: University Press of
these languages (which are related in their ethos to Arabic) America, 1986.
have absorbed many Arabic loanwords. In fact, some had in Harrow, Kenneth, ed. Faces of Islam in African Literature.
the past a written tradition in Arabic script. Nevertheless, Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1991.
there is an unstated assumption that these languages have Owusu-Ansah, David. Islamic Talismanic Tradition in Nineborrowed from Arabic rather passively without contributing teenth Century Asante. Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1991.
anything back. This may explain the fact that while there are a Pouwels, Randall, and Levitzion, Nehemia, eds. The History
number of studies that trace Arabic loanwords in various of Islam in Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000.
African languages, fewer comparable studies, if any, have Pouwels, Randall. Horn and Crescent. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambeen undertaken to study, say, the influence of Swahili on the bridge University Press, 1987.
Arabic dialects spoken in Oman or south Yemen (Hadhramaut). Prussin, Labelle. Hatumere: Islamic Design in West Africa.
This influence should be expected given that the Red Sea Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
separates the Arabian peninsula from Africa and this proxim- Press, 1986.
ity resulted in a profound interaction in a number of spheres. Sanneh, Lamin. Piety and Power. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis
The Arabs, by their own tradition, recognize African ancestry Books, 1996.
through Ishmael’s mother Haggar, who was Egyptian. Also, Westerlund, David, and Rosander, Eva Evers, eds. African
Arabs recognize the active presence of Africans in the evolu- Islam and Islam in Africa: Encounters between Sufis and
tion of pre-Islamic Arabic culture and the important role that Islamists. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997.
Ethiopia and Ethiopians played in the early history of Islam.
Abdin Chande
How will both Islam and African indigenous traditions
fare in the twenty–first century in the era of globalization?
Can both systems penetrate Western secular culture, whose
secular institutions and ideologies have not functioned well in AGA KHAN
Africa? Are African religious traditions destined to die out as
socioeconomic changes (not to mention the colonial experi- Aga Khan is the title inherited by the modern imams of the
ence) have disrupted the cultural nexus in which these tradi- Shi
a Nizari Isma
ili Muslims. The title was first granted by
tions have thrived? This is rather unlikely as African indigenous the Iranian ruler Fath
Ali Shah to Imam Hasan
Ali Shah
cultures have demonstrated much resilience even as their (1804–1881), who also served as governor of Qum, Mahallat,
followers enter the fold of either Islam or Christianity (Ali and Kirman. Forced to leave Iran, he settled eventually in
British-ruled India. His son, Shah Ali Shah, Aga Khan II
Mazrui’s triple heritage) and the African ancestors are poised
(1830–1835), was imam for four years and was succeeded
to raise their heads once again in the synthetic and syncretic
after his death by his eight-year-old son who became well
religious universe. With one quarter of the world’s 1.2 billion
known internationally as Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga
Muslims living in Africa (making Muslims, half the conti-
Khan III (1877–1957). He guided the community into the
nent’s population, the most numerous followers of any religtwentieth century by locating social welfare, educational,
ion) the final chapter of the unfolding global resurgent Islam
economic, and religious institutions within the framework of
is yet to be written.
a structured community constitution to promote better or-
See also Africa, Islam in; Bamba, Ahmad; Timbuktu; ganization and governance. His leadership played a crucial
Touba; Zar. role in enabling the community, some of whose members had
migrated from India to Africa, to adapt successfully to historical change and modernity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bravmann, Rene A. African Islam. Washington, D.C.: The In addition to his responsibilities as imam and spiritual
Smithsonian Institution, 1983. leader for the welfare of his followers, Aga Khan III played an

24 Islam and the Muslim World
Ahl al-Bayt

cultural and geographical diversity, acknowledge the spiritual
authority of the imam and have responded actively to his
guidance. This has enabled them to build further on inherited
institutions and to create common purpose in their endeavors
through well-coordinated local, national, and international
institutions.

Aga Khan IV also created the Aga Khan Development
Network, to promote a humanitarian, intellectual, and social
vision of Islam and tradition of service to society. Its international activities have earned an enviable reputation for their
commitment to the development of societies, without bias to
national or religious affiliation, and to the promotion of
culture as a key resource and enabling factor in human and
social development. The Award for Architecture and the
Trust for Culture promote concern and awareness of the
built environment, and cultural and historical preservation.
Various institutions of higher education, such as the Aga
Khan University, Central Asian University, and the Institute
of Ismaili Studies promote scholarship and training in a wide
variety of fields.

The Aga Khan’s leadership and vision continue to be
reflected in the increasingly significant global impact that
these community institutions and the network are having in
the fields of social, educational, economic, and cultural
development.

See also Khojas; Nizari.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sir Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan, known as Aga Khan III, Aziz, K. K., ed. Aga Khan III: Selected Speeches and Writings.
became the leader of the Shi
a Nizari Isma
ili Muslims of India in London: Kegan Paul International, 1998.
the late nineteenth century at the age of eight. As the Indian
subcontinent evolved politically in the beginning of the twentieth Daftary, Farhad. The Ismailis: Their History and Doctrines.
century, Aga Khan spoke out for education, social change, and Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
women’s rights. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, THE

Azim Nanji
important role as a statesman in international and Muslim
affairs. He was president of the League of Nations from 1937
to 1938 and also played an important role in the political
evolution of the Indian subcontinent. Deeply committed to
AHL AL-BAYT
social reform and education among Muslims of Africa and
Ahl al-bayt, or “people of the house,” is a phrase used with
Asia he assisted in the creation of several institutions such as
schools, hospitals, and the East African Muslim Welfare reference to the family of the prophet Muhammad, particu-
Society. He was also an eloquent advocate for the education larly by the Shi
a. In early Arabian tribal society, it was a
of women and the advancement of their social and public role. designation for a noble clan. It occurs only twice in the
In addition to other writings and speeches, he wrote two Quran, once in regard to Ibrahim’s family (11:73), but more
books, India in Transition (1918) and his Memoirs (1954). He significantly in a verse that states, “God only wishes to keep
died in 1957 and is buried in Aswan, Egypt. uncleaness away from you, O people of the house, and to
purify you completely” (33:33). The context suggests that this
Aga Khan IV, Shah Karim al-Husayni, was born in 1936 statement pertains to women in Muhammad’s household, a
and was educated in Europe and at Harvard University. view held by Sunni commentators. Some authorities have
During his leadership, a worldwide community emerged applied it more widely to descendants of Muhammad’s clan
successfully through complex and turbulent changes. The (Banu Hashim), the Abbasids, and even the whole community
Ismailis, who live in some thirty countries and represent of Muslims. Since the eighth century C.E., however, the Shi
a

Islam and the Muslim World 25
Ahl-e Hadis/Ahl-al Hadith

and many Sunnis have maintained that Quran 33:33 refers such as Sayyida Zaynab (
Ali’s daughter; Cairo) and Fatima
specifically to five people: Muhammad,
Ali b. Abi Talib al-Ma
suma (daughter of the seventh imam; Qom, Iran).
(Muhammad’s cousin),
Ali’s wife Fatima (Muhammad’s Nizari Isma
ilis (Khojas) make pilgrimages to their living
daughter), and their two children, Hasan and Husayn. Ulema imam, the Aga Khan, also a direct descendent of the Prophet’s
invoke hadiths in support of this view, as seen in Tabari’s household.
Jami
al-bayan (c. tenth century C.E.). Thus, in South Asia,
they are called “the five pure ones” (panjatan pak). They are Contemporary heads of state in several Muslim countries
also known as “people of the mantle” (kisa) in remembrance have claimed blood-descent from the family of the Prophet to
of the occasion when the Prophet enveloped them with his obtain religious legitimacy for their rule: the
Alawid dynasty
mantle and recited this verse. of Morocco (1631–present), Hashimite dynasty of Iraq
(1921–1958) and of Jordan (1923–present), and many of the
Belief in the supermundane qualities of the ahl al-bayt and ruling mullahs in Iran, including the Ayatollah Khomeini (r.
the imams descended from them form the core of Shi
ite 1979–1989), whose tomb has become a popular Iranian
devotion. They are the ideal locus of authority and salvation Shi
ite shrine. Even former President Saddam Husayn of Iraq
in all things, both worldly and spiritual. As pure, sinless, and (r. 1979–2003) has claimed descent from ahl al-bayt.
embodiments of divine wisdom, they are held to be the
perfect leaders for the Muslim community, as well as models See also Hadith; Imam; Imamate; Karbala; Mahdi; Sayyid;
for moral action. Many believe that they possess a divine light Sharif; Shia: Imami (Twelver); Shia: Ismaili.
through which God created the universe, and that it is only
through their living presence that the world exists. Twelver BIBLIOGRAPHY
Shi
ite doctrine has emphasized that the pain and martyrdom Ayoub, Mahmoud. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of
endured by ahl al-bayt, particularly by Husayn, hold redemp- the Devotional Aspects of
Ashura in Twelver Shi
ism. The
tive power for those who have faith in them and empathize Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1978.
with their suffering. Moreover, they anticipate the messianic Hoffman-Ladd, Valerie J. “Devotion to the Prophet and His
return of the Twelfth Imam at the end of time, and the Family in Egyptian Sufism.” International Journal of Midintercession of the holy family on the day of judgment. dle East Studies 24 (1992): 615–637.
During the middle ages, Nizari Isama
ili da
is in northern Schubel, Vernon James. Religious Performance in Contempo-
India even identified the ahl al-bayt with Hindu gods (Brahma, rary Islam: Shi
i Devotional Rituals in South Asia. Columbia:
Vishnu, Kalki, Shiva, and the goddess Shakti) and the Pandavas, University of South Carolina Press, 1993.
the five heroes of the Mahabharata epic. The Shi
ite ritual
calendar is distinguished by holidays commemorating events Juan Eduardo Campo
in the lives of the holy family, and it is common for the “hand
of Fatima,” inscribed with their five names, to be displayed in
processions and to be used as a talisman.
AHL-E HADIS/AHL-AL HADITH
Sunnis also revere the ahl al-bayt, attributing to them
many of the sacred qualities that the Shi
a do. This is The Ahl-e Hadis emerged as a distinctive orientation among
especially so in Sufi tariqas (brotherhoods), most of which Indian ulema in the late-nineteenth-century milieu of retrace their spiritual lineage to Muhammad through
Ali. formist thought, publication, debate, and internal proselytiz-
Several tariqas hold special veneration for the holy five and ing. Like other reformers, they fostered devotion to the
the imams, such as the Khalwatiyya, the Bektashiyya, and the prophet Muhammad and fidelity to shari
a. Unlike them, they
Safawiyya, which established the Safavid dynasty in Iran opposed jurisprudential taqlid (imitation) of the classic law
(1502–1722). In many Muslim communities, high social schools in favor of direct use of hadith. They also opposed the
status is attributed to those claiming to be sayyids and sharifs, entire institution of Sufism, a stance that further marginalized
blood-descendants of the ahl al-bayt. Indeed, many Muslim them. Like the Deobandis, they claimed to be heirs of Shah
scholars and saints are members of these two groups, and Wali Allah (d. 1763), and they encouraged simplification of
their tombs often become pilgrimage centers. ceremony and the practice of widow remarriage. Their practices in the canonical prayer (including uttering “amen” aloud
Although the Saudi-Wahhabi conquest of Arabia (nine- and lifting their hands at the time of bowing) led to conflicts
teenth to early twentieth centuries) led to the destruction of ultimately settled in British courts.
many ahl al-bayt shrines (including Fatima’s tomb in Medina),
elsewhere their shrines have attracted large numbers of pil- Core supporters of the Ahl-e Hadis came from educated
grims in modern times. These include those of
Ali (Najaf, and often well-born backgrounds. Cosmopolitan in orienta-
Iraq), Husayn (Karbala, Iraq and Cairo, Egypt),
Ali al-Rida tion, they identified themselves with similar groups in Afghani-
(the eighth imam; Mashhad, Iran), and also of women saints stan and Arabia. Within India, they turned to princes for

26 Islam and the Muslim World
Ahl al-Kitab

support, most famously with the marriage of Maulana Siddiq their refusal to recant their beliefs in the eternal nature of the
Hasan Khan (1832–1890) to the ruling Begum of Bhopal. Quran. After the Mihna, the Ahl al-Hadith led an anti-
Siddiq Hasan supported the classic interpretations of jihad, rationalist movement that forced advocates of rationalist
without the apologetic glosses of the day. Despite his writing thought underground. In the centuries following the initial
to the contrary, he was suspected of disloyalty, as was another triumph of the Ahl al-Hadith, a middle ground emerged that
major figure in the movement, Sayyid Nazir Husain (d. placed greater emphasis on a combination of reason and
1902), who was briefly arrested as a “Wahhabi,” as supporters tradition. The Ahl al-Hadith formed a school of legal thought
of the Arab Muhammad Abd al Wahhab (1703–1792) were named after Ahmad Ibn Hanbal that continued to pursue
called. Suspicion of the Ahl-e Hadis abated by 1889, marked legal methods that focused less on uses of reason and more on
by the success of a campaign to drop the word “Wahhabi” in tradition. The Hanbali fixation on tradition led to a series of
official British colonial correspondence. reform movements that have sought to “revive” the moral
and ethical standards of the first generations of Muslims. The
The armed Lashkar-e Tayyiba, affiliated with the Ahl-e contemporary influence of Ahl al-Hadith ideology continues
Hadis in Pakistan, is alleged to have been active both within to be important for a number of diverse groups. Organiza-
Pakistan and Kashmir since the 1990s. tions such as the Indonesian Muhammadiyah and the Islamic
Society of North America, as well as the violent al-Qa
ida and
See also Deoband; Fundamentalism.
Islamic Jihad, each bases its ideologies on ideas that emerged
out of the Ahl al-Hadith and Hanbali movement over the last
BIBLIOGRAPHY eight centuries.
Metcalf, Barbara Daly. Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband
1860–1900. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University See also Ibn Hanbal; Kalam; Mutazilites, Mutazila;
Press, 1982. Traditionalism.
Saeedullah. The Life and Works of Muhammad Siddiq Hasan
Khan, Nawwab of Bhopal. Lahore, Pakistan: Sh. Muham- BIBLIOGRAPHY
mad Ashraf, 1973. Hallaq, Wael. A History of Islamic Law and Legal Theories.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Barbara D. Metcalf Schacht, Joseph. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence.
Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1950.

R. Kevin Jaques
AHL AL-HADITH
The Ahl al-Hadith (people of the traditions) appear to have
developed out of a pious reaction to the assassination of AHL AL-KITAB
Caliph Yazid b. Walid (d. 744). Prior to Yazid’s assassination,
scholars who emphasized hadith (traditions of the prophet The term ahl al-kitab, or people of the book, refers to
Muhammad) as the primary source for interpreting the Will followers of scripture-possessing religions that predate the
of God were disorganized and fairly removed from the Quran, most often Jews and Christians. In some situations
widespread emphasis on applying varying levels of reason to other religious groups, such as Zoroastrians and Hindus, have
the Quran. Yazid’s assassination was interpreted by more been considered to be people of the book. Some Quranic
conservative groups as a revolution against the predestined verses also reference the Sabeans, who are usually understood
plan of God. Whether or not the early Ahl al-Hadith were to be one of several gnostic Judeo-Christian sects such as the
aligned with the Umayyad caliphate, as were many of the Mandeans, the Elchasaites, or Archontics. Muslims recog-
Jabriyya (advocates of predestination), it is clear that many nize the holy books possessed by the Jews (al-Tawrah: Torah;
understood Yazid’s assassination as a sign of the general decay al-Zabur: Psalms) and Christians (al-Injil: Gospel) as legitiof the Muslim community, the blame for which they assigned mate revelations. However, they believe that some portions
to the uncontrolled use of personal opinion by the Ahl al-Ra
y of these scriptures were abrogated and superceded by the
(people of considered opinion). After the Abbasid revolution Quran and the Christians and Jews corrupted others.
(c. 720–750), the Ahl al-Hadith developed into the main
group opposed to the dominance of the rationalist theology The Quran provides an ambivalent picture of the people
of the Mu
tazilites. During the religious inquisition or Mihna of the book, sometimes praising and sometimes condemning
(833–850) many of the Ahl al-Hadith were imprisoned for them. Muslims are said to worship the same God as the
refusing to agree to the doctrine of the Created Quran. people of the book, who were likewise honored with divine
Members of the Ahl al-Hadith, such as Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (d. revelations (Q 2:62). However, the people of the book are
855), became important religious and social leaders due to also criticized for certain faults and sometimes referred to as

Islam and the Muslim World 27
Ahl al-Kitab

unbelievers (Q 5:18, 9:29–35). These differences in tone Islamic literature from the eleventh through eighteenth
seem to be connected with the circumstances in which Quranic centuries generally deals with ahl al-kitab within the context
revelations were delivered. In Mecca the Prophet’s message of their dhimmi status. Although dhimmis were understood to
was directed against the idolaters who opposed him, and be inferior to Muslims, some Jews and Christians managed to
Muhammad believed that the Jews and Christians, as fellow attain high positions in Islamic states. A few, such as John of
monotheists, would recognize him as a prophet. After his Damascus (d. c. 748), even engaged in theological discussions
arrival in Medina, however, it became apparent that most with Muslims. Islamic polemical literature associated with
Jews and Christians were not going to submit to Islam. As a scholars such as Ibn Hazm of Córdoba (d. 1064), Ibn alresult, the Meccan suras generally express more favorable
Arabi (d. 1148), and al-Ghazali (d. 1111) repeated earlier
opinions of the people of the book, and the Medinan suras criticisms of Jews and Christians, posited different theories to
more negative images. explain the corruption of their scriptures, and assigned blame
for this calamity to well-known figures such as the Old
Despite recognizing the privileged place of the Jews as Testament prophet Ezra, the Christian apostle Paul, and the
having received multiple prophets, the Quran criticizes them Byzantine emperor Constantine. The people of the book
for resisting God and corrupting or hiding his Scriptures (Q were also accused of concealing biblical prophecies foretell-
2:75, 3:78, 4:46f, 5:13, 5:41). They are also charged with ing the coming of Muhammad and the triumph of Islam. Sufi
teaching falsehoods (Q 2:78, 3:79), and with immoral prac- works, such as the poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi, look to Jesus
tices such as greed, theft, idolatry, persecuting the prophets, and other biblical saints as models but contain similar criticharging interest, and failing to honor the Sabbath (Q 2:49–61, cisms of Jews and Christians. All these texts reflect a belief in
65, 3:75, 4:153–156, 160–161, 5:56–64, 7:163–166). Because Muhammad as the bearer of God’s crowning revelation,
of their sins, the Quran asserts that God cursed the Jews (Q supplanting the partial revelations of the biblical Scriptures.
5:13). Those Jews who did not submit to Islam faced the same
During modern times, substantial changes in the relationeternal punishment as polytheists and other unbelievers
ship between the Islamic world and the West led to shifts in
(Q 2:80f).
Muslim attitudes toward the people of the book. From the
early 1800s, Islamic modernists acknowledged that Muslims
Christians are generally portrayed sympathetically in the
could learn some things from the “Christian” West, but they
early suras. They are described as being the closest friends to
continued to assert Islam’s superiority as a religious system.
Muslims, while Jews and idolaters are said to be hostile to
Colonizing European states attempted to impose Western
Islam (Q 5:82). However, the Quran disagrees with Chrisvalues upon Islamic populations, but westernizing Muslim
tians over several doctrinal issues. Although the Muslim holy
governments failed to achieve the promised prosperity. With
book recognizes Jesus’ prophethood (Q 3:45–53), it denies
the breakdown of the dhimmi system and the rise of nationalthat he was divine or was crucified (Q 4:157–158, 5:116–117).
ism, ethnic and religious violence has erupted throughout the
It also rejects the Christians’ doctrine of the Trinity and their
Muslim world. This is most noticeable in the region of
teaching that Jesus was the Son of God (Q 4:171–172, 19:35),
Palestine, where many Muslims see the establishment of
accusing proponents of these doctrines of being unbelievers,
Israel as a Western colonial project. During the late twentieth
in danger of hellfire (Q 5:76f). As with the Jews, Christians century, Islamic revivalists (or “Islamists”) increased their
are also charged with distorting the Scriptures. influence and largely rejected the “compromises” of the
modernists. The Islamists advocate a return to the glorious
Muslim representations of ahl al-kitab in hadith and early
Islamic civilization of the past, with its division of the world
juristic literature demonstrate an increased familiarity with
into dar al-islam and dar al-harb (“house of war”; i.e., that part
Jewish and Christian beliefs and practices, because the people
of the world not ruled by Islamic government) and returning
of the book initially represented the majority population in
non-Muslim minorities to their former dhimmi status.
the expanded Muslim empire. On the whole, this literature
presents ahl al-kitab in a negative light. Many hadiths seem See also Christianity and Islam; Islam and Other Religconcerned about their undue influence and warn Muslims not ions; Judaism and Islam; Minorities: Dhimmis.
to imitate them. Hadith literature also lays the groundwork
for the practice of assigning protected status (known as BIBLIOGRAPHY
dhimmi status) to people of the book who submitted to Busse, Heribert. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity: Theological
Muslim political authority. This arrangement made it possi- and Historical Affiliations. Translated by Allison Brown.
ble for Jews and Christians to practice their faiths while living Princeton, N.J.: Markus Weiner Publishers, 1998.
in Muslim societies. Although treated as second-class citi- Goddard, Hugh. Muslim Perceptions of Christianity. London:
zens, non-Muslim communities were largely able to coexist Grey Seal, 1996.
peacefully with Muslims for centuries, without experiencing Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava. Intertwined Worlds: Medieval Islam and
the active persecution that minority religious groups often Bible Criticism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
encountered in Europe. Press, 1992.

28 Islam and the Muslim World
Ahmad Ibn Idris

Lewis, Bernard. The Jews of Islam. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton able to advance as far as Harar, where he was stopped in 1559
University Press, 1984. by Imam Nur b. al-Mujahid, al-Ghazi’s nephew and succes-
Ridgeon, Lloyd, ed. Islamic Interpretations of Christianity. New sor. Al-Mujahid ruled Adal-Harar until his death in 1568.
York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001.
See also Africa, Islam in; Ethiopia; Jihad.
Watt, William Montgomery. Muslim-Christian Encounters:
Perceptions and Misperceptions. London: Routledge, 1991.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abir, Mordechai. Ethiopia and the Red Sea: The Rise and Decline
Stephen Cory
of the Solomonic Dynasty and Muslim-European Rivalry in the
Region. London: Frank Cass, 1980.

Roman Loimeier
AHMAD IBN IBRAHIM AL-GHAZI
(1506–1543)
Ahmad b. Ibrahim al-Ghazi is known in Ethiopian Christian AHMAD IBN IDRIS (1750–1837)
literature as Ahmad Gran, “the left-handed,” political leader
of an Islamic jihad movement in sixteenth-century Ethiopia. Ahmad b. Idris was a Sufi teacher who influenced the forma-
He rose to power in the context of a century-old struggle for tion of many reforming Sufi brotherhoods in the nineteenth
domination in Ethiopia between the Christian emperors who century.
reigned in Ethiopia’s central and northern highlands and the
Although he never formed tariqa (brotherhood) of his
rulers of a number of Muslim emirates in that region’s eastern
own, Ibn Idris was a key figure in the development of Sufi
high- and lowlands. In the 1510s and 1520s, the emperor
thought in the nineteenth century. Being firmly based in
Libna Dingil (r. 1508–1540) had managed to overcome the traditional Sufism, in the line from Ibn
Arabi, Ibn Idris
resistance of the Amir of Adal, Garad Abun, as well as of Iman promoted the idea of tariqa Muhammadiyya—focusing the
Mahfuz, the Amir of Zaila. Sufi experience on following the example of and having
mystical encounters with the Prophet—while vehemently
Ahmad b. Ibrahim al-Ghazi grew up in the province of
rejecting blind imitation (taqlid) of earlier scholars. Accord-
Hubat south of Adal’s capital city of Harar and had married
ing to his teaching, it is the responsibility of each generation
Bati Del Wanbara, a daughter of Imam Mahfuz. In the
of Muslim scholars to discover the Muslim path by relying
desperate situation of 1527, he was able to unite, under his
directly on the sources of divine revelation and not be
leadership a number of Somali war bands as well as the forces
restricted to what earlier and fallible human authorities have
of the Muslim emirates to defeat an Ethiopian army. With
decreed.
the support of Ottoman artillery, al-Ghazi’s army was subsequently able, in 1529, to inflict a crushing defeat upon Ibn Idris was born in Maysur, a village near Larache in
Ethiopia’s united army. Thereupon, he decided to embark on Morocco, and received his basic training in the reformist
a jihad with the aim to conquer Ethiopia as a whole. scholarly milieu in Fez of the late eighteenth century, before
moving through Egypt to Mecca in 1799. He stayed in Mecca
Al-Ghazi led a number of campaigns, recorded by his during the Wahhabi occupation, unlike many colleagues, and
companion, the Yemenite scholar Shihab al-Din Ahmad b. had an ambivalent relationship to the Wahhabis; he shared

Abd al-Qadir, under the title Kitab Futuhat al-Habasha al- some of their reformist views but rejected their recourse to
Musamma Bahjat az-Zaman. Al-Ghazi’s Muslim armies were anathema and violence against other Muslims. After a later
able to conquer, between 1529 and 1535, almost all the disturbance in Mecca, he left in 1828 and settled in Sabya, the
Ethiopian Christian territories, from Showa in the south to capital of
Asir, then a part of Yemen, where he stayed for the
Tigray in the north. Ethiopia’s transformation into a Muslim remainder of his life. Several of his students formed imporimamate was, however, preempted by the intervention of tant Sufi brotherhoods to disseminate his ideas, among them
the Portuguese in 1541. Also, Ethiopia’s new emperor, the Sanusiyya of the Sahara, the Khatmiyya and Rashidiyya/
Galawdewos (r. 1540–1559), managed to reorganize the Dandarawiyya of Sudan, Egypt, and the Indian Ocean re-
Christian forces and to stop al-Ghazi’s advance. gions, and the Salihiyya of Somalia.

In a battle near Woyna Dega, in Dembya province, al- See also Africa, Islam in; Tariqa; Tasawwuf; Wahhabiyya.
Ghazi was killed by a Portuguese fusilier. The Muslim empire
of Ethiopia subsequently disintegrated as quickly as it had BIBLIOGRAPHY
been conquered, and most Christians who had converted to O’Fahey, Rex S. Enigmatic Saint: Ahmad Ibn Idris and the
Islam after 1529 converted back to Ethiopian Christianity. In Idrisi Tradition. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University
the aftermath of al-Ghazi’s death, Emperor Galawdewos was Press, 1990.

Islam and the Muslim World 29
Ahmad Gran

Radtke, Bernd; O’Kane, John; Vikør, Knut S.; and O’Fahey, Raj. Although his personal dynamism, including the fear he
Rex S. The Exoteric Ahmad Ibn Idris: A Sufi’s Critique of the inspired through the issuing of death prophecies, was respon-
Madhahib and Wahhabis. Leiden: Brill, 2000. sible for his notoriety among his Punjab enemies, it also drew
Thomassen, Einar, and Radtke, Bernd, eds. The Letters of many initiates, mainly from Sunni Islam. On his death, a
Ahmad Ibn Idris. London: Hurst, 1993. disciple, Maulvi Nur al-Din, became his khalifa (successor;
1908–1914).
Knut S.Vikør
The movement took stronger institutional form on 27
December 1891, when Ghulam Ahmad called the first annual
gathering at Qadiyan, subsequently the center for all Ahmadi
AHMAD GRAN See Ahmad Ibn activities. Newspapers were soon established, including Al-
Ibrahim al-Ghazi Hakam (1897) and The Review of Religions (1902). Directed by
Ghulam Ahmad that Ahmadis should demand separate categorization from Sunnis in the 1901 census, and that non-
Ahmadi Muslims were kafirs (unbelievers), that intensified
Sunni hostility. The community nevertheless prospered.
Although scorned for their allegedly low social origins, many
AHMADIYYA
Ahmadis were of middle-class professional status (landowners, entrepreneurs, doctors, and lawyers). Those of lower
The Ahmadiyya movement was founded by Mirza Ghulam
origins took advantage of opportunities offered within the
Ahmad in the Punjab province of British India in 1889, at a
community to raise their educational level and hence status.
time of competition for converts among new Muslim, Hindu,
Many Ahmadi women were well educated. Numbers rose to
Sikh, and Christian reform and missionary movements. Diviapproximately nineteen thousand in Punjab by 1911, rising to
sions among Sunni Muslims on appropriate responses folabout twenty-nine thousand by 1921. Careful marriage arlowing the failure in 1857 of a widespread rebellion against
rangements, as well as missionary activity, helped increase the
the British were reflected in the growth of new religious
membership, which then spread outside India, particularly in
movements in the north west, particularly at Deoband and
Africa and Southeast Asia, through well-organized overseas
Aligarh. Ghulam Ahmad’s claims to be the recipient of
missionary programs.
esoteric spiritual knowledge, transmitted to him through
visions, attracted attention in such a setting. Doctrinally, he A split in 1914 divided the movement in the Punjab but
aroused hostility among Sunnis mainly because of his own did not obstruct progress, for those who remained at Qadiyan,
claim to prophethood. His definition of jihad as concerned and the new, Lahore-based, secessionary branch, continued
with “cleansing of souls,” rather than with military struggle, to use similar missionary and disciplinary methods to consoliwas less controversial at a stage when most Muslims had date their communities. Differing mainly on understandings
accepted the practical necessity of acquiesence to British rule. of Ghulam Ahmad’s status, the Qadiyanis retained the caliphal
Some have viewed the insights that drew disciples to him as leadership, whose incumbents (since 1914 the sons and grandsufistic in essence, though his denunciation of rivals caused sons of Ghulam Ahmad) have reinforced belief in the founder’s
detractors to question the spirituality of the movement. prophetic claims. The Lahoris, organized as the Ahmadiyya
Anjuman-e Isha
at-e Islam, regarded Ghulam Ahmad as the
In 1889, shortly after publishing his first book Al-Barahin
“mujaddid [reformer] of the fourteenth century,” and are less
al-Ahmadiyya (Ahmadiyya proofs; 4 vols, 1880–1884), Ghulam
easily distinguishable from Sunni Muslims, except in holding
Ahmad began to initiate disciples. His claims two years later
Ghulam Ahmad to have been the “promised messiah.” The
that he was both masih (messiah) and mahdi (rightly guided
crucial difference over prophethood has maintained the sepaone), and subsequent claims to powers of prophethood, rate identities of the branches wherever Ahmadiyya has since
caused outrage among Muslims, which was expressed in spread, although missionary work among non-Muslims, estracts and newspapers and in fatawa condemning him for pecially overseas, tends to stress common ground in Islam.
denying the doctrine of khatm al-nabuwwa (finality of Muham- While Ghulam Ahmad’s direct successors, notably his son,
mad’s prophethood). Public controversies also marked rela- the second caliph, Bashir al-Din Mahmud Ahmad, together
tions with his non-Muslim rivals, notably the Arya Samaj with Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, have contributed the
Hindu revivalist leaders with whom he clashed frequently, most influential publications to Qadiyani proselytism, the
especially after he claimed to be an avatar of Krisna, and with Lahoris received notable intellectual and missionary leader-
Protestant Christian missionaries in the Punjab. Christians ship from Maulana Muhammad
Ali in the Punjab, and
objected to his view that Jesus had died naturally in Kashmir, Khwaja Kamal al-Din in London.
and that Ghulam Ahmad was the promised “second messiah.”
He cultivated good relations, however, with the British colo- During the period of overt nationalist struggle in India in
nial authorities who appreciated his advocacy of loyalty to the the 1920s and 1930s some Lahoris began to support wider

30 Islam and the Muslim World
Ahmadiyya

Members of the Muslim Ahmadiyya group, including their leader, Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad Khalifatul Masih IV, left, begin the Initiation
ceremony at an international Ahmadiyya convention in Germany in 2001. In the late nineteenth century, Ahmadiyya’s founder, Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad, started this branch of Islam after claiming to be a prophet who received spiritual visions. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

Indian-Muslim agendas. Even though Zafrullah Khan was continual pressure on the community culminated in the
made president of the Muslim League conference in 1931, National Assembly’s declaration of the Ahmadis as nonmost Qadiyanis maintained their strong pro-British stance Muslim in 1974. The military rule of Zia ul-Haq, which
while clashing verbally and violently with some militant favored Islamization policies on a narrowly Sunni basis,
Sunni movements, notably the Ahrars. Yet both groups’ proved disadvantageous to all minorities: His Ordinance XX
generally loyal stance ensured them considerable practical of April 1984 prohibited Ahmadis from calling themselves
protection against possible recriminations from Muslims Muslim. Subsequent prohibitions, notably on publishing,
while colonial rule lasted. and on calling their places of worship mosques, have severely
restricted Ahmadi religious life in Pakistan. The head of the
Independence and Partition brought new problems for Rabwa community, the fourth khalifa, Mirza Tahir Ahmad,
both groups. When the Gurdaspur district was allotted to migrated to London in the mid-1980s, after which many
India many Qadiyanis migrated to Pakistan, where they South Asian Ahmadis have settled outside the subcontinent,
established a new headquarters at Rabwa. Pakistan has not thereby strengthening the generally economically prosperproved congenial to the interests of either branch, although ous Ahmadi missionary communities, belonging to both
Zafrullah Khan was made Pakistan foreign minister and branches, which were already established in many parts of
others initially gained important posts in the civil service, Africa, in Fiji, and in Southeast Asia, as well as in North
army, and air force. Latent antagonism escalated during the America and Europe. Although both branches report growth,
constitution-making controversies of the late 1940s, coming there are no reliable statistics on numbers and distribution.
to a head in 1953 when anti-Ahmadiyya riots, encouraged by Both branches continue to publish prolifically, but there has
ulema seeking the constitutional declaration of Ahmadis as been little scholarly evaluation of academic and institutional
non-Muslims, resulted in many deaths. Although the govern- developments, most accounts using the general term Ahmadi
ment fell and a judicial inquiry condemned the attacks, to describe both branches.

Islam and the Muslim World 31
Ahmad Khan, Sayyid

See also Ahmad, Mirza Ghulam; Pakistan, Islamic that future generations transformed into a movement for the
Republic of; South Asia, Islam in. creation of Pakistan as a separate state for South Asian
Muslims.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See also Aligarh; Education; Liberalism, Islamic; Mod-
Ahmad, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam. Islami usul ki filasafi, (1896).
ernism; Modern Thought; Pakistan, Islamic Republic
Translated by Muhammad Zafrulla Khan as The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam. Tilford, Surrey, U.K.: Islam of; South Asia, Islam in; Urdu Language, Literature,
International Publications Ltd., 1996. and Poetry.
Friedmann, Yohanan. Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Ahmadi
Religious Thought and its Medieval Background. Berkeley, BIBLIOGRAPHY
Los Angeles, and London: University of California Lelyveld, David. Aligarh’s First Generation: Muslim Solidarity
Press, 1989. in British India. 2d ed. New Delhi: Oxford University
Jones, Kenneth W. Socio-Religious Reform Movements in Brit- Press, 1996.
ish India. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Troll, Christian W. Sayyid Ahmad Khan: A Reinterpretation of
Press, 1989. Muslim Theology. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1978.
Khan, Sir Muhammad Zafrullah. Ahmadiyyat: The Renaissance
of Islam. London: Tabshir Publications, 1978. David Lelyveld
Lavan, Spencer. The Ahmadiyah Movement: A History and
Perspective. Delhi: Manohar Book Service, 1974.
AHMAD, MIRZA GHULAM
Avril A. Powell
(LATE 1830s–1908)
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born into a landowning Sunni
AHMAD KHAN, (SIR) SAYYID family at Qadiyan in Gurdaspur district, Punjab, northwest
(1817–1898) India. He initiated disciples into his Ahmadiyya movement in
1889, after announcing that messages received in visions
Sayyid Ahmad Khan was an educational and political leader designated him the mujaddid (renewer of Islam) for the age.
of Muslims who were living under British rule in India. He He also claimed to be the masih-i maw
ud (promised Mesdeveloped concepts of religious modernism and community siah), and the mahdi (rightly guided one), and to have powers
identity that mark the transition from Mogul India to the of miracle and prophecy. Most Sunni Muslims deemed such
rise of representative government and the quest for self- a denial of khatm al-nubuwwa (finality of Muhammad’s
determination. Born and educated in Delhi in the surviving prophethood) heretical, but his movement grew to nearly
remnant of the Mogul regime, Sayyid Ahmad embarked on a twenty thousand adherents in his lifetime. He was succeeded
career in the British subordinate judicial service, the lower- in 1908 by the first khalifa of the Ahmadiyya movement,
level law courts where Indian judges presided and cases were Maulawi Nur al-Din.
conducted in Indian languages, and was posted in a series of
See also Ahmadiyya.
north Indian towns and cities. During these years he published historical and religious texts and was one of the
BIBLIOGRAPHY
pioneers of the printing of Urdu prose. He remained loyal to
the British during the 1857 revolt, and worked to reconcile Ahmad, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam. Islami usul ki filasafi. (1896).
Indian, Muslim, and British institutions and ideologies. In Translated by Muhammad Zafrulla Khan as The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam. Tilford, Surrey, U.K.: Islam
1864, he founded the Scientific Society in Ghazipur (shifted
International Publications Ltd., 1996.
the following year to Aligarh), which was devoted to translating practical and scientific works into Urdu. In 1869, he Friedmann, Yohanan. Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Ahmadi
Religious Thought and its Medieval Background. Berkeley,
traveled to England to write a defense of the life of the
Los Angeles, and London: University of California
Prophet and to examine British educational institutions.
Press, 1989.
While in England, he conceived the idea of founding a
residential college primarily for Muslims and devoted the rest
Avril A. Powell
of his life to the cause of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental
College, Aligarh, which was founded in 1875. During this
period, he became a prolific writer on religious, social, and
political issues. In 1887, he announced his opposition to the
AISHA (614–678 C.E.)
Indian National Congress on the grounds that representative
government was not in the best interests of Muslims. Knighted
Aisha bint Abi Bakr was the favorite wife of the prophet
by the British in 1888, he left a legacy of political separatism Muhammad and a significant religious and political figure in

32 Islam and the Muslim World
Akbar

early Islam. The daughter of Umm Ruman and one of the historical antagonisms between the two. Many Shi
ite Mus-
Prophet’s companions, Abu Bakr (the first caliph of Islam lims reviled
Aisha, whereas Sunni Muslims embraced her as
after the death of the Prophet), she married Muhammad at a a revered wife of the Prophet. Tradition holds that she was
young age. Her intelligence, beauty, and spirited personality consulted on theological, legal, and other religious issues, and
are well recorded in historical sources. was also known for her poetic skills. She is buried at al-Baqi
in Medina.
The hadith tradition records a unique level of intimacy
shared by the Prophet and
Aisha. They bathed in the same See also Ali; Bukhari, al-; Fitna; Muhammad; Shia:
water, he prayed while she lay stretched out in front of him, Early; Sunna.
he received revelation when they were under the same blanket, and he expressed a desire to be moved to
Aisha’s
BIBLIOGRAPHY
chambers when he knew his death was approaching. Affection and playfulness also characterized their relationship. Abbott, Nabia.
Aishah: The Beloved of Muhammad. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1942.
They raced with each other and enjoyed listening to the
singing of Ethiopian musicians together. The Prophet re- Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist
lated that when
Aisha was pleased with him, she would swear Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam. Reading, Mass:
“By the God of Muhammad” and when she was annoyed with Addison Wesley, 1992.
him she would swear “By the God of Abraham.” She regularly Spellberg, Denise A. Politics Gender and the Islamic Past: The
engaged the Prophet on issues of revelation and religion. Legacy of
Aisha Bint Abi Bakr. New York: Columbia
Recognizing her intelligence and perceptiveness, he told the University Press, 1994.
Muslims “Take two-thirds of your religion from al-Humayra,” .
the term of affection referring to the rosy-cheeked
Aisha.
Sa
diyya Shaikh
A scandal once surrounded
Aisha, who was mistakenly
left behind during a caravan rest stop on an expedition with
the Prophet. She returned to Medina escorted by a young
man who had found her waiting alone. Amid the ensuing
gossip and speculation about
Aisha’s fidelity, one of the
AKBAR (1542–1605)
Prophet’s companions,
Ali, advised Muhammad to divorce
Jalal al-Din Akbar was born in 1542 as his father Humayun
her. This caused her to bear deep resentment against
Ali,
fled India before the forces of the Afghan warlord Sher Shah
which manifested itself in her later opposition to him as
Sur. After thirteen years of exile, his father returned to rule
Muhammad’s successor. Finally a Quranic revelation exon-
India, but died in a fall in a matter of months. Akbar came to
erated her of all suspected wrongdoing, proclaiming her
the throne at the age thirteen in 1555. He ruled until his own
innocence. This same revelation established the punishment
death in 1605.
for false accusations of adultery.

In the lifetime of the Prophet she, together with Muham- Akbar’s reputation as the true founder of the Mogul
mad’s other wives, was referred to as “Mother of the Believ- empire rests partly on his own reign of fifty years and partly
ers.” She is known to have transmitted approximately 1,210 on the writings of Abu ’l-Fazl, a loyal companion who was
traditions (hadiths), only 300 of which are included in the Akbar’s ardent supporter. Abu ’l-Fazl’s Ain-i Akbari and
canonical hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim. She is Akbarnamah presented the image of Akbar as a political
said to have transmitted hadith to at least eighty-five Mus- genius. Abu ’l-Fazl saw Akbar as the “perfect man” (insan-i
lims, as well as to have corrected inaccuracies in the hadiths kamil) of Sufi lore: a master of both the temporal and spiritual
reported by some of the Prophet’s male companions. realms. He, therefore, inflated Akbar’s reputation whenever
possible.
After the death of the Prophet, she was critical of the third
caliph,
Uthman, but also called his killers to accountability In practical terms, Akbar adopted some of the administraduring the caliphate of
Ali. Together with the Companions tive practices of the defeated Sher Shah. As the influence of
Zubair and Talha, she mobilized opposition to
Ali, culminat- his grandfather and father’s aging courtiers declined, Akbar
ing in the Battle of the Camel (656 C.E.). The name of the was free to recruit a new corps of advisors, like Abu ’l-Fazl.
battle reflects the centrality of
Aisha’s role in the conflict, These advisors depended on his patronage for their own
seated on her camel in the middle of the battlefield. This status. During Akbar’s reign, India saw an influx of silver
struggle over succession marked the development of a major bullion as European traders began massive purchases of
civil war (called fitna) in Islam, which ultimately contributed Indian cloth. Because of the cash nexus created by increased
to one of the most significant religious and political divisions commerce, Akbar was able to manage a system in which
in the Muslim world. The representations of
Aisha in officials received salaries either directly from the imperial
subsequent Shi
ite and Sunni polemics reflected some of the treasury or through assignments of the government’s revenue

Islam and the Muslim World 33
Akhbariyya

allotment from the capitol of the province for specific dis- hadith in these books should not be examined by the traditricts. The central authority gained an unprecedented degree tional means of establishing historical accuracy. Furtherof control over state officials. Akbar’s reputation was further more, the Akhbariyya maintained that these traditions were
enhanced as the British came to rule India. They saw him as a never ambiguous in meaning, and were in no need of intermodel for their own style of rule: religiously neutral, but strict pretation. In this sense, the Akhbariyya can be viewed as
in his assertion of central power. literalist, or even fundamentalist.

See also Empires: Mogul; South Asia, Islam in. The Akhbariyya drew on the diverse areas of Safavid
Twelver intellectual life. There were Akhbaris who were
BIBLIOGRAPHY influenced by mysticism and philosophy, such as Muhammad
Alam, Muzaffar, and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, eds. The Mughal Taqi al-Majlisi (d. 1659/1660) and Muhsin Fayd al-Kashani
State 1526–1750. New Delhi: Oxford University (d. 1680), as well as the stricter, more legalistic manifestations
Press, 1998. of Shi
ism, such as Mulla Muhammad Tahir Qummi (d.
1686) and al-Hurr al-Amili (d. 1693). What they shared was a
Gregory C. Kozlowski common attitude toward the manner in which the shari
a
might be known. They were, then, in the main a movement of
law, and often referred to themselves as a madhhab (school of
AKHBARIYYA law). As an intellectual force, the Akhbariyya died out in Iran
and Iraq in the early nineteenth century, though they contin-
Akhbariyya was a movement in Twelver Shi
ism that empha- ued for a short time thereafter to be influential in India. Even
sized a return to the sources of the law (Quran and hadith). today, there continue to be scholars who follow a methodol-
Hadith in Twelver Shi
ism include accounts of the sayings ogy similar to Akhbarism in the Shi
ite world, particularly in
and actions of the imams (normally termed akhbar). The the Persian Gulf area and southern Iran.
Akhbariyya styled themselves as followers of the imams
(through the akhbar) that record their rulings, rather than the See also Law; Mutazilites, Mutazila; Shia: Imami
interpretations of these texts by later scholars. The origins of (Twelver).
the Akhbari movement are a debated point both within the
Twelver tradition, and among Western commentators. The BIBLIOGRAPHY
Akhbaris themselves, however, see their movement as the Gleave, Robert. Inevitable Doubt: Two Theories of Shi
i Jurisoriginal Shi
ism, which was later corrupted by scholars who prudence. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000.
had imitated Sunni methods of jurisprudence. Their oppo-
Tabatabai, H. Modarresssi. “Rationalism and Traditionnents, termed Usulis (or in some texts, mujtahids), considered
alism in Shi
i Jurisprudence.” Studia Islamica 59
the Akhbaris an innovative movement (bid
a), arising in the
(1984): 141–158.
sixteenth century with the work of Muhammad Amin al-
Astarabadi (d. 1626). There is evidence to support both
interpretations of the movement’s origins. Early Muslim
Robert Gleave
heresiographical works, such as Shahrastani’s Kitab al-milal
wa al-nihal (c. 1127), talk of the division of the imamiyya into
mu
taziliyya and akhbariyya. Whether these early Akhbaris
can be linked to the later, better-defined, movement is
AKHLAQ
unclear.
Akhlaq, the plural form of khuluq, refers to innate disposition
In biographical works, Astarabadi is normally described or character and, by extension in Muslim thought, to ethics.
as the founder of the movement, though Astarabadi viewed In the Quran the term is used to refer to the prophet
himself as its “reviver.” He was followed by a number of Muhammad’s exemplary ethical character (68:4). The Quran
scholars who explicitly identified themselves with the also emphasizes the significance of ethically guided action as
Akhbariyya. What united these scholars was a call for the the underpinning for a committed Muslim life. Quranic
return to the sources in a belief that the meaning of the ethics emphasize in particular the dignity of the human being,
imams’ words and actions was readily available, but had been accountability, justice, care and compassion, stewardship of
lost by centuries of excessive interpretation. They identified society and the environment, and the obligation to family life
this excessive interpretation with the introduction of the and values. Faith and ethics are thus intertwined in the
doctrine of ijtihad into Shi
ite legal thinking by al-
Allama al- Quran and linked further to the Prophet as a moral exemplar.
Hilli (d.1325). Akhbaris also criticized other juristic practices
linked with the theory of ijtihad. In particular, they viewed the In elaborating and further developing ethical thought,
“canonical four books” of Twelver Shi
ite hadith as contain- Muslims, throughout history, developed a diverse set of
ing only “sound” (sahih) traditions. They believed that the expressions: philosophical, theological, legal, and literary.

34 Islam and the Muslim World

Ali

These expressions were framed within a context of vigorous BIBLIOGRAPHY
intellectual debate and in interaction with the legacies of Cook, Michael. Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong
many ancient traditions, including the works attributed to in Islamic Thought. New York: Cambridge University
Aristotle and Plato, and Iranian, Indian, Jewish, and Chris- Press, 2000.
tian thought. Izutsu, Toshihiko. Ethno-Religious Concepts in the Quran. Montreal: McGill University Press, 1966
The Muslim philosophical tradition of ethics developed
an intellectual framework for rationally grounded moral
action. Some of the key thinkers who contributed to this were Azim Nanji
al-Farabi (d. 950), Ibn Miskawayh (d. 1030), Ibn Sina (d.
1037), and Nasir al-Din Tusi (d. 1273/74). Their works in
turn influenced other major figures, including the Sunni
scholar al-Ghazali (d. 1111), who did not always agree with AKHUND See Molla
them. The philosophical tradition, in common with other
early groups such as the Mu
tazila and the Shi
a, emphasized
reason and logic in arguing for a universal ethical framework.
Ethical action in their view did not oppose religiously grounded
ethics, rather it sought to enhance their meaning and appre-
ALI (600–661)
ciation by philosophical reasoning and took account of personal and social, as well as political, virtues. Al-Farabi’s classic
Ali ibn Talib, born in Mecca about 600 C.E., was the cousin
al-Madinah al-Fadilah (The excellent city) explores the ideals and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, father of the
of a political community that produces the greatest good for Prophet’s grandsons Hasan and Husayn, and fourth caliph
all its citizens. (656–661) of the Muslim umma (community of believers).

Muslim legal tradition also developed a framework for At a very young age,
Ali was adopted by Muhammad, who
guiding individual and social behavior. In Muslim law (shari
a) brought him up like his own son. When Muhammad received
jurists classified acts according to their moral value, ranging the divine revelation,
Ali was still a very young boy. He was
from obligatory, meritorious, indifferent, disapproved, and the first male to accept Islam, and to dedicate all his life to the
the forbidden. All actions thus fell within these normatively cause of Islam.
Ali’s courage became legendary because he
and juristically defined categories and provided religiously led several important missions.
defined prescriptions that could be enacted at a personal as
well as a social level to followers by scholars trained in At the Prophet’s death, the community split into two
jurisprudence and religious sciences. major groups contending for political succession. During a
gathering of the ansar (helpers), Abu Bakr was elected first
Mystically grounded ethics as developed in the Sufi tradi- caliph. A group led by
Ali and his supporters (Zubayr, Talha,
tion emphasized the necessity of an inner orientation and Miqdad, Salman al-Farsi, and Abu Dharr Ghifari, among
awareness for guiding human action, leading to greater inti- others) held that
Ali was the legitimate heir of the Prophet.
macy, knowledge, and personal experience of the divine. To preserve the unity of the Muslim umma,
Ali is said to have
Ethical acts were linked to spiritual development, and Sufi kept a low profile and concentrated his efforts on religious
teachers wrote manuals, guides, and literary works to illus- matters. The first version of the Quran was attributed to him
trate the way—tariqa—which represented, in their view, the
by some of his contemporaries. In the period preceding his
inner dimension of outward acts.
caliphate,
Ali, known for his learning in Quran and sunna,
In the modern period, as Muslims have come into greater had given advice on secular and spiritual matters. On several
contact with each other and with the rest of the world, their occasions, he disagreed with Uthman (the third caliph) and
ethical legacy, while still continuing to be influential in its criticized him on the application of certain Islamic principles.
traditional forms, is also being challenged to address emerg-
Following Uthman’s murder, the ansar invited
Ali to
ing issues, changing needs, and social transition. Muslim
accept the caliphate and he agreed only after a long hesitascholars are debating and formulating responses to a variety
tion. All through his brief governing period,
Ali faced strong
of issues, prominent among which are the ethical bases of
opposition. First he was opposed by
Aisha, Muhammad’s
political, social, and legal governance; the ethics of a just
wife, but the strongest opposition came from Mu
awiya, who
economic order; family life; war and peace; biomedical ethics;
human rights and freedoms; the ethics of life; and the broader had his stronghold in Syria. Two companions of the Prophet,
question raised by globalization, degradation of the environ- Talha and Zubayr, already frustrated in their political ambiment, and the uses and abuses of technology. tions, were further disappointed by
Ali, in their efforts to
secure for themselves the governorships of Basra and Kufa.
See also Adab; Ethics and Social Issues; Falsafa. Thus they broke with him and asked to bring Uthman’s

Islam and the Muslim World 35

Ali

murderers to trial.
Ali appointed
Abd Allah b.
Abbas governor of Basra, and went to Kufa in order to gain support
against Mu
awiya. He formed a diverse coalition, comprised
of men like
Ammar b. Yasir, Qays b. Sa
d b.
Ubada, Malik
Ashtar, and Ash
at b. Qays Kindi.


Ali opened negotiations with Mu
awiya, hoping to gain
his allegiance. Mu
awiya insisted on Syrian autonomy under
his own leadership. Thus he mobilized his Syrian supporters
and refused to pay homage to
Ali, on the pretext that his
people had not participated in his election. After a few
months of confrontation,
Amr b.
As advised Mu
awiya to
have his soldiers raise parchments inscribed with verses of the
Quran on their spearheads; the goal was to bring about the
cessation of hostilities between the people of Iraq, who
formed the bulk of
Ali’s army, and the people of Syria.
Ali
saw through the stratagem, but only a minority wanted to
pursue the fight. Hence he ended the fight and sent Ash
at b.
Qays to find out Mu
awiya’s intentions. Mu
awiya suggested
that each side should choose an arbiter; together, the two
men would reach a decision based on the Quran. This
decision would then be binding on both parties.
Amr b.
As,
the Syrian representative, and Abu Musa Ash
ari, the Iraqi
representative, met to draft an agreement, but in the meantime
Ali’s coalition began to collapse. The arbiters and other
Although many Muslims forbid representing the Prophet and his
eminent persons met at Adruh in January 659 to discuss the family in images, this fresco depicts
Ali ibn Abi Talib, fourth caliph
selection of the new caliph. Both parties agreed to the choice of Islam, and the cousin and brother-in-law of Muhammad.
of
Ali and Mu
awiya and were willing to submit the selection Muhammad raised
Ali like a son, and
Ali became the first male to
accept Islam. Here,
Ali holds the body of an imam killed during
of the new caliph to an electorate body (shura). In the public political power struggles after Muhammad’s death. © SEF/ART
declaration that followed, Abu Musa kept his part of the RESOURCE, NY
agreement, but
Amr b.
As deposed
Ali and declared
Mu
awiya caliph.
his grave. Under the Safavid Empire, his grave became the
Meanwhile, Mu
awiya had followed an aggressive course
focus of much devoted attention, exemplified in the pilgrimof action by making incursions into the heart of Iraq and
age made by Shah Isma
il I (d. 1524) to Najaf and Karbala.
Arabia. By the end of 660
Ali, who was regarded as caliph
Today a gold-plated dome rises above
Ali’s tomb. The
only by a diminishing number of partisans, lost control of
interior is decorated with polished silver, mirror work, and
Egypt and Hijaz. He was struck with a poisoned sword by a
ornamental tiles. A silver tomb rises over the grave itself, and
Kharijite named
Abd-al-Rahman b. Muljam while praying in
the courtyard has two minarets. The recitation of special
a mosque at Kufa.
Ali died at the age of sixty-three and was prayers over
Ali’s grave is considered particularly beneficial
buried near Kufa in late January 661.
Ali’s death brought to in view of
Ali’s role as intercessor on the Day of Judgment.
an end the era of Rashidun, the four “rightly-guided” caliphs. Sunni polemicists have often accused the Shi
ites of prefer-
The Sunnis believe that the order of merit corresponds to the ring pilgrimages to the tombs of
Ali and other imams over
chronological historical order of succession of the four first the pilgrimage to Mecca.
caliphs (Abu Bakr,
Umar,
Uthman, and
Ali). The Shi
ites
preferred
Ali over the first three caliphs; they never accepted It is important to note that
Ali’s position became impor-
Mu
awiya or any later caliphs, and took the name shi
at
Ali, tant to different groups of Muslims starting from the early
or
Ali’s Party. period. For the Shi
a, he is said to have participated in the
Prophet’s ascension (mi
raj) to heaven and acquired several
Several places are mentioned as
Ali’s shrine. But most honorific titles. The
Alyaiyya believed in the divinity of
Shi
ite scholars are in agreement that
Ali was buried in Muhammad and
Ali, and gave preference in divine matters to
Ghari, west of Kufa, at the site of present-day Najaf. These
Ali. Among Sufis he is renowned as a great Sufi saint for his
scholars explained the discrepancies among the various re- piety and poverty as well as the possessor of esoteric knowlports by maintaining that
Ali himself requested to be buried edge. The early Shi
ite traditions regarded
Ali as the most
in a secret place so as to prevent his enemies from desecrating judicious of the Companions and the Prophet nicknamed him

36 Islam and the Muslim World

Ali

Abu Turab (Father of Dust) because he saw him sleeping in Most High was this: “O Apostle, declare all that has
the courtyard of the mosque. Some sources agree that
Ali was been sent down to thee from thy Lord. No part of it is
a profoundly religious man, devoted to the cause of Islam and to be withheld. God will protect you against men, for
the rule of justice in accordance with the Quran and the sunna. he does not guide the unbelievers” (5:71). Because of
this positive command to appoint
Ali as his successor,
One of the basic differences between Shi
ism and Sunnism and perceiving that God would not countenance furconcerns the question of the respective roles of
Ali (and the ther delay, he and his company dismounted in this
other imams) on the one hand, and Muhammad on the other. unusual stopping place. The day was hot and he told
Shi
ism shares with Sunnism the belief that Muhammad, as them to stand under shelter of some thorn trees . . .
seal of the prophets, was the last to have received revelation when the crowd had all gathered, Muhammad walked
(wahy). Classical Shi
ite doctrine holds that
Ali and the other up on to the platform of saddles and called
Ali to stand
at his right. After a prayer of thanks he spoke to the
imams were the recipients of inspiration (ilham). But it is only
people, informing them that he had been forewarned
the legislative prophecy that has come to an end, that is, the
of his death, and saying, “I have been summoned to the
previous prophets such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muham-
Gate of God, and I shall soon depart to God, to be
mad, the last of the legislative prophets, introduced a new concealed from you, and bidding farewell to this world.
religious law while abrogating the previous one; the guidance I am leaving you the Book of God [Quran], and if you
of humanity must continue under the walaya (Institution of follow this you will not go astray. And I am leaving you
the Friends of God) of an esoteric prophecy (Nubuwa batiniyya). also the members of household [ahl al-bayt], who are
Thus
Ali, the first imam, is designated as the foundation not to be separated from the Book of God until they
(asas) of the imamate. He is the possessor of a divine light meet me at the drinking fountain of Kawthar.” He then
(nur) passed on from Muhammad to him, and later from him called out, “Am I not, more precious to you than your
on to the other imams. The Sunnis believe that the Prophet own lives?” They said “Yes.” Then it was that he took
did not explicitly name his successor after his death; the
Ali’s hands and raised them so high that he showed the
Shi
ites, on the contrary, hold that he explicitly named his whites of his armpits, and said, “Whoever has me as his
successor
Ali at Ghadir Khumm, an oasis between Mecca master (mawla) has
Ali as his master. Be friend to his
and Medina. friend, O Lord, and be an enemy to his enemies. Help
those who assist him and frustrate those who oppose
According to the Shi
a, a passage in the Quran (2:118) him.” (Donaldson, p. 5)
shows that the imamate is a divine institution; the possessor
thereof must be from the seed of Ibrahim: “And when his
Lord tested Abraham with certain words, and he fulfilled This sura concluded the revelation: “This day I have
them. He said, ‘Behold, I make you a leader [imam] for the perfected your religion for you, and have filled up the measpeople.’ Said he, ‘And of my seed?’” Even the Sunnis hold ure of my favors upon you, and it is my pleasure that Islam be
that the true caliph can only be one of the Quraysh tribe, but your religion” (5:5). The event of Ghadir Khumm is not
based on this verse the Shi
a maintain that the divinely denied by Sunnis but interpreted differently by them. For the
appointed leader must himself be impeccable (ma
sum). The Sunnis, Muhammad wanted only to honor
Ali. They underprimeval creation of
Ali is therefore a principle of the Shi
ite stood the term mawla in the sense of friend, whereas the Shi
a
faith. According to them, as expressed by Muhammad Baqir recognized
Ali as their master; the spiritual authority of
Ali
Majlisi (d. 1698), Muhammad explicitly designated (nass jali) was passed afterward to his direct descendants, the rightful

Ali as his successor by God’s command: guides (imams). The successor of the Prophet, for the Sunnis,
is his khalifa (caliph), the guardian of religious law (shari
a),
while for the Shi
ites, the successor is the inheritor (wasi) of
When the ceremonies of the pilgrimage were comhis esoteric knowledge and the interpreter, par excellence, of
pleted, the Prophet, attended by
Ali and the Muslims,
the Quran. Since Muhammad was the last Prophet who
left Mecca for Medina. On reaching Ghadir Khumm,
he [the Prophet] halted, although that place had never closed the prophetic cycle, the Shi
a believe that humanity
before been a halting place for caravans. The reason for still needs spiritual guidance: the cycle of imamate must
the halt was that verses of the Quran had come upon succeed the cycle of prophecy. Another tradition gives us
him, commanding him to establish
Ali in the Caliphate. some insight into the key role of
Ali, based on the status of
Before this he had received similar messages, but had Aaron: “O people, know that what Aaron was to Moses,
Ali is
not been instructed explicitly as to the time for
Ali’s to me, except that there shall be no prophet after me.”
appointment. He had delayed because of opposition (Poonawala and Kohlberg, p. 842). The imamate is a cardinal
that might occur. But if the crowd of pilgrims had gone
principle of Shi
ite faith. It is only through the imam that true
beyond Ghadir Khumm they would have separated
and the different tribes would have gone in various knowledge can be obtained.
Ali, as the Wasi, assisted Mudirections. This is why Muhammad ordered them to hammad in his task. The Prophet received the revelation
assemble here, for he had things to say to
Ali which he (tanzil) and established the religious law (shari
a), while
Ali,
wanted all to hear. The message that came from the the repository of the Prophet’s knowledge, provided its

Islam and the Muslim World 37
Aligarh

spiritual exegesis (tawil). Thus the imamate, the heart of carried Noah in the ark, I am Jonah’s companion in the belly
Shi
ism, is closely tied to
Ali’s spiritual mission. For Sunnis, of the fish. I am Khadir, who taught Moses, I am the Teacher
the imamate is necessary because of the revelation and is of David and Solomon, I am Dhu al-Qarnayn” (Poonawala
considered a law among the laws of religion. For them, the and Kohlberg, p. 847). According to another tradition (Amirimamate is not part of the principles of religion and belief, Moezzi, p. 30), Muhammad and
Ali were created from the
whereas for Shi
ites, the imamate is a rational necessity and an same divine light (nur) and remained united in the world of
obliged grace (lutf wajib). the spirits; only in this world did they separate into individual
entities so that mankind might be shown the difference
From the beginning, Shi
ite Islam has emphasized the between Prophet and Wali. It is only through him that God
importance of human intellect placed in the service of faith. may be known.
The origins of the encouragement given to intellect goes
back to
Ali the commander of the faithful (amir al-muminin). See also Caliphate; Imamate; Shia: Early; Succession.
According to a saying attributed to him, there is an intimate
bond between intellect and faith: “Intellect [
aql] in the heart BIBLIOGRAPHY
is like a lamp in the center of the house” (Amir-Moezzi, p. 48).
Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali. The Divine Guide in Early
The heart’s eye of the faithful can see the divine light (nur)
Shi
ism. Translated by David Streight. Albany, N.Y.: State
when there is no longer anyone between God and him; it is
University of New York, 1994.
when God showed Himself to him, since
aql is the interior
Corbin, Henry. History of Islamic Philosophy. Translated by
guide (imam) of the believer.
Liadain Sherrard and Philip Sherrard. London: Kegan
Paul International, 1993.
In early Sufi circles,
Ali was especially renowned for his
piety and poverty. He is said to have dressed simply. His Donaldson, Dwight M. The Shi
ite Religion. London:
biographies abound in statements about his austerity, rigor- Luzac, 1933.
ous observance of religious duties, and detachment from Hollister, John. The Shi
a of India. London: Luzac, 1955.
worldly goods. He is also described as the most knowledge- Jafri, S. H. M. The Origins and Early Development of Shi
a
able of the Companions, in terms of both theological ques- Islam. London and New York: Longman, 1979.
tions and matters of positive law. Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd (d.
Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shi
i Islam: The History
910) considered
Ali as his “master in the roots and branches and Doctrines of Twelver Shi
ism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale
[of religious knowledge] and in perseverance in the face of University Press, 1985.
hardship” (Poonawala and Kohlberg, p. 846). With the growth
Mufïd, Shaykh al-. Kitâb al-Irshâd. Translated by I. K. A.
of Sufi doctrine in the tenth and eleventh centuries, increas-
Howard. New York: Muhammadi Trust, 1981.
ing emphasis was placed on
Ali’s possession of a knowledge
Poonawala, Ismail K., and Kohlberg, Etan. “
Ali b. Abi
imparted directly by God (
ilm laduni). Most of the Sufis
Taleb.” In Vol. 1, Encyclopaedia Iranica. London and Bosbelieve that each shaykh or pir (sage) inherited his knowledge
ton: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982.
directly from
Ali. The investment of the cloak as a symbol of
the transmission of spiritual powers is closely associated to

Ali: the two precious things shown to Muhammad during the Diana Steigerwald
mystical ascent (mi
raj) were spiritual poverty and a cloak that
he had placed on
Ali and his family (Fatima, Hasan, and
Husayn).
ALIGARH
Sufi orders flourished particularly in Central Asia and
Persia; Muslim scholars became imbued with Shi
ite specula- The north Indian city of Aligarh, site of Aligarh Muslim
tive theology and Sufism. One of the earliest representatives University, has played a leading role in the political life and
of this trend was
Ali b. Mitham Bahrani (d. 1281), who saw in intellectual history of South Asian Muslims since the mid-

Ali the original shaykh and founder of the mystical tradition. dle of the nineteenth century. The importance of Aligarh
For them
Ali’s mission is seen as the hidden and secret aspect arose initially under the leadership of Sayyid Ahmad Khan
of prophecy. This underlying idea is based on the Khutbat al- (1817–1898). Through a series of organizations and institubayan: “I am the Sign of the All-Powerful. I am the Gnosis of tions, the “Aligarh movement” (the social, cultural, and
mysteries. I am the companion of the radiance of the divine political movement founded by Sayyid Ahmad Khan) sought
Majesty. I am the First and the Last, the Manifest and the to prepare Muslims for changes in technology, social life, and
Hidden. I am the Face of God. I am the mirror of God, the politics associated with British rule, the rise of nationalism,
supreme Pen, the Tabula secreta. I am he who in the Gospel and the conditions of modernity. In 1865, Aligarh became the
is called Elijah. I am he who is in possession of the secret of headquarters of the Aligarh Scientific Society, and, in 1875,
God’s Messenger” (Corbin, p. 49). Or this next one: “I the Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental College, the forerunner of

38 Islam and the Muslim World
Allah

the university established there in 1920. Aligarh was the first BIBLIOGRAPHY
headquarters of the Muslim League, a party established in Graff, Violette. “Aligarh’s Long Quest for ‘Minority’ Status:
1906 to secure recognition of Muslims as a separate political AMU (Amendment) Act. 1981.” Economic and Political
community within India, a concept that ultimately led in Weekly 25, no. 32 (1980): 1771–1781.
1947 to the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan as a Hasan, Mushirul. “Nationalist and Separatist Trends in
separate nation-state for South Asian Muslims. After parti- Aligarh, 1915–47.” The Indian Economic and Social History
tion, the Aligarh Muslim University remained one of a small Review 22, no. 1 (1985): 1–34.
group of national universities in India.
Lelyveld, David. Aligarh’s First Generation: Muslim Solidarity
in British India. 2d ed. New Delhi: Oxford University
In its early years, the Aligarh College attracted patronage
Press, 1996.
and recruited students from Muslim communities throughout India, both Sunni and Shi
a, as well as significant numbers
of Hindus. Aside from some short-lived efforts to include David Lelyveld
Arabic studies and Urdu as a language of instruction, the
college followed the standard British imperial curriculum.
Official British patronage became more significant after 1887,
when Sayyid Ahmad Khan called for Muslim opposition to ALLAH
the newly founded Indian National Congress. In the twentieth century, Aligarh became an arena for opposing political Allah is the Arabic equivalent of the English word God, and is
tendencies among Muslims, including supporters of Indian the term employed not only among Arabic-speaking Muslims
nationalism and international socialism, as well as of Muslim but by Christians and Jews and in Arabic translations of the
separatism. Aligarh graduates achieved prominence as writ- Bible. A contraction of al-ilah, meaning “the god,” Allah is
ers, jurists, and political leaders. At the same time, Aligarh cognate with the generic pan-Semitic designation for “God”
was the target of much opposition, particularly for its associa- or “deity” (Israelite/Canaanite El, Akkadian ilu) and is partion with social reform and religious modernism. In 1906 the ticularly close to the common Hebrew term Elohim and the
Aligarh Zenana Madrasa provided separate education for less frequent Eloah. It is thus, strictly speaking, not a proper
girls, and became the Aligarh Women’s College in 1925. name but a title.

When Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan died in 1898, his succes- In the Islamic context, as in Jewish and Christian usage,
sors initiated a campaign to establish an autonomous, all- Allah refers to the one true God of monotheism. This is how
India educational system for Muslims under the auspices of the term occurs in the shahada or “profession of faith,” the
an affiliating university. The university established in 1920, simplest, earliest, and most basic of Islamic creeds, in the first
however, was confined to Aligarh and remained under British part of which the believer affirms that there is no “god” (ilah)
control. In response, Mohandas K. Gandhi and two Aligarh but “God” or “the god” (Allah). However, the shahada itself
graduates, the brothers Shaukat
Ali and Muhammad
Ali, led seems to imply that Allah was already known to the first
a noncooperation campaign that established an alternative audience of the Islamic revelation, and that they were called
nationalist institution, the Jami
a Milli
a Islamiya, outside the upon to repudiate other deities. And this is precisely the
campus gates and subsequently relocated to Delhi. In the picture given in the Quran. “If you ask them who created
final years before independence and partition, Aligarh stu- them,” the Quran informs the prophet Muhammad regarddents toured India on behalf of the Pakistan cause, though ing his pagan critics, “they will certainly say ‘Allah.’” (43:87;
others devoted themselves to the ideal of a united and compare 10:31; 39:38). Pagan Arabs swore oaths by Allah (as
secular India. witnessed at 6:109; 16:38; 35:42).

Zakir Hussain, the first postindependence vice chancellor Pre-Islamic Arabs believed in supernatural intercessors
of Aligarh Muslim University, and later president of India, with God (10:18; 34:22), for whom they appeared to claim
succeeded in preserving the university’s Muslim identity as a warrant from Allah. (See, for example, 6:148.) Indeed, Allah
way of preparing Muslims for full participation in national seems (in their view) to have headed a pantheon of prelife. A center for Urdu writers and historians of Mughal India, Islamic deities or supernatural beings, not altogether unlike
many of them Marxists, the university has so far been able to El’s rule over the Canaanite pantheon, and, like El, he seems
fend off efforts to undermine its role as an national center for to have been rather distant and aloof. While the data are
Indian Muslims. fragmentary and open to some question, pre-Islamic Arabs
seem to have paid more attention to Allah’s daughters and to
See also Ahmad Khan, (Sir) Sayyid; Education; Mod- the jinn (or genies) than to him. Even the Quran seems to
ernism; Pakistan, Islamic Republic of; South Asia, concede genuine existence to a divine retinue (as at 7:191–195;
Islam in; Urdu Language, Literature, and Poetry. 10:28–29; 25:3). However, just as the Canaanite gods are

Islam and the Muslim World 39
Allah

This tilework at the tomb of Baba Qasim in Isfahan, Iran, spells Allahu Akbar, or “God is Great.” Allah, the Arabic name for God, appears
frequently in Islamic art and architecture in calligraphic script. © ROGER WOOD/CORBIS

replaced by an angelic court in Israelite faith, Islam rejects the and the Quran is centered on absolute “submission” (islam)
independent deities of pagan Arabia in favor of a very much to his will.
subordinated “exalted assembly” (see 37:8; 38:69) that exists
to carry out the decrees of the one true God, who is, says the The Quran describes God as “Allah, one; Allah, the
Quran, nearer to the individual human than that person’s eternal refuge. He does not beget nor is He begotten, and
jugular vein (50:16). In this, as in other respects, Islam regards there is none equal to Him” (112:1–4). In subsequent Islamic
itself as a restoration of the religion taught by earlier prophets thought, such straightforward denial of divine family life
but marred by successive human apostasies (see 42:13). (probably aimed at both the pre-Islamic pantheon and Christian concepts of God the Father and God the Son) was
The Quran identifies Allah as the creator, sustainer, and expanded into a much broader doctrine of the divine unity,
sovereign of the heavens and the earth. (See, for example, denoted by the non-Quranic word tawhid (“unification” or
13:16; 29:61, 63; 31:25; 39:38; 43:9, 87.) Following the “making one”). Philosophers and theologians debated such
scriptural text, Muslims characterize him by the ninety-nine questions as whether God’s attributes were identical to God’s
“most beautiful names” (7:180; 17:110; 20:8), which serve to
essence, or whether, being multiple, they must be additional
identify his attributes. (Eventually, repetition of and meditaand in a sense external in order not to compromise the utter
tion upon these names became an important practice in the
and absolute simplicity of the divine essence. They debated
tradition of Sufi mysticism.) They portray a being who is selfhow the undeniably manifold cosmos had emerged out of the
sufficient, omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, merciful yet just,
pure oneness of God. The issue of whether God’s speech (i.e.,
benevolent but terrible in his wrath. The picture of Allah in
the Quran) was coeternal with him, or subsidiary and crethe Quran employs distinctly anthropomorphic language
ated, rising to political prominence in the second and third
(referring, for example, to the divine eyes, hands, and face),
centuries after Muhammad. The overwhelming personality
which, virtually all commentators have long agreed, are to be
depicted in the revelations of Muhammad became the Necestaken figuratively.
sary Existent (wajib al-wujud), and the obvious dependence of
Allah has revealed himself throughout history via mes- life on his will (particularly apparent in the harsh desert
sages to various prophets by means of both the seemingly environment of Arabia) was taken to point to the utter
routine processes of nature and the periodic judgments and contingency of all creation upon a God who brought it into
catastrophes directed against the rebellious. He will reveal being out of nothing. Perhaps not unrelated was the rise to
himself even more spectacularly at the end of time when, as dominance in Islam of a doctrine of predestination or deterjudge of humankind, he pronounces doom or blessing upon minism, which had obvious roots in the Quran itself (as, for
every individual who has ever lived. The faith of Muhammad example, at 13:27; 16:93; 74:31). In the meantime, though,

40 Islam and the Muslim World
American Culture and Islam

while the philosophers were elaborating a view of Allah this interface is the influence of Muslims and Islamic culture
tending to extreme transcendence, Sufi theoreticians were on American culture and the American public’s perception of
emphasizing his immanence and experiential accessibility Muslims and Islam.
and, in practice, often breaking down the barrier between
The Muslim community itself is multilayered. A sizable
Creator and creatures—and occasionally shocking their felportion of the Muslim community consists of those who do
low Muslims.
not attend a mosque, associate with other Muslim organiza-
The famous “Throne Verse” (2:255) offers a fine sum- tions, and do not practice Islam. This group has little interest
mary of basic Islamic teaching regarding God: “Allah! There in maintaining Islamic culture and, therefore, they are the
most willing to assimilate into American culture. For many of
is no god but he, the Living, the Everlasting. Neither slumber
them, their identity as American is paramount. This article
nor sleep seizes him. His are all things in the heavens and the
does not focus on this group, but instead focuses on those
earth. Who is there who can intercede with him, except by his
Muslims who identify and associate with Muslim groups.
leave? He knows what is before them and what is behind
them, while they comprehend nothing of his knowledge The Muslims who do associate with mosques and Muslim
except as he wills. His throne extends over the heavens and organizations are composed of immigrants (the majority
the earth. Sustaining them does not burden him, for he is the being first generation), the children of immigrants (largely
Most High, the Supreme.” The depth of Muslim devotion to second generation) and converts (largely African American
Allah is apparent virtually everywhere in Islamic life, includ- with significant numbers of Caucasian and Hispanic Ameriing even the use of elaborate calligraphic renditions of the cans). The dynamics of the interface of American and Islamic
word as architectural and artistic ornamentation. culture in these groups differ. First-generation immigrants
bring to America a set of customs shaped by the Muslim
See also Asnam; Qur
an; Shirk. world, and these customs are affected by the American
environment. Converts, already acculturated when they adopt
BIBLIOGRAPHY Islam, modify their American culture to fit into the new
environment of Islam. The children of immigrants, raised in
Ghazali, al-. The Incoherence of the Philosophers. Translated by
America, are acculturated to two cultures and they must
Michael E. Marmura. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young Unidecide how each one fits.
versity Press, 2000.
Rahbar, Daud. God of Justice: A Study in the Ethical Doctrine of American Culture’s Impact on Muslims
the Quran. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960. In the early decades of the Muslim presence in America
Watt, W. Montgomery. Islamic Philosophy and Theology: An (1920–1970), Muslim immigrant groups, possibly pressured
Extended Survey. 2d ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University by the dominant paradigm of the melting pot, allowed for the
Press, 1985. inclusion of many American cultural practices (e.g. dancing
Williams, Wesley. “Aspects of the Creed of Imam Ahmad ibn the twist in the youth associations and Saturday night bingo
Hanbal: A Study of Anthropomorphism in Early Islamic in the mosque). Also, converts to the major heterodoxical
Discourse.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 34, Islamic groups, such as the Nation of Islam and the Moorish
no. 3 (2002): 441–463. Science Temple, mixed freely Islamic and American practices
(e.g. chairs in the mosque, hymns, and fasting during
Christmas).
Daniel C. Peterson
All of that changed beginning in the 1970s when large
waves of newly-arrived, Islamically self-confident immigrants
opposed the earlier immigrants’s “Americanized” mosques,
ALMORAVIDS See Moravids and convert groups began trying to incorporate “authentic”
Islam into their practice. The new paradigm of ethnic pride
and multiculturalism gave greater acceptance and legitimacy
to the “foreignness” of Muslim practice, and the new powerful trend of Islamic revivalism gave motivation to Muslims to
retain their Islamic practice. The overtly American cultural
AMERICAN CULTURE AND ISLAM practices disappeared in mosques and Muslim organizations.

The interface between American culture and Islamic culture Thirty years later, the Muslim community has aged and
in the American Muslim community is a multifaceted issue. mellowed, and a new consensus is emerging that American
Understanding this interface entails exploring the influence Muslims should adhere to those aspects of Islam that are truly
of American culture on the Muslim community and how Islamic as opposed to old-world cultural practices, and then
American Muslims view American culture. Another aspect of allow the adaptation of those aspects of American culture that

Islam and the Muslim World 41
American Culture and Islam

while in America the mosque is a center of activities with
community dinners and festivals with games and gifts for
children. American marriages are often events for the entire
mosque community, as opposed to the extended family.

The role of the imam in America has likewise changed
dramatically. In the Muslim world the imam is simply the
prayer leader, but the imam in America serves more as a
pastor—much of his time spent in counseling, administering
the mosque, and serving as spokesman for the mosque to the
wider community.

Marriage. Muslim marriage customs in America have changed
but not significantly. One major shift is that the signing of the
marriage contract is sometimes a public event and not a
private family affair as in the Muslim world. The public
signing event resembles an American wedding ceremony
with some differences—the bride and groom sit and often
face the congregation. Signing the contract and the traditional wedding banquet (walima) in America often occur on
the same occasion, which is not always the case in the Muslim
world. Marriage gifts are often brought to the wedding
banquet, which is the American custom, as opposed to the
Muslim world where gifts are more often brought before the
banquet.

Arranged marriages among Muslim immigrants are still
common but in many cases the marriage is only half arranged:
the son/daughter picks a mate and then informs the parents
who begin the process of arranging the marriage. Muslim
Muslim men leave a mosque in Washington, D.C. Muslims who youth in America are certainly more involved in choosing a
associate with mosques are composed of immigrants, second- mate than their counterparts in the Muslim countries. One of
generation Americans, and converts to Islam. © CATHERINE
the results is that interethnic marriages are slowly increasing.
KARNO/CORBIS
One of the persistent legal questions in the immigrant community occurs when the son or daughter desires to marry a
good Muslim of another ethnic group, and the parents
are not contradictory to Islam. This is a new paradigm that prohibit the marriage. More and more imams are taking the
guards against changes in core religious practices while wel- side of the youth and pressuring the parents to relent. The
coming the assimilation of certain American cultural prac- traditional dowry (mahr) in America is usually a very reasontices. The idea is to be fully Muslim and American. Overall, able amount whereas in the Muslim world the dowry is often
the impact of American culture on the Muslim community high because of its role in reinforcing status and class. For
has been significant but it has not touched basic Islamic many individuals, especially those who do not have a family in
practice. In other words, Saturday night bingo has not re- America, Muslim matchmaking services are very popular.
turned to the mosque, but pizza is the favorite food at mosque The matrimonial sections in Muslim magazines are widely
dinners. used and Internet services, such as MuslimMatch.com and
Zawaj.com, offer an array of services.
The mosque. The greatest impact of the American environment on the Muslim community has been the transformation Gender. The issue of gender equity has become one of the
of the role of the mosque and the imam. Muslims have most controversial issues in the Muslim community. About
adopted a congregational model for the mosque as a self- one-quarter of regular mosque participants in America are
governed community center, which is unlike the Muslim women, and in African American mosques over one-third of
world where the mosque is simply a place of prayer, and the participants are women. These percentages are extremely low
family and other institutions perform key cultural tasks. In for Christian churches but in comparison to the Muslim
America the mosque is a center for educating children, world, where women have no role in the mosque, this is a
socialization, and major cultural events like marriages and significant difference. Women are most active in administerfunerals. For example, celebrating the major Muslim holidays ing the weekend school and other social events. Two-thirds
in the Muslim world is largely tied to the extended family of mosques allow women to sit on their governing board, but

42 Islam and the Muslim World
American Culture and Islam

Mosques in the United States have developed as self-governed community centers, providing sites for educating children, socialization, and
major cultural events. This is unlike the mosque’s role in the Muslim world it is simply a place for prayer. © G. JOHN RENARD/CORBIS

only one-half have had women sit on their board in the last not present in Muslim youth groups, except that Imam
five years. Many Muslim women, who are unhappy with the Warith Deen Muhammad’s organization provides limited
progress of American mosques, have moved outside the occasions where dancing is permitted. Imam Muhammad is
mosque to organize. On the local level, women have estab- the son and successor to Elijah Muhammad, founder of the
lished numerous study groups. On the national level Muslim Nation of Islam. In 1975, when Imam Muhammad took the
women’s groups have been established, such as Muslim reins of the Nation of Islam, he transformed the organization
Women’s League, North American Council for Muslim into a “mainstream” Islamic group. The organization has
Women, and Muslim Women Lawyer’s Committee for gone through many name changes, and the present name
Human Rights (KARAMA). Some Muslim organizations since 2002 is American Society of Muslims. It is the largest
have become more inclusive of women: In 2000 the Islamic African American Muslim group.
Society of North America elected for the first time a female
vice president, and there are a significant number of Muslim The loser in all this is not so much Muslim religious
student associations, dominated by second-generation immi- practice but ethnic cultural practice. Many youth are shedgrants, that have female presidents. The clear trend is that ding their ethnic identity but maintaining a Muslim identity
women’s involvement is growing. that supercedes all other identities. Muslim youth are, therefore, less interested in how Islam is practiced back in their
Youth. Youth bear the greatest pressure to assimilate Ameri- parents’s home countries and more interested in identifying a
can culture, and as a result many immigrants and African legitimate Islamic tradition that is scripturally based and
Americans have ceased to practice Islam. The issue of the relevant to life in America. Muslim youth best exemplify the
assimilation of Muslim youth is, therefore, a major problem new paradigm of retaining core Islamic practices while adoptin the eyes of most Muslims. The Muslim youth who have ing American culture.
maintained their association with the Muslim community
evince outward aspects of American culture such as dress, Holidays and patriotism. The Muslim community in America
sports, food, and entertainment—Muslim youth groups have does not practice any of the American holidays as a group.
their own “Islamic” rap music, and comedy shows—but they Thanksgiving probably receives the most recognition from
have fit it all within the boundaries of Islam. Dancing is still Muslims as a holiday. Christmas and Easter are tied closely to

Islam and the Muslim World 43
American Culture and Islam

Christianity and therefore unacceptable. The national holi- Shaheen has estimated that only 5 percent of movies that
days such as the Fourth of July and Memorial Day have not include Muslims or Arabs show a human image of them.
had any official recognition except in the American Society of Since the late 1970s the image has been that of terrorists—
Muslims under the leadership of Imam Muhammad. Patri- from Black Sunday (1977) to Iron Eagles (1986) to The Siege
otic symbols such as the flag and patriotic rhetoric are largely (1998). Nevertheless signs of change have appeared as some
absent from mosques and Muslim gatherings, except again of the more positive images of Muslims and Islam in movies
for Imam Muhammad’s organization. However, this is slowly have appeared in the 1990s—Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
changing, especially after the terrorism attacks of 11 Septem- (1991), 13th Warrior (1999), and Three Kings (1999).
ber 2001. Many national Muslim advocacy groups have extended Fourth of July greetings, and the Islamic Society of Negative stereotyping is reflected in the poor approval
North America displayed American flags on their platform rating for Muslims in the American public, although signifi-
during their annual conference. Individual Muslims do ob- cant changes have occurred since 11 September 2001. Before
serve some of these holidays: Some have family dinners with 11 September 2001 the public’s approval of Muslims hovered
turkey on Thanksgiving and even fewer have Christmas trees around 25 percent, but ironically with President George W.
and let their children trick-or-treat on Halloween. Bush’s strong endorsement of mainstream Islam, approval
ratings shot up to a high of 47 percent in October 2001 but
Muslim perception of American culture. The vast major- have since begun to dip (Waldman and Caldwell).
ity of Muslims recognize the good of American culture—
political and religious freedom, self-reliance, and business Sufism. The most popular Muslim poet in America is Rumi
practices—but they are critical of aspects of American cul- and with this popularity has come some appreciation for
ture, especially the moral laxity in sexual mores, and alcohol Sufism. Sufi groups starting with Hazrat Inayat Khan’s Sufi
and drug consumption. In one study over one-third (37%) of Order in the West in the early 1900s and more recently a
Muslims agreed that America is immoral, while over half group led by Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani has had moderate
(54%) disagreed. Mosque leaders are even more disturbed: 67 success in attracting Americans, largely white. Although Sufi
percent agree that America is immoral compared to 33 groups are a small percentage of the total Muslim population
percent who disagree (Bagby). in America, their more positive image has translated into
greater acceptance in certain circles of intellectuals and
The Muslim community is virtually unanimous in believ- New Agers.
ing that Muslims should be involved in the civic and political
life of America—93 percent of Muslims (Zogby) and 89 African American community. While Islam might have
percent of mosque leaders (Bagby) agree that Muslims should been invisible in Caucasian America, the impact of Islam on
be involved in politics. Isolation from American society is African American peoples has been substantial. The Nation
firmly rejected. Yet a large portion of American Muslims feel of Islam (1930–1975), although a heterodoxical movement
that Muslims are unwelcome in the public sphere: 57 percent within Islam, still brought the idea of Islam to millions of
of Muslims believe that the attitude of America toward African Americans. Malcolm X, who left the Nation of Islam
Muslims is unfavorable since 11 September 2001 (Zogby); 56 to embrace a more mainstream understanding of Islam, is
percent of mosque leaders feel that American society is an icon in African-American history. The minister Louis
hostile to Islam (Bagby). Farrakhan, who resurrected the Nation of Islam in 1979, has
maintained great popularity in the African-American com-
Influences of Islam on American Culture munity, especially among its youth. Imam W. Deen Muham-
Muslims and Islam are no longer invisible in America—they mad has garnered much respect due to his interfaith efforts.
have been given recognition and, in some respects, accept- In light of this history, Islam has signified black pride and
ance by major shapers of culture. militancy for African Americans.

Presence of Islam. President Ronald Reagan was one of the Muslims have also played a key role in the 1990s effort to
first U.S. presidents to mention mosques alongside churches bring about a gang truce throughout the nation. Louis
and synagogues as part of the religious fabric of America. Farrakhan and Imam Jamil Al-Amin (former H. Rap Brown)
Mention of Muslims with the other religions is commonplace were active in the gang summits that started in 1992 to broker
now, especially after President George W. Bush visited a a cease-fire between the rival gangs known as the Bloods and
mosque and pronounced Islam a religion of peace soon after the Crips. The decline in gang violence through the 1990s
the terrorism attacks of 11 September. Iftar (meal at the end can be linked to these gang truces.
of the fasting day) dinners at the White House during
Ramadan have become regular occasions since the mid-1990s. African American culture. Islam has also impacted African
American culture. One obvious manifestation is the adoption
Perception of Muslims in the media. Movies have been less of Muslim names, undoubtedly an influence of the celebrities
kind to Muslims and Islam. Ugly stereotyping of Muslims and sports figures who are Muslim or have Muslim parents—
and Arabs in particular has a long history in Hollywood. Jack Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Ahmad Rashad, Tupoc

44 Islam and the Muslim World
Americas, Islam in the

Shakur, and others. From the 1970s to the present, the names Curtis IV, Edward E. Islam in Black America: Identity, Libera-
Jamal, Kareem, Ali, and Rashad have become popular African tion, and Difference in African-American Islamic Thought.
American names. One of the top African American female Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002.
names is now Aaliyah, obviously the result of the popularity Eck, Diana L. A New Religious America: How a “Christian
of the singer by the same name. Country” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse
Nation. New York: Harper San Francisco, 2001.
Other cultural manifestations occur in the hats and garb of Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, and Esposito, John L. Muslims on
African Americans, especially when they want to express their the Americanization Path? New York: Oxford University
black consciousness. Through the influence of the large Press, 2000.
number of Muslims in prisons, the impact of Islam might also
McAlister, Melani. Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S.
be detected in popular African American culture in the baggy Interests in the Middle East, 1945–2000. Berkeley: Univerpants look and even in hugging among men, which is now a sity of California Press, 2000.
common form of greeting. The fact that major gangs call
McCloud, Aminah Beverly. African American Islam. New
themselves “nations” can also be seen as an influence by the
York: Routledge, 1995.
black nationalism of the Nation of Islam.
Shaheen, Jack G. Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a
Hip-Hop. In entertainment Islam has had a tremendous People. New York: Olive Branch Press, 2001.
impact on hip-hop culture. The ideology of the Nation of Smith, Jane I. Islam in America. New York: Columbia Univer-
Islam and the Five Percenters, both heterodoxies within sity Press, 1999.
Islam, have had the greatest influence, but some rappers have Waldman, Steven, and Caldwell, Deborah. “Americans’ Surbeen influenced by mainstream Muslim leaders such as Imam prising Take on Islam: A New Poll Shows That Ameri-
Muhammad and Imam Jamil Al-Amin. Public Enemy and cans Have Not Turned Anti-Islam.” Beliefnet. 9 Janu-
Chuck D, Ice Cube, Queen Latifah, Big Daddy Kane, and ary 2002. http://www.beliefnet.com/story/97/story_
Sister Souljah are just a few names that mention in their lyrics 9732.html (2 Februrary 2003).
Minister Farrakhan or the ideas of the Nation of Islam and Zogby International and Project Maps. “American Muslim
the Five Percenters. Other rappers such as Mos Def, Q-Tip, Poll (Nov/Dec 2001).” Project Maps. 19 December 2001.
Everlast, Styles of Beyond, Devine Styler, and Jurassic 5 have http:// www.projectmaps.com/pmreport.pdf (2 Februroots in the mainstream Muslim community. A few rap ary 2003).
groups such as Native Deen market themselves exclusively to
the Muslim community. Ihsan Bagby

Communication. Muslim youth and certain Muslim groups
have enthusiastically embraced the Internet. Major Web sites
exist for news, information, books, and Islamic resources, AMERICAS, ISLAM IN THE
such as IslamiCity.com, IslamOnline.com, Ummah.com, and
SoundVision.com. Web sites of Muslim Student Associa- The Islamic presence in pre-Columbian times is a point of
tions are also numerous and full of useful information and contention, with some writers asserting that Arab and West
resources. Muslims who are on the fringes of mosques and African Muslims settled in the Americas between the elev-
Muslim organizations are the most active in the use of the enth and the fourteenth centuries; others dispute these asser-
Web. Muslim women in particular have benefited immensely tions, citing a lack of archaeological and other historical
from the presence of a cyber-sisters community. Ideological evidence.
groups are also quite active on the web. Many Muslims
sometimes bemoan the proliferation of these sites and the The undisputed spread of Islam in the Americas started in
emergence of the cyber mufti who have few links to the the early sixteenth century with the arrival of a small number
Muslim community. Many mosques, however, are far behind of Moriscos (Muslims forced to adopt Christianity who may
the curve—many do not have computers and others do not have maintained their faith in secret) from Spain, and miluse them for communication. lions of enslaved West Africans. It is estimated that 15 to 20
percent of the twelve to fifteen million Africans deported
See also Americas, Islam in the; Farrakhan, Louis; through the Atlantic slave trade were Muslim. Their prayers,
Malcolm X; Muhammad, Warith Deen; Nation of fasts, refusal of pork and alcohol, circumcision, collecting of
Islam. zakat, mosques, Quranic schools, and importation of Qurans
from Africa and Europe have been documented for countries
BIBLIOGRAPHY as diverse as Peru, Brazil, the United States, Jamaica, Trini-
Bagby, Ihsan; Perl, Paul M.; and Froehle, Bryan T. The dad, Guyana, and Cuba. Manuscripts written in Arabic have
Mosque in America: A National Portrait. Washington, D.C.: been recovered in several countries, most notably in Bahia,
Council of American-Islamic Relations, 2001. Brazil, where Muslims from Nigeria led a series of revolts

Islam and the Muslim World 45
Andalus, al-

between 1807 and 1835. There is evidence that the African Kettani, M. Ali. Muslim Minorities in the World Today. Lon-
Muslims succeeded in converting both enslaved and free don: Mansell Publishing Limited, 1986.
people to Islam, and accusations of Islamic proselytism among
Native Americans surfaced in the sixteenth century. West Sylviane Anna Diouf
Africans maintained Islam in America during four centuries
of slavery, but could not transmit the religion to the generations who were born in the Americas. With the end of the
international slave trade in the late 1860s, Islam disappeared ANDALUS, AL-
as an overtly practiced religion among people of African
descent. However, cultural and linguistic traces remain today. Al-Andalus is the geographic term used to denote those areas
of modern Spain that came under Muslim control in the
In the nineteenth century, Islam emerged again in the Middle Ages. Today, the term (Spanish, Andalucía) refers to a
Americas with the arrival of Asian and Arab Muslims. After particular territory located in southern Spain. Al-Andalus or
the abolition of slavery in the British colonies in 1834, Muslim Spain (both terms will be used interchangeably), with
Muslim indentured laborers from India were introduced to its famous mosques, irrigated gardens, developments in po-
Trinidad and Guyana, along with the much larger numbers of etry, philosophy, and science, is often referred to as the
Hindus. Between 1890 and 1939 the Dutch brought inden- cultural golden age of Islam. The actual Muslim presence
tured Muslim workers to Dutch Guiana (Surinam) from their
there lasted 781 years (711–1492 C.E.) and its influence on
colony in Indonesia. They now represent 75 percent of the
everything from architecture to science is still palpable. For
Muslim population of Suriname, the country with the highest
the sake of convenience, what follows is divided into three
percentage of Muslims (about 25%) in the Americas.
parts: history and main developments, cultural achievements,
By the end of the nineteenth century, religious and politi- and the Jews of al-Andalus.
cal unrest, along with economic transformations in the Otto-
History and Main Developments
man Empire, led to the emigration of Syrians and Lebanese,
Prior to the arrival of the Muslims, Spain was under the
who established themselves throughout North and South
control of the Visigoths, who maintained firm control of the
America. Among them was a minority of Muslim Lebanese
region with the help of a rigid church hierarchy. In 711, Arab
and Syrians who migrated, concentrating their settlements in
and Berber forces, under the leadership of Tariq b. Ziyad,
Brazil—which counts the largest Muslim population in Latin
defeated the Visigothic King Rodrigo at the River Barbate.
America—Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, and Canada. In
The Arab armies tried to move as far as France but were
South and Central America most were traders, while in
eventually repelled in 732 by Charles Martel. During the first
Canada, the majority were farmers.
decades after 711, al-Andalus functioned as a frontier outpost
In the twentieth century new Muslim populations settled with the Umayyad caliph in Damascus appointing its goverin the Americas. After World War I, a small number of nor. Around the year 750, however, a dynastic struggle in the
followers of the Indian-founded Ahmadiyya sect settled in East led to change in rule from the Umayyads to the Abbasids.
South America and the Caribbean; and Albanians and Significantly, in 756, an Umayyad prince by the name of
Abd
Yugoslavs migrated to the Canadian prairies. Palestinians al-Rahman I arrived in Spain. He was able to gain sufficient
started to arrive after 1948 and again, in successive waves, political support there, thereby creating an independent and
following the Middle Eastern wars of 1967 and 1973. sovereign state, referred to as the Marwanid dynasty, based in
Cordoba.
Today, Islam continues to spread throughout the Americas through the natural growth of the existing Muslim popu- The high point of the Marwanid dynasty occurred during
lation, conversions, and continued immigration from Muslim the rule of Abd al-Rahman III, who reigned for fifty years
nations. Statistics are unreliable, but there are an estimated (912–961). This coincided with a period of stability after he
1.4 million Muslims living in Latin America and the Car- had subdued revolting factions and stopped the advances of
ibbean, 253,000 in Canada, and about 6 million in the the neighboring Christians—something his predecessors had
United States. been unable to accomplish. He was also responsible for the
construction of the monumental royal city, Madinat al-
See also American Culture and Islam; United States, Zahra, just outside of Cordoba. Under his rule, Cordoba
Islam in the. became a true cosmopolitan center, rivaling the great cities of
the Islamic East and far surpassing the capitals of Western
BIBLIOGRAPHY Europe. After the death of Abd al-Rahman III, the central
Diouf, Sylviane A. Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved caliphate gradually fragmented into a number of smaller
in the Americas. New York: New York University kingdoms (tawaif, sing., taifa), ruled by various “party kings”
Press, 1998. (muluk al-tawaif).

46 Islam and the Muslim World
Andalus, al-

The fourteenth-century Alhambra Palace and Fortress in al-Andalus in southern Spain shows the influence of the nearly eight hundred-year
Muslim presence there which began early in the Middle Ages. © PATRICK WARD/CORBIS

The history of al-Andalus in the eleventh-century is one Alhambra, with its open courts, fountains, and irrigated
of gradual diminishment as various Christian monarchs at- gardens, is today one of the best preserved medieval castles in
tempted to encroach upon the area held by the Muslims, an Europe. In 1492, under the leadership of King Ferdinand of
area that they felt compromised the national and religious Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, the Reconquista was
unity of Spain. This reconquering (Spanish, Reconquista) completed. All those who were not Christian (i.e., Muslims
became so vigorous that the various Muslim kingdoms had no and Jews) were expelled from Spain.
choice but to seek help from the Almoravids, a dynasty based
in North Africa. The result was that al-Andalus, for all intents Cultural Achievements
and purposes, lost its independence, becoming little more From a cultural and philosophical perspective, the achievethan an annex of a government situated in North Africa. ments associated with the inhabitants of al-Andalus are
unrivalled. The Marwanid capital, Cordoba, alone had over
In 1147, the puritanical Almohades, another dynasty based seventy libraries, which encouraged many great architects
in North Africa, invaded Spain. This dynasty was determined and scientists to settle there. The caliphs and rich patrons, in
to put an end to the religious laxity that they witnessed among turn, established schools to translate classical philosophic and
the Andalusian intellectual and courtier classes. They de- scientific texts into Arabic. Although the center at Cordoba
manded, inter alia, the conversion of all Christians and Jews gradually fragmented into a number of kingdoms, there
to Islam. It was during this period that many Jews left Spain: nevertheless ensued a rich intellectual, cultural, and social
the majority went north to Christian territories. According to landscape that was grounded on the notion of adab, the polite
some modern commentators, the Almohade invasion sig- ideal of cultured living that developed in the courts of
naled the end of one of the most fascinating and eclectic eras medieval Islam. The adab (pl., udaba) was an individual
of world history. defined by his social graces, literary tastes, and ingenuity in
manipulating language.
By the thirteenth century, al-Andalus was essentially comprised of Granada and its immediate environs. Here the One of the main developments within Andalusian litera-
Nasrid dynasty, with its royal palace in the al-Hamra ture was the muwashshah. The muwashshah, which seems to
(Alhambra), ruled as quasi-vassals of the Christian king. The have originated in the ninth century, is a genre of stanzaic

Islam and the Muslim World 47
Andalus, al-

poetry whose main body is composed in classical Arabic with place. Legend has it that the Jews not only welcomed, but also
its ending written in vernacular, often in the form of a physically helped, the Muslims conquer the oppressive Visigoth
quotation (kharja). The main themes were devoted to love, rulers. The cooperativeness of the Jews and their ability to
wine, and panegyric; eventually, this genre proved popular integrate into Andalusian Arab society subsequently created
among Sufis (e.g., ibn Arabi). The muwashshah was also an environment in which Jews flourished. Arabic gradually
a popular genre among non-Muslims, especially among replaced Aramaic as the language of communication among
Hebrew poets. Jews: By adopting Arabic (although they would write it in
Hebrew characters, and today this is called Judeo-Arabic),
Al-Andalus is also associated with some of the most
Jews inherited a rich cultural and scientific vocabulary. It was
famous names of Islamic intellectual history. Unlike the great
during the tenth century, for example, that Jews first began to
majority of philosophers in the Muslim East, the overarching
write secular poetry (although written in Hebrew, it emconcern of Andalusian Islamic thinkers was political science.
ployed Arabic prosody, form, and style).
Questions that they entertained were: What constitutes the
perfect state? How can such a state be realized? What is the The names of famous Jews who lived in al-Andalus reads
relationship between religion and the politics? And, what like a “who’s who” list of Jewish civilization. Shmuel hashould the philosopher, who finds himself in an unjust state, Nagid (993–1055), for example, became the prime minister
do? Another important feature of Islamic philosophy in al- (wazir) of Granada. His responsibilities included being in
Andalus was an overwhelming interest in intellectual mysti- charge of the army (i.e., having control over Muslim soldiers),
cism, which stressed that the true end of the individual was in effect becoming one of the most powerful Jews between
the contact (ittisal) between the human intellect and the Biblical times and the present day. His poetry recounting
Divine Intellect.
battles is among the most expressive of the tradition. The fact
Philosophy in al-Andalus reached a high-point with Ibn that a Jew could attain such a prominent position within
Bajja (d. 1139). His Tadbir al-mutawahhid (Governance of the Muslim society reveals much about Jewish-Muslim relations
solitary) examines the fate of a lone individual who seeks truth in Spain. Other famous Hebrew poets included Moshe ibn
in the midst of a city that is concerned primarily with financial Ezra (d.1138) and Judah Halevi (d.1141), whose sacred pogain and carnal pleasures. Such an individual must, according etry is still part of the Jewish liturgy. Al-Andalus was also the
to Ibn Bajja, seek out other like-minded individuals and avoid birthplace of the most famous Jewish philosopher: Moses
discussing philosophy with non-philosophers. Ibn Tufayl (d. Maimonides (d.1204), who attempted to show the compati-
1185) picks up this theme in his philosophical novel Hayy ibn bility between religion and philosophy by arguing that the
Yaqzan. The goal of this work is to show that the unaided former was based not on superstition, but rational principles.
human intellect is capable of discovering Truth without the
In sum, al-Andalus was not only a region, but also repreaid of divine revelation. Ibn Tufayl, according to tradition,
sented a way of life that Muslims and Jews look back at with
was also responsible for encouraging the young Ibn Rushd (d.
1198) to write his commentaries on the works of Aristotle. fondness. With its rich contributions to science, literature,
Within this context, Ibn Rushd wrote not one but three architecture, and interfaith relations, al-Andalus played a
commentaries to virtually the entire Aristotelian corpus. prominent role in Islamic history.
These commentaries, in their Latin translations, were the
See also European Culture and Islam; Judaism and
staple of the European curriculum until relatively recently.
Islam.
Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, was also a prominent feature
of the intellectual and cultural life of al-Andalus. In fact, one BIBLIOGRAPHY
of the most important Sufis, Ibn Arabi (d. 1240), was born in Ashtor, Eliayahu. The Jews of Moslem Spain. Philadelphia:
Murcia in southeastern Spain. After a mystical conversion as a Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973–1979.
teenager, he set out on a life of asceticism and wanderings. Brann, Ross. The Compunctious Poet: Cultural Ambiguity and
Ibn Arabi essentially interpreted the entire Islamic tradition Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain. Baltimore, Md.: Johns
(jurisprudence, the Quran, hadith, philosophy) through a Hopkins University Press, 1991.
mystical prism.
Ibn Arabi. Sufis of Andalusia: The Rûh al-quds and al-Durrat alfâkhira of Ibn
Arabî. Translated by R. W. J. Austin.
The Jews of al-Andalus
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.
The culture of al-Andalus would also have a tremendous
impact on non-Muslim communities living there. The adab Ibn Bâjja. Tadbîr al-mutawahhid/El régimen del solitario. Edited
ideal (mentioned in the previous section) proved to be very and translated by Miguel Asín Palacios. Madrid: n.p., 1946.
attractive to the local population (both Jewish and Christian), Ibn Tufayl. Hayy ibn Yaqzân: A Philosophical Tale. Translated
who adopted the cosmopolitan ideals of Islamicate culture, by Lenn E. Goodman. Los Angeles: Gee Tee Bee, 1983.
including the use of Arabic. Within the history of Jewish Kennedy, Hugh. Muslim Spain: A Political History of alcivilization, al-Andalus (Hebrew, ha-Sefarad) holds a special Andalus. London: Longman, 1996.

48 Islam and the Muslim World
Angels

Menocal, María Rosa; Scheindlin, Raymond P.; and Sells, From the soles of his feet to this head, Israfil, angel of the
Michael, eds. The Literature of al-Andalus. Cambridge, Day of Judgment, has hairs and tongues over which are
U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000. stretched veils. He glorifies Allah with each tongue in a
Watt, W. Montgomery. A History of Islamic Spain. Edin- thousand languages, and Allah creates from his breath a
burgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1965. million angels who glorify Him. Israfil looks each day and
each night toward Hell, approaches without being seen, and
Aaron Hughes weeps; he grows thin as a bowstring and weeps bitter tears.
His trumpet or horn has the form of a beast’s horn and
contains dwellings like the cells of a bee’s honeycomb; in
these the souls of the dead repose.
ANGELS
Mikail was created by God five thousand years after
The word “angel” appears frequently in the Quran, having Israfil. He has hairs of saffron from his head to his feet, and his
entered the Arabic language (in pre-Islamic times) as a loan wings are of green topaz. On each hair he has a million faces
from Aramaic or Hebrew, possibly via Ethiopic, and so and in each face a million eyes and tongues. Each tongue
indicating Christian as well as Jewish cultural influences. In speaks a million languages and from each eye falls seventy
any case the word has always been accepted as an exact thousand tears. These become the Kerubim who lean down
equivalent of the Greek angelos, angel or messenger, used in over the rain and the flowers, the trees and fruit.
pre-Christian times to define the functions of certain “messengers of the gods” such as Hermes or Iris (the rainbow). Jibrail was created five hundred years after Mikail. He
The remarkable homogeneity of “Abrahamic” Jewish/ has sixteen hundred wings and hair of saffron. The sun is
Christian/Islamic angelology cannot convincingly be traced between his eyes and each hair has the brightness of the moon
to a “Mosaic” source but derives very obviously from and stars. Each day he enters the Ocean of Light 360 times.
Zoroastrian influences on Judaism during the Babylonian Exile. When he comes forth, a million drops fall from each wing to
become angels who glorify God. When he appeared to the
Despite the unanimity of the Quran, hadith, and sunna Prophet to reveal the Quran, his wings stretched from the
on the doctrine of belief in angels, a certain ambiguity arises East to the West. His feet were yellow, his wings green, and
when these beings are considered in both theology and he wore a necklace of rubies or coral. His brow was light, his
metaphysics. How precisely does angelic nature situate itself face luminous; his teeth were of a radiant brightness. Between
between earth and heaven, between human and divine? It his two eyes were written the words: “There is no god but
may be said that monotheism simply cannot do without a God, and Muhammad is the Prophet of God.”
means of immanence, lest the gulf of God’s transcendence
end by severing all possible relations between the two levels The angel of death,
Izrail, is veiled before the creatures
of reality. Put simply, the angels provide a third term, a of God with a million veils. His immensity is vaster than the
metaphorical bridge or ladder between earth and heaven. heavens, and the East and West are between his hands like a
Thus the Prophet spoke of each raindrop having its angel, dish on which all things have been set, or like a man who has
and of the angels as messengers bearing God’s revelation to been put between his hands that he might eat him, and he eats
humans, and human prayers to God. The task of angelic of him what he wishes; and thus the angel of death turns the
theology consists in justifying this metaphysical “need” with- world this way and that, just as men turn their money in their
out detracting from God’s ominipotence and unity. hands. He sits on a throne in the sixth heaven. He has four
faces, one before him, one on his head, one behind him, and
The standard Islamic angelology is based on both Quranic one beneath his feet. He has four wings, and his body is
and extra-Quranic tradition; for instance “the Spirit” (al- covered with innumerable eyes. When one of these eyes
ruh) is mentioned in the Quran, but is identified by tradition closes, a creature dies.
with Metatron, the Jewish angel “nearest to the Throne.”
The angel of death is mentioned (Q. 32:11) but not named; In part from Greek philosophy, especially neo-Platonism,
tradition knows him as
Izrail. Jibril (Jibrail) (Gabriel) is Islamic tradition elaborated a cosmic angelology based on the
named three times, Mikail (Mikal) (Michael) once. Israfil, celestial Spheres—as for instance in the many versions of the
who will blow the trumpet at Resurrection, appears neither in Prophet’s mir
aj or Night Ascension into the Heavens, where
the Quran nor hadith, but became very popular—and sym- he learns the ritual of prayer from the angels in their ranks.
bolically necessary to form a quaternity of great archangels, He is at first carried by the Buraq, a strange hybrid of mule,
under the Spirit and above the countless ranks of the heavenly angel, woman, peacock, and then accompanied by Jibrail.
host. Munkar and Nakir, the angels who weigh or question Even this greatest angel, however, cannot accompany Muthe souls of the dead in their graves, are likewise absent from hammad to “the Lote Tree of the Farthest Limit” (that is, the
canonical sources but much discussed by established authori- beatific vision of theophany). This symbolizes the theological
ties and universally accepted by believers. The following premise that angels, although more perfectly spiritual than
might represent a traditional Islamic angelography: humans, are in fact ontologically less central. God orders the

Islam and the Muslim World 49
Angels

This Persian miniature depicts Adam among the angels. According to the Quran, God demands
that the angels worship Adam, even though they are closer to the divine than Adam is. When the
angel Iblis refuses to bow to Adam, Iblis falls from God’s grace and becomes Satan. © RéUNION DES
MUSéES NATIONAUX/ART RESOURCE, NY

50 Islam and the Muslim World
Arabia, Pre-Islam

angels to bow and worship Adam (in a legend probably constructed, evocations and seances performed. Like their
adapted from the heretical Christian “Adam and Eve Books”) medieval and Renaissance counterparts in Europe, Islamic
even though Adam is created of clay and the angels of hermeticists sought and practiced the “angelic conversation.”
light. The angel Iblis refuses to acknowledge the divine in At its highest level of sophistication this magical angelology
the human, and thus falls from grace and becomes Satan. aims at no benefit other than existential participation in the
(The sufi al-Hallaj therefore praised Iblis as the only true divine or angelic consciousness. “By philosophy man realizes
monotheist!) As an angel Iblis should be “made of” light, but the virtual characteristics of his race. He attains the form of
in some versions he is described as a great jinni and therefore humanity and progresses on the hierarchy of beings until in
of a fiery nature. The jinni constitute a different class of crossing the straight way (or ‘bridge’) and the correct path, he
supernatural beings, also attested in the Quran; some of becomes an Angel” (Brethren of Purity [Risalat al-jami
ah]).
them were converted to true faith by Solomon or Muhammad
himself. An artistic representation of Muhammad’s ascent to heaven
appears in the volume one color plates.

Abd al-Karim al-Jili (a Sufi influenced by Ibn
Arabi)
describes the angelic Spheres thus: The first heaven is that of See also Miraj; Religious Beliefs.
the Moon. The Holy Spirit is here, “so that this heaven might
have the same relation to earth as spirit to body.” Adam BIBLIOGRAPHY
dwells here in silvery-white light. The second heaven is that Corbin, Henry. Avicenna and the Visionary Recital. Translated
of Mercury (identified with the Egyptian Hermes and the by Ralph Manheim. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
prophets Idris and Enoch). Here the angels of the arts and Press, 1969.
crafts reside bathed in a gray luminousness. The third heaven, Hallaj, Mansur. The Tawasin. Translated by A. A. atthat of Venus, is created from the imagination and is the Tarjumana. Berkeley, Calif.: Diwan Press, 1974.
locale of the World of Similitudes, the subtle forms of all
Rumi, Maulana Jalaluddin. The Mathnawi. Translated by
earthly things, the source of dreams and visions. The prophet Reynold A. Nicholson. London: Luzac & Co., 1978.
Joseph lives here in yellow light. The heaven of the Sun is
Wilson, Peter Lamborn. Angels. London: Thames & Hudcreated from the light of the heart; Israfil presides over a host
son, 1980.
of prophets in a golden glow. The heaven of Mars, of the
death-angel
Izrail, is blood-red with the light of judgment.
That of Jupiter is blue with the light of spiritual power Peter Lamborn Wilson
(himma) and is lorded over by Mikail. Here reside the angels
of mercy and blessing, shaped as animals, birds, and men;
others appear, in Jili’s words, “as substances and accidents
which bring health to the sick, or as solids and liquids that
ARABIA, PRE-ISLAM
supply created beings with food and drink. Some are made
half of fire and half of ice. Here resides Moses, drunk on the The term “Arabia” has been variously applied in both modern
wine of the revelation of lordship.” The seventh heaven (first and ancient times to refer to a vast territory stretching from
to be created from the substance of the First Intelligence) is the borders of the Fertile Crescent in northern Syria to the tip
that of Saturn, and consists of Black Light, symbolic of fana, of the Arabian Peninsula and from the borders of the Euphrates
annihilation in the divine Oneness. to the fertile regions of the Transjordan. For the ancients,
this vague term, “Arabia,” referred to the dwelling places of
The grandeur of this cosmic vision is given a metaphysical the varieties of South Semitic speakers lumped together
dimension by the Persian philosopher Ibn Sina (Avicenna) under the term “Arab.” For speakers of Hebrew and Aramaic,
who, speaking of the angels, says, “The soul must grasp the the term Arab (
arab) carried the semantic notion of the desert
beauty of the object that it loves; the image of that beauty or the wilderness (
arabah), since the Arabs they encountered
increases the ardor of love; this ardor makes the soul look were primarily the nomadic and seminomadic desert dwellers
upward. Thus imagination of beauty causes ardor of love, engaged in long-distance commerce, animal husbandry, or
love causes desire, and desire causes motion” on the level supplying cavalry troops to imperial armies. The result is that
both of the Spheres (which are drawn in love toward their ancient textual references to Arabia and its inhabitants, the
Archangel-Intellects) and of human souls (who are drawn in Arabs, are both inconsistent and imprecise in terms of geolove toward their guardians or personal angels). graphic boundaries, ethnic identity, and language use. The
meager textual evidence available to us shows us that many of
On the fringes of Islamic orthodoxy such mystical the northern Arabs used Aramaic and Hebrew as well as
angelology shaded into occultism. Elaborate concordances of varieties of Arabic in pre-Islamic times. After the rise of
angelic correspondences, names, powers, symbols, and the Islam, however, the Arabic of northwest Arabia, the region of
like evolved out of the late classical synthesis (e.g., those the Hijaz, became the dominant language of the Arabs, and it,
described in the Egyptian Magical Papyri). Amulets were along with its cognate dialects, formed the Arabic known today.

Islam and the Muslim World 51
Arabia, Pre-Islam

of Roman domination of the eastern Mediterranean. Much
Religion of legendary material has influenced the writings of the early
Pre-Islamic Arabia history of Arabia, particularly the biblical legends, which hold
Al-Mausil Nineveh Modern border that the Amelikites were the first “Arabs.” This legend is
Christianity
Judaism
adopted by Arabs themselves, who link themselves to the
Berytus Ctesiphon
Busra
Makkan religion Israelite soldiers who annihilated the Amelikites and settled
Wa\sit Zoroastrianism
in the Hijaz in their stead. R. Dozy and D. S. Margoliouth
Ma˚a\n Al-Bas∫ra
Sakaka elaborated a secularized version of the biblical legends to
Fajr
rsi make Arabia the Semitic prototypical home and Arabic the

Pe
Tabuk Tayma& an
Gul prototypical Semitic language. Associated with this theory is
Al-Hijr
Al-˚Uqayr f
Khaybar Fadak Suh∫ar the so-called desiccation theory of Arabia, which holds that
Yathrib¶Medina Masqat ∫ 
Al-Ja\r Arabia was lush and verdant in prehistorical times, only
Al-Dafêna
becoming dry later, driving out the Semitic inhabitants into
Mecca the Mediterranean basin. While modern geological explora-
Al-Fa\w tion of Arabia has substantiated a shift in climate in the
Red

peninsula from more wet toward dry, there is no evidence to
Sea

N

INDIAN substantiate any of the theories that Arabia was the original
Ma^rib
San˚a&
OCEAN home of the Semites or that all Semitic languages derive
Aksum
(Ethiopia) Mukha from Arabic.
˚Adan

According to a report that combines inscriptional evi-
0 200 400 mi.
dence and legend, Arabia was the temporary capital of
0 200 400 km
Nabonidus (556–539 B.C.E.), the last ruler of Babylon. In the
third year of his reign, he invaded the Hijaz as far as Yathrib
(Medina), and dominated the famous Arabian caravan cities
Location of Christianity, Judaism, the Makkan religion and in the northwest quadrant. Some scholars see his motives as
Zoroastrianism in pre-Islamic Arabia. XNR PRODUCTIONS/GALE
economic, while others dismiss the historicity of the whole
event as part of a Jewish midrashic invention.
The geography and natural ecology of the Arabian penin-
Inhabitants
sula has affected both the culture and the history of Arabia. It
Among the important pre-Islamic peoples of Northwest
is bounded in the north by a desert of soft sand, the Nafud, as
Arabia were the Nabataeans, who, by the time of the arrival of
well as a desert in the south, the Rub
al-Khali, the so-called
Roman imperial presence in the eastern Mediterranean,
Empty Quarter. Both the Red Sea on the west and the Gulf
dominated the region’s trade from around Damascus to the
on the east are barriers to entry with few natural ports. There
Hijaz. They had been pastoral nomads who had settled in
are no permanent water-courses in Arabia and only scattered
their heartland around Petra. The Nabataeans plied their
oases in the interior. The ancient geographers used the term
trade through the areas of Transjordan, across the Wadi
natura maligna for Arabia, and even when using Arabia Felix,

Arabah to Gaza and al-
Arish (Rhinocolura). There is also
“Happy Arabia,” for the south, they intended some irony. Its
evidence that they used the interior route of the Wadi Sirhan
average rainfall is less than three inches per year, and much of
that falls within a period of just four or five days. Because of to carry goods to Bostra for distribution to Damascus and
the forbidding landscape and the harsh climate, for much of beyond. Nabataean wealth and influence attracted the Romans
Arabia’s history, it resisted successful invasion. Such harsh into an unsuccessful invasion of Arabia in 26 B.C.E. unconditions, however, have provided refuge for those fleeing der the leadership of Caesar Augustus’s Egyptian prefect,
persecution and those seeking the economic opportunities of Aelius Gallus. The Nabataeans were able to resist Roman
long-distance trading. Trade was assisted because Arabia was domination until 106 C.E., when Arabia Nabataea became a
the home of the domestication of the West Asiatic camel, the Roman province. In later history, the name “Nabataean”
dromedary, and the invention, around the beginning of the became identified with irrigation and agriculture, because the
first millennium C.E., of the North Arabian camel saddle, Nabataeans are credited with the development of hydraulic
which enabled camels to be used for cavalry warfare as well as technology in the region. In modern Arabic, “Nabataean”
for transporting trade goods. (nabati) refers to vernacular poetry in the ancient style.

History Most modern historians regard the Nabataeans as Arabs,
Historical knowledge of Arabia goes back to the Greek but the picture is more complex and illustrative of the probhistorian Herodotus, to a few Akkadian texts, and to the lems of ethnic identification in the pre-Islamic period. The
Bible, but sound historical records only come from the period Nabataeans were philhellenes, using Greek art and culture,

52 Islam and the Muslim World
Arabia, Pre-Islam

and Aretas III issued coins with Greek legends after 82 B.C.E.
They used a form of Arabic as their language for trade within
the Arabian peninsula, writing it down in a modified Aramaic
script that influenced the development of the North Arabian
alphabetic script. They acted as a culture-bridge between the
Arabian interior and the Roman Hellenized Mediterranean,
and, depending on who was reporting, they could present a
different face to different peoples, Greek, Aramaic, or Arabic.

Jews had been inhabitants of Arabia from biblical times,
but the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E. sent
larger numbers into Arabia. Around this time the apostle Paul
spent time in Arabia after his conversion to Christianity,
possibly to recruit converts, as did another Pharisee, Rabbi
Akiba, who went to Arabia to obtain support for Simon Bar
Kochba in the Second Roman War in 132 C.E. Some Jews
formed independent communities in Arabia, such as the small
enclaves of priests, who kept themselves isolated to avoid
ritual contamination so that they would be ready under
Levitical strictures to resume their duties if the Temple
Treasury, Petra, Jordan; built by the Nabataeans between the
should be rebuilt. Most, however, seem to have joined existthird century B.C.E. and the first century C.E. The Nabataeans were a
ing communities comprised of Jews and non-Jews along the wealthy, important tribe of the pre-Islamic era who had been
trade routes stretching from the Hijaz to Yemen. The most nomadic and then settled around Petra. Their culture bridged
prominent of these settlements was the city of Yathrib, Arabic and Hellenic cultures, incorporating elements of both. THE
ART ARCHIVE
known in both Aramaic and Arabic as Medina.

Roman Arabia
By 106 C.E., the Romans dominated most of the former by the Palestinian regions of Auranitis and Trachonitis, with
territories of the Nabataeans and the adjacent Syrian cities of Bostra as the capital, and a southern province, with Petra as
capital. The southern province, united to Palestine by the
Gerasa and Philadelphia (modern Jarash and Amman in
emperor Constantine I “the Great,” became known as
Jordan), creating a province through the formal annexation of
Palaestina Salutaris (or Tertia) when detached again in 357
the Nabataean kingdom under the Roman emperor Trajan.
and 358 C.E. The cities of both provinces enjoyed a marked
This province, known as Provincia Arabia, was bounded by
revival of prosperity in the fifth and sixth centuries and fell
the western coast of the Sinai Peninsula, the present Syrianinto decay only after the Arab conquest after 632 C.E.
Lebanese border to a line south of Damascus, and the eastern
coast of the Red Sea as far as Egra (Madain Salih in the Hijaz). During the period in which the Judaean Desert finds were
Gaza prospered as a major seaport and outlet for the prov- deposited in the caves, the area containing the discovery sites
ince’s commerce. This trade continued under Roman domi- remained off the main conduits of trade and communication,
nation, and the borders were fortified by semipermeable lines and it is their remoteness that, for the most part, provided
of fortifications and client states. Under the Romans, Bostra their value as retreats from the demands of the central settled
(Bozrah; now Busra ash-Sham) in the north became the world. The practice of using the Judaean Desert caves as
capital around a legionary camp. Petra remained a religious genizot, religious treasuries, continued from the time of the
center until the penetration of Christianity in the area. The Roman Wars through as late as the eleventh century C.E. The
construction of a highway, the Via Traiana Nova, linking presence of Byzantine Greek and Arabic texts indicates that
Damascus, via Bostra, Gerasa, Philadelphia, and Petra, to the local populations both knew of the existence of the caves
Aelana on the Gulf of Aqaba, set the border of Arabia (Limes and made use of them as depositories for important docu-
Arabicus) along the lines of an ancient biblical route. Paved by ments. This fact has had important implications in discus-
Claudius Severus, the first governor of Provincia Arabia in sions about the presence of copies of the “Damascus Covenant”
about 114 C.E., it improved communication and established a found in the Cairo Genizah. None of the texts found at the
modicum of control over the influx of pastoral nomads into Judaean Desert discovery sites mentions Provincia Arabia or
settled territory. More importantly, the road insured the other geographic terms associated with Arabia. The texts,
increase in prosperity of the cities along the route. particularly the texts from the Byzantine and Islamic periods,
indicate that the inhabitants of the region, who deposited the
At the end of the third century, the Roman emperor finds, were well connected not only with Palestine but also
Diocletian divided Arabia into a northern province, enlarged with Egypt and the larger world of the Mediterranean.

Islam and the Muslim World 53
Arabia, Pre-Islam

Southern Arabia of Africa. Because southern Arabia was the home of those
The southern portion of Arabia, known generically as the much-sought-after aromatics and the trans-shipment point
Yemen, had ancient connections with Africa, India, and the for Asian and African trade goods, including slaves, it was a
Far East, as well as the Mediterranean. It was culturally and much-desired location for colonies and extensions of emlinguistically connected with the Horn of Africa. Among the pires. These products were sought as luxury trade-goods
theories of the Arabian origin of the Semites, some have cited from as early as Old Kingdom Egypt, when this was known as
the presence of speakers of a Semitic language unlike Arabic the land of Punt. They were used for funerary and liturgical
in Yemeni highlands. Additionally, the relationship between ceremonies, often in large quantities. The use of frankincense
South Arabian and Ethiopic languages points to continuous is attested in the biblical offerings mentioned in Leviticus
contacts between the two areas. Attempts, however, to devise 2:14–16 and 24:7, and also in the Talmud as a medicine and a
a comprehensive ethnographic categorization of the inhabi- painkiller. In Christian liturgy, incense was an important part
tants of Arabia have so far failed. This is in part due to of the celebration of the mass. Trade in aromatics, gold, and
problems with categorization itself (what is a Semite, for luxury items from Africa and India made the west coast of
example) and in part due to the paucity of evidence. Relying Arabia the conduit to the Mediterranean and linked southern
on Arabian histories and indigenous theories of ethnography Arabia with the settled areas of Syria.
are problematic, because all were written after the rise of
Islam, which advances the religious notions of the family Knowledge of Persian interest in Arabia begins with
relationship among all Arabs and promotes the elaboration of Darius I (r. 521–485 B.C.E.). He sent an exploratory expedition
the explanation of that relationship through genealogy. The from India to the Red Sea, probably to increase trade.
so-called Table of Nations from Genesis 10 was invoked by Greek interest was stimulated first by Alexander the Great
early Islamic scholars, and the figures of Joktan, Hazarmaveth, and Nearchus of Crete, but Alexander died in 328 B.C.E.,
and Sheba are identified with Qahtan, Hadramawt, and the just before executing plans to conquer the peninsula. This
Sabaeans. interest prompted the Greek naturalist and philosopher
Theophrastus (c. 372–287 B.C.E.) to describe South Arabia,
An increasing amount of archaeological and inscriptional providing one of the earliest historical accounts. The Ptolemies
evidence support the meager and legendary historical mate- of Egypt, successors to Alexander’s rule, pursued ambitions in
rial surrounding the histories and influence of at least four the Red Sea. The Syrian Seleucids promoted the use of the
major kingdoms in southern Arabia, the Sabaeans, or king- northern routes to India, probably in an attempt to diminish
dom of Sheba; the Minaeans; the kingdom of Qataban; and Egyptian and Arab domination of eastern luxury goods. The
the kingdom of Hadramawt. These kingdoms were sup- establishment of the Parthian state in the mid-third century
ported by a combination of trade and agriculture. Elaborate B.C.E. weakened the Seleucids, but Antiochus III was still

aqueducts, dams, and terracing helped sustain these king- strong enough to conduct an expedition in 204 and 205
doms as well as giving evidence of their ability to marshal against Gerrha on the Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf.
considerable resources for their construction and maintenance. We do not know the reasons for the demise of these In the second and first centuries B.C.E., major changes took
kingdoms. The Quran (34:15–16) attributes the breaking of place in the economy and power of the southern kingdoms of
the dam at Marib in the kingdom of the Sabaeans as divine Arabia. The Mediterranean world learned the secret of the
retribution for their sins. Secular theories attribute the de- use of the monsoon trade winds to navigate to India, and
mise of organized agriculture in the southern region to the mountain tribes began invading the settled kingdoms. By the
combined factors of the repeated breaking of dams and end of the first century B.C.E., the Sabaean kingdom was under
waterworks and the rise of the influence of Ethiopia in the rule of the tribe of Hamdan, and the kingdoms of Ma
in
southern Arabia. and Qataban were destroyed. Roman attempts to conquer
Arabia Felix failed, but Rome’s influence was extended first
It is probably from the time of the breaking of the Marib through the Nabataeans and later through Egyptian and
dam that some southern Arabian tribes migrated north, Ethiopic Christianity.
intermixing with the Arabs of the Hijaz in many places,
including the city of Yathrib/Medina. This migration may Sometime around 50 C.E., an anonymous author wrote the
also be linked with increasing economic opportunities in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, an account in Greek of the
northern part of Arabia resulting from the domestication of ethnography and trade in the Red Sea. In the middle of the
the camel, the invention of the North Arabian camel saddle, second century C.E., the geographer Claudius Ptolemy (fl.
and the increasing use of camel cavalry forces in the armies of 127–151 C.E.) wrote a detailed description of Arabia from the
the Roman and Persian empires. perspective of Roman interests in the region. While some
scholars identify some sites mentioned by Ptolemy with
Premodern Arabia possessed little arable land, but south- modern Arabian cities, like Macoraba as Mecca and Yathrippa
ern Arabia was the habitat for frankincense and myrrh, the as Yathrib/Medina, others discount this identification and
aromatic resins from conifers found in Arabia and the Horn claim that knowledge of ancient Arabia cannot be derived

54 Islam and the Muslim World
Arabia, Pre-Islam

from from the Greco-Roman sources. In the case of the from Arabia. The southern portion of Arabia remained under
identification of Yathrippa as Yathrib, there is inscriptional Persian control until the rise of Islam.
support, however, from a Minaean inscription, where Ythrib
is found. The general picture from these sources is that an Religions
active culture of trade and agriculture linked Arabia with Shortly before the birth of Muhammad in 570 C.E., Mecca and
Africa, South Asia, and the East Mediterranean world. its environs in the Hijaz rose to historical prominence. In
part, this view is in retrospect from the vantage of knowing
Arabia Between Two Empires that Islam came from there, but it is also in part because the
By the middle of the third century C.E., religious and political dominant Meccan tribe seems to have been able to amass
competition between the Roman empire and the new Persian some political and economic hold over the region. The tribe
Sassanian empire had intensified with Arabia as one of the of Qureish, whose name possibly means “dugong,” was likely
centers of the conflict. Both sides were intent on political and a group of Arabs involved in the Red Sea trade and moved
economic domination through conversion. For the Romans, inland with the decline of Roman authority in that sea. Their
that meant Christianity, and sometime around 213 C.E., rule was both economic and theocratic. Their major shrine
Origen visited Arabia, probably at Petra, to bring that area was the Ka
ba at Mecca, one of several such Ka
ba in Arabia at
into religious and political orthodoxy. In 244 C.E., M. Julius the time. They managed to import the worship of many local
Philippus, known as Philip the Arab, acceded to the Roman Arabian deities to Mecca, so that polytheism under the
imperial throne, and there is strong evidence that he was a Qureish became a kind of federal cult.
Christian. His predecessor, Gordianus III, had defeated the
It is difficult to speak with any precision about the native
second Sassanian emperor, Shapur I (r. 241–272 C.E.), and,
polytheism of the Arabs, because almost all of what is known
although he concluded a peace with the Persians, continued
comes through hostile Islamic sources. Allah was worshipped
attempts to control Arabia. The Persians, whose official
as a creator deity and a “high god,” but the everyday cult
religion was the nonproselytizing Zoroastrianism, used
seems to have been dominated by several astral deities,
Nestorian Christian and Jewish missionaries as their agents
ancestors, and chthonic spirits, such as the jinn. Animal
in Arabia.
sacrifices seem to have been used to propitiate the more than
three hundred deities mentioned by early Muslim historians.
Knowledge of Arabian history from the fourth through
Circumambulation of the Ka
ba and other cultic objects was
the beginning of the sixth centuries is meager because of the
also a usual practice, often during “sacred” months of pillack of written sources. In part, this is due to the decline of the
grimage to religious sites. Little is known of the theological
urban centers in Arabia. While Arabia was no less strategior moral nature of pre-Islamic polytheism in Arabia, and the
cally important to the two empires during this period, the
Muslim critique of the pre-Islamic period portrays it as
creation of the buffer-states of the Lakhmids on the Sassanian
devoid of all redeeming features. From the scanty evidence
side and the Ghassanids on the Roman/Byzantine side proavailable, the cult promoted loyalty to family, clan, and tribe,
vided both empires indirect means of controlling the flow of
a sentiment that Arabs carried over into the Islamic period as
goods and traffic into the settled areas. Because the buffer
Islam was characterized as a “super-tribe” uniting all Arabs
states were a main source of camel cavalry, some scholars have
under one common genealogy.
noted a process of Bedouinization corresponding to the
decline of urban areas in this period as it became more While Christianity was present from an early period in
profitable to raise and sell camels. The Ghassanids and the Arabia, and there is evidence of the political connections and
Lakhmids mirrored their sponsor-states by engaging in war- dimensions of Arabian Christians to their coreligionists in the
fare, even when Rome and Persia were ostensibly at peace. surrounding countries, little is known of Arabian Christian
beliefs and practices except through Islamic sources. Quranic
In the sixth century C.E., conflicts again arose, this time
evidence indicates that, while the full range of Gospel narrathrough the agency of the Persian-sponsored Jewish state in tives is not represented, the Quran represents particularly
the Yemen under Yusuf Dhu Nuwas and Byzantium’s the Gospel of Luke quite accurately and with close read-
Monophysite ally, the kingdom of Aksum. When Dhu Nuwas ings. Recent scholarship in this area is challenging the earattempted to return Najran to his control, he met resistance lier notions that the Quran portrayed only a heterodox
from armed Christian missionaries, whom he defeated. With form of Christianity and is pointing to a more mainstream
Byzantine naval support, the Aksumites invaded Arabia, de- pre-Islamic Christianity, albeit divided among the various
feated Dhu Nuwas, and established an Abyssinian-ruled cli- Christological heresies of the day.
ent state. Its ruler, Abraha, rebuilt the Marib dam erected a
cathedral in San
a, and attempted to conquer Mecca. His As seen from the above survey of Arabian history, religion
defeat, traditionally in 570 C.E. and recorded in Quran 105, among the pre-Islamic Arabs was closely tied to the political
coupled with an invasion of the Yemen by the Sassanian ruler ambitions of several foreign powers that wished to dominate
Khusraw I Anushirwan (r. 531–579 C.E.), drove the Abyssinians Arabia. At the time of the rise of Islam, converting to one of

Islam and the Muslim World 55
Arabia, Pre-Islam

The ruins of the Marib Dam, created circa the sixth century B.C.E. in Marib, Yemen, by the Sabaens, one of four major kingdoms of southern
Arabia to predate Islam. Aqueducts and dams were an important part of the Sabaeans’s infrastructure and rise to power. Secular historians
have postulated that the decline of pre-Islamic kingdoms may have had to do with the breakdown of their dams and aqueducts; the Quran
attributes the destruction of the Marib Dam to divine punishment of the Sabaeans’s sins. The Balaq mountains are in the background.
© ARCHIVO ICONOGRAFICO, S.A./CORBIS

the varieties of Judaism or Christianity in Arabia meant travel songs, and the panegyrics of the courts of the Arab
choosing not only a religion but also a political and social dynasties along the borders of the Roman and Persian empires.
agenda dominated by a foreign power.
There is also speculation that this language was used for
Literary Legacy formal prose in treaties, formal agreements, and in writing
One of the major legacies of pre-Islamic Arabian culture to Jewish and Christian scripture, but, as mentioned above,
later Arab and Islamic culture was the development of the there is little evidence of biblical translations into Arabic in
poetic and formal language often termed “classical” Arabic. the pre-Islamic period. Instead, there is more evidence that
In the century or century and a half before the birth of Jews and Christians had their own “dialects” of Arabic, with
Muhammad in 570 C.E., the Arab tribes in the Hijaz devel- added vocabulary from the Jewish and Christian languages of
oped a literary form of Arabic that stood alongside the various the eastern Mediterranean. These dialects likely served as the
dialects. This was a composite, formal language with a highly conduits for much of the foreign religious vocabulary that
inflected grammatical system. It also had a flexible system for found its way into Arabic.
generating new vocabulary based on extensive use of the
Arabic verbal root system that allowed for easy adoption of The poetry that has survived from the pre-Islamic period
new terms and concepts within the language itself. It was also was transmitted orally and only transcribed in the Islamic
open to the adoption of terms from the surrounding lan- period. It was composed by a poet to be preserved and recited
guages of Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, Ethiopic, among others. by a reciter, a rawi, who may also have been a poet or an
As a “meta-language” it undoubtedly reflected the growing apprentice. In this poetry, each poetic line had independent
political expansion of the Qureish and their economic unifi- meaning, and the entire poem was comprised of thematic
cation of the Hijaz, but it also seems to have grown from the sections, which concentrated on travel, love, praise, and so
common experiences of local religious practices, Bedouin on. The most famous of these “odes,” termed qasidas, are

56 Islam and the Muslim World
Arabia, Pre-Islam

known as the Mu
allaqat, or “suspended odes.” Various sto- Korotaev, A. V. Ancient Yemen: Some General Trends of Evoluries are given to explain the name, but the writers of these tion of the Sabaic Language and Sabaean Culture. Oxford,
poems became known as the masters of Arabic poetic compo- U.K. and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
sition, and their style of poetry so influential that later Islamic MacAdam, H. I. Studies in the History of the Roman Province of
poetry in Persian and other Islamic languages as well as Arabia: The Northern Sector. Oxford, U.K.: B.A.R., 1986.
Arabic survived until modern times. Montgomery, J. A. Arabia and the Bible. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934.
The style of poetry known as saj
, rhymed prose, was
another influential poetic form, apparently used by seers and Newby, G. D. A History of the Jews of Arabia: From Ancient
holy men for prognosticative pronouncements. This form of Times to Their Eclipse under Islam. Columbia: University of
poetic language is found in many places in the Quran, giving South Carolina Press, 1988.
rise to the accusation that Muhammad was a poet or man- Peters, F. E. Jerusalem and Mecca: The Typology of the Holy City
tic seer. in the Near East. New York: New York University
Press, 1987.
A photo of an alabaster relief of a camel and its rider appears in
Peters, F. E. The Arabs and Arabia on the Eve of Islam.
the volume one color plates. Aldershot, Hampshire, U.K., and Brookfield, Vt.:
Ashgate, 1999.
See also Arabic Language; Arabic Literature; Asabiyya;
Empires: Sassanian; Muhammad. Peters, F. E., and NetLibrary Inc. Muhammad and the Origins
of Islam. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Philby, H. S. J .B. The Land of Midian. London: Benn, 1957.
Arnold, W. T., et al. Studies of Roman Imperialism. Manches- Phillips, W. Qataban and Sheba: Exploring the Ancient Kingter, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1906. doms on the Biblical Spice Routes of Arabia. New York:
Bowersock, G. W. Roman Arabia. Cambridge, Mass.: Har- Harcourt Brace, 1955.
vard University Press, 1983. Playfair, R. L. A History of Arabia Felix or Yemen, From the
Breton, J.-F. Arabia Felix from the Time of the Queen of Sheba: Commencement of the Christian Era to the Present Time:
Eighth Century B.C. to First Century A.D. Notre Dame, Including an Account of the British Settlement of Aden. Salis-
Ind.:University of Notre Dame Press, 1999. bury, N.C.: Documentary Publications, 1978.
Burton, R. F., et al. Sir Richard Burton’s Travels in Arabia and Ricks, S. D. Western Language Literature on Pre-Islamic Cen-
Africa: Four Lectures from a Huntington Library Manuscript. tral Arabia: An Annotated Bibliography. Denver, Colo.:
San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1990. American Institute of Islamic Studies, 1991..
Bury, G. W. The Land of Uz. London: Macmillan and Co. Salibi, K. S. The Bible Came from Arabia. London: Pan
Ltd., 1911. Books, 1987.
Cleveland, R. L. An Ancient South Arabian Necropolis: Objects Sawyer, J. F. A., and Clines, D. J. A. Midian, Moab and Edom:
from the Second Campaign, 1951, in the Timnaí Cemetery. The History and Archaeology of Late Bronze and Iron Age
Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Press, 1965. Jordan and North-west Arabia. Sheffield, U.K.: JSOT
Crone, P. Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam. Princeton, N.J.: Press, 1983.
Princeton University Press, 1987.
Schippmann, K. Ancient South Arabia: From the Queen of Sheba
Díabrowa, E., and Uniwersytet Jagielloiínski. Instytut Historii. to the Advent of Islam. Translated by Allison Brown. Prince-
The Roman and Byzantine Army in the East: Proceedings of a ton, N.J.: Markus Wiener, 2001.
Colloqium [sic] Held at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków
in September 1992. Kraków: Drukarnia Uniwersytetu Schulz, E., et al. Vegetation on the Northern Arabian Shield and
Jagielloínskiego, 1994. Adjacent Sand Seas. Reston, Va.: U.S. Dept. of the Interior
Geological Survey, 1985.
Doughty, C. M. Travels in Arabia Deserta. Cambridge, U.K.:
Cambridge University Press, 1988. Segal, Arthur. Town Planning and Architecture in Provincia
Arabia. Oxford, U.K.: B. A. R., 1988.
Esin, E. Mecca, the Blessed; Madinah, the Radiant. New York:
Crown Publishers, 1963. Shahid, Irfan. Rome and the Arabs: A Prolegomenon to the Study
Graf, D. F. Rome and the Arabian Frontier: From the Nabataeans to of Byzantium and the Arabs. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton
the Saracens. Aldershot, Hampshire, U.K., and Brookfield, Oaks, 1984.
Vt.: Ashgate, 1997. Simon, R. Meccan Trade and Islam: Problems of Origin and
Grohmann, Adolf. Arabic Papyri from Khirbet el-Mird. Louvain: Structure. Budapest: Akádemiai Kiadó, 1989.
Publications Universitaires, 1963. Sowayan, Saad Abdullah. Nabati Poetry. Los Angeles: Univer-
Hoyland, R. G. Arabia and the Arab: From the Bronze Age to the sity of California Press, 1985.
Coming of Islam. New York, Routledge, 2001. Spijkerman, A., and Piccirillo, M. The Coins of the Decapolis
Kennedy, D. L., and Braund, D. The Roman Army in the East. and Provincia Arabia. Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing
Ann Arbor, Mich.: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1996. Press, 1978.

Islam and the Muslim World 57
Arabic Language

Van Beek, G. W. Hajar Bin Humeid; Investigations at a Pre- some similarities with the South Arabian of the South Ara-
Islamic Site in South Arabia. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hop- bian kingdoms, while at the same time preserving the traces
kins Press, 1969. of its relatedness to the Northwest Semitic languages.
Zwemer, S. M. Arabia: The Cradle of Islam: Studies in the
Geography, People and Politics of the Peninsula, with an Around the fifth century Arabic-speaking tribes lived in
Account of Islam and Mission-Work. New York and Chi- large parts of the Arabian peninsula as well as in the areas to
cago: F. H. Revell Company, 1900. the north of the peninsula as far as the Syrian desert and the
Sinai; some of them even settled in sedentary areas such as the
city of Aleppo. These tribes were Christians. The Bedouin
Gordon D. Newby
tribes in the peninsula were polytheists. They greatly increased their influence when they took over the caravan trade
from the South Arabian kingdoms and settled themselves as
middlemen in places like Mecca.
ARABIC LANGUAGE
The al-Namara inscription is written in a language with a
A people with the name of Aribi is first mentioned in a declensional system, similar to the language of the precuneiform inscription from the eighth century B.C.E., where it Islamic poems. It was in this language that the Quran was
denotes a nomadic tribe. In later centuries tribes named
rb revealed. According to the indigenous tradition all tribes at
are mentioned in several sources, for instance in the Torah the eve of Islam used this language as their vernacular
(Jeremiah 25:24). It is not known what kind of language these language, although later grammarians document a number of
people spoke but it is clear that they had some connection differences between the varieties of the various tribes (lughat).
with the North Arabian desert, even though they did not Thus, for instance, the eastern tribes are said to have used a
dwell in the Arabian Peninsula itself. Probably their language phoneme // (hamza), which was absent in the dialect of the
belonged to the continuum of Semitic languages that was western tribes, but present in the language of poetry and the
spoken all over the Middle East and that included Aramaic, Quran. According to others the vernacular language of the
Hebrew, Canaanite, and others. tribes had already shifted to a different type of language, in
which, for instance, case-endings had disappeared. In this
The full penetration of the Arabian Peninsula dates from a view, the language of poetry and the Quran was a literary
later period. In the southern part of the peninsula the South language that was no longer used as a spoken language but
Arabian kingdoms such as those of the Minaeans and the served as a kind of supra-tribal variety, based on the language
Sabaeans flourished from the thirteenth century B.C.E. on- of the eastern tribes (sometimes called poetico-Quranic koine).
ward. Their language was South Arabian, a language related
to the Ethiopian languages. They had domesticated the The Spread of the Arabic Language
camel, which was used for carrying loads but not yet as a After the death of the prophet Muhammad the Islamic
conquests brought the religion and the language of the Arab
riding animal. The South Arabians maintained frequent trade
tribes into a large area stretching from Islamic Spain to
relations with the Middle East, usually by the sea route, and
Central Asia. The languages originally spoken in this area
through these contacts the camel was introduced in the north
(Coptic, Persian, Syriac, Berber) gave way to the linguistic
as well. Around the beginning of the common era when a
onslaught of Arabic, and even though some of the speakers
riding saddle was developed for the camel, it became possible
remained bilingual, the entire area was Arabized within a
to penetrate the desert and even live there permanently.
century. The Arabic as spoken by the inhabitants of this vast
Presumably, some of the tribes that wandered in the border
empire differed considerably from the language of the Quran,
area between sedentary land and the desert fringe eventually
especially in the sedentary centers that were established in the
made the shift to a nomadic life in the desert and thus
early years of the conquest, such as Basra, Kufa, Fustat, and
developed what may be called a Bedouin society.
Kairouan. There was a reduction of the phonemic inventory
(loss of interdentals, merger of the phonemes dad and za),
In the northern part of the peninsula thousands of (usually
loss of case-endings and modal endings, reduction of gramshort) inscriptions attest to the presence of a language that
matical categories, and emergence of a genitive exponent and
was very much akin to the Arabic language as it is known
aspectual particles. Syntactically speaking, the language had
today. This language was characterized by the form of the
shifted from a synthetic to an analytic type, usually called
article, h- or hn-, as distinct from the Arabic article al-, but
New Arabic.
related to the Hebrew form ha-. This language type is usually
called Early North Arabic; it was divided into several varieties There are many theories about the reasons for this change,
such as Thamudaean and Lihyanitic. The first inscription in a which affected all domains of grammar. Those who believe
language that may be recognized as Arabic is the inscription that even before Islam the vernacular language of the Bedfrom al-Namara in Syria (328 C.E.) erected by Imru al-Qays ouin already exhibited some New Arabic changes tend to
who calls himself “King of the Arabs.” The language shows minimize the role of the new learners of the language. They

58 Islam and the Muslim World
Arabic Language

This modern example of Arabic calligraphy by Aziz Muhammad Al Shabli reads: “Thanks be to God the Lord of the Universe,” which is the first
line of the Quran. Originating in the Near East, Arabic was brought by Islamic conquests in the century after Muhammad’s death to a vast
geographical area reaching from parts of Spain to Central Asia. AZIZ MOHAMMED AL SHABLI/ACCESS

believe the various vernaculars of the Bedouin were homog- to codify the language in their grammar books lest the
enized when members from different tribes were thrown language of the holy scriptures become incomprehensible for
together in the conquering armies. As a result, the vernacular later generations.
varieties that emerged after the conquests became very different from the language of the Quran. Others look for the The original conquest was just the first stage in the
cause of the linguistic changes in the languages spoken by the Arabization process since it reached only the sedentary areas,
inhabitants of the conquered territories. According to them, in particular the new garrison towns established by the Arab
this substratal influence affected the structure of New Arabic armies. Later centuries brought successive waves of Bedouin
by carrying over features of languages such as Coptic, Per- migrants to the conquered territories. These were responsisian, Syriac, and Berber to the Arabic language, as spoken by ble for the Arabization of much larger areas. In some cases
its new speakers. Yet another factor to be taken into account they re-Bedouinized the sedentary dialects of the cities. In
is the process of language acquisition itself. In every language- Baghdad, for instance, the dialect of the Muslims became
learning process in an informal setting the native speakers Bedouinized while the Christians and Jews retained the
tend to simplify their language and the new learners apply original sedentary dialect. In North Africa the second wave of
universal strategies of simplification to this input. The result migration is associated with the invasion of the Bedouin
is a drastic reduction of the phonemic inventory and of tribes of the Banu Hilal and the Banu Sulaym in the tenth and
grammatical categories, a general disappearance of redun- eleventh centuries C.E., which brought Arabic to large parts of
dancy, and a restructuring of the language. the countryside.

Whatever the causes of the linguistic changes, there can There is no consensus about the language these Bedouin
be no doubt that very early on in the conquests there was a spoke. Those who maintain that the vernacular of the Bedmarked difference between the language of the religious and ouin tribes in the pre-Islamic period had already changed in
literary heritage on one hand, and the colloquial speech of the the direction of New Arabic believe that there was not much
Arab empire on the other. According to the classic descrip- difference between the dialects of the first and the second
tion of this situation by Ibn Khaldun, the scholars of Arabic invasion. Others believe that the Bedouin tribes continued to
became concerned about this corruption of speech and started speak a type of Arabic that was basically identical with the

Islam and the Muslim World 59
Arabic Language

pre-Islamic Arabic of poetry and Quran. In this view, the Arabic remained the language par excellence of the Islamic
Bedouin did not lose their speech until the fourth century of empire for well over five centuries, until the Mongol conthe Hijra (Islamic calendar). This is corroborated by the quest of Baghdad in 1258. Even in Mamluk Egypt, where the
grammarians who explain that the Bedouin dialects became political and military elite consisted of Turkic-speaking peocorrupted through exposure to the sedentary way of speaking. ple, Arabic continued to be regarded as a language of prestige.
Mamluk intellectuals used it in writing, even though Qipcaq
Arabic in Islamic Society Turkic was their colloquial language. In the East the position
At the beginning of Islam, Arabic became the language of of Arabic as a religious, cultural, and administrative language
both private and public life in the Arab empire. During a started to change from the tenth century onward. Middle
transitional period the indigenous languages remained in use, Persian, the language of the Persian empire, had become
for instance in Egypt where Greek and Coptic were used for marginalized after the conquests, but New Persian (Farsi)
administrative purposes along with Arabic. But at the end of became popular as the language of poetry in the ninth
the first century of the Hijra, Arabic was firmly established as century. The dynasty of the Samanids reintroduced it as the
the official language of the empire. The languages that used language of the court, and in the sixteenth century the Safavid
to be spoken in the conquered territories disappeared or dynasty started to use it as the new “national” language of
remained in use in a restricted domain only, such as Coptic Iran. As a result, the spreading of Islam in South and Southand Syriac. In the Arab West, Berber remained in use in the east Asia took place in Persian, particularly when the Moguls
countryside and has indeed never been replaced completely began to use it as their literary language. In the Islamic East,
by Arabic until the present day. Arabic was retained solely as the language of the Quran,
Persian having become the language of preaching, literature,
The codification of standard Arabic by the grammarians and administration.
started during the second century of Islam, but even before
that there must have existed some kind of norm in writing, With the advent of the Turkic peoples Arabic gradually
possibly connected with the emergence of an epistolary style lost its position in the Islamic West as well. In the Seljuk
in the chancelleries. The earliest Arabic documents, the Empire and later in the Ottoman Empire the language of
Egyptian papyri from the first century of the Hijra, already administration became Ottoman Turkish, while Persian was
contain “mistakes” that show the existence of a standard as the language used by the intellectual elite for cultural purtarget in writing. Such mistakes are very common and with poses. Arabic was relegated to the domain of religion, althe growth of literacy they became even more frequent. In though it continued to serve as a source for thousands of
modern linguistic terminology texts containing deviations loanwords in both Persian and Turkish, ranging from learned
from the grammatical norms of the standard language are words such as mo
allem “teacher” in Persian and akide “dogma”
usually called “Middle Arabic.” This term does not denote a in Turkish to common words such as ve- ‘and’ in both
well-defined variety of the language but is used as a general languages. Yet, when the Arab world became integrated in
label for all nonstandard texts. Some of the mistakes reflect the Ottoman Empire, spoken Arabic was treated as a minor
the vernacular language, for instance, when people write la provincial language and its written variety was only used for
yaktubu “they do not write” rather than the more formal la religious purposes. Even though most inhabitants of the Arab
yaktubuna, but very often one encounters pseudo-corrections, provinces did not know Turkish, official contacts with the
when people in their attempt to write standard Arabic over- empire had to take place in that language.
step their target, for instance when they write lam yaktubuna
“they did not write” instead of lam yaktubu. The introduction The nineteenth-century Arab renaissance (Nahda) brought a
of vernacular features in written language could also serve to change in the self-awareness of the Arabs and the position of
create a humorous effect. This occurs particularly in litera- Arabic. In Egypt, Muhammad
Ali initiated a movement to
ture aiming at a popular audience, such as the stories in the translate European writings into Arabic. In its wake a new
Arabian Nights or in dialect poetry. idiom was created to convey the new ideas, and the language
was modernized through the introduction of a host of new
The acceptance of deviations from the norms was particu- terms in the fields of the technical sciences, economics, and
larly strong in non-Muslim circles. Jewish and Christian politics. Once again, Arabic became a language in which
writers, who did not have the same attachment to the lan- political and administrative issues were discussed.
guage of the Quran, felt free to use a more popular kind of
language. Thus we find Jewish writers using certain vernacu- The fall of the Ottoman Empire signified a new beginning
lar constructions when writing to fellow Jews, but studiously for Arabic but the simultaneous invasion of the colonial
avoiding these when writing for a more general Muslim powers introduced a new danger to the language. Because of
audience. One might even say that this kind of Arabic became the military and cultural dominance of the English and the
an in-group language with a special status. This Judaeo- French the attitude toward Arabic was often a negative one.
Arabic was written in Hebrew characters and contained a After the Arab countries gained their independence Arabic
large number of Hebrew loanwords. became the official language of most of these countries and

60 Islam and the Muslim World
Arabic Language

the symbol of Arab nationalism. In the Mashreq, it did not divisiveness and regionalism (iqlimiyya). It is widely believed
take long before English was replaced by Arabic, but in the in the Arab world that during the colonial period the Euroformerly French-dominated countries it took decades before pean powers intentionally propagated the study and the use of
the French language had disappeared from the administra- the dialect in order to divide the Arab world. Even today,
tive, educational, and legal systems. Western interest in dialectology is still regarded as a manifestation of neo-imperialism. This creates a problem for Arab
Fusha and
Ammiyya politicians who wish to show their adherence to the ideals of
The contemporary linguistic situation in the Arab world is Arab nationalism but at the same time their strong ties with
characterized by diglossia, in which two varieties of the the population. Politicians like Jamal
Abd al-Nasser made a
language have strictly separate roles or functions in the skillful use of the language variation by mixing standard and
speech community. The so-called High variety, called fusha vernacular in their political speeches. The connection with
or al-
arabiyya, is the language learned at school as the carrier the standard language is especially strong in those countries
of a rich religious and literary heritage; it is the language that
that emphasize their role in the Arab nationalist movement.
is used in writing, both in the educational system and the
The different attitudes toward Arab nationalism correlate
media, and in formal speech. The Low variety, called
ammiyya
with the attitude toward the vernacular. In those countries
or in North Africa darija, is the colloquial language, which is
where Arab nationalism is part of the dominant ideology the
the mother tongue of all speakers. It is the language of
use of standard Arabic is emphasized and attempts to replace
everyday communication, the language of friends and family,
it with the vernacular are met with severe criticism.
the language of informal speaking.
The attitude toward the dialect is not wholly negative,
The coexistence of two varieties of the language is not
however. In a country such as Egypt the
ammiyya may be said
without its problems. Since the standard language is learned
to hold a special position. Because of the pride they take in
at school, only those who are literate have access to the
their country Egyptians are also proud of the Egyptian
written production. For the vast majority of the population
dialect, and although they share with other Arab countries the
the formal language is not immediately comprehensible so
mistrust toward the imperialists who used the dialect to
that a large part of linguistic communication in the commufurther their own interests and although in Egypt, too, the
nity is beyond their linguistic competence. The two varieties
fusha holds a special prestige position, the use of the dialect is
have quite different associations, the standard language being
widespread even in situations where in other countries it
associated with education and therefore with social success
would be unthinkable to use dialect. Thus, Egyptian presiand wealth, whereas the vernacular is associated with illiterdents are never averse to using partly Egyptian dialect in their
acy and poverty. At the same time, its function as the language
political speeches—at least for internal use; in their contacts
of informal talk makes it the symbol of in-group communication, whereas the standard language is seen as a stereotyped with other Arab countries they tend to switch to standard
and distanced means of communication. Arabic. Since the Egyptian film industry and more recently
the television soaps have gained enormous popularity outside
Language choice between standard and vernacular de- Egypt, knowledge of this dialect in other Arab countries is
pends on a number of factors such as the person of the widespread and many speakers of other dialects are familiar
interlocutor, the topic being spoken about, and the setting of with Egyptian.
the speech act. By their language choice speakers express
their attitude toward these factors, their evaluation of the In North Africa the linguistic policies of the French have
situation and the interlocutor. Since language variation is not left unmistakable traces. After independence there was a class
a matter of choice between two discrete varieties, but takes of intellectuals who only knew French and could not commuplace on a continuum between the highest standard and the nicate in Arabic. The first decades after gaining indepenlowest vernacular, there are endless possibilities of language dence were therefore characterized by a movement toward
choice. Such linguistic behavior is often indicated with the Arabization, the replacement of French by Arabic in domains
term of code-mixing. Since the span of the continuum attain- such as administration and education. Several school reforms
able for the individual speaker directly depends on the degree were needed before at least primary and secondary schools
of literacy, most people may be said to have only a relatively adopted Arabic as the main medium of instruction. Even
small variation at their disposal. But even the best educated today French/Arabic bilingualism in North Africa is widespeakers are unable to extemporize in standard Arabic and spread and French has retained a special position of prestige.
inevitably mix vernacular elements in their speech. In particular among intellectuals the mixing of French and
Arabic in franco-arabe has remained popular.
Because of its symbolic value as a binding element for
all Arabic-speaking peoples language choice is intimately In the Levant, Syria, and Lebanon became independent
connected with Arab nationalism. The fusha is the symbol from French colonial rule with a somewhat different outof Arab unity, whereas the vernacular dialects stand for come. In Syria, French never took hold the way it did in the

Islam and the Muslim World 61
Arabic Language

Maghreb. In Lebanon, however, bilingualism was connected period of code-switching in which they mix their home
with a widespread feeling, both among Muslims and Chris- language and the language of the country they are living in.
tians, that Lebanon was a bicultural country. The civil war
has changed this situation in the sense that Arabic-French The main role of Arabic outside the Arab world is that of
being the language of the Quran, even though in many
bilingualism has become associated more exclusively with the
regions it was not the language of the Islamic spreading of the
Christian community.
faith (da
wa). This role was played in the East by Persian, and
Arabic as a World Language further east by Malay. In Africa, the language in which Islam
After the Arab conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 C.E., was preached was Hausa or Swahili. Yet, for all Muslims
the influence of the Arabic language spread beyond the Arabic has a special status as the language chosen by God for
borders of the Islamic world. Due to its role as the language in his last revelation. The reverence for this status does not lead,
which Greek philosophy and science were transmitted, Euro- however, to intensive study of the language itself. Ordinary
pean scholars came to regard Arabic as the language of Muslims in countries such as Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakiculture and scholarship. A large amount of translations of stan, Nigeria, and Senegal do not know more Arabic than a
Arabic texts circulated in Western Europe, and through the few ayahs from the Quran, even though in some of these
contact with Arab culture in al-Andalus many loanwords, countries there is an extensive public or private network of
such as algebra, zero, algorithm, alchemy, sugar, artichoke, apri- Quran schools where the text of the Holy Book and the basic
cot, and admiral, entered the European languages. This inter- elements of Arabic are being taught.
national role of Arabic ended with the Renaissance when Historically, Arabic functioned in Africa not only as a
Western Europe rediscovered the Greek sources and no religious language but also as a language of trade. Even before
longer needed Arabic as an intermediary. West Africa was Islamicized, Arabic was used there as a lingua
franca between the courts of different kingdoms. This is also
Nowadays, Arabic is spoken as a mother tongue outside
clear from the loanwords in African languages, which are not
the Arab world in a number of linguistic enclaves, such as
restricted to the domain of religion but comprise also other
Anatolian Arabic in Turkey, and tiny pockets of speakers in
semantic domains. In Hausa, for instance, such words as
Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Cyprus. Malta is a differ-
“book” (littaafi) and “news” (laabaari) derive from Arabic as
ent case altogether. Here, the Maltese language, written in
do some conjunctions such as saboo da “because,” from Arabic
Latin characters, has become the only Arabic dialect with the
sabab “reason.” In Swahili something like 30 percent of the
status of a national language. The Maltese, who are Chrislexicon is derived from Arabic. Most of these loans were
tians, tend to deny the connection of their language with the
introduced by a small class of so-called mallams (Ar. mu
allim
Arabic-speaking world and prefer to regard the language as a
“teacher”) who maintained the ties with Arabic even after the
remnant of the Phoenician language.
trade connections had been severed.
Apart from these enclaves, large numbers of Arabs have In Asia, Islam was spread by Persian-speaking traders and
migrated outside the Arab world (mahjar). In the Americas, missionaries. Here the Arabic language was known excluearly immigrants came mostly from Lebanon and Syria. Most sively from the text of the Quran. Even though the ordinary
of them were merchants, who assimilated without difficulty believers did not know Arabic, they became used to some of
to their new countries, especially in Latin America. Most of the religious terms through the recitation of the Quran.
them retained Arabic and in countries such as Brazil and Other Arabic words entered the Asian languages through
Argentina they even managed to establish a thriving literary Persian, as evidenced by their phonological shape, for intradition. stance, in Urdu hazirin “audience,” with Persian z for Arabic
dad. A further source of borrowing was the written medium. A
The immigration of speakers of Arabic to western Europe
small class of scholars used their pilgrimage to Mecca in order
has a different background. In the early 1960s the western
to study the Islamic sciences and through their books they
European countries started to hire unskilled laborers from
introduced hundreds or even thousands of loanwords from
the Mediterranean countries on a large scale. The original
Arabic. It has been estimated that in Malay more than three
plan was to hire these people for a restricted period of time
thousand words were borrowed in this way, for instance, the
and then remigrate them to the countries of origin. Soon it
word hukum “judgment,” which gave rise to the derived verb
became apparent that they were there to stay. As a result the
menghukumkan “to pronounce judgment.”
western European countries suddenly realized that they had a
sizable Arabic-speaking minority. In most of these countries The relatively low level of knowledge of Arabic may be
the official policy of the government consisted in providing changing with the increasing influence of Arabic sites on the
education in the home language of the immigrants’ children. Internet. In some countries, such as Mali, learning Arabic has
Nonetheless, many children of the second and third genera- become quite fashionable among young people. In other
tion are losing their language of origin and shifting to the countries, international Islamic contacts may lead to an indominant language. In most cases they go through a lengthy crease in Arabic as the primary language of Islam.

62 Islam and the Muslim World
Arabic Literature

See also African Culture and Islam; Arabic Literature; “education,” “general knowledge,” and “decency.” It is de-
Grammar and Lexicography; Identity, Muslim; Pan- rived from the pre-Islamic dab (pl. adab) that denotes “good,
Arabism; Persian Language and Literature; Qur
an; accepted practice.” In medieval Arab society adab can prob-
South Asian Culture and Islam; Urdu Language, Lit- ably be best compared to the concept of “belles lettres.” It
erature, and Poetry. does not, however, include the most esteemed form of Arabic
literature of shi
r, or poetry, as a category.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
To understand the status of shi
r, its early development
Ayalon, Ami. Language and Change in the Arab Middle East:
within pre-Islamic society has to be discussed. This society
The Evolution of Modern Political Discourse. New York and
was divided along lines of families, tribes, and clans. Within
Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1987.
the clan the prominent social characters were the sayyid
Bakalla, Muhammad Hasan. Arabic Linguistics: An Introduc-
(chief), the kahin (the soothsayer, expert of the supernatural),
tion and Bibliography. London: Mansell, 1983.
and the sha
ir, the keeper of earthly knowledge memorized in
Blau, Joshua. The Beginnings of the Arabic Diglossia: A Study of a nonscriptural society. This sha
ir—or “poet”—knew by
the Origins of Neo-Arabic. Malibu, Calif.: Undena, 1977.
heart the clan’s history, the affiliations with other clans, and
Bulliet, Richard W. The Camel and the Wheel. 2d ed. New the battle deeds of the clan in skirmishes with other clans.
York: Columbia University Press, 1990. Battle cries, invectives of the enemy, and boasting of the hero
Diem, Werner. Hochsprache und Dialekt: Untersuchungen zur were commonly uttered in poetical form and were memoheutigen arabischen Zweisprachigkeit. Wiesbaden: F. rized by the poet, in order to be handed down to the next
Steiner, 1974. generation.
Ferguson, Charles A. “The Arabic Koine.” Language 25
(1959a): 616–630. In a development for which we have no record, another
Ferguson, Charles A. “Diglossia.” Word 15 (1959b): 325–340. kind of poetry emerged in this pre-Islamic society called the
qasida (or “ode”). These poems, too, were memorized by the
Fischer, Wolfdietrich. Grundriss der arabischen Philologie, Vol.
1: Sprachwissenschaft. Wiesbaden: L. Reichert, 1983. poet. In the course of time he started to compose this kind of
poetry himself. The practice of memorizing and composing
Fischer, Wolfdietrich, and Jastrow, Otto. Handbuch der
poetry was a craft that was handed down from one generation
arabischen Dialekte. Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1980.
to next, the poet’s apprentice being called rawi or “transmit-
Holes, Clive. Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions and Varieter” (pl. ruwat).
ties. London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1995.
Miller, Ann M. “The Origin of the Modern Arabic Sedentary Pre-Islamic Arabic Poetry
Dialects: An Evaluation of Several Theories.” Al-
Arabiyya An Arabic poem was composed on the basis of two form
19 (1986): 47–74. principles: meter and rhyme. Each poem had a fixed meter
Rouchdy, Aleya. The Arabic Language in America. Detroit: that could be chosen from the sixteen metrical patterns that
Wayne State University Press, 1992. Arabic prosodical tradition defined, although it has to be said
Versteegh, Kees. The Arabic Language. 2d ed. Edinburgh: that classical poets were mainly using only six of these.
Edinburgh University Press, 2001. Contrary to Western metrical tradition, the Arabic meters
were based on the length of syllables rather then on stress.
Kees Versteegh This does not mean that Arabic poetic language knew no
stress, but it was not the principle for metric scansion. The
poet is expected to retain the same meter throughout each
poem he composes, which may run into dozens of verses.
ARABIC LITERATURE
Apart from this feature, called monometer, the poet uses
Literature may be defined in numerous ways, but in Arabic the same rhyme throughout the poem, which is called
literature some of the prominent phenomena that are associ- monorhyme. The rhyme cluster is always based on one
ated with the modern concept of literature—individual crea- specific consonant accompanied with long or short vowels. In
tivity, authenticity of feeling, and fictionality—will not easily the correct rhyme a limited variation of vowels is allowed.
be detected by an unaware reader. Arabic literature as well as Each line of poetry is divided into two hemistichs, which
other non-Western literatures is firmly rooted in its own deceptively makes the poem in print seem like two columns.
tradition and can hardly be appreciated otherwise.
This elaborated form requires a high degree of craftsman-
Arabic Literature: Notions and Concepts ship and it suggests a long evolution, but no sources are
The modern Arabic equivalent for literature is adab, but in its available for this. It may also seem that in its form Arabic
traditional context this concept also refers to notions like poetry is extremely monotonous, but it is often the subtle play

Islam and the Muslim World 63
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between the formal rules, the listeners expectation, and the Shifting themes and forms. Shortly before the emergence
poet’s elegant solutions that makes this poetry a vibrant art. of Islam, Arabic poetry underwent a few thematic innovations: Love poetry gradually became an independent genre,
Pre-Islamic (or pre-classical) Arabic poetry can be divided introducing the beloved as taking part in a—probably
thematically into two groups: short, monothematic poems, fictitious—dialogue. In this period one also finds religious
often “situational” poetry, and long, polythematic poems poetry reflecting a set of (popular) Christian and Jewish
called qasidas.
monotheistic concepts among the urban class of traders, as
Qasida. The qasida is the most prestigious poetical creation opposed to pagan worship of natural objects or polytheism
throughout Arab history. Even nowadays it is deemed the that were still widespread on the Arabian Peninsula.
ultimate work of artistic achievement of Arab culture. It is a
In cases where prestigious poetry was not deemed suittripartite composition that follows a thematic sequence: In
able, other literary forms were in use: The meter rajaz served
the nasib the poet—often in a dialogue with his companions—
all kinds of “situational” poetry like working songs, invectives,
recalls his memory of a love affair. To give in to his grief
obscene poetry, and exhortations. Later this meter was used
meant that the poet broke his self-control (sabr). The immefor lengthy didactic poems.
diate occasion he uses to legitimize this is his coming across
the remnants of the camp left by the tribe to which his Rhymed prose (saj
) was used for soothsayer predictions
beloved belongs. This description is usually vivid and realis- and enchantments, for folkloric sayings and proverbs, and,
tic, although to our modern taste the beloved is hardly finally, for the text of the Quran.
portrayed as an actual person.
Poetry in Early Islam and the Umayyad Era
In the second part of the qasida the poet distances himself The production of poetry subsided remarkably with the
from this emotional reminiscence by dwelling on his travels beginning of Islam. First, the prophet Muhammad’s attitude
through the desert, describing his mount and the desert toward poetry was ambiguous. He renounced poetry and
environment with its specific fauna (rahil). Sometimes this
poets when he was accused of being a “poet” himself. A quote
second part is very short, condensed to the words da
dha:
from the Quran runs, “And the poets—the perverse follow
“leave that (love affair) behind!”
them; hast thou not seen how they wander in every valley and
The final part of the qasida offers the poet a relative how they say that which they do not,” a reference to their
freedom in the choice of his theme. He may address the chief baseless boasting (Arberry, trans., 26:224–226). On the other
of a tribe with a panegyric ode (madih), use his poem as a hand he realized that his status, comparable with that of a prewarning against an enemy, indulge in boasting on his own Islamic chief, demanded the presence of a “court poet” as
exploits, or simply offer a vivid description of a natural well, in his case the famous Hassan b. Thabit (d. 670).
phenomenon like an all-refreshing shower. Another reason for the declining popularity of poetry may
well have been the general preoccupation of the new Muslims
The traditional qasida, its form, and its content, have with the expansion and stabilization of the new state. This
remained influential not only for Arabic literature, but also decline in poetic production, however, was only temporary.
for later developments in Turkish and Persian literature. The Umayyad era quickly gave an impetus for new developments in Arabic poetry.
Marthiya. Apart from the qasida another genre adopted this
prestigious form. From a traditional wailing exclamation, Although the polythematic qasida as the masterpiece par
probably common to the universal rituals of death, Arab excellence never ceased to exist, its parts developed into
women developed a kind of poetic dirge that kept the middle separate kinds of poetry in the Umayyad era. The nasib
between “situational” poetry and the qasida. The marthiya developed into love poetry and the rahil with its descriptions
was composed in remembrance of a deceased brother, hus- of nature into forms of bucolic poetry like descriptions of
band, or father, but it followed the formal (not the thematic) hunting parties and gardens. Together with older poetic
requirements of the qasida. The reason for this is that marathi kinds like wine poetry (khamriyya) and the general topic of
were considered poetry of the public domain, inciting to description (wasf), these parts constituted the plethora of
blood vengeance in case of violent death and helping to themes that a poet from this era could address.
reinvigorate social values and the ideal of knightly vigor on
which women and children depended for their security. The dichotomy of early Islamic society, its division into a
Contemporary to the early emergence of Islam the poetess al- Bedouin and a trader class, becomes clear in love poetry. In
Khansa (d. c. 645) produced a considerable number of such the nasib-part of the qasida, the beloved is mainly a nonpresent
dirges on her brothers in which one might read a stance of entity. She has left with her tribe and all that the poet can do is
opposition toward the social changes that the new religion regret her departure and remember their past afair. Followbrought with it against such pre-Islamic virtues as bravery, ing this tradition the
udhri type of love poetry (named after
hospitality, generosity, and tribal loyalty. the tribe
Udhra) creates an even greater division between the

64 Islam and the Muslim World
Arabic Literature

poet and his beloved: She becomes the unreachable projec- Trouvères” tradition in southern France through Arab-ruled
tion of the poet’s love from which he can only suffer and then al-Andalus (southern Spain).
whither away from passion. This kind of poetry might best be
called “idealistic” and it provided Arabic literature with some The poetry of the Abbasid era provided a huge, sparkling
almost mythical love pairs like Majnun and his Layla. collection of love poems, obscene poetry, repentance poetry
for unbecomely behavior, semi-religious poetry pondering
With the emergence of Islam and the continued ritualistic mortality, and detailed descriptions of gardens and gadgets in
pilgrimage to Mecca, the population in the Hijaz cities like everyday life. In short every possible theme that an affluent
Mecca and Medina became gradually more affluent. Once a class of intellectuals can think of was represented. The same
year they provided an intertribal and international forum period witnessed the emergence of literary theory and literwhere all Muslims could gather. The huge crowds involved in ary criticism. Inspired by the “philological” culture that
the hajj consisted of both men and women, offering many Islamic society was (the Quran being the verbatim reproducopportunities for both sexes to meet and have affairs. These tion of God’s word), both poets and linguists set out to
paved the way for the so-called hijazi love poetry, in which the explore the possibilities of the Arabic language, a discipline
poet vividly describes his adventures, and cites extensively that inevitably led to mannerism and far-fetched metaphors
from (fictitious) dialogues between his beloved’s companions in poetry.
and her or between the protagonists themselves. As opposed
to
udhri love poetry, this new development can be called Abu Tammam and the ninth-century poet al-Buhturi (d.
“realistic” love poetry. 897/898) opposed this tendency by presenting two collections of poetry (both called Hamasa: courage) for which they
In many ways the poetic developments of the Umayyad selected canonical poetry of the Umayyad and pre-Islamic
era reflect the development from a tribal society with periods.
nonhereditary succession to an urban society with dynastic
power and an affluent court life in which the poet serves to During the tenth century the central authority in Baghdad
embellish the environment of his maecenas. started to lose its grip on some of the outer regions like Egypt
and Syria. As a consequence local “kings” established their
Poetry in the Abbasid Era own courts and court cultures in which one or more poets
The transition from the Umayyad to the Abbasid dynasty and were essential assets. By this time some poets had reached an
the transfer of the seat of the caliphate from Damascus to independent status, so that they could allow themselves to be
Baghdad can be considered the revolution of the mawali, or hired by the most bidding party, like the famous poet alsecond- and third-generation converted Muslims who were Mutanabbi (d. 965) who started his career with Sayf al-Dawla
not of Arab origin, but descendants of Persian or Byzantine (d. 967), ruler of Aleppo, then moved to the court of Kafur in
families. Often these families had held high positions in the Cairo and finally joined the Buwayhid court of
Adud al-
Sassanid kingdom in Persia. Dawla (d. 983) in Iraq. This mobility shows how poets had
gained a role as spokesmen for the rulers of the time, voicing
In the early Abbasid era Arabic poetry consolidated its the king’s greatness and acting as the laureate poets on
courtly functions. Most poets were in one way or another important occasions.
attached to the court, the highest-ranking poets being companions of the caliphs themselves. Al-Andalus
The downfall of the Umayyad caliphate had caused one of the
The bond of Arabic literature with its pre-Islamic, Bed- members of the Umayyad family,
Abd al-Rahman I (d. 788),
ouin basis became more and more symbolic, although one of to flee westward to the Iberian Peninsula where he estabthe greatest poets of this era, Abu Nuwas (d. c. 814), had had lished the kingdom of Cordoba in 752. This marked the
his poetic training through living with Arab tribes. His beginning of Andalusian history, an outstanding period in
allegiance to the urban lifestyle motivated his utter contempt Islamic history. This period is still referred to by Arabs as the
for those primitive conditions that he expressed in ridiculing multicultural “state” par excellence because it meant the
Bedouin life. His most famous poems are the khamriyyat peaceful coexistence of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Al-
(about drinking scenes) and the mujun, more or less obscene Andalus soon disintegrated into petty kingdoms like Toledo,
poems about (pederastic) love. Sevilla, and Granada, but this never impeded cultural and
intellectual progress. Only periods of foreign rule by ortho-
In this poetry by Abu Nuwas and by the later Abu dox Muslim forces from North Africa could temporarily
Tammam (d. 845), the hijazi tradition of realistic love poetry, infringe on it, until finally Granada fell to the Spanish
of the self-confident individual, lives its triumph. The idealis- Reconquista in 1492, the formal end of Andalusian history.
tic
udhri love poetry comes to an end with the late-eighthcentury poet al-
Abbas b. al-Ahnaf (b. c. 750). His courtly love At the various courts in the main cities of al-Andalus,
poetry has often (but probably not rightly) been interpreted literature reached a remarkable apogee. One of the contribuas the source of courtly love poetry in the “Toubadours et tions Andalusion poets made to Arabic literature was the

Islam and the Muslim World 65
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innovative form of the muwashshah, a poem with a strophical Apart from these adab-works, Arabic popular culture
structure. It is unclear what the origin of this poem was. knew a strong storytelling tradition, but what remained of it is
Certain types of strophic poetry were known in the East by scarce: outlines of heroic adventures and etiologies of perthe eighth century, but they never reached the level of sonal names.
prestigious poetry. The origin of the muwashshah, with its
rhyme structure divided into stanzas and choruses and its Bringing the sub-literary storytelling and the adab genre
idiosyncratic meter, should probably be sought in local together was an innovation introduced from outside the Arab
world, generating “mirrors of princes,” like Kalila wa-Dimna,
Romance poetic traditions, probably in songs. This is at least
an adaptation into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa
(d. c. 760) of the
suggested by the use of vernacular Arabic, Hebrew, and even
original Indian Pancatantra.
the local Romance dialect, for instance, in the last verse of
some muwashshahs, as a kind of humorous clue. Among the class of the cultural elite in the later Abbasid
era a unique genre emerged that used rhymed prose as its
The Centuries of Decline: Amateur Poetry
form and was composed following a more or less fixed
In the classical period the poet was a respected craftsman,
structure with a story of two characters meeting in an urban
famous for composing his art in courtly circles. Meanwhile in
environment without recognizing each other. After a humorurban society the high status of Arabic-Islamic education, ous description of chaos and confusion, recognition occurs
with its emphasis on language and the ornate use of it, and all ends in a kind of comical clue. This maqama remained
produced an even greater number of literati who were able to popular well into the nineteenth century. With time it beproduce verse at any given occasion. A great number of these came less bound to its original structure and could be used for
“occasional” poems concerning every possible aspect of life didactic purposes as well.
(but often, of course, on the theme of love) are still to be
found scattered in many adab-works on a wide range of Fiction in the modern sense of the word entered Arabic
subjects, often helping to embellish the context. culture with the Arabian Nights, in which the frame story and
a number of sub-stories are from an Indian-Persian origin
It was mainly this class of literati that composed poetry and enlarged with a number of Egyptian popular stories.
between the thirteenth and eigteenth centuries (the qurun alinhitat, or the centuries of decline in Arab culture). It is hard Modern Arabic Literature
to name any famous poets of this period, but recent research Normally the entering of the Arab world into modern times is
has shown that poetry probably never stopped to be of high identified with Napoleon Bonaparte’s temporary occupation
quality and originality. This is, however, a period that needs of Egypt (1789–1801). The obvious difference in culture,
more attentive study than it has hitherto received. scientific knowledge, and social structure between the two
worlds caused Muhammad
Ali (1769–1849), an Albanian
Arabic Prose officer who freed Egypt from Ottoman rule, to direct his
The oldest fragments of Arabic prose are the accounts of attention to the West, mainly France. He sent a mission of
intertribal skirmishes on the Arab peninsula. These accounts, scholars to Paris to gather scientific knowledge that could be
interlaced with poetry, may not be very accurate as a reflec- translated and applied in Egypt. The witness report of this
tion of reality, but on the other hand they cannot be regarded mission, written by al-Tahtawi (d. 1873), is one of the earliest
as fiction. A second prose collection was the Prophet’s biog- accounts of the new confrontation between East and West.
raphy, the sira, which by its nature cannot be considered
Another channel of communication between East and
fiction. The structure of these stories—chain of spokesmen,
West had remained open for much longer: the contacts
followed by the story itself, with short poems in between—
between the Maronite community in Syria and the Roman
remains the same in later prose collections. However, the
Catholic Church of Rome. This contact was parallelled by
context often became more frivolous like in al-Isfahani’s (d. American-based Presbyterian missionary activities in Lebanon.
967) Kitab al-Aghani (Book of songs), a huge collection of This new phase in Middle Eastern history, known as the
stories about poets and singers. One should be careful to use Nahda (sometimes translated as Renaissance), led to the
these for historic purposes because they are of an anecdotal establishment of printing presses and newspapers, to Westerncharacter, representing neither pure historical facts nor pure style schooling, and to flourishing cultural activities. In the
fiction. field of literature it proved to be less obvious to copy Western
standards and genres. Arab authors initially tried to use old
Another development within Arabic prose is the abundant forms, like the maqama, as a substitute for the narrative genre.
growth of adab literature in the Abbasid era, probably best The theme of these regenerated maqamas often had somerendered as “belles lettres,” the well-wrought discourse for thing to do with the East-West opposition.
which any subject could serve as a topic. Al-Jahiz (d. 868), the
homo universalis of his time, was the unrivaled champion of In poetry it was even more difficult to adopt Western
the genre. standards, so that well in the twentieth century the old

66 Islam and the Muslim World
Arabic Literature

monorhyme/monometer standard of the qasida remained Another innovation came from Iraq: the Free Verse moveundisputed. These poets could, however, not escape from ment. It advocated the complete abolishment of all tradiexpressing modern themes. So-called neo-Classicist poets tional forms like meter and rhyme, thereby producing blank
could well be expected to eulogize the introduction of radio verse or prose poetry.
in the 1920s in the most lofty of ways.
Poetry that was so politically motivated could in the end
The Mahjar only produce its counterpart, in this case the group of poets
As a result of deteriorating economical, social, and political who were being identified with the periodical Shi
r in Beirut
circumstances in the second half of the nineteenth century in (1957–1969). Their poetry can be qualified as intellectual,
the-then Ottoman province of Syria/Lebanon, a great num- highly sensitive, and open to the West. On the other hand
ber of Arabs from these regions migrated to the Americas. symbols that refered to ancient times (Phoenician culture for
Literary aspirations emerged within these Arab communities, the poets in Syria/Lebanon; Sumerian and Akkadian culture
resulting in the establishment of Arabic newspapers, literary for those from Iraq) became popular as an expression of
periodicals, and societies, the most prominent of which nationalist feelings. The most significant poet among this
became al-Rabita al-Qalamiyya (The Pen Club) in the Bos- generation was the Syrian
Ali Ahmad Said (also known as
ton/New York area (1920). Its most famous member (and its Adunis (b. 1930), together with Nizar Qabbani (d. 1998), one
chairman) was Jibran Khalil Jibran (d. 1931). of the most popular poets until the present period.

Far from their homeland, confronted with an alien envi- Meanwhile in Iraq, but even more so in Egypt, under the
ronment, and having lived through the aftermath of existen- influence of socialist ideology, iltizam poetry developed to
tial shocks like the First World War and the Titanic disaster, social realistic poetry, which in its turn paved the way for
these young poets dared to experiment and address ideas, Palestinian resistance poetry with its strong political bias.
themes, and personal emotions that were hitherto unknown
in Arabic literature. The thematical innovations of this Mahjar- The Arabic Novel
generation only had their influence on literature in the Under the influence of Western fiction, especially by French
homeland much later, if at all. romantic novelists, the first attempts to write novels can be
considered emulations of Western models. The genre of the
The Romantic Poets and Apollo novel was almost entirely strange to Arabic tradition. Some
In Egypt the important poets of the 1920s and 1930s were early attempts were still shaped like the medieval Arabic
deeply influenced by English romantic poets such as William maqama, but this rhymed prose structure was soon given up.
Blake (d. 1827), Samuel Coleridge (d. 1834), Lord Byron
Just before the beginning of the twentieth century the
(d.1824), and Percy Shelley (d. 1822). Love, subjectivism,
historic novel emerged, inspired by the works of Sir Walter
inward concentration, and dreamy nationalism were among
Scott (1771–1832) and Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870). With
the ingredients of this poetry.
the rise of nationalism around 1910 in Egypt, the scope of
At first the young poets in the Diwan group, named after a early novels changed to realistic stories placed in the vivid
study in literary criticism, advocated traditional forms, but environment of the contemporary Egyptian countryside (e.g.,
later another group of poets gathered around the periodical Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal [d. 1956], considered
Apollo promoted experiments in the use of form, partly as a as the first serious novel in the Arab world, and al-Ayyam by
consequence of their romantic inspiration, which sometimes Taha Husayn [d. 1973]).
came close to escapism.
In the 1920s the influence of French realism and of
Arabic Poetry after World War II Russian prose made itself felt in short-story writing, but
The Second World War hardly had a direct impact on the Arabic prose really went its own way from the 1930s onward,
Arab world, but it was all the more influential in its conse- when it obtained the psychological dimension of realistic
quences. The divide between capitalism and socialism split autobiography, humor, and social criticism. This opened the
the Arab world as well as Europe, not to mention the way to the main directions of post-World War II prose:
beginning struggle in many countries for independence from existentialism (Lebanon), social realism (Egypt, Algeria,
the colonialist powers. Morocco), social criticism (Egypt, Palestine), neo-realism
(Egypt), and feminism (throughout the Arab world). A mod-
As a reaction to the Romanticism of the twenties and ern generation that started to publish in the 1960s added a
thirties post–World War II poetry became extremely politi- lyrical , ironical, and plainly realistic flavor as a result of which
cal, the slogan being iltizam: political commitment. A number modern Arabic prose nowadays complies to international
of these poets gathered around the periodical al-Adab that standards, without losing the local color that Arab novelists as
was published in Beirut. The members of this group became real storytellers will never neglect. Nagib Mahfuz (b. 1911) is
split by the choice between Marxism and Arab nationalism. rightly considered to be one of the great international novel-
Iltizam as a concept kept playing a sigificant role until the 1980s. ists of the twentieth century.

Islam and the Muslim World 67
Arab League

Allen, Roger; Kilpatrick, Hilary; and De Moor, Ed, eds.
Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature. London:
Saqi, 1995.
Badawi, M. M. A Critical Introduction to Modern Arabic Poetry.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Brugman, J. An Introduction to the History of Modern Arabic
Literature in Egypt. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1984.
Grunebaum, Gustave E. von. Themes in Medieval Arabic
Literature. London: Variorum Reprints, 1981.
Jad, Ali B. Form and Technique in the Egyptian Novel 1912–1971.
London: Ithaca Press, 1983.
Jayyusi, Salma Khadra. Trends and Movements in Modern
Arabic Poetry. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977.
Jones, Alan. Early Arabic Poetry, Vol. 1: Marathi and Su‘luk
Poems (Edition, Translation and Commentary). Oxford, U.K.:
Ithaca Press, 1992.
Kilpatrick, Hilary. The Modern Egyptian Novel: A Study in
Social Criticism. London: Ithaca Press, 1974.
Lichtenstadter, Ilse. Introduction to Classical Arabic Literature.
New York: Schocken Books, 1976.
Meisami, Julie S., and Starkey, Paul, eds. Encyclopedia of Arabic
Literature. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
Moreh, Shmuel. Modern Arabic Poetry 1800–1970. Leiden:
E. J. Brill, 1976.
Pinckney-Stetkevych, Suzanne. The Mute Immortals Speak:
Pre-Islamic Poetry and Poetics of Ritual. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cor-
Novelist Nagib Mahfuz, pictured here, won the Nobel Prize in nell University Press, 1993.
literature in 1988. The novel was a completely new genre in
Arabic when, early in the twentieth century, writers in the Arab Somekh, Sasson. The Changing Rhythm: A Study of Najib
world began their attempts at long prose. Though these early Mahfuz’s Novels. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973.
works were heavily dictated by the style of French and Russian
novels, by the 1930s writers of prose in Arabic began developing Stetkevych, Jaroslav. Muhammad and the Golden Bough. Bloomin many different directions. NEW YORK TIMES PICTURES ington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Gert Borg
The main reason for the rapid development of prose
should be sought in the fact that—as opposed to poetry—it
was a relatively new form in Arabic literature, not burdened
by age-old tradition.
ARAB LEAGUE
In the West, Arabic literature is best known for two
creations: the Arabian Nights and the novels of Nagib Mahfuz Also known as the League of Arab States (Jami
at al-Duwal
that earned him the Nobel prize for literature in 1988, al-
Arabiyya), the Arab League was founded in 1945 as a
although it is paradoxical that neither can be considered as grouping of Arab states. The Arab League’s objectives are to
representative of the Arabic literary tradition. solidify cooperation among its members in the areas of
defense, politics, communications, society, and culture. It has
See also Arabic Language; Biography and Hagiography; its roots in pan-Arab nationalism and anticolonialism, but it
Historical Writing; Persian Language and Literature; recognizes in principle the independence and sovereignty of
Qur
an. the diverse nation-states that constitute its membership. Its
founding members are Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria,
BIBLIOGRAPHY Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Permanently based in Cairo, the
Allen, Roger. The Arabic Literary Heritage: The Development of Arab League now has twenty-two members, the most recent
Its Genres and Criticism. Cambridge U.K.: Cambridge to join being Djibouti (1977) and the Comoros Islands
University Press, 1998. (1993). The Palestine Liberation Organization (now the
Allen, Roger M. A. An Introduction to Arabic Literature. Cam- Palestinian Authority) was launched and given observer stabridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000 tus by the League in 1964; it won full member status in 1976.

68 Islam and the Muslim World
Architecture

The League houses a number of specialized agencies, includ- Defining Islamic Architecture
ing those dealing with communication, labor, Palestine, civil Although Islamic architecture is infinitely varied in plan,
aviation, and cities. It also convenes the Arab Summit, a elevation, building material, and decorative programs, there
periodic gathering of Arab heads of state. are several recurring forms found in all types of buildings, be
they religious, secular, public, or private. These basic compo-
The Arab League has established ties of cooperation and
nents are the dome, the arch, and the vault (Fig. 1 a–c). Before
mutual consultation with other international and regional
describing the different aspects of Islamic architecture it is
organizations, including the United Nations and the Organiimportant to pause and ask if such a categorization is viable.
zation of African Unity. Islamic religion does not constitute
either its core ideology, nor its primary purpose; Islam is
This question stems from three considerations. First is the
notably absent from the League charter. Moreover, the overt
fact that the forms and decorative practices of these buildings
secular influence that Jamal
Abd al-Nasser’s Egypt exercised
are largely adaptations of pre-Islamic models. Thus it is not
over the League was a major factor in the creation of the
improper to ask if Islamic architecture should in fact be
Muslim World League in 1962. Nonetheless, the Arab League
labeled Classical, Sassanian, or Hindu. If all that was being
does maintain formal relations with the Organization of the
considered were forms emptied of meaning and function then
Islamic Conference. Islam has also shaped its organizational
the answer to this question would be a resounding yes. The
style, as reflected in its flag, which has a crescent moon (hilal)
second consideration derives from the fact that many of the
on a green field.
architectural forms considered as Islamic architecture were
The League’s effectiveness has often been called into built for secular purposes. How, then, can a religious category
question. Its efforts to forge a common front against Israel designate houses, inns, baths, or even cities? Are there essenhave been unsuccessful, as evidenced by the expulsion of tial qualities of these secular spaces that give them meaning as
Egypt for signing the Camp David peace accords with Israel Islamic architecture? Finally, there is a question of fit. If
in 1979 (Egypt was reinstated in 1987). In March 2002, Christians, Jews, and Hindus living within an Islamic region
however, it unanimously supported a Saudi-sponsored peace build similar forms then would not the designation be too
initiative that offered recognition of Israel in return for that narrow? And, conversely is the designation too broad? For
state’s withdrawal from the West Bank and the Golan Heights. how can a Malaysian congregational mosque built in the
The League has also had mixed success in resolving conflicts twenty-first century be placed under the same analytic cateamong its own member states, as demonstrated by its failure gory as an Umayyad congregational mosque of the eighth
to prevent Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and its inability century, when they are not built of the same materials and do
to force Iraq’s withdrawal in the face of international not display common decorative practices or forms?
intervention.
While such considerations are beyond the scope of this
See also Abd al-Nasser, Jamal; Organization of the
article, it is important to realize that contemporary historians
Islamic Conference.
of Islamic architectural history weigh these questions critically. Some have responded by introducing more specified
BIBLIOGRAPHY
categories of Islamic architecture, such as those based on
Hasou, Tawfiq Y. The Struggle for the Arab World: Egypt’s regional, dynastic, and chronological designations. Others
Nasser and the Arab League. London, Boston: KPI, 1985. have introduced new analytic models, for example, by studying the development of certain architectural forms, such as
Juan Eduardo Campo the minaret, or a practice, such as the use of public inscriptions. Taken together, recent scholarship of Islamic architecture presents a more historically contingent and culturally
ARCHITECTURE varied approach to the study of Islamic architecture. Many of
the problems associated with the category of Islamic architec-
Islamic architecture is in part comprised of those buildings ture arise from what is taken as the meaning of architecture. If
and built environments intended for use in Islamic worship, Islamic architecture is simply a material entity, composed of
commemoration, and instruction. Among the architecture of classical forms, then the notion of Islamic architecture as
this group are mosques, madrasas or schools, mausoleums, being distinct from Byzantine or Sassanian becomes quesand shrines. Islamic architecture may also be considered as tionable. However, if by architecture we mean a dynamic
the creation of patrons and builders who profess Islam or space that produces relationships between people and helps
those that live in a region ruled by Muslims. These buildings individuals understand and articulate their identity through
can generally be described as secular, and include suqs (mar- their engagement (or disengagement) with that space then
ketplaces), hammams (public baths), khans (inns), caravanseries the meaningfulness of Islamic architecture can be seen as a
or roadside inns, palaces, and houses. distinct construction.

Islam and the Muslim World 69
Architecture

Basic architectural components

a. Dome b. Arch c. Muqarnas Vault

Figure 1.

The Mosque artisans practiced in mosaic design to decorate their struc-
The mosque is the preeminent dynamic space that stands at tures with dazzling images of vegetation, jewelry, and Quranic
the center of Islamic society and culture. It is both a spiritual inscriptions. Over time, the practice of employing local
site of worship and a social site of education, debate, and building techniques, decorative practices, and architectural
discussion of religion, politics, and current events. Arab forms resulted in mosques of different regions and periods of
caliphs and their governors were the first builders of architec- the Islamic world appearing visually dissimilar. They are,
tural mosques. Emerging from a Bedouin culture that did not however, all connected by their principal function: to provide
necessitate permanent architecture, these early Islamic rulers a central space for the Islamic community to unite, pray, and
adopted and adapted the building traditions of the cultures exchange information.
they conquered to guide the formation and style of the new
mosques. Two notable sources that contributed to the early The prophet Muhammad’s house was the first constructed
mosques’s forms and styles were the Byzantine and Sassanian mosque (Fig. 2). Established soon after his community moved
Empires. In the conquered regions previously dominated by to Medina in 622 C.E., it was a simple, unremarkable enclothese cultures Arabs established garrison cities and ordered sure. The principal consideration of Muhammad’s mosque
the founded mosques to provide the Islamic community with was to provide a large, open, and expandable courtyard so the
a space to meet and pray. The mosques that appeared in the ever-growing community could meet in one place. The walls
first centuries of Islamic history were either renovated struc- of the courtyard were made of mud-brick and had three
tures, for example, Christian churches converted into mosques, openings. The walls surrounded an open space of about 61
or they were new buildings constructed from recycled parts of square yards (56 meters). On the east side of the courtyard
abandoned buildings, particularly columns of Roman ruins. were the modest living quarters of Muhammad and his
Some Islamic rulers, such as the Umayyad builders of the family. Palm tree trunks were used for the columns and palm
Dome of the Rock (completed in 692 C.E.) and the Great leaves for the roof of a covered area called the zulla, which was
Mosque of Damascus (706–714 C.E.), employed Byzantine built to protect worshipers from the midday sun. The zulla

70 Islam and the Muslim World
Architecture

very top of the minbar is never occupied as it is symbolically
House of the prophet Muhammad, Medina reserved as the space of Muhammad, the original imam.

In large mosques another platform called the dikka is
Zulla (Portico)
provided at the rear of the sanctuary, or in the courtyard, and
along the same axis as the mihrab. A qadi repeats the sermon
and prayer from the dikka for those standing too far from the
minbar. Located outside of some mosques is a minaret that,
along with the dome, has become the architectural symbol of
Islam due to its ubiquitous presence and high visibility.
Constructed as a tower, it either stands outside the mosque
precinct or it is attached to the outer walls or portals of the
Figure 2. mosque. The minaret varies in shape, ornamentation, and
number depending on the region and building conventions of
the patron. Besides visually broadcasting the presence of the
marked the direction Muslim prayer was originally oriented— mosque and Islam within a city or landscape the minaret also
north, toward the holy and venerated city of the Jews, serves as an effective place for the muadhdhin or “caller” (also
Jerusalem. Later, Muhammad, while in prayer, received di- muezzin) to perform the adhan (call to prayer) and be heard
vine enlightenment that caused him to change the direction for a great distance. The maqsurah is a later addition made to
of prayer south to the Ka
ba in Mecca. The zulla was there- the hypostyle-plan mosque. It is a differentiated, protective
fore moved to concur with the new qibla (direction of prayer). space, adjacent to the qibla wall. The maqsurah is found in
Besides the qibla, another architectural form introduced at mosques where the imam or ruler wanted either to be prothe first mosque was the minbar (stepped platform or pulpit)
tected or ceremonially separated from the congregation. It
from which Muhammad addressed the growing Islamic
was originally built as a raised platform separated with a
community.
wooden screen that allowed total to partial concealment of its
The Prophet’s mosque, with its austere plan, large square occupants.
enclosure, orientation toward the qibla, and minbar, provides
Types of Mosques. There are two general types of mosques.
the basic elements of subsequent mosque architecture. The
The first is the congregational mosque, known as the jami

first mosque type to emerge was the hypostyle plan (Fig. 3).
masjid. The jami
(from the Arabic word for “to gather”) is
Its basic unit, the bay (a covered area defined by four columns), could be expanded upon so the mosque could grow built on a large scale to accommodate the entire Islamic
with the community. The hypostyle mosque typically has an community of a town or city. The second type is known
inner courtyard, called the sahn, surrounded by colonnades or simply as masjid (from the Arabic word meaning “to prostrate
arcades (riwaqs) on three sides. Within the courtyard there is oneself”). Masjids are small community mosques used daily
usually an ablutions fountain, where the wudu (minor ablu- by members of a quarter, or an ethnic group within a city.
tion) is performed before the salat (prayer). There are three Masjids were also constructed as subsidiary structures next to
entrances into the sahn. The principal entrance can be a mausoleums, palaces, caravanseries, and madrasas. Early masjids
monumental portal as built in Cairo in the Fatimid Mosque of and jami
masjids, while different in size, shared the same
al-Hakim (1002 C.E.). Passing through the sahn, the worshiper architectural forms and style. However, as Islamic rulers grew
walked into a covered sanctuary area or haram. The haram of in wealth and power starting in the late seventh century, they
the Great Mosque of Cordoba (786, 962–966 C.E.) is one of built monumental jami
masjids in their cities to reflect the
the most visually breathtaking. The arches of the double-arch preeminence of Islam and the permanence of their dynasty.
arcades are composed of alternating red brick courses and Adapting the basic building elements of vaults, arches, and
pale stone voussoirs that when viewed from within the sanc- domes, these rulers built mosques that from the exterior
tuary produce a visually captivating labyrinthine configura- appeared to span large areas and soar to great heights. To
tion over one’s head. Once inside the sanctuary of a mosque create a stunning visual experience in the interior the jami

the focus is the qibla, a directional wall that indicated which masjids were ornamented with complex geometric and araway to pray. In the center of the wall was often a semicircular besque or vegetal decoration in mosaic and stucco. Quartered
niche with an arched top, known as the mihrab. In large marble decorated the lower walls, or dados, and Quranic and
mosques a minbar located to the right of the mihrab was also historical inscriptions in stucco and mosaic Arabic script
included. It was from atop the minbar that on Fridays the engaged the intellect.
khutba (sermon) was delivered by the imam or prayer-leader.
The minbar is based on the stepped platform that was used by Regional Variation of Mosques. Although there is no one
Muhammad. It ranges from a simple three-step elevation to a style to unify the mosques of the Islamic world, they can be
highly decorated monumental stairway of many steps. The divided into broad regional variants. The mosque style of

Islam and the Muslim World 71
Architecture

Hypostyle Plan

Minaret
HARAM
Qibla Wall

Riwaq

Mihrab Minbar

Riwaq

Dikka

Portal
Ablutions Fountain
SAHN

Figure 3.

central Arabia was an early development influenced by church- parallel to the qibla wall, supported a gabled ceiling. Albuilding of the Syrian Byzantine Empire and palace-building Walid, wanting to outdo the neighboring churches and
of the Sassanian Persian Empire. In the east, the ground plans temples, employed Syrian-Christian artisans to richly decoof the Great Mosques of Kufa (638 C.E.) and Basra (635 C.E.) rate the interior of the mosque with imported gold and
were square like those of Zoroastrian temples. When the colored mosaics and marble, and even used rock crystal for
Great Mosque of Kufa was rebuilt in 670, its haram was based the mihrab.
on the apadanas or throne rooms of Achaemenian kings: five
rows of tall stone columns supporting a teak ceiling. Simi- The early Abbasid caliphate, ruling from Baghdad from
larly, the Great Mosque of Damascus, built by the Umayyad 749 to 847, first built their mosques with square floor plans as
caliph al-Walid between 706–714, was based on indigenous the early Umayyads had done in the region. However, after
building conventions. Architects used the preexisting enclo- the Abbasids moved their capital to Samarra, their mosques
sure of the temenos and church, but since the mosque had to be reflected the rectangular hypostyle form favored by the later
oriented to the south, the qibla wall was on the longer side of Umayyads. The Great Mosque of Samarra, built by althe rectangular space. Also, due to the constraints of the Mutawakkil from 848 to 852, was the largest hypostyle
preexisting quadrangle, the courtyard was transversal in ori- mosque of its time with nine rows of columns in the sanctuary
entation rather than longitudinal. The haram contained a that supported a thirty-five-foot-high ceiling. The mosque is
short, wide central nave with a gabled roof and a wooden most famous for Malwiyya, the colossal spiral minaret. Once
dome in its center. Three aisles of double-tiered arches, faced with gold tiles, Malwiyya’s great size and unusual shape

72 Islam and the Muslim World
Architecture

made the Great Mosque of Samarra a highly visible presence From their start, the mosques of South Asia were syncretic
in the surrounding landscape. structures. They were the by-products of hired Hindu masons, indigenous architectural material taken from destroyed
Sub-Saharan West African mosques are unique in their or decaying Hindu buildings, and necessary elements of
use of organic materials that are constantly replenished over mosque architecture such as the mihrab. The mosques were
time, such as tamped earth, timber, and vegetation. Due to trabeated at first and decorated with popular Hindu motifs
seasonal deterioration during the wet and dry seasons, the such as vegetal scrolls and lotuses. The plans of South Asian
mosques are constantly being repaired and resurfaced. The mosques ranged from traditional hypostyle, to Persian fourpredominant quality of these structures is their rounded iwan types, and to single-aisle domed plans. The earliest
organic form, reinforced with projecting timber beams or mosques of the Delhi sultanate (1192–1451) were hypostyle
torons, which also serve as supports for scaffolding when the and built out of reused materials from Hindu and Jain temples
mosque is being resurfaced. The Great Mosque of Djenné such as the Quwwat al-Islam in Delhi of the late twelfth
(thirteenth century) is the most representative of the West century. The greatest achievement of this mosque is the
African mosques. Its tall rounded towers and engaged col- monumental minaret, the Qutb Minar. Standing at 238 feet it
was a victory tower that announced the power of the new
umns, which act as buttresses, easily flow into each other and
religion to the surrounding landscape.
give the structure its characteristic verticality and overwhelming
majesty. The next significant mosque type of South Asia is the
single-aisle plan with five bays that used stucco and colored
The central-planned, domed mosque of the Ottomans is stones as surface decoration and squinch and muqarnas vaultyet another distinctive type. When the Ottomans conquered ing. These mosques had monumental central portals and
Constantinople in the fifteenth century they converted the domes. The Bara Gumbad mosque in Delhi, built by Sultan
Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia into a mosque by framing Sikandar Lodi in 1494, and the Qala-e-Kuhna mosque of
it with two pointed minarets. Later in the nineteenth century Sher Shah (1540–1545) exemplify this style. It was this basic
they added roundels inscribed with calligraphic writing of the form of mosque architecture that was later adopted by the
names of Muhammad, Allah, and the early caliphs. Using the great Mogul dynasty (1426–1848). Two exemplary Mogul-
Hagia Sophia as their prototype, Ottoman rulers built mosques style mosques are Akbar’s Great Mosque of Fatehpur Sikri
in the principal cities of their empire. The mosques were (1571–1572) and Shah Jahan’s Great Mosque at Delhi
defined by large spherical domes, with smaller half-domes at (1650–1656). These mosques have large courtyards and are
the corners of the square, and four distinctively shaped built from the local red sandstone combined with white
minarets—tall, fluted, and needle-nosed—that were typi- marble to create decorative geometric and vegetal patterns.
cally placed at the exterior corners of the mosque complex. The distinctive feature of Akbar’s mosque at Fatehpur Sikri is
The Selimiye Cami (Mosque of Selim) in Edirne, Tur- the monumental portal on the south side called the Buland
key (1507–1574), best characterizes the central-plan Otto- Darwaza. Its form is that of a colossal pishtaq (tall central
man mosque. portal), derived from Timurid origins. It is embellished with
native Indian architectural elements as well such as small
Moving further east to Seljuk Iran, another type of mosque open pavilions called chatris and lotus-shaped medallions.
emerges known as the four-iwan mosque. The iwan is an open Located on the west side of the great courtyard is the
vaulted space with a rectangular portal or pishtaq. In a Seljuk sanctuary, a three-domed prayer-hall with a central pishtaq.
mosque four of these iwans would be oriented around a The Great Mosque of Delhi was based on the four-iwan plan.
central courtyard. The Great Mosque of Isfahan, built in this Three onion-shaped bulbous marble domes surmount the
style in the twelfth century, is a monumental four-iwan qibla iwan, the same shape used for the dome of the Taj
mosque. Of these, the principal or qibla iwan is the largest, Mahal. The minarets are divided into four parts and are
capped with small pavilions. Smaller, private mosques built
with a large domed maqsura and muqarnas vaulting. To lend it
for the Mughal palaces of Lahore, Agra, and in Delhi reflect
further visual impact, two minarets were added at the corners
the fine marble carving skills of the Indian artisans. Faced
of the portal. The iwan that stood opposite the qibla iwan
with white marble, elegantly carved with vegetal patterns,
followed in size, and it was both smaller and shallower. The
these mosques were then topped with graceful onion-shaped
lateral iwans were the smallest. While the exterior of the
domes with lotus molding and metallic finials. These private
mosque was unadorned, the inward-facing iwans were decoimperial mosques were the architectural counterparts of the
rated with architectural ceramic tiles of turquoise, cobalt
elegant gems so highly prized by the Mughals.
blue, white, deep yellow, and green. The decorative designs
contained geometric and arabesque patterns as well as Kufic Shrines and Mausoleums
inscriptions. The layout of the Great Mosque of Isfahan Shrines and mausoleums that commemorate important places
influenced countless other mosques in Iran, Central Asia, and and people of the Islamic world comprise another important
South Asia. component of sacred Islamic architecture. The first great

Islam and the Muslim World 73
Architecture

shrine was al-Haram al-Sharif or Dome of the Rock in famous Taj Mahal (1631–1643) of Shah Jahan in India. In
Jerusalem. Built between 687 and 691 by the Umayyad caliph eleventh-century Egypt another type of mausoleum emerged

Abd al-Malik, it covers a renowned irregular rock formation. called the canopy mausoleum, because it was open to the
Muslims believe that is was from this rock that Muhammad elements. An example of this type is the Fatimid funerary
began his night journey, or isra, to heaven. Located on the complex of Saba Banat in Fustat. A later Fatimid develop-
Temple Mount of Mount Moriah its golden dome is seen for ment of the mausoleum form is the mashhad, a large square
miles reflecting in the landscape. The sanctuary of the Dome domed tomb connected to a three-room unit entered through
of the Rock is in the shape of an octagon and is surmounted by a portal and organized around a courtyard that served pila tall drum and dome. The rock is surrounded by a screen and grims. The mashhad of Sayyida Ruqayya, an
Alid saint, built
then a circular arcade of alternating columns and piers. Next in 1133, is an example of this type of mausoleum. The final
is an octagonal arcade that is surrounded by the outer walls type of mausoleum to be considered here makes skillful use of
that together create a double ambulatory. A frieze of Kufic one of the most famous architectural forms: the muqarnas. A
inscriptions in gold tile on blue background is found on the stalactite squinch usually found in the transitional zones
inside and outside of the octagonal arcade. It is the first between wall and dome, the muquarnas was used in all types of
occurrence of Quranic inscription in Islamic architecture. Islamic architecture. During the Ayyubid (1099–1250) and
Adding to the sumptuous quality of the interior are other Mamluk (1250–1517) periods, the mausoleum was brought
mosaics of turquoise, blue, and green tiles that could be out of the cemetery and into the urban fabric. With their
depictions of the lush foliage of Paradise, and royal insignia of increased visibility these tombs became centers for transmitthose vanquished by Muslim conquest. ting political information and education of the Sunni religious schools of law. They were also gathering centers for the
The mausoleums of imams, rulers, the wealthy, and saints
followers of Sufism. Building the mausoleum in the city of
comprise the other part of Islamic commemorative architec-
Cairo compelled a few changes in design. As there was little
ture. Although the prophet Muhammad dictated that burials
room to build laterally, the focus of the architecture was on
should be simple and without grave markers mausoleums are
found throughout the Islamic world. Following the forms of the drum and dome of the building, built ever higher and with
the Dome of the Rock and the Byzantine martyrium, which more richly textured transitional zones and domes.
the former was also inspired by, the Muslims founded their
Secular Architecture
own funerary architecture. The basic form of the mausoleum
One of the secular types of Islamic architecture is the palace,
was a square enclosure, derived from the shape of a house
which matches the mosque in reflecting the rich variety of
where the dead were traditionally buried, surmounted by a
forms, ornamentation, and the sophisticated skills of artisans.
dome. In cities such as Mamluk Cairo (1250–1517), the
Built as large complexes rather than singular units, Islamic
domed square plan compelled builders to plan vertically
palaces were generally self-sustaining, and most contained
instead of laterally due to spatial and structural constraints of
bastion walls, towers, gates, baths, stables, private quarters,
preexisting streets. To deflect the admonitions of the Muslim
public meeting spaces, workshops, offices, hospitals, harams
orthodox that perceived tomb building as irreligious, Arab
builders in North Africa, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, and or zenanas (reserved for the women of the palace), libraries,
the Levant made the mausoleum part of larger religious pavilions, fountains, and gardens. These palaces were built as
complexes. The mausoleum is thus often one part of a the architectural embodiment of the ruler, the spatial metacomplex composed of a mosque, madrasa, or religious school, phor of his dominion, and, if built in idyllic settings with
and sometimes a hospital or khanqa (residence of a Sufi surrounding gardens, were considered earthly paradises. The
leader). Although the buildings had unique functions, they first palaces were built by the Umayyads and were modeled
shared the same architectural elements. The architects uni- after Roman villas. Serving as hunting lodges or rural resi-
fied the complex with geometric and arabesque designs to dences these include the Qasr al-Hayr, Khirbat al-Mafjar,
decorate the buildings, marble revetment, muqarnas or stalac- and Khirbat al-Minya of the eighth century. Other welltite vaults (also called honeycomb vault), and ceramic tiles, known palaces are the Fatimid Palace of al-Qahira (1087–1092),
among countless other regional variants and conventions. Umayyad Madinat al-Zahira of Cordoba (936–976), the Nasrid
Alhambra in Granada, Spain (early fourteenth century), the
While the mausoleum met with periodic waves of disap- Ottoman Topkapi complex, and Mogul Fatehpur Sikri and
proval in the Arabian world it was a fully acceptable form in Red Fort, built in Delhi during the sixteenth century.
the Persianate world of Iran, Anatolia, Iraq, Central Asia,
Afghanistan, and South Asia. The two basic forms of Persianate Islamic secular architecture is also public in nature. Among
mausoleum are the yurt-inspired tomb tower such as the these buildings are the caravanseries and hammams. The
northern Iranian Gunbad-e Qabus (1007) and the domed caravanserai was a stopping place for travelers to rest and
square and later octagonal tombs, like the Tomb of the water and feed their animals. A typical caravanserai had a
Samanids in Bukhara (tenth century), the Ilkhanid Sultaniya large open courtyard with a single large portal. Inside, along
mausoleum of Iljeytu (early fourteenth century), and the the walls, were covered arcades that contained identical stalls

74 Islam and the Muslim World
Art

to accommodate a traveler, and his servants. Animals were Bloom, Jonathan. Minaret: Symbol of Islam. Oxford, U.K.:
usually kept in the courtyard or stables located in the corners. Oxford University Press, 1989.
Caravansaries were usually fortified with bastions and turreted Creswell, K. A. C. A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecwalls. As with mosques and palaces, caravansaries vary in ture. 2d ed. Aldershot, U.K.: Scholar Press, 1989.
ornamentation and form from region to region. Inside the Frishman, Martin, and Hasan-Uddin, Khan, eds. The Mosque:
city the khan housed the travelers and merchants. These History, Architectural Development & Regional Diversity.
structures were multistoried and overlooked a central court- London: Thames and Hudson, 1994.
yard. The animals and goods were kept on the ground floor Grabar, Oleg. The Formation of Islamic Art. New Haven,
and apartments were located above. Conn.: Yale University Press, 1987.
Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and
The public bath or hammam was another architectural
Meaning. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
form found in many Islamic cities. Along with the khan it was
located in the suq or marketplace. Adopted from the Romans, Hoag, John D. Islamic Architecture. New York: Abrams, 1977.
the hammam was used for washing and purification before Michell, George, ed. Architecture of the Islamic World: Its
Friday prayer. It was composed of large rooms for steam History and Social Meaning (1978). New York: Thames and
baths as well as others for soaking in hot and cold water, all of Hudson, 1984.
which communicated through waiting halls. Utilizing marble
covered floors and walls, arches, large ornamented domes Santhi Kavuri-Bauer
that helped circulate hot air, muqarnas vaults, and stucco
decoration, some public baths were highly luxurious environments. Men and women bathed separately either in their own
hammam, if there were two in a town, or on different days or
ART
at designated times.
Islamic art is generally reckoned to cover all of the visual arts
Residential Architecture produced in the lands where Muslims were an important, if
The final type of Islamic architecture to be considered is the not the most important, segment of society. Islamic art
domestic. The typical house built in Islamic societies is differs, therefore, from such other terms as Buddhist or
oriented inward. A bent entrance that turns at a sharp angle Christian art, for it refers not only to the arts produced by or
marks the transition from the outside world to the home. The for the religion of Islam but to the arts of all Islamic cultures.
entrances of homes do not usually align with those across the Islamic art was not necessarily created by or for Muslims, for
street, so the privacy of the interior is maintained. On the some Islamic art was made by Christian, Jewish, or even
inside the rooms are arranged around a central courtyard and Hindu artists working for Muslim patrons, and some Islamic
range from the private spaces of the family to semiprivate art was created for non-Muslim patrons. The term does not
spaces where male guests, who were not members of the refer to a particular style or period, but covers a broad
family, could enter. The open courtyard ventilates the house. purview, encompassing the arts produced over one-fifth of
A central basin or fountain, part of most courtyards, also the globe in the traditional heartland of Islam (from Spain to
provides a cooling effect and the soothing sound of falling India) during the last fourteen hundred years.
water. In more prosperous households delicately carved
At the beginning of the twenty-first century Islam is the
wooden screens called mashraabiyyat were used to create
world’s fastest growing religion. It has spread beyond the
private space, filter air from the outside, and allow light to
traditional heartland of Islam in North Africa, the Near East,
enter the home. The exterior of an Islamic house is often left
and west Asia to southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
unadorned. Only upon entering the home will the visitor
Muslims comprise nearly one-quarter of the world’s populaknow the class status of the owner. tion; the largest Muslim populations are in southeast Asia,
and there are sizable Muslim communities in Europe and
See also Adhan; Art; Dome of the Rock; Holy Cities;
North America. The term Islamic art is therefore becoming
Jami; Manar, Manara; Mashhad; Masjid; Mihrab;
increasingly unwieldy, and in current usage concerning mod-
Minbar (Mimbar); Religious Institutions.
ern art, the adjective “Islamic” is often restricted to purely
religious expressions such as calligraphy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abu-Lughod, Janet. “The Islamic City: Historical Myth, The idea of an Islamic art is a distinctly modern notion,
Islamic Essence, and Contemporary Relevance.” Interna- developed not by the culture itself but by art historians in
tional Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 19 (1987): 155–176. Europe and America trying to understand a relatively unfa-
Blair, Sheila S., and Bloom, Jonathan M. “The Mirage of miliar world and to place the arts created there into the newly
Islamic Art: Reflections on the Study of an Unwieldy developing field of art history. In light of the nationalism that
Field.” Art Bulletin 85 (2003): 152–184. developed during the early twentieth century, some scholars,

Islam and the Muslim World 75
Art

particularly those in the Islamic lands, questioned the use of Most fine manuscripts made in the Islamic lands also had
the term, opting instead for nationalistic names, speaking of, fine decoration. In early times the calligrapher seems to have
say, Turkish or Persian art. But these terms are also mislead- also been responsible for the illumination, which was usually
ing, for Islam has traditionally been a multiethnic and added after the writing. For example, the famous scribe
multicultural society, and it is impossible to distinguish the known as Ibn al-Bawwab (his nickname literally means “son
contribution of, for example, Persian-speaking artists in what of a doorman”) did both the writing and the decoration in a
is today Turkey. Other scholars, particularly in the late fine but small copy of the Quran made at Baghdad between
twentieth century, have questioned the term Islamic art as too 1000 and 1001. In early times calligraphers may have pregeneral, since it refers neither to the art of a specific era nor to pared all their own materials, but from the fourteenth century
that of a particular place or people. Instead, they opt for onward, the crafts became increasingly specialized, and we
regional or dynastic categories such as Maghribi (i.e., North know of distinct calligraphers, illuminators, and binders. In
African) or Mamluk (i.e., Egyptian and Syrian, thirteenth to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they were joined by a
sixteenth centuries) art. While these terms can be useful, they host of other specialists, ranging from draftsmen to gold
overlook the common features that run through much of the beaters, gold sprinklers, rubricators (those who drew the
art created in the traditional lands of Islam and fragment the lines), and the like. All worked together in a team to produce
picture, particularly for those who are unfamiliar with this some of the most sublime books ever created in which all the
area and its rich cultural traditions. Without slighting the elements were carefully harmonized in a unified and baldifferences among the arts created in different regions in anced whole.
different periods, this entry focuses on the common features
that run through many of the arts created within the broad Textiles. A second major art form popular in the traditional
rubric of Islamic art: the distinct hierarchy of forms and the Islamic lands is textiles. They were the most important
themes of decoration. economically and have often been likened to the heavy
industries of modern times. The four main fibers used were
Forms
wool, cotton, linen, and silk, but the making of fine textiles lay
Apart from architecture, the arts produced in the Islamic
not only in producing the fibers, but even more in the expense
lands follow a different formal hierarchy than that of Western
of procuring the dyes, the mordants to fix the colors, the
art, where painting and sculpture are the two most important
materials for the looms, and the transport of both fibers and
forms and are used to make religious images for worship.
finished goods. It is often hard for modern viewers to appreci-
These forms play a relatively minor role in Islamic art, where
ate these textiles, since few have survived from medieval times
instead the major forms of artistic expression are the arts of
the book, textiles, ceramics, woodwork, metalwares, and intact. Most were literally worn to shreds, and, unlike in other
glass. In Western art, these are often called the “minor,” cultures, only a handful were preserved as grave goods since
“decorative,” or “portable” arts, but such labels are pejora- Muslims traditionally wrap the body in a plain white sheet for
tive, implying that these forms are secondary, less meaningful burial. Nevertheless in their own times, these textiles were
and less permanent than the more important, stable, and immensely valuable not only in the Muslim lands but also
therefore “noble” arts of painting and sculpture. To use such across the globe: Medieval Europeans commonly used imterms is to view the world of art from the vantage point of the ported Islamic textiles to wrap the bones of their saints, and
West, and one of the significant features of Islamic art is that hence, paradoxically, most medieval Islamic textiles have
it introduces the viewer to different ways of looking at art. been preserved in Christian contexts.

Bookmaking. Of all the arts created in the Islamic lands, the Textiles were also important for the history of art. Until
most revered was the art of the book, probably because of the large sheets of paper to make patterns and cartoons became
veneration accorded to writing the revealed word of God. readily available in the fourteenth century, motifs and designs
Calligraphers were deemed the most important type of artist were often disseminated through the medium of textiles.
and paid the most for their work. They penned many fine Textiles are readily portable—they can be folded and carried
manuscripts, but the fanciest were exquisite copies of the on an animal’s back without fear of breaking—and were
Quran. Those made for use in a congregational mosque were transported over vast distances between Spain and Central
large, multivolume sets, often divided into either seven or Asia. The mechanical nature of weaving on a loom also
thirty parts so that the entire text could be read over the encouraged the production of multiples and the use of symcourse of a week or a month. Personal copies of the Quran metrical, repeating, and geometric designs that are characterwere generally smaller, but they, too, often had fine penman- istic of much Islamic art.
ship. The great reverence for writing spilled over into the
production of other texts, particularly in Iran, India, and Of all textiles, the one most identified with the traditional
Turkey, and it was one of the reasons that printing with Islamic lands is the knotted carpet. Indeed the traditional
movable type only began to be adopted in the Islamic lands in heartland of Islam is often dubbed “the rug belt.” Technically
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. the knotted carpet consists of a textile in which additional

76 Islam and the Muslim World
Art

Bold geometric designs were typical patterns used by Muslim artists. This tile mosaic was created in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. © GERARD
DEGEORGE/CORBIS

threads, usually wool or silk, are knotted into a woven Ottoman dynasties set up state workshops with room-sized
substratum to form a furry surface. The origins of the looms that required teams of weavers to produce carpets
technique are obscure and controversial, with different ethnic measuring over twenty feet across. Unlike the carpet-weaving
groups claiming precedence. Carpet weaving was already of nomads, which could be put down or picked up at will,
practiced for a millennium before the advent of Islam and these large-scale enterprises required vast amounts of materimay well have been developed by nomads to take advantage als prepared and purchased before work began to insure a
of the materials at hand, namely the wool produced by the uniform product. Designers prepared paper patterns with
sheep they herded. Nomads typically used portable looms, elaborate floral designs that could only be executed successwhich could be dismantled and carried on horseback when fully with hundreds of knots per square inch. Some designs
the camp moved, to weave small carpets with a limited even emulated the design of traditional Persian gardens, with
repertory of geometric designs that were generated from the depictions of water channels filled with fish, ducks, and geese
technique of weaving itself. crossing and dividing rectangular parterres planted with
cypresses, fruit trees, and flowers. When the carpet was
In the fourteenth century this individual or family craft spread on the floor, the person sitting on it would have been
was transformed into a cottage or village industry. Carpets surrounded by a verdant refreshing garden.
became larger and were made in multiples, with some groups
available for export. They were expensive items used by the Metals, Ceramics, and Glasswares. Other common artrich and powerful as status symbols. Depictions of enthroned forms created in the Muslim lands comprise metalwares,
rulers ranging from Mongol manuscripts of the Persian ceramics, and glasswares. These techniques have been dubbed
national epic to Italian panel paintings of the Madonna and the “arts of fire” as they are based on the use of fire to
Child prominently display Islamic knotted carpets beneath transform minerals extracted from the earth into works of art.
the throne, testifying to their international status. The discovery of fire to transform humble materials into
utensils was one of the hallmarks of the rise of civilization in
Carpet-weaving was transformed again in the sixteenth West Asia, and the manufacture of shimmering metalwares,
century into a national industry. Rulers of the Safavid and ceramics, and glass continued to be characteristic of the

Islam and the Muslim World 77
Art

Islamic lands until modern times. Iron and copper alloys were
crafted into weapons, tools, and utensils, while silver and gold
were made into jewelry and coins. Ceramics were used for
storage, cooking, and serving food, and glass was used for
lighting, keeping and serving foods, and storing perfumes and
medicines. Unlike the Christian lands, where vessels of silver
and gold were used in church liturgy, Islam required no such
luxury objects in the mosque, and the finest bowls, plates, and
pitchers are merely expensive versions of objects used in
daily life.

Base metal, ceramic, and glass shapes were also made in
such rare and costly materials as gold and silver, rock crystal,
jade, and ivory. The pious disapproved of using gold vessels,
and many items of precious metal were melted down for coin
in times of need. A rare silver box made for the Spanish
Umayyad heir-apparent Abu Walid Hisham in 976 is the
same shape and dimensions as an ivory example made for the
Spanish Umayyad chamberlain
Abd al-Malik in Spain between 1004 and 1005. The metal box even copies the details
of the ivory box, including the strap over the top, which is
hammered from the same sheet of silver as the rest of the lid.
The strap is useless on the silver box, but imitates the metal Known for detailed ceramic work, this Islamic ceramic was found
strap that would have held the lid in place on a wooden or within the tomb of Muhammad in Mecca. © ARCHIVO ICONOGRAFICO,
S.A./CORBIS
ivory box.

Another case of similar vessels in different media is the
series of small jugs made for the Timurid rulers of Central Figural Imagery. Many people believe that images of people
Asia in the fifteenth century. Some gold ones are illustrated in are forbidden in Islam, but this assumption is wrong. The
Quran forbids idolatry, but it has little to say on the subject of
contemporary manuscripts, and examples survive in several
figural representation, which was apparently not a subject of
materials, including jade, metal, and ceramic. The jugs, which
great importance in Arabia during the late sixth and early
measure about 6 inches (15 centimeters) high, have a globular
seventh centuries. Furthermore, Muslims have little need to
body and short cylindrical neck with a handle shaped like a
depict images in their religious art. For Muslims, God is
dragon. The shape derives from Chinese porcelains. The
unique, without associate; therefore He cannot be repreinscriptions on the Timurid examples make it clear that they
sented, except by His word, the Quran. Muslims worship
were wine jugs, and the various materials correspond to the
God directly without intercessors, so they have no need for
rank of the patron. Jade, technically a type of white nephrite,
images of saints, as Christians do. The prophet Muhammad
became available after the Timurids seized the jade mines in
was human, not divine, so Muslims do not worship him as
Khotan in Chinese Turkestan. The use of jade was reserved
Christians worship Jesus. Furthermore, the Quran is not a
for rulers, as it was not only rare and expensive but also
continuous narrative. Thus, Muslims do not need religious
thought to counteract poison. Timurid rulers and their courti- images to proselytize in the way that Christians use depicers also commissioned similar jugs made of brass, sometimes tions of Christ or stories from the Bible to teach their faith.
inlaid with gold and silver, but some anonymous examples
were probably made for sale on the open market as were the Over time this lack of images hardened into law, and the
cheaper ceramic ones. absence of figures, technically known as aniconism, became a
characteristic feature of Islamic religious art. Thus, mosques,
Themes of Decoration mosque furnishings such as minbars (pulpits) and mihrabs
Unlike other artistic traditions, particularly the Chinese, (recesses in the wall facing Mecca), and other types of religwhere form alone can be considered sufficient to turn an ious buildings such as madrasas do not usually contain picobject into a work of art, much Islamic art is highly decorated. tures of people. But there is no reason that Muslims cannot
Surfaces were elaborately adorned using a wide variety of depict people in other places and settings. Thus palaces
techniques and motifs. While different styles of decoration could, and indeed often did, have images of people, particuwere popular at different times and places, several themes of larly servants, guards, and other members of a ruler’s retinue.
decoration occur everywhere. These include figural decora- Similarly, bathhouses were often decorated with bathers,
tion, flowers, geometry, color, and writing. sometimes nude, and other scenes of relaxation and pleasure.

78 Islam and the Muslim World
Art

These types of secular building were often more architectur- Prophet’s face is visible, but by Ottoman times a conservative
ally inventive than religious structures, which tended to reaction had set in and artists often covered his face and even
follow traditional lines. But secular structures have not sur- his body with a veil.
vived as well as mosques and religious structures, which were
continuously venerated and maintained, and so the historical Since figural imagery was unnecessary in Islamic religious
record is spotty, and many of the best-known secular build- art, other themes of decoration became more important.
ings to survive in the Islamic lands are those that have long Many of them had been subsidiary elements in the arts of prebeen abandoned. Archaeological excavation and restoration Islamic times. In Byzantine art, for example, depictions of
of such sites as the bathhouse at Qusayr Amra, built in the people had been set off, framed, or linked by vegetal designs
Jordanian desert by the Umayyads in the early eighth cen- (that is, stylized fruits, flowers, and trees) and geometric
tury, and Samarra in Iraq, the sprawling capital built by the elements (shapes and patterns). In Islamic times, these sub-
Abbasids upstream from Baghdad in the mid-ninth century, sidiary elements were transformed into major artistic themes.
show that already in early Islamic times bathhouses and At first artists used recognizable elements, such as trees or
palaces were decorated with pictures of people engaging in plants, as in the mosaics used in the Great Mosque of
activities inappropriate in religious situations. Damascus erected by the Umayyad caliph al-Walid in the
early eighth century. With the growing reluctance to depict
Similarly, copies of the Quran do not have pictures of figures, such specific and realistic representations were repeople, but many nonreligious books made in the Islamic placed by more stylized, abstracted, and geometricized motifs.
lands do. These range from scientific treatises to histories,
chronicles, and literary works, both prose and poetry. Some- Geometry. Such an abstract style was already popular by the
times, illustrations were needed to explain the text, as in ninth century and is found on carved plaster and woodwork
copies of al-Sufi’s treatise on the fixed stars, al-Kawakib al- made from North Africa to Central Asia. The extraordinary
thabita. They show that the classical tradition of depicting the range of this style suggests a common origin in the Abbasid
capitals of Iraq, and German excavations at the site of Samarra
constellations as humans and animals was continued in Islamic
in the early twentieth century uncovered many examples in
times. Sometimes, however, illustrations were added even
molded and carved stucco. The most distinct type uses a
when the text did not demand them. One of the most
slanted, or beveled, cut, which allowed the plaster slab to be
frequently illustrated texts to survive from medieval Islamic
released quickly from the mold. In the beveled style, motifs
times is al-Hariri’s Maqamat (Seances or Sessions). Eleven
are abstracted and geometricized and the distinction between
illustrated copies produced before 1350 have survived, and
foreground and background is blurred.
the number suggests that there were once many more. This
work recounts the picaresque adventures of the cunning This type of design based on natural forms such as stems,
merchant Abu Zayd as he travels throughout the Muslim tendrils, and leaves rearranged to form infinite geometric
world, hoodwinking his rivals. The success of the text, which patterns became a hallmark of Islamic art produced between
became very popular among the educated bourgeoisie of the the tenth century and the fifteenth. To describe it, Europeans
Arab lands, depended on its verbal pyrotechnics, with triple coined the word “arabesque,” literally meaning “in the Arab
puns, subtle allusions, and complex rhymes. The illustrations style,” in the fifteenth or sixteenth century when Renaissance
emphasize a different aspect of the text—the protagonist’s artists incorporated Islamic designs in book ornament and
adventures in faraway lands—and provide rare glimpses of decorative bookbindings. Over the centuries the word has
daily life in medieval times, including scenes of villages, been applied to a wide variety of winding, twining vegetal
markets, and libraries. decoration in art and meandering themes in music.

The tradition of figural imagery was particularly strong in The nineteenth-century Viennese art historian Alois Riegl
the Persian world, which had a long history of figural repre- laid out the principal features of the arabesque in Islamic art.
sentation stretching back to pre-Islamic times, and the illus- In it, the tendrils of the vegetation do not branch off from a
trated books made there and in the nearby Persian-speaking single continuous stem, as they do in nature, but rather grow
lands such as India from the fourteenth century onward have unnaturally from one another to form a geometric pattern.
some of the most stunning illustrations ever painted. Virtu- He pointed out that the arabesque also has infinite correally all of them include people and animals, both real and spondence, meaning that the design can be extended indefi-
imaginary. A few even include images of the prophet Mu- nitely in any direction. The structure of the arabesque gives
hammad, but these are not meant as religious icons but to the viewer sufficient information to extend the design in his
illustrate historical or literary texts. The mi
raj, the Prophet’s or her imagination.
mystical journey from Jerusalem to heaven and back mentioned in the Quran (17:1), was elaborated, particularly by The popularity of the arabesque was due no doubt to its
Sufis or mystics, and scenes illustrating it commonly show the adaptability, for it was appropriate to virtually all situations
Prophet on his mystical steed Buraq. In some cases the and media, from paper to woodwork and ivory. It was used on

Islam and the Muslim World 79
Art

the illuminated pages that were added to decorate the beginning and end of fine manuscripts, particularly copies of the
Quran. These decorated pages became increasingly elaborate and are often called carpet pages. The largest and finest
were produced in Egypt and Syria during the period of rule
by the Mamluks (r. 1250–1517). The frontispieces in these
grand manuscripts of the Quran (some measure a whopping 30 inches, or 75 cm, high) are decorated with elaborate geometric designs of polygons radiating from central
star shapes.

From the fourteenth century the arabesque was gradually
displaced by more naturalistic designs of chrysanthemum,
peony, and lotus flowers, motifs adopted from Chinese art
during the period of Mongol rule in Iran. This floral style was
disseminated westward to the Ottomans, rulers of the eastern
Mediterranean region after 1453 from their capital at Istanbul. Artists working at the court of the longest-reigning
and most powerful of the Ottoman sultans, Suleyman (r.
1620–1666), developed a distinct floral style with composite
flowers and slender, tapering leaves with serrated edges.
Designers working in the court studio drew up patterns in
this style, which craftsmen then executed in various media,
ranging from ceramics to textiles.

The pervasiveness of geometric designs throughout Islamic
art has been traced to the importance of textiles, and Golombek
coined the phrase “the draped universe of Islam.” The pro-
“Prince on a Brown Horse,” Mogul miniature painting, eighteenth
duction of fibers and dyes formed the mainstay of the medie- century. Mogul emporers employed large numbers of painters
val Islamic economy. In addition to clothing, textiles were the who became known for their depictions of humans and animals in
main furnishings of dwellings and even, in the form of tents, a naturalistic style. © THE BURSTEIN COLLECTION/CORBIS
the dwellings themselves. The central role of textiles is
underscored by the Ka
aba in Mecca, which Muslims believe
most expensive pieces of woodwork were mosque furnishings
is the house that Ibrahim (Abraham) erected for God and
such as maqsuras (screens to enclose an area in front of the
which is the central shrine of Islam, a cubic stone building
mihrab), minbars (pulpits), and Quran stands. The designs
that has been veiled in cloth coverings since the dawn of the
on these pieces were usually geometric, with elaborate interfaith. The structure of weaving favors angular designs based
lacing and strapwork patterns. Perhaps the most stunning is
on the intertwining of warp and weft, and interlaced designs,
the stupendous minbar made in 1137 at Cordoba for the
found even in writing, may be another example of the textile
Almoravid mosque in Marrakesh, which has thousands of
mentality that permeated Islamic society.
individual panels meticulously carved in a variety of rare and
Color. Another theme that runs through much Islamic art is exotic woods with arabesque designs. These panels were
the exuberant use of color. Bright and vivid colors are found fitted flawlessly into a complex geometric scheme, so that the
not only in illustrated manuscripts, but also in media where decoration can be equally appreciated from near and far away.
they might not be expected. For example, metalworkers in
the Islamic lands developed the technique of inlay, in which a Islamic ceramics are also notable for their wonderful
vessel made of one metal (typically bronze or brass) is inlaid colors. Potters constantly invented new and different techwith another (typically, silver, copper, or gold). Designs were niques of over- and underglaze painting. Their finest effort
further set off in a bituminous black that absorbs light, in was the development of the luster technique, in which vessels
contrast to the surrounding metallic surfaces that reflect it. In and tiles were painted with metallic oxides and then fired in a
this way, metal workers could decorate their wares with reducing atmosphere so that the oxygen burned away, leaving
elaborate scenes that resembled paintings or work out enor- the shimmering metal on the surface. The technique may
mous inscriptions that seem to glow from the object and set have been invented by glassmakers in Egypt and Syria in the
off the patron’s name or Quranic text in lights, as it were. eighth century, but soon passed to potters, who developed its
full potential, first in ninth-century Iraq, then in Fatimid
Woodworkers achieved similar effects by combining ivory (969–1171), Egypt, and finally in Iran. Luster potters workor bone with ebony, teak, and other precious woods. The ing there in the city of Kashan in the late twelfth and early

80 Islam and the Muslim World
Art

thirteenth centuries also developed the overglaze-painted The texts inscribed on works of Islamic art range in
technique known as minai or enameling, in which several subject matter. Some contain verses from the Quran, Tradicolors and gold are painted on top of already-glazed wares, tions of the Prophet (called hadith in Arabic), and other
which are then fired a second time at a relatively low tempera- religious texts. Others are short pious phrases recalling God’s
ture. Luster and minai ceramics represent the most expensive power and omnipotence (the most common is al-mulk lillah,
kind of pottery made in medieval times, for they required dominion belongs to God) or invoking the name of the
costly materials, special kilns, and extra fuel for a second Prophet, his family, and other significant religious figures
firing. The techniques may well have been kept secret, and, to such as the Four Orthodox caliphs who succeeded Muhamjudge from signed works and treatises, the craft tradition mad as leaders of the Muslim community in the early seventh
passed down through certain families. century. Probably the most common type of text inscribed on
works of Islamic art comprises benedictions and good wishes,
The decorative combination of blue and white, so often which can range from a single word (the most common is
identified with Chinese porcelains, derived from the Islamic baraka, blessing) to long phrases with rhyming pairs of nouns
lands where potters invented the technique of painting in and adjectives.
cobalt under a transparent glaze. The technique, developed
by the same Kashan potters working in Iran in the early These inscriptions, particularly on expensive pieces, somethirteenth century, was then exported to China where it times contain historical information, including the name of
appears on blue-and-white porcelains made in the fourteenth the patron, the date, the place the object was made, and even
century. Indeed, potters in the Islamic lands were constantly the name of the artist. Art historians always look for this type
in competition with their colleagues in China, and ideas of information since it helps to localize a work of art, but it is
bounced back and forth from culture to culture. Thus, Kashan important for other reasons as well. Historical information
potters probably adopted an artificial or stone-paste body to also implies that the work of art was a specific commission,
imitate the hard body of porcelain, made by the Chinese with made for a particular individual at a specific moment or to
kaolin, an element not available in Iran and other Mus- commemorate a specific event. The historical information
lim lands. also tells us in which direction to view a work of art, since this
information is usually included at the end of the text. Signa-
Various explanations have been proposed for this lavish tures allow us to establish the biographies of artists, a type of
use of color throughout much of Islamic art. Some scholars person not generally recorded in histories and chronicles, and
trace it to the drab and dusty landscape that pervades the thereby fill out the artistic record.
heartland of Islam. (The word khaki, for example, derives
from the Persian word meaning dusty or dust-colored.) This Many different styles of script were used to decorate
explanation is insufficient, however, as people from other works of Islamic art. Historical information was often written
desert or steppe regions do not necessarily value color as in a more legible rounded hand, because the patron or artist
highly as Muslims do. Other scholars see the extensive use of wanted his name to be clear. In contrast, aphorisms and pious
color as evoking Paradise, described in the Quran as a rich phrases were often written in a more stylized angular script.
and verdant place where men recline on silken pillows. Some might have been intended as puzzles designed to amuse
Muslims, particularly mystics, often elaborated the symbolic or even tease the user. For example, a group of slip-covered
values of color, but these values were often contradictory and earthenware vessels made in northeastern Iran and Central
meaningful only in specific geographical or chronological Asia in the ninth and tenth centuries (when the area was
contexts. Black, for example, was adopted by the Abbasids as under the domination of the Samanid dynasty) is inscribed
their standard, and their rivals, the Fatimids, adopted white. with aphorisms in Arabic such as “Knowledge is bitter to the
The auspicious or heavenly associations may have been out- taste at first, but sweeter than honey in the end” or “He who is
weighed by practical considerations, since copper oxide, a content with his own opinion runs into danger.” These
ubiquitous coloring agent, produces a green color in a lead aphorisms are written in brown or black against the cream
glaze and a turquoise blue color in an alkaline one. slip in an extremely complex script in which the letters are
stretched out or distorted and the strokes braided and inter-
Writing. Of all the themes that run through Islamic art, the twined. The texts are very difficult to read, and somewhat like
most important is writing. Islam, perhaps more than any a modern cryptic puzzle; decipherment was part of the
other religion, values writing, and inscriptions permeate enjoyment they engendered.
Islamic art more than any other artistic tradition. The value
of the word is due to the sanctity of the revelation, and from In other cases the difficulty in deciphering the inscriptions
earliest Islamic times virtually all types of Islamic art were on a work of Islamic art may have been due to the artist’s
decorated with writing, even when the medium makes it illiteracy. The person who drew up the inscription was not
difficult to add an inscription. Sometimes writing supple- necessarily the same person who executed it on the work of
ments an image, but often writing is the sole type of decoration. art, and some artists may not have been literate, particularly

Islam and the Muslim World 81

Asabiyya

those of lower status who worked with cheaper materials in
repetitive forms. A group of overglaze-painted earthenware

ASABIYYA
vessels made in the Abbasid lands in the ninth century is often
The English equivalent of the term
asabiyya is akin to “social
decorated in the center with a few lines of text containing
solidarity” or “tribal loyalty.” It is an abstract noun that
blessings and the name of the potter. The texts are formulaic
derives from the Arabic root
asab, meaning “to bind.” It
and often unreadable, with words cut off, and the inscriptions
refers to a special characteristic or set of characteristics that
show that the pieces were not a specific commission but made
defines the rather vague essence of what constitutes a particufor sale on the open market. Nevertheless, they are eloquent
testimony for a world in which writing and written senti- lar group. As a sociological principle, it would be especially
ments were appreciated at all levels of society. significant within the political thought of Ibn Khaldun
(1332–1406).
Asabiyya, according to him, is the social bond
See also Architecture; Calligraphy; Mihrab. that is particularly evident among tribal groups and is based
more on social, psychological, physical, and political factors
BIBLIOGRAPHY than on those of genetics or consanguinity. It is not unique
Baer, Eva. Metalwork in Medieval Islamic Art. Albany: State among the Arabs; rather, each group possesses its own dis-
University of New York Press, 1983. tinct
asabiyya. In this way, Ibn Khaldun identified a Jewish
Baer, Eva. Islamic Ornament. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univer-
asabiyya, a Greek
asabiyya, and so on. He also perceived an
sity Press, 1998. intimate connection between
asabiyya and religion. For a
Blair, Sheila S. Islamic Inscriptions. Edinburgh: Edinburgh religion to be effective it must evoke a feeling of solidarity
University Press, 1998. among all the members of the group. In this way one could
Blair, Sheila S., and Bloom, Jonathan M. The Art and Architec- have diverse
asabiyyat; for example, an
asabiyya to one’s tribe,
ture of Islam: 1250–1800. New Haven, Conn. and London: one’s guild, and ultimately to one’s religion. Ibn Khaldun
Yale University Press, 1994. argues that Islam brought a strong sense of
asabiyya to the
Bloom, Jonathan M., and Blair, Sheila S. Islamic Arts. Lon- Arabs and was responsible for the benefits that Islamic civilidon: Phaidon, 1997. zation produced.
Brend, Barbara. Islamic Art. London and Cambridge, Mass.: See also Ibn Khaldun.
British Museum Press/Harvard University Press, 1991.
Ettinghausen, Richard, Grabar, Oleg, and Jenkins-Madina,
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Marilyn. Islamic Art and Architecture: 650–1250. New
Haven, Conn. and London: Yale University Press, 2001. Baali, Fuad. Society, State, and Urbanism: Ibn Khaldun’s Sociological Thought. Albany: State University of New York
Ferrier, R. W., ed. The Arts of Persia. New Haven, Conn. and
Press, 1988.
London: Yale University Press, 1989.
Golombek, Lisa. “The Draped Universe of Islam.” In Content
Aaron Hughes
and Context of Visual Arts in the Islamic World. Edited by
P. P. Soucek. University Park, Pa., and London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988.
Grabar, Oleg. The Formation of Islamic Art. New Haven, ASH
ARITES, ASH
AIRA
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1973.
Grabar, Oleg. The Mediation of Ornament. Princeton, N.J.: The Ash
arites, who were also known as al-Ash
ariyya, were
Princeton University Press, 1992. the largest Sunni theological school, and were named after
Hattstein, Markus, and Delius, Peter, eds. Islam: Art and the school’s founder, Abu ’l-Hasan al-Ash
ari, who lived in
Architecture. Cologne: Könemann, 2000. the late ninth and early tenth centuries (873–935). Little is
Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Art and Architecture. London: known of al-Ash
ari’s personal and scholarly life. The most
Thames and Hudson, 1999. often repeated information in the sources is that at the age
Irwin, Robert. Islamic Art in Context: Art, Architecture, and the forty, after a series of visions, he changed his position in
Literary World. New York: Abrams, 1997. Islamic theology. He left his Mu
tazilite teacher Abu
Ali al-
Pope, Arthur Upham, and Ackerman, Phyllis, eds. A Survey of Jubbai over a theological dispute on divine grace and human
Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present. London responsibility (exemplified by the famous example of three
and New York: Oxford University Press, 1938–1939. brothers with different eschatological fates), and accepted the
Raby, Julian, ed. Catalogue of the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of authority of Ahmad b. Hanbal. Al-Ash
ari thus adhered to the
Islamic Art. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1992. principles of the traditionalist Sunni majority (Ahl al-sunna
wal-jama
a), although despite their opposition he defended
the necessity of using rational argumentation, which was
Sheila S. Blair widely practiced by Mu
tazilites, in justifying these princi-
Jonathan M. Bloom ples. Following his conversion he even wrote a short treatise

82 Islam and the Muslim World
Ash
arites, Ash
aira

in favor of the argumentative method in Islamic theology. In of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, though officially
combining Sunni doctrines with Mu
tazilite methodology he Maturidite, also contributed to this philosophical production
was regarded as the founder of the first and later dominant by their commentaries and marginal notes on the works of the
theological school among Sunnis. There were some other above-named Central Asian Ash
arites.
independent scholars who tried partly to apply rational methodology to Sunni doctrines before Al-Ash
ari, such as Ibn The Ash
arite school continued to exist in the seventeenth
Kullab, Harith al-Muhasibi, and Abul-
Abbas al-Qalanisi, but century in the works of the Egyptian al-Lakani and the Indian
they were not recognized as the masters of a school by later al-Siyalkuti. After a continuous modernization process in the
Sunni theologians. With the exception of the followers of the Muslim world that took place in the eighteenth and nine-
Hanafite theologian Abu Mansur al-Maturidi in Central Asia, teenth centuries, the Sunnis from both the Ash
arite and
almost all Sunni theologians were regarded as Ash
arite, Maturidite traditions, such as Muhammad
Abduh of Egypt,
although they departed from al-Ash
ari in some points. Shibli Nu
mani of India, and Izmirli Ismail Hakki of Ottoman Turkey, attempted a methodological renovation within
Al-Ash
ari’s immediate students, Abu ’l-Hasan al-Bahili, Islamic theological thought. During this period of moder-
Ibn Mujahid al-Tai, and others, were not influential in the nity, sectarian concerns and identities weakened among Mushistory of Ash
arism. However the following generation, lim intellectuals, since they took an eclectic and broader
among them Abu Bakr al-Baqillani (d. 1013), Ibn Furak (d. approach in order to satisfy the demands of their age. The
1015), Abu Ishaq al-Isfaraini (d. 1027), and
Abd al-Qahir al- contemporary Muslim modernists followed their predeces-
Baghdadi (d. 1037), played a major role in the formation of sors in detaching themselves from a strict identification with a
the school. Al-Baqillani, for instance, was regarded as the particular school of thought. However, Ash
arism still consecond founder, due to his contributions in rationalizing the tinues to maintain its existence in Sunni societies today.
Ash
arite school through his doctrines of atomism, nonexist-
Ash
arite thinkers, following al-Mu
tazila, dealt with the
ence, and so on.
main theological issues of Islamic faith, including arguments
for the existence of God, divine unity, revelation, prophecy,
Although Ash
arite scholars suffered for a while from the
and eschatology. They aimed to refute the opposing views of
persecution of Buwayhid sultans and the Seljuk Wazir alother religions and philosophical schools in a rational dialec-
Kunduri in the eleventh century, their conditions rapidly
tical method. But they also discussed the controversial theochanged shortly after gaining a wide support of the Seljuks
logical issues first raised by the Mu
tazilites, such as the
during the time of the famous intellectual wazir Nizam alexistence of attributes of God (sifat Allah), the nature of divine
Mulk. He established the Nizamiyya madrasa (school) in
speech (kalam Allah), the possibility of seeing God in the
Nishapur, in which Ash
arite views were officially taught, and
future life (ruyat Allah), the question of divine omnipotence
then spread to other parts of the Islamic world as far away as
and human free will (irada), and the fate of a believing sinner
North Africa and Muslim Spain. At this time leading Ash
arite
(murtakib al-kabira). In Ash
arite theology God has eternal
thinkers were Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni (d. 1085) and
attributes such as knowledge, speech, and sight, which are, in
his student Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111), both of whom
their system, essential for His knowing, speaking, or seeing.
taught at the Nizamiyya School. Al-Juwayni and al-Ghazali
Since it belongs to his eternal attribute of speech, the Quran
imported some philosophical terms and topics into Ash
arite
as God’s word was uncreated. Unlike the traditionalist Sunni
kalam and legitimized the use of formal Aristotelian logic in
school and al-Ash
ari himself, later Ash
arites did not oppose
both Islamic theological and legal theories.
the metaphorical interpretation of corporeal terms attributed
In the twelfth century, a philosophical trend dominated to God in the Quran. As for the question of free will and
among the so-called modern or later theologians (al- predestination, Ash
arites took a middle position between the
Mu
tazilites and Jabrites in emphasizing God’s creation of
mutaakhkhirun). This trend gained in strength with the
human acts, which each person freely chooses.
works of later independent-minded thinkers of the school,
such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 1209), Sayf al-Din al-Amidi There are some differences between the Ash
arites and
(d. 1233), and Qadi al-Baydawi (d. 1286). Ash
arite thought Maturidites, the second Sunni theological school, but they
came under the influence of Avicennan Neoplatonist cosmol- are usually regarded as methodological and nonessential.
ogy and mostly absorbed the Islamic philosophical tradition Ash
arites, for instance, rejected takwin (which means “to
in Sunni theology after a major but ineffective stand by the bring into existence”) as a divine attribute, the eternalness of
well-known philosopher Averroes. Thinkers of genius from God’s actions, unlike his attributes, and the necessity of
Central Asia, especially
Adud al-Din al-Iji (d. 1355) and his believing in the existence and unity of God through rational
students Sa
d al-Din al-Taftazani (d. 1389) and Sayyid Sharif arguments in the absence of divine revelation, which are
al-Jurjani (d. 1413), contributed to the interpretation and among the Maturidite theses.
expansion of Ash
arite thought by producing large commentaries throughout the fourteenth century. Ottoman thinkers See also Kalam; Mutazilites, Mutazila.

Islam and the Muslim World 83
Askiya Muhammad

BIBLIOGRAPHY expansion of the Songhai Empire occurred after his reign. He
Frank, Richard M. “Bodies and Atoms: The Ash
arite Analy- was deposed in 1528 by his son Musa.
sis.” In Islamic Theology and Philosophy. Edited by Michael
E. Marmura. Albany: State University of New York See also Africa, Islam in; African Culture and Islam.
Press, 1984.
Frank, Richard M. “The Science of Kalam.” Arabic Science and BIBLIOGRAPHY
Philosophy 2 (1992): 7–37. Hiskett, M. The Development of Islam in West Africa. London
Frank, Richard M. Al-Ghazali and the Ash
arite School. Durham, and New York: Longman, 1984.
N.C.: Duke University Press, 1994. Hunwick, John, ed. Shari
a in Songhai: The Replies of Al-
Gimaret, Daniel. La doctrine d’al-Ash
ari. Paris: Cerf., 1990 Maghili to the Questions of Askia al-Hajj Muhammad. Oxford,
U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Gwynne, Rosalind W. “Al-Jubba’i, al-Ash
ari and the Three
Brothers: The Uses of Fiction.” The Muslim World 75, no.
3–4 (1985): 132–161.
Ousmane Kane
Makdisi, George. “Ash
ari and the Ash
arites in Islamic Religious History.” Studia Islamica 17 (1962): 37–80.
Makdisi, George. “Ash
ari and the Ash
arites in Islamic Relig- ASNAM
ious History.” Studia Islamica 18 (1963): 19–39.
Nakamura, Kojiro. “Was Ghazali an Ash’arite.” In Memoirs of Asnam is the Arabic word for “idols” (sing., sanam). The
the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko. Tokyo: The origin of the term is found in the Semitic root S.L.M. (by a
Oriental Library, 1993. shift of l into n), which denotes “image.” Hence, the Arabic
Watt, W. Montgomery. The Formative Period of Islamic Thought. sanam is basically the corporeal image of the deity.
Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld Press, 1998.
The term asnam occurs in the Quran, and in all instances
Watt, W. Montgomery. “al-Ash
ariyya.” In Vol. 1, Encyclopebut one it refers to the idols worshiped by Abraham’s pagan
dia of Islam. 2d ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999.
adversaries (6:74; 21:57; 26:71). Twice the idols worshiped by
the latter are called awthan (sing., wathan; see 29:17, 25).
M. Sait Özervarli
Abraham’s contemporaries worship the asnam/awthan “apart
from” (min duni) God, which means that belief in these idols
represents what the Quran labels elsewhere as shirk (“asso-
ASKIYA MUHAMMAD ciation”), that is, worshiping deities that are considered God’s
associates. Three of God’s “associates” are mentioned by
(R. 1493–1529) name in another Quranic passage (53:19–23): Allat, Manat,
and al-
Uzza. The Quran sets out to deny that they were
The ruler of the Songhai Empire between 1493 and 1529,
God’s daughters, a typical element of shirk, and denounces
Muhammad b. Abi Bakr Ture is also known as Askiya al-Hajj
them as sheer names. In yet another Quranic passage (71:23),
Muhammad, or Askiya Muhammad. His origins are debated.
five “gods” (aliha) worshiped by Noah’s contemporaries are
According to the two Tawarikh, or “histories” (Tarikh almentioned by name.
Sudan and Tarikh al-Fattash), he belonged either to the Ture
or the Sylla clan of the Soninke. Because they were associated In extra-Quranic sources, the dichotomy between the
with trade, the Soninke were one of the earliest groups to worship of the asnam and the monotheistic legacy of Ibrahim,
convert to Islam south of the Sahara. Askiya al-Hajj Muham- the founder of the Ka
ba in Mecca, is retained. The traditions
mad overthrew the dynasty of the Sunni in 1493, and estab- say that when Mecca became too small for the descendants of
lished the dynasty known as the Askiya who ruled the Songhai Abraham and Ishmael, they looked for dwellings outside
Empire from 1493 until the Moroccan invasion of the Songhai Mecca, taking with them stones from the homeland, which
in 1591. Unlike his predecessor, Sunni
Ali, Askiya Muham- they cherished and turned into idols. Nevertheless, according
mad was said to be a pious Muslim, and very supportive of to these sources even far away from Mecca they preserved
Muslim scholars in Timbuctu, and other parts of Songhai. In many of Abraham’s values, such as the rites of the pilgrimage
1496, Askiya Muhammad set off for the pilgrimage to Mecca. to Mecca, but they contaminated them with various elements
On his way to Mecca, he visited Egypt, and was appointed by of shirk. The shrines of some of these idols are said to have
the Abbassid caliph al-Mutwakkil as his deputy to rule Songhai been built on the model of the Ka
ba, and sometimes were
in his name. Askiya al-Hajj Muhammad consulted two major even called “Ka
ba.”
Muslim scholars on how to rule Songhai according to the
shari
a. One of them was
Abd al-Karim al-Maghili (d. 1503 Conversely, idolatry is said to have been imported into
or 1504), and the other was Jalal al-din al-Suyuti (d. 1505). Arabia from outside by one
Amr b. Luhayy of the tribe of
Askiya Muhammad extended the Songhai Empire to include Khuza
a, who ruled in Mecca before the advent of Quraysh.
tributary lands to the east, west, and north. No further He is said to have imported idols mainly from Syria. Among

84 Islam and the Muslim World
Assassins

them the five idols of Noah’s time are mentioned. The Frankish ruling circles in the Near East. The Syrian Nizaris
establishment of the worship of Hubal at the Ka
ba is also permanently lost their political prominence when they were
attributed to this
Amr. Names of numerous additional asnam subdued by the Mamluks in the early 1270s.
are mentioned in the sources with details about the tribes who
worshiped them. The Nizaris and the Crusaders had numerous military
encounters in Syria from the opening decade of the twelfth
Of the three “daughters” of God, Manat is said to have century. But it was in Sinan’s time (1163–1193) that the
been the first to be introduced in Arabia, then Allat, then al- Crusaders and their occidental observers became particularly

Uzza. Manat’s shrine was in Qudayd (near Mecca, on the impressed by the highly exaggerated reports and widespread
Red Sea shore), Allat’s in al-Taif, and al-
Uzza’s in Nakhla. rumours about the Nizari assassinations and the daring be-
Pilgrims brought votive gifts to the shrines and sacrificial havior of their fidais, or devotees, who carried out suicide
slaughter took place on special stones (nusub) there. missions against their community’s enemies in public places.
The Nizari Isma
ilis became infamous in Europe as “the
Apart from the collective idols, some traditions speak
Assassins.” This term, which appears in medieval European
about domestic asnam whose carved wooden images were
literature in a variety of forms (Assassini, Assissini, and
held in each family household (dar) in Mecca. There are also
Heyssisini), was evidently based on variants of the Arabic
reports about similar tribal and domestic idols in pre-Islamic
word hashishi (plural, hashishiyya or hashishin), which was
Medina. The shrines of the main idols as well as the domestic
applied pejoratively to the Nizaris of Syria and Iran by other
images were reportedly destroyed in Muhammad’s days,
Muslims. The term was used in the sense of “low-class
following the spread of Islam in Arabia.
rabble” or “people of lax morality” without claiming any
Modern scholars have doubted the historicity of the no- special connection between the Nizaris and hashish, a prodtion of Arabian idolatry being a deformed version of an initial uct of hemp. This term of abuse was picked up locally in Syria
Ibrahimic monotheism centered on the Ka
ba, and have by the Crusaders as well as by other European travelers and
rejected it as reflecting Quranic and Islamic concepts pro- emissaries and was adopted to designate the Nizari Isma
ilis.
jected back into remote pre-Islamic phases of history. On the
other hand, other Islamicists noted the possibility that Ibrahim’s Medieval Europeans, and especially the Crusaders, who
image as a monotheistic prototype could have been known remained generally ignorant of Islam and its divisions, were
already in pre-Islamic Arabia. also responsible for fabricating and disseminating, in the
Latin Orient as well as in Europe, a number of intercon-
See also Allah; Shirk. nected legends about the secret practices of the Nizaris,
including the “hashish legend.” It held that as part of their
BIBLIOGRAPHY training this intoxicating drug was systematically adminis-
Hawting, G. R. The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam: tered to the fidais by their beguiling chief, the “Old Man of
From Polemic to History. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge the Mountain.” The so-called Assassin legends revolved
University Press, 1999. around the recruitment and training of the Nizari fidais,
Lecker, Michael. “Idol Worship in Pre-Islamic Medina who had attracted the Europeans’ attention. These legends
(Yathrib).” Le Muséon 106 (1993): 331–346. developed in stages and culminated in a synthesized version
Rubin, Uri. “The Ka
ba—Aspects of Its Ritual Functions.” popularized by Marco Polo, who applied the legends to the
Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 8: 97–131. Iranian Nizaris and created the “secret garden of paradise,”
where the fidais supposedly received part of their indoctrina-
Uri Rubin tion. Henceforth, the Nizari Isma
ilis were portrayed in
European sources as a sinister order of drugged assassins bent
on senseless murder and mischief.

ASSASSINS Subsequently, Westerners retained the name Assassin in
general reference to the Nizari Isma
ilis, even though the
Assassins was a name originally applied by the Crusaders and term had now become in European languages a new common
other medieval Europeans, starting in the twelfth century, to noun meaning a professional murderer, although its etymolthe Nizari Isma
ilis of Syria. Under the initial leadership of ogy had been forgotten. Silvestre de Sacy (1758–1838) finally
Hasan Sabbah (d. 1124), the Nizaris founded a state centered succeeded in solving the mystery of the name Assassin and its
at the stronghold of Alamut, in northern Iran, with a subsidi- etymology, but he and other orientalists subscribed variously
ary in Syria. The Nizari state in Iran was destroyed by the to the Assassin legends. Modern scholarship in Isma
ili stud-
Mongols in 1256. In Syria the Nizaris reached the peak of ies, based on genuine Isma
ili sources, has now deconstructed
their power and glory under Rashid al-Din Sinan (d. 1193), the Assassin legends revealing their fanciful nature and also
the original “Old Man of the Mountain” of the Crusaders, showing that the name Assassin is a misnomer rooted in a
who had extended dealings with the Crusaders and their doubly pejorative appellation without basis in any communal

Islam and the Muslim World 85
Astrology

or organized use of hashish by the Nizari Isma
ilis or their the launching of military campaigns. Another popular form
fidais, Shi
ite Muslims who were deeply devoted to their of astrological prediction was mawalid (nativities), which
community. involves charting the horoscopes of the beginnings of both
personal and collective occurrences, including the birth of
See also Crusades; Shia: Ismaili. individuals, as well as the birth of prophets, historical leaders,
religions, and nations. The classic work of Arabic astrology is
BIBLIOGRAPHY Abu Ma
shar al-Balkhi’s (d. 886) Kitab al-madkhal al-kabir
Daftary, Farhad. The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma
ilis. (The great introduction).
London: I. B. Tauris and Co., 1994.
Yet, although astrology continued to have appeal within
Lewis, Bernard. The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam. London: the elite political culture and in popular practice, the larger,
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967. socially based religious culture vehemently opposed it. Moreover, while many astronomers served as court astrologers,
Farhad Daftary many more condemned astrology and distanced themselves
from it. Most of these astronomers did not treat astrology as a
valid scientific discipline, and went out of their way to
distance their exact science from it. Despite its continued
ASTROLOGY practice, a clear line was drawn between astrology and astronomy. Thus, of the hundreds of Arabic works dealing with the
Despite consistent critiques of astrology by Muslim scientists sciences of the stars, the vast majority are on astronomy,
and religious scholars, astrological prognostications required while only a small portion of this legacy relates to astrological
a fair amount of exact scientific knowledge, and thus gave subjects.
partial incentive for the study and development of astronomy.
See also Astronomy; Science, Islam and.
In the early Arabic sources, the term
ilm al-nujum was used to
refer to both astronomy and astrology. Soon after, however,
BIBLIOGRAPHY
astronomy was unambiguously differentiated from astrology,
and a clear terminological and conceptual distinction was Kennedy, E. S., and Pingree, David. The Astrological History
of Mashaallah. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
made between the two sciences. The titles
ilm al-falak (the
Press, 1971.
science of the celestial orb) and ilm al-haya (the science of the
configuration of heavens) were used to refer to the exact Pingree, David. The Thousands of Abu Ma
shar. London: The
Warburg Institute, 1968.
science of astronomy, while
ilm ahkam al-nujum (judicial
astrology), or simply
ilm al-nujum (the science of the stars), Saliba, George. “Astronomy, Astrology, Islamic.” In Vol. 1,
referred exclusively to astrology. Both fields were rooted in Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Edited by J. R. Strayer. New
York: Scribners, 1978.
the Greek, Persian, and Indian traditions, and were cultivated
for many centuries in Muslim societies. In all of these earlier
Ahmad S. Dallal
traditions, interest in the science of astronomy has been
closely connected to astrology.

The connection between astronomy and astrology in the ASTRONOMY
inherited scientific legacies was founded on the idea of a
correlation between stellar configurations and events in the Before Islam, Arab knowledge of the stars was limited to the
sub-lunar world. Thus, for example, the same cosmology division of the year into precise periods on the basis of star
underlying Ptolemy’s Almagest—the most influential Greek risings and settings. This area of astronomical knowledge was
astronomical work—provided the theoretical foundations of known as anwa, and it was largely overshadowed by the
the Tetrabiblos, an influential astrological work by the same traditions of Arabic mathematical astronomy that emerged in
author. In Muslim societies, astrology continued to be prac- the Islamic period. From its beginnings in the ninth and
ticed and to draw on and encourage astronomical knowledge, through the sixteenth centuries, astronomical activity in the
and a good portion of the funding for astronomical research Muslim world was widespread and intensive. The first astrowas motivated by the desire to make astrological predictions. nomical texts that were translated into Arabic in the eighth
A number of observatories were funded and founded for the century were of Indian and Persian origin. The earliest extant
professed objective of conducting observations that could be Arabic astronomical texts date to the second half of the eighth
used in astrological computation. Astrology was also com- century and were influenced by the Indian and Persian
monly practiced in courts. In particular, one such form of traditions. However, the greatest formative influence on
court astrology was iktiyarat—a branch of astrology that Arabic astronomy is undoubtedly Greek, on account of the
aimed at determining the optimal astrological conditions for use in Greek astronomy of effective geometrical representainitiating large undertakings, such as the building of cities or tions. The Almagest of Ptolemy (second century C.E.), in

86 Islam and the Muslim World
Astronomy

particular, exerted a disproportionate influence on all of
medieval astronomy through the whole of the Arabic period
and until the eventual demise of the geocentric astronomical
system. However, at the same time the first Arabic translation
of this text were prepared, original work of Arabic astronomy
was also produced. Thus, original astronomical research went
hand in hand with translation and, from its very beginnings in
the ninth century, Arabic astronomy attempted to revise,
refine, and complement Ptolemaic astronomy, rather than
simply reproduce it.

In its earlier stages, Arabic astronomy reworked and
critically examined the observations and the computational
methods of Greek astronomy and, in a limited way, was able
to explore problems outside its set frame. Arabic astronomy
witnessed further developments in the tenth and eleventh
centuries as a result of systematic astronomical research as
well as developments in other branches of the mathematical
sciences. In this period, steps were also taken toward the
establishment of large-scale observatories. Subsequently, several programs of astronomical observations involved the
establishment of observatories in institutional setups where
collective programs of astronomical research were executed.
Advances in trigonometry resulting from the full integration
of the Indian achievements in the field, as well as from new
discoveries in the tenth and eleventh centuries, played a The Great Bear, from a seventeenth-century Persian manuscript
of the constellations, after the tenth-century Book of Stars by alcentral role in the further development of Arabic astronomy.
Husayn. ART ARCHIVE/NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CAIRO/DAGLI ORTI
As a great synthesis of the Greek, Indian, and Arabic astronomical traditions, the al-Qanun al-Mas
udi of the illustrious
astronomer al-Biruni (973–c. 1048) represents the culmination of this first stage in the development of Arabic astronomy. direction of one locality with respect to another, a problem
that requires determining the longitudes and latitudes of
Following its systematic mathematization, the rethinking these localities as well as other aspects of mathematical
of the theoretical framework of astronomy was further devel- geography. The “Islamic” problems, on the other hand, were
oped after the eleventh century, leading to a thorough evalua- problems related to Islamic worship such as determining the
tion of its physical and philosophical underpinnings. One of times of prayer, the time of sunrise and sunset in relation to
the main objectives of this reform tradition was to come up fasting, the direction of the qibla (the direction of the Ka
ba in
with models in which the motions of the planets could be Mecca, which Muslims have to face during prayer), crescent
generated as a result of combinations of uniform circular visibility in connection with the determination of the beginmotions, while at the same time conforming to the accurate ning of the lunar month, and calendar computations. The
Ptolemaic observations. The Ptolemaic models were consid- methods employed to solve these problems varied from
ered defective because they posited physically impossible simple approximative techniques to complex mathematimodels in which spheres rotate uniformly around axes that do cal ones.
not pass through their centers. The reform tradition continued well into the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the list Problems like the determination of the direction of the
of astronomers working within it comprises some of the qibla and the times of prayer also gave a great impetus to the
greatest and most original Muslim scientists. The work science and art of instrument building. Astrolabes, quadrants,
produced within this tradition had a formative influence on compass boxes, and cartographic grids of varying degrees of
the work of Copernicus. sophistication were designed and introduced to solve some of
these problems. Many of these same instruments were also
In addition to theoretical astronomy, practical astronomi- used for other astronomical observations and computations;
cal problems occupied a great many astronomers who were the most important of these is the astrolabe, which was a
responsible for significant advances in the field. Some of versatile medieval observational instrument and calculator.
these problems had a specific Islamic character, whereas Extensive tables were also compiled in connection with time
others had to do with the general practical needs of society. keeping, finding the direction of the qibla, and other astro-
The general kind includes such problems as finding the nomical functions.

Islam and the Muslim World 87

Atabat

See also Astrology; Biruni, al-; Hijri Calendar; Science, persecution for those Iranian Shi
ite scholars of the Qajar and
Islam and; Translation. the early Pahlevi periods who have spoken out against the
ruling establishment at home. Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader
BIBLIOGRAPHY of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, was exiled to the
atabat
(Najaf) by Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi in 1963. In turn,
King, David. Astronomy in the Service of Islam. Aldershot,
after the success of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, those
Hampshire, U.K.: Variorum, 1993.
clerics opposed to the religious and political stance of the
Rashed, Roshdi, ed., in collaboration with Morelon, Régis.
ruling hierarchy of the Islamic Republic have used the
atabat
Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Vol. 1:
as relatively secure bases from which to continue their doctri-
Astronomy—Theoretical and Applied. London and New York:
Routledge, 1996. nal warfare against the religious establishment in Iran. However, it must also be borne in mind that since the 1980s, the
Saliba, George. A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theo-
Shi
ite community and religious leaders resident in the
atabat
ries During the Golden Age of Islam. New York: New York
were themselves targeted by the Ba
thist government of
University Press, 1994.
former President Saddam Husayn in Iraq. Minority leaders,
Samso, Julio. Islamic Astronomy and Medieval Spain. Aldershot, the ulema of the
atabat, especially of Najaf and Karbala, have
Hampshire, U.K.: Variorum Reprints, 1994.
been subjected to numerous incarcerations and assassinations, intensified in the wake of the first Gulf War (1991).
Ahmad S. Dallal
Another important feature in the social fabric of the

atabat, directly related to their centrality in settling doctrinal
orthodoxy and implementing political agendas, is the vast

ATABAT network of patronage and the nature of finances in the shrine
cities. These networks are comprised mainly of donations and

Atabat, or exalted thresholds, are the Shi
ite shrine cities religious dues provided by the Shi
ite communities worldlocated in modern Iraq. The
atabat contain the tombs of six wide, with significant portions from the merchant classes of
of the Shi
ite imams as well as other pilgrimage sites. The northern India, to the maraji
al-taqlid who reside there.

atabat are located in Najaf, Karbala, Kazamayn, and Samarra.
Najaf is the burial place of
Ali b. Abi Talib, cousin and son- See also Holy Cities; Mashhad.
in-law of the prophet Muhammad, and first in the line of
Shi
ite imams, who died in 661 C.E. Karbala is where Husayn, BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ali’s son and the third imam, was martyred in a battle against Cole, Juan R. I. “Indian Money and the Shii Shrine Cities of
the Umayyads (r. 661–750 C.E.) in 680 C.E. It is a cornerstone Iraq, 1186–1950.” Middle Eastern Studies 22 (1986): 461–480.
of Shi
ite belief that Husayn, courageous and principled,
Litvak, Meir. Shi
i Scholars of Nineteenth-Century Iraq, The
went to battle against all odds, and his demise prefigures and
Ulama of Najaf and Karbala. Cambridge, U.K.: Camembodies the fate of all those who take an active stand against bridge University Press, 1986.
oppression and injustice. The site of Husayn’s martyrdom
had emerged as a Muslim holy site by the middle of the
Neguin Yavari
seventh century. Kazamayn entered the sacred landscape of
Shi
ism in the ninth century, as the burial site of the seventh
and ninth imams, Musa al-Kazim (d. 802 C.E.) and Mohammad al-Taqi (d. 834 C.E.). Kazamayn is also the burial site of
ATATURK, MUSTAFA KEMAL
many a medieval Shi
ite luminary. Samarra, which lies at a
distance from the rest of the
atabat, contains the tombs of the
(1881–1938)
tenth and eleventh imams, Ali al-Naqi (d. 868 C.E.) and Hasan
al-
Askari (d. 873 C.E.). The twelfth imam entered occultation Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) was born in 1881 into a family of
in Samarra in 941 C.E. modest means in Salonica, then an Ottoman port city in what
is today a city in Greece. He died in Istanbul on 10 November
The
atabat are also significant as centers of Shi
ite learn- 1938. His father,
Ali Riza Bey, was a progressive person and
ing. Najaf has housed, since the time of the Shaykh al-Taifa worked at the customs house. His mother, Zubeyde Hanim,
Abu Ja
far Muhammad Tusi in the eleventh century, several was a devout Muslim who instilled Islamic values in young
educational institutions whose scholarly and financial net- Mustafa. Only seven years old at the death of his father, he
works have played an important role in determining intellec- was raised by his mother and completed his early education at
tual and political trends in modern Shi
ism. local schools. In 1893 he began his studies at a military
secondary school where his teacher gave him his second
Under Ottoman and later under Iraqi control, the
atabat name, Kemal (perfection), owing to Mustafa’s outstanding
have served in recent history as havens against government performance in mathematics. Two years later he attended the

88 Islam and the Muslim World
Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal

military academy in Manastir and later entered the War
Academy. He graduated in 1905 with the rank of staff captain,
and in 1906 was assigned to the Fifth Army in Damascus. In
1907 his duties took him to Macedonia where he established
connections with the Young Turks. He participated in the
defense of Tripolitania at Tobruk and Derna against the
Italian invasion (1911–1912), was appointed as a military
attaché to Sophia, and returned to Istanbul to distinguish
himself at the Dardanelles in 1915. During World War I, he
served on various fronts such as the Caucasus, Palestine,
and Aleppo.

Rejecting the Mudros Armistice (30 October 1918), which
the Allied powers had imposed on the Ottomans, Mustafa
Kemal moved on to Anatolia in May 1919 to begin his
nationalist struggle against the invasion and partition of the
country. That same year, at the congresses of Erzurum (23
July) and Sivas (4 September), he defined the nationalist
demands and goals for independence. It was during this
period that he molded various regional paramilitary defense
associations into a nationalist army. On 23 April 1920, he
established the Great National Assembly in Ankara, claiming
exclusive legitimacy in representing the Turkish interests. He
was unanimously elected the first president of the assembly.
During the War of Independence, Mustafa Kemal served as
the commander in chief of the armed forces. Mustafa Kemal, known as Ataturk (1880–1930), was elected as
Turkey’s first president. He transformed Turkey from a traditional
society into a modern one by secularizing previously Islamic
The Armistice of Mudanya (11 October 1922) sealed the institutions and laws. © HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS
victory of the Turkish forces. Within days, the assembly
abolished the sultanate (1 November 1922), though leaving
the caliphate in the Ottoman House. The Lausanne Confer- Turks to look to the future. The passage, in 1934, of a law
ence (November 1922–July 1923) recognized Turkey’s full requiring Turks to use family names further underscored this
independence and defined its borders. On 23 October 1923, trend; indeed, Mustafa Kemal’s own surname of Ataturk
the Second Grand National Assembly, controlled by Halk (Father of Turks) was bestowed upon him by the National
Firkasi (People’s Party, later Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi— Assembly. In the same year, women were given the right to
Republican People’s Party) proclaimed the republic and vote. In foreign policy, Turkey followed Mustafa Kemal’s
elected Mustafa Kemal its first president. Thus a six hundred- dictum: “Peace at Home, Peace in the World.”
year-old political tradition was brushed aside, and sovereignty placed directly in the hands of the people. Mustafa Kemal’s reforms were revolutionary. The policies of his Republican People’s Party were expressed in six
The early years of the republic witnessed fundamental principles: republicanism, nationalism, populism, etatism,
political and social changes. Determined to modernize and secularism, and revolutionism. Within these principles Tursecularize his country, and intent upon breaking away from key was transformed from a traditional society into a modern
the past, the assembly, under Mustafa Kemal’s guidance, nation state. Secularism received particular attention. The
passed a number of laws that brought revolutionary changes. Kemalist regime relentlessly pursued secularist policies and
In 1924, the same year that the caliphate was abolished, the dismantled the Islamic institutions. In view of the founder of
Ministry of Seriat (Islamic law) was dismantled and replaced the new Turkish Republic, centuries-old Islamic institutions
by the Ministry of Justice. In 1925, the Gregorian Calendar and laws could not sufficiently serve the needs of a modern
replaced the Islamic one, and the fez, which had come to society. Mustafa Kemal believed that Islam would be best
symbolize Islamic headgear, was banned. The wearing of the served if it were confined to belief and worship rather than
veil by women was strongly discouraged. The dervish (Sufi) brought into the affairs of the state. In his address to the
orders were dissolved. The adoption of Swiss Civil Code in nation on the tenth anniversary of the Turkish Republic in
1926 completely negated the Islamic laws of marriage, di- 1933, he promised further progress and asked Turks to
vorce, and inheritance that had been in practice for centuries. “judge time not according to the lax mentality of past centu-
The replacement of the Arabic script with the Latin script in ries, but in terms of the concepts of speed and movement of
1928 closed the door to the Ottoman past, and compelled the our century.”

Islam and the Muslim World 89
Awami League

See also Nationalism: Turkish; Revolution: Modern; The desperate economic situation plaguing East Pakistan
Secularism, Islamic; Young Turks. fostered the belief among its inhabitants that their province
was being treated as a colony instead of as an equal partner in
BIBLIOGRAPHY the burgeoning nation. Although East Pakistan experienced
significant economic growth, the province reaped little of the
Mango, Andrew. Ataturk. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook, 2000.
pecuniary benefits with most of the national expenditures
Walker, Barbara, et al. To Set Them Free: The Early Years of directed toward West Pakistan. Furthermore, few Bengalis
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Grantham, N.H.: Tompson and held important positions in the administration with even
Rutter, 1981.
fewer represented in the military. These escalating tensions
precipitated the unprecedented move of a splinter group,
A. Uner Turgay consisting of East Pakistani politicians, to create a new
political party to achieve the common goals of the Bengali
population.

AWAMI LEAGUE In 1949 Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy, Ataur Rahman,
Maulana Bashani, Shamsul Huq, and Shaykh Mujibur Rahman
The Awami (People’s) League was founded by Husain Shaheed co-founded the Awami Muslim league. It was the first party
Suhrawardy in June 1949 in the East Bengal (renamed East truly to provide alternate representation for the people of
Pakistan in 1955) province of Pakistan. H. S. Suhrawardy East Pakistan. In the late 1950s it changed its name to the
gathered senior members of the Muslim League whose power Awami League, welcoming non-Muslims into its fold, thus
had diminished in their own party and young, ambitious marking a significant shift toward secularism. By 1956 the
politicians who were opposed to communalism in Pakistan. Awami League was the most popular party in East Pakistan
Both groups, however, were united in the belief that the and became the Muslim League’s main contender for power.
Muslim League, which spearheaded Pakistan’s independence
From 1958 to 1971 Pakistan was reduced to an adminismovement, no longer represented the needs of the majority
trative state with four years of martial law and a diminished
of the populace.
role for its fledgling political parties. In February of 1966
Shaykh Mujibur Rahman, the dominant figure in the Awami
In 1949, though barely two years old, Pakistan was already
League, presented the “Six Point Demand” to the other
plagued by economic, political, and social disparities between
political parties desiring to work collectively to oust the West
its two major regional wings. This strife was further com-
Pakistani government of Muhammad Ayub Khan. The deplicated by the geographical complexity consisting of the
mands called for separate but equal federation of powers
four provinces in the west (Northwest Frontier Province,
between East and West Pakistan, governed by a parliament
Baluchistan, Punjab, and Sindh) with East Bengal in the east,
elected on the basis of one person/one vote throughout both
which was separated by approximately one thousand miles of
parts of Pakistan. Gaining the support of the Awami League
India. Some of the first signs of hostilities between East and
was equivalent to gaining the support of East Pakistan, but
West Pakistan arose as early as 1948 when Muhammad
Ali
Mujib was only willing to put the Awami League’s support
Jinnah, the central architect of the creation of Pakistan,
behind the coalition if the coalition from West Pakistan was
visited the eastern province and proceeded to criticize Bengalis
willing to support his “Six Point Demand” (see Mujibur,
for not learning Urdu, the lingua franca of West Pakistan.
Appendix 2, pp. 127–128).
Tensions in the regions continued to escalate and in 1952
student efforts to make Bengali a recognized national lan- For the Bengalis the “Six Point Demand” clearly and
guage led to violent clashes with the police resulting in the concisely reflected goals that would balance powers between
deaths of four Dhaka University students. This tragic event the two regions and place Bengalis on an equal footing with
further intensified the cultural divide that haunted this their brethren in the western province. Consequently, this
young nation. “Six Point Demand” consolidated Bengali support for the
Awami League. However, it was simultaneously viewed by
The people of West Pakistan generally associated the those in West Pakistan as a document that would work
Bengali language with a Hindu India and, therefore, believed against the tenets laid out in the creation of a united Pakistan.
that Bengalis should be obligated to learn Urdu, a language
clearly associated with Islam. Furthermore, West Pakistani In Pakistan’s first general election in December 1970 the
officials deemed Bengali to be closely aligned with pro-Indian Awami League won 167 of the 169 National Assembly seats
sentiment, which was highly unpopular in West Pakistan. allotted to East Pakistan. This landslide victory was due in
This fear and suspicion of Bengali Muslims contributed to part to other parties boycotting the elections. In West Paki-
West Pakistan’s refusal to cede many of the demands of stan, Zulfiqar Ali Khan Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party won
Bengali Muslims. They therefore resisted efforts to recognize 83 of the 131 seats allotted to that province. With this Awami
Bengali as a national language until 1954. League victory, the National Assembly should have been able

90 Islam and the Muslim World
Awami League

forward economically or democratically. Less than a year
after independence, Shaykh Mujib was accused of being
ineffectual—a criticism which further contributed to his
decision to limit the Bangladeshi multiparty system. Further
leading to Mujib’s downfall was the famine of 1974. In
January 1975 the constitution was amended to make Mujib
president for five years, giving him full executive authority. A
few months later he created the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik
Awami League (BAKSAL, Bangladesh Farmers, Workers,
and People’s League) while simultaneously outlawing all
other political parties. He then created a paramilitary force
called the Rakhi Bahini, which was known for its intimidation
tactics.

Under Mujib’s rule, the Awami League faltered in meeting its goals and consequently lost its popularity with the
people. However, after Mujib’s death, Bangladesh experienced a number of military coups and counter-coups, resulting in a resurgence of the Awami League’s popularity in the
1980s. Consequently, in June 1996 the League won an overall
majority in the Parliament with Shaykh Hasina Wajid, daughter
of Shaykh Mujib, sworn in as prime minister. During her
tenure in office, Wajid had sought to prosecute her father’s
killers and attempted to put forward a pro-democracy platform and pro-socialist economy that encouraged a private
sector. Consequently, the League’s rivals often accused it of
being too pro-India and secular.

In 1977 Ziaur Rahman, one of Bangladesh’s most-decorated
major generals during the war for independence, became
Chief Martial Law Administrator and president of Bangladesh
from 1977 until his assassination in May 1981. He was also
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, activists for the Awami League, one of the
country’s two dominant political parties, shout anti-government the founder of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP). In his
slogans, protesting the removal of portraits of Shaykh Mujibar first year in office Ziaur Rahman amended the constitution,
Rahman, Bangladesh’s independence hero and a founder of the created by the Awami League government in 1972, to make
Awami League. In addition to the Awami’s rival party, the BNP,
Islam, and not secularism, one of its guiding principles, a
there are more than twenty smaller political parties in Bangladesh.
AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS move that ushered in an era of warmer relations between
Bangladesh and Pakistan. Today, there are currently more
than twenty political parties in Bangladesh with varying
to push through the “Six Point Demand” swiftly. Instead, platforms emphasizing communism, secularism, and Islamic
General Yahya Khan (who served as martial law administra- interests. However, the Awami League, and its main rival, the
tor from 25 March 1969 until 20 December 1971) postponed BNP, continue to dominate national politics. The BNP, led
the convening of the National Assembly. This led to an by Khaleda Zia, widow of Ziaur Rahman, runs on a platform
outbreak of violence, the arrest of Shaykh Mujib on charges that favors democracy and is more oriented toward Islam. As
of treason, and the eventual war for independence resulting in this young nation strives to develop its political system, the
Bangladesh’s declaration of independence on 16 Decem- question of whether the state should be secular or Islamic
ber 1971. continues to dictate political discourse.

Shaykh Mujib, also known as Bangabandhu (“Friend of See also Pakistan, Islamic Republic of; South Asia,
Bengal”), ruled Bangladesh as its first prime minister until his Islam in.
assassination on 15 August 1975. He is remembered as a great
charismatic leader successful in creating the ideological base BIBLIOGRAPHY
that united and defined a nation. The constitution of Ahamed, Emajuddin. Bangladesh Politics. Dhaka: Centre for
Bangladesh was framed upon Shaykh Mujib’s four principles Social Studies, 1980.
of democracy, socialism, secularism, and nationalism. Yet Baxter, Craig. Bangladesh. Boulder, Colo.: Westview
after independence he was unable to move the country Press, 1980.

Islam and the Muslim World 91
Ayatollah

Baxter, Craig. Bangladesh: A New Nation in an Old Setting. Muntazeri in Iran) have lost their status after serious disputes
Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1984. with supposedly higher-ranking Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khan, Mohmmad Mohabbat, and Thorp, John P., eds.
Bangladesh: Society, Politics & Bureaucracy. Dacca, See also Hojjat al-Islam; Khomeini, Ruhollah; Marja
Bangladesh: Center for Administrative Studies, 1984. al-Taqlid; Shia: Imami (Twelver).
Maniruzzaman, Talukdar. “Bangladesh Politics: Secular and
Islamic Trends.” In Islam in Bangladesh: Society, Culture BIBLIOGRAPHY
and Politics. Edited by Rafiuddin Ahmed. Dacca: Bangladesh Mottahedeh, Roy. The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and
Itihas Samiti, 1983. Politics in Iran. London: Chatto and Windus, 1986.
Mascarenhas, Anthony. Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1986. Robert Gleave
Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh. Bangladesh, My Bangladesh: Selected
Speeches and Statements. Edited by Ramendu Majumdar.
New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1972.
Sisson, Richard, and Rose, Leo E. War and Secession: Pakistan, AZHAR, AL-
India and the Creation of Bangladesh. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1990. Al-Azhar is a mosque and a university founded in Cairo by the
Ziring, Lawrence. Bangladesh: From Mujib to Ershad. An Fatimid Isma
ili imam and caliph al-Mu
izz li-Din Allah (d.
Interpretive Study. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 975). Today it is the most important religious university in
the Muslim world, and it is one of the oldest universities ever
Sufia Uddin founded for both religious and secular studies. After the
conquest of Egypt (969), Jawhar al-Siqilli founded al-Qahira
(Cairo), where he built the mosque that was first known as
jami
al-Qahira (the mosque of Cairo). The mosque was
AYATOLLAH (AR. AYATULLAH) completed in nearly two years and first opened its doors in
972. It had one minaret and occupied half the area of the
The term ayatollah (Ar. ayatullah), literally “Sign of God,” present day al-Azhar mosque. Since then, it has become one
refers to high-ranking scholars within the Twelver Shi
ite of the most well known mosques in the Muslim world. Its
tradition. The term emerged in the early modern period (late name is an allusion to Zahra (The Radiant), a title given to
19th century) to describe the elite of the Shi
ite scholarly Fatima, the daughter of prophet Muhammad. Al-Azhar becommunity. In modern works, many early Shi
ite scholars gan to acquire its academic and scholastic nature in 975,
were anachronistically given the rank of ayatollah. Ayatollahs during the reign of al-Mu
izz when the Qadi Abu ’l-Hasan
are nearly always experts in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), and
Ali ibn al-Nu
man al-Qayrawani sat in the court of al-Azhar
are normally required to have written extensively in this area. and read the Kitab al-iqtisar (a work of Shi
ite jurisprudence,
The requirements for qualification as an ayatollah are not or fiqh), written by his father, Abu Hanifa al-Nu
man. Alentirely clear in traditional descriptions of the Shi
ite hierar- Nu
man’s family formed the intellectual elite of the Fatimids
chy, though the rank of ijtihad and associated qualifications of and became the first teacher in al-Azhar.
learning are often mentioned. Ijtihad is a condition, though
not everyone who has attained it will be called “ayatollah.” In 998, al-Azhar moved a step further toward becoming an
The vagueness is due to absence of rigid ranks in the Shi
ite Islamic university. The Fatimid caliph al-
Aziz Billah aphierarchy. Before and since the Islamic Revolution in Iran proved a proposal by his trusted minister Ya
qub ibn Killis to
(1979), the term “grand ayatollah” was used for the “sources establish an educational system. He assigned a number of
of imitation.” Since the revolution, there has been a tremen- regular teachers to carry out an educative mission. The
dous increase in the use of the term for the Iranian cleri- teachers were trained by Ibn Killis and his system became the
cal elite. core of the academic education at al-Azhar. Furthermore,
these teachers followed an organized curriculum and they
Ayatollahs are found at the apex of the scholarly structure, received regular payments from the Fatimid government.
having studied in traditional seminaries (madrasas) and hav- The teaching was not limited to the religious sciences, but
ing passed through a number of intermediate ranks (among included discussions and free debates between scientists.
which is Hojjat al-Islam). A scholar seems to be granted the Thus al-Azhar acquired the characteristics of an academic
rank of ayatollah through general agreement among the university. The diversified courses were a part of the teaching
scholars. A person might be referred to as ayatollah by one curriculum (the jurisprudence of four different schools of law,
writer and, when no one disputes the appellation, most Arabic language, and literature). When the Ayyubid dynasty
scholars subsequently refer to him as ayatollah. An ayatollah, (1169–1252) took power, they wanted to erase every trace of
theoretically, holds this rank until he dies, though in recent the Fatimids. Al-Azhar’s reputation did not cease growing
times, ayatollahs (such as ayatollahs Shari
atmadari and and the Shi
ite view was eclipsed by the Sunni interpretation

92 Islam and the Muslim World
Azhar, al-

of faith. Later, al-Azhar became the most important Sunni sciences, al-Azhar opened technical and practical faculties to
center of knowledge. teach medicine, engineering, agriculture, and other subjects.
This widening of teaching was intended to make al-Azhar
Under the reign of the Mamluks, between 1250 and 1517,
radiate not only in religious sciences but also in scientific
many scientists sought refuge in al-Azhar, and were received
disciplines. However, the addition of a modern, non-traditional
with open arms. The arrival of these scientists undoubtedly
curriculum was controversial among more conservative Muscontributed to the enrichment of its teaching; al-Azhar had
lim intellectuals.
its golden age during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Sciences such as medicine, mathematics, astronomy, geogra- See also Education; Madrasa; Zaytuna.
phy, and history were studied there.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
In 1822 the educational system was regulated and the
Lapidus, Ira M. Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages.
highest diploma then delivered by al-Azhar was called al- Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967.

alamiyya, which was equivalent to a doctorate. In 1950, al-
Tritton, A. S. Materials on Muslim Education in the Middle
Azhar’s educational system was divided into three faculties:
Ages, London: Luzac, 1957.
Islamic law (al-shari
a), principles of the religion (usul al-din),
and Arabic language. In 1961, besides its teaching of Islamic Diana Steigerwald

Islam and the Muslim World 93
B
BABIYYA After the formation of the first core of believers, who,
along with the Bab, were referred to as the first Vahed
The Babi movement began during a period of heightened (Unity), the group dispersed at his instruction to proclaim the
chiliastic expectation for the return of the Twelfth Imam (or advent of the Bab, whose new theophany was to be initiated
Hidden Imam), who Shi
ite Muslims believe will fill the by his pilgrimage to Mecca, reaching a crescendo with his
world with justice. As such, the movement attracted not only arrival in the holy cities of Iraq. The Bab instructed Molla
students of religion, but members from all strata of society Hosayn to disseminate his teachings in Iran and deliver the
Qayyum al-asma
to the shah and his chief minister. Another
who probably sought change in the existing order.
disciple was sent to Azerbaijan, while others were instructed
The initial converts to the Babi movement were mid- to to return to their homes to spread the new message. The
low-level clerics from the Shaykhi school of Twelver Shi
ite majority of the Bab’s first disciples departed for Iraq, includ-
Islam. The school, founded upon the teachings of Shaykh ing Molla
Ali Bastami, who was sent as a representative to the
Ahmad al-Ahsai, was mainstream with regard to Shi
ite law, holy cities. There, he preached the new message in public. As
Akhbari in its veneration for the utterances ascribed to the a result, both the messenger and the author of the message
twelve imams, and theosophical in its approach to metaphysi- were condemned as heretics in a joint fatwa by prominent
cal matters. Shaykh Ahmad’s successor, Sayyed Kazem, de- Sunni and Shi
ite ulema in Iraq.
veloped the eschatological teachings of his predecessor and
Following this episode, the Bab decided not to meet with
taught that the advent of the “promised one” was imminent,
his followers in Karbala as he had planned so as not to further
although he did not specify if this figure was to be an
raise the ire of an already enraged clerical establishment. This
intermediary of the hidden imam or the imam himself.
led to the disaffection of some of his more militant followers,
who were expecting the commencement of a holy war. It also
On 22 May 1844,
Ali Mohammad, a young merchant who
emboldened the Bab’s critics, particularly the rival claimants
had briefly attended the classes of Sayyed Kazem in Karbala,
for leadership of the Shaykhi community.
told a fellow Shaykhi disciple, Mulla Hosayn Boshrui, that he
was the “gate” (bab) of the Hidden Imam and wrote an Persecution of the Babis in Iran began in 1845 and the Bab
extemporaneous commentary on the Quranic Sura of Joseph, himself was confined to his home in June 1845. During this
the Qayyum al-asma
, to substantiate his claim. So impressed period he was forced to publicly deny certain claims that had
was Molla Hosayn and other students of Sayyed Kazem with been attributed to him, which he was willing to comply with
the eloquence and learning of
Ali Mohammad and his ability since his actual claim was much more challenging, as witto produce verses (ayat) at great speed and with no apparent nessed in his later epistles and public statements, particularly
forethought that they publicly endorsed his claims to be the from 1848 onward. By asserting that he was the recipient of
gate of the Hidden Imam, while privately they believed that revelation and divine authority, whether explicitly or implicitly
his station was much higher. The exact nature of the Bab’s by emulating the style of the Quran, the Bab challenged the
claims remained a matter of controversy during the first four right of the ulema to collect alms on behalf of the Hidden
years of his seven-year prophetic career. Although he initially Imam and interpret scripture in his absence. Further, his
made no explicit claim to prophethood, he implicitly claimed claim to be the Qaim (the one who rises at the end of time),
to receive revelation by emulating the style of the Quran in made explicit at his public trial in Tabriz, indirectly threatthe Qayyum al-asma
. ened the stability of the Qajar monarchy of Iran, which held

Bab, Sayyed
Ali Muhammad

power as the Shadow of God on earth and depended upon the otherwise inimical heterodox and social classes in opposition
quiescent Shi
ite clergy for legitimacy. to the established order. Despite this shared desire for social
change (which still remains to be proven), the Bab’s charis-
Despite the hostility of much of the high-ranking clergy,
matic personality and forceful writing also played a central
the Bab continued to win converts from among the ulema,
role in attracting converts and admirers, even in the West.
including two very prominent personalities: Sayyed Yahya
Rather than being an unwitting product of messianic expecta-
Darabi and Molla Mohammad
Ali Hojjat al-Islam Zanjani.
tion, content to remain within the bounds of traditional
In 1846, he managed to leave Shiraz and make his way to the
Shi
ite notions of the function of the Hidden Imam as the
home of the governor of Isfahan, Manuchehr Khan Mo
tamad
Mahdi and reformer of Islam, the Bab enunciated a supraal-Dawla, a Georgian Christian convert to Islam who sympa-
Islamic message that included new laws and social teachings
thized with the Bab’s cause. There, he enjoyed increasing
designed, by his own admission, to prepare the people for a
popularity, which further roused the ulema, who incited the
second theophany: the coming of “Him Whom God will
shah against the Bab. Following the death of his patron, he
make manifest” (man yuzhiruhu
llah).
was placed under arrest. From this point on, the charismatic
persona of the Bab was removed from the public arena, as he
Although there were a number of claimants to this
was transferred from prison to prison until his final execution
theophany in the 1850s, most Babis followed the Bab’s
at the hands of government troops on 9 July 1850.
nominee, Bahaallah’s half-brother Mirza Yahya (also known
Although the Bab continued to influence the movement as Subh Azal). After Bahaallah claimed this station in 1863,
from prison through the dissemination of thousands of pages however, the majority of Babis recognized him as the fulfillof writing, leadership of the community devolved upon his ment of the Bab’s prophecies concerning the second theophany
chief lieutenants, notably Molla Hosayn, Molla Mohammad and subsequently identified themselves as Bahais. The Bab’s

Ali Barforushi (also known as the Qoddus, “the Most Holy”), followers, who continued to owe their allegiance to Subh
Qorrat al-
Ayn, the well-known poetess (also known as Azal, became known as Azalis and played an important role in
Tahereh, “the Pure One”), Darabi, Zanjani, and Mirza Hosayn Iran’s constitutional revolution in 1906.

Ali Nuri (later known as Bahaallah). The latter, together
with Qoddus and Tahereh, presided over a decisive meeting See also Bab, Sayyed
Ali Muhammad; Bahaallah; Bahai
of Babis at Badasht, where a formal break with Islamic law was Faith.
initiated when Tahereh publicly removed her veil. She was
later put to death in 1852 upon the orders of the government, BIBLIOGRAPHY
ratified by leading doctors of law. Qoddus would also die at
Amanat, Abbas. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the
the instigation of some members of the ulema following his Babi Movement in Iran, 1844–1850. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
capture at the shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi, where he, Molla University Press, 1989.
Hosayn, and an embattled group of Babis defended them-
MacEoin, Denis. Rituals in Babism and Baha
ism. London:
selves against government troops in the province of Khurasan.
British Academic Press, 1994.
Molla Hosayn and most of the fort’s defenders lost their lives
there. Similarly, Darabi and Zanjani led large groups of Babis
in armed resistance to government troops at Nayriz and William McCants
Zanjan, but ultimately met the same fate as their fellow
believers. In 1852, as a result of an assassination attempt on
the life of Naser al-Din Shah by some Babis, several hundred
to a few thousand of the Bab’s followers were brutally exe- BAB, SAYYED
ALI MUHAMMAD
cuted or imprisoned. Among them was Mirza Husayn
Ali (1819–1850)
Nuri, the future Bahaallah, who suffered a four-month
captivity in a darkened pit (siyah chal), followed by exile to Iraq. Sayyed
Ali Muhammad, later known as “the Bab,” was born
on 20 October 1819 in Shiraz, the provincial capital of Fars. A
Although the demographic makeup of the Babi movement
descendent of the prophet Muhammad’s family, the Bab
cannot be determined with precision, it is safe to say that it
traced his lineage from the tribe of Quraysh to his father,
was largely an urban movement with significant concentra-
Sayyed Muhammad Reza, a merchant in the bazaar of Shiraz.
tions of converts in rural areas. While it initially drew upon
In his early childhood, the Bab’s father died and he came
Shaykhi ulema, it later attracted followers from a range of
under the care of his maternal uncles. During his adolescence
social classes, particularly merchants and craftsmen. Finally,
and young adulthood, the Bab’s uncle Hajji Mirza Sayyed
Ali
preaching and conversion were confined to predominantly
Shi
ite areas in Iraq and Iran. was his most stalwart supporter, overseeing his limited education, guiding his early business ventures as a merchant, and
As has been stressed by modern scholars, the Babi move- later becoming one of the earliest adherents of his nephew’s
ment served as a vehicle of social protest, uniting a number of new creed.

96 Islam and the Muslim World
Baghdad

The Bab’s demure demeanor as a child matured into
quiet, religious contemplation, as noted by his contemporaries. His personal piety led him to undertake a pilgrimage to
the Shi
ite holy shrines in Iraq between 1840 and 1841. While
there, the Bab, an adherent of the Shaykhi school of Twelver
Shi
ite Islam, attended a few classes given by the Shaykhi
leader Sayyed Kazem Rashti. On 22 May 1844, three years
after his return to Shiraz, the Bab advanced his claim to divine
authority from God to one of Kazem’s students, Mulla
Hosayn, and soon after gained a large following among
seminarians who in turn made many converts among merchants and even upper-class landowners, including Mirza
Husayn
Ali Nuri, who later founded the Bahai religion.

Although the Bab couched his claims in abstruse language
early in his career, the implications were not lost upon the
Shi
ite ulema. In particular, they viewed his assertion to
reveal verses in the same manner as Muhammad as a violation
of a cardinal tenet of Shi
ite and Sunni Islam—that Muhammad was the last of God’s messengers. He was tried by
religious judges and condemned to death for heresy. As a
result of clerical agitation, he was soon arrested and suffered
imprisonment until his execution on 9 July 1850, at the age
of thirty.

During his prophetic career, the Bab composed numerous
religious texts of varying genres. Some of the more notable
titles include the Qayyum al-asma
(his earliest, post-declaration
doctrinal work), the Persian and Arabic Bayans (two separate
books detailing the laws of his new religion), and Dala
il saba
(an apologetic work). A bust of Muslim caliph Abu Ja
far al-Mansur, in Baghdad, which
he founded. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
See also Babiyya; Bahaallah; Bahai Faith.

BIBLIOGRAPHY five centuries. The city was founded by the second Abbasid
Amanat, Abbas. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the caliph, Abu Ja
far al-Mansur, on the banks of the Tigris River
Babi Movement in Iran, 1844–1850. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell where it most closely approaches the Euphrates. While offi-
University Press, 1989. cially called Dar al-Salam, or the Abode of Peace, which
MacEoin, Denis. The Sources for Early Babi Doctrine and recalls Quranic descriptions of Paradise (6:127; 10:25), the
History. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992. name Baghdad itself is reminiscent of a pre-Islamic settlement in the vicinity. However, this metropolis is not to be
William McCants confused erroneously with the ancient towns of Babylon,
Seleucia, and Ctesiphon.

Following the turbulence and social upheavals of the
BAGHDAD Abbasid assumption of power from the Umayyads, al-Mansur
sought to move his capital to a more secure location in the
“Have you seen in all the length and breadth of the earth East. The proclamation of Abu l-
Abbas as the first Abbasid
caliph in 749 C.E. had irrevocably shifted the locus of imperial
A city such as Baghdad? Indeed it is paradise on earth.” power away from Damascus, the Umayyad capital, to a series
of successive sites in Iraq. Al-Mansur himself was initially
(al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, in Lassner, Topography, p. 47)
based in al-Hashimiyyah, adjacent to Qasr Ibn Hubayra and
close to Kufa. The Rawandiyya uprising of 758 C.E., however,
Thus begins a poem attributed variously to
Umara b.
Aqil soon exposed the location’s vulnerability, and al-Mansur
al-Khatafi and Mansur al-Namari in praise of Baghdad, the began a thorough investigation of sites from which he could
illustrious capital of the Abbasid caliphate in Iraq for close to consolidate his rule.

Islam and the Muslim World 97
Baghdad

In accordance with the information gathered from scouts,
local inhabitants, and personal observation, the minor village The inner city of Baghdad c. 800
of Baghdad was selected as an ideal location for the future
Abbasid capital. The area had much to recommend itself in ■■■
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ease of receiving provisions via the Tigris and Euphrates
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struction of the imperial capital began in the year 762 C.E.,

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ses and shops
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An alternative name for Baghdad, al-Madina al-
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Khurasan
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Mudawwara, or the Round City, reflects the circular layout of
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al-Mansur’s initial foundation. Baghdad was designed as a W

series of concentric rings, with the caliphal palace, known as S N

E
Bab al-Dhahab, or the Golden Gate, and the attached grand
SOURCE: Lunde, Paul. Islam: Faith, Culture, History. New York:
congregational mosque located in the center, along with
DK Publishing, Inc., 2002.
separate structures for the commander of the guard and the
chief of police. The caliph was thereby equidistant from all
points within the city, as well as surrounded by its consider- The inner city of Baghdad circa 800.
able fortifications. Only the residences of his younger children, those of his servants and slaves, and various government
offices shared access onto this inner circle. Four walkways textiles, clothes, booksellers, goldsmiths, cobblers, reedweavers,
radiated outward from the central courtyard in the directions soapmakers, and moneychangers that served the populace
of northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest, passing and government officials. Baghdad exported textiles and
through the inner circle of surrounding structures; then an items made of cotton and silk, glazed-ware, oils, swords,
enclosure wall followed by an interval of space; then a resi- leather, and paper, to mention only a few, through both local
dential area followed by another interval; then a large wall of and international trade. The muhtasib, a government-appointed
outer defense, a third interval, a second smaller wall; and regulator, ensured the fair practices of the marketplace as well
finally a deep, wide moat surrounding the entire complex. as supervised the public works of proliferating mosques and
bathhouses. The opulence and luxury of court life in Baghdad
The Round City initially retained an austere administra- were legendary, and reflected the vast political and economic
tive and military character. On the city’s outskirts, large land power of the Abbasid Empire.
grants at varying distances from the capital were given to
The magnanimity of the Abbasid caliphs and the wellmembers of the Abbasid family, the army, and chiefs of the
placed inhabitants of Baghdad also extended into encouraggovernment agencies. In addition to the initial settlers, com- ing intellectual pursuits, thereby establishing the Abbasid
prised of those loyal to the caliph and his new regime, large capital as one of the world’s most sophisticated and prestinumbers of laborers, artisans, and merchants migrated to gious centers of learning. Renowned Islamic scholars of
Baghdad in pursuit of the largesse showered upon those diverse geographical and ethnic origins held sessions in the
necessary to sustain the new imperial capital. What quickly mosques and colleges of cosmopolitan Baghdad, attracting
grew to be a thriving market within the walls of the Round innumerable seekers of legal, philological, and spiritual knowl-
City was ultimately perceived to be a security threat and, in edge. Bookshops and the private homes of individual scholars
773 C.E., was transferred southwest of Baghdad, to al-Karkh. and high government officials, such as the wazir, also served
There, the commercial activities of the Abbasid capital flour- as venues for intellectual discussion and debate. Inns located
ished, and Baghdad rapidly developed into an economically near the mosques provided lodging to those who had devoted
vibrant metropolis. themselves to scholarly pursuits, and accommodations were
later made available within the institutions of the madrasa
The main markets of Baghdad were subdivided according (legal college) and ribat (Sufi establishment), both of which
to their various specialties which included food, fruit, flowers, also offered stipends to affiliated students.

98 Islam and the Muslim World
Bahaallah

Scientific research in the fields of astronomy, mathemat- BIBLIOGRAPHY
ics, medicine, optics, engineering, botany, and pharmacology Jawad, Mustafa, and Susa, Ahmad. Baghdad. Baghdad: alalso prospered within the Abbasid capital. Alongside experi- Majma
al-
Ilmi al-
Iraqi, 1958.
mentation and exploration, translation of Hellenic, Indic, Lassner, Jacob. The Topography of Baghdad in the Early Middle
and Persian texts received patronage from dignitaries, physi- Ages: Text and Studies. Detroit: Wayne State University
cians, and scientists in response to the professional and Press, 1970.
intellectual demands of an expanding Islamic society. Public Lunde, Paul. Islam: Faith, Culture, History. New York: DK
libraries, both attached to mosques and as separate institu- Publishing, 2002.
tions, contributed further to the dissemination of knowledge Makdisi, George. Religion, Law and Learning in Classical Islam.
among the populace, while the establishment of hospitals as Brookfield, Vt.: Gower, 1991.
charitable endowments throughout the city ensured the pro- Makdisi, George. “The Reception of the Model of Islamic
vision of free medical care to anyone who so required it. Scholastic Culture in the Christian West.” In Science in
Mobile clinics were even dispatched to remote villages on a Islamic Civilisation: Proceedings of the International Symposia.
regular basis, with the aims of offering comprehensive health Edited by Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. Istanbul: Research Centre
coverage. for Islamic History and Culture, 2000.
Sayyad, Nezar, al-. Cities and Caliphs: On the Genesis of Arab
The political fragmentation of the sprawling Abbasid Muslim Urbanism. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
Empire ultimately contributed to a decline in the revenues Tabari, Muhammad al-. Abbasid Authority Affirmed. Transand hence in the general fortunes of the capital in Baghdad. lated by Jane Dammen McAuliffe. Albany: State Univer-
Increasing civil disturbances in the face of weakened central sity of New York Press, 1995.
authority, as well as rife Sunni-Shi
ite conflicts, resulted in Wheatley, Paul. The Places Where Men Pray Together: Cities in
the deterioration and destruction of vast segments of the Islamic Lands, Seventh through Tenth Centuries. Chicago:
waning metropolis. Nevertheless, Baghdad retained its pres- University of Chicago Press, 2001.
tige as the center of the Islamic caliphate and a symbol of
Muslim cultural, material, and scholarly achievement. It was Mona Hassan
therefore with great consternation that news was received of
the Mongols’s savage invasion and ravaging of the city in
1258 C.E. Hundreds of thousands of Baghdad’s inhabitants,
including the caliph and his family, leading personalities, and BAHAALLAH (1817–1892)
scholars were mercilessly put to death, and the great scientific
and literary treasures of Baghdad were burned or drowned in “Bahaallah,” a title meaning “splendor of God,” was the
the waters of the Tigris. name given to Mirza Husayn
Ali Nuri, prophet and founder
of the Bahai faith.
Thereafter, Baghdad was transformed into a provincial
Born in Tehran into an elite bureaucratic family, he was
center within the Mongol Empire, under the control of the
converted in 1844 to the Babi religion, the messianic move-
Ilkhanids until 1339 C.E. and then the Jalayrids until 1410 C.E.
ment begun that year by the Iranian prophet Sayyed
Ali
The Karakoyunlu Turkomans and the Akkoyunlu Turkomans
Muhammad, commonly known as the Bab (“Gate”). He
ruled Baghdad successively, until the city was conquered by
played a significant role in the early Babi community. Impris-
Shah Ismail in 1508 C.E. and incorporated into the Safavid
oned as a Babi in 1852, he was exiled to Iraq, where he became
Empire. A subsequent Perso-Ottoman struggle for Baghdad
the de facto leader of the Babis. He was summoned to
and its symbolic sites resulted in Sultan Sulayman the Mag-
Istanbul by the Ottoman government in April 1863 and then
nificent’s conquest of the city in 1534 C.E., only to be lost
arrested and exiled again to Edirne in European Turkey.
again to the Safavids, and then regained by the Ottoman There he made an open claim to prophethood that was
Sultan Murad IV in 1638 C.E. Baghdad remained the capital of eventually accepted by most Babis, though opposed by his
the region’s Ottoman province for nearly three centuries, and younger brother, Subh-e Azal. Alarmed by disputes among
was occupied by the British in March 1917, during the course the Babi exiles, the Turkish government imprisoned Bahaalof World War I. In 1921, it became the seat of Faysal b. lah in Acre, Palestine, in 1868, where he lived under gradually
Husayn’s kingdom under British Mandate and remained the improving conditions until his death. His eldest son,
Abd alcapital of Iraq throughout its successive developments into an Baha, was recognized by most Bahais as his successor. His
independent constitutional monarchy (1930), federated tomb near Acre is now a Bahai shrine.
Hashimite monarchy (1958), and then republic (1958).
Bahaallah wrote extensively, mostly letters to the believ-
See also Caliphate; Empires: Abbasid; Revolution: Classi- ers. His works included commentary on scripture, Bahai law,
cal Islam; Revolution: Islamic Revolution in Iran; comments on current affairs, prayers, and theological discus-
Revolution: Modern. sions of all sorts. Though his writings were grounded in the

Islam and the Muslim World 99
Bahai Faith

esoteric Shi
ite thought of the Bab, he was politically sophis- new community. He rejected the militancy and esoteric
ticated, and his own religious thought is often best seen in the Shi
ite mysticism characteristic of the Babis, instead stressing
context of the Westernizing reformers of the nineteenth political neutrality and progressive themes such as internacentury Middle East. The social liberalism of the modern tional peace, education, and the emancipation of women and
Bahai faith has its roots in Bahaallah’s writings. slaves. By the time of the death of Bahaallah in 1892, the
Iranian community had recovered from the disasters of the
Bahaallah is considered a “manifestation of God” by
Babi period, and small but growing communities, mainly
Bahais and is thus a prophet of the rank of Moses, Jesus, and
consisting of Iranian émigrés, had been established in many
Muhammad.
countries of the Middle East, the Russian Empire, and India.
See also
Abd al-Baha; Bab, Sayyed
Ali Muhammad;
Bahai Faith. After Bahaallah’s death most Bahais accepted the leadership of his eldest son,
Abd al-Baha. In the 1890s small but
influential communities of Bahai converts from Christianity
BIBLIOGRAPHY
were established in Europe and North America. Despite the
Bahaullah. Tablets of Baha
u
llah Revealed after the Kitab-iturmoil caused by World War I and by revolutions in Iran,
Aqdas. Translated by Habib Taherzadeh. Wilmette, Ill.:
Bahai Publishing Trust, 1988. Turkey, and Russia,
Abd al-Baha was able to establish an
institutional structure for most of the major Bahai communi-
Balyuzi, Hasan. Baha
u
llah: the King of Glory. Oxford, U.K.:
ties, increasingly in the form of elected governing commit-
George Ronald, 1980.
tees known as spiritual assemblies. The most important event
Cole, Juan R. I. Modernity and the Millenium: The Genesis of the
of his ministry, however, was a series of journeys to Europe
Baha
i Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1998. and America from 1911 to 1913. These trips were the occasion for an increasing stress on the liberal social teachings of
John Walbridge the Bahai faith.


Abd al-Baha was succeeded in 1921 by his grandson,
Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, whose English education and West-
BAHAI FAITH ern orientation marked a final break with the religion’s
Islamic roots. Shoghi Effendi was not a charismatic figure like
The Bahai faith was founded by Bahaallah as an outgrowth his grandfather and preferred to focus on institution-building
of the Babi religion, the messianic movement begun in 1844 and consolidation. The most spectacular achievement of his
by the Iranian prophet Sayyed
Ali Muhammad, commonly ministry was a series of “teaching plans,” in which Bahai
known as the Bab (“Gate”). missionaries settled in scores of new countries and territories,
notably in Latin America, Africa, and the Pacific. By the
History 1950s some of these communities were growing rapidly.
After the execution of the Bab in 1850 and the pogrom
Shoghi Effendi wrote extensively and systematically in Perfollowing a Babi attempt to assassinate the shah, the Babi
sian and English, standardizing Bahai theological selfmovement suffered a crisis of leadership. Its titular leader was
understanding and practice. His translations of several vol-
Mirza Yahya, known as Subh-e Azal, but from the mid-1860s
umes of Bahaallah’s writings became the standard Bahai
the effective leader was Azal’s elder brother, Bahaallah. Both
scriptures for Western Bahais. He also wrote a history of the
were exiles in Baghdad. Bahaallah later wrote that he had had
Babi and Bahai Faiths and translated a history of the Babi
mystical experiences while imprisoned in Tehran in 1852,
religion. These works also became fundamental for the selfand by the early 1860s he had begun hinting that he was “he
understanding of Western Bahais. Finally, through his conwhom God shall make manifest,” the Babi messiah. On 21
struction of Bahai shrines and temples in Haifa, Acre, and
April 1863 he announced this claim to several close associates,
an event that Bahais now consider the beginning of their several Western cities, he made the Bahai faith more visible
religion. Bahaallah nonetheless continued to recognize the and created a Bahai architectural idiom.
nominal leadership of Azal. The final break came in 1867
Shoghi Effendi died in 1957, leaving neither an heir nor a
when he wrote to Azal formally claiming prophethood. The
will. In 1963, after a six-year interregnum, the various Bahai
Babis then split into three main groups. By the end of the
national spiritual assemblies elected an international govern-
1870s those who had accepted the claim of Bahaallah were
ing body, the Universal House of Justice, which has since
the large majority and came to be known as Bahais. A smaller
been elected every five years. The Universal House of Justice
number, the Azalis, stayed loyal to Subh-e Azal and vociferously opposed Bahaallah. A few accepted neither claim. continued Shoghi Effendi’s programs of teaching plans and
construction. There are now several million Bahais in the
Through his extensive correspondence and meetings with world, most in the developing world, leaving only a small
pilgrims during his exile in Acre, Bahaallah organized the minority in Iran or Islamic countries.

100 Islam and the Muslim World
Balkans, Islam in the

Thus, racism, nationalism, religious fanaticism, prejudice of
any sort, and the degradation of women are condemned in
Bahai teachings. Likewise, there is no Bahai clergy, and all
believers are considered fundamentally equal. The theme of
unity permeates Bahai thought and practice, giving the
community a decidedly egalitarian character.

The Bahai faith is nominally a religion of law, but its
religious law, though generally analogous to Islamic law and
practice, is usually simpler and less demanding. There is a
daily prayer, an annual nineteen-day fast, nine major holy
days, and a “feast” every nineteen days on the first day of each
month of the Bahai calendar. Regulations governing marriage, divorce, and funerals are simple. Bahais are monogamous, and marriage is conditioned on the consent both of the
couple and of living parents. In practice, Bahai communal
life often is less concerned with worship than with community administration and particularly the goal of expanding the
community.

Bahai scripture consists of the authenticated writings of
Bahaallah and
Abd al-Baha. Shoghi Effendi’s works are
authoritative as interpretation, and writings of the Universal
House of Justice are authoritative in legislative and administrative matters. Writings of individuals are considered personal opinion and not binding on others. Because the
authoritative writings are so voluminous, Bahai writers have
tended to focus on collection and collation. Most Bahai
This garden leads to the $250 million Bahai Shrine of the Bab in theological writing has been polemical rather than specula-
Haifa, Israel that was completed in 2001 after ten years of
construction. Built by the great grandson of Bahaallah, founder of
tive in character. There is no developed Bahai legal tradition.
the Bahai faith, it is one of many Bahai shrines and temples Since the 1970s there has been increasingly vigorous acathroughout the Muslim world and the West. Bahai is a religion demic and theological study of the Bahai faith.
that split from Islam. It emphasizes the unity among all religions,
races, and nations. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS See also
Abd al-Baha; Babiyya; Bahaallah.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bahai Theology, Beliefs, and Practices Smith, Peter. The Babi and Baha
i Religions: From Messianic
The theological roots of the Bahai faith are in the Babi Shi’ism to a World Religion. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
religion, which was essentially an esoteric Shi
ite movement. University Press, 1987.
The fundamental Bahai theological conception is that of the Stockman, Robert. The Baha’i Faith in America. Wilmette,
logos figure of the manifestation of God: the prophet as the Ill.: Bahai Publishing Trust, 1985–1995.
perfect mirror of God’s attributes. Human beings and all
Walbridge, John. Sacred Acts, Sacred Space, Sacred Time.
other creatures are lesser mirrors of God’s various attributes. Baháí Studies 1. Oxford: George Ronald, 1996.
The prophet is thus a model and a revealer of God’s knowledge and will. God’s full plan is revealed gradually by a series John Walbridge
of prophets, who guide humanity’s emergence into a worldwide spiritual civilization. Bahaallah is of particular signifi-
cance, since his ministry marks the beginning of human
maturity and world unity. Thus, for Bahais all religions are BALKANS, ISLAM IN THE
fundamentally true, having been based on prophecy, though
the Bahai faith is destined to supercede them. The differ- Since the late fourteenth century there have been Muslim
ences among religions are due either to the differing circum- communities in southeast Europe. For most of their history
stances of the time and place of their revelation or to gradual they were an important and integral part of the Ottoman
corruption of the original message. Empire. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when
ethnic-based nation-states came to power in the Balkans,
The characteristic feature of Bahaallah’s revelation is its most of these Muslim communities lost prominence and
stress on unity, a theme expressed in Bahai social teachings. some disappeared. Recent attempts by certain nationalist

Islam and the Muslim World 101
Balkans, Islam in the

forces to erase the history of Muslims in the Balkans have led
to new interest in these Muslim peoples of Europe. HOLY ROMAN

D ni
EMPIRE POLAND

ep
er
R iv
Expansion of Islam into Southeast Europe Podolia
er
0 100 200 mi.
Ottoman armies and Sufi missionaries brought Islam into
0 100 200 km
southeast Europe in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centu- Hungary Transylvania Yedisan
Po R.
ries. Beginning with the conquest of eastern Thrace in the Moldavia
mid-1300s, the Ottomans soon took Macedonia. They fought Danub
e
Crimea
Bosnia Wallachia
Serbian prince Lazar and his Balkan army at Kosovo in 1389,

Ad
R iver

ri a
and defeated Bulgaria soon after in 1393. Along with military Serbia Bulgaria Black Sea

ti c
Se
conquest, the Ottomans brought Muslim settlers from Anatolia a
Albania Rumelia
to occupy main march routes and river valleys. In 1456 Macedonia
Athens fell to the Ottomans, followed by Bosnian and Albanian lands, and finally Belgrade in 1521. Thessaly

Sicily Anatolia

There was significant conversion of local people to Islam, Morea

principally among Bosnians and Albanians, but also across the N

Balkans. This conversion was gradual, continuing through- M
e d Rhodes
Crete Cyprus
out the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, and i t e
r r a
even later among some Albanians. Except for the devsirme, n e a n
S e a
the forced recruitment of Christian boys for special military Ottoman Empire in
Southeast Europe
and governmental service, this conversion to Islam was vol-
Ottoman Empire in 1481

untary. The Balkans had been a region of contention between Ottoman Empire in 1520

western, or Latin, and eastern, or Byzantine, forms of Chris- Ottoman Empire in 1566

Ottoman Empire in 1683

tianity. In Bosnia and Albania neither form of Christianity

had been well preached or well established. In contrast the

Sufi missionaries brought a tolerant form of religion and the
Ottoman state a system of order based broadly on religious Expansion of the Ottoman Empire into southeast Europe. XNR
PRODUCTIONS, INC./GALE
affiliation. The advantages of being Muslim were economic
and cultural and included exemption from the head tax,
privileges in land owning, and opportunities in state administration and the military, as well as links with the vibrant breakup of Ottoman power in the Balkans left many of them
culture and society of Istanbul. vulnerable.

History and Main Developments The following period in the history of Muslims in the
During the Ottoman period, lasting from the fourteenth Balkans, the time of growth of nation-states, began variably in
century to the early twentieth century, the history of Muslims the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with southern Greece
in the Balkans largely parallels the history of the empire itself. becoming independent in 1821, followed by Serbia (whose
When the Ottoman Empire was at its height in the sixteenth northern part had been autonomous since 1815), Romania,
century, the Balkan cities of Edirne, Sarajevo, and Salonika and Bulgaria, all in 1878, and later by Albania in 1912. During
(the latter with a significant Jewish population) were rich these times there were forced migrations, massacres, and
cosmopolitan centers of trade and learning, with impressive expulsions of Muslims, especially from the eastern Balkans,
mosques, madrasas (schools), and bridges. Three of Sultan for the new nation-states were largely conceived as ethnic
Suleyman the Magnificent’s grand wazirs—Ibrahim the Greek, units tied to language and a form of Christianity. In contrast,
Rustem the Bulgarian, and Mehmet Sokullu, a Slav from many Balkan Muslims, who did not fit in the new nation-state
Bosnia—were converted Muslims from the Balkans. At the design, were seen as allied with the Ottomans who had been
end of the seventeenth century, Albanian Muslims from the increasingly ineffective and oppressive in the last century of
Koprulu family (Mehmet, Ahmed, Mustafa, and Husein) their rule. Thousands of Muslims were forced to flee to
served as grand wazirs and provided well-needed stability in a Turkey. This would continue throughout the twentieth cencentury of decline. For, as western European countries gained tury with Balkan Muslims from Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo,
power in trade routes and military prowess, formerly the and Bulgaria emigrating to the safety of Muslim Turkey. The
purview of the Ottomans, the Ottoman Empire weakened exceptions to this were Muslims from the western Balkan
economically and the Austro-Hungarian Empire took terri- lands of Albania and Bosnia. Most stayed in the Balkans
tories from the Ottomans, including Hungary, part of present- throughout these times, although some Bosnian Muslims did
day Croatia (1699), and later Bosnia (1878). The position of emigrate in and after 1878. The large part of Bosnian Mus-
Muslim communities gradually declined as well until the lims, themselves Slavs, continued as landowners and free

102 Islam and the Muslim World
Balkans, Islam in the

peasants under Austria-Hungary’s rule, and remained later as
0 50 100 mi.
part of Yugoslavia. As for the Albanian Muslims, some led the
0 50 100 km
Albanian nationalist movement for independence; overall,
Muslims made up 70 percent of the new independent state of AUSTRIA HUNGARY
Albania. There were also smaller communities of Slavic
Muslims, Albanian Muslims, and Roma Muslims who stayed SLOVENIA
ROMANIA
where they were and thus became minorities in different
CROATIA Vojvodina
Balkan lands.

Nationalism also came to the Turks. It is interesting that
an Albanian Muslim from Struga in present-day Macedonia, BOSNIA Serbia
AND
Ibrahim Temo, was one of the four founding members of HERZEGOVINA SERBIA
what became known as the Young Turks. The founder of Sarajevo AND
modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk, was MONTENEGRO
Adriatic
a Balkan Muslim from Salonika. Sea
ITALY Montenegro
Kosovo
Later in the twentieth century, the Muslims in Bosnia
came to be seen as an ethnic group as well. Before World War Bosnia After the Dayton
IA
Peace Accords (1995)

N
II they were considered a religious community. But after the

DO
Dayton Agreement Line


CE
war, with the secularization of the Communist Party and

AL

Federation of Bosnia
N

MA
BA
growing importance of “nationalities,” they officially became and Herzegovina

NIA
Republika Srpska

an ethnic group under the label “Muslim” in 1968. Just as


“Jew” in the United States can have both ethnic and religious
meaning, so “Muslim” had both meanings in Yugoslavia.
Composition of Bosnia-Herzegovina following the signing of the
With the warfare in the 1990s, this ambiguity became a
1995 Dayton Peace Accords. XNR PRODUCTIONS, INC./GALE
problem so that today the ethnic term for Bosnian Muslim is
“Bosnjak.”

Characteristics and Cultural Achievements damaging of the Gazi Husrevbegova Mosque in Sarajevo, as
The Muslims of the Balkans are largely Sunni of the Hannafi well as the destruction of many more Islamic sites throughout
school. There are also Sufi communities with more inclusive Bosnia. The famous bridge at Mostar, and the Oriental
theologies, including the Sunni Naqshibandi, as well as the Institute in Sarajevo, where important historical documents
Halveti, Mevlevi, Qadiri, Rifa
i, Sadi, Melami, and Bektashi of the Ottoman period were housed, were both deliberately
orders. Of these, the Bektashi rose to special prominence in targeted and destroyed. The war in Kosovo (1999) led to the
Albania in the twentieth century, only to become a target of destruction of many Islamic monuments and documents
Communist Enver Hoxha’s regime (1944–1991). Also in there as well. One of the purposes of these civil wars was to
Bulgaria there are communities of Aliids. As in other parts of erase the Islamic heritage of these regions of the Balkans.
the Ottoman world, religious poetry known as merthiyes and This is not new. There were once many mosques in Belgrade
nefes stems from these orders, and mevluds and ghazels from that were destroyed in the late nineteenth century. Such
the larger Muslim communities. destruction was in marked contrast to the usual Ottoman
policy that had promoted tolerance for Christian and Jewish
Better known to the broader world than religious poetry is institutions.
the remarkable architecture of Muslims in the Balkans. This
includes the older sections of cities with their bazaars, mosques, Nevertheless there remain Muslim communities in the
fountains, hamams (baths), türbes (mausolea), madrasas (schools), Balkans. The greatest number of Muslims are still in Bosnia,
and old Ottoman homes. One of the masterpieces of Otto- although many were killed in the war and many more became
man architecture is the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (1575) by refugees. The next largest population of Muslims in the
Sinan. Also well known were other remarkable mosques like Balkans is in Albania, but many were secularized during the
the Ferhat Pasha Mosque of Banja Luka (1579), the Aladza long communist rule. Albanians in Kosovo are also mainly
Mosque in Foca (1550), and the Gazi Husrevbegova Mosque Muslim. But of all the Albanian Muslims in the Balkans, those
of Sarajevo (1530), all in Bosnia, as well as the famous in western Macedonia are among the most observant. They
Ottoman bridge at Mostar in Herzegovina (1566). form at least one-third of the population, but have been kept
out of most state jobs and universities. Bulgaria has three
Contemporary Situation and Concerns different Muslim populations: Turks, who are the largest
The war in Bosnia (1992–1995) between Serbian and Croatian group; Pomaks, who are Slavs living in the southern mounnationalists and Muslim Bosnians led to the destruction of the tains; and Roma, who are largely Muslim. During communist
famous mosques of Banja Luka and Foca and the severe rule in Bulgaria, there were at times direct policies to

Islam and the Muslim World 103
Bamba, Ahmad

“bulgarize” the Muslim peoples by forcing them to change capital of his order in 1887. Shaykh Ahmad Bamba was highly
their Muslim names to Slavic Bulgarian ones, and there were respected for his learning and piety but he also attracted
prohibitions against circumcision. In the 1980s over 300,000 followers who were struggling against the French occupation.
Turks from Bulgaria went to Turkey rather than submit to
these policies. Since then, some have returned and the poli- The new brotherhood spread rapidly and was associated
cies in post-communist Bulgaria are not as restrictive. Romania with rumors of a possible uprising. In 1895, Ahmad Bamba
has two small Muslim communities. In Greece, most Mus- was exiled to Gabon and was not permitted to return to
lims left or were part of the population transfers in the early Senegal until 1902. His return attracted a wave of new
1920s. There remain, however, the Turkish Muslims of followers and more rumors of rebellion. The French exiled
western Thrace in northeast Greece. him again in 1903, this time to Mauritania. Ahmad returned
to Senegal in 1907. Again large numbers of followers flocked
An irony of the fighting in Bosnia at the end of the to him and the French were concerned. After 1910, however,
twentieth century is that the attempt of Serbian and Croatian the French began to trust the Muslim leader somewhat more,
nationalists to eradicate the Islamic history and the Muslim even turning to him for help on occasion. Most notably, he
people of the region has resulted in a reinvigoration of Islamic recruited troops and raised money for French efforts in
practices there. The Bosnians, who were once among the World War I. For this he was made a Chevalier de la Légion
most secularized of Muslims, now include those who are d’Honneur in 1919. Ahmad Bamba, however, collaborated
more observant. But the long tradition of tolerance and reluctantly. He was a religious man and a mystic, given to
mutual respect of Balkan Islam, for which places like Sarajevo meditation and scholarship. His brotherhood was organized
were justly famous, has been severely damaged. on a principle of total obedience, hard work, and self-denial
and became the most powerful religious group in Senegal.
See also Empires: Ottoman; Europe, Islam in.
See also Africa, Islam in; Colonialism; Tariqa; Touba.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bringa, Tone. Being Muslim the Bosnian Way: Identity and BIBLIOGRAPHY
Community in a Central Bosnian Village. Princeton, N.J.: Behrman, Lucy C. Muslim Brotherhoods and Politics in Senegal.
Princeton University Press, 1995. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970.
Donia, Robert J., and Fine, John V. A. Bosnia and Hercegovina: Coulon, Christian. Le Marabout et le Prince: Islam et Pouvoir au
A Tradition Betrayed. New York: Columbia University Sénégal. Paris: Pedone, 1981.
Press, 1994. Creevey, Lucy. “Ahmad Bamba 1850–1927.” In Studies in
Eminov, Ali. Turkish and Other Muslim Minorities in Bulgaria. West African Islamic History, Vol. 1: The Cultivators of Islam.
London: Hurst & Company, 1997. Edited by John Ralph Willis. London: Frank Cass, 1979.
Hasluck, Frederick William. Christianity and Islam under the O’Brien, Donal Cruise. The Mourides of Senegal: The Political
Sultans. Oxford, U.K.: The Clarendon Press, 1929. and Economic Organization of an Islamic Brotherhood. Oxford,
U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1971.
Pasic, Amir. Islamic Architecture in Bosnia and Hercegovina.
Translated by Midhat Ridjanovic. Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art, and Culture, 1994. Lucy Creevey
Popovic, Alexandre. L’Islam Balkanique: les musulmans du sudest europeen dans la periode post-ottomane. Berlin: Otto
Harrassowitz, 1986.
BANNA, HASAN AL- (1906–1949)
Poulton, Hugh, and Taji-Farouki, Suha. Muslim Identity and
the Balkan State. London: Hurst & Company, 1997. Hasan al-Banna was an Islamic reformer and the founder of
Trix, Frances. “The Resurfacing of Islam in Albania.” The Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood). Banna was born
East European Quarterly 28, no. 4 (1995): 533–549. in Mahmudiyya, a town near Alexandria, Egypt. In addition
to receiving the traditional education in Quran, hadith,
Frances Trix elementary principles of law, and Arabic language, Banna
became a member of the Hasafiyya Sufi order during his teen
years. Although members of the Brotherhood would later
attack Sufism, Banna always acknowledged the strong influ-
BAMBA, AHMAD (1853–1927) ence of Sufism in his religious outlook and social activism.

Ahmad Bamba was the founder of the Muridiyya (Mouride) In 1923, Banna enrolled in Dar al-
Ulum in Cairo, the
Brotherhood. Born in the Baol region in Senegal, Ahmad was national teachers’ training college, whose eclectic curriculum
initiated into the Qadiriyya Brotherhood (tariqa) by Shaykh of traditional Islamic and modern Western subjects had been
Sidia in Mauritania. He founded his own brotherhood in shaped by Muhammad
Abduh and Rashid Rida. In 1927, he
1886 and established the town of Touba (Senegal) as the was sent to his first teaching assignment in a primary school

104 Islam and the Muslim World
Baqillani, al-

in Isma
iliyya. Located in the Suez Canal zone, Isma
iliyya BIBLIOGRAPHY
was home to large numbers of European civilians as well as Abu Rabi
, Ibrahim M. Intellectual Origins of Islamic Resurgence
British military personnel. Banna was exposed daily to for- in the Modern Arab World. Albany: State University of New
eign imperialism in a direct manner that he had not experi- York Press, 1996.
enced in Cairo. He began to question the reasons for Egypt’s Banna, Hasan al-. Five Tracts of Hasan al-Banna (1906–1949):
political subservience and the means for its revival. Only A Selection from the Majmuat Rasail al-Imam al-Shahid
through a revival of Islamic consciousness among the masses, Hasan al-Banna. Translated by Charles Wendell. Berke-
Banna concluded, could imperialism be combated. ley: University of California Press, 1978.
Commins, David. “Hasan al-Banna (1906–1949).” In Pioneers
In March 1928, Banna and six other men founded an of Islamic Revival. Edited by Ali Rahnema. London: Zed
organization attached to the Hasafiyya order to “command Books, 1994.
the right and forbid the wrong.” By the following year, the
Mitchell, Richard P. The Society of the Muslim Brothers. New
organization was already referred to as Ikhwan al-Muslimin.
York: Oxford University Press, 1969.
The organization began as an educational society, meant to
instill or revive Islamic convictions among ordinary Egyp-
Sohail H. Hashmi
tians. Its primary goal was to create an Islamic society based
on the model of the earliest Muslim generations. Banna
traveled throughout the canal zone, lecturing, collecting
donations, organizing chapters, and building offices and BAQILLANI, AL- (?–1013)
mosques. The Brotherhood’s organization reflected Banna’s
Sufi background. Chapters consisted of groups of young men Qadi Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al-Tayyib b. Muhammad, also
organized hierarchically according to the level of commit- known as Ibn al-Baqillani, was an Ash
arite theologian and
ment and knowledge demonstrated. Tying the various chap- Malikite jurisprudent. Al-Baqillani was regarded as the secters together was Banna, the murshid (guide) of the movement, ond founder of Ash
arism for his contribution to the systemaand a majlis al-shura (advisory council) composed officially of tization of the school.
twelve members, though sometimes more.
Born in Basra he lived mostly in Baghdad, and studied
By 1932 Banna had moved the headquarters of the Broth- theology under al-Ash
ari’s students Ibn Mujahid al-Tai and
erhood to Cairo, reflecting his intention to play a much more Abu ’l-Hasan al-Bahili, and fiqh (jurisprudence) under Abu
active role in Egypt’s politics. The Brotherhood was also
Abdallah al-Shirazi and Ibn Abu Zayd al-Qayrawani. He
firmly entrenched in regional politics by the late 1940s attended discussion meetings with representatives of other
through branches in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Sudan. Banna’s schools in Shiraz, was sent to Constantinople as a special
ideological vision may be gleaned from his numerous writ- envoy to Byzantine rulers, served as a judge (qadi) in Uqbera
ings, the two most important being his memoirs (Mudhakkirat) and Saghr towns, and taught in Baghdad until his death in 1013.
and a published collection of his letters (Majmuat al-rasa
il).
For him Islam was a holistic creed, providing Muslims guide- Well known for his disputational skills and polemical
lines for private piety, public morality, and social justice. The writings, al-Baqillani’s books are mainly on theology. A large
logical extension of this view was the establishment of an work, Hidayat al-mustarshidin wa al-maqna fi usul al-din, is
Islamic state. The leadership of such a state could only come preserved at al-Azhar library (ms. no. 342) in Cairo. His
from committed and informed Muslims, and the Brother- works, which largely collected and classified Ash
arite views,
hood was to prepare itself for this role. played a major role in the establishment and spread of the
school. He emphasized the existence of atoms in order to
Banna could not quell dissension within the Brotherhood avoid the idea of pre-eternity of the universe and elaborated
once it entered the turbulent Egyptian politics of the 1940s. some concepts in Sunni kalam, such as empty space, the
His control over the “secret apparatus,” the armed wing of continuous creation of accidents due to their incapability of
the organization that planned and carried out attacks on lasting more than one unit of time, and the rational possibility
government officials and institutions, was particularly tenu- of miracles. However, he preserved the Salafi (Salafiyya)
ous. More militant members refused to follow his agreement tendency of not interpreting Quranic expressions attributed
with the Egyptian government to merge the Brotherhood to God suggesting anthropomorphism. Most of his books
militia into the Egyptian army during the first Arab-Israeli include lengthy polemics against other monotheistic religwar (1948–1949). Following a military decree banning the ions. His skepticism toward the compatibility of ancient
organization, Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi metaphysics with Islamic doctrines led him to oppose the use
was assassinated in December 1948 by a student associated of formal logic in religious disciplines. In some issues of
with the Brotherhood. In retaliation, the secret police assassi- Islamic legal methodology, such as ijtihad and ijma, he
nated Banna on 12 February 1949. influenced later jurists.

See also Ikhwan al-Muslimin. See also Ash
arites, Ash
aira; Kalam.

Islam and the Muslim World 105
Basri, Hasan al-

BIBLIOGRAPHY coups. In power, the party in both countries effectively
Chaumont, E. “Baqillani, théologien ash‘arite et juriste centralized control of the economy in government hands and
malikite, contre les legistes à propos de l’ijtihad et de instituted distributionist policies that originally benefited
l’accord unanime de la communauté.” Studia Islamica 79 both the urban and rural middle and lower classes, though
(1994): 79–102. over time at the cost of economic growth and efficiency. Both
Grunebaum, Gustave E., von. A Tenth-Century Document of the Syrian and Iraqi Ba
th came to rely on religious minorities
Arabic Literary Theory and Criticism: The Sections on Poetry to staff sensitive military and security positions—Alawis in
of al-Baqillani’s Ijaz al-Qur
an. Chicago: Chicago Univer- Syria and Sunnis in Iraq—as the popularity of the governsity Press, 1950. ments waned. A bitter split developed within the party in
Haddad, Wadi Z. “A Tenth-Century Speculative Theolo- 1966, reflected in the extremely hostile relations between
gian’s Refutation of the Basic Doctrines of Christianity: Ba
thist Syria and Ba
thist Iraq. Like many ruling parties, the
al-Baqillani.” In Christian-Muslim Encounters. Edited by Y. Ba
th lost much of its ideological élan once in power, and
Yazbeck Haddad and Wadi Zaydan Haddad. Gainsville: became the vehicle for increasingly personalized rule in Syria
University Press of Florida, 1995. and Iraq.

M. Sait Özervarli See also Nationalism: Arab.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
BASRI, HASAN AL- (642–728) Devlin, John F. The Bath Party: A History from Its Origins to
1966. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1976.
Hasan al-Basri was one of the most famous early Sunni Kienle, Eberhard. Bath v. Bath: The Conflict Between Syria
theologians and ascetics. Born in Medina, he lived in Basra, and Iraq, 1968–1989. London: I. B. Tauris & Co., 1990.
where he was renowned for his piety, learning, and eloquence. He produced sermons, short commentaries on the F. Gregory Gause III
Quran, aphorisms, and statements on ethics. In theology, he
occupied a middle position on the subjects of free will and
predestination. He believed that humans choose their actions, but that God determines the outlines of fate. He BAZARGAN, MEHDI (1907–1995)
criticized Umayyad caliphs and officials, but did not oppose
them politically. His spiritual practice stressed self-reflective The son of a merchant from Tabriz, Mehdi Bazargan was
contemplation. He is considered a father of Sufism and born in Tehran, Iran. Educated both in traditional Islamic
appears as the source of many Sufi lineages. madrasa and modern schools, he completed his studies at Ecole
Polytéchnique and Ecole Normale in France. Muhammad
See also Kalam; Tasawwuf. Mosaddeq (b. 1882) admired Bazargan’s engineering approach to social organization, such as Tehran’s fresh water
Rkia E. Cornell project (c. 1952), and commissioned him to fill the gap
resulting from the departure of British experts after the
nationalization of Iran’s oil industry. He became a founder of
the Engineering Association of Iran in 1945 and of the
BA
TH PARTY National Liberation Movement in 1961.

The Ba
th Party is the governing party in Iraq and Syria, and Bazargan was one of a group of Islamic thinkers who
is theoretically committed to the cause of Arab nationalism convened to discuss current issues in the early 1960s, and was
and unity. The Ba
th (Arabic for resurrection or renewal) especially interested in adapting Shi
ite Islam to the techno-
Party was founded by two French-educated Syrian school logical world without importing its ideology. Most people in
teachers, Michel
Aflaq (Greek Orthodox Christian) and this group became prominent leaders of the Iranian Revolu-
Salah al-Din al-Bitar (Sunni Muslim), in 1943. “Regional tion. Bazargan was imprisoned along with other nationalist
commands” of the Ba
th were founded in many Arab coun- leaders in 1963. After the revolution of 1979, he became the
tries, all in principle subject to the “national command” of the prime minister of the provisional government. Bazargan was
founders. The party’s slogan, “unity, freedom and socialism,” later ousted due to the occupation of the American embassy
rallied students, intellectuals, and army officers to its cause in and hostage taking by students and his meeting with Brzezinski
many Arab states, and it played an important role in the in Algiers.
tumultuous politics of Syria, Iraq, and Jordan in the 1950s.
However, the party never achieved a strong mass following See also Iran, Islamic Republic of; Liberation Moveand had little electoral success anywhere. The Ba
th came to ment of Iran; Reform: Iran; Revolution: Islamic Revopower in Syria in 1963 and in Iraq in 1968 through military lution in Iran.

106 Islam and the Muslim World
Bid
a

BIBLIOGRAPHY Lancaster, William. The Rwala Bedouin Today. Cambridge:
Chehabi, H. E. Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini. Lewis, Norman. Nomads and Settlers in Syria and Jordan,
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990. 1800–1980. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Shryock, Andrew. Nationalism and the Genealogical Imagina-
Mazyar Lotfalian tion: Oral History and Textual Authority in Tribal Jordan.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Rochelle Davis
BEDOUIN
The Bedouin are nomadic peoples of Arabia known in Arabic
as bedu,
arab, and arab. They are especially known for
BID
A
keeping camels, whose domestication in the third millenium
made trade and raiding—their main occupations—easier. In
A bida (pl. bida) is an innovation in theology, ritual, or the
addition, they keep flocks of sheep and goats, and more
customs of daily life, that did not exist in early Islam but came
recently, engage in seasonal agriculture and work in state
into existence in the course of history.
armed forces. Living in long, low-lying black tents made of
camel and goat hair and wooden poles, the Bedouin migrate The term itself does not appear in the Quran, be it that
on a seasonal basis in search of pasture for their animals. The the Holy Book includes other derivations of the root bd. In
tent and its contents are individual property, but water, the hadith literature bida is often used in contrast with the
pasture, and land are the common property of the tribe. term sunna. In this sense sunna denotes the exemplary standard for Muslim life, as this was established by the prophet
Every tent represents a family, and an encampment of
Muhammad and the pious Muslims of early Islam; for this
tents—hayy— constitutes a clan, or qawm. A group of kindred
reason, a bida, being a deviation from the normative sunna,
clans forms a tribe, or qabila, and asabiyya is the unconditional
was almost exclusively regarded as negative. This idea can be
loyalty of a clansmember to his or her tribe. A weaker tribe
found in the canonical collections of hadith literature and, for
buys protection by paying the stronger tribe a price—khuwa.
example, was put into words in the Prophetic saying: “The
Bedouin have been characterized historically by urban worst of all things are novelties (muhdathat); every novelty is
Arab writers as vengeful and destructive, finding the agricul- an innovation (bida), and every bida is an error (dalala), and
ture and craft of sedentary life distasteful. In his al-Muqadimma, every error “leads to hell.”
Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), the Tunisian philosopher-historian,
hypothesized that civilizations have a predetermined life Apart from this negative understanding of the concept of
cycle; they fall prey to the nomads in the frontiers whose bida, a positive interpretation also could be given to the term.
bonds of solidarity (asabiyya) are strong. However, oth- This was done by using another saying from the hadith
ers have described Bedouins by their well-known values of literature. These words are attributed to the second caliph
generosity and hospitality and high standards of poetic
Umar who, after he had seen an innovation in the rite of the
compositions. ritual prayer (salat), is reported to have said: “Truly, this is a
good bida.” On the basis of this saying the great jurisconsult
As state power has infringed on Bedouin areas of control, al-Shafi
i (767–820) made a distinction between good and
moves to settle the Bedouin, to provide schools for children, objectionable bidas. As a result of this, the possibility was
and to employ adults in wage-labor have met with mixed created to introduce new ideas and practices into Islam for
success in Egypt, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, and the Arabian which there were no precedents in early Islam, but which
Gulf states. Bedouin strive to maintain their culture, social could now be accepted as good innovations. Later scholars
mores and traditions, while at the same time enjoying the further manipulated the term bida by adding various other,
benefits of technology, education, and health standards. most often legal, adjectives to it. For example, the prolific
Egyptian author Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (1445–1505) mentions
See also Arabia, Pre-Islam;
Asabiyya; Ibn Khaldun.
the application of the five legal classifications (al-ahkam alkhamsa) to the term, thus making a distinction between
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“forbidden,” “reprehensible,” “indifferent,” “recommended,”
Abu Lughod, Lila. Veiled Sentiments. Berkeley: University of and “obligatory” bidas.
California Press, 1986.
Abu Lughod, Lila. Writing Women’s Worlds. Berkeley: Uni- Although this flexible interpretation of the concept of
versity of California Press, 1993. bida was thus known from an early period onward, various
Baily, Clinton. Bedouin Poetry from Sinai and the Negev: Mirror later scholars adhered to its negative interpretation excluof a Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. sively. A well-known representative of this stream is the

Islam and the Muslim World 107
bin Ladin, Usama

theologian and jurisconsult Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya Usama’s mother, one of four wives to Muhammad bin
(1263–1328), who spent his entire life fighting bidas, which Ladin, was from Damascus, Syria. Usama has remained close
had been added to the original doctrine and practice of Islam, to her throughout his life. He married one of his mother’s
for example, the cult of saints. Under the influence of his Syrian relatives, with whom he had a son. Usama attended
teachings, Muhammad ibn
Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) school in Saudi Arabia where he came under the influence of
founded the rigid and intolerant reform movement known as the thought of Muhammad Qutb, the brother of an influen-
Wahhabiyya, which, for example, regarded the use of tobacco tial Islamist ideologue named Sayyid Qutb and a Jordanian
and coffee as bida. This Wahhabi ideology is also followed by activist,
Abdallah
Azzam, who actively recruited Arab Musthe present-day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where conse- lim fighters to mount a jihad against the Soviet military
quently the concept of bida in its negative sense plays a occupation of Afghanistan in the early 1980s. That Usama
prominent part in religious and social discourse. An interest- bin Ladin visited and lived for a while in Europe has been
ing example of this is the official view on the celebration of reported by some writers, but it is unclear when that might
the birthday (mawlid) of the prophet Muhammad, an opinion have been, where he actually lived in Europe, or what he did
that was voiced often by the Grand Mufti of the Kingdom, while he was there.

Abd al-
Aziz ibn Baz (1910–1999). This festival is strictly
forbidden, because it is regarded as a bida, “while every bida After the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan in 1979, bin
is an error.” Despite the enormous respect for the Prophet, Ladin went to Pakistan. There he met several leaders of jihadi
Wahhabis reject celebrating his mawlid because it is rightly movements who were mounting resistance efforts against the
understood as a later innovation. Russians on behalf of the Afghani Muslims. He joined forces
with
Abdallah
Azzam to recruit non-Afghani Muslims, mainly
On the whole, however, in present-day Islam only a Arabs, and to raise money and purchase weapons for an
minority adhere to this limited, negative interpretation of the armed resistance against the Soviet military. After al-Qa
ida’s
concept of bida, while the majority of Muslims approves of a growth and success, the two men had a falling out that led to
flexible interpretation, which is more compatible with mod- the assassination of
Azzam. Usama’s considerable inherited
ern beliefs and practices. wealth (estimated at between $270 and $500 million) from his
father formed an important material contribution to this
See also Religious Institutions; Sunna.
effort against the Soviets. According to several sources, another significant element in support of Arab militia resistance
BIBLIOGRAPHY in Afghanistan (alleged and never denied) was money from
Fierro, Maribel. “The Treatises Against Innovations (kutub the United States, channeled through the Central Intellial-bida).” Der Islam 69 (1992): 204–246. gence Agency (C.I.A.)
Goldziher, Ignaz, “Hadith and Sunna.” In Vol. 2, Muslim
Studies (Muhammedanische Studien). Edited by S. M. Stern. Usama bin Ladin will not be remembered as a religious
Translated by C. R. Barber and S. M. Stern. London: scholar or intellectual in the Muslim world. He nonetheless
Allen & Unwin, 1971. has attracted a considerable following, first of mujahidin
Rispler, Vardit. “Toward a New Understanding of the Term (guerilla) fighters against real and perceived enemies of Islam,
bida.” Der Islam 68 (1991): 320–328. such as the Soviet military and the U.S. In addition he has
gained passive approval and verbal support for his cause more
Nico J. G. Kaptein widely among Muslims around the world—many of whom
openly disavow the terrorism and violence that is attributed
to his leadership even while providing such support. Bin
Ladin’s writings include poetry and coauthored treatises and
BIN LADIN, USAMA (1957– ) statements that use code words and symbols (such as references to Crusaders and Jews) to express opposition to the
Usama bin Ladin is a Saudi dissident and leader of the al- State of Israel, European Christendom, and the United
Qa
ida organization. He was born in 1957 in Saudi Arabia. States, especially their respective control of and military
His father, Muhammad bin Ladin, was a Yemeni commoner encroachment on the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, Mecca,
who became a successful building contractor. He moved his and Medina.
family to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. Muhammad sired seventeen sons and established the Saudi Bin Ladin Group, a Bin Ladin’s theological worldview follows the Salafi and
construction firm that eventually won large contracts from Wahhabi puritanical interpretation and expression of Islam,
the Saudi royal family to renovate important icons of Saudi as well as the trenchant articulation of this strain of Islam
and Islamic religion and culture. These included several provided by the Egyptian dissident intellectual, Sayyid Qutb.
buildings in the cities of Mecca and Medina and many Some observers have argued that although the fallen Soviet
mosques, including the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Union, the United States, and the globalization of capitalism

108 Islam and the Muslim World
Biography and Hagiography

were the spectacular targets of bin Ladin’s active career, in reflections as contributing to character development. Rather,
fact it is accommodationist Muslim regimes (like his native biographical notices serve to establish origins and display a
Saudi Arabia) that rely on U.S. and Western support that person’s type or example through presenting his or her
have been the real targets of his criticism and activism. discrete actions and sayings. The tabaqat genre, which is most
popular in Arabic, might focus on certain religious profes-
See also Fundamentalism; Jihad; Qa
ida, al-; Qutb, sions such as the biographies of jurists, judges, Quran reciters
Sayyid; Terrorism; Wahhabiyya. and memorizers, or Sufis. Other tabaqat works chronicle
individuals from a particular city or region, and some repre-
BIBLIOGRAPHY sent “centennial” biographies that record all prominent Mus-
Gunaratna, Rohan. Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror. lims who died in a particular Islamic century.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
Tadhkira (memorial) works are collections of the lives of
persons engaged in scholarly or religious activities. They are
Richard C. Martin more common in later periods, especially in Iran, the Ottoman Empire, and South Asia.

Malfuzat are records of audiences of notable scholars or
BIOGRAPHY AND HAGIOGRAPHY Sufis. This genre is indigenous to South Asian Islam where
the early Indian Sufis are known largely through records
Islamic civilization from an early period gave importance to preserved in this form. Malfuzat as a biographical genre often
various biographical genres, for example, the life (sira) of the provides a more spontaneous, authentic flavor of the person
Prophet, works establishing priority in joining the Muslim and his circle in contrast to the more idealized portrayals of
community, and lives of saints, but rarely, until the modern the tadhkirat. Individual biographies (tarjama, pl. tarajim) and
period, autobiographies. autobiographies were less common in earlier periods although a small number may be found. Notable is al-Ghazali’s
Particularly important is the relationship between early Deliverance from Error (d. 1111) a narrative of his spiritual
biography and the hadith collections. The ilm al-rijal, or search for truth. One should not neglect to mention the
“science of the men,” was a branch of Islamic historiography biographical significance of other related genres, for examverifying the reliability (tadil) of hadith transmitters accord- ple, letters and travel accounts, such as those of the famous
ing to criteria such as their direct acquaintance with the Ibn Battuta (1304–1369).
Prophet and their veracity and virtues. The qualities (fada
il)
In the medieval period bio- or autobiographical notices
and special merits (khasa
is) of important persons constitute a
were sometimes prefaced or appended to a scholar’s works
subsection of most hadith collections and reveal early Muslim
and read like a curriculum vitae, that included the individual’s
concepts of charisma, character, or religious authority. Anteachers, places visited, and works studied, transmitted, or
other hadith topic that blossomed into a genre of biographicomposed. Medieval Muslim autobiography and biography
cal literature is asceticism (zuhd). Compilations on this subject
often featured accounts of dreams or visionary experiences
provide insights into the early development of Sufism and
indicating that the tradition considered such events as imporhow ascetic behaviors established rankings of merit and
tant and meaningful.
authority.
More recently, Western literature has influenced bio-
Muslim religious biography and hagiography were com- graphical and autobiographical writing in many Islamic soposed in specific genres. One of the most important bio- cieties. In South Asia innovations in the tradition of religious
graphical forms is the tabaqat (ranks or classes). This name biography were related to the development of Urdu as a
refers to the system for the arrangement of biographical modern prose language in the late nineteenth century and to
notices according to notions of contiguity, rank, or virtue. efforts to combine Islamic and “modern” learning embodied
The earliest extant example is the Kitab al-tabaqat al-kabir of in the Aligarh movement. Most significant among this trend
Ibn Sa
d (d. 845), which contains some 4,250 biographical are the writings of Shibli Nu
mani (1857–1914), who prenotices of men and women of the first Islamic generations. pared a series of monographs on “Heroes of Islam” including
The inclusion of ordinary persons in the classical biographi- studies of the caliph
Umar, the jurist Abu Hanifa, the poet
cal dictionaries indicates how the history of the Islamic Rumi, and the theologian al-Ghazali, as well as the Prophet.
community was understood in this period as being consti- This new style of biography was marked by critical evaluation
tuted, to a large extent, by the contribution of individuals to and a rationalist treatment of the subject.
building up and transmitting its specific worldview and culture.
As the forces of westernization have increasingly pene-
The telling of lives in traditional Islamic biographical trated many Muslim societies, the canons of modern literaforms does not present a series of events or cumulative ture have tended to favor the novel, short story, and poetry

Islam and the Muslim World 109
Biruni, al-

written in free verse over traditional biographical forms. Roded, Ruth. Women in Islamic Biographical Collections: from
With the decline in the popularity of Sufism, the audience for Ibn Sa‘d to Who’s Who. Boulder, Colo.: L. Rienner Pubcollective memorials and devotional biographies has also lishers, 1994.
decreased. In most regions the traditional Islamic biographical forms have declined in importance as secular, literary life Marcia Hermansen
stories take precedence and may provide inspiration for
serialization as televised historical dramas.

Traditional genres of religious biography still persist in BIRUNI, AL- (C. 973–1050)
religious contexts and in more traditional segments of Muslim societies. In the modern period, however, a number of
Al-Biruni was a polymath of the Islamic eleventh century who
new developments have occurred. Among the most striking
wrote in multiple scientific fields. Included among his subare: an increased use of religious biography for personal
jects were astronomy, mathematics, pharmacology, and minedification; its use in reinforcing symbols of national or
eralogy, and he also contributed important works of history
regional identity; and its functioning to inspire or legitimate
and cultural studies.
political action and Islamist identifications.
Al-Biruni originated from the region of Khwarazm, and
For example, in Iranian Shi
ism the lives of the imams
his name refers to the fact that he was born in a suburb of the
have been a source of inspired poetry and performances of
capital. Although Persian, he preferred to write in Arabic.
commemoration. A significant and instructive trend in their
When Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna conquered Khwarazm in
modern use is that during the prerevolutionary period in Iran,
1017, al-Biruni was taken as a prisoner to his capital. He
the focus of Husayn’s biography shifted from his role as tragic
became the court astrologer and then accompanied Mahmud
martyr to portraying him as an activist challenging the unjust
on his expeditions to northwestern India. This led al-Biruni
social order.
to study Sanskrit and Indian religions and customs, which he
The role of females also receives increased attention. recorded in Kitab tarikh al-Hind (Alberuni’s India). His writ-
Traditional Muslim scholars now present early Muslim he- ings include significant observations on the natural features,
roic women in ways that honor their contributions to Islamic social structure, and religious practices of the non-Muslim
history while reinforcing traditional patterns of female be- Indians. He was a prolific author of some 180 works of
havior. In contrast, the Moroccan feminist historian Fatima varying lengths, including many important treatises on mathe-
Mernissi has presented a revisionist look at the lives of a matical and astronomical topics.
number of prominent early Muslim women that attempts to
recover their independence of action and defiance of sup- See also Astronomy; Historical Writing; Knowledge;
posed cultural norms. Zaynab al-Ghazali, a contemporary Science, Islam and.
Egyptian activist in the Muslim Brotherhood, offered her
prison memories in Hayati (My life) in the form of a heroic BIBLIOGRAPHY
narrative with hagiographic undertones. Islamist autobiogra- Biruni, al-. Alberuni’s India. Translated by Eduard Sachau.
phies and convert narratives of American and European London: Keegan Paul, 1910.
Muslims open up further possibilities for hybridization in
biographical accounts. Marcia Hermansen
See also Arabic Literature; Genealogy; Historical
Writing.

BODY, SIGNIFICANCE OF
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hermansen, Marcia. “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Islamic The body is the locus of human existence and activity in
Biographical Materials.” Religion 18, no. 4 (1988): 163–182. Islam. Islamic law stipulates the regular purification of the
Lawrence, Bruce B. Notes from a Distant Flute: The Extant body, requires the use of a body in performing rituals, and
Literature of Pre-Mughal Indian Sufism. Tehran: Imperial views the body as the site of both social continuity and
Iranian Academy of Philosophy, 1978. punishment in the case of violating social norms.
Malti-Douglas, Fedwa. Medicines of the Soul: Female Bodies and
Sacred Geographies in a Transnational Islam. Berkeley: Uni- Purification and renunciation of the body are required for
versity of California, 2001. both men and women in Islamic law. Ritual purification
Mojaddedi, Jawid. Sufi Biographies from Al-Sulami to Jami: involves washing and wiping certain parts of the body, and is
Reworking Time Past. Richmond, Va.: Curzon, 2000. invalidated by natural bodily emissions (urine, feces, pus,

110 Islam and the Muslim World
Bourghiba, Habib

Though these Muslim women wear their veils in slightly different styles, all of the women are sufficiently covered. © PETER TURNLEY/CORBIS

blood, vomit), sleep, unconsciousness, insanity, and sexual although some authorities also include in this the female
contact. Most jurists also agree that touching one’s genitals voice. Crimes such as theft require the amputation of limbs
(penis, vagina, anus) also invalidates purification. The ritual (hands and feet), and other crimes such as fornication require
fast during the month of Ramadan requires keeping sub- death by stoning under certain circumstances.
stances from entering the body (food, drink, medicine) and
abstinence from sex. See also Circumcision; Gender;
Ibadat.

The body is also of symbolic importance for the rites of BIBLIOGRAPHY
the pilgrimage to Mecca. While in the sanctuary at Mecca
Katz, Marion Holmes. Body of Text: The Emergence of the
pilgrims are not allowed to eat the meat of wild animals or
Sunni Law of Ritual Purity. Albany: State University of
plants. Pilgrims are not allowed to have sex, and marriages New York Press, 2002.
performed during the pilgrimage are invalid. Nor are pil-
Reinhart, Kevin A. “Impurity/No Danger.” History of Religgrims allowed to wear sewn clothing or apply perfume to
ions 30 (1990–1991): 1–24.
their bodies. The hair and fingernails of pilgrims cannot be
cut during the pilgrimage but are cut upon exiting from the Zannad, Traki. Les lieux du corps en Islam. Paris: Publisud, 1994.
sanctuary at the end of the pilgrimage. Many classical sources
report that the prophet Muhammad distributed his hair and Brannon M. Wheeler
fingernails, cut at the end of his last pilgrimage, to his
followers as relics.

Islamic law recognizes the body as the legal sphere of the BOURGHIBA, HABIB (1901–2000)
individual. The “private area” (urwah), the area which must
be covered in public, is defined differently for men and Habib Bourghiba was the most prominent leader of Tunisia’s
women. For men it is the area between the waist and the Neo-Destour movement, which led that country to indepenknees, for women it is the area from the neck to the ankles, dence from France in 1956. Born into a middle-class family of

Islam and the Muslim World 111
Bukhara, Khanate and Emirate of

limited resources at Monastir in 1901, Bourghiba was edu- and Chaghatay rulers during the last decades of the fifteenth
cated at the prestigious Sadiqi College and at the Lycée century. The principal source of Muhammad Shibani’s au-
Carnot in Tunis; subsequently he earned a law degree at the thority was his claim of descent from Genghis Khan. He
University of Paris. After returning to Tunisia in the mid- derived additional authority from the fact that his grandfa-
1920s, he became increasingly involved in the Destour ther, Abu ’l-Khayr, had ruled a large confederation of Turco-
(constitutionalist) movement, which was seeking Tunisia’s Mongol tribes in Western Siberia known as the Uzbeks. But
autonomy from France. By the 1930s he broke with its Muhammad Shibani also propagated Islamic legitimacy by
leadership, which he considered too socially and religiously adopting the title of caliph.
conservative, and founded the Neo-Destour party, which
tended toward secular and liberal nationalism. Sovereignty in the extended Shibanid-Abulkhayrid family
was corporate, embodied in the sultans (agnatic princes who
Once independence came, however, he transformed the traced their descent from Abu l-Khayr through their father’s
Neo-Destour party—later the Destourian Socialist Party— lineage) under the overall khanship of Muhammad Shibani.
into a ruling single party. This action allowed him to gain and The khan distributed the conquered territories as appanages
maintain a tight grip over the Tunisian political process for (land grants) among the eligible Abulkhayrid princes. The
three decades. He was elected three times without opposition crisis following the unexpected death of Muhammad Shibani
to the presidency, ultimately becoming president for life in Khan in battle against Safavid Qizilbash troops (1510) led to a
1974. In the meantime, the economy stagnated or declined major reorganization of rule. A short power struggle between
and the gap between the ruling elites and the masses widened, the leaders of the major Abulkhayrid clans was resolved in a
not only materially, but also culturally. Various Islamist general meeting (quriltai) convened in 1512 in Samarkand.
groups arose in a protest movement appealing to traditional Supreme sovereignty as khan was from then on nominally
religious values. In November 1987, with Bourghiba’s physi- assigned to the senior Abulkhayrid agnate.
cal and mental health clearly deteriorating, he was deposed by
the sitting Prime Minister Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. Habib The appanages became hereditary dominions. The prin-
Bourghiba died in his native city of Monastir. cipal appanages, each dominated by one of the Abulkhayrid
cousin clans, were Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, and
See also Modernization, Political: Constitutionalism; Miyankal (the region between Samarkand and Bukhara). In
Secularism, Islamic. 1526 Balkh and the lands between the Hindu Kush and the
River Amu were regained and allotted to the Jani-Beg clan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY This appanage system remained relatively stable until the
Murphy, Emma C. Economic and Political Change in Tuni- mid-century, when unclear succession in Bukhara triggered
sia: from Bourguiba to Ben Ali. New York: St. Martin’s open interclan conflict. Abdallah II, a member of the Jani-
Press, 1999. Beg clan, eventually established himself in Bukhara in 1557
and gradually expanded his domination over the other
John Ruedy Abulkhayrid appanages. Abdallah took residence in Bukhara
and initiated large-scale urban development projects.

The political process of electing a supreme khan on the
BUKHARA, KHANATE AND basis of seniority and distributing the territory as appanages
EMIRATE OF to the eligible junior members of the royal clan was continued
by the Toqay Timurids, another clan that claimed descent
Conventional terms for the political entities in Central Asia from Genghis Khan and took over in the secession crisis that
were ruled by the khans of the Shibani-Abulkhayrid (1500 to followed the death of Abdallah’s son in 1598. The number of
1598), the Toqay-Timurid (1598 to the late 18th century) appanages was reduced to two: Bukhara, the residence of the
families, and the emirs of the Uzbek Manghit tribe (1785 to supreme khan and capital of the northern and central territo-
1920). The core territories of the khanate and emirate were ries of the khanate, and Balkh, the center of the areas south
the string of oases along the course of the river Zarafshan of the Amu.
with the cities Bukhara and Samarkand. During most of the
sixteenth to mid-eighteenth centuries, Tashkent and Balkh The military backbone of Abulkhayrid and Toqay-Timurid
also belonged to the Bukharan dominions. rule were the Uzbek emirs, leaders of the Turco-Mongol
nomadic tribal groups who had brought Muhammad Shibani
In 1500, Muhammad Shibani drove the Timurids from to power. They gradually merged with the old ruling class of
Transoxania and conquered a territory reaching from Tashkent Timurid Central Asia. The hierarchy of the emirs symbolito Khwarazm and Khurasan. Shibani, a descendant of Gen- cally followed a pattern of military-tribal organization that is
ghis Khan through his grandson Shiban, had served Timurid thought to date back to the army of Genghis Khan. However,

112 Islam and the Muslim World
Bukhara, Khanate and Emirate of

The emirs were compensated for their services by assignments of pastureland and the revenues from villages. Originally given to an individual and frequently redistributed,
these grants tended to become hereditary, and as a result
certain emirid clans and their tribal followings became closely
linked to defined territories. The Manghit tribal group thus
came to dominate the oasis of Bukhara and the pasturelands
around Qarshi.

The growing imbalance between the authority of the khan
and the tribal leaders resulted in a radical change in the crisis
that followed the temporary surrender of the khan of Bukhara
to Nadir Shah in 1740. The ataliq Muhammad Rahim, an
emir of the Manghit clan, was able to assume power in
Bukhara and even to adopt the title khan in 1756. His cousin
Shah Murad (1785–1800) abolished the khanate and ruled
with the caliphal title amir al-mu
minin (Commander of the
Faithful), thus lending his nonregal status additional Islamic
legitimacy.

The transition from the neo-Chinggisid khanate to the
Manghit emirate can be characterized by two major developments: The legitimation of rule was now Islamic rather than
based on descent from Genghis Khan, and the power of the
non-Manghit Uzbek emirs was systematically reduced. The
Manghit emirs of Bukhara created a small standing army and
so were able to become largely independent of tribal military
support. The connection of military resources and access to
regional revenues that had always made the Uzbek emirs a
potential threat to the rulers’s authority was gradually dis-
The Kalyan Minaret, built circa 1127, in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. The solved. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the
emirate of Bukhara was abolished in 1920 when its last amir,
emirate of Bukhara appears to have become a fairly central-

Alim, went into exile during the occupation of the city by Russian
revolutionary troops. © DIEGO LEZAMA OREZZOLI/CORBIS ized state. The emirate was governed through a complex
military-civil bureaucracy headed by a chief minister called
qoshbegi. The territory was divided into provinces (twentythis does not mean that the Uzbek emirs were a closed group, seven in 1915) which in turn consisted of fiscal-administrative
nor that they were restricted to military duty. The borderline units. The oasis of Bukhara was under direct administration,
between military and civil administration was to some extent while the other provinces were governed by officials called beks.
fluid. Service in the civil administration appears to have been
an integral part of an emir’s career. Already during the reign of the emir Nasrallah (1826–1860)
the emirate felt the incipient impact of the conflicting imperi-
On the other hand, high civil officials of nontribal back- alistic interests of Russia and Britain. In 1868, the emir
ground could enter the ranks of the emirs. Until the mid- Muzaffar al-Din (1860–1885) had to accept the annexation of
eighteenth century, the highest offices were the ataliq, the the eastern part of his dominions, including Samarkand, by
divanbegi, and the hakim. The ataliq (princely tutor) seems to tsarist Russia. The so-called friendship treaty between the
have served as military-administrative counselor and a liaison governor general of Russian Turkestan and the emir of
between the khan and the sultans. Hakims served as gover- Bukhara in 1873 sealed the emirate’s loss of independence.
nors of territorial subunits of the appanages. The divanbegi Though nominally still a sovereign state, the emirate was
was the head of the fiscal administration. However, to what gradually integrated into the sphere of influence of the
extent this title (and others of lower rank) matched well- Russian Empire. In 1920, Russian revolutionary troops occudefined administrative duties or rather were nominal ranks is pied Bukhara. The last emir,
Alim (r. 1910–1920), went into
difficult to determine. The high ranks of religious offices exile and the emirate was abolished.
were filled by members of a limited number of families of
noble descent (sayyid, khwaja), the most noteworthy being the A photo of the arched entryway to the Miri-Arab Madrasa
Juybari khwajas. appears in the volume one color plates.

Islam and the Muslim World 113
Bukhari, al-

See also Central Asia, Islam in; Central Asian Culture today was prepared by
Ali b. Muhammad al-Yunini (d. 1302).
and Islam. Numerous commentaries have been written on the Sahih; in
recent times, partial and complete translations of this collec-
BIBLIOGRAPHY tion have been made in a number of languages. Al-Bukhari
Becker, Seymour. Russia’s Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara died in his hometown of Bukhara at age sixty.
and Khiva, 1865–1924. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968. See also Hadith.
McChesney, Robert D. Central Asia: Foundations of Change.
Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 1996. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rauf, Muhammad Abdul. “Hadith Literature.” In Vol. 1,
Florian Schwarz Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period. Edited
by A. F. L. Beeston, et al. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 1983.
Robson, James. “al-Bukhari.” In Vol. 1, Encyclopaedia of Islam.
BUKHARI, AL- (810–870) Edited by H. A. R. Gibb, et al. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960.

Muhammad b. Isma
il al-Bukhari, who was born in Bukhara
Asma Afsaruddin
in central Asia, compiled the most important hadith collection in Sunni Islam, called al-Jami al-sahih (The sound
collection). Al-Bukhari is said to have started to learn hadiths
(“the sayings” of the prophet Muhammad) at about ten years BURAQ
of age, having been blessed with a remarkably retentive
memory and a sharp intellect. At the age of sixteen, he made In sura 17:1 of the Quran, the prophet Muhammad, led by
the pilgrimage and traveled to Mecca and Medina to study the angel Gabriel, journeys in one night (israq
) to “the Far
with well-known hadith teachers there. He next went to Distant Place of Worship,” interpreted as Jerusalem. In the
Egypt, and spent the following sixteen years traveling through hadith, Muhammad continues on to the heavens (miraj),
much of Asia in the pious pursuit of hadiths. On his return to describing his mount as a small white steed, called al-Buraq.
Bukhara, he began to scrutinize the roughly 600,000 reports Later literary and art-historical traditions give al-Buraq a
he had collected. He is said to have applied the most stringent human face, wings, and dappled coloration. This miraculous
standards in determining the reliability of these reports, steed is depicted in the fourteenth-century world history of
which led him to record only about 7,397 of them. His Rashiduddin, the fifteenth-century Timurid Mirajname, and
painstaking efforts resulted in the Sahih, which by the tenth sixteenth-century Safavid Khamsas of Nizami. Buraq’s imporcentury had achieved near universal recognition among Mus- tance continues today, appearing in Sunni paintings comlims, who regarded al-Bukhari’s collection as including the memorating a hajj to Mecca, or in Shi
ite popular art, which
most reliable and sound hadiths attributed to the Prophet, often shows al-Buraq alongside Husayn’s horse at Karbala.
based particularly on analysis of their chains of transmission.
The Sahih continues to enjoy an almost “canonical” status See also Mi
raj; Tasawwuf.
today, second only to the Quran in importance as the source
for moral and legal prescriptions. The standard edition in use Carel Bertram

114 Islam and the Muslim World
C
CAIRO stretching along the axis of the Nile River. The atmosphere
of growing provincial autonomy in the period that followed
The foundations of present-day Cairo rest upon the ancient fueled the ambitions of Ahmad ibn Tulun, a man of Turkish
capital of Memphis, one of the oldest urban settlements in the extraction appointed as deputy for the governor of Egypt. He
world, which flourished between 5000 and 2500 B.C.E. Mem- founded his own princely city slightly to the north of alphis was finally surpassed by the seaport of Alexandria when
Askar in 870 C.E., which was called al-Qatai
(the Wards),
Egypt became a Mediterranean colony of the Greeks, but its reflecting its feudal base. The awesome mosque of Ibn Tulun,
strategic position ensured continuous settlement. As a result, built between 876 and 878, is one of the most prominent
the city was still thriving at the time of the Roman conquest legacies inherited from that era and still stands, surrounded
around 24 B.C.E. Although the region was contested by the by the crowded metropolis of today.
Romans and Persians at the opening of the seventh century
C.E., it was finally the Arabs who prevailed, thereby setting
The most significant event in the genesis of Cairo is
into motion the genesis of Cairo or al-Qahira, The Victori- undoubtedly the rise of the Shi
ite Fatimid dynasty in Tunisia
ous City, as it is still referred to in Arabic. Cairo would in time at the beginning of the tenth century. The Fatimid caliphate
grow into one of the most important religious, cultural, and reached its full expression on Egyptian soil and it was its
political centers of the Muslim world. fourth caliph, Mu
izz al-Din, who gained sovereignty over
the area in 969. His brilliant general Jawhar led the campaign
The urban centers that sprouted under Islamic civilization and almost immediately began staking out the walls of a new
surfaced from either army camps, that eventually developed palace city after his arrival. The city was initially called alinto permanent cities, or princely towns established to com- Mansuriyya but was renamed al-Qahira al-Mu
izziyya four
memorate new dynasties and to affirm their authority. Cairo years later, to commemorate and celebrate the arrival of the
was conceived out of an amalgamation of such regions, in caliph. With the coming of Mu
izz al-Din, Cairo or alwhich an army camp settlement fused with the princely Qahirah was formally inducted into world history.
centers established at its periphery. As such, the successive
stages of Cairo’s genesis also capture the histories of her past Al-Qahirah was developed into a city of lavish beauty and
masters. intellectual vitality under the Fatimids. But the city remained
largely inaccessible to common people from areas like Fustat,
In 640 C.E. the forces of the illustrious Arab general
Amr who could only enter the royal enclosure by special permit.
ibn al-
As reached what is present-day Cairo. He set up camp Ironically, the al-Azhar University, which is today recognized
there and established the first mosque in Africa, which still as one of the most important intellectual centers of Sunni
stands and is one of the most important religious icons of Islam, was established by the Fatimids to promote their
Cairo today. The settlement itself came to be known as Shi
ite doctrine.
Fustat, which simply means “entrenchment,” and eventually
developed into a burgeoning city. The first major dynastic The closing of the eleventh century marked the beginning
shift in the Muslim empire left its mark upon the Egyptian of the first Crusade and also the decline of the Fatimid
landscape as well and the Abbasid victory over the Ummayads dynasty. In the period between 1164 and 1169 Cairo became
in 750 C.E. gave rise to the princely town of al-
Askar (the a pawn in the power struggle between the Seljuks of Syria and
Cantonment). In the century that followed the communities the Christian forces in Jerusalem. Although still nominally
of Fustat and al-
Askar fused to form a combined settlement ruled by the Fatimids, true control of the city eventually fell

Caliphate

the city. For example, Sultan Qalawun erected his famous
hospital in the heart of the city during this era. Although the
Cairo of the fifteenth century still surpassed any European
city in terms of urban development and population, this
period also marks the beginning of its decline. Cairo’s economic prosperity was reduced considerably due to Vasco da
Gama’s successful circumnavigation of Africa and his arrival
in India in 1498. The East-West Oriental spice trade with
Europe, which passed through Egypt, was thereby severed,
stranding Cairo in a backwater of the rapidly changing global
map. Not even the Ottomans, who finally ousted the Mamluks
in 1517, were able to hamper the city’s downward spiral.

The modernizing reforms instituted by Isma
il Pasha in
the late nineteenth century ultimately breathed life back into
Cairo. These reforms ironically were inspired by the urban
developments of modern-day Europe. Cairo is today the
largest metropolis in the Middle East and is now being stifled
by overurbanization resulting from overcentralization. This
is but the latest challenge facing the City Victorious. Having
always been at the forefront of Arab and Islamic trends, it is a
challenge to which Cairo will surely rise.

See also Sultanates: Ayyubids; Sultanates: Ghaznavid;
Sultanates: Mamluk; Sultanates: Seljuk.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abu-Lughod, Janet. Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorious.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971.
A 1996 aerial view of Cairo and the Nile River. Cairo evolved at
Ibrahim, Saad Eddin; Sobhi, Hoda M; and El-Ahwal, Abdel
the site of the ancient city of Memphis, one of the first urban
settlements, dating from 5000 B.C.E. In the tenth century C.E., the K. “Problems of Over-Urbanization: The Case of Cairo.”
Shi
ite Fatimid dynasty built a palace city called al-Qahira al- In The Middle East City: Ancient Traditions Confront a
Mu
izziyya. Al-Qahira, or Cairo, was at that time a walled, beauti- Modern World. Edited by Abdulaziz Y. Saqqaf. New York:
ful city inaccessible to non-royals from outlying areas. Entry to the Paragon House Publisher, 1987.
royal area was granted with special permission. © THOMAS HARTWELL/
CORBIS SABA
Mitchell, Timothy. Colonising Egypt. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1988.
Raymond, Andre. “Cairo.” In The Modern Middle East. Edited
by Albert Hourani; Philip S. Khoury; and Mary C. Wilson.
into the hands of the young Sunni governor Saladin (Salah al- London: I. B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 1993.
Din) al-Ayyubi, sent to defend Cairo against the Crusader
Rodenbeck, Max. Cairo: The City Victorious. London: Picacampaigns. Saladin in time established the Ayyubid dynasty
dor, 1998.
and even reconquered Jerusalem. His mercurial rise contrib-
Rogers, J. M. “Al-Kahira.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam.
uted once again to the further transformation of Cairo.
Edited by E. Van Donzel; B. Lewis; and Ch. Pellat.
Under him, the mosque of
Amr was restored and al-Azhar
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978.
University was purged of its Shi
ite bias. A madrasa (school)
was founded at the tomb of Imam al-Shafi
i soon after the
Aslam Farouk-Alli
Ayyubid conquest of Egypt and a mausoleum commemorating the great imam is still in existence today. But Saladin’s
most important and long-lived addition to the city was the
Citadel, built for him in 1176 as a place of refuge and CALIPHATE
continuously expanded upon by later generations.
In classical and medieval Islamic history and juristic theory,
By the fourteenth century Cairo was recognized as a world the Arabic term khilafa, of which “caliphate” is the anglicized
capital, reaching its zenith under the Mamluks. Cairo’s great- form, denotes the political headship of the Muslim commuest growth and development took place in this period. In spite nity. The term khalifa—which is used in the Quran with
of constant forays against the Crusaders and Mongols, the reference to Adam (2:30) and David (38:26), besides seven
Mamluk rulers still devoted energies to the development of other occurrences in the plural—is understood in Sunni

116 Islam and the Muslim World
Caliphate

juristic theory as the successor of the prophet Muhammad. several of them now refused to continue their tributary status,
The position of the caliph is the most central of all political and some renounced allegiance to the new faith as well. Abu
institutions in the history of classical Islam, and issues per- Bakr’s first challenge was to subdue these rebellious tribes to
taining to the legitimacy of those occupying this office, the secure the future of the nascent caliphate. The armies he sent
scope of its powers, and the theoretical and practical accom- against them did not stop at reasserting Medina’s authority,
modations forced upon it during the course of its long career however, but embarked on an extraordinarily daring path of
are central to the political and religious history of Islam. conquests outside the Arabian Peninsula. Muhammad had
already led campaigns in the Syrian desert, and Muslim
History of the Institution armies now began operations simultaneously in the Byzan-
Sunni Muslims believe that Muhammad did not appoint tine territories of Syria and Palestine and in the Sassanian
anyone to succeed him on his death. According to this view, territories. The degree to which the conquest of the Byzanwhich has also been generally adopted by modern scholars of tine and Sassanian territories was the result of careful planearly Islamic history, a number of the companions of Muham- ning or coordination from Medina is uncertain; yet by the
mad congregated in Medina immediately after his death to time Abu Bakr died (634), two years after the death of
deliberate on the question of his succession. At this meeting, Muhammad, the early Islamic state was already on its way to
Abu Bakr, a member of Muhammad’s tribe of Quraysh and becoming a major world empire.
one of the most influential of his companions, was elected as
the first caliph. The succession was soon recognized by the The beginnings of the administrative organization of the
other companions, including
Ali, the initially recalcitrant caliphate are credited to Abu Bakr’s immediate successor,
cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, who was later to
Umar ibn al-Khattab (r. 634–644). He created a military
become the focus of the legitimist claims of the Shi
a. The register (diwan) for the payment of the troops and for the
latter’s view of Muhammad’s succession is squarely at odds disbursement of pensions to other members of the Muslim
with that of the Sunnis. To them, Muhammad had, in fact, community. It was in his reign that the first garrison towns
designated a successor in the person of
Ali, and most of the were established in the conquered lands, a system of taxation
companions of the Prophet were culpable for subverting this was put in place, and efforts were made to minimize the social
explicit testament, as indeed were the successors of the first- and economic disruptions inherent in this rapid conquest. Yet
generation Muslims for their continued denial of the claims it was not just the conquered people but also the new
of
Ali’s descendants, the imams, to the political and religious conquerors who had to cope with the changes set in motion
headship of Islam. by the expansion of the Medinan state. Entire tribes came to
settle in the newly acquired territories, and, quite apart from
As the rival Shi
ite and Sunni perspectives on early Islam— such rivalries as they may have brought with them from their
and especially on the locus of legitimate authority after earlier environs, new grievances and conflicts were provoked
Muhammad—suggest, there are competing, often irreconcil- by the competing claims of those who had converted to Islam
able, narratives that comprise the history and historiography early or late (which determined the share of one’s stipends),
of the early caliphate. In the form that these and other by the unfamiliar demands of the nascent state on its subjects,
narratives have come down to the present day, they are also and by the conduct and policies of the caliph or his agents.
relatively late (with the earliest extant sources on the caliphate
dating from the 9th century), and their content and structure Such resentments came to the surface in the reign of
often reveal considerable instability in how they were trans-
Uthman ibn
Affan (r. 644–656), the third successor of
mitted or variously rearranged by different hands before, Muhammad, who was eventually murdered in Medina by
and even after, being committed to writing. Early Islamic disaffected Arab tribesmen from the garrisons of Kufa, Basra,
historiography may provide rich clues to the controversies on and Egypt. The murder of
Uthman inaugurated the series of
questions of religious and political authority during the first bitter conflicts within the Muslim community that are colleccenturies of Islam, but it does not serve well as a reliable guide tively known as the fitna—a highly evocative term suggesting
to the history of the caliphate. Yet, if sources do not lend a time of temptation and trial, dissension, and chaos. This
themselves to a detailed reconstruction of the careers of civil war, Islam’s first, was to continue throughout the reign
individual caliphs during Islam’s first two centuries or more, of
Uthman’s successor,
Ali ibn Abi Talib (r. 656–661), and
modern scholars generally agree that even the tendentiousness it ended only with the latter’s assassination and the rise of the
of the extant accounts does allow an overview of the caliphate’s Umayyad dynasty (r. 661–750). The events of these years
history along something like the following lines. were debated by Muslims for centuries: It is to these events
that later Muslims looked in explaining and arguing over
The caliphate of Abu Bakr (632–634), which signified the their sectarian divisions, some of which were to prove permacontinuation of the polity that Muhammad had founded in nent. Even in later centuries, it was never easy to explain how
Medina, was challenged by a number of tribes in the Arabian the first community of believers, formed by the Prophet’s
Peninsula. They had acknowledged Muhammad’s authority own guidance, had fallen into such turmoil so soon after
by embracing Islam and sending tribute to Medina, but his death.

Islam and the Muslim World 117
Caliphate

The Umayyads. Like their predecessors, the Umayyads too rulers that medieval Arab chroniclers and many modern
were members of the Quraysh tribe. Unlike their predeces- scholars have often represented them to be. As Crone and
sors, all four of whom came, after much controversy, to be set Hinds have shown, their coins, their official pronounceapart from subsequent rulers and to be revered by Sunni ments, and their panegyrists often characterized them as the
Muslims as the Rashidun, the “rightly guided” caliphs, the “deputies of God,” a formulation frowned on by the religious
rise of the Umayyads marked the establishment of a caliphal scholars but one that suggests something of the scope and
dynasty. Mu
awiya (r. 661–680), the founder of this dynasty, seriousness of Umayyad religious claims. The caliphs are
based his rule on careful cultivation and manipulation of ties known to have given decisions on matters involving Islamic
with tribal notables (ashraf), and it was through such ties that law and ritual, and some of them are featured as authorities in
he was able not just to govern but also to have his son, Yazid I early collections of hadith. Above all, the existence of a
(r. 680–683), recognized as his heir. This system of rule powerful centralized political authority provided the crucial
through tribal intermediaries was short-lived, however. On context in which the early development of Islam and of
Mu
awiya’s death, several disparate revolts—often character- Muslim communal and cultural identity took place.
ized as the second civil war—erupted in different parts of the
Yet the growing community of Muslims also posed serious
empire. Among these was the revolt of Husayn, the son of
Ali
challenges to the Umayyads. Since the conquest of the
and the grandson of the Prophet, who was killed in Iraq in 680
Middle East, the economic well-being of the state was based
along with a small band of his followers. Though hardly
on the principle that the non-Muslims paid the bulk of the
momentous at the time it occurred, this event was to acquire
taxes on the land, while the Muslims were responsible for
profound importance in the history of Shi
ite Islam as the
only the religiously obligated taxes on their wealth. In theory,
symbolic focus of Shi
ite piety and religious identity. At the
anyone who joined the ranks of the Muslims was entitled to
time, however, far more serious threats to the Umayyads
the same concessions; in practice, a large influx of previously
were represented by the revolt of
Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr in
taxed non-Arabs threatened the revenues of the empire, with
the Hijaz, in Arabia, and by factional warfare between Arab
the result that the new Muslims (the mawali or “clients”)
tribes in Syria and Mesopotamia. In 684, with the civil war
often continued to be taxed as if they had not converted to
still in progress, Marwan ibn al-Hakam (r. 684–685) was
Islam. The Umayyads never satisfactorily resolved the probelected caliph in Syria, marking the transfer of ruling authorlem of how to integrate the new non-Arab Muslims into the
ity from Mu
awiya’s descendants, the Sufyanid clan (of which
Muslim community, and they thereby created considerable

Uthman had been a member), to another clan of the Umayyad
resentment against their dynasty. This was compounded by
family. This clan, the Marwanids, was to rule as caliphs until
the grievances of those Arabs who had given up their military
the overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty in 750.
careers and settled down in the conquered lands, but felt
discriminated against or unfairly treated by the military
The Marwanids governed their empire through powerful
generals and their (sometimes non-Muslim) tax-collecting
generals appointed from the capital, Damascus, and through
agents. There was, moreover, increasingly destructive tribal
increasingly elaborate administrative departments (diwans).
factionalism within the Umayyad army that severely weak-
Late antique administrative structures and traditions continened the caliphate both through faction-based military reued under the Umayyads even as they underwent sometimes
volts and the systematic persecution of members of a faction
rapid changes that expressed the evolving Arab and Islamic
each time a rival came to power.
identity of the new empire. Around the turn of the eighth
century, the language of the administration was itself changed Shi
ite groups led a number of revolts against the Umayyads,
from ancient Persian and Greek to Arabic and a new system as did the Kharijites, erstwhile followers of
Ali who had
of coinage, clearly asserting the Islamic identity of the new separated from him when he agreed to negotiate with what
rulers, was instituted. This identity was expressed even more the Kharijites regarded as Mu
awiya’s iniquitous party. The
strikingly in monumental architecture, of which the two most revolt that brought the Umayyad dynasty to an end in 750
famous extant examples are the Dome of the Rock in Jerusa- also began as a Shi
ite movement that called, as had many
lem, built during the reign of the caliph
Abd al-Malik (r. others before it, for returning the rule back to the rightful
685–705), and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, built descendants of the Prophet and for rule according to the
under his successor al-Walid I (r. 705–715). “book of God and the sunna of His Prophet.” It was not,
however, the descendants of
Ali but those of al-
Abbas, an
Though the Umayyads are often portrayed as worldly uncle of the Prophet, that came to power with what is often
“kings” in Arabic historiography (an unfavorable image that characterized by modern scholars as the “Abbasid revolution.”
owes much to the fact that early Islamic historiography is
largely the work of those who were unfavorably disposed The Abbasids. The new center of the empire was Iraq rather
toward this dynasty), it was under their rule that Islamic than Syria, and bureaucrats of Iranian origin were prominent
religious, cultural, and political institutions began to take in the Abbasid caliphate (750–1258) from its inception. The
their distinctive shape. The caliphs, though far removed from new empire was, like its predecessor, also an “Arab kingdom,”
the austere lifestyle of the Rashidun, were hardly the ungodly and indeed there were important continuities between the

118 Islam and the Muslim World
Caliphate

Umayyad Caliphs

Umayyah

Harb Abu l-
As

Abu-Sufyan (c. 565–653; Meccan chief)
Affan al-Hakam

Yazid 2. Mu
awiya I r. 661–680 Umm-Habibah⫽Muhammad
(Gov. of Syria, 639) (Gov. of Syria, 639–661) the Prophet
(d. 632)

3. Yazid I r. 680–683

4. Mu
awiya II r. 683 Umm-Kulthum and Ruqayyah⫽1.
Uthman r. 644–656 5. Marwan I
(figurehead) r. 683–685 (chief aide
to
Uthman, 644–656;
never generally recognized
as caliph

Muhammad 6.
Abd-al-Malik r. 685–705
Abd-al-
Aziz
(generally recognized from 692) (Gov. of Egypt)

7. al-Walid I r. 705–715 8. Sulayman r. 715–717 10. Yazid II r. 720–724 11. Hisham r. 724–743

15. Marwan II 9.
Umar II
r. 744–750 r. 717–720

13. Yazid III r. 744 14. Ibrahim r. 744 12. al-Walid II r. 743–744
Mu
awiyah


Abd-al-Rahman I
(emir at Córdova;
ancestor of the
Spanish caliphs)

Claimants to the caliphate or caliphs are set in bold type, and are sequentially numbered.

SOURCE: Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1974.

Geneology of the early caliphs.

Umayyad and the early Abbasid caliphates. Yet, the latter was the justification for their claims to the caliphate. This was to
much more inclusive in terms of the ethnic origins of its remain a major basis of their legitimist claims, though it was
soldiers and bureaucrats and much more successful in assimi- scarcely the only one. The early Abbasid caliphs also tried to
lating its non-Arab subjects into the Islamic empire. Its invoke, especially in their regnal titles, the messianic expectaideological emphases were also different from its predeces- tions rife at the time; they sought, as had the Umayyads in
sor’s. Unlike the Umayyads but like the
Alids, the Abbasids their own ways, to bolster their authority with appeals to preemphasized from the outset their kinship with the Prophet as Islamic royal traditions and symbolism, and they presided

Islam and the Muslim World 119
Caliphate

over elaborate circles of patronage that involved a broad victims of the mihna. But al-Mamun died shortly after the
spectrum of the cultural and religious elite of the time. inquisition began, and though it continued in effect under
Baghdad, founded by al-Mansur (r. 754–775) as his new two of his immediate successors, it did more, in the long run,
capital, had evocative imperial symbolism inscribed in its very to define the “uncreatedness” of the Quran as a Sunni creed
design, but it soon also became the center of culture and and to solidify the ranks of the early Sunni scholars than it did
learning, and of interaction not only between various Muslim to enhance the caliph’s religious authority. Later caliphs were
groups and emerging schools and sects but also between usually happier to align themselves with the Sunni religious
Muslims and non-Muslims. scholars in asserting their own roles in the community’s
religious life than they were in confronting or challeng-
The first century of Abbasid rule was a time of extraordi- ing them.
nary cultural and religious efflorescence, not just in Baghdad
but also in the major provincial towns. It was during this time Toward the end of the first century of Abbasid rule, the
that the eponymous founders of the major schools of Sunni caliph was still in control of large parts of his realm, but his
and Shi
ite law flourished. The systematic collection of the empire was not as extensive as it had been at the beginning of
traditions of the Prophet, the hadith, began to take place the dynasty, and it was rapidly shrinking. Some of the provduring this time; some of the first extant works of hadith date inces were already becoming independent in all but name,
to this period, as does the earliest major biography of the and at the heart of the empire, the caliph had to cope with the
Prophet, the Sira of Ibn Ishaq (d. 767). Under royal patron- increasing power of a new military force, Turkish “slave
age, systematic efforts were made to translate ancient philo- soldiers” drawn from the lands of the Central Asian steppe, a
sophical and scientific works into Arabic, and this was the age force that in later decades contributed substantially to the
that saw formative developments in Islamic theology, notably political and economic weakness of the Abbasid state. This
the rise of the rationalist Mu
tazila, as well as the beginnings pattern of a shrinking state and the caliph’s increasing deof what later emerged as Sunni and Shi
ite Islam. pendence on military generals was to continue for much of
subsequent Abbasid history. From the middle of the tenth
But this formative age was also a time of considerable
century, the caliphs came under the sway of ruling families
political turmoil. A number of Shi
ite revolts, of which the
that controlled the Abbasid realm, and often the person of the
most serious took place in Medina and Basra in 762, threatcaliph himself, in all but name. The Buyids, a family of Shi
ite
ened Abbasid rule. The existence of the descendants of
Ali,
military adventurers from Iran, ruled what was left of the
the Shi
ite imams, and their followers in the midst of the
Abbasid caliphate from the middle of the tenth to the middle
community continued to challenge Abbasid legitimacy.
of the eleventh century. They were supplanted by the staunchly
Khurasan, where the Abbasid revolt had originated, saw
many uprisings against the caliphal state in the early decades Sunni Turkish Seljuks, who then oversaw the Abbasid caliphs
after the revolution. The empire was also shaken by a destruc- until toward the end of the twelfth century. Even as the
tive civil war between two sons of Harun al-Rashid (r. caliphate declined in effective political power, and for all the
786–809), eventuating in the murder of the incumbent caliph, humiliations that individual caliphs were meted out at the
al-Amin (r. 809–813), and the succession of his brother and hands of the warlords, the symbolic significance of the caliphal
the governor of Khurasan, al-Mamun (r. 813–833). This institution grew during these centuries. The Shi
ite Buyids
murder, and the widespread uncertainty and disorder that not only maintained the caliphate but sought also to legitiaccompanied and followed the civil war, considerably weak- mize their own rule by seeking formal recognition from the
ened the Abbasid state, necessitating extensive effort on the caliphs. The Seljuk sultans and their wazirs were often far
part of the caliph to reassert his authority. This effort took more powerful than the caliph or his officials, but they too
some unusual forms. continued to be formally subservient to the caliph.

Unlike his Abbasid predecessors, al-Mamun made strong Not all caliphs during this period were equally helpless,
claims to religious authority, namely to an ability to lay down however. At times of political transition, when the warlords
at least some of what his subjects must believe. Toward the were weak, and depending on the personal abilities and
end of his reign, he instituted the mihna, an inquisition to initiative of individual caliphs, the latter could exercise a
enforce conformity to the theological doctrine that the Quran prominent role in the political and religious life of the realm.
ought to be regarded as the “created” word of God. Irrespec- Notable among such caliphs were al-Qadir (r. 991–1031) and
tive of the provenance of this idea or its theological merit, it al-Qaim (r. 1031–1075) in the Buyid period, and al-Nasir (r.
allowed the caliph to assert his own authority as the arbiter of 1180–1225), who reigned at a time when the Seljuk power
the community’s religious life. The inquisition was appar- had waned and who utilized his ties with Sufi and chivalric
ently intended not only to extend the scope of caliphal (futuwwa) groups, which he reorganized with himself at their
authority but also to humble many of those scholars of hadith head, to reassert his authority during a remarkably ambitious
and law whose growing influence in society the caliph re- reign. But such revivals were sporadic and they did not do
sented and who consequently were among the principle very much to seriously stem the effects of the long decline the

120 Islam and the Muslim World
Caliphate

caliphate had already undergone. In the middle of the thir- such the Abbasids, too, could and did claim to be the ahl alteenth century, the caliphate of Baghdad was terminated bayt, and indeed their revolutionary propaganda had dealtogether at the hands of the Mongols, whose ravages in- manded the installation as caliph of the “acceptable one (alcluded the destruction of large parts of the eastern Islamic rida) from the family of Muhammad.” The descendants of
world. The caliphate was revived—and the Mongol tide
Ali, however, denied that any but their own number was
finally stemmed—by the Mamluks of Syria and Egypt, but properly entitled to the caliphate, though there were sharp
the Abbasid caliphs of the Mamluk era never had the prestige disagreements among them on the precise qualifications of
or the symbolic capital possessed by many of their predeces- the person who was to be the political-religious head of the
sors in Baghdad. The Mamluk era and, with it, the shadow community—the imam. Since the time of their sixth imam,
Abbasid caliphate ended with the Ottoman conquest of Ja
far al-Sadiq (d. 765), the Imami Shi
a had found it prudent
Egypt in 1517. to hold largely quietist political views: The imam did not have
to show his entitlement to this position by actually taking up
Ideological Challenges to the Caliphate arms against the iniquitous order, as certain other Shi
ias
From the time of its inception, the caliphate faced challenges thought he must. This meant that, despite tensions, the
of varying degrees of gravity to its existence. Many of these Imamis could continue to live in peace under the caliphs. But
challenges were political. Civil wars resulted in some of the the Isma
ili Shi
a, differing with the Imamis on the identity of
major shifts in the caliphal office: the end of the Rashidun era those of Ja
far’s descendants who were to be recognized as
and the emergence of the Umayyads; the transfer of the imams, thought and acted differently. A state established by
caliphate from the Sufyanids to the Marwanids; the Abbasid the Qarmati Isma
ilis in northeastern Arabia gave much grief
revolution; and the war between al-Amin and al-Mamun. to the Abbasids during the tenth century. In the early tenth
There was secession of territories that had once been part of century, a stronger and more ambitious Isma
ili state, the
the caliphate, internal rebellions and warfare with external caliphate of the Fatimids, was established in Ifriqiyya (modernfoes, and, eventually, the loss of effective caliphal control of day Tunisia) from where it moved, in 969, to Egypt.
the heartland of the empire itself and, indeed, even of the
The Fatimids saw themselves as Isma
ili imams as well as
caliphs’s own freedom of action. Some of the challenges to
caliphs, demanding absolute authority over their followers
the caliphate were also ideological, in that they denied the
and challenging, with considerable might and a splendor to
legitimacy of those who occupied this office or contested the
match, the legitimist claims of all other rival states and rulers.
basic assumptions on which the Sunni institution of the
The pressure of these claims was felt widely, and not just by
caliphate was predicated. The Kharijites, for all the antagothe Abbasids. Thus it was in response to them, and not
nism within their ranks, denied the legitimacy not only of
primarily as an affront to the Abbasids, that the Umayyads

Uthman’s later years but also that of most of his successors.
who had been ruling Spain ever since the fall of the Umayyad
Their position that a ruler who was guilty of a grave sin ought
caliphate in Damascus, began to also style themselves as
to be deposed brought them into frequent and bloody conflict
caliphs in the tenth century. The Abbasids, however, outlived
with the government. Indeed all but the most moderate of the
both of these claimants to the caliphate. And while the
Kharijites were eventually eliminated, but not before they
Fatimid caliphate was in existence, the Shi
ite Buyids of Iraq
had forcefully raised the question of what constituted a
were happier to pay nominal allegiance to the Sunni Abbasids
legitimate ruler, under what circumstances must an unjust than they were to the Fatimids, and even the Qarmati Isma
ilis
and sinful ruler be deposed, and what were the terms of remained opposed to the latter. As for the population of
membership in the community of Muslims. As Crone has Egypt, most people preferred to remain Sunnis, and it was to
shown, some of the Kharijites as well as certain Mu
tazili the Sunni Abbasid caliphate that the celebrated Saladin
theologians were not convinced that the position of a caliph looked when he terminated Fatimid rule in 1171.
was necessary at all, though this view did not attract much
support from the Muslim community. The Caliphate in Constitutional Theory
Detailed formulations of Sunni public law are the product of
If the history of the caliphate is viewed from the perspec- times when the caliphate had largely ceased to be an effective
tive of the majoritarian Sunnis rather than from that of the political institution. The most influential of these, the Ahkam
Shi
a, then the latter must be seen as representing a more al-sultaniyya of the Shafi
i jurist al-Mawardi (d. 1058), was
durable challenge to the legitimacy of the caliphate than had written in the later Buyid period, when the caliphs had for
even the Kharijites. Divided into many different sects, the decades lived in often humiliating circumstances under the
Shi
a agreed that the headship of the Muslim community tutelage of their military overlords. Even so, the caliph
belonged properly to a member of the “people of the house” occupies the center of al-Mawardi’s exposition, with all pow-
(ahl al-bayt). What this phrase connoted was a matter of some ers of appointment and dismissal concentrated in his person,
uncertainty in early Islam, though the term came to be to be “delegated” to others as needed. The principal funcgenerally understood to refer to the family of the Prophet. As tions of the caliph, as al-Mawardi saw them, were: the

Islam and the Muslim World 121
Caliphate

preservation of religion according to its agreed-upon princi- have had much practical efficacy, though it did serve as a
ples; implementation of the law, preservation of order, and pointed reminder of the jurists’ view that a ruler was legitithe security of the realm against internal and external threats; mate only insofar as he did not flagrantly contravene the basic
undertaking jihad; the collection of the taxes as required by norms of justice and of the shari
a— that is, as long as he
the sacred law, the shari
a, and the proper disbursement and allowed the continuance of a world in which the scholars
use of the revenues; and the appointment of the appropriate could do their work of providing practical religious guidance
officials for discharging the various functions of the state; and to the community. For the most part, however, Sunni politiclose personal supervision of public affairs. Al-Mawardi’s cal thought had made its peace with the political realities long
formulations were plainly idealistic; indeed, some of them before the extinction of the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad.
would have been so even when the Abbasids presided over a The resurrected Abbasid caliphate of Cairo did not receive
large and powerful empire. Yet, in a milieu of political much attention from later scholars. Rather, jurists like Ibn
decline, they served important functions. They were simulta- Taymiyya (d. 1328) ignored the institution altogether, focusneously a way of protesting against the existing circum- ing instead on the implementation of the shari
a by the
stances, through a rearticulation of caliphal privileges and his ruler—whoever he might be—in collaboration with the religcentrality to the life of the community, and a means of ious scholars.
bringing juristic theory into some accord with changing
circumstances. As for the former, it is noteworthy that the Historic and Symbolic Significance of the Caliphate
caliph al-Qadir, under whom al-Mawardi wrote his treatise, The fundamental importance of the caliphate, irrespective of
had himself made efforts to reassert some of his authority the actual conduct of individual caliphs or the political foragainst the later Buyids and, as Gibb has suggested (“Al- tunes of the institution, lies in what it symbolizes of the
Mawardi’s Theory”), this treatise may have been part of the classical history of Islam and of the Muslim community. The
same effort. But, the jurist also made important concessions early caliphate was not only the force behind the military
to changing times: The person elevated to the caliphate expansion of the Arab Muslims immediately after the death of
ought to be the “best” of all those available, yet one who was Muhammad, it was also the institution that kept the Muslims
not such could validly occupy the position; the caliph could together as a religious and political entity. For all the adhold his position even with his powers severely limited by a verse views that abound about the Umayyads in Arabic
military usurper, provided the latter continued to abide by historiography, it was through their caliphate that the politithe shari
a; and independent rulers of outlying provinces cal survival of the Muslim community was assured. And it was
could be recognized as legitimate and indeed integrated into in the framework of the caliphal state, under the Umayyads
the caliphal system if they formally submitted to the caliph and then under the Abbasids, that the religious and cultural
and did not contravene the shari
a. institutions of Islam evolved. The formation of Islam, its
intellectual life, and culture in the first centuries, is, in short,
Jurists like al-Mawardi sought to tread a difficult path not merely intertwined with but inconceivable without the
between trying to formalize and legitimize the status quo, to caliphate.
adapt the shari
a itself to the changing circumstances, and to
encourage the existing authorities to conform in some man- Even as it declined, the caliphate continued to represent
ner to the shari
a. Later jurists went much beyond al-Mawardi the historical continuity of the Muslim community. It also
in their concessions to realpolitik. For instance, al-Ghazali (d. represented the ideal of the shari
a’s supremacy in the collec-
1111) argued that the interests of the community dictated tive life of the community. The symbolic weight of the
that any military usurper be deemed legitimate, for the effort caliphal institution continued to be felt, as long as the caliphate
to remove him would inevitably result in political chaos and lasted, in the investitures sought by many of the rulers who
bloodshed; indeed, whoever was recognized as caliph by the were independent of the caliphate in all but name. This
military ruler was to be accepted as a legitimate caliph. Such symbolic power could be revived even long after the institujuristic formulations meant the recognition of a reality the tion associated with it had become extinct. For much of their
jurists (or the caliphs, for that matter) were powerless to history, the Ottoman sultans had not claimed to be “caliphs,”
change. They also signified efforts to safeguard the historical yet even they began to do so from the late eighteenth century.
continuity of the Muslim community. To concede that the This was largely meant to assert Ottoman authority over
constituted political authority was (and for centuries past had those who lived in territories now lost to the sultan, and
been) illegitimate would have meant that the overall political thereby also to bolster his weakening standing vis-à-vis the
framework in which the community lived was fundamentally European powers of the time. Such claims on the part of the
illegitimate, and, unlike the Shi
a, the Sunni scholars were not sultans had resonance in several Muslim societies, especially
willing to go so far. Yet, as Khaled Abou El Fadl has shown, if as the latter came under colonial rule and began more
they acknowledged the legitimacy of the existing order and anxiously to look for a visible symbol of the worldwide
had a stake in its preservation, many Sunni jurists did not Muslim community. This sentiment found its most powerful
necessarily close all doors to the possibility of rebellion expression in India, where what was in fact the Indian subconagainst unjust rule. Leaving such a possibility open may not tinent’s very first mass-movement of the colonial period was

122 Islam and the Muslim World
Calligraphy

launched in defense of the Ottoman caliphate at the end of Sanders, Paula. Ritual, Politics, and the City in Fatimid Cairo.
the First World War—a movement that came to an end only Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.
with the formal termination of the Ottoman caliphate by Tabari, Al-. The History of Al-Tabari. Albany: State University
Republican Turkey in 1924. That was not the end of the of New York Press, 1985–1999.
symbolic significance of the caliphate, however. For it was in Tyan, Emile. Institutions du droit public musulman, Vol. 1: Le
the debates surrounding the dissolution of the Ottoman califat. Paris: R. Sirey, 1954.
caliphate that some of the first modern discussions on the Zaman, Muhammad Qasim. Religion and Politics under the
“Islamic state” were to find their point of departure in the Early
Abbasids. Leiden: Brill, 1997.
twentieth century.
Muhammad Qasim Zaman
See also Empires: Abbasid; Empires: Ottoman; Empires:
Umayyad; Kharijites, Khawarij; Monarchy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY CALLIGRAPHY
Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Rebellion and Violence in Islamic Law.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Muslims have always deemed calligraphy, the art of beautiful
writing, the noblest of the arts. The first chapters of the
Azmeh, Aziz al-. Muslim Kingship: Power and the Sacred in
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Muslim, Christian, and Pagan Polities. London: I. B.
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Crone, Patricia. “Ninth-century Muslim Anarchists.” Past
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Crone, Patricia. Slaves on Horses. Cambridge, U.K.: Cam- became the most honored type of artist. We know the names,
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Authority in the First Centuries of Islam. Cambridge, U.K.: between writing and the revelation, Islamic calligraphy is
Cambridge University Press, 1986. meant to convey an aura of effortlessness and immutability,
Gibb, H. A. R. “Al-Mawardi’s Theory of the Caliphate.” In and the individual hand and personality are sublimated to
his Studies on the Civilization of Islam. London: Routledge the overall impression of stateliness and grandeur. In this
and Kegan Paul, 1962. way Islamic calligraphy differs markedly from other great
Gibb, H. A. R. “Some Considerations on the Sunni Theory calligraphic traditions, notably the Chinese, in which the
of the Caliphate.” In his Studies on the Civilization of Islam. written text is meant to impart the personality of the calligra-
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962. pher and recall the moment of its creation. Islamic calligra-
Hawting, G. R. The First Dynasty of Islam. 2d ed. London: phy, by contrast, is timeless.
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Hibri, Tayeb El-. Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography: Harun The reed pen (qalam) was the writing implement par
al-Rashid and the Narrative of the
Abbasid Caliphate. Cam- excellence in Islamic civilization. The brush, used for calligbridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999. raphy in China and Japan, was reserved for painting in the
Islamic lands. In earliest times Muslim calligraphers penned
Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and
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Chicago Press, 1974. sheep and goats, but from the eighth century parchment was
gradually replaced by the cheaper and more flexible support
Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates.
London: Longman, 1986. of paper. From the fourteenth century virtually all calligraphy in the Muslim lands was written on paper. Papermakers
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fine calligraphy, and the colored, marbled, and gold-sprinkled
Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of papers used by calligraphers in later periods are some of the
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sity Press, 1997.
Mawardi, Al-. The Ordinances of Government. Translated by Almost all Islamic calligraphy is written in Arabic script.
W. H. Wahba. Reading, U.K.: Garnet Publishing, 1996. The Quran was revealed in that language, and the sanctity of
Qadi, Wadad al-. “The Term ‘Khalifa’ in Early Exegetical the revelation meant that the script was adopted for many
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Safran, Janina M. The Second Umayyad Caliphate: The Articu- Urdu. Unlike many other scripts that have at least two
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Islam and the Muslim World 123
Calligraphy

The Arabic alphabet. Arabic calligraphy is done with a qalam, a type of reed pen, rather than with a brush as in East
Asia. Islam’s reverence for the written word contributes to calligraphy’s status as the religion’s most honorable art
form. © HISTORICAL PICTURE ARCHIVE/CORBIS

124 Islam and the Muslim World
Calligraphy

only the cursive form, in which some, but not all, letters are Calligraphers in early Islamic times regularly used the
connected and assume different forms depending on their rectilinear styles to transcribe manuscripts of the Quran.
position in the word (initial, medial, final, and independent). Indeed, the rectilinear styles might be deemed Quranic
hands, for we know only one other manuscript—an unidenti-
The cursive nature of Arabic script allowed calligraphers
fied genealogical text in Berlin (Staatsbibliotheque no. 379)—
to develop many different styles of writing, which are usually
written in a rectilinear script. None of these early manugrouped under two main headings: rectilinear and rounded.
scripts of the Quran is signed or dated, and most survive only
Since the eighteenth century, scholars have often called the
in fragmentary form, and so scholars are still refining other
rectilinear styles “Kufic,” after the city of Kufa in southern
methods, both paleographic and codicological, to group and
Iraq, which was an intellectual center in early Islamic times.
localize the scripts used in these early parchment manuscripts
This name is something of a misnomer, for as yet we have no
of the Quran.
idea which particular rectilinear style this name denoted.
Scholars have proposed various other names to replace kufic,
The major change in later Islamic times was the gradual
including Old or Early Abbasid style, but these names are not
adoption and adaptation of round hands for calligraphy.
universally accepted, in part because they carry implicit
From the ninth century calligraphers transformed the round
political meanings, and many scholars continue to use the
hands into artistic scripts suitable for transcribing the Quran
term kufic.
and other prestigious texts. The earliest surviving copy of the
Similarly, scholars often called the rounded styles naskh, Quran written in a rounded hand is a small manuscript, now
from the verb nasakha (to copy). The naskh script is indeed the dispersed but with the largest section preserved in the Chesmost common hand used for transcription and the one upon ter Beatty Library in Dublin (ms. 1417). It bears a note in
which modern styles of typography are based, but the name is Persian saying that the manuscript was corrected by a certain
also something of a misnomer, for it refers to only one of a Ahmad ibn
Ali ibn Abu ’l-Qasm al-Khayqani in June 905,
group of six rounded hands that became prominent in later and it is tacitly accepted that the rounded hand was developed
Islamic times. As with kufic, scholars have proposed several in Iran or nearby Iraq, heartland of the Abbasid caliphate. In
other names to replace naskh, such as new style (often abbre- the ensuing centuries calligraphers continued to develop and
viated N.S.), or new Abbasid style, but these names, too, are elaborate the rounded style, and from the fourteenth century
not universally accepted. virtually all manuscripts of the Quran were written in one of
the six round scripts known as the Six Pens (Arabic, al-aqlam
Medieval sources mention the names of many other
al-sitta; Persian, shish qalam). These comprise three pairs of
calligraphic hands, but so far it has been difficult, even
majuscule-miniscule hands, thuluth-naskh, muhaqqaq-rayhan,
impossible, to match many of these names with distinct styles
and tawqi
-riqa
, and calligraphers delighted in juxtaposing
of script. Very few sources describe the characteristics of a
the different scripts, particularly the larger and smaller variparticular style or give illustrations of particular scripts.
ants of the same pair.
Furthermore, the same names may have been applied to
different styles in different places and at different times.
Various explanations have been proposed for this trans-
Hence it may never be possible to link the names of specific
formation of rounded book hands into proportioned scripts
scripts given in the sources with the many, often fragmentary,
suitable for calligraphing fine manuscripts. These explanamanuscripts at hand, especially from the early period.
tions range from the political (e.g., the spread of orthodox
Both the rectilinear and the rounded styles were used for Sunni Islam) to the sociohistorical (e.g., the new role of the
writing from early Islamic times, but in the early period the chancery scribe as copyist and calligrapher), but perhaps the
rounded style seems to have been a book hand used for most convincing are the practical. The change from rectilinordinary correspondence, while the rectilinear style was re- ear to rounded script coincided with the change from parchserved for calligraphy. Although no examples of early callig- ment to paper, and the new style of writing might well be
raphy on parchment can be definitively dated before the late connected with a new type of reed pen, a new method of
ninth century, the importance of the rectilinear style in early sharpening the nib, or a new way that the pen was held, placed
Islamic times is clear from other media with inscriptions, such on the page, or moved across it. In the same way, the adoption
as coins, architecture, and monumental epigraphy. The Fihrist of paper engendered the adoption of a new type of black soot
by Ibn al-Nadim (d. 995) records the names of calligraphers ink (midad) that replaced the dark brown, tannin-based ink
who worked in the Umayyad and Abbasid periods, and both (hibr) used on parchment.
coins and the inscriptions on the first example of Islamic
architecture, the Dome of the Rock erected in Jerusalem by From the fourteenth century calligraphers, especially those
the Umayyad caliph
Abd al-Malik in 692, show that from in the eastern Islamic lands, developed more stylized forms of
earliest times Umayyad calligraphers applied such aesthetic rounded script. The most distinctive is the hanging script
principles as balance, symmetry, elongation, and stylization known as nasta
liq, which was particularly suitable for tranto transform ordinary writing into calligraphy. scribing Persian, in which many words end in letters with

Islam and the Muslim World 125
Capitalism

large bowls, such as ya or ta. Persian calligraphers com- system conducive to free exchange. Where this system allegmonly used nasta
liq to pen poetic texts, in which the rounded edly differs from capitalism, which also promotes economic
bowls at the end of each hemistich form a visual chain down freedoms, is that it avoids sharp inequalities, chronic corrupthe right side of the columns on a page. They also used tion, and mass exploitation. If Muslims restructure their
nasta
liq to pen poetic specimens (qit
a). These elaborately economic relations according to Islamic stipulations, say the
planned calligraphic compositions typically contain a Persian proponents of Islamic economics, they can obtain all the
quatrain written in colored and gold-dusted inks on fine, benefits of capitalism without incurring its costs. Specifically,
brightly colored and highly polished paper and set in elabo- they can achieve prosperity, steady innovation, and material
rately decorated borders. The swooping strokes of the letters security—all traits associated with today’s advanced market
and bowls provide internal rhythm and give structure to the economies—within a framework based on honesty and brothcomposition. In contrast to the anonymous works of the early erly cooperation.
period, these calligraphic specimens are frequently signed
and dated, and connoisseurs vied to assemble fine collections, If this logic resonates with many Muslims, the reason is
which were often mounted in splendid albums. that the current economic performance of the Islamic world
is generally disappointing. The predominantly Muslim coun-
Calligraphy continues to be an important art form in tries included in the annual “Corruption Index” of Transparmodern times, despite the adoption of the Latin alphabet in ency International all rank as substantially “more corrupt”
some countries such as Turkey. Some calligraphers are trying than the typical advanced economy. Except for the small oilto revive the traditional styles, notably the Six Pens, and
exporting countries of the Arabian peninsula, not a single
investigate and rediscover traditional techniques and materi-
Muslim-governed state is among the world’s wealthiest counals. Societies teaching calligraphy flourish. The Anjuman-e
tries, and many Muslim countries are impoverished. The
Khushnvisan-e Iran (Society of Iranian Calligraphers), for
Islamic world’s participation in world trade is low in relation
example, has branches in all the main cities of the country,
to its share of global population. Although the basic ecowith thousands of students. Other artists are extending the
nomic institutions of the Islamic world are formally similar to
calligraphic tradition to new media, adopting calligraphy in
those of the successful market economies, there is a consensus
new forms, ranging from three-dimensional sculpture to oil
that they do not perform as well.
painting on canvas. More than any other civilization, Islam
values the written word. Like many secular critics of capitalism, Islamists attribute
this situation to Western imperialism. Starting in the eight-
See also Arabic Language; Arabic Literature; Art.
eenth century, they argue, European traders and financiers,
along with the states that supported them, destroyed local
BIBLIOGRAPHY
crafts, monopolized natural resources, secularized the judi-
Bloom, Jonathan M. Paper Before Print: The History and Impact cial system, and gradually took over key aspects of economic
of Paper in the Islamic World. New Haven, Conn., and governance. They also lowered the Islamic world’s standards
London: Yale University Press, 2001.
of honesty and weakened its ethic of brotherly cooperation.
Khatibi, Abdelkebir, and Sijelmassi, Mohammed. The Splendour
of Islamic Calligraphy. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994. Institutional Sources of Underdevelopment
Lings, Martin. The Quranic Art of Calligraphy and Illumina- In fact, European imperialism was a result, rather than the
tion. London: World of Islam Festival Trust, 1976. leading cause, of the Islamic world’s economic shortcomings.
Safadi, Y. H. Islamic Calligraphy. Boulder, Colo.: Prior to embarking on the global colonization drive whose
Shambala, 1979. results included the economic subjugation of the world’s
Schimmel, Annemarie. Islamic Calligraphy. Leiden: E. J. Muslim peoples, the West underwent a sustained institu-
Brill, 1970. tional transformation that gave rise to modern capitalism.
Schimmel, Annemarie. Calligraphy and Islamic Culture. New During this transformation, which began around the elev-
York: New York University Press, 1984. enth century, the institutions of the Islamic world also experienced changes, but these were relatively minor. As late as the
Sheila S. Blair nineteenth century, the contractual forms recognized by the
Jonathan M. Bloom Islamic court system were essentially those developed a millennium earlier. The concept of a juridical person had no
place in Islamic law. Nor did Islamic law recognize jointstock companies or corporations. Although money lending
CAPITALISM remained a flourishing profession among both Muslims and
non-Muslims, there were no banks. For these reasons, among
Among the claims of the contemporary literature known as others, the Islamic world’s economic system was now ineffi-
“Islamic economics” is that Islamic law provides an economic cient in relation to the emerging capitalist system of the

126 Islam and the Muslim World
Capitalism

West. It is this handicap that subjected the Middle East and designed to facilitate exchange and production. Nor can the
the rest of the Islamic world to Western economic domination. lag be attributed to policies aimed at retarding growth. The
Islamic world’s structural transformation was delayed be-
As this domination was taking shape, the Islamic world cause certain institutions well suited to the economic condiexperienced no general economic decline in the absolute tions of classical Islam produced unintended consequences.
sense. But it started showing clear signs of underdevelopment,
as measured by the living standards, productivity levels, and Unintended Consequences
institutional dynamism prevailing in the West. One of these institutions was the Islamic inheritance system.
Outlined in the Quran, the Islamic inheritance system re-
In early stages of the West’s economic ascent, the Islamic
quires two-thirds of a person’s estate to be apportioned
world’s market institutions were at least as efficient as their
among members of his or her extended family according to
Western counterparts, and in some respects more so. Its
criteria dependent on the composition of the possibly numerpartnership laws, which were codified by jurists generally
ous heirs and their relationships to the deceased. Prior to the
familiar with the needs of merchants and investors, gave
modern era, this system raised the cost of keeping productive
traders a remarkable array of contractual options. Although
enterprises intact across generations. Equally important, beinterest was formally banned, financiers easily circumvented
cause the death of even one partner resulted in termination of
the prohibition, which, in any case, was often interpreted
the enterprise, and in the dissolution of its assets, the prevailloosely, as disallowing only exploitative interest charges.
ing inheritance rules created incentives for keeping partner-
Disputes between partners, and between buyers and sellers,
ships small and ephemeral. Consequently, the growing
were settled informally through arbitration or formally through
complexity that characterized the productive, financial, and
the Islamic courts, whose jurisdiction covered all economic
commercial enterprises of Europeans was not observed in
transactions. A wide range of social service organizations,
territories under Islamic law. By contrast, the relative flexibilincluding schools, charities, commercial centers, and rest
ity of European inheritance regimes allowed practices destops for caravans, were established in a decentralized manner
signed to keep estates intact, such as primogeniture. These
through waqfs, or Islamic trusts. The typical waqf also served
practices facilitated the establishment of larger and longeras a wealth shelter, for its assets were relatively safe from
lasting enterprises, which then stimulated the development of
confiscation and its founder could shower himself, his relaincreasingly sophisticated accounting systems, specialized
tives, and even his descendants with material benefits. To a
markets, and contractual forms in order to minimize operatdegree, the privileges enjoyed by waqf founders compensated
ing costs.
for the chronic weakness of private property rights. For
several centuries—estimates of the end point range from the
Until the Western-inspired economic reforms of the
fourteenth century to the eighteenth century—this system
nineteenth century, Islamic civilization offered no corporate
afforded the Islamic world a standard of living that was equal,
structures capable of serving as prototypes for durable finanif not superior, to that of Europe.
cial or mercantile organizations. The one major Islamic
The Rise of Modern Capitalism institution that some consider an exception is the waqf.
Meanwhile, the West underwent the momentous structural Established to provide a service in perpetuity, a waqf, like a
transformation that resulted in capitalism. This transforma- corporation, was meant to outlive its founder and employees.
tion included the strengthening of individual property rights, Nevertheless, it lacked most of the freedoms associated with
the recognition of juridical persons in a growing number of corporate status. Most significant, it was supposed to refrain
sectors, and a sustained broadening of the menu of contrac- from remaking its internal rules and modifying its objectives.
tual forms available to investors, traders, workers, and con- Still another unintended effect of the waqf system was that, by
sumers. By the eighteenth century, and unmistakably by the enhancing material security, it dampened incentives for seeknineteenth, the relative sophistication of Europe’s economic ing stronger property rights. Economic historians generally
institutions allowed its financiers and merchants to dominate believe that in the West the strengthening of individual
economies all across the globe. The main reason why the property rights played a critical role in the rise of modern
Islamic world fell into a state of underdevelopment is that capitalism.
changes taking place outside the Islamic world had the effect
of reducing the efficiency of pre-capitalist economic institu- By the nineteenth century, it was clear that the traditional
tions based on Islamic law. economic institutions of the Islamic world had become a
liability. The institutional borrowings that followed included
Why Islamic law itself failed to generate the basic institu- new forms of organization, including complex partnerships,
tions of capitalism has long been a matter of controversy. One joint-stock companies, and corporations. Another historical
thing is certain. The explanation is not, as nineteenth- and break that occurred at this time was the establishment of
early-twentieth-century thinkers were inclined to believe, various secular courts to adjudicate commercial and financial
that Islam is inherently hostile to commerce or prosperity. disputes involving contractual forms alien to traditional Is-
The classical sources of Islam are replete with provisions lamic law.

Islam and the Muslim World 127
Cartography and Geography

modern capitalism. In fact, the infrastructure of capitalism
was inadequate, and Middle Easterners, being latecomers to
operating under modern economic institutions, lacked basic
experiences and resources. Significantly, it was during the
twilight of the traditional Islamic economic order and the
transition to modern capitalism—the eighteenth century to
the early twentieth century—that the Christians and Jews of
the region by and large gained economic ground against its
Muslims. Entitled since the early days of Islam to choice of
law, which they had sometimes exercised in favor of indigenous non-Muslim contractual forms, the Christian and Jewish religious minorities began using modern contractual
forms about a century before Muslims were able to do so.
Equally important, many operated under the protection of
European-operated courts, as opposed to local Islamic courts.

See also Communism; Economy and Economic Institutions; Globalization.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Çizakça, Murat. A Comparative Evolution of Business Partnerships: The Islamic World and Europe, with Special Reference to
the Ottoman Archives. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996.
Ibrahim, Mahmood. Merchant Capital and Islam. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Issawi, Charles. “The Entrepreneurial Class.” In The Arab
In January, 1998, this Indonesian money changer was busy
World’s Legacy. By Charles Issawi. Princeton, N.J.: Darwin
working the phones after a day of panic buying at supermarkets
that left the Indonesian rupiah volatile and led the United States Press, 1981.
and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to send top officials to Kuran, Timur. “Islam and Underdevelopment: An Old Puzthe country in an attempt to salvage a bailout effort. With the zle Revisited.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Econoexception of a few oil-rich countries in the Middle East, no Muslim
country is among the world’s wealthiest. The lingering effects of mics 153 (1997): 41–71.
the transition from an older, Islamic economic order to Western Kuran, Timur. “The Provision of Public Goods under Islamic
capitalism has left many Muslim countries in poverty and has led Law: Origins, Impact, and Limitations of the Waqf Syssome Islamists to blame the West for their countries’ suffering and
social turmoil. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
tem.” Law and Society Review 35 (2001): 841–897.
Rodinson, Maxime. Islam and Capitalism. Translated by Brian
Pearce (1966). Reprint, New York: Pantheon, 1973.

Weberian Thesis
The foregoing institutional explanation for the under- Timur Kuran
development of the Middle East calls into question its most
celebrated alternative: the Weberian thesis, which traces the
origins of capitalism to the ideological creativity of the
Protestant Reformation. Weber’s argument was challenged
CARTOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHY
by R. H. Tawney, who showed that capitalist institutions
preceded, even created, what Weber called the capitalist There exist hundreds—if not thousands—of cartographic
spirit. Tawney’s observation suggests that where capitalist images of the world and various regions scattered throughout
institutions failed to evolve through locally driven processes, the medieval and early modern Arabic, Persian, and Turkish
as in the Islamic Middle East, vigorous and successful manuscript collections, worldwide. Yet most of these maps
entrepreneurship would be limited. have lain virtually untouched and have often been deliberately ignored on the grounds that they were not accurate
At the time that Weber wrote, bilateral trade between the representations of the world. What many failed to see is that
Islamic world and western Europe was almost entirely under these schematic, geometric, and often perfectly symmetrical
the control of Europeans, who provided much of the requisite images of the world are iconographic representations of the
financing, know-how, and transportation. It thus seemed that way in which the medieval Muslims perceived it. Granted,
the Middle East lacked the entrepreneurship essential to these were stylized visions restricted to the literati—the

128 Islam and the Muslim World
Cartography and Geography

readers, collectors, commissioners, writers, and copyists of The “Wondrous” Tradition
the geographic texts within which these maps are found. In actuality, maps occur in a wide variety of Islamic texts and
However, the plethora of extant copies produced all over the contexts. A popular location for classical Islamic world and
Islamic world, including India, testifies to the enduring and cosmographic maps is in the so-called
Ajaib (“wondrous”)
widespread popularity of these medieval Islamic cartographic literary tradition, which includes descriptions of flora, fauna,
visions. For nothing less than six centuries (eight, if nineteenth- architecture, and other wonders of the world. Best known of
century South Asian examples are included), these carto- this genre is the work of the thirteenth century Iranian writer,
graphic visions were perpetuated primarily in one fossilized Zakariyya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini (d. 1283), whose work
cartogeographic series: the Kitab al-masalik wa al-mamalik
Ajaib al-makhluqat wa gharaib al-mawjudat (The wonders of
(Book of roads and kingdoms). creatures and the marvels of creation) focuses on the wonders
of the world—real and fabulous. Copies from the late thir-
What all these extant maps say is that—at least from the teenth century onward (during the lifetime of the author)
thirteenth century onward, whence copies of these mapbegan to incorporate illustrations of flora and fauna as well as
manuscripts begin to proliferate—the world was a very deworld maps.
picted place. It loomed large in the medieval Muslim imagination. It was pondered, discussed, and copied with minor Copies of Siraj al-Din Abu Hafs
Umar Ibn al-Wardi’s (d.
and major variations again and again. 1457) Kharidat al-
ajaib wa faridat al-gharaib (The unbored
pearl of wonders and the precious gem of marvels) offer a
Al-Idrisi and Piri Re
is
variation of the
Ajaib tradition that incorporates at least one
The better-known examples of this Islamic mapping tradiworld map along with other cartographics, such as a Qibla
tion, in contemporary Eastern as well as Western scholarmap (a way-finding diagram for locating Mecca), and inset
ship, is the work of the twelfth century North African
maps of Qazwin and other cities. Judging by the plethora of
geographical scholar al-Sharif al-Idrisi (d. 1165). The Norpocket book–size copies that still abound in every Oriental
man king, Roger II (1097–1154), commissioned al-Idrisi to
manuscript collection, the Kharidat al-
Ajaib must have been
produce an illustrated geography of the world. This yielded
a bestseller in the late medieval and early modern Islamic
al-Idrisi’s Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq (The book of
world. Moreover, it is significant that this Arabic bestseller
pleasant journeys into faraway lands), also known as the Book
always incorporated, within the first four or five folios, a
of Roger. Al-Idrisi divided the world according to the Ptoleclassical Islamic world map.
maic system of seven climes, with each clime broken down
into ten sections. The most complete manuscript (1469)
Eventually the classical Islamic world maps also crept into
contains one world map and seventy detailed sectional maps.
general geographical encyclopedias, such as Shihab al-Din
The sixteenth-century Ottoman naval captain, Muhyiddin Abu
Abdallah Yaqut’s (d. 1229) thirteenth century Kitab
Piri Reis (d. 1554), was another Muslim cartographer who Mu
jam al-Buldan (Dictionary of countries). The earliest
has become famous worldwide. Renowned for the earliest prototype of this type of map is found in a copy of Abu lextant map of the New World, Piri Reis and his accurate Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni’s (d. after 1250)
early-sixteenth-century map of South America and Antarc- Kitab al-tafhim (Book of instruction). World maps are also
tica have been the subject of many a controversial study. Piri used to open some of the classic histories. Copies of such
Reis also produced detailed sectional maps but—like the well-known works as Ibn Khaldun’s (d. 1406) Muqaddimah
Italian isolarii—he restricted himself to the coastal areas of (The prologue) often begin with an al-Idrisi map, while
the Mediterranean. The second version of his Kitab-i Bahriyye copies of the historian Abu Ja
far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-
(Book of maritime matters) contains 210 unique topo- Tabari’s (d. 923) Tarikh al-rusul wa-al-muluk (History of
cartographic maps of important Mediterranean cities and prophets and kings) sometimes included a Ptolemaic “climeislands. type” map of the world as a frontispiece. Similarly, classical
Islamic maps of the world found their way into sixteenth-
The striking mimesis (geographical accuracy) of these two century Ottoman histories, such as the scroll containing
Muslim cartographic traditions has caused the work of al- Seyyid Lokman’s Zubdetut-tevarih (Cream of histories) pro-
Idrisi and Piri Reis to be elevated above the rest of the duced in the reign of Suleyman I (1520–1566).
Middle Eastern mapping corpus in contemporary scholarship. Aside from the problems of attribution that abound with New Maps for New Purposes
these two cartographers (none of the extant al-Idrisi maps, for From the fifteenth century until the late nineteenth century,
instance, date back to his time, while Piri Reis’s map is hajj (pilgrimage) manuals containing map-like pictures of the
thought to be a copy of one by Christopher Columbus), holy sites proliferated. An excellent example of this prototype
scholarly focus on this more mimetic end of the Islamic is the Futuh al-Haramayn (The conquests of the holy sites)
mapping tradition has occluded an enormous body of maps manuscript series. Around the same time, a tradition began in
that were much more popular in the medieval and early mosques of including a glazed tile containing a schematic
modern Islamic world than the work of al-Idrisi or Piri Re
is. representation of the Ka
ba adjacent to the mihrab (prayer

Islam and the Muslim World 129
Cartography and Geography

niche). If the definition of precisely what constitutes a map The Start of the Mapping Phenomenon
can be stretched, then even the map-like images found in In order to understand the mapping traditions that flowered
Islamic miniature paintings can be incorporated into the in the Islamic world in the later middle ages and early modern
Islamic cartographic repertoire. period, one has to go back to the tradition that sired them all.
It can be argued that the fons origo of the Islamic mapping
Some scholars believe that the source of this rich and tradition is none other than the so-called “Islamic Atlas.”
widespread medieval Islamic propensity to make maps lies in
This carto-geographical tradition is best known by the title of
the earliest Arabic textual references to maps. For instance,
its most prolifically copied version: al-Istakhri’s Kitab althe silver globe (al-Sura al-Mamuniya) that the Abbasid
masalik wa al-mamalik (Book of roads and kingdoms). For
caliph al-Mamun (r. 813–833) is said to have commissioned
convenience, this may be referred to as the KMMS mapping
from the scientists working in his Bayt al-Hikma (House of
tradition. The “S” at the end of this acronym is used to specify
knowledge). The problem with the al-Ma
munid silver globe
those versions of this manuscript series that contain cartois that it is probably mythical. Other than an extremely vague
graphic images (standing for Sura, pl. Suwar).
passage cited in Abu ’l-Hasan
Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Mas
udi’s
(d. 956) Kitab al-tanbih wa-al-ishraf (Book of instruction and Most of the KMMS maps occur in the context of georevision), there are no descriptions of it. Al-Mas
udi’s de- graphical treatises devoted to an explication of the world, in
scription is very confused. It suggests an impossibly compli- general, and the lands of the Muslim world, in particular.
cated celestial map superimposed upon a globe, an extremely These “map-manuscripts” generally carry the title of Kitab alsophisticated armillary sphere of which there are no extant masalik wa al-mamalik, although they are sometimes named
example until the fourteenth century. At least one scholar, Surat al-ard (Picture of the earth) or Suwar al-aqalim (Pic-
David King, has interpreted this description to suggest an tures of the climes/climates). These manuscripts emanated
astrolabe with world-map markings superimposed on it. from an early tradition of creating lists of pilgrim and post
stages that were compiled for administrative purposes. They
There also are a few references to maps from the end of
read like armchair travelogs of the Muslim world, with one
the first century of Islam (c. 702). Apparently, al-Hallaj ibn
author copying prolifically from another.
Yusuf, the Umayyad governor of the eastern part of the
Muslim empire, commissioned maps, for military purposes, Beginning with a brief description of the world and
of the region of Daylam (south of the Caspian Sea), as well as theories about it—such as the inhabited versus the uninhabited
a plan of the city of Bukhara. Requests for maps for military
parts, the reasons why people are darker in the south than in
purposes are highly unusual in Islamic history. Not until the
the north, and the like—these geographies methodically
time of the Ottoman sultan Mehmet II (r. 1444–1446;
discuss details about the Muslim world, its cities, its people,
1451–1481) are there similar requests for maps for military
its roads, its topography, and other such features. Sometimes
purposes. Unfortunately, none of the al-Hallaj requests are
the descriptions are interspersed with anecdotal matter, inextant, and there are no detailed descriptions of these maps
cluding tales of personal adventures, discussions with local
themselves.
inhabitants, or debates with sailors as to the exact shape of the
In Kitab al-buldan (Book of countries) Ahmad ibn Abi earth and the number of seas. They have a rigid format that
Ya
qub al-Ya
qubi (d. c. late ninth century) reports that a plan rarely varies: first the whole world, then the Arabian Peninof the round city of Baghdad was drawn up in 758 for the sula, then the Persian Gulf, then the Maghreb (North Africa
Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur (r. 754–775). The Egyptian chroni- and Andalusia), Egypt, Syria, the Mediterranean, upper and
cler al-Maqrizi mentions that a “magnificent” map on “fine lower Iraq, as well as twelve maps devoted to the Iranian
blue” silk with “gold lettering” upon which was pictured provinces, beginning with Khuzistan and ending in Khurasan,
“parts of the earth with all the cities and mountains, seas and including maps of Sind and Transoxiana. The maps, which
rivers” was prepared for the Fatimid caliph al-Mu
izz (r. usually number precisely twenty-one, follow exactly the same
953–975) and even entombed with him in his mausoleum format as the text and are thus an integral part of the work.
in Cairo.
The al-Balkhi Tradition and Controversy
The only extant source containing maps prior to the Kitab Not all these geographical manuscripts contain maps, howal-masalik wa al-mamalik series is a ninth-century copy of Abu ever. Rather, maps are found only in those referred to
Ja
far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarazmi’s (d. 847 C.E.) generally as part of the al-Balkhi/al-Istakhri tradition—the
Kitab surat al-ard (Picture of the Earth). Composed primarily “Classical School” of geographers. This particular geographical
of a series of zij tables (tables containing longitudinal and genre is also referred to as the “Atlas of Islam.” A great deal of
latitudinal coordinates), it also includes four maps. Two are mystery surrounds the origins and the architects of this
unidentifiable, one is a map of the Sea of Azov, and one is of manuscript-bound cartographic tradition. This is primarily
the Nile. Of all the maps in this manuscript, only the map of because not a single manuscript survives in the hand of its
the Nile appears to be directly related to maps of the Nile that original author. Furthermore, it is not clear who initiated the
one finds in later carto-geographical works. tradition of accompanying geographical texts with maps.

130 Islam and the Muslim World
Cartography and Geography

Scholars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries hold the Middle East to its peripheries, they provide us with
that Abu Zayd Ahmad ibn Sahl al-Balkhi (d. 934), who—as his insights from a broad range of time and space. The earliest
nisba (patronym) suggests—came from Balkh in Central Asia, extant set of Islamic maps comes from an Ibn Hawqal manuinitiated the series, and that his work and maps were later script housed at the Topkapi Saray Museum Library firmly
elaborated upon by Abu Ishaq ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al- dated to the year 1086 by a clear colophon. Counterintuitively,
Istakhri (fl. early tenth century) from Istakhr in the province this manuscript also contains the most mimetic maps of all
of Fars. Al-Istakhri’s work was, in turn, elaborated upon by the existing KMMS copies. This version of the KMMS even
Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Hawqal (fl. second half of has an extraordinary triple folio fold-out map of the Meditertenth century), who came from upper Iraq (the region known ranean. Indeed, it is the world-map version of this manuscript
as the Jazira). Abu
Abdallah Muhammad al-Muqaddasi (d. c. that proliferates in a more embellished form via the Ibn al-
1000), from Jerusalem (Quds), is considered the last innova- Wardi manuscript copies from the fifteenth century. The
tor in this series. striking mimesis of these maps stands in stark contrast to the
maps of the later KMMS copies, which over the centuries
The problem is that virtually no biographical information
abandon any pretense of mimesis entirely.
exists on the authors other than al-Balkhi. One is forced to
rely on scraps of information in the geographical texts them- After the KMMS set, a series of more and more stylized
selves for information about their authors. The difficulty is maps emerges that move further into the realm of objects d’art
compounded by the fact that, in all the forty-three titles that and away from direct empirical inquiry. By the nineteenth
Ibn al-Nadim credits to al-Balkhi, not one even vaguely century the KMMS maps become so stylized that, were it not
resembles the title of a geographical treatise. According to the for the earlier examples, it would be hard to recognize them as
biographers, al-Balkhi was famous as a philosopher and for the maps at all. Between these two extremes there are a series
his tafsir (commentaries on the Quran)—in particular one of KMMS world maps that range from somber in form and
known as Na
m al-quran—which was praised by many judges. color (some even contain grids) to outright gaudy and lacking
He is not, however, known in the biographical record for his in fine detail. In the crevices of these maps the real and the
geographical treatises. Yet stories of how al-Balkhi sired the imaginary, the terrestrial and the cosmographical, and the
Islamic mapping tradition endure. It is for this reason that the empirical and the fictional dance confusingly in front of
genre is generally referred to as the “Balkhi school of map- people of today.
ping.” The attribution of a whole school of mapping to a
shadowy, mythical father who was anything but a specialist on An ancient map appears in the volume one color insert.
geography or cartography is unfounded.
See also Biruni, al-; Ibn Battuta; Ibn Khaldun; Persian
The confusion is further compounded by the fact that Language and Literature.
many of the surviving copies contain either incomplete
colophons (inscriptions containing attribution of authorship)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
or no colophons at all. Additionally, the texts are sometimes
so mixed up in the surviving manuscripts that it is often Cosgrove, Denis, ed. Mappings. London: Reaktion Books, 1999.
difficult to disentangle them. The numerous incomplete and Goodrich, Thomas. The Ottoman Turks and the New World: A
anonymous manuscripts, sometimes abridged, along with the Study of “Tarih-i Hind-i Garbi” and Sixteenth-Century Ottoversions translated into Persian, only cloud the matter further. man Americana. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1990.
Hapgood, Charles H. Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence
Images of Other Worlds of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age. New York: E. P.
Since none of the KMMS manuscripts date back to their Dutton, 1979.
original authors, the issue of authorship of the first carto-
Harley, J. B., and Woodward, David, eds. The History of
geographical manuscript and precisely what it looked like is Cartography: Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and
immaterial. What is relevant is that these geographical manu- South Asian Societies. Chicago: University of Chicago
scripts include some of the earliest pictographic images of the Press, 1992.
world in an Islamic context. Since all images are socially
King, David. World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Disconstructed, these iconic carto-ideographs contain valuable tance to Mecca: Innovation and Tradition in Islamic Science.
messages of the milieux in which they were produced. They Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999.
are a rich source of new information that can be used as
Kramers, Johannes Hendrik. Analecta Orientalia: Posthumous
alternate gateways into the Islamic past. They can tell about
Writings and Selected Minor Works. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1954.
the time period in which they were copied, and provide hints
about the period in which they were originally conceived. McIntosh, Greg. The Piri Reis Map of 1513. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000
Since the extant examples stretch in time from the elev- Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte Des Arabischen Schrifttums:
enth century to the nineteenth, and range from the heart of Mathematische Geographie und Kartographie im Islam und

Islam and the Muslim World 131
Central Asia, Islam in

Ihr Fortleben im Abendland. Historische Darstellung. Frank- cities, and measures were undertaken to induce conversion
furt: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen to Islam.
Wissenschaften an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-
Universität Frankfurt am Main, 2000. These patterns of Arab rule established under Qutayba
Soucek, Svat. Piri Reis and Turkish Mapmaking after Columbus. proved more enduring than his conquests. Following his
London: The Nour Foundation, 1996. murder by mutinous troops in the Farghana valley in 715,
Arab control in Transoxania was soon rolled back, and nearly
Karen C. Pinto a quarter-century passed before the Muslim armies were able
to take the initiative again. Local rulers such as the Sogdian
king Ghurak regained their independence and successfully
fought the Arabs, but a new force from the steppe—the
CENTRAL ASIA, ISLAM IN Turgesh confederation—posed a more serious threat to Arab
control. The Turgesh were able to raid deep into Transoxania
Central Asia is a modern geographical designation covering and eventually into Khurasan as well. The death of the
an area of considerable political, ethnic, and linguistic diver- Turgesh ruler in 737, however, led to the collapse of his
sity, but marked by a distinctive cultural synthesis rooted in confederation; Ghurak died the same year, and soon afterthe meeting of the civilization of Inner Asia with that of the ward a new Umayyad governor of Khurasan, Nasr b. Sayyar,
Middle East and the Islamic world. In terms of contemporary was able, during the 740s, to reconquer central Transoxania,
political boundaries, it comprises the newly independent the Farghana valley, and parts of eastern Khurasan that had
post-Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, reverted to local rulers, and to lead successful campaigns as
Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, as well as adjacent parts of the far as Tashkent.
Chinese province of Xinjiang, of northern Afghanistan, of
northeastern Iran, and of the Russian Federation. Soon, however, the Abbasid revolution, a movement that
took shape militarily in Khurasan, swept the Umayyads from
The chief historical regions comprising Central Asia in- power; Abbasid agitation there began even before the arrival
clude Mawarannahr, often called Transoxiana or Transoxania, of the famous Abu Muslim in 747, and both the Arab colonists
the traditional heartland; the Farghana valley; the Tarim in Khurasan and Transoxania and local converts to Islam
basin, often called Chinese or East Turkistan and now form- played significant roles in the success of the Abbasid cause.
ing the major part of the province of Xinjiang in the People’s Disaffection with Umayyad rule was particularly strong among
Republic of China; the Syr Darya valley, with its commercial the local converts, resentful of policies that relegated them to
oasis towns; the steppe regions to the north known since the a subordinate status vis-à-vis the Arabs. Nevertheless, the
eleventh century as the Dasht-e Qipchaq; the region of the series of religiously tinged revolts that broke out in Transoxania
Amu Darya delta to the south of the Aral Sea, known and Khurasan beginning in the late Umayyad era continued
historically as Khwarazm; and Khurasan, typically regarded through the first decades of Abbasid rule. Abbasid control in
as the northeasternmost province of Iran, but more often Central Asia in fact remained tenuous until the revolt of Rafi

closely linked with Transoxiana in political, ethnic, and b. Layth beginning in 806. This revolt posed such a serious
economic terms. threat that the caliph himself, Harun al-Rashid, was compelled to set out to deal with it. Following his death in 809, his
From the Arab Conquest to the Mongol Invasion son al-Mamun, installed as governor in Marv, succeeded in
The Arab conquest of Iran brought Muslim armies to suppressing it, and after his elevation as caliph in 813, al-
Khurasan, and raids were conducted as far as Balkh and into Mamun—still based in Marv—conducted a series of decisive
Transoxania already during the 650s, as Arab governors campaigns against independent local rulers that may be
based first in Basra in Iraq and later (from 667) in Marv began regarded as the culmination of the Arab conquest of Centhe dual policy of establishing garrison towns in some areas, tral Asia.
with Arab families transplanted from Iraq, and elsewhere
leaving local dynasts in power as tributary rulers. A new stage Almost as soon as it was solidified, Abbasid control in
in the conquest of Central Asia began with the appointment, Central Asia devolved upon local governors loyal to the
in 705, of Qutayba b. Muslim as the governor of Khurasan. caliph and at least nominally dependent upon him. One of the
Qutayba’s ten-year career brought the military conquest of participants in al-Mamun’s suppression of the revolt of Rafi

Bukhara and Samarkand as well as of Khwarazm, and the b. Layth was one Tahir b. Husayn, whom the caliph apinitiation of campaigns into Farghana and as far beyond the pointed governor of Khurasan in 821. The Tahirid dynasty
Syr Darya as Isfijab; it also saw important institutional devel- ruled Khurasan and Transoxania until its destruction in 873
opments, as Arab garrisons were established in Bukhara and by the Saffarids of Sistan. Members of the Samanid family
Samarkand, troops were levied from the local population to also took part in al-Mamun’s campaigns, and served the
serve with the Muslim armies, mosques were built in these Tahirids as governors in Samarkand, Farghana, and Tashkent.

132 Islam and the Muslim World
Central Asia, Islam in

Samanid dynasts expanded their power through campaigns patronage yielded the Turkic Qutadghu bilig, a “mirror for
deep into the steppe, and with the collapse of the Tahirids princes” completed around 1070 by Yusuf of Balasaghun for a
received caliphal recognition as the rightful governors of Qarakhanid ruler of Kashghar. The Qarakhanids are also
Transoxania. The real foundations of the dynasty’s power important, however, simply as the holders of power in much
were laid by Isma
il Samani, who destroyed the Saffarids in of Central Asia, at the regional and local level, for over two
900 and established Bukhara as the center of his realm. The centuries. Even as supreme power in Central Asia shifted to
dramatic decline in the political importance of the Abbasid the Seljuks or the Qarakhitays or the Khwarazmshahs, local
caliphs that preceded the Samanid era (900–999) left the dynasties linked to the Qarakhanid tradition continued to
Samanids the rulers of an essentially independent state based rule in Samarkand, in parts of the Farghana valley, and in
in Central Asia; their patronage of religious and cultural towns of the Syr Darya basin. The last known Qarakhanid
institutions made tenth-century Central Asia one of the most dynast was removed by the Khwarazmshah Muhammad (tarvibrant and influential parts of the Muslim world. get of the Mongol invasion) only in 1209.

Well into the first half of the tenth century, the Samanids Of even greater significance for the Islamic world at large
retained their ability to project their power into the steppe to was the third Muslim Turkic dynasty to appear in Central
the north and northeast of Transoxania, but the Samanid era Asia during the Samanid era, that of the Seljuks. The Seljuk
also brought crucial developments in the political and cul- royal house emerged, in the latter tenth century, as tribal
tural history of the Turks of Central Asia. The tenth century leaders among the Oghuz Turks who nomadized near the
marks the beginning of the large-scale involvement of Turkic lower course of the Syr Darya, northeast of the Aral Sea. The
peoples in Islamic civilization. Before this time, Turks from narrative of Seljuk origins links their adoption of Islam to a
Central Asia had already played an important role in Muslim power struggle, again with conversion signaling a break with
history as military slaves active at the caliphal court in their former overlord as well as an alliance against him with
Baghdad as well as other, more westerly parts of the Muslim the Muslim people of the Syr Darya town of Jand. By the early
world. The institution of Turkic military slaves would remain eleventh century the Seljuks were involved in the military
an important avenue for the assimilation of Turkic (and and political turmoil that accompanied the division of the
other) peoples into Islamic civilization, and, beginning with Samanid realm between the Ghaznavids, in Khurasan, and
the Ghaznavids, would yield a substantial number of ruling the Qarakhanids, in Transoxania, and quickly dominated
dynasties from India to Egypt. Ultimately more important both regions, leaving the Qarakhanid dynasts as vassals but
for Central Asian history, however, was the large-scale con- effectively crushing the Ghaznavid presence in Khurasan
version to Islam by Turkic peoples; this was happening along with their defeat of Mahmud’s son and successor, Mas
ud, in
the frontiers of Samanid Central Asia, but the tenth century 1040 at Dandanqan, near Marv. Thereafter the Seljuks began
also saw the establishment of Islam in remoter regions of their phenomenal sweep through Iran and the Middle East,
Turkic Inner Asia, far beyond the limits reached by Muslim seizing Baghdad by 1055 and defeating the Byzantines in
armies. During the middle of the tenth century, a member of Anatolia in 1071.
a Turkic dynasty based in East Turkistan, in the city of
Kashghar, adopted Islam, evidently in the course of a power Seljuk success in Central Asia itself was less overwhelming
struggle with a rival member of the same dynasty. The than further west. By the first half of the twelfth century,
narrative of his conversion, which was elaborated and cele- Seljuk dynasts were plagued by the devastating raids, deep
brated from at least the eleventh century to the twentieth, into Khurasan, of other groups of Oghuz (“Ghuzz”) nomads
identified him as Satuq Bughra Khan. The convert was who did not accept their rule, and the final blow to Seljuk
successful, and the dynasty, which has come to be known as power in the east came in 1141, when the sultan, Sanjar, was
that of the Qarakhanids, soon expanded its territories to the defeated in the Qatvan steppe, northeast of Samarkand, by
west, moving against the Samanid frontiers in the Syr Darya the Qarakhitays. The latter, remnants of the Qitan people
basin and, with the conquest of Bukhara in 999, effectively who had dominated northern China (as the Liao dynasty)
putting an end to the Samanid state. In this case, however, since the early tenth century, had fled westward after their
religious frontiers had shifted substantially; the Turks from ouster from China in the 1120s and dominated the steppe
the steppe who conquered sedentary Central Asia were al- regions of Central Asia down to the Mongol conquest. The
ready Muslims, and the ulema of Bukhara are famously non-Muslim Qarakhitays were for the most part absentee
reported to have counseled the city’s population that they overlords with regard to Transoxania, and most regions
were under no obligation to defend their Samanid rulers, remained in the hands of local elites, whether Qarakhanid
insofar as the Qarakhanids were good Muslims. dynasts or, as in the case of Bukhara, a prominent family of
Hanafi jurists known as the Al-e Burhan.
The Qarakhanids are of tremendous importance as the
initial custodians of the Turkic/Islamic cultural synthesis and The Qarakhitay defeat of the Seljuks provided an opporsponsors of the first Islamic Turkic literature. Qarakhanid tunity for expansion by a dynasty of local rulers based in

Islam and the Muslim World 133
Central Asia, Islam in

Khwarazm, whose ancestors had assumed control there in the Genghis Khan’s grandson, Hulegu, who had led the camservice of the Seljuks. These Khwarazmshahs, under nominal paign of 1256–1258. The heartland of Transoxania, as well as
Qarakhitay suzerainty, extended their power into Khurasan the Tarim basin, parts of Khurasan, and the eastern parts of
and into the lower Syr Darya valley, and by the beginning of the Dasht-i Qipchaq, were nominally part of the ulus of
the thirteenth century had become the most powerful rul- Genghis’s son Chaghatay, though in fact, through much of
ers in the eastern Islamic world. The ambitions of the the second half of the thirteenth century, this region was
Khwarazmshah Muhammad (r. 1200–1218) led him to clash dominated by Qaydu, a descendant of Genghis’s son and first
with the Ghurid dynasty based south of the Hindu Kush, with successor Ogodey. Not until the early fourteenth century did
the Abbasid caliph al-Nasir (who was intent on restoring the Chaghatayid lineage reassert itself, under the khans Esen
the caliphate’s political power), with his Qarakhitay over- Buqa and Kebek. In each of these western successor states of
lords, and finally with the new Inner Asian power, the the Mongol empire, the process of Islamization was under-
Mongols under Genghis Khan. Muhammad’s disastrous re- way already in the thirteenth century, and by the second
buff of the khan’s diplomatic and commercial overtures led to quarter of the fourteenth century khans from each of the
the Mongol invasion that, from 1216 to 1223, devastated Chinggisid dynasties ruling there—as well as members of the
much of Transoxania and Khurasan and destroyed the tribal aristocracy and ordinary nomads—had become Muslims.
Khwarazmian state.
By the 1330s, however, the Ilkhanid state was disintegrat-
The Mongol and Timurid Periods, 1220–1500 ing, and real power in most of the Chaghatayid ulus had
Mongol rule was established in Central Asia well before the reverted to the tribal chieftains, who made and unmade khans
subsequent Mongol campaign of 1256–1258, which destroyed to suit their own ends. It was in the western part of the
the Abbasid caliphate and brought all of Iran and much of the Chaghatayid realm that Timur, an emir of the Barlas tribe
Middle East under Mongol control. The impact of the based in southern Transoxania, rose to power during the
Mongol conquest likewise endured much longer in Central 1360s; within a decade he had succeeded in consolidating his
Asia than elsewhere in the Muslim world, above all through power over Transoxania and Khurasan and had begun the
the political principles established in the thirteenth cen- career of conquest that would make him master not only of
tury and maintained, in one form or another, down to the Central Asia, but of Iran and much of the Middle East as well,
eighteenth. These principles made sovereignty a preroga- culminating with campaigns as far east as Delhi and as far
tive reserved solely for blood descendants of Genghis west as Ankara. Following Timur’s death in 1405, his descendants were able to maintain control only over his Central
(Chinggis) Khan. They inaugurated a political tension—
Asian domains, in Transoxania, Iran, and Khurasan (where
between Chinggisids with the theoretical right to rule, and
Herat soon emerged as a cosmopolitan center of cultural
powerful tribal chieftains with direct control over the nomadic
patronage). The Timurid state in Central Asia fractured soon
military forces crucial to the Chinggisids’s power—that would
after the death of Timur’s son and successor Shahrukh in
shape Central Asian political history down to the Russian
1447, with separate branches of the Timurid lineage holding
conquest. The descendants of Genghis Khan alone could
power in Khurasan and Transoxania.
bear the sovereign title khan, and were known by the Turkic
term oghlan (the “sons,” par excellence). In the parts of the The Uzbek Era, 1500–1865
Mongol-ruled world that were Islamized, the princes of the Timur, though not a Chinggisid, clearly sought to evoke the
blood who did not rise to supreme power (but always re- legacy of Genghis Khan’s conquests during his lifetime, and
mained potential candidates for that role) were more often his successors likewise cultivated their Inner Asian heritage
known by the Muslim term signaling sovereign authority, alongside their patronage of Islamic institutions. Neversultan. The tribal chieftains, by contrast, were known by the theless, the Timurids were regarded as usurpers by real
Turkic term bek or what came to be its Arabic equivalent, emir Chinggisids, and the principal challenges to his rule in Cen-
(with scions of the tribal elite referred to by the Arabo- tral Asia, and to that of his descendants, came from the
Persian hybrid emir-zada, that is, “born of an emir,” typically nomads of the Dasht-e Qipchaq, ruled by Chinggisids from
shortened to mirza). the lineage of Jochi. By the time of Timur, the Turkic
nomads of the eastern half of the Dasht-e Qipchaq, who
As the Mongol empire split along regional lines in the belonged to what remained of the Jochid ulus (i.e., the
middle of the thirteenth century, different parts of Central “Golden Horde”), had come to be known by the designation
Asia fell to different ruling lineages stemming from the four Uzbek (ozbek); the origin of this appellation is obscure, but is
sons of Genghis Khan. Khwarazm, parts of the lower Syr ascribed by indigenous tradition to the impact of the adop-
Darya basin, and much of the Dasht-e Qipchaq came to be tion of Islam by Ozbek Khan of the Golden Horde (r.
regarded as part of the realm (ulus) of the descendants of Jochi 1313–1341).
(the “Golden Horde”), centered in the lower Volga valley,
while much of Iran was in the hands of the Ilkhanid realm Timur himself faced invasions into his domains by nomadic
centered in Azerbaijan, that was ruled by descendants of armies from the northern steppe led by various Jochid rulers

134 Islam and the Muslim World
Central Asia, Islam in

and tribal chieftains.Timur’s efforts to secure stability and Chinggisids and the Uzbek khans of Transoxania, with towns
peace on his northern frontier were continued by his succes- such as Tashkent, Sayram, and Turkistan held by the Qazaqs
sors; Shahrukh succeeded in securing Khwarazm by 1413, but through much of the seventeenth century.
his son Ulugh Beg’s meddling in Jöchid affairs led to his
serious defeat by one would-be khan near Sighnaq in 1427. The Arabshahids. In Khwarazm, meanwhile, a separate
Shortly after this event, a young prince from the lineage of Chinggisid dynasty supported by Uzbek nomads from the
Shiban (the fifth son of Jochi), named Abu ’l-Khayr Khan, Dasht-e Qipchaq took power following the ouster of the
succeeded, with the aid of the powerful chieftains of the Safavid forces that occupied the region after the defeat
Manghit tribe, in establishing his power over most of the of Muhammad Shibani Khan. This dynasty, often referred
to as the
Arabshahids, extended its control to the south,
Uzbek tribes of the Dasht-e Qipchaq, and established a
into Khurasan, during the middle of the sixteenth century,
confederation strong enough to challenge the Timurids and
and maintained power in Khwarazm to the early eightinfluence internal Timurid politics.
eenth century. One of its members, Abu ’l-Ghazi Khan (r.
The Qalmaqs. This first Uzbek confederation was shaken by 1643–1663), is known for his harsh measures against the
attacks from the Qalmaqs (i.e., the Kalmyks or Oyrats, Turkmen nomads inhabiting the frontiers of the Khwarazmian
western Mongols) in the mid-fifteenth century, and collapsed oasis, for his reorganization of the Uzbek tribes of Khwarazm,
after Abu ’l-Khayr Khan’s death (c. 1469), but the founder’s and for the two historical works he wrote in Chaghatay Turkic.
grandson, known as Muhammad Shibani Khan, succeeded in
The polity in Transoxania and, later, in parts of Khurasan
reformulating a substantial part of the coalition by the end of
that was reformulated by the kinsmen of Muhammad Shibani
the fifteenth century. As internal dissension weakened the
Khan following the defeat at Marv, was not a centralized
Timurid state in Transoxania, Shibani Khan succeeded in
state, much less an empire, but rather a collection of loosely
conquering Samarkand and Bukhara in 1500, consolidated
linked appanages assigned to Chinggisid princes who took
his hold on Transoxania and seized Khwarazm by 1505. He
part in the conquest. There were thus separate and essentially
moved across the Amu Darya to attack the Timurids in
co-equal Chinggisid sultans based in Samarkand, Bukhara,
Khurasan soon after the death of the last powerful Timurid,
Tashkent, Balkh, and other appanages, with the senior mem-
Sultan Husayn Bayqara, seizing the Timurid capital, Herat,
ber of the extended ruling clan recognized as khan. The
in 1507. His ambitions were cut short late in 1510 when he
equilibrium that maintained this decentralized system broke
was defeated and killed in battle with the Safavid ruler Shah down in the 1550s, and gave way to bitter struggles among the
Isma
il near Marv. The Safavid victory led to a virtually total princes that culminated in the gradual, and bloody, consoliwithdrawal of Uzbek forces from Transoxania. Within two dation of power by
Abdallah Khan. The latter’s success in
years, however, the Uzbeks, led by Muhammad Shibani eliminating rivals meant that when his son was murdered
Khan’s nephew
Ubaydullah and other descendants of Abu ’l- shortly after
Abdallah’s own death in 1598, the tribal chief-
Khayr Khan, had expelled the Safavid forces and their Timurid tains and urban elites of Transoxania were compelled to seek
supporters (including Babur, who would found the Mogul a Chinggisid khan from an altogether different Jochid lineempire of India) from Transoxania. Khurasan became a age, one that had recently been dislodged from its hereditary
battleground between the Safavids and the Uzbeks, with realm along the lower Volga by the Russian conquest of the
Herat changing hands several times during the sixteenth commercial emporium of Astrakhan. This dynasty, known
century. variously as that of the Janids, the Ashtarkhanids, or the
Toqay Timurids ruled Transoxania and Balkh until 1747.
The Qazaqs. The Qazaqs with whom Muhammad Shibani
Khan fought were of precisely the same ethnic stock as his Despite the stability seemingly implied by the long reigns
Uzbek followers; the name qazaq (“freebooter”) had been of Ashtarkhanid rulers such as Imam Quli Khan (r. 1611–1642),
applied pejoratively to the components of Abu ’l-Khayr
Abd al-
Aziz Khan (r. 1645–1681), Subhan Quli Khan (r.
Khan’s Uzbek confederation who broke with Abu ’l-Khayr 1681–1702), and Abu ’l-Fayz Khan (r. 1711–1747), this era
and followed other Chinggisids out of his coalition. The saw the steady erosion of the khans’s authority in favor of
essentially political, rather than ethnic, distinction between powerful tribal chieftains, and the steady diminution of the
Qazaq and Uzbek remained somewhat fluid through the state itself. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, the
sixteenth century. After their Uzbek kinsmen moved with the power of the Chinggisid khans had been seriously weakened
Shibanids or other Chinggisids into Transoxania, Khwarazm, both in Khwarazm and in Transoxania, to the benefit of the
and Khurasan, the Qazaqs occupied the Dasht-e Qipchaq, tribal aristocracy, and political instability was exacerbated by
and continued their large-scale, seasonal pastoral nomadic economic dislocation and external military threats. In parmigrations. The Qazaqs too were ruled by Chinggisid sul- ticular, the renewed success of the Mongol Junghars (Oyrats)
tans, and came to be divided into three loosely affiliated units in the Dasht-e Qipchaq sent waves of Qazaq refugees into
(zhüz) known in the West as “hordes.” The middle Syr Darya Transoxania in the 1720s, devastating the region’s agriculvalley became the focus of frequent wars between the Qazaq tural base and prompting in turn the flight of much of the

Islam and the Muslim World 135
Central Asia, Islam in

sedentary population there into the Farghana valley and The khans of Qoqand were also closely involved in affairs
other areas. The Junghar threat also induced some Qazaq of East Turkistan, where political structures had developed
Chinggisids to seek protection from the Russian empire, and quite differently from those of western Central Asia in the
the formal submission of these khans later served as a pretext Uzbek era. There, dynasts of the lineage of Chaghatay had
for the extension of Russian control over the Qazaq steppes. withstood challenges from both the Timurids and the Uzbek
Chinggisids to the west, and from the Mongol Junghars to
The Afghan Turkmen. The political and military weakness the north, down to the late seventeenth century. Shifting
of Central Asia was further underscored by the invasion of political alignments involving rival branches of a family of
Nader Shah, the warlord of the Afshar tribe of Turkmens Naqshbandi khwajas (descendants and Sufi successors of a
who seized power in Iran in 1728, driving out the Afghans sixteenth-century shaykh of Transoxania known as Makhdum-e
who had put an end to the Safavid dynasty six years earlier. A
zam), which had been established in the region from the
His conquest of Bukhara and Khwarazm in 1740 helped late sixteenth century, contributed to the conquest of the
launch the final stage in the transition to the new dynasties of region by the Junghars in 1681, putting an end to the
Uzbek tribal origin that would rule much of Central Asia into Chaghatayid dynasty. The Junghars installed Afaq Khwaja (d.
the second half of the nineteenth century. In Bukhara, a 1694), leader of the Aqtaghliq (“White Mountain”) khwaja
chieftain of the Manghit tribe who had formerly served the faction, as their governor in Kashghar. Struggles between the
weak Ashtarkhanid ruler Abu l-Fayz Khan had the latter khwaja factions continued after his death, leading the Junghars
ruler deposed and killed soon after Nader Shah’s assassina- first to deport the leaders of both factions, and later to switch
tion in 1747. In Khwarazm, Nader Shah’s conquest led to an their support to the rival Qarataghliq (“Black Mountain”)
extended period of profound disorder, culminating in the faction.
occupation of the capital, Khiva, by the Yomut tribe of
Turkmens in 1768. In this case it was a chieftain of the The Manchus. By the middle of the eighteenth century,
Qonghrat tribe, who likewise had filled important state posi- however, khwaja contenders were seeking support against the
tions under the Chinggisid khans there, who succeeded in Junghars through the growing power of the Manchu empire
driving out the Yomuts and restoring order. The Manghit (the Qing dynasty of China). The climactic struggle between
and Qonghrat dynasties thus established ruled Bukhara and the Manchus and the Junghars for domination of the Inner
Khiva, respectively, even after the Russian conquest, surviv- Asian heartland culminated in the total destruction of the
ing as protectorates of the Russian state until 1920. Junghar state in 1758. The khwaja state too was destroyed, as
the Manchus incorporated both the Tarim basin and the
Nader Shah’s career also set the stage for the emergence Junghar homeland into their empire (it would become known
of Ahmad Shah Durrani (r. 1747–1773), the Afghan warlord as the “New Province,” Xinjiang, of China), but the khwaja
who was able to seize the regions of Balkh and Herat to add to lineages continued to stir up rebellions among the Muslims of
his base in Qandahar and Kabul, and thereby forged the basis the region, with the active support, beginning in the 1820s, of
for modern Afghanistan; the Manghits of Bukhara continued the khans of Qoqand based in the Farghana valley. A major
to contest the loss of Balkh, however, and permanent Afghan uprising of Chinese Muslims from 1862 to 1876 kept the
control of the region that became known as “Afghan Turkistan” Qing dynasty occupied as the Qoqandian adventurer Ya
qub
was not secured until the middle of the nineteenth century. Bek carved out his own state, with the support of an Aqtaghliq
khwaja based in Kashghar. The suppression of the revolt led
The Khanate of Qoqand. In the Farghana valley, finally, to the Qing reconquest of the Tarim basin by 1878. The
another Uzbek tribal dynasty took shape in the first half of the Turkic Muslim population of East Turkistan was able to
eighteenth century, as chieftains of the Ming tribe made the reassert its independence sporadically following the collapse
town of Qoqand (or Khuqand) their base and extended their of the Manchu dynasty in 1911, with several attempts to
control throughout the valley; this region proved to be the create an East Turkistan Republic during the 1930s and
most economically dynamic area of Central Asia during the 1940s. The Chinese communist victory in 1949 led to the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the Ming dynasty region’s incorporation into the People’s Republic of China as
was able to exploit the valley’s agricultural and commercial the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The PRC’s colowealth to build a state that became the most powerful in nization policy brought a massive influx of Han Chinese that
Central Asia during the first half of the nineteenth century. has reduced the Muslim component to approximately 60
Under
Alim Khan (r. 1798–1809) and his brother
Umar percent of the region’s population.
Khan (r. 1809–1822), the khanate of Qoqand expanded to the
north, seizing Tashkent and the towns of the middle Syr The Russian Conquest and the Soviet Era, 1865–1991
Darya; further Qoqandian expansion into the Dasht-i Qipchaq During the late eighteenth century and the first half of the
brought both Qazaq and Qirghiz nomads under the khanate’s nineteenth, the rulers of the Uzbek tribal dynasties in the
control, and led inevitably to a confrontation with the Rus- three khanates of western Central Asia—Bukhara, Khiva, and
sian empire, which was expanding into the same regions from Qoqand—were succeeding where the Chinggisid khans had
the north. long failed: They crushed the power of the tribal chieftains,

136 Islam and the Muslim World
Central Asia, Islam in

instituted military reforms that lessened their dependence on identities and mores that would create the modern Soviet
the tribal forces, created a more centralized bureaucratic nations of Central Asia. The Bolshevik victory in the Civil
apparatus for state administration, and concentrated far more War was followed, in Central Asia, by an administrative
power in their own hands than any Chinggisid khan had held reorganization that reflected both practical concerns and
for centuries. Despite this period of relative revitalization, Lenin’s rhetoric about national self-determination. This “nahowever, the three Central Asian khanates were hopelessly tional delimitation” drew borders for the new people’s repuboutmatched militarily by the expanding Russian empire. lics, in part on the basis of older administrative units, but in
part on the basis of ethnographic and linguistic surveys
Russian commercial ties with Central Asia had developed conducted by scholars and officials using a somewhat arbiextensively from the latter sixteenth century, as the conquest trarily chosen set of ethnic and national designations. The
of the last successor states of the Golden Horde opened basic work was done by 1924; changes in the hierarchical
Siberia to Russian conquest. By the latter eighteenth century, status of the units thus created, within the system of union
Russian encroachment from the Volga-Ural valley and Sibe- republics, autonomous republics, and autonomous regions
ria had reduced the Qazaqs to vassal status. The suppression that comprised the ethnically defined structures of the USSR,
of Qazaq revolts in the 1830s and 1840s brought Russian continued until 1936, leaving five union republics—the Kazakh,
forces into the Syr Darya valley, where they attacked Uzbek, Kirgiz, Tadzhik, and Turkmen republics (using the
Qoqandian outposts already in the 1850s. Russianized names that were official through the Soviet
period)—in western Central Asia.
The outright military conquest of southern Central Asia
followed the freeing of Russian military resources by the end Soviet policy demanded the strict subordination of naof the Crimean War, and by the suppression of Muslim
tional identities to the construction of socialist society. Howresistance in the North Caucasus. Russian troops moved
ever, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s local elites were
against the towns of the middle Syr Darya valley in 1864, and
able to develop considerable autonomy in republican affairs,
seized Tashkent in 1865. Operations southwest of Tashkent
and, within limits, to give expression to Sovietized national
brought confrontations with Bukharan troops, culminating
cultures. In the 1980s Soviet reformers sought to rein in the
in the Russian capture of Samarkand in 1868 and the estabentrenched national bureaucracies, citing corruption and
lishment of a Russian protectorate over the khanate of Bukhara.
abuses of power in the republics. Increasingly vocal national-
A Russian force marched on Khiva in 1873 and forced a
ist movements demanded the assertion of cultural and politisimilar arrangement on the Qonghrat khan. Further defeats
cal rights, culminating in declarations of sovereignty by all of
of Qoqandian forces brought the submission of that khanate
the Central Asian republics. With the failed coup attempt of
as well, but repeated revolts and social unrest in the Farghana
August 1991 and the dissolution of the USSR later that year,
valley led Russian officials to dissolve the khanate of Qoqand
each of the republics declared independence. By that time,
in 1876 and bring its territories under direct Russian rule.
however, the local communist elites had co-opted the nation-
The Turkmen nomads to the south of Khwarazm put up a
alist movements and ensured their hold on power, now as
stiffer resistance, surrendering to Russian control only after a
nationalists rather than communists. The 1990s saw, in all the
massacre of Turkmen men, women, and children at Gok
Central Asian republics, a rollback of political rights asserted
Tepe, near modern-day Ashgabat, in 1881. By 1895, negotiaduring the last years of the Soviet regime, the often brutal
tions between the Russian and British empires had defined
stifling of political dissent, and the total monopolization of
the southern border of the Russian holdings in Central Asia,
power by the former republican communist parties, now
corresponding to the present-day borders of the Central
appropriately renamed. At the same time, the republican
Asian republics with Iran and Afghanistan.
elites appeared to be committed to the enterprise of nation-
Russian rule at first brought few changes to the daily lives building, understanding their power to be rooted in existing
of Central Asian Muslims, but growing contacts between political structures rather than in any revolutionary transfor-
Russians and Central Asians, as well as economic changes mation of the prevailing conceptions of communal identity,
brought on by increased trade with Russia, led to the emer- which those structures served to reify.
gence of small native circles intent upon revitalizing local
society through educational and cultural changes. Following
See also Central Asian Culture and Islam; Commuthe 1905 revolution in Russia, these groups—known as jadidists,
nism; Reform: Muslim Communities of the Russian
a term applied to reformist Muslims throughout the Russian
Empire.
empire—became increasingly concerned with political issues, and it was from among them that the Russian Bolsheviks BIBLIOGRAPHY
would find their first allies among the native population Bacon, Elizabeth. Central Asians under Russian Rule: A Study
following the revolutions of 1917. These reformist circles in Culture Change. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
were important for launching the reevaluation of communal Press, 1966.

Islam and the Muslim World 137
Central Asian Culture and Islam

Barthold, V. V. Four Studies on the History of Central Asia. McChesney, Robert D. Waqf in Central Asia: Four Hundred
Translated by V. Minorsky and T. Minorsky. Leiden: E. J. Years in the History of a Muslim Shrine, 1480–1889. Prince-
Brill, 1962. ton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Barthold, V. V. Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion, 4th ed. McChesney, Robert D. Central Asia: Foundations of Change.
Translated by V. Minorsky and T. Minorsky. Edited by Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 1996.
C. E. Bosworth. London: Luzac & Co., 1977. Pierce, Richard A. Russian Central Asia, 1867–1917: A Study
Becker, Seymour. Russia’s Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara in Colonial Rule. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
and Khiva, 1865–1924. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni- California Press, 1960.
versity Press, 1968. Saray, Mehmet. “The Russian Conquest of Central Asia.”
Beckwith, Christopher I. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia: Central Asian Survey 1 (1982): 1–30.
A History of the Struggle for Great Power among Tibetans,
Turks, Arabs, and Chinese during the Early Middle Ages. Devin DeWeese
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987.
Biran, Michal. Qaidu and the Rise of the Independent Mongol
State in Central Asia. Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon
Press, 1997. CENTRAL ASIAN CULTURE AND ISLAM
Bosworth, C. E. The Ghaznavids: Their Empire in Afghanistan
and Eastern Iran 994–1040. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Uni- Central Asia played a pivotal role in the early debates about
versity Press, 1963. what it meant to be a Muslim, as the early practical experience
of negotiating relations with the local population on the
Bregel, Yuri. “Tribal Tradition and Dynastic History: The
Central Asian frontiers left its mark in the developing con-
Early Rulers of the Qongrats according to Munis.” Asian
sensus about the conditions for membership in the Muslim
and African Studies 16 (1982): 357–398.
community, and for enjoyment of the privileges it entailed.
Bregel, Yuri. An Historical Atlas of Central Asia. Leiden:
Brill, 2003. Islamization in Central Asia
Burton, Audrey. The Bukharans: A Dynastic, Diplomatic and Already in the eighth century there were signs of the domi-
Commercial History, 1550–1702. New York: St. Martin’s nance of the inclusive approach toward membership in the
Press, 1997. Islamic community that would prevail throughout the history
Daniel, Elton L. The Political and Social History of Khurasan of Islamic Central Asia. Local resentment grew over the
under Abbasid Rule 747–820. Minneapolis and Chicago: unequal treatment often accorded new converts by Umayyad
Bibliotheca Islamica, 1979. governors who, in response to declining revenues, toughened
Fletcher, Joseph. “The Naqshbandiyya in Northwest China.” requirements for conversion and even rescinded the remis-
In Studies on Chinese and Islamic Inner Asia. Edited by sion of the jizya, the poll tax on non-Muslims, promised to
Beatrice Forbes Manz. Aldershot, Hampshire, U.K.: Vario- prospective converts. This helped turn the region into the
rum, 1995. staging ground for the Abbasid revolution. In doctrinal terms
Forbes, Andrew D. W. Warlords and Muslims in Chinese it lent support to the view that formal affirmation of faith and
Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang of affiliation with the Muslim community was sufficient to be
1911–1949. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University regarded as a member of the umma in good standing, even if
Press, 1986. the people thus brought into the fold were not proficient in
practice or clear on details of doctrine. This principle, articu-
Frye, Richard N. Bukhara: The Medieval Achievement (1965).
Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1997. lated in the movement of the Murji
a that gained wide
support in Khurasan and Transoxania (Mawarannahr), was
Golden, Peter B. “The Karakhanids and Early Islam.” In
later enshrined in Hanafi juridical thought, which dominated
The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Edited by
Central Asian life from the ninth century to the twentieth
Denis Sinor. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University
century. It thereby shaped the process of Islamization in
Press, 1990.
Central Asia, not only among the sedentary rural and urban
Golden, Peter B. An Introduction to the History of the Turkic population, but along the steppe frontiers as well, where the
Peoples: Ethnogenesis and State-Formation in Medieval and
process of conversion appears to have begun in many cases
Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East. Wiesbaden:
with the establishment of social bonds between Muslim
Otto Harrassowitz, 1992.
townspeople and nearby Turkic nomadic communities. This
Holdsworth, M. Turkestan in the Nineteenth Century: A Brief gave the latter a formal affiliation with the umma, with details
History of the Khanates of Bukhara, Kokand and Khiva. of practice and belief to be worked out later.
London: Central Asian Research Centre, 1959.
Manz, Beatrice Forbes. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cam- There was considerable religious diversity in Central Asia
bridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1989. at the time of the Arab conquest, and it persisted in later

138 Islam and the Muslim World
Central Asian Culture and Islam

times. Manichean communities were active in Samarkand limited, but important, Shafi
i presence in some areas. The
until the tenth century, Christian groups can be traced into region of Tashkent became a bastion of the Shafi
i school
the fourteenth century, and Buddhism was not supplanted (and produced the noted tenth-century jurist Abu Bakr Qaffal
from the northeastern part of the Tarim basin until the al-Shashi), as did the town of Taraz, while parts of Khwarazm
fifteenth century. Despite the frequent setbacks to Islamization were predominantly Shafi
i until well after the Mongol conin Central Asia, the region became quite early on a major quest. Already before the Samanid era, however, the supremcenter of Islamic learning, literature, and art. acy of the Hanafi school in Bukhara, and in the rest of
Transoxania, was credited to the imam Abu Hafs al-Bukhari
Cultural Patronage and Religious Scholarship (d. 877), and from the tenth century to the fourteenth,
The full flowering of Islamic science and literature, in Persian Transoxania was by far the most productive region of the
and Arabic, came in the tenth century under Samanid patron- Muslim world in terms of the scholars and books that would
age. The Samanid court at Bukhara sponsored the Persian define the Hanafi tradition.
poets Rudaki and Daqiqi, and the compilation of the Shahname
(Book of kings) by Firdawsi (who later enjoyed Ghaznavid The Samanid era saw the formulation of the theological
patronage as well); Arabic poetry was also cultivated, as were school associated with the name of Abu Mansur Muhamtranslations from Arabic and other languages into Persian. mad al-Maturidi (d. c. 944) of Samarkand. His theological
The Samanids also patronized scientific endeavors, building elaborations, on a Hanafi foundation, defined the lines of
on traditions that had produced pivotal works instrumental in religious thought that dominated the eastern Islamic world
the development of astronomy and mathematics in the Islamic for centuries and, with the active support of Seljuk patronage,
world at large, and later in western Europe as well. Whereas became firmly established in the Middle East beginning in
in the ninth century scholars of Central Asian origin, such as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It was the era of Seljuk
Muhammad b. Musa al-Khwarazmi, Abu Ma
shar al-Balkhi, patronage, indeed, that produced many of the great classics of
and Abu
Abbas Ahmad al-Farghani, were drawn west to Hanafi jurisprudence in Transoxania. The central works
Baghdad, Samanid patronage kept these figures’ successors at include the Usul of Fakhr al-Islam
Ali b. Muhammad alhome, so to speak, and made tenth-century Bukhara the scene Pazdawi (d. 1089), the Mabsut and Usul al-fiqh of Muhammad
of a remarkable intellectual synthesis marked especially by b. Ahmad al-Sarakhsi (d. c. 1096), known as “Shams alscholars of encyclopedic breadth. The compendium of all Aimma,” and the Hidaya of Burhan al-Din
Ali al-Marghinani
branches of scholarship known as the Mafatih al-
ulum was (d. 1197). The activities of Hanafi jurists extended to juridical
produced for the Bukharan court by Abu
Abdallah Muham- and civil administration as well, and hereditary transmission
mad al-Khwarazmi, and an important tradition of geographi- of the estates and power they were able to amass was comcal study was sponsored by Samanid officials. The encyclopedic mon. The most famous case is the family known as the Al-e
tradition shaped the work of the remarkable Khwarazmian al- Burhan in Bukhara, whose members were recognized as the
Biruni (d. 1048), who distinguished himself in the natural chief civil authorities in the city even by the non-Muslim
sciences as well as in history and geography, and who later Qarakhitays.
served the Ghaznavid sultans Mahmud and Mas
ud as well.
The illustrious polymath Ibn Sina (d. 1037), especially re- The Mongol conquest naturally meant a setback for the
nowned in medicine and philosophy, spent his formative institutional foundations of Islamic religious culture, and for
years in Samanid Bukhara. state involvement in the application and interpretation of the
shari
a, but its impact on religious life was not as far-reaching
Perhaps the most important contribution of pre-Mongol as is often supposed. If the transmission of juridical traditions
Central Asia to the religious culture of the larger Islamic in Central Asia is considered there is little evidence of any
world, however, lies in scholarship on hadith and in the substantial discontinuity coinciding with the establishment of
juridical sciences and theology. Already in the ninth century, Mongol rule. With the conversion of the Mongol elites to
under the Tahirids, Central Asia produced several of the Islam, patronage of Islamic scholarship, literature, art, and
compilers of the major collections of hadiths regarded as architecture expanded. During the fourteenth century a numauthoritative throughout the Muslim world, above all the two ber of important Turkic religious works were produced and
pivotal traditionists, Muhammad b. Isma
il al-Bukhari (d. dedicated to khans and tribal chieftains of the Jochid and
870), who lived much of his life near Samarkand, and Muslim Chaghatayid realms. Timur patronized religious scholars as
b. Hajjaj of Nishapur (Ar. Nisabur) (d. 875). The growth and well as artisans and poets, often bringing prominent figures
development of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, which from the regions he conquered back to his capital in Samarkand,
came to dominate interpretation and application of the shari
a and scholars such as Sa
d al-Din Taftazani (d. 1390) and
Ali
in much of the Ottoman-ruled world and in the Indian Jurjani (d. 1413) thus worked for a time in Transoxania; on
subcontinent, was largely the work of Central Asian scholars. the other hand, some jurists found the cultivation of the
Central Asia has been predominantly Hanafi in its juridical Mongol heritage under Timur and his successors abhorrent
orientation throughout the Islamic period. There was a and quit the Timurid realm for the Ottoman state or other

Islam and the Muslim World 139
Central Asian Culture and Islam

parts of the Muslim world. By the Timurid era, in any case, of that competition, many groups appear to have experithe Hanafi school’s dominance in Central Asia had become a mented with different ways of legitimizing the authority and
virtual monopoly. Hanafi juridical scholarship continued in efficacy of their specific ritual and devotional practices and
Transoxania into the twentieth century, until the closure of their claims of spiritual preeminence, appealing to visionary
all madrasas by the Soviets in the late 1920s. Early in the sanctions of various sorts, hereditary transmission, demon-
Uzbek period, patronage of the religious sciences took on a strated spiritual results, and other signs in addition to the
new political importance in light of the emergence of the silsila, which would become the normative mode of legitimation
Shi
ite state of Safavid Iran. The ulema of Transoxania by the latter fifteenth century. Some of these Sufi communisupported the Uzbek rulers by declaring the Qizilbash to be ties, moreover, were actively engaged in Islamization, not in
the equivalent of infidels, thereby justifying the constant the sense of changing the beliefs of the Turkic nomads who
raiding and open warfare in Khurasan through the sixteenth became based in southern Central Asia through the Mongol
and seventeenth centuries. The religious frontier thus estab- invasion (though this may have happened as well), but in the
lished was rarely an insurmountable obstacle to commerce or sense of forging social and economic bonds with nomadic
intellectual exchange, but nevertheless set the further devel- communities that were undergoing the profound dislocations
opment of religious culture in Central Asia apart from its of the Mongol era (i.e., tribal reorganization and adaptation
traditional connections to Iran. to the enclosed nomadism of Transoxania and Khurasan).

Sufism in Central Asia By the late fifteenth century, the Naqshbandiyya was
The most important religious development of the post- emerging as the dominant Sufi tradition of Central Asia,
Mongol era was the rise of Sufi communities organized largely through the efforts of Khwaja
Ubaydullah Ahrar, a
according to the principle of the silsila or chain of spiritual native of Tashkent who spent much of his life in Timurid
transmission, and their emergence as important factors in Samarkand, and who exemplified the political engagement
political and economic history. The history of Sufism and the cultivation of economic power that became the
(tasawwuf) in Central Asia down to the Mongol conquest hallmark of the Naqshbandi order. At the same time, the
remains poorly studied, but it appears that by the tenth Naqshbandiyya was beginning its expansion beyond Central
century a number of originally independent mystical cur- Asia, into the Ottoman Empire and the Indian subcontirents, some with local roots and some imported from outside nent. The decentralized polity of the early Uzbek era fa-
Central Asia, had coalesced under the designation of tasawwuf. vored intensified competition among representatives of the
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries major new patterns of Naqshbandi, Yasavi, and Kubravi orders, but Naqshbandi
dominance was assured by the second half of the sixteenth
Sufi activity and organization appear with the career of Abu
century. From then until the early eighteenth century, the
Sa
id b. Abil-Khayr (d. 1049) of Mayhana, in present-day
Naqshbandiyya was a truly pervasive influence in all aspects
Turkmenistan, who cultivated a high public profile in
of Central Asian political, economic, and cultural life.
Ghaznavid Nishapur, and with the hereditary Sufi tradition
of Ahmad-e Jam (d. 1141), whose natural descendants re- The eighteenth century saw important changes in religmained prominent well into the Uzbek era. ious life, beginning with the introduction of the Mujaddidi
(renewal) current of the Naqshbandi order, which had taken
The Mongol and Timurid periods saw the crystallization
shape in seventeenth-century India, into Central Asia. The
of Sufi traditions that would dominate religious life in Cen-
Mujaddidiyya offered an alternative source of legitimation
tral Asia down to the nineteenth century, in the form of
for rulers seeking to counter the limitations on their power
organized orders that emerged around silsilas traced back to
imposed by entrenched urban and tribal elites, and several
the prophet Muhammad through prominent saints of the
Mujaddidi shaykhs were closely allied with khans of the
thirteenth century. One was the Kubravi tradition, whose
Manghit and Ming dynasties in promoting religious “reeponym, Najm al-Din Kubra, died in 1221 during the Mongol
form” in a way that undermined traditional Sufi groups and
attack on his native Khwarazm. Another was the Yasavi
the popular practices associated with them. The late eighttradition, named for Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi, whose center of
eenth and nineteenth centuries saw several reform efforts of
activity was the middle Syr Darya valley. The Khwajagani
this type, which entailed the condemnation of many longtradition emerged in the thirteenth century as well, among established religious practices that had diffused from Sufi
the disciples of Khwaja
Abd al-Khaliq Ghijduvani, from a circles into the larger society as un-Islamic innovations. Local
town near Bukhara. This tradition produced a lineage that Sufi traditions survived, however, as did the local customs
became known as the Naqshbandiyya, after Baha al-Din fought by the reformers, and the real blow to Central Asia’s
Naqshband of Bukhara (d. 1389). Representatives of these legacy of Sufism came only with the Soviet era.
and other traditions were engaged in vigorous competition
with one another, for court patronage and for popular sup- Pilgrimage and Shrine Culture
port, in the context of the political and social turmoil of One of the most characteristic features of Islamic religious
Transoxania and Khurasan in the fourteenth century. As part practice in Central Asia, and one that linked the lower classes

140 Islam and the Muslim World
Childhood

with the religious and social elites, was the widespread phe- Afghanistan; the expansion of Muslim education and literacy
nomenon of pilgrimage (ziyarat) to saints’s shrines (mazars). into the nomadic regions, especially among the Qazaqs; the
This phenomenon was closely linked, but never entirely incorporation of shrines and sacred lineages into the religious
coterminous, with the spread of Sufism. Shrine-centered practice, social structure, and epic traditions of the nomads;
religious practice is evidenced already in the tenth century, the prominence of hereditary religious and social prestige in
and by the twelfth century there is extensive information on families linked to eminent local jurists and, especially, Sufi
the large numbers of shrines in Khurasan in the hagiographies saints of the past; the permeation of kinship structures and
focused on the life of Abu Sa
id b. Abu l-Khayr. From the communal life by elements of Sufi practice and thought; and
same century dates the incident of the discovery of the the expansion of religiously defined and regulated occupareputed grave of
Ali near Balkh, under the Seljuks, suggest- tional organizations in urban and rural environments, inteing already the political ramifications of cultivating shrine grating the basic elements of craft production into a spiritual
traditions, as well as the compilation of the earliest guide to worldview that infused labor and its fruits with sacrality and
holy places in Central Asia, entitled Lataif al-azkar, by a religious meaning.
member of the Al-e Burhan of Bukhara. By the Mongol era,
shrine culture was well entrenched, and appears to have See also Central Asia, Islam in; Maturidi, al-; Pilgrimplayed some role in the acculturation of the Mongol elites and age: Ziyara; Tasawwuf.
ordinary nomads to the Muslim environment. Ibn Battuta
reported that even pagan Mongols brought offerings to the BIBLIOGRAPHY
shrine of Qutham b.
Abbas, the famous martyered Shah-e
Basilov, V. N. “Honour Groups in Traditional Turkmenian
zinda in Samarkand, and there is some evidence of shrines Society.” In Islam in Tribal Societies: From the Atlas to the
serving as portals, in effect, for passage from the world of Indus. Edited by Akbar S. Ahmed and David M. Hart.
Mongol administrative service to the devotional and contem- London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.
plative life of Sufism. In the fifteenth century, a shrine guide Bulliet, Richard W. The Patricians of Nishapur: A Study in
for Bukhara included a defense of the practice of ziyarat, but Medieval Islamic Social History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
the legitimacy and efficacy of pilgrimage to saints’s shrines University Press, 1972.
were taken for granted through most of Central Asian his-
Gross, J-Ann, and Urunbaev, Asom. The Letters of Khwaja
tory. The reform efforts of the early nineteenth century
Ubayd Allāh Ahrār and His Associates. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
targeted some practices associated with shrines, and the
Madelung, Wilferd. “The Spread of Maturidism and the
Soviets directed intense, and destructive, antireligious meas-
Turks.” In Actas do IV Congresso des Estudos Arabes et
ures against them, but in neither case were there permanent
Islâmicos, Coimbra-Lisboa. Leiden: Brill, 1971.
inroads into the public consciousness of shrines and their
many roles. The collapse of Soviet antireligious efforts in the Malamud, Margaret. “Sufi Organizations and Structures of
Authority in Medieval Nishapur.” International Journal of
late 1980s led to a remarkable revival of ziyarat, including the
Middle East Studies 26 (1994): 427–442.
reconstruction of numerous shrines as well as the “rediscovery,” by quite traditional methods (not unlike those that Sviri, Sara. “Hakim Tirmidhi and the Malmati Movement in
Early Sufism.” In Classical Persian Sufism: From its Origins
revealed
Ali’s burial place in the twelfth century), of longto Rumi. Edited by Leonard Lewisohn. London and New
forgotten sites.
York: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications, 1993.
The centrality of shrine-centered religious practice in the
daily lives, and in connection with the most pressing human Devin DeWeese
needs, of the majority of Central Asian Muslims is a major,
and visible, part of the complex of normative religious customs that characterized traditional life in Islamic Central
Asia. Other elements of this complex are more difficult to CHILDHOOD
trace in literary sources from earlier centuries, but it seems
clear that, during the Uzbek period at least, religious trends Childhood in Islam, like childhood in any great religious
that were evident already in the Mongol and Timurid eras tradition, is seen generally as a period of education and
were solidified and became the standard features of tradi- training, a time of socialization for the future adult. The child
tional Islamic life down to the social and religious upheavals is seen as the crucial generational link in both the religious
launched by the Soviet regime in Central Asia during the late community and the family unit, the key to its continuation,
1920s. Some of these elements include the continuation of the living person that ties the present to the past. The idea of
madrasa-based juridical education in such cities as Bukhara, childhood, the place of the child, the duties of the child are
which continued to attract students from among Muslim basic issues and have been since the beginning of Islam.
communities in the Russian empire as well as from India and Childhood ends in a formal sense at the age of puberty, when

Islam and the Muslim World 141
China

performance of the religious duties (Five Pillars) marks the from a very early age, children are given responsibilities.
ritual passage into the early stages of adulthood. Girls are expected to help in the home and care for siblings;
boys may be asked to help in family business or on their
Socialization of the child takes place primarily within the father’s farm. This traditional picture, in practice, is changfamily unit, the home, and the father and mother are ulti- ing, as people in the Muslim world become more mobile, and
mately responsible for their offspring. However, grandpar- as the family group becomes more attenuated. The father is
ents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are also expected to participate still seen as head of household, but the mother frequently
in a child’s rearing and usually did so in the past. Religious shares economic responsibilities by working outside the home,
socialization also takes place in the home (for boys and girls) and this places stress on family expectations for both sons and
and in the mosque (for boys) but also in the Quranic school daughters. Free public education has supplemented, but not
or kuttab (for boys and girls). A knowledge of the Quran is replaced, Quranic education for all children.
deemed necessary for a child’s religious development, and
most parents, even the poorest, try to send their sons and Still, the basic approach to childhood as a time of learning
daughters to the kuttab. rather than as a carefree time for play remains. To become a
full member of the Islamic community, a child is expected to
Socialization for values of the society begins even earlier, learn the Quran, respect parents, and gradually assume
as soon as a child is conscious of others. These values vary responsibilities within the family and the religious commusomewhat according to geographical, historic, and economic nity, so that the untutored child becomes the disciplined
differences within Muslim communities but in general they Muslim adult.
are designed to develop
aql or reason in the child and to make
the child muaddab, one who is polite and disciplined. In the See also Circumcision; Education; Gender; Marriage.
Arab world, a child is taught respect for food, for religion, for
the kin group, hospitality to guests, and, above all, respect for
BIBLIOGRAPHY
and obedience to the authority of the father.
Ghazzali, Muhammad ibn Muhammad Abi Hamid al-. Ayyuha
Most Muslim societies might be classified as patrilineal al-Walad. Cairo: Dar al-Itisam, 1983.
(the exception being parts of Southeast Asia, in which a Warnock Fernea, Elizabeth, ed. Children in the Muslim Middle
matrilineal descent is observed). In the reckoning of one’s East. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.
descent in patrilineal societies, one’s kin-group membership
passes through the male line on the father’s side. This means Elizabeth Warnock Fernea
that all children retain their father’s name throughout their
lives, but a daughter, unlike a son, cannot pass membership
on to her children. Male and female descendants inherit from
the father, according to the specifics of Islamic legal codes. CHINA See East Asia, Islam in
This hierarchical organization means that the oldest male,
father or son, holds authority over his descendants, but is also
the primary economic provider for the group, and thus
controller of the group’s economic resources. In exchange,
the male head of household is expected not only to provide
for but to protect the group, including sons and daughters,
CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM
throughout their lives.
The history of Christian-Muslim or alternatively Muslim-
The period of childhood socialization is marked by ritual Christian relations began at the inception of Islam in the first
events, both religious and secular: ceremonies surrounding half of the sixth century of the Common Era. As Islam began
birth and naming; circumcision, for all boys and some girls; to spread beyond the Arabian Peninsula soon after the death
graduation from Quranic school, particularly for boys; and of the prophet Muhammad in 632 C.E., the encounter be-
finally marriage. Marriage is the crucial step in tying individ- tween Muslims and Christians entered a new phase of miliual members to the group, and the birth of children confers tary, political, and social interactions. A century later, while
on the newly united pair full membership in the family unit these kinds of interaction continued along the already farand in Islam. “When a man has children he has fulfilled half flung borders of the new Islamic empire spreading from
his religion, so let him fear God for the remaining half,” states Spain to the Indus river, new patterns emerged within both
one of the hadiths of the prophet Muhammad. majority Christian and majority Muslim polities. They re-
flected the weight of different theological and political con-
Further, throughout childhood, there is strong socializa- texts on daily social life, leading to a variety of mostly
tion for future roles in the family and the Muslim community; polemical and apologetic stances that Christians and Muslims

142 Islam and the Muslim World
Christianity and Islam

developed regarding each other. This religious and political which his prophetic message was being accepted or rejected
mix came to a head during the period of the major Crusades at each moment of his reception of Quranic revelations, a
(twelfth to thirteenth centuries C.E.), creating the subsequent process that lasted about twenty-three years. In terms of
dominant paradigm in Christian-Muslim relations, the re- Christianity in particular, there is at best a conditional acpercussions of which are still felt to this day, and especially ceptance of Christians, and at worst a judgment associating
since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. But not all them to both shirk (polytheism/idolatry) and kufr (unbelief).
historical periods or geographical locations were the same; The various Christian voices referred to in the Quran are, for
pockets of mutually beneficial encounters existed here and the most part, not reflective of the major Christian theologies
there on both sides of the transient political borders. More- that Muslims would come to encounter soon after the death
over, the history of Christian-Muslim relations has not un- of the prophet Muhammad, in 632 C.E. These misperceptions
folded in isolation from other religious and, more recently, of mainstream, seventh-century Christian theologies, by benonreligious worldviews. ing preserved in the Quran, negatively predisposed subsequent generations of Muslim interpreters of Christianity. A
The Period of the Prophet Muhammad’s Life: Circa
contextual sociopolitical reading of these various passages,
570–632 C.E.
harking back in part to the old Islamic hermeneutical princi-
The history of the prophet Muhammad’s life is difficult to
ple of abrogation (in which later Quranic revelations must
ascertain with precision. Through a careful examination of
take precedence over prior ones), is one way to make sense of
pre-Islamic poems, the Quran, early hadith, and biogratheir variety and, at times, contradictory nature. This is
phies, all of which have entailed in the past century serious
especially important when the passages are juxtaposed
debates as to their validity as historical sources, it is nevertheahistorically, either within the period of the Prophet’s life or
less possible to suggest a likely course of events in this first
for contemporary ideological purposes.
period of Muslim-Christian encounters. Prior to 610 C.E., the
year when the prophet Muhammad received the first Quranic
The First Islamic Conquests: 632–750 C.E.
revelation, his encounters with Christians probably took
During the Islamic empire’s first phase of rapid expansion,
place during his caravan trips into greater Syria, as the
between 632 and 750 C.E., two numerically important religtradition of his meeting with the Christian monk Bahira
ious systems become incorporated under Muslim politiwould indicate. There may also have been occasional encouncal control: Eastern Christianity, both Chalcedonian (i.e.,
ters with Christians of unknown theological leanings passing
Byzantinian) and non-Chalcedonian (especially Monophysite
through Mecca. The biography of the prophet Muhammad
and Nestorian), and Zoroastrianism. By then, Jews constimentions other kinds of encounters, not all of which are
tuted only a small minority of the population scattered across
historically verifiable. For instance, soon after 610 C.E., the
the newly conquered areas, and did not represent any political
Prophet met with Waraqa ibn Nawfal, who was a cousin of
threat. The first to try to make sense of Islam as the religion of
the Prophet’s wife Khadija. Waraqa ibn Nawfal was a Christheir new Muslim rulers were Eastern Christians, since Westtian scholar who confirmed the Prophet’s mission. Another
ern (that is, Roman) Christians were not affected directly by
encounter is said to have occurred in 615 C.E., when early
the Muslim conquests until the later part of this period, and
converts to Islam migrated for a short while to the Christian
mostly in the Iberian Peninsula lying at the Western fringe of
kingdom of Axum (Abyssinia). In 628 C.E., a delegation of
the new Islamic empire. In all cases, however, Christians
Christians from the town of Najran in South Arabia came to
perceived Islam within their own respective theological
visit the Prophet in Medina, and sometime before the Prophet
worldviews. As early as around 660 C.E., the arrival of Arab
died, in 632 C.E., he would have sent letters to existing rulers
Muslims is interpreted by the Monophysite Armenian bishop
such as the Byzantine emperor Heraclius and the Negus of
Sebeos as a judgment of God in light of Genesis 21:12–13,
Axum, as well as the Sassanian emperor Chosroes. These five
instances demonstrate a variety of possible or imagined en- according to which Muslims are identified as Arab descencounters, all of which have been used for various goals in dants of Hagar and her son Ishmael, who were promised by
Muslim-Christian relations, both at the time of their produc- God to become a great nation. This theological interpretion and in subsequent interpretations. tation was linked to a political situation wherein most
Monophysite and Nestorian Christians welcomed the arrival
The varieties of Quranic passages addressing Christians of Arab Muslims, for it put an end to their political subordinadirectly or indirectly (as people of the book, together with tion to the Byzantine Christians. As the new rulers took
Jews, for example) reflect the transforming nature of the control over the course of the eighth century, new interpretaprophet Muhammad’s encounters with them as his own tions developed. For both Monophysites and Nestorians,
status changed over time. The same applies to the other two Islam came to represent a judgment on the part of God
religious systems he interacted with in Arabia: Judaism and against those who accepted the Christological definitions of
Meccan polytheism. In all three cases, the variation in tone, the Council of Chalcedon (451 C.E.). As for those Eastern
from tolerance to polemics, seems to reflect the extent to Christians under Muslim control who continued to support

Islam and the Muslim World 143
Christianity and Islam

The Tomb of St. John the Baptist in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, which was built on an earlier church, is said to house the skull of John
the Baptist, valued by both Muslims and Christians. Over the centuries, despite much polemical opposition and violence, Christianity and Islam
maintain many important similarities and have shared many positive encounters. ART ARCHIVE/DAGLI ORTI

the Byzantine or Chalcedonian theology, such as the Melkite covenant (ahl al-dhimma), erroneously understood by some
John of Damascus, they came to describe Islam as a Chris- today as second-class citizenship. This concept was based on
tian heresy. two Quranic references (9:8, 10) initially referring to idolaters in general. This covenantal concept helped regulate
The early Muslim conquerors followed the momentum Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians as political minorities who
built toward the end of the Prophet’s life: The first phase of received protection from ruling Muslims in exchange for poll
interaction with Christians (and Jews) was confrontational, taxes. Yet, the situation and opportunities for advancement
and all Jews and Christians were expelled from the Arabian varied tremendously from one individual Christian to an-
Peninsula. It was not until the later seventh and eighth other, and from one geographical area or historical period to
centuries, when Muslim political conquests began to take another. For example, many educated Christians reached
root in majority Christian and Zoroastrian areas, that more high positions of power during the Umayyad and subsequent
lenient attitudes and practices developed, legitimized by a Abbasid dynasties, especially in the fields of medicine, phiretrieval of the earlier and more tolerant Quranic passages losophy, and administration.
toward Christians in particular. These interpretations and
legal elaborations were needed to formalize the relationship The Stabilizing of Relations: 750–1085 C.E.
of Muslims to the Christians and Zoroastrians who formed a In the three centuries that followed the takeover of the
majority of the population in their respective western and central Islamic lands by the Abbasid dynasty in 750 C.E.,
eastern halves of the new (Islamic) Umayyad Empire (661–750 the Islamic world rose to its apex of cultural, religious,
C.E.). This new political context also explains why, to the and political efflorescence. This pax islamica resulted in much
theological concept of the people of the book (ahl al-kitab), tolerance toward its internal religious minorities in genused by the prophet Muhammad to link the Jewish, Chris- eral, albeit within an Islamic dhimmi paradigm of power.
tian, and Islamic notions of divine revelation, was added a The translation of mostly Greek and Syriac philosophiparallel and pragmatic concept of the people of the protective cal and scientific works into Arabic during the middle of

144 Islam and the Muslim World
Christianity and Islam

the ninth century culminated in the establishment of Caliph first Crusades in Clermont, France, in 1095. By the fall of
Al-Mamun’s (786–833 C.E.) bayt al-hikma (house of wis- 1096, a people’s expedition was galvanized by Peter the
dom). It was later directed by the Nestorian Christian trans- Hermit. Numbering about twenty thousand, it ended up
lator Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809–873 C.E.). As a positive disintegrating before leaving Europe. In its wake, however, it
example of Christian-Muslim relations at the center of the left a trail of suffering. Many lives were lost, and whole Jewish
Abbasid Empire, the bayt al-hikma internally promoted intel- communities were exterminated.
lectual pursuits of truth and resulted in a striking degree of
interreligious tolerance and mutual influence, especially among At the same time, an amalgamation of five armies from
the educated elite. Externally, as the empire’s borders contin- different parts of Western Europe responded to the call: they
ued to be disputed, a pronounced antagonism arose among numbered between fifty and sixty thousand. They crossed
both Western European and Byzantine Christians, who feared over into Asia Minor in 1097, captured Antioch in 1098, and
the power of the then-greatest empire on earth. Among conquered Jerusalem on 15 July 1099. The Christian popula-
Western Christians, the most obvious development was linked tion of Jerusalem had been expelled from that city in fear of
to the slow Reconquista efforts in Spain that culminated in the treachery just prior to the Crusader conquest. The Muslim
Christian takeover of Toledo in 1085. This movement was governor, together with some of his military garrison, was
fueled by very negative anti-Islamic rhetoric. As for Byzan- allowed safe-conduct at the moment of the conquest, but the
tine Christians, the continuing warfare also helped sustain remaining Muslim and small Jewish civilian populations were
more polemical views of Islam, building on the earlier notion massacred: More than forty thousand lives were taken. In
that Islam was a heresy with the difference that authors now contrast, when Saladin re-conquered Jerusalem in 1187, no
had access to original Quranic and other Arabic writings (or blood was spilled upon entering the city. By 1302, the
translations of them) to sustain their polemical arguments. Crusaders had gradually lost control of all their small princi-
Yet, some Byzantine writers were more moderate, acknowl- palities on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
edging some similarities between Christianity and Islam,
such as the common basis in monotheism. In contrast to this military approach to Muslim-Christian
relations, smaller but significant rapprochements were taking
During the same period, an equally diverse spectrum of place from the eleventh century onwards. They allowed for
views on Christianity emerged among Muslims. While there
the transmission of knowledge from the Islamic world into
was better access to mainline Christian theologies, greater
Christian Europe, with the translation of Arabic works into
knowledge did not always result in greater tolerance and
Latin. This began primarily in Spain and Sicily with the
understanding. Many factors explain the rise in Muslim
rediscovery of the ancient Greek heritage, now greatly enpolemical attitudes toward Christianity: changing demoriched by centuries of Muslim commentaries. This movegraphic realities, wherein Christians were still the majority in
ment took place in both older monasteries and newer
many central areas of Islamdom, but the balance of numerical
educational establishments such as language schools, colpower was gradually shifting in favor of Islam; changing
leges, and universities, first in Bologna, Salerno, Montpellier,
theological realities within the Muslim community, includ-
Paris, and Oxford prior to 1200 With this rapid increase in
ing the search for Islamic legitimization in Biblical roots;
efforts to understand the Muslim world, with key figures such
social competition, especially in times of economic difficulas the Italian Francis of Assisi (1182–1226 C.E.) and the
ties; and the need to defend Islam against other major
Spaniard Raymond Lull (c. 1232–1316 C.E.), important seeds
worldviews. But not all Muslim perceptions of Christianity
were polemical, and not all Muslim authors lived in situations of the later fifteenth- and sixteenth-century European Renwhere the above factors were equally present. As different aissance were sown in the very midst of an internal Christian
Christian theologies produced different perceptions of Islam, resistance to the Crusades.
so did different Islamic theologies (Mu
tazili, Ash
ari, Maturidi,
The New Balance of Power: 1300–1500 C.E.
traditionalist, Sufi, and so on) produce different perceptions
The defeat of the first Crusades did not end the desires of
of Christianity.
European Christians for expansion, nor did it stop certain
The Period of the Crusades: 1085–1300 C.E. Muslims from continuing their own. The Reconquista gradu-
After the fall of Toledo in 1085, Western Christians became ally expanded to include the whole of the Iberian Peninsula,
embolded by the successes of what they have called the ending with the fall of the last Muslim kingdom in Grenada in
Reconquista. Their success was in sharp contrast to the Eastern 1492. At the other end of the Mediterranean, Ottoman
Byzantine Christians, who had suffered great territorial losses expansion crossed over into southeastern Europe in 1354,
at the hands of the Muslim Seljuk Turks in the aftermath of eventually ending the Byzantine Empire with the capture of
the battle of Manzikert in 1071. A decade later, Byzantine Constantinople in 1453. They won the battle of Kosovo in
emperor Alexius (r. 1081–1118) took power and later re- 1389 and Nicopolis in 1396, making them rulers of the
quested help from Western Christians to fight back the Balkans. The expansion stopped at the gates of Vienna in
Muslims. Pope Urban II responded with the preaching of the 1529. A similar siege took place again in 1683, demonstrating

Islam and the Muslim World 145
Christianity and Islam

the strong Ottoman pressures on Central and Eastern Europe gradually make them colonial masters not only over majority
for over a century and a half. Muslim countries, but over almost the entire planet. While
this surge in European colonialism was particularly successful
At the same time, by the end of the fifteenth century, the
among the British, French, Dutch, and Russians, who divided
southwestern Europeans, especially the Spaniards and Portuup among themselves most of the Islamic world, it still
guese, gained new strategic power through three combined
remained strong among the older imperial powers of Spain
discoveries: Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of the Ameriand Portugal, while the newer national polities of Italy,
cas in 1492; Vasco de Gama’s navigation around Africa via the
Germany, and Belgium also vied for their share of the world.
Cape of Good Hope in 1497, which opened up a new spice
A few Muslim areas retained a degree of political indepentrading route to Southeast Asia that avoided central Muslim
dence, such as what later became Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and
lands; and Magellan and Pigafetta’s westward circumnavigation
(to a lesser degree) Iran, which had to balance pressures from
of the earth by 1522 C.E. These discoveries suddenly enlarged
the British in the south and the Russians in the north, a
the predominantly Mediterranean geographical scope of the
prelude to the later pressures of the Cold War by their
first eight centuries of Christian-Muslim interactions into
respective successors the United States and the Soviet Union.
the beginnings of a global one, adding new Christian mis-
Thanks in part to large oil revenues, both Saudi Arabia and
sionary pressures, especially in West Africa as well as South
and Southeast Asia, where Muslim rule had been gradually Iran would later become the launching pads for two disexpanding for centuries. tinct, transnational, and anti-Western Islamic political ideologies confronting Western imperialism: Khomeinism and
The New European Christian Rise in Power: Wahhabism. The first began with the Iranian Revolution of
1500–1800 C.E. 1979 and the latter produced as one of its offshoots the
In the sixteenth century, the rapid takeover of ocean routes extremist al-Qa
ida, with the resulting terrorist attacks on key
worldwide ushered in a new age of European Christian symbols of American global hegemony on 11 September 2001.
power. It resulted in a gradual encroachment on increasingly
vast areas of inhabited lands through a forceful combination Intertwined with the growing European colonialism of
of military, political, economic, and missionary activities. the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Christian
While these new, long-term processes were unfolding on the missionary movement continued unabated, although it was
peripheries, the Ottoman Empire continued to be a threat to now linked to a civilizational project of modernity underthe central and eastern European Christian powers and the stood as democracy and the rule of law within new nation-
Mughal Empire slowed down European incursions into state structures. This European colonial project legitimized
South Asia. in the eyes of most Europeans their own increased militarization at home and the interconnected colonial control of
In between the Ottoman and Mughal empires, the Safavid
peoples worldwide. European colonialism eventually frag-
Empire (based primarily in Iran) vied for control of central
mented the world, including the Islamic parts of it, into
Islamic lands. Dynamic internal Muslim transformations
unavoidable yet often unmanageable semblances of nationcontinued to flower along traditional lines, both within those
states. This project had to do as much with older competing
three centralized empires and on many peripheries of Islamic
Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christian identities as
expansion, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, and in southeastwith newer, non-Christian philosophies (deism, atheism,
ern and northwestern Asia. However, few understood the
utilitarianism, materialism, human rights, and the like), a
significance of the new technologies that led to the magnipoint often misunderstood by many generations of Muslims
tude of the European encroachment along many peripheries
who have reduced the modern West to Christianity. In turn,
of the Islamic world and their disruption of traditional intermany Westerners, whether religious or not, have themselves
nal sources of economic revenues, such as the spice and silk
simplistically essentialized the complexities of the Islamic
roads, due to new ocean trade routes. These technological
threats were also ideational and symbolic, as with the new world, wanting to believe that it is quintessentially unmissionary efforts to spread worldwide the already embattled modernizable. They have forgotten how many centuries it
forms of European Christianity, even when conducted with took Western Catholic and Protestant Christianities to come
greater sensitivity to local customs, as exemplified in the to terms with modernity, and fail to consider the ongoing
efforts of the first Jesuits in the later half of the sixteenth struggles of parts of the Orthodox Christian world, not to
century in India, China, and Japan. These combined proc- mention vast numbers of Christians in economically disadesses would subsequently increase in speed and depth, leading vantaged areas around the world.
to tension and confrontation between Muslims and Chris-
Orientalism is a long-standing, scientific tradition of intians worldwide on a much wider scale.
terpretation of the Other developed in Western universities
The Period of European Colonialism and Western especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to ex-
Imperialism: 1800 onward plain “Eastern” realities from Morocco to Japan. This tradi-
With Napoleon’s brief conquest of Egypt in 1898, Europeans tion reinforced the stereotype of Islam as unmodernizable.
embarked on a political and military trajectory that would Orientalists only too often contributed to the rationale for

146 Islam and the Muslim World
Christianity and Islam

colonial domination of the world, especially in Muslim areas. But by the end of the Cold War in 1989, Westerners and
This explains why, since the late nineteenth century, many Muslims had lost a common enemy in communism; they
Muslims have become suspicious of efforts on the part of could now turn more directly onto each other, in what is still
non-Muslim Westerners to interpret Islam. However, with often reduced to a simplistic West versus Islam dichotomy.
increased migrations of Muslims from majority Muslim countries to the West and the increase in conversions to Islam In contrast, mostly among educated and cosmopolitan
among both European and U.S. citizens, especially among elites, the late twentieth century witnessed the emergence of
African Americans, together with the increased Westernization a genuine Christian-Muslim or Muslim-Christian dialogue.
of important segments of majority Muslim countries, new This new movement stressed the importance of listening to
Islamized Western and secularized Islamic identities have one another and learning from each other’s tradition. This
emerged in the last half century challenging the existence of a process, carefully attuned to ensuring a better power dynamic
West/Islam dichotomy as was promulgated by orientalist between its participants, has often led to common statements
thinking. by Muslims and Christians on a variety of issues. Sponsored
at times by international religious organizations, govern-
In addition to colonialist and orientalist discourses, the ments, or non-governmental organizations, these dialogues
already complex internal Western dynamic spawned new have opened up new avenues of understanding that aim to
competing economic and political ideologies, such as liberal- respect the differences and have built on the similarities that
ism, socialism, and communism, eventually spreading the exist among Christians and Muslims. While participating in
Cold War (1950–1989) unto the rest of the non-Western dialogue does not require a liberal theological point of view, it
world, into newly formed nations that were already strug- tends to attract religious people with such a perspective, often
gling to define themselves in the new, postcolonial era. This limiting the potential impact this approach could have on
resulted in various hybrid forms of political ideology, such as transforming the history of Christian-Muslims relations topan-Arabism, Indonesian pancasila ideology, and the crea- ward one of greater understanding and cooperation given the
tion of Pakistan along ethnic rather than religious lines (even wealth of information now available on their shared history.
though Pakistani identity was initially the effort to transform
a South Asian Muslim identity into a national/ethnic one). Conclusion
For every national case, the Islamic heritage in majority The history of Muslim-Christian relations includes a wide
Muslim countries was problematized differently, resulting in spectrum of interactions encompassing all aspects of human
a variety of Muslim and Islamic nationalisms that rivals the life. Two extreme interpretations need to be avoided because
variety of secular and Christo-secular Western nationalisms. they are wrong historically. The first is reductionism. It is
dangerous to reduce this complex history to one of endless
The greatest force underlying the modernization (often confrontations between essentialized conceptualizations of
reduced to Westernization) process ensuing from Western Islam and Christianity, treating them as mutually exclusive
colonialism and post-colonial economic imperialism, most realities that turn every Christian and Muslim into unavoidrecently known under the concept of globalization, has come able enemies. The examples of constructive interactions
in the name of science and has been linked to a philosophy of between Muslims and Christians in both times of peace and
positivism. These combined claims to truth have reinforced war are too numerous to justify oversimplifying this history
the various new technologies with which they are associated. into one of military confrontations. The second danger is to
While most Muslims have adopted Western scientific educa- deny the complex power dynamics that have always existed
tion as part of various nationalist educational projects, this among Christians, Muslims, and others within Christian and
ever-rapid increase in scientific knowledge has continued to post-Christian as well as Muslim and other societies. These
provide a secularizing West its military and political superi- dynamics reveal both destructive and constructive behaviors
ority, undermining traditional faith-claims both at the center and patterns, as well as a spectrum of beliefs that range from
of power in the West and on the Muslim and other peripheries. inclusive to exclusive and are held by both sides in what have
become the two numerically largest religious identities today.
A resistance to positivist science and liberal Christianity Knowing this history requires a sensitive understanding at
first developed in the United States in the second decade of the dawn of a yet insecure future for the human race.
the twentieth century, taking the form of Christian Protestant fundamentalism. Fundamentalism later spread around See also Balkans, Islam in the; Crusades; European
the world under different names and varying forms, resulting Culture and Islam; Islam and Other Religions; Judain the ideologization of anticolonial and, later, anti-imperialist ism and Islam; Religious Beliefs.
religious discourses. Eventually it fueled a few religious
revolutions and coup d’etats, the most memorable being that BIBLIOGRAPHY
of Iran in 1979. During the late 1980s and 1990s, another Bamyeh, Mohammed A. The Social Origins of Islam: Mind,
form of accommodation has led to the creation of a network Economy, Discourse. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
of scholars engaged in the Islamization of Knowledge project. Press, 1999.

Islam and the Muslim World 147
Circumcision

Ridgeon, Lloyd, ed. Islamic Interpretations of Christianity. New
York: St Martin’s Press, 2001.
Runciman, S. A History of the Crusades. Cambridge, U.K.:
Cambridge University Press, 1951.
Waardenburg, Jacques, ed. Muslim-Christian Perceptions of
Dialogue Today: Experiences and Expectations. Leuven:
Peeters, 2000.
Zebiri, Kate. Muslims and Christians Face to Face. Oxford,
U.K.: Oneworld, 1997.

Patrice C. Brodeur

CIRCUMCISION
The role of circumcision (khitan) in Islamic society has
shifted dramatically due to issues of gender, custom, and law.
Nowhere mentioned in the Quran, circumcision was a common practice in Arabia that was incorporated into the Islamic
legal system to varying degrees and for a variety of reasons.
Both Josephus and Philo of Alexandria note its presence in
Egypt, Ethiopia, and Arabia prior to the coming of Islam.
Philo observes that Egyptian males and females were circumcised after the fourteenth year before marriage, while Josephus
claims the Arabs performed it just after the thirteenth year, at
the time Ishmael was circumcised.
The minaret of a mosque and the belltowers of Christian churches
cohabitate in Bethlehem on the West Bank. LEFTERIS PITARAKIS/AP/ Legally, Islamic scholars debate whether the practice is
WIDE WORLD PHOTOS obligatory or sunna (customary), or whether its obligations be
extended solely to males, or to males and females. Al-Shafi
a
considers the practice an equal duty for both sexes, while
Borrmans, Maurice. Guidelines for Dialogue between Christians Malik and others consider it sunna for males. The disagreeand Muslims. Translated by R. Marston Speight. Mahwah, ment over gender requirements continues in current cultural
N.J.: Paulist Press, 1990.
practice. Female circumcision is embraced in southern Egypt,
Brown, Stuart E., ed. Meeting in Faith: Twenty Years of Ethiopia, Somalia, the Sudan, and West Africa, and a minor
Christian-Muslim Conversations Sponsored by the World Council form is practiced by Southeast Asian Shafi
is in Indonesia and
of Churches. Geneva: W.C.C. Publications, 1989. Malaysia. It is condemned by many Muslims and non-Muslims
Daniel, Norman. Islam and the West: The Making of an Image. who reside outside of these areas, mostly for humanitarian
Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld, 1993. and health reasons. Many legal schools also deliberate the
Goddard, Hugh. A History of Christian-Muslim Relations. time a circumcision should be performed. Some recommend
Chicago: New Amsterdam Books, 2000. the seventh day following the birth of a male child, while
Goddard, Hugh. Christians and Muslims: From Double Stan- others propose its performance after a child reaches his tenth
dards to Mutual Understanding. Richmond, U.K.: birthday. Again, such legal variation is mirrored in contem-
Curzon, 1995. porary practice. In the Middle East, circumcision occurs
between the ages of two and seven, while in Europe and
Haddad, Juliette Nasri, ed. Declarations Communes Islamo-
Chretiennes: 1954–1995. Beyrouth: Dar el-Machreq, 1997. North Africa male Muslims are circumcised in hospitals
immediately after birth. Suffice it to say that today there is no
Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, and Haddad, Wadi Saidan, eds.
standard orthodox practice when it comes to circumcision.
Christian-Muslim Encounters. Gainesville: University Press
Not all Muslims practice circumcision (specifically, those in
of Florida, 1995.
China), and many who do adhere to vastly different cul-
Hillenbrand, C. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives. Edinburgh: tural norms.
Edinburgh University Press, 1999.
Laiou, Angeliki E., and Mottahedeh, Roy Parviz, eds. The The justifications for circumcision also vary dramatically
Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim in Islamic sources and practice. Many hadith link circumci-
World. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research sion with purification (tahara). It often appears in lists that
Library and Collection, 2001. include other acts of general hygiene, including the clipping

148 Islam and the Muslim World
Clothing

of nails, the use of the tooth-stick, the trimming of mus- common in the region since Roman times (qamis or thawb).
taches, and the depilation of both the armpits and the pubic The earlier form of Arab dress, unseamed wrapped garments
region. Some hadith also link the practice back to Ibrahim, (izar and rida), have survived as the consecrated garments
who circumcised himself at the age of eighty with a pickax. (ihram) worn by pilgrims to Mecca. The thawb is well suited
Unlike Judaism, Islam does not view circumcision as the sole to desert heat, providing both protection from the sun and
signifier of the covenant between God and his people. Cir- ventilation. A wide unfitted mantle (jallaba or aba; hooded
cumcision stands as just one of many tests Ibrahim performed burnus) may also be worn. Typical materials are cotton or fine
to demonstrate his adherence to the true faith. Many Mus- wool, with dense silk embroidery applied to necklines and
lims bypass these exegetical intricacies and simply take the borders. To this might be added sashes and shawls. Men’s
view that Muhammad mandated the practice. The legal and head coverings might be a turban, or a simple shawl bound at
customary support for circumcising just prior to the onset of the forehead, arranged on the head according to status,
puberty also suggests the practice was performed as a rite of affiliation, local usage, or practical need. Turbans are the
passage, one that would ready an individual for marriage. As a most well known of Muslim headgear, however. Hats or caps
rite of passage, male circumcision ceremonies in places like may also be worn either separately or under turbans. Women’s
Java and Morocco are accompanied with purificatory rites, clothing is based on the same basic garment forms but differs
sacrifices, and feasts. When conducted today, female circum- in color, embellishment, materials, and accessories. In public,
cision is a much less celebratory act, rarely accompanied by women’s garments were traditionally hidden by veils that
such festivities. To interpret circumcision in Islam from a covered all parts of the body to the ground or only head,
religious studies standpoint, the manipulation of the genitalia shoulders, and face.
exemplifies ultimate divine control over one’s human, procreative instincts. Thus one cut symbolizes a total submis- Turkic dress was widely influential throughout the Islamic
sion to God. world. The Seljuk Turks emerged from Central Asia, establishing dynasties in Iran and Asia Minor by the eleventh
See also
Ada; Body, Significance of; Gender; Law. century. By the mid-sixteenth century the Ottoman Empire
encompassed most of the lands surrounding the eastern
BIBLIOGRAPHY Mediterranean.
Bloch, Maurice. From Blessing to Violence: History and Ideology
in the Circumcision Ritual of the Merina of Madagascar. The traditional Turkish ensemble for either men or women
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1986. consisted of loose-fitting trousers (salvar, don) and a shirt
Kister, M.J. Concepts and Ideas at the Dawn of Islam. Aldershot, (gomlek), topped by a variety of jackets (cebken), vests (yelek),
Great Britain; Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate/Varioram, 1997. and long coats (entari, kaftan, uc etek). The use of coats and
trousers derived from their nomadic origins in Central Asia.
Robinson, Francis. Atlas of the Islamic World Since 1500. New
York: Facts On File, 1982. Trousers protect a rider’s legs from chafing, and coats or
jackets can be more readily donned or doffed than tunics
while on horseback, as required in a variable climate. Layer-
Kathryn Kueny
ing of garments was an important aesthetic element. Garments were arranged to display the patterns and quality of
fabrics on all layers and add bulk to the body image. The more
CLOTHING formal the occasion or the higher the status of the wearer, the
more layers worn, with richer materials further indicating
Islamic dress has for centuries been used to symbolize purity, wealth. Colorful sashes that added mass to the body image
mark status or formal roles, distinguish believer from also served as a repository for weapons and personal articles.
nonbeliever, and identify gender. Traditionally Muslims were Ottoman Turkish headgear typically consisted of a brimless
admonished to dress modestly in garments that did not reveal hat or cap in a variety of sizes and forms indicating official
the body silhouette and extremities. Head coverings were status, gender, and regional identity. Scarves were usually
also expected. However, dress forms vary in different periods wrapped into a turban over the hat. The form of the turban
and regions, as does interpretation of and adherence to indicated status, occupation, religious affiliation, or regional
Muslim dress codes. The most prominent forms of Near origin. Women’s scarves were wrapped and tied around the
Eastern dress can be classified as Arab or Turkic/Iranian in head, frequently in layers, with a larger veil worn over all
form, with degrees of blending between the two modes in public.
occurring where interaction between these cultures has been
greatest. Specific forms of dress were worn by Ottoman officials
throughout the Ottoman Empire. The nearly five-hundred-
Arab dress can be seen from northern Syria to North year presence of Ottoman rule throughout much of the Arab
Africa. The basic dress of both men and women is based on world led to some blending of garment forms, particularly in
the simple tunic, an unfitted garment pulled on over the head, northern Arab regions adjacent to Anatolia, and also in urban

Islam and the Muslim World 149
Clothing

Modesty in dress was enjoined in Islam for both men and
women, although the particulars of pious modesty are not
precisely defined in the Quran. The body of Islamic law and
scholarship, however, has provided more specific directives
that have nonetheless been applied differently in different
times and places. Generally some sort of headcovering or
veiling (hijab) is mandated for both men and women. In some
countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia all women are
required to veil, although the forms of veiling vary. In some
other societies veils may be a matter of choice.

Throughout the Islamic world, dress has been used to
manage distinctions of rank, gender, and religion. Under
Ottoman law, for example, dress of the various religious
communities within the empire was regulated, with specific
colors and forms of headgear, shoes, and garments defined.
Garments, particularly coats, were an important aspect of
court ceremonial throughout the Muslim world. The court
reception of emissaries, celebration of religious holidays,
installation of officials, or honoring of heroes always called
for the presentation of ceremonial robes and other textile
gifts, with the richness of the fabrics or fur linings a mark of
the degree of honor conferred upon the recipient. The
wearing of luxurious materials such as silk and gold thread
was often restricted, however, although such restrictions
were often ignored. The wearing of silk, particularly next to
the skin, was widely held to be an impious luxury for good
Muslims. A colorful satin cloth that had a cotton weft and silk
warp, and therefore a cotton inner surface and a silk outer
face, allowed the wearer to conform to this religious admonition while enjoying the luxurious outer appearance of a silk
Traditional male Arab dress is depicted in this 1936 postcard from garment. This textile was widely used in the Islamic world,
the region. CORNELL COSTUME AND TEXTILE COLLECTION
known as kutnu in the Near East, and mashru in northern
India and Pakistan. However, the most pious avoided luxurious materials and colors, and wore clothing of simple wool,
Arab centers of the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. cotton, or linen.
The adoption of buttoned vests or jackets of silk or wool
decorated with embroidery, and the loose-fitting trousers Beginning in the nineteenth century, westernization of
called salvar in Turkish or sirwal in Arabic are evidence of dress occurred together with modernization of political,
such borrowings in Arab dress. The dress of Muslim sub- military, and educational institutions, since initially mod-
Saharan Africa is derived from that of the Arabs who brought ernization was officially perceived as consonant with
Islam there in the eleventh century. westernization. Also the emergence of a modern textile industry in many regions led to the disappearance of the more
Traditional dress in Iran shares with that of Turkey forms costly handmade textiles once used in traditional dress. Since
indicative of nomadic origins, with layered coats and salvar as dress had long been closely regulated under Muslim law,
typical features of dress. These forms were also introduced departures from traditional dress became highly charged
into Muslim northern India from Central Asia by the Turkic political and social issues. The banning of the turban and the
Gaznevids in the eleventh and twelfth century, and by the introduction of the fez by the Ottoman sultan Mahmut II in
Moguls in the sixteenth century. Such forms are reflected in 1829 (as well as a westernized military uniform) caused great
Mogul court dress, where for men trousers (paijama) were controversy as did similar decrees in Iran in 1873. These
typically combined with front-opening coats or jackets of reforms were intended to symbolize modernization of milivarying length and cut (angarkha or jama). For women, the tary and administrative institutions, yet a century later the fez
characteristic ensemble might include a bodice or tunic (kurta had become a symbol of Ottoman traditionalism. Following
or choli) and skirt (gaghra), and/or trousers (salwar), as well as a the founding of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk)
veil. The exquisitely fine and complex silks and cottons of met resistance when he banned the fez in 1925, and even
India are a distinctive characteristic of dress from this region. more so when he urged abandonment of the veil for women.

150 Islam and the Muslim World
Coinage

Since mandated ideas of proper dress had for centuries been conquered lands to the treasury, first located in Medina, then
the means of distinguishing Muslim from non-Muslim, these in Damascus during the Umayyad period. The monetization
issues continue to have great emotional force throughout the of the economy that resulted from this expansion required
Muslim world. In the 1980s and 1990s dress reemerged as a not only large amounts of cash (coins) but also a standard
symbolic flashpoint between religious conservative and secu- monetary unit for transactions and account keeping. In relarist elements in Islamic societies. sponse, the silver dirham, modeled on the Sassanid drachma,
was adopted, with the coins being provided by the former
Examples of traditional clothing appear in the volume one Sassanid mints.
color insert.
Economic expansion continued with the establishment of
See also Art; Body, Significance of; Khirqa; Veiling. the Umayyad caliphate, but the silver dirham remained the
unit of currency. As mints did not generally issue gold coins,
BIBLIOGRAPHY the market had to rely largely on the Byzantine solidi to meet
Jirousek, Charlotte. “The Transition to Mass Fashion Sys- its gold currency needs. The solidi themselves suffered wear
tem Dress in the Later Ottoman Empire.” In Consumption and tear, which led at times to a less than uniform weight.
Studies and the History of the Ottoman Empire, 1550–1922: Similarly, the silver dirhams in circulation, or those minted
An Introduction. Edited by Donald Quataert. Albany: State by the Muslims, showed discrepancies. Strong pressure there-
University of New York Press, 2000.
fore existed for a standard currency, including a unit based on
Koçu, Resat Ekrem. Türk Giyim Kusam ve Süsleme Sözlügü gold, the production of which could be controlled by the
(Dictionary of Turkish: (Dress, Accessories, and Embel- Muslims.
lishment.) Ankara: Sümerbank, 1969.
Lindisfarne-Tapper, Nancy, and Ingham, Bruce, eds. Lan- Following minor attempts at currency reform by caliphs
guages of Dress in the Middle East. Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: such as
Umar I,
Ali b. Abi Talib and Mu
awiyah, which went
Curzon Press, 1997. only as far as adding an Islamic inscription or date to existing
Mayer, L. A. Mamluk Costume: A Survey. Geneva: Albert Byzantine or Sassanid coins,
Abd al-Malik b. Marwan (r.
Kundig, 1952. 685–705), the Umayyad caliph, took the initiative. Between
Scarce, Jennifer. Women’s Costume of the Near and Middle East. 696 and 698, he changed the form as well as the weight of the
London: Unwin Hyman, 1987. dinar and dirham and regulated minting. The coins empha-
Stillman, Yedida Kalfon. Arab Dress from the Dawn of Islam to sized the emerging power of Muslims and of Islam as a
Modern Times: A Short History. Edited by Norman Stillman. religion, with Islamic inscriptions such as “There is no God
Leiden, Boston, and Köln: Brill, 2000. but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Unlike
Byzantine and Sassanid coins, the reformed coins did not bear
Charlotte Jirousek the Caliph’s image.

The pre-reform dinar had weighed approximately 4.55
grams, but
Abd al-Malik reduced it to 4.25 grams. The
COINAGE fineness of the dinar was set at a minimum 96 percent gold
alloy. The weight of the pre-reform dirham had been ap-
When Islam emerged in 610 C.E., Mecca did not have its own proximately 3.98 grams, but
Abd al-Malik standardized it to
coinage. Instead, it relied entirely on the coins of neighboring 2.97 grams. This weight remained largely unchanged until
regions, particularly the Byzantine and Sassanid empires. the mid-ninth century C.E. The fineness of the silver dirham
Being both a trading town and a pilgrimage center, Mecca was also maintained at near 96 percent. Though the capital,
attracted a wide range of the coins in circulation at the time. Damascus, minted some coins, particularly gold dinars,
Abd
Neither the prophet Muhammad nor his immediate political al-Malik did not centralize minting in that city. This function
successors sought to change this. When the Muslims con- was given to provincial mints, and here the caliph relied
quered much of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires after the heavily on his governor in Iraq, al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf, to impose
death of the Prophet in 632 C.E., they left the administrative coinage reform on the eastern regions of the caliphate. Later,
structures of these regions, including their mints and coinages, caliph Hisham b. Abd al-Malik (r. 724–743) also tightened
largely intact. control over the quality of both dinar and dirham.

As a result of the Muslim conquests of the seventh century
Abd al-Malik’s reformed coinage set a standard that
. ., rapid economic expansion and currency circulation oc-
C E continued in some respects well into the following Abbasid
curred in the Near East, along with Muslim migration from period. In order to standardize further the coinage of the
Arabia to the newly conquered regions. Regular cash stipends powerful Abbasid caliphate, the caliph al-Mamun (r. 813–833)
began to flow out to Muslims from the Central Treasury (bayt introduced new coinage in 821 and 822. He abolished inclual-mal) in Medina during the caliphate of
Umar I (r. 634–644), sion of the caliph’s or the provincial governor’s name on
and there was substantial inflow of taxes and tributes from the coins, ordered that both gold and silver coins should follow

Islam and the Muslim World 151
Colonialism

refers to the theoretical dinar and dirham of the Muslim
jurists (fuqaha).

Despite the variation in the quality of the coinage under
different dynasties, certain features introduced by reformers
remained common. These included inscriptions symbolizing
the religious basis of the coinage, an indication of the mint
year, the mint name, and often the name of the caliph or ruler
under whom the coin was issued. Coins from Islamic dynasties have therefore an important historical significance. Apart
from their commercial role, they can tell us much about the
political and economic condition and the artistic and aesthetic tendencies of the time.

In the modern period, each Muslim state has its own
coinage and, like other countries, has abandoned the gold
standard, even though Muslim jurists have not relinquished
the concept of the gold dinar or the silver dirham in their legal
texts. In many juristic discussions, money proper is still the
dinar and the dirham of early Islam. However, as part of a
wider Islamic revival, the idea of a specifically Islamic standard unit of currency, a dinar, has been revived, though not
necessarily based on the earlier gold dinar. The most visible
aspect of this was the adoption in 1975 of the Islamic Dinar as
its unit of accounting by the Islamic Development Bank, an
An 1877 banknote for fifty Kurush from the Ottoman Empire. At
the beginning of the Muslim empire after Muhammad’s death, international Islamic financial institution whose shareholders
Muslim conquerers did not impose their own currency system on are member states of the Organization of the Islamic Confertheir subjects, because Mecca did not have its own coinage. ence (OIC). The value of the Islamic Dinar is equivalent to
Instead, it used the currency of nearby areas. Today, each Muslim one SDR—Special Drawing Right—of the International
nation has its own currency. THE ART ARCHIVE/DAGLI ORTI (A)
Monetary Fund.

See also Economy and Economic Institutions; Law;
specific design guidelines and inscriptions, and appears to Networks, Muslim.
have centralized the production of coin dies. His successor,
al-Mu
tasim, however, reintroduced the addition of the ca- BIBLIOGRAPHY
liph’s name. In the post-Mu
tasim period, some Abbasid Ehrenkruetz, Andrew S. Monetary Change and Economic Hiscaliphs even added the name of the heir-apparent or would- tory in the Medieval Muslim World. Edited by Jere L.
be successor. From the early ninth century to the middle of Bacharach. Hampshire, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing, 1992.
the tenth century C.E., the vast Abbasid caliphate thus ac- El-Hibri, Tayeb. “Coinage Reform Under the Abbasid Caliph
quired a significantly uniform coinage, which vastly aided al-Mamun.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the
internal and external, and Muslim and non-Muslim, com- Orient 36 (1993): 58–83.
merce and trade. These dinars and dirhams were imitated in Grierson, Philip. “The Monetary Reform of
Abd al-Malik.”
Europe and elsewhere. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 3
(1960): 241–264.
With the decline in Abbasid power, the disintegration of
Miles, G. C. “Dinar.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden:
the caliphate, and the emergence of independent provinces
E. J. Brill, 1960.
and dynasties, central control of the coinage as well as its
Miles, G. C. “Dirham.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden:
uniformity were lost. Independent provinces began minting
E. J. Brill, 1960.
their own dinars and dirhams and determining the fineness of
their coins. Although the fineness of gold dinars was at times
Abdullah Saeed
maintained and even excelled, for instance under the Fatimid
caliph al-
Amir (r. 1101–1130) and the Ayyubid sultan al-
Kamil (r. 1218–1238), large variations did occur. For this
reason, there is disagreement among scholars on the use of COLONIALISM
the terms “Islamic dinar” and “Islamic dirham” as a standard
unit of currency in the Muslim world, particularly in respect Modern colonialism goes back to the era of European discovof the post-tenth-century C.E. period, except insofar as it ery in the fifteenth century, connecting exploitation of raw

152 Islam and the Muslim World
Colonialism

materials with missionary ideas. Since then colonialism has own leaders and systems. Often corporate bodies of mertaken several and different forms, and various colonial powers chants initiated a system of indirect rule, such as the various
(such as the Portuguese and French in Africa, French and East Indian Companies. In this way vast colonies could be
British in the Middle East and South Asia, the Dutch in ruled remotely through the “resident,” the agent of indi-
Southeast Asia, the Spanish in South America) tried to sup- rect rule.
port their own hegemonies in Europe as well as competing
and contesting materially and politically in order to control The colonial restructuring was accompanied by profound
the new world economy. changes in the socio-psychological sphere of Muslim societies as well. Traditional systems of society, values, and rela-
The independence of the United States ushered in an- tions were gradually replaced by abstract, anonymous state
other phenomenon: White colonial regions became indepen- agents—whether through direct or indirect rule. This procdent as they became semi-sovereign vis-à-vis their colonial ess ushered in new societal formations, especially in the
motherlands. At the same time European industrial countries political sphere, since with the increasing expansion of the
contested for the safeguarding of raw materials, markets, and colonial sector, traditional forces came to break down or
possibilities of emigration in what they considered to be looked for alternative structures. But not all sectors and areas
unexploited and virgin regions. were seized by the politically dominant colonial sector, as
their integration was not always profitable, such as in parts of
Colonial Expanison traditional and tribal areas. They were consequently ignored,
Modern colonial expansion and colonization (when few Euro- and they still are socioeconomically neglected areas.
pean settlers appeared in the Muslim world) started in the
wake of the breakdown of Muslim empires, from within the The colonialization of the Islamic world in the nineteenth
boundaries of the territorial European states established in century occurred over several decades. The process can be
divided into three phases: from 1820, when colonial power
the eighteenth century into the borders of national markets.
was already firmly established, to 1856, when Muslim coun-
Hence, colonialism did not expand beyond traditional and
tries struggled for recognition in the changing geopolitical
primitive societies but into closed political entities, such as
reality; and, from 1856 to 1880 nearly all Muslim countries
the territorial princely states or successor states, which had
lost their economic and financial independence and became
replaced the great empires. By the eighteenth century the
dependent on the Europeans. During the period from 1880
world economy was already reorganized, and European exto 1910 most of these countries—apart from those Muslim
pansion had gradually changed the terms of trade for Muslim
countries controlled by the Ottoman caliphate—were subject
countries. A tremendous societal upheaval occurred as parts
to direct colonial military and political control: economic
of the traditional society were increasingly integrated into
colonialism had become political colonialism. In this situaworld market relations. This complex process came about
tion of political subservience, the traditional urban divines,
primarily through technical innovation (e.g., perennial irriparticularly theologians, were responsible for the traditional
gation systems), investment of capital, and privatization of
legitimization of the ruler. At the same time, in the colonial
landed property (e.g., the 1793 permanent settlement in
urban sector, Islamic repertory was gradually used as an
India). Next to the traditional urban and agrarian sectors,
ideology and a mobilizing force by those societal formations
colonial urban and agrarian sectors were established, using a
that had become partly integrated into this colonial sector. In
colonial infrastructure. The previously important nomadic
contrast to this, in the traditional agrarian sector Islam
sector was noticeably marginalized. A colonial administrative
prevailed in the form of egalitarian peasant culture, as can be
and military force was set up, visualized in new settlements,
seen from a number of Sufi and Mahdi movements.
such as civil lines and cantonments. The education system
was replaced or paralleled by a new European one suiting The idea of universal caliphate, which had been used by
colonial interests. the Ottomans since the middle of the eighteenth century,
particularly for reasons of foreign policy, became a vehicle for
In doing so two broad patterns were followed: direct rule, pan-Islamic propaganda, notably by Sultan
Abd al-Hamid II.
virtually excluding indigenous political structures, as favored Though this propaganda was politically unsuccessful and led
by the Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas, and by the to the demise of the caliphate in 1924, the propaganda
French in Africa (especially after the French Revolution); and triggered a hefty discussion of the idea of a universal caliphate
indirect rule, which by contrast, incorporated traditional outside of Turkey: On the one hand the validity of the idea
indigenous political structures and was favored by the British was questioned (
Abd al-Raziq); on the other, Indian Muslims
in South Asia, the Dutch in Southeast Asia, and by the staged a khilafat movement. A colonial crackdown, however,
Germans and Belgians in Africa. The reasons for these put this movement down.
differences were pragmatic—the cost-effectiveness through
the involvement of few Europeans—as well as ethnocentric, The Second World War accelerated the process of
wherein non-whites and whites were considered fundamen- decolonialization but left the former colonies with basic
tally different, and therefore were controllable only by their structural problems that were a result of colonialism, such as

Islam and the Muslim World 153
Colonialism

insufficient societal integration, artificial boundaries, and colonial traders, and rulers. Therefore, contemporary denarrowly based economies. bates became the starting point for the colonial reception of
Oriental society. Naturally, the oscillating processes between
Beside these socio-historical and political developments, Europeans and non-Europeans openly and latently shaped
one needs to consider the normative aspect underlying the both societies. If projection is considered to be a cultural
colonial process: A colonial collective image of Islam was technique for self-affirmation and demarcation, then assigncreated, going as far back as the Crusades and revived at a ing a collective (negative) identity to the (colonialized) “other”
time when Europeans had started to project their own imagi- implied the colonialists’ generating their own identity in a
nations onto Muslim societies—a phenomenon that historian specific colonial context. Indeed, some European enlighten-
Edward Said has called “Orientalism.” In this view, the ment figures even had gone as far as to use the “Orient” as a
heterogeneous Islamic world was reduced to a monolithic, didactic background to criticize their own urban societies,
antimodern, and anti-intellectual world excluded from world thereby setting out the frame of reference for their own
history. identities.

Nineteenth-century colonial politics was legitimized as The intrinsic impact of reciprocity and mutuality of the
evolutionary and modern, while the “Orient” was constructed colonial process may have found one political manifestation
as a cultural space, diametrically opposed to the values and in indirect rule, which was, however, not implemented in its
norms of the West, which were considered to be inherently totality, because the British administration got involved in
universal. This unidimensional social evolutionism proclaimed internal affairs of these societies very quickly, at times resem-
Europe as embodying hegemonic power. In doing so, various bling the French system of direct colonial administration. In
discourses about the Orient promulgated the societal decline, India one manifestation of British indirect rule was the
dogmatism, despotism, and irrationality of the region. Even- establishment of an honors system and the issuing of titles.
tually this hegemonic claim produced new “Orientalist” The residency system provided for the cultural success of
sciences. imperialism, a success that found its climax in the “invention
of tradition” as it represented colonial authority in Victorian
Against the backdrop of a postulated universal evolution- India through different devices, such as highly ritualistic
ary history, the Orientalist sciences analyzed the object “Ori- events to mark Queen Victoria’s accession in 1876 to the title
ent” in its historical development, making use of the Hegelian “Kaisar-e Hind” (Empress of India, combining the imperial
categories of alienation and reconciliation. In this way, colo- titles of Roman “Caesar,” German “Kaiser,” and Russian
nial administrations were provided with a “scientifically “Czar.”)
proven” image about the stage of development attained by
the Orient, which was seen to be alienated from its classical The nineteenth-century Orientalist image and action not
high culture. Cultural theories provided the colonial admin- only cemented the dominant image of the Orient in the
istration with this Orientalist image, which ran counter to the West but also affected the self-statement of the Orient.
historical one of classical high culture. On the basis of this Consequently this image changed non-Western practices
construction, colonial measures to “reconcile” the Orient concretely—from blind imitation of modernization to a total
with its alienated tradition were to be implemented as an rejection of Western society, thereby forming a “strange
export of progress. Thus terms like “modern” and “tradi- alliance” between western Orientalism and Muslim fundational” or “primitive” became scientific categories, establish- mentalism, whence one side satisfied the essentializing fantaing an epistemological supremacy of Europe that was firmly sies of the other.
established politically.
Colonialism and the Emergence of
In this way authority was created on the object “Orient” Islamic Movements
not only for the Europeans but also gradually, through The deep traces of colonialism that changed the whole
reciprocal perceptions, for the “Orientals” themselves. Sub- landscape of the Muslim world brought about new social
sequently, authority was derived from the instrumentalization formations, and new Islamic movements:
of the Weberian demand for “value-free” social sciences, that
became “objective” insofar as they were considered to be not • Reform Islam was prominent among pastoral and
ideologically biased, but unquestionably “true.” tribal societies, based on Wahhabiyyan and
other ideas.
While the power relations cannot be ignored, it is impor- • Reform Sufism started off in urban, pastoral, and
tant to note the cultural hybridization of the colonial process, tribal areas, first against feudal rule and later opposfor example, the reciprocity of colonializer and colonialized. ing European intrusion. In doing so, the figure of
Indeed, the colonialized peoples had a function in the colo- prophet Muhammad became even more pivotal,
nial process, for the establishment of European dominance hence the establishment of “Muhammadan Paths”
was essentially based on the cooperation of local informants, (turuq Muhammadiyya) in the colonialized regions.

154 Islam and the Muslim World
Communism

This kind of mystical approach found its climax in giving them an Islamic garb. This normative replacement
the movement of the Mahdi of Sudan. enabled these Islamic classicists to transcend traditional
• A third trend was Islamic modernism, represented boundaries and legitimize modern developments within the
primarily by intellectuals, bureaucrats, and the mili- Islamic semiotics. In this process of reinvention of tradition,
tary, and manifested in creations of the colonial code- or identity-switching is most important, providing this
system, like the Aligarh Movement in India, the political Islam with its particular dynamics.
Young Ottomans, and the so-called pan-Islamic
movement. The latest development in the wake of colonialism is the
emigration of large Muslim communities to Europe and
These movements adjusted to the new conditions and North America. The migration pattern follows colonial and
opted for the integration of the colonial system with Islamic historical traditions, that is, Maghrebian Muslims in France,
theology. Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Sayyid Ahmad Khan Southeast Asian Muslims in the Netherlands, South Asian
were two exponents of the modernizing trend, however Muslims in Britain, and Turkish Muslims in Germany.
different their motivations may have been. Precondition for
the ideologization of Islam was a renewed call for the See also Fundamentalism; Orientalism.
reintroduction of independent reasoning (ijtihad) at the cost
of adherence to one’s school of law (taqlid). Timeless catego-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ries developed in the course of Western civilization were now
regarded as immanently Islamic. The use of media in exile— Al-Azmeh, Aziz. Islam and Modernities. London: Verso, 1993.
mostly in the metropolises of their colonial motherlands— Malik, Jamal, ed. Perspectives of Mutual Encounters in South
was part of that strategy. Asian History: 1760–1860. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000.
Said, Edward. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient.
As a result of colonialism a three-layered structure emerged:
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979.
secularized urban (post-colonial) state regimes, traditional
urban nonpolitical Muslim religious associations, and urban Schulze, Reinhard. Geschichte der islamischen Welt im 20.
middle-class opposition movements that stood for some kind Jahrhundert. Munich: Beck, 1994.
of a reconstruction of a Muslim state.
Jamal Malik
Subsequently, after political independence following the
Second World War, the new Muslim states were mostly
centralized and secularized, based on military or bureaucratic
elites with state capitalism or socialism favoring the ruling
elites. Islamic modernism was replaced by secular national-
COMMUNISM
ism, co-opting Muslim leaders who would legitimize this
centralism. To be sure, the identity-giving Islamic symbolism Both communism and Islam pose solutions to social, moral,
was used for the mobilization of wider strata of society. economic and political order. Their differences, however, are
numerous and fundamental. Communist movements have
The nonpolitical Muslim religious associations mostly developed throughout the Islamic world but they have been
stayed quietistic, while new movements among parts of the limited to a narrow social base, and have most often been
ulema played on their Islamicity. Some of them referred to composed of non-Muslims. Communist groups became deeply
concepts tuned to colonial society, basically so as not to fall involved with debating the Marxist-Leninist theoretical reabehind completely in terms of political influence. The oppo- sons for this failure to obtain mass support. These debates
sition movements stood for the reconstruction of a Muslim further fragmented most communist movements in the Islamic
state and reorganized Islam in different ways, for example, world. Communism in the Middle East was never a serious
the theory of the caliphate providing an extended interpreta- contender for power, and the collapse of the Soviet Union
tion to legitimize power, rendering Islam into a comprehen- further marginalized communism worldwide.
sive system that was to counter Western ideologies.
Islamic scholars critiqued communism in several areas.
One branch of this Muslim cultural manifestation is of
Foremost, communism denies the existence of God. In doing
quite some importance. For example, religious fundamentalso, it is directly opposed to Islam and Islamic tenets of faith.
ism, which has to be seen as a reaction to colonial encroach-
Further, Islam views history in a different way than does
ment as well as a demarcation against folk-religious traditions,
communism. Rather than the communist dialectic, and the
reevaluating Islam in terms of political ideology, was elaborated upon only during the 1930s. movement of history from capitalism to communism, Islam
views history as a search for faith and truth. Historical
Its carriers were integrated into the post-colonial system, development of society ends when Islam is accepted, not
due to which they adopted and adapted its major terms, when capitalism is swept away by communism. Finally, in

Islam and the Muslim World 155
Communism

seeking social justice, Islam does not seek to make all persons Islamic Revolution of 1979. These groups were eliminated or
equal; it accepts that some will have more than others. Islam driven out of Iran as the clerics consolidated their power.
achieves social justice through acceptance of the obligation of
those with more to provide for those with less, through The Iraqi Communist Party (ICP, founded in 1934) has
processes such as zakat (alms giving). played a role out of proportion to its size in Iraqi politics,
beginning with its participation in the independence move-
Before the Second World War, communist movements in ment against the British. The overthrow of the Hashemite
the Middle East consisted of small groups of intellectuals, kingdom in 1958 brought the party to national importance.
drawn to its anticolonial stance. The post-war environment, The ICP mobilized a quarter-million demonstrators against
with Soviet expansionism and the collapse of the colonial a conservative coup attempt in 1959, and had its own armed
powers, was initially considered by most communists as an militia. Its rival, the Ba
th Party, a secular, socialist movement
opportunity to reach the masses. Soviet support to these espousing Arab unity and anticolonialism, immediately was
groups was not automatic. The Cold War saw the Soviet plunged into conflict with the ICP after seizing power in
Union faced with often-contradictory policies of supporting 1963, and quickly outstripped it in influence. In 1974, all
communist revolutionary movements and supporting gov- opposition parties, including the ICP, were consolidated into
ernments aligned with Soviet interests. For instance, support the Progressive National Front (PNF), which allowed the
to the Egyptian government under Jamal
Abd al-Nasser was Ba
ath to firmly control the opposition movements. From
valuable to Soviet interests, but conflicted with addressing 1978 to 1979, the government arrested and executed many
the needs of the Egyptian Communist Party. In other cases, ICP leaders, while others fled the country.
such as Iran, the Soviets provided clandestine support to the
communists. Meanwhile, under the Eisenhower Doctrine, Only one Middle Eastern state, the People’s Republic of
the United States formalized its opposition to communist Yemen, has had a Marxist government. While a British
movements in the Middle East. Under this doctrine, the colony, a violent independence movement developed with
United States intervened militarily in Lebanon in 1958, and Soviet support. Following independence in 1967, the Sovietformed the Baghdad Pact against Soviet expansionism. Nei- funded National Liberation Front, a Marxist group, took and
ther the United States nor the Soviet Union fully understood held power. The Front was convulsed by factionalism, and
the driving forces of the area, as was demonstrated to each in quickly became more ideological and repressive. To divert
Iran and Afghanistan in the late 1970s. popular dissent, the Front fought skirmishes with neighboring Oman, Saudi Arabia, and North Yemen. When the Soviet
In Egypt, Palestine, and Lebanon in the 1920s, well-to-do Union collapsed, South Yemen no longer received Soviet aid,
intellectuals founded communist or socialist political groups. and the long-standing attempt to merge North and South
After the Second World War, the Syrian Communist Party, Yemen under a single, noncommunist government, officially
which had attracted support from Kurds and other minori- succeeded in 1990, although outbreaks of unrest still occur.
ties, grew to some importance in the 1950s, but never became
a serious contender for power. The Lebanese Communist The late 1960s saw a resurgence of splinter communist
Party, outlawed until 1970, never gained more than a few movements among students and intellectuals, as Maoism and
thousand members. The Egyptian Communist Party shared Guevarism became popular. These movements had no sigthe anticolonial views of Nasser, but he banned the party and nificant mass appeal, but because of the violent tendencies of
imprisoned its leaders following his 1952 coup. Since then, the groups, they had some political impact as governments
communism in Egypt has been represented by a number of attempted to control them. Some Palestinian groups abperipheral splinter groups. sorbed these ideologies and their emphasis on violence and
revolution. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestin-
In Iran, after the First World War, a major communist ian (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of
movement developed in Iran, where contact with Russian Palestine (DFLP), and the Popular Front for the Liberation
communists in Azerbaijan resulted in the formation of the of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) all combined
Adalat Party, in 1917. In 1920 this became the Ferqeh-ye Marxist-Leninism with Palestinian nationalism. In most coun-
Komunist-e Iran. Outlawed in 1929, it was reestablished as tries, there were no more than a few hundred adherents of
the Tudeh Party in 1941. This was outlawed in 1949, but these revolutionary communist ideologies, and these were
continued to develop underground. Party membership con- often splintered into several groups with narrow ideological
sisted mainly of intellectuals, military officers, and other differences.
elites, and its leadership was heavily factionalized. Following
the overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddeq (1953), the Iranian The model of communist revolt, involving mobilizing the
government took firm action against the Tudeh, and deci- proletariat, failed in the Middle East. Attempts by some
mated the Party. Splinter communist elements continued to communists to adapt their principles to local conditions failed
be active in Iran through the late 1970s, playing a role in the due to the ideological rigidity of communist leadership.

156 Islam and the Muslim World
Conflict and Violence

Other factors included the suppression of communist move- was only thirteen years into his prophetic mission that Muhamments by almost all regional governments, ideological in- mad and the early Muslims were permitted to engage in
fighting and factionalism among the communists, and the armed resistance, but only under certain stringent condiavailability of alternative social and economic structures that tions, as specified in the Quran.
satisfied most of the populations. The collapse of the Soviet
Union left most communists further isolated from public
opinion. Permission [to fight] is given to those against whom
war is being wrongfully waged. God has indeed the
See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal; Ba
th Party; Political power to succor them: those who have been driven
Organization; Political Thought; Socialism. from their homelands against all right for no other
reason than their saying, “Our Lord and Sustainer is
God! For, if God had not enabled people to defend
BIBLIOGRAPHY themselves against one another, monasteries and
Batatu, Hana. The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary churches and synagogues and mosques—in which God’s
Movements in Iraq: A Study of Iraq’s Old Landed and Com- name is abundantly extolled—would surely have been
mercial Classes and of its Communists, Ba
thists and Free destroyed.” (22:39–40)
Officers. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978.
Cottam, Richard W. Nationalism in Iran. Pittsburgh, Pa.:
It is interesting to note that the above verses give prece-
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1979.
dence to the protection of monasteries, churches, and syna-
Ismael, Tareq Y., and El-Sa
id, Rifa
at. The Communist Move- gogues over that of mosques in order to underline their
ment in Egypt, 1920–1988. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Uniinviolability and the duty of the Muslim to safeguard them
versity Press, 1990.
against any desecration or abuse, and protect freedom of
belief. The aim of fighting according to this critical verse is
Richard C. Campany, Jr. the defense of not only Islam, but also of religious freedom in
general.

In the succeeding decade (622–632 C.E.) Muhammad and
CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE his growing band of followers engaged in a series of battles to
defend Islam against the military aggression of their adversar-
In the contemporary period, Islam is frequently depicted as ies, including the critical battles of Badr, Uhud, and Khandaq.
predisposed to conflict and violence. The intractable Middle Warfare was a desperate affair in seventh-century Arabia. A
East conflict and recent events in which Muslim extremists chieftain was not expected to display weakness to his enemies
have been implicated in acts of terror have only served to in a battle, and some of the Quranic injunctions seem to
reinforce this widespread perception. To discern the veracity share this spirit (4:90). Because the Quran was revealed in the
of the assertion that in some special way Islam is related to context of deadly conflict, several passages deal with the
deadly conflict, it is important to situate the discussion within ethics of warfare. (5:49; 8:61; 11:118–119; 49:9; 49:13). The
a concrete sociohistorical context. Islam, conflict, and vio- most contentious of these is the so-called sword verse (ayat
lence do not occur in a social vacuum. Moreover, in order to al-sayf).
correctly understand the ethical norms of Islam represented
in the Muslim sacred scripture, the Quran, and in the
exemplary conduct of the prophet Muhammad, it is necessary Once the sacred months have passed, you may kill the
idolaters when you encounter them, and take them
to analyze the historical milieu within which such norms were
[captive], and besiege them, and prepare for them each
negotiated.
ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and
pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! God is
When the prophet Muhammad (570–632 C.E.) brought
Forgiving, Merciful. (9:5)
the Quran to the Arabs in the early seventh century, pre-
Islamic Arabia was steeped in oppressive social relations and
caught up in a vicious cycle of violence. Muhammad’s egali- Some classical Muslim commentators have construed this
tarian message quickly began to threaten the Meccan elite. verse to imply that Muslims are obligated to fight non-
They opposed his teachings with great vehemence. He was Muslims until they embrace Islam in the case of polytheists,
forced to send some of his early followers to seek refuge in or pay a special tax known as jizya, in the case of Jews and
Abyssinia and later, in 622 C.E., he himself fled to the nearby Christians who are referred to as the “people of the book.”
city of Medina. Throughout the Meccan period, the early
Muslims responded to the mental anguishes, physical abuse, Yet other verses include exhortations to peace: “Thus, if
and persistent threats to their lives with passive resistance. It they let you be, and do not make war on you, and offer you

Islam and the Muslim World 157
Conflict and Violence

peace, God does not allow you to harm them” (4:90). The and injustice (2:193; 4:75; 8:39). The Islamic concept of jihad
Quran quotes the Torah, the Jewish scriptures, which per- should not be confused with the medieval concept of holy war
mits people to retaliate eye for eye, tooth for tooth, but like since the actual word al-harb al-muqaddasa is never used in the
the Gospels, the Quran suggests that it is meritorious to Quran. In Islam, a war is never holy; it is either justified or
forgo revenge in a spirit of charity (5:45). Hostilities must be not. Moreover, jihad is not directed at other faiths. In a
brought to an end as quickly as possible and must cease the statement in which the Arabic is extremely emphatic, the
minute the enemy sues for peace (2:192–193). The Quran, Quran insists, “There must be no coercion in matters of
moreover, makes it emphatically clear that conflict can only faith!” (2:256). More than this, the protection of freedom of
be successfully ameliorated through the establishment of belief and worship for followers of other religions has been
justice, which transcends sectarian self-interests. (4:135; 7:29) made a sacred duty of Muslims. This duty was fixed at the
same time when the permission for armed struggle (jihad alqital) was ordained (22:39–40).
O Believers! Stand firmly for justice, as witnesses for
God, even it is means testifying against yourselves, or In mystical (Sufi) traditions of Islam the greatest form of
your parents, or your kin, and whether it is against the jihad, personal jihad, is to purify the soul and refine the
rich or the poor, for God prevails upon all. Follow not disposition. This is regarded as the far more urgent and
the lusts of your hearts, lest you swerve, and if you momentous struggle and it is based on a prophetic tradition
distort justice or decline to do justice, verily God (hadith). Muhammad is reported to have advised his companknows what you do. (4:135) ions as they return after a battle, “We are returning from the
lesser jihad [physical fighting] to the greater jihad [jihad alnafs].” Sufis have traditionally understood this greater form of
The just war is always evil, but sometimes one has to fight jihad to be the spiritual struggle to discipline the lower
in order to avoid the kind of persecution that Mecca inflicted impulses and base instincts in human nature. The renowned
on the Muslims (2:191; 2:217), or to preserve decent values thirteenth-century Sufi scholar, Jalal al-Din Rumi, articu-
(4:75; 22:40). During his stay in Medina, Muhammad at- lated such an understanding of jihad when he wrote: “The
tempted to resolve the conflict with the Meccan leaders and prophets and saints do not avoid spiritual struggle. The first
their allies by entering into a peace treaty at a place called al- spiritual struggle they undertake is the killing of the ego and
Hudaybiya. The treaty came to be known as sulh al-Hudaybiya. the abandonment of personal wishes and sensual desires. This
Sulh is an important term in Islamic law (shari
a). The is the greater jihad” (Chittick, trans., p. 151).
purpose of sulh is to end conflict and hostility among adversaries so that they may conduct their relationships in peace After the demise of the Prophet and the completion of the
and amity (49:9). The word itself has been used to refer both textual guidance of the Quran, Muslims were faced with the
to the process of restorative justice and peacemaking and to challenge of interpreting and applying the Islamic normative
the actual outcome of that process. Even though sulh al- principles on conflict and violence to their own peculiar
Hudaybiya never actually achieved its aims because the Meccan sociohistorical contexts. Subsequent generations of Muslims
tribesmen violated its conditions, it remains as an instructive have interpreted these normative values in such a way as to
conflict-intervention strategy. give Islam a paradoxical role in human history. In the first
three centuries of Islam the classical doctrine of jihad was
In 630 C.E., the Muslims gained their most significant forged by Muslim jurists primarily in response to the imperial
victory when they captured the city of Mecca, remarkably politics of the Abbasid caliphate on the one hand and the
without bloodshed. This provided Muhammad with a second Byzantine Empire on the other. Abrogating the Meccan
opportunity to institute a genuine sulh process. In a spirit of experience and predicating itself on selected verses of the
magnanimity, he forgave his enemies and enacted a process of Quran, one finds the following: “And fight them on until
reconciliation. A general amnesty was proclaimed in which all there is no more oppression and tumult (fitnah) and religion
tribal claims to vengeance were abolished. Three years later should be for God” (2:193). Classical scholars developed a
Muhammad died in Medina at the age of sixty-three. doctrine of jihad in which the world is simply divided into a
dichotomy of abodes: the territory of Islam (dar al-islam) and
The Quranic term most often conflated with that of the territory of war (dar al-harb). In accordance with this
violence is jihad. The Arabic verb jahada from which the belligerent paradigm, a permanent state of war (jihad) characverbal noun jihad is derived literally means “to strive hard, to terized relations between the two abodes. The only way a
exert strenuous effort and to struggle.” As a multivalent non-Muslim territory could avert a jihad was either to con-
Islamic concept, it denotes any effort in pursuit of a com- vert to Islam or to pay an annual tribute or poll tax (jizyah).
mendable aim. Jihad is a comprehensive concept embracing The classical belief erroneously perceived of jihad as the
peaceful persuasion (16:125) and passive resistance (13:22; instrument of the Islamic caliphate to expand Muslim
23:96; 41:34), as well as armed struggle against oppression territories.

158 Islam and the Muslim World
Conflict and Violence

Though most Muslim artists refrain from creating representations of the prophet Muhammad and his family, this 1368 Turkish book
painting depicts the Prophet, with his face covered by a white cloth, leading his disciples on horseback to Badr to confront the pagan
Meccan army. THE ART ARCHIVE/TOPKAPI MUSEUM ISTANBUL/HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS

Islam and the Muslim World 159
Conversion

This controversial interpretation of jihad failed to capture A candid photograph appears in the color insert.
the full range of the term’s rich meaning. The reductionist
interpretation of jihad, though not unanimous, came to See also Fitna;
Ibadat; Jihad; Political Islam.
dominate subsequent Muslim juristic thinking. One of the
earliest scholars who represented an alternative perspective BIBLIOGRAPHY
was Sufyan al-Thawri (b. 715). Al-Thawri believed that jihad Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Rebellion and Violence in Islamic Law.
was only justified in defense. The classical doctrine of jihad New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
has and continues to be challenged by Muslim jurists. A Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet.
number of modern Muslim reform movements have em- San Francisco, Calif.: Harper San Francisco, 1992.
ployed the classical doctrine of jihad to legitimate their
Chittick, William, trans. The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual
struggles against colonial or postcolonial secular state rule. Teachings of Rumi. Albany: State University of New York
Other contemporary Muslim scholars, such as Muhammad Press, 1983.
Abu Zahra, Mahmud Shaltut, Muhammad al Ghunaimi,
Khadduri, Majid. War and Peace in Islam. New York: AMS
Louay M. Safi, and Ridwan al-Sayyid, have criticized the
Press, 1979.
classical doctrine of jihad as being seriously flawed since it
Lings, Martin. Muhammad: His Life According to the Earliest
violates some of the essential Islamic principles on the ethics
Sources. New York: Inner Traditions International, 1983.
of war. Safi has written objecting to the classical doctrine:
“Evidently, the classical doctrine of war and peace has not Peters, Rudolph. Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam: A Reader.
been predicated on a comprehensive theory. The doctrine Princeton, N.J.: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1996.
describes the factual conditions that historically prevailed Safi, Louay M. Peace and the Limits of War—Transcending
between the Islamic state, during the
Abassid and Byzantium Classical Conception of Jihad. Herndon, Va.: International
era, and thus, renders rules which respond to specific histori- Institute of Islamic Thought, 2001.
cal needs” (Safi, p. 44). Said, Abdul Aziz; Funk, Nathan C.; and Kadayifci, Ayse S.,
eds. Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam. New York:
Safi and Al-Sayyid as well as a number of other contempo- University Press of America, 2001.
rary scholars hold that the classical doctrine of hegemonic
jihad is contingent on a historical context and thus has a A. Rashied Omar
limited application. They have argued for a recovery of the
alternative interpretation of classical scholars, such as Malik
ibn Anas, the founder of the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, who identified a third option, the territory of peaceful CONVERSION
covenant or coexistence or (dar-al-sulh or
ahd). He had in
mind the long-standing cordial relationship that had existed In Islam conversion consists of the recitation of the shahada or
between the early Muslims and the Abyssinian Christian profession of faith which is composed of two affirmations
state. He recalled that the prophet Muhammad himself had from the Quran that have been integrated to form a single
sent the earliest group of his followers from Mecca to seek declaration of faith in the uniqueness and oneness of God and
refuge from persecution in Abyssinia. They lived there peace- the finality of His revelation to the prophet Muhammad. It
fully for many years, and some of them did not return, even reads “There is no god but God [Allah, the Arabic proper
after Muslims were in power in Mecca. Moreover, the Prophet name for God used by both Arabic-speaking Muslims and
had advised peaceful coexistence with the Abyssinians, re- Christians], and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” The
portedly saying: “Leave the Abyssinians in peace as long as Quran uses the terms “The Messenger of God” and “The
they leave you in peace.” Safi contends that the fact that the Prophet” synonymously to refer to Muhammad, who is
early Muslims did not make any attempts to turn Abyssinia implicitly declared to be the last of God’s genuine prophets.
into an Islamic state is sufficient evidence that a third way,
the “Abyssinian paradigm,” was an Islamically sanctioned Some Muslim scholars, among them the renowned Peralternative. sian mystic, philosopher, and theologian al-Ghazali (1058–1111
C.E.), are of the opinion that a declaration of intent (niya),
The alternative paradigm represented by the Abyssinian made prior to the recitation of the shahada, is necessary for its
model was marginalized and ignored by the partisan interpre- validity and for the validity of such ritual acts as prayer,
tations of the classical Muslim jurists. Contemporary Mus- fasting, and almsgiving. On the other hand many Muslim
lims are currently reclaiming this third paradigm of peaceful lawyers are persuaded that niya is only necessary for the
coexistence. Others called on contemporary Muslims to validity of prayer (salat).
reclaim the rich Sufi tradition on conflict transformation by
relinking the lesser jihad to that of the greater jihad (p. 108). In early Islam conversion was not a condition for member-
Both have profound implications for expanding Muslim re- ship of the umma or Muslim community. Prior to the surrensources for conflict transformation and peace-building efforts. der of Mecca in 629 C.E. the Jews of Medina had the same

160 Islam and the Muslim World
Conversion

rights and obligations as other members of the umma. After Maghrib. After the prophet Muhammad’s death in 632 C.E.
the fall of Mecca to Muhammad the zakat (alms tax) was the military conquest of the Fertile Crescent and Egypt was
levied on converts to Islam, benevolence being one of the swift but did not account for the conversion of most of the
chief virtues of the true believer, and the jizya (a personal population of these regions. This was to come about through
poll-tax to be paid, where possible, in money) was imposed on a process of acculturation as the local people moved from the
all non-Muslims (with the exception of certain categories of rural areas to the garrison towns (amsar) such as Qayrawan
persons including women, the poor, the enslaved, and impov- (Maghrib), Kufa (Iraq), and Basra (Iraq), as traders, craftserished monks) who wanted to join the umma. men, laborers, and domestics who over time adopted the
Arabic language and Islam.
Jihad and Conversion
While the spread of Islam is a religious duty, the Quran also Trade, Commerce, Sufism/Mysticism, and Conversion
instructs believers that there should be no compulsion in The image non-Muslims in many parts of the world have had
matters of religion (2:256), thus seemingly ruling out coer- and continue to have of Islam is that of a progressive, modern
cion as a means of conversion. There are many scholars of religion offering literacy, a widely spoken language, numeracy,
Islam, Muslim and non-Muslim, who are persuaded, largely and the opportunity to participate in a wider commercial,
on the basis of this text, that the obligation to perform jihad of political, and trading network. Islam often spread very slowly
the sword (al-jihad bi-il-sayf)—sometimes described as the and even laboriously, its own progress greatly affected by the
lesser form of jihad, in contrast to jihad bi-il-nafs or moral and changing local economic, political, and religious situation in
spiritual jihad, as the greater form—is only legitimate where which it found itself. Islam’s development in the Malaythe free practice of Islam is impeded. Indonesian archipelago is a case in point. Archaeology tells us
that by the late eleventh century there was a Muslim presence
Where jihad of the sword is contemplated there is the in Indonesia, and it would not be surprising given the comobligation of the summons, da
wa, which is based on Quran mercial attraction of the archipelago and its role as a natural
17:15 and 16:25. The summons is meant to inform those to be staging post between the Middle East and India on one side
attacked that Islam does not intend to pursue war for material and China, where there has been a Muslim presence in the
gain such as property but for the purpose of defending or South from the ninth century, if Islam did not in fact arrive
strengthening Islam. There are differences of opinion be- even earlier. According to Marco Polo who visited North
tween the four principal Sunni schools of law (madhahib) on Sumatra in 1292 the kingdom of Ferlak (Perlak) in presentthe necessity of da
wa for people who have previously been day Aceh was already Muslim. If the process of expansion was
summoned to Islam. The Malikites believe it to be obligatory slow it was also peaceful. Only in the fourteenth century did
in this case also, the Hanafites recommend it, and the Shafites Islam spread to Northeast Malaya and Brunei, to the court of
and Hanbalites say it is a matter of indifference. east Java, and to the southern Philippines. And it was to take
another two hundred years before it found its way in to other
Islam has rarely spread, in the sense of converting large parts of the archipelago when Sufism or mysticism (tasawwuf),
numbers of non-Muslims of a territory, through jihad of the in institutionalized and noninstitutionalized forms, came to
sword. The fundamentalist eighteenth-century reform move- play a pivotal role in the widespread dissemination of Islam
ment in Arabia, the Wahhabiyya, as it is called by its oppo- among the people of Java and elsewhere. According to tradinents and by Europeans—the members referred to themselves tion Islam was brought to Java by nine saints or walis, and
as the Muwahiddun or Unitarians—was essentially a reform over a long period of four hundred years more gradually
movement, not a drive to convert non-Muslims. Where and penetrated the society at all levels, never, however, displacing
when jihad of the sword has been used its effect has usually entirely other religious traditions.
been to establish a Muslim as the ruler of a territory, an
outcome that was by no means always followed by large-scale The importance of Sufism in the conversion of large
attempts to convert the local population. A partial explana- numbers to Islam elsewhere can hardly be exaggerated. The
tion for this can be found in Islamic political theory according conversion of Bengal, like that of Java, is also attributed to
to which the imposition of Muslim rule over a territory is Sufis. Institutionalized forms of Sufism and principally the
sufficient to make that territory part of dar al-islam (the Sufi tariqas or brotherhoods, among them the Qadiriyya,
abode of Islam). The principal carriers of Islam have been Tijaniyya, and Sanusiyya orders, were crucial to the expanholy men, jurists, traders, and, in the case of the spread of sion of Islam in North Africa and Africa south of the Sahara,
Islam to the Western world in modern times, economic as were the Mevlevi and Bektashi Sufi brotherhoods in
migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers Anatolia.

In the time of the prophet Muhammad, conversion by The indispensable role performed by traders, scholars,
conquest and political submission was basically limited to two and holy men in laying the foundations of Islam is evident
societies, the Bedouins of Arabia and the Berbers of the almost everywhere from the medieval empires of Takrur,

Islam and the Muslim World 161
Conversion

Ghana, Mali, Kanem Bornu, and Songhay, to the Nile Valley, or by peaceful means, did not necessarily constitute a chalthe Horn, and the East African coast, and across much of the lenge to the existing political order nor was it necessarily the
Asian sub-continent, Central Asia, and as far as China. In all prelude to a campaign by the new government to convert all
of these regions Islam first arrived with traders who were of the inhabitants of that territory to Islam. Where jihad of
often clerics or were accompanied by clerics and/or holy men. the sword has been employed it needs to be remembered that
We know from a variety of sources including the travel the primary objective has not always been expansion but the
writings of the fourteenth-century Moroccan Ibn Battuta reform of the Muslim community, as in the case of the
(1304–1368/77 C.E.) that the first Muslims in ancient Ghana, Wahhabiyya movement and as was most likely the case with
Mali, China, Indonesia, Somalia, and elsewhere lived sepa- the Sokoto jihad in northern Nigeria in the late eighteenth
rately and followed their own way of life, making little or no and early nineteenth century.
attempt to convert others. In places this period of seclusion
was followed by one of engagement with the wider society Examples abound where Muslim rule led to little or no
that usually resulted in mixing or syncretism, a development immediate change for the majority of the population under it.
that gave rise to conservative reaction, sometimes in the form In Egypt, Coptic Christians were given governmental posts
of jihad of the sword. until the fourteenth century when pressure from the ulema
(scholars) forced a change. While the Muslim conquest of
Exile, Slavery, Economic Migration, and Conversion India eliminated the dominant Hindu political-military class,
Political exiles, convicts, and slaves have also been important the Chhatri, it confirmed the privileged status of the Brahmins
vehicles for the dissemination of Islam as in the case of South who remained the guardians of a cultural vision that was non-
Africa, where such people began to arrive from Southeast Muslim. Even at the height of its power the Muslim commu-
Asia in the mid-seventeenth century and formed the Cape nity consisted of only a quarter of the population of Delhi and
Malay Muslim community. From the mid-nineteenth cen- Agra. And the Muslim conquest of Iran and the surrounding
tury Muslims arrived from India to form another distinct regions initially favored the spread of other faiths, among
Islamic community, some coming as British-indentured la- them Nestorianism and Manichaeism, rather than Islam. In
bor to work on the sugar plantations, others as merchants and Java the introduction of Islam offered a new dimension to
traders, and others as hawkers. existing traditional, Buddhist, and Hindu religious beliefs and
practices, bringing few significant changes to the political life
Economic migration has been the main vehicle for the
of society.
spread of Islam to the Western world in modern times. No
more than an exotic appendage to western European religion
Where Muslims conquer non-Muslim territory Muslim
in the mid-twentieth century, largely through migration, the
canon law (shari
a) guarantees to protect the life, liberty, and,
Muslim faith has become increasingly familiar across the
in a modified way, the property of that section of the local
European Union, and comprises an estimated fifteen million
population that has not been captured in arms. These people
members, including relatively large numbers of converts
are known as ahl-al-dhimma (people of the covenant) or
from Christianity and other faiths. While there are no relisimply as dhimmis. All free adults who enjoy dhimmi status
able statistics, the number of Muslims in North America
must pay the above-mentioned jizya or poll-tax and pay a tax
would appear to be over four million and the number of
(kharaj) on their real estate, over which they no longer enjoy
mosques to serve them about two thousand.
the right of disposal. Strictly speaking, the status of dhimmis is
The Political, Cultural, and Religious Consequences open only to “people of scripture” (alh-al-kitab), that is, Jews,
of Conversion Christians, and Sabaeans, a category that is interpreted to
Thus, in the spread and development of Islam, military cover Zoroastrians. In practice most Muslim countries will
conquest has never been as important or effective as the tolerate all peoples regardless of whether they are “people of
creation of an Islamic environment, educational system, trad- scripture” or not.
ing networks, and generally the building up of Muslim
Where dhimmi status was granted it carried with it the
institutions. It was these initiatives that facilitated the development of Islam in Iran over several centuries from a small obligation to contribute toward the maintenance of Muslim
community of mainly Arab Muslims to one that included the armies, to dress differently from Muslims, and to renounce
majority of the population by the early years of the eleventh such rights as the right to bear arms and to ride on horseback.
century. Sometimes conversion was an individual affair, some- Legal restrictions were also imposed in relation to testimony
times it was collective in the sense that if the leader of a in law courts, protection under criminal law, and marriage.
community or ethnic group converted the rest of the people Apart from such restrictions, what in practice happens is that
would follow. a non-Muslim community in a Muslim state virtually governs
itself under its own responsible leader who acts as its link with
This notwithstanding, it is worth noting that the estab- the Muslim government. And where conversion to or from
lishment of Muslim rule in a territory, whether by conquest Islam is concerned it is expected that the leadership of the

162 Islam and the Muslim World
Crusades

community that has made the conversion will inform its
counterpart of the event. CRUSADES
Conclusions Both the word “crusades” and its Arabic equivalent, al-hurub
This account of the dynamics of conversion to Islam confines al-salibiyyah, are modern terms. What these words refer to,
itself for the most part to the Muslim world. It is not however, can be quite different depending on who is using
exhaustive nor could it be given the great complexity and them. The dominant trend in secular academic research on
cultural diversity of that world. Appearance to the contrary the Crusades since the 1970s has been one of expansion of the
notwithstanding, it is not intentionally reductionist. If greater topic in terms of activities and military campaigns included,
consideration has been given to what might be termed the of time span, and of geographic expanse. Despite this
human, material, observable aspects of the phenomenon of revisionism, there is little doubt that in the popular parlance
conversion, and little has been said of its intellectual, spiri- of nonspecialists, the Crusades refers to the almost twotual, and theological dimensions, this should not be taken to century-long presence (1097–1291 C.E.) of Latin Christians
mean that these dimensions are not more important elements from central and western Europe in the Holy Land of the
of the process of becoming a Muslim or being Muslim. eastern Mediterranean coastal strip. Thus, while events after
1291—such as the Christian reconquest of Spain, campaigns
Conversion in Islam is a radical call to reject all that against heretics in or on the borders of Latin Christendom, or
associates the human with the divine, and on this foundation the European conflicts with the Ottoman Empire—are now
engages the convert in the task of personal and social transwithin the domain of current scholarship on the Crusades
formation. It is a dynamic and multifaceted process of trans-
(particularly in Europe), they do not figure large in the
formation that in some cases is gradual and in others abrupt;
discourse of the Crusades ongoing in the contemporary
in some cases total, in others partial.
population of the Holy Land.
The path to Islam is more varied than outlined above. As
Overview of the Crusades
students of conversion to Islam are aware individuals and
At the Council of Clermont in 1095, Pope Urban II delivered
whole communities have come to Islam having been first
a sermon that set in motion the Crusades. Precisely what he
influenced by the personal example of a practicing Muslim, or
said is unknown, nor is there agreement as to his motivations
through a process of intellectual conversion in which scholand goals, but in the aftermath of Clermont, clergy, nobles,
arly literature has played an important part, or through
and commoners mobilized for campaigns to reconquer Jeruguidance given in a dream or a vision in which a wali or holy
salem, which had been in Muslim hands since 638 C.E. While
person, and even the prophet Muhammad himself, have
what comes next follows the common shorthand of referring
appeared as counselors and guides, through mystical experito major Crusade campaigns by numbers, it should be emences, as a result of a search for healing, protection, and
phasized that this practice does not take into account the
security, and for order and discipline in one’s life. Either all or
a combination of these triggers, and others, have activated the steady stream of armed pilgrims flowing into and out of the
interest of individuals and communities in Islam and led to Holy Land nor the numerous smaller military campaigns that
conversion. they undertook.

See also Da
wa; Expansion; Minorities: Dhimmis; The First Crusade (1097–1101) resulted in the establish-
Tasawwuf. ment of four Crusader states in lands of the eastern Mediterranean littoral: the County of Edessa, the Principality of
BIBLIOGRAPHY Antioch, the County of Tripoli (although the city itself was
not captured until 1109), and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In
Clarke, Peter B, ed. New Trends and Developments in The
light of the obstacles these first crusaders faced in their long
World of Islam. London: Luzac Oriental, 1998.
journey east—shortages of supplies, uneasy relations with the
Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, ed. The Muslims of America. New
Byzantine Empire, travel across rough and unfamiliar terrain
York and Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1991.
inhabited by hostile populations, lack of organization, and
Horton, Robin. “African Conversion.” Africa 41 (1971): internal rivalries, to name but a few—this initial success was
85–108.
remarkable. Indeed, the First Crusade almost ended at Antioch
Katz, E. Ulrich. “Islam in Indonesia.” In Islam. Edited by between 1097 and 1098, where the Crusaders first laid siege
Peter B. Clarke. London: Routledge, 1990. to the Muslims for several trying months, and upon victory
Shaban, M. “Conversion to Early Islam.” In Conversion to were subsequently besieged themselves by numerically supe-
Islam. Edited by Nehemia Levtzion. New York: Holmes rior forces.
and Maier, 1979.
This Crusader victory is usually linked to the disunited
Peter B. Clarke opposition they faced. In the late eleventh century C.E., there

Islam and the Muslim World 163
Crusades

was no single powerful Muslim state to oppose the invasion of the battle of the Horns of Hattin near Tiberius on 4 July
the ifranj (Franks), as the Muslims called the invaders. In 1187. Jerusalem fell to him by October of that year, and
many cities of the Seljuk confederation, military authorities the Crusader holdings were reduced to a few castles and
known as atabegs were busy establishing their autonomy, and coastal cities.
were often preoccupied by rivalries with other local Muslim
rulers. The Sunni Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad was unable These victories made Saladin a hero. A contemporary
to directly influence military affairs. The Shi
ite Fatimid poet wrote of him,
caliphate in Cairo, itself engaged in a struggle against the
Seljuks for control of Jerusalem, did comparatively little to
You took possession of Paradises palace by palace,
counter the Crusader incursion. In the words of the Muslim
chronicler Ibn al-Athir: “When the Franks—may God curse When you conquered Syria fortress by fortress.
them—extended their control over what they had conquered
of the lands of Islam, and it turned out well for them that the Indeed, the religion of Islam has spread its blessings
troops and the kings of Islam were preoccupied with fight- over created beings,
ing each other, at that time opinions were divided among
the Muslims, desires differed and wealth was squandered” But it is you who have glorified it. (Hillenbrand
(Hillenbrand, 31). Over the next four decades the Crusaders 1999, p. 179)
entrenched themselves in the landscape of Outremer (literally, “across-the-sea”), skirmished with the Muslims, and
The defeat of the Latin forces also sparked the Third
began the construction of numerous castles, made necessary
Crusade (1189–1192), in which three European monarchs
by their constant shortage of manpower.
were personally involved: the German emperor Frederick I,
The first major success of the Muslim counter-Crusade King Philip II of France, and King Richard I (the Lionheart)
was achieved by the Turkish military leader Zangi, the atabeg of England. Frederick drowned in Anatolia on his way to
of Mosul and Aleppo. After consolidating his control over Outremer, and Philip and Richard quarreled from the monorthern Syria and the Jazira (northwestern Iraq), he launched a ment of their arrival in the Latin East. Nevertheless, their
series of campaigns against the Crusaders, culminating in his combined forces helped recapture Acre, henceforth the capicapture of Edessa in 1144. Zangi’s elimination of this Cru- tal of the truncated Kingdom of Jerusalem. After Philip’s
sader state gave added impetus to calls in Europe for another return to France, Richard led a series of campaigns against
major Crusade. Forces of the Second Crusade subsequently Saladin and, by his departure in 1192, had aided in the
arrived in Syria in 1147, and after heated discussion between reestablishment of Latin control over most of the coastal
the resident Crusaders and the new arrivals, decided to attack cities and their immediate hinterlands.
Damascus, ironically one of the Muslim cities whose ruler up
to that point had coexisted with the Franks. This campaign Saladin’s death in 1193 provided a temporary respite to
ended in defeat for the Crusaders on the outskirts of Damas- the Crusaders, as his successors (collectively known as the
cus in July 1148. Ayyubids, from the name of Saladin’s father) engaged in
struggles over preeminence in the lands that had been united
Zangi’s career as a counter-Crusader was cut short by his by Saladin. In these struggles, some Ayyubid princes were not
assassination in 1146, but was continued by his son Nur al- adverse to making temporary alliances with the Franks against
Din. Nur al-Din expanded the area under his control, occu- their Ayyubid rivals. The diversion of the Fourth Crusade
pying Damascus in 1154, and, utilizing the vocabulary of (1204) to Constantinople, which was sacked and subsequently
jihad, he launched attacks against the Franks. In response to occupied, did little to change this situation in Outremer.
numerous Crusader sorties against Egypt in the 1160s, Nur These divisions among the Ayyubids contributed to the
al-Din sent a contingent of his forces to aid the Fatimid state. complex narrative of the Fifth Crusade (1217–1229). Recog-
This force was led by the Kurdish general Shirkuh, who had nizing the strategic importance of Egypt, this crusade began
in his service his nephew Salah al-Din Yusuf b. Ayyub, with the Franks besieging and eventually occupying the
subsequently known as Saladin to the Crusaders. Upon his Egyptian port city of Damietta. In the face of intra-Ayyubid
uncle’s death, Saladin took command of this force, and by rivalries, the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt, al-Malik al-Kamil,
March 1169, took control of Egypt, subsequently bringing offered to give Jerusalem to the Franks if they would leave
the Fatimid Caliphate to an end. Following the death of Nur Egypt, but the Crusaders refused. By 1221, the Crusaders
al-Din in 1174, Saladin moved against his former overlord’s were forced out of Egypt. The Fifth Crusade came to an end
heirs and brought Damascus and eventually most of Syria in the bizarre events of 1228–1229, in which the emperor
(Aleppo submitted in 1183) and the Jazira (Mosul submitted Frederick II, excommunicated for his delays in fulfilling his
in 1186) under his control. He then mounted a major cam- crusading vows, successfully negotiated a treaty with al-Malik
paign against the Franks, defeating the bulk of their forces at al-Kamil allowing the Christians to take control of certain

164 Islam and the Muslim World
Crusades

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sites in Jerusalem, yet was bombarded with offal by the ruler of Egypt, al-Malik al-Salih. Upon surrender and payresidents of Acre as he left to return to Europe. The last ment of a large ransom, Louis went to Acre, where he spent
Crusader presence in Jerusalem was eliminated in 1244, when four years strengthening fortifications before returning
the city was sacked by Kharazmian warriors, themselves to France.
displaced from their homelands by the Mongol invasions
from Central Asia. To understand the end of the Crusader presence in
Outremer, one must return to events of 1249–1250. During
The final major crusade to the Latin East was that of King the course of Louis’s Crusade in late 1249, the Ayyubid al-
Louis IX of France (1248–1254). Louis and his forces suc- Malik al-Salih died. When his son Turanshah arrived from
ceeded in capturing Damietta in 1249, but were subsequently Syria in early 1250 to succeed his father, he took steps to limit
defeated at Mansura in 1250 by the forces of the late Ayyubid the influence of key groups among his father’s supporters.

Islam and the Muslim World 165
Crusades

reign of the Sultan Qalawun, who conquered Tripoli shortly
before his death in 1289. Upon the capture of Acre in 1291 by
the forces of Qalawun’s son, al-Ashraf Khalil, the few Crusaders left on the coastal strip abandoned their holdings and
fled, thus bringing Frankish presence in Outremer to an end,
although no one at the time realized it. In order to discourage
Crusader attempts to reoccupy the Muslim coastal cities, the
Mamluks razed their fortifications.

The Crusades in the Muslim World Today
A survey of scholarly literature and public discourse in the
modern Muslim world reveals that the Crusades have great
relevance and resonance today. They are commonly seen as
the forerunner of the European colonial efforts of the first
half of the twentieth century, placed in the context of perceived centuries of Western antagonism to the Islamic world,
and often explicitly linked to the establishment of the modern
state of Israel. (Crusade references appeared, for example, in a
series of post–1956 Suez crisis Egyptian postage stamps
celebrating Egypt as “Tomb of the Invader.” One stamp
celebrates Saladin’s victory at Hattin; a second shows Louis
IX in chains after his defeat at Mansura.) It is not uncommon
to find references to Saladin and his victory at Hattin in
political speeches or celebrated in books. In 1992, a largerthan-life statue of Saladin was unveiled in Damascus. The
Crusades also figure in some modern Islamist writing, in
Saladin, an early Muslim hero, conquered Egypt, most of Syria, which the failures of current leaders to resist Western
and finally even Jerusalem by 1187. His victories banished the incursions are compared to the successes of the heroes of the
Crusaders from most territories; they began another Crusade,
however, by 1189. © CORBIS-BETTMANN counter-Crusades. And while Hillenbrand (and others) have
pointed out the pitfalls of the anachronistic use of nationalistic labels in the study of medieval history, the symbols and
The main target of Turanshah’s punitive actions was the perceived lessons of the Crusades have been incorporated
corps of his father’s mamluks, or military slaves. In his into the rhetoric of Arab nationalist movements in particular.
struggles against his Ayyubid rivals, al-Malik al-Salih had Thus in the words of one Arab intellectual, the Crusades
built up a sizable regiment of these military slaves, who while when viewed through Arab eyes are seen as an act of rape
still youths had been purchased as slaves from regions outside (Maalouf, 266).
the Islamic world and subsequently converted to Islam and
trained in military techniques. His regiment was known as the See also Christianity and Islam; Saladin.
Bahri mamluks, since their barracks were located on an island
in the river (bahr) Nile. Faced with loss of influence and
possibly life, these mamluks of al-Malik al-Salih turned against BIBLIOGRAPHY
Turanshah, and murdered him shortly after the victory of
Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives. Chi-
Mansura.
cago and London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999.
After this regicide, the history of the subsequent decade of Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. London: Al
the history of Muslim Egypt and Syria is dominated by a Saqi Books, 1984.
complex struggle for power, further complicated by the
Mayer, Hans Eberhard. The Crusades. 2d ed. Translated
Mongol invasions. The decade ended with the definitive by John Gillingham. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University
establishment of the Mamluk Sultanate in 1260 by Baybars, Press, 1986.
one of those Bahri mamluks. After consolidating Mamluk
control, Sultan Baybars launched his forces against the Cru- Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades: A Short History. New
saders, capturing Antioch (in 1268) and several major Cru- Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press, 1987.
sader castles. After Baybars’ death in 1277 there was a brief Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Atlas of the Crusades. London and
lull, but attacks against the Crusaders resumed later in the New York: Facts on File, 1991.

166 Islam and the Muslim World
Custom

Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades. 3 vols. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1951–1954.

Warren C. Schultz

CUSTOM See
Ada

Islam and the Muslim World 167
D
DAR AL-HARB followers drew differing conclusions from his ruling, some
believing that cooperation with the British, particularly in the
The term dar al-harb, which literally means “the house or field of education, was a necessary prelude to a renewal of
abode of war,” came to signify in classical jurisprudence a Islam and its cultural influence. Others were more inclined
geopolitical reality; hence, it may also be rendered the “terri- toward direct action with the goal of British withdrawal.
tory” of war.
See also Dar al-Islam.
In the most basic sense the term indicates territory not
governed by Islam, in contrast to territory under Islamic rule, BIBLIOGRAPHY
dar al-islam. More precisely, these territories are geopolitical Kelsay, John. Islam and War: A Study in Comparative Ethics.
units within which Islam is not the established religion, where Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993.
the ruler is not a Muslim, and where there exists no mecha- Shaybani, Muhammad ibn Hasan al-. The Islamic Law of
nism by which political or military leaders may seek the Nations. Translated by Majid Khadduri. Baltimore, Md.:
counsel of Islamic religious specialists. Use of the phrase dar Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966.
al-harb further indicates the threat of war from the Muslim
community. Muslim jurists differed on the mechanisms by John Kelsay
which this threat of war could become a reality. For the
majority, the leader of the Muslims must fulfill the obligation
of “calling” the people of a non-Islamic territory to Islam. DAR AL-ISLAM
Once a people, through its rulers, refused the opportunity
(1) to establish Islam as the state religion, or (2) to enter into a The term dar al-islam, which literally means “the house or
tributary arrangement with the leader of the Muslims, it was abode of Islam,” came to signify Islamic territory in juridical
understood that war could follow. In accord with normative discussions. For the majority, it is thus suggestive of a geopotraditions, this war should be understood as an aspect of jihad, litical unit, in which Islam is established as the religion of the
or the struggle to “make God’s cause succeed,” specifically by state, in contrast to dar al-harb, territory not governed by
spreading Islamic government throughout the earth. It is Islam. The signs of legitimacy by which one could speak of a
important to note that the purpose of the war to expand the geopolitical unit as dar al-islam would include a ruler or ruling
territory of Islam was not to make converts, but rather to class whose self-identity is Islamic, some institutional mechaestablish Islamic government. nisms by which consultation between the political and religious elite is possible, and a commitment to engage in political
In modern times, the notion of dar al-harb has been
and military struggle to extend the borders of the dar al-islam.
employed by some Muslims to speak about territories lost to
the forces of colonialism or, more generally, secularism. In For others, the relationship between dar al-islam and
this connection, the ruling of the Shah
Abd al-
Aziz (d. 1824) existing political arrangements was not so easily negotiated.
regarding the status of British India is of great interest. As he Thus, in one tradition the proto-Shi
a leader Ja
far al-Sadiq
had it, given British dominance in the subcontinent, India (d. 765) is presented as suggesting that the territory of Islam
should no longer be considered Islamic territory. It was exists wherever people are free to practice Islam and to
rather part of dar al-harb. Mirroring subsequent discussions engage in calling others to faith—even if the leadership in
in Islamic political and juridical thought,
Abd al-
Aziz’s such a place does not acknowledge or establish Islam as the

Da
wa

state religion. Correlatively, a territory in which the ruler or This entry introduces the range of conceptions of da
wa,
ruling class identifies with Islam, but where the (true) inter- paying attention to scriptural occurrence, historical developpretation of Islamic sources is suppressed, is not dar al-islam, ment, and, finally, modern understandings and organizations.
but something else.
Scriptural Occurrence
In the modern period, one of the most vexing questions The word da
wa is derived from an Arabic consonant-root, dfor jurists, and indeed for Muslims generally, has to do with
-w, with several meanings, such as call, invite, persuade, pray,
the ongoing power of the symbol of dar al-islam. The experi- invoke, bless, demand, and achieve. Consequently, the noun
ence of colonialism, the demise of the historic caliphate, and da
wa has a number of connotations too. In the Quran and
the formation of modern states present serious challenges to the sunna, da
wa partly has a mundane meaning and refers to,
those who would follow classical precedent and utilize this for instance, the invitation to a wedding. Sometimes the
symbol. One line of thought, expressed most succinctly by mundane and spiritual meanings are interconnected. In one
Shah
Abd al-
Aziz (d. 1824), held that the influx of British account of the sunna (Bukhari), the invitation to Islam is
power meant that India was no longer dar al-islam. As such, allegorically referred to as an invitation to a banquet. Spelled
the Muslim community was under an obligation to struggle with a long final vowel, the word means lawsuit.
and bring about the restoration of Islamic influence. Others,
by contrast, understood the classical use of the term as Theologically, da
wa refers to the call of God to Islam,
connected with an outmoded and even non-Islamic emphasis conveyed by the prophets: “God summons to the Abode of
on empire. For these, in ways analogous to the thinking of Peace” (10:25). Like the previous prophets, Muhammad is
Ja
far al-Sadiq, Islam “abides” wherever Muslims practice referred to as “God’s caller” or “God’s invitor,” da
i Allah
their religion and call others to faith. (46:31). God’s call has to be distinguished from the false
da
wa of Satan (14:22). Conversely, da
wa refers to the human
See also Dar al-Harb.
call directed to God in (mental) prayer or invocation. The
One God answers the da
wa directed to Him, whereas the
BIBLIOGRAPHY
prayers of the unbelievers are futile. The human da
wa is the
Kelsay, John. Islam and War: A Study in Comparative Ethics.
affirmative response to the da
wa of God. It is not to be
Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993.
confused with salat, ritual prayer. When referring to human
Shaybani, Muhammad ibn Hasan al-. The Islamic Law of prayer or invocation, the Quran makes no distinction be-
Nations. Translated by Majid Khadduri. Baltimore, Md.:
tween da
wa and du
a, a related form of the same consonant-
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966.
root. During the course of theological history, however, the
term du
a evolved into a particular, technical concept, de-
John Kelsay
scribed and regulated in philosophical and devotional works,
not least in handbooks of prayer.

DA
WA Apart from affirming God’s call in prayer, however, humankind is invited to live in accordance with the will of God:
Since the late nineteenth century, conceptions of da
wa have “Let there be one nation (umma) of you, calling to the good,
re-emerged as central in the formulation of Islam. Da
wa is enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong” (3:104).
increasingly associated with socially vital activities, such as Thus da
wa is intimately interconnected with shari
a, the
edification, education, conversion, and charity. However, the sacred law. As illustrated by verse 3:104, cited above, da
wa
term also alludes to the Quran and the normative Islamic also has a social dimension in the Quran. The community of
history. Due to this combination, da
wa has become a func- believers, the umma, who have received the invitation, shall
tional tool in face of the challenges of modernity. Da
wa is convey the message to others. A commonly cited verse reads:
sometimes equated with Christian ideas of mission and “Call men to the way of the Lord with goodness and fair
evangelization. Muslims themselves are, as a rule, wary of that exhortation and have arguments with them in the best mancomparison; and indeed, such translations tend to overlook ner” (16:125). This verse, in turn, is commonly connected to
the variations and socio-political specificity of da
wa. This the equally familiar verse: “Let there be no compulsion in
term has been conceptualized, institutionalized, and applied religion” (2:256). Finally, there is an eschatological dimenfor divergent purposes throughout the course of history. sion of da
wa. At the end of time, the archangel Jibril (Ga-
Furthermore, Muslim endeavors to convert non-Muslims to briel) will call humans from their graves: “Then when He
Islam have often been understood in terms other than da
wa. calls you by a single call from the earth, behold you come
This is true, for instance, of the significant Sufi ventures of forth at once” (30:25).
recruitment, which historically largely appear to have been
disinterested in da
wa terminology. Thus, da
wa should be All in all, the Quranic conceptualizations of da
wa conjoin
regarded as but one type of Islamic discourse of mobilization, a number of fundamental principles of Islamic theology. First
sometimes in conflict with others. of all, da
wa animates Islamic doctrine into an effective

170 Islam and the Muslim World
Da
wa

vocation, by interconnecting and urging humans to recog- turned against the Abbasid Sunnites, challenging their caliphal
nize the two core principles of the creed, as rendered in the authority.
shahada: “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the
messenger of God.” Acknowledging and responding to God’s The Fatimids amplified the concept of da
wa in accordda
wa further means recognizing the sacredness of the umma ance with Shi
ite doctrines of permanent revelation through
the imams. The da
wa of the imam was held to complete the
and implementing shari
a. Last but not least, da
wa refers to
da
wa of the prophet Muhammad. The Fatimid da
wa difthe invitation of humankind to afterlife. It is, thus, hardly
fered from the Abbasid da
wa in that it did not cease after the
surprising that da
wa sometimes is presented as interchangeestablishment of the dynasty. Rather, it became increasingly
able with the concept of Islam itself.
organized and extensive. Da
wa was thus institutionalized,
Historical Development integrating political claims with theological elaboration, cen-
After the death of Muhammad (632 C.E.), the leadership of the tered around several educational institutions, most notably
Muslim community became a controversial issue. A group the al-Azhar University of Cairo. In areas controlled by the
called Shi
at
Ali, later to be known as Shi
a, argued that
Ali, Fatimids, their da
wa propaganda was overt, while the mes-
Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, and his descendants sage was transmitted more secretly in other regions.
were the rightful caliphs, that is, vicegerents of the Prophet.
In a functional perspective, the core of the Fatimid use of

Ali was eventually appointed caliph, and he is included as the
da
wa was similar to that of the Sunnite Abbasids. The
fourth among the first four caliphs who Sunnites generally
amplification of da
wa among these competing groups incelebrated as righteous. In 661 he was killed, however, and
volved an understanding of political propaganda and aspirathe Umayyad dynasty, based in Damascus, established a tions based on theological criticism against other rulers. In
hereditary rule. During the eighth century, the legitimacy of both cases, thus, the core concern was the leadership issue.
the Umayyads was increasingly put into question. Based in The Quranic term da
wa was rendered relevant primarily in
Baghdad, the Abbasids were accusing them for claiming the context of claims to political power. The Fatimid idea that
kingship, mulk, thus vesting human leadership with an attrib- propagation and acceptance of Islam should not be regarded
ute and power that only God possesses. The lavish customs of as a singular event, but as a continuous process, forebears
the Damascus court underscored the anti-Umayyad da
wa. central themes in modern uses of da
wa.

In this sense, da
wa came to inherit a religio-political From the time of the Fatimids to early modern times, that
dimension, being the call to accept the rightful leadership of a is the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, there are
certain individual or family. Da
wa in the religio-political surprisingly few references to the concept of da
wa. Paradoxisense aimed at establishing or restoring the ideal theocratic cally, da
wa discourses seem to have entered a phase of
state, based on monotheism. Here da
wa can be understood as recession despite the significant expansion of Islam that
political propaganda inflated by Quranic terminology. In occurred in both Asia and Africa. Two of the reasons for this
spite of variations in the use of the term throughout history, recession may be the legal formalism and the development of
this has been a recurring tendency. Sufism. While the Abbasid and Fatimid regimes relied on an
Islamic ambience in which da
wa held a politically central and
Da
wa thus became mainly an internal Muslim matter. strategic importance, Sufis were able to spread their message
However, the external aspect of da
wa, “calling mankind,” without such an ambience. Authority was vested in their
acquired increasing juridical importance in connection with leaders or shaykhs, who were often victims of state-centered
the military expansion of Islam. According to the classical persecution. Such a model of authority facilitated the transtheory of jihad of the early Muslim conquests, warfare against plantation of Islam to new regions, where mass conversions
non-Muslims could not be undertaken, nor could the protec- could take place. It is true that, with the exception of the
tive tax of non-Muslims, jizya, be levied, had not a summons earliest period, when Sufis were largely individualistic and
to Islam, da
wa, been issued. During the late eighth century ascetic, Sufism has frequently been politically important.
four madhahib (madhhab), schools of Sunni law (fiqh), devel- However, the logic of Sufi expansion has usually been essenoped. Here da
wa was formalized into a set of judicial princi- tially different from state-centered or establishment Islam
ples and rules included in martial law. and, as a consequence, not in need of conceptions of da
wa in
the religio-political sense.
An important example of the application of da
wa in
history is the case of the Shi
ite Fatimids. Between 969 and Since da
wa as early as in the eighth century was a formal
1171 they ruled a vast empire, with Cairo as the capital. For concept included in martial law, it became part of the Islamic
the Fatimids, who belong to the Isma
ili branch of Shi
a, jurisprudence, fiqh. From the tenth century onward, Sunnite
da
wa meant the appeal to give allegiance to the seventh leaders held the apparatus of fiqh as finalized. Thus, the gates
imam, Muhammad b. Isma
il. Initially, their propaganda was of ijtihad, (new interpretations based on the main sources of
directed against followers of the main branch of Shi
a, the Islamic law), the Quran, and the sunna, were regarded by
Imamis or Twelvers. As their power grew, the Fatimid da
wa many jurists as closed. Legal matters were henceforth to be

Islam and the Muslim World 171
Da
wa

guided by taqlid, imitation of previous rulings. With the rise attempted to launch his small organization, Jami
yat alof taqlid-oriented fiqh, the learned scholars, ulema and fuqaha, Da
wah wal-Irshad, as a cornerstone of pan-Islamism, indiwere installed as its lawful, if largely impotent, administra- cating the constancy of the political dimension of da
wa
tors. When the quest for authority through personal inter- conceptions. Of more lasting impact, however, were the
pretation (ijtihad) and opinion (fatwa) was rendered impossible Salafiyya efforts to strengthen Islamic awareness and solidaror at least heavily curtailed, there was little or no need for ity in face of modernity. Thus, da
wa increasingly was underda
wa discourse. In this sense, the authority of institutional stood in terms of edification and, most prominently, education,
law appears to have contributed to circumventing the central- tarbiya.
ity of the concept of da
wa, which was primarily understood in
terms of the connection between religious legitimacy and The disruptive period of Islamic reformism around the
political power. turn of the nineteenth century also saw the birth of the
Ahmadiyya, founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam
It should be noted, finally, that at least one example of Ahmad (d. 1908). Due to its deviant doctrines (such as the
da
wa activity since Fatimid times has been recorded by claims of Ahmad to have received new revelations from God
scholars, namely a correspondence between the rulers of the and to be, among other things, an incarnation of Krishna),
Ottoman and the Safavid Empires during the early sixteenth most Muslims do not accept Ahmadiyya as a part of Islam.
century. This controversy over religio-political authority Nonetheless, the movement has persisted as a very active
carries many similarities with the struggle between Abbasids da
wa organization, concentrating particularly on publication.
and Fatimids. There may well have been others too. Thus,
one cannot rule out scholarly omission or lack of interest as During the twentieth century, the Salafiyya ideal of tarbiya
partly responsible for the silence of da
wa after the early made a lasting impact on the understandings of da
wa. As of
centuries of Islam. the 1930s, however, the political as well as the educational
and devotional aspects of da
wa were understood and used in
Modern Times partly novel ways. A preceding event of paradigmatic impor-
European colonialism and Christian mission brought Mus- tance was the abolition of the caliphate in 1924. Da
wa
lims into intense encounters with non-Muslim ideas and increasingly became an endeavor to reform the individual,
practices. The processes of modernity (secularization, in- rather than the public, institutions of society. Thus, society
dividualism, social reorganization, etc.) increasingly trans- was to be Islamized “from below.” This vision can be ascribed
formed Muslim societies. Technological, educational, and mainly to Hassan al-Banna (d. 1949) and Abu l-A
la Maududi
infrastructural changes made a lasting impact, and deeply (d. 1979), who were both of towering importance for the
rooted Islamic ideas and ways of life were put into question. conception of da
wa among later generations of Islamists.
Facing such challenges, many Muslims felt a need to reconsider or defend Islam, as well as to inform non-Muslims about Founder in 1928 of the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan
Islamic principles and creeds. In this context, partly novel al-Muslimin), al-Banna spoke of da
wa as the call to “true
conceptualizations of da
wa claimed a core position in the Islam.” With an allegoric reference to hijra, Muhammad’s
Islamic debates and practices. emigration from Mecca to Medina, al-Banna urged Muslims
to abandon the materialism and superficial pleasures of soci-
A precursor for the modern use of da
wa was the Ottoman ety. By living in accordance with Islamic rules, Muslims will
sultan
Abd al-Hamid II, who ruled between 1876 and 1909. restore an “Islamic Order” and, eventually, establish an
Claiming the title of caliph, he took on the responsibility for Islamic state.
the umma. He included the concept of da
wa in his “imperial
ideology” and intended to lead Muslims like the Pope leads Maududi was more favorable to direct political action and
the Catholics. Hence, this is an example of a modern use of mobilization. His organizational base, Jama
at-e Islami, was
da
wa discourse for the sake of religio-political authority. set up as a regular political party, although it has gained
significance primarily as an informal network. Maududi agreed
Of more lasting impact with regard to the rethinking of with al-Banna’s da
wa strategy of internal reform from below.
da
wa was the Salafiyya movement, the leading figures of However, instead of envisioning an Islamic order, he launched
which were Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d. 1897), Muhammad the popular concept of the “Islamic movement,” al-Haraka

Abduh (d. 1905), and Rashid Rida (d. 1935). Inspired par- al-Islamiyya. Here da
wa is aimed at creating an Islamic state
ticularly by Ibn Taymiyya’s (d. 1329) early critique of taqlid of mind and a matrix of life rather than an institutional order.
and legal formalism, they called for the reform of Islamic law
by reopening the gates of ijtihad. The movement also took a A different methodology of da
wa was suggested by Tablighi
decisively critical stance to the influence of secular and Jama
at, founded by Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas in 1927. This
Christian ideas. Both al-Afghani and, later, Rida were con- movement of Sufi background turns its back on political
nected to the pan-Islamic movement that aimed at uniting activity and concentrates on the devotional life. Yet, it em-
Muslim peoples under the Ottoman caliphate. Rida even phasizes the centrality of da
wa in terms of a missionary duty.

172 Islam and the Muslim World
Da
wa

The Sufi background is highlighted by the centrality of the charities, distribution of Islamic literature, international conform of prayer called dhikr (remembrance). By repeating ferences, and festivals, not least in Europe. Notably, this
prayers many times each day, an Islamization of daily life is support predominantly favored Islamist-oriented movements,
envisioned. Ilyas himself distinctly deviated from the charac- such as the Deobandi-inspired communities of Britain.
ter of al-Banna and Maududi and did not stand out as a
religious scholar, either as a speaker or writer. This he Previously, Muslims had been largely opposed to reliefcompensated by missionary zeal and novel strategies of or- work and social-welfare concerns as part of da
wa endeavors,
ganization and education. In fact, the theological simplicity criticizing Christian missions for using such efforts in order
of the Tablighi’s da
wa appears as a key to popular success. to make proselytes. Increasingly, however, charity directed
primarily to Muslims has become an integral part of much
The prerequisites for acting as a Tablighi da
i are based on
da
wa work. It may even be argued that the provision of social
familiarity with basic Islamic doctrines and traditions, the
amenities is one of the main aspects of Islamism.
practice of salat and dhikr, respect of other Muslims, and
sincerity in actions. Da
wa is to be performed as voluntary As a reaction to the Saudi influence on organizations like
preaching of the message in small groups. Instead of, for the Muslim World League, new da
wa instruments were
instance, publishing books or arranging publicly visible events formed in other countries. In Libya, for instance, Mu
ammar
and campaigns at university campuses, da
wa is performed al-Qadhdhafi established the Islamic Call Society, Jam
iyat
from door to door. The Tablighi communities, not least al-Da
wah al-Islamiyya, in 1972, concentrating on da
wa
among Muslim minorities around the world, are built on efforts in sub-Saharan Africa. A decisive blow on Saudi
close, personal relations and social support. Arabian hegemony was the Iranian revolution of 1979. The
da
wa efforts of the Iranian Islamic Information Organization
Some years after the Second World War, when the largeonce again highlighted the question of political legitimacy.
scale process of decolonization started, modern da
wa activi-
During the war against Iraq in the 1980s, Iran increasingly
ties increased in an even more rapid speed. Gradually, da
wa
emphasized its Shi
ite foundation, thus loosening the slack on
developed into a key concept for cultural identity and politi-
Saudi Arabia. The tensions between Saudi Arabia and the
cal change. Jamal
Abd al-Nasser, who ruled Egypt between
increasingly independent da
wa organizations have increased
1952 and 1970, built up a da
wa network in the Middle East
since the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s, when Saudi
and Africa. He championed the cause of Islamic socialism and
Arabia supported the military coalition led by the United
pan-Arabism, which influenced nationalist leaders in many States. Saudi Arabia was heavily criticized by Muslim organipredominantly Muslim countries, such as Algeria, Syria, zations all over the world, and some lost the Saudi support of
and Iraq. petrodollars.
Other Muslim leaders challenged the socialist, nationalist, In the late twentieth century, new da
wa organizations
and secularist aspects of postcolonial development and took cropped up all over the Muslim world, including in Europe
recourse to a more classic understanding of da
wa. Most and North America. Moreover, many governments set up
notably, Saudi Arabia’s King Faysal challenged, and eventu- da
wa departments for education and propaganda, particually took over, Nasser’s leading role, by stressing the ideal of a larly in the universities. In Pakistan, for example, the Univertransnational, Muslim solidarity based on Islam, not Arabism. sity of Islamabad in 1985 created a Da
wah Academy for
In 1962, Saudi Arabia founded the Muslim World League, training da
wa workers, producing and distributing literature
Rabitat al-
alam al-Islami, for promoting international da
wa in several languages as well as organizing conferences, special
efforts. This was one year after the establishment of an courses, and other events. The academy has an extensive
Islamic university in Medina for the training of da
wa work- international network of cooperating da
wa organizations,
ers. The activities of the Muslim World League increased in including the Muslim World League. Another important
the 1970s when several councils, such as the World Council da
wa organization, whose primary objective is to propagate
of Mosques, were formed. The idea of promoting interna- Islam through missionary activities, is the Islamic Propagational Islamic cooperation through the Council of Mosques tion Centre International (IPCI), which was started in 1982
was partly inspired by the previous establishment of the by Ahmed Deedat in Durban. It was preceded by the Islamic
World Council of Churches. The Muslim World League Propagation Centre, founded in 1957. Particularly signifi-
cooperated with the governments of certain countries, such cant in Europe and North America, the IPCI has concenas Egypt, after Nasser had been followed by Anwar Sadat. As trated on polemics against Christianity. The increasing interest
a result, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth was founded in social welfare as a part of da
wa work was reflected, for
in 1972. Due to the the oil boom of the 1970s, enormous oil instance, in the formation in 1988 by the Muslim World
revenues allowed countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to League of the World Muslim Committee for Da
wah and
lend most substantial support to the Islamic movement that Relief. Education and health care is on the program of many
worked for the (re)establishment of “true” Islam. Funds were da
wa organizations, like the Indonesian Diwan Dawat alused for, among other things, Islamic research projects, Islam and the West African Ansar al-Islam.

Islam and the Muslim World 173
Dawla

Among Muslim intellectuals, not least in Europe and Rahnema, Ali, ed. Pioneers of Islamic Revival. London: Zed
North America, da
wa to a significant degree has been associ- Books, 1994.
ated with interfaith dialogue. Thus, Quranic injunctions Schimmel, Annemarie. Sufismus: Eine Einführung in die
such as “Invite all to the Way of thy Lord” (16: 125) have been islamische Mystik. Munich: Beck, 2000.
reinterpreted in an ecumenical sense. Proponents of inter- Sharon, Moshe. Black Banners from the East. Jerusalem:
faith dialogue such as Mahmoud Ayoub, Hasan
Askari, Magners, 1983
Khurshid Ahmad, Mohammad Talbi, Isma
il al-Faruqi, and Siddiqui, Ataullah. Christian-Muslim Dialogue in the Twentieth
Seyyed Hossein Nasr agree on the need for ijtihad and the Century. London: Macmillan, 1997.
contextualization of shari
a, and they have excluded proselytism from the conceptions of da
wa. Christer Hedin
Torsten Janson
However, the visions of al-Banna and Maududi are con- David Westerlund
tinuously present, especially in European and North American organizations. Two examples are the International Institute
of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in the United States, founded by
al-Faruqi, and the Islamic Foundation in United Kingdom, DAWLA
an offshoot of the Jama
at-e Islami, headed for many years by
Maududi’s disciple, Khurram Murad. The conception of The Arabic word dawla is derived from the root D-W-L,
da
wa among such organizations combines ecumenical efforts meaning “to turn, alternate, or come around in a cyclical
with insistence on edification and mobilization among Mus- fashion.” The Quran (59:7), for example, speaks of the
lims, predominantly by book publishing and, increasingly, by Prophet’s distribution of the spoils of war to those in need,
engagement in the political and educational systems of the “so that it may not [merely] make the circuit (dulatan) among
Western societies. the wealthy of you.” Another Quranic reference (3:140)
speaks of the cyclical nature of human vicissitudes, so that
See also Conversion; Expansion; Jama
at-e Islami; triumph one day is replaced by defeat another day. This sense
Shari
a. of alternating periods of fortune and misfortune led Arab
writers to use the word dawla when speaking of dynastic
BIBLIOGRAPHY succession, particularly in the period after the rise of Abbasid
Arnold, Thomas W. The Preaching of Islam: A History of the power. The Abbasid “turn” in power had come, just as earlier
Propagation of the Muslim Faith, 3d ed. London: Luzac, 1935. the Umayyads had had their turn before being overthrown.
Baldick, Julian. Mystical Islam: An Introduction to Sufism. As the Abbasid house became entrenched in power, how-
London: Tauris, 2000. ever, the dynastic sense of dawla became conflated with
Canard, Marius. “Da
wa.” In Vol. 2, Encyclopedia of Islam. notions of the empire or state that this family ruled. Pre-
Leiden: Brill, 1965. modern Muslim writers, like their Western contemporaries,
Eickelman, Dale, and Piscatori, James. Muslim Politics. Prince- did not generally speak in the abstract of the state apart from
ton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996. those who actually wielded power at any given time. For
Faruqi, Ismail R al-. “On the Nature of Islamic Da’wah.” In example, Ibn Khaldun’s use of dawla signifies, as Franz
Islam and Other Faiths. Leicester: The Islamic Founda- Rosenthal notes, that “a state exists only insofar as it is held
tion, 1998. together and ruled by individuals and the group which they
Halm, Heinz. Shi’ism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University constitute, that is, the dynasty. When the dynasty disappears,
Press, 1991. the state, being identical with it, also comes to an end.” (Ibn
Janson, Torsten. “Da
wa: Islamic Missiology in Discourse Khaldun, Muqaddimah).
and History.” Swedish Missiological Themes 89, no. 3
With the advent of Turkish and Kurdish governors under
(2001): 355–415.
the nominal authority of the later Abbasid caliphs, titles
Köse, Ali. Conversion to Islam: A Study of Native British Con- composed of the word al-dawla combined with an honorific
verts. Padstow: Kegan Paul International, 1996.
adjective became commonplace. Such titles as nasir al-dawla
Otayek, René, ed. Le radicalisme islamique au sud du Sahara: or sayf al-dawla could be rendered equally as “helper” and
Da’wa, arabisation et critiques de l’Occident. Paris: “sword,” respectively, of the state, the body politic, the
Karthala, 1993.
government, or the dynasty, all of which were identified
Popovic, Alexandre, and Veinstein, Gilles, eds. Les voies (albeit theoretically) as a common entity.
d’Allah: Les ordres mystiques dans l’islam des origines à
aujourd’hui. Paris: Fayard, 1996. In the nineteenth century, as Western distinctions be-
Poston, Larry. Islamic Da’wah in the West: Muslim Missionary tween the state and the government began to filter into
Activity and the Dynamics of Conversion to Islam. Oxford: Muslim countries, dawla became increasingly disentangled
Oxford University Press, 1992. from its more personalistic connotations and began to be

174 Islam and the Muslim World
Death

used almost exclusively in the sense of “state.” Thus, the view is that death is the fate prescribed by God for all living
1861 Tunisian constitution, the first promulgated in a Mus- things, and that the event itself marks a transition or journey
lim country, was known as qanun al-dawla. Framed under of the soul from worldly existence in the body to bodily
European pressure, the constitution consciously sought to resurrection and immortal life in either paradise (janna) or
differentiate the traditional powers of the bey, the ruler of hell (nar and jahannam). In Islamic eschatology, as in rabbinic
Tunisia, from the new constitutional regime of the state Judaism, God delegated the power of death to an angel of
under which even the bey was theoretically subordinate. To awesome appearance who separates the soul from the body.
differentiate it from the state, which was relatively unchanging, the idea of the government and its personnel, which came Death (maut) is a dominant theme in the Quran, where it
and went, was connoted now by the term hukuma. is closely linked with the understanding of life (haya) and
belief in God. Thus, “God has possession of the heavens and
Dawla in contemporary Arabic (devlet in Turkish) is used the earth, he gives life and death” (9:116). Death is an
in the sense of the nation-state, and encompasses the full eventuality that all living souls shall “taste” (3:185, 21:35),
range of meanings associated with that term in English, and precipitates their inevitable return to God (10:56). The
including a community of citizens residing within a given set Quran even speaks of human existence as being defined by
of territorial boundaries as well as the political authority two deaths and two births: nonexistence and entry into
under which they live. The League of Arab States is thus worldly life, then death and resurrection in the hereafter
rendered as Jami
at al-Duwal al-
Arabiyya (duwal being the (2:28, 22:66). The return to God leads to the final reckoning
plural of dawla) and anything “international” is rendered as and immortality for the blessed in paradise and for the
dawli or duwali. damned in hell. Moreover, a special reward is promised those
killed on God’s “path,” who are also said to be alive with God,
One also finds in contemporary Islamist writings the
not dead (3:157, 3:169, 22:58). In Quranic narratives of
neologism dawla Islamiyya, or “Islamic state.” This concept is
sacred history, death is depicted as affliction suffered by
invariably not well defined, but it reflects the holistic approphets at the hands of unbelievers (2:61, 3:21), and as a
proach to religion and state that is at the core of the fundapunishment meted out by God to unbelievers (25:35–40).
mentalist project. The Islamic state, unlike secular national
Ethical and juridical passages place a high value on human life
states, is one in which shari
a, or divine law, is fully applied as
(4:29, 5:32, 6:151, 17:31), but call for death as a punishment
the only legal code in the state. Beyond this general aspirafor those who war against God and Muhammad (5:33). The
tion, the specifics of what constitutes shari
a, how shari
a
schools of Muslim jurisprudence later delineated with more
principles are to be discerned or interpreted, and how nonprecision the kinds of offenses that required capital punish-
Muslims are to be accommodated within the Islamic state are
ment, as well as mitigating factors (hudud).
all highly contested issues.
Burial and mourning are rites of passage that are codified
See also Hukuma al-islamiyya, al- (Islamic Governin fiqh literature. They involve declaration of the shahada by
ment); Ibn Khaldun; Political Organization; Shari
a.
or on behalf of the dying person, and a cleansing of the body
(ghusl), followed by enshrouding. Within a few hours of the
BIBLIOGRAPHY death, a party of men transport the body to the cemetery,
Ayalon, Ami. Language and Change in the Arab Middle East: where it is buried facing toward Mecca. Funerary prayers may
The Evolution of Modern Arabic Political Discourse. New be performed at the grave site itself, or at a mosque on the way
York: Oxford University Press, 1987. to the cemetery. Jurists prohibit women from participating in
Enayat, Hamid. Modern Islamic Political Thought. Austin: funerals, even if the deceased is female. Burial at sea is
University of Texas Press, 1982. permitted if landfall is not possible. If the body of the
Ibn Khaldun. Muqaddimah. Translated by Franz Rosenthal. deceased is not recoverable, funerary prayers are still re-
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1967. quired. Martyrs’ bodies remain unwashed and are interred in
Lewis, Bernard. The Political Language of Islam. Chicago: their bloodstained garments without prescribed prayers, re-
University of Chicago Press, 1988. flecting conditions of combat and a belief that they will
immediately gain paradise. In all cases, the bereaved are
Sohail H. Hashmi urged to mourn in dignity for up to three days only, for
excessive grieving is an affront to God, the giver of life and
death. Grieving may also enhance the suffering of the soul of
the deceased. Nonetheless, participation in funerals and vis-
DEATH iting cemeteries are endorsed as occasions for cultivating
piety and remembering the fate awaiting all creatures.
The end of human life is a central concern of Muslim thought
and occasions a variety of ritual practices connected to the Ulema and indigenous cultural traditions in the Middle
dying process, burial, and mourning. The most widely held East, Asia, Africa, and recently Europe and the Americas have

Islam and the Muslim World 175
Deoband

shaped Muslim beliefs and practices pertaining to death and O’Shaughnessy, Thomas. Muhammad’s Thoughts on Death.
immortality. A rich and diverse body of eschatological litera- Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1969.
ture developed in medieval Islam that included narratives Smith, Jane Idleman, and Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck. The
about the exemplary deaths of prophets and saints, visionary Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection. Albany:
accounts of the torments of the grave, the death angels, and State University of New York Press, 1981.
the intermediate condition of the soul between death and
resurrection (barzakh), as well as detailed descriptions of the Juan Eduardo Campo
pleasures of paradise and punishments of hell. The major
kalam schools defended Islamic doctrines about resurrection
and final judgment against the influence of various Christian,
Jewish, sectarian, mystical, and philosophical teachings. The DEOBAND
deaths of the imams, particularly Husayn, came to hold a
Deoband, a country town ninety miles northeast of Delhi, has
dominant place in Twelver Shi
ite doctrine and ritual pracgiven its name to ulema associated with the Indo-Pakistani
tice. Sufis taught that death obliges seekers to engage in
reformist movement centered in the seminary founded there
greater self-scrutiny, as the qualities of life after death reflect
in 1867. A striking dimension of Islamic religious life in
those of their worldly existence. Other mystics understood
colonial India was the emergence of several apolitical, inwardpain and death both as the experience of separation from God
looking movements, among them not only the Deobandis but
the Beloved and as metaphors for ecstatic annihilation (fana)
the so-called “Barelwis,” the much smaller Ahl-e Hadis/Ahl-i
of the self in him, as exemplified by al-Hallaj (d. 922). To
Hadith, and the controversial Ahmadiyya. The Deobandi,
achieve “death before dying,” was to attain spiritual union
Barelwi, and Ahl-e Hadis ulema not only responded to Hindu
with the divine. A few mystics and philosophers, contrary to
and Christian proselytizing, but engaged in public debate,
orthodox belief, advocated belief in metempsychosis (tanasukh)
polemical writings, and exchanges of fatawa among themand denied the reality of personal death, resurrection, judgselves. Each fostered devotion to the prophet Muhammad as
ment, and heaven and hell.
well as fidelity to his practice; each thought itself the correct
In many Muslim communities, death has been seen as a interpreter of hadith, the guide to that practice. All depended
contagious threat to domestic prosperity caused by the evil on means of communication, above all print, as well as on
eye and malevolent spirits rather than a direct result of God’s institutional changes that came with British colonial rule.
will. Mourning practices vary widely, but they routinely
The Dar al-
Ulum at Deoband utilized the organizational
entail expressions of profound grief, especially by women,
model of British colonial schools. Its goal was to hold Musand include prayer gatherings and meals for up to a year after
lims to a standard of correct individual practice in a time of
the loss of a loved one. Moreover, most Muslims recount
considerable social change, and, to that end, to create a class
visions of the dead in their dreams and believe that the saintly
of formally trained and popularly supported ulema to serve as
dead, especially the prophet Muhammad and his descenimams, guardians, and trustees of mosques and tombs, preachdants, have the power to intercede on their behalf both in this
ers, muftis, spiritual guides, writers, and publishers of religworld and in the hereafter. Saints’ tombs, found in most
ious works. At the end of its first centenary in 1967, Deoband
Muslim communities, have consequently evolved into imcounted almost ten thousand graduates, including several
portant pilgrimage and cultural centers. Since the nineteenth
hundred from foreign countries. Hundreds of Deobandi
century, some Muslim writers have adapted European
schools, moreover, have been founded across the Indian
spiritualism to traditional Islamic understandings of death
subcontinent and now in the West as well.
and the afterlife, while Islamists have revived discourses
about the tortures of the grave, the corporal punishments of The Deobandis followed Shah Wali Allah Dihlawi
hell, and the bodily pleasures of paradise to advance their (1702–1763) in their shift from emphasis on the “rational
radical political and moral agendas. sciences” to an emphasis on the “revealed sciences” of the
Quran and, above all, hadith. Unlike him, however, they
See also
Ibadat; Jahannam; Janna; Pilgrimage: Ziyara. have been staunch Hanafis in jurisprudence. They have also
been Sufi guides, bound together by shared spiritual net-
BIBLIOGRAPHY works, especially Chishti Sabiri. Among the most influential
Campo, Juan Eduardo. The Other Sides of Paradise: Explora- writers was Maulana Ashraf
Ali Thanawi (1864–1943), who
tions into the Religious Meanings of Domestic Space in Islam. published scholarly works on Quran, hadith, and Sufism. He
Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1991. also wrote an encyclopedic guide for Muslim women, Bihishti
Ghazali, Abu Hamid al-. The Remembrance of Death and the Zewar, disseminating correct practice, reform of custom, and
Afterlife (Kitab dhikr al-mawt wa-ma ba
dahu): Book XL of practical knowledge.
the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya
ulum al-din).
Translated by T. J. Winter. Cambridge: Islamic Texts After about 1910, individual Deobandis began to be in-
Society, 1995. volved in politics in opposition to British rule in India and

176 Islam and the Muslim World
Devotional Life

also to British intervention in the Ottoman lands. Many need for the “sacramental” aspect: to touch or be near and
Deobandis supported the Khilafat movement after World close to the object of veneration, believed to have healing or
War I in support of the Ottoman ruler as khalifa of all intercessional powers.
Muslims, and were also strong supporters of the Jam
iyat

Ulama-e Hind who was allied with the Indian National The term devotion can therefore only be used for the
Congress and opposed to the creation of Pakistan. The widest variety of forms of engaged, affectionate worship:
apolitical strand within the school’s teaching has taken shape from the
ibadat to the veneration of the prophet Muhammad
for many in the widespread, now transnational, pietist move- (for example, in the celebration of his birthday, Ar. mawlid),
ment known since the 1920s as Tablighi Jama
at. The popu- saints (awliya), or intermediary beings such as the jinn and
lar writings of Maulana Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhalavi zar spirits, taking place within a wide variety of institutional
(1897–1982), associated with the second major Deobandi settings, and under the guidance of a particular leadership.
school in India, the Mazahir-e
Ulum in Saharanpur, are Hence, devotional life refers here in the first place to a broad
utilized extensively in the movement. In Pakistan, the Jam
iyat range of personal, popular behaviors and beliefs that stand in

Ulama-e Islam party represents Deobandi ulema. In striking a dialectical relationship with scriptural orthodoxies of varicontrast, the Taliban movement, which emerged in Afghani- ous kinds and varieties. The reasons for this tension may vary:
stan in the 1990s, had its origins among refugees in Deobandi Many practices are without precedent in the time of the
schools in Pakistan and also identifies itself as Deobandi. Prophet (bida
s), and there may be forms of reprehensible
moral behavior such as joint gatherings of men and women,
See also Education; Jam
iyat
Ulama-e Islam; Law; South and particular forms of trance. However, it is the alleged
Asia, Islam in; Tablighi Jama
at. veneration of mortal and created human beings instead of
God, the Creator, which is condemned as shirk.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Devotional life in Islam has yet to be mapped and its
Metcalf, Barbara Daly. Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband history is still to be written. So far, most studies have focused
l860–l900. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
on written sources (such as Padwick, Muslim Devotions; Ayoub,
Press, 1982.
Redemptive Suffering): small books and booklets, pamphlets,
Thanawi, Maulana Ashraf
Ali. Perfecting Women: Maulana and manuscripts (amulets) that can be purchased in small
Ashraf
Ali Thanawi’s Bihishti Zewar. Berkeley: University bookshops, in the streets, and at religious institutions. Among
of California Press, 1990.
them are many prayer manuals and devotional texts, often
originating in the ritual practices of one of the mystical
Barbara D. Metcalf traditions, the subject of Padwick’s classic study. The pamphlets may be written by classical authors, most often mystics,
such as the famous
Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (d. 1166), but there
are also many modern authors.
DEVOTIONAL LIFE
Devotion to the Prophet is a dominant element in many
The meaning and analytical value of the phrase “devotional Sufi movements. A very popular text is the Dalail al-khayrat
life” needs clarification in the case of Islam. “Devotional” is (Guide to happiness) by the Moroccan mystic al-Jazuli (d.
derived from the Latin term devotio, which was originally the 1465). In it, the 201 names of the Prophet occupy an imporname of a ritual in Roman religion, and became predomi- tant place, as well as the tasliya, or prayer on the Prophet,
nantly a Christian term, which in the Middle Ages and in which reads in translation: “O God, send your blessing [salli ]
modern speech means the obedient submission to God. The on our Lord Muhammad and on the family of our Lord
theologian John Renard defines devotion as “the elements of Muhammad and greet them with peace!” The family of the
personal investment”—energy, feeling, time, substance— Prophet is sometimes taken very broadly and may include all
that characterize a Muslim communal and individual re- people of belief. In Shi
ite books it also includes all the
Alids.
sponse to the experience of God’s ways of dealing with them.
The Islamic-Arabic term closest to devotio may be ikhlas (cf. S. In popular pamphlets older texts such as the Qasidat al-
4:146, speaking about those who “akhlasu dinahum lillah,” burda by al-Busiri may be found together with modern texts,
that is, are sincere in their obedience to God), but this term is forming handbooks of devotion for individual and communal
not used in religious studies in the same way as it is used in life. Padwick lists different types of ritual forms in addition to
Constance Padwick’s classic Muslim Devotions. Even though the term salat, which may indicate the obligatory salat, the
the devotional practices as described below include the “ca- voluntary (nafila) salats, and salats for special occasions, as
nonical” rituals (
ibadat) as well, one assumes that in quantita- well as the prayer on the Prophet. These include
ibada, which
tive terms a great part of devotional life takes place outside refers to the outward aspects, and wazifa or ratib, the daily
the prescribed rituals even though it remains closely con- individual devotional office. In addition to forms Padwick
nected and intertwined with them. As in other religious mentions different types of texts: munajat, or conversations
traditions, many aspects of devotional life seem to fulfill a between God and Prophets or other saintly persons; du
a, a

Islam and the Muslim World 177
Devotional Life

grave). Devotional life should also be approached through
music and literary works of prose and poetry. For example, in
his autobiographical work Ein Leben mit dem Islam (A Life
with Islam; 1999), Nasr Abu Zaid reminds us that recitation
of the Quran had spiritual as well as aesthetic and physical
aspects. Another interesting autobiography, and an important source for devotional life of a woman in the Islamist
movement, is that of Zaynab al-Ghazali.

Studies into devotional life based on field work exist, but
do not abound and is only rarely the subject of a monograph.
One may think of the accounts by Edward Lane (Manners and
Customs of the Modern Egyptians; 1846), Snouck Hurgronje of
life in Mecca, Edward Westermarck’s Ritual and Religion in
Morocco, Usha Sanyal on Barelwi devotions (although it focuses on fatwas rather than on field work), Abdul Hamid El
Zein’s study of saint veneration in Lamu, John Bowen’s
Muslims Through Discourse (a study in the Gayo highland), or
Ian Netton’s book on Sufi ritual in the United Kingdom.

Images, pictures, and paintings form an important source
This muezzin in Istanbul calls faithful Muslims to pray in an for the study of devotional life. In this respect, a promising
important Islamic daily ritual. Written instruction on Islamic devo- new contribution can also be expected of visual anthropology
tion is available in prayer manuals and devotional texts in bookstores (e.g., films such as those by Fadwa El Guindi, El Sebou, on
and on the street in the Muslim world. © DAVID RUBINGER/CORBIS
life-cycle rituals in Egypt). Finally, the Internet, in particular
the World Wide Web, has emerged as a medium for the
spread of devotional life. Quite a few Sufi orders are active in
very important term indicating invocations and prayers that
cyberspace, and noteworthy developments take place there
can also be said during the salat, particularly the sujud; or
with regard to publications as well. A great lacuna remains,
prosternation. In this regard, it is important to observe that
however, the lack of empirical analysis on a micro level in
whereas it is obligatory to recite the Quran (undoubtedly the
which textual (and musicological and iconographical) study is
most important devotional text) during the salat in Arabic,
combined with (participant) observation.
du
as can also be said in the vernacular. There is a connection
between prayers in the vernacular and the emergence of See also Adhan; Dhikhj; Du
a;
Ibadat; Tasawwuf.
popular literature in such Islamic vernaculars as Persian,
Turkish, and other languages. Dhikr literally means “remem-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
brance,” namely of God and the ninety-nine beautiful names
(memorization of which, tradition holds, almost assures a Ayoub, Mahmoud. Redemptive Suffering in Islam. A Study of
the Devotional Aspects in Twelver Shiism. The Hague: Mouperson entrance into Paradise), and may refer both to a type
ton, 1978.
of text (especially in the plural, adhkar) and the ritual of
reciting them. A wird is a litany often accompanied by a name Biegman, N. H., and Hunt, S. V. Egypt. Moulids, Saints and
Sufis. The Hague: Gary Schwartz/SDU, 1990.
and associated with the devotional life of a particular Sufi
order. Other texts are referred to as hizb, litany, a term which Bowen, John R. Muslims through Discourse. Religion and Ritual
also refers to an allotted part, namely of the Quran, or of a in Gayo Society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
text such as the Dalail (divided into eight ahzab). Al-Shadili Press, 1993.
(d. 1258) composed the famous Hizb al-bahr aboard a vessel Kriss, Rudolf von, and Kris-Heinrich, Hubert. Volksglaube im
on his way to Mecca. Ahzab have a strong connotation of Bereich des Islam. Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1960–62.
offering protection against hostile natural or human forces. Netton, Ian Richard. Sûfï ritual. The Parallel Universe. Rich-
The same holds true for the Hirz, which literally means mond, U.K.: Curzon Press, 2000.
“stronghold.” All such types of texts are recited at different Padwick, Constance. Muslim Devotions. A Study of Prayerritual occasions. In addition, many popular pamphlets deal Manuals in Common Use (1961). Reprint. Oxford, U.K.:
with other devotional subjects such as magic (Ar. sihr), evil Oneworld, 1996.
powers, for example, those of the jinn and the evil eye (al- Parker, A., and Neal, A. Hajj Painting. Folk Art of the Great
hasad, al-
ayn) and how to avert or control them, and with the Pilgrimage. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
afterlife and eschatological subjects (for example, “life” in the Press, 1995.

178 Islam and the Muslim World
Dhikr

In Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, a young boy watches the men in their noon prayer at the
Omar
Ali Saifuddin Mosque. © MICHAEL S.
YAMASHITA/CORBIS

Renard, John. Seven Doors to Islam: Spirituality and the Relig- God, then extended in the hadith to reflect the multiplicity of
ious Life of Muslims. Berkeley: University of California ideas associated with the Prophet’s own pious practices, and
Press, 1996. ultimately adapted by the ascetic and mystic traditions as an
Sanyal, Usha. Devotional Islam and Politics in British India: institutional meditational ritual.
Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi and his Movement, 1870–1920.
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999. The word dhikr and its cognates form a dense structure in
the Quran, which insists that the prophets were all linked
Schimmel, Annemarie. And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The
Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety. Chapel Hill: together by virtue of the message they collectively brought:
University of North Carolina Press, 1985. They were all members of one brotherhood (23:51–52) and
all brought the same din (religion). The Quran identifies
Schnubel, Vernon James. Religious Performances in Contempothem all as mudhakkirat, a word derived from the root “to
rary Islam. Shii Devotional Rituals in South Asia. Columbia:
University of South Carolina Press, 1993. remember” or “to recollect”; thus, they are all rememberers.
Their message is tadhkira, reminder. Humans, however, are
Westermarck, Edward. Ritual and Belief in Morocco (1926).
in a state of forgetfulness, and they need to be reminded by
Reprint. London: Macmillan, 1960.
believers; it is the believer’s chore to constantly witness
Zein, Abdul Hamid el-. The Sacred Meadows. A Structural (dhakir), both because of the human propensity to forgetful-
Analysis of Religious Symbolism in an East African Town.
ness, but also because God has allowed Satan to entice
Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University, 1974.
humans away (17:62–64).

Gerard Wiegers The remembrance of Allah as a rite has a special place in
Islam. The Quran says, “Those who believe, and whose
hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah; for
without doubt, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find
DHIKR satisfaction” (13:28). The remembrance of Allah is understood to embrace both acts of service and kindliness, and
Dhikr is a complex word variously translated as “remem- failure to do so curbs spiritual growth (83:9). At the same
brance” or “recollection.” The word dhikr was developed time, the Quran envisions dhikr of wider significance than
initially in the Quran to reflect a special kind of piety toward the formal requirement of prayer, including devotions such as

Islam and the Muslim World 179
Dietary Laws

silent meditation and personal contemplation (24:37). Remem- Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam. Chicago:
brance is also linked directly to accepting Allah’s guidance, a University of Chicago Press, 1974.
key initiative of God in human salvation, and failure to Hoffman, Valerie. Sufism, Saints, and Mysticism in Modern
remember leads to the withdrawal of God’s grace (72:17). In Egypt. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995.
short, “Remembrance of Allah is the greatest thing in life, Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel
without doubt” (29:45). Hill: University of North Carolina, 1975.
Schubel, Vernon. “The Muharram Majlis: The Role of a
Dhikr in Mystical Islam or Sufism
Ritual in the Preservation of Shi
a Identity.” In Muslim
Sufis adhere to the Quran’s words to “remember God” and Families in North America. Edited by Earle H. Waugh,
they do so in rituals both rich and variegated. Some Sufis Sharon M. Abu-Laban, and Regula B. Qureshi. Edmonton,
regard dhikr as the mystical equivalent of canonical prayer, Alberta, Canada: University of Alberta Press, 1991.
and wherever dhikr as liturgical remembrance has been prac- Waugh, Earle H. The Munshidin of Egypt: Their World and
ticed, it has generally been held to encompass the same pious Their Song. Columbia: University of South Carolina
goals as prayer and to reflect the same ritual effectiveness. Press, 1989.
The dhikr tradition, then, is a means of meditation on past
verities and on the transcendent being of God, a base upon Earle Waugh
which Sufism built a structure for probing higher consciousness, engaging with spiritual forces, and ultimately coming
into a personal encounter with God.
DIETARY LAWS
Dhikr developed into a pious ritual very early in the
growth of ascetic practices, and, with the establishment of the Islam’s dietary laws are based on scripture, juridical opinions,
orders, became specifically designed for brotherhood medi- and local custom; the latter, in turn, reflects the religious
tations. It became the means to develop internal cohesion milieu of pre-Islamic Arabia. Foods are designated as lawful
within the order, and for the head of the order to maintain (halal), unlawful (haram), and reprehensible (makruh). Gencontrol over the adepts. Dhikr thus evolved into part of the erally, all things, including foods, remain lawful unless proven
discipline imposed by Sufism’s institutional structure. While otherwise. The Quran rules that the flesh of swine is unlawits practice was open to those “on the Way,” each order ful, as is carrion, blood, animals that have been strangulated,
required dhikr to be approved and carried out in the presence beaten to death, killed by a fall, gored to death, or savaged by
of the shaykh or the order’s other officials. other animals. Apostolic traditions render unlawful carnivorous animals, birds of prey, and most reptiles. The schools of
Such teachings embraced the following notions: Dhikr law differ with regard to some foods: For the Hanafites,
could be either silent or spoken, reflecting the domains of crustaceans such as lobster, shrimp, crab, and the like are
practice, that is, remembrance of the heart (dhikr khafi, or reprehensible, for the Malikites even reptiles are lawful, and
dhikr al-qalbi) or remembrance of the tongue. Spoken dhikr is for the Shafiites meat products not consumed by the early
ultimately overcome by silent dhikr, since words fail before Arab community are unlawful.
the grandeur of God, or they inevitably maintain the self
separate from the source of all life. By the sixteenth century, The name of God must be invoked on all animals before
dhikr would encompass seven different levels of meaning, slaughter, although some jurists waive this rule where the
according to some practitioners. slaughterer is Muslim. The trachea, and at least one carotid
artery, must be severed with a sharp instrument to minimize
Finally, dhikr, spoken by saintly people or their repre- pain and suffering. Game hunters need not follow these rules
sentatives, is widely regarded as having spiritual potency, and if the name of God was invoked when their properly trained
the vehicle of memory suggests that dhikr ’s inspiration can be hunting animals were set loose. Also lawful is an animal killed
carried beyond the atmosphere of the order into Muslim by weapons such as arrows, lances, and so on that when
society itself, where it can effect change in unpredictable but launched—in the name of God—tear through flesh and cause
significant ways. bleeding. Because no bleeding occurs when live ammunition
is used, some jurists render the consumption of such animals
See also Devotional Life;
Ibadat; Tasawwuf.
as unlawful.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Animals slaughtered by people of the book, that is, Jews
Burke, Michael. Among the Dervishes. London: Octagon and Christians, are lawful, although some jurists insist that
Press, 1973. they too invoke only the name of God, and not that of Jesus,
Hisham, Ibn. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn or any other deity. More recently, and as a consequence of
Ishaq’s Kitab Sirat Rasul Allah. Translated by A. Guillaume. migrations to the West, a further distinction, particularly
Karachi, Pakistan, and New York: Oxford University evident among Muslims in the United States, is made be-
Press, 2001. tween animals slaughtered by people of the book, termed

180 Islam and the Muslim World
Disputation

halal, and those slaughtered by Muslims themselves, termed inspire their friends to dispute with you” (6:121) and “dispute
dhabiha. not with the People of the Book” (29:46). Quran 16:125
associates disputing with proselytism or inviting unbelievers
Intoxicants are unlawful, even in small quantities, and so to become Muslim: “Invite (humankind) to the way of your
too are profits, salaries, or rentals obtained through commer- Lord with wisdom and kind words and dispute with them
cial ventures involving intoxicants. Fresh grape and date juice (jadilhum) in (a manner) which is less offensive.”
cannot be consumed if left overnight in summer and after
three days in winter. By analogy, chemical substances that By the ninth century, in Baghdad, Basra, and other centers
impair the senses are also unlawful. of learning, disputation was recognized as a skill and an art
that enhanced one’s scholarly status. The biographical dic-
Meals must be consumed with the right hand, preferably
tionaries mention accomplishment in the “science of disputawhile sitting, and God’s name must be invoked before and
tion” (
ilm al-jadal) or the rules of conduct in debate (adab alafter meals. Using utensils of gold and silver is reprehensible,
jadal), alongside knowledge of law, theology, the Quran,
as is eating garlic or onion before prayer, and filling the belly
hadith, and the grammar and lexicon of the Arabic language.
more than two-thirds with food and drink. Some large fast-
Although the earliest manuals of instruction in the art of
food chains now cater to Islamic dietary requirements, and
disputation no longer exist, the existence of such works as
use a crescent in some places to indicate that halal meals
early as the ninth century is attested by references that appear
are served.
in the tenth-century catalogue of Arabic works by Ibn al-
See also Fatwa; Ijtihad; Madhhab; Mufti; Shari
a. Nadim (Kitab al-fihrist).

Arabic theological texts from the ninth to eleventh centu-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ries give evidence of the oral environment of debate and
Cook, Michael. Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in argument in which claims were made, scripture was inter-
Islamic Thought. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Campreted, rulings were established, and ideas were advanced and
bridge University Press, 2000.
criticized. Typical of these texts is the following pattern. An
Qaradawi, Yusuf. The Lawful and the Unlawful in Islam. incipit formulation of a problem is stated, for example, the
Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1994.
Mu
tazilite theological school’s claim that the Quran, like all
material things in the world, is created and not eternal—a
Muneer Goolam Fareed view that orthodox Muslims rejected. Next, the claim or
doctrine is broken down into constituent subsections of the
argument. Often the contending positions of other schools of
DISPUTATION thought are stated. The text then proceeds to advance the
details of counterargument, followed by the teacher’s reply to
Disputation is the ritual practice of dialectical argument that argument. A typical text reads: “If the interlocutor (alamong schools of thought. In early and medieval Islamic qail) should ask such and such, then the following should be
societies, disputation is especially important in regard to the said to him. . . .” The textual forms of these disputes are in
elaboration of competing religious doctrines. Two Arabic reality school texts that were dictated by a shaykh or teacher
terms, jadal (and its more intensive form mujadala) and in his home, at a madrasa, or in the corner or outer halls of a
munazara designate dialectics or disputation with an oppo- mosque, often to quite large gatherings of students. That the
nent. A culture of disputation was well established in the same problems were disputed over and over by succeeding
Middle East prior to the rise of Islam, between and within the generations of students and teachers, as was, for example, the
Jewish and Christian communities and among philosophical claim that the Quran was created, or that the Quran was a
schools, such as the Peripatetics (Aristotelians), Stoics, miracle that proved Muhammad’s prophethood, indicates a
Neoplatonists, Skeptics, Materialists, and others. Emblem- dynamic conception of religious truth that always had to be
atic of this dialectical form of scholarship in the Middle tested and defended with strengthened arguments.
Eastern environment of nascent Islam are the writings of the
Church Father, John of Damascus (d. 749). In a tractate This very method of teaching invited disputes in the
“Against the Saracens,” written under Umayyad Islamic rule, lecture halls, and both teachers and pupils often became
John instructs Christians in the methods and the limits of practitioners. At the simplest level, students would often be
disputing with Muslims on matters of belief. given a problem to dispute in practice session. Medieval
annalistic historians like Abu Mansur ibn Tahrir al-Baghdadi
Engaging the opponent through argument is also well (d. 1037) describe how on many occasions the more advanced
attested in the Quran. Humans are referred to “as the most students of a shaykh would go or be sent to the sessions of a
disputatious (jadal) of things” (18:54). The verbal noun mujadala rival teacher to challenge the latter with counterarguments.
and its active verb form, meaning disputing with an enemy, Other medieval observers of this form of teaching through
occur twenty-seven times, in such phrases as “the Satans public debate commented upon how loud and contentious

Islam and the Muslim World 181
Dissimulation

they would often become, even late at night, disturbing the cultural practice of agreeing to disagree in disputation
neighbors who were trying to sleep. The theologians Abu among contending religious communities that made civil

Uthman
Amr ibn al-Jahiz (d. 869) and Abu Hamid al- society possible in the Islamic Middle Ages.
Ghazali (d. 1111) argued that common people who were not
trained in the rules and discipline of disputation should not be See also Christianity and Islam; Kalam.
allowed to debate religion and theology in public, because
their lack of knowledge and skill often led to public disorder BIBLIOGRAPHY
and raucousness. Mahdi, Muhsin. “Language and Logic in Classical Islam.” In
Logic in Classical Islamic Culture, edited by G. E. Grunebaum.
The advanced cultural context for highly developed Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1970.
disputational skills were the evenings sponsored by local Miller, Lawrence. “The Development of Islamic Dialecrulers and other patrons, in many cases bringing together tics.” American Research Center in Egypt Newsletter 34
Sunni and Shi
ite religious spokesmen as well as representa- (1986): 24–27.
tives of the Orthodox, Nestorian, and Monoiphysite Chris- Moreen, V. B. “Shi
i–Jewish ‘Debate’ (munazara) in the
tian communities, Rabbanite Jews, philosophers, poets, and Eighteenth Century.” Journal of the American Oriental
other intellectuals to debate whatever important issue of the Society 119, no. 4 (1999): 570–89.
day interested the patron. In many cases, religious truth was
framed as the problem and debated across confessional lines. Richard C. Martin
In many cases, too, disputation over religious truth was
conducted across disciplines. In one celebrated debate in the
year 932 in Baghdad, for instance, the grammarian Abu Sa
id
al-Sirafi debated the logician Abu Bishr Matta. The logician DISSIMULATION See Taqiyya
held that truth is determined in formal logic, not in natural
language (which is the medium of the Quran). Al-Sirafi
successfully argued that meaning is embedded in the language of the text itself, thus preserving the importance of the
DIVORCE
text of scripture, which in Islamic religious thought is more
than propositional truth. In Islamic law, the husband has the exclusive right to talaq,
termination of marriage. Talaq is defined as a unilateral act,
Not every scholar appreciated or participated in public
which takes legal effect by the husband’s declaration. Neither
disputations, especially across confessional lines. The literary
grounds for divorce nor the wife’s presence or consent are
historian Abu
Abdallah al-Humaydi (d. 1095) tells of a
necessary, but the husband must pay his wife’s mahr—translated
certain Hanbali religious scholar who reported having atin English as “dower,” this is the gift the bridegroom offers
tended one such public disputation in eleventh-century
the bride upon marriage—if he has not done so at the time of
Baghdad. He complained that nonbelievers (kuffar) were
marriage, and maintenance (nafaqa) during the
idda period
allowed to stand up and say that Muslims would not be
(three menses after the declaration).
allowed to argue using their Book (the Quran), but rather
that all disputants would be restricted to rational argument. The wife, however, cannot be released from marriage
When all present, including the other Muslims, agreed to the without her husband’s consent, although she can buy her
terms of the dispute, the Hanbali reported that he left and release by offering him compensation. This is referred to as
never went back. “divorce by mutual consent” and can take two forms: In khul
,
the wife claims separation because of her extreme dislike
In modern literary and anthropological terms it is possible (ikrah) of her husband, and there is no ceiling on the amount
to see the phenomenon of jadal and munazara as a form of of compensation that she pays; in mubarat the dislike is
poetics and social ritual. Taking the form of verbal conflict, mutual and the amount of compensation should not exceed
such practices occurred in the highly charged atmosphere of the value of the mahr itself.
competing religious communities living under Islamic rule in
the central Islamic lands of the Middle East, especially during If the wife fails to secure her husband’s consent, her only
the Abbasid Age (750–1258). Potentially dangerous and vola- recourse is the intervention of a judge who has the power
tile conflicts were defined and framed, then regulated and either to compel the husband to pronounce talaq or to
controlled by rules of conduct. A measure of how effective pronounce it on his behalf. Known as faskh (recission), tafriq
these cultural forms were is the fact that often those who (separation), or tatliq (compulsory issue of divorce), this
refused to dispute according to the rules took their concerns outlet has become the common juristic basis on which a
to the streets of Baghdad in more physical and even violent woman can obtain a court divorce in contemporary Muslim
forms of conflict. Violence, however, was often outweighed world. The facility with which a woman can obtain such a
by the more civil forms of conflict. In no small measure it was divorce and the grounds on which she can do so vary in the

182 Islam and the Muslim World
Dome of the Rock

different schools of Islamic law and in different countries.
The Maliki school is the most liberal and grants the widest Dome of the Rock
grounds upon which a woman can initiate divorce proceedings. Among Muslim states where Islamic law is the basis of
family law, women in Tunisia enjoy easiest access to divorce.

See also Gender; Law; Marriage.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carroll, Lucy, and Kapoor, Harsh, eds. Talaq-i-Tafwid: The
Muslim Woman’s Contractual Access to Divorce. Grabels,
WLUML (Women Living Under Muslim Laws), 1996.
Esposito, John L., and Delong-Bas, Natana J. Women in
Muslim Family Law. 2d ed. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse
University Press, 2001.

Ziba Mir-Hosseini

DOME OF THE ROCK
The Dome of the Rock (Ar. Qubbat al-Sakhra), a large
octagonal building in Jerusalem commissioned by the Umayyad
caliph
Abd al-Malik in 692 C.E., is the earliest major monu- SOURCE: Creswell, K. A. C. A Short Account of Early Muslim
Architecture. Beirut: Librarie du Liban, 1958.
ment of Islamic architecture to survive. Muslims today consider it the third holiest shrine in Islam, after the Kaaba in
Mecca and the Mosque of the Prophet in Medina. Its age and Cross-section Dome of the Rock diagram.
its sanctity, along with its visibility and extraordinary decoration, make it a major monument of world architecture and
one of the most important sites in Islam. writing down of the Quran. It ended with the name of the
patron, the Umayyad caliph
Abd al-Malik (replaced in the
The Dome of the Rock is set over a rocky outcrop near the ninth century by that of the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun), and
center of the large esplanade known in Arabic as al-Haram al- the date of construction.
Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), which was once the site of the
Jewish Temple, the traditional religious center of Jerusalem. In form, materials, and decoration, the Dome of the Rock
The building is a large low octagon divided internally by an belongs to the tradition of late Antique and Byzantine archiarcade into two octagonal ambulatories encircling a tall tecture that flourished in the region before the coming of
cylindrical space measuring approximately 20 meters (65 Islam. The domed, centrally planned building was a typical
feet) in diameter. A high wooden dome, whose metal roof is form for a martyrium, and the Dome of the Rock is similar in
plated with gold, spans the central space and covers the rock. plan and size of dome to the nearby Holy Sepulcher, the
building (also raised over a rock) that the emperor Constan-
The glory of the building is its decoration. Above a high tine had erected in the fourth century to mark the site of
dado of quartered marble, the exterior and interior walls were Christ’s burial on Golgotha. Other Christian buildings erected
once entirely covered in a mosaic of small cubes of colored in the area in the eighth century, notably the Church of the
and gold glass and semiprecious stones. In the sixteenth Nativity in Bethelem, show a similar use of marble and
century the mosaics on the exterior were replaced with glazed mosaics, perhaps executed by the same team of mosaicists.
tiles, themselves replaced in the twentieth century, but the
mosaics on the interior stand much as they did when they Despite its antecedents and even its workmen, the Dome
were put up in the late seventh century. They depict a vast of the Rock is clearly a Muslim building, commissioned by a
program of fantastic trees, plants, fruits, jewels, chalices, Muslim patron for Muslim purposes. Its mosaic decoration,
vases, and crowns. A long (about 250 meters, or 820 feet) notably its inscriptions in Arabic and its lack of figural
band of Arabic writing in gold on a blue ground runs along representation, immediately distinguishes it from contempothe top of both sides of the inner octagon. The text is largely rary Christian buildings in the area. It was not intended as a
Quranic phrases and contains the earliest evidence for the place for communal prayer; that function was fulfilled by the

Islam and the Muslim World 183
Dome of the Rock

Women praying in front of the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest shrine in Islam. The Dome of the Rock was built on the site where the Jewish
Temple, Jerusalem’s traditional Jewish center, stood before it was destroyed. Although it was built for Muslims, the decoration and architecture
of the Dome of the Rock reflect Antique and Byzantine traditions that predate the arrival of Islam. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

nearby Aqsa Mosque. Rather its domed octagonal form as the site of Solomon’s Temple, the inscriptions suggest that
suggests a commemorative function, though its exact purpose the Dome of the Rock was meant to symbolize Islam as the
is unclear. worthy successor to both Judaism and Christianity.

Already in the ninth century several alternative explana- The Dome of the Rock continued to play an important
tions for its construction were proposed. One author sug- role long after it was built. The Abbasids, who succeeded the
gested that
Abd al-Malik had commissioned the Dome of the Umayyads, restored it several times, and the Fatimids re-
Rock to replace the Ka
ba, which had fallen into enemy stored it in the eleventh century after the dome collapsed in
hands. This explanation, however, is simplistic and under- the earthquake of 1016. The Crusaders considered it Solomines one of the five central tenets of Islam, though the mon’s Temple itself and rechristened the building Templum
building could have functioned (and does today) as a second- Domini. Saladin, the Ayyubid prince who recaptured Jerusaary site of pilgrimage. Another explanation, also current from lem for the Muslims in 1187, had the building rededicated as
the ninth century, associates the building with the site of part of his campaign to enhance the city’s sanctity and
Muhammad’s mi
raj, his miraculous night-journey from Mecca political importance. The Mamluks, rulers of Egypt and Syria
to Jerusalem and back. However, the Quranic inscriptions from 1250 to 1517, had the wooden ceilings of the ambulaaround the interior of the Dome of the Rock, the only tory and the central dome restored. The Ottoman sultan
contemporary source for explaining the building’s purpose, Suleyman (r. 1520–1566), whose name is the Turkish form of
mention neither of these subjects. Rather, they deal with the Solomon, ordered the building redecorated as part of his
nature of Islam and refute the tenets of Christianity. The program of embellishing the holy cities of Islam. It was
inscriptions suggest that the building was intended to adver- restored six more times in the twentieth century and has
tise the presence of Islam. Together with the traditional become a popular icon of Islam, decorating watches and tea
identification of the rock as the place of Adam’s burial and towels and replicated in miniature models made of mother-
Abraham’s intended sacrifice of his son and of the esplanade of-pearl and plastic. The first great monument of Islamic

184 Islam and the Muslim World
Du
a

architecture, it has taken on a new life as the symbol of the philosopher Ibn Sina (d. 1037). Prominent later dream
Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. manuals include works written by al-Salimi (d. 1397), Ibn
Shahin (d. 1468), and al-Nabulsi (d. 1730). Many Muslim
See also Architecture; Holy Cities. dream manuals made heavy use of the Greco-Roman tradition of dream interpretation, to which access was had through
BIBLIOGRAPHY the dream manual of Artemidorus, a Greek work composed
Creswell, K. A. C. A Short Account of Early Muslim Architec- in Asia Minor in the second century C.E. and translated into
ture. Beirut: Librarie du Liban, 1958. Arabic by the Christian physician Hunayn b. Ishaq (d. 877). It
Creswell, K. A. C. Early Muslim Architecture. 2d. ed. Oxford, would be hard to overemphasize the importance of dream
U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1969. interpretation to medieval Muslims. Hundreds of dream
Grabar, Oleg. The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem. manuals have been preserved, some in Arabic, others in
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996. Persian and Turkish.
Johns, Jeremy, ed. Bayt al-Maqdis. Part II: Jerusalem and Early
Islam. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2000. Modern Muslims have been, not surprisingly, divided in
their reception of dream interpretation. Some have cast it
Nuseibeh, Said, and Grabar, Oleg. The Dome of the Rock. New
York: Rizzoli, 1997. aside as superstitious nonsense, while others have sought to
appropriate it through reinterpretation, suggesting that it
Sheila S. Blair foreshadows the discoveries of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.
Jonathan M. Bloom Yet others, especially Sufis and traditionalists, have shown
little hesitation in proclaiming the continuing validity of this
ancient tradition.

DREAMS BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fahd, Toufic. La Divination arabe. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966.
Muslims throughout history have attached great importance
to dreams. Portions of the Quran were believed to have been Katz, Jonathan G. Dreams, Sufism and Sainthood. Leiden, E. J.
revealed to Muhammad in dreams. Muhammad was also Brill, 1996.
thought to have received numerous prophetic dreams. Moreo- Lamoreaux, John C. The Early Muslim Tradition of Dream
ver, dreams were considered the primary means by which Interpretation. Albany: State University of New York
God would communicate with Muslims following the death Press, 2002.
of Muhammad and the cessation of Quranic revelation. Schimmel, Annemarie. Die Träume des Kalifen. Munich: C. H.
Indeed, according to tradition, on the day before his death Beck, 1998.
Muhammad declared, “When I am gone, there shall remain
naught of the glad-tidings of prophecy, except for true John C. Lamoreaux
dreams.”

Medieval Muslims cultivated numerous forms of literature on dreams. Accounts of dreams were collected to estab- DU
A
lish the sanctity of those who saw the dreams, a practice
especially common among Sufis. Accounts of dreams were In contrast to the prescribed rituals of Islam, such as the daily
also collected to resolve points of controversy, to determine prayers, the du
a is generally a spontaneous, unstructured,
the proper reading and interpretation of the Quran, for conversation with God. There are, however, prescribed
instance, or to resolve legal or theological debates. Espe- supplications or du
a mathur that are considered particularly
cially important, in this regard, were dreams in which the propitious because of their scriptural origins.
prophet Muhammad appeared, because, according to tradition, Muhammad himself had declared, “Whoever sees me in Whereas form is essential for the performance of the
a dream has seen me in truth, for Satan cannot imitate me in a prescribed rituals, consciousness is central to du
a. And whereas
dream.” Also of great importance was the dream manual, a every du
a is a form of prayer, only a prayer performed
work that taught its readers how to interpret their dreams. conscientiously becomes a du
a. The du
a is the very essence
Many Muslim dream manuals were associated with Ibn Sirin of worship because it venerates God, celebrates His sublime
(d. 728), the eponymous founder of the genre. While there is attributes, and puts trust in Him. Specific requests, however,
little reason to think that Ibn Sirin was in fact the author of a are frowned upon: A du
a is considered most auspicious when
dream manual, it is certain that he was responsible for putting framed broadly to seek protection from evil, solicit the good
into oral circulation much dream lore. of this world, and salvation in the afterlife.

Famous early dream manuals were written by the litterateur For the believer, supplications are always answered, but
Ibn Qutaybah (d. 889), the historian al-Tabari (d. 923), and not in the form of a wish list. Human beings, it is said, lack the

Islam and the Muslim World 185
Du
a

capacity to distinguish good from evil, and often solicit, and BIBLIOGRAPHY
are denied, that which is essentially harmful to them. Ghazali, Muhammad al-. Remembrance and Prayer: The Way of
the Prophet Muhammad. Translated by Y. T. DeLorenzo.
Beltsville, Md.: Amana Publications, 1996.
A du
a also serves as an incantation to ward off evil, or
secure grace. A traveler, for instance, is encouraged to read: Nakamura, Kojiro. Invocations and Supplications: Book IX of the
Revival of the Religious Sciences. Cambridge, U.K.: Islamic
“In God’s name let its run be, and let its stopping be!”
Texts Society, 1990.

See also Devotional Life;
Ibadat. Muneer Goolam Fareed

186 Islam and the Muslim World
E
EAST ASIA, ISLAM IN to establish communities that have survived with many of
their cultural and religious traditions intact down to this day.
Islam has spread to all parts of East Asia, a region that features
During the early part of the Ming period (1368–1644), the
some of the world’s major centers of Islamic influence.
emperor Yongle ordered Zheng He, a Muslim eunuch from
China Yunnan in southwest China, to lead a series of massive naval
With a Muslim population conservatively estimated at twenty expeditions to explore the known world. In all, between 1405
million, China today has a larger Muslim population than and 1432, seven major expeditions were launched involving
most of the Arab countries of the Middle East, and yet few hundred of Chinese vessels and thousands of tons of goods
scholars have concentrated on this unique community lo- and valuables to be traded throughout the southeast Asian
cated at the far reaches of the Muslim world. Of China’s fifty- archipelago, the Indian Ocean, and as far as the east coast of
five officially recognized minority peoples (China’s majority Africa. The success of these trading expeditions was no doubt
ethnic group is known as Han Chinese), ten are primarily in part due to Zheng He’s religion and his ability to interact
Muslim: the Hui, Uighur, Kazak, Dongxiang, Kirghiz, Salar, with many of the Muslim rulers and merchants encountered
Tajik, Uzbek, Bonan, and Tatar. The largest group, the Hui, along the way. However, shortly after the death of the Yongle
are spread throughout the entire country, while the other emperor, China’s cosmopolitan and international initiatives
nine live primarily in the northwest. gave way to a period of conservatism and the redirection of
imperial resources toward domestic issues and projects. Dur-
As a result of the extensive sea trade networks between ing this period numerous laws were passed requiring “for-
China and Southwest Asia dating back to Roman times, there eigners” to dress like Chinese, adopt Chinese surnames,
have been Muslims in China since shortly after the advent of speak Chinese, and essentially in appearance become Chinese.
Islam. Small communities of Muslim traders and merchants
survived for centuries in cities along China’s southeast coast, Despite these restrictions and requirements, the Muslims
the most famous settlements being Canton and Quanzhou of China continued to actively practice their faith and pass it
(Zaitun in the Arabic sources). During the first several centu- on to their descendants. By the end of the Ming dynasty there
ries there was limited intermixing between the Muslim trad- were enough Chinese Muslim intellectuals thoroughly eduers and the local Chinese population. It was not until the cated in the classical Confucian tradition that several scholars
thirteenth century with the establishment of the Mongolian developed a new Islamic literary genre: religious works on
Yuan dynasty (1278–1368) that thousands of Muslims from Islam written in Chinese that incorporated the vocabulary of
Central and Western Asia were both forcibly moved to China Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist thought. These texts, known
by the Mongols as well as recruited by them to assist in their as the Han Kitab, were not apologist treatises written to
governance of their newly acquired territories. Although explain Islam to a non-Muslim Chinese audience, but were
some of the higher-ranking Muslim officials may have been rather a reflection of the degree to which the Muslims of
able to arrange marriages with women from their places of China had become completely conversant in intellectual
origin, it is generally assumed that most of the soldiers, traditions of the society in which they lived. Moreover, as
officials, craftsmen, and farmers who settled in China during more and more Chinese Muslims lost their fluency in Arabic
this early period married local women. Despite centuries of and Persian, it became clear that in order to insure that future
intermarriage, the Muslims who arrived at this time were able generations of Muslims were able to have a sophisticated

East Asia, Islam in

return they started a movement to revitalize Islamic studies
by translating the most important Islamic texts into Chinese
and thus making them more accessible.

Despite the opportunities for travel and study that arose
during this period, the Qing dynasty also represented a
period of unparalleled violence against the Muslims of China.
As reform movements led by Muslims who had studied
overseas spread, conflicts arose between different communities. In several instances the government intervened, supporting one group against another, leading to an exacerbation
of the conflict, outbreaks of mass violence and the eventual
slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Muslims, and several
rebellions.

In southwest China, it was the growing number of Han
Chinese migrants moving into areas where Muslims had lived
for centuries that led to violent conflicts. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, China experienced a massive
population explosion resulting in millions of Han Chinese
moving into the frontier regions. As more immigrants moved
into Yunnan province along the southwest frontier, there
were increasing clashes with the Hui who had settled there in
the thirteenth century and whose population is estimated to
have been one million. In a series of disputes between newly
arrived Han migrants and Hui who had lived there for
centuries, local Han Chinese officials (who themselves were
not local residents), repeatedly decided to support their
Small groups of merchant and artisan Muslims were present in fellow Han Chinese against the local residents. Fighting
China just after the rise of Islam. This mosque in Linxia, Gansu escalated and eventually a Chinese Muslim leader led a
Province, is topped with a pagoda-shaped minaret, an elegant
example of how Chinese Muslims have combined two cultures. ©
rebellion and in 1856 established an independent Islamic
BOHEMIAN NOMAD PICTUREMAKERS/CORBIS state centered in Dali, in northwest Yunnan. The state
survived for almost sixteen years, and the Muslims worked
closely together with other indigenous peoples. Eventually,
however, the Chinese emperor ordered his troops to concenunderstanding of their faith, religious texts had to be written
trate their efforts on destroying it. The massacres that ensued
in Chinese.
wiped out the majority of Muslims in Yunnan. Some fled to
The linguistic challenges of transliterating Arabic and nearby Thailand, and their descendants still live there, while
Persian religious terms and proper names into Chinese also others fled to Burma or neighboring provinces. Estimates of
facilitated the blending of Chinese and Islamic principles as those killed range from 60 to 85 percent, and more than a
century later, their population has still not recovered its
Chinese Muslim authors sought to create new Chinese terms
original number. Another consequence of the rebellion was a
to replace Arabic and Persian ones. Several of these terms are
series of government regulations severely restricting the lives
striking in their ability to use traditional Chinese characters
of Muslims.
to reflect fundamental Islamic concepts: God is translated as
zhen zhu, or “the true lord”; Islam is qingzhen jiao, or “the pure In the aftermath of the rebellions, the first priority of the
and true religion”; the five pillars of Islam become the five survivors was to pool their resources, rebuild their mosques,
constants, wu chang; and the prophet Muhammad is known as and open Islamic schools. Having lost most of their material
zhi sheng, or “utmost sage.” possessions, they were clearly determined not to lose their
religious legacy. This period saw renewed contact with other
In 1644, the Qing dynasty was established, marking the
centers of learning in the Muslim world and the establishbeginning of a period of unparalleled growth and expansion,
ment of schools that concentrated equally on secular and
both in terms of territory and population. Travel restrictions religious education.
were lifted, and the Muslims of China were once again
allowed to make the pilgrimage to Mecca and study in the The collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 was followed by
major centers of learning in the Islamic world. During this a period of unrest and warlordism. After the rise of the
period several Hui scholars studied abroad and upon their Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party, a civil war

188 Islam and the Muslim World
East Asia, Islam in

ensued, in which both parties sought the support of the China, which had much more extensive sea and land trading
nation’s largest minority groups with promises of religious routes with the rest of Asia.
freedom and limited self-government. Many of the Muslims
chose to support the Communists, and in the initial period of During the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1278–1368), Korea
the People’s Republic of China, the Muslim minority peoples also fell under the control of the Mongol empire. As they had
enjoyed a period of religious freedom. However, during a policy of recruiting tens of thousands of men from Central
subsequent political campaigns, culminating with the Cul- and Western Asia to help them in administering their newly
tural Revolution (1966–1976), the Muslims of China found acquired territory, it is probable that some of these Muslims
their religion outlawed; their religious leaders persecuted, ended up serving in Korea, and that many of them settled
imprisoned, and even killed; and their mosques defiled, if not there. However, it appears that over the centuries those who
settled completely assimilated to Korean society and culture.
destroyed. During this period all worship and religious edu-
It was not until the modern period that Muslims returned to
cation were forbidden, and even simple common utterances
Korea. Beginning in the 1920s, thousands of Muslims escapsuch as insha
allah (God willing), or al-hamdulillah (thanks be
ing the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia fled overland through
to God) could cause Muslims to be punished. Despite the
Korea, and many settled there before being forced to leave in
danger, Muslims in many parts of China continued their
the 1940s. The next group of Muslims who arrived were
religious studies in secret.
Turkish soldiers sent under United Nations auspices during
In the years immediately following the Cultural Revolu- the Korean War. Several soldiers settled in Korea, establishtion, the Muslims of China lost no time in rebuilding their ing the first mosques in Seoul, Pusan, and Taegu. Today the
devastated communities. Throughout China, Muslims began fledging community of Muslims living in Korea is made up of
slowly to restore their religious institutions and revive their some converts, but primarily recent Muslim immigrants from
religious activities. Their first priority was to rebuild their South Asia.
damaged mosques thereby allowing communities to create a
Japan
space in which they could once again pray together, but also
Although Muslim traders had sailed the seas off the coast of
so that the mosques could reassert their role as centers of
Japan for centuries, there is no known evidence of any
Islamic learning. Over the next two decades mosques through-
Muslim communities settling in Japan until the early part of
out most of the country organized classes for not only
the twentieth century, when of the thousands of Muslims who
children and young adults, but also for older people who had
fled Russia in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution,
not had the opportunity to study their religion. Beginning in
several hundred were granted asylum in Japan. Many were
the late 1980s and continuing to the 1990s Islamic colleges
settled in Kobe and Tokyo, which became the sites of Japan’s
have also been established throughout most of China.
first two mosques, built in 1935 and 1938. In the years leading
up to the Second World War, the Japanese military govern-
Within China, when asked how to explain the recent
ment became increasingly interested in encouraging scholarresurgence in Islamic education, community members cite
ship on Islam as part of its policy to portray itself as a
two main reasons: a desire to rebuild that which was taken
protector of Islam to the Muslim communities of China and
from them, and the hope that a strong religious faith would
southeast Asia. As Japan invaded neighboring countries unhelp protect Muslim communities from the myriad of social
der its “Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere” campaign, it
problems presently besetting China in this day and age of
justified its actions in part as a plan to safeguard all of Asia
rapid economic development. Chinese Muslims studying
from Western imperialism, but also to protect Islam.
overseas reiterate the need to equip themselves and their
communities for their future in a state that seems to be At present there are an estimated 100,000 Muslims living
ideologically adrift. in Japan, the overwhelming majority of which are immigrants from South Asia and Iran; only a few thousand are
Korea Japanese who have converted. Scholarly research on the
In some respects, the history of Islam in Korea mirrors that of Middle East and Islam has developed tremendously since the
China, but more as a faint reflection than as a comparable early 1980s, with several research centers at major universihistorical phenomenon. Little archaeological evidence has ties around the country.
survived but it is commonly believed that some of the Muslim
sea traders who regularly traveled to the southeast coast of See also East Asian Culture and Islam; South Asia,
China also made it as far as Korea. Arabic geographers note Islam in; Southeast Asia, Islam in.
the existence of al-Sila, a country beyond China, and it is
believed that this name is derived from the Korean dynasty BIBLIOGRAPHY
Silla (668–935). Although there is some archaeological evi- Armijo, Jaqueline. “Narratives Engendering Survival: How
dence of goods from Western and Central Asia being found the Muslims of Southwest China Remember the Massain ancient tombs in Korea, it is not known if they were cres of 1873.” Traces: An International Journal of Comparabrought there directly or acquired by Korean traders in tive Cultural Theory 1, no. 2 (2001): 293–329.

Islam and the Muslim World 189
East Asian Culture and Islam

During the Muslim holy month, Ramadan, a Chinese Muslim prays at Nijue Mosque in Beijing, which was built in 996. ANAT GIVON/AP/WIDE
WORLD PHOTOS

Fletcher, Joseph. Studies on Chinese and Islamic Inner Asia.
Aldershot, U.K.: Variorum, 1995. EAST ASIAN CULTURE AND ISLAM
Gladney, Dru. Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the
Within the field of Islam in East Asia, the major develop-
People’s Republic of China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1991. ments and most lasting influences between Islam and the
indigenous peoples have taken place in China, where Mus-
Jaschok, Maria, and Jingjun, Shui. A History of Women’s
lims traders first settled in the early decades of the hijra. This
Mosques in Chinese Islam: A Mosque of their Own. Richearly interest in China as a destiny for Muslim travelers is
mond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon Press, 2000.
reflected in the famous hadith, “seek knowledge, even unto
Leslie, Donald Daniel. Islam in Traditional China: A Short
China.” Despite centuries of relative isolation from the rest of
History to 1800. Canberra, Australia: Canberra College of
the Islamic world, the Muslims in most regions of China have
Advanced Education, 1986.
managed to sustain a continuous knowledge of the Islamic
Lipman, Jonathan. Familiar Strangers: A History of the Mus- sciences, Arabic, and Persian. Given extended periods of
lims in Northwest China. Seattle: University of Washington
persecution combined with periods of intense government
Press, 1997.
efforts to legislate adoption of Chinese cultural practices and
Miyazi Kazuo. “Middle East Studies in Japan.” Middle East norms, that Islam should have survived, let alone flourished,
Studies Association Bulletin 34, no. 1 (summer 2000): 23–37.
is an extraordinary historical phenomenon. Although some
Murata, Sachiko. Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light: Wang Tai-yü’s scholars have attributed the survival of Muslim communities
Great Learning of the Pure and Real and Liu Chih’s Display- in China to their ability to adopt Chinese cultural traditions,
ing the Concealment of the Real Realm. Albany: State Univer- when asked themselves, Chinese Muslims usually attribute
sity of New York Press, 2000.
their survival to their strong faith and God’s protection.
Wang, Jianping. Concord and Conflict: The Hui Communities of
Yunnan Society. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell Interna- In the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976),
tional, 1996. a period of extreme political violence and chaos when Muslims together with other minority groups were persecuted,
Jacqueline M. Armijo Muslim communities throughout China actively sought to

190 Islam and the Muslim World
East Asian Culture and Islam

reclaim their religious identity and revive Islamic education. others in China, Arabic calligraphy is interspersed with carv-
In addition to repairing and rebuilding mosques returned to ings and paintings of traditional Chinese images of flowers,
them after the revolution, Muslim communities have also fruit, mythical animals, and Chinese calligraphy. The roofpooled their resources to build new mosques and Islamic tops are protected by small animal figures along the ridges of
schools. These schools are filled with students of all ages, roof tiles, and the minarets take the form of pagodas. In
including the elderly, who after decades of government con- addition, the Arabic calligraphy is a highly stylized form that
trol are anxious to study Islam and Arabic. More recently a differs from region to region and reflects local calligraphic
growing number of Chinese Muslims are pursing advanced traditions that have evolved in relative isolation over centuries.
Islamic studies at international Islamic centers of learning.
However, in recent years, in part as a result from pressure
Although there are now Muslims present in virtually every from outside funding sources and the growing number of
region of China, there have undoubtedly been many commu- Chinese Muslims going overseas for the hajj and to study,
nities that were either completely destroyed during govern- many communities have torn down these traditional mosques
ment military campaigns, or that simply assimilated to the and replaced them with ones believed to be more “authentic.”
point of dissolution. One interesting example of a community Over the past twenty years untold numbers of mosques dating
that came to the brink of complete assimilation, only to be back centuries have been destroyed. Nevertheless, in some
revived for political reasons, was documented by an anthro- parts of China in recent years, there has been a growing
pologist in the early 1980s. In Quanzhou (known as Zaytun in movement among Chinese Muslims to protect their unique
the Arabic sources), a city located along China’s southeast architectural traditions.
coast, a large clan existed whose members had so assimilated
to local customs as to be completely indistinguishable from Local Celebrations
the local Han Chinese. They took part in the full range of As there are Muslims communities in every part of China
traditional religious practices, many of which had to do with with their own histories and local traditions it would be
honoring one’s ancestors. They knew nothing of Islam, ate difficult to generalize about the ways in which Islamic pracpork, and drank alcohol. There was one slight difference tices have been influenced by other local Chinese traditions.
though: During the annual sacrifices made to one’s ancestors, However, by looking at local celebrations of Id al-Fitr and
when preparing food to offer ceremoniously to their ances- the Maulid (birthday of the prophet Muhammad) one can
tors, they would not include pork or alcohol. This tenuous gain some sense of the variety of ways in which these interacconnection to their ancestors (Muslim traders and officials tions have developed. For example, in Yunnan province in
who had first settled in this region in the early years of the southwest China, Muslim communities spread throughout
hijra) was called upon in 1981 when this extended family the region. Many are direct descendants of Sayyid
Ajall
sought government recognition as one of the officially recog-
Shams al-Din, a Muslim from Bukhara, who served as an
nized minority groups. As they had the genealogical records
official under the Mongol Yuan dynasty and settled in Yunnan
to prove their descent from Muslims, they were able to
at the end of the thirteenth century. Seven centuries later,
change their status from Han Chinese to Hui (Chinese
during the annual celebrations of
Id al-Fitr, after communal
Muslim).
prayers at the mosque, Muslims from different areas travel to
Mosques and Calligraphy the site of Sayyid
Ajall’s grave where special prayers are held.
Mosques and the calligraphy within them have also served as First there are readings from the Quran, then the tomb is
an interesting barometer of the waxing and waning of tradi- swept and cleaned (reminiscent of the traditional Chinese
tional Chinese influences on the development of indigenous Qingming festival held once a year when Chinese go to the
Chinese Islamic traditions. graves of their ancestors, sweep and clean the area and then
make food offerings), and then the accomplishments of Sayyid
Although no mosques dating back to the pre-Mongol
Ajall are retold. In conclusion, a special service is held to
period have survived, it is assumed that mosques during this honor the hundreds of thousands of Muslims killed during
period reflected the architecture of the immigrant Muslims the Qing dynasty, and the hundreds killed more recently in
who built them, as they were required to live in special this area during the Cultural Revolution.
districts separate from the general population. By the Ming
period in the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, how- In another region of Yunnan, a group of Muslim villages
ever, there was significant pressure for Muslims to outwardly spread out over a vast plain have developed there a way of
conform to Chinese traditions. The Huajue mosque in Xian, celebrating the birthday of the Prophet, which allows them to
which dates back to the Ming period and has survived down reassert their ties to one another. Every year the Mawlid is
to the present, is an exquisite example of how Chinese celebrated in the fall over a period of two months beginning
Muslims were able to incorporate traditional Chinese motifs, with the end of the major harvests. Each village is assigned a
decorative arts, and temple architectural styles into the struc- weekend when it will host all the other villages in a Mawlid
ture and decoration of mosques. In this mosque, as in most celebration. Although the dates clearly are not connected

Islam and the Muslim World 191
East Asian Culture and Islam

In southwest China, Muslim women generally take part in communal prayer in mosques. The women’s section is to one side, and demarcated
by a half-length curtain. In central China there is a centuries-old tradition of women having their own separate mosques; while in northwest
China, women do not usually take part in communal prayers in the mosques. JACQUELINE M. ARMIJO

with the Islamic calendar, their tradition allows them to share pray in the mosques with the men. According to Muslims in
their bounty with their neighboring Muslim communities other parts of China, these attitudes in the northwest toward
and strengthen their networks. women are the result of the Muslims adopting local Chinese
views, which are considered quite chauvinistic. In southwest
Meanwhile, in northwest China, the decision of when to China, however, women play an active role within Muslim
celebrate the Prophet’s birthday is influenced not by seasonal communities and are also widely credited with insuring the
harvests, but rather by the desire to offer younger Muslims an survival of the Muslim population in the aftermath of a brutal
alternative activity during the widely and elaborately cele- massacre that took place in the 1870s. In most mosques men
brated Chinese New Year. In recent years local Muslim and women pray side by side with a half curtain dividing the
religious leaders in Xian have considered scheduling celebra- prayer hall. Although over the centuries many Chinese Mustions of the Prophet’s birthday to coincide with the festivities lim women adopted the custom of footbinding, historically
surrounding the Chinese New Year. and down to the present, the Muslim community has not
adopted the widespread practice of female infanticide.
The Role of Women
Another example of how local histories and traditions within In conclusion, although maintaining their religious beliefs
the diverse communities of Muslims in China have evolved and practices over the centuries has been a continual chalover the centuries can be seen in the roles of women in lenge, Muslims in China have always been confident of their
different communities. In central China there is a long identities as both Muslims and Chinese. Although some
tradition of active involvement by women in both Islamic Western scholars have presumed that these identities were
education and religious leadership. Not only is there a long somehow inherently antagonistic if not mutually exclusive,
history of women imams in this region, there is also a the survival of Islam in China belies these assumptions.
tradition of separate women’s mosques. In northwest China, Islamic and Chinese values have both proven to be suffi-
however, women have tended not to play an active leadership ciently complementary and dynamic to allow for the flourishrole within Muslim communities, and usually they do not ing of Islam in China.

192 Islam and the Muslim World
Economy and Economic Institutions

In southwest China the tradition of education for Muslim girls dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. These girls are taking part in after
school Arabic and Islamic studies classes in a village in central Yannan province. JACQUELINE M. ARMIJO

See also East Asia, Islam in. Murata, Sachiko. Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light: Wang Tai-yü’s
Great Learning of the Pure and Real and Liu Chih’s Displaying the Concealment of the Real Realm. Albany: State Univer-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
sity of New York Press, 2000.

Armijo, Jacqueline. “Narratives Engendering Survival: How Jacqueline M. Armijo
the Muslims of Southwest China Remember the Massacres of 1873.” Traces: An International Journal of Comparative Cultural Theory 1, no. 2 (2001): 293–329.
Fletcher, Joseph. Studies on Chinese and Islamic Inner Asia. ECONOMY AND
Aldershot, U.K.: Variorum, 1995. ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS
Gladney, Dru. Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the
People’s Republic of China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard The Islamic world and its development have often been
University Press, 1991. examined through its economic development and its relation-
Jaschok, Maria, and Jingjun, Shui. A History of Women’s ship with Christian Europe. This has been particularly true of
Mosques in Chinese Islam: A Mosque of their Own. Rich- analyses that dealt with the earlier period of Islamic history.
mond, U.K.: Curzon Press, 2000. The Belgian medievalist, Henri Pirenne, proffered a pro-
Leslie, Donald Daniel. Islam in Traditional China: A Short vocative theory about the end of the Rome Empire in the
History to 1800. Belconnen, Australia: Canberra College of West and the beginning of the Middle Ages. He asserted that
Advanced Education, 1986. the Middle Ages did not begin in 325, as his contemporaries

Islam and the Muslim World 193
Economy and Economic Institutions

would have it, but rather that they began after the Arab
conquest broke through the perimeter of the Mediterranean,
in the seventh and eighth centuries. The Arab incursion
destroyed the unity of the Roman Empire, fracturing its
political, economic, and cultural cohesiveness. Pirenne hypothesized that this situation, along with the isolationism of
much of Europe, eventually led to feudalism in Europe and
the rise of Islamic civilization.

Agriculture in the Early Islamic World
Whether or not one agrees with Pirenne’s views of the effect
of Arab conquest on European society, it is undisputed that
the expansion of the Islamic world had a profound impact on
Muslim society. Most notable is its effect on agriculture,
where new crops and techniques to enhance production were
rapidly introduced from places as far east as Southeast Asia
and Malaysia. Some of the new crops introduced during the
early Islamic period included rice, sorghum, hard wheat,
sugar cane, cotton, watermelons, eggplants, spinach, artichokes, sour oranges, lemons, limes, bananas, plantains, mangoes, and coconut palms. These crops, as well as changes in
agricultural techniques, were not only significant in their
impact on food production, but also in the role they played in
fostering the development of industry, cities, and monetary This etching depicts medieval European merchants doing busiauthorities within the Muslim world. ness with Arabs. © BETTMAN/CORBIS

It is believed that after the rise and spread of Islam, many
of the new crops were obtained from the fallen Sassanian known as qanat were used. These canals connected catchments
Empire and the Indian subcontinent, where the new province of ground water to surface canals, but they were inadequate to
of the Sind, conquered in 711, gave early Muslims a foothold meet the needs of the new crops. A new and more sophistiin a part of India. The crops from India first came to Iraq and cated system of irrigation was introduced during the early
Persia, then diffused into the westerly parts of the Islamic Islamic period that relied on ground water from wells, aquiworld. By the tenth and eleventh century, the western part of fers, and springs, augmenting older irrigation systems. Dams
the Islamic world had taken on major crop changes that had and cisterns were also used to store water for later use. Taken
been introduced from territories to the east. together, these systems allowed for the irrigation of land that
had never before been used agriculturally, or extended the
In time, the new crops were also introduced into Europe time that other lands could be kept under cultivation each year.
by way of Spain, Sicily, and Cyprus. Unlike the Islamic world,
where these new crops were quickly adapted to local culture These changes in agriculture gave rise to other changes in
and tastes, they were not rapidly developed in Europe. In a the Islamic world. The increase in food production led to
1981 article on the “Medieval Green Revolution,” Andrew increases in population growth, fostering urbanization and
M. Watson cites spinach as an example of this differential industrialization. These developments fed on each other, for
development. He states that spinach was one of the earliest as the population grew new importance was put on agriculcrops to be received into Europe, but although it was quickly tural improvements in productivity. As towns increased in
adopted throughout the Islamic world, it spread much more size there was continued pressure to expand the cultivation of
slowly in Europe, along with sorghum, sour oranges, and new lands. As villages grew, they often gave rise to new cities.
lemons. One reason given for this slowness to adopt new
crops was the European peasantry’s lack of skill and technical Industrialization, Trade, and Coinage
knowledge about agriculture. Industrialization, too, was an outgrowth of agricultural surplus in many parts of the Islamic world. The cities became the
In contrast, the Islamic world saw extensive changes in place where much of the processing of the new crops ocagricultural techniques. One area of great importance was curred. This refining of agricultural goods involved drying,
irrigation. Since many of the new crops came from regions of cooking, pickling, and milling of many crops. Watson states
heavy rainfall, it is significant that they could be grown that this refining often led to further processing, as in the case
successfully in the much drier environment of the Middle of sugar, which gave rise to the confectionery industry, and
East. In Persia and the Nile Valley, long underground canals cotton, from which the textiles industry evolved. The cities

194 Islam and the Muslim World
Economy and Economic Institutions

also became the marketplace, where people from the rural Even the marketplace was organized along ethnic and religareas would come to trade crops for processed goods. It has ious lines, as various kinds of goods and services were associthus even been argued that agricultural change was at the ated with particular groups and were made available in
heart of local and, eventually, long distance trade. As the separate parts of the bazaar.
Islamic world spread, the demand for its raw materials as well
In addition, most residents of cities were organized into
as finished goods increased. Consequently, trade between the
corporations, termed asnaf, naqabat, or tawa
if in Arabic.
Islamic world and many parts of Europe grew. As ports and
These corporations were mainly professional guilds, but
waterways became more important for transporting goods,
while their social functions were on the whole broader than
the cities that lay along waterways grew. There was also the
those of the European guilds, their economic power and their
birth of a new class of urban intermediaries—merchants,
control over their professions were less absolute than in their
transporters, financiers, and warehouse owners.
Western counterparts, nor did the Muslim guilds encompass
all urban craftsmen or merchants. The case of the Damascus
This expansion in trade and commerce also led to a more
guilds offers insights into how these institutions worked. The
sophisticated monetary system. At the onset of the rise of
Damascus guilds were rigidly organized and exclusive. They
Islam, the use of various coins in different parts of the Islamic
had a hierarchy of officers, the head of which was the shaykh,
world was not uncommon. In fact, the Muslims inherited the
who either inherited his position or was elected. In other
circulation of metallic money from the Byzantines and
Middle Eastern countries, however, the autonomy of the
Sassanids who preceded them. The Byzantine state had used
shaykh was not the case. For example, in Egypt guilds were an
gold coinage, which constituted an imperial monopoly, whereas
important mechanism for the government to collect taxes,
the Sassanid empire used silver coinage. As the Islamic world
and the shaykhs became accountable to the government for
continued to expand, the need to secure an adequate supply of
the actions of guild members as well as for their members’
coinage grew more pressing. Initially, the Byzantine and payment of taxes. In Turkey, guilds were very restrictive and
Sassanid coins were used, but eventually a new, Islamic, mandated that the number of people participating in a given
coinage was introduced. There were two new coins: silver trade be kept at a certain number.
(dirham) and gold (dinar). The introduction of these coins is
referred to as the monetary reform of
Abd al-Malik. There has been much debate by scholars as to the signifi-
cance of guilds as well as their links to Islamic syndicates and
Professor of Islamic history Andrew S. Ehrenkreutz has trade unions; however, there is little evidence that the craftsstated that the monetary reforms of the early Muslim world men’s guilds had any influence on these later organizations.
go beyond these new coins. The caliphate assumed responsi- Furthermore, there has been much speculation as to why the
bility for the supply of currency, taking upon itself the guilds dissolved. Some writers assert that the decline of the
problems of finding precious metals for minting and the guilds had to do with the rigid structure of the organizations.
distribution of coinage. Muslim coins have been found as far However, evidence seems to indicate that the dissolution of
away as Scandinavia and Russia, suggesting that at least some the guilds is more likely tied to the introduction of European
parts of the West had a favorable balance of trade with the finished goods into the Muslim markets, which disrupted the
Muslims. A number of scholars believe that the Varangians local handicrafts industry as a whole.
(Vikings) were the middlemen, moving goods from the Mus-
Agriculture and Trade in the Modern Era
lim world to Scandinavia and Russia. This theory is supported
Like the earlier period of Islamic history, the modern ecoby evidence that, beginning sometime between the late sevnomic history of the Middle East has been shaped by its
enth or early eighth century C.E., the Varangians migrated
relationship and interaction with Europe and Western civilifrom Scandinavia south to the Black Sea, establishing many
zation. Most economic historians of the region trace the
trading towns and stations along the way.
origin of this new relationship to the early 1800s and the
expansion by many European countries into other regions of
Growth of Cities and Guilds
the world in search of natural resources and markets for their
As this system of commerce expanded, the Islamic city grew
finished goods. In spite of its earlier economic advances, the
in importance as well. These cities were multiethnic, and
Middle East eventually lagged behind Western society in
their citizens practiced a variety of religions. Different ethnic
terms of modernization.
or religious groups resided in separate, usually exclusive,
quarters of the cities, and these residential divisions were As the Europeans expanded their control into other parts
associated with occupational specialization as well. Z.Y. of the world, the Middle East itself was galvanized into the
Hershlag points out that ethnic Turks were officials and formation of a broad network of international trade and
soldiers, the Greeks as well as the Jews were engaged in trade finance. The region had witnessed much social upheaval
and finance, and the Armenians were artisans. There were throughout the Middle Ages, much of it attributable to an
certain cities where the main activities of the town were unstable food supply that had been devastated by famine,
associated with their dominant ethnic or religious groups. plagues, and wars. To safeguard their local populations from

Islam and the Muslim World 195
Economy and Economic Institutions

disruptions in the food supply, governments of the region, in Land Ownership and Reform
particular the Ottoman Empire, turned to the importation of In addition to the problems of attempting to cultivate mar-
European consumer goods. This approach to trade fit well ginal land for agricultural use, many scholars have cited land
with the mercantilist mentality of the Europeans, who were tenure as a major deterrent to productive agricultural devellooking for export markets but did not care to reciprocate the opment in the Middle East. Land is normally classified into
trade with equal imports. In fact, this lack of trade reciprocity three types in the Middle East: raqaba, which means ownergave rise to the belief, in many parts of the Middle East and ship by the state or ruler; milk, which refers to private
North Africa, that exports impoverished a country and that ownership; or waqf, which is land whose revenues are insales to foreigners should be discouraged. Nonetheless, the tended for religious or charitable purposes. Of course, there
Middle East became one of the lowest-duty (import tariff) was a complex system of land-holding arrangements in the
areas in the world, ultimately providing a large market for region, but in general, during the period prior to the nine-
European goods. It should be mentioned, however, that teenth century, much of the land was held by the state. The
during both the First and Second World Wars, the Middle land was often worked by peasants who were heavily taxed.
East became a net exporter to Europe, as supply chains were Later, as agricultural production became more profitable,
disrupted and Europe needed to provision its troops in much of the land was transferred to private ownership, held in
the region. large estates and, again, worked by peasant farmers.

The exception to this trade arrangement was found in It wasn’t until after the Second World War that major
Egypt. Under Muhammad
Ali (r. 1805–1849), Egypt used land reforms took place that favored small farmers. The
foreign trade to raise revenue, while taking steps to allocate Egyptian Land Reform Law of 1952 served as a model for the
local resources and protect its domestic industries. In fact, region. The act redistributed land held by absentee landlords,
Egypt in the early 1800s was careful not only to minimize transferring ownership to those who actually worked it. The
imports but also to maximize exports, thus protecting domes- large estates were broken up into small plots and parceled out
tic industries from being supplanted by foreign-made prod- to farmers who belonged to cooperatives. Although in most
ucts. Muhammad
Ali’s most successful venture was the cases land reform was hailed as a needed change, it has proven
development of the cotton trade. Egypt was able to produce a over time to have been less than successful, for it established a
much higher quality cotton crop than Europeans. Conse- system of small and inefficient farms that has hampered
quently, beginning in 1821, Egyptian cotton exports rose productivity and hindered the use of mechanization in the
from 100,000 to 50 million pounds by 1850. Cotton exports modern period.
continued to surge into the 1860s, as the American Civil War
significantly halted production in the United States. Industrialization
Industrialization also experienced a number of ups and downs
The focus on cotton in Egypt should not be surprising, as in the region. Before the late nineteenth century, the Middle
agricultural production has played an important role through- East boasted of a thriving handicraft industry. However, the
out the Middle East. Yet, most of the land in the region is less production of local handicrafts declined with the introducthan well suited to agricultural development. There is a lack tion of European and Indian goods on the Middle Eastern
of rain throughout the region and the few existing waterways market. There was also a perception, particularly among the
are heavily drawn upon, a scarcity that continues to be a middle and upper classes, that local goods were inferior to
source of great tension throughout the area. Consequently, European goods, and this attitude helped seal the fate of
the crops that have dominated agricultural production have handicrafts in the region. Meanwhile, the development of
been those that are less irrigation intensive, such as cereals, industrialization in the region was slowed by unfavorable
with the limited introduction of silk production in the late commercial treaties, which did not support export markets.
nineteenth century in Lebanon, coffee production in Yemen, There was also a lack of capital for industrial development, as
and cash crops such as dates, nuts, and fruits in the better- well as governments that lacked the foresight to foster local
watered parts of Arabia and North Africa. entrepreneurs.

Turkey under the Ottoman Empire began producing Yet, again, the First World War was important for setting
tobacco in the seventeenth century. As with cotton, the the stage for industrialization. The rise of nationalism, cou-
American Civil War was a factor in the growth of the Turkish pled with the realization that European instability could
tobacco industry, as the plantations of the American South interfere with its ability to provide necessary imports for
ceased production and demand for the commodity from export to the Middle East, led to widespread industrialization
other sources increased significantly. Turkey’s tobacco pro- projects. With the abolition of trade agreements that favored
duction rose from an estimated 10,000–13,000 tons in the Europe, a further incentive for industrialization was created.
1870s to 31,000 tons in 1900, and 64,000 tons in 1911. Industrialization continued to be important through the
Tobacco remains an important export for Turkey today. Second World War, for now the countries of the Middle East

196 Islam and the Muslim World
Economy and Economic Institutions

not only had to provide for themselves, but some of them also loans, governments within the region began experimenting
had taken on commitments to supply the Allies. with many alternative economic paradigms.

Because of Egypt’s ambitious development initiatives in The cold war policies of the West concentrated on modthe 1800s, foreign investment came to play a significant role. ernizing the Third World through economic development.
The first half of the nineteenth century saw the dissolution of In Europe, the Marshall Plan provided the capital it needed to
the old trading companies and the emergence of private rapidly rebuild and develop; consequently, it was believed
traders, and the second half saw the emergence of private and that an equally big push, in the form of capital infusion, would
incorporated banks. Along with these banks came large accu- be similarly effective if applied to the Third World. Foreign
mulation of debt by many governments in the region. More- aid with an emphasis on industrialization began to pour into
over, much of the money that was borrowed was poorly the region. Egypt under Jamal
Abd al-Nasser (1918–1970,
invested, and thus did not create much economic growth. In president from 1954 to 1970) was very successful at playing
the cases of Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey, this debt the United States and its allies off against the Soviet Union,
eventually led to foreign occupation. By 1914, the countries winning capital and investment from both sources.
of the Middle East had a total debt of about $2 billion, or
nearly one-twentieth of the total world debt, of which a little In 1952, Jamal
Abd al-Nasser had led a military coup,
over half was public and the rest private. North Africa had a seizing power of Egypt. Under his leadership, monopolistic
public debt of about $250 million and a much larger amount capitalism came to the forefront as the institutional structure
of foreign investment in the private sector. Although foreign of the economy. He nationalized a number of industries,
occupation ultimately led to much political turmoil in the including the Suez Canal Company, and carried out radical
region, it has been attributed initially to better debt manage- land reforms. Much of the logic for restructuring the econment and investment strategies. omy was not only to create an equitable distribution of
resources within Egypt, but also to offset the damage done by
The First World War through the Cold War decades of colonial policies, which left Egypt with little to no
The two world wars were important events in terms of their indigenous business community. Moreover, Nasser saw the
impact on the Middle East. The First World War destroyed need to generate resources to fuel his hopes of economic
the old colonial trading system and allowed the region to expansion. Such resources were unavailable in the private
regain both political and economic independence. This took sector, but the government was receiving much foreign aid
the form of new trade treaties that were aimed at creating during the 1950s and 1960s. Nasser adopted a foreign policy
fairer and more appropriate commercial arrangements. The of nonalignment, courting both the United States and Soviet
special agreements that had given foreigners extraterritorial Union without offering full allegiance to either.
rights and sheltered them from local laws and taxation were
abolished. Subsequently, the period between the two world The dilemma for many of the countries in the Middle
wars found the Europeans preoccupied with domestic prob- East, however, was that they were essentially rural, agrarian
lems and postwar reconstruction, minimizing their influence societies, ill equipped in terms of human capital to absorb the
and interference in the region. The Second World War was foreign aid that was being given to them. This situation led to
even more significant, for it enabled the creation of a new economic policies that favored the development of urban
agenda for the Middle East as political and economic power centers at the expense of the countryside. This phenomenon,
continued to move from the hands of foreigners to the hands known in development literature as “urban bias,” led to much
of the endogenous class. migration of laborers from rural areas to the urban centers,
and this influx of prospective workers often outpaced indus-
As foreign nationals lost economic and political control in trialization. Consequently, many countries in the region saw
many of the countries of the Middle East, a massive exodus of the rapid growth of urban poverty, as the cities attracted vast
Europeans took place. This exodus created a vacuum in the numbers of underemployed or unemployed citizens for whom
upper tiers of the labor market as many of the foreigners had no jobs could be found.
positioned themselves not only in roles as traders and financiers, but as entrepreneurs and managers as well. This vac- Oil and Labor
uum caused the endogenous governments of these states to Although the region boasted some of the world’s largest
take on increasingly active roles within their own economies. known oil reserves even during the middle of the twentieth
In spite of the fact that many of these states began espousing century, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the governments of the
socialism, the period of the 1950s was really marked as the Middle Eastern states came to appreciate the power of this
period of state capitalism, in which the various governments resource. In fact, oil was relatively insignificant to the foreign
began to take on the economic roles that are normally aid and development policies of the region throughout the
associated with the private sector. While the Soviet Union 1950s and 1960s. When the 1973 Arab-Israeli War broke out,
and the West, led by the United States, attempted to win however, Arab petroleum-producing countries took measallies in the region through the distribution of foreign aid and ures to pressure Western powers in favor of the Arab cause.

Islam and the Muslim World 197
Economy and Economic Institutions

First they introduced restrictions on the sale of oil to certain the peak year of 1993, only 0.3 percent trickled to Arab
states that supported Israel. Second, they cut back on oil markets. Yet, this region continues to be rich in both human
production. By the end of December 1973, they had reduced and natural resources. It is the home of 6 percent of the
the production of oil by 25 percent of its earlier levels. The world’s population, with a wealth of highly-skilled workers
price of oil increased as a result. On 16 October 1973, the and a GDP of over $600 billion.
ministerial committee representing the six Gulf countries,
which are members of the Organization of Petroleum Ex- The late 1980s, however, was a sobering period for the
porting Countries (OPEC), decided to further increase the Middle East. An increase in the world supply of oil caused
price of oil by 70 percent. Coupled with the oil embargo, the prices to plummet at the same time as financial aid from the
price was later pushed up to $11.56 per barrel. These events, Gulf and abroad came to a halt. Since 1986, real per-capita
although politically motivated, substantially fueled the econo- incomes have fallen by 2 percent per year. The oil producers
mies of the states in the Gulf region. were hit even harder with the per-capita fall in oil output of 4
percent per year between 1980 and 1991. These events
The initiation and implementation of development plans caused the Arab world to rethink its stance on two major
in the Gulf States required large numbers of migrant workers fronts: the structure of their economies and the state of war
of many nationalities. Much of Saudi Arabia’s initial needs with Israel. These have not been mutually exclusive acts. It
were in construction, where high levels of unskilled and can be argued that much of the government control and lack
semiskilled workers were needed. Many of its neighbor states of liberalization in the region was in response to the continuhad large numbers of unskilled or semiskilled workers in need ous uncertainty caused by the state of war.
of jobs. They constituted a large available labor force with
easy access to the Saudi Arabian labor markets, and they Arab–Israel Conflict
flooded into the country. The end of violence between Arabs and Israelis has been seen
as paramount to the economic stability and liberalization of
This situation, coupled with higher wage rates in Saudi the region, beginning in the 1990s. This confrontation had
Arabia relative to labor–rich states, led to a massive labor first erupted with the proclamation of the State of Israel on 14
migration from Egypt, Yemen, and Jordan (mainly Palestini- May 1948 on land that had hitherto been occupied by
ans) to Saudi Arabia and other, similarly well-off Gulf States. Palestinians. The ensuing hostilities between Arab states and
This migration would climax and then halt abruptly with the Israel have cost the region much in terms of human and
Gulf War of 1990. It has been estimated that, in 1975, the capital resources. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, however,
Gulf region had a labor requirement of 9,728,000. Saudi there appeared to be a consensus in the Arab world that Israel
Arabia alone had a labor requirement of 1,968,000 in 1975, was there to stay and that stagnating economies and poverty
but its national work force numbered only 1,300,000. Although in the region were more pressing concerns. For the Israelis,
it is difficult to know how reliable these figures are, they do the need for security was tempered with the realization that
illustrate the great need for laborers in the Gulf region. the threat of hostilities could only be diminished by compromising with its neighbors. The Arabs, on the other hand,
Middle Eastern oil reserves and the revenues they gener- sought justice from an unjust colonial legacy, which is how
ate have divided the region into two groups of countries: oil they perceived the creation of a state for the Jews on land
rich/labor scarce and oil poor/labor abundant. Although already occupied by Palestinians. What these aspirations
these countries have not integrated into one system, they initially translated into was a land-for-peace settlement.
have benefited greatly from their proximity to each other.
The oil-rich countries have relied heavily since the early In March of 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a peace agree-
1970s on the labor from the labor abundant states. The labor- ment that included the return of the Sinai to Egypt. On 13
abundant states have used capital inflows from migrant September 1993, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organiremittances, along with financial aid from the Gulf and the zation signed a Declaration of Principles. It set the ground
world’s superpowers, to build growth economies through rules for the transfer of authority of the Gaza Strip and West
state-owned enterprises. From 1960 to 1985, the Middle East Bank Palestinian areas to a Palestinian authority. On 26
outperformed all other regions of the world except East Asia October 1994, Jordan and Israel also signed a peace accord.
in income growth.
During the mid 1990s there was much discussion of what
The Middle East witnessed much change in the 1980s and was to be the peace dividend: the reallocation of resources
1990s. Political instability, coupled with too much govern- away from military expenditures and toward other sectors of
ment control and regulation, caused much of the interna- the region’s economies. Peace was also associated with an
tional financial and business community to shun this region opening of political and economic systems that had been
and to invest their capital in the emerging superstars of overcontrolled by governments, a situation that initially had
Southeast Asia. Fund managers estimated that out of a total of been due to the lack of an endogenous entrepreneurial class
$65 billion of capital that floated into emerging markets in and then later continued in response to the region’s chronic

198 Islam and the Muslim World
Economy and Economic Institutions

Oil reserves and production in the Muslim World, early 1990s

The percentage of world oil reserves Oil production in 1,000's of barrels per day in 1993

Algeria 0.92% Algeria 750
Azerbaijan 0.13% Azerbaijan 240
Brunei 0.14% Brunei 165
Egypt 0.62% Egypt 880
Indonesia 0.58% Indonesia 1,323
Iran 9.30% Iran 3,540
Iraq 10.01% Iraq 436
Kazakhstan 8.56% Kazakhstan 540
Kuwait 9.66% Kuwait 1,873
Libya 2.28% Libya 1,367
Malaysia 0.37% Malaysia 649
Nigeria 1.79% Nigeria 1,896
Oman 0.45% Oman 775
Qatar 0.37% Qatar 428
Saudi Arabia 26.06% Saudi Arabia 8,161
Syria 0.17% Syria 531
UAE 9.82% UAE 2,189
Yemen 0.40% Yemen 450

82%

Small oil producers Members of OPEC

Albania Tajikistan Algeria Libya
Bahrain Tunisia Indonesia Nigeria
Kyrghyzstan Turkey Iran Qatar
18% Pakistan Turkmenistan Iraq Saudi Arabia
Sudan Uzbekistan Kuwait

Percentage of world The rest of the world
crude oil reserves
under Muslim states

SOURCE: Robinson, Francis, ed. The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Oil reserves and production in the early 1990s.

state of war. There was also a realization that small states such financial and economic policies to suit the needs of the
as Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and the Palestinian territories had international market. The opening of stock exchanges in the
much to gain from regional coordination. region, coupled with the rapid pace in which legislation for
privatization and liberalization were being passed in the
Emerging Markets Middle East, augured well for this first factor of emergence.
As the mid-1990s ushered in an era of tremendous economic
growth in the West, many investors were looking to the Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Bahrain, and Jordan
Middle East as an emerging financial market for investments. were developing active stock exchanges. Lebanon’s stock
The first important variable for identifying an emerging exchange reopened in September 1995 after having been
high-growth market is a government that is willing to change closed during its civil war. However, even during the war

Islam and the Muslim World 199
Economy and Economic Institutions

years, the lack of a stock exchange had not kept Lebanon from government of Egypt. The IMF provided $342 million.
issuing foreign currency debt as a means of tapping interna- Egypt was then able to reschedule its debt payments with the
tional markets. Moreover, the drive to encourage foreign Paris Club (a group of creditor countries that treat in a
investment had led many Middle East nations to seek inde- coordinated way the debt due to them by developing counpendent credit ratings by recognized agencies. Moody’s Invest- tries). This IMF agreement, however, was never fully impleors Service set up an office in Cyprus in March of 1995 to mented, due to concerns about the slow pace with which the
keep an eye on this region, and the European rating agency Egyptians were conducting reforms.
IBCA was involved in a joint venture to set up a rating agency
in the Arab world. Reducing deficits. Many of these countries were also taking
steps to reduce their budget deficits. Egypt, Jordan, Morocco,
Privatization in the form of government assets being sold and Tunisia were all seen as initial success stories in reducing
to other actors, such as individuals or corporations, was also their deficits. Most of the reduction was achieved by eliminattaking place throughout the region. Economic policies were ing food subsidies, raising energy prices to market rates,
liberalized in order to expand the economic freedom of the instituting sales taxes, financing the deficit through Treasury
private sector as well as encourage foreign investment. For bill auctions, and reducing the ranks of government workers.
most of these countries, and particularly Egypt and Jordan, One of the biggest problems Egypt and its neighbors faced
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank was undoing the excessive level of bureaucratic control over
were active in assisting them to meet their goals. the economy that had been put in place during past regimes.
Although they had begun to liberalize many of the invest-
The second factor for determining whether a regional or
ment laws, change was slow. They were also slow selling off
national economy is about to take off is the local willingness
government enterprises. The public sector represented 70
to remove the maladaptive conditions that had caused that
percent of industrial production in the early 1990s in Egypt.
country or region to be uncompetitive in the past. The
In 1993, the 314 public sector enterprises were organized into
political instability caused by the state of war with Israel since
seventeen holding companies, which are permitted to sell,
the 1950s has been the principal inhibiting factor for ecolease, or liquidate company assets and sell governmentnomic development for this region. The confrontational
owned shares.
relationship that the Arab world has had with Israel since the
latter’s creation not only cost much human capital, but also
Jordan. Jordan has been one of the most promising emerging
much time and resources that could have been used to build
markets in the Middle East. It vigorously implemented a
their economies. Consequently, peace with Israel was seen as
structural adjustment plan in the late 1980s, even in spite of a
a step in allowing a very well endowed region to start
geographical location that has made it very vulnerable to
operating more efficiently.
regional political instability. Jordan is estimated to have a
Privitazation and liberalization policies. Most of the North population of 4.2 million, of which an estimated 60 percent is
African and Levantine countries now embarked on ambitious Palestinian. The Palestinians first came to Jordan in 1948,
economic reforms. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak (b. when the creation of Israel triggered their subsequent exodus
1928) delivered a May Day 1990 speech calling for economic from Palestine. Each time the Israelis and Arabs had a
privatization and liberalization. He also signed a standby military confrontation, Jordan experienced an echo effect
credit agreement with the International Monetary Fund in from Palestine, the most notable of which occurred in 1967.
1991. These events were intended to signal to Egyptians as Jordan also served as the gateway for hundreds of thousands
well as the international business community that Egypt was of refugees fleeing Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf crisis of
serious about reforming and restructuring its economy. There 1990. In fact, it is estimated that as many as 300,000 returnees
are many groups that have vested interests in the reform from Kuwait emerged on the Jordanian labor market in 1990.
process in Egypt, including local labor unions, business All these events have taken their toll on the Jordanian economy.
groups, nongovernmental organizations, international do-
Unlike Egypt, Jordan has always been viewed as being a
nors, and government officials.
free market economy. Yet, it has a substantial public sector,
The countries of North Africa, particularly Morocco and with the government actively controlling 62 percent of the
Tunisia, also embarked on ambitious privatization and economy and being the largest employer. This is mainly
liberalization schemes. Much of the reform in Egypt as well as because Jordan has long been a rentier economy, one that
in other countries in the region centered around trimming collects rents rather than generating its income from domesthe public sector by cutting price subsidies on energy, food, tic production. The rents that Jordan has survived on have
and transportation, along with ending government control of been in the form of foreign aid and remittances from
certain sectors of the economy as a means of encouraging Jordanians/Palestinians working abroad. Much of this reveprivate investment. The IMF had been the primary force in nue was generated in the oil-producing countries of the
calling for reforms in most of these countries. In May 1987, a Middle East. In fact, Jordan has been termed an oil economy
standby agreement was reached between the IMF and the without oil. This situation was acceptable during the 1970s

200 Islam and the Muslim World
Economy and Economic Institutions

and early 1980s, when the oil industry was booming. How- fell on comparatively hard times. Several of the countries,
ever, as oil prices plummeted so did the Jordanian economy. notably Saudi Arabia, had ratcheted up government spending
This situation has led to a restructuring of the Jordanian and import purchases so that, when oil revenues fell sharply,
economy and a peace settlement with Israel. the country began running chronic balance-of-payments
deficits. Government budgets also began to run into the red.
Syria. Syrian economic policies since the late 1980s represent These events have caused many of these states to attempt to
an attempt to liberalize and privatize the economy while still
diversify their economies, with Bahrain endeavoring to bemaintaining government control. In 1988, Syria began decome the financial capital of the Middle East. However, these
regulating its economy and coming to terms with the fact that
states remain driven by oil markets, and there is little eviits diversified economy was faltering as a result of excessive
dence that their attempts to diversify have been successful.
government control. A currency that had been ridiculously
overvalued was devalued by 70 percent. Land that had been By the late 1990s and early part of the twenty-first cenheld by the ministry of agriculture was now freed up for tury, the Middle East again entered into a new era. The
private sector use. A group of twelve Syrian entrepreneurs economic pragmatism of the 1990s has given way to politics.
formed an agricultural investment company to work 5,000 The lack of real changes in the underlying factors affecting
hectares of farmland in the Euphrates valley. There were also economic development has bred despair. Many of the counchanges in the law to promote private sector growth; how- tries that were liberalizing and privatizing their economies
ever, the state has continued to play a significant role in have fallen victim to a world financial bubble that rose and
overseeing and conducting much of what are supposed to be then burst. Financial markets around the world suffered;
private sector initiatives.
however, those in less stable regions such as the Middle East,
Syria’s economy has improved since 1990. From 1990 to are hardest pressed. The peace dividend with Israel, too, did
1993, its GDP grew at 8 percent annually. Much of this has not materialize. Meanwhile, foreign aid in the post–cold war
been due to the quadrupling of oil production, record har- era has not been forthcoming.
vests for the agricultural sector, and significant foreign aid
Although oil prices have risen, the Gulf countries are
from the Gulf as a reward for Syrian support and participamore cynical about sharing with their neighbors in the post–
tion in the Gulf war coalition. This aid has been used largely
Gulf War era. As many of these countries reach out to the
to rebuild and repair Syria’s infrastructure. The private sector
World Bank and the IMF for financing, the economic austeris also expanding in an environment of liberal investment
ity measures demanded by these institutions seem unbearlaws, particularly in the area of agriculture and industry. Yet,
able, given the rise of poverty throughout the region. The
there has been a general reluctance by many foreign investors
lack of stability, coupled with a post–11 September 2001
to get involved in Syria, for the government is still in control
of many of the major sectors such as oil, electricity, and realization by the West of the impact that radical Islamic
banking. Consequently, most business opportunities in Syria groups can have has left the citizens and economies of these
presently are for exporting to the private sector in areas such regions feeling abandoned. Consequently, the economies of
as agricultural equipment and inputs as well as capital goods this region remain heavily guided by the state, with a private
for industrial projects, food processing, and textiles. sector attempting to operate in a state of uncertainty.

Privatization and liberalization have been slow in Syria for See also Capitalism; Coinage; Riba; Waqf.
a number of reasons. First, this is a regime that has long had a
socialist orientation and favors central control. Second, the BIBLIOGRAPHY
labor movement is very powerful in Syria and opposes Abed, George T. The Palestinian Economy. London:
privatization. Although the regime realizes that it must re- Routledge, 1988.
structure its economy if it wants to survive in an era of Berberoglu, Berch, ed. Power and Stability in the Middle East.
globalization, there is a general reluctance to disturb the Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Zed Books, 1989.
present balance of power.
Colton, Nora. “The Maghribi Economies as Emerging Mar-
Oil Dependency kets?” In North Africa in Transition: Socio-Economic and
Despite the wealth accumulated by the Gulf States, the oil Political Change in the Post-Cold War Era. Edited by Yahia
H. Zoubir. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1999.
dependency of the region’s economies and exports had become alarming by the late 1980s, when the fluctuation of oil Cook, M. A. Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East.
prices made for a very unpredictable revenue base. Of course, Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1978.
the 1970s and 1980s saw some improvements, as all the Gulf Cuno, Kenneth M. The Pasha’s Peasants. Cambridge, U.K.:
States built modern infrastructures, increased their standards Cambridge University Press, 1992.
of living, and enhanced their regional and world power Ehrenkreutz, Andrew S. Monetary Change and Economic Hisduring these decades. With the collapse of oil prices in the tory in the Medieval Muslim World. Edited by Jere L.
1980s, however, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states Bacharach. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, 1992.

Islam and the Muslim World 201
Education

Fischer, Stanley; Rodrik, Dani; and Tuma, Elias. The Econo- companions), commentaries on the Quran and hadith, and
mics of Middle East Peace. Boston: MIT Press, 1993. books from a variety of different fields of intellectual en-
Gerner, Deborah J., ed. Understanding the Contemporary Mid- deavor. The Islamic tradition is thus very much a textual one.
dle East. Boulder, Colo.: Rienner, 2000. That fact has helped to make learning and education a central
Halliday, Fred. Arabia Without Sultans. Middlesex, N.Y.: pillar of the religion, in virtually all times and places.
Penguin Books, 1974.
Islamic Education in the Premodern Period
Hershlag, Z.Y. Introduction to the Modern Economic History of
Like most things in the Islamic tradition, the centrality of
the Middle East. Leiden: Brill, 1980.
learning finds expression in sayings (ahadith, sing. hadith)
Issawi, Charles. The Economic History of the Middle East attributed to Muhammad, such as one that quotes him as
1800–1914. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966.
instructing his followers: “Seek knowledge, even in China.”
Issawi, Charles. An Economic History of the Middle East and That injunction applies with special force, of course, to
North Africa. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982. scholars, but it is directed in a more general way at all
Mehmet, Ozay. Westernizing the Third World. London: Muslims, who need at least rudimentary instruction in those
Routledge, 1995. demands which the sharia, Islamic law, placed upon their
Pirenne, Henri. Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe. lives. Moreover, Muslims typically viewed the process of
New York: Harcourt, 1937. transmitting knowledge and texts—or at least knowledge and
Pridham, B. R. The Arab Gulf and the Arab World. Exeter, texts of a religious nature—as itself a form of worship. And so,
U.K.: University of Exeter, 1988. for example, one was not supposed to commence reading the
Oweiss, Ibrahim. The Political Economy of Contemporary Egypt. Quran, or participating in a class on a religious topic, without
Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University, Center for performing ritual ablutions similar to those which are to
Contemporary Arab Studies, 1990. precede prayer.
Owen, E. R. J. The Middle East in the World Economy,
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that an important
1800–1914. London: Methuen, 1981.
thirteenth-century treatise on instruction and study by Burhan
Richards, Alan, and Waterbury, John. A Political Economy of al-Din al-Zarnuji would stress the importance of education to
the Middle East. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990.
a pious Muslim life, and conclude that “learning is prescribed
Saqqaf, Abdulaziz. The Middle East City. New York: Para- for us all.” It is of course impossible to estimate with any
gon, 1987. degree of certainty the number of individuals in premodern
Serageldin, I., et al. Manpower and International Labor Migra- Islamic societies who were educated or literate, and it may
tion in the Middle East and North Africa. London: Oxford even be difficult to be precise about what it meant to be
University Press, 1983. “educated” or “literate.” Nonetheless, it is almost certain that
Shami, Seteney. Population Displacement and Resettlement, Devel- premodern Islamic societies achieved (at least in comparison
opment and Conflict in the Middle East. New York: Center to premodern European societies) relatively high levels of
for Migration Studies, 1994. literacy and of familiarity with the texts in which knowledge
Udovitch, A. L., ed. The Islamic Middle East, 700–1900: was embedded. Inevitably education was largely a concern of
Studies in Economic and Social History. Princeton, N.J.: The men, but the biographical sources available for the recon-
Darwin Press, 1981. struction of the social history of many premodern Islamic
Watson, Andrew M. “A Medieval Green Revolution: New societies demonstrate that girls often received some level of
Crops and Farming Techniques in the Early Islamic education and religious training, and that many became
World.” In The Islamic Middle East 700–1900: Studies in recognized scholars in their own right.
Economic and Social History, Edited by A. L. Udovitch.
Princeton, N.J.: The Darwin Press, 1981. The “knowledge” that Muslims are to seek is known in
Arabic as
ilm (pl.
ulum). The word can mean knowledge of
Nora Ann Colton almost any sort. In more traditional contexts, however, it
refers specifically to knowledge acquired through some course
of study, and especially in fields of intellectual endeavor that
we would now label “religious.” In this narrower sense, it
EDUCATION constitutes the foundation of the authority of the group
known by the etymologically related term ulema (sing.
alim),
Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, is a “religion of the literally “those who know.” The ulema are those scholars who
book”—a religion, that is, which derives its authority from a are involved in the transmission of the religious sciences. In
revealed scripture. The Quran does not stand alone, how- premodern Islamic societies, they included men who funcever; it is supplemented by a wide array of other texts of a tioned in those positions for which training in the religious
religious nature, such as collections of hadith (stories about sciences was required—the judge (qadi) who ruled according
the words and deeds of the prophet Muhammad and his to Islamic law, the professor (mudarris) who transmitted

202 Islam and the Muslim World
Education

religious learning to a rising generation of scholars, the maktab or kuttab, often attached to a mosque. The emphasis at
preacher (khatib) who delivered sermons in mosques, and so on. this level was on the rote memorization of the Quran, the
foundation without which more advanced education was
The ulema were not, however, a clergy (a group of people impossible. Kuttabs developed within the first century or so of
set aside by an act of consecration). Consequently, their social
Islamic history, and have in many places continued to funcorigins and status varied widely. Virtually anyone could be
tion down into modern times, sometimes in competition with
considered one of the ulema if he or she had acquired
schools offering a more modern curriculum.
sufficient learning and the social respect that came with it.
Collectively, however, they constituted perhaps the most Once the Quran was memorized, some students would
important indigenous group in most traditional Islamic so- proceed to more advanced training in various subjects. Those
cieties, and so were sometimes identified as the “heirs of the subjects included the study of hadith, tafsir (Quranic exegeprophets”—that is, as the inheritors (in the absence of the sis), and especially fiqh (jurisprudence), although the bounda-
Prophet) of religious authority, the arbiters of the religious ries between them were not always sharp. In many ways,
tradition. Virtually all premodern Islamic societies have left a
jurisprudence was the most important of the religious scirecord of the respect in which the ulema were held. So, for
ences, because of the centrality of Islamic law in guiding not
example, a jurist named Ibn al-Hajj who lived in fourteenthonly the worship but the social and political behavior of
century Cairo commented that, when a true scholar died, the
Muslims. Here, too, memorization was important, and the
whole of creation would mourn his passing, even the birds of
medieval sources are full of accounts of scholars who had
the air and the fish of the sea.
committed to memory thousands of hadiths and other texts.
In many respects the distinction between that which is But education in the advanced forms of the religious sciences
“secular” and that which is “sacred” is meaningless in the involved much more. Two things in particular stand out.
Islamic tradition. Nonetheless, Muslims came to distinguish First, higher education trained the student to participate, as
broadly between those subjects and disciplines that they reader and as writer, in an interlocking nexus of texts and
inherited from pre-Islamic civilizations, such as philosophy, commentaries on those texts—in essence, it trained the stuastronomy, medicine, and the like, and those which were dent to engage in a “conversation” or “discourse” that constimore immediately connected with the Quranic revelation tuted the essence of intellectual life for the ulema. This
and the religious tradition that stemmed from it. The former “conversation” was quite vigorous, and the ulema of the early
were referred to as the “sciences of the ancients” (al-ulum al- and medieval periods of Islamic history have left a significant
awa
il ) or the “rational sciences” (al-ulum al-aqliyya). For textual record of it. Second, higher education involved a
many centuries, these sciences flourished in the Islamic world: process of socialization, in which the student gradually acnames such as that of the great physician and philosopher Ibn quired status in the eyes of other scholars. In the absence of
Sina (d. 1037), known to the West as Avicenna, and the any consecrated priesthood or formal degree system, this
Spanish philosopher, theologian, and natural scientist Ibn element of the educational process was especially important.
Rushd (d. 1198), known as Averroes, are sufficient to demon- So a student might attach himself to one or more teachers,
strate that. Clearly the processes by which the knowledge developing close personal as well as intellectual relations
they had mastered was transmitted to subsequent generations with them.
formed a part of the educational world of classical and
medieval Islam. In some cases, education in these sciences For the first several centuries of Islamic history, the
was supported by institutions, the most famous of which was transmission of the religious sciences at an advanced level
the Bayt al-Hikma, or “House of Wisdom,” established by took place in an entirely informal fashion. Scholars would
the caliph al-Mamun in Baghdad in the ninth century, and offer classes in mosques, or in private homes. Such informal
devoted to the translation and transmission of Greek scien- settings never ceased to be important to the transmission of
tific and philosophical works, and a similar institution estab-
ilm. Beginning in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, howlished by the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim in Cairo over a century ever, rulers and other leading figures in the Muslim societies
later. More often, they were transmitted informally, directly of the Near East began to establish institutions known as
from teacher to pupil. madrasas that were devoted specifically to advanced instruction in the religious sciences, and especially jurisprudence. As
It was subjects and disciplines more closely related to the
an institutional type, madrasas may have originated in
religious experience, however, that formed the core of what
Khurasan, in eastern Iran. They soon spread throughout the
Muslims recognized as
ilm. The circumstances under which
Near East, and became common in the cities and towns of
they were transmitted were somewhat different than for the
Egypt, Syria, Iran, and later the Anatolian and Balkan provrational sciences.
inces of the Ottoman Empire. Particularly important cities,
Education would begin at a young age, with instruction in such as Cairo, might boast dozens of madrasas of varying
Arabic and the Quran. This instruction might take place in sizes. Each madrasa would typically consist of a building
the home, or alternatively in a primary school known as a providing space for lessons as well as accommodations for one

Islam and the Muslim World 203
Education

or more teachers and a certain number of pupils. The institu- by fees and alms provided by local Muslims as well as
tion and its activities would be supported by an endowment endowments, and often were established by particular schol-
(waqf ) provided by the individual who had founded the ars themselves (and might not survive their founder’s death).
madrasa in the first place. As a result, madrasas might vary
considerably in terms of their size and the value of the Third, the spread of madrasas in the Middle Ages had
endowments supporting them: Some might employ several important social consequences, in particular a tendency to
professors and provide stipends for hundreds of students, bind an increasingly diverse society together in a united
while others might support only a few. cultural project. This tendency can be seen on a number of
different levels. The texts and methods of instruction of
Several aspects of the madrasa and of the educational Islamic legal and religious education were remarkably unisystem it supported deserve comment. In the first place, the form across the Sunni Muslim world, and a student or scholar
spread of these institutions was closely linked to political from Iran who found himself in, say, Damascus or Cairo
structures in the medieval Islamic world. In general, political would often be able to find a position in a madrasa there.
power in the medieval Near East was fairly localized. Much of Since these institutions provided stipends for students as well
the central Islamic lands were ruled by military elites of an as salaries for teachers, they may have helped to broaden the
alien, often Turkish or Mongol, and sometimes only recently social base of those able to devote themselves to the long
and superficially Islamized nature. The rulers’ decisions to process of becoming a recognized scholar. They also helped
establish and endow institutions for the transmission of the to spread Islamic teachings beyond the urban centers in
Islamic sciences constituted one strategy for securing the which most of the ulema concentrated, as young men from
support, or at least the acquiescence, of the ulema who the countryside might study for a time in a madrasa in the
commanded considerable respect among the local Muslim city, and then return home to supervise and instruct the
population. So, for example, especially in the cities of Egypt religious lives of peasants and others in the villages.
and Syria, madrasas would often be associated with elaborate
tombs constructed for the benefit of the schools’ patrons, a Islamic Education in the Modern Period
linkage that had both spiritual and political advantages. In the modern period, the field of education, along with that
of the family and of the social and political status of women,
Second, for all the importance of madrasas, the system of has been one of the principal targets of reformers, and thus
transmitting religious knowledge and of training the next also one of the major battlegrounds over the character and
generation of ulema remained persistently informal, at least direction of Islamic societies. Given the traditional status and
through the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval sources social role of the ulema, this is hardly surprising. Developtell us at great length with whom an individual studied, and ments in the field of education can be grouped into three
with which professors a student developed close relation- distinct areas: the establishment by Muslim governments of
ships, but very little about where those studies took place. modern schools that have competed with traditional Islamic
There was no system of institutional degrees; rather, certifi- schools; the establishment in some places of schools sponcation of the character and quality of an individual’s educa- sored by foreign groups, many of them by missionaries; and
tion was found in the ijaza. The ijaza could take different the reform of traditional schools themselves.
forms: It could be a formal attestation of a scholar that some
individual had, in some fashion, studied a particular text with The establishment of a new network of schools has been
him, or it could be his statement that the student had one of the principal tasks of various groups of political and
mastered an entire field of learning. In any case, it was a social reformers in the modern Muslim world. At the end of
personal document, which confirmed the relationship of the the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, for
student to his teacher, and through him to his teacher’s own example, the Ottoman government established a series of
instructors. Through it, the student took his place in a schools designed to train students in mathematics, medicine,
genealogy of authorities that constituted the only recognized and various other subjects. Those efforts picked up speed
hierarchy of the educational system. Under the Ottoman during the period of aggressive reforms known as the Tanzimat,
Empire, this loose and personalized system gave way to a from 1839 to 1876. The Ottoman viceroys of Egypt, Muhammore carefully defined and delineated structure. At least in mad
Ali and his successors, undertook a similar program over
the capital of Istanbul, madrasas were graded according to a the course of the nineteenth century. In both these cases,
hierarchy that was in turn tied closely to the career paths of educational reform was connected with a campaign to reform
the students who passed through them. In other parts of the and improve the effectiveness of the military: The students,
Muslim world, however, Islamic education continued to that is, were originally drawn from the ranks of army officers.
follow informal patterns. In Indonesia, for example, educa- In both cases, also, the social effects were profound. Very
tion in the Islamic sciences (including Quranic exegesis, often the instructors in these schools were European, and the
jurisprudence, etc.) took place in institutions known as textbooks written in European languages. Accordingly, inpesantren. On the whole the pesantren were less formal institu- struction in those languages, especially French, formed a core
tions than Near Eastern madrasas: They might be supported component of the new schools’ curricula, and so they became

204 Islam and the Muslim World
Education

a channel for the importation into the Muslim world, not these schools represented religious communities or organizasimply of scientific knowledge in fields such as chemistry or tions. Some, such as the institutions established by the Alliengineering, but also of new political ideas values and new ance Israelite Universelle, saw their mission as the education,
ways of thinking about social organization. There was some and often the Westernization, of students from particular
opposition to these new educational institutions from the communities of religious minorities. Others, however, tried
ulema, many of whom looked askance at innovations, particu- to attract a more ecumenical student body, although the
larly those adopted in an explicitly Westernizing form, and success of those efforts varied from place to place. Among the
who resented the challenge that the new schools posed to more notable such institutions were Robert College in Istantheir former monopoly on education. In the long run, how- bul and the Syrian Protestant College (later the American
ever, the principal consequence of the new schools was the University in Beirut), both founded by American Protestant
development of a new social elite, trained in a more-or-less missionaries. The latter in particular has had a distinguished
European fashion and attuned to the political and social place in the modern history of the region, as it was associated
values of modern Europe, a new elite that did not replace the with a rebirth of Arabic literature and culture in the nineolder elite represented by the ulema, but deprived it of much teenth and twentieth centuries and so contributed to the
of its social recognition and authority. development of a modern Arab national movement. The fate
of these institutions in the post-colonial world has been
Over the twentieth century, a full system of governmentmixed: Robert College, for example, has been effectively
sponsored schools developed in most parts of the Muslim
integrated into the larger Turkish educational system, whereas
world. In many places, this task of educational reform has
A.U.B. and the American University in Cairo have remained
been linked in one fashion or another to Westernizing elites
independent, and have continued to offer a distinctive and
and to a conscious program of modernization. In Egypt, for
distinctively Western education.
example, after the military coup of 1952, the government
expanded the network of primary and secondary schools as
Finally, there is the question of what became of the
well as universities, in the process broadening considerably
traditional network of schools, kuttabs, madrasas, and so on in
the social base of those with access to a modern education. A
the wake of the emergence of the state-supported educational
similar process took place in Turkey, where the first universystem. In most parts of the Muslim world, where kuttabs and
sity was founded in the late Ottoman period, with others
traditional systems of education have survived, they have
established after the emergence of the republic following the
done so at the expense of coming to constitute a separate,
First World War. In Turkey, however, the process went
“religious” educational sphere. From the perspective of the
further than in many places, because of the pronounced
classical and medieval Islamic periods, this in itself is an odd
laicism of Mustafa Kemal “Ataturk” and his republican redevelopment. Moreover, the conditions that made the ulema
gime. In the aftermath of the Kemalist victory, many of the
so important in previous historical eras have disappeared or
madrasas were closed, along with other religious institutions.
been eroded. The religious scholars can no longer rely on the
(After Ataturk’s death, restrictions on religious education
patronage of rulers or an extensive network of waqfs (religious
were loosened: A faculty of theology was established at
Ankara university in 1949, for example, and instruction in endowments) to provide financial support. Since they have
religious matters was returned to the curriculum of the had to compete with more modern, state-supported schools,
elementary schools.) In Iran, too, the regime of Reza Shah those who trained and taught in them, the ulema, have often
and his son, Muhammad Reza Shah, undertook a vigorous found their social status and power significantly reduced.
program to secularize and modernize the educational system; With a variety of educational and professional options now
there, however, the traditional network of madrasas training available, traditional schools and religious subjects have held
Shi
ite religious scholars remained more or less intact, though it less appeal for bright and ambitious students. In contemposhrank in size and lost its appeal to middle-class students. The rary Egypt, for example, where subjects such as medicine and
result was considerable tension between a secularizing gov- engineering attract the most successful pupils, those studying
ernment and the traditional ulema, a factor of enormous the religious sciences typically rank at the bottom of the
significance in the Islamic revolution of 1978 and 1979. Saudi academic ladder.
Arabia, by contrast, has followed a different model, in which
the traditional madrasa system has been largely replaced by There have been efforts to reform the traditional schools
state-supported schools and universities, but traditional re- themselves. In Egypt, for example, the organization of the
ligious subjects have remained an important part of the ancient mosque of al-Azhar and its educational program have
curriculum of the government institutions. evolved considerably in the last century. It has expanded its
mission and become a full-fledged university, adding new
In many parts of the Muslim world, such as Egypt, Syria, faculties (in medicine, engineering, etc.), instruction in a
and India, educational institutions established by Europeans number of disciplines (English, the social sciences, etc.)
(or Americans) have also played an important role during the which previously had no place in traditional religious educalast two centuries. Many of those responsible for establishing tion, as well as a separate college for women. At the same

Islam and the Muslim World 205
Education

At the Mohabat Khan mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, a student receives instruction in the Qur
an. In ancient traditions of Islamic education,
students were required to memorize the Qur
an before pursuing additional learning, and this early emphasis on rote memorization remains
today in many religious schools. GETTY IMAGES, GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA

time, al-Azhar has come much more decisively under govern- BIBLIOGRAPHY
ment supervision, with the result that its officials are some- Berkey, Jonathan P. The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval
times perceived as lacking that independence which lent Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education. Princeton, N.J.:
authority to the medieval ulema. The Muslim community in Princeton University Press, 1992.
India under British rule also produced several distinct move- Eickelman, Dale. Knowledge and Power in Morocco: The Educaments of educational reform. Chief among them was that tion of a Twentieth-Century Notable. Princeton, N.J.: Princeassociated with the Dar al-
Ulum (“House of Sciences”) at ton University Press, 1985.

Deoband, a school founded in the nineteenth century to Makdisi, George. The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in
provide a traditional religious education with methods and in Islam and the West. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 1981.
an institutional environment of a more modern nature, and
which has inspired the establishment of similar institutions Rosenthal, A. L. Knowledge Triumphant: The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1970.
throughout the subcontinent. More recently, newly established institutions known as madrasas have flourished in Starrett, Gregory. Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics,
and Religious Transformation in Egypt. Berkeley: University
Pakistan and elsewhere in connection with the rise of politiof California Press, 1998.
cal Islam.
Tibawi, A. L. Islamic Education: Its Traditions and Modernization into the Arab National Systems. London: Luzac, 1972.
See also Azhar, al-; Deoband; Knowledge; Madrasa;
Modernization, Political: Administrative, Military, and
Judicial Reform; Science, Islam and. Jonathan Berkey

206 Islam and the Muslim World
Empires

deliberately vague. In an attempt to appeal to
Alid sympa-
EMPIRES thies, the slogans of the movement spoke only of restoring “a
chosen one” (from the Prophet’s family) rather than a mem-
ABBASID ber of the Abbasid house specifically. The Abbasids only
Matthew Gordon
showed their hand at a very late point; assuming control of
BYZANTINE the caliphate, the dynasty alienated the
Alids and their Shi
ite
Nadia Maria El Cheikh backers. The second question relates to the composition of
MONGOL AND IL-KHANID the movement itself. One view is that the movement, how-
Charles Melville ever broad-based it later became, only succeeded because of
MOGUL the participation of Arab tribesmen that had settled in Khurasan
Iqtidar Alam Khan during the early Islamic conquest period. In response to the
“Arabist,” and hence largely ethnic, argument, other scholars
OTTOMAN
Donald Quataert have sought an explanation based variously in the socioeconomic conditions of eighth-century Khurasan and the
SAFAVID AND QAJAR
religiopolitical appeal of Shi
ite ideals for Arab and non-Arab
Rudi Matthee
Muslims alike.
SASSANIAN
Henning L. Bauer The reigns of the first two Abbasid caliphs, Abu ’l-Abbas
TIMURID al-Saffah (r. 750–754) and al-Mansur (r. 754–775), began
Paul D. Buell with a period of consolidation that led to the elimination of
UMAYYAD Abu Muslim among other leaders of the revolutionary move-
Alfons H. Teipen ment. A period of sustained prosperity, if continued political
unrest, ensued. Al-Mansur established Baghdad in the 760s
and is properly viewed as the real founder of the dynasty. At
ABBASID its height, under al-Mansur’s immediate successors, al-Mahdi
The early Islamic empire fell to Abbasid control with the
(r. 775–785), al-Hadi (r. 785–786) and, most significantly,
overthrow and decimation of the Umayyad house in 750 C.E.
Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), the Abbasid empire stretched
The “Abbasid revolution” followed an extended period of
from the central Maghrib across the Middle East and southclandestine organization centered in the eastern province of
ern Anatolia into Transoxiana. Sustained civil war, initially a
Khurasan. Modern scholarship has devoted considerable atconflict between the sons of al-Rashid, Muhammad al-Amin
tention to the formation and execution of the anti-Umayyad
(r. 809–813) and
Abdallah al-Mamun (r. 813–833), followed
movement. Opposition to Umayyad rule appears easier to
by the effort at consolidation by al-Mamun over Baghdad
explain, however, than the movement itself. Factors contriband its hinterland, initiated the gradual dissolution of the
uting to the collapse of the Umayyads included the deleteriempire. Despite the skilled leadership of later caliphs, by the
ous effects of several rounds of civil war; divisions within the
end of the ninth century, local dynasties and semiautonomous
Syrian-based armed forces; persistent problems of legitimacy
governing families had come to the fore in Egypt, Khurasan,
fueled by charges of fiscal corruption and impious conduct on
Spain, and the Maghrib.
the part of the caliphs and their kin; serious military setbacks
along the frontiers of North Africa, Armenia, and Central Fragmentation of the imperial domain and a dissolution of
Asia; and a fierce ideological challenge posed by leading dynastic legitimacy set in by the first quarter of the tenth

Alids and their Shi
ite partisans that gave rise to repeated century with an eclipse of Abbasid authority at the hands of
uprisings, particularly late in the Umayyad period. bureaucratic families and condottiere. By the 940s, Syria,
Iraq, Fars, and western Iran were divided into principalities
Abbasid success against the Umayyads was due in part to
under Hamdanid or Buyid (Buwayhid) control; members of
support emanating from Shi
ite quarters as well as, it appears,
both families had served in the Abbasid military before
the broader populace of mawali (non-Arab Muslim “clients”).
asserting control over regions of the empire. Egypt, by the
The leadership of Abbasid partisans, key among them Abu
970s, fell to the control of the Fatimids, an Isma
ili Shi
ite
Muslim (d. 775), and the strength of the Khurasan-based
forces under his command, tipped the balance in favor of the dynasty created in the central Maghrib earlier in the tenth
Abbasid movement. As Elton Daniel has made clear, along- century; the dynasty controlled Egypt, and, for extended
side other historians, modern scholarship remains divided on periods, Syria and the Hijaz, into the second half of the
at least two questions. twelfth century. Buyid rule gave way in the mid-eleventh
century to a Sunni Turkish dynasty, the Seljuks, whose reign
The first question concerns the point at which the Abbasid was largely defined by rivalry with the Fatimids, conflict
family assumed leadership of the anti-Umayyad movement. against the Crusader states, and the onset of an extended
Evidence indicates that the movement remained clandestine period of Turkish domination of Near Eastern political life.
until a very late point and that its propaganda was kept From the Buyid period on, the Abbasids themselves usually

Islam and the Muslim World 207
Empires

wielded little more than the trappings of authority; in Iraq, control over both sources of income. To assure a reliable flow
Abbasid history came to an end with the Mongol invasion in of money and goods, the early Abbasids continued late
1258. A branch of the family retained a wholly symbolic role Umayyad efforts to systematize tax collection. These efforts,
under the Mamluks in Egypt until the Ottoman invasion of initially successful, ultimately came up short as the health of
1517 that brought an end to Abbasid claims upon the caliphate. the Abbasid economy fell victim to the civil war that followed
the death of al-Rashid in the early ninth century and, some
Politics and Administration decades later, the turmoil sparked by the assassination of al-
Taking their lead from the Umayyads, the early Abbasids Mutawakkil (r. 847–861). By the early tenth century, the Iraqi
worked quickly to fashion a highly centralized state. Like agrarian system was in sharp decline. Commercial activity
their predecessors, the Abbasids drew inspiration from flourished in the early to mid-Abbasid periods, fueled by
Sassanian, Byzantine, and more deeply rooted patterns of rapid urbanization in the Near East and the related rise in
Near Eastern imperial statecraft. For example, the caliphs investment opportunities, urban surplus wealth, and the
relied upon elaborate systems of monarchical ritual and spread of new products, chief among them paper, cotton, and
symbolism, such as the use of screens used to shield them sugar. Merchant networks would play a key part in the
during open sessions of the court. More dramatic still was the dissemination of Islam into Central Asia, the Pacific Basin,
plan of Baghdad: The city, known as the Round City, was and Saharan Africa from the ninth century on.
originally built around a massive circular core containing the
caliphal residence, mosque, treasuries, and barracks. Histori- To administer their empire, the Abbasids relied on skilled
ans understand the plan in terms of the assertion, through bureaucrats, many of Persian or Christian origins. These
symbolic means, of the coming of a new imperial age. No less officials (kuttab) oversaw a growth in the Abbasid bureaucracy
than earlier dynasties, the first Abbasids thus devoted them- to a size and complexity unknown under the Umayyads. The
selves to massive building programs. In Baghdad, Samarra, offices (diwans) of the Abbasid administration included the
and elsewhere, extensive palace complexes emerged along- chancery, treasury, police, and intelligence-gathering servside congregational mosques, extensive markets, and an im- ices, and a special court of appeals (mazalim) presided over by
pressive infrastructure of roads, canals, way-stations, and the caliph. Control of the treasury and access to the imperial
the like. family allowed key families to build extensive networks of
influence as exemplified by the eastern Iranian (and originally
It appears as well that the early Abbasids sought to imbue Buddhist) Barmakid family under al-Rashid. In 803, al-Rashid,
their office with religious as well as political meaning. Com- having long tolerated Barmakid authority, finally turned
mitment to holy war (jihad), a presiding role in the hajj, against the family. By the first half of the tenth century,
patronage of religious scholars: All were efforts to perpetuate however, his successors, such as al-Muqtadir (r. 908–932),
the caliph’s moral leadership. The claim found little sustained proved incapable of resisting pressures exerted by their top
support within the religious community. For the ulema, the bureaucrats. High-level bureaucrats retained no less crucial a
traditions of theocratic monarchy contradicted the model of role under the Buyids and Seljuks; prominent civilian officials
leadership crafted by the prophet Muhammad and the first played a similar part in Egypt, particularly late in the
generation of caliphs. The problem of delineating lines of Fatimid period.
authority was gradually resolved by the middle Abbasid
period as the scholars asserted a near-monopoly over legal To defend its borders and assure political calm, the
and social authority. No less significant a source of challenge Abbasids, like the Umayyads, relied upon a semiprofessional
to Abbasid legitimation were the sectarian movements of the army largely supplied and paid by the state. The mainstay of
Kharijites and the various Shi
ite tendencies, all of whom the earliest Abbasid armies were the Khurasani troops that
viewed Abbasid authority as illegitimate. Early Kharijite had fought to bring the dynasty to power. A number of these
rebellions under the first Abbasid caliphs were suppressed at a regiments were settled in Baghdad by al-Mansur and his
moderate expense to the state. Far more costly, in ideological successors, and naturally viewed themselves as integral to the
and political terms, was the challenge of their Shi
ite detrac- fortunes of the new state. The civil war that brought altors. If the emergent Twelver Shi
ite tendency in Iraq and Mamun to power in the early ninth century witnessed the
elsewhere remained relatively quiescent, by the early tenth defeat of these regiments at the hands of a new generation of
century, a prominent Isma
ili movement had won support eastern troops recruited by the new caliph bolstered by a
from local forces in the central Maghrib (modern-day Tuni- new-style regiment of Turkish slave troops led by his brother,
sia) and laid the foundation for the Fatimid state. and successor, Abu Ishaq al-Mu
tasim (r. 833–842). In good
part to house these new forces, al-Mu
tasim founded a garri-
The considerable wealth of the early Abbasid empire drew son center in Samarra, north of Baghdad; his successors
predictably on agricultural production and commerce. Al- would administer the empire from Samarra for the next half-
Mansur’s decision to build a new capital beside the two major century. The practice of using slave regiments, many of
Iraqi rivers and in the midst of the extensively farmed areas of which were drawn from Turkic peoples of Central Asia,
central and southern Iraq, had much to do with assuring would be emulated by later Near Eastern dynasties. The

208 Islam and the Muslim World
Empires

The Al-Kazimayn mosque in Baghdad. Early in its reign, the Abbasid empire possessed substantial wealth from agriculture and commerce,
enabling ambitious building projects that included palaces, mosques, and markets. THE ART ARCHIVE/DAGLI ORTI

heads of the Samarran Turkish regiments, however, would (Samarra, the imperial administrative seat for much of the
rely on their troops, and close ties to the caliphate, to ninth century, never replaced Baghdad in this sense.) Much of
interfere in caliphal decision-making; the result was a period this activity was directly tied to the patronage of the imperial
of violence and instability in Samarra that sapped the re- state and networks of elite urban families. Historians are
sources of the caliphate and set the stage for the humiliations divided, however, over the question of whether to credit the
of the tenth century. support of the caliphs and elite urban society with the complex translation movement that rendered, in Arabic, nearly
Culture and Society
the entire corpus of Greek scientific and philosophical work
A revival of Near Eastern urban culture, rooted in Umayyad
over a period of roughly two hundred years beginning under
history, was a hallmark of the Abbasid period. The early Arab
garrison centers, among them Basra, Kufa, Fustat, and al-Mansur in the later eighth century. Equally significant was
Qayrawan, were now functioning towns while, under Umayyad urban literary production. The list of writers, poets, musiand then Abbasid rule, Damascus and other pre-Islamic cians, and cognoscenti that flourished in the Iraqi urban
centers witnessed rapid population growth and cultural de- milieu included such luminaries as the grammarian Sibawayh
velopment. Constructed expressly as an imperial center, and (d. 793); the poet Abu Nuwas (d. 810); the essayist, linguist,
occupied probably by the late 760s, Baghdad quickly emerged, and theologian al-Jahiz (d. 868); and the tenth-century
however, as the nexus of early Islamic culture and scholarship. polymath Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (d. 1023).

Islam and the Muslim World 209
Empires

Urban patronage and the demands created by steady Empire was, nevertheless, to remain a main political and
conversion to Islam throughout the empire explain the for- ideological rival to the Islamic empire. In Arabic-Islamic
mation of a community of sophisticated and increasingly self- writings, the Byzantine Empire became the only real “House
confident religious scholars (ulema). Their efforts yielded of War” and the war against it the very model and prototype
seminal contributions to Quranic exegesis, hadith scholar- of jihad.
ship, and Islamic law. In the Sunni regions, four major
schools of legal interpretation emerged: the Hanafi, Maliki, The first period marked the greatest Byzantine influence
Shafi
i, and Hanbali. The work of the great exegete and on the developing Islamic civilization. The Arabs borrowed
historian Abu Ja
far al-Tabari (d. 923) exemplifies both the abundantly from Byzantine institutions. Byzantine influence
remarkable scholarly achievements of the ulema and their was reflected in the retention of the Byzantine civil service;
ambivalent stance vis-à-vis the caliphal state. Ulema served the use of Byzantine administrative, legal, and numismatic
the empire in their capacity as judges, market inspectors, and traditions; and language. Another striking legacy of the imperial heritage is furnished by the Umayyad policy of erecting
the like; their role in imperial administration was crucial. As
imperial religious monuments. Indeed, it was the presence of
noted earlier, however, they were loath to provide yet further
imposing Christian monuments in Greater Syria that enbacking to the caliphate. The trajectory to socioreligious
couraged them to construct the Dome of the Rock in Jerusaprominence of the scholars occurred as the fortunes of the
lem and the Umayyad mosque in Damascus. Umayyad caliphs
Abbasid state sharply declined.
are said to have requested Byzantine help in the decoration of
See also Empires: Byzantine; Empires: Umayyad; Mahdi, the mosques in Medina and Damascus.
Sadiq al-; Rashid, Harun al-.
The ambition of the first-century caliphs seems to have
been directed toward the establishment of their power in
BIBLIOGRAPHY Constantinople. The repeated failed attempts to conquer
Ashtiany, Julia, et al., eds. Abbasid Belles-Lettres. Cambridge, Constantinople, together with the transfer of the capital to
U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Iraq after 750, distanced the center of the Islamic empire
Crone, Patricia. Slaves on Horses: the Evolution of the Islamic from the Byzantine frontiers and made the idea of the
Polity. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1980. conquest of Constantinople a distant dream rather than a goal
Daniel, Elton. “The
Ahl al-Taqadum and the Problem of toward which forces and efforts were directed in a continuous
the Constituency of the Abbasid Revolution in the Merv and organized fashion. Predictions of a future conquest
Oasis.” Journal of Islamic Studies 7, no.2 (1996): 150–179. waned and were replaced by apocalyptic expectation.
Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture. The Graeco-
Arab-Byzantine warfare settled now into episodic warfare
Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasid
Society (2nd–4th/8th–10th centuries). New York: Rout- and raiding. In the course of the eighth century, Islam
ledge, 1998. reached its limits and gradually recognized a pause in the
expansion of the Muslim state and faith. The practice of
Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The
making two or three expeditions a year against Byzantine
Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century.
New York: Longman Group Limited, 1986. territory became so established in the ninth century that
officials soon laid down a schedule for these operations.
Kennedy, Hugh. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society
Under the late Umayyads and the early Abbasids, the frontier
in the Early Islamic State. London: Routledge, 2001.
line between Arabs and Byzantines was formed by the great
Lassner, Jacob. The Shaping of Abbasid Rule. Princeton, N.J.: ranges of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus (the northeast exten-
Princeton University Press, 1980. sion of the range across the Seyhan River). Here, a line of
Young, M. J. L., et al., eds. Religion, Learning and Science in the fortresses, called al-thugur, marked and guarded the frontier.
Abbasid Period. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Behind this line was a second-line district containing the
Press, 1990. strongholds known as al-awasim, fortresses where the warriors would seek refuge. Economically, these invasions resulted
Matthew Gordon in a diminution in agricultural, commercial, and industrial
activity for the Byzantine Empire. Demographic changes
BYZANTINE took place as a result of the massive displacement of popula-
The Byzantine Empire, which spans the period from 330 to tion. The chronicles paint a picture of devastation and aban-
1453, grew gradually from the old Roman Empire. The first donment of the more exposed settlements in favor of the less
reference to the Byzantines in the Islamic sources occurs in accessible sites. Life in these areas, which were regularly
the Quran (surat al-Rum) in conjunction with the Byzantine- plundered, meant yearly raids, constant insecurity, and fre-
Persian wars that exhausted the Byzantine Empire and al- quent flights. A certain symbiosis, nevertheless, took place
lowed for the conquest of its richest and most prosperous along the frontier region. The result of the interpenetration
areas by the nascent Islamic community. The Byzantine between the two populations was not only the diffusion of

210 Islam and the Muslim World
Empires

military techniques, material goods, and methods of eco- 1453 the Ottoman sultan, Mehmed II, conquered Constantinomic production but also the diffusion of political ideas and nople, thus spelling the end of the Byzantine Empire.
general cultural aspects. This period, thus, witnessed the
transmittal of classical and Hellenistic scholarship, via the See also Christianity and Islam; Expansion.
Byzantines, to the Arab Muslim world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Indeed, the relationship between the Muslim and Byzan- Bosworth, C. E. “Byzantium and the Arabs: War and Peace
tine empires was interspersed with diplomatic, cultural, and between Two World Civilizations.” Journal of Oriental
commercial relations. While no permanent diplomatic posts and African Studies 3–4 (1991–1992): 1–23.
were maintained in either capital, embassies were frequent on El Cheikh, Nadia Maria. “Surat al-Rum: A Study of the
both sides, either to congratulate a new ruler, or to conclude a Exegetical Literature.” Journal of the American Oriental
treaty, or to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. Commercial Society 118 (1998): 356–364.
relations and cultural exchanges are attested in an almost Gibb, H. A. R. “Arab Byzantine Relations under the Umayyad
continuous fashion throughout the history of the Byzan- Caliphate.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 12 (1958): 219–233.
tine Empire. Kennedy, Hugh. “Byzantine-Arab Diplomacy in the Near
East from the Islamic Conquests to the Mid-Eleventh
Whereas in the eighth and ninth centuries the Byzantines
Century.” In Byzantine Diplomacy. Edited by Jonathan
had been on the defensive, the tenth century witnessed a Shepard and Simon Franklin. Aldershot, Hampshire, U.K.:
Byzantine military revival. Increasing Byzantine consolida- Variorum, 1992.
tion was paralleled with Muslim weakness and division. The
Vryonis, Speros. The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia
Byzantine Empire’s successes in the tenth century have to be Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh
seen against this background of Muslim disunity and collapse. Century Through the Fifteenth. Los Angeles: University of
The rivalries between the Abbasid state, the Umayyad state of California Press, 1971.
al-Andalus, and the newly founded Fatimid state in North
Africa colored to a considerable extent the bilateral relations Nadia Maria El Cheikh
these competing states had with Byzantium.
MONGOL AND IL-KHANID
The whole period of the Macedonian dynasty between
The Mongol empire, which at its peak stretched from Java to
867 and 1025 was a brilliant time in the political existence of
Lithuania, was the creation of Genghis Khan (c. 1167–1227)
the Byzantine Empire. It was now the turn of the Muslim
and his descendants. They exercised direct rule for over a
lands to suffer repeated incursions accompanied by looting
century in Iran and Transoxania, southern Russia, and China,
and devastation. The Hamdanid principality of Aleppo rose
and in the less accessible heartland of these regions, particuto the occasion but the victories of its prince Sayf al-Dawlah
larly in parts of Central Asia, where Mongol khans were
were short-lived and soon the emirate of Aleppo and other
recognized as the legitimate rulers until well into the sevenparts of the Islamic caliphate were to feel the weight of
teenth century.
Byzantine invasions. The main events of these wars found an
echo in the poems of one of the greatest poets of the Arabic The father of Temujin, the future Genghis Khan, was
language, al-Mutanabbi. murdered by a rival tribe of Tatars when Temujin was still a
small boy. Abandoned by most of his father’s followers, he
The late eleventh century contrasted with the early part of spent a hard childhood, first simply surviving and then
the century when Byzantium had been powerful and wealthy. working for revenge. By 1206 he had succeeded in unifying
Internal difficulties in addition to the appearance of the most of the tribes in Mongolia and eliminating the Tatars and
Turks in the Near East accelerated the decline of the Byzan- other powerful groups, incorporating the survivors into his
tine state, leading to the crushing Byzantine defeat at Manzikert own forces. He was enthroned as ruler of the Mongols and
in 1071. This marked the collapse of Byzantium as a great adopted the title Genghis Khan.
political power and the beginning of the Turkification of Asia
Minor. The appearance of the Crusaders and the establishment There followed a sustained attack, first on the neighborof Crusader states in the Near East revolutionized relations ing powers such as the Tanguts (Hsi Hsia) and then on north
between the Byzantines and their Muslim neighbors. Follow- China, ruled by the Jurchen (Chin) dynasty (1115–1234).
ing the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, Peking fell in 1215, but it took many more campaigns for the
relations between the Byzantines and the Mamluk sultans of Chin to be crushed. The scale and determination of their
Egypt steadily improved in the late thirteenth century. The resistance was one of the factors that helped to transform the
existence of threats common to both states, including the Mongol assaults from raids on the traditional nomadic model
Mongol threat, led to the establishment of privileged rela- into more permanent wars of conquest and occupation, for
tions between them. In the fourteenth century, the Byzantine there is little to suggest that the annexation of north China
empire systematically lost ground to the Ottoman Turks. In was part of Genghis Khan’s original intentions.

Islam and the Muslim World 211
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As the Mongol war machine gathered momentum, its prey on their subjects from a distance, while the largely
belligerence necessarily attracted further acts of defiance and Turkicized subjects were more like the Mongols themselves:
inevitable punishment. Their attention drawn ever westward not Russians, Persians, or Chinese, with their alien traditions
by the flight of their vanquished foes, the Mongols came up and norms. These regions were initially part of the inheritagainst the Khwarazmian empire, based on the cities of the ance of Ögedei and his elder brother Chaghatay, but the
Jaxartes and Oxus rivers. The massacre of a Mongol-sponsored descendants of Ögedei were almost eliminated when they lost
merchant caravan in Otrar in 1218 provided the pretext for the succession to the Great Khanate in 1251 as the result of a
the invasions of the Transoxania and eastern Iran, where the coup by the Toluids (descendants of Genghis Khan’s young-
Khwaramshah’s tenuous control was quickly destroyed in a est son, Tolui). While the Western Chaghatay leaders began
devastating series of sieges. Pursuing the Khwaramshah across to embrace Islam in the early fourteenth century, pagan ways
northern Iran, the Mongol generals Subetei and Jebe then prevailed in the east up to the sixteenth century.
turned north across the Caucasus and defeated a Russian
force at the Kalka river in 1223, before returning to Mongolia. Controlling a vast area of Asia, the four contiguous Mongol
empires opened up territories to new movements of people,
By Genghis Khan’s death in 1227, these widespread and fueling a process of cultural exchange, artistic patronage, and
crushing victories opened up huge new territories to the commercial relations, which did much to counteract the
Mongols. It was the work of his descendants to consoli- initial savagery of their conquests. Despite their first assault
date them into an empire. His son and successor, Ögedei on Islam, ultimately the Mongols were responsible for spread-
(1229–1241), continued the conquest of North China and ing Islam among the Turkic peoples and tribes who were
further expansion west, where the Mongols won great victo- brought into Central Asia as a result of the Mongol conquests.
ries in Poland and Hungary before consolidating their rule
An illustrated manuscript of Genghis Khan and his sons appears
over southern Russia based on the steppes north of the
in the volume one color insert.
Caspian Sea. These territories, of the so-called Golden Horde,
were held by the descendants of Genghis Khan’s oldest son, See also Political Organization.
Jochi. They maintained their dominance over the disunited
Russian princes until the early sixteenth century, by keeping
BIBLIOGRAPHY
separate from them and retaining the essence of their nomadic
lifestyle. Nevertheless, their capital at Sarai on the Volga Allsen, Thomas T. Culture as Conquest in Mongol Eurasia.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
became a great cosmopolitan trading center. As early as the
1260s, but definitively by the 1330s, the khans of the Golden Morgan, David. The Mongols. Oxford, U.K.: B. Blackwell, 1986.
Horde had converted to Islam. Spuler, Bertold. A History of the Muslim World. Princeton,
N.J.: M. Wiener Publishers, 1994.
By contrast, in Iran, an ancient sedentary civilization (like
China), a transformation in outlook was required if the Charles Melville
nomadic Mongols were to rule effectively. The original
conquests were consolidated by Genghis Khan’s grandson, MOGUL
Hulegu, who captured Baghdad in 1258 and took the title Il- The Mogul empire of India was established by Zahir al-Din
Khan or subject Khan (to the Great Khan in Mongolia, and Muhammad Babur (d.1530), a descendant of Emir Timur
later in China). Hulegu’s dynasty, the Il-khanids (1258–1335), (d.1405). On his mother’s side, Babur was related to the
relied heavily on the Persian bureaucratic families to operate Chaghtai khans of Kashghar. Expelled from his ancestral
their oppressive financial administration, but there remained principality of Farghana (modern Kokand) because of intera fundamental reluctance to abandon Mongol precedents. necine feuds of the Timurid princes and the rise of Uzbek
The unwritten Mongol code of law, the Yasa, continued to be power under Shaibani Khan, Babur eventually established
honored, even after the accelerated Islamization that fol- himself at Kabul in 1505, and in 1526, defeating Sultan
lowed the conversion of Ghazan Khan in 1294. Ultimately, Ibrahim Lodi in the Battle of Panipat, founded the Mogul
the Il-khanate ran out of heirs, the dynasty suffering from an dynasty in India. The name “Mogul” was given to it by
endemic instability in the succession to the throne that had popular usage in India; the later Central Asian designation for
first caused the fragmentation of the empire into four main it, equally loose, was Chaghatai. The family continued (with
regional states and then the weakening of the states themselves. the exception of the Sur interlude, 1540–1555) to exercise
imperial hegemony over much of the Indian subcontinent
In the last of these states, the Chaghatay Khanate, which until 1739 when defeat at the hands of Nadir Shah of Iran
embraced Transoxania, Turkestan, and Sinkiang, the Mongols signaled the empire’s rapid disintegration.
retained rule longer than elsewhere, owing partly to the
terrain and the preponderance of desert and steppe over the Babur brought with him a tradition in which respect for
isolated oases along the celebrated “silk route.” Even more Mongol customs was quite strong, though modified by the
than in the case of the Golden Horde, the Mongols could conventional attachment to Sunni orthodoxy. The further

212 Islam and the Muslim World
Empires

fact that the Timurids were highly urbanized and cultured Muslim as well as customary law and even imperial reguladrew them irresistibly to Iranian culture, despite the fact that tions. The criminal (faujdari) cases were generally decided by
in the sixteenth century it assumed a radical Shi
ite color. All local military commanders (shiqdars, faujdars, and the like) in
these factors demonstrated an eclectic attitude that made the accordance with regulations (zawabit) laid down from time to
Moguls particularly suited to govern a country of varied time by the emperor.
cultural traditions like India.
The bulk of the Mogul army was represented by mounted
Babur is credited with recruiting a large number of Afghans archers and spearmen employed by the mansabdars out of the
and Indian Muslims into his nobility. The recruitment of income of their revenue assignments. An imperial functionmany Persians by Humayun (1540–1556) was a further im- ary (bakhshi) maintained a descriptive roll of these troopers
portant development. But the decisive transformation in this who were brought to muster. To check fraud, branding (dagh)
respect came under Humayun’s son Akbar (1556–1605). of horses was practiced. A special corps of cavalry (ahadis), a
Having recruited a large number of Rajput chiefs, Akbar park of artillery (top-khana), and a large number of musketrendered the Mogul nobility a truly composite group, a eers employed by the emperor supplemented the armed
characteristic that persisted until 1739. might of the empire significantly. The matchlock muskets
introduced in India by Babur seem to have contributed
Akbar, however, was not simply motivated by eclecticism. significantly to the centralizing process in the Mogul empire.
He came to have strong views on reason and religion. He
evoked Ibn al-
Arabi’s philosophy to justify a policy of univer- Under Akbar’s successors Jahangir (1605–1627), Shahjahan
sal tolerance under the principle of Sulh-e Kul (Absolute (1628–1658), and Aurangzeb (1659–1707), the empire con-
Peace) and became a sturdy defender of reason and critic of tinued to expand, though Kandahar was finally lost to Iran
old social customs. He, and his major spokesman, Abul Fazl, (1648). Practically the entire peninsula (excluding Kerala)
sought to give to sovereignty a nonsectarian character; the came under Mogul control, especially with the annexations of
sovereign was held to be a direct representative of God and the kingdoms of Bijapur (1686) and Golkunda (1687).
claimed almost limitless authority, as necessary for carrying
out the sovereign’s abundant responsibilities. Broadly, the administrative institutions of the empire as
established by Akbar were maintained by his three successors,
It is arguable that Akbar’s claims to absolute sovereign with certain changes of a relatively minor character. The
powers derived from his own practical success in achieving religious policy of Jahangir followed mainly that of Akbar,
not only a series of conquests that brought most of India while under Shahjahan and Aurangzeb, it tended to incline
under his control but also from achieving an immense degree toward Muslim orthodoxy. In 1679 Aurangzeb imposed the
of administrative systematization and centralization. The jizya or poll-tax on non-Muslims, which Akbar had abollatter was reflected in the introduction of mansab or number- ished in 1564.
rank (1574) for rigorously setting the pay and size of military
contingents of the nobles, and the division of the empire into The Mogul emperors were great patrons of art and archiprovinces (subas) (1580) where the administration of one tecture. In both it was Akbar again under whom the great
province was like that of any other. The practice of linking achievements began. He gave to Mogul painting its particular
mansab obligation to expected income (jama) from revenue humanistic touch and realism; and immense innovativeness
assignment (jagir) gave new impetus to financial unification. to architecture as in Fatehpur Sikri and Sikandra. Under
Jahangir, painting reached its highest technical perfection,
The political authority and control on resources in the and under Shahjahan, the Taj Mahal stands as testimony to
Mogul empire tended to be concentrated in the hands of high the greatness reached by Mogul architecture.
nobles. They, along with hereditary chiefs allied closely with
the empire, formed the ruling class, whose unity and cohe- Under the Mogul emperors several Sanskrit works were
sion, according to Irfan Habib in The Agrarian System of translated into Persian. Akbar had had the Mahabharata
Mughal India, “found its practical expression in the absolute translated; and Dara Shukoh (d.1659), the Mogul prince,
powers of the emperor” (p. 366). Detailed regulations gov- translated the Upanisads. There was also the growth of a
erned the extraction of agrarian surplus by the revenue lively literature in Persian, leading in the eighteenth century
collection machine of the empire, which tended to the method to the development of the literary Urdu language, a real
of assessment by measurement and collection of revenue in legacy of Indo-Mogul culture.
money rather than in kind.
The Maratha uprising under Shivaji (d.1680) greatly weak-
The urban-based educated Muslims (ashraf ) claiming ened the Mogul empire, and the decline of the empire began
noble descents along with favored non-Muslim scholar priests with the repeated struggles for succession during 1707–1719.
were marked out for state patronage. Some of the ashraf After a little recovery of stability in the early years of Muhammanned the offices in the Department of Ecclesiastical Affairs mad Shah (1719–1748), the Mogul empire began to cede
(Sadarat) including those of judges (qazis) who enforced territory after territory to the Marathas. The coup de grace

Islam and the Muslim World 213
Empires

Richards, John F. “The Mughal Empire.” In Vol. 1.5, The
New Cambridge History of India (1922). Reprint. Edited by
Gordon Jonson. New Delhi: Foundation Books, 1993.

Iqtidar Alam Khan

OTTOMAN
Ottoman state builders (c. 1300–1922) erected and maintained one of the more durable and successful examples of
empire-building in world history. Born during medieval
times in the northwest corner of then Byzantine-Asia Minor,
the Ottoman state achieved world-empire status in 1453,
with its conquest of Constantinople. For a century before and
two centuries after that epochal event, the Ottoman Empire
was among the most powerful political entities in the
Mediterranean-European world. Indeed, but for the Ming
state in China, the Ottoman Empire in about 1500 was likely
the most formidable political system on the planet.

The rapid expansion of the Ottoman state from border
principality to world empire was due partly to geography and
the proximity of weak enemies; but it owed more to Ottoman
policies and achievements. After the migrations of Turkish
peoples from Central Asia broke the border defenses of the
Byzantine Empire back in the eleventh century, many small
states and principalities vied for supremacy. The Ottoman
dynasty emerged on the Byzantine borderlands not far from
Constantinople, and its supporters employed pragmatic
statecraft and methods of conquest and rewarded the human
material at hand—whether Greek, Bulgarian, Serb, Turkish,
Christian, or Muslim—for good service. These pragmatic
policies, coupled with an exceptional openness to innovation,
including military technology, go far in explaining why this
particular minor state ultimately attained world-power status.
This c. 1590 Mogul painting depicts nobles entertained in a
Due to developments elsewhere in the world, notably the
garden by musicians and dancers. THE ART ARCHIVE/DAGLI ORTI
rise of capitalism and industrialism in Europe and then
elsewhere, and the New World wealth that poured into
Europe, the Ottoman Empire lost its preeminent position,
was delivered by Nadir Shah in 1739–1740, with the Persian and by about 1800 it had declined to the status of a secondconqueror’s great victory at the Battle of Karnal, near Delhi. class economic, military, and political power. Internally, after
The Mogul empire rapidly lost control over provinces. Delhi its initial rapid expansion, innovation diminished as enitself passed under the control of Marathas (1772–1803) and trenched bureaucrats and statesmen acted to preserve posi-
finally the English in 1803. Henceforth, the emperor’s writ tions for their children and closed entry to newcomers with
was confined to the Red Fort in Delhi. The Rebels in 1857 fresh ideas. Internationally, the state encountered increasattempted to restore the last emperor, Bahadur Shah II Zafar ingly powerful European states on its western and northern
(1775–1862), to power, but the English deposed him on fronts, and some of these new states had been enriched by
recapturing Delhi and so terminated the dynasty. New World wealth. Warfare became more expensive and
more difficult, and expansion finally ground to a halt in the
See also Political Organization.
late seventeenth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY The empire’s grand defeat before the gates of Vienna in
Habib, Irfan. The Agrarian System of Mughal India, 1556–1707. 1683 was followed by some victories, but mainly it experi-
Rev. ed. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999. enced defeats during the subsequent one hundred years.
Khan, Iqtidar Alam. “State in Mughal India: Re-examining During the nineteenth century, a successful series of prothe Myths of a Counter-vision.” Social Scientist 29, Nos.1–2 grams measurably strengthened both the state and its mili-
(January–February 2001): 16–45. tary. The state grew vastly in size and in the scope of its

214 Islam and the Muslim World
Empires

Ottoman family was hardly ever challenged through the long
centuries of the empire’s existence. While this rule was a
constant, change otherwise was the norm in domestic politics.

Political power almost always rested in the imperial center
and, depending on the particular period, extended into the
provinces either through direct military and political instruments or, indirectly, through fiscal means. The state exerted
its military, fiscal, and political authority through a number of
mechanisms that evolved continuously. One cannot speak of
a single, invariant Ottoman system or method of rule, except
to say that it was based on policies of flexibility and adaptiveness.
Military, fiscal, and political instruments changed constantly,
hardly a surprising situation in an empire that existed from
the medieval to the modern age. Moreover, much of what
historians thought they knew about Ottoman institutions has
been challenged and rewritten. Take, for example, the cliché
that the janissaries’ prowess as soldiers declined when they
ceased living together in bachelor barracks and served as
married men. It turns out that already in the fifteenth century, when the janissaries were the most feared military unit
in the Mediterranean world, at least some were married with
families.

The Ottoman state at first depended on the so-called
A sixteenth-century Venetian portrait of Ottoman sultan Suleyman I. timar system to compensate much of its military, which was
Between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Ottoman
Empire was among the most powerful in the world. © ALI dominated by cavalrymen fighting with bows and arrows.
MEYER/CORBIS Under this system, the cavalryman was granted revenues
from a piece of land sufficient to maintain himself and his
horse. He did not actually control the land, but only the taxes
activities. Whereas the early modern state primarily collected deriving from it. Peasants worked the land and the taxes they
taxes and maintained order, the more modern state took paid supported the timar cavalryman while he was on camresponsibility for the health, education, and welfare of its
paign as well as when he was not fighting. In reality, the timar
subjects. Despite an impressive record of reform, however,
was at the center of Ottoman affairs for the earlier era of
the empire was defeated in the First World War, and was
Ottoman history, perhaps only during the fourteenth, fifpartitioned by the Great Powers, notably Great Britain and
teenth, and part of the sixteenth centuries. Hardly had the
France. Ottoman successor states today include Albania,
state developed the timar system when the regime began to
Bosnia, Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon,
discard it, and the cavalry it was meant to support. Increas-
Montenegro, Rumania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Syria, Turkey,
ingly, the empire turned to infantrymen bearing firearms. As
and other states in the Balkans, the Arab world, North Africa,
it did, the janissaries ceased to be a small, praetorian elite and
and along the north shore of the Black Sea.
evolved into a firearmed infantry of massive size. To support
Military, Fiscal, and Political Organization these full-time soldiers required vast amounts of cash, and so
In its domestic politics, the Ottoman state underwent con- tax-farming replaced the timar system as the central fiscal
tinuous change. The Ottoman ruler, the sultan, began as one instrument. (Timar holders owed service in exchange for the
among equals in the early days of the state. Between about timar revenues, whereas tax farmers paid a sum at the tax farm
1453 and the later sixteenth century, however, sultans ruled auction for the right to collect the taxes, and they incurred no
as true autocrats. Subsequently, others in the imperial family service obligation.) By 1700, lifetime tax-farms—seen as
and other members of the palace elites—often in collabora- better cash cows—began to become commonplace. Varying
tion with provincial elites—maintained real control of the combinations of cavalry and firearmed infantry, along with
state until the early nineteenth century. Thereafter, bureau- massive uses of artillery worked quite well for a time, but lost
crats and sultans vied for domination. In sum, the sultan out in the arms race to central and eastern European foes by
nominally presided over the imperial system for all of Otto- the end of the seventeenth century. The Ottoman military
man history but actually, personally, ruled only for portions continued to evolve and, in the eighteenth century, firearmed
of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and nineteenth centuries. It seems troops of provincial notables and the forces of the Crimean
important to stress that the principle of sultanic rule by the Khanate largely replaced both the janissary infantry and the

Islam and the Muslim World 215
Empires

always paying lip-service to its adherence to Islamic principles. In the nineteenth century, when a flood of ordinances
and regulations marked the presence of an expanding bureaucratic state, even this lip-service frequently fell away, replaced
by claims to scientific management.

Economic Organization
Throughout most of its history, the Ottoman economy
remained agrarian, although again the specifics underwent
considerable changes over time. During the various periods
of the empire’s existence, most Ottoman subjects raised a
wide variety of different crops for subsistence and for sale.
The particular mix of crops changed over time, but cereals
remained dominant throughout, supplemented by a changing array of other crops. During the seventeenth century, for
example, tobacco imports from the New World ceased as
tobacco became commonly cultivated in the Balkan, Anatolian,
and Arab provinces of the empire. In the nineteenth century
tobacco became a major export commodity.

In theory, the vast majority of land was owned by the
sultan and merely used by others to grow crops and raise
animals. In practice, however, these land users generally
enjoyed security of tenure. Sharecropping was widespread
and was the major vehicle by which goods were brought to
market. Most cultivators were small landholders; large estates
A nineteenth-century watercolor depiction of Ottoman sultan were comparatively unusual. Slave labor was common for
Mehmet IV (1642–1692). Early in the Ottoman Empire, the role of
domestic work but very rare in agriculture. Commercializathe sultan was less autocratic than it became in the later fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. THE ART ARCHIVE/TURKISH AND ISLAMIC ART tion of agriculture enjoyed considerable development in the
MUSEUM ISTANBUL/DAGLI ORTI eighteenth and nineteenth century in order to meet mounting foreign demand and, in the latter period, the increasing
number of Ottoman urban residents. The increasing amount
produced for sale derived from committing increasing acretimar cavalry. During the nineteenth century, universal male
age to cultivation, not from more intensive exploitation.
conscription controlled by the central state slowly developed,
and this was perhaps the most radical transformation of all. Ottoman manufacturing, for its part, was and remained
Lifetime tax-farms were abandoned but tax-farming contin- largely the domain of small-scale hand producers, although
ued, often in the hands of local notables in partnerships with there was some mechanization in the late period. During the
the Istanbul regime. seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, foreign markets for
Ottoman manufactures fell away, but producers continued to
Judicial Organization
enjoy a vast domestic market for their wares. During the
Both religious and secular law regulated the lives of Ottoman
nineteenth century, moreover, several new export industries
subjects. The Ottoman state determined who administered
emerged, notably rug making and silk spinning, staffed largely
the laws, members drawn from the Muslim, Christian, or
with female labor working outside the home. In transporta-
Jewish communities, or other officials of the imperial state.
tion and communication there were important technological
That is, the sultan or his agents determined the judges in the
breakthroughs during the second half of the nineteenth
respective communities, either directly or by appointing
century. Steam replaced sail on the sea, while a relatively thin
officials who, in turn, named the judges. In principle, the network of railroads emerged; telegraph lines, for their part,
religious laws of the respective communities prevailed, be were built to connect most towns and cities.
that community Muslim, Jewish, or Christian. In practice,
however, the Muslim courts were commonly used by subjects Religious and National Identity
of all religions. This was due in part to the quality of the There is considerable debate about the nature and quality of
justice which the judge (kadi) administered, and in part Ottoman intercommunal relations, and there are many popubecause it was understood that rulings from such courts lar stereotypes around the “terrible Turk” who slaughtered
might well have greater weight than those from Christian or Ottoman Christians. For nearly all of Ottoman history, this
Jewish sources. In addition to this religious law, the state stereotype is not true. From the fourteenth century until the
routinely passed its own, secular ordinances (kanun), while 1870s, the majority of Ottoman subjects professed one or

216 Islam and the Muslim World
Empires

another version of Christianity as their religion. Yet, through- under single political control. Under them a political system
out this period, the state’s official religion was Islam. The key emerged in which political and religious boundaries overto Ottoman success and a major reason for its longevity lay in lapped. The Safavid concept of kingship, combining territothe tolerant governmental treatment of those who did not rial control with religious legitimacy, would endure, with
share its professed religion. The Ottoman state, for nearly all modifications, until the late twentieth century. Many adminof its history, was a multinational, multireligious entity that istrative institutions established by them survived well into
did not seek to impose Islam on its subjects. This fact has the Qajar era. The Safavid era, finally, saw the beginning of
often been forgotten in the confusion surrounding the emer- frequent and sustained diplomatic and commercial relations
gence of the Ottoman successor states, but it remains none- with Europe.
theless true that much of the credit for the durability of the
empire lay in the flexibility of Ottoman rule and the lightness The Safavids, who were of Kurdish ancestry, began in
of the Ottoman hand on the subject masses. about 1300 as a mystical order centered in the northwestern
Iranian town of Ardabil, the burial place of the order’s
The Ottoman system recognized difference and protected founder, Shaykh Safi al-Din. The nature of their original
those differences so long as its subjects paid their taxes and beliefs remains unclear but in time they turned to a extremist
rendered obedience. Until the eighteenth century, the era of form of Shi
ism that included the veneration of a leader seen
the Enlightenment, minorities in the Ottoman world likely as an incarnation of god. Though the Safavid leaders were
were treated better than in Europe. During some years of the spiritual leaders rather than tribal chiefs, they built their state
final Ottoman era, however, there admittedly were atrocities. with the military assistance of tribal groups. Known as
These should be understood in the context of the generally Qizilbash, redheads, in reference to their red headgear, these
admirable record of intercommunal relations over the 600- Turkmen migrants from Syria and Anatolia were to become
year lifespan of the Ottoman Empire. the mainstay of the Safavid army.

See also Balkans, Islam in the; Christianity and Islam; Under Shah Isma
il (r. 1501–1524) the Safavids evolved
Europe, Islam in; Expansion; Judaism and Islam; Kemal, from a messianic movement to a political dynasty. Upon
Namek; Nur Movement; Nursi, Said; Young Ottomans. seizing power, Isma
il proclaimed Tabriz his capital and
Shi
ism the faith of his realm, thus endowing his new state
BIBLIOGRAPHY with a strong ideological basis. In time, Isma
il extended his
Brown, Leon Carl, ed. Imperial Legacy: The Ottoman Imprint territory as far as Iraq and the Persian Gulf. His expansionism
on the Balkans and the Middle East. New York: Columbia brought him into conflict with the Uzbeks in the east and the
University Press, 1996. Ottomans in the west, both Sunni powers that felt threatened
Goffman, Daniel. The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern by the formation of a militant Shi
ite state on their borders.
Europe. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Equipped with firearms, the Ottomans in 1514 routed the
Press, 2002. Safavid army in the battle of Chaldiran and briefly occu-
Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650. The Struc- pied Tabriz.
ture of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Aside from waging war, Isma
il concentrated on state
Inalcik, Halil. An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman
building. In 1508 he took a series of measures that increased
Empire, 1300–1914. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1994. the power of Iranian administrators at the expense of that of
the Qizilbash. Henceforth a functional division emerged
Kafadar, Cemal. Between Two Worlds: The Construction of
between ethnic Iranians, who in majority staffed the bureauthe Ottoman State. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1995. cracy, and ethnic Turks, who dominated the army. Under
Isma
il the first example of the influence of court women is
Lowry, Heath. The Nature of the Early Ottoman State. Albany:
also seen, a legacy of the Central Asian element in Safavid
State University of New York Press, 2003.
statecraft. Tajlu Khanum, one of his wives and the mother of
Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922. Cam- the future Shah Tahmasp, was as powerful as the shah himself
bridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
in Isma
il’s later reign.
Todorova, Maria. Imagining the Balkans. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford
University Press, 1997. Shah Isma
il was succeeded by his ten-year-old son,
Tahmasp (r. 1524–1576). The first decade of his long reign
Donald Quataert was marked by a civil war among the Qizilbash that nearly
overwhelmed the shah. Once he emerged from this conflict,
SAFAVID AND QAJAR Tahmasp adopted a policy designed to curtail the unruly
The Safavid period (1501–1722) continued many Mongol Qizilbash. He continued to appoint Tajik officials to key
and Timurid practices, but may also be seen as the beginning positions traditionally reserved for Turks, and began the
of modern Iranian history. The Safavids unified much of Iran trend of giving administrative posts to Georgians and

Islam and the Muslim World 217
Empires

Armenians, so-called ghulams, who were captured during Shah
Abbas is especially famous for encouraging trade.
expeditions into the Caucasus. (The women became em- He reestablished road security and had numerous caravanseries
ployed in the royal harem.) Until 1555, when he concluded a constructed throughout his realm. Under him, Isfahan, enpeace accord with them, Shah Tahmasp also fought three dowed with a newly built administrative and commercial
wars against the Ottomans, and in the process moved his center, became a thriving city of some 500,000 inhabitants.
capital from Tabriz to Qazvin, a city located further in the His special focus on the Persian Gulf trade and his efforts to
interior. stimulate the export of silk combined a need for revenue and a
desire to open up an alternative outlet to the land-based
Shah Tahmasp presided over a court that fostered culture. routes via Ottoman territory. He allowed Western mer-
The quality of the illuminated manuscripts produced during chants to settle in the newly founded port of Bandar
Abbas,
his reign would never be surpassed. His religious policy offering them commercial privileges in return for royal profit
focused on the further implantation of Shi
ism and saw and the promise of naval assistance. His overtures to the
attempts to standardize religious practice around a scriptural, West, expressed in countless embassies to European courts,
urban-based version of the faith as opposed to the folk beliefs were mostly aimed at finding allies in his anti-Ottoman
of the Turkmen. To disseminate the creed, the shah also struggle.
invited Shi
ite scholars from Arab lands, most notably from
Lebanon, to migrate to Iran. Under Shah
Abbas’s direct successors, Safi (r. 1629–1642)
and
Abbas II (1642–1666), Iran offered the outward appear-
These trends continued and culminated under Shah
Abbas ance of stability. Baghdad was lost to the Ottomans, but Shah
(r. 1587–1629), the strongest and most visionary of the
Abbas II managed to recapture Qandahar from the Mughals.
Safavid rulers, who came to power in 1576, following the Though competent rulers, both lacked the vision and deterinterregnum of the cruel Shah Isma
il II and the nearly blind mination of their predecessor. Under them, economic prob-
Mohammad Khodabandeh. Shah
Abbas was above all a lems became apparent and state control weakened. Some of
brilliant strategist, keen to regain the territories that had been these problems were perhaps inevitable given Iran’s inherent
lost to internal sedition and outside enemies during the weaknesses—much arid, unproductive land, an unevenly spread
turmoil preceding his reign. Well aware that he could not and heavily nomadic population, a dependence on the outside
fight on two fronts at once, he made a humiliating peace with world for precious metal. Others stemmed from the very
the Ottomans so as to be able to take on the Uzbeks and same measures taken by
Abbas I. Good examples of those are
attend to domestic matters. This done, he resumed war with the conversion to crown land and his practice of isolating the
the Ottomans and reconquered large parts of Azerbaijan, heir to be in the royal harem for fear that he might present a
Armenia, and Georgia. In later years,
Abbas recaptured premature challenge to royal power. The first led to extortion
Qandahar (lost again in 1638), established control over the of the peasants by supervisors who only leased the land for a
Persian Gulf littoral by ousting the Portuguese from Hormuz, limited time and thus saw no reason for long-term investand seized part of Mesopotamia, including Baghdad (lost ment. The second produced inept rulers and empowered
again in 1639). those who inhabited the royal quarters, eunuchs and women.
The army, already weakened by the continuing antagonism
In his domestic agenda Shah
Abbas pursued centralized, between the Qizilbash and the ghulams, became largely
personalized power and the maximization of cash revenue. neglected following the conclusion of a definitive peace
He liquidated a number of powerful Qizilbash leaders, in- accord with the Ottomans in 1639.
cluding the ones who had helped him come to power, and
suppressed any religious group that challenged his authority. It was under the last two Safavid shahs, Solayman (r.
He also resettled tribes to far-off regions with the aim of 1666–1694) and Sultan Hosayn (r. 1694–1722), that order
strengthening frontiers and breaking up loyalties. In the and stability began to unravel. Whereas their predecessors
1590s the shah transferred his capital from Qazvin to Isfahan, had been roving warriors, forever vigilant in patrolling their
a move that gave Iran an administrative center closer to its realm to pacify unruly tribes and repel border raids, they
geographical center, aside from completing the shift from a reigned as stationary monarchs who, aside from occasional
Turkish to a Persian cultural focus. Most importantly, Shah hunting parties, preferred to live immured in the palace,

Abbas set out to break the power of the Qizilbash. He hidden from the public eye. Disconnected and hardly interremoved a great deal of the state land that they controlled as ested in administrative affairs, they relied on their grand
fiefs by turning it into crown domain administered directly by wazirs for the daily running of the state. Though able admina wazir appointed by the shah, so that revenue would flow istrators who successfully tapped new sources of revenue to
into the royal treasury. Ghulams were appointed as governors fill the royal coffers, these chief ministers were unable to
of these newly formed crown provinces. Shah
Abbas’s re- combat the increasingly abusive practices of provincial goverforms mark an important phase in the evolution of Safavid nors and to reverse the crippling corruption and factionalism
Iran from a steppe formation to a bureaucratic state. in court circles. The results were seen in a deteriorating

218 Islam and the Muslim World
Empires

currency, a fall in agricultural output, and growing numbers Fifteen years after Nihavand, most of the erstwhile Sassanian
of bankruptcies among merchants. Equally serious was the lands had come under Muslim control. Nevertheless, many of
pressure that began to be put on non-Muslims, a function of the fallen Iranian cities revolted and had to be reconquered
the growing influence of the Shi
ite clergy, especially under several times. Even after the murder of the last Sassanian
the pious and impressionable Shah Sultan Hosayn, who ruled monarch, Yazdgard III, ended his flight from province to
under the spell of his maternal grandmother, Miryam Begum; province from 651 to 652 C.E., parts of the population in
the court eunuchs; and Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, a conserva- various provinces continued to break their treaties of surrentive cleric who advocated a literal interpretation of the faith. der to the Arabs and returned to their old religious practices
The Armenians of New Julfa near Isfahan, a group with a and traditions. Particularly, changes of local governorship
disproportionately large role in the economy, lost their tax and the deaths of caliphs presented occasions for revolt, as
advantages and by the late seventeenth century many wealthy was the case after the murders of
Umar,
Uthman, and
Ali.
merchants began to migrate to Europe, India, and Russia.
In spite of this ongoing resistance and the polemics that
As of 1710 disintegration set in. While the shah built were directed against the Arab conquerors—who were at
pleasure gardens, the cost of which was extorted from peas- times portrayed as devils and associates of Ahriman (the evil
ants and merchants, the country faced internal rebellion and spirit in Zoroastrian belief)—a new landholding class eventuoutside attack. The final blow came from the east, with ally emerged, whose strength gradually increased through
Baluchi and Afghan tribesmen occupying Kerman and Mashad. intermarriage with the indigenous residents.
In 1722 a small contingent of Afghan Ghilzai warriors penetrated the interior, defeated a hastily assembled Safavid army, The arrival of the new Arab overlords in Iran also brought
and proceeded to besiege Isfahan. The city fell six months with it a new religion. But the conversion of Iran to Islam was
later, brought to its knees by starvation, and Sultan Hosayn neither swift nor of a piece. Certain groups converted to
was forced to confer the title of shah on Mahmud, the Afghan Islam on a collective basis, but this was the exception rather
leader. Meanwhile, Russia and the Ottoman Empire took than the rule. Some sections of the population opted for the
jizya (tax levied on non-Muslims) and the kharaj (land tax),
advantage of the turmoil by occupying Iran’s northwestern
accepting the dhimmi status (a second-class-citizen status
regions.
granting non-Muslims protection and limited religious free-
Artwork original to the period appears in the volume one dom under Muslim rule) in order to hold on to their old ways.
color insert. The privileges that came with conversion were, however, a
decisive argument for many, especially those who had been
See also
Abbas I, Shah; Isma
il I, Shah; Majlisi, Muham- disadvantaged by Zoroastrian religious organization and its
mad Baqir; Political Organization; Tahmasp I, Shah. rules. Artisans and craftsmen had been specifically affected in
this way, as the Zoroastrian taboos regarding the pollution of
BIBLIOGRAPHY the elements of fire, water, and earth clashed with many
Matthee, Rudolph P. The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk aspects of their professions, branding them unclean by
for Silver 1600–1730. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Uni- association.
versity Press, 1999.
Ultimately, greater parts of the populace recognized some
Savory, Roger. Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge, U.K.:
of the fundamental similarities between Islamic and Zoroastrian
Cambridge University Press, 1980.
faith, which share the belief in one good god, one evil spirit or
devil, a final judgment, and the notions of Paradise and Hell.
Rudi Matthee Acceptance of the Islamic faith became more and more
widespread. But even for those that held to the Zoroastrian
SASSANIAN faith, the restrictions imposed by the dhimmi status were less
With the Arab victory over the Iranian forces at Nihavand in severe, and the privileges greater, than had been the case for
641–642 C.E., referred to by the Arabs as the “Victory of Christians and Jews under Zoroastrian rule. During the
Victories,” the fall of the Sassanian Empire was final. The Umayyad period, however, there was a marked increase in
Sassanians had been a formidable power that had endured for contempt and intolerance of Muslims toward Zoroastrian
four centuries, but in the end the corruption and greed of the subjects, prompting a group of them to eventually emigrate
ruling and priestly classes had left the imperial coffers de- to Gujarat, where their descendants, known as Parsees, pracpleted and, perhaps more importantly, eroded support among tice their belief to this day.
the empire’s numerous heterodox subjects. Such internal
problems hampered efforts to efficiently muster and deploy It is noteworthy that adherents of non-Zoroastrian religthe impressive Iranian defenses. The ponderous Sassanian ions, or of groups that had been considered heretics by the
cavalry ultimately succumbed to the speedy attack and retreat Zoroastrian establishment in Sassanian times, enjoyed a distactics of the lightly armed Arab troops. tinctly greater amount of religious freedom under Muslim

Islam and the Muslim World 219
Empires

This relief depicts the Sassanid king Shapur on horseback. After a four-century rule, the Sassanian Empire fell to Arab control in 641–642 C.E. THE
ART ARCHIVE/DAGLI ORTI

rule. The Sassanians had suppressed the heterodox groups Zoroastrianism had declined at the close of the tenth century,
existing in their empire, and to them the Islamic practice of attacks on Muslims on their way to worship were apparently
giving dhimmi status to the “people of the Book” was tanta- still quite frequent in some provinces, and religious riots
mount to liberation. occurred constantly. The Muslims—Arabs as well as Iranian
converts—usually emerged victorious from such confronta-
The decline of Zoroastrianism in the face of the advent of tions due to their increasing numbers, bolstered both by
Islam was by no means a rapid nor an altogether peace- conversion of Iranians as well as immigration of Arabs into Iran.
ful process. Interfaith strife and competition over local authority and resources persisted into Buyid times, and as The rivalry between Zoroastrians and Muslims found
late as the end of the tenth century an unsuccessful upris- expression not solely in riots and skirmishes. The two seging of Zoroastrians took place in Shiraz. Although urban ments of the population also competed over economic assets,

220 Islam and the Muslim World
Empires

specifically the trade between China and Iran via Central TIMURID
Asia. On the other hand, some Arab immigrants joined The Timurid Empire was a powerful, conquest-driven emexisting trade networks, a cooperation that resulted in an pire that devolved into disunited dynasties more noted for
increase of overland trade. artistic than political endeavors. Tamerlane (Timur Lang)
(1336–1405) was not a Mongol but emerged out of the chaos
The degree of either cooperation or enmity between the of post-Mongol Turkistan. He was born on 8 April 1336 at
two communities depended to a large extent on the way the Khwarju Ilghar, just south of Samarkand near Shahr-e Sabz.
conquest of each particular area or province had unfolded. Although his people (Turks), the various lineages of the
The provinces in Iraq, Khuzistan, Azerbaijan, and Sistan, for Barlas, lived a pastoral life and became nomads, they existed
example, had surrendered to the Arab invaders after com- in close proximity to sedentary people and sedentary culture,
paratively few battles. In the absence of memories of pro- even while antagonistic to it. Thus, like Genghis Khan (r.
longed and bloody conflict, amicable relations were more 1206–1227), Tamerlane was the product of a mixed environreadily forged. In these areas, where Arabs and Iranians even ment and was not a man of the deep steppe. The political
stood together against outside aggressors like Turks and system that he later employed to rule his empire was also
Mongols, the Muslim colonizers encountered a more fertile mixed. It continued the Chaghatay ulus tradition of a strict
climate for their efforts toward religious conversion, which separation between sedentary and nomadic sectors, with the
subsequently took place in a comparatively peaceful manner. sedentary world (the tax base) protected from destructive
nomadic incursions to the greatest degree possible and ruled,
Urban strongholds central to Zoroastrian power, in which not by tribal chieftains, who were simultaneously commandhad to be conquered in protracted battles under immense ers of tribally based military forces, but by local administrabloodshed, were far less welcoming to the invaders, who in tors, bureaucrats appointed for set periods of time.
turn employed draconian measures to ensure their dominance. The resulting atmosphere in such locales was conse- Their methods were primarily rooted in Iranian techquently characterized by mutual resentment, distrust, and niques, including largely Iranian and not Mongolian methods
general tension, a state of affairs that was ameliorated only of taxation. By the fourteenth century, to be sure, the two
with great hesitation. Finally, there were areas where hostility sides of the former Chaghatay domains had begun to interand active conflict persisted long after Arab settlements had penetrate, Tamerlane was himself a reflection of the type of
been established. In the Transoxanian and Caspian regions, changes going on, and much of the formerly nomadic aristocconstant military confrontations between Iranian lords and racy had moved into the cities that they ruled, even if
Arab generals precluded coexistence, cooperation, and peaceful indirectly. Nonetheless, they remained culturally and physiconversion longer than anywhere else in Iran. But ultimately, cally quite distinctive and a class apart from their subjects,
all efforts to oust the Arabs failed. The late Sassanian Empire even the assimilated Turkic ones. One major way in which
had not fostered a society that stood united behind its ruling the nomadic side of Timurid domains differed from the
and priestly classes. After its fall, Zoroastrian leaders attempt- sedentary was in the nomadic tradition that treated land as a
ing to rally military opposition against the Arab conquest collective possession, belonging to an entire tribe, and not to
could summon neither the trust nor the support of the masses individuals, institutions, or the state, as was the case in
required for such undertakings. sedentary areas. This made groups, and not territory, the key
organizational element for the nomadic sector, as had been
See also Islam and Other Religions; Minorities: the case under the Mongols.
Dhimmis.
Tamerlane’s early life and career is obscure and sur-
BIBLIOGRAPHY rounded by legend, but it is clear that he showed military
talents at an early stage of his life and the kind of charisma
Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices.
necessary to acquire a following. He gained power first within
London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979.
his own Barlas people and then, in a manner typical of the
Choksy, Jamsheed K. Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian steppe-based societies of the era, carefully began to make
Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society.
allies outside it. The most important of these allies was Amir
New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Husayn of the Qaraunas, descendants of a nomadic garrison,
Frye, Richard Nelson, ed. The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. or tanma, placed by the Mongols in Afghanistan during the
4: The Period from the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cam- early thirteenth century. Unlike Tamerlane, or Amir Temür,
bridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
as he was then known, Amir Husayn was an important part of
Tabari, Abu Jafar Muhammad b. Jarir al-. The History of al- the Chaghatay political establishment of the area, offering a
Tabari (Ta
rikh al-rusul wa
l-muluk), Vol. 14: The Conquest legitimacy much sought by Tamerlane.
of Iran. Translated by G. Rex Smith. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. Ultimately, Tamerlane and Amir Husayn, after back and
forth relationships, had a falling out. Husayn was killed by
Henning L. Bauer Tamerlane, who now became the effective ruler of Chaghatay

Islam and the Muslim World 221
Empires

domains, although not its actual ruler since Tamerlane main- was once comprised of a mosque, a caravansary, and a khanaqa
tained the fiction of a ruling khan (qan) of the line of Genghis (Sufi convent), in addition to the madrasa of Ulugh Beg ibn
Khan to the end. As Tamerlane was only associated with it by Shahrukh (1394–1449), grandson of Tamerlane, who was
marriage, as a guregen, or imperial son-in-law, he did not responsible for the other buildings, too. With Tamerlane’s
qualify for this office. Tamerlane received a formal corona- mausoleum, Gur-e Amir, the complex celebrates not only the
tion at Balkh on 9 April 1360. power and glory of the Timurid ruler, but also the artistic
fusion achieved under Chaghatay and other Mongol rulers.
Tamerlane spent the remainder of his life warring against The colored tiles that are characteristic of the architecture of
his enemies, conquering and reconquering territories, all the the time are directly derived from Chinese blue-and-white
while building up and beautifying his capital of Samarkand. porcelain that itself represented a response to the tastes of the
The major campaigns were into Khwarazm in 1371, into the Mongol world conquerors.
Semiryechye and beyond from 1375–1377, into Iran and
Afghanistan from 1381–1384, and into the Caucasus and Iran The late Timurid period was also the time of the great
from 1386–1388. He undertook two campaigns into the wazir, ‘Ali-Sher Nawai (1441–1501), who single-handedly
Golden Horde, first from 1391–1392, again from 1392–1396. turned Chaghatay Turkic into a literary language. A minor
Next, he brought war against Delhi between 1398 and 1399, Timurid prince, Babur (r. 1483–1530), conquered India, and
and into Anatolia and Syria between 1399 and 1404. At the his descendants, the moguls of India, carried on the Timurid
time of his death, Tamerlane was preparing to attack China. tradition, including the Caghatay language, which persisted
His military strategy was based on the use of steppe archers to in India until the 1920s, and Central Asian cuisine, which still
the maximum extent, except that by this time these were no survives.
longer the lightly armed force of the Mongolian empire, and
See also Political Organization; Sultanates: Delhi;
siege trains and other special forces were a regular part of his
armies which, nonetheless, remained highly mobile.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Like Genghis Khan and other Mongol rulers, Tamerlane Buell, Paul D. An Historical Dictionary of the Mongol World
used terror as a weapon, systematically massacring his ene- Empire. Lanham, Md., and London: The Scarecrow
mies in hideous ways, and in terms of numbers of victims he Press, 2003.
outdid the Mongols. His most enduring military accomplish- Carswell, John. Blue & White, Chinese Porcelain Around the
ments were his utter defeat of Golden Horde forces under World. Chicago: Art Media Resources, 2002.
Toqtamysh (r. 1377–1395) on the Terek River on 14 April Jackson, Peter, and Lockhart, Laurence. The Cambridge His-
1395, from which the Golden Horde never recovered, and his tory of Iran, Vol. 6, The Timurid and Safavid Periods.
defeat of the powerful Ottoman sultan Bayezid I (r. 1389–1402) Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
in the Battle of Ankara on 28 July 1402, an event which Lentz, Thomas W., and Lowry, Glenn D., eds. Timur and the
considerably slowed development of the Ottoman empire. It Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth
was not during these campaigns but during his youthful fights Century. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of
for survival that Tamerlane sustained the wound that pro- Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1989.
vided him the Persian nickname, Temur-e lang, “lame Temur,” Manz, Beatrice Forbes. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Camfrom which our own name for him originated. bridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

After his death, Tamerlane’s empire fell apart quickly and Paul D. Buell
his primary successors, Shahrukh (r. 1404–1447) and Khalil-
Sultan (r. 1404–1409), controlled no more than a small UMAYYAD
portion of its original territory. Later this shrinking realm The Umayyad dynasty ruled the early Muslim community
was subdivided even further. Nonetheless, despite the grow- from 661 to 750 C.E. The Umayyad Empire had its capital in
ing political impotence of the Timurids, whose rule was Damascus and was supported through the military strength
finally extinguished in the early sixteenth century, Herat and of Syrian troops. It was characterized by a continuous effort at
other centers of Timurid power in Transoxiana witnessed an territorial expansion of the Islamic empire, reaching its apounparalleled cultural development. This was the era of some gee in the early eighth century. The territorial growth of
of the finest books ever produced in the Islamic world, and the empire set into motion processes of Arabization and
during this time the already substantial architectural achieve- Islamization that would shape the culture of the region.
ments of Tamerlane’s own reign (his mausoleum in Samarkand Umayyad overexertion of military forces in the continuation
and the classic shrine of Ahmad Yasavi in Turkistan City) of expansionist efforts, together with an unequal treatment of
were further enhanced with such marvels as the Registan in Arab and non-Arab Muslims, and problems of religious and
Samarkand. This is a planned complex, one of the earliest of political legitimacy contributed to the weakening of the
its kind in the Islamic world. It focuses on a central square and Umayyad dynasty and its eventual downfall.

222 Islam and the Muslim World
Empires

Muslim historiographical sources generally portray the
Umayyads in a negative light, accusing not only the Umayyad Umayyad Caliphs
caliphs, but also their ancestors and relatives, of all kinds of
moral failings and un-Islamic behaviors. Much of this criti- SUFYANIDS
cism needs to be sifted carefully for anti-Umayyad biases, as Mu‘awiya b. Abu Sufyan 661–680 C.E.
Yazid b. Mu‘awiyah 680–683 C.E.
most of the available Muslim sources have been penned in 683 C.E.
Mu’awiyah b. Yazid
late Umayyad and early Abbasid times, when anti-Umayyad
sentiments were extensive, particularly among the emerging
MARWANIDS
religious class that left its imprint on many of the literary
Marwan b. al-Hakam 684-685 C.E.
sources at our disposal. ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan 685–705 C.E.
al-Walid b. ‘Abd al-Malik 705–715 C.E.
Mu
awiya b. Abu Sufyan, whose caliphate marks the Sulayman b. ‘Abd al-Malik 715–717 C.E.
‘Umar b. ‘Abd al’Aziz 717–720 C.E.
beginning of the Umayyad dynasty, was appointed the gover- Yazid b. ‘Abd al-Malik 720–724 C.E.
nor of Syria under caliph
Umar b. al-Khattab (r. 634–644 Hisham b. ‘Abd al-Malik 724–743 C.E.
al-Walid b. Yazid 743–744 C.E.
C.E.). During the first Civil War (656–661 C.E.) the third
Yazid b. al-Walid 744 C.E.
caliph,
Uthman b. al-
Affan (r. 644–656) had been assassi- Ibrahim b. al-Walid 744 C.E.
nated by discontented elements in the growing Muslim Marwan b. Muhammad 744–750 C.E

empire. Mu
awiya, his relative, challenged the authority of

Uthman’s successor,
Ali b. Abi Talib (r. 656–661) purport- An illustration of the two caliphate families of the Umayyad dynasty.
edly because the latter did not prosecute the murders of

Uthman. While Mu
awiya’s direct challenge to
Ali at the
battle of Siffin (657) ended in a stalemate,
Ali’s assassination power.
Abd al-Malik also began the process of making Arabic
by a Kharijite (separatist) in 661 effectively put Mu
awiya in the lingua franca of the empire, and he built the Dome of the
power. During Mu
awiya’s long reign, from 661 to 680, a Rock in Jerusalem.
relative calm returned to the Muslim empire, as Mu
awiya
After the Second Civil War between the Umayyad forces
successfully kept discontented elements in check. The relaand the nascent Shi
a, a new phase of imperial extension was
tive stability of the empire allowed Mu
awiya to reinvigorate
inaugurated. Of particular importance were annual raids
the expansionist warfare of the earlier caliphs. Yet the issues
against the Byzantine Empire, including further attempts to
that had led to the First Civil War, namely a different conquer its capital, Constantinople (716–717). Additionally,
understanding of legitimate leadership of the Muslim com- successes in North Africa led to a defeat of the last remaining
munity, continued to plague the Muslim community. Upon Byzantine outposts. With the conversion of Berber tribes of
Mu
awiya’s death in 680 C.E., his son Yazid, designated heir North Africa, the conquest forces were reinvigorated, leading
apparent, faced revolts by Husayn b.
Ali b. Abi Talib, to the crossing of the straits of Gibraltar in 711 and a
grandson of the prophet Muhammad, and
Abdallah b. al- vanquishing of the Visigothic kingdom of the Iberian penin-
Zubayr, son of a prominent companion of Muhammad. sula. After the overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty in the
Disorganization and woefully inadequate military support for Muslim heartlands by the Abbasids in 750, a descendant of
Husayn brought about his quick defeat and death at the Battle the Umayyads would find refuge in Muslim Spain where an
of Karbala in 680 C.E. Yet while Yazid’s military success Umayyad kingdom and later caliphate was founded, lasting
against Husayn was swift, the ideological repercussions of the until 1031. The eastward expansion of the empire in the early
Battle of Karbala would come to haunt Umayyad ambitions eighth century included successful conquests into Transoxania
for political legitimacy for centuries. Husayn’s martyrdom at and Sind.
Karbala became a powerful symbol for Shi
ite aspirations.
Yet the increase of military failures on the frontiers in the
With the death of Mu
awiya b. Yazid in 683 C.E., Umayyad second quarter of the eighth century, coupled with growing
control of the empire suffered a nearly total collapse during tensions among different tribal factions in the Syrian army
the Second Civil War (683–692), until Marwan b. al-Hakam (which had provided the main support for Umayyad power),
assumed the caliphate, inaugurating the Marwanid lineage. and growing unrest among different groups of “piety-minded”
Marwan, and later his son
Abd al-Malik, gradually restored opponents led to a weakening of Umayyad strength and its
Umayyad control of the empire, defeating a number of final demise. A carefully organized underground movement,
opponents in different parts of the empire.
Abd al-Malik coordinated by the Abbasid agitator Abu Muslim in the
reestablished full Umayyad control in 692 C.E., when he eastern province of Khurasan garnered support among varidefeated counter-caliph
Abdallah b. al-Zubayr after a siege ous groups in opposition to the Umayyads. The Abbasids’s
on Mecca that had led to a fire, destroying part of the Ka
ba. initial claim to rally troops against the Umayyads in favor of
The siege itself and the damage done to the Ka
ba reinforced the family of Muhammad particularly appealed to Shi
a. Only
criticism against the Umayyads as irreligious usurpers of after the Umayyads had been decisively defeated did the

Islam and the Muslim World 223
Erbakan, Necmeddin

Abbasids reveal their claim to the caliphate, centering its
claims to legitimacy on descent from Muhammad’s paternal
ERBAKAN, NECMEDDIN (1926–)
uncle al-
Abbas.
Necmeddin Erbakan served as Turkey’s prime minister
The geographical spread of the Islamic empire did not (1996–1997) and was the founder of the Welfare Party (Refah
directly correlate with the spread of Islam as a religion among Partisi). A mechanical engineer, university professor, diesel
the inhabitants of conquered territories. Indeed, during much factory founder, and Union of Chambers of Commerce and
of the Umayyad caliphate Islam as a religious tradition was in Industry president, he was elected to Parliament in 1969 as a
a state of flux and only gradually assumed more identifiable spokesman for small business.
contours. Forced conversion of local populations was rare;
conquered peoples usually continued to practice their relig- Erbakan started the National Order Party (Milli Nizam
ious traditions, and Islamization of these territories spanned Partisi) in 1970, which was banned after the 1971 military
several centuries. In addition to a gradual spread of Islam coup. As founder of the National Salvation Party (Milli
among the conquered peoples, Muslim traders and pious Selâmet Partisi, 1972) he became deputy premier. After the
preachers spread Islam as a religion beyond the borders of the 1980 coup this party also was banned and Erbakan ousted
conquered territories. Likewise, Arabization in the newly from politics. Erbakan’s third party, the Welfare Party (formed
conquered territories was a slow process; Arabic as the official in 1983), which opposed corruption and demanded a prolanguage of Umayyad administration seems not to have been Islamic, anti-Western foreign policy, received 21 percent of
prevalent before 700, and specifically Muslim coinage does the vote in 1996. Erbakan headed a coalition government
not seem to have been in use before the end of the seventh with Tansu Çiller of the True Path Party.
century.
As prime minister Erbakan became more moderate, im-
The major contribution of the Umayyads to Islamdom proving Turkey’s Mideast relations while maintaining its
consists not only in their military successes, its Islamization Western alliances. Domestically, he raised civil service salaand Arabization, but also in its support for the development ries and cleaned up the cities. He could not halt corruption,
of Islam as a religious tradition. In spite of the negative however; coalition partners as well as opponents were involved.
attitude in which later sources portray the Umayyads, the first
Pressure from the military, alarmed by Islamism, forced
collections of sayings of Muhammad and of early Muslim
historiography were undertaken with some support of the Erbakan’s resignation (1997) and the party’s closure (1998).
Umayyads; likewise, Umayyad patronage in religious build- He was imprisoned for a year for “inciting hatred,” though
ings produced a first, identifiable Islamic architecture in supporters considered him a fighter for religious freedom.
buildings like the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the After his ouster, Erbakan unofficially backed a successor
Umayyad mosque of Damascus. party, Virtue (Fazilet), which disavowed radical Islamism.

See also Arabic Language; Arabic Literature; Dome See also Modernization, Political: Participation, Politiof the Rock; Empires: Abbasid; Empires: Byzantine; cal Movements, and Parties; Political Islam.
Husayn; Islam and Islamic; Karbala; Kharijites,
Khawarij; Marwan; Mu
awiya;
Umar. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Howe, Marvine. Turkey Today: A Nation Divided over Islam’s
BIBLIOGRAPHY Revival. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2000.
Blankinship, Khalid Yahya. The End of the Jihad State. The Zurcher, Erik J. Turkey: A Modern History. London and New
Reign of Hisham Ibn Abd al-Malik and the Collapse of York: I. B. Tauris, 1993.
the Umayyads. Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1994. Linda T. Darling
Hawting, G. R. The First Dynasty of Islam. The Umayyad
Caliphate AD 661–750. London and New York:
Routledge, 2000.
Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam, Vol. 1: The ETHICS AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Classical Age. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1977. It is important to distinguish how the term ethics was used in
Wellhausen, Julius. The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall. 1927. premodern Islam compared to its usage in the modern pe-
Translated by Margaret Graham Weir. Edited by A. H. riod. In the premodern period, ethics was chiefly concerned
Harley. Reprint, London: Curzon Press, 1973. about the formation and disciplining of the self through the
cultivation of practices that were deemed “good conduct.”
Alfons H. Teipen Such conduct was naturalized through education, ritual, and

224 Islam and the Muslim World
Ethics and Social Issues

disciplinary practices that were intended to help the devout Innumerable reports attributed to the Prophet place spe-
Muslim internalize the values that underlay an ethical life. cial value and emphasis on the need to cultivate good character, husn al-khulq. The phrase also has an aesthetic quality of
In the modern Muslim context, by contrast, matters such beauty (husn) to it. In other words, character is related to an
as education, ritual, and disciplinary practices have them- inner magnificence. In fact, numerous hadith stress that the
selves undergone a significant, if not radical, change from perfection of character is equal to the perfection of faith. In
previous eras. The modern period is governed by the logic of some hadith, good character is described as half of faith.
systems, bureaucratic processes, and the logic of abstraction. Similarly, good character was viewed as the most effective
Education in particular, but ritual, and other social practices antidote to the human predisposition to commit sins. In early
too, have felt the influences of bureaucratic modernity. Now Islam, as today, moral education is the primary responsibility
ethics is conceived of as a set of abstract values, derived from of parents and teachers, who should not only transmit moral
sources that do not always completely resonate with the
knowledge, but also supervise its application through prachistorical self, given the massive global transformations of
tice, discipline, and training.
cultures and values. Although the earlier understandings of
and approaches to ethics are only partly adhered to, Muslim The Pietists and the Philosophers
communities are forging new ethical identities in the mael- The early Muslim ethicists differentiated between the etistrom of paradigmatic transitions in knowledge, culture, and quette of the self (adab al-nafs) and the etiquette of pedagogy
history. (adab al-dars).
Abd al-Nabi al-Ahmadnagri (d. 1769), the
Indian encyclopedist, describes the etiquette of the self as
Terms and Historical Developments
being designed to protect the limbs as well as religious
Ethics in premodern Muslim thought finds its expression
symbols from harm: Implicitly this invokes the obligation
around concepts such as character (khuluq) and in the literary
not to inflict harm intentionally (the ethical principle of
genre of civility or etiquette (adab). Historically, Muslim
nonmaleficence). Ideally, through regular practice, this etiethics draws from several cultural sources: the pre-Islamic
quette should become internalized by the practitioner, beethical traditions of Arabia and the Arab-Islamic tradition
coming a part of his or her very disposition, or personality.
followed by cross-pollination with the practices of neighbor-
The ethics of learning, on the other hand, relate to the
ing cultures, such as Persianate, Greek, and Indian philoproduction of knowledge, especially to questions of language
sophical and ethical traditions, in addition to mystical (sufi)
and epistemology. Here the concern is to figure how knowlsources all of which no doubt left their marks on the face of
edge is constituted and the manner in which its authority is
Muslim ethics.
implemented. Knowledge is deemed to be highly beneficial
Within the first three centuries of several Islamicate and almost intrinsically to contribute to the welfare of the self
cultures of the Near East, several ethical traditions arose. The and others, and invokes the active ethical principle of benefi-
two principal genres of early ethical writing were pietist (or cence. Almost all the early Muslim sources discuss prescripmystical) and philosophical. The earliest texts are primarily tive norms that relate in some way to aspects of nonmaleficence
concerned with the ethics of the self, especially with the and the promotion of beneficence, among other principles.
disciplining of the body and soul. The literary genre of ilm
al-akhlaq, literally meaning “the science of innate disposi- A more formal discipline of the “science of ethics” took
tions” and the emergence of the discourses of civility, urban- shape under the influence of philosophical writers like
ity, or humanitas, called adab are among the most prominent Miskawayh (d. 1030), Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (d. 1023), and
contexts in which ethical debates were set forth. In fact, Abu ’l-Hassan al-Amiri (d. 992), among others. These writers
materials in the form of prophetic reports (hadith) make up expanded the sphere of ethics, developing new meanings
the bulk of what we consider to be the “science of innate within a primarily Persianate environment but in conversadispositions.” tion with other regional intellectual traditions. Many of these
teachings were intended as moral pedagogy for the young, for
Normative discourses about morality can be found in both bureaucrats, and also for the ruler’s entourage and his aides de
the hadith literature and in the Quran. There is a famous camp. In time, more specialized forms of political ethics were
report in which
Aisha describes her husband, the prophet developed as part of the nasiha or advice-genre, offered in the
Muhammad, as the embodiment of Islamic values, saying that form of “mirrors for princes.” The philosophical writers also
his character mirrors the Quran. In this pithy statement, the contributed to a marked growth in moral pedagogy, in the
linkage between the Quran and ethical values cannot be form of the adab genre.
ignored. In short, the expression suggests that the prophet
Muhammad had internalized the virtues proposed in the Even among the early Muslim pietists the cultivation of
Scripture. In fact, the Quran, addressing the prophet Mu- character and the disciplining of the self is a preeminent
hammad, says: “Indeed you [Muhammad] have been en- concern. Through pious acts and obedience to the norms
dowed with a noble character.” (68:4) Here the word khuluq were said to be derived from revelation (sharia) the individual
(character) assumes extraordinary emphasis. was thought to be able to develop an inner disposition that

Islam and the Muslim World 225
Ethics and Social Issues

compares favorably to a notion of conscience. Figures like Later on, the martyred jurist-mystic, Ayn al-Qudat al-
Harith al-Muhasibi (d. 857), Raghib al-Isfahani (d. ca. 1108), Hamadhani (d. 1131) considered the necessity of relying on
and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) produced extensive and the dictates of the heart, fatwa al-qalb. For him there was no
detailed treatises and manuals dealing with topics that address doubt that the heart was the seat of conscience, basing his
intentionality, the cultivation of virtuous habits, good charac- position on a report attributed to the Prophet, which says:
ter, and how to perfect practices that lead to salvation. Each “Solicit a response (fatwa) from your heart, even though the
of these texts specified how a novice in the path of piety could jurisconsult (mufti) had issued a response (fatwa).” This cauattain sanctity for ethical ends by giving attention to prac- tion places the ultimate ethical responsibility on the individtices. Readers were taught how to undertake a moral self- ual, and detracts from the expert knowledge of the legal
evaluation in order to identify character flaws, and were also specialist. In short, for al-Hamadhani, fiqh was the medieval
taught how to remedy such ills. homology for what today is called applied ethics.

Often the remedial path advocated a conscientious ap- The Changing Concept of Fiqh
proach to rituals and practices prescribed by legal discourses, In seeking to identify broad historical trends in Muslim
both those of the sharia and those embodied in the legal thought on the subject of ethics, Ibn Khaldun provides a
regulations called fiqh. The fulcrum of Muslim ethics is valuable starting point. He argued that fiqh, as practiced
ideally expressed in the practical applications of the law at the within its original Arabic linguistic habitat, was an embodied
most public level. disposition and aptitude (jibilla wa malaka). The idea of
malaka can be understood as something akin to a socio-
Nonetheless, the ethics practiced by both the mystics and biological disposition or aptitude, rather than a purely biophilosophers is highly specialized, with its own rarified vo- logical or psychological one. In this sense it has a strong
cabulary that was aimed at serving a certain elite and educated resemblance to what Marcell Mauss calls a habitus. Ibn Khaldun
strata of Muslim societies. No less an authority than the argued that the concept of malaka was subject to cultural
intellectual historian
Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) erosion as Islam expanded into other cultural and linguistic
noted the difference in the perspectives on the sharia held by traditions. In these new contexts, the need arose to theorize
jurists (fuqaha) and jurisconsults (ahl-futya) on the one hand, about and develop rules and principles of the Arabic lanand the mystics and ascetics on the other. While the former guage, law and legal theory, and other disciplines. With this
advocated the general rules for devotional practices, social development, concepts such as malaka underwent alteration.
transactions, and customs, the latter provided the etiquette of This altered state of cultural and ethical subjectivities led to
practice, relying on intuitive cognition or aesthetic sensibility the development of what Ghazali would denounce as the
(dhawq) informed by ascetic practices (mujahada) and self- soulless formalism of fiqh, deprived of its ethical and moral
examination (muhasaba). purposes.

The Influence of al-Ghazali Despite the efforts of people like al-Ghazali, the bulk of
In the twelfth century, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali combined the Muslim jurisprudence developed along very formalistic lines,
methods of both the jurists and the mystics. He grew dissatis- and the ethical stress within law (fiqh) in the end gave way to
fied with the popular understanding of law, fiqh, and with legalism. By the twelfth century, the line was clearly drawn
what he believed to be the ultimate perversion of the law: between those who held that fiqh was part of the development
reductionism, hairsplitting, specialization, and arcane de- of the self and those who saw it as part of a a formal legal
bates. Al-Ghazali admonished that legal debates about mar- edifice. If formal jurisprudence during this period retained
riage, divorce, the manumission of slaves, or the execution of certain ethical concerns, these are most likely traces of previsales and contracts do not result in reverential fear and awe of ous understandings of ethics, rather than the product of a
the divine; in fact they result in the opposite. He argued for lively contemporaneous ethics in conversation with the imthe need to retrieve the meaning of fiqh from its earliest mediate society in which the law is practiced.
usage, when it meant “the path of salvation in the afterlife.”
To be fair, some jurists, other than the mystics, did
In order to restore fiqh to its former meaning, Al-Ghazali attempt to engage fiqh in a dialog with moral and ethical
believed that a deep knowledge of the tribulations of the soul objectives. In order to highlight the ethical strains implicit in
and what constitutes morally detrimental acts was required, the law, some jurists began to emphasize the role of public
rather than a familiarity with the minutiae of the law. He interest (maslaha) by elaborating its ethical purposes (maqasid),
called for fiqh al-nafs (discernment of the soul), a form of such as in the protection and advancement of religion, life,
inner enlightenment. He believed that a proper understand- reason, wealth, and paternity or family. This method, popuing of fiqh should inspire awe of the divine within the heart larized by the work of scholars like al-Ghazali, Najm al-Din
and soul of the practitioner. Ghazali explicitly stated that fiqh al-Tufi (d. 1316),
Izz al-Din Ibn
Abd al-Salam al-Sulami (d.
primarily signifies the requisites of faith, and least of all was 1262), Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi (d.1388), and Ibn Qayyim alconcerned with the dictates of jurisprudence (fatwa, pl. fatawa). Jawziyya (d. 1350), enjoyed only limited success. It is no

226 Islam and the Muslim World
Ethics and Social Issues

coincidence that several of these jurists also adhered to complexity of fetal life. This point of view is informed by the
certain mystical traditions. theological doctrine that the spirit (ruh) enters the fetus
around 120 days (four months) after conception. Those who
In fact, in order to reinvigorate the law with an ethical take a strict position argue that, once the sperm enters the
component, many modern-day Muslim jurists have also taken womb, it is destined to produce life, and thus abortion is
recourse to the doctrines of public interest and the objectives proscribed. Given the 120-day rule, however, many jurists
of the law. In fact, much of contemporary jurisprudence and find it less morally onerous to sanction a justifiable abortion
ethics is indebted to this method, but it has met with mixed within this period.
outcomes. A brief recapitulation of some of these efforts as
applied to major issues of the day may shed light on the The classic precedent for permitting abortion within the
developments in modern Muslim ethics and the way they first 120 days is the case where a nursing mother falls
relate to the inherited tradition. pregnant. The new pregnancy would stop her from lactating,
and the husband may be unable to afford to pay a wet-nurse to
The Ethos of Killing
breastfeed the infant. When facing two competing harms, it is
The unlawful killing of a human being is categorically forbidproposed that one choose the lesser nonmaleficence. In a
den in Islamic law and ethics, and deemed as a major sin. Both
similar vein, there is almost universal unanimity that if a
the Quran and hadith sources, as interpreted by the jurists,
pregnant woman faces a life-threatening risk, it is permissible
view life as sacrosanct. The preservation of life is one of the
to terminate the pregnancy, irrespective of the stage. Preservmoral objectives of the law and intrinsic to human dignity.
ing the life of the mother takes precedence over the rights of
Life can only be taken as part of a just recompense for the
the unborn child.
crime of murder and for defensive purposes such as war and
restoring order during chaos. The noted hadith scholar, Muslim ethicists disagree as to what reasons justify termi-
Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Dhahabi (d. 1348), however, made nation and, more importantly, how such a determination is to
an interesting point about the legitimate amount of force that be made. For most jurists, a medical diagnosis that detects a
is allowed to be used in self-defense. In self-defense against fetus to be severely deformed or defective, carrying a lifeseditious rebels, he argued, the goal is not to kill them, unless
threatening hereditary or untreatable disease, or afflicted
of course one’s life is endangered. To kill without need is to
with a serious handicap is not sufficient grounds for terminarevert to a state of spiritual infidelity, according to a hadith
tion. Only the official Egyptian fatwa-body sanctions termiattributed to the Prophet. Whoever kills without a just cause
nations prior to 120 days in the above-mentioned instances.
carries the burden of killing all of humanity; and whoever
However, if pregnancy has advanced beyond this period, then
saves a life, it is as if the whole of humanity had been rescued,
termination of such fetuses is not permitted even there. A
according to the Quran (5:32).
fetal abnormality that would result in blindness or deafness,
Some classical jurists, motivated by an exclusivist and for example, is not to be terminated, because the handicap is
triumphalist ethos, have interpreted these and other Quranic viewed as tolerable. The Deoband seminary in India only
teachings to forbid the compensatory execution of a Muslim sanctions termination if there is an actual threat to the life of
for killing a non-Muslim or a slave. More egalitarian counter- the mother, not on the grounds of a presumed or calculated
vailing viewpoints have discredited this view. Nonetheless, risk; and fetal defect is not a valid reason to terminate at any
the abolition of the death penalty is not widely advocated in stage of pregnancy. Many Muslim jurists are increasingly
contemporary Muslim societies. Even though the modern retreating from the 120-day rule as advances in medical
state now implements secular criminal codes, in classical technology provide more visible and definitive evidence of
Islamic law the right to seek redress in cases of murder early fetal life.
belongs to the family of the deceased. The family of the
Abortion for the purpose of family planning or to termideceased has the right to choose from several options: they
nate pregnancies caused by rape or conceived outside wedmight seek material compensation for their loss, they may call
for the execution of the offender, or they may even pardon lock is a controversial topic. Some contemporary jurists
the offender. In other words, the death penalty is not a permit abortion for family planning purposes within the 120-
mandatory requirement in terms of Islamic law. However, day period. Ayatullah Fadl Allah of Lebanon is one of the few
some theologians of the classical period viewed the mere authorities who permits termination within 120 days, on the
desire to be an abolitionist as a doctrinal offense. grounds that the pregnancy and its consequences will cause
an intolerable social hardship for the mother and her family.
The Question of Abortion On the other hand, the mere deformity of a fetus does not
Abortion remains a vexing issue in Muslim societies. Most constitute grounds for termination, even within the 120-day
classical Muslim jurists consider a fetus in the first 120 days period. Other scholars counter by arguing that the birth of
after conception to be nonviable. However, there is no denial offspring is predestined and cannot be limited on the grounds
that as the fetus incrementally develops, so too does the of material considerations.

Islam and the Muslim World 227
Ethics and Social Issues

Muslim women in the waiting room of a birth control clinic in Cairo. Abortion is a contentious topic in the Muslim world. © PETER TURNLEY/CORBIS

Mufti Nizam al-Din Azami of the Deoband seminary does mittee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
not consider pregnancy outside wedlock or one caused by Artificial insemination from a husband is deemed permissirape to be a valid reason for termination. For him, the sanctity ble, while that from any other donor is impermissible. Islamic
of the new life takes precedence over the autonomy of the law insists on legitimate paternity being an essential requirepregnant woman and the negative social consequences aris- ment for reproduction, thus outlawing donor insemination,
ing from her added responsibilities. A minority of Egyptian since the donor and donee are not married. Ayatollah Fadl
jurists at al-Azhar University also shares this view. However, Allah expresses some concern that a woman seeking artificial
the highly respected Indian jurist,
Abd al-Hayy al-Laknawi insemination, even legitimately, might be guilty of indecent
(d. 1886), argued that it is permissible to terminate a preg- exposure of her body to a male physician during the course of
nancy conceived outside wedlock, even if there are visible
the medical procedure. Such an indecent exposure is legally
signs of fetal formation, in other words even if the pregnancy
prohibited, unless an emergency necessitates it. However, it
has advanced beyond 120 days. He gives greater considerais acceptable for a female physician to look at the body of
tion to the mother’s autonomy and the need to liberate a
another female. Mufti Nizam al-Din of India outrightly
single woman from social stigma and the accompanying
prohibits artificial insemination, declaring these procedures
reduced life-chances she would encounter if she carried such
are contrary to religion and natural law and increase the
a pregnancy to term in very unfavorable cultural conditions.
A minority of jurists in contemporary India draw on the prospect of dehumanization.
rationale of al-Laknawi to permit termination for pregnancies caused by rape and sex outside of wedlock.
With regard to sperm banks, Ayatollah Fadl Allah dis-
Other Reproductive Issues courages the use of a husband’s stored sperm after his death,
Ayatollah Fadl Allah has issued several rulings related to mod- since the marital tie ends with death. However, he states that
ern reproductive technologies, as has the Islamic Fiqh Com- any child posthumously conceived legitimately belongs to the

228 Islam and the Muslim World
Ethics and Social Issues

wife and is to be attributed to the deceased husband, cau- does not raise concerns about how they may affect the
tiously avoiding the implication that the child may be illegiti- relations among siblings who share a wet-nurse.
mate. However, such a child would not be able to inherit from
the father’s estate, since the fetus was produced after his Contraception
death. In Egypt the permissibility of such a practice has also Birth control is deemed permissible, provided that the means
been a subject of serious contention. of contraception are temporary and not irreversible. The
most popular premodern means of contraception was by way
Ayatollah Fadl Allah permits a female to store her eggs in of coitus interruptus and other forms of prophylactics. Alorder to be fertilized later. Fertilized embryos can be used for Ghazali held that it was permissible for a wife to practice
experimental purposes, he argues, reasoning that such organ- coitus interruptus if she wished to protect her body aesthetiisms cannot be equated to be a living person, which only cally and avoid the changes to her body that accompany
occurs at ensoulment around 120 days after conception. He pregnancy and child birth. Birth control can also be pursued
also permits the sale of unfertilized female gametes for in order to avoid the burden of material difficulties of providexperimental purposes, provided that the financial compen- ing for a large family. There is almost unanimity that vasectomy
sation involved covers only the use rights of the gametes; and hysterectomy, unless recommended for sound medical
there can not be a monetary value placed on these or any reasons, are not permissible, because they result in irreversother body parts, per se. He also permits surrogacy, under ible change to the body.
limited circumstances. Surrogacy is only permissible if the
surrogate mother at least temporarily becomes a wife to the Birth control as part of a national family planning proman whose sperm fertilized the egg she is carrying to term. grams whereby governments place an upper limit on the
Technically, however, the child is attributed to the female permissible size of a family, has often been controversial and
whose egg was fertilized, and not to the female who delivers bitter in the Muslim world. Some suspect that the Westernthe child. The Ayatollah finds several objections to an argu- controlled transnational institutions wish to use family planment that allows a mother to act as a surrogate if her daughter ning to limit Muslim populations. Another concern is that
is incapable of carrying a pregnancy to term. that birth control measures such as the pill and condoms may
increase promiscuity. The controversy remains unresolved.
Adoption and Fosterage In Egypt, for instance, former al-Azhar shaykh opposed the
A limited form of adoption is permissible in Muslim ethics. use of the pill, while another senior official, the state mufti,
This form prevents the adopted child from taking on the encouraged its use. With the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus,
fictional identity and paternity of his or her adoptive parents. the opposition to birth control measures has lessened.
Forging a fictional identity between persons not related
biologically is prohibited according to Muslim ethics. As long Organ Transplantation and Cloning
as the adopted child knows that he or she has biological Indian and Pakistani authorities have been opposed to organ
parents other than the ones in whose household he or she is transplantation from its very inception. Several fatwas, inbeing reared, then there can be no ethical reservation to deny cluding one issued by Mufti Nizam al-Din, allow organ
such children from enjoying all the care and security of family transplantation only under conditions of emergency. Blood
life within the adoptive family. For Muslim ethicists the transfusion, too, is only permissible under extreme condiconcern is that creating identity based on nonbiological tions of necessity. For many traditionalist Muslim ethicists
grounds increases the risk of biologically related offspring from the Indo-Pak subcontinent, transplantation surgery is
unknowingly marrying each other and violating the in- an affront to human dignity and to the sanctity of life.
cest taboo. However, in recent years there have been attempts to reverse
the almost four-decade-old consensus on organ transplanta-
In Islamic law, fosterage is when an infant is nursed by tion on the Indian subcontinent. Some scholars in this region
someone other than his or her mother (a wet-nurse). This have been cautious and have agreed to permit cornea
practice creates the same ethical boundaries between child transplantations only.
and nurse that exist between children, their biological parents, and their siblings, particularly as they apply to the incest In the Middle East the ethical committees of several
taboo. If an adopted infant is nursed by an adoptive mother, institutions permit both organ transplantation and organ
these same bonds and boundaries are also created. The effect donation. The OIC’s Islamic Fiqh Academy recognizes irreis to prevent biological and adopted siblings from unwittingly versible brain-stem damage as legal death, and permits docmarrying each other, since they either share the same person tors to harvest organs from victims of such injury for purposes
as wet-nurse or biological mother. The permissibility of of transplantation. Scholars supporting transplantation befosterage has also led to the permissibility of milk-banks, lieve that this form of medical care advances human dignity,
where infants get milk from anonymous donor wet-nurses. and argue that such measures are taken precisely to promote
Mufti Nizam al-Din also supports the idea of milk-banks, and the sanctity of life.

Islam and the Muslim World 229
Ethics and Social Issues

There is perhaps greater uniformity among the diverse punishment can serve as an effective purgative for this act,
ethics committees in their approach to the subject of repro- and therefore that its immorality precludes an earthly penductive and therapeutic cloning; all express great caution and alty. Some jurists are so morally offended by homosexuality
apprehension. Fears stem from the idea that biogenetic tech- that even to raise the question of its permissibility is enough
nology can radically transform human identity, undermining to lead to calls for excommunication and anathematizing.
if not perverting current moral and ethical practices. For this However, Muslim ethicists have yet to reach consensus as to
reason the Islamic Fiqh Academy prohibits all cloning prac- whether homosexuality is a socially constructed practice or
tices that allow a third party to be associated in genetic part of a biological, genetic predisposition. Such an inquiry
reproduction between two married persons, whether it is by may prompt a deeper ethical investigation into whether or
means of another womb, the provision of third-party gametes, not persons can be held accountable for responding to their
or through the manipulation of animal or human cells. For natural proclivities, even if those proclivities may be deemed
now all forms of human cloning are banned, but the future unnatural by heterosexual standards.
may bring exceptions on a case-by-case basis, as knowledge
and experience in genetics advance. Although the Academy Ethical Trends for the Future
permits research in animal and plant cloning, it encourages Over the centuries, Muslim ethics have undergone tremengovernments to adopt legislative measures to close all the dous change, even though little attention has been paid. In
avenues for direct and indirect experimentation in human the modern period, new scientific discoveries and technolocloning until substantive knowledge makes it safe. Similarly gies have severely challenged the ethical heritage of early
the Academy has declared a moratorium on genetic engineer- Islam. Yet, Muslim ethics remain deeply embedded in the
ing and the human genome project until greater clarity is premodern legacy, and little of modern scientific thinking has
achieved and its ethics committee is in a better position to seeped into ethical discourses in any meaningful way. The
offer meaningful and practical guidelines. cultural, political, and economic encounter with the West
continues to elicit great caution from Muslims, especially
Euthanasia
those within the traditional religious sector, who view the
Indian Muslim scholars rule out both active and passive forms
premodern Muslim ethical legacy as a bulwark against exterof euthanasia. Active forms of euthanasia are a major moral
nal ethical and moral encroachment. Clearly there is very
sin and an unthinkable act within Muslim ethics. Mufti
little consensus between various and diverse Muslim religious
Nizam al-Din argues that for terminally ill individuals, sufgroups that adhere to diametrically opposed views on ethics.
fering has a redemptive quality that should be borne with
However, the above survey of current ethical issues demonpatience by both the patient and his or her caregivers.
strates that there are pragmatic approaches to Muslim ethics
Seeking to hasten the death of the terminally ill is tantamount
that seek accommodation with the ethics of modernity. At the
to the abdication of a caregiver’s responsibility, and would be
same time, there are approaches to ethics that seek to predeemed both a criminal offense and a major sin. Passive
serve distinctive Muslim subjectivities and identities, finding
euthanasia on the part of a caregiver would amount to gross
their best models for such preservation in the historical legacy
negligence, and such deplorable ethical conduct is deserving
of ethics in Islam.
of disciplinary consequences. For this school of thought there
remains an irreconcilable gap between ethical and medical
See also Fatwa; Futuwwa; Ghazali, al-; Homosexuality;
standards of assessing life and death. The Indian ethicists do
Ibn Khaldun; Law; Shari
a.
not accept any standard of death to be conclusive, save for the
cardiopulmonary standard (cessation of all heart and lung
activity). For medical practitioners, other measurements of BIBLIOGRAPHY
ascertaining death, such as brain-stem death, are acceptable. Brockopp, Jonathan E., ed. Islamic Ethics of Life: Abortion,
War, and Euthanasia. Columbia: University of South Caro-
Some of the scholars of the Islamic Fiqh Academy concur lina Press, 2002.
with this cautious view, and oppose such acts of passive Hourani, George F. Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics.
euthanasia as taking a patient off life-support or withholding Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
treatment. However, the official resolution of the Islamic
Musallam, B. Sex and Society in Islam. Cambridge, U.K.:
Fiqh Academy permits withholding treatment and the re- Cambridge University Press, 1983.
moval of life-support machines from patients whose doctors
Rispler-Chaim, Vardit. Islamic Medical Ethics in the Twentieth
affirm that they have suffered irreversible brain-stem damage.
Century. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993.
Ethics and Sexuality Skovgaard-Petersen, Jakob. Defining Islam for the Egyptian
Homosexuality is strictly forbidden in Muslim ethics, on the State. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997.
grounds that it is an unnatural act. Some jurists suggest severe Tahanawi, Muhammad
Ali. Mawsu
a-t Kashshaf Istilahat alpenalties for homosexuality, ranging from death to flogging, Funun. Edited by Rafiq al-
Ajam, et al. Beirut, Lebanon:
whereas others disagree. The latter group holds that no Makataba Lubnan, 1996.

230 Islam and the Muslim World
Ethiopia

Yacoub, Ahmed Abdel Aziz. The Fiqh of Medicine. London: core. Peoples like the Oromo, Afar, Sidama, Somali, the
Taha Publishers, 2001. various tribal groups of today’s Eritrea, and various other
groups adopted elements of Islamic culture partly due to the
Ebrahim Moosa long processes of their confrontations with Ethiopia. In
medieval times fourteen Islamic emirates, notably Ifat and
Adal, centered on the town of Harar, emerged in what is
today southern Ethiopia. Their Islamic history culminated in
ETHIOPIA 1529 when, under the leadership of the imam Ahmad ibn
Ibrahim (nicknamed Gran), they united and conquered Chris-
Ethiopia was the third political entity to embrace Christianity
tian Ethiopia for a short period lasting to 1543.
after the Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Armenia, in 334
C.E. It remained a Christian state, never separating the church
Ahmad Gran’s short-lived Islamic unification was inspired
from the crown, up to the 1974 revolution. Her long, by the rise of the Ottomans in the Red Sea area and by
multifaceted relations with Islam and Muslims can generally simultaneous Islamic scholarly revival in the Arab peninsula.
be analyzed along two themes. One is the concept of Chris- Ulema from Arabia helped the process of Islamic unification
tian Ethiopia as it has been conceived throughout the ages by by spreading Arabic and the teaching of Islamic law. How-
Muslim scholars and politicians of the “land of Islam.” The ever, after the demise of Gran the various Islamic groups of
other is the role played by Islamic minorities in Ethiopian the whole region failed to reunite. They remain to this day
history. The two aspects, naturally, have developed with
divided along linguistic, ethnic, and regional criteria. Centers
dialectical mutuality.
of Islamic learning remained in Harar and in some other
In a way, Ethiopia was the state most affected by Islamic towns, but most communities followed popular versions of
foreign relations. Muhammad’s sending of the sahaba (Com- Sufism and adopted just the basic elements of religious
panions) in 615 and 616 to seek asylum with the Christian education and law. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuking of Ethiopia, al-Najashi Ashama, was also known as the ries Islam flourished again when the Oromo clans began
first hijra. The sahaba were saved from Meccan persecutors by abandoning their sociopolitical system to develop a chain of
the Ethiopian king, and this gesture gave birth to a legacy of emirates, and when Egypt captured the Sudan and the Red
eternal gratitude. This history was reflected in the hadith Sea coast and sent learned men to spread Islam from Harar to
whose essential message was “leave the Ethiopians alone as its surrounding Oromo-inhabited areas and from the Sudan
long as they leave you alone.” Most orthodox Muslim jurists, to western Eritrea. However, during the last quarter of the
scholars, and moderate politicians interpreted this admoni- nineteenth century the Christian Ethiopian empire expanded
tion as a declaration that Christian Ethiopia would be a land and conquered nearly all Ethiopian territories and the people
of neutrality, dar al-hiyyad. On the other hand, the same who lived there.The process of assimilation into the Ethiosahaba-najashi episode was said to have ended with the najashi pian state and society in modern times has been multidimen-
(king), in 628 C.E., embracing Islam. This assumption of sional. Coercive measures and forced Christianization were
Ethiopian neutrality in religious matters was interpreted applied, for example, by Emperor Yohannes IV (1872–1889).
differently by more radical Muslims—pointing to Christian In general, however, Muslims, who numbered about one half
Ethiopia’s illegitimacy. This principal argument among Mus- of the population during this period, remained free to pursue
lims over the legitimacy of historical Ethiopia resurfaced their ways as long as they accepted Christian political hegemwhenever Ethiopia became a subject of the radical Muslim ony. Where Islam was politicized, or when Muslims adopted
agenda, and it remains an active issue today. Arab identity—like in Eritrea of the 1960s—the Ethiopian
leadership, recalling the history of Ahmad Gran, mobilized to
Islamic thought concerning Ethiopia was shaped by dy- stem it. Under Emperor Haile Selasse (1930–1974) only a few
namic cultural, economic, and strategic relations between the Muslims could be counted among the country’s political elite.
Middle East and the Horn of Africa. It has been also influ- Yet most Muslims, especially the elite, were integrated into
enced by the presence of Islamic communities within Ethiopia. Ethiopian life and culture, used the Amharic Ethiopian lan-
Muslims lived in Ethiopia from the very beginning of Islam, guage, and went on dominating trade in both the periphery
and tradition has it that members of the sahaba established the and the center.
first community there, which was tolerated by the Christians.
In time Muslims speaking the Semitic Ethiopian languages In the last quarter of the twentieth century Islam seemed
(Amharic, Tigrinya, etc.) and living in the core regions were to be experiencing a resurgence in Ethiopia. First, the 1974
called Jabarties. As Ethiopian Christians looked down upon revolution and Mangistu Haile-Mariam’s communist-inspired
traders and Muslims were often deprived of landowning, regime separated the church from the state. By eroding
there developed a functional economic coexistence, mixed Christianity, and by recognizing major Islamic holidays as
with some cultural segregation, in the country’s central areas. national ones, the new regime helped to grant the two
Most Muslims during Ethiopia’s history were members of religions more equal national recognition. Then the 1991
various ethnic-linguistic groups surrounding the Ethiopian revolution reshaped Ethiopia along a decentralized cultural

Islam and the Muslim World 231
Ethnicity

and administrative line, meanwhile fostering a free market to be a Kurd, a Muslim, or an Iranian depending on the
economy. The end result was a visible strengthening of Islam particular social or political context. In the Middle East, the
in practically all aspects. As more Muslims make their way to primary significance of ethnic identity is its role in the social
the core of Ethiopian life, the new phenomenon underlines and political structure of the society. Until the mid-1950s, for
an old question—is their advent a contribution to cultural example, particular ethnic groups tended to be associated
pluralization and economic progress, and is it therefore a with specific occupational niches: the Jews of the Iranian city
major aspect of Ethiopia’s modernization? Or, is Islamic of Isfahan specialized in fine metal work and trading in gold
revival turning political, gradually reviving those old radical and silver, Assyrian Christians of Iraq dominated the hotel
ideas about the need to Islamize Ethiopia? and restaurant business, Azeri Turks in Iran were car mechanics and long-distance truck drivers, and most of the
See also Africa, Islam in; Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi; cooks in Egypt were Nubians. Today this pattern is changing;
Empires: Ottoman. mass education, social mobility, and the emergence of new
occupations have all but eroded the traditional ethnic divi-
BIBLIOGRAPHY sions of labor in the region.
Ahmed, Hussein. “The Historiography of Islam in Ethiopia.”
What are the basic sources of ethnic differentiation in the
Journal of Islamic Studies 3, no. 1 (1992): 15–46.
Middle East? The single most important source of individual
Erlich, Haggai. Ethiopia and the Middle East. Boulder, Colo.: and group identity and, by extension, social cleavages, is
Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994.
religious affiliation. Coreligionists perceive themselves as
Spencer, J. Trimingham. Islam in Ethiopia. Oxford: Oxford having rights and obligations to each other and interfaith
University Press, 1952. marriage is generally discouraged if not strictly prohibited by
all the communities. On a larger scale sectarian divisions have
Haggai Erlich important implications for political action. Secular nationalistic movements within any one country or those like pan-
Arabism that seek to transcend national frontiers are usually
undermined by sectarianism. Likewise, pan-Islamist move-
ETHNICITY ments that presume to encompass all Muslims tend to fracture along Muslim sectarian divisions of Sunnis, Shi
a, and
The Middle East is distinguished by its ethnic and cultural Alawis, among others. And while non-Muslim communities
diversity. This diversity, often referred to as a “human mo- like the Jews (until the mid-fifties) and the various Christian
saic,” is the product of long historical processes of which the sects have, on the whole, accommodated themselves to the
people themselves are acutely aware. Almost every country in dominant Muslim rule throughout the Middle East, questhe region has local communities and groups that are distinct tions of what constitutes nationality and full citizenship have
from the larger society as a whole and are recognized as such yet to be resolved in most of the states in the area. This
both by themselves and by others. In fact, the recognition and includes the modern Jewish state of Israel as well as that of the
acceptance of communal or ethnic differences has been a Muslim Wahhabi kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
basic component of social and political organization in the
Middle East. This is best exemplified by the Ottoman millet Ethnicity in the Middle East is also structured along
system whereby the ruling Sunni Muslim Ottomans formally linguistic differences which, in general, set the largest culrecognized the authority of the religious and communal tural boundaries between groups. There are three major
leaders of the different sectarian communities in their em- language families in the region: Semitic, Indo-European, and
pire. By the nineteenth century, the Ottoman list consisted of Altaic or Turkic. Arabic and Hebrew are Semitic languages.
about seventeen millets, which included Jews, Druze, Alavis, Hebrew is spoken exclusively in Israel while Arabic, with its
Armenians, and a number of Christian sects. Ethnicity basi- many dialects, is the national language of the countries of
cally refers to a social or group identity that individuals North Africa, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi
ascribe to themselves and that is accepted by others; ethnic Arabia, Yemen, and the Gulf states. Modern Persian and
identities are most commonly based on shared religious Kurdish are Indo-European languages; Turkish and Azeri
affiliation, language or dialect, tribal membership, and re- belong to the Altaic family of languages. The Berbers of
gional or local customs. North Africa who, like the Arabs, are Muslims, speak different dialects of Berber, an Afro-Asiatic language and generally
Ethnic identity, which tends to be perceived as immutable refer to themselves as Imazighin (or Imazighen). In countries
and ascribed at birth, is most commonly a cultural construc- where large linguistically differentiated populations exist,
tion that, in practice, is both malleable and contextual. Indi- such as the Kurds of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran and the Berbers of
viduals may choose to stress their ethnic identity in one Morocco and Algeria, language assumes a political dimencontext and mute it in another; thus an individual may claim sion. National governments tend to strongly promote one

232 Islam and the Muslim World
Eunuchs

national language and may even at times seek to suppress empires, which were the early Islamic state’s chief models for
minority languages, as happened in Turkey with Kurdish. To court culture. Eunuchs were regarded as the most loyal slaves
educate their children and to participate fully in the national because they were not only separated from their families and
economy and culture, members of minority ethnic groups territories of origin but robbed of reproductive capability.
must adopt the national language and, to a certain extent, Hence, their sole loyalty was ostensibly to the ruler who
dissociate themselves from their mother tongue. enslaved them, and they had an enormous stake in the
continuation of the system in which they were employed.
Of all the elements that may be used to define groups or
social categories, phenotypic race or biological variation is The earliest mention of eunuchs in Islamic empires dates
the least important in the Middle East, where the vast to the Abbasid era (750–1258 C.E.). In his ninth-century
majority of the people from the west in Morocco to the east in description of Baghdad, al-Ya
qubi notes quarters for African
Afghanistan tend to fall within the same racial category often eunuchs in the central square of the original round city. No
referred to as “Mediterranean.” Where a markedly differen- doubt the most famous eunuch of the Abbasid era is Kefir, the
tiated population exists such as the abid or blacks in Saudi African eunuch who became de facto ruler of Egypt following
Arabia and the Gulf region, the Nubians in Egypt, or the the death of the last autonomous Ikshidid governor, just
Turkmen of Iran (with their pronounced Mongolian fea- before the Fatimid invasion of Egypt in 969. The Fatimids
tures); such phenotypic differences are locally recognized but employed eunuchs not only in their palaces but in their armed
are not necessarily associated with an ethnic identity as such. forces as well. In one confrontation between the Fatimid and
Islam has no racial ideology based on color and, while slavery Byzantine fleets, the admirals on both sides were eunuchs.
was practiced throughout the Islamic world, it was not exclusively associated with Africans or any other particular popula- Eunuchs played a number of important roles under the
tion. The Ottomans recruited slaves from both eastern Europe Mamluk sultanate, which ruled Egypt, Syria, and the western
and the Caucasus and their descendants today do not form Arabian peninsula from 1250 to 1517. The Mamluks imeither racially or ethnically distinct groups. Outside of a few ported large numbers of eunuchs from the Caucasus and from
towns in southern Arabia, slavery in the Middle East was not a India, as well as from Africa. They evidently pioneered the
primary means of organizing menial labor; as a consequence, practice of employing eunuchs to guard sultans’ tombs in
the association of class and race or ethnicity and race is not Cairo and, ultimately, to guard the prophet Muhammad’s
well developed and has no significant implication or social tomb in Medina.
and political organization in the region.
The greatest fund of information about eunuchs under
Islamic regimes comes from the Ottoman Empire (1299–1923),
See also Pluralism: Legal and Ethno-Religious; Tribe.
which employed eunuchs from the Caucasus and eastern
Africa. Because Islamic law forbids enslaving and castrating
BIBLIOGRAPHY
subjects of a Muslim ruler, castration was typically performed
Banuazizi, Ali, and Weiner, Myron, eds. The State, Religion, by Christian physicians: Armenians in the Caucasus, Copts in
and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. Syra- Upper Egypt. Yet evidence exists of castration being percuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986.
formed in the Ottoman palace itself, so the prohibition must
Bates, Daniel G., and Rassam, Amal. Peoples and Cultures of the at times have been ignored. During the sixteenth and seven-
Middle East. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, teenth centuries, a number of Caucasian eunuchs rose to be
Inc., 2001. grand wazirs or provincial governors. At the same time, both
Gross, Jo-Ann, ed. Muslims in Central Asia: Expressions of black and white eunuchs served at Topkapi Palace. By 1592,
Identity And Change. Durham, N.C.: Duke University the corps of African eunuchs had acquired a monopoly over
Press, 1992. the post of chief eunuch of the imperial harem (Darussaade
Weekes, Richard V., ed. Muslim Peoples: A World of Ethnographic Agasi or Kizlar Agasi), who guarded the residence of the
Survey. 2d edition. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood palace women. White eunuchs guarded the “Gate of Felicity”
Press, 1984. (Babussaade) separating the outer court from the sultan’s
throne room. The chief black eunuch also supervised the
Amal Rassam pious foundations (waqf, Turk. vakaf ) endowed to provide
services to the poor and to pilgrims to the Holy Cities.
Beginning in 1644, the chief black eunuch, on his deposition,
was routinely exiled to Egypt, where he cultivated ties of
EUNUCHS patronage with the provincial grandees.

In the Near East, the use of eunuchs to guard rulers’ and their The last surviving eunuchs under Islamic rule were guards
families’ private quarters dates at least to Achaemenid times. of the Prophet’s tomb in Medina, who were pensioned off by
They were certainly employed by the Byzantine and Sassanian the Saudi government in the 1920s.

Islam and the Muslim World 233
European Culture and Islam

See also Gender; Harem. that the earliest universities in Europe, such as Bologna,
Paris, and Oxford, were founded on Islamic models. Simi-
BIBLIOGRAPHY larly, many of the financial instruments and techniques of
Ayalon, David. Eunuchs, Caliphs, and Sultans: A Study of Power long-distance trade, which became so important in the early
Relationships. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew Univer- development of European capitalism, were borrowed from
sity, 1999. Middle Eastern models. The Crusades, by contrast, appear to
Marmon, Shaun E. Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic have brought into Europe primarily certain military techniques.
Society. New York and Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University
Press, 1995. Over the following centuries, cultural exchange both ways
Penzer, Norman M. The Harem: An Account of the Institution as was diminished. The Ottomans very quickly adopted some of
It Existed in the Palace of the Turkish Sultans, with a History of the new military technologies of Europe, especially artillery,
the Grand Seraglio from Its Foundations to the Present Time while Europe during the eighteenth century developed a
(1936). Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1974. fascination with things “oriental” in the arts and crafts. The
globalization of European trade combined with the industrial
Jane Hathaway revolution firmly moved the initiative into European hands.
At the same time the encounter between Europe and Islam
spread beyond the Mediterranean into South and South-East
Asia and into sub-Saharan Africa. The imperial expansion was
EUROPEAN CULTURE AND ISLAM the context for the adoption of “curious” elements of Islamic
culture into European culture, but Islamic cultures came
Since the rise of Islam in the seventh century there has been
under an all-pervading European impact. Initially, this imcontinuous interaction between Europe and the Islamic world,
pact was mainly economic. As the industrial revolution gathoften with profound implications on either side. Deepest and
ered pace, so European industrial exports began to replace
with greatest effect has been the interaction between Europe
the products of local craftsmen, and the colonized economies
and Islam in the Middle East and North Africa, that is, Arab
became suppliers of raw materials. Egypt was a good example
Islam. The new Arab-Islamic state, established in the 640s
of this process as it switched its agriculture from producing
and 650s, included major areas that had been conquered from
food to producing raw cotton during the first few decades of
the East Roman (Byzantine) empire. Many aspects of Byzanthe nineteenth century. When Egypt took control of Syria in
tine culture and custom were absorbed into the nascent
the 1830s and cut import duties, the finished cotton goods
Islamic culture, including administrative and legal practices.
produced in the mills of England from Egyptian cotton
Over a longer term, the Hellenistic philosophical heritage
played a major role in the development of Islamic philosophy, replaced the locally produced crafts of the Syrian cities.
and its gnostic tradition in Islamic mysticism. Through both
But European ideas also started attracting the urban
official and unofficial translation projects, major Greek works
intellectual and professional classes of the Islamic world.
of philosophy and science became available in Arabic, laying
Initially the attraction was limited to individuals, but as states
the foundation of a flourishing of the sciences, including
began to restructure on European patterns, either because
mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, in Arabic.
they came under European rule, as in India, Indonesia, or
Arab-Islamic civilization in turn made a major contribu- Algeria, or because they sought to meet the European politition to the development of European Christian civilization a cal challenge, as in the Ottoman empire, Egypt, and Persia,
few centuries later. The main routes for this transfer were they also built up new education systems to produce the kind
Sicily and Spain. The influence of Islamic art and architecture of manpower they needed. By the end of the nineteenth
on the early Renaissance is often quite explicit, as in many of century there were a number of European-style universities
the well-known churches and palaces of Florence and other and many more secondary schools. The early attractions of
Italian cities. Likewise, the impact of the Spanish Islamic the social and political ideas of the French revolution were
philosophers, above all Ibn Rushd (Averroes), on Thomas supplemented by the end of the nineteenth century by many
Aquinas, is widely acknowledged. It is also the case that much of the nationalist philosophical ideas that had been developed
of the Greek philosophical tradition, in particular that of in Germany. These ideas were being circulated ever more
Aristotle, was for a long time known primarily through the widely among a growing urban middle-class and literate
Arabic versions of the texts. It has been suggested that the population through newspapers, a new literature of poetry,
influence goes much deeper. Especially via the Norman histories, essays, and political pamphlets.
connections, from Sicily to northern France and England,
and through Italian networks, the patterns and structures of The early precursors of national movements can be found
learning, of the organization of institutions, and of profes- throughout the Islamic world by the beginning of the twentisional development were transmitted from the Mediterra- eth century. Their ideas often combined elements of Euronean Islamic world into western Christendom. So it is suggested pean ideas with Islamic ones, and many times used Islamic

234 Islam and the Muslim World
Europe, Islam in

against modernity or withdrawing from participation in it,
providing some of the Islamist political movements much of
their support. On the other hand, many younger people have
started using their newly gained educational resources to
challenge the traditions of the older generation. They seek to
separate local custom from the core of Islamic expectations
and principles, placing themselves on a collision course with
many of their parents’ generation. A number of Islamic
intellectuals have recognized this and have become prominent participants in a rethinking of Islamic law and theology
that has a large audience both in Europe and the Islamic world.

A Seljuk manuscript of Aristotle and students appears in the
volume one color insert.

See also Andalus, al-; Balkans, Islam in the; Europe,
Islam in.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Daniel, Norman. Islam and the West: The Making of an Image.
Oxford, U.K.: One World, 1993.
Haddad, Yvonne Y., ed. Muslims in the West: From Sojourners
to Citizens. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Makdisi, George. The Rise of Humanism in Classical Islam and
the Christian West. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 1990.
The Selimiye Camii Mosque sits on a hill in the center of Edirne, Waardenburg, Jacques, ed. Muslim Perceptions of Other Relig-
Turkey, and dominates the city’s skyline. It was completed in ions: A Historical Survey. New York: Oxford University
1575 after six years of construction. © ARCHIVO ICONOGRAFICO, Press, 1999.
S.A./CORBIS

Jorgen S. Nielsen
terms to express European ideas. During the 1930s, a growing sense of disillusion with European models could be
discerned. The European ideas of liberty and democracy
were not being extended to the colonies, so many intellectuals EUROPE, ISLAM IN
began to look for their ideas in Islamic traditions, the most
radical formulating explicit and complete rejections of any- The main concentrations of Muslim population in Europe
thing European. This trend was strengthened in response to today are to be found in Russia (25–30 million), France (4–5
the establishment of Israel in 1948, perceived as an imposed million), Germany (2.5–3 million), Britain (c. 2 million),
foreign body, and even more so after the Israeli victory former Yugoslavia (2–3 million), Albania (3 million), and
in 1967, after which the Islamic trends gradually moved Bulgaria (c. 1 million). Many of the smaller countries of
center-stage. western Europe are home to several hundred thousand Muslims each.
However, throughout the twentieth century the continuing impact of a globalizing economy appeared irresistible. History
Declining agriculture and the growth of industry and services Almost from the beginning of the history of Islam, there has
led to a massive movement of populations from the country- been a Muslim presence in Europe, first in the form of envoys
side to the large cities. A small proportion of that movement and traders to the Byzantine empire and soon, as Arab Islam
took the form of migration to European cities. The impact on spread across North Africa, into the main trading centers of
Islam of this urbanization—and with it the growth of educa- Mediterranean Europe. The first major arrival of Islam in
tion and literacy—is difficult to underestimate, and the im- Europe was a result of the conquest of the Iberian peninsula,
pact is similar whether in Islamic cities or in European cities. which started in 711 C.E. Through settlement and conversion,
The traditional synthesis of Islamic practices and local cus- large Muslim communities became part of the indigenous
toms finds it very difficult to function in the modern urban population of the peninsula. Spanish Muslim intellectuals
environment. Many have responded to this by rebelling became significant participants in Arabic and Islamic culture,

Islam and the Muslim World 235
Europe, Islam in

including most famously Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Ibn Muslim expansion but from European expansion. Today’s
Khaldun. As the Christian kingdoms, led by Castille and Muslim communities in western Europe are a consequence
Aragon, gradually pushed the borders of Islam southward, so primarily of empire. This is most evident in Britain and
the Muslim population also was pushed south. When the France. The first major growth came about as a result of the
Muslim kingdom of Granada finally fell in 1492, substantial opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, when British shipping
Muslim populations left for North Africa. But many, under from India began taking on Yemeni and Somali labor in
the general term Moriscos, remained throughout the region Aden. Over the following decades many of these people
for several generations. For a shorter period Sicily had also settled in and around Cardiff, Liverpool, Newcastle, and
fallen under Muslim rule. The conquest was slow, lasting London. The first mosques in the country were established in
from 827–878, and Muslim control lasted until the Normans Liverpool and the London suburb of Woking already around
conquered the island later in the eleventh century. 1890. Between the two world wars, the London-based elite
sought to lay the foundations for a London central mosque. It
While Muslim populations thus disappeared from the
was only when a plot of land was granted by the king during
European side of the western Mediterranean, the establishthe Second World War that the project began to move
ment of a continuous Muslim presence in the east had started.
forward, leading to the opening in 1977 of the Islamic
In the early thirteenth century the Mongols had spread their
mosque and center in Regent’s Park.
power far into Russia. While Genghis Khan’s empire did not
last long, it left behind a number of Mongol-Tatar successor In France, there was an elite immigration during the
states that had adopted Islam. The Tatar state of Kazan nineteenth century, including exiles such as Muhammad
survived until the 1550s when it was conquered by Russia,
Abduh and Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. But labor migration also
while the Crimean Tatars had fallen under Ottoman rule started then, recruiting mainly into the olive oil industry of
already in 1475. The Muslim populations of these regions the south and mining and heavy industry in the northeast.
stayed and later spread around the Russian empire as soldiers, During the First World War large numbers of North Africraftsmen, and traders settling at various times in regions cans were requisitioned into industry and infrastructure works.
ranging from the Ukraine and Poland to Finland. Here they Recognizing their contribution during the First World War
remained more or less undisturbed until the great forced the government sponsored the establishment of a mosque in
migration of the Stalinist period of the 1930s and 1940s, Paris, opened in 1926. Numbers of migrant workers fell
when a large proportion, in particular the Crimean Tatars, during the recession of the 1930s and reached a low at the end
were transported to Soviet Central Asia.
of the Second World War. But migration soon rose again
Founded at the beginning of the fourteenth century in and, despite their active involvement in the Algerian war of
western Anatolia, the Ottoman empire gained its first foot- independence, the number of Algerians working in France
hold in the Balkans in 1354 and within ten years had re- continued to rise.
stricted the Byzantine empire to the region around
The other main country of Muslim immigration in Europe
Constantinople (which finally fell to the Ottomans in 1453).
during the twentieth century was the Federal Republic of
The Ottoman armies then proceeded to spread Ottoman rule
Germany. Its historical proximity to the Ottoman empire
westward and northward, reaching the gates of Vienna in a
meant that there had been for a long time a cosmopolitan
failed siege in 1529. Substantial permanent Muslim commu-
Muslim population in the main trading cities and, after the
nities established themselves in the Balkans as a result. In
rise of Prussian power, in Berlin. The numbers grew espesome cases such communities were Turkish immigrants from
cially after the two empires started drawing closer to each
the east, some arriving voluntarily, others as part of a deliberother toward the end of the nineteenth century. The ecoate Ottoman policy of settlement. Significant numbers of
nomic ties between them were such that by the outbreak of
indigenous people of Slavic culture also converted to Islam.
the First World War they might be termed at least pseudo-
The majority of Albanians became Muslim at this time. As the
colonial. The defeat of both empires in 1918 left only a small
Ottoman empire was gradually pushed out of the Balkans
Muslim community in Berlin but it did manage to establish a
during the nineteenth century, many Muslims also left. The
mosque. During the Third Reich, the German armed forces
Ottoman defeat in the First World War led to major population exchanges between Greece and Turkey. But the major established several units of Muslim troops that had defected
communities in Bosnia, the Albanians and the Bulgarian from the Soviet army. While some were handed back at the
Muslims, often called Pomaks, remained as did large num- end of the war, many remained in Germany permanently. It
bers of Turks in Bulgaria, smaller numbers in Greek Thrace, also must not be forgotten that in German-speaking Europe,
and parts of the former Yugoslavia. Vienna had for long been the capital of an empire that
included significant Muslim populations. In 1878 the Austro-
Immigration Hungarian empire had occupied the Ottoman regions of
On this background the most recent arrival of Muslim com- Bosnia-Herzegovina. Vienna soon had a resident mufti. In
munities in Europe is a new departure, since it arises not from 1909 the state extended official recognition to Islam. During

236 Islam and the Muslim World
Europe, Islam in

N Finland 0 250 500 mi.
Islam’s Expansion 0 250 500 km
into North Africa
and Europe Kazan
Muslim lands by 634 North VOLGA
Muslim lands by 656 Sea BULGARIA
Muslim lands by 756
Route of advance Poland
(711) Date of conquest
New city founded
by Muslims
City Poitiers Ukraine
Vienna
(732)

Ca
Toulouse
Narbonne
s
(721) Crimea

pi
(720) Bosnia

an
Castille
IBERIAN Saragossa (714) O Black Sea

Se
PENINSULA Aragon T
Albania T

a
Constantinople
O Thrace ANATOLIA
Lisbon Cordoba Toledo (712) M
(711) (711) AN
Granada Greece E M P
I R E
ATLANTIC OCEAN Sicily
Tunis
Rabat
Kairouan Mediterranean
Algeria Tunisia Mahdia
Sea
Morocco Tripoli Barka
(647) (643)
Alexandria
(642)
Cairo

Islam’s Expansion into North Africa and Europe. XNR PRODUCTIONS, INC./GALE

much of this period the Austrian courts were administering Tunisia, while Belgium started finding labor in Turkey and
Islamic family law for those Muslim populations. Morocco. Labor immigration into the Scandinavian countries during this period was smaller but was also more varied
These historical precedents have tended to be forgotten in its sources, including Turkey, North Africa, and Pakistan.
under the overwhelming impact of immigration post-1945.
Initially, once the reviving West European economies had Just as immigration from Muslim sources into mainland
absorbed their returning armies, the search for additional Europe was taking off, so Britain reached a turning point.
labor had extended first into the domestic countryside and After almost two years of debate, the doors of labor immigrathen into the countries of southern Europe, which resumed tion were closed by the 1962 Commonwealth Immigration
their traditional patterns of sending labor abroad. It was Act. However, family reunion remained possible. The length
Britain and France that first looked outside Europe. In the of the debate was a major reason for the sudden influx of men
latter case, the recruitment from Algeria grew and was sup- from Pakistan, arriving to beat the expected ban. More
plemented from the 1960s by immigrants from Tunisia and significantly in the long run, the establishment of family life
Morocco, then from sub-Saharan West Africa, especially brought with it a much greater awareness of Muslim self-
Senegal, and finally, from the 1970s, by Turks as a result of a identity. The closing of the gates of labor immigration and
treaty signed between the two countries. Britain first found the consequent immigration of women and children led
its additional labor needs satisfied from the Caribbean, with directly to a marked increase in organized Muslim activity
immigration starting already in the late 1940s. During the and the establishment of mosques and other places of worship.
1950s, migration from India came on stream, and in the early
1960s immigration from Pakistan (East and West) took off. Organization
By this time other industrial countries of northern Europe A decade after Britain closed its doors, the rest of continental
also began to need additional labor. Having for some time Europe followed in response to the economic downturn
recruited from Yugoslavia, Italy, and Greece, the Federal sparked by the rise in oil prices during 1972 through 1974.
Republic of Germany signed a labor agreement with Turkey The effects were similar: a marked rise in the opening of
in 1962. The smaller countries followed the lead of their Muslim places of worship and in Muslim organizational
larger neighbors. During the 1960s the Netherlands signed activity. The process of organization followed a similar patagreements with Turkey, then Morocco, Yugoslavia, and tern across the various countries. Often the initiative came

Islam and the Muslim World 237
Europe, Islam in

from a small group of local leaders who were concerned
simply with finding a place where the required prayers could Muslims in western Europe
be conducted, and where children could be taught the rudiments of Islamic knowledge, how to conduct the core rituals Number of Muslims Muslim % of
Country (x 1,000) total population
and how to recite the Quran. Soon, however, the initiative
Austria 200 2.6
passed to specific movements. These had usually existed in Belgium 370 3.8
the country of origin and were now following the émigrés to Denmark 150 2.8
Finland 20 0.4
the country of settlement. They had the resources and the France 4,000–4,500 7
organizational experience to meet community needs and, Germany 3.040 3
Greece 370 3.7
often, to provide support to local initiatives. In West Ger-
Ireland 7 0.2
many a leading organization of this kind during the 1970s was Italy 600 1
the Verband islamischer Kulturzentren acting as the German Luxembourg 5 0.8
Netherlands 696 4.6
branch of the Suleimançi movement. Since the 1980s the Norway 23 0.5
Milli Gorus, closely associated with the National Salvation Portugal 30–38 0.3
Spain 300 0.7
Party of Necmeddin Erbakan, has gained prominence. Simi- Sweden 300 1.2
lar roles have been played in Britain by extensions of the United Kingdom 1,400 2.5
Deobandi and Brelwi networks, and by a network of organi-
SOURCE: Felice, Dassetto; Maréchal, Brigitte; and Nielsen, Jorgen,
zations related to the Jam
iyat-e Islami, and in France during eds. Convergences musulmanes: Aspects contemporains de l'islam
the 1980s by Foi et pratique, a movement arising out of the dans l'Europe élargie. Paris: Academia Bruylant, 2001.
Tablighi Jam
iyat, which subsequently forged links with the
Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria. Many of these Muslim population in western Europe.
movements had found themselves at odds with the regimes in
the countries of origin; some of them, indeed, had experienced repression. To counter their influence, governments
was that each European country had its own practices regardsought to establish their own organizations to meet the needs ing establishment and registration of voluntary organizaof their émigrés. The Amicales of Moroccan workers was thus tions, as well as often very different traditions of relations
a means for the monarchy to maintain close ties to the between religion and state. At one extreme, France had
émigrés, and after the Turkish coup of September 1980, the inherited an almost complete separation of church and state,
new government aggressively promoted the role of the offi- which for a long time excluded Muslim groups from any
cial Diyanet among Turks in Germany. participation in public life. At the same time it was not until a
change in the law took place in 1982 that it was possible for
Legal Status
foreign citizens to set up their own organizations. At the
A complicating element has been the very different legal
other extreme were states in which there was a status of
statuses available to immigrants across the continent. For a
officially recognized religions. Under this heading Islam
long time some of the West German states adopted a policy
gained official recognition in Belgium in 1974, in Austria in
of rotation, whereby no residence extension was given after a 1979, and in Spain in 1992. One of the main issues of public
certain period, so “guest workers” were regularly replaced. In contention in Germany has been the continued refusal by the
other German states, longer-term residence was the norm. state to admit the Muslim community to the recognized
Germany generally made it very difficult for foreigners to status enjoyed by the main churches and the Jewish community.
acquire citizenship, as did several other countries, most
notably Switzerland. Both Britain and France had compara- Public Participation
tively easy access to permanent residence and citizenship, and Over the 1990s Muslim participation in public life has bechildren born in those two countries had virtually automatic come marked. In many countries Muslim immigrants have
right to citizenship. The Scandinavian and Benelux countries become citizens and have started taking part in political life
allowed comparatively easy access to citizenship and soon through political parties. In most countries there are now
also gave local voting rights to foreigners. These very differ- Muslims elected onto local councils, national parliaments,
ent stances were reflected in work permit policies. Since the and the elected bodies of European institutions. This is an
late 1980s immigration for work has been a minor dimension indication also of the change of generation. The 1989 proof Muslim immigration, replaced by a growing number of tests against Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses in Britain,
entrants as refugees and asylum seekers, an issue that came to and against the banning of girls’ head scarves in certain
dominate public debate at the end of the twentieth century. French schools served to mobilize a new generation into
political life, as their immigrant parents began to retire from
As a result, the situation in each locality in Europe often organizational leadership. Responses to the events of 11
differed significantly depending on the various patterns of September 2001 have further highlighted some of the tenorganized presence. A further dimension of such differences sions which have been arising since a younger, more active

238 Islam and the Muslim World
Expansion

generation of Muslims has reached adulthood. In various second phenomenon is the spread of Islam as a religion or
European countries, demands for faith-based schools have faith—that is, the actual process (often called “conversion”)
grown and have met mixed reactions. In Denmark, where by which individuals and groups came to identify themselves
there has been a strong tradition of community-led “free as Muslims, both inwardly and publicly.
schools,” the political swing to the right has been accompanied by challenges to Muslim schools, while in Britain the These two processes are not unrelated but are far from
government has been actively encouraging the expansion of identical and must be carefully distinguished from one anthis sector. Everywhere, the media have been attacked by other. On the one hand, Islam historically first came to some
Muslims for “Islamophobia,” often with a degree of justifica- (but not all) regions of the world through the expansion into
tion. In some countries, such as Sweden, Spain, the Nether- those regions of states whose leading cadres were Muslims
lands, and Britain, both the media and government have and which espoused a self-consciously Islamic view of the
sought to balance their reporting and presentation, although world. State expansion was justified by the doctrine of jihad,
it remains difficult to separate domestic and international “striving” or “exerting oneself” (i.e., in God’s service). Jihad
priorities in news evaluation. embraced a variety of practices, including the moral struggle
against sin (even within oneself), peaceful proselytization of
See also European Culture and Islam. others, the use of violence by believers in defense of their way
of life when attacked, or aggressive warfare against nonbelievers
BIBLIOGRAPHY (nonmonotheists) to force them to recognize God’s oneness
Dassetto, Felice. La construction de l’islam européen. Paris: and to submit to Islam. All these interpretations of the sense
L’Harmattan, 1996. of jihad are rooted in Quranic verses (for example, 25:48–52
Felice, Dassetto; Maréchal, Brigitte; and Nielsen, Jorgen, on proselytization; 22:39–41 on self-defense; 9:29 on aggreseds. Convergences musulmanes: Aspects contemporains de l’is- sive warfare). It was the last understanding of the meaning of
lam dans l’Europe élargie. Paris: Academia Bruylant, 2001. jihad that was most germane to the process of Islamic stateexpansion.
Ferrari, Silvio, and Bradney, Anthony, eds. Islam and European Legal Systems. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2000.
The most important instance of this process was the
Foblets, Marie-Claire, ed. Familles–Islam–Europe. Le droit spread of the first Islamic state in the early years of the Islamic
confronté au changement. Paris: Karthala, 1996.
era (seventh to ninth centuries C.E.), but it also is visible in
Martin Muñoz Gema, ed. Islam, Modernism and the West. numerous later historical episodes, such as the expansion of
London: I. B.Tauris, 1996. the Ottoman Empire into the Christian Balkans in the four-
Metcalf, Barbara, ed. Making Muslim Space in North America teenth through eighteenth centuries, the Ghaznavid and
and Europe. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Ghurid conquest of Sind and adjacent parts of South Asia in
Nielsen, Jorgen. Muslims in Western Europe, 2d ed. Edin- the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the conquests of the Delhi
burgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995. sultans in India during the thirteenth and fourteenth centu-
Nonneman, Gerd, Niblock, Tim, and Szajkowski, Bogdan, ries, the expansion of jihad states in the western Sudan in the
eds. Muslim Communities in the New Europe. Reading, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and so on. In almost all
U.K.: Ithaca Press, 1996. such cases, the objective of these Muslim rulers or states was
Poulton, Hugh, and Taji-Farouki, Suha, eds. Muslim Identity not immediate conversion of the local population to Islam,
and the Balkan State. London: L Hurst, 1997. but rather the more mundane concerns of seizing booty or
Shadid, Wasit A. R., and van Koningsveld, P. Sjoerd, eds. securing the tax revenues of the conquered lands, or gaining
Religious Freedom and the Position of Islam in Western Europe. control of strategically important areas. In many instances,
Kampen, Netherlands: Kok Pharos, 1995. however, the conquerors were responding not only to these
Vertovec, Steven, and Peach, Ceri, eds. Islam in Europe: The mundane incentives, but also (or, sometimes, exclusively) to a
Politics of Religion and Community. Basingstoke, U.K.: Mac- general desire to establish in the newly conquered territories
millan, 1997. an Islamic public order—that is, a social order in accord with
Islamic law (sharia). This they wished to do both in order to
Jorgen S. Nielsen extend the glory of the faith they espoused, and in order to
ensure that Muslims living in such areas could meet their
religious obligations to God under Islamic law: open confession of their faith, regular public prayer, fasting during
EXPANSION Ramadan, giving of alms, and performance of the pilgrimage
to Mecca if that was within their means. In most cases,
The expansion of Islam historically embraces two phenom- however, the establishment of an Islamic order in new areas
ena. The first is the expansion of Islamic states—that is, states was not accompanied by forced conversions to Islam or
whose ruling elite consisted of Muslims and which con- by official pressure on non-Muslims to convert; the image
sciously aimed to extend Islamic rule to new regions. The of Muslim warriors coming to an area and offering the

Islam and the Muslim World 239
Expansion

conquered the stark choice between “Islam or the sword” The relative simplicity and transparency of its basic doctrines
is mostly a myth propounded by Western anti-Islamic (monotheism, prophecy, last judgment, etc.) makes them
polemicists. easy to grasp and to defend in philosophical or theological
discourse against religious systems with more convoluted
The establishment of an Islamic public order in a hitherto doctrines (e.g., the Christian doctrine of the Trinity). The
non-Muslim area, however, particularly if sustained over the
fact that Muslims developed over the first two centuries of
span of several generations, generally created the conditions
their existence a strong tool for legitimizing some of these
under which many non-Muslims gradually embraced Islam.
doctrines in the form of an elaborate origins narrative helped
This is why it is said that the processes of state-expansion and
bolster the intellectual cogency of Islam’s doctrines. Islam’s
of individual and group conversion, while distinct, are intiemphasis on justice (frequently stressed in the Quran) and on
mately related. Still, even under the aegis of an Islamic state,
the brotherhood of all believers—the latter made especially
the converts’ actual decisions to join the Islamic community
manifest in the daily communal prayers and in major ritual
openly (to “convert”) seem to have been shaped primarily by
observances such as collective fasting during Ramadan—
individual factors that were also operative outside the realm
were also capable of exercising a strong intellectual attraction
of control of any Islamic state. These included social, ecoon many individuals (aside from their obvious possible social
nomic, and other practical incentives, as well as the intrinsic
attractiveness).
appeal of Islam as a faith-system in its own right.

These historical processes can only be sketched here in As noted above, the establishment of states with Muslim
the broadest outlines; their reconstruction by the historian is rulers and an Islamic public order usually created the condimoreover bound to be somewhat uneven because of the tions under which many people came to embrace Islam.
nature of the sources, which are for many parts of this story Many converted in response to the working of economic or
seriously deficient or even nonexistent. In general, however, social or other factors that the existence of an Islamic public
one can say that the process of state expansion is much better order made possible. Some, however, embraced Islam for
documented than is the process of Islam’s adoption by new explicitly political reasons. Besides those who wished to enter
“converts,” whether within or outside of Islamic states, for government service (or who were already in it, and believed
whose individual decisions, and the factors contributing to that openly confessing Islam would enhance their career
them, there is often no trace whatsoever. chances), many others were doubtless attracted to the faith
that was now “official,” publicly proclaimed, and so increas-
The remainder of this article will examine first the general ingly prominent, and associated with success and victory. On
factors that have contributed historically to people’s decision the other hand, the use of political pressure or force by
to embrace Islam, followed by a brief overview of the spread Muslim authorities to coerce people to embrace Islam, while
of Islam in various regions of the world, during which the not unknown in Islamic history, was very seldom practiced,
relative importance of state-expansion and other factors will even when politically dominant Muslims absorbed populabe noted. tions of nonmonotheists or “pagans.”
Causes and Agents of Islamization At various times individuals or communities may have
As with most complex social processes, the Islamization of a responded to economic incentives to embrace Islam. The
population that hitherto did not identify itself as Muslim
structure of taxation under an Islamic regime—according to
normally involved a multitude of causes or factors. These
which non-Muslims paid a special tax, the jizya or poll-tax, to
factors impinged in differing degrees on various individuals
the Muslim authorities—sometimes seems to have encourin the population depending on their cultural, social, ecoaged individuals to embrace Islam. Generally, however, the
nomic, and political situations and their personal temperatax inequities seem to have been minimal (Muslims, after all,
ment. It is therefore impossible to generalize from one
were liable according to the sharia to some taxes not levied on
person’s conversion narrative what the relative importance of
non-Muslims, such as the zakat or alms-tax) and not sufficient
various factors in conversion was for his society as a whole,
to generate waves of conversions to Islam. After all, the nonjust as it is impossible to work back from the aggregate factors
Muslim communities of the Near East embraced Islam only
operative in a certain historical situation to deduce just which
very slowly—a process taking hundreds of years. Far more
ones would have been most influential on a particular individimportant, probably, was the force of general economic (and
ual who chose to embrace Islam; the selection of factors that
social) dislocation caused by the policies of various Muslim
were most important to a given person can only be known if
that person leaves some written record of his own reasons for states, which caused great flux in all communities under their
embracing the new faith—something that happens only in a rule—Muslim as well as non-Muslim—resulting in a shattertiny minority of cases. ing of the communal solidarity of some non-Muslim communities, in the aftermath of which the uprooted individuals may
First and foremost, we must acknowledge that Islam, as a well have embraced Islam in order to find a secure place for
faith system, has significant intrinsic appeal to the intellect. themselves in some community. The agrarian distress of the

240 Islam and the Muslim World
Expansion

middle Umayyad period in Egypt, for example, which led to other than Arabic; this helped to make the faith more accessiwidespread abandonment of lands by their peasant cultiva- ble and familiar to speakers of those languages, once Islam
tors, many of whom fled to the (predominantly Muslim) had begun to spread beyond the Arabic-speaking lands of its
towns, weakened or destroyed rural non-Muslim communi- beginnings. Usually, the language in which an Islamic disties and doubtless led many such refugees to embrace Islam course was newly developing adopted the Arabic script as an
more or less out of desperation, as their only economic outward marker of its Islamic character, to distinguish such
foothold became one dominated by Muslims among whom writings from earlier, non-Islamic writings in the same base
they now lived and worked. language. The first appearance of Islamic writings in Persian
but using a modified form of the Arabic script, for example,
Many social factors also contributed to the acceptance of which began in the tenth century C.E., contributed signifi-
Islam by individuals or groups. Non-Muslims from highly cantly to the consolidation of Islam in the Iranian cultural
stratified societies who lived in contact with Muslims could zone over the next several centuries, against its local rivals,
not fail to observe the relative egalitarianism of Islam (re- especially Zoroastrianism, which continued to write in a form
flected, for example, in the fact that all believers, from the of Persian using the older Pahlavi script. Similar processes
wealthy merchant to the poorest laborer, prayed side-by-side accompanied the rise of Islamic literary traditions in various
in the mosque); this may have had an impact in societies with dialects of Turkish, among Indic languages for which Urdu
caste-like social restrictions, such as were found in Hindu became the vehicle of Islamic literary culture and identity,
society in South Asia or among Iran’s Zoroastrians. More and in Indonesian-Malay; the rise of each of these contribgenerally, the highly visible collective rituals of Islam, par- uted significantly to the consolidation of Islam in areas where
ticularly communal prayer and fasting during Ramadan, these languages were spoken.
created an obvious sense of solidarity among believers that
could exercise a strong attraction on those non-Muslims who It is important to note that the spread of Islam often has
yearned for the security of a strong social matrix. These followed a pattern of initial superficial Islamization followed
rituals also provided apparent popular affirmation for the after a generation or more by a “reform” movement. The
cogency of Islam’s doctrines. For some men, particularly of initial Islamization may be little more than nominal and
the wealthier classes, the relative ease of divorce and the marked by much syncretism and the survival of older, nontoleration of polygamy may have been attractive features of Islamic beliefs and practices; the “reform” along the lines of a
Islam’s social system. Perhaps most important of all, how- more rigorous variant of Islam is sometimes carried out by
ever, was the simple desire among some non-Muslims to indigenous Muslims (not infrequently led by returning pilattain fuller social integration (including intermarriage) with grims), sometimes by revivalist preachers from outside the
Muslims among whom they lived and worked, and with area. Examples of this can be seen in historical contexts as
whom they had other business or social ties. (Since apostasy disparate as the Maghrib in the eleventh through thirteenth
from Islam was punishable by death, according to Islamic law, centuries (Almoravid and Almohad movements), Anatolia
Muslims rarely converted to other religions, even when they during the twelfth through fifteenth centuries, the puritanical
lived outside an Islamic state.) The fact that Muslim men Wahhabi movement in the Arabian peninsula beginning in
could, according to Islamic law, marry non-Muslim women the sixteenth century, the revitalization of Islamic practice in
meant that a non-Muslim who converted to Islam did not nineteenth-century Indonesia at the hands of returning pileven necessarily cut himself off from the possibility of marry- grims, and the transformation of the Black Muslim moveing a woman of his former religious community. ment in the United States into a form of orthodox Sunni
Islam during the second half of the twentieth century. Islamic
Cultural factors at times also played an important role in reformers naturally decry the laxity and heterodox character
the spread of Islam among new populations. During the first of the superficially Islamized communities they strive to
several centuries of the Islamic era (roughly eighth through reform, but it must be recognized that these communities’
twelfth centuries C.E.), the urban-based Arabic-Islamic civili- loose initial affiliations with Islam, however unorthodox in
zation that developed in the Middle East was by far the most practice and belief, nonetheless represent a decisive turn on
sophisticated cultural tradition of western Eurasia. As such it the part of these people toward identification with the broader
exercised a powerful attraction on many people, who both Islamic community. This early identification with Islam may
embraced Islam and adopted the Arabic language. (The be an easier step for individuals to take precisely because it is
adoption of Arabic and Arabo-Islamic cultural patterns by still tentative, tolerant of some cherished pre-Islamic pracnumerous people in Andalusia who remained Christian, on tices of the local community, or associated with political or
the other hand, reveals that the processes of Arabization and other programs that are not those of Islam in general (for
Islamization were not always congruent.) example, black separatism in the case of the Black Muslim
movement); yet it results in a fundamental reorientation of
Another cultural development of importance to the spread the individual’s identity toward Islam, and so offers the base
of Islam was the rise of Islamic literary traditions in languages on which later reformers can subsequently build.

Islam and the Muslim World 241
Expansion

The agents of Islamization are of course almost infinite in seized most of the Iberian peninsula, followed in subsequent
variety, as in principle people of any kind can, under appro- decades by raids deep into Gaul and occupation of significant
priate conditions, proselytize others or serve as positive areas of what is now southern France. All these areas have
models that attract nonbelievers to the faith. Historically, ever since remained part of the Islamic world, with the
however, three groups of people in Islamic society have been exception of southern France and Iberia, from which Musespecially important to the spread of the faith: merchants, lims were expelled in 1492 by a resurgent Spanish monarchy,
popular preachers, and mendicant Sufis (mystics). Muslim and some islands in the Mediterranean, notably Sicily, where
merchants, who often established themselves as self-contained Muslims established themselves during the ninth and tenth
colonies in non-Muslim areas, historically were the first to centuries C.E. In the east, Muslim forces defeated the last
bring awareness of Islam to many new areas. Because of the armies of the Sassanian Great Kings in western Iran already in
nature of their work, they usually established close per- the middle of the sixth century, and within several more
sonal ties with the non-Muslims among whom they lived, decades Muslim forces had seized areas far to the east,
which gave them many opportunities to engage in patient particularly Khurasan, although some areas of Iran (Sistan,
proselytization among their associates. Moreover, their pros- Gilan) resisted Muslim encroachment stubbornly for many
perity, general reputation for honest dealing and upright more years. From Khurasan, the caliphs dispatched armies
behavior, and powerful sense of collective identity as Muslims into other parts of eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and areas
made them strong positive examples of the Islamic way of life beyond the Oxus River in Central Asia.
that quietly drew many converts.
The caliphs not only organized and maintained the con-
In some situations, popular preachers also were important quering armies that carried out this remarkable expansion of
to the spread of Islam. Motivated solely by personal piety, the first Islamic state, they also benefited from the conquests
these individuals were especially effective in situations where in the form of a share of booty and captives and subsequently
Islam was already known but not yet embraced by many in the form of regular taxes imposed on the conquered areas.
people. The impact of mendicant Sufis was not dissimilar to But it is important to note that for at least two centuries,
that of preachers, although the form of Islam they popular- Muslims constituted a minority (at first, indeed, a very small
ized was in some cases less rigorous than that espoused by the minority) of the population of the vast area controlled by the
preachers; as such it appealed to people who were unwilling early Islamic empire between Spain and Afghanistan; it is
to give up all aspects of their former belief-system, and estimated that the population of the caliphal domains only
initiated that kind of superficial Islamization that, as has been became 50 percent Muslim around the middle or end of the
seen, was often an important first step down the road to full ninth century. The conversion of the population of the
immersion in the faith. Middle East, then, even in lands like Syria, Egypt, and Iran,
was clearly something that happened very gradually.
The Expansion of Islam in Various World Regions
Islam began in western Arabia with the preaching of the It was also during the early Islamic centuries that certain
prophet Muhammad (ca. 570–632 C.E.). Under the caliphs, or peoples living adjacent to the caliphal empire, but outside its
successors to Muhammad as temporal leaders of the Muslims, borders, embraced Islam. The Bulgars, who lived along the
the community he had founded in Medina and Mecca ex- Volga, had embraced Islam by the ninth century, probably
panded quickly to control all of the Arabian peninsula, Iraq, under the influence of Muslim merchants coming from the
Syria-Palestine, Iran, and Egypt; most of these areas were south. The pastoral nomadic Turkish peoples of the Central
seized through military action from the two great powers of Asian steppes were also increasingly converted to Islam durthe day, the Byzantine and Sassanian Persian empires. While ing the ninth and tenth centuries; some may have embraced
the early Islamic conquests remain difficult to explain in full Islam on the advice of itinerant preachers or Muslim meras a historical phenomenon, they are probably best seen as an chants to avoid being preyed upon by slave-raiders coming
example of state-formation followed by rapid state expansion. from the fringes of the caliphal empire in Khurasan. Their
Once firmly established, the Islamic state, led by the Umayyad conversion was to prove of great importance, for in the
caliphs (660–750 C.E.), established major garrison towns in eleventh century the Turks began their epic migration westnewly conquered areas (Kufa and Basra in Iraq; Hims in ward through northern Iran and into Azerbaijan, the Cauca-
Syria; Fustat in Egypt; Qayrawan in Tunisia; Qom, Marv, sus region, and Anatolia; this folk migration, which their
and others in Iran). These became important urban centers political leaders the Seljuks partly orchestrated and partly
where Islamic literary culture developed, particularly under followed, brought both the Turkish language and Islam for
the Abbasid caliphs (750–1258 C.E.). From these garrison the first time to many parts of Anatolia. Under the aegis of
towns the caliphs launched further campaigns of conquest various rival Turkish-Islamic states, much of the formerly
that brought ever-wider areas under their sway. North Africa Christian population of what we today call Turkey gradually
was conquered in a series of campaigns sent from Egypt in the embraced Islam between the eleventh and the fifteenth cenmiddle and later decades of the seventh century, and Muslim turies C.E.—in this case, a process in which both merchants
armies crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in 711 C.E. and quickly and syncretistic Sufi fraternities played a significant part.

242 Islam and the Muslim World
Expansion

Caspian
ATLANTIC Sea Aral
OCEAN Sea

Constantinople Tashkent
Samarqand
Granada Aleppo
Mediterranean Baghdad Harat Kabul
Sea Damascus Isfahan
Jerusalem Basra
Cairo
Delhi

Medina

Re
d
Mecca

Se
Timbuktu N

a
Arabian Sea

Malacca
ATLANTIC OCEAN
INDIAN OCEAN
Islamic World Expansion Demak
to 1550
Islamic at the end of the Lost to Christians
Umayyad dynasty (by 750) by 1250 0 500 1,000 mi.
Islamic by 1250 Lost to Christians
by 1500 0 500 1,000 km
Islamic by 1550 Never under
Muslim control

Islamic World Expansion to 1500. XNR PRODUCTIONS, INC./GALE

Eventually, this Turkish-Islamic matrix gave rise to the constant campaigning to spread its control against local
Ottoman state, which in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seven- Hindu and rival Muslim princes. By the fourteenth century,
teenth centuries conquered vast new territories for Islam in the Delhi sultans had brought an intermittent patchwork of
the Balkans and created the conditions under which the faith areas under their control, extending all the way to south India
spread there, particularly in Albania and Bosnia. and to Orissa in the southeast, and continued battling other
Muslim and Hindu principalities. The degree of Islamization
The first Muslim presence in South Asia was established resulting from this political control varied, however, from
already in the early eighth century C.E. in the Indus river region to region in South Asia; in general, Islamization was
valley (Sind and Punjab) by the conquest of key towns in the (and remains) much more extensive in the regions of Sind,
region, but although this community survived for many Punjab, Bengal, and, by the fourteenth century, Kashmir in
centuries little is known about it. The real beginning of the the north and Deccan in the south, than it was in other areas
extensive spread of Islam in South Asia came in the late tenth of India, including the Ganges plain.
and the eleventh centuries C.E., when the Ghaznavid dynasty
began to launch raids from its main base in Afghanistan into Although military expansion was important to the spread
the Indus valley and beyond, in order to secure the rich of Islam in India, however, it was far from the only factor.
plunder the area offered. Eventually, some of these raids Perhaps equally important was the establishment, no later
resulted in the establishment of permanent Ghaznavid out- than the twelfth century, of numerous trading colonies of
posts in Sind, especially as the Ghaznavids’s control of their Muslim merchants, usually of Arab or Persian origin, particuoriginal base in Afghanistan was challenged and then taken larly along the west coast of India. These merchant colonies
away by others; their Indian possessions thus became a refuge brought to the rulers (usually Hindu) in whose territories
for the Ghaznavids. The Ghaznavids were succeeded by the they established themselves not only important economic
Ghurids, who in the later twelfth century held not only Sind benefits, but also an exposure to some aspects of Islamic high
and Punjab but also came to control most of northern India as culture, and a reputation for honesty and fair dealing. The
far east as western Bengal. With the fall of the Ghurids in Muslim merchant colonies were therefore important cata-
Afghanistan in the thirteenth century under pressure of the lysts for the conversion to Islam of many people in India, even
Khwarizmshahs and Mongols, some Ghurid commanders in before a Muslim prince or the Delhi sultans brought their
India established the first Delhi Sultanate, which engaged in area under the domination of an officially Muslim state. Also

Islam and the Muslim World 243
Expansion

important to the spread of Islam in South Asia were members and warfare launched against their neighbors by local Muslim
of various orders of Sufis (mystics), such as the Chishtiyya. princes. In Java, Islam became influential at the court of
Some Sufi saints were closely associated with a Muslim ruler, Majapahit around the mid-fifteenth century, and subsequently
while others avoided such ties and operated independently; spread widely through the island. Similar patterns can be
whatever the case, their egalitarianism, emphasis on the traced in Borneo, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, and Luzon during
spiritual life, and eagerness to welcome new adepts made the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Rivalry between Musthem powerful magnets for the faith. lim preachers and Christian missionaries (Portuguese and
later Dutch) in the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries
In China, Muslims have always been a minority. Already sharpened the effort of Muslim proselytizers, who presented
by the ninth century C.E. there was a large colony of Muslim their cause increasingly as one of jihad against Christian
(presumably Arab and Persian) merchants in Canton; it was aggression. In the nineteenth century, Muslim pilgrims relargely massacred or expelled by the Chinese in 878, though turning to Indonesia from extended stays in Arabia were
some Muslims remained. The largest communities of Mus- instrumental in fueling a revivalist or purification movement
lims in China were established in Xinjiang in the west during that did much to deepen the local commitment to Islam.
the thirteenth and following centuries, during the period of
Mongol rule of China (the Yuan dynasty), when the Mongols, Islam came to North Africa, as we have seen, as part of the
who cared little about religion, allowed Muslim merchants rapid expansion of the first caliphal state in the seventh
free access to the country. The Mongol Golden Horde century C.E. South of the Sahara, Islam spread more slowly,
conquered parts of central Asia and southern Russia, destroy- arriving by several different routes: up the Nile, across the
ing the Muslim Bulghar kingdom, but by 1290 the khans of Sahara to the Niger region of West Africa, and by sea to the
the Horde had themselves embraced Islam. East African coast. From Egypt, caliphal control, and with it
Islam, spread already in the seventh and eighth centuries
The first Muslims in Southeast Asia seem to have been southward up the Nile into Nubia and from there into the
Arab merchants who established a colony in Palembang in northern parts of the modern state of Sudan and to the fringes
the trading state of Shrivijaya in eastern Sumatra in the of Ethiopia. Farther west, Muslim merchants from North
seventh century C.E. In the subsequent centuries, colonies of Africa were by 1000 C.E. crossing the Sahara in caravans via
Arab, Persian, and Indian Muslim merchants established key oasis towns such as Sijilmasa, Tadmekka, and Awdaghast,
themselves along the coasts of the Malay peninsula and and had established merchant colonies near the great bend of
Sumatra, some fleeing the Chinese destruction of the large the Niger River, particularly at the trading center of Timbuktu.
Muslim trading colony at Canton in 878. As in coastal India The revivalist Almoravid movement established a Muslim
and East Africa, Muslim merchants established a foothold in state in Mauretania in the eleventh century, and began
most of the trading ports of Malaysia and Indonesia. The attacking the Soninke kingdom of Ghana before expanding
important colony of Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra is rapidly northward again. By the thirteenth century, these
mentioned already in the thirteenth century by Marco Polo initial seeds of Islamization had grown into several powerful
as having a Muslim ruler. The trading entrepot of Malacca, Muslim kingdoms in the western Sudan: Mali and Gao in the
which controlled the crucial shipping lane through the nar- Niger valley, and Kanam, in the vicinity of Lake Chad. These
row strait separating Malaya and Sumatra, seems to have had kingdoms and other smaller ones periodically waged jihad
a Muslim ruler by the early fifteenth century. In both cases, against neighboring non-Muslims, and also encouraged comthe wealth and commercially based assertiveness of these merce, which drew local tribal peoples into closer contact
trading entrepots resulted in the spread of Islam to neighbor- with Muslim merchants and their cosmopolitan vision of
ing areas. The sultans of Malacca extended their control over the world.
nearby areas of the Malay peninsula, bringing to Islam local
populations that had not already been attracted to Islam by The spread of Islam in East Africa, along the Indian Ocean
the glittering prosperity of Malacca’s rulers; but after Malacca’s littoral, resembled in some ways Islam’s penetration of Southconquest by the Portuguese in 1511, its commerce declined east Asia. The first agents of Islamization were Muslim
sharply, particularly because Muslim merchants preferred to merchants from Arabia, Iran, and India, who came with the
take their commerce to Muslim Aceh. The sultans of Aceh monsoon and founded or established colonies in the major
eventually expanded their influence and control southward in coastal trading ports from Somalia southward, particularly in
Sumatra and in adjacent areas at the expense of other local Zanzibar, where sectarian (Khariji) Muslims from Oman
chieftains, particularly in the seventeenth century C.E.; they established ties that endured in political form until the midcontinued to ply their traditional occupations of commerce twentieth century. Other Muslim colonies remained subject
and piracy, and the sultanate ended only in the late nine- to local rulers, but retained close communal and family ties to
teenth century during the war against Dutch colonial occupa- their coreligionists in Arabia or India. From the coastal
tion. The spread of Islam to other parts of Southeast Asia—in trading ports, Islam gradually penetrated some distance into
particular Java, Borneo, and the Moluccas—was carried out the hinterlands from which came the goods exchanged at the
through a combination of peaceful commerce, proselytization, ports of trade.

244 Islam and the Muslim World
Expansion

Muslim communities became prominent in Western See also Conversion; Da
wa; Jihad; Tasawwuf.
Europe and North America only during the middle and latter
decades of the twentieth century. In Western Europe, Mus- BIBLIOGRAPHY
lim communities became established in some cases as an Arnold, Thomas. The Preaching of Islam. A History of the
unforeseen by-product of a European country’s possession of Propagation of the Muslim Faith. (1896). Reprint, Lahore:
Asian or African colonies or protectorates with large Muslim Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1961.
populations. Whether in search of work, education, or (after Bulliet, Richard. Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An
the colony’s independence) sanctuary from oppression, mi- Essay in Quantative History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
grants from these colonial or ex-colonial possessions some- University Press, 1979.
times found a way to move to the metropolitan country, Chaudhuri, K. N. Asia Before Europe: Economy and Civilisation
whose language and sometimes culture they had often learned. of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750. Cam-
Salient examples are the large communities of Muslims of bridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
North or West African origin in France, those of South Asian Donner, Fred M. The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton, N.J.:
origin in Great Britain, and those of Southeast Asian origin in Princeton University Press, 1981.
the Netherlands. Other Muslim migrants to Europe came to Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam. Chicago:
countries with no colonial connections to the Islamic world, University of Chicago Press, 1974.
mainly for economic reasons, such as the many Turkish guest Holt, P. M.; Lambton, Ann K. S.; and Lewis, Bernard, eds.
workers in Germany, or for political reasons (Iranians after The Cambridge History of Islam. Vol. 2: Indian Sub-continent,
the overthrow of the shah in 1979, Bosnians during the South-East Asia, and Africa. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s). Whatever the cause, University Press, 1970.
many of these Muslim migrants to Europe settled there Levtzion, Nehemia, ed. Conversion to Islam. New York: Holmes
permanently, so that the large and growing Muslim commu- and Meier Publishers, 1979.
nities of Western Europe are now in their third and fourth McCloud, Aminah Beverly. African American Islam. New
generations. York: Routledge, 1995.
In North America, large numbers of immigrants from Qureshi, Ishtiaq Husein. The Muslim Community of the Indo-
Pakistan Subcontinent, 610–1947: A Brief Historical Analysis.
majority-Muslim lands in Asia and Africa came to pursue
Karachi: Ma
aref, 1977.
economic opportunities or education, or to escape political
oppression or economic deprivation (such as the large influx Richards, D. S., ed. Islam and the Trade of Asia. Oxford, U.K.:
Bruno Cassirer, 1970.
of Iranians of middle- or upper-class backgrounds who came
after 1979). The Islamic community in the United States, Risso, Patricia. Merchants and Faith: Muslim Commerce and
however, also includes a sizable number of indigenous African- Culture in the Indian Ocean. Boulder, Colo.: Westview
Press, 1995.
Americans. Beginning in the 1930s, some African-Americans
joined Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam, originally a Schimmel, Annemarie. Islam in the Indian Subcontinent. Leiden:
black separatist movement. The Nation of Islam espoused E. J. Brill, 1980.
many ideas that were not part of traditional Islam and most of Smith, Jane I. Islam in America. New York: Columbia Unithem identified only weakly with mainstream Muslim com- versity Press, 1999.
munities around the world. During the 1950s and 1960s, Trimingham, J. Spencer. A History of Islam in West Africa.
however, this movement underwent an internal transforma- Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1962.
tion (led by such figures as Malcolm X) that led increasing Trimingham, J. Spencer. Islam in East Africa. Oxford, U.K.:
numbers of its members to adopt mainstream Islamic values Clarendon Press, 1964.
and to abandon the movement’s black separatist origins. The Trimingham, J. Spencer. The Sufi Orders in Islam. Oxford,
American Muslim Movement that emerged from the Nation U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1971.
of Islam after Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975 is thoroughly orthodox in its doctrines. Fred M. Donner

Islam and the Muslim World 245
F
FADLALLAH, MUHAMMAD BIBLIOGRAPHY
HUSAYN (1935– ) Aziz, Talib. “Fadlallah and the Remaking of the Marja
iya.”
In The Most Learned of the Shi
a: The Institution of the Marja

Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, spiritual leader of the Shi
a of Taqlid. Edited by Linda S. Walbridge. Oxford, U.K.:
Lebanon, was born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1935 to a religious family Oxford University Press, 2001.
from Southern Lebanon. Known in the West as the spiritual
leader of Hizbullah, unlike most Shi
a ulema, he traces his Mazyar Lotfalian
genealogy to Imam Hassan rather than Imam Hossein. He
studied with Ayatollah Khui in Najaf, following which
Fadlallah settled in eastern Beirut and became Khui’s representative. He lived and worked as a Shi
a among Sunnis and FALSAFA
Christians during the civil war in Lebanon. At the onset of the
war he wrote about the relationship between political power Philosophical speculation in Islamic culture has triple roots in
and ideology and became an active community organizer. In theology (kalam), philosophy proper (falsafa), and mysticism
his relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran, he has both (tasawwuf).
continued his contacts with Tehran as well as maintained a
Theological Beginnings
distance from the Iranian leadership.
The genesis of Muslim philosophical theology is manifested
Fadlallah’s career is marked by differences from other in the marriage of Greek logic and monotheistic apologetics
Shi
a ulema. These differences include his focus on social and in the school of Mu
tazilah initiated by Wasil ibn
Ata (d. 748)
charitable organizations, women’s participation in public life, and developed by Abu al-Hudhayl al-
Allaf (d. 849/850), his
and a rather decentered view of leadership. He believes that nephew al-Nazzam (d. c. 435/445), and the jurist
Abd almarja
iyya, religious leadership, should be distinguished from Jabbar (d. 1204/1205). They inquired into such questions as
wilayat al-faqih,or political leadership. There should be many the compatibility of free will for creatures and Divine omwaly (political leaders), whereas only one person should hold nipotence. Can a person act against the will or knowledge of
the title of marja. This means that there are many waly who God? If persons have no free will, how can a just God punish
are the interpreters of religion and politics in society. On the them for predetermined actions? If rewards and punishments
other hand, marja is a symbolic and religious leadership and are arbitrary, why does God send prophets and reveal sacred
jurisdiction goes beyond the political and national bounda- scriptures to guide His creatures? Wrestling with such key
ries. Fadlallah believes that marja should be unified under issues in theodicy, the prevalent adherents of the Mu
tazilah
one authority. Regarding jurisprudence, he argues that the position support the legitimacy of the doctrine of punishment
Quran takes precedence over the sunna, and that jurists need and rewards by proffering their view that persons are free and
to interpret meaning directly from the Quran. Fadlallah’s that God is just. Their position criticized subjectivism in
religious and political status increased, especially among ethics and upheld a rationalist ethic that persons can reason
radicals, after Ayatollah Khomeini gave him ijaza (religious about ethics and thus are responsible for moral actions.
permission) to collect khums (religious tax) from his follow- Against this family of doctrines arose the school of Ash
arites
ers in 1982. (founded by Abu ’l-Hasan al-Ash
ari, d. 935), which advocated the so-called theory of occasionalism. Popularized later
See also Political Islam. in Europe by Nicolas Malebranche (d. 1715), occasionalists

Falsafa

confronted the thorny problem of causality as follows. Among Ibn Sina’s concepts, such as the essence-existence distinccreated occasions in the world, there is no causation (neither tions. In this light Islamic texts may be useful both in tracing
agent-patient nor an event-type of causation). Specifically, the development of Greek thought as well as in revealing the
minds/mental events or bodies/physical actions are subject genesis of some Latin and Hebrew philosophical writings.
only to an ultimate cause, namely God. Belonging to the
Sunni school of theology, this school questioned the mean- Major Muslim thinkers of the classical period. A key
ingfulness of the notion of free will; by contrast, it advocated figure is Abu Ya
qub Al-Kindi (d. 873), who proffered a
that God ordained a total resignation to the cosmos, which it search for truth over reliance on authority. Moreover, he
claimed. This position does not imply any negative states for supported the theory of creation by arguing that the eternity
humanity; in this tenor, persons (including someone in the of the world would imply the existence of an actual infinite,
position of Job) should envision nature and themselves as which was proven to be impossible by Aristotle. Abu Nasr Almere gifts of the Divine grace; faith commands creatures to Farabi (d. 950), is known as “the second teacher,” an original
passively witness the glory of creation as an icon of the thinker and a logician. His numerous contributions include:
Creator. Other key issues included the controversy as to (a) construing a Muslim version of the theory of emanation
whether or not the Quran is co-eternal with the Divine; this adopted by a majority of subsequent Muslim philosophers;
controversy is based on a reading of the Timaeus where Plato (b) holding a Platonic position that philosophizing takes place
postulates a co-eternity among the ideas/forms/universals in context of a polity and its societal ethics; and finally (c)
and the creator-artist-demiurge. Finally they have constantly having insights in analytical ontology on topics such as the
debated the place of reason versus revelation and the place of relation between language and ontology. He demonstrated
philosophy in an Islamic society. A number of Sunni theolo- that in the spite of the fact that Semitic languages like Arabic
gians like Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) and Ahmid ibn do not contain the copula, they are nevertheless as capable as
Taymiyya (d. 1327) criticized what they considered to be any Indo-European language like Greek or Persian to express
untenable attempts of philosophers to intrude into theology. primary ontic concepts designated by terms such as being,
In contrast, Shi
a writers like Nasir Khusraw, Nasir ad-Din existence, existent, and substance. Abu
Ali ibn Sina (d. 1037),
Tusi (d. 1274), and Sadr ad-Din Shirazi (known as Mulla who is perhaps the most original and systematic Muslim
Sadra), all of whom were philosophers in the school of Isfahan thinker, as is illustrated by the following ideas.
in the following three centuries, and even as recent as Ruhollah
Khomeini (d. 1989), all view theology and philosophy as With respect to the logical structure of metaphysics, Ibn
interdependent disciplines. The most philosophical group of Sina modified the ontology of the peripatetic substance-
Muslim sects consists of the so-called Isma
ilis, among them event language ontology (where the first division of being was
Khosrow, Hamid al-Din Kirmani, and Nasir al-Din Tusi. into the categories of substances and accidents) to a primary
encounter with being and the threefold modalities of neces-
Classical Philosophy (Ninth to Thirteenth Century) sity, contingency, and impossibility. A concatenation of being
The classical age of Islamic philosophy is marked by the with necessity leads to necessary being, which, in the second
following features: (a) an increasing awareness of the impor- version of the ontological arguments, leads to the notion of
tance of Greek philosophy, especially of Aristotelian delinea- The Necessary Existent, the cause of the actualization of all
tion and division of philosophical studies such as ontology, contingent beings.
epistemology, normative types of inquiry, analytical disciplines such as logic and mathematics, natural sciences, and With respect to the epistemic meditative experience, he
theology; (b) the production of commentaries on the Greek postulated a four-phase hermeneutic phenomenological entexts, and the development of new and creative solutions to counter as follows: (i) being, (ii) the field of experiencing the
the traditional controversies such as the nature of imagina- world as the immediate phenomenon, (iii) a search from a
tions and the problem of universals; and (c) the pursuit of contingency of the agent to the inner essence of the agent, which
philosophical investigations independent of religious con- is the necessary existent, and (iii) finally an aim toward
cerns. A majority of recent and some contemporary investiga- dealienation through a unity of existents. Ibn Sina’s system
tors in Islamic philosophy focus on the so-called Greek into may be used to reread the ontological argument of both St.
Arabic, or/and Arabic into Latin/Hebrew. There is no doubt Augustine (d. 430) and René Descartes (d. 1650). In this light
that this historical-reductive approach is a legitimate field as the most celebrated argument for the existence of God is not
illustrated in the case of the Persian-born philosopher and a static, empty logical argument based on definition, but a
scientist Ibn Sina (known to the West by his Latin name, phase of transformation due to a search from being, to the
Avicenna). He claimed that he had read Aristotle’s Metaphys- self-field of experience, to God and finally a desperate atics about forty times, and both peripatetic and Neoplatonic tempt to form a dealienating unity among all existents.
influences are imprinted over his several encyclopedic collections. In turn, Ibn Sina was mentioned over five hundred In the field of mysticism, Ibn Sina’s account of metatimes by the most important Catholic thinker, St. Thomas mysticism and his distinctions between mystical, religious, and
Aquinas (d. 1274), who grounded much of his metaphysics in ascetic, as well as his description of states and stations of

248 Islam and the Muslim World
Falsafa

mystics, paved the way for subsequent scholarships on Consequently, reality was depicted as a process; analysis was
mysticism. compared to waves in the ocean or wind in motion. Now
there are two sides to such a process: an external one, like
His original system integrated various aspects of Aristote- drops of water coming from a river that in turn came from an
lian and Neoplatonic Greek theories with the Islamic intel- ocean; thus a drop of water going back to the ocean, or a
lectual tradition. Subsequent philosophers had to take account person dying as an individual and then becoming part of the
of Ibn Sina’s system, criticizing him, in the case of al-Ghazali, world, both of which depict the unity of being as entities
Fakhr al-Din Razi (b. 1149), and Ibn Taymiyya, following returning to their archetypal mother, or to the source of their
him (as with Tusi), or including in their philosophy some of generation. The other side, an internal, an intentional one in
his visions, like Ibn Rushd (d. 1198), Shihab ad-Din Suhrawardi light of which a person is transformed from one state of mind
(d. 1191), Aquinas, and Sadr ad-Din Shirazi (known as Mulla to another, is depicted either in celebrated cases like the
Sadra). In sum, a comprehensive Islamic philosophical system conversion of St. Paul or in typical cases like becoming a
emerged through Ibn Sina’s encyclopedic works. parent, falling in love, and the like. Muslim philosophers
A parallel vibrant tradition of original philosophy, mysti- needed this Neoplatonic framework of process language as
cism, and scholarly commentaries developed in Islamic Spain. they dealt with the key issue of the paradox of mystical union,
Mention has already been made of Ibn Rushd—known to the which aimed to bring an ultimate intimacy between persons
West by his Latin name, Averroes—who also wrote a number and their source of genesis, like a child seeking to return to
of commentaries on Aristotle’s work as well as on Plato’s the mother. In Aristotle’s vocabulary no two substances could
Republic. He is known in Christian medieval circles as the have become identical with one another, as the only substanoriginator of the so-called double-truth theory, which ren- tial changes were generation and corruption; for example, a
ders religious and philosophical languages to be isomorphically cat cannot become a dog. But in process language, two waves
compatible, although scholars today question this interpreta- can merge and become a single wave, or a drop of water can
tion of his theory of truth. Noteworthy among the list of return to the sea or a fire of love to its source, the heavenly
other philosophers is Ibn Tufayl (d. 1185), who presents in a sun. In authentic personal experiences, the birth of their child
Robinson Crusoe–like tale, an allegorical account of various represents the visible fruit of the merged love of two lovers.
phases of the development of persons in light of which issues Medieval Muslim philosophers use the method of allegorical
are portrayed such as the acquisition of language, communi- theology by appeals to motifs such as “drowning” or “light”;
cation with nature and human being, and finally with God. in such a framework “mystical union” can be clarified by a
symbolic or an allegorical theology. Moreover, unlike Aris-
The Post–Ibn Sina Developments of Metaphysics totle’s system, such processes in the world that were external
and Epistemology to persons’ bodies had also a personal and an intentional side.
Ibn Sina’s original insights culminated in a number of the It should be noted that Aristotle’s system is not a static
following ideas in later Islamic philosophy. metaphysics, as the ultimate model is an organic depiction of
nature, where the highest state consists in imitating the prime
The world depicted as a process analogous to a flowing movers’ theoretical structure of the cosmos.
river or a shining sun. To begin with, for Aristotle, the
ultimate constituent of the world consists of what he called The rise of philosophical analysis. An aspect of recent
first substances, which are primarily individual, concrete postidealism in the West has been the rise of philosophical
particulars like the stars, living persons, animals, trees, and analysis, characterized by features such as clarification of key
rocks. Consequently, other features of the world like quan- primitive terms and the reconstruction of a clear syntactical
tity, quality, place, time, relations, and alike are accidental meta-linguistic framework. This feature was developed in the
and are actual only because of the characterization of a philosophy of logical positivism at the turn of the twentieth
subspace. Against Plato, he argued that the entity, “being century and culminated in Rudolph Carnap’s (d. 1970) docgreen,” does not exist in or by itself; it is realized if it endures trine of reconstructionalism. Similar themes are depicted in
as a color of a specific tree or the color of a person’s eyes. The the following three theses of Islamic philosophy.
key issue is his accidental depiction of time, which postulates
that the primary account of the world is in the language of The first case lies in Ibn Sina’s tripartite solution to the sosubstances, for example, rocks or trees, and events such as called theory of universals, which questioned the ontic status
their locomotion, damnation, and growth, and the alteration of universals (indicated by notions such as “being a number,”
of their character. By contrast, in the post–Ibn Sinan philoso- or “goodness”). Ibn Sina held the position that the meanings
phy, temporal dimensions of phenomena such as experiences of single philosophical terms are to be found in the context of
of persons were depicted as an essential aspect of their reality, their applications as follows: Syntactical universals (such as
for which Mulla Sadra coined the expression “substantial “evenness”) as well as a syntactical analysis of universals are
motion.” In Sadra’s ontology the universe was depicted as a significantly independent of our mental state or the actual
continuum of realms of existents, from the pure absolute world; conceptual universals, such as intentions, are midexistent, identified as God, to series of layers of entities. dependent; and finally in the realm of empirical sciences,

Islam and the Muslim World 249
Falsafa

essences and universals follow our encounter with facts that of what William James (d. 1910) stipulated as “stream of
are existents and particulars. An awareness of the linguistic consciousness”; thus the focus is not on persons as thingsimport of philosophical issues can also be found in the clever substances but on the temporal nature of experiencing the
solution of Nasir Khusraw (d. 1077) to the question of world. In this light, both Ibn Sina and Mulla Sadra construe a
“Which comes first? The chicken or the egg?” He pointed phenomenological metaphysics in which the mind directly
out the similarity of this paradox with the inquiry about the encounters being rather than itself as a substance. In sum, a
“initiation of the beginning segment in a circle.” He replied major contribution of Islamic philosophy lies in its depiction
that a chicken means an actualized egg, while an egg means a of “persons” in the context of the field of experience.
potential chicken. Thus, a comprehensive language addresses
the question’s need to place both of them in the same object Key epistemological concepts depicted in light of both
language level of terms (in the same way space and time are value and experience. Traditionally epistemic models folplaced as primitive notions in contemporary physics). Finally lowed theoretical frameworks of Platonic writings, where
let us consider Tusi’s analysis of infinity. As a rational phi- knowledge was identified with the abstraction of concepts.
losopher, he had to agree with Aristotle that there is no actual Later knowledge was limited either to concepts received
infinite, but as a mathematician, he sought to take “infinite by the intellect or sense data experienced by the senses.
number” as a significant notion. Thus, he made a meta- Analogous to many recent epistemologies such as American
linguistic distinction between several senses of infinity, syn- pragmatism, Muslim philosophies examined layers of contactical and ontic, accepting the first sense and rejecting the sciousness/awareness in varieties of knowing, as well as the
second. These three examples well illustrate that Islamic relation between knowledge and morality. Let us consider
philosophy contains an awareness of philosophical analysis, some examples from everyday life.
meta-mathematics, and logic.
In teaching a trade, the apprentice learns “how to” per-
Depiction of the self as a ground of experience. The form a task, for example, learning how to ride a bicycle, or
concept of a person is a cardinal issue in the philosophical learning to dance. In these examples, one learns “how to do
system due to the observation made by Ludwig Wittgenstein an activity,” instead of learning and conceiving a clarification
(d. 1951) that we can never see our eyes directly, or that the of an analytical fact like an axiom of geometry or empirical
self is not in the world, but that it is implied in the ground of
data, like the distance between the sun and earth; one can also
being-in-the-world. Also, he pointed out that the notion of
become a better perceiver of danger or have a richer experilanguage is like a game, a societal entity; consequently, a
ence of music, or sport. With respect to morality and ethics,
substantial notion of the self may prevent the possibility of
one may follow Plato’s equation of knowledge with virtue and
language and thus of knowledge all together. It is for this
vice with ignorance. Accordingly, learning from the world
reason that a number of western philosophers have rejected
makes one also a better human being. The primary sources of
the Cartesian depiction of the self as a substance. For examthese practical and holistic epistemologies are the works of
ple, David Hume (d. 1776) depicts the self in terms of a
Plato and Plotinus. Specifically, Plato uses the allegory of a
bundle of impressions, while Kant attempts to clarify the
blindfolded prisoner who, through a continuum of epistemic
phenomenal self in the search for what he calls a transcendenascents, finally confronts the source of all sight, which is the
tal unity of perception. Finally, Martin Heidegger’s depiction
sun; he also depicts love as a ladder through which a lover
of self as Dasein, meaning “being-in-the-world” is one of the
most celebrated philosophical formulations of the twentieth encounters the true form of absolute beauty, which is another
century. Long before these European thinkers, a number of icon for the highest good. Plotinus also discusses the ascent of
Muslim philosophers focused on a depiction of the notion of the soul as it seeks to be united with the One, analogous to a
a person in ways to avoid the standard paradoxes such as daughter, who, recognizing her true love for the father, seeks
“private language fallacy.” Ibn Sina, for instance, states that if “no otherness” from the One. Muslim philosophers devela person abstracts his sensations one by one, he can never oped their epistemologies in ways that resemble Ibn Sina’s
presuppose that the subject of this experience is empty. In a theory of pragmatic imagination. Ibn Sina postulates the
similar manner, al-Ghazali points out that both God and the epistemology of internal senses, translated here as “prehensive
self are without any quality or quantity —they belong to the imagination,” as illustrated in the case of sheep running away
ground of experience and not to objects of experience (like at the sight of a wolf. In such a response, it is not necessary for
Hume’s point that there is no impression of the self). In a Sufi an agent to be conscious in order to act prudently. Similar
depiction of the self, persons are construed in a process which cases are found in Muslim theories of learning through the
is a continuum of the development of states (ahwal) and mystical apprenticeship with a Sufic master, as the Disciples
stations (maqamat); eventually the finite limited ephemeral of Christ learned from Jesus’ acts or one learns from parables
self is annihilated (fana) and is merged into its ultimate in the sacred texts. Recent development in the West in “fuzzy
source; in such a state, a person merging into its essence logic,” Gestalt psychology, the epistemologies of Marxists,
persists (baqa) eternity in this blessed state of union. Here a American pragmatists, the views of a number of philosophers
person is not depicted as a substantial soul but in the context such as Henry Bergson (d. 1941), Alfred North Whitehead

250 Islam and the Muslim World
Falsafa

(d. 1947), and Wittgenstein—all these question the legiti- original desire. The Muslim mystic’s vision of the ethics of
macy of the notion of a conscious state independent of life unity is much stronger than the simple case stated above. The
activity. Al-Ghazali ironically wrote against philosopher’s mystical return is, in fact, an integration of the last phase of
mistakes, but in fact was instrumental in strengthening phi- the ethics of self-realization, which constitutes the perfection
losophy among subsequent Muslim scholars. For him the (kamal) of persons. The Isma
ili philosopher Nasir Khusraw
major feature of God and persons is intentional volition. In presents the following Neoplatonic version of this theme of
the case of the Divine, there is the will to create the cosmos. unity through emanation and return. To begin with, neither
In the case of persons, we have intentional epistemic virtues temporality nor existence may be applied to the term God.
of the soul’s urge in seeking salvation. The most outstanding What can be talked about is the cosmogony of the emanation
features of humanity are found in immediate existential of the world from the first intelligence, having been begotten
feeling tones of exuberance (dhawq), urgency (shawq), and from the One who emanates the universal soul; the latter
authentic states of intimacy (uns). Al-Ghazali’s system inte- emanates the individual souls. Now the problem is what to do
grates a number of insights from various traditions, such as with these individual souls, as they need to be differentiated
the supremacy of the power of good will in the Zoroastrian from one another in the spiritual realm. In this context,
tradition and in Friedrich Nietzsche, in Wittgenstein’s ear- Khusrau proffers the view that the souls are temporarily
lier doctrine as well as in St. Augustine’s account of the embodied in order to partake of morally significant experisimilarity between persons and the world, of the soul and ences, and in life’s struggle, they have an opportunity to
God. Al-Ghazali’s writings were instrumental in integrating become purified. The theme is a repetition of Plotinus’s view
the philosophical dimensions with extensive mystical (Sufi) that a body is like the useful instrument of a musician who sets
writings in enriching Islamic epistemology and ethics. it aside after the dance of earthly life. This example clearly
signifies that the Islamic ethos is not an ascetic one, as Muslim
Facets of the ethics of self-realization. A major issue in philosophers, such as Ibn Sina, clearly distinguish between
Islamic moral philosophy is various epistemic and normative ascetics, religious devotee, and mystics. In this tenor, it
facets of the ethics of self-realization. The essence of the self should be mentioned that the prophet Muhammad’s personal
is presupposed to be the divine-God-nature; accordingly, the life is embodied as a prophet statement, as well as in an
ultimate self-knowledge lies in the archetypal theme of the Islamic religious law (shari
a), which is concerned with the
return to the origin of cosmogony, expressed as dealienation. practical dimension of life on this earth as well as in the
afterlife. The Quran itself has a number of references to
As is to be expected, there are varieties of Islamic ethics, practical issues such as the economics of gender relations, and
such as treatises on pragmatics of politics for princes, and to God as a provider of blessings available in this life to His
ethical issues in legalistic theology, as well as standard philo- creatures.
sophical ethics such as utilitarianism and the Kantian type of
morality emphasizing a sense of duty. The most original and A global vision of politics. As exemplified in the works of
complex Muslim contribution to ethics is the Sufi prescrip- the greatest Muslim social philosopher,
Abd ar-Rahman ibn
tion of the good life. Amazingly, this type of ethics may be Khaldun (d. 1379), Muslim political philosophy, in contrast
described in the context of the problem of alienation— to the individualism of John Locke (d. 1704) and John Stuart
estrangement—taken by Marxists, existentialists, phenom- Mill (d. 1836), focuses on the Unitarian view of persons,
enologists, and psychoanalysts to be the most important viewing these not as independent individuals, but rather as
problem in modern times. The Islamic mystics, known as the members of a society or even a global village. The essence of
Sufis, take a theme common to both Neoplatonism and the an individual is being a member of a polity. Official Muslim
Quran that all entities seek to return to their source. Because theology is tolerant of Zoroastrians, Christians, and Jews, for
persons are finite and the ultimate being, such as the God of these “people of the [sacred, monotheistic] book.” Accordmonotheists or the One of the mystics is without a limit, there ingly, Muslim rulers have a moral obligation to protect
is a need for a Christ-like sage, a mediator figure who is half- temples and churches, assuring a societal condition wherein
human and half-divine, who can link the two realms. Usually monotheistic believers can practice their own kind of worthis union assumes the absorption of persons into the ulti- ship. In a so-called imaginary jihad, it is conceivable that
mate being, as a river returns to the sea. Here is an example. Jewish and Christian armies can assist Muslims in converting
Suppose a male realizes that his beloved resembles his mother, heathens to monotheism. Names of Jewish prophets taken by
the first instance of the feminine archetype for the male child. Muslims and numerous references to parables from the
If so, then naturally his “new love” integrates his urge to Torah, in the literature of Muslims, show that Muslims regard
return to the blessed state of an infant cared by his mother. Jews as the chosen people of the Lord. In the same tenor
The love of the specific mother induces the unconscious love Jesus, who is taken to be human but a prophet of God, born of
of the feminine archetype that results in his discovery of the a virgin, is often depicted as the mediator figure in Islamic
actualization of an instance of the feminine archetype in his mysticism. In light of these affinities, one may ask in what
future spouse. Thus, love in a sense signifies a return to the sense Islamic political philosophy may be unique.

Islam and the Muslim World 251
Falsafa

Muslims envision themselves not as being opposed to the meta-theories for making particular laws but as a direct power
earliest monotheistic approaches to society and the poleitia, that intervenes in national and international politics of the
but as a recipient of the later revelation of God to humanity. nation and is backed by the military branch of the government.
The Hebrews received the gift of monotheism, calling Elohim/
Yahweh the only God of the universe, a source of divine Islamic themes have been integrated in the social thoughts
justice prescribing both rewards and punishment. Christians of a number of recent African political thinkers. For example
preached the message of a loving God, who sacrificed His
Ali A. Mazrui (b. 1933) proffers Islam as the first Protestant
Son, God incarnate, for humanity. The salient feature of type of reformation of Christianity; also Islam is viewed as the
Islamic political philosophy is its vision of a unity applied to last revealed universal religion. Moreover, he questions the
the global politics of achieving a political unity under a Eurocentric approach of alienating Africa from the Middle
theocratic order. A further delineation of this political phi- East and advocates a rewriting of the social map of the area
losophy has two implications. First is the rejection of the under the concept of “Afrabia.” Mazrui’s Islamic themes
legitimacy of separating the state and religion, similar to envision the Afrocentric agenda as a phase of a dialectical
Plato’s vision expressed in the Republic that morally useful encounter to the Eurocentric perspective of the earlier centu-
“myths” should be embedded in the praxis of the state. ries. Following the Islamic principle of unity (tawhid), he
Among the Shi
a, a minority of Islamic creed, this theocracy proposes a synthesis found in Islamic political philosophy,
takes a stronger turn. namely a vision of global harmony based on justice such as
praxes of Black reparation—a vision suited for the global
The salient philosophical framework of Islam, unlike village of the present millennium.
Judaism and Christianity, points to a theocratic political
philosophy of globalism—that moved individual alliances Symbolic/allegorical theology. An outstanding feature of
away from nationalistic conflicts to a single world community the Islamic intellectual tradition lies in its symbolic expresof faithful global citizens. Consequently, several modern sion, which is embedded in allegory and extensive metaphysi-
Muslim thinkers have offered a number of theories about the cal poetry. These texts should not be treated as “soft minded”
encounter between Islam and Western cultures. A partial list philosophy. A number of philosophers, such as Ibn Sina,
of these social philosophers includes Jamal al-Din Asadabadi Tusi, and Mulla Sadra, who could and did write technical
(also known as al-Afghani, d. 1897), Muhammad Iqbal (d. philosophy, such as logic treatises, also chose to write mysti-
1938), Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai (d. 1989), and Ruhollah cal works. Unlike the descriptive dimensions of physical
Khomeini. Afghani appealed to special Islamic virtues, such science, and the analytical and deductive dimensions of synas a combination of rationalism and pragmatics of the relig- tactical studies like logic and mathematics, mysticism neither
ious life, such as modesty, honesty, and truthfulness. He explains the world, nor analyzes concepts. It is the primary
suggested that by adopting these archetypal virtues and aim of mysticism to transform the intentional phenomenon
joining pan-Islamic movements, Islamic culture would be of the authentic experiences of persons from an alienating
able to encounter positively the power of Western culture. one to one marked by harmony—a harmony in which even
Iqbal was of the opinion that the essence of Islamic culture the death of one’s body is integrated in one’s life experience.
lies in its transformation of Greek abstract philosophy into an Another reason for the use of the symbolic method is that the
empirical mode of knowledge that takes account of concrete subject matter of discourse is neither empirically observable,
scientific facts; he also saw the active expression of mystical sensible, nor an analytically conceivable specific concept. In
virtues compatible with an Islamic political agenda. Both he contrast, it is concerned with topics such as a Gestalt vision of
and Afghani objected to passive mysticism and attempted to the unity of being, which places the individual and his
integrate personal intuition and reflections with societal experience into a harmonious, unified, connected cosmos,
praxis. Tabatabai integrated the Shi
a notion of the imam as where death and birth, knowledge, and ignorance, good and
an essential mediator figure in a person’s search for his evil are connected. Let us illustrate this point in the pragmatics
essence, which leads to knowledge of God. A number of of the light motif. As Plato uses light symbolism for the sun in
followers of Tabatabai became part of the group of ayatol- the allegory of the cave, Aristotle’s depicts the active intellilahs who initiated and carried out the later Islamic revolu- gence as light, and with Plotinus’s use of the Sun as an image
tions in the Islamic Republic of Iran, led by the Ayatollah of the One, it becomes evident that the Sun depicts the
Khomeini. The praxis of his political vision culminated in a Divine in its emanating light. The culmination of the “light
division of government into branches (legislative, executive, motif” is found in the system of the post–Ibn Sina school of
and judicial) under the supreme leadership of a jurist who has philosophy of illumination, founded by Suhrawardi (d. 1119).
the ultimate power in the state. The new doctrine known as According to this system, reality may be depicted as a continvalayat-e faqih has important political implications. In fact it uum of light; the primordial emanatory called the Light of
establishes the supreme ayatollah jurist as the guardian of the Lights (depicting the Divine), is part of an eschatological
state, since he holds the ultimate political power in the order; last entities are particular bodies, which are also lights.
government. This interpretation of Islamic theology views The illumination type of metaphysics overcomes some probthe supreme jurist not as a mere interpreter of archetypal lems of dualistic ontologies. For example, a mind-body dualism

252 Islam and the Muslim World
Farrakhan, Louis

is avoided by depicting mental experiences as enlightenment, Ibn Sina. The Metaphysica of Avicenna (Ibn Sina). Translated
and physical entities as particles; thus a single notion, namely by Parviz Morewedge. New York and London: Columbia
that of light, can be used in an ontology without breaking University Press and Routledge Kegan Paul, 1972.
reality into two incompatible primary terms. Also knowledge Morewedge, Parviz. “Theology.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia
as illumination can be used in the context of the incarnation of Islamic World. Edited by John Esposito. New York and
(hull) theory of mystical union. For instance, the mystic poet Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Rumi calls his own master Shams-e Tabrizi, literarily “the Morewedge, Parviz. The Mystical Philosophy of Ibn Sina.
Sun of [the City] of/from Tabriz”. The Sufi circular dance Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications, 2001.
with one hand to the center of the circle, the other extended Leahman, Oliver, and Morewedge, Parviz. “Islamic Philosoto the sky, depicts an act of imitating the sun and the process phy, Modern.” In Routledge Encyclopdia of Philosophy. Edited
of its radiation. In the same tenor, faith is symbolized by by Edward Craig. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
warmth in the heart of the believer, fire as love of the Divine, Sharif, M. Muhammad. A History of Muslim Philosophy. Wiesand finally the mirror as the prescribed state in which the baden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1963–1966.
creature is open to be a witness of the world, which is a
creation. The theme of the cycle of descent and ascent is also
Parviz Morewedge
found in other common sets of icons, such as drowning in the
sea, a flight of the bird to the heavens, and the like. In sum,
Islamic epistemologies include but are not limited to the
standard views of sense perception, conception by analysis FARRAKHAN, LOUIS (1933– )
and deduction. The dominance of symbolism in the pragmatic theories of knowledge is due to the emphasis of the Louis Farrakhan was born Louis Eugene Walcott on 11 May
Islamic intellectual tradition on mysticism, its ethics of self- 1933 in the Bronx, New York. He attended Winston-Salem
realization, and its refined delineation of topics like prophecy Teachers College in North Carolina from 1951 to 1953,
and various intentional senses of memory, imagination, and where he majored in English. He joined the Nation of
communication. Islam in 1955.

Conclusion The Nation of Islam is a community of African Americans
Philosophical speculations comprise an essential dimension formed in the 1930s. The community’s spiritual identity is
of the Islamic intellectual tradition not only in its technical Islam, and its political identity is black nationalism. Louis
philosophical corpus, but also in its religious, mystical, and Farrakhan joined the Nation of Islam because of the message
literary traditions. It is true that its major framework lies in of community and the coherence of faith offered by the
Greek philosophical sources, especially in Aristotle and community in the face of white American racism and violence
Plotinus, and that its content derives from Islamic sources against blacks in the Jim Crow era. After the death in 1975 of
(the Quran, the tradition or hadith, as well as early theologi- Elijah Muhammad, the community’s founder and leader for
ans). However, a number of Muslim philosophers reformu- over forty years, his son Warithudeen Muhammad changed
lated the earlier Greek views with novel elements that resemble the philosophical base from black nationalism to the global
a number of new trends in Western philosophy. Among philosophy of Islam. He also enhanced the spiritual identity
noteworthy views are a metaphysics of intentional processes, in Islam. This move into orthodox Islam caused a breach in
the depiction of persons in the language of fields of experi- the leadership in the Nation of Islam and its collapse. In 1977
ence, a unified global vision of political philosophy, the Louis Farrakhan reestablished the Nation of Islam with black
integration of ethics and metaphysics to form a mystical nationalism as its philosophy and Islam as its spiritual identity.
process of dealienation, and the application of philosophical
analyses to both ethics and metaphysics. The salient features Between 1953 and 1956 Farrakhan worked as a club singer
of Islamic philosophy are not only special features that and musician. He is married to Khadijah (née Betsy Ross),
differentiate it from other traditions, but they are themes that with whom he has had nine children. In 1979 Farrakhan
constitute paradigmatic refinement of philosophical thinking. established the newspaper The Final Call (whose name is
derived from the message in the Quran 74:38), and in 1981
See also Ibn Rushd; Ibn Sina; Kalam; Law; Tasawwuf; he held the first national convention of the Resurrected
Wajib al-Wujud. Nation (a name used briefly to describe the Nation of Islam).
On Savior’s Day, 26 February 1989, the community that
BIBLIOGRAPHY Farrakhan founded inaugurated the National Center, named
El-Bizri, Nader. The Quest for Being: Avicenna and Heidegger. Mosque Maryam in honor of black womanhood, in Chicago.
Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications, 2000. During the 1990s Minister Farrakhan was embroiled in a
Fakhry, Majid. A History of Islamic Philosophy, 2d ed. New number of controversies: with the American Jewish commu-
York: Columbia University Press, 1983. nity over alleged anti-Semitism, with other Muslims over the

Islam and the Muslim World 253
Fasi, Muhammad
Allal al-

ideology of the Nation of Islam, and with many others over BIBLIOGRAPHY
the black nationalist stance of the Nation of Islam. Cohen, Amnon. “
Allal al-Fasi: His Contribution Towards
Morocco’s Independence.” Asian and African Studies 3
During the 1990s Minister Farrakhan embarked on a
(1967): 121–164.
steady program to reestablish the Nation of Islam as an
African American Sunni Muslim community. This process
David L. Johnston
continues today, and the Nation of Islam is recognized as a
member of the world community of Islam.

See also American Culture and Islam; Malcolm X;
Muhammad, Elijah; Nation of Islam; United States,
FATIMA (C. 605–633)
Islam in the.
Fatima (d. 633) was the daughter of the prophet Muhammad
and Khadija, spouse of Muhammad’s cousin and companion
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ali b. Abi Talib, and mother of al-Hasan and al-Husayn, the
Farrakhan, Louis. A Torchlight for America. Chicago: FCN Prophet’s only male descendants.
Ali headed the line of the
Publishing, 1993. Shi
ite imams. Fatima’s genealogical position reveals the
Muhammad, Elijah. Message to the Blackman in America. significance attributed to her throughout the Muslim world
Chicago: Muhammad Mosque of Islam No. 2, 1965. and explains the veneration she enjoys.

Aminah Beverly McCloud Fatima is said to be the source of blessing (baraka), and is a
saint, particularly the patron saint of fertility, and is appealed
to as a mediator between God and humans. Her blessing hand
is commonly used to protect against the evil eye.
FASI, MUHAMMAD
ALLAL AL-
(1910–1974) Little is known about the actual figure hidden behind a
blooming legend that combines the historical with fictional

Allal al-Fasi was a leading figure in the Moroccan indepen- and mystical elements. Early Islamic literature such as the
dence movement. From the launching of the new nation, in Prophet’s biography, historiography, hadith collections, and
1956, al-Fasi was also known as president of the influential exegetical literature do not provide a comprehensive biogra-
Istiqlal (independence) party. Born to an elite family of phy of Fatima. However, they present some genealogical and
Islamic scholars (ulema) in Fez, the religious capital of biographical cornerstones and occasional events of her life.
Morocco, al-Fasi studied at the prestigious Islamic university The date of her birth remains uncertain as well as the date of
of al-Qarawiyyin, and later joined the protest movement her marriage to
Ali b. Abi Talib (622 or 623). Her son Hasan
against the French and Spanish colonial presence on Moroc- was born in 624 and Husayn in 626. She also gave birth to two
can soil. He quickly became one of the most visible national daughters, Umm Kulthum and Zaynab. The authors agree
leaders in the pro-independence struggle, and was exiled for with regard to the year in which she died, although there is no
nine years by the French to Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville. clear reference to the month, that is, the exact period of time
Shortly after his return to Morocco, he chose to leave again, after her father’s death. Furthermore, we find contradictory
spending another nine years in Cairo, where he and his party indications concerning the circumstances of her last hours,
thought he could best advance the nationalist cause. her burial at night, and the location of her tomb. Only few
records deal with historical events she was involved in.
Author of some twenty books, al-Fasi’s writings fall into
four categories. The first consists of his reformist, or salafi, The legend woven about Fatima provides further insights
works, which focus on the renewal of Islamic law. These as to her importance as a spiritual personality, both for Sunni
include al-Naqd al-dhati (1952, Self-criticism), and Maqasid and Shi
ite Muslims. Hagiographical literature is manifold
al-shari’a al-islamiyya wa-makarimuha (1964, The objectives and portrays the Prophet’s daughter as a multifaceted personand ethics of Islamic law). The second category is made up of ality, appearing in Shi
ite texts as early as the tenth century.
his political essays on the Islamic socialist positions of the
Istiqlal party and its support for Morocco’s claim to Mauritania The Fatima of the legend is given numerous epithets as aland the Spanish Sahara, and includes Manhaj al-istiqlaliyya Zahra (the Shining one), the Resplendent, or the supreme
(The method of self-reliance). A third category comprises his Mary; they all indicate that she represents the female ideal
writings on the modern history of North Africa, especially of Islam.
Morocco, and the fourth consists of his contributions to the
genre of nationalist poetry. Sunni hagiography emphasized the “orthodox” virtues,
such as her piety and her rank as the Prophet’s daughter,
See also Reform: Arab Middle East and North Africa; whereas Shi
ite sources created a figure of cosmic impor-
Salafiyya. tance, the final avenger on the one hand and a luminous,

254 Islam and the Muslim World
Fedaiyan-e Islam

celestial being working miracles on the other. Her closeness more general religious issues, including theology, philosoto the Prophet and the imams is expressed by her belonging phy, creeds, and
ibadat (religious obligations or acts of
to the people of the Prophet’s house, to the five people of the worship). Traditionally, despite numerous exceptions (parmantle, to the immaculates, and to the people of the ordeal. ticularly since the eleventh century), the issuer of fatawa,
termed a mufti—whose authority derives from his knowledge
Fatima’s first biographers were two European scholars, of law and tradition—has functioned independently of the
Henri Lammens and Louis Massignon. Their portraits of the judicial system, indeed often privately.
Prophet’s daughter stood in striking contradiction to each
other. Whereas Lammens’s Fatima is unattractive, of medio- While court rulings rely on the sifting of evidence and
cre intelligence, and lacking in significance, Massignon de- conflicting testimonies, muftis assume the facts presented by
picts an almost mystical and sublime personality with a their questioners, which, obviously, can bias the answer.
religious significance akin to that of the Virgin Mary. Laura Moreover, a fatwa differs from a court judgment, or qada, not
Veccia Valieri’s comprehensive study tries to emphasize the only in its wider potential scope—for instance, although
fact that historical reality ranges between the two portraits.
ibadat are essential parts of Islamic law, they transcend the
Since historical sources are few and sometimes even contra- jurisdiction of the courts—but also because the qada is
dictory, the conflict in historical apprehension continues. binding and enforceable, “performative,” while the fatwa is
Hagiographical models in the earlier Islamic literature show— not. Instead, it is “informational,” and, while decisions of
even in historical literature— that making a clear distinction shari
a courts usually pertain only to the specific cases they
between the real person and the legend can be quite difficult. adjudicate, thus setting no legal precedents, fatawa are very
often collected, published, and cited in subsequent cases.
In the course of the Islamic revolution of Iran the legend
of Fatima enjoyed a considerable renaissance and actualiza- See also Law; Mufti; Religious Institutions.
tion as the female role model. She symbolized the committed
fighter, engaged for the Muslim community and thus became BIBLIOGRAPHY
the model in opposition to the Western woman pursuing Schacht, Joseph. Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence. Oxford,
only her individual emancipation. U.K., and New York: Clarendon Press, 1979.
Weiss, Bernard G. The Spirit of Islamic Law. Athens: Univer-
See also Abu Bakr;
Ali; Biography and Hagiography; sity of Georgia Press, 1998.
Hasan; Husayn; Shi
a: Early; Succession.
Daniel C. Peterson
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hermansen, Marcia K. “Fatimeh as a Role Model in the
Works of Ali Shari‘ati.” In Women and Revolution in Iran.
Edited by Guity Nashat. Boulder, Colo.: Westview FEDAIYAN-E ISLAM
Press, 1983.
Fedaiyan-e Islam was a Shi
ite fundamentalist group that was
Klemm, Verena. “Die frühe islamische Erzählung von Fatima
founded in Iran in 1945 by Sayyed Mujtaba Mir Lauhi
bint Muhammad: Vom habar zur Legende.” Der Islam 79
(2002): 47–86. (known as Navvab-e Safavi), a man then in his early twenties,
with little or no formal Islamic education. Unsettled by the
Shari
ati,
Ali. Fatima ist Fatima. Bonn: Embassy of the
writings of the controversial essayist and historian Ahmad
Islamic Republic Iran, 1981.
Kasravi, Safavi masterminded his assassination in March
Veccia Valieri, Laura. “Fatima.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. 1946. This was followed by the assassination in November
Edited by B. Lewis, C. Pellat, and J. Schacht. Leiden: 1949 of
Abd al-Husayn Hazhir, the influential minister of
Brill, 1954.
court, and in March 1951 of prime minister Hajji
Ali Razmara,
who opposed the nationalization of the British-owned oil
Ursula Günther industry. The Fedaiyan had enlisted the support of the
activist ayatollah Abu ’l-Qasem Kashani, but failed to win
over the highest-ranking religious authority in the country,
Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi.
FATWA
The Fedaiyan’s relations with Kashani became strained
A fatwa (pl. fatawa) is an advisory opinion issued by a recog- due to the latter’s support for prime minister Mohammad
nized authority on law and tradition in answer to a specific Mosaddeq, who assumed power in late April 1951. Refusing
question. Fatawa can range from single-word responses (e.g., to give in to the Fedaiyan’s demands for the establishment of
“Yes,” “No,” or “Permitted”) to book-length treatises. shari
a regulations, Mosaddeq detained Safavi in June 1951.
Although typically focused on legal matters, fatawa also treat In February 1952, the Fedaiyan’s attempted assassination of

Islam and the Muslim World 255
Feminism

Mosaddeq’s key colleague, Husayn Fatimi, left Fatimi se- and physical danger even in expressing the desire for
verely injured. By mid-1952 the Fedaiyan had resumed its equal rights.
ties with Kashani, who had begun to oppose Mosaddeq. In
the months preceding the coup of August 1953, which top- Whereas one cannot avoid making general comments
pled Mosaddeq, the Fedaiyan’s antigovernment position led about Muslim women, it ought to be kept in mind that
the American and British secret services to count on the Muslim communities are widespread and diverse, consisting
group to help oust Mosaddeq. In November 1954 the group’s of a complex set of interwoven subcultures. For example, the
failed attempt on the life of prime minister Husayn
Ala issues and realities of Saudi Arabian Muslim life, where
resulted in the execution of Safavi and three of his colleagues. women must cover their bodies and hair in public, are very
Despite this crippling blow, affiliates of the group were able different from those of Indonesian Muslim women, where
to assassinate another prime minister, Hasan
Ali Mansur, in there is currently a female Muslim head of state.
January 1965.
A common claim is that pre-Islamic Arabia oppressed
Based mainly in Tehran, the Fedaiyan largely consisted of women and Islam liberated them. There is a similar claim
young men of limited education, lower class origins, and made today by Islamist movements that Western societies or
traditional occupations. The group appealed to the resent- women in non-Muslim cultures in general are oppressed and
ments of the lower and underclass urban elements; this, traditional Islam liberates them. One should remember that
together with its challenge to the ruling elite, enabled it to spiritual or emotional liberation through Islam is individual
acquire a significance disproportionate to its size. Ideologi- and personal and cannot be judged from the outside. But
cally resembling the al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Broth- economic, social, and political rights can be gauged by
erhood) in Egypt, the Fedaiyan espoused a literal reading of intersubjective criteria and Muslim women lag far behind
Islamic writings and laws; they abhorred what they consid- Muslim men in all these areas, especially in Muslim majority
ered to be decadence resulting from irreligion; they feared countries. Whether this is due to or despite Islam is open
modernity, secularism, communism, and civic-nationalism, to debate.
and were bent on eliminating those whom they regarded as
obstacles in their path or stooges of foreigners. Their primary At the other end of the spectrum from the Islamists, there
goal was to establish the shari
a, giving a crucial sociopolitical is a stream of feminist thought that considers Islamic tradirole to clerics. Following the revolution of 1978 and 1979, tion as irredeemably misogynist and patriarchal. These sentimany of the beliefs that had animated the Fedaiyan became ments are an echo of those voiced by the women of al-Taif in
part of the ruling ideology but gradually came to be identified the seventh century who wailed and protested when the
with the proclivities of the Iranian regime’s traditionalist and temple dedicated to the Goddess was destroyed at the inright-wing factions. struction of prophet Muhammad. Between these two extremes lie a variety of approaches and convictions, both
See also Fundamentalism; Political Islam. defined and undefined, regarding the issue of women and
Islam. Whereas the Islamists may desire to discredit femi-
BIBLIOGRAPHY nism as a Western ploy, one may posit that neither Islam, nor
Kazemi, Farhad. “The Fadaiyan-e Islam: Fanaticism, Poli- feminism as a movement for the full dignity and equality of
tics and Terror.” In From Nationalism to Revolutionary women in society, are either Western or Eastern. Feminism
Islam. Edited by Said Amir Arjomand. Albany: State Uni- represents a deep human aspiration for a sense of community
versity of New York Press, 1984. with the world, and Islam, at its core, represents the same
aspiration for a sense of community both with the human race
Fakhreddin Azimi and the realm of the Unseen.

Most of the literature produced by Muslims in the previous centuries is still in manuscript form waiting to be discov-
FEMINISM ered or published. The extent to which women participated
in the production of the Muslim cultures that they inhabited
There is a struggle within Islamic societies over the definition
cannot be determined without access to information that may
of Islam and the role of women within it. This struggle has
not have been recorded or that may not have been adequately
accompanied Muslims throughout their history.
preserved even if initially recorded. One of the tasks for
The term “feminism” is controversial. It may conceal a feminists today is to use the available sources to construct a
Western attempt at cultural hegemony or it may be labeled as more accurate picture of women in early Islam, from which
that by those who oppose women’s rights but would not they can deduce early Islam’s implications for modern women.
admit to it. Many Muslim women who may support women’s This study may entail a wider use of noncanonical texts and
rights may not choose to identify themselves as feminists. For sources, as theological canons generally reflect the biases of
many women there may be a perceived psychological, social, the male elites.

256 Islam and the Muslim World
Feminism

movements took over the Muslim world women participated
in them along with men. However, the disillusionment of the
postcolonial era with its dire economic problems, political
instabilities, corruption, and military or dynastic dictatorships, as well as covert and overt interference from the superpowers, militated against civil liberties and human rights in
Muslim countries. Under such conditions Islamist movements gained ascendancy in many of the Muslim countries
causing women to lose many of the rights that they had
gained in earlier decades. The loss of women’s human rights
where religious fundamentalism gained in power is merely an
indication of the lack of human rights for all in such societies.
Such a situation has given rise to a spectrum of Muslim
feminist responses.

Among Muslim women who had the benefit of higher
education are feminists who consider Islam to be a matter of
personal choice that ought not to be “used or abused” for
political purposes. There are also women feminist scholars
who are socialist, agnostic, atheist, or Marxist in their orientation. There are scholars who see Islam as a rich and viable
culture in need of a thorough and yet sympathetic feminist
critique. There are liberal Muslim theologians writing in the
politically free Western environment who nonetheless remain apologetic, staying within the prescribed traditional
approach to the Quran and the sunna.
Egyptian feminist Nawal Saadawi in her Cairo home in July, 2001,
a day before an Egyptian court would decide whether to take Finally, in the Muslim countries where one sees a mislegal action against her for calling Islam a pagan religion. The case
matched marriage between feminism and Islamism it is not
arose because a group of male Islamist lawyers accused Saadawi
of being an apostate for this statement; if convicted, she would no clear whether the Islamist Muslim women leaders/preachers
longer be able to call herself a Muslim and would face compul- are contributing toward the relative subjugation or relative
sory divorce from her Muslim husband. The case was finally liberation of their large female following. The ideological or
thrown out of court, but not before alarming human rights groups
worldwide. © REUTERS NEWMEDIA INC./CORBIS intellectual differences among Muslim feminist scholars are
paralleled in the various forms of feminist activism in various
parts of the Muslim world. In certain areas one finds highly
In the recent past there has been an urgent attempt to visible feminist movements, in others only guarded private
understand the definitive political defeat and colonization of conversations.
Muslims at the hands of the Christian West, as this shattered
the imperial Muslim self-image. Modernist male Muslims In general, the area that takes up the attention of most
forced to study and understand their subjugation, and thus feminists, whether they work within a traditional Islamic
feminization, began to name its causes. Some identified the framework or not, is the implementation of various Islamic
malaise of the umma (community of believers) as intellectual laws. Until recently the area of shari
a (Islamic law) that was
backwardness and lack of dynamism, whereas others identi- discussed and implemented in most of the Muslim world was
fied it in falling away from the path of the earliest generations the Muslim family law covering issues of marriage, divorce,
of Muslims whose political success was seen to stem from child custody, and inheritance. In all of these women do not
their adherence to a certain static conception of Islam. The have equal status with men. For example, Muslim family laws
former stream of thought endeavored to study and emulate and the social consciousness associated with them circumthe West whereas the latter warned of its moral decadence scribe and constrain women’s lives, and so-called honor
and sought only to appropriate its material technologies killings that dishonor the lives of innocent women and the
of power to regain Muslims’ freedom, dignity, and even indiscriminate application of hudud (Islamic criminal) laws
supremacy. directly threaten their lives.

It was from among the reformist modernist male thinkers Dishonor killings (an integral feature of all patriarchal
that the first proponents for the education and rights of societies) as well as female infanticide (a preemptive dishonor
Muslim women arose. Women raised in reformist homes killing practiced in pre-Islamic Arabia) were outlawed by the
became the first Muslim feminists. As anticolonial nationalist prophet Muhammad as evidenced both by texts in the Quran

Islam and the Muslim World 257
Fez

and the sunna. However, the taking of innocent female life in Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a
the name of male honor continues to exist in many Muslim Modern Debate. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
countries with the tacit approval of law enforcement agencies Press, 1992.
and clerics, instilling a deep-seated fear of their male family Barlas, Asma. “Believing Women” in Islam. Unreading Patriarmembers in the hearts of women. chal Interpretations of the Quran. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 2002.
More recently, the enforcement of some of the most Cooke, Miriam. Women Claim Islam. Creating Islamic Femisevere hudud punishments has alarmed a majority of Muslims, nism Through Literature. New York: Routledge, 2001.
human rights activists, and feminists internationally. Pseudo-
Esposito, John. Women in Muslim Family Law. Syracuse,
liberal Muslims, who in principle do not disagree with an N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1982.
informed application of hudud laws, question its implementa-
Mernissi, Fatima. Beyond the Veil. Male-Female Dynamics in
tion in the absence of social welfare and economic justice, as is
Muslim Society (1975). Rev. ed., Syracuse, New York: Al
the case in some of the areas attempting to implement shari
a Saqi Books, 1985.
laws. But these Muslims fail to recognize or address the
Spellburg, Denise. Politics, Gender and the Islamic Past: The
significant lack of political, social, and religious freedom for
Legacy of Aisha bint Abi Bakr. N. Y.: Columbia University
individuals in such areas to carry out an expression of religion
Press, 1999.
that is harsh and lacking in compassion.
Wadud, Amina. Quran and Women. Rereading the Sacred Text
In the twentieth century, progressive Muslim scholars from a Woman’s Perspective. New York: Oxford University
have come to look at the hadith corpus as a record of the Press, 1999.
concerns and understandings of earliest Muslim male communities rather than an authoritative divine guide to all the Ghazala Anwar
details of one’s life. Yet they have continued to adhere to an
understanding of the Quran as the literal word of God. This,
however, is giving way to a more complex and self-reflective
reading of the Quran as a vehicle engendering a “theo- FEZ
ethics” and aesthetics of mercy and justice as well as a record
The oldest of Morocco’s four imperial cities, Fez (Ar., Fas) is
of the Prophetic struggle, both within his own person and
situated just above the Sefrou valley, at a natural intersection
with the community of Muslims. The Quran, the primary
of the commercial routes connecting the Atlantic and Medisymbol of Muslim identity, for the most part has become an
terranean coasts with the Atlas mountains and the Sahara.
idol that petrifies the community’s understanding of the
Fez’s location and water-rich surrounding helped the city
compassionate will of God in their lives. In an intellectually
become an important political, religious, and commercial
and spiritually mature and honest Muslim community the
center of the medieval Islamic world.
Quran and its readings would be seen as progressive records
both of an individual’s and a community’s encounter with, as
Founded on the east bank of the Wadi Fez in 789 C.E. by
well as projection unto, the Unseen. Such a Muslim commu-
Mulay Idris b.
Abdallah, a descendent of the Prophet who
nity that understands the good example of the Prophet not in
had fled from Mecca to Morocco to avoid Abassid persecuterms of any particulars of his life, apparel, and so on, but in
tion, Fez was expanded onto the west bank by his son, Idris b.
terms of the ethical values that he struggled to embody at his
Idris, in 809. Fez grew under the Idrisi dynasty when waves of
best, shall provide the context within which women and other
immigrants from southern Spain (Andalusia, or Ar., Algroups targeted for discrimination (simply due to a difference
Andalus) and northern Africa quickly inhabited both sides of
in their religion or sexual orientation) will find dignity and
the city. With the foundation of the Qarawiyyin mosque and
equitable treatment.
university in 859 (believed to have been established by a
wealthy woman from the Tunisian city of Kairouan) and the
See also Gender.
Andalusian mosque in 862, Fez became an Islamic capital of
learning that rivaled Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Speaking in God’s Name: Islamic Law, Alternating Fatimid and Umayyad influence over Fez
Authority and Women. Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld, 2001. nourished bitter rivalry between the two parts of the city,
Abu-Lughod, Lila, ed. Remaking Women. Feminism and Moder- which ensued until they were united by the Almoravid dynity in the Middle East. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univer- nasty at the end of the eleventh century. Under the Almoravids
sity Press, 1998. and the Almohads (who ruled the city from 1145 to 1175) Fez
Afkhami, Mahnaz, and Friedl, Erika, eds. Muslim Women and also became an essential military base and was surrounded by
the Politics of Participation. Implementing the Beijing Plat- a defensive wall pierced by eight huge gates, which are still
form. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997. functioning today. Fez reached the peak of its political and

258 Islam and the Muslim World
Fitna

cultural prosperity under the Marinid dynasty, which con- Le Tourneau, Roger. Fez in the Age of the Marinides. Norman:
quered the city in 1248 and made it the capital of Morocco for Oklahoma University Press, 1961.
almost three centuries. This period saw the construction of
numerous prestigious religious colleges in rich Hispano- Claudia Gazzini
Moorish style, the finest examples of which are the Al-
Saffarin and the Al-
Attarin madrasas (Islamic colleges). The
city became home to the famous Arab traveler Ibn Battuta,
who composed the memoirs of his journeys across Asia while FITNA
living in Fez, where he remained until his death in 1369.
Although Fez’s political importance waned in the sixteenth The word fitna (pl. fitan) is used in the Quran to mean both
century when Marrakesh was preferred as a capital by the “a temptation that tests the believer’s religious commit-
Saadi dynasty (1517–1666), it has retained a religious pri- ments” and “a punishment by trial.” In classical Arabic
macy throughout the centuries. The treaty of Fez, which historical texts, it is used primarily to mean “civil war,”
established the French protectorate in Morocco, was signed “rebellion that leads to schism,” or “violent factional strife,”
on 30 March 1912. but even in historical texts, it bears connotations of “communal test, affliction” and “the temptation to turn upon one’s
In the twentieth century Fez, whose urban population fellow Muslims.” In the hadith literature, fitna signifies both
exceeds 510,000 (1994 census), expanded into four dis- “strife between Muslims,” and “a trial by which God tests and
tinct areas: purifies the believer.” Especially when combined in the
hadith literature with the words malahim (great battles) or
1. The old city (locally referred to as Fez al-Bali),
ashrat al-sa
a (signs of the [Last] Hour), fitan specifically
which was declared a world heritage site by the
indicate apocalyptic schisms and battles predicted to break
UNESCO in 1981, is characterized by rich alout within the Muslim community before the Last Hour. The
Andalus architecture, narrow dark alleys crossing
apocalyptic connotation that the word fitan acquired during
at irregular patterns, high-walled houses, and trathe first two centuries of Islamic history likely arose partly out
ditional markets. It treasures the Qarawiyyin
mosque and university, whose present dimensions of perceptions that the early civil wars that were cleaving the
date back to the 1135 Almoravid enlargement. fledging Islamic community asunder were signs that the
world was ending, and partly from the propagandistic use of
2. The thirteenth-century Fez al-Jedid (New Fez in
apocalyptic hadiths during those wars.
Arabic), lying west of the old medina, served as the
Marinid administrative center and consists of the Early Islamic history saw a series of fitan, or civil wars,
Royal Palace with its adjoining Great Mosque, a unfold in relatively rapid succession. Interspersed between
Muslim neighborhood, and a formerly vibrant many smaller uprisings and rebellions, the first three major
Jewish quarter (the Mellah). fitan dominated the historical memory of the early commu-
3. The Ville Nouvelle (the New City in French), nity. The first fitna broke out in 656 C.E.—within twenty-five
built by the French administration in 1916 to years of the Prophet’s death—and lasted until 661 C.E. The
accommodate modern colonial lifestyle, lies on long second fitna erupted nearly a generation later, in 680
the southwest plateau and is largely a residential C.E., and because various rebellions continued to erupt in
and industrial area. different places, it was a dozen years before Umayyad dynasts
4. A new town, which has sprung up since Morocco’s again consolidated power, in 692 C.E. The third fitna, the
independence, lies to the northwest. Abbasid revolution (747–750 C.E.), successfully overturned
the Umayyads, bringing to power the new Abbasid dynasty. A
Fez, which gave its name to the brimless, red felt hat and fratricidal fourth fitna (which will not be treated here) erupted in
was its sole producer until the nineteenth century, remains 810 C.E. between two sons of the Abbasid ruler Harun altoday a center of religious learning, traditional crafts, and Rashid, the brothers al-Amin and al-Mamun, and lasted until
tourism. the complete victory of al-Mamun in 814.

See also Africa, Islam in; Sultanates: Modern. Armed strife between Muslims began with complaints
about oppressive or unjust practices of the third caliph,
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Uthman, and led to that caliph’s assassination by a party of
Burckhardt, Titus. Fez, City of Islam. Cambridge, U.K.: Islamic Muslims in 656 C.E. Many Muslims then supported the
Texts Society, 1992. leadership of
Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet,
Mezzine, Mohamed, ed. Fès médiévale, entre légende et histoire, who was chosen to succeed
Uthman. But troubling questions
un carrefour de l’Orient à l’apogée d’un rêve. Paris: Edition about the assassination of
Uthman harried the caliphate of
Autrement, 1992.
Ali. Was the assassination of
Uthman justified, or should the

Islam and the Muslim World 259
Fitna

assassins have been promptly punished? Different religio- in Shi
ite historical memory, and their deaths are still annupolitical parties formed in response to these questions and ally mourned in Shi
ite ritual.
engaged in battles against each other over the correct response (although this was by no means the only issue in- Several other important Muslims rejected Umayyad rule
volved). One group supported the leadership of
Ali, with his in the years immediately following the death of al-Husayn,
apparent decision not to punish those who had killed
Uthman. including al-Mukhtar, who claimed to represent another son
Another group, led by the Prophet’s wife
Aisha and two of of
Ali, Ibn al-Hanafiyya, and Ibn al-Zubayr, who represented
his most important companions, Talha and al-Zubayr, op- a pious alternative to certain oppressive Umayyad policies.
posed the leadership of
Ali and called for the punishment of Although this fitna ended in 692 C.E. with the Umayyads
the assassins of
Uthman. The forces of these two parties met having regained control, the ideological seeds of the third
at the Battle of the Camel (656 C.E.) during which
Ali’s forces fitna had already been planted. The early Abbasid movement
routed their opponents, Talha and al-Zubayr were killed, and that eventually successfully overturned the Umayyads called

Aisha was sent home chastened. for rule by a member of the Prophet’s family, and the earliest
Abbasids claimed to have inherited their legitimacy from a

Ali’s troubles did not cease with this victory, since a new descendant of the same man whom al-Mukhtar had earlier
opponent arose: Mu
awiya, a relative of the slain caliph claimed to represent, Ibn al-Hanafiya. In terms of political

Uthman, and a seasoned governor of the province of Syria. ideology, all of the first three major civil wars were thus
Mu
awiya sent his Syrian forces against
Ali and his support- linked, and all involved competing notions of who should rule.
ers, and the two sides engaged in battle at a village called
Siffin. The battle of Siffin ended with an agreement to engage Later Sunni historical works betray some reworking of
in arbitration. One group of
Ali’s supporters rejected this historical accounts aimed at dealing with the vexing question
agreement, and eventually turned against
Ali, demanding of how the Companions of the Prophet and their immediate
that Muslims adhere to “God’s judgment” alone (manifested successors, venerated and idealized by Sunnis, could have
on the battlefield and in Quranic injunctions) rather than engaged in such violent conflict with each other. The memfallible human judgments exercised in arbitration. This group ory of these wars and the fracturing of the religious commu-
(the Kharijites) was defeated by
Ali’s forces but lived on to nity were particularly problematic for Sunnis, because the
challenge both the Umayyad and the early Abbasid dynasties Quranic verse, “You are the best community that has been
in later rebellions and depredations. raised up for mankind” (3: 110) was widely interpreted as
referring to the Prophet’s Companions. This presented diffi-
It was not only the Kharijites who threatened
Ali’s rule, culties, since the Sunnis eventually developed the concept
however. Since the arbitration agreed to at Siffin did not that all of the Companions, including
Ali and several of the
resolve the conflict, the Islamic community became fractured Companions who fought against him, were to be considered
for a time into three competing groups: the supporters of
Ali, righteous.
the supporters of Mu
awiya, and the Kharijites. After a
Kharijite assassin killed
Ali in 661 C.E., Mu
awiya was eventu- This series of civil wars—along with many other smaller
ally recognized as caliph by all but the Kharijites, whose rebellions—brought up not only issues related to Islamic
rebellions during Mu
awiya’s firm rule were promptly put leadership, but other theological issues as well, in part bedown. Thus, although the first fitna came to an end in 661 cause these conflicts over leadership of the community were
C.E., the issues of the first fitna did not disappear. They would not understood as mere contests over temporal power, but
erupt again in the second and third civil wars, to haunt and rather as struggles to establish righteous Islamic governance.
eventually undermine the Umayyad dynasty established by The early Shi
ites deemed
Ali and his descendants (or, more
Mu
awiya. broadly, “the family of the Prophet”) to have had exclusive
rights to legitimate leadership based on their relationship to
The sons of several of the leaders involved in the first fitna the Prophet, their designation by the Prophet as his succesbecame embroiled in the second fitna in 680 C.E.: Al-Husayn, sors, and their superior knowledge and religious insight. The
the son of
Ali and the grandson of the Prophet, rejected the Kharijites, on the other hand, argued that genealogy played
caliphate of Mu
awiya’s son Yazid, and set off for the Iraqi no role in the leadership of the community, which instead
city of Kufa to gather support for his own bid for the should be based on pious righteousness and rigorous obsercaliphate. He and a small band of supporters were intercepted vance of the religious law alone. The Sunni position, as it
en route from Mecca and cut down by Umayyad forces at eventually developed, included a requirement that the leader
Karbala. Al-Husayn was rapidly transformed into a martyr- be from the Prophet’s tribe, but not necessarily of his family,
figure among those Muslims who looked to the family of the and strongly promoted obedience to constituted authorities,
Prophet to provide just religious and political leadership, no matter how unjust, so as to prevent the chaos, violence,
namely, the early Shi
ites. The dramatic story of how al- and schism engendered by fitna. Issues that arose out of the
Husayn and his supporters were killed has long loomed large competing claims made by these groups included, among

260 Islam and the Muslim World
Fundamentalism

other issues, the legitimacy of rebellion against unjust or destruction wrought by intra-communal conflicts in general.
invalid rulers, predestination and free will, and the question Although the injunction to obey authorities even when unjust
of whether or not those who committed grave sins should and corrupt was strongly expressed in the hadith literature,
continue to be considered Muslims. some Sunni exegetes and jurists, as Khaled Abou El-Fadl has
shown, allowed for activist responses to tyranny and oppres-
The impact that the early fitan had on the Sunni hadith sion (which also served to justify the actions of
Ali and others
literature is manifested in several ways. There are a variety of in the past.) The Shi
ites, too, developed quietist tendencies
hadiths that reflect arguments about the relative virtues of as a result of their successive defeats in their early struggles

Ali on the one hand and the earlier caliphs, Abu Bakr,
Umar, for leadership of the community, eventually relegating the
and
Uthman on the other. These arguments were linked to duty to “fill the world with justice as it is now filled with
competing conceptions of history. In addition, the early civil injustice” to a descendant of
Ali who would appear at the End
wars bequeathed to Islamic eschatology a number of forma- of Time. Despite the claims of the early Kharijites that
tive apocalyptic hadiths. Certain hadiths about the figure of Muslims must be held responsible by other Muslims for their
the Mahdi, the rightly-guided restorer predicted to usher in a actions (rather than by God alone), and that rebellion against
reign of justice before the End Times, can be traced, as unjust and impious rulers was religiously incumbent upon
Wilferd Madelung and others have argued, to the second true Muslims, later moderate Kharijite groups also developed
fitna. The Sufyani, a mythical heroic figure associated with quietist doctrines. Thus, the early civil wars and the religious
the End Times, emerged as part of Umayyad propaganda schisms that they engendered led to sectarian divisions and
during that conflict. Finally, the earliest portrayals of the doctrinal developments that continued to be influential
figure of the Dajjal (“the Deceiver”), akin to the Christian throughout Islamic history until today.
Anti-Christ, predicted to battle the Mahdi in the End Times
in apocalyptic hadiths, may have been modeled in part upon Sandra S. Campbell
another of the participants in the second fitna, al-Mukhtar.
The Dajjal and the Mahdi are still prominent in Islamic
eschatological ideas. The third fitna, too, produced numerous
hadiths extolling the Abbasids, often in the form of apoca- FOLKLORE, FOLK ISLAM See
lyptic hadiths aimed at motivating men to fight for the Vernacular Islam
Abbasid cause.

More broadly, the impact of the confusing profusion of
battles and competing groups associated with the first two
fitan in particular can be seen in the positive value placed in FUNDAMENTALISM
Sunni sources on neutrality or quietism, usually called qu
ud.
The apocalyptic hadiths found in the canonical sources, as The term fundamentalism generally describes a religious
well as in early collections such as those of Nu
aym b. attitude or organized movement that adheres to most or all of
Hammad, give a clear sense of the despair engendered by the following characteristics: a holistic approach to religion,
fitan that in part led to this Sunni emphasis on qu
ud. One one that sees religion as a complete moral or legal code,
such hadith, cited by Nu
aym b. Hammad, predicts that providing answers for all life’s questions; a tendency toward
“there will come a time when men will come to graves and roll literal understanding of scriptures; a belief in a foundational
on them, as animals roll in the dust, wishing that they could golden age, when the principles of the faith were perfectly
be in the graves in place of their occupants—not out of a applied, and a desire to recreate such a period today; suspicion
desire to meet God, but because of the fitan they witness.” and sometimes renunciation of not only people of other
This aversion to internecine conflict found expression in faiths, but also supposedly hypocritical adherents of the same
numerous quietist hadiths attributed to the Prophet, such as faith; and discomfort with or rejection of many aspects of
one cited by al-Bukhari: “Whoever dislikes something that modern, secular societies. The term was coined in the early
his leader has done, let him be forbearing, for whoever twentieth century to refer to a Protestant movement in the
departs even a hand’s span from authority will die the death of United States that reasserted a literal reading of the Bible in
a pagan.” opposition to the new biblical criticism and to such scientific
theories as evolution, which had gained currency at the time.
While this quietist position, expressed in credal state- Because of its Christian origins, many scholars and religious
ments as well as in hadith, was obviously congenial to the activists reject its use in other religious contexts. The term is
political elites, one cannot understand these condemnations particularly controversial in the Islamic context, where, it is
of fitna only as tools of domination. Rather, they should be argued, “Islamic fundamentalism” is used indiscriminately to
understood as Sunni responses to some of the claims of the describe all Islamic activists, whether they are radicals or
Shi
ites and Kharijites, and to the bloodshed, schism, and moderates, and because it is generally laden with pejorative

Islam and the Muslim World 261
Fundamentalism

meanings, such as obscurantism, dogmatism, sexism, and organization putatively mirrored the structure of the early
violence. Many alternatives have been suggested, including Prophetic community in Medina, but it also resembled the
“Islamic revivalism,” “political Islam,” or simply “Islamism.” Sufi orders whose quietism the fundamentalists rejected.
These terms, however, have the drawback of not allowing
comparative treatment of a phenomenon common to many The ideology of the Jama
at was elaborated primarily
religious traditions. Namely, from the 1970s to the present through the prolific writings of Maududi. Al-Banna’s writthere has been an increased social mobilization and political ings are more limited because of his early death. Sayyid Qutb
activism on the basis of religion. Moreover, by equating would become the chief ideologue of the Brotherhood and
fundamentalism with political Islam, the alternatives dis- because of Maududi’s influence upon him, the main conduit
count another ideological strand that has played an important for propagating Maududi’s ideas in the Arab world.
role in Islamic revivalism, namely, Islamic modernism. So,
The fundamentalist worldview is premised on the idea
for the lack of a satisfactory alternative, “Islamic fundamenthat most societies, including nominally Muslim societies, are
talism” has been widely adopted in both scholarly and general
in a state of jahiliyya, or “ignorance,” akin to the jahiliyya that
parlance.
prevailed in Arabia before the advent of the prophet Muham-
Islamic fundamentalism is found today, in varying degrees mad’s mission. Only a small, committed vanguard of true
of strength and popular support, in every Muslim-majority Muslims discern the corrupted state of Muslim affairs and the
country and in many countries with large Muslim minorities. proper means to remedy it. Their initial mission is to with-
Although they do not form a monolithic movement, funda- draw mentally and even physically, if need be, from the
mentalists do share certain common features in both their jahiliyya in order to inculcate truly Islamic values within
ideology and their organization. The similarities derive from themselves and their organization. This hijra, or “flight,” is
the fact that most contemporary Islamic fundamentalist groups the first type of jihad that they must wage. On the instructions
trace their origins to two organizations, the Muslim Brother- of the leader, the Muslim vanguard must transform their
hood in the Arab countries and the Jama
at-e Islami in the inner jihad into an outer jihad aimed at overthrowing the un-
Indian subcontinent. Both emerged during the 1930s and Islamic order and correcting societal ills. The details of an
1940s as responses to the problems confronting Muslims authentic Islamic political system are left vaguely defined in
under British imperialism and to the perceived conformism most fundamentalist writings. The basic principle of such an
of secular or modernist Muslim elites to European ideas and order, however, is declared to be hakimiyyat Allah, or the
institutions. Thus, twentieth-century Islamic fundamental- “sovereignty of God.” This requires the application of divine
ism is in many ways a modern phenomenon, a product of both law, or shari
a, in all its dimensions. The fundamentalists
foreign and indigenous influences. Yet, it is also the latest generally do not feel bound to any one school or to the entire
manifestation of a long tradition of reform and revival move- corpus of classical jurisprudence that defined shari
a. They
ments within Islamic culture. Fundamentalist ideologues feel empowered to perform ijtihad, that is, to derive law
often quote the Hanbali jurist Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) to themselves through their own reading of the Quran and
provide a classical sanction for their ideas. Similarly, Hanbali sunna. Compared to the modernists, who also claim the right
influences are evident in the Wahhabi fundamentalist move- to ijtihad, the fundamentalist reading of scriptural sources is
ment of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, far more literal and conservative.
which had a profound, conservative impact, not only in the
Middle East but also in India and Africa. A more direct Both Qutb and Maududi castigated those Muslims who
forerunner of contemporary fundamentalism was the Salafiyya renounced forceful means in the jihad to establish an Islamic
movement led by Jamal al-Din Afghani, Muhammad
Abduh, order. Qutb was executed for his views and the Muslim
and Rashid Rida in the late nineteenth and early twentieth Brotherhood after his death officially renounced revolutioncentury. The more liberal spirit of Afghani and
Abduh ary violence against the Egyptian state. The Jama
at under
animated Islamic modernism, while the more conservative Maududi was always a loyal opposition party within Pakistani
approach of Rida hints at the conservative backlash against politics. During the late 1970s, inspired in part by the Islamic
modernism that moved Hasan al-Banna to found the Muslim revolution in Iran, splinter groups consisting of a younger
Brotherhood and Abu l-A
la Maududi to create the Jama
at- generation of activists broke off from the two older parties to
e Islami. form new, much more violent groups. One of these groups,
Islamic Jihad, assassinated Anwar Sadat in October 1981.
Both the Brotherhood and the Jama
at were organized by Other spin-offs are at the forefront of violent struggles in
local chapters, into which members were initiated only after such diverse parts of the Muslim world as Algeria, Palestine,
they had been tested for their conviction, piety, and obedi- Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Indonesia. It should be noted,
ence. The local cells answered to a central coordinating though, that one of the most widespread and important
committee. The head of the organization was the murshid fundamentalist organizations, the Tablighi Jama
at, is not
(guide) or emir (leader), who was assisted by the majlis al- only nonviolent in its tactics, it generally eschews politics
shura, an advisory council of senior members. Thus, the altogether.

262 Islam and the Muslim World
Futuwwa

Shi
ite fundamentalism differs from Sunni fundamental- Nishapur who adhered to an ascetic way of life, as groups of
ism in a few particulars, mainly in the greater millenarian well-to-do fityan who lived apart from society and enjoyed
emphasis that results from Shi
ite expectations of the return each other’s company. Some, when traveling to a new town,
of the Hidden Imam, the greater emphasis upon shahada, or looked to men’s organizations for musical entertainment,
“martyrdom” in jihad, and the theory of the direct rule of the drinking, and self-indulgence.
Shi
ite religious scholars as enunciated by Ruhollah Khomeini
Generally, however, during the periods of intermittent
in the doctrine of velayat-e faqih. Yet, in most other ideologianarchy and competition for political power that charactercal aspects and in organization, Shi
ite fundamentalist groups
ized the Fertile Crescent from the ninth through the twelfth
can hardly be distinguished from Sunni groups. Greater
centuries, these societies were active in the cities, some
interaction and mutual influences are evident, for example, in
forming paramilitary groups in Baghdad. Some of these
the upsurge in suicide attacks by Sunni groups, a tactic
groups included fityan and
ayyarun, often defined as vagapioneered by the Shi
ite Hizb Allah in Lebanon.
bonds, who, at times, fought with the political regime, at
See also
Abduh, Muhammad; Afghani, Jamal al-Din; other times defended local autonomy against the military
invader, and frequently terrorized, plundered, harassed, and
Banna, Hasan al-; Ghazali, Muhammad al-; Ghazali,
extorted the wealthy. In Syria, similar groups called ahdath
Zaynab al-; Ibn Taymiyya; Ikhwan al-Muslimin;
formed urban militias and were used by important notable
Jama
at-e Islami; Khomeini, Ruhollah; Maududi, Abu
families for political purposes: as hired toughs to fight against
l-A
la; Political Islam; Qutb, Sayyid; Rida, Rashid;
each other or the regime in power.
Salafiyya; Tablighi Jama
at; Velayat-e Faqih;
Wahhabiyya. Historians have disagreed about the origins and nature of
these groups. Some see their antecedents in earlier versions of
BIBLIOGRAPHY men’s groups that existed in the Middle East such as Byzan-
Choueiri, Youssef M. Islamic Fundamentalism. Boston: tine circus factions that originated in the Roman Empire or
Twayne, 1990. the Sassanid Persian fraternities ( javanmardi), whose wrestling devotees met at the “House of Strength” (zurkhaneh) in
Euben, Roxanne L. Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentala master-novitiate relationship. Others look to their relation
ism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1999. to Sufi orders or guilds of artisans.

Marty, Martin E., and Appleby, R. Scott, eds. Fundamentalism By the twelfth century, chroniclers tell of the existence of
Project. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. futuwwa organizations in the Fertile Crescent that were
Roy, Olivier. The Failure of Political Islam. Translated by distinctly men’s clubs. Some were paramilitary organizations
Carol Volk. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University or youth gangs. Some were clubs devoted to sports such as
Press, 1994. crossbow shooting, wrestling, and training homing pigeons
Sivan, Emmanuel. Radical Islam. New Haven, Conn.: Yale while some were mutual aid organizations. Members could
University Press, 1985. include Muslims and non-Muslims. There were artisans and
workers, but also the lower class or the marginalized—
Sohail H. Hashmi eunuchs and slaves. Women, tax collectors, wine merchants,
fortune-tellers, magicians, diviners, astrologers, astronomers,
and perpetrators and accomplices of any serious crime were
excluded. There were members who practiced celibacy while
FUTUWWA some married; often groups lived together in futuwwa
clubhouses or ate in a common mess hall.
The term futuwwa refers to organized groups of youth Taking different forms in various locations, they neveradhering to a code of honor who devoted themselves to theless had common characteristics that set them apart from
manly, noble virtues. By the twelfth century, futuwwa organi- the rest of Muslim society. They wore special clothing and
zations appeared throughout the Fertile Crescent and Iran as were invested with their futuwwa trousers and belt of honor
organized entities with elaborate rituals and initiation rites. (libas al-futuwwa) during an initiation ceremony when they
drank the futuwwa drink, a cup of salted water. The members
Derived from the Arabic word for youth (fata, pl. fityan),
were supposed to adhere to the futuwwa code of honor:
futuwwa groups are mentioned in texts related to Sufi orders;
generosity, solidarity, courage, and hospitality toward those
they existed in Transoxiana and Khorasan and as akhis in their group, the last a virtue not necessarily applicable
(brotherhoods) in Turkic areas, where they sometimes ap- toward society at large.
peared as paramilitary fighters and had connections with
artisan guilds. During the eighth through tenth centuries, Futuwwa groups were urban, consisting of groups of youth
individuals were referred to, such as Nuh al-
Ayyar, a fata of probably not large in number who formed associations. Some

Islam and the Muslim World 263
Futuwwa

lived apart in special clubhouses, with novices under the The new regulations bound by tradition were legitimized
supervision of and discipline of superiors. Each clubhouse by
Umar al-Suhrawardi (1145–1234), al-Nasir’s confidant
(bayt) was distinguished from the others by a particular belief and founder of pragmatic Sufi orders, and by Ibn al-Mi
mar
or opinion and there was often animosity between groups. (d. 1248) whose Kitab al-Futuwwa was written to provide all
Houses were subdivided into parties (hizb, pl. azhab), each those interested with information about futuwwa, noting that
under the supervision of an elder (kabir) with whom the futuwwa was incorporated in the shari
a, and that only a true
members had a mutual bond. Members or companions (sing. believer can be a fata. Futuwwa advocates linked futuwwa
rafiq) drank to the honor of the kabir who supervised their ideals with pre-Islamic poetry, the Quran, and the hadith.
behavior and adjudicated disputes. If companions disagreed Often cited, these refer to the generosity of Hatim al-Tai;
the trust in God by the young men in the cave and Ibrahim’s
with the kabir, they could move to another house but not
rejection of idolatry (Quran 18:10 and 21:60); and a tradition
change elders within the same club to avoid dissension in
about
Ali as the heroic fata exemplar: “There is no sword but
the bayt.
Dhu al-Fiqar [
Ali’s sword] and no fata but
Ali.”

In this evolving, mobile world, futuwwa orders provided a By the late medieval period, futuwwa groups, guilds, and
niche for men without social status or genealogical prestige. Sufi orders had become interwoven through institutionaliza-
With their emphasis on personal qualities as a standard for tion, membership, and adaptation of geneology, rites, and
nobility instead of Arab tribal kinship, religious lineage, or ritual. In modern times, futuwwa has denoted such organizamilitary prestige, futuwwa organizations provided marginal tions as the Iraqi paramilitary youth organization of the late
men with social links that crossed class and religious boundaries. 1930s and protectors of Cairo neighborhoods. The javanmardi
of Iran maintain the religious and social connections closest
As part of his program to revitalize the Abbasid caliphate, to the medieval prototype.
in the face of military threats and competition for leadership,
See also Youth Movements.
Caliph al-Nasir li-Din Allah (1181–1223) used the futuwwa as
a mechanism to instill loyalty to the caliph. He became a
BIBLIOGRAPHY
member of a futuwwa group in Baghdad and in 1207 declared
Arnakis, G. G. “Futuwwa Traditions in the Ottoman Empire:
himself head of all futuwwa organizations in Baghdad and
Akhis, Bektashi Dervishes and Craftsmen.” Journal of
throughout the Islamic world. Creating an elitist, courtly Near Eastern Studies (1970): 28–50.
version of futuwwa with privilege, he forbade pigeon raising Cahen, Claude, and Taeschner, F. “Futuwwa.” In Vol. 2,
and crossbow shooting except under his auspices, and issued Encyclopedia of Islam. Edited by B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat, and J.
decrees setting proper behavior for members. As the head of Schacht. Leiden: Brill, 1965.
futuwwa, al-Nasir used the society and its codes of behavior to Floor, Willem. “Guilds and Futuvvat in Iran.” Deutsche
reduce endemic conflict in Baghdad; and, after initiating morgenlandischen Gesellschaft Zeitschrift 134 (1984): 107–114.
neighboring rulers into the order, to create diplomatic bonds
between local dynasties and himself. Reeva Spector Simon

264 Islam and the Muslim World
G
GASPRINSKII, ISMA
IL BAY Isma
il Gasprinskii also championed women’s rights and
the importance of education for Muslim women. In one of his
(1851–1914)
important journals, Alem-i Nisvan (Women’s world), which
he began publishing with his daughter Sefika Hanim in 1906,
Isma
il Gasprinskii (Gaspirali), a leading intellectual in the he consistently argued that society could only reach a high
Turkic world, was born in Bahcesaray, Crimea, on 8 March level of civilization if women were also educated.
1851 and died in the same city on 11 September 1914. He
received his early education in his hometown and later See also Education; Feminism.
attended the Gymnasium in Akmescit (Simferepol). After
graduating from the Military Academy in Moscow in 1867, BIBLIOGRAPHY
he briefly served in the Ottoman army, and then subsequently Bennigsen, Alexandre A. Ismail Bey Gasprinski (Gaspiraly) and
taught at various Muslim schools in Russia. It was the latter Origins of the Jadid Movement in Russia. Oxford, U.K.: The
experience that made him realize the necessity of educational Society of Central Asian Studies, 1985.
reforms for Russian Muslims to achieve social and economic
progress. A. Uner Turgay

From 1883 on, when he established the newspaper
Tercuman (Interpreter), Gasprinskii advocated reforms in
curriculum and teaching methods, with an emphasis on GENDER
advancing the abilities of students in reading, writing, and
arithmetic. In his view, religion was to be taught as culture To speak of gender is necessarily to make a distinction
and for spiritual revival. He believed that many of the ills of between sex and gender. While sex is the biologically defined
Muslim societies could be cured by an improved new educa- capacity of the human body, gender connotes the social
tional system (Usul-i Cedid). significance attached to members of a particular sex. Gender
is, therefore, a human construction that nevertheless draws
At the First and Second Congresses of the Union of upon divinely inspired texts, social and cultural conventions,
Russian Muslims in 1905 and 1906, held in Nizhni Novgorod and biological capacities to define its role in public and
private life and societal institutions.
and St. Petersburg, respectively, Isma
il Gasprinskii’s ideas
on educational reforms and politics received close attention. Gender-Related Verses in the Quran
In 1907 he helped found Ittifak-i Muslumanlar (Union of In the Quran, which is regarded as divine revelation by
Muslims) urging not political but linguistic and cultural unity Muslims, female life is considered intrinsically valuable (Q.
among the Muslim Turkic peoples of Russia. During the 81:9). The creation of the female is attributed, along with that
following decade, voicing his motto of “Unity in language, of the male, to a single soul (4:1) from which the other is
thought and action,” he traveled to Istanbul, Cairo, and India created as its mate (4:1). Another verse declares: “Allah
urging educational and social reforms in the Islamic world. created you from dust, then from a little fluid, then He made
Despite opposition from existing traditional Muslim educa- you pairs” (35: 11). These verses have been interpreted as
tors, by the time of Gasprinskii’s death, around five thousand granting both sexes equality from the perspective of origin
Usul-i Cedid schools had been established. and spiritual status. Although the Quranic texts do not

Gender

specify which sex is the primary creation, some argue that the an arbiter from each one’s kinsfolk should be appointed to
feminine form of the noun “soul” (nafs) in Quran 4:1 could attempt a reconciliation (4:35). According to the Quran, a
be read to suggest that the female was created first. Unlike the man who forswears his wife must wait four months (2:226)
account found in the second book of Genesis, the Quran during which time he may change his mind; however, if
does not make the creation of the female derivative from the divorce is determined as a course of action, then the woman
male or for the purpose of the male. However, such a view must wait a term of three menses to ensure that she is not
enters the Islamic interpretive framework through various impregnated; if the wife is found to be pregnant it is recomsources, chiefly through the writings of the very earliest mended that the husband take her back as his wife (2:227).
commentators on the Quran, as detailed in Barbara Stowasser’s Should divorce proceed in such an instance, the wife is
excellent study. entitled to support from the husband until she gives birth
(65:4), and, if mutually agreeable, while she nurses (65:6). A
With respect to morality and spirituality, men and women woman may be divorced no more than twice by the same
are equally accountable to God for their actions and for their husband in order to be retained; after the third time, she may
religious beliefs and responsibilities (33:35), and in this re- not be taken back unless she has married another man in the
gard, the Quran holds an egalitarian vision, as has been meantime. In cases where a man chooses to divorce a pregpointed out by Leila Ahmed. In the social sphere, women are nant wife, the Quran urges the man to release her with honor
entitled to inherit (4:7) half the portions received by men only after the birth of the child. Additionally, the husband
(4:11), two women’s testimonies count in weight to that of a must not obstruct her remarriage if there has been a mutual
single male’s (2:282), and men are placed in charge of women agreement based on kindness. Furthermore, upon divorce,
because they excel over them and are financially responsible nothing that has been given to the woman can be taken back
for them (4:34). Women must remain monogamous, al- (2:229–232). Widows may choose their own course of action
though nowhere is this specified in the Quran but rather is regarding remarriage after a waiting period of four months
implied in the injunction that “all married women” are and ten days (2:234). A married man who is about to die
forbidden to men (4:24). Men are permitted as many as four should make provisions for his wife or wives for a period of
wives on the condition that each wife be treated equally, with one year, including a provision for housing, unless the wife or
the additional caveat that if a man cannot provide for four he wives choose to leave of their own accord prior to his death
should marry only one. He may also possess as many concu- (2:240).
bines as he can afford (“their right hand may possess”) (4:3).
Verse 3:129 further declares that “You will not be able to deal Women should suckle their children for two years unless
equally between [your] wives, however much you wish [to do both parents mutually agree to wean the child earlier, and the
so],” suggesting to some Muslims that the Quran preferred father is charged with the duty of feeding and clothing the
monogamy as the marital state, but in keeping with the nursing mother appropriately. The child may also be given
customs of the time allowed polygamy. Men may marry any out to a wet nurse, provided the nurse is adequately compenof the women of the ahl al-kitab (“people of the Book”) (5:5) sated (2:233).
whereas women may marry only Muslim men (this being a
traditional stipulation rather than a Quranic injunction). In matters of dress and comportment, both men and
Marriage to idolatresses is forbidden (2:221), as is marriage to women are enjoined “to lower their gaze and be modest”
one’s father’s wives (4:22), one’s mother, daughters, sisters, (24:30–31); however, in addition women are asked to draw
father’s sisters, mother’s sisters, brother’s daughters, sister’s their veils (khumur) over their bosoms, and only reveal of
daughters, foster-mothers, foster-sisters, mothers-in-law, their adornment (
awra, lit. pudendum) that which is manistepdaughters born of women with whom one has had conju- fest, and reveal their adornment only to a specified list of
gal relations, the wives of blood-sons, and two sisters from the close relatives with whom marriage is disallowed (mahram),
same family (4:23) as well as all married women except slaves eunuchs, and children not yet conscious of women’s nakedalready owned (4:24). Marriage with former wives of adopted ness. Similarly, women should not stamp their feet in such a
sons is permitted (33:37). Women with whom marriages have manner that might reveal their adornments by drawing attennot yet been consummated may be divorced, and should a tion to their bodies (24:31). Testimony against women acmarriage portion have been promised, half of that must be cused of lewdness must be brought by four witnesses, and if
paid unless the woman—who is encouraged to do so as a the charge is proved, the woman must be confined to her
pious act—is willing to give it up (235–237). house until her death or until God provides new legislation
(4:15). Those accused of adultery, including the adulterer and
Conjugal relations are forbidden with menstruating women the adulteress, are subject to a punishment consisting of one
(2:222); otherwise, conjugal relations are permitted at will hundred lashes (24:2).
(2:223). Disobedient wives are subject to a graduated set of
measures ranging from admonishment to beating, depending Special sanctions are placed upon the wives of the Prophet:
on how the term darraba (admonish, strike) is interpreted the punishment for lewdness is doubled compared to other
(4:34). Should a conflict arise between a married couple, then women (33:30), as is the reward for surrendering to God and

266 Islam and the Muslim World
Gender

may be recognized as Muslims and not be harassed (33:59).
Women past childbearing age with no hope of marriage may
discard such outer clothing, provided they do not reveal their
adornments, though it is better for them to retain such
coverings (24: 60).

The Quran views women as human beings who are
creations of God and are vouchsafed full ontological equality
with men. With regard to their moral agency, women are not
subordinate to men and, like men, they are called upon to
surrender to God and the Prophet and embark upon a path of
righteousness for which they will be justly rewarded.

In the social sphere, the Quran protects and safeguards
women’s right to life, inheritance, legal recognition, dowry,
upkeep, child support after divorce, protection from male
voyeurism, and safety while in public. These considerations
are laudable given the seventh-century context into which the
Quran was revealed. As previously stated, restrictions are,
however, placed on the portion women may inherit (4:11)
and on the weight of their legal testimony. The Quran’s least
egalitarian verse is to be found in 4:34, which declares: “Men
are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of
them to excel the other, and because they spend of their
property [for the support of women]. So good women are the
obedient.” Traditionally, this verse has been interpreted as
granting to men authority over women, as well as advocating
a social division of labor, suggesting that it is men’s responsibility to support women (and hence, that women need not
work but rather should tend the affairs of the hearth). Many
In Jakarta, Indonesia, Muslim women use fountain waters to make Muslims, women included, believe that the Quran’s objectheir ablutions before praying. The role of women in Muslim countries varies tremendously: Indonesia has a woman president as of tive with regard women is to vouchsafe their rights as they
2003, yet in some countries women are required to cover their hair. apply to the economic and legal spheres, especially during
© AFP/CORBIS childbearing and child-rearing years. With regard to dress
codes, there do not appear to be any specific Quranic
guidelines for male dress, although both men and women are
the Prophet and engaging in righteousness (33:31); they are called to observe modesty, a term that could include dress as
declared not to be “like any other women” and cautioned to well as behavior. Quran 34:59 asks the Prophet to “Tell thy
keep their speech customary, not soft, lest it causes another’s wives and thy daughters and women of the believers to draw
desire (33:32). They are commanded to stay in their houses their cloaks (jilbab) close around them [when they go out].
(33:33) and abstain from ornamentation, as was the case in the That will be better, that they may be recognized and not
days before Islam. The Prophet’s wives should pray regularly, annoyed.” The Quran’s concern here clearly is to protect
engage in charity, and obey God and his messenger (33:33), women from the male gaze, especially harassment from the
keeping in mind the revelations of God and wisdom (33:34). “hypocrites” or religious backsliders (munafiqun), thereby
Conversation with the wives of the Prophet is to be con- tacitly suggesting that women are vulnerable to impropriety
ducted from behind a curtain (hijab) and visits to the Prophet’s on the part of males and that males posed a significant threat
household are to occur upon invitation, with the guests to women’s safety in that era. In all of these stipulations, the
departing after the meal is ended. The Prophet’s wives may Quran’s spirit of affording protections and rights to women
not remarry after his death (33: 53). They may converse freely illustrates that it is a sacred document in support of women.
only with a stipulated set of males: fathers, sons, brothers,
nephews, the sons of their female slaves, or their male slaves Sources for Gender Construction
(33:55). Should the Quran be construed as a patriarchal text? Later
Muslim theology developed the notion that the Quran, as a
Further, the wives of the Prophet, his daughters, and the body of revelation, is eternal and a copy of a heavenly
women of the believers are enjoined to “draw their cloaks” prototype, that is, it is eternally valid in all its aspects. The
(jilbab) close around them while going out in order that they Egyptian shaykh Muhammad
Abduh (d. 1905) argued that

Islam and the Muslim World 267
Gender

while all Quranic injunctions pertaining to
ibadat (worship understood and utilized as a basis for social organization
or ritual acts) were eternally valid and binding on Muslims, adopted the essentialized notions pertaining to the female
other Quranic injunctions, such as those pertaining to maslaha gender that were well established as part of the patriarchal
or societal well-being, were valid within the context in which norms of the conquered societies. Further, key social instituthey were revealed. Hence, Muslims must assume responsi- tions such as the legal regimes that would govern Muslim
bility for following the intention, and not necessarily the societies were inscribed with gendered markings consonant
letter, of the Quran in matters pertaining to societal well- with the cultural practices of the conquered societies combeing. Some modern scholars, such as Amina Wadud-Muhsin, prising the Muslim empire. To illustrate, while nowhere in
have also argued that the social aspects of the Quran should the Quran is Adam’s partner named or identified as having
be viewed in a historical and cultural context. From this proceeded from the male, for the purpose or in service of the
perspective, pronouncements that were received and intelli- male, biblical antecedents of the derivative and service-oriented
gible to the patriarchal milieu of an earlier period must be origin of the female from the rib of the male enter the Islamic
reviewed in light of present-day social arrangements and thus interpretive frame through biblical lore, most likely through
reinterpreted. the qisas al-anbiya literature, thereby ensuring for the Muslim
female a subordinate role in society. To be sure, the Muslim
Historians such as Leila Ahmed have convincingly shown
interpreters granted greater weight to the subordinate acthat Islam did not invent patriarchy; rather, it was a form of
count found in Genesis 2:21 than to the more equitable
social organization well established in the Mesopotamian,
account found in Genesis 1:27, but they did so in a social and
Greek, Iranian, and Byzantine spheres of influence that
intellectual context in which such a view was favored within
Muslims encountered during the first century of Islam. Thus,
their subject peoples. The subordinate role, with respect to
the key discourses generated in the classical period of Islamic
the essential nature of the female, however, was firmly lodged
civilization (from the seventh century to 1250 C.E.) took place
through the Muslim appropriation of the biblical notion that
within a patriarchal frame of reference. Indeed, Eleanor
the female, unnamed in the Quran but named Hawwa by
Doumato has argued that much of the legislation derived
Muslim tradition, was ultimately responsible for the fall of
from the Quran and other sources was consistent with the
the male, Adam, from the paradisiacal garden as a consecontemporary Jewish and Christian legal praxis.
quence of her seduction by Iblis, the Arabic equivalent of the
There are several strands of literature during the first devil, or Satan. Such moral frailty on the part of the female is
three centuries of Islamic self-definition that are critical to attributed by Muslim commentators variously to her weak
the formation and articulation of gender constructs. These intelligence, her willful disobedience, or to her sexually
include the qisas al-anbiya; the asbab al-nuzul; the hadith; the heightened powers of seduction, and punishments similar to
tafsir; and the fiqh. The qisas al-anbiya, literally the “stories of those meted to the biblical female sex are attached to the
the prophets,” was one of the pathways through which Muslim female. All this despite the many occasions in the
Biblical lore entered the Islamic realm of discourse, through Quran where either both the primordial couple together or
which Muslims in general—bearing in mind that many Mus- Adam explicitly are named as responsible for the act of
lims were converts from Judaism or Christianity—gained an disobedience, and where no punishment save expulsion from
intimate familiarity with Biblical figures and stories. The the beatific state enjoyed in the garden is visited upon the
asbab al-nuzul, literally the “context of the revelation,” was a couple; indeed the primordial couple is assured of God’s
genre imbedded within many tafasir (commentaries) on the guidance, with the pledge that “whoever follows My guidance
Quran, seeking to explain the reasons for a particular revela- shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve” (2:38).
tion, reasons that were orally transmitted until such time as
the Quranic commentators sought to incorporate them Having appropriated and elaborated upon the Biblical
within their commentaries. The hadith (tradition literature), Eve in order to establish women’s essential nature as morally
which recalled narratives of the Prophet’s thoughts and frail, seductively powerful in order to create moral and social
deeds, was also orally transmitted through succeeding gen- chaos, and eternally punishable, the Quranic commentators
erations until hadith collectors such as al-Bukhari (d. 869 C.E.) continued their implicit project of gender construction through
and others sought them out, collated them, checked them for their interpretations of the female figures mentioned in the
accuracy using various methods, and combined them to form Quran, whether Biblical, pre-Islamic, or Muslim (such as the
canonical collections in the ninth and tenth centuries. Finally, wives of the Prophet). In this project, they were aided by the
the fiqh (jurisprudence) drew upon various sources, including bodies of discourse also being produced at that time and by
primarily the Quran, the hadith,
urf or local custom, and the social and institutional arrangements already in place in
juridical reasoning (variously ray, qiyas, ijtihad, ijma
), to Arabia and in the conquered territories. Included in these
formulate the legal regimes adopted by Muslim rulers. It is in discourses are the asbab al-nuzul literature that “rememthese bodies of literature that extra-Quranic features of the bered” the context in which a verse was revealed; the qisas alsocial construction of gender are largely located. For in- anbiya literature that glorified the lives and acts of prior
stance, the interpretive lens through which the Quran was biblical figures; and the isra’illiyat literature that comprised

268 Islam and the Muslim World
Gender

the narratives deemed biblical lore. These discourses served impediment when Muslim women agitate for inclusion in the
both to illuminate and reinforce the contemporaneous un- political process or in political leadership.
derstanding of the role of God’s prophets and their concomitant social arrangements as divinely ordained rather than as The legal regimes developed over the course of this
an ever-dynamic result of historical factors, and played a formative period, from the eighth to the tenth centuries,
significant role in directing the attitude toward the female again reflect a patriarchally informed lens that led to a greater
gender in the construction of the emerging legal regimes weighting of the socially restrictive verses in the Quran over
between the first century after the Prophet’s passing and the the morally equitable verses also found in the Quran. Thus,
third century (eighth to tenth centuries of the common era). for instance, the legal formulators found it far more important to lay down the rules under which polygamy was to be
Stowasser suggests that the Quranic commentators inter- practiced than heeding the Quranic suggestion that God was
preted the references to biblical figures mentioned in the aware that men would not be able to deal justly with more
Quran as paradigmatic for women’s behavior. Thus, the than one wife. The discrepancies with respect to gender
story of Joseph and Zulaykha was seen to be reflective of the issues between the various Sunni legal schools, and between
social chaos (fitna) engendered by a woman, and the story of the Sunni and the Shi
ite legal schools, suggest, at the very
Moses’s future brides was considered paradigmatic for female least, that jurists exercised their discretionary interpretive
conduct in the presence of males (work only if there is no skills in addressing issues of gender, thereby belying the
other male to do so; walk behind the male, remain bashful and notion that the legal regime is divinely ordained, eternally
shy in his presence). Ironically, the cumulative effect of such valid, and therefore immutable. The jurists also saw fit to
discourse was to define the male in relation to and by contrast inscribe legal codes with concurrent views of gender, thus, for
to the female, and thus, as argued by Abu-Odin, was far more instance, although the Quran says nothing about the validity
relevant to the construction of male gender than, as might of ritual prayer as predicated on proximity to women, a legal
ostensibly appear, to the construction of female gender. To code invalidates all prayers performed by men if not distanced
be sure, the picture was never entirely a simple one: The from women by a space of at least two arms’ length, perhaps
prophetic status of Mary, the mother of Jesus, was debated, in keeping with the segregation of men and women in Jewish
and the wives of some of the prophets were depicted as moral and possibly Christian ritual prayer contexts. The essentialist
agents in their own right, able freely to choose the path of views pertaining to women’s weakness that enter the Islamic
righteousness or disobedience. However, the notion that a commentarial discourses through biblical lore may explain
woman might be a moral agent in her own right was not why the statement found in 4:34 (“Men are in charge over/
pursued except insofar as how that freedom might be con- superior to women”) resulted in the legal arrogation of
tained given woman’s essential nature. guardianship rights to the male, extending to women’s buying and selling property, their commercial activity, and their
Similarly, in the hadith literature, an ambiguous picture of ability to contract their own mates and so forth, again, none
women emerges again: on the one hand, women are accorded of which rights are accorded to men in the Quran explicitly.
authority by implication through the relatively large number Rather, these rights are given over to the male through the
of hadith narrations attributed to women, such as the Prophet’s explicit statement found in 4.34, and the creative interpretawife
Aisha; On the other hand, as Mernissi has pointed out, tion of a Quranic verse that required guardians to handle the
perhaps the adjudicators of the hadith literature’s veracity legal affairs of orphans and children (4:6) and those of inferior
were less vigilant when it came to retaining hadith from intellect (4:5).
sources that reflected unfavorably on women from less than
trustworthy sources, as, for example, the hadith stating the The present observations regarding the legal regimes
prophetic remark, “Those who trust their affairs to a woman produced in the three centuries following the Prophet’s
will never know prosperity” (Mernissi, quoting a hadith cited death are not meant to suggest that males willfully and
in Bukhari). Such a hadith inculcated in many Muslims a misogynistically curbed women’s legal agency and comportmistrust of the innate capacity and ability of women to hold ment. Nevertheless, the claim that authoritative discourses in
political office. In a similar vein, commentators on the Quran the Islamic world are divinely decreed or generated needs to
gave relatively short shrift to the account and interpretation be more carefully examined and analyzed, as it does not take
of the female political leader, Bilqis (the Queen of Sheba), into account the historical and social factors and processes
mentioned in the Quran. Despite the later historical record through which shari
a law came to be constructed, defined,
in which women successfully negotiated their way through and implemented, a process that took at least a couple of
political institutions to attain leadership roles (as, for in- centuries. Further, the claim imputes to the divine being legal
stance, the medieval Yemeni Sulayhid queen Sayyida Hurra) and social discrimination against women, who are creatures
and the modern record in which there have been more female considered in the Quran to be equally worthy of life as men,
heads of state in Muslim nations than in North America, the created from the same soul, equally morally accountable, and
force of the hadith continues to be cited by opponents as an as much moral agents as men. Such a claim does not stand up

Islam and the Muslim World 269
Gender

to theological reason. Rather, the historically and sociologi- policy law was handled by his appointees, while laws pertaincally constructed nature of many of the authoritative dis- ing to worship and to the family were rendered under the
courses in the Islamic world must be acknowledged, namely, jurisdiction of the religious specialists, thereby further linkthat the hadith collectors, the Quranic commentators, and ing worship with laws pertaining to gender issues and making
the jurists were doing the best they could to contribute to and it even more difficult to modernize or otherwise ameliorate
illumine a self-understanding of what it meant to be Muslim the latter without implicating the former. Legal institutions
in their day, in social frameworks intelligible to and consis- under the direct control of the caliph, on the other hand, were
tent with the cultural modes of the time in the diverse more amenable to context-driven adjustments, as reflected in
geographical locales of the Muslim empire(s). Studies in legal the work of the Ottoman administrator Ahmad Cevdet Pasha
praxis, such as those of Mir-Hosseini and Tucker, indicate (d. 1895), a member of the ulema, who took his inspiration
that jurists treated the shari
a as a fluid set of directives that from Roman and French legal systems, while remaining
allowed them some limited scope in taking context into within the fold of Islamic principles in working out the
account and in treating each case on its own merit, something Ottoman code in order to take into account early modern
that one sees in practice in Iran today. legal challenges and approaches.

The Challenges of Gender Reform The third development concerned the colonial, especially
Several developments at various points in history left in their British, practice of relegating personal and family law issues
wake significations of gender that are almost impossible to to the control of religiously defined communities, thereby
dislodge, and render gender legal reform difficult in the undermining traditional or customary practices developed
contemporary world. A brief examination of three such de- over time and resurrecting and perpetuating legal regimes
velopments is merited. In the first, the influential theologian developed by religious institutions that were, in the Muslim
and jurist al-Ghazali (d. 1111) who, in a move reminiscent of case, formulated several centuries ago. Such a practice further
St. Augustine, linked piety to shari
a observance. He sug- reinforced the connection of family law with religious idengested, thereby, that a Muslim, by definition, was one who tity and perpetuated gender equities inscribed in the religadhered to the shari
a, in contrast to the more loosely articu- iously formulated legal system. The colonial attitude of
lated view that defined a Muslim as one who ascertained the
pointing to the “backwardness” of Islamic societies by holdshahadah (lit. testimony, namely, “There is no God but Allah,
ing up, for example, the segregation of women from public
and Muhammad is His messenger,” to which Shi
a add: “and
spaces, has ironically created, as observed by Leila Ahmed,
Allah is the Master of the believers”). In addition to according
the very signifiers through which Muslims now assert their
the shari
a quasi-divine status, such a move on al-Ghazali’s
identity as different from the West and their former colonial
part ensured the difficulty of ameliorating the shari
a in any
masters. In other words, the bodies of women are the sites on
manner as to do so would be to suggest that it was a humanly
which the postcolonial struggles to define and delineate the
crafted instrument for the governance of society, albeit one
authenticity, integrity, and marks of an Islamic identity are to
taking its cue from a divinely ordained text, the Quran. The
be fought. Such a resignification of women’s bodies, comimplications of this theological development for gender are
portment, and legal status has been no more vociferously and
immense: Does any attempt to introduce gender-equitable
proudly proclaimed than by resurgent Muslim groups. Such
treatment under the shari
a then suggest that one is tampergroups, often armed with a political agenda that includes
ing with what it means to be a Muslim? It is no surprise that
taking control of the institutions of governance—assisted by
the Hudood Ordinances introduced by President Zia ul-Haq
all the tools of modern technology, including print, Internet,
in Pakistan in 1978 under the advisement of the shari
a bench
and educational media—and attempting to convince Muslim
have proven to be one of the greatest obstacles in assuring
youth disenchanted with global Western political and eco-
Muslim women in Pakistan equal consideration under the
nomic hegemony, as well as with the ineptitude of local
law. Indeed, the infamous zina (adultery) laws have provoked
government and economic instability, that wearing one’s
international debate with respect to the setback rather than
Islamic identity on one’s head and a public expression of
the protection, let alone reparation, they provide raped women
Muslim piety establish one’s identity as a site of resistance to
who, as a consequence of these laws, are punishable for the
the West. There is no doubt that modern Muslims face
rape. Muslim women academics and activists, such as Asifa
Qureishi, have proposed different ways in which the issue of significant challenges, both internal and external, to building
rape might be conceived within an Islamic framework. viable and healthy postcolonial societies; however, the use of
religion for political ends has resulted in the creation of
The second development was the caliphal prerogative, organizations calling themselves Muslim who serve to whip
rendered justifiable by his titular mandate as “Defender of the minorities, governments, secularists and non-Muslims into
Faithful,” to set up institutions whereby his office could pious (thereby unquestionable) submission to a specific pogovern society in manners he saw fit. Thus, for instance, in litical aim in the name of God by offering the indisputable
Abbasid and Ottoman times, the caliph could and did set up promise: (their form of) Islam is the solution. Their goals and
institutions through which criminal, property, and foreign methods run contrary to the Quranic call to humans to

270 Islam and the Muslim World
Gender

believe, to act righteously and with social justice (76:5–9; mind. Islamist women also argue that the application of
90:13–17), and to impose no compulsion in matters of religion. Islamic law has ameliorated women’s rights over and against
feudal or tribal or customary practices. Characteristic of all
In contemporary times, Muslim women are caught in the these approaches is the underlying assumption that Islam as a
nexus of Islamic resurgence, state agendas, feudal social social and legal system offers gender equality, often drawing
structures, and the economic forces of globalization with its upon the oxymoronic adage “equal but different” that bears
sometimes devastating impact on developing societies. State the semblance of erasing hierarchy but reinscribes it in
agendas include the desire to deliver education, training, making the woman the upholder of the shari
a vision of
health, and legal parity in order to facilitate social develop- respectability as the “difference” inevitably reintroduces difment that can harness the productive capacity of women in ferential equations of power. In the current climate of Islamic
order to build viable societies. However, the need for states at resurgence, it is likely that the Islamist form of gender
times to buy into the legitimating power of Islamic parties has activism, which entails a form of reinscription of Islamic legal
meant a nimble bartering away of women’s rights, or simply a frameworks, is likely to prevail and will continue to do so until
stalling of reforms in exchange for political power. Islamist such a time as Muslim societies can work out forms of
parties have often reinforced feudal social structures that governance that keep Islam out of politics and enable a fresh
reinforce a gendered division of labor, thus dovetailing nicely approach to juridical principles that emphasize women’s
with the Islamist perception of gender roles and laws. The agency, control over their bodies and destinies, and full
effects of globalization have resulted in an increasing number humanity. Such a prospect requires fresh thinking on how it
of women finding it essential to join the paid workforce, a might be possible to remain a Muslim spiritually while
labor migration in search of work, often separating families or allowing for clear thinking on what an egalitarian and just
creating a subclass of domestic worker or sex-worker slavery, society might look like without being fettered by social and
and a movement away from the rural areas into urban out- legal norms developed historically under very different cirskirts in search of work, leading both to urban congestion and cumstances. In this regard, issues of health, poverty, and
rural impoverishment, thereby providing increasing fodder universal access to education, work, and childcare should be
for Islamist movements. Globalization paradoxically sup- addressed, and regimes seeking populist affirmation through
ports both the state agenda for its female population and the Islamization policies need to be examined closely.
Islamist resistance to western economic hegemony, leaving Another approach has been to argue that a Muslim cannot
the often already weak state machinery further vulnerable to be Islamized, since a person who is already a Muslim should
negotiations with the political threat posed by Islamist par- not be made subject to punitive laws in the name of Islam or
ties. Any attempt at discussion of gender issues in many parts be subject to an interpretation of Islam that does not accord
of the Muslim world has been silenced through tactics that well with its principles of fairness and social justice. Further,
have attempted to delegitimize the discussant; such tactics one does not need to be an Islamist, that is, one who believes
include accusing the discussant of being brainwashed by the that public and state institutions must adhere to shari
a
West, being a western feminist, blaspheming, and so forth. prescriptions, developed under different circumstances several centuries ago, in order to work for the benefit of society,
Muslim gender activists, mostly but not exclusively women,
especially with respect to gender. Thus, for instance, Maha
have explored various routes toward addressing issues of Azzam has argued that the challenges facing Muslim women
gender equity in Muslim societies. In Iran, for instance, ought to be articulated and addressed “with the use of
women’s magazines have taken on the challenge of reexamin- analytical frameworks that, for example, draw on the socioling patriarchal interpretations of the Quran, arguing that the ogy of religion and on the political and economic dynamics of
verse supporting male privilege could be understood differ- nationalism and dependency” (quoted in Esposito and Haddad,
ently if greater attention were paid to the language of the p. 49) and not conducted within a religious framework that
Quran, as in the spirit of the work of the Moroccan feminist dispenses what the correct comportment of a Muslim woman
sociologist Fatima Mernissi and the American Muslim activ- should or should not be from a seventh-century social perist Amina Wadud. Iranian Islamist women, as elsewhere, have spective. Others, such as the sisters Asma Jahangir and Hina
also sought to create a parallel universe for women that would Jilani Jahangir in Pakistan, have sought to address gender
enable women to participate in activities not normally possi- equity issues under the rubric of the law and state enforceability,
ble in a gender-segregated society, as for instance in the while activist lawyers, academics, and other intellectuals such
Iranian Women’s Games. Islamist women in various parts of as Asifa Quraishi, Amira Sonbol, Riffat Hasan, and Amina
the world have argued that nowhere do sacred texts prevent Wadud in North America have sought to address issues as
women from acquiring an education or participating in the widely divergent as rape laws in Pakistan, gender issues in
political and the legal spheres. Many Islamist women hold the legal regimes in parts of the Muslim world, honor killings,
position that the broad display of headwear and piety has and rereading sacred texts, to name a few. A significant form
earned them the right to have a say in public affairs, and here of activism is the consciousness raising evident in the producthe example of the Egyptian Zaynab al-Ghazali comes to tion of literary and analytical works by Muslim women

Islam and the Muslim World 271
Genealogy

throughout the world, which, if read by Muslims and non- Webb, Gisela, ed. Windows of Faith: Muslim Women Scholar-
Muslims alike, may result in transnational feminist activism Activists in North America. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Unithat may finally unmask and address the endless varieties in versity Press, 2000.
which Islam, as all world faiths, is used for patriarchal purposes.
Zayn R. Kassam
See also Divorce; Feminism; Ghazali, Zaynab al-; Marriage; Masculinities.

BIBLIOGRAPHY GENEALOGY
Afkhami, Mahnaz, and Friedl, Erika, eds. Muslim Women and
the Politics of Participation: Implementing the Beijing Plat- Genealogy plays an important role in Islamic civilizations,
form. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997. often drawing on local pre-Islamic traditions, common to
Afkhami, Mahnaz. Faith and Freedom: Women’s Human Rights most oral cultures, of preserving memory and history through
in the Muslim World. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University recitation of long chains of ancestors. The pre-Islamic Ara-
Press, 1995.
bian tribes, such as Quraysh, the tribe of Muhammad, traced
Afshar, Haleh. Islam and Feminisms: An Iranian Case-Study. their lineage back to a common ancestor who was the eponym
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. of the group, which was further subdivided into smaller clans,
Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam. New Haven and each sharing a common line of descent. Islamic concepts of
London: Yale University Press, 1992. genealogy derive from pre-Islamic Arabian identification
Coulson, N. J. A History of Islamic Law. Islamic Surveys 2. with tribal lineages, honor, and prestige, participation in
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1964. early Muslim history, and relationship to the Prophet and his
Daftary, Farhad. “Sayyida Hurra: The Ismā
īlī Sulayhid Queen Companions.
of Yemen.” In Women in the Medieval Islamic World.
Edited by Gavin R. G. Hambly. New York: St. Martin’s With the triumph of the Islamic vision, tribal loyalties
Press, 1998. were to be superceded by common Muslim brotherhood.
Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, and Esposito, John L., eds. Islam, Traces of the tribal genealogical precedence and concept of
Gender and Social Change. New York: Oxford University nobility persisted, however, augmented by specifically Is-
Press, 1998. lamic associations. One genre of Arabic historical recordings
Hassan, Riffat. “On Human Rights and the Quranic Per- was the citation of lineages (ansab), and this was incorporated
spective.” Journal of Ecumenical Studies XIX, no. 3 (Sum- in the compilation of early Islamic biographical compendia
mer 1982): 51–65. such as the Tabaqat of Ibn Sa
d. The importance of lineage
Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist was based conceptually on the idea of noble ancestry as
Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam. Translated by shaping character through lineage (nasl ) or origin (asl ).
Mary Jo Lakeland. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub- Priority in accepting Islam also had pragmatic benefits in
lishing Co., 1991. early Islamic history as the caliph Umar established a system
Moghadam, Valentine. Modernizing Women: Gender and Social known as the diwan, recording precedence in conversion and
Change in the Middle East. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne apportioning payments to families based on this ranking.
Rienner, 1993.
Moghissi, Haideh. Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism: The As the Muslims expanded into new territories, they ini-
Limits of Postmodern Analysis. London and New York: Zed tially garrisoned Arab troops separately from local popula-
Books, 1999. tions, who needed to form client relationships with Arabs and
Poya, Maryam. Women, Work and Islamism: Ideology and establish quasi-genealogical links to them as they Islamicized.
Resistance in Iran. London and New York: Zed Books, 1999. Gradually these populations converted and assimilated, the
Stowasser, Barbara Freyer. Women in the Quran, Tradi- dates of this process having been traced by historian Richard
tions, and Interpretation. New York: Oxford University Bulliet through genealogical material and especially nomen-
Press, 1994. clature preserved in the early biographical compendia. This
Tucker, Judith E. In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic tracing of conversion dates is possible because the period of
Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine. Berkeley and Los the family’s conversion to Islam is visible in the name of the
Angeles: University of California Press, 1998. final ancestor to preserve a local pre-Islamic first name.
Voll, John Obert. Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modern World. 2d ed. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Arabic names include various components. The kunya
Press, 1994. (patronymic) tends to be in the form “son of” (ibn), “daughter
Wadud-Muhsin, Amina. Quran and Woman: Rereading the of” (bint), father (abu), or “mother of” (umm), and additional
Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective. 2d ed. New York: long strings of a person’s ancestors (nasab) are recorded in
Oxford University Press, 1999. more formal documents or histories. Names may further

272 Islam and the Muslim World
Ghayba

contain what is called a nisba or relational suffix that may Tunisia, Ghannoushi received a bachelor’s degree in philosoindicate city of origin or principal residence, tribal or ances- phy from Damascus University in 1968. After a year in Paris,
tral relationships, and a further laqab or descriptive epithet he returned to Tunisia to teach philosophy at a secondary
based on physical characteristics or profession. school. A former member of the Tablighi Jama
at and a
Quranic study group, he founded the Islamic Tendency
Descendants of the Prophet are often designated by the Movement (harakat al-ittijah al-islami) in 1981, which later
title sayyid and given special respect in certain Muslim socieformed the Renaissance Party (hizb al-nahda, or Ennahda).
ties. For example, in Iran, sayyid males wear a black turban in
Ghannoushi was first arrested in 1981, released in 1984,
ritual settings, in Morocco they are known as the shurafa, and
rearrested and sentenced for life in 1987, but amnestied in
in India and Pakistan they are the highest “caste” of Indian
1988. Shortly thereafter he left for exile in London. While his
Muslims, followed, respectively, by those claiming Arab,
role in the Islamic opposition movement within Tunisia
Mogul, or Pathan ancestors. These groups are the nobles
remains controversial, his stature as an eminent representa-
(ashraf ) or descendants of migrants to India rather than the
tive of modern Sunni Arab Islamic thought is largely undisdescendants of indigenous converts (ajlaf ). This honoring
puted. In a series of books, articles, lectures, and interviews he
may thus be seen to emerge from religious sentiment of
presented his aim to make Islam relevant for modern society,
respect for and charisma of the Prophet’s household and
notably for the young, by integrating key concepts of modern
Companions, and also of the cultural precedence accorded to
sociopolitical thought such as good governance, human rights,
Arab Muslims in non-Arab contexts. A modern example of
social justice, freedom, pluralism, and equality into an Islamic
this respect based on genealogy is the designation of Jordan as
framework, insisting on general norms and values rather than
“the Hashemite kingdom,” Banu Hashim being the clan of
conventional understandings of Islamic law and theology,
the Prophet, as a factor legitimizing the ruling dynasty, who
which he considered to be largely irrelevant to present
claim descent from the Prophet’s lineage.
realities.
A further element of genealogical understanding in Islamic
cultures is the concept of spiritual or intellectual lineages in See also Political Islam.
Sufi or scholarly traditions. Here chains of succession are
established to previous masters and authorities, often ascend- BIBLIOGRAPHY
ing to the prophet Muhammad himself. This concept is Hermassi, Abdelbaki. “The Rise and Fall of the Islamist
known as the shajara (tree) of descent and diagrams tracing Movement in Tunisia.” In The Islamist Dilemma. The
such trees form a component of hagiographic and other Political Role of Islamist Movements in the Contemporary Arab
biographical genres and may be ritually recited as part of World. Edited by Laura Guazzone. Reading, N.Y.: Ithaca
Sufi ritual. Press, 1995.
Tamimi, Azzam. Rachid Ghannouchi: A Democrat Within
See also Biography and Hagiography; Historical Writ- Islamism. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2001
ing; Tariqa.
Gudrun Krämer
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bulliet, Richard W. Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period:
An Essay in Quantitative History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979. GHAYBA(T)
Rosenthal, Franz. “Nasab.” In Vol. 7., Encyclopedia of Islam. 2d
ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993. Al-Ghayba (Persian ghaybat), literally “the hiding,” is sometimes translated as “the Occultation.” While a number of
Marcia Hermansen early Shi
ite theological groupings proposed that their imam
had gone into “hiding,” it was the Twelver Shi
a, the only
such group to survive into the classical period in any signifi-
cant numbers, who fully developed the doctrine. Proclaiming
GEOGRAPHY See Cartography that one’s imam had gone into hiding had a number of
and Geography
advantages for persecuted Shi
ite groups. First, it reduced
their explicit challenge to the established political order. A
hidden imam is (potentially) less disruptive than a manifest
imam, thereby reducing political tension with the ruling
GHANNOUSHI, RASHID AL- (1941– ) Sunni authorities. Second, if this imam is predicted to return
at some point, the community can be charged with merely
Rashid al-Ghannoushi is a prominent Islamic thinker and waiting (intizar) for his return, rather than actively agitating
political activist. Born in 1941 into a religious family in rural against the governing political powers. Third, while the Shi
a

Islam and the Muslim World 273
Ghazali, al-

had divided into various groups, based around the charisma of Sachedina, Abdulaziz. Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the
particular would-be imams, a hidden imam could act as a Mahdi in Twelver Shi
ism. New York: State University of
unifying factor, as personality conflicts between imams were New York Press, 1981.
avoided.
Robert Gleave
The majority of Shi
a settled upon both an individual and
a point in time when the imam went into hiding. The
individual was Muhammad, son of Hasan al-
Askari (a descendent of Imam
Ali and proclaimed as the eleventh imam),
and the time was 868 C.E. According to Shi
ite reports, Hasan
GHAZALI, AL- (C. 1059–1111)
died when Muhammad was only six. Muhammad, also referred to as the Mahdi, went into hiding in order to avoid Abu Hamid Muhammad bin Muhammad al-Ghazali (or alpersecution from the Abbasid rulers. At first, he continued to Ghazzali) (1058/9–1111) was born some seven years before
communicate with his Shi
a through intermediaries. These the Battle of Hastings, the Norman conquest that transfour intermediaries (known as “gates” or “ambassadors”) formed England. As an intellectual and thinker, Ghazali’s
passed on the orders of the hidden imam. After sixty-nine legacy is not only rich, but his imprint on the Muslim
years (in 941), when the fourth agent was close to death, the tradition is both diverse and complex. For this reason the
imam announced that from that point on there were no enigma of his legacy makes him both a highly esteemed as
further agents. While the imam was not leaving the world, he well as a controversial figure. Generations of scholars have
would remain in hiding until God decreed an appropriate debated Ghazali’s role, studying the range of texts he had
time for his return. This ended the lesser occultation (al- written in order to get a better picture of the man and his
ghayba al-sughra), and the greater occultation (al-ghayba al- oeuvre. For some people Ghazali is the great “Defender of
kubra) began. The Shi
a are still awaiting the return of the Islam” (Hujjat al-Islam, hujjat literally meaning “proof”).
imam, known as the Mahdi. Others blame him for damaging the rational edifice of Islamic
thought in his sharp critique of Muslim philosophers such as
This doctrine appears to have taken some time to reach its Ibn Sina and al-Farabi. However, Ghazali’s ideas can best be
final formulation, and later it was subjected to extensive described as a work in progress and not easily abridged.
theological justification. For example, in the eleventh century Therefore, reducing his work to such polarities is to grossly
Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Tusi, in his Kitab al-Ghayba, oversimplify the achievements of a very complex life and mind.
outlined both textual and rational justifications that later
became common in Shi
ite texts of theology. He argued that Ghazali’s childhood was marked by a frugal and impover-
God would not leave his community without a guide—for to ished existence, partly caused by the untimely death of his
do so would entail his neglect of the Shi
a and hence his father. His early years were spent in his birthplace in Tus,
injustice. There must, then, be an imam present in the world near what is today the city of Mashhad in modern Iran. After
who acts as God’s guide, and this imam must be sinless. his elementary education with his tutor Ahmad al-Radhkani,
Because there is no manifest imam who is both sinless and he traveled to the city of Jurjan near the Caspian Sea for
recognizable as the emissary of God, the imam must, there- higher studies with a leading scholar, Isma
il b Mis
ada alfore, be in hiding.
Isma
ili (d. 1084). We learn of the apocryphal story of his
The doctrine of the ghayba also has a number of legal encounter with brigands during his return journey from
consequences. For example, the zakat and khums taxes, col- Jurjan. After the brigands had robbed all the travelers in the
lected by the imam, become problematic. Eventually, Shi
ite caravan, Ghazali pleaded with the brigands’ leader to return
jurists avoided these duties being lapsed by proposing the only his precious dissertation (ta
liqa), offering him the rest of
doctrine of niyaba (deputyship) of the scholars to carry out his possessions in return. The brigand leader ridiculed Ghazali’s
these functions. claim to knowledge and mocked him by showing that a thief
could so easily take it away. Struck by this insight, Ghazali
See also Imamate; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver). later commented: “He [the leader of the brigands] was an
oracle (mustantaq) whom God made to speak, in order that
BIBLIOGRAPHY He could guide me through him.” After that episode Ghazali
Arjomand, Said Amir. “The Consolation of Theology: The committed all his notes to memory.
Shi
ite Doctrine of Occultation and the Transition from
Chiliasm to Law.” Journal of Religion 76, no. 4 But the major transformation in Ghazali’s intellectual life
(1996): 548–571. took place when he attended the Nizamiyya College in
Kohlberg, Etan. “From Imamiyya to Ithna-
Ashariyya.” In Nishapur. There he impressed the leading scholar of the day,
Belief and Law in Imami Shi
ism. Edited by E. Kohlberg. Abu ’l-Ma
ali al-Juwayni (d. 1085), renowned for his expertise
Hampshire, U.K.: Variorum, 1991. in dialectical theology (
ilm al-kalam) and Shafi
i law. Juwayni’s

274 Islam and the Muslim World
Ghazali, Muhammad al-

influence on Ghazali effectively brought him into a full ulum al-din). This is now a classic in Muslim religious writing
engagement with the rational sciences, especially law, theol- and is widely used to this day. In it Ghazali explores the
ogy, logic, and later philosophy. Thus in Nishapur one begins ethical purposes of religious practices but more importantly
to see the first signs of Ghazali’s extraordinary strength in law provides a road map as to how this can lead to a transformaand dialectical theology. In law he followed the Shafi
i school tion of the self. As a body of writing, Revivification represents
while also studying Ash
ari theology without being a slavish Ghazali’s personal journey, in which he writes his ailing soul
adherent to this orientation. These intellectual gifts would to health. Given his broad intellectual repertoire, Ghazali was
serve him well in his rise to intellectual celebrity. At Nishapur, able to explore a variety of themes in a complex and convinc-
Ghazali learned Islamic mysticism (tasawwuf) from Abu
Ali ing manner, drawing on a variety of sources and ideas that he
al-Farmadhi (d. 1084/5). It is not clear what Ghazali did for combines into an almost seamless narrative. The Revivification
roughly seven years after completing his formal studies in consists of four books, each addressing an overall theme:
Nishapur. Most historians believe that he remained in Nishapur starting with rituals (
ibadat), customs and practices (
adat),
but regularly joined the retinue of scholars cultivated by the practices that lead to peril (muhlikat), and salvific practices
indomitable Seljuk wazir (Ar. wazir) Nizam al-Mulk. (munjiyat).

In 1091 Nizam al-Mulk appointed Ghazali professor of See also Ash
arites, Ash
aira; Falsafa; Kalam; Law;
Shafi
i law at the Nizamiyya College in Baghdad. It is in Tasawwuf.
Baghdad that Ghazali’s intellectual reputation culminated in
the honorific “Defender of Islam.” It also marked one of the
most productive periods in his life. He wrote several books on
BIBLIOGRAPHY
logic and law. It was also during this period that he wrote his Ghazali, al-. Freedom and Fulfillment: An Annotated Translafamous refutation of the controversial doctrinal beliefs held tion of al-Munqidh min al-Dalal and Other Relevant Works of
by Muslim philosophers about the eternity of the world, their al-Ghazali. Translated by Richard J. McCarthy, S. J.
rejection of corporeal resurrection and that God only knew Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
universals, The incoherence of the philosophers (Tahafut al-falasifa), Watt, W. Montgomery. Muslim Intellectual: A Study of alfollowed by a vitriolic exposure of the doctrines of the Isma
ili Ghazali. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1963.
Shi
a called The obscenities of the esoterists (Fadaih al-batiniyya). Zarrinkub, Abd al-Husayn. al-Firar min al-Madrasa: Dirasa fi
But his meteoric rise came to an abrupt and dramatic end Hayat wa Fikr Abi Hamid al-Ghazali. Beirut: Dar alwhen he experienced a debilitating spiritual crisis, which he Rawda, 1992.
described in some detail in his spiritual testimony, Deliverance
from error (al-Munqidh min al-dalal). He decided to abandon Ebrahim Moosa
his public life of teaching and embarked on a life of contemplative reflection and asceticism. Explanations abound for
this dramatic turn in Ghazali’s life. Some argue that he
suffered intellectual self-doubt in his engagement with phi-
GHAZALI, MUHAMMAD AL-
losophy. Others link his anxieties to the series of Ismail
ili
assassinations targeting political and religious figures, which
(1917–2001)
gave Ghazali cause to fear for his own life. There is also a view
that he found his political alliances with the Seljuk rulers and Born in 1917, al-Ghazali was an Egyptian Islamic thinker
his ties to the Abbasid caliphal palace to be a source of moral who was educated as a jurist at Al-Azhar University, Cairo,
suffocation. Perhaps cumulatively all these pressures had a and held prominent positions with the Ministry of Awqaf and
deleterious impact on his mind and soul. the Mosques Department. During his early career he sided
with the Muslim Brotherhood party until he separated him-
Under the pretext of making the pilgrimage to Mecca, self from the organization in the 1950s. Al-Ghazali wrote
Ghazali left his family in the province of Khurasan and sought over forty books that are considered to be very important in
the anonymity of Jerusalem and Damascus, where he spent the field of modern legal studies and modern theology. In
time meditating at the Dome of the Rock and the Umayyad Islam and Political Despotism and Prejudice and Tolerance in
mosque. After an absence of nearly five years (1095–1099) Christianity and Islam, he advocated the variety of ways in
Ghazali returned to his native Tus. During this period, as a which religion could be a source of social justice and promote
novice on the mystical path, he engaged in reflection and peace in the modern world.
disciplinary practices of the self as taught by master mystics
such as Junayd of Baghdad, Harith al-Muhasibi, and others. It As a scholar, al-Ghazali was known for an independent,
is also in this period of his life that he undertook the writing of well-balanced approach to jurisprudence, and he cited Ishis magnum opus for which he is best known in the world of lamic texts in favor of gender equality, greater political
scholarship, The revivification of the sciences of religion (Ihya participation, environmental awareness, and human rights.

Islam and the Muslim World 275
Ghazali, Zaynab al-

He was critical of modern Muslim scholars who focus too BIBLIOGRAPHY
much on pedantic details of adhering to rituals and not Cooke, Miriam. “Zaynab al-Ghazali: Saint or Subversive?”
enough on governance, finance, ethics, and moral philoso- Die Welt des Islams 34, no. 1 (1994): 1–20.
phy. Al-Ghazali was critical of radical and neoconservative
Ghazali, Zainab al-. Return of the Pharaoh. Memoirs in Nasir’s
scholars who failed to understand the comprehensive nature Prison. Translated by Mokran Guezzou. Broushton Gifford,
of religion and he refused to recognize their myopic views of Wiltshire, U.K.: Cromwell Press, 1994.
faith. He felt that they were poorly trained scholars who
Hoffman, Valerie J.“An Islamist Activist: Zaynab al-Ghazali.”
purposely select esoteric hadiths and sunna accounts to argue
In Women and the Family in the Middle East. Edited by
their point and further their political agendas. Al-Ghazali’s
Elisabeth Warnock Fernea. Austin: University of Texas
contribution to modern Islamic thought was to treat faith as Press, 1985.
integrally linked with the political, economic, and social order.

See also Political Islam. Ursula Günther

Qamar-ul Huda

GHAZI, AHMAD B. IBRAHIM AL-
See Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi
GHAZALI, ZAYNAB AL- (1917– )
Zaynab al-Ghazali al-Jabili (b. 1917) is Egypt’s prominent
female Islamist, a leading figure as a lecturer, teacher, and
propagator of Islam who describes herself as the “mother” of GLOBALIZATION
the Muslim Brotherhood. After a short interlude in Huda
Sha
rawi’s Egyptian Feminist Union, she resigned and founded The term globalization is used in various related senses to refer
the Muslim Women’s Association (1936–1964). Her Islamic to the intensified integration of the world economy, declinupbringing molded her conviction that a secular and Western- ing autonomy and separation of the nation-states, the growth
oriented movement for women’s liberation was not adequate of international and transnational forms of governance, and
for Muslim society. Moreover, she emphasizes that the rights the rapidly expanding communication networks across naof Muslim women were entirely guaranteed by Islam as long tional, regional, and religious boundaries, especially with the
as they fulfill their duties as mothers and spouses. advent of the Internet. With the exception of Indonesia,
Malaysia, and Turkey, the impact of economic and financial
Until 1945 she refused Hasan al-Banna’s offer to incorpoglobalization on the Muslim world has been smaller than in
rate her organization into the Muslim Brotherhood, but she
other parts of the world. The integration of Middle Eastern
asserted her readiness for cooperation. This refusal safeguarded
and North African countries into the global economy has
her independence and leadership position, taking into conbeen particularly slow, except for the case of Turkey, and the
sideration the patriarchal patterns and hierarchies within the
attempts at the privatization of the economy have been
Muslim Brotherhood. After the ban of the Brotherhood she
largely unsuccessful in the region.
gave al-Banna her oath of allegiance and formally joined the
organization in 1948, becoming the driving force behind its
By contrast, the Internet and e-mail have created rapid
secret reestablishment.
forms of communication linking different parts of the Muslim world, from Morocco to Indonesia, to each other and to
Her own organization was banned in 1964. In the course
the rest of the world, even though the spread of these
of the arrests of Brotherhood members she was imprisoned
electronic media has been slower than in many other parts of
and tortured. Six years later, in 1971, she was released. Her
the world. This has sometimes been called “globalization
memoirs from prison made her famous, even beyond Egypt’s
from below,” to distinguish it from economic globalization
borders.
through multinational corporations and international finan-
The fact that Zaynab al-Ghazali’s own life as a relig- cial institutions. The globalization of communication through
ious activist appears to contradict women’s primary duties the Internet, as well as somewhat older media, such as
(as mothers and spouses) should in no way diminish her telecommunications and broadcasting, has had a significant
significance. and ongoing impact on Islam as a religion. There has also
been unprecedented migration, both from the Muslim world
See also Banna, Hasan al-; Ikhwan al-Muslimin; Politi- into North America and Western Europe, and within the
cal Islam. Muslim world into the Gulf countries. Last but not least,

276 Islam and the Muslim World
Globalization

transnational political trends and international organization These trends remain distinct and are not swamped by
have also had a notable impact on the Islamic world. fundamentalism.

The Push toward Universalism The twentieth century also gave rise to a combination of
The missionary expansion of the world religions among internal subglobalization processes typical of the early modnations and across the frontiers of empires can itself be ern period and externally stimulated globalization. On the
considered the prototype of the process of globalization. one hand, the continuous improvement and declining cost of
These religions have a tendency toward missionary expansion transportation since the Second World War has greatly
because they are in principle universalistic, which gives them increased the number of pilgrims to Mecca, and of missiona built-in tendency to overcome many forms of particularism aries from Africa and Asia to the main centers of Islamic
and to expand their influence beyond familial, ethnic, and learning in the Middle East. It should be noted that this
national boundaries. In practice, the ideal commitment to aspect of globalization reinforces Islam’s old universalism,
universalism is tempered by all sorts of compromises with the which was institutionalized around the hajj. On the other
forces of particularism. As a result of globalization, however, hand, the postcolonial era has also witnessed the massive
these very compromises transform the character and terms of immigration of Muslims into Western Europe and North
reference of particularism from local to what sociologists America, where sizable Muslim communities have formed.
have called “glocal” (from the combination of “global” and Meanwhile, there has been unprecedented global integration
“local”). Furthermore, globalization is an important factor in of Muslims through the mass and electronic media.
the contemporary resurgence of Islam and the growth of
Islamic fundamentalism. The international repercussions of the Salman Rushdie
case are the best illustration of the impact of the media on a
The Internet and satellite communication have weakened globally integrated Muslim world. The protests and burning
the very tight control of the states over national radio and of his Satanic Verses by indignant Muslims began in Bradford,
television networks that had once compartmentalized the England. Images of these protests were broadcast throughout
Muslim world into differently oriented nation-states, and the world, and stimulated more violent protests in Pakistan
have stimulated the growth of a new, transnational Muslim and India. In a particularly low point of Iranian postpublic space within the global context. These effects of revolutionary politics, after the book had been banned in
globalization on Islam are interpreted very differently by India, South Africa, Bangladesh, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Pakidifferent observers. Some see the combined effect of glo- stan, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini broadcast his famous
balization as it impacts upon the world’s one billion Muslims. fatwa condemning Rushdie, a non-Iranian writer who lived in
They point to the growth of education and vigorous discus- England, to death for apostasy on 14 February 1989.
sion of Islam in books and in public debates in the press, the
audio-visual, and the electronic media as contributing to an Particularism within Globalization
Islamic Reformation. In this view, the current Islamicization An interesting feature of globalization is the unfolding of
of social life has been both far-reaching and dispersed, lack- antiglobal sentiments in particularistic, variety-producing
ing any focus or single thrust. Whether or not one concurs movements, which seek local legitimacy but, nevertheless,
with the value-judgment that it constitutes Reformation, it is have a global frame of self-reference. The flexibility of
undeniable that there is an unmistakable dispersion of the signing international conventions with reservations has alcurrent trends in Islamization. The opposite view holds that lowed a large number of Muslim states to confirm their
globalization has put Islam on the front lines of a “Jihad membership in the international communities by signing
versus McWorld” confrontation, creating a sharply focused such agreements while retaining their own particularity of
and vehement anti-Western as well as anti-universalist strug- identity and interests. For instance, Muslim nations could
gle. This latter view tends to obliterate the distinction be- sign onto the United Nations’ human rights instruments,
tween Islam and Islamic fundamentalism. such as the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
but insist upon significant reservations that affirmed the
The negative view on Islam and globalization, though priority of the shari
a rules.
widely shared by journalists and commentators, seems essentially mistaken. Not only is there variety in Islamic funda- More typically, however, global integration induces many
mentalism, but Islamic fundamentalism is by no means identical Muslims to emphasize their unique identity within the frame
with all the contemporary manifestations of Islam as a univer- of reference of their own culture, which can be said to be at
salist religion. Urbanization, development of roads and trans- once universal and local or subglobal. There can be no doubt
portation, the printing revolution, and other contemporary that global integration has made many Muslims seek to
processes of social change, including globalization, simply appropriate universalist institutions by what might be called
reinforce trends toward expansion and intensive penetration Islamic cloning. We thus hear more and more about “Islamic
of society that are typical of Islam as a universalist religion. science,” “Islamic Human Rights,” an “Islamic international

Islam and the Muslim World 277
Globalization

for the study of Islamic subjects in accordance with global
standards. This phenomenon is a direct result of globalization,
not an outcrop of fundamentalism. It is a reactive tendency,
however, and can be viewed as a form of defensive counteruniversalism. This defensive counter-universalism diverges
from the old universalism of Islam as a world religion in its
reactive character and “glocal” self-consciousness.

Despite its intent, however, the assimilative character of
defensive counter-universalism is quite pronounced. It has
already resulted in the assimilation of universal organizational forms, and albeit restrictively, of universal ideas such as
human rights and the rights of women. It is difficult to escape
the conclusion that, despite its intent, defensive counteruniversalism is inevitably a step toward the modernization of
the Islamic tradition.

A Changing Islam in the Global Context
The increasing integration of the Middle Eastern states into
the international system has exposed them to the global wave
of democratization and the promotion of the rule of law. This
exposure has introduced a new element of legal pluralism and
generated ambivalent reactions throughout the Middle East.
The impact of the human rights revolution on the legal
culture of Middle Eastern societies has been significant, and
constitutional and supreme courts of a few Muslim countries,
such as Egypt and Malaysia, have insinuated international
rights provisions into their national legal systems.

Among the human rights, the ones with the strongest
social backing that results from structural and occupational
In a shop in downtown Cairo, an Egyptian woman drinks Cocachanges in contemporary Middle Eastern societies are those
Cola. In February 1999, a Muslim Internet site started a rumor that
the Coca-Cola logo, looked at upside down or reflected in a concerned with women’s rights. Women’s rights are repremirror, read “No Mohammed, no Mecca.” Mufti Nasr Farid sented by official organs of the states, and by a growing
Wasel, Egypt’s highest religious authority, concluded after a study number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that are
of the logo that the allegation was false and that “there was no
defamation to the religion of Islam from near or far.” ENRIC MARTI/ increasingly linked with international NGOs and the United
AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS Nations agencies. According to some reports, the women’s
NGOs stole the show from the state delegates at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo
system” and a variety of organizations modeled after the (1994), and delegates from the Muslim countries were con-
United Nations and its offshoots, most notably the Organiza- spicuous in the Fourth World Conference on the Status of
tion of the Islamic Conference, which was founded in 1969 Women in Beijing (1995). In Iran, women constituted the
and has fifty-seven countries as its members. largest group of President Mohammad Khatami’s supporters,
and the reformists in the Majles include a few prominent
The cloning here is unmistakable. Not only is the charter women. The Iranian women’s movement has made signifi-
of the Organization of the Islamic Conference derived from cant gains since 1997, and is acting as a channel for the slow
the UN charter, but it has an Islamic Development Bank but continuous influence of international conventions on
(modeled after the World Bank), a Commission of the Inter- women’s rights on Iran’s administrative and civil law.
national Crescent (corresponding to the Red Cross), and an
Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization In contrast, the transnational Islamic resurgence has caused
(corresponding to the UNESCO). In 1980, the OIC voted to the rejection of the assertion of the universality of human
establish an International Islamic Law Commission to secure rights, and has generated an official “Islamic alternative.”
representation of the Islamic viewpoint before the Interna- This Islamic alternative is embodied in the 1990 Cairo
tional Court of Justice. The OIC has also set up the Interna- Declaration on Human Rights in Islam. As is to be expected
tional Islamic University of Malaysia as a modern university in an imitative document, much of the legal terminology of

278 Islam and the Muslim World
Grammar and Lexicography

the international human rights conventions is swallowed, Eickelman, Dale F., and Anderson, Jon W., eds. New Media
even as quite a number of rights are in substance nullified. For in the Muslim World. The Emerging Public Sphere. Bloominstance, the Cairo Declaration offers no guarantee of relig- ington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
ious freedom. It prohibits the use of any form of compulsion Therborn, G. “Globalizations: Dimensions, Historical Waves,
or exploitation of poverty and ignorance to convert anyone to Regional Effects, Normative Governance.” International
atheism or a religion other than Islam (Article 10). Article 22 Sociology 15, no. 2 (2000): 151–179.
of the Declaration bars “the exploitation or misuse of information in such a way as may violate sanctities and the dignity Saïd Amir Arjomand
of Prophets, undermine moral and ethical values, or disintegrate, corrupt, or harm society or weaken its faith.” It is
interesting to note that, in flat contradiction to the historical
experience and the public law of virtually all the signatory GOVERNMENT, ISLAMIC See Hukuma
countries, Article 19 of the Cairo Declaration provides that al-Islamiyya, al- (Islamic Government)
“There shall be no crime or punishment except as provided
for in the Shari
ah.” Article 25 further declares the shari
a the
only source for the explanation and clarification of the articles
of the Declaration. While endorsing the Cairo Declaration,
the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in April 1993 GRAMMAR AND LEXICOGRAPHY
also confirmed “the existence of different constitutional and
legal systems among [the] Member States and various inter- In the period before Islam the Bedouin tribes in the Arabian
national or regional human rights instruments to which they peninsula held poets (sing. sha
ir) as well as soothsayers (sing.
are parties.” This amounts to a very significant qualification kahin) in the highest esteem. Both delivered their message in
of the categorical recognition of the shari
a in the Cairo a fixed form of meter or rhyming prose and they occupied an
Declaration, as most Middle Eastern countries are signato- important position in their own tribe, while they were feared
ries to several such international instruments. Iran, for in- and respected by other tribes. This shows how much power
was assigned to language and the spoken word in Bedouin
stance, is among the signatories to the International Covenant
society. When the prophet Muhammad brought the message
on Civil and Political Rights. The acknowledgment, therethat had been revealed to him, it was therefore only fitting
fore, leaves open the kind of insinuation of the international
that this message emphasized its sacred force by referring to
law on human rights into national laws of the kind undertaken
the linguistic and rhetorical qualities of the revealed book:
by the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt.
The Quran was delivered in a clear, eloquent language
An increasing number of Muslim intellectuals are defend- (quranan mubinan), which was the language of the Arabs. At
ing the right to the freedom of expression by insisting that the same time, the message emphasized the difference bereligious liberty and freedom of conscience are clearly deduc- tween the revelation and other literary productions: the
ible from the text of the Quran. A number of Quranic verses Prophet was not a poet and the fact that he had never learned
strongly imply a form of “natural religion” among mankind, to read or write demonstrated the miraculous nature of the
which entails religious liberty, and make explicit the concepts revelation.
of freedom of conscience and religion, most notably, “there is
Right from the start, the believers were concerned with
no compulsion in religion” (2:256). Proliferation of the comthe preservation of the revealed book. According to Muslim
munications media beyond government control has made the
tradition, during the life of the Prophet parts of the message
freedom of interpretation of Islam itself a prominent feature
were written down on scraps of writing material, and the
of the emerging Muslim public sphere. In Iran,
Abd al-
Prophet himself sometimes employed scribes to whom he
Karim Sorush has gone so far as putting all the world
dictated the revelations. It was not until the third caliph
religions on an equal footing in the 1998 essay, Saratha-ye
Uthman (r. 644–656) that a codified text of the Quran was
mostaqim (Straight paths), the very title being a sacrilegious made, the so-called mushaf. Although this codex became the
pluralization of a fundamental Quranic concept. In Syria, canonical text for all later generations, the presence of a large
Muhammad Shahruhr has offered a similarly radically mod- number of variant readings forced the believers to concenernist interpretation of Islam. trate not only on the contents of the text, but also on its form.

See also Internet; Networks, Muslim. After the death of the Prophet, the Islamic conquests led
to a drastic transformation, not only of pre-Islamic values and
BIBLIOGRAPHY customs, but also of the language of the Arabs. The inhabi-
Arjomand, Saïd Amir “Islam.” In Global Religions: An Intro- tants of the conquered territories had to acquire the new
duction. Edited by M. Juergensmeyer. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford language in a short period of time, and their mistakes affected
University Press, 2003. Arabic to such a degree that a new type of Arabic arose, which

Islam and the Muslim World 279
Grammar and Lexicography

eventually became the basis for the modern dialects. As a with the language of the revelation and with that of the preresult of this process, which was regarded by the Arabs Islamic poems. In his Kitab, Sibawayhi set himself a task that
themselves as a process of corruption of speech (fasad al- went beyond the explanation of the text and aimed at a much
lugha), the text of the Quran became difficult to understand. larger scope: the explanation of grammar. He dealt with all
possible constructions in the language and accounted for
Because of the central place of the Quran in Islamic their structural differences in terms of the different case
society it is not surprising that specialists came forward in the endings found in them.
community to help the common believers understand the
text. The name most often cited in this connection is that of Sibawayhi introduced a framework that was truly innova-
Ibn
Abbas (d. 687), but we may be sure that each city in the tive, the system of declension (i
rab) that became one of the
empire had its own experts. The earliest commentaries all central notions of Arabic grammar. Nouns, and to some
shared a semantic approach, since they focused on the impli- extent imperfect verbs, were assumed to have a series of
cations of the text for religious, legal, and ritual purposes. Yet, endings whose function differed from that of the permanent
the existence of variant readings and the discrepancies be- end vowels of other words such as the perfect verbs or the
tween the language of the text and everyday vernacular particles. The declensional vowels were the result of the
speech also led to an interest in formal elements in the text as action of an
amil, an operator governing the case endings.
well. For instance, signaling the presence of foreign loanwords This function could be performed either by a verb (e.g., in the
in the Quran and discussing the tribal provenance of some of sentence daraba zaydun
amran “Zayd hit
Amr” the verb is the
the lexical items were not essential for the understanding of operator of the nominative in the agent, zaydun, and the
the text, but nevertheless most of the commentaries provide accusative in the object,
amran), or a particle (e.g., the
such information. particle fi is the operator of the genitive in fi l-bayti “in the
house”).
Some of the earliest commentators, such as Mujahid (d.
722) and Muqatil (d. 767), used conventional terms in dis- Since it is not always possible to explain the structure of
cussing, for instance, the various text types that are found in the actually spoken sentence, it is sometimes necessary to
the Quran or the vowel-endings of words. The terms for the have recourse to an underlying level of speech (taqdir). Thus,
vowel-endings, which were probably derived from the Syriac for instance, in the sentence an-najdata! “help!” the grammargrammatical tradition, provided a starting point for later ian posits an underlying verb ad
u “I call for, I ask” in order to
grammarians and may therefore be regarded as the begin- explain the accusative in the noun. With the help of the
nings of the discipline of grammar in Islam. notion of taqdir grammarians built a large explanatory framework that was neither intended as normative (after all, the
From Text to Language Bedouin were native speakers and did not need correction),
The preoccupation with the formal properties of the text of nor as a simple description, but as an explanation of the rules
the Quran inevitably led to an interest in the structure of the of grammar. Exceptions were not allowed in this analysis,
language in which the revelation was couched. The sources since language was regarded as part of God’s creation, of
have preserved the names of some scholars in the second which even the minutest detail must find an explanation.
century of Islam, who dealt with the Arabic language on a
professional basis, not only in order to study the revealed Even though after Sibawayhi competing schools arose in
book, but also to understand the structure of the language, to Basra, Kufa, and Baghdad, the theoretical framework re-
find out the qiyas al-
arabiyya “the rules of Arabic.” Since what mained the same for all grammarians. Both the grammarians
is known about these grammarians comes only from later in Basra, such as al-Mubarrad (d. 898), and those in Kufa,
sources (chiefly the quotations in the first complete grammar such as al-Farra (d. 822) and Tha
lab (d. 904), used the
of Arabic, Kitab Sibawayhi), it is difficult to say with any principle of
amal to account for the case endings in the
certainty what their opinions were, but so much seems to be language, and although they differed as to the scope of the
certain that they did not hesitate to correct the text of the examples they allowed as a basis for their qiyas, essentially
Quran whenever they thought it was contradicted by the they may be regarded as belonging to one linguistic paradigm.
linguistic usage of the Bedouin.
The science that worked with this paradigm is called in
This attitude toward the text and the language of the Arabic nahw (which also means “syntax”). Almost right from
Quran was to change with Sibawayhi (d. c. 793), a Persian, the beginning a strict distinction was made between this
who became the first grammarian to compile a book encom- science and that of lexicography (
ilm al-lugha). The earliest
passing the entire structure of the language. For Sibawayhi beginnings of lexicography are found in the commentaries of
the text of the Quran had been established once and for all by the Quran, some of which concentrated on the lexical meanthe
Uthmanic codex, compiled by order of the third caliph, ing of words that had become archaic by that time. These
and he did not feel the need to concern himself with the text early attempts at compiling word lists of the Quran or the
itself. Instead, he turned to the structure of the language of hadith culminated in the Kitab al-
ayn, initiated and perhaps
the Arab Bedouin, which was assumed to be identical both partly based on the notes of al-Khalil ibn Ahmad (d. 791),

280 Islam and the Muslim World
Greek Civilization

Sibawayhi’s teacher in grammar. Like the Kitab Sibawayhi, refining the contents of Sibawayhi’s Kitab rather than innothis dictionary no longer concentrated on the Quran but on vating the discipline.
the language itself, as is evident from the fact that poetic
quotations are far more frequent in it than quotations from This situation started to change with grammarians such as
the Quran. The Kitab al-
ayn set the trend for a long line of Jurjani (d. 1078) who combined their interests in rhetoric and
ever larger dictionaries that attempted to encapsulate the grammar and criticized their predecessors for not having
lexicon of the entire language, culminating in Ibn Manzur’s taken into account the semantic aspect of speech by focusing
(d. 1311) famous lexicon, Lisan al-
Arab. exclusively on the syntactic parameters. This new interest in a
comprehensive science of language, including style and poet-
From Language to Language Use ics, may be yet another example of Mu
tazilite thinking in
A new development in Arab linguistics was initiated by the linguistics. Their influence is certainly evident in the field of
introduction of Greek logic and philosophy in the Islamic the
ilm usul al-fiqh, in which the epistemological value of
world. The translation of Greek texts that had already started linguistic utterances was studied for its relevance to legal
under the Umayyad caliphs, usually through Syriac, started in reasoning. These new developments meant effectively a sepaearnest under the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun (d. 833), who ration between grammar in the strict sense and other languagepersonally supported this development by founding the Bayt related sciences.
al-Hikma (an academy of translators in Baghdad). The influx
of new ideas in Arabic had a profound influence on Islamic See also Arabic Language; Arabic Literature; Quran.
thinking, especially in the theological system of the Mu
tazilites,
who for some time enjoyed official recognition of their ideas. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bohas, Georges; Guillaume, Jean-Patrick; and Carter, Michael
Thanks to the Mu
tazilites rationalist logic became the G. Arab Linguistics: An Introductory Classical Text with
cornerstone for theological thought. Because of their empha- Translation and Notes. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 1981.
sis on the unity of God, they refused to accept an eternal Gully, Adrian. Grammar and Semantics in Medieval Arabic: A
status for the revealed book, which they regarded as created study of Ibn-Hisham’s Mughni l-Labib. Richmond, Surrey,
(khalq al-Quran). Through the discussions on this topic the U.K.: Curzon Press, 1995.
Mu
tazilites became interested in questions about the status Kouloughli, Djamel Eddine. The Arabic Linguistic Tradition.
of God’s speech, the relationship between word and meaning, New York and London: Routledge, 1990.
and the intricate question of the origin of speech. This last
Larkin, Margaret. The Theology of Meaning:
Abd al-Qahir alissue had always been connected with the revelation of the
Jurjani’s Theory of Discourse. New Haven, Conn.: Ameri-
Quran, but was discussed now as a logico-philosophical can Oriental Society, 1995.
problem.
Owens, Jonathan. The Foundations of Grammar: An Intro-
Although grammarians in general avoided any contact duction to Medieval Arabic Grammar. Amsterdam: J.
Benjamins, 1988.
with the “Greek sciences,” they could not avoid some of the
topics that had become popular in general debate, such as the Owens, Jonathan. Early Arabic Grammatical Theory: Heterogerelationship between words and the things they referred to or neity and Standardization. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: J.
the logical correlates of grammatical categories, as in Zajjaji’s Benjamins, 1990.
(d. 949) Kitab al-idah. Greek influence also manifested itself Talmon, Rafael. Arabic Grammar in Its Formative Age: Kitab
in the debate about the status of grammar vis-à-vis logic and al-
Ayn and its Attribution to Halil b. Ahmad. Leiden: E. J.
about the competence of logicians and grammarians. Signifi- Brill, 1997.
cantly, many grammarians in this period adhered to Mu
tazilite Versteegh, Kees. Quranic Exegesis and Arabic Grammar in
ideas. Apart from its influence on the public debate Greek Early Islam. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993.
logic also insinuated itself in the general format of grammati- Versteegh, Kees. The Arabic Linguistic Tradition. London and
cal treatises. Contrary to the earlier tradition, it became New York: Routledge, 1997.
customary to define grammatical notions and to devote Versteegh, Kees. The Arabic Language. 2nd ed. Edinburgh:
special attention to the division of their treatises into separate Edinburgh University Press, 2001.
topics. Likewise, grammarians started to write introductory
treatises, such as Zajjaji’s Kitab al-jumal or Farisi’s (d. 989) Kees Versteegh
Kitab al-idah.

In the third/fourth centuries of Islam, grammar had become a technical discipline with its own terminology and GREEK CIVILIZATION
apparatus. Although grammarians such as Ibn Jinni (d. 1002)
showed a vivid interest in all matters pertaining to language in The rapid expansion of the Islamic empire led to its speedy
his linguistic encyclopedia al-Khasais, most grammatical contact with a cultural world heavily marked by Greek
treatises in this period were concerned with repeating and thought. Greek civilization had spread throughout the urban

Islam and the Muslim World 281
Greek Civilization

areas of the Middle East, North Africa, and the Iberian thinkers to oppose the use of Greek-inspired thought, from
peninsula, and it was reflected in the relatively high standards Abu Sa
id al-Sirafi (893–979) to al-Ghazali (1058–1111) and
of living and education, for at least a portion of the citizens. Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328). Interestingly, the arguments against
When the Arabs came to confront this culture, they might Greek thought often employed Greek mechanisms and so
have rejected it totally and sought to destroy it. After all, it could be representative of Greek civilization’s ultimate sucwas a culture that rested on unbelief, from an Islamic perspec- cess in the Islamic world.
tive, and whose practitioners were ethnically quite distinct
from the Arabs themselves. In the early Middle Ages, how- In some parts of the Islamic world such as al-Andalus (the
ever, there was an attempt to understand and learn from the Iberian peninsula) there was a particularly happy combina-
Greek-influenced cultures, and to use that knowledge to tion of Greek thought and Islam, resulting in a great outburst
improve the delivery of the Islamic message itself. Several of science and culture generally. There is much evidence that
theories could explain this. It could be because the new rulers the intellectual wealth thus produced had as a side-effect
were intent on obeying those parts of the Quran that recom- considerable material wealth, and certainly during this period
mend toleration of divergent points of view, at least when the Islamic world was far more advanced than Christian
held by other people of the book; it could have been because Europe. It may be significant that Christian Europe during
Islam was not at this stage confident enough to alienate those the early Middle Ages had only a limited supply of Greek
under its recent control; or it could be that the Muslims were texts, and indeed only acquired any significant degree of these
impressed by the level of wealth and culture that they ob- when they were translated out of Arabic into Latin (often via
Hebrew).
served and sought to emulate it by coming to grips with its
basis in Greek culture. It is sometimes argued that the Islamic world was not able
to make creative use of Greek thought, merely being trans-
A very practical issue that soon faced the Muslims was the
mitters of Greek civilization. This is plainly false, as a great
need to argue with their new subjects, since the issue of
number of original and innovative theories came out of the
conversion was a live one. Yet the non-Muslims were often
Islamic world, and the Greeks were not the only group to
far better at disputation than the Muslims, given their long
make a contribution to the culture of the Islamic world, since
practice of rhetoric and logic. The ancient Greeks had develthe role of the Indians within Islamic life deserves careful
oped the art of disputation to a very high degree, and this
consideration.
continued to be studied and practiced by their successors in
the Middle East. Perhaps even more significantly, the Greeks In a whole range of disciplines such as mathematics,
had developed a sophisticated scientific system, not only one astronomy, chemistry—and, of course, philosophy—Greekthat was theoretically rich in its understanding of how the inspired thought was the catalyst for a creative outburst. In
universe might operate, but also a system that was capable of what are today not regarded as respectable sciences, alchemy
making a very substantial practical contribution to everything and astrology, Greek thought played an even more important
from how to design cities to how to cure (or at least alleviate role. Greek thought affected the paradigmatically Islamic
symptoms of) a variety of diseases. Clearly any rational ruler sciences of theology and law that came to acquire many of the
was going to avail himself of this intellectual largesse if he techniques and principles used in Greek thought. Finally, the
could, and the Muslims certainly took advantage of what they Islamic adab tradition of literature was also influenced by the
found in their new territories. Greeks. There were many editions of books that contained
“wisdom” literature of the Greeks, chiefly consisting of
The first step that needed to be taken was to rapidly aphorisms often incorrectly attributed to thinkers like Socrates.
translate Greek texts, often via Syriac (a Semitic language like Despite the questionable sources the wisdom literature was
Arabic). It was an expensive and time-consuming process probably widely read and certainly had an effect on the notion
carried out largely by Christian translators. The Abbasid of what constituted style in literature. Abu Sulayman alcaliph al-Mamun founded in 832 C.E. the House of Wisdom Sijistani’s collections of wisdom literature were particularly
(an institution where translators and collectors of Greek and widely distributed from the tenth century onward. In short, it
Syriac manuscripts could cooperate; bayt al-hikma), and its is difficult to find an aspect of Islamic civilization that was not
scale is an indication of the importance with which the rulers affected by the Greeks.
of the time regarded Greek thought. The availability of
Greek texts in Arabic formed the basis of what came to be a Another area of thought where Greek civilization played a
very rich tradition of Islamic philosophy, which continued in notable part was the development of political thought. The
the Arabic world until the twelfth century as philosophy, and idea of a ruler who combines the roles of legislator, thinker,
that was to enjoy an even longer life in the Persian world, and religious authority was constructed by adding Islam to
where philosophy continued to be studied and written for far Plato, as it were, proving to be a very fruitful way of analyzing
longer. The problems that philosophy met in the Arabic- the state and the nature of political authority. The description
speaking world owed much to its Greek, and hence non- of the state as organic in Plato’s Republic fit in nicely with the
Muslim, origins. There was a prolonged campaign by many Islamic notion of the state being necessarily structured in

282 Islam and the Muslim World
Gumi, Abu Bakr

terms of a religious doctrine, where every individual has a role Leaman, Oliver. “Philosophical and Scientific Achievements
that satisfies higher purposes than merely providing him with in Islamic History.” In Intellectual Traditions in Islam.
particular benefits and duties. It was not difficult to add to the Edited by Farhad Daftary. London: I. B. Tauris, 2000.
characteristics of the ruler the status of prophecy, or interme- Leaman, Oliver. Introduction to Classical Islamic Philosophy.
diary between the community and the Prophet, and this Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
enables the state to claim a higher purpose than merely
assuring the material welfare of its members. Even long after Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, and Leaman, Oliver, eds. History of
the direct influence of Greek thought disappeared from the Islamic Philosophy. New York: Routledge, 1996.
Islamic world, this theme in political thought continued and Peters, Francis E. Aristotle and the Arabs: The Aristotelian
flourished. Tradition in Islam. New York: New York University
Press, 1968.
See also Africa, Islam in; Americas, Islam in the; Falsafa;
Islam and Other Religions; South Asia, Islam in; South- Walzer, Richard. Greek into Arabic: Essays on Islamic Philosoeast Asia, Islam in. phy. Oxford, U.K.: Bruno Cassirer, 1962.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Oliver Leaman
Abed, Shukri. Aristotelian Logic and the Arabic Language in
Alfarabi. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.
Gutas, Dimitri. Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to the Reading of Avicenna’s Works. Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1988. GUMI, ABU BAKR See Abu Bakr Gumi

Islam and the Muslim World 283
H
HADITH In this tradition the isnad informs us that Abu Sa
id al-
Khudri, a Companion of the Prophet, reported this saying of
Hadith is a genre of Muslim literature that originated in the the Prophet, and that his report has been transmitted via
early period of Islamic history. It is found in the earliest
Ata, Ibn Shihab, Malik, and his pupil Yahya to the editor of
preserved compilations of legal and historical material as- the collection in which the hadith is found.
cribed to authors of the eighth century. Since then and
Role in Muslim Culture
continuing until the present time, a huge number of hadith
The hadiths, embodying the tradition on the origins of Islam,
collections have been brought to light.
are for Muslims an important source of guidance next to the
The term hadith (often capitalized by Western scholars) Quran. The “way” (sunna) of their Prophet and of the first
denotes both the genre of literature and an individual text of generations of Muslims is taken as a model of how Muslims
this genre. Originally the term meant story, communication, should live in this world in order to lead a happy eternal life in
or report but as a scholarly term hadith means tradition. the hereafter. This is most obvious in that this sunna, particu-
Muslim scholarship tends to limit the term hadith to the larly that of the Prophet, became after the Quran the second
accounts of the prophet Muhammad. Many Western scholars fundamental source of the sharia, the Law of God. According
use hadith more broadly to include the traditions of the to Muslim scholars this status of the sunna is advocated both
in the Quran and in hadiths of the Prophet and was already
Prophet’s Companions and even later generations. In this
acknowledged by his Companions. In contrast, Western
broader meaning, however, it was also used by early and a few
scholars usually think that the sunna acquired its status as
later Muslim hadith scholars.
second source of the Law only gradually during the eighth
In the early and classical sources, that is, those dated until century and that in Sunnite law the hadiths of the Prophet
the eleventh century, one mostly encounters the hadiths in a gained the absolute superiority over other expressions of the
typical form. Every single tradition begins with a chain of sunna only in the first half of the ninth century. In Imami
transmitters, called isnad (support, foundation). The first Shi
ite law the traditions of the Prophet did not acquire such a
transmitter in the isnad is often the collector (sometimes even superiority but are considered equal in value with that of
his pupil) in whose compilation the hadith in question is the imams.
found, then the collector’s informant is mentioned, then the
The important role that the hadiths came to play in
latter’s informant, and so on until the chain arrives at the
Muslim scholarship in general, and for the establishment of
original reporter of the text. The text, which is called matn in
the sharia in particular, induced Muslim scholars to scruti-
Arabic, could be either a short sentence or a long story. Here
nize the tradition material critically and to define rules as to
is an example of a hadith:
which hadiths could be accepted and which must be rejected.
The traditional Muslim hadith criticism focused on the
Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab from chains of transmitters (isnads), which accompany a hadith, but

Ata b. Yazid al-Laythi from Abu Sa
id al-Khudri that also checked whether its content (matn) is compatible with
the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant other recognized traditions and with the Quran. This led
him peace, said (= isnad): “When you hear the call to among the Sunnites to a classification of hadiths in four
prayer (adhan), repeat what the muezzin (mu
adhdhin) classes: (1) sahih (sound); (2) hasan (fair); (3) daif (weak), with
says” (= matn). some subcategories of this class; and (4) mawdu (spurious).

Hadith

Additionally, special classification systems were developed 849), the Sunan of Sa
id b. Mansur (d. 841), or the Sunan of alfor the evaluation of isnads and matns. The critical evaluation Darimi (d. 868), belong to this type, as do the six hadith
of the hadiths found its expression in special compilations in collections of al-Bukhari (d. 870), Muslim (d. 874), Ibn Maja
which their authors collected the hadiths, that they consid- (d. 886), Abu Dawud (d. 888), al-Tirmidhi (d. 892), and alered reliable or accepted. The “six books” (see the section Nasai (d. 915), which over time were recognized by Sunnite
“Collections” below), which among the Sunnites acquired an scholars as the most reliable ones. The collections of alalmost canonical status, belong to this type of collection. Bukhari and Muslim were even called the “sound” (sahih).
Nevertheless, the evaluation of particular hadiths, even of The canonical hadith collections of the Imami Shi
ites comthose contained in the most revered collections, remained piled by al-Kulini (d. 939), al-Babuya al-Qummi (d. 991), and
disputed in Muslim scholarship. In Imami Shi
ism hadith al-Tusi (d. 1067) also belong to the musannaf type.
criticism was less sophisticated and appeared late because the
isnads consisted in large part of the (infallible) imams. Several comprehensive collections compiled from the
ninth century onward show another method of ordering the
In modern times the Muslim debate about the reliability hadiths. All traditions whose isnads go back to the same
of the hadiths got a new impetus. Reform-minded scholars original reporter are put together; for example, the hadiths
and intellectuals tried to revise the issue of which hadiths are transmitted from the above-mentioned Abu Sa
id al-Khudri.
essential and binding for a Muslim and which are not. Names The entries are arranged alphabetically according to the
like Sayyid Ahmad Khan (d. 1898), Muhammad
Abduh (d. name of the original reporters. Such a type of collection is
1905), Rashid Rida (d. 1935), Mahmud Abu Rayya, and called musnad. Generally it confines itself to hadiths of the
Ghulam Ahmad Parwez are connected with the critique of Prophet. The most famous compilation of this type is the
the traditional hadith scholarship. Scholars advocating Islamic huge Musnad of Ahmad b. Hanbal (d. 855), but there are
revivalism, such as Abu l-A
la Maududi (d. 1979), Muham- earlier ones, such as the Musnad of al-Humaydi (d. 834) and
mad al-Ghazali, or Yusuf al-Qaradawi, also called for a the Musnad of al-Tayalisi (d. 813)—the latter probably comreassessment of the classical hadith literature in light of the piled by one of his pupils—and many later ones, like the
Quran and modernity. They argued for a more sophisticated Tahdhib al-athar of al-Tabari (d. 923), which is incomplete;
criticism of the content (matn) of the hadiths. A few others the Musnad of Abu Ya
la (d. 919); or al-Mu‘jam al-kabir of allike Fazlur Rahman (d. 1988) and Mohammed Arkoun advo- Tabarani (d. 970).
cated a new understanding of the development of the hadiths.
Muslim scholars did not always use the terms musannaf
and musnad consistently in the titles of the collections, and
Collections
they classify hadith collections also according to several other
The earliest preserved hadith collections confine themselves
criteria.
to certain types of traditions. For example, the Sira of Ibn
Ishaq (d. 767) in the recension preserved from Ibn Hisham (d. History
828 or 833) contains mainly historical traditions on Muham- Hadiths are available in collections dating from the ninth to
mad and his time. The Muwatta
of Malik b. Anas (d. 795 ) as the eleventh centuries or even later. The hadiths themselves,
transmitted by Yahya b. Yahya (d. 848) is a collection of legal through their isnads, claim to have been transmitted from
hadiths, as is the Zaydi Shi
ite Majmu al-fiqh ascribed to earlier times. There are four sources that allow us to know
Zayd b.
Ali (d. 740), but probably compiled only by Ibrahim more about the history of these hadiths: (1) the isnads of the
b. Zibriqan (d. 799). By contrast, the Tafsir of
Abd al-Razzaq traditions; (2) their texts (matns); (3) biographical traditions
al-San
ani (d. 827) contains exegetical traditions. about the transmitters found in the isnads; and (4) the later
norm and practice of transmitting traditions (known from
This manner of collecting traditions continued and there
different types of sources).
are many later examples of compilations confined to a certain
type of tradition or to traditions on certain topics. From the Most Sunnite Muslim scholars are convinced that it is
ninth century onward more comprehensive collections be- possible to reconstruct the history of the hadiths on the basis
came available. There are two main types. In most of the of the four sources, which they consider on the whole as being
comprehensive collections the traditions are put together in reliable. They usually sketch the origin and development of
chapters and paragraphs according to the content of the the hadiths as follows: The Prophet taught his “way” (sunna)
traditions. Thus we find chapters on prayer, marriage, com- to his Companions orally, by writing or by practical demonmercial transactions, Quranic exegesis, maghazi (campaigns stration. He encouraged his Companions to diffuse his teachof the Prophet), and so forth in which traditions on the ings and sent teachers and preachers to newly converted
particular topics are combined. This type of ordering of the tribes. His Companions were very eager to learn as much as
subject matter is called musannaf (classified). The oldest they could from their Prophet. They learned his sunna, that
comprehensive collections preserved, such as the Musannaf of is, his practice, by doing it with him, they memorized it, or—

Abd al-Razzaq (d. 827), the Musannaf of Ibn Abi Shayba (d. if they could write—wrote it down. After the death of the

286 Islam and the Muslim World
Hadith

Prophet, his Companions continued their efforts to memo- it might be possible to discern between them. They differ,
rize the hadiths and to write them down, and instructed however, widely as to the methods through which this could
others whenever they felt that this was needed, and some be achieved. In this respect more or less skeptical and sophis-
Companions even attracted circles of students whom they ticated approaches can be distinguished. Some scholars (like
taught regularly. M. W. Watt) rely in their methods mainly on the texts of the
hadiths, while others (like Juynboll) focus on the isnads, and
In this way the hadiths were also transmitted to the yet others (like J. van Ess, H. Motzki, or G. Schoeler) use a
following generations. The students of the Companions, the combination of matn and isnad analysis. The latter method
older Successors, became teachers themselves and the circles starts from collections in which the traditions are available
of students committed to the study of the Quran and to the and tries to detect indications in the isnads and the texts as to
preservation of traditions grew steadily. There were only few whether the traditions in question were really transmitted or
Successors who had collected hadiths from different sources, fabricated. The investigation can be focused either on a single
but their students, who flourished in the first half of the tradition, of which variants are available in different colleceighth century, devoted themselves to the task of collecting tions, or on the traditions contained in one and the same
traditions more systematically. They also began to arrange collection. In the first case the aim is to find out whether it is
them thematically and transmitted their written collections possible to reconstruct the transmission history of a particular
to wider circles of students. This is the material out of which hadith. In the second case the issue is scrutinized to deterthe early substantial collections of traditions were compiled, mine whether the history of a whole collection can be reconsuch as Ibn Ishaq’s Sira or Malik’s Muwatta
, which are structed, whether the collector may have invented the hadiths
preserved through recensions of their pupils. or the isnads or both, or whether he has received them from
the informants he names.
This scenario, which has a certain attraction by appearing
natural or even inevitable, at least as far as the Prophet and his This source-critical approach produces another scenario
Companions are concerned, is almost completely based on of the history of the hadiths. In contrast to the pictures
information taken from traditions that go back, according to drafted by Muslim scholars and extreme skepticists, the
their isnads, to eyewitnesses of the time of the Prophet, the conclusions of the source-critical scholars are general but
Companions, and the Successors. It is rejected outright by a confined to the collections and traditions studied. Their
Western school of thought that argues that the precise scenario is therefore fragmentary and provisional.
history of the hadiths available in the collections of the ninth
century and later cannot be reconstructed anymore. Scholars According to the source-critical approach there are colbelonging to this school of thought doubt, first of all, the lections, such as
Abd al-Razzaq’s Musannaf or Ibn Hisham’s
historical value of the isnads, which they consider as generally Sira, which can be shown to have been compiled from earlier
fabricated and as arbitrarily attached to the traditions. They sources. That means that the names to which the collectors
furthermore argue that the biographical traditions about the ascribe their materials are, at least partially, their real informtransmitters who appear in the isnads are not an independent ants. This does not yet say anything about the quality of their
historical source, because the information contained in the textual transmission. These informants or sources of the
biographical traditions may be invented to support the isnads. collectors, like Ibn Jurayj or Ibn Ishaq, lived in the first half of
If these two sources, isnads and biographical traditions, are the eighth century. It is also obvious that the huge amounts of
unreliable, then we are left with the texts alone. On the basis traditions that were transmitted by these informants were
of their content and style, only a very global reconstruction of mostly not invented by them or falsely ascribed to some other
their history is possible. As models for such a reconstruction, informants, but were really received from the persons named.
the developments of the Jewish and Christian religious litera- This is suggested by the great variation between the isnads
ture can be used. The result is “salvation history,” the recon- and the matns, which are said to derive from the different
struction of how the Muslim community at the turn of the informants and by formal peculiarities that suggest a real
eighth century reflects through its traditions on its own transmission. In this manner the materials going back, for
origins. This school of thought derives its inspiration from example, to
Ata b. Rabah (d. 733) or
Amr b. Dinar (d. 744),
the studies of J. Wansbrough (1977, 1978). According to this some of the key informants of Ibn Jurayj (d. 767), or the
approach the hadiths are generally inauthentic in the sense material going back to al-Zuhri (d. 742), a key informant of
that they do not reflect the factual history of the first two both Ibn Jurayj and Ibn Ishaq (d. 767), can be recovered. The
Islamic centuries. This skepticism of the traditions has its quality of the material transmitted from these informants—
roots in the studies of I. Goldziher (1890) and J. Schacht (1950). flourishing in the first quarter of the eighth century and
belonging to the Successors, the generation following that of
Not all Western scholars hold to the extreme skepticism the Prophet’s Companions—can be evaluated on internal
that doubts the historical reliability of the Muslim traditions grounds and by comparing their traditions with variants of
altogether. Many Western scholars of Islam assume that them found in other reliable sources and transmitted by
there may be both unreliable and reliable traditions and that compilers other than Ibn Jurayj and Ibn Ishaq. In this way

Islam and the Muslim World 287
Hadith

suspicious transmitters can be detected as well. The proce- Brown, Daniel W. Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic
dure can, at least in some cases, also be applied to the material Thought. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University
deriving from the Successors. That means that through this Press, 1996.
method it is possible to date large amounts of traditions step Burton, John. An Introduction to the Hadith. Edinburgh: Edinby step back until, at least in some cases, the time of the burgh University Press, 1994.
Companions. Cook, Michael. “The Dating of Traditions.” In Early Muslim
Dogma: A Source-Critical Study. Cambridge, U.K.: Cam-
The materials reconstructed as being earlier sources allow bridge University Press, 1981.
for conclusions about the way hadiths were transmitted from
Donner, Fred M. Narratives of Islamic Origins. The Beginnings
generation to generation until they were incorporated in the of Islamic Historical Writing. Princeton, N.J.: The Darwin
collection in question, for example
Abd al-Razzaq’s Musannaf. Press, 1998.
It could be established, for example, that the transmission of
Ess, Joseph van. Zwischen Hadith und Theologie. Studien zum
traditions in Mecca and Medina from the middle of the Entstehen prädestinatianischer Überlieferung. Berlin and New
seventh until the middle of the eighth century occurred orally York: Walter de Gruyter, 1975.
but was accompanied by written notes. This indicates that the
Goldziher, Ignaz. Muslim Studies. Edited by S. M. Stern.
transmission focused on the content of the traditions, not on Translated by C. R. Barber, and S. M. Stern. London:
the exact wording. In the succeeding generations transmis- George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1971.
sion occurred orally in combination with verbatim copying.
Juynboll, G. H. A. Muslim Tradition. Studies in Chronology,
The use and quality of isnads differed among the early
Provenance and Authorship of Early Hadith. Cambridge,
scholars. It seems that incomplete isnads coexisted with com- U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
plete ones from the time of the Successors onward until the
Juynboll, G. H. A. Studies on the Origins and Uses of Islamic
end of the eighth century.
Hadith. Aldershot, U.K.: Variorum Collected Studies
Series, 1996.
It can also be said that in early Meccan scholarship
transmission of traditions played a minor role compared to Kohlberg, Etan. “Shi
i Hadith.” The Cambridge History of
that of Medina, but the situation changed in Mecca in the Arabic Literature. Vol. 1, Arabic Literature to the End of the
Umayyad Period. Edited by A. F. L. Beeston, et al. Camcourse of the first half of the eighth century. These differbridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
ences notwithstanding, there can be no doubt that there are
traditions about the Companions and the Prophet that were Motzki, Harald. “The Prophet and the Cat: On Dating
Malik’s Muwatta and Legal Traditions.” Jerusalem Studies
known and transmitted in both centers of learning already in
in Arabic and Islam 22 (1998): 18–83.
the second half of the seventh century. It is improbable,
however, that the source-critical approach can lead to an Motzki, Harald.“The Murder of Ibn Abi l-Huqayq: On the
Origin and Reliability of Some Maghazi-Reports.” In The
earlier period, aside from exceptional cases. One of the
Biography of Muhammad: the Issue of the Sources. Edited by
limitations of this method is that it cannot generalize. That
Harald Motzki. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
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has not yet been or cannot be scrutinized by this method, Motzki, Harald. The Origins of Islamic Jurisprudence. Meccan
Fiqh before the Classical Schools. Translated by M. H. Katz.
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Schacht, Joseph. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence.
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Schoeler, Gregor. Charakter und Authentie der muslimischen
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Abdul Rauf, Muhammad. “Hadith Literature—I: The Devel- Wansbrough, John. The Sectarian Milieu. Content and Compoopment of the Science of Hadith.” The Cambridge History sition of Islamic Salvation History. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford
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Hallaj, al-

Wilks, I. “The Juula and the Expansion of Islam into the
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Abdulkader Tayob
HAJJ SALIM SUWARI, AL- (C. 1300)
Al-Hajj Salim Suwari is a name that appears in a number of
scholarly lineages in West Africa. He is credited with trans- HAJ
UMAR AL-TAL, AL-
mitting a significant Maliki teaching tradition to a region (1797–1864)
stretching from Ghana and Burkina Faso to Senegal and
Gambia in West Africa. This tradition included jurispru- The last revolutionary in the jihad tradition of Western
dence, exegesis, and the biography of the Prophet. Historians Sudan, Shaykh
Umar al-Tal was born in Futa Toto, in the
are divided between his provenance in the twelfth and thir- Senegambia region, where he received his religious training.
teenth centuries and the early fifteenth century. Those who While in Mecca for pilgrimage in 1826 he was appointed the
support the latter believe that he played a leading role in the caliph of the Tijaniya brotherhood in the Western Sudan. He
cultivation of extensive trade in gold between West African lived in Mecca and Cairo, and eventually settled at the court
kingdoms and North Africa. According to them, al-Hajj of the Sokoto Caliphate. After almost a decade away from
Salim Suwari laid the foundation for a Maliki tradition that home he decided, in the late 1830s, to return to the Senegambia
fostered trade and accepted the authority of non-Muslim region. He settled first in Dingirai, a town on the frontiers of
rulers. It is this tradition that played a leading role in relations the Futa Jalon imamate. There he began to preach and build
between Muslims and other religious groups until the Fulani his own following. For the next decade, his focused primarily
Jihad states emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centu- on writing and teaching. He used his authority to challenge
ries. But it is also a tradition that continues today in countries the leaders of the locally powerful Qadiriya Sufi order.
like Senegal and other regions in West Africa.
In his efforts to forge a large Muslim state,
Umar declared
Following the local hagiographies more closely, S. O. a jihad around 1852 or 1853, when he began to widen his
Sanneh believes that al-Hajj Salim Suwari should be situated military operations north toward the upper Senegal River
in the twelfth century. Al-Hajj Salim Suwari performed the through non-Muslim, Malinke-dominated areas. By then he
pilgrimage seven times, and on returning from the last one, had acquired firearms and was proving to be a formidable
he began a migration from Diakhe-Masina on the Niger force in the region. By the mid-1850s he had established the
River to Diakhe-Bambukhu further southwest on the Senegal Tukolor Muslim empire, with his capital at Nioro. His
River. There he founded a city-state with his many followers, activities in the Senegambia eventually led to a confrontation
and established the scholarly tradition that flourished for the with the French, who were seeking to establish absolute
next several generations. Sanneh also believes that al-Hajj control over the region.
Umar’s military operations further
Salim Suwari and his followers, the Jakhanke, were not east in the Muslim state of Massina were largely successful,
directly engaged in the gold trade. Rather, they were engaged until he was killed in 1864 during a counterattack. His
in agriculture (through the extensive use of slaves) and were successors divided up the empire and continued to challenge
devoted to travel and study. The Diakhe-Babukhu of al-Hajj the French over the next couple of decades.
Salim Suwari became a model for many similar city-states in
the long history of Islam in West Africa. See also Africa, Islam in; Caliphate;
Ibadat.

See also Africa, Islam in; Islam and Other Religions; BIBLIOGRAPHY
Networks, Muslim.
Robinson, David. The Holy War of Umar Tal: The Western
Sudan in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Oxford, U.K.:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Clarendon Press, 1985.
Levtzion, N. “Patterns of Islamization in Black Africa.” In
Conversion to Islam. Edited by N. Levtzion. New York: Abdin Chande
London: Holmes and Meier Publishers, 1979.
Sanneh, S. O. The Jakhanke: The History of an Islamic Clerical
People of the Senegambia. London: International African
Institute, 1979. HALLAJ, AL- (858–922)
Wilks, I. Wa and the Wala: Islam and Polity in Northwestern Ghana. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University The mystic and martyr Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj was
Press, 1989. born in 858 in Bayda, Persia. An Arabized Iranian whose

Islam and the Muslim World 289
HAMAS

grandfather was a Zorastrian, al-Hallaj’s father, a cotton- See also Heresiography; Kharijites, Khawarij; Mahdi;
wool carder (hallaj) by trade, converted to Islam. The family Muhasibi, al-; Tasawwuf.
had emigrated through textile centers in Iran, settling in
Sunni (Hanbali) Wasit, Iraq, where the young Hallaj was BIBLIOGRAPHY
educated in grammar, the Quran, and exegesis. He returned Massignon, Louis. La Passion d’al-Hallaj (1922). Reprint.
in 873 to Tustar and placed himself in the service of the noted Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1982.
Sufi shaykh Sahl. In 857 in Basra he received the Sufi habit
Mason, Herbert. al-Hallaj. Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon
(khirqa) and came under the influence of such noted shayks as
Press, 1995.
Muhasibi and
Amr Makki, both of whom were associated
with al-Junayd, head of the Baghdad school of Sufism.
Herbert W. Mason
In the period between 877 and 883 he married and had a
daughter and three sons. The third son, Hamd, left an
eyewitness account of his father’s last days in prison and his
public execution. He became involved in the black slave
HAMAS
(Zanj) revolt centered around Basra, which was driven ideo-
HAMAS is an acronym drawn from the Arabic initials of the
logically by Shi
ite opponents of the Sunni
Abbasid Caliphate.
Islamic Resistance Movement (harakat al-muqawamat al-
Though Sunni, he moved in Shi
ite circles and was later
Islamiyyah), but which also bears a literal meaning of “zeal.”
accused of having been influenced by Mahdism. He made the
An offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, HAMAS was estab-
first of this three yearlong retreats to Mecca, and uttered his
lished in 1987, during the first Palestinian intifada (uprising).
famous statement “I am the Truth” (Ana al-Haqq), which his
The context for the creation of HAMAS was the continued
opponents interpreted as blasphemy but which later supportfailure of efforts such as the Camp David Accords to achieve
ers interpreted as “God has emptied me of everything but
the goal of Palestinian statehood.
Himself.” This was the most extreme expression of mystical
union with God in the history of Islamic mysticism. In November of 1987, the Arab League met in Amman,
Jordan, and issued a statement identifying the export of
After his family settled in Baghdad, Hallaj departed on
Islamic revolution from Iran as the greatest threat to stability
two long missionary journeys to Khurasan and India between
in the region. This was the first time the Arab League had not
887 and 901, preaching especially to Turkish nomads and
identified Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory as the
Manichean Uyghur Turks. During this period he composed
major threat to regional stability. Feeling betrayed by the
his first books and was given the sobriquet “the reader of
international community and abandoned by fellow Arabs,
hearts” (al-Hallaj al qulub). Between journeys he made his
some members of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim
second pilgrimage to Mecca and met two noted shaykhs, the
Brotherhood lost faith in the approach to the problem of
aging Nuri and the young Shibli. In 904 he visited Jerusalem,
Palestinian statelessness taken by that organization during
praying in the Holy Sepulcher of Jesus, who in an earlier
the past few decades. The immediate cause of the intifada was
period he had proclaimed the Mahdi. At this time he also
the death of some Palestinian workers hit by an Israeli driver.
preached the idea of fulfilling the pilgrimage obligation
outside Mecca by creating miniature Ka
bas in homes, which A group of Islamist Palestinians came together at a meeting
was raised against him as a transgression of sacred law at his called to discuss the incident, and the result was the formation
trial. He preached openly against the tax scandals and politi- of HAMAS. While the Palestinian Brotherhood’s parent
cal corruption linked to the weakened Caliphate, which organization, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, continued
finally resulted in his arrest, in the name of public order, to follow a quietist approach to achieving Palestinian goals,
and long imprisonment (913–922). In 922 in Baghdad he HAMAS leaders were persuaded that militarism would be
was charged with heresy, flogged, gibbeted, and his body required to achieve security for Palestinians.
was burned.
In addition to distinguishing itself from its parent, the
Masked as a legal trial for heresy, the death of Hallaj has Muslim Brotherhood, by insisting on the need for armed
remained a controversial subject throughout subsequent resistance, HAMAS distinguishes itself from the PLO (Pales-
Islamic history, and has become a dramatic theme of many tine Liberation Organization) in rejecting the right of the
modern plays in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and English. Zionist entity (as it calls Israel) to exist because Israel denies
Palestinians the rights of freedom and independence. Further
Among his principal mystical ideas were total union with distinguishing itself from the PLO, HAMAS demands that an
God and the Essence of Desire (
ishq dhati), speech with God Islamic state be established in place of Israel or a secular
(shath), the existence of substitute saints (abdal) for the whole Palestinian state. The basis of this position is the claim that
community, the present witness (shahid ani) of the Eternal, Jerusalem and, by extension, all of Palestine, are waqf, that is,
fraternal union of two souls (ittihad an-nafsayn), and the properties entrusted to Muslims to administer in perpetuity,
outcry for justice (sayha bi
l-haqq). for the benefit of society. HAMAS ideologues believe that an

290 Islam and the Muslim World
Harem

Islamic state is necessary to ensure the rights of all citizens, Yasin describes the movement as essentially political, in that
Jews and Christians as well as Muslims, since Islamic law its goal is to secure the rights of Palestinians in their homeprotects the rights of religious minorities. Thus, the HAMAS land. Like other political movements, the significance of
charter proclaims, “God is the goal, the Prophet is the model, HAMAS is based not so much on the number of its official
the Quran is the constitution, jihad is the path, and death on members as on the popularity of its political agenda. The
God’s path is our most sublime aspiration.” popularity of HAMAS among Palestinians is impossible to
measure precisely without general elections. However, elec-
The spiritual leader of HAMAS, Shaykh Ahmad Yasin (b. tions among students in Palestinian universities indicate that
1936), was leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza and by the mid-1990s, HAMAS had the second-largest following,
founder of Gaza’s Islamic Center. He sought to establish after FATAH (harakat al-tahrir al-watani al-filastini, the larg-
HAMAS as an alternative to the PLO. HAMAS, therefore, est organization in the PLO). While the popularity of milidevotes the majority of its budget to an array of social tant Islamic groups in general was declining slightly by the
services. These include support for the families of slain, end of the 1990s, that trend was reversed following Israel’s
jailed, or exiled activists; health centers; kindergartens and withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. Without clear
other schools; mosques; and mediation services (a common benefits to the majority of Palestinians from the 1993 Oslo
form of civil conflict resolution in Arab societies). Its military Accords, and in the context of stalled negotiations between
activities, which it considers legitimate resistance to Israel’s Israel and the PLO, the claim that militant Islam had defeated
military occupation which is in violation of UN Security Israel in Lebanon and could do so in Palestinian territories as
Council Resolutions 242 and 338, are conducted by an armed well became believable to some.
wing called
Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, named after a
Palestinian hero killed by the British during its “Mandate” Because of its military activities and political positions,
occupation of Palestine in 1936. HAMAS is banned in Israel. Many of its members have been
arrested or deported, and a number of its leaders have been
The ability of HAMAS to provide its services depends assassinated. HAMAS was designated a terrorist organization
upon its funding, which is both local and international. by the United States in 1995, and contributing to it was
Internal funding comes from the Islamic charity offering, prohibited by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penzakat. Support also comes from Muslim governments, such as alty Act (Pub. Law 104–132) of April 1996.
those of Saudi Arabia and Iran, from Islamic organizations
throughout the world, as well as remittances from Muslims See also Arab League; Fundamentalism; Intifada;
living abroad. Lebanon; Majlis; Martyrdom; Terrorism.

Organizationally, HAMAS is linked to the Muslim Broth-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
erhood. According to the HAMAS charter of August 1988, it
is a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood Society in Palestine. Its Abu Amr, Ziad. Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and
Gaza: Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad. Bloomington:
activities are coordinated by liaisons between Gaza, the West
Indiana University Press, 1994.
Bank, Jordan, and HAMAS leaders living abroad. Its leadership structure is informal, with several founders and ideologues. Mithaq harakat al-muqawama al-Islamiyya (Hamas) [Covenant
of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)], n.p., 18
Shaykh Yasin remains the acknowledged spiritual leader, but
August 1988.
specific decisions are taken by a consultative council (majlis
al-shura) with a flexible membership. This structure is in Rashad, Ahmad. Hamas: Palestinian Politics with an Islamic
accordance with the traditional Sunni Islamic model, and is Hue. Anandale, Va.: United Association for Studies and
Research, 1993.
effective in allowing the organization to survive the incarceration and exile of its leaders from time to time. Schiff, Zeev and Ehud Yaari. Intifada: The Palestinian
Uprising—Israel’s Third Front. New York: Simon and
HAMAS is most notorious for its use of suicide bombings Schuster, 1989.
in its armed struggle against Israel, targeting both military
personnel and civilians. Both suicide and the targeting of Tamara Sonn
civilians are forbidden by Islamic law. Both have been condemned by major Islamic scholars since the attacks against
America on 11 September 2001. However, many religious
scholars make an exception to the prohibition of suicide in HAREM
the case of the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation,
provided the victims of the attacks are military personnel. The practice of the harem (Ar., harim), or the seclusion of
women, dates back to the pre-Islamic period. The root h-r-m
The HAMAS charter describes the organization as the also refers to al-haram al-sharif, the sanctuary of Mecca as the
resistance wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, and therefore a reserved space for Muslims. The form harem connotes a
part of an international movement. At the same time, Shaykh sacred and inviolable space, which is forbidden to any men,

Islam and the Muslim World 291
Haron, Abdullah

other than the members of the immediate family. Its institu- subservience of these females became necessary. For this
tion and derivate forms have been common in the Middle reason, it was in the best interest of the masters to institute a
Eastern and Mediterranean cultures as an integral part of severe seclusion and rigid privacy for the females.
royal and upper-class families.
For outsiders, the “imagined harem” came to represent
Culturally, the Mesopotamian, Greek antiquity, and Per- the abased and subjugated treatment of women in Islamic
sian societies shared in common the practice of the harem. civilization. This harem discourse emerged in the seven-
While women were confined to their quarters, men enjoyed teenth century after the Europeans discovered harems filled
the privilege of engaging in the public sphere. This segrega- with women. The explicit connection between the “imagined
tion also marked a labor division based on sexual difference; harem” and the status of women in Muslim society and Islam
females were responsible for the management of the house- was generally produced and reproduced by the European
hold, whereas males served as head of the family and were Orientalists in the two centuries following the colonization of
responsible for public affairs. As the women’s role was limited
the Muslim lands. This harem element shifted the medieval
to managing the house, their presence in the public sphere
discourse on Muslim women, which previously portrayed
was also regulated through a manner of dress that rendered
them as victimized, yet powerful in charm and deceit.
them invisible from public gaze. Historically, followers of
Judaism and Christianity also secluded women. For example, Stimulated by the translation from the Arabic of the folk
in the early Jewish family, where gender relations varied, story The Thousand and One Nights, the “imagined harem”
women were nonetheless confined to a private sphere in
produced narratives of Muslim women whose sexual desire
which they performed household duties for the family as well
was strong, yet subordinated, oppressed, veiled, and seas religious rites. In the early Christian era, women were
cluded. These harem narratives circulated in the eighteenth
often secluded within their own residence, guarded by eunuchs,
and nineteenth centuries, functioning not only to feed the
and required to be veiled when they left the home. These
Orientalist imaginary of the harem, but also to serve the
practices found their way into the caliphate as the Abbasids
superiority of imperialist power over the Muslim world.
conquered the lands inhabited by the dominant Christian and
Jewish cultures, and so the elite female members of the
The harem as a social institution for women in the Muslim
Abbasid caliphate were secluded within their own quarters
world, especially in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia,
called “harem.” The institution of harem flourished in Mus-
finally came to an end in the early twentieth century. It ended
lim societies during the successive invasions and conquests of
not because Muslims discovered that it was incompatible with
the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions, Africa, and
Islam, but because they lost control over their land and
India. The conquest of Persia during the Sassanian times led
politics.
to the assimilation of Persian culture, especially in the garrison towns. This conquest and the subsequent expansion of
See also Gender; Marriage; Purdah.
the Muslim territory provided Muslim dynasties with the
opportunity to own, inherit, and capture prisoners of wars,
including eunuchs, slaves, and minors, as well as the wives of BIBLIOGRAPHY
royal families. For example, the Abbasid nobles and leaders Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a
adopted the Persian custom of the ownership of hundreds Modern Debate. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
and thousands of concubines and slaves. Muslim dynasties Press, 1992.
and the notables maintained a harem as a part of their palaces. Mernissi, Fatima. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of A Harem Girlhood. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Com-
The inclusion of the harem fit well with the societal pany, 1994.
structure adopted from the Irano-Semitic culture in its Islamic
form, called the ayan-amir system. In this form of administration, the “notables” (ayan) of the towns and villages and Etin Anwar
the umara
(leaders or commanders) of local or regional
garrison courts shared power and authority. Within this web
of social relationships, individual social status depended on
the male’s ability to settle formal quarrels among the tribes or HARON, ABDULLAH (1924–1969)
factions and to invite sexual jealousy. The patterns of feuding
and sex relations with numerous concubines marked mascu- Abdullah Haron was an imam in Cape Town, South Africa,
line honor and worthiness in society. These masculine traits and a symbol of Muslim involvement in the antiapartheid
belonged exclusively to the notables (the ayan) and the struggle. Born in Cape Town in 1924 he lived all his life in
commanders/leaders (the umara). As the masculine honor that city and died there in 1969, a victim of apartheid’s
within the ayan system depended heavily on the honor of security police. He attended a Muslim school in the city and
wives, concubines, and female slaves, the total control and the as a youth spent two years as a devotee of a shaykh in Mecca.

292 Islam and the Muslim World
Hasan

On his return to South Africa he studied under respected After the death of his father,
Ali bin Talib, the first imam,
local scholars. In 1955 he was appointed to the position of Mu
awiya became caliph. According to the Shi
ite account,
imam at a mosque in a Cape Town suburb. He was a keen Hasan should have succeeded his father. Hasan was an imporsportsman and played rugby and cricket even after he became tant rawi (reciter) and interpreter of the hadith and sunna
imam. He concentrated on social issues and established an (sayings and practices) of the Prophet and his Companions,
organization devoted to making Islam meaningful to youth in reflecting the role of the imams in having access also to the
South Africa. He was the first editor of Muslim News, an divine meanings of revelation. But Hasan was too weak
influential weekly among the country’s Muslims. politically to challenge Mu
awiya for the leadership of the
community. After Mu
awiya attempted to have him assasinated,
As apartheid rule intensified the imam was among a small and many of his followers abandoned him, Hasan came to an
group of Muslims that explored ways to challenge the state understanding with Mu
awiya, wherein Hasan was sent to live
from an Islamic basis. But Abdullah Haron also believed in a in Medina, while Mu
awiya promised that leadership would
united front of the oppressed against racial domination. He revert to the family of the Prophet upon his death. But
grew close to members of the then proscribed Pan-African Mu
awiya broke his promise by appointing his son Yazid to
Congress. On his travels to the Middle East he met exiled succeed him, and convinced Ja
da, Hasan’s wife, to poison the
South Africans and spoke out against apartheid to Arab imam. In addition to paying Ja
da, Mu
awiyya also promised
audiences and leaders, including King Faysal of Saudi Arabia. to marry her to his son and heir, Yazid. The giving of
In September 1969 he was reported dead in detention, the poisoned water is the inverse of the denial of water to Husayn
eighteenth political detainee to die in police custody in the on the battlefield of Karbala, where the third imam was
1960s. During the 1980s, in the last wave of rebellion and martyred by the forces of Yazid. Imam Husayn’s revolt
resistance to the apartheid state, his memory and image were subsequently disgraced Yazid, and created in him the archetypal
revived as a symbol of Islam’s stand against injustice. He figure of evil in Shi
ite stories of injustice.
became better known and more revered as a martyr than
when he was alive. This parable structure is also encoded in a hadith quoted
by Mohammad Baqer Majlesi, the preeminent mujtahed of
See also Africa, Islam in; Modern Thought. the seventeenth century. On Id al-Fitr, according to the
hadith, Gabriel descended with a gift of new white clothes for
BIBLIOGRAPHY each of the Prophet’s grandsons. The Prophet said that the
Desai, Barney, and Marney, Cardiff. The Killing of the Imam. grandsons were used to colored clothes. So Gabriel asked
London: Quartet Books, 1978. each boy what color he wanted. Hasan chose green, Husayn
Donaldson, Dwight M. The Shiite Religion. New York: AMS red. While the clothes were being dyed, Gabriel wept. He
Press, 1984. explained: Hasan’s choice of green meant that he would be
martyred by poisoning, and his body would turn green, and
Haron, Muhammed. “Imam
Abdullah Haron: Life, Ideas
Husayn’s choice of red meant he would be martyred and his
and Impact.” Master’s thesis, University of Cape
Town, 1986. blood would turn the ground red.

Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shii Islam: The History Hasan is buried in Medina with a green banner on his
and Doctrines of Twelver Shiism. Oxford, U.K.: George
mausoleum. Husayn is buried in Karbala with a red banner,
Ronald, 1985.
the sign of a martyr whose revenge is yet to come.

Shamil Jeppie Sunni accounts of early Islamic history deny that Hasan
was poisoned, claiming he died of consumption. Sunni accounts also stress the temporary shift of power to Damascus
under Mu
awiya and Yazid, but since revenues came mainly
HASAN (624–670) from Iraq, power eventually shifted to Baghdad.

Hasan ibn
Ali ibn Abi Talib was the grandson of the prophet For Shi
a, Hasan’s story is a precursor to Husayn’s mar-
Muhammad and the second Shi
ite imam. Born in Medina in tyrdom, which is the overarching cosmic and paradigmatic
624, three years after the hijra, he died at age forty-six in story of existential tragedy, of injustice in this world triumphing
Medina in 670. In Shi
ite parables he and his brother Husayn, often by force over justice, and of the duty of a true Muslim to
the third imam, are figured as two alternative political strate- sacrifice himself, to witness for truth and justice.
gies against injustice in the world and in politics. Hasan
embodies the path of patience, which allows the enemy slowly See also Ahl al-Bayt; Imamate; Shi
a: Early; Succession.
to demonstrate unworthiness and lose any claim to legitimacy. Husayn embodies the path of armed revolt. Michael M. J. Fischer

Islam and the Muslim World 293
Hashemi-Rafsanjani,
Ali-Akbar

term refers to a heritage consisting of two distinctive catego-
HASHEMI-RAFSANJANI,
ALI- ries of medicine. First, there was what might be termed
AKBAR (1934–) Islamic folk medicine, which existed among the populace
throughout the Muslim world. Folk medicine did not enjoy

Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani was born in Rafsanjan, Kerman the blessings of the ruling elite and is still very often dismissed
province, Iran, in 1934 and was educated in Qom Seminary as as sheer quackery. Second, there was what might be termed
one of Ruhollah Khomeini’s students. (The Ayatollayh
Islamic state-sanctioned medicine. This category was the
Khomeini became the revolutionary leader of Iran in 1979.)
pride of the Islamic empire and enjoyed lucrative support
Rafsanjani was one of the exiled Khomeini’s chief agents,
from the Muslim ruling elite, particularly during the golden
opposed to the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and
age of the Islamic empire (seventh to thirteenth centuries).
was arrested on several occasions. He spent three years in
prison (1975–1977). Upon the overthrow of the shah in 1979, Islamic Folk Medicine
Rafsanjani was appointed to the Revolutionary Council. His Islamic folk medicine derives its legitimacy from its claim to
loyalty to Khomeini, combined with political skills, resulted have been based on the teachings of Islam. This claim is
in his elevation to the leadership of the Iranian parliament.
corroborated by frequent use of Quranic verses, prophetic
Rafsanjani orchestrated the arms-for-hostages deal with prescriptions, and the wisdom of saints and imams. It should
members of the administration of the U.S. president Ronald be noted here that exceptionally few passages in the Quran
Reagan, an action that later set into motion the Iran-Contra can be related directly to healing and medication. Prophet
scandal in the United States. After the death of Khomeini in Muhammad made no claim to be an authority in medicine
1989, Rafsanjani emerged as the pragmatist president of Iran and most of his relevant speeches correspond with what was
(1989–1997) and declared a plan of economic reform, known practiced within his culture. The hadith collection of Sahih
as an “adjustment program,” that included unifying exchange al-Bukhari, one of the most authoritative works on prophetic
rates, privatizing the economy, and canceling subsidies. narratives, stands as testimony to this, that is, to this continu-
Rafsanjani kept Iran from direct involvement in hostilities ity with pre-Islamic practices. Al-Bukhari’s voluminous work
during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. After the war he contains less than one hundred entries that are of relevance to
continued to carve out a middle ground between his more medicine. Most of these entries are no more than different
conservative religious colleagues’ calls for Iranian insularity versions of the same narratives. Other less authoritative
and his own inclination toward oligarchic modernization. He collections exist, such as al-Tibb al-Nabawi (Prophetic medialso worked to renew close ties with Middle Eastern neigh- cine). There is a consensus among scholars that collections
bors and the countries of Europe. Rafsanjani was accused by a under the term prophetic medicine—a genre of medical writfederal court in Germany of ordering the murders of certain ings intended as alternatives to the exclusively Greek-based
opponents who were gunned down in a Berlin restaurant. system derived from Galen—do not stand up to any scholarly
Rafsanjani was reelected to the presidency in 1993 but stepped or theological scrutiny. The Arab philosopher Ibn Khaldun
down in 1997 and became the leader of the Expediency described this class of medicine as essentially a Bedouin craft
Council after completing his second term as president. that has no divine revelation and thus cannot be obligatory
under religious laws.
See also Iran, Islamic Republic of; Revolution: Revolution in Iran. Barely literate practitioners dominate Islamic folk medicine, serving primarily illiterate masses. Far from being a
Majid Mohammadi weakness, this made it more flexible and hence accommodating to the diverse cultures of the Islamic empire. The result is
a craft that varies with cultures while retaining some degree of
harmony within each. Many of these diverse cultures did no
HEALING
more than adapt their new medical creed to their original
It is a hazardous task to attempt to offer a summary of Islamic etiology and treatment of disease.
medicine and healing and to map the contribution of the
Four categories are identified in Islamic folk medicine as
Islamic empire to human civilization. The Islamic empire
major causes of disease: sorcery, the evil eye, jinn, and adverse
covered a wide territory stretching from the western shores of
routine conditions (e.g., adverse weather, food problems,
Europe to the Indian subcontinent to the former Soviet states
accidents, etc.). Holy power represents a primary source of
in Asia. The Islamic empire maintained unchallenged authority in medicine for over six centuries. This entry offers medicine for all categories of disease except the last. Holy
brief synopses of this history. power is often manifested in combinations of Quranic verses
and magical formulas in various forms: Quranic verses that
Islamic scholars have referred to the medicine that existed are worn on the body or drunk; direct recitation from a holy
within the bounds of the Islamic empire as “Islamic.” The person; an object from a holy site and saintly tombs; and so on.

294 Islam and the Muslim World
Healing

Islamic Medicine truth—and it would be futile to even attempt to map out this
In general, the contribution of the Islamic empire to modern vast contribution.
medicine is often underrated in the West. More often than
Almost every field of modern medicine has a founding
not, Western scholars have overlooked Islam’s true contribu-
figure in the early Muslim world. Avicenna, often called the
tion to human civilization. A Eurocentric outlook affects even
“prince of physicians,” left behind more than a million words
the most authoritative scholars in the field. However, more
in medical documents. His contribution to science in general,
recent scholarship shows that medieval Muslim physicians
but medicine in particular, can also be found in his methodolmade many contributions to the medical knowledge from
ogy, which insisted on the use of reason alone to solve all
Greece, Persia, and India that passed through their hands. In
medical problems.
reviewing medieval Islamic medicine, one should be wary of
creating false impressions. The Islamic empire was more Ibn Haytham (965–1039 C.E.) made great strides in optics,
welcoming for non-Muslims than is popularly imagined in earning the nickname “father of optics.” He also made a
the West. In fact, many of its famous doctors were Jews (Musa broad paradigmatic shift in the pursuit of science, which he
ibn Maimun Maimonides, 1135–1204 C.E.), Christians (Hunayn centered around the use of inductive reasoning in the search
ibn Ishaq, 809–873 C.E.), and non-Arabs, mostly Persians (al- for knowledge. Experimentation—the backbone of modern
Razi / Rhazes, 841–925 C.E.; ibn Sina /Avicenna, 980–1037 science—is what he preached in his approach to medicine.
C.E.). Moreover, the term “Islamic medicine” disguises a

fundamental aspect of this class of medicine. Namely, that it Sinan ibn Thabit (died 946 C.E.) earned a good reputation
was not based on Islamic teachings. Instead, it simply existed, in both the Arab world and later in the West. He contributed
and prospered within that cultural space that the empire significantly to the art of presenting medical teaching books.
Moreover, he was instrumental in establishing a regulatory
afforded.
system of medical control, examination, and registration of
In its technological advancement, and to its credit, the doctors and formulating ethical rules to govern medical
Islamic empire did not attempt to reinvent the wheel. Start- practice.
ing from where others stopped is now a central tenet of
Another figure who made an immense contribution to the
modern science. The empire was fortunate that the wealth of
art of medical writing is
Ali ibn al-
Abbas al-Majusi (died
Greek philosophy was already at its doorstep. Up to the sixth between 982 and 995 C.E.). He was distinguished by his
century, Alexandria and Athens stood as rival centers of influential style of presenting medical facts with clarity,
medical learning. Persia was the new flourishing abode for lucidity, and freedom from both magical and astrological
scientists following the expulsion of the “heathen philoso- ideas of the past. Al-Majusi had a a wealth of knowledge that
phers” from Athens and Alexandria (527–565 C.E.). Khalid ibn spanned several branches of medicine, but is legendary for his
Yazid (655–704 C.E.) was unquestionably the first emir who illustrated thesis on the movement of the blood in the
laid the foundation for the translation of Greek works into human body.
Arabic. Following its fall under Muslim rule in 641, Alexandria proved to be a rich repository of Greek manuscripts. A The Islamic empire inherited a medical system in which
century later, caliph al-Mansur reinvigorated Baghdad as a surgery was regarded as an inferior branch of medicine, if it
center of knowledge enshrined in the famous Institute of was ever a part of it at all. Abu ’l-Qasim al-Zahrawi (936–1013
Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma). Scholars were enticed to convert C.E.) elevated surgery to a primary position in medicine.

foreign manuscripts appropriated from the city of Junde- Ample literature attests to his successful clinical treatment of
Shappur (in Persia) into Arabic. This city provided a vast bone fractures, bladder lithotomies, hemorrhoids, hernia,
wealth of Latin manuscripts in addition to equal numbers of wounds to the abdomen, tonsillectomies, and many other
other documents of Indian and Chinese origin. The Chris- ailments that required surgery.
tian medical scholar Abu Zakariya ibn Masawayh (died 857 The contribution of Islamic medicine was also impressive
C.E.), who was a personal physician for four caliphs, was in
in chemistry and preparation of medicinal drugs, distillation,
charge of this establishment. Other no less famous centers of and sublimation. Many drugs now in use in modern medicine
knowledge and translation followed and were abundant across are of Muslim origin.
the Islamic empire from the Persian Gulf to the European
Atlantic borders. It has often been argued that Islamic medicine was crippled by Islam’s attitudes toward dissection. These attitudes
Early scholarship tended to portray the contribution of are said to have been derived from the Islamic prohibition of
the Islamic empire to world medicine as no more than that of human body mutilation. It is true that Prophet Muhammad
a diligent storekeeper. In other words, that no original instructed his followers to respect the dead, foes and friends
contribution was made during the vibrant era of the Islamic alike, and to avoid mutilation. He also instructed his followers
empire (seventh to thirteenth century) when the Christian to hasten the burial of their dead, a practice that is favored to
world was dormant. Nothing could be further from the this day in the Muslim world. It is conceivable that following

Islam and the Muslim World 295
Heresies

such commands would have made dissection or indeed au- knowledge. Salerno’s medical establishment was reputed to
topsy a compromising practice. One must realize that such be the first organized medical school in Europe. In his visit to
prohibition was issued in tandem with other prescriptions Italy as merchant, Constantinus was appalled by the poverty
accompanying jihad wars and was designed to oppose exces- of medical knowledge in Italy. He decided to go back to
sive revenge and humiliation of slain enemies. While few Tunisia for three years to study medicine and bring worththeologians might have opted to extend this prohibition to while knowledge to his new abode. That he did with specthe practice of medicine, the ban has never been a central tacular success and he was later to rank among the most
issue in debating the advancement of medicine. The Muslim diligent translators of his time. These medical centers proved
philosopher and theologian al-Ghazali (d. 1111 C.E.) did valuable sources of information and were replicated in other
exactly the opposite when he hailed anatomy as an important European cities. For many years to come, the same sources of
branch of medicine, stating “whoever does not know astron- knowledge were used in the other European schools, which
omy and anatomy is deficient in the knowledge of God.” mushroomed in Seville, Montpellier, Paris, Padua, Bologna,
Indeed many of the prime pillars of Islamic medicine have left and elsewhere. While many texts of Arab origin continued in
writings and narratives as evidence of their practice in the use in these European medical schools throughout the Mid-
field of tashrih (dissection or anatomy). To name but a few, dle Ages, names of their Arab authors continued to be filtered
the list includes Rhazes, Masawayh, al-Zahrawi, and Avicenna. out through translation or otherwise.
It is important to note that not every religious prohibition
was zealously observed, particularly by the powerful. After all, See also Medicine; Miracles; South Asian Culture and
the prohibition against alcohol was flouted even in the palaces Islam; Southeast Asian Culture and Islam.
of the emirs. The biggest obstacle against dissection was
possibly the Arabian weather. In the absence of modern BIBLIOGRAPHY
methods of refrigeration, it would take much more determi-
El-Tom, Abdullahi Osman. “Drinking the Koran: The Meannation to handle a cadaver hours if not days after death. It has
ing of Koranic Verses in Berti Erasure.” Africa 55, no. 4
often been argued that Islamic medicine was no more than a
(1985): 414–431.
theoretical exercise that was not translated into practice.
Savage-Smith, Emilie. “Attitudes Toward Dissection in Medie-
Nothing could be further from the truth as most major
val Islam.” Journal of History of Medicine 50 (1995): 67–110.
Islamic cities had their medical establishments, which were
similar to modern teaching hospitals that combine healing Ullman, Manfred. Islamic Surveys II: Islamic Medicine. Edinwith training. D. L. Wright narrates that hospitals were burgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978.
established in the Arab world as early as the seventh century; Wright, D. L. “Medicine in the Golden Ages of Islam—The
that in the thirteenth century, al-Mansuri’s hospital in Cairo Islamic Legacy.” The Journal of Kuwait Medical Association
had four large quadrangles complete with fountains. The 20, no. 1 (1994): 98–103.
same hospital had wards for male and female patients, a
library, a lecture hall, and a mosque. Such a hospital could Abdullahi Osman El-Tom
indeed be the envy of modern hospitals in the modern
Muslim world. In 1160 C.E., Baghdad city had some sixty
dispensaries and infirmaries.
HERESIES See Heresiography;
Early Islamic and Modern World Medicine Kharijites, Khawarij
The eleventh century saw Europe just beginning to awake
from its long period of oblivion. It was Europe that was
behind the Arabs in every field. The march to regain supremacy in medicine began with the rebuilding of knowledge,
most of which was available only in Arabic scripts. In 1085,
Toledo of Spain was won back from the Arabs and was soon HERESIOGRAPHY
to house the School of Translation founded by Domenicus
Gundissalinus (1020–1087). Other scholars were also com- Heresiography is, literally, the writing of and about heresies.
missioned, most notably Gerard of Lombardy (joined 1150), It is, however, an extremely relative term as one group’s
who translated hundreds of Arabic works, including the heresy is ultimately another’s religion. Those who write
masterpieces of Rhazes and Avicenna. about heresies, known as heresiographers, are for the most
part engaged in the documentation of the errors and incor-
Italy, too, had its center (Salerno), which far exceeded rect beliefs of other groups, which are often pejoratively
Toledo’s establishment. It was the Tunisian-born scholar referred to as “sects.” However, as Jonathan Z. Smith argues,
Constantinus Africanus (1020–1087) who helped to realize “a ‘theory of the other’ is but another way of phrasing a
the European dream of ascending to supremacy in medical ‘theory of the self’” (p. 47). Heresiography, then, functions in

296 Islam and the Muslim World
Heresiography

two primary ways. First, it lists the perceived heretical doc- which the Prophet proclaims: “The Jews are divided into
trines or ideas of others, showing how they have either gone seventy-one sects, the Christians into seventy-two; my comor been led astray; secondly, and most importantly, it allows munity will be divided into seventy-three sects.” This tradithe group doing the writing to present what it is not, thereby tion seems to be the proof text for all subsequent attempts to
providing the contours of social, ideological, religious and document and delineate the various heretical groups.
political self-definition.
Judaism and Heresy
Definition and Origin In the background of much Islamic heresiographical writings
The closest Arabic term for heresiography in Islam is al-milal is the monolithic category of “the Jews.” Wasserstrom claims,
wa al-nihal, literally meaning “religions and sects.” The for instance, that Muslim heresies can often be traced back to
origin of this phrase is unclear and both words, despite a Jewish origin. According to Islamic history, the Jews are the
occurring separately in the Quran, do not seem to appear archetypal community that has gone astray. As such they are
together as a technical term before the tenth century. constantly held up as an example of what must not happen to
Shahrastani (d. 1153), one of the most famous medieval the Muslim community. Yet because Islam and Judaism had
heresiographers, argues that milal (sing., milla) refer prima- been in contact with one another since the advent of Islam in
rily to the parameters of a shared social or communal set of the seventh century, they were phenomenologically very
beliefs, whereas its synonym din more closely approximates similar. As a result, much time is spent differentiating Islam
what we would today call “religion.” Other sources, however, and Muslim teaching and dogma from that of the Jews.
do not make such a sharp differentiation between these two Moreover, when the Muslim heresiographers look for interterms. In one of its earliest usages, that by Abu Bakr al- nal divisions within Islam they tend to blame it on a Jew or a
Khwarizmi (d. c. 977), it is employed to denote religions Jewish convert to Islam. In many ways all heresies within
other than those of ahl al-kitab (i.e., “the people of the Book,”
Islam begin with the fact that Muhammad produced no male
meaning followers of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity). The
heirs, something that was generally blamed on Jewish magi-
first time the phrase is employed in a title is in the Kitab alcians. Moreover, it was Jews that were said to be responsible
milal wa al-nihal of al-Baghdadi (d. 1037). Other Arabic terms
for the following “heresies”: the Christian decision to worused in Islamic heresiographical literature to designate hereship Jesus, the ghulat (Shi
ite extremists), the Shi
ites, the
tics include zandaqa (“free-thought,” or “atheism”) and ilhad
Isma
ilis, the Fatimid dynasty, and one of the most divisive
(“heresy,” or “heterodoxy”).
theological issues in early Islam, that of the created Quran.
The Muslims were extremely interested in documenting
A common feature used in the literature associated with
the religious beliefs and doctrines of other groups. They did
heresiography is the list of sects and where they have gone
so, however, not as dispassionate scientists or academics, but
wrong. Such lists are, according to John Wansbrough, “scheoften as legal scholars, whose main job was to delineate and
matic and based on a variety of propositions: (1) numerical (to
establish the beliefs, and thus legal status, of other religious
make up the celebrated total of ‘seventy-three sects’); (2) ad
groups in order to determine both their taxation rates and
rights under Islamic law (sharia). The basis for all their hominem (‘schools’ generated from the names of individuals
categories of comparison, then, was not necessarily meant to by means of the nisba suffix [denoting origin or descent]); and
be scholarly or anthropological in its own right, but rather it (3) doctrinal (divergent attitudes to specific problems).” Furwas grounded in the traditional sources of Islam (e.g., Quran, thermore, despite the fact that Islam is generally considered
hadith). Yet, both the breadth and depth of the taxonomies to be an orthoprax (“correct practice”) religion as opposed to
that the Muslim heresiographers created were impressive. an orthodox (“correct belief”) one, heresiography is primarily
According to Gustave von Grunebaum, “in their books on concerned with documenting the incorrect or heretical besects, or comparative religion, the research acumen of the liefs, as opposed to actions, of others. The goal is to show how
Muslims shows at its best.” Precisely because so much of the such beliefs are to be differentiated from what is considered
milal wa al-nihal literature deals with the collection and to be “normative,” which of course differs according to those
subsequent listing of the beliefs of others, many modern doing the writing. Every Muslim group, then, is interested in
scholars frequently refer to this genre as a genealogical showing how its belief system is “normative” and how that of
precursor to the modern history of religions. its rivals is heretical. A common feature is that heretical belief
is always something that deviates from, and is thus subse-
Steven Wasserstrom locates the origins of this technical quent to, an original or pure teaching. For this reason heresy
genre of literature in the eighth and ninth centuries, when in Islam is often synonymous with the charge of innovations
Muslims increasingly encountered other, rival, monotheisms (bida).
in a highly “disputational, polemic, apologetic, and sectarian
milieu.” Despite the ambiguity surrounding the origins of Muslim Heresiographers
milal wa al-nihal as a technical term, the literature associated One of the most famous of Muslim heresiographers is the
with it seems to be predicated on the following hadith, in Andalusian Ibn Hazm (994–1064), an important though

Islam and the Muslim World 297
Heresiography

idiosyncratic legalist, philosopher, exegete, and polemicist. certain Islamist groups have issued blanket fatwas condemn-
His al-Fisal fi al-milal wa al-ahwa wa al-nihal (The book of ing all Jews and Christians as enemies of Islam; yet other
opinions on religions, heresies, and sects) offers an elaborate groups have employed fatwas to condemn the rulers of Arab
account of all the religious groups that had ever come into countries as infidels. It should be noted, however, that many
contact with Islam from the seventh century to his own day. who issue such controversial fatwas are often accused by those
In addition to his extremely thorough historiographical in the mainstream of having insufficient credentials to do so.
method, Ibn Hazm was also a zealous theologian who employed a literalist (zahiri) reading of the Quran and Islamic In recent times, heresiography has taken on even greater
doctrine. His Fisal examines both the histories of various political and ideological dimensions, as it is used now as a
groups, their offshoots, and their present status, thereby means of silencing one’s perceived enemies. In many Islamic
showing how they have changed or stayed the same over time. countries this is as easy as employing the concept of takfir, or
For example, his treatment of the Jews is severe, accusing the accusing someone, often one’s political opponent, of kufr
rabbis who produced the Talmud of heresy and of intellectual (“unbelief”). A famous example of this in the 1990s was the
skepticism. Interestingly, he accuses the rabbis of the same case of a University of Cairo professor by the name of Nasr
heretical doctrine as the materialists of early Islamic theol- Hamid Abu Zayd. An Islamic moderate, he called for an
ogy. This reveals a common theme in Islamic heresiography: understanding of the Quran and other early Islamic litera-
Often one loosely labels a number of one’s opponents with ture according to literary, contextual, and historical princithe same heretical doctrine. ples. In particular, he asked the question: What does the
Quran as a document, and not necessarily as the sacred
Ibn Hazm’s goal, then, was not necessarily historical or scripture of Muslims, say about a given subject (e.g., human
theological accuracy. He did not simply study religions for rights)? When Egyptian Islamists got wind of his academic
their own sake; on the contrary, he attempts to demolish the work they accused him of heresy and began legal proceedings
errors of others and, in the process, set Islam up as the most against him. An Egyptian high court, to the great surprise of
perfect of all religions. As such, he is less interested in many, agreed and declared him an apostate. As a result Abu
understanding other religions than in reducing them to Zayd was ordered to divorce his wife and was effectively
certain dogmas or problems that allow him to compare them forced out of Egypt. To this day he is a professor in the
with, often artificially, Islam. In short, Ibn Hazm knew what Netherlands. This case is so interesting and problematic
his conclusions were before he ever set out to establish the because it raises the nature of the tenuous relationship bepremises of comparison. tween what is considered heretical, the religious establishment, and, at least in theory, the autonomous nature of the
Another famous heresiographer was the aforementioned court system in Egypt.
Shahrastani, who wrote the Kitab al-milal wa al-nihal, which,
in his own words, proposed to present “the doctrinal opinions Heresiography is, thus, instrumental in defining not only
of all the world’s people.” Like the work of Ibn Hazm, the parameters of what is considered to be normative for a
Shahrastani is interested not only in documenting the vari- religion, but is also employed by the various groups that
ous religious groups both in his day and before, but also constitute that religion. Heresiography has been used, in one
in examining the various doctrines of the philosophers. way or another, since the advent of Islam in seventh-century
Shahrastani divides his book into two parts, with the first Arabia. At that time, it helped to differentiate Islam from rival
dealing with revealed religions that base their obedience on a monotheisms in the area of the Hijaz. Gradually, however, it
book (e.g., Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians), and the second was employed as a genre to help establish “normative Islam”
examining the doctrines that are of purely human origins by showing how various “sects” had gone astray in terms of
(e.g., the Sabians, philosophers, and the pre-Islamic Arabians). their beliefs. So although one uses heresiography as a way of
showing who is “inside” and who is “outside” one’s group, as a
Function of Heresiography genre it often tells us more about the “in” group than it does
Heresiography was, and still continues to be, used as a means about anyone else.
of legitimating the ideology—whether political, religious,
legal, or other—of the group defining what constitutes the See also Bid
a; Hadith; Hallaj, al-; Historical Writing;
“real Islam.” In recent years this has coincided with the Islam and Other Religions; Kalam; Quran; Shari
a.
increased use of the fatwa, a legal ruling that is given by a legal
expert. Such legal experts need not occupy official positions, BIBLIOGRAPHY
but they are generally recognized for their legal learning and Brann, Ross. Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Jews and
acumen. More recently, fatwas have become a convenient Muslims in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic Spain.
vehicle employed by various groups, many of whom are Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002.
marginal, as a way of condemning the beliefs and practices of Grunebaum, Gustave E., von. Medieval Islam. Chicago: Unigroups, Islamic or not, with differing opinions. For example, versity of Chicago Press, 1969.

298 Islam and the Muslim World
Hijri Calendar

Laoust, Henri. “L’hérésiographie musulmane sous les See also Astronomy; Muhammad.
Abbassides.” Cahiers de civilisation medievale 10
(1967): 157–178.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Shahrastani, Muhammad b. Abd al-Karim, al. Muslim Sects
and Divisions.Translated by A. K. Kazi and J. G. Flynn. Crone, P., and Cook, Michael. Hagarism: The Making of the
London: Kegan Paul, 1984. Islamic World. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University
Press, 1977.
Smith, Jonathan Z. “What a Difference a Difference Makes.”
In “To See Ourselves as Others See Us”: Christians, Jews, and Guillaume, A. Islam. Middlesex, U.K.: Penguin Books, 1973.
“Others” in Late Antiquity. Edited by Jacob Neusner and Schimmel, Annemarie. And Muhammad is His Messenger.
Ernest S. Frerichs. Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1985. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
Wansbrough, John. The Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition of Islamic Salvation History. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford Rizwi Faizer
University Press, 1978.
Wasserstrom, Steven M. Between Muslim and Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Islam. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.
HIJRI CALENDAR
Aaron Hughes There is no reference in the Quran to the pre-Islamic system
of anwa
in which the year is divided into precise periods on
the basis of the rising and setting of certain stars. According to
tradition, this system was considered anathema in Islam. The
HIJAB See Veiling most relevant Quranic allusion to calendar-related computation is to the stations of the moon (manazil al-qamar, 10:5,
36:39). There are twenty-eight such stations defined on the
basis of a combination of the pre-Islamic system of anwa
with
the lunar stations system.
HIJRA
The official Islamic calendar is lunar, with year one
In 622 C.E. the Meccan prophet Muhammad immigrated to
coinciding with the year 622 C.E., the date of Muhammad’s
Yathrib, later known as Medina (al-nabi), on the invitation of
migration (hijra) from Mecca to Medina. This calendar was
a group of Arabs from that town. This event is termed hijra.
adopted during the reign of the second caliph
Umar. The
Having sent his adherents ahead, Muhammad secretly fol-
Hijri lunar calendar is used as the basis for computing the
lowed with Abu Bakr b. Quhafa, leaving
Ali b.
Abi Talib in
official months (ahilla, new moons), and for determining the
his (Muhammad’s) bed, to deceive the Meccans who sought
dates for important religious activities such as fasting and
to kill him. On the way they stopped at a cave on Mount
pilgrimage. The lunar months alternate between twenty-nine
Thaur, where a spider’s web, spun across the entrance, fooled
and thirty days, and the lunar month retrogrades yearly by
the Meccans into not looking within (Q. 9:40). Here, accordabout eleven days. Although the beginning of the lunar
ing to Sufi tradition, the Prophet taught Abu Bakr the secrets
month is determined by sighting the new moon, numerous
of silent remembrance, dhikr-e khafi,which earned Abu Bakr
methods were developed to compute the exact length of the
the title Yar-e ghar, friend of the cave.
lunar months, to determine the days of the lunar year in
Hijra has also been interpreted to mean “the breaking of relation to the solar year, and to perform calendar converold ties,” cutting off the era of knowledge from the previous sions between different eras.
era of ignorance (jahiliyya). The caliph
Umar b. al-Khattab,
establishing an Islamic calendar, chose this event as its start- Initially, folk astronomy and nonscientific traditions proing point. Muhammad reached Medina in September 622. vided handy methods for solving problems related to the
The calendar opens wih the first month of the Arabic lunar regulation of the lunar calendar and the determination of the
year in June 622 and proceeds without intercalation for a 354- times of prayer. Folk astronomical methods, such as the
day year in keeping with the lunar months. observation of the lunar crescent and the use of simple
arithmetical shadow schemes, were used even after the intro-
Hijra is based on the root h-j-r, the root of the name duction and dissemination of sophisticated scientific meth-
Hagar, the concubine of Abraham; the term Mahagraye was ods. A more mathematical approach to timekeeping developed
used by Christian sources to describe the Arab-Muslims, the as Muslims acquired and developed skills in mathematical
descendants of Hagar. Muhajirun is the Arabic term given to astronomy. Although the computations of astronomers may
those who emigrated from Mecca with the Prophet. have initially been appreciated only by a small group of

Islam and the Muslim World 299
Hijri Calendar

Hijri calendar
The diagram shows approximate dates for 1996.

Year 2
Muharra
m
7 1 2 Sa
6 far Key
Muhar
- l- H i j j a ram 1 Muharram 5
Id al-Fitr
D hu
2 Festival of
Ashura 6 8–13 Dhu-l-Hijja
a
da May Sa 3 Beginning of Ramadan 7
Id al-Adha
-Q Jun
r il 4 Lailat al-Qadr 8 Mawlid al-Nabi
l

far
Ap e
u-
Dh

rch

Ju
al

ly
Ma
Shaww

R a b i

l
August
February

5 SOLAR CALENDAR DATES FOR 2003
4 •
Id al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice), 12–15 February 2003
ad a n

Rabi

Sep • Al-Hijra (New Year's Day), 4 March 2003

Ashura, 13 March 2003
Ram

•
y
uar

te m

ll • The prophet Muhammad's Birthday (20 August 570 CE),
n

be
Ja

14 May 2003
r

Oc
• Lailat al-Isra Wal Mi
raj (The Prophet's Night Journey to
r
n

be tob
Ju
ba

3 em e
Jerusalem & Ascension), 21 September 2003
m

November Dec r
a


ad
Sh I a
• Lailat al-Barah (Night of Forgiveness), 14 October 2003
J um • Ramadan (month of fasting) 27 October–25 November 2003
Rajab a d a II
• Lailat al-Qadr (Night of Power), 23 November 2003
•
Id al-Fitr, 25 November 2003

SOURCE: Breuilly, Elizabeth; O'Brien, Joanne; and Palmer, Martin. Religions of the World. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1997.

The Hijri calender is normally 344 days, making it eleven days shorter than the Solar calender.

scientists, their methods eventually supplanted the simple various times of the year. Another problem of timekeeping
methods of folk astronomy. The establishment of the office that was addressed in various astronomical treatises is the
of a mosque timekeeper (muwaqqit) illustrates the official problem of crescent visibility. The lunar month starts right
recognition, by the religious institution, of the authority of after sunset with the sighting of the crescent. The visibility of
the exact-scientific methods of astronomers in the fields of this crescent, however, is itself a function of several variables,
calendar computation and the determination of times of prayer. including the celestial coordinates of the sun and the moon,
the latitude of the place where the crescent is sighted, and the
With the rise of the office of the timekeeper in the
brightness of the sky. Various methods were devised to
thirteenth century, the technical knowledge of the astronodetermine the conditions under which the crescent would be
mers became more accessible because the compilation of
visible.
extensive tables made the results of the exact-mathematical
methods more readily usable. The science of timekeeping See also Astronomy.
(ilm al-miqat) was thus an area of investigation where religion
and science intersected.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Timekeeping tables, first compiled in Baghdad in the Breuilly, Elizabeth; O’Brien, Joanne; and Palmer, Martin.
ninth and tenth centuries, were later expanded by timekeep- Religions of the World. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1997.
ers employed at the major mosques of Syria and Egypt to
Kennedy, E. S., Colleagues and Former Students. Studies in
include hundreds of thousands of entries. In contrast to the Islamic Exact Sciences. Edited by David A. King and
earlier Greek sources, Islamic astronomical handbooks often Mary Hellen Kennedy. Beirut: American University of
started with discussions of calendar computations and con- Beirut, 1983.
versions between different eras (for example, Persian, Coptic,
King, David. Astronomy in the Service of Islam. Aldershot,
Syriac, Chinese-Ughur, Jewish, and Hindu calendars). In
Hampshire, U.K.: Variorum, 1993.
addition to the basic computational techniques, numerous
works also provide additional information covering calendar- King, David. Islamic Mathematical Astronomy. Aldershot, Hampshire, U.K.: Variorum, 1993.
related subjects such as the length of day and night; patterns
of weather and wind; dates and descriptions of Christian,
Jewish, and Indian festivals; and agricultural practices at Ahmad S. Dallal

300 Islam and the Muslim World
Hinduism and Islam

al-Islam (Paths of Islam) is probably the most popular work
HIKMA, BAYT AL- See Education of Shi
ite law among later commentators, and represents
Muhaqqiq’s most lasting influence on subsequent Shi
ite
tradition. It belongs to the type of work known as abridged
(mukhtasar), in which an author presents his interpretation of
the sharia in a highly abbreviated form. This style made the
HILLI,
ALLAMA AL- (1250–1325) work an excellent basis for later discussions of the law, even
though subsequent jurists did not always agree with his

Allama al-Hilli was a Twelver Shi
ite jurist and theologian
conclusions. His other mukhtasar, an even more abbreviated
based in Hilla in southern Iraq. Hasan b. Yusuf al-Hilli is
legal compendium entitled al-Nafi (The useful), was also the
credited with establishing a set of Twelver theological and
subject of commentaries by later generations of scholars. He
legal ideas that dominated subsequent Shi
ite learning. Bioalso wrote an influential work of the principles of jurisprugraphical sources list around five hundred works attributed to
dence (Maarij al-ahkam), which one also finds regularly cited
him, though some of these are undoubtedly chapters within
in later works. In particular, Ja
far al-Muhaqqiq introduced
works or short treatises. Those that have survived form an
the idea that the rules and regulation of the sharia were not all
impressive oeuvre encompassing theology, jurisprudence,
known with absolute certainty, for the texts are not always
and biography (rijal). In his theological works and creed
clear and the reports from the Prophet and the imams are not
commentaries, he argued, primarily from logic and reason,
always reliable. Such doctrinal advances paved the way for the
for all the main Twelver doctrines. This extensive use of
full elaboration of these concepts by his nephew and pupil, alreason rather than traditional textual sources was to be the

Allama al-Hilli (d. 1325). Other famous pupils include varidominant mode of theological discourse in Twelver Shi
ism
ous members of the influential Ibn Tawus family.
from
Allama onward. His legal works were the subject of
much commentary and in legal theory (usul al-fiqh), he See also Hilli,
Allama al-; Law; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver).
showed extensive originality by incorporating the previously
disparaged term ijtihad into Shi
ite jurisprudence. His bio-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
graphical work is a comprehensive dictionary of early Shi
ite
transmitters of the imam’s doctrines. He soon outshone his Calder, Norman. “Doubt and Prerogative: The Emergence
teachers, who included such luminaries as Nasir al-Din al- of an Imami Shi
i Theory of Ijtihad.” Studia Islamica 70
(1989) 57–78.
Tusi (d.1274) and al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (d.1277). Hilli also
had some relations with political powers, and is credited with Stewart, Devin. Islamic Legal Orthodoxy: The Twelver Shiite
the conversion of the Ilkhanid sultan Khudabanda of Iran to Responses to the Sunni Legal System. Salt Lake City: Univer-
Twelver Shi
ism. sity of Utah Press, 1998.

See also Hilli, Muhaqqiq al-; Law; Shi
a: Imami Robert Gleave
(Twelver).

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arjomand, Saïd Amir, ed. “
Allama al-Hilli on the Imamate HINDUISM AND ISLAM
and Ijtihad.” In Authority and Political Culture in Shiism.
Edited by S. A. Arjomand. Albany: State University of The relationship between these two great religious traditions
New York Press, 1988. in South Asia is often characterized as one of civilizational or
Calder, Norman. “Doubt and Prerogative: The Emergence cultural clashes, confrontations, and discontinuities. Popular
of an Imami Shi
i Theory of Ijtihad.” Studia Islamica 70 accounts of South Asia’s religious history often juxtapose
(1989): 57–78. Hinduism’s tolerance of diversity, innate spirituality, and
Stewart, Devin. Islamic Legal Orthodoxy: The Twelver Shiite rootedness in the Indian soil with Islam’s doctrinal rigidity,
Responses to the Sunni Legal System. Salt Lake City: Univer- innate militancy, and foreignness. Such essentializations,
sity of Utah Press, 1998. which gained ascendancy during the era of British imperialism, fail to recognize that, as complex social and cultural
Robert Gleave phenomena, religions undergo historical change. A critical
assessment of the relationships between Hinduism and Islam
accounts for multiple histories involving subtle encounters,
exchanges, and conversions, as well as overt confrontation
HILLI, MUHAQQIQ AL- (1205–1277) and conflict. A more accurate and multifaceted range of
perspectives emerges, reflecting the ways in which Hinduism
Muhaqqiq al-Hilli Ja
far b. al-Hasan was a Twelver Shi
ite and Islam interact with each other, and with other social,
jurist based in Hilla, southern Iraq. Al-Muhaqqiq’s Shara
i cultural, and political formations in South Asia through time.

Islam and the Muslim World 301
Hinduism and Islam

A Demographic Overview
Today there are an estimated 1.2 billion Muslims, one-third
of whom live in South Asia—mainly in India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Indeed, there are as many Muslims in South Asia as there are in the Middle East and North
Africa combined. The majority of South Asian Muslims come
from indigenous ethnic populations. Muslims constitute clear
majorities in Pakistan (96%) and Bangladesh (87%), while in
India and Sri Lanka they are sizable minorities (12% and
7.6%, respectively). Prior to the 1947 partition an estimated
24 percent of greater India’s population was Muslim, the
remainder being predominantly Hindu. Today, there are
more than 800 million Hindus in South Asia.

The extent of Islam’s indigenization in the region is
reflected in the languages spoken by its adherents: Numerous
Arabic and Persian loanwords are found in local languages,
especially those of the Indus and Ganges basins. Furthermore, the primary language of most Muslims is the same as
that spoken by local non-Muslim populations, such as Punjabi
or Bengali in the North and Malayalam or Tamil in the South.

Just as Hindu religious ideas and practices are constituted
in a variety of traditions and movements, ranging from the
brahmanic to the devotional, mystical, intellectual, and reformist, so too Indian Islam finds expression in diverse ways.
Sunni Islam, primarily of the Hanafi legal tradition, has been
the official religion for most urban Muslims and landholders.
Less than one-fifth of South Asian Muslims adhere to one of
Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Sheik to Kings. In this painting, Mogul
two main divisions of Shi
ism, the Ithna
shariyya (Twelvers) emperor Jahanagir (1569–1627) makes King James I of England,
or the Isma
iliyya (Isma
ilis). Most South Asian Muslims have the Sultan of Turkey, and a Hindu courtier wait while he converses
been formally and informally affiliated with Sufi shrines and with a Muslim mystic. Muslim Arab colonies emerged in southern
tariqas (brotherhoods). Indeed, it is widely held that Islam India by the ninth century, arising from a history of commerce
between the subcontinent and the Near-East. In the north, howwas established in South Asia through Sufism, though there is ever, Islamic rule was established by invading armies under
little evidence of an organized, deliberate Sufi strategy of Turkish rule in the twelfth century. Relations between Hindus and
conversion. Nonetheless, Sufism has participated in the crea- Muslims in India have been frequently difficult and violent, and
were exacerbated by colonial rule. Due to shared communities,
tion of local expressions of Islam, which embody the greatest
intermarriage, and conversion, however, in many areas the two
degree of assimilation of Hindu religious ideas and practices. groups share strikingly similar cultures. FREER GALLERY OF ART
Since the sixteenth century, several Islamic reform and revival movements have emerged, directed in part against
unorthodox practices among Sufis and the Shi
a, and also even claim that at least one Hindu prince converted to Islam
against Hindu influence on Muslim belief and practice. Thus, and went to Mecca on the hajj. Muslim trading colonies also
assimilation and differentiation are the two alternating proc- flourished in Sri Lanka and on the Coromandel Coast in what
esses governing relations between Hindus and Muslims is now Tamil Nadu. By the time the Portuguese arrived in
through more than one thousand years of shared history. 1498, Islam was firmly implanted in the region, and intertwined with its Hindu cultures.
Medieval Hindu-Muslim Encounters
The first contacts between Hindus and Muslims occurred Islamization in northern India followed a different course.
through trade and conquest. Arab Muslim colonies involved Arab Muslim expeditions reached the banks of the Indus by
in the Indian Ocean spice trade appeared on the Malabar 711, but systematic raids into the heartland did not com-
Coast of southern India as early as the ninth century, continu- mence until the tenth century. Armies under the command of
ing a long history of commerce and migration between India the Turkish rulers based in Afghanistan, most notably
and the Near East. Local Hindu rulers granted Muslims Mahmoud of Ghazni (r. 998–1030 C.E.), repeatedly plundered
permission to build mosques and intermarry with their sub- towns in the Punjab and Sind. Muslim rule in the Indian
jects. Though these early immigrants were merchants, Mus- heartland was established when Turkish, Persian, and Afghan
lim legends remember them as holy men and pilgrims, and warriors crossed the northwest frontier, defeated Indian

302 Islam and the Muslim World
Hinduism and Islam

Rajput forces in 1192, and established their capital at Delhi in an all-or-nothing break with Hindu belief and practice, nor
the Indo-Gangetic plain. The Delhi Sultanate (1211–1526), did it usually occur at the end of a sword. Rather, it was a
bolstered by Muslim immigrants fleeing Mongol armies in process that occurred in different degrees, and it involved a
the west, extended Muslim control across northern India to variety of social, cultural, political, and economic factors.
Bengal and southward into the Deccan, rendering the region Indeed, one of the most striking aspects of the history of Islam
a dar al-islam. However, the Delhi Sultans often yielded to in South Asia is that it gained the most converts in areas
local Muslim and Hindu rivals when they were unable to situated beyond the traditional centers of political power and
absorb them into the imperial order, as did the Mughal brahmanical religious authority. Today, the largest propordynasty that succeeded it (1526–1857). tions of Muslims are to be found in the northwest (now
Pakistan and Kashmir) and northeast (now Bangladesh); even
In retrospect, Muslim historians recalled the conquests as
Kerala (1991: 23.3%) in the south has a higher percentage of
heroic wars against pagan infidels (kafirs), and they lauded
Muslims than does Uttar Pradesh (1991: 17.3%), where
conversions along with the destruction of Hindu temples.
Delhi and Agra are located.
These accounts obscure the fact that where Muslim attacks
were made on Hindu temples, they were aimed at enriching The chief agents for Islamization on the local level were
Muslim elites (temples were repositories of gold, jewelry, and wandering Muslim saints, teachers, and warriors. Isma
ili
cash), and undermining the power of local rulers, the tradi- missionaries in Sind and Rajasthan adopted Nath yogi guise
tional temple patrons. Mosques and shrines were erected in and formulated their Islamic message in terms of Hindu
their stead. However, most rulers treated subjugated Hindus concepts of divinity and cosmology. In Bengal, communities
as “protected” peoples (dhimmis), leaving temples untouched, grew up around saint shrines and mosques built where lands
authorizing and often patronizing new shrines. Nonetheless, had been newly converted to wet-rice agriculture during the
there were occasions when they followed the advice of men Mughal era. Through local Sufi centers Islam was often
like Diya al-Din Barani (1285–1357), a court historian, who, introduced and integrated into the socioreligious landscape,
in counseling rulers to maintain the purity of the “true establishing points of exchange between the Muslim rulers
religion,” urged them to “use their efforts to insult and and the populace, thus integrating people and property into
humiliate and to cause grief to and bring ridicule and shame the infrastructure of the kingdom. Across India shrines are
upon the polytheistic and idolatrous Hindus” (Mujeeb, p. 68). patronized and even managed commonly by Muslims, Hindus,
Brahmanic Hindus, for their part, regarded Muslim invaders Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians, and some have evolved
as impure mlecchas (aliens), or as Turks, Tajiks, and even into major pilgrimage centers, such as that of Mu
in al-Din
Greeks, which suggests that they defined Muslims more by Chishti in Ajmer. Such places are identified with supermundane
their foreign ethnicity than by their religious identity. beings who offer their devotees power, healing, fertility, and
Muslim elites sought to comprehend the religions of their occasions to participate in ecstatic rites. Muslim warrior
subjects intellectually. Al-Biruni (973–c. 1050) gives the ear- saints have been incorporated as guardian deities into the
liest and most detailed Muslim account of Indian religion, cults of Hindu hero gods and goddesses, where Muslims as
writing in detail about brahmanic concepts of divinity, cos- well as Hindus worship them. This is exemplified by Vavar,
mology, reincarnation, ritual practices, and yoga. He ap- the battle companion of the popular south Indian deity
proached these topics comparatively, drawing parallels with Ayyappa, and by Muttal Ravutan, guardian of Draupadi
Sufism and Greek philosophy. The Mogul emperor Akbar (r. shrines in Tamil Nadu.
1556–1605), famous for his interest in comparative religions,
The interpenetration of Hinduism and Islam is further
sponsored Persian translations of Hindu epics, the Bhagavad
evident in folk epics and religious poetry. Thus, regional oral
Gita, and books on Vedanta philosophy. His great-grandson,
epics contain elements from the classical Hindu epics of the
Dara Shukoh (1615–1659), befriended Hindu holy men,
Mahabharata and the Ramayana that have been reshaped as a
translated the Upanishads and, inspired by Ibn
Arabi’s panresult of interaction with Muslims. At assemblies of poets
theistic ideas, attempted a synthesis of Sufism with Hindu
throughout India, Hindus, Muslims, and others recite the
Vedanta. He was executed for heresy by his brother and rival
compositions of poet saints such as Kabir (died c. 1448),
to the throne, Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707). As a zealous proknown as the “apostle of Hindu-Muslim unity.” The compomoter of Sunni revivalism, Aurangzeb reimposed taxes on
sitions of vernacular poets like Baba Farid Shakarganj, Sultan
Hindu subjects and razed temples in major Hindu religious
Bahu, and Bulleh Shah are on the lips of every Punjabi,
centers. As Akbar and Dara Shukoh became emblematic
regardless of creed. The Sikh religion founded by the North
of Hindu-Muslim conviviality, Mahmoud of Ghazni and
Aurangzeb are today remembered as symbols of Muslim Indian holy man Guru Nanak (d. 1539) is often characterized
militancy and intolerance. as a fusion of Islamic monotheism and Hindu devotionalism.
Across north India and Pakistan, people sing romantic bal-
Conversions and Convergences lads, or qissa, such as Hir-Ranjha, Sassi-Punnu, Mirza-Sahiban,
Most South Asian Muslims are descended from indigenous and Layla-Majnun. These are inevitably tragic tales of romanpeoples who converted to Islam. As a rule, conversion was not tic heroes and heroines destined to remain apart and doomed

Islam and the Muslim World 303
Hinduism and Islam

to die because of differences in caste, class, and religion.
Nonetheless, the songs in which these boundaries are crossed
are sung and beloved by people from all walks of life. Through
richly symbolic language and imagery qissa are also mystical
allegories of the human soul seeking union with God.

Hindustani music is another excellent example of the
interplay between Hindu and Muslim culture. One of the
greatest innovators of Hindustani classical music is often
identified as Tansen (d. 1589), the Great Mogul Emperor
Akbar’s court musician. The musical modes and the code of
conduct within the musical lineages, or gharanas, draw on
Indian and Perso-Arabic styles. The initiation ceremony of
the student into the master’s school closely mirrors that of the
Hindu guru-sishya initiation. Furthermore, although many of
these lineages are principally Muslim in terms of personnel,
worship of Hindu deities, especially the goddess Saraswati,
and the lighting of lamps and garlanding of musicians are all
common practices associated with Hinduism. The popularity
of explicitly Islamic devotional styles such as kafi, ghazal, and
qawwal, and of Muslim singers such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
and Abida Parveen among all audiences indicates a shared
aesthetic culture.

Finally, in many areas conversion, intermarriage, and
shared community life have led to common cultural practices.
Often customs and observations of lifecycle events, such as
births, marriages, and death, are regionally extremely similar. Muhammed
Ali Jinnah, left, an advocate for a separate Muslim
The offering of a child’s first haircutting or pilgrimage to state, and Mahatma Gandhi, in Bombay in 1944, outside of
Jinnah’s home, where the two met to discuss the Hindu-Muslim
bless a marriage is performed by all religious communities at
conflict. Tensions between Indian Muslims and Hindus worsened
local shrines. Dress and eating habits are frequently shared. during the struggle for independence from British rule. Despite
Muslim social status usually reflects caste distinctions found Ghandi’s efforts to support Muslim endeavors, violence worsamong the wider society; and in Malabar, Muslim traders ened between the two groups and over 500,000 people died
when the British left in 1947. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
intermarried with Hindu locals to such an extent that they
adopted their matrilineal social organization.

Hindu-Muslim Encounters after 1857 on internal revitalization, and still others mobilized to op-
The Mogul Empire’s territory reached its apogee under pose British rule. Hindu revivalist groups such as the Brahmo
Aurangzeb, encompassing the Deccan plateau and parts of Samaj, Arya Samaj, Hindu Mahasabha, and Rashtriya
the South Indian coast. After his death in 1707, Mogul power Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) advocated different means of
rapidly unraveled, paving the way for the British East India promoting Hinduism in modern society. Whereas the
Company to transform its commercial power bases into Mahasabha, RSS, and Arya Samaj strove to purify Hinduism
political centers. In 1757 at the Battle of Plassy, the British and reestablish an inherently Hindu national identity, the
forces took effective control of much of North India, placing Brahmo Samaj emphasized social reform and education more
it under the Raj. Though nominal authority still lay in Mogul in line with modern Western concepts. Similarly, Muslim
hands, this ended following the British defeat of a large-scale organizations addressed the educational, social, and political
rebellion of Hindu and Muslim troops in 1857. After this interests of the Muslim population. The Dar al-
Ulum
power shift, religious movements arose to address the new Deoband was founded in 1867 to generate a new Indian body
sociopolitical milieu, which rewarded modernism, secular- of ulema. In 1875, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan established
ism, and progressive scientific thought over traditional values. Aligarh Muslim University with a westernized secular curriculum, to educate Muslims capable of reviving Islam and
Reaction to the impact of foreign rule was channeled addressing the exigencies of modernity. The Jama
at-e Islami,
in many cases through religious movements. Revivalist and founded by Abu l-A
la Maududi in 1928, advocated religious
reformist groups emerged representing the full range of renewal and political independence. Grassroots movements,
responses to the new power structures. Some sought to like Tablighi Jama
at (founded 1926), arose to teach basic
incorporate and integrate Western values, others focused Islamic principles and practices and to eradicate “Hindu”

304 Islam and the Muslim World
Hinduism and Islam

accretions, such as pilgrimage to saints’s tombs, music, elabo- and central governments and the Supreme Court, the situarate weddings, and mourning and death rites. The Muslim tion remains unresolved. In 1992 Hindu radicals tore down
League formed in 1906 as a political group working to protect the mosque and placed Rama’s image at the site. The riots
minority Muslim interests in an independent India. subsequent to this demolition claimed thousands of lives, and
the tension is periodically reactivated with similarly tragic
Throughout the independence struggle relations between results. In 2002 a move by Hindu organizations to begin
Hindus and Muslims worsened. Many factors contributed to construction of a temple resulted in another round of disturthis: British divide-and-conquer policies, Muslim under- bances, destabilizing interreligious relations.
development, the Hinduization of the nationalist movement,
and Hindu and Muslim prejudices and fears. Following the Finally, at Partition, Muslim-majority Kashmir gained
Indian National Congress’s (INC) formation (1892), Muslim “special status,” or semiautonomy, under Article 370 of the
participation decreased steadily. However, there were mo- Indian Constitution. India has promised a referendum on
ments of cooperation, such as Gandhi’s support for the statehood or independence, but three wars with Pakistan,
Khilafat movement to reestablish the Ottoman caliphate. continual border skirmishes, Pakistani support to militants
Gandhi viewed this as a kindred freedom struggle and a and freedom advocates, severe government repression of
means of garnering Muslim support. Nevertheless, as the Muslim movements, and Hindu agitation over Article 370
independence movement progressed, the Congress leader- keep tensions high. This situation is more alarming now that
ship consistently failed to address Muslim fears of a Hindu both nations are nuclear powers.
majority nation without safeguards for their sizable (24%)
minority. The INC rejected power-sharing schemes pro- Real fissures do exist between Hindu and Muslim commuposed by the British in the Communal Award (1932) and nities testifying to continued Hindu resentment of temple
during the final Cabinet Mission negotiations (1946). After desecration by Muslims (real or alleged) and persistent Musthe Muslim League in 1940 publicly called for the creation of lim fears (both reasonable and baseless) of assimilation or
a separate state for Muslims, many Hindus no longer trusted annihilation in Hindu-majority India. This mutual suspicion
Muslim ambitions for a free and unified India. Hindus sought and hostility threaten constantly to overshadow the enora strong center and Muslims wanted strong regional govern- mously rich and diverse shared traditions of the subcontinent.
ments and electoral reservations. Unable to find a compro- Yet the constitutional secularism of the largest democracy in
mise, the rapid departure of the British in 1947 resulted in the world, the persistence of shared places such as the shrine
horrific violence—an estimated 500,000 to 1 million died as 8 of Vavar in Kerala, and the continuing popularity of common
million Hindus and Sikhs shifted to India and 7 million cultural traditions such as music, literature, and art forms,
Muslims departed for East and West Pakistan. indicate that there is a sound and strong common ground.

Since Partition, India’s non-Hindu population has stead- See also Akbar; South Asia, Islam in; South Asian Culily increased, whereas Pakistan’s non-Muslim population has ture and Islam.
declined—currently below 5 percent. The secular mandate of
India’s constitution nominally protects equal rights, and BIBLIOGRAPHY
several controversial government schemes—particularly res- Ahmad, Aziz. Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environervation of seats for various minority groups in the civil ment. 1964. Reprint, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.
service, elected bodies, and universities—ensure at least some Bayly, Susan. Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Chris-
Muslim presence in India’s civic life. Nonetheless, divisive tians in South Indian Society 1700–1900. Cambridge, Mass.:
politics persist. Three issues in particular frustrate under- Cambridge University Press, 1989.
standing between Hindus and Muslims: Muslim personal
Eaton, Richard M. Essays on Islam and Indian History. Oxford,
law, Ayodhya, and Kashmir. U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Currently there is a separate personal law for Muslims Gilmartin, David, and Lawrence, Bruce, eds. Beyond Turk and
regarding marriage, divorce, and inheritance. Hindu nation- Hindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South
Asia. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000.
alists and many women’s advocacy groups champion a uniform civil code, which would apply the same legal regulations Hiltebeitel, Alf. Rethinking India’s Oral and Classical Epics:
to every Indian citizen. Many Muslims cling to their separate Draupadi among Rajputs, Muslims and Dalits. Chicago:
legal code as a small realm of autonomy and the only available University of Chicago Press, 1999.
institutional means of maintaining their cultural identity. Khan, Dominique-Sila. Conversions and Shifting Identities:
Ramdev Pir and the Ismailis in Rajasthan. New Delhi:
In the early twentieth century Hindu radicals identified Manohar, 1997.
the Babri Masjid, a sixteenth mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Metcalf, Barbara, ed. Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of
Pradesh, as the god Rama’s birthplace and began agitation for Adab in South Asian Islam. Berkeley: University of Califorits “liberation.” In the absence of decisive action by the state nia Press, 1984.

Islam and the Muslim World 305
Hisba

Mujeeb, Mohammad. The Indian Muslims. London: Allen & despite their appearance as theoretical, also provide an in-
Unwin, 1967. sight into medieval Muslim practices (many of which have
Robinson, Francis. Islam and Muslim History in South Asia. been left unrecorded elsewhere) since the more literate schol-
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000. ars demanded that such practices be restricted.
Wink, Andre. Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990. The theory was translated into practice by the appointment of local muhtasibs in various parts of the Abbasid
empire. After the Mongol invasions and the reemergence of
Anna Bigelow
Muslim dynasties in Turkey, Iran, and India, the position of
Juan Eduardo Campo
muhtasib and the enforcement of hisba also reappeared. Local
muhstasibs were charged with enforcing hisba in towns and
cities across the Muslim world. One particular emphasis was
HISBA the role of the muhtasib in ensuring that market law was
obeyed, and official documents regularly refer to such a
The Arabic term hisba (or in later works ihtisab) is associated figure. In some parts of the Muslim world, the muhtasib was
with the idea of “reckoning” or “accounting” and has, in responsible solely for ensuring that traders used the correct
works of Islamic law, come to refer to the activities of state- weights and measures. In this role of restricting unscrupulous
appointed individuals (usually termed muhtasib) who enforce merchants, some muhtasibs gained a reputation as protectors
the law of Islam (the sharia) in both the public and private of the poor. The institution only died out with the introducspheres. The function is normally conceived of as more tion of more organized police forces and administrative
preventative than remedial: the muhtasib’s task is to prevent ministries in the nineteenth century.
transgressions of the law, and thereby avoid the need for
court proceedings. However, he does have the power to bring See also Ethics and Social Issues; Law; Political
individuals before a judge (qadi) if they fail to take heed of the Organization.
hisba regulations. Most works of law from the twelfth century
onward contain some discussion of the role of the muhtasib, BIBLIOGRAPHY
often in the section dealing with the role and functions of the Amedroz, H. F. “The Hisba Jurisdiction in the Ahkam
qadi. While enforcing hisba (“bringing people to account”) is Sultaniyya of Mawardi.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
conceived of in these works as the role of an appointed (1916): 290–301.
person, it is recognized that this person is merely performing Sergeant, R. B. “A Zaidi Manual of Hisbah from the 3rd
the general duty (to which all Muslims are bound) of “pro- Century (H).” In Studies in Arabic History and Civilisation.Edmoting good and prohibiting evil” (al-amr bil-maruf wal- ited by R. B. Sergeant. London: Variorum Reprints, 1981.
nahy an al-munkar). This is a Quranic phrase (e.g., 3:104 and
9:61), and linking it with the doctrine of hisba (which is not Robert Gleave
explicitly mentioned in the Quran) gives hisba (and its institutional manifestations) a firm grounding in the Quran.

Works that describe the function of hisba in Muslim HISTORICAL WRITING
society are often highly theoretical, and depict what might be
termed an “ideal” law-enforcement system for an Islamic The term ta
rikh is presently used in languages such as Arabic,
community. The works open with a discussion of the various Turkish, and Persian for “history.” Similar to the connotameanings of hisba and ihtisab, followed by discrete chapters on tions of the term in the major European languages it refers,
various activities that a muhtasib is supposed to prevent, and on the one hand, to the past itself and, on the other hand, to
finally a description of the powers of a muhtasib and his the writing of history. Narrative texts (chronicles, biographirelationship with the judicial system. The list of activities cal dictionaries, etc.), written with the explicit purpose to be
considered forbidden, and therefore coming under the preserved, have been of particular importance for studying
muhtasib’s power, are often an interesting indicator of local the history of the Islamic lands. Even more than in the
religious life in the area where the work was written. The European and the Chinese contexts, substantial documentary
muhtasib is recommended to restrict the playing of chess or and archival evidence of history for regions such as the
backgammon in various works, and in the Indian sub-continent Arabic-speaking lands is practically nonexistent for the peworks, Muslims visiting the temples of Hindus is specifically riod prior to the fourteenth century. Hence, most of our
mentioned as a reprehensible practice. Works written in the knowledge of the regions’ past depends on its representation
western parts of the Muslim world, such as al-Hisba fil-Islam in Islamic historiography.
by Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), mention the visitation of Muslims
to tombs of the shaykhs in search of intercession, as a practice In contrast to the modern study of historical writing for
needing to be restricted by the muhtasib. Works of hisba, then, other regions such as the European lands, the study of Islamic

306 Islam and the Muslim World
Historical Writing

historical writing is to a large degree still characterized by this beginning was of importance: The outwardly isolated
predominantly philological concerns. It is only since the character of each single report (khabar) proved to be influen-
1990s that an interest into the wider societal context of the tial in shaping longer narratives. This early material has
production of historical knowledge has taken a significant engendered a major ongoing debate in present-day scholarplace in works such as Tarif Khalidi’s Arabic Historical Thought ship about its authenticity as its dating has posed manifold
in the Classical Period (1994). Approaches taking up the chal- problems. One of the earliest reliable examples is the sira by
lenges and possibilities arising out of the linguistic turn in the the hadith scholar Muhammad Ibn Ishaq (d. 761), a biograsecond half of the twentieth century are rare except isolated phy of the Prophet.
examples such as Aziz al-Azmeh’s Histoire et Narration (1986).
In the following centuries historiography found two main
Historiography, in the sense of reflecting on the writing of forms of expression: chronicles and biographical dictionaries.
history itself, was restricted to short references in the intro- The religious scholar al-Tabari (d. 923) composed in Baghdad
duction of historical works in the Islamic lands until the the typical example of the former category: the universal
fourteenth century. The Persian religious philosopher al-
Iji chronicle History of Prophets and Kings, which dealt with
(d. after 1381/82) composed in Arabic the first reflection on events from the creation of the world until his time. “Univerthe technique and methodology of writing history, the Gift of sal” referred here obviously to Islamic history and what was
the Poor Man. This and similar treatises of the following perceived to be its predecessor(s). At the same time, chronicentury were partly translated by Franz Rosenthal in A cles were produced with a more limited geographical focus on
History of Muslim Historiography (1968). The famous North towns (e.g., Damascus) and regions (e.g., Syria). The writing
African scholar and official Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) developed of history in the form of chronicles is similar to the writings
in his Introduction a theoretical pattern to classify events of the produced in Latin Europe or Early and Middle Imperial China.
past, well beyond mundane considerations of technique and
methodology. On the contrary, the second major form of historical
writing, biographical dictionary, was in its importance and
Similarly, history gained only over time an independent elaboration unique to Islamic historiography. Reflecting preplace in the Muslim canon of disciplines. Philosophical classi- Islamic genealogical interests and Islamic concerns of tracing
fications of sciences such as those by al-Farabi (d. 950) did not the reliability of transmitters, the genre experienced an imrefer to history as an independent field of knowledge, emulat- portant development from early times onward. An early
ing the tradition of the Hellenistic classifications. However, example of this genre, Ibn Sa
d’s (d. 845) Grand Book of the
educational classifications included it as a discipline in its own Generations, reflects its exclusive theological concern by foright from the tenth century onward, although it was rarely cusing on transmitters of hadith. This focus changed over the
taught as such in madrasas. At the same time, introductions to centuries, and in the thirteenth century the jurist Ibn Khallikan
chronicles show that the authors considered themselves, (d. 1282), for example, included in his dictionary individuals
among others, as historians (mu
arrikh)—a term also often from more varied backgrounds. More specialized works started
encountered in medieval biographical entries. to be limited to specific towns or specific professions, such as
the Generations of Physicians by Ibn Abi Usaybi
a (d. 1270).
Historical Writing in the Central Islamic Lands—
Premodern Period This development was an expression of the gradual change
Islamic historiography, in the sense of recording history, in the social identities of authors of historical works. From
started with texts written in Arabic, but its early development the eleventh century onward important parts of the ulema
is still largely unknown. The Greek and Persian literary started to interact more closely with court circles and rulers.
traditions of the newly conquered lands were not adopted as Typical examples in this regard are Saladin’s biographer Ibn
direct models to build upon. It was rather the oral pre-Islamic Shaddad (d. 1234), who was the ruler’s judge of the army, and
Arabic tradition that shaped early Islamic historiography to a Ibn al-
Adim (d. 1262), the author of a local chronicle of
certain degree. The focus on genealogy and the authentica- Aleppo, who served the ruler of the town as a secretary, judge,
tion of reports by means of chains of transmitters were and wazir. Nevertheless, authors of historical works continremnants of this heritage. However, the concrete forms of ued to belong almost exclusively to the elusive group of the
this historiography developed very much within the dynam- ulema. Authors, being part of the military elite, continued to
ics of early Islamic history, that is, through the interplay be rare, while authors belonging to the commoners remained
between the different Near Eastern cultural traditions nonexistent.

Early Islamic historical writing was intimately linked to Toward the end of the tenth century Arabic lost its
immediate theological concerns. The first writings, which position as the exclusive literary language in the Islamic lands.
might be labeled as being historical, treated the life of the The regionalization of political power also found its expresprophet Muhammad and his Companions. These writings sion in the rise of Persian historiography. This development
were recorded mainly as hadiths, that is, as reports on the was not only of linguistic nature. Persian historiography
deeds and sayings of the Prophet. For later historiography gained specific characteristics, such as stronger efforts to

Islam and the Muslim World 307
Historical Writing

offer an explicit unified narrative, a more limited focus on The interplay between oral and written historical tradievents linked to courts and, initially, a near-absence of bio- tions was also a salient feature in sub-Saharan Africa. While
graphical works. Rashid al-Din (d. 1318) produced with his historiography written by indigenous authors came into ex-
Collection of Chronicles a Persian universal history unmatched istence around 1500, these narratives continued to circulate
in its breadth. This chronicle was written for the Mongol simultaneously in a context of oral culture. The first written
ruler and was outstanding as it included the history of all texts appeared in those regions that had previously been
known people, instead of only those of the Islamic lands. strongly Islamized and Arabized: the Sudan Belt and the East
African Swahili coast. Consequently, chronicles such as the
Historical Writing Beyond the Central Islamic Lands— East African Kilwa Chronicle, written around 1530, or the
Premodern Period West African Ta
rikh al-Sudan, written by the Timbuktu
Persian historiography spread subsequently also to newly historian al-Sa
di in the seventeenth century, were generally
Islamized regions like South Asia. There, Muslim composed in Arabic. West African Muslim historiography
historiography was from its outset in the thirteenth century developed also the genre of biographical dictionaries, such as
almost exclusively written in Persian. Early Indo-Persian Ahmad Baba’s (d. 1627) work on the learned men of the
historical writings reflected closely the outlook of its Persian Western Sudan. During the nineteenth century, authors
models, such as its intimate links with court life. It is only switched increasingly to indigenous languages such as Hausa
during the Mogul period (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries) and Fulfulde written first in Arabic and subsequently in Latin
that Muslim South Asian historiography developed distinct script. In combination with the developing dominance of
characteristics, like the genre of memoirs written by mem- European languages, Arabic ceased to be the literary elite’s
bers of the royal family or private persons. prime means of expression.

The life of Nur al-Din Raniri (d. 1658), a South Asian Historical Writing in the Central Islamic Lands:
scholar with a partly Arab genealogy, might serve as an Ottoman and Modern Periods
example for the close links between the historiographical During the fifteenth century Ottoman Turkish emerged as a
traditions of the different predominantly Muslim regions. major literary language in Anatolia and in parts of the Arabic-
After moving to the sultanate of Aceh (Northern Sumatra) he speaking Middle East. Ottoman historiography started in the
composed a Malay chronicle striving to mirror the classical fourteenth century with rather short appendixes to existing
historiographical style (e.g., al-Tabari) and drawing simulta- chronicles. It was only in the fifteenth century that indepenneously heavily on the Malay Annals. The Malay Annals are dent historical works in Ottoman Turkish were composed.
one of the early examples of Southeast Asian Muslim These works were mainly chronicles written by individuals
historiography, written around 1500. Here, an anonymous close to court circles. Other genres (e.g. biographical dictionauthor writing in Malay had cautiously aimed at harmonizing aries) did not play a significant role in Ottoman historiography.
indigenous traditions and Islam, that is, Raniri’s text reflected History of Events, a work by the officially appointed imperial
a bundle of different regional historiographical traditions. historian Mustafa Na
ima (d. 1716), enjoyed considerable
This interaction within the Muslim world via members of its popularity. His recourse to Ibn Khaldun’s patterns in order to
literary elites might not be sufficient to legitimize the use of describe the perceived decline of the empire was typical for
the single term “Muslim historiography” for such diverse this period’s historiography. With the Ottoman period the
traditions. Nevertheless, it shows at least that texts shifted importance of narrative historiography for modern day scholareasily from one region to the other and were reworked during ship decreases. The large amounts of surviving archival and
this process. documentary material for the central Islamic lands allow
more varied venues to the history of this and the following
Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are further examples periods.
of how texts and genres were transferred and adopted. Muslim troops conquered the western lands of Central Asia Persian, Ottoman, and Arabic historiographies witnessed
during the early eighth century. Therefore, the region’s significant changes during the late nineteenth century. This
historiography was part of the Arabic and later Persian and process culminated for the Arabic context in works such as
Turkic traditions as well. However, in regions beyond these the History of Islamic Civilization by the Syrian Christian Jurji
initial conquests, the development of a Muslim historiography Zaydan (d. 1914), published in Egypt between 1902 and
was more complex. Here, the interplay between local oral 1906. Here a distinct shift in form and content becomes
traditions and written Muslim works was more accentuated. visible, especially as he drew heavily on European works
For example, the earliest surviving history for the Volga-Ural dealing with Arab or Islamic history. Nevertheless, these
area, the Turkic Collection of Chronicles, completed in 1602 by “modern” works were still to a large degree embedded in

Ali Jalayiri, derived not only from Rashid al-Din’s fourteenth- traditional historiography, visible in a similar use of poetry.
century work with the same name but also to a large degree Contrary to traditional assumptions, which refer the ninefrom oral folklore sources circulating among the Mus- teenth century developments exclusively to the modernizing
lim nomads. impact of the West, recent scholarship such as Crecelius

308 Islam and the Muslim World
Hizb Allah

(2001) has stressed the vivacity of Arabic historiography also Meisami, Julie. Persian Historiography to the End of the Twelfth
in the “declining” eighteenth century. Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.
Rosenthal, Franz. A History of Muslim Historiography. 2d ed.
The changes led in the late nineteenth century to a Leiden: Brill, 1968.
reorientation of historiography toward narratives of Ottoman and Arabic national origins. In the early twentieth Konrad Hirschler
century the Ottoman narrative was Turkified and with the
rise of Arab national states the Arabic version started slowly
to be supplemented and ultimately replaced respectively by
national narratives. This universal trend toward national HISTORY See Historical Writing; Timelines and
identities was also visible in other Muslim regions. The Genealogies in backmatter
politician and writer Muhammad Yamin (d. 1962), for example, integrated the Malay Annals into his narrative of an
Indonesian national history dating many millennia back.

The dominant second trend during the twentieth century HIZB ALLAH
was the professionalization of the writing of history. The
general expansion of higher education in the Middle East, Hizb Allah (Hezbollah, Hizbullah) from the Arabic hizb allah,
especially after World War II, led also to a significant rise in or “party of God,” became a popular name for political
the number of university history departments. This has Islamist groups in the late twentieth century, after Ayatollah
changed the general pattern of the first half of the century Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran began to use the Quranic phrase
when Middle Eastern historians generally took their degree (5:56–59; 58:19–22) to distinguish the righteous from the
from Western universities. However, historical research re- oppressors.
mains a difficult task because of limited material resources Focusing on the perennial conflict between the forces of
and the variant political conditions, which are not always good and evil, and the Quran’s apocalyptic vision in which
favorable for dealing with certain topics. the “party of God” will be “victorious” and will go to heaven,
whereas the “party of Satan” will ultimately “be the losers,”
See also Arabic Literature; Biography and Hagiography;
was effective in consciousness-raising and forging solidarity
Heresiography; Ibn Khaldun; Tabari, al-.
in the postcolonial context of sociopolitical strife. This general usage of “Hizb Allah” dominated in Iran in the late
BIBLIOGRAPHY 1970s, when it was used by those who supported Ayatollah
Azmeh, Aziz al-. “Histoire et Narration dans l’Historiographie Khomeini in his opposition to the shah, “the West,” and
Arabe.” Annales ESC 41 (1986):411–431. Israel, and in his advocacy of government based on Islam as
Choueiri, Youssef M. Arab History and the Nation State. A interpreted by religiously trained (Shi
ite) legal scholars.
Study in Modern Arab Historiography 1820–1980. London Somewhat earlier, a group of Sunni political Islamists in
and New York: Routledge, 1989. Yemen called themselves Hizb Allah, and later another small
Crecelius, Daniel. “al-Jabarti’s aja
ib al-athar fi l-tarajim wa- Sunni Hizb Allah appeared in Egypt, reputedly under the
l-akhbar and the Arabic Histories of Ottoman Egypt in the leadership of Yahya Hashim. A faction that broke away from
Eighteenth Century.” In The Historiography of Islamic Islamic Jihad in Palestine during the 1980s, led by Ahmad
Egypt (C. 950–1800). Edited by Hugh Kennedy. Leiden Muhanna, also called itself Hizb Allah. The Palestinian Hizb
and Boston: Brill, 2001. Allah, like its parent Islamic Jihad, is military in nature, rejects
Frank, Allen J. Islamic Historiography and ’Bulghar’ Identity compromise with Israel, and believes the question of Pales-
Among the Tatars and Bashkirs of Russia. Leiden, Boston: tine is fundamentally religious in nature. That is, returning
Brill, 1998. Palestine and, in particular, Jerusalem, to Islamic sovereignty
Freitag, Ulrike. “Writing Arab History: The Search for is considered a religious duty.
the Nation.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies21
However, the term Hizb Allah (Hezbollah/Hizbullah) is
(1994):19–37.
most frequently associated with the Lebanese Shi
ite group
Hall, D. G. E. Historians of South East Asia. London: Oxford
founded in 1982, following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
University Press, 1961.
Shi
ite leader Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, who had
Humphreys, R. Stephen. Islamic History. A Framework for studied with Khomeini in Najaf during the latter’s exile in
Inquiry. 2d ed. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1995. Iraq, became an outspoken opponent of Israel, and of “the
Khalidi, Tarif. Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period. West” in general. At that time, Iran’s Islamic government
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1994. sent a contingent of Revolutionary Guards to Lebanon to
Lewis, Bernard, and Holt, Peter M., eds. Historians of the assist in the resistance to Israel, becoming the core of Shi
ite
Middle East. London: Oxford University Press, 1962. militancy in Lebanon. The movement is led by a secretary

Islam and the Muslim World 309
Hojjat al-Islam

general (most recently Hojjat al-Islam Hassan Nasrallah) and structure of the Shi
ite seminary system. At first, scholars like
advised by a council (Jihad Council), including Lebanese Muhammad Baqir al-Shafti (d.1844) were given the titles
Shi
ite scholars and military advisors. Since its inception, mujtahid, Ayatollah, and Hojjat al-Islam. Later usage of the
however, Fadlallah has been the movement’s spiritual leader term Hojjat al-Islam was restricted to scholars of a rank lower
and spokesperson. than Ayatollah. A Hojjat al-Islam, since the Islamic revolution
in Iran, is an “aspiring Ayatollah” who has completed his
With support from Iran, Syria, and private donations, bahth-e kharij (the highest level of formal instruction) and is
Hizb Allah expanded its activities to include assistance to teaching, but has not yet gained sufficient prestige to be
families of those who have died in war or are imprisoned, regarded as Ayatollah. While both Ayatollah and Hojjat almedical facilities (hospitals, pharmacies, rehabilitation cen- Islam were titles of distinction in the late nineteenth and early
ters), factories, education (scholarships), social services (in- twentieth centuries, the titles have become relatively comcluding scouting and sports activities), communications (radio mon in recent years, and this may reflect either a lowering of
and newspapers), as well as infrastructure (including rebuild- the qualification threshold, or an improvement in educaing sites destroyed in war). Since 1992 it has operated as a tional techniques in the Shi
ite seminaries of Mashhad, Qum,
political party as well, competing successfully for the Shi
ite and the Atabat.
vote in parliamentary elections. Nevertheless, Hizb Allah is
most widely known for attacks carried out by its militia for See also Ayatollah (Ar. Ayatullah); Shi
a: Imami
covert operations, the Organization of the Islamic Jihad. (Twelver).
These attacks have been waged against foreigners in Lebanon,
both individuals (assassinations and kidnappings) and groups BIBLIOGRAPHY
(such as the bombings of U.S. diplomatic and military instal- Mottahedeh, Roy P. The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and
lations in 1983 and 1984), as well as Israeli occupation forces Politics in Iran New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.
in southern Lebanon.

In Iran, the popularity of Hezbollahi rhetoric has waned Robert Gleave
with the rise in popularity of Mohammed Khatami, who was
elected president by a wide margin in 1997 on a campaign
stressing the need for reform within Iran rather than opposi-
HOJJATIYYA SOCIETY
tion to the West. Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon
in 2000 after eighteen years of warfare led by Hizb Allah
The Hojjatiyya (Hojjatieh) Society is an anti-Bahai group
forces, by contrast, greatly enhanced Hizb Allah’s standing in
that was established in 1957 by Mahmood-e Halabi, one of
Lebanon and the Arab Middle East.
the well-known preachers and publicists of Mashad, the
See also Political Islam. religious center of Khorasan province in Iran. (Bahaism is a
religious movement that originated in Iran in the nineteenth
century.) After the resignation of Reza Shah (1941), who
BIBLIOGRAPHY
opposed political activity by clerics, Halabi began to criticize
Jaber, Hala. Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance. New York: the history and doctrine of Bahaism. When Halabi moved to
Columbia University Press, 1997.
Tehran, after Mohammad Reza Shah’s coup d’etat against
Kramer, Martin S. Hezbollah’s Vision of the West. Washington, the national government of Mohammad Mosaddegh at 1953,
D.C.: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1989. he found significant support from the conservative clergy,
Saad-Ghorayeb, Amal. Hizbu
llah: Politics and Religion. Lon- and the leading ulema approved of the Hojjatiyya Society’s
don: Pluto Press, 2002. activities. Hojjatiyya opposed any radical or revolutionary
activity, and consequently there were no prohibitions on its
Tamara Sonn social and cultural approach.

After Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1978–1979, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who opposed Hojjatiyya’s thesis as
HOJJAT AL-ISLAM criticizing and crushing Bahaism as the main agenda of the
Islamic Revolution, put some limitation on the activity of this
Hojjat al-Islam literally means “Proof of Islam.” Hojjat al- group. Nevertheless Hojjatiyya was successful in closing the
Islam began as an honorific title given to high-ranking schol- Bahai’s public meetings and preventing the dissemination of
ars (ulema) in both Sunni and Shi
ite Islam. Hence al-Ghazali the movement’s ideas. In 1983, Halabi stopped the educa-
(d. 1111) was given the title Hojjat al-Islam, to signify his skill tional activities of the Hojjatiyya Society, following Khomeini’s
in arguing for the truths of Islam. It appears to have remained request that he do so. Hojjatiyya members have since been
a general term of respect for a scholar. In the nineteenth active in Iran’s judiciary, security system, and in offices
century, the title began to reflect the more hierarchical responsible for staffing Iran’s governmental institutions.

310 Islam and the Muslim World
Holy Cities

See also Bahai Faith; Revolution: Islamic Revolution in
Iran.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baghi, Emad al-din. Hizb-e-Qaedin Zaman.Tehran: Ettela
at
Publisher, 1984.

Majid Mohammadi

HOLY CITIES
The Prophet of Islam is reported to have said that a Muslim
should not embark on a pilgrimage or pious visit to any
mosque other than the Holy Sanctuary of Mecca, the Prophet’s
Mosque in Medina, and the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
This statement in a sense maps out the sacred geography of
the Islamic landscape. Muslims revere the cities of Mecca,
Medina, and Jerusalem primarily because of the powerful
spiritual symbolism associated with these sanctuaries.

Different religious traditions define sacred space according to different criteria, alluding to the multiplicity of ways in
which holiness is conceptualized. Some traditions hold that
sacred space is discovered through the manifestation of the
divine, while others argue that holiness is created through a At the end of the annual hajj in Mecca in March of 2000, tens of
process of cultural labor. In the Islamic tradition, the origins thousands of pilgrims at a time surround the Ka
ba in the Haram
al-Sharif or “Noble Sanctuary.” Because of the Ka
ba and this
and the performance of rituals of worship play an integral part annual journey by millions of Muslims commemorating Abraham,
in the sanctification of space. As such, the concept of the holy Hagar, and Isma
il, Mecca is the holiest city in Islam. © AFP/CORBIS
is more closely linked to the process of cultural labor, whereby
space is sanctified due to its function in divine communion
and not because of the perceived manifestation of the divine
progeny of Isma
il, flourished in the region but deviated from
in a certain place. Therefore, the cities of Mecca, Medina, and
the pure monotheism of their noble ancestors, and at the time
Jerusalem are embraced as holy and regarded as sacred
of the birth of the prophet Muhammad, Mecca was a center of
centers because of their intimate association with fundamenidol-worship.
tal Islamic ritual practices.

In order to grasp the significance of these holy cities to the When Muhammad began preaching his message he was
Muslim imagination their religious symbolism needs to be severely persecuted by his fellow Meccans and was forced to
emphasized alongside their histories. Foremost among the seek asylum in the nearby city of Medina. With the rise of
three centers is Mecca, followed by Medina, and finally Islam, the Prophet was finally able to conquer Mecca. He
Jerusalem. entered the city in 630 C.E., purging it of all its idols and
reestablishing the Ka
ba as a symbol of pure monotheism
Mecca once again. Mecca thus became a center of Muslim pilgrim-
The city of Mecca has been venerated as a holy center since age (hajj). Even today, Muslims from all over the world
time immemorial. In the pre-Islamic period it served as a congregate in the city annually to perform the hajj, which is
center of pilgrimage for the pagan Arabs and was home to one of the five fundamental pillars of Islam.
their most important idol deities. Muslims, however, view
Mecca as the center of monotheism and the city where the The Prophet did not choose to remain in Mecca, and
Ka
ba, the first house for the exclusive worship of the one true settled in Medina instead. Thus, Mecca never became a city
God—Allah—was established. The prophet Abraham is re- of any political significance, and the seat of governance in the
ported to have built the Ka
ba in this barren valley by divine Muslim world was always located elsewhere. The only time
command. Abraham had long before left his son, Isma
il, with the city was of political importance was during the brief
his mother, Hagar, in this place, also by divine command. period after the death of the caliph Mu
awiya. He was
Returning many years later, Abraham and his son undertook succeeded by his son Yazid in 680 C.E., but his rule was
the construction of the Ka
ba. The Arabs, who are the contested by
Abdallah ibn Zubayr, who was proclaimed

Islam and the Muslim World 311
Holy Cities

caliph in Mecca. Ibn Zubayr managed to gain ascendancy The second ritual performed in the Mosque is the sai
,
over most of Arabia and certain parts of Iraq, but was finally which literally means to strive. The pilgrim reenacts the
crushed and killed by the Ummayad general al-Hajjaj in 692 C.E. frantic search for water undertaken by Hagar, an African
freed slave, who ran between the two hills of Saffa and Marwa.
When the Abbasids ousted their Ummayad cousins, they Abraham had left her there, alone with her son, without any
chose to continue ruling from Baghdad. Mecca was well provisions. She ran between the two hills until God finally
patronized by the Abbasid caliphs, and they distributed vast rewarded her quest with the blessed well of Zamzam, which
sums of money to its inhabitants during their visits on suddenly gushed forth from the ground. The pilgrim therepilgrimage. The appearance of the Qarmitiyya, a militant sect fore recalls the anguish of this noble woman, and is also
opposed to the Abbasids, made some impact on the history of reminded of the mercy of Allah.
Mecca in this era. Over a fifty-year period, the sect made
constant raids on pilgrim caravans, and in 930 C.E. they raided Another sacred space linked to the pilgrimage is found on
Mecca, massacring its inhabitants. They even carried away the outskirts of Mecca, not too far from the holy Mosque.
the Black Stone, the cornerstone that marks the beginning of This is the campsite of Mina. Not only do the pilgrims spend
the ritual of circumambulation around the Ka
ba. It was, most of the five days of pilgrimage camped at Mina, but they
however, returned some twenty years later, and a relatively also perform the ritual pelting of Satan there. This ritual is
calm state of affairs ensued thereafter, with pilgrimage taking associated with Satan’s attempt to dissuade Abraham from
precedence over politics in Mecca once again. obeying Allah’s command, and Abraham is reported to have
chased the Evil One away by pelting him with pebbles on
The city’s recent history also bears witness to some three occasions. The pilgrim therefore reenacts this event
dramatic political events. In 1979 a group of Saudi militants through the ritual pelting, thereby striving to fight his or her
stormed the sacred sanctuary that houses the Ka
ba and own spiritual weakness rejecting temptation. Mina only comes
occupied it for sixteen days, killing many civilians and soldiers to life once a year, during the pilgrimage, and is virtually
in the process. Apart from these infrequent events, however, uninhabited for the remainder of the year.
Mecca has always been of preeminent importance to Muslims
because of the Ka
ba and the hajj. It is solely because of the Moving on from Mina, the pilgrim follows the path to the
rituals of hajj performed in the city and its environs that plains of Arafat, about 9 kilometers away from central Mecca.
Mecca is haloed in sanctity. Arafat also only comes to life during the pilgrimage, and is the
site where the prophet Muhammad delivered the famous last
When viewed in terms of sacred geography, the city can sermon. Standing on the plains of Arafat and supplicating
best be conceived of as a patchwork of sacred spaces. At the Allah is the pinnacle of the hajj. The pilgrim who does not
very center is the Ka
ba, which is for Muslims a veritable manage to make his way to Arafat on the specified time and
gateway opening into the realm of the transcendent. Muslims
day invalidates his or her pilgrimage and has to perform it
the world over face in the direction of the Ka
ba during the
over again. This ritual, unlike most of the others, is not
performance of the five daily prayers, and the Ka
ba is
related to Abraham and is more directly associated with the
undoubtedly the most potent symbol of Islamic identity, due
prophet Muhammad, who is reported to have said that the
to its intimate association with the obligatory act of prayer.
essence of pilgrimage is the supplication at Arafat.
The history of the Ka
ba is even detailed in the Quran, and it
is described as the first house established for the sole purpose Between Mina and Arafat is Muzdallifa, an area intimately
of worshipping God (3:96). Although the Quran describes linked to the pilgrimage rituals as well. The pilgrim must pass
Mecca as being “full of blessing” (3:96) and as an “asylum of through Muzdallifa on the way back to Mina after completing
security” (5:97), it goes on to emphasize the functional the supplication at Arafat and perform the obligatory prayers
characteristic of the Ka
ba far more cogently. It was built for there, as was instructed by the prophet Muhammad.
no other purpose but the establishment of prayer (14:37).
Like any world capital, Mecca is continuously being trans-
The immediate vicinity of the Ka
ba was also regarded as a formed and upgraded. The pilgrimage sites have been develsanctuary, and as such the Ka
ba and its surroundings make oped to facilitate the millions that visit there, and the city
up the holy Mosque of Mecca, which is commonly known as itself will surely grow and expand in the future. However,
al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary). Two very impor- Mecca will always retain its aura primarily because of the
tant rituals of hajj are performed in this Mosque. The first is pilgrimage.
the circumambulation of the Ka
ba. This ritual is associated
with Abraham and Isma
il’s building of the house. As they laid Medina
the foundations, the two prophets supplicated Allah, implor- Unlike Mecca, a visit to Medina is not an obligatory part of
ing for mercy and asking that their sacrifice be accepted. In the pilgrimage, but the Prophet had personally sanctioned
similar vein, the pilgrim reenacts the process and supplicates journeying to his mosque in Medina for the purpose of ziyara,
Allah as he or she completes the cycles known as tawwaf. or pious visit. During the early Islamic era, Medina, called

312 Islam and the Muslim World
Holy Cities

The second holiest city in Islam is Medina, where the Prophet’s Mosque, shown here, is located. Though he was born in Mecca, Muhammad
failed to convince people there of his beliefs and was severely persecuted before he resettled in nearby Medina, where he gained more
followers. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

Yathrib in pre-Islamic times, had been the political capital of conquer the Byzantine Romans and the Persians that threatthe nascent Islamic empire. Mecca was and still is by far the ened its northern frontiers.
more important in terms of sacred geography, however. The
oasis town of Yathrib, which lies about 500 kilometers away Medina remained the political capital of the Islamic Empire
from Mecca, was renamed in honour of the Prophet, and is during the reign of the four caliphs who succeeded the
more properly referred to as al-Madina al-Munawwarra, or Prophet. With the outbreak of civil war during the reign of
the Illuminated City.
Ali (the last of the four caliphs) the city slowly began to lose
political importance.
Ali left Medina in October 656 C.E. to
The Prophet had migrated to Medina in 622 C.E., after quell insurrections in Iraq and never returned. The city of
failing to convince the Meccans of his mission. The city was Kufa was for a brief period the center of events, but with the
far more diverse than Mecca, with a population comprised of ascendancy of Mu
awiya as caliph in 661 C.E., Damascus
Jews, Muslims, and idolaters. The Prophet attempted to became the political capital of the Muslim world. Apart from
unite the various factions into a single polity and his efforts isolated instances of upheaval, not much else occurred in
were recorded in a pact known as Sahifa al-Madina, or the Medina that was of major political significance from here on.
constitution of Medina. In the interim, the conflict between
the nascent Muslim community of Medina and the Meccan While Medina may have become completely marginalized
pagans continued. The Prophet undertook over seventy in the political sphere, it gained considerable fame as a center
expeditions against the Meccans from his new power base in of Islamic intellectual life. The scholars of Medina played an
Medina before finally conquering Mecca. The Prophet did important role in the early development of Islamic jurisprunot return to Mecca, however, as Medina was now his home. dence and in the collection of hadith (prophetic traditions).
It was from here that he turned his attention to spreading the In this important formative period, the legal school of Medina
message of Islam to frontiers beyond the Arabian Peninsula. was made famous through the work of one of its most
By the time of his death in 632 C.E., Islam stood poised to outstanding scholars, Malik ibn Anas, who died in 795 C.E.

Islam and the Muslim World 313
Holy Cities

However, it is neither the intellectual nor the early politi- Religious literature on Medina is replete with accounts
cal status of Medina that is ultimately of primary importance that outline the virtues of the city, but many of these are
to the Muslim community. Medina is venerated because it is apocryphal and therefore not worthy of mention. Such acthe city of the Prophet of Islam and the first Islamic polity. It counts do, however, lend an added aura and appeal to the holy
is in Medina that Islam took root and was strengthened. The status of the city, even if they are not really of great importance.
city is also the site of a few important mosques that are
intimately associated with the history of the ritual prayers. Jerusalem
This is perhaps the main reason why the Prophet encouraged Although Jerusalem’s status as the third holy city of Islam is
Muslims to visit Medina. Its sacred sites not only capture the extremely well established in the primary Islamic sources,
early history of the prayer ritual, but also strengthen the Muslims do not claim exclusive spiritual rights to the holy
believer’s resolve and commitment to these very practices. city. Jerusalem is dear to all three of the Abrahamic faiths, and
has been severely battled over by Muslims, Christians, and
The first mosque built in Medina was the mosque of Jews through the centuries.
Quba. This mosque lies on what was then the outskirts of the
The Jews have always venerated the city as the site of the
city, and it is where the Prophet paused for a few days before
holy temple, but the pagan Romans had already obliterated
entering the city. Here he laid the foundations of the Quba
all remaining vestiges of Jewish life in Jerusalem about five
Mosque. The mosque at Quba remained dear to the Prophet,
centuries before the city came under Muslim rule, in 638 C.E.
and long after he had settled in Medina he would still make
When the Roman emperor Constantine embraced Christihis way there on Saturdays to spend time in prayer and
anity, the city was covered in Christian monuments. Although
reflection. Muslims visiting Medina today still emulate this
there was no chance of the Jews rebuilding their temple,
practice, and follow the path to the mosque of Quba in the
Constantine did allow them into the city once a year, on
early hours on Saturday mornings, where they remain until
payment of a fee, so that they could mourn the destruction of
noon, as was the habit of the Prophet.
the temple.
Nonetheless, the most important mosque in Medina is
In 614 C.E. the Persians captured Jerusalem, massacring
still the Prophet’s Mosque, also referred to as the Haram althousands of Christians in the process. Fourteen years later,
Madina (the Sanctuary of Medina). The Prophet’s own living
the Roman emperor Heraclius was able to drive the invaders
quarters were attached to the mosque, and when he died he
out and recover the land and the city. He, in turn, wreaked a
was buried in one of his apartments. The Prophet’s gravesite
terrible vengeance upon the Jews, who were accused of
is thus attached to his mosque even today. While orthodox
colluding with the Persian invaders. At the dawn of Islam,
Islamic doctrine frowns upon the veneration of gravesites,
therefore, the Jewish presence in Jerusalem had once again
Muslims the world over come to the mosque to visit the
been viciously purged by the Christians.
grave. This practice is tolerated as long as it is done under the
pretext of visiting the mosque, for the Prophet is reported to The Islamic Empire underwent massive expansion after
have said that prayer in his mosque is rewarded more greatly the demise of the Prophet. In the reign of the third caliph,
than prayer elsewhere, except for prayer in the haram of
Umar ibn al-Khattab, the Byzantines conceded Jerusalem to
Mecca, which carries the highest reward. In Medina, as in Islam. In 638 C.E., the caliph himself accepted the capitulation
Mecca, it is once again the act of prayer that lends sanctity to of the city from its Christian patriarch, Sophronius. In an
this important space. unprecedented display of tolerance,
Umar granted the Christians protection of their religious sites and vouched for their
The final mosque that enjoys special status is the Qiblatyn safety. He even refused the patriarch’s offer to perform the
Mosque, which literally means the mosque of two directions. midday prayer in a Christian shrine, recognizing the signifi-
Unlike the first two, this mosque is more of historical than cance of the prayer in the appropriation and sanctification of
ritual significance. There is no special reward mentioned for space. He explained his reasons for refusing, saying that he
praying in it, nor did the Prophet set a precedent of visiting it did not want to create a pretense for future generations that
on a regular basis. However, it is important because of the may seek justification for the confiscation of this Christian
momentous event that occurred in it. For a period of sixteen shrine and turn it into a place of Islamic worship.
months after the Prophet’s migration to Medina, the obligatory prayers were performed facing in the direction of Jerusa-
Umar immediately set about identifying the sites that
lem. While praying in the Qiblatyn Mosque, the Prophet was were of religious significance to Muslims. Jerusalem is menordered by divine directive to change orientation and face the tioned in the Quran as the city to which the Prophet had
Ka
ba in Mecca while praying (2:142). Even today, Muslims traveled in a night journey and in which he had assembled
the world over pray facing Mecca, and in memory of God’s with all the previous prophets, leading them in prayer.
Umar
command to the Prophet, Muslims still frequent this mosque therefore sought out this area and marked it out as a sanctuwhen visiting Medina. ary. It was here that the al-Aqsa mosque was built. The

314 Islam and the Muslim World
Holy Cities

Al Aqsa Mosque and Temple Mount in Jerusalem. After he conquered Jerusalem in 638, the third caliph, ’Umar ibn al-Khattab, built Al Aqsa.
The caliph chose a site the Qu’ran describes the Prophet Muhammad having traveled to in a night journey in order to gather all the previous
prophets and lead them in prayer. © DAVE G. HOUSER/CORBIS

Prophet is then reported to have ascended to the heavens, rule the Jewish community once again thrived in the city,
where the five daily prayers were obligated upon him and his finding safe asylum from persecution there.
followers by Allah. His ascension was from a large rock,
which was discovered under a dung heap, indicating that the It is important to note that no Jewish place of worship is
area of the sanctuary was of no significance to the other made mention of from the time of the Arab conquest in
religious communities at that time.
Umar ordered the area to Jerusalem. Mention of the Wailing Wall as a place where
be cleaned and performed the prayers there. Building of the pious Jews came to lament the loss of the temple only
structure known as the Dome of the Rock commenced round appeared around the time of Saladin’s reconquest. This wall
about 688 C.E. on the order of
Abd al-Malik ibn al-Marwan, was identified as the Western wall of the Al-Aqsa compound,
the fifth caliph after Mu’awwiya. and Jews from thereon frequented the place to pray.

Jerusalem became known to Muslims as Bayt al-Maqdis or This act of devotion was tolerated by the Muslim rulers of
simply al-Quds (the Holy City). It was thereafter patronized Jerusalem, with the gravest of consequences in recent times,
and maintained as a sacred site by all the Muslim caliphs from after the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel in occuthe Abbasids right through to the Ottomans, who finally lost pied Palestine. What was initially a gesture of tolerance came
the city to British mandate in the early twentieth century. to be held by some faithful Jews as an absolute right, not
The city remained under Muslim rule for thirteen centuries, merely of access but ultimately of possession. Today the strife
with the exception of the brief interruption effected by the between Jews and Muslims over the site of the al-Aqsa
Crusades. In this long period, the greatest calamity to have complex rages fiercely.
befallen Islam was the loss of Jerusalem to the Crusaders in
1099 C.E. The city was finally reconquered by Salah al-Din al- United Nations attempts to accord the city of Jerusalem
Ayyubi (Saladin) ninety years later, in 1187 C.E. In the in- international status, with equal access for all three faithterim, thousands of Muslims and Jews were slaughtered in the groups, has up until now been unsuccessful. What Jerusalem
name of Christ. Saladin displayed remarkable tolerance not needs today is the tolerance and foresight of a modern-day
only to the Jews, but to the Christians as well, and under his
Umar or Saladin; a leader with the temperament to show

Islam and the Muslim World 315
Homosexuality

equal respect to all three faiths and uphold the sanctity of
Jerusalem to the benefit of all. HOMOSEXUALITY

Holy cities or sites are inextricably linked with the tran- Both erotic attraction and sexual behavior between members
scendent and will always dominate the religious imagination, of the same sex have always been recognized phenomena in
in spite of the tremendous toll sometimes exacted through Islamic societies, but attitudes toward them have been comconflict and contestation. It is only in these sacred spaces that plex, severe religious and legal sanctions against the latter
human mortality is ultimately transcended, enabling the coexisting with accommodating and at times indeed celebratory
believer to stand in the presence of the divine. As long as expressions of the former.
Muslim practice and faith prevail, there will always be people
who lay claim to the sanctity of the three spiritual capitals of Religious discourse has mostly focused on sexual acts,
the Islamic world: Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. which are unambiguously condemned. The Quran refers
explicitly to male-male sexual relations only in the context of
See also Caliphate; Dome of the Rock;
Ibadat; Mi
raj; the story of Lot, but labels the Sodomites’s actions (univer-
Muhammad. sally understood in the later tradition as anal intercourse) an
“abomination.” (Female-female relations are not addressed.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY Reported pronouncements by the prophet Muhammad
Armstrong, Karen. A History of Jerusalem. London: Har- (hadith) reinforce the interdiction on male-male sodomy,
perCollins, 1996. although there are no reports of his ever adjudicating an
actual case of such an offense; he is also quoted as condemn-
Chidester, David. “The Poetics and Politics of Sacred Space:
Towards a Critical Phenomenology of Religion.” In From ing cross-gender behavior for both sexes, but it is unclear to
the Sacred to the Divine: A New Phenomenological Approach. what extent this is to be understood as involving sexual
Edited by Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka. Boston: Kluwer relations. Several early caliphs, confronted with cases of
Academic Publishers, (1994): 211–231. sodomy between males, are said to have had both partners
Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and the Profane. Translated by executed, by a variety of means. While taking such precedents
W. R. Tusk. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1959. into account, medieval jurists were unable to achieve a con-
Farouk-Alli, Aslam. “A Quranic Perspective and Analysis of sensus on this issue; some legal schools prescribed capital
the Concept of Sacred Space in Islam.” In Journal for the punishment for sodomy, but others opted only for a relatively
Study of Religion, 15, no. 1 (2002): 63–78. mild discretionary punishment. There was general agreement, however, that other homosexual acts (including any
Goitein, S. D. “The Historical Background of the Erection of
the Dome of the Rock.” In Journal of the American Oriental between females) were lesser offenses, subject only to discre-
Society (JAOS), 70 (1950): 104–108. tionary punishment.
Goitein, S. D. Studies in Islamic History and Institutions. Leiden:
Whatever the legal strictures on sexual activity, the posi-
E. J. Brill, 1966.
tive expression of male homoerotic sentiment in literature
Hilali, T., and Khan, M., tr. Interpretation of the Meanings of was accepted, and assiduously cultivated, from the late eighth
the Noble Qur
an in the English Language. Riyadh: Dar-uscentury until modern times. First in Arabic, but later also in
Salam, 1995.
Persian, Turkish, and Urdu, love poetry (by men) about boys
Peters, F. E. Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy more than competed with that about women, it overwhelmed
Places. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
it. Anecdotal literature reinforces this impression of general
Peters, F. E. Mecca and the Hijaz: A Literary History of the societal acceptance of the public celebration of male-male
Muslim Holy Land. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University love (which hostile Western caricatures of Islamic societies in
Press, 1994.
medieval and early modern times simply exaggerate). As in
Shariati, Ali. Hajj: Reflection on its Rituals. Translated by Laleh other premodern societies, such love was generally under-
Bakhtiar. Chicago: Kazi Publications, 1993. stood as an asymmetrical relationship, between an adult male
Tibawi, A. L. “Jerusalem: Its Place in Islam and Arab His- (the lover) and an adolescent boy (the beloved), clearly
tory.” In The Islamic Quarterly XII, no. 4 (1968): 185–218. paralleling the power differential between men and women in
Watt, W. M. and Winder, R. B. “Al Madina.” In The heterosexual relationships; rather than a single category of
Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by E. Van Donzel, B. Lewis, “homosexuals,” there were two, or rather three: “active”
and C. Pellat. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978. male-male lovers, “passive” adolescent beloveds, and a third,
Watt. W. M., et al. “Makka.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. pathological and despised, category of adult males who sought
Edited by E. Van Donzel, B. Lewis, and C. Pellat. Leiden: out the passive role. Female-female relationships (never a
E. J. Brill, 1978. subject for literary celebration) were less role-dominated, at
least in earlier times; by the late Middle Ages a “butch-
Aslam Farouk-Alli femme” paradigm seems to have asserted itself for them as well.

316 Islam and the Muslim World
Hospitality and Islam

With the impact of Western colonialism in the late early Qajar periods onward. Starting in the mid-1950s, buildnineteenth century, these patterns (specifically, accepted “ac- ings serving similar religious purposes have been named after
tive” homoeroticism, subject to the same strictures on behav- other imams and Shi
ite saints. For instance, in 1996 there
ior as obtained with regard to extramarital heterosexual were 1358 hosayniyya, 148 tekkiyeh, 34 fatimiyya, 32 mahdiyya,
relations) began to change in most Islamic societies. The and 57 zainabiyya in the Khorasan province. Scores of such
Western construction of the “homosexual”—often, however, buildings built during the last few decades of the twentieth
misinterpreted as representing only the traditional patho- century in the city of Mashhad bear such names as sajjadiyya,
logical adult “passive”—has imposed itself with increasing baqiriyya, sadiqiyya, kazimiyya, radawiyya, jawwadiyya, naqawiyya,
force. Legal sanctions on homosexuality in various Islamic askariyya, mahdiyya, fatimiyya, nargisiyya, and zaynabiyya.
countries today vary considerably, as does their degree of
dependence on traditional pronouncements of Islamic law. Apparently, the religious influence of the Safavid era
Societal attitudes have become more negative, and increas- (1501–1736) led to the building of the ashurkhanas of the
ingly dominated by the new, imported paradigm of what Deccan during the reign of the Shi
ite Qutb-shahi dynasty,
“homosexuality” is (for both males and females); but recent and Mir Muhammad Mumin Astarabadi (d. 1625), an emiliberalizing shifts in attitude in the West are also having their nent religious and political figure, is known to have built
effect, and the entire subject is currently a nexus of consider- several of them in and around the city of Hyderabad, estabable conflict. lishing a tradition that later spread to the north and other
parts of India. The magnificent imambara of Asaf ad-Dawlah
See also Eunuchs; Gender. at Lucknow is perhaps the most impressive of this kind of
structures ever built.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See also Rawza-Khani; Ta
ziya (Ta
ziye).
Murray, Stephen O., and Roscoe, Will, eds. Islamic
Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature. New York:
New York University Press, 1997. Rasool Jafariyan
Rowson, Everett K. “The Categorization of Gender and
Sexual Irregularity in Medieval Arabic Vice Lists.” In Body
Guards: The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity. Edited by HOSPITALITY AND ISLAM
Julia Epstein and Kristina Straub. New York and London:
Routledge, 1991.
Generous hospitality extended to family, friends, and strang-
Schmitt, Arno, and Sofer, Jehoeda, eds. Sexuality and Eroticism ers is one of the best-known feature of Muslim societies,
among Males in Moslem Societies. New York: Harrington whether pastoral, rural, or urban. This tradition of hospitality
Park Press, 1992.
goes back to ancient times in the Middle East, an arid region
where trade early became more important than in other
Everett K. Rowson regions and where the need for travelers to rely on the
kindness of strangers was correspondingly greater. In Arabia,
the pre-Islamic chieftain Hatim al-Tai represents the ideal
generous host, and has remained a symbol of exhuberant
HOSAYNIYYA hospitality to this day.
Hosayniyya is a rather recent name for public buildings in Iran, For Muslims, the ideal of hospitality derives first from the
Iraq and Lebanon that are used by the Shi’a for mourning Quran itself, which requires that hospitality or charity be
ceremonies, especially during the months of Muharam and offered to travelers: “It is righteous to believe in God; [and] to
Safar (the first two months in the Muslim calender) wherein spend of your substance, out of love for Him. For your kin,
the martyrdom of Imam Husayn b.
Ali, grandson of the for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask,” (2:177;
Prophet, is mourned. Their counterparts in India and Paki- 2:215; 4:36; 8:41; 9:60; 17:26; 30:38; 59:7) and to the poor
stan are called imambara or azakhana, and in some places, (5:89; 22:28, 36; 58:4; 74:44; 76:8–9; 90:14–18, 93:10; 107:3).
ashurkhana, dargah, and alawi. Although mourning ceremo- The Quran also mentions rules relating to the hospitality of
nies have been common since the Buwayhid era, no definite relatives and friends (24:61), and portrays the Prophet Abradate can be set for the emergence of the name hosayniyya ham as offering hospitality to the visiting angels by slaughterbefore the last part of eighteenth century. Until that time ing a calf (11:69–70; 51:24–27). Refusing to offer hospitality
these ceremonies were held in royal palatial halls, spacious is reproved (18:77), as is treating guests insultingly or threathouses, in streets, and open spaces. Apparently, from the ening them (11:77; 15:68). Indeed, such behavior is considsecond half of the Safavid era the tekkeyyeh and khaneqa (also ered a great shame.
khanakha), buildings that originally served as establishments
of the dervishes, were gradually transformed into hosayniyyas, The prophet Muhammad’s own well-attested hospitality
often assuming this name from the latter part of the Zand and included reluctance to ask guests who had stayed too long to

Islam and the Muslim World 317
Hukuma al-islamiyya, al-

leave, even though he was the head of state at Medina (33:53), and Middle East and in the West. In the nineteenth cenand he let multitudes of envoys, guests, and the poor there tury, concepts such as political rights, public liberties,
enjoy hospitality in the mosque, which was also the courtyard constitutionalism and related issues, found their way into the
of his house. More directly, in many extra-Quranic tradi- Muslim world through thinkers such as the Egyptian scholar
tions the Prophet insisted that generosity be shown to guests, Rifa
a Rafi
al-Tahtawi (1807–1871) and the Persian diplotravelers, and strangers. As a result, Muslim law recognized mat Miza Malkom Khan (1833–1908). In the Ottoman Empire,
offering guests three days’ hospitality as the Prophet’s way significant reforms were initiated with the hatt-i serif (1839;
(sunna). noble rescript of Sultan
Abdulmejid) and the hatt-i humayun
(1856; imperial rescript, reaffirming the hatt-i serif) guaran-
Khalid Yahya Blankinship teeing security of life, honor, and property, and a fair and
public trial for individuals, and civil equality for all Ottoman
subjects.

HUKUMA AL-ISLAMIYYA, AL- The United Nation’s Charter of Human Rights of 10
(ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT) December 1948 was signed by the Muslim countries. In 1990
the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC, founded in
While continuing to refer to classical doctrines of the caliphate, 1973), which is composed of all the Muslim countries, subcontemporary Sunni concepts of the Islamic state, or Islamic mitted the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, in an
order (al-nizam al-islami), have moved well beyond classical attempt to identify specific Islamic features of human rights
precedents to include elements of what is today considered to in combination with elements of international law. The Cairo
constitute “good governance”: the rule of law, participation, Declaration has not been ratified; nevertheless it is referred to
accountability, and the independence of the judiciary, with- as a meaningful contribution to the discourse on human
out abandoning certain specifically Islamic notions such as rights and Islam. Although the signatories emphasized in the
“Sovereignty lies with God, who has defined the fundamental OIC preamble their “commitment to the UN Charter and
moral and legal code regulating all human activity” (sharia). fundamental human rights,” the document of 1990 reveals
Government and society derive their legitimacy from “apply- differences and even conflicts with international human rights
ing” the sharia. In their capacity as God’s representatives or theory, since the latter does not accept that religious concepts
trustees on earth (sing. khalifa), men and women are equal are of overriding importance.
(though within specific domains, their rights and duties are
Article 24 of the Cairo Declaration subordinates all rights
not identical). The ruler (caliph, imam, or president) derives
and freedoms to sharia (Islamic law), without clarifying the
his authority from the community of believers, who elect him
and are bound to obey him as long as he stays within the limits limits or questioning the area of conflict between civil and
of God’s law. Consultation (shura) in all public affairs is political rights, enacted in the constitution and international
obligatory, albeit not necessarily binding on the ruler. He is conventions on human rights, and the obligations that arise
accountable before God and the community (though the according to sharia. The sensitive points lay in the area of
instruments of sanction, including his removal from office, equality, particularly gender equality, as well as in the fields of
remain ill defined). Some authors further include universal art and science. Some examples may illustrate the dilemma:
suffrage, majority rule, and the separation of powers as basic Under sharia, all human beings, men and women, Muslims
elements of Islamic government in the modern age. and non-Muslims, are equal in terms of dignity, but not in
terms of rights. For instance, Muslim women and non-
See also Political Islam. Muslims are not equal with Muslim men regarding family law
and the law of inheritance. Although non-Muslim citizens
BIBLIOGRAPHY enjoy the same rights and obligations as Muslim citizens, they
are excluded from certain positions. Freedom of expression
Krämer, Gudrun. “Visions of an Islamic Republic. Good
Governance According to the Islamists.” In The Islamic has to comply with the principles of sharia, that is, it must
World and the West. Edited by Kai Hafez. Leiden: Brill, 2000. conform to the prevailing interpretation of Islam. Furthermore, the right of religious freedom is extremely limited for
Gudrun Krämer Muslims, since apostasy entails numerous civil law sanctions—
such as the loss of the entitlement to inherit or the loss of the
right to remain married to a Muslim partner—and even
carries the possibility of a death sentence. It should be
HUMAN RIGHTS mentioned that numerous human rights organizations and
activists in the Muslim world (for example, in Tunisia, Morocco
Contemporary discourses concerning human rights (huquq and Algeria) have called for a revision of the Cairo Declaraal-insan) and Islam, or rather their compatibility or incom- tion in order to bring it into line with the fundamental
patibility, are manifold and controversial, both in the Near principles of the UN Declaration.

318 Islam and the Muslim World
Humor

The actual situation in Muslim countries reflects the individual responsibility before God, and in this sense procomplex social and political balance of power, inclusive of the vides a moral and ethical basis for a society, but this does not
monopoly of definition and interpretation, rather than the imply any specific form of political system.
relation between Islam and human rights. This explains the
Some modernists even go further in arguing the secularexisting gap between ideals and practice. Still, contemporary
ists’ thesis. Like the secularists, they hold that Islam does not
interpretations and applications of the sharia, especially
impose political or legal prescriptions, and add that Islam
under prevailing culturally or socially rooted inequalities and
does not resolve the problems concerning the few and definiunder authoritarian regimes, serve as a “legal” basis for
tive legal regulations specified in the Quran and in the
violations of human rights. In these cases Islam is used to
tradition. For Islam to do so, they argue, would call into
legitimize undemocratic measures. Pakistan provides one of
question the Quran’s authenticity as the eternally valid word
the most striking examples because tribal (also patriarchal)
of God. In order to avoid this, modernists such as the Syrian
traditions and customs, a gradual Islamization of the legal
Muhammad Shahrur argue that although the Quran is the
system, and a lack of adequate state protection there have
last revelation and thus the last truth, this does not mean that
resulted in the violation of several fundamental principles of
there is only one interpretation. To the contrary, the Quran
human rights, such as freedom of religion, protection of
is open for different approaches and readings. Shahrur’s ideas
minorities, and women’s rights or gender equality. Muslim elicit a great many positive responses within the Arab world.
Shi
ite communities and members of the Ahmadiyya, who are He is but one example of a scholar who pleads for an
considered to be heretical, and non-Muslim (Christians) interpretation of Islam supportive of human rights. He, and
minorities suffer severe persecutions and violence. Discrimi- scholars like him, challenge the prevailing Western perspecnatory practices against women, including honor killings, tive on Islam, while revealing that it is not Islam as such that is
abuse, rape, institutionalized gender bias, among others, are (or is not) compatible with human rights, but rather that
widespread and rarely prosecuted. certain interpretations of Islam are at the root of the issue.

The case of the Egyptian scholar Abu Zayd provides but See also Ethics and Social Issues; Gender; Law; Organione example of how the limits set by the principles of sharia zation of the Islamic Conference; Secularism, Islamic;
are defended by orthodoxy. Abu Zayd was accused of apostasy Shari
a.
in 1993 because of his writings. After having taken his case to
Egypt’s final court of appeal, he was condemned to divorce in BIBLIOGRAPHY
1996. Further, despite concepts in legal thought providing An-Nai
im, Abdullahi Ahmed. Toward an Islamic Reformation:
for the protection of minorities in Muslim societies, the Civil, Human Rights, and International Law. Syracuse, N.Y.:
actual situation contrasts sharply with existing theoretical Syracuse University Press, 1990.
ideals. Non-Muslim critics and intellectuals focus on the
Ashmawi, Muhammad Sa
id al-. “Shari
a: The Codification
apparent contradiction between the United Nation’s Decla- of Islamic Law.” In Liberal Islam. A Sourcebook. Edited by
ration of Human Rights and the principles of sharia. On the Charles Kurzman. New York and Oxford, U.K.: Oxford
one hand, civil and political rights are accorded to any citizen University Press, 1998.
in Muslim countries by the constitution and the UN Charter Mayer, Ann. Islam and Human Rights: Traditions and Politics.
but, on the other hand, the necessity of conformity with the Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1991.
norms and prescriptions of sharia are religiously legitimized.
However, this discourse rarely includes the intense and di- Ursula Günther
verse debates that are going on simultaneously within the
Muslim world regarding the limits and possibilities of the
adoption of human rights within the Islamic context.
HUMOR
The contemporary voices are complex and diverse, but an
There is no classical Muslim definition of humor, but profesinquiry into two positions should be ample to give an idea of
sor Franz Rosenthal offers one that attempts to be universally
the wide range of interpretations and readings with regard to
inclusive. In his Humor in Early Islam, Rosenthal suggests that
human rights within the Muslim world. Secular positions,
the hallmark of humor is a “certain freedom from convensuch as that of the Egyptian scholar
Ali
Abd al-Raziq
tional motions” that, in ordinary circumstances, constrain us
(1888–1966), argue that the Quran does not prescribe any
all. Thus any “deviation” from what is expected may cause
particular form of government, and therefore a system wherein
laughter even if it happens to be partially tragic.
religion and politics are separated is not necessarily un-
Islamic. Many scholars and intellectuals are in favor of
Abd Humor in Early Islam
al-Raziq’s model, for example, the Egyptian jurist Muham- Humor is a modality for releasing tension. Muslims, like all
mad Sa
id al-
Ashmawi and the Syrian sociologist Burhan other peoples, have their share of jokes, anecdotes, and other
Ghaliyun. Proponents of this position state that Islam implies “deviations from ordinary reality,” to use one of Rosenthal’s

Islam and the Muslim World 319
Humor

phrases. While in early Islam there was a tendency to lean much and laugh little.” At the same time numerous scholars
toward seriousness because of the need to maintain hilm in early Islam and continuing on into the Middle Ages found
(dignified and civil behavior, propriety), there was consider- laughter and joking to be of extreme importance to their
able divergence from this austere stance. In the first century literary enterprise. The most notable reference work listing
of Islam, for example, there were several schools of humor- collections of humor stories comes from Ibn Nadim’s Kitab
ists, storytellers, and professional entertainers. These schools al-fihrist, a bibliographic work from the tenth century.
trained individuals in the art of devising as well as relating
humorous anecdotes (nawadir, sing. nadira), along with teach- Among the works of notable Muslim scholars and mystics,
ing the skills of vocal and instrumental music. While there who have either mentioned amusing anecdotes in their otherwas religious objection to these arts, the justification for wise serious scholarly (adab) works, or have devoted entire
humor in early Islam was also based on religious arguments. works to the subject of humor, al-Jahiz’s (d. 868) Kitab al-
The Quran does not forbid laughter as it is God “who grants bukhala
(Book of misers) stands out. There are many others,
laughter and tears” (53:43). In fact, there are many instances including Uyun al-akhbar by Ibn Qutaybah (d. 889), al-Iqd
of humor in Muslim scripture, providing testimony to Islam’s al-farid by Ibn
Abd Rabbih (860–940), al-Basa
ir wal-dhakha
ir
“lighter side.” by al-Tawhidi (d. 1010). In al-Jahiz’s style of writing, serious
subjects are presented together with jokes and amusing sto-
Second only to the Quran are the traditions of the ries, and he quotes the Quran in associating laughter with
prophet Muhammad, who is said to have made frequent use life, stating that while laughter is not prohibited, it must be
of humor. There are numerous reports, found in authentic carried out in moderation.
hadith collections, of the Prophet either smiling or laughing,
or causing others to laugh.
Aisha, the wife of Muhammad, Other scholars, such as al-Husri al-Qayrawani (d. 1022) in
reportedly said that the Prophet often smiled. She noted, his Jam al-Jawahir fi al-Mulah wal-Nawadir, followed alhowever, that he never laughed in a loud manner or exposed Jahiz in inserting amusing stories in their adab works. Simihis uvula. The following anecdote, found in Sunan Abu larly, many Shi
ite scholars, such as Baha al-Din al-
Amili (d.
Dawud, illustrates the Prophet’s humor: 1621) and Ni
mat Allah al-Jazairi (d. 1701), argued for and
made use of anecdotal humor in their writings, often citing
hadith examples specific to Shi
ism.
A man broke his fast during Ramadan. The Messenger
of God commanded him to emancipate a slave or fast There is ample evidence that numerous collections of
for two months, or feed sixty poor men. He said: “I such anecdotes (nawadir) existed in early centuries of Islam.
cannot provide.” The Apostle said: “Sit down.” There- Some collections have survived, but many disappeared during
after, a huge basket of dates was brought to the Mesthe Middle Ages due to criticism of witticism from orthodox
senger of God. He said: “Take this and give it as sadaqa
circles. It is therefore to be noted that jocularity and laughter
[charity].” He said: “O Messenger of God, there is no
one poorer than I.” The Messenger of God thereupon was not just a literary issue but also a moral and a religious one
laughed so that his canine teeth became visible and for many Muslim authors. Despite religious stiffness, howsaid: “Eat it yourself.”(Hasan 1984., hadith 2386) ever, a rich heritage of Arab and Islamic humor exists today
by way of folklore. Contemporary Islamic and Sufi studies
have also helped revive the humorous in conjunction with
The eleventh-century Muslim author al-Husri refers to learning.
the prophet Muhammad’s liking of humor, saying he possessed a rather pleasant personality and was not averse to a Humor Characters in Islamic Literature
decent joke. He even reports that the Prophet played practi- In his 1927 essay on humor in Arabic literature, Margoliouth
cal jokes. For instance, he reports that the Prophet told an reports that in early Islam there were not only the profeselderly woman that old women will not enter Paradise, sional entertainers and court-jesters (sing. maskhara) whose
causing her great distress. The Prophet then cited the Quran, job was to keep the ruler entertained, but even some cities had
which promises that she will enter Paradise as a young their known jesters and entertainers. One such personage was
woman. Other companions of the Prophet are also reported Ghadiri of Medina, who earned his living by telling amusing
to have approved of humor. For example, Ibn al-Jawzi refers stories to his rich patrons and who was later taken over by
to Imam
Ali as having said: “Whoever possesses a humorous Ash
ab. The figure of Ash
ab, called “the greedy,” was clearly
element is cured of vanity and self-pride.” known for his comic poetry and humorous remarks in a
variety of circumstances, and his jokes remained popular well
Classical Attitudes Toward Humor into the Abbasid period. In one of the many Ash
ab anec-
In traditional Muslim religious discourse, one finds a general
dotes, the greedy one is told:
reproach for laughter and joking (al-hazl) within a religious
context. A widely circulated hadith in support of this stance is “If you would transmit traditions [ahadith, sayings of
taken from Sahih al-Bukhari, which quotes the Prophet as the Prophet] and give up your jokes, it would be more
saying: “By God, if you knew what I know you would weep becoming of you.” Ash
ab replied: “Indeed, I have

320 Islam and the Muslim World
Humor

heard traditions and transmitted them.” Asked to tell a way of bringing insults on himself. A description of Abu
tradition, he said: “I was told by Nafi
on the authority Dulama’s style of entertainment is found in al-Husri’s Jamalof Ibn
Umar that the Messenger of God said: ‘A man jawahir:
in whom there are found two qualities belongs to
God’s chosen friends.’” When asked what the two
qualities were, Ash
ab replied: “Nafi
had forgotten Let it be known to you, Abu Dulama
one, and I have forgotten the other.” (Rosenthal
1956, p. 117) You neither belong to a noble people,

nor do you have any nobility in you.
Another personage who came to be famous in many
When you put on the turban, you appear like a monkey,
Islamic societies and who has survived till the present is Juha,
also variously called Joha, Hoca, Zha, and many other names. And when you put off the turban, you look like a swine.
Juha is seen as a strange character who combines wit and
simplicity in his actions. He appears to be foolish and yet his You have combined in yourself both ugliness and
foolishness contains a deeper wisdom. Juha has a reputation meanness,
for escaping trouble, and his silly actions are a sign of
And meanness is always followed by ugliness.
foresight. For instance, when Juha was appointed governor
by Timur, the emperor, he wrote his accounts to be submit- If you happen to have obtained the worldly pleasure,
ted to the emperor on thin pieces of bread. This seemingly
foolish act is, in fact, quite wise, because he knew that Timur, Don’t shout, for the Day of Judgement is quite
when angered by his previous governor, had forced that near at hand.
unfortunate man to eat his account books. There were other
characters, such as Abu Nuwas and Bahlul, who had similar (Ali, 1998, p. 57)
reputations. Contemporary Humor
By the eleventh century Juha was accepted as a historical Although modern humorous literature may properly be shelved
entity, but his precise name and lineage were still a matter of under folklore, contemporary Sufi writers have argued that
much confusion. In the late Middle Ages, Juha appears in the use of humor has always been essential in conveying the
Turkish writings as Nasreddin Hoca (in Arabic, Nasr al-Din spiritual wisdom of the sages. Idries Shah, for example, has
Khwaja, the name signifies “a learned man”). The name of related many stories featuring the character of Mulla Nasrudin.
Hoca seems to have replaced Juha in popular folklore, and in In his work on the Sufi use of humor, Special Illumination,
later Islamic writings they are seen as the same person with Shah argues that humor endures because it has the power to
two different names. Among Persian speaking peoples, he teach while it amuses:
became known as Mulla Nasr al-Din (or Nasrudin). In the
Jokes are structures, and in their Sufic usage they may
seventeenth century, Turkish folklore absorbed vast number fulfill many different functions. Just as we may get the
of anecdotes from earlier centuries in the name of Hoca, even humor nutrient out of a joke, we can also get several
though these stories existed in some form before the develop- dimensions out of it on various occasions: there is no
ment of the latter figure. standard meaning of a joke. Different people will see
different contents of it; and pointing out some of its
This jester is still known by various names. As Nasrudin or possible usages will not, if we are used to this method,
Nasreddin, he has over twelve hundred stories attached to his rob it of its efficacy. . . .The joke, like the non-humorous
name. In Egypt they know him as Juha, in Turkey and teaching-story, thus presents us with a choice instru-
Persian-speaking countries he is widely known as either Hoca ment of illustration and action. (Shah 1977, p. 11)
or Nasreddin; in other regions, including Indonesia, his jokes
are told in the name of Abu Nuwas. He thus represents a vast
Humor is also a medium for expressing social and political
number of characters that have been developed over the
criticism. Often it can present a subject which is otherwise
centuries by professional humorists and other religious and
prohibited by political or religious authorities. In her article
adab writers, and can be found in some form in every Muslim
“Humor: The Two-Edged Sword,” Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid
culture. He has gained considerable popularity in many non-
Marsot offers one example of political humor from Egypt.
Muslim countries.

Humor and wit are also found in poetry, which is a
When Nasser died, the question of where to bury him
developed art form in Islamic civilization and finds expression arose during a cabinet meeting. One minister said,
in Arabic, Persian, and other Islamic languages, such as Urdu. “Let us bury him in the tomb of the Unknown Sol-
The poetic humorists especially flourished during the Abbasid dier.” Another objected, saying, “You can’t bury a
period. They were called shuara
al-mujjan, and included colonel with a common soldier.” A third suggested that
court poets such as Abu Dulama, who used to entertain by he be buried in one of the tombs of the Mamluk

Islam and the Muslim World 321
Husayn

sultans. “No! No!” was the objection. “You can’t bury existential tragedy, of injustice in this world triumphing over
the Rais with a slave.” Finally running out of burial justice, of the duty a true Muslim has to sacrifice oneself, to
sites, someone suggested Jerusalem. Whereupon, the witness for truth and justice as Husayn did, and to shock
rest of the cabinet rose in horror and said, “Never! The others into returning to the cause of Islamic social justice, a
last time they buried someone there, he came back theme that has come again to political importance in the
after three days!” (p. 263)
rhetoric of Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1977 through 1979,
but also in Iraq in the aftermath of the overthrow of Saddam
During the Gulf War in the early 1990s, many Palestini- Husayn in 2003.
ans came up with their own jokes to escape the otherwise
The Importance of the Difference between Sunni and
horrible experiences of the war and its aftermath. One such
Shi
a Interpretations
joke is related by Sharif Kanaana in his article “Palestinian
What is at issue in the different understandings of Sunni and
Humor during the Gulf War”:
Shi
a is not mere history, but the abstractions from history
that compose the mythos or symbolic structure of religious
Shortly after the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, Saddam’s belief. The account of early Islam by Western historians, as
little daughter had a birthday. Saddam asked her, well as the Sunni account, is a story of alliances among
“What would you like me to get you for your birth- Bedouin tribes that controlled the trade between the three
day?” She replied, “Get me Qatar.” (Kanaana great agrarian empires of Byzantium, the Sassanians, and
1995, p. 70) Abyssinia. The second caliph,
Umar, was the architect of
expanding the polity that Muhammad had initiated. He
BIBLIOGRAPHY nominated Abu Bakr to succeed Muhammad, then
Umar
Ali, Abdul. “Humour Literature: An Arab-Islamic Legacy.” became the second caliph. Conquest proceeded quickly across
Hamdard Islamicus 21 (1998): 47–59. the Fertile Crescent, Egypt, and Iran. The state was based on
Hasan, Ahmed, trans. Sunan Abu Dawud. Lahore: Sh. M. the separation of the Arab military garrisons from the con-
Ashraf, 1984. quered populations.
Umar’s governor in Syria, Mu
awiya,
commanded from Damascus, but elsewhere garrison towns
Kanaana, Sharif. “Palestinian Humor During the Gulf War.”
were established: Kufa near Ctesiphon, Basra on the Gulf,
Journal of Folklore Research 32, no. 1 (1995): 65–75.
Fustat at the head of the Nile delta. A register of Muslims was
Margoliouth, D. S. “Wit and Humour in Arabic Literature.”
established so that these garrisons could be paid from the
In Arabic Literature and Thought. Edited by Mohamed
booty of war and revenue from lands conquered. As expan-
Taher. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997.
sion slowed, this system caused problems under the third
Marsot, Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid. “Humor: The Two-Edged caliph,
Uthman, who reacted by relying increasingly on his
Sword.” In Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East. Edited
own clansmen, the Umayyads. This provoked further comby Donna Lee Bowen and Evelyn A. Early. Bloomington
plaints. In an attempt at symbolic unity,
Uthman imposed a
and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993.
standardized Quran; this also led to resentment.
Ali became
Marzolph, Ulrich. “Timur’s Humorous Antagonist, Nasreddin
a center of opposition to these policies.
Uthman was
Hoca.” Oriente Moderno 15, no. 76 (1996–1997): 485–498.
assasinated in 656, and
Ali was proclaimed the fourth caliph
Pellat, Ch. “Seriousness and Humour in Early Islam.” Islamic in an attempt to stabilize the state by using his religious
Studies 2 (1963): 353–362.
position as imam to strengthen the secular position of amir al-
Rosenthal, Franz. Humor in Early Islam. Leiden: E. J. muminin. But it did not work: he was assassinated, Mu
awiya
Brill, 1956. became caliph, and he appointed his son, Yazid, to succeed.
Shah, Idries. Special Illumination: The Sufi Use of Humour. The Hejaz refused to recognize Yazid, and Kufa invited
London: The Octagon Press, 1977. Husayn to lead a revolt. It failed, ending with Husayn’s death
at Karbala.
Irfan A. Omar
This history can be followed in the Shi
ite version but with
quite different nuances, emphases, and meanings: Leadership
should have passed from Muhammad to
Ali, his cousin and
HUSAYN (603–661) son-in-law, whom the Prophet had adopted as a boy even
before Muhammad’s first marriage. According to Sunnis
Husayn ibn
Ali ibn Abi Talib, grandson of the prophet succession was elective, and Abu Bakr, the father-in-law of
Muhammad, the third Shi
ite imam, was born according to Muhammad’s youngest wife, was legitimately elected. But
Sunnis on 6 Ramadan, according to Shi
a, on 3 Shaban. He according to Shi
a this was an usurpation, not just of Muhamwas martyred at Karbala at noon on Friday the tenth (
Ashura) mad’s designation but of the special access to the infallible
of Muharram at the age of fifty-eight in the year 680 C.E. For interpretation of the Quran that passes via the lineage of the
Shi
a, Husayn’s martyrdom is the paradigmatic story of twelve imams from
Ali to Hasan and Husayn.
Ali withdrew

322 Islam and the Muslim World
Husayn

into quiet teaching, and also compiled an authoritative edi- Muhammad. Sunnis focus their symbolic structure on Muhamtion of the Quran (having been one of the recorders of mad, while Shi
a, also honoring the details of Muhammad’s
Muhammad’s recitations of revelation), allowing the first life, focus attention on
Ali, Husayn, the Five Pure Souls of
three caliphs to show by their actions and legal decisions how the Family of the Prophet, and the twelve imams. Key
imperfect and unfit they were to lead. The story of
Ali’s calendrical events differ: For Shi
a, Husayn’s birthday is not
martyrdom while praying in Kufa on the 19 Ramadan 661 C.E. the 6 Ramadan, nor
Ali’s 22 Ramadan, as they are for Sunnis,
provides Shi
a with a prologue to the central maryrdom of and all such happy events are in other months the better to
Husayn:
Ali’s foreknowledge of his death, his generosity focus on the martyrdom of
Ali during Ramadan. Sunnis deny
toward his assassin, his courage in battle, his knowledge of that Hasan was poisoned: He died of consumption; Sunnis
Islamic law, his humility as an officeholder, and his wisdom as say that Abu Bakr, not
Ali, was the first man (after Muhama judge. These are celebrated by Shi
a. Hasan,
Ali’s eldest mad’s wife Khadija) to accept the call to Islam.
son, who was too weak to wrest the leadership from Muawiya,
was poisoned, and Muawiya declared his own son, Yazid, his Such systematic differences help signal the Shi
ite drama
successor. of faith: Believers are witnesses (shuhada) through their acts of
worship (ibada) to the metaphysical reality that is hidden
Husayn’s Martydom at Karbala (gha
ib). Shuhada means both martyrs and witnesses. Husayn,
Husayn,
Ali’s second son, refused to swear allegience. It is knowing he would die, went to Karbala to witness the truth,
alleged by Shi
a that Yazid sent assassins to mingle with knowing that his death would make him an enduring, immorpilgrims at the hajj. To avoid bloodshed during the hajj, tal witness, whose example would be a guide for others.
Husayn cut short his pilgrimage. Foreseeing his martyrdom, Ghaib refers to a series of inner truths: a God who is not
he released his followers from any obligation to follow, and visible, a twelfth imam who is in occultation, a personal inner
with his family and seventy-two men, he went toward Kufa. faith, and the special light (nur) that created Muhammad,
Ali,
Yazid had co-opted the Kufans. Husayn’s forces, who were Fatima, Hasan, and Husayn, the Five Pure Souls of the
trapped in the desert at Karbala, were denied access to water Family of the Prophet (33:33), and whose direct connection
(to the Euphrates), and on the tenth of Muharram all but two with the divine passes down through the line of the imams.
of Husayn’s men were slain, his body was desecrated, and the The nur doctrine parallels the divine royal farr of Persian epic
women were taken prisoner. According to a Shi
ite legend tradition. There is a story that Bibi Shahbanu, the daughter of
Husayn’s head was taken to Damascus, where the caliph the last Sassanian king, married Husayn so there is a connec-
Yazid beat it with sticks in a vain attempt to keep it from tion between Persian royalty and the imams. The nur docreciting the Quran. The details of the battle of Karbala form trine says that all 124,000 prophets as well as the imams were
the key imagery of passion plays (taziyeh, shabih) and created from a ray of divine light, often making for a divine
preachments (rawzehs). birth, as was the case with Husayn. Fatima emerged from a
stream pregnant, the pregnancy lasted only six months, and
The details heighten the significance of Yazid’s tyranny her womb glowed with incandescent light.
and desecration of the sacred and proper order of life and
Islam. Not only had Yazid usurped the caliphate and was There are thus three parts to the notion of the Karbala
using that office tyrannically, but he had attempted to dese- paradigm as encoding for the Shi
a story of Husayn: (1) a
crate the hajj, had desecrated the time of communal prayer story expandable to be all-inclusive of history, cosmology,
(Friday noon), and had destroyed one by one the elements of and life’s problems; (2) a background contrast (of Sunni
civilized life symbolized most powerfully by the denial of conceptions, but also other religions) against which the story
water. Three sons of Husayn were slain: the infant
Ali is given heightened perceptual value; and (3) ritual or physical
Asghar, the five-year-old Jafar, and the twenty-five-year-old drama to embody the story and maintain high levels of

Ali Akbar. Destruction of family, community, government, emotional investment: rawzeh, shabih, taziyeh, data, and matam.
and humanity are all themes of the Karbala story, retold and
relived in rawzehs (a form of preaching that uses the Karbala Husayn is an intercessor at Judgment Day, and with
story to frame the topic of the sermon), taziyehs or shabihs various interpretive sophistication, one is induced by the
(passion plays), dasteh or matam (lines of men chanting, pietistic and didactic exercise of the rawzeh to weep for
beating their chests, and flagellating their foreheads and Husayn in an act of repentance so that he may intercede and
backs with knives), and the carrying in processions of naqls judge one’s sins more lightly and with compassion. Some
(large wooden structures representing Husayn’s bier that rawzeh-khwans (preachers) elicit tears for the injustice of the
requires scores of men to carry; called taziyehs in India and world and the misfortunes that befell Husayn and Shi
a;
Trinidad, there in the shape of the Taj Mahal). others stress Husayn as an example of bravery and courage in
the fight for freedom rather than as a victim. Ayatollah
The Karbala Paradigm Ruhollah Khomeini at the time of the Iranian revolution
For Sunnis, the tenth of Muharram is merely a day of stressed that one should not cry for Husayn, but one should
voluntary fasting that has to do, not with Husayn, but with march with the same determination that he showed to fight

Islam and the Muslim World 323
Husayn

Muharram is a Muslim festival commemorating the death of the martyr Imam Husayn, Muhammad’s grandson and the third Shi’ite imam
(pictured here with Nawab of Nurshidabad in prayer). Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims conflict in their versions of Husayn’s story. THE ART ARCHIVE/
BRITISH LIBRARY

for justice against all odds. Since martyrs are said to go to Husayn and his children suffered a greater thirst and were
heaven, one need not mourn their deaths as one does the denied water. God substituted a ram for Isma
il, but Husayn
deaths of ordinary people. During the Iranian revolution was in fact slain.
young men wore white shrouds to symbolize their willingness
to die, and wall graffiti proclaimed that those who died did In politically charged times—as in the years before the
the work of Husayn, those who fought did the work of 1977–1979 Islamic revolution in Iran—the Karbala paradigm
Zaynab (she kept the survivors of Karbala together and could be a vehicle for political mobilization. The shah was
maintained the message of Husayn until the fourth imam had identified with the caliph Yazid (who sent his army to defeat
recovered and could assume leadership), and those who did Husayn) and injustice, while Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
not fight did the work of Yazid. who would lead the revolution, was identified with Husayn
and with the forces of justice. Preachers could speak against
The dramatic performances of the events of the first ten Yazid and be understood to be attacking the shah. In the
days of Muharram at Karbala (the passion plays, shabih, Persian Gulf and the Subcontinent (Lucknow, Karachi), the
taziyeh, and rawzehs) are occasions when the story can be processions of
Ashura, the tenth of Muharram—when the
expanded to stories of the earlier prophets who had fore- bier of Husayn (taziyehs in India, nagls in Iran) is carried
knowledge of the martyrdom of Husayn and were told that through the streets along with chanting (“Husayn! Husayn!”)
their own sufferings were minor in comparison. Thus, Adam, and breast-beating groups of men (dasteh) sometimes also
when first put on Earth, wandered across the future site of the beating their backs with chains and slashing their foreheads
battle of Karbala and cut his toe, a prefiguration, God told with knives—in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries often
him, of the more serious blood that would be shed there by caused riots between Sunnis and Shi
a. Under Khomeini,
Husayn. The infant Isma
il suffered thirst but found water; conflict with Saudi Arabia was stirred up by invoking the hajj

324 Islam and the Muslim World
Husayn, Taha

in the Husayn story, and using the hajj as a site for organizing his attempts failed and he joined the Arab Revolt in 1936.
and spreading the message of the revolution; in the war with When the British tried to arrest him, he fled to Baghdad,
Iraq, Iran utilized slogans about Karbala and a series of where he participated in an unsuccessful anti-British revolt.
military operations were code-named Karbala. Al-Husayni fled to Germany and cooperated with the Nazis
until 1945. He rejected the 1947 UN partition resolution,
In less politically charged times, as well, the emotional and the Palestinians, despite Arab military help, were unable
work of the passion plays, processions, and rawzehs is one of to stop the establishment of Israel. Some 726,000 Palestinians
instilling stoicism and determination to fight for justice even fled or were expelled by Israel during the 1948 war. The
against the overwhelming odds of a corrupt world. After the Mufti spent the rest of his life as a religious leader in the
ousting of Saddam Husayn from power in Iraq in 2003, on the Islamic world, where he had been popular since the 1930s.
fortieth day after the tenth (
Asura) of Muharram, hundreds
of thousands of Shi
a joyfully joined processions to Karbala (a
BIBLIOGRAPHY
practice forbidden under Saddam Husayn) with many dastehs
Husayni, Amin al-. Haq
iq An Qadiyyat Filastin. 2d ed. Cairo:
of chanting men, head slashing and flagellation with chains.
Dar al-Kitab al-
Arabi bi-Masr, 1957.
See also Imamate; Martyrdom; Shi
a: Early; Shi
a: Imami Mattar, Philip. The Mufti of Jerusalem: al-Hajj Amin al-
(Twelver); Succession. Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement. Rev. ed.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fischer, Michael M. J. “Shi
ite Islam: The Karbala Paradigm Philip Mattar
and the Family of the Prophet.” In Iran: From Religious
Dispute to Revolution, 2d ed. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.
HUSAYN, SADDAM See Ba
th Party;
Lassy, Ivar. The Muharram Mysteries Among the Azarbeijan
Modernization, Political: Administrative, Military
Turks of Caucasia. Hesingfors, Finland: Lilius and
Hertzberg, 1916. and Judicial Reform; Nationalism: Arab;
Pan-Arabism
Shaban, M. The Abbasid Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
Strothman, R. “Shi
a.” In Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam. Edited
by H. A. R. Gibb and J. H. Kramers. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
University Press. HUSAYN, TAHA (1889–1973)
Michael M. J. Fischer Taha Husayn was a prominent Egyptian writer and educational reformer. Born in a village in upper Egypt, Husayn was
left blind after an illness at age two. In 1902, he began studies
at al-Azhar in Cairo and was quickly at odds with its tradi-
HUSAYNI, HAJJ AMIN AL- tional curriculum and teaching methods. Switching to the
(1895–1974) newly opened Cairo University, he became the first student
to receive a doctorate there in 1914. He completed a second
Amin al-Husayni was both the religious and preeminent
doctorate at the Sorbonne (Paris, France) in 1919. As a
political leader of the Palestinians during British rule in
professor of Arabic literature at Cairo University, he quickly
Palestine (1917–1948). Born in Jerusalem to a patrician
emerged as one of the most prolific and controversial literary
family, he studied briefly at al-Azhar University.
figures in the Arab world. His book Fi
l-shir al-jahili (On pre-
The British appointed him mufti (jurist who gives legal Islamic poetry), published in 1926, incurred the condemnadecisions, or fatawa) of Jerusalem in 1921, and President of tion of religious conservatives for casting doubt on the
the Supreme Muslim Council in 1922. Fearing Zionism’s authenticity of pre-Islamic poetry and, by extension, possibly
consequence on his people, he helped galvanize the Palestini- of the Quran and other early religious texts. His most
ans and the Arab and Islamic world against the Zionist systematic work of social commentary is Mustaqbal al-thaqafa
program in Palestine. To emphasize the centrality of Jerusa- fi Misr (The future of culture in Egypt), in which he argues
lem to Muslims, he renovated in the 1920s the Dome of the that Egypt was historically an integral part of the Mediterra-
Rock, with Muslim funds, and organized two Islamic confer- nean culture that gave birth to Western civilization. Modern
ences in Jerusalem in 1928 and 1931. Egyptians should therefore see themselves, and be seen by
others, as part of Europe. Essential to this new identity is the
The 1929 disturbance (Western [Wailing] Wall riots) secularizing of national life in Egypt. His three-volume
catapulted him to political power. He cooperated with the autobiography, begun in 1929 as al-Ayyam (The days), is
British and attempted to change their pro-Zionist policy. But considered a milestone in modern Arab literature.

Islam and the Muslim World 325
Husayn, Taha

See also Arabic Literature; Modern Thought. A Passage to France. Translated by Kenneth Cragg. Leiden:
E. J. Brill, 1976.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Malti-Douglas, Fedwa. Blindness and Autobiography: Al-Ayyam of
Husayn, Taha. Al-Ayyam, Vol. 1: An Egyptian Childhood. Taha Husayn. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Translated by E. H. Paxton. London: Routledge, 1932; Press, 1988.
Vol. 2, The Stream of Days. Translated by Hilary Wayment.
London and New York: Longmans, Green, 1948; Vol. 3, Sohail H. Hashmi

326 Islam and the Muslim World
I

IBADAT rewarded and performance will be punished. These qualifications may vary among the law schools with regard to their
precise connotation.
The sacred law of Islam (the shari
a) distinguishes two kinds
of practices:
ibadat (practices concerning the relations be-
Together with the testimony of faith (shahada), the
ibadat
tween God and human beings, or devotional practices) and
constitute the five pillars of Islam (arkan al-Islam) According
mu
amalat (social ethics, i.e., the part of the law that guides
to Islam, humans have been created to serve God. Both the
the relations between humans). The
ibadat include the salat
individual and the community are under the obligation to
(prayer), zakat (alms giving), sawm Ramadan (fasting during
follow the stipulations of the revealed law. According to the
the holy month of Ramadan), and the hajj (the pilgrimage to
scholars, the religious duties are clearly set out in the two
Mecca and the holy places near to this holy city, namely
sources of the revelation: the ayat al-shari
a in the Quran and

Arafat, Muzdalifa, and Mina).
in the sunna, the Prophetic tradition. There is no difference
of opinion among scholars with regard to the obligatory and
Some aspects of the
ibadat can be qualified as ritual and
clear (bayan) nature of these duties. This status explains why
other aspects fit less easily in this category. For example, zakat
someone who denies them their obligatory character places
regulations pertain to goods or wealth that are to be handed
him- or herself outside religion. That person expresses kufr,
over to certain categories of persons who are entitled to it (in
unbelief.
particular, the needy). This takes place in a nonritual context
on the one hand, and a ritualized context, that of giving zakat Status
(zakat al-fitr) on the Day of the Breaking of the Fast, on According to religious views, the
ibadat are constant and do
the other. not allow for varying interpretations based on spatial and
temporal circumstances. In reality, however, some changes in
According to the shari
a, the
ibadat are all the individual the way the
ibadat have been performed and interpreted by
duties that each mentally competent, mature, and healthy the believers have taken place. There can be no doubt that its
Muslim (male and female) is obligated to perform. The religious status explains why the
ibadat changed far less than
formulation of the niyya, the intention to perform these the mu
amalat. They are the “symbolic capital” (the term was
rituals before performing them, is of crucial importance for coined by Pierre Bourdieu) of the ulema, who have been able
their validity, or, as the Prophetic tradition has it: “The works to retain their position until the present day. Nowadays that
are (only) rendered valid by their intentions.” position is being challenged by emerging religious authorities, such as liberal intellectuals like Mohamed Arkoun, and
In the fiqh (jurisprudence), actions are qualified as follows. also Islamist leaders who enjoined no traditional religious
Fard or wajib indicates that an act is obligatory in such a way education, such as the late Sayyid Qutb.
that omission will be punished and the performance will be
rewarded. The qualification sunna or mustahabb indicates New media and political situations also allow further
that an act is recommended but that omission will not be possibilities to acquire authority. For example, “Cyber muftis,”
punished. Mubah or jaiz means that it is indifferent, and who give fatwas via the Internet, and often have unclear
makruh, reprehensible, that is, omission will be rewarded. backgrounds, draw new audiences. In 1960 Tunisian presi-
Finally, forbidden (haram) indicates that omission will be dent Habib Bourguiba argued in various addresses to his


Ibadat

After Friday prayers during the fasting month of Ramadan in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Muslims descend a staircase underneath five clocks
showing the daily prayer times at the National Mosque. © AFP/CORBIS

population that under the circumstances in which the nation the rules of the fiqh, but also by cultural and political tradifound itself, namely that of the recently recovered freedom tions, local circumstances, the norms and values of the befrom French colonial rule, it should be permitted not to fast liever’s own community and other religious communities,
during Ramadan. According to him, Tunisia could be consid- politics, and society at large. A discussion about whispering or
ered to be in an economic jihad, with regard to its struggle for reading aloud particular recitations during the salat among
a better economic position. Fasting, he stated, would bring the Gayo (Indonesia) had a background in local debate
about too considerable a loss of productivity. It soon ap- between traditionalists and reformists about conceptions of
peared, however, that the most important Tunisian ulema did community and faithfulness to the normative example of the
not endorse the proposal and that the population did not give prophet Muhammad. This shows that the opposition beup the fast. tween universal versus local meaning, or great and little
traditions, does not hold in the case of the salat. Other
The aforesaid high status of ritual obligations does not researchers made it clear that connected oppositions, namely
always correlate with a high rate of performance. Empirical between orthodox (male) versus heterodox (female), did not
research by Bruno Etienne and Mohamed Tozy showed that hold in the case of gender roles, either.
only 10 percent of the men in the Moroccan city of Casablanca
attended the obligatory Friday prayer and that only one out of Ritual in Pre-Islamic Arabia
every thousand persons performed the daily salats in a mosque. The rituals that became the
ibadat as we know them today
were not unknown in sixth-century Arabia. Rituals such as
Although often discussed as if they are isolated phenom- fasting were known (see Q. 19: 26–27). Certain fasting
ena, the
ibadat are in practice embedded in and closely practices and purity regulations were also observed by Meccan
interwoven with a complex system of informal and formal monotheists. Hence, the religious scholars make a distinction
religious behaviors. These behaviors are not only guided by between the meaning of a term such as sawm (fasting) in daily

328 Islam and the Muslim World

Ibadat

use and its meaning in the shari
a. In daily use, sawm means Religious Identity
abstention, for example, from food or drink. In the terminol- Traditions recommended that believers distinguish themogy of the shari
a it has received the (revealed) meaning of selves from the followers of other religions and not assimilate
refraining from food and drink from dawn to sunset. with regard to dress and prayer rituals (for example, whether
or not to pray while wearing shoes). These traditions were an
The hajj was also practiced in the pre-Islamic period expression of the desire to establish an Islamic religious
(“time of ignorance”), but in a form different from the Islamic identity, and they have continued to influence Muslim attihajj. Unlike today, pilgrims performed different hajj rituals. tudes and behavior until today and are the cause of numerous
For example, the tribal alliance called the Hums, to which the discussions. For example, the present-day custom among
Prophet belonged, refrained from performing the standing at Dutch Muslims of Surinamese origin to make a ball of flour

Arafat and the running between the hills al-Safa and al- out of the child’s hair and throw it in the river should be
Marwa for religiopolitical reasons. Instead, the importance of shunned, for it was said to have been taken over from the
the Ka
ba as a central sanctuary was enhanced. It is also Hindus. Another example is the question of whether Muslims
known that tribes had different talbiyas, and ihram practices. are allowed to attend Christmas celebrations, a matter that is
hotly debated in many places.
In pre-Islamic times, the rituals were embedded in a cycle
that was determined both by the solar and lunar calendars. But not only did such behavior serve to mark off Islam
The
umra was a spring ritual in the month of Rajab in which from other religions, it also functioned inside the Islamic
animals were sacrificed, the hajj fell in the autumn, celebrat- community. For example, in medieval times there was a great
ing the harvest. The eleven days separating the lunar from the ritual divide between Sunni and Shi
ite Islam about the
solar year were compensated for by the so-called intercalation, acceptability of the purification ritual of passing the hand
the nasi. The nasi was abolished by the Prophet after the over the boots, which even found its way to medieval creeds.
conquest of Mecca, as is attested in the Quran (9:37). From The issue here was whether it was permissible to wipe the
that moment onward calendrical feasts and rituals were no boots instead of the feet themselves when travelling. Shi
ites
did not allow this, while Sunni Muslims did.
longer tied to the seasons.
Emerging Rituals
Other ritual changes introduced by the Prophet aimed at
New customs were not always looked upon favorably by the
dissociating rituals from sunset and sundown, for example,
ulema. In many cases they were qualified as innovations
the running of the pilgrims between
Arafat and Muzdalifa
(bid
as). The celebrations of the birthday of the Prophet (the
and prayer during sunrise. Ritual restrictions observed by the
mawlid al-nabi) and of the middle night of Sha
ban are two
Hums were also abolished in order to symbolize the unity of
famous cases in point. Complete inventories of such bid
as
mankind in Islam. Hence the Quran states that there is no sin
came into existence in the Middle Ages. Many ulema applied
(2:158) in performing the sa
y (pacing back and forth seven
the same sort of rules to these bid
as as to other actions, hence
times) between Safa and Marwa, something that the Hums
they might vary from laudable to forbidden. Rispler Chaim
had refrained from doing. Through the example of the
argues that the purpose of such inventories was not to
Prophet during the farewell-pilgrimage, the
umra was joined prohibit such new ritual forms, but rather to bring them
to the hajj and so both rituals became united. They can still be under control and steer them in such a way that their
performed separately, however. Moreover, the rituals of performance would not infringe on morality and good manrunning around the Ka
ba and running between the Safa and ners (for example, by mixing men and women).
Marwa were united with the rituals in
Arafat, particularly
one of the hajj’s central rituals of “standing.” This ritual takes Muslim are exhorted not to devote themselves to rituals to
long hours where, ideally, the pilgrims stand in prayer. A the detriment of the body. Hence, women may abstain from
preferred place for this ritual is near or on the Hill of Mercy. fasting, and the ill and sick do not have to perform the salat or
fast. Islam advises believers to take care of the body and soul
Thus, prayer, giving zakat (2:215, 9:6), fasting (2:179), and in a harmonious way. Islam incorporated and transformed
the hajj (3:91) became individual Islamic duties. Friday after- existing rules of purity in its religious system. The overall
noon became the day of communal prayer, accompanied by a term for these rules is tahara, which means purity. A wellsermon (khutba). This day and time were chosen since a known tradition says “Purity is half the faith.” All
ibadat are
market was held in Medina in the morning and many people in one way or the other related to notions of purity. For
gathered there. After the death of the Prophet in 632 C.E. the example, giving alms is associated with purifying goods as
rituals further developed both with regard to actual practice well as oneself (see 9:103, “Take alms from their wealth,
and the norms and values held by the community. In this wherewith thou mayst purify them and mayst make them
process the religious identity of Islam as a separate religion grow, and pray for them”). The salat should also be perplayed a great part. formed in a ritually clean state (5:6.).

Islam and the Muslim World 329

Ibadat

Prayer (Salat)
The following passages from the Qur
an form the foundation of the five daily prayer times.

So give glory to God when you reach evening and when you rise in the morning. Yes, to Him is praise in the heavens and on earth and in the afternoon and when the
day begins to decline. (30:17–18)…celebrate the praises of your Lord before the rising sun, and before its setting. Yes, celebrate them for part of the night and at the
sides of the day, so that you may have spiritual joy. (20:130)

The five prayers should take place in the following order:
• Fajr: break of day
• Zuhr: midday
• Asr: during the afternoon
• Maghrib: evening
• Isha: night

These are a few of the words and positions of prayer, which is always said in Arabic. Movements one through five constitute one rak ah. Each of the prayer times
consists of two to four rak ahs. Movements six and seven complete the prayer.

1 2 3

Through wudu
, the ritual God is most great. O God, glory and praise are God is most great.
washing, Muslims prepare for You, and blessed is Your
for prayer in mind, body name, and exalted is Your
and spirit. majesty; there is no god
but You.

4 5 6 7

Glory to my Lord, the Highest. God is most great. All prayer is for God and worship Peace and mercy of God
and goodness. Peace be on you, O be on you.
Prophet, and the mercy of God
and His blessings.
O Lord, make me and my children
steadfast in prayer. Our Lord,
accept the prayer. Our Lord, forgive
me and my parents and the believers
on the day of judgment.

SOURCE: Breuilly, Elizabeth; O'Brien, Joanne; and Palmer, Martin. Religions of the World. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1997.

The prayer order and traditions, diagrammed.

For this reason books on fiqh usually begin with a discus- mustache, removing the hair from armpits and pubis. All
sion of purity rules. A key term in this respect is that of the these acts refer to bodily practices with a connotation of
fitra, a concept that can be rendered as the natural disposition purity. According to many Muslim scholars, the salat perof humankind created by God. The state of fitra includes formed by an uncircumcised man is void, nor can he serve as
circumcision (khitan), the clipping of the nails, trimming the an imam during prayer. However, that purity is not of a

330 Islam and the Muslim World

Ibadat

Sudanese Muslims in ceremonial clothing on the first day of Ramadan, a thirty-day period that requires Muslims to fast during daylight hours.
Ramadan is an important part of
ibadat, Islamic devotional practices. © HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS

medical-material nature, but has a religious symbolic side, it above) and is rejected by movements that consider it to be
appears, from the possibility of using sand or dust instead of veneration of a human being, something that should be
water for the ablution when the latter cannot be found reserved exclusively for God and hence as shirk (the act of
(tayammum, mentioned in 5:6). The ground on which the associating with God).
salat is performed (hence the use of prayer rugs) should also
be pure. Dress should be modest. Private parts should be The first Friday night in Rajab, which is especially celecovered. In addition to the body, Islamic devotional life brated in Turkish Islam, is a holy night, called laylat salat alstructures time (rites of passage, feasts, festivals, pilgrimages) raghaib. On 27 Rajab, the Laylat al-Mi
raj, or night of
and place and space (the home, mosque, masjid). These ascension, is celebrated. The ascension of the Prophet via
aspects will be discussed below. Jerusalem (al-israwal-mi
raj) is one of the great symbols of
Islam in which the believer ascends toward God. It is at this
The Ritual Calendar
occasion that the number of daily salats was fixed at five.
The ritual cycle is connected to the lunar year, which opens
Elements of the ritual celebration may include recitation of
with the feast of
Ashura on 10 Muharram. For Shi
ite
surat al-isra (17), followed by commentaries, singing, and the
Muslims this marks the day on which the martyrdom of the
recitation of religious poems of sorts.
grandson of the Prophet, al-Husayn, at Karbala in 680 C.E.,
is commemorated by emotional and at times violent mourn-
The celebration of the fifteenth middle night of Shaban,
ing rituals. According to Sunni fiqh
Ashura had been a fasting
also called laylat al-baraa, is another bid
a. Its popularity can
day before the prescription of the Ramadan fast, and it has
be explained by its age-old associations with the divine
remained a voluntary fasting day until the present. In Morocco
decision of who will die the next year, which is believed to be
it is a festival on which the dead are honored, and during
made on that night .
which the participants give alms, eat dried fruit, and buy toys
for their children. It is accompanied by reverie and carnival-
The month of Ramadan is marked by the fast, and on the
like rituals such as masquerades, processions, and theater.
21, 23, 25, 27, and 29 of that month Laylat al-qadr (97) is
On 12 Rabi
I, the third month, the birthday of the celebrated. Ramadan is the holy month par excellence. Even
Prophet is celebrated. This festival grew out of the Fatimid those who otherwise hardly practice Islam participate in the
Shi
ite ritual practice (eleventh century C.E.), commemorat- Ramadan fasting. According to popular beliefs, the devils
ing the birthdays of the members of the the Prophet’s (shayatin) and jinn are powerless, while in contrast God is
immediate family, the Prophet, and the reigning Fatimid nearer than during other months. This increased religious
imam. It was gradually introduced in Sunni circles in succes- awareness culminates in laylat al-qadr, when, as some people
sive parts of the Middle East and the Muslim West. Nowa- believe, the gates of heaven are opened. On 1 Shawwal, the
days, celebrated nearly everywhere (although exceptions, Day of the Breaking of the Fast (
id al-fitr) is celebrated. After
such as Saudi Arabia, exist), its status as a feast has neverthe- the salat al-
id, people pay visits to relatives, which often
less remained controversial. It is considered to be a bid
a (see includes visits to the graves (ziyarat al-qubur).

Islam and the Muslim World 331

Ibadat

On 10 Dhu-l-Hijja, the twelfth month of the Islamic year, the phrase “prayer is better than sleep” is inserted. Shi
ites

id al-adha is celebrated. This ritual marks the end of the year, insert between the fifth and the sixth line the words: “Come
but in fact it does not represent the end of the ritual cycle, to the best work.”
since there is a clear connection between the
id and the

Ashura rituals. Many believers at times perform voluntary (nafila) salats,
for example, during Ramadan, when the salat al-tarawih is
Rites of Passage performed in the mosques. In addition to the salat, there exist
Other elements of the
ibadat fit in the life-cycle rituals or numerous invocations (du
as), to be said at different times of
rites of passage. This holds true for birth rituals, circumci- the day, and for different reasons. There are also many
sion, and death rituals. Birth rituals include the custom of motives why Muslims may fast outside Ramadan. The fiqh
whispering the adhan and iqama in the newborn’s ear. This books detail these different types of fasting.
includes the recitation of the shahada or Confession of Faith,
as discussed below. This ritual is recommended according to Place and Space
the Shafi
ite madhhab. The
aqiqa, the sacrifice of a sheep or Prayers and other rituals can and may be performed at any
goat, takes place on the seventh day, through which joy and place, in agreement with the injunction that it is laudable to
thanks for the child are expressed. It is usually accompanied pray together with others. The Friday prayers (salat al-jum
a)
by a naming ceremony (tasmiya) during which the child are obligatory for men and must be performed in the mosque.
receives its name, and shaving the hair of the child as a Moreover, a hierarchy of sacred places exists. Such places
sacrifice. The meat of the sacrifice and the weight of the hair may be buildings such as mosques, graves (the visiting of the
in silver are sometimes given away as alms. Circumcision (Ar. graves or ziyarat al-qubur), zawiyas—but also geographical
khitan, tahara) is a fixed sunna (strongly recommended) areas; mountains, rivers, wells, and cities. Often the relative
according to most schools. The Shafi
ites are of the opinion merits of these places, for example, in the works on the fadail,
that it is obligatory. In actual life, virtually all male Muslims or merits, express political notions as well.
are circumcised.
The hajj has Mecca (the Ka
ba and the Safa and Marwa,
The deceased is purified by a ritual bath (ghusl), and the nowadays all part of the complex of the Masjid al-Haram) and
corpse is dressed in a kafan, which resembles in many ways the the holy places near to it (Muzdalifa, Mina,
Arafat) as its
clothing of the pilgrim, the hajji. The salat al-janaza is direct objects. Mecca, whose haram was founded, according
performed. The deceased is buried with the face in the to Muslim tradition, by the prophet Ibrahim, and Medina,
direction of the qibla. Marriage, another life cycle ritual, is not the haram of which was founded by the Prophet himself,
reckoned among the
ibadat, but among the mu
amalat, and became the most holy cities in Islam. On the haram where the
will therefore not be considered here. Masjid al-Aqsa was built, Caliph
Abd al-Malik erected the
Dome of the Rock at the end of the seventh century.
Daily Rituals
The days of the believers are marked by the rhythm of five Rituals, among which a is a tawaf, performed in the
obligatory salats: the morning salat (salat al-subh or fajr) opposite direction as the tawaf in Mecca, were instituted in
consisting of two rak
as, to be performed between first dawn order to divert the pilgrims from Mecca, which at the time
to sunrise; the noon prayer (zuhr) to be performed after the was in the hands of an opponent,
Abdallah b. al-Zubayr
sun has reached its highest point until the mid-afternoon, (624–692 C.E.). It was in this period that Jerusalem became
consisting of four rak
as; the
asr (from mid-afternoon to an established object of pilgrimage. Many other places throughsunset) consisting of four rak
as; the prayer after sunset out would follow. Nowadays, ziyaras, visits to the tombs of
(maghrib) consisting of three rak
as; and the
isha (after the male and female saints (Ar. wali, pl. awliya; 10:63), and to
complete darkness). It is sunna to perform the call to prayer sacred places, are quite common in many parts of the world
(adhan). In places where Muslims live as minorities (about both in Sunni and Shi
ite Islam.
30%) the public performance of the call to prayer has always
been a very important symbol call to prayer has always been a Also very important is the birthday festival (
urs or mawsim)
very important symbol for the public presence of Islam. In of the saint, when huge celebrations may take place. The
Western Europe, the adhan is especially publicly performed veneration of saints serves the psychological needs of many
before the salat al-jum
a (see above). The formula of the adhan believers to be close to their objects of veneration, from
is the following: “God is great [4 times, only the Malikites which they hope to receive baraka (blessing), cure from
pronounce it twice], I testify that there is no god but God [2 illnesses, help in misfortune, intercession with God, and so
times], I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God [2 on. The connection with notions of kinship and descent from
times]. Come to Prayer, Come to salvation, God is most the Prophet is symbolized in the notion of nobility (sharaf).
Great, there is no God besides God.” This formula is the Because of large-scale globalization and diasporic processes,
same for all schools of law; although they differ with regard to one nowadays witnesses the creation of many new “Muslim
repetition of some lines. In the adhan before the salat al-subh spaces.”

332 Islam and the Muslim World
Ibn al-
Arabi

See also Devotional Life; Law; Shari
a. and Sufism. His more complete name is Muhammad ibn
Ali
ibn Muhammad ibn al-
Arabi al-Tai al-Hatimi.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
He was born in the Moorish kingdom of Murcia, where
Abu Zahra, Nadia. The Pure and the Powerful: Studies in
his father was a government official. After his family moved to
Contemporary Muslim Society. Reading, U.K.: Ithaca
Press, 1997. Seville, a visionary experience shook him out of adolescent
concerns. He famously recounts how his father took him, his
Antoun, Richard T. “The Social Significance of Ramadân
beard not yet sprouted, to visit the great philosopher Averroes,
in an Arab Village.” The Muslim World 58 (1968):
who was awed by the God-given understanding he saw in the
36–42, 95–104.
boy. He studied hadith and the other religious sciences with
Bashear, Suleyman. “On the Origins and Development of the
many teachers in Andalus. In 1200, a vision instructed him to
Meaning of Zakat in Early Islam.” Arabica 40, no. 1
go to the East. In 1202 he made the pilgrimage to Mecca,
(1993): 84–113.
then traveled widely through the Arab countries and Anatolia,
Buitelaar, Marjo. Fasting and Feasting in Morocco: Women’s
and in 1223 settled down in Damascus, where he taught and
Participation in Ramadan. Oxford, U.K.: Berg, 1993.
wrote until his death. He is the author of over four hundred
Denny, Frederick M. “Islamic Ritual: Perspectives and Theo- highly sophisticated and technical treatises, including the
ries.” In Approaches to Islamic Studies. Edited by Richard C.
encyclopedic al-Futuhat al-makkiyya (The Meccan openings),
Martin. Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld, 2001.
the celebrated Fusus al-hikam (The ringstones of wisdom),
Elad, Amikam. Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship: Holy and a few collections of poetry. His teachings became contro-
Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
versial with Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328).
Goitein, Shlomo Dov. “The Origin and Nature of Muslim
Friday Worship.” In Studies in Islamic History and Institu- In the later literature Ibn al-
Arabi’s name is closely
tions. Edited by Shlomo Dov Goitein. Leiden: Brill, 1966. associated with the notion of wahdat al-wujud (“oneness of
Grunebaum, Gustave von. Muhammadan Festivals (1956). being”), though it is difficult to explain why this should be so
Reprint. London: Curzon, 1992. simply on the basis of his writings. Few of his works have been
Etienne, Bruno, and Tozy, Mohamed. “Le glissement des studied with care by modern scholars, but it is safe to say that
obligations islamiques vers le phénomène associatif à they circle around a number of themes. Chief among these is
Casablanca.” Annuaire de l’Afrique du Nord 18 the depiction of the various paths to perfection represented
(1979–1980): 235–259. mythically by the 124,000 prophets sent by God, though he
Haarmann, Ulrich. “Islamic Duties in History.” The Muslim focuses on Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. He is
World 68 (1978): 1–24. commonly labeled a “Sufi,” but not by himself; he would have
Kister, M. J. “‘Rajab is the month of God. . .’ A Study in the much preferred the term muhaqqiq, “realizer” or “verifier,”
Persistence of an Early Tradition.” Israel Oriental Studies 1 the active participle of the word tahqiq. Derived from the
(1971): 191–223. word haqq—truth, reality, worthiness—tahqiq means to see
Peters, Francis E. The Hajj. The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca all things in relation to the unity (tawhid) of al-haqq, the
and the Holy Places. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University absolute truth and reality that is God, and then to act
Press, 1994. appropriately. To achieve tahqiq, one must open the two eyes
Rispler-Chaim, Vardit. “Medical Aspects of Islamic Wor- of the heart (qalb), which are reason (
aql) and imagination
ship.” In his Islamic Medical Ethics in the Twentieth Century. (khayal). With the eye of reason, the heart verifies that the
Leiden: Brill 1993. absolute haqq is transcendent and incomparable with any
Stillman, Yedida. “Costume as Cultural Statement: The created thing. With the eye of imagination, it verifies that this
Esthetics, Economics and Politics of Islamic Dress.” In same infinite haqq is immanent and present in every created
The Jews of Medieval Islam. Edited by Daniel Frank. Leiden: thing. The indispensable guidelines for achieving tahqiq are
Brill, 1995. provided by the Quran and the sunna.
Tayob, Abdulkader. Islam: A Short Introduction. Signs, Symbols
and Values. Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld, 1999. The Fusus al-hikam, object of well over one hundred
commentaries before modern times, offers an epitome of Ibn
Gerard Wiegers al-
Arabi’s methodology and goals. In twenty-seven chapters
it discusses twenty-seven wisdoms, each designated by one of
the fundamental attributes of reality, such as holiness, realness, light, unity, and mercy. Each wisdom is embodied in a
IBN AL-
ARABI (1165–1240) divine word (kalima) that takes human form, the first of which
is Adam and the last Muhammad. Adam incarnates the
Ibn al-
Arabi was a prolific, influential, and controversial wisdom of the name Allah, which comprehends the meaning
scholar whose writings, based on close readings of the Quran, of all the divine names. It was Allah—not the Creator or the
combined the perspectives of jurisprudence, philosophy, kalam, Compassionate—who created Adam in his own image, and it

Islam and the Muslim World 333
Ibn Battuta

was Allah who “taught him all the names” (Q. 2:30). Human returned to North Africa through India and the Middle East
perfection is then to realize every divine attribute as one’s during the time of the Black Death. He arrived back in
own, in keeping with the prophetic saying, “Assume the Morroco in November 1349. After a short stay he visited
character traits of God.” The children of Adam represent the Moorish Spain and later traveled to Mali. He ended his
infinitely diverse synthetic images of God that arise because travels in December 1353.
of the differing proportions in which the divine names become manifest in each individual. The twenty-six perfect After completing his long journey Ibn Battuta spent two
human beings to whom the remaining chapters are devoted years dictating the story of his travels to his secretary, Ibn
realized the full divine image while simultaneously displaying Juzayy, who was appointed to him by the sultan of Morocco.
the characteristics of one specific divine attribute. Each The result was a masterly contribution to the genre known as
chapter builds on references in the Quran and the hadith to rihla, and Ibn Battuta gave this kind of travel narrative a new
illustrate the applicability of the revealed passages to the dimension. Less than a century earlier Marco Polo had made
prophet in question and to human beings in general. a journey to Asia with a resulting narrative of lesser scope
and detail.
The Fusus has attracted much attention partly because its
often obscure contents allowed scholars to demonstrate their Ibn Battuta’s account of his journeys is a narrative of
mastery of the science of tawhid. Its sometimes provocative travels through three continents, 120,000 kilometers (80,000
interpretations of Quranic verses, rare in Ibn
Arabi’s other miles) of known and unknown cultures, and included, among
writings, aroused the ire of a great number of critics and other observations, ceremonies at the courts of sultans, the
produced an extensive secondary literature of attack and burning of widows in India, and African cannibals. Ibn
defense. Battuta’s travels represent the longest journey overland before the invention of the steam engine.
See also Falsafa; Kalam; Tasawwuf; Wahdat al-Wujud.
See also Cartography and Geography; Travel and
BIBLIOGRAPHY Travelers.
Addas, Claude. Quest for the Red Sulphur: The Life of Ibn
Arabî.
Cambridge, U.K.: The Islamic Texts Society, 1993. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chittick, William C. The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Dunn, Ross E. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta. Berkeley: Uni-
Ibn al-
Arabî’s Cosmology. Albany: State University of New versity of California Press, 1989.
York Press, 1998.
Chodkiewicz, Michel. An Ocean Without Shore: Ibn Arabi, the Thyge C. Bro
Book, and the Law. Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1993.

William C. Chittick
IBN HANBAL (780–855)
Ahmad b. Muhammad Ibn Hanbal was a renowned traditionist,
theologian, and jurist who was born in Baghdad where he
IBN BATTUTA (1304–1368) spent most of his life studying and teaching. As a young man,
he traveled widely in connection with his studies, most
Ibn Battuta (sometimes Batuta or Battutah), whose full name especially in the cities of Kufa and Basra in Iraq and Mecca
was Abu
Abdallah Muhammad ibn
Abdallah ibn Muham- and Medina in Arabia. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca five
mad ibn Ibrahim Shams al-Din al-Lawati al-Tanji, was a times. Ibn Hanbal had inherited a modest estate and was able
Moorish traveller who was born 25 February 1304. He died in to spend most of his time in study. He was not, in any formal
Morocco in 1368 or 1369. sense, a teacher or part of a school, but as his reputation for
knowledge grew, he was widely consulted as an expert on all
Although some details of Ibn Battuta’s itinerary are lost or matters of law and religion. As a scholar, Ibn Hanbal was one
uncertain, it is known that he left Tangier on 13 June 1325, of the foremost members of a group called the traditionists,
and traveled across North Africa to Egypt and Syria to or ahl al-hadith. The traditionists believed that as a source of
Mecca. He toured the Middle East and the Near East, sailed religious knowledge, the sunna, or practice of the Prophet
along the East African coast, returned to Mecca, and then and the early community of Muslims, was second only to the
traveled through Asia Minor, stopping in Constantinople, Quran and that the sunna could be ascertained through a
capital of the Byzantine Empire. Ibn Battuta journeyed through study of traditions, or hadith.
the territories of The Golden Horde (the steppes of Central
Asia) and across the Himalayas to India, where he stayed for After the death of the Prophet, the members of the early
eight years. Afterward he traveled to the Maldives, Sri Lanka, community transmitted knowledge of the sunna orally and in
Bengal, Assam, Sumatra, sailing all the way to China. He anecdotal form, but as time went on, and the first few

334 Islam and the Muslim World
Ibn Khaldun

generations of Muslims died off, remembering and recording traditions. The rationalists, on the other hand, preferred to
the sunna became an important scholarly task. Hadith collec- base their decisions on thinking through a problem rather
tions provide the documentation of the sunna. Each hadith than finding a solution in a tradition. The rationalists quoted
consists of a text (matn) preceded by a chain of its oral the opinions of their teachers and colleagues as authoritative;
transmitters (isnad), beginning with the most recent. The the traditionists thought they thereby placed human reasonearliest transmitter is usually a relative of the Prophet, one of ing above the divine guidance found in the Quran and the
his close associates, his Companions, or someone who knew sunna. Although the practical results of the rationalist jurists
one or more of his Companions. Ibn Hanbal’s collection, his were not very different from those of the traditionist jurists,
Musnad, is among the most esteemed of the Sunni hadith the methodological differences between the two groups were
collections. fiercely debated.

By Ibn Hanbal’s day, there were thousands of hadiths in At his death, Ibn Hanbal was widely mourned. His erudicirculation, some patently false, others less obviously so. The tion, personal piety, and moral fortitude had made him a
traditionists separated the genuine from the false, and then revered and famous scholar, and his tomb in Baghdad was
compiled and presented the genuine traditions in an orderly much visited until it was destroyed by flood in the fourteenth
fashion. This required knowledge about the reliability of the century. His disciples carried on his teaching. A number of
people included in isnads, as well as about the subject matter them, including his sons Salih (d. 879/880) and
Abdallah (d.
of each matn. Ibn Hanbal’s knowledge of traditions was 903), compiled collections of his masail, the responses he
prodigious, and traditionists traveled to Baghdad from other gave to questions of ritual, law, and dogma put to him by
parts of the Muslim world specifically to study with him. His colleagues and students. Ibn Hanbal’s responses are impor-
Musnad contains between twenty-seven and twenty-eight tant both for their specific content and for the traditionist
thousand traditions, whereas the standard collections of Sunni method they illustrate. The Hanbalite legal school (or rite) of
hadith, the “Six Books” contain fewer than half that number. Sunni Islam evolved on the basis of the interpretation of these
Further, unlike these somewhat later collections, the Musnad responses by successive generations of Hanbalite scholars.
is arranged according to the name of the initial transmitter His son
Abdallah was also responsible for collecting, editing,
rather than according to subject matter. and commenting upon his father’s Musnad. The Musnad is
Ibn Hanbal’s best-known work. Most of his other works have
Ibn Hanbal’s activity was not limited to teaching and not survived intact although they are often quoted by later
answering questions about hadith. In theology, the traditionists scholars, and very little if anything by him is available in
were ranged against the “rationalists,” and here, too, Ibn English. For a translation of a creedal statement attributed to
Hanbal was preeminent among the traditionists. They avoided Ibn Hanbal, see Cragg and Speight; for several versions of his
rational speculation and held that belief in the divine nature responses on topics related to marriage and divorce, see
of the text of the Quran and obedience to its tenets as Spectorsky.
practiced by the Prophet were the goals of the true believer.
See also Ahl al-Hadith; Hadith; Kalam; Law; Mu
tazilites,
The rationalists speculated about the nature of God, His
Mu
tazila.
qualities, and His relationship to the created world. The
group of rationalists who engaged in this kind of speculative
BIBLIOGRAPHY
theology during Ibn Hanbal’s lifetime were the Mutazilites.
Cragg, Kenneth, and Speight, Marston, eds. Islam from Within.
A particular point of disagreement between the traditionists
Anthology of a Religion. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Puband the Mutazilites was on the nature of the Quran. The
lishing Company, 1980.
Mutazilites held that God had created it in time; the
Melchert, Christopher. The Formation of the Sunni Schools of
traditionists held that it was the uncreated word of God. In
Law, 9th–10th Centuries C.E. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997.
833, shortly before his death, the caliph Mamun adopted a
Spectorsky, Susan A. Chapters on Marriage and Divorce: Responses
policy of demanding that prominent religious figures pubof Ibn Hanbal and Ibn Rahwayh. Austin: University of Texas
licly embrace the doctrine of the created Quran. Ibn Hanbal
Press, 1993.
refused to do this, and was imprisoned and tortured. Although
the next two caliphs continued Mamun’s policy, Ibn Hanbal
Susan A. Spectorsky
was released from prison after two years. However, he did not
resume teaching publicly until 847 when a new caliph finally
abandoned the Mutazilite doctrine and reinstated traditionist
Sunnism. IBN KHALDUN (1332–1406)
In jurisprudence too, the traditionists—again with Ibn
Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Abu Bakr
Hanbal preeminent among them—were ranged against the Muhammad b. al-Hasan, better known as Ibn Khaldun, was
rationalists. The traditionists wished all juridical problems to born in the North African region of Ifriqiyah (Tunis) in 1332.
be solved by reference to the sunna as expressed through Well known and controversial in his time, his Muqaddima

Islam and the Muslim World 335
Ibn Maja

(Introduction), has become one of the best-known and im- Muqaddima to his world history (Kitab al-
Ibar) between 1375
portant works on medieval historiography for modern schol- and 1379, as well as a number of other important works. By
ars. Ibn Khaldun was also actively involved in the politics of 1378, Ibn Khaldun returned to Tunis to work as a scholar and
the period and traveled extensively across Spain, North teacher. His ideas, however, were considered threatening by
Africa, and the Middle East. He died in Cairo on 16 several of his peers and he was forced to flee to Cairo in 1382.
March 1406.
In Cairo, Ibn Khaldun continued to teach and write, and
Ibn Khaldun came from an influential family that had by 1399 was appointed judge. In 1400 he accompanied the
originally settled in Andalusia at the beginning of the Muslim Mamluk sultan al-Nasir to Syria during the invasion of
conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Shortly before the begin- Timur and was involved in negotiations with the Mongol
ning of the Reconquista his ancestors migrated to Tunis, leader for the surrender of Damascus. As had previously been
where they became important administrators in local govern- the case, Ibn Khaldun frequently ran afoul of political powers
ments. His father, however, worked primarily as a jurist and a and was dismissed from his judgeship upon his return. Over
scholar. Because of his father’s position as a legal scholar, Ibn the remaining six years of his life he was appointed and
Khaldun was able to attain an education from some of the dismissed from the judiciary five more times.
most famous North African scholars of the age. In the midfourteenth century the western Berber Marinid tribe invaded Ibn Khaldun remained a controversial figure even after his
Tunis and established a short-lived dynasty. The Marinids death. His Muqaddima, and to a lesser extent his other
imported a large number of legal scholars and theologians writings, were both respected and reviled by later scholars. In
into Tunis and for a short period Ibn Khaldun, at this time in the Muqaddima, Ibn Khaldun sets forth a clear exposition of
his mid-teens, was able to learn from a wide array of scholars his theory of social and historical development and decline.
in a variety of fields. The Marinid occupation of Tunis was, He describes the various Islamic sciences, their development,
however, short and by the time Ibn Khaldun was seventeen and the process of professionalization that scholars had to
endure to become certified by their contemporaries as qualimost of the great scholars had already left Tunis for Fez,
fied academics. This process of professional certification,
Morocco.
according to Ibn Khaldun, which had become so extensive by
The Marinid occupation of Tunis left its mark on the the medieval period that it prevented scholars of in-depth
young scholar. He came to see the period as a model for the knowledge in any one field, was one of the factors that led
historical development and decline of Islamic societies. He Muslim societies to decline. His theories about the decline of
argued that Islamic societies followed a specific path of Muslim society would influence late-nineteenth and twentiethdevelopment and decline whereby desert tribes invade a given century Muslim scholars who embraced Ibn Khaldun’s theosociety and infuse it with a sense of vitality and what he called ries as evidence of the need for renewal of Islamic culture and
asabiyya (group solidarity).
Asabiyya becomes the foundation thought.
for all social relations and provides the fundamental motives
See also
Asabiyya; Falsafa.
for cultural, intellectual, and economic development. Over
time, however, the sense of group solidarity breaks down,
followed by a slow period of decline until a new group asserts
BIBLIOGRAPHY
itself into society and brings with it a new sense of
asabiyya. Baali, Fuad. Social Institutions: Ibn Khaldun’s Social Thought.
Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1992.
The withdrawal of the Marinids back into Morocco left an Brett, Michael. Ibn Khaldun and the Medieval Maghrib. Brookintellectual and political vacuum in Tunis, and by 1353 Ibn field, Vt.: Ashgate Variorium, 1999.
Khaldun decided to migrate west to Fez. In Fez, Ibn Khaldun Rosenthal, Franz, trans. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to
rose quickly into the inner circle of the Marinid sultan Ibn History. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969.
Abi
Amr. By 1357 he fell out of favor with the sultan and was
thrown in prison until Ibn Abi
Amr’s death in 1358. Ibn R. Kevin Jaques
Khaldun appears to have attempted to remain involved in the
changing political situation, but by 1359 he decided to retire
from politics and accepted a position as a judge. By 1362 his
position became so untenable that he was forced to flee to IBN MAJA (824–887)
Granada.
Ibn Maja, Abu
Abdallah Muhammad b. Yazid, was from
Over the next twelve years Ibn Khaldun continued to Qazwin in Persia and lived from circa 824 until 887 C.E. He is
involve himself in the politics of Spain and North Africa. By the compiler of the last of the “Six Books” of authoritahis late forties, however, he had tired of politics and decided tive (sahih) Sunni hadith collections. Ibn Maja’s Kitab alto return to scholarship once again. He wrote a number of Sunan contains 4,341 reports that he collected during his
works during this period and appears to have begun develop- peregrinations through the Hejaz, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt,
ing many of his ideas on history and sociology. He wrote his conducted in search of hadiths. About three thousand of these

336 Islam and the Muslim World
Ibn Sina

hadiths are contained in the other five standard collections. continuing influence in Jewish and Christian Europe long
Initially Ibn Maja’s collection was criticized for containing a after he was forgotten in the Islamic world.
number of weak (sc. defective) (da
if) and discredited reports,
which prevented it from being accepted by the large majority See also Falsafa; Law.
of scholars as a reliable compilation. Although Abu Daud and
al-Tirmidhi, editors of two other authoritative hadith compi- BIBLIOGRAPHY
lations, also recorded weak hadiths, they identified them as Leaman, Oliver. Averroes and his Philosophy. Richmond, U.K.:
such, whereas Ibn Maja did not. For these reasons, some of Curzon, 1997.
the traditionists preferred the Sunan work of al-Darimi (d. Nasr, Seyyed, and Leaman, Oliver, eds. History of Islamic
869), another well-known hadith scholar, over that of Ibn Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1996.
Maja. However, by about the early twelfth century C.E., Ibn
Maja’s standing as a traditionist (muhaddith) had improved Oliver Leaman
considerably and his Sunan ultimately became recognized as
one of the Six Books, although it is still regarded as the
weakest one.
IBN SINA (980–1037)
See also Hadith.
Ibn Sina (Avicenna), was a poet, music theorist, astronomer,
BIBLIOGRAPHY and politician, but he was best known as a philosopher and as
Rauf, Muhammad Abdul. “Hadith Literature: The Develop- a medical doctor.
ment of the Science of Hadith.” In The Cambridge History of
Arabic Literature. Vol. 1: Arabic Literature to the End of the From his autobiography we learn that he was born in an
Umayyad Period. Edited by A. F. L. Beeston, et al. Cam- Isma
ili family in Afshana, in the Persian region of Bukhara.
bridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983. By the age of ten, he had completed the study of language and
literature and memorized the Quran. He studied Greek logic
Asma Afsaruddin and mathematics under his father’s friend al-Natili, a teacher
and a prominent advocate of Isma
ili Shi
ism. However, he
soon felt that his education and skills exceeded his teacher’s
and he no longer needed him. By the age of sixteen, he had
IBN RUSHD (1126–1198) covered the various sciences and became a teacher and practitioner of medicine. Because of his fame as a doctor, he was
Ibn Rushd, whose Latin name was Averroes, was the most called upon to treat the prince Nuh Ibn Mansur, who then
outstanding philosopher in the Islamic world working within gave him access to the princely library, which was rich in rare
the Peripatetic (Greek) tradition. He was particularly inter- books. By eighteen, he was confident that he had mastered
ested in the work of Aristotle and wrote a large number of the sciences except for metaphysics. He read Aristotle’s
commentaries of differing length on his works. Ibn Rushd metaphysics many times without understanding it until he
was not only a philosopher but also a judge, legal thinker, came across al-Farabi’s interpretation of it. He spent his last
physician, and politician, like so many of the other philoso- years writing and practicing medicine in Isfahan, but owing to
phers in the Islamic world. His work is marked by its commit- constant travel, insufficient sleep, and hard work, he fell sick
ment to what he took to be pure Aristotelianism and his and died. He was buried in Hamadhan.
relative antipathy to Neoplatonism. He defended the acceptability of philosophy in the Islamic world, arguing that it Ibn Sina wrote over 250 works, including books, odes, and
does not contradict religion but complements it. Ibn Rushd essays. The most important of his philosophical books are
held that philosophy represents the system of demonstrative Healing and Remarks and Admonitions. Each has four parts, the
or rational argumentation, while religion presents the con- first three being logic, physics, and metaphysics. The first
clusions of philosophy to a wider audience in a form that work closes with a part on mathematics, the second with one
enables the latter to understand how to act. on Sufism. His most important medical work is the Canon of
Medicine, which served as a significant reference in Europe
This thesis came to be characterized as the “double-truth” from the eleventh to the seventeenth century.
thesis, which held that philosophy and religion are both true
despite contradicting each other. Nevertheless, Ibn Rushd Ibn Sina’s philosophy centers primarily on the divine and
did not hold such a thesis, whatever views were attributed to human natures and their relationship to each other and the
him outside of the Islamic world after his death. During his rest of the universe. The human soul individuates its body
lifetime, Ibn Rushd suffered at the hands of rulers who were and gives it motion and life. Thus the body is dependent for
occasionally unsympathetic to philosophy, and after his death its survival on its soul, but the soul’s existence is independent
his style of philosophy soon fell out of fashion in the Arabic- of the body. In life the soul uses its body for gaining sensory
speaking Islamic world. It is the commentaries that led to his knowledge. This knowledge, when abstracted, becomes pure

Islam and the Muslim World 337
Ibn Taymiyya

universals that can be imprinted on the theoretical intellect, Ibn Taymiyya accused of deviating from the pure Islam of
the highest and noblest part of the rational soul—the latter Muhammad and the Quran by adopting non-Islamic systems
being the highest part of the human soul and the only part of belief, in particular the logic and philosophy of the anthat survives death. Such imprinting actualizes the theoretical cient Greeks.
intellect, rendering it eternal, because these universals are
eternal and because known and the knower are one. With Ibn Taymiyya’s life can be divided into three distinct
eternity, the soul attains its highest pleasure or happiness. periods, each representing a significant phase in his development as a thinker and reformer. The first phase goes from his
Ibn Sina was an intellectual giant whose philosophy com- birth until 1304, during which time he received his training as
bined Greek and Islamic thought but was unique in many a scholar and was involved in defending Damascus from
respects. His ideas left a strong impact on future Eastern and incursions by the Mongol Ilkhans of Persia. The second
Western thought. period lasts from 1304 until 1312, during which time he was
in Egypt. This period is marked by his growing controversy
See also Falsafa; Wajib al-Wujud. with Sufi mysticism as well as his involvement with the
political turmoil related to Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad b. al-
BIBLIOGRAPHY Qalawun’s consolidation of power. Ibn Taymiyya spent many
Avicenna. Healing: Metaphysics X. In Medieval Political Philoso- years on trial and in prison during this time, stemming from
phy: A Sourcebook. Edited by Ralph Lerner and Mhusin his religious pronouncements and his support for al-Nasir
Mahdi. Translated by Michael E. Marmura. New York: Muhammad. The third phase begins with his return to
Free Press, 1963. Damascus in 1312 and lasts until his death in 1328. This is the
Gohlman, William E., ed., trans. The Life of Ibn Sina: A period of the maturing of his ideas and the time of his most
Critical Edition and Annotated Translation. Albany: State prolific and significant writings. Although these years were
University of New York Press, 1974. relatively free of controversy, toward the end of his life he
Shams, Inati. Ibn Sina and Mysticism: Remarks and Admoni- came into conflict with religious and state authorities over
tions, Part Four. London: Kegan Paul, 1996. doctrinal and legal issues. Ibn Taymiyya died in prison in
Damascus shortly after being denied contact with all but his
Shams C. Inati closest family members and being forbidden to write any
more letters, essays, or legal rulings.

The core of Ibn Taymiyya’s thought revolves around a set
IBN TAYMIYYA (1263–1328) of principles from which he develops an elaborate worldview.
These principles can be summarized as follows: an absolute
Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyya was born in Harran in distinction between the creator and the creation, revelation as
northern Syria in 1263 C.E. and died at the age of sixty-five in a complete and self-sufficient system, and a necessity to
Damascus in 1328. A prolific writer on all subjects related to constantly return to and understand the Quran and the
the Quran, hadith, sunna, theology, law, and mysticism, he sunna in light of the traditional teachings of the earliest
was a dynamic and controversial figure during his lifetime, generations of Muslims (al-salaf al-salih).
and he remains to this day an influential figure in Islamic
thought and practice. A loyal associate of the Hanbali theo- Ibn Taymiyya has been described as a “dogmatic histological and legal school of thought, he put his beliefs into rian,” for he developed a theology based on the concept of a
practice as a religious, political, and social reformer. Respond- necessarily preserved true religion. This religion as emboding to various crises of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth ied in the Quran and the sunna of prophet Muhammad was
centuries in the Middle East, such as the Mongol invasions, transmitted intact by the salaf al-salih. The canonical collecthe destruction of the Abbasid caliphate, and the eventual rise tions of authenticated hadiths contain this transmitted wisof the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt and Syria, Ibn Taymiyya dom, and thus, for Ibn Taymiyya, forms the basis for all
sought the revival of Islamic society based on a model of what interpretation and practice in Islam. His methodological
he believed was the pristine community of Muslims at the approach is premised on the correct use of five sources for
time of the Prophet and his companions at Medina. But his gaining knowledge of the beliefs and practices that are pleasefforts to revive Islamic society were not only aimed at ing to Allah. These are (1) the Quran, (2) the sunna of the
political and social reform, he sought also to achieve the Prophet, (3) the statements and actions of the companions of
revival of the inner or spiritual components of Islam. In fact, the Prophet (al-sahaba), (4) the opinions of the followers (alhe believed the inner reform had to occur first before any tabi
un) of the companions, and (5) the Arabic language,
outward reform would be possible. This perspective on his which for him is the only divinely ordained religious lanpart brought him into conflict with many speculative theolo- guage. These sources make up what Ibn Taymiyya believes is
gians (mutakallimun), philosophers, and Sufi mystics, whom a comprehensive notion of revelation. Any methodology or

338 Islam and the Muslim World
Identity, Muslim

belief system outside revelation is not deemed to be an BIBLIOGRAPHY
acceptable means of attaining truth. Hallaq, Wael B. Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek Logicians. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
In relation to jurisprudence and the schools of law
(madhahib), Ibn Taymiyya maintains that theoretically the Makari, Victor. Ibn Taymiyyah’s Ethics: The Social Factor.
Chico, Calif.: The Scholar’s Press, 1983.
four imams of the recognized Sunni schools of law agreed on
the principles (usul) of Islam, but pragmatically they differed Memon, Muhammad Umar. Ibn Taymiyya’s Struggle against
concerning particular rulings (furu
). Thus he upholds the Popular Religion: With an Annotated Translation of his Kitab
iqtida as-sirat al-mustaqim mukhalafat ashab al-jahim.
legitimacy of the four schools yet argues that scholars must
The Hague and Paris: Mouton, 1976.
continue exerting independent judgment (ijtihad) in an effort
to come ever closer to the theoretically pure Islam. He argued Michel, Thomas. A Muslim Theologian’s Response to Christianthat blind following (taqlid) of one scholar or school of ity. Delmar, N.Y.: Caravan Books, 1984.
thought was tolerated for the layperson, but scholars were
under an obligation to seek out and follow the truth even if it James Pavlin
is found to lie outside their particular affiliation to a school of
thought. This stance brought him into conflicts with other
jurists, even with his fellow Hanbalis.
IDENTITY, MUSLIM
But more than his political and legal opinions, Ibn
Taymiyya’s theology remains the most salient feature of his In Islamic societies, religion, rather than language and ethreligious thought. Devoted to a defense of a monotheism that nicity, has typically defined political, social, and personal
does not compromise the nature and attributes of Allah as identity. Obviously, Muslims have always been aware of
derived from the Quran and the sunna, he set himself against linguistic, ethnic, and territorial divisions, but, through much
the great traditions of speculative theology (kalam), philoso- of Islamic history, these have seemed relatively unimportant
phy, and mysticism that had evolved in Islamic civilization. to them. Their formative past and spiritual ancestry were to
Following closely the creeds established by Ahmad Ibn Hanbal be found in the line of prophets and believers chronicled in
and other hadith scholars of the ninth century, Ibn Taymiyya the Quran, prominently including the prophet Muhammad
developed a very sophisticated and subtle theology that he and his companions, rather than, depending upon where they
promoted quite vigorously. His theology begins with the lived, among the related but spiritually foreign peoples of,
notion of God as the eternal, omniscient, and omnipotent say, pharaonic Egypt, or polytheistic Babylonia.
creator who brought the universe into existence out of nothingness (ex nihilo) as a willful act. He rejects any form of Although the situation has become more complex during
pantheistic thought that compromises this belief. Thus he the past two centuries, Muslims have traditionally been
devotes much of his writings to refutations of mystical phi- integrated by their common identity as followers of Muhamlosophies, such as that of Ibn al-
Arabi (d. 1242). However, he mad and the Quran, and, secondarily, by their allegiance to
does not want to compromise the idea of a personal God with dynastic rulers (caliphs and sultans). At least in theory (but
whom a believer can establish an intimate spiritual relation. very often in fact), Muslims of entirely distinct tongues and
Therefore, he also rejects the sterile descriptions of Allah put genealogies have recognized one another as brothers, yet
forth by philosophers and speculative theologians, who stripped reject as aliens compatriots who, while sharing both dialect
him of many of his essential names and attributes. His main and ancestry, differ in religious affiliation. In recent years,
targets of refutation are the Mu
tazilites, the Ash
arites, and certain unfortunate consequences of these attitudes—generphilosophers such as Ibn Sina (d. 1043). These theological ally reciprocated with at least equal fervor by the nondebates often brought the charge of anthropomorphism Muslims involved—have been strikingly illustrated in the
against Ibn Taymiyya because he insisted on affirming attrib- Balkans and elsewhere.
utes to Allah such as that he has a hand and a face, that he loves
and hates, and that he ascends and descends while remaining Before residents of the region adopted such nineteenthrisen above the throne over the heavens. Ibn Taymiyya’s and early twentieth-century terms as Middle East and Near
defense is that these descriptions appear in the Quran and East, no equivalent vocabulary, and, hence, no unifying conauthentic hadiths and have been maintained by the compan- cept of shared geographical identity, seems to have existed in
ions of the Prophet. He also argues that these attributes the area. Until modern times, the Turkish language had no
cannot be comprehended by human intellect but must be word for Turkey; the word used today to designate the nationaccepted as a matter of faith without questioning (bi la kayf) state originated in Europe. Arabic still lacks a word for
the manner in which these attributes exist in Allah. Arabia. On the other hand, such distinctions as that between
the dar al-islam (the “abode of Islam” or “of submission [to
See also Fundamentalism; Law; Reform: Arab Middle God]”) and the counterpoised dar al-harb (“the abode of
East and North Africa; Traditionalism. strife” or “of war”) were readily available and far more salient.

Islam and the Muslim World 339
Identity, Muslim

It must be understood that religion in the areas dominated came, with the passage of time, to signify a religious commuby Islam has commonly included rather more than a mere nity, especially the Islamic community. Opposed to the comsystem of belief and worship, distinct from and possibly munity of Muslims, according to a popular tradition rather
subordinated to national and political allegiances. Those of dubiously ascribed to the prophet Muhammad, was the com-
Muslim background often retain a shared communal identity munity of unbelievers—undifferentiated because their differeven in instances where Islamic faith and practice have been ences, like those among believers, were unimportant: “Unbelief
abandoned. is one milla,” the Prophet is reported to have said. Nonetheless, by the time of the Ottomans in the fourteenth century,
Initially, the fact that the Quran had been revealed in the term millet also signified non-Muslim communities, le-
Arabic, while obviously useful to its first hearers, was not gally recognized to be plural and varied.
enough to forge a unique identity. After all, its entire original
audience, both believers and unbelievers, were Arabic-speakers. From at least the fifteenth century, Muslim rulers (par-
With the spread of Islam westward to Iberia and eastward to ticularly among the Ottomans) managed religious diversity in
India, however, the Quran’s Arabic character (emphasized in their domains through a system based on the millets. A quite
the book itself at 12:2; 13:37; 16:103; 20:113; 26:195; 39:28; complex structure of semiautonomous communities whose
41:3; 42:7; 43:3; 46:12) marked the Arabs as a favored nation religious leaders had formal relations with their Muslim
whose ethnic identity was intimately connected with the overlords promoted peaceful coexistence and minority repreidentity most of them shared as Muslims. Arabic came to be sentation at court. In the nineteenth century, however, under
the principal language of a vast civilization that, although it the influence of European nationalism and with grave impliincluded considerable numbers of non-Muslims who enjoyed cations for traditional arrangements, millet came to mean
the status of protected dhimmis, had been formed and shaped “nation” as well as “religious community.”
by Arab-Islamic sensibilities. In this were sown the seeds of
later Arabic nationalism. The Ottoman Empire and Its Immediate Aftermath
In its classic Ottoman form, the millet system dates from the
From the start, there also existed a sense of distinct Islamic reign of Mehmed II (r. 1451–1481), and endured until the
peoplehood that went beyond ethnicity. It was compounded
nineteenth century. By the end of Mehmed’s reign, Orthodox
of both genuine reality and idealistic aspiration. “Let there be
Christian, Armenian Christian, Jewish, and Muslim millets
from among you,” says the Quran, “an umma summoning to
had been organized. Each was headed by its own highestgood and forbidding evil” (3:104; compare 3:110, also 2:143).
ranking religious dignitary (respectively, the Orthodox patri-
The term umma is used several times in the Quran to refer to
arch, the chief rabbi, the Armenian patriarch, and, for Musordinary ethnic groupings, both past and present. In certain
lims, the Shaykh al-Islam). Once chosen by their respective
passages, however, it plainly characterizes the body of Muscommunities, these officials were confirmed into office (or,
lim believers as a new kind of supertribe, transcending family,
occasionally, rejected) by the Ottoman government. Millets
clan, and ethnic affiliation. “This your umma is one umma,”
decided on issues related to religious doctrine and practice
says the Quran (21:92).
and questions of personal status (e.g., marriage, divorce, and
Even in the days of the Prophet and his immediate inheritance).
successors, however, old tribal and other affiliations proved
However, Ottoman sultans understood themselves, first
resilient, as appears in early tensions between the muhajirun—
and foremost, as Muslim emperors ruling an Islamic empire.
the “emigrants” who, like Muhammad himself, had sought
Subsequent Ottoman monarchs accordingly sought to tranrefuge in Medina—and the ansar or “helpers” who took them
scend their dynasty’s origin as a line of successful war lords
in. Long-standing tribal rivalries continued to be a factor in
and border skirmishers—so frankly expressed in the title
the early days of the Arab conquests. And even as Arabian
sultan itself, which is derived from the Arabic word sulta,
tribal divisions decreased in importance, other ethnic rivalries—
meaning “power”—and to claim religious sanction for their
such as those between Arabs and non-Arabs (particularly
Persians)—came to the fore in such movements as the so- rule. This is evident in the treaty of Kucuk-Kaynarca (1774),
called shu
ubiyya. Moreover, the question of precisely what in which, for the first time, the sultanate asserted extraterritoconstituted a believer, and what caused one to forfeit that rial religious jurisdiction over non-Ottoman Muslims. A few
status, was a matter of significant controversy in the first years later, the story appeared that the last Abassid caliph had
period of Islamic thought. transferred the caliphate—the right to universal Islamic rule
as legal heir of the prophet Muhammad—to Selim I upon the
The survival and even flourishing of non-Muslims within Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. While the claim had
areas of Islamic rule also helped adherents of Islam to refine relatively little practical impact beyond the effective borders
and sharpen their own sense of identity. Central to this was of Ottoman political power, it reinforced the sultan’s claim to
the Quranic Arabic term milla (Turkish millet). In the Quran, authority based on the religious identity and self-understanding
the word milla is essentially equivalent to religion, and it of the majority of his subjects.

340 Islam and the Muslim World
Identity, Muslim

Vocal claims to Islamic authority, however, carried no of eastern and central Europe was fully available to them.
weight with the sultan’s non-Muslim subjects, and, indeed, Thus, when in 1875 the Ottoman treasury declared insolprobably tended to alienate them. Thus, as the empire weak- vency, nationalist revolts broke out among the Christians of
ened and Western influences (including legal and commer- the Balkans, leading to bloody ethnic and religious confroncial privileges granted to European powers) increased in tations. Responding, the European powers pressured Otto-
Ottoman lands, nationalist sentiments arose among the em- man leadership to grant autonomy to Christians. And, in fact,
pire’s Christian minorities, who had a natural kinship to the the short-lived legislative assembly established by the Consti-
Christian West and were understandably more susceptible to tution of 1876 included deputies from all the peoples of
its influence. These new nationalist ideas were introduced to the empire.
populations lacking any prior experience of secularism, or of a
separation between religion and politics. Minority nationalisms A disastrous war with Russia nearly ended the Ottoman
therefore came to be expressed religiously, within the context state in 1877, and the difficult negotiations that ensued
of the already existing millet system. continued until 1882. Ultimately, the Ottomans surrendered
large territories to Russia, the Balkan states, and other pow-
In partial reaction, the Ottoman government attempted to ers. These territorial losses, which cost the sultan many of his
establish “Ottomanism” as the legal basis of the empire as Christian subjects and precipitated a substantial migration of
reflected, for example, in the law of nationality and citizen- Muslims from Russia and the Balkans into the remaining
ship promulgated in 1869 and the Constitution of 1876. The Ottoman lands, left the empire overwhelmingly Muslim.
related concept of hubb al-vatan, “love of country” or patriot- Seen by many Muslims as an episode in the battle between the
ism, had already appeared in Turkish by 1841. Thinkers dar al-islam and the dar al-harb, the crisis inflamed religious
connected with the Young Ottoman movement (formed in sentiments and, by the century’s end, inspired a yet more
1865) were promoting the “fatherland” (vatan; Arabic watan)
insistent Muslim nationalism—before which the ambivalent
and the Ottoman “nation.” Ottomanism, however, was someand never very popular “Ottomanism” quickly gave way.
what ambivalent with regard to the weight to be placed upon
Islamic faith as component in individual, societal, and politi- Attempting to cope,
Abd al-Hamid II (r. 1876–1909)
cal identity. The new constitution also included a formal concentrated government investments and reforms in the
declaration that the “high Islamic caliphate” belonged to the predominantly Muslim parts of the empire. He emphasized
Ottoman ruling house, thus staking a claim to universal Islam as a basis of internal social and political stability and
Muslim authority. And the writings of Namik Kemal, the solidarity, further stressing his authority not merely as sultan
Young Ottomans’s intellectual leader, show interest neither but also as caliph in a bid to simultaneously neutralize
in the history of Anatolia prior to the arrival of the Muslim opposition from the varied Muslim ethnicities within his
Turks nor in the history of the Turks before their conversion.
dominions and to mobilize support, when needed, among
In fact, he seldom uses the word Turk at all. Instead, he
Muslims beyond his borders. Although he affirmed the prinemphasizes the term Ottoman, which, although it sometimes
ciple of legal equality for minority religions, he felt that
designates all of the sultan’s subjects, of whatever religion,
Muslims were the only truly loyal Ottoman subjects. For this
often denotes only the sultan’s Muslim subjects.
reason, pan-Islamists like Afghani regarded
Abdulhamid as a
Ottomanism was, in fact, incoherent, torn between par- symbol of Islamic solidarity and cohesion.
ticularistic loyalty to the multiethnic, multi-faith empire as it
By the opening of the twentieth century, however, nationwas and a dream of Muslim unity similar to that which
alistic movements in and about the Ottoman empire had
motivated the famous pan-Islamic activist, Jamal al-Din
destroyed more than the idea of political unity among Mus-
Afghani (d. 1897). Of course, despite his own public piety,
lims, Christians, and others. With the imperial regime in
Afghani himself seems to have been a natural-law deist and
Istanbul looking increasingly helpless both domestically and
rationalist, and to have valued Islam primarily as a civilization
in foreign affairs, separate nationalist movements arose even
rather than as a religious faith. Clearly indicating that he
among Muslims—which severely undermined
Abdulhamid
recognized its power as a political force, however, he insisted
on orthodox Islam for the masses. II’s appeal to Islamic solidarity. As various non-Turkic peoples sought to dissolve their ties to the sultanate and to forge
Ottomanist ambivalence did not escape the non-Muslim their own destiny, Ottoman intellectuals became aware of the
minorities. Understanding that they were not, and could not pre-Islamic history of the Turks. Partially on that basis, they
be, incorporated into the empire as full equals, sharing a created a distinctively Turkish nationalism. At the same time,
common culture, they realized that they could not truly be centralizing, industrialized European nation-states—foreign
Ottoman patriots in the same sense that English, Spanish, or to the reality in which they found themselves—became the
French patriots were loyal to a country and a unified nation- ideal among the Ottoman elite. Consequently, when the
state. In contrast, the separatist ethnic nationalism that had Young Turk revolution occurred in 1908, it was strongly proalready arisen in the polyglot empires and small principalities Turkic, devoted to a centralizing and secularizing vision.

Islam and the Muslim World 341
Identity, Muslim

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s famous and more lastingly sig- beyond Egypt, the history and legacy of the pharaohs clearly
nificant political involvement began in terms of Ottomanism, fascinated him. They also served the complexly pan-Islamic
and, early on, he tended to speak in pan-Islamic terms. His purposes of Afghani, who praised the glories of pagan Egypt
conversion to Turkish nationalism was accelerated by the (as well as the ancient polytheistic Hindus) in polemics
disastrous 1912–1913 Balkan War, but, although he is associ- composed, unlike those of Kemal and the Young Ottomans,
ated with secularism, there is no evidence that he ever sought in Arabic.
to attack Islam. Ataturk’s notable successes garnered immense prestige for the secular nationalism he came to es- For their part, the khedives encouraged and even sponpouse, which has assured its dominant role in Turkey into the sored this new patriotism, since the cultivation of a distinctive
twenty-first century. Egyptian identity and personality so obviously furthered
their own separatist ambitions, and the “National” or “Patri-
Among the Arabs otic Party” (al-hizb al-watani) was founded in 1879. It cannot
The Young Ottoman thinker Namik Kemal argued that be maintained that the new Egyptian patriotism was wholly
separatist movements would not arise among the empire’s secular—for most of its advocates, Islam was an essential part
diverse ethnic groups because they were too intermingled to of Egyptian identity—but it grounded a movement that even
be able to form viable states. The only possible exception to non-Muslim Egyptians felt they could join. Thus, even prior
this, he felt, was the Arab community. However, he reasoned, to British occupation in 1882, the Christian journalist Selim
Arabs were bound to the Ottoman state not only by their Naqqash coined the slogan “Egypt for the Egyptians,” which
loyalty to the sultan but by their sense of Islamic brotherhood was then popularized by the Jewish pamphleteer Abu Naddara
with the empire. And, in fact, Afghani’s great Egyptian and put into practical action by the Muslim soldier
Urabi
disciple, Muhammad
Abduh (d. 1905) opposed local patriot- Pasha. But the Syrian intellectuals and others who had taken
ism or nationalism as a threat to Islamic unity. Race and refuge in the relatively open society of Egypt were often
nation, in his view, were unimportant accidents, irrelevant to marginalized as “intruders” (dukhala) by prominent Egyptian
one’s fundamental identity as a member of the Islamic umma. patriots.

Kemal was wrong. Arab nationalism—the idea that Arabic Significantly, it was chiefly Syrian immigrants who brought
speakers form a single nation with legitimate aspirations to the idea of political Arabism to Khedivial Egypt. Prominent
separate statehood—seems to have been born among the among these were
Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (d. 1902),
Christian Arab elite of Lebanon, perhaps under the influence who was perhaps the first to demand an Arab state headed by
of their European fellow believers. They, of course, felt no an Arab caliph independent of Ottoman Turkish rule, and
religious loyalty to the sultan, but deeply prized the language Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1935). On the whole, however,
and culture they shared with their Muslim fellow-Arabs. In Egypt proved resistant to pan-Arabism, although that ideol-
1860, the Christian journalist Butrus al-Bustani founded ogy played a substantial role during the presidency of Jamal
“The Patriotic School” (al-madrasa al-wataniyya); by 1870,
Abd al-Nasser (under whom, for a time during and after his
the motto “love of country is part of the faith” appeared on abortive merger with Syria, the venerable name Egypt was
the masthead of the magazine he edited. The watan of which officially sacrificed in order to build a “United Arab Republic”).
he spoke, however, was not the Ottoman empire. His
“country” was Syria, an Arabic-speaking land.
Abd al-Hamid II’s imperial pan-Islamism thus proved
entirely unsuccessful. And, eventually, with the abolition of
Graduates of newly founded schools in Syria and Iraq the sultanate in 1922 and of the caliphate in 1924, the last
were likewise infected with nationalism and political con- effective, legitimate political symbol of collective pan-Islamic
sciousness, but their pride, too, was in Arabic language and identity disappeared. Former Ottoman Muslims found them-
Arabic history. They called first for decentralization, then selves residing in a disunited variety of nation-states, much as
independence. The Arab revolt of 1916 resulted in the their descendants do today.
eventual creation of at least nominally independent states in
Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan after the interwar British The Mogul Empire
and French mandates ended. These were constructed essen- Founded in 1526 and lasting until the mid-eighteenth centially on the European model that had been invoked previ- tury, the Mogul empire ultimately dominated the entire
ously by the Young Turks. Indian subcontinent excepting the south. Yet the existence of
a vast, subjugated population of Hindus had always posed a
Local patriotism did appear in Egypt, somewhat later than problem for India’s Muslim rulers, and continued to do so
in Turkey, largely under the influence of Shaykh Rifa
a Rafi
under the Moguls.
al-Tahtawi (d. 1873). In numerous odes and poems, al-
Tahtawi, also fond of the formula “love of country is part of Acutely aware of the problem, Akbar (r. 1556–1605),
the faith,” praised Egypt, the Egyptian army and its soldiers, arguably the greatest of the Mogul emperors, chose a radical
and the then-ruling dynasty of the Khedives. While his works method of dealing with it. He integrated Hindus into all
evince little or no interest in other Muslims or Arab speakers levels of imperial administration, married Rajput princesses,

342 Islam and the Muslim World
Identity, Muslim

and abolished the jizya tax on non-Muslims. Worse, in the that both Islam and Hinduism were comprehensive social
eyes of many devout Muslims, he began to experiment with orders that could not be merged into a single nationality,
an eclectic blend of Islamic and Hindu concepts. Akbar’s concluded that the religious, political, and cultural interests
actions, in their view, represented a serious threat not only to of Muslims could be safeguarded fully only in a separate
the Islamic identity of Muslim India but to Islam itself. Muslim state. Interestingly, the Deobandi ulema overwhelmingly opposed Jinnah and his proposed separate state, pre-
The most significant opposition to Akbar’s syncretistic
sumably because his vision for Pakistan—and that of the
liberalism emerged out of the Naqshbandi Sufi brotherhood.
poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938)—was insuffi-
This helped to foster a religious revival among Indian Musciently grounded in strict observance of the shari
a. Nonethelims in the face not only of the emperor’s heresies and the
less, Pakistan came into existence on 14 August 1947, following
resurgence of local Hinduism, but, as time passed, in opposithe independence and partition of British India, and is now
tion to Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French incursions
the world’s second most populous Muslim nation. Uniquely
into India. Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1624), an Indian Sufi who
among Islamic countries, it was expressly established in the
powerfully influenced the development of the Naqshbandi
name of Islam. More than a hundred million adherents of
order, is often considered by Muslim admirers to have saved
Islam continue to live in India, however, making it roughly
Indian Islam.
equal to Pakistan (and thus one of the largest of all nations) in
Certainly Sirhindi represented a challenge to Mogul au- terms of Muslim population.
thority. Accordingly, a subsequent emperor, Awrangzib (r.
1658–1707), banned portions of his writing. But as Iran
Naqshbandi-inspired Islamic opposition grew, and amid Iran, the ancient Persia, resembled Egypt in possessing a long
spreading Hindu and Sikh restiveness that many Muslims and distinguished history and relatively clearly demarked
attributed to Mogul laxity, Awrangzib also found himself borders. Its people spoke a distinct language that was deeply
obliged to dismiss non-Muslims from government service rooted in antiquity. Perhaps most importantly, it was distinand to replace them with Muslims. Furthermore, under guished from the Sunni Ottomans to the west and the Sunni
pressure from the orthodox ulema, he ordered the restoration Uzbeks and Moguls to the east by the Shi
ite form of Islam
of the jizya tax and reimposed shari
a (Islamic law). that it had adopted after the founding of the Safavid dynasty
in 1501. When the Shi
ite Safavids assumed power, Iran was
But Naqshbandi revivalism was by no means limited to the mostly Sunni, but descendants of
Ali enjoyed prestige and
Indian subcontinent. As early as 1603, Naqshbandi emissaries privileged status among ordinary people. The Safavids themhad entered the Arabic lands, and, soon thereafter, texts of the selves were originally Turkic speaking, possibly even of
order were being translated from Persian into Arabic. The Kurdish extraction, so Persian nationalism as such was not
important Naqshbandi figure Shah Waliullah of Delhi (d. acceptable to them as a basis for fostering unity within their
1765), in fact, sometimes composed his works in Arabic, domain and between themselves and their subjects. A naprobably in an effort to address a much wider Islamic public. tional transition from Sunni to Shi
ism suggested itself to
them, therefore, as both desirable and reasonably easy, and,
Mogul power had virtually disappeared by the midthus, within the first century of Safavid rule, an orthodox
eighteenth century, and the British deposed the last emperor
form of Twelver Shi
ism was established as the state religion.
in 1858. Many Muslims, however, feared that their loss of
political power would also result in Islamic cultural and
In the sixteenth century Iran was already far along the path
religious losses. Accordingly, figures such as Sir Sayyid Ahmad
to becoming what we would today recognize as a national
Khan, while still maintaining loyalty to British rule and
state. There has been relatively little tension between Iranian
admiration for English culture, insisted on a separate political
patriotism and Islamism as foci of national identity, since the
identity for Indian Muslims. Similarly, educational movetwo are so closely related. Despite strong interest in Persia’s
ments such as the Deobandis sought to cultivate and preserve
ancient past (as reflected, for example, in Firdawsi’s epic tale,
Muslim traditions. More dramatically, Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi
Shahnameh) and with some fluctuations of emphasis, Islam
emerged from circles close to the family of Shah Waliullah to
has maintained its primacy in Iranian self-identification. The
lead a jihad in northwestern India, seeking to restore Muslim
constitutional revolution of 1906 gave a considerable boost to
political rule in that region. His followers persisted in the
the Iranian national identity and to patriotism, and the
attempt for roughly thirty years after his death in batmodernization of the state under the Pahlevis (r. 1921–1979)
tle in 1831.
went hand in hand with the enhancement of Iranian national
The concept of a sovereign Islamic political domain was identity in modern schools. The late shah, like his father
kept alive by various figures over the intervening years. In before him, launched a campaign to glorify pre-Islamic Iran.
1906, the All-India Muslim League was established as a Leaders of the Islamic Revolution denounced the effort as a
counterweight to the Hindu-dominated Indian National Con- return to paganism and even spoke of destroying the ruins of
gress. Eventually, Muhammad
Ali Jinnah (d. 1948), arguing Persepolis (as, more recently, the Afghan Taliban obliterated

Islam and the Muslim World 343
Ijtihad

the Buddhas of Bamiyan). But an unmistakably Iranian patri- Orthodox churches. In January 1952, anti-British demonotism thrives even amid the explicitly religious rhetoric strators in Suez, angry at the British, killed several Coptic
favored by leaders of the Islamic Republic. Christians—arguably Egypt’s most Egyptian residents—and
looted and burned a Coptic church. Meanwhile, many hun-
The Persistence of Islamic Identity dreds of miles away, the Algerian response to the French
Through the ideological turbulence of the past two centuries, slogan of “Algérie française” was neither “Algérie arabe” nor
the fundamental self-understanding of Muslims as Muslims
“Algérie algérienne,” but “Algérie musulmane” (“Muslim Algeremained intact, though sometimes tacit. The first Arab
ria”). During the Lebanese civil war, when civil government
rebellion against Ottoman Turkish rule came with the rise of
lost effective authority over the country, residents reverted to
Wahhabiyya in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centutheir essential identities as Maronite Christians, Druze, and
ries, and its attempt to repair, Islamically, what it perceived as
Sunni and Shi
ite Muslims.
serious defects in Muslim society. Although that irruption
was contained and reversed, Wahhabiyya again came to See also
Abd al-Qadir, Amir;
Abduh, Muhammad;
power, this time more lastingly, with the Saudi conquest of Afghani, Jamal al-Din; Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal; Balthe holy cities of Mecca and Medina in 1925. The discovery kans, Islam in the; Dar al-Harb; Dar al-Islam; Ethof Arabian petroleum in the 1930s has made advocates of this nicity; Kemal, Namik; Pan-Islam; Secularization;
brand of militantly Islamic self-identification both wealthy Shaykh al-Islam; Umma; Wahhabiyya; Young Ottoand influential. mans; Young Turks.
Resistance to European imperialism has been most effectively captained, in many instances, not by political or mili- BIBLIOGRAPHY
tary officials but by popular religious figures. For example, Dawn, C. Ernest. From Ottomanism to Arabism: Essays on the
Ahmad Brelwi, who was both an initiate of the Naqshbandi Origins of Arab Nationalism. Urbana: University of Illinois
order and a Wahhabi, led armed resistance between 1826 and Press, 1973.
1831 both to perceived encroachments of the Sikhs and to the Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939.
rising menace of British power in northern India. Slightly London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.
later, from 1830 to 1859, Shamil of Daghistan, another Keddie, Nikki R. An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political
Naqshbandi, led similar resistance against the infidel Rus- and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal ad-Din “al-Afghani.”
sians, and, between 1832 and 1847,
Abd al-Qadir, a chief of Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
the Qadiriyya dervish order, fought the infidel French in Lewis, Bernard. The Shaping of the Modern Middle East. New
North Africa. Likewise, the struggle of the Sanusi order in York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Libya against the Ottomans and, later, the Italians, and the Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. 3d ed. New
revolt of the Sudanese Mahdi, were explicitly conducted in York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
the name of Islam, not local patriotism.
Schimmel, Annemarie. Islam in the Indian Subcontinent. Leiden:
The Young Turk revolution faced a short-lived mutiny in E. J. Brill, 1980.
1909, when members of a pan-Islamic group calling itself the Shaw, Stanford J., and Shaw, Ezel Kural. The History of
“Muhammadan Union” joined with the First Army Corps to the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Vol. 2: Reform,
demand imposition of the shari
a. Later, the Young Turks Revolution, and Republic: The Rise of Modern Turkey,
themselves flirted with pan-Islamism (at least for propaganda 1808–1975. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge Unipurposes) with Enver Pasha’s 1918 launch of the “Army of versity Press, 1977.
Islam,” designed to liberate the Muslims of Russia. The
previous year, the grand wazir Mehmed Said Halim Pasha Daniel C. Peterson
had delivered a classic statement of pan-Islamic belief, declaring that “the fatherland of a Muslim is wherever the shari
a
prevails.” Even the communists, jockeying for power in the
months after the fall of the Ottoman empire, found them-
IJTIHAD
selves constrained to invoke Islamic solidarity rather than
In early Islam ijtihad, along with terms such as al-ray, qiyas,
class struggle.
and zann referred to sound and balanced personal reasoning.
The Muslim masses have continued to see the chief threat By the third century of Islam, however, prophetic traditions
to them not in foreigners but in infidels. (That the two were replaced these terms as the primary indicators of the law after
often identical obscures but does not remove the distinction.) the Quran. The term qiyas remained operative but was
When, for example, on 2 November 1945, Egypt’s political severely curtailed by jurists of all schools. Ijtihad, however,
leaders invited protests to mark the anniversary of the Balfour was universally embraced by all jurists and theologians, in-
Declaration, resulting demonstrations turned into anti-Jewish cluding those who, in all other matters, held strongly opposriots and then into attacks on Catholic, Armenian, and Greek ing views. This was perhaps due to ijtihad’s authority residing

344 Islam and the Muslim World
Ikhwan al-Muslimin

in a prophetic tradition, but more likely it was because the
actual definition of the term varied from jurist to jurist. Al-
IKHWAN AL-MUSLIMIN
Shafi
i, for instance, when asked, replied that ijtihad and qiyas
The first modern Islamic mass movement, the Society of the
are two names for the same process. Ibn Hazm, in contrast,
Muslim Brothers (Jam
iyyat al-ikhwan al-Muslimin), was born
denounced qiyas but not ijtihad: The former, he maintained,
in Ismailia, Egypt, in 1928. Its founder, Hasan al-Banna
referred to baseless speculation, and the latter, to the individ-
(1906–1949), was from a pious Muslim home and inherited
ual’s attempts at unraveling the truth by textual corroborahis father’s Salafiyya (reformist) orientation. He was strongly
tion. All nonetheless used ijtihad to refer to no more than the
affected by both the rigor and devotion of Sufism and the
search for the legal norm (hukm) in Islam’s corpus sancta
nationalist spirit of the 1919 anti-British uprising. Upon
without much regard for context.
graduating in 1927, he was appointed to teach primary school
In contrast, postcolonial Islamic thinkers used ijtihad as in the Suez Canal town of Ismailia, where he called people to
shorthand for intellectual and social reform, and as a break fervently practice Islam (da
wa).
from taqlid or blind imitation of past legal rulings. The Indian
There al-Banna founded a society which, in its first four
poet/ philosopher, Muhammad Iqbal, for instance, saw ijtihad
years, built a mosque, a boys school, and a girls school. The
as the catalyst for Islam’s intellectual resurgence, whereas the society’s branches multiplied around the country, founding
grand mufti of Egypt, Muhammad
Abduh, considered it a numerous Quran schools, clinics, and hospitals, and estabbreak from traditional scholarship, and Maududi as the key to lishing a system of cooperative insurance for its poorer
establishing an Islamic political order. The relationship be- members. In the 1930s it rapidly developed its own distinctive
tween taqlid and ijtihad during this period became less juridi- characteristics, enabling it to endure and continue to play a
cal and more symbolic: The former now referred to the key religious and sociopolitical role in many Muslim coungeneral deterioration of everything Islamic and the latter to tries until today.
its reformation. In general, ijtihad served to validate the
reformist’s efforts to subordinate the sacred texts to the Features of the Ikhwan
exigencies of a modern context. The Society of the Muslim Brothers aims to bring complete
spiritual revival (nahda) to society under Islam—a vision
While ijtihad was warmly received, no methodology for encompassing the moral reformation of youth through physireasoning by ijtihad was established, as was the case with qiyas, cal training, sports, religious and ideological indoctrination,
for instance. Jurists spoke of the four essential constituents of social welfare, national pride, resistance against foreign dominaqiyas, and its various forms, but in the case of ijtihad, spoke tion, and the establishment of a state run by Islamic norms. Its
only of the qualifications of the mujtahids who do ijtihad, and members share an activist ethos, critical of traditional Islam,
of their rankings within particular schools of law. More as well as a certain pragmatism that sanctions the use of
importantly, they spoke of the closing of the doors of ijtihad. Western ideas and technology as a tool to advance Islam. Its
The Crusades, the rise of regional dynasties subsequent to founder’s unique talents and sense of divine call was evithe collapse of the Abbasid empire, and the Mongol invasions denced by his celibacy and his tireless self-sacrifice in visiting
were seen as threats to Islamic intellectualism in general. the society’s branches all over Egypt, as well as a commitment
Coupled with this, attacks by rationalists and philosophers on to writing, speaking, and organizing.
Muslim orthodox thinking convinced jurists that any further
ijtihad posed a great danger to orthodoxy itself. The doors of The society enjoyed phenomenal growth right from the
ijtihad were thus closed in the fourth Islamic century, and a start. Although it could boast only 5 branches in 1930, that
long period of taqlid followed. Recent scholarship has chal- number had jumped to 2,000 in 1949; by 1941 the society had
lenged this view based on evidence that mujtahids existed well become so influential that the British had the Egyptian prime
into the sixteenth century, and that several prominent minister arrest al-Banna and his lieutenant, Ahmad al-Sukkari,
premodern scholars denied the closure of the doors of ijtihad. but he soon released them without British permission, fearing
that their continued imprisonment would touch off a revolt
See also Law; Madhhab; Reform: Arab Middle East and that would topple his government.
North Africa; Shari
a.
The society was organized in a tight, hierarchical structure. Executive power was vested in the General Guide (al-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
murshid al-
amm), who was supported by a General Guidance
Fareed, Muneer. Legal Reform in the Muslim World. San Bureau (Maktab al-irshad al-
amm) whose members num-
Francisco, 1996. bered fifteen in 1934 and who were handpicked by the
Hallaq, Wael. Law and Legal Theory in Classical and Medieval General Guide. During the 1930s, most administrative tasks
Islam. Brookfield, Vt.: Variorum 1995. were carried out by a Central Consultative Council (the
Majlis al-shura al-markazi)—a structure which required cen-
Muneer Goolam Fareed tralization—at the district level (al-dawair), of which there

Islam and the Muslim World 345
Ikhwan al-Muslimin

were eighty-nine in 1937. The society possessed an efficient underground, yet its activities nonetheless have exerted a
system for recruiting, training, and multiplying cadres and, powerful influence at the grassroots.
over time, several levels of commitment were developed. For
instance, the Rover scouting movement (jawwala) empha- Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966), after a three-year assignment
sized teaching (ta
rif) with summer camps, athletic training, in the United States for the Ministry of Education, returned
prayers, Quranic study, and charitable work. The Battalions in 1951 as a convert to the Ikhwan’s version of Islam and
(al-Kataib, meaning “formation”) were added in 1937 and became the Brotherhood’s chief ideologue. Arrested and
were composed of one to four subgroups of ten members, tortured with others in the movement in 1954, he spent most
each subgroup being headed by a deputy (mandub), to whom of the rest of his life in prison. This is where he wrote two of
the local members pledged an oath of strict obedience, his most influential works, a voluminous Quranic commendiscipline, and secrecy. Later, al-Banna replaced the Battal- tary, Fi zilal al-Quran (1952–1965, In the shade of the
ions with the “cooperative family” (usra). Quran), and Ma
alim fi al-tariq (1964, Signposts along the
way), which inspired an entire generation of more radical
A third level of commitment (tanfidh, “execution”) materi- Islamist groups. Central to his writings were his identification
alized around 1940, when al-Banna founded the Special of Nasser with Pharaoh, and the bulk of Muslims with the
Apparatus, which served as the secret military branch of the “ignorant” people who preceded Islam in Arabia (al-jahiliyya).
organization. Current research suggests, however, that pres- Under these conditions, he wrote, only through violent jihad
sure from his more militant members led al-Banna to allow could a truly Islamic state be instituted.
the formation of the Special Apparatus earlier than he might
have personally chosen, and that he worked hard to maintain Four milestones can be discerned since the 1980s, with the
its low profile during the period of the Second World War. mainstream of the Ikhwan increasingly turning toward peaceful, progressive methods of implementing Islamic law (shari
a).
The society’s core belief was that, just as the Prophet ruled
Between 1974 and 1981 there appeared several militant
in Medina, there could be no Islamic society without an
groups, including al-Jihad, which was responsible for Anwar
Islamic state. But in the 1930s and 1940s, al-Banna explicitly
al-Sadat’s assassination in 1981. Between 1981 and 1988 the
sought to reform society though education and to foster
Brotherhood founded a number of Islamic investment com-
Islamic principles within the existing government. Although
panies and joined with other political parties in order to have
he condemned the multiparty system, he sought to increase
its people elected to parliament. In 1984, the Brotherhood
the Ikhwan’s political influence within the Palace and the
claimed twelve parliamentary seats, and in 1987 that number
Wafd parties. The Brotherhood’s clear ideological stance of
rose to thirty-eight seats. The Mubarak government (1981 to
social justice and championing the rights of the educated
the present) has cracked down on Islamic businesses and, with
lower classes, peasants, and urban poor presented a strong
a failing economy, Egypt has witnessed greater violence on
challenge to ruling elites.
the part of Islamists targeting police and tourists. At the same
Ikhwan Milestones time, the influence of the Brotherhood has been felt in all
The evolution of the Ikhwan reveals unresolved inner ten- strata of society, especially within professional syndicates.
sions between the moderate and pragmatic option chosen by Since 1998, the violence has lessened, and a new party has
al-Banna and more militant options that would seek immedi- broken off from the Brotherhood. This is the Wasat (“middle
ate military overthrow of the state. In 1939 dissenters broke ground”), which includes both Christians and women. Some
off from the Brotherhood to form the more militant Muham- analysts view this as possibly the dawning of a “post-Islamist”
mad’s Youth. In 1947 and 1948 al-Banna collaborated with era in Egypt.
the Arab League to send arms, money, and some of his trained
units as volunteers for the Palestinian resistance. Further, in The Ikhwan in Syria and Jordan
1948, in a climate of great unrest, the Ikhwan’s organization The Ikhwan spread their message into Syria in the mid 1930s,
(including its publications arm) was shut down, and al-Banna chiefly through students returning home from Egypt. In
was placed under house arrest. In response, in December of addition, Hasan al-Banna visited Syria in 1946, after which
that year, the Egyptian prime minister was assassinated by the movement officially entered Syrian politics as the Islamic
some Ikhwan brothers. Al-Banna publicly condemned this Brotherhood Party. Its first General Secretary (al-muraqib alaction, but was himself assassinated in February 1949 by
amm) was Mustafa al-Sibai, an al-Azhar graduate.
government agents.
When the Syrian Ikhwan entered the fray of democratic
The Ikhwan reached the zenith of its influence in 1952, politics, some Brotherhood members entered parliament,
after the “Free Officers” revolution, but consequently drew while others accepted ministerial portfolios. This stopped,
the ire of Jamal
Abd al-Nasser. Legally dissolved in January however, after the Ba
thist coup of 1963. The general secre-
1954, the Brotherhood was decimated: Six of its top leaders tary,
Issam al-
Attar, chose self-exile in Europe, and the rest
were hanged publicly, and thousands of members were im- kept to a more traditional Brotherhood role. In their place,
prisoned. Since then the organization has remained mostly new Islamist groups rose up, with militant names and agendas.

346 Islam and the Muslim World
Ikhwan al-Muslimin

The coming to power of Hafiz al-Asad in 1970 inaugu- for King Abdallah II, due to Jordan’s majority Palestinian
rated a second round of confrontation between the Syrian population. As in Syria, the Brotherhood in Jordan is com-
Ikhwan and an authoritarian, socialist regime, The Brother- mitted to nonviolence and multiparty democracy, but the
hood succeeded in securing benefits mostly for the poorest question remains: How long they will be able to contain the
minority, the Alawis, who were considered a heretical sect by anger and frustration of the lower classes?
the Sunni majority of the urban elites. Al-Asad’s strategy
against the Ikhwan was two-pronged. First, he began to The Ikhwan in Sudan
include more Islamic symbols in Syria’s political and cultural The Sudanese Muslim Brothers’ Society officially came into
life; second, he mercilessly repressed the Islamist groups that being as an extension of its Egyptian counterpart when Hasan
had launched a campaign of assassinations in Syria in the al-Banna appointed a director general in 1949. Already, an
1970s. Al-Asad’s policies culminated in the massacre of more indigenous movement had started to operate among students
than ten thousand civilians in the city of Hama in 1982. under the name Islamic Liberation Movement. The various
strands of politically minded Muslims, mostly in university
In the 1990s, the Syrian government permitted a timid circles, banded together in the years following independence
liberalization of the economy, aiming to revive the private (1956), forming an Islamist coalition and pressing for an
sector, and thus lessening some tension between itself and the “Islamic” constitution. By the early 1960s the movement
Islamists, who mostly came from the petite bourgeoisie. Also, emerged as a political party called the Islamic Charter Front
noticing the growing Islamization of Syrian society as else- (Jabhat al-Mithaq al-Islami), and from this time forth, the
where, al-Asad initiated a mosque-building campaign, and leader for the Ikhwan strand of Islamism became Hasan alsought to coopt the moderate elements among the Ikhwan. At Turabi, who in 1962 had just returned from his studies in
the turn of the century Syrian ruler, Bashar al-Asad, elected Britain.
to pursue his father’s course, and the Brotherhood joined
other parties to call for greater political openness and respect In spite of the Front’s participation in two elections and its
for human rights. success in getting the Communist Party banned from Sudanese politics, it remained weakened by internal divisions.
By contrast, King
Abdallah of Jordan encouraged the Two main tendencies vied for control, both inherited from
founding of the Jordanian Ikhwan in the 1940s, and that the Egyptian mother organization. Of these, the “political”
tradition of common alliance against communism continued option, led by Turabi, believed that achieving power in the
under King Hussein. Despite their differences, the Jordanian political sphere was a prerequisite for Islamization. A second,
Ikhwan’s reformist stance never moved beyond a loyal oppo- “educationalist” option prioritized indoctrination and resition to a monarchy proud of its Islamic legitimacy. The form. By 1969 Turabi’s ideology had prevailed.
political reforms introduced by King Hussein in 1989 marked
a new era by opening the way for multiparty parliamentary At first the military coup of 1969, led by Colonel Ja
far
elections. The Ikhwan ran candidates with good results, Nimeiri (Ar. Numayri), established a seemingly irreversible
winning twenty-two seats out of eighty, with twelve more trend toward secularism and thus, during most of the 1970s,
going to independent Islamic candidates. the Ikhwan joined forces with the opposition, participating in
three failed coup attempts. Then, in 1977, as Nimeiri saw his
The Jordanian Brotherhood then joined the cabinet, but it own support base eroding, he began to call for a rapprochehas not been able to capitalize on its early momentum. First, ment with Islamic parties. The Ikhwan rallied to his side,
their inexperience in legislative politics showed, as accusa- along with the leader of the Umma Party, Sadiq al-Mahdi
tions of inefficiency and mismanagement were levelled against (who was also Turabi’s brother-in-law). This enabled the
several of their elected members. Second, its moderation has Islamists to implement an impressive strategy aimed toward
tended to radicalize the smaller, more militant Islamic off- becoming a mass movement poised to take over the state.
shoots. One group, started by mostly Afghan returnees (Mu- They achieved this by using their new-found freedom to
hammad’s Army), began a series of attacks in 1991. Eight recruit followers outside the university setting; by gaining
were arrested and tried in a military court. Although the king experience in statesmanship by participating in the Nimeiri
later commuted their death sentences to life imprisonment, government; and by exploiting an experiment in “Islamic
the strong message from the palace was clear. This and other banking” to build an extensive Islamist business network.
instances of violence and repression worked to discredit the Their campaign to Islamize society succeeded so well that
Islamists. Third, when a new round of elections came in 1993, Nimeiri decreed the enactment of the shari
a penal laws
the king changed the election law, thus weakening the chances (hudud) in 1983.
of a new Ikhwan-controlled Islamist coalition, the Islamic
Work Party. The outcome was predictable: poor voter turn- A popular uprising in 1985 enabled Suwar al-Dhahab to
out, and less than half of the original seats for the Islamists. topple Nimeiri through a military coup, and in the elections
of 1986 the Ikhwan candidates successfully ran as the leaders
The failed peace process between Palestine and Israel has of the new National Islamic Front (NIF). Their influence
rendered relations with the Brotherhood all the more delicate continued to rise, to the point that most observers believe that

Islam and the Muslim World 347
Ikhwan al-Safa

the military coup led by Omar al-Bashir in 1989 was actually traditions, and a critical stance toward what they perceived to
staged by the Ikhwan. Certainly, until the fallout between be the cultural and political stagnation of the time. The
Bashir and Turabi in 2000–2001, Sudan was ruled by the evidence in the text, as well as references to them in early
NIF, with Turabi as its chief ideologue. Isma
ili writings suggest that the philosophy reflected in the
Rasail was closely affiliated with Isma
ili aspirations of the
The 1990s were marked by a hardening of the NIF’s one- pre-Fatimid period.
party authoritarian regime, the imposition of an intolerant
Islamization of Sudanese northern society, and the intensifi- Intellectual Approach
cation of the war against the southern forces—a civil war that Beyond what initially appears to be an encyclopedic work,
since 1983 has killed over two million people. Though there is a far-ranging and comprehensive program of intellec-
Turabi’s writings project a progressive and almost liberal tual and educational reform. Such an agenda of reform was
Islamist position on democracy and human rights, the United founded on three assumptions.
Nations’ International Labor Organization and numerous
human rights groups have protested the use of torture, ethnic First, the Ikhwan acknowledged the existence of “sciences
cleansing, and the return of slavery to the Sudan. The and wisdoms,” some divinely inspired, which had been pro-
Sudanese situation in the early 2000s appears as precarious as duced by past faith communities, individuals, and learned
ever, unless Bashir’s post-Turabi regime develops a more societies. This base of knowledge represented a foundation
open Islamist political agenda. for developing a synthesis, appropriate to a new time and
circumstances. Such a synthesis would harmonize Quranic
See also Banna, Hasan al-; Fundamentalism; Qutb, and Muslim values and ideals with the best that all other
Sayyid; Reform: Arab Middle East and North Africa; religious philosophical systems had to offer.
Turabi, Hasan al-.
Second, the ultimate goal of such a synthesis, taught and
BIBLIOGRAPHY properly applied to life and society, was a moral one. It was
Hinnebusch, Raymond A. “State and Islamism in Syria.” In the advancement of human beings in their material life and
Islamic Fundamentalism. Edited by Abdel Salam Sidahmed conditions and their spiritual lives here and in the hereafter.
and Anoushirami. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996. Such an objective was best fulfilled through personal moral
Lia, Brynjar. The Society of Muslim Brothers: The Rise of an and intellectual growth and spiritual development through
Islamic Mass Movement. Reading, U.K.: Ithaca, 1998. sound teaching and learning. This, however, assumed a
foundation of knowledge, pedagogy, and the capacity to
Mitchell, Richard P. The Society of Muslim Brothers. Foreword
synthesize and assimilate existing resources through the apby John O. Voll. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. plication of intellectual and moral discipline. This personal
commitment and emphasis on character development re-
Sihahmed, Abdel Salam. Politics and Islam in Contemporary
ceives a great deal of emphasis in the Rasail. Piety, compas-
Sudan. Richmond, U.K.: Curzon, 1997.
sion, gentleness, and humility are prerequisites to wisdom
and virtue. The attainment of such wisdom is the highest
David L. Johnston
quality of Muslim learning, hikma, a religious and philosophical wisdom.

Third, the acquisition of knowledge as a virtue that fosters
IKHWAN AL-SAFA moral character created in turn a society with a common set
of civic values and behavior. Thus, the individual, social, and
Ikhwan al-Safa, literally “Brethren of Purity” or more broadly
religious goals intersected in the Ikhwan’s vision. The buildthe “Fellowship of the Pure,” is a term used to designate a
ing of this foundation of learning drew upon the following
group of Muslim intellectuals who compiled the well-known
major sources:
encyclopedia of learning called the Rasail Ikhwan al-Safa.
Many of them lived in the tenth century, constituting a Mathematical and natural sciences
collaborative forum for discussion, debate, and writing that
Scriptures revealed through prophets
led to the composition of fifty-two epistles of the Rasail.
Nature and the environment
The consensus of modern scholarship is that the philo- Inspiration vouchsafed to purified souls
sophical attitudes and ideas reflected in the Rasail are consistent and have much in common with views developed by Each source was capable of being converted into a series of
Shi
ite Isma
ili thinkers of the same period. Their writings disciplines, further formalized into a curriculum, directed at
reflect clearly a vibrant philosophical orientation, strong students through sessions involving reading, study, and disfamiliarity with the major sciences, religious and intellectual cussion. These were divided into four broad areas:

348 Islam and the Muslim World
Imam

Mathematics and deductive subjects, including, inter- BIBLIOGRAPHY
estingly enough, music Nanji, Azim. “On the Acquisition of Knowledge in the Rasil
Physical and natural sciences, including the study of Ikhwan al-Safa.” Muslim World 66 (1976): 262–271.
biology of living things and culture Nasr, Sayyed Hossein. Islamic Cosmological Doctrines. London:
Psychology and intellectual inquiry Thames and Hudson, 1978.
Religious science and knowledge, including ethics and Netton, Ian. Muslim Neoplatonists: An Introduction to the Thought
governance of the Brethren of Purity. London: George Allen and
Unwin, 1982.
The hermeneutical approach of the Ikhwan, and their Poonawala, Ismail. K. “Ikhwan al Safa.” In Vol. 7, The
blending of knowledge traditions, reflects the growth and Encyclopedia of Religion. Edited by Mircea Eliade, et al.
diversity of learning in the Muslim world of the ninth and New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1987.
tenth centuries. In particular, the translation of the ancient
heritage of Greece and the Mediterranean world had made Azim Nanji
available to Muslims tools from philosophy and science that
could serve to underpin an interpretation and explanation of
Quranic principles. The Ikhwan like other Muslim philosophers or rationalist groups, such as the Mu
tazila, were IMAM
committed to building such an intellectual framework, but in
the process they wished to affirm a commitment to core The word “imam” is an Arabic term signifying a leader, a
notions such as tawhid, the unity of God, the necessity of model, an authority, or an exemplar. The term occurs in the
religious faith, law, and salvation, which they perceived, Quran, for example at 2:124, with reference to God’s promquoting the Quran (89:26), as the return of the contented ise to make Abraham an “imam for the people,” and at 11:17
soul to the God of Unity. and 46:12, where the “Book of Moses” is characterized as an
“imam.” In early theological and juristic literature, the Quran
Just as the symbolic significance of numbers and mathe- and the sunna are sometimes referred to as imam, although
matical values reflected their methodological approach to the Quran does not describe itself as such. The leader of the
science, so with regards to the Quran, whose verses they congregational prayers is typically designated as an imam,
considered as having an interior, symbolic meaning (batin) and from the ninth century onwards the term was also used
that required a rational interpretation and a hermeneutical for leading Sunni religious scholars. Most commonly, howapproach. ever, the term refers to the caliph in the Sunni juristic
literature and, in Shi
ism, to the infallible guide of the
The Rasail also contains many references to Christian and community.
Jewish scriptures and traditions, acknowledging respect and
recognition of the commonalities the Abrahamic traditions Debates on the question of who was best qualified to be
share and the affirmation that an ecumenical spirit is a the imam and whether a sinful leader might be removed from
prelude to knowledge and appreciation of the other. In his position as the head of the community played an imporaddition, the Ikhwan draw from the literature of ancient Iran, tant role in the development of Sunni religious and political
India, and Buddhism. They used well-known stories and thought. Medieval Sunni jurists held the position of the imam
parables, such as the legend of Bilawhar and the Debate of the to be deducible from revelation rather than reason, and
Animals, which suggest the diverse milieu of the time, but are considered this position to be essential for the defense of
also indicative of the Ikhwan’s efforts to broaden and deepen Islam and the implementation of the sacred law, the shari
a. In
Muslim discourse by engaging it with the intellectual strands general, they required that the caliph/imam be a member of
of the time. Their approach thus reflects the ethos of the Muhammad’s tribe of Quraysh, be duly elected by the people
period—a time of debate, intellectual ferment, and synthesis or nominated by his predecessor, and possess moral probity,
in many fields of Muslim thought, including philosophy, religious knowledge, and the physical faculties necessary for
theology, law, and politics. the discharge of his duties. With the decline of the caliphate
and the rise to power of the military warlords, however, the
By and large their work was read by and influenced many jurists came to recognize that any ruler—and not necessarily
later Muslim thinkers. The Rasail were translated into many the caliph—who wielded effective political power was the
languages and transmitted all over the Muslim world. Their legitimate imam, as long as his actions did not flagrantly
writings have also attracted the attention of Muslim and other contravene the shari
a.
scholars in modern times, and their approach and commitment to education as the most constructive vehicle for change To the Shi
ites, the term imam has a different signification
appears to have stood the test of time altogether. It refers to a member of the family of the Prophet
(ahl al-bayt), and usually to a member of “the family” as
See also Falsafa; Shi
a: Isma
ili. descended from Muhammad’s daughter Fatima (d. 633) and

Islam and the Muslim World 349
Imamate

her husband
Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661). The history of protection, and when necessary, it was the imam who would
Shi
ism is marked by numerous disagreements on the precise lead the state in war with the enemies of Islam. This theoretiidentity and number of the imams, as well as on how to define cal presentation was rarely realized, and the gap between
the imam’s authority and functions; and many of these disa- theory and practice was recognized by other terms for the
greements have continued to the present, as have distinct actual holders of political power (khalifa, sultan, amir, and
Shi
ite communities. The Imamis, who came to be the most even shaykh) that were rarely used to describe leaders in the
numerous group among the Shi
ites, believe in twelve imams, theoretical works of jurisprudence, but were the standard
hence their common designation as “Ithna
asharis” or appellations in works of history and biography, and in the
“Twelvers.” increasingly popular mirror works, containing advice for
kings and governors. The compromise evident in the inter-
The Twelver imams are believed to be sinless, the reposi- face between the theory and the historical development of the
tory of authoritative knowledge, and indispensable for the Muslim community is neatly exemplified by the debate among
guidance and salvation of the community. The last of these Sunni thinkers concerning the imamate of one who, though
imams is believed to have gone into hiding in 874. While not the most pious of the community, has the appropriate
leading Twelver-Shi
ite jurists (mujtahids) have continued political skills.
the imam’s function of providing religious guidance and
leadership to the community (even as they have long debated It is perhaps in the Shi
ite tradition that the term imam has
the scope of their own authority in his absence), belief in his been subject to the most discussion. For all the Shi
a, the
eventual return is a cardinal feature of the Twelver relig- imam was the descendant of
Ali (the cousin and son-in-law of
ious system. the prophet Muhammad), who held both religious and political authority (irrespective of the extent of his own personal
BIBLIOGRAPHY power). The imam was commonly held to have inherited
these roles from the prophet Muhammad. In this sense, an
Amir-Moezzi, M. A. The Divine Guide in Early Shi
ism.
Translated by David Streight. Albany: State University of imam was like a prophet. However, in other ways the imam
New York Press, 1994. was distinguished from a prophet. In particular, the imam was
not the recipient of a divine revelation (wahy), but was
Calder, Norman. “The Significance of the Term Imam in
Early Islamic Jurisprudence.” Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der “inspired” to lead the community. This was often attributed
arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften. Edited by F. Sezgin. to an unusually close relationship with God, through which
Frankfurt: Institut fur Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen God guides the imam, and the imam in turn guides the
Wissenschaften, 1984. people. The divisions between the various contemporary
Madelung, Wilferd. “Imama.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Shi
ite groupings (Twelvers, Zaydis, and Isma
ilis) are, pri-
2d ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960. marily, over questions of the imamate (What authority does
he have? What power can he exert? Who, precisely, is the
Sachedina, A. A. Islamic Messianism: The Idea of Mahdi in
Twelver Shi
ism. Albany: State University of New York imam at the present time, and how is the imam selected or
Press, 1981. elected from among the Prophet’s descendants?). The Zaydi
Shi
a (so called because of their belief in the imamate of Zayd
b.
Ali, a son of the great-grandson of the prophet Muham-
Muhammad Qasim Zaman
mad) have determined the imam to be a learned and pious
descendant who comes forward to claim the office of the
imam. For Zaydis, there may be periods when the world is
IMAMATE devoid of an imam, and for some Zaydis, there may be times
when there are two Imams. The major Zaydi community is
Imamate is the English word used to describe the office of the based in Yemen, and the political leaders of Yemen were
imam. In works of Muslim jurisprudence, both Shi
a and usually considered imams. However, in 1962, the last Zaydi
Sunni, the leader of the Muslim state is referred to as the imam (Imam Ahmad Hamid al-Din) died, leading to a revoluimam. The term imam is also used in other religious contexts tion in Yemen and the end of the Zaydi imamate there. There
(such as a prayer-leader). This entry will concentrate on the has been no universally recognized imam for Zaydi Shi’ite
former usage. since then, though there is no theoretical bar to one emerging
in the future. The Isma
ili Shi
a have consistently argued that
The imam, in Sunni political theory, was the head of the the imam is the current oldest male in a long line of descen-
Muslim state, whose responsibility it was to ensure that the dants of the Prophet descended from Isma
il, the son of Ja
far
state operated in the correct Islamic manner. It was to the (the great-great-great grandson of the Prophet). Isma
il faimam that the Muslims should pay their alms (zakat) and land thered Muhammad, and the Isma
ili imams are all, suppostax (kharaj). It was with the imam that minority communities edly, descended from him. The Isma
ilis have splintered into
(such as Christians or Jews, normally termed “the protected various groups over the past one thousand years. Some
people” or ahl al-dhimma) would make their agreement of believe the line of imams to have disappeared and been

350 Islam and the Muslim World
Imamzadah

replaced with a line of “propogators” (du
at); many others Arjomand. Albany: State University of New York
have recognized a line of imams, right up to the pres- Press, 1988.
ent day. The current holder of the imamate (according to Momen, Moojan. Introduction to Shi
ite Islam. New Haven,
these Isma
ilis), is Karim Khan Agha Khan, who became Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985.
imam in 1971.
Robert Gleave
A most extensive discussion of the Shi
ite theory of the
imamate is that found within the Twelver Shi
ite tradition.
Twelver Shi
a (or Ithna
ashari) are so named because of their
belief in twelve imams (
Ali, followed by eleven descendants), IMAMZADAH
the last of whom has gone into hiding on a semipermanent
basis (ghayba), to return at some point in the future to judge Imamzadah, literally “one borne of an imam,” refers to a
humankind. The Twelver Shi
ite writers shared with some descendant of a Shi
ite imam and, by extension, to a shrine
Isma
ili theologians a rational argument for the existence of where such a descendant is buried. Imamzadahs exist throughan imam: God would not leave the world without some sort of out the Shi
ite world; their relative importance is determined
“guidance” (huda) for humanity, for to do so would make him by the perceived legitimacy of their genealogy. The major
both uncaring (in terms of neglect for his creation) and unjust tombs of Zaynab, daughter of the first imam,
Ali b. Abi
(in that people would be punished in the afterlife for sins Talib, and Ruqayyah, daughter of the third imam, Husayn,
committed due to a lack of guidance from God). The imam, are located in Damascus, Syria. Prominent imamzadahs in
then, becomes a necessary condition of humankind’s con- Iran include the tomb in Qum of Fatimah, also known as
tinuation of religious life in the world. In Twelver philo- Masumah, sister of the ninth imam, Riza, and the tomb of
sophical works (such as those of the Twelver Mulla Sadra [d. Ahmad b. Musa, popularly known as Shah Cheragh (King
1637]), the imam’s role is expanded, from a mere guarantor of Light) in Shiraz. Imamzadahs of less-certain provenance are
religious life to a creational conduit, through whom the world venerated in cities, towns, and the countryside. Although
was created, and by whom the world is maintained in exist- formally educated Shi
ites often disdain less well known
ence. In addition to these rational deliberations on the nature imamzadahs and view fervent devotion of them as tantamount
of the imam, there were exegetical efforts, whereby the to idolatry, those who visit imamzadahs approach the shrines
imams were identified with certain expressions within the with sincere faith and affection. Imamzadahs are regarded as
Quran. Quran 7:181, for instance, mentions people created accessible local representatives of divinity, and are appealed
by God to “guide [human beings] to the truth.” This for to as intercessors.
Twelver Shi
ite writers like the great Quranic exegete al-
Pilgrimage to an imamzadah is known as ziyarat, a formal
Tabarsi (d. 1158) is a clear reference to the imams. The
personal visit. The amount of time spent visiting an imamzadah
Twelver Shi
ite theologian al-Shaykh al-Tusi (d. 1067), for
is proportional to the saint’s importance. For example, three
example, outlines the qualities of an imam, which include
days are considered appropriate for a visit to Hazrat-e
designation (nass—by a previous imam), omniscience, being
Masumeh; one day suffices for ziyarat to Shah Cheragh.
the most excellent (afdal) of the people, and (most crucially)
Cursory visits are paid to small neighborhood shrines. Pilbeing infallible (ma
sum).
grims visit the shrines in much the same spirit as they would
While the strictly political functions of the imam in Shi
ite visit senior relatives.
thought do not differ significantly from those outlined in
Imamzadahs have distinct characters, and are often re-
Sunni writings, the notion (particularly evident in Isma
ili
garded as having specialties related to the character and
and Twelver writings) of the imam’s infallibility (
isma), both
personal history of the individual to whom they are dedicated.
in terms of interpretation and in terms of behavior, makes the
For example, the Seyyed
Ala al-din Husayn shrine in Shiraz,
Shi
ite conception distinctive. The imam, therefore, holds a
burial place of an imamzadah who died at thirteen years of
more central role in Shi
ite community life than the imam of
age, is renowned as a site where children may be cured. Other
Sunni political theory. He is both perfect political leader and
shrines cure particular diseases or provide special kinds of
unchallenged religious authority.
assistance. Female imamzadahs are particularly responsive to
See also Ghayba(t); Mahdi; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver); women’s and girls’ concerns, such as the desire to find a
Shi
a: Zaydi (Fiver). suitable husband or have an easy childbirth.

Visits to small local imamzadahs are popular among many
BIBLIOGRAPHY women. Men are more numerous at formal religious sites,
Abrahamov, Binyamin. “al-Kasim Ibn Ibrahim’s Theory of which are generally less comfortable places for women to
the Imamate.” Arabica 34 (1987): 80–105. spend time. Locations of imamzadahs are suggested by dreams

Allama al-Hilli. “
Allama al-Hilli on the Imamate.” In Au- or the discovery of old tombstones, and confirmed by the
thority and Political Culture in Shi
ism. Edited by S. A. occurrence of miracles. Graves of popular imamzadahs are

Islam and the Muslim World 351
Internet

marked by zarihs, often elaborate barred enclosures that MSAs). Their concerns remain the concerns of Muslims
surround the tombs and protect them from visitors anxious to worldwide: to foster cyber Islamic environments that reincarry away some of the shrine’s blessing, or barakat. Letters of force Muslim values no matter what the dominant culture or
petition addressed to the saints as well as money and gifts may the vocational demands that individual Muslims face.
be placed inside the zarih to signal vows made or answered.
Shrines that attract many visitors may be divided into sepa- The Boundaries of Digital Islam
rate men’s and women’s sections, each on one side of the zarih. One of the most fertile and recurrent metaphors from Muslim imagery is the Straight Path. It is first introduced in the
Political figures eager to demonstrate their piety may pay opening chapter of the Quran. “Guide us on the Straight
well-publicized visits to prominent shrines or assure that the Path,” each Muslim asks of Allah each day and each time that
shrines are refurbished with government funds. Since the he or she engages in canonical prayer (salat). The Straight
advent of the Islamic Republic in 1979 in Iran, imamzadahs in Path, and only the Straight Path, leads to peace, to truth, to
that country have received a great deal of official attention certainty, in this world and also in the next.
and investment. Shrines are maintained by support from
donations given to the imamzadahs or, lacking these, from the The boundaries of digital Islam reflect the scriptural,
government endowments (awqaf ) office. Popular imamzadahs creedal, and historical boundaries of Islamic thinking before
are frequently located near bazaars, which benefit from the the Information Age. There can be no Islam without limits or
flow of pilgrims. As sacred space, shrines can provide sanctu- without guideposts. One cannot have a Straight Path unless
ary and often serve as focal points for Shi
ite rituals, such as what is beyond or outside or against the Straight Path is

Ashura observances. known. Cyberspace, like social space, must be monitored to
be effectively Muslim. As Gary Bunt has noted, “much is
See also Devotional Life; Dreams; Imam; Pilgrimage: done by Muslims in the name of Islam that is dismissed as
Ziyara; Religious Beliefs; Religious Institutions. inappropriate, or worse, by other Muslims. Not every surfer
(Muslim or non-Muslim) is able to make appropriate judg-
BIBLIOGRAPHY ments, or possess the knowledge to determine ‘the truth.’”
Ayoub, Mahmoud. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of
the Devotional Aspects of
Ashura in Twelver Shi
ism. The Yet the horizontal, open-ended nature of the Internet
Hague: Mouton, 1978. makes the boundaries of digital Islam more porous and more
Betteridge, Anne H. “Muslim Women and Shrines in Shiraz.” subject to change than those of its predecessors. There are
In Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East, 2d ed. Edited by still the same guideposts: the scripture (the Quran), the
Donna Lee Bowen and Evelyn A. Early. Bloomington: person (the Last Prophet) and the law (with the ulema or
Indiana University Press, 2002. religious specialists as its custodians). Each has to be defined
Chelkowski, Peter. “Imamzadah.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia or redefined in cyberspace in order to reflect the staggering
of the Modern Islamic World. New York: Oxford University diversity within the worldwide Muslim community (umma).
Press, 1995. The cyber-umma remains a subset of, not a substitute for, the
Friedl, Erika. “Islam and Tribal Women in a Village in Iran.” actual umma.
In Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives. 3d edition.
Edited by Nancy Auer Falk and Rita M. Gross. Belmont, The most profound diversity is the global distribution of
Calif.: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2001. Muslims themselves. Muslims comprise between one-quarter
Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shi
ite Islam. New Haven: and one-third of the world’s population. More Muslims are
Yale University Press, 1985. Asian than African, more are African than Arab, and many
Muslims now live outside their countries of origin, whether
Anne H. Betteridge in Europe or North America. It is Euro-American Muslim
immigrants who form the leading edge for change in the
Muslim world as a whole. Children of the information technology revolution, they have a heightened sense of diversity,
INTERNET at the same time that they use expanded human and material
resources to link themselves with other, like-minded groups.
The Islamic presence in cyberspace relates to both religious
authority and the accessibility of authoritative texts, scrip- There is a debate about whether or not the Internet
tural and juridical, reflecting a spectrum of views internal to encourages democracy in the Muslim world. Some cybernauts
the diverse Muslim community. Digital Islam projects Mus- have assumed that the expansive technology of the World
lim values yet is also bound by them. It is further influenced Wide Web makes it as democratic in access as it is global in
by the American origins of the World Wide Web: Afro-Asian scope. But others claim that the Internet further shores up
Muslim students who came to the United States to be trained traditional authority, since only certain groups of Asian (or
as engineers were also the first to create specifically Islamic Arab or Iranian) Muslim immigrants get their views projected
websites (especially through Muslim Student Associations, or on web pages in cyberspace. The South Asian cultural critic

352 Islam and the Muslim World
Internet

Ziauddin Sardar (1996), for instance, lambasts cyberspace as is too early to predict how transformative the Internet will be,
“social engineering of the worst kind. . . . The supposed its impact on individual, communal, and national identity is
democracy of cyberspace only hands control more effectively growing.
back to a centralized elite, the ideology of the free citizen
making everyone oblivious to the more enduring structures The challenge for Muslim cybernauts is the same as for
of control.” other “netizens” (a neologism meaning “internet citizens”):
How to define place and community in new ways that do not
The Internet and the Information Age oppose virtual and real but rather see them as complemen-
For those Muslims who do have access to cyberspace, two key tary? Can social networking in the flows of the information
terms frame their experience of the Internet. Both terms, superhighway provide an alternate context within which to
Muslim networks and the Information Age, come together in build communities as small as a kinship group, or as large as
digital Islam. Muslim networks precede and inform the Infor- a nation?
mation Age. Manuel Castells accents the difference inaugurated
by the information technology revolution. This revolution The cybernetic revolution provides unprecedented opdid not erase prior networks, but it did enhance the way they portunities for local and transnational community formation.
function. The information technology revolution has made Whether Muslims aggregate in virtual associations, such as
the internal diversity and historical networking of Muslims cyber-Muslim chat groups, or actual networks, such as Women
more apparent. The Internet, in particular, opens up access to Living Under Muslim Laws (<http://www.wluml.org>), they
communities that were closed or inaccessible, thus facilitat- project a common pattern of fragmentation, dispersal, and
ing an investigation of the ways in which diverse peoples reaggregation. In this era of mass migration, when violence
encounter their diversity and interpret their experiences. It and economic necessity have forced many to travel, diasporic
provides options for new forms of collective interaction. Muslims are split from their birth communities. They are
compelled to negotiate multiple speaking positions as they
During the 1990s, the Internet became part of daily life in imagine and project national identities. Nationalism today,
many parts of the world. While access in Africa and Asia though geographically fragmented, is socially networked
remains limited for economic and political reasons, grass- through language and systems of meaning that allow particiroots organizations are learning how to exploit the democra- pants to share cultural practices and experiences. People are
tizing potential of e-connectivity and to circumvent attempts able to diversify their participation in various communities to
to centralize control. In Malaysia, for example, networks reflect shared interests rather than shared place or shared
opposed to the government have established a tiered system ancestry. They may also form contingent virtual communiof distribution. Elites with computer access download mate- ties to respond to emergencies at the collective and individual
rials as hard copies, which are then widely distributed into levels, as well as to provide companionship, social support,
rural areas, where they can be read aloud to groups of and a sense of belonging.
illiterate people. Virtual communities are becoming the norm,
even as technophiles debate with neo-Luddites about whether The Internet seems to empower individuals who would
they are the harbingers of a brave new world or the end of not otherwise have a public voice to express and present their
fully human life. opinions to strangers. However divergent from the norm, an
individual can insist on his or her unorthodox position. A
While the information revolution emerges out of techno- debate that could be closed in real space by the assertion of
logical developments and organizational patterns long in dominance by a majority remains open in virtual space.
place throughout the world, it can be marked as a revolution Consider the fierce debate concerning women’s rights as
because of its difference from these same antecedent patterns. human rights and Muslim women as fully the equal of
What is different are the speed, scope, and directness of Muslim men. Often this debate centers on one hadith of the
communication, nowhere more evident than in the concept prophet Muhammad, to wit, that “a nation which places its
of telepresence. affairs in the hands of a woman shall never prosper.” Traditionalists have used it to deny women any role in affairs of
Telepresence and Resistance state or the public domain, but a contemporary Nigerian
Telepresence is a new form of association, and, as such, it jurist, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has demonstrated through an
compels a reconsideration of the meaning of community: essay circulated on the Internet (at <www.gamji.cm/sanusi.
What is community when participants do not share place but htm>) the extent to which rival interpretations of this hadith
can communicate as if they did? If shared place is not a render it suspect as the eternal norm governing Muslim
necessary condition, is the notion of community as embodied women’s access to professional employment and politicontact a romantic projection of an idealized past? Sociolo- cal power.
gists since the nineteenth century have been worrying about
the impact of technology on community, as though it pos- Heteroglossia and contestation do not automatically resessed a solid, immutable core. But a century later, communi- place the ideological closure of other forms of telecommunities survive, albeit in less solid but no less real forms. While it cation such as newspapers, television, radio, and even telephone.

Islam and the Muslim World 353
Internet

Still, dissension that might have been quashed previously in conduit and the center for the one billion strong umma. Yet
an environment where hegemonic discourse held sway might the HADI-sponsored websites have little relationship to
today persist beyond presumed endings. To the extent that other cyber-Muslim voices with a variant notion of Islamic
the necessarily horizontal nature of relationships on the Net loyalty and ritual practice.
challenges traditional hierarchies, the democratizing potential of the Net holds out hope for people living under Among the numerous alternative Muslim websites, two
authoritarian rule in many postcolonial Muslim states. kinds contrast sharply with Islamicity in Cyberspace. One is
the principal Twelver Shi
ite website at <www.al-islam.org>.
Consequences of the Information This site, like HADI, originates from North America, in this
Technology Revolution case from Canada, but instead of the dominant Sunni stress
The Information Age is an age defined by media, whether on scripture and Prophetic practice, it projects a personal
print (newspapers), auditory (the radio and telephone), audio- loyalty to
Ali, the cousin/son-in-law of the Prophet and an
visual (television and movies), or print-auditory-visual-tactile individual whom Shi
ite Muslims esteem as one of the
(the World Wide Web). There could be no World Wide Infallibles, or perfect beings who guide others to Allah. Also
Web without antecedent technological breakthroughs, yet it reflecting a personal loyalty, but to other semidivine mediarepresents the culmination of a process the further consetors, are numerous Sufi sites, among them those dedicated to
quences of which no one yet knows. While Muslims did not
the Chishti-affiliated Sufi Order of the West and its founder,
create the World Wide Web, they have been among its
Hazrat Inayat Khan. For example, <www.cheraglibrary.org/
beneficiaries, at least in those nodes of the global capitalist
library.htm> is the home page of a Chishti devotee from New
community where Muslims work, live, and pray either in
Mexico, and it offers a broad appeal to numerous, nontheir own cosmopolitan centers or as part of the demographic
Muslim spiritual paths, all under the canopy of a universal
pluralism of Western Europe, North America and South/
perspective of Sufism.
Southeast Asia.

What will be the consequence of the information technol- The huge conceptual gap between the IslamiCity sites and
ogy revolution for Islam during the next two decades? Castells their Shi
ite or Sufi counterparts illustrates the second major
has argued that it will augur the biggest revolution experi- demurral from a cyber-utopia of the sort that Castells proenced by humankind since the invention of the Greek alpha- jects. Differences in virtual space will be as multiple and
bet in 700 B.C.E. It is too early to confirm Castells’ grand myriad as ground-level disparities within the umma. Not only
vision, but even if one acknowledges its long-term potential, will there be a limited number of Muslims who have access to
its immediate impact has to be qualified on two major points. the World Wide Web, but those who do become Muslim
First, the boundaries of religious knowledge are not so netizens will find many competing notions of Islamic loyalty
easily or so swiftly changed. The major web site for Mus- and options for ritual practice. It will also continue to matter
lims in the Euro-American diaspora today is IslamiCity in where one resides. In Malaysia or Turkey the government is
Cyberspace, located at <www.islam.org>, <www.islamic.org>, less prone to monitor or to filter websites than in Saudi
and <www.islamicity.org>. Arabia or Syria, and, while hacking can take place as easily
within a cyber-Islamic environment as elsewhere, it will
It has been embraced by Muslim Student Associations occur more often in border zones of actual conflict, such as
throughout North America, at the same time that it has Palestine and Kashmir. Because information technologies,
benefited from the early endeavors of student-based like religious traditions, are inherently conservative, they
webmasters to create Cyber Islamic environments. Because tend to reinforce global structures and asymmetries rather
IslamiCity in Cyberspace claims 120 million hits since Janu- than to bode a new era for civil society and transformative
ary 2001, it would seem that it fulfills its mission, namely, to justice. The information technology revolution will continue
service the global Muslim ecommunity. to benefit diasporic Muslims more than their homeland co-
But does IslamiCity actually represent all Muslims, in religionists. The disparity between north and south, between
geographic space as well as in cyberspace? IslamiCity in rich and poor will be as evident, alas, among Muslims as it is
Cyberspace is itself an offshoot of HADI, the acronym for a among non-Muslims, at least for the foreseeable future.
Saudi overseas holding company based in California: Human
See also Globalization; Networks, Muslim.
Assistance and Development International. In Arabic, hadi
means guide or leader. Hadi is also one of the “99 Most
Beautiful Names of God,” and it echoes the phrase from the BIBLIOGRAPHY
Quran cited above: “Guide us on the Straight Path.” In this Bunt, Gary R. Virtually Islamic: Computer-Mediated Communicase, however, the Straight Path guides the Muslim cybernaut cation and Cyber Islamic Environments. Lampeter: Univertowards norms and values that reflect the Saudi sponsors of sity of Wales Press. 2000.
HADI. It reflects the effort of the Saudi government to Castells, Manuel. The Information Age: Economy, Society, and
project itself as the bastion of Islamic orthodoxy, at once the Culture. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 1997.

354 Islam and the Muslim World
Intifada

Eickelman, Dale F., and Anderson, Jon W., eds. New Media as a form of collective punishment and for security reasons. In
in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere. Bloom- short, Israeli repression and unmet Palestinian expectations
ington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999. of freedom and independence contributed to years of pent-up
Mandaville, Peter. “Digital Islam: Information Technology frustration, despair, and rage.
and the Changing Boundaries of Religious Knowledge.”
International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern Like the first Intifada, Palestinians in October 2000 began
World Newsletter, no. 2 (March 1999): 21–24. by using nonviolent methods. After 144 Palestinians had been
Sardar, Ziauddin. Cyberfutures: Culture and Politics on the killed, however, Islamist groups, such as HAMAS and Islamic
Information Superhighway. New York: New York Univer- Jihad, began a campaign of suicide bombings against mostly
sity Press, 1996. civilians in the occupied territories and Israel, while groups
associated with Fatah organization, such as al-Aqsa Martyr’s
Bruce B. Lawrence Brigade, focused on resistance against Israeli army incursions
Miriam Cooke and conducted attacks on settlers in the West Bank and Gaza.
Starting in January 2002, al-Aqsa Brigade also began conducting suicide bombings against mostly Israeli civilians, a
practice condemned by the international community. Yasir
INTIFADA
Arafat, head of Fatah and the PLO, and president of the
Palestinian Authority (PA) since 1996, did not initiate the
Intifada (“shaking off”) is the name given to two Palestinian Intifada, but he reportedly gave tacit approval to armed
uprisings against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and resistance and terrorism, despite his promise made in the
Gaza Strip. The first began in December of 1987 as a popular Oslo Accords in 1993 to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to
uprising, its hallmark being the image of Palestinian youths renounce “the use of terrorism and other acts of violence.”
throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied
territories. This Intifada was triggered by an incident in Gaza Sharon became Israel’s Prime Minister on 6 February
that turned violent and subsequently spread rapidly to the 2001. A proponent of Greater Israel, an architect of the
West Bank territories. Over the next several years, the Intifada settlements, and an opponent of the Oslo process, he proescalated, involving demonstrations, strikes, riots, and vio- ceeded, with broad public support, to use harsh measures
lence against Israelis. The Intifada lasted until 1993 when, in against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. In
response to the uprising, the Oslo Accords were drawn up response to Palestinian violence, he initiated a policy of
between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. assassinations, euphemistically called “targeted killings,” of
suspected terrorists leaders, but which included activists and
Al-Aqsa Intifada began after Ariel Sharon, a leader of the innocent bystanders. He reoccupied major Palestinian cities,
Israeli right-wing LIKUD Party, visited al-Haram al-Sharif using helicopter gunships, war planes and tanks. Some of
(Temple Mount), in Jerusalem, on 28 September 2000. Al- Sharon’s methods were condemned by both human rights
Haram, which contains al-Aqsa Mosque, is the third holiest groups and the United States.
shrine of Islam. The visit was provocative to Palestinians,
especially because Sharon was accompanied by one thousand The Intifada was costly to the Palestinians, Israel, and the
riot police, but what triggered the Intifada the following day United States during the first thirty months. Some strategists,
was the Israeli police use of live ammunition and rubber including Palestinian analysts, considered the militarization
bullets against unarmed, rock-throwing Palestinian demon- of the Intifada to be a blunder. The Oslo process was
strators, killing six and injuring 220. destroyed,
Arafat sidelined, the Palestinian economy damaged, and the PA areas occupied, while settlement construc-
The fundamental cause of al-Aqsa Intifada was the break- tion continued apace. Sharon’s harsh measures cost the lives
down, in July 2000, of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process of over 2,000 Palestinians, of whom most were civilians,
that had begun with the Oslo Accords of 1993. Palestinians including about 275 children. In addition, the Palestinians
expected that the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) lost much popular, moral, and diplomatic support around the
recognition of Israel, which was a part of that agreement, world. The Intifada also cost the lives of over 700 Israelis,
would lead to an end of the thirty-three-year Israeli occupa- most of whom were civilians, brought insecurity to their lives,
tion of the West Bank and Gaza, and to the establishment of a and resulted in the loss of faith in the Palestinians as peace
Palestine state. However, the number of Israeli settlers in the partners.
West Bank and Gaza doubled to 187,000 and increased to
170,000 in East Jerusalem in the 1990s, and Israel confiscated See also Conflict and Violence; HAMAS; Human Rights.
more Palestinian land for the settlements and their access
roads. Israel extended its policy of restricting the movement BIBLIOGRAPHY
of Palestinians, and of establishing checkpoints where Pales- Lockman, Zachary, and Beinin, Joel. Intifada: The Palestinian
tinians experienced humiliation. Israel also continued to Uprising Against Israeli Occupation. Boston: South End
demolish homes and to uproot and burn olive and fruit trees, Press, 1989.

Islam and the Muslim World 355
Iqbal, Muhammad

O’Ballance, Edgar. The Palestinian Intifada. New York: Mac- Although calling for practical action in the world, Iqbal’s
millan, 1998. poetry remained steeped in erudite, abstract, and metaphorical language and in the metrical conventions of the Persian
Philip Mattar tradition. At the same time he mixed in allusions to European
literature and contemporary events. His most ambitious
work, the Javid Nama (1932), a kind of Divina Commedia,
recounts the poet’s journey through the solar system, guided
IQBAL, MUHAMMAD by the great Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi (1207–1273 C.E.),
(C. 1877–1938) encountering a wide range of mythic and historical figures.
The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930) sets
Muhammad Iqbal, South Asian poet and ideological innova- forth his social and religious philosophy, which seeks to
tor, wrote poetry in Urdu and Persian and discursive prose, construct a concept of a dynamic, democratic society inspired
by the Quran and the life of the prophet Muhammad.
primarily in English, of particular significance in the formu-
Rejecting the goals of secular nationalism associated with
lation of a national ethos for Pakistan. A popular lyric and
Europe as a false division of matter and spirit, Iqbal’s ventures
patriotic poet in his youth, he later shifted to more philointo politics as president of the Muslim League in 1930,
sophical themes that sought to discover in the heritage of
participation in the London Round Table Conferences in
Islam a spirit of individual and social activism that would
1931 and 1932, and occasional commentary, set forth a
inspire an alternative path to modernity and demonstrate the
positive vision of a modern Muslim social and political order.
universal relevance of Islam for the modern world. An opponent of nationalism, particularly the Indian nationalist move- See also Liberalism, Islamic; Persian Language and
ment, he promoted a renewed aspiration for a worldwide Literature; South Asia, Islam in; Urdu Language,
Muslim umma. Nevertheless, his advocacy of Muslim social Literature, and Poetry.
self-sufficiency and his occasionally more specific political
statements were later construed in Pakistan as the guiding BIBLIOGRAPHY
principles for the country’s separation from India.
Iqbal, Muhammad. The Secrets of the Self (Asrar-i-Khudi): A
Philosophical Poem. Translated by Reynold A. Nicholson.
Born in Sialkot, Punjab, of Kashmiri background and
Lahore, Pakistan: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1940.
modest economic circumstances—his father had a small
Iqbal, Muhammad. Javid-Nama. Translated by A. J. Arberry.
tailoring and embroidery shop—Iqbal received an early edu-
London: George Allen and Unwin, 1966.
cation in Arabic and Persian and a British colonial education
that earned him a masters degree in philosophy at Govern- Iqbal, Muhammad. The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in
Islam. 1951. Reprint, Lahore, Pakistan: Sh. Muhammad
ment College, Lahore, where he also established his reputa-
Ashraf, 1971.
tion as a poet. His academic brilliance won him a scholarship
to continue his studies at Cambridge University in 1905, Iqbal, Muhammad. Iqbal: a Selection of the Urdu Verse. Translated by D. J. Matthews. London: School of Oriental and
while also qualifying him as a barrister. He then earned a
African Studies, University of London, 1993.
Ph.D. in philosophy from Munich in 1908 with a dissertation,
Schimmel, Annemarie. Gabriel’s Wing: A Study of the Religious
The Development of Metaphysics in Persia, which was published
Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1963.
that year. His three years in Europe, during which he was
immersed in philosophical idealism, also inspired a powerful
David Lelyveld
concern with the historical circumstances of Muslims throughout the world in the face of the technological and political
domination of the West. His Urdu poem Shikwa (Complaint), in 1911, asked why God had allowed Muslims to fall IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF
from their position as leaders of humanity.
Founded in 1979 in the wake of a violent and dramatic
To reach a wider Muslim audience and establish a deeper
revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran walked a delicate
historical connection with the cosmopolitan civilization of
tightrope between modernity and theocracy. For millions of
Islam, Iqbal chose to write most of his later and more
Muslims throughout the world, the Islamic Republic inspired
philosophically ambitious poetry in Persian. Asrar-e khudi hope that Muslim law could be applied to a modern nation
(Secrets of the self, 1915), his first major poem in Persian, was state, while for others who were opposed to its agenda, the
a sharp rejection of the mystical goal of absorption into country stood out as a repressive, fearful regime.
undifferentiated being, which Iqbal associated with passivity
on the part of individuals and communities. For Iqbal, the The Islamic Revolution of 1978 and 1979 destroyed the
assertion of khudi, individuality, allows for the possibility of monarchy of the Pahlavis, who had pursued a secularization
love and creativity in the unfinished creation of the world. policy at the expense of the majority public opinion and

356 Islam and the Muslim World
Iran, Islamic Republic of

allowed foreign investment to control large sectors of the
national economy. Millions of Iranians of varying political
persuasions—leftists, merchants, and ulema—were particularly troubled by the predominant influence of the American
government on Iranian foreign policy and economic decisionmaking. Despite some gains for the population during the
White Revolution (1967–1963) most Iranians lived in poverty, totally alienated from the luxury of the Pahlavi regime,
and repressed by its security forces.

The revolution forced Muhammad Reza Shah (1919–1980)
to abandon the country by January 1979, ushering the return
of the exiled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989).
Although Khomeini had been in exile since 1964, his anti-
Western and anti-secularization messages had been distributed widely throughout the country, in both print and cassette form. In the wake of the shah’s exile, Khomeini returned
to Iran in February 1979, becoming the spiritual figurehead
of what was now an Islamic Revolution. On 1 April 1979,
Iranians voted overwhelmingly to found an Islamic Republic.
Their action was inspiring to some, and frightening to others.

From 1979 until 1982, Iran existed in a revolutionary
crisis mode. The entire apparatus of government had collapsed, along with the economy. The military and police
forces were in disarray, and battles between hard-line clerics
and more moderate politicians raged in an effort to determine
who would control the new society. The extreme anti-
Western, and particularly anti-American, tone of the revolu- Iranian clergymen wait to vote in Iranian parliamentary elections
tion cut Iran off from the West, compounding its economic in February, 2000, in the courtyard of the Masoumeh holy shrine
in Qum, Iran. Though Muhammad Khatemi, elected as president
problems, yet giving strength to its revolutionary credibility
in 1997 and reelected in 2001, is seen as a liberal reformer
among struggling nations. Although there were many fac- interested in opening ties with the West, his stances are balanced
tions against him, Khomeini was able to come to the forefront by a conservative Islamic legislature heavily influenced by the
of the government with the backing of the Revolutionary ulema. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
Guards, formed in 1979 to suppress opponents of the Islamic
Republic, and a series of revolutionary tribunals, which meted
States Embassy in Tehran, holding fifty-seven hostages for
out harsh justice to collaborators of the Pahlavi regime. For
444 days. This inflamed Western hatred of the revolution,
the next few years, those shaping the new Islamic government
fueling its radicals further. Moreover, in September 1980,
would completely crush their opposition in a bid to consoli-
Iraq invaded Iran, hoping to take advantage of its fragility to
date their power over Iran.
seize control of its large oil fields, as well as to prevent the
By the end of 1979, Iran had a new constitution, officially spread of the revolution across its borders. While antideclaring the nation an Islamic Republic. The government Western sentiment was fueling the purge of the military
was structured with an elected president, a prime minister establishment, Iran was now forced to mount a military
chosen by the president, and an elected parliament, the defense.
Majlis, and a twelve-member Council of Guardians, domi-
In the midst of these international problems, the Islamic
nated by six religious jurists with veto power over all legisla-
Republic’s first president, the secular leftist Abu ’l-Hasan
tion passed by the elected parliament. Finally, the most
powerful position in the government lay in the institution of Bani-Sadr (b. 1933), attempted to rein in the power of the
velayat-e faqih, which established the office of supreme jurist, ulema at home by consolidating the power of local revoluone who would rule on all workings of government on behalf tionary tribunals under the watch of the central government
of the Hidden Imam of Twelver Shi
ism. This jurist would be and by promoting secular reforms. However, the ulema
Khomeini, effectively making him the supreme leader of the resented his attempts to assert secular authority, as well as his
Islamic Republic. botched efforts to resolve the hostage crisis with the Americans and the escalating war with Iraq. By 1981 Bani-Sadr was
In 1980, the new republic faced serious new crises. In impeached and forced into exile in France, the same place he
November of 1979, students took control of the United had been exiled during the shah’s regime. Now the road was

Islam and the Muslim World 357
Iran, Islamic Republic of

paved for Khomeini and his Islamic Republic Party (estab- 1992 it went a step further and revoked government assistlished in 1979) to take full control of Iran. ance from any family with more than three children; and it
made abortion legal up to 120 days after conception.
In the first years of the Republic, a radical program of
Islamization purged all secularists and leftists from education, Such reforms made Khamanei and Iran’s third president,
civil service, the military, and other aspects of public life.
Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani (b. 1934), popular with mod-
Universities were particularly altered, with new curricula and erates in the country, but the republic continued throughout
libraries privileging Islamic values over all others, and all the 1990s and beyond to vacillate between periods of
students with leftist backgrounds barred from attendance. liberalization and moments of hard-line crackdown. Under
Strict sex-segregation in public was enforced, and women Rafsanjani, Iran’s markets became more open to Western
were required to wear the traditional hijab while in public. goods, but the clerical ruling class continued to exercise
The Islamic Republic’s strict moral codes were enforced by dramatic influence over all aspects of public life, particularly
the Revolutionary Guards, who maintained a vigilant watch in the realm of gender segregation and speaking out against
over society on behalf of the clerical ruling class. All secular Islam. Meanwhile, sales from Iran’s vast oil reserves could not
law was replaced by Islamic interpretations, and those who stabilize its economy, and people struggled to maintain their
rebelled against Islamization were subject to imprisonment.
families in the wake of increased prices.
Meanwhile, the war between Iran and Iraq continued. For
At the end of Rafsanjani’s second term, in 1997, spiraling
eight years these neighboring nations battled in a brutal war
inflation and public dissatisfaction with censorship ushered in
of attrition, ultimately resulting in 262,000 Iranian casualties
the presidency of Mohammad Khatami (b. 1943), a man
and 105,000 Iraqi deaths. Iran stunned the world by repelling
many saw as a reformer interested in opening up debate in
the Iraqis and maintaining its borders, but it was not without
Iranian political life and building social and political bridges
cost. Iraqi bombing left 1.6 million Iranians homeless, and
with the Western nations. Although he was reelected in 2001,
the nation was forced to dip deep into its already unstable
Khatami’s liberal positions were balanced by the clerical elite,
financial reserves to accommodate widowed families and
rebuild its damaged infrastructure. However, the Islamic who continue to exert their influence over a conservative
Republic was not toppled by Iraq; indeed, its ability to legislature. Opening up Iran’s public culture to the influences
maintain its sovereignty boosted public morale, despite the of Western consumerism, secular government and nonterrible human and economic costs. Islamic culture is still a sensitive issue in the Islamic Republic,
more than two decades after the beginning of its dramatic
In 1988 the war with Iraq ended, and Iranians now faced a revolution. Despite landslide victories in two presidential
hard question: Should they continue to reject all Western elections (1997 and 2001), in the elections for municipal and
overtures or was it possible to engage economically with village councils in 1999, and in the parliamentary elections in
Western nations and still remain Islamic in government? In 2000, Khatami and the reformists have made little progress in
the next decade, Iran restored diplomatic relations with many the power struggle against the clerical ruling elite.
European countries. However, it did not restore ties with the
United States, which continued to be its primary adversary on The creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran was one of the
the world stage. Even as late as 2002, the United States most dramatic events of the twentieth century. For millions
considered Iran part of an “axis of evil” in the world, while of Muslims throughout the world, its foundation was a
Iran continued regular anti-American protests in response. symbol of the continued validity of their religion for the
modern world. For those weary of theocracy, however, it
With the death of Khomeini in 1989, grief struck the stood as a symbol to be feared. For many Iranians and others,
Islamic Republic, and the ruling establishment had to find a the Islamic Republic continues to represent, in the words of
replacement for the society’s preeminent religious guide. its founder Khomeini, a “third way, neither East nor West.”
The new supreme jurist, Sayyed
Ali Khamanei (b. 1939),
had been president since 1981 and had assumed the position, See also Abu ’l-Hasan Bani-Sadr; Hashemi-Rafsanjani,
knowing full well that Iran faced tremendous difficulties.
Ali-Akbar; Khomeini, Ruhollah; Muhammad Reza
Normalizing the nation after years of revolution and war, and Shah Pahlevi; Revolution: Islamic Revolution in Iran.
stabilizing an economy facing a shocking demographic shift
would be difficult. In the early 1980s, the new regime had
BIBLIOGRAPHY
banned birth control and abortion, and the government
promoted the notion that all families should have as many Keddie, N. R. Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003.
children as they could provide for. This gave Iran a birthrate
of 3.9 percent by 1983, and the population nearly doubled to Mackey, Sandra. The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a
over sixty million people by 1990. That year the government, Nation. New York: Dutton, 1996.
overloaded with trying to provide for such a massive increase,
changed its policy, allowing contraception once again. In Nancy L. Stockdale

358 Islam and the Muslim World
Islam and Islamic

was not translated into Latin but there are indications that
IRHAB See Terrorism some of his ideas were known in the Latin West perhaps
through Hebrew sources and a number of Jewish philosophers who were ishraqi in their perspective.

The ishraqi school holds that the origin of philosophy is
ISHRAQI SCHOOL divine revelation and that this wisdom was handed down in
ancient times to the Persians and the Greeks, creating two
The term ishraq, from the Arabic root sh-r-q, meaning both traditions that met again in Suhrawardi, who spoke explicitly
illumination and orient, has been used in a general sense in of eternal wisdom or the perennial philosophy. This school
several contexts in Islam, including in reference to certain believes that authentic philosophy must combine the training
currents of Sufism. More specifically, however, the term of the mind with the purification of the heart and that all
ishraqi refers to the school of philosophy/theosophy founded authentic knowledge is ultimately an illumination. The ishraqis
by Shaykh Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi in the twelfth century always emphasized the unbreakable link between philosophy
C.E. The most important source of this school of thought is and spirituality and the salvific power of illuminative knowlthe major opus of Suhrawardi, Hikmat al-ishraq (“Theosophy edge. They considered God to be the Light of lights and all
of the Orient of Light” also known as The Philosophy of degree of cosmic reality to be levels and grades of light. They
Illumination), which is also the name of this school in tradi- rejected the sensualist epistemology of Aristotle and were
tional Islamic languages. Certain other works of Suhrawardi, critical of not only Aristotelian cosmology but also of his logic
especially his Hayakil al-nur (Temples of light), are also of and epistemology.
much importance for the later ishraqi tradition.
During the twentieth century the teachings of Suhrawardi
After Suhrawardi was killed by the political authorities in were introduced to the West by Henry Corbin and have
Aleppo in 1191, followers of his teachings went underground attracted many European philosophers. In Persia and certain
for a generation. But in the middle thirteenth century two other Islamic countries there is also a major revival of interest
major commentaries on Hikmat al-ishraq appeared, the first in Suhrawardi and the ishraqi school.
by Shams al-Din Shahrazuri and the second by Qutb al-Din
Shirazi, the next two major figures of the ishraqi school. From See also Falsafa; Ibn al-
Arabi; Mulla Sadra; Tasawwuf;
that time on, the teachings of this school became widespread, Wahdat al-wujud.
especially in Persia itself from which Suhrawardi had hailed.
Such figures as
Allama al-Hilli and Jalal al-Din Dawani BIBLIOGRAPHY
wrote commentaries on Suhrawardi in the thirteenth and Aminrazavi, M. Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination.
fourteenth centuries. The founder of the School of Isfahan, London: Curzon, 1997.
Mir Damad, who lived in the Safavid period that began in Corbin, Henry. History of Islamic Philosophy. Translated by L.
Persia in 1499 and lasted until the eighteenth century, was Sherrard. London: Kegan Paul International, 1993.
influenced by Suhrawardi and used the name Ishraq for his Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in
pen name. Mulla Sadra, his student, wrote one of the major Persia. London: Curzon, 1996.
works of the ishraqi school, his annotations on the Hikmat al- Ziai, H. Knowledge and Illumination. A Study of Suhrawardi’s
ishraq. Later Persian philosophers such as Sabziwari were also Hikmat al-ishraq. Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1990.
deeply interested in ishraqi teachings, and a figure such as the
nineteenth-century philosopher Shihab al-Din Kumijani was Seyyed Hossein Nasr
a purely ishraqi figure.

The school of ishraq also spread into India and had many
followers there, including Fathallah Shirazi and Muhammad ISLAM AND ISLAMIC
Sharif Hirawi. Suhrawardi’s teachings became in fact a part of
the program of traditional Islamic madrasas, a program that The word islam is a verbal noun (Ar., masdar) in Arabic for the
came to be known as the Nizami curriculum. The ishraqi action of submission or total commitment, usually referring
school attracted even the attention of Hindus and the Parsis to acceptance of and submission to the will of God. It is the
of India. name identifying the faith tradition and community of those
who believe that there is one God and that the prophet
Likewise, the teachings of the ishraqi school spread widely Muhammad was God’s messenger, and the person who subin the Ottoman Empire, especially in Anatolia, and produced mits is a “Muslim.” In the Quran, islam appears eight times.
some notable figures such as Isma
il Anqarawi, who lived in It is associated with the concept of din, which is translated in
the seventeenth century. The complete history of this school modern times as “religion” but has a broader sense of includin the Islamic world, especially in India and the Ottoman ing creed, normative standards, and the whole range of
Empire, has not been fully studied. As for the West, Suhrawardi standard behavior. The Quran affirms that “With God, the

Islam and the Muslim World 359
Islam and Other Religions

din is al-islam” (3:19), which can be translated more generally Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. The Meaning and End of Religion.
as stating “With God, the true way is submission” or more New York: Macmillan Company, 1963.
specifically, “With God, true religion is Islam.”
John O. Voll
In the historical development of the faith tradition and
community of Muslims, the term “Islam” is important in at
least two different frameworks. In religious thought, one
important issue was defining the relationship between Islam, ISLAM AND OTHER RELIGIONS
identified as submission to God expressed in observance of
ritual requirements and social behavior, and iman or the inner Understanding the relations between Muslims and a variety
faith of the believer. In this issue, the concept of islam was a of religious “Others,” including Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians,
component part of the broader structure and vocabulary of Hindus, Buddhists, as well as Africans, Chinese, Mongols,
theology. Turks, and Westerners, depends on how one defines religion
and religious. In addition, there is a diversity of Muslim
A second significant framework is that “Islam” was used as
identities that shapes the various perceptions of and relations
the term denoting the whole body of the faith tradition and
to religious Others, just as there are many identities other
the peoples and regions where Islam was practiced. Within
than religious ones that intersect with the Muslim-Others
this context, the identification of someone as a “Muslim” gave
duality, such as tribal, ethnic, linguistic, national, and the like.
emphasis to being a member of the community of those who
recognize the Quran as the record of God’s revelation and As with any categorization of identities and concepts, the
Muhammad as the messenger of God, with less emphasis on boundaries between Islam and Others remain fluid, and
the particular practices and behavior of the individual Muslim. exceptions can often be found. The most striking example of
this fluidity is the term umma, which came to mean, from the
This usage facilitated the transition to modern usage in
first centuries of Islam until today, the community of all
which “Islam” is identified in the scholarly study of this
Muslims in contradistinction to all Others, whether religious
religion as one of the major religions of the world. This
or not. Yet, initially, umma included Muslims as well as nonreification of “Islam” was similar to the processes of Western
Muslims, and it especially included Jews, as indicated in the
scholarly classification of other “world religions,” as in what
so-called Constitution of Medina negotiated by the prophet
came to be called “Hinduism” or “Confucianism.” Initially,
Muhammad as a basis for the migration of his nascent Islamic
other objectionable and historically inaccurate terms like
community from Mecca to Medina in 622 C.E. The umma
“Mohammedanism” were used but they have gradually been
referred to then was inclusive of all the peoples living in
displaced in common usage by “Islam.”
Medina under the leadership of the prophet Muhammad.
By the late twentieth century, in the context of the Islamic
It is nevertheless possible to generalize and say that the
resurgence, some made a distinction between “Muslim” used
history of Muslim-Other relations has been interpreted by
as an adjective and “Islamic.” The term Muslim is increas-
Muslims through the lenses of a tripartite theological division
ingly identified with the existing community and the pracof the human world: Muslims, who submit to the will of God
tices of people self-identified as Muslim. The term “Islamic”
as revealed in the Quran; People of the Book, who believe in
has sometimes been reserved for those instances where there
the same God although their knowledge comes from a disis a conscious effort to reflect the fundamental principles and
torted version of the original divine revelation; and Unbelievideals of Islam interpreted in a relatively restrictive way. In
ers, who either associate idols to God or deny God’s existence.
this usage, for example, a “Muslim state” is a state where the
This categorization emerged out of the unique historical
majority of the people are Muslim, while an “Islamic state”
context of the lifetime of the prophet Muhammad, (ca.
would be one in which there is a formal program of im-
570–632 C.E.) in central Arabia, and evolved over time, beplementation of the regulations and ideals of Islam. “Iscoming increasingly complex as Islam grew in numbers and in
lam” remains the identification of the religion underlying
geographical spread.
both usages.
The Lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad
See also Islamicate Society.
The first period of Muslim-Other relations corresponds to
the lifetime of the prophet Muhammad. The best sources on
BIBLIOGRAPHY these first relations between Muslims and religious Others
Arkoun, Mohammed. Rethinking Islam: Common Questions, include pre-Islamic poems, the Quran, early hadith, and
Uncommon Answers. Translated by Robert D. Lee. Boul- biographies. While the reliability of these sources for historider, Colo.: Westview, 1994. cal reconstruction has been highly debated in recent years, it
Asad, Talal. Genealogies of Religion. Baltimore, Md.: The remains possible to infer that prior to 610 C.E., when the
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. prophet Muhammad is believed to have received the first

360 Islam and the Muslim World
Islam and Other Religions

Quranic revelation, his encounters with religious Others The short history of Muslim-Jewish relations in Medina that
primarily included Christians and Jews that he may have met had started well with the Constitution of Medina ended up
in some Arabian oasis as well as during his northern caravan tragically with the disappearance of the Jewish tribes from the
trips into greater Syria. With subsequent revelations, which oasis. These various historical events are reflected in the
he continued to receive until his death in 632 C.E., the prophet many, and at times contradictory, Quranic passages regard-
Muhammad gradually distanced himself from the various ing the Jews in general and Muslim-Jewish relations in
tribal practices of his fellow Quraysh tribesmen while devel- particular.
oping a new Islamic identity, thereby turning most Meccans
of his own clan and tribe into religious Others too. Together This brief history holds the hermeneutical keys to the
with the earliest converts, the prophet Muhammad experi- subsequent treatment of Jews and other minorities on the
enced a series of encounters with religious Others that in- basis of analogy. The hermeneutical concept of abrogation
cluded an increasingly hostile Meccan resistance as well as (which holds that later revelations supercede earlier ones) has
hunafa (sg. hanif: monotheistic ascetics), Jews, and Christians been used at different times in Islamic history, but especially
of mostly unknown theological leanings, except for the small in the later part of the twentieth century, to claim more
number of early Muslim converts who sought refuge with intolerant and exclusivist positions regarding Jews, but others
Ethiopian Christians in the Abyssinian kingdom in 615 C.E. favor a return to the ideal of the constitution of Medina
because it implies that a more tolerant and inclusivist ap-
A greater formative influence came from 622 C.E. onward, proach was willed initially by the prophet Muhammad. In
after the prophet Muhammad had negotiated the Constitu- reconstructing these historical encounters, contemporary
tion of Medina, which allowed the Muslim community to Muslims and non-Muslims alike have uncovered a dual hismigrate there from Mecca. This agreement not only pro- torical process: The historical events of the pristine commuvided an escape for the nascent Muslim community increas- nity become paradigmatic models that shape future relations.
ingly threatened in Mecca, but it also propelled the prophet With newer historical events, new interpretations emerge,
Muhammad to the status of both arbitrator and religio- but always within the conceptual framework of what the
political leader of this oasis. Its two largest, formerly animist paradigm initially set forth. This process can be exemplified
tribes, the Aws and Khazraj, had been fighting each other for today in how the constitution of Medina serves as a rich
many years before they settled on the prophet Muhammad as historical and theological document to guide contemporary
their arbitrator. The Constitution stipulated the conditions reinterpretations of how Muslims ought to relate to religious
for the Prophet’s intervention as leader, as were the respec- Others, especially within contemporary nation-states in which
tive rights and responsibilities of the immigrant Muslims and Muslims comprise the majority population.
Ansars (the newly converted Medinan Muslims of the the
Aws and Khazraj), as well as those of the three small Jewish The Early Muslim Conquests: 632–750 C.E.
tribes (Banu Qaynuqa
, Banu Nadir and Banu Qurayza). The second period in Muslim-Other relations begins after
the death of the prophet Muhammad, in 632 C.E. With the
Within the Constitution, Jews were included in the defi- sudden departure of their religiopolitical leader, Muslims
nition of the one community or umma. This marked the developed additional and, at times, overlapping categorizabeginning of a short period of cooperation between Muslims tions and concepts to manage their relations with religious
and Jews that has left permanent traces in Muslims’ self- Others, whether within the nascent Islamic polity or outside
understanding as monotheists, such as the incorporation into of it. The dual categorization of the house of Islam (dar al-
Islamic beliefs of the long genealogy of Jewish prophets. In islam) versus the house of war (dar al-harb) emerged to
addition, early Muslims recognized Jesus as another Jewish describe the relations between Muslims in Muslim-controlled
prophet, albeit with some unique Christian characteristics, areas and Others in non-Muslim controlled areas.
such as the virgin birth and the special role he played in being
the messenger of the injil (Gospel). Other influences included Within Muslim-controlled areas, the concept of the prothe brief use of Jerusalem as the direction for daily prayers, tected people (ahl al-dhimmi) arose to regulate Muslim-Other
the development of fasting during the month of Ramadhan in relations. The dhimmis, organized collectively by religion,
opposition to and part imitation of the day of atonement (yom had to pay a head tax (jizya) and a land tax (kharaj) in exchange
kippur), and the emphasis on orality within a sacred textuality, for military protection by Muslim armies. They included
later developing into the unique religious legalism that makes Jews, Christians, and Sabians, as noted in the Quran, but
Islam so similar to Judaism. However, in 624, due to attacks soon also included Zoroastrians, who constituted the majorfrom the Meccans and accusations of treasons, the Jewish ity population of the Sassanian Empire, which was taken over
tribe of Banu Qaynuqa
was expelled from Medina. A year by Muslims within a decade of the Prophet’s death. There
later, after another defeat, the Banu Nadir suffered the same were a few exceptions to this general practice, such as the
fate. Finally, in 627, after a long siege of Medina itself, the Armenians contributing men to the Umayyad army to fight
barely victorious Muslims exterminated the last Jewish tribe, against the Byzantine Empire, thereby briefly avoiding the
the Banu Qurayza, under recurring accusations of treason. jizya tax. Yet, on the whole, these new categorizations and

Islam and the Muslim World 361
Islam and Other Religions

concepts remained central to Islam for over a thousand years. customary practices (
ada) in various parts of the expanding
They continue to this day to be used in their traditional Muslim world. This flexibility in the Islamic legal system to
meanings by many Muslims, while a few others reinterpret accommodate many local cultural practices that did not
them in light of new modern political realities. The silent directly infringe on central Islamic tenets greatly enabled the
majority probably dismisses these traditional categorizations long term consolidation of Islam wherever it spread. Muslimand meanings as no longer relevant. Other relations thus often proved to be a two-way bridge with
mutual influences.
The Consolidation of Power: 750–1258 C.E.
The centralization and consolidation of Muslim political An important incursion into the heart of Islamic lands
power was exemplified respectively by the first and second occurred when the Crusaders captured Jerusalem, in 1099.
halves of the Abbasid Empire (749–1258 C.E.). This long Their arrival was marked by massacres of both Muslims and
period witnessed a slow conversion process that led to the Jews. They were considered barbarians by the mostly Muslim
gradual emergence of majority Muslim societies in what came local population. Salah al-Din recovered Jerusalem in 1187
to be known as central Islamic lands from Spain (al-Andalus) without any bloodshed. The Crusaders slowly lost control of
to central Asia. Internally, most religious Others within their principalities until their last defeat, in 1302. The mem-
Muslim polities were Islamized over generations. In part ory of the Crusades remains alive to this day, having caused
because Islamic worldviews and practices became normative great distrust between Muslims and Christians in particular.
in these regions, exerting social pressure to convert, and in Today, many Arab Muslims use this historical vignette as a
part because dhimmi laws came to be perceived as discrimina- trope for interpreting mid- to late-twentieth and early twentytory and no longer as relevant in a period of pax islamica. first-century politics associated with the creation of the State
Externally, in addition to the People of the Book, Muslims in of Israel.
South and Central Asia came into contact with increasing
numbers of Hindus, Buddhists, and a variety of Turkic and The Continued Expansion of Islam: 1258–1798 C.E.
Chinese Others, which often rendered the boundary between After consolidation, Islam continued to spread through a
religion and culture harder to delineate. slow process of land migrations and conversions in Southeastern Europe; sub-Saharan Africa; and South, Southeast
The greatest experiment in coexistence and mutual reand East Asia, up to and into the colonial period. This was a
spect between Muslims on the one hand and Jews and
vast and mostly peaceful expansion on the peripheries of
Christians on the other is undoubtedly the case of Muslim
central Islamic lands, with two exceptions: the Ottoman
Spain, al-Andalus, during its own Umayyad dynasty (756–1031
Empire (1300–1918), centered in what is today called Tur-
C.E.). The degree of symbiosis that emerged, especially during
key, and the Mughal Empire (1483–1858) of South Asia.
the respective but not sequential reigns of the three
Abd al-
Between the two, the smaller and short-lived Safavid Empire
Rahmans (styled I, II, and III), is exemplary of its popular
(1501–1722) exemplified the internal Islamic conversion from
name, the Golden Age of Spain.
Sunni to Twelver Shi
ite Islam, bringing few changes to the
By the end of the weakened Abbasid Empire, the destruc- interpretation of religious Others. The continued presence,
tion brought about in the mid-thirteenth century by the albeit dwindling, of Zoroastrians, Assyrian Christians, and
Mongol invasions from the east to what had been the center Jews proved the long-term resilience of the traditional Isof Islamic power surprisingly resulted in the Islamic conver- lamic system of ahl al-dhimma, traces of which are found
sion of this new enemy. The changes brought about by this today in the fixed Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian seats in
rapid influx of new cultural traditions from peripheral nomadic the democratically elected parliament of the Islamic Repubcultures were therefore not as dramatic, but they did bring lic of Iran.
about a certain cleansing that resulted in a greater homogene-
At the height of its power in the sixteenth and seventeenth
ity in those parts of the Muslim world. A similar phenomenon
centuries, the Ottoman Empire expanded dramatically into
had already happened earlier at the extreme west of the
Southeastern Europe and besieged Vienna twice (1529 and
Islamic world, with the sequential waves of the al-Murabitun
1683). The Ottomans refined the millet system, an adminis-
(Almoravids 1056–1147) and the al-Muwahhidun (Almohads
1130–1269), sweeping from the Sahara into what is now trative elaboration on the ahl al-dhimma concept that accom-
Morocco and Spain. They were reacting in part to the modated religious diversity and often provided each religious
Christian Reconquista that was gradually taking over Muslim- community (milla) with a large degree of autonomy. Howcontrolled areas in the Iberian Peninsula. ever, the Ottomans also developed the practice of devshirme:
the forcible conscription and conversion to Islam of young
The long Abbasid period was marked by the consolidation Christian boys, especially in the Balkans, in order to build an
of Islamic laws that became normative and remain so up to elite military corps, the Janissaries. Since much benefit could
this day. They consolidated many practices regarding non- have come from a link to central power through one’s son, at
Muslims through the integration of earlier key concepts such times, Christian elite families, even some Muslim families,
as People of the Book and ahl al-dhimma, together with offered up their sons to the Ottomans voluntarily.

362 Islam and the Muslim World
Islam and Other Religions

At the same time, in South Asia, the Mughal Empire The Post-Colonial Period: 1945 to the Present
reached its apogee. The difference was that the majority of The post-colonial period has seen a continuation of many
the population under its control, mostly Hindus, never con- established trends, despite the emergence of independent
verted to Islam. The Mughal emperors used radically differ- nation-states. New technologies, however, brought about
ent approaches in their relations to their subjects. While the radical changes in migration patterns: Muslim workers were
initial and later Muslim military and political presence in brought into Western Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, others
South Asia witnessed much intolerance and destruction, the migrated to Australia and the Americas, especially to North
most powerful of its emperors, Akbar (1542–1605) and his America. In the United States, important African-American
nephew Dara Shukoh (1615–1659), tried to have Hindus conversions to Islam started a local Islamization process that
recognized as People of the Book. Emperor Akbar even is currently unfolding rapidly, despite the backlash in Amerideveloped his own religion, din ilahi, that combined Islamic can perceptions of Muslims.
and Hindu worldviews and practices. While his efforts were
ultimately unsuccessful, a similar but more popular effort led Scientism was imported initially through colonialism and
to the development of Sikhism in the Punjab. later strengthened by programs of national education supported by the westernized Muslim elites of newly independent
The Colonial Period: 1798–1945 C.E. majority Muslim nation-states. With this, much Orientalist
The period of Western European colonization of most ma- thinking was integrated into popular modern Islamic selfjority Muslim lands radically changed the nature of power understanding. This influence is clearly at work in the rise of
dynamics in Muslim-Other relations. In 1798, Napoleon militant Islam, which is a phenomenon similar to Christian
invaded Egypt for a brief period of three years. This event is fundamentalism in the West in that they both essentialize
often referred to as the symbolic beginning of a major shift in their understanding of religion in political discourses. The
power between Muslims and non-Muslim Others, whether result is a growing reciprocal popular intolerance between
religious or not. While earlier political events such as the the West and Islam, further fueled by the 11 September 2001
Crusades, the Reconquista, as well as the Mongol and Turkic events in the United States and their subsequent impact on
(Tamerlane 1336–1405) invasions directly impinged on ma- world politics.
jority Muslim areas, the first was relatively brief, the second
took place over centuries, and the third and fourth resulted in The encounter with modernity through colonialism has
the conversion to Islam of the new Mongol and Turkic rulers, taken a toll on the possibility of seeing positively the values of
the last two being more inconspicuous in the collective democracy, the rule of law (Western style), and human rights,
memory despite their even more violent histories than that of because such discourses come from political oppressors. With
the Crusades. In contrast, the military and political Western the continuation of this control through the more subtle
European takeover of most of the world between 1492 and forces of neo-liberal discourse and globalization, the West
1945 took place together with an economic, cultural, and has become an overarching Other among many Muslims
ideological penetration that overwhelmed majority Muslim worldwide. The cost of this has been the development of a
societies. For the first time in their history they lost control major malaise for many westernized Muslims, and especially
over the balance of power that they had collectively held since for Muslims living in the West itself. Yet, the Muslim world is
their earliest memories. Only Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and to a no different from many other religiocultural worlds that have
lesser degree, Iran, retained some measure of independence. fought to distinguish between modernization, which they
want to participate in for its obvious material benefits, and
Parallel to this colonial enterprise was the introduction of westernization, which often imposes Western values and
new scientific discourses that have sought, ever since the models for democracy upon societies that have their own
Enlightenment period, objective truth about the world, both cultural heritage and blueprints for collective decision-making.
material and human. The part of science which has dealt
with discovering the truth about Islam has been known as The interaction between Muslims and Others in general
Orientalism. This influential school of thought helped con- remains a two-way bridge of potential mutual benefits, if only
solidate power in the hands of the colonial masters by means reciprocal fears did not prevent many of both sides from
of arguments that often, though not always, supported the traveling across it. The advent of interreligious dialogue in
logic of empire: The West would civilize the backward the later part of the twentieth century has encouraged this
Islamic world (as part of the ‘Orient’). Yet, despite its politi- movement, however. Many contemporary Muslims are thinkcally pro-Western bias, Orientalist scholarship also brought ing anew not only their relationship to sacred Islamic texts
about new standards of interpretation and preservation of and their various traditions of interpretation in light of
much Islamic heritage, resulting in greater mutual under- historicocritical and dialogical methods of inquiry, but are
standing. Nonetheless, much of the Muslim-Other relations also reconsidering the very nature of their interdependence
during this period were reduced to Muslim-Westerner rela- with religious Others, whether by opposition or attraction.
tions, due to the unavoidable colonial power of the West. With the advent of Western European colonialism and the

Islam and the Muslim World 363
Islamicate Society

emergence of postcolonial nation-states, as well as the expan- understand Islam. The converse for any religious Others who
sion of Muslims worldwide in modern times, the balance of have come in contact with Muslims throughout their history
power has recently undergone radical change. Many of the is equally true.
older Islamic categorizations and concepts that have served
Muslim-Other relations relatively well in the past have now See also Andalus, al-; Central Asia, Islam in; Christianeither faded or been judged as obsolete by well-thinking but ity and Islam; Dar al-Harb; Dar al-Islam; East Asia,
often paternalistic modernists, or else are in the process of Islam in; European Culture and Islam; Expansion;
being reinterpreted for a better integration of past and Hinduism and Islam; Hospitality and Islam; Internet;
present, as well as internal and external aspects of Islam. Judaism and Islam; Modernism; Networks, Muslim;
Orientalism; Science, Islam and; South Asia, Islam in;
The New Expansion of Islam in Cyberspace: Theology; Umma; Vernacular Islam.
1995 to the Present
The advent of the Internet is radically changing the nature of BIBLIOGRAPHY
communication worldwide, creating transnational communi- Bamyeh, Mohammed A. The Social Origins of Islam: Mind,
ties of all kinds into virtual entities that are both global and Economy, Discourse. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
local at once. This transformation brings in its wake new rules Press, 1999.
of communication and the potential for new forms of grass- Daniel, Norman. Islam and the West: The Making of an Image.
roots politics, as well as a paradoxical understanding of what Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld, 1993.
constitutes private and public spaces, thereby affecting both Esack, Farid. Quran, Liberation, and Pluralism: An Islamic
traditional Islamic self-understanding as well as Muslim- Perspective of Interreligious Solidarity Against Oppression.
Other relations. The potential impact of this new period of Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld, 1997.
expansion is as yet unknown for the future of Islam and Hillenbrand, C. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives. Edinburgh:
Muslim-Other relations. This cyberspace expansion helps at Edinburgh University Press, 1999.
once to sustain greater cultural and religious continuities Laiou, Angeliki E., and Mottahedeh, Roy Parviz, eds. The
globally, despite large migration movements, and yet threat- Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim
ens the fabric of traditional Islam by its very intrusion into the World. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research
private spaces of those who can afford being wired into this Library and Collection, c. 2001.
new space to be explored, shared, disputed, but never truly Madigan, Daniel A. The Quran’s Self-Image: Writing and
conquered. Authority in Islam’s Scripture. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 2001.
Complex, Ongoing History Runciman, S. A History of the Crusades. Cambridge, U.K.:
Throughout their long history, Muslims have continued to Cambridge University Press, 1951.
develop and expand worldwide, bringing them into contact Waardenburg, Jacques, ed. Muslim Perceptions of Other Religwith a variety of religious and nonreligious Others. The ions: A Historical Survey. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University
legacy of those encounters is rich and complex, with moments Press, 1999.
of great tolerance and cross-fertilization as well as episodes of Yeor, Bat. Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide.
intolerance and mutual violence. External and internal influ- Teaneck, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002.
ences from religious Others have been felt at all times and
continue to this day. What has changed the equation from Patrice C. Brodeur
tolerance to intolerance at different times in history, including very recently, is the degree to which threats and insecurities are perceived by a Muslim community that has internalized
the ideal of political control as an implicit measure of its ISLAMICATE SOCIETY
collective identity and success, from the inherited reading of
its own history from the time of the prophet Muhammad The term Islamicate culture was coined by Marshall Hodgson
until today. (d. 1968) in the first volume of his The Venture of Islam (1974).
Hodgson invented the term in response to the confusion
The history of Muslim-Other relations is, therefore, a surrounding such terms as “Islamic,” “Islam,” and “Muslim”
complex and ongoing set of both tolerant and intolerant when they are used to describe aspects of society and culture
attitudes and episodes. Both sets are diverse in kind at any one that are found throughout the Muslim world. Hodgson used
time, even sometimes contradictory to one another; they are the term to describe cultural manifestations arising out of an
shaped by socio-political, theological, and ideological reali- Arabic and Persian literate tradition, which does not refer
ties that change over time, albeit at different rhythms. Inter- directly to the Islamic religion but to the “social and cultural
nal dynamics within Muslim societies have always been complex historically associated with Islam and the Muslims,
interdependent with external ones. The history of Muslim- both among Muslims themselves and even when found among
Other relations is, therefore, an integral part of any search to non-Muslims” (p. 59). For example, Hodgson argued that

364 Islam and the Muslim World
Islamic Salvation Front

there are a variety of artistic, architectural, and literary styles succeeded in eliminating the security threat of the Jihad, at a
indicative of Islamicate culture. No matter where these aes- high cost of repression and violation of the basic human right
thetic styles are found, they are identifiable as deriving from of nonviolent opposition. Some Jihad members escaped into
Islamicate cultural complexes. Thus, if one finds the use of Afghanistan and joined Usama bin Ladin in forming alarabesques, calligraphy, or arched doorways anywhere in the Qa
ida. The most prominent of them is Ayman Zawahiri,
world, these forms are identifiable as Islamicate in origin. In second to Bin Laden and linked to the terrorist attacks of 11
constrast, Hodgson argued that those elements of Islamic September 2001.
society that are not shared by non-Muslims are not indicative
of Islamicate culture (for instance, mosque architecture). Due The Palestinian Harakat al-jihad al-Islami (Islamic Jihad
to the overriding influence of Islam on non-Muslims living Movement) was founded by Fathi al-Shiqaqi and
Abd alwithin Muslim realms, however, Hodgson used the term to
Aziz
Auda in 1981. Both studied in Egypt and were infludemonstrate the importance of Islam as a cultural force that enced by the teachings of Egyptian radical Islamists. Another
influenced non-Muslim forms of art, literature, and custom. inspiration was the Iranian Revolution. The main goal of this
organization is the liberation of Palestine, as the central issue
See also Islam and Islamic. for Muslims, and the establishment of an Islamic state. At
least two other groups embrace the same name, but the
BIBLIOGRAPHY Shiqaqi faction remains the largest. The group carried out
Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and several violent attacks against Israelis prior to the first intifada
History in a World Civilization. Chicago: University of (1987–1993), in which it was active. Israel retaliated by
Chicago Press, 1974. expelling its two founders, and arresting and even assassinat-
Martin, Richard C. Islamic Studies: A History of Religions ing some of its activists, including Shiqaqi, who was mur-
Approach. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1996. dered by the Mossad (the Israeli secret service) in Malta in
October 1995. Ramadan Shalah succeeded Shiqaqi as the
R. Kevin Jaques organization’s Secretary General. Since the establishment of
Hamas in 1988, the Islamic Jihad has lost some of its appeal.
Despite hostility in the late 1980s between the two groups,
both have closed ranks in their opposition to the Oslo
ISLAMIC JIHAD agreement and the Palestinian Authority, and after 1994,
were joined in this effort by leftist Palestinian groups. Since
Two groups have the name Islamic Jihad (sometimes called
the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000, the
the Organization of the Islamic Jihad), one Egyptian, the
Jihad has taken active part in fighting occupation forces and
other Palestinian. These two movements contend that armed
assailing Israeli civilians.
struggle is the Islamically ordained form of striving against a
corrupt authoritarian regime in Egypt and military occupa- See also Ikhwan al-Muslimin; Political Islam; Qa
ida,
tion in Palestine. Both were influenced by the teachings of the al-.
Muslim Brothers, but grew more critical of its reformist
approach. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Faraj, Mohamed
Abd al-Salam. Al-Jihad: al-farida al-gha’iba
A small group of students founded the Egyptian Tanzim (Jihad: The forgotten obligation). Jerusalem: Maktabet
Iz
al-Jihad (Jihad organization) in Alexandria in 1977. The Jihad al-Din al-Qassam, 1982.
concentrated its activities in Cairo, while its rival al-Gama
a Ghadbian, Najib. “Political Islam and Violence.” New Politial-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group) dominated Upper Egypt. cal Science 22 (2000): 77–88.
Despite similarities in dogma and membership—and an at- Shiqaqi, Fathi al-. Al-Mashrou
al-islami al-mu
asir fi filastin
tempt at unification in 1981—Jihad has not formed a grass- (The contemporary Islamic project in Palestine). n.p., 1995.
roots movement. The main theorist of the Jihad is Muhammad

Abd al-Salam Faraj, who wrote a tract entitled al-Farida al- Najib Ghadbian
ghaiba (The forgotten obligation). The forgotten obligation
among Muslims today is jihad, or the struggle to uproot
Muslim leaders perceived by the group as infidels, and replace ISLAMIC SALVATION FRONT
them with a comprehensive “Islamic state.” The main path to
its goal is by penetrating the military. The closest the group Even for Algerians, the founding of the Islamist party, the
came to attaining its goal was when members of Jihad assassi- Islamic Salvation Front (FIS, Front Islamique du Salut, or alnated President Anwar Sadat on 6 October 1981, but failed to Jabha al-Islamiyya li-l-inqadh), in February 1989, and its
complete the takeover of the state. Conspirators were exe- sweeping electoral victories in the 1990 municipal elections,
cuted and hundreds of other members arrested. Arrested and then in the first round of legislative elections in Decemmembers were young, educated, and lower to middle class. It ber 1991, were events as unforeseeable as they were phewas not until the late 1990s that the Egyptian government nomenal. Islamic symbols and discourse had been used

Islam and the Muslim World 365
Islamic Society of North America

repeatedly to oppose the alliance between the army and the See also
Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis; Madani,
Abbasi.
sole legal political party, the National Liberation Front
(FLN, or Front de Libération Nationale), since Algeria’s birth BIBLIOGRAPHY
as a nation in 1962. Nonetheless, the meteoric rise of the FIS
Shahin, Emad Eldin. Political Ascent: Contemporary Islamic
can mostly be attributed to the growing economic gap be- Movements in North Africa. Boulder, Colo.: Westview
tween the elites and the masses, which worsened in the 1980s Press, 1997.
and pushed people over the edge of frustration and despair.
Shah-Kazemi, Reza, ed. Algeria: Revolution Revisited. London:
Islamic World Report, 1997.
In October 1988 young people took to the streets to
protest the state’s inability to satisfy their basic needs, and in
five days the army had killed over five hundred protesters. David L. Johnston
President Chadli Benjedid, sensing the gravity of the situation, boldly proposed a constitution to pave the way for
multiparty elections. Yet it was not the handful of secularleaning parties who gained from the riots, but rather those ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF
who saw in Islam the salvation for the nation’s woes— NORTH AMERICA
Algeria’s homegrown Islamism.
The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) was founded
Islam had already played a key role in Algeria’s struggle in 1982 and is currently based in Plainfield, Indiana. ISNA
against French colonialism. The reformist Salafiyya move- grew out of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), which
ment was launched by Shaykh
Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis was founded in the 1960s by predominately South Asian
when, in 1931, he founded of the Association of Algerian Muslim students who, upon graduation, sought to organize
Ulema. The FIS’s two founding leaders claimed to wear Ibn professional Muslim associations under one administrative
Badis’s mantle, yet only
Abbasi Madani (b. 1931) could apparatus. The ideology of the organization is influenced by
realistically do so. Indeed, he grew up in ulema circles, joined the writings of Abu l-
Ala Maududi (d. 1979).
the FLN, and spent several years in French prisons. He later
obtained a doctorate in philosophy in England. As a professor Maududi argued that Islam had become corrupted behe and other Islamic leaders cultivated the growing Islamist cause of a general Muslim ignorance of Islamic history and
student movement of the 1980s. By contrast, the second piety. Only through an active movement of community
leader,
Ali Belhadj, born in 1956, was a school teacher, and organization and education could Islam return to the position
knew no French. His rise began as a young, fiery, eloquent of power and authority that Maududi understood the classical
imam who successfully organized a massive peaceful rally at Muslim world to possess. ISNA has sought to educate Amerithe end of the bloody 1988 riots. From the start, Madani led can Muslims through a variety of programs and by funding
the more moderate, reformist wing of the FIS, and Belhadj its workshops and conventions to teach people how to develop
more radical wing. strong Muslim communities in a North American cultural
context. Since the mid-1990s, and especially after the 11
The army arrested Madani and Belhadj in June 1991 and, September 2001 terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C. and
after the December first-round elections, which portended New York, the centerpiece of ISNA activities has been its
an Islamist majority in parliament, deposed Benjedid and Community Development Department, which organizes a
banned the FIS. With all of its leaders either imprisoned or variety of conferences and workshops dealing with such issues
exiled, the uneasy populist coalition fell apart. A more moder- as community development, domestic violence prevention,
ate leadership took over the party under
Abdelkader Hachani, conflict resolution, and media relations.
and the radicals broke off to found the GIA (Groupe Islamique
Armé). In the bloody civil war that ensued (over 120,000 In contrast to other Muslim organizations, ISNA has
killed, mostly civilians, in ten years), two rays of hope ap- tended to stay out of electoral politics, preferring to educate
peared in the 1990s. First, eight opposition parties, including Muslims about the American political system and allowing
the FIS, signed the Rome Platform in 1995, condemning local communities to choose candidates based on local needs.
violence and calling for the reestablishment of democracy. In addition, ISNA also publishes a bimonthly magazine,
Second, single presidential candidates were successively elected Islamic Horizons, which discusses issues relating to Muslim life
by majority vote, Liamine Zeroual (1995) and
Abd al-
Aziz in North America, and includes information on conventions
Bouteflika (1998). In the early 2000s the army retained its and workshops as well as a matrimonial section. ISNA does
strong grip on power, but in spite of the continued ban on the not currently publish membership statistics. As of the year
FIS and the competition of two other legal Islamist parties 2003, however, Islamic Horizons reported a circulation of
(HAMAS and al-Nahda), most Algerians believe that without approximately 60,000. Since many, if not most members
the reinstatement of the FIS, Algeria will not likely see the receive the magazine as a part of their membership, this
return of democracy and national reconciliation. figure most likely reflects membership totals.

366 Islam and the Muslim World
Isma
il I, Shah

BIBLIOGRAPHY Before becoming king, Isma
il’s religiosity reflected Shi
ite
Haddad, Yvonne. The Muslims of America. New York: Oxford “exaggerated” beliefs such as anthropomorphism with re-
University Press, 1991. spect to God, transmigration of souls, and occultation and
Mawdudi, Abul Alaa. Towards Understanding Islam. n.p.: return. In his poetry, he claims divinity for himself, and
Islamic Circle of North America, 1986. proclaims to be the Hidden Imam. His followers were said to
Smith, Jane I. Islam in America. New York: Columbia have followed him into battle without wearing armor, believ-
University Press, 1993. ing him to be invincible.

In 1501, however, Isma
il established not ghuluww Shi
ism,
R. Kevin Jaques
but orthodox Twelver Shi
ism as the official state religion,
imposing this sect upon a predominantly Sunni Iran. He
spent the next ten years of his career consolidating and
ISMA
IL I, SHAH (1487–1524) expanding his rule inside Iran and beyond. He was defeated in
Azerbaijan by the Ottomans at the battle of Chaldiran in
Shah Isma
il (r. 1501–1524) was founder and first king of the 1514. This led to a ceasing of military campaigns. Isma
il
Safavid dynasty, which ruled Iran until 1722. Isma
il lived died ten years later, in 1524.
during a turbulent time in Iran’s history, in a period of
political fragmentation and decentralization. When Isma
il’s See also Empires: Safavid and Qajar.
brother Sultan
Ali was killed in battle by the ruling house of
Aq Qoyunlu in 1494, Isma
il went into hiding in northern BIBLIOGRAPHY
Iran. In 1499, he and his Qizilbash followers, Turkoman Savory, Roger. Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge, U.K.:
tribesmen, attempted to seize power, and defeated the last Aq Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Qoyunlu ruler. He was crowned king in the northern Iranian
city of Tabriz in 1501. Sholeh A. Quinn

Islam and the Muslim World 367
J
JA
FAR AL-SADIQ (C. 701–765) Al-Sadiq attracted an intellectual and cohesive following.
He is reported to have trained thousands of disciples in
Born sometime between 700 and 702, Ja
far al-Sadiq died in diverse fields such as theology, jurisprudence, and Arabic
765 C.E. An erudite jurist of Medina, al-Sadiq was associated grammar. Speculative Shi
ite theologians and jurists like
with a wide range of scholars. Abu Hanifa, and Malik b. Anas, Hisham b. al-Hakam, Zurara b. A
yan, and Muhammad b.
among other prominent figures, are alleged to have heard Muslim were associated with him. Some of his prominent
hadith from him. Regarded as a reliable traditionalist in disciples are reported to have differed with him on major
Sunni circles, he is cited in several isnads (chains of transmis- points of law and theology, for which they were condemned
sions). Al-Sadiq is credited with the construction of a legal or excommunicated. Al-Sadiq claimed that they had misrepsystem called Ja
fari school of law, which Shi
ites follow. He resented his teachings.
is also seen as an eminent ascetic and is revered in Sufi circles.
Many mystical ideas are narrated from him. According to the Al-Sadiq was at the center of much extremist speculation.
alchemist Jabir al-Hayyan, al-Sadiq was also a teacher in Abu ’l-Khattab (d. 755–756) claimed that al-Sadiq had desigalchemy. nated him to be his deputy and had entrusted him with
esoteric knowledge and the greatest name of God, thus
Sunni sources maintain that Shi
ites, such as Hisham b. alempowering him to comprehend occult sciences. He also
Hakam, formulated distinctive doctrines like that of the
attributed divinity to al-Sadiq. Along with other extremist
imamate and ascribed it to al-Sadiq. In Shi
ite sources, algroups, Abu l-Khattab was repudiated by al-Sadiq.
Sadiq is considered as the sixth Imam and the author of
thousands of traditions that were recorded by his disciples
After his death, al-Sadiq’s followers differed on his succesand documented in the writings of al-Kulini and Ibn Babuya,
sor. The Isma
ilis claimed al-Sadiq had designated his eldest
among other, later, scholars. These sources also indicate that
al-Sadiq was responsible for the formulation and crystalliza- son, Isma
il, to succeed him. Most of al-Sadiq’s followers
tion of the Shi
ite doctrine of the imamate. This stipulated initially accepted
Abdallah, the eldest surviving son. When
that the imam be designated by God through the Prophet or
Abdallah died without a son, the majority accepted al-Sadiq’s
another imam. The imam was also believed to be infallible, next son, Musa. They formed the basis of the Twelver
hence he was empowered to provide authoritative interpreta- Shi
ites. The Nawusiyya asserted that al-Sadiq was in occultions of Islamic revelation. Designation and infallibility were tation (hiding), and would reappear as the eschatological
complemented by the imam’s possession of special knowl- Messiah (mahdi).
edge that was either transmitted from the Prophet or derived
from inherited scrolls. The imams reportedly had access to See also Imamate; Law; Succession.
esoteric knowledge and were able to foretell future events.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Al-Sadiq’s political stance became the cornerstone of
Shi
ite political theory, which taught coexistence with rather Hodgson, Marshall G. “How did the Early Shi
a Become
than opposition to tyrannical rulers. The removal of the Sectarian?” Journal of the American Oriental Society 75
imamate from a political role was compounded by al-Sadiq’s (1955): 1–13.
teaching of dissimulation, which meant the imam did not Jafri, Syed H. The Origins and Development of Shi
a Islam.
have to publicly proclaim his leadership. London: Longman, 1979.

Jahannam

Sachedina, Abdulaziz A. The Just Ruler in Shi
ite Islam: The See also Calligraphy; Janna; Law; Muhammad; Qur
an;
Comprehensive Authority of the Jurist in Imamite Jurispru- Tafsir.
dence. New York: Oxford, 1988.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Liyakatali Takim
Achtemeier, Paul J., ed. “Gehenna.” In Harper’s Bible Dictionary. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985.
Jeffrey, Arthur, ed. A Reader on Islam: Passages from Standard
JAHANNAM Arabic Writings Illustrative of the Beliefs and Practices of
Muslims. The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1962.
Jahannam is a designation for hell and is related to the
cognate Hebrew word gehinnom (“Hinnom Valley”), origi- Juan Eduardo Campo
nally a site near ancient Jerusalem where children were
immolated as sacrificial offerings, which subsequently became a garbage dump. In early Jewish and Christian eschatology, Gehenna was believed to be where wrongdoers would be JAHILIYYA
punished by fire in the hereafter. This is the meaning Jahannam
carries in the Quran (where it is mentioned seventy-seven The word jahiliyya, rendered as ignorance or barbarism,
times), the hadith, and later Islamic eschatological discourses. occurs several times in the Quran (3:148; 5:55; 33:33; 48:26).
It is often used synonymously with “the Fire” (“nar”), and in Used pejoratively to describe pre-Islamic Arabia, it means the
juxtaposition to “the Garden” (“janna”), the Islamic paradise period in which Arabia had no dispensation, no inspired
of the blessed. prophet, and no revealed book.
The Quran depicts Jahannam as an infernal dwelling or The seven Mu
allaqat, written down in Umayyad times,
refuge with seven gates (counterparts for the seven heavens) are believed to be a collection of prize-winning pre-Islamic
awaiting unbelievers, hypocrites, and other sorts of offenders poems on the courage and endurance of its warriors, recited
(4:140; 15:43–44). It will be the fiery abode of jinns and
in contests at the annual fair at
Ukaz. Fragments of similar
satans, as well as humans (11:119; 19:68), including polytheists
poems are also found in the Kitab al-aghani of al-Isbahani (d.
and “people of the book” (98:6). Indeed, according to one
967). The ideal Arab virtues referred to in this literature are
verse, all will go to Jahannam, but God will save the pious and
murua (courage, loyalty, and generosity). and
ird (honor).
abandon wrongdoers there on their knees (19:72). Polytheists
Courage was reflected in the number of raids undertaken, and
and their idols will become fuel for its fire (21:98). The
generosity in the readiness with which one sacrificed one’s
authoritative hadith collections, such as those of al-Bukhari
camel for a guest. Killing was discouraged. Murder resulted
(d. 870), Muslim (d. 875), and Ibn Hanbal (d. 855), expand
in blood feuds and vendetta. Three months of the year (Rajab,
upon these Quranic discourses, detailing its horrific features
Dhu-l-Qa
da, and Dhu-l-Hajj) were pronounced sacred, howand inhabitants. Hadiths describe it as a pit of fire seventy
ever, when no fighting or raiding were permitted.
times hotter than earthly fire, guarded by the angel Malik,
into which plunge the damned who fail to cross a narrow test Trade had brought wealth to some, but the poverty of
bridge (al-sirat) that traverses it. They enumerate the kinds of many was disregarded, and there was no strategy to care for
sinners punished there, among whom are the Jahannamites—
them. Females were regarded as a burden and many were
Muslims who have committed major transgressions, but who
killed at birth. Muhammad viewed this attitude as ungodly.
will eventually win entry to paradise.
The religion of the pre-Islamic Bedouin was primarily
The most elaborate descriptions were formulated in the animistic, while urban populations, such as the Meccans,
tenth century C.E., and later commentaries and eschatological worshiped a supreme God, al-Ilah, and its three daughters, altexts are those of al-Tabari (d. 922), al-Samarqandi (d. c. 983),
Uzza, al-Lat, and Manat. Hubal was the chief deity of the
al-Ghazali (d. 1111), al-Qurtubi (d. 1273), Ibn Kathir (d. Ka
ba. Women were required to circumambulate the Ka
ba
1373), Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1350), and al-Suyuti (d. in the nude. Various tribes in different regions identified with
1505). In these books, Jahannam is said to consist of seven different gods to whom they turned for immediate favors.
hierarchical levels, the highest for Muslims and the lower There was no belief in an afterlife or a day of judgment.
levels for Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, polytheists, and Muhammad, who preached the existence of one, invisible
hypocrites. Commentators furnished it with geographic fea- God, taught that man would be judged for his actions, and
tures such as blazing mountains, valleys, rivers, and seas, as rewarded accordingly. He fought to establish Islam in Arabia,
well as houses, prisons, bridges, wells, and ovens. They also and had the pre-Islamic idols systematically destroyed. Thus,
provided it with venomous scorpions and snakes to torment he claimed, Islam brought an end to jahiliyya. Nevertheless,
its inhabitants. In modern times, Jahannam remains a popu- several pre-Islamic observances have been incorporated into
lar sermon topic. Islamic ritual, such as the circumambulation of the Ka
ba, and

370 Islam and the Muslim World
Jama
at-e Islami

the running between Saffa and Marwa, with new significance To start with, the Jama
at-e Islami needed to consolidate
attributed to them. its base, which would strengthen its internal bonds and
permit the development of a sense of umma, a term that
In the twentieth century, jahiliyya took on a new meaning. means “the imagined community.” From its founding days in
Writing from Pakistan, Abu l-A
la Maududi (d. 1979) had the city of Pathankot, the party grew through a strong
considered aspects of modern life reflecting Muslim imita- campaign that disseminated its ideals through a variety of
tion of the West, as comparable to jahiliyya. On the same channels of communication, including political conventions
lines, the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966) asserted that and the use of the mass media.
the world consisted of but two cultures, Islam and jahiliyya,
which included both the West and the atheistic communist The Jama
at-e Islami is strictly and hierarchically organworld. The polytheistic societies of Asia, and Christian and ized, under the leadership of its emirs. Party affiliation can be
Jewish societies, were now considered “ignorant” or jahili broken down into two categories, fully-fledged members
because of their movement away from God, as were the (arkan) on the one hand, and sympathizers and workers
Muslims who accepted Western elements into the Islamic (karkun) on the other. In the first year of the party’s existence,
system. For Qutb the only antidote to jahiliyya was hakimiyya, 1941, there were 75 members. A decade later, in 1951,
that is, the adherence to the belief that governance, legisla- membership had grown to 659, with 2,913 sympathizers. By
tion, and sovereignty belong only to God. 1989, membership had swelled to 5,723, with some 305,792
nonregistered but active sympathizers. In 2003, membership
See also Arabia, Pre-Islam; Modern Thought; Political
reached 16,033, and the number of sympathizers to the
Islam; Qutb, Sayyid.
party’s goals had reached 4.5 million. The party is guided by
an emir who is obliged to consult an assembly called the
BIBLIOGRAPHY shura. This authoritarian, pyramidlike structure is comple-
Boullata, Issa. Trends and Issues in Contemporary Arab Thought. mented by other sub-organizations, such as women’s wings
New York: SUNY Press, 1990. and student organizations, all working toward the common
Guillaume, Alfred. Islam. Middlesex, U.K.: Penguin Books goal of establishing an ideological Islamic society, particu-
Ltd., 1956. larly through educational and social work. Jama
at-e Islami’s
Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam. Vol. 1. Chi- organizational structure is replicated throughout the world,
cago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. wherever it has taken root.

Rizwi Faizer The Jama
at-e Islami is based on social action in a variety
of fields, and encourages Muslims to set up a better society
here and now through constantly contesting the political
establishment. In Pakistan, most of its members come from
JAMA
AT-E ISLAMI the educated lower-middle class, including immigrants from
India, called the muhajirun. The party never did appeal to the
Jama
at-e Islami (JI) is one of the most influential religiopolitical upper-class clientele that favored most of Pakistan’s other
parties in the Muslim world, particularly in South Asia. It was parties, such as the Pakistan People Party and the Muslim
founded in 1941 in Lahore, the creation of Abu l-A
la League, who frequently based their platforms upon tradi-
Maududi, who was working for the Islamization of Pakistan. tional landowning loyalties. The Jama
at-e Islami also failed
The party’s goal was to contest the Congress (representing to attract the poorer classes, who lacked the literacy that
the Hindu majority) and the Jam
iyat-e Ulama-e Hind (JUH; would permit them to comprehend the Jama
at’s rhetorics.
aiming for composite nationalism) as well as the Muslim
League (with territorial nationalism as its platform). In con- Anchored firmly in the rather ambitious middle class, with
trast to these other parties, the Jama
at-e Islami party echoed a following drawn from the newly rising elites, the Jama
at-e
the ideas of Maududi, who favored the creation of an Islamic Islami increasingly finds itself in confrontation with the
state. Maududi was supported by a number of young, activist power assertions of the postcolonial political establishment,
religious scholars, among them some Deobandis and Nadwis. which is characterized by the party as westernized and cor-
Maududi was the first emir (commander) of the Jama
at-e rupt. The discontent that motivates the collective member-
Islami, a post he held until 1972. As can be seen from the ship of the Jama
at-e Islami derives from the difficulty people
shifting areas of popularity, the history of the JI cannot be face in gaining access to political power and cultural privilege.
separated from the emirs’s lives—Maududi (1941–1972), The party has enlisted the help of a small religious elite that is
a muhajir settled in Punjab; Miyan Tufail Muhammad itself struggling for political survival and controls a mass base,
(1972–1987), a muhajir-converted Punjabi; and Qazi Husain and which provides a common language and symbolism with
Ahmad (since 1987) from the frontier province—a fact also which to express and generalize the social discontent that
reflected in its seats in provincial assemblies. Jama
at-e Islami seeks to redress. In the terms of this language

Islam and the Muslim World 371
Jama
at-e Islami

Qazi Husayn Ahmed, head of the Pakistani religious party Jama
at-e-Islami (Party of Islam) in Peshawar, Pakistan, speaking to religious students
in a mosque, where he condemned the introduction of new laws by the Musharraf government designed to bring the madrasa system under
greater government control, as well as American presence in Pakistan. Jama
at-e-Islami was founded in 1941 by al-Maududi in Lahore to
advocate an Islamic state. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

and symbolism, only the spread of Sunni Islam throughout consistently confronted the Pakistani government on this
the world can make possible the revival of an ideal, if mythi- issue, questioning the state’s legitimacy, ultimately forcing
cal, original community. The Jama
at-e Islami relies heav- the politicians to include provisions regarding Islam in the
ily upon the concept of purification. Not being bound by national constitution. The ongoing struggle between Jama
at-e
history, the party is free to distinguish itself from secular poli- Islami and the government led to the party being outlawed
ticians, sometimes radically, and see itself as the avant-garde. several times. The anti-Ahmadiyya movement in 1953–1954,
however, was the party’s ticket into the mainstream of Paki-
Jama
at-e Islami’s fundamentalist critique centers on is- stani politics because by heresizing the Ahmadiyya movesues of moral decline, particularly on sexual morality, and sets ment, thereby questioning the Islamicity of state functionaries,
itself up in opposition to European culture and values and the the JI also opened up to other schools of thought.
concept of modernity. The social pathologies resulting from
modernization are often cited as evidence of a Machiavellian During the Ayub era (1958–1969), the Jama
at-e Islami
strategy employed by the West with the goal of seizing was forced into the background for a while, until 1965, when
power. The purpose of such rhetoric is to produce a norma- it entered into new political alliances against the Ayub regime
tive consensus, to increase cultural self-confidence, and to and, at last, became a proper political party. Its participation
mobilize the party’s membership and sympathizers. In its in the anti-Bhutto coalition intensified the politization of the
dealings with the broader society, the party’s spokespersons Jama
at-e Islami, for it could now call the government ungenerally employ ideological arguments, keeping references Islamic. Eventually the party was able to mobilize a large
to purely Islamic symbols to a minimum. But when address- enough portion of the society to topple the Bhutto regime. It
ing traditionalist groups, the party employs a more overtly supported Zia ul-Haq’s coup d’etat in 1977, and earned
theological approach, supporting public worship and partici- leading positions within the government. But the party was
pating in debates on religious issues. unable to widen its social basis, and found itself being used by
the government to further its own ends, instead. Hence, in
When Maududi first became politically active in post- the elections that followed, the JI was not able to secure
partition India and Pakistan, it was through the party that he enough seats to gain an effective political voice.
articulated his political visions and ideas. Only a few years
after the creation of Pakistan, the Jama
at-e Islami was forced Since the 1980s, the party has started to diversify its
to face the issue of the role of religion in politics. Maududi membership, spreading out from Karachi into other areas of

372 Islam and the Muslim World
Jamil al-Amin, Imam

the country. It has accomplished this through its welfare Lumpur, Delhi, Lahore, Cairo, and more recently, in Lonprogram, especially in the field of university higher educa- don, Paris, and Washington, D.C.
tion, and by establishing madrasas (religious training centers),
as well as by working hand in hand with the relief agencies in
See also Ibadat; Masjid; Religious Institutions.
the Afghan refugee camps after 1979.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
In spite of its limited electoral success prior to 1988, the Campo, Juan Eduardo. The Other Side of Paradise: Explorations
Jama
at-e Islami has become a powerful political and cultural into the Religious Meanings of Domestic Space in Islam.
force in Pakistani politics. In the late twentieth and early Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina, 1991.
twenty-first centuries, the party has been increasingly successful in recruiting members and sympathizers, and thus has Muneer Goolam Fareed
been able to establish links with future leaders drawn from a
wide spectrum of society, including the bureaucracy and the
civil service. In 1997 the party publicly called for the adoption JAMIL AL-AMIN, IMAM (1943– )
of a more populist approach, and was rewarded with a
swelling of its ranks to 2.2 million registered members by A gifted rhetorician and civil rights activist, the American
mid-August of that year. In the 2002 elections, the Jama
at-e Muslim leader Jamil al-Amin (formerly H. Rap Brown, born
Islami could claim sixty-eight members in the National in 1943) came to national prominence in the 1960s as an
Assembly, gaining for itself the ability to play “kingmaker” outspoken advocate of black power. In 1967, Brown sucwithin Pakistani politics. The party’s success in Pakistan has ceeded Stokely Carmichael as leader of the Student Nonnot been mirrored by equal success for its counterpart in Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a prominent
India. Since the Pakistani-Indian partition in 1947, the Indian African-American civil rights organization. Brown also bebranch of the party has taken a much more docile and secular came known for his advocacy of black self-defense and his
approach toward politics and religion. As one of the few saying that “violence is as American as cherry pie.” In 1969,
national Islamic parties in India, it has attracted a following he published his most famous work, Die Nigger Die, a blisterthrough its activities in missionary work, social services, ing critique of American racism. Because of Brown’s radical
publications, and conventions. rhetoric, he became a target of the FBI’s Counter Intelligence
Program (COINTELPRO), which harassed many black lead-
See also Maududi, Abu l-Ala
; Pakistan, Islamic Republic ers during this period. In 1972, Brown was apprehended on
of. federal weapons charges, tried, convicted, and sentenced to
four years in prison. During his prison term, he converted to
BIBLIOGRAPHY Islam under the auspices of Darul Islam, a predominately
African-American Islamic group organized in the 1960s. He
Ahmad, Mumtaz. “Islamic Fundamentalism in South Asia:
also adopted a new name, Jamil Abdullah al-Amin. Paroled in
The Jamaat-i-Islami and the Tablighi Jamaat of South
Asia.” In Fundamentalism Observed. Edited by Martin E. 1976, al-Amin moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he became
Marty and Scott R. Appleby. Chicago: Chicago Univer- the owner of a community store and an imam (leader) at a
sity Press, 1991. local mosque. Over the next two decades, he emerged as a
Sunni Muslim leader with followers throughout the United
Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. The Vanguard of Islamic Revolution:
States. Over thirty mosques recognized Imam Jamil as leader
The Jama
at-i Islami of Pakistan, London: I. B. Tauris, 1994.
of a group called the National Islamic Community. Focusing
on economic and social, as well as religious, empowerment,
Jamal Malik he also became known for his role in attempting to revitalize
the West End of Atlanta. In March 2000, Imam al-Jamil was
accused of murder in connection with the death of a police
officer. But many American Muslims of diverse racial and
JAMI
ethnic backgrounds defended Imam al-Jamil’s innocence and
offered him financial and moral support as he prepared for his
The jami
, like the masjid and the musalla, is where the Islamic
trial. In March, 2002, he was convicted of murder and was
community performs the daily prayer. And while both the
sentenced to life in prison without parole.
masjid and the jami
are also used for teaching and preaching,
only a masjid specially dedicated to the Friday prayer is See also American Culture and Islam; Americas, Islam
designated a jami
. Whereas previously local mosques were in the; Nation of Islam.
managed by area residents and the jami
by the state, nowadays many states, under the pretext of law and order, strictly BIBLIOGRAPHY
control even the musallas. Apart from Medina and Jerusalem, McCloud, Aminah Beverly. African American Islam. New
some of Islam’s greatest Friday mosques are located in Kuala York: Routledge, 1995.

Islam and the Muslim World 373
Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Hind

Van Deburg, William. A New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Friedmann, Yohanan. “Jam
yatul
Ulama-I Hind.” In The
Movement and American Culture, 1965–1975. Chicago: Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World. Edited by
University of Chicago Press, 1992. J. L. Esposito, et al. New York and Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 1995. Vol. 2, pp. 362–363.
Edward E. Curtis IV
Jamal Malik

JAM
IYAT-E
ULAMA-E HIND JAM
IYAT-E
ULAMA-E ISLAM
Muslim politics saw the era of institutionalization in two new
Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Islam (JUI) broke off from the Jam
iyatreligiopolitical bodies that formed in 1919: All-India Khilafat
e Ulama-e Hind (JUH), which stood for Indian nationalism
Committee and Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Hind (The Association and opposed the demand for an independent Pakistan. In
of Scholars of India, or JUH). The JUH was the first political contrast to its mother organization, the JUI, established in
solidarity foundation of Indian ulema, who saw themselves as 1945 under the leadership of Shabbir Ahmad
Uthmani,
religious guides, even in political matters, at the peak of the supported the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan. How-
Indian Muslim agitation for the Ottoman Caliphate. By using ever, after independence in 1947 it had to struggle for a long
the potential of the religious infrastructure, along with new period before being accepted by the Pakistani elites.The JUI
political structures, ulema were mobilized and unified to remained a religious organization until the late 1960s, when
defend the caliphate. The first meeting in November 1919 in general elections were announced after the collapse of the
New Delhi demanded that Muslims abide by Islamic tenets, Ayub Khan regime. The JUI then entered the Pakistan
strengthen their relationship with the Islamic world, and political arena, where it demonstrated a remarkable career. It
foster Muslim-Hindu amity. The holy places of Islam were to soon split into a a politically quiet faction, led by the Karachibe defended, separate shari
a courts and zakat system were to based Ihtisham al-Haqq Thanawi, and a more activist group
be established, and the Indian Congress supported. This centered around Mufti Mahmud and Ghauth Hazarawi,
solidarity traditionalism found its climax in a fatwa for nonco- primarily in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP).
operation and civil disobedience in 1920. Use was made of During the elections of 1970 Mufti Mahmud’s faction of the
Islamic repertory—proselytization and forcible conversion JUI became quite popular by making use of Islamic symbolwere rejected. JUH stood for an independent, multireligious ism, postulating the establishment of shari
a in Pakistan, and
India in which Muslims and Hindus would have their sepa- advocating the implementation of Islamic economic and
rate institutional structures. social reforms. The party benefitted from the use of traditional infrastructure, such as madaris (Islamic schools) and
The major contribution of the JUH was the idea of
waqf (pious foundations), and established an umbrella organicomposite nationalism (muttahida qaumiyat), in contrast to
zation of religious schools. In this way it won quite a number
the two-nation theory proclaimed by the Muslim League in
of seats and eventually entered into a coalition with the
1940. This concept of territorial nationalism was unique in
National Awami Party (NAP) and thus managed to form
Islamic thought, and was put into practice by a nationalist
provincial governments in NWFP and Baluchistan. Mufti
campaign against the creation of Pakistan.
Mahmud became chief minister of the NWFP from 1971 to
1973. The Islamization of this region under his tenure influ-
Shortly before the partition of India in 1945, a dissident
enced the following political scenario.
group was formed, the Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Islam (JUI).
Under the leadership of Fazl al-Rahman, the son of Mufti
After 1947, JUH pursued noncommunalism, stood for
Mahmud, the JUI became increasingly orthodox and also
social and religious reforms, and supported the secular conanti-Shi
ite, as can be witnessed in the activities of the
stitution of the Republic of India. However, it still holds rigid
Punjab-based communal Anjuman-e Sipahan-e Sahaba, a
positions concerning Muslim personal law, but the ambivamilitant splinter group of the JUI established in 1985. In the
lent image created through the tussle between political pragsame year JUI senators Sami al-Haqq—who runs the largest
matism and religious dogmatism has been improved through
religious school in Pakistan, the Dar al-
Ulum Haqqaniya—
its social activities.
and Qadi
Abd al-Latif introduced the Shariat Bill to the
See also Jamiyat-e Ulama-e Islam; South Asia, Islam National Assembly.
in. Although the JUI has not been very successful in gaining
political influence at the national level, it is one of the most
BIBLIOGRAPHY powerful political and social forces in Pakistan, particularly in
Agwani, M.S. Islamic Fundamentalism in India. Chandigarh, the NWFP and Baluchistan. It controls a large number of
India: Twenty-First India Society, 1986 religious schools throughout the country that have been

374 Islam and the Muslim World
Janna

recruitment centers not only for thousands of young religious its drawing its constituency from the followers of Sufi pirs—
scholars but also for the Afghan mujahidin who fought against preferably Qadiris—observance of ritual traditions associated
the Soviets in Afghanistan. Since the mid-1990s the madaris with saint worship, and usage of millenarian postulates and
also have been very actively supporting the Taliban. The symbols mediated in a multimedial staging. Like the JUI, the
talibanization of Pakistan goes to the extent that after the JUP runs an umbrella organization of madaris (Islamic schools),
Afghani Taliban takeover of Kabul in 1996, the JUI openly and has been actively defending the nationalization of pious
declared abjuring the electoral politics of Pakistan. The JUI is foundations.
also believed to have a wide international jihadi connections,
such as in Tajikistan, Chechnya and Kashmir. See also Deoband; Jamiyat-e Ulama-e Hind; Jamiyat-e
Ulama-e Islam; South Asia, Islam in.
See also Deoband; Jamiyat-e Ulama-e Hind; South
Asia, Islam in; Taliban. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ahmad, Mujeeb. Jam‘iyyat ‘Ulama-i-Pakistan 1948–1979,
BIBLIOGRAPHY Islamabad: National Institute of Historical and Cultural
Malik, Jamal. Colonialization of Islam: Dissolution of Traditional Research, 1993.
Institutions in Pakistan, 2d ed. New Delhi: Manohar Publi- Malik, Jamal. “The Luminous Nurani: Charisma and Politications, 1998. cal Mobilisation among the Barelwis in Pakistan.” Pnina
Werbner (ed.): Person, Myth and Society in South Asian
Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. “Jamiat-e Ulama-e Islam.” In The
Islam, Adelaide 1990.
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, J. L.
Esposito, ed.Vols. 1–4. New York and Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 1995. Jamal Malik
Waseem, Mohammad. Pakistan under Martial Law, 1977–1985.
Lahore: Vanguard Books, 1987.
JANNA
Jamal Malik
Janna (Ar. “garden,” pl. jannat; Persian firdaws “paradise,”
“enclosure,” “orchard”) is the designation for the primordial
paradise of Adam and Eve and for the paradisal garden (or
JAM
IYAT-E
ULAMA-E PAKISTAN gardens) in the hereafter, where the blessed will dwell for
eternity after passing the trial of the last judgment. This dual
The Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Pakistan (JUP) is a Barelwisignificance of the garden in Islamic cosmography is rooted in
dominated religious party established in 1947 under the
ancient Near Eastern myths and afterlife visions that were
leadership of Abu al-Hasanat (1896–1961) and
Abd alsubsequently adapted to biblical narratives about the origin
Hamid Badayuni (1898–1970). The JUP attempted to give
and destiny of the human being, and were further elaborated
legitimacy to the cause of Pakistan and the Muslim League,
within the communities of rabbinic Judaism and early Chriscontrary to the Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Hind (JUH), and also in tianity. In Islamic discourse, janna is usually juxtaposed to
some contrast to the Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Islam (JUI). The nar (“fire”), the hellish abode of wrongdoers (nar and
JUP proclaims Ahmad Reza Khan, the founder of the Barelwi jahannam).
movement, as the first to advocate the two-nation theory,
which led to the partition of Pakistan and India. Engaged in Muslims usually conceive of janna as a real place where
social activities—mainly the settlement of refugees in Sindh humans experience contact with supramundane beings, as
and rural Punjab—the JUP remained politically insignificant well as pleasurable bodily existence. This understanding of
for more than two decades. It established, however, a Sufi paradise was canonized in the Quran and elaborated further
organization in 1948 and a student wing in 1968, when its in the hadith, theological tracts, and visionary literature.
leader Shah Ahmad Nurani (born 1926) started propagating Thus, Adam and Eve enjoyed communion with God and the
Islamization. In 1973, Nurani was nominated for the position angels, and consumed the fruits of the garden until they ate of
of prime minister by the member parties of the United the forbidden tree (2:35–36, 20:117–123), which caused their
Democratic Front against the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). fall into the abode of mortal life. God then promised their
When in 1977 the JUP stood for the establishment of the return to immortality in the hereafter. In contrast to the
Muhammadan System, it united the Islamic parties in the Bible, extensive passages of the Quran deal with the subjects
Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) against Zulfiker Ali Bhutto’s of resurrection and the afterlife, beginning with chapters
PPP. After 1977, JUP changed sides several times—sympathiz- traditionally consigned by scholars to the Meccan phase of
ing at times even with its main adversaries, the JI (Jama
at-e Muhammad’s career (c. 615–622 C.E.). In the Quranic after-
Islami) and JUI. Its integrity thus suffered and therefore it life world, paradise is a domesticated arboreal garden or park
split into two major factions (Nurani faction and
Abd al- perfumed by musk, camphor, and ginger, through which
Sattar faction). Its success lies in its reliance on oral tradition, rivers of milk, honey, and wine flow (47:15). It is populated by

Islam and the Muslim World 375
Jerusalem

families of immortal believers who dress in elegant garments Campo, Juan Eduardo. The Other Sides of Paradise: Exploraand who dwell in heavenly mansions furnished with couches, tions into the Religious Meanings of Domestic Space in Islam.
carpets, and precious household vessels (9:72, 15:47, 36:55–58, Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1991.
88:10–16). Angels greet them (13:23–24), and handsome Ghazali, Abu Hamid al-. The Remembrance of Death and the
youths and beautiful houris (black-eyed maidens) offer food Afterlife (Kitab dhikr al-mawt wa-ma ba
dahu): Book XL of
and drink (43:71, 52:19–24, 76:15–22). The Quran also the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya
ulum al-din).
intimates that the blessed will enjoy the vision of God there Translated by T. J. Winter. Cambridge, U.K.: Islamic
(10:26, 39:75, 75:22–23), a doctrine that was later subject to Texts Society.
much debate among theologians and Quran interpreters.
The hadith mention that paradise has eight gates, each named Juan Eduardo Campo
for a virtue through which the blessed possessing that virtue
will enter. They also speak of the existence of eight paradises
rather than a single one, each deriving its name from a
Quranic term or phrase, such as dar al-salam (House of JERUSALEM See Holy Cities
peace), jannat al-khuld (Garden of eternity), and jannat
Aden
(Garden of Eden). In number, therefore, paradise surpasses
hell, which is said to have only seven levels or gates (jahannam).
It is also speculated that God’s throne (kursi) stood above
paradise. Sufis acknowledged the lower levels of paradise, but JEVDET PASHA (1822–1895)
stressed the ecstasy of communion with God in the heart, or
in the highest level of paradise—that of the elect. Ahmet Jevdet Pasha was an Ottoman historian, administrator, and educational and judicial reformer. Born in Bulgaria,
Ideas of paradise so captured the Muslim imagination that
he pursued a religious education; dissatisfaction with tradithey inspired caliphs and sultans, artists and architects, learned
scholars—even ordinary people—to invest the cultural land- tional methods led him to study secular mathematics, law,
scape with heavenly significance. According to the hadith, the and history. He wrote the first Ottoman grammar primer in
Ka
ba and the Black Stone in Mecca originated in paradise, Turkish, Kavaid-i Osmaniye.
and the span between the Prophet’s grave and the minbar in
Jevdet’s unique combination of religious and secular eduhis Medina mosque is one of the gardens of paradise. Reprecation made him useful as an advisor to the Tanzimat resentations of heavenly gardens occur on the Umayyad Grand
former, Mustafa Resit Pasha. He worked on educational
Mosque in Damascus (seventh century C.E.), in the Alhambra
reforms, wrote a religious text for schoolchildren, and began
of Granada (fourteenth century C.E.), on Persian royal pavilhis history of the later Ottoman Empire, Tarih-i Jevdet, based
ions (seventeenth century), and in illuminated Turkish and
on state papers and personal observation. He became a judge
Persian manuscripts of the Muhammad’s Night Journey and
Ascension (fifteenth to eighteenth centuries). The city and and member of the government, writing judicial and cadastral
palaces of Baghdad, the imperial capital of the Abbasids (r. regulations. After a series of administrative positions in the
750–1258), were named and described as earthly paradises. In reformist government of the Tanzimat, he became minister
India, the enclosed park within which the Taj Mahal, the of justice, established a secular court system, and drew up a
grand mausoleum of Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1657) and his queen modernized Islamic law code, the Mejelle (1869–1876), based
Mumtaz Mahal (d. 1631), was constructed was an adaptation not on French law but on Islamic Hanafi law.
of the “four garden” (chahar bagh) design of royal Persian
Jevdet opposed the constitution of 1876 and the deposigardens, a microcosmic image of paradise with its four rivers.
tion of Sultan
Abdulaziz. He served the absolutist Sultan
The magnificent building itself may well represent God’s
throne in heaven, believed to be located above paradise.
Abd al-Hamid II in various ministerial posts and prosecuted
Elsewhere, inscriptions and murals in mansions and ordinary the reformer Midhat Pasha for the murder of
Abdulaziz
Muslim homes created metaphorical relations between the (1881). He retired in 1882 and continued work on his history
domestic spaces of the living and the abodes of the blessed in and his memoirs, Tezakir, but returned to government servthe hereafter. ice from 1886 until his death in 1895.

See also Calligaphy; Jahannam; Law; Muhammad; See also Modernization, Political: Administrative, Mili-
Qur
an; Tafsir. tary, and Judicial Reform.

BIBILIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blair, Sheila, and Bloom, Jonathan M., eds. Images of Paradise Chambers, Richard L. “The Education of a Nineteenth
in Islamic Art. Hanover, N.H.: Hood Museum of Art, Century Ottoman Alim, Ahmed Cevdet Pasa.” Interna-
Dartmouth College, 1991. tional Journal of Middle East Studies 4 (1973): 440–464.

376 Islam and the Muslim World
Jihad

Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. Oxford, divine law (shari
a). Defining and understanding jihad, a
U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1961. concept with complex religious and moral significance, naturally occupied a great deal of their attention. The scholars
Linda T. Darling outlined a number of different types of jihad, all of which may
be grouped into two basic categories, the spiritual jihad and
the physical jihad. The objects of the first type included one’s
own soul (nafs), whose evil inclinations had to be overcome,
JIHAD or Satan (Shaitan), whose attempts to sow doubt and confusion and to lead the believer astray had to be perpetually
The word jihad is derived from the Arabic root jahada, fought. The physical jihad was aimed at unbelievers outside
meaning “to strive” or “to exert oneself” toward some goal. In the Muslim community, as well as hypocrites and troublethis general sense, jihad could mean striving to achieve makers within the Muslim ranks. Its goal was to establish the
something with no particular moral value, or even a negative supremacy of divine law and thereby to promote justice and
value. The Quran itself twice uses the verb when describing social welfare according to Islamic values. In this sense, jihad
the efforts of pagan parents to induce their Muslim-convert was closely related to the Quranic injunction that Muslims
children to return to polytheism (29:8, 31:15). Other occur- “command the right and forbid the wrong” (amr bil-ma
ruf
rences of this verbal form and its derivatives, however, are wa nahy
an al-munkar).
limited to the struggle of the Muslims to attain and maintain
The classical scholars also listed various means by which
their faith. Thus, jihad has come to mean in the Islamic
both the spiritual and the physical jihad could be conducted,
context only a virtuous struggle, toward some praiseworthy
including by the heart, tongue, pen, hand, and sword. Some
end, as defined by religion. It is therefore often linked with
traditions ascribed to Muhammad profess the merits of jihad
the phrase fi sabil Allah, meaning “struggle in the path of God.”
conducted by the tongue, as in one hadith in which the
The term jihad occurs infrequently in what are believed to Prophet said, “The greatest jihad is a word of truth spoken to
be the Meccan revelations of the Quran. During this first a tyrant.” Other traditions describe the jihad of the pen, that
part of the Prophet’s mission, lasting some twelve years, jihad is, of scholars, as more meritorious than the jihad of the
is used in the sense of cultivating personal piety, perseverance sword. One of the most famous such hadiths declares the
in the preaching of Islam, and forbearance and patient suffer- spiritual jihad to be the greater jihad (jihad al-akbar) as
ing in the face of persecution by the Muslims’ enemies. compared to the physical jihad, which is the lesser jihad (jihad
Quran 25:52, for example, advises Muslims to “listen not to al-asghar).
the unbelievers, but strive against them with it [the Quran] But the most widespread use of the term jihad in classical
with the utmost effort.” There is no recorded instance during Islamic thought was in the sense of a divinely sanctioned
the Meccan period in which the Prophet ordered or allowed struggle, through war if necessary, to establish Islamic soverhis followers to use violence against their enemies. Jihad eignty and thereby to propagate the Islamic faith to unbelievduring this period meant exclusively nonviolent resistance. ers. In classical jurisprudence (fiqh), the dominant strand of
intellectual activity in these early centuries, the chapters on
Following the Prophet’s migration to Medina (the Hijra),
jihad in legal treatises contained rules for the declaration,
occurrences of jihad increase in the Quran. While some of
conduct, and conclusion of such religiopolitical wars.
these verses may be understood as still referring to nonviolent
struggle, the majority clearly refer to physical force or fight- At the heart of the classical theory was the division of the
ing (qital). Quran 22:39 is believed by many scholars to be the world into two basic spheres, dar al-islam (land of Islam), a
first verse on this topic. It permits the Muslims to retaliate unitary state comprising the community of Muslims, living by
with force against those who continue to attack and persecute the shari
a, and led by the just ruler (imam); and dar al-harb
them. A subsequent series of verses (2:190–191) converts the (land of war), where Islamic law did not prevail, leading
permission of self-defense into an obligation, with the argu- presumably to anarchy and moral corruption. It was comment that “oppression is worse than killing.” Then, after monly understood that Muslims had an individual obligation
eight years of warfare between the Muslims and their polytheist (fard
ayn) to defend dar al-islam whenever it was threatened
enemies, the Jewish tribes of Medina, and the Christian by aggression from dar al-harb. This type of war received
empire of the Byzantines, the Quran seems to enjoin a war of little attention in the chapters on jihad.
conversion against all remaining polytheist Arabs (9:5) and a
war of subjugation against Christians and Jews (9:29). The jurists’ attention was focused on what may be called
the expansionist jihad. The imam was obliged to undertake a
The Classical Theory jihad whenever the conditions of the Islamic state permitted
Following the Prophet’s death, Muslim scholars produced a him to reduce dar al-harb and bring its lands and peoples into
large body of literature analyzing Quranic terms and collect- dar al-islam. This was a collective duty of the Muslim commuing traditions of the Prophet as part of their effort to codify nity (fard kifaya), one that required participation only from

Islam and the Muslim World 377
Jihad

During an Islamic Jihad rally at Hebron University in 1997, some two thousand students rallied and chanted against Israel and America as a
round of Palestinian and Israeli peace talks began in Washington D.C. This protester’s headband reads “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great). Though
the idea of jihad has been used by some terrorist groups to advocate killing civilians, mainstream Muslim scholars condemn such supposedly
Qu’ranic justifications. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

those financially and physically capable of undertaking it. Before the start of any attack, the enemy was to be offered the
One school of Sunni jurisprudence, the Shafi
i, interposed a choice of accepting Islam, in which case no further action
third category between the other two, dar al-sulh (land of against them was permissible. If they refused, they were to be
truce), comprising peoples with which the Muslims had a offered dhimmi (protected) status as an autonomous commutreaty of truce, which suspended, but did not end, the jihad nity within dar al-islam. This option, deriving from Quran
obligation. The maximum duration of such a truce, according 9:29, initially pertained to Jews and Christians, but was
to most scholars, was ten years, although nothing prevented steadily expanded to include Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Budthe imam from renewing the truce if he deemed it in the dhists as the Islamic frontiers expanded. Only the polytheist
Muslims’ interest. Arabs who had fought so bitterly against Muhammad and the
early Muslim community were excluded from the dhimmi
The jihad in dar al-harb, in the view of the scholars, was option and forced to convert according to Quran 9:5.
aimed at bringing Islam’s higher civilization to those unaware
of it, not territorial conquest or plunder. Thus, they elabo- In fighting the enemy, Muslim soldiers were to avoid
rated rules on what Muslim armies may or may not do in dar directly targeting women and children. Some jurists included
al-harb. The basis for such moral injunctions was the Quran’s old men, peasants, hermits, merchants, the insane, and other
general command, “Do not transgress limits, for God loves males who do not ordinarily take part in fighting on the list of
not transgressors” (2:190), which was given greater specificity prohibited targets. According to most scholars, all ableby the practice of the Prophet and his first four successors. bodied adult males could be killed at the discretion of the

378 Islam and the Muslim World
Jinnah, Muhammad
Ali

imam, whether they were fighting or had been taken pris- fighting if necessary, to establish the Islamic order over all
oner. The scholars permitted the use of all types of weapons unbelievers. The more tolerant and pacific texts relating to
or military tactics that were necessary to overcome the unbelievers were abrogated by the later, more belligerent
enemy, including laying siege to fortresses, firing incendiary verses. But the category of unbelievers in fundamentalist
devices, cutting off the water supply, or flooding. The excep- writings includes nominal Muslims as well as non-Muslims.
tions were certain practices that were categorically prohibited The transformation of hypocritical Muslim societies into
by the Prophet, such as killing by mutilation or torture, true Islamic communities, led by true Muslim leaders, is the
burning individuals alive, and violating oaths or grants of immediate goal of most fundamentalist ideologies. Although
security to soldiers or envoys. some writers continue to speak of dar al-Islam and dar al-harb,
the jihad to spread Islam beyond its current borders seems for
The difference in Shi
ite views on jihad was that only the most fundamentalists to be a secondary concern.
righteous imam, a descendant of
Ali, could lead the expansionist jihad. Because the line of imams ended with the As for the proper conduct of war today, the vast majority
disappearance of the twelfth imam in the ninth century, of Muslim scholars agree that principles of international
according to the dominant strand of Shi
ism, only a defensive humanitarian law are compatible with Islamic teachings.
jihad to repulse enemy aggression is theoretically possible. These include the notion of noncombatant immunity and the
prohibition against inhumane forms of killing. Muslim ter-
The classical theory was already outdated as it was being rorist groups have, however, sought to justify the killing of
formulated in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. With civilians on Islamic grounds, but their arguments and tactics
the launching of the Reconquista in Spain and the Crusades have been condemned by mainstream scholars.
in Syria and Palestine, the expansionist jihad gave way to a
defensive struggle. In the nineteenth century, as European Finally, many Muslims today are trying to reclaim the
imperialism advanced throughout much of the Muslim world, broad meaning of jihad as “effort” or “struggle” apart from
the defensive aspects of jihad assumed paramount importance. war. Increasingly, we find references to such struggles as the
“jihad for literacy” or the “jihad for economic development.”
Modern Interpretations
The Christian missionary activity that accompanied British See also Conflict and Violence; Terrorism.
rule in India led some Indian Muslims to undertake major
revisions of classical notions of jihad. The literature produced BIBLIOGRAPHY
by these writers is unmistakably apologetic in tone, straining Hamidullah, Muhammad. Muslim Conduct of State. 7th ed.
to answer the charge of Christian writers that Islam was Lahore: Shaykh Muhammad Ashraf, 1961.
spread by the sword. According to the apologists, the wars of Johnson, James Turner, and Kelsay, John, eds. Cross, Crescent,
early Islam were purely defensive in nature, and jihad in and Sword: The Justification and Limitation of War in Westmodern times should be largely divested of its military con- ern and Islamic Tradition. New York: Greenwood, 1990.
notations and reduced mainly to its spiritual aspects. Kelsay, John, and Johnson, James Turner, eds. Just War and
Jihad: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on War and
Such writings inevitably created a backlash among other Peace in Western and Islamic Tradition. New York: Green-
Muslim interpreters. Two broad reactions may be identified, wood, 1991.
the modernist and the fundamentalist. The modernists’ goal Khadduri, Majid. War and Peace in the Law of Islam. Baltiis not so much to respond to criticisms of early Islamic history more: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955.
and dogma, but to reinterpret jihad in ways that make it Peters, Rudolph. Islam and Colonialism: The Doctrine of Jihad
compatible with the principles of modern international law. in Modern History. The Hague: Mouton, 1979.
Thus, they challenge the classical theory’s conception of a dar Peters, Rudolph. Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam. Princeal-islam in opposition to a dar al-harb, pointing out that such ton: Markus Wiener, 1996.
categories are nowhere to be found in the Quran or hadith. If
these two basic sources for Islamic law and ethics are properly Sohail H. Hashmi
analyzed, they claim, jihad cannot be properly understood as
a war to spread Islam or subjugate unbelievers. It is waged
only in self-defense, in conformity with international law,
when the lives, property, and honor of Muslims are at stake. JINNAH, MUHAMMAD
ALI
(1876–1948)
The fundamentalists also appeal to the Quran and hadith
to challenge what they consider various false understandings Muhammad
Ali Jinnah was born on 25 December 1876 in
of jihad. First, they refute the mystical strand of thought that Karachi and became one of the most celebrated leaders of the
emphasizes the superiority of the inner, spiritual jihad over independence movement. Later he became the founder of
the outer, physical jihad. By the end of the Quranic revela- Pakistan. He died one year after independence on 11 Septemtion, according to them, jihad meant a struggle, through ber 1948.

Islam and the Muslim World 379
Judaism and Islam

People of Pakistan know him better by his title, Quaid-i
Azam, meaning “the great leader.” After earning his degree in
law from London’s famous Lincoln’s Inn in 1896 and with a
certificate to join the bar of any court in British India, he
returned to his homeland. He settled in Bombay where he
practiced law and soon rose to fame as the most distinguished
attorney in the country. He split his time between the legal
profession and politics. As a liberal nationalist trained in
British constitutional and democratic tradition, he became a
passionate advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity against British
rule. For almost two decades, he devoted his energies to
bringing the two communities together on one political
platform by focusing on the idea of common political interests against British imperialism.

By the early 1920s, he began to feel disenchanted by the
leaders of the Indian National Congress Party. He did not
feel comfortable with their militant, confrontational style
with the British. Rather, he advocated the course of moderation and dialogue to win freedom. His real disappointment
came on the issue of minority rights, specifically those of the
Muslims who comprised nearly 20 percent of the population,
with concentration in the eastern and western parts of the
British Indian Empire. Given their numbers, they were not a
minority in a traditional sense, but a people with a heritage of
more than one thousand years of Muslim rule and separate
sense of identity. Jinnah favored a tripartite understanding on
the constitutional guarantees for the rights of the Muslims Muhammed Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) was the leader of the Indian
once India became independent. Muslim League and the driving force in the creation of Pakistan as
an independent Muslim state in 1947. © HULTON ARCHIVE/
GETTY IMAGES
Muslim nationalism developed parallel to secular Indian
nationalism in the later part of the nineteenth century.
Muslims in the Indian subcontinent regarded themselves as a
See also Pakistan, Islamic Republic of.
separate community with distinctive culture and civilization.
But their political separatism was confined to the issue of
minority rights that Muslim leaders like Jinnah strongly Rasul Bakhsh Rais
advocated in seeking representation in elected councils through
separate electorates for Muslims. That ensured that Muslims
would get adequate representation according to the size of
JUDAISM AND ISLAM
their population. The dominant Hindu groups, including the
Congress Party, were opposed to continuing any such ar- Jewish-Muslim relations have been shaped by the interacrangements once the British left. tions of the theological perspectives of both religions and the
historical circumstances in which they are found. Both use
By the late 1930s, Jinnah began to argue for a separate
sacred texts and history to form the basis of their perceptions
country for the Muslims in the eastern and western fringes of
of the other, with the result that there are often conflicting
British India. With the passage of the Lahore Resolution in
versions of the same events. This entry will show how
1940 by a great assembly of Muslim leaders from all over
historical circumstances, the place of Jews in Islamic religious
India, Jinnah formally demanded the creation of a Muslim
text, and political ideology combine in varying degrees to
homeland. For the next seven years, he mobilized the Muslim
shape Jewish-Muslim relations.
masses on the basis of separate nationhood and convinced the
British that that was the only option to prevent a communal Historical Perspective
war between Hindus and Muslims. Although Jinnah invoked In each historical period, the definition of who was a Muslim
Islamic symbols for political mobilization, he was a liberal, or a Jew has shifted. Often only a religious identification,
constitutionalist politician with a rational and progressive more frequently it signifies a particular social, economic, or
outlook. political group. Ethnic categories and religious identities

380 Islam and the Muslim World
Judaism and Islam

have been conflated by both insiders and outsiders alike, Christianity meant also choosing to ally with a superpower
thus complicating the task of analyzing intergroup and interested in dominating Arabia.
intercommunal relations. In the first two centuries of the
Islamic era, for example, we have evidence that some Jews Arab sources report that at the time of Muhammad’s birth,
who had converted to Islam still retained Jewish home prac- some Meccans had abandoned polytheism and had chosen
tices, not from hypocritical motives, but because the develop- monotheism (Ar. hanif ), in a Jewish, Christian, or nonsectarment of Islamic practices for the home were somewhat ian form. From Quranic and other evidence, it is clear that
underdeveloped. Meccans were conversant with the general principles of
Judaism and Christianity and knew many details of worship,
Another important tool for Jewish-Muslim intergroup practice, and belief.
analysis is the placement of behaviors and ideas in specific
temporal and geographic contexts. Visions and ideas of the When Muhammad had his first revelation in 610 C.E., his
past have a strong influence on both religions. Many Muslims wife, Khadija, tested the validity of his experience by seeking
have as keen an awareness of the events around the time of the the advice of her cousin, Waraqa b. Nawfal, a hanif learned in
Prophet as they do their own time. The Quran and the sunna Jewish and Christian scriptures. In declaring that Muhamof the Prophet are guides for a Muslim’s relations with Jews, mad was a continuation of the prophetic traditions of Judaism
as they are in all areas of behavior. A similar level of historical and Christianity, he said that he had been foretold in Jewish
consciousness, albeit with different perspectives and details, and Christian scripture. A central doctrine of Islam places
helps shape Jewish attitudes toward Muslims. The historic Muhammad at the end of a chain of prophets from God,
interactions of Muslims and Jews have resulted in each being starting with Adam and embracing all the prophetic figures of
shaped and transformed by the other, and both by interac- Judaism and Christianity, and holds that Muhammad’s adtions with Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and others. It is vent is announced in the Torah and Gospels. Denial of this
hard to imagine how each religion would be as it is without central idea by Jews and Christians is said to be a result of the
the presence of the others. corruption of the sacred texts, either inadvertently or on
purpose. This disparity of perspective underlies much of what
When the prophet Muhammad was born in 570 C.E., Muslims believe about their Jewish and Christian forebears
Arabia, a central trade and military location, was caught in the and conditions Islamic triumphalist views about the validity
Byzantine-Sassanian rivalry. Arabs, including Jewish Arabic- of Islam against the partial falsity of the other two traditions.
speakers, were in the armies of both sides, providing horse
and camel cavalries, and each empire maintained Arab client The Quran and the Sira, the traditional biography of
states as buffers and bases of operation. Only around fifty Muhammad, present ambivalent attitudes toward Jews and
years earlier, the last Jewish kingdom in southern Arabia, Christians, reflecting the varied experience of Muhammad
allied with the Persians, had been defeated, replaced by a and the early community with Jews and Christians in Arabia.
Byzantine-supported Christian army from Abyssinia. Accord- Christians are said to be nearest to Muslims in “love” in
ing to early Muslim historians, this army, led by a general Quran 5:82, but Muslims are not to take Jews or Christians as
named Abraha, is referred to in Surat al-Fal in the Quran. awlilya, “close allies or leaders” in Quran 5:51. The Quran
sometimes makes a distinction between the “Children of
The Hijaz had numerous Jewish settlements, most of long Israel,” that is, Jews mentioned in the Bible, and “Jews,”
standing, dating to at least the time of the destruction of the members of the Jewish tribes in Arabia during Muhammad’s
Second Temple in 70 C.E.. According to some scholars, the time. This distinction is also present in the Sira and other
earliest Jewish presence in the Hijaz was at the time of histories, and one sees some Jews as hostile to Muhammad
Nabonidus, circa 550 B.C.E. The Jews in these settlements and his mission, while others become allies with him. The sowere merchants, farmers, vintners, smiths, and, in the desert, called Constitution of Medina, which Muhammad negotimembers of Bedouin tribes. The most important Jewish ated with the Ansar, the Muhajirun, and the Jews of Medina,
dominated city was Yathrib, known later as Medina. The Jews include Jews in the umma, allowing them freedom of associaof the Hijaz were semi-independent, but often allied with tion and religion in return for the payment of an annual tax,
both Byzantium and the Persians. Some made the claim to be originally called the kharaj. This agreement and the subse-
“kings” of the Hijaz, most probably meaning tax collectors quent treaties negotiated by Muhammad with the Jews of
for the Persians, and for a variety of reasons, more Jews were Khaybar, Tayma, and other cities in the Hijaz, establish the
loyal to Persian interests against those of the Byzantine precedent of including “people of the book” (Ar. ahl al-kitab)
empire. Jews, as well as Christians, seem to have been en- in the umma. As the armies of conquest encountered commugaged in attempting to convert the Arabian population to nities of Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians, the model of
their religious and political views, often with some success. Muhammad’s accommodating behavior extended the origi-
The loyalties of the Jews and Christians to one or the other of nal notion to incorporate all these recipients of God’s revelathe two empires meant that choosing either Judaism or tion as ahl al-dhimma, or dhimmi.

Islam and the Muslim World 381
Judaism and Islam

generally displacing other groups. Also, because Muslims
expanded to include most of the world’s Jews in their polity,
Rabbinic Judaism was able to develop its institutions within
the context of the Islamic umma. For the newly forming
Islamic state, the loyalty of the exilarch, and, by extension, the
Jews, added legitimacy to Muslim claims to legitimate rule
over its various non-Muslim populations. The interaction
between Jews and Muslims thus produced profound effects
on both Judaism and Islam. The occasional uprisings against
Muslim rule—as the Jewish uprisings of the early eighth
century—were local, over specific grievances, and not anti-
Islamic as such. In fact, the Jewish revolt against the Umayyads,
driven, it seems, by messianic visions, was sympathetic to
early Shi
ite ideology while it unsuccessfully tried to overthrow the last Umayyad caliph.

The first two Islamic centuries were a time of translating
Jewish and Christian scripture into Arabic, along with a vast
body of commentary, particularly on biblical figures. Quranic
tafsir became the repository of much Jewish tradition about
such figures as Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and others. It was
during this period that Rabbinic Judaism met a strong challenge from Karaite Judaism and ultimately triumphed as the
dominant form of Judaism in the world.

Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), a rabbi, philosopher, and phy- The period from the tenth through the eighteenth centusician, was born in Cordoba, Spain, where Christians and Jews ries of the common era witnessed a rise of Western military,
participated in a lively intellectual community along with Muslims. When Maimonides was still young, however, Almohads
technological, and economic power, ultimately eclipsing the
from North Africa arrived in Cordoba and forbade Christians and great agrarian-based Islamic empires that had formed in the
Jews to worship openly, so his family left and eventually settled in wake of the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate. In the western
Egypt. © CORBIS-BETTMANN Islamic lands of the Iberian peninsula and North Africa, Jews,
Christians, and Muslims combined in a society that is often
described by later historians with the adjective “golden.” The
The death of Muhammad and the subsequent expansion areas of poetry, music, art, architecture, theology, exegesis,
of Islam out of Arabia brought about a break with the Jewish law, philosophy, medicine, pharmacology, and mysticism
Arabian communities, so that subsequent relations are built were shared among all the inhabitants of the Islamic courts
on Jewish and Christian interactions with Muslims who knew and city-states at the same time that Muslim armies were
the Prophet’s actions only as idealized history. During the locked in a losing struggle with the Christian armies of the
first Islamic century, the period of the most rapid expansion Reconquista. In the eastern Mediterranean, similar symbiotic
of Islam, social and religious structures were so fluid that it is societies could be found. Within the intellectual circles of the
hard to make generalizations. Jews and Christians were theo- Islamic world, Jews become Hellenized through contact with
retically expelled from Arabia, or, at least, the Hijaz, but later Muslim philosophers and theologians, just as Muslims had
evidence shows that Jews and Christians remained for centu- from contact with Christians earlier. In the areas of comries afterward. As late as the eighteenth century, for example, merce, world trade was dominated by trading associations
Jewish Bedouin roamed Northwestern Arabia, terrorizing made up of Muslims, Jews, and Christians from Islamic lands.
pilgrims.
Political Ideology
The era of the Umayyads was a time in which Muslims, The twin attacks on the Islamic world in the Middle Ages by
Jews, and Christians negotiated the new power arrange- the Crusaders from the West and the Mongols from the East
ments. The parameters of dhimmi status were developed, and transformed Muslim attitudes toward the dhimmi. In the
both head and land taxes were paid to the Muslim rulers. Jews resulting visions of society, the influence of Jews, Christians,
and Christians related to the Muslim caliphs through repre- and Shi
ites was circumscribed and made more rigid, but not
sentatives and not individually. For the Jews, the Resh Geluta eliminated. Muslim religious scholars used depictions of Jews
or exilarch was designated as a “prince” in the Muslim court, and Christians found in the foundation texts as cautionary
representing all the Jews. Because the exilarch was from the models for Muslims, but actual communities of Jews and
Rabbinic branch of Judaism, it became the dominant form, Christians were treated with strict adherence to Islamic legal

382 Islam and the Muslim World
Judaism and Islam

precedent. Dhimmis had to wear distinctive clothing and status. By the eve of World War II, most Islamic countries
badges to indicate their position in society, as did Muslims as were prepared to overthrow colonialism and establish nationpart of a general “uniform” indicating rank and status. Cer- states along Western secularist models. When this happened
tain occupations became common for Jews and Christians, after World War II, constitutions were modeled after such
such as tanning, which was regarded as imparting ritual countries as Switzerland, the United States, and France,
impurity to Muslims, and it became less common in this usually guaranteeing freedom of religion, but providing no
period to find Jews and Christians in the highest ranks of particular safeguards for religious expression. Other religious
advisors to the rulers. Jews and Christians usually lived in and ethnic groups also desired nation-states. Christian states
separate quarters of cities, and, while they were inferior to were formed in the Balkans and the Jewish state of Israel was
Muslims in public, barred from riding horses or blocking the formed in the formerly British Mandate territory of Palespublic way with religious processions, they lived autonomously tine. The creation of the state of Israel in 1948 became a
with respect to their communal affairs. This autonomy, while central focal point for Jewish-Muslim relations that had
protective of the individuals, was to prove to have long-term steadily deteriorated since before World War I. The worsenconsequences, however. ing conflicts in Palestine increased Jewish-Muslim conflict in
the Arab states, where Jews were seen as both foreign and
When Jews and Muslims were expelled from Spain in instruments of Western colonial designs. Within twenty
1492, the majority of Jews chose to move to Islamic lands, the years after the formation of the state of Israel, the majority of
area of the Ottoman Empire in particular. The Iberian Jews Jews living in Arab lands migrated to Israel, thus crystallizing
were so numerous, well educated, and prosperous that Iberian the conflict in Palestine into a Jewish-Muslim conflict. Rulers
Jewish culture often supplanted that of the older Jewish in predominantly Muslim countries no longer had a constitucommunities so that Sephardic became the general term for ent Jewish population. Jews became an abstract and hostile
Jews living in Islamic lands. The trading and manufacturing Other, and Judaism, increasingly identified with Zionism by
skills and the capital of these immigrants to the Ottoman Jews and non-Jews alike, was revalorized as the ever-present
empire provided much of the wealth for Ottoman expansion. opposition to Muslims in Islamic history. This last notion,
Under the Ottomans, Jewish and Christian communities while having its roots in the foundation texts of Islam, was
achieved the greatest degree of autonomy. Through the millet now abstracted in a way unlike any time in the past, and
system, each community was distinct and responsible directly Jewish-Muslim relations took a new direction.
to the sultan.
Jews in Islamic History
In the Ottoman Empire, the British and French found A common thread among many Islamic intellectuals con-
Jews and Christians to be attractive agents for their commer- cerned with the role and direction of Muslims in the
cial activities, and the Ottomans, in turn, were pleased to postcolonial world is the role of the Jews in Islamic history. As
employ the dhimmi for these purposes as well. Many Jews mentioned above, the historical circumstances of a strong
sought to secure the benefits of Western societies for them- Jewish presence in the Hijaz during Muhammad’s time and
selves and their offspring by asking for and getting Western the opposition of a few of the Jewish tribes to Muhammad’s
protection, passports, and, in some instances, citizenship. mission, embedded numerous seemingly anti-Jewish state-
The increasing identification of Jews and Christians with ments into the early literature. For a few, in a quest to use the
non-Muslim powers served only to isolate these non-Muslims Islamic historical past to explain the present, the negative
from the rest of Islamic society. By the end of the nineteenth accounts of Judaism and Christianity became abstracted so as
century, most Muslims were under Western political and to conflate the past with the present Arab-Israeli and Eastlegal influence. The secular legal systems devised in the West West conflicts. Biblical descriptions of Jews rebelling against
supplanted Muslim customary and religious law, seriously God’s commands, Medinan Jewish opposition to the forming
challenging or eliminating the category of dhimma in those Muslim state, and Israeli actions against Palestinians were
countries. The result was often a complete separation of Jews read together as an eternal Jewish character, a view somefrom a relationship in law with Muslims and an increasing times informed by Western anti-Semitic literature. The
identification of Jews as “European.” This was particularly article by Egyptian intellectual Sayyid Qutb, “Our Struggle
the case in Western Islamic lands, where a knowledge of the with the Jews,” is one example, as are the views expressed in
growth of European forms of Judaism was greatest. America by leaders of the Nation of Islam.

The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire at the end of Other Muslim intellectuals read the same foundation texts
World War I resulting in the creation of a number of small with an emphasis on the special relationship between God
nation-states brought about a further separation of non- and people of the book. While deploring the problems in
Muslims from Muslims. The ideology of nationalism reduced Palestine, they separate the Arab-Israeli conflict from discusreligion to the status of only one of the components of a sions about Jews (and Christians). Some at Al-Azhar in Egypt
nation-state ideology. Education became Western, techno- cite Quran and sunna to support peace accords between
logical, and secular, further reducing religion to peripheral Israel and the Palestinians, and Warith D. Muhammad, the

Islam and the Muslim World 383
Judaism and Islam

son of Elijah Muhammad, has countered the anti-Jewish considerable polemic. It has also produced positive calls for
essentialist reading of the past with a Quranic-based message mutual respect and cooperation. It remains to be seen if the
of mutual cooperation among Muslims, Jews, and Christians. positive richness of past Jewish-Muslim relations can overcome the current antipathies.
Discourse about Jewish-Muslim and Christian relations
has been dominated in the last century by the problems of
See also Christianity and Islam; Islam and Other Religforming new group identities after the dissolution of colonialism. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities have all
ions; Minorities: Dhimmis.
suffered from conflicts pitting one ethnic group against
another. As with any conflict, this period has produced Gordon D. Newby

384 Islam and the Muslim World
K
KALAM The subject matter of kalam included such topics as God
and his attributes, classification of and arguments against
other religions, ethical responsibility and its eschatological
Kalam is an Arabic term for speech, and has several other,
consequences, and the doctrine of the imamate (political
related, technical connotations in Islamic religious thought.
theology). Ilm al-kalam became the lingua franca of most
Used in the phrase kalam allah it means the word of God as
religious discourse among sects and groups in medieval
revealed to humankind through prophets (2:75, 9:6, and
Islamic society from the eighth century onward. Sunni and
48:15). In this sense, kalam is analogous to the Greek term Shiite schools adopted the kalam method. So, too, did
logos, as it is used in Jewish theology by Philo of Alexandria in medieval Christian and Jewish communities living in Iraq and
about the first century C.E. In its second sense, kalam desig- Iran and elsewhere in the central Islamic lands. After the
nates God’s creative word. In the Qur
an, God’s words, as eleventh century, Aristotelian philosophy and logic began to
commands, create reality. This can be seen in such Qur
anic wax as the kalam methods and schools waned. Nowadays,
quotations as: “Yet when We will a thing We only have to say kalam is studied historically but does not claim thriving
‘Be’ and it is” (16:40). In this context, the word of God, kalam, schools or exponents. Nonetheless, in his widely read theotakes on a performative function—the utterance of the word logical treatise on Islam and modernity, Risalat al-tawhid
accomplishes the creative act. (Theology of unity), Shaykh Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905)
preserved a modified version of the dialectical method of the
The third and the most primary usage is found in the medieval Mutazilite and Asharite schools.
phrase
ilm al-kalam, which connotes “the science of (dialecti-
See also Ash
arites, Ash
aira; Disputation; Falsafa;
cal) theology” that establishes and elaborates on the doctrinal
Knowledge; Murjiites, Murjia; Quran.
teachings of the various schools (sing. madhhab) of theology,
such as the Mutazilites, Asharites, and Maturidites. In Islamic
BIBLIOGRAPHY
intellectual traditions, the scholars of kalam gradually came to
Wolfson, Harry A. The Philosophy of the Kalam. Cambridge,
be delineated as dogmatic theologians (mutakallimun), as
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976.
distinct from philosophers (falasifa) and mystics (Sufis).
Parviz Morewedge
The mutakallimun developed a dialectical method of framing and defending religious claims over rival teachers and
schools. Some scholars believe that Greek and Hellenistic
philosophy influenced the rise of kalam as a form of theology, KANO
while others point out that Islam, as a revealed, word-
Kano is the capital city of Kano State, in northern Nigeria. Its
centered religion, was the primary factor in the emergence of
1992 population (the last year for which census data is
the kalam method and schools of thought. The latter method,
available) was estimated at 700,000 inhabitants. Kano State
as it appears in literary form, strongly indicates the disputational
has an area of 16.630 square miles and an estimated populacontext of early and medieval Islamic thought. A theological
tion 5.6 million.
claim was made, then defended against critics in a series of
conditional statements of the form: “if someone from such Archaeological evidence suggests that Kano was founded
and such a school asks you so and so, then say to him . . . .” in the fifth century as a settlement at the foot of Dalla Hill.

Karaki, Shaykh
Ali

The early inhabitants were animist, believing that a soul or Other prominent buildings in Kano are the Amir’s palace, the
spirit inhabited all things. The animist tradition is still fol- Grand Mosque, and the museum.
lowed by some peoples of northern Nigeria, but Kano’s
inhabitants were introduced to Islam possibly as early as the See also Africa, Islam in; Marwa, Muhammad;
Uthman
tenth century. Dan Fodio.

Kano was visited by strangers in the tenth century. These BIBLIOGRAPHY
newcomers may have been early Muslims, but a firm Islamic Hogben, S. J., and Kirk-Green, A. H. M. The Emirates of
presence was not established until the fourteenth century. By Northern Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press, 1966.
the late 1300s, Kano became an independent Islamic sultanate,
Smith, M. G. Government in Kano, 1350–1950. Boulder,
with close links to other Islamic centers located across the Colo.: Westview Press, 1997.
Sahara to the north. With the creation of the sultanate, the
people of Kano began to publicly observe Islamic festivals,
Thyge C. Bro
and the appointment of eunuchs to office—a practice common in courts elsewhere in the Islamic world—was begun in
Kano as well.

By the fifteenth century, Kano had assumed control of the
KARAKI, SHAYKH
ALI
trans-Sahara caravan trade, due in large part to its powerful
Nur al-Din Abu
l-Hasan Ali b. al-Husayn b. Abd al-Ali alarmy. Camels appeared in the city, acquired through trade,
Karaki, also known as al-Muhaqqiq al-Thani (d.1533), was an
and slave raiding in the countryside to the south had become a
Arab Twelver Shiite jurist from Karak Nuh in present-day
profitable occupation of the Kano aristocracy. Later in the
Lebanon, who acquired the scholastic tradition of Jabal Amil
fifteenth century, Kano came in direct contact with European
in Syria and stood in the intellectual line of descent from
traders, and further expanded their trade repertoire by spe-
Muhammad b. Makki (d.1384), who was known as al-Shahid
cializing in indigo-colored textiles and red “Morocco-leather.”
al-Awwal (the First Martyr). Al-Karaki was the first major
During the period of European colonization, Kano devel- Shiite scholar to emigrate from Jabal Amil to Najaf in Iraq
oped as a center of Western-style education. The British during the sixteenth century and from there to Safavid Iran
colonial government set up a school to train teachers of (1501–1736), where Shah Ismail (r. 1501–1524) appointed
Arabic and Islamic sciences in the methods of modern peda- him shaykh al-Islam. He implemented the Jafari (Twelver
gogy. Nonetheless, the city remained an important center of Shiite) legal rulings, observed the previously suspended
Sufi activities as well. It became in the same period an Friday prayer, and tried to draw Shiism out of its scholastic
emporium of the new groundnut trade, on which the econ- puritanism to fit the Safavid state structure. In 1532, and as a
omy of northern Nigeria today largely depends. visible sign of al-Karaki’s eminence at the court, Shah Tahmasp
(r. 1524–1576) issued a royal decree declaring him the deputy
Kano is not remarkable for creative literary contributions. (naib) of the imam and the seal of jurisconsults (khatam al-
It relied on works that were imported from peripheral Islamic mujtahidin), thus undermining the position of the Iranian
areas. The first Kano scholar in Islamic literature was Usuman, sadrs, chiefs of the Safavid religious administration who
an imam from Miga, who lived in the middle of the eight- adjudicated in criminal and religious matters. Shah Tahmasp
eenth century. A century later Asim Degal contributed works also conferred on al-Karaki extensive land holdings as a
on astrology. The Makarantan Ilmi schools of higher Islamic hereditary waqf (religious endowment). Al-Karaki’s ardent
learning play an important part in the Islamic life of Kano defense of the Shiite faith earned him the nickname “inven-
City. There are at least twelve establishments of this kind in tor of the Shiite religion.” Among his descendants was the
Kano, but the number is believed to be much higher. seventeenth-century Iranian jurist and philosopher Mir Damad.

In the eighteenth century Kano was besieged by the See also Empires: Safavid and Qajar; Isma
il I, Shah;
Fulani, a powerful West African people. After the Fulani Shaykh al-Islam; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver); Tahmasp I,
came the Europeans. British troops took the city in 1903 and Shah.
imposed indirect colonial government. The emir stayed in
power, but a British colonial official was present at all times. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kano grew during the twentieth century. A railroad was built Arjomand, S. A. “Two Decrees of Shah Tahmasp Concernin 1912, an airport in 1937, and a system of roads and ing Statecraft and the Authority of Shaykh Ali al-Karaki,”
highways expanded over the years. Today the city preserves a In Authority and Political Culture in Shi
ism. Albany: State
mixture of the old and the new. Its walls still stand. Built in the University of New York Press, 1988.
fourteenth century of mud-brick, the walls are nearly 30 Arjomand, S. A. “The Mujtahid of the Age and the Mullabashi:
kilometers long, with 15 gates. Still standing, too, are tradi- An Intermediate Stage in the Institutionalization of Religtional houses of mud-brick, finely decorated in Hausa style. ious Authority in Shiite Iran.” In Authority and Political

386 Islam and the Muslim World
Kemal, Namek

Culture in Shi
ism. Albany: State University of New York Qajar dynasty, covered the dome in gold and the manara of
Press, 1988. the sanctuary. In April 1802, twelve thousand Wahhabis
under Shaykh Saud invaded Karbala, killed over three thou-
Rula Jurdi Abisaab sand inhabitants, and sacked the city.

See also
Ali; Husayn; Quran; Shi
a: Early.

KARBALA BIBLIOGRAPHY
Karbala is the second largest town in Iraq, with over 350,000 Honigmann E.. “Karbalâ’.” In Vol. IV, The Encyclopaedia of
inhabitants in the early twenty-first century. It is situated Islam. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978.
about sixty miles southwest of Baghdad, where the mauso- Jafri, S. H. M. The Origins and Early Development of Shi
a
leum of Muhammad’s grandson Husayn (Mashhad Husayn) Islam. New York: Longman, 1981.
was erected and frequently destroyed and restored during the Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shi
i Islam. New Haven,
early centuries of Islam. Conn.:Yale University Press, 1985.

When the first Umayyad Sunni caliph, Muawiya, died in
Diana Steigerwald
680 C.E., his son Yazid came to power. The majority of
Muslims saw the nomination of Yazid to the caliphate as an
usurpation of the notion of consensus (ijma
), the legitimate
means of choosing a caliph. When Husayn received confirmation of the loyalty of the Kufis from his cousin Muslim Ibn
KEMAL, NAMEK (1840–1888)
Aqil, he headed toward Kufa. On his way, Husayn learned
that his cousin had died at the hands of Yazid’s men and that Namek Kemal, a writer and journalist belonging to the group
the Kufis had shifted their allegiance to Yazid. of the Young Ottomans, attempted to introduce political
liberalism into the bureaucratic despotism of the Tanzimat
Husayn nevertheless continued in the direction of Kufa. reform era. Kemal came from an aristocratic background, and
Ibn Ziyad, the governor of Kufa, with one thousand soldiers after learning French he began his career in the Translation
at his command, told Husayn that he could neither go to Kufa Office of the Ottoman government in Istanbul in 1857. He
nor return to Mecca, and was permitted only to go to published a journal and wrote essays on reform in a simple but
Damascus, the capital. Instead, Husayn led his heavily out- powerful Turkish style. In 1865 he helped found a secret
numbered and underequipped followers to battle in Karbala, political society and was dismissed from his government
where they were slain mercilessly on the battlefield. This position when this became known. In exile in Europe
event played an important role in the development of Shiite (1867–1870), he discovered European civilization and French
theology and has been the source of dissension among Mus- revolutionary thought, which he found compatible with cerlims. The battle of Karbala accentuated the split between the tain Islamic political ideas. He popularized the concepts of
two major branches of Islam. The event forged in Shiite fatherland and freedom, and started the newspaper Hurriyet
Muslims an identity as believers who are subjected to perse- (Freedom) to develop public opinion (1868). On returning
cution for the sake of the true succession of Muhammad. from exile he became a journalist and political essayist,
advocating liberal political rights founded on Islamic princi-
A cult of martyrdom is linked to the death and downfall of
ples, constitutional separation of powers, and halting of
Husayn at Karbala. The
Ashura (date of Husayn’s death) was
European economic penetration. His controversial 1873 paelaborated upon and systematized in the articulation of Shiite
triotic play, Vatan (Fatherland), resulted in renewed impristheology. Every year during the first ten days of the month of
hijra, the battle of Karbala is commemorated by Shiite onment and exile. In 1876 he returned to join state service
Muslims during Muharram, and many go on pilgrimage to under the constitutional regime. He criticized Ottoman mod-
Karbala. Husayn’s martyrdom has become a source of strength ernization as insufficiently liberal, destroying old safeguards
and endurance for Shiite Muslims in times of suffering, against absolutism, notably the shari
a and the Janissaries
persecution, and oppression. (elite corps of Turkish troops) without providing new ones.
Suspected of plotting to depose Sultan Abdulhamit after the
During its long history the tomb of Husayn was dese- 1878 abrogation of the constitution, he was again exiled and
crated several times and had to be restored. In 850 and 851, his writings were banned. He died in exile, but his works, read
the Sunni Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil destroyed the tomb secretly, fired the imagination of the Young Turks, who took
of Husayn and prohibited pilgrimages to the sanctuary. up the cause of liberalism during the autocratic regime of
Sulayman the Magnificent visited the tomb in 1534 and 1535 Abdulhamit.
and participated in its restoration. At the end of the eighteenth century Agha Muhammad Khan, the founder of the See also Young Ottomans.

Islam and the Muslim World 387
Khalid, Khalid Muhammad

BIBLIOGRAPHY in 1939. Khamane
i finished his study in Qom Seminary in
Mardin, Serif. The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought: A Study 1964. During the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah, Khamane
i
in the Modernization of Turkish Political Ideas. 1962. Reprint, was a student of Ruhollah Khomeini, the future leader of the
Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2000. Iranian Revolution. Khamane
i was arrested many times
during the shah’s rule, served a total of three years in prison
Linda T. Darling between 1964 and 1978, and was exiled for a year between
1978 and 1979, spending his time in Kanshahr, Baluchistan
province. In 1979, following the overthrow of the shah, he
was selected as the representative of the Revolutionary Coun-
KHALID, KHALID MUHAMMAD cil in the army as well as Deputy for Revolutionary Affairs at
(1920–1996) the National Ministry of Defense. He was also chosen as the
leader of the Friday prayer in Tehran.
Khalid Muhammad Khalid was a popular Egyptian writer on
religious and political topics, and the author of more than In 1980 Khamane
i was elected to the Iranian Parliament.
thirty books and numerous newspaper and magazine articles. He was one of the founding members of the Islamic Republic
He received his theological degree from the faculty of shari
a Party. In June 1981 he became the target of an unsuccessful
at al-Azhar University in 1947, and then gained a teaching assassination attempt. In 1981, following the assassination of
certificate, also from al-Azhar. He taught Arabic language, President Raja
e, he was elected as the third president of
and then worked in the Egyptian Ministry of Education and revolutionary Iran. He was reelected president in 1985 and
in the Ministry of Culture. He became a supervisor in the served a second four-year term. On 4 June 1989, after the
Department for the Publication of the Heritage. death of the ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Assembly of
Experts chose Khamane
i as the vali-ye faqih or leader of the
His first book, From Here We Begin (Min huna nabda), Islamic Republic of Iran. His main problem in leadership as a
published in 1950, was a forceful and controversial call for substitute for his predecessor, Khomeini, has been his lack of
separation of religion from state, as well as for a democratic traditional and charismatic legitimacy.
socialism, effective birth control, and furtherance of the
rights of women. It was shortly translated into English, as was After several attempts to make him the sole marja
al-taqlid
the Islamist response to it, Our Beginning in Wisdom, by his (Twelver Shia leader) had failed, he was endorsed as one of
friend Muhammad al-Ghazali. These two books provide a seven maraje
by the conservative Qom clerics in December
good sample of the secularist-Islamist debate in Egypt at mid- 1994. His political modus operandi includes conspiracy thecentury. Khalid expressed similar views in other passionately ory, religious authoritarianism, antipluralism, and antiwritten books in the 1950s and early 1960s. intellectualism. Khamane
i has been accused of killing about
eighty political activists and intellectuals both within and
Later he wrote a number of books on Muhammad and
outside Iran since the 1990s. He closed more than eighty
other heroes of early Islam. In his book al-Dawla fi al-Islam
newspapers and imprisoned sixty journalists, political activ-
(The State in Islam), published in 1981, he revised his earlier
ists, and intellectuals in 2000 and 2001.
secularist position, stating that Islam does have civil principles that should be applied by the state, although it does not See also Iran, Islamic Republic of; Revolution: Islamic
prescribe a “religious government.” According to Khalid, Revolution in Iran.
parliamentary democracy is the contemporary application of
the Islamic principle of shura (consultation). Majid Mohammadi
See also Ghazali, Muhammad al-.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
KHAN
Khalid, Muhammad Khalid. From Here We Start. Translated
by Ismail R. al-Faruqi. Washington, D.C.: American
The meaning of the word khan is dependent upon the context
Council of Learned Societies, 1953.
in which it is used. It is often used as a title, but can also refer
to an office, a form of address, an attribute of rulership
William Shepard
(following Genghis Khan’s thirteenth-century Mongol unifi-
cation), or as part of a place name. Its etymology is obscure,
though probably Turkic. It continues to be used commonly
KHAMANEI, SAYYED
ALI (1939– ) in Central Asia, North India, Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey. It is
seldom used in Arabic, except as a place name.
Sayyed Ali Khamane
i, the leader of the Islamic Republic of
Iran (r. 1989– ) was born in Mashad, Khorasan province, Iran, G. R. Garthwaite

388 Islam and the Muslim World
Khan, Reza of Bareilly

By the sixteenth century, khanqas began their steady
KHANQA (KHANAQA, KHANGA) decline as they had lost their patrons. Indeed, the Ottomans,
new masters of the region, were rather interested in patroniz-
In twelfth century Sufism—a new strand of Islam based on
ing Sufi orders. Since khanqas did not follow any particular
the knowledge of God through personal experience of a
order, the Ottomans showed no interest in maintaining these
spiritual nature—developed its own institutions, the most
institutions. Moreover, times had changed and the whole
important of which were the zawiya and khanqa. Zawiyas were
society had experienced a rise in popular Sufism sponsored by
mostly associated with Tariqas (Sufi “orders”). They spread a
the masses. Although it had managed to maintain itself a little
type of popular Sufism, which appealed to the masses, and
longer, soon the institution became defunct. Sufism survived
they were left free to develop from the control of the ruling
in the zawiyas, which remain active today.
elite. Khanqas, known for their spread of a type of “orthodox”
Sufism, often had their fate closely linked to that of the ruling See also Architecture; Tariqa; Tasawwuf.
elite, whose patronage was crucial to their survival.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The khanqa institution made its first appearance in Persia
from where it spread rapidly to the rest of the Muslim world. Fernandes, Leonor. “The Foundation of Baybars al-Jashankir
in Cairo: Its Waqf, History and Architecture.” Muqarnas
It was introduced to Egypt in the twelfth century by Saladin,
4 (1987): 21–42.
who put the institution under the control of the state. Two
centuries later, the khanqa had reached its full development Mala, S. B. “The Sufi Convent and its Social Significance
in the Medieval Period of Islam.” Islamic Culture 51
thanks to patronage of the Mamluks.
(1977): 31–52.
According to the fifteenth century historian al-Maqrizi, Trimingham, John Spencer. The Sufi Orders in Islam. Oxford,
the term khanqa (Arabic form, pl. Khawaniq) derives from the U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1971.
Persian. It is formed by two words: khan, which means sultan,
and kah, which means people. In the Eastern lands of Islam, Leonor Fernandes
the term khanqa was used to refer to foundations reserved for
Sufis. In these “monasteries” Sufis and their master could
dedicate their lives to the practice of orthodox Sufism according to the rules set by their patrons. For medieval Egypt and KHAN, REZA OF BAREILLY
Syria, the set of rules that regulated the communal life of (1856–1921)
Sufis are known from extant endowment deeds (waqfiyyas).
Sufis and their master were generally appointed by the Ahmad Reza Khan Barelwi (Bareilly) was an influential scholar
founder of the khanqa or his successors. They were housed in and Sufi whose followers emerged in the colonial period as
the foundation, and were given a salary, food, and clothing. one of two major groupings among South Asian Sunni
Sufis living in a khanqa were to remain celibate; the ones Muslims—the other being the Deobandis. Ahmad Reza’s
married would spend the day there but would live outside it. voluminous writings include a translation of the Qur’an and
All Sufis were required to attend the daily Sufi gatherings, many volumes of advisory opinions, or fatawa. Although
perform the ritual of Dhikr (remembrance) and spend time in often called “Barelwi” by outsiders, those associated with this
meditation. As the khanqa evolved, its function became asso- religious style claim the name Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jamaat,
ciated with that of the madrasa. As a result, Sufis’ activities that is, the true Sunnis. They follow the Hanafi school of
also included attending classes in the various religious sciences. legal interpretation and primarily follow the Qadiri order in
Sufi affiliation.
Khanqas were mostly urban foundations to which the
founders often attached their funerary domes. The plan for For the Barelwis, a good Muslim is defined as one faithful
khanqas did not differ much from that of the madrasa. Most to the shari
a and personally devoted to the prophet Muhamkhanqas followed the four iwan (vaulted hall) plan with an mad as continuous intercessor to Allah through the mediaopen courtyard in their middle. In time the latter’s size was tion of the Sufi master. Unlike other reformers, they participate
reduced and it was covered by a roof. Fifteenth-century in ceremonies like the
urs observances at Sufi shrines (the
khanqas consisted of elaborate complexes that included a saint’s “wedding” with the divine) and the mawlid celebration
grain mill, a bakery, an oil press, and living quarters for the of the Prophet’s birthday. Conflict with the Deobandis refounder and his family. volved around issues related to the Prophet’s attributes: his
ability to see into the future, to have knowledge of the unseen,
The presence of a khanqa within an urban setting affected and to be present in multiple places, all of which they
the life of the individuals living around it. Often the growth of accepted. Ahmad Reza charged those who differed with him
the whole quarter depended on the khanqa’s survival, and as being “Wahhabi,” a politically charged label in the colonial
sometimes the ruin of the khanqa meant the gradual disap- context because it linked opponents with the militant followpearance of the quarter. ers of the Arab Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1787).

Islam and the Muslim World 389
Kharijites, Khawarij

Ahmad Reza opposed participation in the Khilafat move- branch of Kharijites known as the Ibadis persevered and are
ment and, subsequently, his followers were aloof from the found today in Oman and North Africa.
Jamiyat-e Ulama-e Hind. Mosques and madrasas identifying themselves as Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jamaa are currently See also Law.
found across South Asia and in places of Indo-Pakistani
settlement like Britain and South Africa. The Jamiyat-e BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ulama-e Pakistan political party represents these ulema in Madelung, Wilfred. “Kharijism: The Ajarida and the
Pakistan. The apolitical Dawat al Islami movement engages Ibadiyya.” In Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran. Albany,
in grassroots “Barelwi” proselytizing in both India and Pakistan. N.Y.: Bibliotheca Persica, 1988.
Mubarrad, Abu l-Abbas Muhammad b.Yazid. Al-Kamil fi l-
See also Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Pakistan; Khilafat Move- lugha wa-l-adab. Edited by Muhammad Abu al-Fadl Ibrahm.
ment; South Asia, Islam in; Wahhabiyya. 4 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-’Arabi, n.d.
Shahrastani, Abu al-Fath Muhammad b. Abd al-Karim. Al-
BIBLIOGRAPHY Milal wa-l-nihal. Edited by Muhammad Sayyid Kilani.
Metcalf, Barbara Daly. Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband (1396.) Reprint. Cairo: Maktabat wa-Matbaat Mustafa all860–1900. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Babi al-Halabi, 1976.
Press, 1982.
Annie C. Higgins
Sanyal, Usha. Devotional Islam and Politics in British India:
Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi and his Movement, 1870–1920.
Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Zafaruddin Bihari. Hayat-i A
la Hazrat. Karachi, Pakistan: KHIDR, AL-
Maktaba Rezwiyya, 1938.
Al-Khidr (“the green” man) is the guide and mentor of Moses
Barbara D. Metcalf described in Sura Kahf (Q. 18.60–82) as “Our exceptional
servant to whom We gave compassion from Ourselves and
inner knowledge from Our presence.” Exegetes interpret this
as “God-given knowledge” (ilm laduni), which complements
KHARIJITES, KHAWARIJ Moses’s knowledge of sharia. The Qur’an narrates that
Moses vowed to his servant (identified in hadith as Joshua) to
The Kharijites, or Khawarij, began as a group of Ali’s
reach the place where the two seas meet. When Moses learns
supporters who “exited” (kharaju) after the battle of Siffin
their fish has plunged into the water, he resolves to return and
(657 C.E.), when Ali accepted arbitration (tahkim) with
finds al-Khidr, God’s exceptional servant filled with God’s
Muawiya (r. 661–680). The “exiters” (khawarij) opposed a Compassion and Inner Knowledge. Moses asks to follow alhuman tribunal in place of a battle victory decided by God’s Khidr. Al-Khidr cautions that since Moses will neither be
judgment, hence their slogan, “Judgment belongs to God able to be patient with him nor understand, he must agree not
alone,” echoing Qur
an 6:57, 12:40, and 12:67. They subse- to ask any questions until al-Khidr gives him permission.
quently identified themselves as “exchangers” (shurat) for Moses protests when al-Khidr scuttles the boat in which they
God’s pleasure, as in Qur
anic verse 2:207. Both militant ride. Al-Khidr renews his warning about patience. When alactivists and quietists used the exchange concept in their Khidr kills a child, Moses protests, and receives a similar
rhetoric, including their highly esteemed poetry. In opposi- reprimand. In a village where they are denied hospitality, altion to the dynastic nature of the Umayyads, they purported Khidr rebuilds a wall. When Moses protests, al-Khidr anto choose leaders by religious merit rather than by heritage. nounces their parting and explains the true meaning (ta’wil)
Considering themselves true Muslims, they developed rigid of the events: The ferrymen were poor people whom alstandards for proving one’s faith and for what is permissible Khidr wanted to prevent from having their boat seized by an
in Islam, which led to a variety of practices and consequent approaching king; the child would have corrupted the faith of
divisions. Militant groups attacked towns, engaging Umayyad his believing parents and will be replaced; and the wall
generals al-Hajjaj and al-Muhallab for decades. Major leaders concealed an inheritance belonging to two orphan sons of a
included the activists Nafi b. al-Azraq al-Hanafi, Qatari b. al- righteous man, a “treasure which is a mercy from your Lord,”
Fuja
a, and Shabib b.Yazid al-Shaybani, and quietists Najda signifying the deep meaning, learned through patience, that
b. Amir al-Hanafi, and Abdallah b. Ibad al-Tamim. “Sufriyya” behind apparent injustice lies mercy.
is a general term used for quietists. Many quietists took up
arms after the Umayyad’s brutal massacre of Abu Bilal Mirdas In al-Bukhari’s collection of hadith, the prophet Muhamb. Hudayr b. Udayya and his men while praying, in 680. mad is quoted as saying: “He was named al-Khidr because
Women were involved militarily and culturally. The Khawarij/ after he sat upon barren land, it became green with vegeta-
Shurat were found variously in Arabia, Iraq, and Iran until tion.” Bukhari presents the story of Moses and Khidr as a
largely eradicated at the end of the Umayyad period (750). A model for seeking knowledge with diligence and humility.

390 Islam and the Muslim World
Khilafat Movement

The association of al-Khidr with Alexander the Great (356–323 editors from Delhi, their spiritual guide Maulana Abdul Bari
B.C.E.) stems from the fact that the Khidr narrative in the of Lucknow, the Calcutta journalist and Islamic scholar
Qur’an precedes that of Dhu l-Qarnayn (the man “of two Maulana Abu
l Kalam Azad, and Maulana Mahmud al-Hasan,
horns”), who is often identified with Alexander, and from the head of the Deoband madrasa. These publicist-politicians
motif in the narrative of the water of life reviving a cooked and ulema viewed European attacks upon the authority of the
fish; al-Khidr, like Elijah, Jesus, and Idris, is considered caliph as an attack upon Islam, and thus as a threat to the
immortal. Al-Khidr is a protector of travelers, a rescuer, and a religious freedom of Muslims under British rule.
saint. In the Levant, sacred places often have multiple dedications to Khidr, Elijah, and St. George. In India, Khwaja The Khilafat issue crystallized anti-British sentiments
Khidr is depicted as resembling Vishnu’s Matsya (fish) Avatar. among Indian Muslims that had been increasing since the
British declaration of war against the Ottomans in 1914. The
In Sufism, al-Khidr represents the saint and the spiritual Khilafat leaders, most of whom had been imprisoned during
master. For Sufi Qur
an commentators, al-Khidr represents the war, were already politically active in the nationalist
spiritual guidance (suhba) as distinguished from instruction movement. Upon their release in 1919, the issue of the
(talim). In hagiographies, Khidr gives to humankind initia- khilafat provided a means to achieve pan-Indian Muslim
tion, guidance, and liturgies. The famous Sufi Ibn al-Arabi political solidarity in the anti-British cause and a source of
reported receiving al-Khidr’s mantle of initiation (khirqa) communication between the leaders and their potential mass
twice, and the poet and mystic al-Rumi’s relationship to following. The Khilafat movement also benefited from Hindu-
Shams-e Tabrizi was described by Rumi’s son, Sultan Veled, Muslim cooperation in the nationalist cause that had grown
as being like that of Moses and Khidr. during the war, beginning with the Lucknow Pact of 1916
between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim
See also Prophets.
League, and culminating in the protest against the Rowlatt
anti-sedition bills in 1919. The Congress, now led by Mahatma
BIBLIOGRAPHY Gandhi, called for nonviolent noncooperation against the
Wheeler, Brandon. “Moses or Alexander? Early Islamic Exe- British. Gandhi espoused the Khilafat cause, as he saw in it
gesis of Qur
an 18.60–96.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies the opportunity to rally Muslim support for the Congress.
57, no. 3: 191–215. The Ali brothers and their allies, in turn, provided the
noncooperation movement with some of its most enthusias-
Hugh Talat Halman tic troops.

The combined Khilafat-noncooperation movement was
the first all-India agitation against British rule. It saw an
KHILAFAT MOVEMENT unprecedented degree of Hindu-Muslim cooperation and it
established Gandhi and his technique of nonviolent protest
The Khilafat movement (1919–1924) was an agitation on the
(satyagraha) at the center of the Indian nationalist movement.
part of some Indian Muslims, allied with the Indian national-
Mass mobilization using religious symbols was remarkably
ist movement, during the years following World War I. Its
successful, and the British Indian government was shaken. In
purpose was to pressure the British government to preserve
late 1921 the government moved to suppress the movement.
the authority of the Ottoman sultan as caliph of Islam.
The Ali brothers were arrested for incitement to violence,
Integral to this was the Muslims’ desire to influence the
tried, and imprisoned. Gandhi suspended the noncooperatreaty-making process following the war in such a way as to
tion movement in early 1922, following a riot in the village of
restore the 1914 boundaries of the Ottoman empire. The
Chauri Chaura that resulted in the deaths of the local police.
British government treated the Indian Khilafat delegation of
He was arrested, tried, and imprisoned soon thereafter. The
1920, headed by Muhammad Ali, as quixotic pan-Islamists,
Turks dealt the final blow by abolishing the Ottoman sultanate
and did not change its policy toward Turkey. The Indian
in 1922 and the caliphate in 1924.
Muslims’ attempt to influence the treaty provisions failed, as
the European powers went ahead with territorial adjust- See also South Asia, Islam in.
ments, including the institution of mandates over formerly
Ottoman Arab territories.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The significance of the Khilafat movement, however, lies Bamford, P. C. Histories of the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat
less in its supposed pan-Islamism than in its impact upon the Movements (1925). Reprint. Delhi: Deep Publications, 1974.
Indian nationalist movement. The leaders of the Khilafat Hasan, Mushirul. Nationalism and Communal Politics in India.
movement forged the first political alliance among Western- New Delhi: Manohar Publications, 1991.
educated Indian Muslims and ulema over the religious sym- Minault, Gail. The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and
bol of the khilafat (caliphate). This leadership included the Political Mobilization in India. New York: Columbia Uni-
Ali brothers—Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali—newspaper versity Press, 1982.

Islam and the Muslim World 391
Khirqa

Qureshi, M. Naeem. Pan-Islam in British Indian Politics: A dynasty in Urgench, a city in the north of Khiva, today
Study of the Khilafat Movement. Leiden: Brill, 1999. situated in Uzbekistan. In 1619, following a catastrophic
drought, the capital of the khanate was moved to Khiva. By
Gail Minault the late seventeenth century the effective reign of the Yadigarids
began to decline, and their successive khans were left as
protègès of influential Uzbek clans. During this period the
unvarying assaults by Turkmen tribes, in addition to the
KHIRQA endeavors at subjugation by Peter the Great of Russia in
1719, and by Nadir Shah of Persia in 1740, accelerated the
A khirqa is a wool cloak, often patched (muraqqa
a). Sufis process of disintegration of the khanate. In 1804, Inaq Iltuzer
wore the khirqa as a sign of having embarked on the Sufi path deposed the latest Yadigarid khan and established the Qungrats
from at least the eighth century. By the eleventh century Sufis dynasty. Following their earlier unsuccessful attempts to
had developed ways of transmitting spiritual knowledge and
conquer the khanate, the Russians eventually (1873) occupied
authority: Sufi authors describe the binding of a disciple to a
Khiva and imposed a protectorate status on the khanate. The
master through an oath (the akhdh al-
ahd or the bay
a),
protectorate status lasted until 1920 when, with the aid of Red
becoming part of the master’s spiritual chain of authority
Army, the era of the khanate of Khiva came to an end and
(silsila), the inculcation (talqin) of a method of prayer (dhikr),
Khiva became the capital of the newborn Khwarezm People’s
and the bestowal of the khirqa from a master to a disciple.
Soviet Republic. In 1924 Khiva was incorporated into the
Investiture with the khirqa had an initiatic aspect. A disciple
Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan.
could be given the khirqa at the beginning of his training with
a shaykh, in which case the khirqa indicated that the disciple In the khanate of Khiva, the khan was the absolute suhad been invested with the means necessary for progressing preme ruler in all affairs. During the early period of its
along the path. The bestowal of a khirqa could certify that the formation, the khanate was divided between the male associnovice had been trained by a master who could attest to his ates of the ruling dynasties, each enjoying the military supspiritual fitness and preparedness. The silsila and the khirqa port of various leading tribes. However, following the
served the same purposes as the chain of authority (isnad) and establishment of Qungrats dynasty, the administrative hierthe certificate of permission (ijaza) in ulema circles: They archy was systematically developed. Below the khan was the
certified that the Sufi had studied and trained under an divan-begi or prime minister, who was followed by the kushauthoritative master, whose spiritual pedigree could be traced begi, who was in charge of military affairs, and finally the
back to the Prophet, and they gave him the authority to mehter, who ran the civil administration of the khanate.
transmit a particular spiritual way. Furthermore, the khanate was divided into a capital and
twenty districts, known as begliks; each beglik was governed by
See also Clothing; Khilafat Movement; Tasawwuf.
a hakim or local governor. The nomads’ chieftains, usually
bypassing the hakims, were directly accountable to the khan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel The khanate’s judiciary system was based on shari
a or
Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1975. Islamic jurisprudence and adat or customary values. The
Sells, Michael, trans., ed. Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qur, highest position belonged to the qazi-kalan or chief judge/
Miraj, Poetic and Theological Writings. New York: Paulist prosecutor. Following qazi-kalan,there were qazis and then
Press, c. 1996. the qazi’s agents or reis who were policing the civil as well as
moral behavior of the population. The Khanate’s tax-collectors,
Margaret Malamud known for their corrupt behavior, were also subordinate to
the qazis.

On the eve of the twentieth century, the population of the
KHIVA, KHANATE OF khanate of Khiva was estimated at 700,000. A majority of the
people worked in agriculture, either as tenant farmers, share-
The khanate of Khiva (Khwarazm) was established in 1511 on croppers, or slaves. Cotton, wheat, and fruits were the main
the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, to the south of the Aral agricultural products. Cattle breeding was common among
Sea and along the lower course of the Amu Darya River. The the Turkmen. The Sarts chiefly engaged in foreign trade,
main ethnic groups living in the khanate were Uzbeks, which was mainly with Russia and Iran.
Turkmen, Karakalpaks, Kazakhs, and Sarts, the latter being
the original inhabitants of the region. During the Soviet era, the city of Khiva, like the other old
khanate capitals, lost its political importance.
The first ruler of the khanate was Sultan Ilbars, who had a
Shaybanid Uzbek connection. He founded the Yadigarids See also Central Asian Culture and Islam.

392 Islam and the Muslim World
Khomeini, Ruhollah

BIBLIOGRAPHY the Indian subcontinent from about the thirteenth century
Hambly, G. Central Asia. London: Weidenfeld and onward. More particularly, it included certain groups, pre-
Nicolson, 1969. dominantly from Gujarat and Cutch, who retained strong
Holdsworth, M. Turkestan in the Nineteenth Century: A Brief Indian ethnic roots and caste customs while sustaining their
History of the Khanates of Bukhara, Kokand and Khiva. Muslim religious identity under continual threats of persecu-
Oxford, U.K.: Central Asian Research Centre & St. tion. In the nineteenth century, the Ismaili imamat (office of
Antony’s College – Soviet Affairs Study Group, 1959. the imam) became established in India and a program of
Soucek, S. A History of Inner Asia. Cambridge, U.K.: Cam- consolidation and reorganization of the community and its
bridge University Press, 2000. institutions began. These changes led to differences of opinion among Khojas. While the majority of the Khojas re-
Touraj Atabaki mained Ismaili, one group became Ithna
Ashari and a
smaller number adopted Sunnism.

In the context of the overall policy of the Ismaili imam of
KHOI, ABO L-QASEM the time, Aga Khan III, of consolidating the Shia Ismaili
(1898–1992) identity of his followers, the ethnic connotation of being
“Khoja” became diluted over time and a wider sense of self-
Sayyed Abo
l-Qasem Musavi, Grand Ayatollah, was born in identification as Ismaili Muslims began to emerge. With the
Khoi, Azerbaijan. He was one of the well-known Shiite
increasing recognition of the diversity of the worldwide
maraje (sources of emulation). His book Ajvad al-Taqrirat
Ismaili community itself and the positive value of the pluralist
(The best interpretations) is one of the more important texts
heritage represented within each of the traditions, the Khojas
in Shiite seminaries. His other book, Al-Bayan (Explananow regard themselves as an integral part of the larger
tion), is a comprehensive text on Qur
an commentaries. He
community, to whose development they make a strong
taught at the highest level of seminaries in Najaf, Iraq. He
contribution.
also instituted the Al-Khui Foundation with many branches
around the world, including London and New York.
The Khoja Ithna
Asharis, while seeking to develop rela-
Kho
i was apparently the undisputed marja
of Iraq and tions with the larger Twelver Shia community, retain their
gained ground among the Shiite people of Iran, Lebanon, own organizational framework.
India, and other parts of the Muslim world. Kho
i was a
The Khojas live today in East Africa, the Indian subcontitraditionalist of the old school and disagreed with the notion
of clerical rule, or the Islamic state under the rule of the jurist nent, Europe, and North America and show a strong
(velayat-e faqih), as put forward by the Ayatollah Khomeini. commitment to values of Muslim philanthropy in their
entrepreneurship and contribution to societies in which
Kho
i had good relations with the shah of Iran and they live.
received the Iranian queen shortly before the Islamic revolution of 1979. After the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, Kho
i, See also Aga Khan; Nizari; South Asia, Islam in.
having observed absolute silence during the Iraq-Iran war
(1980–1988), published an anti-Saudi fatwa prohibiting the Azim Nanji
“recourse to the non-believers against Muslims “and inviting
the latter “to resist to the enemies of God, who seek to attack
Islam.” This was reportedly issued under great pressure from
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. KHOMEINI, RUHOLLAH
(1902–1989)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Razi, Mohammad Sharif. “Ganjine ye Daneshmandan.” In Spiritual and political leader of the Islamic Revolution in
Encyclopedia of Shi
ite Mullahs. Vols. 2 and 4. Tehran:
Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini became one of the most influential
Eslamieh, 1974.
theologians of the twentieth century. A prolific writer and
charismatic speaker, Khomeini inspired millions of Iranians
Majid Mohammadi
to rise up against the Pahlavi regime and establish Iran as a
truly Islamic republic.

KHOJAS Khomeini was born in 1902 in Khumayn, into a family of
Shiite clerics. As a child and young man, he learned Arabic
Derived from the Persian khwajah, a term of honor, the word and studied Islamic law, and by 1923 he was a student in the
Khoja referred to those converted to Nizari Ismaili Islam in holy city of Qum. Here Khomeini dedicated nearly forty

Islam and the Muslim World 393
Khutba

years to the study of traditional shari
a, as well as mysticism, against author Salman Rushdie for having written a novel that
gnosticism, ethics, and philosophy. contained passages offensive to his view of Islam. Khomeini
died in June 1989, still hugely popular among the people who
By 1944, Khomeini had grown increasingly angry at the looked to him as Iran’s spiritual leader. His funeral was
secularization of Iranian life under Reza Shah Pahlavi. He attended by over one million mourners.
continued to teach at Qum, but also began his prolific career
of political writings. Over the next two decades he collected See also Iran, Islamic Republic of; Muhammad Reza
disciples, whom he taught to relate their study of the shari
a to Shah Pahlevi; Revolution: Islamic Revolution in Iran.
all aspects of public and private life.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
In 1963, Khomeini stepped into the national spotlight by
Algar, Hamid. “Imam Khomeini: The Pre-Revolutionary
leading anti-Pahlavi protests in Qum. Horrified by the vio- Years.” In Islam, Politics, and Social Movements. Edited by
lence of the government’s response, he became the leading E. Burke III and I. M. Lapidus. Berkeley: University of
religious figure opposing the regime. Exiled for his outspo- California Press, 1988.
ken views, he ultimately went to Iraq (1965), settling in the Arjomand, Said A. The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic
holiest of Shiite cities, Najaf. Through his writings, how- Revolution in Iran. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
ever, Khomeini’s views were widely disseminated throughout Brunner, Rainer, and Ende, Werner, eds. The Twelver Shia in
Iran, denouncing the shah and his allies in the United States. Modern Times: Religious, Cultural, and Political History.
Leiden: Brill, 2000.
In 1978, a variety of anti-Pahlavi forces—leftists, mer-
Khomeini, Ruhollah. Islam and Revolution. Translated by
chants, and ulema—rose up in open revolt, inspired by
Hamid Algar. Berkeley, Calif.: Mizan Press, 1981.
Khomeini’s vision of a new future for Iran that eliminated the
corruption of the shah’s regime. Finally, in January 1979, the
Nancy L. Stockdale
shah fled Iran and Khomeini returned from exile to lead the
revolution. In March 1979 a referendum established the
Islamic Republic of Iran, and Khomeini became its spiritual leader. KHUTBA
In opposing the shah, Khomeini had taken the title of The sermon, or khutba, serves as the primary formal occasion
imam, legitimizing his leadership by associating himself with for public preaching the Islamic tradition. Sermons occur
Holy Imams of Iranian Shiism. Surrounding himself by a regularly, as prescribed by the teachings of almost all legal
coterie of former students, he created a revolutionary govern- schools, at the noon (zuhr) congregation prayer on Friday,
ment dedicated to restoring Islam to the center of Iranian life. the weekly day of assembly, which it is incumbent upon all
He created new national institutions predicated on the teach- free and able adult male Muslim residents to attend. In
ings of Islam and administered by clerics, using the confis- addition, similar sermons are called for on the two festival
cated property of the previous rulers to pay for his reforms. days, or in response to an eclipse or excessive drought,
Although he called for an elected governing body, all political although these sermons are expected to contain features
offices were reserved for clerics. In an attempt to shake off relevant to the celebrations or the natural phenomena at
Western influences, he supported the 1979 occupation of the hand. For instance, on
id al-fitr the preacher is charged to
United States embassy, holding its staff hostage, and thereby instruct the faithful concerning zakat, or almsgiving, while on
touching off a world crisis.
id al-adha he is to include remarks specifying rules for the
sacrifice.
In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran with United States support.
The war, which lasted eight years, became increasingly un- Sermons or related types of religious oratory may be
popular, and Khomeini ultimately agreed to sign a cease-fire. pronounced in a variety of settings and at various times, but
In its aftermath, Khomeini continued his attempt to create a the term khutba, abbreviating the more ample expression
truly theocratic state, suppressing dissenters, including those khutba al-jum
a, usually refers only to the address delivered in
who practiced minority variants of Islam. the mosque at these weekly and annual rituals. Other occasions of preaching may be described as a lesson (dars) or an
As ruling jurist of the new, theocratic Iran, Khomeini admonition (wa
z), and their formats would differ accordingly.
grew increasingly vehement in putting down dissent, ordering mass executions of prisoners who had run afoul of his The khutba is believed to have its origins in the practice of
revolutionary courts. Isolated from the West by his anti- the prophet Muhammad, who used to speak words of exhor-
American rhetoric and from the Soviet Union for his insis- tation, instruction, or command at gatherings for worship in
tence on the centrality of religion in his government, he the mosque, which consisted of the courtyard of his house in
further incensed outside observers when, in February 1989, Medina. However, the word khutba with this technical meanhe issued a fatwa (a judgement carrying the sentence of death) ing does not appear in the Qur
an. But one passage that

394 Islam and the Muslim World
Khutba

explicitly alludes to the Friday noon prayer summons believ- to a few central locations, but are common in mosques of all
ers to “the remembrance of God” (dhikr Allah) [Q. 62:9], an sizes and conditions, as well as being dispensed through
expression that some commentators have regarded as denot- newspapers and broadcast on radio and television. Moreover,
ing the sermon. a formidable market of sermons circulated on cassette recordings has emerged in recent decades, providing an especially
Building on this precedent, the khutba has been closely appealing medium for dissident preachers who are denied
associated with authoritative discourse in several important access to official channels.
ways. Initially, for example, the delivery of the Friday sermon
was restricted to the caliph himself, or his official representa- Finally, the khutba has drawn traditional authority from its
tives such as provincial governors. Eventually, however, the conformity to a classically defined structure and rhetorical
task was delegated to others, chosen for their learning and style. Recommendations regarding preaching arise, for ineloquence, who then spoke in the ruler’s name. From this stance, in certain hadith, such as the well-known dictum:
relationship, the practice emerged that the preacher (khatib) “Make your prayers (salat) long and your sermon (khutba)
was obliged to include within the sermon an explicit mention short.” But the recognized legal sources also specify set
of the sovereign, normally in the form of a blessing upon him. features and formulas for the validity of a khutba’s perform-
This aspect of the sermon resulted in a political function for ance. First, a Friday sermon must consist of two parts,
khutba as it became, notably in periods of great tension and sometimes referred to as two sermons, between which a pause
instability, the moment for signaling a change of regime, a occurs. Second, within the sermon, a preacher is obliged to
shift in loyalty, or a call for rebellion. pronounce the praise of God, blessings upon the Prophet,
and prayers on behalf of the congregation. Third, he is to
In modern times, the naming of a ruler in a Friday sermon exhort his listeners to virtue, such as warning of judgment,
has largely fallen into disuse, expect perhaps on patriotic and to recite from the Qur
an.
occasions, although the established bond between the pulpit
and political legitimacy has not disappeared. This deeply Sermons were also to be delivered in classical Arabic, a
rooted relationship helps to account for the shape of contro- linguistic requirement that not only assumed substantial
versies in many Islamic lands, where governments may vari- training on the part of preachers if their sermons were to
ously, through financial subsidies or censorship, seek control consist of original compositions, but a notable degree of
over preachers, while some who contest this assertion in the education on the part of listeners, especially non-Arab Musname of reform or resistance may resort to sermons as lims, if the sermons were to be fully intelligible. Not surpriseffective vehicles for opinion formation and mobilization. ingly, this expectation of the khutba contributed to the growth
of a literary genre consisting of model sermons, such as those
Another important way that sermons have expressed their by the renowned ibn Nubata (d. 984), which were committed
authority derives from the physical context framing their to memory by some preachers and then recited with little
presentation. Traditionally, as defined by classical legal adaptation. However, preaching in colloquial languages, while
treatises, Friday congregational prayers were restricted to often retaining certain Arabic expressions, has become inurban centers and normally to one major mosque in each city. creasingly common. This, in turn, has led to disputes be-
Such a site designated as a masjid jami
, that is, a “Friday tween traditionalists, who prefer classical Arabic, and revivalists,
Mosque” or a “cathedral mosque,” would typically be distin- who insist that the sermon should be delivered in a language
guished by its central location, extraordinary dimensions, and understood by the audience.
monumental architecture. This facility would also contain a
number of symbolic furnishings indicative of its exalted Like many elements of Islamic learning and piety in
stature, the most demonstrative of which was a ritual pulpit modern times, the sermon has been the object of concerted
or minbar. efforts at reform and revitalization. These efforts have led to a
renewed scholarly interest in the history of the khutba and a
It was from this platform, possibly several meters high and widening enthusiasm regarding its use.
frequently impressively built and adorned, that the sermon
was proclaimed, and only the preacher would occupy it. See also Arabic Language;
Ibadat; Minbar (Mimbar);
Likewise, a number of fixed rubrics were to accompany the Masjid; Religious Institutions.
khutba. These specified such details as the preacher’s dress,
his posture, a sequence of standing and sitting, and the BIBLIOGRAPHY
directive that he speak while leaning on a bow, a sword, or a Antoun, Richard T. Muslim Preacher in the Modern World: A
staff. In the contemporary Islamic world, many of these Jordanian Case Study in Comparative Perspective. Princeton,
archaic specifications may no longer be observed, while other N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1089.
culturally appropriate elements have been adopted. Most Berkey, Jonathan P. Popular Preaching and Religious Authority
notably, both in largely Islamic lands and elsewhere, Friday in the Medieval Islamic Near East. Seattle: University of
congregational prayers with sermons are no longer restricted Washington Press, 2001.

Islam and the Muslim World 395
Khwarazm

A mullah delivers a sermon, or khutba, in Termez, Uzbekistan. The majority of religious schools require a weekly khutba on Fridays, the Muslim
day of assembly. All able male adults are expected to attend. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

Gaffney, Patrick D. The Prophet’s Pulpit: Islamic Preaching in Mutazilite controversy, of which al-Kindi appeared to have
Contemporary Egypt. Berkeley: University of California affinities with Mutazilism.
Press, 1994.
Wensinck, A. J. “Khutba.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2d ed. A significant contribution of al-Kindi is his assimilation
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960. and appropriation of Greek science and philosophy, writing
nearly two hundred and fifty treatises on philosophy and
Patrick D. Gaffney science, of which less than forty are extant. Examples of this
assimilation are his adoption of such Aristotelian concepts as
the act/potency, form/matter, substance/accident relations,
and the four causes. One also finds hints of Neoplatonism in
KHWARAZM See Khiva, Khanate of his discussion of the “one” and the “many” in his On First
Philosophy and his subsequent positing of the One True
Being. Still al-Kindi did not blindly follow the Greeks,
especially when Greek philosophy contradicted the Qur
an.
Thus, notably, he rejected the eternity of the world, a doc-
KINDI, AL- (801–866) trine held by most Greek philosophers and most other
Islamic falasifa (e.g., al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and Ibn Rushd).
Abu Yusuf Yaqub Ibn Ishaq al-Sabbah al-Kindi, also known
as “the philosopher of the Arabs,” was born around 801 and Al-Kindi’s scientific achievements included work in mathedied in Baghdad around 866. He belonged to the courts of the matics, optics, medicine, and music. Again, although Greek
caliphs al-Ma
mun and al-Mutasim, but lost influence at the scientists such as Hippocrates, Euclid, and Ptolemy influend of his life during the caliphate of al-Mutawakkil. Al- enced him, his work shows originality, especially in optics and
Kindi flourished during the period of both the Arabic transla- medicine.
tion movement of Greek philosophical and scientific texts, of
which he played a limited role as a translator, and the See also Falsafa; Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila.

396 Islam and the Muslim World
Knowledge

BIBLIOGRAPHY The nonobservational dimension of scientific knowledge
Ivry, Alfred. Al-Kindi’s Metaphysics: A Translation of Ya‘qub Ibn employs concepts in a syntax depicting logical and mathe-
Ishaq al-Kindi’s Treatise “On First Philosophy”. Albany: State matical axioms of the model used in scientific theory. Here,
University of New York Press, 1974. knowledge is achieved primarily by carrying out an analysis of
Jolivet, Jean, and Rashed, Roshdi. “Al-Kindi”. Vol. 15, suppl. concepts and making deductions of conclusions from prem-
1, Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: ises according to valid rules of logic, thus preserving a
Scribner’s, 1978. correspondence of truth that continues, unbroken, from the
premises to conclusion. Muslims contributed to the develop-
Jon McGinnis ment of logic through the discussion of temporal modalities,
including the modalities of necessity, impossibility, and contingency. Within these discussions, these modalities, along
with temporal indexes, were relevant in evaluating the truth
KNOWLEDGE value of statements.

The concept of knowledge in Islam is generally designated by A small number of Muslims, such as Abu Hamid Ghazali
two Arabic terms that have overlapping meanings but differ- (d. 1111), as well as a minority of European thinkers, such as
ent connotations,
ilm and ma
rifa.
Ilm designates knowl- René Descartes, followed the views of ancient Greek skeptics,
edge, the “science or study of” a field such as the Qur
an, who held that neither perception nor analysis provides cerprophetic traditions (hadith), grammar, dialectical theology tainty. In spite of such occasional skepticism, philosophers
(kalam), and astronomy. It also denotes the knowledge of subsequent to Aristotle, including Muslims as well as Jews
God in particular. Ma
rifa acquired two different meanings, and Christians, followed Aristotle’s classification of scientific
secular knowledge on the one hand and gnosticism (secret knowledge into three kinds: theoretical (in which the subjectknowledge) on the other. This latter sense was particularly matter of knowledge is not related to the inquirer), practical
characteristic of the language of tasawwuf (Sufism). The (where the inquirer is involved in the inquiry), and productive
mystical Islamic vision of knowledge expresses the celebrated (which aims to produce useful entities).
Arabic proverb that “He who knows [has the gnosis of] his
soul also knows [has the gnosis of] his God.” Whereas, in Aristotelian philosophy, there are three categories of scientific knowledge, there are five kinds of theo-
Other terms give the concept of knowledge in Islam an
retical inquiries, or sciences. First, are the dialectical religious
even richer complexity of breadth and depth. For example,
sciences, such as kalam (speculative theology) and fiqh (discishi
r also translates as knowledge, but usually in the special
plined interpretation of the sources of the sacred law). Next is
sense of learning or knowing something intuitively. One of
philosophy, understood as a study of being and a study of
the primary meanings of shi
r is “poetry.” Fiqh means to
causes. Here subjects of inquiry are unrelated to physical
understand or comprehend something, to have knowledge of
bodies (things) in definition or examples. The next type of
something, particularly legal knowledge. The chief antonym
speculative inquiry is analysis, to which belong the disciplines
or opposite of
ilm is jahl, which connotes ignorance, but also
of mathematics, logic, and music. Here the subjects of inquiry
includes the concepts of boorishness and cultural crudeness.
are not related by definition, but are conceptually related to
Islam teaches that the time before the revelation of the
physical bodies. Finally there are the natural sciences, such as
Qur
an was a dark age of ignorance of knowledge of God.
physics proper, physics of motion, astronomy, meteorology,
This era is called the Jahiliyya.
zoology, botany, and psychology. Here, both definitions and
The Traditional Sense of Knowledge examples are related to bodies. Finally, there are the practical
The key sense of knowledge, in both Persian and Arabic, sciences, which include public management (with religious
then, is the one attributed to
ilm. This term is related to the laws and politics as subdisciplines), and household manage-
Persian danish, the Latin scientia, and the Greek episteme. In ment. Subdisciplines of the latter include the science of the
ordinary English, this term refers to the concept of scientific household, civics, which concerns one’s duty as a citizen, the
knowledge. By adopting this sense of knowledge for the science of the self, which includes the various senses, and the
sciences, the subsequent Jewish, Christian, and Muslim science of the soul.
epistemologies formulated natural science as having two
major constituents: (external) sense experience and analytic Among all of the aforementioned sciences, the subdiscipline
conception. According to this epistemology, external senses of practical science known as the science of the soul is most
provide the knowledge of the surface of bodies. Both sense relevant to epistemology. Like those of its Western counterdata and analytical (mathematical and logical) axioms are parts, Islamic epistemologies follow Aristotle’s tripartite docconstituents of an axiomatic system, which provided the trine of the classification of the souls into vegetative, animal,
genesis of contemporary notion of a “model.” Such a system and rational types. Two kinds of intelligence, the passive and
uses scientific laws to both explain and predict nature. the active, mark the rational soul. The passive intellect

Islam and the Muslim World 397
Knowledge

This painting from a thirteenth-century Seljuk Turkish manuscript in Arabic called “The best Maxims and Most Precious Dictums of Al-
Mubashir” depicts a philosophical debate between master and students. THE ART ARCHIVE/TOPKAPI MUSEUM ISTANBUL/DAGLI ORTI

abstracts conceptual features from the sensible, such as the and expressed by service to humanity in imitation of Imam
symmetry between two figures; whereas the active reason Husayn and Isa (Jesus).
receives by intuition the first principles of science. Muslim
philosophers and theologians, like other medieval monothe- Three Senses of “Imagination” and a Creative Vision
istic theologies, added a religious, spiritual dimension to the of Knowledge
active intelligence. Traditional epistemology divides the senses into the five
external senses (sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing), and a
Al-
aql (reason, intellect) has many functions in Islamic set of “internal senses,” such as memory. Muslims extend the
thought. In theology and law it is usually contrasted with Greek theories of internal sense, which included common
tradition (naql or sam
). While a majority of epistemologies of sense and the notion of memory as “sense imagery,” into
physical sciences follow the Aristotelian model, in the mysti- refined accounts of “intentional” memory and three special
cal as well as the post–Ibn Sina (Avicenna, b. 980, d. 1037) senses of imagination. In this usage, a psychological notion is
traditions, Muslims go beyond the peripatetic (that is to say, “intentional” if it fails the so-called rule of extensionality.
Aristotelian) model. For example, the Muslim instrumental This rule can be exemplified in the following way. Suppose
theory of knowledge emphasizes the intentional, pragmatic, “John thinks he loves Mary” and “Mary is a spy”; it does not
practical, and normative senses of knowledge. Moreover, it follow that “John thinks that he loves a spy.” A number of
also encompasses an account of knowledge as wisdom, which philosophers hold that intentional notions cannot be exincludes but goes beyond discursive science by seeking norms, plained by a materialistic, reductionist psychology. Because
and thus partakes of the search for the secret of the good life. Muslim philosophical psychology followed an experiential or
For the religious devotee, the best life is lived in imitation of a phenomenological method, it did not use materialistic
the lives of the prophets, like Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, causes to explain a number of psychological notions.

398 Islam and the Muslim World
Knowledge

In this light, new Muslim theories of imagination ex- has fallen in love. This person begins to comprehend her or
tended beyond the passive, reproductive type to embrace his transformation from a self-involved individual to an entity
creative and productive types of images experienced, in both who is part of a union with a partner in the context of love,
waking and dream states, variously characterizing it as: (a) marriage, and family. To the members of such a couple, their
imagination providing cognitively significant icons, (b) im- child is a living testimony to their intended union through
agination providing sacred and mystical insights, and finally marriage.
(c) an intentional sense of imagination with pragmatic and
prehensive significances (when the meaning of an event is In Islam, revelation and sacred insights are provided to a
different for every person, i.e., love). privileged few, such as the prophets, imams, mystics, and
Ayatollah-jurists. These images imparted are not of particu-
The first sense of iconic imagination points to the creative lar objects, which are available through the senses, but of
role assigned to visions and dreams, and follows an earlier societal and meta-legal dictums, from the Qur
an and other
tradition, exemplified in the Hebrew Bible. It is the sense of sources, delineating religious social law (shari
a) and formal
Joseph’s celebrated interpretation of the pharaoh’s dream, jurisprudence. It is the third sense of imagination, as an
where a specific dream has a social significance. The cogni- intentional sense of imagination with pragmatic and prehensive
tive import of this interpretation points to an iconic imagery significances, that signals a radical departure of Islamic episthrough a natural revelation. This medium (the dream) con- temology from the confines of mainstream, realistic, discurtains insights about future events, mediated by an agent, the sive epistemology. A paradigmatic case of this type of
pharaoh in this case, who is not a prophet; instead, he or she is epistemology is the notion of prehensive imagination (wahm), as
a spokesperson who can be understood in the role of the illustrated by the example of a sheep running away from a
religious archetype of the messenger. Consequently, in addi- wolf, providing a symbolic representation of apprehension
tion to its psychological and therapeutic significance, the
(realization) of fear.
iconography of mystical and religious symbolism and rituals
contains cognitive information about the actual world. Muslim philosophers took the Aristotelian notion of active reason, extended it, and incorporated it into their mysti-
The most celebrated of these kinds of symbolism is the
cal framework. They began with the assumption that the
light motif, employed by Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus, all
distinguishing faculties of the human soul are passive and
three of whom use light to symbolize self-realization and
active faculties of reason. Passive reason expresses the soul’s
mystical progress. Plotinus takes this symbolism the furthest,
ability to abstract non-sensible relations from experience, for
using an allegorical or symbolic type of theology to express
example, in observing the topological symmetry between two
the emanation of the word from the One (which is supra-
figures. In such an operation, the mind does not create a new
being) in the language of illumination (he also uses the
datum in the actual world, but has the ability to abstract
analogies of a fountain of water and the reflection in the
relations of particulars observed by the senses. A majority of
mirror). In a similar vein, the Qur
an depicts God as the Light
the Muslim philosophers who followed Aristotle did not
of the Heavens and the earth. Following from this, the
share the Platonic view that interpreted mathematical and
illumination philosophy of Suhrawardi depicts the ultimate
being (God) as the Light of Lights, with the rest of the world other forms as suprasensible realities independent of human
being its emanation. Other symbolism includes drowning in minds. A few philosophers, such as Shihab ad-Din Suhrawardi
the water (recalling the fish as a symbol of Christ in Christian (d. 1234) and Mir Damad (d. 1631) adopted the realist
iconography), and the flight of the birds toward the heavens. ontology in taking mathematics to be re-cognition of actual
In Islamic carpets, four-footed animals depict the body, the entities and not intellectual abstraction from particulars.
tree symbolizes the various phases of life-experience, and a Most Muslim philosophers postulated that, unlike passive
bird depicts the soul. Other ways of symbolically depicting intellect, active intelligence demonstrates an ability to intuit
the mystical way of self-realization include parables that tell the first principles of science, such as the premises of Euclidof awakening (attaining puberty) and stories of birds caught ean geometry. They held that, as these axioms are derived by
by hunters. deduction, we can derive knowledge of arithmetic, various
types of geometries, and other analytical sciences, which
These examples illustrate various different dimensions of provide the frameworks that are used in the empirical sciences.
the Islamic notion of knowledge. To begin with, the primary
sense of knowledge used in science is to explain experience Theological Knowledge as an Activity
and to predict the future, in order to produce a technology The celebrated theologian Abu Hamid Ghazali (1058–1111)
that will control nature for useful projects. In contrast, the proffered that philosophy should begin with an inquiry into
aim of the present iconographically related experience trans- how creatures should imitate the Divine will in the act of
forms a person through dealienation—through the recogni- creation. This “vector” of will to life-reality is analogous to
tion that an individual participates in a larger social or the theoretical axiom of the ancient Persian Zoroastrian
spiritual context. Consider the case of a young person who religion, according to which believers, by positive living—for

Islam and the Muslim World 399
Knowledge

This painting depicts Ibn al-Muqaffa
trapping birds in a net, from the fourteenth-century Persian manuscript of the Tale of Kalila and Dimna.
The term
ilm is the primary type of knowledge in Persian and Arabic; its English translation refers to the concept of scientific knowledge, but in
the Islamic tradition it also indicates knowledge of Allah. THE ART ARCHIVE/NATIONAL LIBRARY CAIRO/DAGLI ORTI

example, being engaged in farming, begetting children, de- the refinements of Muslim epistemologies, it is necessary to
veloping cities, and creating social order—adopt a perspec- use the frameworks of post-peripatetic Western philosotive that denies the evil force (Ahriman). Evil here is understood phers. Recent Muslim investigators such as Nader El-Bizri
as the denial of life and the privation of all existence. use the conceptual frameworks of philosophers such as
Gottfried von Leibniz (1646–1716), who held the nexus
In this tenor, Ghazali outlined a list of mystical virtues, of metaphysics is monads as energy; Martin Heidegger
which are both epistemic and ethical. They include archetypal (1889–1976), who began his metaphysics by the temporal
recall (memory), exuberance, intimacy, and a taste for life. concept of “being-in-the world”; Alfred North Whitehead
Such a doctrine moves ontology from an investigation of (1861–1947), who proffered a process instead of a substancesubstances to the pursuit of the good will. Ghazali posits that event metaphysics); and Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970), who
facts and values are interrelated. His thought also upholds an clarified the notion of “scientific model.”
instrumental theory of knowledge, rejecting the so-called
spectator theory, which places the mind of the agent outside Mystical Knowledge as an Authentic
of the object of knowledge. In contrast, Ghazali’s instrumen- Hermeneutic Dealienation
tal theory of knowledge mixes ethics with a practical sense of It is revealing that Ibn Sina, who was one of the most
knowledge. significant Muslim philosophers, wrote an Arabic version of
Plato’s Symposium, wherein he shared with the Greek phi-
Up to the last thirty years of the twentieth century, most losopher the vision that love is the salvation of the human
investigators approached Islamic philosophy from the stand- soul. For Plato, the highest knowledge is a confrontation with
point of Aristotlian thought. This approach imposed a lim- the Absolute Good, a stance that is analogous to the notion of
ited rendering of Islamic epistemology in the peripatetic, Shahada (being an authentic witness to God’s gifts—unique
static context of the discursive knowledge of external senses existence, guidance, and creation) as presented in Islamic
and axiomatic system. However, to take account of some of mystical theology. In addition, Ibn Sina’s version shares with

400 Islam and the Muslim World
Knowledge

Plotinus’s vision a view of the mystical journey as a return to experiences, as well as by its psychosomatic features, such as
the origin and the ground of all existence. habits and unconscious behaviors.

For Ibn Sina, three main phases of this journey are Philosophical Knowledge as an
alienation, love, and union. In the first phase, a person Immediate Encounter with “Being”
individuates his or her personality by building a castle, a wall Ibn Sina and a number of his successors challenged the
of privacy, that protects and distinguishes the person from peripatetic model of knowledge by adopting the phenomenoothers. Soon, this castle or wall of protection imprisons the logical method, in which ontology is not separated from
person and alienates him or her from the rest of humanity and epistemology. Here, philosophy begins with the world as it is
nature. In the next phase, by falling in love, a person tran- revealed in experience. Accordingly, Ibn Sina, Nasir al-Din
scends his or her egocentric perspective to form a relation of Tusi (d. 1274), Mulla Sadra (b.1571–1640), and others reintimacy, leading to the opening up of an authentic encounter placed the substance-event language of ontology with an
with others. This is a phase that is often depicted through the intentional phenomenology of the mind’s direct encounter
archetypal role of the beloved, who acts as a mediator figure, a with “being” (wujud, hasti). Subsequent, ontology proceeds
logos, or through the role of a prophet, who links the alienated by an application of “being” to three modalities (impossibilself to its source. Finally the last phase is a mystical union ity, contingency, and necessity), which then results in imposbetween the person, symbolized as a river that flows toward sible entities (such as a round square), necessary entities
Divine-nature, which is the origin, arche, as well as the (namely the Necessary Existent), and contingent entities
completion of the person. This union is often depicted as a (such as an entity of humanity, a unicorn, or a chair).
drop of water joining a river that returns it to an ocean.
In the next phase, the mind encounters the subject of
being-in the world—experience. This entity is not a Carte-
The process of self-enlightenment in Sufism points to two
sian substance, but rather a field of experience. It is similar to
distinct but interrelated dimensions of knowledge that can be
the phenomenal self, or the notion of “a transcendental unity
illustrated in the common pedagogy used to teach a foreign
of apperception,” as it is termed in the philosophy of Immanuel
language. The teacher instructs the pupil to perform exter-
Kant (1724–1804). It is also analogous to Martin Heidegger’s
nally imposed tasks, such as memorizing a set of words, using
(1889–1976) notion of “dasein.” Unlike Aristotle and, later,
verb-conjugation flashcards, practicing writing exercises, and
René Descartes, (1596–1650), Kant, David Hume (1711–1176),
repeating sentences in conversation courses. The pupil oband Heidegger, as well as a number of other Western thinktains a certain level of knowledge in vocabulary and rules of
ers, reject the view that a human soul is a substance.
grammar. Having reached this stage, the pupil can now
recognize the content of a conversation and a written French The third phase is an inquiry for the inner-essence (dhat)
communication. In a similar sense, the more persons in love of the self. This notion differs from another sense of (comshare experiences, like cooking and traveling together, vis- mon) essence (mahiyya) shared by other members of the same
iting each others’ parents, and working on common tasks, the species. For example, it is common to say that an essence of a
more they “prehend” each other’s personality and are able to child’s mother, like the essence of any human, is her possesmake crucial decisions such as marriage. sion of a rational soul; but for the child, there is another,
existential sense of “essence” (expressed by the Arabic-Persian
This notion of “prehension,” as used in the philosophy of
‘dhat’), which concerns the peculiar dependence of a specific
Alfed North Whitehead, signifies an epistemic, non-conscious
child to a particular mother. In Persian mystical poetry, God,
state of immediate-intimacy and intuition, is also expressed
or one’s mother, is depicted as “the existence of my existby the Arabic-Persian term, hal, which refers to the role of the
ence,” or “the cause of the actualization of my life.” The
mystical master in directing his disciple. For example, a
mystics seek a connection with this sense of essence. The
person believing himself to be pious is directed to walk into a
nature mystics add a last phase to this process, namely a
bazaar carrying bloody pig meat on his shoulder, which search for a dealienation or the unity of existence (wahadt almakes people lose their respect for him. After such an experi- wujud). Here we come back to the celebrated Arabic proverb,
ence, he loses his pride and is able to reflect authentically on that “he who knows [gnosis] his self-soul, also knows [gnosis]
the ground of his soul. Such tasks lead to self-knowledge as his God.”
well as to self-strength, as the disciple learns that his happiness should not depend on gaining the approval of the In the primary sense of knowledge as “scientific inquiry,”
common people. In the Sufic tradition, knowledge is thus Muslims philosophers followed the Greek tradition as outassociated with goodness, as in becoming a better person, and lined by Aristotle. In addition to a few innovations in logic,
in learning to live in harmony with nature. It is a process of such as temporal and modal types of logic, the Muslim
dealienation, enabling people to cope with responsibilities contribution to epistemology is found in secondary senses of
outside of parental protection as well as with problems, such knowledge. These include a phenomenological intentionality,
as aging, and fates like death. In addition, knowledge is the development of the pragmatics of an instrumental theexplainable in both theoretical terms and through practical ory of knowledge, creative theories of imagination, and

Islam and the Muslim World 401
Komiteh

iconography. The crown of Islamic epistemology, however, members of the the revolutionary committees received forlies in a unique application of the notion of unity (tawhid), mal ranks in the police staff, based on their experience.
which integrates persons with God, or the ultimate being of
philosophers. Similarly, Judaism and Christianity seek an See also Revolution: Islamic Revolution in Iran.
authentic encounter with the Divine, but Islamic mysticism
seeks an identity beyond any duality. It follows the theme that Majid Mohammadi
the soul seeks no “otherness” from the One.

See also Ghazali, al-; Ibn Sina; Mulla Sadra; Tasawwuf;
Theology; Tusi, Nasir al-Din.
KUNTI, MUKHTAR AL- (1729–1811)
Al-Shaykh Sidi-Mukhtar al-Kabir al-Kunti was born in 1729
BIBLIOGRAPHY near Arawan north of Timbuktu. He was a descendant of a
Corbin, Henry. Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn highly ramified Arabic-speaking tribe, the Kunta, that has

Arabi. Translated by R. Manheim. London: Routledge become widely dispersed over the Southern Sahara, from
and Kegan Paul, 1970. Mauritania to the Adrar-n-Ifoghas in Eastern Mali and be-
Ha
iri, Mehdi. The Principle of Epistemology in Islamic Philoso- yond. The Kunta tribe claims descent from noble origins,
phy: Knowledge by Presence. Albany: State University of specifically from the celebrated Qurashite Muslim com-
New York Press, 1992. mander Uqba b. Nafi al-Fihri, who was the stepbrother of
Morewedge, Parviz. The Mystical Philosophy of Avicenna. Amr b. al-As al-Sahmi, the first governor of Muslim Egypt.
Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Institute of Advanced
Theology of Bard College, 2002. According to the so-called tarikh, Kunta Sidi Ali, a
Rahman, Fazlur. Prophecy in Islam: Philosophy and Orthodoxy. descendant of Uqba b. Nafi, married the daughter of Muham-
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979. mad b. Kunta b. Zazam, who was chief of the Ibdukal (also
called Abdukal), a subgroup of the Lamtuna Berbers, alleg-
Rosenthal, Franz. Knowledge Triumphant: The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1970. edly in the early fifteenth century. Their son, Muhammad,
married into another Lamtuna group, as did also his son,
Ahmad al-Bakka
i. Ahmad al-Bakka
i then had three sons of
Parviz Morewedge
his own, from whom all the later branches of the Kunta were
derived.

After the death of Sidi Ahmad-al Bakka
i in the second half
KOMITEH of the sixteenth century, a quarrel broke out between two of
his sons, which is said to have caused the Kunta to split into
The Komiteh-ha-ye Enghelab, or Revolutionary Committwo groups. The Western Kunta lived in and around the
tees, were created immediately after the victory of the Islamic
Hawd, today the southern part of Mauritania, and the East-
Revolution in Iran in February 1979. The Komiteh substiern Kunta lived in and around Azwad, the area of the Sahara
tuted for some of the governmental institutions that no
immediately southwest of Tadmakkat.
longer functioned after the shah was deposed, such as social
services, security, and police. The Komiteh were more wide- While a young man, Sidi al-Mukhtar gained a wide
spread and active in cities than rural areas and were located in reputation as greatly gifted, intellectually, and as an outstandcaptured police centers, in the houses of former government ing Muslim scholar. When only twenty-five years old he was
officials, and in some public places such as the parliament. given the title of Shaykh al-tariqa al-Qadiriyya, making him a
Before the establishment of the Revolutionary Guard Corps spiritual leader within the Qadiri order of Sufis. In this
(Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enghelab) in 1979, these committees position he attracted many students, who came to study in the
were responsible for eliminating counterrevolutionary ele- zawiya he established at al-Hilla in Azwad. His camp at al
ments within Iran. During the Iran-Iraq War, the revolution- Hilla rapidly became not only the center of studying the
ary committees served on the front alongside Iran’s Army, Qadiriyya teachings, but also the center from which a new
Besiege and Revolutionary Guard Corps. In cities, they Qadiri suborder was spread throughout the Sahara regions.
fought against the narcotics trade and worked as agents of the This new suborder bore the name of Sidi al-Mukhtar, and its
judiciary and security systems. The members of these com- followers came to be known as al-Mukhtariyya.
mittees were mostly uneducated, undisciplined revolutionaries.
Al-Kunti achieved a high degree of social and political
After the death of Ayatollah Khomeini and during the first influence among the active political players in the Sahara
period of Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani’s presidency, Iran’s arena. He succeeded in healing the rift between the eastern
police, gendarmerie, and revolutionary committees were and western branches of the Kunta, and he did much to help
merged, and a new organization, called the Disciplinary conclude a peaceful settlement between the Tuareg chiefs
Force (Niru-ye entezami), was established. With this change, and Arab warrior groups in the area. He also mediated

402 Islam and the Muslim World
Kunti, Mukhtar al-

between the leadership of the city of Timbuktu and the Mauritania and in Hausaland in northern Nigeria, by the
Tuaregs, who were known to harass that city on several successive shaykhs of the Kunta tribe.
occasions, most notably in 1770–1771, when a siege of the
town was lifted only after his intervention. See also Africa, Islam in; Tariqa; Tassawuf; Timbuktu.

Al-Kunti furthered the use of peaceful means in spreading BIBLIOGRAPHY
the Islamic faith among infidel groups in the Sahara. He also Batran, A. A. “The Kunta, Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti and the
adopted tender and graceful methods for preaching and for Office of Shaykh al-Tariqa al-Qadiriyya.” In Vol. 1, Studthe propagation of the Qadiriyya order, but although he ies in West African Islamic History, Edited by J. R. Willis.
restricted himself to this moderate approach, he nonetheless London: F. Cass, 1979.
expressed his approval of the militant jihad employed by Clarke, Peter B. West Africa and Islam. London: E.
Uthman dan Fodio in the first decade of the nineteenth Arnold, 1984.
century. Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar proclaimed himself a regen-
Hisklett, Marvin. The Devolopment of Islam in West Africa.
erator (mujaddid); in fact, he claimed to be the sole regenera- London and New York: Longman, 1984.
tor of the thirteenth century of the hijra.
Levtzion, Nehemiah. Muslims and Chiefs in West Africa.
Shaykh Sidi al-Mukhtar the Great died in 1811. His Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon, 1968.
son, Sidi Muhammad (1765–1826), inherited his position Trimingham, J. Spencer. A History of Islam in West Africa.
as the Shaykh and leader of the Mukhtarriyya-Qadiriyya Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.
suborder. The wird, a phrase-patterned devotion used by the
Mukhtarriyya order, became widely propagated in south Khalil Athamina

Islam and the Muslim World 403
L
LANGUAGE See Arabic Language; Persian
Language and Literature; Urdu Language, Central concepts in law
Literature, and Poetry
fiqh understanding, law
usul al-fiqh sources of law: Qur
an, hadith (sayings of the Prophet); ijma
(consensus of schools and community); qiyas (reasoning by
analogy)
ilm knowledge, especially of law, the learning of the alim (pl.
ulema)
taqlid imitation; following the established teachings
LAW ijtihad independent judgment of qualified legal scholar (mujtahid)
sharia the way, the total corpus of Muslim law and belief
fatwa advisory opinion on a matter of law given by a mufti
The emergence of Islamic law originates in a definition of (jurisconsult)
human deeds as understood from a specifically Islamic view- qada court judgment made by a qadi (judge) on the basis of sharia

point. This could only be developed over time, as notions of SOURCE: Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. New York:

good and bad evolved according to the interpretation of the Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Qur
anic verses, Prophetic sayings, and the Islamic legacy as a
whole. The evaluation of the goodness or badness of deeds Key concepts of Islamic law.
according to the Islamic point of view was called fiqh (understanding), and the person holding the qualities of knowledge
and competence to produce opinions in this respect was In the second century of Islam, a theoretical foundation
called faqih (the knowledgeable who understands well). The for juridical thought evolved, leading to a properly consticonsideration of human actions within an Islamic religious tuted legal system. At this point, fiqh came to concern itself
context was encouraged by sayings of the Prophet, such as with codifying this theoretical understanding, while still
dealing with issues relating to the proper conduct of worship
“He whom God favors with good, God makes him the one
(
ibadat). To complement the now more narrow scope of fiqh,
who understands in religion (faqih),” (Bukhari, Sahih, I, 25)
a broader legal context, embodied in the concept of religious
and “there may be some narrators who may narrate the words
law (shari
a), extended the formal Islamic legal order to all
to some of the receivers who may be able to understand better
aspects of societal life.
(afqah) than the narrators themselves” (Tirmidhi, Sunan, V,
34). In the Prophetic era and years immediately following, Beginning with the initial concept of fiqh, Islamic law
fiqh was not specifically about practical human deeds, but organizes the understanding and, thus, definition, of human
covered a general range of issues that were of religious deeds along a continuum. At one end are those behaviors
concern, such as general religious knowledge and the under- deserving of the utmost prohibition, and at the other end are
standing of the sacred texts. However, the day-to-day prac- those deeds subject to the utmost imperative injunction. At
tice of Islam at this early stage of development was still being the very center point of the continuum are found the behavworked out, and fiqh came to be employed for the creation of iors deemed to be neutral, neither prohibited nor enjoined.
legal definitions and interpretations of proper behavior. Over Thus, the prohibited and the enjoined share the same quality
time, the role of fiqh was gradually narrowed to the considera- of being mandatory, whereas acts falling between these two
tion of legally relevant matters, dealing with both personal extremes become a matter of scholarly opinion and are
and public concerns. therefore less binding.

Law

In evaluating the potentially infinite range of human expanded, giving rise to two schools of juridical thought, one
deeds, criteria of judgment (dalils) were needed. There are centered in Medina, the other in Kufa. The scholars of
two sources of these: the Qur
an and the prophetic sunna. Medina included Rabi
at al-Ray (d. 753) and al-Zuhri (d.
The Muslim community was explicitly referred to these by 742), who were early proponents of the pro-hadith school
the Prophet himself, who said, “I have left for you two (hadith refers to sayings of the Prophet). Leading scholars in
principles; should you stick to them you will never err” Kufa included al-Nakhai and his disciple Hammad Ibn Abu
(Malik, Muwatta, II, 899). These two principles were by no Sulayman (d. 738), followed by Abu Hanifa Numan Ibn almeans the sole criteria offered by the Prophet. They were Thabit (d. 757), who favored the reasoning approach. These
supplemented by the practice of shura, for example, which legal trends are also known, respectively, as ahl al-hadith (the
held that authorities should seek the counsel of the wise when people of the hadith line) and ahl al-ra
y (the people of the
running the affairs of the community. In addition, judges pro-reasoning line). They were also called the schools of
were enjoined to employ reasoning in order to make proper Hijaz and of Iraq, respectively, making reference to their
decisions. Moreover, legal decision-making had to be carried geographical domains.
out within the larger context of Islamic tradition. Finally, the
evolution of Islamic law was influenced by politics, war, and The line of distinction between these two early trends in
other societal events, which variously endorsed, transformed, legal thought was found in their perceptions of the hadith.
or replaced traditional practices. All these factors provided For the school of Hijaz, hadith was the actual legacy of the
the framework within which the development of Islamic Prophet, and was the ultimate source of both legitimacy and
society and law occurred during the time of the Prophet and, solutions to social problems. This approach was well suited
later, the prominent Companions (the immediate successors for Medina, which provided a strong Islamic culture of
of the Prophet). practice starting from the exemplary Prophetic era. By contrast, Iraq was relatively new to Islam. In addition, Iraq was
This early, emerging structure of Islamic society prevailed something of a gate for the eastward advancement of Islam,
in the first century of Hijra, which covers the age of the and thus was host to many travellers passing through, each
Prophet and largely that of the Companions. The signifi- with a competing understanding of the life of the Prophet.
cance of this era was twofold. On the one hand, the Compan- This gave rise to multiple hadith, leading to doubt about the
ions were concerned with the preservation of the Qur
anic accuracy of the narrations. To overcome such doubts, reasontexts, and were therefore conservative in their application of ing was applied. Thus, Abu Hanifa of Iraq understood hadith
the Prophet’s sayings when substantial legal matters were at through applying his concept of dhabt (precise preservation).
stake. On the other hand, the Companions’ era was a time in Dhabt was, in his view, the precise understanding of the
which trends of legal thought and methodology were initi- juristic content of the hadith and its precise transmission.
ated for the forthcoming generation of Islam’s leading think- The narrator himself therefore needed to be faqih in order to
ers. In the first century of Islam, Medina was the main center understand the precise content of what he narrated. Here, the
for the development of Islamic knowledge and practice, but significance of reasoning prevails over the literal transmission
these were complemented by the work of other competent of the texts.
figures who were appointed to fulfill juridical and administrative duties elsewhere. Among these were Ibn Masud, who Although Medina stood as the center of political power in
served in Iraq, and Mu
az Ibn Jabal and Abu Musa al-Ashari, Islam during the era of the Prophet and in the thirty years that
both of whom served in Yemen. In the late decades of the first followed, it was later transferred to Syria. There it remained
century, in addition to the ruling political authorities, there for the entire duration of the Umayyad reign, and it was in
were others living throughout the expanding Muslim world Syria where the prominent and influential jurist Abd alwho made substantial contributions to juristic thought. Among Rahman al-Awzai (d. 764) built his legal career in association
there were Said Ibn al-Musayyab (d. 713), Urwa Ibn al- with the Hijazi trend of law. Al-Awzai is famous for his work,
Zubayr (d. 716), Ubeydullah Ibn Utbah (d. 717), and Abu called al-Siyar, but this text has been lost to later generations.
Bakr Ibn Abd al-Rahman (d. 713) in Medina; and Alqamah Nonetheless, it is known that this lost work marked the
Ibn Qays (d. 682), Shurayh Ibn al-Harith (d. 679), Masruq beginning of a literature that developed later and that dealt
Ibn al-Ajda (d. 683), and Ibrahim al-Nakha’i (d. 714) in Kufa. with issues of war and peace. It also influenced the work of
Abu Yusuf, one of the prime disciples of Abu Hanifa of Iraq.
By the turn of the first century of Islam, the political Abu Yusuf wrote al-Radd
ala siyar al-Awza
i (The response to
authorities had already pursued two main policies relating to the Siyar of al-Awzai), and from it one can glean not only Abu
the use of the textual sources of Islamic law. First, the Yusuf’s counterviews but also al-Awzai’s original theses.
standardization of Qur
an began under the reign of Abu Bakr
and was later finalized under the reign of Uthman. Second, Abu Yusuf’s treatise provides insights into interregional
the Umayyad caliph, Umar Ibn Abd al-Aziz, encouraged the activities and the flourishing state of legal thought. Medina,
collection of the sayings of the Prophet. In the early decades the birthplace of the Islamic society, had a special advantage
of the second century, scholarship regarding Islamic law was for traditional Islam and remained a main center of gravity for

406 Islam and the Muslim World
Law

Derivation of a Shari legal decision

God

Qur
an sunna (practice of Muhammad)

hadith (report) ijma (agreement)

ilm (learning)
of the ulema
qiyas (analogy) isnad (reporters) (the learned)

ijtihad (inquiry, or, independent judicial
[ra
y (private judgement)] reasoning) by a mujtahid

fiqh (jurisprudence) of a faqih

sharia (the way of the faithful)

fatwa (advisory decision) of a mufti

qada
(court judgment) of a qadi (judge)

SOURCE: Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago,
1974.

Visual explanation of how legal decisions are made.

the Islamic legal scholarship. Medina’s dominance in this an overarching, ecumenical system of legal thought. In Shafii’s
field is expressed in the concept of
amal ahl al-Medina (the point of view, the Iraqi concepts were inaccurate or inconsispractice of the Medinese people), which served as an example tent, while the Medina-based Hijazi school was too regionally
of proper practice throughout the Islamic world. Jurists were specific. The diversities in legal thought that arose through
thus enjoined to follow the Medina example when seeking a these interregional argumentative dialogues gradually paved
better understanding of Islamic laws. The vital role attributed the way for the evolution of a supra-regional system of legal
to Medina attracted the scholarly attention of several impor- thought, an evolution inspired by Shafii’s leadership.
tant jurists, such as Shaybani (d. 804), and Shafii (d. 819),
who eventually argued against it. Shaybani, who was a key In the first half of the second century, the Iraqi-led legal
jurist of the Iraqi school, studied the hadiths called al- trend was mostly identified with Abu Hanifa and, thus, with a
Muwatta, Malik’s collection of mainly legal content. In his more free use of reason. He recognized three sources of
own work, Shaybani often mentioned the disagreements of Islamic law: the Qur
an undisputedly came first, followed by
the Iraqi jurists with the views presented by Malik. Further- the hadith of the Prophet and then the ijma
, which is the
more, Shaybani compiled an independent work called al- consensus of the Companions. Abu Hanifa had a relatively
Hujjah
ala ahl al-Medina (The argument against the people of cautious and restrictive attitude toward accepting hadiths,
Medina). giving greater weight to the juristic contents of the sayings
than to the literal understanding of the words themselves. He
Shafii, too, had studied the Medinese and the Iraqi treated the diverse opinions of the Companions as various
notions of law. He took a position against both, arguing for options that needed to be evaluated before choosing one from
the elimination of regional concepts and promoting instead among them. He held that the methodological key to this

Islam and the Muslim World 407
Law

N Early schools of law

Founding father Region School
Hanbali

school al-Awzai (d. 744) Syria Awzai
Abu Hanifa (d. 767)* Iraq Hanafi
Baghdad
Malik b. Anas (d. 795)* Medina Maliki
Cairo
al-Shafii (d. 820)* Egypt Shafii
Bahrayn Delhi Ibn Hanbal (d. 855)* Iraq Hanbali
Dawud b. Khalaf (d. 883) Iraq Zahiri
Shafi^i

school Medina O
m *These schools became Sunni madhhabs (orthodox schools of law).
Mecca
an SOURCE: Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. New York:
en
ema
Ya
 Cambridge University Press, 1988.
 
Early schools of law.
0 500 1,000 mi.
Law and Jurisprudence:
0 500 1,000 km
Spread of the Schools
Hanafi school
In about 750 C.E., the Umayyads were overthrown by the
Maliki school

Qaramitah (Shi^a) school
Abbasid revolution, and the center of power in the Muslim
Zaydi (Shi^a) school
world moved from Damascus to Baghdad. The new regime
Sack of Mecca, 927

City

sought to bring a new order to Islamic society. This need for

change was most felt by Ibn al-Muqaffa (d. 757), the chief
advisor to the Abbasid caliph Abu Jafar al-Mansur, who
Law and jurisprudence 816–963. XNR PRODUCTIONS, INC./GALE diagnosed an intolerable state of disorder in the judiciary and
decried the injustices that the people were suffering. Ibn al-
Muqaffa asked the caliph to take control of the matter by
evaluation was a methodology called qiyas (analogical reason- imposing consistency in judicial administration and a cohering), which required that a jurist look to previous cases for ent system for the application of laws. He further urged the
precedents when determining the outcome of a current case. caliph to codify the law, making it possible to perpetuate the
Through this method of qiyas, the jurist could establish legal system. In addition, he advised the caliph on the selecconnections between the present and the past and thus
tion of the team of jurists who should be assigned these tasks,
produce systematic juristic opinions, but it sometimes failed,
making a strong case for the use of Iraqi scholars over those
when similar cases could not be found, or their similarities
from other regions.
were only superficial. At such times, Abu Hanifa would
abandon qiyas and instead employ free reasoning, or istihsan. The Abbasid regime followed the recommendations of
He described his approach to legal thought in the follow-
Ibn al Muqaffa, and in time managed to overcome the
ing terms.:
reluctance of famous jurists to serve the government that had
long characterized the scholars of the Iraqi school. Abu Yusuf
What comes from the Companions [in disagreement] was appointed to the newly created post of qadi al-qudat (chief
we do not abandon altogether. . . [we chose from judge) and was granted discretionary power over the adminisamong their varying opinions]; and what comes from tration of the entire judiciary. First among his tasks was the
the Successors we ignore them. (Ibn al-Qayyim, grand project of codifying the laws and policies of the new
ILam, IV, 123) judicial and fiscal order, thus demanding a degree of textual
orientation never previously confronted by the Iraqi school of
This statement shows Abu Hanifa’s lack of interest in the law. Abu Yusuf’s thought on finance is contained in his Kitab
narrated opinions of the Successors of the Companions. It al-Kharaj (The book of taxation), which was written during
also demonstrates his confidence in the reasoning abilities of the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid. (Abu Yusuf’s other main
jurists of his own generation. This confidence in the reliabil- works are Kitab al-Athar, Ikhtilaf Abu Hanifa wa Ibn Abi Laila,
ity of free reasoning allowed Iraqi jurists to override textual or and al-Radd
ala Siyar al-Awza
i).
systematic limitations. Iraqi jurists also opposed the Umayyad
political power based in Syria, which meant that they were Muhammad al-Shaybani, another preeminent disciple of
not employed by the government and thus did not have to Abu Hanifa, was also employed by the new Abbasid regime,
compromise their methodology to suit the practical limita- serving as judge and as a teacher of jurisprudence. Shaybani,
tions that such political affiliation might impose. However, though lower in rank than Abu Yusuf, was a more prolific
this freedom from political constraint would not last for long. writer, and thus achieved more real advances for the Hanafi

408 Islam and the Muslim World
Law

School of law. His main works, known collectively as Zahir al- content, that was paramount in determining the legitimacy of
riwaya (The reliable narrations), consist of the following the narrations and recitations of the sunna. This approach
titles: al-Asl, al-Jami al-kabir, al-Jami al-saghir, al-Siyar al- contradicted the Medinese perception of the sunna which was
kabir, al-Siyar al-saghir, and al-Ziyadat. In general, these more concerned with Medina tradition and practice as it
works cover a wide range of religious-legal issues, such as reflected the legacy of the Prophet, and it differed from
prayer, tax, marriage, divorce, commerce, and punishment, previous Iraqi legal trends, which judged the authenticity of
with the exception of al-Siyar al-kabir and al-Siyar al-sighir, hadiths on their content as distinct from their sole letter.
which are thematic of laws of war and peace. Also, these Shafii’s literalist understanding had an enduring impact
works that represent early Hanafite legal thought were col- upon the Hafanite legal thought. For instance, Abu Bakr allected by al-Hakim al-Shahid al-Marwazi (d. 955) in the tenth Jassas (d. 980) of the Hanafi School was forced to attempt to
century and presented under the title of al-Kafi. They were distinguish among the words of the Prophet, conceding that
later reinterpreted and elaborated upon by Sarakhsi (d. 1090) at least some of the Prophet’s utterances were divinely reunder the title of al-Mabsut. Shaybani’s work, as well as vealed or inspired, whereas others reflected his “ordinary” or
Sarakhsi’s commentary, discloses the evolution of law in Iraq, more humanly derived opinion.
starting with the free use of reason as championed by Abu
Shafii’s approach to the ijma
is perhaps the most polemic
Hanifa and his predecessors and moving toward greater
of all. In the Shafiite view, the ijma
should mean the
textual orientation and structural regulation. This trend toconsensus of the entire umma (community), and this is not
ward the institutionalization of juristic principles can be
possible unless it is with the participation of each and every
attributed to two factors: the accession of leading post-Abu
Muslim individual. This perception of ijma
contrasts with
Hanifa Iraqi jurists into the official power circles and, later, to
the perception held by the Medinese jurists, who restricted
the indelible impact of al-Shafii (d. 819).
their understanding of ijma
to the consensus of the scholars
Al-Shafii came to dominate the next phase of the evolu- of Medina, as it was reflected in the practice of the Medinese
tion of Islamic legal theory. He limited the legitimate sources people. It also contradicted earlier Iraqi perceptions of ijma
,
of juristic knowledge to four: the Qur
an, the sunna, ijma
, which called for the consensus only of the jurists of the Iraqi
and qiyas. He utterly rejected the principle of istihsan that had legal trend. However, Shafii’s arguments were more explicbeen advanced by Abu Hanifa. Shafii’s approach to each of itly directed against the views of his nearer contemporaries,
the four approved sources emphasized the development of a the Iraqi jurists of the post-Abu Hanifa period.
centralized perception of Islamic law, and rejected the valid-
Shafii’s argument boils down to the claim that true
ity of regional variations that contradicted this unitary conconsensus of all Muslims or even merely of all jurists on a
ception of the law. Moreover, in his work titled al-Risala, he juristic personal opinion (ijtihad) cannot be reached. At best,
argued that the only language suitable for Islamic scholarship it can only be apparent, because a verbalized consensus could
was Arabic: “[T]he entire book of God came down in none easily mask silent disagreements. In his view, the only viable
but the Arabic language” (Shafi
i, Risala 40). ijma
is to be found in the already existing acceptance, by each
and every Muslim, of obligatory matters such as belief in the
Shafii’s emphasis on Arabic as the language of the Qur
an
necessity of prayer. Obviously, this conception of ijma
is
meant that translations of the Qur
an into other languages
better suited to theological purposes governing elements of
were not equivalent of the Qur
an. From this it follows that
faith than to legal ones, which are more concerned with
not only scripture and scholarship, but also the prayers of the
matters of behavior.
faithful, must be in Arabic, for the language was held to be an
essential element. This position was in outright contrast with Shafii’s refutation of the ijma
of all jurists may be valid on
that of Abu Hanifa, who approved of the recitation of the grounds of logic, but it renders the concept irrelevant for
Qur
an in Persian in prayers. As Shafii’s literalist approach legal purposes. Nonetheless, both al-Jassas and al-Sarakhsi
gained ascendency, Abu Hanifa’s disciples were forced to were forced to contend with its implications. They responded
reinterpret their mentor’s position (that prayer in Persian was by dividing the ijma
into two main types. The first follows
permissible) as exclusive and temporary, applicable only in Shafii’s formulation, including all Muslims, whereas the
certain exceptional cases until people could learn the proper second refers specifically to consensus among the jurists alone.
Arabic recitation of the Qur
anic verses.
Shafii’s approach to the qiyas rests in his rejection of
Shafii’s sunna of the Prophet was twofold. He considered istihsan. The legitimacy of qiyas arises from the fact that it
the further sacralization of the Prophet, whose sayings were relates new cases to previous ones. In this retrospective
divinely inspired, and held that the authenticity of the say- process, the qiyas ultimately draws the jurist back to the prime
ings’ transmission through narrators was directly dependent sources of juristic knowledge: the Qur
an, the sunna of the
upon the literal faithfulness of their narrations. In other Prophet, and the ijma. On the other hand, the Shafiite
words, it was the letter of the narration, rather than the school of legal thought considers istihsan as disconnection

Islam and the Muslim World 409
Law

Aral
Sea

Ca
Black Sea

spi
an S
ea
Cordoba
Almeria Bougie Ma Nishapur
Qayrawan Aleppo z a n d eran
M edi t e Tehran
Fez Tlemcen
rranean Salamiyya
Sea Damascus Baghdad
Isfahan
Morocco Tripoli Gaza Kufa Wasiè

Benghazi Barqa Al Hira
Cairo Basra Shiraz
N Mada&in

Medina


Re
(Birthplace of Malik)

dS
ea
Spread of 0 300 600 mi.
the Schools 0 300 600 km
Hanafi school

Malik&s pupils

From Medina

Shafi^i school

A ra b i a n
From Qurtuba
Sea
From Salamiyya

City

Law and jurisprudence: Spread of the schools. XNR PRODUCTIONS, INC./GALE

from the letter of these three recognized sources of knowl- use of talil (reasoning) in shar (legislation with religious
edge because, in contrast to qiyas, it involves the use of free overtones). The Zahiri School, zealously defended and sysreason without reference to the legitimate origins of law. tematized by Ibn Hazm, thus insists that human reason
Also, there can be no legitimacy accorded to the free use of cannot be part of decision-making in religious law.
reason when consensus is restricted to the scope of the nusus
(the sacred texts), as in Furud and Muharramat (which are Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (d. 855), an admirer of Shafii for his
held to stem from a divine origin), the sunna of the Prophet emphasis upon the hadith, became an inspiring source for a
(considered to be divinely inspired), and the Qur
an. Yielding distinctly hadith-oriented trend of law called the Hanbali
to the pressure from the Shafiite position regarding the use School. Ibn Hanbal is famous for his nonconformist position
of istihsan, and the Hanafite School eventually replaced the against the official pressure of the “rationalist” Abbasid reterm istihsan with the designation “hidden qiyas” to signify gime (particularly of al-Mamun and al-Mutasim), which
that istihsan was just another type of qiyas. ordered him to speak in support of the theological belief that
the Qur
an was makhluq (created). Ibn Hanbal was a re-
Shafii rejected istihsan because it was the product of the spected hadith scholar, but he was not particularly famous as a
human mind, rather than deriving from the nusus. This jurist. Indeed, the hadiths he presents in his main work, alposition attracted the attention and admiration of Dawud al- Musnad, are overwhelmed by the citations of the names of
Isfehani (d. 883), because of the distinction it drew between their narrators. However, his position, and his focus on
divine and human decisions. Eventually, Dawud noticed that hadith, helped inspire a certain pro-hadith line of legal
qiyas, too, involved human reasoning. Thus, he took a radical thought.
step further than the Shafii, rejecting the qiyas in addition to
the istihsan. This line of legal thought is known as the Zahiri The Hanbali School of Law in proper terms was systema-
(literalist) School of Law, because its theory strives to prove tized in the great work of Ibn Qudame (d. 1223), al-Mughni.
that legitimacy in religious law is confined to the literal scope Prominent scholars belonging to this legal school include
and contents of the nusus and the ijma
that are in agreement such jurists as Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) and Ibn al-Qayyim alwith the Qur
an, and the hadiths, too, are held to be literal Jawziyya (d. 1350). The Hanbali line of legal thought still
narratives of the acts and practice of the Prophet, devoid of holds enormous influence throughout most of Gulf region,
interpretation. This line of thought is sharply opposed to the and in Saudi Arabia, in particular.

410 Islam and the Muslim World
Lebanon

Shafii’s role in the development of Islamic legal theory Tastan, Isman. The Jurisprudence of Sarakhsi with Particuwas decisive in challenging the regional schools of law and lar Reference to War and Peace: A Comparative Study in
their diverse methodologies, and in motivating them to Islamic Law. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, the University of
evolve their concepts and terminology toward a centralized Exeter, 1993.
Islamic legal thought. In the formative period of Islamic law, Tastan, Osman. “Islam Hukukunda Sahabi Otoritesinin
the Medinese legal trend had been basically expressed by the Kaynagi ve Niteligi.” Islami Arastirmalar 8, no. 2
Muwatta
of Malik and further substantiated by the volumi- (1995): 115–121.
nous work of Sahnun (d. 854), al-Mudawwana, which focused Tastan, Osman. “Islam Hukukunda Literalizm: Anahatlariyla
on the concept of Medinese practice. Meanwhile, the Iraqi Mukayeseli Bir Analiz.” Islami Arastirmalar 9, nos. 1–4
legal trend evolved from being primarily rationalistic into (1996): 144–156.
being the gradually centralizing and relatively conservative Tastan, Osman. “Merkezilesme Surecinde Islam Hukuku:
Hanafi School of Law, in line with the prevalent Shafiite Bolgesellige Veda veya Safii Faktoru.” Islamiyat 1, no. 1
influence. The Hanbali School of Law was itself systematized (1998): 25–34.
long after the death of Ibn Hanbal, gaining a strong place in Tirmidhi, Muhammad Ibn Isa. Sunan. Edited by Ibrahim
the history of Islamic law. The Zahiri legal trend, on the Atwah Iwad. Istanbul: Cagri Yayinlari, 1981.
other hand, was denied legitimacy and was ultimately excluded from the Sunni arena of Islamic law, principally
Osman Tastan
because of its rejection of qiyas. In today’s Islamic law, the
four “legitimate sources” of juristic knowledge, set forth by
Shafii, provide the minimum of the compulsory criteria to be
satisfied for any legal trend to take place within the context of
LEBANON
Sunni legal theory.
Like many other states in the Middle East, the state in
BIBLIOGRAPHY Lebanon was established in the early 1920s, following the
Bukhari, Muhammad Ibn Ismail. Sahih al-Bukhari. Istanbul: downfall of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War.
Cagri Yayinlari, 1981. Greater Lebanon, as the new state was initially called, was
Hallaq, Wael B. “Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed?” Interna- formed out of a territorial nucleus, the Mutasarrifiya of
tional Journal of Middle East Studies 16 (1984): 3–41. Mount Lebanon, established in 1861. A special political and
Hallaq, Wael B. A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Intro- legal arrangement devised after the 1860 civil strife and
duction to Sunni Usul al-Fiqh. Cambridge, U.K.: Cam- recognized by the six major European powers, the Mutasarrifiya
bridge University Press, 1997. gave Mount Lebanon a semiautonomous status within the
Ibn al-Muqaffa. Risala Ibn al-Muqaffa’ fi al-Sahaba. In Rasail Ottoman empire, and succeeded the Imara (1516–1842),
al-Bulagha. Edited by Muhammad Kurd Ali. Cairo, 1954. the political system that prevailed in Mount Lebanon since
Karaman, Hayreddin. Islam Hukuk Tarihi. Istanbul: Iz the early sixteenth century, after a short interval. While
Yayincilik. 1999. confessionalism had its origins in the Ottoman millet system,
Malik, Ibn Anas. al-Muwatta
. Edited by Muhammad Fuad the Mutasarrifiya formalized political representation along
Abd al-Baqi. Istanbul: Cagri Yayinlari, 1981. confessional lines in an elected twelve-member body, the
Sarakhsi, Muhammad Ibn Ahmad. Sharh al-Siyar al-Kabir. Administrative Council, headed by an Ottoman governor
Edited by Salah al-Din al-Munajjid and Abd al-Aziz (Mutasarrif) of the Catholic faith and representing Mount
Ahmad. Cairo: Matba
at Shirkat al-Ilanat al-Sharqiyya, Lebanon’s six major communities (four Maronites, three
1971–1972. Druzes, two Greek Orthodox, one Greek Catholic, one
Sarakhsi, Muhammad Ibn Ahmad. Islam Devletler Hukuku: Shia, one Sunni). Abolished by the Ottomans in 1914, the
Serhu’s-Siyeri
l-Kebir, Translated by Ibrahim Sarmis and Mutasarrifiya gave Mount Lebanon over fifty years of politi-
M. Sait Simsek, edited by Ahmet Yaman, Konya: Egitas cal stability and orderly confessional relations.
Yayinlari: 2001.
Shafii, Muhammad Ibn Idris. al-Umm, Beirut: Dar al- Under the French mandate (1920–1943), Lebanon’s 1926
Ma’rifa, 1973. constitution stipulated that representation in government
Shafii, Muhammad Ibn Idris. al-Risala. Edited by Ahmad office would be temporarily on a confessional basis.
Muhammad Shakir. Cairo: Dar al-Turath, 1979. Confessionalism was institutionalized in post-1920 Lebanon,
Shaybani, Muhammad. The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani’s particularly in the personal status law of the seventeen recog-
Siyar. Translated by Majid Khadur. Baltimore: Johns nized communities and in government office. The greatest
Hopkins Press, 1966. beneficiary of the confessional system was the Shiite com-
Shaybani, Muhammad. al-Hujja
ala Ahl al-Medina. Edited by munity whose Ja
fari jurisprudence was recognized by the
Mahdi Hasan al-Kaylani al-Qadiri. Beirut: Alam al- state in 1926, a right that had been denied under Sunni
Kutub, 1983. Ottoman rule.

Islam and the Muslim World 411
Lebanon

Although the 1932 census showed a slight Christian ma- Political parties-turned-militias exercised power in areas unjority, the demographic structure in post-1920 Lebanon was der their control along with several non-Lebanese parties
radically transformed with the enlargement of the Mutasarrifiya directly involved in the war: the PLO until 1982–1983, Syria
to include territories with a Muslim majority. The Maronite before and after that date, Israel in the south from 1978 to
community, for example, decreased from over 60 percent of 2000, and the Islamic Republic of Iran since the early 1980s.
Mount Lebanon’s population to nearly 30 percent in post-
1920 Lebanon, while the Sunni community increased from The fifteen-year war ended with another act of war, when
about 5 percent in Mount Lebanon to nearly 25 percent after Syrian forces joined units of the Lebanese army to oust an
1920. Similarly, the Shiite community increased from about interim premier, General Michel Aoun, from office. An-
5 percent in Mount Lebanon to nearly 20 percent after 1920. other development was the political settlement embodied in
Beginning in 1937, the custom of the Maronite presidency the Document of National Understanding, commonly called
and Sunni premiership was established while the Shiite the Ta
if Agreement, which was signed on 22 October 1989
speakership continued to be contested until 1947 between by Lebanese deputies in the Saudi city of Ta
if. One compothe Shia, the Greek Orthodox, and the Greek Catholic nent of the Tai
f Agreement dealt with political reforms, the
communities. other with sovereignty. While the Ta
if Agreement preserved
the custom of the Maronite presidency, the Sunni premiership,
Independence was achieved in 1943 not only because
and the Shiite speakership, it greatly diminished the power
Lebanese from different communities opposed French rule
of the president and enhanced that of the prime minister, the
but also because leaders, particularly those of the two influencouncil of ministers, and the speaker. Ta
if also called for the
tial communities, the Maronites and the Sunnis, reached an
abolition of political confessionalism according to a staged plan.
understanding on the basis of the National Pact. An unwritten agreement, the National Pact confirmed the distribution
As for sovereignty, the Ta
if Agreement called for the
of government office along confessional lines and sought to
redeployment of Syrian troops to specific areas two years
situate Lebanon’s foreign policy on an equal distance beafter the incorporation of Ta
if’s provisions into the constitutween East, that is, the Arab world and particularly Syria, and
tion in September 1990, and for the withdrawal of Israeli
West, particularly France.
forces from the south in accordance with the 1978 United
Like other Arab countries shaken by the rise of Nasserism Nations resolutions 425 and 426. Israel withdrew its forces in
(pan-Arab populist movement led by Egyptian president May 2000 but Syrian troops did not redeploy. Ta
if also
Jamal Abd al-Nasser) in the mid-1950s during the height introduced the notion of “privileged relations” with Syria.
of cold war politics in the region, Lebanon witnessed a Beginning in May 1991, Lebanon and Syria signed a series of
six-month armed conflict in 1958. Lebanon quickly recov- bilateral agreements that tied Lebanese affairs ever closer to
ered from the conflict and the decade 1958–1968 witnessed Syria in the political, security, economic, cultural, and comlarge-scale administrative reform, political stability, and eco- mercial arenas. Since 1990, the political decision-making
nomic prosperity, especially under President Fouad Chehab process in Lebanon has been very much in Syrian hands. The
(1958–1964). Shiite community was greatly affected by the war and by
regional developments that unfolded during the war years. It
Once again, regional developments shaped the course of
underwent drastic political change: from the control of tradi-
Lebanese politics: the Arab defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli
tional leaders prior to the war, to the reformist platform of
war and the emergence of a militant Palestine Liberation
Imam Musa al-Sadr, the founder of the Amal Movement in
Organization (PLO). From 1969, when Lebanon had to sign
the mid-1970s, to the radical Islamist agenda of Hizb Allah
an agreement with the PLO (the Cairo Agreement) that
since the mid-1980s. In a period of two decades, Shiite
allowed the PLO’s military action against Israel from Lebanpolitics have been greatly radicalized. Backed by Syria, Iran,
ese territory, until the outbreak of war in 1975, political crises
and the Lebanese government, Hizbollah—the only Lebanand armed conflict hinged on the PLO’s armed presence.
ese party that was not disarmed after the war—led the war
Confrontation between Lebanon’s raison d’état and the PLO’s
raison de révolution was bound to occur, just as it did in against Israel in south Lebanon in the 1990s and is today the
Jordan in 1970–1971. But unlike Jordan’s authoritarian state, most mobilized and active political-cum-military organiza-
Lebanon’s openness, confessional democracy, and consensual tion in the country.
politics did not enable the state to contain the PLO and to
The withdrawal of Israeli forces from the south has
stop PLO-Israeli warfare in south Lebanon.
reactivated the debate on the presence of about twenty-five
War broke out in April 1975 and ended in October 1990. thousand Syrian troops in the country. Although the sectar-
It evolved in five phases; the most violent were the first and ian divide is deeper in postwar Lebanon than prior to the war,
last two years of the war and the 1982 Israeli invasion a politically significant Christian-Muslim consensus emerged
of Lebanon. The war crippled government institutions, in 2000–2001 on the need to implement properly the Ta
if
factionalized the army, and widened the sectarian divide. Agreement and to establish balanced relations between

412 Islam and the Muslim World
Liberation Movement of Iran

Lebanon and Syria. Consensus was confirmed by the formali- equality, and progress. Islamic liberalism forms one strand of
zation of the reconciliation between Christians and Druzes, Islamic modernism, which also encompasses modern values
following the historic visit of the Maronite patriarch, Cardi- that are not associated with the liberal tradition, such as statenal Nasralla Sfeir, on 5 August 2001, to areas that were building and scientific authority.
displaced during the war. The government’s response to
these positive developments was a massive crackdown on Islamic liberalism emerged in the mid-nineteenth century
Christian activists in August 2001. But the casualty this time as a response to the hypocrisy of European liberalism, which
was not only the growing intersectarian opposition to the was introduced to the Islamic world by the highly illiberal
Syrian-backed Lebanese authorities but to the country as a means of imperial conquest. Since that time, conservatives
whole: government institutions, the rule of law, and the have consistently accused Islamic liberalism of being overly
economy with a public debt that rose from over $1 billion in enthralled with European traditions. Yet Islamic liberalism’s
1990 to over $25 billion in 2001. self-understanding centers on Islamic traditions, including
the sacred sources that require or allow liberal practices and
See also Fadlallah, Muhammad Husayn; Hizb Allah; the precedents in Islamic history for tolerance and peaceful
Sadr, Musa al-. coexistence. In the late twentieth century, a new form of
Islamic liberalism added the argument that human interpre-
BIBLIOGRAPHY tation of revelation is inherently fallible and pluralistic. In
Akarli, Engin. The Long Peace: Ottoman Lebanon, 1861–1920. this view, the repression of Islamic liberalism is an illegiti-
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. mate exercise in hubris, because no mortal can presume to
Binder, Leonard., ed. Politics in Lebanon. New York: John know the meaning of divine revelation with any certainty.
Wiley, 1966. Islamic liberalism has generally been a minority position in
El Khazen, Farid. The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon: the Islamic world. Its representatives have sometimes fared
1967–1976. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University well when elections are free and fair, though more frequently
Press, 2000. liberalism has been stymied by hostile responses of tradition-
Hanf, Theodor. Coexistence in Wartime Lebanon: Decline of a alists, revivalists, and secularists.
State and Rise of a Nation. London: The Center for Lebanese Studies and I. B.Tauris, 1993. See also Modern Thought.
Harik, Iliya. Politics and Change in a Traditional Society: Lebanon
1711–1845. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University BIBLIOGRAPHY
Press, 1968. Binder, Leonard. Islamic Liberalism. Chicago: University of
Hudson, Michael, C. The Precarious Republic: Political Mod- Chicago Press, 1988.
ernization in Lebanon. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Encore
Kurzman, Charles, ed. Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook. New York:
Edition, 1985.
Oxford University Press, 1998.
Maila, Joseph. The Document of National Understanding: A
Commentary. Oxford, U.K.: Center for Lebanese Stud-
Charles Kurzman
ies, 1992.
Makdisi, Ussama. The Culture of Sectarianism: Community,
History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
LIBERATION MOVEMENT OF IRAN
Salibi, Kamal, S. The Modern History of Lebanon. New York:
Praeger Publishers, 1965.
The Liberation Movement of Iran (Nehzat-e azadi-ye Iran),
or LMI (also called Iran Freedom Movement, or IFM), was
Farid el Khazen established as a liberal Islamic opposition in May 1961.
Its twelve founders, including Mehdi Bazargan, Ayatollah
Mahmud Taleqani, and Yadollah Sahabi, presented it as
LEXICOGRAPHY (ARABIC) See Grammar Muslim, Iranian, constitutionalist, and Mosaddeqist; that is,
and Lexicography they claimed the ideological legacy of Mohammad Mosaddeq’s
National Front. In 1963 the shah banned the LMI and
imprisoned its leaders for a number of years.

LMI gained power during the Iranian revolution in 1978
LIBERALISM and 1979. Its members formed the core of the postrevolutionary
provisional government and on 5 February 1979, Mehdi
Islamic liberalism may be defined as a movement to reconcile Bazargan was appointed prime minister of the provisional
Islamic faith with liberal values such as democracy, rights, government by Ayatollah Khomeini. He resigned in protest

Islam and the Muslim World 413
Libraries

after the occupation of the American embassy in Tehran on 4 monuments and patronized scholars and poets—to acquire
November. reputations as cultivated rulers. Libraries of elegant manuscripts and learned treatises were thus appropriate posses-
Though formally banned by Khomeini in 1988, the LMI sions for kings and those who imitated them, and it was not
was generally tolerated, but not allowed to participate in uncommon for Islamic rulers, military officers, and high
elections. It openly criticized the doctrine of velayat-e faqih officials to have well-earned reputations for literary taste and
(i.e., the rule of the religious jurisprudent) as well as the scholarship. Third, books were central to Islamic religious
executions, torture, and the ban of parties and free media. life. Despite a stress on oral learning in medieval Islam, books
Although its members are mainly academic veterans of the were necessary to record the masses of traditions of the
opposition to the shah, since the 1990s LMI has also appealed Prophet, legal rulings, information concerning transmitters
to the young who admire Mosaddeq—the only democrati- of religious lore, and linguistic lore that were the raw material
cally elected prime minister of Iran. The left wing of the LMI of the Islamic sciences. Even the oral transmission of knowlis represented by Ezzatollah Sahabi, who, in 1992 founded edge usually involved the production of a dictated book, so
the magazine Iran-e farda. that studying a book involved producing a copy of it. Fourth,
medieval Islamic bureaucrats were accustomed to use books:
After the death of Bazargan in 1995 and under its new
encyclopedias of useful information, literary manuals useful
chairman, Ebrahim Yazdi, the movement became more caufor producing elegant official documents, literature for amusetious. Nevertheless, in spring 2001, the revolutionary court
ment, and such things as manuals of occult sciences. Finally,
ordered an end to all LMI activities. Although charged with
the Islamic law of waqf, charitable endowments, allowed
conspiring against the Islamic system on 13 November 2001,
Muslim bibliophiles to donate their books to the libraries of
Yazdi was not touched by the authorities. But more than
mosques and madrasas with reasonable hope that their collecthirty other members were sentenced to jail by the revolutions would be maintained intact.
tionary court on 27 July 2002, among them Ezzatollah
Sahabi. They were charged with a series of crimes, including The earliest Islamic libraries were the collections of Qur
ans
seeking to topple the country’s government. The trials were that accumulated in mosques. Qur
an reading was an imporheld behind closed doors. tant Islamic devotional practice, and both copying Qur
ans
and donating them to mosques were acts of piety. Larger
See also Bazargan, Mehdi; Iran, Islamic Republic of.
mosques often acquired more diverse libraries, mostly through
gifts. When a mosque was built or renovated, the donor often
BIBLIOGRAPHY gave a collection of books as the basis of the library. Biblio-
Chehabi, Houchang E. Iranian Politics and Religious Modern- philes and scholars, particularly those who taught in a parism. The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and ticular mosque, often willed their books to the mosque
Khomeini. London: Tauris, 1990. library. Books copied in class were often given to the mosque
library. To this day, many of the most important collections
Claudia Stodte of Islamic manuscripts are in mosque libraries—for example,
al-Azhar in Cairo and Suleymaniyyeh in Istanbul.

There are records of royal libraries as early as Umayyad
LIBRARIES times, the earliest associated with the scholarly Umayyad
prince Khalid b. Yazid. The zenith of Islamic royal libraries
Several factors contributed to the prevalence of libraries in was in the Abbasid period. The Abbasid caliph al-Ma’mun (r.
the medieval Islamic world. First, manuscript books were 813–833) founded the Bayt al-Hikma, the house of wisdom,
relatively cheap. Papermaking technology arrived in the which was the center for translation from Greek, Syriac, and
Islamic world in the eighth century, providing Muslims with Pahlavi and which was the basis of a caliphal library that
a material cheaper than the papyrus used previously in the survived for more than a century. The Umayyad royal library
Middle East and far cheaper than the parchment and vellum at Cordova, founded by al-Hakam II (r. 961–976), was supmade from animal hides used in medieval Europe. Moreover, posed to have had 400,000 manuscripts. The greatest of the
the Arabic script with its cursive forms and many ligatures royal libraries was that of the Fatimids in Cairo, founded in
could be written much faster than the medieval versions of 1004 by the caliph al-Hakim (r. 996–1021). It survived,
the Roman alphabet. Second, the medieval Islamic world was despite some vicissitudes, until it was ordered closed by
a literate culture. Men and even women of the upper and Saladin in the late twelfth century and its collections were
middle classes were almost always literate. Both religious and dispersed and partly destroyed. The royal libraries sometimes
secular literatures were popular, and scholarly and literary had aggressive programs of commissioning both the copying
attainments were respected. Islamic rulers, constantly hungry and the composition of books. Both the Abbasid Bayt alfor legitimacy, collected books for the same reason they built Hikma and the Mogul royal library in Delhi commissioned

414 Islam and the Muslim World
Libraries

extensive translations, in the latter case often of Sanskrit the family home over many generations. Examples include
Hindu literature of all sorts. Most of the great illustrated and the al-Husayni, al-Khalidi, and al-Budayri libraries in Jerusailluminated Islamic books are the product of royal commissions. lem, each of which dates from the eighteenth century.

There were also public libraries known as dar al-
ilm, Destruction and Dispersal of Libraries
houses of knowledge. These were more or less public librar- Islamic chronicles mention the destruction of many libraries,
ies, often established for sectarian purposes. These institu- either deliberately or, more commonly, accidentally. Apart
tions played a role in the establishment of madrasas, Islamic from a few places and times, warfare was endemic in the
seminaries. With the rise of madrasas in the eleventh century, Islamic world and took its toll. Few surviving libraries in the
their libraries became increasingly important. Islamic world predate the older Istanbul libraries. While the
story that the Muslim invaders burned the library of Alexan-
Size, Nature, and Organization of Premodern dria has long been known to be false—it had been destroyed
Islamic Libraries in Roman times—the sack of cities did often result in the
Medieval accounts mention libraries containing hundreds of destruction of libraries. Most of the major libraries of Abbasid
thousands or even millions of books, notably the royal librar- Iraq were destroyed during the Mongol invasion. The Islamic
ies of Baghdad, Cairo, and Cordoba. Individual scholars are library in Tripoli was destroyed when the city was sacked by
mentioned whose libraries consisted of some thousands of the Franks during the First Crusade, beginning in 1095. The
books. The higher numbers are scarcely credible. Istanbul, American invasion of Iraq in 2003 apparently resulted in the
for example, has more than a hundred manuscript libraries or destruction of much of the collection of the National Library
collections dating from Ottoman times, some four centuries in Baghdad.
old, yet in 1959 a careful survey indicated that there were only
about 135,000 Islamic manuscripts in the city, the largest Sometimes the destruction was ideologically motivated.
collection containing about ten thousand manuscripts. It Mahmud of Ghazna burned the heretical works in the library
certainly is credible, however, that the larger medieval Islamic of the wazir Ismail b. Abbad and confiscated the rest. The
libraries contained tens of thousands of manuscripts and that books on philosophy and the natural sciences in the library of
wealthy individual scholars and bibliophiles possessed librar- al-Hakam II in Cordoba were burned by the orthodox during
ies of several thousand volumes—collections dwarfing any- his son’s reign. The mass destruction of Arabic books was part
thing in Europe at the time. of the Catholic kings’ program to suppress Islam in Spain,
including the burning of Arabic books in Granada at the
At their finest, Islamic libraries were large, well-organized order of Cardinal Cisneros. There also was a curious tradiinstitutions with specially built facilities for book storage and tion of scholars destroying their own books at their death,
reading, professional staff, regular budgets and endowments, either to suppress embarrassing or incomplete works or to
catalogs, and even lodging and stipends for visiting scholars. avoid unauthorized transmission of hadith and other texts
Public access varied, depending on the nature of the libraries, that ought to be transmitted orally.
but established scholars could generally gain access to most
collections. Books were usually stored on shelves or in cabi- Finally, lack of supervision led to the decay of many
nets, stacked on their sides with a short title written on the libraries, with books stolen by readers or dishonest librarians
upper and lower edge of the book to aid in finding it. or lost to damp and insects, the latter a particular menace in
(Traditional Islamic bookbindings do not usually contain the South and Southeast Asia, where insecticide is still sometimes
title or author.) Catalogs were either bound handlists, the sprinkled between the pages of books.
waqf documents donating the books, or lists posted on the
doors of the cabinet. Collections were organized by subject. The destruction of libraries in wartime was not always, or
Avicenna describes visiting the royal library in Bukhara, for even usually, deliberate. Books were valuable, and thus were
example, where rooms were devoted to different subjects. better stolen than destroyed. There is a report that when
Paper, pens, and ink were sometimes furnished for the use of Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, the sultan ordered the
patrons. surviving Greek manuscripts in the city collected for the
palace library, and there can be no doubt that the size and
Smaller collections had less elaborate facilities. Most quality of the manuscript collections in Istanbul are in good
mosques and madrasas had libraries. Private libraries and part the result of the imperial reach of the Ottoman armies.
individual books were often donated to such institutions as Likewise, many of the Islamic manuscript collections in
waqf, endowment, and the terms of the gift would be carefully Europe were, to some extent, the product of colonial wars.
recorded on the flyleaf. Donated collections were often kept The great Islamic manuscript collections in Russia are the
as separate units. There were also family libraries. In a society product of the Russian expansion into Central Asia in the
where professions were often hereditary, some families pro- eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The treasures of the
duced scholars and clerics generation after generation for Mogul royal library were dispersed after the 1857–1858
centuries. Not uncommonly a library would accumulate in mutiny, and many of the finest items ended up in London.

Islam and the Muslim World 415
Literature

Libraries in the Modern Islamic World monographs and periodicals poses particular difficulties for
With some exceptions, the library situation in modern Islamic academic libraries in the poorer Islamic countries, and the
countries falls short of the glories of the medieval period. lack of such materials is one of the most difficult problems
Some premodern libraries have survived and prospered. In faced by academics in the Islamic world. The increasing
Ottoman Turkey a stable bureaucratic tradition and internal importance of computers and electronic resources is an
stability meant that most of the old waqf libraries survived as additional burden that few academic libraries in the Islamic
functioning institutions until they were taken over by the world can afford.
modern Turkish state. Several of the larger Ottoman libraries
in Istanbul are still functioning, and the collections of most of Elementary and secondary school libraries are generally
the smaller libraries have been gathered in a central library in weak or nonexistent. Public library systems are also usually
the Suleymaniyyeh mosque. Al-Azhar University in Cairo inadequate and rarely have much priority in competition for
has a library that has functioned for centuries in one form or scarce public resources. Public libraries exist in major cities,
another. but much less commonly in provincial cities or small towns.
Translations of foreign works are relatively scarce. Cultural
Most of the libraries of the Islamic world are of more factors sometimes hinder progress. Where public libraries
recent date. These may be divided into two classes: libraries exist, there may be restrictions on circulation, subscription
of traditional type founded in the nineteenth and twentieth fees, or educational requirements that hinder free access, as is
centuries, and Western-style libraries founded by colonial the case for the best public libraries in Pakistan. The Islamic
administrations or modern independent Islamic states. world has not yet had its Andrew Carnegie, endowing mass
self-education through free public libraries. As a result, for-
Even after the occupation of most of the Islamic world by eign institutions such as the British Council still play a
European colonial powers and the establishment of modern significant role in providing library facilities, despite their
nation states in the Islamic lands, libraries continued to be existing only in the largest cities. The new Alexandria Library
established that, despite occasional appurtenances of modern being built in Egypt in emulation of the ancient library
libraries and the prevalence of printed books, were indistin- deserves mention, though it is far from clear that it will be
guishable in style and purposes from those established centu- able to achieve its goal to become a world-class research
ries earlier. The libraries of the Muslim rulers and nobility of library.
princely states in British India were royal libraries of the old
sort—for example, the Raza Library in Rampur, based on a There have also been challenges applying modern library
collection started by the Rohilla Nawabs of Rampur in the techniques. The mixture of Arabic and Roman script books
eighteenth century, and the Salar Jung Museum Library in has posed problems for cataloging and computerization. The
Hyderabad, Deccan. New mosques and madrasas had librar- Dewey Decimal System has been widely adopted, despite the
ies indistinguishable from those of previous centuries, apart inadequacies of its treatment of Islamic and Middle Eastfrom the presence of printed books. A notable example is the ern topics.
Marashi library in Qom, founded by a bibliophilic grand
See also Education; Ma
mun.
ayatollah in the mid-twentieth century, which emerged as a
major library after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The colonial period marked a major change, with the Atiyeh, George N. The Book in the Islamic World: The Written
introduction of European-style libraries intended to promote Word and Communication in the Middle East. Albany: State
the diffusion of modern knowledge and to support the new University of New York Press, 1995.
systems of education and, to a lesser extent, to support Nadim, al-. The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of
modern industry. At the top of the pyramid are national Muslim Culture. Edited and translated by Bayard Dodge.
libraries, supported by depository laws and national bibliog- New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.
raphies. In some cases, such as Egypt and Iran, these libraries Pedersen, Johannes. The Arabic Book. Translated by Geoffrey
emerged from earlier royal libraries and are themselves im- French. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984.
portant repositories of Islamic manuscripts. In other cases, Rosenthal, Franz. The Technique and Approach of Muslim
such as Pakistan, they are new foundations rivaled or over- Scholarship. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1947.
shadowed by older university and traditional libraries. The
introduction of modern educational systems led to the crea- John Walbridge
tion of school and university libraries. University libraries are
well established across the Islamic world, though in general
only a few of the older universities have really major libraries:
Istanbul University, American University of Beirut, and Punjab LITERATURE See Arabic Literature; Persian
University in Lahore, for example. Many newer universities Language and Literature; Urdu Language,
have very limited library facilities. The high cost of foreign Literature, and Poetry

416 Islam and the Muslim World
M
MADANI,
ABBASI (1931– ) BIBLIOGRAPHY
Burgat, Francois, and Dowell, William. The Islamic Movement
Algerian Islamic activist and opposition leader,
Abbasi Madani in North Africa. Austin: Center for Middle Eastern Studwas born in 1931 in Sidi
Uqbah, in southeastern Algeria. An ies, University of Texas at Austin, 1993.
early member of the National Liberation Front (Front de Ciment, James. Algeria. The Fundamentalist Challenge. New
Libération Nationale, or FLN), Madani was imprisoned York: Facts on File, 1997.
throughout the eight-year war against the French. After the
independence in 1962, Madani joined the Qiyam (Islamic Claudia Gazzini
values) association and took a critical stance against the
socialist and secular orientation of the FLN. He received a
religious education, then studied philosophy and psychology,
and in 1978 received a Ph.D. in education in Britain. Madani MADHHAB
upheld the ideas of Algeria’s reformist movement and criticized the state’s secular policies, calling for Islamic revival and Lexically, the term madhhab denotes a “way of going,” and by
the Arabization of the predominantly francophone educa- extension a “manner followed,” an “ideology” or “movetional system. ment.” Most commonly, the term and its plural (madhahib)
refer to the different “schools” of Islamic law.
Madani ascended the political ladder during anti-FLN
riots in October 1988. The following year he founded the The classical Sunni schools of law emerged in the late
religiously inspired Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique ninth and early tenth centuries C.E.; they were built on the
du Salut, or FIS), which quickly became the opposition party, legal opinions of certain local authorities from the late eighth
representing the vast majority of the urban poor. Madani’s and early ninth centuries. By the late tenth and early eleventh
first electoral victory came in June 1990, during Algeria’s first centuries, the legal opinions of scholars identified as “followmultiparty municipal elections, and subsequently he emerged ers” (ashab) of people like Malik b. Anas, Abu Hanifa, and alas the potential successor to the then-president Chadli Shafi
i were condensed into compendia that represented the
Benjedid. In May 1991, Madani called for an indefinite perspectives of the five main schools: Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi
i,
general strike to protest against a new electoral legislation, Hanbali (following Ahmad b. Hanbal), and the Zahiri (folbut was arrested soon thereafter. During his incarceration, lowing Daud b. Khalaf). The followers of local authorities
military intervention against FIS’s success in the first round such as al-Awza
i, Sufyan al-Thawri, and others, did not
of the December 1991 national elections resulted in the materialize into institutionalized schools of law beyond the
party’s ban and years of civil violence. He was freed in tenth century though their opinions continued to play a role
July 1997. Madani endorsed the beliefs of many Islamic in the legal theory of the other schools.
modernists who call for an Islamic solution to the crisis of
modernity and, through the FIS, brought Islam to the fore- Following the eleventh century, each school continued to
front of Algerian national identity. develop distinct legal theory while maintaining constant
interaction and dialogue with the other schools. Divisions
See also Islamic Salvation Front; Political Organiza- among the schools were often characterized not only in terms
tion; Reform: Arab Middle East and North Africa. of general approaches to the authoritative sources (usul) and

Madrasa

methods of interpretation, but also in terms of legal rulings
on specific issues or practices. MADRASA
The Hanafi madhhab is sometimes called the “followers of Madrasa, is an Islamic college, literally a “place of instrucopinion” (ashab al-ra
y), denoting a perception of their greater tion,” especially instruction in religious law. In medieval
reliance on logic and reasoning, as opposed to the label usage the term referred to an institution providing intermedi-
“followers of the hadith” (ashab al-hadith) applied to the ate and advanced instruction in Islamic law and related
Shafi
i and Hanbali madhahibs. Other schools, such as the subjects. This contrasted with elementary schools, which
Zahiri madhhab, were known for their eschewing of reason provided basic Quran instruction, and nonreligious instituand logic, relying instead on the “literal” interpretation of tions, which provided instruction in such subjects as mediauthoritative sources. The Maliki madhahib asserted its au- cine. In modern usage the term usually applies to schools
thority as a continuation of the practices that originated with offering Islamic religious instruction at any level. The madrasa
the prophet Muhammad at Medina. It was not uncommon, can be considered as a building, as a legal entity, and as an
however, for individual jurists to belong to different madhhabs, educational institution. As a rule, the medieval madrasa
such as Muhammad b. Khalaf (d. 1135), who was called served male students who were past the elementary level and
“Hanfash” because he was first a Hanbali, then a Hanafi, and who intended to acquire credentials as ulema, religious schol-
finally a Shafi
i.
ars. Elementary schools and schools offering vernacular or
It has been remarked that the later developments of the practical education were usually known by other names.
schools lacked innovation and fluidity, being too reliant on
Description and Architecture
imitation of earlier legal opinions. Much of the postclassical
A typical Islamic madrasa contained rooms for students, a
scholarship did take the form of commentaries (shuruh) upon
earlier texts, and in both premodern and modern times there prayer hall, and classrooms and would likely also contain a
were attempts to codify the “law” of a particular madhhab. residence for one or more professors, a library, and sanitary
The epistemological and methodological structure of Islamic facilities. It was usually attached to a mosque, and large
jurisprudence (fiqh) in conjunction with changing social cir- mosque complexes, such as those in Istanbul, might contain
cumstances seemed to require a continual rethinking and several madrasas. The typical Middle Eastern madrasa was a
examination of the authoritative sources. Each madhhab has square building of one or two stories surrounding a courtits own distinct means for authorizing such change and for yard. The student rooms opened onto the courtyard, and if
linking new legal opinions with past precedents. the madrasa had two stories, the student rooms might be on
the upper floor with classrooms and service rooms on the
In addition to the Sunni madhahib, there are Shi
ite madhahib ground floor. Sometimes the central courtyard was replaced
that emerged at various times due to changes in the authority by a domed central hall. In their architecture madrasas are
of certain Shi
ite imams. The best known of these Shi
ite closely linked with other kinds of Islamic public buildings,
madhahib is the “Twelver” or “Imami” Shi
i madhhab that was notably mosques and caravansaries. There is, however, a
established after the greater occultation of the twelfth imam great deal of variation in the design of madrasas. Some of the
in 941. The Twelver Shi
ite madhhab is characterized by earliest surviving madrasas have few student rooms or none,
greater jurisitic authority and formal hierarchy but conforms perhaps because they served little more than a neighborhood,
in many ways to the principles governing the shape of the
in contrast to great royal foundations that drew students from
Sunni madhahib.
far away. Many madrasas, especially in Egypt, contain the
See also Abu Hanifa; Ibn Hanbal; Kalam; Law; Malik mausoleums of their founders, with the madrasa proper being
Ibn Anas; Shafi
i, al-; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver). almost an afterthought. In crowded cities a cramped or
irregular site often resulted in modification of the traditional
BIBLIOGRAPHY plan. The fact that a madrasa’s prayer hall might serve as a
Chamberlain, Michael. Knowledge and Social Practice in Medie- neighborhood mosque sometimes resulted in the addition of
val Damascus, 1190–1350. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge a minaret and the separation of the student rooms from the
University Press, 1994. rest of the madrasa. When, as in the great Ottoman mosque
Melchert, Christopher. The Formation of the Sunni School of complexes, the madrasa was closely associated with a mosque,
Law, 9th–10th Centuries C.E. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997. the prayer hall shrank to make room for other facilities.
Stewart, Devin J. Islamic Legal Orthodoxy: Twelver Shiite When a madrasa was intended for more than a single legal
Responses to the Sunni Legal System. Salt Lake City: Univer- school, separate teaching facilities were provided for each
sity of Utah Press, 1998. professor, so that there are cruciform madrasas providing
Weiss, Bernard G. The Spirit of Islamic Law. Athens, Ga., and symmetrical facilities for professors of each of the four Sunni
London: University of Georgia Press, 1998. schools of law. Finally, a house or some other existing
building might simply be used as a madrasa without any
Brannon M. Wheeler special modifications.

418 Islam and the Muslim World
Madrasa

The Medieval Madrasa descendants. Second, a madrasa was less expensive to build
The madrasa appears as an institution in about the eleventh and endow than a mosque, putting it within reach of those of
century and evolved from the informal schools that operated more modest wealth or allowing a ruler to build a larger
in mosques or teachers’ homes. Islamic education was usually number of institutions. Finally, a madrasa could be an ideoa distinctly personal and informal matter, and prior to the rise logical tool, a way to help Islamize newly conquered territoof the madrasa, as is still often the case, religious scholars ries or to combat the influence of a rival sect.
would teach in a convenient mosque, perhaps teaching more
advanced students, or controversial subjects, in their homes. Curriculum and Instruction
It was customary for medieval Muslim students of the relig- The madrasa education was intended to teach the student
ious sciences to travel extensively to study with well-known how to deduce religious law from the authoritative Islamic
teachers, and teachers also often traveled long distances texts. The students who went through the whole course were
seeking opportunities to teach, receive patronage, and further qualified to be judges and religious scholars, but most stutheir own studies. A well-known hadith attributed to Muham- dents doubtless dropped out earlier, becoming mosque imams
mad says, “seek knowledge, even in China.” A mosque, or pursuing secular careers with the added prestige of a
however, was not a suitable place for professors or significant religious education. The method of instruction was scholastic
numbers of students to live for long stretches, so by the tenth- and dialectical: intense debate about the interpretation and
century khans, inns, were being built adjacent to mosques. difficulties of a set of standard textbooks. Students came to
The first great burst of madrasa construction occurred in the the madrasa knowing the Quran by rote and a fair amount of
eleventh century in the Seljuk empire and is associated with Arabic. Students studied Arabic, logic, and the core subjects
the name of the great wazir Nizam al-Mulk, who founded a of the Islamic religious sciences: fiqh (Islamic law), Quran
number of madrasas known as Nizamiya, the most important interpretation, and the hadith, sayings of the Prophet. Better
of which, the Nizamiya in Baghdad, became one of the students went on to study usul al-fiqh (jurisprudence), along
greatest educational institutions in the Islamic world. What- with some theology, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy,
ever Nizam al-Mulk’s philanthropic goals may have been, he and sometimes medicine.
probably also intended his madrasas to combat the threat
posed to Sunni Islam by various forms of more or less Modern Developments
revolutionary Shi
ism. The institution of the madrasa soon The arrival of modern educational institutions was a major
spread across the Islamic world and became the dominant challenge to the madrasas. Colonial administrators, nationalform of institution of higher learning. It was not the only ists, and Islamic reformers alike dismissed the scholastic
form of educational institution; there were also Quranic madrasa education as out-of-date. Traditional sources of
schools for younger pupils; Sufi monasteries; hospitals; ob- income dried up. Talented students sought new opportuniservatories; vernacular schools for the children of merchants, ties in modern universities and professions. Islamic revivalists
shopkeepers, and artisans; and various forms of private tui- complained of the rationalist character of the traditional
tion for the children of government officials. madrasa curriculum and its neglect of core religious subjects.
Postcolonial governments sometimes attempted to close or
Legal Status co-opt madrasas, fearing that they might become centers of
A madrasa was legally a waqf, a charitable endowment. The opposition. This was the case in Turkey, where Ataturk
founder would donate property, from whose proceeds the closed the madrasas, and Indonesia, where the government
madrasa was built and maintained. The income from the tried to reduce the influence of the madrasas, known there as
endowment supported one or more professors, various ser- pesantrans, by controlling the curriculum, giving teachers
vants and functionaries, and the students, who received room, government salaries, and establishing rival institutions. In
board, and perhaps a small stipend. The founder’s instruc- many cases, standards of instruction and numbers of students
tions governed such matters as the legal school to which the declined precipitously, though in most places the major
professor would belong. The extensive legal literature relat- institutions survived. The attempts of the Pahlavi regime in
ing to madrasas deals with predictable problems of defining Iran to control the madrasas failed, creating bitter opposition
an adequate stipend, absentee professors, stipends for stu- to the government among the ulema.
dents who did not live at the madrasa, financial shortfalls, and
responsibility for maintenance of the facilities. Madrasas as The Islamic revival of the late twentieth century has
institutions did not issue degrees or diplomas. The closest resulted in the revival of madrasas in a number of countries.
counterpart to the Western degree was the ijaza, the license The Iranian revolution of 1978–1979 was organized by ulema,
to teach a particular book or subject issued by an individual so after the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran the
teacher. Madrasas had several advantages for donors. First, Iranian madrasas, especially in Qom, received a huge influx of
whereas the founder of a mosque had very little control after new students and financial support. Saudi Arabia, through
its establishment, the founder of a madrasa had a good deal of both its government and wealthy individuals, has subsidized
discretion in the terms of the endowment, so that in practice madrasas in many countries, thus increasing the influence of
one could use the endowment of a madrasa to support one’s Saudi-style Wahhabi literalist Islam at the expense of both

Islam and the Muslim World 419
Madrasa

In Jammu, India, Muslim children read the Qur
an at a madrasa, a religious Islamic school. Hindu groups have criticized Indian madrasas for
preaching Islamic fundamentalism. In Pakistan, poor families often send their sons to one of the the tens of thousands of madrasas established
by Islamic groups, in part because room and board are free. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

rationalist and mystical approaches to Islam. In the subconti- varies tremendously and is, in general, quite poor. Finally,
nent the major Islamic revivalist movements have competed immigrant Islamic communities in Europe and North Amerthrough their educational institutions since the nineteenth ica have begun establishing their own religious schools,
century. The most important of these was the Deoband usually on the model of Sunday schools but sometimes as
movement. Its founders established a large educational com- independent parochial schools. There are no schools training
plex in Deoband, near Delhi, devoted to propagating a ulema outside of the Islamic world.
revived, hadith-oriented Islam. The Deobandis thus opposed
The madrasas have not kept their monopoly on training
not only the new European-style education system of British
ulema. Increasingly, advanced Islamic education is taking
India and the modernist Islamic Aligarh Muslim University
place in modern universities. In the late nineteenth century
but also the traditional Islamic religious education of India
the University of the Punjab in Lahore began granting
associated with the Firingi-Mahall educational complex in
Islamic clerical degrees. There are now faculties of theology
Lucknow, which was strongly rationalist and also closely
in many universities in Islamic countries producing Islamic
associated with Sufism. Religious competition through
legal scholars and religious leaders. Finally, it is not uncommadrasas has been particularly pronounced in Pakistan, where
mon for more talented madrasa students to go on for graduvarious Islamic groups have established tens of thousands of
ate degrees in secular universities in fields such as Arabic,
madrasas on the elementary, secondary, and university level.
Islamic studies, and philosophy.
The Taliban (lit. “students”) movement in Afghanistan in the
late twentieth century was an outgrowth of madrasa training See also Aligarh; Azhar, al-; Deoband; Education.
in Pakistan. These institutions are appealing to poor families,
both because of the prestige of Islamic education and because, BIBLIOGRAPHY
unlike the usually inadequate government schools, the madrasas Eccel, A. Chris. Egypt, Islam, and Social Change: Al-Azhar in
provide room and board and charge no fees. Their quality Conflict and Accommodation. Berlin: K. Schwarz, 1984.

420 Islam and the Muslim World
Mahdi, Sadiq al-

Makdisi, George. The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in of some seventy years, during which a series of four deputies
Islam and the West. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University was said to have consulted with him. After that time, the
Press, 1981. Mahdi, or Hidden Imam, entered the greater occultation that
Metcalf, Barbara D. Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, is still in force, remaining alive but not meeting with repre-
1860–1900. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University sentatives. The fact that Shi
ite religious scholars are believed
Press, 1982. to continue to receive his blessings and guidance gives them a
Mottahedeh, Roy P. The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and greater charisma and authority than their Sunni counterparts.
Politics in Iran. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983. Shi
ite political theory traditionally declared all temporal
Sufi, G. M. D. Al-Minhaj, Being the Evolution of Curriculum in power illegitimate in the absence of the imam, only recently
the Muslim Educational Institutions of India. Lahore: Shaikh allowing the concept of a caretaker government of religious
Muhammad Ashraf, 1941. authorities (wilayat al-faqih) that underlies today’s Islamic
Tibawi, A. L. Islamic Education: Its Traditions and Moderniza- republic in Iran.
tion into the Arab National Systems. London: Luzac, 1972.
Claimants to the role of the Mahdi have not been absent
from Islamic history. The first was Muhammad al-Hanifiyya
John Walbridge
(d. 700), son of
Ali from a wife other than Fatima, whose role
as the Mahdi was promoted by al-Mukhtar (d. 687). Although
al-Mukhtar was killed and his movement crushed, ideas that
MAGHAZI See Military Raid Muhammad al-Hanafiyya did not die and would one day
return continued to circulate and later attached themselves to
subsequent imams. More recent claimants have arisen in both
Shi
a and Sunni contexts, including Muhammad Mahdi of
Jaunpur in India (d. 1504), whose followers continue as a
MAHDI separate Muslim sect, the Mahdavis, and the Sudanese Mahdi,
Muhammad Ahmad (d. 1885), who rose against the British
The Mahdi, meaning “the guided one,” is the honorary title occupiers and was killed at the battle of Omdurman. Conof the expected deliverer or messianic figure in Islam. Although temporary Islamist or Sufi movements may occasionally
the term and concept is not found in the Quran, both Sunni evoke the anticipated return of the Mahdi as a means of
and Shi
a hadith collections mention it among the prophetic encouraging millenarian expectations among their followers.
traditions concerning crises (fitan). These traditions often In Shi
a Islam, expectation and eager anticipation of the
contain eschatological material, and frequently speak of a Mahdi’s return is a central theme of piety and discourse.
figure who will come at the end of time to combat the forces
of evil led by the one-eyed Dajjal. This righteous individual is See also Fitna; Hadith; Imam; Mahdist State, Mahdiyya;
said to be one who “will fill the earth with justice after it has Religious Beliefs; Shi
a: Early; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver).
been filled with injustice and tyranny.” The Mahdi’s coming
will lead the forces of good in a final apocalyptic battle, where BIBLIOGRAPHY
the good will triumph. Jesus will also return to earth at this Blichfeldt, Jan-Olaf. Early Mahdism: Politics and Religion in the
time, according to some reports, and fight alongside the Formative Period of Islam. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985.
Mahdi or rule after him. All of these events are predicted to Sachedina Abdulaziz, Islamic Messianism. Albany: State Unitake place shortly before Judgment Day. versity of New York, 1981.

In Twelver Shi
ite Islam, due to the community’s minority Marcia Hermansen
status and continuing sense of persecution and injustice, the
Mahdi symbol developed into a powerful and central religious idea and became combined with the figure of the last of
the twelve Imams, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is believed to MAHDI, SADIQ AL- (1936–)
have disappeared around 874. He was born in Samarra, son of
Hasan al-Askari and the lady Nargis. He is also known as the Sadiq al-Mahdi is a Sudanese political leader and intellectual,
ruler of the time (sahib al-zaman), the one who will restore and a descendant of the nineteenth-century Islamic revolujustice (qa
im), and the awaited one (al-muntazar). tionary known as “the Mahdi,” Muhammad Ahmad. Sadiq
received a traditional Muslim education as well as a modern
Lists of the qualities of the expected one were drawn up, one, graduating from Oxford University in 1957. When his
including his name being Muhammad, his descent from the father, Siddiq al-Mahdi, died in 1961, Sadiq became the head
Prophet, his appearance (zuhur) or rising, his rule (for either of the Mahdist-supported Umma Party. He was prime minisseven, nine, or nineteen years), and his mission to restore ter of Sudan from 1966 to 1967, and following the military
justice on earth. After the last imam disappeared as a child, coup by Ja
far Numayri in 1969, Sadiq went into exile. He
Shi
ite sources identified a lesser occultation (disappearance) returned to Sudan during a national reconciliation in 1977,

Islam and the Muslim World 421
Mahdist State, Mahdiyya

but was jailed for his opposition to Numayri’s 1983 decrees that a countrywide revolt would follow his calls was never
imposing a form of Islamic law on the country. Following the realized. This political failure was offset by success in the
overthrow of Numayri, Sadiq al-Mahdi was again prime sphere of religious influence. Much support for the Mahdi
minister (1986–1989), and his government was overthrown was based on the belief that he was a divinely inspired figure.
by Islamist military officers in 1989. He was a leader in the The religious dimension of his mission was perhaps more
movements of opposition to the Islamist regime but, at the significant than its political impact.
beginning of the twenty-first century, Sadiq al-Mahdi engaged in efforts to reconcile government and opposition. He The Mahdiyya was an indigenous northern Sudanese
has written numerous books advocating effective ijtihad (in- phenomenon, but the Mahdi modeled himself and his movedependent reasoning) in understanding Islam’s message in ment on the early Islamic community of the Prophet of Islam
the contemporary world. He is an advocate of democracy in in the Arabian Peninsula. His followers were called ansar
an Islamic context and has provided a contemporary under- (helpers), just as the Prophet’s supporters in Medina were
standing of what messianic leadership (the mission of the named. The Mahdi preached jihad against the infidels, col-
Mahdi) means in the modern world. lected zakat (tax on wealth) instead of the range of colonial
taxes, and strove to impose sharia prohibitions and punish-
BIBLIOGRAPHY ments. His successor, who was appointed when the Mahdi
Sidahmed, Abdel Salam. Politics and Islam in Contemporary was on his deathbed, was given the title khalifa (caliph), as was
Sudan. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. the Prophet’s successor. Indeed, Khalifa
Abdullahi was named
khalifa al-Siddiq, the latter term usually associated with the
John O. Voll first caliph of Islam, Abu Bakr.

For the first two years of his mission, the Mahdi was
confined to the province of Kordofan, but soon his forces
MAHDIST STATE, MAHDIYYA began to spread slowly to the north along the Nile River.
Thereafter his supporters increased and brought large parts
The Sudanese Mahdi became known in the eastern Sudan of the west and east of the country under their control.
(bilad al-Sudan) in June 1881 when he began to dispatch Important towns such as El-Obeid, the main city of Kordofan,
letters to local leaders proclaiming himself the Expected fell in January 1883, and the defeat of the expedition of
Mahdi. He was Muhammad Ahmad ibn
Abdallah and about Colonel William Hicks at Shaykan in September of the same
forty years old. He had been a member of the Sammaniyya year bolstered the movement tremendously.
sufi tariqa in the north of the country, but due to dissatisfaction with one of his teachers he moved to the Nile River The already weak government in Cairo was unable to do
island of Aba, south of Khartoum. There he established much to stem the tide of the Mahdi’s success, and the British,
himself with a small band of followers, among whom was his who had recently occupied Egypt (in 1882), were hesitant to
future successor,
Abdullahi ibn Muhammad. act. When General Charles Gordon was dispatched to the
Sudan, he was sent with contradictory instructions: to restore
The Sudan was then an Ottoman-Egyptian colony, and “good government” and to evacuate the colony. When he
the regime was known locally as the Turkiyya. By the 1870s, reached Khartoum he wrote to the Mahdi, offering him the
however, the colonial state was thoroughly neglected by the sultanship of Kordofan. The Mahdi rejected the offer, for he
rulers based in Egypt, creating opportunities for revolt. The had much bigger ambitions that transcended mere political
administration and significant sectors of the colonial econ- authority, especially when that authority was confined to an
omy had substantial European participation right up to the isolated province.
level of governor. A few Sudanese were part of the government but most of the indigenous peoples resented their In October 1884 the Mahdi arrived on the banks of the
foreign rulers. The exclusion of Muslim Sudanese from Nile River opposite Khartoum and laid siege to the capital. In
leading roles in the colony, but the inclusion of non-Muslim January of the following year Khartoum fell to the Mahdists.
Europeans, also disturbed pious Muslims such as the Mahdi. Instead of installing himself there, the Mahdi established a
Slavery was under attack by the British, and abolition threat- new capital, called Omdurman, opposite the old one. There
ened the livelihoods of many northern Sudanese slave traders. he died in June 1885. His body was buried and a tomb was
These slave-traders threw their weight behind the mahdist built over his gravesite. But the Mahdi’s tomb was destroyed,
movement. and his body disinterred in the reconquest of the Sudan by Sir
Herbert Kitchener in 1898.
The Mahdi came to address what he and his followers
thought was an oppressive authority, and one that was contra- The reign of the Mahdi’s successor, Khalifa
Abdullahi,
vening Islamic precepts. They challenged this situation and opened with the new state’s armies engaged on multiple
believed that a movement would emerge throughout the land fronts: in the west to pacify the state of Dar Fur, on the
to overthrow the regime. The Mahdi’s calculation, however, Ethiopian marches against the Christian state, and on the

422 Islam and the Muslim World
Mahdist State, Mahdiyya

The tomb of the Mahdi at Omdurman, Sudan. The original tomb, along with much of the city, was destroyed in 1898 when the Anglo-Egyptian
forces of Lord Kitchener defeated the Khalifa and thus ended the Mahdist state in Sudan. GETTY IMAGES

Egyptian border. Against the Ethiopian fighters the Mahdists killed or wounded, whereas the Anglo-Egyptian losses numwere successful, but elsewhere they met defeat. The Khalifa bered fewer than fifty dead and four hundred wounded.
also had to deal with a number of pretenders, “false mahdis”
who sought to claim his position. Furthermore, internal This was the end of the Mahdiyya, but its influence did not
schisms surfaced between various layers of supporters who end there nor in the Sudan. Rather, it spread throughout the
were dissatisfied with the Khalifa’s policies. The ashraf, from Bilad al-Sudan. Right into the late 1920s the new colonial
the Mahdi’s own kinsmen, were dissatisfied with the hegem- state had to deal with smaller mahdist revivals undertaken by
ony of the Ta
aisha, the Khalifa’s clan. There were also a local spiritual leaders (called fekis in the Sudan), often done in
series of ecological challenges, including bad harvests and the name of
Isa (Jesus). The religious idea in these uprisings
epidemics that led to famine between 1889 and 1990. As a was that nabi Isa (prophet Jesus) would appear after the death
result, by the early 1890s the Khalifa’s armies were easily of the Mahdi, to herald the end of time.
beaten in numerous engagements. Their final defeat came at
the hands of Lord Kitchener, beginning in August 1897 and In its short history the Mahdist state was able to put in
continuing until the last battle at Karari, outside Omdurman, place the foundations of a coherent and workable administrain September 1898. Thousands of Sudanese fighters were tion. There was a judiciary, and judgments were based on the

Islam and the Muslim World 423
Mahr

classical Islamic methods of juristic thought, although the paid at the time of marriage, and the “deferred” portion,
Mahdi also sometimes relied on his own intuition as the which is payable only if the husband divorces his wife, or dies.
Mahdi, a man with divinely inspired authority. There was a If a man dies without paying his wife’s mahr, it is considered
bayt al-mal (roughly, a Department of Finance or Treasury) as a debt to be paid from his estate.
which kept detailed records, taxed the subjects, and distributed wealth. The state minted its own coins for the local There is a general and implicit agreement among the
economy. In addition there was the military. different schools of Islamic law that mahr is a corollary of the
exchange element of the marriage contract. Classical jurists
Under the Khalifa, the administration that had been put in often speak of it as a price/compensation (awad, sometimes
place by the Mahdi lost its reputation and drifted into corrup- iwad) that the man pays for the exclusive right to the sexual
tion. The Khalifa, for instance, acquired a private army for and productive faculties of a woman, analogous to the price
himself and a separate share of the bayt al-mal. However, the paid in the contract of sale. Modern writers, however, regard
state under the Khalifa was not as wholly corrupt as it has mahr as an expression of honor for a woman’s worth and as a
sometimes been judged, although it did divert from the means of providing her with economic security during and
strictly puritanical path of the its founder. The Mahdist state after marriage. The rules regulating mahr negate this view: It
relied on local personnel and expertise and generated a huge is linked merely to the act of consummation, not to any other
body of correspondence, declarations, and other written aspect of the marriage contract. For example, a woman
material that has made it possible for historians to study this becomes entitled to mahr only after the consummation of the
rare example of an African Muslim millernarian movement marriage; at the same time, she can refrain from sexual
and state. submission unless she receives her mahr in full.

See also Africa, Islam in; Islam and Other Religions; Despite the uniformity among all schools of Islamic law
Mahdi; Muhammad Ahmad ibn
Abdullah; Zar. on the definition of mahr and the rules governing it, Muslim
societies vary greatly as to its practice. In some countries, like
Morocco, the bulk of the mahr is paid to the father of the
BIBLIOGRAPHY
bride, who uses it to provide her with a trousseau for her
Holt, P. M. The Mahdist State in the Sudan 1881–1898: A wedding, and the deferred portion is nominal. In other
Study of Its Origins, Development and Overthrow. Oxford,
countries, like Iran, no transfer of wealth takes place at the
U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1958.
time of marriage and mahr becomes payable only if and when
Holt, P. M.; and Daly, M. W. A History of the Sudan: From the divorce occurs: It is seen as a safeguard, and a woman can
Coming of Islam to the Present Day, 5th ed. Essex, U.K.: effectively use her mahr as a negotiating card to obtain either
Longman, 2000.
a divorce or custody of her children in the event of the
Trimingham, J. Spencer. Islam in the Sudan. London: Oxford breakdown of the marriage. The value and practice of mahr
University Press, 1949. also varies with social class, and with the wealth of the
families. As marriages are usually arranged by the parents of
Shamil Jeppie the spouses, they often agree on the amount of mahr. In many
cases, a woman has no control over her mahr, as the entire
amount is received by her father who might use it to secure
brides for his sons. Throughout the Muslim world, more-
MAHR over, there are a number of customary payments and exchanges made on the occasion of marriage, which bear little
Mahr is a gift that the Muslim bridegroom offers the bride or no relation to the formal legal requirement of mahr.
upon marriage. It is also called sadaq, an Arabic term that
implies “friendship.” In English, mahr has commonly been See also Divorce; Law; Marriage.
translated as “dower.” Mahr is an integral part of every
Islamic marriage contract: there can be no marriage without BIBLIOGRAPHY
it. It becomes the exclusive property of the bride after Maghniyyah, Muhammad Jawad. Marriage According to Five
marriage, and she can dispose of it in whatever way she Schools of Islamic Law. Tehran: Department of Translation
wishes. The exact amount of mahr is often agreed upon prior and Publication, Islamic Culture and Relations Organizato marriage and is specified in the contract—mahr al-musamma tion, 1997.
(definite mahr). If the amount is not specified, the bride is Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic
entitled to mahr al-mithl (average mahr), which is determined Family Law; Iran and Morocco Compared. London: I. B.
on the basis of her personal qualities, her family position, and Tauris, 1993.
the prevailing mahr among her people. Mahr can also be
divided into two portions, the “prompt” portion, which is Ziba Mir-Hosseini

424 Islam and the Muslim World
Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir

1962 declared the nation to be a monarchy. Ministerial
MAITATSINE See Marwa, Muhammad responsibility to parliament had been the main bone of
contention between the executive branch of government and
parliaments under constitutional monarchy, and parliaments
had usually lost the contest. Securing meaningful accounta-
MAJLIS bility of the executive became even more difficult under the
republican constitutions of the postcolonial era, which weak-
The term majlis (assembly) has been used for elected parlia- ened the rights provisions by their commitment to the idements in the Near and Middle East since the 1860s. The first ologies of socialism and nationalism and gave the presidents
modern constitution in the Muslim world, proclaimed by the emergency powers and the right to rule by decree.
bey of Tunis in 1861, provided for a grand assembly, but it
was to be selected by the king and was intended for the The Gulf states other than Kuwait gained their indepensupervision of administration and adjudication. The first dence from Britain in the 1970s with constitutional docuelected majlis, which was inaugurated in Egypt in 1866, was ments, but usually without elected parliaments, except for
purely consultative, but the Ottoman parliament was given Bahrain and, more recently, Qatar. Oman promulgated a
some legislative power a decade later. The Ottoman parlia- constitution in 1991, and Saudi Arabia in 1992—sixty years
ment was created by the Ottoman constitution of 1876 and after it had first been promised. A Palestinian parliament was
included representatives from the Balkan and Arab provinces, set up in accordance with the 1993 Oslo Accords. With rare
as well as the Turkish of the Ottoman Empire. It was exceptions, Near and Middle Eastern parliaments have redissolved, however, in less than two years. The ruler of Egypt mained weak institutions, and have not succeeded in taking
was forced by constitutionalist parliamentarians to proclaim a the initiative in legislation or in establishing enduring acmore liberal constitution than the Ottoman one in 1882, but countability of the executive branch of their respective
the effort came to naught with the British occupation of governments.
Egypt later that year.
See also Modernization, Political: Constitutionalism;
The next wave of constitutionalism in the Middle East
Political Organization.
began with the revolution of 1906 in Iran, which forced the
shah to proclaim a constitution that included a parliament
with full legislative power. The Iranian National Consulta- BIBLIOGRAPHY
tive Assembly (Majles-e Shura-ye Melli) was elected in the Brown, Nathan J. Constitutions in a Nonconstitutionalist World.
same year. After the Islamic revolution, Iran was declared an Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002.
Islamic Republic, but its new constitution of 1979 retained
the majlis, and it was only after it met in 1980 that the majlis Saïd Amir Arjomand
changed its name to the Islamic Consultative Assembly.

In 1908, the Young Turks revolution forced the sultan to
restore the Ottoman constitution. A year later, the constitution was amended to make ministers fully responsible to the
MAJLISI, MUHAMMAD BAQIR
parliament. After the Kemalist revolution, the last Ottoman (1627–1698)
parliament was dissolved by the sultan in 1920, and was
replaced by the Grand National Assembly (Buyuk Millet Muhammad Baqir b. Muhammad Taqi Majlisi, known as the
Mejlisi) of Turkey, which passed the republican constitu- second Majlisi or the author of the Bihar, was a renowned
tion of 1924. Iranian Twelver Shi
ite jurist of the late seventeenth century.
Acting as the prayer leader and shaykh al-Islam of Isfahan
In the period between the two world wars, constitutional under the Safavid monarchs, Shah Suleiman (r. 1666–1694)
monarchies with elected parliaments were established in
and Shah Sultan Husayn (r. 1694–1722), he suppressed phiindependent Egypt (1923) and in Iraq (1925) and Jordan
losophy and Sufism and reestablished clerical authority under
(1928) under the British mandate. In 1938, the emir of
his leadership. He devoted great efforts to the collection and
Kuwait proclaimed a five-article constitution. It included an
translation of Shi
ite hadith from Arabic into Persian to
assembly whose president was to have executive authorbenefit the laity. He opposed the conventional reliance on
ity, but the assembly was soon dissolved and the experi-
Arabic as the main medium of instruction and publication for
ment abandoned. A new Kuwaiti constitution was promulreligious scholars and emphasized the need for doctrinal and
gated in 1962.
legal works in Persian, which could be accessible to the
Republican constitutions came to force in Syria and public. He fervently upheld the concepts of “enjoining the
Lebanon in 1943, Egypt in 1956, Tunisia in 1959, and Algeria good” and “prohibiting evil” and renewed the impetus for
and Yemen in 1962, whereas the Moroccan constitution of conversion from Sunnism to Shi
ism. His legal method drew

Islam and the Muslim World 425
Makassar, Shaykh Yusuf

upon both the akhbari (traditionist) and usuli (rationalist)
schools, as such accepting both the authority of Shi
ite
MALCOLM X (1925–1965)
traditions and the role of reason in arriving at a legal opinion.
An extraordinary orator, a self-taught intellectual, and a
He is mostly known for his monumental work, a Shi
ite
deeply spiritual man, Malcolm X was one of the most promiencyclopedia of hadith, Bihar al-Anwar, completed in 1692.
nent African American political and religious leaders of the
civil rights era. After being released from prison in 1952,
Rula Jurdi Abisaab where he had become a follower of Nation of Islam leader
Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm worked as a minister for the
organization, most successfully in Harlem, New York. By the
late 1950s, Malcolm had become Elijah Muhammad’s chief
MAKASSAR, SHAYKH YUSUF representative, helping to build the movement into black
America’s most visible Muslim group. Famous for his fiery
(C. 1626–1699)
rhetoric, he was dubbed “America’s angriest Negro” as he
sought to convert blacks to Elijah Muhammad’s separatist
Traditional Makassarese sources report that
Ali (Shaykh)
Islam. Malcolm also gained national attention as a critic of
Yusuf was born in 1626 to a princess of South Sulawesi and
pro-integration civil rights leaders. In 1964, however, Malraised in the palace of the king of Tallo. He studied under
colm left Elijah Muhammad’s movement and made the hajj,
some of the most prominent Arab Muslim scholars in Sulawesi
the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, an occasion during which he
before traveling to continue his education in Banten, Gujarat, publicly embraced Sunni Islam and distanced himself from
the Yemen, Mecca, and Syria. In Damascus he was inducted Elijah Muhammad’s teachings. He also visited West Africa
into the Khalwatiyya order of Sufism, which he worked to and became an advocate of pan-Africanism, the movement
spread in Southeast Asia after returning from the Mid- that called for the cultural and political unification of black
dle East. persons around the world.

In 1664 he settled in Banten where he taught various Until his brutal assassination in 1965, Malcolm worked as
branches of the Islamic sciences. In 1682 the sultan’s son rose both a Sunni Muslim missionary in the United States and as
against his father’s authority with the backing of the Dutch founder of the Organization for Afro-American Unity, which
East India Company. Shaykh Yusuf took up an opposition espoused black solidarity. The Autobiography of Malcolm X
campaign that he pursued for over a year until his capture by (1965), which was coauthored by Alex Haley, was published
the Dutch. He was imprisoned in Batavia and later exiled to shortly after his death. Today, Muslims continue to debate
Sri Lanka, where he continued his role in advocating resist- the meaning of Malcolm’s life, often disagreeing about whether
ance against the Dutch via correspondence with the Muslim Malcolm overemphasized the importance of racial identity in
communities of Indonesia. In 1693 some of these communi- his quest for black liberation.
cations were intercepted, and he was thus re-exiled to the
See also American Culture and Islam; Conversion;
Cape of Good Hope. He arrived there on 2 April 1694 and
Farrakhan, Louis; Muhammad, Elijah; Nation of Islam.
became a founding figure of the Muslim community in South
Africa, where he remained until his death. In 1705 the ruler of
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Makassar petitioned for the repatriation of Shaykh Yusuf’s
DeCaro, Louis A., Jr. On the Side of My People: A Religious Life
remains, and today his tombs in both Sulawesi and South
of Malcolm X. New York: New York University Press, 1996.
Africa remain active centers of pilgrimage. Since the 1980s
Haley, Alex, and Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Shaykh Yusuf has become an increasingly popular figure in
Reprint. New York: Ballantine, 1987.
both Indonesia and South Africa, where Nelson Mandela
hailed him as a hero in the history of struggles against
Edward E. Curtis IV
oppression.

See also Africa, Islam in; Southeast Asia, Islam in;
Tariqa. MALIK, IBN ANAS (C. 708–795)
BIBLIOGRAPHY Malik Ibn Anas, who was born between 708 and 716 C.E., was
the most famous jurist from Medina by the time of his death
Feener, R. Michael. “Shaykh Yusuf and the Appreciation of
in 795. Malik composed one of the first books of Islamic law,
Muslim ‘Saints’ in Modern Indonesia.” Journal for Islamic
Studies 18–19 (1999): 112–131. the Muwatta
.

Malik studied with several experts on Islamic tradition
R. Michael Feener (hadith), some of whose parents knew the Prophet. He was

426 Islam and the Muslim World
Ma
mun, al-

renowned for his knowledge of hadith, but his teachings were led to a protracted and destructive civil war and eventually to
unique for his championing of the practice (sunna) of the the defeat and death of al-Amin. Al-Mamun stayed in
inhabitants of Medina. Malik attracted students from all over Khurasan for several more years after the civil war, before
the Islamic world, and the Muwatta
was taught in all medie- moving back to the Abbasid capital, Baghdad, in 818. The
val centers of learning, especially Egypt, Baghdad, North civil war was an episode of major proportions: The long siege
Africa, and Spain. of Baghdad and the unrest that followed its fall to al-Mamun’s
troops left large parts of the city in ruins; and the killing of al-
Under the caliph al-Mansur in 762 and 763 Malik was Amin, the first time in Abbasid history that a caliph had been
punished for his support of Muhammad b.
Abdallah, an
Alid murdered, cast a long shadow over the victorious caliph’s
pretender to the throne. But later in life the Abbasid caliph legitimist claims.
Harun al-Rashid tried to make the Muwatta
the basis for a
unified code of law. The sources agree, however, that these Al-Mamun’s reign is also noted for the distinctly propolitical intrigues were aberrations, and that Malik lived a
Alid policies he pursued. The
Alids, the descendants of the
simple life devoted to teaching, surrounded by a close group Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law,
Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661),
of devotees who collected his opinions on every conceivable considered themselves to be the rightful claimants to the
subject. caliphate, and saw not just the Umayyads (661–750) but also
the Abbasids as usurpers—claims viewed unfavorably by
The Muwatta
has survived in several versions and incaliphs from both houses. While still in Khurasan, al-Mamun,
cludes hadith from the Prophet and his Companions as well
in an unprecedented move that startled and dismayed many
as legal opinions of Malik and other famous scholars from
in his Abbasid clan, had in 817 nominated
Ali b. Musa al-
Medina. It is organized in chapters and covers all aspects of
Rida (d. 818) as his successor. This was justified by the caliph
ritual and social life. It is still part of the required curriculum
on grounds that al-Rida—“the acceptable one,” whom the
of many Islamic universities today, especially in North and
later Twelver Shi
a reckon to be their eighth imam—was the
West Africa where the Maliki school (one of the four madhhabs
person most qualified for the political leadership of the
of Sunni law) predominates. Several other books, some recommunity. The caliph also adopted the
Alid green to
cently uncovered, contain extensive collections of Malik’s
replace black as the official color of the Abbasids. And later in
opinions not found in the Muwatta
.
his career, he had
Ali ibn Abi Talib publicly declared “the
See also Africa, Islam in; Law; Madhhab. best” person after the prophet Muhammad, thus denying the
superiority of Muhammad’s first two successors, Abu Bakr
BIBLIOGRAPHY and
Umar, a point that was then evolving as a matter of
dogma among the early Sunnis.
Ali al-Rida mysteriously
Goldziher, Ignaz. Muslim Studies. Edited by S. M. Stern and
died before al-Mamun’s return to Baghdad, though the
translated by S. M. Stern and C. R. Barber. Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1972. caliph continued his pro-
Alid stance until the end of his reign.
Schacht, Joseph. “Malik b. Anas.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. The episode, however, which left the most lasting impres-
New ed. Edited by H. A. R. Gibb, et al. Leiden: E. J.
sion on subsequent generations was neither the civil war nor
Brill, 1962.
the caliph’s pro-
Alid sympathies. Nor was it even al-Mamun’s
patronage of ancient Greek learning, which later came to be
Jonathan E. Brockopp
associated specifically with his name. Rather, what came to be
remembered as the most famous, and controversial, facet of
the caliph’s reign and of his legacy was the Mihna, an
MAMUN, AL- (786–833) inquisition seeking to enforce the doctrine of the createdness
of the Quran. This was a doctrine attributed in particular to
Abu ’l-
Abbas
Abdallah al-Mamun (r. 813–833) was the two early theologians, Ja
d b. Dirham (d. 743) and Jahm b.
seventh caliph of the Abbasid Dynasty (750–1258). He came Safwan (d. 745), and to the latter’s putative followers, the
to power in the wake of Islam’s fourth civil war and is best Jahmiyya. The Mu
tazila—the most famous of Islam’s rationknown for his theological interests and for instituting an alist theologians, who enjoyed unprecedented political influinquisition, the Mihna, on the doctrine of the createdness of ence under al-Mamun and his two successors—espoused it as
the Quran. well; they were also closely associated, during the years of the
Mihna (833– c. 851), with the abortive caliphal effort to
During the reign of his father, Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), implement this doctrine as a matter of state policy.
al-Mamun served as the governor of Khurasan, in northeastern Iran. He was appointed by al-Rashid as his second In 827, al-Mamun had publicly announced his support
successor, after al-Mamun’s half-brother, Muhammad al- for the createdness of the Quran. Five years later, and shortly
Amin (r. 809–813). But the relations between the two broth- before his death, he decreed that the judges and the scholars
ers deteriorated rapidly after the death of al-Rashid, which of hadith be made to publicly assent to it. A number of

Islam and the Muslim World 427
Manar, Manara

explanations have been offered to explain this ultimately In most times and places minarets were built only with
abortive venture into state sponsorship of a theological doc- mosques, but occasionally they were attached to other structrine, but it appears that the caliph’s interest in asserting his tures, such as the Taj Mahal, a magnificent seventeenthposition as the arbiter of right belief, and in thereby checking century tomb at Agra in India, which is surrounded by four
the increasing influence in society of the populist scholars of towers. Muslim architects have built minarets out of brick or
hadith, had much to do with the institution of the Mihna. stone or even wood; they have left them plain or covered
them with tiles and carving bearing geometric, arabesque,
The caliph lived for only about four months after he had and epigraphic motifs. They have placed them either singly,
begun the Inquisition. He died in Tarsus in 833, while on a or in pairs, to flank a doorway or a facade, or in groups of four
campaign against the Byzantines, and was succeeded by his
or more to surround an important building, such as the
brother al-Mu
tasim (r. 833–842). The Inquisition continued
sanctuary around the Ka
ba in Mecca. The origins of the
under him as well as under the latter’s successor, al-Wathiq
minaret have been sought in the monumental columns and
(r. 842–847), and was finally brought to an end—along with
lighthouses of the late antique Mediterranean lands, the
the political influence of the Mu
tazila—during the reign of
ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia, and the stupas and comal-Mutawakkil (r. 847–861). The debate on the theological
memorative columns of India, but it seems most likely that
controversies the Mihna had brought to the fore, as well as on
the minaret was wholly an Islamic invention of the ninth
the controversial caliph who had instituted it, continued for
century, meant to draw attention to the mosque as a center of
many centuries.
religious life.
See also Caliphate; Fitna; Mihna; Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila;
See also Adhan; Architecture; Masjid.
Succession.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bloom, Jonathan. Minaret: Symbol of Islam. Oxford, U.K.:
Cooperson, Michael. Classical Arabic Biography: The Heirs of
Oxford University Press, 1989.
the Prophets in the Age of al-Mamun. Cambridge, U.K.:
Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Ess, Josef Van. Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. Und 3. Sheila S. Blair
Jahrhundert Hidschra. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, Jonathan M. Bloom
1991–1997.
Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-
Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasid
Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th Centuries). London: Routledge,
MANICHEANISM
1998.
Manicheanism was a gnostic religious movement founded by
Hibri, Tayeb, el-. Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography: Harun
Mani (c. 216–274 or 276), an Iranian religious figure who
al-Rashid and the Narrative of the Abbasid Caliphate. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999. believed that he had received divine instruction from a
spiritual “Twin.” The Twin revealed to him “the mystery of
Tabari, al-. The History of al-Tabari. Vols. 31–32. Albany:
light and of darkness” and “the battle which darkness stirred
State University of New York Press, 1987–1992.
up” when its demons attempted to invade the kingdom of
light and entrapped light particles in material bodies. In 240,
Muhammad Qasim Zaman
the Twin commanded him to become the apostle of a new
religion and church. The Manichean community was composed of the Elect, whose rituals and strictly regulated behav-
MANAR, MANARA ior helped liberate light particles, and the Auditors, who led
less austere lives and provided the Elect with nourishment.
At its simplest, a minaret (Ar. manar(a), mi
dhana, sawmaa) is To this essentially dualistic religion, and in an attempt to
a raised structure attached to a mosque from which a muezzin create a truly universal faith, Mani and his followers delibergives the call to prayer, known in Arabic as the adhan. ately added elements drawn from other religions they en-
Minarets give a distinctive “Islamic” look to the skylines of countered, including Mithraism, Christianity, and Buddhism.
cities in the Muslim world and indicate from afar the presence Mani won the support of the Sassanian ruler Shahpur I
of a mosque below. Minarets are commonly tall and slender (239–270) for his far-ranging missionary activities but aroused
towers—sometimes polygonal or square but most often cy- the enmity of the Zoroastrian clergy, led by the high-priest
lindrical—supporting one or more balconies for the muezzin. Kartir, who eventually persuaded Bahram I (271–274) to
In some parts of the Muslim world, notably Upper Egypt, imprison Mani. Mani either died in prison or was executed.
East Africa, and Kashmir, minarets were either unknown or Manicheanism was thereafter ruthlessly suppressed both in
took a more modest form. the Sasanian East and the Christian West.

428 Islam and the Muslim World
Mansa Musa

The Muslim conquests temporarily ended persecution and made much use of the imagery of light. There is,
of Manicheanism in the land of its birth. The Umayyad however, no direct evidence linking the revolt to Manicheans,
governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf (d. 714), apparently and the dietary and sexual practices attributed to the rebels
sought to accord Manicheans protected (dhimmi) status and were certainly non-Manichean.
to regulate the affairs of their community through an archegos
based in Ctesiphon (Madain). Efforts were also made to Mani and Manicheanism are mentioned in numerous
heal the sectarian schism that had developed between the Islamic historical and literary texts. They sometimes depict
Mesopotamian Manicheans and those in the east (known as Mani as a prototypical arch-heretic, but he is also often
the Dinawariyya). The Abbasid caliphs, however, were in- treated as a genuine religious leader and, especially in Persian
creasingly intolerant of religious diversity, and al-Mahdi works, remembered as an acclaimed artist (as he was in fact
(775–785) and al-Hadi (785–786) carried out a systematic the founder of the rich Manichean tradition of illustrated
purge of individuals suspected of zandaqa. This term was manuscripts and fresco paintings).
virtually a synonym for Manicheanism, and it is claimed that See also Islam and Other Religions.
those accused of zandaqa had to prove their innocence by
spitting on a portrait of Mani. Yet only one of the victims of BIBLIOGRAPHY
this campaign has been shown to have actually been a
Decret, François. Mani et la tradition manichéenne. Paris:
Manichean proper; the Abbasid repression was rather di-
Seuil, 1974.
rected against Manichean tendencies in Islam and more
Flügel, Gustav. Mani, seine Lehre und seine Schriften. Leipzig:
generally against nominal Muslims suspected of holding
Brockhaus, 1862.
Persianizing, dualistic, syncretistic, subversive, free-thinking,
or atheistic ideas. It did make the practice of Manicheanism Henning, Walter B. “Persian Poetical Manuscripts from the
time of Rudaki.” In A Locust’s Leg: Studies in Honour of
more difficult and led to a new migration of Manicheans from
S. H. Taqizadeh. Edited by W. B. Henning and E. Yar-
Iraq to Central Asia. According to al-Nadim, the last leader of
shater. London: Percy Lund, Humphries, and Co., 1962
the Manichean community in Iraq fled to Khurasan in the
Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim. Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Texts
time of al-Muqtadir (908–932). He further indicates that he
from Central Asia. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993.
had personally known some three hundred “Zindiqs” in
Baghdad during the time of the Buyid emir Mu
izz-al-Dawla Lieu, Samuel N. C. Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire
and Medieval China: A Historical Survey. Manchester, U.K.:
(946–967), but this number had dwindled to less than five a
Manchester University Press, 1985.
quarter-century later.
Nadim, al-. The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of
Manicheanism was strongest in eastern Iran and Central Muslim Culture. Edited and translated by Bayard Dodge.
Asia, where Sogdian merchants served as able missionaries New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.
for the faith. Its position was strengthened when, in about Vajda, Georges. “Les Zindiqs en pays d’Islam au début de
762, it became the official religion of the Uighur khaghanate. la période abbaside.” Rivista degli Studi Orientali 17
According to al-Nadim, the “ruler of Khurasan” (presumably (1937–1938):173–229.
one of the Samanids) wanted to follow the Abbasid lead and Widengren, Geo. Mani and Manichaeism. Translated by
exterminate the Manicheans in his kingdom but was re- Charles Kessler. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
strained by the threats of the Uighur khaghan (“lord of the Winston, 1965.
Tughuzghuz”) to retaliate against the Muslims in his lands. A
Manichean text in Parthian from this period shows that Elton L. Daniel
Manicheans were attempting to assimilate the terminology
and concepts of Islam, just as they had in the case of other
religions. From the tenth century onward, Sufi missionaries, MANSA MUSA (? –1337)
including al-Hallaj, actively proselytized among the Manichean
and Turkish communities. By Mongol times, Manicheanism One of the most famous emperors of the medieval Western
had been supplanted in Central Asia by either Islam or Sudanic kingdom of Mali, Mansa Musa reigned from about
Buddhism. 1312 to 1337. He extended the kingdom of Mali by bringing
under its suzerainty many non-Mandingo people of the
An unresolved question is the extent to which Manicheans Sahel. Many sources, including the Arabic author al-
Umari
and Manichean tendencies (mixed with neo-Mazdakism) may (1301–1394), described Mansa Musa as a pious Muslim, and
have been involved in anti-Abbasid revolts in Central Asia. It as one of the medieval rulers whose contribution to the spread
is suggestive, for example, that the famous revolt of al- of Islam in the Western Sudan was the most significant.
Muqanna
(c. 777–783) took place in Sogdia and was supported by the Turks; he and his followers were known as One of the most noted events of Mansa Musa’s reign was
“wearers of white” (reminiscent of the traditional garb of the his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1312. On his way, he visited Egypt
Manichean Elect), believed in the transmigration of souls, during the reign of the Mamluk sultan, Nasir b. Qala
un.

Islam and the Muslim World 429
Maqassari, Taanta Salmanka al-

Mansa Musa, it has been reported, was accompanied by political affairs of the Shi
a. His success changed the instituthousands of peoples and camels laden with gold. He gave tion of marja al-taqlid, politicizing it and making disobeying
huge quantities of gold to the sultan of Egypt. His stay in the orders of the supreme jurist similar to treason. After
Egypt was one of the main events of the year 1312. He Khomeini died in 1989, there were political and religious
distributed so much gold that the price of this precious metal disputes among the Shi
a over the role of the marja al-taqlid.
dropped. Perhaps because of the notoriety he gained by this This dispute contributed to the declaration by the Iranian
pilgrimage, Mali started to appear in maps drawn by Euro- government, in 1994, that Ayatollah Sayyed
Ali Khamanei
pean cartographers. (a former close associate of Khomeini) was the single marja
al-taqlid when the then undisputed marja Ayatollah Khui
Mansa Musa’s reign supported a flowering in Malian died. This move was undoubtedly linked to the need to
scholarship and architecture. He commissioned al-Sahili, the establish the position of “leader of the revolution” (rahbar) in
Andalusian poet and man of letters, to design mosques and Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei’s position as the Marja al-taqlid
other buildings in Mali. Mansa Musa attracted scholars and has, however, remained a matter of dispute.
brought back books of Islamic jurisprudence to the libraries
Mali. He also began sending students to Islamic universities See also Shi
a: Imami (Twelver); Taqlid; Ulema.
in North Africa. He built Quranic schools, and established
the Friday congregational prayer in Mali. BIBLIOGRAPHY
See also Africa, Islam in. Amanat, A. “In Between the Madrasa and the Marketplace:
The Designations of Clerical Leadership in Modern
Shi
ism.” In Authority and Political Culture in Shiism.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Edited by S. A. Arjomand. Albany: State University of
Clark, P. West Africa and Islam: A Study of Religious Develop- NewYork Press, 1988.
ment from the 8th to the 20th Century. London: Edwards Lambton, A. K. S. “A Reconsideration of the Position of the
Arnold, 1982. Marja Taqlid and the Religious Institution.” Studia Islamica
Hiskett, M. The Development of Islam in West Africa. London 20 (1964): 115–135.
and New York: Longman, 1984.
Robert Gleave
Ousmane Kane

MARRIAGE
MAQASSARI, TAANTA SALMANKA
AL- See Makassar, Shaykh Yusuf In Muslim societies marriage is a contract regulated by a code
of law rooted in religious precepts—the sharia. The relations
between the precepts and the law are complex, the interpretations of the law vary considerably, and the social practices of
marriage constitute a major part of the rich cultural diversity
MARJA
AL-TAQLID of the Muslim world. Moreover, marriage rules and customs
have been central to ongoing debates over issues of moder-
Marja al-taqlid (Persian Marja-e taqlid) literally means “the nity and women’s status in Islam, starting with the anticolonial
source of imitation.” Marja al-taqlid is a title given to the and nationalist movements of the early twentieth century.
highest-ranking cleric within Twelver Shi
ism. The concep- The codification and reform of sharia rules governing martion of a single leading scholar who both directs and leads the riage in the first part of the century, and the more recent
ulema was not absent in Shi
ism, but the marja institution did emergence of Islamist movements and their demand for a
not emerge until the nineteenth century. The first universally return to sharia, have highlighted the ideological dimension
recognized marja was the influential mujtahid Murtada al- of the legal regulation of marriage.
Ansari (d. 1864). He was followed by a series of scholars
whose level of support as marja varied, and a number of Marriage in Islamic law is based on a strong patriarchal
scholars at the same time could be put forward as “sources” ethos, imbued with religious ideals and values. It is one of the
(maraji) simultaneously. There is no formal means whereby a few contracts that straddles the boundary between the two
marja is selected: it seems he emerges as the “most learned” main categories: ibadat (spiritual/ritual acts) and muamalat
(alamiyya). There is also much dispute of the level of his (social/private acts). In spirit, marriage belongs to ibadat, in
authority (as a spokesperson, or as an authority to be obeyed that Muslim jurists define it as a religious duty. In form, it
by other scholars and the community). In 1979, Ayatollah comes under the category of muamalat, is defined as a civil
Khomeini led a revolution in Iran arguing that a single contract, and is patterned after the contract of sale, which has
“supreme jurist” should control both the religious and the served as a model for other contracts. In this respect, there is

430 Islam and the Muslim World
Martyrdom

no difference among the various schools: all share the same family, and the stigma usually attached to both polygamy and
conception of marriage. If they differ, it is to the extent to divorce.
which they translate this conception into legal rules.
With the emergence of modern nation-states and the
In its legal structure, marriage (nikah) is a contract of creation of modern legal systems in the early part of the
exchange, with fixed terms and uniform legal effects. Its twentieth century, the juristic rules of marriage were selecessential components are the offer (ijab), which is made by the tively reformed, codified, and grafted onto a unified legal
woman or her guardian (wali), the acceptance (qabul) by the system (as in most Middle Eastern and Asian Muslim counman, and the payment of dower (mahr or sadaq), a sum of tries) or were left intact to be applied by Islamic judges (as in
money or any valuable that the husband pays or undertakes to most African and Persian Gulf countries). Turkey was the
pay to the bride before or after consummation. With the only state in the Muslim world to introduce a Western code
contract, a wife comes under her husband’s isma (dominion to replace juristic rules, though these continued to govern
and protection), entailing a set of defined rights and obliga- marriages in rural areas and among religious groups. In most
tions for each party—some supported by legal force, others Muslim countries during the twentieth century, as women’s
by moral sanction. Those with legal force revolve around the access to education and work, and consequently their aspiratwin themes of sexual access and compensation, embodied in tions for equality, increased, so did the gap between juristic
the concepts of tamkin (submission) and nafaqa (mainte- and social notions of marriage widen. On the whole, until the
nance). Tamkin—defined as unhampered sexual access—is rise of political Islam in the 1970s, marriage was acquiring a
the husband’s right and thus the wife’s duty; whereas nafaqa— more egalitarian legal structure in the Muslim world. More
defined as shelter, food, and clothing—is the wife’s right and recently, the patriarchal juristic model has been widely reasthe husband’s duty. A wife is entitled to nafaqa only after serted. Despite wide-ranging variations and changes in pracconsummation of the marriage, and she loses her claim if she tice, the jurists’ notions continue to dominate both the reality
is in a state of nushuz (disobedience). of marriage in contemporary Muslim societies and debates
about the issue. Not only do most Muslims believe the juristic
The contract establishes neither a shared matrimonial conception to be divinely ordained, but it informs the legal
regime nor identical rights and obligations between the rules in most Muslim countries.
spouses: The husband is sole provider and owner of matrimo-
An image of a young Muslim couple in traditional wedding
nial resources and the wife is possessor of mahr and her own
attire appears in the volume two color insert.
wealth. The only shared space is that involving the procreation of children, and even here the wife is not legally com- See also Divorce; Gender; Law; Mahr.
pelled to suckle her child unless it is impossible to feed it
otherwise. Likewise, only a man can enter more than one BIBLIOGRAPHY
marriage at a time (four permanent contracts in Sunni schools

Abd Al
Ati, Hammudah. The Family Structure in Islam.
of law; and, in Shi
a law, as many temporary ones as he desires Indianapolis: American Trust Publication, 1977.
or can afford). Only the husband can terminate each contract
El Alami, Dawoud. The Marriage Contract in Islamic Law.
at will: He needs no grounds and neither the wife’s presence
London, Dordrecht, and Boston: Graham & Trotman,
nor her consent. Wives can, however, through the insertion 1992.
of stipulations in the contract, modify some of its terms and
Anderson, J. N. D. “The Eclipse of the Patriarchal Family in
acquire, for example, the right to choose the place of resi- Contemporary Islamic Law.” In his Family Law in Asia and
dence or to work, or the delegated right to divorce if the Africa. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1968.
husband contracts another marriage.
Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic
Family Law: Iran and Morocco Compared. London: I. B.
Muslim jurists claim that this construction of marriage,
Tauris, 1993.
based on their readings of the sacred texts, is divinely or-
Nasir, Jamal J. Islamic Law of Personal Status. 2d edition.
dained. But marriage as lived and experienced by Muslims
London: Graham & Trotman, 1990.
involves a host of customary obligations and social relationships that have always gone far beyond juristic constructions.
Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Some of these are rooted in the ideals of the sharia and enjoy
its moral support, though they are not reflected in legal
rulings. In Muslim societies, marriage in practice not only
creates a matrimonial regime but takes a wide range of forms, MARTYRDOM
varying according to customary practices, individual inclinations and characters, the social origins (rural/urban, class) of The idea of martyrdom in Islam is rooted in the fact that from
the partners, and their economic resources. Men’s uncondi- the beginning of the religion, Muslims died in the struggle to
tional legal rights to divorce and polygamy are often checked establish and expand the Islamic state, and their deaths in the
in practice by social mores, the pressures of the extended course of this struggle were remembered and celebrated. The

Islam and the Muslim World 431
Martyrdom

Quran encourages martyrdom by assuring believers that the earliest ideas of martyrdom in Islam. Accounts of the
death is illusory: “And say not of those slain in God’s way, earliest Muslim martyrs reflect this context. The martyrs
‘They are dead’; rather they are living, but you are not aware” most celebrated in biographies of the Prophet are those who
(2:154). threw themselves into battle with courage and abandon. Ibn
Ishaq’s account of the Muslim victory at Badr (623/624 C.E.),
God also promises ample rewards to those who die fi sabil for example, is peppered with accounts of martyrdom. In one
Allah, “in the way of God”: account,
Umayr was eating some dates when he heard the
Prophet promise Paradise to any who died in battle. At this he
immediately flung the dates aside and threw himself into the
Count not those who were slain in God’s way as dead,
battle exclaiming, “Is there nothing between me and entering
but rather living with their Lord, by Him provided,
Paradise save to be killed by these men?” Another Muslim,
rejoicing in the bounty God has given them, because
no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow,
Asim, asked Muhammad, “What makes the Lord laugh with
joyful in blessing and bounty from God, and that God joy at His servant?” Muhammad answered, “When he plunges
leaves not to waste the wage of the believers. (3:169–171) into the midst of the enemy without mail.” At this
Asim
threw off his mail coat, plunged into the battle and was killed.

Other passages elevate death in the course of struggle for Incentives for this kind of battlefield martyrdom are
Islam (e.g. 3:157–158, 4:74; 9:20–22; 47:4–6; and 61:11). colorfully elaborated in the tradition literature. Martyrs are
first of all spared from the normal pain of death. They then
Martyrdom in Early Islam proceed directly to the highest station in Paradise, without
While the idea of martyrdom is clearly rooted in the Quran, waiting for the Day of Judgment, and without enduring
the technical terms for martyr, shahid, and for martyrdom, interrogation in the grave by the angels Munkar and Nakir.
shahada, arise from a different context. When the term shahid Once in Paradise they share the place closest to the throne of
appears in the Quran, as it does frequently, it never means God with the prophets, wear jeweled crowns, and are each
martyr, but only “witness,” in the legal sense or in the given seventy houris (virgins of paradise). Martyrs are purified
ordinary sense of “eyewitness.” The extension of the meaning of sin and do not require the Prophet’s intercession—indeed,
of shahid to martyrdom was likely a borrowing from Syrian according to some traditions, martyrs are themselves second
Christians for whom the connection of martyrdom with an only to the prophets as intercessors.
act of witnessing was deep rooted and reflected in linguistic
usage. The terms martys in Greek and sahda in Syriac both While fighting unbelievers on the battlefield has recarried the dual meaning of witness and martyr, and A. J. mained a basic and consistent emphasis in Muslim under-
Wensinck and Ignaz Goldziher plausibly argued that the standings of martyrdom, conflicts within the Muslim
Arabic shahid is borrowed from the Syriac. community took the idea in new directions. Martyrdom was
an especially potent ideal among some Kharijite Muslims
This connection between martyrdom and witness made who called themselves shurat, or vendors, in reference to
sense to Christians, for the Christian martyrs were those who Quranic praise for those who sell their earthly lives in
witnessed by their manner of death to the reality of heaven exchange for Paradise (4:74; 9:112). The idea of deliberately
and the inevitable victory of God. But for Muslims the seeking martyrdom (talab al-shahadat) by “selling” one’s life
connection was a stretch for the simple reason that the came to be especially associated with Kharijites. One Kharijite
Quranic idea of death in the way of God required no act of ideologue, for instance, exhorts his followers to strive against
witnessing. Muslims were thus left with the uncomfortable “the unjust leaders of error, and to go out (khuruj) from the
problem of discovering a link between the two ideas, and they Abode of Transience to the Abode of Eternity and join our
came up with a variety of creative suggestions: Martyrs are believing, convinced brothers who have sold (ba
u) this world
called “witnesses” because their souls witness Paradise, their for the next, and spent their wealth in quest of God’s good
deaths are witnessed by angels, they will serve as witnesses pleasure in the final reckoning” (Lewinstein, 2002, p. 85). As
against those who rejected God’s prophets, Muhammad will this exhortation makes clear, the conflicts that provided the
be a witness on their behalf at the Day of Judgment, or their Kharijites with opportunities for martyrdom were not strugwounds will testify to their exalted status in the afterlife. The gles against unbelievers, but struggles for justice and purity in
awkwardness of these suggestions, as Keith Lewinstein points the Muslim community. More importantly, martyrdom was
out, suggests that later Muslims had no idea why the two ideas not merely an inconvenient by-product of struggle for which
came together and that the connection had to be invented to the martyr needs to be compensated, but a goal worth
explain linguistic usage. pursuing in its own right.

Early Islamic martyrdom, then, was an inevitable corol- The Shi
a and Martyrdom
lary not of witnessing to the truth but of struggling on its Internal struggles within the umma also shaped the construcbehalf. Thus jihad, or struggle, provides the chief context for tion of martyrdom among Shi
ite Muslims, for whom the

432 Islam and the Muslim World
Martyrdom

death of the Prophet’s grandson Husayn became the defining was to render the major benefits of martyrdom common
event of their history as a community. Husayn was martyred currency, readily available to any pious believer. Several
in 680 at Karbala in Iraq when his small band, accompanied characteristics of medieval Islam contributed to the trend: the
by women and children, was attacked and massacred by the pervasive influence of Sufism with its characteristic focus on
army of the Umayyad ruler, Yazid. Shi
ite interpretations of the spiritual value of an act rather than its externals, scholarly
Karbala took Muslim ideas of martyrdom in completely new quietism in reaction to the militancy of the Kharijites and
directions. Husayn’s suffering and death came to be seen not other Islamic rebels, and the simple fact that opportunities for
just as an individual contribution to the struggle against martyrdom in the struggle against unbelievers were severely
injustice, meriting individual reward, but as a deliberate diminished after the initial century of conquest.
redemptive act of cosmic significance. By choosing martyrdom Husayn ensured the ultimate victory of his community Outside the definitions of martyrdom discussed in the
and earned the place of mediator for his people. Martyrdom legal literature, an independent tradition of martyrdom was
became such a central value for the Shi
a that all the Shi
ite kept alive among Sufis. The paradigmatic Sufi martyr was Ibn
imams were held to have been martyrs, and the major ritual Mansur al-Hallaj (d. 922), who was crucified by Muslim
and devotional expressions of Shi
ism are celebrations of authorities in Baghdad on the charge of blasphemy. Almartyrdom. Hallaj, along with other Sufi martyr heroes like Suhrawardi
(d. 1168),
Ayn al-Qudat (d. 1131), and Ibn Sab
in (d. 1269),
Types of Martyrdom died the victim of his own inordinate love for the Divine, thus
To celebrate martyrdom is not the same as to seek it, exemplifying the Sufi ideal of extinction in the Divine and
however. Shi
ite scholars were happy to revere Husayn but acting out the tragedy of the mystic lover, caught between the
they resisted the impulse to emulate him. In this they were conflicting demands of love and law. This style of martyrdom
part of a broader scholarly tendency to dilute the value of belonged to the spiritual virtuosi, however. For the ordinary
martyrdom. In the hands of mainstream scholars, both Sunni Muslim, the benefits of martyrdom are only experienced
and Shi
ite, the category of martyr was enlarged to include secondhand, by visiting a martyr’s shrine, or mashhad, or for
many kinds of death, including drowning, pleurisy, plague, or Shi
a, by reenacting the passion of Husayn in taziya celebradiarrhea. According to other traditions martyrs also include tions during the month of Muharram.
those who die in childbirth, those who die defending their
property, those who are eaten by lions, and those who die of Militancy and Martyrdom
seasickness. A special category of martyr is made up of those The sublimation of the martyr ideal in pious devotion has
who suffer the pangs of unexpressed and unrequited love, continued in Muslim societies, but the modern experience
patiently keeping their passions concealed to death. The has also given some Muslims abundant reason to revive more
trend culminated in the transference of the value of martyr- militant ideas of martyrdom. Modern Muslim treatments of
dom to other pious acts, so that death was no longer the most martyrdom have been intertwined with changing attitudes
important prerequisite. The band of martyrs came to include toward jihad, and are shaped by reaction against the quietism
anyone who conscientiously fulfills his or her religious obli- of the medieval tradition. Whereas for medieval jurists both
gations, those who engage in the “greater jihad” against their jihad and martyrdom were spiritualized and internalized, the
own evil tendencies, and, significantly, scholars who engage colonial experience suddenly gave the idea of militant strugin the “jihad of the pen.” According to one well-known gle new relevance. Thus a common early response to colonihadith, the ink of the scholars will outweigh the blood of the alism was the emergence of anticolonial jihad movements like
martyrs. that of Sayyid Ahmad in India. Nineteenth-century Muslim apologists and modernists like Sayyid Ahmad Khan
The incongruity of equating battlefield martyrs with vic- (1817–1898), Chiragh
Ali (1844–1895), and Muhammad
tims of unrequited love or those who died quietly in bed did
Abduh (1849–1905) departed from the medieval tradition in
not go unnoticed by legal scholars. Thus battlefield martyrs a different way by reinterpreting jihad to accord with Westare put in a special category as “martyrs in this world and the ern preconceptions. Jihad, the modernists argued, amounts
next” and are honored with special burial rites. The martyr’s to no more than the right of a state to defend itself against
body, in most circumstances, is not washed; he is to be buried attack. The effect was to encourage a secularization of marin the clothes in which he was killed. Some hold that no tyrdom whereby any soldier who died for his country could
prayers over the martyr are necessary since he is automati- be counted a martyr.
cally purified from sin. The lesser categories of martyrs are
“martyrs of the next world” meaning, chiefly, that they are Against both the quietism of medieval scholars and the
not eligible for special burial rites but must be satisfied with apologetics of modernists, revivalists have called for a return
divine approbation and the rewards of Paradise. to militant jihad and a revival of the ideals of physical
martyrdom. Hasan al-Banna (1906–1949), founder of the
Even if battlefield martyrs retained a special status, how- Muslim Brotherhood and a celebrated martyr in his own
ever, the trend in medieval Muslim treatments of the subject right, offers a stirring invitation to martyrdom:

Islam and the Muslim World 433
Marwa, Muhammad

Brothers! God gives the umma that is skilled in the See also Banna, Hasan al-; Expansion; Husayn;
Ibadat;
practice of death and that knows how to die a noble Imamate; Jihad; Kharijites, Khawarij; Ta
ziya.
death an exalted life in this world and eternal felicity in
the next. What is the fantasy that has reduced us to BIBLIOGRAPHY
loving this world and hating death? If you gird yourselves for a lofty deed and yearn for death, life shall be Ayoub, Mahmoud. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of
given to you . . . . Know, then, that death is inevitable, the Devotional Aspects of Ashura
in Twelver Shiism. The
and that it can only happen once. If you suffer in the Hague: Mouton, 1978.
way of God, it will profit you in this world and bring Banna, Hasan al-. Five Tracts of Hasan al-Banna
(1906–1949):
you reward in the next. (Hasan al-Banna, 1978, p.156). A Selection from the Majmu
at Rasa
il al-Imam al-Shahid
Hasan al-Banna
. Translated by Charles Wendell. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
For al-Banna and other revivalists, waging jihad is held to Goldziher, Ignaz. Muslim Studies. Edited and translated by
be an individual duty (fard ayn) of all Muslims. It is thus C. R. Barber and S. M. Stern. London: Allen &
incumbent on every Muslim to prepare him- or herself for Unwin, 1971.
martyrdom, and it is on the basis of this duty that al-Banna Husted, W. R. “Karbala Made Immediate: The Martyr
calls on Muslims to become skilled at dying and to master as Model in Imami Shi
ism.” Muslim World 83
“the art of death” (fann al-mawt). Since all must die, the wise (1993): 263–278.
will learn how to get the most benefit out of the exchange (Q. Kohlberg, E. Medieval Muslim Views on Martyrdom. Amster-
4:74). Such advocacy of martyrdom echoes the ideology of dam: Noord-Hollansche, 1997.
the Kharijites and comes close to encouraging the seeking out Lewinstein, Keith. “The Revaluation of Martyrdom in Early
of martyrdom, talab al-shahada, a practice condemned in Islam.” In Sacrificing the Self: Perspectives on Martyrdom and
classical scholarship. The recent pattern of suicide bombings Religion. Edited by Margaret Cormack. Oxford, U.K.:
sponsored by militant Islamic movements, many of them Oxford University Press, 2002.
offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood, fits comfortably into Massignon, Louis. The Passion of al-Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr
the framework of the call of Hasan al-Banna to be “skilled in of Islam. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982.
the practice of death.” Rosenthal, Franz. “On Suicide in Islam.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 66 (1946): 239–259.
Modern Shi
ite treatments of martyrdom have tended to
Shariati, Ali. Martyrdom: Arise and Bear Witness. Translated
run along parallel lines, emphasizing the ideological value of by Ali Asghar Ghassemy. Tehran: Ministry of Islamic
martyrdom. When an individual gives his or her life for a Guidance, 1981.
cause, according to
Ali Shari
ati (1933–1977), this life be-
Smith, Jane I., and Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck. The Islamic
comes valuable in proportion to the value of the cause for Understanding of Death and Resurrection. Albany: State
which it is spent. A martyr expends his or her whole existence University of New York Press, 1981.
for an ideal, and that ideal is given life through martyrdom.
Taleqani, Mahmud; Muttahhari, Murtaza; and Shariati,
Ali.
Martyrs thus exchange their lives for something greater and Jihad and Shahadat: Struggle and Martyrdom in Islam.
more lasting, leaving behind a permanent and valuable leg- Edited by Mehdi Abedi and Gary Legenhausen. Houston:
acy. Similarly, Ayatollah Taliqani (1910–1979) invokes the Institute for Research and Islamic Studies, 1986.
Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi (1207–1273) to argue that martyr- Wensinck, A. J. “The Oriental Doctrine of the Martyrs.” In
dom is part of a chain of sacrifice whereby the imperfect is Semietische Studien uit de Nalatenschap. Leiden: A. W.
perfected. Just as vegetation is eaten by a lamb and becomes Sijthoff, 1941.
flesh and blood, so a martyr loses his existence to partake in a
higher cause. Daniel W. Brown

These justifications for martyrdom are clearly modern in
their emphasis on the ideological value of martyrdom. Such
ideas have more than theoretical relevance. Modern conflicts MARWA, MUHAMMAD (D. 1980)
in Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya, Iraq, and Iran
have produced a large crop of martyrs, along with a huge Muhammad Marwa (Maitatsine) was a Quranic teacher from
volume of popular literature celebrating their deeds. Conse- Cameroon in West Africa who followed sharia (Islamic law).
quently, activist and militant forms of martyrdom tend to be After he moved to Nigeria, his teachings inspired a religious,
the most visible and dramatic expressions of the idea in the millennial revolt against the government in the northern
modern Islamic world. The prominence of such militant province of Kano in 1980. A mystic, he resembled the Mahdi
forms should not, however, be allowed to obscure the contin- of Sudan in that he claimed revelatory knowledge, which
ued importance of other enduring expressions of martyrdom supplemented, and even superseded, the teachings of the
in popular devotion and especially in Shi
ite ritual. prophet Muhammad. In 1979, he apparently declared himself

434 Islam and the Muslim World
Marwan

a prophet greater than Muhammad. The movement, also
Uthman, Marwan is believed to have written a letter orderknown as Yan Tatsine (the followers of Maitatsine), was ing the execution of the Egyptians concerned. It was the
nominally Muslim but unorthodox, rejecting established au- discovery of this letter by the Egyptians that led to
Uthman’s
thorities, both religious and secular. It had a strong element being besieged and murdered in his home in 656. This event
of political protest in it, attracting mostly the urban poor, is remembered as “the battle of the house,” or yawm al-dar.
young men who had moved to the city and could not fit in Marwan was wounded while trying to protect
Uthman. He
with established groups. later fought in the Battle of the Camel with
Aisha against

Ali, for
Ali would neither investigate nor punish the mur-
Marwa recruited from Quranic schools, rejecting the derers of
Uthman. Later, Marwan swore allegiance to
Ali,
authority of all books aside from the Quran, including the but joined the ranks of Mu
awiya when
Ali was murdered.
hadiths. Followers kept their own mosques and schools. The He was appointed governor of Medina by the caliph Mu
awiyya
movement was hostile to women, many of whom were kid- b. Abi Sufyan (r. 661–680), and served in this capacity from
napped and kept in Marwa’s compound for months. Tensions 661 to 668 and again from 674 to 677.
with the government exploded in a series of riots, apparently
instigated by attacks that Marwa’s followers made on mem- Mu
awiyya was succeeded by his son, Yazid, who died in
bers of the local Muslim community in December 1980 in 683, followed by Yazid’s son, Mu
awiya II, who died a few
Kano (resulting in 4,177 deaths) and again in 1982 in Kaduna months later. Meanwhile, the hostility provoked by Yazid
and Maiduguri, after which the movement was suppressed. It during his brief caliphate, which saw the death of Husayn b.
was blamed for further uprisings in the early 1980s, which the
Ali, the battle of the Harra (a stronghold in Medina), and the
government used as an excuse to increase state control. onslaught against Mecca, had brought
Abdullah b. al-Zubayr
Marwa was among those killed in the 1980 riots. great popularity. Al-Zubayr was acclaimed caliph of the
region extending from the Hijaz (a region in western Saudi
See also Africa, Islam in; Kano; Mahdi. Arabia) to Iraq. The Umayyads were thus forced to look
beyond the Sufyanid family for a leader.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
At this point, frustrated by inadequate leadership, tribal
Callaway, Barbara, and Creevey, Lucy. The Heritage of Islam: loyalties that had been submerged by the uniting forces of
Women, Religion and Politics in West Africa. Boulder, Colo.:
Islam emerged once again. The faction led by Ibn Bahdal,
Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994.
chief of the Kalbi clan, proclaimed Marwan caliph, while the
Kastfelt, Niels. “Rumours of Maitatsine: A Note on Political faction led by al-Dahhaq b. Ways al-Fihri supported Ibn al-
Culture in Northern Nigeria.” African Affairs 88, no. 350
Zubayr. When the two factions met at the battle of Marj
(1989): 83–90.
Rahat it was Marwan who won the day

Paula Stiles Marwan immediately consolidated his position: He married Fakhita bt. Abi Hashim, the widow of Yazid, vowing that
the latter’s son, Khalid b. Yazid, would be his successor. Once
appointed caliph, however, he first replaced Egypt’s Zubayrid
MARWAN (623–685 C.E.) governor with his son,
Abd al-
Aziz. Then, reneging on his
promise to Fakhita, he named his eldest son,
Abd al-Malik,
Marwan b. al-Hakam b. Abi al-
As, Abu
Abd al-Malik, the heir to the caliphate. Finally, having defeated Mus
ab b. aleponym of the Marwanid branch of the Umayyads, reigned Zubayr, the brother of his rival caliph in Mecca, he sent his
for several months in 684 and 685 C.E. He was one of the general,
Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad, to capture Iraq.
Companions of Muhammad and the cousin of
Uthman b.

Affan (r. 644–656), the third caliph of Islam. Marwan was Marwan died in 685, murdered by his wife, Fakhita, before
appointed secretary to
Uthman during his caliphate because Iraq was taken. His son,
Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705), sucof his knowledge of the Quran and became the caliph’s cessfully consolidated the Umayyad caliphate under the
closest advisor. He probably encouraged the caliph to com- Marwanid banner.
pile the Quran. Much of Marwan’s wealth came from the
See also Caliphate; Succession.
rich plunder he obtained during an expedition to North
Africa, which he invested in properties in Medina. Despite
BIBLIOGRAPHY
objection from many Medinans, Marwan influenced
Uthman
to appoint his brother, Harith b. Hakam, to oversee the Dixon, A. A. The Umayyad Caliphate 65–86/684–705. London: Luzac, 1971.
market of Medina.
Hawting, Gerald. The First Dynasty of Islam. Carbondale:
Marwan was viewed as an ambitious man and his influence Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.
on the caliph was generally regarded as negative. When Madelund, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad. Cambridge,
Egyptian malcontents negotiated a political settlement with U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Islam and the Muslim World 435
Masculinities

Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. Further research analyzes how maleness is inculcated
London: Longman, 1986. through rituals such as circumcision which, in certain Muslim
societies such as Turkey, may be a prepuberty ritual accom-
Rizwi Faizer panied by public display and celebration, including dressing
the boy in a military-type uniform. The cultural significance
of male attributes such as beards and mustaches, which may
also have a religious or political valence, is another dimension
MASCULINITIES of the Muslim embodiment of maleness. Variations in conceptions of the ideal masculine have also merited attention in
The academic study of masculinity has recently emerged as a terms of homosexual identities, black Muslim male embodiparallel to feminist strategies of deconstructing historical, ment, the effect of colonialism and the colonial gaze on
cultural, class, religious, and other factors shaping notions of Muslim constructions of the masculine, and so on.
maleness. In the case of Islam and Muslim societies, elements See also Body, Significance of; Feminism; Gender;
contributing to masculinities are normative pronouncements Homosexuality.
of the religion, the models of the Prophet and his companions, as well as philosophical, ethical, and social discourses BIBLIOGRAPHY
and practices.
Cornwall, Andrea, and Lindisfarne, Nancy, eds. Dislocating
Masculinity: Comparative Ethnographies. London and New
The Quran seems to privilege the male as being “a degree York: Routledge, 1994.
higher” and gives him responsibility over females. Nonethe-
Ghoussoub, Mai, and Sinclair-Webb, Emma. Imagined
less, feminist scholars such as Asma Barlas have been trying to
Masculinities: Male Identity and Culture in the Modern Midrecover an underlying antipatriarchal ethos behind the sto- dle East. London: Saqi Books, 2000.
ries of the sacred text, for example, in Abraham’s breaking
with traditional models of patriarchy through rejecting his Marcia Hermansen
father’s gods. The Prophet himself embodied traits of strength
and gentleness, and served both as a warrior and tender
husband and father.
Ali, the fourth caliph, as a heroic male
figure embodies both military prowess and spiritual wisdom, MASHHAD
whereas
Umar, the second caliph, projects the harsh and
Mashhad is a major city of Iran, and the capital of Khorasan,
uncompromising enforcement of social control while disthe country’s largest province with six million inhabitants. In
pensing impartial justice.
1996, 2.25 million of the province’s population lived in
Both pre- and post-Islamic Arabic cultures contain well- Mashhad. It is the country’s most important pilgrimage site,
developed concepts of muruwwa, or manliness, combining visited annually by over thirteen million pilgrims from Iran
moral notions of integrity, fidelity, valor, chastity, and honor. and abroad. The shrine of
Ali b. Musa al-Rida (Reza) (764–818
C.E.), the eighth and the only imam buried in Iran, is in
In medieval Muslim societies and Sufi spheres, the ethical
Mashhad. The imam was buried in an orchard by the grave of
code of futuwwa (Arabic) or jawanmardi (Persian) was enacted
the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid at Sinabad, a hamlet near
by societies or guild-like alliances of young men bonded
Nawghan, one of the districts of the city of Tus. The Mongol
around ethics of honor and companionship. A sort of Persian
assault in the early thirteenth century, followed by the attack
cult of male strength and chivalry is still performed in the
of the Timurid Miran Shah in 1385, were major blows that
zurkhana, or “house of strength,” where gymnastic exercises
led to the gradual extinction of Tus, so much so that we find
are carried out to the background of the chanted national
no mention of it in the sources since the middle of the
epic, the Shahnameh.
fifteenth century. While Tus gradually disappeared, the hamlet
of Sinabad grew into a town, first called Mashhad-e Razavi
Contemporary studies of film and literature from the
and then Mashhad-e Tus, as large numbers of Shi
a settled
Muslim world explore their themes of male competition,
there because of the imam’s shrine, known for centuries as
violence, and coming of age in a highly gendered social world.
“Mashhad al-Razavi.”
Certain tropes, such as the wily woman who deprives males of
virility and the constant need to preserve and control female The shrine and its upkeep received the attention of Samanid,
honor, play on male anxieties. Some anthropological and Ghaznawid, and Seljuk rulers who held the Alawid in reverliterary studies have highlighted the role of the wedding night ence despite their Sunni creed. Mashhad received special
in Arab societies, where in traditional contexts male sexual royal attention during the reign of the Timurid ruler Shahrukh.
performance and female virginity were expected and verified, He visited the imam’s shrine for ziyara in 1406 and it was
giving further clues into the psychological background of during his reign that the famous Gawharshad Mosque, comasserting male potency as a quasi-sacrificial blood ritual. pleted for his wife in 1418, and other buildings in the shrine

436 Islam and the Muslim World
Masjid

complex were constructed. After establishing Safavid control The Quran contains over twenty references to masjid, in
of Khorasan, Shah
Abbas showed a special reverence for singular and plural, offering ample evidence for the impor-
Mashhad and in 1601 made a pilgrimage on foot, having set tance of this space in the life of Muslims from the time of the
out from Isfahan, to fulfill a vow. The shrine received greater Prophet, although its form and its significance have underpatronage during the reign of the Safavids and the Qajars, and gone extensive elaboration as the Islamic civilization took
most of the inscriptions pertaining to the repairs and new shape and expanded. Thus a variety of related institutions
construction are extant. A new plan for the extension of the have emerged that are embraced by this same term, normally
shrine complex was put into effect in the years before the rendered as mosque in English.
Islamic Revolution in the course of which bazaars and houses
in a large surrounding area were demolished. New construc- In the Quran, the word most frequently refers to the
tion is still occurring in the open space around the shrine. sanctuary at Mecca, al-masjid al-haram, indicating its uniqueness and centrality while several passages refer to the prac-
In the past the shrine’s upkeep and administration of the tices prescribed for it as a site of cult and pilgrimage (e.g.,
enormous endowments pertaining to it lay with an adminis- 2:196, 9:28, 48:27).
trator (mutawalli), traditionally a sayyid from the descendants
of Imam Reza appointed by royal decree. Since the Islamic The first masjid built by Muhammad consisted of the
Revolution, the appointment of the administrator lies within enclosed empty courtyard of his house at Medina. Not only
the jurisdiction of the supreme jurist (valiye faqih). The shrine did his followers gather there for collective prayer and preachas an architectural complex consists of the central building ing, but for many other activities. As the effective seat of
and its gilded dome, which houses the mausoleum and a one- government, it served as the center of civil and military
thousand-year-old mosque (Masjid Balasar), twenty-three administration while also providing space for instruction,
halls, several courtyards of different sizes, eight minarets, and social gatherings, and hospitality to strangers. During the
two towers, each with its own particular history. It also Prophet’s lifetime the establishment of other masjids for local
maintains a major library, one of the oldest in Iran and dating use appears to have been infrequent as believers were encourfrom tenth century, with 26,400 manuscripts, 2,820 Quran aged to regard everyplace as available for the conduct of
manuscripts, and over 300,000 printed books now kept in a prayer, although later, masjids began to arise quickly, starting
newly built structure (inaugurated in 1995), as well as a with those locales where it was remembered the Prophet
museum and several subsidiary buildings housing various had prayed.
facilities. The Astan-e Quds (Holy Threshold), the establishment which manages the shrine complex and the related With the spread of Islam beyond the Arabian Peninsula,
endowments, is a huge conglomerate that administers, in new masjids arose, especially in the principal cities such as
addition to a university, scores of academic, cultural, and Kufa, Basra, Damascus, and Cairo, which sought to reproeconomic institutions that play an important role in the life of duce the model of Medina. Thus the seat of government and
the province. the space for collective prayer were closely conjoined. This
architectural fusion of religious and secular functions, in
Mashhad has a center of learning (hawzah ilmiyya) next conformity with Islamic teachings, was also represented in
only to that of the Qom in size and importance. Leading the nature of leadership. In time, however, the caliphs and
scholars of this hawzah have enjoyed a regional following as their governors in the provinces ceased to preside at public
“sources of emulation” (marja al-taqlid). prayer and to preach themselves, relegating these tasks to
pious scholars instead, although these two realms of authority
See also Pilgrimage: Hajj; Pilgrimage: Ziyara; Shi
a: remained linked in Islamic theories of rule.
Imami (Twelver).
Hence, the preaching of the sermon (khutba) at the Friday
Rasool Jafariyan noon prayer—which was initially restricted to one large
central masjid in the major cities (a masjid of the type that
came to be known as a jami, or Friday Mosque)—always
entailed the installation of a minbar, a raised platform or
MASJID pulpit, which symbolically associated the preacher as the
spokesman of the legitimate ruler. Later historical transfor-
The term masjid refers to the customary place for performing mations, with profound effects on political organization and
the obligatory ritual prayer (salat) in the Muslim tradition. social structure, redefined this relationship such that today a
The Arabic verbal root s-j-d from which the noun derives, gathering for the weekly congregational prayer and sermon
denotes the action of bowing down or prostration. Its close may occur in almost any masjid. Nevertheless, the classical
cognates in other Semitic languages, meaning a place of ideal envisaging a unity of sacred and civil order not only
worship, predate Islam and allude to sacred venues belonging continues to inspire many Muslims, but it is formalized as law
to other religions. in most lands with a majority Muslim population.

Islam and the Muslim World 437
Masjid

A street near the Iman Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran. Over thirteen million people per year make the pilgrimage to this shrine. © BRIAN
VIKANDER/CORBIS

In addition to the paradigm of Medina, a second key Islamic heartlands and its periphery, but in Europe and
influence affecting the development of masjids derives from America, often achieving a distinctive synthesis of modern
the example of the sanctuary at Mecca. This affiliation ap- and authentic form.
pears symbolically in the directional orientation of a masjid,
namely the qibla, and in the placement of the empty niche or The rich history of Islamic intellectual life is also deeply
mihrab, which believers face when praying. But it also resonates rooted in masjids, which often served as schools in addition to
in numerous ornamental motifs, such as Quranic calligraphy their social, political, and religious functions. Frequently
and in certain expressive patterns of devotion, including under the tutelage of a teacher also fulfilling the role of the
localized pilgrimage practices, that emphasize rituals of rev- local imam or designated prayer leader, masjids not only
erent recollection or dhikr, colorful festivals honoring saints, provided training for children, with a curriculum concenand a variety of spiritual exercises associated with Sufi teachings. trated on the memorization of the Quran and the acquisition
of basic literacy skills, but less formally these same institu-
The construction styles and, to some degree, the uses of tions provided advanced instruction, legal counsel, and spirimasjids have been adapted creatively over the centuries to tual guidance to members of the community at large.
conditions prevailing in the many settings where Islam was
implanted and flourished. In the earlier period, many churches, A related development inseparable from masjids involves
synagogues, and temples that were converted into masjids their pivotal place in the establishment and the flourishing of
contributed significant influences to aspects of subsequent the great medieval centers of learning throughout the Islamic
masjid design, helping give rise to highly distinct indigenous world. This capacity to provide and to maintain fruitful
idioms exhibited in the size, the shapes, and the lines of settings for scholarship and inquiry owed much to the priviminarets, domes, facades, arcades, floor plans, portals, and leges traditionally accorded to masjids, which included varithe internal furnishings characteristic of such particular styles ous juridical protections of resources derived from donations,
identified, for instance, as Arab, Andalusian, Persian, Mongol, patronage, or endowments. Although modern schools in the
Mamluk, or Ottoman. More recently, a variety of notable Muslim world, including most universities, follow Western
contemporary masjids have been erected, not only in the old curricular models, masjids retain their distinctive impact in

438 Islam and the Muslim World
Masjid

In New Delhi, thousands of Muslims pray at the Jami Masjid, also known as the Mosque of the Mogul emperor Shah Jahan, during Id al-Fitr
(Festival of Breaking the Fast) at the end of Ramadan in 1999. The Mosque was built in 1650. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

the formation of religious professionals and others seeking to featuring the establishment of privately funded masjids, some
deepen their knowledge of the tradition. locally sponsored, others affiliated with larger regional groupings or transnational organizations that may share resources
In today’s world, most masjids have substantially reduced and provide important forms of assistance not readily otheror shed the wide range of practical involvements that once wise available. Many such independent masjids, evincing
integrated them on multiple levels into the whole fabric of various ideological orientations and seeking to recover the
society. Centralized bureaucracies under state authority have active autonomy of masjids belonging to a prior era, have
generally taken over the tasks of education, social welfare, the come to play a dynamic part in efforts to forge new bases of
administration of justice, or the maintenance of order, desig- public participation, promote social improvement, religious
nating specialized institutions and personnel as responsible renewal, and political reform.
for providing these services. In most cases, masjids have
likewise tended to restrict their work to a more explicitly See also
Ibadat; Khutba; Manar, Manara; Mihrab;
defined set of religious activities. This trend has been espe- Minbar (Mimbar); Religious Institutions.
cially evident in traditional Islamic lands, where their construction and supervision is typically funded and managed by
BIBLIOGRAPHY
a government ministry that appoints those who hold positions in masjids and oversees their operations. Affes, Habib, et al. La Mosquée dans la Cité. Paris: Éditions La
Medina, 2001.
However, this widespread movement toward the incorpo- Frishman, Martin, and Khan, Hasan-Uddin, eds. The Mosque:
ration of masjids into national regulatory systems has been History, Architectural Development and Regional Diversity.
accompanied by an array of elite and popular responses London: Thames and Hudson, 1994.

Islam and the Muslim World 439
Maslaha

Joseph, Roger. “The Semiotics of the Islamic Mosque” Arab social good of the Muslim umma (community), thus follow-
Studies Quarterly 3, no. 3 (1981): 285–295. ing Ghazali and medieval jurists but for modernist purposes.
Pedersen, Johannes. “Masdjid” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2d
ed. Leiden: Brill, 1960. For
Abduh, maslaha took precedence over the sources of
the law in cases of necessary social reform. He and other
Patrick D. Gaffney modernists took the concept of maslaha a step further by
using it as an argument against prophetic traditions (hadith)
and religious practices that were difficult to justify in modern
times. Islamist critics of the modernists rejected the notion of
MASLAHA permitting any principle other than those contained in the
sharia to take precedence over the sources of the law. None-
Maslaha is an Arabic term that, in law and social ethics, means theless, the principle of maslaha remains of vital interest and
“the common social good or welfare.” Medieval jurists and discussion among Muslim jurists, theologians, and social
theologians defined maslaha in contrast to its antonym, mafsada, theorists in contemporary Islamic thought.
which means “that which causes or constitutes a harm.”
According to historical and legal texts, it was the second See also
Abduh, Muhammad; Ethics and Social Issues;
caliph,
Umar ibn al-Khattab (r. 634–644), who applied the Ghazali, al-; Law; Shari
a.
principle of pursuing public policies that contribute to the
common good over those that do not, although he did not use BIBLIOGRAPHY
the term maslaha, as such. The issue arose over the booty Kerr, Malcolm H. Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal
taken by Muslim militias during the conquest of Iraq and Theories of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida. Berkeley:
beyond during his reign: how should captured land be di- University of California Press, 1966.
vided? In many cases, material goods and property taken in
battle were distributed among the warriors as payment for
Richard C. Martin
their actions on behalf of Islam. The caliph
Umar ruled that,
in the case of the rich alluvial land in southern Iraq between
the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, the land should remain
under the control of the state, to serve as a source of tax
MATERIAL CULTURE
income. This would allow a land tax (kharaj) to be levied
against owners, to be used for the general good (umum al-
This article describes and discusses some aspects of the
naf) of Muslim believers.
material culture of Islam to underscore and appreciate the
The medieval theologian and jurist, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali diversities of Islamic societies and emphasize the ability of
(d. 1111), argued that maslaha is the main intent of sharia, the Islamic communities to use objects, artifacts, and forms of
sacred law of Islam. It is the purpose of the law to offer expression as media on and with which to express faith,
guidance and governance in establishing a state in which the identity, and status. The importance of sacred spaces, such as
religious and material welfare of Muslim believers is main- the mosque; aesthetic expressive forms like art and music; and
tained and preserved. Ghazali and other medieval theorists identity types including dresses, garbs, and regalia, are disheld that, while the general welfare of Muslims with respect cussed with a clear vision that their importance in Islamic
to needs and improvements should be linked to the sharia societies emanates from their conformity with teachings on
through legal reasoning, that which was deemed in context to Islamic law, morality, theology, and mysticism.
be necessary to the welfare of the community required no
other justification for implementation. The material culture of Islam includes objects, artifacts,
and facets of Islamic arts created in diverse Islamic communi-
The nineteenth-century Egyptian reformer and modern- ties in the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Ameriist theologian, Muhammad
Abduh (d. 1905), also found cas. Comprising cultural products of spiritual reflections,
great value in the legal conceit of maslaha. Like Ghazali eight they are embedded in the Muslim ethos and worldview but
centuries earlier,
Abduh was a seminal thinker who gave also function to facilitate learning and mediation of social
clear articulation to the intellectual currents of his age. In interactions and relations. Broadly, the utility derived from
nineteenth-century Egypt and elsewhere, Western legal such products and their performance is expected to conform
thought and colonial rule was having an enormous influence to acceptable Islamic symbolism and communicative functions.
on Islamic laws and courts, in effect challenging their authority and relevance.
Abduh argued that the demands on Mus- Architecture
lims to find religious guidance in the ever-changing social The mosque or masjid is a center for community prayer
circumstances of modern society necessitated giving prefer- throughout Muslim society that communicates sacred space
ence to those meanings which contributed to the common or history as exemplified in the Ka
ba in Mecca. Mosques also

440 Islam and the Muslim World
Material Culture

reveal a complexity of issues including the expressions of the authority among male Muslims. A West African Muslim male
diversity of faith and its practicality as manifest in the multi- would hardly venture outside without his hula, and the
ple identities in Muslim societies. Exemplifying Muslim aes- Swahili man is incomplete if he does not have his kofia during
thetics grounded in the religions, epistemology, the mosque social occasions. Any Muslim may wear a cap but the position
is situated and created not as an obsolete innovation but as the attributed to the individual is also gathered from the expresproduct of the thoughts, experiences, and environments of its sive importance of the quality of fabrics and the ornate
interlocutors. As works of art, mosques are not created ex designs of the kofia or hula. Those with intricate patterns like
nihilo but their sophistication in form and image represents jani la mbaazi (the green pea leaf), or chapa msikiti (the mosque
the very essence and symbolism of Islamic cultures of sa- design), are the most adorned in East African Islam. Among
cred space. Hijaz Arabs the ghutra (white scarf) is a modern innovation of
official dress when topped with the igal, or black rope crown,
Clothing while men in Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine usually wear a white
The religious symbolism expressed in sacred buildings also or red- or black-checked kufiyya with the iqal. Historically,
manifests in the material cultures exemplified and traced among urban men the most common form of headcovering
through clothing and adorned regalia. Muslim conventions was the taqiyya, a small cap, covered by an imama, an
of dress and garb form potent symbols of identification and embroidered silk scarf that was larger than the ghutra, and
lifestyles. Some historical apparel probably worn for special was wrapped tightly around the head. This practice largely
occasions was preserved in respectful memories of its genteel died out as men started wearing fezzes in the twentieth
or famous owners, usually rulers and their progenitors. Other century, and now most male city dwellers in Arab cities leave
garbs are worn for their ascribed powers, especially their their heads bare.
ability to protect the wearer and ward off evil. Famous in this
category of protective regalia are the talismanic shirts worn Decorative Arts, Writing, and Music
by various sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Embroidered in Islamic material culture also embraces varied facets of visual
expensive silks and calligraphic verses of the Quran and and decorative arts. These items have no ascribed tangible
other paraphernalia, talismanic shirts were gowns and garbs value but are useful in expressing and transmitting rememattributed with sacred qualities, but they also embodied the bered emotions and have a role in evoking intense social
very essence of mysticism and the magico-religious aspects of reactions. For example, Turkish kilim (rugs) hanging on the
Islam. Sacred garbs also include the khirqa, literally meaning walls of living rooms have no tangible meanings, except for
the memory of a glorious past visit to Istanbul. The expres-
“a robe worn,” which are actually garments or specialized
sion of wealth and power could be exhibited through panocloaks worn and revered by the ascetic class, the Sufi. In
plies of objects and repertoires of gestures showing privileged
Sufism aspirants in stages of spiritual pedagogy were beknowledge. The handheld staff, bakora, carried by members
stowed with baraka (blessing) once they were given the khirqa
of Swahili communities, is usually made of wood. It may be
symbolizing that the wearer possesses special qualities from
engraved in gold or laced with ivory, and functions to negotithe master. The felt is a woolen fabric of great social signifi-
ate and symbolize masculine power just as the sword displays
cance that appeared in regions dominated by the Ottoman
authority in the process of negotiating for privileges and
Empire; it played an important part in the lives of Turkomens,
personal identity among Arab groups. In the spiritual realm,
who traditionally lived in tents made of white and black felt
the handheld tasbihi (prayer beads) are a symbol of piety.
symbolizing wealth and poverty. The Kazakhs lived in felt
tents known as kiyiz uy. Felt-making was widespread among The material culture of Islam may include the written arts
the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks and their craftsmen played an represented by a variety of script forms. Writing developed in
important role in the mystic trade organization known as ahi. Islamic societies because of the need to record every syllable
One of the most pronounced felt products is the stiff felt of the revelation of the Quran. Thus, the written script was
cloak, the kepenek, a distinctive garment worn by shepherds to revered and its mastery became an accomplishment for any
protect themselves from heat in summer and from cold and Muslim. In its nascent development as a liturgical script form,
wet in winter. The most famous felt garment of all is the tall writing depended on Sufi expressions of piety as its calligraphic
conical cap, sikke, made in the city of Konya in Turkey and form became the manifestation of spirituality, that is, of
worn by the Mevlevi dervishes. inward perfection. Calligraphy attains levels of religious
consecration because its production entails notions that pu-
The long-sleeved white gown (thob) and headcoverings rity of writing is purity of soul, thus making stern ascetic
(taqiyya and khafiya) of the Arabian peninsula accompanied demands on the master calligrapher. Works of Islamic callig-
Islam as it spread and became almost hallmarks of Islamic raphy are revered objects of material cultures, exhibited in
identity. African Muslim communities have internalized and museums, homes, and other places of historical preservation.
indigenized some of these gowns, including the East African
loose caftan top for men, the kanzu, and the cap, or kofia. The Various musical genres have developed in Islamic comcap is the most visible communicator of identity and religious munities and one type, the taarab, is popular among Muslims

Islam and the Muslim World 441
Maturidi, al-

In Islamabad, Pakistan, traditional caps are displayed at a market. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

in East Africa. Taarob, which means “to be moved, or agitated Stillman, Yedida Kalfon. Arab Dress: A Short History from the
by the sound of music,” includes both vocal and instrumental Dawn of Islam to Modern Times. Edited by Norman A.
forms like the bashraf, which is played with a variety of Stillman. Leiden Boston: Brill, 2000.
instruments, such as the nai, udi, and zeze.
Hassan Mwakimako
The material culture of Islam ranges widely and represents a cross-fertilization of common ideas and religious
expressions in global Islamic communities, nevertheless displaying unity in diversity.
MATURIDI, AL- (?–944)
See also African Culture and Islam; American Culture
and Islam; Architecture; Art; Calligraphy; Central Al-Maturidi, a major figure among Hanafite scholars of the
Asian Culture and Islam; Clothing; European Culture Transoxiana (Mawara al-nahr) region of Central Asia, and
and Islam; Music; South Asian Culture and Islam; the founder of the Maturidite school of kalam, was known as
Southeast Asian Culture and Islam. Abu Mansur Muhammad b. Muhammad. He was born in
Maturid (or Maturit), a neighborhood close to Samarqand, in
BIBLIOGRAPHY present-day Uzbekistan, in the second half of ninth century
Dilley, R. “Tukolor Weaving Origin Myths: Islam and and died there in 944. Sources name Abu Bakr Ahmad al-
Reinterpretation.” The Diversity of the Muslim Community: Juzjani and Abu Nasr Ahmad b. al-
Abbas al-Iyadi among his
Anthropological Essays in Memory of Peter Lienhardt. Edited teachers.
by Ahmed Al-Shahi. London: Ithaca Press, 1987.
Hodder, Ian. The Meaning of Things: Material Culture and Al-Maturidi had an extensive knowledge of other beliefs
Symbolic Expressions. London and Boston: Unwin and responded to views of Christians and Jews regarding the
Hyman, 1989. doctrines of trinity and prophecy, as well as to Dualists,
Miller, Daniel. Material Culture and Mass Consumption. Oxford, Manichaeans, Zoroastrians, and other ancient Persian or
U.K., and New York: Blackwell, 1989. Indian religions. Moreover, al-Maturidi is a primary source

442 Islam and the Muslim World
Maududi, Abu l-Ala


for modern researchers on some controversial thinkers in bringing into existence (takwin) is a divine attribute, whether
Islamic intellectual history such as Ibn al-Rawandi, Abu Isa the actions of God are created, or whether good and bad are
al-Warraq, and Muhammad b. Shabib. rationally known, and so on. But these differences are not
major and are usually regarded as methodological.
He wrote many works, among which Kitab al-tawhid (On
divine unity) is the main source of his theology. His Quranic See also Ash
arites, Ash
aira; Central Asia, Islam in;
commentary Ta
wilat al-Qur
an includes rational interpreta- Kalam; Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila.
tions on theological and juridical verses. Among his lost
books, Kitab al-maqalat was about early Muslim theological BIBLIOGRAPHY
groups, and Ma
Khadh al-Shar
i and Kitab al-Jadal were on
Ceric, Mustafa. Roots of Synthetic Theology in Islam: A Study of
Islamic legal methodology. Three of his other books in the
the Theology of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi. Kuala Lumpur:
list given by al-Nasafi are refutations of Abul-Qasim al-
ISTAC, 1995.
Balkhi’s works, who is known as al-Ka
bi; two are against the
principles (usul) and derivations (furu) of al-Qaramita; one is Frank, Richard M. “Notes and Remarks on the Tabai in the
Teaching of al-Maturidi.” In Mélanges d’Islamologie. Edited
against al-Bahili’s Usul al-khamsa; and another is against
by Pierre Salmon. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974.
Mu
tazilism.
Özervarli, M. Sait. “The Authenticity of the Manuscript of
Al-Maturidi had a high standing among the Hanafite Maturidi’s Kitab al-Tawhid: A Re-examination.” Turkish
jurists of his age in Central Asia and their followers. He took a Journal of Islamic Studies 1 (1997): 19–29.
middle position between the Mu
tazila and the Ash
ariyya in Pessagno, J. Meric. “Intellect and Religious Assent.” The
some controversial subjects, such as free will, the attributes of Muslim World 69, no. 1 (1979): 18–27.
God, and so on. His doctrine was in some cases more Watt, W. Montgomery. “The Problem of al-Maturidi.” In
rationalist than Ash
ari’s and closer to Mu
tazilism. On the Mélanges d’Islamologie. Edited by Pierre Salmon. Leiden:
issue of predestination and human will, as the best examples E. J. Brill, 1974.
of his thought, Maturidi tried to preserve both human freedom and divine omniscience without resorting to fatalism or M. Sait Özervarli
a deistic approach. According to al-Maturidi, since the Quran
gives moral responsibility to each person, human beings
possess free will. There is no imposition by God on human actions, but human beings cannot create their actions
MAUDUDI, ABU L-A
LA
or realize their potential without God’s will and permission, which is the difference between al-Maturidi and the
(1903–1979)
Mu
tazilites on this issue. Maturidi’s formula about human
actions was formed of free intention (kasb) of an action by a It was in the 1930s that Abu l-A
la Maududi from Aurangabad,
human and creation (khalq) of this action by God if He wills. India formulated his political ideas about state and govern-
Human acts are thus acts of God in one respect, yet in another ment, which had a great impact on the Muslim world.
aspect (in reality not metaphorically) humans’ acts are by Maududi was, like many Islamists of his time, an autodidact
their free choice (ikhtiyar). A person’s power to act is valid for and an intellectual. He started his career as a journalist
opposite acts of right and wrong. God’s creation of human working for the Deobandi-based political party Jam
iyat-e
acts according to their own choice does not prevent human
Ulama-e Hind (JUH), but soon distanced from the party and
freedom, because human capacity (istitaa) is already limited. in 1932 founded his own Urdu-language journal Tarjuman
al-Qur
an in Hyderabad, India. In contrast to the JUH, which
Al-Maturidi’s school begins with his immediate follower, postulated composite nationalism (muttahida qaumiyyat), and
associate and student Abu ’l-Hasan al-Rustughfeni (d. 956). also in contrast to Muhammad Iqbal’s idea of a Muslim state
Abu Nasr al-Iyazi’s two sons, Abu Ahmad Nasr and Abu Bakr (territorial nationalism), Maududi postulated a third alterna-
Muhammad, were both students of al-Maturidi’s and al- tive when he began to Islamize the political discourse of the
Rustughfeni. However, the outstanding followers of his school nationalists and freedom fighters: An Islamic state must
were from a later generation. Abu ’l-Yusr al-Pazdavi (d. correspond to the Islamic ideology through which the divine
1099), a chief qadi of Samarkand at the end of the eleventh order can be realized on earth. A Muslim should believe in the
century and the author of Usul al-din, was the first among sovereignty of God rather than in the idea of a government of
them. Another follower, Abu ’l-Muin al-Nasafi (d. 1115), was the people, through the people, and for the people. Hence,
considered the second founder of Maturidism, and his role in Muslims did not represent a nation, but the party of God,
that school is compared to that of al-Baqillani among Ash
arites. which acts as God’s agent on earth (khalifa). For this aim, he
Maturidite scholars differ from Ash
arites, the other Sunni considered self-purification a prerequisite. Toward the end
kalam school, on a few theological questions such as whether of the 1930s he was convinced that the creation of a Muslim

Islam and the Muslim World 443
Mazalim

state would not be the right method of reform, because the BIBLIOGRAPHY
un-Islamic politicians were not able to create an Islamic state. Ahmad, Khurshid, and Ansari, Zafar Ishaq, eds. Islamic Perspectives; studies in honour of Mawlana Sayyid Abul Ala
To put his ideas into practice, in 1941 the Islamic classicist Mawdadi. London: The Islamic Foundation, 1979.
Maududi founded the Jama
at-e Islami (Islamic Commu-
Nasr, Seyyed. Vali Reza: Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic
nity)—which he led until 1972 as its president—and postu- Revivalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
lated the sovereignty of God on Earth (hakimiyat-e ilahi) in a
universal, ideologically Islamic nation. After 1947, he tried to Jamal Malik
materialize this idea of an imagined community in the constitution of Pakistan, where he, along with the majority of his
community, eventually emigrated. Hence he accepted the
idea of a nation-state, which he had rejected formerly. His MAZALIM
Jama
at won much influence, especially among young intellectuals and the middle class in the years to come. The word “mazalim” is the plural of mazlima, which means
iniquity, act of injustice, or wrong doing. In terms of Islamic
Maududi was the first to work toward an Islamic constitu- judicial system, mazalim denotes a special type of court,
tion, and his endeavors were partly incorporated in the where sessions for hearing cases of injustices are held or
Objectives Resolution of 1949, which was incorporated in supervised by the supreme political authority, or by one of his
turn into the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, close deputies or other high-ranking authority.
according to which Pakistan was to be an Islamic state. His
rather state-apologetic interpretation of Islam, on which he In the view of al-Mawardi (d. 1058), the institution of
had elaborated in his Islamic Law and Constitution (1955), mazalim existed in the pre-Islamic Arab community and also
made him and his party collaborate with the government at under the Sassanid regime. Mawardi mentions Caliph
Umar
several instances—for example, during the reign of Zia ul- Ibn
Abd al-
Aziz of the Umayyads, as well as caliphs al-
Haq—though Maududi himself was imprisoned several times Mahdi, al-Hadi, al-Rahsid, al-Mamun, and al-Muhtadi of
on the charge of being disloyal to Pakistan. the Abbasids as important leaders who employed hearings in
the mazalim to distribute justice.
His argument was that the wrong interpretation of the
A session of mazalim requires the presence of five types of
Quran’s basic principles had led the people astray, which had
assistants. These are the guards, the qadis, the faqihs, the
resulted in the loss of religious and cultural identity, due to
secretaries (to keep records), and the notaries (to witness).
misguided mystics (Sufis) among others. It was important to
The jurisdiction of this court extends to the adjudication of
leave the jahiliyya (the pre-Islamic state of ignorance) behind
abuse of power related cases involving both officials and nonand return to the righteous society here and now. The
officials. It also deals with the issues of restitution of properreconstruction of an idealized pure Islamic society would
ties taken by force, the supervision of waqf (pious endowguarantee the iteration of the original Muslim community
ments), the enforcement of public order that exceeds ordinary
(umma). This required Muslims to live according to the sunna
internal security measures, the enforcement of judgments
of the Prophet, based on a transnational view of the golden
that exceed the authority of the ordinary judges, the enforceage of the Prophet and the first generations. It implied a
ment of public duty issues such as Friday prayers, feasts,
reinvention of tradition. With this argument Maududi crepilgrimage, jihad, and other extraordinary events. The mazalim
ated a new normative and formative past, and an absence of is also called to provide arbitration between conflicting parties.
historical records allowed him to regard himself an exponent
of the projected imagined Islamic society, or jamaat, as the The main difference between the mazalim and the ordiavant-gardist, who considered himself authorized to establish nary judicial courts is that the supervisor of mazalim (sahib alrenewal (tajdid). Ijtihad, for example, the maximum effort to mazalim or nazir al-mazalim) has extra discretionary power.
ascertain, in a given problem or issue, the injunction of Islam The ordinary judge is bound by the limitations of convenand its real intent, was the proper channel for that process. tional judicial system, whereas the supervisor of mazalim
The concept of history informed by the notion of constant enjoys greater procedural latitude. For instance, he may
decay, already developed in his Muslims and the Present Politi- obtain evidence in ways might be unacceptable to an ordinary
cal Crisis (1937–1939), was the basic motivation for his activ- court’s judge. The supervisor of the mazalim also is free to
ism, which he wanted to implement through education. impose arbitrational settlements that are binding on the
contesting parties. This option is unavailable to the judge in
Maududi gained great fame throughout the Islamic world an ordinary court. In other words, the uniqueness of the
and became a member of several societies and a founding mazalim lies in the breadth of its supervisors’ discretionary
member of the Rabitat al-
Alam al-Islami in 1961. power and political authority.

See also Jama
at-e Islami; Political Islam. See also Caliphate; Law; Religious Institutions.

444 Islam and the Muslim World
Medicine

BIBLIOGRAPHY Takaungu, never rendered tribute to the Busaidi, nor recog-
Liebesny, Herbert, J. The Law of the Near and Middle East: nized their sovereignty over East Africa, and Busaidi attempts
Readings, Cases, and Materials. Albany: State University of in the 1850s and the 1870s to force his submission were both
New York Press, 1975. failures. Active resistance ended when a final, pointless Mazrui
Nielsen, J. S. “Mazalim.” In Vol. VI, The Enyclopaedia of Islam. uprising was defeated by British forces in 1896, forcing
Edited by C. E. Bosworth, et al. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990. Mbaruk to end his days exiled in another colonial possession,
German East Africa.
Osman Tastan
Even before Mbaruk’s defeat, some Mazrui had discovered intellectual resistance to be effective. Originally Ibadi
Muslims, like the Busaidi and their Omani allies, in the 1800s
MAZRUI, MAZRU
I many Mazrui converted to the Shafi
i sect prevalent in East
Africa. One in particular,
Abdallah b.
Ali, made the hajj and
Although historically associated with the city of Mombasa, converted soon after 1837. His descendants, including
Ali b.
Kenya, originally the Mazrui (Ar. Mazru
i) were native to the
Abdallah and al-Amin bin Ali Mazrui, became some of the
Rustaq region of Oman. By the early eighteenth century, they most influential Shafi
i qadis in Kenya. More recently, scions
began settling the coast of Kenya and Pemba Island until, of this particular family have enjoyed considerable popularity
altogether, fourteen Mazrui clans came to be represented in in Africa and the United States as educators and modernizers
East Africa. Mazrui accounts claim that the imam of Oman of African institutions.
sent Nasir bin
Abdallah Mazrui as his representative (liwali)
in Mombasa soon after capturing Fort Jesus from the Portu-
See also Africa, Islam in; Zanzibar, Sa
idi Sultanate of.
guese in 1698. However, other sources suggest Nasir arrived
around 1727. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mazrui, Al-Amin bin Ali. A History of the Mazrui Dynasty of
Beginning with Nasir, the Mazrui administered Mombasa Mombasa. London: Oxford University Press, 1995.
as its principal ruling family until the Busaidi sultan of Nicholls, Christine. The Swahili Coast. New York: Africana,
Zanzibar, Sayyid Sa
id bin Sultan, replaced them with his 1971.
own representative in 1837. Altogether, the Mazrui provided Pouwels, Randall L. Horn and Crescent: Cultural Change and
Mombasa with a succession of eleven liwalis, which was Traditional Islam on the East African Coast: 800–1900.
terminated when Sa
id kidnapped and murdered Rashid bin Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Salim and twenty-four tribal elders. In 1741, Liwali Muham- Salim, Ahmad Idha. The Swahili-Speaking Peoples of Kenya’s
mad bin
Uthman Mazrui had refused to acknowledge the Coast, 1895–1965. Nairobi: East African Publishing
Busaidi tribe as the new imams of Oman. Further acts of House, 1973.
Mazrui defiance damaged their already poor relations with
the Busaidi, making a violent outcome inevitable. Randall L. Pouwels
Much remains controversial about Mazrui rule in Mombasa.
A Mazrui history claims they exercised a true mastery over
Mombasa’s affairs, and that their dominion extended over MECCA See Holy Cities
“most of the Swahili country.” However, a careful reading of
all available sources indicates that their rule was totally
contingent on support and alliances with Mombasa’s Swahili
citizens and their Mijikenda neighbors. Loss of this support
in 1835 quickly led to the Mazrui downfall. Imperialist MEDICINE
ambitions to widen their influence through interference in
the affairs of neighboring coastal states like Tanga, Wasin, Medicine has been an integral part of Islamic intellectual life
and Pate were resented and frequently resisted. Also, the and social institutions from the time of the Prophet. This
Mazrui not only allowed a considerable trade in slaves at brief description will touch on the diverse origins of medical
Mombasa, but most probably participated in it. In later years, knowledge in Islam; the development of hospitals, medical
like many coastal Muslims, they exploited slave labor in the practice, and medical knowledge during the Islamic “Golden
areas they settled around Mombasa and Takaungu. Age” (the latter half of the seventh century through the
thirteenth century C.E.); the role of the Islamic world in
Although they lost Mombasa, after 1837 the Mazrui protecting, elaborating, and reintroducing Hellenic medicontinued to resist Omani and European imperialism and to cine to Europe after the Dark Ages; and contemporary issues
play a significant part in the history of Kenya. To avoid including the development of Islamic medical organizations
Busaidi predominance in Mombasa, many resettled in Pemba, dedicated to the assertion and protection of the religious
Gazi, and Takaungu after 1837. One, Mbaruk bin Rashid of context of the practice of medicine.

Islam and the Muslim World 445
Medicine

Medicine in the Time of the Prophet In 765 C.E., an eminent Christian physician who headed
The tribes that inhabited what is now Saudi Arabia at the time the medical school at Jund-e Shapur, Jurjis Bukhtishu, was
of the prophet Muhammad had a great deal of traditional invited to Baghdad by the caliph al-Mansur to treat him. He
medicine. As medical thinking and knowledge became ex- did this successfully, and was appointed to the court. Although
planatory and inductive with the parallel development of he returned to Jund-e Shapur, his son migrated to Baghdad
scientific thought in general, much of this traditional knowl- and set up a successful medical practice. Other prominent
edge was preserved and some of it expressed in religious medical men and their offspring soon joined an emigration to
thinking. At the same time, distinct medical traditions were Baghdad, which became a medical focal point with many
well developed in India, Persia, China, and Greece. Early hospitals and medical centers and a great deal of scientific and
Islamic medicine drew upon all of these traditions. The intellectual activity of all sorts, most of which drew on Greek
Quran itself contains limited specific medical text, although intellectual tradition. That the medical experts of Jund-e
there is important guidance in prescribing breastfeeding as Shapur and later of Baghdad were accomplished linguists
the right of every child, in proscribing intoxicants and the who opened the Islamic empire to knowledge from the rest of
meat of certain animals, and in commentary on the beneficial the world and made Arabic the primary language of the time
health effects of some natural foods. However, the hadith for documentation in medicine, science, philosophy, and
(authenticated sayings and deeds of the Prophet) and its many other fields.
interpretations contain rich and detailed material on preventive and curative medicine, dietetics, and spiritual health. During the several centuries that followed, hospitals and
Early in the Islamic tradition these sources were collected and medical schools were established and thrived throughout the
eventually became known as al-Tibb al-Nabawi (Medicine of the Islamic world, with the largest and most notable in Damas-
Prophet, or Prophetic Medicine). These collections remained cus, Cairo, and Cordoba. These facilities established tradidistinct from the Persian, Indian, and Greek sources that tions of treatment free of charge to the patient and acceptance
early Islamic physicians drew upon, although they interacted of all in need of treatment without regard to means, religion,
with these traditions through their work. The best-known age, or gender. The development, enrichment, and encycloversion is that of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, writing in Damas- pedic documentation of medicine in the Islamic world of the
cus in the late eleventh century C.E. Translated into many time was led by a series of individuals, some of whom were
languages and widely accessible to Muslims the world over, true “Renaissance men” of their times. The guidance of
the Medicine of the Prophet forms the rationale for many several of these (al-Razi, al-Zaharwi, Ibn Sina) will be briefly
aspects of everyday Muslim life in terms of health protection
mentioned, but they are among many other eminent conand promotion—for example, injunctions against overeating;
tributors to medicine from this period.
prescriptions for the spiritual and psychological care of the
bereaved and traumatized; encouragement of moderation in Abu Bakr Mohammed ibn Zakariyya al-Razi (known as
all things; and much specific instruction on everyday food, Rhazes in the West) was born near what is now Tehran in
drink, rest, and sexual behavior. middle of the seventh century C.E. Al-Razi was accomplished
in many spheres, and came to the study of medicine relatively
The Development of Islamic Medicine
late in life after a visit to Baghdad and a hospital there, which
The schisms within European Christianity in the fourth and
he later directed. There are many stories about al-Razi’s skill
fifth centuries C.E. paved the way for a shift of focus outside
Europe for development of the profession. When Nestorius, as a practitioner. One famous account addresses his knack for
the Patriarch of Byzantium, and his followers were forced out environmental health. The story goes that he was asked at
of Europe a large pool of intellectuals moved to the Middle some time during his career to choose the location for a new
East, many to Jund-e Shapur, a city in what is now southwest- hospital in Baghdad. He did this by observing fresh meat
ern Iran that was already home to a thriving intellectual hanging in various parts of the city and choosing the area
community including Syrians, Persians, and Jews and where a based on where the meat took the longest to spoil. He was a
medical school was well established. When Justinian I (527–565 diligent teacher, a skilled diagnostician, and a prolific writer.
C.E.) expelled “heathen philosophers” from Athens, the Hel- His written works number in the hundreds. The largest,
lenic medical tradition based on Galen and others was trans- which is a huge compilation of case studies and notes edited
planted to the fertile soil of Jund-e Shapur where it thrived and published by al-Razi’s students after his death, has been
amid a community of scholars who translated the Greek called al-Hawa (the Continent); a thirteenth-century Latin
medical works into Arabic either directly or through transla- translation was entitled Continens. This work summarized
tions into Syriac. Manuscripts from other regions including essentially all of the medical writings preceding al-Razi’s time
India and China were also translated and when Islam ex- as well as his own observations. His most famous piece was a
panded into Egypt, Greek manuscripts from Alexandria also much shorter monograph in which he distinguished smallbecame available. A short time before, the Persians had been pox, chicken pox, and measles; this work translated to Latin
conquered by Muslim armies under the first caliph, giving the was called de Pestilentia and formed the basis for much future
Muslims access to Jund-e Shapur. work on these highly contagious diseases.

446 Islam and the Muslim World
Medicine

Several centuries later, the dual influence of al-Zahrawi in Medicine in Contemporary Islam
the West and Ibn Sina in the East were pivotal. Abu ’l-Qasim Today, the infrastructure and content of medicine as it is
al-Zahrawi lived from about 930 to 1013 C.E. and was known practiced in the Islamic world is compatible with and even
as the “greatest surgeon of Islam.” Zahrawi lived in the formed in the image of European and other Western models.
western caliphate, near Cordoba, and attended the University Ironically, the only part of the world in which the corpus of
of Cordoba. He is most famous for his command of analgesia (largely Greek) theory that constituted the medical knowland anesthesia, utilizing opium and other natural narcotics edge of early Islamic history is still taught is in South Asia,
and depressants, and the theory and practice of surgery. He where there are schools and licensure for practitioners of
invented many surgical instruments and wrote what is no “Tibb Unani” (“Greek Medicine”). In most of the Muslim
doubt the first textbook of surgery. Although ignored through- world, however, medical education and practice is largely
out most of the eastern part of the Islamic world at the time, consistent with that in the West, with a structure of specialhis influence on Europe was very significant. ties, supervisory responsibility and liability, curricula, and
requirements for continuing medical education for practi-
Ibn Sina (known as Avicenna in the West) lived just a bit tioners. However, the last several decades have seen a movelater (980–1037 C.E.). He was born in Persia in what is now ment toward development of consciously Muslim perspectives
Isfahan, Iran. Like many medical men of his time, he was an in medicine.
intellectual in a complete sense, writing on philosophy, music, military strategy, mathematics, and other subjects as well A notable recent change has been the reentry of women
as medicine. His greatest medical work was the Qanun fi al- into medicine throughout the Muslim world. There has
tibb, a five-volume treatise based on Greek knowledge and never been a prohibition on female physicians, nor on the
including Ayurvedic writings from India, some Chinese medi- treatment of patients of either gender by a male or female
cine, and other available sources. The Qanun included discus- doctor. Aside from the doctrine that “necessity overrides
sions of almost all ailments imaginable, as well as health prohibition,” the hadith states clearly that treatment should
promotion focusing on diet, the environment, and climate; it depend solely on the needs of the patient and the capability of
also included a huge materia medica including many medicinal the doctor. Indeed, the precedent for female doctors was set
plants and the drugs that could be derived from them. His by the Prophet’s own entirely female medical corps that
theory of infection by “traces,” together with the Prophet’s accompanied his armies into battle. As medicine became an
earlier injunction to avoid travel to or from places in which intellectual pursuit requiring literacy and education, skills
plague was present, led to the introduction of quarantine as a that were the province of men in most Muslim societies, the
means of limiting the spread of infectious diseases. Although profession became almost entirely male. As education has
he also wrote in his native Persian, Ibn Sina’s medical works more recently included women, they have moved back into
were penned in Arabic, which faciliated the reintroduction of medicine without formal barriers and with enthusiasm.
scientific medicine in Europe as the Dark Ages gave way to
the European Renaissance. This process paralleled a period Recently there has been particularly active dialogue and
of decline in Islamic influence and hegemony. introspection around issues of bioethics and the conduct of
the Muslim medical practitioner in the religious context.
The Re-Introduction of Medical Science to Europe Noteable in this context is the Islamic Organization for
The Arabic text of Ibn Sina’s Qanun was published in Rome in Medical Sciences (IOMS) (<http://www.islamset.com>), es-
1593, and was one of the first Arabic books to be printed. The tablished in 1984 in Kuwait with an objective of serving the
entire text had been translated into Latin two centuries entire Muslim world. In its brief history IOMS has held
earlier. This encyclopedic work soon became the preeminent multiple conferences on the heritage of Islam in medicine,
medical text in Europe and was depended upon for four established a World Health Organization Collaborating
hundred years by the major medical schools on the continent. Research Center focused on traditional medicinal plants, and
It was published in no less than sixteen editions, in Milan, published a number of works focusing on ethical issues
Padua, and Venice throughout the 1400s and 1500s; the last
including Muslim definitions of the beginning and end of life,
edition for textbook use was published in 1658. Ibn Sina’s
the use of newer reproductive technologies, care of the aged,
writings, and the antecedent Islamic works on which he drew,
and, recently, the impact of globalization on health and
thus formed the route by which the Arabic repository of
health care in the Islamic world. An Islamic Oath of the
Hellenic medicine, greatly expanded and enriched, was
Doctor was developed by an IOMS conference, and is now
reintroduced to Europe. The subsequent major scientific
widely published and used.
advancements that came with Claude Bernard’s (quite compatible) theory of the internal milieu, van Leewenhoek’s An early anatomical drawing appears in the volume two
discovery of the microscope, and other advances quickly color insert.
pushed medicine to a secular, empirical basis and the importance of the contributions of the Arabic texts was largely See also Body, Significance of; Ethics and Social Issues;
forgotten. Falsafa; Science, Islam and.

Islam and the Muslim World 447
Medina

BIBLIOGRAPHY normative example, the hadith. As one entrusted with knowl-
Bakar, Osman. The History and Philosophy of Islamic Science. edge, and with the obligation to uphold “God’s right[s],” al-
Cambridge, U.K.: Islamic Texts Society, 1999. Mamun wanted therefore to see to it that false beliefs about
Hathout, Hassan. Islamic Perspectives in Obstetrics and Gyne- the Quran were rectified.
cology. Kuwait: Islamic Organization for Medical
Most of those who were examined on the question of the
Sciences, 1986.
Quran’s createdness—by al-Mamun’s governor of Baghdad,
Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences. Overview of the by the caliph himself, or by his officials in the provinces—
Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences. Kuwait:
ended up declaring their adherence to the caliphal position.
IOMS, 1987.
The most famous dissenter, however, was the noted hadith
Jawziyya, Ibn Quyyim al-. Medicine of the Prophet. Translated scholar of Baghdad, Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855). He, alongby Penelope Johnstone. Cambridge, U.K: Islamic Texts
side another recalcitrant scholar, was sent to al-Mamun’s
Society, 1998.
military camp in Tarsus to be interrogated, but the caliph
Rosenthal, Franz. Science and Medicine in Islam. Brookfield, died before he could attend to the matter and Ibn Hanbal was
Vt.: Gower Publishing Company, 1990. returned to Baghdad. This, however, was only the begin-
Wright, David Lionel. The Legacy of Arabic Medicine during ning of the Mihna, and of Ibn Hanbal’s long and muchthe Golden Age of Islam. Kuwait: Islamic Organization for celebrated ordeal.
Medical Sciences, 1996.
In the history of Islamic theology, the doctrine of the
Gail G. Harrison uncreatedness of the Quran (khalq al-Qur
an) is associated
Osman M. Galal primarily with the rationalist Mu
tazila school. However,
several other theologians also held this position. These theologians have often been characterized in Islamic heresiography
as the “Jahmiyya,” for their putative association with doc-
MEDINA See Holy Cities trines held by an early and much-maligned figure named
Jahm b. Safwan (d. 745). Al-Mamun himself was not a
Mu
tazili, for he did not share the Mu
tazila’s characteristic
doctrine of free will, but he agreed with them on the createdness
of the Quran. Already in 827, the caliph had publicly de-
MIHNA clared his support for this doctrine, though it was only in 833
that he went on to institute the Mihna.
“Mihna” is the Arabic term for a test or a trial. In its most
common historical usage, Mihna refers to the inquisition On his deathbed, al-Mamun left instructions that his
launched by the seventh Abbasid caliph, al-Mamun (r. successor, Abu Ishaq al-Mu
tasim (r. 833–842), continue to
813–833) toward the end of his reign to enforce the doctrine uphold his position on the Quran. During the latter’s reign,
of the createdness of the Quran. The Mihna has loomed Ibn Hanbal was interrogated and flogged for refusing to
large in the way medieval historians represented the reign accept the Quran’s createdness. A central figure during the
and the legacy of al-Mamun, and modern scholars have often Mihna years was the Mu
tazili chief judge, Ahmad Ibn Abi
seen the Mihna and its eventual failure as a major episode in Duad (d. 854), who is represented in Sunni historiography as
the religious and political history of the first centuries of Islam. being far more anxious to continue the Inquisition than the
caliphal successors of al-Mamun themselves might have
History been. Later historians also lay much of the responsibility for
In 833, while at Raqqa in northern Mesopotamia, al-Mamun the flogging of Ibn Hanbal on Ibn Abi Duad. For his part,
wrote to his governor of Baghdad, ordering him to examine Ibn Hanbal is reported to have remained steadfast despite the
the views held by his judges and the scholars of hadith flogging, after which he was released and left alone by the
regarding the Quran. The caliph believed that, contrary to prosecutors of the Mihna. His release is usually explained in
what “ignorant” people thought, the Quran was not eter- Sunni historiography as being due to fears of popular comnally existent—for this was an attribute that belonged only to motion against his persecution, though some (largely unfa-
God—but created by Him, and that this was how God vorable) sources claim the real reason for it to have been that
Himself had spoken of it. Therefore, al-Mamun believed, he too had eventually capitulated to the authorities. This,
supposing the Quran to be uncreated and eternal threatened however, seems unlikely, in view of the severity with which
to compromise the unity (tawhid) of God, and thus to under- Ibn Hanbal himself later treated many of those who had
mine the very foundations of religion. As he lamented in his acknowledged the doctrine of the Quran’s createdness durletters to his governor, most people were too ignorant of the ing the Mihna.
reality of religion to hold sound beliefs about it, and yet
they—and the demagogues who aspired to their leadership— The Inquisition continued under al-Mu
tasim’s successor,
claimed to be the most assiduous followers of Muhammad’s al-Wathiq (r. 842–847), who appears to have pursued it

448 Islam and the Muslim World
Mihna

rather more vigorously than had al-Mu
tasim. Indeed, he As the names of those questioned indicate, however,
went so far as to interrogate Muslim prisoners in Byzantine scholars of hadith were not alone in their tribulation. Some of
captivity about their view of the Quran before deciding those examined also had a record of political opposition to the
whether or not they were to be ransomed. The harshness of caliph, and this suggests that the Mihna’s uses extended
the state’s inquisitorial policies led some people of Baghdad beyond theological speculation and even beyond the caliph’s
to attempt a revolt, but the plot failed and its leader, Ahmad assertion of religious authority. For instance, several recent
ibn Nasr al-Khuza
i, who was closely associated with the authors have observed that Ibrahim b. al-Mahdi was among
scholars of hadith, was executed (c. 845–846). Soon, however, those interrogated during the Mihna. Ibrahim was not a
with the accession of a new caliph—al-Mutawakkil (r. religious scholar but, rather, a prominent member of the
847–861)—the Mihna itself began to unravel. In 849, this Abbasid family and he had been declared caliph in Baghdad
caliph forbade disputations about the Quran, and in the same following the civil war between al-Amin and al-Mamun.
year he ordered several leading scholars to narrate hadith to Even some of the scholars who were questioned during the
the people, refuting the doctrines of the Mu
tazila and the Mihna were suspect on political grounds. For instance, the
Jahmiyya. A more decisive demonstration of the shift in widely respected scholar Abu Mushir al-Ghassani (d. 833) of
caliphal policy came when, in 851, the Mu
tazili chief judge, Damascus had sided with an anti-Abbasid revolt in Syria.
Ibn Abi Duad, and his son (also a judge in the then-Abbasid Ahmad b. Nasr al-Khuza
i’s execution during the reign of alcapital of Samarra) were removed from office and their Wathiq owed more to his abortive revolt than to his views on
property was confiscated. This, for practical purposes, sig- the Quran, even though it was ostensibly for the latter that he
naled the end of the Mihna, though the doctrine of the was killed. In general, it seems fair to say that a variety of
createdness of the Quran would continue to be debated in factors were involved in the institution and continuation of
theological circles for centuries. the Mihna, as well as in the choice of those who were
interrogated during its course.
Interpretations of the Mihna
Modern scholars have much debated the meaning and signifi- Modern scholarly interpretations of the larger signifi-
cance of the Mihna, and there is no consensus on why al- cance of the Mihna are necessarily shaped by how it is seen in
Mamun so insisted on the doctrine of the Quran’s createdness. relation to Abbasid history, and to early Islamic history in
Al-Mamun’s own explanation was that it was his calling, as general. If early Abbasid history is viewed as a continuing
caliph and imam, to provide guidance to his subjects and, in contest over religious authority between “God’s caliph” and
particular, to rectify their dangerously wayward beliefs about the emerging ulema, then the Mihna assumes the character of
the Quran. Yet modern scholars have often discerned mo- a watershed event, the failure of which permanently divested
tives behind the Mihna which go beyond a specific theologi- the caliphs of any significant role in religious life and estabcal controversy. In God’s Caliph, Patricia Crone and Martin lished a lasting “separation” between the political and the
Hinds have argued that al-Mamun was really trying, through religious authorities. However, there is little evidence for
the Mihna, to make a last-ditch effort to reclaim a religious such a contest between the caliphs and the ulema prior to alauthority that had belonged to earlier caliphs but which had Mamun, just as there are many indications of caliphal particibeen eroded by the growing influence of the scholars of pation in the community’s religious life after the Mihna.
hadith and of the ulema in general. To these scholars, Caliphs could still undertake the Quranic obligation of
religious authority was enshrined, not in the will or verdicts “commanding right and forbidding wrong.” The caliphs alof the caliphs, but rather in the hadith of the Prophet, and of Qadir (r. 991–1031) and al-Qaim (r. 1031–1075) led efforts
this the ulema claimed to be the sole interpreters. This to devise a theological creed against the Mu
talzila and other
position was unacceptable to al-Mamun, and the Mihna unwelcome groups; and caliphs could still participate in the
represented a vigorous if ultimately abortive effort to make deliberations of the jurists. It is also worth noting that, in his
the scholars subservient to the caliphs. influential treatise on constitutional theory, al-Mawardi (d.
1058) should have listed juridical expertise among the neces-
It is not clear, however, if the Abbasid caliphs prior to al- sary qualifications for the caliphate, for even if such a stipula-
Mamun did claim the sort of overarching religious authority tion was more wishful thinking than a realistic expectation, it
that Crone and Hinds impute to them. The Mihna is perhaps still reveals something about how jurists viewed the caliphate
better interpreted not as the decisive culmination of a strug- two centuries after the Mihna. It is true, of course, that as the
gle over the form or locus of authoritative religious guidance ulema’s scholarly specializations evolved—a process already
but, instead, as a break with the evolving patterns of caliphal unmistakably underway before al-Ma’mun—there was propatronage under the early Abbasids. Rather than co-opt or gressively less space for caliphs to authoritatively shape religdraw close to the emerging scholars of hadith, al-Mamun ious discourses in the community over which they presided.
sought to rein in their influence and assert his own authority Yet the constraining of that space is better analyzed not with
as the arbiter of right belief. These scholars, best represented reference to any decisive impact the Mihna itself may have
by Ibn Hanbal, were the principal target of the caliph’s ire and had on it, but rather in light of the long and complex history
of his effort to assert his authority. of the ulema and, of course, that of the caliphate.

Islam and the Muslim World 449
Mihrab

If the failure of the Mihna did not remove the caliphs from Madelung, Wilferd. “The Controversy on the Creation of
religious life, the entire protracted episode and its aftermath the Koran.” In Orientalia Hispanica sive studia F. M. Pareja
did nevertheless contribute to the vigor and identity of the octogenario dedicata. Edited by M. M. Barral. Leiden: E. J.
emerging ulema. The end of the Mihna brought to a close the Brill, 1974.
political ascendancy of the Mu
tazili theologians, who were Nawas, John A. “A Reexamination of Three Current Explareplaced in caliphal favor by the scholars of hadith. Ibn nations for al-Mamun’s Introduction of the Mihna.”
Hanbal was much sought after by Caliph al-Mutawakkil and International Journal of Middle East Studies 26
his officials; and though he is reported to have been much (1994): 615–629.
perturbed by what he saw as this unwanted attention, there Patton, Walter M. Ahmad ibn Hanbal and the Mihna. Leiden:
can be little doubt that royal patronage was one of the factors E. J. Brill, 1997.
contributing, in the succeeding generations, to the growing Tabari, al-. The History of al-Tabari. Vol. 32: The Reunification
prominence of Ibn Hanbal’s followers in the religious life of of the Abbasid Caliphate. Translated by C. E. Bosworth.
Baghdad. The scholars of hadith had already, during the Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987.
Mihna, shown themselves to have considerable popular sup- Zaman, Muhammad Qasim. Religion and Politics under the
port. Indeed, such increasing prominence may, arguably, Early Abbasids. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997.
have provoked at least some of al-Mamun’s suspicions of
them in the first place. The end of the Mihna further Muhammad Qasim Zaman
deepened and extended the populist roots of early Sunnism
and, in particular, of those adhering to the school of law that
came to be identified with the name of Ahmad b. Hanbal.
MIHRAB
In theological terms, a major facet of the Mihna’s signifi-
cance lies in its contribution to the articulation of the “ortho- The semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that faces
dox” Sunni view on the nature of the Quran. Al-Mamun had Mecca is known as the mihrab. Introduced in the Prophet’s
accused his opponents of believing the Quran to be co- mosque in Medina when it was rebuilt by the Umayyad caliph
eternal with God but, as Madelung—following the medieval al-Walid I (r. 705–715), the mihrab may have been originally
Hanbali jurist and theologian Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328)—has intended to commemorate the place of the Prophet, but it
observed, early hadith scholars had usually been content to soon became ubiquitous and is generally understood to indicharacterize the Quran as God’s speech and to leave the cate the direction of prayer (qibla). The earliest complete
matter there. In response to the doctrine al-Mamun wanted example to survive is believed to be a monolithic marble
to enforce, however, the traditionists came to hold that the mihrab dated to the mid-eighth century and reused in the
Quran was indeed uncreated. This dogma then became a Khassaki Mosque in Baghdad. Later examples were often
defining feature of Sunni theology, though there continued made of other precious materials, including stone or glass
to be much disagreement, long after the Mihna, on its precise mosaic, carved or joined wood, and glazed tile.
meaning and implications.
See also Architecture; Art; Devotional Life; Masjid.
See also Caliphate; Disputation; Ibn Hanbal; Imamate;
Ma
mum, al-; Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila; Quran. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fehervar, G. “Mihrab.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2d ed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Edited by H. A. R. Gibbs, et al. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2002.
Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Rebellion and Violence in Islamic Law.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Sheila S. Blair
Jonathan M. Bloom
Cooperson, Michael. Classical Arabic Biography: The Heirs of
the Prophets in the Age of al-Ma
mun. Cambridge, U.K.:
Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Crone, Patricia, and Hinds, Martin. God’s Caliph: Religious MILITARY RAID
Authority in the First Centuries of Islam. Cambridge, U.K.:
Cambridge University Press, 1986. The raid, which is essentially a form of brigandage, was
Ess, Josef van. Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert viewed in the Bedouin pastoral milieu as one of the few manly
Hidschra. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1991–1997. occupations. Termed ghazwa, (pl. maghazi), in Arabic, its
Hinds, Martin. “Mihna.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2d ed. purpose was plunder, not bloodshed, and it was not permitted
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960. during the sacred months: Dhu-l-Qa
da, Dhu-l-Hijja, and
Lapidus, Ira M. “The Separation of State and Religion in the Muharram (the last two and first months of the year), which
Development of Early Islamic Society.” International Journal were set aside for religious observances, and Rajab (the fourth
of Middle East Studies 6 (1975): 363–385. month), which was set aside for trade.

450 Islam and the Muslim World
Minorities

Islamic literature, however, when referring to the ghazwa identical to, the place and function of the pulpit in Christian
of the prophet Muhammad, makes no distinction between churches. Not only is the Muslim Friday sermon (khutba)
battle and raid. Before attacking a community, the Muslims delivered from its base by the local preacher, but important
would first proclaim a dawa or invitation, calling their oppo- public pronouncements are also made from it. For instance,
nents to accept Islam. Only those male polytheists who in the past the Quranic prohibition on wine was delivered
refused to convert were fought to the death; women and from the minbar. Muslim rulers (caliphs), as well as provincial
children were taken captive. “People of the book,” such as governors or their representatives sat on it and delivered the
Jews and Christians, were permitted to practice their faith, if Friday sermon. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries,
they agreed to pay a poll tax, or jizya. preaching from the minbar has been used to oppose political
authority as well as to support it. In Egypt and Saudi Arabia,
The title Maghazi is given to compilations which tell of minbar sermons in local mosques critiquing the government
the numerous raids and battles that Muhammad undertook to have been taped and widely distributed. In 1979, minbar
establish Islam in Arabia. The term has thus come to repre- sermons were instrumental in mobilizing revolutionary activsent the achievements of Muhammad, and become synony- ity against the shah of Iran. However, the main function of
mous with his life’s work. Maghazi and ghazwa therefore are the minbar has always been ethical rather than political, with
also used to signify events in the life of Muhammad. For sermons providing guidance on worship, family life, educaexample, “Ghazwat al-Hudaybiyya” concerns the conclusion tion, and cordial human relations.
of a peace agreement between Muhammad and the Meccans.
Sermons and announcements delivered from the minbar
Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 875), the famous compiler of
assume greater consequence in part because the minbar is
hadith (traditions concerning the Prophet), listed the battles
located next to the prayer niche (mihrab) in the most sacred
and raids of the Prophet under the title jihad, which literally
part of the mosque. Minbars are composed of a platform with
means to struggle or strive in the path of God. Incorrectly
steps with a seat at the top and a balustrade, all usually made of
translated as holy war, the term “jihad,” in fact, is best
wood and sometimes, in urban mosques, they may be elabounderstood in a spiritual context and includes such activities
rately carved and decorated.
as fasting, charity, and meditation. The term Fath (pl. Futuh)
is more appropriately used for wars of expansion such as the See also Masjid; Mihrab.
Arab conquests of Egypt, Syria, and Persia.

See also Conflict and Violence; Da
wa; Expansion; Jihad. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Borthwick, Bruce. “The Islamic Sermon as a Channel of
BIBLIOGRAPHY Political Communication.” The Middle East Journal 21,
Baladhuri, Ahmad b. Yahya. Futuh al-Buldan. Edited by M. J. no. 3 (1967): 299–313.
De Goeje. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1866. Gaffney, Patrick. The Prophet’s Pulpit: Islamic Preaching in
Faizer, Rizwi. “Expeditions and Battles.” In Vol. 2, Encyclopaedia Contemporary Egypt. Berkeley: University of California
of the Qur
an. Edited by Jane McAuliffe. Leiden: E. J. Press, 1994.
Brill, 2002.
Hitti, Philip K. History of the Arabs, 9th ed. London: Macmil- Richard T. Antoun
lan, 1966.
Jones, J. M. B. “The Maghazi Literature.” In Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period. Edited by A. F. L.
Beeston. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University MINORITIES
Press, 1983.
DHIMMIS
Rizwi Faizer Patrick Franke

OFFSHOOTS OF ISLAM
Robert Gleave
MINARET See Manar, Manara
DHIMMIS
From the beginning of Islam up to present day, many Islamic
societies have been characterized by the presence of more or
MINBAR (MIMBAR) less numerous non-Muslim minorities. Whereas in practice
the status and treatment of these minorities have varied
The minbar is the elevated seat of honor in the mosque and it greatly over time and space, Islamic law provides a certain
represents religio-political authority. It is similar, but not theoretical framework that has remained quite constant

Islam and the Muslim World 451
Minorities

throughout the time: According to this all non-Muslim peo- pledges allegedly given to the second “rightly-guided caliph,”
ple are considered infidels (kuffar, sing. kafir). However there
Umar ibn al-Khattab (634–644), by the Christians of the
is a basic distinction between the polytheists (mushrikun, sing. cities conquered by him.
mushrik) on the one hand, with whom social intercourse is
forbidden, and who were to be fought until they either In the classical centuries of Islam persecution of dhimmis
converted or were killed or enslaved and the “people of the was very rare: One single case has been recorded, that of the
book” (ahl al-kitab) on the other, whose faith was founded on Fatimid caliph al-Hakim (r. 996–1021) who in 1009 ordered
revelation, who were to be granted protection, and with the destruction of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. In the
whom social intercourse was allowed. Originally only Jews late Middle Ages, however, there was a general hardening of
and Christians were conceived as ahl al-kitab; later, however, attitudes against dhimmis in Muslim countries. In the West,
this term was extended to a sect known as the Sabeans, the the Almohads adopted an intolerant policy, while in the East
Zoroastrians, and, in India, even to Hindus. Concerning the the government of the Mamluk state could not resist the
legal status of these “people of the book,” Islamic law makes pressure of jurists, such as Ibn Taymiyya, who insisted on an
another distinction between the dhimmi living as a protected increasingly vexatious interpretation of the law regarding
person in Islamic territory, the harbi who lives in non-Muslim dhimmis. It was the legal system of the expanding Ottoman
lands (dar al-harb), and the musta
min who as a foreigner is Empire that in the sixteenth century restored the classical
granted the temporary right of residence in an Islamic terri- Islamo-dhimmi symbiosis. This lasted until the middle of the
tory. The status of the dhimmis was secured by a legal nineteenth century, when under strong European pressure
institution called dhimma (“protection”), which guaranteed the provisions of Islamic law were increasingly replaced by
safety for their life, body, and property, as well as freedom of new legislations that were intended to free the non-Muslims
movement and religious practice on condition of their ac- from their inferior status of “protected people” and to make
knowledging the domination of Islam. This included the them full citizens. Today most written constitutions of Muspayment of various taxes, the most important being the so- lim states confirm the principle of equality of all citizens
called jizya, a poll-tax levied on all able-bodied free adult irrespective of religion, sex, and race. Certain militant Islamic
dhimmi males of sufficient means. groups, however, advocate the reimposition of the jizya and
the dhimma regulations.
It is the attitude of the prophet Muhammad who, after the
expansion of his authority across Arabia, concluded agree- See also Minorities: Offshoots of Islam.
ments of submission and protection with Jews and Christians
of other localities which serves as precedent for the dhimma BIBLIOGRAPHY
institution. In the course of the Arab conquests under the Braude, Benjamin, and Lewis, Bernard. Christians and Jews in
“rightly guided” caliphs similar agreements were reached the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning of a Plural Society.
with the non-Muslims of Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, and New York: Holmes & Meier, 1982.
North Africa who surrendered their cities to the Arab armies. Krämer, Gudrun. “Dhimmi or Citizen? Muslim-Christian
Muslim jurists later compiled these individual treaties into a Relations in Egypt.” In The Christian-Muslim Frontier.
coherent, sophisticated legal system conceding to the dhimmi Chaos Clash or Dialogue? Edited by Jorgen S. Nielsen.
communities almost complete autonomy under their respec- London and New York: Tauris, 1998.
tive religious leaders. It has to be pointed out, however, that Tritton, A. S. The Caliphs and their Non-Muslim Subjects: A
the doctors of Islamic law tended to draw rather distinct Critical Study of the Covenant of Umar. London: Oxford
boundaries between Muslims and non-Muslims, and to inter- University Press, 1930.
pret the subjection of dhimmis to Islamic authority as a
justification for discriminating and humiliating measures Patrick Franke
imposed upon them. Thus, according to Islamic law, a Muslim could marry a dhimmi woman, but a dhimmi could not OFFSHOOTS OF ISLAM
marry a Muslim woman; a Muslim could own a dhimmi slave, Defining where the boundaries of Islam can be drawn, and
although the reverse was not allowed; at the frontier the which groups can be placed outside of that boundary, is, of
dhimmi merchant would pay double the tariff rate paid by the course, a normative procedure. In the history of Islam, a
Muslim (10% and 5%, respectively) and in criminal law it was number of scholars and groups have been subjected to takfir—
commonly considered that the blood-wit (diya) for a dhimmi the declaration of unbelief—and hence might be classed as
was less (one-half or two-thirds) than that for a Muslim; offshoots of Islam. If one takes a strict definition of right
finally, the dhimmi had to wear distinguishing clothing, in belief, such as that proposed by Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab, or in the
particular the zunnar belt, and there were various limitations more recent past, by Sayyid Qutb, many of those who call
on the outward expressions of worship such as processions, themselves Muslims do not deserve the term. Nonetheless,
the use of bells, and the construction and repair of religious these groups, religious at base and tracing their origins to
buildings. A famous document authorizing many of these Islam, consider themselves Muslim despite the majority comrestrictions is the so-called “Covenant of
Umar,” a list of munity refusing to accept them as such.

452 Islam and the Muslim World
Minorities

The emergence of radical alternatives to the dominant proceeded to establish a network of missionaries across Iran,
Sunni expression of Islam is normally located (by Sunni who hoped to persuade the mainly Twelver Shi
ite populascholars at least) in the first civil war (fitna), during the tion to recognize the Bab. The Bab’s self-understanding
caliphate of
Ali (r. 656–661). Two alternative views of the developed further, and in 1848 he declared the advent of a
nature of the Muslim community emerged at this time. First new religion, with a new code of practice (which he controwere the Shi
ites, who themselves later divided into a variety versially termed a sharia) to replace that of the prophet
of competing groups. The Shi
ites not only considered
Ali as Muhammad. It is clear he adopted the role of a prophetic
the rightful caliph, but also defended the doctrine that only figure, though he was careful not classify himself as a nabi.
the descendants of
Ali could be legitimate leaders of the
The Babis instigated a number of uprisings in the late
Muslim community. Second were the Kharijites, who with-
1840s, culminating in the Bab’s execution in 1850. The
drew their support for
Ali following his willingness to nego-
Bahai faith emerged out of the collapse of Babism. Bahaallah
tiate with his opponent Mu
awiya. The Kharijites (literally,
Husayn
Ali Nuri, one of Shirazi’s closest companions, pro-
“those who withdrew”) developed an exclusive view of Islamic
moted himself as a messianic figure who had been foretold by
identity, declaring all sinners to be non-Muslims. The mainthe Bab. His message consisted of a bundle of doctrines,
stream of Sunni Islam took a more forgiving attitude toward
including the unity of all religions, the institution of a new
those who failed to obey the law of Islam in every detail. The
covenant which abrogated Islam, pacifism and the desire for
strict Kharijite view undoubtedly contributed to the relaworld peace, and the role of himself and his descendants as
tively small number of Kharijites in Muslim history. Eleconduits for revelation, blessed with spiritual insights which
ments of Kharijite doctrine, however, survive today within
were passed to the people through new revelatory texts.
the Ibadi community, which is restricted to Oman and small
Elements of early Bahai doctrine are clearly influenced by
communities in North Africa. Both the Ibadis and the Shi
ites
Shi
ite Muslim theology and law. However, the Bahais have
have lived as minorities in Sunni-dominated milieux.
incorporated Western notions of democracy and human
Many offshoots of Islam are centered upon the charis- rights into their belief system.
matic authority of a particular individual teacher. This cha- Bahais consider themselves to be quite distinct from their
risma is at times successfully transferred to the leader’s Muslim parent religion. The feeling is mutual, as Bahais are
successor. Perhaps the most enduring of these offshoots is the generally regarded as schismatic heretics by Shi
ite Muslims.
Druze religion, which has its roots in the doctrines of Muham- The success of Bahaism as an independent religion has, in
mad al-Darazi (d. 1020) concerning the Fatimid (Shi
ite) the main, rested upon its ability to gain converts in Western
caliph of the time, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (d. 996). Darazi, Europe and North America. Undoubtedly, Bahais and perwith other Ismaili Shi
ite scholars, made claims of divinity for haps even some Babis (called Azalis) continue to exist as
al-Hakim. This entailed an inevitable break with Islam, minorities in Iran, although their numbers are difficult to
which has been maintained ever since. The modern-day estimate because open adherence brings inevitable discrimi-
Druze form a separate, non-Muslim religious community in nation and persecution.
Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel.
Smaller groups, such as the Ahl-e haqq and the Yazidis
In the modern period, the Ahmadiyya, a community based (sometimes called “Devil-worshippers”), both based in
around the teachings of the Indian leader Hazrat Mirza Kurdistan, might also be classified as offshoots of Islam.
Ghulam Ahmad (d. 1908), provide an instructive example of Their theologies show a certain syncretism of the various
individual charisma within Islam. Ahmad made a number of mystical elements of the Middle Eastern milieu. The various
different claims regarding his theological status, including Afro-American Muslim movements, such as the Nation of
the assertion that he was the Promised Messiah of the Mus- Islam, might also be considered as offshoots of Islam. These
lims. Though the community did maintain its unity after his various offshoots display a variety of attitudes toward Islam,
death, it eventually divided in 1914 along theological lines. some wishing to be considered Muslims, while others prefer
The different groups, which still exist today, claimed differ- to be regarded as a separate from, and superior to, Islam.
ent levels of authority for Ahmad. Some viewed him as a
prophet (nabi) while others tried to ameliorate the tension See also Ahmadiyya; Ahmad, Babiyya; Bab, Sayyed
Ali
with mainstream Islam by calling Ahmad a mujaddid (renewer). Muhammad; Bahaallah; Bahai Faith; Kharijites,
The Ahmadiyya’s minority status as non-Muslims was con- Khawarij; Minorities: Dhimmis; Mirza Ghulam.
firmed in Pakistan by a 1984 decree that prevented them from
using Islamic forms of worship and legalized their prosecution. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Amanat, Abbas. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the
A similar pattern can be seen in Shi
ite offshoots such as Babi Movement in Iran, 1844–1850. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
Babism and Bahaism. The former, led by
Ali Muhammad University Press, 1989.
Shirazi (“the Bab,” executed in 1850), began in 1844, when Betts, Michael. The Druze. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univer-
Shirazi proclaimed himself the Gate to the Hidden Imam. He sity Press, 1988.

Islam and the Muslim World 453
Miracles

Calder, Norman. “The Limits of Islamic Orthodoxy.” In that led to mass conversions on the frontiers of Islamic
Intellectual Traditions in Islam. Edited by Farhad Daftary. expansion. South Asian saints’ lives often consecrate chapters
London: I. B. Tauris, 2000. to waqiat or “events” of a paranormal nature including mind
Cole, Juan R. I. Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of reading and predicting future events.
the Baha
i Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1998. More recent reformists and some classical theologians,
McCloud, Amina Beverly. African-American Islam. London: such as the Mu
tazila, were more skeptical of miracle stories,
Routledge, 1995. given their rationalist proclivities, in some cases denying
saintly miracles altogether. Debates over the physical reality
Robert Gleave of prophetic miracles such as the night journey or moon
splitting still engage Muslim commentators.

A color plate of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus appears in the
MIRACLES volume two color insert.

See also Mi
raj; Muhammad; Prophets.
Miracles in the Islamic tradition play less of an evidentiary
role than in some other religions since the prophet Muham-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
mad’s humanity is stressed. The miracles of prophets mentioned in the Quran are known there as signs (ayat) and Gramlich, Richard. Die Wunder der Freunde Gottes. Stuttgart:
Steiner Verlag, 1987.
include Abraham’s not being harmed by the fire he was
thrown into (21:69), as well as Jesus’ speaking as a baby Gril, Denis. “Le Miracle en islam, critère de la sainteté.” In
(19:30–33), bringing birds made of clay to life (3:49, 5:110), Saints Orientaux. Edited by Denise Aigle. Paris: de
Boccard, 1995.
and healing powers (3:49). The Quran itself is often said to
be the main miracle of Muhammad since an untutored or
Marcia Hermansen
illiterate (ummi) person could not have been the source of this
most compelling and eloquent message.

The sayings of the Prophet and his biography (sira), as
they developed provide examples of various miraculous oc-
MI
RAJ
currences during the life of the Prophet including the child- Early Islamic sources preserve references to Muhammad’s
hood opening of his breast and cleansing of his internal extraordinary journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and/or from
organs by an angel, his night journey from Jerusalem through the earth to the heavens. The narrative of the night journey
the seven heavens, his splitting of the moon, multiplication of (isra
) and ascension (miraj) developed its own unique form
food, and bestowal of blessings generally. in the hadith reports of the eighth and ninth centuries.
In later Muslim sources prophetic miracles were termed The Quranic proof-text for the Mi
raj is the elliptic
mujizat, or “things which render the detractors or opponents opening verse of Sura 17: “Glorified be the one who caused
incapable or overwhelmed.” In other words, acts incapable of his servant to journey by night from the sacred prayer-site to
being imitated as in the doctrine of the ijaz al-Qur
an—its the furthest prayer-site whose precincts we have blessed in
incomparable eloquence and content. In theological or philo- order to show him some of our signs. . . .” Muslim consensus
sophical discussions the term kharq al-ada—a break in God’s reads the verse as a reference to Muhammad’s miraculous
customary order of things—is used to indicate the miracu- journey from the Ka
ba (“the sacred prayer-site”) to either
lous. In the case of Sufi saints miracles are usually termed the Temple in Jerusalem or a heavenly temple (“the furthest
karamat (gifts or graces). They have the ambiguous role of prayer-site”). The sound hadiths of Bukhari and Muslim
both confirming spiritual attainments and potentially dis- show that both the terrestrial and the celestial night journeys
tracting from the ultimate goal of service of God. Classical were considered potentially authentic by early traditionists.
authors struggled to differentiate prophetic and saintly miracles, and those who were inclined toward Sufism saw the Early exegetes such as Muqatil b. Sulayman al-Balkhi (d. c.
saintly miracles as emerging and continuing the prophetic 767) and Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari (d. 923) collated the
legacy. Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi (d. 930) argued that the signs “night journey verse” (17:1) with the visionary passage from
of the prophets emanated from the divine power while the the beginning of the Sura of the Star (53:1–18). The latter
karamat of the saints emanated from the divine generosity. passage describes a pair of visions, one at “a distance of two
Other Sufi commentators differentiated the public nature of bows or nearer,” the other at “the lote tree of the boundary.”
prophetic miracles from the secretive aspects of saintly pow- Exegetes disagree about whether these verses describe Muhamers. Later Sufis, however, did not hesitate to openly enumer- mad’s vision of God or of Gabriel, but they generally agree in
ate the graces they received as in the Lata
if al-minan of al- placing the “lote tree of the boundary” in the heavens and
Shar
ani or the many accounts of saints performing miracles thus in relating the passage to the Mi
raj.

454 Islam and the Muslim World
Miraj

At least some early Muslims considered the night journey Farid al-Din
Attar (d. c. 1220) made the Prophet’s journey
and ascension to refer to two separate events. The biography into a paradigm for their own journey toward mystical union.
of the Prophet by Ibn Ishaq (d. c. 767) in the recension of Ibn For philosopher Ibn Sina (d. 1037), the Mi
raj serves as a
Hisham (d. 833) treats the two separately but in succession. neoplatonic allegory. For the litterateur Abu
Ala al-Ma
arri
The biographer Ibn Sa
d (d. 845) goes even further by (d. c. 1058) it stimulated an imaginative parody of contempoattaching two different dates to the events. While the date of rary attitudes toward literature, linguistics, and morality.
the journey(s) remained a source of controversy, the idea that
the journey from Mecca to Jerusalem was immediately fol- The Mi
raj also became a site of literary and cultural
lowed by the ascension from Jerusalem through the seven contestation and intercourse among different religious and
heavens became the majority opinion in the centuries that geographical worlds. The thirteenth-century Latin and old
followed. French translations of the Liber Scale indicate the story’s
influence among European intellectuals, including Dante. In
The night journey and ascension narrative begins typi- the East, it was translated into Persian and Turkish and
cally with the Prophet asleep in Mecca and awakened by one inspired numerous poetic works. A fifteenth-century eastern
or more angels. In some versions, these angels open the Turkish manuscript accompanied by stunning Persian minia-
Prophet’s chest and cleanse his heart (94). Then the magical tures illustrates the story’s influence on painting. At some
beast Buraq bears Muhammad to Jerusalem where he per- point Muslims began to commemorate the night of the
forms the prayer at the Temple in the company of Abraham, ascension during the month of Rajab, which has become an
Moses, and Jesus. Muhammad is offered a choice of two or important popular holiday. Some Islamic Mi
raj material
three cups of different drinks. He proves his right guidance by shows clear signs of engagement with other traditions. One
avoiding the wine and selecting the milk. Mi
raj narrative attributed to al-Bistami draws upon material
from Jewish Merkava and Hekhalot ascent narratives of the
The angel Gabriel then takes Muhammad up through the
Jewish mystics describing journeys through celestial palaces
heavens. At each level an angelic gatekeeper interrogates
to the divine throne. Christian apocalyptic writings such as
Gabriel before allowing entrance. In each Muhammad enthe Apocalypse of Paul also contain important parallels, as do
counters one or more Abrahamic prophets, offers his greetinter-testamental and apocryphal texts such as the Ethiopic
ing, and then departs for the next level. The typical order of
Book of Enoch. The initiatic features of the Mi
raj (e.g., ritual
encounter, already present in Ibn Hisham’s account, consists
dismemberment, meeting past elders, receiving a divine comof Adam in the first heaven, Jesus and John the Baptist in the
mission) has led some to note similarities to patterns from
second, Joseph in the third, Enoch (Idris) in the fourth, Aaron
shamanic tradition.
in the fifth, Moses in the sixth, and Abraham in the seventh.
After meeting Abraham in the seventh heaven near the In general, the Mi
raj interpretation of the visions of
celestial temple known as the frequented house (al-bayt al- Quran 53 offers a paradigm of “ascent” by the Prophet
mamur), Muhammad arrives at the lote tree, experiences a toward revelation in contrast to the dominant Quranic motif
revelation, and receives the ritual duty to pray fifty times a of “descent” (tanazzul) of the revelation toward the Prophet,
day. He descends to Moses, who sends him back to request two contrasting paradigms that were in similar play throughthat the burden be reduced. God removes a portion of the out late antiquity and the Middle Ages. One could read many
duty, but Moses sends Muhammad back again and again until Mi
raj traditions as expressions of a symbolic cosmology that
the number of daily ritual prayers is reduced to five. Some served as a common cultural language for religious, philoaccounts include Muhammad’s return and his efforts to prove sophical, literary, and cultural contact and as a symbolic field
his experience to a skeptical Meccan community. that differing cultural worlds attempted to appropriate as
their own.
By the ninth century this spare narrative was amplified by
storytellers. Evidence for this popular tradition can be found
An interpretation of Muhammad’s vision of ascension appears
in the extended narratives preserved in the Quran commenin the volume two color plates.
taries on the “night journey verse” by al-Tabari and the early
Shi
ite exegete
Ali b. Ibrahim al-Qummi (d. c. 919). The See also Buraq; Holy Cities;
Ibadat; Miracles.
account of Muhammad’s young companion Ibn
Abbas (d. c.
687) circulated widely and remains highly popular. BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Mi
raj tradition served to bring various modes of Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad, ed. Le Voyage initiatique en Terre
Islamic literature into conversation. The pivotal Sufi d’Islam. Louvain-Paris: Peeters, 1996.
traditionists Abu
Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (d. 1021) and Asin Palacios, Miguel. La escatalogia musulmana en la Divina

Abd al-Karim al-Qushayri (d. 1072) each composed impor- Comedia. Madrid and Granada: Consejo Superior de
tant works on the early mystical interpretations of Muham- Investigaciones Cientificas, 1919.
mad’s night journey and ascension. Mystics such as Abu Yazid Bencheikh, Jamel Eddine. Le Voyage nocturne de Mahomet.
al-Bistami (d. c. 850), Muhyi al-Din Ibn
Arabi (d. 1240), and Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1988.

Islam and the Muslim World 455
Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri

Ghayti, Najm al-Din al-. “The Story of the Night Journey crisis, but also—in the view of the modernists—offered soluand the Ascension.” In A Reader on Islam. Edited and tions to the crisis. Influential early figures included Sayyid
translated by Arthur Jeffrey. The Hague, Netherlands: Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838–1897), Muhammad
Abduh
Mouton and Co., 1962. (1849–1905), and Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817–1898). Islamic
Heath, Peter. Allegory and Philosophy in Avicenna (Ibn Sina). modernism generated a series of novel institutions, including
Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992. schools that combined Islamic education with modern sub-
Hyatte, Richard. The Prophet of Islam in Old French: The jects and pedagogies; newspapers that carried modernist
Romance of Muhammad (1258) and The Book of Muham- Islamic ideas across continents; theaters, museums, novels,
mad’s Ladder (1264). Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997. and other cultural forms that were adapted from European
Ibn Hisham,
Abd al-Malik. “The Night Journey and Ascent models; constitutions that sought to limit state power; and
to Heaven.” In The Life of Muhammad. Edited and trans- social welfare agencies that brought state power into ever
lated by Alfred Guillame. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford Univer- more sectors of social life.
sity Press, 1955.
Piemontese, Angelo. “Le Voyage de Mahomet au Paradis et Islamic modernism justified each of these institutions as
Enfer: une version persane du Mi
raj.” In Apocalypses et en being more consistent with the original spirit of Islam than
Voyages dans l’Au-delà. Edited by Claude Kappler. Paris: were the existing institutions of the Islamic world. In some
Les Editions du CERF, 1987. regions Islamic modernism declined in the mid-twentieth
Samarrai, Qassim. The Theme of Ascension in Mystical Writings. century, losing popularity to revivalist and secularist move-
Baghdad: National Printing Company, 1968. ments. Yet it appeared to have revived in the late twentieth
Schimmel, Annemarie. “The Prophet’s Night Journey and century, spurred in part by a dramatic global increase in
Ascension.” In And Muhammad is His Messenger. Chapel modern education.
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
See also
Abduh, Muhammad; Afghani, Jamal al-Din;
Seguy, Marie-Rose. The Miraculous Journey of Mahomet. Trans-
Ahmad Khan, (Sir) Sayyid; Iqbal, Muhammad; Liberlated by Richard Pevear. New York: George Braziller, 1977.
alism, Islamic; Modern Thought; Rahman, Fazlur.
Sells, Michael. Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qur
an, Miraj,
Poetic and Theological Writings. New York: Paulist
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Press, 1996.
Kurzman, Charles, ed. Modernist Islam: A Sourcebook,
Tabari, Muhammad b. Jarir al-. “Muhammad’s Night Jour-
1840–1940. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
ney and Ascension.” Translated by Rueven Firestone. In
Windows on the House of Islam. Edited by John Renard.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Charles Kurzman
Widengren, Geo. Muhammad, the Apostle of God, and his
Ascension (King and Savior V). Uppsala: A. B. Lundequistska, 1955. MODERNITY
Frederick Colby The European penetration of the Near East and India and the
Michael Sells decline of Muslim ascendancy in these regions in the nineteenth century precipitated the crisis that defined the responses of Muslim intellectuals to European modernity. The
MIRZA HUSAYN
ALI NURI key thinkers in the nineteenth century, who continue to
influence contemporary attitudes in the Islamic world to
See Bahaallah
modernity, were the so-called Islamic modernists, such as
Jamal al-Din Afghani (1839–1897), Muhammad
Abduh
(1849–1905), and Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817–1898).
Although there were some differences between these think-
MODERNISM ers, their work was governed by the same project, which was
to show that Islam was consistent with the rationality of the
Modernism is a movement to reconcile Islamic faith with European enlightenment and the development of modern
modern values such as nationalism, democracy, rights, ra- science. As such, they argued that there was no fundamental
tionality, science, equality, and progress. Islamic modernism incompatibility between modernity and its narrative of progis distinguished from secularism by its insistence on the ress, and Islam as a religion. They tended toward a rationalist
continuing importance of faith in public life; it is distin- interpretation of the Quran, in which whatever appeared to
guished from other Islamic movements by its enthusiasm for be in contradiction to rationality could be interpreted symcontemporary European institutions. The movement emerged bolically and allegorically. As a consequence of this they
in the middle of the nineteenth century as a response to argued that the meaning of the Quran was accessible to
European imperialism, which pitched the Islamic world into everyone. In other words, there was no need to rely on

456 Islam and the Muslim World
Modernity

the technical and elaborate procedures of tafsir, in which
the ulema trained in the traditional Islamic sciences were
conversant.

These two tendencies in Islamic modernism also reflected
in part the major impact of print on the Islamic world in the
modern period. From the nineteenth century onward, the
availability of the Quran in print, and its concurrent translation into local languages, struck at the very heart of the
traditional system of the oral transmission of knowledge, in
which the charisma of the teacher as a living embodiment of
knowledge was crucial. The multiplication of texts through
printing made unsupervised reading possible. This in turn
meant that it was possible to engage with religious texts
without the mediation of the formally trained ulema.

These tendencies in Islamic modernism, and the impact of
print, lie behind the works of a number of important Muslim
thinkers in the twentieth century, in which the engagement
with European modernity was a key theme. It is particularly
evident in the commentaries on the Quran by Sayyid Abu l-
A
la Maududi, the founder of the fundamentalist Jama
at-e
Islami. Maududi himself was not a formally trained alim, but
it is precisely because of this that his ideas and thought played
a crucial role in the development of what is called Islamic
fundamentalism. These tendencies are similarly evident in
Muhammad Iqbal’s (1893–1938) The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1934). This work exemplifies Islamic
modernism’s response to European modernity both in its
style and its content. It purports to show how the Quran is
entirely consonant with the major discoveries of European
science, and it is wide-ranging in its eclectic use of European This Cairo bus ferries passengers past a billboard for director
thinkers. Iqbal’s engagment with the Quran is singular and Magdi Ahmed Ali’s 2001 Girls’ Secrets, a film in which a middleclass family faces its teenage daughter’s pregnancy. The film has
unmediated by any sense of tafsir in the traditional sense of been acclaimed for its portrayal of contemporary Egypt’s struggle
the word. to balance tradition and religion with modernity and science. AP/
WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
Islam’s relationship with modernity has been the defining
theme of the work of major Muslim thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The strategies of interpreting
the Quran, and its relocation as a sacred text in the act of Islamic thought to European thought is mimetic; that is to
individual and unmediated reading, are in fact among the say, in the work of Afghani,
Abduh, Iqbal, and others, such as
major consequences of the impact of modernity on Islam. the poet Altaf Husayn Hali (1837–1914), Islam is refashioned
However, the role of modernist thinkers as spokesmen for into a mirror of European modernity. At the same time,
Islam vis-à-vis European modernity also points to some other though, Islamic modernism also teases out, generally unselffeatures of the impact of modernity on the Islamic world. consciously, the contradictions in European modernity itself.
Islamic engagements with modernity are at times ambivalent,
First, it is clear that there are a multiplicity of Islamic rather than mimetic alone. As such, these engagements can be
voices engaging with European modernity. This in part is read alongside the works of European philosophers, such as
also a consequence of the abolition of the caliphate in 1924 by those of the Frankfurt School and Michel Foucault, who have
Ataturk, so that even symbolically there is no single figure- explored the tensions in modernity, arguing that it is less a
head in the Islamic world. This, together with the undermin- narrative of progress than one of repression.
ing of the authority of the formally trained ulema, has meant
that there are competing voices for Islam with no clear Thirdly, nowhere is this ambivalence to modernity more
procedures or authorities to adjudicate between them. evident than in the attitude to the nation-state demonstrated
by the thinkers mentioned above. There is an obvious tension
Secondly, Islamic engagements with modernity can be between the modernist attempts to define a pan-Islamic,
read in two overlapping ways. In part, the relationship of worldwide community, theoretically made possible through

Islam and the Muslim World 457
Modernization, Political

innovations in technologies of communication, and the fun- CONSTITUTIONALISM
damental reality of the nation-state, some with Muslim popu- Sohail H. Hashmi
lations that are hostile to each other. The very attempts by PARTICIPATION, POLITICAL MOVEMENTS, AND PARTIES
Afghani,
Abduh, Iqbal, and others to reinterpret Islamic law Quintan Wiktorowicz
as a legal system in keeping with a modern state is indicative
of the powerful reality of the nation-state as the organizing
principle of the world in the twentieth century. Furthermore, ADMINISTRATIVE, MILITARY, AND
given the fact that the nation-state tends toward monopoliz- JUDICIAL REFORM
The modern states of the Middle East are remnants of the
ing all sources of authority, as long as it remains in existence,
Ottoman (Turkish) and Safavid (Persian) dominions, the last
it is unlikely that the ulema will recover the authority they
of the great Muslim empires. These countries not only share
enjoyed in the pre-modern Islamic world.
common religious and historical legacies but have also expe-
The engagement of Islam with modernity remains open- rienced very similar colonial and postcolonial influences. The
ended and multivocal. Having said that, it is important to term “Middle East” in fact alludes to the colonial encounter
note that no Muslim thinker has argued for rejecting Euro- and was coined by the Allied forces (the British, Free French,
pean modernity in toto in the way that the famous Indian and Americans) during the Second World War to indicate a
nationalist leader, Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948), tried to single military theater for operational and supply purposes.
do in his life’s work. Although there may be problems The area in question thus encompasses the Arab world as well
regarding the feasibility of Gandhi’s position, the fact that the as the non-Arab countries of Turkey and Iran. To fully
possibility of any alternatives to European modernity has not appreciate developments in the post-independence period—
been explored in any depth in Muslim thought is powerful after 1945—events that led to the modern state system must
testimony to the sway that European modernity has held over be briefly charted.
the Islamic world since the early nineteenth century.
World War I resulted in the collapse of the Ottoman
See also
Abduh, Muhammad; Afghani, Jamal al-Din; Empire and the creation of mandate territories run as colo-
Ahmad Khan, (Sir) Sayyid; Iqbal, Muhammad; Liber- nies. This gave rise to strong anti-colonial, nationalist movealism, Islamic; Maududi, Abu l-A
la; Modern Thought. ments, especially in Turkey and Iran, which emerged as
independent states in 1923 and 1921, respectively. Egypt
BIBLIOGRAPHY gained independence in 1922, when the British withdrew
from direct control, and Saudi Arabia attained sovereignty in
Ahmad, Aziz. Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan
1857–1964. London: Oxford University Press, 1967. 1926. The period after World War II was characterized by
rapid independence, and between 1945 and 1946 Syria,
Azmeh, Aziz, al-. Islams and Modernities. London and New
Lebanon, and Jordan all witnessed the disappearance of the
York: Verso, 1993.
European presence. However, the authority of the West still
Cooper, John; Nettler, Ronald; and Mahmoud, Mohamed, weighed burdensomely upon the region and determined the
eds. Islam and Modernity. Muslim Intellectuals Respond. Lonmanner in which these countries reconstituted themselves in
don: I. B. Tauris, 1998.
light of modern developments. This influence continues to
Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939. the present day.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Robinson, Francis. “Technology and Religious Change: Islam Three of the most significant factors challenging reform
and the Impact of Print.” Modern Asian Studies 27, no. 1 and growth in the region have been the discovery of oil, the
(1993): 229–251. strengthening of the United States’ position after World War
Shackle, Christopher, and Majeed, Javed. Hali’s Musaddas. II, and the creation of the state of Israel. These factors had,
The Flow and Ebb of Islam. Delhi: Oxford University and continue to have, a direct impact upon reform initiatives,
Press, 1997. manifesting themselves differently depending upon the social
and cultural conditions of the individual countries of the region,
Javed Majeed
Iran
Reza Shah Pahlevi (1925–1941) was able to create a strongly
centralized state by using the army, thereby leaving an endur-
MODERNIZATION, POLITICAL ing legacy of military intervention in Iranian politics right up
to the Islamic revolution in 1979. Muhammad Reza, who
ADMINISTRATIVE, MILITARY, AND JUDICIAL REFORM succeeded his father in 1941, initially indulged party politics,
Aslam Farouk-Alli but soon followed his father’s example and used his control
over the army to re-establish royal authority. Prior to this
AUTHORITARIANISM AND DEMOCRATIZATION
Claudia Stodte however, Iranian politics (between 1945 and 1953) was ex-
Anne-Sophie Froehlich tremely turbulent, due to both internal and external factors.

458 Islam and the Muslim World
Modernization, Political

Throughout the 1940s, the political scene was driven by century, Iran’s president, Mohammad Khatami, has even
British, Soviet, and American interests competing for influ- called for increased powers of the elected assembly over the
ence. The United States was able to forge close ties with the ulema’s Council of Guardians, and he appears to be trying to
Iranian army, while Britain sought a privileged position for its reconcile a deeply religious political ethos with the principles
oil interests. The placing of Iran’s economic and military of representative government.
development in the hands of foreigners created growing
consternation among Iranian nationalists, and in 1950 a Turkey
group of politicians led by Mohammed Mosaddeq were able After independence in 1923, Turkish politics was dominated
to obtain sufficient support in the Majlis (parliament) to act by the single-party rule of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s authoriagainst the Anglo-Iranian oil company, nationalizing its Ira- tarian Republican People’s Party (RPP). His successor, who
nian assets. In 1951 the Majlis nationalized the oil industry assumed office in 1938, departed from Ataturk’s economic
altogether, and also elected Mosaddeq as prime minister. policies and lessened government sponsorship of industrial
However, his reform efforts were short-lived and he was development. This was largely in response to pressure from
overthrown in a U.S.–assisted coup in 1953, largely due to the Turkish business sector, which sought more freedom for
American fears of Soviet influence over Iran. Mosaddeq’s private entrepreneurial activity, and pressure from the peasoverthrow enabled the shah to create his royal dictatorship, antry, which was displeased with the government’s bias in
and with the assistance of U.S. and Israeli advisors he formed favor of industrialization over agricultural development. Gov-
SAVAK, his notorious secret police service. ernment also responded to pressure from intellectuals and
politicians critical of the single-party dispensation by allow-
From 1953 to 1979 there was absolutely no political ing greater political freedom. As a result, four members of the
freedom in Iran. In 1963 the shah was severely criticized by a national assembly defected from the RPP in 1946 and formed
then still-obscure member of the religious establishment, a new party, called the Democratic Party (DP).
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khomeini was arrested by
SAVAK in June 1963 and deported to Turkey in 1964. In the Although the democrats were only able to win sixty-five
following year he was deported to Iraq, where he stayed, seats in the 1946 elections, they were able to extend their
preaching and writing. In 1978 he was forced to go to France. influence tremendously over the next four years and won 396
However, Khomeini returned to Iran in triumph in 1979, as of the 465 seats in the national assembly in 1950. The DP
leader of one of the most spectacular and unexpected revolu- showed greater sensitivity to religious sentiments and retions in modern history. stored the public call to prayer in Arabic (which had previously been banned), maintained and developed mosques, and
The shah’s dictatorial policies robbed Khomeini of all offered religious instruction to all Muslim students in pripolitical legitimacy and were ultimately responsible for his mary schools on a voluntary basis. It still, however, strongly
downfall. Most of his 1961 to 1963 White Revolution re- upheld the principal of secularism.
forms centered on huge military spending and benefits offered to appease the officer corps. By 1976 Iran had the fifth Economic policies instituted by the democrats were geared
largest military force in the world. Khomeini’s efforts at towards agricultural reform in order to appease their supporteconomic and social development were miserable failures, base among the peasantry, but when the economy began to
with the exception of the literacy drive, which enjoyed meas- suffer they came under severe public criticism. The governurable success. In 1975 he scrapped the two-party system and ment responded harshly by introducing extremely repressive
introduced the single National Resurgence Party. It was restrictions against the press, and even brought in the army to
ultimately the shah’s brutal response to unarmed protests in quell violent protests. They further exploited ruling-party
1978 that ignited the revolution. The clergy were able to privilege by using the army to disrupt RPP campaign rallies.
effect large-scale uprisings, and emerged as the representa- Such irresponsibility met with a severe backlash, and on 27
tives of the masses. May 1960 the military stepped in to institute the first
coup d’état.
The new government, under the leadership of Ruhollah
Khomeini, initially made efforts to include secular elements. Military intervention became commonplace in Turkish
Mehdi Bazargan, the secular reformist, was made the first politics, but remains unique in that power was always handed
prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Ultimately, back to civilian politicians. The military establishment was
however, the idea that social, political, and economic change primarily concerned with upholding the principle of Kemalcould only be achieved by the renewal of an Islamic order ism, but equally committed to the system of multi-party
prevailed, ushering in the Khomeini era, in which Iran was politics. The 1960 intervention lasted for only eighteen
transformed into a theocracy ruled by the clergy. months, in which time the constitution was revised to protect
the rights of individuals and assert the principle of secularism.
Khomeini died in 1989, and the post-Khomeini period
has once again surprised analysts with the emergence of The period between 1961 and 1983 witnessed the prolifliberal-minded reformists. At the turn of the twenty-first eration of political parties, with attendant political upheaval

Islam and the Muslim World 459
Modernization, Political

and instability. The military instituted two more coups, in states like Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, which were able to
1971 and 1980, and further constitutional amendments were benefit from the new wealth through workers’ remittances
introduced. In addition to the rise and fall of various coalition and financial aid. In the 1950s and 1960s, the military was
governments, civil order was also threatened by Kurdish seen as an instrument of modernization and change, but by
separatist aspirations and by the rise of Islamic revivalism, led the 1970s this image was severely damaged largely due to
by the National Salvation Party. Islamist parties have had to defeats on the battlefield and failed agrarian and industrialiconstantly re-invent themselves under different guises due to zation reform policies.
the military’s censure of “anti-secular” politics. This trend
has set contemporary Turkish politics to sway between two The two major home-grown ideologies up to this point
poles: that of a re-emergent Islamist ideal versus a secular- were Nasserism and Ba
thism, impacting most significantly
liberal ideal seemingly on the wane. Just below the surface, upon Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. Egypt under Nasser embodied
however, lies the powerful military, which keeps the powers- the aspirations of the Arab world, facing a future freed of the
that-be decisively in check. imperial past, newly independent and equally assertive. From
the time of the Free Officers’ coup in 1952 up until the Arab-
In 1997 the Islamist Refah (Welfare) Party’s leader was Israeli War in June of 1967, Nasser was seen as a dynamic
forced to step down due to pressure from the National president who had set in motion a positive process of national
Security Council, and the party itself was closed down the transformation. As a result Egypt exercised profound refollowing year on charges of anti-secular activities. Refah re- gional influence in this period.
constituted as the Fazilat Party, which was also banned in
2001. In spite of this, the 2002 elections were won by the However, Nasserism as a doctrine tried to satisfy too
Justice and Development Party, which emerged from the many conflicting aspirations. As such, it was able to position
modernizing wing of the Fazilat Party. Although enjoying itself neither as religious nor secular, democratic nor authorioverwhelming support from the masses, the Justice and tarian, socialist nor capitalist. It contained aspects of all but
Development Party will have to constrain its constituency’s faltered in privileging any one of these as the most important.
aspirations or face the fate of all its Islamist predecessors. The defeat in 1967 marked the true end of Nasserism.
Hereafter, Nasser allowed the Soviet Union to acquire domi-
The Arab States nant influence in the military. He dropped the quest for Arab
In contrast to the relatively effective constitutional regimes of unity and the hopes he had raised were finally shattered with
Iran and Turkey, the Arab States of the Middle East are ruled his death in 1970. His successor, Anwar Sadat (1918–1981),
by either monarchies or military dictators. It is important to was left to fill the void.
note that the regions’ dictatorships are a result of the social
and political processes of the twentieth century. The Arab Although lacking the charisma of Nasser, Sadat was able
defeat at the hands of Israel in the 1967 war and the changing to reorient Egyptian domestic and foreign policy in ways that
structure of global politics due to Cold War competition were every bit as profound as Nasser’s. He realigned Egypt
were the main factors responsible for the polarization of the with the superpowers in favor of the United States by expel-
Arab states and the tempering of Arab Nationalist sentiments ling Soviet military advisors and by courting peace with
that were so strongly evoked by the Egyptian leader Jamal Israel, not before redeeming Egyptian honor by defeating the

Abd al-Nasser, especially between 1953 and 1967. Israelis in the October 1973 war. Sadat’s U.S.–brokered
treaty with Israel earned him the discontent of militant
By 1945 the massive influx of wealth into the Arab states, Islamic groups in Egypt. His clampdown on these groups
primarily due to oil revenues, served as the single impetus for ultimately led to his assassination on 6 October 1981.
development, especially in terms of infrastructure and nationbuilding. However, progress was undermined by defeat in the Ba
thism, in contrast to Nasserism, was characterized by
first Arab-Israeli war from 1948 to 1949, as well the failure to a more sharply defined set of principles. Michel
Aflaq
cope with internal political, economic and social pressures. (1910–1989), the cofounder of the Ba
th Party, defined its
The resultant backlash brought about a series of military role in stirring and romantic language. The party was concoups: in Syria in 1949, Egypt in 1952, Sudan and Iraq in ceived of as an instrument of social justice and was supposed
1958, North Yemen in 1962, and Libya in 1969. The remain- to be at the vanguard of Arab unity. It attracted young Arabs
ing countries, including Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and of the post-independence era eager to restore Arab dignity,
the Gulf States, were all monarchies and effectively one-party especially in Syria and Iraq.
states. The only exception was Lebanon, where the existence
of parliamentary or party politics has been essential in order Aflaq was, however, in no way comparable to Nasser in
to balance the interests of both Christians and Muslims. terms of leadership qualities. Lacking a politician of ability to
implement its vision, the party’s plans were thwarted as it
The sharp rise in oil prices in the early 1970s led to divided into regional groupings and quarreling factions. Ambiambitious programs of social and economic development, tious men like Syria’s Hafiz al-Asad (1930–2000) and Iraq’s
and even had a positive impact upon the non-oil producing Saddam Husayn (1937–) used the party’s apparatus and

460 Islam and the Muslim World
Modernization, Political

ideology to serve their own ends. In the hands of al-Asad and British models. The immediate effect of these measures was
Husayn the Ba
th became a means of survival their respective the reduction of the scope of Islamic law or sharia, jurisdiction.
regimes and they utilized it as an effective instrument of
control and indoctrination. With the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and the
rise of the modern republic of Turkey, a fairly complete
As such, the party lost its pan-Arab mission and developed secularization of the law code was effected in that country,
rival Syrian and Iraqi branches. Common to both, however, even in matters of personal status. The sharia was effectively
was severe political repression, although social reforms were purged from the new statute books. However, developments
in some instances significant. Syria still remains an authori- in the neighboring regions were far more gradual.
tarian dictatorship under Bashar al-Asad (b. 1965), Hafiz al-
Asad’s son and heir, whereas the political future of Iraq after Iran, under Reza Shah Pahlevi, adopted a version the
the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Husayn in April of 2003 is Swiss family law code that remained in effect until after the
uncertain. revolution. The shah’s obsession with Western models of
development drove his reform initiatives, and some of the
In the 1980s, the biggest challenge that faced the Arab
family protection laws instituted between 1967 and 1975
regimes was the re-emergence of Islamic reformism, which
granted women greater legal equality within marriage. Unlike
was greatly influenced by the Islamic revolution in Iran. The
the case of Turkey and Tunisia, however, the shah did not
Islamic reform movements were largely unsuccessful due to
abolish polygamy. However, the husband was required to
the foreign support offered to the various regimes in order to
take the consent of his current wife in order to marry another.
protect their own interests. A striking example is the overthrow of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria by the The most significant reform initiative in the Arab states
military after a landslide victory in the first round of parlia- was the introduction of the new Egyptian civil code, framed
mentary elections held in December 1991. Voters had reby
Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri in 1949. Al-Sanhuri drew upon
jected the National Liberation Front that had ruled the
existing legislation, contemporary Western codes, and the
country as a single party for thirty years. The Islamic Salvasharia in formulating the code, although its final shape was
tion Front was poised to gain a decisive parliamentary majormore French than Islamic. Other Arab states also amended
ity, but the military intervened, declaring the elections null
their codes and continued to increase the centralization of
and void. A notable exception, however, was the successful
their courts. The Egyptian model inspired many of these
establishment of an Islamic regime in Sudan in 1989.
efforts. Al-Sanhuri was also called upon to formulate the Iraqi
The United States in the early twenty-first century exer- and Kuwaiti codes later on.
cises undisputed influence over the Middle East, and it is
difficult to envisage the flourishing of any popular movement A notable exception to the reform trend is seen in Saudi
representative of the political aspirations and ambitions of the Arabia and Yemen. Neither of these countries came under
civilian populations in these countries. This is borne out by British protection and the early Ottoman reforms were not
the United States’ heavy-handed policies towards countries that far-reaching. As such, the pre-existing sharia system was
with well-established systems of representative government, never restricted. In more recent times Yemen has made
like Sudan and Iran, and its tolerance and open allegiance to efforts to centralize and codify its legal system, whereas in
repressive regimes like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia, Saudi Arabia the sharia courts still retain general jurisdiction.
which are notorious for their gross violations of human
The period of malaise in the Middle East after 1967
rights. American support for Israel in terms of massive finanprompted militants and ordinary citizens alike to express
cial assistance and the turning of a blind eye to the occupation
of Palestine also leaves little hope for resolving conflict and desire for the re-establishment of the sharia. Muslim inteldiffusing tensions in the region as a whole. The U.S.–led lectuals have generally favored the idea that rulers are subject
invasion of Iraq in April of 2003 only signals the perpetuation to and must therefore enforce laws that are not entirely of
of the old colonial paradigm of political, military, and eco- their own making. This is but one strong inclination that
nomic domination and exposes the divide between the vested ensures the continuing appeal for calls to re-introduce the
interests of a powerful center and ultimate regional self sharia and its role in future legal reforms cannot be easily
determination on the periphery. These are but some of the dismissed or discounted.
major factors that hinder positive reform and progress in the
See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal;
Abd al-Razzaq al-
Middle East.
Sanhuri; Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal; Iran, Islamic Repub-
Judicial Reform lic of; Islamic Salvation Front; Khomeini, Ruhollah;
The process of judicial reform in the Middle East had already Modernization, Political: Participation, Political Movebegun in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when ments, and Parties; Mosaddeq, Mohammad; Muhamthe Ottoman Empire and Egypt began appropriating West- mad Reza Shah Pahlevi; Revolution: Islamic Revolution
ern legal codes that were mostly derived from French and in Iran.

Islam and the Muslim World 461
Modernization, Political

BIBLIOGRAPHY The political landscape since the 1970s has been domi-
Brown, Leon Carl, ed. Imperial Legacy – The Ottoman Imprint nated by two forms of governance: conservative monarchies
on the Balkans and Middle East. New York: Columbia and military or single-party republics. Even countries that
University Press, 1996. established an ideologically founded republic (e.g., Algeria,
Brown, Nathan J. The Rule of Law in the Arab World – Courts in Tunisia, and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, or
Egypt and the Gulf. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univer- South Yemen) or abolished monarchy through military coups
sity Press, 1997. d’état (e.g., Egypt, Iraq, and Libya), later developed a highly
Brumberg, Daniel. Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for authoritarian, personalized leadership. If presidential elec-
Reform in Iran. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. tions are held, people do not really have a choice between
Cleveland, William L. A History of the Modern Middle East. different candidates; the “presidential monarch” is usually
Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1994. reelected with close to 100 percent of the votes (e.g., in 1999:
Edge, Ian, ed. Islamic Law and Legal Theory. New York: New Yemen 96%, Egypt 94%, Tunisia 99%). Nowhere else do
York University Press, 1996. governors stay in power so long: The average reigning time
Hourani, Albert; Khoury, Philip S.; and Wilson, Mary C., for rulers in the Arab world was twenty-one years in 1998.
eds. The Modern Middle East. London: I. B. Tauris, 1993.
With many Arab societies still divided into tribes (most
Humphreys, R. Stephen. Between Memory and Desire: The notably in Yemen) or sects (Lebanon), it is hard to establish
Middle East in Troubled Age. Cairo: The American Univerpolitical parties at all. Moreover, members of minority facsity in Cairo Press, 2000.
tions often prefer authoritarian regimes that protect their
Owen, Roger. State, Power, and Politics in the Making of the
existing freedoms.
Modern Middle East. London: Routledge, 1992.
A possible exception to the failure of democracy is Tur-
Aslam Farouk-Alli key, defined as a secular republic in 1923—by the patriarchal
rule of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk). Since the end of the single-
AUTHORITARIANISM AND DEMOCRATIZATION party system in 1945, there has been a wide range of political
In the Middle East, liberal democracy is a rarity. There is no parties, and governments have been changed by elections.
democracy in the Western sense, that is, characterized by the The democratic character of the republic is limited, however,
right to form political parties; the possibility of changing
by the strong position of the military, which took over power
government by election; the freedoms of the press, belief, and
three times between 1960 and 1980. Its influence as well as
association; the protection of individual rights; the separation
the continuing violation of human rights are obstacles to
of powers; and secularism.
Turkey’s bid for membership in the European Union.
One reason for the lack of democratic structures lies in the
Other countries in the region are, at least to some extent,
experience of colonialism and neocolonialism. Most Arab
free and democratic. Since 1989 Jordan has developed a
countries achieved independence only after World War II,
relatively unfettered press and has installed an elected parliaand the borders were in many cases fixed by the colonial
ment with real opposition parties, while remaining a heredipowers; therefore, the people in the new political entities did
tary monarchy. Morocco also established a parliament,
not necessarily share a national identity. For some decades
although the real political power still lies with the king. In
there was a strong movement toward “Arab unity” or panstates like Egypt, Tunisia, and the reunited Yemen, there are
Arabism. However, actual attempts to form a greater nation,
like that of Egypt, Syria, and Yemen (1958–1961), came to parliaments and elections, but the presidents—relying on a
nothing. strong secret service or military—determine most developments and still refuse to grant rights to political movements,
Even in countries that never were colonies, like Iran and parties, or groups.
Afghanistan, Western and Soviet interference, respectively,
prevented democratic development. The success of the Ira- Syria and Iraq, where branches of the socialist Ba
ath
nian revolution of 1978 and 1979 is partly due to the repeated (Rebirth) party came to power in the 1960s, soon became
defeat of attempts at democratization. The ongoing Israeli- extremely autocratic states with quasi-hereditary presiden-
Arab conflict stymies liberalization, and plays into the hands cies. The same thing happened to the political system created
of extremist groups. by Mu
ammar al-Qadhafi in Libya in 1969, combining elements of grassroots democracy and socialist ideas with a
Another reason for the lack of democratic structures lies totally autocratic style of governance.
within the extremely patriarchal Middle Eastern societies
themselves and their tradition of authoritarianism. The latter The oil-rich Arab kingdoms and emirates of the Persian
has its roots in the patronage system of the tribal Arab Gulf combined economic modernization with strict autosocieties as well as in the Islamic theory of power with its ideal cratic governance. As if in compliance with the principle “no
of the just sovereign. taxation without representation,” these wealthier states could

462 Islam and the Muslim World
Modernization, Political

afford to keep their population calm without granting demo- East and North Africa; Reform: Iran; Revolution,
cratic rights. The United Arab Emirates have no parliamen- Modern.
tary structures at all; Saudi Arabia suppresses all opposition
by force. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Throughout the Middle East, the 1980s were character- Brynen, Rex; Korany, Bahgat; and Noble, Paul, eds. Political
Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab World. Vol.
ized by the rise of political Islam. It evolved primarily according
1, Theoretical Perspectives. Vol. 2, Comparative Experito domestic factors, often as a reaction against authoritarianences. Boulder, Colo.: Rienner, 1995, 1998.
ism and corruption. Some states are trying to include the
Gerner, Deborah J., and Schrodt, Philip A. “Middle East
Islamists in their democratization efforts: In Jordan and
Politics.” In Understanding the Contemporary Middle East.
Yemen the major opposition parties in parliament are Islamist.
Edited by Deborah J. Gerner. Boulder, Colo.:
But most states consider them a fundamental threat to the Rienner, 2000.
political system. In Algeria the democratization process ended
with the annulment of the relatively free elections in Decem-
Claudia Stodte
ber 1991, when it became evident that the Islamist Front
Anne-Sophie Froehlich
Islamique du Salut (FIS) was going to win most parliamentary
seats. The army took over with international approval and a
CONSTITUTIONALISM
decade of savage civil strife ensued.
Virtually all the Arab countries, as well as Turkey and Iran,
Other states made concessions to political Islam. They have promulgated formal, written constitutions. As they and
revived, for example, the principle of consultation (shura), other Muslim nations have learned, however, a constitutional
which in reference to Quran passages 3:159 and 42:38 document does not always reflect or ensure constitutionalism,
provides some kind of participation. Even Saudi Arabia has just as constitutionalism does not always require a written
had a shura council since 1993; every four years its 120 constitution. Constitutionalism is the idea that political order
members are appointed by the king. If broadly applied (as in ought to be subject to a higher authority beyond the arbitrary
Jordan), this principle of consultation can be helpful in human will expressed through an autocrat, a minority faction,
achieving political participation and pluralization. or a democratic mob. Although constitutionalism is commonly identified with liberal democracy, any regime that
The Islamic Republic of Iran (1979) is an interesting case. provides for limited and accountable government, adherence
Although an Islamic state, governed by the principle of to the rule of law, and the protection of fundamental rights to
velayat-e faqih (i.e., the absolute authority of the religious all its citizens may be said to be constitutionalist. Defined in
jurist), it has republican structures—a constitution, a parlia- this way, constitutionalism has had a troubled history in the
ment, and elections. Since 1997 the results of the elections, countries of the Middle East, and no country has to date fully
though still controlled, show a great demand for democracy, implemented constitutionalist principles.
especially among women and young voters.
The earliest constitutionalist experiments in Arab states
With the deaths of three veteran rulers in 1999 (the kings occurred in Tunisia and Egypt. In 1857, under pressure from
of Jordan and Morocco, and the emir of Bahrain) and of European governments, Muhammad Bey issued the Ahd al-
Syria’s Hafiz al-Asad in 2000, a new generation of Arab Aman, or Fundamental Pact, under which all residents of
leaders gained power, and more such changes will follow. Tunisia were granted equal rights of security, legal redress,
These new rulers were partly educated in the West, and the and employment. In 1861, Tunisia promulgated the first
aspirations for more democracy under their governance are constitution in the Muslim world, under which the legislative
high. They will probably not change the political systems and judicial powers of the bey and his ministers were limited
completely, but they are taking steps to open their countries, by the establishment of a Grand Assembly. The assembly
economically and otherwise. Shaykh Hamad bin Khalifa al- consisted of sixty members, appointed by the bey for five-year
Thani, who came to power in 1995, not only decreed that terms, and all drawn from the country’s elite. The constitu-
Qatar was to become a democracy, but also abolished censor- tional experiment lasted but three years, collapsing in 1864 in
ship and launched al-Jazeera, the freest television channel in the wake of popular demonstrations in the provinces.
the Arab world. As one of its moderators put it, “the main
obstacle to progress in the Middle East is the lack of free Constitutional reforms would not resume until 1955, as
media. In our society, the rubbish has been swept under the the French protectorate over Tunisia was nearing an end.
carpet far too long.” The constitution promulgated in June 1959 declared Tunisia
a republic, with executive power vested in a president and
See also Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal; Modernization, Politi- legislative power in a National Assembly, both elected by
cal: Administrative, Military, and Judicial Reform; universal suffrage. The judiciary was declared to be indepen-
Modernization, Political: Constitutionalism; Political dent. The constitution was significantly amended in 1988 to
Islam; Qadhafi, Mu
ammar al-; Reform: Arab Middle strengthen executive control over the legislature, and to

Islam and the Muslim World 463
Modernization, Political

specify that the prime minister succeeds the president in case
of death or disability.

Egyptian constitutionalism gained ground during the reign
of the Khedive Isma
il, fueled mainly by the notables’ growing concern with Egyptian indebtedness to European powers. In 1866, Isma
il agreed to create the Consultative Assembly
of Deputies, comprised of Egyptian notables, and in 1878 he
formed the Council of Ministers, to which he transferred a
great deal of executive authority. In 1882, when Isma
il’s
successor, Tawfiq, attempted to reverse his predecessor’s
concessions, the Assembly of Deputies pressured the khedive
to approve their draft constitution. Under this document, the
Assembly was to be an elective body whose members served
five-year terms. Both it and the Council of Ministers could
initiate legislation, subject to the final approval of the khedive.
Most importantly, the prime minister could be summoned
and questioned by the Assembly, and if a conflict arose
between the two, the Assembly’s will was to prevail.

The 1882 constitution was never fully implemented, and
when the British occupied Egypt the same year, it was
suspended. Shortly after independence, Egypt promulgated a
new constitution in April 1923, which established the supremacy of the king over the cabinet and the parliament.
Following the Free Officers’ overthrow of the monarchy in
1952, a new constitutional charter was enacted in January Abd al-Hamid II (1842–1918) was the Ottoman sultan from 1876
to 1909. He was responsible for building schools, roads, railroad
1956 that declared Egypt a republic, with most powers vested
lines, and other public works during a time of Ottoman decline.
in the president. A new constitution was drafted in 1971, soon Though he accepted the first constitution in 1876, he suspended
after Anwar Sadat’s assumption of the presidency. This docu- it from 1878 until 1908 and enforced his autocratic rule through
ment retains a strong presidency but adds provisions for an secret police. The Armenian massacres of 1894–1896 were
perpetrated during his reign. THE ART ARCHIVE/TOPKAPI MUSEUM
expanded role for the judiciary, including the creation of a
ISTANBUL/DAGLI ORTI
Supreme Constitutional Court. The courts’ powers have
effectively been curtailed, however, by the invocation of
Emergency Laws by Hosni Mubarak, ostensibly to combat
mandate, the 1943 National Covenant established a
terrorism within the country.
consociational democracy. Seats in the Chamber of Deputies
Iraq’s constitution was drafted and promulgated in 1925, were divided according to a 6:5 formula, giving the Christian
while the country was still under a British mandate. It created population a permanent majority in the legislature over the
a constitutional monarchy, with a strong king and a bicameral Muslims. The president had to be a Maronite Christian, the
legislature. Once the British mandate ended, the king’s au- prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the
thority over the cabinet was enhanced through constitutional parliament a Shi
ite Muslim. This “elite cartel” continued to
amendments in 1943. The July 1958 revolution that ended function until the outbreak of the civil war in 1975. Under the
monarchical rule effectively ended constitutionalism as well. Ta
if Agreement of 1989 that ended the civil war, the sectar-
From 1958 to 2003, the country was run by the Revolutionary ian apportionment of high offices was retained, but the
Command Council (RCC). The RCC’s authoritarian rule Christian-Muslim allocation of seats in the legislature was
was formalized in the 1970 “interim” constitution adopted by brought to parity and the powers of the prime minister
the Ba
thists, which continued in place until it officially relative to those of the president were substantially increased.
became Iraq’s constitution in 1990. Amendments in 1995
made the election of the president subject to national plebi- All of the extant Arab monarchies, including Morocco,
scite, but in effect bolstered the authoritarian rule of Saddam Jordan, Kuwait, and the other emirates of the Persian Gulf,
Husayn by eliminating the RCC’s ability to dismiss the have adopted constitutional instruments that make token
president. attempts at creating popularly elected legislatures, but which
retain effective powers in the hands of the monarch. Kuwait is
The Lebanese constitution is among the most intriguing a notable, but qualified, exception; the emir has battled
of all the Arab republics. Given the deep sectarian cleavages parliaments demanding a greater role since the 1960s. The
in the Greater Lebanon that was created under the French parliament’s authority was enhanced following the liberation

464 Islam and the Muslim World
Modernization, Political

of Kuwait from Iraqi control in 1991. As for Saudi Arabia, no alleviate the fundamental tension built into the 1979 constireal constitutional document was enacted until 1992, when tution, namely, the rivalry between two executive authorities,
the Basic Laws codified the complete dominance of the Saudi the president and the supreme religious guide.
ruling house in the country’s administration. The king appoints the Consultative Council and heads the Council of See also Majlis; Modernization, Political: Administra-
Ministers. tive, Military, and Judicial Reform.

Turkey’s experience with constitutionalism began with BIBLIOGRAPHY
the Ottoman constitution of 1876, which formalized the Arjomand, Saïd Amir. “Constitutions and the Struggle for
central place of the sultan in the government of the empire, Political Order: A Study in the Modernization of Politibut created a bicameral parliament to share the sultan’s cal Traditions.” Archives Européennes de Sociologie 33
legislative functions. Sultan
Abd al-Hamid II suspended this (1992): 39–82.
constitution within months of its enactment. It was revived, Brown, Nathan J. Constitutions in a Nonconstitutional World:
with modifications that enhanced executive powers, follow- Arab Basic Laws and the Prospects for Accountable Governing the Young Turks revolt in 1908. Turkey’s transformation ment. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002.
to a secular republic began with constitutional enactments Brown, Nathan J. Dustur: A Survey of the Constitutions of the
passed by the Grand National Assembly following the em- Arab and Muslim States. Leiden: Brill, 1966.
pire’s defeat in the First World War. In January 1921, the
Law of Fundamental Organizations vested legislative author-
Sohail H. Hashmi
ity in the Grand National Assembly. Another decree in
November 1922 abolished the sultanate. Finally, on 20 April
PARTICIPATION, POLITICAL MOVEMENTS,
1924, following the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate, the AND PARTIES
constitution of the Turkish republic was announced. A profound tension has plagued attempts at political modernization and reform in the Middle East. On the one hand,
By the 1950s, Turkey had evolved firm republican and
leaders face enormous pressures to democratize. During the
what seemed to be strengthening democratic institutions,
1970s and 1980s, economic crises eroded regime legitimacy,
going so far as to see the triumph of an opposition party in the
creating grassroots demands for political rights and civil
1950 general elections. Increasing paralysis in the parliament
liberties. These local pressures coincided with growing intercaused by party differences led to the first military intervennational norms of democracy and human rights, supported by
tion in 1960. The military seized power again in 1971 and
the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations.
1980, leading to the proclamation of a constitution that
Accustomed to political control, however, leaders in the
legitimated the military’s political role in 1982. In 1995, with
region feared that democracy would unleash hostile political
Turkey attempting to join the European Union, constitumovements and sweep the ruling elite from power. Pressures
tional amendments attempted to lessen the political profile of
for democratization were thus pitted against a desire to
the military.
remain in power.
Iran’s constitutional revolution of 1906 launched that
country’s attempt at constitutional monarchy. In 1925, the In the first few decades after World War II, most regimes
constitution was amended to effectuate the transfer of mo- in the region were concerned with building new governnarchical authority from the Qajar dynasty to the new Pahlevi ments, asserting independence from Western countries, and
dynasty that was founded by the erstwhile minister of war, securing hegemony over fractious societies. In an effort to
Reza Khan. The only period during the Pahlevi era when establish control, a number of leaders asserted populist ideconstitutional practices were even partially implemented was ologies tied to socialist principles and Arab nationalism,
from 1941 to 1953, when the young Muhammad Reza Shah which emphasizes the unity of Arabs irrespective of their
was not strong enough to exert his will against the Majlis, the country of residence. Perhaps the most central figure in the
national parliament. Through the late 1960s and early 1970s, Arab nationalist camp was Jamal
Abd al-Nasser (d. 1970) of
the shah’s rule became increasingly despotic. Egypt, who created the Arab Socialist Union in 1962 as a
vehicle to mobilize the masses. Nasser’s charisma and power-
In January 1979, the monarchy was overthrown in the ful leadership inspired movements that threatened regime
Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini. The constitu- power in other countries. The fusion of Arab nationalism and
tion of the Islamic Republic of Iran was enacted in December socialism manifested itself in Syria and Iraq as well. Both
1979. Its most notable feature was the implementation of countries spawned movements rooted in Ba
th ideology,
direct rule by the Shi
ite religious scholars, chiefly in the which combines socialism and its emphasis on income
institution of the vali-ye faqih, or the supreme religious guide redistribution and nationalization with visions about the
of the nation. Significant amendments were made in 1989 to glory of historical Arab unity. Ba
th parties in Syria and Iraq
allow for a transfer of supreme authority after Khomeini’s had to contend with strong communist movements but manimpending death. The changes did nothing, however, to aged to consolidate power and gain control of government.

Islam and the Muslim World 465
Modernization, Political

The influence of Arab nationalism waned during the forged alliances with other parties and successfully won seats
1970s and was replaced by the rapid ascendance of Islamic in parliament (eight seats in the 360-member parliament in
movements, which became a central force of opposition in 1984 and thirty-six in 1987). Under Hosni Mubarak in the
the Middle East. The most spectacular Islamic challenge mid-1990s, however, the regime initiated a crackdown against
emerged in Iran in the late 1970s. Muhammad Reza Shah the movement and imprisoned fifty-four of its leading mem-
Pahlevi’s repression and failed modernization program bers, including many candidates who ran in the 1995 elecprompted opposition from a wide consortium of social groups, tions. Activists from more radical Islamic groups, such as the
which mobilized demonstrations under the leadership of the Gama
a Islamiyya (Islamic Group) and Islamic Jihad, at-
Islamic clergy in the late 1970s. The protest movement tempted to form political parties in the late 1990s, but were
overthrew the shah, and an Islamic state was established in 1979. denied permits.

The Iranian Revolution sent shock waves throughout the Other regimes fluctuated between inclusionary and exclu-
Middle East, and regimes became increasingly concerned sionary responses to democratizing pressures and political
about the rising power of Islamic movements. Because the movements. For example, following austerity riots in 1988,
growth of Islamic activism coincided with external and inter- the Algerian regime initiated political reforms, including a
nal pressures for democratization, incumbent elites faced a number of policies that seemed to support the Islamic moveconundrum—how to release some of the building societal ment. A variety of Islamic factions reacted by forming the
pressure for political reform while preventing Islamic move- Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut, or FIS),
ments from taking power. which was legally recognized in 1989. In 1990, the FIS won
stunning victories in municipal and regional races; and al-
Two responses to this dilemma predominated. First, a though the regime subsequently repressed the movement,
number of regimes implemented an inclusionary model of the FIS still dominated the 1991 parliamentary elections and
controlled political liberalization. In this strategy, opposition was poised to control parliament with a comfortable majority.
movements, including Islamic groups, were allowed to par- The regime quickly shifted to draconian exclusionary policies
ticipate in national elections, but the regime retained ultimate and canceled election results in early 1992, banned the FIS,
power and executive authority. In 1989, for example, King and imprisoned Islamic leaders. The repression incited an
Hussein (d. 1999) of Jordan held elections to the Chamber of Islamic rebellion that led to more than 150,000 deaths during
Deputies (the lower house of parliament) for the first time the 1990s. A similar shift from inclusionary to exclusionary
since 1966. Although several political movements partici- strategies can be seen in Turkey, where the Islamic-oriented
pated, the Islamic movement dominated the campaign and Welfare Party installed its leader, Necmeddin Erbakan, as
won thirty-four of the eighty seats, creating the single largest the prime minister in a coalition government in 1996. While
bloc in parliament. The movement later joined the govern- this initially indicated an inclusionary strategy, the military
ment cabinet during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, formed a eventually intervened and the coalition collapsed. The Welpolitical party (the Islamic Action Front) in 1993, and sup- fare Party was subsequently closed and Erbakan was banned
ported democratic principles (even while boycotting elec- from politics for life. The Welfare Party and its successor, the
tions in 1997). The monarch, however, remained the ultimate Virtue Party, were banned. Yet a third reconstructed Islamic
authority. A similar response occurred in Kuwait after the party, Justice and Development, won the largest number of
Gulf War in 1991. Because of considerable pressure from the seats in the Turkish parliament and formed a government in
international community and former Kuwaiti exiles, Shaykh 2002. Such examples point to variation in strategies as leaders
Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah held parliamentary elections in calculate the risks of political movement participation.
October 1992, the first since parliament was dissolved in
1986. Opposition movements openly contested the elections, See also Communism; Erbakan, Necmeddin; Ikhwan
and various Islamic factions won nineteen of the fifty seats in al-Muslimin; Modernization, Political: Authoritari-
1992, seventeen seats in 1996, and twenty in 1999. Despite anism and Democratization; Nationalism: Arab;
this participation, the emir retained executive power. Nationalism: Iranian; Nationalism: Turkish; Pan-Islam;
Political Islam; Socialism.
But not all regimes gambled their political survival on the
incorporation of Islamic groups through parties, elections, BIBLIOGRAPHY
and political participation. Instead, they opted for an alterna- Batatu, Hanna. The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary
tive exclusionary model. In this response, regimes enacted Movements of Iraq. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
limited political liberalization measures and elections, but Press, 1978.
Islamic groups and other powerful political movements were Langhor, Vickie. “Of Islamists and Ballot Boxes: Rethinking
excluded and repressed. This was the strategy in Egypt. the Relationship between Islamisms and Electoral Poli-
Although the mainstream Muslim Brotherhood movement tics.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 33, no. 4
had long been prevented from forming a political party, it (2001): 591–610.

466 Islam and the Muslim World
Modern Thought

Norton, Augustus Richard. “The Challenge of Inclusion in into the global economy. While some guilds were able to
the Middle East.” Current History 94 (1995): 1–6. survive in their traditional forms, many peasants were forced
from their lands and deposited in the modern capitalist
Quintan Wiktorowicz workforce. Fortunes accumulated in the hands of Muslim
industrialists, such as the Azerbaijani businessmen who collaborated and competed with European investors in the
Islamic world’s first oil boom, in the 1870s in Baku.
MODERN THOUGHT
These modern institutions sponsored, sometimes unin-
A complex of ideologies that emerged unevenly in the ninetentionally, the creation of the new class of intellectuals
teenth and twentieth centuries—including revivalism, raassociated with modern Islamic thought. Muhammad
Ali of
tionalism, empiricism, pluralism, constitutionalism, and
Egypt, for example, sent students to study in France; the
egalitarianism—drawing heavily on European inspirations
religious guide appointed for the group, Rifa
a Rafi
aland seeking to anchor itself in Islamic precedent.
Tahtawi (Egypt, 1801–1873), returned after five years to
Origins write an influential book extolling the virtues of French
Modern Islamic thought emerged during the period of Euro- technology, society, and politics. State-run secular schools in
pean colonial expansion. Beginning in the eighteenth cen- the Ottoman Empire and elsewhere generated moderntury, and accelerating in the nineteenth century, the Islamic oriented graduates such as Ali Suavi (Turkey, 1839–1878),
world began to bear the brunt of this expansion. The Otto- who incorporated Western concepts such as “democracy”
man Empire and the Qajar dynasty in Iran lost territory and and “constitutionalism” into the Islamic lexicon. Industrialwere forced to sign humiliating treaties of “capitulation” that ists in Baku and throughout the Islamic world funded modern
granted extraterritorial and monopoly rights to Europeans. schools, newspapers, and cultural institutions that provided
Other Islamic lands, from West Africa to Southeast Asia, cadres, jobs, and audiences for the new breed of intellectuals.
were colonized outright. By the early twentieth century,
virtually the entire Islamic world was in the grip of Europe. Yet modernist thinkers, for all their novelty, also considered themselves to be authentic representatives of Islamic
Europe’s self-understanding at this time, notwithstanding heritage. Modern Islamic thought appealed to aspects of this
variations and contradictions, involved the ideology of mo- heritage that it viewed retroactively as precursors to moderdernity. Indeed, this ideology had developed in part as an nity. In particular, modern movements framed their ideals as
attempt to distance Christians from Muslims: Early modern the recovery of the lost piety and glory of the early years
political theorists contrasted the emerging constitutionalism of Islam.
in Europe with the “Oriental despotism” of the Islamic
world; Enlightenment thinkers contrasted European religiosity Revivalism
with Muslim “fanaticism”; Orientalist scholars contrasted The theme of revival—also termed renewal, rebirth, and
European science with Muslim “irrationality.” reform—permeates much of modern Islamic thought. “There
is no doubt that in the present age distress, misfortunate, and
In response to the threat posed by Europe, many Muslims
weakness besiege all classes of Muslims from every side,”
sought to adopt aspects of modernity, to make modernity
wrote Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (Iran, 1838–1897),
serve their interests rather than the interests of the colonizers.
perhaps the most influential activist of the modernist Islamic
This process was not specific to the Islamic world—in Europe
movement.The Islamic world awaits a “sage and renewer” to
and elsewhere, interstate competition also spurred the development of modern institutions. The first institutions to “reform the minds and souls of the Muslims, repel the
be modernized were the militaries, whose reorganization, unforeseen corruption, and again educate them with a virtureoutfitting, and retraining—along European lines, often ous education. Perhaps through that good education they
with European instructors—were ordered by rulers such as may return to their former joyful condition” (pp. 123–129).
Muhammad
Ali of Egypt (r.1805–1849), Mahmud II of the This joyful condition existed in the early years of Islam,
Ottoman Empire (r.1808–1839), and Ahmad Bey of Tunisia before “complete intellectual confusion beset the Muslims,”
(r.1837–1855). A second wave of modernization involved the according to Muhammad
Abduh (Egypt, 1849–1905), the
bureaucratization of other state institutions under reformist most prominent student and collaborator of al-Afghani’s.
ministers such as Amir Kabir in Iran (1848–1851), Midhat Confusion can only be cured by returning to “the essential
Pasha in the Ottoman Empire (1860s–1870s), Khayr al-Din nature” of Islam, as “interpreted according to the underin Tunisia (1873–1877), and Abu Bakar of Johore in Malaya standing of those among whom it was sent down [from
(1862–1895). Some of these reformers did not last long in heaven] and to the way they put it into practice” (pp. 39,
office, but their project of state-building continued after their 153–154) “Truly, we are in a dire need for renewal and
departure. A further wave of modernization involved eco- renewers,” wrote Rashid Rida (Syria-Egypt, 1865–1935),
nomic institutions, which were transformed by their entry
Abduh’s most prominent student and collaborator, citing the

Islam and the Muslim World 467
Modern Thought

saying of the Prophet, “God sends to this nation at the can be drawn between Islamic ideologies that approach mobeginning of every century someone who renews its religion” dernity as a means toward revivalism, and those that approach
(Kurzman et al., p. 78). revivalism as a means toward modernity.

The most important precedent for the earliest modern Rationalism
renewers was Ibn Taymiyya (Syria, 1263–1328), who along Debates within modern Islamic thought take place on the
with his student Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (Syria, 1292–1350) ground of rationalism. Even thinkers who disagree with one
railed against the corrupt practices of Muslims of their era. another share the underlying premise that educated, in-
While these figures remain important for modern revivalism, formed Muslims should devise reasoned justifications for
they have been eclipsed somewhat by the example of Muham- their positions, and may the best argument win. This premise
mad Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab (Arabia, 1703–1787), the religious differs from premodern limits on rationality (as opposed to
leader of a movement to purify Muslim practices—demolish- faith), suspicion of novelty (vulnerable to accusations of
ing shrines, for example, which they took to represent false heresy), and reliance on authority (particularly the genealogy
idols. Other Islamic movements of purification and renewal of one’s spiritual teacher). The distinction is not absolute:
emerged about the same time in West Africa, South Asia, Certainly novel arguments were developed in premodern
Southeast Asia, and China. Hostile observers often label times, and some modern thought denies that it does anything
revivalists “Wahhabis” to emphasize their premodern roots, more than revive the insights of its predecessors. But in
while contemporary followers of such movements generally general, the distinction holds, demarcated symbolically by
identify themselves as Muwahiddun (Unitarians, or believers the concept of ijtihad.
in divine unity) or Salafiyyun (imitators of the ancestors, that
The concept of ijtihad, derived from an Arabic root
is, the early generations of Muslims).
meaning “effort” or “struggle,” was for centuries limited to a
fairly technical meaning, referring to the intellectual effort of
Yet modern revivalism differs significantly from its
trained Islamic scholars to arrive at legal rulings on matters
premodern predecessors. It emerged most often in regions
not covered in the sacred sources. The modernist Islamic
that are highly modernized, including the Muslim diaspora in
movement of the nineteenth century adopted the term as a
western Europe and North America. Its leaders frequently
rallying cry, transforming its meaning into the more general
have modern educations—for example, Hasan al-Banna (Egypt,
task of “rational interpretation” that they held to be incum-
1906–1949), the most prominent follower of Rida and founder
bent upon all educated Muslims. The opposite of ijtihad, in
of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, was trained as an
this view, was taqlid, literally “following,” which modernists
educator, as was Sayyid Qutb (Egypt, 1902–1966), the Mustook to mean “blind obedience to authority.” Al-Afghani, for
lim Brotherhood’s most influential theoretician of radical
example, urged Muslims to “shun submission to conjectures
revival. Usama bin Ladin (Saudi Arabia, born 1957), the most
and not be content with mere taqlid of their ancestors. For if
notorious revivalist of the present time, was trained in civil
man believes in things without proof or reason, makes a
engineering. Al-Afghani and Abu l-A
la Maududi (Indiapractice of following unproven opinions, and is satisfied to
Pakistan, 1903–1979), the leading South Asian revivalist of imitate and follow his ancestors, his mind inevitably desists
the twentieth century, had seminary training but hid their from intellectual movement, and little by little stupidity and
traditional backgrounds, not wishing to be identified with imbecility overcome him—until his mind becomes comsuch institutions (in al-Afghani’s case, because he attended pletely idle and he becomes unable to perceive his own good
Shi
a seminaries and later passed as a Sunni). In addition, and evil; and adversity and misfortune overtake him from all
modern revivalism presented itself as an ideology, compara- sides” (p. 171).
Abduh sought “to liberate thought from the
ble to other ideologies in the modern world (though prefer- shackles of taqlid to return, in the acquisition of religious
able to them, according to its supporters). Revivalist slogans knowledge, to its first sources, and to weigh them in the scales
like “Neither East (that is, communism) nor West” and of human reason, which God has created in order to prevent
“Islam is the solution” placed Islamic revival within the field excess or adulteration in religion” (Hourani, 140–141). Sayyid
of global ideological debates, in a way that premodern reviv- Ahmad Khan (India, 1817–1898), the chief organizer of the
alism did not. Finally, many revivalists also adopted other modernist Islamic movement in South Asia in the nineteenth
strands of modern thought, such as the ones discussed in the century, argued that Islam is “in full correspondence with
following sections. reason” (Troll, 257).

In the first generations of modern Islamic thought, reviv- Modernists cited premodern precedents for this view.
alism and these other strands were seamlessly woven to- Ahmad Khan, for example, praised the broadened use of
gether. By the 1930s, however, the seams had begun to ijtihad by Shah Wali Allah (India, 1703–1762). Muhammad
show. Revivalism remains central in modern Islamic thought, Iqbal (India, 1877–1938), the great poet and philosopher,
but some revivalists downplay modern ideals, while some relied on Shah Wali Allah, Muhammad b.
Ali al-Shawkani
modernists downplay revivalist ideals. Today a distinction (Yemen, circa 1760–1839), and other, older theorists of

468 Islam and the Muslim World
Modern Thought

ijtihad. Fazlur Rahman (Pakistan-United States, 1919–1988), Empire to encourage the teaching of empirical subjects:
the most prominent Islamic modernist of late twentieth natural sciences, particularly physics and chemistry; human
century South Asia, cited a long-standing legacy running sciences, particularly history and geography; and language
through Wali Allah and Iqbal. Many modernists trace ration- arts, particularly literacy in Arabic and local languages. By the
alism back to a saying of the prophet Muhammad: When time the Russian Empire collapsed in 1917, there were
Muhammad appointed Mu
adh b. Jabal as ruler of Yemen, he hundreds of such schools, only to be destroyed through
asked Mu
adh how he planned to make decisions. “I will the economic disasters, political purges, and civil conflicts
judge matters according to the Book of God,” said Mu
adh. of the early Soviet era. In other regions, however, similar
“But if the Book of God contains nothing to guide you?” school reform movements survived. Ahmad Khan’s Anglo-
Muhammad asked. “Then I will act on the precedents of the Muhammadan College in Aligarh, India, was one of several
Prophet of God.” “But if the precedents fail?” “Then I will new institutions that trained generations of modernist Musexercise my own ijtihad.” Muhammad praised Mu
adh for his lims in South Asia. The Muhammadiyya movement in Southresponse. east Asia established a network of new schools that exist to
this day. Postcolonial states throughout the Islamic world
Modern Islamic rationalism universalized such prece- have frequently required traditional schools to introduce
dents. Whereas premodern thought had generally limited the scientific subjects, while also incorporating religious educause of ijtihad to qualified scholars, modernists consider all tion as a subject in the new state-run educational systems.
Muslims—or, in some theories, all educated Muslims—to be Empiricism has become widely entrenched both as a worldview
capable of rational interpretation. Modern thinkers nonethe- and as a pedagogy.
less differ as to the matters to which rationalism may legitimately be applied, with some exempting matters whose The Islamic justification for empiricism cites both scriptreatment in the Quran and the precedent of the prophet tural and historical grounds, as well as the pragmatic grounds
Muhammad they consider to be unambiguous. Other think- of progress and survival. Modernists describe in glowing
ers, such as
Abd al-Karim Sorush (Iran, b. 1945), hold that terms the scientific advances of the early centuries of Islam,
even seemingly unambiguous revelation is subject to human— including such figures as Abu Ja
far al-Khwarazmi (Baghdad,
and thus variable and fallible—interpretation, and therefore c. 800–847), who invented algebra; Ulugh Beg (Central Asia,
that rational analysis is required on all matters. 1394–1449), whose astronomical observations were used
throughout the world for centuries; and Ibn Khaldun (Tuni-
Empiricism sia, 1332–1406), widely considered a precursor to modern
In modern Islamic thought, rationalism is not limited to historiography and social science. The relative lack of compatextual exegesis, but operates also on the empirical world. rable paragons in later years poses the central problem for
Scientific observation is required of Muslims, in this view, modern Islamic empiricism. Modernists have also collected
both for its own sake and for the benefits it can bestow upon numerous verses of the Quran and sayings of Muhammad in
the welfare of the Islamic world. Isma
il Bey Gasprinskii support of empirical study, including the saying, “Seek knowl-
(Crimea, 1851–1914), one of the founders of modern Islamic edge, even though it be in China.” Indeed, one strand of
thought in the Russian Empire, considered science to be Islamic empiricism argues that all significant scientific discrucial to the survival of Islam, which had fallen hundreds of coveries were prefigured in the Quran—not only is scientific
years behind Europe, he argued, because of its failure to knowledge fully consistent with Islam, in this view, but Islam
keep up with Western scientific advances. Rizaeddin bin had it first.
Fakhreddin (Ar. Rida al-din bin Fakr al-din) (Tatarstan,
1858–1936), one of the chief seminary-trained collaborators Egalitarianism
of the Russian-educated Gasprinskii, likened the sciences in Empirical claims, according to modern Islamic thought, are
the Islamic world to “a factory standing idle,” and argued that to be judged by their content, not by the social position of the
“it is futile to resist machines and struggle against nature” speaker. In the words of
Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi (Algeria-
(Kurzman, 239). Abdalrauf Fitrat (Ar.
Abad al-Ra
uf Fitrat) Syria, c. 1807–1883), an anticolonial military leader who
(Bukhara-Soviet Union, 1886–1938), who helped to bring turned to a modernist form of Sufism during his decades of
Ottoman and Tatar modernism to Central Asia, urged Mus- retirement: “People should be measured according to the
lim schools to abandon “the nonsense of studying obscure truth, not the truth according to [the reputation of] people”
points of Arabic grammar” in favor of “the new sciences, (Kurzman, 135).
which produce rapid results and great benefits, [and which]
the Christians possessed to make them victorious over you” Other modernists extended this egalitarian sentiment to
(Kurzman, 245). many arenas of social life, for example, ethnicity.
Abd al-
Rahman al-Kawakibi (Syria, 1854–1902) and others criti-
These figures and their colleagues were instrumental in cized Ottoman Turkish discrimination against Arabs in govreforming and founding Islamic schools—known as “New ernmental and social affairs; Syeikh Ahmad Surkati (Sudan-
Method” (Usul-e Jadid) schools—throughout the Russian Java, 1872–1943) and others objected to Arab discrimination

Islam and the Muslim World 469
Modern Thought

against Southeast Asians; Chandra Muzaffar (Malaysia, b. counter-movement set in, with leftist sentiments ceding to
1947) and others protested against Southeast Asians’ dis- dreams of individual and national capital accumulation.
crimination against non-Muslim communities in the region,
such as the Chinese. In these and similar cases, egalitarianism Constitutionalism
sought to replace traditional forms of hierarchy with a new A special case of egalitarianism involves political rights, civil
form of community, sometimes defined in religious terms liberties, and the rule of law, all of which were bundled in the
(the umma, or Islamic community as a whole), but more movement for constitutional government—mashrutiyat, a
frequently in national terms. Arab, Southeast Asian, and nineteenth-century neologism derived from the Arabic root
other nationalisms cast individuals as citizens with equal shart (conditionality) and the French term charte (constiturights and responsibilities. tion). Namik Kemal (Ottoman Turkey, 1840–1888), one of
the leading activists in the constitutionalist movement of the
One of the most contentious aspects of egalitarianism 1860s and 1870s, quoted Quranic injunction such as, “And
involved the extension of this ideology to gender. At the turn seek their council in the matter” (3:159), and concluded that
of the twentieth century, feminists—both male and female— “the salvation of the state today is dependent upon the
began to argue that patriarchal practices offended Islamic adoption of the method of consultation” (Kurzman, 140).
Ali
faith. Qasim Amin (Egypt, 1863–1908), the Islamic world’s
Abd al-Raziq (Egypt, 1888–1966), a scholar at al-Azhar
most famous male feminist, argued that Islamic law originally University in Cairo, took another tack, arguing that the
treated men and women equally, with the exception of polygsacred sources do not require democratic government, but
amy, granting women rights still not achieved by many
rather permit it. The Quran and the precedent of the
Western women. Halide Edib Adivar (Turkey, 1882–1964),
Prophet leave the form of government to human devising,
arguably the Islamic world’s most famous female feminist,
“for the trusteeship of Muhammad, peace be upon him, over
argued the reverse, suggesting that Islamic family law was
the believers is the trusteeship of the Message, untainted by
inherently anti-egalitarian on gender matters and had to be
anything that has to do with government” (Kurzman, 36).
replaced with Western laws. The debate between these posi-
These novel arguments for constitutionalism were controtions continues, with men and women on both sides of the
versial in their day. Namik Kemal served on the Council of
fence. However, feminists have won near unanimity on sev-
State that prepared the short-lived Ottoman constitution of
eral crucial points: that women have historically been op-
1876, but suffered banishments before and after that time.
pressed by men; that this oppression has often been defended

Abd al-Raziq was fired from al-Azhar for his controverwith misguided interpretations of Islam; that such justifications must be countered, either by the reform or removal of sial views.
traditional laws and practices; and that women deserve, at the
Yet constitutionalism gradually became the norm in Islamic
very least, equal access to education.
lands. Egypt promulgated a constitutionalist document in
Another controversial extension of egalitarianism involves 1860, and a fuller constitution in 1882; Tunisia briefly in
economic rights, especially those associated with the socialist 1861 and then, after the colonial interlude, in 1959; Iran
movements that emerged in the Islamic world in the early briefly in 1906, then again in 1909; and so on. Upon
twentieth century. In the Dutch East Indies—later Indonesia— decolonization, almost all countries in the Islamic world drew
the Islamic Union Party combined nationalist goals with up constitutions, the last one to do so being Saudi Arabia,
redistributive ones, using an Islamic discourse of zakat, or whose monarch announced a Basic Law modeled on Western
tithing. To the left of this movement was an Islamic Commu- constitutions in 1992. Some of these documents, including
nist Party, which criticized the Islamic Union Party and Saudi Arabia’s, provide far fewer rights and limits on state
others on Islamic grounds, as in the comments of Hadji power than is common in Western constitutions of the same
Mohammad Misbach (Java, circa 1876–1940): “To be sure, period. But it is indicative of the spread of modern thought
they perform the precepts of the religion of Islam, but they that even traditional monarchs have felt the need to draw up a
pick and choose those precepts that suit their desire. Those codified statement of rights and obligations. At the same
that do not suit them they throw away. Put bluntly, they time, states in the Islamic world often disregard the constituoppose or defy the commands of God—and rather fear and tions that are nominally in force. Many such regimes are
love the will of Satan—that Satan whose evil influence is secular in orientation, not Islamic, but a correlation persists
apparent in this present age in [the system of] Capitalism” between Muslim population and low levels of democracy.
(Shiraishi, 285). Socialist thought, drawing on Islamic and
non-Islamic discourses, was embedded in the independence In the face of ongoing repression, even some radical
movement in Indonesia, as in Pakistan and several others Islamic movements have adopted the discourse of
around the Islamic world. In parts of the Middle East, Islamic constitutionalism. In Turkey, the Welfare Party—banned
socialism became particularly popular in the 1960s, express- and reconstituted under several different names—portrayed
ing itself in both pro-Soviet and nonaligned manifestations. itself as an “Islamic-Democrat” movement analogous to the
Soon thereafter—in the Islamic world as in the West—a Christian-Democrat parties in several western European

470 Islam and the Muslim World
Modern Thought

countries. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood began to mobi- Africa, b. 1959) cited the words of
Ali b. Abi Talib, Muhamlize on behalf of civil liberties in the 1980s, as did the mad’s son-in-law and fourth successor: “this is the Quran,
Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, the Renaissance move- written in straight lines, between two boards [of its binding];
ment in Tunisia, and the Justice and Charity movement in it does not speak with a tongue; it needs interpreters and
Morocco. Uncharitable observers have expressed skepticism interpreters are people.” Esack translates this into contempoabout the sincerity of this discourse, but these movements rary terms: “Every interpreter enters the process of interprehave generated a substantial written record elaborating their tation with some preunderstanding of the questions addressed
constitutionalist ideologies in Islamic terms. These writings by the text—even of its silences—and brings with him or her
brought the radicals closer in some ways to Islamic liberalism. certain conceptions as presuppositions of his or her exegesis”
(p. 50). Leading pluralists have suffered threats and worse, as
Pluralism their arguments pose a challenge to other modern trends in
Alongside political pluralism stands religious pluralism, the Islamic thought that believe a single correct interpretation of
notion that multiple interpretations of the sacred are possible Islam is achievable and ought to be enforced.
and legitimate. In the last quarter of the twentieth century,
proponents of this approach emerged around the Islamic Conclusion
world. Among the most influential is the philosopher
Abd al- The contrast between pluralists and revivalists reminds one
Karim Sorush (Iran, born 1945): “Religion is divine, but its that modern thought is frequently self-contradictory.
interpretation is thoroughly human and this-worldly,” Soroush Constitutionalism is consistent with both authoritarianism
wrote. “The text does not stand alone, it does not carry its and democracy. Empiricism breeds competing analyses. Socialown meaning on its shoulders, it needs to be situated in a ism and capitalism are both modern phenomena, as are “third
context, it is theory-laden, its interpretation is in flux, and way” ideologies. Indeed, the label modern is sometimes used
presuppositions are as actively at work here as elsewhere in so elastically that virtually all ideas expressed in the past two
the field of understanding. Religious texts are no exception” centuries fall under this rubric. Other definitions, such as the
(Kurzman, 245). Similarly, the philosopher Hassan Hanafi one presented here, are more restrictive. Others leave the
(Egypt, b. 1935) argued, “There is no one interpretation of a definition open, considering an idea as modern only if its
text, but there are many interpretations given the difference authors consider it so.
in understanding between different interpreters. An interpretation of a text is essentially pluralistic. The text is only a Similar definitional dilemmas are associated with the term
vehicle for human interests and even passions” (Kurzman, Islamic. Some of the writings quoted in this piece are not
26). Fazlur Rahman, cited above, suggested that “To insist on considered Islamic by other Muslims, even if their authors
absolute uniformity of interpretation is neither possible nor consider them so. A further body of thought is self-consciously
desirable” (144). Amina Wadud-Muhsin (United States, b. non-Islamic, though its authors are Muslims.
1952) wrote that “when one individual reader with a particular world-view and specific prior text [the language and At stake in these definitional disputes is the frame of
cultural context in which the text is read] asserts that his or reference for any given analysis. Calling something “modher reading is the only possible or permissible one, it prevents ern” associates it with the entire package of modern institureaders in different contexts from coming to terms with their tions, an association that some Muslims desire and others
own relationship to the text” (Kurzman, 130).
Abdullahi An- abhor. Calling something “Islamic” associates it with the
Na
im (Sudan, b. 1946) wrote that “there is no such thing as divine revelation and generations of followers of Islam, an
the only possible or valid understanding of the Quran, or association that some Muslims would like to monopolize.
conception of Islam, since each is informed by the individual Bringing the two terms together, as in “modern Islamic
and collective orientation of Muslims.” (An-Na
im, 233). thought,” suggests that the two frames overlap, and that
Few if any of these authors had read one another’s work; Muslims have contributed to the construction of modernity.
pluralism sprouted independently in multiple locations.
See also
Abd al-Karim Sorush; Afghani, Jamal al-Din;
Some writers consider the millennium of coexistence of Ahmad Khan, (Sir) Sayyid; Capitalism; Communism;
multiple schools of thought in Islamic jurisprudence to be Feminism; Gender; Iqbal, Muhammad; Liberalism,
precedent for contemporary pluralism. Others go back fur- Islamic; Modernism; Pluralism: Legal and Ethnother, to the earliest years of Islam. Mohamed Talbi (Tunisia, Religious; Pluralism: Political; Qutb, Sayyid; Rahman,
born 1921) quoted Sura 5, Verse 51 of the Quran: “To each Fazlur; Science, Islam and; Secularization; Shari
ati,
among you, have We prescribed a Law and an Open Way.
Ali; Wali Allah, Shah.
And if God had enforced His Will, He would have made of
you all one people.” Muhammad Asad (Austria-Pakistan, BIBLIOGRAPHY
1900–1992) quoted the saying of the prophet Muhammad,
Abduh, Muhammad. The Theology of Unity (Risalat al-tawhid).
“The differences of opinion among the learned within my Translated by Ishaq Masaad and Kenneth Cragg. Loncommunity are [a sign of] God’s grace.” Farid Esack (South don: Allen & Unwin, 1966.

Islam and the Muslim World 471
Mojahedin-e Khalq

Afghani, Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-. An Islamic Response to
Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal MOJAHEDIN-E KHALQ
ad-Din al-Afghani. Translated by Nikki R. Keddie. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968. Mojahedin-e Khalq (Ar. Mujahidin; The People’s Warriors)
is a popular name for the Sazman-e Mojahedin-e Khalq-e
Ahmad, Aziz. Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan,
Iran (Organization of the Iranian People’s Religious Warri-
1857–1964. London: Oxford University Press, 1967.
ors), a group of Shi
ite Islamic-Marxist revolutionaries that
Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a formed in Iran during the 1960s in opposition to the regime
Modern Debate. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University of Muhammad Reza Shah (r. 1953–1979).
Press, 1992.
An-Na
im, Abdullahi. “Toward an Islamic Hermeneutics for The Mojahedin constituted one of several opposition
Human Rights.” In Human Rights and Religious Values: An movements, ranging from the Marxist left to the liberal
Uneasy Relationship? Edited by Abdullahi A. An-Na
im, center to the religious right, that led popular support against
Jerald D. Gort, Henry Jansen, and Hendrik M. Vroom. the transparent authoritarianism of the shah’s regime and its
Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing dependency on the United States, particularly after the shah’s
Company, 1995. violent repression of demonstrations against his program of
Azmeh, Aziz al-. Islams and Modernities. 2d ed. London: economic and social modernization, known as the White
Verso, 1996. Revolution, in June 1963. The Mojahedin drew its member-
Berkes, Niyazi. The Development of Secularism in Turkey. 2d ship from the urban intelligentsia, mostly middle-class, collegeed. London: Hurst & Co., 1998. educated young men with degrees in engineering. During the
1970s, it conducted a guerrilla war against the monarchy, but
Brown, Daniel W. Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic
gradually declined in the face of internal divisions and exter-
Thought. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University
Press, 1996. nal force. They experienced a resurgence, however, under the
leadership of Mas
ud Rajavi (b. 1947) after the 1978 and 1979
Esack, Farid. Qur
an, Liberation, and Pluralism. Oxford, U.K.:
revolution, when they attacked Ayatollah Khomeini and his
Oneworld, 1997.
cadre of Shi
ite mullahs who were consolidating their control
Esposito, John L., and Voll, John O. Makers of Contemporary of the country. Nearly ten thousand Mojahedin members
Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. were exterminated by the Khomeini regime between 1981
Göle, Nilüfer. The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling. and 1985. Saddam Husayn allowed surviving members to
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996. organize an armed Iranian opposition movement in Iraq,
Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939. which subsequently fell under the control of American occu-
London: Oxford University Press, 1962. pation forces there in April 2003.
Keddie, Nikki R. Sayyid Jamal ad-Din “al-Afghani”: A Political
Their ideology is based on a radical reinterpretation of
Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
traditional Shi
ite concepts in light of Marxist sociology and
Khalid, Adeeb.The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism anticolonial rhetoric. Ervand Abrahamian notes that they
in Central Asia. Berkeley: University of California transformed terms like jihad, mujahid, shahid (martyr), tawhid
Press, 1998. (monotheism), and umma (community of believers) to mean
Kurzman, Charles, ed. Liberal Islam: A Source-Book. New “liberation struggle,” “freedom fighter,” “revolutionary hero,”
York: Oxford University Press, 1998. “egalitarianism,” and “dynamic classless society,” respec-
Kurzman, Charles, et al., eds. Modernist Islam, circa 1840–1940: tively (1989, p. 96). They echoed many of the ideas of
Ali
A Source-Book. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Shari
ati, widely considered the chief ideologue of the Iranian
Martin, Richard C., and Woodward, Mark R., with Atmaja, revolution after Khomeini.
Dwi S. Defenders of Reason in Islam: Mu
tazilism from
See also Iran, Islamic Republic of; Khomeini, Ruhollah;
Medieval School to Modern Symbol. Oxford, U.K.:
Oneworld, 1997.
Political Islam; Shari
ati,
Ali.

Rahman, Fazlur. Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Intellectual Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1982. Abrahamian, Ervand. The Iranian Mojahedin. New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989.
Shiraishi, Takashi. An Age in Motion: Popular Radicalism
in Java, 1912–1926. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Keddie, Nikki R., and Monian, Farah. “Militancy and Relig-
Press, 1990. ion in Contemporary Iran.” In Fundamentalisms and the
State: Remaking Polities, Economies, and Militance. Edited by
Troll, Christian W. Sayyid Ahmad Khan: A Reinterpretation of Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby. Chicago: Univer-
Muslim Theology. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1978. sity of Chicago Press, 1993.

Charles Kurzman Juan Eduardo Campo

472 Islam and the Muslim World
Mollabashi

scholars, or ulema, who serve various clerical functions. It is
MOJAHIDIN See Mujahidin used as a generic term for a Muslim cleric. The term akhund is
a synonym for it in Persian and related languages. Mollas
receive a religious education as a child in a maktab (Ar. kuttab).
They study the Quran, hadith (sayings of the prophet Mu-
MOJTAHED-SHABESTARI, hammad), and basic aspects of belief and practice. At the
highest level of training mollas receive the equivalent of a
MOHAMMAD (1937– )
doctorate in theology from a theological seminary, called a
Born in 1937, Mohammad Mojtahed-Shabestari attended madrasa or howzah ilmiyya. Mollas serve a series of social and
Qom Seminary at the age of fourteen. During his eighteen religious functions: prayer leader in a mosque, reciter of the
years of study in Qom, he was influenced by the new philo- Quran, religious teacher for children or a professor, jurist or
sophical and theological currents that were gaining popularity judge, administrator of religious endowments and sites, comamong the younger generation of theologians. Subsequently, munity leader, politician, scholar of religion, and sometimes
he expanded his learning to the conventional secular curricu- as scribes or even bookkeepers. They also preside over
lum and independently studied contemporary Western phi- various rituals including marriage contracts, and other religlosophies and languages. In 1970, he moved to Germany ious rituals. Not all mollas are employed full-time in this
where he later succeeded Ayatollah Beheshti as the director of profession. Many of them have other occupations along with
the Hamburg Islamic Center, a post he held until the 1979 their religious duties. It is not uncommon, especially in the
Iranian Revolution. After the revolution, he was elected to past and in rural areas, for the term molla to be applied to a
the first Islamic Consultative Assembly and is a faculty mem- cleric with far more limited education, perhaps limited to
ber of the School of Theology and Islamic Studies at the some basic knowledge of the Quran and hadith.
University of Tehran.
See also Ulema.
Mojtahed-Shabestari is one of the leading Iranian advocates of the hermeneutic approach to Islamic theology. In his
BIBLIOGRAPHY
book, Hermenutik, Ketab Va Sunnat (Hermeneutics, the Book
and Tradition), he advances a theology largely extricated from Meir, Litvak. Shii Scholars of Nineteenth-Century Iraq: The
“Ulama” of Najaf and Karbala. New York: Cambridge
earlier apologetic Islamic modernism. Influenced by the
University Press, 1998.
German theologian Paul Tillich and German phenomenology
of religion, he argues that theological innovations emerge Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shii Islam. New Haven,
from the religious experiences of each generation of believers Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985.
rather than from doctrinal debates. The interpretation of the Waldbridge, Linda S., ed. The Most Learned of the Shia: The
divine text is mediated by history, society, body, and lan- Institution of the Marja Taqlid. New York: Oxford Univerguage. While a hermeneutic approach acknowledges these sity Press, 2001.
contingencies, it also endeavors to transcend them. However,
this transcendence can never be total and, accordingly, truth- Kamran Aghaie
claims may never be absolute. Truth belongs to God and
remains inaccessible to human faculties.

See also Reform: Iran.
MOLLABASHI
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Mollabashi was the head of the religious institution in
Farzin Vahdat, “Postrevolutionary Discourses of Moham- Iran under the late Safavid rule. It is a synthetic title from the
mad Mojtahed Shabestari and Mohsen Kadivar: Reconcil-
Arabic word, mawla, meaning “lord,” and the Turkish, bashi,
ing the Terms of Mediated Subjectivity,” Critique, no. 16
or “head.” The title of Molla refers to any Muslim scholar
(Spring 2000): 31–54.
who has acquired a certain degree of religious education.
During the last years of the Safavid rule, the Mollabashi was
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
the head of the religious institution and a leading member of
the Safavid administration system. In the earlier period of the
Safavid kings, this title belonged to the most learned scholar
MOLLA of the time, who was considered as the Mollabashi.

Molla comes from the Arabic term mawla, which is most often The office of Mollabashi was created by the Safavid shah
used to mean religious leader. The term molla is used prima- Sultan Hosayn, who ascended the throne as king of Persia in
rily in Iran and parts of Asia to refer to Muslim religious 1694. He instituted the office during the last years of his

Islam and the Muslim World 473
Monarchy

rule.The Mollabashi was nominated by the king himself and palaces housing the caliph’s central administration. In the
held held the post at the king’s will. latter part of the ninth century, independent royal dynasties
were established in Iran and in Egypt and chose to remain
As the chief of the Mollas, during the royal assembly the under the suzerainty of the caliphs. In this period, we find the
Mollabashi had a definite place near the king, closer than that term sultan first used to refer to a specific person: the caliph’s
of any other religious scholar.The Mollabashi did not inter- brother, who was the commander of a special army. This
fere in any state affairs except for soliciting pensions for haphazard use of the term to refer to a person became
religious students and scholars. The Mollabashi also pleaded systematic when the Buyids (Buwayhids), Shi
ite mercenaries
to the king directly on behalf of the aggrieved and oppressed, from the Caspian region, captured Baghdad in the mid-tenth
and for individuals convicted of crimes. century, without, however, overthrowing the Abbasid caliphate.
The Buyids became the first of a series of secular independent
After the collapse of the Safavid state and during the reign rulers to assume the title of sultan. The bifurcation of soverof the Afsharid dynasty, the prerogatives of the Mollabashi eignty into caliphate and sultanate became permanent, howoffice increased because the Mollabashi was the most power- ever, and underscored the new autonomy of monarchy from
ful figure in the court. But by the fall of the Afsharid state and the caliphate.
during the reign of the Qajar dynasty, the role of the Mollabashi
was limited to that of tutor of the royal princes. In Iran, where the Buyids ruled independently of the
caliph, they assumed the pre-Islamic Persian titles of shah
See also Empires: Safavid and Qajar; Molla; Nader Shah (king), and even the imperial shahanshah (king of kings). The
Afshar; Ulema. Turkish Seljuks, who replaced the Buyids in Baghdad in 1055
and proceeded to defeat the Byzantine emperor and create a
BIBLIOGRAPHY vast empire from the Oxus to the Mediterranean, assumed
the titles of both sultan and shahanshah. The subsequent
Arjomand, S. A. “The Office of Mullabashi in Shi
ite Iran.”
Studia Islamica 57 (1989): 135–146. Turkish dynasties, including the Ottomans, attached the title
of sultan to their names, also using additional Persian terms
such shah and its variant, padshah. Local rulers in Iran used the
Mansur Sefatgol
title of shah, and those in the Arab countries, the equivalent
term malik (king). Turkish dynasties established a Muslim
monarchy in northern Indian in the thirteenth century, with
Delhi as its capital. The Dehli Sultanate lasted for some three
MONARCHY centuries, until the Mogul conquest in 1526, which established a larger Muslim empire in India. The sultanate spread
Neither the Quran nor Muhammad made any specific provieastward into Asia, and survives to this day in the federal
sions for the organization of government for the Islamic
states of Malaysia and in Brunei. With the spread of Islam
community. Muhammad’s successors, who ruled Arabia and a
into sub-Saharan Africa, some of the Muslim local rulers
vast empire conquered by the Muslims during the quarter of
assumed the title of sultan, and in 1841, the sultan of Oman
century after the Prophet’s death, were called caliph (khalifa)
transferred his court to Zanzibar across the Indian Ocean.
and assumed the title of “Commander of the Faithful”: (amir
al-mu
minin). After a civil war that ended the period of the Monarchy (saltana[t], padshahi, mulk) was legitimated infour “rightly-guided” caliphs in 661, the caliphate became dependently of the caliphate, and primarily on the basis of
hereditary in the Umayyad Dynasty until 750, and in the justice. The function of monarchy was the maintenance of
Abbasid Dynasty from 750 until 1258. The administrative order and ruling with justice. As such, monarchy was comand fiscal systems of the Byzantine (Roman) and Sassanian pared to prophecy, the function of which was the salvation of
(Persian) empires were taken over by the caliphate. The humankind. Kings were thus required by the divine constitubureaucratic class that carried out the fiscal and administra- tion of cosmic order, just as were the prophets. As stated in a
tive tasks for the caliphs were eventually ordered to use tradition (hadith) attributed to Muhammad, “the ruler (sul-
Arabic instead of Persian and Greek in the closing decade of tan) is the shadow of God on earth.” A distinct literary genre
the seventh century, and some decades thereafter also began on political ethic and statecraft grew, grounding the legitito translate Persian works on statecraft into Arabic. Through macy of monarchy in its justice. This literature absorbed a
these translations, the idea of monarchy was absorbed into philosophical strand that idealized monarchy on the Platonic
the public law and Arabic literature on statecraft, as can be model of the philosopher-king. A major synthesis of the
seen in the Book of Sovereignty (Kitab al-sultan) by the Persian and the philosophical traditions, written in the thirfamous ninth-century author, Ibn Qutayba. teenth century by Nasir al-Din Tusi, Akhlaq-e Naseri, had
many imitators and became the standard work on political
This term first occurs as a substantive, meaning “author- ethic and statecraft in the great modern empires of the early
ity” in the Quran, and came into usage with reference to the modern period: the Ottoman, the Safavid, and the Mogul.

474 Islam and the Muslim World
Moravids

Barthold, W. “Caliph and Sultan.” Islamic Quarterly 7
(1963): 117–135.
Lambton, A. K. S. “Justice in the Medieval Persian Theory of
Kingship.” Studia Islamica 17 (1962): 91–119.

Saïd Amir Arjomand

MORAVIDS
This movement, which was to make Muslims in the Sahara
and Spain more conscious of the distinctiveness of their
religion, and which began a tradition of the Muslim scholar as
militant reformer. The Moravid movement had its origins in
the western Sahara in the 1030s when several tribes of camel
breeding Sanhaja nomads broke their return journey from
the pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca to study in Cairouan—then the
intellectual center of North Africa outside of Egypt. Greatly
inspired by the teachings of the Sufi (mystic) and Maliki
jurist, Abdullah b. Yasin, and by those of a former pupil of his,

Abdallah Ibn Yasin al-Jazuli (henceforth: Ibn Yasin), they
decided, once back in the western Sahara, to establish a house
of retreat (Ar. al-Murabitun) where they studied and trained
to become scholars and efficient warriors in the name of Islam.
King Hussein of Jordan (1935–1999) represented the Hashimite
monarchy in Jordan, which was established in 1921. Upon By the mid-1050s a militant Almoravid movement swear-
Hussein’s death he was succeeded by his son Abdallah II. The ing allegiance to the caliphs of Baghdad, and under the
Hashimites claim legitimacy as sharifs—descendants of the prophet
leadership of Abu Bakr ibn
Umar, who took the title of emir
Muhammad. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
(supreme leader, c. 1055–1108), rapidly extended its control
outward from its new capital Marrakesh, over much of Morocco
and modern Algeria. Sections of the movement pushed fur-
After the overthrow of the Abbasid caliphate by the
ther southward across the Sahara and waged jihad, possibly
Mongols in 1258, the rulers of Muslim lands typically added
unsuccessfully, against the Soninke of the kingdom of Ancient
caliph to sultan as their titles, except in Mamluk Egypt
Ghana. Some historians believe that these incursions laid the
(1260–1517), when a shadow Abbasid caliph was maintained
foundations of a tradition of jihad that was to become a
by the Mamluk sultans. The Ottomans claimed the last
marked feature of Senagambian Islam in centuries to come
Abbasid (shadow) caliph gave them the mantle of the Prophet
and particularly from the late seventeenth century to the
and transferred the caliphate to them when they conquered
present. The Almoravid movement is also thought to have
Cairo in 1517.
made its way eastward across the Sahel to Aier.

The idea of constitutional monarchy was introduced into Invited to Spain in 1086 by the Muslim rulers of althe Islamic world in the process of political modernization, Andalus, the Almoravids, led by Yusuf ibn Tashufin, dewith the Ottoman constitution of 1876 and the Iranian feated the army of Alphonso VI at Zalaqa. Yusuf returned to
constitution of 1906. With the creation of the modern state of Spain in 1090 and took control of al-Andalus before extend-
Turkey, the Ottoman sultanate was abolished in 1922, and ing Muslim rule further north over the important Christhe caliphate in 1924. In Iran, the monarchy was overthrown tian strongholds of Badajoz (1094), Valencia (1102), and
with the Islamic revolution of 1979. A number of Muslim Saragossa (1112).
monarchies have survived to the present, notably in Morocco,
Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Almoravid success in Spain was short-lived. By 1118
Saragossa had been retaken by Alfonso I of Aragon and this
See also Caliphate; Political Organization. was followed by successful excursions further south. Popular
rebellions in 1144 and 1145 ended Almoravid rule in Spain.

BIBLIOGRAPHY See also Andalus, al-.
Arjomand, Saïd Amir. “Medieval Persianate Political Ethic.”
Studies on Persianate Societies. 1 (2003): 7–33. Peter B. Clarke

Islam and the Muslim World 475
Mosaddeq, Mohammad

Katouzian, Homa. Musaddiq and the Struggle for Power in Iran.
MOSADDEQ, MOHAMMAD London: I. B. Tauris & Co., Ltd., 1990.
(1882–1967)
Fakhreddin Azimi
Mohammad Mosaddeq was an Iranian liberal-nationalist
prime minister (1951–1953) overthrown by an Anglo-
American-sponsored coup d’état. Born into a prominent MOSQUE See Adhan; Architecture; Jami
;
family of notables and educated in Tehran, France, and Manar, Manara; Masjid; Minbar (Mimbar);
Switzerland, where he gained a doctorate in law, Mosaddeq Religious Institutions
returned to Iran in 1914 where he taught, occupied various
ministerial and other high-ranking posts, and achieved national prominence as a nationalist and constitutionalist parliamentarian. His opposition to the autocracy of Reza Khan
(later shah) resulted in his exclusion from political life and MOTAHHARI, MORTAZA
virtual house arrest from 1936 onward. (1920–1979)

Following Reza Shah’s abdication in 1941, Mosaddeq Born in Iran in 1920, Mortaza Motahhari was assassinated on
1 May 1979 by members of Forqan, a radical Muslim
returned to the political scene to represent Tehran twice in
anticlerical group. He attended the prestigious Mashhad
the parliament, receiving the highest number of votes cast in
seminary and in 1936 moved to Qom to pursue his interest in
the capitol. The failure of negotiations to revise the British oil
Islamic philosophy. However, philosophical issues were selconcession eventually resulted in the nationalization of the
dom discussed in Shi
ite seminaries. Both philosophy and
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The leadership of Mosaddeq
mysticism were subjects marginalized in favor of jurispruand the National Front, formed by him in this process, led to
dence. In 1944, he studied jurisprudence with Ayatollah
his premiership in late April 1951. Borujerdi; one year later he embarked on studying seminal
philosophical texts with Ayatollah Khomeini; and finally he
Vehemently opposed to Mosaddeq and his oil policy, the attended
Allama Tabatabai’s seminars on the philosophies
British concentrated on destabilizing his government, while of Mulla Sadra and Ibn Sina.
the shah refused to accept the role of constitutional monarch
as defined by the premier. The relentless opposition of pro- Motahhari is considered to be one of the most influential
British and royalist elements and the shah’s refusal to transfer modernist clerics in contemporary Iran. Although Motahhari
the War Ministry to the prime minister resulted in Mosaddeq’s was a disciple of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and one of his
resignation in July 1952, but a popular uprising returned him closest aides during the first months of the Islamic revolution,
to power a few days later. The intractable oil question he remained critical of Khomeini’s juridical conception of
continued, however, to aggravate the government’s prob- velayat-e faqih. He emphasized the role of reason in the
comprehension and practice of religion, and admonished
lems. Some of its supporters joined the opposition, while the
traditional jurists for their promotion of a blind imitative
activities of the pro-Soviet Tudeh Party enabled the governfaith. Motahhari believed that the orthodoxy that dominated
ment’s opponents, including the religious forces, to claim
Shi
ite seminaries alienated pensive youth from religion and
that a communist takeover was imminent. The British and
created a fertile soil for the growth of Marxism. Accordingly,
American secret services, aided by Mosaddeq’s domestic
he intended to advance a Shi
ite philosophical rationalism,
opponents, eventually engineered his downfall in August 1953. which engaged contemporary issues and was accessible to
modern intellectuals.
Following three years of imprisonment, Mosaddeq was
confined for the rest of his life to his country home away from See also Khomeini, Ruholla; Reform: Iran; Revolution:
the capital. While cognizant of the place of Islam in the Islamic Revolution in Iran; Velayat-e Faqih.
inherited culture of Iran, Mosaddeq was primarily a secular
democrat and a civic nationalist, dedicated to promoting BIBLIOGRAPHY
Iranian national sovereignty. Dabashi, Hamid. Theology of Discontent: The Ideological Foundations of the Iranian Revolution. New York: New York
See also Nationalism: Iranian. University Press, 1993.
Motahhari, Mortaza. Fundamentals of Islamic Thought: God,
Man, and the Universe. Translated by R. Campbell. Berke-
BIBLIOGRAPHY ley, Calif.: Mizan Press, 1985.
Azimi, Fakhreddin. Iran: The Crisis of Democracy, 1941–53.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989. Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi

476 Islam and the Muslim World
Muawiya

In the meanwhile, Mu
awiya had succeeded in gaining the
MSA See Muslim Student Association of support of the Syrians. In 658 he dispatched
Amr ibn al-
As
North America
to conquer Egypt on his behalf. While Mu
awiya’s position
was strengthened by the conquest of Egypt,
Ali’s position in
Iraq (where his capital was based) was considerably weakened.

After
Ali was assassinated by a Kharijite dissident in 661,
MU
AWIYA (?–680)
he was briefly succeeded by his son Hasan. Soon Mu
awiya
Mu
awiya ibn Abi Sufyan was the first Umayyad caliph convinced him to accept compensation for abdicating in his
(661–680 C.E.). Mu
awiya’s father, Sakhr ibn Harb ibn favor; thereby inaugurating Umayyad rule in 661. The seat of
Umayyah—popularly known as Abu Sufyan—led the Quraysh the caliphate was transferred to Damascus.
army against the Prophet in the battles of Uhud and Khandaq.
Mu
awiya’s rule, according to most historians, was charac-
He later embraced Islam. His mother, Hind, the daughter of
terized by peace and justice. Governors were granted full civil
a prominent Quraysh chief,
Utbah ibn Rabi
a, was also
and military authority. However, toward the end of his life, he
hostile to Muhammad before her conversion to Islam.
nominated his son Yazid to succeed him. This move met with
Some sources suggest that Mu
awiya accepted Islam be- a great deal of opposition, especially from
Abdallah ibn
fore the conquest of Mecca in 630 but concealed it until later; Zubayr and
Ali’s son, Husayn ibn
Ali.
the general view is that he accepted Islam after the conquest.
This explains why he is included among the tulaqa (those Mu
awiya was accused of turning the caliphate into a
who were pardoned by the Prophet after the conquest). kingship. The legitimacy of Yazid’s succession was debated
and contested by many, including Husayn ibn
Ali. Husayn’s
Mu
awiya and his father, Abu Sufyan, were also included march with his followers to challenge Yazid met a tragic end
among what Quran refers to as the mu
allafat al-qulub (those at Karbala, an event that is commemorated to this day by the
to whom the Prophet gave alms as a way of reconciling their Shi
a as well as many Sunni Muslims.
hearts to Islam).The fact that Mu
awiya was literate ensured
his appointment by the Prophet as his scribe. Mu
awiya has been held responsible for the emergence of
the first schisms in Islam. His refusal to acknowledge
Ali’s
In 634 the first caliph of Islam, Abu Bakr, sent Mu
awiya caliphate and his appointment of Yazid as heir not only
to Syria, where he was appointed as a commander of one resulted in the introduction of hereditary succession in Musdivision of the army led by his brother, Yazid, against the lim polity, but also in the emergence of the Khawarij and
Byzantines. On Yazid’s death in 639, the second caliph, consolidation of the Shi
a.

Umar, appointed him as commander of the army, collector
of taxes, and governor of Damascus. While Mu
awiya has been vilified by Shi
a throughout
Muslim history, Sunni Muslims respect his political sagacity,
The third caliph,
Uthman, confirmed Mu
awiya’s apjustice, impartiality, forbearance, and resolution of character.
pointment as governor of Syria, which became an important
It is said that he granted his subjects free access to him as well
front for the defense of the caliphate against the Byzantines.
as freedom of expression. He was reputed for his oratory and
Mu
awiya established garrisons all along the coast and for the
his ability to turn adversaries into allies.
first time Muslims engaged in naval warfare.

When
Uthman was besieged in Medina by dissidents who See also Caliphate; Karbala; Kharijites, Khawarij;
demanded the instatement of
Ali as caliph, he requested Succession.
assistance from Mu
awiya. As soon as he assumed the caliphate
after the assassination of
Uthman,
Ali sought to dismiss BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mu
awiya, who refused to pay allegiance to him until
Uthman’s Hawting, G. R. The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad
murderers had been punished. Caliphate AD 661–750. London and New York:
Routledge, 2000.
The deadlock between
Ali and Mu
awiya led to the Battle
Ibn Hisham, Abd al-Malik. The Life of Muhammad: A Translaof Siffin in 657 C.E. The battle was brought to an end when
tion of Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah. Introduction and notes by
Mu
awiya, whose army was on the verge of defeat, proposed
A. Guillaume. Karachi, Pakistan, and New York: Oxford
that the conflict be resolved through negotiation. The two University Press, 1997.
parties agreed to arbitration (tahkim).
Tabari, al-. Between Civil Wars: The Caliphate of Muawiyah.
The decision of the arbiters that both
Ali and Mu
awiya Translated and annotated by Michael G. Morony. Albany:
be relieved of their posts did not resolve the conflict.
Ali’s State University of New York Press, 1987.
supporters, in particular, rejected the outcome of the
arbitration. Suleman Dangor

Islam and the Muslim World 477
Mufti

MUFTI 0 50 100 mi.

0 50 100 km

H≥
ij
The mufti, or jurisconsult, stands between man and God, and Yathrib (Medina)

az
issues opinions (fatwa, pl. fatawa or fatwas) to a petitioner Quba

M
(mustafti) either with regard to the laws of God or the deeds of Red

o
u
man. In early Islam the mufti operated as a privately funded, Sea

nt
Thaniyya al-^Arj

ai
free agent who was independent of state control. As successor Al-^Arj

\jah
ns
l Fa
to Muhammad in his role as jurist, the mufti was to exemplify Muhammad’s

Wa\dê a
Al-Abwa&
sound juridical wisdom and moral rectitude. His knowledge Migration to
of the Arabic language, the Quranic sciences, and hadith Yathrib (Medina) Kharrar
traditions had to be thorough, as did his grasp of legal City Peak Qadid
reasoning. Such idealized standards eventually yielded to
societal needs, until, by the turn of the tenth century, the Amaj
N

office of the mufti required that he be thoroughly grounded ^Asfan
in no more than juridical precedent within a given school of law.
Mecca

A mufti is distinct from a judge (qadi) in several ways. The Thawr Mountain
judge’s authority is generally delegated by the state, whereas
the mufti’s is delegated by his peers; the judge’s ruling is final,
Muhammad’s migration to Yathrib. XNR PRODUCTIONS/GALE
or subject to limited appeal, whereas that of a mufti is but one
of many competing juridical opinions; and the mufti rules
most often on questions of law, whereas the qadi rules on fact.
(hadiths) that were later written down. Though not always in
A mufti must always appear dignified and neatly dressed, agreement, these traditions come together to tell us about an
for he serves as a model of good behavior in public. He must Arab who was born around the end of the sixth century in the
avoid delivering opinions when angry, ill, or weary, and also oasis of Mecca, a sanctuary town built around a cubical
when there appears to be a conflict of interests. “house of God,” the Ka
ba. He was nursed in his infancy by
Halima, a Bedouin woman of the Banu Sa
d, as was customary
See also Fatwa; Qadi (Kadi, Kazi).
among the Quraysh. Muhammad lost his mother, Amina bint
(henceforth bt. meaning daughter of) Wahb, a few years after
BIBLIOGRAPHY he was reunited with her at the age of six. He was then cared
Masud, Muhammad Khalid; Messick, Brinkley; and Pow- for by his grandfather
Abd al-Muttalib and, then by his uncle
ers, David S., eds. Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Abu Talib, who granted him protection and stood by him in
their Fatwas, Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University troubled times. Interestingly, Abu Talib never converted
Press, 1996.
to Islam.

Muneer Goolam Fareed It was Abu Talib who introduced Muhammad to the
camel-caravan trade, which became his occupation. This, in
turn, led him to employment by a wealthy widow Khadija bt.
Khuwaylid, who, though older than him, was impressed by
MUHAMMAD (570–632 C.E.) his personality and subsequently married him. She bore him
Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn (henceforth b. meaning the two sons who died in infancy, and four daughters: Zaynab,
son of )
Abdullah b.
Abd al-Muttalib, of the clan of Hashim, Ruqayya, Fatima (who alone survived her father), and Umm
of the tribe of Quraysh, is acknowledged by more than one Kulthum.
billion Muslims as the last messenger of God. It was through
Around age forty (610 C.E.), increasingly troubled by the
him that the Quranic passages, which his followers believe
social conditions of his fellow Meccans, Muhammad began to
present the word of God, had been revealed to guide the
make regular trips to Mount Hira for prayer and meditation.
nascent community through its predicaments. The religion
On one such occasion, he claimed the angel Gabriel came to
that Muhammad preached is called Islam, meaning submishim with words written upon a banner of brocade. “Recite!”
sion to God; its creed asserts that there is but one God and
commanded the angel, and Muhammad, feeling an enormous
that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.
pressure upon his chest, finally pronounced the words:
The Life of Muhammad
Recognized before his prophethood as al-Amin (the trust- Recite in the name of the Lord who created
worthy), the Prophet of Islam is largely known to us through
the lore of the early Muslim community from oral traditions Man from blood coagulated.

478 Islam and the Muslim World
Muhammad

Recite! Thy Lord is wondrous kind Muhajirun, and the Medinans who welcomed and helped
them as the Ansar.
Who by the pen has taught mankind
Muhammad was encouraged in his immigration to Medina
Things they knew not. (96) by the presence of Jews, who, he hoped, as monotheists would
approve of his teachings. Even before arriving in Medina,
Muhammad explained that he too worshipped the God of
When Muhammad awoke from this vision, the words
Moses and Jesus, and turned to face Jerusalem in prayer. Such
seemed to be etched in his heart and he feared he was
was his reverence for Jerusalem that he had a mystical experipossessed. For a brief moment he contemplated suicide, but
ence that had led him there. When the Jews of Medina
then a voice came to him from the skies, hailing him as the
rejected his teachings, however, Muhammad decided to disapostle of God. Returning home, Muhammad informed
tinguish his community from theirs, and changed the direc-
Khadija of what had happened. With the help of her Christion of prayer towards the Meccan Ka
ba. Then he fought a
tian cousin, Waraqa b. Nawfal, who interpreted Muhamseries of battles against the Meccans and as well as the
mad’s vision as a spiritual experience, Khadija persuaded
Medinan Jews, until finally Islam was secure in Medina.
Muhammad to have faith in himself.
At the same time, Muhammad established Medina as his
At first Muhammad communicated his message only to
home. He married as many as fourteen wives, and Muhamthose very close to him: Khadija; his young cousin,
Ali b. Abi
mad’s situation was more complex than the number suggests.
Talib; his adopted son, Zayd; and Abu Bakr b. Abi Quhafa, a
Among his wives were
Aisha, daughter of Abu Bakr, the only
merchant and friend. They are believed to have been the first
virgin he ever married; Hafsa, the widowed daughter of
Muslims. A few years later, Muhammad took his message to

Umar (an early Meccan companion); and Zaynab, bt. Jahsh, a
the people of Mecca informing them of a life after death and
divorcee, previously married to his adopted son, Zayd. Tradiof a just and fair God who would reward humans according to
tion also mentions a concubine, Maria the copt, who bore
their deeds in this world.
Umar b. al-Khattab and
Uthman
him a son who died in infancy. It is worth noting that while
b.
Affan were two important Meccans who accepted his
the Quran permits four wives to every man—provided he
teachings at this time, though generally it was the less welltreats them all equally—it also informs us that the Prophet
to-do youth who were attracted to his call. Most Meccans,
was permitted more wives because of his special circumhowever, resented the deprecation of their gods, the gods of
stances. Yet, we are told that Muhammad asked
Ali, husband
their forefathers, and the rejection of their beliefs by the
to his daughter, Fatima, to refrain from taking a second wife.
youth that Muhammad’s teachings encouraged. Moreover,
Polygamy had complex meaning and was not established as a
the Meccans depended on the income derived from worship
pattern based on the Prophet’s example.
at the Ka
ba and feared that Muhammad would destroy the
numerous idols that brought the pilgrims there. They op- Muhammad decided to venture back to Mecca on pilgrimposed Muhammad, and made plans to kill him. Muhammad age to the Ka
ba, which he believed had originally been
knew he had to leave Mecca when, in approximately 619 C.E., consecrated by Abraham. At first, Meccan resistance led
Abu Talib and Khadija passed away within a year of each Muhammad to secure a peace treaty at al-Hudaybiyya (628
other and there was no one left who was willing to grant him C.E.) for a period of ten years. By the terms of this treaty
the protection and moral support he required. Muhammad agreed to let the Meccans trade freely, while the
Meccans consented to let him make the lesser pilgrimage to
Meanwhile, the people of Yathrib, unable to reconcile Mecca (
umrah) in the following year. The peace enabled
their differences and learning of Muhammad’s fair and hon- Muhammad to conquer the Jewish fortresses of Khaybar and
est ways, decided to invite him to live among them as their to conclude a treaty whereby the surrendering Jews handed
judge and arbitrator. Muhammad immediately seized the over all their property in exchange for their lives. They were
opportunity to leave Mecca, and after sending his followers permitted to continue farming the land in return for half of
ahead, secretly followed them with Abu Bakr as his compan- their produce. The Quranic verse 9:29 corroborates Muhamion. This event, known as the hijra, is believed to have taken mad’s decision; it commands that monotheist ahl al-kitab
place in 622 C.E., a date that was later adopted as the beginning (people of the book) be permitted to practice their faith in
of the Muslim calendar. For Muslims, it marks the dawn of Islamic lands, on payment of a poll tax.
the “Age of Islam,” as distinct from pre-Islamic times, which
were termed the “Age of Ignorance,” or jahiliyya. Muhammad The following year, Muhammad, learning that Bedouin
now asserted leadership over a community based, not on allies of the Meccans had attacked some of his followers,
tribal ties, but on its shared faith in One God. Jews, too, were determined to lead an army against Mecca. Because the Jews
included in this community. Soon, Yathrib came to be known were no longer available as allies, the Meccans decided to
as Medinat al-nabi (the city of the Prophet) or Medina. The surrender, and Abu Sufyan, the Qurayshi leader of the Meccans,
Meccans who emigrated with Muhammad became known as and his wife Hind, finally acknowledged that Muhammad was

Islam and the Muslim World 479
Muhammad

God’s prophet. A few weeks later, when several tribes led by Just as troubling is the permission given to men to reprimand
the Hawazin decided to challenge Muhammad at Hunayn, their wives, affirming their dominance.
the newly converted Meccans joined with Muhammad to
defeat them. Islam’s paternalistic attitude towards women is an issue of
contention, particularly in the context of today’s feminism.
Around 632 C.E., Muhammad, having established his au- Nevertheless, the consideration granted by Islam to women,
thority over the Arabian Peninsula, made the hajj pilgrimage in the context of seventh century Arabia, was significant:
to Mecca, circumambulating the Ka
ba, and established the Islam permitted women to keep control of their property
ritual according to which Muslims to this day perform the even after marriage and inheritance rights were granted to
hajj. It is recognized as the Farewell Pilgrimage. Muhammad wives, daughters, mothers, and aunts. Women were not only
died a few days later in Medina, in the house of
Aisha, where given a say in their marriages, but their sexual needs and
he was buried. Muslims suffered a great loss when Muham- desires were acknowledged. It is perhaps surprising to find
mad died. Their deep love and gratitude are reflected in the listed among the inadequacies of men, for instance, the act of
blessings (tasliya) they ask God to shower upon him whenever having intercourse with one’s wife “before talking to her and
they mention his name. gaining her intimacy, and satisfying his need from her before
she satisfied her need from him” (Daylami, Musnad al-firdaws).
Religious and Political Influence of Muhammad
The religion that Muhammad taught was called Islam, mean- Muhammad’s influence on subsequent religious and poing submission to God. Asserting that “there is no God but litical life was significant. He had brought monotheism to the
Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet,” it commanded that Arab world. Both Judaism and Christianity had already visevery believer pray five times daily; fast during the month of ited the Arabian Peninsula, but neither had ever quite cap-
Ramadan; contribute an annual tithe, or zakat, for the benefit tured it. Neither the Old nor the New Testament was in
of the poor; and, if possible, make the hajj pilgrimage at least Arabic, nor had they yet been translated into Arabic. Moreoonce in a lifetime. Mindful of the ethical purpose of mono- ver, Orthodox, Byzantine Christianity rejected the Arab
theism, it also denied believers the addictive pleasures of Monophysites and Nestorians as heretics, and as for Judaism,
alcohol and gambling that had such disastrous effects on there is no evidence of any communication between the
family life. Traditions also convey Muhammad’s respect for rabbinical schools and the Jews of Arabia.
the ease of the larger community. For example, he wore In contrast, the Quran brought by Muhammad was in
perfume when he went to the mosque and refrained from Arabic; it delivered a message that the people of the region
taking garlic before attending a gathering. could understand, through a prophet who was one of them. It
united the fractious tribes of Arabia, providing them with the
Muhammad preached that Islam was the original religion
political will to go far beyond their boundaries, to travel into
brought by Moses and Jesus, but that it had become cor-
North Africa and Spain in the west, and through Syria, Iraq,
rupted by the people. He taught that Jews should recognize
Persia, and into India, in the east. In a sense, Muhammad had
Jesus as a prophet, and that Christians should understand that
provided the Arabs with inspiration for the making of an Arab
Jesus was neither God, nor His son but, rather, a prophet.
empire, within which, for several centuries, Jews, Christians,
Nevertheless, Muhammad held that all monotheists must be
and Muslims would make Arab culture their own.
permitted to practice their faith, as long as they paid a tax in
acknowledgment of Islam’s political dominance. The activ- Muhammad’s Succession
ism of Islam that was demonstrated by Muhammad in both There was, however, a problem. The Prophet had never
words and deeds requires a careful investigation as to when overtly proclaimed his heir. There were two choices. One
aggression might be justified. Importantly, the justification possibility was Muhammad’s young cousin,
Ali, roughly
for holy war (often identified with jihad, which means to thirty years of age, who had lived with the Prophet ever since
strive), is usually understood to be defensive. The Quranic
Ali’s father, Abu Talib, had fallen into financial difficulties.
declaration, “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256)
Ali had fought bravely at the Prophet’s side and, as husband
suggests an attitude of tolerance. to Fatima, was also father to Muhammad’s beloved grandsons, Hasan and Husayn. Significantly, Muhammad chose
By acknowledging God’s unique otherness, Muhammad

Ali to pronounce the Quran verses of Baraa, at the concluclaimed that all humankind, of whatever race, ethnicity, tribe, sion of the pilgrimage in 631 C.E., which put an end to
or color was equal before the Lord, and that each would be polytheist pilgrimages to the Ka
ba. Unfortunately,
Ali, who
judged justly according to his or her deeds at the end of time. had spent most of his adult years in Medina, had little
While slavery and concubinage were recognized, it was recognition from the Meccan Quraysh.
recommended that such persons be set free. Nevertheless,
women were not considered equal to men. This is exempli- The alternative was Muhammad’s dear friend and father-
fied through the Quranic requirement that the testimony of in-law, Abu Bakr, roughly two years his junior, whom Muhamtwo women is required to challenge that of one man (2:282). mad had sought to lead the prayers during his last illness. The

480 Islam and the Muslim World
Muhammad

tradition of Ghadir Khumm, cited in the Musnad of Sunni the community, descend. The imams alone can interpret the
scholar Ibn Hanbal, has the Prophet declare, “Of whomso- Quran with any degree of certitude. Moreover, special powever I am lord, then
Ali is also his lord.” The Shi
ites claim ers of infallibility, sinlessness, and wisdom are believed to
that this indicates Muhammad’s appointment of
Ali as his have been inherited from, or granted by, God to
Ali and the
successor. The Sunnis insist, however, that it was merely the imams who succeeded him. Importantly, the Shi
ite tradi-
Prophet’s way of reconciling
Ali, who was extremely un- tions usually rely only on the words or actions of one of their
popular at the time, with the community. imams (Momen, 1985, p. 173).

At Muhammad’s death (632 C.E.), Abu Bakr, with the Finally, the Sufis, or mystics, claim that God is an intimate
support of
Umar, went forward to be selected as successor to presence in all of His creation. While Sufism is not incompatthe Prophet (khalifat rasul Allah). The appointment had ible with being either Sunni or Shi
ite, the mindset of the Sufi
political ramifications and family ties were rejected as a basis
is quite different—more tolerant, and less legalistic. Sufis
for succession. The precedent that the caliph should be a
believe that humans have an innate knowledge of God within
companion of the Prophet, of the tribe of the Quraysh, and
and that the Divine may be experienced through jihad (spiriapproved by them, was established at that time. Thus, Abu
tual striving), such as meditation or by the ritual repetition of
Bakr appointed
Umar as his successor, and
Umar designated
God’s names and attributes (dhikr). One who has achieved
a group of twelve to select one among themselves as his
this goal is known as wali-Allah (friend of God), and through
successor.
him or her the ordinary believer might hope to negotiate with
More serious, however, was Abu Bakr’s insistence that God. This has led to prayers of intercession at the graves of
Muhammad had stated that he left no heirs and his rejection significant Sufis, including the Prophet, an activity that is
of Fatima’s claims to her father’s property. The act effectively condemned by non-Sufis as polytheistic. Like the Sunnis, the
isolated Fatima and led her husband,
Ali, to refuse his Sufis acknowledge the caliphates of the Rashidun (the Rightly
consent to Abu Bakr’s authority until after Fatima’ death six Guided), i.e., Abu Bakr,
Umar,
Uthman, and
Ali. The first
months later. This is probably what led to the formation of three of these were rejected and even cursed by the Imami
the Shiat Ali, the partisans of
Ali, a significant minority who Shi
ites. But like the Shi
ites, the Sufis believe that the Quran
asserted that Abu Bakr’s leadership was illegitimate. It was the has both an exoteric and an esoteric message.
cause of a rent so deep in the Muslim community that even
today mediation between the two communities is difficult. Biographical Literature and the Changing Image
of Muhammad
The Denominations of Islam and Their Images During his lifetime, Muhammad probably did not exaggerate
of Muhammad the significance of his person. Certainly, he claimed to be a
On the basis of Muhammad’s teachings, three broad denomi- prophet, indeed, he claimed to be the last of the prophets of
nations emerged after his death. The largest group call God: Khatam al-anbiya
. But there was a fear that his followers
themselves the ahl al-sunnah wa al-jamaa (also called “Sunni”). might deify him. Thus, theologians emphasized that Muham-
They accept the legitimacy of the succession from the Prophet
mad was but a man and that his only miracle was the Quran.
as it developed historically and thus believe in the legitimacy
To establish the miraculous nature of this achievement the
of the prophetic legacy, as preserved by those who succeeded
Quranic description of Muhammad as “ummi” (7:157; 7:158;
him, as a source for knowing God. The common Sunni
62:2) was explained by exegetes as meaning that he was
position that has evolved regarding Muhammad is that prophets
illiterate. Moreover, the fallibility of the Prophet is suggested
are free from the sins that provoke repugnance and error in
by the Quranic verses that insinuate that he had faltered, as
the transmission of divine revelation. (Prophets are considwhen he turned away from the blind man (80). Another
ered to be susceptible to error in matters unrelated to revelaexample cited to show his fallibility is more controversial and
tion, however.) Most Sunnis believe that Muhammad did not
comes from the tradition narrated by al-Tabari. According to
appoint a successor before his death and they do not give
this tradition, Muhammad agreed, for just a brief moment, to
recognition to a priesthood. An imam, for the Sunni, may be a
political leader, but he is generally someone who merely leads acknowledge the goddesses of the Meccans, al-Manat, al-Lat,
the community in prayer. The position of Abu Bakr as and al-
Uzza, as subordinate deities.
successor to Muhammad was, importantly, not vested with
There is also the tradition that recalls
Umar’s words
religious authority.
denying that Muhammad had died, although he was immedi-
For the Shi
ites, Muhammad’s position came to be closely ately corrected by Abu Bakr. Many early traditions convey
linked to that of
Ali. According to the Imami Shi
ites of Iran, the miraculous happenings that punctuated the Prophet’s
for instance, “Two thousand years before creation, Muham- life. Although the Quran points to Muhammad’s fallibility, it
mad and
Ali were one light before God.”
Ali is significant also includes signs that God interfered on his behalf quite
not only as successor to the Prophet, but also as the one from readily. Incidents supporting this view include the splitting of
whom the Shi
ite imams, who provide religious guidance to the moon (54:1), the journey to the farthest place of prayer

Islam and the Muslim World 481
Muhammad

(17:1), and Muhammad’s victory at Badr (3:123–24). The said to have had the “seal” of prophethood on his back, and to
very act of being selected prophet can be viewed as a miracle. have been followed by clouds that sheltered him from the
burning sun. Indicating Muhammad’s place in the larger
As time passed, veneration for the Prophet gradually scheme of monotheism, Ibn Ishaq establishes Muhammad’s
increased. This is reflected in the several steps taken by those connection to the family of Abraham through Abraham’s son,
in authority to preserve his memory. During the reign of Isma
il, and demonstrates similarities between the families of

Uthman (r. 644–656 C.E.), the Quran was compiled; during Abraham and Muhammad. Thus,
Abd al-Muttalib (Muhamthe reign of
Umar II (r. 717–720 C.E.) traditions (hadiths) mad’s grandfather), like Abraham before him, was released
concerning the Prophet and the early Muslim community, from his vow (made when he faced opposition from the
which had thus far been communicated orally, were also Quraysh to his reclaiming of the well named Zamzam) to
written down and compiled. By the time of al-Shafi
i (d. 820 sacrifice his son. Instead he sacrificed several camels. Muham-
C.E.), the practices of the Prophet (conveyed by traditions)
mad, like Jacob, “dreamed” he ascended a ladder (miraj) to
were being considered as significant a source as the Quran
the heavens where he met with God. Like the biblical prophfor the making of Islamic law.
ets, Muhammad also performed miracles such turning a
While private collections of traditions from and about the handful of dates into a quantity sufficient to feed several
Prophet were probably made during his lifetime, many ap- companions and healing the foot of one and the eye of
pear to have been put together according to subject rather another.
than chronology. With the rise of the Abbasids (750 C.E.),
One of Ibn Ishaq’s significant contributions is the inforwho encouraged polemical exchanges with Jews, Christians,
mation concerning a “Constitution of Medina,” according to
and Zoroastrians, the Muslims had become acutely aware of
which the Muslims of Mecca and Medina, along with their
the lacuna that existed in the recorded life of their prophet.
Jewish allies in Medina, agreed to support Muhammad and
Al-Mansur (r. 755–775 C.E.) therefore commanded Ibn Ishaq
help him against the Meccan polytheists who opposed him.
(d. c. 773 C.E.) to establish a biography of the Prophet, which
When the Jews broke their agreement, Muhammad not only
in the recension of Ibn Hisham (d. 833 C.E.), under the title
fought the Meccans, but also considerably reduced the Jewish
Sirat rasul Allah, is the only version that is extant in its entirety
presence in Medina. The tale regarding the Jews of the Banu
today. Ibn Ishaq compiled a narrative that informs us of the
Qurayza, whose adult men were executed after their surrenlife of Muhammad as it unfolded, from his birth until his
der (while their wives and children were sold into slavery), is
death. He soon became the most recognized biographer of
notorious in this regard. For Ibn Ishaq, the narrative follows
the Prophet throughout the empire. Selecting traditions that
the biblical pattern establishing God’s destruction of those
would endorse a prophetic career, Ibn Ishaq shaped a narrawho oppose His prophets.
tive that presented Muhammad as the last and best of Quranic
prophets. Placing Muhammad’s birth in the Year of the
Ibn Ishaq is careful, however. Much of the information on
Elephant (570 C.E.) the compiler affirmed his early life in sixth
miraculous occurrences is qualified by phrases such as “it is
century Arabia. Intertwining moments of revelation throughalleged,” or “God only knows.” In the case of Muhammad’s
out the Prophet’s career, Ibn Ishaq endorses the community’s
miraculous journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, Ibn Ishaq
view that it was through Muhammad alone that the Quran
directs the reader to a tradition from
Aisha in which it was
was revealed. According to Ibn Ishaq, an important aspect of
said that only Muhammad’s spirit had journeyed to “the
his prophetic personality was his performance of miracles.
distant place of prayer.” With the passage of time, however,
Ibn Ishaq had to take political factors into consideration as these miracles were revisited without such caution, as in the
well. Al-Mansur, who was of the Sunni denomination, had compilations of al-Tabari (d. 923 C.E.) and Ibn Kathir (d. 1387
come to power through a revolution. He therefore desired C.E.), which indicated an increasing veneration of the Prophet.

legitimation of his authority among Muslims, for whom
association with the family of the Prophet was required, but A growing devotion could also be seen in the activity of the
also among the numerous Jews and Christians whose One Muslims. Around 780 C.E. for instance, Kahyzuran, the Queen
God, the Muslims claimed, had chosen Muhammad as His of al-Mahdi (775–785 C.E.), consecrated the birthplace of
last prophet. Ibn Ishaq tackled the problem by presenting al- Muhammad as a mosque. A few years later Quranic scholar

Abbas, the eponym of the Abbasids and an uncle of Muham- al-Naqqas (d. 962 C.E.) mentioned it as a place where a
mad, as one for whom the Prophet had a deep affection and by personal prayer of request would be satisfactorily answered
including hagiographic traditions on Muhammad that paral- by noon each Monday. (Monday was the day of the week on
leled the representation of prophets and patriarchs in the Bible. which the Prophet is supposed to have been born, received
the first revelation, and emigrated to Medina.) The tomb of
Although Muhammad had his first revelation when he was the Prophet was visited with similar intent. It compared with
around forty years of age (610 C.E.), we are told that even at his the Sufi practice of prayer at tombs of saints or “friends of
birth there were signs of his prophetic mission. Muhammad is God,” who were solicited for such benefits as a recovery from

482 Islam and the Muslim World
Muhammad

illness or the birth of a son. Muhammad’s role as intercessor be included in an evaluation of his leadership. Moreover, the
was clearly seen to be an active one. battles of Medina against the polytheists and Jews were
necessary, for Islam would not have emerged as it did from
The timely protest of Ibn Taymiyya, who recognized in Medina if Muhammad had remained the visionary that he
such negotiations a contamination of monotheism, was fol- was in Mecca. The portrait Dashti paints of Muhammad in
lowed several centuries later by the more radical approach of Twenty Three Years is one of an extraordinary man concerned
Muhammad b.
Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1791), who feared a for his fellow men.
“regression into unbelief.” His cause was taken up by Sa
ud b.

Abd al-
Aziz. Such activity did not affect the rest of the According to Fatima Mernissi, “being a prophet means
Muslim world (Egypt, India, Turkey, and the like). In those pushing people to the utmost, toward an ideal society.” In The
places, Sufi practices and the celebration of the maulid con- Veil and the Male Elite she recognizes that the Prophet,
tinue to take place to this day. The oil revenues that accrued despite his endeavors, held back from granting women equalin Saudi Arabia in the twentieth century have, however, ity with men by recommending that women hide their sexualenabled the export of Wahhabism to the developing world, ity when going out into the streets and by giving husbands
gradually eroding the latter’s more Sufi-istic heritage. authority over them. These decrees are explained, however,
as the consequence of the warring milieu and the chauvinistic
Biographical literature on Muhammad in the twentieth attitude of the Prophet’s companions.
century has been more concerned with issues of science
and modernization. The representations of Muhammad by Displaying a keen understanding of hadith criticism,
three biographers who belong to different nations and gen- Mernissi examines the misogynistic opinions reflected in the
erations—Haykal (1888–1956) an Egyptian journalist; Dashti Sahih of al-Bukhari, and explains that these were not the
(1896–1982) an Iranian engineer; and Mernissi (b. 1940) a opinions of the Prophet, but of al-Bukhari. According to
Moroccan sociologist—exemplify a variety of appreciations Mernissi, the Prophet, despite his “weakness,” respected
of the Prophet’s life. women and consulted them in moments of crisis.

In The Life of Muhammad, Haykal’s concern is to combat Finally, it is important to recognize that Muhammad is
nineteenth-century western critics of Islam who portray the not merely the quest of believers, but of historians as well. In
Prophet sometimes as an epileptic and at others as a fraud. this regard a word of caution must be offered concerning the
Haykal insists that the Quran is God’s word, not Muham- nature of the sources. The hijra (Muslim calendar) was
mad’s, and justifies his belief by claiming that Muhammad established only during the caliphate of
Umar b. al-Khattab
was illiterate. Asserting that the Prophet performed no mira- (r. 634–644 C.E.). Before the hijra, events in Arab life were
cles, he explains Muhammad’s journey to Jerusalem, and remembered in relation to more significant happenings of the
from there to the heavens, as an experience of the mind rather recent past, such as raids and battles or through the mnethan the body. As for the story concerning the “satanic monic of numbers. Traditions in biographical literature that
verses,” Haykal rejects it, explaining that Muhammad was, as provide a chronology and sequence to the events that constia prophet of God, “infallible,” and therefore not prone to tute the life of Muhammad are therefore suspect. Moreover
such error. the Quran, which is not compiled in the sequence in which it
was revealed, mentions Muhammad only four times. It gives
Regarding the Prophet’s marriages, Haykal is apologetic no information regarding his place of birth or death or the
and unrealistic. He insists that these were not inspired by love names of his parents, wives, and children. As for archeological
but, rather, required by political and social circumstances. remains, the Ka
ba and the Mosque of Medina were com-
Muhammad’s marriage to Zaynab, who was previously mar- pletely rebuilt within a hundred years of the Prophet’s death;
ried to Zayd, his adopted son, is justified on the grounds that and, tragically, all buildings consecrated to the memory of the
the marriage was conducted to make the point that an Prophet in Mecca were destroyed by Sa
ud b.
Abd al-
Aziz (r.
“adopted” son is not a blood relative, and to establish an 1803–1814).
inclusive approach to divorcees. More interesting is Haykal’s
rejection of polygamy on the basis of Quran (4:123), which Scholarship has moved on, nevertheless. Where once the
requires that a man treat all his wives with equality. For challenge had been to query the divine authorship of the
Haykal this was impossible and clearly meant that monogamy Quran, today it has shifted to a recognition of its various
is what the Quran advocates. threads that apparently indicate a composite structure. Where
once the Quran seemed to be the inspiration of Muhammad,
For Dashti, Muhammad is inexorably human. To him, the it is now believed by some to have been the inspiration for
Quran is Muhammad’s creation. His interpretation of the Muhammad. Many centuries ago, the bewildered believer
satanic verses and his weakness for women are simply the came to terms with Muhammad’s death by emphasizing his
marks of human frailty. According to Dashti, Muhammad’s faith in God. This could well be his response even today.
relations with his wives are a private concern, and should not Perhaps more documentation will come to light in the future.

Islam and the Muslim World 483
Muhammad

The Tribe of Quraysh (5th–8 th centuries, C.E.)

Qusayy (founder of Quraysh)


Abd-Manaf

Hashim (clan) Muttalib
Abd-Shams (clan) Nawfal (clan)
(clan associated
with Hashim)

Abd al-Muttalib Umayya

Abu Talib Abu Lahab
Abdallah⫽Amina
Abbas Hamza Abu ’l-
As Harb

Muhammad ⴝKhadjah b. Khuwaylid
Abdallah
Affan al-Hakam

ⴝ
Aisha b. Abu-Bakr b. Abu Quhafa of Taym clan Abu SufyanⴝHind
⫽Hafsa b.
Umar b. al-Khattab of
Adi clan
⫽Umm Habiba b. Abu Sufyan

Ja
far al-Tayyar
Aliⴝ Fatima Zaynab Umm-Kulthum and Ruqayyah⫽
Uthman Marwan Mu
awiya

Hasan Husayn
Abd al-Malik Yazid

People influential in Muhammad's life, or who later became influential figures, are set in boldfaced type. Most of the men in the geneology had sons not
mentioned here due to space considerations.

SOURCE: Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1974.

Muhammad’s lineage.

See also Arabia, Pre-Islamic; Biography and Kathir, Ibn. The Life of the Prophet Muhammad. Translated by
Hagiography; Caliphate; Hadith; Holy Cities; Mi
raj; Trevor Le Gassick. Reading, U. K.: Garnet Publish-
Quran; Shi
a: Early; Succession; Sunna; Tasawwuf. ing, 1998.
Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Male Elite. Translated by
BIBLIOGRAPHY Mary-Jo Lakeland. New York: Addison Wesley, 1987.
Cook, Michael. Muhammad. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford Univer- Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shii Islam. New Haven,
sity Press, 1983. Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985.
Dashti,
Ali. Twenty Three Years. Translated by F. R. C. Newby, Gordon. The Making of the Last Prophet. Columbia:
Bagley. Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1994. University of South Carolina Press, 1989.
Guillaume, Alfred. Islam. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1954. Rippin, Andrew. Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices.
Guillaume, Alfred. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of 2d ed. London: Routledge, 2001.
Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah. Karachi: Oxford University Schimmel, Annemarie. And Muhammad Is His Messenger.
Press, 1955. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
Hallaq, Wael b. A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Intro- Sellheim, Rudolf. “Prophet, Chalif und Geschichte. Die
duction to Sunni Usul al-Fiqh. Cambridge, U.K.: Cam- Muhammed-Biographie des Ibn Ishaq.” Oriens 18–19
bridge University Press, 1997. (1967): 3–91.
Haykal, Muhammad Husayn. The Life of Muhammad. Qum, Stowasser, Barbara. Women in the Qur
an, Traditions, and
Iran: Center of Islamic Studies, 1976. Interpretation. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Jarrar, Maher. “Sirat ahl al-Kisa.” In The Biography of Muham- Tabari, Muhammad b. Jarir, al-. The History of al-Tabari, vols.
mad. Edited by Harald Motzki. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000. 6–9. Edited by S. A. Arjomand. Albany: State University
Kaptein, Nico. “Materials for the History of the Prophet of New York Press, 1988.
Muhammad’s Birthday Celebration in Mecca.” Der Islam Watt, W. M. Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford,
69, no. 2 (1992): 193–203. U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1961.

484 Islam and the Muslim World
Muhammad Ali, Dynasty of

Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad’s Mecca. Edinburgh: Holt, P. M. The Mahdist State in the Sudan, 1881–1898.
Edinburgh University Press, 1988. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1970.
Welch, A. T. “Muhammad’s Understanding of Himself: The Shaked, Haim. The Life of the Sudanese Mahdi. New Brunswick,
Koranic Data.” In Islam’s Understanding of Itself. Edited by N.J.: Transaction Books, 1978.
R. G. Hovannisian, and S. Vryonis, Jr. Malibu, Calif.:
Undena Publications, 1983. Mohamed Mahmoud

Rizwi Faizer

MUHAMMAD
ALI, DYNASTY OF

MUHAMMAD AHMAD IBN Founded by an adventurous Turkish cotton merchant who
created an autonomous Egyptian state within the Ottoman

ABDULLAH (1844–1885) Empire, the Muhammad
Ali dynasty lasted into the midtwentieth century, when it was abolished by revolutionary
Muhammad Ahmad b.
Abdullah, known as al-Mahdi, was
Free Officers led by Jamal
Abd al-Nasser.
born in 1844 in northern Sudan and died on 22 June 1885 in
Omdurman. He did not follow his family’s profession of boat The dynasty is named after Muhammad
Ali (r. 1805–1849),
building, embarking instead on a religious and political ca- a commander of the Ottoman force dispatched to oust Naporeer. He studied Quranic and other religious sciences and leon Bonaparte’s army in 1801. Playing local politics shrewdly,
joined the Sammaniyya mystical brotherhood. Besides his he secured appointment as governor of Egypt in 1805. He
religious and ascetic fervor, he was imbued with a strong served his sultan as loyal vassal, sending troops to re-conquer
sense of social justice and reform-mindedness that filled him the Hijaz and to repress the Greek rebellion. At the same
with a firm commitment to eradicate the colonial Turco- time, he consolidated authority over Egypt, destroying the
Egyptian regime and establish an Islamic state (1820–1885). bases of Mamluk military and economic power and seizing
control of a vast amount of state land. By the 1820s he
The regime’s oppression and injustices, the loss of the embarked on economic, military, and educational reforms,
class of religious shaykhs (masters) of the privileged status they many of which presaged similar impulses in Istanbul. In 1831
had hitherto enjoyed, and the discontent of the influential Egypt invaded Syria; only European intervention prevented a
northern merchant class, all contributed to the creation drive into Anatolia. A treaty in 1840 cut back his military
of a revolutionary situation. Furthermore, there was an might and proscribed his protectionist economic policies. He
eschatological expectation among many people of the immi- did, however, retain dynastic rights to Egypt.
nent coming of a mahdi (the guided one).

Abbas (r.1848–1854) undid most of the dynast’s reforms,
Muhammad Ahmad’s declaration of his Mahdism in June halting conscriptions of peasants for works projects and
1881 sparked off a relentless series of battles against the military service. Sa
id (r. 1854–1863) sought to emulate
Turco-Egyptian regime that culminated in the fall of Khartoum Muhammad
Ali, reinstituting Western-modeled educational
in January 1885. Shortly afterward, al-Mahdi died before reform and embarking upon infrastructure development,
realizing his dream of carrying his Mahdist revolution be- most notably granting the Suez Canal concession. Isma
il (r.
yond Sudan. 1863–1879), the first “khedive” (a special Ottoman designation for governor), inherited an enormous public debt, but
Muhammad Ahmad legitimized his Mahdism by a claim of
continued Sa
id’s reformist thrust. The debt crisis of the late
a prophetic sanction based on a vision of the Prophet in a 1860s led Isma
il to sell Egypt’s Suez shares, institute a
colloquy (hadra). He perceived his career as corresponding to consultative assembly, and accept imposition of “dual conthat of the Prophet’s and his mission as a universal one. He trol”—French and British officials to monitor Egypt’s fi-
asserted that his Mahdism entailed the abolition of all juristic nances. His resistance to European authority, fueled by a
schools and mystical orders. His movement did not succeed rising nationalist movement, led to his deposition by the
in uprooting these expressions of Islam but instead led to the sultan. Tawfiq (r. 1879–1892) confronted the nationalist
birth of a new politico-religious brotherhood—the Ansar
Urabi revolt that culminated, in 1882, in British occupation.
(the followers of the Mahdi). His successors,
Abbas Hilmi (r. 1892–1914) and Husayn
Kamil (r. 1914–1917), ruled primarily at British behest, the
See also Mahdi.
latter, after Britain declared a protectorate in 1914, as sultan.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Following the 1919 nationalist revolution, Britain granted
Abu Salim, Muhammad Ibrahim. Al-Haraka l-Fikriyya fi l- Egypt conditional independence under a constitutional mon-
Mahdiyya (The intellectual movement under the Mahdiyya). archy. King Fuad (Fuad) (r. 1917–1936) retained enormous
Khartoum: Khartoum University Press, 1989. constitutional power over the newly endowed parliament, but

Islam and the Muslim World 485
Muhammad Al-Nafs al-Zakiyya

still needed to answer to British superiors. Caught between grandson, al-Hasan), many, including the famous jurist Malik
the vise of British authority and the king’s unassailable right b. Anas and the
Alids, supported his cause. Muhammad
to dissolve parliament, the “liberal experiment” quickly soured. began his revolt against the caliph al-Mansur (d. 775) in
Farouk (Faruq) (r. 1936–1952) acceded to the throne with Medina, where he had considerable support, while his brother
great fanfare, a charismatic, seemingly pious, socially con- Ibrahim began his revolt in Basra later on. Due to his political
scious youth who, many hoped, might stabilize the discred- activism, many Zaydi Shi
ites supported Muhammad’s moveited order. But he quickly disappointed, becoming ultimately ment. At one point Muhammad took over Mecca, anchora caricature: the obese gambler and sordid playboy, a modern ing his claims on descent from Fatima, daughter of the
Nero. His second wife, a commoner, bore him a son, Ahmad Prophet. With only three hundred men, Muhammad was
Fuad, who inherited the throne under a regency when killed in Medina by al-Mansur’s greater forces, who were
Farouk abdicated and left Egypt at the insistence of the led by
Isa b. Musa in 762. Extremist groups such as the
military in July 1952. However, in June 1953 the Nasser Mughiriyya refused to accept his death, believing him to be
regime abolished the monarchy, proclaiming a republic. the eschatological messiah.
Farouk, ever the butt of popular satire, died abroad in 1965;
the officers allowed him to be buried in Egypt, although not See also Ahl al-Bayt; Imamate; Mahdi; Succession.
alongside his predecessors.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal; Modernization, Politi-
Buhl, F. “Muhammad b.
Abd Allah al-Nafs al-Zakiyya.” In
cal: Authoritarianism and Democratization; Nation- Encyclopedia of Islam, 2d ed. Edited by H. A. R. Gibb, et al.
alism: Arab; Reform: Arab Middle East and North Leiden: Brill, 1960–.
Africa; Revolution: Modern.
Kennedy, Hugh. The Early Abbasid Caliphate. London: Croom
Helm, 1981.
BIBLIOGRAPHYY
Berque, Jacques. Egypt: Imperialism and Revolution. Trans- Liyakatali Takim
lated by Jean Stewart. New York: Praeger, 1972.
Sayyid-Marsot, Afaf Lutfi al-. Egypt in the Reign of Muhammad
Ali. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1984. MUHAMMAD, ELIJAH (1897–1975)
Joel Gordon From the 1930s until his death, Elijah Muhammad was the
leader of the Nation of Islam, the most prominent African-
American Muslim organization of the post–World War II
era. A black migrant from Georgia who settled in Detroit and
MUHAMMAD AL-NAFS AL-ZAKIYYA then Chicago, Muhammad became known among thousands
(D. 762 C.E.) of followers as the “Messenger of God.” He spread his ideas
through popular public lectures, the widely distributed Mu-
Muhammad b.
Abdallah b. al-Hasan al-Muthanna died in hammad Speaks newspaper, and works like The Supreme Wis-
762 C.E. Due to his gentle disposition, he was known as al- dom (1957) and Message to the Blackman in America (1965). His
Nafs al-Zakiyya, which means “the pure soul.” At a gathering teachings combined Sunni Islamic elements with traditions
of the Hashimites held at al-Abwa during the Umayyad of black self-determination and black closeness (the idea that
dynasty, Muhammad’s father,
Abdallah, urged those present blacks, like the ancient Israelites, were God’s chosen people).
to accept his son as a claimant to the caliphate and the Mahdi Elijah Muhammad encouraged African Americans to convert
(messiah). With the exception of Ja
far al-Sadiq, the sixth to Islam, follow a strict moral and ethical code, and work for
Shi’ite Imam, most of those present agreed. When the Abbasids economic and political self-sufficiency. He also taught that
came to power they installed Abu l-
Abbas (known as al- blacks were the earth’s original inhabitants who had become
Saffah) as the new ruler, but Muhammad refused to acknowl- enslaved by a devilish race of white men. God, he said, had
edge his authority. chosen him to “mentally resurrect” black people and prepare
them for Judgment Day, when God would dispense with
With his brother Ibrahim, Muhammad instigated a revolt whites and reestablish a golden age of black splendor. This
by seeking popular support against the new regime. The two doctrine, called the Myth of Yacub by some outside the
brothers traveled extensively in Islamic lands, enlisting fol- movement, drew criticism from many black civil rights leadlowers. In a desperate attempt at capturing these two rene- ers and Muslims, who deemed it un-Islamic. Elijah Muhamgades, al-Saffah’s successor, al-Mansur, imprisoned their mad’s separatist Islam nevertheless found a sympathetic ear
aged father and other family members. Since Muhammad among members of the urban black working class, especially
was a descendant of the Prophet (through the Prophet’s black men in prison. His emphasis on black self-determination

486 Islam and the Muslim World
Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi

and pride during the postwar period foreshadowed and in- its independence. Although still solidly middle class,
spired the black power movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Muhammadiyah today is more intellectually diverse than at
any point in history. In recent years the organization has
After his death in 1975, his son, Wallace D. (or Warith experienced heated debates over Islamic law, women’s rights,
Deen) Muhammad, took over the Nation of Islam, leading and religious tolerance.
the movement toward a more Sunni interpretation of Islam.
But in the late 1970s, Minister Louis Farrakhan, a former aide See also Reform: Southeast Asia.
to Elijah Muhammad, broke with the younger Muhammad,
reconstituting a Nation of Islam that continued to rely on BIBLIOGRAPHY
Elijah Muhammad’s original teachings.
Peacock, James L. Muslim Puritans: Reformist Psychology in
Southeast Asian Islam. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univer-
See also American Culture and Islam; Americas, Islam
sity of California Press, 1978.
in the; Farrakhan, Louis; Malcolm X; Muhammad,
Warith Deen; Nation of Islam.
Robert W. Hefner

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Clegg, Claude Andrew, III. An Original Man: The Life and
Times of Elijah Muhammad. New York: St. Martin’s MUHAMMAD REZA SHAH PAHLEVI
Press, 1997.
(1919–1980)
Muhammad, Elijah. Message to the Blackman in America.
Reprint. Newport News, Va.: United Brothers Commu- Muhammad Reza, son of Reza Khan, was born on 26 October
nications Systems, 1992.
1919 and was the second and last shah of the Pahlevi dynasty.
He died in exile in Cairo on 27 July 1980.
Edward E. Curtis IV
At the coronation of his father, on 25 April 1926, Muhammad Reza was invested as crown prince. On 16 September
1941, Reza Shah abdicated following the Allied invasion of
MUHAMMADIYYA Iran, and Muhammad Reza Shah succeeded to the throne.
(MUHAMMADIYAH) The first twelve years of his reign, between 1941 and 1953,
were marked by a continuing struggle for power between the
The second largest of Indonesia’s Muslim social associations, monarch and a variety of other political forces. This peaked
the Muhammadiyah was founded in 1912 in Yogyakarta, Java, in 1951 when opponents of the shah, led by prime minister
by Ahmad Dahlan, a cloth merchant and minor court official Muhammad Mosaddeq, nationalized the oil industry. Folwho had studied in Mecca. The organization quickly gained lowing two years of political crisis and radicalization, the shah
additional followers among Sumatran traders. With its fled to Rome. He returned on 19 August, however, after a
multiethnic urban base, the movement spread rapidly, reach- coup. Muhammad Reza Shah then embarked on the consoliing even remote towns in eastern Indonesia by the late 1920s. dation of a royal dictatorship, crushing all opposition. Between
1961 and 1963 he promulgated by decree a series of reforms
The Muhammadiyah eschewed formal politics, concen- known as the White Revolution, which included land reform
trating on social welfare and religious education. In con- and female enfranchisement. The land reform liquidated the
trast to traditional Quranic schools (pesantren), Muhamma- large absentee landlords and thus had a major impact on the
diyah madrasas had age grades, modeled directly on mission social structure of Iran. However, the lack of democratic
schools. Curricula included science, mathematics, and geog- freedoms continued to provoke opposition and major unrest
raphy, in addition to religious study. These emphases showed broke out in 1963. After his exile from Iran in 1964, Ayatollah
the organization’s twin ambitions of urging Muslims to Ruhollah Khomeini assumed the leadership of the Islamic
respond to the scientific and political challenge of the West opposition to the shah.
while encouraging individual responsibility in devotion.
Muhammadiyah also stressed women’s education. Its women’s From the time of the 1953 coup, Muhammad Reza Shah
branch, Aisyiyah, remains the largest organization of its kind had become increasingly reliant on American support. The
in the world. quadrupling of oil prices after 1973 allowed the shah to
embark on a program of rapid industrialization as well as on a
Muhammadiyah has based its success on steering clear massive weapons’ purchasing program.
of formal politics. The regime of Indonesian president Suharto
(1966–1998) sought to nurture a conservative faction in Both secular and religious opposition burgeoned during
the organization, but the mainstream leadership guarded the 1970s. Massive political demonstrations forced the shah

Islam and the Muslim World 487
Muhammad, Warith Deen

to leave Iran on 16 January 1979; on 1 February 1979 Mamiya, Lawrence H. “From Black Muslim to Bilalian: The
Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran. Evolution of a Movement.” Journal for the Social Scientific
Study of Religion 23 (1982): 138–152.
See also Khomeini, Ruhollah; Modernization, Political:
Authoritarianism and Democratization; Revolution:
Edward E. Curtis IV
Islamic Revolution in Iran.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abrahamian, Ervand. Iran Between Two Revolutions. Prince- MUHARRAM
ton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982.
The first month of the Islamic year, Muharram, is the focus of
Stephanie Cronin annual lamentation rituals performed especially by Shi
a
Muslims in honor of Husayn b.
Ali, the prophet Muhammad’s grandson, who died in battle in 680 C.E. at Karbala
(Iraq). Besieged by soldiers loyal to the caliph Yazid b.
MUHAMMAD, WARITH
Mu
awiya, who sought to prevent Husayn from gaining
DEEN (1933– ) political power, Husayn died on
Ashura, the tenth day of
Muharram. Family members accompanying him were killed
Arguably the most important black Sunni Muslim leader in
or subjected to imprisonment and humiliation. Commemothe history of African American Islam, Warith Deen Muhamration of the Karbala martyrs’ sufferings during the yearly
mad (b. 1933) was brought up as a member of Elijah Muhammourning season (from the first of Muharram to the twentimad’s “royal family.” From the 1950s through the 1970s,
eth of the month of Safar, with
Ashura comprising the focal
Warith Deen served on and off as a minister in his father’s
date) serves to help define Shi
a communal identity.
Nation of Islam (NOI), but was constantly in trouble as he
questioned the Islamic legitimacy of his father’s teachings.
Muharram observances vary throughout the Islamic world.
Even so, when Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, Warith Deen
Iran is famous for the taziya, a dramatic enactment of the
emerged as movement leader. In the course of a few short
Karbala battle. Localities in Pakistan and India stage
Ashura
years, he radically altered the official religious doctrines of
processions featuring a stallion caparisoned as Zuljenah, the
the NOI, instructing members to observe the traditional five
horse ridden into combat by Husayn. In Hyderabad, India,
pillars of Islamic practice.
matami guruhan (Shi
a lamentation associations) sponsor the
During this period, Warith Deen Muhammad led more group performance of matam (gestures of grief ranging from
African Americans toward Sunni Islam than any other person rhythmic chestbeating to self-flagellation with razors and
in history, before or after. He also reorganized the NOI, chains). Matam is performed in time to the chanting of nauhas
eventually disbanding it in favor of a decentralized national (poems commemorating the Karbala martyrs).
network of mosques. As Warith Deen led his followers
toward Sunni Islam and away from his father’s black religious In 1994 a fatwa by Sayyed
Ali Khamenei, spiritual leader
separatism, however, he also insisted that African American of Iran, forbade the public performance of self-flagellation or
Muslims continue to take pride in their ethnic heritage, work other forms of bloody matam. This decree continues a policy
for improvement in the quality of black life, and interpret promulgated by Khamenei’s predecessor, the Ayatollah
Sunni Islam in light of African-American historical circum- Ruhollah Khomeini, who advocated taqrib or Sunni-Shi
a
stances. In 1992, Warith Deen became the first Muslim to rapprochement for the sake of pan-Islamic cooperation in
offer the opening prayer before a session of the U.S. Senate. international affairs. Sunnis have frequently condemned as
Now addressed as imam (leader) by thousands of followers un-Islamic the bloodier forms of Muharram mourning.
across the country, he actively participates in interfaith dialogue and maintains strong ties to Muslim leaders both in the The most common form of Muharram ritual, however, is
United States and abroad. the majlis al-aza or “lamentation gathering,” where a preacher
recounts the Karbala martyrs’ sufferings to stimulate grief
See also American Culture and Islam; Farrakhan, Louis; among congregants. While lamentation rituals for Husayn
Malcolm X; Muhammad, Elijah; Nation of Islam; have been documented as early as tenth-century Baghdad,
United States, Islam in the. Shi
a authorities trace the history of the majlis al-aza to
Zaynab bint
Ali, Husayn’s sister, who was present at Karbala
BIBLIOGRAPHY and who is believed to have held the first majlis to mourn
Curtis, Edward E., IV. Islam in Black America: Identity, Libera- Husayn while a captive in Yazid’s palace. Traditional Shi
a
tion, and Difference in African-American Islamic Thought. belief holds that weeping for the Karbala martyrs gains
Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. mourners access to Husayn’s intercession for the forgiveness

488 Islam and the Muslim World
Muhtasib

Pinault, David. Horse of Karbala: Muslim Devotional Life in
India. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

David Pinault

MUHASIBI, AL- (781–857)
Harith ibn Asad al-Muhasibi of Baghdad was a master of Sufi
ethics and the father of Sufi psychology. He is most famous
for his theory of the three-part nature of the human soul. His
nickname, “al-Muhasibi,” refers to his practice of muhasaba,
the critical examination of actions, motives, and spiritual
states. He was an exemplar of ethical conduct and refused to
allow any form of self-deception. He taught his disciples to
follow reason and avoid emotionalism. His major opponent
was Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855). Ibn Hanbal criticized al-
Muhasibi for his rationalism and his use of dialectical reasoning. He incited his followers in Baghdad to intimidate al-
Muhasibi and prevent people from attending his lessons.

Al-Muhasibi’s theory of the soul is contained in al-Riaya
li-huquq Allah wa al-qiyam biha (How to observe and abide by
the rights of God). He called his theory the “science of
hearts.” The “heart” is a metaphor for the soul. It includes the
Shiites in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2002 perform a ritual of selfconscience (sirr), which is the spiritual center of the soul, and
flagellation with knives attached to chains on Ashura, the Shiite
community’s holiest day, to atone the death of Imam Husayn, the the nafs, which is the “psyche,” “self,” or “ego.” Although the
grandson of Muhammad. During the rule of the Taliban, such nafs is necessary for human existence, its desire for selfpublic celebrations of Ashura were prohibited in Afghanistan. AP/ gratification undermines the spiritual nature of the soul.
WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
Using a term from the Quran, al-Muhasibi calls the egocentered soul the “commanding nafs” (al-nafs al-ammara).
The key to taming the “commanding nafs” is self-examination
of sins. But recent Shi
a thinking emphasizes the political
(muhasaba). Through self-examination, the “commanding
dimension of Muharram ritual as a form of communal assernafs” is transformed into the “self-blaming nafs” (al-nafs altiveness and revolutionary activism.
lawwama). At this stage, one becomes aware of the damage
Muharram rituals are not limited to the Shi
a. In Ladakh that has been done to oneself and others by allowing the nafs
(Jammu and Kashmir, India), where Muslims are a minority to control one’s life. But the “self-blaming nafs” is still egoin a predominantly Buddhist region, Sunnis cooperate with obsessed. Its overly critical attitude can lead to self-hatred and
the Shi
a in staging Zuljenah processions to demonstrate even suicide. Only by transcending the ego entirely is it
Islamic solidarity. In Andhra Pradesh (India), Hindus visit possible to attain the third and final stage of self-awareness,
Shi
a shrines during Muharram. And in Darjeeling (West the “nafs at peace” (al-nafs al-mutmainna). In this final stage,
the soul is at peace because it has transcended the human ego
Bengal), where most Muslims are Sunnis,
Ashura takes on an
and is now controlled by God. This is the meaning of alair of carnival, with competitions involving drumming and
Muhasibi’s aphorism, “Be God’s or be nothing.”
stickfighting.
See also Ibn Hanbal; Tasawwuf.
See also Husayn; Karbala; Ritual; Shi
a: Early; Ta
ziya
(Ta
ziye).
Rkia E. Cornell
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Halm, Heinz. Shia Islam: From Religion to Revolution. Princeton, N.J.: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997. MUHTASIB
Hegland, Mary Elaine. “The Power Paradox in Muslim
Women’s Majales: North-West Pakistani Mourning Ritu- The term muhtasib has primarily been used to designate a
als.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 23 person who has been appointed by the political power (sultan
(1998): 391–428. or imam) to police the enforcement of Islamic law in a

Islam and the Muslim World 489
Mujahidin

particular area. In works of law, the muhtasib is described as Movement), Hizb-e Islami (Party of Islam) led by Gulbuddin
being responsible for ensuring that the activities of the Hikmatyar, Hizb-e Islami led by Muhammad Yunus Khalis.
Muslims in an area conform with the sharia. This is particu- Hikmatyar and Khalis initially jointly led the Hizb-e Islami,
larly the case with regard to commerce and supervision of the but later split the party, both retaining the same name. Itihadmarketplace. In later times (after 1500 C.E.), the muhatsib was e Islami (Islamic Union), Jam
iyat-e Islami (Islamic Society),
almost exclusively responsible for ensuring that the weights Jabha-e Nijat-e Milli-ye Afghanistan (National Liberation
and measures used in the market were fair and consistent. He Front of Afghanistan), and Mahaz-e Milli-ye Islami-ye Afghanialerted the judge (qadi) of cases of infringement, though he stan (National Islamic Front of Afghanistan).
had the power to act without the judge’s express permission.
One finds the official position of muhtasib for towns men- In 1988, the Afghan Interim Government (AIG)—a loose
tioned in sources from most periods of classical Islam (from alliance of the seven groups listed above—was achieved
the Abbasids through the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals). through pressure by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United
The position appears to have disappeared in the nineteenth States. However, various attempts to unite these and other
century, as law enforcement across the Muslim world under- smaller Pakistan-based mujahidin groups ultimately resulted
went modernization. It can be argued that all Muslims should, in failure. In Iran, there were a multitude of mujahidin groups
in a sense, be muhtasibs, since a muhtasib is one who enforces until 1989, when, owing to Iranian pressure, they united into
“public order” (hisba), and because all Muslims have this a single party, Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islam-ye Afghanistan (Isresponsibility under the general obligation to “command lamic Unity Party of Afghanistan).
what is approved and forbid what is reprehensible” (for
example Q 3:104), and the law books allow for “voluntary” In February 1989, the Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanimuhtasibs to enforce public morals. stan and on 28 April 1992, the Afghan mujahidin finally
achieved their main objective by capturing the capital, Kabul.
See also Hisba; Political Organization. Sibghatallah Mujaddidi, leader of Jabha-e Nijat-e Milli, was
proclaimed president of the Islamic State of Afghanistan for a
BIBLIOGRAPHY two-month period, to be followed by a four-month presi-
Buckley, R. P. “The Muhtasib.” Arabica 34 (1992): 59–117. dency of Burhan al-Din Rabbani, the leader of Jam
iyat-e
Islami. Thereafter, elections were to be held. However,
Rabbani refused to leave office, barred elections, and ruled in
Robert Gleave
Kabul until 27 September 1996, when a splinter mujahidin
group, the Taliban, captured the city.

MUJAHIDIN From 1992 to 1996, various mujahidin groups battled each
other in every corner of Afghanistan. In the ever-shifting
Mujahidin (mojahidin) is the plural form of the Arabic term alliances and frontlines, the country was transformed into
mujahid, who is a person who wages jihad. According to decentralized fiefdoms ruled with increasing brutality by
doctrinal and historical applications of Islamic law, jihad warlords. Moreover, with the absence of a common enemy,
indicates military action for the defense or expansion of the jihad gave way to an ethno-sectarian war. Another legacy
Islam. While in the course of Islamic history the term of the Afghan mujahidin was the influx of foreign fighters,
mujahidin has been used by different groups to identify their mainly from Pakistan and Arab states. After the mujahidin
struggles to defend Islam, the term gained global currency in victory in 1992, most of these groups reorganized and bethe latter decades of the twentieth century after the leftist came involved in places such as Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
coup d’état in Afghanistan on 27 April 1978. The resistance Chechnya, and Kashmir.
groups first opposed the Afghan communist regime, declar-
Beginning in 1989, Pakistan supported and organized the
ing it atheist. They then turned their attention to the Soviet
transfer of Afghan and Pakistani mujahidin groups to Kashmir,
Union when it invaded Afghanistan on 27 December 1979.
in order to have more direct control over the militants that
Fighting the Soviet Red Army, they collectively referred to
were fighting for either the valley’s independence from India
themselves as mujahidin waging jihad against a communist
power occupying an Islamic land. or for union with Pakistan. The largest of these groups
were Harakat al-Ansar (Movement of the Ansar—Helpers of
The Afghan mujahidin were divided into two main groups: prophet Muhammad in Medina), Hizb al-Mojahidin (Party
(1) those based in and backed by Pakistan with substantial of Mojahidin), and Lashkar-e Taiba (Army of Pure). The
financial and military assistance from Saudi Arabia and the involvement of these and other mujahidin heightened the
United States, who mainly represented the Sunni majority; religious dimension of the Kashmiri conflict. By 1993, the
and (2) those based in and supported by Iran, representing the largest and most popular Kashmiri insurgent group, the
Shi
ite minority. The Pakistan-based group of mujahidin Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, which advocated
included Harakat-e Inqilab-e Islami (Islamic Revolutionary independence and secularism for Kashmir, lost its military

490 Islam and the Muslim World
Mulla Sadra

With the White Mountains in the background, a mujahid stands guard in the graveyard of Achin, an Afghan village in the Nangarhar province.
AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

edge to the Hizb al-Mojahidin, which advocated either the
establishment of an Islamic Kashmiri republic or union with
MUJAHIDUN See Mujahidin
Pakistan.

In the case of the Afghan resistance in the 1978–1992
period, the term mujahidin gained popularity, as did the
groups themselves, not only in Islamic countries but also in MULLA SADRA (C. 1572–1640)
the West. In the Islamic context, the Afghans waged a true
jihad; and in Western minds, they were a liberation army Sadr al-Din Muhammad b. Ibrahim Shirazi, commonly known
fighting Soviet expansionism. Since 1992, however, the term as Mulla Sadra and also given the honorific title Sadr almujahidin lost its religious and political currency internation- mutaallihin, was born around 1572 in Shiraz, Persia, to a
ally, as the Afghan mujahidin became associated with interna- politically powerful and wealthy family, and he died in Basra
tional terrorist figures who had once fought in their ranks, in 1640. The most famous of the later Islamic philosophers of
such as Usama bin Ladin. In the Kashmiri case, the groups Persia, he carried out his early studies in Shiraz and then went
claiming the title of mujahidin did not enjoy support in most to Esfahān for more advanced studies especially in the field of
Muslim countries, with the exception of Pakistan, and were philosophy. There he became a student of Baha al-Din alseen in the West as either terrorist or rebel organizations. Amili and Mir Muhammad Baqir Damad, the founder of the
School of Esfahan. Mulla Sadra soon became a celebrated
See also Political Islam; Taliban. philosopher himself but because of the opposition of some
religious scholars decided to leave Esfahān. He spent many
BIBLIOGRAPHY years in Kahak, a village near Qom, in meditation and
Roy, Olivier. Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan. Cambridge, spiritual seclusion but finally returned to public life when the
U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Khan School was built in Shiraz for him. He spent some three
decades of the last part of his life in that city where he trained
Amin Tarzi many students and wrote most of his works.

Islam and the Muslim World 491
Murji
ites, Murji
a

Mulla Sadra composed more than forty books, all but one attempt to rebel against legitimate leadership is therefore
in Arabic, concerning both the religious sciences and philoso- unacceptable. Murjiites also hold the view that a (grave)
phy, his most famous work being al-Asfar al-arbaa (The four sinner should be punished but should not be excluded from
journeys). He was deeply rooted in the teachings of Ibn Sina, the community, since punishment by exclusion can mean loss
Suhrawardi, and Ibn al-
Arabi as well as being well-versed in of security, life, or property. Another point of difference
the study of Quranic commentaries, the hadith and tradi- concerns the eternity of punishment. While the Kharijites
tions of Shi’ite imams and Islamic theology. He created a strongly hold that a grave sinner is doomed in Hell forever,
synthesis between the purely religious thought of Islam in the Murjiites gives the possibility of forgiveness by God’s
general, Islamic peripatetic (mashsha’i) philosophy, the School will and grace.
of Illumination (ishraq), and doctrinal Sufism of the School of
Ibn ’Arabi. He believed that authentic hikma or philosophy/ The Murjiite interpretation does not belong specifically
theosophy could only be attained by combing revealed knowl- to the Shi
a or the Sunnis. Some Shi
is followed the Murjiites
edge, inner illumination, and ratiocination and he called this in postponing their judgment of
Uthman’s and his adversarintegral hikma “The transcendent philosophy/theosophy” ies’ affairs while Sunnis adopt the Murjiite view that no sin,
(al-hikma al-mutaaliyya). His teachings soon spread through- other than shirk (idolatry or God’s partnership with other
out Persia and Muslim India and he has been without doubt than Himself) and kufr (infidelity), can make one an unbeliever.
the most influential Islamic philosopher of the past few
centuries. He is the figure around whom the revival of Islamic See also Kharijites, Khawarij.
philosophy has taken place during the second half of the
twentieth century, especially in Persia itself. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Watt, W. Montgomery. The Formative Period of Islamic Thought.
See also Falsafa; Ibn
Arabi; Ibn Sina; Ishraqi School. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1973.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Shalahudin Kafrawi
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Sadr al-Dīn Shīrazī and his Transcendent Theosophy. Tehran: Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies 1997.
Rahman, Fazhur. The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra. Albany: State MUSIC
University Press of New York, 1976.
While the history of music in Islam covers at least fifteen
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
centuries, with orally transmitted repertoire and no signifi-
cant notation system, its geography and distinct musical
cultures include many diverse regions in the world. By neces-
MURJIITES, MURJIA sity, this article excludes many folk musical traditions, popular musics, and other local styles; instead, it focuses on some
The participle murji
derives from irja
, the most profound of the universal aspects of music within the Islamic world.
meanings of which are “giving hope” and “postponing.” The
first meaning indicates that there is a hope for salvation when The Concept of Music
someone dies with faith albeit he or she has done grave sins. While a word of Greek origin, musiki, was used in many
The second and perhaps the earliest meaning of this religio- theoretical works, an Arabic term, ghina (song), has been used
political label was that the judgment about those involved in also for music in secular contexts. Other terms, as well, are
the conflict between
Uthman,
Ali, and al-Zubayr is “post- used for what a Westerner might call music in folk and sacred
poned” until the Last Day. contexts—for example, kü is used for song or music in the
Kazakh epic tradition and ir is used for both song and poetry
Historically, the Murjiite sect, which is considered an in certain Turkic languages.The terms qawwal (one who
extreme contrast to the Kharijite, was founded by
Ali’s says), and ashiq (lover), are used in Pakistan and Azerbaijan,
grandson al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya as a re- respectively, for certain types of musicians. “Singing” is never
sponse to the fanatical Kharijite and Shi
ite sects. While used in describing Quranic cantillation; instead, the term
Kharijites hold the view that the third caliph,
Uthman, was a “reading” is used in both Arabic and other main languages
grave sinner and hence an unbeliever, and Muslims are not spoken in Islam.
bound to his leadership, the Murjiites were very much
interested in the preservation of the unity of Muslim commu- An article by Lois Ibsen al-Faruqi, based on a modern
nity rather than pronouncing judgment on whether or not interpretation of historical sources, includes an illustration of

Uthman and
Ali were believers. As a consequence, Murjiites a hierarchy of “sound architecture” (handasat al-sawt). In this
postpone their judgment and give
Uthman and
Ali a tempo- hierarchy, genres are placed on continua between music and
rary status of believers and accept their leadership. Any nonmusic, and legitimate and illegitimate. Consequently,

492 Islam and the Muslim World
Music

“sensuous music associated with unacceptable contexts” is
considered illegitimate (haram), and is labeled as music.
Quranic chant (qira
a), other religious chants, such as the
adhan, chanted poetry with noble themes (shir), family and
celebration music (lullabies, women’s songs, wedding songs,
etc.), “occupational” music (caravan chants, shepherd’s tunes,
work songs, etc.), and military music are all considered
legitimate (halal), and labeled as nonmusic. Then again, while
vocal and instrumental improvisations, serious metered songs,
instrumental music, and music related to pre-Islamic or non-
Islamic origins are considered music, their legitimacy remains controversial, either forbidden or discouraged in Islamic
law (al-Faruqi, 1985). Based mostly on al-Ghazali’s (d. 1111)
Ihya
ulum al-din (Revivification of the religious sciences),
Al-Faruqi makes the case that the status of any handasat alsawt genre depends on its context. Nonetheless, attitudes for
this kind of labeling change in different countries. Two
contrasting views may be observed in Turkey and Egypt.

In Turkey, Quranic recitation is considered to be music
and imams, or leaders of religious services in mosques, are
formally educated in music theory and practice at special state
high schools and universities. As recently as 2002 the State
Directorship of Religious Affairs organized a mandatory
camp of intensive courses in musical theory and practice for
mosque employees. However, Turkish scholars distinguish
between mosque music (cami musikisi) and Sufi music (Tasavvuf
musikisi) and, as in the rest of the Islamic world, musical On the streets of Malaka, Malaysia, a Muslim musician plays a
Malaysian flute. © DAVE BARTRUFF/CORBIS
instruments are not permitted in mosques. Many performers
operate in both domains. Furthermore, some Turkish performers of Quranic recitation function in both religious and
secular contexts. For example, Kani Karaca (b. 1930), a Quranic Recitation
celebrated singer of the sacred Ayin of the Mevlevi (Sufi Two equally complex systems with specific sets of rules
order), the Mevlid, and a Quranic reciter, is also recognized control most aspects of the Quranic recitation throughout
as an exceptional artist in the secular Ottoman classical the Islamic world. While a melodic modal system (maqam)
tradition. helps to shape the melodic progression of a recitation (see
below), the tajwid determines the exact pronunciation of
In Egypt, on the other hand, an ideal Quranic recitation is the text.
considered nonmusic. While Egyptians expect the reciter to
demonstrate tasteful aesthetic skills, they also consider that The rules of tajwid have been transmitted orally generathe act of listening to the Quran (sama) should not engage a tion after generation throughout the centuries. Properties of
musical perception because of music’s association with worldly sound and rhythm are clearly articulated in the rules of tajwid.
and even blasphemous irreligious contexts. Hence, in the Some of the specific performance instructions include, for
context of Quranic recitation, the practice of “musical” example, appropriate places for taking a breath, when to
composition is learned not through straightforward melodic repeat a word or section, relative length of a syllable or
exercises, but through providing a learning environment for phoneme, and so on. The degree of tajwid’s effect over the
individuals where there is no direct teaching of musical recitation varies in the two main styles: murattal and mujawwad.
melodies.
Murattal (also known as tartil) is plainer and it emphasizes
National and local competitions of Quranic recitation for the meaning of the text itself. The pitch material of a maqam
men, women, and children, like the Musabaqah Tilawatil used in this style is often limited—usually within a fourth or a
Qur
an in Indonesia, and instructional and commercial re- fifth—and elaborate melismatic contours where there is more
cordings (especially in Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Tur- than one musical pitch per syllable are considered inapprokey) help to perpetuate certain styles, and a net of artistic and priate in that they obscure the meaning. Accordingly, there
spiritual critics protects the balance between the music as an are no maqam modulations. Similar to the European recitaenhancer of spirituality and the meaning in the text. tive style, the tempo of murattal is relatively fast.

Islam and the Muslim World 493
Music

Since it does not demand any musical training, many in a number of recordings by eminent musicians from the
practitioners of murattal are nonprofessionals and include Middle East and a significant six-volume publication on
both women and children. Professional woman reciters, music theory in French by Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger, La
whether they perform for a mixed audience or only females, musique arabe (1930–1959).
often perform in the less ostentatious murattal. They are
especially encouraged to recite in murattal since a woman’s Melody
voice with elaborate melodic creations is believed to distract Theory, in general, provides a shared vocabulary of concepts
male listeners from the meaning of the text. On the other and technical aspects of music for communication. Therehand, professionals of the more elaborate mujawwad style are fore, knowledge of maqam (melodic mode) theory has been
almost always men. essential for musicians’ education in the art of both composition and improvisation. A maqam articulates a number of
The mujawwad style—also known as tilawa (and more rules in a musical composition regardless of whether the piece
problematically as tartil and tajwid)—came out of Egypt is composed or improvised, the most important of which are:
during the first half of the twentieth century through recordings of such reciters as Shaykh Mustafa Isma
il and more pitch material (scale);
notably Shaykh
Abd al-Basit
Abd al-Samad. Many reciters melodic progression (shape and direction);
outside of Egypt emulated the mujawwad style from these modulations (to other maqams);
recordings and other performances from the powerful Egypand stereotypical melodic cells.
tian radio broadcasts. The mujawwad style gives more importance to musical composition and the emotional intensity of
There are many maqams and each maqam has its own set of
the melody.
rules. These rules are deduced from a large body of existing
Call to Prayer compositions. The number of maqams used (Ar. maqamat,
Perhaps, the most familiar sound in the world of Islam is the Turkish, makamlar, Moroccan Ar. tubu) varies from country
voice of a muezzin (Ar., mu
adhdhin) reciting the adhan, or call to country and from one period to another; also, they may go
to prayer. Wherever there is a mosque one may hear the in and out of fashion. Understanding the intricacies of maqam
adhan regularly five times a day from a minaret or a loud- might secure a high status among musicians; in the same way,
speaker attached to the main building. People may also inappropriate use of a maqam in an improvisation, for examexperience the adhan in other contexts: broadcast on radio or ple, could lower a musician’s status significantly.
television, or from a recording on an alarm clock.
Even in the twenty-first century, musicians continue to
Each adhan is semi-improvised within a maqam (melodic invent new maqams and compose new pieces in these complex
mode) in a rather plain style. Unlike murattal style, certain modal entities.
syllables of the fixed text of the adhan may incite a melodic
Rhythm
melisma within a particular maqam. Muezzins are often pro-
Most early Islamic treatises included sections on the rhythfessionals employed by a mosque. However, they may have
mic modes (usul or iqa). An usul, the counterpart of maqam, is
additional duties in the mosque. During the Ottoman Empire
a fixed rhythmic pattern and used to measure individual
(1299–1918) palace muezzins were among the highest-paid
compositions. There may be one or more usuls in a given
employees.
number of beats; for example, there are four known nine-beat
Theory usuls. Similar to the Indian rhythmic modal system tala,
Music, along with mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy, special nonlexical syllables like dumm, takk, or tek-ka are used
was one of the main scientific fields studied by the early to articulate usuls. There is often a direct correlation between
Islamic scholars and today it remains one of the most studied usul and form. For example, the nine-beat usul Evfer is always
art forms in the Islamic world. A number of scientific and used for the second section (selam) in a Mevlevi ayin composiphilosophical treatises by ancient Greek scholars like Pythago- tion; and the ten-beat Georgina (Turk. Aksak Semai) is used
ras, Plato, Aristotle, and Archimedes were translated into for the instrumental Samai (Turk. Saz Semaisi). Rhythmic
Arabic starting with the second and third centuries of Islam modulation is an important compositional tool used by the
(700–800 B.C.E.). These works provided a model for later composers.
studies by Islamic scholars with their contents on cosmological associations of music, the healing affects of music, instru- Form and Genre
ments, and other technical specifics such as tuning systems The suite form appears to be a significant genre in many
and melodic (maqam) and rhythmic modes (iqa). religious, classical, and military musical traditions of the
Middle East and Central Asia. The cyclical structure of these
An international congress on Arab music held in Cairo in musical traditions goes back to the early centuries of Islam,
1932 renewed attention to many theoretical issues within the and descriptions of early suite forms may be found in the
Islamic world—including Turkish and Persian—and resulted writings of Islamic scholars such as Isfahani and Meraghi as

494 Islam and the Muslim World
Music

early as the tenth century. A suite tradition often has a fixed Mevlevis typically use a compound musical form (ayin)
body of repertoire, and shorter individual compositions are during their rituals (sema), mixing the fixed Rast na
at-e
selected for performances. A specific order of pieces is deter- Mevlana, several taqsims, a pesrev, a four-section vocal compomined by their rhythmic patterns (usul) and form. sition with a text chosen from Jalaluddin Rumi’s poems,
instrumental interludes, various hymns, and Quranic recita-
An unmeasured solo instrumental improvisation, like Turk- tion. A sequence of Son pesrev and Son yuruk semai is the last
ish and Arab taqsim or Persian daramad, appears in most suite instrumental section played by the Mevlevi ensemble (mutrip).
traditions. A taqsim may be played at several points in a Turkish classical musicians frequently perform this particular
performance, for example, as an introduction to a suite in a form and certain other instrumental selections from the ayin
given maqam, or as a transition between pieces. Although it is form in secular concerts.
improvised, a taqsim follows the rules of the maqam and has a
definable form. A Turkish taksim usually falls into three Dhikr (remembrance) is one of the most common forms
sections. The introduction shows the main pitches and other performed by worshippers at Sufi gatherings of different
characteristics of the mode, and demonstrates the performer’s sects. It is performed through formulized repetitions of
mastery of a particular makam. The next section shows the words or short phrases in highly rhythmic specific patterns—
performer’s ability to modulate to other makams within the “Allah” (God) or “la ilaha illallah” (There is no God but
rigid aesthetic rules of the tradition. Finally, the performer Allah), for example. Specialists or volunteers from the conrecapitulates and summarizes the original makam. gregation may perform on frame drums or other percussion
instruments during dhikr. Quranic recitation, hymns, and
Arab layali and qasida,Turkish gazel, and Persian avaz are
vocal improvisations with religious texts are often included
some of the vocal counterparts of taqsim that are often set to a
into the ritual.
secular poetry with additional words and other nonlexical
syllables, for example, aman, of, yar, yalel, and so on. Education
Starting in the nineteenth century, the adoption of the
The Moroccan Andalusian tradition also includes a quasi-
Western system of musical notation in certain parts of the
improvised orchestral taqsim, known as bughia. While they
Islamic world changed the nature of music education in the
follow a slow-moving specific main melody in a highly
classical genres, and, consequently, sheet music replaced
heterophonic texture, performance of bughia usually accommemory for many in the younger generation of musicians.
modates individual performers with some freedom to impro-
Conservatories and other music schools in countries like
vise. The origins of bughia possibly go back to a solo
Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, and Iraq produced literate musiimprovisation.
cians with high technical skills during the twentieth century.
Na
at and durak may be shown as examples of unmeasured The famous Iraqi oud virtuoso Munir Bashir may be given as
pre-composed genres whose text praises the prophet Mo- an example.
hammed. The best-known na
at is the Rast Na
at-e Mevlana,
In most Islamic countries oral transmission between the
which is fixed as part of the ayin suite performed during the
master and pupil was broadened with the advancement of the
rituals of the Mevlevis, also known in the West as the
recording technologies during the twentieth century, and
Whirling Dervishes.
recordings of masters on radio, television, cassettes, compact
Some of the main Islamic suite traditions begin with a discs, videos, and even CD-ROMs became virtual teachers
composed instrumental form performed by the entire ensem- for young performers. Consequently, regardless of whether it
ble. The pesrev, for example, appears in Turkish Mevlevi ayin, is sacred or secular, listening to the great performers remains
fasil, and military mehter performances. Measured in large the principal way to reach the level of mastery.
rhythmic patterns, pesrevs (Ar. bashraf) consist of four independent sections (hane) and a refrain (teslim) following each
Instruments
section. The Arab bashraf, Moroccan Andalusian tushia, and In most locations, musical instruments are not allowed in
Persian pishdaramad similarly occur at the beginning of each mosques. A certain kind of inclusiveness and tolerance, on the
respective suite. other hand, makes it possible for a variety of musical instruments and dance to be incorporated into Sufi rituals. Most
A samai, on the other hand, is the last instrumental notably, the Mevlevi order, both in Turkey and Syria, feacomposition of the traditional Egyptian and Syrian suite tures a large orchestra with classical instruments like oud, ney,
wasla. The basic structure of the sama
i is identical to the and rebab, to name a few. The most commonly used instrubashraf, that is, four sections (hane) with a refrain (teslim). The ment among Sufis is the drum. While the shapes and names of
standard rhythmic pattern (usul) of this genre, however, is a drums may change from one culture to another, the most
short one, Georgina (3+2+2+3). In the final hane the meter common Sufi drum is a frame drum. Some peripheral countypically modulates to Darij (3+3). The Turkish fasil and tries with Muslim populations (e.g., Indonesia, Ghana), fur-
Mevlevi ayin also include an instrumental semai at the end. thermore, use indigenous instruments in their Islamic rituals.

Islam and the Muslim World 495
Muslim Brotherhood

See also Arabic Literature; Persian Language and Lit- isnads (“chain of transmission”) for the hadiths he recorded,
erature; Quran; Umm Kulthum; Urdu Language, listing all the variant isnads known to him for a particular
Literature, and Poetry. tradition, before listing their common matn or text. These
different isnads are indicated by the Arabic letter h which
BIBLIOGRAPHY stood for tahwil or hawala, Arabic for change. On account of
And, Metin, and Halman, Talat Sait. Mevlana Celaleddin this arrangement, he has been justly praised by both medieval
Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes. Istanbul: Dost Publica- and modern scholars; the latter in particular have found these
tions, 1983. “clusters” of matns produced in this manner especially useful
Denny, Walter. “Music and Musicians in Islamic Art.” Asian for the analysis of hadiths and their dating. Another impor-
Music 17, no. 1 (1985): 37–68. tant feature of Muslim’s al-Sahih is its introduction, which
d’Erlanger, Baron Rodolphe. La Musique Arabe. Paris: deals with the subject of ilm al-hadith (“the science of tradi-
Geuthner, 1930–1959. tion”). The medieval sources list other works by Muslim on
fiqh (jurisprudence) and hadith transmitters, none of which
Faruqi, Lois Ibsen al-. “Music, Musicians and Muslim Law.”
Asian Music 17, no. 1 (1985): 3–36. appears to be extant.
Feldman, Walter Z. Music of the Ottoman Court. Berlin: See also Bukhari, al-; Hadith.
VWB-Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 1996.
Nettl, Bruno, and Foltin, Bela. Daramad of Chahargah: A BIBLIOGRAPHY
Study in the Performance Practice of Persian Music. Detroit:
Juynboll, G. H. A. “Muslim b. al-Hadjdjadj.” In The
Detroit Monographs in Musicology, Number 2, 1972.
Encyclopaedia of Islam. New edition. Edited by H. Gibb, et
Pacholczyk, Jozef. Sufyana Muziqi: The Classical Music of al. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960.
Kashmir. Berlin: VWB-Verlag für Wissenschaft und
Rauf, Muhammad Abdul. “Hadith Literature: The Develop-
Bildung, 1966.
ment of the Science of Hadith.” In Vol. 1, Arabic Literature
Signell, Karl. Makam Modal Practice in Turkish Art Music. to the End of the Umayyad Period. Edited by A. F. L.
New York: Da Capo Press, 1986. Beeston, et al. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University
Touma, Habib Hassan. Maqam Bayati in the Arabian Taqsim. Press, 1983.
Berlin: International Monograph Publishers, 1975.
Wright, Owen. The Modal System of Arab and Persian Music Asma Afsaruddin
A. D. 1250–1300. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.
London Oriental Series, 1978.

Munir Beken
MUSLIM STUDENT ASSOCIATION OF
NORTH AMERICA
Muslim students in universities across the United States
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD See Ikhwan formally inaugurated the Muslim Student Association in a
al-Muslimin national conference held in Urbana, Illinois, on 1 January
1963. The participants in this first conference represented
immigrant students from all over the Muslim world. On
almost every major college campus where there were Muslim
students (about two hundred in all), a MSA was established as
MUSLIM IBN AL-HAJJAJ part of a network of local chapters with regional and zonal
(C. 817–875) structures. The central organization was run by an executive
committee, as was each local chapter, and a general national
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, compiler of the second most important meeting was held every year in a different city.
collection of sound hadiths, was born in Neyshabur, Persia,
between 817 and 821 and died there in 875 C.E.. In order to In September 1975, the MSA established a general secrecollect hadiths (traditions), he traveled at an early age to Iraq, tariat and a headquarters in Plainfield, Indiana. Accordingly,
Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, and Syria, where he heard departments were created to oversee the dissemination of
traditions from well-known authorities, such as the jurist Islamic education and publications, training, public relations,
Ahmad b. Hanbal (d. 855) and Harmala, a student of the finance, and administration. As members graduated, they
earlier legal scholar al-Shafi
i (d. 820). Of the 300,000 tradi- remained active and some made the organization their life’s
tions that he is said to have amassed, only four thousand (or work. By February 1977 the MSA had become the largest,
three thousand if one does not count the repetitions) were best-organized, most active, financially stable, and influential
included in his collection, which was entitled al-Jami al-sahih American Muslim organization. It had also come to be
(The sound compendium), al-Sahih for short. Compared dominated in leadership and membership by Muslim stuwith al-Bukhari, Muslim pays meticulous attention to the dents from Southeast Asia. Since 1977 the numbers of MSAs

496 Islam and the Muslim World
Muthanna, Muhammad ibn Abdallah, al-

has grown and although immigrant Muslim students from all methods of arguments with Islamic principles have contribover participate, South Asians predominate in the leader- uted to a great extent to the development and flourishing of
ship roles. rationalism in early Islamic thought.

One immediate result of the organization and influence of The seeds of Mu
tazilite views disseminated by its early
this group was criticism for expanding that influence to figures such as Wasil b. al-
Atta,
Amr b.
Ubayd, and Abu l-
Hudhayl eventually got formulated and adopted as five
community affairs. Though students were naturally members
Mu
tazilite principles. The principle of unity (tawhid) sugof various communities, they had competition in the leadergests God’s unity against any resemblance to Him. Under
ship of community affairs. This tension caused the emerthis principle, Mu
tazilites deny the eternity of the Quran,
gence of the Muslim Community Association. The two
God’s attributes, and any form of anthromorphism. The
groups were then organized in 1981 under an umbrella
principle of justice (adl) is associated with the theory of
organization, The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
determination (qadar), in which it is maintained that God is
Today, almost everywhere there are Muslim students there
just and that human beings are free to choose and to act. The
continues to exist an MSA to serve their needs on campus. principle of promise and threats holds that God is truthful
and bound in keeping His promise of heavenly reward and
See also Islamic Society of North America; United
threat of hellfire. As He promised, for example, a great sinner
States, Islam in the; Youth Movements.
will forever be in hell unless s/he repents. The principle of
intermediate position (manzila bayn al-mazilatayn) indicates
Aminah Beverly McCloud that a Muslim who does great sin is regarded as neither a
believer (mu
min) nor an unbeliever (kafir). The principle of
commanding the right and forbidding the wrong (al-amr bi
al-maruf wa al-nahy an al-munkar) instructs every Mu
tazilite
MU
TAZILITES, MU
TAZILA to apply this principle to the social world when he or she has
the power to do it.
The most prevalent tradition has it that the name Mu
tazila
See also
Abd al-Jabbar; Mamun, al-; Mihna.
was used to refer to someone or a group of people who
withdrew (itazala, from which the term Mu
tazila derives)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
from an eighth-century circle of majority on whether a grave
Hourani, George F. Islamic Rationalism: The Ethics of Abd alsinner was a believer or unbeliever. Later on, the term
Jabbar.Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1971.
Mu
tazila was used to designate a school of Islamic theology
Martin, Richard C., and Woodward, Mark. Defenders of
that follows certain rules known as the five principles (al-usul
Reason in Islam: Mutazilism from Early School to Modern
al-khamsa). Symbol. Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld, 1997.

This theological school is one of the most progressive
Shalahudin Kafrawi
schools in the history of Islamic theology and has to a high
degree contributed to the development of Islamic thought.
This school is theological due to its starting point that God
is unquestionably regarded as the ultimate source of its MUTHANNA, MUHAMMAD IBN
worldview. However, its emphasis on the use of reason in its
ABDALLAH, AL- See Muhammad al-Nafs
theological quest and its assimilation of some Greek ideas and al-Zakiyya

Islam and the Muslim World 497
N
NADER SHAH AFSHAR (1688–1747) See also Abbas I, Shah; Madhhab.

Nader Shah Afshar was the ruler of Iran from 1736 until BIBLIOGRAPHY
1747. Born Nader-qoli Beg of the Afshar Turkmen in north- Lockhart, Laurence. Nadir Shah: A Critical Study Based Mainly
eastern Iran in 1688, he rose to power by espousing the cause Upon Contemporary Sources. London: Luzac, 1938.
of Tahmasb Mirza, scion of the Safavid dynasty who had
Tucker, Ernest S. “Nadir Shah and the Ja’fari Madhhab
escaped from the invading Afghans. Under the name of
Reconsidered.” Iranian Studies 27 (1994): 163–179.
Tahmasb-qoli Khan, Nader led an Iranian army to victory
over the Afghans in 1729. In 1732 he had Tahmasb deposed
and replaced by his infant son
Abbas, with himself as regent. John R. Perry
Having recovered the border territories occupied by Ottoman Turkey and Russia, in 1736 he engineered his own
election as king, under the name of Nader Shah.
NAHDLATUL ULAMA (NU)
Nader signed a treaty with the Ottomans, proposing that
the Iranians renounce Shi
ism (a major cause of enmity with The organization of the Nahdlatul Ulama (Revival of the
the Turks, as champions of Sunni Islam) if the Turks agreed Religious Scholars), or NU, was founded on 31 January 1926
to recognize their Ja
fari madhhab (school of religious law) as a as a countermovement to the increasingly successful re-
fifth rite of Sunni law. This compromise was likely seen by formist Muhammadiyah organization. NU is a mass-based
Nader as a stepping-stone to a larger Asiatic empire, as his socioreligious Islamic organization under the leadership of
enrichment of the Shi
ite shrine in his capital of Mashhad was ulema, and it is the largest in Indonesia with around thirtycalculated to win support at home. The Turks were uncon- five million members. NU activities include the religious,
vinced, and the religious clauses were never ratified. In 1739 social, educational, economic, and political. Its founders were
Nader invaded India, defeated the Mughal army, and sacked ulema (called kiyai in Indonesia) who led rural Islamic board-
Delhi; he returned by way of Central Asia, subduing Bukhara ing schools, pesantren. They represented traditionalist Musand Khiva. His son Reza-qoli Mirza, viceroy in Iran during lims, those who practice Islamic mysticism (tasawuf; Ar.
the Indian campaign, was accused of ordering a failed assassi- tasawwuf), and are not against indigenous rituals and beliefs as
nation of his father, and blinded. long as they do not contradict the normative teachings of
Islam. The two most prominent founding ulema were Hasyim
Exorbitant requisitions for his renewed campaigns pro- Asy
ari, and Abdul Wahab Chasbullah.
voked widespread rebellions. Nader became increasingly
paranoid and cruelly punished all opposition, erecting towers NU members refer to themselves as Aswaja: “ahlus sunnah
of severed heads in his wake. His reliance on (Sunni) Afghan wal jama
a,” (Ar., ahl al-sunna wal-jama
a) people of sunna
and Uzbek troops alienated his own (Shi
ite) Afshar and and community, who base their religious reference on the
Qajar officers, who in 1747 assassinated him in his camp in hadith, the sunna, and the adat (local practices, Ar.,
ada).
Khorasan. His army disintegrated; he was succeeded briefly They follow the Shafi
i school of jurisprudence and in their
by a nephew,
Adel Shah, then by his grandson Shahrokh interpretation of religious texts include the opinions of the
Shah (1748–1796), but their rule did not extend much beyond great ulema in unbroken chains that reach back to the
Mashhad. prophet Muhammad. Pesantren are considered the heart of

Na
ini, Mohammad Hosayn

NU tradition. Here students learn the essentials of tradition- BIBLIOGRAPHY
alist Islam in order to maintain and spread this interpretation. Barton, Greg, and Fealy, Greg, eds. Nahdlatul Ulama, Traditional Islam and Modernity in Indonesia. Clayton, Australia:
NU’s history can be divided into four phases: Monash Asia Institute, 1996.

1. The initial years NU served as a socioreligious Dhofier, Zamakhashari. The Pesantren Tradition. The Role of
the Kiyai in the Maintenance of Traditional Islam in Java.
organization.
Tempe, Ariz.: Program for Southeast Asian Studies,
2. From the late 1930s until 1984 it became involved ASU, 1999.
in political activities. From 1952–1971 it had its
Oepen, Manfred, and Karcher, Wolfgang, eds. The Impact of
own political party and participated in the national
Pesantren in Education and Community Development in Indocabinet. nesia. Jakarta: P3M, 1988.
3. When the Suharto government rendered all po- Sciortino, Rosalia; Marcoes Natsir, Lies; and Mas
udi, Masdar.
litical parties ineffective with its suppressive regu- “Learning from Islam: Advocacy of Reproductive Rights
lations NU decided to leave politics. This was in Indonesian Pesantren.” Reproductive Health Matters no.
expressed in the 1984 watershed event called kembali 8 (November 1996): 86–93.
ke khittah, a return to the original charter of 1926.
4. In 1998, after the fall of Suharto, NU again be- Nelly van Doorn-Harder
came involved in national politics. It initiated the
National Awakening Party (PKB) while its national chair, Abdurrahman Wahid, was elected
Indonesia’s fourth president for a brief period
NA
INI, MOHAMMAD HOSAYN
(1999–2001).
(1860–1936)
The return to its socioreligious activities in 1984 not only
meant withdrawal from politics, but a total refocus on educa- Mohammad Hosayn Naini was a leading Shi
ite scholar,
tion, community welfare, mission, social, and economic de- theoretician of constitutionalism, and a precursor of Islamic
velopment. Through its new role, NU became active in modernism in Iran. Born into a family of scholars, Naini first
guiding large numbers of Indonesian Muslims in adapting to studied with Mohammad Baqer Esfahani and Mohammad
social change and modernity. Various institutions related to Taqi (Aqa Najafi). Then he went to Iraq where he studied
NU started multilevel dialogue about issues of social justice, with Mohammad Hasan Shirazi and Mohammad Kazim
human rights, democracy, and the rights of women and Khorasani. In Iraq, Naini became actively involved in the
children. This made NU an active codeveloper of a model for anti-British independence movement after World War I. He
civil society, suitable for the Indonesian context. was arrested and expelled from Karbala and returned to
Tehran in 1923. He joined the anti-Qajar forces, supported
Over the years, several divisions were founded within the Reza Khan’s accession to the throne, and maintained cordial
NU structure. Among others, there are divisions for youth relationship with him until his death in Najaf in 1936.
(Ansor), women (Muslimat NU), young women (Fatayat
NU), and male and female students (IPNU and IPPNU). Naini wrote the most important treatise in support of
Apart from these divisions, NU comprises institutions for constitutional government from a Shi
ite viewpoint; in it he
education, family affairs, agriculture, economic development, presented an Islamic justification for a secular and Western
and Islamic banking. The membership of ulema and lay model constitutional government. In Tanbih al-umma wa
people is reflected in a two-tiered structure of councils that tanzih al-milla dar Asas Usul-i Mashrutiyyat (An admonishreach from the national to the local level: the syuriah (Ar. ment to the [community of] believers and an exposition to the
shura), the religious council, which has only ulema as mem- nation concerning the principles of constitutional governbers who develop and monitor the NU activities; and the ment), Naini attempted to reconcile the need for an efficient
Tanfidziah, which is the executive council where ulema and government in Iran that would respect certain tenets of a
lay members supervise the daily affairs. It is characteristic for democratic system of government with the need to recognize
NU that decisions taken at the highest level are not binding the legitimacy of the rule of the Hidden Imam, and defend
for the lower levels. This is based on a tradition of the the precepts of Shi
ite Islam. It is said that when Naini
Prophet’s saying that “disagreement among the ulema is a became disillusioned with the constitutional revolution, he
blessing from God for humanity.” withdrew his book and threw it into the Tigris River.

See also Southeast Asian Culture and Islam; Southeast See also Modernization, Political: Constitutionalism;
Asia, Islam in. Nationalism: Iranian.

500 Islam and the Muslim World
Nar

BIBLIOGRAPHY of the governments. In the twentieth century, Najaf regained
Hairi, A. H. Shi
ism and Constitutionalism. Leiden: Brill, 1977. prominence when one of its ulema, Ayatollah Tabatabai
Yazdi (d. 1919), wrote al-Urwa al-wuthqa, a major work in
Mohammad H. Faghfoory applied Shi
ite law which reflected the contemporary social
and political condition and, with Qom, once again became an
important center of Shi
ite scholarship during the period
from 1900 through 1979.
NAJAF
When the shah of Iran exiled Ayatollah Khomeini to
Najaf is one of several shrine cities and a major learning Najaf in 1964, the city became an important political center
center for Shi
a Muslims. Located south of Baghdad, Iraq, on as well. Najaf and Qom, however, were rivals for importance,
a trade route between Basra and Baghdad, Najaf has existed as Khomeini praised Qom for being more active in the social
since the reign of Harun al-Rashid. Imam
Ali was buried life of the Shi
a, and chided Najaf for its relative passivity.
here, and a shrine was built around
Ali’s tomb in 979. Violent repression by Saddam Hussein during and after the
Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) forced many of the Shi
ite ulema
The city of Najaf began as a learning center in 1056, when to leave Najaf and has resulted in its eclipse as a center of
Shaykh al-Taifa al-Tusi moved here after the Seljuks took Shi
ite learning.
over Baghdad. He advanced the work of his predecessors in
the emerging rationalist school of Shi
ite thought. During See also Holy Cities; Karbala; Mashhad.
the Ilkhanid period (thirteenth to fifteenth centuries) its
prominence was reduced with the emergence of Hilla and BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aleppo as centers of Shi
ite learning. In sixteenth and seven- Kazemi Moussavi, Ahmad. Religious Authority in Shi
ite Islam:
teenth centuries, Najaf, Isfahan, and Mashhad were compet- From the Office of Mufti to the Instituion of Marja. Kuala
ing over prominence as shrine cities. The rise of the Safavids Lumpur, Malaysia: ISTAC, 1996.
in the sixteenth century and their rivalry with the Ottoman
Litvak, Meir. Shi
i Scholars of Nineteenth-century Iraq: The
Empire for hegemony over the shrine cities escalated. Safavids Ulama of Najaf and Karbala. Cambridge: Cambridge Uniruled over the shrine cities in 1508–1533 and 1622–1638, but versity Press, 1998.
for political reasons maintained Isfahan and Mashhad as the
most important shrine centers.
Mazyar Lotfalian
The eighteenth century was a turning point in the history
of the shrine cities. First, the fall of the Safavids in Iran drove
many ulema to Najaf. Secondly, the shrine cities became
economically more independent of the Ottomans and the
NAMES, ISLAMIC See Genealogy
subsequent rulers of Iran, and the number of pilgrims increased. Najaf, in particular, was positively affected by the
pan-Islamic policies of Sultan
Abd al-Hamid after he came to
power in 1876. Migrant Islamic scholars in Najaf gained
prominence.
NAR
Around this same period, the Qajars of Iran were giving in Nar (from al-nar, Ar. “the fire”) is the common designation
to British and Russian colonial powers. While the Iranian for hell in Islam—a blazing abode where God punishes
religious centers were actively involved in everyday politics, unbelievers and wrongdoers. Muslims use nar synonymously
centers in Iraq, such as Najaf, were not. During the late with jahannam, and they juxtapose both terms to janna (“garnineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Najaf was drawn den”), the blissful home of the righteous in the hereafter. The
into anticolonial opposition by the ulema, who responded idea of a place of punishment and suffering in the afterlife is
positively to a decree by Mirza Hasan Shirazi that banned found in many religions, but the Islamic concept is actually an
tobacco in 1891 in protest to the shah’s Tobacco Concession outgrowth of centuries of religious reflection about the afterto the British and the 1905 Constitutional Revolution in Iran life rooted in the cultures of the ancient Near East, rabbinic
which limited the power of the Qajar monarchs. Judaism, early Christianity, and Zoroastrianism. Early Arabian poetic imagery contributed to its assimilation into Is-
By the end of the nineteenth century, Najaf had grown to a lamic eschatological discourse. Nar is also the element from
city of 30,000 inhabitants, with a large community of learned which Satan was fashioned, in juxtaposition to God’s light
people who came from all over the Islamic world. The (nur), and the clay used in Adam’s creation (Q. 38:76–77).
formation of a patronage system, which consisted of a network of students and funding sources across political bounda- According to Islamic eschatological doctrine, al-nar is not
ries, increased the flow of funds, making it more independent just a natural element, but also a real place where humans

Islam and the Muslim World 501
Nasa
i, al-

experience horrendous bodily torments at the hands of angels Smith, Jane Idleman, and Yazbeck Haddad, Yvonne. The
and demonic creatures. In the Quran, it is described as an evil Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection. Albany:
“home” or “dwelling,” where wrongdoers don garments of State University of New York Press, 1981.
fire, drink boiling water, eat the fruit of an infernal tree, and
are dragged about by iron hooks (37:62–68, 22:19–21). This Juan E. Campo
imagery complements Quranic discourses about the bliss of
the righteous in paradise, and it was elaborated with gruesome detail in the hadith, theological tracts, and visionary
literature during the Middle Ages. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d.
NASA
I, AL- (830–915)
1111) wrote that in hell the damned “are thrust down upon
Al-Nasai, Abu
Abd al-Rahman Ahmad b.
Ali b. Shu
ayb, a
their faces, chained and fettered, with hellfire (nar) above
compiler of one of the six authoritative Sunni hadith collecthem, hellfire beneath them, hellfire on their right and
tions, lived between 830 and 915. Unfortunately, very little is
hellfire on their left so that they drown in a sea of fire” (alknown of his early life, but like the other compilers, he was
Ghazali, The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife, p. 221).
known to have traveled extensively “in search of knowledge”
Hell was also conceived as a hierarchy of seven levels, each
(Ar. talab al-
ilm) in order to hear traditions from the promiassigned a different name derived from the Quran (for
nent traditionists of his time. He settled for a while in Egypt
example, “abyss,” “blaze,” and “furnace”), to which different
and then later made his way to Damascus, where he was
classes of unbelievers and wrongdoers will be consigned in
reportedly ill-treated on account of his pro-
Alid and antithe afterlife. The angel Malik and his deputies, the Zabaniyya,
Umayyad sentiments. Some sources suggest that the venue
will help administer their punishments. In some accounts,
was instead Ramla, in Palestine. Because of his untimely
hell was portrayed as a monstrous creature with thousands of
death, he has been regarded as a martyr. His collection, Kitab
heads and mouths. Theologians debated whether the damned
al-Sunan, contains over five thousand hadiths. Unlike the
would suffer there for eternity, but many invoked the Quran
other five collections, al-Nasai’s Sunan does not include a
(11:107, 78:23) in favor of the opinion that its torments were
chapter on the excellences of the Quran (Ar. fadail alpurgatorial, and that eventually many would be admitted to
Quran), although he composed an independent treatise on
paradise.
the topic. Also lacking in his Sunan are eschatological traditions. Al-Nasai is credited with nine other works, among
Pious Muslims have invoked hell to promote mindfulness
which are a compilation of hadiths on the virtues of
Ali and a
of God and the life of the hereafter, against the distractions of
rijal work that assessed the reliability of various hadith
mundane existence. Sufis, however, taught that both the fear
transmitters.
of hell and desire for paradise were distractions for wayfarers
seeking intimate union with God. Some, like Jalaluddin Rumi See also Hadith.
(d. 1273), used hellfire as a metaphor for the evil inclinations
of the self that can only be quelled by divine light or the water Asma Asfaruddin
of mercy that flows from the virtuous heart. Others equated it
to the burning passion of the lover that leads to annihilation
of the self in God the beloved, or to the torment experienced
in separation from God. Since the twentieth century, Muslim NASSER, JAMAL See Abd al-Nasser, Jamal
modernists have posited that both hell and paradise are
psychological or spiritual states of being rather than actual
places in the hereafter. Today, however, traditional understandings continue to have a compelling influence on Muslim
beliefs and practices, often with politicized overtones. The NATIONALISM
Jama
at-e Islami of Bangladesh, for example, has threatened
that Muslim women who fail to support this radical organiza- ARAB
tion will be condemned to hell. Nancy L. Stockdale

IRANIAN
See also Death; Ghazali, al-; Jahannam; Janna; Muham- Fakhreddin Azimi
mad; Qur
an; Tafsir.
TURKISH
A. Uner Turgay
BIBILIOGRAPHY
Ghazali, Abu Hamid al-. The Remembrance of Death and the
Afterlife (Kitab dhikr al-mawt wa-ma ba
dahu): Book XL of ARAB
the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya
ulum al-din). Ideals of Arab nationalism were extremely influential in the
Translated by T. J. Winter. Cambridge, U.K.: Islamic Middle East in the twentieth century. Emerging from
Texts Society, 1995. nineteenth-century debates about the role of Islam in the

502 Islam and the Muslim World
Nationalism

modern world and crystallized by anti-imperialist move- overthrow foreign oppression and implement social justice.
ments after the First World War, Arab nationalists shaped Two major events concurrent with the establishment of the
the political ideologies of newly independent nations as they Ba
th movement—the creation of Israel and the subsequent
struggled to forge a postcolonial identity for the Middle East. displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and
the emergence of a fully independent Egypt in the 1950s—
Pan-Islamic thinkers such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani catapulted the ideals of Arab nationalism into political reality.
(1839–1897) and Muhammad
Abduh (1849–1905) were early
inspirations for the emergent Arab nationalist ideology. Al- Devastated by the losses of the Arab forces to Israel and
Afghani despaired at the increased dominance of European the massive crisis of Palestinian refugees, members of the
empires in the Muslim world, but believed that Islamic Arab League (founded in 1945) looked to Egypt to lead the
governments could counteract Western influence if it was Arab world to greatness. With the successful 1952 revolution
stripped of corruption and instilled with the values of Muslim against the monarchy led by Jamal
Abd al-Nasser (1918–1970),
unity, using the early caliphate as a model of success.
Abduh, Egypt did become the center of Arab nationalist rhetoric and
al-Afghani’s most famous student, furthered his mentor’s action. Nasser’s leadership in the nonalignment movement
ideas with his book Risalah al-tawhid (A treatise on the against the Baghdad Pact of 1954 and his successful nationalioneness of God), asserting the compatibility of Islam with the zation of the Suez Canal in 1956 made the world take notice
modern world. By founding the Salifiyya movement and of the ideals of Arab strength and national unity. In the 1960s,
reopening the doors of ijtihad,
Abduh challenged Muslims to the Ba
th movement came to power and ruled in Syria and
stand up to their governments if they believed the values of Iraq through Revolutionary Command Councils.
Islam were being crushed. At the same time, modern tech-
However, the failed union between Egypt and Syria as the
nologies and Western-style reforms were acceptable if inter-
United Arab Republic (1958–1961), the humiliating defeat of
preted as benefiting Muslim society.
the Arab armies against the Israelis in the war of 1967, and the
These pan-Islamic thinkers inspired others to think in split between the Ba
th regimes in Syria and Iraq underscored
more local terms.
Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (1854–1902), the real difficulties of creating a gigantic Arab super-state.
the author of The Nature of Despotism and The Mother of Cities, Although leaders in the 1970s and 1980s tried to rally their
Mecca, was a Syrian journalist and student of
Abduh who populations behind Arab nationalist rhetoric, the Gulf War
believed that the decline of the Middle East to the West was of 1991, which pitted Arab nations against each other, dedue to the Ottoman Empire and the fact that non-Arabs had stroyed the dreams of Arab nationalists. This left the people
taken control of the region. Because Islam was reveled to the of the Arab world searching for viable alternatives to the
Arabs in the Arabic language, al-Kawakibi saw the Middle ideals that had seemed so promising earlier in the century.
East as being at its zenith when Arabs ruled. He promoted the
See also Abd al-Nasser, Jamal; Abd al-Rahman
idea that Arab leadership was perfect and argued that, if it
Kawakibi; Abduh, Muhammad; Afghani, Jamal alwere to be restored, the region would revive morally and
Din; Arab League; Bath Party; Nationalism: Iranian;
politically. This became the basis of several independence
Nationalism: Turkish; Pan-Arabism; Pan-Islam;
movements, especially after the collapse of the Ottoman
Reform: Arab Middle East and North Africa.
Empire at the end of the First World War.

Faced with the end of Turkish rule but the continuance of BIBLIOGRAPHY
French and British rule in the Arab world, many Arab Cleveland, William L. A History of the Modern Middle East.
thinkers formulated programs for nationalist liberation based Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1994.
on ethnic identity. One of the most important was the Syrian Khalidi, Rashid; Anderson, Lisa; and Simon, Reeva, eds. The
Sati
al-Husri (1880–1968). Al-Husri wrote three influential Origins of Arab Nationalism. New York: Columbia Univertracts: Arabism First, On Arab Nationalism, and What is National- sity Press, 1993.
ism? These pamphlets asked all Arabs—both Muslim and
Christian—to unite under one state, privileging shared lan- Nancy L. Stockdale
guage and culture as the bond between them all. Al-Husri
hoped that by focusing on the great past of the Arab world IRANIAN
rather than only Islam, Christian and Muslim Arabs would Despite the existence of various forms of primordial loyalties,
join together to fight against foreign imperialism. a persistent sense of national consciousness or cultural distinctness was by no means absent from premodern Iran. It
Fellow Syrians Michel
Aflaq (1912–1989) and Salah al- was sustained by a shared cultural heritage, and above all by
Din al-Bitar (1911–1980) followed al-Husri’s lead by merg- the Persian language. From the sixteenth century it was
ing socialist anti-imperialist thought with pan-Arabist ideals. reinforced by Shi
ism. In the nineteenth century, Iran be-
Founders of the Ba
th (“resurrection”) movement in the came an arena of rivalry between imperial Russia and the
1940s,
Aflaq and al-Bitar drew on the past of the Arabs as British Empire and lost territory, particularly to the Russians,
leaders of the Islamic world and called for a revival of unity to in two humiliating wars. The ruling Qajar dynasty tried to

Islam and the Muslim World 503
Nationalism

maintain the county’s precarious independence by exploiting alliance. Seeking to refute the charges of dependence on
Anglo-Russian rivalry. The growing influence and presence Anglo-American support, the shah, Muhammad Reza Pahlevi,
of Europeans in the country created resentment, while Euro- advocated “positive” nationalism, in contrast to what he
pean ideas enabled the Iranian intelligentsia to articulate characterized as the “negative” nationalism of Mosaddeq.
their diagnosis of the country’s ills in nationalist terms. They However, in 1964 the issue of granting immunities to the
came to view meaningful national self-determination as the American forces stationed in Iran was seen by the opponents
prerequisite of national regeneration. The burgeoning na- of the regime as a clear affront to Iranian national dignity and
tionalism manifested itself in the Constitutional Revolution sovereignty.
from 1905 to 1911, which signaled a crucial stage in the
transformation of the country into a nation-state and sought Like his father, Muhammad Reza Shah promoted a culto create a modern state structure and establish institutions tural nationalism that tended to glorify Iran’s pre-Islamic
that embodied the will and sovereignty of the nation. past. A notable instance of this was the replacement, in March
1976, of the Islamic calendar by an imperial one. This and
Following the coup of 1921, which eventually established similar measures antagonized the religious establishment and
the Pahlevi dynasty, nationalism became the guiding ideol- the pious middle classes, contributing to the revolution of
ogy of the centralizing state and grew as a result its educa- 1978 and 1979 and the overthrow of the monarchy.
tional and other modernizing policies. Manifestations of the
prevailing nationalism ranged from the architecture of state Following the revolution, despite the declared ecumenical
buildings to the attempted purification of the Persian lan- objectives of the emerging Islamic regime, nationalism conguage. In the vein of its nineteenth-century predecessors, the tinued to be a major force in Iran’s social, political, and
nationalism of the era of Reza Shah Pahlevi invoked the pre- cultural life, as well as its foreign policy. The Iran-Iraq war of
Islamic period of Iranian history as the locus of an authentic 1980 to 1988 saw the rekindling of strong nationalist senti-
Iranian national identity and pride. ments, and the regime was gradually forced to come to terms
with or even embrace the Iranian cultural nationalism that it
The outbreak of the Second World War and the Allied had tried to suppress. Similarly, civic nationalist aspirations
occupation of Iran in 1941 again underlined national vulnera- for popular sovereignty, political equality, and meaningful
bility and enhanced foreign influence. Toward the end of the citizenship continued to grow.
war, Iranian resistance to the Soviet demand for an oil
concession in northern Iran resulted in the refusal of the See also Iran, Islamic Republic of; Mosaddeq, Moham-
Soviet government to withdraw its forces from the country mad; Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi; Nationalism:
and its encouragement of autonomy movements in Iranian Arab; Nationalism: Turkish; Revolution: Islamic Revo-
Azarbaijan and Kurdistan. Iranian efforts and international lution in Iran.
pressure eventually resulted in the Soviet evacuation and the
collapse of the autonomy movements. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cottam, Richard. Nationalism in Iran; Updated through 1978.
Public attention then turned to the British oil concession
Pittsburgh, Penn.: University of Pittsburgh, 1979.
in Iran and the preponderant position of the Anglo-Iranian
Kashani-Sabet, Firoozeh. Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Ira-
Oil Company (AIOC). The failure of negotiations to extract
nian Nation, 1884–1946. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton Unifrom the company a greater share of the oil revenues for Iran
versity Press, 1999.
strengthened a nationalist movement, led by the veteran
parliamentarian Mohammad Mosaddeq, who had spearheaded Vaziri, Mostafa, Iran as Imagined Nation: The Construction of
National Identity. New York: Paragon House, 1993.
the Iranian refusal to grant an oil concession to the Soviets.
The movement resulted in the nationalization of the AIOC
and the premiership of Mosaddeq. Mosaddeq pursued an Fakhreddin Azimi
anti-imperialist, civic nationalism that embraced liberal democratic values and was inclusive of all Iranians, regardless of TURKISH
ethnicity, language, or religion. He saw the nationalization of During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the
the oil industry as a legitimate move that expressed and multiethnic, multireligious Ottoman Empire was transformed
strengthened Iranian national sovereignty, facilitated popu- into a collection of nation-states in the Balkans and the
lar self-determination, and provided the needed resources for Middle East. This was the result of social and economic
national regeneration and modernization. developments and cultural changes brought about by internal
and external forces at work in the empire. Although the
The overthrow of Mosaddeq’s government through the reforms of the Tanzimat era (1839–1876) streamlined the
Anglo-American sponsored coup of August 1953 dealt a empire’s administrative and financial institutions and estabsevere blow to Iranian civic nationalism. Iran abandoned her lished new ones, it also inadvertently helped advance ethnic
neutralism and, in 1955, formally joined a pro-Western awareness.

504 Islam and the Muslim World
Nation of Islam

The policies of Ottomanism pursued during the 1870s See also Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal; Balkans, Islam in the;
and 1880s, with the concept of citizenship replacing an Empires: Ottoman; Nur Movement; Nursi, Said; Panindividual’s status as subject of the sultan, were unable to Islam; Young Ottomans; Young Turks.
retain the loyalty of the various ethnic groups in the European provinces of the empire. After the loss of most of the BIBLIOGRAPHY
Balkan territories and increasing European political and Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. 2d ed.
financial control of the Ottoman government’s affairs, Sultan London: Oxford University Press, 1968.

Abd al-Hamid II’s (1876–1909) policies were affected ac- Zurcher, Erik J. Turkey, A Modern History. London and New
cordingly. With the influx of Muslims into the empire, York: I. B. Tauris, 1993.
mostly from the Caucasus, and the influence of Muslim
intellectuals both at home and abroad, pan-Islam replaced A. Uner Turgay
Ottomanism. Islam became the social and political basis of
the empire, and the Sultan emphasized his role as caliph,
identifying with the anti-imperialist tendencies of Islam.
NATION OF ISLAM
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 brought about
fundamental changes. The Union and Progress Party, in The Nation of Islam in concept was founded in the teachings
charge of the newly established parliament and controlled by of Master Fard Muhammad in 1930 with the lectures of this
the Young Turks, pursued secular and—in some important urban trader to the “so-called Negro” community in Detroit,
areas, such as education—pro-Turkish policies. The Arab Michigan. At the center of these lectures was the teaching
Revolt in 1916 against the Istanbul government during the that a large number of Africans enslaved in the Americas were
First World War clearly directed the course of nationalism in Muslims and that Islam was the “true religion” of these
the Middle East. The nationalist movements of non-Turkish people. With knowledge of their Islamic heritage, clean
Muslims, Albanians, and Arabs gave impetus to Turkish living, and a demand for freedom, justice, and equality, these
nationalism. They influenced the emergence of a Turkish Muslims would regain their humanity that had been lost in
nationalism with secular tendencies, which received intellec- slavery. In practice, the Nation of Islam was cemented as a
tual nourishment from its chief ideologue, Ziya Gokalp religious community under the leadership and guidance of
(1876–1924). Gokalp took a deep interest in the history of the the Honorable Elijah Muhammad by 1934.
ancient Turks and argued that the basis of nationality was
Members of the Nation of Islam believe in “the One God
culture (hars). This included all feelings, judgments, and
whose proper name is Allah, in the Holy Quran and in the
ideals, as distinct from civilization (medeniyet) which encom-
Scriptures of all the Prophets of God,” according to Elijah
passed rational and scientific knowledge and technology.
Muhammad (Message of the Blackman, 1965). Initially there
Through his poems and essays, Gokalp sought a national
was a belief in a mental resurrection of the dead to which has
revival of Turkish history and language. This, along with his
been added the Islamic belief in the Day of Judgment.
search for new values, led to his movement of Turkism
Concurrent with these beliefs the leadership aims at the
(Turkculuk). Thus, he in effect underwrote the ideals of
reformation of the character of the African-American com-
Turkish nationalism.
munity. As with all Muslims, members refrain from drinking
alcohol, gambling, and eating pork. Additionally, they avoid
During the War of Independence (1919–1922), the
narcotics, cigarettes, slang, and profanity and use language
National Pact (1919), with its territorial definitions and
that encourages courtesy and good manners.
populist expressions, set the agenda for the formation in 1923
of the Republic of Turkey. The first two decades of the Malcolm X was a member of the Nation of Islam from
Turkish Republic were a period of political and cultural 1952 until his ouster in 1964. Malcolm X was known as a
consolidation under its first president, Mustafa Kemal charismatic national spokesman for the Nation of Islam. His
(Ataturk). The government relied heavily on Turkey’s past to unauthorized comments on the assassination of President
bolster national pride and integration. Kemal blamed the John F. Kennedy precipitated his ouster. Pilgrimage to Mecca,
religious leaders for opposing the spirit of Islam, and effec- Saudi Arabia, inspired him to permanently leave the Nation
tively reinterpreted religion and its role in the society accord- of Islam to become an orthodox Sunni Muslim. Warith Deen
ing to nationalist ideas. Being aware of the symbolic powers Muhammad inherited the leadership of the Nation of Islam
of organized institutions, the government methodically upon the death of his father, the Honorable Elijah Muhamdisestablished the then-existing political, legal, and educa- mad, in 1975. He moved the majority of the community from
tional institutions of Islam, replacing them with adaptations a black nationalist philosophy into orthodox Sunni Islam.
of Western models. Turkish nationalism substituted itself for Since that time he has become a well-respected leader in
all loyalties and values earlier expressed through religion, and American Islam. In the 1990s Louis Farrakhan led the Nation
thus became the ideology of the Republic. of Islam toward stricter observance of Islamic rituals and

Islam and the Muslim World 505
Nawruz

practice. In the twenty-first century this development com- Boyce, Mary. “Iranian Festivals.” In Cambridge History of Iran.
plements a continuing focus on the plight of African Americans. Edited by Ehsan Yarshater. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
See also Farrakhan, Louis; Malcolm X; Muhammad,
Elijah; Muhammad, Warith Deen; United States, Islam Anne H. Betteridge
in the.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Muhammad, Elijah. The Message to the Blackman. Chicago: NAZZAM, AL- (782–C. 840)
Muhammad’s Temple No. 2, 1965.
Muhammad, Elijah. How to Eat to Live. Chicago: Muham- Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. Sayyar al-Nazzam was an early
mad’s Temple No. 2, 1972. Mu
tazilite thinker. He was born in 782 C.E. and grew up in
Essien-Udom, E. U. Black Nationalism. Chicago: University Basra, was trained by his maternal uncle Abu ’l-Hudhayl alof Chicago Press, 1962.
Allaf, and took part in scholarly debates there in his early
youth. He moved to Baghdad in the early 820s, where he
Aminah Beverly McCloud received the support of the Abbasid caliphs until his death
sometime between 835 and 845. He taught many Mu
tazilite
scholars of the ninth century, among whom was his follower
al-Jahiz.
NAWRUZ
In addition to his skills as a poet, Nazzam was interested in
Nawruz, literally “new day,” is the Iranian holiday that Greek philosophy and ancient Iranian culture. Though he
celebrates the beginning of spring. Nawruz was observed in had various discussions with Muslim scholars, most of his
Zoroastrian Persia and has long been celebrated in areas work was directed against Christians, Jews, dualists, and
influenced by Persian culture. Nawruz begins at the vernal naturalists. He wrote many books (estimated at thirty-nine),
equinox on the first day of Farvardin, the first month of the all of which are lost with the exception of some fragments,
Iranian solar calendar, and lasts thirteen days. Renewal of mostly relating to scientific or philosophical issues, including
home and of social ties are evident in the housecleaning that a refutation of Aristotelian logic.
precedes Nawruz and in the visits paid to relatives and
friends, in order of seniority, throughout the holiday. People Nazzam disagreed with Abu ’l-Hudayl’s atomist theory of
wear new clothes at Nawruz, and children receive presents physics by rejecting the existence of isolated particles within
of money. the created bodies, and their change through accidents.
Changes occur in bodies, according to Nazzam, with the
Central to the Nawruz celebration in Iran is the sofreh-e appearance of hidden (kumun) interior components by a leap
haft sin, or “cloth of the seven s’s”—a decorative arrangement of motions (tafra). Acting bodies are subjected to infinite
of seven objects whose names in Persian begin with the letter divisions by their created nature (khilqa), though not all
s. These are usually sumac (somaq), hyacinth (sonbol), garlic motions are perceptible. Nazzam did not focus on the attrib-
(sir), vinegar (serkeh), apple (sib), sorb tree berry (senjed), and utes of God in his theological system. Regarding the protecsprouted wheat or other greens (sabzi), all of which are tion of Quranic revelation, he developed the theory of its
displayed together with a mirror, candles, colored eggs, a being prevented (sarfa) from challenges of unbelievers by
goldfish in a bowl, and the holy book of the family that is God rather than earlier theories about the linguistic impossicelebrating the holiday. bility (i
jaz) of its being imitated. He also recommended a
critical approach toward the acceptance of transmitted re-
Nawruz is a national Iranian holiday, celebrated by memports and traditions (akhbar). The original views of Nazzam
bers of all religious groups, and a marker of ethnic identity
gained support and elicited reactions both inside and outside
among groups associated with Persian culture outside Iran.
of his school. Thus, he created an intellectual liveliness in the
Nawruz ends with a picnic (sizdah beh dar—“thirteenth out-
Muslim scholarship of that era.
side”), at which each family’s sabzi is tossed away, preferably
into running water, to take with it any lingering unhappiness
See also Kalam; Mutazilites; Mutazila.
of the past year.

See also Ibadat; Ritual; Vernacular Islam. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dhanani, Alnoor. The Physical Theory of Kalam: Atoms, Space,
BIBLIOGRAPHY and Void in Basrian Mu
tazili Theology. Leiden: E. J.
Attar, Ali. “Nawruz in Tajikistan: Ritual or Politics?” In Post- Brill, 1994.
Soviet Central Asia. Edited by Touraj Atabaki and John Ess, Josef van. Theology and Science: The Case of Abu Ishaq al-
O’Kane. London: Tauris Academic Studies, 1998. Nazzam. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan, 1978.

506 Islam and the Muslim World
Networks, Muslim

Frank, Richard M. Being and Their Attributes: The Teachings of presided over a vast system of constant exchange and negotia-
Basrian School of the Mu
tazila in the Classical Period. Albany: tion. The sultan was a Muslim networker par excellence. The
State University of New York Press, 1978. wealth of his tiny court depended on tribute levied from
neighboring regions, but also from the ships that used the
M. Sait Özervarli harbor at Acheh. Later, in the sixteenth century, the sultan of
Acheh fought, with initial success, against the invading Portuguese, who were using the Indian Ocean to establish their
own trading network. However, he was never able to consoli-
NETWORKS, MUSLIM date his own regional power beyond Acheh, due in part to the
emergence of other like-minded Muslim sultanates in neigh-
Muslim networks, like all networks, are decentralized circuits boring port-city states that were strewn along the vast Malay
of communication and exchange that depend on mutual trust archipelago.
and reciprocal need. Muslim networks are very old, dating back to the seventh century. They embrace the pre- Later sultans of Acheh were able to benefit from expanded
Muslim networks of pagan Arabia, trading networks that networks that linked them to powerful overseas Muslim
linked a merchant named Muhammad to the citied world of allies, both in India (the Moguls) and Turkey (the Ottomans).
Mesopotamia and beyond. Because he served as the common overlord of others, the
prince carried the title of sultan. This was so even though the
Early History
sultans never subdued the interior of the island, and even
Trading networks include travel in search of knowledge,
though Acheh itself was divided into many smaller districts,
pilgrimage on behalf of faith, and proselytizing networks to
each governed by hereditary chiefs.
spread the faith. The fourteenth-century network of the
famous traveler Ibn Battuta reveals a vast Islamic world that The office of sultan marks both the power and limits of
extended from the Mediterranean Sea to the Malay Penin- Muslim networks. Its persistence from India to Indonesia
sula. It included Muslim polities and communities set within demonstrates the cultural diffusion of a major Islamic politilarge clusters of non-Muslim cultures and populations, each cal institution. Even the seal of the sultan of Acheh was ninelinked to one another through port cities upon which they fold, paralleling that of the Mogul emperors, and like his
depended for sea trade and the transportation of both people Mogul counterpart, the sultan of Acheh claimed to be the
and goods. The annual pilgrimage, or hajj, presupposed shadow of God on Earth. Yet the two seals applied to very
overland and sea connections to the Hijaz region on the Red different polities. While the shadow of God on earth pro-
Sea in western Arabia, even as pilgrimage, in turn, expanded jected the great Mogul as the semi-divine lord of a vast realm,
and reinforced these same networks. the sultan of Acheh ruled a domain no bigger than Goa, the
Portugese enclave of western India. At the same time, the
Proselytizing often occurred through Sufi orders, organninefold Mogul seal competed with another local emblem,
ized male brotherhoods that traced their roots back to the
the fivefold seal used by the hereditary chiefs of Acheh. The
period of the prophet Muhammad and expressed Islamic
latter signified the hand as a symbol of power, and meant the
loyalty through devotion to saintly persons and pursuit of
ability not only to project power over others, but also to
inner purity. The role of Sufi orders was as inextricable from
protect one’s own possessions and territory. By retaining
local politics as it was from transregional commerce, and
both seals, the Achenese sultan sought to proclaim both his
nowhere is that role more evident than in the expansion of
Malay and his Mogul identity as equally authoritative, yet he
Islam from South Asia to Southeast Asia through Indian
remained a local ruler with aspirations that far exceeded his
Ocean networks of trade, travel, and proselytization.
practical resources and actual options.
The Case of Acheh
Acheh, a port city situated at the northern tip of Sumatra The greater force of Indian Ocean networks may have
astride the Strait of Malacca, exemplifies the ways in which been in the religious rather than the political realm. In the
major nodes in the various networks of the early Muslim sultanate of Acheh, as in Mogul India, Islamic devotion was
empires worked. Acheh was the first area of modern-day often linked to the mediating power of Muslim saints. Just as
Indonesia in which a Muslim kingdom was established. Marco Muslim traders came to the Malay Peninsula seeking ex-
Polo observed a Muslim king on the north coast of Sumatra in panded markets, spiritual leaders who were identified with
1292, over a half-century before the oceanic voyage of Ibn institutional Sufi brotherhoods came with them, but seeking
Battuta landed him further to the south on the same island. different markets. These Sufi masters exemplified the appeal
of the Muhammadan Way, and Islamic loyalty is often
Ibn Battuta had traveled throughout the Muslim world identified with them—specifically with the tomb cults that
from port cities in the Mediterranean to Arabia to India pervade Acheh. While the actual Achenese tombs are less
before finally arriving at Acheh in the Malay Peninsula. He grand than those of their precursors in Mughal India, both
found the sultan of Acheh to be an orthodox Muslim who reflect the persistent tradition of visiting saintly tombs. And

Islam and the Muslim World 507
Networks, Muslim

the purpose of such local pilgrimages is functionally similar in state. In effect, the Muslim networks of modern-day Indone-
India, Indonesia, and throughout the Indian Ocean. What- sia mirror the politically centrist power of the colonial, then
ever their background or status, pilgrims came to these tombs postcolonial state. The nodes were not equivalent; but all of
with gifts and vows, seeking the spiritual favor of saints for the separate provinces, from Acheh to Timor, came to reflect
material or medical relief. the pre-eminence of Java, and its capital city, Jakarta.

Two other features of all Muslim networks are evident in Beyond Southeast Asia, networks of colonization and
the case of Acheh: internal difference and external limits. The migration proliferated throughout the Muslim world, from
relation of formal religious authorities (ulema) to representa- the Indian Ocean to the shores of the Atlantic. Though
tives of indigenous traditions was marked by tension, nego- decentralized, they were marked by the same transregional
tiation, and compromise. An oft-repeated dyad pits pre- logic of mutual trust and reciprocal need. A notable example
conversionary (pre-Muhammad) disbelief (jahiliyya) against is the new strand of Shi
ite loyalty that emerged during the
divinely revealed faith (iman/Islam). It evokes a radical experi- eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, at the same time as the
ential break between the old and the new, the impure and the Mogul and Safavid empires were experiencing internal revolt
pure, the false and the true. In Southeast Asian Islam the dyad and foreign invasion. From Karbala and Najaf, shrine cities in
is framed as adat (Ar.
ada) and hukum (Ar. hukm), where adat the Shi
ite heartland of Iraq, to commercial centers in Iran, to
refers to all that stands outside juridical Islam, and hukum princely courts in northern India, there emerged a Shi
ite
means “laws,” or the announced guidelines of Islamic collec- network of scholarly and also familial connections. The
tive life. Yet the distinction is less observed in practice than it traffic was two-way, providing material as well as spiritual
is proclaimed in theory. For Achenese Muslims, the two polar benefit to all nodes on this extensive transregional circuit.
extremes of social identity can, and did, merge. Social rela- While juridical scholars of Iraq and Iran received large sums
tions between so-called representatives of adat, the hereditary from their wealthy Indian coreligionists, the scholars of India
chiefs, and and the champions of hukum, the ulema, were benefited from the prestige of their northern neighbors. Each
more often marked by at least tacit politeness, and often of them found that the pursuit of rational sciences, along with
mutual respect. Muslim networks in Acheh, as elsewhere, the traditional religious sciences, not only enforced their own
inscribed difference even when they celebrated transnational sense of academic prominence but also allowed them to
solidarity. engage European science.

Colonial History Though wary of rational sciences, the Sunni world also
From the seventeenth century on a major challenge to Mus- expanded its networks of learning, through the travel and
lim networks came through the imposition of colonial rule. exchange of reform-minded scholars. From the Arabian Pen-
Dutch and Portuguese, then British and French commercial insula, whether the ritual heartland of the Hijaz or the
empires not only expanded overseas by oceanic routes, they strategic port cities of Yemen, to the east coast of Africa and
also incorporated and then transformed the preexisting Mus- to the Asian archipelago, Muslim reformers responded to the
lim networks. As Kenneth McPherson has observed, in his European colonial incursions by forming their own scholarly
essay “Port Cities as Nodal Points of Change,” throughout networks, committed to reviving and expanding the textual
the Indian Ocean region some ports became centers of core of Islamic subjects. More than a few of these Sunni
European political, economic, and military power, while networks were motivated by loyalty to institutional Sufism,
others declined or vanished. “The great European-controlled and to one of the most socially active of Sufi orders, the
ports such as Karachi, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Rangoon, Naqshbandiyya. They promoted Islamic revitalization at all
Penang, Singapore, and Jakarta grew at the expense of other levels, and they also advocated a double jihad, militarily
ports in Gujarat, Bengal, southern India, the Malay Penin- against European imperialism and intellectually against imisula, and Java, which either declined or refocused their tative Westernization.
economies to become feeder points for these great ports or
enclaves of local maritime activity.” Muslim Networks in the Information Age
The revolution in communications that marked the late
The fate of Acheh was poignant. During the last decades twentieth-century global economy also transformed the naof the nineteenth century, the harbor king, the sultan of ture of Muslim networks. Cassette tapes helped foster the
Acheh, was able to keep his maritime polity cohesive by Iranian Revolution. Satellite TV overrides governmental
subsuming hereditary chiefs under his authority, at the same controls on local TV stations to beam alternative Muslim
time as he waged war against the Dutch. When the Dutch messages, including cleric talk shows, fatwa workshops, and a
finally subdued the Achenese, after more than thirty-five variety of Islamic entertainment to Arabic-speaking audiyears of warfare, they shifted the reins of political power to ences. Since 1997, a major alternative to CNN-style global
Java. A bloody guerilla campaign against Indonesian forces news has been provided through the Gulf based Al-Jazeera.
persisted until 1956, when Acheh was recognized as an CD-ROMs, too, have become popular, circulating both literautonomous province yet made subservient to the Javanese ary texts and visual artifacts to broad Muslim audiences.

508 Islam and the Muslim World
Networks, Muslim

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Finally, there is the Internet, which offers many networking the Taliban in Afghanistan. The administration of President
options, from chat groups to websites, and, of course, e-mail. George W. Bush marked terrorism as, above all, Muslim
All these options for expanded exchange and alternative inspired, even while proclaiming that Islam itself was not to
authorities rely on access and speed but, even more, on the blame, just certain Muslims. Many news groups have referred
need for new criteria of trust. to al-Qa
ida, the guerrilla organization linked to the Saudi
dissident Usama bin Ladin and cofounded by the Egyptian
These new conditions for the exchange of information doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri, as a terrorist network. It is terrorhave generated new kinds of networks, most notably ist because it intends to destroy Western, specifically Ameritransnational alliances of women who are working for con- can, targets wherever it can find them. And it is a network
flict resolution, human security, and justice at the local and precisely because it is structured around nodes that commuglobal levels. Since the 1980s, and particularly since the 1985 nicate with one another in nonlinear space, relying on neither
United Nations conference on women in Nairobi, networks a hierarchical chain of command nor conventional rules of
of Muslim women have been fighting for their rights in a engagement. Al-Qa
ida might be best defined as a coalition of
newly Islamizing political context where women’s rights and dispersed network nodes intent on waging asymmetrical
roles are highly contested. Some of these women’s networks warfare. Like Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, they
are local, like the ones that have appeared in Pakistan, Sudan, feature small, nimble, and dispersed units capable of peneand Algeria; others have a global reach, like the Women trating and disrupting, with the intent to destroy, massive
Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), whose Islamic femi- structures. Often they elude pursuit and evade capture, alnist agenda is to empower women to seek their rights as though in the case of al-Qa
ida, its operatives kill themselves,
observant Muslims, and it includes the exchange of informa- or are killed by others, in each nodal attack on a fixed target
tion about ways to deal with gender discrimination and also or group.
transnational collaboration to reform Muslim Personal Law
to make it more friendly to women. While the case of al-Qa
ida has become compelling in the
aftermath of 11 September 2001, there is another case that
In the current era, as in preceding phases of rapid change, demonstrates the long-term organizational power of modernnetworks remain pivotal yet ambivalent. The war that inau- day Islamic networking. The women of Afghanistan became a
gurated the twenty-first century was the U.S.–led attack on subject of intense scrutiny after the U.S.–led invasion in

Islam and the Muslim World 509
Nikah

October 2001. Much media footage was devoted to the
oppression of veiled, secluded, and often brutalized Afghan NIKAH
women, yet decades before 11 September 2001 a network of
Afghan women had mobilized, and also projected themselves, Literally the act of sexual intercourse, nikah is the term by
their history, and their cause, via the Internet. RAWA, or the which marriage is referred to in the Quran. Islamic law
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, defines nikah as a civil contract whose main function is to
predated the Internet. It was founded in 1977, even before the render sexual relations between a man and woman licit. Any
Soviet invasion, and it worked to defeat the Soviets but also to sexual relations outside the nikah contract constitute the
provide help for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. It was a network crime of zina (illicit sexual relations) and are subject to
of transnational cooperation and multitiered resistance punishment. In practice, nikah is enacted in a ceremony
throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Now its pivotal role on intertwined with religious symbolism and rituals such as the
behalf of Afghan women has been dramatized through its recitation of al-Fatiha, the first verse of the Quran, usually
website at www.rawa.org, where RAWA advocates strive to performed by religious functionaries, although Islamic law
maintain a distance both from the Taliban and their would-be does not positively prescribe any service.
successors, the Northern Alliance. RAWA, even more than
al-Qa
ida, demonstrates not just the persistence but the See also Marriage.
resilience of Muslim networks as a major form of social and
political organization. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Muslim networks are no longer primarily male-dominated Bousquet, Georges Henry. “La Conception du Nikah selon
structures. They include women and others who resist op- les Docteurs de la Loi Muslamane.” Revue Algèrienne.
pression and who participate in horizontal alliances that (1948): 63–74.
project Muslim values of justice. Above all, they seek to build El Alami, Dawoud. Marriage Contract in Islamic Law. London:
structures that are at once democratic and capitalist, yet not Graham & Trotman, 1992.
coeval with Euro-American imperialism. While it is too early Maghniyyah, Muhammad Jawad. Marriage According to Five
to gauge their impact, it is impossible to ignore either their Schools of Islamic Law. Tehran: Department of Transliteranovelty or their determination. tion and Publication, Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, 1997.
See also Globalization; Ibn Battuta; Internet; Qaida,
al-; Travel and Travelers.
Ziba Mir-Hosseini
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Before European Hegemony: The World
System A.D. 1250–1350. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1991. NIMATOLLAHI SUFI ORDER
Andaya, Barbara Watson, and Andaya, Leonard Y. A History See Tasawwuf
of Malaysia. London: Macmillan, 1982.
Arquilla, John, and Ronfeldt, David. “The New Rules of
Engagement.” WIRED (December, 2001): 149–151.
Dunn, Ross E. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. NIYABAT-E AMMA
McPherson, Kenneth. “Port Cities as Nodal Points of Change:
The Indian Ocean, 1890s–1920s.” In Modernity and Cul- Niyabat-e
amma (Ar., niyabat al-
amma) is a term most
ture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. Edited by commonly used in Imami jurisprudence to refer to the “gen-
Leila Taraza Fawaz and C. A. Bayly. New York: Columbia eral delegation” of religious authorities and to the Imami
University Press, 2002.
ulema in the absence of the imam. In early Shi
ism, there was
Moghadam, Val M. “Organizing Women: The New Women’s an acceptance that the imams, when present, designated a
Movement in Algeria.” Cultural Dynamics 13, no. 2
particular individual (naib) to perform particular tasks on
(2001): 131–154
behalf of the imam. With the imam’s absence (ghayba), a
Moghadam, Val M. “Women, the Taleban, and the Politics
notion that the scholars (and more specifically the jurists)
of Public Space in Afghanistan.” Women’s Studies International Forum 25, no. 1 (2002): 1–13. were delegated (niyaba), as a class, to perform certain functions normally reserved for the imam developed in the juristic
Robinson, Francis. “Ottomans-Safavids-Mughals: Shared
Knowledge and Connective Systems.” Journal of Islamic writings of scholars such as al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (d. 1277)
Studies 8, no. 2 (1997): 151–184. and his influential pupil al-
Allama al-Hilli (d. 1325). The
delegation was eventually extended, through a series of
Bruce B. Lawrence reinterpretations of the imams’ words, to refer to a “general
Miriam Cooke delegation” of the scholarly class to take the place of the imam

510 Islam and the Muslim World
Nizari

in those areas of the law where his presence is normally BIBLIOGRAPHY
essential. The work of
Ali al-Karaki (d. 1533) and al-Shahid Nizam al-Mulk. The Book of Government or Rules for Kings: The
al-Thani (d. 1588) in this area represent the earliest expres- Siyasat-nama or Siyar al-Muluk of Nizam al-Mulk. Transsions of this doctrine. These areas of law included duties such lated by Hubert Darke. London: Routledge and Kegan
as the distribution of the religious levies, zakat and khums, the Paul, 1960.
leading of Friday prayer and, eventually, the waging of the
jihad. The “general delegation” theory provided the basis for Warren C. Schultz
the more directly political theory of wilayat al-faqih (Ar.,
velayat-e faqih) developed by Ayatollah Khomeini in the
1960s and 1970s.
NIZARI
See also Hilli, Allama al-; Hilli, Muhhaqqiq al-; Shia:
Imami (Twelver); Ulema; Velayat-e Faqih. The Nizari, or more properly the Nizari Isma
ili Muslims,
like other Shi
i communities, acknowledge
Ali as imam after
BIBLIOGRAPHY the Prophet. The Nizari Isma
ilis have continued to give
Arjomand, Saïd Amir. The Shadow of God and the Hidden allegiance to imams descended from
Ali, on the basis of the
Imam. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984. principle of designation (nass) by the imam of the time. As of
Calder, Norman. “Legitimacy and Accommodation in Safavid 2002, His Highness the Aga Khan, Shah Karim al-Husayni, is
Iran: The Juristic Theory of Muhammad Baqir al- the forty-ninth hereditary imam.
Sabzavari.” Iran 25 (1987): 91–105.
Following the decline of the Fatimid Isma
ili dynasty and
Robert Gleave the death of Imam al-Mustansir Billah in 1094, one group of
Isma
ilis continued to give allegiance to the previously designated imam, al-Nizar (hence their name), and moved their
headquarters to Iran and Syria, where they established inde-
NIZAM AL-MULK (C.1018–1092) pendent principalities. Though under constant threat, their
centers flourished under the imams as important places of
Nizam al-Mulk (“good order of the kingdom”) is the title by learning, international trade, and diplomacy for almost two
which the Seljuk wazir Hasan b.
Ali b. Ishaq al-Tusi is most hundred years, before being destroyed during the Mongol
commonly known. Nizam al-Mulk rose to prominence serv- invasion of the thirteenth century.
ing Sultan Alp Arslan (1063–1072), and for much of the reign
of Sultan Malik Shah (1072–1092) he was ruler in all but Faced by new challenges of reorganization, often in the
name. Nizam al-Mulk was an individual of many talents: face of hostile opposition, the Nizaris gained control of
administrator, patron, military man, and author, as well as a several strategically located mountain centers in Iran and
skilled and occasionally ruthless competitor in court in- Syria led, respectively, by Hasan-e-Sabbah and Rashid al-din
trigues. An ardent supporter of the Sunni ulema, he con- Sinan, two leading da
is (representatives of the imam) of the
structed and endowed a number of madrasas (centers for the time. These provided defensible centers from where to orstudy of Islamic law) in Iran and Iraq, which were called ganize a decentralized and scattered community. They were
Nizamiyyas after him, the most famous being the Nizamiyya continually attacked by successive Seljuk rulers but were able
in Baghdad, which opened in 1067. His reasons for doing this to offer a strong defense from their inaccessible castles. One
are not explicitly known, but these institutions certainly legend that labeled them “assassins,” which was developed by
contributed to the subsequent intellectual and political re- their enemies and embellished by Marco Polo, became curvival seen in Sunnism. In the last years of his life, Nizam al- rent in popular writings. However, modern scholarship has
Mulk wrote a model for princes known alternatively as the shown these stories to be largely fabrications that owed more
Siyasat-nama or Siyar al-moluk. This Persian-language work to religious bigotry, prejudice, and sheer invention than
is noteworthy for its frank discussion of the steps necessary historical reality.
for an absolute ruler to administer his realm, and is sprinkled
with references to philosophers and pre-Islamic kings as well During the next five centuries after the destruction of the
as to Islamic concepts. The reforms it urged were never centers in Iran in 1258, the Nizaris, though scattered and
implemented, no doubt due to the deaths of the author and often persecuted, sustained their religious, intellectual, and
shortly thereafter its immediate intended reader, Malik Shah. community traditions in Iran, Syria, Central Asia, and the
Nizam al-Mulk’s assassination in 1092 was linked by contem- Indian subcontinent. They maintained contacts with the
poraries (and near-contemporaries) to either the Assassins, imam of the time living in Iran, and they further developed
the sultan Malik Shah, or both. the Isma
ili intellectual heritage in Arabic, Persian, and the
vernacular Central Asian and Indian languages that has sur-
See also Assassins; Education; Madrasa. vived in written as well as oral forms.

Islam and the Muslim World 511
Nurcu

In the nineteenth century, the Nizari Isma
ili imamat manifests itself in its vision of the ideal society, one that is a
moved from Iran to India and then to Europe. Many follow- moral yet educated and scientifically competitive collectivity.
ers migrated in the later part of the twentieth century to The message is disseminated by its followers through an
Africa, Europe, America, and Canada, where they have also increasing use of modern technologies of mass communicabeen joined by a small number of Nizari Isma
ilis migrating tion. However, adherents of the Nur movement are selective
from Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria. In the early twenty-first in their openness to modernity. The movement is also a
century, this community of diverse backgrounds is found in critique of several characteristics of modernity. Nursi’s teachall five continents and some thirty countries. ings challenge individualism. As Serif Mardin points out, Said
Nursi’s primary aim was always to “repersonalize Turkish
The imamat (office of the imam) and the heritage of Islam,
society through the personalized stamp of the Risale-i Nur”
as expressed within Nizari Isma
ili Shi
ism, continues to be at
(p. 12). This was an attempt to preserve strong communal ties
the heart of the modern emergence of the community. It is
against the individualistic tendencies of modernization.
guided in the respective national contexts by constitutions
that bring a common pattern of practice and governance, and
The movement has been largely a product of the tension
a strong ethos of voluntarism and development in social,
between Islamization and secularization, which originated in
educational, and economic spheres. Spiritual and devotional
the late nineteenth century when the Young Ottomans tried
life is maintained in the Jamaatkhana, spaces of gathering, in
to reconcile Islam and Western constitutionalism during the
each major place of Isma
ili settlement, which in some cases
late Ottoman period. Said Nursi suggested compromises in
are buildings of outstanding Muslim design and architecture.
order to deal with this tension under the rule of the Ottoman
See also Aga Khan; Khojas; Shia: Ismaili. Empire. He challenged the division of education into three
separate streams: medrese (Ar., madrasa, religious school),
BIBLIOGRAPHY tekke (Sufi hospice), and secular education. His suggestion
Azim, Nanji. The Nizari Ismaili Tradition in the Indo-Pakistan was the reintroduction of religious studies to secular schools.
Subcontinent. New York: Caravan Books, 1978. His aim was to incorporate competent ulema into the tekke.
Jamal, Nadia Eboo. Surviving the Mongols: Nizari Quhistani After the fall of the empire, Said Nursi visited the new
and the Continuity of Ismaili Tradition in Persia. London: parliament in Ankara once in 1922. Being frustrated by the
I. B. Tauris, 2002. cold reception and tension, he withdrew from politics for
good. After the consolidation of the secular Turkish Republic
Azim Nanji in 1923, the tension between secularizing and Islamizing
forces never ceased. Aiming at a radical break from the
Ottoman Empire, the founding father, Ataturk, initiated a
series of secularizing reforms that relegated Islam to the
NURCU See Nur Movement private sphere and de-Islamized the public sphere, (for example, the ban of the fez and veil). When the sects were banned
in 1926, the Nur movement continued to expand rapidly and
soon after was seen as a threat to the secular state. The
pendulum swung from repression to tolerance for Islam,
NUR MOVEMENT
when a multiparty system was inititated in the 1950s.
The Nur Movement (Nurçuluk) is a Turkish Islamic move-
The Nur movement remained suspicious of politics. Some
ment inspired by a modern reintepretetion of the Quran in
followers became close to certain parties and state bureauthe volumes Risale-i Nur (Epistle of light). The risales (episcrats. The movement was known for its sympathy for and
tles) of the leader of the movement, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi
strong ties to the Democrat Party in the 1950s. Later, some
(1876–1960), were first published in 1926. The Nur is not a
sect but a social movement mainly because it does not have a Nur followers were associated with Necmeddin Erbakan and
formal structure and procedures for membership. Like a his religious party, National Salvation (1973–1981). Howschool, Nur has students. The followers of Nur constitute an ever, the strong faith and national feelings mobilized by the
Islamic community movement that can be seen as a set of movement did not become a part of a separate political party.
effective personal networks.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the political disagree-
The primary goal of the movement is to revitalize faith ments and economic differences among the followers of Nur
under the conditions of modernization. The movement as- led to fragmentation. The largest and most effective group
pires to reconcile several apparent contradictions such as that emerged out of Nur is the Gulen Community movethose between modernity and tradition, religion and ration- ment, led by Fethullah Guler. Beginning in the early 1990s, it
ality, faith and science, belief and doubt, and the West and became organized and institutionalized not only in Turkey
Islam. This middle ground positioning of the movement but also internationally, particularly in the new states of

512 Islam and the Muslim World
Nursi, Said

Central Asia. Although the Gulen movement inherited the A. Arjomand. Translated by Hamid Dabashi. Albany:
nationalist and modernist orientation of Nur, it deviated State University of New York Press, 1988.
from its forefathers by the engagements with the secular
state, and its expansion to the international realm. Mohammad H. Faghfoory
See also Erbakan, Necmeddin; Nursi, Said;
Secularization; Young Ottomans.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
NURSI, SAID (1876–1960)
Mardin, Şerif. Social Change and Religion in Modern Turkey.
Said Nursi (also known as Bediuzzaman, or Light of the
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.
Times) was born in Bitlis in eastern Turkey. He received his
early education at various religious schools in the region,
Berna Turam
mostly under the direction of the teachers who belonged to
the Naqshbandi order (an orthodox Sufi order). In 1907 and
1908 in Istanbul and Salonica, he advocated the establishment of a university in Erzurum where physical sciences
NURI, FAZLALLAH (1843–1909)
would be taught alongside religious topics, and supported the
Hajj Shaykh Fazlallah b. Mulla
Abbas Mazandarani Tehrani, Young Turks’s constitutional revolution.
commonly known as Fazlallah Nuri, was born in the village of
Although he supported Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) during
Nur in Mazandaran. He was a prominent Iranian Shi
ite
the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1922), he was
scholar and the marja
-e taqlid (source of emulation) of
arrested in 1925 and exiled to Barla in the province of Isparta
Tehran at the turn of the twentieth century. He studied in
for his alleged participation in the Shaikh Said (Ar., Shaykh
Najaf with Mohammad Hasan Shirazi and reached the rank
of mujtahid at a young age. Sa
id) revolt in eastern Turkey. Here he began writing his
Risale-i Nur (Epistle of light), the basis for the religious-
Nuri actively participated in the constitutional revolution intellectual movement known as Nurculuk.
of 1905–1906. He played a controversial role in the events of
the revolution, first supporting and then turning against Distrusted and opposed for his religious views by the
constitutional government. Nuri agreed with his opponents Kemalist state, Said Nursi was arrested, imprisoned, and
on the necessity of the rule of law and restrictions on the exiled to various Anatolian cities, although the accusations
tyrannical power of the king. Being cognizant of the dangers were never proved. During the elections of the 1950s he
of a secular constitution to Islam and the Shi
ite ulema, supported the newly formed Democratic Party. It was at this
however, he declared constitutionalism incompatible with time that his major works were published in Latin script.
Islam. Instead, he advocated the mashrutah-ye mashru
ah, that After a brief illness he died in Urfa in southeastern Turkey.
is, a constitution based on the laws of Islam. Later in the same year his grave was moved to an unknown
location in Isparta.
Nuri published his argument against constitutional government in several treatises including Nizam nameh-ye islami Through his writings Said Nursi argued that religion
(Islamic constitution), Tadhkirat al-ghafil wa irshad al-jahil (A reflects the social and human environment and that Islam
reminder to the negligent and guidance for the ignorant), and could be interpreted according to the current needs of soci-
Lawayih (Letters) in which he argued that mashrutah (consti- ety. His Risale-i Nur, a commentary on the Quran, explains
tution) was against the precepts of Shi
ite Islam. He became and expounds the “truth” in the Holy Book. There he also
the most outspoken critic of the constitution of 1906–1907 argues that materialistic philosophy challenges Islamic ethics
and the most ardent opponent of the constitutionalists. Nuri’s and the concepts of social and economic justice.
agitation against constitutionalist forces brought him into
conflict with them, who captured and finally hanged him in See also Nur Movement; Young Ottomans; Young
Tehran in July 1909. Turks.

See also Reform: Iran; Revolution: Islamic Revolution
in Iran. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mardin, Şerif. Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Albany: State University of New York, 1989.

Nuri, Fazlallah. “Two Clerical Tracts on Constitutionalism.”
In Authority and Political Culture in Shi
ism. Edited by Said A. Uner Turgay

Islam and the Muslim World 513
O
ORGANIZATION OF THE Mashet, Abdel Monem al-. The Organization of the Islamic
Conference in a Changing World. Cairo: Friedrich-Ebert-
ISLAMIC CONFERENCE Stiftung, 1994.
Since the nineteenth century, Muslim thinkers have pro-
Qamar-ul Huda
posed pan-Islamic ideas of uniting the Islamic community
with common political, economic, and social goals. After the
creation of modern independent states in the Muslim world,
which were primarily governed by secularist, nationalists, and ORIENTALISM
socialist ideologies, King Faysal of Saudi Arabia desired to
counteract the trend of secularization by cooperating with Orientalism as a field of scholarship that first emerged in the
other Muslim leaders to create the Organization of Islamic eighteenth century, when European scholars of the Enlight-
Conference (OIC). The formation of the OIC coincided with enment period consciously studied Asian languages and culthe successive military defeats in the Arab-Israeli wars and the tures to gain a richer understanding of the Middle Eastern
loss of holy sites in Jerusalem like the Al-Aqsa Mosque. As a literary and historical environment in which Judaism and,
result, leaders of Islamic nations were compelled to meet in ultimately, Christianity, emerged. Some of the major French,
Rabat to establish the OIC in May 1971. English, and German scholars engaged in this endeavor were
Armand-Pierre Caussin de Perceval (1795–1871), Ernest
According to the OIC charter, the organization seeks to Renan (1823–1892), Edward W. Lane (1801–1876), Franz
preserve Islamic social and economic values; promote soli- Bopp (1791–1867), Heinrich L. Fleischer (1801–1888), and
darity among member states; increase cooperation in social, Julian Wellhausen (1844–1918). Immediately following World
economic, cultural, scientific, and political areas; support War II, academic interest in Orientalism underwent a transinternational peace and security; and advance education, formation, ultimately splitting out into specialized area studparticularly in the fields of science and technology. In recent ies across a variety of disciplines, including philology, literature,
years the OIC evolved from a sectarian group solely focused economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, genon issues related to Muslim nations to an organization in- der studies, history, and religious studies. The field of
volved with global politics and U.N. global security issues, Orientalism was no longer based in any one department or
such as the Iraq-Iran war, the Persian Gulf war, the U.N.’s discipline, and this is credited to such illustrious scholars as
peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the recon- Phillip Hitti, Gustave von Grunebaum, and Hamilton Gibb,
struction of Afghanistan. who developed Orientalism curricula and divisions in major
universities in the United States.
See also Pan-Islam.
Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) was a powerful critique
BIBLIOGRAPHY of the of the field, and its origins. In this volume, Said sought
Ahsan, Abdullah al-. OIC: The Organization of the Islamic to illustrate how the study of Asian and Islamic cultures was
Conference. Herndon, Va.: International Institute of Islamic connected to European imperialism and its goal of maintain-
Thought, 1988. ing power and hegemony over non-Europeans. He argued
Khan, Saad S. Reasserting International Islam: A Focus on the that the Orient has historically served as a symbolic marker of
Organization of the Islamic Conference and Other Islamic European superiority and modern cultural identity. For Said,
Institutions. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2001. historical Orientalist literature was never interested in Islam

Orientalism

as it is viewed and practiced by Muslims. Rather, it was an Critics of Edward Said’s work often come from the field of
exercise in self-identity created by means of defining the Middle Eastern and South Asian studies. They assert that he
“other.” In other words, Said suggested that Orientalists is unaware of contemporary methodologies and trends in
treated others—in this case, Muslims and Asians—as objects scholarship. For instance, one of the major arguments against
defined not in terms of their own discourses, but solely in Said’s Orientalism is that current scholars in the field are not
terms of standards and definitions imposed on them from involved with any imperialistic agenda; that they are not
outside. Among the influences underlying these definitions interested in proving the superiority of the Western culture
was, in Said’s view, a long-standing Western concern with over non-Western cultures or in enhancing the self-identity
presenting Islam as opposed to Christianity. of Western culture. According to many of these critics, Said
may have contributed to a historical analysis of Orientalist
In exploring the relationship of knowledge, power, and
literature, but he is unaware of the astonishingly creative ways
colonialism, Said is in agreement with Jean-Paul Sartre and
in which cultures and religious traditions are explored within
Franz Fannon that from the time of pre-Crusader rallies,
current scholarship. They argue that he has erroneously
Christian writers were consumed with attacking Islam and
juxtaposed a disturbing past of scholarship with the works of
the prophet Muhammad in order to earn legitimacy with
modern scholars, without considering the immense achievefellow Christians. Polemical literature against Islam, like
ments that were accomplished in the field.
John of Damascus, concentrated on how the Prophet falsified
revelation, had multiple marriages, had used violence in his “Orientalism” is rarely used in the academy today, except
lifetime, and experienced self-delusional spiritual visions. for a few centers and journals that have retained the title.
The polemical literature created a cycle of hate and promoted Instead, the field is identified by its component areas of study,
Islam as an evil religion with a demonically possessed prophet. such as Middle Eastern Studies, North African Studies,
According to Said, Renaissance scholars like John Gagnier Iranian Studies, or South Asian Studies. In each area study,
(d.1740) and Edward Pocock (c.1650) began translating Islamic scholars employ a wide variety of interdisciplinary approaches
sources into European languages not to enhance opportuni- and methodologies. For example, scholars who are trained in
ties for crosscultural dialogue, but rather to assess the value of literature find it acceptable to incorporate gender studies,
knowledge production in Islam. Notable scholars like Tho- history, comparative studies, and other related forms of
mas Carlyle, Immanuel Kant, and Liebnitz viewed Islam as a knowledge as part of their work. Most recently, theoretical
rational and reasonable religion, but were more interested in approaches such as post-colonial theory or subaltern studies
pursuing the psychological makeup of the Muslims and have played an important role in scholarly research.
learning how they went about constructing and sustaining a
See also Colonialism.
religious tradition. Said argued that Orientalists of the Renaissance were driven to understand Muslims only to prove
that Islam was a false religion and stood in the way of truth. By BIBLIOGRAPHY
targeting the deficiencies of the Prophet and of Islam, Little, Douglas. American Orientalism: Tthe United States and
Orientalist literature was connected to evangelical purposes, the Middle East since 1945. Chapel Hill: University of
used to create a sense of Christian superiority and to ulti- North Carolina Press, 2002.
mately delegitimize the tradition of “the other”: Islam. Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1978.
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Knopf, 1993.
For Said, the field of Orientalism is thus the net result of a
historical vision of Islam rooted in the Christian European Waardenberg, Jean-Jacques. Islam dans le miroir de l’Occident.
imagination. In the terms of this imagination, Islam could Paris: Mouton, 1963.
only be viewed as monolithic, scornful of human life, unchanging, uncreative, authoritarian, and intrinsically factitious. Qamar-ul Huda

516 Islam and the Muslim World
P
PAKISTAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF over the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and Pakistan’s entry
into American-sponsored defense alliances: the Southeast
Pakistan secured independence on 14 August 1947 with the Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and the Baghdad Pact
breakup of the British Indian Empire into two countries, (later the Central Treaty Organization, or CENTRO). After
India and Pakistan. The idea behind the creation of Pakistan playing political games behind the scene for years, the miliwas to provide a separate homeland for India’s Muslims, who tary took direct power by declaring martial law in October
were concentrated in the eastern and western parts of the 1958. General Ayub Khan introduced basic democracy, a
empire. The new country consisted of two parts, separated form of local government, and a presidential constitution.
from each other by the Indian landmass; these became known His idea was that democratic participation must be guided
as East Pakistan and West Pakistan, respectively. The two and controlled, and that national energies must be concenwings had different languages, cultures, and social structures. trated on economic development.
The only binding force between them was Islam and political
aspirations to seek independence from Britain and separate- Under the first military regime (1958–1969), Pakistan
ness from the Hindu majority in India. Founders of the new made substantial economic progress and achieved a high
states were sanguine about their ability to create common degree of modernization. During the cold war, Pakistan
political and economic networks that would further strengthen followed a foreign policy of alliance with the West and
the idea of Muslim state and nationhood. benefited greatly in economic and military assistance. In
1965, however, the country went to war with India over the
Constitutional and democratic processes that could have disputed territory of Kashmir, a move which destabilized it
formed the foundations on which the two wings might politically and undermined its economic growth. Popular
base solidarity suffered immediately after the founder of the discontent and nationwide agitation against president Ayub
country, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad
Ali Jinnah, died on 11 led to a second imposition of martial law in 1969. The new
September 1948. His successors and the Muslim League, the military leader, General Yahya Khan, abrogated Ayub’s 1962
party that he led, failed to pursue of his vision of a lib- constitution and decided to hold the first general elections on
eral, moderate, progressive democratic Pakistan. With re- the basis of one man one vote in 1970. The mandate of this
peated failure to develop understanding between East and election was split between the West Pakistan and East Paki-
West Pakistan on the questions of provincial autonomy and stan. The Awami League party from East Pakistan swept the
representation in the federal legislature and bureaucracy, elections and obtained a clear majority in the federal governconstitution-making was delayed. It was only after nine years ment. Denying the party its right to dominate led to a civil
that, in 1956, the first constitution was promulgated. By that war. Military intervention by India resulted in the military
time much harm had been done to the tradition of parliamen- defeat of Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh out of what was
tary democracy, which Pakistan had inherited from the Brit- East Pakistan.
ish colonial rule in India.
With this military debacle, Pakistan returned to civilian
With the decline of political discipline in the political rule under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a populist and charismatic
parties, their shifting alliances, and the failure to hold elec- leader (1971–1977). He introduced socialist reforms and gave
tions for the national legislature, the political influence of the the country its first constitution to be drafted by elected
civilian bureaucracy and the military increased. The military representatives of the people. He faced agitation by the
gained further influence because of the dispute with India opposition parties in 1977 over disputed election results and

Pan-Arabism

was overthrown by the army chief of staff, General Zia ul stripped the president of the power to dismiss future elected
Haq. General Zia promised fresh elections within ninety governments.
days, as stipulated by the 1973 constitution, and put the
country back on the road to democracy. It took him eight This collaboration between the government of Nawaz
years to do so. In the meantime, he used a controversial Sharif and the opposition parties didn’t last very long. Sharif
murder conviction to order the execution of former prime had a two-thirds majority in the parliament and was equipped
minister Bhutto. His rule for eleven years (1977–1988) was with tremendous executive powers, and he began to act in an
further marred by the bitter legacy of the Soviet war in arbitrary manner. The opposition dubbed him as a civilian
Afghanistan: rising religious extremism, Islamic militancy, dictator. He forced a sitting president, a chief justice of the
Supreme Court of Pakistan, and an army chief of staff to
and political confrontation. Pakistan became an ally of the
resign. When he removed General Pervez Musharraf from
Western powers as a front-line state against Moscow’s Afghan
office in October 1999, the military took over power for a
misadventure. It did better economically under Zia and
fourth time, through a bloodless coup. General Musharraf
developed nuclear capability during the Afghan war years.
designated himself as the chief executive of the country,
Zia was the first ruler of Pakistan who tried zealously to suspended the constitution, dismissed the central and provin-
Islamize the state and society, although the nation had taken cial governments, and promised social and national reforms
the designation of “Islamic Republic” under its first constitu- to return the country to a workable democracy. His coup, like
tion, in 1956. It is debatable whether this was the result of his previous ones, was endorsed by Pakistan’s Supreme Court,
personal religious beliefs, or if he was using religion as a but with the injunction that he would hold elections and hand
source of political legitimation. Whatever the reason, Zia over power to the elected assemblies within three years.
interpreted the movement for the creation of Pakistan in National elections were set to be held on 10 October 2002,
but Musharraf held a national referendum in April 2002 and
purely Islamic terms and asserted that Islamization was the
got himself elected as president for a five-year term.
best way to secure and stabilize Pakistani society. He took
drastic measures for building Pakistan as an Islamic society.
An image of the Badshadi mosque in Lahore, Pakistan, appears
He introduced Islamic taxes like zakat and
ushr, and replaced in the volume two color insert.
centuries-old British laws relating with Islamic penalties for
offenses such as theft, robbery, adultery, and false accusation See also Awami League; Jinnah, Muhammad
Ali; South
of adultery. He made the drinking of alcohol by Muslims an Asia, Islam in.
offence punishable by six months’ imprisonment and fine of
5,000 rupees. He established a separate federal Shari
at (Is- BIBLIOGRAPHY
lamic law) Court to hear appeals against convictions under
Afzal, M. Rafique. Pakistan: History and Politics 1947–1971.
the Islamic laws. Most of these laws and the Islamization Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2002.
process of the Zia regime have been controversial, but Zia’s
legacy in this regard lingers on.
Rasul Bakhsh Rais
The death of Zia in a plane crash returned the country to
democracy in 1988. The elections in October of that year
resulted in a divided mandate between the Pakistan Peoples
Party of Benazir Bhutto and the Muslim League. Benazir
PAN-ARABISM
became the first women prime minister of Pakistan and the
Also known as Arab nationalism, pan-Arabism is the ideology
first to head up a democratic government in eleven years. The
that calls for the political unity of Arab peoples and states. By
Punjab, the largest province in the Pakistani federation, had a
consensus, Arabness is defined not by religion or geographic
Muslim League government headed by Mian Mohammad
origin, but, as Sati
al-Husri proposed, by language. Arabs are
Nawaz Sharif, a former political ally of Zia. The political
those whose mother tongue is Arabic and who identify with
confrontation between the rival political parties, and the
the history and culture associated with it.
president’s willingness to use her powers to dismiss elected
members of parliament, provincial assemblies, and govern- Although some scholars trace its origins to nineteenthments at the center and in the provinces kept the country century state builders such as Muhammad
Ali of Egypt, or
unstable. Four elected governments, two of the Pakistan religious reform movements such as the Wahhabiyya, or
Peoples Party and two of the Muslim League, were dismissed intellectuals such as
Abdallah al-Nadim and
Abd al-Rahman
between 1988 and 1996, followed, each time, by new elec- al-Kawakibi, pan-Arabism developed as a coherent ideology
tions. The military continued to play a role in these dismissals and political movement at the time of the First World War. It
from behind the scenes. Ultimately, the various political arose as a response to both European imperialism and to the
parties in the parliament closed their ranks and, in 1997, mismanagement and pan-Turkic ideology associated with
passed the thirteenth amendment to the constitution, which the Young Turk movement in the Ottoman Empire.

518 Islam and the Muslim World
Pan-Islam

When the Hashemite-led revolt against Ottoman rule during the 1991 Gulf War and in the months leading to the
began in 1915, Sharif Husayn and his sons had managed to 2003 Iraq war that ousted him from power. More imporgain support not only in the Hijaz where they were based, but tantly, perhaps, Arab nationalism today finds institutional
also in Syria. Husayn thought he had assurances from the expression in the continued existence of the Arab League,
British government, represented by the high commissioner formed in 1945, and now consisting of twenty-two members,
in Cairo, Sir Henry McMahon, that he and his sons would as well as in continuing efforts to create subregional organizagovern all Arab territories freed from Turkish control. Yet, tions, the most successful being the Gulf Cooperation Coundespite the efforts of Husayn’s son Faysal and T. E. Lawrence cil (GCC), formed in 1981 and comprising the six Arab states
at the Versailles conference, the postwar mandate system that border the Persian Gulf.
awarded Lebanon and Syria to France and Iraq and Palestine
to Britain. The future of Palestine was particularly uncertain See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal; Arabic Language; Arab
because in November 1917 the British had issued the Balfour League; Ba
th Party; Ikhwan al-Muslimin; National-
Declaration promising favorable consideration for the crea- ism: Arab; Pan-Islam; Pan-Turanism; Revolution:
tion of a Jewish homeland there. The Hashemite project for Modern.
Arab unity was dealt a final blow when the Hijaz was conquered by
Abd al-
Aziz ibn Sa
ud in 1924 and Husayn was BIBLIOGRAPHY
sent into exile in Cyprus, leaving only two of his sons as rulers Ajami, Fouad. The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought
of British-backed monarchies:
Abdallah in Transjordan and and Practice Since 1967. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
Faysal in Iraq. University Press, 1981.
Haim, Sylvia G., ed. Arab Nationalism: An Anthology. Berke-
Following the Second World War, Arab nationalism ley: University of California Press, 1962.
found two, initially cooperative, but later conflicting, expres- Kerr, Malcolm. The Arab Cold War: Gamal Abd al-Nasir
sions. The first was religious, as articulated by the Muslim and His Rivals, 1958–1970. London: Oxford University
Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimin), which saw the unity of Press, 1971.
the Arabs as the first step in pan-Islamic solidarity. The
second was secular, as articulated by the Ba
th Party led by Sohail H. Hashmi
Michel
Aflaq and later by the Nasserists. The common
enemy for both was the lingering legacy of British and French
imperialism in the Arab world, signified by compliant Arab
elites, military bases, economic concessions, and the state
PAN-ISLAM
of Israel.
Pan-Islam is the ideology that calls for the unity and coopera-
Soon after coming to power in Egypt in July 1952, Jamal tion of Muslims worldwide on the basis of their shared

Abd al-Nasser began transforming Egypt into a revolution- Islamic identity. Apart from this general description, the idea
ary nucleus around which Arab unity would progress. He first of pan-Islam has been formulated in myriad ways and used for
crushed the religious groups that had supported the Free various political ends during the nineteenth and twentieth
Officer revolt against the Egyptian monarchy and had quickly centuries.
become disillusioned with his secularism. He then turned his
The term “pan-Islam” is of nineteenth-century European
attention to the conservative Arab monarchies.
origin and was used primarily to describe Ottoman attempts
The zenith of secular pan-Arabism came in 1958 when at promoting Muslim unity to counter European imperial-
Egypt and Syria merged to form the United Arab Republic ism. Yet, the central premise of pan-Islam, that all Muslims
(UAR). Syria withdrew from the union in 1961, however, form a single community of believers (umma) that ideally
because of growing dissatisfaction with Nasser’s repressive should be united politically as well as spiritually, may be
and pro-Egyptian policies. Subsequent efforts in 1963 to traced to the very origins of Islam itself. Several Quranic
revive the UAR, this time with Iraqi participation following a verses refer to the Muslims as constituting a single commu-
Ba
thist coup there, proved unsuccessful. nity (e.g., 2:143, 3:110). Others warn against the dangers of
fragmentation and internal strife (e.g., 3:103, 105). The
Since the abortive UAR experiment, a number of events prophet Muhammad clearly tried to forge a sense of Muslim
have allegedly marked the demise of pan-Arabism, including communal solidarity that transcended the traditional tribal
the crushing Israeli defeat of Arab forces in the 1967 war, loyalties of the Arabs, as in the famous example of the
Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel in 1979, and Iraq’s invasion of “Constitution of Medina,” in which the migrants from Mecca
Kuwait in 1990. Yet, Arab nationalism is still very much alive and the newly converted tribes of Medina are described as “a
rhetorically, now once again tinged with strong religious single umma apart from all other men.” Although the political
overtones, as in the manifestos of fundamentalist groups and unity of the umma was shattered soon after the Prophet’s
even in the propaganda of secular dictators like Saddam death, the ideal continued to linger for several centuries
Husayn, who repeatedly invoked religion to rally Arabs afterwards, as best demonstrated in the reluctance of political

Islam and the Muslim World 519
Pan-Islam

theorists to accept the legitimacy of multiple, simultaneous the leadership of their own rulers. By the 1870s, Afghani’s
caliphs. activism had assumed a decidedly pan-Islamic emphasis. He
suggested that the only way to ameliorate the weakness of
Numerous attempts to unite Muslims through a revival of individual Muslim states was to form a bloc of semi-
Islamic faith may be found in Islamic history. But given the autonomous states, all recognizing the suzerainty of the
far expanse of Islamic civilization, all of these were confined Ottoman caliph. Afghani thus sought to combine nationalism
geographically. Many factors converged in the nineteenth and pan-Islam, apparently seeing no contradictions becentury to allow a far more universal scope for attempts to tween the two.
unite Muslims: the steady loss of Ottoman territories in
Europe, the advance of European colonialism into Muslim Afghani proposed to
Abd al-Hamid as early as the late
states in Africa and Asia, and the spread of mass communica- 1870s that he be sent as an emissary to Afghanistan to rally
tion media. Pan-Islam developed primarily as a defense mecha- support for the sultan’s claims to the caliphate. The sultan,
nism to counter the military and political advance of European suspicious of Afghani’s motivations, responded by encouragpowers, primarily Britain, France, and Russia. The Ottoman ing him to continue his agitation from abroad but doing little
Empire, the largest and most centrally located Sunni state, to assist him. In 1892,
Abd al-Hamid invited Afghani to settle
and the guardian of the holy sites of Mecca, Medina, and in Istanbul. Afghani would die there four years later, disillu-
Jerusalem, was best suited to exploit rising concerns with sioned and complaining that he was a prisoner of the sultan.
European imperialism and to initiate pan-Islamic responses.
Pan-Islamic appeals continued to be heard in the period
Two men, more than any others, shaped the development before and immediately after the First World War, as in the
of pan-Islam during the late nineteenth century: the Ottoman Ottoman jihad proclamation of 1914, but increasingly they
sultan
Abd al-Hamid II (1842–1918) and Jamal al-Din al- were made in the service of Turkish, Arab, or Indian Muslim
Afghani (1839–1897).
Abd al-Hamid cultivated the pan- nationalism. The issue that most stirred pan-Islamic loyalties
Islamic sentiments that had emerged during the 1860s and was the fate of the Ottoman caliphate, particularly among the
1870s under the impact of German and Italian unification Muslims of British India. Ulema of the Deoband school led
during the reign of his predecessor,
Abd al-
Aziz (1830–1876), Indian Muslim opposition to the Arab revolt against the
and gave them the status of an official ideology. As it did for Ottomans, seeing in it a British ploy to seize control of the

Abd al-
Aziz, pan-Islam provided
Abd al-Hamid a rallying central Islamic lands. When Constantinople was occupied by
cry against both European powers and internal modernizers the Allies at the end of the war, Indian nationalist leaders,
and critics of the sultanate. chief among them the journalist Muhammad
Ali, launched
the Khilafat Movement to lobby the British government for
Central to
Abd al-Hamid’s pan-Islam was the claim that
the Ottoman caliph’s retention of sovereignty over the Arathe Ottoman sultan was the caliph of Islam, or at least of
bian Peninsula, Syria, Iraq, and Anatolia, the “spiritual
Sunni Islam. The Ottoman claim to the caliphate dated back
heartland” of Islam. Meanwhile, in 1919, groups of Indian
centuries, but under
Abd al-Hamid the title was asserted
ulema organized the hijra (migration) of Muslims from the
with far greater vigor than it had been before within the
subcontinent to Afghanistan, arguing that Muslims could no
empire, and for the first time serious attempts were made to
longer remain in a territory ruled by Great Britain while it
win the loyalty of Muslims beyond the Ottoman realm. Inside
was attempting to destroy the caliphate. Approximately 18,000,
the empire, the sultan’s pan-Islam meant the cultivation of
mostly poor, Muslims trekked to the Afghan border, only to
Muslim interests over those of Christian and other nonbe denied entry by the Afghan government. Thousands lost
Muslim minorities as well as increased state support for
their lives to disease and hunger in the process. By the time
Islamic courts, schools, and religious orders. Outside the
the Turkish Grand National Assembly abolished the Ottoempire, a propaganda campaign was launched, using print
man caliphate in 1924, the Khilafat agitation had already
media and emissaries or spies, to spread an image of the sultan
diminished because of disillusionment and internal squabas a pious Muslim ruler, the only one capable of effectively
bles. Hopes that a reconstituted caliphate might reinvigorate
uniting Muslims against Christian colonizers.
pan-Islamic sentiments died when two conferences held in

Abd al-Hamid’s claims to the caliphate were challenged 1926, one in Cairo, the other in Mecca, ended in bitter
immediately, and the general failure of his pan-Islamic cam- disagreements over who should assume the title. A third
paign partly contributed to his deposition following the conference held in 1931 in Jerusalem called only for solidarity
Young Turk revolt of 1908. Still, the fruits of
Abd al- and cooperation among Muslim peoples.
Hamid’s propaganda may be seen in the Indian Muslim
agitation over the fate of the Ottoman caliphate following the Muslim solidarity and international cooperation, rather
First World War. than any supranational unity, is the way pan-Islam has generally been articulated in the years since the Second World
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani’s early career emphasized the War. Even those Muslim intellectuals who challenge the
need for reform within particular Muslim countries, under legitimacy of separate Muslim nation-states according to

520 Islam and the Muslim World
Pan-Turanism

Islamic values do not propose any meaningful political union the true religion, namely the people who did not accept
of Muslim states and in fact generally focus their activism on Zoroastrianism. However, later the term Turan commonly
gaining control of a particular state. referred to the land north of the Amu Darya River (the Oxus
River of antiquity), where the non-Iranians of Central Asia
The most prominent manifestation of pan-Islam today is and chiefly the nomadic Turkic peoples lived.
in the host of transnational nongovernmental and intergovernmental Islamic organizations. During the 1950s, Pakistan In the late nineteenth century the tsarist empire, by
initiated the creation of the Mutamar al-
Alam al-Islami, but invading the Caucasus and Central Asia, incorporated a vast
disagreements with secular Arab governments over the or- number of Turkic peoples into its realm. The Russification
ganization’s purpose led to its failure. During the 1960s, the policy adopted by tsarist Russia in this region caused a
campaign to create pan-Islamic organizations was revived number of local elites to promote an alternative to Russian
by King Faysal of Saudi Arabia. With his backing, the pan-Slavism. However, their activities prior to the First
Rabitat al-
Alam al-Islami was created in 1962 to provide a World War were mainly confined to organizing all of Rusnongovernmental forum for the discussion and dissemination sia’s Muslim congresses and the publication of certain periof Islamic viewpoints on issues facing Muslims around the odicals such as Yeni Fuyuzat (New abundance) and Shelale
world. In 1969, following Israel’s capture of Jerusalem in the (Cascade) in Baku or Turan in Tashkent.
Six Day War, twenty-four Muslim states voted to form the
The growing solidarity among Russia’s Turkic peoples
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). In 2003 the
was welcomed in the Ottoman Empire, which was suffering
OIC consisted of fifty-seven members, and though it is
from a long-lasting and humiliating decline. Among the
frequently criticized for its ineffectiveness, it remains the
leaders of the ruling Committee of Union and Progress in the
most important and universal expression of pan-Islamic po-
Ottoman Empire were personalities such as Enver Pasha,
litical aspirations since the abolition of the caliphate.
who aspired to forge a Turanian empire that would bring
Turkic peoples together and result in gains in the Caucasus
See also Afghani, Jamal al-Din; Caliphate; Empires:
and Central Asia. The entry of the Ottoman Empire into the
Ottoman; Khilafat Movement; Organization of the
First World War was partly motivated by such a desire. The
Islamic Conference; Pan-Arabism; Pan-Turanism;
Ottoman propaganda campaign in the First World War was
Young Turks.
dominated by two distinctive trends of pan-Islamism and
pan-Turanism. While pan-Turanism aimed at the Turkic
BIBLIOGRAPHY peoples of the Balkan peninsula, the Caucasus, northern Iran,
Khan, Saad S. Reasserting International Islam: A Focus on the and Central Asia, the pan-Islamist propaganda was still largely
Organization of the Islamic Conference and other Islamic directed at the peoples of the Near and Middle East, and even
Institutions. Karachi and New York: Oxford University as far as the Indian subcontinent. In Iran and Central Asia,
Press, 2001.
with their diverse ethnic composition, the Ottomans em-
Kramer, Martin. Islam Assembled: The Advent of the Muslim ployed a combination of pan-Turanism and pan-Islamism
Congresses. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. resulted.
Landau, Jacob. The Politics of Pan-Islam. Oxford, U.K.:
Clarendon Press, 1990. With the end of the First World War and the fall of the
Ottoman Empire, there were only a handful of political
adventurers that still pursued pan-Turanism, among them
Sohail H. Hashmi
Enver Pasha, who was killed in 1922 while fighting the
Bolsheviks in Central Asia.

In the Republic of Turkey, while local nationalism with
PAN-TURANISM pan-Turkish allusions was tolerated and even encouraged,
pan-Turanism never became a significant political trend. It
Pan-Turanism is an ideology that originated in the late
was only with the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and propagated a
late 1980s and early 1990s that the call for unity among the
strong cultural attachment among all Turkic peoples. Although
Turkic peoples was once more heard. Although this call was
pan-Turanism is correlated to pan-Turkism, its adherents
promoted by the cooperation pacts realized among the new
differ. While historically pan-Turkism was chiefly confined
independent Turkic republics of the Caucasus, Central Asia,
to the Turks living in the Ottoman Empire and its border- and Turkey, the profound rivalries both on the regional as
lands, pan-Turanism had broader pretensions. Pan-Turanism well as the international level nevertheless hampered any
aimed at joining all Turkic peoples that claimed descent from noteworthy achievements.
Turan, including the Mongols. The name Turan is connected to a mythological plateau in Central Asia. In Avesta See also Balkans, Islam in the; Central Asia, Islam in;
the people called Tura were represented as the enemies of Empires: Ottoman; Pan-Arabism; Pan-Islam.

Islam and the Muslim World 521
Pasdaran

BIBLIOGRAPHY and battle to quell civil disorder. The Basij allegedly also
Atabaki, T. “Recasting Oneself, Rejecting the Others: Pan- monitor the activities of citizens, and harass or arrest women
Turkism and Iranian Nationalism.” In Identity Politics in and men who violate the dress code.
Central Asia and the Muslim World. Edited by E. J. Zurcher,
and W. van Schendel. London: I. B. Tauris, 2001. The Pasdaran have maintained an intelligence branch to
monitor the regime’s domestic adversaries and to participate
Landau, J. M. Pan-Turkism: From Irredentism to Cooperation.
London: Hurst, 1995. in their arrests and trials. Khomeini demonstrated his acceptance of the Revolutionary Guards’ involvement in intelli-
Touraj Atabaki gence when he congratulated them on the arrest of Iranian
Communist (Tudeh) leaders. Not only did the Pasardan
function as an intelligence organization, both within and
outside the country, but they also exerted considerable influ-
PASDARAN ence on government policies.

The Pasdaran (Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enghelab-e Eslami, or The Pasdaran have been quite active in Lebanon. By the
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps) was established under a summer of 1982, shortly after the second Israeli invasion of
decree issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini, as leader of the Lebanon, the Pasdaran had nearly one thousand personnel
Islamic revolution, on 5 May 1979. The corps of Revolution- deployed in the predominantly Shi
ite Biqa
Valley. From
ary Guards were intended to guard the revolution and to their headquarters near Baalbek, the Pasdaran have provided
assist the ruling clerics in the day-to-day enforcement of the consistent support to Islamic Amal, a breakaway faction of the
government’s Islamic codes and morality. The Pasdaran, as mainstream Amal organization, and then Hizb Allah, which
the guardians of the revolution, would counter the threat contemplate the establishment of an Islamic state in Lebanon.
posed by either the leftist guerrillas or the officers suspected
of continued loyalty to the shah. The revolution also needed See also Iran, Islamic Republic of; Revolution: Islamic
to rely on a force of its own rather than borrowing the Revolution in Iran.
monarchic regime’s tainted forces, however disorganized and
undertrained such a force might be in the first years of BIBLIOGRAPHY
establishment. The Pasdaran, along with its political coun- Katzman, Kenneth. The Warriors of Islam: Iran’s Revolutionary
terpart, Crusade for Reconstruction, brought a new order to Guard. Oxford, U.K.: Westview Press, 1993.
Iran. The Pasdaran and Crusade for Reconstruction had their
own separate ministries in the first decade after revolution, Majid Mohammadi
but then they were merged with other ministries.

In time, the Pasdaran came to duplicate the police and the
judiciary in terms of its functions. It even challenged the PERSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
performance of the regular armed forces on the battlefield.
The Pasdaran was designed as an organization that would be Persian has historically been, after Arabic, the most prestidirectly subordinate to the ruling clerics. The constitution of gious literary language in the Muslim world and a vehicle of
the Islamic Republic of Iran entrusted the regular army with cultural expression in Ottoman Turkey, Central Asia, Mogul
guarding Iran’s territorial integrity and political indepen- India and, of course, Persia (greater Iran). The influence of
dence. Thus the Revolutionary Guards could only have the Persian literature and Persicate culture therefore covered a
responsibility of guarding the revolution. Involvement in wide region, from the Balkans to Bangladesh, and from the
politics is a part of the Revolutionary Guards’ mission to Persian Gulf to north of the Jaxartes River in Central Asia.
defend Islamic authority. Despite differences, the Pasdaran Today Persian is the official language of Iran and Tajikistan,
and the regular armed forces have cooperated on military and one of the two official languages of Afghanistan (along
matters. with Pashto). Persian is also spoken by small residual communities in neighboring countries, such as Turkmenistan,
By the end of the war between Iran and Iraq in 1986, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, the Persian Gulf states, and Iraq, as
the Pasdaran consisted of 400,000 personnel organized in well as in newly established enclaves abroad: Persian-speaking
battalion-size units that operated either independently or Jewish immigrants to Israel, and the diaspora to North
with units of the regular armed forces. In 1984 the Pasdaran America, Europe, and Australia that resulted from the politiacquired a small navy and elements of an air force. Until cal upheavals and wars in Iran and Afghanistan during the
1988, up to three million volunteers were organized under 1970s and the 1980s.
the control of the Revolutionary Guards as the Mobilization
(Basij) Corps. Since the end of the war this number has Note that in recent decades the term “Farsi” has erronedecreased, as those units are used to control the internal ously gained currency in English in place of Persian. Linguissituation or to strengthen one political faction above another tically speaking, the nomenclatures “Farsi,” “Dari,” and

522 Islam and the Muslim World
Persian Language and Literature

“Tajiki” denote varieties of Persian spoken in Iran, Afghani- write new works or compilations of a religious nature until
stan, and Tajikistan, respectively, just as one might describe the ninth century C.E. The larger part of surviving Middle
English as consisting of American, Australian, and British Persian literature consists of translations or glosses on Avestanvarieties. Though distinctive regional accents and some dif- language Zoroastrian texts, along with other Zoroastrian
ferences in vocabulary or even grammar exist, the spoken literature. It also includes “books of counsel” (pand namak), or
varieties of Persian are united by a common literary and wisdom literature providing moral or ethical precepts and
cultural heritage and are mutually understood by speakers advice, as in the “Wise Maxims of Bozorgmehr.” Other texts
across the Persian linguistic continuum. Nevertheless, Per- include a few poems, the versification principles of which
sian literature has been developing in distinctive and even have been disputed, and “royal songs” (srot-i khusravanik) that
divergent directions in modern Iran, Afghanistan, and were reportedly performed with musical accompaniment by
Tajikistan since each country became a centralized nation- well-known minstrels at the Sassanian court.
state. This is especially true of Tajikistan, where the written
form of Persian was radically altered in the Soviet period by The cultural exchange with India was quite strong, as
the adoption first of the Roman (1928) and shortly thereafter evidenced by a Middle Persian treatise on chess and a number
the Cyrillic (1940) script in place of the traditional Arabic of translations of works of Indian origin, including Kalila wa
Dimna (from the tales of Bidpai), Barlaam and Josaphat, and
script, used in Afghanistan and Iran. Tajikistan was therefore
the Sindbad nameh.The frametale structure is thus borrowed
oriented toward Russian, as well as Turkic Central Asia, in its
from India, but the bulk of the Middle Persian Hazar Afsanak
recent cultural and linguistic development, whereas Afghani-
(“Thousand tales”), the main source of stories for the Arabic
stan has been in the cultural orbit of Pakistan and India, as
“Thousand and One Nights” cycle (Alf Layla wa layla), seem
well as the Soviet Union. The collapse of the Soviet Union in
to be of Persian origin.
the last decade of the twentieth century, and of the Taliban in
the first years of the twenty-first, along with technological Although spoken Persian continued to evolve grammatiinnovations (such as Persian-language programs broadcast by cally into something like what we now recognize as new
Internet radio and satellite television across the region) have, Persian, Zoroastrian works continued to be composed in
however, brought increased opportunities for cultural inter- Middle Persian until at least the ninth century, by which time
change across the Persian speaking countries, and begun to the majority of Iranians had become Muslim. Many religious,
reverse the isolation of previous decades. literary, and scientific works written in Arabic at the same
time were penned by men of Iranian, or half-Iranian parent-
Language History
age, including Ibn al-Muqaffa
(d. 760), translator of Kalila wa
Persian is classified as a member of the Iranian branch of the
Dimna from Middle Persian to Arabic; the poet Abu Nuwas
Indo-European family of languages. Indeed, it was partly
(d. 810), who includes a few words of Persian in his poetry;
from his knowledge of Persian and its similarity to Latin,
the historian and Quran commentator, Tabari (d. 923); and
Greek, and Sanskrit that Sir William Jones (1746–1794)
the physician Rhazes (Zakariyya al-Razi, d. 925). Indeed,
postulated the existence of an Indo-European proto-language
many authors of the tenth through twelfth centuries who
from which the modern languages of Europe, India, and Iran
lived in Persian-speaking milieus and would have had the
devolved. As such, many modern Persian words (for example,
option to write in Persian nevertheless chose to write their
madar, baradar) share a common root with their modern
most important works in Arabic. This was the case for, among
German (mutter, brüder) or English (mother, brother) equivaothers, al-Biruni, who was born in Khwarazm in 973 and died
lents, and the verbal systems exhibit similar features. Howin 1051 in Ghazna; Ibn Sina (Avicenna), born near Bukhara in
ever, the neighboring Semitic languages, especially Aramaic
980, died in Hamadan in 1037; and Mohammad al-Ghazali,
and Arabic, which functioned in different eras as lingua
of Tus, who lived from 1058 to 1111.
francas of the Near and Middle East, have made an enormous
impact on Persian, in terms not only of vocabulary and script, By the tenth century, however, some three hundred years
but also of literary forms. after the Arab conquest of Persia, the spoken Persian language had re-emerged as a language of literary standing in its
The Persian language is divided into three historical own right, suitable for use in discussion of science, philosostages: Old Persian, Middle Persian, and Persian. Old Persian phy, and religion, as well. It was now written in the Arabic
survives chiefly in cuneiform inscriptions of the Achaemenid alphabet, which was easier to read than the Middle Persian
kings, written in the sixth to fourth centuries B.C.E., but it has script, and which also derived from a Semitic alphabet,
bequeathed few if any direct literary traces to the modern Aramaic.
language. On the other hand, a large body of literature
survives in Middle Persian, much of it subsequently trans- Persian Poetry
lated or adapted into Arabic or Persian during the Islamic The earliest Persian poetry of the Islamic period is in dialect
period. Most of this was written in the Sassanian period form (fahlaviyat), probably based on accentual or syllable-
(226–652 C.E.), though Zoroastrians continued to use it to count meters. Evidence of some prosodic experimentation

Islam and the Muslim World 523
Persian Language and Literature

and variation is discernible in the earliest recorded specimens admired, so that rhetorical ornamentation could become a
of Persian verse, though it seems that the Persian poetry of justification in and of itself. Metaphors, tropes, and symbols
the ninth century was already following quite different prin- (for instance, the rose and nightingale, the bow of the beciples of versification from Middle Persian poetry, notably loved’s eyebrow firing the arrows of his or her eyelashes, the
rhyme and quantitative metrics. Some Persian meters are ringlets of the beloved’s hair as polo sticks sending the lover’s
borrowed from Arabic, or at least they are explained accord- heart skittering over the ground, and the like) were repeated
ing to Arabic models by the Persian manuals of prosody and from generation to generation, though subtle variation and
rhetoric written in the twelfth century. However, Persian innovations applied to the conventions have always been
poets rarely employed some very common Arabic meters greatly admired. The stylistic trends have been described as
(such as tawil and basit), whereas some of the frequently evolving from heavy rhythms, rhetorical directness, and sparse
occurring meters in Persian poetry (such as motaqareb and the use of Arabic in the tenth-century poetry, to the more
roba
i meter) seem quite uncommon in Arabic poetry of the mellifluous and rhetorically ornamented poetry (internal
same period. Persian poetry is furthermore fond of including rhyme, play on words, display of Arabic erudition) associated
a refrain (radif, which can be several syllables in length) after with the flowering of the ghazal, and the era of the great
the rhyming syllable. We may conclude, therefore, that in classical poets such as Sa
di (d. 1292), Rumi (d. 1273), Hafez
addition to the influence of Arabic, native Persian phonology (d. 1390), and Jami (d. 1492). Poetry of the “Indian style”
and prosody also played a distinctive role in shaping the new (sixteenth through eighteenth centuries) continued the focus
system of versification. on the ghazal, which became conceptually more abstract and
philosophical, even recherché, with a distinctive taste for the
The privileged literary mode in Persian was poetry, or subtle conceit and imagism. The neo-classical “return” of the
rhymed and metered “speech.” It was composed and per- eighteenth and nineteenth centuries rejected this trend in
formed in a variety of milieus for various social functions, favor of a simpler more direct prose style, and an imitation of
acquiring the greatest prestige and widest publicity through the past masters. This gradually gave way to the influence of
the patronage of the royal court, including sultans/shahs but European letters in the twentieth century and led to the
also wazirs or other men of state, army commanders, and development of a significantly new, modernist poetic.
regional governors. It might also be commissioned by the
Quatrains (Roba
iyyat)
landed gentry, or alternatively, circulated through Sufi
The quatrain (do-bayti, taraneh, and later roba
i), rhyming
networks.
according to the pattern a-a-b-a and conforming to a special
meter of its own, emerged from a popular milieu to become a
Most dynasties of the Persian-speaking world considered
literary genre unto its own, the roba
iyyat. Roba
is can treat
it the duty of a civilized ruler to cultivate science and literaamorous themes or commemorate a historical occasion (such
ture, and doing so increased the ruler’s prestige. Some rulers
as the death of a famous person), but most famously deliver a
even dabbled in composing poetry of their own, as a literate
mystical or philosophical apothegm. The eleventh-century
person was expected to be able to compose some amount of
“naked” hermit, Baba Taher, sang quatrains of human love
formal verse, lines of which were used as proof texts to
and devotion to God in impromptu quatrains, some of which
illustrate points and conclude arguments in letters, homilies,
are preserved in their original Hamadani dialect form. Anand in conversation. Not only aspiring poets, but also secreother poet known exclusively for roba
is is Mahsati of Ganja
taries and men of letters, were expected to have a huge
(fl. 12th century), one of the few classical poets with a
repertoire of poetry at the tip of their tongues, and were
uniquely feminine voice, and a far from chaste perspecsometimes called upon to compose extemporaneously at
tive on love.
court. The work of successful professional poets was circulated in albums dedicated to particular patrons or particular The most famous practitioner of this genre is the mathethemes. These albums would later be collected into divans, matician and astronomer
Omar Khayyam of Nishapur (d.
though often not by the poet himself. Early poetry divans 1121), thanks in no small part to Edward FitzGerald’s imwere organized thematically, but from the sixteenth century mensely successful 1859 English translation/adaptation, The
onward they were usually divided into sections according to Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Khayyam acquired a posthumous
verse form (qasideh, ghazal, qet
eh, strophic poems, and roba
i) reputation as a composer of roba
iyyat of a materialist or
and then further organized alphabetically according to the agnostic temperament, some of them quite blasphemous,
final letter of the rhyme or refrain. although the actual evidence for him as author is rather
flimsy. What is clear is that over the centuries, the corpus of
Themes were largely conventional, and the poets usually quatrains attributed to Khayyam grew suspiciously, so that
presented a persona rather than a personal biography, though scholars in the twentieth century sought text-critical princithis in no way deterred critics from reading biographical data ples, to separate the forgeries from the real Khayyam. The
into the poems. The imagery grew in hyperbole and com- divans of most subsequent poets include numerous roba
is;
plexity over the centuries, and technical virtuosity was greatly Rumi’s, for example, has nearly 2000.

524 Islam and the Muslim World
Persian Language and Literature

Court Poetry Mo
ezzi was accidentally shot and seriously wounded by
Panegyrics in Arabic by the great poets had conveyed prestige prince Sanjar’s arrow; and Adib-e Saber was drowned by the
and authority on the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, so that Khwarazm shah as a spy of Sanjar.
Persian princes on the eastern edges of Persia naturally
Courts in the west of Iran also cultivated Persian poetry.
gravitated toward the practice as they began realizing their
In Azerbaijan, Qatran (d. 1072) wrote for numerous patrons,
practical independence from the Abbasids. In cities like
including a poem on the major earthquake in Tabriz in 1042,
Nishapur (near modern Mashhad), Balkh (in modern Afghaniand many strophic poems. When Naser Khosrow, a poet
stan), Samarkand, and Bukhara (in modern Uzbekistan),
from eastern Persia, came to Tabriz in 1046, he wrote in his
panegyrics in Persian were presented to the ruler or men of
fascinating travelog that Qatran was a good poet, who,
state on ceremonial occasions: Iranian seasonal festivals like
however, did not fully understand Persian. This shows that,
Nawruz or Mehregan, Islamic holy days, royal investitures,
though dialectical variation must have existed, Persian was
victory celebrations, wine drinking parties, and the like.
widely spoken and written by the mid-eleventh century.
Poems for such occasions typically took the form of a qasideh,
Khaqani of Shirvan (d. 1199) wrote ghazals and panegyrics,
a long mono-rhyme (a-a-b-a-c-a-d-a), usually between 40 and
but is best known for his elegies on the death of his son and on
100 lines, typically beginning with an encomium on the
the ruins of a Sassanian palace. Although a declared follower
arrival of spring, on the beloved, or on wine. This would then of Sanai of Ghazna in the religious/didactic themes of his
segue into an enumeration of the virtues and glories of the verse, he incorporated Christian themes in his poetry. His
ruler, encouraging him in the process to uphold principles of mother was a convert from Nestorian Christianity, and his
generosity, forbearance and just governance. travels brought him into close contact with Christians in
Georgia and Constantinople.
The greatest of the early Persian poets, Rudaki (d. 940),
who was also a musician, composed many narrative poems, of Epic Poetry
which precious little has survived. Many examples of his fine, Ferdausi of Tus (near modern Mashhad) has often been
thoughtful lyric poems (not yet clearly differentiated in form credited with rescuing the Persian language from virtual
as ghazals or qasidehs), in a clear and unornamented style extinction with his monumental work, the Shah nameh, or
characteristic of early Persian prose and verse, must have “Book of kings,” begun about 975 and, dedicated in its final
been performed at the court in Bukhara, for the Samanid form to Mahmud of Ghazna, in about 1010. This hyperbolic
prince Amir Nasr II (r. 914–943). In these poems, Rudaki view ignores the half-century of court poetry that preceded
praised the ruler and his capital, rhapsodized on the process Ferdausi’s work, including some earlier treatments of epiof making wine, or meditated on the decrepitude brought by sodes from the national epic. Ferdausi himself incorporated a
age. This latter, rather melancholy, idea afforded early poets thousand lines from the story of Zoroaster as versified by
the occasion to draw the moral that life is short, so live right. Daqiqi (d. 981 or before) in his own work. Nevertheless,
This is then interpreted in either ethical terms, to do good Ferdausi’s Shah nameh would play a central role not only in
works (since your name, good or ill, is all that will live on), or Iranian national consciousness, but even in the self-identity
in epicurean terms, to live happy and well (for the opportuni- of non-Iranian rulers, especially Turks and Mongols, who
ties for pleasure are limited). The lack of appeal to the Quran adopted Persianate culture and traditions of kingship.
and outwardly religious sentiment may reflect the survival of
Ferdausi alludes to various sources for his account of
Persian religion and philosophy.
events, including a learned Zoroastrian priest and a member
The classical form of the Persian qasideh was created at the of the Persian landed gentry. The existence of a tradition of
professional reciters orally recounting stories from the Iracourt of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna (in modern Afghanistan),
nian national epic in a popular (sub-literary) context has led to
who gathered a number of great poets to his court in the first
heated scholarly debate about possible oral sources for Ferdausi.
half of the eleventh century. Among these were the poet
However, Ferdausi did have an established written tradition
laureate
Onsori (d. 1040); Farrokhi (d. 1038), who delighted
to draw from, and appears to have studied the matter and
in the description of spring and the celebration of musical
carefully crafted his tale. Various versions of the Persian
wine soirees; and Manuchehri (d. 1041), famous for his
“Book of kings” (Khoday nameh) were already written down in
adaptation of classical Arabic qasidehs. The rival Seljuk court
Middle Persian in the sixth and seventh centuries, and several
to the north and west also supported its poets, among them
of these had been translated into Arabic in the eighth and
Amir Mo
ezzi (d. 1127), “prince of poets” to sultans Malik
ninth centuries, as part of the discourse of shu
ubiyya, or
Shah and Sanjar, and Anvari (1126–c.1189), generally acethnic pride among non-Arabs, especially Iranians. At the
knowledged as the ultimate qasideh poet for his erudite,
initiative of Abu Mansur, a committee had translated the
ornamented yet fluid style. Panegyrical poets were richly
work from Middle Persian to Persian prose in 957.
rewarded and got to travel with the court, yet the profession
could be a hazardous one. Mas
ud Sa
d Salman (d. 1121) was The poem covers the mythical era of kingship in Iran,
imprisoned for long periods on suspicion of treason; Emir during which the rites and ceremonies of kingship were

Islam and the Muslim World 525
Persian Language and Literature

established, the demons were subdued, cooking and clothing leaders of the Ahl-e Haqq sect in Kurdistan. All of these,
were introduced, cultivation of the soil begun, fire was however, remained quite tangential to the main canon of
discovered, metal worked, the social castes created, and the Persian literature, in contrast to Ferdausi’s Shah nameh, for
celebration of Nawruz (the spring equinox and Iranian new which the creation of large, sumptuously illustrated manuyear) initiated. Death enters this idyllic realm due to the scripts in royal ateliers became common during the Mongol
hubris of the king, Jamshid, and Zahhak comes to tyrannize period and later. In fact it was almost de rigueur for each
the land. Accursed by Satan’s kiss, Zahhak has a snake successive Safavid monarch to commission such a royal copy,
growing from each of his shoulders, each of which must feed the most famous of which was the copy made for Shah
daily on the brain of an Iranian youth. Feridun eventually Tahmasp (r. 1524–1576), which was subsequently given as a
snatches the throne from Zahhak and restores justice, divid- gift of state to the Ottomans, and eventually found its way to
ing his realm between his three sons before he dies. The two Europe and the art dealer Houghton, but has now been
sons who inherit the lands to the east and west of Iran grow repatriated (at least the surviving illustrated folios) to Iran.
jealous of their brother, who has inherited the realm of Iran.
They conspire to murder him, and this engenders genera- Romance Literature
tions of internecine conflict between Iran and her eastern Also spun-off from the Shah nameh are a number of roneighbor, Turan. mances, although the Persian narrative verse tradition is also
fed by other sources. To have an authoritative or popular
This sets the stage for many sagas and adventures, which source seems to have been an important prerequisite to
revolve thematically around the question of fate and free will, undertaking a narrative poem of several thousand lines (inand the tragic forces that impel kings to conflict with their variably in the rhyming couplet form of the mathnavi), which
enemies, their sons and the champion warriors to whom they might either be commissioned by a patron, or presented to
owe their throne. The father-son conflict usually ends poorly one with a dedication in the introduction in hopes of a
for the son (Rostam and Sohrab, Kay Kavus and Siyavash, reward. Trying one’s hand at an original imaginative story
Goshtasp and Esfandiyar), and the king is far less frequently could be somewhat risky under these circumstances; in any
wise and just (as in the tale of Kei Khosrau, in which the king case, there were many classical stories reflecting the glorious
abdicates and disappears) than tragically flawed or impetuous culture of pre-Islamic Iran from which to draw inspiration.
(as in the case of Kay Kavus). These include a poem of Parthian origins, Vis and Ramin,
versified by Fakhr al-Din Gorgani circa 1054 for the gover-
The Shah nameh is not aware of the great Achaemenid nor of Isfahan from a Middle Persian version. It tells the story
kings Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes, as it takes notice of the of Vis, promised in marriage before her birth to King Mobad.
historical era only as Iran is about to be conquered by The latter’s younger brother, Ramin, falls in love at the first
Alexander. It mostly ignores the successors of Alexander, fast- sight of her, and eventually wins her over. Through the help
forwarding to the Sassanian rulers, whom it covers in some of Vis’s nurse, the pair escapes from Mobad and are eventudetail, both historical and legendary. The 50,000-line epic ally united as king and queen, in a saga not without similaricomes to a close with the Arab conquest of Persia, a sad fate ties to that of Tristan.
indeed, even though Ferdausi writes as a Muslim with Shi
i
loyalties. Other tales of stymied love include “Varqa and Golshah,”
based upon an Arabic story, and versified in Persian in the
The tremendous success of the Shah nameh led other motaqareb meter during the first decades of the eleventh
authors to elaborate on portions of the epic cycle (transmitted century by
Ayyuqi. This pair never unites, except through a
in oral renditions by popular professional reciters) which chaste ideal love that they take with them to the grave. A
Ferdausi either passed over in silence or did not fully develop. similar story, both in its outcome and in its Arab origins, is
These focused on elaborating and embellishing the story of Nezami’s version of the star-crossed lovers Layli and Majnun,
various champions, as in the “Book of Garshasp,” written in in a poem of 4,000 lines written in 1188. This tale was told
1066 by Asadi of Tus (also the author of an important early and retold by subsequent Persian poets (most successfully by
dictionary of Persian), about a hero even more outlandishly Maktabi of Shiraz in 1490), as well as by imitators writing in
strong than Rostam; or the legendary history of the Iranian Turkish and Urdu. The retellings usually resolve the powerprophet Zoroaster, told by the Zoroastrian priest Zartosht ful psychological ambiguity in Nezami’s work and rarely
Bahram Pazhdu in 1278. The influence of Ferdausi is appar- match his masterful ability with language. In addition to a
ent even in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in works very fine divan of shorter poems, Nezami (d. 1209) also
like the Shahanshah nameh (The king of king’s book) by Saba authored four other long narrative mathnavis, including an
(1765–1823), describing a victory by the Qajar king, Fath-
Ali ethico-didactic poem modeled on Sanai, a Persian version of
Shah (r. 1797–1834) over the Russians in the same archaic the Alexander romance (Sikandar Nama), and two poems set
terms found in the Shah nameh; or in the verse history in the Sassanian period. The first of these is Khosrau and
Shahnameh ye haqiqat, written by Mojrem (1871–1920) of the Shirin, a legend about King Khosrau Parviz (r. 590–628) and

526 Islam and the Muslim World
Persian Language and Literature

his Armenian bride, Shirin, who is loved devotedly by Farhad, having been studied and taught throughout the Ottoman
who moves a mountain to attain her, but is tricked by domains, across Iran, and into the Indian subcontinent.
Khosrau into thinking she is dead. The other is Haft Paykar,
about Bahram (r. 421–439) and the seven beautiful princesses The love imagery of the ghazal, beginning with Sanai, was
from the seven climes with whom he enjoys a variety of also turned into a vehicle of mystical expression. Rumi conadventures. The five narrative poems by Nezami were often tinued the project of the mystical ghazal, conceiving his
bound together in one volume and frequently illustrated. spiritual mentor Shams (d. after 1247) as the object of love,
Such was Nezami’s achievement that many later poets tried indeed adopting the voice of his absent master in a huge body
of ghazals that almost always point to transcendent signifi-
their hand at composing a similar quintet, following his
cance. Other poets, such as Sa
di of Shiraz (d. 1292), continmodel. This tended to limit the initiative of later poets in
ued to address ghazals to both amorous and mystical objects
creating new material, but Jami (d. 1492) introduced two new
of love. This creates room for much ambiguity in the ghazals
stories to the traditional subjects of romance: the mystical
of Hafez of Shiraz (d. 1390), who intertwined mystical and
reworking of the Joseph and Zoleikha story (very loosely
physical love in a sublime fashion that is difficult to unravel,
based on Quran, sura 12), and the story of Salaman and
and is generally regarded as the ultimate achievement in
Absal, about a Greek king who has a magician genetically
Persian lyrical poetry, though this often fails to come through
engineer him a perfect son, who, however, is seduced by his
in English translation, as the translators typically try to
beautiful nurse.
reduce him to one thing or the other. Goethe and the
Religious and Mystical poetry German Romantic poets derived much inspiration from Hafez.
The extensive literature of imaginative poetry and prose, as
Prose Genres
well as commentaries that address various aspects of religion
Continuing the Sassanian tradition of advice books, the Qabus
and spirituality is immense. All long poems, from the Shah nameh, written in 1082 by Kay Kavus b. Voshmgir, a local
nameh to romances, inevitably begin with a doxology and prince on the Caspian shore of Iran, provides instruction to
lines in praise of the prophet Muhammad, as well as fre- his son in the arts of government, social graces, and the
quently a description of his journey to heaven. Though the enjoyment of life. About the same time Nezam al-Molk (Ar.
majority of classical Persian poets were Sunnis of the Hanafi Nizam al-Mulk; d. 1092), after whom the first university in
or Shafi
i school, there are some vociferously Shi
ite poets in the Muslim world is named, composed his Siyasat nameh to
the early period, notably Naser Khosrow (1003–1060), an instruct the Seljuk Turks, to whom he served as wazir, in the
Isma
ili poet, and Qavami of Rayy (fl. 12th century). proper ways of Iranian kingship. Both of these charming
books are written in a straightforward prose, whereas Nasr
It was the mystics, however, who created the most success-
Allah Monshi’s version of Kalilah wa Dimna (written between
ful poetry of religious expression, reaching its pinnacle in the
1143 and 1145), which set the prose standard for later authors
mystico-didactic poetry of the mathnavi form. Sanai (d.
to match, used animal characters to convey its lessons. This
1135) initiated the genre with his Hadiqat al-haqiqat, a comvolume requires more work to grasp because of its erudition
pendium of tales, some humorous, that were used to illustrate and its taste for the rhetorical artifices made possible by
homilies and moral injunctions, and which focus chiefly upon Arabic morphology. These tales, derived ultimately (via Aracontrol of the baser passions and correctly understanding the bic, via Middle Persian) from the Panchatantra, were brought
interior meaning of the Quran. Farid al-Din
Attar (d. 1221) to then-contemporary style in 1505 by Hosein Va
ez-e Kashefi
perfected the story-telling element of the mystical mathnavi (d. 1505) as Anvar-e Soheili.
genre, juxtaposing within a frame-tale structure various unrelated anecdotes and vignettes of an entertaining or inspiring Along with many other such collections of tales in prose or
nature to illustrate an overarching theme (as was also com- verse, a huge body of prose literature, including the serial
mon in the European literature of the period). The best adventures of picaresque heroes, manuals for writers, lives of
known of these include the Elahi nameh, in which a king and the poets, local and world histories, as well as literary anfather passes life wisdom to his sons, and the Manteq al-Tayr, thologies, mystical disquisitions, and philosophical texts, exa poem of mystical psychology about a band of birds in search ists in Persian, much of it delightful to read. The prose work
of their spiritual king, the mythical Simorgh, which was with which Persian literature is preeminently associated is,
completed in 1177. however, the Golestan of Sa
di, written in 1258 and loosely
organized in eight chapters by theme (kingship, dervishes,
Modeled on these, but less thematically structured, is the youth, contentment, and so on). Throughout it one encoun-
“Spiritual Couplets” of Jalaluddin Rumi (1207–1273), com- ters entertaining anecdotes, wittily expressed, that advocate a
posed piecemeal in six books through the 1260s. Its opening practical, situational ethics. It weaves together simple, unaplaint of the reed pipe, severed from its spiritual home, dorned prose with rhymed prose and verse to create a new,
remains the single most influential expression of mystical unified literary idiom that set the future standard of emulatheology in Persian, perhaps in the entire Islamic world, tion. Frequently imitated, the Golestan became a textbook of

Islam and the Muslim World 527
Persian Language and Literature

Persian language and Islamic ethics for Turkish speakers, as In Afghanistan, Mahmud Tarzi helped to introduce transthe many Turkish commentaries and translations of the lations of European literature and radically new modern
sixteenth and subsequent centuries attest. It was also used as a literary forms in his journal Seraj al-Akhbar (1911–1918).
textbook for Persian instruction in India, where Persian, and The Iranian poet-singer
Aref (1882–1934) turned his back
then Urdu, commentaries were written on it. It was also used on a court career to compose populist political ballads,
for British students of Persian to study the language in the ghazals, and song lyrics, which reached a mass audience when
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. European translations he sang them in concert. Reform was urged also from within
of the work had been circulating since the mid-seventeenth the aristocratic class, many of whom learned foreign lancentury and caught the attention of La Fontaine and Voltaire, guages or studied abroad, such as Iraj Mirza (1874–1926),
among others. who held a post in the Qajar government but was noted for his
biting satirical indictment of the custom of veiling of women.
Persian in India
It was under the Ghaznavids and their aggressive policy of Political agitation did not always turn out well. The poet
conquest in South Asia that the first wave of Persian poets Mirzadeh
Eshqi was assassinated after satirically caricaturing
moved toward the sub-continent. Mas
ud Sa
d Salman (d. Reza Shah in 1924. Abu ’l-Qasem Lahuti was obliged to flee
1121) lived in Lahore, and his contemporary, Abu al-Faraj from Tabriz in 1922, after leading an unsuccessful revolt
Runi, was born there. Of Indo-Turkic parentage, Emir there. He settled in Dushanbe, in the Soviet Union, where he
Khusrow of Delhi (1253–1325) was a competent imitator of wrote Persian poetry for a Tajiki audience, modernizing
the quintet of Nezami and of well-received ghazals. He classical themes and celebrating the socialist enterprise. The
popularized Persian poetry at the Muslim courts in India, and fiction writer Bozorg
Alavi also fled Iran for East Germany,
also among the Sufis. The poetry of Rumi and
Eraqi (d. as a result of his Communist Party membership. In Tajikistan,
1289) was also popular among South Asian Sufis. Timur authors managed to champion the Central Asian peasants and
enjoyed Persian books and Babur composed Persian poetry of collectives, as well as the creation of a new society, in
his own. The Moguls made Persian the language of govern- artistically successful ways, especially Mirza Torsonzadeh
ment in 1582, commissioning their court histories in Persian. (1911–1977) in poetry and Sadriddin Aini (1878–1954) in
Akbar (1556–1605) actively enticed a whole series of the best fiction.
Persian poets of the era to come to Delhi from Iran and also
encouraged translations of Hindu works to Persian. Dara Poets continued to compose in the traditional forms, but
Shokuh (1615–1659), son of Shahjahan, and Zib al-Nesa introduced modern themes and imagery, including descrip-
Makhfi (1639–1703), daughter of Aurangzib, both composed tions of modern inventions, as in some of the poems of the
excellent Persian poems of mystical and ecumenical bent. literary scholar and parliamentarian, Mohammad Taqi Bahar
Bidel of Patna (d. 1720) was the last major representative of (1880–1951). The monazerat (debate poems) of Parvin E
tesami
the Indian style, and he remains more appreciated in Afghani- (1910–1941), the first of three important women poets of the
stan and India than in Iran. century, championed the cause of the poor and downtrodden.
In Afghanistan, Khalil Allah Khalili (b. Kabul, 1909, d.
Urdu eventually replaced Persian as the primary literary Pakistan, 1987) carried on the classical tradition in a convinclanguage of South Asian Muslims, but some Urdu poets, such ing modern voice.
as Ghalib (1796–1869), also wrote in Persian, while Sir
Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), the intellectual father of The ghazal retained its thematics of love, but became
Pakistan, wrote major poems, such as his Javid Nama, in slightly more personal and more modern in its sentiments,
Persian, a more widely understood language in the Mus- tinged with European romanticism, but developing toward a
lim world. contemporary idiom, as in the poems of Simin Behbehani,
who headed the Iranian Writer’s Congress. Poets, however,
Modern Literature also began to separate poetry from traditional verse. First
The twentieth century saw a sea-change in Persian language came an effort to break down the classical meters into their
and literature, as modernization, revolution, centralization constituent feet and combine these feet in new patterns. The
and Marxist-Leninism greatly altered Tajikistan and Iran, in first experiment in this direction came in the early 1920s with
particular. First of all, with the advent of lithography and Afsaneh (Romance) by Nima Yushij (1895–1960), who develprinting in the nineteenth century, books became more oped toward free verse in the following decade. Though some
affordable, and more importantly, the appearance of newspa- poets, such as Mehdi Akhavan-e Sales (1928–1990), continpers created a different and wider audience for literature. For ued to compose in both free verse and traditional meters, the
various short periods of time, the press became relatively free, most outstanding achievements in the post–World War II era
and there were a number of journals published in Persian were by poets working in free verse, foremost among whom
outside Iran, which made it possible to openly advocate stands Ahmad Shamlu (1926–2001), whose work demonreform or political opposition to the crown. strates a commitment and capability to uphold political and

528 Islam and the Muslim World
Pilgrimage

artistic values simultaneously in his best poems. Forugh Browne, Edward G. A Literary History of Persia. Cambridge,
Farrokhzad (1935–1967) pushed poetry toward inner au- U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1951.
thenticity by infusing it with personal experience and focus- Canfield, Robert, ed. Turko-Persia in Historical Perspective.
ing on everyday topics, such as sexuality, sometimes from an Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
explicitly female point of view. She was rewarded for her France, Peter, ed. The Oxford Guide to Literature in English
sincerity with public condemnation as an “immoral” woman. Translation. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Her poetry, however, speaks eloquently and profoundly for
Hanaway, William. “The Iranian Epics.” In Heroic Epic and
itself. Meanwhile, painter and nature poet, Sohrab Sepehri
Saga: an Introduction and Handbook to the World’s Great Folk
(1928–1981) beautifully adapted the mystical perspective of Epics. Edited by Felix J. Oinas. Bloomington: Indiana
Persian poetry to modern modes of expression. University Press, 1978.
The modernist literary idiom was entirely secular, and Kamshad, Hassan. Modern Persian Literature. Cambridge,
often political, yet allusive enough to elude the censors. U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1966.
Poetry played an important role in creating political symbols Karl, Jahn, ed. History of Iranian Literature. Dordrecht, Holof freedom (dawn, day) as opposed to those of oppression land: D. Reidel, 1968.
(night, winter), and in inspiring revolutionary sentiment Levy, Reuben. An Introduction to Persian Literature. New
against the shah of Iran in the 1970s. Part of this process York: Columbia University Press, 1969.
involved purging Persian poetry from its classical themes and Meisami, Julie. Medieval Persian Court Poetry. Princeton, N.J.:
dynamics, and creating believable characters. In prose litera- Princeton University Press, 1987.
ture, Mohammad-
Ali Jamalzadih (1892–1997) forged a new
Morrison, George; Baldick, Julian; and Shafi’i-Kadkani,
idiom for imaginative prose literature with his short stories,
Muhammad-Riza. History of Persian Literature: From the
as did Sadeq Hedayat (1903–1951), whose novel The Blind Beginning of the Islamic Period to the Present Day. Leiden:
Owl (1969) remains the best known modern Persian work E. J. Brill, 1981.
abroad, in part because of the author’s connections with
Schimmel, Annemarie. A Two-Colored Brocade: The Imagery of
expressionist and existentialist writers in Europe, and his
Persian Poetry. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
suicide in Paris. Jalal Al-e Ahmad (1923–1969, husband of Press, 1992.
Simin Daneshvar) wrote short stories and novels, The School
Yarshater, Ehsan, ed. Persian Literature. Albany, N.Y.:
Principal (1974) being the most interesting, but he is best
Bibliotheca Persica, 1988.
known in the Muslim world for his 1962 attack on the
hegemony of Western culture, Gharbzadegi. Several historical novels also deal with the theme of Western, especially Franklin D. Lewis
British, imperialism in Iran: Sadeq Chubak’s Tangsir (1963),
based on a true event in southern Iran; Simin Daneshvar’s
Savushun (1990), a political love story told from the woman’s
point of view; and the ten-volume novel Kelidar (1978–1983) PHILOSOPHY See Ethics and Social Issues;
by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi. In the 1970s and the post- Kalam; Knowledge; Science, Islam and
Revolution period, female prose writers have achieved popular and critical success (among them, Mahshid Amirshahi,
Goli Taraqqi, and Fattaneh Hajj Sayyed Javadi). Others, like
Shahrnush Parsipur and Moniru Ravanipur, succeeded in
introducing magical realism to Iran. PILGRIMAGE
An image of a 1650 Persian manuscript appears in the volume
HAJJ
two color insert.
Kathryn Kueny
See also Arabic Language; Arabic Literature; Biog- ZIYARA
raphy and Hagiography; Biruni, al-; Ghazali, al-; Gram- Richard C. Martin
mar and Lexicography; Hadith; Historical Writing;
Ibn Sina; Iqbal, Muhammad; Libraries; Rumi,
Jalaluddin; Tabari, al-; Urdu Language, Literature, HAJJ
and Poetry; Vernacular Islam. The Islamic hajj refers specifically to the annual pilgrimage to
Mecca, Arafat, and Mina during the second week of the Dhu
BIBLIOGRAPHY l-Hijja, the final month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Called a
Arberry, Arthur J. “Islamic Literature: Persia.” In Near East- duty of humankind to Allah in the Quran (3:97), and the fifth
ern Culture and Society. Edited by T. Cuyler Young. of the five pillars of Islam, in recent years the hajj has attracted
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1951. about two million Muslims annually from approximately 160

Islam and the Muslim World 529
Pilgrimage

countries. All adult Muslims with proper intentions (niya), proved to me the power of the One God.” In reality, distincadequate resources, good health, and sound mind are re- tions among pilgrims exist, as illustrated by the vastly differquired to perform this duty once during their lifetimes. Other ent services and accommodations enjoyed by those of diverse
pilgrimages exist in Islam, including visitations to saints’ nationalities and classes. In perception, the community reshrines (ziyara), but these are not officially sanctioned. flects unchallenged unity and equality.

The Ka
ba, the focal point of the hajj with its heavenly Individually, pilgrimage acts as a rite of passage for Musblack stone, was a pilgrimage site long before the time of lims who confront major transitions in their lives, including
Muhammad. Shortly before his death, Muhammad claimed marriage, retirement, illness, or death. As a rite of passage, it
this site for Islam, and determined a sequence of symbolic also functions as a symbolic affirmation of faith for converts
rituals to be performed around it by all Muslims. These or those who are returning to or renewing their beliefs. In
rituals reenact events in the lives of Ibrahim (Abraham), the some societies, the hajj transforms ordinary individuals into
archetype for Islam as founder of monotheism (hanifiyya) and extraordinary pious exemplars, or social elites. In parts of
builder of the Ka
ba, his wife Hagar, and their son Isma
il Egypt, those who have completed the hajj receive an elevated
(Ishmael). Collective and individual rites at this site not only status close to that of a saint. As possessors of blessings
replicate the actions of Muhammad, but also recall the sacred (baraka) extracted from the holy land, returning pilgrims
movements of pious biblical prophets who predate Islam. become saintly individuals reborn free of sin, deserving of
paradise. Having successfully navigated the difficult journey
Prior to the hajj, pilgrims undergo a ritual cleansing that to Mecca and back, pilgrims are likened to Muhammad who
separates them from their profane individual and cultural also made the tough trek to Jerusalem and paradise in the
identities, and allows them to enter sacred space and time as a middle of the night. Hausa Nigerians use the pilgrimage to
unified group of believers before God. Men wear a simple export local healing practices (involving spirits) into orthowhite garment to symbolize their unity as Muslims; women dox Saudi culture, for which they are greatly but clandestinely
wear customary dress, which demonstrates the meeting of compensated. These healers return home to enjoy loftier
diverse cultures on the common holy ground of Mecca. The social and economic positions as a result of their craft. In both
initial rite of the hajj (tawaf), which includes a sevenfold Egyptian and Nigerian examples, the hajj accentuates local
circumambulation of the Ka
ba, is followed by the “running” Muslim practices that challenge the orthodoxy and sense of
(sa
y) of pilgrims between two hills. This action recalls Hagar’s monolithic communal unity asserted through collective ritual.
frantic search for water. The apex of the hajj is the “standing”
of all pilgrims on Mount Arafat from noon until sunset as they The hajj serves both as a spiritual and political arena.
pray individually and collectively to their one God. After Nineteenth-century Muslim anti-imperialist movements were
sundown, all spend the night at Muzdalifa before the next inspired by the hajj. In 1822 and 1823, Sayyid Ahmad perday’s ritual performances of the “stoning” and the “sacrifice” formed the pilgrimage, and then launched a jihad against
at Mina. Both actions reenact the sacred drama of Ibrahim’s British influence in Egypt. Imam Shamil of Daghestan and
attempted sacrifice of Isma
il. Pilgrims throw seven stones at Shaykh
Abd al-Qadir of Algeria met during the hajj to
a pillar representing Satan who tried to divert Ibrahim from discuss the French presence in North Africa and the Russians
God’s command to sacrifice his son; they sacrifice to cele- in the Causasus. Recent global controversies are played out
brate God’s substitution of a ram for Isma
il. This sacrificial on the pilgrimage stage, since control of the hajj is directly
rite is embraced simultaneously by pilgrims and Muslims all associated with leadership in the Islamic world. In 1935, an
over the world in gratitude for God’s mercy. After the attempt was made to assassinate Ibn Sa
ud during the hajj, in
sacrifice, pilgrims may perform another tawaf and sa
y, and protest of Wahhabi control of the shrines. Recent Saudi
then gradually reenter profane space by cutting or shaving control over the hajj has bred resentment and favoritism
their hair and assuming regular dress. among those billion Muslims who now have access to the hajj
through the rapid air, land, and sea travel of the modern age.
The Islamic pilgrimage preserves, elevates, and reinforces In 1986, when King Fahd of Saudi Arabia declared himself to
collective and individual Muslim identities in a constantly be custodian of the holy sites, Iran challenged his authority by
changing world. Collectively, pilgrims confirm the basic delivering sets of revolutionary sermons condemning Amertenets of Islam, including the affirmation of God’s oneness, ica, Israel, and other enemies of Islam (including the Saudi
obedience to God, the necessity for a global Muslim commu- government). The Libyan leader Mu
ammar al-Qaddafi bynity, and the importance of their prophetic past. Many passed Saudi authority when he invoked independent judgpilgrims return to their homes with the sense they are ment (ijtihad) to deny the hajj as an essential pillar of Islam. In
connected to a greater, transcendent whole, a seamless relig- 2002, the Iraqi government provoked the Saudis to take
ious community that surpasses economic, racial, and cultural action when they sent civilian planes to transport pilgrims to
differences. As Malcolm X pronounced in his autobiography the holy land without prior notification of the United Na-
(1990, p. 338), “The brotherhood! The people of all races, tions Security Council, a direct violation of a 1999 agreecolors, from all over the world coming together as one! It has ment. Through increased media coverage of the hajj, along

530 Islam and the Muslim World
Pilgrimage

Hajj: Pilgrimage to Mecca
One day is measured from sunset to sunset.

Medina

Jeddah

MECCA
The 3 Jamarat
3 Stone Pillars
al-Khayf Mosque
MINA

MUZDALIFA
Al-Mash’ar
al haram

N PLAIN OF ‘ARAFAT
DAY 1: 8TH DHU-1-HIJJA
Yaum at-Tarwiyah (Day of Deliberation) Site of the Prophet's Farewell Sermon
Jabal al-Rahma
TAWAF al-QUDUM: The initial circumambula- Mount of Mercy
tion of the Ka
bah is performed Namira Mosque
Personal prayer is made (du
a
) Ta’if
Prayer is made at the station of Abraham 2 4 6km
(MAQAM IBRAHIM) 0
The pilgrim drinks the water of ZAMZAM
The pilgrim perfoms the SA
Y or courses
between SAFA and MARWA
The pilgrim spends the night at MINA

DAY 2: 9TH DHU-1-HIJJA DAY 3: 10TH DHU-1-HIJJA DAYS 4, 5, 6: 11TH, 12TH, 13TH DHU-1-HIJJA
i
Yaum Arafat (Day of Arafat) Yaum an-Nahr (Day of Sacrifice) Ayyam at-Tashriq (Days of Drying Meat, that
WUQUF (a presence, like the multitudes on The pilgrim prays the dawn prayer (SUBH) and is, taking provision)
the Day of Judgement, between noon and visits the MASH
AR al-HARAM The pilgrims stay at MINA, and each day
sunset on the plain of
Arafat or on the “Mount The pilgrims gather 49 or 70 pebbles at between sunset and sunrise throw seven
of Mercy” (JABAL RAHMA) Muzdalifa to stone the JAMARAT stones at each of the 3 JAMARAT
Frequent recitation of the Abrahamic TALBIYA They go to MINA via WADI MUHASSAR It is permissible to terminate the Pilgrimage
(“Here I am, O Lord…”) on the 12th if depature takes place by sunset
They cast seven stones (RAMI-I-JIMAR) at the
After sunset the IFADAH (“overflowing”) or JAMRAT al-
AQABA A new covering (kiswa) is put on the Ka
ba
NAFRA (“rush”) takes place; this is a rapid Upon departure, a final circumambulation of
The animal sacrifice is made between now
departure for MUZDALIFA
and day 6 the Ka
ba is made: TAWAF al-WADA
Night prayers (
ISHA) are combined with the (“circumambulation of farewell”)
A lock of hair can be clipped terminating
delayed sunset prayer (MAGHRIB) and
most of the conditions of consecration
performed near the MASH
AR al-HARAM, a
(IHRAM) between now and the final day
station of the pilgrimage in Muzdalifah
The pilgrims spend the night at MUZDALIFA The pilgrims return to Mecca and circumambulate the Kaba (TAWAF al-IFADA)

SOURCE: Glassé, Cyril. The Consice Encyclopedia of Islam. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989.

Illustration of the pilgrim’s trek to Mecca.

with computer access to the virtual hajj, these tensions among An image of pilgrims praying at Mount of Mercy appears in the
the many conflicting faces of Islam will only increase, as will volume two color insert.
efforts to make the hajj a venue for common Muslim religious
identity around the world. See also
Ibadat; Pilgrimage: Ziyara; Ritual.

Islam and the Muslim World 531
Pilgrimage

Grand Mosque floorplan N

1 The well of Zamzam
2 The Maqam (station of) Ibrahim
3 The Hatim, or semi-circular wall round the Hijr Isma
il where
Isma
il and Hajar
Hagra are buried
4 The Mataf, or open circumambulation area round the Ka
ba
5 The Ka
ba
6 The door to the Ka
ba. The Multazam (“the place of holding”)
is the area between the door and the Black Stone 8
7 The Black Stone
8 The Mas
a (the place of running back and forth) between
Safa and Marwa
9 Steps down to Zamzam faucets
10 The portion of the Sa
y which is run, not walked
11 Safa (the hill is enclosed in the Mosque)
12 King
Abd al-
Aziz Gate
13 Marwa (the hill is enclosed in the Mosque)
14 Gate of the
Umra
15 Salam Gate

Note: Mutawwifs (Guides) can be found near the Maqam Ibrahim and near Safa. Wheelchairs and litters can also be found near Safa.
SOURCE: Glassé, Cyril. The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989.

Floorplan of the Grand Mosque.

532 Islam and the Muslim World
Pluralism

BIBLIOGRAPHY live among or near the Muslims who visit the shrines, thus
Campo, Juan Eduardo. The Other Sides of Paradise: Explora- making the ziyara a ritual negotiation of communal inclusivetions into the Religious Meanings of Domestic Space in Islam. ness in areas where Muslims and non-Muslims live with soft
Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press, 1991. boundaries between their communities. This differentiates
Firestone, Reuven. Journeys into Holy Lands: The Evolution of the practice of ziyara from the religious duty of hajj. Yet for
the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis. Albany: many Muslims over the centuries, both forms of pilgrimage
State University of New York Press, 1990. have been practiced. For example, in premodern times of
Long, D. The Hajj Today: A Survey of Contemporary Pilgrim- overland travel, pilgrims from Spain and North Africa on
age to Mekkah. Albany: State University of New York their way to Mecca to perform the hajj would often plan a stop
Press, 1979. in Tanta, in the Egyptian Delta, to visit the shrine of Ahmad
Peters, F. E. The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and al-Badawi (1199–1276). Although such rituals are traditional
the Holy Places. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University and premodern in their origins, modern urban Muslims in
Press, 1994. regions where ziyara pilgrimage is customary and deeply
Rubin, Uri. “The Great Pilgrimage of Muhammad: Some rooted in local practice are often seen among the pilgrims
Notes on Sura IX.” Journal of Semitic Studies 27 celebrating the anniversaries of these saints.
(1982): 241–260.
See also Ibn Hanbal; Pilgrimage; Hajj; Saint; Tasawwuf.
Wolfe, Michael. One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of
Travelers Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage. New York:
Richard C. Martin
Grove Press, 1997.
Young, William C. “The Ka
ba, Gender, and the Rites of
Pilgrimage.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 25
(1993): 285–300. PLURALISM
Kathryn Kueny LEGAL AND ETHNO-RELIGIOUS
Irene Schneider
ZIYARA POLITICAL
In and Shi
ite Islam, the concept of ziyara is found in many Gudrun Krämer
diverse parts of the Muslim world, especially those parts for
which Sufism was the main agency for the spread of Islam.
The chief exception to the tolerance of ziyara historically is LEGAL AND ETHNO-RELIGIOUS
found in those regions where the Hanbali school of law has Several Quranic verses as well as hadiths seem to confirm the
predominated. Since the eighteenth century this has been acceptance of ethnic and religious diversity or pluralism. One
primarily in the Arabian Peninsula under the influence of such example is found at 49:13, which reads: “O people! We
Wahhabi and Salafi forms of Islamic Puritanism, which shuns have created you from a male and female; and we have made
all innovations in worship that were not clearly sanctioned by you in confederacies and tribes so that you might come to
the Prophet. know one another. The noblest among you in the eyes of God
is the most pious, for God is omniscient and well-informed.”
Nonetheless, throughout most of Africa, Anatolia, as well This verse offers no prejudice, but rather expresses a conas West, Central, South and Southeast Asia, pilgrims have sciousness of difference and emphasizes that piety is more
visited shrines for centuries, with many local variations in important than the birth. Ethnic pluralism, that is the existarchitecture and ritual performance. The mazars are visited ence of groups defined primarily by race, language, or other
by pilgrims throughout the year, to seek blessing (baraka) cultural, historical, and in some sense geographical criteria
from the saint buried at the shrine tomb. Often, one or two was thus accepted from the beginning in Islam. However, the
“deputies” or respected followers of the saint will be buried in unity of the Islamic umma (community of believers) was
the same complex. The anniversary of the death of the saint emphasized and was thought of as a kind of superstructure
(
urs, which also means “wedding”), is the occasion of a major upon which other identities, whether tribal or ethnic,
visitation and celebration by his devotees. For major saints were hung.

urs was an occasion for a ziyara marked by joyous celebration, dancing, and ritual orations. The Spread of Islam to Other Cultures
From the time of the first conquests, Muslims spread out
Although many reform-minded local religious elites (ulema) from the Arabian Peninsula to people who neither spoke
have argued that visitation to Sufi shrines was an un-Islamic Arabic nor could claim Arab descent. Different ethnic groups,
innovation (bid
a) and thus forbidden, many others have as well as different religions, were incorporated into the new
accepted such practices as local expressions of Muslim piety. empire. The integration of people from other races and
Ziyara rituals and performances often attract Christians, cultures did not pose great legal or religious problems,
Hindus, and members of other religious communities who although in the first two centuries, the institution of wala

Islam and the Muslim World 533
Pluralism

(clienthood) was used to affiliate non-Arab Muslims to the Legal Pluralism
developing Muslim society. This reflects the struggle be- Islamic law can also be called pluralistic. It derives its norms,
tween the pure-Arab, conquering aristocracy, who claimed rules, and judgements from the holy texts (Quran, sunna),
ethnic and social superiority, and the Muslim converts among but in cases where these sources provide no clear rules, they
the conquered, who could claim neither ethnic nor familial are derived through the method of analogy (qiyas). Rules and
advantage. Thus, the cohabitation of different ethnicities and judgements derived in this way were then gradually accepted
races was never without problems. The idea of racial inno- through the consensus of the jurists (ijma
), which, however,
cence and total racial (and ethnic) harmony in Islam is, in was not institutionalized. Thus, from the beginning, there
other words, a Western creation, as Bernard Lewis argues in existed a wide range of acceptable legal resolutions to probhis 1990 volume, Race and Slavery in the Middle East. lems. Over time these were derived from the texts by the
jurists (fuqaha) and laid down in the legal literature. This
Accommodating Other Religious Practices process of derivation was based on the independent juristic
Religious pluralism, on the other hand, must be dealt with on interpretation of the texts, called ijtihad. Codification of law
several levels. Whereas the acceptance of the “people of the only began in modern times, starting in the Ottoman Empire
book” (comprising Muslims, Christians, and Jews) was stated with the mecelle in 1877. The methodological tool of ijtihad
from the beginning, and whereas Christians and Jews had an and the pluralism of different legal norms and rules have
acknowledged (but not equal) position in the Muslim society, always supplied Islamic Law with a certain flexibility.
people belonging to other, “non-book” religions were required to convert to Islam. However, even within Islam, Four major legal schools have emerged over time. These
belief itself is not and cannot be considered monolithic. are the Maliki, Hanafi, the Shafi
, and the Hanbali. In
Pluralism existed in Islamic formal theology as well as in addition there are the Shi
ite schools of law, the most imporpopular belief. tant of which being the school of the Twelver Shi
a. On the
institutional level, this pluralism led the rulers of the Mamluk
The common belief in Islam is based on the acknowledg- Empire, in Egypt in the thirteenth century, to create the
ment of the unity of God, and Muhammad being the prophet offices of the four judges, each associated with one of the four
of God. It also requires the acknowledgment of the other four Sunni schools of law.
pillars of faith: prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and the payment of
alms. Those who did not accept these basic tenets were Nonetheless, the application of Islamic law has always
considered to be unbelievers. On the other hand, within this been restricted to the Muslim community, and the legal
framework, a wide range of different forms of religiosity independence of the Jewish and Christian communities was
developed, as evidenced by the rise of the mystic orders, accepted to a certain degree. Thus, Islamic law could be
especially since the fifteenth century. defined as a personal law and not as the law of a territory. In
the Ottoman Empire, the millet system began as a coexistence
Theological controversies centered around several differ- of religious communities, each with its own administrative
ent issues, including the analysis of the concept of God, the autonomy and jurisdiction. This system finally led to a
ontological and cosmological proofs, and the politics of the change whereby the personal law became more territorial,
application of divine rule to the community. Different theo- ultimately becoming a law applicable to all subjects of the
logical schools came into existence, such as the Murji
a, the Ottoman Empire and not only to the Muslim community.
Qadiriyya, and the Mu
tazila. These have been complemented by diverse approaches to mystical and philosophical Legal pluralism describes the (legal) situation observed in
theology and, more recently, by a theology that reflected the the Islamic countries today, but it is by no means exclusive to
confrontation with Western colonial powers. them. From the lawyer’s point of view, legal pluralism denotes a state’s recognition of the existence of a multiplicity of
Religious pluralism on both the normative and the social legal sources that constitute its legislation: international treaties,
level must be looked at in a historical perspective, taking into customary law, religious law, and the like. From the socioconsideration Islam’s adaptation to the manifold political, logical point of view, legal pluralism can be defined more
economical, regional, and social conditions, and the different broadly, to acknowledge that a plurality of sometimes intercultural backgrounds and separate historical developments active social fields produce norms of legitimate behavior. For
that prevailed in the vast areas into which it spread. There is, Islam, the term not only recognizes the coexistence of modhowever, a limitation to tolerance, a turning point where ern, secular modern laws alongside shari
a norms, but also the
different beliefs must be judged as unbelief (kufr). Just where existence of customary practice beside, or even in opposition
this turning point occurs is still under discussion today, and to state law.
transgressions are still prosecuted. An example is the case of
Nasr Abu Zaid (b. 1943), who was considered an unbeliever Throughout its history, the legal structures of Islamic
for his interpretation of the Quran. As punishment, he was society have made room not only for the coexistence of shari
a
forced to divorce his wife in 1995 (although the marriage was and qanun (that is, religious and secular law), but also for
later reinstated). customary practice (
urf). An example of this is the so-called

534 Islam and the Muslim World
Pluralism

“secular justice” of the mazalim, an institution dealing with Lewis, Bernard. Race and Slavery in the Middle East. Oxford,
grievances that not only is rooted deeply in the theory of U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Islamic constitution but which has also been practiced through
centuries. The problem of accommodating multiple sources Irene Schneider
of the law, however, gained special importance under the
influence of modern, secular Western law in nineteenth and POLITICAL
twentieth centuries. In response to the growing importance Contemporary positions as formulated by Islamic thinkers
of Western law in Muslim societies, a powerful political Islam and activists can be roughly divided into two opposing views:
arose in the 1970s that was rooted in the belief of the one deeply suspicious of pluralism as menacing Muslim
necessary implementation of Islamic law. Thus, Islamic law power and unity, the other supporting pluralism as contributwas rediscovered as a national legal tradition, and was held up ing to Muslim strength and creativity. In a kind of political
in opposition to the influence of the Western law. tawhid (the theological doctrine of the oneness of God), the
first gives priority to the unity of the community, which
Kilian Bälz, a turn of the twenty-first-century legal scholar figures so prominently in the Quran and sunna of the
whose work has focused on the problem of the legal pluralism Prophet. This corresponds to the concept of ijma
, that is, the
in Muslim society, has argued that the coexistence and consensus of the Muslim community as expressed by its
relation between the modern Western law and the shari
a has religious scholars in juridical theory (usul al-fiqh) to which
always been discussed in this context of influence. He has modern authors frequently refer when trying to ground their
shown that in Egypt, as in many other Islamic countries, the notions in the Islamic tradition. Taken to its extremes, the
constitution holds the principles of shari
a to be the primary emphasis on unity can imply the rejection of all divergence of
source of legislation. In 1994, however, Egypt’s highest court opinions, or any kind of criticism or opposition to the
defended the autonomy of the secular legal order by taking dominant doctrines and practices, which are denounced as
control of the interpretation of Islamic law. As Bälz reports, fitna, that is, a menace to, and sin against, not just the given
the court reserves to itself the right to interpret Islamic rules, sociopolitical system but the divinely ordained order at large.
and it reconstructs Islamic law on the basis of secular para- If there is only one truth, and if it can be identified without
digms. This is, however, nothing new. The interpretation of doubt or mistake, there is no room for free debate, political
shari
a has historically been flexible, as can be seen in the competition and institutionalized pluralism, for there are
existence of several different schools of law (ikhtilaf) and only two “parties” (or rather groups or communities): the
through the practice of ijtihad, which is the legal interpreta- party of God (hizb allah) and the party of the devil (hizb altion of the Quran and other textual sources by jurists. Thus, shaytan). Political parties represent particularistic interests at
Islamic legal pluralism refers not only to multiple sources of the expense of the common good (al-maslaha al-
amma),
the law (religious or secular), but also to multiple interpreta- dividing and thereby weakening the community.
tions of any given law.
Quoting a well-known Quranic verse (Sura 49:13) and an
Also important to the analysis of Islamic legal pluralism is equally famous Prophetic saying (hadith) according to which
an examination of rules, other than those enacted by the state, the “diversity of opinion [ikhtilaf] among my community is a
which govern and shape social conduct. Social norms and blessing,” advocates of the alternative view point to the
customary practices can in no way be considered uniform elements of diversity and pluralism in the religious, legal, and
through out the lands of Islam, yet they operate within or historical heritage of the Muslim community (including most
alongside of formal legal structures. An important example of notably the different Sunni and Shi
ite schools of law, sing.,
this is the haqq al-
arab, a form of conflict resolution in madhhab) as one of the very sources of its flowering, resilmodern Egypt (and other Muslim countries), that operates ience, and attractiveness. Even though there is only one truth,
outside of both religious and formal secular law, yet enjoys at there is no guarantee that humans will be able to find it with
least partial official recognition. infallible certainty. Free debate is therefore both legitimate
and necessary, and given the conditions of modern mass
See also
Ada; Hadith; Law; Quran; Shari
a; Sunna.
society, political pluralism may have to be institutionalized in
political parties and associations to become effective.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aslan, Adnan. Religious Pluralism in Christian and Islamic However, there are clear limits to legitimate diversity and
Philosophy. Richmond, U.K.: Curzon, 1998. pluralism from the Islamic viewpoint: they are defined by
Bälz, Kilian. “Shari
a and Qanun in Egyptian Law. A Systems God’s law and revelation. Debate must fall short of any
Theory Approach to Legal Pluralism.” In Yearbook of radical critique of religion, or its dominant interpretations,
Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, Volume 2 (1995): 37. which is readily denounced as blasphemy, heresy (kufr), or
Dupret, Baudoin; Berger, Maurits; and al-Zwaini, Laila. apostasy (ridda). The crucial issues of religious authority and
Legal Pluralism in the Arab World. The Hague: Kluwer effective power of definition are largely left unaddressed. As
Law International, 1999. long as the religious categories of truth and falsehood, right

Islam and the Muslim World 535
Poetry, Literature

and wrong, licit and illicit are used to evaluate political shari
a, or about the precise nature of the Islamic state or
opinions and decisions, political pluralism remains confined system they wish to establish. While the term is mostly
to what the powers-that-be define as consistent with the applied to groups and associations, including political parties,
public order, which in its turn can be identified with prevalent individuals can also be labeled Islamists. To the extent that
understandings of religion, custom and morals. Islamists engage in politics, they are part of political Islam. An
alternative term, “integralism,” is derived from the French,
See also Pluralism: Legal and Ethno-Religious. where it is more commonly used than Islamism. Both terms
are, by and large, synonymous.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Krämer, Gudrun. “Islam and Pluralism.” In Political On the other hand, “fundamentalism” generally carries
Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab World.Vol. highly negative connotations, reflecting a whole set of traits
1, Theoretical Perspectives. Edited by Rex Brynen, Bahgat and attitudes. Chief among these is a literalist, or scripturalist,
Korany, and Paul Noble. Boulder. London: Lynne reading of the normative texts (scripture or revelation; in the
Riener, 1995. present case, the Quran and sunna) that tends to reject all
Moussalli, Ahmad S. “Modern Islamic Fundamentalist Dis- kinds of allegorical, mythical, mystical, or modernist exegesis
courses on Civil Society, Pluralism and Democracy.” In as fundamentally wrong and illegitimate. The term also
Vol. 1, Civil Society in the Middle East. Edited by Augustus implies a common assumption that not only is there only one
Richard Norton. Leiden: Brill, 1995. truth, but that the fundamentalists have a monopoly of this
truth; a lack of tolerance of different opinions and interpreta-
Gudrun Krämer tions flowing from this conviction; and a propensity to resort
to violence if their reading of scripture and, more generally,
their understanding of the faith, is challenged or threatened,
be it from within the community or from without. In view of
POETRY, LITERATURE See Arabic this cluster of negative attributes, it should be emphasized
Literature; Persian Language and Literature; Urdu that a fundamentalist understanding of the faith need not be
Language, Literature, and Poetry accompanied by militancy, nor does it necessarily entail
political activism. In other words, fundamentalists can be
either activist or quietist. If reserved for those Islamists who
advocate a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, irrespective of their stand on politics in general and violence in
POLITICAL ISLAM particular, “fundamentalism” can serve as a meaningful analytical term in an Islamic as well as in any other context.
Political Islam is the phrase used to denote a wide range of
individuals and associations dedicated to the transformation “Political Islam” designates that particular segment of the
of state and society so as to make them “Islamic.” The term broader Islamist trend (Ar. al-tayyar al-islami) that is active in
also refers to Islam conceived as a set of beliefs, a code of the political sphere. Political Islam is not synonymous with
conduct, or a repertory of images and metaphors relevant to violent, radical, or extremist Islamism, and it is not restricted
politics, as well as to various attempts to define an “Islamic to opposition groups. The spectrum ranges from advocates of
state” or “Islamic order.” an Islamic republic to sympathizers of an Islamic monarchy
or a resuscitated caliphate, and from self-declared liberals to
The “Islamic Trend” uncompromising conservatives. Some Islamists are com-
Like any other term that is used to define the broad and monly classified as moderate or pragmatic, others as radical,
heterogeneous “Islamic trend,” such as Islamism, integralism, militant, or extremist. For practical reasons, the term is best
and even more so, fundamentalism, the term “political Islam” used for organized groups, movements, and parties, keeping
is problematic and contested. “Islamism,” as the most com- in mind that there may be considerable numbers of individuprehensive term, has the benefit of being largely value-free. It als who share the basic objectives and assumptions of political
describes the fact that “Islamists” advocate the establishment Islam without being affiliated to any particular group or party.
of an “Islamic order” (nizam Islami) that is usually defined by
the “application of the shari
a, ” that is, the implementation of Intellectual Origins: The Salafiyya
Islam’s divinely ordained moral and legal code regulating all Political Islam is one of the most conspicuous, and at the same
human activity, including the organization of state and soci- time most controversial, phenomena of modern Muslim
ety. It does not indicate how they intend to establish such an societies. It builds on earlier reform movements of the late
order. For example, it does not specify whether they consider nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which in their turn
the use of force to be legitimate, nor does it say whether they took up core concerns of major reformers of the eighteenth
would use, or even privilege, the political sphere in their and early nineteenth centuries. The reformers included Shah
activities. It also says nothing specific about their concept of Wali Allah (1703–1762), Muhammad b.
Abd al-Wahhab

536 Islam and the Muslim World
Political Islam

(1703–1792),
Uthman Dan Fodio (c. 1754–1817), Muham- displaced by a triumphant West only because of its superior
mad al-Shawkani (1760–1839), and Muhammad b.
Ali al- material power.
Sanusi (1787–1859), all of whom possessed very different
assumptions, approaches, and activities. Political Islam today As an intellectual force, the Salafiyya exerted considerable
builds on the call to invigorate Islam through ijtihad (inde- influence on (Sunni) Muslim reformers from Morocco to
pendent reasoning), while departing from the earlier reform- Hadhramaut, India, Turkestan, and Java. Organizationally
ers in several important ways. Among the reform movements speaking, however, it was a weak, loosely connected group of
of the turn of the twentieth century, the Salafiyya stands out urban scholars and intellectuals based in the major cities of
as having had the most important intellectual influence on Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, as well as their colleagues, friends, and
later generations of Islamists. family. Major figures in the movement included Jamal al-Din
al-Afghani (1839–1897), Muhammad
Abduh (1849–1905),
The Salafiyya movement was named after its objective to and Rashid Rida (1865–1935). The Salafiyya made systematic
revive the spirit of the first generations of Muslims (Ar. al- use of the newly emerging press and book market, dissemisalaf al-salih). It sought to accomplish this by recreating a nating their writings over much of the Islamic world within a
vibrant Muslim society in the modern era, thereby bringing relatively short period of time. However, they were not
about the rebirth, or renaissance, of Islam (al-nahda) after linked to any formal association or party, and consequently
centuries of weakness and decadence. The Salafiyya defined a there was no mass support for the ideas and ideals that they
number of themes that are still relevant to many Islamists espoused.
today: that Islam constitutes the essence of Muslim identity;
Ideologues of Political Islam: al-Banna,
that it is more than the belief in God and the prophet
Maududi, and Qutb
Muhammad; that it provides for a specific way of life; and
Political Islam proper came into existence after the First
that, if properly understood, it is entirely compatible with
World War, with the emergence of organized movements
modernity, notably modern science and the spirit of rational
that reached beyond the limited circles of Muslim scholars,
inquiry. However, the Salafiyya also believed that, in order
writers, and journalists. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
for Islam to serve as the principal source of inspiration and
was among the most influential of these movements, and its
guidance to Muslims in the modern age, it first had to be freed
leader, Hasan al-Banna (1906–1949), became one of the bestfrom the many misunderstandings and distortions that had
known representatives of political Islam. Founded in 1928 in
been accumulated over the centuries.
the Egyptian provincial town of Ismailiyya, the Muslim
Brotherhood (jama
at al-ikhwan al-muslimin) grew from a
For the Salafiyya, Islamic reform consisted of cleansing
rather insignificant association dedicated to moral reform
Islam of these misunderstandings and distortions. Only thus
into a broad-based mass movement that made a considerable
could the creative spirit of the early Muslim community be
impact on Egyptian society and politics. Over a period of
restored. This required not only dedication but also the
several decades, it also expanded into several Arab countries,
systematic use of reason. Faith and reason do not contradict
from Sudan to Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Hasan aleach other, but on the contrary, are mutually reinforcing.
Banna excelled as the charismatic leader of his organization,
Ijtihad, meaning the effort to “discover” the spirit of divine
but he was not an innovative thinker, and is mostly rememlaw rather than blindly following the letter of traditional
bered for his activism, not for his contribution to Islamic
Islamic jurisprudence (so-called imitation, taqlid), provides
thought.
the chief instrument of reform. Muslim jurisprudence, along
with its rules and regulations, is not identical with divine law, The opposite could be said of two of the most prominent
for although God’s law is infallible and unchangeable, figures of political Islam of the interwar and the post-World
humans—and the systems of jurisprudence that they may War II period: Abu l-A
la Maududi (1903–1979) and Sayyid
devise—are prone to error. Thus, the Salafiyya held that the Qutb (1906–1966). Both of these men were prolific writers,
jurists’ law had to be critically revised in order to make it journalists, and to a lesser extent also political activists, the
wholly suitable for modern life. This revision could be done former in his native India and Pakistan, the latter in Egypt.
by distinguishing between shari
a and fiqh. Their major works continue to be read all over the Islamic
world. Living under very different circumstances, in societies
Shari
a comprises the eternal laws and general principles that had little in common except for having been under
that had been set down by the divine lawgiver in the Quran British colonial rule, these men nevertheless shared certain
and exemplified by his prophet in the sunna. Fiqh, on the convictions concerning modern society, and they introduced
other hand, although based on scripture, refers to the detailed certain key terms that have since become part and parcel of
rules and regulations that were later elaborated by Muslim the Islamist vocabulary.
jurists. For the Salafiyya, the shari
a provides the best guidance for Muslims in the modern age, allowing them to regain Perhaps foremost of these terms was their conception
the position of strength and confidence that they so glori- of sovereignty, which they attributed exclusively to God
ously occupied in earlier times, and from which they had been (hakimiyya). From His sovereign authority flows the moral

Islam and the Muslim World 537
Political Islam

and legal code that regulates human affairs. This is the shari
a, Under Jamal
Abd al-Nasser’s regime (1952–1970), the
as it is contained in the Quran and sunna. Every Muslim Muslim Brotherhood was severely suppressed inside Egypt.
believer is, thus, able to discover God’s law by studying In Syria, Iraq, and Jordan, by contrast, sister organizations
revelation, and is obligated to apply this law to his or her own were mostly able to function within the given political framelife. From this perspective, it follows that all human attempts work. In the 1970s, Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat
to create rules and laws of their own design are not only futile, (1918–1981) revised Nasser’s course in favor of a more open
but are also illegitimate. Such attempts constitute a heinous Egyptian political economy. After rapprochement with the
sin, for they manifest the human will to set oneself up as United States and ultimately peace with Israel, the Muslim
God’s equal, if not as God’s rival. Making and following laws Brothers were able to reorganize, though they were never
other than the shari
a is therefore a sign of heresy and granted official recognition. Their past experience of violent
polytheism (shirk) and must be dealt with as such. For both confrontations with the government had resulted in terrible
Maududi and Qutb, contemporary Muslims had neglected losses, and the majority of activists opted for a return to a
their religious duties to such an extent that they had fallen reformist strategy. The new focus was to be on spreading the
back into a state of (religious) ignorance (jahiliyya). If this message of Islam (da
wa) by all possible means and in all
ignorance could be excused at the time before revelation, it is possible arenas. The Brotherhood began to use the media and
no longer forgivable, for all men and women are now capable the educational system more effectively, and to engage in
of hearing the truth and obeying the Lord. Contemporary social and charitable work, in professional syndicates, trade
Muslims therefore are Muslims by name only. In reality, they unions, and other associations of “civil society.” Muslim
have renounced Islam and have reverted to unbelief (kufr). Brothers also participated in local and national elections, and
for that purpose even entered into coalitions with legally
Both Maududi and Qutb spoke of the possibility to prac- recognized political parties. They did not attempt to found a
tice takfir, that is, to exclude (“nominal”) Muslims from political party of their own, however, even though Islamists in
the community of believers (often described as other parts of the Muslim world—from Morocco, Algeria,
“excommunication”). Yet they were much more reluctant and Tunisia to Turkey, Pakistan, and Malaysia—were willing
than many of their followers to call for violent measures and able to do so.
against these defective Muslims, and were similarly reluctant
to propagate takfir and jihad against society as a whole. They The Islamic Revolution and Its Aftermath
did, however, declare un-Islamic any government that im- The Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 had an enormous
posed laws and practices not exclusively based on the shari
a impact on the Muslim world, and on Islamist activists more
and insisted on the duty of all true Muslims to fight with all particularly. It seemed to prove that in spite of the Egyptian
their might for the establishment of an Islamic order based on experience, a system as powerful and repressive as the Iranian
the shari
a. monarchy could be overthrown and replaced by an Islamic
republic, provided that the Islamist movement had strong
The radical stand taken by Sayyid Qutb in the late 1950s leadership, an effective organization, and the support of the
and early 1960s is often explained by the ruthless suppression masses. For accomplishing this feat, the revolutionaries led
that the Muslim Brotherhood in general, and Qutb in par- by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989) were admired
ticular, suffered at the hands of the Free Officer regime. The well beyond Islamist circles. Still, Khomeini’s theory of the
Free Officer movement came to power in Egypt in July 1952 “guardianship of the jurisconsultant” (velayat-e faqih) that
and quickly turned against all potential critics and rivals, vested the most qualified Shi
ite cleric with political power,
including the Muslim Brothers who had initially supported remained controversial among the highest-ranking Shi
ite
their coup. The Brotherhood likened its experience of perse- scholars, and entirely unacceptable to their Sunni countercution, torture, and exile to the trial and tribulations (mihna) parts. Islamists drew inspiration from the initial success of the
suffered by such venerated figures as Ahmad b. Hanbal Iranian revolution, hoping to follow its example in their own
(780–855) at the hands of Muslim rulers in earlier times, and countries. However, with the exception of certain Shi
ite
they left a lasting imprint on both the collective memory and organizations like Hizb Allah in Lebanon, which initially
the individuals concerned. Qutb’s vastly influential book, propagated velayat-e faqih but later adopted different models
Ma
alim fi l-tariq (Signposts), was written in prison, and Qutb of an “Islamic order,” most Islamists generally avoided comhimself was executed in 1966, becoming a martyr to his cause. ment on the Iranian model of government, declaring it to be
Maududi, from whom Qutb had adopted and adapted the suited to Shi
ite traditions perhaps, but not to Sunni Islam.
notions of hakimiyya, jahiliyya, and takfir had been fortunate
enough to work under much more auspicious circumstances, In the wake of the Iranian revolution, Islamist opposition
for he endured no such hardships. State persecution can groups and movements grew more active even in those parts
thus help to explain the attractiveness of militant Islamism of the Muslim world where previously they had not been very
to certain parts of the public, as evidenced by Qutb’s prominent or visible. They arose or became stronger in the
radicalization, but Maududi’s example shows that radical Maghrib, Lebanon and Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and different
positions cannot be reduced to the effects of persecution. parts of Central and Southeast Asia. If previously there had

538 Islam and the Muslim World
Political Islam

been individuals and associations advocating an “Islamic outside of it. Its links to existing Islamist leaders and organisolution” to the ills of state, culture, and society in all of these zations have yet to be systematically explored. What can be
areas, they had not engaged in the same kind of organized, said is that, within the Muslim world, and not just among
and often militant, activity that became the hallmark of the Islamists, the attacks on the World Trade Center in New
1980s. Yet even after 1979, political Islam remained highly York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., were
diversified in terms of ideology, strategy, and organization. admired by many for their sheer boldness and unprecedented
At no point did there emerge an Islamist “International” effectiveness. At the same time, even radical Islamists were
capable of coordinating Islamist activities around the globe. appalled by the loss of life, condemning the indiscriminate
While there clearly existed cross-links between various groups use of violence against innocent men and women as utterly
and individuals, individual groups mostly continued to oper- un-Islamic.
ate within a regional order that was defined by the existing
The Islamic Alternative: Visions of an “Islamic Order”
state boundaries.
Political Islam draws much of its strength and support from
In the 1980s, militant Islam was on the rise and receiving its critique of the existing power relations, blatant injustices,
much attention. The assassination of Egyptian president and rampant corruption both within the various Muslim
Anwar al-Sadat in 1981; the abortive Islamic uprising in Syria states and societies and globally. More particularly, Islamists
in 1982; violent clashes between Islamist activists and the present Islam as the only alternative to the world’s existing
powers and ideologies, from capitalism to communism, and
state authorities in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Pakistan, and
from liberalism to fascism. Since the fall of the Soviet Union,
other parts of the Islamic world; the formation of Hizb Allah
the United States and the West more generally have been
and HAMAS in Lebanon and Palestine, respectively, all
identified as the most powerful external enemy of Islam.
contributed to the impression that the Islamic world might be
Within the Muslim world, secularism is singled out as the
swept by a revolutionary tide originating in Iran. It did not
most dangerous internal threat to Muslim identity and auhappen. Even in the 1980s, militant Islamism constituted
thenticity, notions that have high priority on the Islamist
only one segment of the ever-broadening “Islamic trend.”
agenda. Most of the themes and slogans put forth by Islamists
The majority of Islamists continued to follow a pragmatic
have to be judged within the framework of this competition
path, combining energetic activities in the public sphere
with other powers and ideologies, both within the Muslim
(da
wa) with grassroots social work as well as economic and
world and beyond. With the spread and intensification of
political activities of various kinds, including local and naglobalization, however, distinctions between internal and
tional politics. The Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, the
external trends and elements have become increasingly diffi-
Islamic Tendency Movement in Tunisia, the National Is- cult to make.
lamic Front in Sudan, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the
Reform Movement in Yemen, the Salvation Party in Turkey, With the exception of Iran and Afghanistan, Islamist
the Jama
at-i Islami in Pakistan, the Pan-Malayan Islamic opposition movements have not been able to overthrow the
Party (PAS) in Malaysia, and numerous other organizations ruling regimes under which they have arisen, nor to replace
advocated a pragmatic strategy of nonviolence without com- such regimes with Islamic republics. The 1989 military coup
pletely excluding the use of force where and when it was in Sudan may have been staged with the help of the National
deemed necessary. Islamic Front led by Hasan al-Turabi (b.1932), but the
resultant government was not controlled by the Islamists.
These organizations did not necessarily shrink from using The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which in several respects
pressure or even intimidation in order to implement their conforms to Islamist ideas, was founded as a result of dynastic
ideas of proper conduct. Such measures were mostly directed conquest, not of an Islamic revolution. In most other states
against women, artists, and intellectuals. At the same time, with significant Muslim populations, or a Muslim majority,
they condemned takfir of Muslims and armed jihad against Islamist groups and parties have been kept under close state
the government. Despite serious setbacks in the 1990s, when control and restrained as much as possible as autonomous
Algeria’s Islamic Salvation Front was prevented from win- political actors. In national elections Islamists in several
ning an electoral majority in 1992, and Turkey’s Salvation instances have been able to win as much as twelve to twenty
Party was forced by the military establishment to dissolve and percent of the vote, but as a rule they have not been allowed to
reorganize under a different name, the pragmatic or “moder- play an independent role in parliament, let alone to join the
ate” strategy was upheld by most Islamists throughout the government. Turkey, Morocco, Kuwait, Yemen, and Lebanon
final two decades of the twentieth century. are among the few exceptions here. The fact that Islamists
outside of Iran have proved unable to stage a revolution and
The same seemed to hold true for the aftermath of 11 to capture power in the aftermath of 1979, combined with the
September 2001. The terrorist attack revealed the existence fact that in both Iran and Afghanistan their performance fell
of a new kind of transnational Islamist network that was able well short of expectations, has led a number of observers to
to recruit and operate within the Islamic world as well as declare the “failure of political Islam.”

Islam and the Muslim World 539
Political Organization

Political Islam may well have failed, at least when politics social fields. Foreign policy and security affairs have been less
is narrowly defined, but such a judgement completely ignores affected by Islamist concerns, which tend to focus on Islamic
the very deep impact Islamist themes, demands, and activities solidarity, a vociferous critique of the West, and hostility to
have had on public debates, social behavior and legal practices Israel. It is in domestic politics that the Islamist impact has
all over the Muslim world and among expatriate Muslim been most deeply felt. It remains to be seen to what extent the
communities. Islamist activists may have been prevented failure of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and the unimfrom playing an independent political role in most of their pressive economic and social record of the Islamic Republic
home countries, but their concerns have been adapted in of Iran will reduce the appeal of political Islam in other parts
various ways by the ruling elites, whether as consciously of the world.
employed “Islamic” language, symbols, and imagery (using
Islamic formula in their public speeches, building mosques See also Banna, Hasan al-; Fundamentalism; Ikhwan aland Islamic schools, restoring Islamic monuments, and so Muslimin; Islam and Islamic Law; Maududi, Abu lon), or as acts of ostentatious piety (praying in front of TV A
la; Qutb, Sayyid; Revolution: Islamic Revolution in
cameras, going on pilgrimage, or giving up trivial pursuits Iran; Salafiyya; Secularization; Shari
a.
and “immoral” entertainment or alcohol) to present themselves as devout Muslims. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ayubi, Nazih N. Political Islam. Religion and Politics in the Arab
In a significant number of states (including Pakistan, World. London and New York: Routledge,1991.
Egypt, and Sudan, as well as individual member states of Binder, Leonard. Islamic Liberalism. A Critique of Development
Malaysia and Nigeria), the shari
a, or rather legal codes Ideologies. Chicago and London: University of Chicago
presented as such, were introduced in the course of the 1980s Press, 1998.
and 1990s. Women protesting the introduction of discrimi- Burgat, François, and Dowell, William. The Islamic Movement
nating “Islamic” legislation in the sphere of family law were in North Africa, 2d ed. Austin: Center for Middle Eastern
threatened by radical Islamists, including conservative ulema, Studies, University of Texas, 1997.
and insufficiently protected by their governments. Critical Enayat, Hamid. Modern Islamic Political Thought. Austin:
intellectuals and academics were silenced and their works University of Texas Press, 1982.
were either censored or banned by governments fearing Guazzone, Laura, ed. The Islamist Dilemma. The Political Role
Islamist challenges to their Islamic credentials. The adoption of Islamist Movements in the Contemporary Arab World.
of so-called Islamic dress spread widely, even against deliber- Reading, U.K.: Ithaca Press, 1995.
ate government attempts to ban its use in schools, universi- Mitchell, Richard P. The Society of the Muslim Brothers (1969).
ties, and public administration. Religious practices from New York and Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University
fasting to prayer and the hajj intensified in many areas and Press, 1993.
social milieus. In light of these developments, which affected Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. The Vanguard of the Islamic Revoluthe public as much as the private domains, Islamism in tion. The Jama
at-i Islami of Pakistan. Berkeley: University
general and political Islam in particular have been tremen- of California Press, 1994.
dously successful. Roy, Olivier. The Failure of Political Islam. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1996.
This was possible because, contrary to widespread perceptions, Islamist ideas have not been restricted to militant
Gudrun Krämer
opposition movements, but have been shared by a considerable portion of the broader Muslim public. With its combination of catchy slogans (“Islam is the solution,” “application of
the shari
a,” “the Quran is our constitution,” and the like), its POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
commitment to social and charitable work, and its occasional
application of pressure and intimidation, Islamism has ap- The primary model for Muslim political organization has
pealed not just to the young, the desperate, and the unedu- been the early Muslim community in Medina, ruled by the
cated, but also to many members of the urban middle class. It prophet Muhammad, whose foundation in 622 C.E. marks the
has found a sympathetic hearing from government officials as year 1 of the Muslim calendar. Rather than maintaining the
well as the well-educated, affluent, and widely traveled pro- segmentary system of tribal organization, it demanded that
fessionals, academics, and businesspeople, including active all residents submit to the authority of the Apostle of the
representatives of civil society. The term “political Islam” is, Faith and accorded second-class status to non-Muslims. Musfor practical reasons, mostly applied to organized move- lims tend to evaluate all further political developments acments, which as a rule have to work in opposition to the cording to how closely they replicate Muhammad’s precepts,
regimes in power, but the ideas and demands implicit in the example, and the life of the early community. Many political
phrase have permeated large sections of society, and have changes have occurred since then, but they have been legitieven influenced government policies, at least in the legal and mized by their congruity with Medinan precedents.

540 Islam and the Muslim World
Political Organization

The enormous conquests of the first Muslim century first century; and the revelation of Islam, which trumped all
created two new problems: the nature of leadership in the the rest.
absence of the Prophet, and the relationship between the few
Muslims and the vastly more numerous and sophisticated The cultural assimilation of Arabs to non-Arab civilizaconquered peoples. The first problem was solved rather tion, accompanied by resistance from purists, became an
simply, by the institution of a monarchy (khalifa: “caliphate”), entrenched cultural pattern in Muslim society from the first.
initially elective and subsequently hereditary. Disputes over This conflict shaped the atmosphere in which political develqualifications and selection processes generated divisions in opment took place. Since the purists held the high moral
the community: Kharijites wanted to select on merit, choos- ground, every step toward the adoption of sophisticated
ing the best Muslim as leader; Shi
ites demanded a ruler from governmental techniques that had not been practiced in
Medina was disguised, awkwardly over-justified, and incesthe Prophet’s family who shared his charisma; while the
santly challenged.
majority Sunnis settled for whoever could maintain order in
the community, by force if necessary.
Medieval Islamic Government
Initially, convinced Muslims were few. To achieve his con-
The caliphs adopted many characteristics of non-Muslim
quests, the caliph
Umar (634–644) recruited nominal conmonarchs but were legitimated by their claims to relationship
verts and Christian Arabs into the army, but rewarded Muslim
with Muhammad and by their enforcement of the law of God.
fighters by establishing a salary register (diwan) that listed
Over time the caliphs were weakened and finally eliminated
combatants (plus dependents and the Prophet’s relatives) in
(1258), but at first they were assisted, then dominated, by
order of conversion with the earliest Muslim converts receivwarlords who used the titles emir and sultan. These warlords
ing the most pay. When the caliph
Uthman (644–656)
eventually took the title of caliph for themselves. The elimireversed this order in favor of members of the Quraysh tribe
nation of the caliphate caused political unity to disappear, but
because of their administrative expertise, Islam’s great civil
cultural relations continued to unite the Muslim world. In the
war was ignited, leading to the split between the Sunni and
twentieth century some sultans became kings, while others
Shi
ite factions. Greater administrative development was the
were replaced by presidents and premiers. Ideologically, work of the Umayyads (661–750). They adopted the Byzansome Muslims see only the caliphs as legitimate political tine and Sasanian bureaucracies and their land and tax recsuccessors to Muhammad, but most believe that the politics ords, which were translated into in Arabic beginning in 697
of the community that arose immediately after Muhammad’s C.E. They developed an Islamic coinage, replacing images of
death were not binding on future generations. Substitutes for kings with sacred texts. They created a standing army whose
Muhammad’s religious leadership are found in the Quran commanders became provincial governors responsible for
and the Prophet’s example (sunna) and their interpreters, political, military, fiscal, and religious duties. As their conthe ulema. quests grew more extensive, they raised the caliph from tribal
chief to emperor and adopted imperial court protocol and
The second problem, the relationship with non-Muslims,
organization. The main palace official, the chamberlain or
was less tractable. Political subjugation of non-Muslims was hajib was responsible for guarding the curtain separating the
accomplished through disarmament, discriminatory taxation caliph from his subjects, thus regulating access to the ruler.
(jizya, kharaj), and the imposition of civil disabilities. Non-
Muslims were afforded a legitimate, if secondary, status in The revolution ushering in the Abbasid dynasty (750–945)
Islamic administration; they could serve as government bu- was based in part on religious resistance to the adoption of
reaucrats, tax farmers (private contractors for tax collection), “foreign” political practices, but such practices nevertheless
or auxiliary troops, but could not hold primary power. If they continued. The Abbasids were famed for their pomp and
bore arms, they were excused from jizya. Since most non- splendor, based on the wealth of Iraq, which they made their
Muslims were accustomed to subject status in imperial sys- capital region. They presided over the development of Islamic
tems, this was not a difficult transition for them. law and court systems, co-opting the ulema into the bureaucracy and imposing upon them responsibilities for urban
Culturally, however, this order of subordination was re- administration and taxation, despite the ulema’s own misgivversed. Non-Arabs and non-Muslims, having been fully liter- ings about serving secular rulers. A second governmental
ate for centuries, even millennia, surpassed their conquerors element, the scribes, were organized in bureaus (also called
in most fields: agricultural and craft techniques; urbanization diwans ) headed by the wazir (prime minister). The scribes
and social stratification; cooking and building; literature, art, were often non-Arab and were influenced by non-Muslim
music, and dance; theological and legal argumentation; ad- culture. Pre-Islamic political thought provided models for
ministration and record-keeping; royal governance; and court imperial governance, and provincial scribes employed preprotocol. Three Arab achievements drew general admiration, Islamic forms of taxation and reporting. A scribal culture of
however. These were poetry, which became the model for encyclopedic knowledge and cosmopolitan politesse develnon-Arabic poetry as well; military prowess, at least in the oped at court, conveyed in the literature of adab, which

Islam and the Muslim World 541
Political Organization

blended Islamic and non-Islamic influences. The third ad- held the actual power. They multiplied their followers by
ministrative element was the military. Military commanders broadening the iqta
system. The military bureaus of the
held provincial governorships and ministerial posts, while administration expanded to manage iqta
s, and provincial
their subordinates governed local areas. bureaucracies developed.

Imperial organization, court protocol, and standardized The Impact of Nomad Invasions
taxation were justified in Islamic terms with quotations from The replacement of the Buyids by a series of nomadic
the Quran and from the Muslim tradition as embodied in the Turkish and Mongol dynasties was facilitated by their adop-
Kitab al-kharaj (Book of taxation) of Abu Yusuf (d. 798). tion of Buyid-style iqta
s and Abbasid-style bureaucratic gov-
Conversion and settlement altered the early system, in which ernment. Speaking no Arabic and little Persian, the invaders
conquered non-Muslims paid taxes to the ruling Arab Mus- replaced local iqta
holders with their own men, but they
lims. As more people converted to Islam, political distinctions depended on indigenous administrators, shari
a courts, and
between Arab and non-Arab Muslims were eliminated. All local authorities to govern the realm. This pattern lasted
Muslims, regardless of origin, paid tithe (
ushr) unless they through numerous invasions and replacements of governing
acquired non-Muslims’ lands. In that case, they paid the non- regimes until the modern period.
Muslims’ higher land tax (kharaj). Jizya, initially a communal
Politics at the center became a matter of competition for
tribute, became a poll tax paid by military-age non-Muslim
the throne among members of the royal house and jostling
males in lieu of service. Non-Muslim groups retained their
for power and wealth among the dynasty’s supporters. As the
communal structure and personal law (administered by the
historian Ibn Khaldun observed, during and immediately
clergy) but used Islamic courts for state-related purposes,
after the initial takeover the ruling group was united in
although their testimony was supposedly invalid. Islamic law
pursuit of conquest and control, but over time fragmentation
(shari
a) in its various schools (madhhab) systematized the
of power and competition from other interests weakened
interpretation of Quran and sunna and was administered in
group cohesion, permitting conquest from outside or inter-
Islamic courts under Muslim judges (qadis). Royal courts
nal takeovers. In the tug-of-war between cohesion and disso-
(mazalim), administered by the ruler, adjudicated problems
lution, centrifugal forces included hereditary devolution of
outside Islamic law, such as treason and governmental coroffice or iqta
, tribal disaffection, unjust treatment and conseruption, carrying on an ancient tradition of justice based on
quent loss of loyalty, and neglect of irrigation or blockage of
custom and rulers’ edicts (
urf).
trade routes, leading to decreases in revenue. Conversely,
rulers exercised control by building up revenue in their own
In the Abbasid period the Arab military force united by
treasuries, rewarding their followers generously, maintaining
religious and tribal ties was replaced by a standing army of
the infrastructure, putting down crime and rebellion, ensur-
Khurasanian troops and a caliphal bodyguard of slave (mamluk,
ing the proper functioning of administrative and legal sysghulam) soldiers, mainly of Turkish origin. At the same time,
tems, and supporting the symbols of religion: the caliph (until
taxation became politicized, that is, the right to collect certain
1258), the ulema, and Islamic law. Equally important was the
taxes became a political reward. This system, called iqta

relationship between the regime’s officials and local authori-
(“division,” apportionment of revenues), was soon used to
ties who were respected by the common people.
reward the military forces, allowing the new military groups
access to money and land and creating a new aristocracy (not Peasants, tribesmen, and city-dwellers were insulated from
quite feudal, as the new “aristocrats” had no responsibility for dynastic and court politics by a layer of local notables (a
yan).
the lands or people from which their revenues came). Iqta
These men—large landholders, rich merchants, ulema, memholders lived in the cities, patronizing culture and religion. bers of old elites superseded by new conquerors—acted as
They collected revenue in the countryside but left peasant intermediaries between the government and the people,
producers to their own devices, widening the gap between presenting the people’s needs to the new rulers, providing
urban and rural cultures. information on local conditions and revenues, and interpreting royal decrees locally. The a
yan were connected by family,
Members of this aristocracy became provincial governors educational and sectarian commonalities, marriage relations,
uncontrollable by Abbasid civil administration, and indepen- and patronage. Patronage also built vertical hierarchies with
dent emirates soon emerged, such as the Samanids in the people of town and village, and with members of the
Transoxiana (874–999). These local dynasties sent no reve- ruling elite.
nues to the caliph, even if they acknowledged his nominal
authority, but they copied the Abbasids’ administration and Provincial politics was largely based upon patron-client
slave army. In 945 C.E., even the capital, Baghdad, was relations passed down through generations, within which
captured by Shi
ite warlords, the Buyid emirs (945–1055); marital politics had an important part. Although women
nearly simultaneously Cairo was taken by rival Isma
ili ca- possessed no political rights in medieval Muslim society, they
liphs, the Fatimids (969–1171). The Abbasid caliph became a played a significant political role through creating family
figurehead, dispensing legitimation for the warlords, who alliances, transmitting information, and preserving property

542 Islam and the Muslim World
Political Organization

within the family. In rural areas these relations were com- The Seljuks abolished the barid, but probably later reinstated
pounded by debt patronage, as large landholders and urban it. Both the Abbasids and Samanids also had a bureau for the
tax farmers loaned money, seed, and draft animals to peasant “crown lands” that went under various names (diya, khass).
farmers, using the future crop as collateral. Tribal clientage, The Samanids had separate bureaus for the market inspector
ever-shifting and based on power and wealth, determined (muhtasib) and pious foundations (awqaf); the Seljuks develnomadic politics. These relations, and the local power strug- oped separate bureaus for iqta
s (muqaa
at) and confiscations
gles to which they gave rise, continued independently of (mufradat).
whoever held the capital or sat on the throne. Since they were
inseparable from the revenue-producing system, they were The central government’s administrative bureaus included a
only disturbed from above when the revenue stream was diwan al-a
la, bureau of the wazir; diwan al-kharaj or diwan alistifa, finance bureau; diwan al-insha or diwan al-ughra,
interrupted by oppression or diverted by corruption, or when
correspondence bureau; diwan al-ishraf, bureau of inspection;
the fortunes of war brought battling armies to a particular
and diwan al-
ard, bureau of the army. The Ghaznavids had a
location.
bureau for the royal household (wikala). The Abbasids and
The Seljuk Turks, who conquered Baghdad in 1055, ruled Samanids had a bureau for the post system (barid), which also
Iraq, Iran, and Syria for a century and dominated Asia Minor encompassed a system of spies, whose job was to notify the
for two. Despite their origin as Central Asian tribal nomads ruler if the powerful were oppressing the weak. The chief
(considered rude and barbarous by contemporaries), they officials besides the wazir were the treasurer (mustawfi) and
wove all these disparate political elements into a single the chamberlain, keeper of the royal household (wakil or emir
system. As Sunni Muslims, they supported the caliph and the al-hajib); civil bureau heads were paralleled by the heads of
religious establishment, unlike the Buyids and Fatimids, military contingents and guard corps. Some provinces were
whose Shi
ism ran counter to the dominant religious trend. bureaucratically governed; others remained under their own
local dynasties. The offices of provincial governor and treas-
The Seljuks also employed a professional scribal staff, urer were sometimes combined, but more often they were
which expanded as the regime split into several autonomous separated for firmer central control. The few civil officials in
kingdoms. The scribal cadre’s ideas on governance, derived the province were outnumbered by the military, which was
from Abbasid and even pre-Islamic precedents, harnessed dispersed throughout the province both for security purposes
imperial and tribal ideologies and practices to an Islamic and for pasturage for their horses.
vision of governance and the creation of a just Muslim
The administration of the Seljuks was admired and imisociety. These ideas were expressed in the wazir Nizam altated by all their successor states, from the Ayyubids of
Mulk’s Siyasat-nama (The Book of Governance) and the teacher
Egypt (1171–1250) to the Khwarazmshahs of Transoxiana
al-Ghazali’s Nasihat al-Muluk (Counsel for Kings), and were
(1150–1220). The most important imitators were the Ilkhanids
made the basis of administration at all levels through dissemi-
(1258–1335) and the Mamluks (1250–1517).
nation to governors and officials in royal edicts. An official
called emir-e dad presided over the mazalim court, dispensing The Mongol Ilkhanids ruled the northern Middle East
justice on issues outside Islamic law. The Seljuks replaced from Anatolia to Iran and Central Asia. They initially extheir tribal military forces with a salaried slave bodyguard and ploited this territory as a reservoir of resources, but under
a standing army supported by iqta
s, giving iqta
holders several great Persian wazirs they adopted an organization like
greater responsibility for security and prosperity on their that of the Seljuks. Originally all officials had Mongol superiqta
s and granting military commanders important positions visors and all taxes were sent to Mongolia, but later the region
as governors and tutors of royal princes. They also presided became administratively independent from the Mongol homeover a restoration of agriculture through irrigation works, land. Since its terrain would not support the Mongols’ nomadic
reversing temporarily the economic decline of the central economy, iqta
s were assigned to the military forces. Persian,
Islamic lands. They recruited Sunni ulema to serve as admin- Mongol, Chinese, Armenian, and Jewish administrators kept
istrators and judges, and their construction of mosques and records in Persian and drew up manuals for government
Islamic colleges (madrasas) and expansion of pious founda- secretaries that became models of bureaucratic procedure for
tions (waqf) gave the ulema employment and financial security. future generations.

A letter attributed to the wazir Nizam al-Mulk recom- Although the Mongol Empire soon fragmented, the sucmended care for irrigation systems and water sources so that cessor states preserved Ilkhanid organization on a smaller
blessing and abundance would not depart from the world. scale; Jalayirid and Akkoyunlu copies of Ilkhanid secretarial
The wazir under the Seljuks advanced from head finance and finance manuals still exist in Turkish libraries. As for the
officer and bureaucrat to become a kind of co-ruler, the Mamluks, their fiscal administration was unique due to the
highest ranking of the non-Turks. He headed an administra- peculiarities of Nile Valley agriculture, but their secretarial
tion modeled on that of the Abbasids and their successors, the and judicial organizations show Seljuk influences. They too
Samanids and the Ghaznavids of Afghanistan (976–1186). produced influential correspondence and finance manuals,

Islam and the Muslim World 543
Political Organization

compiling traditions of the past and changes introduced by Urban areas were also surveyed, but their revenues were
the Mamluk regime. usually assigned to provincial governors (beylerbey) or district
governors (sanjakbey), who supported their retinues from
The Early Modern Period these larger allocations (khass). The retinues performed po-
Beginning in the sixteenth century, Ilkhanid and Mamluk lice and guard duties. Governors also commanded provincial
administrative traditions were combined in the three ma- or district troops on campaign. Subordinate officers received
jor empires of the early modern Middle East: Ottoman medium-sized timars called zeamets. The sultan’s khass until
(1299–1923), Safavid (1501–1732), and Mogul (1526–1857). the mid-sixteenth century comprised half of the empire’s
The sixteenth century was a time of population growth, revenues and paid the expenses of the palace, harem, and
urbanization, monetarization of the economy, and techno- janissaries and other elements of the standing army and
logical advancement; it was also a time of political and palace guard. Collection of urban revenues such as market
commercial expansion and increased governmental stability. taxes, tolls, customs dues, and manufacturing taxes was man-
Like contemporary European countries, the Ottomans, aged by agents or farmed out to wealthy merchants or
Safavids, and Moguls expanded through conquest and trade, moneylenders. Timar records show that the military forces
creating stable empires that lasted centuries rather than and administrative cadres were diverse in origin, with memdecades. Long-lived ruling families traded the charisma of bers from many religions and ethnicities. All were united by a
military prowess for dynastic legitimacy, proclaiming abso- common culture called “the Ottoman way,” comprising relute rule but actually sharing power with family members and ligion, language, and etiquette, acquired through decadestop administrators. The palace and harem replaced the mili- long training in the palace, administration, or military service.
tary camp as centers of power. Women became political
Besides organizing the timars, qanuns regulated the palace
actors in their roles as rulers’ wives and mothers, and as
organization from at least the era of Mehmed the Conqueror.
guardians of minor heirs. Administrators and courtiers grew
These qanuns and those regarding timars were updated by
in influence, and rebels and rivals were co-opted and incorposubsequent rulers. Suleyman the Magnificent was called
rated through power-sharing. Court politics became not just
“The Lawgiver” because in his reign the qanuns were recona struggle for power but a contest over policies.
ciled with Islamic law and issued throughout the empire.
Modifications continued into the seventeenth and eighteenth
The greatest development of bureaucratic administration
centuries, legitimized by reference to Mehmed and Suleyman.
came under the Ottoman timar system. In the late fourteenth
The judges administering them had a hierarchy of posts; top
century, timars succeeded iqta
s as economic support for the
posts were reserved for those who had attended and taught at
cavalry forces. Timars were individual land revenue assignthe best madrasas. The highest religious official (shaykh alments whose sizes reflected the ranks of the holders and were
Islam), who oversaw the legal and educational hierarchies,
determined by a revenue survey held once every generation.
also advised the sultan on the religious legitimacy of his
Sultanic agents recorded all revenue sources—crops, herds,
decisions. He appointed preachers and guided the empire’s
mills, fisheries, mines, manufactories, jizya and extraordinary
Sunni Muslim orientation.
levies, commercial taxes—and the names and obligations of
all taxpayers. Survey results were recorded in registers of In the late sixteenth century, gunpowder weapons inititaxes assessed (mufassal defters) and timars allocated (ijmal ated a military transformation from a cavalry aristocracy to an
defters), and timar holders were authorized to collect only the infantry recruited from the lower classes. Recruits were paid
amounts recorded in the registers, plus some fees and fines. in cash rather than land grants, and increasingly taxes were
They were also responsible for police duties in their timars collected in cash rather than kind. They could therefore be
and could be mustered for military service during the cam- collected by government agents or private contractors rather
paigning season. than cavalry members, and administration gradually became
demilitarized. In other strata, too, changing recruitment
Timars were reassigned regularly to prevent formation of patterns altered traditional relationships. Troops recruited
local ties and could be revoked for transgressing the registers for the campaigning season and then discharged staged a
or local regulations (qanun). Qanuns were compilations of series of rebellions, the “Jalali revolts,” and were defeated and
sultanic decrees and local customs or conditions (especially co-opted only with difficulty. Janissaries stationed in the
tax rates) in force when an area was conquered; over time they empire’s cities engaged in commerce, and urban merchants
were modified to accord with Islamic law. They were admin- were recruited into the corps. Palace cavalrymen became tax
istered locally by qadis (officially appointed judges), working farmers, commoners and slaves became scribes, and Muslim
together with provincial governors whose soldiers enforced children entered the palace school for slaves. Simultaneously,
the judges’ decisions. Qanun and defter thus governed the economic distress struck the empire; rapid inflation and
state’s relationship with both timar holders and peasants, and currency devaluation played havoc with state budgets and
their imposition marked an area’s incorporation into the salaries. Old ways had to change, but traditional practices still
Ottoman system. legitimated the ruler and maintained the elite. Attempting to

544 Islam and the Muslim World
Political Thought

alter too much too fast, as Osman II (1618–1622) did, risked with non-Islamic village, caste, and clan councils. Imperial
violent resistance and deposition. Instead, devolution of power politics was overwhelmingly a politics of the nobility, a
created political factions around statesmen satisfying the competition among the religious, ethnic, and factional deneeds of elite groups, while sultans were reduced to arbitrat- mands of the state’s powerful servants. Some rulers’ unwilling between these factions. ingness to incorporate non-Muslim elites and/or their inability
to provide care and protection to productive groups alienated
The dominance of the Köprülü faction after 1656 permit- their loyalties and contributed to state fragmentation and
ted administrative reform but led directly to war in 1683. British takeover. Apparently, only the Ottoman state was
Fiscal reforms in the 1690s instituted new jizya allotments both powerful enough and close enough to Islamic political
and lifetime tax farms. These innovations improved govern- norms to receive the caliphal title in the nineteenth century.
ment finances, but war revealed the empire’s military inadequacy. Eighteenth-century sultans adopted policies of reform, See also Caliphate; Empires: Abbasid; Empires: Byzbecoming in the process leaders of their own pro-change antine; Empires: Mongol and Il-Khanid; Empires:
factions. Reform, however, came in Western dress, and anti- Mogul; Empires: Ottoman; Empires: Safavid and Qajar;
reform factions clung to traditionalism and Ottoman patriot- Empires: Sassanian; Empires: Timurid; Empires:
ism. Reforms were often more successful in the provinces, as Umayyad; Qanun; Sultanates: Delhi; Sultanates:
governors far from Istanbul modernized their military forces Ghaznavid; Sultanates: Mamluk; Sultanates: Seljuk.
and engaged in capitalist agriculture outside imperial oversight. This conflict of interests contributed to the provinces’ BIBLIOGRAPHY
growing autonomy, as did an accumulation of wealth in the Bailey, Harold et al., eds. The Cambridge History of Iran.
provinces. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1968–91.

The Safavid state, based on Shi
ite Islam, consisted of Black, Antony. The History of Islamic Political Thought: From
the Prophet to the Present. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univer-
Turkish warriors, Persian administrators, and a bureaucratized
sity Press, 2001.
religious hierarchy under a ruler (shah) who was also a
spiritual master. The warriors, called Qizilbash, were follow- Ghazali, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-. Ghazali’s Book of Couners of the Safavid Sufi order that conquered Iran and insti- sel for Kings (Nasihat al-Muluk).Translated by F. R. C.
Bagley. London: Oxford University Press, 1971.
tuted the Shi
ite state. Defeat by the Ottomans at Chaldiran
in 1514 shattered the myth of Safavid invincibility and world Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and
conquest. Over time, the shah’s charismatic authority and the Faith in a World Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974.
Qizilbash’s political influence decreased, while the palace
personnel and a slave army of Georgians, Circassians, and Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History.
Armenians gained power. A council of officials conducted Edited by N. J. Dawood. Translated by Franz Rosenthal.
government business; law was administered by religious judges. London: Princeton/Bollingen, 1969.
Royal workshops produced goods for sale as well as artistic Inalcik, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age,
products, augmenting royal income. Provincial taxation fol- 1300–1600. Translated by Norman Itzkowitz and Colin
lowed traditional norms, but in provinces under direct royal Imber. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973. Reprint.
Orion Books/Phoenix, 1994.
control (whose number grew in the seventeenth century), the
farming out of taxes to nongovernmental collectors led to Mawardi, al-. The Ordinances of Government. Translated by
overextraction and impoverishment. By the eighteenth cen- Wafaa H. Wahba. Reading, U.K.: Garnet Publishing
tury, military weakness permitted conquest by Afghan tribes- Ltd, 1996.
men who made themselves heirs of the Safavid system. Mulk, Nizam al-. The Book of Government or Rules for Kings:
The Siyar al-Muluk or Siyasat-nama. Translated by Hubert
The Mughal dynasty of India was perhaps least affected by Darke. 2d ed. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978.
these trends. Muslims, though the rulers, were always a
minority in the state, forcing emperors to balance imposition Linda T. Darling
of Islamic governance against the need to conciliate Hindu
officials and officers. By the 1570s Islamic-style bureaucratic
administration gained prominence, but it administered less of
the country’s revenue than elsewhere (about 60%), and that POLITICAL THOUGHT
indirectly. In the mansabdari system, counterpart of the timar
system, military administrators collected land revenues to During the premodern period, Islamic political thought found
cover their expenses, but between them and the peasants expression in a diverse group of writings such as legal comstood a layer of zamindars (large landholders and former pendia, theological treatises, philosophical writings, liternobility), who administered the land itself. Islamic law courts ary works on the subject of statecraft, wisdom literature,
were provided by the state, but they shared legal jurisdiction historiography, and even poetry. In the modern period,

Islam and the Muslim World 545
Political Thought

political thought may be found in some of these branches of Islamic tradition, into the modern period. The most freliterature, but also in separate works directly concerned quently invoked Quranic passage, in discussions of political
with political topics, such as the nation state, government, matters, is 4:59: “Obey God, obey the Prophet, and those in
constitutionalism, law, human rights, and the Islamic state. authority among you.” This verse has been interpreted in
some quarters as an injunction to obey rulers even if they are
The diffusion that characterizes the wide range of unjust, while other commentators have regarded the phrase
premodern political thinking results from many factors, two “those in authority among you” as a reference only to holders
of which deserve particular mention. First, writers in the of religious or religio-political authority. For a number of
premodern period often treated aspects of politics and gov- Sunni scholars, the Qur’anic phrase refers to religious scholernment not in isolation from other topics but in the context ars or ulema; in Shi
ite tradition, it refers to the imams. On
of larger subjects and a variety of intellectual disciplines. the earthly plane, kingship is depicted as a great but some-
Second, the early Muslim community rapidly found itself times treacherous boon that human beings are often predisdispersed among a culturally diverse set of peoples, and posed to covet. Satan seeks to tempt Adam with the prospect
Muslims became heirs to the variegated political cultures of
of imperishable sovereignty (20:120); the Children of Israel
the larger Middle East; these cultures contributed to the
were sometimes favored with both prophethood and kingship
shaping and expression of the range of Islamic political ideas.
(for example, 5:20; 38:20); and Solomon prays for kingship
In the wake of the conquests, and with the formation of an
(38:35). For those whom God leads astray, however, kingship
Islamic imperial order, Muslim polities had at their disposal,
is associated with overweening pride; Nimrod argues with
as Aziz al-Azmeh has put it, a “floating repertoire of im-
Abraham over it (2:258), and Pharaoh boasts of his claim to
mensely ancient and awesomely persistent institutions, metathe kingdom of Egypt (43:51).
phors, iconographies, and propositions concerning power,
and most particularly concerning power in relation to the Early Political Developments
sacred, which they welded into distinctive forms.” (al-Azmeh Islamic political thought, as expressed in Quranic exegesis
1997, p. 10) and elsewhere, evolved in conjunction with Muslims’ historical experiences. The history of the early Muslim community
The close association between religion and politics in
is one of extraordinary political success. After facing initial
much of the Islamic tradition, and the diversity of ways in
adversity, the prophet Muhammad went on to unify Arabia
which this association has been interpreted in Islamic history
and to create a state based largely on ties of common religious
are also worthy of note. Much political thinking in the Islamic
allegiance. Muhammad was the leader of this early commutradition takes as its point of departure the view that all
nity (the umma), and hence his role as God’s messenger was
sovereignty belongs to God, who alone governs the universe.
(His is the “sovereignty over the heavens and the earth,” as integrally linked with his role as political head of state. The
the Quran states repeatedly.) Many Muslim thinkers came to early Islamic polity, moreover, continued to grow in the
agree that the role of human government was to ensure that decades following the Prophet’s death in 632. It rapidly
God’s will, as expressed in the divine law, was enacted on expanded to comprise the regions of the northern Middle
earth. The ideal earthly ruler, called an imam, was a leader East (Syria-Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran), and from there
who ruled according to God’s laws and who was consequently it spread across North Africa and into Spain, and eastwards
entitled to the loyalty and obedience of his community. into northern India. Although the pace of the expansion did
While these ideals have been widely expressed, Muslims have not remain constant, Islamic political thought, like other
naturally differed in their understandings of the implications branches of the Islamic tradition, was inevitably shaped by the
of the relationship between the religious and political realms. experience of a success which seemed to validate the new
In fact, the historical experience of Muslim societies has dispensation and to attest divine favor towards the Muslim
generated a large repertoire of political ideas, many of which community. The construction on the Temple Mount in
assume or accommodate themselves to certain premises or Jerusalem of the Dome of the Rock, completed under the
coalesce around certain themes, but which collectively con- Umayyad caliph
Abd al-Malik in 691, suggests a striking
stitute a wide-ranging body of thought. confidence on the part of the city’s rulers in the stability and
endurance of the Islamic polity.
The Qur
an
While the Quran, like other scriptures, does not treat politi- In the period immediately following the death of the
cal topics in a comprehensive way, it refers in several places to Prophet in 632, issues such as the nature of political leaderpower and those who exercise it. The Quran presents sover- ship and the identity of the rightful holder of political authoreignty as a divine prerogative, and all forms of earthly author- ity were much disputed. The leaders who succeeded the
ity (prophetic or political) are wholly dependent on God’s Prophet were addressed as Commander of the Faithful (amir
dispensation (see, for example, 3:26). This emphasis on the al-muminin) and bore the title of caliph (khalifa), a term
relativity of human forms of authority in relation to the divine which came to be understood as meaning deputy of, or
reality is one that has left an imprint on many areas of the successor to, the Prophet of God. The Prophet himself had

546 Islam and the Muslim World
Political Thought

exercised both religious and political authority, the continu- ruler, as well as action taken by one Muslim against another
ing conjoining of which formed the basis of the religio- without any involvement on the part of the state.
political ideals of the Shi
ites. The early debates and struggles
over leadership eventually crystalized in the emergence of A related area of ambivalence towards the role of the state
distinct sectarian communities (generally grouped as Kharijites, concerns the extent of the duty of obedience. Many medieval
Shi
ites, and, eventually, Sunnis). Sunni thinkers held that obedience was incumbent on Muslims, regardless of whether the ruler was just or tyrannical,
The Role of the Ulema pious or irreligious, as long as such obedience did not involve
The institution that emerged most successfully from, or in the subject in transgression of the shari
a. In this connection,
the face of, these disagreements was that of the caliphate, it is important to note that many scholars held themselves
exercised first by a series of respected individuals who had aloof from political power. While some of the most influensurrounded the Prophet, and, following the conclusion of the tial political thinkers served the state as judges and in other
first civil war in 661, by dynastic families: the Umayyads capacities (for example, Abu Yusuf, Ibn al-Murtada, al-
(661–750) and, after a revolution, the
Abbasids (750–1258). Mawardi), the refusal to serve the holders of political power
It has been suggested that the early caliphs, including the retained prestige and was widely regarded as morally prefer-
Umayyads and early
Abbasids, may have expected to wield able, as numerous historical incidents, anecdotes and folk
not only political authority but also some degree of religious tales demonstrate.
authority as part of their office. The caliphs’ claims to
religious authority encountered resistance, however, with the The Formation of Shiite, Kharijite, and Sunni Views
emergence of numbers of religious specialists, who came to of Political Leadership
be known collectively as the ulema (scholars) or “those The mainstream Shi
ite view of political leadership, subpossessed of religious learning” (
ilm). As the Islamic polity sumed in the doctrine of the imamate, regards certain Quranic
grew in extent and in the diversity of its population, the claim texts and acts of the Prophet recorded in hadiths as proofs
of this new intellectual elite to religious leadership and that the Prophet, contrary to most Sunni opinions, nomiauthority among the Muslims of the empire was itself con- nated as his successor his cousin and son-in-law,
Ali.
Ali,
tested by some individuals who held that such authority however, had, according to Shi
ites, been wrongfully deshould be centralized and held by the ruler, rather than by a prived of the position that was his due, with the result that the
number of loosely associated specialists over whom the ruler community had fallen into error. Following
Ali’s death in
had little control. An argument for limiting the power of the 661, Shi
ites held that only descendants of
Ali could claim the
ulema in favor of the caliph was advanced by the Persian imamate. (Partly in order to distinguish between the rightful
convert Ibn al-Muqaffa
(d. c. 756), whose apparently holders of authority and the actual ruling powers, Shi
ites
unsolicited warnings to the caliph al-Mansur (754–775) went refer to the persons whom they regard as their leaders as
unheeded and were rarely repeated so plainly in later periods. imams rather than as caliphs.) During the first two centuries
One last attempt to wrest religious authority from the ulema of Islamic history, many Shi
ite groups attempted to seize
was made under successive caliphs in the first half of the ninth power for their imams. Their efforts were largely unsuccesscentury, in the course of the mihna, an inquisition during ful (as was the case, most famously, with the challenge to
which prominent religious scholars were interrogated in Umayyad rule mounted by Husayn, a grandson of the Prophet,
order to establish their adherence or lack thereof to a particu- who was killed in 680), and Shi
ites were often ruthlessly
lar theological doctrine; this attempt too failed, and its failure suppressed.
marked the voluntary or involuntary ceding of religious
authority to the ulema. In the course of the eighth century, most Shi
ites adopted
a politically quietist stance, and they abandoned the attempt
The scholars formulated the religious law, the shari
a, to establish general leadership for their imams, whom they
with only incidental reference to the state, and it was chiefly continued to follow as leaders within their own communities.
when the political power located in the institution of the Shi
ites gradually developed a distinctive body of political
caliphate could no longer be taken for granted that jurists ideas based on the concept of the imamate, which they came
began to address larger political questions concerning the to regard as comprising both religious and political authority.
state and government. The collectivity of the Muslim com- Most Shi
ites belong to the Imami community, and believe
munity was invested with certain duties and responsibilities that the last of their imams is now hidden, and therefore
that could, under certain conditions or in times of political inaccessible to the vast majority of his followers. Even during
crisis, operate regardless of, or even in opposition to, the the period of the presence of the imams, however, there
workings of the state. One such collective (and occasionally, appears to have been some dispute among Imami Shi
ites as
individual) duty is that of “commanding right and forbidding to the extent of the imams’ authority. As the work of Hossein
wrong” (al-amr bil-ma
ruf wal-nahy
an al-munkar), a duty Modarressi suggests, the power of the imams was limited not
that in the view of many Muslims fell, ideally, to the imam, only by the adverse conditions that confronted them and
but which could also require or justify rebellion against a their followers, but also by the view held by some of their

Islam and the Muslim World 547
Political Thought

prominent supporters that the scope of their powers should Sunni thinkers distinguished between the caliphate of
be limited in theory as well as in practice. these first four “rightly guided” caliphs and later holders of
the office, many of whom degraded it to kingship (mulk) and
Gradually, however, Imami Shi
ites reached a consensus, were sometimes oppressive. Yet while later Islamic leadership
agreeing that the role of the imamate was to provide compre- may not have been perfect, it remained legitimate, and the
hensive leadership over religious and worldly matters. Thus, community, as a result, remained within the confines of the
under the leadership of the imam, the realms of religion and law. In the gradual emergence of this consensus, Sunni
state were indistinguishable. The imam was not only the thinkers adopted the principles of certain earlier groups,
rightful political leader of the community, but he also pos- whose first priority had been the preservation of the unity of
sessed immunity from sin and error (
isma). Accordingly, he the community; accordingly, it was preferable to accept
was the rightful collector and distributor of religious taxes shortcomings in the political life of the community than to
and the only legitimate leader of jihad, and, as heir to the risk further schism and discord.
knowledge of the Prophet, he possessed a complete and
perfect knowledge of the religious law. After the onset of the The Political Thought of the Classical Sunni and
occultation in the late ninth century (when the imam became Shii Jurists
hidden), however, Imami Shi
ites could no longer turn to Most famously among Sunni jurists, al-Mawardi (d. 1058)
their imam directly, and they, like Sunnis, turned increasingly formulated what came to be regarded as the classical Sunni
to their religious scholars for guidance in religious matters. position on the caliphate. By the eleventh century, the caliphate
had been weakened by its subservience to a succession of
The Kharijites were hostile to both the Umayyad (and, military leaders who had taken over some of its territories and
later, to the
Abbasid) and the Shi
ite positions, and held that established polities of their own. When al-Mawardi came to
leadership belonged to the most excellent member of the write his treatise, al-Ahkam al-sultaniyya (The ordinances of
community, regardless of his genealogy or background. A few government), however, the caliphate was for the moment
believed that the office of the imamate could be held by a enjoying a certain reascendancy, which the jurist sought to
woman. Most Kharijites held that the imamate was obliga- enhance through his exposition of the legal status of the
tory, although some, most notably the Najdiyya, did not office. Al-Mawardi asserted that the imamate is obligatory by
consider an imam necessary if the community were able to revelation, not by reason, and he listed seven necessary
function in accordance with justice without one. (Some qualities for the imam: descent from Quraysh; possession of
Mu
tazilis and other thinkers similarly denied the obligatory religious knowledge; probity; soundness and maturity of
nature of the imamate.) If the imam violated the divine law, body and mind; and the capacity to execute the political and
most Kharijites held that he forfeited his legitimacy and had military duties of the office.
even lapsed into unbelief. The Kharijites continued to challenge the power of the Umayyads and the
Abbasids for at Of al-Mawardi’s stipulated qualities, descent from Quraysh
least two centuries before those groups that survived re- may be the most significant, since it allows for the legitimacy
treated to remote areas and lived as separate, but generally of all the Sunni caliphs, while it does not limit legitimacy to
quietist, communities. descent from the Prophet himself; but the same criterion
excludes most other rulers, such as the Buyids, who con-
The mainstream Sunni conception of the caliphate, con- trolled Baghdad during al-Mawardi’s lifetime. At the same
sensus on which emerged gradually over the first four centu- time, al-Mawardi argued that rule by military emirs was
ries of Islamic history, held that the Quran provided no legitimate as long as such rulers acknowledged the authority
specific injunctions regarding the leadership of the commu- of the caliphs and implemented Islamic law. The caliph
nity after the Prophet’s death, and (although some prominent himself was responsible for the performance of specific du-
Sunni thinkers dissented from this position) that the Prophet ties, such as the protection of religion against heterodoxy,
had left no precise instructions on the matter. According to enforcing the law and dispensing justice, executing the statuthe mainstream view, the first Muslims responded to the tory penalties (hudud), ensuring peace in the territory of Islam
Prophet’s death by recognizing one of their own members, and defending the realm against external enemies, the prose-
Abu Bakr (d. 634), as the first caliph. He was to assume the cution of jihad, receipt of the legal alms, and a fifth of all
functions of leading the Muslim community, but he was in no booty gained in combat on behalf of the community, distribusense an heir to the Prophet’s religious authority; he was tion of revenue according to the law, and the appointment of
acclaimed by the bay
a, an act by which his fellow Muslims reliable and trustworthy men in delegating authority.
acknowledged his leadership and pledged their allegiance.
Abu Bakr was followed by three further individuals who had Al-Mawardi’s book, together with the identically titled
enjoyed close personal ties to the Prophet, after the last of work of his contemporary, Abu Ya
la b. al-Farra (d. 1066),
whom,
Ali, a dynastic principle was adopted with the estab- contributed to a gradual change in the perception of the
lishment of the Umayyad caliphate. caliphate. From the early ninth century onwards, the caliph’s

548 Islam and the Muslim World
Political Thought

authority had coexisted with the reality of political fragmen- conclusions in legal matters. As this practice of ijtihad became
tation, and the office ceased to connote supreme political accepted among Shi
ites, it contributed to an increase in the
power. Instead, it came to assume a more symbolic role, authority of the Shi
ite ulema. Despite this gradual enhancewhereby the caliphate came to represent the unity of the ment in the stature of the Imami scholars, most of them
Muslim community regardless of the division of political power. continued to emphasize the qualitative difference between
the authority enjoyed by imams and prophets, to whom, on
Almost three centuries later, following the execution in account of their immunity from sin and error, unconditional
1258 by the Mongol conqueror Hulegu of the Abbasid caliph obedience was due, and that of any other leader to whom
and the establishment of the Mongol empire over much of certain functions may have been delegated.
the eastern Islamic world, the Syrian Hanbali scholar Ibn
Taymiyya (d. 1328) asserted with vigor the supremacy of the Some Imami scholars of the Usuli school, which develshari
a as the means to ensure the exercise of divine sover- oped in the mid-eighteenth century and became dominant by
eignty on Earth. By extension, Ibn Taymiyya declared the the middle of the nineteenth century, claimed that the Shi
ite
illegitimacy of any ruler who failed to uphold the law. In the scholars had in fact assumed the position of general vicecontext of the demise of the
Abbasid caliphate and against regent (naib
amm) of the absent imam. In the Usuli view, the
the loss of even the symbolism of political unity, Ibn Taymiyya right to interpret Islamic law rested solely with mujtahids,
emphasized the ideological unity that he believed could be scholars who were recognized as qualified to exercise their
achieved through proper observance of the shari
a. His politi- independent judgment, or ijtihad. Ordinary Muslims were
cal perspective, often referred to after the title of one of his obliged to follow one eminent mujtahid as a model of emulabooks as al-siyasa al-shar
iyya (government according to the tion (marja
al-taqlid). Some scholars asserted further that the
religious law), has been influential among some modern office of marja
represented the imam’s authority not only in
thinkers. matters of religion, but also in worldly affairs. This idea was
developed most notably by Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989)
Ibn Taymiyya sought to elevate the condition of both the
in the latter half of the twentieth century.
state and society through upholding the law, and held that a
leader who promoted increased observance of the law was
Sultans and Kings
owed obedience by his subjects. Ibn Taymiyya and his con-
While the classical juristic literature deals with political
temporary, Ibn Jama
a (d. 1333), who likewise spent his life in
thought within the context of the topics of imamate and
Syria and Egypt, emphasized the role of the religious scholars
caliphate, and refers to the sultanate primarily in connection
as counselors to the holders of political power. Furthermore,
with these institutions, other branches of literary expression
Ibn Jama‘a recognized two kinds of imamate, arrived at
treat the institution of the sultanate, or kingship, in its own
through election and force respectively. He noted that the
right. Sultans and other dynastic rulers whose power was
latter form of imamate, based on the exercise of might, was
sometimes local but sometimes very far-reaching were often
the only form that existed in his own time.
the recipients of literary gifts, such as works offering advice
After the beginning of the imam’s occultation in the late (nasiha[t]) on the art of government, or “mirrors for princes,”
ninth century, Shi
ite jurists gradually developed a political in which the ruler’s duties and his subjects’ needs were
theory in which Shi
ite scholars might assume some of the discussed, and the monarch’s own justice was invariably
imam’s responsibilities. In all likelihood, the historical imams praised. Occasionally, such books were commissioned by a
themselves allowed some of their followers to participate in ruler, as seems to have been the case with the famous Siyasatthe performance of certain functions, or delegated certain nameh (Book of government) composed by the wazir Nizam
tasks to individuals. The idea of deputyship to the imam was al-Mulk (d. 1092) and presented to the Seljuq monarch,
developed further in the writings of leading Imami thinkers, Malik-Shah (1073–1092).
such as al-Shaykh al-Mufid (d. 1022), who indicated that
In such books of advice for Muslim rulers, as indeed in
throughout his occultation the imam remained God’s proof
many other cultural contexts, the king (or caliph) is often
(hujja) on earth, but that, during his absence, the imam could
likened to a physician healing a body, or a shepherd guarding
appoint a deputy or deputies.
his flock. He is also, as in ancient Middle Eastern traditions,
Like many Imami jurists, al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (d. 1277) described as “the Shadow of God on earth.” Some authors
noted that, in the imam’s absence, Shi
ites should fulfill their adopt the old Iranian concept of farr, the aura or nimbus that
religious obligation of charity (zakat) by delivering it to a signifies the charisma of kingship. Most directly, these ideas
reliable jurist (faqih), since the latter was in possession of the and many others reached Islamic culture through the translanecessary knowledge to ensure its proper disbursement. The tion into Arabic of literary works composed in Middle Persame jurist, and still more notably his pupil Ibn al-Mutahhar sian (Pahlavi) under the Sassanians (226–651). In Islamic
al-Hilli (d. 1325), adopted the principle of ijtihad, according times, authors adapted and developed many of these ancient
to which each Shi
ite jurist was obliged to undertake an Middle Eastern notions according to the regions and condiinvestigation of the legal sources in order to reach his own tions in which they lived.

Islam and the Muslim World 549
Political Thought

The understanding of kingship articulated in most works imperfect and incomplete. Happiness was best attained by
of nasiha rests on the premise of royal absolutism, which is living in a “virtuous polity” (al-madina al-fadila), which alclosely associated with the concept of justice (
adl), the main- Farabi defined as one led by learned and excellent men, and
tenance of which is presented as the ruler’s foremost respon- one in which the inhabitants co-operated in striving for
sibility. This set of concepts is expressed clearly in the widely ultimate happiness. Human beings were connected by a chain
recorded “circle of justice,” according to which the king’s rule of authority, which was based on their degree of knowledge
is dependent on the army, which in turn depends on wealth, and understanding. In this chain, each individual was in a
which is generated through agriculture (and sometimes trade), position of both learning from and governance by those
which in turn flourishes under the king’s effective exercise of above him, and of instructing and exercising authority over
his royal authority. The ruler is thus depicted as central to the those below him, down to the level of those who were fit only
preservation of the natural and social orders. The fertility and for service. The man who had nothing to learn from anyone
productivity of the land, and the well-being of the peasants was the person best suited to perform the duties of the
who worked it, depended directly on the king’s justice. supreme leader (al-rais al-awwal), whose purpose, according
Furthermore, royal justice was necessary to prevent the to al-Farabi, was to promote the attainment of happiness by
various groups within society from coalescing in such a way his community.
that any particular set of interests outweighed others. If such
a process were allowed to occur, it would cause a social Several of the political ideas of al-Farabi were shared and
imbalance that was considered contrary to justice and tanta- further developed by Ibn Sina (d. 1037), who himself had
mount to injustice (zulm). extensive experience in the practical workings of government
and had served on several occasions as a wazir. Ibn Sina
In order to prevent such disequilibrium, it was the ruler’s emphasized the roles of law and justice, and the need for their
task, by virtue of his own position above and outside any of enforcement by a legislator and preserver of justice, as the
the social categories, to ensure that each individual remained basis for the necessary social transactions among people. In
in the place appropriate to his station. Among writers belong- al-Andalus, Ibn Bajja (d. 1138) held that it was the ruler’s
ing to this intellectual tradition, society was often visualized responsibility to assign tasks to the inhabitants of the city, and
in terms of a quadripartite hierarchy consisting of men of the to ensure that each man undertook the most excellent task of
pen, men of the sword, men of transactions, and men of which he was capable. He argued furthermore that, if no
agriculture, as described, for example, in the famous formula- virtuous polity to which a philosopher might immigrate
tion of Nasir al-Din Tusi, 1201–1274. This model was existed, the philosopher should seclude himself from society
adopted by numerous later writers, and was especially impor- as far as possible.
tant to many Ottoman thinkers.
Nasir al-Din Tusi, who adopted many of the political
Such traditions of kingship came to be widely dissemi- views of al-Farabi, held that although it was the diversity
nated and formed a base for many kinds of courtly literature among people that rendered co-operation among them posacross the linguistic and cultural range of the medieval sible, this co-operation could only be achieved through firm
Islamic world. As this dissemination occurred, the view of administration, without the restraining force of which, men
royal justice expressed in this courtly literature was often might destroy one another. Government was necessary to
linked to the upholding of the shari
a, and, with the establish- ensure that each man was content with the station appropriment of Turkish and Turko-Mongol dynasties in much of the ate to him, that he received his due, and that others did not
Islamic world, many of these Perso-Islamic concepts of gov- violate his rights. One of the main purposes of government,
ernment also became fused with Central Asian concepts. then, was to maintain order in society and to ensure the
harmonious functioning of its component groups.
Political Philosophy
Another important branch of premodern political thought is One of the most remarkable political theoreticians of the
found in the works of the Muslim philosophers, among whom medieval Islamic world was Ibn Khaldun (d. 1332), who spent
the most influential was al-Farabi (d. 950). Al-Farabi’s thought most of his life in North Africa and Egypt, and whose writings
was based on the common premise that it was natural for describe his perceptions of the historical workings of power.
human beings to live in association with others, since on the Ibn Khaldun shares many of the premises of earlier philosoone hand they were incapable of supplying all of their own phers, and reaches the conclusion that kingship (mulk) is a
needs and were therefore obliged to co-operate with one natural and necessary human phenomenon for the regulation
another, and, on the other hand, humankind was, in Aris- and restraint of human conduct. As part of his analysis of
totle’s phrase, a political animal, disposed by nature to com- societies, Ibn Khaldun argues that ruling families whose ties
munal living. The goal of human existence, moreover, was of solidarity (
asabiyya) are strongest are best situated to
happiness (sa
ada), which could only be achieved through impose their dominion over others in a process that gives rise
living in a community. Communities differed in size and in to conquest and expansion. In order to create stable polities,
type, some being “perfect” or complete, and others being however, it is necessary for such strength of communal ties to

550 Islam and the Muslim World
Political Thought

be conjoined with religious law, which provides a more political power. Al-Afghani, for whom the period of the
lasting focus of communal solidarity than kinship and affilia- Rashidun was the period of perfected Muslim government,
tion alone. Ibn Khaldun goes on to describe the stages seems to have regarded regional nationalisms as possible
through which a polity comes into existence, consolidates its steps towards the reconstitution of the Islamic umma. Many
power, reaches maturity, and eventually declines. of the political ideas of al-Afghani were further developed in
the Arab world by Muhammad
Abduh (1849–1905).
Modern Developments
Reconsiderations of the nature and responsibilities of the Among the thinkers whose ideas have been most influenstate have a continuous history in the Islamic world. The tial in the twentieth-century Arab world are Muhammad
historical context for such reconsiderations has evolved par- Rashid Rida (1865–1935), who regarded al-Mawardi’s work
ticularly rapidly, however, over the course of the past two as formative to the Islamic tradition, and
Ali
Abd al-Raziq
centuries. The vast transformations of the modern period (d. 1966). The twentieth-century concept of the Islamic state
have seen the creation in the Islamic world, as elsewhere, of emerged in the context of the dismemberment of the Ottomodern states, in which the relationships between individuals man Empire and the abandonment of the Ottoman caliphate,
and governments have changed dramatically from those charac- which followed the formation of the modern Turkish nationteristic of premodern times, and the integration of much of state. The final abolition of the Ottoman caliphate was briefly
the Islamic world into a global economic system. Like much preceded by an interim period during which the Turkish
of the rest of the world, Muslim countries have, over the past authorities reduced the office to a purely spiritual one. Rashid
two centuries or longer, been forced to accommodate them- Rida opposed this reduction in the role of the caliphate, and
selves to the disproportionate power (economic, military, argued instead for a caliphate that combined religious and
political, cultural) enjoyed by Western countries: the Euro- political authority and that was “a caliphate of necessity,” to
pean colonial powers, the former Soviet Union, and, begin- be situated in the Arab world. In the same era, some Indian
ning in the latter half of the twentieth century, the United Muslims formed the Khilafat Movement, and, along with
States of America. other groups, the Khilafats took up the assertion that Islam is
both a religion and a state (al-Islam din wa dawla). This idea
Modern Islamic political thought thus represents the shapes much of the discourse of contemporary Islamists.
Abd
continuation of a long-standing discourse, but in circum- al-Raziq, on the other hand, faced strong opposition to his
stances that compel reckoning with the actual and theoretical explicit rejection of the view that Islam necessarily combined
aspects of Western politics. Among the many responses the realms of religion and state, and argued that the institumanifested in modern political thought, we may refer to the tion of the caliphate was not required by religion.
ideas of certain thinkers whose vision included both preservation of a redefined Muslim identity and the adoption of The separation of state and religion, while supported by
certain foreign institutions, such as the nation-state, demo-
Abd al-Raziq and other secularists, is rejected by Islamists,
cratic representation, constitutionalism, and so on; and to the for whom Muslims’ primary allegiance should be to the
ideas of thinkers who assert an Islamic form of politics that, in religious community (the umma) and for whom an Islamic
theory at least, is independent of Western models. The order necessarily embraces the political as well as the perspectrum between these two poles, and the variety within sonal religious realms. Hasan al-Banna (1906–1949), founder
them, are naturally extensive. in 1928 of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, emphasized
the all-encompassing nature of Islam in human affairs. His
In the modern era, the word dawla, which in premodern intellectual successors, such as Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966),
times tended to denote a period of dynastic rule, has come to Abu l-A
la Maududi (1903–1979) and Ruhollah Khomeini
signify a state, in the sense that this concept had acquired in (1902–1989), have argued that the prophet Muhammad him-
Europe between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries. self combined religion and state, and that this combination
The term, and its referent, have come to play a central role in established a lasting model. Sayyid Qutb, a prominent memmodern political discourse. Rifa
a Rafi
al-Tahtawi (1801–1873) ber of the Muslim Brotherhood, composed many of his most
employed the term watan (corresponding to the French influential works while imprisoned under Jamal
Abd alpatrie) to denote the territorial aspect of the concept of the Nasser. Central to Sayyid Qutb’s thought was the concept of
state; but he did not reject the concept of the pan-Islamic neo-Jahiliyya, according to which contemporary societies,
umma. Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1839–1897), a highly influ- including those that were nominally Muslim, had fallen into
ential commentator on political matters throughout much of pagan ignorance, a lapse that could only be rectified by
the Islamic world during the nineteenth century, insisted that struggle (jihad) to overturn the secular state and install in its
the Islamic religion was compatible with the exercise of place an Islamic order, in which human laws would give way
human reason, and was thus compatible with the kind of to God-given laws. In practice, as the case of postrevolutionary
scientific inquiry and technological development that had Iran demonstrates, such ideas need not preclude the adoption
flourished in modern Europe. At the same time, al-Afghani of such principles as constitutionalism, the separation of
absolutely rejected Muslim rulers’ subservience to Western powers, and popular sovereignty.

Islam and the Muslim World 551
Polygamy

As India struggled for its independence from Great Brit- Azmeh, Aziz al-. Muslim Kingship. Power and the Sacred in
ain, Maududi, founder in 1941 of the Jama
at-e Islami, Muslim, Christian, and Pagan Polities. London and New
opposed the forms of nationalism represented by the Indian York: I. B. Tauris, 1997.
National Congress on the one hand and by the Muslim Cook, Michael. Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in
League on the other. Instead, he argued in favor of the Islamic Thought. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University
restoration of an Islamic order in India. Despite his opposi- Press, 2000.
tion to the Muslim League, however, Maududi moved to the Crone, Patricia, and Hinds, Martin. God’s Caliph. Cambridge,
new state of Pakistan following its creation in 1947. Maududi U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
asserted strongly the idea that Pakistan should be not merely Enayat, Hamid. Modern Islamic Political Thought. Austin:
a state for Muslims but an Islamic state. For Maududi, an University of Texas Press, 1982.
Islamic state was one in which all areas of public and private Lambton, A. K. S. State and Government in Medieval Islam.
life were regulated in accordance with the unchanging shari
a. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1980.
His idea of the Islamic state was based on neither national- Lewis, Bernard. The Political Language of Islam. Chicago and
ism nor democracy. Although highly controversial in Paki- London: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
stan, Maududi’s books and pamphlets have been translated Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad. A Study of
into many languages and are widely read throughout the the Early Caliphate. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univer-
Islamic world. sity Press.
Modarressi, Hossein. Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative
In the Shi
ite world, Khomeini contributed significantly Period of Shi‘ite Islam. Princeton, N.J.: The Darwin
to the increased emphasis on political activism in modern Press, 1993.
times through his reinterpretations of several important fea- Mottahedeh, Roy P. Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic
tures of earlier Imami Shi
ite thought. For example, Shi
ites Society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980.
had traditionally looked to the hidden imam to establish Sivan, Emmanuel. Radical Islam. Medieval Theology and Modjustice on earth at the time of his eventual return; this belief ern Politics. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1980.
had long been conducive to political quietism. Khomeini, Soroush,
Abdolkarim. Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in
however, took the view that Muslims need wait no longer. Islam: Essential Writings of
Abdolkarim Soroush. Trans-
Instead, they could hasten the return of the imam by acting lated by Mahmoud Sadri and Ahmad Sadri. New York:
themselves to resist injustice and to establish an Islamic Oxford University Press, 2000.
political order in the here and now. Furthermore, Khomeini
expressed the view that the mujtahids were responsible for the Louise Marlow
execution of all the religious and worldly duties that the
Prophet himself had performed. These responsibilities should
be exercised not through the collective body of qualified
scholars but through a single jurist. This doctrine, known as
POLYGAMY
“the guardianship of the jurist” (velayat-e faqih), remains a
Islamic law allows only men to enter more than one marriage
subject of debate among Imami scholars. In the decades since
at a time, justifying it by reference to the Quran (4:3, 24, 25)
the Islamic Revolution of 1979, as a result of which Iran
and the marriages of the prophet Mohammad. Although
successfully extricated itself from Western intervention and
polygamy (strictly, “polygyny”) has never been common in
rejected a politics conditioned by the interests of the West, a Muslim societies, in many areas it was always rare, and
number of Iranian thinkers, such as
Abd al-Karim Sorush, incidence has diminished in modern times. In the twentieth
have been among the most notable contributors to a contem- century, men’s right to contract plural marriages became one
porary renewal and broadening of Islamic political thought of the contentious issues in debates over women’s rights in
along lines that emphasize individual rights and freedoms, Islam. Not only did the practice become stigmatized but its
and democracy. religious legitimacy began to be challenged by new readings
of Islamic sacred texts and the introduction of notions of
See also Caliphate; Imamate; Iran, Islamic Republic of;
equity and justice in gender rights. In contrast to classical
Law; Modernization, Political: Constitutionalism;
Muslim jurists, modern jurists tend to argue that interdiction
Monarchy; Pakistan, Islamic Republic of; Political
of the practice, rather than its sanction, can be deduced from
Islam; Reform: Arab Middle East and North Africa;
the Quran verses, and that polygamy should be allowed only
Reform: Iran; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver); Shari
a; Suc- in exceptional circumstances and under limited conditions.
cession; Ulema. Likewise, in some Muslim countries plural marriages are
either outlawed (as in Turkey and Tunisia), or the registra-
BIBLIOGRAPHY tion of such marriages is allowed only by means of a court
Arjomand, Saïd. The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam. order that either requires the first wife’s consent or grants her
Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1984. the right to divorce (as in Jordan, Malaysia, Iran, Iraq, and

552 Islam and the Muslim World
Property

Syria). Elsewhere, especially in the Persian Gulf countries, of private ownership. In keeping with this implication, from
men face no legal restrictions in contracting plural marriages. the early caliphs to monarchs of the nineteenth century,
Because of social sanctions, plural marriages all over the successive Muslim rulers routinely confiscated uncultivated
Muslim world are often contracted in secret. lands. Though frequently defended in Islamic terms, these
expropriations also accorded with Hellenic and Persian tradi-
See also Gender; Marriage. tions that treated the state as the ultimate owner of all land.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Like rulers everywhere, premodern Muslim rulers gener-
Asghar, Ali. The Rights of Women in Islam. London: Hurst and ally understood that threats to the material security of indi-
Company, 1992. viduals, including confiscations and arbitrary taxation, reduced
Maghniyyah, Muhammad Jawad. Marriage According to Five government revenue by harming incentives to produce. So
Schools of Islamic Law. Tehran: Department of Translation Islamic history offers many examples of rulers alleviating the
and Publication, Islamic Culture and Relations Organiza- tax burden of a region or class of subjects with the express
tion, 1997. purpose of stimulating economic activity. However, not until
modern times have there existed effective legal safeguards
Ziba Mir-Hosseini against state-initiated or condoned predation. A ruler urgently in need of resources to run a military campaign or
overcome a political challenge could generally prey on his
subjects without legal hindrance. Muslim writers of the me-
PRAYER, CALL TO See
Ibadat
dieval Middle East, including Maqrizi and Ibn Khaldun,
observe that distressed rulers made it a habit of grabbing the
visible possessions of the wealthy, including estates of the
deceased. Such expropriations were often carried out under
PREACHING See Khutba the pretext that the seized assets had been acquired illegally.

From the fact that rulers felt a need to justify their
predatory acts, one may infer that subjects expected them to
respect established use rights. This expectation was based
PROPERTY partly on the principle that individuals are entitled to private
ownership (milk). Though at odds with the principle of divine
A source of conflict in the pre-Islamic Middle East, the ownership, private ownership thus remained a concept recconcept of property remained controversial after the rise of ognized by Islamic law. Moreover, even as Muslim rulers
Islam. From the seventh century to the modern era, Islamic pursued policies harmful to material security, Islamic courts
rulings, opinions, and institutions designed to broaden pri- routinely enforced individual property rights.
vate ownership rights coexisted with policies that undermined them. Initially, the consequent material insecurity was Another mechanism through which Islam weakened prinothing unusual by the prevailing global standards. However, vate ownership rights was grounded in zakat, an institution
the gradual strengthening of private property rights in west- designed to prevent opportunistic taxation. Mentioned in the
ern Europe caused the Islamic world to sink below the Quran and implemented by the Prophet, the zakat system
standards of the day. imposed fixed tax rates that varied across income and wealth
categories. For example, the rate on agricultural income was
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries European trav-
10 percent in naturally irrigated areas but 5 percent in areas
elers to the Middle East found signs of weak property rights,
irrigated artificially. During the Prophet’s lifetime, this fixity
such as residential styles designed to conceal wealth. For their
served to block attempts at radical redistribution. At the same
part, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Middle Eastern
time, it precluded the establishment of general principles
visitors to the West were favorably impressed by the material
for amending zakat rates and broadening the system’s covsecurity afforded to individual Europeans. Significantly, the
erage. Consequently, the zakat system soon became out-
Middle East’s magnificent architectural heritage consists
dated, allowing later rulers to impose taxes arbitrarily and
almost exclusively of communal structures. Had the region
opportunistically. The rate schedule of the agricultural tax
made early progress in broadening the scope of property
known as
ushr, though patterned after the zakat requirerights, its surviving premodern structures would have included many private residences, as in western Europe. ments on land, has varied greatly across time and space. In any
case, this tax has often been accompanied by sundry other
Islam has influenced the evolution of ownership rights taxes without any basis in Islam’s traditional sources of
through several mechanisms, some of which operated at authority. In facilitating the variability of taxation, the zakat
cross-purposes. Verse 7:128 of the Quran, which holds that system unintentionally contributed to the precariousness of
all property belongs to God, would seem to rule out all forms individual property rights.

Islam and the Muslim World 553
Prophets

A creative and effective response to the weakness of these and later Muslim traditions attach great importance to cerrights was the waqf system. A waqf is an unincorporated trust tain beliefs and practices associated with all the prophets.
established under Islamic law by an individual for the provision of a designated service in perpetuity. Its assets are The Quran itself (2:136, 3:84, 4:136, 42:13) and later
considered sacred. From the eighth century onward, it served Muslim creeds stipulate belief in all the prophets and the
as an increasingly popular device to protect personal wealth books revealed to them without making distinctions among
by diminishing the likelihood of confiscation. Right up to them. The Fiqh al-akbar (art. 8), traditionally attributed to the
modern times, Muslim rulers were much less likely to seize jurist Abu Hanifa, states that Muslims should believe that
waqf-owned assets than they were to confiscate private prop- Moses and Jesus were prophets, perhaps in reference to 2:285
erty, for they sought to avoid developing a reputation for and 4:152. The so-called Fiqh al-akbar II (art. 20), the Wasiyat
impiety. Abi Hanifa (art. 25) and the
Aqida of Ahmad b. Ja
far al-
Tahawi (art. 5) all state the belief in the intercession of the
Although establishing a waqf usually required a commit- prophets for their followers on the Day of Judgment.
ment to provide social services, it came with the privilege of
appointing oneself as its mutawalli (trustee and manager). At Some Muslim scholars distinguish between a generic
some cost, therefore, a waqf founder was able to secure a “prophet” (nabi) and a “messenger” or “apostle” (rasul),
portion of his wealth for his own and his family’s benefit. If maintaining that only a select few of the many prophets were
the waqf system became much more important to the messengers, supposed to have brought a revealed book to
premodern Middle Eastern economy than trusts were to the their people. Within the Quran, other terms are used to refer
economies of western Europe, the reason is that in the to prophets, including “messiah” or “Christ” (masih) with
Middle East private property rights were clearly weaker and, reference exclusively to Jesus. Ibn Sa
d (d. 230) reports that
hence, the need for wealthy shelters measurably greater. the number of rasul including the prophet Muhammad is 315,
and the total number of prophets is one thousand. Other
A salient characteristic of Middle Eastern history is the Muslim sources list the total number of prophets as 224,000.
absence of broad movements to strengthen private property
rights. It offers nothing akin to the protracted European The stories of the prophets make up a significant portion
movements that limited the economic powers of kings and of the Quran, but the Quran does not mention the names of
queens. The very availability of the waqf option helps to all the prophets claimed by some Muslim scholars. By name
explain this difference. It dampened collective action on the there are twenty-five prophets mentioned in the Quran,
part of wealth holders likely to benefit from stronger prop- though there are some disagreements concerning the indierty rights. Formal property rights arrived in the Middle East vidual identities of all these. Among those mentioned by
in the nineteenth century through sweeping economic re- name are: Adam (mentioned 25 times by name), Idris (1), Nah
forms based largely on European models. Property rights are (Noah; 43), Hud (7), Salih (10), Ibrahim (Abraham; 69),
broadly recognized in the modern civil codes of Middle Isma
il (Ishmael; 12), Ishaq (Isaac; 17), Ya
qub (Jacob; 16),
Eastern countries. Lut (Lot; 27), Yusuf (Joseph; 27), Shu
ayb (11), Ayyub (Job;
4), Dhu-l-Kifl (2), Musa (Moses; 137), Harun (Aaron; 20),
See also Economy and Economic Institutions; Waqf. Dawud (David; 16), Sulayman (Solomon; 17), Ilyas (Elijah;
1), Alisa (Elisha; 2), Yunus (Jonah; 4), Zakariyya (Zechariah;
BIBLIOGRAPHY 7), Yahya (John; 5),
Issa (Jesus; 25), and Muhammad (4).
Kuran, Timur. “The Provision of Public Goods under Islamic
Law: Origins, Impact, and Limitations of the Waqf Sys- Other passages in the Quran refer to prophets without
tem.” Law and Society Review 35 (2001): 301–357. mentioning names, but Muslim tradition identifies the prophets
Mayer, A. E., ed. Property, Social Structure, and Law in the by name such as: Khidr, Ezekiel, Samuel, Jeremiah, and
Modern Middle East. Albany: State University of New York Daniel. In some cases, such as the case of the prophet sent to
Press, 1985. the People of the Well (25:38, 50:12) and to the People of the
City mentioned in Sura Ya-Sin (36:13–29), the prophets are
Timur Kuran not identified by name in the Quran, and the names given to
the prophets are not well known outside of Muslim exegesis.
There are also important characters, mentioned by name in
the Quran, such as Luqman and Dhu al-Qarnayn, who are
PROPHETS not considered prophets but whose stories are nevertheless
included in the later Muslim stories of the prophets.
According to Muslim interpretation of the Quran, the prophet
Muhammad is considered to be the “seal of the prophets,” the The Quran mentions scriptures revealed to Abraham
culmination of a line of prophets stretching back through (53:36–37, 87:18–19), and specifies the Torah and Gospel
Jesus, Moses, and Abraham to Adam. Many but not all of the (3:3, 3:48, 3:60, 5:43–46, 5:66), Psalms of David (4:163,
prophets preceding Muhammad are mentioned in the Quran, 17:55), and Quran (12:1–3, 20:2, 27:19, 56:77–80, 76:23) as

554 Islam and the Muslim World
Purdah

revealed books. A hadith report given on the authority of Abu their revealed scriptures, and largely embrace the diversity of
Dharr states that scriptures were revealed to Adam, Seth, the various “versions” of different stories focusing on the
Idris, and Abraham in addition to the revelation of the Torah common veneration of certain recognized figures such as
to Moses, the Psalms to David, the Gospel to Jesus, and the Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.
Quran to Muhammad. According to al-Tabari, the “first
scriptures” mentioned in Q 20:133 and 87:18 are the scrip- See also Islam and Other Religions; Muhammad; Quran.
tures revealed to Seth and Idris.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Muslim tradition also mentions the relics of prophets, Firestone, Reuven. Journeys in the Holy Lands: The Evolution of
some of which are venerated in shrines and are the focus of the Abraham-Ishmael Story in Islamic Exegesis. Albany: State
seasonal rituals. Muslims perform pilgrimages to the tombs University of New York Press, 1990.
of certain prophets such as that of Hud in the Hadramawt and Lassner, Jacob. Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries of
Shu
ayb in Yemen. According to the Arab geographer Yaqut, Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval
the tomb of Adam is said to be in Mecca, and Muslim Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993
pilgrimages visit the tomb of Muhammad in Medina. Arti- Newby, Gordon. The Making of the Last Prophet: A Reconstrucfacts of the prophets are also attested such as the Ark of the tion of the Earliest Biography of Muhammad. Columbia:
Covenant, a mirror and ring that belonged to Solomon, the University of South Carolina Press, 1989.
ring and book of Daniel, and a number of items closely Schöck, Cornellia. Adam im Islam: Ein Beitrag zur Ideengeschichte
associated with Muhammad including his hair and finger- der Sunna. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, 1993.
nails. The footprints of prophets, including Abraham, Moses, Schwarzbaum, Haim. Biblical and Extra-Biblical Legends in
and Muhammad, are also preserved in religious institutions Islamic Folk-Literature. Waldorf-Hessen: Beiträge zur
and museums along with articles of clothing and weapons. Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte des Orients 30, 1982.
Tabari. The History of al-Tabari. Vol. 1: From Creation to the
In addition to the standard Quran commentaries that
Flood. Translated by Franz Rosenthal. Albany: State Uniwere written according to the order of the suras and verses in versity of New York Press, 1989. Vol. 2: Prophets and
the Quran, Muslim scholars also compiled “stories of the Patriarchs. Translated by William Brinner (1987). Vol. 3:
prophets,” which excerpted and commented on the large The Children of Israel. Translated by William Brinner
parts of the Quran concerned with the prophets leading up (1991). Vol. 4: The Ancient Kingdoms. Translated by Moshe
to Muhammad. These works organized the Quran passages Perlmann (1987).
in narrative order beginning with Adam and ending with Thackston, Wheeler. The Tales of the Prophets of al-Kisai.
Muhammad, roughly paralleling the biblical chronology of Boston: Twayne, 1978.
these same figures. Best known for their stories of the proph- Wensinck, Arent Jan. The Muslim Creed: Its Genesis and
ets were Tha
labi and Ibn Kathir, and stories of the prophets Historical Development. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Unimade up significant parts of universal histories such as those versity Press, 1932.
compiled by Tabari, Ya
qubi, Ibn al-Athir, and in the biogra- Wheeler, Brannon. Moses in the Quran and Islamic Exegesis.
phy of the prophet Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq. London and New York.: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002.

The prophet-by-prophet and overall chronological struc- Wheeler, Brannon. Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to
the Quran and Muslim Exegesis. London: Continuum, 2002.
ture of these story collections contributed to a more accessible and less piecemeal interpretation of the Quran. The
Brannon M. Wheeler
genre of “stories of the prophets” has been more closely
associated with sermons and popular Quran interpretation,
and it is likely that some of the earliest Quran interpretations, like those attributed to Wahb b. Munabbih, Ka
b al- PULPIT See Minbar (Mimbar)
Ahbar, and Ibn
Abbas, originated as sermons or stories of the
prophets. Later works devoted to the stories of the prophets,
especially in Persian, were richly illustrated, picturing the
prophets in certain well-known scenes from the popular
stories. In the Muslim world today, one of the most popular PURDAH
formats for presentation of the Quran to children is through
books and videos illustrating the stories of the prophets. Purdah, from the Persian word for curtain, pardah, refers to
the custom of veiling and secluding women in Islamic socie-
Most of the prophets in the Quran as well as those ties. The Arabic term is hijab. The custom derives from
mentioned by name in later Muslim interpretation parallel references in the Quran to speaking with women from
characters from the Bible and its interpretation in Jewish and behind a curtain (33:53) and to hadith enjoining modest
Christian traditions. Muslim scholars have seen these paral- behavior for Muslims of both sexes. Purdah is observed in a
lels as evidence of the shared origins of these religions and variety of ways, all of them involving some form of sexual

Islam and the Muslim World 555
Purdah

segregation. In its most extreme form, women are confined to stole that adorns the shoulders, but can be put over the hair
their homes; alternatively, it involves male social interaction when necessary.
and schooling with other males and similarly segregated
social activities and schooling for females. Usually, purdah Controversy exists over the meaning of renewed purdah
involves various forms of modest dress in order to keep observance in recent times. It can be seen as the oppressive
women from being seen by unrelated males. These range imposition of social segregation upon women, or as a matter
from all-enveloping garments to scarves that cover the hair. of choice, in which the use of the veil expresses a woman’s
faith and cultural identity. Indicative of this latter phenome-
While the custom is associated with the religion of Islam, non is the fact that wearing a head scarf is becoming more
purdah is also a form of cultural and political symbolism. common as Muslims migrate to non-Muslim countries.
During the period of rapid modernization in the early twentieth century, many middle-class, urban Muslim women gave See also Gender; Harem; Veiling.
up the veil. In more recent times, movements of cultural pride
and religious reassertion have prompted many Muslim women BIBLIOGRAPHY
to don it again. Purdah observation varies according to Papanek, Hanna. “Purdah: Separate Worlds and Symbolic
region, culture, and class. In Iran, the chador became the Shelter.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 15, no.
emblem of the Islamic revolution, symbolic of the rejection of 3 (1973): 289–325.
the West and of westernization. In Afghanistan, the all- Shirazi, Faegheh. The Veil Unveiled: Hijab in Modern Culture.
enveloping burqa was required by the Taliban government, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001.
though it also provided symbolic protection for women in Zuhur, Sherifa. Revealing Reveiling: Islamist Gender Ideology in
politically unstable situations. In Pakistan and India, Muslim Contemporary Egypt. Albany: State University of New
women wear a variety of veil forms: the chaddar—a large York Press, 1992.
shawl that hides the feminine form, the burqa—a coatlike
garment with an adjustable head piece, the dupatta—a sheer Gail Minault

556 Islam and the Muslim World
Q
QADHDHAFI, MU
MAR AL- (1943– ) Qadhdhafi’s leadership of Libya during the first decade
after 1969 brought many changes to ordinary Libyans such as
providing free medical care, building the infrastructure of the
Mu
mar al-Qadhdhafi was the most dominant Libyan leader
country, and expanding education especially for Libyan
in the second half of the twentieth century. His childhood
women. However, secular and Islamic opposition were reand political ideology were influenced by his family’s tribal
pressed. Since the early 1980s, the Libyan economy has
values, anticolonial Islam, and Arab nationalism during the
grown more dependent on oil for its revenues than it was
upheavals of the Egyptian revolution (1952) and the Algerian
under the old regime, and agriculture continues to decline
anticolonial revolution (1954–1965). As the sole leader of despite large and expensive projects. Despite these mixed
Libya since 1969, he has changed the socioeconomic and legacies, the Libyan revolution under Qadhdhafi’s leadership
political structures of that nation. He created and led a self- is a turning point in the making of modern Libya in the
declared revolutionary state governed by an organization of twentieth century.
popular committees and congresses with a rich oil-based
rentier economy. See also Modernization, Political: Authoritarianism and
Democratization.
Qadhdhafi was born in 1943 (other sources say he was
born earlier) in a tent to a poor itinerant Bedouin family that BIBLIOGRAPHY
belonged to the Qadhafa tribe. In 1965, Qadhdhafi and some Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif. The Making of Modern Libya: State
of his friends entered the military academy and began to Formation, Colonialization, and Resistance, 1830–1932.
recruit other officers in his revolutionary organization, the Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.
Free Unionist Officers Movement. Ayoub, Mahmoud M. Islam and the Third Universal Theory:
The Religious Thought of Mu
ammar al-Qadhdhafi. London:
Qadhdhafi’s ideology stresses Arab nationalism, Islam, KPI Limited, 1987.
self-determination, social justice, and denounced the corruption of the old regime. He theorizes that historical change is Ali Abdullatif Ahmida
caused by religion and nationalism. Qadhdhafi advocates
opening the gates of ijtihad (free reason of Islamic law ) and
hence accepts only the Quran as the main basis of Islamic
law. Such views place him on the side of reformist Islamic QADI (KADI, KAZI)
traditions. He was also anticommunist, which brought him
A qadi is the term for a Muslim judge who issues definitive
international recognition from the Nixon administration in
rulings in cases brought by disputants for resolution. The
the United States. After consolidating his power and crushed
word qadi is derived from the root word q-d-y, meaning “to
the opposition in 1975, Qadhdhafi began to apply his ideas,
resolve,” “to settle,” “to decide.”
which were presented in his Green Book (1976, 1980). He
advocated what he called the Third Universal Theory, a Judicial practice is seen as an extension of the function of
third way between capitalism and Marxism based on the the ruler and is thus indirectly linked to orderly governance.
direct democracy of popular organization of congresses and Muslim political theory advocates the appointment of an
committees. executive ruler (caliph/imam) as a moral obligation (fard)

Qadi

premised on religious authority. The appointment of judges prophetic tradition that prevents women from holding the
is thus in keeping with the fulfillment of an obligation office of a qadi, the early juristic viewpoint on this matter
according to the classical Sunni legal authorities. Early Shi
ite reflects the social conditions of patriarchy, where the religauthorities argue that the implementation of the rules of the ious norm is colored by social context.
revealed law (shari
a) is an obligation not subject to rational
scrutiny (ta
abbud) and can only be fulfilled by the designated The situation in modern Muslim nation-states from the
hereditary religious leader (imam) or his delegated appoint- twentieth century onward is somewhat different. In many
ees. Only those judges appointed by the legitimate political societies where a version of Islamic law is still practiced, such
leader can be deemed to have worthy credentials as appoint- as family law, women do perform the role of qadis. However,
ees to the office of judgeship. the advancement of women to high levels in the profession of
judgeship still remains an ongoing struggle.
According to the Sunni scholar al-Ghazali, the role of the
judiciary (qada) is similar to the process of issuing juridical According to the classical authorities, non-Muslim qadis
responsa (fatwa, pl. fatawa), where academic jurists offer can only have jurisdiction over fellow non-Muslims, but do
learned opinions to questions about the moral status of not have jurisdiction over Muslim petitioners. Sunni and
practices. There is of course a crucial difference between a Shi
ite authorities do not accept the testimony of non-Muslims
jurisconsult (mufti) and a judge (qadi). The former only against Muslims. Given the parallels between judgeship and
provides information to the questioner as to what the juridical- testimony, non-Muslim qadis are not viewed as qualified to
moral status or value (hukm) of a specific act is, while the give verdicts over Muslims. While these practices stem from
primary purpose of the latter is to apply and enforce the assumptions of Islamic power and empire, this rule is often
established rules by means of the coercive authority held by ignored in modern multireligious and multiethnic societies
the ruler, or later devolved upon the modern state. that include significant Muslim populations such as India,
Malaysia, and Nigeria. Irrespective of Muslim majority or
Across the spectrum of Muslim law schools treatises minority contexts, non-Muslim judges do issue binding ruldetailing the ethics of judgeship are in abundance. A high bar ings on Muslim petitioners with little objection from the
is set for qualification as a qadi, requiring candidates to meet traditional religious scholars (ulema).
an extensive list of prerequisites. The most important of these
pre-requisites are that qadis should be knowledgeable of the In the premodern period qadis had jurisdiction over an
law and its cognitive disciplines, as well as display moral entire gamut of laws ranging from administrative law, torts,
rectitude as individiuals with impeccable credentials within and commercial law to criminal law. In several places, espetheir society. Classical Muslim authorities see an intimate cially in North Africa, there were also courts of appeals.
link between qualification as a judge and possessing the However, with the displacement of Islamic law by secular and
credentials of being a reliable witness (shahada). Those who Western legal codes in the nineteenth and twentieth centupass the test to serve as credible witnesses, also in theory ries, the jurisdiction of the qadi is in many instances limited to
qualify as having the credentials to serve as qadis. family law matters; in many places the office has been abolished. On the other hand, in some countries where Islamic
Among the earliest judges delegated by the prophet Mu- law has been reintroduced as the main source of law in the
hammad to serve in certain regions were the companions twentieth century, the office of the qadi has been revived.
Mu
adh ibn Jabal, who was sent to Yemen, and
Itab b. Usayd,
who was sent to Mecca. Later successors, notably
Umar b. See also Fatwa; Law; Mufti; Religious Institutions.
Al-Khattab, gave particular attention to the development of a
proto-judicial system. He appointed the famous Shurayh b. BIBLIOGRAPHY
al-Harith al-Kindi (d. c. 699/700) as qadi of Kufa. Shurayh
Powers, David. “On Judicial Review in Islamic Law.” Law &
was affirmed by the caliph/imam
Ali who held him in high
Society Review 26, no. 2 (1992): 315–341.
esteem, provided him with a monthly stipend, even though he
fired him for issuing a wrong judgment, but
Ali also later Tyser, C. R., et al., trans. “About a Judge and the Duties of a
Judge.” In The Mejelle. Kuala Kumpur, Malaysia: The
reinstated him.
Umar’s famous letter to Abu Musa al-Ash
ari
Other Press, 2001.
is held out as a model document that enshrines the ideals of
judgeship in Islam in which he pleads for equity for all people,
Umar al-Khassaf, Ahmad ibn, and Sadr al-Shahid,
Abd al-

Aziz, trans. Munir Ahmad Mughal, Adab al-Qadi: Islamic
rich or poor, and warns against the miscarriage of justice.
Legal and Judicial System. Lahore: Kazi Publications, 1999.
Historically, the profession has been dominated by males. Yaacob, Abdul Monir. “Duties of Qadis in Islamic Law.”
Most of the law schools make maleness a prerequisite for Journal Undang-Undang IKIM, Institute of Islamic Underbeing a judge. However, in theory at least, some of the standing Malaysia Law Journal 4, no. 1 (January–June
classical schools permit women to be judges, while barring 2000): 39–52.
them from deciding cases involving criminal penalties (hudud).
However, since there is no explicit directive in the Quran or Ebrahim Moosa

558 Islam and the Muslim World
Qa
ida, al-

soon thereafter M.A.K. began to recruit, indoctrinate, and
QA
IDA, AL- train its volunteers in effective resistance methods, including
terrorist tactics.
Azzam held a particularly hard-line doctrine
The name of the radical organization al-Qa
ida (also spelled of jihad, which, according to his understanding of the Quran
al-Qaeda) has the literal meaning of “the foundation” or “the and sunna of the prophet Muhammad, required militant
base.” The organization arose in the last quarter of the opposition to Islam’s perceived enemies. This view was adopted
twentieth century to oppose the military and economic inter- by Usama bin Ladin, although at what point is not clear.
vention of non-Muslim states in predominantly Muslim lands. Another important influence in the al-Qa
ida network of
It came to the attention of the public in the United States and organizations is Ayman al-Zawahiri (1951– ), an Egyptian
around the world on 11 September 2001, immediately fol- physician who joined the radical al-Jama
a al-Islamiyya (Islowing the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center in New lamic Group) and affiliated with bin Ladin during the late
York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., that killed twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
more than three thousand people and terrified those who
witnessed the well-covered event on television. The broader During the Afghan war against the Soviet military, the
association of al-Qa
ida and its leader, Usama bin Ladin, with organized resistance efforts of M.A.K. also became known as
terrorism was immediate and pervasive in media coverage al-Qa
ida. Other names were adopted by Usama bin Ladin,
and political discourse in America and elsewhere. such as “The Islamic Global Front for Combating Jews and
Crusaders [Christians].” Indeed, such names, including al-
Al-Qa
ida was the first of the militant Islamist organiza- Qa
ida, do not refer to a single organization with a single
tions to operate on a global scale. It did so in part by adopting central command headquartered in a known place, but rather
many of the technologies and communications methods of to a cluster or complex of organizations and movements
the very global organization whose famous twin-tower build- whose affiliations and organizational structure are not yet
ings in New York it allegedly destroyed on 11 September well known or understood. In the 1980s al-Qa
ida functioned
2001. Although a considerable amount of data on al-Qa
ida as an ally of United States against the Soviet Union, receiving
and its operatives has been gathered and published by gov- covert funds through the C.I.A. When the war wound down
ernmental security agencies and investigative reporters, as of with the defeat of the Soviets in 1988, the organization’s
2003 a thorough academic study of the organization or, more interests expanded globally, to include other Muslim fronts
properly speaking, of the cluster of radical Muslim organiza- that suffered non-Muslim interventions, including Chechnya,
tions going by the name of al-Qa
ida, had yet to be under- the Balkans, Central Asia, Africa, and Indonesia. This new,
taken by specialists on Islam. more global involvement included an attempt to blow up one
of the towers of the World Trade center in New York (23
The ideological founder of al-Qa
ida (sometimes al-Qa
ida February 1993), simultaneous lethal bomb blasts at two U.S.
al-sulba: “the solid foundations”) was
Abdallah
Azzam, a embassies in east Africa (1998), an attack on the U.S.S. Cole as
Palestinian born in 1941.
Azzam grew up under Israeli it came into port in the Yemen (2000), and suicidal attacks
occupation of his homeland. He earned a doctorate in shari
a using commandeered airplanes against the World Trade
studies at al-Azhar University in Cairo, after which he taught Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.,
in various Middle Eastern universities. He was dismissed on 11 September 2001.
from his teaching post at King
Abd al-
Aziz University in
Saudi Arabia in 1979 for engaging in Islamist activism. He Many well-meaning Muslims and non-Muslims have rethen went to Pakistan on the eve of the invasion of Afghani- garded al-Qa
ida, its leaders and operatives, as beyond the
stan by armed forces of the Soviet Union. There he met and pale of the Islamic faith because of the extreme and violent
became a religious mentor to Usama bin Ladin, who brought methods they advocate using against moderate Muslim govto the growing anti-Soviet effort (jihad) considerable financ- ernments and non-Muslim states. Yet it is clear that
Abdallah
ing and experience in building the kind of infrastructure
Azzam, Usama bin Ladin and other leaders and mentors of
needed to conduct effective counterattacks. al-Qa
ida regarded themselves as good Muslims, as being
among the vanguard of reformers who aim to restore the true
In 1984
Azzam and bin Ladin established the Afghan faith of the founding generations of Islam (the salaf), and as
Service Bureau Front, known by its Arabic acronym M.A.K. followers of a legitimate Sunni school of interpretation in
(maktab al-khidma li-l-mujahin al-
arab, literally, office for Islam, the Wahhabi-Hanbali school that predominates in
services for Arab freedom fighters). Among the services they Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Gulf states. They proposed
provided was keeping track of young Muslim males who a radical Islamic response to modernism and to the constrainjoined the cause from countries around the world, particu- ing military and political forces of non-Muslim states and
larly from Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and their secular agendas, basing that response on interpretations
they apparently provided relief services to those who were of Islam that were already circulating in the mid-twentieth
wounded and to the families of those killed in battle. Very century.

Islam and the Muslim World 559
Qanun

Chief among these interpretations are the writings of mathematics). All of these books were written between the
Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966), whose books and pamphlets con- tenth and fifteenth centuries, indicating that the word had
tinue to be widely read and appreciated throughout the passed into common Arabic usage, and was taken to mean the
Muslim world, even by moderate Muslims who regard their rules or principles of something.
faith as greatly misunderstood by non-Muslims and under
assault by secular modernity. Thus, while willful, murderous From the earliest centuries of Islam and onward, the word
acts against innocent victims is regarded as morally reprehen- was used in a more specialized context to refer to tax registers
sible by most Muslims and non-Muslims alike, many scholars and lists, especially of land taxes, as in qanun al-kharaj, and the
believe that the Islamic self-understanding promoted by the regulations and assessments of land taxes, as in al-qawanin alleadership and ranks of al-Qa
ida members must also be muqarrara. In addition, a large number of texts written on the
analyzed without the attempt to classify them as authentic or rules of public administration or the administration of the
inauthentic religious beliefs. Other scholars see al-Qa
ida as a ruler’s office were titled qanun al-rasail and qanun al-diwan.
forceful response to Western imperialism during the colonial In the sixteenth century, Ghiyath al-Din Khwand
Amir
and post-colonial periods and to the rapid globalization of wrote Qanun-e-Humayuni, which recorded the rules and
market capitalism and secularism since the collapse of the ordinances established by the emperor Humayun, and some
Soviet Union in 1989. Most scholars of Islam warn against an of the building erected by his order.
ill-founded tendency on the part of some religious leaders
and media commentators to equate al-Qa
ida with Islam, that From the Umayyad period, and especially during the
is, to define and grasp Islam in terms of the public manifesta- Ottoman era, the word qanun also referred to state regulations of al-Qa
ida and similar radical groups. tions, imperial decrees, or edicts that were based on public
interest and executive discretion, instead of the jurist-based
See also Bin Ladin, Usama; Fundamentalism; Qutb, shari
a law. Such regulations were considered temporal in
Sayyid; Terrorism. nature, and therefore, they remained in effect as long as they
were decreed by a ruler. Upon the death or removal of a ruler,
BIBLIOGRAPHY such regulations had to be confirmed or continued by a
Gunaratna, Rohan. Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror. successor. These regulations were not limited to the field of
New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. taxation, but often covered matters related to court procedure, commercial law, and criminal law as well. They also
Richard C. Martin canonized customary practices especially for professional
guilds and merchants. As far as Muslim jurists were concerned, these regulations were described as executory laws
(qawanin
urfiyya) that could be mandated by public interests,
QANUN but such regulations were not considered part of the divinely
based shari
a law. Therefore, such decrees and regulations
Qanun (pl. qawanin) is a word that apparently entered into were documented, publicized, and enforced by state func-
Arabic from Greek, although according to some reports it tionaries, including judges, but they were not memorialized
might have been borrowed from Persian or Latin or have in the books of classical Islamic jurisprudence. From the
meant the “way to something” or its measurement in old perspective of Muslim jurists, the legitimacy of such regula-
Arabic. The word, however, has come to have broad mean- tions depended on the extent to which they served the public
ings including a particular musical instrument, known simply interest, and the interests of justice, and also to the extent they
as al-qanun, tax assessments, state taxes and tariffs, registers did not conflict with the jurist-made shari
a law.
and lists, land measurements, and also rules and regulations.
In modern times, qanun generally refers to state law, although The degree to which consecutive Muslim governments
the word is often used to signify guiding rules, customs, and relied on qanun, as executive regulations, at the expense of the
principles. In both premodern and modern times, qanun jurist-based shari
a law varied widely. Muslim jurists did not
often referred to secular laws and administrative rules, as always oppose the imposition of administrative laws or reguopposed to religious laws or shari
a . The word was often used lations by the state, and, in fact, in tracts written on politics,
in the titles of books written as early as the tenth century. The jurists often acknowledged that such regulations are a functitles of some of these books included: al-Qawanin al-shar
iyya tional necessity. However, since the Umayyad period, there
(The principles of shari
a), Qawanin al-ahkam al-shar’iyya was a pronounced tension between state functionaries and
(The principles of Islamic law), Tashrih al-qanun (The expla- bureaucrats, and the juristic class. The jurists, as the shari
a
nation of the law), Qawanin al-siyasa (The rules of govern- experts, were suspicious, and often defensive, toward atance), Qanun al-sa
ada (Rules of conduct and principles of tempts by bureaucrats to systematize and centralize the law
happiness), Qanun al-adab (Rules of good character), Qanun by limiting the discretionary powers of the jurists. Nonetheal-balagha (Rules of eloquence), Qanun fi al-tibb (Avicenna’s less, in the period following the Mongol invasions, various
book on medicine), and Qawanin al-riyada (Principles of dynasties resorted to increased executive lawmaking, often

560 Islam and the Muslim World
Qom

resulting in aggravating the tensions between the juristic class
and the state.
QIBLA
The usage of the term qanun, in the sense of secular The place toward which Muslim worshippers direct themlaws, became particularly pronounced in the Ottoman era selves for prayer, the qibla, has always been an important
(1218–1924). The Ottoman caliph Mehmed II “the Con- Islamic identity marker. The Ka
ba and the Holy City of
queror” (r. 1451–1481) promulgated his famous qanun-nama Mecca play a very important role as symbolic center in several
as a systematic codified set of laws covering various aspects of kinds of religious behavior. The salat (prayer) is performed
administrative law, commercial law, and criminal law. Jurists with the face in the direction of Mecca; the deceased is buried
at the time were not always supportive of such attempts at lying on his right side, facing Mecca, and it is also advised to
centralization and codification of the laws, and often per- take the qibla into account in a positive or negative way in
ceived it as an infringement on the integrity of the Islamic various other activities. Discourse about the qibla is often
common law, as interpreted and developed by jurists. The embedded in notions of power and tradition. For example,
opposition of jurists of centralized state-based laws reached a the divide among the Javanese communities in present-day
point that in 1696 Mustafa II (r. 1695–1703), by decree, Surinam and the Netherlands between East-keblat people and
forbade the use of the word qanun in conjunction with the West-keblat are closely related to reformist versus traditionword shari
a . This was induced by the efforts of the jurists to alist ideas, respectively. The traditionalist West qeblat people
make clear that state-issued qanun be separate and apart from keep to their pre-diaspora Javanese customs, identity, and
shari
a law. their original Indonesian prayer direction to the West. Reformists argue that it should be altered. Similar discussions take
With the age of colonialism, the jurisdiction of shari
a law place elsewhere.
in most Muslim countries had become progressively restricted and, eventually, confined mostly to personal laws Recent historical research by Uri Rubin indicates that the
dealing with marriage, divorce, and inheritance. Most Mus- first qibla the Muslims used in Mecca was the Ka
ba, in
lim countries adopted a code-based system of law modeled agreement with the local hunafa (monotheists), who saw the
after the French civil law system. In that respect, most Ka
ba as the qibla of Ibrahim and his son Isma
il. Shortly
Muslim countries adopted civil and criminal law codes, titled before the hijra to Medina, and possibly associated with the
“the qanun of such and such.” For instance, in most Arabic- revelation of the isra (Muhammad’s night journey, from
speaking countries one will find the following: al-qanun al- Mecca to Jerusalem), the qibla was altered toward Jerusalem.
madani (the civil law code), al-qanun al-jinai (the criminal law The Meccan sanctuary became the qibla again in 624 C.E. (cf.
code), qanun al-ijraat (code of legal procedures), and al- Q. 2: 136ff) when an important change in Muhammad’s
qanun al-tujari (the commercial code). In such countries, even attitude toward the Jews occurred.
in the field of personal law, where shari
a still enjoys the See also Devotional Life; Law; Science, Islam and.
dominant influence, matters relating to marriage, divorce,
and inheritance have been codified in codes known as qanun
BIBLIOGRAPHY
al-ahwal al-shakhsiyya (the personal law code). In the modern
Bashear, Sulayman. “Qibla Musharriqa and Early Muslim
age, state regulations or executive decrees, as opposed to
Prayer in Churches.” The Muslim World 81, nos. 3–4
codes, are often referred to as qararat, bayanat, lawaih, or
(1991): 267–282.
marasim. Some Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have
Ichwan, Moch. Nur. “Continuing Discourse on Keblat:
not adopted a civil law system, and, instead, rely on the shari
a
Diasporic Experiences of the Surinamese Javanese Muscommon law, and on executive decrees issued on specific
lims in the Netherlands.” Sharqiyyāt 11 (1999): 101–119.
matters such as banking, foreign investments, and labor and
King, David A., and Wensinck, Arend Jan. “Kibla.” In The
employment regulations. Although the word qanun today is
Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2d ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960–.
used in a technical sense to refer to enacted codes of law, it is
still used in the more expansive sense of law in general, Rubin, Uri. “Hanifiyya and Ka
ba: An Inquiry into the
Arabian Pre-Islamic Background of Dîn Ibrâhîm.” Jerusaincluding Islamic law.
lem Studies in Arabic and Islam 13 (1990): 94–112.
See also Law; Modernization, Political: Administrative,
Military, and Judicial Reform; Political Organization; Gerard Wiegers
Shari
a.

BIBLIOGRAPHY QOM
Inalcik, Halil. “Sulayman the Lawgiver and Ottoman Law.”
Archivum Ottomanicum1 (1971). A provincial capital since June 1996, 140 kilometers south of
Tehran, Qom is the biggest center of Shi
ite religious studies
Khaled Abou El-Fadl and a pilgrimage site next only to Mashhad in importance. A

Islam and the Muslim World 561
Quran

village before it was settled in the seventh and eighth decades visited for pilgrimage (ziyara) are the graves of numerous
of the seventh century by the Ash
aris, a Shi
ite Yemenite Alavite personages in and around Qom (about 400 imamzadahs,
tribe that had migrated from Iraq due to differences with or descendents of the imams, are said to be buried in the city
Sunni Umayyad rulers, it became, in contrast to the predomi- and surrounding hamlets). A third major attraction is the
nantly Sunni towns of the region, a major Shi
ite academic Jamkaran Mosque, located five kilometers from the city.
center in the following centuries. Many of the names of Visited by more than an estimated ten million people annuauthors in al-Najashi’s eleventh-century list of Shi
ite com- ally, it is believed to have been built at the order of the
pilers, as well as those of many narrators of traditions in Twelfth Imam. These shrines in conjunction with numerous
Shi
ite compendia of hadith, pertain to the Ash
aris of Qom traditions related from the imams concerning the station of
(not to be confused with the Ash
ari theological school). Qom as a Shi
ite sanctuary and stronghold make it Iran’s
second holiest city after Mashhad.
Qom’s fame as an academy seems to have disappeared
after the eleventh century, as the center of Shi
ite learning in See also Mashhad; Pilgrimage: Ziyara; Revolution:
Iran shifted to Rey and other northern towns. Although such Islamic Revolution in Iran.
figures as Fayz Kashani (d. 1681) and Molla Mohammad
Tahir Qommi (d. 1686) lived here during the Safavid era, Rasool Ja
fariyan
Qom’s partial reemergence as an academy was due to the
patronage of the Qajars. The presence of Mirza-ye Qommi
(d. 1816), who enjoyed the patronage of Fath
Ali Shah
(1797–1834), is considered a point of departure in the history
QURAN
of Qom as an academy. However, a new era began with the
Muslim housewives commence cooking by reciting a verse
arrival of Ayatollah Haeri (1859–1936) in 1921. He estabfrom the Quran in order to ensure that more people are able
lished the present center of learning (hawza-ye
ilmiyya) durto enjoy the meal. On spotting an approaching dog, Muslims
ing a period when the Qajar regime was passing away and the
will hastily read any memorized verse to deflect its possible
Pahalvi regime was taking shape. From the times of Ayatollah
ill-intentions. The die-hard Marxists of the Baluchistan Com-
Borujerdi (d. 1961) onward, the hawza began its rapid growth.
munist Party in Pakistan commenced their annual conference
At the end of Reza Shah’s reign the number of seminary
with a recitation from the Quran. In Cape Town, the local
students was about 500. It was above 6,000 in 1975, and above
rugby club will organize a cover-to-cover recitation of it to
23,000 in 1991, and presently students from Iran and abroad
celebrate its fiftieth jubilee. In California, the international
make up more than 36,000. Under the leadership of Ayatol-
Muslim homosexual organization takes its name, Al-Fatiha,
lah Khomeini, a pupil of Ayatollah Haeri, Qom played a key
from the name of the Quran’s first chapter.
role in leading the opposition to the Pahlavi regime in the
events of 1964. It was here that on 9 January 1978 the The Quran is memorized in small parts by virtually all
confrontation with the Shah’s security forces occurred, an Muslims, recited in the daily prayers, or rehearsed at funerals
event that triggered off the Islamic Revolution of 1979. and memorial rituals, chanted at the side of the newly born,
Qom’s political importance as a spiritual and academic center the sick, or the dying. After death it is recited to ease the
of the Shi
ite clergy has grown enormously following the passage of the departed soul into the next and to provide
Islamic Revolution. From being a small town with a popula- comfort for those left behind; as if to say “Whatever, be
tion of 96,499 in 1956, Qom itself has grown rapidly to assured God is here; just listen to His speech!” Any inmate of
become one of the major cities of Iran, with a population of a Dubai prison who memorizes it entirely can get complete
825,627 in 2000. remission from his or her sentence, and a memorization of
each thirtieth part is rewarded by an equivalent amount off
Qom’s fame as a pilgrimage spot visited by millions from one’s sentence.
Iran and abroad is mainly due to the shrine of Fatimah the
Infallible (ma
sumah) (d. 816), daughter of Musa b. Ja
far, the An immediate end can be brought to many an argument
seventh imam. On the way to visiting her brother, Imam
Ali by resorting to: “But God says . . .!” Virtually every Muslim
b. Musa al-Reza, who was at Marv at the time, she died after a home is adorned with some verse from it in various forms of
brief illness at Qom. Since then her shrine has been a calligraphy, as a means of both beautifying one’s home and
pilgrimage spot, whose sacred precincts have served as a site protecting it (with the inhabitants seldom knowing the meanfor royal and noble mausoleums as well as a favored burial ing of the framed piece of calligraphy). Passages from it are
ground of the faithful since the Safavid and Qajar periods. used as amulets to protect from illness or the evil eye. A few
Although the city and the shrine received some royal atten- verses containing the prayer that the Quran suggests Noah
tion during the rule of the Buwayhid (tenth century), Seljuk offered when he entered the ark are stuck on the windscreens
(eleventh century), Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu (six- of vehicles from Chicago to Jakarta to provide protection for
teenth century) regimes, the present structure dates partly the driver and passengers. Palatial mansions in many Muslim
from the Safavid and largely from the Qajar era. Other sites countries have the verse “This is [an outcome] of my Sustainer’s

562 Islam and the Muslim World
Quran

bounty” (27:40) stuck on the gates or walls to ward off any evil The Quran also describes itself as “a guide for humankind”
intention. As for its inhabitants, they believe that protection and “a clear exposition of guidance,” “a distinguisher” (25:1),
is offered by pasting a few verses, known as the Verses of the “a reminder” (15:9), “ordinance in the Arabic tongue” (13:37),
Throne (Ayat al-Kursi), behind the front door. Written texts “a healer” (10:57), “the admonition” (10:57), “the light”
conform to or deviate from a language and its rules; in the (7:157), and “the truth” (17:81). From this literal meaning, it
case of this text, the development of the language is based on refers to a revealed oral discourse that unfolded over a period
it and its rules are rooted primarily in the text. of twenty-three years as seemingly a part of God’s response to
the requirements of society. Only toward the end of this
This is the Quran. It fulfills many of the same functions in process is the Quran presented as scripture rather than a
the lives of Muslims as the Bible does for Christians, but most recitation or discourse. The word quran is thus used in two
importantly, it represents to Muslims what Jesus Christ distinct senses: first, as the designation of a portion or
represents for devout Christians or the Torah, the eternal law portions of revelation; and, second, as the name of the entire
of God, for Jews. Similarly, the history of theological contro- collection of revelations to Muhammad. This twin meaning
versy about the nature of the Quran, which flourished from
of quran, as both a collection and as a book, makes for
the early days of Islam until orthodoxy finally settled the issue
fascinating questions about the nature of revelation. Is it a
of the “true dogma,” is not unlike the early controversies
collection of divine responses to earthly events or is it a preabout the nature of Jesus Christ and his relationship to the
existing canon according to which events must play out in
Father, which was finally settled for the Christian world by
order that its narratives, injunctions, and exhortations can
the Council of Nicaea in 325. In the same manner that small
acquire flesh and blood?
remnants of the dissident opinions on the nature of Christ
have survived and reawakened under the impact of critical The Quran as Written Word
modern and postmodern thinking in Christianity, so have For outsiders, the Quran exists primarily as a literary text (alsuch opinions about the nature of the Quran survived in Islam. kitab); for Muslims, however, it continues to function as both
a written text (mushaf) and an oral one (al-quran), with an
For Muslims the Quran is alive and has a quasi-human
organic relationship existing between these two modes. Most
personality. Muslims believe that it watches over them and
of critical scholarship has focused on the written dimensions
will intercede with God on the Day of Judgment. The Quran
of the text without reflecting too carefully on its message, and
is possessed of enormous power; “Had We bestowed this
has failed to appreciate that its centrality to Muslims tran-
Quran from on high upon a mountain, you would indeed see
scends this textual form. Thus, questions are raised by critical
it [the mountain] humbling itself, breaking asunder for awe of
scholars about, for example, the identity of Mary, whom the
God” (59:21).
Quran describes as the sister of Aaron, and the seeming
The Quran as Oral Discourse discrepancy between this description and one in which Mary
The oral dimensions of the Quran were important in a is credited with being the mother of Jesus.
society where poetry and the spoken or recited word were
highly valued. It is also evident that the activity of committing Such questions generally fail to appreciate that the Quran
the Quran or sections thereof to memory and reciting it were is essentially evocative to Muslims and that it is often inimportant parts of the religious life of the earliest Muslims, formative through its being evocative. While exegetes would
and regarded as acts of great spiritual merit. The Prophet go to great lengths to resolve the difficulties presented by the
himself would often recite from the Quran and at times ask portrayal of Mary as both the mother of Jesus and the sister of
others to read for him.
Abdallah b. Mas
ud (d. 652) reported Aaron, the “fact” of God having stated this remains unshaken.
that the Prophet told him: “‘Read [from] the Quran for me.’ I Thus while it may not make any cognitive sense, the response
[b. Mas
ud] said: ‘Shall I read it for you when it was revealed of the believer downplays cognition, and comprehension, and
unto you?’ He said: ‘I love listening to it from someone else.’” ignores the question of which Mary is being referred to. This
The overwhelming importance of the Quran as recited understanding as devotion rather than as cognition is how the
speech in contrast with it as written or read text is found in the believer approaches the Quran. In other words, comprehenmeaning of the word Quran itself, in the way the earliest sion can follow from the emotive and intuitive response that
Muslims viewed the text, and in several verses of the Quran. is evoked in the hearer and reciter rather than a study of its
The proper-noun sense of the term quran, as used in refer- contents.
ence to the scripture, is that of a fundamentally oral and
certainly an active ongoing reality, rather than that of a The Structure of the Quran
written and closed codex such as it later came to be, repre- Modern editions of the Quran include a heading that prosented by the masahif (written copies, sing. mushaf). vides some basic information at the beginning of each sura
(chapter) such as its name, the number of ayat (verses) it
From the Arabic root qaraa (to read), or qarana (to gather contains, and whether it is regarded as having been revealed
or collect), the word quran is used in the Quran in the sense in Mecca or Medina. The Egyptian print version, the one
of reading (17:93), recital (75:18) and a collection (75:17). most widely used in the Muslim world today, also suggests

Islam and the Muslim World 563
Quran

which verses are exceptions; that is, which verses occurring in confessional and traditional scholarship. With the exception
a Medinan text were actually revealed in Mecca and vice of the second and third suras, they occur exclusively in suras
versa. There are two major divisions in the Quran, suras belonging to the later Meccan period. There are fourteen of
(chapters) and ajza (parts), and each sura contains a number these disjointed letters in all, and the suras that contain them
of verses (ayat). may have anywhere from a single letter to a cluster of five.

From the singular aya (lit. signs, indications, or wonders), Another fascinating element of the Quran is its division
ayat are the shortest divisions of the Quran and the term is into thirty equal parts, each called a juz (pl. ajza). These
usually rendered as “verses,” although it may also be under- divisions are intended to facilitate the recitation of the Quran in
stood as phrases or passages. A collection of ayat, usually a month, particularly the month of Ramadan. The ajza are
distinguishable from one another by the occurrence of rhythm, further divided into four neatly divided sections that are
rhyme, or assonance, comprise a sura. However, this techni- marked along the edges of the text. For reading on a daily
cal meaning of the word aya (or ayat) is not the only, or even basis, each juz is divided into seven parts, called manazil
the primary, meaning with which it is used in the Quran. It (sing. manzil, lit. stage). It is significant that none of these
frequently occurs in the sense of the signs of God’s presence divisions, pivotal to Muslim usage of the Quran, bears any
in the universe. Muslims, however, believe that, given its relation to the meaning of the text.
miraculous and inimitable nature, the Quran and all of its
The current arrangement of the Quran is neither chronoconstituent parts are signs of the presence of God in the world.
logical nor thematic. To those accustomed to reading in a
The Quran comprises 114 suras, each of which is divided linear or sequential fashion, this can prove tedious and frusinto ayat. The word sura literally means row or fence, and trating. With the exception of story of Joseph, the Quran
seems to denote both a section or chapter and revelation also does not have a clear narrative pattern within which its
stories neatly unfold. While there is unanimity around the
itself. Muslims believe that the contents of the Quran were
placement of the ayat within a sura, traditional scholars have
arranged by the Prophet in his lifetime, and that this was done
differed as to whether the sequence of all, or only some, of the
annually under the guidance of the angel Gabriel. After alsuras were divinely ordained. Most Muslims have accepted
Fatiha (“The Opening”) the chapters are arranged roughly in
this arrangement although there have been a number of
order of descending size, beginning with al-Baqarah (“The
attempts to offer structural explanations for the way that the
Cow”) and concluding with al-Nas (“Humankind”). These
suras are laid out.
suras are of unequal length, the shortest, “The Fountain,”
consisting of three ayat, the longest, “The Cow,” containing Language
286. With one exception, al-Tawba (“The Repentance”), all Both Muslim and critical scholarship hold that the Quran
suras commence with “In the name of God, the Gracious, the first appeared in the Arabic language. Traditional Muslim
Dispenser of Grace.” This formula is known as the basmala scholarship holds that the Quran was written in the dialect of
and was initially used to denote the boundaries between two the Quraysh, the tribe of the Prophet, for it was also the
suras. Muslims suggest that the omission of the basmala at the classical language known to and understood by all the Arabs.
head of the surat al-Tawba was intentional because this sura Some Western scholars have argued that the Arabic of the
commences with God’s disavowal of the rejecters and a Quran was not peculiar to any tribe, but was a kind of
declaration of war on them. Others, however, suggest that hochsprache (high speech) that was understood by all the
because this sura was revealed toward the end of the Prophet’s peoples of Hijaz. Christoph Luxenberg, in his Die Syroearthly life, he simply did not have the time to insert the Aramaische Lesart des Koran—Ein Beitrag zur Entschlusselung
basmala. der Koransprache (2000), argues that a Syraic rendition of
numerous words that would normally be rendered in Arabic
All suras have names, and some are known by more than
can provide linguistic insights on texts that scholars have had
one. These names are based on diverse criteria with no difficulty trying to understand. Through a careful process of
obvious pattern to their naming. A number of hadith refer to alternately replacing obscure Quranic Arabic words or phrases
specific suras by name, thus indicating that they were named with Syraic homonyms, changing the diacritical marks (on
by the Prophet. Given that this is a matter directly relating to the assumption that they were possibly misplaced by the
the Quran, Muslims believe that it was a case where “He does editors), or retranslating portions of text into Syriac, Luxenberg
not speak of his own whim,” (53:3) that is, Muhammad was discovers radically different meanings for a number of texts.
guided by God in this. Some have, however, suggested that This method differs greatly from the established reading of
these names do not belong to the Quran proper, but rather the Quran, which is premised on the idea that it is essentially
have been introduced by later scholars and editors for con- an Arabic text.
venience of reference. Twenty-nine of the suras have a
sequence of Arabic letters that follow immediately after the Content
basmala. Known as the disjointed letters, these are meaning- The Quran describes its contents as an “exposition of everyless in the literal sense, and their presence has intrigued both thing, a guidance, a blessing and glad tidings for those who

564 Islam and the Muslim World
Quran

submit” (16:89) and declares that “no single thing have We having originated with God are in a continuous state of
neglected in the Book” (6:38). The Quran places an extraor- purposeful reversion to a just and merciful Creator, Sustainer,
dinary emphasis on the binding relationship between faith and Judge. Physical death is thus not the end of life but
and practice. merely evolution into another form. Human beings are
placed on the earth for a predetermined period before they
God. Belief in the existence of one transcendent creator and enter the akhira (hereafter).
the struggle to live alongside all the implications of that belief
may be said to be at the core of the Quran’s message, and that The terms dunya (“the world”) and akhira (lit. next, or last)
Creator is arguably the single most important subject of the are related both to time and space and to two moral alterna-
Quran. The Quran uses the word Allah approximately 2,500 tives. Dunya is the geographical space and the present where
to refer to the Transcendent. God remains free from not only humankind is meant to prepare for akhira, yet this abode of
the confines of biology and paternity, but also from the preparation can also be good and fulfilling by itself. From the
confines of human language. “No vision can encompass Him, Quran, it would appear that there is a particular moment in
whereas He encompasses all vision, for He alone is unfath- time when the resurrection and judgment will begin, and that
omable, all-aware” (6:103). The Quran portrays God as a hour will commence with the sounding of the heavenly
deity who stands above the religious community that serves trumpet. When the resurrection begins, bodies will be reu-
Him and who is greater than the law. God exists in and by nited with their spirits and brought into the presence of God
Himself, and any association with Him is rejected by the for the ultimate reckoning.
Quran. Ascribing paternity to God is abominable, as is any
notion of a shared divinity. Much of the Quran is devoted to The Quran suggests that this resurrection is a bodily one,
the praise of God; the Quran holds that the entire universe is yet it is also a day when the earth shall be changed into nonengaged in extolling the praises of God. earth (14:48). The Quran is explicit about two alternatives
for each person in the hereafter—janna (paradise), or jahannam
Prophethood. The second fundamental doctrine of the (hell)—and spells out the deeds that will earn one a place in
Quran is that of the historical continuity of revelation, the one or the other. In Islamic Understanding of Death and
whereby God sent a series of messengers to every nation in Resurrection (1981), Yvonne Haddad and Jane Smith point out
order to guide them to the path of righteousness. All of these that “Many of the details of the Fire, as of the Garden, are
messengers came with an identical message (41:43)—that of reminiscent of the New Testament; others reflect on occasubmission to the will of God—and all of humankind is sions the tone of early Arabic poetry. On the whole, however,
required to believe in the veracity of each one of them. The the picture afforded by the Quran is uniquely its own,
Quran uses two terms to denote prophethood: rasul (pl. articulated in a generally consistent and always awe-inspiring
rusul) and nabiyy (pl. anbiya). Rasul seems to denote a messen- fashion.”
ger who received revelations and who actually headed his
community, whereas nabiyy seems to denote an apostle who The Quran, at various junctures, indicates the sins that
did not necessarily come with a new revelation or law: will earn a person consignment to hell. These include lying,
“. . .God elects whomsoever He will from among his Apos- dishonesty, corruption, ignoring God or God’s revelations,
tles. . .” (3:179). Anbiya derive their authority solely from denying the resurrection, refusing to feed the poor, indul-
God; they cannot “bring forth a miracle other than by God’s gence in opulence and ostentation, the economic exploitation
leave.” Prophets are always chosen from among their own of others, and social oppression. The fires of hell, however,
communities (7:35, 10:74 and 39:17) and are responsible only are not the only consequence that wrongdoers will face on the
for conveying God’s messages (16:35). Day of Judgment: “And those who earned evil, the punishment of evil is the like thereof, and abasement will cover
The Quran contains a number of narratives involving them—they will have none to protect them from God—as if
prophets, often told with the intention of consoling Muham- their faces had been covered with slices of dense darkness of
mad in the face of rejection by the Quraysh and recipients of night” (10:27). Denial of water (7:50) and of light (57:13) are
earlier revelation. The Quran presents these narratives as also spoken of as forms of punishment for the inhabimoral lessons for humankind on the consequences of diso- tants of hell.
beying God. All of the prophets referred to in the Quran are
men. While Mary was the recipient of revelation, nowhere is Righteous conduct. The bulk of the Quranic message
there any indication that she was expected to play the socio- contains exhortations dealing with righteous conduct, and
religious role of warner or the bearer of good tidings, or that the consequences of following or ignoring them. These are
she ever did so. framed within the backdrop of the all-pervading presence of
God and humankind’s ultimate accountability to Him. The
The resurrection and ultimate accountability. The Quran Quran regards the human being as a carrier of the spirit of
speaks repeatedly about the ultimate accountability of all God and a sacred trust from Him, and that all humans are in a
human beings to God. It insists that all of life and its affairs, continuous state of journeying toward Him. This sanctity

Islam and the Muslim World 565
Quran

comes from humankind being the recipients of God’s own Social and economic relations. Notwithstanding the scripspirit from the moments of humankind’s creation. Returning tural requirement that believers must disturb the peace whento God entails a ceaseless struggle to prepare for the ultimate ever their silence would conceal the demons of injustice and
encounter. The Quran, while demanding that Muslims strive oppression, the Quran also asks believers to lead lives free of
to fulfil all the requirements of virtuous behavior, neverthe- pointless argumentation and quarreling (25:63). In the face of
less acknowledges that living up to such a commitment is the all-pervading grace of God, the Quran requires believers
exceptionally difficult. to remain hopeful and never to despair. In fact, it describes
deep pessimism as a sign of kufr (rejection) (12:87). A good
The most important obligation that the Quran places on Muslim upholds the truth and justice “and is not afraid of the
the believer is probably that of pursuing the pleasure of God reproaches of those who find fault” (5:54). The Quran
and of desiring the ultimate encounter with Him. This is encourages and even commands believers to lead an austere
attained by cultivating a direct relationship of love with and life. It is contemptuous of those who are attached to wealth
adoration of God, as well as by leading one’s life in such a way beyond the requirements of one’s daily subsistence. Such
as to fulfil His commandments. In addition to setting forth attachment distracts one from following the path that leads to
the appropriate rituals, the Quran often speaks of the adora- God and provides one with an illusionary sense of eternity.
tion of God as an important part of a Muslim’s ideal life and The notion of sustenance being properly earned is key to the
persona. The emphasis that the Quran places on God as the Quran’s approach to wealth. It singles out for denunciation a
focus and objective of a believer’s life has led many a contem- number of unlawful means of acquiring money or property,
plative Muslim to regard the law as merely a means of including priests and monks devouring the property of peofacilitating closeness to God in the same way that railings may ple (9:34), gambling (5:90), and theft (60:12).
help one to climb up a flight of stairs.
The Quran rejects all forms of sexual immodesty and
Although the Quran cautions against excess and wasteful speaks approvingly of only two kinds of relationship for
consumption, it nevertheless encourages a sense of joyful sexual fulfillment: heterosexual marriage, or concubinage.
living. It asks believers not to impose unwarranted burdens The Quran also praises “… those [believers] who shun all
upon themselves (5:87). The Quran also refers to physical vain activity” (23:3), and applauds those who, “when they pass
cleanliness and sexual pleasure as two other dimensions of by some vain activity, they pass it by with dignified [avoidpersonal well-being (2:222, 30:21). ance]” (25:72).

The Quran places great emphasis on knowledge, and the All of human life is sacred, for “verily We [God] have
pursuit thereof, as valuable (49:9), but links the intellectual honored the Children of Adam” (17:70), and no one is
well-being of people to a profound awareness of God and allowed to take anyone else’s life “except in truth” (6:151).
justice, and emphasizes the compatibility of knowledge with This is usually interpreted to mean that killing is permissible
faith (35:28, 58:11). The Quran often gives the impression only during a just war, in self-defense, or in retribution after
that there is a certain essential body of truth, “the knowledge” due legal process within a just social system. The Quran
(al-
ilm), that is to be acquired. In numerous other verses, holds that all of humankind is diminished by the murder of a
though, humankind is challenged to reflect, ponder, and single person (5:32). While infanticide (more specifically,
female infanticide) is condemned, the Quran is silent on the
meditate—all qualities more closely associated to heurism
rights of the fetus. In accordance with the social practices of
and tentativeness than to certainty. Nonetheless, these qualipre-Islamic Arabia, the Quran sanctions retaliation in the
ties are usually regarded as the basis of wisdom (2:269). The
case of murder and physical injury. However, it emphasizes
Quranic assumption seems to be that knowledge and reflecthat this must be done justly, and that the remission of the
tion will invariably and inevitably lead to God (39:9).
death sentence is a source of “mercy from God” (2:178).
Truth. Postmodernist notions of tentativeness as a value have
Overt theft is condemned (60:12), as are other, more
little place in the Quran, which moves from the premise that
covert forms of depriving others of their property, such as
there is an absolute, single, and knowable Truth. The Quran
depriving someone of his or her inheritance, failing to return
speaks about the light in the singular and darknesses in the
something entrusted to one for safekeeping (4:58), and cheatplural, making it convenient for traditional or fundamentalist
ing when weighing goods for sale (17:35). The Quran is
scholars to claim that there is only one truth. Believers are
particularly vehement in its denunciation of usury. The
called upon to uphold the spirit of truthfulness by staying in
Quran sanctions notions of personal property with individuthe company of other truthful people (9:19), and to speak the
als being the rightful owners thereof, but condemns individutruth in the face of falsehood. Concealing the truth is prohib- als who seek to keep secret the extent of their wealth and to be
ited (2:42) as is distorting it with falsehood (2:42). Hypocrisy sole arbiters of how to dispense with it.
is condemned in the strongest terms, and believers are enjoined to ensure that their deeds correspond to their words All wealth is regarded as a trust from God. Greed is
(61:2–3). condemned and those who live their lives free from greed are

566 Islam and the Muslim World
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regarded as “the successful ones.” In contrast to those who (49:6), backbiting, and slander (49:12), hypocrisy (2:8–19),
hoard, Muslims who “spend of their wealth by night and by and exploiting the vulnerability of others (2:275–276).
day, in secret and in public” are promised that they “shall have
their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor The Quran also condemns more subtle forms of injury to
shall they grieve” (2:274). The Quran takes the position that others, for they also detract from the humanity of the perpe-
“in the possessions of the wealthy there is a right due to the trator. These injuries include suspicion (49:12), mocking
others or the objects of their worship (49:11), and using
poor” (51:19, 70:24–15) and places great merit on giving
derogatory nicknames (49:11). These injunctions apply to
beyond the mandatory, institutionalized wealth tax known as
everyone who participates in a society founded upon Quranic
zakat. Such giving will purify one’s soul, particularly if one
principles, but the Quran recognizes that such a society may
gives away those things that are particularly dear (3:92), and
contain religiously diverse communities within it. The Quran
does one’s giving quietly (2:71). Giving to the poor can be
is explicit about the importance of maintaining harmonious
done “day and night, in secret or in public,” but it must not be
relationships with all those who are not engaged in warfare
followed by words of injury that make the recipient feel a
against the Muslims (60:8), the permissibility of the food
sense of obligation to the benefactor.
slaughtered by the people of the book, and of marriage by
Muslim males to their women (5:5).
Justice and human rights. The Quran takes the position
that everyone is equal in the eyes of God and of the law. No The Quran encourages such generally recognized virtues
human being has any inherent claim to superiority over as expressing gratitude (22:38), showing compassion (90:17),
another on the basis of lineage or race. It does, however, and speaking gently (2:83). It is also explicit about the means
recognize and condone distinction, differentiation, or dis- by which Muslims can “go the extra mile,” recommending
crimination on the basis of gender, religion, knowledge, and that they share their wealth, care for orphans, and free their
piety. It is questionable whether one can really use the Quran slaves. The Quran treats orphans, in particular, with an
as the standard to justify contemporary Islamic understand- enormous amount of compassion. Muslims are instructed
ings of social equality or universal human rights. However, in honor them (99:17–18), to treat them gently (93:9 and 4:36),
the context of seventh-century Arabia, it can be viewed as to set aside wealth for the care of orphans (4:8), and to deal
having encouraged a sense of gender justice, as well as justly with their property (4:3). The Quran regards those
compassion toward victims of all kinds of oppression. There who reject orphans as people who have rejected the faith itself
is a strong egalitarian trend in the Quran’s handling of (107:1–3).
ethico-religious responsibilities, but there is an undeniable
discriminatory treatment of the social and legal obligations There is no direct reference in the Quran to any notion of
that have to do with women. Still, on this subject the Quran an Islamic state, but there are a few injunctions regarding
is somewhat contradictory. Gender statements can be found obedience to authority. The Quran contains several referthat affirm gender equality, and others can be found that deny ences to the sovereignty of God, and this has been interpreted
it. However, when specific injunctions are mentioned, these by Islamist ideologues to refer to an Islamic theocracy. The
duties of the Muslim leadership include waging jihad in
are generally discriminatory to women.
defense of the faith or in response to aggression, collecting
Justice assumes such prominence in the Quran that it is and distributing zakat, and enacting punishment for a very
regarded as one of the reasons why God created the earth. limited array of sins or crimes, of which the following are
The demands that the Quran makes upon individuals to mentioned: slander (24:4–9), adultery (24:2–3, 15:16), theft
uphold justice is extraordinary, transcending all social bonds. (5:41), robbery, treason, and armed insurrection (5:36–37),
While justice is something that one demands for oneself, and murder and bodily mutilation (2:178–179).
more importantly, it is something to be fulfilled for others,
Religious practices. Only three formal religious rituals or
regardless of the cost to oneself and one’s own community. institutionalized practices receive any significant attention in
the Quran: the formal prayers (salat), fasting in the month of
The Quran provides two notions that are said to govern
Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj).
social relations. The first is huquq (rights), which are defined
as the obligations one owes to society, and which must be There are, on the other hand, numerous references in the
defended. The other is ihsan, understood to mean “generosity Quran to prayers and its importance. Its significance can be
beyond obligation.” The basic principle of rights and duties is gauged from the fact that the Quran outlines ways of deviatcontained in the verse “Do not wrong and be not wronged” ing from the normal pattern of the ritual during a state of fear
(2:279). In social conduct this covers the need for one to be (2:238) or in the midst of actual physical combat during jihad
reliable and trustworthy in one’s undertakings or promises (4:101). Other than in the case of illness, menstruation, or
(4:105, 8:27, 16:91) and economic dealings (93:1–3); to pres- frailty, prayer is an obligation that can never be shirked. The
ent truthful evidence in any matter or dispute (25:72); to Quran leaves the exact times of the prayers somewhat unrefrain from concealing evidence (2:283), defaming others clear; their times are rather fixed by interpretation of some

Islam and the Muslim World 567
Qutb, Sayyid

ambiguous verses. As for the manner in which the prayer is to Gatje, Helmut. The Quran and its Exegesis, Selected Texts with
be conducted, the Quran refers only to bowing (ruku
) and Classical and Modern Muslim Interpretations. Translated
prostration (sujud), and says that one should quietly recite and edited by Alford T. Welch. London: Routledge and
“whatever of the Quran has been made easy for one” (73:20). Kegan Paul, 1976.
A commitment of the mind and the heart is, of course, Graham, A. William. Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early
indispensable for prayer, and those who pray in a slothful and Islam. The Hague and Paris: Mouton, 1977.
lazy fashion are regarded as being among the hypocrites Izutsu, Toshihiko. Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Quran.
(4:142, 9:54). Montreal: McGill University Press, 1966.
Jeffrey, Arthur. The Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran. Baroda,
The Quran refers to fasting in two distinct contexts. One India: Oriental Institute, 1938.
is the month of Ramadan, when fasting is performed as an act
Khui,
Abul Qasim al-Musawu, al-. The Prolegomena to the
of worship. The other context, which is not linked to any Quran. Translated by A. A. Sachedina. Oxford, U.K.:
special time or place, is when a believer feels the need to Oxford University Press, 1998.
expiate a sin of or a lapse in a specific religious duty. The only
Labib, Sa
id. The Recited Quran. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
objective of fasting stipulated in the Quran is that of acquir- University Press, 1975.
ing taqwa—self-restraint arising from the awareness that one
Luxenberg, Christoph. Die Syro-Aramaische Lesart des Koran.
is always in the presence of God and ultimately accountable
Berlin: Verlag: Das Arabische Buch, 2000.
to Him. Fasting requires abstention from all food, drink, and
Rahman, Fazlur. Major Themes of the Quran. Minneapolis:
sexual intercourse from the first sign that night is ending until
Bibliotheca Islamica, 1989.
just after sunset.
Sells, Michael. Approaching the Quran. Ashland, Ore.: White
The hajj is obligatory for all of those of the Muslim faith Cloud Press, 1999.
who are capable of finding their way to Mecca (3:96). It Smith, Jane I., and Haddad, Yvonne Y. Islamic Understanding
occurs in the first ten days of the month of Dhu-l-Hijjah (the of Death and Resurrection. Albany: State University of New
month of Hajj, which is twelfth month of the Hijri calendar). York Press, 1981.
The time is specified in the Quran (2:189). As for the rites Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. “The True Meaning of Scripture:
associated with the hajj, the Quran goes into somewhat An Empirical Historian’s Non-Reductionist Interpretagreater detail for these than it does for any of the other formal tion of the Quran.” International Journal of Middle Eastern
acts of devotions. Studies (1980): 487–505.
Wansbrough, J. Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scrip-
Two samples of Quranic calligraphy appear in the volume two tural Interpretation. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University
color insert. Press, 1977.
Watt, W. Montgomery. “Early Discussions About the
See also Allah; Calligraphy; Devotional Life; Ethics and Quran.” Muslim World 60, 61 (1950): 20–39, 97–105.
Social Issues; Human Rights;
Ibadat; Jahannam; Janna;
Yusuf Ali, Abdullah. The Holy Quran: Text, Translation, and
Law; Mihna; Muhammad; Pilgrimage: Hajj; Prophets;
Commentary. New and revised ed. Washington, D.C.:
Ritual. Amanah Corporation, 1989.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Farid Esack
Arkoun, Muhammad. The Concept of Revelation: From the
People of the Book to the Societies of the Book. Claremont,
Calif.: Claremont Graduate School, 1987.
Ayoub, Mahmud. The Quran and Its Interpreters, 2 vols. QUTB, SAYYID (1906–1966)
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984.
Sayyid Qutb was an Islamic activist and one of the principal
Bell, Richard. Introduction to the Quran. Edited by Montgomideologues of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimin).
ery Watt. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1970.
Qutb was born in a village near Asyut in Upper Egypt. He left
Burton, John. The Collection of the Quran. Cambridge, U.K.:
for higher studies in Cairo around 1919 or 1920, and received
Cambridge University Press, 1977.
a B.A. in education in 1933 from Dar al-
Ulum. The founder
Cragg, Kenneth. The Event of the Quran: Islam and Its Scrip- of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hasan al-Banna, had graduated
ture. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1971. from the same institution six years earlier and had moved the
Crone, Patricia, and Cook, Michael. Hagarism: The Making of Brotherhood’s headquarters to Cairo just before Qutb’s
the Islamic World. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univer- graduation.
sity Press, 1977.
Denffer, Ahmad von.
Ulum al-Quran: An Introduction to the In the early part of his career, Qutb demonstrated little
Sciences of the Quran. Leicester, U.K.: Islamic Founda- interest in religious activism. He focused primarily upon his
tion, 1983. work with the Ministry of Education, where he was employed

568 Islam and the Muslim World
Qutb, Sayyid

from 1933 to 1951, and his literary pursuits. His early In January 1954, the government banned the Brotherwritings, consisting primarily of literary criticism and works hood and imprisoned many of its key figures, including Qutb,
of fiction and poetry, brought him to the attention of Egypt’s because of their increasing criticism of the regime’s domestic
cultural elite, including Taha Husayn. Later, Qutb would and foreign policies. The decree was rescinded three months
renounce much of his modernist views from this period. later. In October 1954, following an assassination attempt on
Nasser by a member of the Brotherhood, Qutb was again
By the late 1930s Qutb’s interests were turning increas- arrested and severely tortured, despite his frail health. In July
ingly toward political and social concerns. He associated with 1955 he was sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment.
a number of nationalist political parties opposed to the
Egyptian monarchy and British colonialism. His first major Qutb wrote the two works for which he is best known
essay along religious lines, al-
Adala al-ijtima
iyya fi’l-Islam while in prison. He began his voluminous Quranic commen-
(Social justice in Islam), was published in 1949. tary, Fi zilal al-Quran (In the shade of the Quran), in 1962.
In 1964 his supporters published a collection of his letters
In 1948, perhaps to mollify his criticism, the education
under the name Ma
alim fi’l-tariq (Milestones), in which he
ministry sent Qutb to study Western methods of education,
argues that jihad, entailing armed struggle, not just peaceful
first in Washington, D.C., then in Colorado, and finally in
preaching, is necessary to overturn the corrupted state of
California. He left the United States in 1950 and traveled
Muslim societies (the new ignorance or neo-jahiliyya) and
through England, Switzerland, and Italy before returning to
establish a true Islamic order based on God’s laws (shari
a).
Egypt in 1951. Far from dissuading him from his growing activism, Qutb’s sojourn in the United States and Europe only Qutb was released from prison in December 1964, probintensified and radicalized it. He was appalled by what he saw ably due to ill health. But as Milestones’ circulation spread
as the dominant features of Western (especially American) rapidly, he was rearrested in August 1965 and sentenced to
culture: materialism, racism, and sexual permissiveness. He death for sedition. Despite international appeals to spare his
also became convinced that both the United States and the life, he was hanged on 29 August 1966. Since his death, his
Soviet Union, despite their cold war posturing, were equally influence has steadily grown through the translation and
unconcerned with the aspirations of Arab and Islamic coun- proliferation of his work.
tries, and prepared to exploit them for their own gains. The
fact that both superpowers had supported the creation of See also Banna, Hasan al-; Ikhwan al-Muslimin.
Israel in Palestine was, for Qutb, the strongest possible
confirmation of their imperialistic aims. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Qutb became actively involved with the Muslim Brother- Abu Rabi
, Ibrahim M. Intellectual Origins of Islamic Resurgence
hood immediately upon his return, although he may not have in the Modern Arab World. Albany: State University of New
formally joined until 1953. He served as a liaison between the York Press, 1996.
Brotherhood and the Free Officers who overthrew the mon- Haddad, Yvonne Y. “Sayyid Qutb: Ideologue of Islamic
archy in July 1952, perhaps expecting cooperation between Revival.” In Voices of Resurgent Islam. Edited by John L.
the military leadership and the Brotherhood in establishing Esposito. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
an Islamic state. When it became clear that Jamal
Abd al- Qutb, Sayyid. Milestones. Indianapolis, Ind.: American Trust
Nasser and the military leadership intended to create a Publications, 1993.
secular state, Qutb and the Brotherhood distanced themselves from the new government. Sohail H. Hashmi

Islam and the Muslim World 569
R
RABI
A OF BASRA (C. 714–801) Smith, Margaret. Rabia: The Life and Work of Rabia and Other
Women Mystics in Islam. Oxford, U.K.: One World, 1994.
Rabi
a of Basra, also known as Rabi
a al-
Adawiyya, is regarded as a paradigm for Sufi women. An ascetic whose life Rkia E. Cornell
spanned the late Umayyad and early Abbasid periods, her
biographical image is a mosaic created by later writers. There
are as many versions of Rabi
a’s hagiographic persona as there
are accounts of her. She has been portrayed as a second Mary,
RAFSANJANI,
ALI-AKBAR
a miracle worker, and the originator of the concept of divine HASHEMI- See Hashemi-Rafsanjani,
love. Hanbali writers respect her extreme asceticism and
Ali-Akbar
otherworldliness, and modern historians consider her the
quintessential saint of Islam.

Little objective information is known about Rabi
a. She
was a client of the Arab tribe of Banu
Adi. Popular accounts RAHMAN, FAZLUR (1919–1988)
state that she was sold into slavery during a drought, but her
sanctity secured her freedom and she retired to a life of Fazlur Rahman was a notable scholar of Islamic philosophy
seclusion and celibacy, first in the desert and then on the and an important liberal Muslim thinker of the twentieth
outskirts of Basra, where she taught both male and female century. Born into a scholarly family in what is now Pakistan,
disciples. One of her male disciples was the jurist Sufyan al- he first studied Arabic at Punjab University in Lahore. He
Thawri (d. 777). Rabi
a was the culminating figure in a series then won a scholarship that permitted him to attend Oxford
of Basran female ascetics, starting with Mu
adha al-
Adawiyya University, where he received his Ph.D. in Islamic philoso-
(d. 719). Her teacher may have been named Hayyuna. Many phy in 1949. His area of specialization was the work of Ibn
stories and poems attributed to Rabi
a actually belong to her Sina (Avicenna).
students or to other Sufi women with similar names, such as
After spending some years teaching in the West, Rahman
her contemporary Rabi
a al-Azdiyya of Basra, and Rabi
a bint
returned to Pakistan at the request of then–prime minister
Isma
il of Damascus (d. before 850). The Sufi biographer al-
Ayyub Khan to direct the new Institute of Islamic Research.
Sulami (d. 1021) portrays Rabi
a as a contemplative and
He provoked the ire of conservative Islamist movements
rational thinker. Later writers portray her as a more emoduring this volatile period, particularly with his progrestional and legendary figure.
sive fatwas and two important interpretive studies, Islamic
Metholodology in History (1965) and Islam (1966), in which he
See also Saint; Tasawwuf.
tackled some of the difficult issues of historical critical understandings of revelation. In the face of such opposition, Rahman
BIBLIOGRAPHY left Pakistan for the United States. He settled into a distin-
Sells, Michael A. Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qur
an, Miraj, guished career at the University of Chicago, where he served
Poetic and Theological Writings. Mahweh, N.J.: Paulist on the faculty from 1969 until his death. He contributed
Press, 1996. further important studies, including his Major Themes of the

Rashid, Harun al-

Qur
an (1980) and works on modernist thought and classical Guide”). After their father died, al-Hadi became ruler, but he
Islamic philosophy. died mysteriously after only one year in power. Al-Hadi’s son
was forced at the point of a sword to renounce the caliphate;
Overall, Fazlur Rahman’s thought may be characterized Harun—still in his early twenties—received the ring of the
as Islamic modernism in the tradition of Shah Wali Allah and caliphate and was proclaimed caliph. Following the advice
Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan. He preferred an approach that of his mother, he entrusted the administration to his Irasought to recover the spirit behind Quranic injunctions nian tutor, Yahya al-Barmaki, and the latter’s family. The
while contextualizing the tradition as it developed histori- Barmakides assisted Harun in controlling his political rivals
cally. He encouraged a renewal of Islamic educational institu- and Shi
ite opponents, and in defeating major uprisings in the
tions, as can be seen in his volume titled Islam and Modernity: provinces: in Syria (796), Egypt (788, 794–795), northwest
Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition (1982), and was Africa (786, 794–795, 797), and the Yemen (795–804). Howcritical of irrational or morally inconsistent elements within ever, the administrative body formed by the Barmakides soon
the Islamic tradition. He was also a critic of contemporary became a state within the state, promoting the “Iranization”
Muslim “neo-fundamentalisms,” which he considered to be of the, until then, Arab-Islamic caliphate.
defensive and ultimately destined to wither away.
Throughout his reign, Harun personally led many mili-
See also Ahmad Khan, (Sir) Sayyid; Ibn Sina; Modern tary campaigns against the Byzantines and established a
Thought; Wali Allah, Shah. Muslim naval power (with raids on Cyprus in 805 and Rhodes
in 807). He granted the request of the Roman emperor,
BIBLIOGRAPHY Charles the Great (Charlemagne; r. 800–814), to ameliorate
Rahman, Fazlur. Revival and Reform in Islam: A Study of Islamic the conditions for European Christian visitors to Jerusalem
Fundamentalism. Edited by Ebrahim Moosa. Oxford, U.K.: and the Holy Land and exchanged embassies and precious
Oneworld Press, 2000. gifts with him: For example, Harun sent Charles an elephant
Waugh, Earle H., and Denny, Frederick M. The Shaping of an and a water-clock of curious design. In the last periods of his
American Islamic Discourse: A Memorial to Fazlur Rahman. reign, Harun seems to have lacked the competence and
Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1998. energy he showed in earlier years. Deteriorated in health,
Harun al-Rashid died on 24 March 809.
Marcia Hermansen
The picture that medieval Arabic scholarship presents of
Harun is somewhat contradictory: pious, statesmanlike, and
of remarkably mild countenances, on the one hand; and
RASHID, HARUN AL- (C. 763 dissolute, incompetent, and lacking modesty in enjoying wine
OR 766–809) and other privileges claimed by the upper class, on the other.
Nevertheless, the development of Islamic society benefited
Harun al-Rashid (Aaron “The Rightly-Guided”) was the fifth from Harun’s enlightenment: He promoted commercial ac-
Abbasid caliph, who ruled the great Islamic empire from 786 tivities (as far as China), fine arts, poetry, literature, music,
to 809 during its zenith. A patron of learning and culture, he architecture, and the natural sciences. He reinforced law and
is known to the world through the tales of The Arabian Nights, order, secured state finances, and conducted major public
which portray his court in Baghdad as a place of wealth and construction projects. Yet, his reign marked a turning point
splendor. for the Abbasid caliphate because the efficiency of administration began to decline and the political unity of the empire
Harun al-Rashid was born in 763 (or 766) in the city of al- to disintegrate: Harun’s diplomacy eventually failed to neu-
Rayy, south of today’s Tehran, the third son of the caliph tralize provincial dynasties and local rulers, and his decision
Muhammad al-Mahdi (“the Well-Guided”). Harun’s mother, to apportion the empire among three of his sons virtually
al-Khayzuran, and his wife, Zubayda, played influential roles precipitated its political decline.
during his reign. Harun had eleven sons and twelve daughters; his sons al-Amin, al-Mamun, and al-Mu
tasim each in See also Caliphate; Empires: Abbasid.
his turn became caliph.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Already as a teenager, Harun had led two military expedi- Abbott, Nabia. Two Queens of Baghdad. Mother and Wife of
tions against the Byzantines. For his success on the battle- Harun al-Rashid. Chicago: The University of Chicago
field, he was appointed governor of the provinces of northwest Press, 1974.
Africa (Ifriqiya), Egypt, Syria, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, al- Bosworth, C. E., trans. The Abbasid Caliphate in Equilibrium.
though his tutor Yahya al-Barmaki was actually administra- The Caliphates of Musa al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid.
tor. Harun then faced serious intrigues by his older half- A.D. 785–809 / A.H. 169–193. Vol. 30 of The History of al-

brother and rival for the throne, Musa al-Hadi (Moses “the Tabari. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.

572 Islam and the Muslim World
Rashidun

Clot, André. Harun al-Rashid and the World of the Thou- The events of the latter half of
Uthman’s reign and the
sand and One Nights. Trans. by J. Howe. London: Saqi entirety of
Ali’s disputed caliphate—known to modern schol-
Books, 1989. ars as the First Civil War—are remembered in Islamic relig-
El-Hibri, Tayeb. Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography: Harun ious and political history as “the Fitna”—a time of chaos,
al-Rashid and the Narrative of the Abbasid Caliphate. Cam- dissension, and tribulation. No other period in the history of
bridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Islam has been the subject of greater debate than the events of
Omar, Farid. “Harun al-Rashid.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. the Fitna. For the Sunnis, the Companions are second only to
Edited by B. Lewis, et al. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971. the Prophet as sources of religious guidance, and yet during
the civil war they were ranged on opposite sides and bitterly
Sebastian Günther fought each other. Which of the parties to the conflict was in
the right, whether
Uthman and
Ali were legitimate caliphs,
and whether someone who was a grave sinner continued to be
a member of the Muslim community were questions that
RASHIDUN were to divide the Muslim community for centuries. Indeed,
it is to the events of the First Civil War that the origins of the
The Rashidun, or al-khulafa
al-rashidun, the “rightly guided”
major religio-political schisms in Islam are datable.
caliphs, is the designation in Sunni Islam for the first four
successors of the prophet Muhammad (d. 632). In their order A distinctive doctrine of those who, in the ninth century,
of succession to Muhammad, these caliphs are: Abu Bakr (r. emerged as the Sunnis was that all four of the Prophet’s
632–634),
Umar ibn al-Khattab (r. 634–644),
Uthman ibn immediate successors were equally righteous, and that the

Affan (r. 644–656), and
Ali ibn Abi Talib (r. 656–661). historical sequence of their succession was also the order of
their religious ranking. Agreement on this position did not
According to the Sunni view of Islam’s earliest history, the
come about easily. While the Khawarij did not recognize
prophet Muhammad did not designate anyone to succeed
either
Uthman or
Ali as legitimate, and most of the Shi
a
him. Muhammad having been the last of God’s prophets, the
considered none but
Ali as a true caliph and imam, many of
question, in any case, was of succession to the polity he had
founded in Medina, not to his prophetical office. It was the ahl al-sunna of the late eighth century, who together with
therefore left to the community to decide on his succession, the ashab al-hadith later emerged as the first Sunnis, themand after some discussion and uncertainty a number of the selves had reservations about the legitimacy of
Ali’s caliphate.
Prophet’s Companions elected Abu Bakr, a leading member By the time of the hadith scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855),
of the community and Muhammad’s father-in-law, as the first many of those recognizable as early Sunnis had come to
caliph. Before his death two years later (634 C.E.), Abu Bakr acknowledge all four of the Prophet’s successors as equally
nominated
Umar as his successor, a choice which, like Abu righteous. It was also in the late eighth and early ninth
Bakr’s own, was accepted by the Muslim community. For his centuries that a tradition of the Prophet, according to which
part,
Umar, when mortally wounded by an assassin after a the “caliphate” would last only thirty years after his death—
reign of twelve years, left the choice of caliph to a committee that is, only for the duration of the reigns of his first four
of six leading figures. This committee chose
Uthman after he successors—became widely current. Though the Umayyads
pledged to follow the example of his two immediate pred- and the Abbasids claimed, of course, to be caliphs and were
ecessors—a guarantee that the other major contender,
Ali, recognized as such by the Sunni religious scholars, a position
was not willing to give. The latter half of
Uthman’s reign saw such as that enshrined in the “thirty years” hadith signaled
strong disaffection in his capital, Medina, in the garrison that the age of the Rashidun was to be set apart from all
towns of Kufa and Basra, and in Egypt against the policies of subsequent eras. For the Sunnis, that age has continued to be
the caliph, who was eventually murdered in Medina by the seen as a time, indeed the only time, when Islamic ideals were
rebels. These rebels then supported the accession of
Ali, but truly implemented. As such, invocations of the Rashidun have
he was never recognized as a legitimate caliph by the entire continued to be part of the religio-political discourse in the
community of Muslims. In particular, Mu
awiya b. Abi Sufyan, Sunni Islamic world to the present.
the governor of Syria and a kinsman of
Uthman, demanded
See also Abu Bakr;
Ali ibn Abi Talib;
Athman ibn
that
Ali first punish the killers of his predecessor, and a
number of the Prophet’s Companions, including his wife

Affan; Fitna; Imam;
Umar.

Aisha, made similar demands. There was dissension in
Ali’s
own camp also, with some of his followers, who came to be BIBLIOGRAPHY
known as the Khawarij, seceding from him on grounds that it Ess, Josef van. “Political Ideas in Early Islamic Religious
was improper to negotiate with rebels like Mu
awiya.
Ali was Thought.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 28
eventually murdered by one of the Khawarij, and his death, (2001): 151–164.
and the rise of the Umayyads to power under Mu
awiya (r. Hinds, Martin. Studies in Early Islamic History. Edited by Jere
661–680), marked the end of the Rashidun caliphate. Bacharach, et al. Princeton, N.J.: The Darwin Press, 1996.

Islam and the Muslim World 573
Rawza-Khani

Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of Refah united marginalized people around Islamic identhe Early Caliphate. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univer- tity, morality in government, a domestic policy favoring the
sity Press, 1997. lower and middle classes, and a pro-Mideast/Asian and anti-
Tabari, al-. The History of al-Tabari. Vols. 10–17. Albany: Western/Israel foreign policy. After capturing Istanbul’s and
State University of New York Press, 1985–1999. Ankara’s mayoralties, the Refah Party won the 1995 national
election with 21 percent of the vote and formed a coalition
Muhammad Qasim Zaman with Tansu Ciller’s center-right True Path Party. This uneasy partnership achieved some domestic change and a more
balanced foreign policy, but government corruption remained high.
RAWZA-KHANI
Refah presented an alternative to mainstream parties
A rawza-khani is a Shi
ite ritual sermon recounting and mired in stagnation and corruption, appealing to disenmourning the seventh-century tragedy of Karbala, which was franchised small businessmen, impoverished workers, young
a battle in which the Prophet’s grandson Husayn was martyred professionals and students, women, and new export-oriented
(in what is viewed by the Shi
a as a heroic struggle against capitalists. Its Islamism sought to replace traditional
religious tyranny and corruption). The primary catalyst in the Kemalism’s heavy-handed secularism, statist economics, and
emergence of this ritual was the appearance of Hosayn Vaez pro-Westernism. Its religious agenda countered ethnic con-
Kashifi’s 1502 composition entitled Rawzat al-shuhada
(The flict, social dislocation, and organized crime; its Mideast
garden of martyrs). Rawza-khanis are performed in homes, agenda offered commercial profits and employment in techmosques, takiyas, husayniyas, religious sites, and even in the nical fields; and its welfare plans inspired those at the bottom
streets and bazaars of cities. The rawza-khani is a ritual in of the income scale. Inconsistent policies toward women and
which a sermon is given based on a text like the Rawzat al- a human-rights agenda that excluded opponents frightened
shuhada
, with a great deal of improvisation on the part of the secularists and Kemalists. The Refah government was forced
specially trained speaker. The objective of the speaker is to from power in 1997, and the party was closed down in
move the audience to tears through his recitation of the tragic February 1998.
details of the Battle of Karbala. In addition to serving social,
political, and psychological functions, this type of mourning See also Erbakan, Necmeddin; Modernization, Politiritual has been viewed by Shi
a as a means of achieving cal: Participation, Political Movements, and Parties.
salvation. This belief is illustrated by the often-repeated
Shi
ite quotation, “Anyone who cries for Husayn or causes BIBLIOGRAPHY
someone to cry for Husayn shall go directly to paradise.” Gülalp, Haldun. “Political Islam in Turkey: The Rise and
Fall of the Refah Party.” Muslim World 89 (1999): 22–41.
See also Ta
ziya.
Howe, Marvine. Turkey Today: A Nation Divided over Islam’s
Revival. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ayoub, Mahmoud. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of Linda T. Darling
the Devotional Aspects of Ashura in Twelver Shiism. The
Hague, Netherlands: Mouton Publishers, 1978.
Schubel, Vernon James. Religious Performance in Contemporary Islam: Shii Devotional Rituals in South Asia. Columbia:
REFORM
University of South Carolina Press, 1993.

Kamran Aghaie ARAB MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Sohail H. Hashmi

IRAN
Hossein Kamaly
REFAH PARTISI MUSLIM COMMUNITIES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE
Allen J. Frank
Refah Partisi (Welfare Party), a Turkish Islamist political
party (1984–1998), was founded by Necmeddin Erbakan to SOUTH ASIA
Ahrar Ahmad
replace the National Salvation Party. It was initially unpopular, but economic slowdown and political corruption at- SOUTHEAST ASIA
tracted protest voters to it. Mark R. Woodward

574 Islam and the Muslim World
Reform

ARAB MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA The origins of modernist Muslim thought in the Arab
Revivalist movements and reformist thinkers have arisen world are often traced to Rifa
a al-Tahtawi (1801–1873). As
throughout Islamic history. Since the early nineteenth cen- the religious advisor traveling with an Egyptian student
tury, two intellectual strands have evolved among the Arabic- delegation to Paris in 1826, Tahtawi immersed himself in
speaking populations of Southwest Asia and North Africa, European history, geography, politics, literature, and scieach in its own way calling for Islamic renewal (tajdid) and ence, learning French in order to do so. Upon returning to
reform (islah) against the status-quo traditionalists among the Cairo in 1831, he became Muhammad
Ali’s chief supporter
ulema on the one hand and Western-style secularists on the among the ulema for the modernizing reforms the pasha had
other. One of these strands is variously dubbed conservative, initiated. In his writings, Tahtawi expounded a theme that
fundamentalist, and more recently Islamist; the other is would engross later modernist thinkers: reform of Islamic law
generally known as modernist or liberal. Neither strand, it based on the needs of the modern age. To begin such legal
should be emphasized, advocates reform of Islamic dogma reform, he argued, the education of the law’s interpreters, the
itself, which would obviously open it to charges of illicit ulema, had to be overhauled. Tahtawi’s most important
innovation (bida). Rather, Islamic reformism is limited to contribution to educational reform, and his greatest influence
correcting the interpretations and practices of Muslims, al- upon later generations of reformers, was exerted through the
legedly in order to better reflect the true Islam. A number of School of Languages, of which he was appointed director in
different understandings of the means and ends of reform 1837. The school educated Egyptian students in European
could be accommodated within such a broad aspiration. languages and translated key European texts into Arabic.

The Wahhabi movement that began in late eighteenth- Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi (c. 1822–1890), prime minister
century Arabia was the last significant reformist effort in the first to the bey of Tunis and later to the Ottoman sultan,
era before European imperialism. It erupted out of the potent called much more directly than Tahtawi for political reforms
mixture of the fiery religious appeal of Muhammad Ibn
Abd to accompany legal and educational changes. Khayr al-Din
al-Wahhab (1703–1792) and the political and military acu- argued that Europe’s military prowess was an outgrowth of
men of the Sa
ud family. Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab called for a the development of effective and accountable governments.
return to the strict monotheism (tawhid) that he claimed For Muslims to borrow constitutional principles from Eurounderlay the mission of the prophet Muhammad. In his view, peans would not be innovation at all, he wrote, but merely a
the society around him had departed in many regards from return to the true principles of government established by the
this pure Islam, neglecting, for example, the enforcement of Prophet and the rightly guided caliphs.
Islamic punishments for such things as adultery and theft and
Despite the modernization efforts in states such as Egypt
absorbing such un-Islamic practices as the building of tombs
and Tunisia—limited mainly to small-scale educational and
for the dead and saint worship. When the Wahhabiyya
bureaucratic reforms, with no serious legal or political
succeeded in conquering most of Arabia in the early ninechanges—Muslim power relative to that of Europe steadily
teenth century, the first Saudi state set about implementing
declined during the first half of the nineteenth century, and
Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab’s vision of an ideal Islamic society,
by the century’s end, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt had passed
grounded in a strict, literal interpretation of the Quran and
under direct French and British rule. The beginning of
the Prophetic hadith that he considered to be authentic.
formal European imperialism produced among Arabs a more
Although this state was crushed by an Egyptian army in 1818,
profound intellectual search for the causes of Muslim decline
the conservative reformist message of Wahhabism spread to
and the means for its reversal.
other Muslim areas, and its influence upon other reform
movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century The broad term designating the movement for Islamic
is incontrovertible. reform that emerged in the last decades of the nineteenth
century is Salafiyya. Exactly when the Salafiyya movement
Wahhabi forces were checked by the army of Muhammad began and who should be included among its adherents

Ali (c. 1769–1849), the founder of a new dynasty in Egypt remain controversial issues. The name is derived from the
and the initiator of modernization in the Arab world. Having phrase salaf al-salihin, which refers to the first three generaseen the technological superiority of Napoleon’s army when tions of Muslims and various pious figures in subsequent
it invaded and occupied Egypt from 1798 to 1801, Muham- generations who best understood and applied the “true”
mad
Ali launched a program to reform the Egyptian military Islam. Its proponents argue for a return by Muslims to the
and civil administration, after becoming the Ottoman gover- practice of these, Islam’s forebears. As such, the Wahhabiyya
nor of the province in 1805. Educational missions were could be and sometimes are considered a Salafi movement.
dispatched to Europe, mainly France, for scientific and technological training, beginning as early as 1809. The students The figure most widely considered as the architect of
returned with ideas of how to reform Egyptian politics, Salafi principles, however, is Muhammad
Abduh (1849–1905).
culture, and education as well. Three basic principles underlie
Abduh’s reformism. First, he

Islam and the Muslim World 575
Reform

Muslim reform and renewal movements (18th to 20th century)

Arabia
Reform teaching in Mecca and Medina
Wahhabiyya—founded by Muhammad b.
Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792); allied with Ibn Sa
ud to create Saudi state
Idrisiyya—founded in Mecca by Ahmad b. Idris (d. 1837)

Caucasus
Naqshbandiyya—1785–present, anti-Russian resistance

Inner Asia
Naqshbandiyya—reform-oriented Sufi tariqa leads Muslim resistance to Russia and China
New teaching, 1761–1877—offshoot of Naqshbandiya, late-eighteenth- and late-nineteenth-century resistance to Chinese rule
Khwajas and Ya
qub Beg–holy Muslim lineage, formerly rulers of Kashgar, attempt to establish a Muslim state, defeated by China in 1878
Yunnan, 1856–1873—rebellion against Chinese rule and effort to establish a Muslim state
Usul-e jadid—Kazan, Crimean, and Bukharan intellectuals, notably Isma
il Gasprinskii (1851–1914), sponsor new schools, combined Muslim and Russian
education; modernization of Muslim peoples

India
Shah Wali Allah (1703–1762)

Shah
Abd al-
Aziz (1746–1824)

Muhammad Isma
il (1781–1831)

Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi (1785–1831) Meccan influences
unites Pathans to resist British and Sikhs
Patna-Maulana Walayat
Ali Faraidi (Bengal);
Maulana Karamat ahl-e hadith 1818–1845 anti-Hindu

Ali and anti-British
Delhi School Titu Mir (Bengal)

Deoband—founded 1876. Muslim
college combined hadith studies
and Sufism and spawned satelliite schools

Tablighi Islam—founded 1927 by
Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas
Southeast Asia
Padri Movement—Sumatra 1803–1837
Dipanegara leads revolt on Java, 1825–1830
Banten, West Java revolts, nineteenth century
Kaum Muda—Sumatra and Malaya movement for reform and modernization
Acheh—1873–1908 ulema-led resistance to Dutch occupation
Muhammadiyya—1912; educational and social reform

Egypt and North Africa
Salafiyya—founded by Muhammad
Abduh (d. 1905), influenced islah and national movements in North Africa; Tunisia, Young Tunisians;
Algeria, Ben Badis; Morocco,
Allal al-Fasi

Abd al-Qadir—Qadiriyya chieftain attempts to establish Algerian State, defeated by the French
Rahmaniyya—religious brotherhood uses networks of zawiyas in Algeria and Tunisia to resist French occupation
Tijaniyya—reform Sufi order inspires West and North African jihad and resistance movements
Sanusiyya—reformist brotherhood creates "state" structure in Libya, founded by Muhammad b.
Ali al-Sanusi (d. 1859); resists Italian occupation
Khalwatiyya—reformist Sufi brotherhood

East Africa
Idrisiyya spawned Rashidiyya in Algeria; Amirghaniyya in Sudan and Nubia; Sanusiyya in Libya
Sudan—Sammaniyya gives rise to Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Mahdi (d. 1898)
Somalia—Muhammad
Abdallah Hasan leads resistance to British, 1899–1920

West Africa
Jihad of
Uthman Dan Fadio (1754–1817)—Northern Nigerian reformist opposition to Hausa states
Sokoto Caliphate (1809–1903) and related jihads in Adamawa and Masina
Al-Hajj
Umar (1794?–1864)—jihad state in region of Mali and Senegal
Bundu, Futa Jallon, and Futa Toro, reform Muslim states in the Senegambian region
Ma Ba—nineteenth-century jihad in Senegal
Samory (1860s–1898)—Muslim adventurer founds West African State

SOURCE: Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Muslim reform and renewal movements arranged by region.

576 Islam and the Muslim World
Reform

rejected predestination and the fatalism and intellectual tor- although their views on specific points of Quranic interprepor that he believed resulted from it. Second, he emphasized tation and Islamic law may vary.
the compatibility of revelation with reason. In other words,
he argued that religion does not impose unduly on what By the early years of the twenty-first century, Islamic
reason demands as scientific or moral truths and, conversely, reform in the Arab world remained a highly contested disthat human rational faculties are capable of confirming most, course. In terms of political mobilization, the conservative
if not all, the spiritual truths illuminated by religion. Finally, Islamist agenda seemed to have triumphed over the liberal

Abduh asserted a claim to renewed interpretation (ijtihad) of modernist project. Conservative reformers such as Muham-
Islamic law based on the requirements of social justice (maslaha) mad al-Ghazali (1917–1996) in Egypt and Hasan al-Turabi
of his own era. (b. 1932) in Sudan had attracted much larger public followings
than their modernist counterparts. Arab modernists had thus

Abduh did not directly advocate a political program, far failed to form a mass-based organization to compete with
implying only that Islamic principles of accountable and the Muslim Brotherhood and its many, more radical offlimited government supported the idea of liberal parliamen- shoots. Still, the work of such modernist intellectuals as Tariq
tary democracy. Later reformers appealed, explicitly or al-Bishri and Hasan Hanafi (b. 1935) in Egypt and Muhamimplicitly, to his writings to justify their own, sometimes mad Shahrur in Syria, and the political activism of Rachid alopposite views. The most bitter controversy erupted when Ghannoushi (b. 1941) in Tunisia have demonstrated the

Ali
Abd al-Raziq (1888–1966) published a treatise arguing continuing relevance and development of modernism.
that the mixture of religion and politics in the institution of
See also
Abd al-Rahman Kawakibi;
Abd al-Wahhab,
the caliphate was a perversion of the Prophet’s teachings and
Muhammad Ibn;
Abduh, Muhammad; Banna, Hasan
practice. Rashid Rida (1865–1935) denounced
Abd al-Raziq’s
al-; Ghazali, Muhammad al-; Ikhwan al-Muslimin;
arguments, which opened secular possibilities within Islamic
Qutb, Sayyid; Rida, Rashid; Salafiyya; Tajdid; Turabi,
political thought, as a perversion of Islamic teachings and
Hasan al-; Wahhabiyya.
history. Another disciple of
Abduh’s,
Abd al-Rahman al-
Kawakibi (c. 1849–1902), had earlier written on the need to
BIBLIOGRAPHY
revive the Arab caliphate as a precursor to Islamic revival
worldwide. Binder, Leonard. Islamic Liberalism: A Critique of Development
Strategies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Abduh expressed his views prolifically in the pages of the Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–
journal al-Manar. He also tried to implement his reform 1939. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
program by issuing progressive fatwas in his capacity as Kerr, Malcolm H. Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal
Grand Mufti of Egypt, and through his efforts at reorganiz- Theories of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida. Berkeley:
ing the education of Egyptian religious scholars at al-Azhar University of California Press, 1966.
University and other institutions. Many Arab nationalists Safran, Nadav. Egypt in Search of Political Community. Camwould attempt to incorporate his progressive, moderate, and bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961.
flexible interpretations of Islam into their political ideologies,
but generally failed to produce a true synthesis of theory and Sohail H. Hashmi
practice once independence was achieved.
IRAN

Abduh’s reform agenda was carried on by Rashid Rida,
The reform and reconstruction of Islamic doctrine in Iran,
but Rida brought to it a greater conservatism in philosophical
aimed at striking a stable balance with contemporary requireoutlook and methodology, relying primarily on Hanbali
ments, exhibits important and at times idiosyncratic characjurisprudence, whereas his mentor had advocated free borteristics. Iran is the largest non-Arab Islamic country where
rowing from all Sunni schools of law. He was also much more
the greater majority of the population adheres to Shi
ite
politically oriented than
Abduh, seeing the institution of an principles. Unlike most Islamic countries, throughout West-
Islamic state as the precursor to the application of Islamic law ern colonial and imperialist expansions Iran has enjoyed
and the promotion of Islamic social mores. Rida thus laid the unbroken, if at times fragile, native sovereignty, and this has
intellectual foundations for a more conservative strand of led to a peculiar dynamic of perception and interaction with
Salafi reformism, one that is associated with the Muslim the West. The outbreak of the Islamic Revolution (1979), in a
Brotherhood. The reformism of Hasan al-Banna (1906–1949) rapidly but unevenly modernizing nation-state, together with
and Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966), the principal ideologues of the the turbulent evolution of the Iranian society ever since,
Brotherhood, reflects Rida’s influence in its advocacy of a further mark the Iranian experience as unique.
holistic conception of Islamic state and society, where sharia
regulates all spheres of life. In this regard, the Brotherhood’s The roots of Islamist reform in Iran are commonly traced
Salafism is similar in approach to that of the Wahhabiyya, back to the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 to 1908.

Islam and the Muslim World 577
Reform

However, for at least two generations prior to that turning the vicissitudes of history. This tendency in Iran bore close
point in modern Iranian history, emerging social and intel- kinship to the salafiyya movement in Egypt.
lectual forces had grappled with new questions regarding
Islamic, Iranian, and “progressive” identities. The enigmatic
Ali Shari
ati (1933–1977), a prolific intellectual of an
reformist Jamal al-Din Afghani (1838–1897), for example, unfathomable range of influence, best exemplified the utohad won a sizable following in Iran, one among whom pian tendency. He not only shared in the maximalist outlook,
ended up assassinating the Qajar sovereign, Naser al-Din but consciously hailed the transformation of the dormant
Shah, in 1896. Islamic culture into a potent ideology imparting clear-cut
instructions for political struggle, as a most urgent and
Beginning in the years prior to the Constitutional Revolu- significant accomplishment.
tion, and continuing throughout the twentieth century, groups
of clerics, teachers, journalists, government officials, and lay The maximalist-utopian ideal, culminating in the Islamic
professionals attempted to flesh out a “progressive” discourse Revolution of 1979, provided the exponents of Islamist reby way of molding such modern concepts as the nation form, such as Mehdi Bazargan (1902–1994), Sayyed Mahmud
(mellat), or a representative assembly (majlis shura), into Taleqani (d. 1979), and Morteza Mutahhari (1919–1979),
historically more familiar native contexts.The discourse of with an opportunity to put into practice what they had
Islamic reform in Iran is best understood by demarcating its preached for decades. The radical doctrine of “Absolute
pre- and postrevolutionary phases, with reference to the Guardianship of the Jurist” (vilayat motlaqe faqih), expounded
Islamic Revolution of 1979. In its prerevolutionary phase, by Ayatollah Khomeini, rendered absolute discretion into the
the reformist discourse tended to be nativist-apologetic, hands of the religious elite, and boosted the maximalist
maximalist, utopian, and “progressive.” It also embraced, or program. A full-blown, yet ostensibly inadequate, juridical
at least condoned, militant violence as a legitimate means. (feqahati) approach toward complex issues of the state alien-
Prerevolutionary reformists in Iran further called for univer- ated among others surviving pioneers of Islamist reform, such
sal Islamic union or integration, in the face of non-Muslim as Bazargan, who had throughout their careers vouched for a
adversaries. The burgeoning postrevolutionary discourse, in humanely tolerant view of Islam and had foreseen more
contrast, while maintaining its “progressive” stance, exhibits inclusive methods of governance.
eclectic-critical, minimalist, pragmatic, and pluralistic tendencies and it increasingly downplays the purported efficacy of Beginning in 1988, the publication of a sequence of
violent tactics. critical essays sparked new debate and led Islamist reform in
Iran toward a turning point.
Abd al-Karim Sorush (b. 1945),
Prerevolutionary Islamic reform proceeded from the fun- an academic thinker with impeccable prorevolutionary credamental premise that Islam, as a comprehensive system, dentials, contended that Islamic doctrine lies inevitably subshould aptly offer answers to every conceivable question of ject to historic expansion and contraction. The body of
human concern, at individual and societal levels, as well as in knowledge standing outside the proper domain of “Islam,”
both temporal and spiritual spheres. The discourse was according to Sorush, inexorably influences the way questions
maximalist in its aiming to bring an ever-expansive domain are framed and solutions formulated within it. The recogniunder an Islamic umbrella. Reformists, from the 1920s on- tion of a set of inalienable rights for human beings irrespecward, unflinchingly formulated “nativist” Islamic solutions tive of religious affiliation, for example, should lead to a
for issues raised by the secularizing government agenda, as reconsideration of the primarily “duty-bound” conception of
well as for those put forward by Marxist activists in Iran. man hitherto propounded in Islamic texts. Religious texts,
Reformists took on the daunting task of spelling out the Sorosh contends, should be interpreted in light of the broader
proper Islamic ways for approaching a plethora of issues, extrareligious context. Mohammad Mojtahed-Shabestari (b.
from such mundane matters as personal hygiene and dietary 1936), an articulate reformist cleric, further elaborates on this
practice to the intricate workings of the economy and inter- hermeneutic approach, making room for alternative yet ranational diplomacy. Pamphlets and books with formulaic tional interpretations or “readings” of Islam. Mojtahedtitles such as “Islam and . . .,” and “. . . in Islam,” proliferated. Shabestari urges that true religious faith thrives on social
As a result of its maximalist-nativist character, reformist liberty, and he earnestly criticizes the officially enforced
discourse was prone to indulge in apologetics. In an effort to interpretation of Islam advocated by the state in Iran.
present a view of the Islamic tradition that was in tune with
the manners of the time, reformists did not hesitate to The new discourse of Islamic reform, exemplified in the
denounce portions of it as “superstitious.” Some, like the work of Soroush, and manifested in the writings of Mojtahedcleric Shari
at-Shangelaji (1890/2–1943), had to face ostra- Shabestari and a few others, defined a nascent group of
cism, perhaps for jettisoning too much. In general, a collec- religious intellectuals (rowshanfekran dini), retrospectively
tive penchant developed among reformists for doing away including in its ancestry such thinkers as Bazargan and Shari
ati.
with what they deemed spurious, and for restoring the una- During the 1990s, a group of these religious intellectuals,
dulterated, primordial Islam (eslam rastin) that transcended sometimes referred to as the Kiyan Circle (halqe Kiyan),

578 Islam and the Muslim World
Reform

expressed their views in the important periodical Kiyan (offi- and variously influenced by pan-Turkic, pan-Islamic, and
cially closed down by court decree in 2000). This forum nationalist ideas. At the same time, as actors in the political
raised crucial questions with regard to Islamic reform, includ- life of Russia as a whole, the jadids were not politically unified
ing issues of democratic governance, Islamic law, and faith, and were to be found among several of the empire’s radical,
and probed into the fields of epistemology and ethics. liberal, and even conservative political parties. Following the
Russian Revolution (1917), jadids were active in the various
The election of Mohammad Khatami as the president of factions engaged in the Russian Civil War, notably among
the Islamic Republic in 1997 signaled a potential triumph for the various Muslim nationalist movements, within the Socialpostrevolutionary Islamic reformism. An advocate of relig- ist Revolutionary Party, and among the Bolsheviks. Followious intellectualism himself, Khatami incorporated key ele- ing the Bolshevik victory, jadids became increasingly politically
ments of the burgeoning discourse in his campaign slogans marginalized, as their vision of secularized Muslim commuand called for increased social pluralism and a move toward nities, and their ability to effect political change, were rapidly
civil society. In practice, however, theoretical as well as eclipsed by revolutionary social change and secularization
functional shortcomings seem to have stifled this particular that became the hallmark of Soviet rule. Furthermore, their
promise. Nevertheless, Islamic reformism persists as an on- association with nationalism, pan-Turkic, and pan-Islamic
going and evolving project in contemporary Iran. ideas resulted in the complete purging of active jadids from
political and even social life during the rule of Stalin, which
Iranian reformers, more often than not, have formulated
ended the jadidist movement in Russia.
ideological or doctrinal questions in purely epistemic terms,
and have shown conspicuously less concern for sociohistori- The ideological founder of jadidism is usually identified as
cal processes constituting religion in general and Islam in Isma
il Bey Gasprinskii (1851–1914), a Crimean Tatar from
particular. the town of Bakhchesaray in the Crimea. Having studied and
lived in Paris and Istanbul in the 1870s, where he came under
See also
Abd al-Karim Sorush; Afghani, Jamal al-Din;
the influence of French liberals, the Young Turks, and the
Bazargan, Mehdi; Khomeini, Ruhollah; Mojtahedpan-Islamist ideas of al-Afghani, Gasprinskii returned to the
Shabestari, Muhammad; Reform: Arab Middle East
Crimea, where in 1883 he founded the newspaper Tarjuman
and North Africa; Reform: Muslim Communities of
(The interpreter). Until the 1905 revolution, this publication
the Russian Empire; Reform: South Asia; Shari
ati,
was the sole Turkic-language newspaper in the Russian

Ali.
empire, and a major platform for disseminating Gasprinskii’s
jadidist ideas. An avowed monarchist, Gasprinskii sought to
BIBLIOGRAPHY
unify the Turkic peoples of Russia (who constituted the vast
Boroujerdi, Mehrzad. Iranian Intellectuals and the West. Syra- majority of Russia’s Muslim population) and facilitate their
cuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1996.
integration into the economic and civic life of imperial
Jahanbakhsh, Forouq. Islam, Democracy and Religious Modern- Russian society. To this end, Gasprinskii championed the
ism in Iran, 1953–2000: From Bazargan to Soroush. Boston: creation of a common Turkic literary language and, most
E. J. Brill, 2001.
significantly, sought to reform Muslim education to make it
Soroush, Abdol Karim. Reason, Freedom, & Democracy in conform more to Western models. Gasprinskii especially
Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush. New York: championed the teaching of Russian language, arithmetic,
Oxford University Press, 2000. geography, and the sciences. In addition, he is credited with
Taleqani, Seyed Mahmud. Islam and Property Ownership. introducing a phonetic system of reading for pupils to learn to
Lexington, Ky.: Mazda Publishers, 1983. read faster. Gasprinskii opened the first jadidist school in
Bakhchesaray in 1884.
Hossein Kamaly
As an educational reform movement, jadidism grew stead-
MUSLIM COMMUNITIES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE ily from the 1880s to 1917. It was received most enthusiasti-
Jadidism was an intellectual current among the Muslims of cally among the Tatars and Bashkirs of Russia’s Volga-Ural
the Russian empire that emerged in the 1880s, and it re- region. The urban elites of these Muslim communities were
mained active into the first decade of Soviet rule. Although relatively well integrated into Russian economic life, and it
Jadidism is commonly defined as a manifestation of Islamic was precisely the Tatar urban bourgeoisie who were the most
reformism, it would be more correct to label it as a form of active backers of jadidist educational institutions. While
Islamic modernism.The word “Jadidism” is derived from the jadidist schools could be found throughout the Russian
term usul-e jadid, signifying “new method,” and initially first Empire’s Muslim regions, it was mainly brought to outlying
came to prominence as an educational reform movement. regions by Tatar colonists. Yet jadidist schools were viewed
However, during and after the 1905 revolution the move- with suspicion among traditional Muslim elites, particularly
ment became increasingly politicized, and its adherents, known in Central Asia and Kazakhstan, but even in the Volga-Ural
as jadids, began to articulate a political agenda increasingly region as well.

Islam and the Muslim World 579
Reform

Jadids, including numerous graduates of jadid madrasas, See also Gasprinskii, Isma
il Bay; Reform: Arab Middle
had a substantial impact on the growth of nationalist, pan- East and North Africa; Reform: Iran; Reform: South
Turkic, and pan-Islamic political activity following the 1905 Asia.
revolution, especially in the emergence of Muslim nationalism. At the same time, jadids also came into conflict with BIBLIOGRAPHY
conservative and traditionalist elements within their own Frank, Allen J. Muslim Religious Institutions in Imperial Russia:
societies. This conflict between the jadids and the traditional- The Islamic World of Novouzensk District and the Kazakh
ists is often depicted as simply a conflict between “reaction Inner Horde, 1780–1910. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2001.
and reform,” but in fact was in large measure a political Khalid, Adeeb. The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism
struggle mirroring the conflict in Russia between political in Central Asia. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: Uniconservatives and increasingly radical proponents of social versity of California Press, 1998.
and political change within the Russian Empire. In the
Volga-Ural region, this conflict was characterized by a Allen J. Frank
politicization of the religious debate between jadids and
conservatives; in Central Asia, where local adherents of jadidism SOUTH ASIA
were far fewer, it was even more restrictive than in Russia Reform, in the context of South Asian Islam, can acquire two
proper. Both native rulers and Russian administrators were different, indeed contradictory, meanings and objectives. It
openly hostile to jadidist activity. can refer to the liberalizing tendencies encompassing a rational, scientific, “enlightenment” orientation to Islam, or it
During the period from 1905 to 1917 the jadidist move- may signify traditionalist movements seeking to restore Islam
ment remained ideologically heterogeneous, although many to its more orthodox, pristine, “original” form. The first is
jadids became increasingly secular and radicalized, as the intended to ensure the progress of Muslims in the modern
Russian Empire drifted toward revolution. At this time, world, the second to revive a glorious past. Islamic reformism
especially after 1910, many jadids began making an ideologi- in South Asia has usually struggled within this awkward
cal shift from Muslim nationalism to local nationalisms. This dialectic.
process was most evident in the Volga-Ural region, Azerbaijan,
and to a lesser extent among the Kazakhs. With the outbreak It is noteworthy that South Asia’s initial encounters with
of civil war following the 1917 revolution, jadids played Islam were relatively benign and accommodative. When
important political roles in Muslim nationalist movements, Muhammad bin Qasim landed in Sind in 712 C.E., he was
instructed through a legal opinion to treat the local nonparticularly in Azerbaijan, in the short-lived Idel-Ural Republic
Muslims with justice. Similarly, in spite of successive waves of
in the Volga-Ural region, and in the Qoqand Autonomy in
Muslim invasions, it was the Sufi saints (charismatic mystics)
Turkestan. Other more radical jadids, who rejected nationalwho were largely instrumental in converting the vast majority
ism in favor of class struggle, joined the Communist Party or
of the population to Islam through example and persuasion.
allied themselves with the Bolsheviks. In Central Asia, Bol-
And finally, while the distinctions with the Hindus were
sheviks briefly installed local jadids as the rulers of the shortprofound and obvious, the poorer classes of both communilived People’s Republics of Bukhara and Khorezm.
ties were brought together by their poverty, agrarian exist-
The historical legacy of jadidism remains debated both in ence and the syncretistic compulsions of “popular” or “folk”
the West and in the former Soviet Union. As Muslims, the religion. Therefore, Hindus were seldom the dreadful “other”
jadids were certainly the first members of imperial Russia’s against whom reform movements were directed.
Muslim societies to coherently articulate a vision of secular-
It is perhaps Shah Wali Allah (1703–1762) who can
ized Muslim community integrated within the Russian Empire
claim the status of being one of the first influential theologianand, by extension, into European society. Indeed they sought
revivalists in the subcontinent. He belonged to the
to harmonize, and actually alter, Islamic culture to function
Naqshbandiya tariqa (a Sufi order), and represented a combiwithin a European framework. In fact, the transition from
nation of both rationalism and traditionalism. He suggested
pan-Islamic or pan-Turkic jadidism to jadidist-inspired Musthat Muslims should practice ijtihad (independent reasoning)
lim nationalism, and even ethnic nationalism, was a relatively
to reach conclusions relevant to the times. And while he did
seamless one. Some modern Tatar nationalists, for instance,
not subscribe to the same puritanical rigidity of his contemdepict jadidism as a manifestation of Tatar national identity,
porary Muhammad ibn
Abd al Wahhab of Arabia, he did
and national genius. However, other scholars, especially
criticize many un-Islamic accretions that South Asian Islam
those who have examined jadidism within the context of had acquired. Because of the range, eclecticism, and power of
Islamic intellectual and cultural history as a whole, have his writings, many reformists of different persuasions claim
depicted jadidism as a rather marginal movement within him as part of their intellectual heritage.
Islamic society, especially in comparison to existing traditional institutions and ideas, not only in Central Asia, but in The gradual displacement of the Muslims from their
the Volga-Ural region as well. position of privilege and authority owing to the impact of

580 Islam and the Muslim World
Reform

British commercial and imperial ambitions, and the increas- However, in independent Pakistan a tension developed
ing fear of British intrusion into their religious practices, between the ulema, who demanded a preeminent role for
generated an edginess and militancy within later reformists. Islam in the new state, and the powerful military and bureau-
Anti-British sentiment was fused with ideas of religious self- cratic elite who were unenthusiastic. Reform, in either modpreservation and purification causing Wali Allah’s son to ernist or orthodox directions, followed the vicissitudes of
declare territories under British control as dar-ul-harb (land temporary political arrangements. The 1956 constitution
of war). Some of his followers such as Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi referred to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan; the 1962 constiand Syed Ismail Shahid died in western India fighting against tution dropped the word Islamic; the 1973 constitution
the Sikhs and British in 1831. In the eastern province of reincorporated it in principle. The liberal Muslim Family
Bengal, other followers such as
Haji Shariatullah (1781–1840) Law Ordinance of 1961, which sought to reform marriage
and his son Dudu Mian (1819–1862) combined class and and divorce laws in the country, was all but gutted in the
religious sensitivities to launch the faraidi movement (imply- 1980s through various enactments on the punishment, inhering that which is religiously mandated), against the British itance, and laws of evidence relating to women. Moreover,
indigo planters and Hindu landowners. the establishment of sharia courts to adjudicate matters
according to strict Islamic principles, the declaration of
The aftermath of the Mutiny, or the First Indian War of Qadianis as non-Muslims, the self-conscious courtship of
Independence, in 1857, radically altered the direction of Arab countries through emphasizing its Islamic credentials,
reformism in South Asia. It was felt by some that the deterio- and the injection of a heightened sensibility about religious
rating condition of the Muslims resulted from their sullen
matters on public issues (including education and entertainattitude toward the British, and their inability or unwillingment), all appeared to indicate a swing back toward traditionness to take advantage of the opportunities for advancement
alist premises in the 1980s and 1990s.
that British rule provided. None perceived this more clearly,
or expressed himself as emphatically, as Sir Sayyid Ahmad The separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971
Khan (1817–1898). He preached loyalty to the British, pro- seemed to demonstrate the primacy of language and culture
moted Western language and education to overcome Muslim as more important markers for identity and destiny than
backwardness, developed an exegetical rationalism in his religion. Initially the country adopted a determinedly indifwritings on Islam, warned against the stultifying influence of ferent posture toward religion. However, and in spite of a
the reactionary ulema (religious leaders), and called upon gradual institutionalization of democracy, political develop-
Muslims to stay away from Hindu political organizations. ments since the early 1980s have compelled Bangladesh to
Aligarh University, which he founded in 1875, was emblem- drop the word “secular” from its constitution, declare Islam
atic of his approach and interests. to be the state religion, patronize parochial schools, and insist
on outward expressions of religious zeal and commitment
The Aligarh model faced challenges from scholars
from its leaders.
associated with the Firangi Mahal in Lucknow (established
in the 1690s) and the theological seminary at Deoband, In both countries, it is obvious that conservative religious
where classes began in 1867. Most scholars associated with parties do not command a large following in electoral compethese schools were opposed to the Aligarh brand of una- titions. However, it is also clear that these forces are formidabashed eagerness for Western knowledge, demanded greater ble enough to drive the discourse in directions they seek. The
concern for Islamic identity and heritage, bristled at the modernist agenda—with its emphasis on women’s rights,
perceived subservience to the British, and sought deeper minority protections, and civil liberties—appears to face
engagement with both pan-Islamist and nationalist tenden- rather daunting challenges, perhaps a little more so in Pakicies that were gradually evolving. stan than in Bangladesh.
In the twentieth century, Islamic reform and political See also Ahmad Khan, (Sir) Sayyid; Wali Allah, Shah.
activism became inextricably intertwined. It was Aligarh
modernism, and its logical corollary expressed as Muslim
BIBLIOGRAPHY
separatism, that eventually culminated in the formation of
Pakistan in 1947. It is intriguing to note that orthodox Ahmad, Aziz. Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan
Muslim leaders like Abu l-A
laMaududi and Maulana Madani, 1875–1964. London: Oxford University Press, 1967.
and nationalist/populist leaders like Abul Kalam Azad, Hakim Ahmed, Akbar. Jinnah, Pakistan, and Islamic Identity: The
Akmal Khan, and Abd al-Ghaffar Khan, opposed the idea of Search for Saladin. London: Routledge, 1997.
Pakistan while it was a very Westernized, secular, legalistically Hasan, Mushirul, ed. Islam, Communities and the Nation:
oriented leadership (Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Liaquat
Ali Khan, Muslim Identities in South Asia and Beyond. Dhaka: The
Muhammad
Ali Jinnah) that championed it. At the time, it University Press, 1998.
was assumed that Pakistan would be a home for Muslims, but Robinson, Francis. Islam and Muslim History in South Asia.
not necessarily a theocratic Muslim state. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Islam and the Muslim World 581
Reform

Schimmel, Annemarie. Islam in the Indian Subcontinent. Leiden-
Koln: E. J. Brill, 1980.

Ahrar Ahmad

SOUTHEAST ASIA
In Islamic Southeast Asia the concept of “reform” is the
subject of a highly contested discourse. Self-proclaimed “reformists” range from the Malaysian feminist organization
Sisters in Islam, which advocates changes in Islamic family
law that increase the rights and power of women, to the
Indonesian Lakshar Jihad, which advocates the establishment
of a conservative form of Islamic law to act as the basis of an
Islamic state combining Indonesia, Malaysia, and the southern Philippines.

Reformist movements in Southeast Asia emerged in the
early decades of the twentieth century as responses to British,
Dutch, and American colonial rule. They were also responses
to intellectual developments in the broader Muslim world.
Early reformists were influenced by the writings of the
Egyptian reformers Muhammad
Abduh and Rashid Rida
and by the Wahhabi movement in Arabia. They attributed
the decline of Muslim political and economic power to the
impure state of early twentieth-century Islam. The rejection
of Sufism and elements of popular religion—including the
veneration of the tombs of saints, ritual meals, and the
celebration of the birth of the prophet Muhammad—are Megawati Sukarnoputri, front, the leader and presidential candidate of the Indonesia Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P) and
among the hallmarks of Southeast Asian reformism. These her husband, Taufik Kimas, cast their ballots in Jakarta in 1999, in
and other aspects of popular Islam were (and are) denounced Indonesia’s first free elections since 1955. Although her party
as innovation and unbelief by these reformists. In Indonesia won the election, she was forced to accept the position of vicepresident. In 2001, President Abdurraham Wahid was forced to
reformists argued that the prayers of traditional Muslims
resign and Sukarhoputri became the president of Indonesia. AP/
were invalid because supplicants face directly west instead of WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
northwest, which is the actual direction of Mecca.

The reformists advocated strict enforcement of sharia. and that the acquisition of modern skills and knowledge is a
They denied the authority of classical legal texts that formed religious duty. They also encouraged participation in the
the core of the curriculum in traditional Islamic schools. Like emerging modern economic system. Reformists adopted stratesalafiyya reformers elsewhere, they maintained that the Quran gies similar to those of Christian missionaries. Organizations
and hadith are the only allowable sources of legal deci- such as Muhammadiyya in Indonesia and al-Islam in Malaya
sions. This presented a major challenge to the traditional established schools that combined a salafiyya understanding
ulema. Throughout the twentieth century disputes between of Islam with modern (Western) subjects. They established
modernists and reformists were extremely bitter. Because of schools for girls as well as women’s and youth organizations.
the profound implications of these religious disputes—each Muhammadiyya and other reformist organizations now mainparty describes the other as heretics bound for hell—it is tain extensive systems of schools, universities, and hospitals.
unlikely that the cavernous divide between traditional and The provision of social and educational services contributed
reformist communities can be closed. significantly to the spread of modernism, especially in urban areas.
Early reformists combined this religious agenda with calls
for social and educational reform. They argued that the In Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore a basic distinction
acquisition of technical and scientific knowledge is a religious can be drawn between reformist movements that seek to
obligation. The Javanese scholar Ahmad Dahlan and the transform culture and society and those that seek to employ
Malay Tahir Jalal al-Din wrote and preached that there is an the political process to establish Islamic states. In the Philipimportant link between the two components of the reform pines the distinction is that between those who would estabagenda. They taught that Islam is the religion of rationality lish a Muslim state in the southern region and others who

582 Islam and the Muslim World
Religious Beliefs

envision the Muslim community as a component of a pluralis- BIBLIOGRAPHY
tic state. Muslims in southern Thailand have been influenced Bowen, John. Muslims Through Discourse: Religion and Ritual
by Malaysian reformists and have organized to protect and in Gayo Society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
expand the rights of Muslims in an overwhelmingly Buddhist Press, 1993.
society. In Southeast Asian states where Muslims are small Nagata, Judith. The Reflowering of Malaysian Islam: Modern
minorities—Burma, Cambodia, and Vietnam—Islamic re- Religious Radicals and Their Roots. Vancouver: University of
formism did not emerge until after the Second World War. British Columbia Press, 1984.
In these countries reformism is a religious movement of little Noer, Deliar. The Modernist Muslim Movement in Indonesia.
political significance. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1973.
Woodward, Mark, ed. Towards a New Paradigm: Recent Devel-
In the colonial era reformist movements advocating the
opments in Indonesian Islamic Thought. Tempe: Arizona
establishment of Islamic states were subject to serious repres- State University, 1996.
sion. Postcolonial governments have continued these policies, but have also attempted to include reformist Muslims in
Mark R. Woodward
the political process. In Malaysia reformist political parties
compete in parliamentary elections and govern in several
states. In Indonesia there has been a constant tension between
OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND TURKEY
See Empires: Ottoman; Kemal, Namik; Modernizatraditionalist Muslims, who have generally avoided political
tion, Political; Nur Movement; Nursi, Said; Young
action, reformists who have attempted to establish Indonesia
Ottomans.
as an Islamic state, and other reformists, including the majority of the Muhammadiya community, who seek to build a
salafiyya-oriented Muslim community while avoiding overt
political activity. The collapse of the Suharto regime in 1998
contributed to the repoliticization of Indonesian reformism.
Political parties based on reformist ideologies emerged as
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
important voices in Indonesia’s new democracy. Other, more
While Islam has historically eschewed authoritative bodies
radical, groups reject the democratic orientation of the politifor issuing creeds with the authority of an ecclesiastical order,
cal parties and advocate the use of force to establish a
several statements of orthodox belief have, over time, come to
salafiyya state.
be recognized as defining Sunni faith (iman). From these
creeds six central beliefs have been distilled that have come to
In Southeast Asia, and particularly in Indonesia, there
define orthodox faith. Belief in God and his attributes, prophhave also been attempts to develop Islamic theologies emphaets, angels, sacred books, the Last Day, and predestination
sizing tolerance, interreligious discourse, and democratic
has, by Sunni consensus, come to define normative Islam.
politics. This variety of reformism differs fundamentally
from earlier salafiyya movements. This variety of reformism Belief in God and his attributes refers to the concepts of
began to develop in the 1980s and has come to be known as tawhid (divine unity) and sifat Allah (the attributive characterliberal Islam. In Indonesia it was initially sponsored by the istics of God). Tawhid means that God is omnipotent, that he
government as an antidote for fundamentalism. Most of the needs no helpers, and has no partners. Associating partners
participants in this course come from traditionalist back- with God is referred to as shirk, and is considered a serious
grounds and are conversant with classic Arabic theological, sin. This concept has been extended by some Muslim thinklegal, and mystical texts. The central institutional location of ers to mean that submission to God’s unity means the abso-
Islamic liberalism is the State Islamic Studies Institute. Many lute adherence to God’s rules, as described in the Quran and
graduates from these programs continue their studies abroad. hadith. Failing to adhere to God’s rules indicates that the
In the 1990s, liberalism emerged as a major force for political, individual places his or her own judgment equal to God’s, and
social, and economic change. Liberal reformists reject the thus becomes God’s associate. The attributes of God refer to
notion of an Islamic state. They are active in development- God’s abilities and characteristics as they are defined in the
oriented NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), promote Quran. There are generally held to be ninety-nine characinterfaith understanding and cooperation, and are advocates teristics that are reflected in the ninety-nine names of God.
for human rights and gender equality. In Indonesia they
played a major role in the Reformasi (reformation) movement Belief in prophets, angels, and sacred books is based on
that brought an end to the “New Order” regime of President Surah 2:285. This verse equates faith with the belief that God
Suharto. has sent many prophets prior to Muhammad. It also indicates
the larger concept that Muhammad was the end of a chain of
See also Reform: Arab Middle East and North Africa; prophetic succession beginning with Adam and continuing
Reform: Iran. through the twenty-five prophets mentioned in the Quran.

Islam and the Muslim World 583
Religious Institutions

Belief in angels is central to both the belief in prophets and historical plan. They create identities and representations,
in sacred books. The angel Jibril, according to Muslim and determine attitudes, emotions, and behavior. These
tradition, conveyed the revelation from God to Muhammad manifestations and outward projections originate from beand other prophets. Angels also figure prominently in a liefs and practices, but they are also limited by historical
variety of beliefs, including those surrounding Munkar and contexts. Geographical, social, and political considerations
Nakir, angels who interrogate the dead in their graves, and modify attitudes and practices. Religious institutions, then,
Michael, who was commissioned by God to oversee the take shape in relation to both religious impulses and contexnatural world. tual configurations. The following entry suggests some of the
enduring and changing features of religious institutions in
Muslims believe that many prophets have received sacred
Islam in broad historical strokes.
textual revelations similar to the Quran but that these revelations became corrupt over time. Thus while Christians and Religious beliefs and practices have been noticeably ex-
Jews are considered “people of the book” due to their recep- pressed in key institutions constructed in uniquely different
tion of textual revelations, their religions fell into error, thus social and historical contexts. The caliphate as a universal
necessitating Muhammad’s mission. political and social order was the key institution developed in
the early period of Islam. This was followed by more clearly
The Last Day refers to the belief that the world will be
religious institutions like the school of law (madhhab) and Sufi
destroyed by God and will be followed by a Day of Resurrecorder (tariqa). The modern period has witnessed the emertion on which all people will be required to account for their
gence of various forms of religious states together with the
deeds. Those who obeyed the commands of God will go to
independent religious association in secular contexts.
paradise, while those who did not will go to hell. Many
Muslim theologians have held that everyone will eventually
Early Islam
be released from hell after they have suffered sufficient
The early period of Islamic history begins with the life of the
punishment. Some Sufis have gone so far as to include Iblis
prophet Muhammad and ends with the weakening of the
(leader of jinn, who rebeled against God after the creation of
Abbasid Empire. Following Marshall Hodgson, we can use
Adam) in this category.
the year 945 as a significant point in that history when the
Predestination means that God has total power over all of independence of the caliphate was finally shattered. A general
creation and therefore determines the course of all events. of a regional power, the Buyids, occupied Baghdad and laid to
Paradoxically, humans have the ability to obey or disobey the rest the more than two hundred years of a universal political
commands of God. This ambiguity has never been settled authority. The eventual failure notwithstanding, early Islam
fully and reached a compromise position with the concept of laid the foundation of the caliphate as a vital religious institukasb, which asserts that God creates acts that humans then tion that moved and inspired Muslims. It is also an institution
acquire or own, thus involving their culpability for action or that has provided considerable inspiration for subsequent
inaction. political and social movements in diverse cultural and historical contexts up to the present time. The caliphal order was the
See also Angels; Kalam. most important religious institution the Muslims created
during this period. The word “order” is used to include the
BIBLIOGRAPHY political system and ideas themselves, as well as the related
Denny, Frederick Mathewson. An Introduction to Islam. New notions of self, society, and others. Early Islam was a period of
York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1994. intense political conflicts, many of which raged particularly
Watt, William Montgomery. Islamic Creeds: A Selection. Edin- over the nature and shape of this political order and its related
burgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1994. issues. At the same time, these conflicts and disagreements
Wensinck, A. J. The Muslim Creed: Its Genesis and Historical created opportunities for great creativity that inspired legal,
Development. London: Frank Cass, 1965. theological, philosophical, and literary productions in support of one or the other conceptions of the political order.
R. Kevin Jaques
Who must be the caliph? After the death of the prophet
Muhammad in 632, one of the first questions that needed to
be answered was that of his succession. Would it be someone
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS close to him from the beginning? Would it mean the split of
the Muslim community between its Meccan and Medinan
Religious institutions are the visible and organized manifes- followers? Or would it be someone from his family? Or would
tations of practices and beliefs in particular social and histori- the community simply choose one among equals? In time,
cal contexts. Like human emotions and attitudes, religious these political questions were answered in religious and
beliefs and practices project outward onto the social and theological terms. The history of religious ideas of early

584 Islam and the Muslim World
Religious Institutions

In a mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, Muslim men listen to a sermon during Friday prayers. In Islamic nations, religious institutions have
traditionally been subject to the rules of the state, but in countries where Muslims are minorities (India and the United States, for example),
mosques have been able to transform themselves into more independent religious institutions. GETTY IMAGES

Islam revolves around questions and answers about the iden- light of this particular discussion, such a notion of religious
tity, nature, and authority of the caliphate. and political leadership is an important part of the religious
institution of the caliphate of early Islam.
One of the close associates of the prophet Muhammad,
Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, was selected as his immediate successor Another important aspect of this institution was the nain a tense political context. Soon, members of the Prophet’s ture of the community and its boundaries. Shi
ite protest
own clan, the Banu Hashim, and their supporters claimed against the reigning caliph sowed the seeds for a degree of
that they had been deprived of rightful leadership granted by elitism within the community of believers. The family of the
the Prophet to
Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, Prophet would enjoy a level of recognition and respect above
and his legitimate successors. Thus emerged the first glim- ordinary believers. However, the egalitarian message of earmer of a religio-political faction, the party of
Ali (Ar. Shi
a), lier biblical religions found a profound resonance in Islam as
that developed into a full-fledged religious and theological well. The first group to raise this issue on the political sphere
group within Islam. Even though it remained a minority, and was the Khariji, who took a position diametrically opposed to
the various factions were hardly unanimous on the particular the Shi
a. For them, the political leader was an equal in the
descendant of
Ali as the rightful successor, the Shi
a pro- community of believers, and open to censure and removal if
duced notions of legitimate and rightful leadership for relig- he failed to live by the teachings of the Quran. According to
ious leadership in general. The prophetically chosen one was traditional Muslim historiography, the Kharijis emerged predivinely guided, and ready to go into battle against injustice cisely during the reign of the fourth caliph,
Ali, the first
and usurpation. Such a notion of a religious leader became imam of the Shi
a, when they rejected his compromising
the cornerstone of other religious groups and political par- stand in war. They claimed that he had ignored a fundamenties. Mystical schools took on the notion of direct or indirect tal teaching of the Quran by agreeing to negotiate with a
divine assistance, and leaders of political and religious move- usurper, and no longer deserved the allegiance of the Muslim
ments followed the inspiration of its revolutionary apsects. In community. The Kharijis developed another philosophy of

Islam and the Muslim World 585
Religious Institutions

revolution against authority. Unlike the Shi
ite ideas, it har- The boundaries of the community against outsiders were
bored a radical egalitarianism. more clearly drawn, even though not always consistently
applied. The caliphate was justified on the basis of a universal
Standing between the Shi
a and the Khariji, other theo- and expanding empire that engaged the reigning superpowers
logical schools emerged to define the boundaries of Muslim of the day. The Sassanian Empire of the Persians fell early,
identities. The first theological questions emerged directly and the Byzantine Empire was dislodged from its territories
from the issues raised by these early groups. Islamic theology, in Palestine and North Africa. The latter remained a major
for example, asked to what extent the wrongdoing of a adversary and target until its capital, Constantinople, fell in
reigning caliph could be tolerated. From the Shi
a point of 1453. A condition of war between the caliphate and other
view, the absence of a rightful imam was sufficient ground for political orders was accepted as the norm, even though such a
launching a revolt against the caliph, while the Kharijis norm could be temporarily regulated by treaties. The reladeclared that any person guilty of a grave sin should be tionship with other religions followed this political norm.
deposed. Against them, the Mu
tazila argued that such a The expanding caliphate tolerated no polytheistic religious
person did not automatically relinquish his faith and could communities. They had to abandon their religions, and
not be summarily dismissed. But they said that such a person accept Islam. In contrast, Christians and Jews were recogwas suspended between belief and disbelief. The majority of nized as People of the Book and were tolerated in the
the scholars gravitated toward a more accommodationist caliphate order.
position, and argued that grave acts or sins by themselves do
not declare a person a non-Muslim. The theological argu- But still, the caliphate was a political institution driven by
ments were the first political arguments concerning the the interests of those who were able to command power.
identity of the caliph, but it is quite clear that they contrib- Various factions of Arab tribes played a dominant role in the
balance of power during the Umayyad period and the early
uted in no small part to the definition of a Muslim against
Abbasid period, and the history and success of conquest
disbelief. And the early theological debates among Muslims
created significant opportunities for others. The religious
themselves and between Muslims and other religious groups
character of the caliphate was reinforced by the ideological
in the Near East established the boundaries and identity of
claims made by various parties, from the Shi
as who declared
Islam and Muslims.
their support for the divinely inspired leadership of the
The identity of Muslims also raised the issue of the Arabs imams, to the Kharijis who lived by the letter of the Quran.
and Arabic. As Islam spread from Arabia and embraced many The religious element was reinforced through the developdifferent cultures and traditions, it confronted the question of ment of a religious literature on the legacy of the Prophetic
the relationship between Arabs and non-Arabs, and between period. In particular, the compilation of the Quran and the
Arab culture and local languages and cultures. The spread of sayings of the Prophet and his associates provided the foundations for a religious discourse of power, authority, and
Islamic power went hand in hand with Arabization. The first
community. As an institution, then, the political and religious
dynasty of Islam that followed the reign of
Ali, the Umayyads,
elements of the caliphate were not so easily separated. And
played a leading role in ensuring that the Arab nature of the
yet, in spite of the inseparability of the political from the
conquest and its new administration were not lost. Against
religious, the production of a literary tradition provided the
this hegemony of Arab authority, the Islamic impulse favored
basis for the emergence of religious learning (ilm) and its
a greater sense of egalitarianism between Arabs and nonprestige. Those who possessed this knowledge, the ulema,
Arabs. One of the main factors that supported the Abbasid
were distinct from those who wielded power and from the
revolution (750) against the Umayyads was the alliance bemass of followers, even though they did not always form a
tween Arab and non-Arab forces. The victory of the Abbasids
distinctive institution that bound them to each other on the
meant the victory for universalism in the house of Islam. But
public plain. Sometimes one gets the impression that, in the
the position of the Arabs and Arabic was not abandoned. The
earliest period of conquest, those who wielded brute force
Arabic language, as the language of divine revelation par
disdained such men of learning. But the accumulation of
excellence, took on an elevated position in society in general
scholarly tradition could not be ignored in the administration
and in religious scholarship in particular, and became the
of justice, the bureaucracy, and in the general legitimization
lingua franca of aspiring religious teachers and scholars. The of the political order itself.
genius of the Arabs lay not so much in their intrinsic ethnic
worth, but on the role and eminence of the Quran and the In the latter half of the Ummayad and the early part of the
teachings of the prophet Muhammad. Social movements that Abbasid caliphates, the accumulation of the teachings of the
favored anti-Arab sentiments, like the Shu
ubiyya, remained Prophet and the early Muslims began in the important towns
in the society, but could never dislodge the lofty status of the and cities such as Medina, Mecca, Kufa, and Basra. The most
Arabic language as the language of revelation. Legal, exegetical, well known of these teachings were from prominent individuand philological studies emphasized the indispensability of als who later came to be associated with schools of law like
Arabic even while keeping the door open to conversions. Abu Hanifa (d. 767), Malik b. Anas (d. 796), Muhammad b.

586 Islam and the Muslim World
Religious Institutions

Idris al-Shafi
i (d. 820), and Ahmad b. Hanbal (d. 855). Their period, when the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinodiscussions on issues such as criminal justice, evidence, mili- ple and became the model of extensive, but not universal,
tary warfare, and slavery provided the political and social Muslim empires until the emergence of nation-states. As
foundations for the caliphate. At the same time, and of more challengers from religious and political groups were regular
lasting significance, they founded the basic framework for a features of the caliphate, individual caliphs relied more and
religious way of life by defining and specifying the way in more on slave soldiers and generals for their personal rule and
which to fulfill the religious duties in Islam. Theological effective control. The Abbasid revolution unleashed the force
discussions defined the boundaries of belief and membership, of regional powers, particularly in the areas previously conjuridical discussions elaborated the performance of ritual trolled by the Sassanian Empire. From the tenth century
practices, and mystical notions explored religious experience these regions witnessed the emergence of powerful governors
with the Divine. and generals who wielded more power than the central
government. In this same century, challenges to the univer-
Eventually, the apparatus of scholarship inscribed a dis- sality of the institution also became apparent. A rival caliphate
tinct zone of authority that the caliphs and other political was established in the West by survivors of the Umayyad
rulers could not access through the exercise of military family who fled to North Africa and southern Spain. One of
means. One of the most interesting episodes in Abbasid their descendants,
Abd al-Rahman III (912–961), declared
history illustrates the limits of political authority against the himself a caliph in 929, challenging the theory of the single
authority of religious scholarship. In 833, the Abbasid caliph political authority of Baghdad. In contrast, the Shi
a, in spite
Mamun instituted an inquisition (mihna) to force all notable of their differences, were able to rise to prominence. The
scholars to accept the doctrine of the createdness of the Buyids took effective control of Baghdad in 945, even though
Quran as state policy. A celebrated and most popular teacher they did not completely replace the caliph with a recognized
of hadith, Ahmad b. Hanbal, refused to embrace the doctrine. imam. But another Shi
a movement was even more ambi-
The state policy continued for some time after the death of tious. The Fatimids, with the support of Berber clans in
Mamun, but was finally rescinded by al-Mutawakkil (r. North Africa, lay claim to the universal caliphate from Spain
847–861). The event reinforced the authority of the religious to India. They occupied Cairo in 969 and went on to become
scholars and their role in society. Some have seen in this the largest and longest surviving political order until the
episode the divergence of political from religious authority 1170s, when they were defeated by the Seljuks, another group
of Turkish military adventurers. The dominance of regional
in Islam.
powers, and direct religious challenges from the Shi
a both
The caliphate was a religious institution created and helped to lay to rest the effective authority of the universal
established in early Islam. It defined a religious order of caliphate. The rival caliphates from both Sunni (Spanish
power and authority that included the meaning of the self, Andalusian) and Shi
ite (Buyid and Fatimid) claims shook the
community, and the Other. The history of the caliphate institution and myth of the single universal caliphate.
during this period indicates that the precise details of the
The religious elements developed during the early caliphate
order were determined by the historical exigencies of internal
did not completely disappear, but they were transformed in
disputes, and conflict with the Other. The beginnings of the
the context of these new social and political experiences. The
accumulation of the teachings of the Prophet, the Quran,
idea of a universal community of believers (umma) persisted
and the legacy of the earliest Muslim community provided
through the political breakdown of the empire, but a political
the scholarly foundations for these conceptions, which by unity became impossible. The place and role of the Quran
themselves were not always presented in one fully developed and the prophet Muhammad reinforced this unity and this
theory. In general, however, the caliphate bequeathed to identity on social, religious, and commercial levels. More-
Muslims the idea of a universal egalitarian community (umma) over, the foundation of the religious discourse during the
with a special place for the Arabic language and the family of caliphate was now employed in the production of new instituthe Prophet; an expanding political order and hegemony over tions. The juridical, theological, and mystical ideas that
Jews, Christians, and other recognized religious communi- emerged during the late Umayyad and Abbasid periods were
ties; complete dominance over polytheistic communities; and developed, and slowly produced institutions like the schools
a religious authority based on knowledge of the revelations of law and theology, and mystical orders. It is precisely the
received by the prophet Muhammad. latter institutions that were a dominant feature of the Middle
Period of Islam. The caliphate gave way to more clearly
The Middle Period definable religious institutions that expressed the emotions,
The universal caliphate faced daunting challenges from the attitudes, and behaviors of Muslims.
outset, and finally collapsed as an effective political authority.
The middle period refers to the time when the caliphs lost Before elaborating on the religious institutions of the legal
effective power to regional authorities until the modern schools (madhhab) and the Sufi orders (tariqas), a brief note on
period. One can also point to 1453 as a quasi midpoint of this the political situation is essential. In comparison with the

Islam and the Muslim World 587
Religious Institutions

caliphs, the governors and generals who wielded power in the Abu Hanifa, Malik b. Anas, al-Shafi
i, and Ahmad b. Hanbal.
Middle Period were less justified through religious theology. Genealogies of students linking the founders were formu-
In light of the early conceptions of the caliphate, they would lated, founding texts and commentaries identified, more or
simply be regarded as usurpers. But scholarly articulation of less coherent theories outlined, and positions were founded
the political order recognized and accepted the realpolitick on against others. Makdisi has shown how the practice of comthe ground, and provided some space and recognition for mentaries and notation on earlier works played a leading role
these adventurers. One of the most significant theorists to in the development of consensus within each of the schools.
take up this task was the Baghdadian al-Mawardi (d. 1058), The schools were in no small measure supported by the
whose work on the caliphate has been widely acclaimed. He foundation of the madrasa, a school established to teach one
recognized the new realities of the political space, and tried to or another school of law. The first to introduce the madrasa as
articulate justice as an organizing principle for public and an institution for teaching were the Shi
a, but it quickly
private life. The new rulers may come to power by virtue of became a distinct way of consolidating and promoting the
their strength, according to al-Mawardi, but they were duty- teachings of Sunni schools as well. The madrasa did not
bound to uphold justice in their realms. The sharia, as replace the networks around individual teachers, but proelaborated by the religious scholars, played an important role vided a basis for their further consolidation. In Sunni Islam,
in the administration of justice, apart from its more signifi- then, the four schools of law took their shape during the
cant role of outlining more personal religious duties. Al- Middle Period. It was also this period that saw the consolida-
Mawardi emphasized the requirement for justice in their tion of Shi
ism as a rival scholarly vision of Islam, as the
political behavior (siyasa). Such theories did not always tem- foundation of a complete political order, or as a school of law,
per the political ambitions of the men of power, but they theology, and mysticism.
provided a new model of political life.
In addition to the schools of law, this period also witnessed
In light of such a broad justification, the generals and the emergence of Sufi orders (tariqas). Like the schools of
rulers often obtained support from one of the schools of law, law, the earliest ideas on mystical life had also emerged in the
theology, or mystical orders. Buyid support for Shi
ite teach- early caliphate. With the Middle Period, Sufi ideas were
ings was followed by a series of Sunni-inclined rulers. The similarly consolidated. Compendia were compiled, biogra-
Seljukid and Ayyubid rulers were prominent examples who phies (or hagiographies) were collected of the early Sufis, and
promoted Sunni Islamic thought and life. In this period, then, in the twelfth century, the first order was developed
perhaps as a result of their lesser religious roles, the generals around the teachings of
Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (d. 1166) of
were more inclined to shore their regimes with the support of Baghdad. A highly respected and popular preacher, al-Jilani
religious tendencies. They supported the building of schools introduced a large number of people to the simple insights of
for legal and theological groups, and also embarked upon Sufi experience. His order has become the most widespread
extensive architectural projects of mosques, mausoleums, and in the Muslim world, and many others have followed it in
Sufi lodges. Mottahedeh’s analysis has suggested that support form. The orders in general grew out of the strong relationfor the religious projects was not motivated only by insecu- ship between a Sufi teacher and his disciple, and the additional
rity, or deep religious feelings and convictions. He argued rites prescribed to experience God through remembrance
that in this period the system of land grants (iqta) to gover- (dhikr).
nors and soldiers made this the most important means of
acquiring and cultivating land. In this context, pious endow- But both legal schools and Sufi orders exemplified the
ments (waqf) made by wealthy and political elites created a chief religious institutions in this period. Both the school of
relatively autonomous space that escaped these land grants, law (madhhab) and Sufi order (tariqa) became complementary
and were therefore favored by wealthy patrons of religious ways of being a Muslim in the Middle Period. Not every
life in general, and religious institutions in particular. Through Muslim would belong to a Sufi order as they would adopt a
the waqf then, religious practices were granted a degree of school or a jurist, but Sufism became a prevalent badge of
autonomy and independence in a period of often-great mili- identity as well. The legal school and tariqa were the promitary conflict. nent institutions that gave shape to religious life in the
Middle Period. Both assumed the presence of a political
As mentioned already, Islamic juridical thought origi- authority that supported Islamic law, even though not always
nated early during the caliphate. Shi
ite imams and other very consistently. But the legal schools and the orders gave
teachers started outlining rules and conditions for the per- shape to the religious spheres that were created in the early
formance of personal religious duties and the application of caliphate.
public law. During the Middle Period, the elaboration and
articulation of legal theory and practices continued. But now Modern Period
distinct identities emerged around prominent scholars and The next major transformation of religious institutions octheir students. In Sunni Islam, the Middle Period witnessed curred with the impact of Western (European) hegemony.
the consolidation of four legal schools, linking themselves to The armies of the generals and the sultans first lost to the

588 Islam and the Muslim World
Religious Institutions

Europeans on the battlefields, followed by direct occupation in the legal systems of the new states. But the central idea of
and widespread cultural and political influence. This latest the modern state is not rejected, and the greater degree of
period of Islamic history has also spawned its unique institu- instrumentalization of religion in the state is not questioned.
tions, continuing from the past in some sense and inventing By and large, the idea of the Islamic state is a marriage
new features in the new political contexts. between the modern state and the sultanates of the Middle
Period. The modern Muslim state, advocating a greater or
In the central lands of Islam (the Ottoman sultanate, Iran, lesser degree of Islamization, is a unique religious institution.
and Egypt) the modern period witnessed an intense conflict It is neither completely free from the influence of traditional
between the political rulers and the ulema. The former Islamic patterns and institutions, the caliphate and the legal
wanted to modernize the state and society as quickly as schools, nor from modern notions of state. So far the first and
possible in order to emulate and compete with the Western most successful of such states has been the Islamic Republic of
powers that were defeating them on the battlefields, while the Iran (established 1979).
latter regarded most of these changes as a direct threat to
their own positions in society and to Islam as a way of life. In But the modern period has also given rise to a different
the nineteenth century, individual religious scholars sup- kind of religious institution in Islam. Such institutions are a
ported some aspects of modernization, and promoted some product of secular states, and are most clearly noticeable in
form of reformist interpretation of Islam. But the ulema as a countries of minority Muslim contexts such as India, Africa
class of scholars lost their unique place in the new political south of the Sahara, and more recently Europe and America.
orders. Sometimes they were violently suppressed in the In the secular context, religion is relatively free from direct
process, and the pious foundations over which they main- state influence, and vice versa. In such conditions, Muslims
tained control and through which they enjoyed some inde- have established anew or transformed their mosques, schools,
pendence were confiscated or nationalized. In varying degrees, pious endowments, and burial grounds into more indepenwhat emerged in the modern period was a political space dent religious institutions. The development of these instituoccupied entirely by generals, rulers, and later politicians. tions has been closely tied with local historical contexts, but
has drawn on resources and patterns of autonomy in the
In this context, the state in Islamic society was trans- Middle Period of Islam. More recently, with the emergence
formed into a powerful entity that controlled all aspects of of new technologies of communication (the radio, Internet,
life, including religion. Religion, in this case Islam, became and satellite), such independent institutions have proliferan instrument to bring about change and modernization, and ated. Once their role in secular pluralist societies is identified,
to keep the incumbents in power. With its long history of they become easily recognized in Muslim majority countries
religious politics, the new state could employ symbols and as well. Such institutions are not always easily visible in
instruments to further its goals. And yet the new state was majority Muslim states, but they play an important role in the
neither a continuation of the caliphate nor the military practice of Muslims. Only the political control and monopsultanates of the Middle Period. The new state accepted the oly of Islam in the modern state prevents their explosive
rights, privileges, boundaries, and limitations of a modern proliferation.
state, and, like other modern states, it used religion for its
particular political purposes. The new state could be a mon- See also Arabic Language; Empires: Abbasid; Empires:
archy based on the prestige of the family of the Prophet Sassanian; Empires: Umayyad;
Ibadat; Identity, Mus-
(Jordan and Morocco) or a revivalist religious movement lim; Islam and Islamic; Khirqah; Khutba; Masjid; Mate-
(Saudi Arabia), a socialist or capitalist one-party state (Iraq, rial Culture.
Syria, and Egypt), or a secular republic based on universal
suffrage (Turkey). In spite of their diversity, the acceptance of BIBLIOGRAPHY
the modern state system, and the instrumentalization of Islam Crecelius, Daniel. “The Course of Secularization in Modern
for legitimacy, united them. Egypt.” In Islam and Development: Religion and Sociopolitical
Change. Edited by J. L. Esposito. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse
In the second half of the twentieth century, most of the University Press, 1980.
states witnessed opposition movements that demanded a Crone, Patricia, and Hinds, Martin. God’s Caliph: Religious
greater degree of Islamization. But the opposing positions Authority in the First Centuries of Islam. Cambridge, U.K.:
have not been based so much on the absence of religion in the Cambridge University Press, 1986.
modern states, but on their inappropriate practice and inter- Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and
pretation. So, the demand for an Islamic state to replace the History in a World Civilization. Chicago: University Press
older modern state is based on a more complete adoption of of Chicago, 1974.
Islamic teachings in both the state and society. In particular, Lapidus, Ira M. Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages. 1967.
there is a demand that the sharia developed by the legal Reprint. Cambridge, U.K.: Press Syndicate of the Universchools in the Middle Period play a central and dominant role sity of Cambridge, 1984.

Islam and the Muslim World 589
Republican Brothers

Makdisi, George. The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in BIBLIOGRAPHY
Islam and the West. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University An-Naim, Abdullahi Ahmed. “Introduction.” In The Second
Press, 1981. Message of Islam. Edited by Mahmoud Mohamed Taha.
Martin, Richard C. “Public Aspects of Theology in Medieval Translated by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im. Syracuse,
Islam: The Role of Kalam in Conflict Definition and N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1987.
Resolution.” Journal for Islamic Studies 13 (November
1993): 77–100.
John O. Voll
Mikhail, Hanna. Politics and Revelation: Mawardi and After.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995.
Mottahedeh, Roy P. Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic
Society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980. REVOLUTION
Starrett, Gregory. Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics,
and Religious Transformation in Egypt. Berkeley: University
CLASSICAL ISLAM
of California Press, 1998. Saïd A. Arjomand
Zaman, Muhammad Qasim. The Making of a Religious Discourse: An Essay in the History and Historiography of the ISLAMIC REVOLUTION IN IRAN
Kristian P. Alexander
Abbasid Revolution. Research Monograph Series, vol. 5.
Islamabad: International Institute of Islamic Thought; MODERN
Islamic Research Institute, 1995. Saïd A. Arjomand
Zaman, Muhammad Qasim. Religion and Politics Under the
Early Abbasids: The Emergence of the Proto-Sunni Elite.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997. CLASSICAL ISLAM
The concept that comes closest to revolution in early Islam is
Abdulkader Tayob fitna (civil strife), used in reference to three civil wars that
occurred in the first 125 years of Islamic history. The first
civil war (556–561) began with the murder of the third caliph,

Uthman, and ended after the assassination of the fourth
REPUBLICAN BROTHERS caliph,
Ali. Its consequence was the transfer of the caliphate
to Mu
awiya, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty. The
The Republican Brothers is a Sudanese organization advosecond fitna (680–692) began after the death of Mu
awiya and
cating Islamic reformation that follows the teachings of
ended with the victory of the Marwanid branch of his dynasty.
Mahmud Muhammad Taha (d. 1985). Taha originally estab-
The third civil war began within the Umayyad dynasty, with
lished a small political party advocating Sudanese indepenthe rebellion of Yazid III against Walid II in 744, and
dence in 1945, but following a profound religious experience
continued until the defeat of Marwan II and the overthrow of
in 1951, he gradually transformed the Republican Party into a
the Umayyads by the Abbasids in 750. The rise of the
reformist brotherhood. Taha called for a comprehensive
Abbasids was viewed as a new turn (dawla) in power. That
rethinking of the nature of Islamic law, giving emphasis to
term, dawla, came to mean the state as the Abbasid rule
gender equality and religious pluralism, and a new vision of
what Islamic society should be. This vision came to be called continued for centuries. Modern scholarship concurs that
“The Second Message of Islam.” The Republican Brothers this change of dynasty in the mid-eighth century was of
were not politically activist. They did not establish a political fundamental importance and generally refers to it as the
party during the eras of parliamentary politics in Sudan Abbasid revolution.
(1956–1958, 1964–1969, 1985–1989) and were not active in
If revolution is taken to mean a fundamental change in the
opposition to the military regimes. However, in 1983 Taha
political order and its social base, then the rise of Islam itself
opposed the imposition of a form of Islamic law by the
can be considered a revolution. The rise of Islam (622–632)
military regime of President Ja
far al-Numayri, a position for
was primarily a religious revolution that saw itself as the
which he was executed in 1985. Although the Republican
realization of Messianism, but it entailed a political revolu-
Brothers became organizationally weak following the execution
tion in Arabia and immediate expansion into the Roman and
of their leader, Taha’s teachings gained increasing visibility
Persian empires. Muhammad succeeded in creating a unified
among Muslims around the world. The leading representacommunity and state out of the segmentary tribal society of
tive of this school of thought is Abdullahi An-Naim, one of
Arabia. He mobilized those who accepted Islam as a new
Taha’s students who, as an expatriate, developed Taha’s
monotheistic religion for “struggle (jihad) in the path of
thinking further and became a prominent Muslim scholar in
the field of human rights and international law. God,” and unified the refractory tribes of Arabia on the basis
of the acceptance of his Prophecy. Immediately upon com-
See also Modernity; Reform: Arab Middle East and pleting the unification of Arabia after his death, his succes-
North Africa. sors, the caliphs, redirected the energy the Prophet had thus

590 Islam and the Muslim World
Revolution

mobilized, turning their attention toward the conquest of the Mahdi, Muhammad b.
Abdallah b. al-Hasan, finally rose
Byzantine and Persian empires. The result of their efforts was under the latter’s leadership in 762, but their rebellion was
the exportation of Islam and its gradual spread through vast suppressed with much bloodshed.
conquered lands, from North Africa to Central Asia and
northern India. Effects of the Abbasid Revolution
The Abbasid revolution was the social revolution of Islam,
The subject populations of these conquered lands were and created a more integrated polity defined in terms of
converted to Islam only very gradually. Under the Umayyads Islam. The subject populations became integrated into the
(660–750), the Muslim empire remained an Arab empire. Abbasid Empire as Muslims in their own right, and no longer
The non-Arabs who converted to Islam became the clients lived as disprivileged clients of the Arabs. The Abbasid
(mawali) of the Arabs, and did not have a share in political caliphs embarked on an empirewide recruitment of the new
power. As the number of people in the client class grew in the political elite from the local notable families as well as the
second quarter of the eighth century, so did their demand for Arab tribal aristocracy, and opened their bureaucracy more
equal treatment as fellow believers in Islam. A movement widely to Iranians and Nestorian Christians. Military careers
with this as its aim gained momentum among the converts of were opened to Iranian and, later, Turkish converts. Non-
Islam in Khurasan and Central Asia, whose adherents later Arab Muslims were not only integrated into the Abbasid
became known as the Murji
a, but in fact called themselves imperial administration and armies but also fully participated
“the people for equality.” in the cultural elaboration of Islam as a universalist religion of
salvation, making major contributions to the collection of the
The Shi
ite sects took advantage of the discontent among traditions of the Prophet (hadith) and the development of
the mawali to form underground revolutionary organizations Islamic law, and even to the development of the Arabic
on behalf of different branches of the House of the Prophet, language as Islam’s lingua franca.
raising these as alternatives to the ruling Umayyads. These
After the second civil war, which ended in 692, the
clandestine revolutionaries made messianic claims for their
caliphate had gradually been transformed from a regime of
leaders as the Mahdi, the reviver of religion and redeemer of
patriarchal rule over a coalition of nomadic conquerors into
the world. They remained united, however, by not naming
an imperial government employing Arab-speaking clients
their messianic leader. Rather, he was anonymously referred
into its bureaucracy. This process was completed after the
to as the one to be agreed upon (al-rida) from the House of
Abbasid revolution, and an elaborate central government
Muhammad.
emerged, divided into a number of departments (diwans): a
The Shi
ites favored the House of
Ali (the Prophet’s son- chancery, an imperial postal and inspection service, and
in law) and were mostly active in Medina and Kufa. But the taxation and army bureaus, each functioning under a wazir.
party of the House of
Abbas (the Prophet’s uncle) began Thus, like modern social revolutions, the Abbasid revolution
proselytizing in Khurasan. The Abbasid leader, Abu Muslim, resulted in the centralization of administration and concenbegan his open rebellion in Khurasan while the Umayyad tration of power, inaugurating an era of caliphal absolutism.
Empire was torn by an internecine civil war after a period of
See also Assassins; Empires: Abbasid; Empires: Umayyad;
military overextension in North Africa. An army recruited by
Fitna; Shi
a: Early; Succession.
Abu Muslim defeated the governor of Khurasan and several
Umayyad armies in Iran, and, finally, the last Umayyad
BIBLIOGRAPHY
caliph, Marwan II, near the river Zab in northern Mesopotamia
in 750. The Khurasanian army proceeded to Kufa, brought Humphreys, R. S. Islamic History: A Framework of Inquiry.
Rev. ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
the Abbasid family out of hiding, and proclaimed one of
them, Abu ’l-
Abbas
Abd Allah b. Muhammad, the new Lapidus, I. M. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge, U.K.:
caliph over the objection of the Kufan revolutionary elite. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
The revolutionary power struggle continued under Abu ’l- Wellhausen, J. The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall. Beirut:

Abbas (750–754), and the real consolidation of Abbasid Khayyats, 1963.
power took place under his brother and successor, Abu Ja
far,
who later assumed the title of al-Mansur (754–775). Saïd A. Arjomand

The first step in the consolidation of Abbasid power was ISLAMIC REVOLUTION IN IRAN
the elimination of Abu Muslim, in 755. Then came Abu The Iranian Revolution, which occurred between 1978 and
Ja
far’s break with Shi
ism and his other former revolutionary 1979, has been called the last major revolution of the twentipartners. Descendants of the House of
Ali were not only eth century. It marked the end of the rule of monarch Reza
excluded from power but also persecuted. Abu Ja
far’s former Shah Pahlevi and the beginning of the establishment of a
allies, who claimed he had in fact pledged allegiance to their theocratic state in Iran. It was urban based, meaning that

Islam and the Muslim World 591
Revolution

During the Iranian Revolution of 1978–1979, mass demonstrations rather than a concerted military effort brought the end of the rule of
monarch Reza Shah Pahlavi. Here, with posters of the Ayatollah Khomeini (who replaced the shah after the Revolution), the Iranian army
shows its solidarity with street protesters. GETTY IMAGES

many of the revolutionary groups were from the city and not shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlevi, maintained total control
peasants from the periphery. The main political instruments over the Majlis (national assembly), the cabinet, the bureauthat brought down the shah’s regime were strikes and mass cracy, and Iran’s political parties. Restricted freedom, arbidemonstrations and not a concerted military action. Although trary decisions, and political repression by the Ministry of
the overarching ideology of the revolution was that of Shi
ite Security (known as SAVAK), as well as widespread corrup-
Islam cloaked in third-world sentiments, it was in actuality a tion, cronyism, and bureaucratic inefficiency, are all cited by
multiclass coalition of widely disparate groups, from liberal many observers as the ultimate forces that finally led to the
nationalists to Islamic radicals, that finally overthrew the downfall of the shah.
shah. The anti-shah movement was also largely detached
from the international context, with little direct military or In addition, the Pahlevi dynasty’s claim to legitimacy was
political support from outside Iran. The Iranian Revolution irreparably damaged after the August 1953 coup, which was
was so spontaneous and unexpected that it took many ana- organized by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and
lysts and observers by surprise. In fact, as late as August British intelligence, overthrew the democratically elected
and September of 1978, U.S. intelligence reports still indi- government of then–prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq
cated that opposition groups did not pose a threat to the and reinstalled the young shah to the throne. In the midshah’s regime. 1970s, human rights organizations and the Western press
started a campaign against violations of human rights in Iran
The Failure of the Pahlevi Regime and criticized the shah for the mistreatment of political
The shah’s autocratic rule is widely viewed to be an important prisoners. The administration of U.S. president Jimmy Carter
factor contributing to the rise of revolutionary action. The sought to compel the shah to be more observant of human

592 Islam and the Muslim World
Revolution

rights, but hoped to avoid destabilizing Iran or jeopardizing government under the leadership of the faqih, or Muslim
the close ties between the two countries. Responding to jurist. In the early 1970s, Khomeini moved to Paris, which
increasing criticism, the shah decided to permit a limited had a growing population of Iranian expatriots. There he
amount of public discourse. Unfortunately, the public per- gathered other exiled opposition leaders around him.
ceived the shah’s liberalization process as a sign of weakness.
Further exacerbating the situation was the shah’s massive Two social groups were very much disaffected by the
modernization program (the so-called White Revolution of shah’s rule/policies, the bazaaris (merchants) and the ulema.
1962) and his embrace of westernization, both of which These established close ties with one another, and proved to
alienated large parts of Iranian society. The White Revolu- be a formidable alliance, in which the bazaaris provided
tion embodied a variety of economic and social initiatives, financial support to the ulema through the payment of tithes.
including land reform, public ownership of industries, In return for this financial support, the religious community
enfranchisement of women, profit-sharing for workers, and a provided the leadership and organizational backbone for the
literacy corps to implement compulsory education in rural antigovernment alliance.
areas. However, it was opposed by landowners, who were
afraid that they would lose the main source of their wealth, Iran’s estimated 8,000 mosques provided an efficient naand by the ulema, who were alarmed by the spread of secular tionwide communication network. The mosques served as
education and the propagation of anti-Islamic values. centers for dissent, political organization, agitation, and sanctuary. In this context, revolutionary Shi
ite Islam was rapidly
Heedless of his subjects’ growing dissatisfaction, the shah transformed into a discursive ideology that transcended class
set forth to westernize Iranian society, patterning it along differences and social divisions and provided an effective
American lines. This process of the Americanization of Ira- channel of communication between dissident leaders and
nian society was undertaken with the help of American their followers. When the shah’s minister of information
planners. Military personnel and U.S. advisors were granted planted an article in a daily newspaper attacking Khomeini
legal latitude so broad as to constitute personal immunity and attempting to discredit him, protesting religious students
from prosecution. The shah failed to realize that his plans for in Qom staged sit-ins, which in turn led to violent repression
modernization, intended to foster a political environment from the shah. Some time later, several hundred demonstracapable of sustaining the nation’s political and economic tors were killed during the government suppression of nongrowth, neglected to recognize the importance of religion violent protests, an event that came to be known as the “Black
and culture in Iranian society. Friday massacre” and “Jahleh square massacre.”

The Rise of the Ayatollah The deaths of the demonstrators were used to inspire a
The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini denounced the shah’s further round of protests. Mourning processions were staged
modernization program, focusing his attacks on the new to commemorate the protestors, hailing them as heroes and
electoral law enfranchising women and the referendum that martyrs. Ayatollah Khomeini himself was viewed by many as
endorsed the White Revolution. He declared the new elec- the charismatic leader and provided the inspiration for the
toral law un-Islamic and the referendum unconstitutional. revolutionary movement. He was one of half a dozen Shi
ite
Khomeini called upon his followers to protest, leading to the marja-e taqlid (source of emulation), a position that permitriots that erupted in 1963, but such public demonstrations ted him to widely publicize his views, but it was his pre-exile
were brutally crushed by the shah. Khomeini was arrested vehemence against the shah that garnered him his most
and detained in Tehran for two months. In late 1964, when fervent followers. Indeed, his vehement political stand against
the shah extended diplomatic immunity to his American the shah, which led to his exile in 1964. Khomeini was also
military advisors, Khomeini accused the ruler of betraying credited with expounding the theory of government that
Iran and endangering Islam. claimed that during the Mahdi’s absence the community
could only be governed by a velayat-e faqih. He could be the
This time Khomeini was deported to Turkey, from where only person to execute God’s will on behalf of the Hidden
he subsequently moved to the holy city of Najaf, in Iraq. In his Imam, an agency with the mandate to rule both politically
years in exile he continued to attack the shah’s policies, and spiritually. His conceptual reformulation of the origidenounced the whole institution of monarchy, confronted nally quietist precept was innovative.
the religious establishment through a series of lectures condemning the ulema as apolitical, and organized his growing Postrevolutionary Government
cadre of supporters. It was during those years that he pro- Although antimodernization and anti-Western sentiment
duced his most famous handbook, Velayat-e faqih hokumat-e played an important role in the downfall of the Pahlevi
Islami (The jurist’s guardianship: Islamic government), in dynasty, economic factors were also important. Industrial
which he argued that the shah’s monarchy was incompatible development did take place in Iran, but it proceeded very
with Islam and that true Muslims must strive for an Islamic unevenly and was dependent on the state, oil revenues, and

Islam and the Muslim World 593
Revolution

external technology. The oil sector expanded or contracted
primarily in response to the world market, rather than to
domestic economic needs. Partially as a result of this, Iran
experienced a phase of hyperinflation, growing unemployment, a rising cost of living, and an erosion of business
confidence. All of this resulted in a decline in private investment and in massive capital flight, totaling more than $100
million a month in 1975 and 1976. Strikes by oil workers and
bank employees further devastated the economy of the
shah’s regime.

In the aftermath of the revolution, the political situation
was inflamed by the struggle between secular and religious
forces, by the existence of rival bases of power, and the
emergence of autonomous revolutionary organizations. As
the central state disintegrated, local, self-appointed committees (komitehs) were formed to carry out the basic tasks of
security and administration. In February 1979, revolutionary
tribunals staffed by religious judges were set up to pass
sentence on former officials of the shah’s regime, as well as on
private individuals who were accused of counterrevolutionary
activities. In May 1979, Khomeini ordered the formation of
the Pasdaran, an armed force that was distinct from the
regular army and deployed against opponents of the revolution. In an attempt to provide an organizational structure to
the ideology of the Islamic revolution, a group of ayatollahs
close to Khomeini formed the Islamic Republic Party (IRP)
in mid-1979. The IRP sought to mobilize popular support for
the Islamic Republic and to discredit the secular moderates.
An effigy of the Statue of Liberty in a demonstration in Tehran
The religious forces, led by Khomeini, used political during a 2002 rally to mark the twenty-third anniversary of Iran’s
Islamic Revolution. Tens of thousands of Iranians gathered to
maneuvering, propaganda, and terror to eliminate all opposi- protest repeated US condemnations of their country. GETTY IMAGES
tion. The Mujahedin-e Khalq (an anticlerical opposition organization) were forced underground, and members of the
Tudeh Party (Labor-Communist Party) and the Fedayin-e
to screen and, if necessary, modify all legislation issued from
Islam (Devotees of Islam, a religio-political organization)
the Majlis before passing it on to the faqih for his approval,
were either jailed or executed. Throughout this period of
and to ensure that all candidates for Iran’s newly established
consolidation, clerics and their supporters effectively elimipresidency possessed the proper Islamic credentials. It is the
nated the secular nationalist faction and other opponents to
faqih and the Majlis that select the members of the council.
their rule. The chaotic postrevolutionary situation was ulti-
The first presidential and legislative elections were held in
mately clarified by a national referendum on the future of
early 1980, and again resulted in sweeping victories for
Iran that resulted in an overwhelming victory for Khomeini’s Khomeini’s handpicked candidates.
vision of an Islamic Republic. Elections for a Constituent
Assembly charged with drafting a constitution for the Islamic See also Imamate; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Khomeini,
Republic were also won by Khomeini’s supporters and fur- Ruhollah; Majlis; Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi;
ther consolidated the authority of the religious forces. The Velayat-e Faqih.
resultant constitution institutionalized the principle of the
velayat-e faqih (rule by a supreme religious leader). The BIBLIOGRAPHY
constitution also created a 270-seat Majlis to write and pass Arjomand, Said Amir. The Turban for the Crown. Oxford:
new laws subject to the faqih’s (that is, Khomeini’s) approval. Oxford University Press, 1988.
The Assembly of Experts—an elected body of seventy to Milani, Mohsen M. The Making of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.
eighty eminent Islamic scholars—was made responsible for From Monarchy to Islamic Republic. 2d ed. Boulder, Colo.:
such high matters of state as revising the constitution and Westview Press, 1994.
selecting a successor to the faqih. A twelve-member Council
of Guardian, selected by the faqih and the Majlis, was created Kristian P. Alexander

594 Islam and the Muslim World
Revolution

MODERN 1950s, and in Yemen, Libya, and the Sudan in the 1960s,
Modern revolutions are generally viewed as part of the proclaiming them to be revolutions. These events became
process of political modernization. Although marking a break- understood as a revolutionary wave washing across the Arab
down in the process of state-building and constituting a world, and were primarily motivated by Arab nationalism. Of
radical rupture with the past, they are often caused by obsta- these regime changes by the military, the two cases with the
cles in the path of political modernization and can result in strongest claim to being considered modern revolutions are
far-reaching political transformation. The first wave of mod- the July 1952 revolution in Egypt and the July 1958 revoluern revolutions in the Islamic world occurred in the first tion in Iraq, both of which overthrew monarchies and estabdecade of the twentieth century, in reaction to the suspension lished republics.
or frustration of the attempts at political reform.
Army officers were among the first groups to receive a
Early-Twentieth-Century Constitutional Revolutions modern, Westernized education in the Middle East. Imbued
Popular agitation for reform in Iran began in 1905, and with ideas of nationalism and modernization of the state, they
forced the shah to order elections for a parliament and to were considered “intellectuals in uniform” in the 1950s. In
grant Iran a constitution in 1906. It is therefore appropriately July 1952, a group of Egyptian officers of the rank of colonel
called the “Constitutional Revolution.” The ailing Mozaffar or below, who called themselves the Free Officers, overthrew
al-Din Shah died shortly after signing the constitution at the the ruling monarchy of the descendants of Muhammad
Ali
end of December 1906. No sooner had the second part of the (1804–1841). They proclaimed a republic and named a reconstitution (the Supplementary Fundamental Law) taken spected army general its president. The real power, however,
effect in October 1907 than serious trouble began between was in the hands of the leader of the Free Officers, Col. Jamal
the constitutionalists and his successor. The Shi
ite religious
Abd al-Nasser (1918–1970), who abolished all political parleaders had been prominent in mobilizing popular agitation ties in 1953 and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood in 1954.
for the constitution, but were split when the secularizing In its place he created the Liberation Rally, followed by the
implications of parliamentary legislation became clear to National Union in 1956, which became the Arab Socialist
them. The young Muhammad
Ali Shah formed an alliance Union after Nasser’s adoption of socialism as the ideology of
with the Shi
ite traditionalists, suspended the constitution, the Egyptian state in 1961. Nasser immediately championed
and restored autocratic rule in 1908. Constitutional govern- pan-Arab nationalism, which became so closely identified
ment was restored, however, after his defeat and ouster in with him that it was sometimes called “Nasserism.” He
July 1909. succeeded in bringing about a United Arab Republic, to
which Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya adhered for brief peri-
The Turkish revolution of 1908 was also the result of a ods. The war against Israel in 1967 was primarily justified in
constitutionalist movement, this time led by the Young Turks terms of Arab nationalism, and the defeat of the Arab coaliand organized by their Committee of Union and Progress. It tion was taken as a clear signal of its failure and of the failure
began with scattered revolts of military units led by army of socialism as a modernizing ideology.
officers who belonged to the movement. They ultimately
forced Sultan
Abd al-Hamid (1842–1918) to restore the In July 1958, the Iraqi Free Officers overthrew the
Ottoman Constitution of 1876, after a thirty-year gap. The Hashimite monarchy that had been established under the
Committee of Union and Progress won a decisive majority in British protectorate in 1921. They declared Iraq a republic,
the parliamentary elections of that year. In April 1909, with General
Abd al-Karim Qasim (1914–1963) as its prime
however, the sultan instigated an abortive counterrevolution- minister. The revolution set in motion an intense competiary uprising in Istanbul among traditionalist religious stu- tion for popular mobilization between the Iraqi Communist
dents and officers who had been purged from the old army Party and the pan-Arab Ba
th Party. This competition culmicorps. This uprising, similar to the traditional counterrevolu- nated in an insurrection that brought the Ba
th party into
tion in Iran a year earlier, ultimately failed, and the sultan was power in February 1963, and General Qasim was executed
deposed in favor of his brother. The Young Turks amended that year.
the constitution and strengthened the power of parliament,
and remained in power until the end of the First World War Nationalism was the defining feature of the Egyptian and
in 1918. During their tenure, however, they carried out a Iraqi revolutions, and it was most clearly reflected in the
program of administrative reform and military modernization. foreign policies of these countries. The idea of social reform
was not absent, and both regimes carried out land reforms.
The Arab World After the Second World War The main impact of the respective revolutions on their
The modern revolutions of the Arab Middle East occurred economies and societies was, however, the result of the
after the end of the Second World War. Following the adoption of socialism and a wave of nationalizations in Egypt
fashion of the time, especially in Latin America, military in 1961, and the coming to power of the Ba
th Party in
officers carried out coups d’état in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq in the Iraq in 1963.

Islam and the Muslim World 595
Reza Shah

The Iranian Experiment War. In October 1923 he became Prime Minister. He organ-
The most important revolution in the twentieth-century ized the deposition of the reigning monarch, Ahmad Shah
Middle East, and the one with the greatest social and interna- Qajar, and ascended the throne in April 1926.
tional impact, was the Islamic revolution of 1979 in Iran.
Although it fits the pattern of revolution as part of the process Immediately after the coup, Reza Khan began the task of
of modernization of the state, its unique feature was the constructing a modern army and, using this army, he then
replacement of Islam for constitutionalism, nationalism, and proceeded to suppress the autonomy of the tribes and the
socialism as the ideology of revolutionary transformation. regional magnates, later he adopted a policy of enforced
sedentarization of the nomadic tribes. In the late 1920s, a
See also Modernization, Political: Constitutionalism; number of radical, centralizing reforms were introduced,
Reform: Arab Middle East and North Africa; Revolu- including the secularization of the judicial system, as well as a
tion: Islamic Revolution in Iran; Young Turks. series of etatiste economic measures. In 1935, following a
visit to Ataturk’s Turkey, he banned female veiling.
BIBLIOGRAPHY The regime that was headed by the semiliterate Reza Shah
Afary, J. The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911. became increasingly authoritarian and finally dictatorial. His
New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. brutality, which included the murder of many of his closest
Arjomand, S. A. The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolu- supporters, and his mania for land acquisition, through which
tion in Iran. New York: Oxford University Press, l988. he had become the largest landowner in the country, made his
Batatu, H. The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Move- regime increasingly unpopular. He was unable to preserve his
ments of Iraq. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University country’s independence after the outbreak of the Second
Press, 1978. World War, and on 25 August 1941 British and Soviet armies
Godron, J. Nasser’s Blessed Moment. Egypt’s Free Officers and invaded Iran. On 16 September he was obliged to abdicate in
the July Revolution. New York: Oxford University order to secure the succession for his son. Reza Shah went
Press, 1991. into exile in South Africa.
Kansu, A. The Revolution of 1908 in Turkey. Leiden: E. J.
See also Modernization, Political: Authoritarianism and
Brill, 1997.
Democratization.
Sharabi, H. Nationalism and Revolution in the Arab World. New
York: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1966.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sohrabi, N. “Historicizing Revolutions: Constitutional Revolu-
Cronin, Stephanie. The Army and the Creation of the Pahlavi
tions in the Ottoman Empire, Iran, and Russia, 1905–1908.”
State in Iran. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1997.
American Journal of Sociology 100, no. 6 (1995): 1383–1447.

Stephanie Cronin
Saïd A. Arjomand

RIBA
REZA SHAH (1878–1944)
Of all the economic proscriptions in the Quran, the most
Shah Reza Khan was the founder and first shah of the Pahlavi controversial has been the ban on riba, the pre-Islamic lenddynasty of Iran. The exact date of his birth is uncertain but has ing practice held responsible for pushing destitute Arab
been fixed officially as 16 March 1878. He died in exile in borrowers into enslavement. According to some early Mus-
South Africa on 26 July 1944. lims, this ban was meant to cover all interest, regardless of
form, context, or magnitude; for others, the ban’s intended
Reza was born into a family of modest means in Alasht in scope was limited to exorbitant interest charges. Although
Mazandaran, Iran, and joined the Russian-officered Iranian the restrictive definition triumphed, as a matter of practice
Cossack Brigade. In 1920 the British officer Major-General the giving and taking of interest continued, at times through
Sir Edmund Ironside organized the removal of the Russian the use of legal ruses (hiyal), often more or less openly.
officers and placed Reza Khan in command of the Iranian
cossacks at Qazvin. From Qazvin, Reza Khan, in partnership The latest chapter of this old controversy was ignited in
with the pro-British journalist, Sayyed Ziya al-Din Tabatabai, the 1940s by the emergence of “Islamic economics,” a school
launched a coup, taking control of Tehran on 21 Febru- of thought that aims to purge interest from all economic
ary 1921. operations. The accomplishments of this school include the
establishment of Islamic banks in over seventy countries and
After the coup, Reza Khan received the title of Sardar-e the banning of interest in three of them: Pakistan, Iran, and
Sipah (army commander) and in May became Minister of the Sudan. Islamic banks claim that they avoid giving or

596 Islam and the Muslim World
Ritual

taking interest, but they have found it impractical to obey BIBLIOGRAPHY
their own charters. Interest is disguised under a variety of Adams, Charles C. Islam and Modernism in Egypt: A Study of
charges. the Modern Reform Movement Inaugurated by Muhammad
Abduh. New York: Russell and Russell, 1968.
Various critics of Islamic economics, including secular
Kerr, Malcolm H. Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal
economists and Islamic modernists, believe that the goal of
Theories of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida. Berkeley:
eradicating interest is both misguided and unfeasible. Distin- University of California Press, 1966.
guishing between riba and ordinary interest, these critics hold
that interest is indispensable to any complex economy, that
Sohail H. Hashmi
competitive financial markets limit interest charges, and that
bankruptcy laws now exist to protect borrowers against the
horrors once produced by riba.
RITUAL
See also Economy and Economic Institutions.
Ritual is a term that indicates more or less fixed acts and
BIBLIOGRAPHY actions that take place at certain recurrent moments and in
Chapra, M. Umer. Towards a Just Monetary System. Leicester, which certain bodily gestures, words, music, and material
U.K.: Islamic Foundation, 1985. objects may play a role.
Kuran, Timur. “The Economic Impact of Islamic Fundamentalism.” In Fundamentalisms and the State: Remaking Theories
Polities, Economies, and Militance. Edited by Martin E. In the past, the word ritual referred to religious ritual acts and
Marty and R. Scott Appleby. Chicago: University of to the rules regarding these acts. Therefore, the Roman
Chicago Press, 1993. Catholic Rituale Romanum (1614) and the famous Islamic
work on Islamic ritual and law, the Mukhtasar of the Malikite
Timur Kuran scholar Khalil ibn Ishaq al-Jundi (b. c. 1374), are comparable
phenomena in the sense that they both prescribe rituals.
Early twentieth-century scholars of religion such as Sigmund
Freud and the biologist Julian Huxley began to use the word
RIDA, RASHID (1865–1935) ritual in a much broader meaning. Freud used it to describe
compulsive acts and movements of neurotic patients, and
Rashid Rida was the most prominent disciple of Muhammad Huxley for certain animal acts and behaviors. Since then

Abduh and one of the most influential scholars and jurists of there has been a tendency to use ritual in a broad sense.
his generation. Rida was born near Tripoli, in present-day Hence, rituals can no longer be associated solely with the
Lebanon. His early education consisted of training in tradi- domain of religion. They play an important role in many
tional Islamic subjects and a brief, disenchanting exposure to fields of public and private life; for example, in political life,
the secular curriculum of the Ottoman government school in war, festivals, and feasts.
Tripoli. His reformist views began to form in 1884–1885
when he was first exposed to Jamal al-Din Afghani’s and Many nineteenth-century students of religion, particu-

Abduh’s journal al-Urwa al-wuthqa (The firmest grip). In larly those educated in the tradition of liberal, modern theol-
1897, Rida left Syria for Cairo to collaborate with
Abduh. ogy and later the phenomenologists of religion, tended to
The following year he launched al-Manar, first a weekly and view ritual as merely an illustration of religious beliefs and
then a monthly journal comprising Quranic commentary myths. At the other end of the spectrum, scholars such as
(begun by
Abduh, continued by Rida, but never completed) William Robertson-Smith and Émile Durkheim held the
and opinions on pressing legal, political, and social issues of opposite view, namely that ritual is more basic than beliefs.
the day. Like
Abduh, Rida based his reformist principles on Later scholars have tried to overcome the belief-action dithe argument that the sharia consists of
ibadat (worship) and chotomy by formulating notions such as habitus (learned
muamalat (social relations). Human reason has little scope in techniques, including such basic activities as running, etc.)
the former and Muslims should adhere to the dictates of the and discourse/discursive practice (Talal Asad) which stresses
Quran and hadith. The laws governing muamalat should the embodied nature of beliefs or the unity of actions and
conform to Islamic ethics but on specific points may be beliefs. Four brief theoretical observations should be made.
continually reassessed according to changing conditions of
different generations and societies. Unlike
Abduh, Rida 1. In the course of time, rituals may change. In gennarrowed the salaf (the “pious ancestors” as authoritative eral, they tend to become more complex. Thereinterpreters of Islamic tradition) to include only the Prophet’s fore, in many religions (including Islam) ritual
companions and immediate successors. specialists exist. These ritual specialists have different names in different parts of the world and in
See also
Abduh, Muhammad. different religious settings. The pilgrimage to

Islam and the Muslim World 597
Ritual

Mecca, a very complex ritual, is guided by special- with God in prayer, or as Sura 51:56 has it: “Jinn and humans
ists as well. are created only to worship God.” In the salat, the Quran is to
2. The meaning of rites may be subject to be recited as if it were revealed onto the believer’s heart. The
reinterpretation. For example, according to mod- performance of the salat includes a number of more or less
ernist interpretations, purity rules have their back- fixed bodily movements, which express core religious values.
ground in hygiene, that is, they claim that the According to tradition, during the salat the believer speaks
original meaning of these regulations has its base with his Lord. In the salat, there is also space for saying
in conceptions of clean and dirty, thereby dimin- invocations of a personal nature, dua
. Prayer as well as other
ishing their religious, symbolic, meaning. For ex- Islamic rituals, for example those involved in saint veneration,
ample, in traditional Islam, a menstruating woman are in one way or the other related to notions of purity. A
is not allowed to perform the salat (ritual prayer) well-known tradition says, “Purity is half the faith.” The
because she is ritually unclean. The modernists overall term for these notions is tahara, which means purity.
argue that it is permitted to her not to do so, on
account of her being ill. Such interpretations are
Rites of Passage or Life Cycle Rituals
Rites of passage mark the biological and spatial transitions in
for obvious reasons called “medical materialism.”
They attempt to give a modern, “scientific” human life and give them cultural meaning. Sometimes the
explanation. rites occur at the same time as the biological transition
themselves, but they may occur earlier or later. Important
3. In many periods of Islamic history, reformists
steps towards a theory of ritual structures have been made by
have criticized ritual behavior that deviated from
Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner. Van Gennep noted
orthodox norms and values. This criticism is esthe threefold structure of rites of passage in the life cycle and
pecially apparent in the orthodox reform moveterritorial passages. Each rite of passage is marked by phases
ment of the end of the nineteenth century
of separation, transition (the so-called liminal phase, from
(Muhammad
Abduh [1849–1905], Muhammad
the Latin word limen, threshold), and incorporation or
Rashid Rida [1865–1935]), but we also come across
reaggregation.
it in the work of the neo-modernist Fazlur Rahman
(1910–1988). He sharply criticizes forms of Sufism The most important rites of passage in Muslim religious
for teaching superstitionism, miracle mongering, life are: the naming and birth ritual (subu, aqiqa), circumcitomb-worship, mass-hysteria and, of course, sion, marriage, funerary rites, and the commemorative mourncharlatanism (Islam, p. 246). ing rites that follow at certain fixed periods.
4. The existence of historical meanings does not
mean that all participants in rituals are fully aware Depending on the stages in life, these three stages get
of these meanings. Muslims in the Netherlands, different values, for example, by the complexity of the rites to
when asked about the meaning of shaving one’s be performed. One example is a child’s initiation ritual in
hair on the occasion of the aqiqa ritual (see be- Islam, which is carried out on the seventh day after birth. The
low), simply answered that it was part of their rite involves three interrelated elements: sacrifice of an anireligion, or that by doing so, the hair would mal (usually a sheep, aqiqa), the name-giving rite, and shavbecome thicker (Dessing, p. 30ff). In other words, ing the hair of the baby.
rituals may drift out of meaning or acquire new
meaning in changed circumstances, for example, An instance of a separation rite preceding these three acts
as a result of “transplantation” to a Western coun- is the bathing of the child, performed in some parts of the
try, or as result of the secularization of rituals. world at the beginning of the ritual. The bath symbolizes the
separation from the mother (who had kept the child near her
Catherine Bell distinguishes six major categories of rites: until then) and the introduction of the child to the natural
rites of passage or “life crisis” rituals; calendrical or com- world. The naming ritual, which confers an Islamic identity
memorative rites; rites of exchange and communion; rites of (often in accordance with the Prophet’s injunction to the
affliction; rites of feasting, fasting and festivals; and, finally, believers to call themselves by graceful names), and expresses
political rites. These categories will be applied here to the its membership in the community, is closely connected to the
major Islamic rites. I have added a seventh category, rites of sacrifice. Shaving and sacrifice may be seen as liminal rites,
communication. whereas the festive meal that often concludes the ritual and to
which the family is invited, is an aggregation ritual.
Rites of Communication
This type of rite mainly serves to communicate with God, Marriage is an important social, juridical event as well as a
jinn and zar spirits, or with deceased humans (saints, proph- life cycle ritual with a number of fixed elements. At many
ets). The most important example is the salat, or ritual prayer. ritual occasions, including marriage rituals, a festive meal
According to Islam, it is a human obligation to communicate (walima) is held.

598 Islam and the Muslim World
Ritual

Performing their ablutions before their daily prayer, Muslim schoolboys wash their hands and faces. © MICHAEL S. YAMASHITA/CORBIS

Calendrical Rituals On 12 Rabi
I, the third month, the birthday of the
Calendrical rituals include seasonal (often agricultural) rites Prophet is celebrated. On 27 Rajab, the Laylat al-Mi
raj, or
and commemorative rites. They are meant to give meaning- ascension of the Prophet to the Heavens, is celebrated. The
ful social definitions to the passage of time. The first rites are ascension of the Prophet to Heaven via Jerusalem (Isra-
closely connected to the changes in the seasons. The second Mi
raj) is one of the great symbols of Islam that serves as a
commemorative rites recall certain important events. As is (mystical) symbol of the ascension of the believer toward
explained in the article on the ibadat, rituals such as the umra God. This is when the number of daily salats was fixed at five.
and the hajj are seasonal rites in origin. Because of the Elements of the ritual celebration may include recitation of
abolishment of the intercalation in 31 C.E., Islamic rites are no Surat al-isra
(Sura 17), followed by commentaries, singing,
longer tied to the solar calendar, and hence no longer tied to and the recitation of religious poems.
the changes of the seasons. The determination of the new
months, by sighting the new moon, acquired ritual signifi- The popularity of the celebration of the fifteenth middle
cance, especially in connection with the beginning and end of night of Shaban can be explained by its age-old associations
the fast in the month of Ramadan. In Islam, the narrative with the Divine which is believed to be made on that night
component in this ritual cycle is perhaps less present than in with regard to those who will die the next year.
some other religions; nevertheless it appears, for example, in
a very outspoken way in the poems about the birth and life of The month of Ramadan is marked by the fast and by
the Prophet, which are recited at various occasions. Laylat al-Qadr (27 Ramadan). On 1 Shawwal, the Day of the
Breaking of the Fast (
Id al-Fitr) is celebrated.
The ritual cycle opens with
Ashura on 10 Muharram.

Ashura had been a fasting day before the revelation of the On 10 Dhu-l-Hijja, the twelfth month of the Islamic year,
Ramadan fast, and it has remained a voluntary fasting day in Id al-Adha is celebrated. This ritual marks the end of the
Sunnite Islam until the present day. For Shiite Muslims year, but in fact it does not represent the end of the ritual

Ashura is the day on which the martyrdom of the grandson of cycle, since there is a clear connection between the id (feast
the Prophet, al-Husayn, at Karbala in 680 C.E., is commemo- day) and the
Ashura rituals. The pilgrimage itself can also be
rated by emotional and at times violent mourning rituals. seen as a rite of passage, in the sense that pilgrims set out for a

Islam and the Muslim World 599
Ritual

place “out there,” from which they return with a higher carnival-like rituals such as masquerades, processions, and
religious status, that is to say, as hajjis. theater (Hammoudi 1993).

Rites of Exchange and Communion Political Rituals
The central element in these rites is an offering (sacrifice) or a These rites construct, display, and promote the power of
gift. Major Islamic rites that can be mentioned are the aqiqa political institutions. The early history of Islamic rituals has
and the sacrifice at the occasion of
Id al-Adha. Moreover, partly been determined by their relationship to politics. For
sacrifice can also take place in other settings, such as posses- example, the salat al-juma (Friday prayers) originally had
sion cults (see under rites of affliction). Votive offering may political connotations as a medium to convey messages to the
also be included here. Such offerings happen at the graves of body politic. Muhammad’s birthday festival also came into
the saints. being in highly political surroundings, that is, as a palace
ritual. It was meant to enhance the position of the Fatimid
Rites of Affliction ruler. It stressed his bond with the prophet Muhammad and
These rituals heal, exorcise, protect, and purify. In Islam, his family in particular. By giving presents to his most faithful
they occur, for example, in the context of saint veneration, servants, the ruler stressed the existing hierarchy in the
where people seek healing, and in possession cults. Possession Fatimid state. Later in the Middle East and the Islamic West,
cults are marked by public and private gatherings where the celebration often continued to be a court ceremony, but
sacrifice, dance and trance are central elements. Those who became a popular festival as well. The Islamic world knows
suffer from particular mental, social or physical problems numerous truly political rites, such as, for example, the
seek healing by establishing contact with the spiritual world celebration of the accession to the throne in Morocco, or the
of the jinn and other meta-empirical beings such as the zar. anniversary of the death of well-known political figures, such
Other examples of (public) rites of affliction are the special as (again in Morocco) that of King Muhammad V.
salats to be performed at times of drought, or the recitation of
See also Circumcision; Death;
Ibadat; Khutba; Law;
Surat Ya Sin (Sura 36) in times of distress.
Marriage; Pilgrimage: Hajj.
Rites of Feasting, Fasting and Festivals
These rites display both the hierarchical prestige social sys- BIBLIOGRAPHY
tem and the interdependence or unity of human and divine Abu Zaid, Nasr. The Qur
an: Man and God in Communication.
worlds. The two major “canonical” festivals are
Id al-Fitr and Leiden: Leiden University, 2000.

Id al-Adha (another name for the great feast, al-
Id al-Kabir). Antoun, Richard T. “The Social Significance of Ramadan

Id al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan fast. Ramadan is the in an Arab Village.” The Muslim World 58 (1968):
sacred month par excellence. This has to do with the commu- 36–42; 95–104.
nal aspects of the fast, which expresses a number of basic Asad, Talal. The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam. Washington:
values of the Muslim community. As various scholars have D.C.: Georgetown University Center for Contemporary
Arab Studies, 1986.
argued, fasting may extol fundamental distinctions, lauding
the power of the spiritual realm, while acknowledging the Bell, Catherine. Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. New York,
subordination of the physical realm. According to popular Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
beliefs, the devils (shayatin) and jinn are powerless, while God Bowen, John R. Muslims through Discourse: Religion and Ritual
is nearer then than during other months. This increased in Gayo Society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1993.
religious awareness culminates in Laylat al-Qadr, when, as
some people believe, the gates of heaven are opened. After the Combs-Schilling, M. E. Sacred Performances. Islam, Sexuality,
salat al-id, people will pay visits to relatives, which often and Sacrifice. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.
includes visits to the graves (ziyarat al-qubur). Denny, Frederick M. “Islamic Ritual. Perspectives and Theories.” In Approaches to Islamic Studies. Edited by R. C.

Id al-Adha on 10 Dhu-l-Hijja, commemorating Ibrahim’s Martin. Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld, 2001.
readiness to sacrifice his son, marks the end of the pilgrimage Dessing, Nathal M. Rituals of Birth, Circumcision, Marriage,
(the hajj). Another major festival, the Mawlid al-Nabi, grew and Death among Muslims in the Netherlands. Leuven:
out of the Fatimid Shiite ritual practice (11th century C.E.). Peeters, 2001.
Nowadays, although it is celebrated nearly everywhere (al- Elad, Amikam. Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship: Holy
though exceptions, such as Saudi Arabia, exist), its status as a Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995.
feast has nevertheless remained controversial until the pres- Goitein, Shlomo Dov. “The Origin and Nature of Muslim
ent time. Friday Worship.” In idem: Studies in Islamic History and
Institutions. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966.
In Morocco,
Ashura is a festival honoring the dead, and Goitein, Shlomo Dov. “Ramadan, the Muslim Month of
during which the participants give alms, eat dried fruit, and Fasting.” In idem: Studies in Islamic History and Institutions.
buy toys for their children. It is marked by reversal and Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966.

600 Islam and the Muslim World
Rumi, Jalaluddin

Grunebaum, Gustav E. von. Muhammadan Festivals (1956).
London: Curzon, 1992.
Haarmann, Ulrich. “Islamic Duties in History.” The Muslim
World 68 (1978): 1–24.
Hammoudi, Abdallah. The Victim and Its Masques: An Essay on
Sacrifice and Masquerade in the Maghreb. Chicago and
London: The University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Kaptein, Nico J. G. Muhammad’s Birthday Festival: Early
History in the Central Muslim Lands and Development in the
Muslim West until the 10th/16th Century. Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1993.
Peters, Francis E. The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca
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Rahman, Fazlur. Islam. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1966.
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Rosen Ayalon. Jerusalem: Institute of Asian and African
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Tapper, Nancy, and Tapper, Richard. “The Birth of the
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Westermarck, Edward. Ritual and Belief in Morocco (1926). 2
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Gerard Wiegers
Thirteenth-century mystical Persian poet Jalal al-Din Mohammade Balkhi, above, is known as Rumi in the West, where his works
have been translated widely and have come to represent a
profound and tolerant vision of Islamic spirituality. He founded
RUMI, JALALUDDIN (1207–1273) the Mevlani Sufi sect of the Whirling Dervishes. THE ART ARCHIVE/
DAGLI ORTI (A)
Jalaluddin Rumi is the name by which the Persian poet Jalal
al-Din Mohammad-e Balkhi is conventionally known in the
West. In the Muslim world he is generally called Maulavi or (qadi) in Vakhsh would erase. The resulting conflict, which
Maulana (Mevlana in Turkish), meaning, respectively, “my can be dated to about 1208—as well perhaps as larger quesmaster” or “our master,” a title reflecting the veneration in tions of political instability in the region—led Baha al-Din to
which he was held by his followers, who formed the Mevlevi move to Samarkand, where Rumi recalls living during the
(Maulaviyya) order of dervishes around his writings and Khwarazamshah’s siege of the city, circa 1212.
example.
Baha al-Din left eastern Persia (Khorasan) with much of
Life his family by about 1216, eventually obtaining positions as
The hagiographical sources portray Rumi’s father, Baha al- preacher or teacher in provincial Anatolia, where Persian was
Din-e Valad, as one of the most important Hanafi scholars the court language. While the family was in Karaman
and theologians of his day, placing his family origins in Balkh (Larende), Rumi’s mother, Momena Khatun, died, and Rumi,
(near Mazar-e Sharif in modern Afghanistan), one of the four at the age of about seventeen, married Gauhar Khatun, with
great urban centers of the eastern Iranian cultural sphere in whom he had two sons, including Sultan Valad (1226–1312),
the pre-Mongol period. When Rumi was born in 1207, who would later play an instrumental role in founding the
however, Baha al-Din was living in Vakhsh, a small town Mevlevi order. By 1229, Baha al-Din had been invited by
located in what is now Tajikistan, acting as an itinerant Sultan
Ala al-Din Keiqobad (r. 1219–1237) to transfer to the
preacher (vaez) and religious scholar. It does not appear that Seljuk capital in Konya, where he taught until his death two
Baha al-Din belonged to any established Sufi order though a years later. In 1232, Baha al-Din’s protégé, Borhan al-Din
small group of disciples seems to have gathered around him. Mohaqqeq, arrived from Termez to take over the leadership
Inspired by dreams, Baha al-Din began to sign his fatwas as of the disciples. Rumi was sent to Aleppo and Damascus to be
“Sultan al-ulema” (“King of the Clerics,” or scholars of educated, and he apparently also underwent a period of
religion), an unauthorized title that the local religious judge retreat and fasting under Borhan al-Din’s direction. By the

Islam and the Muslim World 601
Rumi, Jalaluddin

time Borhan al-Din died in 1241, Rumi had assumed leader- poem of some 25,000 lines, over several years, beginning
ship of Baha al-Din’s classes and the circle of disciples circa 1262. It consists of a series of versified anecdotes and
in Konya. tales, often amusing and occasionally quite ribald, varying
widely in length, style, and subject matter, and rather loosely
Rumi’s teaching and spiritual praxis were noticeably al- organized into six books. The Masnavi illustrates a practical
tered under the influence of Shams al-Din Tabrizi, an itiner- mysticism drawing from the Persian Sufi tradition, provides a
ant religious scholar and mystic who came to Konya in 1244. poetic commentary on the meaning of the Quran and hadith,
It was perhaps under Shams’s influence that Rumi began and expounds Rumi’s views on many of the theological cruxes
composing poetry. Shams’s talks (preserved in Maqalat-e of Islam. It is arguably the most widely read and frequently
Shams-e Tabrizi) demonstrate his strong desire to create an glossed poem in the Muslim world, from Bosnia to Bengal.
authentic form of spirituality that dispensed with pretensions
and imitative piety. This attitude possibly detracted from The Divan-e kabir, or Kolliyat-e Shams-e Tabrizi, collects
Rumi’s reputation as a pious preacher, even though the Rumi’s lyrical poems, including some 3300 ghazals, qasidas,
ostensible goal of Shams’s spirituality was to closely follow and strophic poems, along with just under two thousand
the example of the prophet Muhammad. The curtailing of quatrains (rubaiyat). These poems are characterized by an
Rumi’s teaching activities to devote more attention to Shams intense sense of transcendent longing or loss; a frequently
also led to resentment on the part of some of his disciples. conversational, though philosophically rich, style; and a cap-
Apparently in response to this situation, Shams left Konya tivating rhythmic musicality (many of the poems seem indeed
abruptly in the spring of 1246, sending Rumi into a state of to have been composed, and are often performed, to instrudespair during which he ceased composing poetry. After mental accompaniment). German adaptations by Friedrich
about a year’s absence, Sultan Valad found Shams in Syria Rückert of some of these poems made an impression on the
and convinced him to return to Konya. Shams, despite a German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and
marriage to a member of Rumi’s extended household, soon initially gave Europeans the impression that Rumi was a
disappeared again (c. 1248), never again to return to Konya. pantheist. Subsequently, especially after Reynold Nichol-
Rumi searched desperately for Shams, expressing his deep son’s complete explanatory translation of the Masnavi into
sense of loss in frenetic poems (mostly ghazals) that cast English, Rumi became synonymous in the West of a deep and
Shams in the role of spiritual guide, and were indeed fre- tolerant Islamic spirituality. In the last quarter of the twentiquently spoken through the persona of Shams of Tabriz. eth century, dozens of popular versions and “translations” of
Eventually Rumi found his own voice, after internalizing Rumi’s poems appeared in English free verse, many by
what he had learned from Shams, and even addressed other individuals without any knowledge of the original Persian.
individuals, first Salah al-Din the Goldsmith (d. 1258) and
then Hosam al-Din Chelebi (d. c. 1284), to whom Rumi’s Rumi’s prose works include the notes recorded by his
Masnavi is addressed, as spiritual mentors. Throughout his disciples during lectures, informal sermons, and classes (Fihe
life, Rumi maintained cordial relations with several Seljuk ma fih, or Discourses); seven sermons delivered on formal
sultans and officials, some of whom expressed their devotion occasions (Majales-e saba); and a number of letters (Maktubat).
and extended their patronage to him.
See also Persian Language and Literature.
The Mevlevi (Maulaviyya) order of “whirling dervishes,”
founded in the last quarter of the thirteenth century through BIBLIOGRAPHY
the efforts of Sultan Valad, bases itself on Rumi’s poetry and Chittick, William. The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachhis practice of “turning” to music and verse (sama). Rumi’s ings of Rumi. Albany: State University of New York
mausoleum in Konya, though now a museum, has functioned Press, 1983.
as a shrine and center of the Mevlevi order, which has been
Lewis, Franklin. Rumi: Past and Present, East and West. Oxford,
particularly influential in the history of Sufism in Anatolia, U.K.: Oneworld, 2000.
the Balkans, and the Levant. Though this order was not active
Rumi, Jalaluddin. The Mathnawí of Jalálu
ddín Rúmí. In
in South Asia, Rumi’s poetry was widely read in the subconti-
E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series. Edited and translated by
nent and frequently commented upon by Sufis of other Reynold A. Nicholson. London: Luzac & Co., 1925–1940.
orders. Rumi’s poetry and teachings have continued to exert
Rumi, Jalaluddin. Discourses of Rumi.Translated by A. J.
an important influence on the thinking of Islamic modernists,
Arberry. London: J. Murray, 1961.
such as Muhammad Iqbal in Pakistan, and
Abd al-Karim
Sorush in Iran. Schimmel, Annemarie. The Triumphal Sun: A Study of the
Works of Jalaloddin Rumi. Rev. ed. Albany: State Univer-
Works sity of New York Press, 1993.
Rumi composed his Masnavi-ye manavi (Spiritual couplets;
or Couplets of true meaning), a lengthy mystical-didactic Franklin D. Lewis

602 Islam and the Muslim World
Rushdie, Salman

RUSHDIE, SALMAN (1947– )
Salman Rushdie is a novelist and critic who became a household name after his fictional work, The Satanic Verses, was
protested by numerous Muslims and Muslim groups. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini pronounced a fatwa (legal opinion)
sentencing Rushdie to death, and as a result Rushdie was
forced into hiding in England from 1989 to 1998. In later
years he moved to the United States, dividing his time
between Los Angeles and New York City.

Rushdie was born to Muslim parents in Bombay, India,
and was educated at the Cathedral School. In 1961, he left
India to attend Rugby, a prestigious boarding school in
England. Rushdie then attended King’s College, Cambridge,
where he wrote a paper on Muhammad and the origins of
Islam for part of his honors examination in history. Early
literary influences on Rushdie were the Thousand and One
Nights and the Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a family friend.

Rushdie’s first novel, Grimus (1975), was a variation of the
medieval Sufi poet Farid al Din
Attar’s The Conference of the
Birds. It was a commercial failure. His second novel, Midnight’s Children (1981), was about the lives of 1001 children
born at the stroke of midnight on India’s independence from Novelist Salman Rushdie, above, was forced into hiding for
Britain. This book won him critical acclaim, including the almost a decade when in 1989 the late Ayatollah Khomeini,
1981 Booker Prize. However, Rushdie’s satirical portrayal of leader of the Iranian Revolution, issued a fatwa demanding
Rushdie’s death. Khomeini and many other conservative Muslim
Indira Gandhi resulted in a lawsuit that was resolved only leaders believed Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses blasphemed
after a sentence considered particularly hurtful by Gandhi Islam. CHUCK KENNEDY/GETTY IMAGES
was omitted from subsequent editions. His third novel, Shame
(1983), satirized Pakistani politics and politicians, such as
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Zia al-Haqq, in the way that protested against in Islamabad (where six people died during
its predecessor had satirized Indian politics. Clearly, Rushdie a riot on 12 February 1989) and Bombay (with twelve people
knew much about Islam, Muslims, and South Asian politics killed in a riot on 24 February 1989). On 14 February 1989,
and culture. Khomeini pronounced his death sentence on Rushdie. While
distancing itself from Khomeini’s death sentence, the elev-
The Satanic Verses (1988) was Rushdie’s fourth novel, and enth session of the Islamic Law Academy of the Muslim
dealt with the themes of migration, of being a member of a World League (held in Mecca from 10 to 26 February 1989),
dark-skinned minority in England, and of the multiple identi- issued a statement declaring Rushdie an apostate and recomties that come with being Asian in London. The main charac- mending that he be prosecuted in a British court, and tried in
ter is Gibreel Farishta, an Urdu name that translated into absentia under the sharia laws of an Islamic country.
English as “the Angel Gabriel.” Beginning with the second
chapter of the book, Gibreel has a series of dreams. The first On the whole, North American responses were much
of these features a character named Mahound, who is an more muted and peaceful than in other countries. To take the
orphan, a businessman living in a city named Jahilia, who case of Toronto, the city with the largest population of
through revelation begins to preach a religion called “Sub- Canada’s Muslims, there was a deliberate effort made by
mission.” This religion is, of course, Islam. In another chap- various Muslim communities to keep the protests nonviolent.
ter, Gibreel has a series of encounters with an exile known The protests in Toronto were not used for political purposes,
simply as “the Imam,” who is intended to be recognized as the in the same way that they were used in, for example, Iran or
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. India, and there was even some sympathy and tolerance
expressed for Rushdie.
The book was first banned in India on 5 October 1988 at
the urging of several Indian Muslim politicians. Subsequently, See also Arabic Literature; Persian Language and Litthe book was banned in South Africa (24 November 1988), erature; South Asia, Islam in; Urdu Language, Literaburned publicly in Bradford, England (14 January 1989), and ture, and Poetry.

Islam and the Muslim World 603
Rushdie, Salman

BIBLIOGRAPHY Hussain, Amir. “Misunderstandings and Hurt: How Canadi-
Appignanesi, Lisa, and Maitland, Sara, eds. The Rushdie File. ans Joined Worldwide Muslim Reactions to Salman
London: Fourth Estate, 1989. Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses.” Journal of the American
Academy of Religion vol. 70, no. 1 (March 2002): 1–32.
Clark, Roger Y. Stranger Gods: Salman Rushdie’s Other Worlds.
Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001. Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. Freedom of Expression in Islam.
Fischer, Michael M. J., and Abedi, Mehdi. Debating Muslims: Cambridge, U.K.: Islamic Texts Society, 1997.
Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1990. Amir Hussain

604 Islam and the Muslim World
S
SADAT, ANWAR AL- (1918–1981) October victory, he was assassinated by Islamist extremists.
Sadat remains a controversial figure at home, and a balanced
The future president of Egypt, Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, assessment of him still remains impossible twenty years later.
was born on 25 December 1918 in a Nile Delta town, the son
See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal; Reform: Arab Middle
of an army clerk. Sadat grew up in Cairo and entered the
East and North Africa.
military academy in 1938. In the army he joined a Muslim
Brotherhood cell; there he met Jamal
Abd al-Nasser and
BIBLIOGRAPHY
other future Free Officers. Patriotic, yet reckless, he contacted German agents and conspired in the murder of a pro- Beattie, Kirk J. Egypt During the Sadat Years. New York:
British pasha. Recommissioned after eventual acquittal, he Palgrave, 2000.
regained contact with dissident officers who seized power in
July 1952. Joel Gordon

A fellow conspirator, Sadat served the Nasser regime in
various capacities. Vice president in 1970, he succeeded
Nasser, supported by power brokers who thought to domi-
SADIQ, JA
FAR AL- See Ja
far al-Sadiq
nate him. Instead, he purged Nasserist foes in May 1971, then
threw his support to Islamist activists, releasing jailed Muslim
Brothers and allowing others to return from exile. In October
1973 he initiated war against Israel, scoring a political victory SADR
that led ultimately to normal relations. In 1974 he proclaimed
an “opening” to Western investment and diminution of the Dating from eleventh-century Transoxiana in Central Asia,
public sector. For several years Sadat reaped glory as “hero of by the Timurid period (fourteenth century) the sadr referred
the crossing,” a reference to his army’s initial success in to the chief, government-appointed officer who oversaw the
breaching Israeli defenses across the Suez Canal. In Novem- management of state and private religious endowments (awqaf );
ber 1977, after a stunning public declaration, he traveled to the appointment of mosque, madrasa, and other religious
Jerusalem and addressed the Israeli Knesset. The following personnel; and cared for the poor, needy, and orphans. Up
year he accepted an invitation from American president until the late sixteenth century, the first Safavid century,
Jimmy Carter to join Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin provincial sadrs also existed, but they were not always under
at Camp David. The talks paved the way for a peace the direct authority of the central-government sadr.
treaty in 1979.
The Safavids also formalized the Timurid practice of
Sadat became an international celebrity, but economic dividing the responsibilities of the post between two figures,
troubles, anti-Israeli sentiment, a surge of intercommunal one overseeing the endowments bequeathed by the shah and
violence, and his growing aloofness shattered public opti- the other those left by private individuals, with the former
mism at home. In uncharacteristic fashion, Sadat now turned seemingly the preeminent figure, and gradually also divided
against opponents from all political tendencies, secular and the authority of the two along geographical lines. As befit the
religious. In September 1981 he ordered sweeping arrests of highly personalized nature of Safavid politics, however, one
political foes. On 6 October 1981, at a parade marking his individual might hold both posts, and an individual holding

Sadr, Muhammad Baqir al-

another post at court might also be appointed sadr.The post 1959, and by 1969 he was the chairman of the Higher Shi
ite
was nearly always held by a religious scholar, a sayyid (descen- Council, which he had helped to create in that same year. Aldant of the Prophet), in both Timurid and Safavid times. Sadr led and tried to transform the people of the historically
quiescent Shi
ite community of Lebanon, who needed cour-
BIBLIOGRAPHY age to stake out a claim in their fractured country. He
Floor, Willem. “The Sadr or Head of the Safavid Religious advanced the notion of ideological Islam, and proposed that
Administration, Judiciary and Endowments and Other the leader in Lebanon should be an imam, much like
Ali
Members of the Religious Administration.” Zeitschrift der Shari
ati, a religious intellectual, had advocated in Iran before
Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 150 (2000): 461–500. the Islamic revolution.

Andrew J. Newman Al-Sadr was a political moderate who was considered a
reformer by his followers. The title of imam was applied to
only twelve individuals in the Shi
ite tradition: It was given to
Musa al-Sadr and Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian leader, by
SADR, MUHAMMAD BAQIR AL- their followers and subsequently accepted by the high-ranking
(1930–1980) clerics. Sadr disappeared in Libya while on a visit to Libya’s
ruler, Mu
ammar al-Qadhdhafi, in 1978. He and two com-
Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr was a scholar and revered figure of panions, a cleric and a journalist, were never heard from again.
Shi
a in Iraq. He wrote widely on matters of Islamic economics and modern logic and philosophy. His books were bibles See also Imamate; Lebanon; Political Islam; Revoluof Islamic modernists, Sunni and Shi
ite alike, throughout the tion: Modern.
Muslim world. Some of his works, including Falsafatuna (Our
philosophy) and Iqtisaduna (Our economics), are used as BIBLIOGRAPHY
textbooks in Shi
ite seminaries. Most of his writings and Ajami, Fouad. The Vanished Imam: Musa al Sadr and the Shia of
teaching concentrated on renewal of principles of jurispru- Lebanon. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1986.
dence in Islamic tradition. He attempted to reconcile the
traditions and strictures of Islam with the ideas and practices Majid Mohammadi
of the West. He was one the most enlightened Shi
ite legists
and inspired much devotion among the people of Iraq.

Al- Sadr’s orientation was not excessively political. Never- SAHARA
theless, there were many people in Iraq who were receptive to
Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Therefore, when Iraq’s Shi
ite Once a lush and fertile environment sustaining a diversified
community began to look to al-Sadr for political leadership, human population, fauna, and flora, the Sahara experienced
and when Iran’s Arabic radio broadcasts repeatedly referred an irreversible process of desertification from 3000 B.C.E.
to him as the “Khomeini of Iraq,” he became a threat to the onward. Since then, two events significantly marked the
Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, whose base of support history of the Sahara: the introduction of camels, sometime
consisted of Sunni military officers and functionaries. As a after the second century, and the spread of Islam, starting in
consequence, both al-Sadr and his sister were executed on the the eight century. The adoption of camels, the “vessels of the
orders of Iraq’s president Saddam Hussein. desert,” revolutionized the nature of transportation in endurance, volume, and efficiency. Adherence to Islam, its philoso-
BIBLIOGRAPHY phy, and code of law, favored the development of successful
Batatu, Hanna. “Iraq’s Underground Shia Movements: Char- commercial and scholarly networks connecting Muslims across
acters, Causes, and Prospects.” MERIP Reports: Islam and the Sahara desert and beyond. In time, the majority of
Politics no. 102 (Jan. 1982): 3–9. Saharans would become Muslim.
Mallat, Chibli. The Renewal of Islamic Law: Muhammad Baqer Although Islam arrived at least two centuries earlier, the
as-Sadr, Najaf and the Shi
i International. New York: Cam-
Almoravid movement in the eleventh century was the first
bridge University Press, 1993.
organized attempt at religious reform in the Sahara. To be
sure, the Almoravids were interested in controlling a share of
Majid Mohammadi
the gold trade as much as they were motivated to spread their
Muslim faith. From then onward, trans-Saharan trade flourished. In the first half of the fourteenth century, the ostenta-
SADR, MUSA AL- (1928–1978?) tious pilgrimage to Mecca of the emperor of Mali, Kankan
Mansa Musa, alerted the Muslim world to the gold riches of
Musa al-Sadr, who was born in Qom, Iran, was a politically Western Africa, and consequently would attract many more
active and controversial cleric. Al-Sadr arrived in Lebanon in Muslim visitors to Saharan towns such as Timbuktu and Gao.

606 Islam and the Muslim World
Saint

By the seventeenth century, Saharan towns were well- Webb, James L. A. Desert Frontier: Ecological and Economic
established markets and centers of Islamic learning. The Change along the Western Sahel, 1600–1850. Madison:
reputations of notable scholars of Timbuktu, Walata, and University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.
Shingiti extended all the way to North Africa and the Middle
East. Saharan scholars regularly organized caravans to per- F. Ghislaine Lydon
form the pilgrimage. They built mosques, developed libraries, and established schools. One cannot underestimate the
significance of trans-Saharan trade and the development of
scholarly networks to the spread of Islamic knowledge and SAINT
Arabic literacy in the region. Caravaners relied on their
literacy skills for correspondence, accounting, accountability, Wali, the word roughly defined as “saint,” which is derived
and for drawing contractual agreements, all in accordance from the Arabic root w-l-y and has a root meaning of proximwith Islamic law. ity, generally is found in the construct wali Allah, that is,
It is no coincidence, therefore, that scholars often per- someone who is close or intimate with God. It is a designation
formed as traders and vice versa in Saharan commercial that Muslims use to define a holy person, and can refer to
centers such as Shingiti, Tishit, Walata, Timbuktu, and overlapping categories of pious people, religious scholars,
Ghadames. To uphold the law, traders relied upon the Sufis, and Shi
i imams. In English wali is translated variously
services of scholars of Islamic law or judges. Moreover, until as protégé, intimate, friend of God, or “saint.” A wali who has
European colonization, Saharan towns tended to be gov- power over others has wilaya (being a protector or intercessor)
erned by Muslim scholars who performed as regional judges while a wali with walaya focuses on the closeness or nearness
ruling on all matters, civil, commercial, or political. These to God (being a friend of God). Both of these meanings can be
sedentary scholarly communities maintained alliances with harmonized with interpretations of Quranic usage. Except
nomadic groups who provided protection services to both for hairsplitting grammatical discussions, popular usage
town dwellers and trans-Saharan travelers. conflates these meanings since one close to God has power to
protect and intercede and vice versa.
The late nineteenth century saw the end of the great camel
caravan. European conquest redirected trade toward new The popular idea of wali, an heir of the Prophet, is a postcenters of control located along the Atlantic coast and in key Quranic development whose first textual source, the writings
colonial outposts in the interior. Consequently, the Sahara of al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi (d. c. 910), dates to the second half
became a contested terrain and home to pockets of resistance of the ninth century. Tirmidhi proposed a “seal of God’s
to French, and later Moroccan, overrule. Not surprisingly, friends” that was later claimed and subsequently popularized
Saharans presented the greatest challenge to European con- by Ibn al-
Arabi (d. 1240). This “seal” corresponds to the
quest. This was due to the shrewdness of Muslim leaders as creedal notion of Muhammad as the final prophet or the “seal
much as the ruggedness of the terrain. It was not until of the prophets,” while assiduously subordinating awliya
the 1930s that the French could claim control over the
(plural of wali) to prophets. The developing doctrine of wali
whole region, connecting Morocco and Algeria to their
accounts for non-prophetic expressions of the sacred, for
West African colonies. Later, when the Spanish relinquished
example, ilham (non-prophetic divine inspiration) versus wahy
their Western Saharan colony in 1975, both Morocco and
(prophetic revelation) in a way that explained extraordinary
Mauritania fought the Saharan independence movement, or
phenomena without violating creedal dictates.
Polisario, for claims over the contested region. To date, the
fate of the Western Sahara has not been sealed, as a UN The contemporary theological war over legitimate religreferendum is repeatedly postponed.
ious authority, often initiated and funded by scripturalist
An image of Saharan desert landscape appears in the volume groups such as Salafis or Wahhabis, denies that anyone can be
two color insert. a friend of God. Instead, they assert that all Muslims have
equal access to God through the written scriptural sources of
See also Globalization; Networks, Muslim. Quran and hadith, absolutely undercutting any possibility of
intercession or of spiritual hierarchy. Presently a growing
BIBLIOGRAPHY minority of Muslims shares this scripturalist perspective.
Hunwick, John. Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire. Leiden: They are mostly concentrated in Arabic-speaking countries
Brill, 1999. and in countries like the United States, which are influenced
Levtzion, Nehemia, and Pouwels, Randall. History of Islam in by Salafi interpretations of Islam.
Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000.
Levtzion, Nehemia, and Spaulding, Jay. Medieval West Africa: On one hand, wali is a socially constructed concept based
Views From Arab Scholars and Merchants. New York: upon a recognizable community consensus. Generally Mus-
Markus Wiener, 2003. lims recognize a wali Allah on the basis of four overlapping

Islam and the Muslim World 607
Saladin

sources of authority: spiritual/genealogical lineage, religious example are powerful symbols in the modern Middle East.
experience (spiritual traveling), acquisition of transmitted His subsequent struggles against the forces of the Third
religious knowledge, and exemplary behavior in harmony Crusade (1189–1192) and King Richard I of England became
with the Prophetic sunna. Hagiographic literature has estab- the stuff of romance in European literature, where Saladin
lished a narrative paradigm that reinforces these sources of and Richard emerge as rival chivalrous foes.
authority in the popular imagination. On the other hand, in
the Sufi environment wali is a technical term based on Saladin’s career began in the armies of Nur al-Din b.
consensually verified phenomena allowing specialists to clas- Zangi, ruler of Aleppo and Damascus, and himself a famous
sify types of proximity to God. counter-crusader. Saladin went to Egypt in early 1169 in a
contingent of Nur al-Din’s army sent to assist the Fatimid
In terms of religious practice, the concept of wali provides Caliphate, which in late 1168 had been attacked by Crusader
a basis for the development of shrine rituals at the tombs of forces. Saladin subsequently removed the Fatimids from
deceased saints located throughout the Islamic world. Often power, and made himself ruler in Egypt, subservient to Nur
at these shrines the descendants of the deceased holy person, al-Din. Upon the latter’s death in 1174, Saladin moved
considered to be walis, act as mediating shaykhs who “pass against Nur al-Din’s heirs and began to bring the Muslim
requests to God” instead of acting as spiritual masters teach- cities of Syria under his command. He then used the coming a person how to arrive close to God through a set of bined resources of Egypt and Syria to attack the Crusaders.
contemplative practices. Although the legitimacy of these By forcibly uniting Muslim territory prior to assaulting the
shrine rituals is strongly denied by scripturally oriented Franks, he followed the pattern of Nur al-Din and Zangi.
Muslims, these shrines provide meaningful religious experi- The same strategy would be used by the Mamluks in their
ences for many pious visitors. Functionally, the multivalent final elimination of the Latin states in 1291.
concept of wali varies historically and geographically so as to
include scholars, saints, spiritual mentors, counselors, healers, See also Crusades.
and intercessors, both living and deceased.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See also Ibn
Arabi; Mi
raj; Silsila; Sunna; Tasawwuf;
Tariqa; Ulema. Ehrenkreutz, Andrew S. Saladin. Albany: State University of
New York Press, 1972.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Gibb, H. A. R. The Life of Saladin. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon
Press, 1973.
Buehler, Arthur F. Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian
Naqshbandiyya and the Rise of the Mediating Shaykh. Colum- Lyons, Malcolm Cameron, and Jackson, D. E. P. Saladin: The
bia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998. Politics of Holy War. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Uni-
Chodkiewicz, Michel. Seal of the Saints: Prophethood and Saint- versity Press, 1982.
hood in the Doctrine of Ibn
Arabi. Cambridge, U.K.: Islamic
Texts Society, 1993. Warren C. Schultz
Cornell, Vincent. Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in
Moroccan Sufism. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.
Radke, Bernd, and John O’Kane. The Concept of Sainthood in
Early Islamic Mysticism. Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon SALAFIYYA
Press, 1996.
Salafiyya is the name given to those who follow the ideas and
Arthur F. Buehler practices of the righteous ancestors (al-salaf al-salih). This
“salafi” approach rejects later traditions and schools of thought,
calling for a return to the Quran and the sunna as the
authentic basis for Muslim life. The salafi approach empha-
SALADIN (1137 OR 1138–1193) sizes the application of ijtihad (independent, informed judgment) and rejects taqlid (adherence to established precedents
Salah al-Din Yusuf b. Ayyub (d. 1193), who became known in and conformity with existing traditional interpretations and
the West as Saladin, was a Kurdish warrior renowned for his institutions).
victories over the Crusaders and as the founder of the Ayyubid
dynasty in Egypt, Syria, and upper Iraq. Saladin’s defeat of The “righteous ancestors,” or salaf, are usually considered
the Crusaders at the Horns of Hattin (4 July 1187) in to be the first three generations of Muslims, including the
northern Palestine led to the Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem immediate companions of the Prophet. Because of the closeand the near elimination of the Franks in the Levant. His ness of these salaf to Muhammad, later Muslims regarded the
success in jihad against the Crusaders was celebrated by his former’s transmissions of the Prophet’s traditions, their incourt biographers. Not surprisingly, Saladin’s name and formed practice as believers, as having special authority.

608 Islam and the Muslim World
Salafiyya

Major figures in the definition of the salafi perspective and Other important Salafi-modernist movements developed
approach are Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855), the founder of the in the late nineteenth century, sometimes relatively indepen-
Hanbali school, and Ahmad ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328). dently and sometimes in close coordination with the group
around
Abduh. In South Asia, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan
The fundamental concern of modern Salafiyya, who rec- (1817–1898) emphasized the importance of understanding
ognize that Muslim power and influence is in decline relative nature as a reflection of God’s revelation in his teachings,
to the West, is the relationship between Islam and modernity. and established the Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental College
The goal of the movement is to make Islam a dynamic force in (which later became Aligarh Muslim University). As the
the contemporary world. The modern Salafiyya invoked the Russian Empire completed its conquest of Muslim areas in
classic themes: a call for a return to the Quran and the sunna, the nineteenth century, another Islamic modernist movea rejection of the medieval authorities (taqlid), and an affirma- ment, “Jadidism,” developed there under the leadership of
tion of the necessity of independent, informed thinking Isma
il Gasprinskii (1851–1914). He created a new school
(ijtihad). In the modern context, this involved an emphasis on curriculum for Muslim children, and his journal, Tarjuman,
the compatibility of reason with revelation, and of Islam with was important in creating a modern, cohesive sense of idenmodern science. It also entailed a call for moral social reform. tity among Muslims living in Russia.
However, by the end of the twentieth century, the term
Salafiyya also came to be applied to extremist movements that Many movements throughout the Muslim world were
advocated violent jihad against existing regimes and social directly inspired by the
Abduh tradition, and were in comorders, both Muslim and non-Muslim, and that did not munication with it. In North Africa, Salafis organized moveadhere to a rigid and literalist understanding of the Qur
an ments like the Association of Algerian Ulema under
Abd aland sunna. This new Salafiyya often differed from the time- Hamid Ibn Badis (1889–1940). Salafi intellectuals and orhonored salafi approach of Ibn Hanbal and Ibn Taymiyya by ganizations became important parts of Muslim life in Syria
rejecting independent analysis (ijtihad). and Iraq as well, and in Egypt and many other parts of the
Muslim world. In Southeast Asia, the Shi
a Imami, which
Among those involved in the definition and establishment became one of the largest organizations in the Muslim world,
of the modern Salafiyya, the best-known are Jamal al-Din al- was formed in 1912 to advocate specifically Salafi-style re-
Afghani (1839–1897) and Muhammad
Abduh (1849–1905). form, especially through education.

Abduh created the broad intellectual foundations for modern Salafiyya. First in exile and then as Grand Mufti of Egypt, Throughout the twentieth century, individuals and groups
he shaped the thinking of generations of Muslim intellectu- built on and developed the modernist Salafi traditions in
als. The theological core was an emphasis on tawhid, which is many different directions. In South Asia, the work of Muhamthe assertion of the singleness of God and the comprehensive mad Iqbal (1877–1938) provided a critical synthesis of modunity of God’s message. Tawhid was the basis for showing the ern and Islamic thought in his book, The Reconstruction of
compatibility of Islam with modern science and revelation Religious Thought in Islam, and other works. At the same time,
with modern reason. Consistent with the earlier Salafiyya, he worked for the creation of Pakistan. Some forms of

Abduh advocated the informed, independent analysis of the nationalism were presented in Salafi form, as in the develop-
Quran and sunna. ment of the Dustour Party in Tunisia and the drive toward
liberal nationalism in Egypt in the first half of the century.
The new Salafiyya did not involve direct opposition to Later, Mahmud Shaltut (1893–1963), as shaykh of al-Azhar
European imperial rule over Muslims. Rather, it saw internal University, confirmed the
Abduh tradition at the heart of the
Islamic reform as the first priority, and the key to the Islamic scholarly establishment, and scholars like Fazlur
implementation of its goals was education and scholarship. Rahman (1919–1988) further developed modernist method-

Abduh provided the inspiration for many educational re- ologies in historical and philosophical studies.
forms and al-Manar, the journal published by his follower
and associate, Rashid Rida (1865–1939), was read throughout By the end of the twentieth century, the term Salafi came
the Muslim world. Following
Abduh’s death, Rashid Rida to be applied to a very different type of Islamic revivalism.
became the most visible international articulator of Salafi When an ideology of violent jihad against existing Muslim
thought, becoming active in organizing Pan-Islamic con- societies and secular modernity developed, it started with a
gresses and, after the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate in Salafi-style call for a return to the purity of faith exemplified
1924, in working for the establishment of a modern Arab by the righteous ancestors. As this message was developed by
caliphate. He came to view the efforts of
Abd al-
Aziz Ibn later activists, however, the emphasis was placed on militant
Sa
ud to create a state in the Arabian Peninsula based on the action, rather than on intellectual effort. By the beginning of
puritanical reform traditions of the Wahhabiyya as repre- the twenty-first century, the term was widely applied to
senting an important manifestation of the reforms necessary advocates of violent jihad. Terrorists like those who defor all Muslim societies. stroyed the World Trade Center, along with Usama bin

Islam and the Muslim World 609
Saleh bin Allawi

Ladin and his organization, al-Qa
ida, are called Salafi, as are monopolized by or restricted to descendants of the Prophet
militants throughout the Muslim world. and select other families. It was to the credit of Allawi both as
an outsider to Lamu and as a member of the Alawi tariqa (that
The older style of Salafi modernism was also significant at emphasized education and training of scholars) that he began
the beginning of the twenty-first century. The intellec- to teach people previously denied this education. When he
tual content of curricula in Islamic schools and interna- began to teach them Quranic exegesis, he angered the town’s
tional Islamic universities around the world reflects much elitist traditional scholars. Eventually he established his own
of the tradition of
Abduh, while organizations like the madrasa (Islamic school) in Langoni (a district in the south-
Muhammadiyya in Indonesia remain a significant part of ern part of Lamu Island). There he taught the slaves and
political and social life. recent immigrants to the island. This madrasa became the
See also
Abduh, Muhammad; Ijtihad; Muhammadiyya famous Riyada mosque-college, which attracted students
(Muhammadiyah); Nationalism: Arab; Wahhabiyya. from all over East Africa, and spread his fame as a scholar
and saint.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See also Africa, Islam in; Tariqa.
Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kurzman, Charles, ed. Modernist Islam: A Sourcebook,
Farsy, Shaykh Abdallah Saleh. The Shafi
i Ulama of East
1840–1940. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Africa. Translated by Randall Pouwels. Madison: Univer-
Martin, Richard C.; Woodward, Mark R.; and Atmaja, Dwi S. sity of Wisconsin-Madison, 1989.
Defenders of Reason in Islam. Oxford: Oneworld, 1997.
Rahman, Fazlur. Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Abdin Chande
Intellectual Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1982.
Schulze, Reinhard. A Modern History of the Islamic World. New
York: New York University Press. 2000. SALAH AL-DIN B. AYYUB See Saladin
Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. Modern Islam in India: A Social
Analysis. Lahore: Minerva Book Shop, 1943.
Weismann, Itzchak. Taste of Modernity: Sufism, Salafiyya, and
Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascus. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2001.
SALJUQ See Sultanates: Seljuk
Wiktorowicz, Quintan. The Management of Islamic Activism:
Salafis, The Muslim Brotherhood, and State Power in Jordan.
Albany: State University of New York Press. 2001.

John O. Voll SANHURI,
ABD AL-RAZZAQ, AL- See

Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri

SALEH BIN ALLAWI (C. 1844–1935)
Saleh bin Allawi (Ar. Salih bin
Alawi) was a renowned scholar
and founder of the Riyada mosque college in Lamu. He was SAUDI DYNASTY
of Yemenite origin and born in the Comoro Islands. From
there he migrated to Lamu sometime between 1876 and The ruling family of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi dynasty, is
1885. He belonged to the Jamal al Layl Sharif lineage (one of known as the House (al) of Sa
ud. Founding of the dynasty is
the Sharif lineages and descendants of the Prophet), whose conventionally dated in 1744, when the ruler of the small
members have been responsible for the dissemination of oasis town Dir
iyya (south of Riyadh), Muhammad ibn Sa
ud,
Islam and its intellectual tradition in East Africa. In fact, made an alliance with the reformist religious activist Muhammuch of Islam as it is taught and practiced in East Africa bears mad ibn
Abd al-Wahhab. Muhammad ibn Sa
ud accepted
the stamp of Yemenite influence. Descendants of these fami- the strict, puritanical interpretation of Islam propounded by
lies were born of African mothers, and this factor facilitated Muhammad ibn
Abd al-Wahhab as the basis for his state, and
their easy integration into the Swahili community. the latter pledged his support for the expansion of the
former’s domains. Two Saudi realms in Arabia (1744–1818,
Allawi’s membership in the Alawi tariqa (Sufi order) 1824–1891), destroyed by Ottoman intervention and internal
enabled him to side with and patronize the slaves and the poor strife, preceded the foundation of the current Kingdom of
of Lamu Island, who became the main focus of his religious Saudi Arabia by
Abd al-
Aziz ibn
Abd al-Rahman al-Sa
ud
efforts. Before this time religious education in Lamu was (known in the West as Ibn Saud) at the outset of the twentieth

610 Islam and the Muslim World
Science, Islam and

century. By 1934,
Abd al-
Aziz had expanded the kingdom to regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation, a distinctive
its current boundaries. He has been succeeded as ruler by a shape. Mention is frequently made of several sayings (hadith)
number of his thirty-six sons: Sa
ud (1953–1964), Faysal of the Prophet that state “seek
ilm, even in China.”
(1964–1975), Khalid (1975–1982) and Fahd (1982–present).
Including the direct descendants of
Abd al-
Aziz, the de- The Arabic term
ilm (pl.
ulum) refers more broadly to
scendants of his brothers, and significant cadet branches of “knowledge” and its antonym is considered to be “ignorance”
the family, the number of princes in the Saudi royal family is (jahl). In its various verbal forms,
ilm is found frequently in
estimated now at between five and eight thousand. the Quran. At a fairly early date, however, the concept of
ilm
was differentiated from that of ma
rifa. The latter refers to a
F. Gregory Gause III form of knowledge derived from personal experience or
intuition, whereas the former is contingent upon the observation and discovery of first principles. This is not to say,
however, that all of the primary sources make a sharp distinc-
SAYYID tion between these two modes of knowledge.

The concept of science in Islam is a vast subject. Histori-
The word sayyid is derived from the Arabic root “to be lord
cally, Arabs and Persians who were interested in explaining
over, to rule” and is commonly used to refer to a descendant
the natural world around them first introduced Greek scienof the prophet Muhammad (normally through his grandson
tific treatises to the Arabic-speaking world during the eighth
al-Husayn), but can also, more generally, signify a holy
century. From the ninth century on, scholars traveled from
person (also called wali). Descendants of the Prophet are
one end of the empire to the other, carrying books and ideas,
accorded respect, particularly in Shi
ism, but also in Sunni
Islam. In Shi
ism, respect is generally preserved for descen- thereby insuring what some have called the cultural and
dants of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, through her intellectual unity of the Islamic world. Since this time, countmarriage to Imam
Ali. In Twelver Shi
ism, sayyids gain this less Muslims from all over the world throughout the course of
respect through their genealogy, including relation to one of many centuries have been involved in scientific developments.
the Twelve Imams, and many contemporary Shi
ite families
Yet, almost immediately there is a conceptual and
claim sayyid status. In Zaydi Shi
ism, the leader of the comtaxonomical difficulty. How exactly is the term “Islamic
munity must be a descendant of the Prophet for his rule to be
science” defined? Ostensibly, “science” is a universal term
legitimate. In Sunni Islam, sayyids have certain legal privileges
that knows no linguistic or ethnic bounds; yet, the adjective
over non-sayyids. In all these branches of Islam, the privileged
“Islamic” implies a particular language by a definable group
status of sayyids is perhaps most obvious in the rules concernof people. Does “Islamic science,” then, refer to a particular
ing marriage, where a sayyida (female descendant) should
“Islamic” take on science? Or, does it refer to science done by
marry only a sayyid to preserve the “equity” (kafaa) status in
individuals who identify themselves as Muslims? This entry
the marriage. In popular religion, descendants of the Prophet
assumes the latter assertion.
in all branches of Islam are often viewed as channels for divine
blessing (baraka). The colloquial term sidi, derived from An equally difficult hermeneutical problem presents itself:
sayyid, is used as an honorific before Muslim saints, especially When Arabic speakers use the term
ilm did they mean by it
in North Africa. It does not always imply that the saint is a something similar to what today is called science? Because the
descendant of the Prophet. Arabic term is not identical to the Western concept of hard
science, it is often used in a number of theological and
See also Sharif.
mystical contexts. For instance, early Muslim hadith criticism
was known as
ilm al-rijal (lit., “the science of the men” who
BIBLIOGRAPHY made up the chain of transmitters, or isnad). Despite the
Gilsenan, Michael. Recognising Islam: Religion and Society in the employment of the term
ilm there was nothing particularly
Modern Middle East. London: Croom Helm, 1982. scientific about it. Likewise, even theology (
ilm al-kalam) was
regarded as a science with its own demonstrative method
Robert Gleave derived from first principles. These principles, however, were
not derived from syllogistic reasoning, but the Quran. A
more recent trend has fundamentalists arguing that the Quran
predicts many important scientific discoveries, thereby vali-
SCIENCE, ISLAM AND dating the Quranic miracle for the believers.

The concept of
ilm, “science,” has been an important one in Premodern Scientific Developments
the history of Islamicate civilization and has gone a long way A momentous impetus was given to the development of
to giving this civilization, and all those who participated in it science in the Islamic world with the accession of the Abbasid

Islam and the Muslim World 611
Science, Islam and

caliphate to power and the subsequent foundation of Baghdad (maratib al-
ulum). One of the most famous examples of this is
as its capital in 762. This resulted in a translation movement the Enumeration of the Sciences, by al-Farabi (870–950). In the
that saw, by the end of the tenth century, virtually all of the preface to this work, al-Farabi states that his intention is to
scientific and philosophical secular Greek works that were give an enumeration of all the sciences of his day and provide
available in the Late Antique period (fourth to seventh descriptions of their themes and subject matter. He divides
centuries C.E.) translated into Arabic. These works included the sciences into those dealing with (1) language, (2) logic, (3)
many diverse topics such as astrology, alchemy, physics, mathematics, (4) physics and metaphysics, and (5) political
mathematics, medicine, and the various branches of philoso- science, jurisprudence, and dialectical theology. Other lists
phy. The great majority of these texts were translated from were compiled by the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan al-Safa),
Greek into Arabic by way of Syriac. Furthermore, many of Ibn al-Nadim, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), al-Ghazali, and Ibn
the earliest translators were Christians, many of whom were Khaldun. Ghazali’s list is interesting in that he divides all of
employed in the renowned bayt al-hikma (“House of Wis- the sciences into those that are either praiseworthy (mahmuda)
dom”). This functioned as the official institute and library for or blameworthy (madhmuma).
translation and research. The caliph al-Mamun (d. 833) sent
emissaries throughout the Mediterranean world to seek out Such lists, however, are by no means a medieval phenomeand purchase books on “ancient learning,” which were subse- non. In 1980 at the Second World Conference on Muslim
quently brought back to Baghdad and translated into Arabic Education, sponsored by the King
Abd al-
Aziz University in
by a panel of scholars. The result was an impressive official Jiddah and the Quaid-i Azam University in Islamabad, delelibrary that included many of the most important scientific gates adopted a similar list. The main difference between
and philosophical works produced in the ancient world. their enumeration and that of someone like al-Farabi was that
These works would form the foundation for medieval sci- theirs begins with the memorization of the Quran and ends
ence, not only in the Islamic world, but also subsequently in with the practical sciences.
the Christian world.
Highlights
The earliest Greek works translated into Arabic were Two caveats must be made at the beginning. First, the
often made for purely pragmatic reasons. This is why treatises Muslims did not invent any of the sciences. Rather, as
devoted to astrology, mathematics, and alchemy represent mentioned, they received texts from the Greeks (especially
some of the earliest scientific works in Arabic. A useful list of those of Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Euclid) and, in the process,
the treatises translated into Arabic and when and by whom adopted and adapted their theories as they saw fit (e.g., in
can be found in the account given by the biographer of order to reconcile them with monotheistic sensibilities or
Islamic writings, Ibn al-Nadim (d. 995). with new advances made in observation). Second, the term
Arabic science might be better than Islamic science, because
A common, though incorrect, assumption has it that the there was nothing particular religious about science, and
Greeks invented the sciences, the Arabs rescued them from many of the scientists spoke Arabic, even though religiously
disappearing in the “Dark Ages,” and subsequently passed they might have been Christian or Jewish.
them untouched and uncommented upon to the Renaissance
period. This ignores the fact that many people living in the Muslims made many important innovations in a great
Islamic world wrote commentaries to the works of important majority of the sciences. In astronomy (
ilm al-haya; lit. “the
individuals such as Aristotle, Galen, and Ptolemy. The genre science of the figure”), for example, Muslim thinkers made
of the commentary was not a slavish recapitulation of a text, important advancements, following on the heels of Ptolemy,
but often a creative way of writing about science and philoso- in discerning the laws governing the periodic motions of the
phy in the medieval period. Rather than regard commentaries celestial bodies. One of the most famous of the Islamic
as uncreative, they often allowed scholars to think about astronomers was al-Battani (Albategnius). He compiled a
scientific matters in such a way that they could validate their catalog of the stars for the year 880, in which he determined
claims by putting them in the mouths of ancient sages. In fact, the various astronomical coefficients with renowned accumany commentators often used ancient authors to argue the racy. He was also responsible for discovering the motion of
very opposite of what these ancient authors had intended in the solar apsides. In addition, he also wrote an important
the first place. So although the Arabs worked within the introductory treatise that was used in European universities
parameters of science as established by the Greeks, they made until the sixteenth century. Gradually, in order to reconcile
many important developments in the Western scientific perceived observation of the universe, Muslim thinkers, disatradition. greeing with Aristotle, posited the existence of epicycles that
revolved not around the earth, but around the various celes-
Classification of the Sciences tial spheres. This movement away from Aristotle greatly
Many of the medieval philosophers compiled various “lists of bothered the Andalusi thinkers, especially Ibn Bajja and Ibn
the sciences” (ihsa
ulum) and “classifications of the sciences” Rushd (Averroes), who decided to remove the epicycles. This

612 Islam and the Muslim World
Science, Islam and

created almost as many problems as it solved. In the thir- Islamic Law
teenth century, however, at the observatory in Maragha, Science, as is to be expected, was a very malleable term. It
scientists explained the motions of the heavenly spheres as the referred not only to those disciplines (e.g., physics, mathecombination of uniform circular motions. This is the model matics) that today are considered to be the purview of science,
that was eventually adopted by European astronomers, such but also to other disciplines whose scientific veracity is rather
as Copernicus. difficult to ascertain. The Muslims had a tendency to consider every potential discipline as a science, and as a result
Mathematics (
ilm al-hisab; lit. “the science of reckoning”) tried to articulate first principles for them. Important in this
was, according to al-Farabi’s classification, divided into seven regard is the science of law or fiqh. For the practitioners of
branches. Furthermore, he divided mathematics into two fiqh, known as the fuquha, the law was a science and consisted
types: practical (amali) and theoretical (nazari). The former is of the proper knowledge of the Quran and the sunna.
concerned with numbers as they pertain to numbered things
such as tables or humans. The latter, in contrast, is concerned In its developed form, the science of Islamic legal theory
with numbers in the abstract, including the properties that recognized a variety of sources and methods (usul al-fiqh) by
numbers acquire when related to one another or when which to derive the law. The first principle was the Quran,
combined with or separated from one another. In the tenth followed by the sunna which, though second in importance,
century, Nichomachus’s Introduction was translated from Greek provided the overwhelming majority of material from which
into Arabic. This resulted in the acquaintance of mathematics the law was derived. The third principle is consensus (ijma)
with other subjects, such as geometry, astronomy, and music. of the legal scholars in the name of the entire community.
Another important mathematician, and probably the most The fourth principle is known as human reasoning (qiyas).
important Arab physicist, was Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen; d. These four principles became the means whereby legal schol-
1039). Among other things, he attempted, without success, to ars could, in their opinion, scientifically determine the legal
regulate the flow of the Nile. He also composed over a effects of the textual sources of Islam.
hundred different scientific treatises, most devoted to medi-
The supreme Muslim science was considered to be religcine, mathematics, and physics. Furthermore, he was responious law as opposed to theology as it was in the scholastic
sible for establishing the theorem of the cotangent, in addition
world. This had important repercussions: Because scholastic
to resolving the problem of optics (the intersection of an
theologians also did work on logic and medicine, they conequilateral hyperbole with a circle) that still bears his name.
tended that God could not do what was logically impossible.
Islamic fuquha, in contrast, were not interested in deducing
In the field of medicine, probably the most important
religious principles from reason or explaining them rationally.
name is Ibn Sina (Avicenna; d. 1037). In his autobiography he
informs us that medicine (tibb) was not one of the difficult Having surveyed some of the major features and trajectosciences and he claims to have mastered it by the age of ries of science within the orbit of Islam, the question arises:
sixteen. Throughout his life he engaged in medical experi- Why did Islam not carry out a scientific revolution in the
ments and wrote various treatises on specific topics. He also same manner that the Europeans did? After all, Islam praccomposed a medical encyclopedia, Qanun fi ’l-Tibb (The ticed the various sciences long before Europe and remained
canon of medicine), that became the standard textbook on the ahead of the Europeans until the thirteenth century.
subject not only in the Islamic world, but also in the West for
over five hundred years. The primary difference resides in the fact that, whereas
European scholastics succeeded in developing the modern
Mention should also be made of two disciplines that physical sciences, Islam created a metaphysics that was more
medieval scholars considered to be sciences, but which are interested in mysticism. According to the analysis suggested
not thought of in that way today: astrology and alchemy. Both by John Walbridge in The Leaven of the Ancients (2000), this
of these sciences provided important sources for an empirical was the result of several features. First, the Muslim philosoand experimental approach to nature. Whereas Aristotelianism phers consistently held the position that the world existed
offered an explanatory framework for understanding the without a temporal beginning and were thus more interested
physical world, astrology and astral magic supplemented this in ontological hierarchies than temporal chains of causality.
by providing explanations (and prognostications) for the As a result, they tended to speculate about metaphysics
phenomena of this world in the heavens. Both astrology and and ontology as opposed to the natural sciences. Second,
astral magic presupposed a thorough knowledge of mathe- Muslim theologians (mutakallimun) developed an extreme
matics and astronomy. In like manner, alchemy (al-kimiya) occasionalism that refused to bind God in any way to the
was concerned with the transmutation of base metals into natural order. At its most extreme, even a philosopher such as
precious ones. Although most often associated with the Ghazali, who believed in the truth of mathematics, argued
attempt to “create” gold, many regarded it as an important that God destroyed and created the universe in every instant
part of natural philosophy. in accordance with His arbitrary Will. God’s law, in other

Islam and the Muslim World 613
Secularism, Islamic

words, was regarded as totally arbitrary and, thus, the notion Fakhry, Majid. A History of Islamic Philosophy. 2d edition. New
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Modern Approaches
For sake of convenience, there are essentially three main Qadir, C. A. Philosophy and Science in the Islamic World.
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their religion. A second attempt to bring science and Islam Walbridge, John. The Leaven of the Ancients: Suhrawardi and
together is based on, for lack of a better term, apologetics. the Heritage of the Greeks. Albany: State University of New
According to this approach, “Western” science has failed to York Press, 2000.
formulate a vision of truth based on revelation; rather, it relies
on the rational and secular principles as handed down by the Aaron Hughes
pagan Greeks. The result is the desacralization of knowledge
(cf., Nasr, Qadir). Islam, in contrast, presents a sacred
worldview and it is the job of “Islamic science” to ascertain
this. Proponents of this approach argue that there is such a SECULARISM, ISLAMIC
thing as Islamic science and that it does not subscribe to the
theory of evolution. Accordingly, whenever science threatens Islamic secularism is a movement seeking to limit the scope of
religion (e.g., evolution), the former must ultimately give way religious authority, parallel to similar movements in other
to the latter. Such a dichotomy between “Western” and faith traditions. The limitation may be ideological, as in
“Islamic” science is, as should be clear from this entry, based secularist movements to remove religious authority from
on essentialism and ignores the fact that for much of its state institutions or from social relations; or it may be experihistory Islamic science was, for all intents and purposes, ential, as in the encroachment by consumerism and mass
Western science. The third and final trajectory seems to be media on activities previously regulated by religious authorthe most mainstream; namely, the thousands of Muslim ity. Ideological secularism arose in the nineteenth century,
scientists throughout the globe who engage in the ongoing when atheists such as Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzada (1812–1878)
discovery of scientific principles by means of careful and rejected Islam as inherently incompatible with modern ideals
controlled observation. of progress. In the twentieth century, ideological secularism
gained adherents among devout progressives as well. Major
An image of a fourteenth-century yellow copper astrolabe ap- statements were drafted by Muhammad Husayn Naini
pears in the volume two color insert. (1860–1936), who warned against “religious despotism”;
Ali

Abd al-Raziq (1888–1966), who argued for a separation of
See also Astrology; Astronomy; Education; Falsafa;
religious and political authority; and Nurcholish Madjid (b.
Ghazali, al-; Ibn
Arabi; Ibn Khaldun; Ibn Sina; Ikhwan
1939), who called for the “secularization” of worldly matters
al-Safa; Law; Modernity; Quran.
so as to leave the divine to God.

BIBLIOGRAPHY A generation of military leaders in the middle of the
Alfarabi. “The Enumeration of the Sciences.” In Medieval twentieth century, beginning with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Political Philosophy. Edited by Ralph Lerner and Muhsin (1881–1938), forcibly secularized many Muslim societies,
Mahdi. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1963. subjugating religious authority to increasingly intrusive lay

614 Islam and the Muslim World
Secularization

supervision and stripping it of institutions it previously mo- In the Western tradition, religious revivalist movements did
nopolized, such as courts and schools. At the same time, not necessarily conflict with secular orientations. In the
experiential secularism spread in the daily practices of Mus- Muslim world, contrary to the expectations of the first genlims. For example, alcohol consumption and interest-based eration of modernization theorists, there has been an upsurge
bank accounts increased despite widespread prohibition by in antisecular movements even in those societies long ex-
Islamic authorities. Nonetheless, secularism remains a taboo posed to modernization (for example, Turkey). Muslim exconcept in many Muslim communities, where it is associated perts have argued that modernization does not have to result
with atheism and Western cultural imperialism. in secularization and that modernization is a universal concept over which no single civilization or culture has monop-
See also Modernism; Modernity; Secularization.
oly. The premise that Muslim countries will inevitably grow
more secular as they are exposed to Western notions of
BIBLIOGRAPHY
rationality and progress is not axiomatic. The secularization
Adelkhah, Fariba. Being Modern in Iran. New York: Columbia
process has failed to permeate all aspects of life in the Muslim
University Press, 2000.
world; instead, reaction to it has become a major contributor
Berkes, Niyazi. The Development of Secularism in Turkey. 2d
to the social and political resurgence of Islam. While a small
ed. London: Hurst & Co., 1998.
group of leaders has adopted a Western secular worldview,
the vast majority of Muslims have not adopted secular
Charles Kurzman
perspectives.

Islam has not experienced a reformation analogous to that
SECULARIZATION of Protestantism in Western Christianity. Islamic movements have sought to purify Islam of worldly and heretical
It is often said that secularization is intimately related to the accretions by reinforcing Islamic authority over society and
process by which the Christian West split religion from law. In Western Europe, the rise of the nation-state in the
politics. The origins of this process are traced to Christ’s oft- seventeenth century led to secularization and decreased religquoted words: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things ious influence. Muslims, instead, gave allegiance to the umma,
which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.” the community of the faithful as defined by common adher-
Muslims, in contrast, have fused religion and politics in an ence to faith rather than by political or ethnic boundaries.
attempt to maintain their unique cultural identity worldwide. The notion of the nation-state did not take shape in Muslim
This approach has endured a checkered history: a period thought until the late nineteenth century. Whereas in Europe
of decline and external domination followed by a recent the secularization process was gradual and proceeded in
reassertion of civilizational vigor. Muslim leaders and ruling tandem with socioeconomic growth, in the Muslim world it
elites have been preoccupied with the exact nature of state was treated as an externally imposed blueprint reflecting
and nation-building, the absorption of social change, and European imperial interests. While in the Muslim world
the adjustment to, or backlash against, the processes of secularization preceded religious reformation, in the Eurosecularization by which property, power, and prestige are pean case it resulted more or less from such reformation.
passed from religious to lay control. Today, the term
secularization refers to the overall process by which religious To understand the secularization process in the Muslim
institutions have been deprived of their economic, political, world, it is important to examine the extent to which religious
and social influence. institutions and norms are pervasive in all areas of life. In the
majority of Muslim societies, there is not a distinct separation
It is important to realize, however, that the great achievebetween religion and other aspects of people’s lives. Islam is
ments of the West in the economic, scientific, and technoboth din wa dunya (religion and the world). The basic conflict
logical realms, culminating in what is known as globalization,
here is not necessarily between religion and the world, as was
have spread the secular life throughout the world. The
opportunities generated by enhanced higher education and the case in Christian experience; rather, it is between the
mass communications have had profound impact on both forces of tradition and the forces of modernity.
women and men of the Muslim world, fostering an awareness
In the Muslim world, secularism resulted entirely from
of and a debate over new religious rethinking, public life, civil
European contact and influence. Many Middle Eastern counsociety, religious and ideological tolerance, and individual
tries adopted secular legislation, inspired mostly by European
rights and responsibilities. To small but growing numbers of
models, on a wide range of civil and criminal matters. These
Muslims, human rights are the expression of the process of
laws are now the target of the Islamists’ attack. While concedsecularization.
ing the value of Western technology, Islamists question those
The secularization process has also led to a religious values and practices associated with modernization, including
revivalist backlash in both the Christian and Muslim worlds. materialism, consumerism, individualism, and moral laxity.

Islam and the Muslim World 615
Seljuq

Contemporary reformists in the Muslim world vehemently the Tunisian Shaykh Rachid al-Ghannouchi, have demanded
resist any institutionalized control by religion over human an Islamic constitution and resistance to “Westernization.”
life, arguing that such dominance fosters absolutist tenden- Others, such as
Abd al-Karim Sorush, an Iranian political
cies, destroys the existing intellectual life, and promotes less philosopher, have called for an inward-looking approach to
tolerant and antidemocratic forms of social and political consider the Muslims free and responsible individuals, capacontrol. ble of using their independent judgments. Sorush’s views
are capable of revolutionizing Muslim theology and mass
Since the 1970s, as a result of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, religiosity. Neither the lay modernism of the ruling elites nor
the key question has become, if the struggle between Islamic the rejectionist populism of traditional leaders has been able
reformists and Islamic conservatives is legal or political. to offer a sustainable course for the future of the Islamic
Arguably the struggle between the two is both political and world. Sorush’s synthesis may stand as a viable alternative.
legal. Both reformists and conservatives have governed most The Muslim world has increasingly become the site of an
Muslim countries since they gained independence from West- emerging cultural conflict over “who” controls the process of
ern colonial rule. Emphasizing the separation of religion and social change as well as over “whose interests” are really
politics, these leaders extensively secularized their legal and served by change or resistance to it.
educational systems. Some nationalists, such as Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk (Turkey, 1881–1938), Jamal
Abd al-Nasser (Egypt, See also Pakistan, Islamic Republic of; Reform: Arab
1918–1970), and both Reza Shah (Iran, 1878–1944) and Middle East and North Africa; Reform: Iran.
Mohammad Reza Shah (Iran, 1919–1980), adopted aggressive secularization methods and programs; others, such as
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anwar al-Sadat (Egypt, 1918–1980) and Zulfaqar Ali Bhutto
Esposito, John L. The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality. 3d ed.
(Pakistan, 1928–1979), manipulated Islamic symbols and pur-
New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
sued a more subtle and circumspect approach to secularization.
Falk, Richard A. “The Monotheistic Religions in the Era
A variety of governments—including monarchies, mili- of Globalization.” Global Dialogue 1, no. 1 (Summer
tary dictatorships, and liberal authoritarian regimes—ruled 1999): 139–148.
Egypt for most of the twentieth century. They faced occa- Filali-Ansary, Abdou. “Islam and Liberal Democracy: The
sional challenges and threats from the Muslim Brotherhood Challenge of Secularization.” Journal of Democracy 7, no. 2
and other Islamic organizations. In both Iran and Turkey, the (1996): 76–80.
imposition of a secular state from the top has backfired, Monshipouri, Mahmood. Islamism, Secularism, and Human
resulting in the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and by the Rights in the Middle East. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner
brief takeover of political power by an Islamist prime minister Publishers, 1998.
in Turkey in 1996. In Algeria, nationalist rule since indepen- Sadri, Mahmoud, and Sadri, Ahmad. “Let the Occasional
dence in 1962 has resulted in a bifurcated society like Egypt’s. Chalice Break: Abdolkarim Soroush and Islamic Libera-
A secular society and culture for the urban bourgeoisie and tion Theology.” The Iranian, 26 (October 1998).
intellectuals exist alongside an Islamic culture in the country- Voll, John Obert. Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modside and the urban slums. The abrogation of the 1992 elec- ern World. 2d ed. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University
toral process, which prevented Front Islamique du Salut (Islamic Press, 1984.
Salvation Party or FIS) from controlling parliament, has
plunged Algeria into a civil war. Secularism is now violently
Mahmood Monshipouri
challenged by Islamists.

Since Pakistan’s creation in 1947, that country’s leaders
have faced different forces vying with each other for political
power. In Muslim countries where Islamists have ruled (e.g.,
SELJUQ See Sultanates: Seljuk
Iran, Sudan, and Afghanistan), they have failed to find longterm solutions to many contemporary ills. In Afghanistan, the
Wahhabist Taliban regime immersed the country in a civil
war as well as in a foreign war as a result of the terrorist attacks
of 11 September 2001. SHAFI
I, AL- (C. 767–820)
Recent trends throughout the Muslim world point to the Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi
i, the jurisprudent, was probemergence of an intense debate over reforming Islam. Women ably born in
Asqalan (Ashkelon) in Palestine. He was a pure
in the Muslim world are beginning to demand greater free- Arab on both sides, and on his father’s side he was a third
dom and to question the restrictive status that cultural tradi- cousin, six times removed, to the Prophet. He grew up in
tions have imposed on them. Some Muslim leaders, such as Mecca and northern Arabia and became renowned for his

616 Islam and the Muslim World
Shafi
i, al-

archery and Arabic as well as law. He is said to have studied means toward understanding the application of Quran and
under Malik ibn Anas in Medina for as long as ten years and hadith. His concept of consensus is fairly undeveloped. Howlater debated with al-Shaybani in Baghdad. He emigrated to ever, as made explicit by later tradition, consensus does not
Old Cairo about six years before his death there. Accounts invent new ordinances but rather rests on data from the
vary as to how he died: of an illness; from the after-effects of a Quran and hadith lost to later generations but known to the
beating at the hands of aggrieved adherents of the Maliki Companions of the Prophet, who could scarcely have agreed
school, one of whom he had denounced to the governor for unanimously without the hardest evidence.
insulting him in the course of a debate; or from a beating by
adherents of the Mu
tazili theology. Among modern writers, Schacht stresses an argument
Shafi
i made expressly in two of the short works: that local
Writers of the later Shafi
i school distinguish between custom, hadith from experts of the previous centuries, and
Shafi
i’s early teaching (al-qadim), in Iraq, and his later (al- common sense are always outweighed by hadith from the
jadid), in Egypt. Nine or ten short works on jurisprudence are Prophet. (The Risala assumes without discussion that only
extant, as many as half of which may be early; otherwise, the hadith from the Prophet have weight.) Calder (1983) finds
early teaching is lost except for scattered quotations. The that the Risala legitimizes disagreement among jurisprudents
later works that survive are the Risala (Epistle), an exposition by distinguishing between simple questions whose answers all
of how to infer ordinances from the evidence of revelation; Muslims know and abstruse questions only experts can adthe Umm (Guidance), a large, systematic collection of ordi- dress and whose answers even they can know only probably,
nances; and the rest of the short works. Two large works not certainly. Adherents of all schools from the tenth century
sometimes published in his name, a substantial collection of onwards legitimized disagreement in roughly the same way,
hadith and a collection of ordinances from the Quran, are although it is hard to say to what extent Shafi‘i’s arguments
later extracts from known works. Other works (statements of were what caused the theory to spread. Hallaq argues that just
his creed, comments on asceticism) are likely pseudonymous. because it sought a middle course between traditionalism and
rationalism, well in advance of majority opinion, the Risala
At the level of theory (usul al-fiqh), medieval Muslim attracted little attention until the tenth century.
commentators credit Shafi
i with reconciling the two great
early approaches to discerning the law, mainly hadith and The Umm as we know it manifestly includes some interray, traditionalism and rationalism. The traditionalists pro- polations by later authors. Calder (1993) proposes that the
posed to base Islamic law entirely on what had been transmit- Risala and the Umm (and implicitly the other extant works of
ted from the earliest generations, especially hadith reports of Shafi
i as well) are primarily the work of later disciples writing
what the Prophet had said and done. The rationalists allowed in Shafi
i’s name. Among other things, Calder argues that
more play to reason and sometimes, when it came to revela- these works appeal to prophetic hadith (as opposed to the
tion, argued for reliance on the Quran to the exclusion of opinions of earlier jurisprudents) in the fashion of other
hadith. With the traditionalists, on the one hand, Shafi
i’s works from the early tenth century, not from the early ninth.
Risala argues for reliance on revelation before reason and for Calder’s opinion has not commanded wide assent, but the
hadith as a necessary complement to the Quran. On the question of attribution remains open.
other hand, with the rationalists, it proposes a sophisticated
A Shafi
i school of law was constituted when, first, Shafi
i’s
system of manipulating the revealed texts to justify the law.
doctrine had been collected and organized and, second, a
One of Shafii’s greatest accomplishments was to systema- regular procedure had been developed for training and certitize analogical reasoning. According to Shafii, the jurispru- fying new Shafi
i jurisprudents. The two came together with
dent looks for a strictly defined condition common to known Ibn Surayj (863–918) in Baghdad. He trained his advanced
and unknown cases, concerning which there is a certain students with the Mukhtasar (Epitome) of al-Muzani, Shafi
i’s
ruling from elsewhere in Quran or hadith. So, for example, most important Egyptian disciple. The other surviving schools
the Quran expressly forbids grape wine; the reason (ma
na in of law formed similarly over the course of the tenth century.
Shafi
i’s exposition,
illa in the later tradition of usul al-fiqh) is The Shafi
i school is distinguished by the acuity of its juridical
that it intoxicates (not, say, that it is red or imported from reasoning, so that writing about the theory of Islamic law was
Byzantine territory); date wine also intoxicates; therefore, long dominated by Shafi
i jurists, although doubtless their
date wine also is forbidden. preponderance will appear to diminish as more and more
non-Shafi
i works are studied. Outside North Africa, the
Later writers in the Shafi
i tradition argued expressly that Shafi
i and Hanafi schools for centuries almost divided the
the law had basically four sources, meaning four sorts of Islamic world between them. At the end of the Middle Ages,
evidence by which the jurisprudent discerned God’s will: however, the Hanafi school was favored by Turkish rulers
Quran, hadith, consensus, and analogy. However, Lowry has from the Ottoman Empire to the Mogul, so the Shafi
i school
shown that the Risala itself ultimately recognizes only two is now predominant only on the edges of the Islamic world, as
sources, Quran and hadith. For Shafi
i, analogy is just a in Indonesia, Yemen, and East Africa.

Islam and the Muslim World 617
Shah

See also Law; Madhhab. See also Reform: Arab Middle East and North Africa.

BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY
Calder, Norman. “Ikhtilâf and Ijma in Shâfi
i’s Risâla.” Studia Lemke, Wolf-Dieter. Mahmud Shaltut (1893–1963) und die
Islamica 58 (1983): 39–47. Reform der Azhar. Frankfurt: P. D. Lang, 1980.
Calder, Norman. Studies in Early Muslim Jurisprudence. New Zebiri, Kate. Mahmud Shaltut and Islamic Modernism. Oxford,
York: Clarendon Press, 1993. U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Hallaq, Wael B. A History of Islamic Legal Theories. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Sohail H. Hashmi
Khadduri, Majid, trans. Islamic Jurisprudence: Shafi
i’s Risala.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1961.
Lowry, Joseph Edmund. “The Legal-Theoretical Content of
the Risala.” Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1999. SHARI
A
Schacht, Joseph. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence.
Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1950. Often translated as “Islamic law” the shari
a is better understood as the path of correct conduct that God has revealed
Christopher Melchert through his messengers, particularly the prophet Muhammad. The earliest sources indicate its meaning as a “way of
belief,” either Muslim or non-Muslim, and it was used to
translate the word Torah into Arabic. Jurists tend to prefer the
SHAH See Monarchy term fiqh (understanding) in their books on jurisprudence,
leaving shari
a as a general term. Intention (niyya) to fulfill
one’s duty to God is often as important as the act itself, and
every action should be conceived as worshipping God.

SHALTUT, MAHMUD (1893–1963) This focus on God extended to a medieval institutionalization of the shari
a that limited human authority. Even
Mahmud Shaltut was an Egyptian religious scholar, jurist, today, there is no central authority for matters of Islamic law
and reformer of al-Azhar, the renowned center of Islamic in Sunni Islam (some Shi
ites have developed authority struclearning in Cairo. Born in a farming village of lower Egypt, tures), and Muslims may seek advice from a number of
Shaltut distinguished himself as a student in the princi- different authorities (muftis) before making up their mind.
pal religious institute of Alexandria and later at al-Azhar. Further, actions are assigned one of five “shari
a values”
He became an instructor of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) at (ahkam); between required and forbidden are: recommended,
al-Azhar in 1927. The following year, the reform-minded indifferent, and disapproved. These valuations have led some
Muhammad Mustafa al-Maraghi was appointed shaykh al- to describe shari
a as ethics rather than as law. Arguably,
Azhar (rector), and Shaltut immediately emerged as one of postcolonial legal institutions have utterly changed the Mushis ardent supporters. When conservative opposition forced lim’s relationship to shari
a, both by codifying the law and by
al-Maraghi out of office the following year, Shaltut con- replacing shari
a courts.
tinued pressing for reform. Because of his opposition, he
was dismissed from al-Azhar in 1931. Upon al-Maraghi’s Shari
a in Western discourse has come to signify Islam as
reappointment as rector in 1935, he returned as a senior moribund or authoritarian, perhaps reflecting Christian preofficial in the faculty of Islamic law. Following service in sumptions of a distinction between law and gospel. Rhetorical
numerous committees and conferences inside and outside of use is also found among Muslim intellectuals, some of whom
al-Azhar, Shaltut was appointed shaykh al-Azhar in 1958. urge a “return” to shari
a focusing primarily on issues of
During his tenure, Shaltut oversaw a modernization of the public dress and ritual conduct, but also invoking the idea of
school’s curriculum in theology and law, and the addition of the shari
a as a total way of life.
new faculties, including medicine. His influence, however,
See also Law.
was undermined when the Nasser government imposed direct state control over al-Azhar in 1961. The progressive bent
to Shaltut’s thought is best exemplified in his condemnation BIBLIOGRAPHY
of Islamic sectarianism and his appointment of scholars of Calder, Norman. “Shari
a.” In Vol. 9, Encyclopaedia of Islam.
Shi
ite fiqh at al-Azhar. But on social issues such as polygyny Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1962.
and birth control, he adopted more conservative positions Goldziher, Ignaz. Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law.
that were at odds with government reform programs. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981.

618 Islam and the Muslim World
Shari
at-Shangalaji, Reza-Qoli

Weiss, Bernard. The Spirit of Islamic Law. Athens: University meanings in Muslim usage, and the word is related in meanof Georgia Press, 1998. ing to sayyid. Ashraf (the plural form of sharif ), like sadat (or
sada, the plural form of sayyid), are subject to special rules in
Jonathan E. Brockopp Islamic law. One meaning, that of a descendant of the Prophet,
is perhaps the most common, and specifically it often indicates descent through the line of al-Hasan, the Prophet’s
grandson. Muslim genealogists differ in their definition of
SHARI
ATI,
ALI (1933–1977) sharif (as they do over sayyid). Some define sharif in a broad
manner (including, for example, descendants of the Prophet’s
Born in 1933 in the province of Khorasan, northeast of Iran,

Ali Shari
ati died in 1977 in London of natural causes. His cousins); others are stricter, limiting the term to descendants
intellectual disposition was formed in early adulthood through of Muhammad through Hasan, the older son of the Prophet’s
his involvement with the Center for the Propagation of daughter (Fatima) and her husband,
Ali. The two extremes
Islamic Truths, an educational and advocacy institute founded only roughly correspond to the Sunni or Shi
ite proclivities.
by his father, and later with the movement God-Worshiping For example, ashraf are prohibited from receiving the alms
Socialists. Both organizations advocated a reformist Islam, (zakat), though in Shi
ite law they are compensated by being
the goal of which was to liberate religion from its “regressive” the sole recipient of the one-fifth tax (khums). Some hadith
and “passive” outlook and to promote social justice. Shari
ati portray the ashraf as guaranteed a place in heaven, and others
never received any traditional seminarian education. He exhort the community to show them respect and honor.
earned a bachelor’s degree in French from Mashad Univer- Some commentators have argued that these stipulations are
sity in 1958 and received his doctorate from the Sorbonne in not nullified, even if the individual is a sinner. The governor
1963. His residence in Paris in the early 1960s and his of Mecca (who was always a descendant of the Prophet) was
exposure to African anticolonial movements and their French known as al-sharif during the Ottoman period.
intellectual advocates proved to be significant in the development of his Islamic worldview. See also Sayyid.

Shari
ati formulated an Islamic Weltanschauung in his BIBLIOGRAPHY
most celebrated book Islam-shenasi (Islamology), published
Gilsenan, Michael. Recognising Islam: Religion and Society in the
in 1969. He identified a dynamic and progressive “true Islam”
Modern Middle East. Croom Helm: London, 1982.
of Imam
Ali (Alavid Shi
ism) and distinguished it from the
petrified institutionalized Islam of the clergy (Safavid Islam).
Through a revisionist genealogy of Islamic concepts and Robert Gleave
ideas, he articulated a philosophy of history and social change
that he believed would appeal to young modern Iranian
intellectuals. He conceived his Islamic Weltanschauung as a
counter hegemonic ideology against the “trinity of oppres- SHARI
AT-SHANGALAJI, REZA-QOLI
sion”—the economic power of capitalism, the coercive politi- (1890–1943)
cal power of monarchy, and the cultural dominance of the
Safavid Islam. Although Shari
ati came to be known as the A reformist Iranian theologian during the secularizing reign
ideologue of the Iranian revolution par excellence, his ideas of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi, Reza-Qoli Shari
atremained marginal to the state-sanctioned interpretations of Shangalaji was considered a heretic by his religious peers for
Islam in postrevolutionary Iran. his attempts to modernize and reform Islam in Iran. He
supported Twelver Shi
ism: namely, the existence of free will
See also Reform: Iran.
in human beings, the infallibility of the imam, and the idea
that the twelfth, or current, imam is hidden from the world
BIBLIOGRAPHY
and will emerge again. However, he also advocated the use of
Rahnema, Ali. An Islamic Utopian, A Political Biography of
Ali scientific thought in Islam and the pursuit of social justice,
Shari
ati. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1998.
and may have been an admirer of Wahhabism, which was
hostile to Shi
ism. His main suggestion, to use ijtihad (discus-
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
sion) for the purposes of reform in order to get rid of taqlid
(conservatism), was rejected as too secular by the religious
leaders of the Iranian ulema, who were conservative and
SHARIF already felt under attack by Reza Shah’s own secularizing and
authoritarian reforms. After Reza Shah’s fall from power,
The word sharif is derived from the Arabic root “to be noble, they reestablished control and reinstituted strict Islamic law
highborn.” Sharif is an honorific term that has a variety of in Iran. Shangalaji’s reformist thought was subsequently

Islam and the Muslim World 619
Shaykh al-Islam

declared heretical and ignored, particularly under the cur- was abolished, as were all the trappings of the Ottoman
rent, fundamentalist regime, which advocates traditional in- caliphate, in 1924.
terpretations of Muslim law and opposes reform. Since his
death, Shangalaji’s ideas have fallen into obscurity. See also Empires: Ottoman; Empires: Safavid and Qajar.

See also Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi; Reform: Iran; BIBLIOGRAPHY
Shi
a: Imami (Twelver). Repp, R. C. The Mufti of Istanbul. Oxford, U.K.: Ithaca
Press, 1986.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Richard, Y. “Shari
at Shangalaji: A Reformist Theologian of Robert Gleave
the Rida Shah Period.” In Authority and Political Culture in
Shi
ism. Edited by S. A. Arjomand. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.
SHAYKHIYYA
Paula Stiles
Shaykhiyya was a nineteenth-century Iranian, mystical, sectarian movement within Shi
ism that was inspired by Shaykh
Ahmad al-Ahsai, an eighteenth-century cleric who originally
SHAYKH AL-ISLAM came from the Arabian peninsula. It was more popular with
the common people, who found it more accessible and vital
Before the rise to power of the Ottomans and Safavids, shaykh than its rival Shi
ite schools, Usulism and Akhbarism. It
al-Islam (pl. shuyukh al-Islam) was, in general, an honorific emphasized gaining gnostic knowledge through the love of
title given to the leading scholar (or at times, spiritual Sufi God, in addition to the dry, legalistic study of the Quran and
master) in a particular locality. During the Ottoman and hadiths and rigid traditionalism advocated by the other two
Safavid dynasties, it evolved into an official administrative schools. Shaykhiyya espoused the concept that the twelfth
position. The shaykh al-Islam was responsible for government imam (descendant of the prophet Muhammad) of Shi
ite
control of education (through the madrasa system) and law Islam had gone into hiding from humankind and remains in
(through the courts), and therefore, for the purposes of “occultation” until he returns shortly before the end of the
legitimacy, had to be a legally trained and well-respected world. The “Fourth Principle” of Shaykhiyya (rokn-e rabi
)
scholar. His fatwa (opinion), though technically nonbinding envisaged a “perfect Shi
a,” the only person on Earth who
on a judge (qadi), held the force of government policy. In the could become aware (through mystical intuition) of the
Ottoman Empire, the great shaykh al-Islam Ebus-Su
ud (Ar. Hidden Imam while he was in occultation. Shaykh Ahmad did
Abu l-Su
ud, d. 1574) acted, not only as a powerful influence not claim this role for himself, but the followers of his chief
over the sultan in terms of policy, but also enforced the successor, Sayyid Kazim Rashti, believed that Rashti was the
primacy of Hanafi legal doctrine within the empire. Ottoman perfect Shi
a of his time. Rashti formed much of the basic
shuyukh al-Islam were known as the “Mufti” of the empire, organization of Shaykiyya as a school of thought.
and while others were able to give fatwas, it was their legal
opinions that (at least officially) were authoritative. Within Shaykh Ahmad (1753–1826), one of the last great Muslim
the Safavid Empire, shuyukh al-Islam such as Mohammad philosophers before the influx of European thought, was a
Baqer Sabzawari (d. 1679) and Mohammad Baqer Majlesi (d. gentle man of paradox who enjoyed both the patronage of the
1699) were renowned as scholars rather than policy makers, court of the Qajar Shah in Tehran and the love of the masses,
though they too clearly had official responsibilities which yet refused an official position for fear that he might lose
included presiding over the coronation ceremony of a new touch with the common people. Originally from Bahrain, he
shah. The shuyukh al-Islam formed a network of government- spent the last twenty years of his life in Iran. He considered
appointed figures in Safavid Iran, and functioned as a means himself an orthodox Shi
ite who was hostile to Sufism, yet
of enforcing a legal unity over a diverse and often fractious inspired a movement that incorporated many elements of
population. Sufi thought. Shaykh Ahmad emphasized the necessity for a
religious leader to combine mystical revelation with tradi-
The post of shaykh al-Islam survived in both the Ottoman tional jurisprudence. His philosophy, influenced by visions of
Empire and Iran into the nineteenth century, though with a the prophet Muhammad, numerology, rigorous study of
reduced significance. The Afshar, Zand, and Qajar dynasties Muslim law, and the religious thought of his native Bahrain,
of Iran certainly appointed shuyukh al-Islam, though these inspired the movement that bore his name after his death.
were rarely major figures within the religious establishment. The movement was influenced heavily by its founder’s fasci-
In Iran, the post seems to have died out in the late nine- nation with myth and gnostic thought (
irfan). Though Ahmad
teenth century. The shaykh al-Islam of the Ottoman Porte in was a mystic, and held many beliefs similar to the Sufis’, he
Istanbul continued to be appointed, though there too the attacked them as anti-Shi
ite Sunnis with pantheistic tendenpost was rarely held by renowned or dynamic scholars. It cies and criticized them for claiming authority that only the

620 Islam and the Muslim World
Shi
a

imams should have, though the ultimate authority belonged The First Fitna
to the prophet Muhammad. After Ahmad’s death, his follow- The Shi
a first formed an identifiable movement in Islamic
ers used the Sufi ideal of the Perfect Person to formulate the history during the First Civil War (fitna), which tore the
concept of the Perfect Shi
a. This person could be used as an Muslim community apart between 656 and 661 C.E. Accordauthority because he had received mystical knowledge from ing to Shi
i doctrine,
Ali was meant to assume leadership of
God, in addition to his study of Muslim law. In a way, the community upon the Prophet’s death in 632. Tradition
Shaykhiyya later became a form of Sufism untouched by holds that the Prophet designated his cousin as heir in a
Sunni influence, eventually inspiring Babi and Bahaism. The speech made at Ghadir Khumm on the way back from
Perfect Shi
a did not take precedence, however, over the Muhammad’s farewell pilgrimage, made shortly before his
imams, who were exalted to a higher degree than in the past. death. However, the jealousy and ambition of the Prophet’s
This reflected the chaos in eighteenth- and early nineteenth- other principal Companions (Abu Bakr,
Umar, and
Uthman)
century Shi
ism, caused by external forces, and which created prevented him from assuming that post. Abu Bakr was the
an increased need for tradition and a central authority to first, serving as leader from 632 to 634. He was followed by
follow. Instead, Shaykhiyya, like its founder, attempted to
Umar (634–644), and finally by
Uthman (644–656).
strike a balance between the dry legalism of pure jurisprudence and the uncontrolled (in their eyes) individualistic Shi
ism as a movement, however, burst into full view with
esotericism of the Sufis, though it did not always succeed. the assassination of
Uthman and the ensuing civil war.
Two branches of Shaykhiyya have survived in Tabriz and
Uthman, a member of the aristocratic Umayyah clan of
Kerman. The activities of the Shaykhis of Kerman were Quraysh, had converted to Islam early on, marrying the
suppressed under the Islamic Republic of Iran. Prophet’s daughters Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum. As caliph, he appointed many of his relatives to lucrative governor-
See also Shi
a: Early; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver). ships in the newly conquered provinces, and was consequently
widely criticized for nepotism. Disgruntled Companions,
BIBLIOGRAPHY based primarily in Egypt, conspired against him and suc-
Cole, Juan R. I. “The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh ceeded in assassinating him in Medina in 656. At this point,
Ahmad al-Ahsa’i.” Studia Islamica 80 (1994): 1–23.
Ali was chosen as caliph, but soon met opposition from the
Umayyah clan, the Prophet’s widow
Aisha, the prominent
Paula Stiles Companions Talhah and al-Zubayr, and others.


Uthman’s enemies accused him of complicity in
Uthman’s
assassination, because he showed little interest in pursuing
SHI
A the conspirators and in fact had close ties with some of them,
including his step-son Muhammad b. Abu Bakr. Protest
against
Ali sparked a major war, pitting
Ali’s supporters,
EARLY
Devin J. Stewart who were centered in the garrison town of Kufa, in Iraq,
against opposition forces based in Basra and Syria. In 656,
IMAMI (TWELVER)

Ali’s forces met those of
Aisha and her co-generals, Talha
David Pinault
and al-Zubayr, just outside Basra, in what came to be known
ISMA
ILI as the Battle of the Camel, because
Aisha joined the fray in
Farhad Daftary
an armored palanquin mounted on her camel,
Askar.
ZAYDI (FIVER)
Robert Gleave
Ali’s forces were victorious. Talhah and al-Zubayr were
killed, and
Aisha was captured and returned to Medina in
shame. The tide turned against
Ali the following year,
EARLY however, with the battle of Siffin in the Syrian desert.
Ali lost
The Shi
a were originally the “partisans” of
Ali, cousin of this battle after his deputy bungled arbitration with the agent
Muhammad’s cousin and husband of the Prophet’s daughter, of Mu
awiya, the governor of Damascus. A large group of
Fatima. Today, however, the label designates a number of
Ali’s supporters, angered that he had submitted to arbitradistinct groups that have arisen over the course of Islamic tion, left his cause. Known as the Kharijis “deserters,” they
history and which are united by a belief that the leader (caliph became bitter enemies of
Ali.
or imam) of the Muslim community (umma) should be a
member of the Prophet’s family (ahl al-bayt). The Shi
a
Ali retreated to Kufa, but rallied sufficiently to defeat a
include the Twelvers, second largest of all the Muslim sects Khariji army at Nahrawan in 658. In 661,
Ali fell to the blows
(the largest being the Sunni). Other Shi
a groups include the of a Khariji assassin in Kufa.
Ali’s supporters recognized his
Zaydis, Khoja Isma
ilis, and Bohra Isma
ilis, who taken to- eldest son Hasan as their leader, but Hasan soon entered into
gether, represent more than ten percent of the world Muslim a truce with Mu
awiya and renounced his claim to the
population. Caliphate. Thus, the First Civil War ended.

Islam and the Muslim World 621
Shi
i Imams
Shi
a

Ja
far 1.
Ali al-
Abbas
(d. 661)


Abdallah
Abdallah
(by Fatima) (by Fatima) (by Hanafi woman)
2. Hasan 3. Husayn Muhammad b. al-Hanifiyya
(d. 669) (d. 680) (d. 700)

Ali
Mu
awiya 4.
Ali (Zayn al-‘Abidin)
Abu Hashim
(d. 714)
(d. 716)
Zayd Hasan
Muhammad


Abdallah Ibrahim
Abdallah 5. Muhammad al-Baqir Zayd
b. Mu
awiya (d. c. 758) (d. 731) (d. 740)
(d. 746) Ibrahim al-Saffah al-Mansur
(d. 748) (d. 754) (d. 775)
Yahya Ibrahim Muhammad Idris
(d. 763) al-Nafs 6. Ja
far al-Sadiq Yahya
Isa
al-Zakiya (d. 765) (d. 743) (d. 783)
(d. 762) The Abbasid Caliphs
Ibrahim Tabataba

Ahmad
(d. 860)
Muhammad 7. Isma
il 7. Musa al-Kazim
b. Tabataba al-Qasim (d. 760) (d. 799)
(d. 815) (d. 860)

8.
Ali al-Rida
(d. 818)
Zayd
Muhammad
Husayn al-Mahdi 9. Muhammad al-Jawad
(d. 835)

Hasan Muhammad
(d. 884) (d. 900) The Qarmatians 10.
Ali al-Hadi
(d. 868)
Yahya al-Hadi
Ubaydallah
(d. 911) (d. 934)
Zaydi Imams 11. Hasan al-
Askari
of Tabaristan (d. 874)

12. Muhammad al-Mahdi
Zaydi Imams The Fatimid
of the Yemen Caliphs

The "Twelver" or Imami Shi
a

SOURCE: Peters, F. E. Allah's Commonwealth. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973. Quoted in Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Islam and the Muslim World
Shi
a imam lineage.
Shi
a

Shi
a Under the Umayyads the eighth Imam of the Twelver Shi
a line, as his succes-
The Muslim community was united under one regime, for sor in 816.
Mu
awiya became caliph of the entire community by default.
The capital was moved to Damascus, and when Mu
awiya Shi
a and Sunni: A Comparison
designated his son Yazid as heir, the Umayyad dynasty An untenable distinction is often made between the Sunni
(661–750) was established. Doctrinally, however, the Muslim caliph, seen as a purely political authority, and the Shi
a
community remained divided into three main groups,
Ali’s imam, seen as a religious authority. In the early period, the
supporters (the Shi
a), enemies of
Ali who had originally titles imam and caliph referred, at least potentially, to the
supported him but renounced their allegiance at Siffin (the same office and authority. The goal behind the Shi
a revolts
Kharijis), and the main body of his opponents, the Umayyads against the Umayyads and Abbasids was to depose what was
and their supporters. considered to be the illegitimate leader of the community and
to replace him with a legitimate one. Both for the Shi
a and
Throughout Umayyad rule, the Shi
a engaged in periodic their opponents, the Shi
ite Imam was always a potential
uprisings against what they viewed as the illegitimate caliphs, counter-caliph. Whether chosen from the descendants of
Ali
revolting in the name of various members of ahl al-bayt. The or from another line, the caliph was held to be both a religious
most famous of these incidents is the revolt of Husayn,
Ali’s and political authority even by the Sunni, and was called
second son, upon the death of Mu
awiya and the accession of imam as well as sahib hadha al-amr (“the one in charge”).
his son Yazid in the year 680. Husayn was summoned to Kufa
to lead a revolt. He set out from Medina with a small In the first Islamic century, there can hardly have been any
contingent, but Umayyad forces halted him in the Iraqi other identifiable religious authorities; jurists, theologians,
desert, preventing him from reaching his supporters in Kufa. and others did not gain influence until later. An indication of
Rather than surrender, Husayn and his followers fought. the caliphs’ religious authority is the fact that their decisions
Most were slaughtered, and Husayn’s head was delivered to often became enshrined in Islamic law. An example of this can
Yazid in Damascus. The martyrdom of Husayn and his be found in the “Conditions of
Umar,” restrictions on the ahl
followers is still retold and re-enacted by the Shi
a on
Ashura, al-dhimma imposed by the second caliph,
Umar b. al-Khattab
the tenth day of Muharram, which is the first month of the (or possibly the Umayyad
Umar b.
Abd al-
Aziz). These
Islamic calendar. “Conditions” provide the basis for many of the laws that
govern the status of Jews and Christians in Islam.
Four years after Husayn’s death, a faction among the
Kufan Shi
a arose in revolt. This group became known as al- Another popular misconception is that Sunnism is the
Tawwabun (the penitents), a name that reflected their dedi- original form of Islam, from which the Shi
a deviated. In the
cation to the cause of Husayn and their regret they had failed beginning, the opponents of the Shi
a were not Sunnis,
to come to his aid. In 686, Mukhtar al-Thaqafi led an initially properly speaking, but adherents to what might be termed
successful revolt in the name of Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, Umayyad Islam. Sunni Islam is a compromise position bea son of
Ali, holding Kufa in 686–687. In 740, Zayd, a tween Shi
ite and Umayyad Islam, and could only have come
grandson of Husayn, led a new revolt in southern Iraq, but into existence some time after the advent of the Abbasids.
was defeated and killed.
Abd Allah b. Mu
awiya, a great- This may be seen succinctly in the Sunni phrase al-khulafa

grandson of Muhammad’s cousin Ja
far, led yet another al-rashidun (lit. the “rightly guided caliphs”), which indicates
insurrection (744–747). approval of all the first four caliphs. The Umayyads revered
the first three caliphs, but
Ali was anathema to them. They
Shi
a and the Abbasids reportedly instituted a practice of cursing him from the pulpit
The Abbasid revolution that toppled the Umayyads in 750 in Friday prayer. The Shi
a, however, revered
Ali but debegan, in part, as a Shi
a movement, adopting the slogan al- tested or disapproved of the first three caliphs. The Sunni
rida min al al-bayt “the acceptable candidate from the family approval of all four could only have developed at a much later
of the Prophet.” Upon victory, a descendant of the Prophet’s date, as an attempt to reconcile the two opposing positions.
uncle
Abbas assumed rule as caliph. In a clear pro-Shi
a
move, the new dynasty established their capital in Iraq, first at Rival Factions within the Shi
a Community
Wasit, then at Baghdad, which was founded in 761. Conflict over leadership of the Muslim community and over
succession among rival Shi
i claimants to the imamate gave
The Abbasids, however, soon turned on their Shi
a allies, rise to theological doctrines and concepts that would remain
and eventually took over the Umayyads’s role as illegitimate important throughout Islamic history. In the course of the
rulers and the nemesis of Shi
a aspirations. Muhammad al- eighth century the Shi
a developed the doctrines of the
Nafs al-Zakiyya, “the Pure Soul,” led a Shi
ite revolt against imam’s
isma, meaning “infallibility” or “divine protection
the Abbasids as early as 762, and the Abbasid period would from sin,” and nass, the explicit and divinely sanctioned
witness countless more revolts in the name of various descen- designation of the imam by his predecessor. The ghulat
dants of
Ali. Attempts at reconciliation were short-lived, the (extremists) developed more exaggerated forms of reverence
most notable being al-Mamun’s appointment of
Ali al-Rida, for various claimants to the imamate, including beliefs that

Islam and the Muslim World 623
Shi
a

the imam did not die but went into occultation (ghayba) or Madelung, Wilfred. The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of
that he would return (raj
a) as a messianic figure (mahdi) the Early Caliphate. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univerbefore the apocalypse. Others claimed that the imam shared sity Press, 1997.
in prophetic authority, had status equal to that of the Prophet, Modarressi, Hossein. Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative
possessed divine qualities, or manifested divinity through Period of Shi
ite Islam. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univerdivine infusion (hulul). Some of these extreme concepts, sity Press, 1993.
particularly occultation, would become standard doctrine in Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shi
i Islam: The History
the main divisions of the Shi
a in later centuries. and Doctrines of Twelver Shi
ism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale
University Press, 1985.
A second set of issues had to do with the status of the Moussavi, Ahmad Kazemi. Religious Authority in Shi
ite Islam.
Prophet’s Companions. In order to bolster the legitimacy of Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought

Ali, the Shi
ites used hadith reports and historical accounts and Civilization, 1996.
concerning the first three caliphs,
Aisha, and many other Sachedina, Abdulaziz Abdulhussein. Islamic Messianism: The
Companions to impugn their characters, casting them as Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Sh
ism. Albany: State Universinners, incompetent leaders, or outright unbelievers. The sity of New York Press, 1981.
Sunnis, used similar accounts to uphold the view that the Watt, W. Montgomery. “Shi
ism Under the Umayyads.”
Companions were all exemplary. The Shi
ite position, while Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1960): 158–72.
certainly exaggerated over time, readily admits the serious- Watt, W. Montgomery. The Formative Period of Islamic Thought.
ness of the conflicts that wracked the early Muslim commu- Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1973.
nity, while Sunni historiography has often endeavored to
cover them up or explain them away. Devin J. Stewart
A seventeenth-century fresco depicting Iman Shah Zaid is
IMAMI (TWELVER)
represented in the volume two color insert.
The term Ithna
Ashari (“Twelver”) or Imami refers to the
See also Empires: Abbasid; Empires: Umayyad; Shi
a: denomination of Shi
ism to which the majority of Shi
as
Imami (Twelver); Succession. worldwide adhere. Characteristic of Twelver Shi
ism is recognition of the authority of twelve successive imams (spiritual
leaders) who were members or descendants of ahl al-bayt (the
BIBLIOGRAPHY
prophet Muhammad’s immediate family). Their authority is
Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali. The Divine Guide in Early said to have been transmitted over time via the lineage of
Shi
ism: The Sources of Esotericism in Islam. Translated by Muhammad’s daughter Fatima and her husband,
Ali. Also
David Streight. Albany: State University of New York
characteristic of Twelver Shi
ism is an emotional attachment
Press, 1994.
to ahl al-bayt that manifests itself in annual rituals commemo-
Arjomand, Said Amir. The Shadow of God and the Hidden rating the battlefield death of the imam Husayn, grandson of
Imam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Muhammad.
Crone, Patricia, and Hinds, Martin. God’s Caliph: Religious
Authority in the First Centuries of Islam. Cambridge, U.K.: Twelver Shi
ism identifies the first imam as Muhammad’s
Cambridge University Press, 1986. cousin and son-in-law,
Ali b. Abi Talib. According to Shi
a
Donaldson, Dwight M. The Shi
ite Religion. London: tradition, the Prophet, shortly before his own death, publicly
Luzac, 1933. announced the selection of
Ali as his successor. But
Ali was
Farouk, Omar. “Some Aspects of the Abbasid-Husaynid blocked repeatedly from power. He did not contest the
Relations during the Early Abbasid Period, 132–193/ election of the first three caliphs, apparently out of a desire to
750–809 A.D.” Arabica 22 (1975): 170–179. avoid civil war. Finally,
Ali did obtain the caliphate and ruled
for five years, only to be murdered in 661 C.E.
Goldziher, Ignaz. An Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law.
Translated by Anras and Ruth Hamori. Princeton, N.J.:
In Twelver Shi
ism the term imam indicates those mem-
Princeton University Press, 1984.
bers of ahl al-bayt who are the true spiritual leaders of the
Halm, Heinz. Shi
ism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Muslim community regardless of any political recognition or
Press, 1991. lack thereof extended by the Islamic world at large. After
Ali,
Hodgson, Marshall G. S. “How Did the Early Shi
a Become the imamate passed to his sons, Hasan and Husayn successively.
Sectarian.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 75
(1955): 1–13. The martyrdom of the third imam, Husayn, during the
Kohlberg, Etan. “Imam and Community in the Pre-Ghayba second civil war in 680 is the most decisive event in Shi
ite
Period.” In Authority and Political Culture. Edited by Said history. At Karbala, near the Euphrates River, he was inter-
Amir Arjomand. Albany: State University of New York cepted and surrounded by forces loyal to the Umayyad caliph,
Press, 1988. Yazid. During the initial days of the month of Muharram the

624 Islam and the Muslim World
Shi
a

imam Husayn and his followers withstood siege by Yazid’s referred to as the Ja
fari tradition). Additionally, he is credited
army, which hoped to force the small band to surrender. with having further defined the qualifications for the imamate
Husayn chose death instead. On
Ashura, the tenth of in terms of the concept of
ilm (knowledge). The imams are
Muharram, Husayn was killed, his household taken captive. said to be the most knowledgeable of all humankind in
The train of captives, including Husayn’s sister Zaynab and matters pertaining to religious law, the principles governing
his son
Ali Zayn al-
Abidin, was marched through the desert conduct in this life and rewards and punishments in the next,
to Damascus. and the realm of the unseen. In particular the imams’ knowledge extends to scripture. They understand both the zahir
Husayn’s death at Karbala marks the beginning of the (the external or literal meaning) and the batin (the hidden
transformation of Shi
ism from a political movement to a significance) of the Quran. The batin is accessed via tawil, an
distinctive religious tradition within Islam. His death is viewed interpretive process that applies allegory and symbolism to
by devout Shi
as as a sacrifice that benefits believers. In the scriptural text.
exchange for the suffering voluntarily undergone by Husayn
and the other Karbala martyrs, God has granted them shafa
a A turning point came in Shi
ite history with the death of
(the power of intercession). Intercession is granted especially Hasan al-
Askari, the eleventh imam (d. 874). Skeptics in the
to those believers who earn savab (religious merit) by mourn- Muslim community claimed that Hasan had died without
ing Husayn during Muharram. leaving behind a son as leader of the Shi
as. But Imami
doctrine asserts that Hasan did in fact have a son, named Abu
The centuries following Husayn’s death saw the gradual al-Qasim Muhammad, and it explains the circumstance that
emergence of distinctive Shi
ite communities, not only in Muhammad was unknown to his contemporaries by invoking
southern Iraq, the site of the imam’s martyrdom, but also in the ancient concept of ghayba (occultation). To protect the
Lebanon, Syria, and parts of South Asia. To this day various twelfth imam from his persecutors, God concealed the young
localities in India and Pakistan commemorate Husayn’s death man from the world at large. The period from 874 to 941 is
with an annual “Horse of Karbala” procession. Mourners known as the Lesser Occultation. From concealment this
parade a riderless stallion caparisoned to represent Zuljenah, “Hidden Imam” provided guidance to his community through
the horse ridden by Husayn at Karbala. The horse’s appear- a series of agents, who met with him and conveyed his
ance acts as a stimulus to rituals of lamentation, the perform- directives to the world.
ance of which earns participants savab.
The period from 941 to the present day is known as the
Twelver Shi
as recognize as the fifth imam Muhammad Greater Occultation. No longer are there agents who confer
al-Baqir (d. c. 735), the son of the fourth imam,
Ali Zayn al- with the Hidden Imam directly or transmit his instructions to

Abidin. Like his father, al-Baqir avoided confrontation with the faithful. Nevertheless he is alive and will return to earth
the reigning caliphate. He promulgated the doctrine of nass one day as the Mahdi, “the rightly guided by God,” when he
(“designation”): guided by God, each imam designates the will purge the earth of all the injustice that has stained it since
person who is to be his successor as spiritual leader of the the time when
Ali, Husayn, and the other members of ahl al-
Muslim community. Thus the imamate is not a matter of bayt were first denied the political recognition to which they
human choice or self-assertion. This doctrine countered the were entitled. For this reason the twelfth imam is called alactivities of al-Baqir’s half-brother Zayd b.
Ali, who attracted Muntazar (“the Awaited One”), for Imami Shi
ite belief looks
the support of militants impatient with al-Baqir’s political hopefully to the Mahdi’s return as the inauguration of the
passivity. Zayd led an uprising against the reigning Umayyad Day of Judgment.
government in Kufa and was killed there in the fighting in 740.
Imami folklore includes tales that indicate that the twelfth
The political engagement characteristic of Zaydi Shi
ism imam dwells among us, invisibly present but capable of
was countered by Ja
far al-Sadiq (d. 765), the sixth imam in manifesting himself to individuals in moments of need. Iraqi
the Twelver tradition. Like his father al-Baqir, he espoused Shi
as in the 1990s who had returned from the pilgrimage to
an accommodationist attitude toward the caliphal authorities. Mecca recounted to this author stories of hajj-sightings.
Also like his father, he advocated the doctrine of nass, thereby Elderly people who had been knocked to the ground and
delegitimizing rival claimants to leadership of the Shi
ite nearly trampled in the pilgrim-crowds told of how they had
community. Some Muslim scholars trace to his imamate the been rescued by “a tall youthful man of radiant appearance”
doctrine of taqiyya (“dissimulation”), which permits Shi
as who subsequently vanished. Surely, they argued, this had
threatened with persecution to conceal their denominational been the Hidden Imam.
identity as followers of the imams. These teachings fostered
in the Imami community a political quietism that furthered The net effect of Twelver belief concerning the Mahdi
their survival as a religious minority under the Sunni caliphs. was to strengthen the accommodationist attitude already
prevalent among the Imami Shi
as. Desires for social justice,
Ja
far al-Sadiq was also renowned as a scholar of law (for for radical changes in the worldly order, and for the restorathis reason the body of legal lore in Twelver Shi
ism is tion of the caliphal throne to ahl al-bayt were linked to the

Islam and the Muslim World 625
Shi
a

concept of intizar: “expectation,” the passive awaiting of the the martyrs), which was written by Husayn Wa
iz al-Kashifi
Mahdi’s return at the end of time. (d. 1504). “Paradise is awarded to anyone,” argues Kashifi,
“who weeps for Husayn for the following reason, that every
Twelver theology underwent further elaboration with the year, when the month of Muharram comes, a multitude of the
creation of the Safavid dynasty in Iran beginning in 1501 lovers of the family of the Prophet renews and makes fresh
under Shah Isma
il. This monarch established Imami Shi
ism the tragedy of the martyrs.”
as Iran’s state religion. The Safavids clashed frequently with
the neighboring empire of the Ottoman Turks, whose sultans “Lovers of the family of the Prophet”: Here Kashifi
arrogated to themselves the title of caliph, with its implica- defines the community of believers not in terms of doctrine
tions of universal Islamic sovereignty. The settlement of the but in terms of emotional disposition and ritual activity. His
caliphate in Istanbul from the sixteenth century sharpened description suggests an important aspect of Imami Shi
ite
Sunni-Shi
a tensions as a religious expression of international identity. At the popular level, from the premodern era through
political rivalries. the twenty-first century, Twelver Shi
as tend to define themselves as those Muslims who excel beyond all others in their
Theological developments during the Safavid era (sixteenthlove for the Prophet’s family and for the Prophet’s desceneighteenth centuries) reflected the Iranian clergy’s desire to
dants, the imams. This affection is expressed annually in the
heighten adherence to Shi
ite communal identity in lands
action of matam (displays of grief for the Karbala martyrs).
under the shah’s dominion. This is reflected in the writings of
the celebrated
alim (religious scholar) Muhammad Baqir Safavid-era ulema such as Majlisi developed a predestinarian
Majlisi (d. 1698). In a work called Bihar al-anwar (The oceans theology of voluntary suffering, ritual commemoration, and
of lights) he assembled numerous Shi
ite hadiths so as to intercession as a reward for mourners. They also campaigned
justify the linkage of popular ritual practices with a distinc- vehemently and sometimes violently against Sufi shaykhs and
tively Imami soteriology. For example, in a chapter of the the tariqat (mystical associations) that were under the direc-
Bihar entitled “The Ways in Which God Informed His tion of the Sufi masters. Twelver ulema condemned Sufism as
Prophets of the Forthcoming Martyrdom of Husayn,” Majlisi heterodox out of a recognition that popular devotion to the
emphasized the predestinarian quality of the seventh-century shaykhs and visits to the tombs of Sufi saints threatened to
events at Karbala. compete with the forms of piety administered by the clerical
hierarchy, namely, devotion to the twelve imams and pilgrim-
Majlisi linked Husayn’s martyrdom at Karbala with the
age to shrines associated with the imams.
imam’s power to grant intercession in paradise to those who
honor Husayn through acts of ritual commemoration. Majlisi Persecution of Sufis, however, did not preclude Sufi
also promoted popular veneration of Husayn and the other influence on Imami Shi
ism. Such influence can be seen in the
imams by collecting in the Bihar various traditions describing later Safavid era with the flourishing of the “School of
the twelve imams as ma
sum (sinless, infallible, and protected
Isfahan,” which is associated with Mulla Sadra (d. 1640). The
from error). In Shi
ite devotion today, the imams, together
school of Isfahan pursued the study of Hekmat-e elahi (“divine
with the prophet Muhammad and his daughter Fatima, are
wisdom”), a discipline that combined formal training in
known collectively as the “fourteen Infallibles.” Their
Quranic studies and related Islamic sciences with rational
sinlessness guarantees their closeness to God in heaven as
philosophic inquiry and the cultivation of the direct and
well as their ability to intercede for those on earth who
unmediated personal experience of divine reality. Hekmat-e
remember Husayn through acts of lamentation.
elahi traces its origin to Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi (d.
Twelver Shi
ism spread in Syria during the rule of the 1191), who in works such as Hikmat al-ishraq (The wisdom of
Hamdanid dynasty in the tenth century. Aleppo became an illuminationist dawning) envisioned intellectual studies as the
important center of medieval Shi
ism. Another center of propaedeutic to mystical ascension and encounters with the
Shi
ite learning in the region emerged in Mamluk and Otto- sacred. In the Twelver tradition this intellectual-mystical
man times in Jabal
Amil in present-day Lebanon. A number approach to learning is linked to the term
irfan (“gnosis”: the
of Shi
ite scholars emigrated to Iran after the establishment of seeking after of experiential and participatory knowledge of
the Safavid empire, but the Shi
ite community continued its the patterns governing the cosmos). The term carries politilife in the region and constitutes over one-third of the cal implications. With the decline of centralized governmenpopulation of Lebanon at present. tal authority in the later Safavid and Qajar eras (eighteenthnineteenth centuries), the ulema acquired ever more tempo-
Public rituals lamenting the Karbala martyrs are attested ral power. A spiritual elitism evolved in which at least some
as early as the tenth century in Baghdad. The Safavid era, clerics were willing to accord the highest rank to the scholarhowever, witnessed the elaboration of a soteriology that cum-mystic: the perfected Gnostic, the theosopher-king.
joined ritual mourning with Shi
ite communal identity. This This illuminationist strand in Imami theology culminated in
is attested in a work that became increasingly popular during the twentieth century with the founding of Iran’s Islamic
the reign of the Safavids, Rawdat al-shuhada (The garden of Republic under Ruhollah Khomeini.

626 Islam and the Muslim World
Shi
a

The declining power of the Safavid shahs was accompa- passive expectation of salvation) into “Red Shi
ism” (whereby
nied by the increasing importance in the public realm of the Shari
ati invoked the color of blood to call for confrontation,
Usuli form of Shi
ite jurisprudence. One way to understand revolution, and self-sacrifice in the service of society).
Usulism is as a refutation of traditional Imami Shi
ite attitudes toward governance. Imami theology argued that since Not only the imam Husayn but also the revered women of
the only legitimate government is that administered by the ahl al-bayt have been subjected to reinterpretation in recent
perfect and sinless imam, during the imam’s occultation all years. An example is Zaynab bt.
Ali, Husayn’s sister. Present
forms of earthly government are necessarily imperfect and at Karbala, she was taken prisoner by Yazid’s soldiers and
sinful. Many traditionalist Shi
as therefore avoided engage- presented to the triumphant caliph in his Damascus court.
ment with worldly politics, preferring to await the Hidden Despite her powerlessness, she spoke out defiantly and de-
Imam’s return as the Mahdi. Usuli jurisprudence, however, nounced Yazid as a tyrant. Supporters of Khomeini during his
granted to qualified ulema the latitude to apply ijtihad struggle against the Pahlevi regime described Zeinab as a
(scripturally based independent reasoning) to every aspect of model of political activism worthy of imitation by contempolife, not only religious, but also social and political. Those rary Shi
ite women. Writing shortly after the 1979 revoluscholars whose studies qualified them to exercise ijtihad were tion, Farah Azari, one of the founding members of the Iranian
known as mujtahids. Women’s Solidarity Group, stated, “[I]t was Zeinab who
came to the forefront to symbolize the ideal of the modern
But while elevating the exercise of rational skills among revolutionary Muslim woman in Iran. Those enigmatic young
jurisprudents, Usulism restricted religious and intellectual women clad in a black chador bearing machine guns, aspire to
independence among the masses. Usuli clerics insisted that follow Zeinab. It is not inappropriate that they have been
the Shi
ite laity must select a living mujtahid as a marja
al- sometimes referred to as ‘the commandos of her holiness
taqlid (“reference point for imitation”), a guide that one Zeinab’” (Azari 1983, p. 26).
follows in legal, moral, and ritual issues. The centralizing and
authoritarian tendencies implicit in Usulism were resisted by Since Khomeini’s death in 1989 contemporary Shi
ite
the more conservative Akhbari school of jurisprudence, which thought in Iran has been characterized by increasing diversity
argued that Muslims should direct their taqlid (“imitation” or and the emergence of a movement for the reformation of
devout and unquestioning obedience) only to the imam and Shi
ism. Among recent theological developments in Imami
not to any earthly mujtahid. But by the late eighteenth Shi
ism is the advocacy of taqrib (“rapprochement”), the
century Usulism was clearly ascendant. Since the nineteenth easing of religious clashes between Shi
as and Sunnis. In 1990
century certain of the most prominent Usuli maraji
(plural of Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Sayyed
Ali Khamenei,
marja
al-taqlid) have received the title naib al-imam (“the founded the Majma
al-taqrib (“the rapprochement associa-
Hidden Imam’s deputy”), implying the jurisprudent’s right to tion”), with the idea of establishing an international league of
govern as the lieutenant of the twelfth imam. In recent times Sunnis and Shi
as who would be united as Muslims in the face
na’ib al-imam was applied most famously to the Ayatollah of perceived opposition from the non-Muslim world at large.
Khomeini after the success of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Khomeini rationalized the imamic deputy’s role in society With this goal in mind, Khamenei has taken steps to
through his doctrine of velayet-e faqih (“the rule of the reform a Shi
ite practice frequently denounced by Sunnis: the
jurisconsult”): In the imam’s absence, government should be ritual of zanjiri-matam, in which mourners employ knives,
in the hands of those Muslims who are most versed in razors, and chains in acts of self-flagellation to honor Husayn
Islamic law. and the Karbala martyrs. In the 1994 Muharram season
Khamenei issued a fatwa forbidding acts of matam per-
Preparation for the 1979 revolution involved a formed in public involving the use of weapons to shed one’s
reinterpretation of many components of the Imami tradition. own blood. Such attempts to curb “bloody” matam have met
In the prerevolutionary Iran of Reza Shah Pahlevi’s reign, the at most with very limited success. Even before Khamenei’s
imam Husayn was typically regarded as a model of patient fatwa, in the 1980s an attempt to forbid Muharram selfsuffering, whom one lamented during Muharram and to flagellation had been made by Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah,
whom one turned for shafa
a (intercession) and personal “spiritual mentor” of the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah.
salvation. Such an image reflected the hierarchic and strati- But Hezbollah Shi
as in Beirut disregarded Fadlallah’s prohi-
fied social relations characteristic of Iran and other tradi- bition. And in various localities in India and Pakistan, Shi
a
tional Islamic societies. New interpretations in the 1960s and matami (lamentation) associations continue to sponsor public
1970s, however, replaced the image of Husayn-as-savior with matam-performances in which many members engage in self-
Husayn-as-revolutionary exemplar. Such thinking is evident flagellation. When interviewed, these mourners explained
in the writings of
Ali Shari
ati (d. 1977), a Sorbonne-educated their reasons for persisting in this ritual: the wish to honor
intellectual who advocated the transformation of “Black Husayn and earn religious merit, as well as the desire to assert
Shi
ism” (associated with mourning for Husayn and the Shi
ite communal identity in the presence of neighboring

Islam and the Muslim World 627
Shi
a

faith communities, whether Hindu, Buddhist, or Sunni Mus- Muslim community. The message of the movement was
lim. The Iranian government’s program of imposing uni- disseminated by a network of da
is or missionaries in many
formity worldwide in Shi
ite ritual practice is by no means parts of the Muslim world.
complete.
The early success of the Isma
ili movement culminated in
One of the most progressive Imami thinkers of the present the foundation of the Fatimid caliphate in North Africa in
day is
Abd al-Karim Sorush (b. 1945). He offers a postpositivist 909.
Abdallah al-Mahdi (d. 934) and his successors in the
assessment of modernity’s challenge to revealed religion. Isma
ili imamate ruled as Fatimid caliphs over an important
While religion itself is divine in origin, Sorush argues, all state that soon grew into an empire stretching from North
human knowledge of religion is limited, indeterminate, and Africa to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. The Fatimid period was
necessarily subject to change. No interpretation of Quranic the “golden age” of Isma
ilism when Isma
ili thought and
scripture can ever be definitive. According to Sorush, every literature attained their summit and Isma
ilis made important
scriptural interpretation, no matter how authoritative the contributions to Islamic civilization, especially after the seat
source, is fallible and can offer only an approximation of of the Fatimid caliphate was transferred to Cairo, itself
divine truth. Such indeterminacy should not be viewed with founded in 969 by the Fatimids. The early Isma
ilis developed
alarm. Rather, this condition is intended by God so as to a distinctive esoteric, gnostic system of religious thought
encourage humans to engage in the ongoing process of based on a distinction between the exoteric (zahir) and
ijtihad, whereby they exercise the divine gifts of intellect and esoteric (batin) aspects of the sacred scriptures as well as
independent judgment. Because of the challenge to tradi- religious commandments and prohibitions. They also develtional clerical authority implied by such arguments, Sorush oped a cyclical view of religious history and a cosmological
has aroused considerable hostility among members of the doctrine. The early doctrines were more fully elaborated in
governing hierarchy in Iran’s Islamic Republic. Fatimid times by Isma
ili da
is who were also the scholars and
authors of their community. Isma
ili law was codified through
See also Taqiyya; Usuliyya. the efforts of al-Qadi al-Nu
man (d. 974), the foremost jurist
of the Fatimid period, and the Fatimid Isma
ilis developed
BIBLIOGRAPHY distinctive institutions of learning.
Arjomand, Said Amir. The Shadow of God and the Hidden
Imam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. The early Isma
ili movement had been rent by a schism in
899 when a faction of the community, designated as Qarmati,
Azari, Farah, ed. Women of Iran: The Conflict with Fundamentalist Islam. London: Ithaca Press, 1983. refused to acknowledge continuity in the Isma
ili imamate
and retained an earlier belief in the Mahdiship of the seventh
Halm, Heinz. Shi
a Islam: From Religion to Revolution. Prince-
Isma
ili imam, Muhammad ibn Isma
il, who was expected to
ton, N.J.: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997.
reappear. The Qarmatis, who did not recognize the Fatimid
Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shi
i Islam. New Haven, caliphs as their imams, founded a powerful state in Bahrayn,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985.
eastern Arabia. The Qarmati state collapsed in 1077.
Pinault, David. Horse of Karbala: Muslim Devotional Life in
India. New York: Palgrave, 2001. The Fatimid Isma
ilis themselves experienced a major
schism in 1094, on the death of al-Mustansir (1036–1094),
David Pinault the eighth Fatimid caliph and the eighteenth Isma
ili imam.
Al-Mustansir’s succession was disputed by his sons Nizar (d.
ISMA
ILI 1095), the original heir-designate, and al-Musta
li (1094–1101),
Isma
ili Shi
a represent the second most important Shi
ite who was installed to the Fatimid throne through the machicommunity after the Twelver (Ithna
ashari) Shi
a and are nations of the Fatimid wazir al-Afdal (d. 1121). As a result, the
scattered in more than twenty-five countries in Asia, the unified Isma
ili da
wa and community were split into rival
Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North America. The Isma
ilis Nizari and Musta
li factions. The da
wa organization in Cairo
have subdivided into a number of factions and groups in the as well as the Isma
ili communities of Yaman and Gujarat, in
course of their complex history. western India, supported the claims of al-Musta
li. The
Isma
ilis of Iran and adjacent lands, who were then under the
The Isma
ilis recognized a line of imams in the progeny of leadership of Hasan Sabbah (d. 1124), upheld Nizar’s right to
Isma
il, son of Imam Ja
far al-Sadiq (d. 765), hence their the Isma
ili imamate.
designation as Isma
ili. By the 870s, the Isma
ilis had organized a revolutionary movement against the Abbasid caliph in On the death of the Fatimid caliph-imam al-Amir
Baghdad. The aim of this religio-political movement, desig- (1101–1130), the Musta
li Isma
ilis themselves subdivided
nated as al-da
wa al-hadiya or the “rightly guiding mission,” into Hafizi and Tayyibi branches. The Hafizi Isma
ilis who
was to install the Isma
ili imam belonging to the prophet recognized al-Hafiz (1130–1149) and the later Fatimid ca-
Muhammad’s family to a new caliphate ruling over the entire liphs as their imams disappeared completely after the Fatimid

628 Islam and the Muslim World
Shi
a

dynasty was uprooted in 1171 by Saladin, the founder of the known as Khojas and they developed an indigenous tradition,
Ayyubid dynasty who championed the cause of Sunnism. designated as the “Satpanth” or true path. The Nizaris of
Tayyibi Isma
ilis established their permanent stronghold in Badakhshan, now divided between Tajikistan and Afghanithe Yemen. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Tayyibi stan, have preserved numerous collections of Persian Isma
ili
Isma
ilis split into separate Daudi and Sulaymani branches manuscripts. The Nizari Khojas, together with the Tayyibi
over the question of the rightful succession to the twenty- Bohras, were among the earliest Asian communities to have
sixth da
i mutlaq, Daud b.
Ajabshah (1567–1589). By that settled in the nineteenth century in East Africa. In the 1970s
time, the Tayyibis of India, known locally as Bohras, had and later, many East African Isma
ilis immigrated to the
greatly outnumbered their Yemeni co-religionists. Daudi West. Under the leadership of their last two imams, Sultan
and Sulaymani Tayyibis have followed different lines of da
is. Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III (1885–1957), and Prince
Daudi Bohras, accounting for the great majority of the Karim Aga Khan IV, who in 1957 succeeded his grandfather
Tayyibis, have split into a number of groupings, the largest as their forty-ninth imam, the Nizari Isma
ilis, who number
numbering around 800,000. several million, have entered the modern age as a progressive
community with high standards of education and well-being.
Hasan Sabbah’s seizure of the mountain fortress of Alamut,
in northern Iran, in 1090, marked the effective foundation of See also Da
wa; Khojas; Nizari.
what became the Nizari Isma
ili state of Iran and Syria. Thus,
Nizaris acquired political prominence under Hasan and his BIBLIOGRAPHY
seven successors at Alamut. In 1094, Hasan also founded the
Daftary, Farhad, ed. Mediaeval Isma
ili History and Thought.
independent Nizari da
wa and severed his ties with Fatimid
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Egypt. The Nizari state was comprised of a network of
strongholds and towns in several regions of Iran and Syria, in Daftary, Farhad. A Short History of the Ismailis. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1998.
the midst of the Seljuk sultanate. Hasan’s armed revolt
against the Seljuk Turks, whose alien rule was detested by the
Iranians, did not succeed, nor did the Seljuks succeed in Farhad Daftary
destroying the Nizari fortress communities despite their
superior military power. A stalemate, in effect, developed ZAYDI (FIVER)
between the Nizaris and their various enemies until their The branch of Shi
ism known as the Zaydiyya owes its name
state in Iran was destroyed by the all-conquering Mongols in to the belief in the imamate of Zayd b.
Ali. Adherents
1256. The Nizaris of Syria, who had numerous military proclaimed Zayd as imam because it was he who raised an
encounters with the Crusaders, and Saladin, among others, army against Ummayad rule in an aborted uprising in 740 C.E.
were later subdued by the Mamluks. The Iranian Nizaris The Zaydis are the inheritors of that element of Shi
ism that
elaborated their own teachings and adopted Persian, in pref- emphasizes a willingness to challenge illegitimate political
erence to Arabic, as their religious language. They also structures as a characteristic of the imam, rather than an
established libraries at Alamut, the headquarters of the Nizari esoteric conception of the imam as spiritual guide with a
state and da
wa, and other mountain fortresses, also extending qualitatively different relationship to God than the ordinary
their patronage of learning to outside scholars. believer. The qualities of the imam for Zaydis include a
willingness and ability to assume some sort of political power,
The Nizari Isma
ilis survived the destruction of their along with learning (
ilm, in the traditional, rather than
state. Initially, for about two centuries, they remained disor- esoteric sense of the word) and descent from the Prophet’s
ganized and developed independently in scattered communi- cousin and son-in-law,
Ali. It is not essential that the imam
ties, also adopting Sufi guises to safeguard themselves against be designated by the previous imam, and there may be times
persecution. During the Anjudan revival in the post-Alamut when the world is entirely bereft of an imam since no
period of their history, which lasted some two centuries from descendant of
Ali is qualified to assume the position. For
the middle of the fifteenth century, the Nizari imams emerged some Zaydis, there may be times when there is more than one
at Anjudan, in central Iran, and increasingly established their imam, each leading Islamic states in different parts of the
control over various communities of their followers, also world (though the long-term aim that these states conjoin is
reviving Nizari missionary and literary activities. At the same regularly expressed). Indeed this was the case in the tenth
time, the Nizaris of Iran and adjacent lands retained different century, when Zaydi states existed simultaneously in Yemen
taqiyya or precautionary dissimulation practices of disguising and Tabaristan (on the Iranian coast of the Caspian Sea) with
themselves under the cloaks of Sufism and Twelver Shi
ism, separate imams.
the official religion of Safavid Iran. The Anjudan revival
achieved particular success in Central Asia and South Asia, The rejection of the special qualities of the imam in Zaydi
where large numbers of Hindus were converted in Sind, thought removes one of the elements of Shi
ism viewed as
Gujarat, and elsewhere. The Indian Nizaris became locally problematic by Sunni authors. This has led to a certain

Islam and the Muslim World 629
Shirk

rapprochement between Zaydis and Sunnis, and the develop- tribal loyalty versus imamate authority are a constant theme
ment of a Zaydi theological and legal tradition that intersects in the history of the area.
with the Sunni tradition more than with that of the Isma
ilis
or Imamis. This rejection of the special qualities of the imam Perhaps the most interesting figure of later Zaydi thought
manifests itself in the common Zaydi assertion that
Ali, is Muhammad b.
Ali al-Shawkani (d. 1834), whose learning
Hasan, and Husayn were designated as imams, but that their in both Sunni and Zaydi traditions has earned him the title
designation was hidden (nass khafi), and could only be discov- mujaddid (renewer) of the twelfth hijri century by no less a
ered after investigation. This exempted some of the compan- Sunni authority than Rashid Rida. Though not an imam
ions of the Prophet, who had not recognized
Ali’s imamate, himself, he was appointed as chief judge of the Zaydi imamate.
from blame or censure. Zaydi theologians and historians have Shawkani’s exposition of ijtihad, and his refusal to slavishly
also been less eager to criticize the caliphates of Abu Bakr (r. imitate past legal authority (of either the Zaydi or Sunni
632–634),
Umar (r. 634–644), and
Uthman (r. 644–656). schools) brought about a revivification of legal studies, the
The legal system, it is claimed by Zaydi scholars, owes much effect of which was felt well beyond the boundaries of the
to Shafi
ite jurisprudence. Zaydi state.

The theological writings of the Zaydiyya show the imprint The Zaydi imamate in Yemen continued well into the
of the Mu
tazili school. Al-Qasim b. Ibrahim al-Rassi (d.860), twentieth century. This was in part due to the charismatic and
an early imam and supposed founder of the Zaydi legal dynamic imam Yahya Hamid al-Din who fought against the
school, set the tone for later Zaydi exploration of Mu
tazili Ottomans (eventually negotiating for them to withdraw from
themes with his support of standard Mu
tazili principles such the area) and took the disputed town of Badr from the Saudis.
as the unity of God (tawhid), the justice of God (
adl), and the After his death in 1948, the imamate faced a number of
promise and the threat (al-wa
d wal-wa
id). Al-Qasim’s grand- challenges and eventually collapsed in 1962 as Yemen experison, al-Hadi ila al-Haqq al-Mubin (d. 911), himself a noted enced a revolution influenced by the thought of Jamal
Abd
theologian, founded the Zaydi state in Yemen, and a close al-Nasser. The republicans who formed the Yemen Arab
relationship with Mu
tazilism characterized Yemeni Zaydi Republic, and negotiated an abortive union with Egypt,
discourse thereafter. Other Mu
tazili principles that perme- divesting the Hamid al-Din line of the imamate. This brought
ate Zaydi theological works include a belief in human free will the end of the most long lasting Shi
ite state in the Muslim
(qadr), a renunciation of anthropomorphism (tashbih) with world, and although Zaydi scholars still study and teach in the
regard to God, and the widely cited Mu
tazili slogan taklif ma highlands of Yemen, the legal tradition has become increasla yutaqu. The last of these can be interpreted as meaning that ingly mixed with Shafi
ite law, the other major legal tradition
God cannot demand that his subjects (mukallafun) perform in the area.
duties they are incapable of either doing or knowing; to do so
See also Shafi
i, al-; Shi
a: Early; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver);
would make God unjust. These principles were not, however,
Shi
a: Isma
ili.
incorporated into Zaydi Islam without debate. Perhaps most
notable of the dissident groups was the Mutarrifiyya, a Yemeni
Zaydi movement that emerged in the eleventh century and BIBLIOGRAPHY
was named after its founder Mutarrif b. Shihab (d. 1067). The Abrahamov, Binyamin. Anthropomorphism and Interpretation
Mutarrifiyya claimed to be adhering strictly to the teachings in the Quran in the Theology of al-Qasim b. Ibrahim. Leiden:
of al-Qasim b. Ibrahim in rejecting certain elements of E. J. Brill, 1996.
Basran Mu
tazilism in support of some of the conclusions of Madelung, Wilfred. Religious Schools and Sects in Medieval
the Mu
tazili school of Baghdad. In Zaydi Tabaristan, the Islam. London: Varirum Reprints, 1985.
state founded by a descendant of Zayd, al-Hasan b. Zayd (d.
888), there was also much theological and legal debate, Robert Gleave
particularly under the imamate of al-Nasir Hasan al-Utrush
in the tenth century. The latter’s legal doctrine was a matter
of dispute among the Zaydis both during his life and after his
death (in particular his doctrine that three statements of SHIRK
divorce announced by the husband in one session was a valid
form of divorce). The intellectual history of the Zaydi school Meaning “association,” the term shirk generally implies asis, then, a history of debate and dispute that at times threat- signing partners or equals to God, and is considered to be the
ened the unity of the community. When the Zaydi state in paramount sin in Islam. The central doctrine of Islam is
Tabaristan collapsed in 1126, however, Yemen became (and tawhid (divine unity), which came to mean that God does not
remains to the present day) the undisputed home of Zaydi need nor have partners to assist Him. By contrast, Muslims
theology and law. The Zaydi imamate in Yemen had grown base their understanding of shirk on three passages from the
out of a loose coalition of Yemeni tribes, and the dynamics of Quran (34:20–24, 35:40, 46:4), which advise Muslims against

630 Islam and the Muslim World
Silsila

associating helpers or partners with God. For instance, Sura Surty, Muhammad Ibrahim. The Quranic Concept of al-Shirk
34:20–24 establishes the non-duality of God, arguing that (Polytheism). London: Ta Ha Publishers, 1990.
evil and good originate in God’s creative act and that evil (the Watt, W. Montgomery. Islamic Philosohy and Theology: An
shaytan) has no power over creation. Extended Survey. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 1985.
Sura 34:23 has been used by some commentators to
suggest that God’s power is so all-encompassing that hu- R. Kevin Jaques
mans have no free will, and that God has predetermined
who will be saved and who will be damned. The Jabriyya
(compulsionists, circa eighth-to-ninth century) argued that
those who advocated a free will position (the Qadariyya) held, SIBA
I, MUSTAFA AL- (1915–1964)
by implication, that humans have abilities over which God
has no power, in effect making humans equal to God in Mustafa al-Siba
i was the socialist founder of the Society of
certain respects. This view was later modified by al-Ash
ari the Muslim Brothers of Syria, a branch of the Egyptian,
anticolonialist organization Ikhwan. Unlike the original Broth-
(d. 935), who held that God creates a range of choices from
erhood in Egypt, the lesser-known Syrian branch did not
which humans have the limited ability to choose (kasb, literopenly engage in terrorist activities under Siba
i and was
ally “to acquire”) at the moment of decision. In this way,
generally regarded as following peaceful means to achieve its
God’s ultimate unity is not violated and humans do not
goals. Born in Homs, Damascus, in 1915, Siba
i went to
associate themselves with God’s creative power.
Egypt in 1933 to study at the University of Al-Azhar, where
Some contemporary Islamic revivalists have argued that he was influenced by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. In
the Quran accuses Christians and Jews of shirk, based on 1949, he completed his Ph.D. dissertation, entitled “The
Sura 9:30, which states that “the Jews call Ezra a son of God Position of Sunna in Legislation.” Charged with subversion
and the Christians call Christ the son of God.” Furthermore, by the British government in 1934 and 1940, he was eventu-
Sura 5:72–73 accuses Christians of associating Jesus with God ally deported to Palestine. Siba
i questioned the economic
and contends that “if they do not desist … a painful punish- and cultural reliance of Muslim states on either the United
ment will come upon them.” Sura 2:105, however, draws a States or the Soviet Union, feeling that Muslims should assert
distinction between Christians and Jews, whom it refers to as their independence from Western influences. He advocated
ahl al-kitab (people of the book) and the polytheists, whom it social reform based both on Marxist theories and traditional
calls the mushrikun (literally the “ones who associate”). The Islamic thought and strongly believed in the idea of universal
distinction is based on the idea that while Christians and Jews Muslim solidarity. Siba
i discussed the rights of women under
may be in error, they base their mistake on a corruption of Islamic law in an article published in 1962. A noted author
earlier revelation. They, therefore, accept the basic concepts and scholar of fiqh and sunna, he also edited the journals Alof God’s true religion while interpolating certain ideas that Manar, Al-Muslimin, and Hadarat al-Islam.
need to be corrected for them to fully follow God’s path. The See also Ikhwan al-Muslimin.
mushrikun reject all revelation and prefer to worship their
own gods in preference to the united and all-powerful God BIBLIOGRAPHY
(see Sura 23:51–77).
Salt, J. “An Islamic Scholar-Activist: Mustafa al-Siba
i in
Contemporary Islamic revivalists have also used the con- Syria, 1945–54.” Journal of Arabic, Islamic and Middle
Eastern Studies 3 (1996): 103–115.
cept to justify attacks on non-Muslims, as well as fellow
Muslims who reject revivalist ideologies. Many contempo-
Paula Stiles
rary revivalists base their ideas on the writings of Sayyid Qutb
(d. 1966), who argued that true Islam had been corrupted by
pre-Islamic and extra-Islamic ideas that promoted concepts
of shirk and interwove them with Islamic ritual and theology. SILSILA
According to this view, only through the violent expulsion of
shirk concepts can true Islam flower as it did during the time Silsila, Arabic for chain, is the word commonly used to
of the prophet Muhammad and his Companions and successors. describe the spiritual genealogy of Sufi lineages, which in
turn are used to legitimize the authority of Sufi shaykhs. It is
See also Allah; Arabia, Pre-Islam; Asnam; Modern assumed that both the “heart-to-heart connection” and the
Thought; Political Islam; Qutb, Sayyid. spiritual teaching originated with Muhammad, hence the
need for a series of spiritual links constituting a “chain” that
BIBLIOGRAPHY connects back to the Prophet acting as a “conduit” for divine
Qutb, Sayyid. Milestones. Indianapolis: American Trust Pub- grace from God. In many respects these sufi genealogical
lications, 1990. chains resemble hadith isnads (chains of hadith transmitters).

Islam and the Muslim World 631
Sirhindi, Shaykh Ahmad

The encompassing principle involved in both isnads and Sirhindi’s notions of Islamic orthopraxy/orthodoxy and
silsilas is the personal encounter between two reliable trans- reflections on Sufi doctrine are discussed extensively in his
mitters. Generally, hadith scholars define this encounter in Maktubat (536 Collected Letters), which have been translated
personal, verbal terms and for Sufis it entails a nonverbal from the original Persian into Arabic, Turkish (Ottoman and
sharing of the heart. This allows Sufi silsilas to have “Uwaysi modern), and Urdu. Other of his writings include Mabda
links,” which involve “supra-temporal” meetings of Sufis in wa-ma
ad, Makashafat-e
ayniyya, Ma
arif laduniya, Sharh-e
their imaginal forms. rubaiyat-e khwaja Baqi billah, and Ithbat al-nubuwwa.

The earliest Sufi silsila traces the spiritual genealogy of See also Falsafa; Ibn
Arabi; South Asia, Islam in;
Ja
far al-Khuldi (d. 959) back to the Successors. Like hadith Tasawwuf; Wahdat al-Wujud.
isnads, these Sufi chains were “raised” over time to connect
with Companions and then to Muhammad. In many Sufi BIBLIOGRAPHY
lineages disciples memorize the silsila of the lineage as a litany Friedmann, Yohanan. Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi: An Outline of
invoking divine grace or as a contemplation exercise to attract His Thought and a Study of His Image in the Eyes of Posterity.
the spirits of deceased shaykhs. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1971.
Haar, J. G. T. Follower and Heir of the Prophet: Shaykh Ahmad
See also Khilafat Movement; Tariqa.
Sirhindi (1564–1624) as Mystic. Leiden: Het Oosters Institute, 1992.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Buehler, Arthur F. Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Arthur F. Buehler
Naqshbandiyya and the Rise of the Mediating Shaykh. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
Trimingham, Spencer. The Sufi Orders in Islam. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1998. SOCIALISM
Arthur F. Buehler In the Arab Middle East, socialism (Arabic, ishtirakiyya) as an
explicit political-economic ideology had a brief period of
prominence in the 1960s. Policies that could be identified as
socialist, however, have been much more enduring, even in
SIRHINDI, SHAYKH AHMAD countries that explicitly reject socialist ideology. If socialism
(1564–1624) is understood as government control of the major sectors of
the economy, combined with a commitment to redistribution
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi was born in Sirhind, a small town of wealth and an assurance of economic security to all citilocated two hundred kilometers northwest of Delhi. The zens, then even the most “capitalist” of the Arab states in the
head of a Sufi lodge as well as a competent religious scholar, Middle East are to some extent socialist.
he was initiated into three Sufi lineages: the Chishtiyya, the
Qadiriyya, and the Suhrawardiyya. The turning point of his Political circumstances drove early moves by Arab states
life came with a meeting with Muhammad Baqi billah (d. in the post–World War II period to take a more controlling
1603), a Central Asian Naqshbandi shaykh. In three months role in their economies. Egyptian and Iraqi military coups in
Sirhindi returned to Sirhind with unconditional permission the 1950s were followed by land reform measures aimed at
to transmit the teachings of the Naqshbandi lineage. Three destroying the economic base of the pillars of the old regime,
years later Baqi billah died and Sirhindi was recognized by the large landowners. Confiscated lands were mostly redismost of Baqi billah’s disciples as the principal successor. tributed, not kept by the state, but this process brought these
governments more directly into the management of the
From this point Sirhindi elaborated a new set of Sufi agricultural economy. Symbols of foreign economic control
doctrines and disciplines grounded in following the pro- like the Suez Canal in Egypt and the British Petroleum
phetic example (sunna) and Islamic law (shari
a). More than concession in Iraq were nationalized in whole or in part as
any other Naqshbandi since Bahauddin, Sirhindi became the expressions of political independence and to provide revenue
pivotal figure in India who redefined Sufism’s role in society to the new regimes. While populist and nationalist in nature,
and who integrated Sufi practice into strict juristic notions such steps were not animated by explicitly socialist blueprints.
of shari
a observance. Indeed, after Sirhindi’s death, the They did, however, further increase government control of
Naqshbandiyya became renowned as the Naqshbandiyya- the economy.
Mujaddidiyya, named after Sirhindi’s title of “the renewer of
the second millennium” (mujaddid alf-e thani). In the twenti- The 1960s were the heyday of explicitly socialist policies
eth century selective interpretations of Sirhindi’s thoughts in the Arab Middle East. In 1961 the United Arab Republic
have been utilized by Pakistani nationalists to legitimize the (Egypt) adopted the “Socialist Decrees” of 1961, in one fell
creation of Pakistan. swoop nationalizing most large-scale industry, all financial

632 Islam and the Muslim World
Socialism

Arab students occupying the Syrian embassy in London in 1963, the year the Ba
th party came to power in Syria. The Ba
th party’s motto is
“Unity, Freedom, and Socialism.” The Ba
th party effected wide nationalization measures in Syria and, a few years later, in Iraq. GETTY IMAGES

institutions, all utilities and transportation concerns, and all reinforced in the minds of many Arab leaders by the strong
foreign trade. Soviet-style “five-year plans” became the blue- support they received from Moscow on foreign policy issues.
print for economic development. In 1962 the Egyptian ruling Both Moscow and Beijing actively pushed the line that
party was renamed the Arab Socialist Union. In the same year opposition to Western colonialism and neo-colonialism rean explicitly socialist party, the National Liberation Front (in quired a socialist orientation, and the anticolonial zeitgeist in
French, the FLN), came to power in newly independent Asia, Africa, and Latin America bolstered that notion.
Algeria. The new government confiscated the agricultural Undoubtedly many Arab leaders believed that “scientific”
and industrial assets of the departed French colonists and, planning and state direction of the economy were the shortest
rather than redistributing them, turned them into state assets. path to economic development and social justice. But equally
It subsequently nationalized the French companies that had enticing to new and sometimes unsteady Arab regimes was
developed the country’s oil and natural gas reserves. In 1964 the political power that state control over the economy
the ruling party in Tunisia added the “Socialist” sobriquet to placed in their hands. The state could provide jobs in its
its name as well, and adopted state planning as the way to expanding bureaucracy and in state enterprises, subsidize
bring about a socialist transformation of the economy. The housing and consumer goods, and direct capital toward its
Ba
th party (whose motto is “unity, freedom, and socialism”) favored clients.
came to power in Syria in 1963 and Iraq in 1968, and in each
state far-reaching nationalization measures were adopted. An The enormous oil price increases of the 1973–1981 period
explicitly Marxist regime took power in South Yemen in 1967 had a mixed and paradoxical effect on the socialist trend in the
after the withdrawal of British colonialism. Arab world. States with little oil, like Egypt and Tunisia, in
large measure abandoned the socialist rhetoric of the 1960s in
The reasons behind this trend of explicit socialism in the an effort to attract foreign investment and carve out a trading
1960s are a mixture of intellectual fashion, foreign policy, and niche in a world where the export-led growth model had
political opportunity. The success of the Soviet model in the supplanted the socialist models of the 1960s. Socialist oil
1950s, in rebuilding war-torn Russia into a superpower, was producers, like Algeria and Iraq, had vast new resources at

Islam and the Muslim World 633
South Asia, Islam in

their disposal to increase their control over their economies. south of the Himalaya and Hindukush mountain ranges: the
The Libyan regime added the term “socialist” to the official Ganges and Indus river plains and the peninsula (now the
name of the state in 1977. Syria, with a small amount of oil nations of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). Included in
production but an ability to attract aid from other Arab oil South Asia are the mountainous regions (Afghanistan, Nepal,
producers and from the Soviet Union, made a few gestures in Bhutan, Burma, Tibet) whose societies have been in close
the 1970s toward a more open economy, but basically contin- contact with the Indus and Ganges plains. Also in the South
ued on the socialist economic path. Asian cultural zone are islands of the Indian Ocean (Sri
Lanka, Lakshadweep, Andaman, Nicobar, and the Maldives).
The Arab monarchies, explicit opponents of socialism on
an ideological basis, during this period began to adopt poli- South Asia is a distinctive area with complex relations to
cies that brought their economic profiles much closer to other parts of Asia. The world’s highest mountains separate
those of their socialist neighbors. In Saudi Arabia and the South Asia from China, Central Asian steppes, and the
smaller Persian Gulf states, vast oil revenues allowed the Iranian plateau; yet mountain passes provided conduits for
governments to dominate their economies, build huge state trade, religious and cultural exchange, migration, and invabureaucracies, and provide a level of welfare benefits to their sion. Sea lanes connect South Asia to the “Middle Eastern”
citizens far beyond what the socialist states could. Even in lands of the Persian Gulf and Red Sea and to islands of
Morocco and Jordan, without oil, foreign aid and phosphate Indonesia and the Malay peninsula. South Asia developed
sales gave the governments the wherewithal to substantially complex agrarian societies, political empires, and highly
increase their control over their economies. Differences with developed religious systems (from local cults to Brahmanical
the “socialist” economies certainly remained. Much more of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism).
the monarchical economies remained in private hands, notably the financial sector. But the trend toward practical eco- Islam in South Asia
nomic convergence was clear. These geographic boundaries and connections shaped the
growth of Muslim communities in South Asia, which con-
With the falling off of oil prices from the mid-1980s, the tains a diversity of Muslim groups. Muslims in South Asia
last vestiges of official socialist doctrine were for the most include all major sectarian groups and different legal schools,
part abandoned in the Arab world. Algeria began to invite and speak many regional languages. If the populations of
foreign investment; Iraq privatized (to cronies of the regime) India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are combined, the South
many state assets; even in Syria the official discourse became Asian core area has the highest population of Muslims globally.
more favorable to private sector initiatives. But while the
rhetoric of the market dominated the Arab world at the turn Early Muslims in South Asia
of the new millennium, in reality the Arab states, whether Commerce, conquest, and conversion led to the growth of
formerly “socialist” or not, were having a hard time giving up Muslim communities in South Asia. Maritime commerce first
the power that state control over the economy brings. The established a Muslim presence in South Asia. The western
Arab states lagged far behind East Asian and Latin American coast of South Asia had intimate commercial and political
states in actual privatizations and in foreign investment, relations with the “Middle East” long before the time of
outside of the energy sector. The vocabulary of socialism has Muhammad (died 632 C.E.). The southwest of Malabar (from
disappeared, but its practices hang on, more for political than Ma
bar, Arabic for “place of crossing,” now Kerala) housed
for ideological and economic reasons. merchants and settlers from pre-Islamic Arab, Jewish, and
Christian communities.
See also Communism; Modernization, Political: Participation, Political Movements, and Parties. The advent of Islam transformed Arab settlers into Muslim settlers. At first, this may not have dramatically changed
BIBLIOGRAPHY their relation with rulers or local populations. Arab mer-
Issawi, Charles. An Economic History of the Middle East and chants married local women and were recognized as a distinct
North Africa. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982. caste with high status. Muslim Arab traders built mosques
Richards, Alan, and Waterbury, John. A Political Economy of and acted as overseas commercial agents of local rulers and
the Middle East. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996. political advisors. Tamil-speaking Muslims on the southern
tip of the peninsula are known as Marakkayar, meaning
F. Gregory Gause III “sailors” (possibly derived from Arabic Markab or ship).

Arabic literacy raised the status of Muslim Arabs in Malabar, as the Islamic empire in the Middle East and the Iranian
SOUTH ASIA, ISLAM IN plateau established Arabic as the commercial lingua franca in
the Indian Ocean basin. Children of Arab merchants and
South Asia is commonly known as the “Indian Subcontinent” South Asian women were raised Muslim, creating the nucleus
or the “Indo-Pak Subcontinent.” Its core is the landmass for a more indigenous Muslim community; in addition Hindu

634 Islam and the Muslim World
South Asia, Islam in

and may have colluded with Arab Muslims in order to
displace them. Muhammad ibn Qasim extended dhimmi status to Brahmanical Hindus and Buddhists: the first example
in Islamic history of “protected religious community” applied
to groups not mentioned in the Quran. Despite this, Arab
rulers justified their conquest of Sindh with a call for conversion to Islam. There is no evidence of a sustained effort to
convert local populations (as in the Umayyad empire as a
whole). After conquest, Brahmanical temples functioned and
Hindu communities administered revenue collection.

The Arab conquerors founded Mansura as a garrison and
the capital city (from approximately 730). Multan became the
second Islamic urban center, though it had been a major city
and Hindu temple site before the Arab conquest. After the
Abbasid empire transferred the caliphal capital to Baghdad,
cultural, religious, and scientific contact between South Asians
and Muslims in the central Islamic lands increased.

Political strife in the central Islamic lands affected Sindh.
As the Fatimids established a revolutionary counter-caliphate
In Bhopal, India, Muslims in the streets surrounding the Taj al Masjid
mosque offer prayers on the final day of the Tablighi Ijtema religious at Cairo, Isma
ili missionaries (da
is) in Sindh engineered a
gathering, in which thousands of Muslims from over forty countries coup. Sunnis were driven underground and Sindh became a
took part. © AFP/CORBIS satellite of Fatimid rule. Isma
ili missionaries drew equivalence between Islamic beliefs and those of native populations
to facilitate conversion and gain support beyond urban cenrulers appointed children to Arab families to learn techniques ters. Allah was pictured as equivalent to Brahma, while Adam
of the seafaring trade. According to legend, a Hindu ruler was an incarnation or avatar of Shiva and
Ali was an avatar of
converted to Islam during Muhammad’s lifetime and traveled Vishnu. Beyond political strategy, this syncretic theology
to Medina, leaving his Hindu descendants to rule by delega- promoted the idea that Hindu theism was compatible with or
tion from the disappeared “Muslim king.” This legend pro- equivalent to Islam.
vided a mythic explanation of the cooperative relationship
between Hindu kings and Arab-Muslim trade communities. The Ghaznavid Sultanate (997–1175 C.E.)
Initial contact between Islam and South Asia came via sea
The Conquest of Sindh (711–997 C.E.) routes, but more sustained contact came though land routes.
Unlike Malabar, the northwest coast was not hospitable to During the Abbasid period Central Asia, Khurasan, and
Arab and Persian merchant settlers. The Hindu communities Afghanistan became important regions of the Islamic empire.
of Sindh and Gujarat were already engaged in maritime trade; When Abbasid rule became weak, Turkic slave-soldiers
Arab settlements were competition, not complement. As the (mamluks) governing outlying territories asserted indepen-
Islamic community expanded into an empire in the seventh dence as sultans, beginning with the sultanate of Ghazna in
century, it conquered the Sassanid empire and absorbed the 962. With its capital of Ghazayn (in Afghanistan), the sultanate
Iranian potential to dominate the Indian Ocean basin. bridged the land routes between the Iran plateau and
South Asia.
The Umayyad dynasty initiated diplomatic and commercial relations with Sri Lanka and the Indonesian archipelago, Mahmud of Ghazna ruled this sultanate from 998–1030,
coming into conflict with Hindu rulers in Sindh over pirates’ creating a Turkic aristocracy with Persian court rituals and
interference in sea routes. Sindhi rulers failed to control strong loyalty to Sunni sectarianism. He expanded westward
piracy (or perhaps profited by it). In 711, when Sindhi pirates into Khurasan and eastward into Punjab, establishing Lahore
captured a ship bound from Sri Lanka to the Umayyad ruler as a frontier garrison town and important center of Islamic
with royal gifts, the Arab-Islamic empire mounted a naval scholarship. Mahmud patronized Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, a
expedition that conquered Sindh. scholar who authored a study of the religions and sciences of
South Asia (Kitab al-Hind).
The expedition leader, Muhammad ibn Qasim, established the first Arab-Islamic polity in South Asia. Sectarian Mahmud participated in larger political and religious
feuds in Sindh facilitated conquest; Mahayana Buddhists rivalries. He invaded Sindh, opposing the Isma
ili Fatimid
struggled for political supremacy against Brahmanical Hindus, presence there. He raided far into the Ganges plain; political

Islam and the Muslim World 635
South Asia, Islam in

chronicles attribute to him a policy of plundering the wealth Because of this continuity, Muslim artisans, intellectuals,
of Hindu temples. Historians argue over the extent of his and religious leaders immigrated to South Asia, causing
plunder and whether iconoclastic desecration was a religious Sufism, Islamic scholarship, and literary and fine arts to
justification for military campaigns. All agree, however, that flourish. Official structure of the administration included
plunder funded westward campaigns rather than ruling South religious leaders: A shaykh al-Islam, who was the most au-
Asia beyond Lahore. thoritative Islamic scholar in each city or region, presided
over qadis, who acted as judges and notaries drawn from the
Sufi organizations began to move into Ghaznavid- ranks of scholars trained in jurisprudence (fiqh) and theology
controlled territories and acted as missionaries for Sunni (usul al-din). Although the sultans of Delhi favored the Shafi
i
allegiance. Suhrawardi Sufis were active in opposing the school of law, most South Asian Muslims adhered to the
Isma
ili presence: These include Bahauddin Zakariya, who Hanafi school (as did Turkic peoples in Central Asia). Muscreated a devotional center in Multan; Sayyid Jalal Bukhari in lims of the southern coasts like Malabar continued to follow
Uchh; and Ali Hujwiri (known as Data Ganj Bakhsh) in the Shafi
i school.
Lahore. Sufis continued the Isma
ili effort to convert South
Asians to Islam by preaching, teaching, and healing. Religious life outside state control was vibrant. Sufis
established mosques and hospices (khanaqa or jama
at-khana)
The Sultanates of Delhi (1175–1526 C.E.)
in smaller towns as devotional, educational, and charitable
Ghaznavid rule allowed further Turkic slave-soldier regimes
centers. Discourses of Sufi masters introduced new intellecto invade. In 1175, Muhammad ibn Sam invaded from Afghanitual disciplines and scholarly knowledge. The Chishti Sufi,
stan into Punjab. Unlike the Ghaznavids, he conquered
Nizam al-Din Awliya (died 1325 C.E.), was one of the first in
Delhi and set up a lasting administration in the South Asian
South Asia to debate religious topics through constant referheartland. This administration, known as the sultanate of
ence to prophetic hadith. Although state officials and Sufi
Delhi, was ruled by a succession of slave-soldier regimes:
leaders debated issues of religious practice, they were not
Ghuri (1193–1290), Khalji (1290–1320), Tughluq
diametrically opposed. Especially outside the capital, tacit
(1320–1398), Sayyid (1414–1450), and Lodi (1451–1526).
cooperation between qadis and Sufi leaders was the norm.
Despite rapid dynastic change, these sultans created a
stable political structure. In their rhetoric, “Islam” meant the
Regional Islamic Kingdoms (1338–1687 C.E.)
The Delhi sultanate became weak in the mid-fourteenth
political dominance of the Sunni Turkic and Afghan elite.
This rhetoric (preserved in coinage, monumental architec- century; governors asserted independence, creating regional
ture, and historical chronicles) should not obscure the fact Islamic dynasties. The Ilyas Shahi dynasty built a kingdom in
that local Muslim communities were growing outside state Bengal from 1342 with its capital at Lakhnawti, while the
control. Hindu kings (rajas) who fought against the Turkic Bahmani dynasty threw off Delhi’s rule in the Deccan in
dynasties employed South Asian Muslims as soldiers, just as 1347. Thereafter, the Deccan split into five small Islamic
Hindu soldiers fought with the Turkic armies. Political states: Golkonda, Khandesh, Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, and Berar.
conflict between Turkic sultans and Hindu rajas was not a In 1401 in Gujarat, the Zafar Shahi dynasty created its local
clash between two religions or two incompatible civilizations capital at Ahmadabad. These smaller Islamicate dynasties
despite claims of colonial-era and contemporary nationalist created distinctive regional Islamic societies and literature in
histories. local languages beyond Persian.

The Delhi sultanates introduced new forms of political Regional dynasties justified independence from Delhi by
administration (the iqta
or jagirdari system), military organi- patronizing local Sufi leaders or adopting Shi
ite loyalties. In
zation, architecture, coinage, and patronage of literature and Gujarat, the Zafar Shahi dynasty built the tomb of Shaykh
music. These last two cultural spheres involved syncretic Ahmad Khattu, after whom they named Ahmadabad. In the
creativity between Hindus and Muslims. The system of Deccan, the Bahmani dynasty built a tomb for the Chishti
North Indian (Hindustani) classical music was shaped by Shaykh, Muhammad Hussayni Gesu Daraz, at Gulbarga.
Muslim innovations through court patronage; Amir Khosrow The Faruqi dynasty of Kandesh named their capital Burhanpur
(died 1325), an innovator in Hindustani music, was involved after the Chishti Sufi master, Burhan al-Din Gharib. These
in Sufism and court life. Sufi leaders migrated from Delhi as central power of the
Delhi sultanate broke down. Some of the Deccani dynasties
The Delhi sultanate expanded across the Ganges plain to were Shi
a and fostered cultural and commercial relation-
Bengal, and southward to Rajasthan and Gujarat, encompass- ships with Iran.
ing the Deccan region of peninsular South Asia in 1310 C.E.
The Delhi sultans’ profound military success was against This centrifugal process accelerated when Timur
Mongol incursions, turning South Asia into a haven for (Tamerlane) invaded South Asia and sacked Delhi in 1389.
Islamic rule while Iran, Iraq, and Syria were devastated. Timur did not occupy Delhi, but a chieftain of Chaghatai

636 Islam and the Muslim World
South Asia, Islam in

Turks who claimed descent from Timur did. Zahir al-Din Chaghatai Turkish was the native tongue of Mogul royal
Muhammad Babur, a Turkic warlord from the Ferghana family, but Persian was the language of court chronicles,
Valley (now Tajikistan), invaded South Asia to rebuild his secular poetry, and Sufi devotional literature. Cooperation
fortune until he could reconquer Ferghana, defeating Ibrahim and intermarriage between Muslim and Rajput Hindu elites
Lodi, the last ruler of the Delhi sultanate, in 1526. created new syncretic possibilities in literature. Urdu, the
language of the army camp, formed with Hindawi grammar
The Mogul Timurid Empire (1526–1857 C.E.) absorbing vocabulary from Persian and Turkish and became
Babur died five years after his conquest of Delhi, yet his the common language of the Gangetic plain and a literary
descendants build the largest and strongest agrarian empire language complementing Persian. Sufis innovated in devoof the early modern world. His son, Humayun (ruled tional literature in vernacular Indic languages. Shah Hussayn
1530–1556), consolidated Mogul rule against Afghan nobles. (1539–1599) expanded Sufi poetry in Punjabi. Sayyid Sultan
Military remnants of the Lodi regime rallied under the (late sixteenth century) composed the Nabibhanmsa, a mythic
leadership of Sher Shah Suri, an Afghan leader in Bihar. Sher
retelling of the prophet Muhammad’s life, in Bengali. Such
Shah Suri defeated Humayun’s armies in 1540, drove the
vernacular literatures bridged the gap between elite Persian
Moguls into exile in Safavid Iran, and reestablished the Delhi
poetry and folk traditions, drawing equivalencies between
sultanate under a new Suri dynasty. The Safavid ruler, Shah
Islamic theological concepts and local Indic images.
Isma
il, supported Humayun who reinvaded South Asia in
1555, defeated the Suri regime, and established Mogul rule. Vernacular compositions reveal increasing conversion of
Humayun began conquering regional dynasties in Bengal and local South Asians to Islam. Castes of artisans (like weavers)
Gujarat. joined Muslim communities, giving rise to syncretic and
iconoclastic religious leaders like Kabir of Banares (1440–1518).
Jalal al-Din Akbar (ruled 1556–1605 C.E.) continued this
While many Sufis advocated the inviolability of the shari
a,
expansion, giving Mogul rule stability and ideological maturthe Mogul era witnessed a rise of Sufis who ignored or
ity. Akbar conquered Rajputana, Sindh, and Kashmir. Later
disparaged Islamic communal norms. New Sufi communities
Mogul rulers Nur al-Din Jahangir (ruled 1605–1627), Shah
came to prominence in the Mogul era; the Shattari around
Jahan (1628–1658), and Aurangzeb (1658–1689) pushed Mogul
Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliori (1501–1562) and the Sabirirule southward into the Deccan and eastward into Sikkim
Chishti around
Abd al-Quddus Gangohi (died 1537) exand Burma.
plored yogic exercises and images that were common to
The Mogul empire succeeded because of some unique Hindus and Muslims. The Mogul elite cultivated ties to Sufi
administrative features. The army and court moved with the communities, and some Mogul nobles were outspoken
emperor on a circuit of urban fortress-cities like Lahore and “unifiers” (muwahhid) who believed that Islamic and Hindu
Agra, and tent-cities in the provinces. This mobility facili- theology were compatible rather than contradictory. Prince
tated central rule and tax collection. An elaborate system of Dara Shikoh argued the ultimate identity of Hindu and
promotions in court and military kept administrators de- Islamic theological concepts. The Mogul court patronized
pendent on following centralized policy. Assignments for Persian translations of the Upanishads, Ramayana, and
administration and tax collection were routinely rotated, Mahabharata.
preventing governors from building independent power. From
the time of Akbar, the Mogul ruling class absorbed Rajput In contrast, this relaxation of communal boundaries in-
(Hindu) warlords through promotion and marriage. The spired Muslim reformers who called for a return to the
Mogul empire was ideologically open to sharing power with shari
a. Naqshbandi Sufis, like Baqi Billah (died 1603) and his
Hindu elites and Ithna
Ashari (Twelver) Shi
ite nobles, disciple, Ahmad Sirhindi (1562–1624), tried to influence
diffusing the insistance on Sunni and Turkic supremacy that Mogul nobles. However, reformers came from many comhad sustained the Delhi sultanate. munities. In Ahmadabad,
Ali Muttaqi (1480–1575) strove to
reform Sufism and advocated the centrality of the Prophet’s
Religious Life in the Mogul Empire example. His follower,
Abd al-Haqq Dihlawi (1551–1642),
To manage the multiethnic and multireligious court elite, established a reformist madrasa in Delhi in friendly competi-
Akbar elevated the emperor into a divinely guided figure tion with the Naqshbandis. Even earlier, Sayyid Muhammad
(through an eclectic blending of Sufi, Mahdawi, and Shi
ite Jawnpuri (1443–1505) led a reform movement by declaring
ideas). Courtiers experimented with a new cult of devotion to himself the Mahdi. The Mahdawi movement was a Sunnathe emperor, the Din-e Ilahi or Universal Religion of God. inspired reform movement that conflicted with Sunni elites
Shahjahan and later emperors discontinued it and restored and led to violent conflicts in Gujarat, where it was espetraditional Islamic titles and symbols. Islamic scholars and cially strong.
Sufis argued that Akbar’s experiment was heretical, but in
reality, once Rajput and Shi
ite nobles integrated into court Reformers gained popularity under the emperor Aurangzeb.
life, the cult was no longer needed. Naqshbandis like Shah Wali Allah (1703–1762) strove to

Islam and the Muslim World 637
South Asia, Islam in

integrate Sufism with study of the Quran, hadith, and Islamic in legal and ritual rulings), abandoning conformity with the
law to strengthen allegiance to shari
a among South Asia Hanafi legal school. Organizing his followers into a mili-
Muslims. He urged Muslims to avoid sectarian extremes and tia, he waged a struggle (that he called jihad) against the
blind adherence to legal schools by reviving independent Sikh kingdom, and was killed in 1831. Hajji Shari
atullah
legal reasoning (ijtihad). Two of his grandsons,
Abd al-Qadir (1780–1839) organized a similar movement among peasants
(d. 1813) and Rafi al-Din (d. 1818), translated the Quran in Bengal, known as Faraidi (The Obligatory Duties). He
into Urdu. declared Bengal to no longer be Dar al-Islam since the British
ruled it through landlords. He urged Bengali Muslims to
British Dominance and Muslim Reaction reform and conform more closely to the sunna of Muham-
After the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, weaker Mogul rulers mad, which he identified with the Arabian practices of Mecca.
could not hold the empire together. Local powers grew in His son politicized the movement, attacking Hindu landstrength: Sikhs in Punjab, Marathas in the Deccan, and lords, resisting British taxation, and subverting Anglo-
Shi
ite nobles in Lucknow and Hyderabad. Later Mogul Muhammadan courts. Many Islamic leaders participated in
rulers grew so weak that the Safavid emperor, Nadir Shah, the 1857 rebellion, like the Sabiri-Chishti leader, Hajji
sacked Delhi in 1739. The Afghan ruler, Ahmad Shah Abdali
Imdadullah (1817–1899). Under threat of arrest, he lived in
Durrani, plundered it again in 1761. exile in Mecca while guiding disciples in South Asia who
founded the Deoband Academy (see below).
Chaos in the Mogul capital facilitated European expansion in South Asia. The British East India Company (EIC) Other Islamic leaders did not oppose British colonization
grew from a trading post to a regional military power based at after the war of 1857. Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817–1898)
Calcutta. By 1765, the EIC’s governor general had assumed founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (now
the title of Diwan of Bengal with rights of taxation and fiscal Aligarh Muslim University). To the British, he demonstrated
administration. Though a nominal “vassal” of the Mogul the loyalty of Muslim educated classes; with Muslim elites, he
emperor, the EIC began military and commercial expansion urged cooperation with Christians, politically and theologically.
into Bihar and Orissa. The British acted as mercenaries and Through the journal Tahdhib al-akhlaq (The refinement of
political advisors to surrounding Muslim rulers, such as the morals), he sought to reconcile rationalism, science, and
Nawab of Awadh (Oudh). Orientalist scholars in the EIC, like Islamic theology while promoting the education of Muslim
William Jones and Charles Hamilton, translated Persian and women. More conservative Islamic scholars founded a com-
Arabic texts into English. After the “Permanent Settlement” peting school, Dar al-
Ulum (known as the Deoband Acadof land-ownership regulations in 1793, the EIC administered emy), in 1960 to preserve Islamic law and education after the
Islamic law to Muslims in the territories it controlled, and destruction of Mogul patronage.
synthesized Islamic and British legal norms in Anglo-
Muhammadan Law. Political modernists like Jamal al-Din Afghani (1838–1897)
and Muhammad Iqbal (1876–1938) criticized both the Aligarh
By 1840, the British controlled most Mogul dominions movement’s acceptance of colonialism and the Deoband
directly or indirectly. After conquering the Sikh kingdom in movement’s traditionalism. They agitated for cultural revival
1849, the British integrated the local rulers under their and political self-rule for Muslims in South Asia through
control. When the EIC deposed the Nawab of Oudh in 1856, “nationalism” and “Pan-Islamism.” Exemplary of this move-
Muslim and Hindu soldiers in the EIC army revolted in the ment, Amir
Ali’s Spirit of Islam presented Islam as a more
first Anglo-Indian war (called the Sepoy Mutiny). Rebel “liberal” civilizing force than European Christianity. Epic
soldiers and nobles rallied around the Mogul emperor, Bahadur poems of Altaf Husayn Hali (“The ebb and flow of Islam” in
Shah II. A proclamation issued in his name read, “In this age 1879) and Iqbal (“Complaint and answer” in 1909) popularthe people of Hindustan, both Hindus and Muslims, are ized these sentiments in Urdu. Islamic modernists blamed
being ruined under the tyranny and oppression of the infidel “despotic” Mogul rule, Sufi mysticism, and “effeminate”
and treacherous English. It is therefore the bounded duty of Persian culture for the political weakness of South Asian Islam.
all wealthy people of India to stake their lives and property for
the well being of the public.” By 1857, the EIC army With the First World War, these sentiments crystalized in
reconquered Delhi and executed or exiled the Mogul royal an anticolonial movement. South Asian Muslim elites profamily, and EIC rights were transferred to the British crown. tested when Britain imposed the Treaty of Sevres on Ottoman Turkey in 1920. The Khilafat movement aimed to
Some Muslim leaders opposed British expansion and tried preserve the authority of the caliph in Turkey, spreading
to restore Islamic rule militarily. Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi anti-British sentiment and inviting Muslim leaders into Gan-
(1786–1831), a Sufi leader and soldier, declared South Asia to dhi’s “Non-Cooperation Movement.” The Jam
iyat-e
Ulamano longer be Dar al-Islam (realm of Islamic rule). He allied e Hind (JUH), the Indian Congress of Islamic Scholars,
with Wali Allah’s family and was ghayr muqallad (independent formed to support the Khilafat movement. Students and

638 Islam and the Muslim World
South Asia, Islam in

UZ
BE
KI
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AN
TAJIKISTAN Islam in South Asia
0 200 400 mi.
TURKMENISTAN International border

0 200 400 km Disputed border

Area conquered by

muslims under Umayyids

SH
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West L of Ghazna (r. 1004-1022)

A F G H A N I S TA N L IN E RO C H I N A
Frontier O F C O NT Area conquered by Khaljê

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R a j a s t h a n  Lucknow  
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Muslim dynasties in South Asia. XNR PRODUCTIONS/GALE

faculty withdrew from Aligarh Muslim University and founded “secular” and multireligious nation. They can be called “Isa “nationalist” Muslim University, Jami
a Milliya Islamiya. lamic integrationists” (they have been traditionally labeled
“Islamic Nationalists”). These include
Abd al-Ghaffar Khan
Islamic anticolonial activity was split between two groups. (1890–1988), a Pashto-speaking educator in the North West
The first group felt Muslims had to join Hindus, Sikhs, and Frontier Province who led the nonviolent Khudai Khidmatgar
other South Asians to oppose British domination and create a movement (“Servants of God”) and Abul Kalam Azad (known

Islam and the Muslim World 639
South Asia, Islam in

as Maulana Azad, 1888–1958), an Urdu-speaking theologian INC’s “secular” democracy, those more rooted in their local
and journalist from Calcutta. Such leaders cooperated with community than in Islamic nationalism, or those without
Gandhi and Nehru in the activities of the Indian National economic resources to move. Muslims remain the largest
Congress (INC). religious minority in independent India.

The second group felt Muslims should form an exclusive In 1947, Pakistan began as one nation with two
community based on religious identity and communal ethics, noncontiguous territories. Its western territory included West
and that Muslims could not coexist in an independent na- Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, Kashmir, and North-West Frontion with a Hindu-majority. They can be called “Islamic tier; its eastern territory included East Bengal. The Awami
exclusivists” (they have traditionally been labeled “Islamic League, a political party stressing language and cultural
Communalists”). This group included leaders of the Muslim distinctiveness of Bengali Pakistanis, succeeded in demo-
League, a political party organized in 1906 by landholding cratic elections in 1970 and pressed for Bengali autonomy.
Muslims to seek concessions from the British. Muhammad West Pakistan leaders stalled implementation of the election

Ali Jinnah reorganized the League in 1936 to stand provin- results, leading to a civil war in 1971. The Indian military
cial elections, rivaling the INC. In 1940 the Muslim League intervened, allowing former East Pakistan independence as
declared that a constitutional government for Independent Bangladesh.
India was not possible, demanding that Muslim-majority
provinces be formed into “autonomous and sovereign” states. Partition created geopolitical crises, such as in Kashmir.
The British ruled most of South Asia directly, but ruled many
Partition and Independence of India and Pakistan regions indirectly through 570 “princely states.” The largest
British policies placed Muslims and Hindus into two separate was Kashmir where a Hindu prince, the Dogra of Kashmir,
and irreconcilable “communal” groups. British histories and governed a 75 percent Muslim population. He negotiated for
ethnographies since the eighteenth century portrayed these autonomy, but faced an ultimatum to choose between India
groups in racial terms as opposites. After 1857, British or Pakistan. A Muslim Kashmiri leader, Shaykh Muhammad
policy suppressed upper-class Muslim communities while
Abdallah (born 1905), demanded democratic representation,
promoting Hindus who embraced colonial education and made acute by a Muslim peasants’ insurrection. In reaction,
bureaucracy. The colonial acquiescence to parliamentary the Dogra declared Kashmir annexed to India without a
representation for South Asians in 1937 raised questions of popular referendum with his majority-Muslim population.
“proportional representation” and quotas, polarizing com- The Pakistani government saw this as a betrayal of the
munal relations between Muslims and Hindus. principle of partition, while the Indian government saw it as
legal annexation of integral territory. Military stalemate cre-
The British administration experimented with partition ated a “line of control,” with Pakistan occupying one-third of
to organize colonial subjects by communal identity. In 1905, Kashmir and India occupying two-thirds, which includes the
the administration tried to partition Bengal into Eastern heavily populated valleys of Srinagar and Jammu. The “line
“Hindu-majority” and Western “Muslim-majority” portions, of control” exists up until the present, though both nations
sparking riots and resistance. As the anticolonial movement claim the entire territory. The United Nations mandated a
gained momentum after 1917, the British used concern over popular referendum about Indian annexation, but the Indian
rights of “minority” communities to stall discussions of im- government has never executed this. Since the 1980s, some
pending independence. The Muslim League at first advo- Kashmiri Muslims have resisted Indian military occupation
cated that Muslim-majority provinces become autonomous through civil disobedience and violence.
regions within a federal government of independent India.
Later, the League advocated the “two-nation” solution: Brit- Religious Communalism and Radicalism
ish India would be partitioned and Muslim-majority prov- India built a multireligious and multiethnic democratic state.
inces would form the separate state of Pakistan. However, communalist Hindu forces advocate a Hindu India
in which Muslims (and other religious minorities) would be
Despite opposition by the INC and some Islamic leaders, excluded from full citizenship. A member of the paramilitary
partition became a political reality in 1947. Partition up- Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) assassinated Mahatma
rooted millions as Sikhs and Hindus fled Muslim-majority Gandhi in 1948, claiming that he “capitulated” to Muslim
areas of the Punjab and Sindh, while Muslims in Hindu- concerns. Leaders who sympathized with the RSS ruled
majority areas of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Bengal Maharastra, furthering Hindu communal politics. The Bharata
experienced a similar displacement. Communal riots erupted Janata Party (BJP) organized a national party combining
on both sides, resulting in countless murders, looting, and Hindu communalist ideology (commonly called “Hindutva”),
destruction of property. neo-liberal capitalist economics, and opposition to the INC.

Partition did not solve the political complexities of South To capture power in parliament, the BJP raised a contro-
Asia’s multireligious population. Many Muslims refused or versy, claiming that the Babri Mosque was built (in the
were unable to move to Pakistan, including those loyal to the sixteenth century) over the site of a destroyed Hindu temple

640 Islam and the Muslim World
South Asian Culture and Islam

at the birthplace of Rama at Ayodya. Calling for destroying Friedmann, Yohanan. Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi. New York:
the mosque and rebuilding the temple, the BJP came to Oxford University Press, 2000.
national power. A coalition of Hindu communalist organiza- Gopal, Ram. Islam, Hindutva, and Congress Quest. Delhi:
tions demolished the Babri Mosque in 1993, leading to Reliance Publishing House, 1998.
communalist riots in Bombay and other urban centers. Hindu Habib, Mohammad, and Nizami, Khaliq Ahmad. A Comprecommunalist militancy (and Hindu middle-class support of hensive History of India: the Delhi Sultanat (A.D. 1260–1526).
it) compromises the promise of democratic citizenship for all Delhi: People’s Publishing House, 1970.
religious minorities and threatens the life and welfare of Hermansen, Marcia. The Conclusive Argument from God: Shah
Indian Muslims in particular. Waliullah’s Hujjat Allah al-Baligha. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996.

Muslims in South Asia have also formed communalist Kugle, Scott. “Framed, Blamed and Renamed: The Recasting
of Islamic Jurisprudence in Colonial South Asia.” Modern
organizations. The Tablighi Jama
at or “Missionary Party” is
Asian Studies 35, no. 2 (2001): 257–313.
a communalist religious movement that is largely apolitical.
Maulana Muhammad Ilyas (died 1944) began a missionary Lawrence, Bruce. Notes from a Distant Flute: The Existent
Literature of Pre-Mughal Indian Sufism. Tehran: Imperial
movement to properly “Islamize” Indian Muslims, in reac-
Iranian Academy of Philosophy, 1978.
tion to Hindu missionary movements, like the Arya Samaj,
that viewed them as “lapsed Hindus” who must re-convert Lelyveld, David. Aligarh’s First Generation: Muslim Solidarity
(shuddhi) to “Hinduism.” The movement advocated religious in British India. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1978.
revival and abandoning participation in “secular” projects
like modern education and critical inquiry into religious Maclean, Derryl. Religion and Society in Arab Sind. Leiden:
tradition. It has become international, one of the largest E. J. Brill, 1989.
Islamic organizations worldwide. Metcalf, Barbara. Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband,
1860–1900. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
The journalist turned political theologian, Abu l-A
la Press, 1982.
Maududi (died 1979), organized the Jama
at-e Islami as a Minault, Gail. The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and
radical political party to forge Pakistan into an Islamic state. Political Mobilzation in India. New York: Columbia Uni-
The party has not succeeded in parliamentary elections, but versity Press, 1982.
formulates “Islamist” ideology. The Jama
at spread interna- Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic
tionally to Bangladesh, Britain, and North America. Along Revivalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
with al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun in Egypt, the Jama
at is the
Richards, John. The Mughal Empire. New Delhi: Cambridge
oldest and most institutionalized radical political association University Press, 1993.
calling for Islamic revolution in postcolonial nation states.
Robinson, Francis. Separatism Among Indian Muslims: the
Both the Jama
at-e Islami and Tablighi Jama
at question the
Politics of the United Provinces Muslims, 1860–1923. Camlegitimacy of the parliamentary democratic governments of bridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1974.
Pakistan and Bangladesh, especially since the election of
Schimmel, Annemarie. Islam in the Indian Subcontinment.
women as prime ministers (Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan and
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1980.
Khalida Zia in Bangladesh).
Shackle, Christopher, and Majeed, Javed. Hali’s Musaddas:
A reproduction of a painting captures Mogul emperor Shah The Flow and Ebb of Islam. Delhi: Oxford University
Jahan on a peacock throne in the volume two color insert. Press, 1997.
Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. Modern Islam in India: A Social
See also South Asian Culture and Islam. Analysis. London: Victor Gollancz, 1946.
Troll, Christian. Sayyid Ahmad Khan: A Reinterpretation of
BIBLIOGRAPHY Muslim Theology. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Ahmad, Aziz. Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1964. Scott A. Kugle
Eaton, Richard. The Rise of Islam on the Bengal 1204–1760.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Eaton, Richard. “Temple Destruction and Indo-Muslim
States.” In Beyond Hindu and Turk: Rethinking Religious SOUTH ASIAN CULTURE AND ISLAM
Identities in Islamicate South Asia. Edited by Bruce Lawrence and David Gilmartin. Gainsville: University of When the Muslims arrived, South Asia had already cradled
Florida Press, 2000. two great religions, Buddhism and Hinduism, and was di-
Ernst, Carl. Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History and Politics at a vided into culturally distinct areas by differences in terrain,
South Asian Sufi Center. Albany: State University of New climate, ethnicity, religion, and social background. Apart
York Press, 1992. from the Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu introduced by

Islam and the Muslim World 641
South Asian Culture and Islam

the Muslims, there were already a vast number of existing of foreign extraction (Arabs, Turks, Afghans, and Persians)
languages, all of which cut across religious barriers, and were considered nobility, lived in cities, and maintained
Muslim contributions to the various extant literatures were, exclusiveness. They spoke first Persian and later Urdu, a new
and are, substantial. Although there were some cities, society language combining Hindi syntax with Persian and Arabic
was still predominantly rural and agricultural, and religion vocabulary. The seed for a separate state for the Bengalis of
played an important role in people’s lives. Even today, many East Pakistan was sown when there was a move from the West
social customs are rooted in ancient Hindu practices, for to impose Urdu as the state language. The cultural divide
example the hereditary caste system, which Islam appropri- between the two wings, separated by a thousand miles of
ated rather than threw away. Indian territory, and an economic disparity rooted in oppression and exploitation, led to civil war and the emergence of
Islam’s Entry and Early Conversions Bangladesh in 1971.
Arab Muslim mercantile interest in western India began in
the seventh century, predating the conquest of Sind (in what Next in the social hierarchy of Muslim times were upperis now Pakistan) by Muhammad b. Qasim in 712. Qasim caste Hindu converts, such as the Rajputs. After them came
executed opposing soldiers, but spared the traders, artisans, the artisans and “clean” castes, with the “unclean” occupaand ordinary people, and wrought minimal changes in the tional castes occupying the lowest rung. (Caste is still imporsocial and administrative structures of Sind. He also struck a tant in arranging marriages.) Local officials learned to speak
deal with the Brahmins, the priestly high caste of Hindus, co- and dress like the Muslim ruling classes, and gradual interopting them as partners in the administration, exempting marriage with the local population led to Muslim adoption of
them from paying the poll tax imposed on non-Muslims and indigenous food and customs. The Muslim and Hindu aristoensuring their right to worship freely. Temples, such as the crats kept their women secluded behind purdah (curtains) in
famous sun-temple in Multan, were important to the early separate apartments, whereas women of the artisan and culti-
Muslim rulers as a source of revenue, as they could collect the vating classes had relatively more freedom, probably because
pilgrims’ donations. of the economic necessity of working with men. Marriage
customs and rituals also cut across religions. Although not
As Turks and Afghans after Qasim established small, sanctioned by traditional Muslim law, dowry, a Hindu cus-
Muslim-ruled enclaves in the northwest of India, Arab and tom by which the bride’s father must give money to the
Persian mercantile communities flourished along the western couple, was widely practiced among Muslims (it remains so,
coast. The merchants were honored and protected by local today), and has resulted in much violence against women.
Rashtrakuta kings (eighth to tenth century), intermarried
with lower-caste Hindus, spoke Malayalam, and dressed like The practices of Islam and Hinduism influenced each
the Hindu military caste. However, Muslims and lower castes other; Muslim mystics (sufis) and holy men (pirs) showed this
were excluded from the social life of upper-caste Hindus. influence the most. Their mystical doctrines centered around
union with God through love. Highly unorthodox, they were
Muslim kings up to the eighteenth century ruled over a nonetheless often revered by Hindus as well, and their tombs
vast majority of non-Muslims, largely Hindus, but including became pilgrimage sites for people of all religions, a phe-
Buddhists, Jains, and indigenous tribes. They wisely followed nomenon particular to South Asia. In many rural areas such
a policy of conquest and reconciliation; conversion was not charismatic men took part in clearing forests, introducing
prioritized because it meant less revenue. The fact that the agriculture, settling populations, and effecting large-scale
Muslims of South Asia have remained a minority suggests conversion.
that the vast majority of Indians did not seek conversion.
While the Brahmins resisted change, it was within the lower Interactions with Folk and Indigenous Religions
castes that most conversions took place. Yet the advantages to In the fifteenth century Sufism resonated with popular Bhakti
converts were minimal, because their post-conversion life- devotional movements in Hinduism, whose leaders attacked
style did not differ much from that which they practiced institutionalized religion, disregarded caste, and taught in
as Hindus. the vernacular languages. Kabir (1440–1518) and Nanak
(1469–1539), both of Punjab, were two of the most significant
The Effects of Caste and Culture contributors to the Bhakti movement, and both assimilated
At the partition of India in 1947, following almost two Muslim ideas. They taught devotion and love devoid of ritual
hundred years of British rule, the country was divided along framework, and aimed at a reordering of society along egalicommunal lines. At that point Bengal and Punjab, the two tarian lines. Their followers are known as the Kabirpanthis
foremost agricultural provinces, had the largest number of and Sikhs, respectively.
Muslims. The converts in these areas were from indigenous
groups who had never been fully integrated into a strong Among the Muslims, interesting developments took place
Hindu social system, and even after conversion had been within the Nizari branch of the Shi
ite Isma
ili community.
distanced from the centers of Muslim political power. Caste Their most successful leader in Sind, Sadr al-Din (fifteenth
remained operative in Muslim society in India, where families century), is considered to be the first author of the literary

642 Islam and the Muslim World
South Asian Culture and Islam

genre of Das avatar (The tenth incarnation), an amazing
Abdul Qadir Bedil (b. 1644) of Uzbek descent. Well acblend of Islamic and Hindu ideas, in which
Ali and the quainted with Indian religions and philosophy, and influprophet Muhammad are acknowledged as incarnations of the enced by Sufis, he was skeptical of all dogma. Persian remained
Hindu gods Vishnu and Brahma. the official language of Muslim India until 1835.

At the popular level there were folk religions of indige- Due to the disapproval of dance and theatre by orthodox
nous origin, like the cults of Panch Pir (five holy men) and Muslim scholars, which stemmed from concerns over the
Satya Pir (the true holy man), in which various beliefs and portrayal of the human image, performing arts were regarded
practices were assimilated. Religious reform movements of with extreme caution. Nevertheless, a form of passion play
the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, led by returnees from developed, especially in areas of Shi
ite concentration, enact-
Mecca, disputed the Indian influences on local Muslims, and ing the tragedy of Karbala when Husayn’s (the Prophet’s
aimed to instill in the masses a commitment to “pure” Islam. grandson) family was killed in battle. In spite of the ortho-
Descendants of Shah Wali Allah Dehlawi (1703–1762), per- doxy, Kathak dancing, born of a marriage of Hindu and
haps the greatest Indian theologian, spearheaded this move- Muslim cultures and enacting the love story of Radha and
ment; and the later Deobandis and Ahl-i hadith opposed the Krishna, flourished in the Mughal courts in the seventeenth
excessive veneration of saints and tomb worship. Shah Wali century. Ghazals, short lyrical poems in Urdu set to music;
Allah translated the Quran into Persian that it might be more Marsiya, songs on the tragedy of Karbala; and qawwali, songs
widely understood, and his grandsons made an Urdu transla- celebrating the life of the Prophet or a Sufi saint, became
tion. Later, Haji Shari
atullah (1781–1840) of Bengal also popular during this period, and remain so today.
made it his mission to correct the Islam of the Bengali
peasantry. His movement was known as the Faraiziyya (Ar. In India, the most dramatic impact of the Muslims was on
Faraidiyya), laying emphasis on the faraid, or Muslim relig- the visual arts. Because of the orthodox Muslim aversion to
ious duties. Bengal had well-developed local religious tradi- the representation of living beings, non-figural art, such as
tions, including the veneration of local saints, because of a calligraphy, and vegetal and geometric designs in both archidearth of orthodox Sunni Islamic writings in Bengali. tecture and painting are preferred. Once settled, Muslim
sultans started commissioning religious and secular manu-
Language and the Arts scripts in the various Persian Islamic styles, replacing palm
At the advent of Muslim rule, Sanskrit was limited to Hindu leaf with paper. Thus, the Indo-Persian style of painting
texts, while Buddhist and Jain texts used Prakrit. The new developed, reflecting Indian styles as well as individual rulers’
Indic vernaculars (Hindi, Bengali, Kashmiri, Punjabi, tastes. The N
imat-nama (Book of recipes) was done in this
Rajasthani, Marathi, Gujrati, Oriya, Sindhi, and Assamese), style for the Sultan of Malwa in the sixteenth century. It can
which grew out of the Prakrit and the Apabhramsa stages of be seen today in the India Office Library in London.
Sanskrit, received a tremendous boost from the Muslims,
who preferred the newer languages over Sanskrit and Prakrit. Two Persian masters, Mir Sayyid
Ali and Khwaja
Abd al-
Samad, founded the Mughal School of painting in the six-
Arabic enjoyed prestige as the language of the Quran, and teenth century. The atelier, composed of mostly Hindu
was used mostly for religious scholarship, historiography and artists, illustrated both Persian and Indian histories and
for translating scientific books on astronomy, medicine, and romances; for example the Dastan-e Amir Hamza (Stories of
arithmetic for the West Asian market. Turkish flourished Amir Hamza), part of which is in the Metropolitan Museum
briefly as a literary language under the early Mughal emper- of Art, New York. The compositions, fine line, and architecors, but was replaced by Persian. Muslims were the most tural detailing were Persian influences, while the vigorous
influential writers in the Indic languages of Kashmiri, Sindhi, movement and bold color were indigenous. Contemporaneand Punjabi, and the writing of Indo-Iranian languages Baluchi ous with the Mughal school was the Rajput style, the subject
and Pashto was exclusively done by Muslims. In Bengal, matter of which was almost exclusively Hindu. The interplay
Muslim sultans patronized the translations of Sanskrit clas- between these two artistic styles depended on the contact
sics into Bengali, and Muslims like Syed Sultan (sixteenth between the Mughal and Rajput rulers—political, cultural,
century), Dawlat Qazi, and Alaol (seventeenth century) were and marital, or simply the movement of artists from the
well-known writers in Bengali. Mughal court. These traditional styles of painting were
revived in the early twentieth century by the stalwarts of the
In the heartland of northern India, Amir Khosrow Bengal School, who wished to make Indian artists aware of
(1253–1325) mainly composed poetry in Persian, but also their own heritage.
wrote in the Awadhi dialect of Hindi. During the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries the Muslim contribution to mystic Architectural Influences
(both Sufi and Bhakti) poetry in several dialects and lan- In architecture, the Indian temple, with its sculpture-encrusted
guages was considerable. The so called “Indian style” of walls and ceilings and dark interior housing an image of a
Persian poetry peaked during the reign of the Moguls (Fayzi, deity, with entry restricted to the Brahmin priest, radically

Urfi, Naziri, Zuhuri, Kalim); the greatest exponent being differed from the mosque of the Muslims, which was open,

Islam and the Muslim World 643
Southeast Asia, Islam in

large enough for congregational prayer, and contained no Dallapiccola, Anna Libera, and Lallemant, Stephanie Zingelimagery. Yet the new Muslim architecture became eclectic, Ave, eds. Islam and Indian Regions. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner
capitalizing on the ancient Indian traditions, and introducing Verlag, 1993.
new forms brought from West Asia; for example, the voussoired Eaton, Richard M. Sufis of Bijapur 1300–1700: Social Roles of
arch (composed of wedge-shaped constituent pieces). Mus- Sufis in Medieval India. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univerlim building activity passed through three stages. The first sity Press, 1978.
was short and violent, when the new rulers politically appro- Eaton, Richard M.. Essays on Islam and Indian History. New
priated temples by destroying them. In the second, material Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000.
from destroyed sites was used to build mosques and tombs. Hasan, Perween. “The Indian Subcontinent.” In The Mosque.
Finally, once they settled, Muslims prepared their own build- Edited by Martin Frishman and Hasan-Uddin Khan.
ing materials for individual structures, and used salvaged London: Thames and Hudson, 1994.
material only rarely. Schimmel, Annemarie. Islam in the Indian Subcontinent. Leiden:
E. J. Brill, 1980.
As in painting, provincial architectural styles developed in
the independent sultanates as the rulers assimilated the local Tarachand, M. A. Influence of Islam on Indian Culture. Allahabad:
The Indian Press (Publications) Private Ltd., 1963.
culture. Elegance of style depended on indigenous traditions,
terrain, climate, and available materials. This accounts for the Wink, Andre. The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Vols. 1
enormous difference between the brick and terracotta mosques and 2. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.
of Bengal (Mosque at Bagha, 1523), the wooden mosques
with spires in Kashmir (Friday Mosque, Srinagar, 1385, 1402, Perween Hasan
and 1674), and the stone-built mosques of Gujarat, the
interiors of which have marked temple features (Ahmed
Shah’s Mosque, Ahmedabad, 1411).
SOUTHEAST ASIA, ISLAM IN
The Mogul style, which started in the imperial capitals of
Delhi, Agra, and Fatehpur Sikri in the sixteenth century, and Island Southeast Asia, that is, the Malay world, has one of the
which is marked by the spectacular architecture of Humayun’s heaviest concentrations of Muslim peoples on earth. This
tomb, Delhi (1571), the Jami Mosque of Fatehpur Sikri “Muslim archipelago” encompasses Malaysia (around 55% of
(1574), and the Tajmahal, Agra (1643), diffused to the prov- 22 million people are Muslim), Indonesia (87% of 200 milinces as they increased. The universal Mogul style can be lion), Brunei (68% of 330,700), and the Philippines, where
recognized everywhere, but there were special features in Muslims are concentrated in the western and central parts of
every provincial context that were rooted in the vernacular the Mindanao island and the Sulu archipelago (4 to 7% of 74
tradition. For example, in Bengal, where there was no marble, million).
the brick surface was plastered, lime coated, and polished
to a gleam. The Era of Islamization
Islam was first brought to the “lands below the winds” around
Although European styles took over during British rule, the eighth century by Arab Muslim traders. Not until the
the Mogul style resurfaced again in the late nineteenth thirteenth century did the process of society-wide Islamization
century, when the Indo-Saracenic style became popular for start with the kingdom of Aceh in northern Sumatra, situated
the official British buildings. It was an architecture of facades, at what used to be Indonesia’s gateway to India and the
with a traditionally Indian exterior favoring the Mogul arch Middle East. In the next one hundred years, local communiand dome masking a European interior. Examples of this ties of Muslims sprang up in port towns.
style include the Law Courts in Madras, built between 1888
and 1892. This linkage to the Mughals and to India’s past was Between the fifteenth and the seventeenth century Islamic
useful to the British in establishing legitimacy for their rule. kingdoms replaced the Hindu-Buddhist states and Islam
spread rapidly throughout the Malay world due to intense
See also Hinduism and Islam; South Asia, Islam in; commercial activity. Muslim merchants, religious scholars,
Urdu Language, Literature, and Poetry. and mystics, West Indians from Gujarat and Malabar, and
Arabs from Hadramaut carried the message of Islam with
BIBLIOGRAPHY them along the main trade routes. Islamic sultanates en-
Asher, Catherine B. The New Cambridge History of India. Vol. croached on the power of the Hindu-Buddhist empires. The
4: Architecture of Mughal India. Cambridge, U.K.: Cam- most formidable one of Majapahit on Java collapsed in 1525
bridge University Press, 1992. and was replaced by the Muslim dynasty of Mataram. Islam
Beach, Milo C. The New Cambridge History of India. Vol. 3: was both a religion and an ideology of rule. The prevailing
Mughal and Rajput Painting. Cambridge, U.K.: Cam- model was “raja-centered”: When local rulers (rajas, later
bridge University Press, 1992. sultans) embraced Islam, their subjects followed, accepting

644 Islam and the Muslim World
Southeast Asia, Islam in

them as worldly and spiritual leaders. Islam provided the United States. Moros could not identify themselves with the
theocratic and political base for the Islamic sultanates of the majority of Christian Filipinos but failed to be excluded from
Malayan peninsula, Sumatra, Java, the southern Philippines, the Philippine state when it gained independence in 1946.
and Borneo. The flourishing commerce led to cultural innovation comparable to Europe’s Renaissance while Islam cre- During the colonial era, Sunni Islam of the Shafi
ite
ated a sense of shared identity among the peoples living school continued to grow in Southeast Asia. Rural Islamic
throughout the archipelago. boarding schools called pesantren became the heart of orthodox Islam in Indonesia where students studied religious
The Islam received was pluralistic and mostly tolerant of subjects combined with mystical practices.
other religious traditions. Cultural influences from the Hindu-
Buddhist era were tolerated or incorporated into Islamic Contact between the area and the heartlands of Islam in
rituals. In certain pockets of the area (the north and northeast the Middle East grew after the Suez canal opened in 1869.
coasts of Java) a legalistic Islamic tradition prevailed. Existing The growing number of pilgrims making the Hajj to Mecca
religious traditions facilitated the reception of mystical Sufi led to deepened Islamic learning and a growing tendency
practices. Seeking unity with God through meditation was toward Islamic orthodoxy. Teachers of Islam and Arabic
part of Hindu-Buddhist religious beliefs. Inspired by the studied for years with shaykhs (sheikhs) in Mecca and upon
works of the great Islamic scholar al-Ghazali, a tradition of return contributed to the reform of Sufism and orthodox Islam.
Islamic learning emerged that combined fiqh (jurisprudence),
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Islam became a
kalam (philosophy), and Sufism.
rallying banner to resist colonialism. Mild successes of Chris-
The Era of Colonialism tian missions caused a decline of confidence in Islamic au-
Island Southeast Asia was the major source of spices and other thorities. Resistance arose among reform-seeking Muslims
natural resources that Europeans sought to control. In 1511 and among the ulema who led the traditional pesantren. The
the commercial empire of Melaka fell to the Portuguese. In first Islamic reform movements started in the nineteenth
the 1570s, Spain began colonizing the Philippines with the century in Sumatra. Reformist ideas were brought to Indonethree Muslim principalities of Sulu, Maguindanao, and Buayan. sia by religious teachers returning from the hajj and via
The Dutch started trade missions to Indonesia’s spice islands journals published in Singapore and Egypt. Reformists urged
in the seventeenth century, gradually colonizing Indonesia. Muslims to return to a simple lifestyle, renew the moral basis
By 1841, British rule started in Malaysia while Brunei became of Islam, return to the original scripture, and purify Islam
a British protectorate (1888). from unlawful innovations. Inspired by the teachings of the
famous Egyptian Islamic scholar Muhammad
Abduh, they
Initially, European colonization changed the outward- advocated an accommodation with modern thought and
looking, vibrant profile of Islam during the age of commerce technology. In 1912, Indonesian reformers strengthened
into an inward-looking conservatism. Islam became regu- their movement by creating Muhammadiyah. This sociallated by colonial rules, bureaucratized, and suppressed. The religious organization aimed at purifying Islam from indige-
Dutch tried to deny Indonesian Islam by ignoring its deep nous and Sufi practices. It built schools that combined an
roots in society, stressing local traditions and European law Islamic and secular curriculum for the majority of Muslims
instead. Local custom (adat, Ar.
adat) was made the basis of who did not have access to the Dutch school systems. The
laws for the indigenous population. Personal matters nor- movement was unique in its concern for women who were
mally regulated by the Islamic shari
a, such as marriage, trained as preachers for women. The traditionalist Muslims
divorce, inheritance, and almsgiving, were under the jurisdic- based at the pesantren furthered Muslim piety through activition of adat laws. Recourse to Islamic law was only allowed ties in the mosques and by bringing local village rituals in
when the rules overlapped the adat. conformity with Islam. In 1926, these ulema grouped together in the Nahdlatul Ulama movement (NU).
The British curtailed the political role of Malay sultans
but allowed them a degree of authority as heads of religion in In Malaysia, the reform movement drew educated, urban
their states. They misrepresented Islam by incorporating Muslims who gathered around journalistic enterprises. A
within it local traditions yet left the application of Islamic law student of Muhammad
Abduh founded the periodical alto the sultans. Iman in 1906 to spread the reformist message. Hindered by
the British colonial regime and opposed by traditionalists and
By the 1570s, Spanish incursions halted the Islamization Malay secular elites, reformism in Malaysia remained less
process in the islands of the Philippines. The colonizers diverse and socially effective than its counterpart in Indonesia.
called the Muslims in the Philippines Moros (because they
had the same religion as the Moors of Spain). For over four The Era of Independence
centuries the Moros tried to defend their Islamic identity in Indonesia. Upon gaining independence, the newly formed
the “Moro Wars” against the colonial forces of Spain and the nation-states had to redefine the position of Islam in their

Islam and the Muslim World 645
Southeast Asia, Islam in

Islam in Malaysia
and Indochina
Area Islamized, 1200-1500


Philippine
   Area Islamized, 1500-1800

Major sultanate, 1600

Indochina Islands City



Malay
Peninsula
Mindanao
 
     BRUNEI

  


Brunei
Sulu
Archipelago
ACEH
 
Melaka
JOHOR  Sulawesi
Singapore Borneo TIDORE
Sumatra
JAMBI
PALEMBANG
MATARAM MACASSAR TERNATE




 

BANTEN
  New Guinea
Jakarta-Batavia
Java
BALI

 

Islam in Malaysia and Indochina. XNR PRODUCTIONS/GALE

governments. Indonesia chose a nonconfessional govern- Differences of opinions among Indonesian Muslims still
ment over an Islamic state in order to unite some six thousand run along the spectrum of reformist Muhammadiyah and
inhabited islands that hold a variety of cultures and religions. traditionalist NU. Reformists wish to purify Islam from all
The founding fathers promoted the state ideology of Pancasila, indigenous culture. They consider Islamic scripture to be
the concept of unity in plurality—one God worshiped in complete and self-sufficient, and support the use of ijtihad
separate ways by Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Bud- (independent reasoning) and personal study. At the conservadhists. Muslim aspirations to an Islamic state regularly led to tive end of the reformist spectrum are those who are against
uprisings in Sumatra, West Java, and Sulawesi. The Suharto religious pluralism and who lobby for an Islamic state. After
regime (1966–1998) curbed the political power of Islam. The independence the Masyumi political party represented restate established a ministry of religion to monitor religious formist aspirations in the national government of President
matters such as the hajj, religious education, and the judicial Sukarno (1945–1965). One of their concerns was the growing
administration. In 1973 the government tried to introduce a communist movement. They were banned after rebellions in
marriage bill that would give precedence to civil authority in Sumatra and Sulawesi demanding Islamization of the state.
cases of marriage and divorce, rather than to the religious When political aspirations were denied to all Muslims, in
Muslim courts. The bill was modified when Muslim leaders 1967, theologically conservative ex-Masyumi reformists
protested vigorously. formed Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia (DDII), an
organization for Muslim proselytization.
Leading intellectuals such as Nurcholish Madjid and
Abdurrahman Wahid advocated focusing on a “cultural” NU is the umbrella for Muslims tolerant of local culture
Islam as opposed to a “political” Islam. The goal was Muslim that does not interfere with Islamic teachings. They stress the
renewal —spiritual, intellectual, and economic. This led to a study of fiqh because it espouses the views of generations of
strong revival of Indonesian Islam during the 1980s, and the scholars starting from the prophet Muhammad. They only
Suharto government realized that Islam was becoming a force exercise ijtihad in the context of this historic body of teachto reckon with. Non-Muslims started to worry when in 1990 ings, preferring taqlid, following traditional opinions. The
the government established the Indonesian Muslim Intellec- political aspirations of its ulema were represented by the NU
tuals’ Association (ICMI) to promote Islamization of state party until the Suharto government forced all Islamic parties
and society. to unite into one government-supervised Islamic party, the

646 Islam and the Muslim World
Southeast Asia, Islam in

Malaysia. When in 1957 Malaysia became independent,
UMNO was committed to a secularist vision of the new
nation. Challenged by PAS, UMNO became more committed to Islam as Malaysia’s religion. After the 1969 clashes with
the Chinese population, “Malayness” came to be defined in
terms of the three pillars: Muslim religion (agama), Malay
language, or bahasa (not English, Chinese, or Indian), and the
government of the sultans (raja). The Malay rulers of each
state serve as guardians of Islamic religion and Malay custom.
The constitution requires Malaysians (55% of the population) to be Muslim. Islam and Malayness are identified with
political dominance. Islam is coordinated through the state,
rather than through independent socio-religious organizations as is the case in Indonesia. Being Malay permits access to
affirmative action programs that are part of the New Economic Policy (NEP), which was created to allow Malaysians
to compete with the wealthy Chinese population. The goal is
to transform Malaysia into an industrialized nation by the
year 2020.

During the 1970s the revivalist Dakwah (Ar. da
wa) movement emerged among urban, middle-class youth organizations
that faced the influences of modernization and globalization.
It reiterated the reformist themes, seeking to implement
Islam as a holistic way of life in society through religious
renewal. It made Islam the main pillar of society and challenged the state led by prime minister Mahathir Mohamed to
adopt its own Islamization strategy to “out-Islamicize” the
opposition. The result was the Islamization of government
In Bangkok, Thai Muslim women attend a prayer for peace one
week before the start of Ramadan. GETTY IMAGES bodies, the arts, the press, and institutes for learning. The
Malay population became more devoutly Islamic. PAS continued its demands for an Islamic state and managed to
Partei Persatuan Pembangunan (Party for Unity and Devel- implement shari
a in the state of Kelantan. Through the new
opment, or PPP). When the Suharto government demanded ethnic definition, increased Islamization, and economic benefit,
that all mass organizations affirm Pancasila as their ide- the Malay community has been transformed in what is called
ology, the NU dropped its political aspirations and fo- the “new Malay.”
cused on religious, social, and economic development instead. This shift away from politics has resulted in increased In Brunei Islam is the national religion. The wealthy
piety among Indonesian Muslims and a steady strengthening country is ruled by an Islamic monarchy, the original rajaof a democratic-minded civil society. centered model. The sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah (r. 1968– ), is
head of the faith and responsible for upholding the Islamic
After Suharto stepped down in May 1998, the structure way of life. One of the main issues in Brunei public religious
that repressed religion and society collapsed. Political parties life is the disagreement between those who advocate a
representing Muslims of various affiliations were set up, theocratic Islamic state, and those who are secularly oriented.
religious organizations were free to have Islam as their sole
constitution, and Muslims are fully represented in the demo- Philippines. Philippine Muslims, the Moros, live in the
cratically elected Parliament. Freedom of religion also led to only Christian-dominated country in Southeast Asia. Moros
the emergence of extreme groups such as Lashkar Jihad in do not identify themselves as Filipinos and have been
2000 that called for holy war against the Christian population marginalized within the institution of the nation-state. Since
in the Malaccan islands. the 1950s Moro Islam has witnessed a revival in Islamic piety.
Moro Muslims have received assistance to build mosques and
Malaysia and Brunei. In 1946, conservative, nationalist educate religious leaders from other Muslim countries.
Malaysians aspiring for independence formed the United Marginalization and the increasing influx of Christian Fili-
Malay Nationalist Organization (UMNO). In 1955 the Pan- pino immigrants into the Muslim regions gave rise to armed
Malayan Islamic Party (Partai Islam Se-Malaysia, PAS) regis- secession movements. The most popularly supported of these
tered to press the establishment of an Islamic state in British movements is the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Islam and the Muslim World 647
Southeast Asian Culture and Islam

Its actions caused the Filipino government to implement language, and sets of shared cultural characteristics, many of
affirmative action programs for the benefit of the Moros such which are shaped by pre-Islamic cultural systems. Concepts
as building religious schools, and scholarships for Moro of power and spirituality, respect for ancestors, belief in
students. The administration of Corazon Aquino (l986–1992) spirits, and the local understanding of gender relations owe
granted autonomy to four provinces in Mindinao. Armed much to the pre-Islamic beliefs. Key concepts of pre-Islamic
struggle continues in the twenty-first century with groups ethics are fused with Islamic ethical teachings. Southeast
such as the extremist Abu Sayyaf pressing its claim for Asians stress concepts such as the maintenance of social and
independence. religious harmony (rukun), respect toward those whose position in society demands it, and sincerity in one’s actions
See also Muhammadiyya (Muhammadiyah); Nahdlatul
(ikhlas).
Ulama (NU); Reform: South Asia; Southeast Asian
Culture and Islam. Islam, however, is not just a veneer painted over Hindu-
Buddhist notions. Islam became vibrant by accommodating
BIBLIOGRAPHY core elements of the traditions present in the area at the time
Andaya, B. Watson, and Andaya, L. Y. A History of Malaysia, of Islamization through patterns of interpenetration and local
2d ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001. variation. Over time, acceptance was increasingly measured
Barton, G., and Fealy, G., eds. Nahdlatul Ulama, Traditional against the scale of compatibility with Islamic teachings. How
Islam and Modernity in Indonesia. Clayton, VIC, Australia: far Islam should coincide with Arab culture became a recur-
Monash Asia Institute, 1996. rent topic of debate.
Hefner, R. Civil Islam. Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia. Princeton, N.J., and Oxford, UK: Princeton Univer- When considering elements of culture and Islam in the
sity Press, 2000. region, the past and the present, the local and the global,
Hefner, R., and Horvatich, P., eds. Islam in an Era of Nation- intersect. There are many stages of commitment to norma-
States. Politics and Religious Renewal in Muslim Southeast tive Islam in local expressions of Islam. Nowadays, local
Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997. cultures are also changing rapidly under the influence of
Leake, David. Brunei: The Modern Southeast-Asian Islamic modernization and globalization. With increasingly higher
Sultanate. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1989. levels of education and knowledge of Western and Arab
Majul, C. A. Muslims in the Philippines. Diliman, Quezon City: culture transmitted via the modern media, rituals held sacred
The University of the Philippines Press, 1999. for centuries can fade within one generation. Reformists
McKenna, T. M. “Muslim Rulers and Rebels.” In Everyday altogether condemn indigenous rituals deemed inconsistent
Politics and Armed Separatism in the Southern Philippines. with Islam. “Purifying the faith” has been their rallying cry
Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California since the beginning of the twentieth century. Traditionalist
Press, 1998. Muslims incorporated local rituals, purging them of beliefs or
Muzaffar, Chandra. Islamic Resurgence in Malaysia. Petaling practices forbidden by Islam. This entry discusses some of the
Jaya, Indonesia: Fajar Bakti, 1987. main ideas that have governed religious rituals practiced by
Nagata, Judith. The Reflowering of Malaysian Islam. Vancouver: indigenous Southeast Asian Muslims, and the debates and
University of British Columbia Press, 1984. interpretations generated by these practices.
Woodward, Mark R. Islam in Java: Normative Piety and
Hierarchy and Power
Mysticism in the Sultunate of Yogyakarta. Tucson, Ariz.:
Association for Asian Studies, 1989. Pre-Islamic understandings of hierarchy and power shape
many cultural practices. In many places the king was the
Woodward, Mark R., ed. Toward a New Paradigm. Recent
defender of the faithful and the mystical anchor of the
Developments in Indonesian Islamic Thought. Tempe: Arizona State University Program for Southeast Asian Stud- religious community. Power is considered a quality that can
ies, 1996. be obtained through inheritance or by divine favor. Many
became Muslim when the king accepted Islam. The king, and
Nelly van Doorn-Harder later the sultan, protected this power by performing ceremonies and rituals and by possessing certain artifacts that were
said to be laden with mystical power, such as the kris, a dagger
that was a symbol of manhood, honor, and ethnic identity.
SOUTHEAST ASIAN CULTURE Religious and worldly power are preferably combined with
AND ISLAM various mystical powers (kasekten). Power is stratified according to rank and generation: elders are higher than juniors, and
The rich tradition of Islam in Southeast Asia is characterized aristocrats are higher than commoners. Peoples (and spirits)
by a variety of local practices and beliefs. Unifying this live in a more or less clearly defined hierarchical structure.
colorful spectrum are the basic precepts of Islam, the Malay This hierarchy is expressed during important festivities. Before

648 Islam and the Muslim World
Southeast Asian Culture and Islam

marriage the bride and groom will ask forgiveness for wrongs the spirits of deceased ancestors (roh), or local spirits (jinn)
done against the parents. During the
Id al-Fitri feast that who are sometimes given special dishes called sajen (offercompletes Ramadan, Indonesians honor those ranking above ings). Foods served at the meal have ritual meanings and are
them in a ritual called halal bi-halal when they visit them, in presented in symbolic arrangements of four, seven, or fortythe family, the neighborhood, or their work, to show respect, four. Some believe that the use of incense facilitates commuseek reconciliation, and preserve or restore harmonious nication with ancestral spirits. Prayers said during the slametan
relations. are a mix of Arabic and local language. When held in
orthodox Muslim families, only Quranic verses are used and
Some sultans, for example on Java, still organize large the participants refrain from speech or symbolic acts that
traditional celebrations such as the Sekaten and the Gerebeg. refer to spirits. Many Islamic feast days and life-cycle rituals
The Sekaten is a month-long fair held prior to the Mawlid al- are celebrated with a slametan.The framework for interpret-
Nabi (Prophet’s birthday), one of the most popular feasts in ing the slametan depends on the Islamic or indigenous orien-
Southeast Asia. This festivity used to be the prime tool of tation of the participants.
conversion to Islam: Peasants coming from the surrounding
villages were moved to pronounce the shahada, thus nomi- Ancestors and Caring for the Dead
nally converting to Islam. The Gerebeg is a parade between Many in Southeast Asia consider death a transition. In order
the sultan’s palace and a nearby mosque where a mount of to help the deceased on their way in the afterlife special
fruits laden with blessings from the sultan’s palace is divided slametan (called sedekah for the Arabic sadaqa, alms) are held at
among the people. certain intervals after death: on the first, third, seventh,
fortieth, and one hundredth day, followed by one year, two
A variety of specialists from the earlier traditions (many of years, and a thousand days. Combined with the meal are
them called dukun) became incorporated in Islam. Among recitations from the Quran in the forms of praise, prayers,
them are healers, spirit mediums, shamans, specialists in dhikr or tahlil (repetitions of “there is no god but God”), and
certain agricultural rituals, and midwives. They combine requests for forgiveness. The foods, in combination with the
Islamic and customary or adat ceremonies, using incense, prayers, help to ask the deceased for forgiveness for outstandofferings to spirits, and prayers. They preserve their spiritual ing offenses and create merit transferable to the dead that will
power by fasting, ascetic practices, and communication with aid the spirit’s passage from the world of the living to the
guardian spirits. Many consider the spirits to be unacceptable afterlife.
to Islam. Their prayers contain Islamic elements and start
Remembering the dead prior to important events is cruwith the invocation of Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim (In the
cial. Often people gather at the graves for prayer and cleanname of God, the Compassionate, the most Merciful). Shadowing. Especially at the beginning and end of Ramadan, people
play puppeteers (dalang) belong to these specialists. They
will visit the graves in masses to include those who passed on
preserve one of the most popular art forms in Southeast Asia,
in the spiritual and physical purification during the month of
the wayang plays, performing the Javanese versions of Indian
fasting.
epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. To many these
plays convey the picture of a proper social and spiritual order. Spiritual Authority
Dalangs are of high moral character and spiritual potency. The Islamic equivalent of the charismatic person endowed
Part of their potency is the word; their voice expresses the with spiritual potency are the Muslim saints (wali) who are
realm of the inner or mystical world. Traditions were in- remembered and honored by traditionalist Muslims. In this
vented to defend some of these practices by crediting early same tradition the kiyais, leaders of Islamic boarding schools
Muslim saints with creating them. Indonesians believe that called pesantren, are considered links in a chain of sacred
nine holy men, wali songo, converted its population. The first knowledge that reaches back to the prophet Muhammad.
wali songo, Sunan Kalijaga, is said to have invented the They are not only religious, but also social and political
shadow plays. leaders. Spiritual and physical power are linked together
when students are trained in fasting, meditation (dhikr), and
Slametan/Kenduri: Meals of Blessing martial arts (pencak silat). Developing ikhlas, an inner attitude
A meal called slametan on Java and kenduri in other parts of of resignation that moves a person to do good deeds for the
Indonesia and Malaysia is a meal of blessing that forms the sake of good and not for self-promotion, is part of this
central rite of popular religion. The purpose for holding a training.
slametan is to obtain slamet: well-being, safety, social and
spiritual harmony. The meal is held for a variety of events Academic study in the pesantren concentrates on Quran,
ranging from pregnancy and birth, circumcision, marriage, Arabic, and fiqh (jurisprudence). Part of the curriculum used
life crises and death, and occasions such as starting a long trip, to be, and in some places still is, the practice of mysticism
finishing a house, or to resolve a dispute. Slametan are subject (tasawwuf) and asceticism. Some pesantren became centers for
to a wide range of interpretations. Some believe they please mystical orders (tarekat from Ar., tariqa). Mysticism here was

Islam and the Muslim World 649
Southeast Asian Culture and Islam

The Masjid Raya, in the city of Medan in North Sumatra, was built in 1906 by Sultan Makmum al-Rasyid. Adapting elements of Andalusian
Moorish architecture, the mosque and the nearby Maimoon Palace are part of the legacy of the Deli Sultan, that was founded in 1630. ©
STEPHEN G. DONALDSON

closely connected to legal Islamic learning. Certain Sufi practice of ziyara, especially in urban areas, although local
groups in Malaysia practice meditation combined with trance villagers continue to perform cherished rituals.
dancers. Some practice special veneration for their leaders. At
times Messianic figures gain followings in their quest for a Speech
just and prosperous society. Recitation of Arabic verses from the Quran is considered a
powerful medium for healing, protection, to have a wish
Similar to the Sufi shaykh, a kiyai passes his charisma and fulfilled, or to gain power. The words by themselves are
position on to the son who is deemed most fit. After a purifying and uplifting. Many do not necessarily understand
spiritually potent kiyai has passed away, his students will visit their meaning. When in 1998 Indonesia fell into a massive
his grave once a week in order to bring the “gift” of praise economic crisis with ensuing social unrest, mass prayers
(tahlilan), and Quran recitation. The popular practice of during dhikr meetings called istighosah were held all over the
visiting graves of saints (ziyara) to perform rituals of prayer, country to strengthen and heal the nation. Those who learn
praise, and meditation is shaped by the idea that their exem- the Quran by heart are obliged to guard the text the rest of
plary religious life brings some persons closer to God after their life. Forgetting will be their gravest sin. During the
death than others, which qualifies them to become interme- month of Ramadan, the use of holy words is intensified
diates for the living. Graves are found all over Lara; the most through tarawih prayers at night and nightly readings of the
powerful of these are those of the wali songo. Some graves are entire Quran, or nightly recitation of one-thirtieth of the
believed potent enough that visiting them a certain number Quran. Beliefs in the power of speech are inspired by the Sufi
of times is considered equal to performing the hajj to Mecca. intellectual tradition that identifies material reality as ema-
Graves shape a sacred landscape filled with male and female nating from God. This means that powerful speech can
saints, teachers, kings, and princes. Reformist and legalistically change this reality. Words from the Quran are believed to
minded Muslims have long vehemently opposed ziyara. In have healing qualities when used in amulets or mantras. In
Malaysia, the reformist Dakwah movement has reduced the Malaysia, shamans use Islamic stories, images, and texts to

650 Islam and the Muslim World
Succession

heal sickness caused by spirit possession. Spirits are identified applies the Islamic rule that gives only half a man’s share.
as the jinn that are mentioned in the Quran. Imbalance or Through the activities of orthodox and Reformist Muslims,
impurity within the body also causes disease that can be the tendency now is to stress Syaria rather than adat.
healed by the pronunciation of formula.
An image of a pupeteer at work appears in the volume two
Literature color insert.
Apart from Quranic texts, a large body of Islam-inspired
writings, poetry, and prose developed in the Malay language. See also
Ada;
Ibadat; Southeast Asia, Islam in.
The writings that reacted to Islamic mysticism became some
of the richest in the world. The most famous are the BIBLIOGRAPHY
seventeenth-century works of Hamzah Pansuri, Nuruddin
Beatty, Andrew. Varieties of Javanese Religion. An Anthropoar-Raniri, and Samsuddin al-Sumatrani. Hamzah Pansuri
logical Account. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University
created a form of written poetry called syair that became a Press, 1999.
major vehicle for Sufi poetry and that has inspired Malay
Bowen, John, R. Muslims through Discourse: Religion and Ritual
poetry up to the present period. Ar-Raniri defended orthodox
in Gayo Society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
mysticism using the works of al-Ghazali. Tales (hikayat)
Press, 1993.
about the Prophet and his Companions became a popular
genre of writing. Poems and tales are meant to be sung and Geertz, Clifford. The Religion of Java (1960). Chicago and
London: The University of Chicago Press, 1976.
recited. Students in pesantren still chant the Barzanji (poetic
eulogy) several times a week in honor of the prophet Hefner, Robert, W. Hindu Javanese. Tengger Tradition and
Muhammad. Islam. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Ibrahim, Ahmad; Siddique, Sharon; and Hussain, Yasmin,
Local genres of semi-Islamic literature are the chronicles eds. Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Insti-
(babad) that were composed in the courts of the early sultans tute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1985.
to establish their Islamic legitimacy. Certain Javanese babad
Keeler, Ward. Javanese Shadow Plays, Javanese Selfs. Princedescribe the sultan as a saint who has the power to fly. ton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987.
After independence an Islamic literature developed that Laderman, Carol. Taming the Wind of Desire: Psychology,
espouses Islamic values. Especially in Malaysia, edifying nov- Medicine, and Aesthetics in Malay Shamanistic Performance.
els became popular. Contemporary Indonesian writings by Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
writers like Emha Ainun Nadjib explore the relationship Siegel, James. The Rope of God. Berkeley: University of Calibetween the individual and God. Young activists have started fornia Press, 1969.
to use the novel as a medium to teach concepts such as human Van Doorn-Harder, Nelly, and de Jong, Kees. “The Pilgrimrights to students in the pesantren and other Islamic schools. age to Tembayat.” In The Muslim World 91, nos. 3 and 4
(Fall 2001).
Women
Especially in Indonesia, women share the power of the word.
Nelly van Doorn-Harder
Many women have memorized the Quran to become a
hafidha and go on to become finalists in the national Quran
reciting contests. In the past, international competition was
not possible since contestants from other Muslim countries
SUCCESSION
were only men. Nowadays women are allowed to compete in
certain Muslim countries. Women also teach in the pesantren
The issue of succession—the assumption by a person of
and make up more than half of the judges in Islamic Syari’a
political or other institutional authority previously possessed
(Ar. shari
a) courts.
by another—entered Islam with the death of the prophet
Islam and Adat Muhammad and has been a subject of continuous debate ever
Southeast Asian societies have developed local legal codes or since. Simply put, Sunni Muslims believe that the Prophet’s
practices called adat. This code existed and in many places religious authority died with him, that his political authority
still exists alongside the Syari’a. Adat complemented the passed to a succession of caliphs initially selected on the basis
Islamic law in many matters of tradition and custom. The two of consensus and merit, and that the institution of the caliphate
law systems collide regularly in evaluating the same prob- rapidly declined into hereditary monarchy and ultimately
lems: how to divide an estate, what position to assign to military usurpation. Shi
ites believe that both the Prophet’s
women. In general, adat allowed women a position equal to religious and political authority remained united in a heredithat of men. Orthodox Muslims took offense to these rules, tary line of imams, that his dying wishes were subverted and
for example, in the division of an estate where adat grants the suppressed by Sunnis, and that the caliphal succession has
woman a share equal to that of her male relatives. Syaria law never been legitimate. Recently, scholars have increasingly

Islam and the Muslim World 651
Succession

questioned the traditional Muslim view of both the theory identity of these two roots is echoed today in the use by
and the practice of caliphal succession. Some have argued that modern Arabic and Hebrew of badla and khalifah, respecthe historical record is obscure on even the most crucial tively, to denote “suit”—that is, change of clothes.
points, and that in any case what can be gleaned from it
suggests that divine absolutism, primogeniture, and forcible The Term “Khalifa” in the Quran
seizure of power were present from the beginning. Oth- The etymological significance of the word khalifa in the
ers have stressed the contributions of pre-Islamic Middle Quran is less obscure than its pre-Quranic usage because the
Eastern political traditions— particularly that of Persian/ Quran has been an object of philological exegesis since very
Zoroastrian divine absolutism—to the development of Islamic early after its appearance. The two plural forms khulafa and
khalaif occur seven times between them in the Quran, and in
political theory. Whatever the exact course of events, it is
all cases are said by commentators to denote tribes or peoples
clear that “the classical theory of the caliphate” as formulated
who, despite the warnings of their apostles, disobeyed God’s
by al-Mawardi (d. 1058) was the culmination of an ongoing
will and were consequently wiped off the face of the earth by
process of interaction between the Islamic religious and
Him. Most commentators similarly treat the two occurrences
political establishments. Subsequently, Muslim thinkers who
of the singular khalifa as referring to the classic Quranic
strove to preserve an Islamic component in political succestheme of a succession of peoples governing the earth, rather
sion were forced into increasingly distressing compromises
than the succession of individual rulers governing peoples.
by such cataclysms as the Mongol destruction of the Baghdad
However, a handful of interpretations of Quran 2:30—
caliphate, the advent of secular dynastic rule in most Muslim
“When your Lord said to the angels: I am about to put a
lands, and the increasing intervention in Middle Eastern
successor (khalifa) on the earth, they said: Will You place on it
politics by European imperialism. After the dismantling of
one who will do harm on it and will shed blood …”—
the Ottoman Empire following the First World War, most
interpret the word khalifa as a reference to Adam as an
governments in Muslim lands adopted modern secular prinindividual rather than the Children of Adam as a collective.
ciples of political legitimacy, although by the end of the
The scarcity and lateness of commentators who ascribe to the
twentieth century, popular support for the reinstatement of
word khalifa the connotation of an individual person with a
Islamic principles and practices of political succession was
political office have suggested to some scholars that the
increasing.
connection between the Quran’s term khalifa and the office
of caliphate was not made “before the end of the Umayyad
Etymology of Khalifa
period or the early decades of Abbasid rule” (al-Qadi, “The
The original significance of the Arabic verb for “to succeed,”
Term Khalifa”). To others it implied that the idea of a
kh-l-f—from which is derived the word for caliph (khalifa)—
connection was in the air but played down by early commenis irretrievably buried beneath ancient and impenetrable
tators “anxious to avoid approving the Umayyad caliphs’ use
layers of usage. It occurs in Akkadian meaning “to slip into or
of the verse about Adam to enhance their own dignity” (Watt
put on [especially clothes]” and in Hebrew meaning “to
1971, p. 567).
succeed, replace or pass away.” Dictionaries of early South
Arabic give one occurrence of the word khalifa with the quasi- Umayyad Succession
political meaning of “viceroy” in a fourth-century South The role of religion in the Umayyads’ justification of their
Arabic inscription, but also give meanings as diverse as “suit succession to the caliphate has itself undergone substantial
of clothes,” “gate of a city,” and—happily confirming a revision by scholars—a revision that parallels revisionist views
popular conception about Arabic etymology—“pregnant of the progress of both empire and theocracy in the early
camel.” It is a sign of the ambiguity of the meaning of the Islamic state generally. The Umayyads’ use of the title khalifat
word that, although in both Arabic and Hebrew the first form Allah—“Caliph of God” (denoting a direct connection to the
of the root commonly denotes succession in time, place, or Divine) as opposed to “Caliph of the Apostle of God” (denotfunction, it has come in the former to be applied to the thing ing succession to Muhammad as political leader of the umma)—
succeeding and in the latter to the thing succeeded. Lane’s belies the conventional picture of the entire Umayyad period
Arabic-English Lexicon gives the primary meaning of the verb as an interval of secular kingship between the perfect theockhalafa as “he came after, followed, succeeded, or remained racy of the Rashidun and the less perfect theocracy of the
after, another, or another that had perished and died.” Of the Abbasids.
Umar II’s reprise of Abu Bakr’s humble declara-
127 instances of the root kh-l-f in the Quran, most have tion that “I am not khalifat Allah” was the exception rather
specialized meanings related only distantly to the first form than the rule. The sources abound in evidence of a concerted
meaning of “to come behind or after.” As demonstrated by effort by Umayyad court poets and scribes to augment the
al-Qadi, the array of meanings encompassed by kh-l-f and its initial Umayyad claim to the caliphate as avengers of the
derivatives is closely paralleled by the array of meanings blood of
Uthman with the claim that they had been installed
encompassed by b-d-l, which can mean both “to exchange” in their position by God. Crone and Hinds rely heavily on
and “to be exchanged” and is used by the Quran in contexts this court poetry to reverse the traditional view of the emerclosely analogous to those in which it uses kh-l-f. The near gence of divine absolutism in Islam. They argue that the

652 Islam and the Muslim World
Succession

as a state religion from its inception, the political roots of
early Islamic sectarianism are not disguised at all. The three
broad non-Shi
ite sectarian subdivisions of the earliest period—
Kharijite, Qadarite, and Murjiite—all contained parallel
theological and political components—that is to say, doctrinal positions on sin that very closely allied with conceptions
of legitimate political succession. The Kharijite doctrine that
any sin renders the sinner an apostate had its political reflection in their position that any injustice on the part of the
caliph renders his succession invalid. The Qadarite doctrine
that humans possess control over (qadar) and therefore responsibility for their actions had its political reflection in
their position that the legitimacy of the caliph’s succession
depended on his dispensing equitable justice to the ruled.
The Murjiite doctrine that judgment of any sinner must be
deferred to God had its political reflection in their view that
the legitimacy of caliphal succession was the concern of God
rather than men. While Kharijite anarchism and Qadarite
activism were persecuted under the Umayyads, Murjiite
quietism seems to have been the political ideology of choice
for the silent majority during the Umayyad caliphate. In
contrast to the supposed period of Rashidun harmony during
which no fewer than three of the first four caliphs were felled
by assassins, not one of the Umayyad caliphs–with the sole
exception of the battlefield death of Sulayman b
Abd al-
Malik—ended his term of office for any reason other than
death by natural causes until al-Walid II was edged out by

Abd al-Hamid (1842–1918) was the sultan of Turkey from 1876
to 1909. Towards the end of the nineteenth century the Ottoman
Yazid III in 744 after the Abbasid revolution had already begun.
sultan
Abd al-Hamid tried to counter national separatism among
Muslim ethnic minorities in the Empire by pushing the idea that Hadiths About Caliphal Succession
the Ottoman sultans were legitimate successors to the caliphate It is against this background of political and theological
on the basis of dubious claim that the last descendant of the
ferment that hadith statements about caliphal succession
Abbasid caliphs in Mamluk, Cairo, had transferred the caliphate
to Selim III upon his conquest of Egypt in 1517. © BAIN COLL/CORBIS attributed to the Prophet must be evaluated. In contrast to
the dearth of explicit statements in the Quran about legitimate political succession, hadith literature has many explicit
theocratic Shi
ite-type conception of the imamate was the references to the caliphate as a political office. Many of these
original one and that from the very first, caliphs aspired to as hadiths use the terms imam or emir rather than khalifa in
much, if not more, religious authority than the Prophet. It some or all variants, leaving open the possibility that they
can be plausibly argued either that the interpretation of the might have been initially uttered by the Prophet in reference
title khalifat Allah by the Umayyads constituted “the first to following the leader of the communal prayer and obeying
formulated ‘theory’ of the caliphate in Islamic history” (al- the commanders of early military expedition, and were later
Qadi, “The Religious Foundation of Late Umayyad Ideology reinterpreted—willfully or not, and with or without substituand Practice”) or that the Umayyads “had still not decided to tion of the word khalifa—as allusions to a political institution
transfer the concept of ‘Caliph of God’ from the sphere of that did not exist prior to the Prophet’s death. Those hadiths
court flattery and rhetorical salutation into the sphere of law” which refer unambiguously to the caliphate reflect debates
(Barthold). about the political succession in Islam going on among early
Muslim intellectuals who wrote down the record of the
Early Islamic Sectarianism and Caliphal Succession Prophet’s utterances and the history of the early exemplary
If the precise etymology of the caliphal title and the exact Rashidun (rightly guided) caliphate centuries after the fact. A
nature of the ideological basis on which the Umayyads vast majority of approved hadiths about caliphal succession
justified their succession are matters of speculation, the fact fall into the quietist Mujiite rather than the radical Kharijite
that the air was thick with theological ferment surrounding or activist Qadarite category.
the issue of political succession in the umma throughout the
Umayyad period is not. Sectarianism in any religion often has The question of whether the caliph’s full title was properly
thinly disguised political roots, but because of Islam’s status khalifat Rasul Allah, (“the successor of the Apostle of God”),

Islam and the Muslim World 653
Succession

with the connotation of succeeding the Prophet in his tempo- capable of achieving power—was rendered unassailable by
ral function as defender of the faith, or khalifat Allah (“the the successful result of the Abbasid revolution.
successor of God”), with the connotation of being appointed
by and having a direct connection with God Himself, was also The early Abbasid era, in addition to being the golden age
a much-vexed and obscure issue of early Islamic political of the Baghdad caliphate, was also the period during which
discourse. The uneasiness of Sunni orthodoxy with the latter the embryonic Sunni Islam defined its approach to legitimate
title and its accompanying conception of the caliph as posses- caliphal succession—frequently in opposition to the vision of
sor of the type of divine charisma claimed for the Shi
ite the reigning caliph. The view favored by the caliphs is
imams is reflected by the widely circulated stories about the represented by the Risala fi al-Sahaba of Ibn al-Muqaffa
(d.
first caliph Abu Bakr’s insistence on being called khalifat Rasul 756), which advises the caliph al-Mansur (r. 754–775) to
Allah rather than khalifat Allah. The second caliph
Umar aspire to be something like the high priest of Islam and act as
rejected both khalifat Allah as applying only to King David the final arbiter on points of Islamic law. The view favored by
and khalifat Rasul Allah as applying only to Abu Bakr and the “proto-Sunni” ulema was represented by the qadi (judge)
decided that the correct title was “Caliph of the Caliph of the Abu Yusuf, who in his Kitab al-Kharaj advises the caliph
Apostle of God.” In view of the potential of this title for Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809) to subordinate his will to the
stricture of the book and the sunna like any other Muslim.
cumbersome recursiveness,
Umar opted for amir al-muminin
The issue was decided by the outcome of the mihna, or
(“Commander of the Faithful”), a title that continued to have
“Islamic Inquisition” (833–847), during which Ahmad b.
a rarified status even after the title khalifa became debased in
Hanbal’s (d. 855) heroic opposition to the caliphal governthe late Middle Ages through widespread usage by many
ment’s efforts to enforce adherence to the Mu
tazilite docdifferent rulers of widely varying power and piety.
trine of the createdness of the Quran upheld the ascendance
Caliphal Succession Under the Abbasids of the book and the sunna over the will of the caliph of the
As is attested to by the survival of hadith expressing some of day. This triumph of the emerging Sunni approach to caliphal
their views in the standard Sunni collections, aspects of the legitimacy resulted in the dispersal of religious authority
Khariji, Qadari, and Murjiite approaches all fell within the away from a central governing body and toward multiple
boundaries of what later became the Sunni discourse on the schools of law and a decentralized clerical authority. In
legitimacy of caliphal succession. But it was slogans borrowed retrospect, this separation between Islam and the state infrom
Alid groups later consigned by the heresiologists to the sured that Islam would avoid the fate of Zoroastrianism, the
moderate but nonetheless heretical fringes of Shi
ism that official religion of Iraq-based, Middle East-wide, divineswept the Abbasids into office. The Abbasids borrowed three absolutist Sassanian Empire to which the Abbasid caliph was
planks from the
Alid platform. First of all, they claimed the successor, and develop into a supranational world religion
right to caliphal succession as members of the house of that was able to survive the demise of the first Islamic state.
Muhammad (ahl al-bayt) by virtue of their eponymous ances-
The Classical Theory of the Caliphate
tor’s having been the uncle of the Prophet. Secondly, they
It is one of the oft-noted paradoxes of Islamic intellectual
claimed to be the beneficiaries of nass—designation by virtue
history that the theory of caliphal succession was explicitly
of the father of the first Abbasid caliph’s having had the imami
formulated just at the time when the institution of the
charisma transferred to him by the son of Muhammad b. alcaliphate was declining into political insignificance. But it is
Hanafiyya, the reluctant figurehead of the revolt of al-Mukhtar
precisely in weakness that political institutions are in need of
which had first put both the mawali constituency and their
theoretical bolstering. The fullest expression of the classical

Alid ideology on the Islamic political map. Thirdly, they
theory of the caliphate was articulated by al-Mawardi (d.
claimed to be rightful caliphs by virtue of being the members
1058), whose Ahkam al-sultaniyya (Rules of sovereign power)
of the family of Muhammad (Al Muhammad) most capable of
defines the relationship between the caliph’s spiritual and
achieving power. The first two of these claims were shaky to
temporal duties, noting that the “imamate is established for
say the least. While it is true that in terms of genealogy al- the succession of prophecy in the preservation of the religion

Abbas was on the right side of the
Abd Manaf family tree (din) and the administration of the world (dunya).”
relative to Umayya, he had not even converted to Islam
during Muhammad’s lifetime, and was certainly not the The necessity of the caliphate as a collective religious duty
relative of the Prophet whom the
Alids had in mind when (fard kifaya) upon the Islamic community is demonstrated
they chanted the slogan “most pleasing of the house of through such shari
a evidence as hadiths enjoining obedience
Muhammad.” The alleged transfer of imami charisma to the to the imams, the ijma
(consensus) of the community about
father of al-Saffah by the son of Ibn al-Hanafiyya had all the establishing an imam. Traces of the polemic against Shi
ism
plausibility of the Donation of Constantine employed a half that conditioned the formulation of the embryonic theories
century later to justify papal dominion in Western Europe. of caliphal succession of al-Mawardi’s predecessors—for ex-
The third justification of the Abbasid succession—that the ample, the Ash
arite theologians al-Baqillani (d. 1013) and al-
Abbasids were the members of the family of the Prophet most Baghdadi (d. 1037)—surface only rarely in al-Mawardi’s

654 Islam and the Muslim World
Succession

exposition. The awkward position into which Sunni theorists as a religious principle of legitimate political succession. For
of the caliphate were squeezed by the need to defend the Ibn Taymiyya, good Islamic government is any state in which
historical record of the caliphate, on the one hand, and the emirs and ulema collaborate in the interests of Islam.
need to oppose Shi
ite theocratic conceptions of political
succession, on the other is illustrated by al-Mawardi’s insis- Al-Taftazani is far less sanguine about the removal of the
tence that, while the caliph should be selected by election, caliphate from the political legitimacy equation, and is far less
rather than appointment, and this election can be accom- ready than Ibn Taymiyya to accept the political fragmentaplished by a single elector—this last provision justifying what tion of the Middle Period (c. 1000–1500) as a permanent
became the most common mode of succession, appointment feature of the Islamic world. Al-Taftazani’s views on the
by a caliph of his son as heir. Al-Mawardi is careful to refer to caliphate were referred to frequently by proponents of the
this mode of succession as
ahd (“investiture”) rather than revival of the caliphate in the late nineteenth and early
with the Shi
ite term nass (“designation”). Similarly, the twentieth centuries. His Sharh was used as a textbook at alprinciple of imamat al-mafdul (“the imamate of the less Azhar, and both his Maturidi rationalism and his frequent
qualified”) does double duty for al-Mawardi. It serves as a references to the salaf al-salih (“upright predecessors”) aprejection of the Kharijite stance that as soon as a better pealed to the reformist Salafi movement of the nineteenth
qualified candidate appeared he must replace a less qualified century that touted original Islam as the true religion of
sitting caliph no matter how much civil disturbance this reason and enlightenment. By contrast, the favoritism toward
might cause; it also counters Shi
ite claims that the succes- Hanafism and eventual revival of caliphal universalism by the
sions of the first three caliphs were illegitimate because
Ali— Ottoman sultans banished Ibn Taymiyya’s Hanbali puritanism
who even by most Sunni accounts was a more qualified to the margins, where it became associated with groups on
candidate than
Uthman—was passed over. For all his will- the religious fringe, such as the Wahhabis. However, after the
ingness to compromise on the person of the caliph, al- failure of the caliphal revival efforts of the 1920s, Ibn
Mawardi strives at every point to uphold the sanctity of the Taymiyya’s tactical retreat to “Islamism-in-one-country” got
caliphal succession itself. Despite the many principles of a second look from groups like the Muslim Brotherhood
caliphal succession that he draws by analogy with shari
a (Ikhwan al-Muslimin) that worked for Islamic renewal from
contracts, al-Mawardi stresses that the caliphal bay
a is “a the ground up instead of from the top down.
public interest whose consequences go beyond that of private
contracts” (al-Mawardi, al-Akham al-sultaniyya, p. 9). In the meantime, in addition to eradicating the Baghdad
caliphate, the Mongols also brought to the Islamic world a
As the caliphate progressively declined into powerlessness theory of dynastic succession in which God chose the ruler of
and caliphal succession eventually became the plaything of the world directly, without the agency of the umma, and
the sultan of the moment, al-Mawardi’s successors were demonstrated His choice not through the consensus of scholforced into a progressively more realistic accommodation ars but through the outcome of military struggles. This made
with historical actuality. Al-Ghazali (d. 1111), for example, the subject of legitimate political succession less a matter for
adds to election and investiture by the preceding caliph a prescription by men of religion and more a matter for
third mode of succession: investiture by a man of power (rajul description by historians. The most prominent of these was
dhu shawka). As he reluctantly concedes: “Government in Ibn Khaldun, “the world’s first sociologist,” who viewed the
these days is a consequence solely of military power, and succession of political sovereignty as driven by
asabiyya—or
whosoever he may be to whom the possessor of military the ruling dynasty’s group cohesion. Indeed, he interprets the
power gives his allegiance, that person is the caliph. ” (Al- restriction by previous theorists of the caliphate to the house
Ghazali, Ihya
ulum al-din) of Quraysh not as deriving from hadith text but rather as from
the fact that Quraysh was in possession of the
asabiyya of the
Succession after the Caliphate moment during the period of Islamic origins. Although Ibn
After the Mongol conquests obliterated the Baghdad caliphate, Khaldun is more of a historian than a religious scholar, his
the terms in which men of religion evaluated the legitimacy of views on the relationship of religion to political succession
political succession diverged still further from al-Mawardi’s were often quoted by later ulema because of his general
“classical” theory. Two different approaches to a world with- prestige. In particular, his portrayal of the Quraysh lineage
out a caliph are represented by Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) and al- requirement as a practical rather than doctrinal consideration
Taftazani (d. 1389). Ibn Taymiyya’s theory of the caliphate was much cited by proponents of non-Quraysh candidates for
can best be characterized as a revival of Kharijite positions. the caliphate.
He abandons the Quraysh lineage requirement, the imamate
of the less qualified, and even the necessity of the caliphate Dynastic succession displaced caliphal legitimacy as a
itself. Ibn Taymiyya seems to regard excessive stress on the political principle in the Islamic world from the Mongols
importance of even the Sunni imamate as a Shi
ite-like heresy through the period of the early modern Timurid, Safavid, and
and is as antipathetic to Sunni consensus as to imami charisma Ottoman empires. Toward the end of the nineteenth century

Islam and the Muslim World 655
Sufism

the Ottoman sultan
Abd al-Hamid II tried to counter na- Watt, W. Montgomery. God’s Caliph: Quranic Interpretations
tional separatism among Muslim ethnic minorities in the and Umayyad Claims. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
empire by pushing the idea that the Ottoman sultans were Press, 1971.
legitimate successors to the caliphate on the basis of a dubious
claim that the last descendant of the Abbasid caliphs in Mark Wegner
Mamluk Cairo had transferred the caliphate to Selim III upon
his conquest of Egypt in 1517. Immediately following the
defeat of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, several efforts to
revive the caliphate as a governing body of the world Muslim SUFISM See Tasawwuf
community garnered support among Islamic liberals and
pan-Islamists. By then it was too late, however, European
hegemony having imposed on the Middle East principles of
political succession that had neither religious roots nor cultural resonance in the Islamic world. By the end of the SUHRAWARDI, AL- (C. 1154–1191)
twentieth century this had provoked an Islamist reaction
whose vision of political legitimacy has far more in common Shihab al-Din Yahya b. Amirak Suhrawardi was a philosowith historically marginal fringe Islamic political movements pher and mystic whose Neoplatonic “Illuminationist” school
than with traditional mainstream views of caliphal succession. was a major influence on later Islamic philosophy, especially
in Iran and India. Suhrawardi was born and educated in
See also Abu Bakr; Caliphate; Empires: Abbasid; northwestern Iran and as a young man was an adherent of the
Empires: Umayyad; Islam and Other Religions; Peripatetic philosophy of Avicenna. His mystical experiences
Tasawwuf;
Umar. and a famous dream of Aristotle convinced him of the
inadequacy of this philosophy and made him a Platonist. The
BIBLIOGRAPHY key elements in his new system were a reliance on intuition as
Barthold, V. V. “Caliph and Sultan.” Islamic Quarterly 7 a basic tool of philosophy, the closely related theory of
(1963): 117–138. knowledge later called knowledge by presence, and an insis-
Binder, Leonard. “al-Ghazali’s Theory of Islamic Govern- tence on the reality of the Platonic Forms conceived as
ment.” The Muslim World 45 (1955): 229–241. immaterial intelligences. The most important statement of
Crone, Patricia, and Hinds, Martin. God’s Caliph: Religious his mature doctrine was his book Hikmat al-Ishraq (The
Authority in the First Five Centuries of Islam. Cambridge, philosophy of illumination), in which he attacked certain Peripa-
U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1986. tetic doctrines and expounded his system in the form of a
Gibb, H. A. R. “al-Mawardi’s Theory of the Khilafah.” metaphysics of light.
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G. P. Maisonneuve, 1972. religious scholars and alarmed the prince’s father, the great
Lambton, A. K. S. State and Government in Medieval Islam: An Saladin, who was facing the threat of the Third Crusade. It
Introduction to the Study of Islamic Political Theory. London: seems likely that Saladin was alarmed by the political implica-
Oxford University Press, 1981. tions of Suhrawardi’s philosophy, which called for a mystical
Margoliouth, D. S. “The Sense of the Title Khalifah.” Orien- philosopher-king and which resembled the view of the Ismailis,
tal Studies Presented to Edward G. Brown. Edited by T. W. whom Saladin had suppressed in Egypt and Syria. Suhrawardi
Arnold and R. A. Nicholson. Cambridge, U.K.: Cam- was put to death at Saladin’s orders, probably in 1191.
bridge University Press, 1922.
Qadi, Wadad al-. “The Term ‘Khalifa’ in Early Exegetical Though Suhrawardi’s philosophy has always been in-
Literature.” Die Welt des Islams 28 (1988): 392–411. fluential in the Islamic East, it was almost unknown in
Qadi, Wadad al-. “Religious Foundation of Late Umayyad the West until it was popularized by the French Orientalist
Ideology and Practice.” In Religious Knowledge and Political Henry Corbin, who interpreted Suhrawardi as an Iranian
Power. Edited by Manuela Martin et al. Madrid: Consejo “theosopher” committed to the revival of ancient Iranian
Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1993. thought. Though Corbin’s view remains influential, it has

656 Islam and the Muslim World
Sultanates

been challenged by those who view Suhrawardi as a BIBLIOGRAPHY
Neoplatonist whose project was primarily philosophical. Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist
Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam. Translated by
See also Falsafa; Ishraqi School; Tasawwuf. Mary Jo Lakeland. Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley Publishing Co., 1991.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Sanni, Amidu. “Women Critics in Arabic Literary Tradition
Aminrazavi, Mehdi. Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination. with Particular Reference to Sukayna bt. al-Husayn.”
Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon, 1996. British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (July 1991): 358–366.
Suhrawardi, Shihab al-Din. The Philosophy of Illumination.
Edited and Translated by John Walbridge and Hossein Rizwi Faizer
Ziai. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young Univesity Press, 1999.
Walbridge, John. The Leaven of the Ancients: Suhrawardi and
the Heritage of the Greeks. Albany: State University of New
York Press, 2000. SULTAN See Monarchy

John Walbridge

SULTANATES
SUKAYNA (671–737)
AYYUBID
Sukayna was the nickname (laqab) of the granddaughter of Carole Hillenbrand
Fatima (the daughter of the Prophet) and
Ali bin Abi Talib.
DELHI
Her full name is variously given as Umayma (according to al-
Iqtidar Alam Khan
Kalbi) or Amina (according to al-Isbahani) bint Husayn. Her
mother was al-Rabab bint Imri al-Qays al-Kalbiyya, a poet, GHAZNAVID
whose father was the reputed military leader of the Kalb. Walid A. Saleh

MAMLUK
Having lost both her father and husband (
Abdallah b. al- Warren C. Schultz
Hazan b. Abi Talib) at Karbala, Sukayna moved to Medina,
where she acquired a taste for intellectual matters from her MODERN
Hassan Mwakimako
mother. In 686 C.E. she married Mus
ab b. al-Zubayr (d. 691
C.E.), who was killed fighting for his brother,
Abdallah, the SELJUK
acknowledged caliph in Medina and Iraq. Then, after a Saïd Amir Arjomand
couple of marriages which ended in divorce, she finally wed
Zayd b.
Umar, the grandson of
Uthman b.
Affan. She died
as his widow at the age of sixty-seven. AYYUBID
The Ayyubids were the family dynasty of Saladin (Salah al-
A member of the ahl al-bayt (family of the Prophet), Din), the famous Kurdish Muslim hero of the Crusades. The
Sukayna nevertheless had the reputation of a barza, a woman dynasty is normally dated from Saladin’s career onward (c.
who is never veiled, entertains men at home, and is recog- 1169), but is named after Saladin’s father, Ayyub. In their
nized for her judgment and sound reasoning. Her bold heyday, the Ayyubids ruled Egypt, Syria, Palestine, the Jazira
integrity was expressed politically in her opposition to the (a region to the north of Baghdad and extending into Syria),
Umayyads, and socially, in her marriage contracts, wherein and Yemen. Their rule may be divided into three major
she insisted on her freedom from marital control and de- phases: Saladin’s career, his prominent successors, and the
manded the monogamy of her intended husband. Though it dynasty’s decline.
was to a hairstyle—al-turra al-Sukayniyya—that she gave her
name, Sukayna was, importantly, a lover of the arts: Accord- Ayyub and his brother Shirkuh came from Dwin in Armenia
ing to Abu Zinad (d. 757), Jarir (d. 728) and Farazdaq (d. 727) and served the Turkish warlords Zengi and his son, Nur alwere two famous poets whose skills she encouraged, and Ibn Din, Saladin’s two great predecessors in the Muslim “Counter-
Surayj (d. 744), one of the great singers of the Hijazi School, Crusade.” Saladin accompanied Shirkuh on three expeditions
considered himself her protege, and set many of her verses to Egypt in the 1160s. After Shirkuh’s death in 1169, Saladin
to music. took control in Egypt in the name of Nur al-Din and
reestablished Sunni Islam there. However, a rift began to
See also Ahl al-Bayt; Law. develop between Saladin and his master, Nur al-Din. This

Islam and the Muslim World 657
Sultanates

rift was prevented from developing into open warfare only by Ayyubid period the remaining Crusader states became fully
the death of the latter in 1174. That same year Saladin sent his integrated as local Levantine polities. The Ayyubids made
brother Turanshah to conquer Yemen. treaties and truces with them and sometimes, as at al-Harbiyya
(1244), fought alongside them against fellow Muslims. Trade
Much of Saladin’s first decade as an independent ruler, was important for the Ayyubids. They were afraid of further
from about 1174 to 1184, was devoted to subjugating his crusades being launched from Europe, which would disrupt
Muslim opponents and creating a secure power base in Egypt their lucrative arrangements with the Italian maritime states.
and Syria for himself and his family. In 1187 he achieved a
decisive victory against the Crusaders at the battle of Hattin Despite their religious reverence for Jerusalem, the Ayyubid
and reconquered Jerusalem for Islam. The Third Crusade, dynasty never chose it as a capital, preferring Cairo or
launched in response to this loss, ended in 1192 in truce and Damascus. During the Fifth Crusade in 1219, al-Mu
azzam,
stalemate. Saladin died the following year. Despite his un- who, like other Ayyubids, had beautified the Holy City,
doubted successes, he nonetheless failed to rid the Levant of dismantled its fortifications lest it should fall into Crusader
the Crusaders. hands again. This action, justified as sorrowful necessity by
al-Mu
azzam, provoked widespread condemnation among
Saladin did not envisage the development of a centralized the local Muslim population. Worse was to come when alstate. He bequeathed a divided empire among his relations, Kamil, plagued by inter-familial strife, and anxious to deflect
giving his sons the three principalities centered on Damas- another crusade, ceded Jerusalem to Frederick II. The Holy
cus, Aleppo, and Cairo. In the ensuing power struggle, City remained a pawn on the Levantine chessboard, coming
Saladin’s brother, al-
Adil, a seasoned politician, rather than back under the control of the Ayyubids in 1239 and then
Saladin’s sons, emerged triumphant by 1202 and reorganized handed back to the Crusaders five years later, then being
Saladin’s inheritance in favor of his own sons. This kind of sacked in 1244 by the Khwarazmians and returning to Musinter-clan struggle was deep-rooted. Yet, despite the frag- lim control.
mented nature of the Ayyubid confederation, three rulers, al-
Adil (1202–1218), al-Kamil (1218–1238), and al-
Ali In other respects, the Ayyubids were keen to prove their
Ayyub (1240–1249), managed to exercise overarching con- Sunni credentials, building religious monuments in Jerusatrol. The succession of rulers in Aleppo remained among lem, Damascus, Cairo, and elsewhere and choosing grandiose
Saladin’s direct descendants. Other principalities were set jihad titulature on their correspondence, coins, and monuup in Transjordan and Mesopotamia. Two of these, and mental inscriptions. They founded no less than sixty-three
Mesopotamia, survived beyond the year 1250. religious colleges in Damascus alone (the Ayyubids were
Shafi
is or Hanafis). They welcomed Sufis, for whom they
In 1218, the Fifth Crusade arrived in Egypt but made little founded cloisters (khanqahs).
impact. That year al-
Adil died and was succeeded by his son,
al-Kamil, who in the treaty of Jaffa (February 1229) gave The Ayyubids’s relationship with the Baghdad caliphate
Jerusalem back to Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and was complex. Like earlier military dynasties that had usurped
king of Germany. However, al-Kamil retained a Muslim power, the Ayyubids sought legitimization from the caliph in
enclave in Jerusalem, including the Aqsa Mosque, the Dome Baghdad. Caliphal ambassadors mediated in inter-Ayyubid
of the Rock, and a corridor from Jerusalem to the coast. The disputes, and the caliph al-Nasir (d. 1225) created around
pious on both sides were horrified at this diplomatic maneuver. himself a network of spiritual alliances with Muslim rulers,
including the Ayyubids. Such symbolic links did not remove
The death of al-Kamil in 1238 ushered in a turbulent mutual suspicion, however. Both sides feared each other’s
period. His son, al-
Ali Ayyub, emerged as the new sultan expansionist aims and denied each other military support.
with the help of the Khwarazmians, displaced troops from
Central Asia who had fled the approaching the Mongols. In Saladin inherited eastern governmental traditions brought
1244 the Khwarazmians sacked Jerusalem, to widespread to Syria by the Seljuks. In Egypt continuity also existed
condemnation. The Ayyubid dynasty was terminated in 1250 between Fatimid and Ayyubid practice, especially in taxation.
in a coup instigated by the sultan’s own slave troops, the This process is mirrored in the career of Qadi al-Fadil, a
Mamluks, who raised one of their number to the rank of Sunni Muslim who had served the Fatimid government in
sultan. At the same time a new crusade, launched against Cairo but later became Saladin’s head of chancery. The
Egypt under the French king Louix IX, was defeated by the Ayyubids expanded the existing system of iqta
(land given to
Mamluks. army officers in exchange for military and administrative
duties) to the benefit of their kinsmen and commanders.
The unique focus of jihad during Saladin’s time was the Armed with the revenues of Egypt, Saladin built up a strong
reconquest of Jerusalem. This goal had faded by the thir- army which included his own contingents (
askars) as well as
teenth century. With the Crusaders, the Ayyubids often iqta
holders, vassals, and auxiliary forces. The Ayyubid arpracticed détente and they were criticized, even in their own mies were composed of Kurds and Turks, with the latter
time, for their lukewarm prosecution of jihad. During the predominating. The recruitment of slave soldiers (mamluks),

658 Islam and the Muslim World
Sultanates

SELJUKS OF RUM
BYZANTINE Lake Van
EMPIRE Konya

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IA 1185: taken by Saladin
EN
ARM Edessa
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PRINCIPALITY 1183: Euphr
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1174:
taken by Saladin Baghdad
Damascus

A
8 Jul 1187: Surrenders to Saladin
1191: Recovered by Crusaders
Acre 4 Jul 1187:

L
Med iterranean Sea Hattin Christians
defeated
KINGDOM OF by Saladin A
JERUSALEM S
Jerusalem Dead Sea
Alexandria 2 Oct 1187:
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other Ayyubid campaigns,
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Saladin and the Ayyubid Sultanate 1169–1193. XNR PRODUCTIONS, INC./GALE

always a feature of Ayyubid military policy, intensified under based on individual cities, such as Cairo and Damascus. Here
al-
Ali Ayyub. This able ruler began to centralize his adminis- the Ayyubid princes patronized the arts. Some, such as altration in Cairo, thus foreshadowing the policies of the Amjad Bahramshah and Abul-Fida of Hama, were themselves
Ayyubids’s successors, the Mamluks. men of letters; others (Saladin, al-
Adil, and al-Kamil) were
exceptionally able rulers.
Apart from Saladin’s brief attempt to build a navy, the
Ayyubids were not interested in fighting the Crusaders at sea. Two key characteristics of Ayyubid policy were already
They did not construct castles in the Crusader manner, evident in Saladin’s time: the promotion of Sunni Islam and
preferring instead to build or strengthen city fortifications the need to rule a united Syro-Egyptian polity. Saladin had
and erect citadels, as in Cairo and Aleppo. The fragmented acquired great prestige by abolishing the two hundred-yearnature of Ayyubid power led to a proliferation of small courts old Ishma
ili Shi
ite caliphate of Cairo. The key Ayyubid

Islam and the Muslim World 659
Sultanates

principalities were Cairo and Damascus; when these were incorporated in the Ghorian state structure. These instituunited under one ruler, equilibrium and stability prevailed. tions combined with Ghaurian control over the sources of
horse supply, and their greater expertise in mounted archery
It is important to view the Ayyubids not only in relation to and use of crossbows may explain the sweep and rapidity of
the Crusaders but also within their wider Islamic context, their conquests in India. The Delhi sultanate’s success in
where they had to contend with other neighboring states. checking the Mongols had much to do with the efficacy of its
Among these were the powerful Anatolian Seljuks, the Artuqids military organization identified with the iqta
system.
Ala-aland the Zengids in the Jazira, and the Caucasian Christian Din Khalji’s measures of price control and assessment of a
kingdoms. Traditionally, the Ayyubids have been cast as land-tax by measurement (wafa-e biswa) also greatly enlarged
opportunistic, self-serving politicians, but their survival de- the sultanate’s fiscal resources.
pended on local Levantine solidarity. In times of crisis or
external aggression the Ayyubids would ally with their close Structure of Delhi Sultanate
neighbors, whoever they were, to defend their territory. During the thirteenth century, the sultans’ nobility consisted
of two main segments: the Persian-speaking Tajiks and the
See also Cairo; Caliphate; Crusades; Education; Saladin; Turkish slaves. The latter were more influential; many of the
Sultanates: Delhi; Sultanates: Ghaznavid; Sultanates: high military positions and assignments were held by Turkish
Mamluk; Sultanates: Modern; Sultanates: Seljuk. nobles of slave origin known as the forty (chahalgani). Balban’s
reign witnessed the eclipse of the forty. There emerged a new
Carole Hillenbrand set of nobles many of whom, like Khaljis, were not necessarily
of Turkish origin. There was also a perceptible tendency
DELHI
toward accommodating within the ruling elite Indian and
The Ghorian prince Shahab al-Din (who assumed the title of
Mongol converts to Islam as well as some of the Hindu
Mu
izz al-Din Muhammad on becoming the sultan in 1202)
warrior elements (rawats) having a long tradition of military
conquered extensive territories in North India up to Bengal
service. Ziya Barani’s perception of the rise of the “low born”
during the years 1175 to 1206. His Turkish slave Qutb
appears to be a reflection of this tendency, which became
al-Din Aibek became an independent ruler following his
quite strong during Muhammad Tughlaq’s reign (1325–1351).
death in 1206. Aibak was succeeded by his slave Iltutmish
(1211–1236), who, after having established himself at Delhi, Once they received land tax at the rate of one-half of the
received diploma of investiture as the “Sultan of India” produce, the sultans did not disturb the rights of the nonfrom the Abbasid caliph. The Delhi sultanate thus formed Muslims on the lands they tilled. Down to Firoz Shah
was ruled over by the Turkish slaves down to 1290; by Tughlaq’s accession (1351), no attempt was made to impose
Iltutmish’s descendants until 1266, and by Ghiyas al-Din jizya—a tax on the person rather than on the land, usually on
Balban (1266–1286) and his offspring subsequently. Later, non-Muslims—on any section of the non-Muslims, though
during the period 1290 to 1412, it was ruled over successively the land tax itself was often called khiraj-o-jizya. Again, the
by two non-Turkish dynasties, the Khaljis (1290–1320) and Hindu chiefs (rays and ranas) were left in possession of their
Tughlaqs (1320–1412). The sultanate underwent great ex- principalities in lieu of annual tribute; some of them were
pansion during the reign of
Ala al-Din Khalji (1296–1316), even recruited as the officers of the sultan’s government.
under whom Gujarat was annexed, and the southern states Similarly, the village headmen (khuts and muqaddams) were
down to Tamil Nadu were subjugated. By the time of Muham- incorporated into the machinery of revenue collection.
Ala
mad Tughluq (1325–1351), all the major South Indian states al-Din Khalji is reported to have prevented them from
had been annexed. However, before his death a large number shifting the burden of their share of land tax to the ordinary
of provinces had seceded, forming independent principalities peasants.
such as the Bahmanis in the Deccan. Timur’s invasion in 1398
weakened the sultanate irretrievably; thenceforth it ceased to Economic and Cultural Impact
be a pan-Indian entity. The state patronage in the Delhi sultanate was distributed
among deserving members of the Islamic elite by the head of
Shahab al-Din’s original principality, Ghor, comprised the ecclesiastical affairs (sadr al-sudur), who also acted as chief
the Afghan province of the same name located in the zone judge (qadi-e mumalik). He enforced the orthodox law through a
more exposed to Iranian culture. It was organized on a clan network of local courts.
and family basis; the royal office was confined to the Shansbani
clan while the military commanders (pahalwanan) were of the The establishment of Delhi sultanate coincided with the
Kharmil and Salar clans. The troopers were recruited from coming to India of new skills and crafts such as the manufacamong the inhabitants of Ghor and those of the lowlands ture of paper, the arcuate technique in buildings, and the
(garmsir) in the Hilmand valley. After the occupation of spinning wheel. The sultanate was marked by an urban
Ghazni by the Ghorians in 1173 and 1174, the Ghaznavide revival and commercial expansion. Both Delhi and Daulatabad
tradition of governance identified with a corps of Turkish (in the south) were exceptionally large cities by the standards
slaves and a system of temporary land assignments (iqta
) was of the time.

660 Islam and the Muslim World
Sultanates

The sultanate gave rise not only to a large Muslim popula- plains. Meanwhile, the Samanid emirs, under severe pressure
tion but also to the implantation of a culture revolving round from Turkish invaders from the inner Asian Steppes, had to
the Persian language. As the noted poet Amir Khosrow turn to Sebuktigin and his son Mahmud, who was already the
(d.1325) showed, the Muslim stream began to merge with the commander of the Samanid army. Having saved the Samanids,
traditional Indian to create a genuinely composite culture. Mahmud came to inherit most of their domains, bringing
This was reflected in the realm of architecture where the two their rule to an end.
merged, to create not only the Qutb Minar at Delhi, but a
number of other splendid monuments as well. The Sufic Through a life of continuous military campaigning,
schools interacted with the Yogic, and played their part in Mahmud (r. 998–1030) built a vast empire; by the time of his
bringing about the later monotheistic movements of Kabir death he had united eastern Iran and the southern parts of the
and Nanak. Oxus River, Khwarazm, northern Iran, Afghanistan, and
northern India. The army that conquered this realm was
See also Sultanates: Ghaznavid; Sultanates: Mamluk; made up of professional Turkish slave-soldiers who were
Sultanates: Seljuk. bought and trained for the purpose of fighting. Its core was
the ghulam-e saray, an elite palace guard. Alongside this core
BIBLIOGRAPHY was a wider force of Turkish slave-soldiers. The Ghaznavids,
Habib, Irfan. “Formation of the Sultanate Ruling Class of the in turn, employed other auxiliary soldiers, such as Iranians,
13th Century.” In Vol. 1, Medieval India. Edited by Irfan Arabs, and Hindus. In its campaigns in India, the Ghaznavid
Habib. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992 army was augmented by ghazis, or volunteer Muslim para-
Jackson, Peter. The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Mili- military groups. In many respects, the story of the Ghaznavids
tary History. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University prefigures the story of the Ottoman Empire: each at the
Press, 1999. periphery of the Muslim world, each made up of a Turkish
core, and both staunchly orthodox in their ideology.
Iqtidar Alam Khan
This expanding military sultanate was, however, in the
GHAZNAVID long run impossible to maintain. It would be dealt a crushing
The Ghaznavids were a Turkish slave-soldier dynasty (mamluk defeat soon after it reached its zenith. Mahmud, busy camor ghulam) who ruled a sultanate that rose to dominance in paigning in India, where looting Buddhist monasteries had
eastern Iran, central Afghanistan, and modern-day Pakistan become a very profitable enterprise, failed to realize the
during the eleventh and twelfth centuries C.E. Though on the danger posed by the advancing Seljuq Turkish tribes. His son
periphery of the Muslim world at the time, this sultanate was Mas
ud (r. 1030–1041) was no match to the challenge when
to play a major role in the formation of Persian literature and the moment arrived. The battle of Dandanqan (1040) in
the opening of India for Muslim control. Motives aside, the Khorasan was so decisive that the Ghaznavid Sultan, having
Ghaznavids were great patrons of arts and literature, and been forced to abandon all of the northern parts of his
their courts were magnets for a large number of poets, artists, empire, was even contemplating deserting Ghazna. This
and scholars. The Persian national epic, the Shah-nameh, was being a military empire, the soldiers soon killed their discreddedicated by Firdawsi (940–1025) to Sultan Mahmud (r. ited sultan.
998–1030). Even more than the Samanid dynasty that preceded them, the Ghaznavids brought a huge realm under the The battle of Dandanqan signaled a turning point in the
control of a single dynasty that made Persian the primary history of the Ghaznavids. Mawdud (r. 1041–1048), the new
language of communication, both officially, as the language sultan, would work on consolidating what was left of the
of the chancery, and artistically, as the preferred language of empire, which meant an expansion toward the Indian subconpanegyrics addressed to the sultans. Moreover, Iranians would tinent. First Ghazna and then Lahore would be made the
start writing their histories now in Persian, a move of mo- capital cities of what was now the first important Indian
mentous cultural significance. Arabic continued to enjoy the Muslim sultanate. Less is known about the remaining one
primary position as the language of science, and religion, yet hundred and fifty years of the dynasty than is known about
Persian now stood on its own and soon would come to replace the earlier phase, since far fewer sources are preserved, but
Arabic in most fields. this should not skew a present-day assessment of the historical significance of the later Ghaznavids. By turning their
The founder of the dynasty was Sebuktigin (r. 977–997), a energy to northern India, they made possible the Islamization
Turkish commander in the semi-independent city of Ghazna. and conquest of large parts of India by later Muslim invaders.
Though part of the Samanid state, Ghazna was governed by Their courts remained centers of literary and cultural activarmy generals who ten years earlier had rebelled against the ity, producing such important works as the Persian translacentral authority. Sebuktigin managed to consolidate his rule tion of the classic in statecraft, Kalila va Dimna, and the
in Afghanistan and was able to defeat the Hindushahis princes, poetry of Mas
ud Sa
d Salman. In 1186 the Ghurids brought
wresting from them the Kabul river basin and the Panjab this dynasty to an end.

Islam and the Muslim World 661
Sultanates

The Ghaznavids were fortunate to be immortalized by the The Mamluks of al-Salih established a ruling system in
adoration and admiration that was showered on Mahmud and which only Mamluks were supposed to participate. The
later sultans by poets, ulema, and ideologues. Their rise to sultan was to be a primus inter pares, atop a hierarchy of
power would become exemplary in the mirror-of-princes graduated ranks and responsibilities. As both the sultan and
literature. Moreover, Mahmud and his page Ayaz would leading Mamluk emirs would purchase Mamluks of their
become the ideal lovers for the Sufis, who sang of their love in own, the jockeying for power and influence among the
their poetry. Some modern Indian Muslims would revive the resulting factions was often quite intense and complex. A
memory of Mahmud as a Muslim Indian hero. typical Mamluk career might begin in the ranks, and then
progress through the grades of Emir of ten (number of
See also Persian Language and Literature; Sultanates: Mamluks in his retinue), Emir of forty, and Emir of one
Seljuk. hundred. In addition to these promotions, a Mamluk might
receive positions in the military-political administration, from
BIBLIOGRAPHY posts as governors of small towns or larger cities to com-
Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. The Ghaznavids: Their Empire in mander of the army or even vice sultan. Salaries for the lower
Afghanistan and Eastern Iran 994–1040. Edinburgh: Edin- ranks would consist of cash payments. As his rank increased, a
burgh University Press, 1963. Mamluk would count on receiving an iqta
, or right of
Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. The Later Ghaznavids: Splendour revenue, from agricultural districts of varying size and wealth.
and Decay, The Dynasty in Afghanistan and Northern India Cadastral surveys were carried out early in the Mamluk
1040–1186. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1977. sultanate to aid in the process of revenue inventory and iqta

distribution.
Walid A. Saleh
As freeborn Muslims, the sons of Mamluks were excluded
MAMLUK from the system. This was the ideal. In actuality, upon
The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria (1250–1517) had reaching the sultanate many Mamluks attempted to pass the
its origins in the recruitment of military slaves (Arabic mamluk, office on to their sons. While we thus see apparent “dynasliterally “owned”) by the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, al-Malik ties” of sultans from the same lineage—the most famous
al-Salih (d. 1249). By this time, military slavery was a well- being that descended from al-Malik al-Nasir Muhammad ibn
established institution in the Islamic world. Young males Qalawun (third reign, 1309–1340)—most of these sultans
from outside the Islamic world would be purchased as slaves, were in fact puppets, controlled by the senior Mamluk emirs
transported to the city of the purchaser, converted to Islam, who were maneuvering to take the throne themselves. Many
and trained in the techniques of war. Upon reaching adult- of the sons of Mamluks, known collectively as awlad al-nas
hood and usual manumission, they would form—it was (“sons of the people,” that is, of those who matter), pursued
hoped—a loyal military force, without ties to the local popu- careers in other endeavors.
lation. In the turbulent period after al-Salih’s death (during a
Crusader invasion of Egypt), al-Salih’s Mamluks murdered Fueled by the agricultural richness of Egypt and sitting
his son and heir Turanshah. Over the ensuing decade they astride the lucrative trade routes linking the Mediterranean
took steps to rule in their own name. By the time these region to the Indian Ocean and points east, the cities of the
Mamluks defeated the invading Mongols at
Ayn Jalut in Mamluk sultanate were centers of commerce, art, and learn-
Palestine in 1260, they controlled the Nile valley and much of ing. The Mamluk sultans recognized and supported all four
the Syro-Palestinian littoral. Under the early sultans, most Sunni schools of law, and appointed (and demoted) chief qadis
notably Baybars (1260–1277) and Qalawun (1279–1290), the (judges) at their discretion. The patronage of leading Mamluks
Mamluks eventually eliminated the last of the Crusader states resulted in the construction of many mosques, madrasas, Sufi
and kept the Mongol Il-Khans at bay. The Mamluk regime khanqas (hospice), and other structures. Mamluk financial
remained a major regional power until it was conquered by support for the building and upkeep of these institutions was
the Ottoman Sultan Selim I in 1517. often codified in endowment deeds (waqfs). These would
typically provide for the salaries of the clerics who taught
The Mamluk Sultanate is commonly divided into two there and the religious functionaries who staffed the buildperiods. The contemporary sources base this division on ings, underwrite the living expenses of students, and support
the ethnicity of the leading Mamluks. During the first pe- other charitable activities. One repercussion of this active
riod, which ended in 1382, the majority of the sultans were religio-educational environment was the production of a
Turks from the Kipchak steppe. During the second period large number of written works in many genres. Today those
(1382–1517), most of the sultans were ethnic Circassians. same texts provide a wealth of primary source material for
The utility of this division is limited. Moreover, the labels scholars interested in Mamluk history, culture, and society.
Bahri and Burji, frequently applied to the same twofold
periodization, are of later invention and should be avoided as See also Sultanates: Delhi; Sultanates: Ghaznavid;
they do not hold up to scrutiny. Sultanates: Seljuk.

662 Islam and the Muslim World
Sultanates

Battle of Cairo, 1798. Murad Bey’s Mamluk army lost control of Egypt to the French, led by Napoleon Bonaparte. © HISTORICAL PICTURE
ARCHIVE/CORBIS

BIBLIOGRAPHY Muslim societies. Sultanate implies a Muslim polity preclud-
Ayalon, David. Studies on the Mamluks of Egypt (1250–1517). ing the caliphal states. The Islamic political doctrine lays
London: Variorum Reprints, 1977. emphasis on the umma, whose internal organization was
Ayalon, David. The Mamluk Military Society. London: Vario- secured and defined by a common acceptance of and submisrum Reprints, 1979. sion to the shari
a and the temporary head of the community,
the caliph or the sultan, who are religious leaders, representa-
Ayalon, David. Islam and the Abode of War: Military Slaves and
Islamic Adversaries. London: Variorum Reprints, 1994. tives of the communities, and sometimes referred to as the
successors of the Prophet, (khalifat rasul Allah), or command-
Holt, P. M. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from
ers of the faithful (amir al-muminin), but subordinate to the law.
Eleventh Century to 1517. London: Longman, 1986.
Irwin, Robert. The Middle East in the Middle Ages: The Early Muslims believe in the divine origins of government.
Mamluk Sultanate 1250–1382. Carbondale: Southern Illi- Authority emanates from God and the shari
a established the
nois University Press, 1986. principles or roots of religion (usul al-din). Islamic law is
Petry, Carl F., ed. The Cambridge History of Egypt,Vol. 1: immutable. The Islamic political theory assumes absence of
Islamic Egypt, 640–1517. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge legislative powers by humans and the state, but the state and
University Press, 1998. rulers are expected to carry out the law. To disobey a law is to
Raymond, André. Cairo. Translated by Willard Wood. Cam- infringe on a rule of the social order. As such, it is an act of
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000. religious disobedience, a sin (fisq), involving a religious penalty. Consequently, the Islamic theory of government views
Warren C. Schultz man as khalifat rasul Allah and produced idealistic forms of
government based on lineage illustrative of Max Weber’s
MODERN sultanism, which refers to Middle Eastern Muslim rulers who
Sultan is a Near-Eastern term that connotes a variant form of dominate their society through the establishment and devel-
Muslim governors emerging out of the Ottoman, Umayyad, opment of administrations and military forces as purely
and Abbasid practices of ruleship, power, and authority over personal instruments of the sultans. Sultanates are, therefore,

Islam and the Muslim World 663
Sultanates

geographical and political units that characterize Muslim trading interests, which eventually escalated into open conpower embodied in patronage, nepotism and cronyism. Nev- flict. Reforms followed thereafter, including preparations to
ertheless, not all regimes headed by a sultan were in fact terminate the British protectorate when the sultanate became
“sultanism” in Weber’s definition. Other scholarship refutes an independent constitutional monarchy. In 1964, the Afrithis view especially in the case of the Ottoman Empire, which can populations revolted against Sultan Jamshid b.
Abdullah
had a political system that was much more bureaucratic, (b. 1929) and led Zanzibar to join mainland Tanganyika to
based on objective rules rather than being rapacious and form the Republic of Tanzania, thus ending one of Africa’s
despotic. Ottoman historian Halil Inalcik applied sultanism Muslim sultanates. While Sultan Jamshid was deposed the
to the Ottoman Empire without ascribing negative connota- Oman branch has continued with Sultan Qaboos b. Sa
id (b.
tions, thus minimizing its anti-Islamic tinge. 1940) as the head. Other petty sultanates in the eastern coast
of Africa include the Pate sultanate founded by Nabhani
Nineteenth to twenty-first century sultanates in Islamic Arabs around 1205. Around 1858 former rulers of Pate
communities are construed as polities based on personal founded the sultanate of Witu, which became a German
rulership, where loyalty to the ruler is motivated not by protectorate in 1885 and a British protectorate in 1890.
embodying an ideology, or charismatic qualities, but by a
mixture of fear and rewards to collaborators. Sultans exercise The Sokoto sultanate is a West African Islamic empire
power at their own discretion and are unencumbered by established by a Fulani cleric named
Uthman dan Fodio
rules, usually subverting bureaucratic administration by arbi- (1754–1817). By 1812 his jihads had conquered most Hausa
trary personal decrees. Those who administer sultanates are states of northern Nigeria. As the territory of the sultanate
chosen by the ruler, and may include family members, friends, extended, it was divided in 1817 into the emirate of Gwandu
or individuals who submit themselves to the ruler. Some and the sultanate of Sokoto, each being overlord to a number
sultanates are modern, but are nevertheless characterized by of tributary emirates. The sultan of Sokoto remained overthe weakness of their legal legitimacy. lord of the empire. Dan Fodio was succeeded by his son
Muhammad Bello (1781–1837). In 1885 the empire was
Twentieth-century examples of Muslim sultanates inconquered by the British but the sultans survived through
clude the sultanate of Oman located on the southeastern
indirect rule. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries sub-
Arabian Peninsula. Ruled on Ibadhi principles by the Aljects of the sultanate held important portfolios in Nigeria
Busaidi dynasty, the Ibadhis initially believed that the umma
including the first premier of Northern Nigeria, Ahmadu
had priority over the ruler and could function without the
Bello, and Shehu Shagari (b. 1925), the first executive presisuperior authority because people could themselves apply the
dent of Nigeria (1979–1983). In 2002, the sultan of Sokoto
shari
a. The Yarubi dynasty changed this with succession
was Muhammad Maccibo ibn Abubakar (b. 1948).
based on preference for members of current ruling families
over claims of outsiders. The sultanate emerged in 1791 The sultanate of Brunei is located on the northern coast of
when Ahmad b. Sa
id al-Busa
idi seized control of Muscat the island of Borneo, in eastern Asia. Its people are Malay
from his brother Imam Said b. Ahmad and informally recog- with Chinese and Indian minorities and a variety of indigenized a single ruling family, assuming the title of sayyid nous communities such as the Dayaks, Iban, and Kelabit.
or sultan. Chinese annals of the sixth and seventh centuries indicate
early Islamic influences, as evidenced by Jawi, a script derived
In 1840, Sayyid Sa
id b. Sultan b. Sa
id al-Busa
idi
from Arabic that had been in use as the written language
(1791–1856) acceded to the throne after the death of his
before 1370. The late fourteenth century saw a widespread
father, Sayyid Sultan b. Ahmad. He moved his capital from
Muscat to Zanzibar and established the sultanate of Zanzibar, conversion to Islam in Brunei as Sultan Muhammad Shah,
which ruled the towns and settlements along the eastern coast formerly Awang Alak Betatar, embraced Islam and became
of Africa through the nineteenth century. From the close of the first Muslim ruler around 1371. Islam spread rapidly
the seventeenth century, Zanzibar and its territories formed when Sharif
Ali from Taif, a descendant of the Prophet’s
part of the Oman sultanate, then a powerful maritime regime. grandson Husayn, became sultan (Seri Sultan Berkat) suc-
Sayyid Sa
id’s death in 1856 led to a succession dispute ceeding his father-in-law, Sultan Ahmad. From the sixteenth
between his sons and division of the sultanate between the through nineteenth centuries Brunei was a powerful state
Muscat branch and the African dominions. European influ- ruling over the northern part of Borneo and the adjacent
ences weakened the sultanate of Zanzibar, which became a chain of islands. Its power declined when it became a British
British protectorate in 1890. In 1898 the minor Sayyid
Ali II protectorate in 1888 and a British dependency in 1905. In
ruled under a British regent. 1959, Sultan
Umar
Ali Saifuddin III, who had nominal
authority, promulgated the first constitution. In 1963 Brunei
During the late nineteenth century, the sultanate of Zan- declined to join the Federation of Malaysia. In October 1967,
zibar experienced severe racial tensions between the pre- Sultan
Umar
Ali Saifuddin Sa
adul Khairi Waddin abdidominantly African population, Arab landowners, and Indian cated in favor of his eldest son, Sultan Haji Hassanatul

664 Islam and the Muslim World
Sultanates

Bolkiah Mu
izzidin Waddaulah (b. 1946), who was coronated armies had been recruited among the Turks, large landin August 1968. In 1979, a treaty was signed with the British, grants were made to the members of the Seljuk family as
and Brunei became an independent sovereign state in January appanages, which, before long, were also referred to as iqta
.
1984. In 1991 Sultan Bolkiah introduced an ideology called
Malay Muslim Monarchy that represented the monarchy as a Nizam al-Mulk also built an extensive network of colleges
defender of Islam. (madrasas) throughout the empire. These became known as
the Nizamiyyas after him, and were devoted to the teaching
See also Caliphate; Monarchy; Succession. of orthodox traditions, law, and theology. He appointed
many of the professors himself, including the great Muslim
BIBLIOGRAPHY thinker, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (d. 1111), who
taught at the Nizamiyya college of Baghdad for a number of
Binder, Leonard. “Al-Ghazali’s Theory of Islamic Governyears. The Seljuk sultans and the women of the ruling
ments.” The Muslim World 45, no. 3 (1955): 209–325.
household endowed similar colleges throughout the empire.
Chehabi, H. E., and Linz, Juan J. Sultanistic Regimes. Bal- The aim of Nizam al-Mulk’s educational reform, which was
timore and London: The John Hopkins University somewhat controversially referred to as “the Sunni restora-
Press, 1955.
tion,” was to curb the influence of revolutionary Isma
ili
Guenther, Roth, and Wittich, Claus, eds., Max Weber, Econ- Shi
ism, which emanated from the Fatimid Empire in Egypt,
omy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Berke- the fortresses in northern Iranian mountains and the Isma
ili
ley: University of California Press, 1978. clandestine cells in the cities.
Haim, Gerber. State Society and Law in Islam: Ottoman Law in
Comparative Perspective. Albany: State University of New There can, however, be no doubt about the long-term
York Press, 1994. impact of the colleges on the pattern of learning and subse-
Huntington, Samuel P. The Third Wave: Democratization in quent development of Sunni Islam. Isma
ili militants assassithe Later Twentieth Century. Norman: University of Okla- nated both Nizam al-Mulk and Malekshah in the same year,
homa Press, 1991. 1092, which marked the end the unified empire. The Seljuks
Inalcik, Halil. “Comments on ’Sultanism’: Max Weber remained in power, and the sons and grandsons of Nizam al-
Typification of the Ottoman Polity.” Princeton Papers in Mulk remained prominent among their wazirs.
Near Eastern Studies 1 (1992): 49–72.
The disintegration of the Seljuk Empire did not result
from revolutionary Isma
ili Shi
ism, but rather from the
Hassan Mwakimako Turkish tribal practice of dividing the kingdom as the patrimony of the ruler among his male heirs. In other words, the
SELJUK Seljuks, like the Timurids and a number of other Turko-
The Seljuk Sultanate was the first empire built by a Turkish Mongolian dynasties, failed to solve the problem of succesnomadic tribe from Central Asia. In 1040, the Seljuks, who sion without the division of the empire, and in the twelfth
belonged to the Oghuz Turks, decisively defeated the century the territory had become fragmented into a large
Ghaznavid Sultan Mas
ud under the leadership of two broth- number of principalities. Malekshah’s sons fought among
ers, Tughril Beg and Chagri Beg. They went on to establish themselves. One of them, Sultan Sanjar (1097–1157), became
an empire in Iran that soon extended to Mesopotamia, where a powerful ruler in the East, but the disintegration of the
Tughril captured Baghdad in 1055 and assumed the titles of empire elsewhere set in irreversibly. This fragmentation was
sultan and shahanshah (shah of shahs). His nephew and facilitated by the practice of granting large iqta
s, which
successor, Alp Arslan (1063–1072), defeated and captured the alienated provinces from central control, and even more by
Byzantine emperor in the battle of Manzikert (Malazgird) another Turkish institution: rule by the atabeg, who was the
and opened Anatolia to Turkish migration. His son, Malekshah tutor of a minor prince, but who would often marry his
(1072–1092), completed the conquest of Syria in 1084. The ward’s mother.
empire thus extended from the Oxus to the Mediterranean. It
is known as the empire of the Great Seljuks, and remained Important Atabeg dynasties came into being in Azerbaijan,
unified for some half a century. Syria, northern Mesopotamia, and Fars, while different
branches of the Seljuks ruled in Kerman and in Anatolia.
The architect of this unity was Nizam al-Mulk (d. 1092), Many of the Atabeg dynasties survived the death of the last
the great wazir of Alp Arslan and Malekshah. Nizam al- mainline Seljuk sultan, Tughril III, in 1194. The courts of
Mulk unified the centralized administrative systems of the these local dynasties became centers of culture, and contin-
Ghaznavids in eastern Iran and the Buyids in western Iran ued to support new institutions of Islamic learning, the
and Iraq. In the western regions, he took over the system of madrasas, through endowments. The kingdom of the Seljuk
land assignments in exchange for military and administrative of Rum (Anatolia) flourished in the thirteenth century, after
service known as iqta
. In the east, where the conquering the Mongol invasion, when their court received a large

Islam and the Muslim World 665
Sunna

Sultan Hani Caravanserai Portal in Aksaray, Turkey, of the Anatolian Seljuk style. The Seljuks’ empire arose in the eleventh century, and
ultimately included Iran, Mesopotamia, Turkey, and Syria. © VANNI ARCHIVE/CORBIS

number of learned refugees, such as the great poet and
mystic, Jalaludin Rumi (d. 1273), and his father, who fled
SUNNA
from Iran to escape the advance of the Mongols.
Sunna refers, in common usage, to the normative example of
The women of the Seljuk ruling house were very power- the prophet Muhammad, as recorded in traditions (hadith)
ful, owing to the continuation of the Turkish nomadic cus- about his speech, his actions, his acquiescence to the words
tom. They were active in courtly politics, and acted as patrons and actions of others, and his personal characteristics. This
of religion and learning. Many of them had their own wazirs close identification of sunna with Muhammad, and with
even under the Great Seljuk sultans. Their power increased authentic hadith reports originating with the Companions of
further as queen mothers under the atabeg system after the the Prophet, has prevailed since the ninth century. Earlier
fragmentation of the Seljuk territories, and a few of them sources, however, reflect a more flexible use of the term.
ruled in their own right after the death of their husbands, as
did Zahida Khatun, who ruled Fars in southern Iran for over The noun “sunna” (pl. sunan) is related to the Arabic verb
twenty years in the mid-twelfth century. sanna and refers to a normative practice ordained or instituted
by a specific person. The argument that sunna refers more
See also Sultanates: Ghaznavid; Nizam al-Mulk. generally to group norms or tribal customs is based on a false
etymology, which takes sunna to refer to a smooth or well-
BIBLIOGRAPHY worn track, implying in a social context the established or
Boyle, J. A., ed. The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 5: The “well-trodden” custom of a tribe or group. In fact the ancient
Saljuq and Mongol Periods. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Arab idea of sunna is necessarily associated with a particular
University Press, 1968. person responsible for establishing that sunna. “Every people
has a sunna,” according to a celebrated Arab poet, “and a
Saïd Amir Arjomand progenitor of that sunna.” Such sunna can be good or bad.

666 Islam and the Muslim World
Sunna

The same poet boasts that his ancestors left nothing bad in distrusted hadith reports and argued that to follow the prothe way of sunna, and early Muslim traditions warn against phetic sunna simply meant to follow the Quran; scholars of
following the bad sunna of the pre-Islamic Arabs. Islamic law, the ahl al-ray, who acknowledged the authority
of prophetic sunna in theory, but resisted its exclusive identi-
Bad sunna is also a concern of the Quran, where the word fication with hadith and relied on other sources as well; and
appears in two contrasting expressions: sunnat al-awalin, the traditionists, the ashab al-hadith, represented by al-Shafi
i,
sunna of the ancients, which incurs the judgment of God; and who argued that sunna could only be known from reliable
sunnat Allah, the sunna of God, according to which He metes hadith reports traced back to the Companions of the Prophet.
out judgment. The Quran thus contrasts ancestral norms to
the norms of God, according to which the ancestral sunna Sunna as Revelation
will be judged. The Quran never explicitly associates sunna The traditionist argument championed by al-Shafi
i ultiwith Muhammad, although the notion may be considered mately won the day, a triumph reflected in the elevation of
implicit in the repeated Quranic command to obey God and sunna to the status of revelation (wahy). According to one
His Prophet. hadith report that reflects the traditionist point of view,
“Gabriel used to descend to the Prophet with sunna just as he
Early Muslim Uses of the Term descended with the Quran.” This and many similar tradi-
It was natural, given Muhammad’s prominence and the tions reflect the early, pre-dogmatic form of a doctrine that
Quranic command to obey him, that early Muslims began to would later be spelled out explicitly: that the Quran repreconsider the Prophet a source of sunna. Ideas about prophetic sents recited revelation (wahy matlu) whereas sunna is unrecited
sunna among the earliest Muslims differed significantly from revelation (wahy ghayr matlu). The two manifestations of
later usage, however. First, the association of sunna with revelation differ in form and function—the words of the
Muhammad was not exclusive. The first four caliphs in Quran are themselves of divine provenance and the Quran is
particular, and the Companions of the Prophet in general, recited in ritual worship—but the Quran and sunna do not
were also sources for sunna. The caliph
Umar, for instance, differ in substance. Both are revealed by God and are equally
asserted his freedom with regard to the appointment of a authoritative sources of guidance. This doctrine bears a
successor on the basis of conflicting precedents: Muhammad striking similarity to the doctrine in rabbinic Judaism of a
did not appoint a successor, whereas Abu Bakr did. Hence, for dual Torah, one part written, one part orally transmitted by

Umar, either course of action was sunna. Similarly,
Ali the rabbis, but both originating with Moses at Mount Sinai.
reports that Muhammad and Abu Bakr both applied forty The authority of sunna was further reinforced by the doctrine
lashes as a penalty for drinking wine, while
Umar applied of
isma—the assertion that, as Prophet, Muhammad was
eighty. In the words of the tradition, “All this is sunna.” protected by God from error.

For those who circulated such traditions, Muhammad’s In practice the relation of the Quran to sunna came to be
sunna was one sunna among many, and in principle held no expressed in the maxim, “the Quran has more need of the
higher status than the sunna of Abu Bakr or
Umar. This sunna than the sunna has of the Quran.” As al-Shafi
i argued,
association of sunna with prominent leaders other than the the Quran gives general commands, whereas the sunna
Prophet continued among Shi
ite Muslims, for whom the specifies the exact intent and application of those commands.
Shi
ite imams became sources of sunna. The second differ- Without sunna, Muslims would know, for example, that they
ence between early understandings of sunna and those that should perform ritual worship, salat, but they would be in the
came later was that, in early Muslim usage, sunna was not yet dark about precisely when, how, or how often to do so.
closely identified with hadith. Early theological treatises and Moreover, the sunna provides the historical context essential
historical reports show a clear dissociation of the two ideas. for interpretation of the Quran by means of the “occasions of
Sunna was often invoked as a general principle of justice or revelation,” or asbab al-nuzul.
right conduct, without any reference to specific hadith reports. Even more significantly, some of the earliest Muslim The dependence of Quran on sunna, and the primacy of
legal writings are virtually hadith free. Malik b. Anas (d. 795), the latter, is further illustrated in discussions of abrogation
author of the Muwatta, the earliest extant manual of Islamic (naskh). Most legal scholars agreed that prophetic sunna had
law, appeals to sunna but treats the existing practice of the in certain cases abrogated, that is, replaced, earlier revela-
Muslims of Medina as a more reliable source of that sunna tions, whether in the Quran or in a prior sunna. “There is no
than hadith. dispute,” writes the great medieval theologian al-Ghazali (d.
1111), “that the Prophet did not abrogate the Quran on his
During the lifetime of the great jurist Muhammad b. Idris own initiative. He did it in response to inspiration. God does
al-Shafi
i (d. 820) these early, flexible ideas of sunna still the actual abrogating, operating through the medium of his
persisted, but they were under challenge. In his polemical Prophet.” Information about which commands abrogate and
writings Shafi
i records a contest to define sunna involving which are abrogated can only be known, of course, by means
three parties: speculative theologians, the ahl al-kalam, who of sunna.

Islam and the Muslim World 667
Sunna

Sunna and Hadith From the perspective of Muslim piety, however, the sunna
The primacy and authority of sunna as a form of revelation, as of the Prophet as reflected in authenticated hadith reports
the authoritative commentary on the Quran and as an was to be imitated in all its particulars. Thus al-Ghazali
independent source of guidance, was thus established in instructs Muslims that “the key to joy is following the sunna
principle. In practice, however, knowledge of sunna required and imitating the Prophet in all his comings and goings,
sifting authentic traditions from the voluminous, diverse, and words and deeds, extending to his manner of eating, rising,
forgery-ridden mass of hadith reports. The chief tool for this sleeping, and speaking.” The term sunna also came to be used
sifting was examination of the isnad, a hadith report’s formal more generally in any claim to represent the authentic and
chain of transmission. Hadith specialists evaluated the isnad original practice of the Muslim community. The opposite of
on two criteria: the reliability of the individuals who trans- sunna in this sense is bid
a, or innovation. Thus Sunni Musmitted the tradition, and continuity within the chain of lims distinguished themselves from Shi
ites and claimed to
transmission. represent the authentic legacy of the Prophet by adopting the
label ahl al-sunna wa
l jama
a, people of the sunna and of the
When those alleged to have transmitted a tradition met community. It is also in this sense that reformist Muslims
the highest standards of character, memory, and reliability, have from time to time called for a revival of the sunna as
and when each transmitter could be shown to have been in remedy for the ills of their time. Such appeals have been
sufficient proximity with the next to have plausibly passed on especially associated with scholars of the Hanbali school of
the report, then the tradition could be considered sound law, most notably the school’s founder, Ahmad b. Hanbal (d.
(sahih). Traditions judged less reliable were classified as fair 855), and its most celebrated medieval jurist, Taqi al-Din Ibn
(hasan), weak (da
if), or fabricated (mawdu
). A huge literature Taymiyya (d. 1328), whose intellectual legacy has continued
grew up around this process, including massive biographical to modern times.
dictionaries, collections of hadith, and manuals of hadith
Modern Controversies
criticism. The process of sifting hadith culminated in the
A call to revive the sunna (ihya al-sunna) became a particular
tenth century with the compilation of the great collections of
focus of eighteenth-century reformers like Shah Wali Allah
sahih hadith, especially the six “canonical” collections, the
of India and Muhammad al-Shawkani of Yemen, who apmost celebrated of which are those of Muhammad b. Isma
il
pealed to sunna to critique existing religious practices and
al-Bukhari (d. 870) and Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 874). From the
received legal doctrine. This pattern of sunna-based reform
tenth century onward, the canonical collections of hadith,
continued in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, espeespecially the collections of Bukhari and Muslim, became
cially among certain Indian Muslims who called themselves
virtually synonymous with sunna, exerting a profound and
the Ahl-e Hadith (people of the hadith) as well as among the
pervasive impact on Islamic culture.
salafi reformers of Egypt and Syria. At the same time that
these reformers were emphasizing the centrality of sunna as a
The Influence of Sunna on Islamic Law and Piety
means of reviving Islam, however, others began to challenge
The triumph of hadith had an especially deep impact on the
its authority for the same purpose.
theory and method of Islamic law. The traditionist thesis
exerted extraordinary pressure to document every legal opin- Modern challenges to the authority of sunna have had two
ion with generous citations of hadith, hence the tendency for points of focus. First, a number of Muslims have argued that
hadith reports to proliferate and for chains of transmission to the hadith reports from which sunna is derived are unreliable.
grow backwards. The impact of hadith on the actual content Nineteenth-century modernists Sayyid Ahmad Khan (d. 1898)
of the law was mitigated, however, in a variety of ways. of India and Muhammad
Abduh (d. 1905) of Egypt were
Acceptance of a hadith report as embodying authentic sunna among the first to openly express doubts about the reliability
did not necessarily assure its legal application. Jurists com- of hadith, partly under the influence of European hadith
monly distinguished, for example, between the personal hab- criticism. Beginning in the twentieth century some Muslims,
its and preferences of the Prophet (al-sunna al-
adiyya) and most notably Mahmud Abu Rayya and Ghulam Ahmad
actions related to his Prophetic mission (sunnat al-huda). The Parwez (d. 1985), came to reject hadith altogether, arguing
former gave rise, at best, to recommended actions, while the that oral transmission, rampant forgery, and the late recordlatter were legally binding. This distinction is reflected in a ing of hadith reports in writing make it impossible to sort
tradition that recounts an occasion on which Muhammad authentic hadith from the mass of forgeries. Second, some
gave bad advice to some date farmers. When confronted with Muslims have argued that even if the details of Muhammad’s
the unfortunate results he replied, “I am only human. If I life could be known with certainty, not all of his words and
command something related to religion, then obey, but if I deeds are meant to be followed. Secularists, like Chiragh
Ali
order you to do something on the basis of my own opinion, (1844–1895) and
Ali
Abd al-Raziq (1888–1966), argued that
then I am only a human being.” Among the schools of Islamic Muhammad’s authority was limited to spiritual matters only.
law, only the Zahiris, who were extreme literalists, insisted A small number of Quran-only Muslims, the so-called Ahl-e
that the sunna in its entirety was legally applicable. Quran (people of the Quran) of Pakistan as well as individual

668 Islam and the Muslim World
Suyuti, al-

scholars like Parwez, contend that Muhammad’s only legacy Yusuf, S. M. An Essay on Sunnah. Lahore: Institute of Islamic
is the Quran. Even some revivalist Muslims, notably Abu l- Culture, 1966.
A
la Maududi (1903–1979), a fierce defender of sunna in
theory, limit the scope of sunna by distinguishing between Daniel W. Brown
Muhammad’s actions as an ordinary man and his actions as a
Prophet.

These challenges to sunna have provoked vigorous polemics in defense of its authority from conservative scholars. SUNNI See Shi
a; Succession; Sunna
Consequently sunna has become the single most important
focus of controversy in modern Muslim discussions of religious authority.

See also Bid
a; Hadith; Law; Modern Thought; Muhammad; Quran; Religious Institutions.
SUYUTI, AL- (1445–1505)

Al-Suyuti was an Egyptian scholar best known for his prolific
BIBLIOGRAPHY
writings on prophetic tradition (hadith), Islamic jurispru-
Adams, Charles J. “The Authority of Prophetic Hadith in the dence (fiqh), Quranic studies, Arabic language, and related
Eyes of Some Modern Muslims.” In Essays on Islamic
subjects. The son of a minor religious scholar, he was trained
Civilization Presented to Niyazi Berkes. Edited by Donald P.
in the Sunni religious disciplines, and held several endowed
Little. Leiden: Brill, 1976.
academic positions in Cairo. Convinced that he alone was
Bravmann, M. M. The Spiritual Background of Early Islam:
truly learned in an age of scholarly decline, he compiled a
Studies in Ancient Arab Concepts. Leiden: Brill, 1972.
series of works intended to preserve the fundamentals of
Brown, Daniel. Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought. classical Sunni scholarship for posterity. His sense of his own
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
superiority and his quickness to denigrate others’ abilities
Burton, John. “Notes toward a Fresh Perspective on the provoked his colleagues, and he was embroiled in numerous
Islamic Sunna.” British Society of Middle Eastern Studies scholarly disputes. His claims to be qualified to give indepen-
Bulletin. 11 (1984): 3–17.
dent legal opinions (ijtihad) and to be the reviver of Islamic
Burton, John. An Introduction to Hadith. Edinburgh: Edin- knowledge at the beginning of the sixteenth century were
burgh University Press, 1994.
highly controversial. Al-Suyuti’s relationship with the Mamluk
Crone, Patricia, and Hinds, Martin. God’s Caliph: Religious sultans who ruled Egypt was also an uneasy one, since he
Authority in the First Centuries of Islam. Cambridge, U.K.: firmly believed that the religious scholars (ulema), as guardi-
Cambridge University Press, 1996.
ans of God’s law, should be the supreme authorities in the
Dutton, Yasin. The Origins of Islamic Law. Richmond, U.K.: state. Toward the end of his life, frustrated and disheartened,
Curzon Press, 1999. al-Suyuti relinquished his public posts and sought consola-
Goldziher, Ignaz. Muslim Studies. Translated by C. R. Barber tion in mysticism (tasawwuf). He continued to write, leaving
and S. M. Stern. Albany: State University of New York at his death over 550 books and treatises on a wide range of
Press, 1967. subjects. Several works are still in use as valuable references.
Graham, William. Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Some modern scholars have dismissed him as a mere com-
Islam: A Reconsideration of the Sources with Special Reference piler, a judgment that underrates his scholarly contributions,
to the Divine Saying or Hadith Qudsi. The Hague: Mou- especially in the fields of jurisprudence, prophetic tradition,
ton, 1977.
and Arabic language.
Juynboll, G. H. A. The Authenticity of Tradition Literature:
Discussions in Modern Egypt. Leiden: Brill, 1969. See also Arabic Language; Hadith; Ijtihad; Tasawwuf.
Juynboll, G. H. A. “Some New Ideas on the Development of
Sunna as a Technical Term in Early Islam.” Jerusalem
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Studies in Arabic and Islam 10 (1987): 97–118.
Garcin, Jean-Claude. “Histoire, opposition politique et
Rahman, Fazlur. Islamic Methodology in History. Karachi: Cenpiétisme traditionaliste dans le Husn al-muhadarat de
tral Institute of Islamic Research, 1965.
Suyuti.” Annales Islamologiques 7 (1967): 33–90.
Schacht, Joseph. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence.
Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1950. Sartain, Elizabeth M. Jalal al-din al-Suyuti. Cambridge, U.K.:
Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Shafi
i, Muhammad b. Idris al-. Islamic Jurisprudence: Shafi
i’s
Risala. Translated by Majid Khadduri. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins Press, 1961. E. M. Sartain

Islam and the Muslim World 669
T
TABARI, AL- (839–923) Rosenthal, Franz. The History of al-Tabari, Vol. 1: General
Introduction and From the Creation to the Flood. Albany:
Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari was an important jurisprudent, State University of New York Press, 1989.
Qur
an commentator, and historian (in descending order
among tenth-century Muslims; in ascending order among Christopher Melchert
modern scholars). Born in Amul, Tabaristan (by the Caspian
Sea), Tabari memorized the Qur
an at eight and left home to
study under more distant masters at twelve. He finally settled
in Baghdad, always mainly supported by remittances from his
TABLIGHI JAMA
AT
landowning family in Tabaristan.
The Tablighi Jamaat (“the society for inviting or convey-
In theology, he advocated the moderate Sunni tendency, ing”) may be the most widespread movement of Islamic da
wa
accepting such tenets as the uncreatedness of the Qur
an (“call,” “proselytism”) in the world today. Annual congrega-
(against the Mutazila, among others) and recognition of Ali tions held in Tablighi centers in Raiwind (Pakistan) and
as fourth caliph and fourth-best Companion (against the Tungi (Bangladesh) are said to include perhaps two million
Shia) but arguing rationally in their defense. Likewise, he participants each. Dewsbury (U.K.) serves as a center for
inferred the law chiefly from the prophetic sunna but gave Islamic education and tabligh activity in Europe. Its annual
reason considerable freedom to manipulate the revealed meeting attracts several thousand participants, as do annual
texts. Extremist Sunnis were sufficiently offended to block- meetings held in North America. Overall leadership is based
ade his house near the end of his life. at the Banglewali Masjid at Nizam al-Din in New Delhi,
India, where the movement began.
Tabari’s jurisprudential works were massive, and during
the tenth century, a Jariri school of law vied with the Shafii, The 1920s were a period of violent religious competition
Hanafi, and other schools for the attention of Sunni Muslims; in northern India, spurred by the beginnings of mass politics.
however, the Jariri school then died out, and most of the Muslims in Mewat, southwest of Delhi, were a particular
works are now lost. His massive Qur
an commentary was the target of Hindu “reconversion” movements. Maulana Muham-
first to deal systematically with every verse in succession. mad Ilyas (1885–1944), the movement’s founder, first en-
Tabari quotes many alternative interpretations from past countered humble Mewati laborers in Delhi. He quickly
authorities but he normally gives his own preference at the realized the limitations of mere schooling in influencing
end, often appealing to grammar to establish the meaning. them, and instead initiated a method of practical learning,
The author’s voice is most faintly heard in his world history, encouraging even the uneducated to remove themselves from
likewise a succession of quotations; however, the grand scheme their environment and preach to others. Tabligh, he argued,
that emerges agrees with what else is known of Tabari’s was incumbent not only on the learned but on every Muslim.
theology.
The movement requires no bureaucracy and no paid staff.
See also Historical Writing; Qur
an. It depends on small groups or cells ( jama
ats) of perhaps ten
men, financing themselves, going out door-to-door and speak-
BIBLIOGRAPHY ing in mosques. Participants ideally volunteer one day a week,
Gilliot, Claude. Exégèse, langue et théologie en Islam—L’Exégèse one three-day period a month, one forty-day period a year,
de Tabarî. Paris: J. Vrin, 1990. and one four-month tour at least once in a lifetime. Women

Tafsir

do tabligh within their own circles and gather regularly for current social, moral, legal, doctrinal, and political condiinstruction with other women; they accompany a traveling tions. Through their interpretive strategies, exegetes have
jama
at only if it includes one of their male relatives. Tablighis struggled to make the Qur
anic text more accessible to
follow and teach “Six Points:” the attestation of faith (kalima), believers, and more applicable to changing environments.
canonical prayer (salat), knowledge and ritual remembrance
of Allah (
ilm o zikr), respect toward all Muslims (ikram-e Origins
Muslim), sincerity (ikhlas-e niyyat), and volunteering time for The emergence of the word tafsir as both a process and a
tabligh (tafrigh-e waqt). Writings by Maulana Muhammad literary genre is unclear. The word tafsir appears only once in
Zakariyya Kandhlawi (1897–1982), based on hadith and known the Qur
an (25:33), suggesting that no formal science of
as the Tablighi nisab (The tabligh curriculum) or Fazail-e interpretation was established early in the Islamic tradition.
a
mal (The merits of practice), serve as the movement’s vade Traditionally, tafsir can be traced back to Muhammad. Howmecum. Mutual consultation (mashwara) is a fundamental ever, within hadith collections, only a small amount of tafsir is
principle in allocating responsibilities and making decisions. ascribed to the Prophet; much of the early exegesis is attributed to one of his companions, Abdallah ibn Abbas. During
Partition spurred new centers in Pakistan and served as a the first three centuries of Islam, the words tawil and tafsir
fillip to the movement in places like Mewat, which saw were used interchangeably to mean “interpretation of the
virulent anti-Muslim devastation. Maulana Muhammad Yusuf Qur
an,” and many authors employed either one of these
(1917–1965), who succeeded his father as emir of the move- terms (or none at all) to describe their exegetical enterprises.
ment in 1944, toured actively throughout the subcontinent. For example, Ibn Ishaq (d. 768), in his biography of the
The Jamaat’s activities increasingly spread to Southeast Asia, Prophet (Sirat rasul Allah), surrounds his citings of scripture
Africa, Europe, and North America. with contextual detail, which serves to explain many vague,
ahistorical Qur
anic passages; however, his activity was never
During Maulana Inamu
l Hasan’s leadership (1965–1995)
formalized or labeled as tafsir. Other early exegetical works
worldwide activity increased dramatically, dependent in part
focus on explicating legal issues or theological rhetoric, such
on the growth of an Indo-Pakistani diaspora. This continued
as Muqatil ibn Sulayman’s (d. 804) Tafsir khams mia aya min
under the leadership of the council, which succeeded him.
al-Quran, and Ibn Qutayba’s (d. 889) Tawil mushkil al-
The movement more recently has taken root among North
African immigrants to France and Belgium, as well as among Quran (respectively), but again, each author uses a different
Southeast Asian Muslims. Followers of the “Barelwi” school, term to describe his activities. After the tenth century, a
who see Tablighis as Deobandis, as well as modernists, and gradual distinction was drawn between tawil, which came to
state-oriented Islamist parties like the Jamaat-e Islami, who refer to exegesis based upon reason or personal opinion, and
reject Tablighi withdrawal from social and political activism, tafsir, which relied on hadith reports going back to Muhamare their primary opponents. These latter critics deplore the mad and his early companions. Throughout history, individnarrowness of Tabligh teachings. The Tablighi Jamaat’s ual tafsir works emphasize either opinion or tradition, but
stance has, however, allowed it to operate without govern- sometimes rely on both.
ment suspicion across many countries.
With the rapid expansion of Islam, problems arose in non-
See also South Asia, Islam in; Traditionalism. Arabic speaking communities with regard to the Qur
an and
its translation and interpretation, which called for more
BIBLIOGRAPHY formalized exegetical commentary that extended beyond the
Haq, M. Anwarul. The Faith Movement of Mawlana Muham- words of Muhammad or his companions. During the time of
mad Ilyas. London: George Allen, 1972. the successors, schools of tafsir evolved within distinct geographical regions: Mecca, Medina, and Iraq, along with their
Masud, Muhammad Khalid, ed. Travellers in Faith: Studies of
the Tablighi Jamaat as a Transnational Islamic Movement for corresponding exegetical “specialists” (mufassirun). The jus-
Faith Renewal. Leiden: Brill, 2000. tification for the development of tafsir schools rests on Qur
an
3:5–6, which lays out two categories of Qur
anic verses: clear
Metcalf, Barbara D. “Living Hadith in the Tablighi Jamaat.”
Journal of Asian Studies 52, no. 3: 584–608. (muhkamat) and unclear (mutashabihat). The role of the
exegete (mufassir) is to reiterate what is already “clear” and to
Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi, Maulana. Teachings of
Islam. New Delhi: Isha
at-e-Islam, 1960. clarify what is “unclear.” Much debate arose concerning what
passages fell into either of these categories, as well as to what
Barbara D. Metcalf extent finite human reason could be relied upon to make such
determinations. The resolution of this debate served to shape
tafsir works (and continues to do so) on into the twenty-first
century.
TAFSIR
Typology
Tafsir refers to Qur
anic exegesis. Tafsir claims to “clarify” Generally, tafsir works emphasized four types of issues that
the divine word, which serves to make the text “speak” to required systematized interpretive efforts: linguistic, juristic,

672 Islam and the Muslim World
Tafsir

historical, and theological. Linguistic efforts focus on the intellect (grammatical, rhetorical, legal, and discursive intermeaning of a word, where to put in punctuation and pauses, pretation). Sufi exegesis privileges seemingly random verses
the case endings of words, or the rhetorical presentation of in the Qur
an rather than presenting a symbolic reading of
information: Why are entire sentences or phrases repeated the entire work. Oftentimes Sufi interpretations extract a
again and again? A juristic accent stresses what is to be taken single sentence from the Qur
an, give it an allegorical readas the general or specific application of a command, or what ing, and then use that reading to decipher a whole pattern of
verses were to be abrogated by others. Questions of abroga- nontextual symbols through which the inner nature of God is
tion (naskh) rely heavily on those tafsir that deal specifically revealed. The relationship between the sign and the signified
with the occasions of the revelation (asbab al-nuzul), that is, is not always apparent to the non-Sufi reader, who may expect
those tafsir that embed ahistoric Qur
anic passages within a a more systematized set of interpretative strategies. For
progressive timeline. Without the exegetical efforts that example, Qur
anic references to Muhammad’s “night jourcontextualize specific Qur
anic passages, the legal tradition, ney” (al-isra;17:1), a journey that is taken quite literally by
in particular the theory of abrogation, would have no firm classical exegetes, is treated metaphorically by Sufis, who cast
basis from which to operate. Theologically oriented tafsir it as a model for one’s ascent along the Sufi path that requires
engage such problems as predestination versus free will, the a stripping away of the self so only the divine remains. Sufis
nature of God, or the infallibility of the prophets. Many tafsir understand the anthropomorphic statement in the Qur
an
works revolve around a single issue; others are composite about God seating himself upon his throne (7:54) to mean
in nature. God metaphorically setting himself over the heart of Muhammad. Some of the well-known collections of Sufi tafsir in-
Tafsir studies can be divided roughly into six groups based clude Sahl ibn Abdallah al-Tustari’s (d. 986) Tafsir al-Tustari
on discrete literary and methodological features: classical, (Exegesis of al-Tustari) and Muhyi al-Din ibn al-Arabi’s (d.
mystical, sensual, Shiite, modern, and fundamentalist. Clas- 1240) Tafsir Ibn al-
Arabi (Exegesis of Ibn al-Arabi).
sical tafsir emerges with full force in the fourth century of
Islam, typified by the work of Abu Jafar Muhammad b. Jarir Sufis further interpret the Qur
an through their emphasis
al-Tabari (d. 923), whose Jami al-bayan
an tawil ay al- on the recitation of certain Qur
anic passages (dhikr), and
Quran (The collection of the explanation of the interpreta- their calligraphic art. Generally, Qur
anic recitation makes a
tion of the Qur
an) presents a seemingly objective collection written text a living text (for Sufis and non-Sufis). The words
of hadith reports that originated with the Prophet and his themselves do not lie static on the page, but rather resound in
Companions. Other classical exegetes include Mahmud ibn everyday existence, collapsing ordinary time into sacred time:
Umar al-Zamakhshari (d. 1144), who looked to Arabic po- the moment when God first uttered his revelation to the
etry as a valuable source for his linguistic and literary inter- Prophet; when mystics directly encounter their God. And,
pretation of the Qur
an. His work engages both the rhetorical just as the mystic finds hidden meanings within the written
and theological aspects of Qur
anic exegesis. Fakhr al-Din word, so too does he see the calligraphic form of particular
Razi (d. 1210) surveys a whole range of debates in his words allowing for deeper reflection upon the dual meanings
commentary, in particular the differences between the Ashari of their shapes and sounds. The calligraphic form of “Muand the Mutazili theologians. The Mutazalis, for example, hammad” or “Husayn” allows one to reflect not just on the
argued that irrational passages could be interpreted to make word that signifies the person, but on the person’s true
sense through metaphorical (tawil) interpretation. Other qualities and intimate relationship with the divine. These oral
exegetes defend the legal views of one school of law or and visual forms of tafsir serve to extend the written docuanother in their works, such as Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1200), who ment into the realm of direct sensual experience.
supports the Hanbali tradition, or Abu Abdallah al-Qurtubi
(d. 1273), who backs the Malikis. In these examples, com- Shiite tafsir rose in parallel with its Sunni counterparts.
mentaries further a variety of theological, legal, or political Shiites are primarily concerned with establishing a line of
agendas through formal explication of Qur
anic passages. divinely ordained, infallible leaders (imams) who stem from
the Prophet’s family, starting with Ali, who was the first in a
Mystical (Sufi) tafsir favors allegorical interpretation of series of twelve. Shiites, like Sufis, rely heavily on the
scripture. Sufi exegetes suggest there are two possible read- distinction between literal and allegorical readings of the
ings of the Qur
an: the literal (zahir), and the allegorical Qur
an to support their understanding that the concept of the
(batin). They are most interested in allegorical readings, imam (along with the necessity of blood descent for true
which often counter growing orthodox interpretations. Gen- leaders of the Islamic community) is rooted in and validated
erally, Sufis are concerned with establishing an intimate by the Qur
an. For example, the cryptic Qur
anic statement
relationship with the divine, and look to those Qur
anic that likens a good word to a good tree (14:24) is understood
verses that reveal his hidden nature in gnostic fashion. These by Shiites to refer specifically to the Prophet and his family.
inner meanings of scripture are accessible only to those who Contrarily, a corrupt word likened to a corrupt tree (14:26)
grasp it through intuitive knowledge (gnosis), rather than the points to the immoral Umayyads, whom Shiites view as

Islam and the Muslim World 673
Tafsir

usurpers of their rightful leadership. As is the case with Sufis, lands, such as promiscuity or usury. Like many modernists,
the connection between the sign and the signified is not bin Ladin searches for the general intent of the Qur
an—as
readily apparent to those who do not accept Shiite theology. opposed to traditional statements—and then seeks to apply
In their interpretive efforts, the Shia move beyond symbolic that general intent to specific political and religious crises.
interpretations to favor textual variants of the Qur
an that For example, bin Ladin bypasses traditional theories of abrovalidate their imamate doctrine, including one reference gation of an earlier by a later verse to select and privilege
where Sunnis read “umma” (community), and Shia read those Qur
anic verses that most closely support his military
“a’imma” (imami leaders). Some of the major Shiite tafsir goals, in particular verses that urge believers to slay idolaters
include Abu Jafar al-Tusi’s (d. 1067) al-Tibyan fi tafsir al- (9:5) and to smite the necks of disbelievers (47:4). Unnamed
Quran (The explanation in interpretation of the Qur
an), and members of al-Qaida describe the hijackings of the planes
Abu al-Tabarsi’s (d. 1153) Majma
al-bayan li-
ulum al-Quran that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City on
(The collection of the explanation of the sciences of the 11 September 2001 as a kind of sacrificial ritual sanctioned by
Qur
an). the Qur
an. In each of these examples, the fundamentalist
exegete discards tradition in favor of his own personal cha-
Modern tafsir refers to twentieth-century interpretation. risma, which ultimately gives him the authority to “interpret
The aim of modern tafsir is to understand the Qur
an in light the Qur
an by the Qur
an.”
of reason, rather than tradition; to strip the Qur
an of any
traces of superstition or legend; and to use the Qur
an as a In each type of tafsir, the Qur
an is made eternally pliable
source to justify its own claims. Generally, modern exegetes to offer numerous interpretative solutions to Muslims as they
try to make the text more readily accessible to the common confront changing political, economic, doctrinal, moral, and
person who faces the challenges of modernity in a post- scientific conditions.
colonial environment where past tradition no longer seems
applicable to current concerns. Modern tafsir works differ See also Calligraphy; Law; Muhammad; Qur
an.
from classical works in that they no longer focus on issues of
grammar, rhetoric, law, or theology, but privilege more BIBLIOGRAPHY
immediate social, political, moral, and economic concerns of Ayoub, Mahmoud M. The Quran and Its Interpreters. Albany:
the day. However, they are similar in that they strive to make State University of New York Press, 1992.
the divine word more accessible to those who believe. A
Baljon, J. M. S. Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation,
major modern work is Muhammad Abduh’s (d. 1905) “Tafsir 1180–1960. Leiden: Brill, 1961.
al-manar” (The beacon of interpretation), which calls for a
Brown, Daniel. “The Triumph of Scripturalism: The Docrational approach to applying the Qur
an to modern dilemtrine of Naskh and its Modern Critics.” In The Shaping of
mas. Abduh elaborates on the Qur
anic passage that suggests
an American Islamic Discourse: A Memorial to Fazlur Rahman.
the taking of four wives is really an impossibility, due to the Edited by Earle H. Waugh and Frederick M. Denny.
fact that a man could never treat them all equally (4:129), and Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998.
argues that such polygamous relationships cause harm to
Gatje, Helmut. The Quran and Its Exegesis: Selected Texts with
spouses and children. Modernists like Abdu locate the moral
Classical and Modern Muslim Interpretations. Translated
core of the text, and then use their rational capabilities to and Edited by Alford T. Welch. Berkeley: University of
extend that general moral injunction to a variety of mod- California Press, 1976.
ern issues.
Madigan, Daniel A. The Quran’s Self-Image: Writing and
Aauthority in Islam’s Scripture. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
Future Trends
University Press, 2001.
The study of fundamentalist tafsir is still in its early stages.
Many fundamentalists interpret the Qur
an according to Rahman, Fazlur. Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an
Intellectual Tradition. Chicago: The University of Chicago
their own political and theological agendas, with little regard
Press, 1982.
for traditional modes of systematic exegesis. For example, in
Fi zilal al-Quran (In the shadow of the Qur
an), Sayyid Qutb Rippin, Andrew. “Literary Analysis of the Quran, Tafsir, and
(d. 1960), spokesperson for the Egyptian Muslim Brother- Sira: The Methodologies of John Wansbrough.” In Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies. Edited by Richard C.
hood, denies the established Islamic tradition that jihad is a
Martin. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1985.
defensive act of war, and determines that jihad is incumbent
upon all Muslims as they abolish corrupt political and relig- Rippin, Andrew. Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of
ious regimes. In the early twenty-first century, Usama bin the Quran. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1988.
Ladin also bypasses the traditional understanding of jihad by Rippin, Andrew. “Present Status of Tafsir Studies.” Muslim
reinterpreting the definition of a defensive attack to include World 72 (1982): 224–238.
the mere occupancy of sacred Muslim lands by foreign
powers, or the sheer presence of anti-Islamic values in those Kathryn Kueny

674 Islam and the Muslim World
Tajdid

Muslim community] at the head of each century those who
TAHA HUSAYN (HUSSEIN) See will renew its faith for it.” Persons engaged in this activity of
Husayn, Taha renewal are called mujaddids.

Although there have been disagreements over the details,
and over which Muslim leaders were deserving of the title of
mujaddid, the basic understanding of the importance of re-
TAHMASP I, SHAH (1514–1576) newal has been remarkably constant throughout Islamic
history. In the course of the history of the human community
Tahmasp I, born on 22 February 1514, was the eldest son of of Muslims, Muslims recognize that the actual faith and
Shah Ismail. He succeeded his father to the throne in 1524 practice of the people sometimes departed from the ideal
and ruled Iran until his death on 14 May 1576. His fifty-two- defined by the Qur
an and the model of the Prophet. Muslims
year reign was marked by religious consolidation and battles believe that the prophet Muhammad is the final Messenger of
with rival Uzbeks and Ottomans. God so that in those times when Muslims have not lived up to
the Islamic ideal, the community does not need a new prophet,
Tahmasp came to power at age ten, at which time Qizilbash it needs renewal. This mode of response to historical change
(Turkoman tribesmen) forces took control of Iran for the first is most important among Sunni Muslims. Within the Shiite
decade of his rule. The Qizilbash were not united, however, traditions, there is greater emphasis on messianic styles of
and the situation deteriorated into civil war in 1526. By 1533, religious resurgence, with an important theme being the
Tahmasp reasserted his sovereignty, having executed the coming of the anticipated Mahdi, or rightly-guided leader
main Qizilbash chief who was effectively ruling the country. whose appearance will be part of the events leading to the
By this time, rival Ottomans and Uzbeks had taken advantage final establishment of God’s rule of justice.
of Iran’s weak position, gaining territory from the Safavids.
Nevertheless, the Safavids held on, fighting numerous defen- The approaches of leaders of renewal have usually emphasive wars on two fronts. As a result of the Ottoman threat to sized certain common themes. The first was the call for the
the capital city of Tabriz, Tahmasp moved the capital to the return to the Qur
an and the sunna (traditions of the Prophet).
city of Qazvin in 1555. This often involved condemnation of practices that were
identified as illegitimate innovations and departures from the
Tahmasp’s reign witnessed a flowering of the arts, in Islamic ideal. This was not a simple conservative perspective
particular the arts of the book, best exemplified by a magnifi- since it involved a rejection of at least some aspects of existing
cent Shah-nameh (Book of kings), commissioned in 1522 conditions. As a result, a common second element in moveand containing some 250 outstanding miniature paintings. ments of renewal is the call for exercising informed indepen-
Tahmasp was a man of great piety, and his long reign was of dent judgment (ijtihad) and a rejection of the practice of
great importance for the spread and consolidation of Twelver simply following the judgments and interpretations of previ-
Shiism in Iran. ous teachers (taqlid). The debates between the advocates of
the two positions, ijtihad and taqlid, form a major part of the
See also Empires: Safavid and Qajar. intellectual history of movements of renewal in Islamic history.

A number of major figures in Islamic history are usually
BIBLIOGRAPHY
identified as having been mujaddids in their era. Among the
Savory, Roger. Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge, U.K.: most important of these are Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111
Cambridge University Press, 1980. C.E.), a teacher who brought together mystical and legal

dimensions of Islamic faith, Ahmad ibn Taymiyya (d. 1327), a
Sholeh A. Quinn scholar whose ideas inspired later puritanical movements of
renewal, and Shah Wali Allah of Delhi (d. 1763), whose
teachings on socio-moral reconstruction provide foundations
for most major modern Islamic movements in South Asia. A
TAJDID special figure in the line of renewers is Ahmad Sirhindi (d.
1624), who was called the “Mujaddid of the Second Millen-
Tajdid is the Arabic term for “renewal.” In formal Muslim nium” because he lived at the end of the first thousand years
discussions, this term refers to conscious efforts to bring of the Islamic era. Sirhindi was a leader of a reform-oriented
about the renewal of religious faith and practice, emphasizing Sufi brotherhood, the Naqshbandiyya, in India. His branch
strict adherence to the prescriptions of the Qur
an and the of that order became known as the Mujaddidi. It later played
precedents of the prophet Muhammad. The foundation for important roles in activist reform in Central Asia and the
this usage is a widely accepted tradition in which Muhammad Middle East and organized resistance to European expansion
is reported to have said, “God will send to this umma [the in areas like the Caucasus.

Islam and the Muslim World 675
Taliban

In the modern period, concepts and movements of tajdid BIBLIOGRAPHY
take many different forms. Many movements have their Brown, Daniel. Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought.
intellectual origins in the teachings of Muhammad ibn Abd Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
al-Wahhab (d. 1792 ), who joined with a chieftain in central Voll, John O. “Renewal and Reform in Islamic History:
Arabia, Muhammad ibn Saud (d. 1765), to create a political Tajdid and Islah.” In Voices of Resurgent Islam. Edited by
system and movement of puritanical renewal. In its strictness John L. Esposito. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
and uncompromising approach to what it defined as innovations, the Wahhabi movement came to be seen as the proto- John O. Voll
typical militant style of Islamic renewal. By the late twentieth
century, even militant movements that had no direct connections with the actual Wahhabi tradition came to be called
“Wahhabi.” TALIBAN
Modern movements that emphasized the importance of The word taliban derives from the Persian plural form of the
the intellectual dimensions of renewal through ijtihad became Arabic word talib, meaning “seeker” or “student.” As a genimportant by the late nineteenth century. A leading personal- eral term, taliban, or its Arabic equivalents tullab or talaba,
ity in this was the Egyptian scholar Muhammad Abduh (d. alludes to students from madrasas (religious schools) dedi-
1905), who served as Grand Mufti of Egypt. Abduh empha- cated to theological studies of Islam. After 1994, however, Da
sized the compatibility of reason and revelation in Islam. Al- Afghanistan da Talibano Islami Tahrik (The Afghan Islamic
Manar, the journal reflecting his teachings, was read by Movement of Taliban), or “Taliban,” was known internaintellectuals throughout the Muslim world at the beginning tionally as the name chosen by a mujahidin splinter group that
of the twentieth century. Other conscious movements of eventually dominated the civil war in Afghanistan.
intellectual renewal developed in the Russian Empire under
Ismail Gasprinskii, in India with Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, The rise of the Taliban as a military force is debated.
and elsewhere. Their supporters maintained that the movement surfaced in
Kandahar to enforce public safety and order in reaction to the
Throughout the twentieth century, the movements of looting and harassment of the local population by other
rationalist renewal continued. However, they were overshad- mujahidin groups. Their opponents viewed the Taliban as a
owed by Muslim movements advocating broader programs of creation of Pakistan’s Interservices Intelligence (ISI) in order
social and political Islamization. The Muslim Brotherhood, to gain indirect control of Afghanistan and unhindered access
established in Egypt by Hasan al-Banna in 1928, and the to Central Asia.
Jamaat-e Islami, established in South Asia by Abu l-Ala

Maududi (d. 1979) in 1941, became the most visible examples In any case, the Taliban, with direct Pakistani military and
of modern-style renewal movements. These movements pre- diplomatic support and financial backing from Saudi Arabia
sented programs for creating Islamic states and societies in and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), emerged as the domithe modern world. Although for a time they were overshad- nant military force that gradually came to rule about 85
owed by secular nationalist and radical leftist movements, by percent of Afghanistan by 1999 (the remainder of the country
the 1980s the movements of Islamic resurgence were the was controlled by an anti-Taliban alliance under the leadermost visible opposition movements in many countries, and ship of Ahmad Shah Masud). Comprised of former mujahidin
often they set the agenda for the Islamization of political belonging mostly to the Pashtun ethnic majority, the group
discourse throughout the Muslim world. Intellectuals within first emerged in Kandahar in 1994. The original leaders and
these movements, like Hasan al-Turabi, who led the Muslim members claimed to be students from religious schools run
Brotherhood in Sudan for most of the final third of the by Pakistan’s Jamiyat-e Ulama-e Islam (JUI).
twentieth century, wrote about the necessity for tajdid in
rethinking all of the fundamentals of political, social, and The Taliban gained international notice on 3 November
legal structures in the Muslim world. 1994, when the group freed a convoy of Pakistani trucks
commandeered by a local Afghan mujahidin group. Two days
By the late twentieth century, many of the more visible later, the Taliban captured Kandahar, and in September
militant Muslim groups, like al-Qaida, were concentrating 1995, the western city of Herat. The Taliban seized the
on issues of power and jihad rather than ijtihad. The broad capital, Kabul, on 27 September 1996, ousting the ruling
tradition of renewal in Islam continued in new forms, among mujahidin government of President Burhan al-Din Rabbani.
the militants and also among scholars who continued the
process of reexamining the sources in order to present ways of Initially, the Taliban claimed that its goal was to rid the
having renewed Islamic life in the contemporary world. country from factionalism and the rule of warlords. However,
on 3 April 1996, Mulla Muhammad Omar Mujahid pro-
See also Ijtihad; Reform: Arab Middle East and North claimed himself Emir al-Mu
minin (Commander of the Faith-
Africa; Reform: South Asia; Taqlid. ful), thus becoming the Emir (ruler) of Afghanistan. Taking

676 Islam and the Muslim World
Taliban

food supplies (to the Bamiyan region). What triggered international condemnation of the Taliban, though, was their
maltreatment of women, who were banned from attending
schools, holding jobs, venturing outside of their homes unless
accompanied by a male relative, and being treated by male
physicians. The Taliban also placed restrictions on foreign
female aid workers helping Afghan women.

Signs of the Taliban’s eventual international isolation
began to show in 1998. With pressure from women’s rights
groups, the absence of international investment, and the
Taliban’s double-dealings with rival pipeline projects, the
U.S. oil company Unocal pulled out of a major business deal
that would have facilitated the construction of a gas pipeline
from Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan, a project planned by Unocal and a Saudi company, Delta Oil.

In August 1998, in retaliation for the bombings of two
U.S. embassies in Africa by affiliates of Usama bin Ladin and
the Taliban’s refusal to surrender him, the United States
launched cruise missile attacks on suspected terrorist camps
in Afghanistan and spearheaded an international effort to
isolate the Taliban through unilateral and U.N. sanctions.
A young girl peers out among a group of Afghan women wearing
the Burqa covering at a Red Cross distribution center in Kabul in
1996, when the ruling Taliban forced women to cover themselves In addition, the Taliban’s drug production and trafficking
completely in public, and banned women from schools and activities brought international scorn. In 2001 the United
workplaces. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS Nations acknowledged Taliban efforts to reduce the production of narcotics, the first such recognition since their assumption of power in 1994. However, these efforts did not
advantage of inter-Uzbek rivalries in northern Afghanistan, gain the movement much international sympathy, as its
in May 1997, the Taliban captured Mazar-i-Sharif, the last radicalization intensified. In March 2001, Mulla Omar orsignificant Afghan city not under its control. This victory dered the destruction of all idols in the country, including two
brought the Taliban recognition from Pakistan, Saudi Ara- 1,500-year-old colossal Buddha statues in Bamiyan. Two
bia, and the UAE as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. months later, in a decree that brought international outrage,
Although defeated in a subsequent battle, with heavy losses to the Taliban ordered all non-Muslim Afghans to wear distinctheir ranks (including some 250 Pakistani casualties), the tive yellow patches.
Taliban recaptured Mazar-i-Sharif and then seized the Hazarah
stronghold of Bamiyan in 1998 and 1999. This consolidation The policies of the Taliban affecting women and religious
of power changed the internal structure of the Taliban minorities, its destruction of ancient Buddha statues, and the
movement from loose pockets of fighters led by a consultative banning of music, television, photography, and traditional
council in which Mulla Omar was primus inter pares, into an Afghan games such as kite flying were carried out under an
theocratic regime increasingly ruled with secrecy and terror innovative form of the shari
a, combining Pashtun tribal
as a means of control, with no leader accessible to the people. codes and a radical form of Islamic teaching propagated by
As rulers, the Taliban sought the creation of what the move- some of the graduates of the Dar al-Ulum (House of Sciment believed to be pure Islamic rule according to the shari
a ences) madrasa in Deoband, India, who later became mem-
(Islamic law). bers of JIU and other radical Islamic movements in Pakistan.
The presence of radical Arabs encamped in Afghanistan led
From its appearance on the Afghan political scene until its by Usama bin Ladin also galvanized this development. While
capture of Kabul, the Taliban were viewed by some sectors of some Taliban members genuinely believed their rule was
the Afghan population as a means of restoring order. This based in Islam, others appeared to use Islam as a justification
view was also shared by certain foreign powers, including the for absolute “divine” power. The policies of the Taliban have
United States, which tacitly welcomed the Taliban capture of given birth to the term “Talibanization,” referring to this
Kabul. However, while securing the territories under its new form of radical Islam.
control, the Taliban proved to be yet another destabilizing
group of warriors whose methods included ethnically targeted The 11 September 2001 suicide bombings of the World
mass murder of unarmed civilians (in the northern and Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washcentral parts of Afghanistan) as well as the total blockade of ington, D.C., were immediately attributed to Usama bin

Islam and the Muslim World 677
Tanzimat

Ladin. Because the group of Arab and other Muslim fighters State, Justice, Education, and Reform were established at
he headed, known as al-Qaida, had operated in Afghanistan various points in time, charged with the task of overseeing the
with the knowledge and protection of the Taliban govern- process. Provincial councils were also established, including
ment, a U.S.-led war of retaliation led to the destruction of representatives of different religious and social groups.
the Taliban government and the routing of al-Qaida forces
from Afghanistan. In early December 2001, the leaders of Tax reforms were insufficient to prevent bankruptcy (1876),
both the Taliban and al-Qaida escaped and fled into the but communications and education gradually improved, and
mountains of eastern Afghanistan or into Pakistan. a new lawcode (Mecelle) was prepared, which codified Islamic
law in the Western style. Reforms were stringently applied,
As of early Spring 2003, the Taliban had begun regroup- leading to complaints of tyranny. The Young Ottomans
ing and instigating frequent, low-level attacks against Afghan proposed a constitutional government, but were suppressed
and U.S.-led anti-terror coalition forces in the south and by the absolute monarchy of Abd al-Hamid II. Technical
southeastern regions of Afghanistan, along the border with modernization continued, but political liberalization was post-
Pakistan. Many Taliban members were believed to be shel- poned until the twentieth century.
tered in the southwestern region of Pakistan and assisted by
sympathetic individuals and groups there. The whereabouts See also Empires: Ottoman; Modernization, Political:
of top Taliban leaders, including Mulla Omar, remained Administrative, Military, and Judicial Reform; Young
unknown. However propaganda distributed by the group in Turks.
Afghanistan claimed that he continued to lead the Taliban.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See also Mojahidin; Qaida, al-; Political Islam. Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1961.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Shaw, Stanford J., and Shaw, Ezel Kural. History of the
Marsden, Peter. The Taliban: War and Religion in Afghanistan Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Vol. II: Reform, Revo-
(Politics in Contemporary Asia). London: Zed Books, 2002. lution, and Republic: The Rise of Modern Turkey, 1808–1975.
Matinuddin, Kamal. The Taliban Phenomenon: Afghanistan Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
1994–1997. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamental- Linda T. Darling
ism in Central Asia. London: Yale University Press, 2000.

Amin Tarzi
Kimberly McCloud
TAQIYYA
Often translated as “dissimulation,” the word taqiyya is
etymologically linked to piety and devotion. In Twelver
TANZIMAT Shiite thought it has come to refer to the tactic employed by
the imams (and recommended to the Shiites) of hiding one’s
The Tanzimat (meaning reorganization, reordering) was a beliefs when faced with oppression. Normally, a Muslim is
reform period in the Ottoman Empire lasting from 1839 to expected to declare his belief, so to deny it is a grave sin
1871. Its aims were modernization, centralization, increasing (kabira). However, according to tradition, the Shiite imams
revenue, and forestalling fragmentation and conquest. Its were faced with oppression from the Sunni majority, and in
main agents were the influential grand wazirs Mustafa Resit order to preserve the well-being of both their followers and
Pasa (1800–1858) and his protégés, Fuat (1815–1869) and themselves, they dissimulated. Outwardly they would con-
Ali (1815–1871). Sultan Mahmud II’s 1826 destruction of form to Sunni belief and practice; inwardly they would
the old janissary military corps, which resisted change and remain Shiite. When the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur emdeposed those who advocated change, and the introduction of barked on a campaign against the supporters of the sixth
Western-language education paved the way for these reforms. imam, Jafar, the imam is said to have encouraged the Shia to
dissimulate in order to save themselves. The doctrine was
The 1839 Imperial Rescript (Hatt-i Serif) of Gülhane based upon a certain interpretation of the Qur
anic verse
guaranteed security and equal justice to all subjects, regard- 16:106, where the wrath of God is said to await the apostate
less of religion. He also proposed reforms in taxation and “except those who are compelled while their hearts are firm in
military conscription and created a lawmaking body. A new faith.” This exceptive clause is interpreted in Shiite Qur
anic
class of modern-educated men staffed a reorganized bureau- commentaries as referring to “those who are forced to praccracy and military, and standardized provincial government tice taqiyya.”
and taxes. The Crimean War (1853–1856) interrupted progress, but at its end a new reform rescript (Hatt-i Hümayun, Taqiyya, within the Shiite tradition, can be seen as a
1856) reiterated and expanded earlier reforms. Councils of balance to shahada—the willingness to expose oneself to

678 Islam and the Muslim World
Taqlid

danger in the cause of truth. While Imam Jafar recom- interpretation of the law put forward by the mujtahid. Taqlid
mended taqiyya, the example of Imam Husayn seems to in the Sunni tradition was, however, not always used with
encourage self-sacrifice in the face of oppression. Shiite negative connotations. The theory of ijtihad developed within
theologians and jurists have debated long and hard about the Sunni tradition, with grades of ijtihad from absolute
when one should be willing to face martyrdom, and when one ijtihad (ijtihad mutlaq) to ijtihad within the school (al-ijtihad
may resort to taqiyya. There has not emerged a unanimous fi’l-madhhab) to partial ijtihad. A more sophisticated theory of
orthodox position or teaching on this point, though the taqlid accompanied these developments. A scholar might be
factors to be considered include the magnitude of the evil viewed as muqallid to the founding imam of the madhhab
perpetrated by the oppressor and the estimated risk to one- (since a jurist would not normally claim that his ijtihad was
self, one’s family, and the community of believers. The superior to that of the imam), but was a mujtahid with regard
different tactics have been employed at different times in to jurists of lesser rank within the school. Taqlid was, there-
Shiite history. The Shia in the Ottoman empire, living fore, a recognition of the importance of the madhhab tradition
under Sunni rule, were encouraged by some Shiite ulema to as both a legal identity and as setting the broad parameters
perform taqiyya. At the beginning of the revolutionary move- within which a jurist might operate.
ment in modern Iran, on the other hand, martyrdom was seen
as a virtue, and taqiyya was discouraged by some ulema. Within the Imami Shiite tradition, such a nuanced definition of taqlid did not, on the whole, emerge. The Imamis had
In Shiite law, taqiyya was employed as an explanation of no founding imam whose ijtihad had to be viewed as superior,
why at times the reports from the imams contradict each because the imams in Twelver Shiism were sinless (ma
sum).
other. The occurrence of contradictions was explained by The imams did not need to perform ijtihad to find a ruling,
designating one of the reports (hadiths or khabars) as being since they were granted a complete knowledge of the law by
generated by “taqiyya.” While for most jurists and hadith God. Taqlid to anyone other than the imam does not form a
scholars, reports were evaluated on the basis of the chain of feature of early Shiite jurisprudence. However, as Shiite
authorities, taqiyya served as an alternative means of rejecting jurists realized that the ghayba was to be a prolonged absence
a report as inauthentic (or rather, as an inauthentic source of of the imam, a theory of ijtihad did emerge in embryonic form
law). This, in turn, gave rise to extensive debates about how to in the work of al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (d. 1277), and was fully
recognize a taqiyya report, and whether one receives punish- developed in the writings of his pupil, al-Allama al-Hilli (d.
ment in the hereafter if one follows one, and thereby trans- 1325). The result was an acceptance that an ordinary Shiite
gresses the law. Among the means of recognizing a taqiyya Muslim was forced to perform taqlid to a mujtahid. For the
report was a direct comparison with Sunni doctrine. If one of believer, with no access to the imam himself, the rulings of
the contradictory reports agreed with Sunni doctrine, then it the mujtahid were all that was necessary to obey the law. In
was clearly a taqiyya report. The imam was obviously agreeing effect, taqlid of the mujtahid, even when the mujtahid’s rulings
with the Sunnis to avoid persecution of himself or his were mistaken, was sufficient to guarantee full obedience to
community. the law of God.

See also Shia: Imami (Twelver). This theory was one of the ideological foundations of the
authority of the scholarly class in Shiism, and led, in part, to a
BIBLIOGRAPHY heightened respect for the ulema in Shiite communities in
Gleave, Robert. “Silence, Obscurity and Contradiction in comparison with that found in the Sunni world. Mujtahids
Revelation.” In Inevitable Doubt. Edited by Robert Gleave. gained authority and prestige by the number of muqallids they
Leiden: E. J.Brill, 2000. attracted. Since the ulema were, for much of Shiite history,
Kohlberg, Etan. “Some Imami-Shia Views on Taqiyya.” unaligned with any governmental structure, the mujtahids
Journal of the American Oriental Society 95 (1975): 395–402. were, in effect, building up an independent power base. This
power base of muqallids could be (and was) used to mobilize
Robert Gleave opposition to government measures in the largely Shiite
country of Iran. Indeed, the theory of taqlid enabled a number
of mujtahids to call for the opposition to the shah, which
eventually led to the Iranian revolution of 1979.
TAQLID
See also Ijtihad; Madhhab; Marja al-Taqlid; Muhtasib;
The term taqlid refers to the “following” or “imitation” of a Shia: Imami (Twelver).
legal expert by a nonexpert. In Sunni Muslim law, in both its
classical and modern manifestations, taqlid is generally viewed BIBLIOGRAPHY
negatively. Taqlid is the activity that the legally unaccom- Arjomand, S. A. “The Muqaddas al-Ardalili on Taqlid.” In
plished (called muqallid or
ammi) are forced to perform. As Authority and Political Culture in Shi
ism. Albany: State
they have no legal qualifications, they must merely obey the University of New York Press, 1988.

Islam and the Muslim World 679
Tariqa

Clarke, L. “The Shii Construction of Taqlid.” Journal of apparatus, typically through accepting endowment with land-
Islamic Studies 12, no. 1 (2001): 40–64. tax income. Thus by 1281, the Mongol rulers of Iran set up an
Hallaq, W. “Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed?” IJMES 16 endowment for the previously independent hospice estab-
(1984): 3–41. lished by Ruzbihan, in this way linking its fortunes with the
state. In India, the residences of Sufi masters of the Chishti
Robert Gleave order were typically one large room where everyone lived and
pursued their discipline, unlike the multiple private cells of
hospices in Syria and Iran. These “meeting houses” (jama
at
khanas) tended to be supported, at least initially, by voluntary
TARIQA donations rather than fixed land income. In Turkey the
hospices were known as tekkes. Because of hospitality regula-
Tariqa is an Arabic term for the spiritual path, especially in tions that required feeding and lodging guests for a limited
the sense of a method of spiritual practice, often embodied in time, the Sufi hospices became centers where members of
a social organization and tradition known as a Sufi order. different levels of society interacted with the Sufi master.

Tariqa has the etymological sense of way or path, and It was only in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that a
along with its near twin, tariq, it is used as a generic term for significant number of outstanding Sufi masters lent their
the way or path to God in the mystical writings of the Sufis. names to groups constituting individual spiritual methods or
Despite the existence of numerous different traditions of Sufi “ways” (tariqas). It was also common to characterize each way
practice and organization, it is common for Sufi teachers to as a “chain” (silsila), with masters and disciples constituting
point out that there is only one spiritual path that encom- the links. Names of Sufi orders ending in the Arabic feminine
passes all of these different variations. At the same time, it is form (-iyya), such as Naqshbandiyya, are short hand for “the
frequently asserted that there are as many paths to God as Naqshbandi way or chain” (al-tariqa al-Naqshbandiyya, althere are human souls. It is difficult to translate this kind of silsila al-Naqshbandiyya). These chains were plotted backward
spiritual ideal into any definitive enumeration of Sufi orders in time to end ultimately with the prophet Muhammad as the
as sociological entities. final human figure; some chains are duly depicted as continuing with the angel Gabriel and God as the ultimate
Early History
sources. Nearly all of these chains reach Muhammad via his
The early Sufi movement as it developed in the first centuries
son-in-law and cousin Ali. A notable exception is the
of the Muslim era was characterized by informal association
Naqshbandi order, which reaches the Prophet via Abu Bakr
of like-minded individuals. But as Sufi communities gradually
instead (although the Naqshbandi lineage includes other
coalesced, Sufi leaders increasingly were associated with
early Shiite imams). A complication in the notion of the
residential hospices (Ar., ribat or zawiya; Pers., khanqa), an
chain as a historical lineage results from the phenomenon of
institution first developed in Iran by a puritanical religious
movement known as the Karramiyya. The followers of Abu transhistorical or Uwaysi initiation (named after Uways al-
Ishaq al-Kazaruni (d. 1033) established their own hospices in Qarani, a contemporary disciple of the prophet Muhammad
southern Persia and in coastal trading towns of the Indian in spite of never having met him). On this basis, many Sufis
Ocean. Abu Said ibn Abu
l-Khayr (d. 1049) established a have been initiated by eminent saints of the past or by the
center for Sufis in eastern Iran, with codes of conduct for the immortal prophet al-Khidr (Per., Khizr), and this transcenguidance of novices. Newly arrived Muslim rulers such as the dental relationship also falls into the category of a Sufi order.
Seljuk Turks found it attractive to sponsor the construction Another challenge to our understanding of Sufi institutions is
and upkeep of such hospices, along with academies (madrasas) the presence of deliberately deviant wanderers such as the
for the teaching of the Islamic religious sciences. These Qalandars, who criticized the established Sufi orders even as
hospices typically were places dedicated to prayer, study of they adopted the charismatic roles of Sufi teachers.
the Qur
an, meditation, and communal meals, where travel-
While it is convenient to refer to these organizations as
ers and the needy were welcome. Sufi masters would impart
instruction and advice to their students and to visitors. “orders,” with an implicit analogy to the monastic orders of
Christianity (Franciscans, Dominicans, etc.), the comparison
Some hospices like the Said al-Suada
in Cairo (founded is inexact. Sufi orders are much less centrally organized than
by Saladin in 1173) depended entirely on royal patronage. their Christian counterparts, and they have a more fluid
Other hospices had a broad clientele among the artisan hierarchical structure, which is formulated in terms of differclasses, from which many of the Sufi masters came. The ent types of initiations. Complicating the situation is the
hospice of Ruzbihan Baqli (d. 1209) was built in Shiraz in phenomenon of multiple initiation, observable at least since
1165 by stonemasons among his followers. Yet the need of the fourteenth century, through which individual Sufis could
political leaders for religious legitimation put pressure on the receive instruction in the methods of various orders while
new Sufi institutions to become part of the state patronage maintaining a primary allegiance to only one. Sufi orders are

680 Islam and the Muslim World
Tariqa

Early tariqas (Sufi brotherhoods) and their founders

al-Junayd, d. 910

Ahmad al-Ghazali (d. 1126)


Abdallah al-Ansari
Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani
Abd al-Qahir al-Suhrawardi
(d. 1089), Herat (d. 1166), Baghdad; (d. 1168)
Qadiriyya

Abu-Hafs
Umar
al-Suhrawardi (d. 1234)
Suhrawardiyya
Yusuf al-Hamadani Ahmad b. al-Rifa
i Najm al-Din
(d. 1140), "khwajagan," (d. 1182), Iraq: Kubra (d. 1221)
Transoxania Rifa
iyya Kubrawiyya

Abu ’l-Hasan

Abd al-Khaliq al-Shadhili
Ghujdawani (d. 1258); Jalal al-Din
(d. 1220) Shadiliyya Rumi (d. 1273);
Mevleviyya
Ahmad al-Yasavi (d. 1166) Ahmad al-Badawi
Yasaviyya; infl. on (d. 1276), Egypt;
Turkish Sufism Badawiyya

Mu
in al-Din Chishti
(d. 1236), Ajmer; Chishtiyya
Baha al-Din
Naqshband
(d. 1389); Hajji Bektash (d. c. 1338);
Naqshbandiyya Bektashiyya

SOURCE: Hodgson, M. G. S. Venture of Islam. Vol. 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. Quoted in Lapidus, Ira M. A History of
Islamic Societies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Genealogy and origins from 600 until 1200.

not inherently driven by competing and exclusive ideologies, signify the disciple’s entrance into the order; special procealthough competition in the sociopolitical arena is certainly dures governed the initiation of women disciples, though
not unknown. The majority of Sufi orders have a Sunni masters were typically male. A frequent feature of initiation
orientation, although Shiite orders exist as well, particularly was the requirement that the disciple copy out by hand the
in Iran, but Sufis have been associated with all of the major genealogical “tree” of the order, which would link the disciple
Islamic legal schools. Although it is commonly asserted that to the entire chain of masters going back to the Prophet.
the Sufi orders played an important role in spreading Islam
on a popular level, there is little historical evidence that The tombs of many Sufi saints were usually erected at or
premodern Sufi leaders took any interest in seeking the near their homes. Under Islamic law, the ownership and
conversion of non-Muslims. maintenance of these tombs fell to family members, who may
or may not have had spiritual qualifications. In subsequent
The major social impact of the Sufi orders in terms of generations, the devotion of many pilgrims thus created a
religion was to popularize the spiritual practices of the Sufis class of hereditary custodians who were in charge of the
on a mass scale. The interior orientation of the informal finances and operations of the tomb-shrines, which could be
movement of early Sufism became available to a much wider combined with a functioning hospice where the teachings of a
public through participation in shrine rituals, the circulation Sufi order took place, or with other institutions such as
of hagiographies, and the dispensing of various degrees of mosques or madrasas. Increasingly, however, the Sufi tomb
instruction in dhikr recitation and meditation. Elaborate came to be an independent institution, in some cases funcinitiation rituals developed, in which the master’s presenta- tioning as the center of massive pilgrimage at the annual
tion of articles such as a dervish cloak, hat, or staff would festival of the saint; these festivals were variously termed the

Islam and the Muslim World 681
Tariqa

saint’s birthday (mawlid) in the Mediterranean region, or endowment. Some Sufi masters would demonstrate their
“wedding” (
urs) in Iran and India, in the latter case symboli- disdain of the world by refusing to entertain rulers or visit
cally celebrating the death anniversary as the “wedding” of them at court.
the saint’s soul with God. The tombs of especially popular
saints eventually were surrounded with royal burial grounds, On the other hand, certain orders have a history of close
where kings and members of the nobility would erect their association with political power; the Suhrawardiyya and the
own tombs, to acquire a borrowed holiness or to benefit in the Naqshbandiyya in India and Iran felt it was important to
afterlife from the pious exercises of pilgrims to the nearby influence rulers in the proper religious direction, and the
saints. Examples of this kind of necropolis include the Sufi Bektashiyya had strong links to the elite Ottoman troops
shrines of Khuldabad and Gulbarga in the Indian Deccan, known as the janissaries. The Safawiyya, once a moderate
Tatta in Pakistan, and the various graveyards of Cairo. Since Sunni order based at Ardebil, became widespread among
many founders and important figures of the Sufi orders are Turkish tribes on the Persian-Ottoman frontier, and it emerged
buried in such shrines, the history of the orders cannot be with a strongly Shiite and messianic character to become the
separated from the phenomenon of pilgrimage to these tombs. basis for the Safavid empire that ruled Iran from the sixteenth
through the eighteenth century. During the period of
Periodization of Pre-Modern Sufi Orders nineteenth-century colonialism, when much of the Islamic
The standard view of the history of Sufi orders advanced by world fell under European domination, Sufi institutions
Trimingham suggests that the Sufi tariqa orders enjoyed played varied roles. Hereditary custodians of Sufi shrines in
their “golden age” in the thirteenth century. Trimingham places like the Indian Punjab were treated as important local
viewed the institutionalization of Sufi orders in the fifteenth landlords by colonial officials, and they became further encentury, in the form of organizations (taifas), as a “decline” trenched as political leaders due to British patronage; ironifrom original spirituality into sterile ritual and vulgarization. cally, the cooperation of these Sufi leaders became essential in
This Orientalist perspective on the Sufi orders, with its later independence movements directed against British conbackground in the Protestant rejection of Catholic tradition trol. Similarly, the Senegalese order known as the Muridiyya
and ritual, unfortunately does not adequately represent the became heavily involved in peanut farming as a result of being
later history of Sufism. While the existing scholarly literature favored by French colonial authorities, and they have emerged
on Sufism largely focuses on what is often called its “classical” in the postcolonial order as a prominent social and religious
phase, the ramification of Sufi orders in Muslim countries in institution. With the overthrow of traditional elites by Eurothe later so-called period of decline was extensive, and the pean conquest, Sufi orders in some regions remained the only
literary and social impact of these more recent developments surviving Islamic social structures, and they furnished the
remains largely unexplored. The “golden age” view of Sufism principal leadership for anticolonial struggles in places such
is also shared by modern Muslim reformists and fundamen- as Algeria (Abd al-Qadir), Libya (the Sanusiyya), the Caucatalists, who are extremely critical of modern and contempo- sus (Shaykh Shamil), and China. French administrators in
rary Sufism, although they may concede that long-dead Sufi North Africa viewed Sufi orders with suspicion, and colonial
masters of the past were pious Muslims. As Carl Ernst and scholars produced studies of the Sufi orders designed to
Bruce Lawrence have argued, however, neither of these predict their possible resistance to or cooperation with offi-
ideological views of Sufi history does justice to the self- cial policies.
conscious efforts of later Sufi teachers to give life to Sufi
teachings in their own time. Post-Colonial Era
In the postcolonial period, Sufi orders and institutions have
Some of the Sufi orders, such as the Qadiriyya (named an ambiguous political position, which is inevitably deterafter Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, d. 1166), are spread throughout mined in relation to the nation-state. Governments in many
Islamic lands from North Africa to Southeast Asia. Others are Muslim countries have inherited the centralized bureaucratic
more regional in scope, like the Shadhiliyya in North Africa organization of their colonial predecessors, which sometimes
(named after Abu
l-Hasan al-Shadhili, d. 1258), or the themselves go back to precolonial bureaucracies. In countries
Chishtiyya in South Asia (named after Muin al-Din Chishti, like Egypt and Pakistan, efforts have been made to subject the
d. 1236). Particular orders are known for distinctive practices, orders and shrines to governmental control. Nonetheless,
such as the loud dhikr recitation of the Rifaiyya, in contrast to many of the largest and liveliest Sufi organizations, such as
the silent dhikr favored by the Naqshbandiyya. Some orders, the Burhaniyya in Egypt, flourish without official recogniincluding the Chishtiyya and the Mevleviyya (the latter being tion. Officials frequently appear at Sufi festivals and attempt
known to Europeans as the “whirling dervishes”), have inte- to direct popular reverence for saints into legitimation of
grated music and even dance into their practice, while other their regimes, and governments also attempt to control the
orders resolutely shun these activities as distractions to spiri- large amount of donations attracted to the shrines. State
tual training. Sometimes Sufi leaders, such as the early sponsorship of Sufi festivals also aims to enroll support
Chishti masters, tried to keep political power at arm’s length, against fundamentalist groups critical of the government, and
and they advised their followers to refuse offers of land to redirect reverence for saints in a nationalist direction.

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Contemporary fundamentalist movements attack Sufism many Muslim countries; although it derives from a branch of
with a virulence sometimes even more intense than that the Chishtiyya and still respects the early Sufi saints, this
which is reserved for anti-Western diatribes. Reformers fre- movement considers contemporary Sufi practice to be illequently denounce pilgrimage to Sufi tombs as an idolatry that gitimate and attempts to dissuade people from pursuing it.
treats humans on the level of God, and they reject the notion
that saints are able to intercede with God on behalf of Contemporary Orders
ordinary believers. Sufi orders have been illegal in Turkey In recent years, Sufi orders have extended their reach into
since the 1920s, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk secularized the Europe and the Americas, and today branches of orders from
Turkish state. The public performance of the Sufi rituals such India, Iran, Africa, and Turkey are actively attracting adheras the “whirling dervish” dance of the Mevleviyya, and the ents in major urban centers in many Western countries.
dhikr of the Istanbul Qadiriyya, is tolerated only as a cultural Some orders have also expanded into other Asian and African
activity, which is exported abroad through touring companies countries where they were never previously found. Certain
and sound recordings; the tomb of the great Sufi poet Jalaluddin groups derived from Sufi orders, such as the International
Rumi (1207–1273), which many visitors treat as a shrine, is Association of Sufism derived from the teachings of Hazrat
officially regarded as a museum. This reformist critique of Inayat Khan (1882–1927), have only tenuous associations
Sufi practice has been internalized in some Sufi circles, such with Islam; they present Sufism as a mystical universal religas the Sabiri Chishti tradition associated with the Deoband ion that may be pursued through dancing and chanting,
academy in India; leaders of this group, such as Ashraf Ali without requiring the practice of ritual prayer or other duties
Thanvi (1863–1943), have been highly critical of traditional of Islamic law. Other groups have more explicit relations with
Sufi practices such as listening to music and visiting the Islamic tradition, including even insistence on the clothing
tombs of saints. Certain Ottoman thinkers from Sufi back- and customs of the order’s country of origin. Sufism is taking
grounds (Bediuzzaman Said Nursi [1876–1960], Kenan Rifai on some aspects of modern American and European culture,
[1867–1950]) rejected life in the hospice and insisted on such as joint participation of men and women in contexts
living in the world, and they interpreted Sufi theorists like Ibn where gender separation was the norm in many premodern
al-Arabi (1165–1240) and Rumi in terms of modern thought Muslim societies; several American Sufi groups even have
and science. Modernist secular thinkers and Muslim coun- female leaders, something quite rare in the traditional societries have also been critical of Sufism, but for different ties where Sufism has flourished. At the same time, Sufism in
reasons. To authors like Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1933) in Europe and America strives to preserve some of the distinc-
South Asia and Ahmad Kasravi (1890–1946) in Iran, institu- tive rituals and institutions of traditional Sufism—the tomb
tional Sufism was the source of fatalism, passivity, and civili- of Sri Lankan Sufi master Bawa Muhaiyuddin near Philadelzational decline. Sufi advocates such as the Barelwi school in phia has already become a place of pilgrimage.
South Asia, and the Naqshbandis led by Shaykh Hisham
Kabbani (b. 1945), have responded to these reformist cri- Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Sufism in the
tiques with polemics and apologetics of their own, defending nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been the publicizing
Sufi practices as authentic and even necessary according to of a previously esoteric system of teaching through modern
Islamic principles. In response to the modernist critique, Sufi communications media. Today, Sufi orders and shrines protheorists have asserted that science ultimately seeks what duce a continual stream of publications aimed at a variety of
Sufism alone can offer, and they have adopted the language of followers from the ordinary devotee to the scholar. Evidence
psychology and modern technology. suggests that Sufi orders, along with governments, were
among the first users of print in Muslim countries in the
Sufi activities are not publicly tolerated in Saudi Arabia nineteenth century. Not only traditional treatises on Sufi
and Iran, since Sufi leaders and tomb cults would constitute metaphysics and practice, but also new genres like periodicals
an unacceptable alternative spiritual authority to the regnant and novels, became vehicles for the expression of Sufi thought
religious orthodoxy in either case. Still, it is remarkable that in multiple languages. Other technologies, such as the audio
the founders of certain fundamentalist movements, such as cassette (especially for music), and now the Internet, have
Hasan al-Banna (1906–1949) of the Muslim Brotherhood in been extremely effective in disseminating Sufi ideas and
Egypt, and Abu l-Ala
Maududi (1903–1979) of the Jamaat-e culture to broad audiences. In short, the Sufi orders have
Islami in India, were exposed to Sufi orders in their youth, employed the technologies and ideologies of modernity even
and they seem to have adapted certain organizational tech- as they have been forced to respond to them.
niques and leadership styles from Sufism; the main difference
is that these movements substitute political ideology for Sufi See also Dhikr; Khirqah; Pilgrimage: Ziyara; Tasawwuf.
spirituality, in order to become mass parties in the modern
political arena. Another movement that has branched off BIBLIOGRAPHY
from Sufism in a hostile fashion is the pietistic Tablighi De Jong, Fred, and Radtke, Berndt, eds. Islamic Mysticism
Jamaat, founded in India and with immense followings in Contested: Thirteen Centuries of Controversies & Polemics.

Islam and the Muslim World 683
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Islamic History and Civilization: Studies and Texts, 29. poverty. The ideal qualities evoked by these derivations are
Leiden: Brill, 1999. the key to the concept of tasawwuf as formulated by authors of
Ernst, Carl W. Guide to Sufism. Boston: Shambhala Publica- the tenth century, such as Sulami (d. 1021). While acknowltions, 1997. edging that that the term Sufi was not current at the time of
Ernst, Carl W., and Lawrence, Bruce. Sufi Martyrs of Love: the Prophet, Sufi theorists maintained that this specialization
Chishti Sufism in South Asia and Beyond. New York: Palgrave in spirituality arose in parallel with other disciplines such as
Press, 2002. Islamic law and Qur
anic exegesis. But the heart of Sufism,
Friedlander, Shems. The Whirling Dervishes: Being an Account they maintained, lay in the ideal qualities of the prophet
of the Sufi Order Known as the Mevlevis and its Founder the Muhammad and his association with his followers. Defini-
Poet and Mystic Mevlana Jalalu
’ddin Rumi. Albany: State tions of Sufism described ethical and spiritual goals and
University of New York Press, 1992. functioned as teaching tools to open up the possibilities of the
Gramlich, Richard. Die schiitischen Derwischorden Persiens. soul. In practice, the term Sufi was often reserved for ideal
Wiesbaden, Germany: Steiner, 1965–1981. usage, and many other terms described particular spiritual
Hoffman, Valerie J. Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern qualities and functions, such as poverty (faqir, darvish), knowl-
Egypt. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. edge (alim, arif), mastery (shaykh, pir), and so on.

Karamustafa, Ahmet T. God’s Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups Orientalist scholarship introduced the term Sufism to
in the Islamic Middle Period 1200–1550. Salt Lake City:
European languages at the end of the eighteenth century.
University of Utah Press, 1999.
Prior to that time, European travelers had brought back
Lifchez, R. The Dervish Lodge: Architecture, Art, and Sufism accounts of exotic religious behavior by Oriental dervishes
in Ottoman Turkey. Berkeley: University of California and the miscellaneous Indian ascetics called fakirs, who were
Press, 1992.
considered important only when their social organization
O’Fahey, R. S. Enigmatic Saint: Ahmad ibn Idris and the Idrisi posed a problem for European colonialism. The discovery of
Tradition. London: Hurst & Co., 1990. Persian Sufi poetry, filled with references to love and wine,
Popovic, Alexandre, and Veinstein, Gilles, eds. Les voies allowed Europeans to imagine Sufis as freethinking mystics
d’Allah: Les ordres mystiques dans le monde musulman des who had little to do with Islam. The “-ism” formation of the
origines à aujourd’hui. Paris : Fayard, 1996. word (originally “Sufi-ism”) reveals that “Sufism” was a part
Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel of the Enlightenment catalog of ideologies and belief sys-
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975. tems, and frequently it was equated with private mysticism,
Trimingham, J. Spencer. The Sufi Orders in Islam. London: pantheism, and the doctrine that humanity can become
Oxford University Press, 1971. divine. Scholars such as Sir William Jones (d. 1794) and Sir
Zarcone, Thierry; Işin, Ekrem; and Buehler, Arthur, eds. John Malcolm (d. 1833) advanced the thesis that Sufism
Journal of the History of Sufism. Vols. 1–2: The Qâdiriyya derived from Hindu yoga, Greek philosophy, or Buddhism.
Order. Istanbul: Simurg Press, 2000. This concept of the non-Islamic character of Sufism has been
widely accepted in Euro-American scholarship ever since,
Carl W. Ernst despite (or perhaps because of) its disconnection with the
Islamic tradition, in which tasawwuf and its social implementations have played a central role. Thus, in terms of its origin,
the introduction of the term Sufism into European languages
TASAWWUF may be regarded as a classic example of Orientalist misinformation, insofar as Sufism was regarded primarily as a radical
Tasawwuf is an Arabic term for the process of realizing intellectual doctrine at variance with what was thought of as
ethical and spiritual ideals; meaning literally “becoming a the sterile monotheism of Islam. Nevertheless, as a word
Sufi,” tasawwuf is generally translated as Sufism. firmly ingrained in the vocabulary of modernity, Sufism can
usefully serve as an outsider’s term for a wide range of social,
The etymologies for the term Sufi are various. The cultural, political, and religious phenomena associated with
primary obvious meaning of the term comes from suf, “wool,” Sufis, including popular practices and movements that might
the traditional ascetic garment of prophets and saints in the be in tension with normative definitions of Sufism.
Near East. The term has also been connected to safa,
“purity,” or safwa, “the chosen ones,” emphasizing the psy- Origins and Early History
chological dimension of purifying the heart and the role of The Qur
an itself may be taken as a major source of Sufism.
divine grace in choosing the saintly. Another etymology links The experience of revelation that descended upon the prophet
Sufi with suffa or bench, referring to a group of poor Muslims Muhammad left its mark in numerous passages testifying to
contemporaneous with the prophet Muhammad, known as the creative power of God and to the cosmic horizons of
the People of the Bench, signifying a community of shared spiritual experience. God in the Qur
an is described both in

684 Islam and the Muslim World
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terms of overwhelming transcendence and immanent pres- with God is associated particularly with the outstanding early
ence. In particular, the ascension (mi
raj) of the prophet woman Sufi, Rabia of Basra (d. 801). Other early Sufis
Muhammad to Paradise, as elaborated upon from brief refer- contributed to the development of an extensive psychological
ences in the Qur
an (17:1–2, 53:1–18), provided a template analysis of spiritual states, as a natural result of prolonged
for the movement of the soul toward an encounter with the meditative retreats. Socially speaking, many of the early Sufis
Creator. While it was commonly accepted that the Prophet’s came from lower-class artisan and craftsman origins. Their
ascension was accomplished in the body, for Sufis this opened piety often included deliberate critique of the excesses of
up the possibility of an internal spiritual ascension. The wealth and power generated by the rapid conquests of the
notion of special knowledge available to particularly favored early Arab empire. Major early figures in the Sufi movement
servants of God, particularly as illustrated in the story of included Dhu al-Nun of Egypt (d. 859), the ecstatic Abu
Moses and al-Khidr (18:60–82), provided a model for the Yazid al-Bistami in Iran (d. 874), the early metaphysician alrelationship between inner knowledge of the soul and out- Hakim al-Tirmidhi (d. 910) in Nishapur, and the sober
ward knowledge of the law. Another major theme adopted by psychologist and legal scholar Junayd of Baghdad (d. 910).
Sufis was the primordial covenant (7:172) between God and
humanity, which established the relationship with God that Although religious criticism of Sufi practices and docthe Sufi disciplines sought to preserve and restore. A broad trines started to occur as early as the late ninth century, it is
range of Qur
anic terms for the different faculties of the soul particularly in the case of al-Hallaj (executed in 922) that
and the emotions furnished a basis for a highly complex tensions between Sufism and the legal establishment became
mystical psychology. apparent. Although the trial of al-Hallaj was a confusing mix
of politics and crypto-Shiism, in hagiographical sources it
The earliest figures claimed by the Sufi movement include became mythologized as a confrontation between radical
the prophet Muhammad and his chief companions; their mysticism and conservative Islamic law. Sufi writers adapted
oaths of allegiance to Muhammad became the model for the to this crisis by insisting upon adherence to the norms and
master-disciple relationship in Sufism. Muhammad’s medita- disciplines of Islamic religious scholarship, while at the same
tion in a cave on Mount Hira outside Mecca was seen as the time cultivating an esoteric language and style appropriate to
basis for Sufi practices of seclusion and retreat. In an exten- the discussion of subtle interior experiences. Early Sufi writsion of the authority of the Prophet as enshrined in hadith ers such as Sarraj (d. 988), Ansari (d. 1089), and Qushayri (d.
accounts, Sufis regarded the model of the Prophet as the basis 1072) emphasized Sufism as the “knowledge of realities,”
for spiritual experience as well as legal and ethical norms. inseparable from yet far beyond the knowledge of Islamic law
While there is debate about the authenticity of much of the and scripture. Many of these writers also declared their
classical hadith corpus, many hadith sayings favored by Sufis loyalties to established legal schools or the Ashari school of
describe the cosmic authority of Muhammad as the first being theology.
created by God, and in many other ways these sayings
establish the possibility of imitating divine qualities. Venera- The institutional spread of Sufism was accomplished
tion of the prophet Muhammad, both for his own qualities through the “ways” or Sufi orders, which increasingly from
and in his role as intercessor for all humanity, became the the eleventh century offered the prospect of spiritual commukeynote of Sufi piety as it diffused through Muslim society on nity organized around charismatic teachers whose authority
a popular basis. derived from a lineage going back to the prophet Muhammad
himself. Under the patronage of dynasties like the Seljuks,
Among the early successors to the Prophet, the later Sufi who also supported religious academies in their quest for
movement singled out as forerunners ascetics like al-Hasan legitimacy, Sufi lodges eventually spread throughout the
al-Basri (d. 728), who was renowned for preaching the vanity Middle East, South and Central Asia, North Africa and Spain,
of this world and warning of punishment in the next. By the and southeastern Europe. While dedicated membership in
end of the eighth century, small groups of like-minded Sufi orders remained confined to an elite, mass participation
individuals, particularly in northeastern Iran and in Iraq, had in the reverence for saints at their tombs has been a typical
begun to formulate a vocabulary of interior spiritual experi- feature in Muslim societies until today.
ence, based in good part on the Qur
an and the emerging
Islamic religious sciences. Intensive and protracted prayer Major Figures and Doctrines
(including not only the five obligatory ritual prayers daily, but The central role of Sufism in premodern Muslim societies is
also five supererogatory or “extra credit” prayers) and medi- perhaps best typified by the intellectual career of Abu Hamid
tation on the meanings of the Qur
an were notable features of al-Ghazali (d. 1111). Having become the foremost theoloearly Sufi practice. The sometimes stark asceticism of early gian at the Nizamiyya academy in Baghdad at a very youthful
Sufis, with its rejection of the corrupt world, came to be age, he underwent a spiritual crisis chronicled in his autobiotempered by the quest to find God through love. This graphical Deliverance from Error. Systematically questioning
emphasis on an intimate and even passionate relationship everything, he interrogated the four chief intellectual options

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available in his day: dialectical theology, Greco-Arabic phi- particular, Ibn al-Arabi described in detail the invisible
losophy as interpreted by Ibn Sina, Ismaili esotericism, and hierarchy of saints who control the destiny of the world; he
Sufism. He regarded theology as a severely limited discipline, also expressed, sometimes in enigmatic code, his own role as
and philosophy as tainted by metaphysical arrogance, while one of the chief figures of this hierarchy.
the Ismailis were dismissed as authoritarians with a fallacious
understanding of religion and morality. This left the Sufis as Although polemical opponents as well as modern scholars
the only custodians of knowledge that transcends the limits of have criticized Ibn al-Arabi for identifying God with creareason; Ghazali’s conclusion was that Sufism, properly un- tion and nullifying Islamic law, works of recent scholars like
derstood, was the surest guide to the spiritual ideals deriving Michel Chodkiewicz and William Chittick have demonfrom the Qur
an and the Prophet. While Ghazali program- strated both Ibn al-Arabi’s metaphysical complexity and his
matically separated Sufism from theology, philosophy, and strong engagement with the shari
a. The phrase most com-
Shiism, in fact the subsequent history of Sufism could not be monly used to describe the teachings of Ibn al-Arabi, “oneseparated from these three streams of Islamic thought. Ghazali ness of existence” (wahdat al-wujud), never occurs in his
assumed that Sufis would be based in an authentic tradition of writings; it vastly oversimplifies his doctrines, which are
Islamic law, and it was in fact normal for Sufis to profess better described as demonstrating the dialectical tension
whichever school of law was current in their region (Hanafi in between the different modes of existence in terms of divine
South and Central Asia and the Ottoman lands, Shafii in attributes. Nevertheless, there have been many critiques
Persia and the eastern Mediterranean, Maliki in North Africa directed at Ibn al-Arabi over the centuries, accusing him of
and Spain, and Hanbali sporadically in Khurasan and Egypt). flagrant heresy. Ironically, the best-known of his critics, the
Ghazali’s massive synthesis, Giving Life to the Sciences of Hanbali legal scholar and controversialist Ibn Taymiyya (d.
Religion, connected basic Islamic ritual and religious texts and 1328), was himself a Sufi and a member of the Qadiri order.
practices with the interiorization of Sufi piety in a way that
was accessible to Muslim intellectuals trained in the madrasa Another major Sufi figure was the great Persian poet
legal tradition. The intellectual integration of Sufism with Jalaluddin Rumi (d. 1273). Trained as a theologian with a Sufi
the Islamic religious sciences typified many Muslim societies background, Rumi unleashed his spiritual talent after enup to the age of European colonialism. In other writings, countering the enigmatic dervish Shams-i Tabriz. His collec-
Ghazali was also critical of antinomian tendencies and un- tion of lyrical poems, named after Shams, is the largest body
conventional practices found in Sufi circles. These deliber- of such poetry by any Persian poet of the last millennium. His
ately nonconformist trends were also inevitably a part of the great poetic epic, Masnavi-ye ma
navi (Spiritual couplets), is a
Sufi ambience. vast repository of Sufi teaching through stories and images.
The Sufi order established by his descendants in Anatolia,
The pervasive role of Sufism is demonstrated by countless known as the Mevleviyya, have become famous to foreign
biographical works in Arabic, Persian, and other languages, observers as the “whirling dervishes,” due to their characterrecounting the virtues and exemplary religious lives of the istic turning meditative dance. Rumi’s writings, which have
Sufi saints. Many of these biographical traditions about Sufis been immensely popular from Southeast Europe to India,
are also enmeshed in the history of Islamic religious scholar- portrayed divine beauty and mercy through unforgettable
ship and dynastic political history. Although it is difficult to and vivid imagery, easily memorized and popularized in
select a handful of representative figures out of the innumer- musical performance. Today Rumi’s poetry enjoys a new
able possibilities, it would be impossible to leave out the great vogue in English translation by American poets Robert Bly
Andalusian Sufi, Ibn al-Arabi (d. 1240). Perhaps more than and Coleman Barks.
any other, Ibn al-Arabi illustrated the fusion of ethical and
psychological mysticism with powerful metaphysical analysis, Despite Ghazali’s earlier objections to philosophy, Sufi
all in the context of Islamic law and the Qur
an. His teachings teachings in their metaphysical form overlapped with both
on human perfection, the manifestation of divine attributes in the terminology and the doctrines of Aristotelian and
creation, the divine names, imagination, and the nature of Neoplatonic philosophy as interpreted in the Arabic tradiexistence were expressed through a series of difficult but tion. Although Sufis aimed at a knowledge that transcended
extremely popular Arabic writings, including the voluminous intellect, it was inevitable that philosophical categories would
encyclopedia The Meccan Openings, and the succinct treatise be used to put Sufism into cosmological and metaphysical
on prophecy and mysticism, Bezels of Wisdom. The latter work perspective. Figures such as Shihab al-Din Yahya al-Suhrawardi
has attracted over one hundred commentaries, in Arabic, (executed in 1191) combined a critical revision of the meta-
Persian, and Turkish, in countries ranging from the Balkans physics, logic, and psychology of Ibn Sina (Avicenna, d. 1037)
to South Asia. Ibn al-Arabi also elaborated upon the doctrine with an identification of being as light. His “Illuminationist”
of sainthood, which in Islamic contexts derives from author- (ishraqi) philosophy, expressed both in logical treatises and in
ity and intimacy conferred by God rather than from sanctity Platonic fables in Arabic and Persian, drew upon Sufi mystias recognized in official Christian doctrines of sainthood. In cal experience as an important source of knowledge. Although

686 Islam and the Muslim World
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Men in Oman participate in a Sufi dhikr performance where they repeat the name of God and his attributes or engage in a call and response in
praise of God and the prophet Muhammad. The beating of the drums, the swaying body movements, and the repetition of the chants can lead
to trances or states of ecstasy among Sufis. HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

Ibn al-Arabi was not a philosopher, and Suhrawardi was not are deeply revered in Sufi circles. While the majority of Sufi
really a Sufi, the shared quest for understanding the relation- scholars have been affiliated with Sunni legal schools, some
ship between God and the world allowed Sufism and philoso- Sufi orders (Nimatallahi, Khaksar) have had a Twelver
phy both to play roles in the intellectual tradition of later Shiite orientation. Certainly there have been Shiite theolo-
Muslim societies. gians who have rejected the claims of Sunni saints, and the
Safavid dynasty suppressed organized Sufism in Iran after
Likewise, although Ghazali had made clear his objections
seizing power in the early sixteenth century and making
to Shiism in its Ismaili form, it is also apparent that Sufism
cannot be separated from Shiism either. The recognition of Shiism the state religion. As a result, formal Sufi orders in
the Shiite imams as spiritual leaders possessing authority and Iran have had a precarious existence or even gone underintimacy with God (walaya) is closely related to the rise of the ground under threat from militant Shiism. Nevertheless,
spiritual master and the concept of sainthood in early Sufism. philosophical Sufism (
irfan) has remained an important as-
Sufi lineages either include Ali or some of the later imams in pect of the advanced curriculum in Iran. Philosophers of the
their spiritual genealogies, and the imams of Twelver Shiism Safavid period, such as Mulla Sadra (d. 1640), drew upon

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Ibn Sina, Ibn al-Arabi, Suhrawardi, as well as Sufi and thus reinforced the Islamic cosmology of Sufism. The mysti-
Shiite themes. cal psychology that accompanied these practices articulated
different levels of the heart and soul, which are further
Ranging further afield, Sufi theorists in India and China to differentiated in terms of multiple spiritual states (ahwal) and
some extent adopted aspects of those cultures. Sufis in India stations (maqamat) that have been charted out in varying
were aware of yogic practices, including breath control and degrees of detail.
other psychophysical techniques. Knowledge of hatha yoga
was disseminated through a single text known as The Pearl of While dhikr recitation may originally have been restricted
Nectar (Amrtakunda), which was translated into Arabic, Per- to adepts undertaking retreat from the world, as a kind of
sian, Turkish, and Urdu with a heavy dose of Islamizing group chanting this practice can also be accessible to people
tendencies. Sufi masters of the Chishti and Shattari orders on a broad popular scale. Simple chanting of phrases like
adopted certain yogic meditations into their repertoire through “there is no god but God” (la ilaha illa allah) did not only
this channel. Similarly, when the Chinese Sufi Wang Daiyu express the fundamental negation and affirmation of Islamic
(d. 1658) translated Persian Sufi works by Jami and others theology, but also made it possible for a wider public to adopt
into classical Chinese, he employed a neo-Confucian vocabu- the practices of Sufism. One of the advantages of dhikr was
lary and cosmology that made the works virtually indistin- that it could be practiced by anyone, regardless of age, sex, or
guishable from the productions of Chinese literati. ritual purity, at any time. Under the direction of a master,
Sufi disciples typically are instructed to recite dhikr formulas
Alongside these main currents of Sufi thought, one can selected in accordance with the needs of the individual, based
also distinguish a kind of anti-structure in a series of move- on the different qualities of particular divine names.
ments that were deliberately unconventional. Psychologically
the mood was set in the concept of self-blame (malama), The tombs of Sufi leaders, especially those associated with
which called for incurring shame before the public as a major orders, played an important role in the public developdiscipline for the ego. While the early self-blamers among ment of Sufism. On a popular level, these tombs were comthe Sufis were not supposed to infringe on religiously forbid- monly connected to lodges or hospices maintaining open
den territory, the dropout dervishes of the Qalandar move- kitchens where all visitors were welcome. Major festivals
ments (including Abdals, Haydaris, Malangs, and Madaris) were held not only for standard Islamic holidays but also in
rejected institutional Sufism as a betrayal of independent particular for dates honoring the prophet Muhammad and
spirituality. Shunning respectability, maintaining a bizarre the Sufi saints. While the birthday of the Prophet was a
appearance, and indulging in intoxicants, these eccentrics led popular observance in many places, the death-anniversary of
civil disturbances in Delhi and even organized peasant rebel- the saint was also a focus of attention. The practice of
lions against Ottoman rulers. They still may be seen on the pilgrimage (ziyara) to the tombs of saints was generally
fringes of Muslim societies as a kind of spiritual underground. considered to be beneficial, but was especially valued at the
anniversary of the moment when the saint was joined with
Practices God; all this assumes the saint’s ability to intercede with God
Aside from the obligatory daily prayers and supererogatory on behalf of pilgrims. At major shrines like Tanta in Egypt, or
ones, the most important Sufi practice is undoubtedly the Ajmer in India, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims may
recollection of God (dhikr) by recitation of Arabic names of congregate for days at the annual festival, with many distinc-
God as found in the Qur
an. This recitation, which could be tive local rituals and performances. Over the past two centueither silent or spoken aloud, typically drew from lists of ries, with the rise of the Wahhabis in Arabia and kindred
ninety-nine names of God (it being understood that the one- Salafi reform movements elsewhere, there has been extensive
hundredth name was “the greatest name” of God, known criticism of pilgrimage to tombs and the notion of saintly
only to the elect). As with the supererogatory prayers, dhikr intercession, all of which is considered to be sheer idolatry.
aimed at interiorizing the Qur
an and its contents, in order to Although in Saudi Arabia the tomb of practically every Sufi
obtain closeness to God. As meditations, these practices saint and family member of the Prophet has been destroyed,
aimed to empty the heart of anything but God and to begin to elsewhere pilgrimage to saints’ tombs continues to be popular.
establish the qualities of the divine in the human being.
Treatises like The Key to Salvation by Ibn Ata
Allah of Other widely encountered forms of Sufi practice are music
Alexandria (d. 1309) described in detail the psychological and and poetry, which take on different regional forms in accordexistential results to be obtained from multiple repetitions of ance with local traditions. Although conservative Islamic
particular names of God. The parallelism between repetition legal tradition has been wary of musical instruments as
of the divine names and Islamic theology is significant; in innovations not present during the time of the Prophet, the
Ashari theology, the divine names are the attributes of God, rich and sophisticated musical traditions of Iran, India,
and are the faculties through which the divine essence inter- Andalusia, and Turkey have furnished irresistible and highly
acts with the created world. Recitation of the divine names developed forms for the communication of Sufi teachings,

688 Islam and the Muslim World
Tasawwuf

particularly when combined with poetry. Sufis in fact speak the expansion of literacy by colonial regimes, not only facilimostly of “listening” (sama
), emphasizing the spiritual role of tated the workings of administration for the government, but
the listener far more than that of the musical performer, and also permitted the dissemination of formal religious knowlthe focus is upon the words of poems that may or may not be edge among Muslims on a scale never before attempted. On
accompanied by musical instruments. Early Sufi poetry in one hand, the replacement of manuscript culture with identi-
Arabic and Persian is frequently indistinguishable in form cal printed books doubtless encouraged the scriptural auand content from secular love and wine poetry emanating thoritarianism that arose with Salafi reform movements. On
from the courts. The difference is that Sufi listeners would the other hand, Sufi orders, with their large guaranteed
refer libertine images and daring expressions to the passion- markets, were major patrons of printing. The spread of
ate relationship with God or the Sufi master. Leading Sufi previously esoteric Sufi texts to a broad reading public
poets like the Egyptian Ibn al-Farid (d. 1235) made mystical amounted to a publication of the secret. Postcolonial govverse into an art form of great density and subtlety; for ernments, modern universities, and academic societies also
centuries, pilgrims to his shrine recited his poems at his sponsored the printing of books related to Sufism. Parallel
annual festival. In Persian, multiple genres ranging from the with the printing phenomenon is the rise of audio recordquatrain (ruba
i) to the lyric (ghazal) and the ode (qasida), ings of Sufi music distributed on global scale, initially for
along with the epic couplet (masnavi), were cultivated by ethnomusicological audiences, but more recently for popular
poets in Sufi lodges as well as by court poets with Sufi world music and fusion recordings. Major recording artists
leanings. Particularly famous poets in Persian include Rumi, with Sufi connections include Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh
Attar (d. 1220), Hafiz (d. 1389), and Jami (d. 1492). Ali Khan (1948–1997) and Senegalese musician Youssou
N’Dour (b. 1959).
Poetic literature developed in many regional languages,
sometimes using language and themes derived from Arabic As Sufism became publicized on global scale, likewise
and Persian models, but frequently employing rhyme, meter, major ideological shifts occurred in Muslim countries, through
and subject matter of local origin. The Indian subcontinent which the term Islam increasingly became a symbol of
offered many local languages to Sufi poets, who freely ex- anticolonial identity. Salafi reform movements, often deplored the resources of Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, and scribed as fundamentalist, opposed Sufism as a non-Islamic
Kashmiri. Writers like the Chishti poet Muhammad Jayasi (d. innovation based on idolatrous worship of saints. Just as
1542) used Hindu figures from Rajput epics to convey Sufi European Orientalists detached Sufism from Islam, now
themes. Turkish became a vehicle both in the simple verse of Muslim fundamentalists came to the same conclusion. Sufism
Yunus Emre (d. 1321) and in the sophisticated Ottoman has now become a position to be defended or criticized in
poetry of figures like Shaykh Ghalib (d. 1799). Other major terms of ideological constructions of Islam. In the most
languages employed by Sufi include Malay, Swahili, Berber, recent forms of representation of Sufism, Internet advertising
and Hausa. paradigms and polemics have become the norm. Transnational
Sufi movements, with the help of technically educated mem-
Contemporary Manifestations and Situation bers in Europe, North America, or South Africa, maintain
The changes wrought by European colonial expansion in websites both for informing the public and for maintaining
Asia and Africa, and by globalization in the postcolonial connections for a virtual community. Some Sufi websites also
period, have had major effects on Muslim societies. The engage in extensive polemics against fundamentalists, who
overthrow of local elites by foreign invaders removed tradi- are often dismissed with labels such as Najdi (Wahhabi).
tional sources of patronage for Sufi orders and shrines. Under
the suspicious eyes of European colonial administrators, Through encounters with colonial missionaries and through
hereditary administrators of Sufi shrines in India became migration to Europe and America, Sufis have become enintegrated into landholding classes, while the extended net- gaged with non-Islamic religious traditions in various ways.
works of Sufi orders furnished some of the only centers of Some Sufi teachers, such as Hazrat Inayat Khan (d. 1927),
resistance against European military aggression, as in the decided to present Sufism to Europeans and Americans as a
Caucasus, North Africa, and Central Asia. Sufi responses to universal mystical teaching with no essential connection to
colonialism thus ranged from accommodation to confronta- Islam. The traditional Sufi emphasis on universality provided
tion. As with traditional religious scholars, so too for Sufis it a conceptual basis for this ecumenism, although non-Muslim
was necessary to come to terms with new roles dictated by the membership in Sufi orders had been decidedly rare prior to
technological and ideological transformations of modernity. the twentieth century. Now there are significant numbers of
self-professed Sufis in Europe and America who do not
One of the first notable features of modern capitalism and consider themselves Muslims. At the same time, other Sufi
technology introduced into Muslim countries by colonial movements from Iran, Turkey, and West Africa include
regimes in the nineteenth century was Arabic script printing, varying degrees of emphasis on Islamic identity and tradiwhether in movable type or lithography. Printing, along with tional custom. The relationship between Sufism and Islam is

Islam and the Muslim World 689
Tasawwuf

thus debated and contested both in its traditional homelands BIBLIOGRAPHY
and in its new locations. Addas, Claude. Quest for the Red Sulphur: the Life of Ibn
Arabi.
Translated by Peter Kingsley. Cambridge, U.K.: Islamic
Another recent shift of emphasis in Sufism concerns
Texts Society, 1993.
women’s public participation in Sufi activities and what may
be called feminist interpretations of Sufism. American women Chittick, William C. The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-

Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination. Albany: State Univerare now trained to perform the Mevlevi turning dance in
sity of New York Press, 1989.
public ceremonies, and to take on the role of shaykha or
female spiritual leader. While such prominence of women Chittick, William C. Sufism: A Short Introduction. Oxford,
was not unknown in traditional Muslim societies, global U.K.: Oneworld Publications, 2000.
changes in the roles of women are bringing women to the fore Chodkiewicz, Michel. An Ocean Without Shore: Ibn
Arabi, the
in Sufi organizations to a remarkable extent, in countries like Book and the Law. Albany: State University of New York
Turkey and Pakistan as well as in America and Europe. Press, 1993.
Corbin, Henry. Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn
As with religious matters everywhere, Sufism in the end is
Arabi. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969.
governed by the state. The dervish orders in Turkey were
Ernst, Carl W. Ruzbihan Baqli: Mysticism and the Rhetoric of
outlawed by decree of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1925 as part
Sainthood in Persian Sufism. Richmond, U.K.: Curzon
of official secularism, and the revival of the Mevlevi “whirling Press, 1996.
dervish” performance was permitted only on condition that it
Ernst, Carl W. Guide to Sufism. Boston: Shambhala Publicabe a nonreligious activity, destined especially for foreign
tions, 1997.
tourists. Sufi groups in Iran keep a very low profile under the
watchful eyes of the Islamic regime. Sufism in the former Ernst, Carl W. Teachings of Sufism. Boston: Shambhala Publi-
Soviet republics, like most other religious activities, was cations, 1999.
practically extinguished under Soviet rule, although some Ewing, Katherine Pratt. Arguing Sainthood: Modernity, Psyinformal networks survived. The Sufi-oriented Darul Arqam choanalysis, and Islam. Durham, N.C.: Duke University
movement in Malaysia was banned in 1994 for its political Press, 1997.
activities. A Lebanese Sufi group of African origin, the Homerin, Th. Emil. Umar Ibn Al-Farid: Sufi Verse, Saintly
Ahbash movement, promotes a program of religious plural- Life. New York: Paulist Press, 2001.
ism and peace within the framework of the secular state. Hujwiri, Ali. The Kashf al-mahjub, The Oldest Persian Treatise
Government bureaucracies closely control Sufi shrines in on Sufiism. Translated by R. A. Nicholson. Leiden and
Egypt and Pakistan, both because of the extensive revenue London: Luzac, 1911.
gathered at the shrines and to monitor the large crowds Knysh, Alexander D. Islamic Mysticism: A Short History. Leiden:
that attend. Brill, 2000.

Despite the vicissitudes of foreign invasion, the collapse of Lewis, Franklin. Rumi: Past and Present, East and West. Lontraditional social structures, the imposition of European don: Oneworld Publications, 2000.
education and culture, and the rise of the secular nation-state, Massignon, Louis. Essay on the Origins of the Technical Lan-
Sufism in many different local forms persists and survives guage of Islamic Mysticism. South Bend, Ind.: University of
both among illiterate members of the lower class and among Notre Dame Press, 1998.
urban elites. Whether defended in traditional languages as Razi, Najm al-Din. The Path of God’s Bondsmen. Translated
part of classical Islamic culture or attacked as a non-Islamic Hamid Algar. New York: Delmar, 1982.
heresy, Sufism still forms part of the symbolic capital of Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel
majority Muslim countries. As a form of religious practice Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975.
spread to Europe and America by transnational migration Schimmel, Annemarie. As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in
and through the global marketplace, Sufism is seen both as an Islam. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.
eclectic form of New Age spirituality and as the mystical
Sells, Michael Anthony. Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Quran,
essence of Islam. The globalizing fortunes of Sufism over the Mi
raj, Poetic and Theological Writings. New York: Paulist
past two centuries are one more indication why it is no longer Press, 1996.
possible to speak meaningfully of a separate Muslim world.
Sulami, Muhammad ibn al-Husayn. Early Sufi Women: Dhikr
See also Arabic Literature; Asharites, Ashaira; Basri, an-Niswa al-Muta
abbidat as-Sufiyyat. Translated by Rkia
Hasan al-; Ghazali, al-; Hallaj, al-; Ibn Arabi; Ibn Cornell. Louisville, Ky.: Fons Vitae, 2000.
Sina; Ibn Taymiyya; Jami; Madrasa; Muhammad; Werbner, Pnina, and Basu, Helene, eds. Embodying Charisma:
Mulla Sadra; Rabia of Basra; Persian Language and Modernity, Locality, and Performance of Emotion in Sufi
Literature; Pilgrimage: Ziyara; Rumi, Jalaluddin; Shia: Cults. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
Imami (Twelver); Suhrawardi, al-; Tariqa; Urdu Language, Literature, and Poetry. Carl W. Ernst

690 Islam and the Muslim World
Terrorism

Qajar Patronage
TA
ZIYA (TA
ZIYEH) The heyday of ta
ziya was the Qajar era (1796–1925). The
most elaborate example of Qajar patronage of ta
ziya was the
Taziya is an Islamic Shiite ritual performed mainly in Iran. Takiya Dawlat, which was built in Tehran in 1873 by the
The Arabic term ta
ziya (Per., Taziyeh) means to mourn or order of the Iranian monarch Naser al-Din Shah. This takiya
to offer one’s condolences for a death. It is also sometimes was built on a very grand scale. Nevertheless, it was in most
called ta
ziya khani, or shabih khani. The term ta
ziya has been ways a typical takiya. It consisted of a large circular amphiused primarily in Iran to refer to a Shiite religious ritual theater with several entrances surrounding a large open area;
consisting of a theatrical re-enactment of the tragic seventh- a tent was used as a roof. Its primary purpose was to provide a
century Battle of Karbala. This historic battle was fought staging area for the most elaborate ta
ziya performances.
between the followers of prophet Muhammad’s grandson Lady Sheil, a European traveler, resident in Tehran in 1856,
Husayn and the troops of the second Umayyad caliph Yazid. gives a brief account of the ta
ziya performance in the Takiya
While ta
ziya performance rituals have been mostly restricted Dawlat in 1856, concluding, “It is a sight in no small degree
to Iran, the Shia of South Asia and Iraq use the term ta
ziya to curious to witness an assemblage of several thousand persons
refer to a model or replica of Husayn’s tomb, which they use plunged in deep sorrow, giving vent to their sorrow” (p. 127).
in their ritual processions, after which they are ritually
discarded. Modern Trends
Following the fall of the Qajar dynasty in the early twentieth
The Battle of Karbala century, the ta
ziya slowly declined until it was mostly aban-
Accounts of the Battle of Karbala can be summarized as doned in the large cities in the 1930s and 1940s. However,
follows. In the year 680 C.E., Husayn, who was also the third ta
ziyas have continued to exist in Iran on a smaller scale
imam of the Shia, was killed in the desert of southern Iraq throughout the twentieth century, especially in traditional
along with over seventy of his family and close friends by sectors. There were two reasons for this relative decline. The
troops loyal to the caliph Yazid. The women and children first Pahlavi king, Reza Shah, outlawed the ta
ziya. More
were taken prisoner and paraded in various cities, adding to importantly, as Iranian society changed modernized elites
the humiliation, but also providing opportunities for these became less interested in sponsoring such traditional ritual
women, particularly Husayn’s sister Zaynab, to speak out events. Scholars of literature and drama as well as governpublicly against Yazid. Yazid is portrayed by the Shia as ment agencies attempted to preserve this theatrical tradition
notoriously corrupt, immoral, and oppressive. Hence, Husayn’s in the 1970s, and again in the 1980s and 1990s. However,
rebellion and subsequent martyrdom is understood by the unlike the Qajar period, which was the heyday of the ta
ziya
Shia as an epic struggle between good and evil. For the Shia ritual, the dominant public rituals since the 1930s have
this event has served as a vindication of the Shiite cause in the been the Muharram processions, and various forms of the
face of Sunni criticism, as well as constituting the central rawza khani.
event in their understanding of human history.
See also Hosayniyya; Rawza-Khani; Taqiyya.
Historical Development
Following the battle itself, popular elegies of the martyrs
BIBLIOGRAPHY
were composed. However, the earliest reliable account of the Chelkowski, Peter, ed. Ta
ziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran.
performance of public mourning rituals was recorded in 963 New York: New York University Press, 1979.
C.E. during the reign of Muizz al-Dawla, the Buyid ruler of Hegland, Mary Elaine. “The Majales-Shia Women’s Rituals
southern Iran and Iraq. When the Safavid dynasty came to of Mourning in Northwest Pakistan.” In A Mixed Blessing:
Gender and Religious Fundamentalism Cross Culturally. Edited
power in Iran a new type of ritual called rawza-khani emerged,
by Judy Brink and Joan Mencher. New York and London:
consisting mainly of a ritual sermon recounting and mourn-
Routledge, 1997.
ing the tragedy of Karbala. This ritual was based on texts like
Pelly, Sir Lewis. “The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husayn.”
Husayn Vaez Kashfi’s 1502 composition entitled Rawzat al-
Collected from Oral Traditions. London: Wm. H. Allen and
shuhada (The garden of martyrs). Kashfi’s text was a synthesis Co., 1879.
of a long line of historical accounts of Karbala by religious
scholars. Kamran Aghaie
By the time the Qajar dynasty took power in Iran in 1796,
the rawza-khani ritual had evolved into the much more
elaborate ritual called shabih-khani or ta
ziya.The ta
ziya, an TERRORISM
elaborate theatrical performance of the Karbala story based
on the same narratives used in the rawza-khani, involved a Terrorism is one of today’s most contested terms. It is widely
large cast of professional and amateur actors, a director, a used polemically to delegitimate both state-sponsored viostaging area, costumes, and props. lence as well as counter-state insurgencies. Although there is

Islam and the Muslim World 691
Terrorism

as yet no scholarly consensus in defining and theorizing about resistance differed within and among the many groups at
the subject, there is some agreement that terrorism involves work, regardless of whether or not this resistance was articuthe threat and actual use of violence against civilians to bring lated in terms of national struggle and liberation, as with
about political, social, and economic change. During the late many early resistance movements, or in religious terms through
twentieth century, political elites, state intelligence agencies, the concept of jihad, a concept that acquired greater salience
the establishment media, and an array of experts (qualified in the 1970s. At that time, revisionist formulations of classical
and unqualified) began to use the term to describe the Islamic jihad doctrine by Islamist ideologues such as Abu lmilitant tactics of various movements and organizations, Ala
al-Maududi (1903–1979) and Sayyid Qutb (1903–1966)
none more than those connected with Islam. The subject is were adapted by radical Islamic groups to legitimate the use
considerably more complicated, however. of violence, first against agents of secular, pro-Western
nation-states, and subsequently against civilian populations.
Origins and Meanings of the Term
The origin of the word “terror” in Latin-derived languages is Groups as diverse as the European anarchists, Viet Cong,
the French terreur, which assumed its modern meaning in the Irish Republican Army, Nicaraguan Sandinistas, and Nelson
context of the French Revolution. Following the overthrow Mandela’s African National Congress have been branded
of the monarchy in 1789, the new government established its with the terrorist label. In Middle Eastern contexts, terrorism
laws and its authority through a “reign of terror,” which has been used generically to characterize incidents of violence
inspired in the population a constant fear of arrest and such as the attacks by Jewish guerillas against the British
execution. In this context, terrorisme was understood as fear during the Mandate Period; the 1972 killings of Israeli
created by the state, or government rule through the specter Olympic athletes in Munich at the hands of Palestinian
of violence. This definition also applies to the totalitarian Liberation Organization gunmen; violence committed by
states of the twentieth century. More contemporarily, how- agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran at home and abroad
ever, terrorism has become synonymous with violence perpe- since 1979; the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar
trated by non-state actors. Sadat by the Jihad group in 1981; the 1983 bombing of a
United States Marine barracks in Beirut and the kidnappings
In Arabic, the term irhab is commonly used today as the of westerners in Lebanon; the Islamist insurgency against the
equivalent for “terrorism,” its meanings largely affected by Algerian government since the mid-1990s; and attacks against
the use of the latter term in Western languages, particularly Israeli forces and civilians. While anti-Soviet Muslim com-
English and French. Irhab, derived from arhaba (“to frighten,” batants in Afghanistan received moral, economic, and mili-
“to strike with fear,” or “to terrify”), never appears in the tary support from the United States from 1979 to 1988 as
Qur
an, though its imperfect verbal form occurs once. The “freedom fighters” (a loose translation of mujahidin), spin-off
Qur
an states, “Against them make ready your strength to the organizations such as al-Qaida and the Taliban have come to
utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to terrify epitomize what many now call terrorism.
(yurhibuna) thereby the enemies of God, your enemies, and
others whom you do not know, but God knows” (8:60). The In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the
historical context for this command is that of the early battles World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the administration of
of Muhammad and his followers against their Meccan ene- George W. Bush placed the war against terrorism, known
mies; it has had limited use subsequently in the context of officially as Operation Enduring Freedom, at the top of its
discourses on jihad. Other variations of the same root appear- foreign and domestic political agendas. This new anti-terrorism
ing in the Qur
an refer to humanity’s awe of God, particularly policy led to large-scale military actions in Afghanistan and
as an appellation for Christian monks (ruhban). Since the Iraq, as well as implementation of stringent security measures
1980s, irhab has been widely used in Arabic political rhetoric in the United States, including mass deportations, detento condemn Israel’s use of military force. Egyptian political tions, and curtailment of the civil rights of immigrants and
elites and government-controlled media usually use the term visitors to the country—especially those coming from the
to describe violence committed by anti-state Islamist groups. Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia and who may be
Muslims.
More Recent Usages
After the Second World War, movements countering coloni- The way in which the international community—includalism and imperialism grew in strength and influence in ing Western and Arab states—interpreted these events has
Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the Middle East (for had a profound effect on how terrorism is identified today.
example, Israel/Palestine, Egypt, Algeria, and Iran), national- The incidents described above reflect many different conist and Islamic movements engaged in active and, at times, texts and many different kinds of violence. What links them
violent opposition to Western powers and the emergent analytically is that various actors have described each as
client regimes they supported. Then, as now, the means of terrorist activity. When attempting to identify terrorism,

692 Islam and the Muslim World
Thaqafi, Mukhtar al-

however, the term’s broad use offers little guidance in de- Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust War. New York: Basic
scribing or understanding a particular situation. Books, 1977.

Defining Terrorism Today Juan Eduardo Campo
How we define “terrorism” creates the intellectual frame- Caleb Elfenbein
work that delimits the explanations available to us in working
to understand an event or series of events. Most states, and
much of the international community, now define terrorism
as the use of force by non-state actors, a definition that THAQAFI, MUKHTAR AL-
focuses analytic attention on the violence of resistance at the (C. 622–687)
expense of attention to violence perpetrated by the state. The
analytic and conceptual shift in the meaning of terrorism in Mukhtar b. Abi Ubayd al-Thaqafi took over Kufa (in Iraq)
the last decades of the twentieth century has had important for a year and a half during the Second Civil War (fitna, set off
consequences. Rather than focusing on the causes that lead to by the murder of Husayn in 680), as the Zubayrids and
violent resistance, discussions of terrorism are often limited Marwanids struggled for control of the empire in succession
to questions about the legitimate use of force to eliminate it. to the Sufyanid branch of the Umayyad caliphs. Mukhtar
initially supported the Zubayrids but later, in 685, he deposed
Brought into greater relief, the modern meaning of ter- their governor of Kufa in the name of Muhammad b. alrorism comes out of the use of violence to justify and preserve Hanafiyya (d. 700), son of Ali by a concubine of the Hanafi
a regime of law, relations of power, or, more broadly, a way of tribe. When Mukhtar sent an armed force to Medina, the
life. While all states use violence to protect the authority of Zubayrids released Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, who, howthe law and the state itself, those using violence to resist state ever, declined to join Mukhtar in Kufa. In 686, he defeated a
authority do so in order to undermine that authority. Both Marwanid army from Syria, but soon after, the Zubayrids of
kinds of violence aim at a similar end: creating and maintain- Basra defeated his army and beleaguered him in the citadel of
ing a system that orders the world. In fact, when seen in a Kufa. After perhaps six months, Mukhtar was killed in battle.
broader context, state terror and non-state terror legitimize Four years later, the Zubayrids themselves were driven out of
each other, marginalizing alternatives to that violence. Iraq by the Marwanids, who refounded the Umayyad dynasty
on the principle of vigorous direction from Syria.
Defining terrorism in terms of “essential meanings” of
Islam—or of any religious tradition—provides little help in Mukhtar’s history is difficult to make out because of the
understanding how violence functions. Violence is not par- vagaries of transmission between his time and that of our
ticular to a specific religion, or to religion in general, or to a sources in the ninth century. The difficulty is further aggraparticular kind of socio-political organization, though it is vated because numerous politico-religious factions have had
indelibly part of both. The term “terrorism” used to describe an interest in dissociating themselves from him. It does seem,
any and all violent activity unsanctioned by a sovereign state however, that non-Arab converts were prominent among his
or by international authority is insufficient to arrive at a soldiers and that some elements of his program were taken up
nuanced understanding of events. As a result, the term “ter- by later radical Shiites, including the early Abbasids, while
rorism” should be limited to a heuristic role, and should not other elements, such as the concept of a mahdi, or a reformer
be used as an explanatory tool in analyzing specific incidents who appears at the end of time, attracted later Sunnis. The
of violence or patterns of violence. distinctive religious tinge of Mukhtar’s reign, although now
difficult to identify with certainty, helped provoke the
See also bin Ladin, Usama; Conflict and Violence; Marwanids to Islamize their administration.
HAMAS; Intifada; Qaida, al-; Taliban.
See also Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya; Shia: Early;
Succession.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Crenshaw, Martha, ed. Terrorism in Context. University Park: BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995.
Dixon, Abd al-Ameer Abd. The Umayyad Caliphate 65–86/
Esposito, John L. Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. 684–705: A Political Study. London: Luzac and Com-
Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. pany, 1974.
Falk, Richard. The Great Terror War. New York: Olive Hawting, G. R. The First Dynasty of Islam. The Umayyad
Branch Press, 2003. Caliphate AD 661–750. Carbondale and Edwardsville:
Juergensmeyer, Mark. Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.
Rise of Religious Violence. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2000. Christopher Melchert

Islam and the Muslim World 693
Theology

THEOLOGY See Disputation; Kalam; Law TITLES, ISLAMIC See Sayyid; Sharif;
Shaykh al-Islam

TOUBA
TIMBUKTU
The city of Touba is located in the region of Diourbel in
Senegal, West Africa. It is the second largest city in Senegal
During the early medieval period, Timbuktu was a seasonal
and (in 2001) had approximately one quarter of a million
camp of Berber nomadic tribes as they took their livestock to
inhabitants. The city was established in 1887 by Ahmad
the Niger River during the dry season. It became a semi- Bamba, the founder of the Muridiyya (Mouride) brotherhood
permanent settlement in the twelfth century. By the fifteenth (tariqa), as the headquarters for his new brotherhood. Accordcentury, the settlement had become one of the most famous ing to tradition, the location was revealed to him by the angel
intellectual and commercial cities of the African continent. Gabriel while he was seated praying. The French, fearful of
Salt and gold were among the precious products sought after an uprising against their regime, did not permit Ahmad
in Timbuktu. Merchants and scholars from North Africa Bamba to live in Touba but he continued to see it as a holy site
visited or settled in there during the second half of the and the center of his brotherhood. Succeeding caliphs would
fourteenth century. A number of universities were estab- either live in Touba or have a principal home there.
lished in Timbuktu from the fifteenth century onwards.
Before his death in 1927 Ahmad Bamba began the con-
Notable among them are the following: Sankore, which was
struction of the great mosque in Touba, which is today the
established by Sanhaja Berbers; Djingerey Bey; and the Oralargest mosque in Senegal. The founder’s mausoleum is in
tory of Sidi Yahya. Their course offerings included the study
Touba as are several religious and Arabic schools, libraries,
of the Qur
an, the hadith, law, theology, rhetoric, logic, historical sites, and tombs of other Muridiyya leaders. The
prosody, and Arabic grammar. The universities of Timbuktu city is home to the annual Muridiyya festival, the Magal. The
maintained close contact with other universities in North date of the Magal marks the exile of Ahmad Bamba to Gabon,
Africa and Egypt. They offered the same topics and recog- symbolizing his suffering and resistance to the French colonized each other’s degrees. nial authorities. Hundreds of thousands of disciples make the
pilgrimage every year to pray at the founder’s tomb and to
The two major sources of the political history of the celebrate their religion. Especially during the immediate premedieval Western Sudan are the Tarikh al-Sudan (History of and post-independence periods, when Muriddiyya caliphs
the Black people) and the Tarikh al-Fattash (History of the played a large role in the political process of Senegal, Touba
researcher ) were written by Timbuktu scholars: Abd al- was a major seat of political as well as religious power.
Rahman al-Sadi and Mahmud Kati, respectively. During See also Africa, Islam in; Bamba, Ahmad; Tariqa.
the 1990s, the al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation published catalogues of thousands of manuscripts in Arabic or BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ajami located in the libraries and private collections of
Coulon, Christian. “The Grand Magal in Touba; A Religious
Timbuktu. These manuscripts include scholarly works and Festival of the Mouride Brotherhood in Senegal.” African
other documents, providing crucial information on the relig- Affairs 98 , no. 391 (April 1999): 195–210.
ious social, economic, and political history of the region. Ross, Eric. “Touba: A Spiritual Metropolis in the Modern
World.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 29 , no. 2
See also Africa, Islam in; Kunti, Mukhtar al-. (1995): 222–259.

Lucy Creevey
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hiskett, Mervyn. The Development of Islam in West Africa.
London and New York: Longman, 1984. TRADITIONALISM
Hunwick, John. Timbuktu and the Songhai Empire: Al-Sa
di’s
Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and Other Contemporary The term traditionalism is commonly used to describe the
Documents. Leiden : Brill, 1999. early Islamic movement that coalesced around the ideas of
Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (d. 855) during the mihna (inquisition, c.
833–847). Traditionalism indicates the loose configuration of
Ousmane Kane scholars who rejected the rationalist interpretation of Islamic

694 Islam and the Muslim World
Translation

theology proposed by the Mutazili school of thought. Tradi- originals were lost. Arabic translations preserved the works of
tionalists were also known as the Hashwiyya (promoters of other Greek writers, such as Euclid, Rufus of Ephesus,
farce) by their rationalist opponents who argued that there Nicolaus of Damascus, Porphyry, and Proclus. Hunayn bewas little scholarly depth to traditionalist ideas. Central to queathed his translation legacy to his son, Ishaq ibn Hunayn
traditionalism was the rejection of the doctrine of the created (d. 910). Hunayn and his school created a genuine home in
Qur
an, which held, contrary to traditionalist views, that the the Arabic language for a rich repertoire of new ideas and
Qur
an was not eternal and was revealed ad hoc in response to concepts. Most of the major translators were Christian, with
specific crises in the life of the prophet Muhammad. Tradi- the possible exception of a Jewish scholar named Marsajawayh,
tionalism, however, should not be confused with the term who translated from the Syriac, and Thabit b. Qurrah (c.
“traditionists,” which more narrowly describes scholars en- 834–901), a Sabian from Harran.
gaged in the development and promotion of hadith literature
as a major component of Islamic theology and law (the Translation was almost entirely devoted to scientific,
medical, and philosophical works. Philosophical texts were
muhaddithun). While it is true that most traditionalists were
paraphrased and included commentaries for Arabic students.
traditionists (i.e., proponents of hadith), not all muhaddithun
Simplified adaptations of the works of Plato and Aristotle
agreed with the anti-rationalist tendency of the group that
were known in Arabic. Another area of great intellectual
came to embrace Ibn Hanbal. In contemporary discussions of
interest was Neo-Platonism, particularly the works of the
Islam, the term traditionalism has come to refer to Islamic
Egyptian Plotinus (c. 200–269 C.E.), and of his disciple Porrevivalists (so-called fundamentalists) due to their links to Ibn
phyry (233–301).
Hanbal through the writings of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328).
However, modern traditionalism has little similarity to the Yet it would be wrong to overemphasize the impact of
ideas that gave rise to anti-rationalist groups in early Islam. Greek ideas on Islam’s religious life and culture. Only a small
Contemporary traditionalism is loosely based on the idea that circle of educated elites was shaped by the influence of Greek
all individuals have the faculties of reason necessary, when intellectual ideas. The Qur
an survived the critical Greek
combined with piety and a reading knowledge of Arabic, to encounter to endure as the great devotional and missionary
discern on their own the will of God, an idea that would have text of the religion, conveying the sounds and tones of the
been anathema to Ibn Hanbal and early traditionalist thought. original sacred Arabic of Scripture to multitudes of adherents
down the centuries and scattered well beyond the Arab
See also Hadith; Ibn Hanbal; Ibn Taymiyya; Mihna.
heartlands.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Mission and Translation
Hallaq, Wael. A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduc- In the course of its worldwide expansion and cross-cultural
tion to Sunni Usul al-Fiqh. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge transmission, Islam has maintained a remarkable consistency
University Press, 1997. in promoting the nontranslatable status of the Qur
an. That
may account in part for the relative unity of faith and practice
Lawrence, Bruce. Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt
Against the Modern Age. San Francisco: Harper and among Muslims who are otherwise characterized by an ex-
Row, 1989. traordinary diversity of race, language, culture, and social
status. Without an institutional central authority to enforce
Makdisi, George. “Ash’ari and Ash’arites in Islamic Religious
doctrine and to adjudicate the affairs of believers, Islam has
History.” Studia Islamica 17 (1962): 37–80; 18 (1963): 19–39.
nevertheless continued to enjoy a degree of solidarity that is
belied by its organizational decentralization. It happens that
R. Kevin Jaques only a minority of the world’s one billion Muslims is Arab in
language and culture, yet for all Muslims the Holy Qur
an in
the original Arabic is divine oracle. Rather than impede the
spread of Islam, this fact has been the basis of the appeal of the
TRANSLATION religion in societies even beyond the Arab heartland. The
language of scripture has been a major force in establishing
Scholars working under the sponsorship of Muslim patrons boundaries and shaping identity for new communities in Islam.
undertook the translation of works on Greek philosophy and
scientific learning and transmitted them to the West. An The Qur
an bears witness to its own unique and manifest
early and particularly fertile center for translation was Jundi- status as Arabic speech (12: 1–3; 16: 105; 41: 41–42), a
Shapur in Khuzistan, southeast of Baghdad. There the celestial discourse designed for repeated recitation “whereat
Bukhtishu, a family of physicians at the court of the caliph, shiver the skins of those who fear their Lord; then their skins
became energetic translators of Greek works on medical and their hearts soften to the remembrance of God” (39: 23).
matters. Hunayn ibn Ishaq (808–873), based in Baghdad, The Qur
an as the “essence of divine speech” is sublime and
translated the medical as well as ethical and philosophical wise guidance for the faithful, and is preserved in its Arabicness
works of Galen, which were preserved in Arabic long after the with God as such (43: 3).

Islam and the Muslim World 695
Translation

The transmission of Islam has been accompanied by little understood, they possessed still great beauty and music,
adaptations in local practice and understanding, and, accord- a subtle and indefinable charm “incomprehensible to those
ingly, the Qur
an has been appropriated to reflect new not acquainted with the language in which the Koran was
situations, whether as divine oracle, rule book, breviary, vade written.”
mecum, periapt, or as universal template. There being no
rival versions of the Qur
an, Muslims possess in their scrip- Translation, Reform, and Revolution
ture a single and unvarying standard of faith and devotion, The tradition of orthopraxy that a uniform Qur
an proand a tangible symbol of the oneness of the umma (commu- moted, and that was important where caliphal authority was
nity of believers). Through Islam’s worldwide expansion the weak or unknown, was difficult to maintain among acephalous
Arabic of scripture became, according to H. A. R. Gibb, “a Muslim populations such as existed in North Africa. For
more than three centuries after the introduction of Islam, the
world language and the common literary medium of all
Berbers there remained poorly instructed in the faith and
Muslim peoples” (1974, p. 37).
remained, therefore, susceptible to splintering and heresy.
Although proficiency in the language of Scripture is the To remedy such defects, the Almoravid movement, launched
preserve of a small circle of specialists, nevertheless the task of in 1056, sought to assemble the dispersed Berber tribes under
learning the holy book by rote memorization is the sacred Islamic rule in forms that were frankly outlandish: the Qur
an
duty of all Muslims, scholar and sundry alike, because only and the sunna, for example, were discounted as too demandthat way may Muslims observe the obligatory five daily ing for the simple and ignorant, their place now taken by a
periods of worship known as salat. Even though there are culture of strict discipline on the masses and unquestioning
translations of the Qur
an, they are invalid for salat for which obedience to the leader. Religious illiteracy became even
the sacred Arabic has been instituted as a prerequisite, a rule more conspicuous from the high expectations raised by
that gives translations no canonical merit in the central Almoravid power.
religious rites.
The illiteracy aggravated the moral delinquency belonging with the fictitious nature of power, and that finally
A potent connection exists between the Arabic script and
provoked a reaction. An idea had been growing steadily that it
Islam’s sacrosanct view of language. One tradition speaks of
was necessary to extend to the Berber tribesmen the unifying
the human face as God’s image, of language as the mark of
dividends that the Asharite revolution had achieved in the
humanity, and the twenty-eight letters of the Arabic script as
eastern provinces of the caliphate. By making use of reason to
containing the essence of that contained in language: the
defend revelation, Asharism repositioned Muslim intellecmysteries of God, humanity, and eternity. Echoes of such
tual life after its encounter with Greek ideas by stressing
reverence for the sacred Arabic can be found in mosque
God’s omnipotence (qadar) and by rejecting the naturalist
calligraphy composed of Qur
anic verses and the names of
inferences of anthropomorphism (tajsim).
God, the Prophet, the shahada (profession of faith), and the
early caliphs. Calligraphic art has spread widely, and with it Transferred to North Africa, these Asharite ideas would
an iconographic reverence for the sacred script. Muslim have a major impact on religion, state, and society. In the
devotions involve rhythmic chanting (tartil) of the Qur
an. circumstances of political fragmentation and religious
syncretism that characterized North Africa in the eleventh
The widespread iconographic reverence for the language
century, a movement of reaction and revolution erupted to
and script of the Qur
an led travelers in the far regions of the
channel pent up forces through a political outlet under a
Islamic world to comment on the prominence given to study
charismatic leader. This leader was Ibn Tumart (d. 1130),
of the Qur
an and to its use in canonical worship. Thus did
founder of the militant Almohad (al-muwahhidun) counter-
Ibn Battuta recount how Muslim Africans were punctilious in
revolution against the lackadaisical Almoravids.
mosque attendance and zealous in learning the Qur
an, testifying that parents “put their children in chains if they show Ibn Tumart assumed power and had the Qur
an translated
any backwardness in memorizing it, and they are not set free into his native Berber; he ordered the call to prayers (adhan)
until they have it by heart.” Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden to be given in Berber; the Friday sermon (khutba) likewise was
(1832–1912), a pan-African visionary of West Indian origin, delivered in his mother tongue; and he required the clerics,
made a close study of Islam and Muslim life, noting that even the ulema, to know and function in that language. He arat the margins of the Muslim world the untranslated Qur
an ranged for his own theological writings to be circulated in
held a particularly high position. He said he saw evidence of Berber as well as Arabic. Such translation activity stimulated
the Holy Book exerting a powerful influence on nonliterate sentiments of local nationalism, though it conflicted with Ibn
populations, providing a ground of unity for the disparate Tumart’s own aims of integrating Berber Islam into the
tribes and a sentiment of loyalty that promoted a sense of unified Asharite and Ghazalian tradition that he so much
common identity. The words of the sacred book, he testified, admired. Undertaking his ambitious translation enterprise as
were held in the greatest reverence and esteem. Although for a facet of the changes he wished to see introduced in Muslim
many Muslim Africans the words of the Arabic Qur
an were North Africa, Ibn Tumart ended by producing a variation so

696 Islam and the Muslim World
Translation

colorful and so rare as to amount to a serious rupture with in West Africa. Swahili verse and prose literature have func-
Qur
an and sunna. tioned to impress on the fabric of popular life images of Islam
drawn from the Arabic classics: accounts of the Prophet in
The nationalist impulse of language reform and religious popular praise songs; studies of the origins of the Islamic
renewal converged again much later, during the Ottoman state; stories of the caliphs and the Prophet’s companions;
Empire. By the late nineteenth century this linguistic nation- devotional literature tied to the religious calendar; exegetical
alism was gaining a foothold within and without. Students works expounding the Qur
an; and manuals designed for
from the empire returned from their studies in European exchange and study in shops, markets, and private homes.
universities with a heightened sense of national identity. Swahili has thus worked in favor of Islam’s penetration into
Works on Turkish language and grammar, some the result of coastal and transient populations of East Africa.
European Orientalist scholarship, were coming into general
circulation. Works in European languages, particularly French, Hausa verse and prose have had a comparable effect on the
were translated into Turkish. Hungarian and Polish refugees, Hausa people of Nigeria and beyond. Early in the nineteenth
many of whom converted to Islam, wrote in French and century an era of revolution and reform produced an environ-
Turkish. Russian Turks brought a strong sense of national ment conducive to the large-scale use of written Hausa in
identity, infusing the Turkish language with a sense of his- Arabic script. That in turn inspired a corresponding pantorical destiny. These impulses coalesced into the Turkish Islamic sensibility among scholars. Writers in Hausa ap-
Society, founded in Istanbul in 1908. The society was dedi- pealed to the Arabic classics, including the literature procated to objectives that were scholarly as well as cultural, duced during the Abbasid caliphate, to reform local practice
including the advancement of language and literature. As part and to implement the religious canon. The reformers drew
upon the Qur
an, the hadith, the history, and the legal and
of its aggressive program of secularization, the new political
biographical traditions to create structures and institutions in
authorities set about reforming religious life and practice. In
their part of the Muslim world, and the gains they made
1929 Arabic and Persian were abolished as subjects of instrucbecame a permanent part of the life of the people.
tion in schools to facilitate the teaching and spread of Turkish. A reorganization of religious schools and mosques was For its part, Fulfulde enjoyed a long and distinguished role
undertaken, with the requirement that the language of wor- as the language of instruction, catechism, and exegesis in
ship be Turkish, and that all prayers and sermons be in the Qur
an school and beyond. The educational syllabus was
national language, and not Arabic. Measures were adopted to based on a four-stage process: introducing the Arabic alphatranslate the Qur
an and the hadith into Turkish, with money bet (jangugol), writing (windugol), Scriptural exegesis in Fulfulde
voted for the scheme in 1932. In that year for the first time the (firugol), and higher studies (fennu; Ar., ilm awfaq). Religious
adhan resounded from minarets in Turkish. catechism was conducted in Fulfulde. All this linguistic activity laced Fulbe national feeling with a heightened sense of
Beginning in 1928 with the adoption of a new Latin
Islamic exceptionalism. Beginning with the reforms of
alphabet to replace Arabic, a vigorous, if at times overenthusi-
Karamokho Alfa of Futa Jallon in 1727, and Uthman dan
astic, language reform program was undertaken. The Turk- Fodio of northern Nigeria in 1804, the Fulbe became enerish language was purged of its Arabic and Persian borrowings getic sponsors of reform in West African Islam and the selfand grammatical features to bring it closer to national aspira- acclaimed defenders of Sunni orthodoxy. Under Fulbe hetions. Although some of the excesses of this linguistic purge gemony, the language issue acquired a central status: the
were later reversed, the language reforms achieved the goal of accommodationists among the local Muslim clerics were
closing a crucial gap between written and spoken Turkish, decried as
ulama al-su
, the “venal clerics,” and charged with
giving birth to a new sense of national identity. The attempts allowing scriptural standards to slip and political corruption
to carry the translation efforts into the mosque failed because to spread. Literacy in Arabic, however limited, became a
of clerical opposition. A similar fate befell attempts in India to criterion of reform and renewal. Such limited literacy repretranslate the Islamic canonical rites into Hindi, in that case sented precious intellectual capital in marginal Muslim sociealso for reasons of trying to bring Islam into line with the ties, and the Fulbe reformers deployed it to great effect.
national sentiment. Literate clerics, accordingly, became the vanguard of change
in state and society.
Translation and Cross-Cultural Consolidation
These large-scale national reforms aimed at shifting people’s It is not the case, however, that all literate clerics adopted
devotion to the sacred script and language are testimony to the path of militancy from their privileged position as masters
the enduring influence of the Qur
an on the habits and of Arabic. An outstanding example are the Jakhanke Muslim
customs of Muslim peoples. Yet a different impulse has clerics of Senegambia who, as a matter of principle, have,
worked in translation to fashion in people a sense of identity from medieval times, rejected jihad as well as political coand to provide boundary markers. This is the case, for option, and have instead adopted the methods of peaceful
example, with Swahili in East Africa and Hausa and Fulfulde persuasion in their role as educational specialists. They have

Islam and the Muslim World 697
Travel and Travelers

introduced the Arabic of scripture and tradition in their The expansion of Islam beyond its early borders meant
schools by means of local languages, adapting the grammati- that such a pilgrimage invariably required long-distance
cal concepts and special vocabulary of the Qur
an to local travel. The conversion of the local population to Islam
usage. They created in West Africa a culture of religious and necessitated travel for both new converts and for those
political moderation in spite of a bruising era of confronta- proselytizing. This expansion resulted not only from war, but
tion under an anticlerical French colonial administration. At also through commerce as traveling merchants established
the hands of the pacific clerics, translation assured the re- trading posts farther away from Islam’s original center.
newal of Islam and its continuing vitality as a pillar of civil
society without the compromise of armed intervention or The most fundamental values of Islam have tended to
state enforcement. encourage a high degree of social mobility and to free movement of individuals from one city and region to another.
See also Arabic Language; Ibn Battuta; Persian Lan- Travel was promoted through Islamic culture and put great
guage and Literature; Qur
an; Science, Islam and. emphasis on egalitarian behavior in social relations based on
the ideal of a community allegiance to one God.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Travel was made easy by the dynamics of social life
Battuta, Ibn. Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354. Edited
and translated by H. A. R. Gibb. London: Routledge and centered on an egalitarian, contractual, and relatively free
Kegan Paul, 1983. play of relations among individuals striving to conform to
Islamic moral standards. Wherever an individual traveled,
Gibb, H. A. R. Arabic Literature: An Introduction. London:
pursued a career, or bought and sold goods, the same social
Oxford University Press, 1974.
and moral dictates of Islam largely applied. The language
Grunebaum, G. E. von. Classical Islam, A History 600–1228.
common to early Islam, Arabic, ensured another unifying
London: George Allen & Unwin, 1970.
characteristic.
Hayes, John R., ed. The Genius of Arab Civilization: Source of
Renaissance. 1976. Reprint. Oxford, U.K.: Phaidon, 1978. The pattern of travel and migration of adherents to Islam
Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. Oxford, all but ensured a persistent dispersion of architects, writers,
U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1968. craftsmen, legal scholars, scribes, Sufi divines, and theologi-
Nasr, S. H. Islamic Science: An Illustrated Study. London: ans outward from the older centers of Islam to the new
World of Islam Festival Publishing Company Ltd., 1976. frontiers of Muslim activity.
O’Leary, De Lacy. How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs.
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1948. The members of the cultural elite maintained during
traveling a close tie with the greater cities of the central part
Rosenthal, Franz. The Classical Heritage in Islam. London:
of the Islamic lands. They created, thereby, not only a
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975.
scattering of literate and skilled Muslims across several conti-
Sanneh, Lamin. The Crown and the Turban: Muslims and West nents, but an integrated, growing, self-replenishing network
African Pluralism. Denver, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997.
of cultural communication.
Ullmann, Manfred. Islamic Medicine. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1978. A great interest in knowledge and learning has been a
Walzer, Richard. Greek into Arabic: Essays in Islamic Philoso- common thread of Islam from its earliest days. Travel solely
phy.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962. in search of knowledge has been an integral part of the
intellectual life of the Islamic world. The scholarly class was
Lamin Sanneh an extraordinarily mobile group, who circulated incessantly
from one city and country to another, studying with renowned professors, leading diplomatic missions, and taking
up posts in mosques and government chanceries.
TRAVEL AND TRAVELERS
Scholars from the more remote part of the Islamic world
Travel has been a part of the Islamic culture from the traveled to the countries considered central to Islam in
beginning. The obligation of every Muslim, once in a life- search of civilized models, higher knowledge, and learned
time, to make the pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca and Medina companionship.
was an early and significant reason for much of the travel.
The need for travel and interest in it created an equal need
Before air transport the greater the distance one needed to for knowledge of geography and navigation both on land and
travel on the hajj the more the journey tended to become a sea. As a consequence the rihla, or book of travels, emerged.
grand study tour of the greater mosques and madrasas of the The genre recounted for the reader the journey to Mecca
Muslim heartland. It was an opportunity for the traveler to with information and entertainment of religious sites on
acquire knowledge. the route.

698 Islam and the Muslim World
Tribe

A copy of a Catalan map showing North Africa appears in the organize the different segments of the tribe in a network of
volume two color insert. mutual rights and responsibilities. Typically, the smallest
tribal segment is the household made up of one or more
See also Biruni, al-; Ibn Battuta; Ibn Khaldun; Pilgrim- patrilineally related families; a number of such households
age: Hajj. make up the next ascending segment, or lineage. Among the
Bedouins, this level of organization is known as fakhd; mem-
BIBLIOGRAPHY bers of a fakhd or lineage usually lay claim to a common
Eickelman, Dale F., and Piscatori, James, eds. Muslim Travel- grazing territory, brand their herds with the same symbol,
lers: Pilgrimage, Migration, and the Religious Imagination. and are collectively liable to pay blood money in the case of a
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California murder committed by one of their memebrs. A number of
Press, 1990. related lineages are grouped into the next all-encompassing
level of the tribe, or qabila; in some parts of the Arabic-
Thyge C. Bro speaking Middle East, this level is also referred to as
ashira.
The tribe is thus the largest named unit of incorporation
constructed on a genealogical framework. While today tribes
serve mainly as reference groups for related lineages, in the
TRIBE past they played an important role in the political life of the
region. Each tribe united behind a paramount chief who
The English word tribe is an ambivalent term that is used
acted as a military commander in intertribal warfare. Tribal
indiscriminately to refer to a wide variety of social groupings
members typically share a strong sense of common heritage
that range from small, preliterate, and relatively isolated
that goes beyond that of common descent. They tend to
communities in the Amazon jungles of South America to
speak one dialect, dress in a distinctive style, and have their
large, powerful confederacies whose chiefs are members of
own customs and traditions.
the national political elite such as the case of the Bakhtiyari of
southwest Iran. In what follows, the concepts of “tribe”and Tribes have a long and complicated history in the Middle
“tribalism” are discussed in the specific context of the Mid- East; unlike the case for other parts of the world, tribes did
dle East. not disappear with the formation of nation-states in the
region. In fact, the historical coexistence of state and tribe
The Arabic term for tribe is qabila ( pl. qabail). The word
lends a unique texture to Middle Eastern human geography.
qabila is mentioned in the Qur
an: “ O mankind: we have
Beginning with the Islamic conquest in the seventh century
created you from a male and a female and made you into
(itself carried out by Arab tribal forces) tribes and tribal
peoples and tribes [qabail] that you may know each other”
confederacies have played a key role in the creation and
(49:13). In its most common usage, qabila refers to a named
disintegration of several Islamic imperial dynasties such as
group of people who share an ideology of common descent in
the Abbasids, the Ottomans, and the Qajars. Equally signifi-
the male line, claim a common geographical territory, and are
cant were the many tribes who managed to maintain their
politically united under the leadership of a chief, called a
autonomy in defiance of state rule. This was the case with the
shaykh in Arabic, or khan in Persian and Turkish. As such, the
Bedouin tribes of Arabia, the Kurds of the Zagros mountains,
concept of “tribe” and “tribalism” is used to simultaneously
and the large tribal confederacies of Iran like the Bakhtiyari
indicate a personal and group identity, a form of social
organization, and a distinct political structure. and the Qashqa
i.

As a source of personal and group identity, tribal affilia- In the mountain and desert areas of Kurdistan, the Aration can be analogous to ethnicity albeit on a more limited bian Peninsula, and Iran, tribally organized confederacies
scale; it confers a distinct identity on its members, binding managed to escape the reach of the state and maintain their
them together in a distinct moral code expressed most com- independence well into the twentieth century. Following the
monly in the idiom of honor, courage, and personal auton- breakup of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War
omy. Tribal identity, based on ties of kinship (real or fictitious), and the arrival of European colonial powers in the region, the
is further reinforced by the common practice of close endog- role of tribes in the newly formed nation-states assumed a
amy that favors the marriage of a man to his father’s brother’s new significance. In their effort to stem anticolonial and
daughter. Among Arabic speakers, intratribal bonds and nationalist movements in the region, colonial powers encourgroup cohesion are expressed in the idiom of
asabiyya, or aged tribal separatism by promoting tribal identities and
group solidarity, based on blood ties and common descent. reinforcing the authority of tribal leaders. This policy of
“divide and rule” came to an end after the Second World
Tribal systems of sociopolitical organization are also based War, which marked the end of colonialism in the region.
on the ideology of common descent from a founding ances- Seeking to promote national unity, the policy of the newly
tor; some pastoral nomads, like the Bedouins of the Arabian independent governments aimed at integrating the tribes
and Syrian deserts, keep elaborate genealogies that serve to into the nation-state. In cases of pastoral nomadic tribes such

Islam and the Muslim World 699
Turabi, Hasan al-

as the Bedouins of Arabia and the Qashqa
i of Iran, this took in the national reconciliation process and became a signifi-
the form of forced sedentarization, taxation, and conscription cant force in the Islamization policies initiated by Numayri.
into the national army. Although al-Turabi did not have a direct role in drafting “the
September Laws” of 1983 that imposed a version of Islamic
Today all over the Middle East, tribes have ceased to be law on Sudan, he and his group gained prominence in the new
important political units capable of challenging the power of context. When Numayri was overthrown in 1985, al-Turabi
the central governments. Tribal leaders have been generally reorganized the Brotherhood as the National Islamic Front
co-opted or were absorbed into the national elite. But while (NIF), which emerged as the third largest party in the new
their political role has been generally undermined, tribes and parliamentary system. NIF was able to prevent the repeal of
tribalism remain an important component of Middle Eastern the September Laws and kept Islamic issues in the forefront
cultural landscape. Supplanted by nationalist and Islamist of the Sudanese political agenda.
ideologies, tribalism as an ideology has not disappeared.
Tribal identity and tribal ties continue to be an important Al-Turabi’s role was transformed in 1989, when a military
source for self-reference and social organization for many coup led by Hasan Umar Bashir established an Islamist-style
people in the region. military regime in which al-Turabi was the ideological mentor. Throughout the 1990s, the Bashir-Turabi alliance at-
See also Asabiyya; Bedouin; Ethnicity.
tempted to create a new political system. The regime engaged
in severe violations of human rights and the civil war between
BIBLIOGRAPHY
the central government and the southern region intensified as
Bates, Daniel G., and Rassam, Amal. Peoples and Cultures of the a result of military intransigence and the NIF’s agenda of
Middle East. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Islamizing the whole country. In 1998 and 1999, Bashir
Inc., 2001.
relieved al-Turabi of all official posts and al-Turabi became a
Khoury, Philip S., and Kostiner, Joseph, eds. Tribes and State marginal force in Sudanese politics.
Formation in the Middle East. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1990. During the 1970s and 1980s, al-Turabi’s ideas became
widely known in the Muslim world. He called for significant
Amal Rassam renewal of the whole structure of Islamic legal thought and
developed important concepts of Islamic democracy. His
writings on the importance of gender equality in Islam were
controversial but gained him a reputation as an Islamic liberal
TURABI, HASAN AL- (1932– )
activist. However, the failures of the NIF regime in the 1990s
Hasan al-Turabi is a Sudanese political leader and Islamist and its excesses in blocking human rights reforms meant that
intellectual. Al-Turabi’s family was well known and had a al-Turabi’s international visibility and reputation declined by
recognized tradition of piety. Al-Turabi’s father was one of the end of the twentieth century.
the first Sudanese to be trained as a judge in the British system
of administering Islamic law in Sudan, and Hasan received a BIBLIOGRAPHY
traditional Islamic education from his father along with his Affendi, Abdelwahab el-. Turabi’s Revolution: Islam and Power
modern education in the government-supported system. In in Sudan. London: Grey Seal, 1991.
secondary school and then at the University of Khartoum, al- Esposito, John L., and Voll, John O. Makers of Contemporary
Turabi became active in the small, Islamically oriented stu- Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
dent groups. He studied in London and received a doctorate
Hamdi, Mohamed Elhachmi. The Making of an Islamic Politifrom the Sorbonne. He returned to Sudan in 1964, in time to cal Leader. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1999.
be a visible participant in the October Revolution that overthrew the military regime of Ibrahim Abboud.
John O. Voll
In the second period of civilian parliamentary politics in
Sudan (1964–1969), al-Turabi led the Sudanese Muslim
Brotherhood (established in the 1950s) into an important
place in Sudanese politics. It was not a mass party but was well TUSI, MUHAMMAD IBN AL-HASAN
organized among students and professionals, and was able to (SHAYKH AL-TA
IFA) (995–1067)
give prominence in Sudanese politics to issues of Islamic
identity. The Brotherhood continued this role in changing Muhammad b. Hasan al-Tusi (d. 1067), who was given the
political contexts. Al-Turabi’s Brotherhood was the core of honorific “Shaykh of the sect” (shaykh al-taifa), was an
the Islamic Charter Front in the 1960s, and then became part important Imami Shiite thinker of the early period. He
of the opposition to the military regime established by Jafar hailed from Tus in Khorasan, but made his name in Baghdad.
al-Numayri in 1969. In the late 1970s, al-Turabi participated His work represents both of the two main trends in early

700 Islam and the Muslim World
Tusi, Nasir al-Din

Twelver Shiism: rationalism and hadith study. His commen- governor Nasir al-Din Abi Mansur at Sertakht, he continued
tary on the Qur
an (tafsir), al-Tibyan, exemplifies this trend as to work for the Ismailis at various Iranian fortresses, includboth styles of argumentation are employed to explain the ing Quhistan, until he transferred to the Ismaili castle at
meaning of each Qur
anic verse. His hadith works, the most Alamut, where he remained until joining the Mongol Hulagu’s
famous being al-Tahdhib and al-Istibsar, are more than mere entourage as a political advisor in 1247. Subsequent to the
collections, but are also detailed expositions of the legal Mongol victory over Baghdad (1257), he was encouraged by
employment of the traditions of the imams. His work in law Hulagu to found an observatory at Maragha in Azerbaijan,
proper was similarly sophisticated, particularly his Uddat al- equipped with the best instruments, some constructed for the
usul (a work in the principles of jurisprudence) and al-Mabsut first time. His courtly duties included supervision of waqf
(one of his many works of law). Tusi also wrote theological estates, a position that he retained under the Mongol leader
works, in which arguments in the Mutazilite style were used Abaqa, until Tusi’s death in 1274. Two critical issues conalongside more text-based justification for the imamate. His cerning his religious persuasion and political stance remain
activities in bibliography and biography enabled the disci- the subject of scholarly and ideological debate: one, whether
pline of biography (
ilm al-rijal) to develop into a sophisti- he was an Ismaili Shiite by choice or by employment; and
cated science in Twelver Shiism. His prolific output as a two, whether his involvement in the fall of Alamut and
scholar can, in part, be explained by the criticism of the Baghdad, respectively, entailed treachery or prudence. G. M.
Twelver tradition by Sunni intellectuals—that they lacked a Wickens, for instance, in his introduction to The Nasirean
sufficient corpus of respectable writings. Tusi’s response was Ethics holds the view that Tusi’s alignment with the Mongols
to compile and collate works of great importance. “made possible the continuance in new and flourishing forms
of Islamic learning, law and civilization,” a point that under-
BIBLIOGRAPHY scores Tusi’s political acumen under difficult circumstances.
Stewart, Devin J. Islamic Legal Orthodoxy: Shiite Responses to the Although over one hundred books are attributed to Tusi,
Sunni Legal System. Salt Lake City: University of Utah only a handful have survived. Apart from his many scientific
Press, 1998.
works, his noteworthy texts include the Hall mushkilat al-
Isharat, a commentary on Ibn Sina’s al-Isharat as well as a
Robert Gleave
refutation of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s Muhassal; an ethical
treatise titled the Akhlaq-e Nasiri, which evinces the influence
of Ibn Miskawaih; the Ismaili-inspired works Tasawwurat
TUSI, NASIR AL-DIN (1201–1274) (also known as Rawdat al-taslim) and the autobiographical
Sayr wa Suluk; the Twelver-Shiite kalam or theological
Nasir al-Din Tusi, Abu Jafar Muhammad b. Muhammad b. works Tajrid al-
aqaid and Qawa
id al-
Aqaid; and a mystical
al-Hasan, was a Shiite philosopher, theologian, astronomer, work titled Awsaf al-Ashraf. An original and innovative thinker,
mathematician, and political advisor. Tusi was born in Tus, in his works continue to merit attention.
northeastern Iran, and died in Baghdad, in present-day Iraq.
A man of astounding intellectual breadth, he witnessed the See also Falsafa; Khojas.
transfer of power in the Islamic world to the Mongols.
Beginning his career as a court astronomer to the Ismaili Zayn R. Kassam

Islam and the Muslim World 701
U
ULEMA translations mark the beginnings of the incorporation of the
applied sciences into the curriculum of learning, to comple-
Literally “those who have knowledge” or “those who know” ment the religious sciences, in which the ulema were already
(singular
alim, plural
ulama
). The term is most widely used considered expert.
to refer to the scholarly class of Muslim societies, whose main
Once established, the ulema class became a fundamental
occupation is the study of the texts that make up the Islamic
element of Muslim societies. The expansion of the Muslim
Tradition (religious sciences such as Qur
an, hadith, Qur
anic
world, incorporating many different cultures and traditions,
commentary, jurisprudence, and theology, but also the apdid not obviate the need for a scholarly class whose primary
plied sciences such as medicine, biology, astronomy, and
functions were to maintain the intellectual tradition and
mathematics). Members of the ulema class have also been
provide religious and scientific guidance to the population.
called upon to act as advisors to rulers, or as qadis (judges)
Their fortunes waxed and waned depending on the receptivity
implementing the law (shari
a) within Muslim societies. The
of the dynasties to religious influence, but the vast majority of
authority of the ulema class in defining right doctrine and
Muslim societies, both past and present, have included a class
right practice within Islam has been immense in Muslim
of scholars, usually given the generic name ulema.
history.
The authority of the ulema in matters of doctrine and law
In the early period (7th–9th centuries C.E.), a separate class
has been definitive. The ulema themselves, though, have
of scholars concerned with the elaboration of knowledge
been divided on many issues, and hence should not be viewed
(ilm) took some time to develop. Most historians date the
as a unified group with common aims and intentions. An
emergence of a scholarly class to the early years of the
example of this division can be seen in the famous Inquisition,
Umayyad period, when Islamic doctrine was much debated.
(mihna) from 829 onwards, when one group of scholars (the
Debates concerning the constituent elements of faith (iman), Mutazilis) persuaded the Abbasid caliph to persecute (and
or predestination (qadr), as well as the transmission of hadith declare as heretics) scholars who did not adhere to the
(from the Prophet or other notable figures) and legal doctrine doctrine of “the created Qur
an.”
(fiqh) were the principal intellectual concerns of the emerging
scholarly class. Many of the ulema also, it appears, partici- The authority and respect demanded by the ulema has
pated in the opposition movements to the Umayyad caliphate. usually been justified on the simple basis of a practical
Some viewed them as deviating from true Islam in their division of labor. Not all members of society have the time,
leadership of the Muslim empire, and wished to put forward the skills, or the inclination to dedicate their lives to the study
a more sophisticated religio-intellectual criticism of the necessary to determine right doctrine and practice. Hence, it
Umayyads. It was, however, in the Abbasid period that the is argued, a class of society that dedicates itself to this task
ulema began to gain both political influence and popular should be instituted, and since these matters affect each
respect, as Abbasid caliphs and their wazirs sponsored institu- individual’s fate (both in this world and in the afterlife), the
tional schools in which scholars could develop the intellectual guidance of this class is of paramount importance. In the area
foundations of Islam. It was early in this period that the of legal matters, this attitude was enshrined in the theory of
ulema, with the support of some caliphs, became interested in taqlid, whereby the Muslim community is divided between
the Greek tradition of philosophy and science, and works in scholars and those who follow the rulings of the scholars
languages other than Arabic began to be translated. These (typically called the muqallids).

Ulema

Apart from this practical justification for the ulema’s the ideal political system, but believed that the imam had
authority, scholars also turned to the Qur
an. Q. 4:59 states gone into hiding (ghayba). Since there was no ideal political
“Obey God, the Prophet and those in authority amongst leader other than this missing imam, Twelver Shiites were
you.” Many Sunni scholars argued that “those in authority” greatly concerned with the issue of community authority. A
probably refers to the ulema (some also included the political theory of “delegation” (niyaba) was therefore needed. The
rulers in the category). Similarly, Q. 16:43: “Ask the people of Twelver Shiites recognized a succession of Twelve Imams
remembrance if you do not know” was interpreted by Sunni after the death of the Prophet. Only the first of these, Imam
scholars as exhorting the people to submit in matters of Ali, had succeeded in gaining political power, and the last of
knowledge to the ulema. There were also convenient hadiths, these had gone into hiding. Reports from a number of these
traced back to the prophet Muhammad, which could be used Twelve Imams were interpreted to indicate that the imams
to establish the ulema’s status. For example, the well-known had delegated leadership of the community to the ulema in
words attributed to the Prophet, “The ulema are the inheri- the absence of the Imam.
tors of the Prophets,” was interpreted as implying that in
religious authority, the ulema were given the responsibility of In works of fiqh, one sees a gradual expansion of the
announcing the message of Islam to the community. ulema’s role in areas that, in early Twelver Shiism, were seen
as the prerogative of the Imam. This position faced a serious
Although there were many scholars whose individual challenge when the Safavid mystical order came to power in
charismatic power is well attested, their authority was ulti- Iran in 1501. The first Safavid Shah, Ismail, declared Twelver
mately based on learning. The ulema deserved this respect, Shiism to be the state religion. Jurists either devised means
not because of lineage, or familial connections, or even whereby the shah might be considered a legitimate ruler,
because of individual piety and religiosity. Rather, the ulema despite the absence of the true ruler (the imam) or they
were due respect because of they had undergone a particular rejected association with the Safavids and maintained the
type of training and education that elevated their understand- ultimate authority of the ulema.
ing of religious matters above the ordinary populace. It was
on this basis that the institution of the ulema became an The debate over the role of the ulema in the life of the
indispensable part of Muslim culture. Muslim community has become more acute in the modern
period. In Twelver Shiism, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
In Muslim history, however, the respect due to the ulema argued that the ulema should rule the Muslim community
did not translate into political power. Most scholars who until the return of the Hidden Imam, a theory he had the
wrote on the relationship between political power and relig- opportunity to put into practice following the Islamic Revoious authority accepted that the ulema were advisors who lution in Iran in 1979. In the modern Sunni Muslim world, on
aided the ruler in the maintenance of the religion. Al-Ghazali the other hand, one can recognize a variety of trends. Many
(d. 1111), for example, argued that the sultan should “exercise Sunni Muslim governments have used members of the ulema
coercive power and have authority because the sultan is the to brand their government as religious in a manner reminisrepresentative of God,” whereas the ulema were appointed by cent of the medieval period. In the revivalist movements,
the sultan and given the responsibility of enacting the law. however, one sees a reaction against the ulema, who often are
This theory of the dependence of the ulema upon the ruler characterized as obscurantist and pedantic, worrying about
for their practical authority in society reflected the relation- matters of religious technicalities, rather than the more
ship of the Sunni ulema with political power in historical important issues of preserving Muslim identity in the face of
terms. During the Ottoman Empire the ulema became an non-Muslim imperialism. The popularist commentaries on
increasingly structured class of society, headed by the mufti, the Qur
an of, for example, Sayyid Qutb or Abu l-Ala

who advised the sultan on both religious and political issues, Maududi, represent a rejection of the ulemas and an exhortaheaded the judiciary, and controlled the religious education tion to “the people” to approach the divine text without the
system in the empire. The situation was not dissimilar in the encumbrance of the scholarly tradition of learning.
Indian Mogul Empire.
This rejection of the ulema’s authority in matters of
Al-Ghazali’s influential formulation of the sultan-ulema religion is likely to increase as literacy and the availability of
relationship can be informatively contrasted with the views of foundational texts of Islam become more widespread in the
Shiite groups. Some Shiite groups, particularly the Ismailis Muslim world. In some Muslim countries, however, one sees
in the medieval period, saw religious authority and political the re-emergence of the ulema as active political agents,
power conjoined in an individual, who was given the title working for change. Two examples of this are Saudi Arabia
imam. The need for a class of religious scholars who advised and Morocco. In the recent past, Saudi ulema have chalthe imam was reduced, since the imam was, himself, blessed lenged the concentration of power in the person of the king
in a mystical manner with knowledge of doctrinal and legal and his royal family. Attempts continue to be made to diffuse
matters. Twelver Shiites also placed an imam at the apex of this power to a larger body, within which the ulema would

704 Islam and the Muslim World
Umma

play a larger role. In Morocco, legal scholars such as Muham- cities, and distributed offices more widely among the various
mad Allal al-Fasi have been at the forefront of the moderni- Arabian tribes, thereby moving away from Abu Bakr’s favoritzation of Islamic law. Al-Fasi and others are responsible for ism for the Quraysh.
the production of an intellectual movement in which the
shari
a is considered more responsive to the needs of a society See also Caliphate; Law; Succession.
changing under the influence of new technology and science.
The ulema have, then, at different times been loathed and BIBLIOGRAPHY
loved by the political establishment. However, their partici-
Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The
pation in the institutions of power remains an essential Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century.
component of any Muslim political system wishing to call London: Longman, 1986.
itself “Islamic.”
Madelung, Wilfred. The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of
the Early Caliphate. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univer-
See also Knowledge; Law; Madrasa; Qadi (Kadi, Kazi);
sity Press, 1997.
Shari
a; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver); Shi
a: Isma
ili;
Succession.
Khalid Yahya Blankinship

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ephrat, Daphna. A Learned Society in Transition: The Sunni
Ulama of Eleventh Century Baghdad. Albany: State Univer- UMAYYID See Empires: Umayyad; Mu
awiya
sity of New York Press, 2000.
Makdisi, George. Religion Law and Learning in Classical Islam.
Hampshire, U.K.: Variorum Reprints, 1991.
Momen, Moojan. Introduction to Shi
ite Islam. New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985.
UMMA
Robert Gleave The term umma is an Arabic word. It was used sixty-two times
in the Qur
an, in both the Meccan and Medinan periods. Its
most common meaning is that of a group of people or a
community, and it also refers to a religious community or a

UMAR (C. 581–644) group of people who follow God’s guidance. Most usages of
umma in the Qur
an, however, are not related to the commu-
Umar b. al-Khattab al-Adawi al-Qurashi, an early Meccan nity of prophet Muhammad.
companion of the prophet Muhammad, became the Prophet’s
second successor and is usually viewed as having done much The concept of a community of believers (umma) took
to establish the foundations of the caliphal state. At first shape during the Prophet’s lifetime, first in Mecca then in
opposed to Islam, Umar embraced it circa 615 in a reversal Medina. In Mecca, the small group of the Prophet’s followers
cherished and dramatized by tradition. Like Abu Bakr, with shared certain common beliefs, values, and practices associwhom he was closely associated, Umar married a daughter of ated with the new religion, Islam, and gradually came to be
the Prophet in 625. Because of his strong personality, a motif differentiated from the rest of the Meccans. Meccan families
frequently noted in the sources, he gained considerable were split; some followed the traditional religion of Mecca
influence. At the death of the Prophet in 632, he helped Abu (paganism) while others followed the new religion. Religious
Bakr to be elected as successor, and Abu Bakr in turn ap- affiliation became more important than family relationship
pointed Umar to succeed him two years later. or tribal membership. When the Prophet and his small group
of followers fled Mecca to Medina, they formed, with the
On taking office, Umar placed the new caliphal state on Muslims of Medina, a distinct community (umma) as opposed
firmer footing. He assumed the new title of Commander of to, for instance, the Jewish community there. By the time of
the Believers (amir al-muminin), thus making clear his supe- the Prophet’s death in 632 C.E., his followers, known as
rior authority. He continued the campaign started by Abu “believers” or Muslims, had a distinct identity. The early
Bakr to expand the caliphate outside of Arabia. Under his struggle of this community with non-Muslims, either in the
rule, Syria (636), Iraq (637), Egypt (639–642), and western general Arab rebellion (632–633) against Muslim rule from
Iran (641–643) all came under Muslim rule, a transformation Medina, or, after that, with the Byzantine and Sassanid
that greatly altered the nature of the state. Internally, he empires in the wars of conquest, led to a sharper view of what
organized the state over a much larger area, founded new the Muslim umma was; that is, it was based on belief in one

Islam and the Muslim World 705
Umm Kulthum

God, in the prophethood of Muhammad, and in a supranational brotherhood. UMM KULTHUM (1904?–1975)
Although some scholars have attempted to identify umma An accomplished and famous Egyptian singer, Umm
with ethnicity, the understanding of umma in the Prophet’s Kulthum’s career extended over fifty years. Born to a poor
time, and particularly in the post-prophetic period, became village family in the Egyptian delta, Umm Kulthum learned
divorced from ethnic identity but remained firmly bound to to sing Muslim devotional songs by imitating her father, the
the religious identity of Islam. In early Islam, this religious imam of the village mosque who sang for local occasions. She
umma coincided with the political umma: Muslims united began to perform with her father, who dressed her as a boy to
under one ruler during the periods of the Prophet, the avoid the opprobrium of presenting his daughter on pub-
Rashidun caliphs, the Umayyads, and the early Abbasids. lic stages.
However, this united political body became fragmented by
In the early 1920s, the family moved to Cairo to work in
the emergence of a series of separate political communities
the lucrative world of performance and recording. At first
among Muslims from the beginning of the ninth century
Umm Kulthum appeared markedly rural and lower class
onward. Despite this, the concept of umma as a common
compared to the more sophisticated actresses and singers of
brotherhood of all Muslims based on the two key ideas of
the day. However, her strong voice attracted the attention of
shared beliefs and equality has remained an ideal to which
poet Ahmad Rami who wrote lyrics for her and taught her
Muslims generally aspire.
poetry. She adjusted her appearance and repertory and, by
In the twentieth century, nationalism became an impor- the late 1920s, commanded a busy schedule in major venues
tant force in Muslim lands, following on the history of and one of the best recording contracts in the Middle East.
fragmentation. In the same period, and despite debate as to its
“islamicity,” the nation-state model was adopted by Muslims, Between 1935 and 1946, she made six musical films. As the
particularly after the abolition of the last, but at the time Egyptian economy worsened in the 1930s and the problems
largely symbolic, Ottoman caliphate in 1924. There remains, of imperialist European domination persisted, Umm Kulthum
however, significant unease among some Muslims as to where altered her repertory from escapist, romantic lyrics, to the
their primary loyalty lies: with the nation-state or with Islam, terse, localized colloquial poetry of Bayram al-Tunisi set to
particularly where the objectives of the two do not necessarily music by Zakariya Ahmad. With this, she rooted her peragree. What is emerging is a view that the nation-state is a formance in the sounds and meanings of local Egyptian words
political reality that is here to stay but that effort must be and music. With Islamism growing as an alternative to
made to ensure that Muslim nation-states as well as minori- Westernization in the 1940s, she sang complicated religious
ties across the globe are brought closer to each other within and political qasaid (sing. qasida, a centuries-old sophisticated
the framework of the religious umma. Instances of this are the poetic genre) by Ahmad Shawqi set to music by Riyad alcreation of supra-national institutions such as the Organiza- Sunbati.
tion of Islamic Conference and its subsidiaries, formed to
In the 1950s, she recorded numerous songs in support of
promote political and economic cooperation. More importhe Abd al-Nasser government and became linked with
tantly, the concept and ideal of umma are strengthened by
Egypt’s charismatic president as an ambassador of Egyptian
common teachings and by religious institutions such as pilculture. In 1964, she joined forces with long-time rival
grimage (hajj), an annual gathering of Muslims in Mecca.
Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab, producing ten new songs
While these may bring the Muslim nations closer together,
marked by Abd al-Wahhab’s characteristic “modernity” and
there are also divisive forces at work, represented in ideologithe historically Arab performance style of Umm Kulthum.
cal, ethnic, linguistic and cultural differences.
After the Egyptian defeat in the war with Israel in 1967,
See also
Ibadat; Modern Thought.
Umm Kulthum toured the Arab world giving concerts to
raise funds to replenish the Egyptian treasury. She became a
BIBLIOGRAPHY near-mythical figure, drawing together Egyptians and Arabs
Ahsan, Abdullah al-. Ummah or Nation? Identity Crisis in from different social classes and regions. Her legacy springs
Contemporary Muslim Society. Leicester, U.K.: Islamic Foun- from her compelling renditions of fine poetry, her musical
dation, 1992. skill, and her uncanny ability to connect with her audience.
Ali, Muhammad Mumtaz. The Concepts of Islamic Ummah &
Shariah. Selangor, Malyasia: Pelanduk Publications, 1992. See also Music.
Black, Antony. The History of Islamic Political Thought: from the
Prophet to the Present. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University BIBLIOGRAPHY
Press, 2001. Braune, Gabriele. Umm Kultum, ein Zeitalter der Musik in
Ägypten: die moderne ägyptische Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts.
Abdullah Saeed Frankfurt-am-Main: P. Lang, 1994.

706 Islam and the Muslim World
United States, Islam in

Danielson, Virginia. “The Voice of Egypt”: Umm Kulthum, North American colonies and later the United States. Per-
Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century. haps 10 percent or more of all slaves in the Americas were
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. Muslim, depending on what times and places are being
considered. The number of Muslim slaves in the Americas
Virginia Danielson may have increased even more during the early 1800s, after
the West African Muslim leader Uthman dan Fadio (c.
1754–1817) successfully waged a campaign to Islamize much
of the region. Though the importation of foreign slaves to the
UNITED STATES, ISLAM IN United States was officially banned in 1808, many U.S.
residents violated the law, continuing to import slaves, in-
Many scholars believe that Islam is the fastest growing relig- cluding Muslims.
ion in the United States. While debates continue about how
many Muslims actually live in the country—estimates range Despite the documented presence of Muslim slaves in the
from 2 to 8 million persons—there is no dispute over the fact United States, however, there is little direct evidence that the
that, due both to conversion and immigration, the number is practice of Islam was widespread among slaves in North
on the rise. In addition, over twelve hundred mosques now America. In many cases, slave owners attempted to control
operate across the United States in small towns, suburban slaves more easily by separating families and others who
locations, and inner cities. American Muslims are like a shared ethnic and linguistic ties. Though this assault did not
microcosm of the Islamic world; they are diverse by race, translate into the elimination of African culture, including
class, ethnicity, linguistic group, and national origin. African Islam, it did often lead to the recasting of certain customs,
Americans, perhaps the largest racial or ethnic group of beliefs, and practices into different and often synthetic cul-
Muslims in America, may account for 25 to 40 percent of the tural forms. Some slaves adapted certain Muslim traditions,
total population. South Asian Muslims, who trace their roots like facing toward Mecca in prayer, to their practice of
to India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, represent approximately Christianity. A few others, like the famous Umar ibn Sayyid
30 percent. The third largest ethnic group of Muslims in the (1770–1864), a North Carolina slave who was literate in
United States traces its roots to the Arab world, including Arabic, eventually relinquished key elements of their Muslim
countries in both the Middle East and North Africa. This identities, publicly converting to Christianity. Tellingly, the
group may total approximately 25 percent of all Muslims in Muslims about whom the most is known generally lived in
the United States. The United States is also home to thou- parts of the American South that had relatively large, isolated
sands of Turkish, Iranian, Central Asian, Southeast Asian slave communities—places like the Sea Islands of Georgia
(especially Malaysian and Indonesian), southeastern Euro- where African Islamic traditions stood a better chance of
pean (especially Bosnian), West African, and white and Latino being preserved and passed on.
American Muslims.
Thus, by the end of the Civil War, there seem to have
In addition to possessing great racial and ethnic diversity, been very few practicing Muslims in the United States.
Muslims in the United States can be characterized as a Beginning in the 1870s, however, large numbers of Muslims
religiously diverse population as well. Muslims in the United once again came to the shores of the New World. From 1875
States engage in a wide array of Islamic practices and adhere until the First World War, and then again from the 1920s
to differing schools of Islamic thought and interpretation. until the Second World War, tens of thousands of Muslims
The vast majority of Muslims, including African Americans, from the Ottoman Empire, especially Arabs from greater
identify themselves as Sunni, those who follow the sunna, or Syria, traveled to the United States seeking economic opporthe traditions of the prophet Muhammad. Some American tunity. These Muslims made their homes in places as far flung
Muslims also call themselves Sufis, meaning that they seek as Quincy, Massachusetts, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, whose
intimate and closer ties to God by traveling one of the Muslim community eventually established the Mother Mosque
mystical paths of Islam. Still others are Shiite Muslims, of North America, one of the oldest continuously operating
persons whose Islamic practice pays special attention to the Muslim communities in the United States. By 1920, hunrole of the prophet Muhammad’s family in leading the dreds of Muslims from both Anatolia and the Balkans had also
community of believers. Finally, there are Muslims that do created their own chapter of the Red Crescent (the Muslim
not fit easily under any of these labels, choosing to follow equivalent of the Red Cross) in Detroit, Michigan, and had
interpretations of Islam that are considered unorthodox, if obtained a cemetery where fellow Muslims could be buried
not heretical by most Muslims—one famous example is the according to Islamic law. Many of these Muslims became
Nation of Islam led by Minister Louis Farrakhan. peddlers, grocers, and unskilled laborers. Some eventually
found jobs as farmers and factory workers, especially in the
History burgeoning automobile industry in Detroit. These Muslims
From the 1600s until the abolition of legal slavery in 1865, also practiced various forms of Islam. They not only identi-
West African Muslims were brought as slaves to the British fied themselves as Sunnis and Shia, but also as Druze, a

Islam and the Muslim World 707
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In New York City, a Muslim street vendor observes the daily prayer ritual. GETTY IMAGES

Syrian and Lebanese group that had long ago separated from newspaper that contained information about the movement
the Shia; as Bektashi Sufis, a community made up mainly of and the rudimentary practices of Sunni Islam, especially daily
Albanians; and as Mevlevis, the so-called whirling dervishes. prayer, almsgiving, and fasting during the month of Ramadan.
The Ahmadiyya focused many of their missionary efforts on
During the 1920s and 1930s, the number of Muslims in African Americans. The head missionary, Muhammad Sadiq,
the United States also grew as hundreds, if not thousands, of promoted Islam as a religion of freedom and equality, often
African Americans converted, or as some African-American criticizing white Christianity’s links with slavery and the
Muslims would put it, reverted to Islam. These conversions destruction of African culture. This was an attractive message
occurred in the context of the Great Migration, the move- and hundreds of African Americans, like P. Nathaniel Johnment of over a million and a half persons from the rural South son of St. Louis, Missouri, converted to Islam. By the midto the more industrialized, urban North throughout the first 1920s, Johnson had become Shaykh Ahmad Din and was
half of the twentieth century. Attempting to escape racism leading a multiracial community of Ahmadiyya Muslims in
and economic oppression, black migrants often worked and the Gateway City.
lived near immigrant Muslims who were also in search of new
opportunities in cities like Detroit; St. Louis, Missouri; Pitts- African Americans also formed their own Islamic groups
burgh, Pennsylvania; Newark, New Jersey; and Chicago, during the 1920s and 1930s. Some of these groups, like the
Illinois. African Americans became part of a dynamic cultural Moorish Science Temple, merely adopted certain Islamic
milieu, where people from every part of the globe were names and symbols to create new African-American Islamic
coming in contact with each other, confronting each other’s traditions. While many scholars have dated the origins of this
differences and exchanging both goods and ideas. movement to 1913, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
believed that it began sometime in the 1920s, probably in
This period also witnessed one of the first serious Muslim Chicago, Illinois. Adapting certain Islamic symbols from the
attempts to convert Americans to Islam. The Ahmadiyya black Shriners (an African American fraternal organization
movement, considered heretical by many other Muslims, was that stressed racial cooperation and self-improvement), movethe first Muslim group to mass-distribute English transla- ment founder Noble Drew Ali (1886–1929) taught that
tions of the Qur
an, hoping to make the holy book more American blacks were actually members of the Moorish
accessible to those who could not read it in Arabic. Beginning nation whose original religion was Islam. His Holy Koran of the
in the 1920s, they also published the Muslim Sunrise, a Moorish Science Temple (1927), a sacred text that had no direct

708 Islam and the Muslim World
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connection to the Qur
an revealed to Muhammad in the newly independent countries in Africa and Asia where Islamic
seventh century C.E., stressed the importance of morality, activists arose to challenge political regimes that stressed
industry, and group solidarity, and promised that the practice nationalist and socialist rather than Islamic identities. In
of Moorish Science was the key to both earthly and divine 1963, some of these students formed the Muslim Student
salvation for persons of African descent. Association, which would eventually become one of the
largest Muslim organizations in the United States.
Some other groups established by African-American Muslims, however, embraced more traditional Islamic practices, In fact, it is clear that by the 1960s, a global Islamic revival
placing greater emphasis on the five pillars of Islam and on was underway, and Islam in the United States was deeply
the Qur
an. Among these communities, many of which can affected by it. Many Islamic revivalists stressed the universaltrace their origins to the 1930s, were the First Cleveland ity of Islam, arguing that Muslims should reject divisions
Mosque, led by African-American convert Wali Akram (d. along lines of race, language, or nationality and work toward
1994); the Adenu Allahe Universal Arabic Association in more unity in the Muslim umma, or worldwide community of
Buffalo, New York; and Jabul Arabiyya, a Muslim communal believers. The revival, which also called for a return to strict
farm also located in upstate New York. Most historians have interpretation of the Qur
an and the hadith, attracted African
tended to ignore these Sunni African-American Muslim American Muslims, as well. In places like the Islamic Mission
groups, largely because their scholarly gaze has focused on to America in Brooklyn, New York, for example, one could
the more controversial Nation of Islam. find a multiethnic and multiracial crowd of Muslims engaging the ideas of Egyptian activist Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966),
In the early 1930s, W. D. Fard, a mysterious immigrant whose writings were being circulated all over the globe.
peddler probably of Turkish or Iranian origin, founded the During the same period, some African American Muslim
Nation of Islam in the Detroit metropolitan area. By 1934, he revivalists, like members of the Darul Islam movement,
had disappeared, leaving Elijah Poole (1897–1975), an African- intentionally separated themselves from mainstream society,
American migrant from Georgia, to continue his legacy. hoping to recalibrate the rhythms of their lives in accordance
Poole, who had since become Elijah Muhammad, echoed the with Islamic law. Others, like Malcolm X, embraced Sunni
claims of Noble Drew Ali, arguing that Islam was the original religious practices, but insisted on the need to struggle
religion of the “Blackman.” He said that Fard was God in the simultaneously for black political liberation.
flesh and that he, Elijah Muhammad, was God’s Messenger,
sent to resurrect black people from the dead—a teaching that In the meantime, more and more Muslim immigrants
violated many of the most basic tenets of Sunni Islamic were making their homes in the United States. In 1965,
traditions. An advocate of black separatism, Elijah Muham- President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a new immigration
mad also emphasized black economic and political indepen- law, inviting large numbers of non-Europeans, including
dence from whites, the building of moral character, and the Asians and Africans, to join the American nation. Many
practice of his unique Islam as solutions to the social and of the Muslim immigrants were professionals with South
economic challenges facing black America. It was not until Asian roots and became successful doctors, engineers, and
after the Second World War, however, that his teachings academicians in cities and towns throughout the United
garnered national attention, due largely to the successful States. Others were from Africa, Europe, other parts of Asia,
missionary work of the articulate, fiery, and handsome Mal- and even Central and South America; they represented over
colm X (1925–1965), who had become a follower of Elijah sixty different countries in all. Like Muslim immigrants
Muhammad while in prison. before them, they subscribed to a variety of Islamic practices.
Among just the Shiite immigrants, for example, there were
During the postwar period, the face of American Islam many Twelvers (the largest group of Shiite Muslims in the
was also transformed by a new wave of Muslim immigration world) and Ismailis, a smaller community that is itself divided
from overseas. These Muslims included Palestinians who had into subgroups.
become refugees after the creation of the State of Israel in
1948 and Egyptian citizens who had been dispossessed after Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam, also grew during this
Jamal Abd al-Nasser’s revolution in 1952. Sometimes, they period. While there had been Sufis in the United States for
made contact with older generations of Muslim immigrants, some time, a larger number of white Americans began to join
who by this time were beginning to organize national net- various Sufi groups or to follow various Sufi masters in the
works like the Federation of Islamic Associations in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of these Sufi converts did not call
United States and Canada, a group of more than twenty themselves Muslims and did not practice the five pillars of
mosques that began operations in 1952. Other times, how- Islam. Others, however, insisted on adherence to foundaever, these new immigrants challenged what they saw as the tional Islamic practices. By the beginning of the new millenunhealthy assimilation of Muslims into American culture. nium, Sufi Islam in the United States was a multiethnic and
The most active critics of such behavior were often foreign cross-class phenomenon. And American Muslims were memstudents in American universities. They had arrived from bers of a number of different Sufi groups, including the

Islam and the Muslim World 709
United States, Islam in

Tijaniyya, Naqshbandiyya, Qadiriyya, Bektashis, Shadhiliyya, oil supplies. In 1979, American-Islamic relations were further
Ishraqiyya, Sufi Order International, and numerous indepen- strained when revolutionaries overthrew the U.S.-backed
dent Sufi communities in cities and even small college towns shah of Iran and then held dozens of Americans hostage for
like Carbondale, Illinois. In addition, there were pan-Sufi over a year. Direct American military involvement in the
organizations, like the Sufi Women Organization, which Lebanese Civil War (1982), the Persian Gulf War (1991), and
encouraged female Sufis to organize for social change among the War in Iraq (2003) only added to these tensions.
Muslims and society in general.
In the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terrorist
The post-1965 period of American Islamic history was attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
also shaped by important transformations in African-American however, some Americans began to question the deeply
Islam. The number of independent African-American Mus- embedded prejudices against Muslims in American culture.
lim groups continued to increase as did the number of Americans of many faiths offered support to their Muslim
individual converts—especially in prisons, where Muslim neighbors, visited a mosque for the first time, and attended
individuals and groups, of all ethnic and religious stripes, large interfaith prayer services. Many understood that though
reached out to male inmates. But perhaps the most important the terrorists may have been Muslim, they did not act on
event of this period was the death of Elijah Muhammad in behalf of Islam. Other Americans, however, continued to
1975. After inheriting the leadership of the Nation of Islam,
argue that Islam itself was a threat. Muslims faced discrimina-
Wallace D. Muhammad (b. 1933, a.k.a. Warith Deen Muhamtion on airplanes and in employment. And in some instances,
mad), one of Elijah’s sons, dramatically altered the religious
Muslim property and Muslim persons were physically atnature of the movement. Rejecting the most controversial
tacked. In addition, negative portrayals of Muslims continued
elements of his father’s teachings, including those about the
to appear in the popular media and in books written by a few
divinity of W. D. Fard and the inherent evil of the white race,
academic critics. Muslim organizations in the United States
Wallace D. Muhammad (now known as W. D. Mohammed)
responded quickly to the events of 11 September 2001 by
emphasized the importance of Sunni Islamic practices, inunequivocally condemning the attacks, offering support for
cluding daily prayer, the pilgrimage to Mecca, and fasting
victims, increasing their outreach efforts, and working to
during Ramadan. He even changed the name of the organizaprotect Muslims in the United States against any further
tion from the Nation of Islam to the World Community of albacklash.
Islam in the West, and eventually, the American Muslim
Mission. Though thousands of members followed the leader
Gender
through what he called the “Second Resurrection,” Minister
Of all issues discussed in the American media regarding
Louis Farrakhan (b. 1933) criticized these deviations from
Muslims, gender is one of the most popular. The status of
Elijah Muhammad’s teachings. By the late 1970s, he had
women in Islam is a symbol of particular importance for
reconstituted a version of the old Nation of Islam, which he
Muslims and non-Muslims alike, often used as a poetic standstill leads as of the time of this writing.
in for larger arguments about society, politics, economics,
Discrimination and Prejudice and religion. Muslim women in the United States face a
From the beginning of Islamic history in North America, variety of challenges, including discrimination from several
Muslims have lived in an environment often dominated by sources: non-Muslims who regard them as the “oppressed
curiosity, suspicion, fear, and even hatred of Islam and Mus- women of Islam”; male family members and religious leaders
lims. Anti-Muslim prejudice has several roots, including a who act in sexist ways; and a society that has not delivered on
thousand-year-old European Christian bias against Islam and its promises of equality of economic and educational oppornineteenth-century American racism and xenophobia. In the tunity to women in general, especially women of color.
last half of the twentieth century, however, these prejudices
have been amplified by several events, many of which involve American Muslim women themselves disagree about how
the foreign policy of the U.S. government. During the cold to face these challenges, but virtually no practicing Muslim
war against the Soviet Union, for example, the United States woman would argue that Islam is an inherently sexist religion.
generally sided with Israel in its disputes with Soviet-backed Echoing what other conservative Americans would call “fam-
Arab Muslim neighbors, prompting many Americans to be- ily values,” some Muslim women maintain that the Qur
an
lieve that Arabs and Muslims were the “enemy.” During the directs men and women to operate in separate spheres—the
1973 oil embargo of the United States by OPEC (Organiza- man in the public world of the workplace and the woman in
tion of Petroleum Exporting Countries) nations, who were the private world of the home. Men and women are equal,
protesting U.S. military support of Israel, many Americans they say, but they are also fundamentally different. Others,
became resentful of Arabs and Muslims more generally. like African American Muslim and Qur
anic scholar Amina
Political cartoonists regularly drew racist images of the stu- Wadud (b. 1952), argue that while there may be differences
pid, but dangerous, “Arab shaykhs” who controlled the world’s between men and women, women’s roles should not be

710 Islam and the Muslim World
United States, Islam in

In 2001 Imam Sa
d al-Kassas speaks to other Muslims during their weekly service in New Jersey. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

restricted to the private sphere. The Qur
an guarantees identities. Children of first-generation immigrants, for exequality between the sexes, Wadud argues, and it does not ample, sometimes challenge what they regard as the sexist
prescribe one right way of being a man or a woman. views of their parents and grandparents. In so doing, they
often make a distinction between the patriarchal culture of
Regarding the controversial issue of the hijab, or the the old country and what they say is the true, egalitarian Islam
headscarf, some Muslim women claim that wearing the veil is of the Qur
an and the hadith. On the contrary, some female
unnecessary and that modesty of the heart is what matters. converts to Islam, including white Christian women who
Some cover their heads only when making their prayers. marry Muslim men, defend what they identify as the tradi-
Some say that they would like to cover, but are afraid of the tional relationship between husbands and wives in Islam,
discrimination that they would face from non-Muslims. Still arguing that Islam is liberating precisely because it elevates
others consistently cover whenever outside their homes or in their status as wives and mothers.
the presence of men who are not relatives. Likewise, Muslim
women disagree over the issue of polygyny. Some argue that Islamic Organizations
having up to four wives is a Qur
anic right given to men, as There are dozens of political, religious, economic, and cullong as these wives are treated equally; others say the practice tural organizations that focus on issues of interest to Muslims
was meant to be temporary or that the Qur
an itself virtually in the United States. The largest is the Islamic Society of
bans polygyny when it warns against treating one’s wives North America (ISNA), an umbrella organization formed by
unjustly (4:3). members of the Muslim Student Association in 1982. Over
three hundred mosques are associated with ISNA, whose
Several factors influence Muslims’ views of gender, in- headquarters are located in Plainfield, Indiana. The organicluding their ethnic, racial, class, linguistic, and generational zation holds a popular annual conference during the first

Islam and the Muslim World 711
United States, Islam in

weekend in September in which Muslims network, discuss among their students, others actively defend the practice of
concerns of the day, and even meet future mates. In addition, encouraging responsible interaction among boys and girls,
it publishes the magazine Islamic Horizons, offers workshops not only during class but also during social activities. In
on Islam for teachers, and maintains an active website. Per- addition, some Muslim parents fear that the creation of
haps the second largest Muslim organization in the country is Islamic schools will only make the integration of Muslims
the American Society of Muslims (ASM), a loose configura- into mainstream American culture more difficult. Muslim
tion of predominately African American mosques that recog- children have been known to argue that their absence from
nize W. D. Mohammed as their leader. Publisher of the the public schools is a missed opportunity to explain their
Muslim Journal, the ASM also offers an annual conference, Islamic religious convictions to their non-Muslim classmates.
oversees the broadcast of Imam Mohammed over the radio,
and encourages followers to attend his many public addresses, Most mosques in the United States also engage in a
which often draw thousands of listeners. number of outreach activities. Members share their faith
experiences with non-Muslims, visit a school or church to
Many smaller Muslim organizations focus their energies talk about Islam, contact the media, and welcome visitors to
on more specific concerns. For example, the Council for the mosque. Though their activities have gone largely unno-
American-Islamic Relations defends the civil rights of Mus- ticed by major media outlets, many Muslim leaders have also
lims, educates other Americans about Islam, and encourages played prominent roles in interfaith dialogue in the United
Muslim participation in national politics. The Association of States. W. D. Mohammed, for example, has become well
Muslim Social Scientists helps Muslim professionals, educa- known among some Roman Catholics for his work with the
tors, and academics develop and share Islamic perspectives on Focolare movement. Maher Hathout (b. 1936), a leader of
contemporary issues. And the Fiqh Council of North Amer- the Muslim Public Affairs Council in southern California, has
ica, a group of Muslim legal scholars, regularly offers counsel held interfaith dialogues with both Jewish and Christian
to Muslim individuals and local communities regarding eve- leaders. And Imam Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in
rything from business contracts to haircuts. New groups Dearborn, Michigan, has even organized an interfaith celecontinue to be formed every day—one recent example is al- bration of Thanksgiving Day.
Fatiha, an organization that offers support to gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgendered Muslims. Leadership
It is often said that there is no pope in Islam. Indeed, since the
Education and Outreach death of the prophet Muhammad, Muslims have never agreed
There are probably more than two hundred full-time Islamic on one central authority in religious or secular matters. In the
schools for children in the United States, and most mosques United States, Islamic leadership is arguably even more fluid,
offer some sort of weekend school for both children and due to the diversity of American Muslim communities, their
adults. The full-time schools are located mainly in cities and relatively short history in North America, and constitutional
suburbs with large Muslim populations. Most of them offer guarantees of religious freedom. Furthermore, there are
primary education programs. Their curricula include state- many different kinds of Muslim religious leaders in the
mandated subjects like reading and math in addition to United States, including Sufi masters, Muslim academics and
Islamic studies and Arabic classes. Perhaps one-quarter of educators, Islamic legal advisers, the heads of various Muslim
these, called Sister Clara Muhammad Schools, are associated organizations and movements, and the imams or presidents
with the community of W. D. Mohammed. Originally part of of local mosques.
Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam, these now-Sunni Islamic
African American schools are named in honor of the wife of In many parts of the Islamic world, an imam is simply a
Elijah Muhammad, who played a key role in the Nation of male who leads the communal prayers on Friday. In the
Islam’s survival during the early years of the movement. United States, however, an imam can play several different
Located mainly in inner cities, these schools offer an alterna- roles in the community. In most African American mosques,
tive to African American parents, both Muslim and non- the imam operates in both spiritual and administrative ca-
Muslim, who view their public schools as troubled, if not pacities, like many Protestant ministers. In predominantly
failing. immigrant mosques, however, the imam is more likely to be a
spiritual leader who answers to an executive committee or
Many Muslim parents argue that the public school system board of directors that is composed of men and women from
has too many drawbacks, including the dangers of drugs, the local community. Furthermore, many mosque leaders,
dating, and an unhealthy consumerist culture. They hope whether called president or imam, work on a volunteer or
that Islamic schools will help their children develop Islamic part-time basis, requiring them to seek employment outside
values and behaviors. Interestingly, what is defined as “Is- the mosque. While most of them have completed studies at
lamic” is itself a subject of debate within Muslim schools. the college level or above, less than half have any kind of
While some schools attempt to enforce gender segregation formal Islamic education. Muslim women are generally barred

712 Islam and the Muslim World
United States, Islam in

from serving as imams, although some do become mosque ideals. They complain that immigrants often take condepresidents—for instance, when rifle fire pierced the stain- scending attitudes toward them, especially in deciding who
glassed windows of her Toledo, Ohio, mosque after 11 gets to determine what the “real” Islam is. There are also
September 2001, Chereffe Kadri led two thousand people, serious linguistic, ethnic, class, and religious differences among
both Muslim and non-Muslim, in prayer as they literally Muslim immigrants themselves. These differences often come
joined hands around the building, asking for God’s protection. to the fore when immigrants form cultural centers along
linguistic lines, separating themselves into groups, respec-
Muslim Identity tively, of Urdu, Persian, or Arabic speakers. Some Muslims
Muslims in the United States constantly debate the issue of defend such activity by arguing that the Qur
an encourages
identity, engaging the question of what it means to be a ethnic and racial diversity (49:13). Some African American
Muslim from a number of different angles. One of these is the Muslims also assert that cultural autonomy and a sense of
relationship between Muslims and the state. For decades, racial pride are especially important in their struggles for
some Muslims have proudly embraced their identity as Ameri- black liberation. But other groups, like the Islamic Center of
can citizens, even patriots. Others, however, have sought to Southern California (ICSC), work actively to create interdistance themselves from American culture and especially ethnic and interracial American Muslim communities, often
American foreign policy. During the Gulf War, for example, linking the future growth of American Islam to the diminu-
W. D. Mohammed supported the coalition against Iraq, tion of racial divisions among American Muslims.
arguing that it was desirable, from an Islamic point of view, to
expel the Iraqi army from Kuwait; but Minister Louis There is, in the end, little unity over the question of
Farrakhan joined some prominent Sunni Muslim figures in Islamic identity and many other issues of concern to Muslims
denouncing the presence of American troops on Islamic lands. in the United States. Such disagreements, while sometimes
seen as problematic by Muslims themselves, reflect the diver-
There have been similar divisions in the attempt to find an sity of American Islam. That diversity—the many faces and
answer to the question of how Muslims should function in a voices and manifestations of Islam in the United States—is an
non-Islamic country, a nation that sometimes seems quite inextricable part of its growth.
hostile to Muslims themselves. Should Muslims run for
political office? Should they serve in the military? How much See also Farrakhan, Louis; Gender; Islamic Society of
should Muslims interact with non-Muslims and in what
North America; Malcolm X; Muhammad, Elijah;
Muhammad, Warith Deen; Muslim Student Associacapacities? The need for answers only increased in the wake
tion of North America; Nation of Islam.
of 11 September 2001and the war in Iraq as many American
Muslims attempted to show support for America while simultaneously questioning American foreign policy toward vari- BIBLIOGRAPHY
ous Muslim countries. Some Muslim organizations in the Austin, Allan D. African Muslims in Antebellum America:
United States, like the Tabligh Jamaat, worry that Muslims Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles. New York:
will become corrupted by participating more fully in Ameri- Routledge, 1997.
can culture, which they see as un-Islamic. Similarly, Hizb Bagby, Ihsan; Perl, Paul M.; and Froehle, Bryan T. The
Tahrir, or the Liberation Party, argues that the United States Mosque in America: A National Portrait. Washington, D.C.:
is dar al-kufr (the realm of disbelief), advising Muslims to Council of American-Islamic Relations, 2001.
work for the reconstitution of the Islamic caliphate, which Curtis IV, Edward E. Islam in Black America: Identity, Liberawas abolished in 1924 by Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal tion, and Difference in African-American Islamic Thought.
Ataturk. Most Muslim groups, however, advocate full partici- Albany.: State University of New York Press, 2002.
pation in American public life. These include both the Islamic Dannin, Robert. Black Pilgrimage to Islam. New York: Oxford
Society of North America and W. D. Mohammed’s Muslim University Press, 2002.
American Society in addition to the American Muslim Coun- Eck, Diana L. A New Religious America: How a “Christian
cil and the Council for American-Islamic Relations. Country” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse
Nation. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001.
Muslims in the United States also continue to debate the Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, ed. Muslims in the West: From
place of racial and ethnic difference within their own commu- Sojourners to Citizens. New York: Oxford University
nities. Most Muslims, including African American Muslims, Press, 2002.
affirm the idea that Islam is a creed or way of life universally Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck; and Smith, Jane Idleman, eds.
applicable to all, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, class, or Muslim Communities in North America. Albany: State Uniany other sociological category. Most also espouse Islamic versity of New York Press, 1994.
notions of racial equality and categorically denounce racism. Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck; and Esposito, John L. Muslims on
Many African American Muslims argue, however, that the the Americanization Path? New York: Oxford University
reality of racial divisions in American Islam contradicts these Press, 2000.

Islam and the Muslim World 713
Urdu Language, Literature, and Poetry

McAlister, Melani. Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Throughout the twentieth century Urdu successfully re-
Interests in the Middle East, 1945–2000. Berkeley: Univer- tained this role as an Islamic language while also developing
sity of California Press, 2001. as the medium of a modern secular literature much influ-
McCloud, Aminah Beverly. African American Islam. New enced by English. As an administrative and educational lan-
York: Routledge, 1995. guage, however, Urdu has progressively lost ground to modern
Smith, Jane I. Islam in America. New York: Columbia Uni- standard Hindi, the rival Sanskritized language promoted as a
versity Press, 1999. replacement for Urdu by Hindu nationalists. Since indepen-
Turner, Richard Brent. Islam in the African-American Experi- dence from British rule in 1947, Urdu has thus increasingly
ence. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997. become marginalized in its Indian homeland and identified
Wadud, Amina. Quran and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text with Pakistan. Although spoken there as a mother tongue
from a Woman’s Perspective. New York: Oxford University only by Muslim immigrants from India and their descen-
Press, 1999. dants, Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, where languages like Punjabi, Sindhi, or Pashto have limited regional
Edward E. Curtis IV status only. As such, Urdu has been carried by the Pakistani
diaspora to many other parts of the world, including the
Middle East, Europe, and North America.

URDU LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, Classical Urdu Poetry
AND POETRY Persian poetry was for many centuries one of the major arts to
be cultivated across the eastern Islamic world. The patronage
Urdu is a language whose exceptionally complex linguistic of the great Mughal emperors encouraged a further developand cultural history reflects the special position of Islam in ment of Persian poetry in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
the Indian subcontinent of South Asia. While linguistically India by both immigrant and native-born poets. While their
related to Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, and the other languages of works were formally cast in the long established traditional
the Indo-Aryan family (whose classical representative is San- poetic genres, some novelty of expression came from their
skrit), Urdu is distinguished by the very high proportion of development of the new baroque manner called the “Indian
Perso-Arabic elements in its vocabulary. This Islamic cultural style” (sabk-e hindi).
orientation is also reflected in its written form, which uses the
The eighteenth-century switch from Persian to Urdu as
Perso-Arabic script with appropriate modifications to mark
the preferred language of courtly poetry in northern India
distinctive Indic features such as retroflex and aspirated
had been linguistically foreshadowed by the preclassical Urdu
consonants.
poetry produced in the southern Muslim kingdoms of the
While its origins elude precise definition, Urdu clearly Deccan. But the living tradition of classical Urdu poetry is
began in medieval times from a mixture of the local Indian identified with the period when the empire had collapsed
dialects of the Delhi region with the Persian spoken by the under the twin pressures of external invasions and internal
Muslim conquerors whose armies rapidly spread the new struggles into several successor states, notably the court of the
lingua franca across the subcontinent. Since Persian contin- Navvab-Vazirs of Avadh in Lucknow and that of the politiued to be the preferred administrative and cultural language cally shadowy later Mughals in Delhi, both of which were
of the Delhi sultanate and the Mughal empire, it was only maintained as puppet kingdoms by the British until the midwith the collapse of unitary Muslim political authority in the nineteenth century.
eighteenth century that Urdu came to be cultivated in northern India as a literary language for a courtly poetry that The carefully cultivated conscious rivalry between the
constitutes the classical heritage of Urdu literature. “schools” of Delhi and Lucknow now seems less significant
than the common features of classical Urdu poetry, which is
From the early nineteenth century, when British colonial both the direct heir to the immense artistic heritage of
rule was extended across northern India, Urdu came increas- Persian poetry (itself now linguistically inaccessible to most
ingly to be used also as a written prose language. British South Asian Muslims) and the chief vehicle for the public and
policy itself favored the development of Urdu as an official private literary expression of an elite society facing major
bureaucratic medium, and Muslim writers took ample advan- political and cultural challenges. Most of the poetic genres
tage of the opportunities provided by the colonial state for the are of the well-known Persian types, and are similarly based
production of textbooks, newspapers, and very varied prose on rhyming verses composed in the usual Persian meters,
writings. It is from this early modern period, when British typically ending with the incorporation of the poet’s pen
India was the scene of the most intense debates about the name (takhallus) in the final signature verse. By far the most
definition of Islam in the modern world, that Urdu became a popular genre is the ghazal, the ubiquitous short lyric whose
language of Islamic expression second only in international cultivated formal rhetoric readily allows its expressions of
importance to Arabic. private feeling to achieve widespread public outreach through

714 Islam and the Muslim World
Urdu Language, Literature, and Poetry

An Afghan refugee child writes in Urdu in a school in Pakistan. While Urdu was used widely as a written prose language under British colonial
rule on the Indian subcontinent, its usage has decreased in India and it is now much more identified with Pakistan. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

recitation and musical performance as well as written dis- While the Lucknow poets are in general considered less
semination. The two great classical masters of the Urdu notable for their thematic range than for their cultivation of a
ghazal are generally acknowledged to be the very prolific Mir formal Persianizing elegance, the Shia allegiance of the
Taqi Mir (c.1722–1810), who is known for the poignancy of rulers of the Avadh kingdom encouraged the magnificent
his direct expression of the sufferings of love, and the Delhi flowering of the strophic marsiyya, the innovative Urdu genre
poet Ghalib (1797–1869), whose slim collection (divan) of that deployed the full resources of the “Indian style” for the
ghazals is an iconic masterpiece combining refinement of elegiac celebration of the sufferings of Karbala celebrated in
sentiment with the ironic intellectualism of the “Indian style.” the annual rituals of Muharram, and whose two great masters
are Anis (1801–1874) and Dabir (1803–1875).
Of the longer public genres of Persian poetry, the narrative masnavi was more successfully cultivated in Urdu during Modern Urdu Literature
its pre-classical phase in the Deccan. Although Mir himself While the transition from the classical to the modern period
wrote a number of striking short masnavis on contemporary can be sharply marked by the annexation of Avadh by the
romantic subjects, it is his versatile and innovative contempo- British in 1856 and the destruction of much of Delhi that
rary Sauda (1713–1781) whose poetry addresses the greatest followed their ruthless suppression of the Great Revolt of
variety of public themes, using the formal ode (qasida) as well 1857, there was also naturally much overlap between the two.
as various strophic forms to compose not only elaborately Under the patronage of other Indian Muslim rulers, some
rhetorical eulogies and satires but also a number of striking poets were able to continue working in the classical style, like
elegies on the cultural and political devastation of Delhi in Ghalib’s younger relative Dagh (1831–1905) who perfected a
the mid-eighteenth century. In the qasida Sauda is later mastery of the light ghazal designed for singing by courtesan
matched only by Zauq (1790–1854), the great rival of Ghalib artistes.
for the favor of Bahadur Shah II Zafar (1775–1862), the last
Mogul “emperor” whose sad fate at the hands of the British On the other hand, many of the developments most
has helped to assure a special status for his own elegiac characteristic of later nineteenth-century Urdu literature
ghazals. such as the increasing importance of prose and of explicitly

Islam and the Muslim World 715
Urdu Language, Literature, and Poetry

Islamic writing had already begun before 1857, not least philosophical ghazal and of the new kind of thematic poem
because of the emergence of an Urdu publishing industry (called nazm in Urdu), Iqbal is rightly remembered in South
based on the lithographic reproduction of professionally Asia for his Urdu poetry rather than the longer Persian
calligraphed texts. It was through this means that a wider masnavis on which his international reputation tends to be
public was found, for instance, for such early masterpieces of based. Although Iqbal continues to be the object of an
Urdu prose as Ghalib’s elegantly informal letters. inflated official cult in Pakistan as the ideological founder of
the nation, his power directly to inspire, whether as a thinker
It was, however, after the cultural watershed of 1857, or as a poet, has long been supplanted by the numerous
when the Muslims of India had to confront the reality of the writers of very different types who have subsequently flourdefinitive loss of their political power, that the new trends ished in Urdu.
associated with the early modernity of the colonial period
became firmly established. Some writers of the later nine- As an Islamic ideologue, the most influential Urdu prose
teenth century were provoked into formulating new styles of writer of the later twentieth century was certainly Sayyid Abu
literary response to the acute sense of cultural loss caused by l-Ala
Maududi (1903–1979), the founder of the Jamaatthe political changes of the period. Two of the most notable e Islami, while the Urdu poetry of the post-Iqbalian peof these were Muhammad Husain Azad (1834–1910), whose riod came quickly to be dominated by Faiz Ahmad Faiz
Ab-e Hayat (1881) is a pioneering history of Urdu poetry (1911–1984), whose combination of an idealistic socialism
lovingly reconstructed around his revered master Zauq, and with a unique ability to intermingle the style of English
the maverick Muhammad Hadi Rusva (1858–1931), whose romantic poetry with graceful references of Ghalib has en-
Umrao Jan Ada (1899) remains the most appealing of Urdu sured his continuing ability to inspire new generations of
novels with its wonderful evocation of the life of a courtesan poetic followers in the ghazal and the nazm.
in the old Lucknow.
Modern Urdu narrative prose is less ambiguously based
For other writers of the period, new kinds of Islamic on the example of English genres and styles. While a few
ideology were as important as the new genres opened up by novelists, notably Qurratulain Haidar (b. 1928) and Abdullah
the example of English, which now increasingly came to Husain (b. 1936), have been able to establish serious reputasupplant Persian as the model for Urdu prose styles and tions on the basis of major works, it is the short story that has
genres. This was particularly the case with the talented group generally proved to be the most successful genre. Following
of writers associated with the Aligarh movement inspired by on the earlier example of the Urdu-Hindi writer Prem Chand
the modernist interpretation of Islam promulgated by the (1880–1936), whose short fiction was inspired by Gandhian
great reformer Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1818–1898), himself ideals, the new school of self-proclaimed Progressive Writers
a vigorous and prolific exponent of a forcefully stripped- that emerged in the 1930s (and with which Faiz was associdown Urdu prose style. The leading poet of the Aligarh ated) looked rather to socialist realism. By far the most
movement was Altaf Husain Hali (1837–1914), whose long successful of these short-story writers was Saadat Hasan
Musaddas of 1879 (revised in 1886) is the greatest poem of the Manto (1912–1955), some of whose most memorable stories
period. Inspired by what he had read of Wordsworth’s poetic were inspired by the tragedies of the Partition of 1947, and
ideals, Hali used a quite new style, that he called “natural his overall achievement in the genre has yet to be fully
poetry” and that consciously dispensed with most of the matched by later writers in Pakistan. But several memorable
familiar Persianizing rhetoric, first to evoke the lost glories of collections of short stories, variously combining genuinely
Islam under the Arabs, then to embark on a savage critique of modernist formal experimentation with troubled articulathe failings of contemporary Islam in India. In prose, a tions of a modern Pakistani Muslim cultural identity, have
similarly reformist message is conveyed with greater stylistic been produced by such leading exponents as the emigre
subtlety, if smaller artistic impact, in the moralistic novels of Intizar Husain (b. 1933) with his continual reflections on the
Nazir Ahmad (1836–1912). loss of an Indian Shii cultural heritage, or Mazhar ul Islam (b.
1949) with his attempts to integrate the local Sufi heritage
Poetry, however, continued to be the favored medium of embodied in the regional languages of Pakistan with a bleakly
expression among the next generation of Urdu writers, which romantic individualism.
is dominated by Muhammad Iqbal (1879–1938). It was Iqbal’s
achievement to combine his own uplifting call for a Muslim See also Pakistan, Islamic Republic of; South Asia,
renascence, looking to contemporary European philosophy Islam in; South Asian Culture and Islam.
as well as to an individual reinterpretation of certain Sufi
ideas, with a hugely powerful poetic voice that drew anew BIBLIOGRAPHY
upon the full resources of a rich Persian vocabulary to Faiz, Faiz Ahmad. Poems by Faiz. Translated by Victor G.
reinvigorate Urdu poetic diction after the successful chal- Kiernan. London: Allen and Unwin, 1971.
lenge of Hali’s “natural poetry” had undermined the appeal Matthews, D. J.; Shackle, C.; and Husain, Shahrukh. Urdu
of traditional styles. A grandiloquent master both of the Literature. London: Urdu Markaz, 1985.

716 Islam and the Muslim World
Usuliyya

Matthews, D. J., trans. and ed. Iqbal: A Selection of the Urdu including his brief epistemo-theological introductory re-
Verse. London: School of Oriental and African Stud- marks whose elaboration he presented in another work Abkar
ies, 1993. al-anwar. Amidi defined istidlal in its specific sense, as syllo-
Russell, Ralph, and Islam, Khurshidul. Three Mughal Poets. gistic reasoning which is not necessarily based on the four
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968. classical Islamic legal sources.
Russell, Ralph, and Islam, Khurshidul. Ghalib, 1797–1869,
The Shiite school of Hilla, which flourished in the thir-
Vol. I: Life and Letters. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969. teenth and fourteenth centuries, did not disregard the rationalist Usuli achievements of its Sunni counterparts. This
Sadiq, Muhammad. A History of Urdu Literature, 2d ed. New
school historically begins with Ibn Idris al-Hilli (d. 1202)
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984.
who, benefiting from the growing rationalist tendency among
the Twelvers, made a more detailed exposition of Shiite
Christopher Shackle jurisprudence in his al-Sara’ir. In refuting the traditionalists,
Ibn Idris negates the validity of isolate traditions, and explicitly identifies the human rational faculty (
aql) as the fourth
source of law in deducing legal norms.
USULIYYA
The Usuli doctrinal movement truly began with al-
The term “usuliyya” applies to those who adhere to the Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (d. 1277), who was the first to open a
principles in law that, in Twelver Shiism, came specifically to chapter of ijtihad and qiyas (analogy) in Shiite jurisprudence.
mean the principles of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh). The no- Like Ghazali, Muhaqqiq defines ijtihad in such a way that, by
tion of principles was at first imbued with the theological making a distinction between the speculative component
doctrines of the Mutazila in the works of al-Shaykh al-Mufid (zann) on the one hand, and qiyas and unrestricted reasoning
(d. 1022) and his students, al-Sharif al-Murtada (d. 1044) and on the other, ijtihad is legitimized on the basis of valid zann.
al-Shaykh al-Tusi (d. 1067), who exposed the imami concep- He challenges Mufid on the question of qiyas by claiming that
tion of usul al-fiqh. However, the methodology for extrapo- the ratio legis (
illa) in certain kinds of qiyas are discernible and
lating legal norms (ahkam) from the sources had not yet been may be applied to new cases under the pretext of tanqih althoroughly incorporated into jurisprudence to the extent minat (scrutiny of criterion). It is noteworthy that the initiaseen in later periods. The ulema of the tenth and eleventh tion of ijtihad is regarded as the major source of dynamism in
centuries viewed themselves more as rational-theological Shiite law since the thirteenth century, when the claim of
jurists rather than as followers of the Usuli tradition. “closure of the gate of ijtihad” began to circulate in the Sunni
milieu. Moreover, Muhaqqiq tried to redefine the Shiite
After Tusi, Shiite jurisprudence stagnated for a century
conception of
aql by restricting it to three applications: (i)
and a half, during which Sunni law flourished more creaverbal inferences such as the tone (lahn) of religious distively. Ibn Hazm (d. 1064), an Andalusian of the Zahirite
course, (ii) what is implied in God’s address (fahwa al-khitab),
school, presented an unusual combination of theology, linand (iii) the reason for the address (dalil al-khitab). Only the
guistics, logic, and epistemology in his al-Ihkam. He defends
second is considered to be referring to the human conception
logic and reasoning on the grounds that all thinking, even of good and evil.
“the tradition,” should be verified by reason. A contemporary
of Ibn Hazm was Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni (d. 1085) Muhaqqiq’s nephew, al-Allama al-Hilli (d. 1327), adwho combined a strong Asharite tendency with a certain vanced this Usuli position by not only upholding ijtihad, but
measure of logic and rationalist epistemology in the introduc- also by distinguishing the status of the mujtahid as a necessary
tion to his usul work al-Burhan. office for Shiism. From the vantage point of knowledge of
jurisprudence, he divided the community into two groups:
One of Juwayni’s students, Abu Hamid Ghazali (d. 1111), mujtahids and their followers. In his Tahdhib, Allama legitigave a new structure to Islamic legal methodology that mized two kinds of qiyas: i) al-mansus al-
illa in which the leges
inspired Shiite Usulis. In al-Mustasfa, he proposed a hori- ratio is designated in the Qur
an and Sunna, and ii) al-hukm
zontal scope for usul al-fiqh which differed from the hierar- fil-far
aqwa, wherein the minor case has more applicability to
chical classification of the sources of legal knowledge as law than its premise.
initiated by al-Shafii. Ghazali’s approach to usul al-fiqh
impressed such subsequent Sunni legal authors as Sayf al-Din By the middle of the Safavid era (the seventeenth century),
al-Amidi (d. 1233) and Ibn al-Hajib (d. 1248). These scholars the Usuli trend suffered a temporary setback due to the
focused on the method of drawing out legal norms rather Akhbari (traditionalist) resurgence that seriously challenged
than on the categorization of the legal sources, as pre-Ghazali the Usuli way of resorting to qiyas and ijtihad instead of
authors had done. Amidi dedicated a chapter to syllogism relying on the imams’ traditions. The founder of the neounder the title of istidlal (evidentiary proof; 1967, 104–120), traditionalist trend was Mulla Muhammad Amin Astarabadi

Islam and the Muslim World 717
Usuliyya

(d. 1626), who had been educated by Usuli masters. Astarabadi Another consequence of Usuli dominance was the
succeeded in turning Akhbarism into a legal school with reformulation of the doctrine of juristic mandate (velayat-e
distinct methods of jurisprudence. Among his formulas was faqih) with a methodical argumentation. The idea of the
the principle of “customary certainty” (al-yaqin al-
adi or al- juristic mandate still contained at its heart the concept of the
qat
al-
adi), which proposed that the Shiites should content imam as deputy, but it came to include as well an acknowlthemselves with “the general certainty” (al-qat
al-ijmali) that edgement of the legitimacy of qualified jurists to succeed the
the contents of imams’ traditions convey to them. According all-embracing authority of the imam, due to the work of an
to Astarabadi, these traditions are compiled in the four Usuli jurist of the Qajar court, Molla Ahmad Naraqi. The
canonical collections of Shiite traditions as well as other early executive force of this doctrine is taqlid or the unquestioned
Shiite compilations. mass following.

The Usuli methodology found a new momentum in the Concurrent with the increase of the mujtahid’s social
Shiite seminaries during the second half of eighteenth cen- prestige, the Usuli legal methodology reached another peak
tury, when the leading Akhbari-oriented jurist of the shrine with Shaykh Murtada Ansari (d. 1864), who shifted the
cities of the Atabat, Shaykh Yusuf al-Bahrani (d. 1772), emphasis of the contents of usul al-fiqh from the semantics of
incorporated the key elements of Usuli principles, including the Qur
an and traditions to what he termed “the rational
the ijtihad, in his comprehensive work on Shiite law, al- practical principles” (al-usul al-
amaliyya). Ansari defended
Hada
iq al-Nadira. Bahrani, moreover, allowed his Usuli the use of syllogism in legal methodology, and he applied it in
opponent Baqir al-Bihbihani (d. 1791) to flourish in the parts of his work. Ansari rejected the application of “juristic
Atabat by encouraging his own students to attend Bihbihani’s mandate” beyond religious matters, but he advocated the
lectures, and still more, by assigning Bihbihani to lead the necessity of a mujtahid for approbation of Muslim actions.
funeral prayer at his death. Ansari’s discourses were compiled and circulated among
Shia in the form of the juridical manual (risala-ye
amaliyya)
Bahrani’s goal, which was to reduce the differences be- that were issued by the supreme exemplar of the community.
tween the two parties, was viewed as having been defeated by
later Usulis, since they awarded Bihbihani victory over the The notion of unquestioned following taqlid was further
Akhbaris. Enjoying his family connections and ability to corroborated by Sayyed Mohammad Kazem Yazdi (d. 1919),
support his students, Bihbihani succeeded in re-establishing who maintained that the actions of Muslims would be void
Usulism in the shrine cities. However, he wrote more po- without emulating a mujtahid. Yazdi set the problem of taqlid
lemical treatises such as Risalat al-ijtihad wal-akhbar, rather as the opening issue of Shiite law. The last bolster of taqlid, in
than works on Usuli legal methodology. Despite Bahrani’s its Usuli context, was made by Ayatollah Khomeini (d. 1989).
aspiration, the Usuli-Akhbari conflict continued, and eventu- He claimed that the object of taqlid was not limited to sheer
ally climaxed into personal refutations and even bloody clashes “following,” but was intended to mean complete obedience to
between supporters of the two groups during the nineteenth the qualified jurist’s commands.
century.
The centrality of taqlid in some of the Usuli works should
The re-establishment of the Usuli position not only in- not be taken to mean that the Usulism of the contemporary
creased the authority of the ulema, but also placed the era was actually reduced to taqlid and its corollary ijtihad to
doctrine of ijtihad and taqlid at the heart of the Shiite juristic enhance the mandate of jurists; but rather that several genustructure upon which the subsequent institution of marja
al- ine attempts were made to present the Shiite Usuliyya in its
taqlid had to be built. The juridical office of marja
al-taqlid best methodical form. The most successful work in this vein
appeared as an independent institution when the Usuli ulema belongs to Shaykh Mohammad Reza Mozaffar (d. 1963),
of the Atabat began to acknowledge the superiority of one or who dedicated half of his book to discussions of “rational
several senior mujtahids in expounding legal opinions, and in entailments” and “the practical principles.” He expounded
some cases in pronouncing final and binding verdicts. the Shiite conceptions of “independent rational inducements” (al-mustiqillat al-
aqliyya), rational proofs, and the
The institution was manifested more completely when
presumption of continuity of the past.
Shaykh Muhammad Hasan Isfahani was singled out as the
sole supreme mujtahid in Najaf in 1846, and he formally took
BIBLIOGRAPHY
charge of paying the stipends of the students of other seminaries in the shrine cities of the Atabat. In view of the Arjomad, Said Amir, ed. Authority and Political Culture in
considerable socio-political roles performed in the modern Shi
ism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.
period by this institution and by the ulema in general, it is Kazemi Moussavi, Ahmad. Religious Authority in Shi
ite Islam.
suggested that the consolidation of the independent Shiite Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1996.
“hierocracy” resulted in a duality within the structure of
authority during the Qajar reign in Iran. Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi

718 Islam and the Muslim World

Uthman ibn
Affan


UTHMAN DAN FODIO
UTHMAN IBN
AFFAN
(1754–1817) (R. 644–656)
Uthman dan Fodio was a religious scholar and the founder of Uthman b. Affan, a wealthy merchant of the Qurayshi tribe
the Islamic empire of Sokoto in present-day northern Nigeria. who was noted for his elegant dress, supported Muhammad
when he first began preaching in Mecca. He converted to
Uthman dan Fodio was born in Maratta in the Hausa Islam and married Muhammad’s daughter Ruqayya, with
kingdom of Gobir. He studied the Qur
an with his father, and whom he emigrated to Abyssinia. Soon after they rejoined the
other Islamic sciences such as fiqh and hadith with a number Muslims in Medina, Ruqayya died during the Battle of Badr
of scholars of the region. Through Shaykh Jibril b. Umar he and Muhammad gave him Umm Kulthum, another of his
was initiated into the Qadiriyya Sufi brotherhood. After daughters, in marriage.
completing his education in circa 1774, he started to teach
and preach in Gobir. His preaching brought him into a On the death of Umar b. al-Khattab, Uthman was
conflict with the political establishment in Gobir that, al- elected the third caliph by a council of six, including Uthman,
though claiming to be Muslim, was still committed to a policy Ali, and Abd al-Rahman b. Awf. Noticeably, the Ansar (the
of accommodation with respect to the non-Muslim majority Medinan companions of the Prophet), had no representation
of the population. In 1804, this conflict led to a military in the council, a detail which helped Uthman defeat Ali.
confrontation between the jama
a (community) of Uthman
Uthman is credited with establishing the canonical verdan Fodio and the King of Gobir. In the subsequent jihad the
sion of the Qur
an during his caliphate. He handed the pages
jama
a of Uthman dan Fodio was able not only to defeat the
of Qur
an, left by Umar in the care of his daughter Hafsa (a
King of Gobir in 1808, but also to conquer almost all other
widow of the Prophet), to Zayd b. Thabit (one of the scribes
Hausa states and to establish an empire that was ruled by
of the Prophet), and ordered him to compile it in the dialect
religious scholars and defined as an Islamic state, the soof the Quraysh. Three other Quraysh were selected to help
called “Sokoto caliphate.” Uthman dan Fodio became emir
Zayd in this effort. Finally, a copy was deposited in all the
al-muminin (the title “commander of the faithful” taken by
administrative centers of the caliphate, and the destruction of
the second caliph, Umar) of this empire and was able to exert
all other Qur
ans ordered.
great influence on neighboring jihad movements, in particular those in Bornu (from 1808) and Masina (1818). Dan Fodio Uthman was resented for appointing his irresponsible
was also author of more than one hundred scholarly works relatives as governors of Kufa, Basra, and Egypt. Dissension
that were to influence decisively the intellectual, religious, came to a head when the rebels, having been promised
and political development of Islam in the Sokoto empire as reforms, intercepted a message, supposedly from Uthman to
well as other parts of West Africa such as the Masina imamate. the governor of Egypt, ordering their execution. They
His most influential works are probably those he wrote to promptly returned to Uthman’s home and despite Uthman’s
legitimize the jihad, on the necessity of hijra (emigrating to denial, killed him. This event is known as Yawm al-Dar.
establish a Muslim community), on reviving the sunna and
quelling innovation, and on the distinction between Muslim See also Caliphate; Fitna; Khutba; Religious Institurule and the rule by nonbelievers. tions; Shi
a: Early; Succession.

See also Africa, Islam in; Caliphate; Kano. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hinds, Martin, “The Murder of the Caliph Uthman.” Jour-
BIBLIOGRAPHY nal of Middle East Studies 3 (1972): 450–469.
Hiskett, Mervyn. The Sword of Truth. The Life and Times of the Madelung, Wilfred. The Succession of Muhammad. Cambridge,
Shehu Usuman dan Fodio. New York: Oxford University U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Press, 1967. Motzki, Harald. “The Collection of the Qur
an.” Der Islam,
Last, Murray. The Sokoto Caliphate. London: Longman, 1967. 78 (2001): 1–34.

Roman Loimeier Rizwi Faizer

Islam and the Muslim World 719
V
VEILING men’s and women’s gaze, gait, garments, and genitalia. The
specific articles and aspects of clothing that are mentioned
The word for veiling, hijab, is derived from the root h-j-b. Its with regard to women only are jilbab, a loose outer clothing or
verbal form hajaba means to veil, to seclude, to screen. The cloak, and khimar or scarf. When in the company of men,
complex phenomenon of hijab is generally translated into the women are asked to raise their khimar (scarves) over the
English as veil with its correlate seclusion. necklines of their shirts (24:31). When in public women are
asked to draw their jilbab (cloaks) over them so they may be
The term hijab or veil is not used in the Qur
an to refer to identified as respectable women and not be harmed (33:59).
an article of clothing for women or men, rather it refers to a These Qur
ic verses do not mention any parts of the women’s
spatial curtain that divides or provides privacy. The Qur
an body. No body parts of either men or women are mentioned
instructs the male believers (Muslims) that when they ask of in the modesty verses except the genitalia, which are to be
anything from the wives of the prophet Muhammad to do so guarded (24:30–31). Guidelines for covering of the entire
from behind a hijab, a curtain that creates a visual barrier body except for the hands, the feet, and the face, are found in
between the two sexes (33:53). The observance of this hijab is texts of fiqh and hadith that are developed later.
the responsibility of the men and not the wives of the
Prophet. Early in the twentieth century the tradition of veiling
among Muslim women created controversy. Different ide-
In later Muslim societies this instruction specific to the ologies and attitudes, whether in Western countries or on the
wives of the Prophet was generalized, leading to the segrega- part of Muslims influenced by the West, challenged the
tion of Muslim men and women not related to each other practice. Regimes in a few Muslim countries have legislated
through family ties. It created a social and political division the veil on or off Muslim women. In most Muslim countries
between public male space and private female space with the where Muslim women have the freedom of choice, some,
effect of a political, social, economic, and psychological especially in the modern urban centers, have discontinued the
disenfranchisement of the women. The gender-segregated practice of veiling. Some of those who had discarded the veil
space has also provided an intimate homosocial context con- have returned to it. But this modern return to the hijab
ducive to deep bonds between members of the same gender actually gives many women access to public spaces and jobs
and inimical to bonds and commitments across genders, instead of secluding them. For many Muslim women, due to a
including heterosexual relations. complex of personal belief, social reenforcement, and public
self-image, the use of the hijab is an integral part of their being
Although the term for dress or garment in the Qur
an is in the world and an outward expression of their inward faith
libas, hijab has come to mean the headgear and outer garment that dictates modesty and chastity.
of Muslim women. Libas is used both literally to refer to
physical/material dress and adornments and figuratively as a Beginning with the twentieth century, Western percepcovering of human shortcomings and vulnerabilities. (16:14; tions also underwent change with regard to the image of the
35:12; 18:31; 44:53; 22:23; 35:33). veiled Muslim woman. Originally perceived as being submissive or oppressed, some Muslim women are now being
In the Qur
an the righteousness or taqwa of libas is mod- viewed as being an embodied threat to Western culture. The
esty. It is the correct balance between the function of libas as custom of Muslim women to publicly cover themselves with
protection and as ornamentation. Modesty concerns both garments that completely hide their body and hair creates a

Velayat-e Faqih

mystique regarding the wearer and challenges Western mo- theory of scholarly authority. The term velayat in Shiism was
dernity and feminism. normally associated with devotion to, and obedience of, the
imams, and consequently was a defining aspect of Shiism
Western perceptions of a stereotypical harem with trapped, generally. Imami Shiite jurists, over time, developed a theory
seductively veiled women were played out in the erotic whereby the obedience due to the imams, particularly in
imagery of early twentieth-century films and paintings. matters of law, was channeled through the jurists (sing. faqih,
pl. fuqaha
), who acted as representatives of the imam during
This misrepresentation of Islam persisted until the sudden
the occultation (ghayba). Until the nineteenth century, this
decolonization of French Algeria. The dramatic events of the
was phrased in terms of a general delegation (Per., niyabat-e
Algerian war (1954–1962) marked a turning point in Western
amma, Ar., niyaba amma) of the jurists. In the early nineperceptions of Islamic women when heavily veiled Muslim
teenth century, the scholar Ahmad al-Naraqi (d. 1829) was
female militants utilized their garments for the concealment
probably the first to describe this obedience in terms of
of weapons. The use of veiling by Muslim women now had
velayat-e, signifying a further expansion of the authority of the
politically sinister connotations of danger, fanaticism, and
jurists during the ghayba.
terrorism. In the West veiled Muslim women now may be
seen both as oppressed and dangerous.
The velayat of the jurist (velayat-e faqih) was not, at first,
In the case of the woman who veils her face, gaze-reversal viewed as entirely replacing the political and legal role of the
is implied; instead of being scrutinized herself she is free to imam by Imami jurists, and there were jurists (such as Murtada
gaze upon men without their knowledge, a perception that al-Ansari [d. 1864]) who viewed the idea of velayat-e faqih with
thus may cause another degree of discomfort. some suspicion. The concept remained undeveloped in legal
works, though the idea of the legal authority of the jurist was
Any analysis of appearance must be viewed within the developed in other areas. This all changed with the work of
totality of the social environment. The Western analysis of its the Iranian scholar Ruhollah Khomeini. In his lectures, he
gaze on Muslim women is not capable of representing the proposed a political theory in which a faqih took on political
reality of the lived experience for each individual woman. leadership, replacing existing forms of government with
The Western and modern Muslim view of Islam and of Islamic government. The jurist who was to rule was conwomen has changed over the last hundred years or so. ceived not as the most learned (alam), but as one who had the
Whether the hijab liberates or oppresses or is simply a part of political skills to gain (and maintain) power. If a faqih was able
one’s everyday clothing is not an issue that can be easily to do this, Khomeini argued, all other jurists were dutyanswered because of the complexity of each individual situation. bound to support his rule. This theory Khomeini termed
velayat-e faqih, thereby making a link between his political
See also Clothing; Gender; Harem; Law; Purdah. ideas and Imami traditional jurisprudence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY At first, Khomeini’s ideas were debated on a theoretical
El-Guindi, F. Veil. Modesty, Privacy and Resistance. Oxford level. However, in 1979 Khomeini was propelled into power
U.K.: Oxford International Publishers Ltd., 1999. on a wave of public opposition to the rule of the shah. On his
Hussain, F., ed. Muslim Women. New York: St Martin’s Press return to Iran from exile, Khomeini set about putting his
Inc., 1984. political theory into practice. In the referendum of March
1979, the Iranian population voted for the establishment of
Mernissi, F. The Veil and the Male Elite. A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam. Translated by Mary Jo an Islamic republic. In October 1979, a constitution was
Lakeland. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing adopted that included the famous article 5, stating that during
Company, Inc. 1991. the occultation “the wilaya and leadership of the umma
devolve upon the just and pious faqih.” This faqih was
Watson, H. “Women and the Veil: Personal Responses
to Global Process.” In Islam, Globalization and Postmodernity. Khomeini. The principle of velayat-e faqih was, then, en-
Edited by A. Ahmed and H. Donnan London: shrined in the constitution which theoretically gave the faqih
Routledge, 1994. power, though, in a concession to democratic principles, the
faqih was to share power with the (popularly elected) presi-
Ghazala Anwar dent and parliament (majlis). After Khomeini’s death in 1989,
Liz McKay the constitution was amended in order that his chosen successor, Ali Khamane
i, might take over this position. Since then
there have been vigorous (and, as yet, unresolved) debates in
Iran over the relative jurisdictions of the faqih, the president,
VELAYAT-E FAQIH and the majlis.

Velayat-e faqih (Ar., wilayat al-faqih), literally “the authority of See also Hukuma al-Islamiyya, al- (Islamic Governthe jurist,” refers to a development in the Imami Shiite ment); Shi
a: Imami (Twelver).

722 Islam and the Muslim World
Vernacular Islam

BIBLIOGRAPHY Muslim practice in multiple cultural and geographic con-
Ende, Werner, and Brunner, Ranier, eds. The Twelver Shia in texts, and are keenly aware of an ideal of a “universal” Islam
Modern Times. Religious Culture and Political Culture. Leiden that may be seemingly threatened by this diversity, refer to
and Boston: E. J. Brill, 2001. these practices as cultural rather than religious and therefore
not “real” Islam. The term “vernacular Islam” is less valueladen than “folk Islam” and more easily inclusive of both
Robert Gleave
textual and nontextual traditions. To understand Islam in
practice, scholars need to pay attention to the various levels of
interaction between vernacular and universal practices.

VERNACULAR ISLAM The practice of Islam may take regional shape and vernacular expression on multiple levels. For example, in some
The central Islamic tenet of tawhid, the essential oneness and regions, women are not allowed to pray in the mosque
unity of God, contributes to a self-conception and represen- (Pakistan, India, Morocco, for example), while in other countation of Islam as a universal and singular religious tradition. tries (the Arab world, Malaysia, the United States, Canada,
The idea of singularity is reinforced by the shahada, or witness England), women do pray in the mosque, although each
(“There is no god but God. Muhammad is the Messenger of mosque varies in the architectural design for the separation of
God”), and shared ritual practice obligatory for all Muslims men and women in prayer. Another tangible regional/cul-
(ibadat) in Arabic, often called the Five Pillars in English. tural, vernacular expression of Islam is found in the levels and
This ideology of singularity is based upon the authority of the style of women’s head coverings and the meanings and
Qur
an and hadith. The fact that one can hear nearly identical historical and political motivations for these. Prior to the
Arabic recitation of the Qur
an in New Delhi, Jakarta, and revolution in 1979, many Iranian women adopted the veil
Detroit, that South Asian, African, Arab, and Indonesian (chador) to protest the rule of the shah; veiling was both a
Muslims perform similar ablution rituals before they attend religious and political act. Since the revolution, women have
Friday prayers together in London or New Delhi, or that been forced to veil and are under the surveillance of religious
pilgrims from all over the globe gather at Mecca for the hajj police. In the secular state of Turkey, where Muslims are
are visible manifestations of a tradition shared across geo- nevertheless a majority, women are forbidden to wear head
graphic and social boundaries of difference. coverings in government buildings; in the Islamic state of
Saudi Arabia, where the Wahhabi tradition that interprets
Muslims, however, live in particular cultures, locales, and Islamic law very literally is dominant, women are not permitgeographies that influence their practice and create local ted to go out in public without veiling and all public buildings
knowledge and variation. Knowledge and practice particular and work spaces are gender segregated. In other contexts, the
to a locality can be identified as vernacular Islam. In linguis- practice of female veiling may become more prevalent as the
tics, the vernacular is associated with the language or dialect influence of “Islamization” becomes greater, such as in Egypt,
where, for example, Bedouin women have begun to adopt a
spoken in a particular geographic location; it is the common
“standard” style of veiling as they become more educated in
everyday language of ordinary people in a given locality. The
state-supported schools (Abu-Lughod).
vernacular may be juxtaposed to a language that is shared
across geographic boundaries or locales. A. K. Ramanujan has The vernacular expression of Islam also varies according
distinguished, in the Indian context, the vernacular regional to whether or not the culture is one of immigrants. For
language as the mother tongue in contrast to the pan-Indian, example, the diversity of ethnicities represented in many
literary language of Sanskrit, which he calls the father tongue. American mosques affects worshipers’ experience and prac-
For Islam, Arabic is the father tongue that is known, at least tices, which differ significantly from those of Muslims living
for Qur
anic recitation purposes, across the globe; but Mus- in more ethnically homogeneous cultures. Muslims living in
lims speak numerous languages and dialects in everyday multiethnic communities often begin to draw distinctions
interactions, sermons, and rituals. between culture and religion. Those practices limited to
specific regional contexts may be labeled as culture, or as
Scholars of Islam have distinguished many local practices, religious practice interpreted through and influenced by
confined to specific cultural contexts, from pan-regional culture. An example of such practices is the wedding ritual of
(universal) Muslim practice and belief by calling the former decorating the bride. While many Indian and Pakistani Muselements of “folk Islam” or “popular Islam.” If “folk” is used lims may say that the ritual application of turmeric paste on
simply to refer to practices that are local or nontextual, the the new bride’s skin is a Muslim practice, it is not prescribed
term is an accurate descriptor. However, in both lay and in the Qur
an or hadith and non-Asian Muslims do not
academic usage, the term often connotes a hierarchy of practice this ritual. There are other practices, such as the
practice and belief in which “folk Islam” is at the low end. sacrifice of an animal at the Feast of the Sacrifice, which are
Frequently, educated Muslims who have been exposed to mandated in the Qur
an, but whose implementation may be

Islam and the Muslim World 723
Vernacular Islam

interpreted differently in various cultural contexts. One rea- The controversy over the veneration of saints and worship
son for vernacular expressions of a shared sacrificial practice at their tombs takes different forms and magnitude dependmay be something as “secular” as governmental public health ing on local religious, cultural, and political circumstances
regulations, which in American cities may differ significantly and contexts. For example, according to Katherine Ewing, in
from cities in the Philippines, India, or Indonesia. Pakistan (where Muslims are a majority, living under a
Muslim state) certain movements (Ahl-e Hadith, Ahmadiyya,
Veneration of Saints Jamaat-e Islami) have attempted to eliminate saint venera-
References to “folk Islam” are most often associated with tion and practices around the institution of the pir; and public
specific kinds of vernacular practices—in particular, visita- discourse is filled with debate about what is the correct
tions (ziyarat) to the graves of local holy men or saints and practice of Islam. Similarly, John Bowen describes a vigorous
associated performance and healing traditions. In Morocco debate in Indonesia over what constitutes proper Islamic
the cult of saints is called maraboutism. The majority of these practice, including whether or not rituals of farming, healing,
saints are Sufi teachers, guides, or masters (pir, shaykh), who and casting spells are acceptable. In India, while educated
may be part of a lineage of authority within specific Sufi Muslims may denounce veneration of the pir, the level of
orders (tariqa), or they may be independent of an order. public debate over these practices is much less vigorous than
These saints are “friends of God” (awliya
Allah) who embody it appears to be in Muslim states such as Indonesia and
particular spiritual powers (barakat) that may result in their Pakistan. Furthermore, many educated Muslims who critiability to perform miracles. Many Muslims believe that even cize such “folk” practices as visiting the shrine of a saint to ask
after death, the barakat of the saint is accessible, and miracles for miraculous intervention, may themselves access such
may be performed at his grave site; for believers, the saint is practices when their own family members are ill, infertile, or
still alive and close to God and may serve as an intermediary otherwise in distress. These practices are not limited to rural
between worshiper and God. Women may visit the grave to contexts or nonliterate participants.
ask for fertility, for the health of a child, or resolution of a
marriage negotiation; men may ask for business success or Religious Healing
success in an exam. Others visit the grave for general well- Veneration of saints and local pilgrimage to their shrines are
being, without a specific request, or simply to honor the saint, often associated with religious healing traditions that address
who may be one’s teacher, teacher’s teacher, or founder of the illnesses caused by intervention by spiritual forces (including
Sufi lineage to which one belongs. The presence of these evil eyes, jinn, spirits of the dead, and ghosts) into the physical
shrines sacralizes the land itself; they are local or regional, human world. Many pirs are both teachers and healers. Their
vernacular sites of power. In many Muslim cultures, the healing practices are based on the assumption that illnesses or
annual death anniversary of the saint is celebrated in grand troubles caused by spiritual forces must be counteracted by
fashion at his tomb, with large processions of pilgrims carry- spiritual force. One method of diagnosis of a patient’s probing flags, musicians, and new cloth grave coverings that are lem is called, in Urdu, abjad ka phal kholna (literally, opening
gifted by the pilgrims. The anniversary is called an urs the mystery of the numbers). According to these Sufi tradi-
(literally, wedding), as the saint is not considered to have died, tions, every Arabic letter is associated with a particular nubut to have simply left his worldly body and joined God. merical value. The numerical value of the letters in the
Dreams are a common idiom through which Sufi saints, both patient’s name is determined by the healer and then that of
living and dead, communicate to their disciples. the patient’s mother. These are added, along with the numerical value of the lunar day of the month. The total is
Most Muslims worshipping at a saint’s grave site (called divided by three or four (the four directions or the three
dargah in South Asia; Ar. qabr) would draw a clear distinction worlds) until a single digit remains, which determines what
between honoring a saint and asking for his intervention and kind of force is causing the illness. Other diagnostic rituals
performance of miracles, and worshiping the saint, which may include “reading” the ways in which a lemon shrivels
would be shirk (idolatry or blasphemy through assignation of over time, dreaming by the pir, visions obtained through
partners to God). However, because the practice of worship trance, or reflection in a surface of oil and kohl. The most
at the tomb of a saint can be so easily misconstrued as worship common prescription against spiritual forces that have caused
of the saint (making offerings of flowers, incense, elaborately illness is the written word of God; that is, amulets, on which
decorated cloths, etc. at the grave, and taking back some of are written the various names of God, his angels, and Qur
anic
these offerings as embodiments of the barakat of the saint), verses, are given to patients to wear as protection, to dip in
many Muslim modernists and fundamentalists label this prac- water to drink, to burn, bury, or hang from a doorsill. The
tice as superstition, a cultural practice adopted from other physical manifestation of the very word of God is inherently
religious traditions rather than from Islam itself, or outright powerful; it may call back a lost child, deflect a neighbor’s or
shirk. Even if the critics of saint veneration accept that the spouse’s argumentative words, soothe a child’s high fever, or
saint is not being worshiped, they may critique the practice as serve as a literal shield against the evil eye. Pilgrimages to
placing an unnecessary intermediary between God and the shrines of saints and given periods of time to be spent there
worshiper. may also be prescribed by the pir.

724 Islam and the Muslim World
Vizier

See also Arabic Language; Persian Language and Lit- Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn. Islamic Society in Practice. Gainesville:
erature; Urdu Language, Literature, and Poetry. University of Florida, 1994.
Geertz, Clifford. Islam Observed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale
BIBLIOGRAPHY University Press, 1968.
Abu-Lughod, Lila. Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories.
Hoffman, Valerie. Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1995.
Bowen, John. Muslims Through Discourse. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1993. Loeffler, Reinhold. Islam in Practice: Religious Beliefs in a
Persian Village. Albany: State University of New York
Bowen, John. Religions in Practice: An Approach to the Anthro-
Press, 1988.
pology of Religion. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2002
Eaton, Richard M. The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier,
1204–1760. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994. Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger
Eickelman, Dale. Moroccan Islam: Tradition and Society in a
Pilgrimage Center. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976.
Ewing, Katherine. Arguing Sainthood: Modernity, Psychoanalysis, and Islam. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1997. VIZIER See Wazir

Islam and the Muslim World 725
W
WAHDAT AL-WUJUD Knysh, Alexander D. Ibn
Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition:
The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam. Albany:
Wahdat al-wujud, which means “oneness of being” or “unity State University of New York Press, 1999.
of existence,” is a controversial expression closely associated
with the name of Ibn al-
Arabi (d. 1240), even though he did William C. Chittick
not employ it in his writings. It seems to have been ascribed to
him for the first time in the polemics of Ibn Taymiyya (d.
1328). Through modern times, critics, defenders, and West-
WAHHABIYYA
ern scholars have offered widely different interpretations of
its meaning; in “Rûmî and Wahdat al-wujûd” (1994), William The Wahhabiyya is a conservative reform movement launched
Chittick has analyzed seven of these. in eighteenth-century Arabia by Muhammad b.
Abd al-
Wahhab (1703–1792). It provided the ideological basis for
Taken individually, the two words are among the most
the military conquest of the Arabian peninsula that had been
discussed in Sufism, philosophy, and kalam (theology). Wahda
undertaken by the Sa
ud family, first in the late eighteenth
or “oneness” is asserted in tawhid, the first principle of Islamic
and early nineteenth centuries, and then again in the early
faith. Wujud—being or existence—is taken by many authors
twentieth century. Wahhabism is the creed upon which the
as the preferred designation for God’s very reality. All Muskingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded, and it has influenced
lims agree that God’s very reality is one. Controversy arises
Islamic movements worldwide.
because the word wujud is also employed for the “existence”
of things and the world. According to critics, wahdat al-wujud Muhammad b.
Abd al-Wahhab began to preach a puriallows for no distinction between the existence of God and tanical form of Islam during the 1740s in the small settlethat of the world. Defenders point out that Ibn al-
Arabi and ments of the Najd, the arid province of north central Arabia.
his followers offer a subtle metaphysics following the line of His basic teachings are found in a small treatise titled Kitab althe Ash
arite formula: “The attributes are neither God nor tawhid (Book of unity), and from it his followers took the
other than God.” God’s “signs” (ayat) and “traces” (athar)— name Muwahiddun (Unitarians). His Muslim opponents,
the creatures—are neither the same as God nor different along with Westerners, initially used the term “Wahhabiyya”
from him, because God must be understood as both absent and its anglicized form, “Wahhabism,” as derogatory referand present, both transcendent and immanent. Understood ences to what was depicted as a fanatical sectarian movement.
correctly, wahdat al-wujud elucidates the delicate balance that To this day, the term is often used pejoratively by critics of
needs to be maintained between these two perspectives. the movement.

See also Falsafa; Ibn al-
Arabi; Sirhindi, Shaykh Ahmad; Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab wanted to restore the pristine Islam
Tasawwuf. of the Quran and the Prophet by cleansing it of all innovations (bid
a) that challenged strict monotheism. Foremost
BIBLIOGRAPHY among these was the cult of saints, which had developed over
Chittick, William C. “Rûmî and Wahdat al-wujûd.” In Poetry the centuries among both Sunnis and Shi
ites. Such popular
and Mysticism in Islam: The Heritage of Rumi. Edited by practices as pilgrimages to the tombs of saints, beseeching the
Amin Banani, Richard Hovannisian, and Georges Sabagh. dead for intercession with God, asking blessings upon saints
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1994. following the ritual prayer, and the construction of domed

Wahhabiyya

mausoleums for pious personalities were strongly condemned
as shirk, or associating divinity to beings other than God.

Among the “innovations” condemned by Ibn
Abd al-
Wahhab was the centuries-long heritage of jurisprudence
(fiqh) that coalesced into four Sunni schools of law and the
many schools of Shi
ism. The Wahhabiyya considered themselves the true Sunnis and acknowledged their affinity to the
Hanbali legal tradition. Yet they rejected all jurisprudence
that in their opinion did not adhere strictly to the letter of the
Quran and the hadith, even that of Ibn Hanbal (780–855)
and his students. Consequently, Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab, along
with other Muslim reformers of the eighteenth century, such
as Shah Wali Allah (1703–1762) in India, was one of the most
important proponents of independent legal judgment (ijtihad)
of his time. His ijtihad, however, was of a very conservative
type, aimed at enforcing a literal reading of the Quran and
hadith, especially in such matters as the punishment for
adultery, theft, drunkenness, and failure to follow religious
obligations like daily prayers and fasting during Ramadan.

Having been expelled from the first two towns in which he
preached, Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab settled around 1744 in Dir
iyya,
an oasis controlled by Muhammad b. Sa
ud (r. 1746–1765).
The religious teacher and tribal chieftain concluded a pact by
which Ibn Sa
ud pledged to give military support for the
propagation and enforcement of Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab’s teachings. The alliance was cemented by Ibn Sa
ud’s marriage to
the daughter of Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab, the beginning of
frequent intermarriage between the two families that continues to the present. Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab’s sons would also
participate actively alongside the Sa
ud family in the military

Abdallah ibn Sa
ud, circa 1750. Wahhabism is the conservative
expansion of the movement. eighteenth-century reform movement upon which the current
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded. HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
By 1747, Ibn Sa
ud was at war with the neighboring ruler
of Riyadh, a conflict that would continue for nearly thirty
years. Conquest of territory was followed by the establishment of a fort and mosque, where Wahhabi preachers and following year, when a Wahhabi force marched into the city
judges were settled to propagate Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab’s teach- and proceeded to level the gravestones of those members of
ings. Control over the entire Najd was achieved by 1780 the Prophet’s family and companions who are buried in the
under the leadership of Muhammad b. Sa
ud’s son,
Abd cemetery adjacent to the Prophet’s tomb.
al-
Aziz.
By 1811, the Wahhabi domain extended over much of the
Following the death of Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab in 1792, the Arabian Peninsula and north into Syria. The movement was
movement advanced east toward the Persian Gulf and north checked only when the Ottoman sultan authorized the goverinto Iraq. In 1802, Wahhabi tribesmen sacked the Shi
ite nor of Egypt, Muhammad
Ali (c. 1769–1849), to crush it.
shrine city of Karbala, severely damaging a number of relig- The Turco-Egyptian forces succeeded in taking Medina in
ious buildings, including the gold-domed tomb of the Prophet’s 1812 and Mecca the following year. In the Najd, however,
grandson, Husayn. To avenge this destruction, a Shi
ite from Wahhabi forces fought fiercely until the death of Sa
ud in
Karbala, who had infiltrated the Wahhabi camp as a convert, May 1814. Sa
ud’s successor,
Abdallah, tried to negotiate a
killed
Abd al-
Aziz in November 1803. settlement with Muhammad
Ali, but in September 1818 was
forced to surrender the capital of Dir
iyya and was later
Under Sa
ud,
Abd al-
Aziz’s son and successor, the executed in Istanbul.
Wahhabis advanced upon the Hijaz. In 1803, they entered
Mecca after the city was abandoned by its Ottoman garrison, The Wahhabi state was restored in the new capital of
and quickly moved to purge the sanctuary of the Ka
ba of any Riyadh under Turki, a cousin of Sa
ud’s, following the deparoffending ornamentation. Medina was not taken until the ture of Egyptian troops from the Najd in 1822. By the time of

728 Islam and the Muslim World
Wajib al-Wujud

Turki’s death in 1834, most of the tribes in northeastern not adhering strictly to shari
a and for wasting billions of
Arabia acknowledged Wahhabi rule. A power struggle within dollars of the country’s wealth. By 2003, the presence of
Wahhabism began after Turki’s death, when the Rashid clan American military bases in the kingdom had become the
of Hail began increasingly to challenge Sa
udi control. In major source of conflict between Wahhabi activists and the
1891, Muhammad b. Rashid (r. 1872–1897) won a decisive royal family. Although the government has not taken any
victory over the Sa
udis and occupied Riyadh as the head of concerted steps to shut down or curb private Wahhabi
the Sa
ud family,
Abd al-Rahman (r. 1889–1902), fled organizations, it has jailed or exiled a number of dissident
to Kuwait. scholars and activists.

The Sa
ud clan, now led by the young son of
Abd al- Saudi Arabia’s tremendous oil wealth has made possible
Rahman,
Abd al-’Aziz (1880–1953), reclaimed control of the dissemination of Wahhabi ideas and influence through-
Riyadh in 1902. In 1912
Abd al-
Aziz founded the first of the out the world, through religious propaganda and financial
agricultural colonies known as dar al-hijra (abode of migra- assistance to mosques and schools. During the Afghan war
tion). These colonies would produce the Ikhwan, a group of against the Soviet Union, many wealthy Saudis financed
devoted Wahhabi loyalists who were prepared to fight for the charities that educated and cared for Afghan refugees in
Sa
ud family at short notice. The Wahhabi expansion in Pakistan. The religious schools (madrasas) where poor Afghan
Arabia was curtailed under British pressures during the First boys were educated produced the foot soldiers for the Taliban,
World War, but immediately afterward
Abd al-
Aziz began who seized control of much of Afghanistan during the 1990s
to advance beyond the Najd. The Hijaz was conquered by the and established a state grounded in Wahhabi doctrine. One
end of 1925. wealthy Saudi, Usama bin Ladin, personally directed the
recruitment, training, and fighting of Arabs coming to Afghani-
Wahhabi doctrines have governed much of the legal and stan to wage jihad against Soviet occupiers. This was the basis
cultural life of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia since its founding for the terrorist organization that developed in the 1990s into
in 1932, even though followers of Wahhabism may be a al-Qa
ida. Wahhabi groups in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and
minority within the country. A Supreme Council of Ulema other Gulf emirates are allegedly funding other militant and
advises and oversees the government on the application of terrorist organizations in such diverse parts of the Muslim
Islamic law (shari
a), which from the period of Ibn
Abd al- world as Algeria, Sudan, Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir, and
Wahhab has been based largely on Hanbali jurisprudence. the Philippines.
While legal reform has taken place in certain areas—slavery
and concubinage were officially outlawed in 1962, for BIBLIOGRAPHY
example—the ulema have resisted reform in such fields as Lacey, Robert. The Kingdom. New York: Harcourt Brace
personal, economic, and penal law. The courts enforce a Jovanovich, 1982.
largely unwritten legal code that permits capital punishment
Layish, Aharon. “Saudi Arabian Legal Reform as a Mechafor murder, rape, drug smuggling and adultery, amputation nism to Moderate Wahhabi Doctrine.” Journal of the
of the hands for theft, and flogging for drunkenness. The American Oriental Society 107, no. 2 (April-June 1987):
mutawwa
in, a sort of religious police officially charged with 279–292.
“commanding the right and forbidding the wrong,” enforce Philby, Harry St. John Bridger. Arabia. New York: Charles
Wahhabi societal mores, including “modest dress” for both Scribner’s Sons, 1930.
sexes and a ban on public displays by Muslims or non-
Muslims of heterodox religious beliefs.
Sohail H. Hashmi
The rapid modernization of Saudi society has often led to
clashes between the Sa
udi family and clerical establishment
and the most zealous Wahhabi loyalists. The first major crisis WAJIB AL-WUJUD
came in the late 1920s, when
Abd al-
Aziz crushed his own
Ikhwan militias when they revolted against some of his The concept of wajib al-wujud (necessary existence) is the
modernization efforts. Later, dissident ulema challenged the most central aspect of Ibn Sina’s (980–1037) philosophy and
government over such matters as the introduction of radios, the one on which his cosmology rests. In subsequent Islamic
television, and automobiles into the country. Social reforms thought, wajib al-wujud is synonymous with “God.”
involving greater rights for women have provoked particularly severe reactions. The opening up of higher education to Ibn Sina distinguishes between the necessary, the possiwomen in the 1970s led to riots in some cities; and at the start ble, and the impossible. The necessary is that whose nonexistof the twenty-first century, women were still unable to drive ence is impossible. The possible is that whose existence or
their own automobiles, despite domestic pressure to lift this nonexistence is not impossible. The impossible is that whose
ban. In 1992, more than one hundred scholars circulated a existence is impossible. Thus, the necessary existence of a
petition criticizing the government for, among other things, thing always belongs to that thing. This necessity of existence

Islam and the Muslim World 729
Wali

is manifest either through the thing itself or through some- range of Islamic topics in Arabic and Persian. The fact that his
thing else. A thing whose existence is necessary through itself writings are often characterized by a historical, systematic
cannot be necessary through something else. The converse is approach coupled with an attempt to explain and mediate
true. A thing whose necessity of existence is through some- divisive tendencies leads him to be considered a precursor to
thing else cannot be necessary through itself. The name of modernist/liberal Islamic thought.
the latter type is “possible in itself, necessary through another.”
From an early age his father, Shah
Abd al-Rahim, trained
What is possible in itself may not exist. But if it exists, it him both in Islamic studies and Naqshbandiyya Sufism. In
does so through an external cause that necessitates its exist- 1731, Wali Allah left India to perform the pilgrimage to
ence. Since the chain of causes cannot be infinite, it must stop Mecca and Medina, where he stayed for some fourteen
with a thing whose existence is necessary through that thing months. His most important and influential work, Hujjat
itself and not through another. Allah al-baligha, in which he aimed to restore the Islamic
sciences through the study of the hadith, was composed in
This first cause must be necessary in all respects. For if it
Arabic sometime during the decade after his return to India.
had an aspect that was possible in itself, then there would be
need for something prior to it that could bring it into
After Shah Wali Allah’s death in 1762, his teachings were
existence, and so on.
carried on by his descendants, in particular his sons, Shah
Based on the fact that the first or uncaused cause is
Abd al-
Aziz (d. 1823) and Shah Rafi
al-Din (d. 1818), and
necessary in all respects, Ibn Sina argues in ways beyond this his grandson Shah Isma
il Shahid (d. 1831). Shah
Abd albrief discussion, that, among other things, the first cause is
Aziz was a noted scholar and teacher with a wide circle of
also as follows. One, that is, nothing can share in it. Thus, it pupils, some of whom are linked directly with the establishcannot have any differentiating characteristic (as rationality is ment of the Deoband madrasa.
for humanity), species (as humanity is for animality), or genus
South Asian Muslims with an anti-Sufi, puritan outlook
(as animality is for humanity). Therefore, it is indivisible in
such as the Ahl-e Hadith, and even the followers of Maulana
discourse and, hence, indefinable. For a definition is a discourse divided into genus, species, and difference. Maududi, find in Shah Wali Allah’s return to the fundamentals of shari
a and political rejection of alien influences a
Wajib al-wujud, also called, among other things, the first, precursor to their own reformist beliefs. Another group of his
the first mover, the first manager, the principle of all, the successors, best exemplified by his closest disciple and cousin,
creator and Allah, is a desired intellect that knows itself and Muhammad
Ashiq (1773), seems to have pursued Wali
knows other things in a universal manner inasmuch as it is Allah’s mystical inclinations.
their principle.
See also Deoband; South Asia, Islam in; Tasawwuf.
Ibn Sina’s concept of wajib al-wujud had a great influence
on later Islamic and Christian thought (see, for, example, the BIBLIOGRAPHY
third Way of the five Thomistic proofs of God’s existence).
Baljon, J. M. S. Religion and Thought of Shah Wali Allah.
See also Falsafa; Ibn Sina. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986.
Hermansen, Marcia K., trans. The Conclusive Argument from
BIBLIOGRAPHY God: Shah Wali Allah of Delhi’s Hujjat Allah al-Baligha.
Hourani, George F. “Ibn Sina on the Necessary and Possible Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996.
Existence.” Philosophical Forum 4 (1972): 74–86.
Ibn Sina. Al-Najat. Edited by Majid Fakhry. Beirut: Dar al- Marcia Hermansen
Afaq al-Jadida, 1985.

Shams C. Inati
WAQF
The common textbook definition of waqf (pl. awqaf) as a
WALI See Saint “charitable and religious trust” only partly conveys the much
richer history of these institutions. Awqaf always had familial
and political dimensions along with, as well inseparable from,
the purely pious ones. These dedications did provide ways of
WALI ALLAH, SHAH (1703–1762) organizing welfare and piety, but also ways of passing from
one generation to the next wealth as well as the social power
Shah Wali Allah was the most prominent Muslim intellectual that wealth insured. Most endowments mixed private and
of eighteenth-century India and a prolific writer on a wide public dimensions.

730 Islam and the Muslim World
Waqf

In technical terms, a waqf depends on the “stopping” (one Managing relations with the power holders attracted by that
basic meaning of the Arabic root verb, waqafa) of some piece wealth was a second task falling to the overseers. In this case,
of property. An owner surrenders his/her rights of possession describing the history of a particular waqf gives insights into
to God. The house or field or garden so dedicated should the ways that political organizations shift. At Mazhar-e Sharif,
never again pass to a human owner—unless replaced with shrewd management brought a relatively smooth transition
something of equal value. The person making the dedication from the period of Uzbek domination to the era of Pushtun
(the waqif) retains two important powers. He can distribute ascendency marked by the creation of Afghanistan.
the income of the waqf in any way that does not violate Islamic
sensibilities (a waqf to support a tavern would be bad): Several important studies by Carl Petry are founded on
therefore, donors as well as their near relations can receive information provided by the awqaf connected to the Mamluks
the income from such a trust. Also, the dedicator appoints a of Egypt and their families. Sultans and great emirs founded
trustee (mutawalli) who administers the income of the waqf. mosques and theological seminaries (madrasas). Since their
Donors are free to appoint as mutawallis themselves, their sons were not likely to inherit any political power, endowchildren, and grandchildren. ments provided the only economic future the dependents of
Mamluks could have. Therefore, women featured promi-
Although permanent, in theory, the historical record nently in the awqaf of Mamluk Egypt.
shows that most awqaf were fragile. The earliest engraved
The history of Mamluk women and their awqaf find
announcement of a waqf so far discovered emerged from a
analogies in the rest of the Muslim world. Women founded
heap of rubble in Palestine. As the economic, social, and
and managed many of their own endowments. Females in the
political needs of people whose livelihoods depended on
early modern Dar al Islam probably had more economic and
endowments changed over time, succeeding generations insocial power than they possessed in more recent times.
evitably altered the terms of the trusts until they ceased to
resemble their founders’ dictates concerning the disposition Mamluks had a peculiar place in medieval Egypt. They
of real property and its income. For example, in postcaliphal were of foreign birth. They were Central Asians or from the
states such as Mamluk Egypt, rulers sometimes seized en- Caucausus Mountains: Turks, Circassians, and the occasional
dowments established by their predecessors and set about Mongol. As martial artists, they differed in almost all social
recreating them to suit a different understanding of their own ways from the Arabic-speaking peasants of the Nile basin.
epoch’s religio-political needs. Colonial regimes and the Their status as warrior-slaves was not inheritable. Therefore,
nationalist states that succeeded them followed the practice many high-ranking Mamluks planned the economic and
of “Islamic” states by renewing and reconstituting endowments. social futures of their families, especially that of their womenfolk, with awqaf. Their wives and offspring could receive
Muslim endowments acquired a kind of dual status in
stipends guaranteed by endowments’ incomes. Egyptian realmost every region of the Dar al-Islam. On the one hand,
ligious scholars (ulema) also figured in the Mamluk way of
their status according to scholars of shari
a/fiqh (the terms
waqf making. As educated members of the Arabic-speaking
badly translated as Islamic law) was a constant source of
majority, ulema were often go-betweens representing the
debate although they generally agreed that awqaf should be
rulers to their subjects. Scholars were, therefore, a favorite
permanent. On the other hand, the institutions themselves
choice when appointing custodians.
continually evolved to suit the economic, social, as well as
political circumstances of particular times and places. Of the Other studies of single places in periods of transition can
four madhahib of the contemporary Muslim world, the Hanifite yield insights into the political as well as the social operations
seems to have the most elaborate doctrines concerning of awqaf. Miriam Hoexter’s study of the endowments manendowments. aged by ulema of Algiers city in the late seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries establishes a model for analytical social
In a brilliant study of the shrine (Mazhar-e Sharif) of dimensions of endowments. Most of the trusts in her study
Hazrat
Ali in what is now Afghanistan, Robert McChesney were actually founded, under the Hanifi rite, in the interests
has traced a series of awqaf over a period of four hundred of the donors’ own families. But the urban population of
years. Custodians (mutawallis) were the central figures in Algiers suffered from violence that had both internal and
Mazhar-e Sharif’s waqf complex. A few families managed to external orgins. When creating a waqf, the poor of the Holy
pass the guardians’ office along a direct line of descent. Such Cities of Mecca and Medina were often the residual beneficicontinuity merely deepened a particular group’s commit- aries of the income. The scholars of Algiers city honestly
ment to the Mazhar. Custodians of
Ali’s shrine concentrated managed those endowments. Almost every year for nearly a
on the management of a vast irrigation project watering the century, they managed to forward a tidy sum in coin to poor
fields dedicated to this holy place. McChesney shows that Algerians living out their lives in Mecca or Medina.
over time the valuable canals fell into disrepair. The total
amount of land under cultivation declined. Even so, the value Colonial regimes often thought of themselves as preservof the produce from the shrine’s lands remained considerable. ing and reforming Muslim institutions. Gregory Kozlowski

Islam and the Muslim World 731
Wazifa

describes some of the ways in which colonial governors in meanings of wazifa explain why information on it is found in
India not only changed the character of specific endowed such a diversity of sources.
establishments, but shaped all subsequent views, Muslim and
non-Muslim alike, concerning the legal status of awqaf. Apart from the allusions to wazifa that are found in
Because imperial regimes shaped the characters of the inde- chronicles and biographical dictionaries, information on its
pendent states that succeeded them, attitudes that were meaning as a pension for the members of the religious
colonial in origin have exerted some power on the present day institution in Iran is found in Safavid administration sources.
Muslim nation-states. In particular, colonial and post-colonial
Wazifa was a state stipend given to deserving individuals
regimes tended to suppress any awqaf primarily dedicated to
or institutions, invariably religious in nature. In principle the
the founders’ families. The second trend was to have a statestipend was attached to a function. For example, in late
controlled bureacracy administer all public dedications.
Safavid times in Iran, all leading members of the religious
Government-controlled endowments were sometimes the
establishment received a wazifa, which was paid out of the
core of one or another officially endorsed versions of Islam.
state treasury or royal endowments. Another kind of wazifa
was paid to Armenian religious leaders from the income of
In the years since 1950, old trends of the history of
the Armenian Christian churches.
endowments have continued. Particular institutions are still
fragile and depend upon watchful managers. Circumstances After the fall of the Safavid state, the payment of the wazifa
of the moment still shape Muslim philanthropy. HAMAS by the state was discontinued. When the Qajar dynasty came
began its life as a charitable trust for Palestinians. Much of its to power in Iran, the state paid greater attention to religious
work continues to be feeding the poor or tending to the sick leaders, and resumed the payment of the wazifa to them.
and wounded. New kinds of waqf that have a global focus have
emerged as a prosletyzing tool for Saudis and Iranians. See also Political Organization.
Others with a less confrontational approach dedicate themselves to such noble tasks as preserving Islam’s architectural BIBLIOGRAPHY
heritage. Though their institutional shape may alter, awqaf Floor, Willem. A Fiscal History of Iran in the Safavid and
will be a feature of Muslim life in the years to come. Qajar Periods 1500–1929. New York: Bibliotica Persica
Press, 1999.
See also Economy and Economic Institutions; HAMAS;
Law.
Mansur Sefatgol

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hoexter, Miriam. Endowments, Rulers and Community: Waqf
al-haramayn in Ottoman Algiers. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1998. WAZIR
Kozlowski, Gregory C. Muslim Endowments and Society in
British India. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University In medieval Muslim society, the wazir (Per., vazir) was the
Press, 1985. prime minister who administered the central government for
the caliph. The term wazir occurs in the Quran once (25:35),
McChesney, Robert D. Waqf in Central Asia: Four Hundred
where it has the meaning of “helper”—a meaning that is
Years in the History of a Muslim Shrine, 1480–1889. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991. loosely applied to political assistants in the early Umayyad
period (661–750). The Islamic office of wazir developed in
Petry, Carl F. Protectors or Praetorians? The Last Mamluk
the early Abbasid Age (750–1258), probably during the reign
Sultans and Egypt’s Waning as a Great Power. Albany: State
of Caliph al-Mahdi (775–785). Historians believe the office
University of New York Press, 1994.
evolved out of the administrative functions of the chief scribal
secretary (katib) whose duties, functions, and authority were
Gregory C. Kozlowski well established under the Byzantine and Sassanian governments that fell in part or in total, respectively, to Muslim rule
in the seventh century. Thus, some of the earliest figures to
serve in this important and powerful post in Baghdad and
WAZIFA other capitals of government established by the Abbasid
caliphs were chief secretaries trained under non-Muslim
A wazifa, or pension, refers to a payment made to members of governments who converted to Islam and continued to apply
the religious institution in Iran. The term was employed by their skills under the new Muslim rulers.
Persian and Arab writers with a variety of meanings including
task, duty, and office. But the term had a special meaning A famous line of early wazirs came from the Barmakid
exclusive to the administrative system of Iran, which differs family, originally affiliated with a Buddhist temple in Balkh
from the other Muslim administrative systems. The multiple (Bactria) in Central Asia. A patriarch of the Barmakid family,

732 Islam and the Muslim World
West, Concept of in Islam

Khalid ibn Barmak, joined the Abbasid revolution against the By the late nineteenth century there was a growing con-
Umayyad caliphate in the mid-eighth century, and he and his ceptualization of Western Europe as an entity. Earlier Musson and descendants served as wazirs to Abbasid caliphs for lim reformers had worked simply to adopt European techniques
the next few decades. The main duty of the wazir was to run and ideas within their own societies but by late in the century,
the government for the caliph on a day-to-day basis. As the some Muslim intellectuals, like Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d.
complexity and size of the central government grew in the 1897), began to argue that Muslim thought and societies
eighth century and thereafter, so did the duties and executive could be modernized without having to become culturally
power of the wazir. Included among these duties was supervi- European and that there were distinctive differences between
sion over several subdivisions of administrative government Christian-based European civilization and Muslim civiliza-
(sing. wizara), such as the military, treasury, and post. The tion. As this conceptualization developed, many Muslims
actual power of the wazir began to diminish in the late ninth began to define “the West” as a materialist civilization, as
century, when military warlords in Central Asia (many of distinguished from the spiritually strong “Eastern” civilizawhom accepted Islam) seized control of the Islamic lands tions like Islam.
beyond Baghdad and its immediate surroundings in Iraq. In
later times the term wazir came also to mean an advisor During the first half of the twentieth century, for many
to a ruler. Muslims, the West became the model for reform and material development. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s vision of trans-
See also Caliphate; Empires: Abbasid; Empires: formation of Turkey during the 1920s, for example, was
Umayyad. explicitly based on a concept of the West as a model. These
concepts of the West tended to be liberal in mode but by the
Richard C. Martin middle of the twentieth century the West also became a
source for radical programs of societal transformation.
Although radical Arab socialist movements like the Ba
ath in
Syria made some symbolic gestures to Muslim identity, their
WEST, CONCEPT OF IN ISLAM programs of socialist revolution involved concepts of the
West that reflected Marxist and other Western radical
Muslim awareness of the region called “the West” reflects the
ideologies.
changing historical nature of the West itself over the centuries. In the early centuries of Islamic history, Muslims knew
By the 1960s, many Muslims began to have new concepts
of the existence of lands and peoples north of the Mediterraof the West. Influenced by major crises of Western civilizanean, but they were identified primarily in ethnic and geotion like the two world wars and the Great Depression,
graphical terms and described as primitive. By the time of the
Western self-criticism, and Muslims’ own sense of self-
Crusades (the twelfth and thirteenth centuries), the most
assertion following the decline of Western imperialism, many
common term used by Muslims for Western Europeans was
Muslims were more willing to be critical of the Western
al-ifranj or “Franks.” This term implied a Christian and
model, even in terms of material dimensions of life. The
foreign identity and a relatively barbarian lifestyle.
fixation with copying Western models was seen as weakening
In the early modern era there was a growing awareness of Muslim society, and an influential Iranian intellectual, Jalal
European societies. However, there was not a single generic Al-i Ahmad, called it the disease of being intoxicated by the
cultural concept—like “the West”—that Muslims regularly West (gharbzadeghi). New movements of Islamic resurgence
used for European societies, although there was recognition began to be explicitly anti-Western in both political and
that Europeans (often still “Franks”) were Christians and cultural terms, while arguing that modern Western technoltherefore unbelievers. Until the nineteenth century, what- ogy and science were still important for Muslims. This new
ever identifying labels were used, Muslim conceptualizations type of position was already clearly articulated in the midof the West involved a sense of peoples and regions that were 1960s by the Egyptian militant ideologue, Sayyid Qutb (exeignorant infidels and inferior to the civilization of Islam. cuted in 1966), in his book Milestones. Just as the concept of
the success of the West was an important part of the logic of
The situation changed dramatically in the nineteenth Muslim modernizing reformers in the nineteenth and early
century. As European states expanded control over much of twentieth centuries, the concept of the failure of the West
the Muslim world, Muslims’ visions of the West were filtered was an important part of the ideological logic of the late
through the lens of experiencing European imperialism. The twentieth-century Islamic resurgence.
West became identified with modernity. Muslim reformers
sought European advisors and models as a part of their efforts Late in the twentieth century a new concept of the West
to modernize society. There was recognition of the greater developed among some Muslims. As Muslim minority commaterial prosperity of European societies and of the stronger munities became significant parts of Western societies, Euromilitary power of European states when compared with pean and U.S. Muslims began to identify themselves as
Muslim societies. authentically “Western” as well as Muslim. Scholars like

Islam and the Muslim World 733
Women, Public Roles of

Tariq Ramadan argued forcefully for the effective existence early history of Islamic civilization. Muslim women in early
of a legitimate “European Islam.” At the beginning of the Islam had numerous public roles in such different fields as the
twenty-first century, a new concept of the West as a location economy, education, religion, and the military. For example,
for truly Islamic life was emerging along with the more Khadija b. Khuwaylid (d. 619), the Prophet’s first wife, was
traditional concepts of the West as somehow being in opposi- renowned among the Quraysh for her business acumen.
tion to, and completely different from, Islam.
During wartime, Muslim women participated in the mili-
See also Crusades; European Culture and Islam; Islam tary. Muhammad used to bring his wives to the battlefields.
and Other Religions.
Aisha b. Abu Bakr (d. 678) accompanied the Prophet to the
wars and learned many military skills, such as initiating pre-
BIBLIOGRAPHY war negotiations between combatants, conducting, and end-
Ahmad, Jalal Al-e. Gharbzadeghi (Weststruckness). Translated ing wars. It should come as no surprise that Muhammad’s
by John Green and Ahmad Alizadeh. Costa Mesa, Calif.: contemporaries and companions entrusted her military abil-
Mazda Publishers, 1997. ity to restore justice and the communal good. At the Battle of
Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, and Smith, Jane I., eds. Muslim the Camel, in 656, she led a force of 13,000 soldiers against
Minorities in the West: Visible and Invisible. Walnut Creek, the caliph
Ali (d. 661) after he failed to punish the murderer
Calif: Altamira Press, 2002. of
Uthman (d. 656). Muslim history is replete with the tales
Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939. of many other Muslim women warriors, such as Husayba (of
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983. the Battle of Uhud, in 625), Umm
Umara (of the Battle of
Lewis, Bernard. The Muslim Discovery of Europe. New York:
Uqraba, in 634), al-Khansa (of the Battle of Qadisiyya, in
Norton, 1982. 636), and Hind bint
Utba and Huwayra (of the Battle of
Yarmuk, in 637).
Voll, John O. “Islamic Renewal and the ’Failure of the
West.’” In Religious Resurgence. Edited by Richard Antoun
Women have also played important roles in the field of
and Mary Elaine Hegland. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Unireligious knowledge.
Aisha was one of the most authoritaversity Press, 1987.
tive sources in the transmission of the prophetic tradition.
Von Laue, Theodore H. The World Revolution of Westernization:
Hafsa, another Prophet’s wife, preserved the original collec-
The Twentieth Century in Global Perspective. New York:
tion of the Quran. And Fatima, the Prophet’s youngest
Oxford University Press, 1987.
daughter, played an equally important role in the transmission of the Prophetic tradition within the eminent Shi
ite
John O. Voll
circles.

Medieval Times
Religious scholarship and outstanding personal devotion in
WOMEN, PUBLIC ROLES OF
life allowed these and other early Muslim women to insert
There are religious and historical considerations concerning themselves into the male-dominated public sphere. Rabi
a althe inclusion of Muslim women in the public sphere. The
Adawiyya (d. 801) was famous for her mystical pursuits.
Quran addresses women as individuals who are responsible Sayyida Nafisa (d. 824), a female descendant of the Prophet,
for their moral individuality. It states that no individual, was respected for her piety and knowledge. Al-Qushayri’s
regardless of sex, will be forced to bear hardship beyond his or wife, the daughter of his master Abu
Ali al-Daqqaq, was
her capacity (2:233, 2:286); that each person is responsible for renowned for her transmission of hadith as well as for her piety.
his/her own account (6:164, 40:17, 20.15); and that any good
In the medieval period, Muslim women achieved less
deed returns to the one who performs it (2:272).
public participation. Compared to the previous generations,
Qur
anic Examples only a few Muslim women were well known for transmitting
The Quran further associates the call for women’s individual prophetic traditions. Among them were Khadija bint Muhampiety with communal participation in public good, as indi- mad (d. 1389), Bay Khatun (d. 1391), and Khadija bint
Ali (d.
cated in verse 33:53. This verse invites human beings to 1468). Women’s participation also became less and less
display their individual and communal virtues for the public visible as their roles were subject to the general codification of
good. It also establishes a common obligation for both men Islamic law. The jurists generally agreed that the most honorand women to endow themselves with the ethical qualities, able roles for women were those of wife, mother, and capable
such as chastity, truthfulness, and patience, which work at household manager. Less valued but acceptable was the role
both personal and communal levels. of religious teacher. The most inappropriate role for women,
however, was generally held to be that of a judge or a head of
Whereas the Quran provides the general principles gov- the state. Nonetheless, jurists’ opinions varied greatly on
erning a women’s participation in public life, concrete exam- female leadership, and Abu Hanifa (d. 767) and Ibn Jarir alples of how they actually participated can also be found in the Tabari believed that women could be appointed judges.

734 Islam and the Muslim World
Women, Public Roles of

women supporting the male-only Nahdlatul Ulama (“Rise of
Religious Scholars,” 1926) formed the N.U. Muslimat (1946).

The trend toward globalization presents ever-greater opportunities for Muslim women to engage in public life. More
women find that public participation provides them with an
avenue for self-expression and an opportunity to become
affluent, whereas others are driven into the public sphere by
necessity. Muslim women have availed themselves of the
opportunity to contribute to the public good in a variety of ways, such as religious teachers, lawyers, doctors,
teachers, farmers, laborers, and politicians. Some Muslim
women have become the heads of Muslim states, for example
Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan (prime minister, 1988–1990 and
1993–1996), Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia (elected
president in 2001), Shaykh Hasina Wajed of Bangladesh
(elected prime minister in 1996), and Tansu Ciller of Turkey
(prime minister, 1993–1995).

Although women have achieved important advances in the
public sphere, the idealization of the proper Muslim woman
as a mother and a wife has never died. Islamists, both male and
female, continue to disseminate this idea in order to counter
ideas of women’s roles that they see as having been imported
from the West. Zaynab al-Ghazali (b. 1918), the founder of
Islamic Women’s Association, set forth a critique against
Benazir Bhutto, above, was Prime Minister of Pakistan from
1988–1990 and 1993–1996. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS women who modeled themselves on the Western ways of life
and images, even taking to task her own early mentor, Huda
Sha
rawi.

The legal assertion of a gender-based division of societal Embedded in Islamist movements throughout the Musroles excluded women from much of the public sphere, lim world is the ideal image of a veiled wife and mother as the
resulting in their seclusion within the private sphere. This pillar of social order and family. Some such movements praise
exclusion coincided with the misogynistic assumption that women’s roles as mothers and wives, but still permit them to
women’s participation in public life invites evil and creates engage in public life if need drives them to do so; others
social disorder for society, largely because of the temptation confine women to their own households, denying them more
they pose to men. public roles, as in the case of the Taliban.

Modern Movements See also Feminism; Gender; Law.
The influx of modernity to the Muslim world has changed the
faith of many Muslim women. Opportunities for Muslim
BIBLIOGRAPHY
women to receive education and get involved in nation
building have multiplied. By early 1900, women had become Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a
Modern Debate. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
more socially and politically active. Egyptian women, such
Press, 1992.
as Huda Sha
rawi (1879–1947) and Malak Hifni Nassef
(1886–1918), were among the first generation of Muslim Hibri, Azizah Y al-. “An Introduction to Muslim Women’s
women to promote education for women and discuss the Rights.” In Windows of Faith: Muslim Women Scholar-
Activists in North America. Edited by Gisela Webb. Syrapossibility that aspects of Western life might be appropriate.
cuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2000.
The call for educating women was heard as far away as
Indonesia. There, men’s political activist groups were quickly Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and Male Elite: A Feminist Interprejoined by women’s organizations, which provided collabora- tation of Women’s Rights in Islam. Translated by Mary Jo
Lakeland. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1991.
tion and support. For instance, the Muhammadiya (“Way of
Muhammad,” founded in 1912) had a women’s counterpart Roded, Ruth. Women in Islam and the Middle East: A Reader.
in the Aisyiah (“way of
Aisha,” founded in 1917). Similarly, New York: Taurus, 1999.
the women’s counterpart to the Persatuan Islam (Islamic
Union, 1923) was the Persatuan Islam Istri (1936), and Etin Anwar

Islam and the Muslim World 735
Y
YAHYA BIN
ABDALLAH RAMIYA Nimtz August, H. Islam and Politics in East Africa: the Sufi
Order in Tanzania. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
(1856–1931) Press, 1980.

Yahya bin
Abdallah Ramiya was born named Mundu, in Hassan Mwakimako
eastern Congo, in 1856. He became a house slave of Shaykh

Amr bin Sulayman al-Lemki (d. 1901) at the age of eight,
embraced Islam, and became a successful merchant, plantation owner, Sufi shaykh, and colonial administrator. Owing
YOUNG OTTOMANS
to the endogamous nature of the
Ibadi sect to which Ramiya’s A movement committed to constitutional reform in the
master adhered, he became a Sunni. His religious studies Ottoman Empire, the Young Ottomans were influential
began at the age of thirty, and he completed the Quran under between 1860 and 1876. After 1865 they were the leading
Sharif
Abdallah bin
Alawi al-Jamal al-Layl around 1889. He critics of the Ottoman state. They used the press to create
continued studying jurisprudence (fiqh), mysticism (tasawwuf), public opinion and introduced political concepts such as
exegesis (tafsir), theology (tawhid), and logic (mantiq) under nationalism, patriotism, and parliamentarianism into the Otto-
Shaykh Abu Bakr bin Taha al-Jabri, matriculating around 1900. man debates. They developed the first constitutionalist ideology in the Ottoman Empire. Civil and official leaders of the
In 1911, Shaykh Ramiya received an Ijaza (certificate of society embraced them.
instruction) from Shaykh Muhammad bin Husayn al-Lughani,
From the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Ottobecame a khalifa of the Qadiriyya Sufi order, and was selected
man Empire gradually fell behind the emerging West. Disthe shaykh of Bagamoyo after the death in 1910 of his master,
covery of America altered the economics of gold. Europe
Shaykh Muhammad Ma
aruf bin Shaykh Ahmad bin Abu
slowly became a bigger gold holder while the Ottoman
Bakr. Shaykh Ramiya established the Maulid in Bagamoyo, to
Empire began to lose its buying power. This was reflected in
celebrate the Prophet’s birthday. This ritual became the most its tax policies that made its subjects uncomfortable and later
popular Muslim celebration on mainland Tanganyika during rebellious. As Europe grew richer, it entered an era of
the colonial period, equaled by that held at the Riyadha technological development that was reflected in its military
Mosque in Lamu. In 1916, he was appointed Liwali (district and especially in its fleet power. European colonialism took
governor) of Bagamoyo, making this former slave an influen- off when the Ottoman Empire became less comfortable with
tial personality throughout East Africa. He died on May 1931 its institutions of government. The growth of Europe, ineviand was succeeded both materially and spiritually by his son, tably, happened at the expense of the only non-European
Shaykh Muhammad Ramiya. imperial power. Ottomans slowly lost their control of trade
routes, and gave privileges to European traders in order to be
See also Africa, Islam in; Tariqa. able to keep them in their markets. Borrowing from the
European bankers to keep the state intact was a short-term
solution, which hastened the bankruptcy of the Ottomans.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Modernization became an issue as the need for a better
Cruise O’Brien, Donal Brian, ed. Charisma and Brotherhood in military power to fight the Europeans rose during the eight-
African Islam. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988. eenth century, and the entire nineteenth century was an

Young Ottomans

attempt to reach an Eastern style social-military-modernity. As the alliance grew, three intellectuals became its leading
This shaped the politics of the Middle East to the date. figures: Namik Kemal, Ziya Paşa (1825–1880), and
Ali Suavi.
Under their guidance the Young Ottomans used Tasvir-i
After losing many of its social estates in the eighteenth efkar to communicate their ideas. Eventually, they were
century, the empire started to reform itself. At the beginning censored and in 1867 Kemal and Ziya had to escape to
of the nineteenth century these reforms were intensified, and Europe. They continued to communicate their work through
after 1839, with the proclamation of the Hatt-i Şerif of foreign post offices that were outside the scope of official
Gülhane (The Rescript of the Rose Chamber), the period of Ottoman censorship. In Europe, the Young Ottomans formed
Tanzimat (Reformation) started. Hatt-i Şerif recognized equal an opposition movement, based in London and Paris. An
rights for Muslims and non-Muslims alike, promised security Ottoman-Egyptian prince, Mustafa Fazil, who tried to use
of life, and administrative, educational, and economic re- the movement to pressure the Ottoman government for his
forms. Another document, the Hatt-i Hümayun (The Impe- own ends, sponsored them. Mustafa Fazil had also helped
rial Edict) of 1856, reasserted the equal rights of non- Ibrahim Şinasi, in 1861, with the establishment of Tasvir-i efkar.
Muslims and Muslim Ottoman subjects alike. This edict also
triggered some negative responses among Muslims. In 1859, Later
Ali Suavi also went to exile. Suavi represented the
the so-called Kuleli Conspiracy took place when a religious more Islamic reaction to the Tanzimat and it was essentially
leader led a riot to which young officers and clerics also gave after his arrival that the Young Ottomans became aware of
support. Evidently, the Tanzimat generated political and their differences. Kemal and Ziya’s understanding of parliacultural conflicts for it changed the millet (protected religious ment and democracy had little resemblance to
Ali’s concepcommunities) structures. Secular, ethnic, and nationalist ide- tion of these institutions. Their newspaper, called Hurriyet
als began to mobilize Ottoman subjects, first non-Muslims, (Freedom), was closed due to the conflicts among the leaders
then Muslims. of the movement. In 1870, most of the Young Ottomans
returned to the Ottoman Empire and continued to express
The Young Ottomans represented the first sound Muslim their ideas. They were subjected to further censorship and exile.
intellectual response to the Tanzimat. It was initiated by
Although the Young Ottomans were liberals, they were
Ibrahim Şinasi (1824–1871), a young Ottoman bureaucrat,
often conservative in their criticism of Tanzimat leaders like
and a protege of Mustafa Reşit Paşa, director of the Army

Ali Paşa. They believed the reforms undermined Muslim and
Arsenal (Tophane). Şinasi entered the Arsenal and rose within
Ottoman identity. They admired European nations and parthe bureaucracy. He was sent to Europe by Reşit for further
liamentary systems, but they argued that the Ottoman Empire
education. In Paris he attended the literary soirées of Ernest
was different from the European countries. They accepted
Renan and Lamartine. In 1855, he was a leading Tanzimat
that the subjects of the empire were heterogeneous, varying
bureaucrat but his high profile threatened some of his colin race, religion, and language. For the future of the Ottoman
leagues. As a result of internal conflicts, he was never allowed
state, they argued, it was necessary to implement a constituto hold a significant position. He was especially disliked by
tion, a parliament, and Ottomanism, an ideology that com-

Ali Paşa, the grand wazir. After 1860, Şinasi became involved
bined Ottoman culture and Islam with modern nationalism.
in literature. He started his own paper Tasvir-i efkar (De-
In their view a parliament would provide a political forum
scription of Ideas, 1861–1870), which later became the news
where these differences could be consolidated and governorgan of the Young Ottomans. In 1864, he asked for a
ment policies developed. Participation in such a system would
government post and was refused by
Ali Paşa one last time.
generate a feeling of belonging and emphasize the concept of
He went into exile in Paris, leaving Tasvir-i efkar to Namik
vatan (fatherland). Some of the Young Ottomans argued that
Kemal (1840–1888), a member of his circle.
the entire millet system had to be abolished in order to allow a
The intellectuals who became associated with Şinasi and full expression of Ottomanism.
his paper were critics of the government. They accused
Ali Ironically,
Ali Paşa and Fuat Paşa were modernizers too.
and Fuat Paşas of using Tanzimat to establish the autocratic They belonged to the same generation of reformists as the
rule of elite bureaucrats, of undermining Islam and Ottoman Young Ottomans but they believed that reforms had to be
culture, and of not defending the empire against the influ- achieved through a strong, centralized state. In their view,
ences of the Western powers. In 1865, six men formed a representative government would delay modernization and
secret group called the Patriotic Alliance, to criticize
Ali Paşa undermine the power of the state.
and act against him. Most of these men were former employees of the Translation Bureau of the Porte, and were thus In part, it was the Young Ottomans who inspired the
exposed to international developments. They shared a com- civilian and military officials who dethroned Sultan Abdulaziz
mon knowledge of European civilization and concern over in 1876. In the same year, the first constitution and the first
the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Their names were parliament were introduced in the Ottoman Empire, under
Mehmet Bey, Nuri Bey, Reşat Bey, Namik Kemal, Ayatollah Sultan Abd al-Hamid II (Ar.,
Abd al-Hamid II). These
Bey, and Refik Bey. developments can also be attributed to the influences of the

738 Islam and the Muslim World
Young Turks

Young Ottomans, who saw to it that the first constitution of in Salonika. They joined the CUP in 1907 and because of
the empire emphasized Ottomanism as its ideological basis. their reputation for action these men became the ruling
faction. From then on the new coalition was named the
Among the leaders of the Young Ottomans, Namik Kemal Committee for Progress and Union (CPU). In the same year,
proved to be the most influential. Later generations, and between 27 and 29 December, the Second Congress of
especially the Young Turks who emerged after 1889, em- Ottoman Liberals met in Paris and resolved to topple
braced his image and his fervent patriotism. Abdülhamit II from power.

See also Pan-Islam; Reform: Arab Middle East and By the spring of 1908 those CPU members who had
North Africa. served in the Ottoman army in Macedonia began to act more
openly. They reacted to Abdülhamit’s efforts to discipline
BIBLIOGRAPHY and spy on their activities by assassinating inspectors and
Mardin, Serif. The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought. Prince- others loyal to the sultan. In July, Adjunct Major Ahmed
ton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1962. Niyazi Bey and later Enver Bey renounced their loyalty to the
Shaw, Stanford J., and Shaw, Ezel Kural. History of the sultan and took their troops into the mountains to engage in
Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Vol. II: Reform, Revo- guerilla activity. Later, the special military commander sent
lution, and Republic: The Rise of Modern Turkey, 1808–1975. to take control of the Macedonian army was assassinated by a
London: Cambridge University Press, 1977. CUP member. The CPU further pressured the sultan with a
series of telegrams threatening to occupy the capital if the
Murat C. Mengüç constitution were not reinstated. In July 1908, Abdülhamit
felt obliged to reinstitute the 1876 constitution, inaugurating
the second constitutional era, also known as the Young
Turks’ revolution.
YOUNG TURKS
The event was celebrated by every ethnic group that stood
Young Turks is the term generally applied to the opposition to acquire greater security. Yet when the parliament began
to the Ottoman sultan Abdulhamit II’s rule (Ar.,
Abd al- meeting, the division among the Young Turks’s supporters
Hamid, 1876–1908). Although the foundations of the move- became clear. Two major factions were identified: unionists
ment can be traced back to 1889, it only became politically CPU and the liberals. The unionists favored a strong centralactive prior to the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. Its ized state to achieve modernization and progress. The libermembers at the time forced the reinstatement of the constitu- als wanted a decentralized and autonomous polity benefiting
tion and the parliament after thirty years of autocracy. Between non-Muslim and non-Turkish groups. The multireligious
1908 and 1918 it was the Young Turks who governed the and multinational population of the empire eventually forced
Ottoman Empire. the Young Turks to adopt a middle way, which has been
called Ottomanism. Meanwhile, Turkist and Islamist think-
The Young Turks belonged to the generation following ers were still involved in the government.
that of the Young Ottomans, whose legacy was the constitutional era inaugurated in December 1876. But when in In April 1909 an insurrection led by an Islamist organiza-
February 1878 Sultan Abdulhamit II dissolved the parliament tion made it clear that Muslim influences were strong among
and embarked on absolute rule, an opposition slowly began to the unionists. But in 1912 a military coup brought the liberals
form underground. In 1889 a group of students from the into power. Meanwhile the demographics of the empire were
imperial Medical School formed an alliance called the Asso- changing: the Ottoman army had suffered repeated defeats in
ciation for the Union of Ottomans. By 1895 they had changed the Balkans, and during its last withdrawal from 1911 to 1913,
their name to the Committee for Union and Progress (CUP). the empire lost almost all of its remaining European lands and
The CUP was mostly active in Europe and Egypt. Its mem- one-quarter of its population. The unionists took advantage
bers came from diverse backgrounds, ethnically and profes- of the political turmoil and in January 1913 took over the
sionally. Due to Abdulhamit’s autocratic rule, many educated government once and for all. By June, they had eliminated the
Turks, Greeks, Kurds, Arabs, Albanians, and Armenians liberal opposition.
came to support the idea of Ottomanism, a nineteenthcentury ideology that combined Ottoman culture and Islam Throughout World War I, with the deportation and
with modern nationalism. In 1902 the First Congress of ethnic cleansing of Armenians and the arrival of Turkish
Ottoman Liberals was held in Paris where the opposition to people from the Balkans and Caucasus, the empire populathe sultan came into the open. tion became increasingly Muslim-Turkish and Arab. The
unionists started to rely more on religion. Their pan-Islamism
In 1906 some military officers and government officials was often aimed at appeasing Arab constituencies who were
formed another group called the Ottoman Freedom Society, displeased with the empire.

Islam and the Muslim World 739
Youth Movements

In the prewar period, both the Turkish and the Arab Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. New York:
nationalists were intent on forming a solid nationalist ideol- Oxford University Press, 1961.
ogy. Under the CPU, official and popular sentiment started
to embrace Turkish nationalism. The Turkish Hearth (Türk Murat C. Mengüç
Ocagi), founded after March 1912, was a side organization of
the CPU whose original duty was to advocate Islamism and
Ottomanism. But they were also trying to convince Turkish
people that the only way for the empire to survive was to YOUTH MOVEMENTS
embrace Turkish nationalism. The Turkish Hearth was also
responsible for propagating the use of Turkish instead of Youth typically refers to the ages fifteen to twenty-four or
other languages. Under CPU pressure, government officials eleven to twenty-nine. Analysts view youths as intellectually
increased the use of Turkish in government administration, idealistic, psychologically impatient, practically inexperienced,
and as the religious schools and courts came under state socially liberal, and politically radical. Since they often lack a
control, Turkish started to predominate. The immigrating socially defined position in society, they tend to demand
Caucasian and eastern European Turks participated in these more far-reaching changes in society than their elders. Youth
developments, and a project to unite all the Turks, or all the movements also bear these characteristics.
Turanian people, began.
Although youth movements are modern phenomena,
After 1914 the notion of Arab independence emerged, youths’ collective involvement in politics is not new to the
along with the possibility of the Ottoman Empire’s fall and Middle Eastern societies. The futuwwa brotherhoods in methe inevitability of subsequent foreign hegemony. Many such dieval periods consisted of semireligious, voluntary, urban,
ideas were current in Beirut, Damascus, and Basra, where the youth organizations engaged in acts of chivalry (javan-mardi)
independence movements in the Balkans had already been protecting the less fortunate, supporting public causes, and at
noted and the Young Turks had been active. Triggered by an times acting in parallel with official security forces. Though
alliance between Sharif Husayn of Mecca and the British, in not always viewed positively or engaged in benevolent acts,
1916, the Arab Revolt started the separation of Arab lands the futuwwa groups represent early forms of collective action
from the Ottoman Empire. by youths in Muslim societies. These youth organizations
imposed strict ethical standards on their members and re-
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire proved incaquired strong group loyalty.
pable of fighting on a scale equal to the European forces. The
end of the war in 1918 also signaled the end of the Young Youth movements in the Middle East emerge in the
Turks era. After the ensuing war for independence, the new context of politics or popular culture. Youths express them-
Turkish republic was formed, owing much of its social selves through sports, music, and dress. Because most Middle
infrastructure to the Young Turks. Although under the CPU Eastern states are undemocratic, officials have considered the
the state ideology remained Ottomanist and Islamist, the rise of independent social movements a threat to political
emergence of non-Turkish Muslim nationalist movements stability. Any issue that captures youths’ attention, even if
among the Balkan and Arab populations strongly influenced nonpolitical in nature, takes on a political character, and state
Turkish intellectuals and statesmen. The major intellectual officials respond accordingly, exerting control and resorting
development of the Young Turks era was Turkish national- to repression.
ism. The secular ideas of Young Turks leaders like Ziya
Gökalp found popular support long after the CPU. The region’s youth movements are usually connected to
broader changes under way in society, especially political and
See also Modernization, Political: Administrative, Mili- cultural developments. Influenced by such developments,
tary, and Judicial Reform; Revolution: Modern; Young these movements in turn intensify the broader changes. For
Ottomans. instance, in 1908, drawing young members of the military, a
liberal opposition movement known as the Young Turks
BIBLIOGRAPHY forced the Ottoman sultan,
Abd al-Hamid II (r. 1876–1909),
Ahmad, Feroz. The Young Turks: The Committee for Union and to restore the constitution and parliament that he had sus-
Progress in Turkish Politics, 1908–1914. London: Oxford pended in 1878. Youths were also energetic partners in most
University Press, 1969. anticolonial struggles. In Iran, young people, especially uni-
Hanioglu, H. Sukru. Preparation for a Revolution: The Young versity students, were an important force in the push to
Turks, 1902–1908. New York: Oxford University nationalize the oil industry in the early 1950s. Nowhere have
Press, 2001. youths’ struggles been more intense and persistent as in the
Kayali, Hasan. Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, where they have borne
and Islam in the Ottoman Empire. Berkeley: University of the burden of two major uprisings, the Intifada (1987–1988)
California Press, 1997. and Al-Aqsa Intifada (2000–2002). Youths also fought most

740 Islam and the Muslim World
Youth Movements

fervently during the Iran-Iraq war (1980–1988) and in the In the political arena, the locus of Middle Eastern youth
war that resulted in the withdrawal of the Israeli military from movements is often universities. Where allowed, political
south Lebanon in May 2000. In the 1970s and 1980s, both organizations and parties establish subsidiaries in universities
leftist and Islamic associations grew in countries as far apart as for recruitment and mobilization. Where outlawed, opposi-
Egypt and Pakistan, polarizing university campuses. tion groups still operate on campuses underground for political agitation and recruitment. In the absence of serious
Having little stake in the status quo, young people join political parties in many societies, student movements beopposition groups hoping to create an “ideal society.” Both come the principal advocates of ideological and political
governments and their oppositions exploit youth’s abundant trends in society and a vanguard of change. In the 1980s and
idealism and impassioned activism. Because oral traditions 1990s, a host of sociological variables has contributed to the
are prevalent in Muslim societies, religious and political rising expectations among the youth and created fertile grounds
leaders use their speaking skills to establish credibility, culti- for youth activism. In 1998, 40 percent of the Middle Eastern
vate charisma, and recruit and mobilize followers, particu- population was under fifteen years old, as opposed to onelarly youths. In the late 1950 Egypt, Jamal
Abd al-Nasser’s fifth for the developed world. The general decline in oil
(1918–1970) powerful lectures drew youth support for his prices around the world, coupled with increasing population,
policy of Arab unity. During the 1970s,
Ali Shari
ati’s has led to economic decline in the Middle East. Unemploy-
(1933–1977) oratory won over Iranian youths to his radical ment, aggravated by the increase in the rate of rural-urban
Islamic ideology. In the 1980s and 1990s,
Abd al-Karim migration and urbanization, has led to disenchantment among
Sorush’s (b. 1945) deft use of language has similarly appealed the youth making further demands for education, social
to Iranian youths in the Islamic Republic, who sympathize freedom, jobs, housing, and resources for establishing a
with his liberal Islamic ideology. Often, religious leaders family. These factors have delivered frustrated youth to
attract youths to their political causes through mosques or extremist ideologies, especially Islamic fundamentalism. The
underground networks, as the Egyptian Muslim Brother- 1990s has witnessed massive recruitment among the youth by
hood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin), founded in 1928, and the Islamic radicals like HAMAS in Palestine, Hezbollah in
Iranian Fedaiyan-e Islam, created in 1945, have shown. Lebanon, the Jama
a Islamiyya in Egypt, the Mobilization
(Basij) Forces in Iran, and al-Qa
ida in Afghanistan.
In societies marked by limited upward political and economic mobility, student movements enable youths to crack The most interesting demographic change has been a
the system and open up spaces for participation in the sharp increase in the number of young women in Middle
politics. Many nationalist leaders began their political sociali- Eastern universities outnumbering men in a number of fields.
zation in student organizations. Realizing this fact, govern- In the second decade of the revolution in Iran, more females
ments also try to recruit students to their administrations. In studied in various fields, despite official restrictions. In Syria,
the early 1970s, the shah of Iran, Muhammad Reza Pahlevi Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq, the governments encouraged fe-
(1919–1980), undermined the growing power of the Confed- male participation in most aspects of social and political life.
eration of the Iranian Students in the United States and Among the Persian Gulf countries, Kuwait, Yemen, and
Europe by luring its leaders to lucrative government posts. Oman have developed policies promoting female education
The Saudi and Kuwaiti governments have likewise co-opted and social participation, but except in Kuwait, success has
their young opposition and with greater success than the shah. been generally slow and limited.

The correlation between the emergence of youth move- The dominant features of student movements in the
ments and economic decline is not strong in the Middle East. region are radicalism, intellectual idealism, anti-
Since most youth movements are sociocultural and political, authoritarianism, anti-imperialism, anti-Americanism, and
they have arisen during both economic prosperity and de- nationalism. The scope of these movements is national and
cline. In the 1970s, a guerilla movement emerged in Iran as the respective state apparati are their targets of attack. Iran’s
the oil export boom brought new wealth. During the mid- student movement exemplifies these characteristics the best.
1990s, proreform students formed a movement, reacting to A close look at this movement will demonstrate the dynamics
the last decade’s political developments rather than to poor and diversity of the student movement in the region.
economic conditions. The relationship between youth movements and the Iranian state has been discontinuous. When in The Student Movement in Iran
late 1940s, Mohammad Mosaddeq (1880–1967), then elected Before mass protests erupted against the Pahlevi regime in
prime minister, launched a campaign to end the British 1978, the Iranian student movement splintered into Islamic,
control of the Iranian oil industry, students backed both his liberal, and Marxist factions. The secular or non-Islamic
stance as well as his antimonarchy efforts. However, once the associations, the strongest and largest groups, had ties to the
CIA-supported coup ended Mosaddeq’s government in 1953, guerrilla movement operating outside of universities. The
restoring the monarchy, the student movement opposed the Muslim associations comprised a small segment of the stushah’s rule by using both violent and nonviolent tactics. dent movement and had loose contacts with Ayatollah Ruhollah

Islam and the Muslim World 741
Youth Movements

Khomeini (1902–1989) and the Freedom Movement of Iran. These associations encouraged student participation in gov-
All these associations cooperated to topple the regime. Dur- ernment rallies, reported on antigovernment activities and
ing the shah’s final years, students initiated the process that faculty criticisms of the state ideology, and implemented state
culminated in revolution. Student poetry readings, lecture gender policies by monitoring male-female interactions on
series, and political forums were catalysts in a chain of events campus. In short, the student movement, formerly an active,
that crippled the old regime. In 1977, when demonstrations independent, creative, and antiestablishment force, was transagainst the shah became widespread, the student associations formed into a watchdog of the state, alienating most students
recruited many members, organized numerous rallies in who feared religious vigilantism and spying by the governmajor cities, and became supporters of Khomeini’s call for ment. These associations lost their appeal among students
the shah’s departure. who felt increasingly apathetic and disenchanted. Although
these associations’ members were closely affiliated with the
Once the revolution succeeded, students expanded their regime and some occupied government positions, conservaactivities, joined revolutionary forces, and occupied numer- tives still suspected some students whose nonconformity and
ous properties belonging to the fleeing former officials. By
radical outlook they found troubling. Conservative religious
the time Khomeini returned to Iran, student associations had
organizations established parallel Islamic student associaestablished de facto headquarters for their respective groups
tions in the universities to discourage unfavorable and unprein universities. Faced with the tasks of institution and state
dictable activities by others.
building, the clerics considered student demands as obstacles
to the consolidation of their power, using the Muslim Stu- Sociological and political factors during the revolution’s
dent Organization as an instrument to challenge its secular second decade inspired another momentous rise in student
counterparts. and youth activism. According to the Secretariat of the
Supreme Council of the Youth, of 60,055,488 total popula-
On 4 November 1979, after an earlier attempt by the
tion in 1997, 40.4 percent, or 24,248,768, were eleven to
Marxist organization, the Iranian Fedaiyan Organization, a
twenty-nine years old—a 37.3 percent increase since 1987
Muslim student group engaged in the boldest and most
and more than 104.7 percent growth since 1977. With the
consequential act in the history of student activism in Iran:
doubling of the population between 1978 and 1996, the
the seizure of the U.S. Embassy and the holding of American
number of institutions of higher education increased as well.
diplomats as hostages for 444 days. Khomeini endorsed the
Alienation, disillusion, and frustration among youths intensitakeover, capitalizing on this event to undermine opposition
fied. Islamic vigilantes constantly interfered in youths’ and
to his new theocracy. In 1980, the secular student organizawomen’s lives, compelling them to obey strict religious codes
tions were effectively outlawed and their members physically
of behavior.
attacked by the religious vigilantes. Muslim student associations identified and helped to arrest non-Islamic students,
After 1988, Iran’s clerical establishment split into two
sabotaging their political and cultural activities. This was the
major factions. With the decline of the Islamic leftists’ for-
first time ever that elements of the Iranian student movement
tunes during the 1989 to 1996 period, the student organizaturned against each other. Later, Khomeini ordered universitions lost their influence within the government. Many of its
ties closed until purged of un-Islamic elements and the
influential members began careers in political journalism.
grounds laid for their Islamization. He created the Council
Radical individuals who had served in high-ranking positions
for Cultural Revolution to review faculty and students’ actividuring Khomeini’s rule were isolated and pushed to the
ties as well as university programs. Many activist students and
background. President Mohammad Khatami’s election in
faculty members were fired or arrested for their affiliations
1997 breathed new life into the student movement. An
with political groups.
unprecedented coalition of dissatisfied youths and women,
When universities reopened two years later, leftist, na- politically isolated supporters of the Islamic left, and other
tionalist, secular, and opposition students and professors segments of the public voted for Khatami. A new chapter in
were gone, with new Islamic and ideological criteria defined student activism had begun.
for admission and recruitment. Female students were barred
from studying certain disciplines. In addition to meeting New student organizations emerged, and activists chaleducational criteria, students had to show commitment to lenged the conservative faction’s authority within the Islamic
Islamic values and have an untainted moral history. Until Republic. Reacting to broad support for Khatami in universi-
Khomeini’s death in 1989, these restrictions remained in ties, the conservatives introduced measures to depoliticize
force, although students and the faculty had devised mecha- students and asserted more control over their organizations.
nisms of resistance. All these measures failed, ironically reinvigorating student
activism. As the conservatives blocked Khatami’s reformist
In the 1980s, numerous Muslim associations were formed policies, students marched in his support. As student demonat colleges. New admission quotas for war veterans and the strations against the judiciary and the conservative faction
armed forces’ families enabled these associations to grow. multiplied, one of the protests, on 8 July 1999, led to a deadly

742 Islam and the Muslim World
Youth Movements

The Thai Muslim Student Association protesting in front of the Government House in Bangkok in September 2001. © REUTERS NEWMEDIA
INC./CORBIS

attack on a student dormitory in Tehran by Islamic vigilantes the ruling clerics have successfully crushed these protests,
and the police. This attack provoked three days of student despite their persistence, because the students lack organizauprisings in Tehran and several other cities in that month. tion, goals, and leadership. At the end of February 2003, the
students’ Office for Consolidating Unity finally expressed its
After these uprisings, the government cracked down on disillusionment with President Khatami by withdrawing its
the students, leaving them alienated, agitated, and restless as support for the reformist camp in the local elections. A
they looked for any opportunity to express their frustrations. number of student organizations have emerged since, de-
Protests spilled over from the universities to the soccer fields, manding an end to theocracy and the establishement of a
cinemas, and music concerts. Disturbances in various cities secular government based on the principles enshrined in the
following the loss of an international soccer game by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
national soccer team in 2001 highlighted widespread discontent with the status quo. In November 2002, students started Conclusion
a series of mass protests at a death sentence passed against During the 1990s, youths in the Middle Eastern countries,
Hashem Aghajari, a reformist university professor, for al- especially Iran, have shown a strong desire for Western
leged blasphemous remarks about clerics in Iran. In early cultural icons, music, and arts, as they reject the imposition of
June 2003, students began a new round of protests in com- undemocratic, traditional, and strict policies on their lives.
memoration of an attack on a student dormitory on 9 July Part of this desire for more freedom is due to the limitations
1999. Most of these irregular and spontaneous protests have imposed by the states. However, part of it is a demonstration
lacked a clearly articulated political agenda. The govern- effect: The communications revolution and globalization of
ment’s systematic efforts to weaken the student movement local regional economies have stimulated youth’s attraction
have led youths to become more spontaneous and momentum- to a material lifestyle as well as to the cultural norms and
driven. Most protests have begun as friendly gatherings political freedoms typically identified with Western societies.
rather than as a result of any organization or planning. In fact, Government authorities have resorted to various means to

Islam and the Muslim World 743
Yusuf Ali,
Abdullah

limit these demands: In Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, and Yusuf Ali was the son of a police officer of Gujarati parentage.
Yemen, state-sponsored programs are designed to respond to With communal Muslim schooling in Bombay, he looked
the youths’ demands by creating synthetic opportunities beyond his Bohra Sh
ite origins and was extremely concerned
where nonoffensive and nonpolitical forums are created for about the fate of Muslims in British India and beyond. But he
releasing youthful energy. While sport has been a successful was very successful in achieving the highest rank in British
means for this purpose, cultural and social programs have had schooling. He earned a scholarship at Cambridge, and after
little success in tempering these energies. The Iranian gov- graduation won a place in India’s civil service. Yusuf Ali
ernment has often resorted to moral campaigns against vice, honored these two traditions, British and Muslim Indian,
publicly arresting and flogging violators, thus furthering with equal vigor. For his devotion to the British cause in the
youth’s anger against the government. Interestingly, the First World War, he was awarded the title of Commander of
appeal of the West contradicts the rejection of the same the British Empire. He was called upon to represent loyal
culture during the Iranian revolution two decades ago. Cou- British Muslims against pan-Islamic tendencies in India. Yet,
pled with the sociological factors discussed earlier, these he was still respected by Muslims like Muhammad Iqbal, who
developments will surely give a new impetus to student called upon him to head a Muslim school.
activism in the years to come.
Yusuf Ali, however, was more than an anglophile and
See also Futuwwa; HAMAS; Ikhwan al-Muslimin; communal Muslim. His translation of the Quran represents
Khomeini, Ruhollah; Muslim Student Association of the kernel of his ideas on Islam, mysticism, and progress. In
North America; Qa
ida, al-. addition, he wrote a number of pamphlets and articles on
Islamic issues in which he took a critical stance on both Sir
BIBLIOGRAPHY Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Sir Muhammad Iqbal. His was a
vision of Islam that stood on an equal footing with other
Mahdi, Ali Akbar. “The Student Movement in the Islamic
Republic of Iran.” Journal of Iranian Research and Analysis religions, just as he viewed Indian Muslims on an equal
15, no. 2 (November 1999): 5–32. footing with the family of nations.
Matin Asgari, Afshin. Iranian Student Opposition to the Shah. In the closing years of the twentieth century, Muslims
Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publisher, 2001. revisited the legacy of Yusuf Ali’s widely read translation.
Meijer, Roel, ed. Alienation or Integration of Arab Youth: Perturbed by the modernist and mystical tendencies in his
Between Family, State and Street. Richmond, U.K.: Curzon translation, Islamist groups have tried to expurgate his com-
Press, 2000. mentary of so-called unorthodox leanings.

Ali Akbar Mahdi See also Quran; Translation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sherif, M. A., Searching for Solace: A Biography of Abdullah
YUSUF ALI,
ABDULLAH Yusuf Ali, Interpreter of the Qur
an. Islam in South Asia
(1872–1953) Series. Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 2000.
Yusuf Ali, Abdullah. The Holy Qur
an. Lahore: Sh. Muham-
Author of the most widely read English translation of the mad Ashraf, 1934.
Quran,
Abdullah Yusuf Ali presents a unique figure in
Islamic modernism at the turn of the twentieth century. Abdulkader Tayob

744 Islam and the Muslim World
Z
ZAND, KARIM KHAN Perry, John R. Karim Khan Zand: A History of Iran, 1747–1779.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979.
(c. 1705–1779)
Karim Khan Zand was the ruler of western Iran from 1751 John R. Perry
until 1779. A chieftain of the minor tribe of the Zand, of the
Lakk branch of the Lors, Karim Khan led his contingent from
the debacle of Nader Shah’s army in 1747 back to their inner-
Zagros mountain ranges. In alliance with
Ali Mardan Khan ZANZIBAR, SA
IDI SULTANATE OF
of the Bakhtyari, he established a puppet Safavid shah in
Isfahan and consolidated the southwest under their rule. In The Omani dynasty of Zanzibar, under the able leadership of
1751 he overthrew
Ali Mardan, and subsequently defeated Sayyid Sa
id bin Sultan (1791–1856), inaugurated a new era in
several other contestants for regional power among Afghan, the commercial life of East Africa. Zanzibar had steadfastly
Afshar, and Qajar leaders. By 1765 he had emerged as de facto remained loyal to Omani rule whether under the Yarubi
ruler of the whole of Iran except Khorasan, with his capital dynasty, which had driven the Portuguese out of East Africa
at Shiraz. by the end of the seventeenth century, or under the Yarubi
successors, the Busa
idi dynasty, which came to power by the
Karim did not assume the title of shah, even when the 1740s. Sayyid Sa
id was able to assert his sovereignty over
putative Safavid king predeceased him, but ruled as vakil al- much of the East African coastal strip but not over the
ra
aya, “people’s representative” (the term for a traditional Mazru
i of Mombasa (his major competitor) who held out
local ombudsman). He encouraged internal and foreign trade, until 1837. He eventually moved his capital from Muscat to
granting the East India Company a base at Bushire, and Zanzibar by the 1830s. The sultan was a master of intrigues
rebuilt Shiraz (many of his fine buildings are still standing). A and was able to deal with potential rivals such as Kimweri, the
nominal Shi
ite, he practiced religious toleration, and did not Kilindi ruler of Usambara, by disbursing gifts to Kimweri’s
actively seek the endorsement of the ulema. In 1776, after a officials, who were urged not to lose sight of the sultan’s
year’s siege, he captured the port of Basra in Ottoman Iraq, interests.
but his death in 1779 brought a withdrawal.
Major changes took place in East Africa after the arrival of
The Vakil, as he is affectionately known, has left a reputa- Sayyid Sa
id. In fact, East Africa experienced what can be
tion as a strong but humane and unassuming ruler who termed as a commercial revival, brought about by expansion
restored a measure of peace and prosperity to Iran. His in trading activities, new agricultural ventures (introduction
successors were by contrast cruel , rapacious, and unpopular, of clove plantations), reforms in currency and customs adexcepting the last, Lotf
Ali Khan (1789–1794), and soon ministration, and encouragement of people with trading
succumbed to the rising power of the Qajars. skills, such as Indians and Omani merchants, to settle in
Zanzibar. The expansion in the coastal economy confirmed
BIBLIOGRAPHY Zanzibar’s privileged position as the hub of the international
Perry, John R. “Justice for the Underprivileged: The Ombuds- trade with its control of coastal ports through which products
man Tradition of Iran.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 37 such as ivory and slaves filtered from the interior. The
(1978): 203–215. sultan’s aggressive economic policies encouraged the trading

Zar

some of the leading Ibadhi families ended up following
Shafi
i rites.

See also Africa, Islam in; Mazrui.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Farsy, Shaykh Abdalla Saleh al-. The Shafi Ulama of East
Africa, ca 1830–1970. Edited by Randall Pouwels. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1989.
Pouwels, Randall. Horn and Crescent: Cultural Change and
Traditional Islam on the East African Coast, 800–1900. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Abdin Chande

ZAR
Zar refers to a type of spirits, the afflictions such spirits may
cause, and the rituals aimed at preventing or curing these
afflictions. It is one of the most widely distributed “cults of
afflictions” in Africa and the Middle East. Its diffusion owes
much to the slave trade and to the migration of people
associated with the pilgrimage to Mecca. Zar spirits and zar
Sayyid Bargash Bin Sa
id, the Sultan of Zanzibar, circa 1880 with practices are found throughout eastern North Africa and in
members of his court. The Zanzibar Sultanate fostered the growth areas of East Africa and the Middle East, including Tunisia,
of higher learning and of the intellectual community. HULTON Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Somalia, Arabia,
ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Iran, and Israel. The zar cult has also influenced other
possession practices in East and West Africa. Little is known
of the cult’s origins, but its presence has been documented in
caravans to venture into the interior of East Africa, and the Sudan since the mid-nineteenth century and in Ethiopia
wherever the Arab and Swahili traders went Islam went with since at least the eighteenth century. Etymologically, most
them. This is how Islam gained a foothold in the interior of scholars consider the term zar to derive, not from Arabic, but
East Africa along the trading routes as far as Buganda, where from Persian or, more plausibly, from Amharic.
contact was made with the King of Buganda.
Popularly, however, the word is believed to originate from
The nineteenth century also witnessed the growth of zara, “he visited,” an Arabic word that was later corrupted.
Islamic higher education in the whole coastal region. This The geographic distribution of the word zar has led researchgrowth was due primarily to the Omani presence and, in ers to consider the many cults of spirit possession in northeast
particular, the Zanzibar sultanate, which contributed to liter- Africa as part of a single, historically connected phenomenon.
acy and to the intellectual life of the community. Written While zar practices exhibit considerable variations from
texts became more readily available and this led to greater place to place, it is nonetheless possible to identify some
knowledge and adherence to the written orthodox tradition, shared characteristics of the spirit-host relation. Involvement
which was stimulated by the Sa
idi sultanate. Religious schol- with the zar generally follows a period of illness, during
ars from Arabia—mainly from Hadramaut and Oman, the which all medical options have been exhausted. Eventually,
Comoros, and the Benadir coast—began to arrive in the the sufferer is diagnosed as being afflicted by a spirit. Treatcoastal towns and especially in Zanzibar, which emerged as ment involves initiation into the zar cult during a propitiatory
the leading center of Islamic learning in East Africa. Later ceremony in which the initiate will ideally enter a trance,
some of the leading scholars in East Africa (such as Sayyid allowing the spirit to possess her or his body so as to affirm its
Smait and Abdalla Bakathir) traveled to the Middle East identity and reveal its requirements. Once initiated, devotees
where they supplemented their education. Moreover, the must continuously negotiate the terms of their relationships
Zanzibar sultans employed religious scholars, of both Shafi
i with the possessing spirits. They express their commitment
and Ibadhi rites, as Muslim judges. Nevertheless, Omani to intrusive zar by attending ceremonies, making offerings,
Ibadhi influence was very superficial on the mainland. In fact, and fulfilling ritual, moral, and social requirements. Getting
not only did the Ibadhis as a community lose Arabic as their well thus becomes a lifelong exercise, much of which is part of
first language (many had African mothers), but in addition daily experience rather than being restricted to dramatic ritual.

746 Islam and the Muslim World
Ziyara

In many areas, the zar cult has retained pre-Islamic or pre- Messing, Simon D. “Group Therapy and Social Status in the
Christian features. It has strongly been influenced by these Zar Cult of Ethiopia.” American Anthropologist 60, no. 6
two religions, and has influenced them, in turn. The complex (1958): 1120–1126.
and creative ways that zar has simultaneously competed with, Young, Allan. “Why Amhara Get Kureynya: Sickness and
adapted to, and borrowed from Islam or Christianity often Possession in an Ethiopian Zar Cult.” American Ethnologist
means that spirit devotees see no incompatibility between 2, no. 3 (1975): 567–584.
their commitment to the zar and their identities as Christian
or Muslims. To them, possession is part of a wider religious Adeline Masquelier
enterprise.

Not everyone agrees with this assessment, however. Some
see zar as being antithetical to Islam or Christianity. Such ZAYTUNA
divisions often follow gender lines. Thus, for northern Sudanese women, zar falls squarely within the purview of Islam, Zaytuna, an important mosque and cultural institution in the
whereas their male counterparts find that relinquishing con- city of Tunis, was founded in 732 C.E. Zaytuna (in Arabic, “the
trol of one’s body to a possessing spirit is simply sinful and un- Olive Tree”) mosque became an organized Islamic university
Islamic. Despite such condemnations, zar has continued to in the twelfth century and thereafter was considered one of
thrive in both rural and urban areas; in the latter it often the most important centers of Islamic scholarship and inprovides supportive social networks for newcomers. struction in North Africa, together with Al-Azhar in Cairo
and Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez. Quranic exegesis, Arabic gram-
Men may criticize their wives’ practices of assuaging the mar, and Islamic law (shari
a) were the main subjects offered
spirits, but they rarely interfere when their womenfolk stage a at Zaytuna. Among the many historical figures who taught at
propitiatory ceremony. While they may want nothing to do Zaytuna were Muhammad Ibn
Arafa, one of the greatest
with zar, men implicitly acknowledge the spirits’ role in the scholars of Islam’s Maliki school, and the famous historian
preservation of fertility and prosperity. Though in some Ibn Khaldun.
areas, men can become initiated, it is women whom zar most
afflict, mainly with infertility. The preponderance of women Zaytuna suffered from the Spanish entry in Tunis in 1534,
has traditionally been explained as a strategy of redress for following which the mosque and library were pillaged. But
marginalized or powerless individuals in male-centered cul- under the Ottoman rule it recovered some of its prestige, and
tures. From this perspective, zar is nothing but a means to in 1842 its programs and teaching methods were institutionbring public attention to one’s plight and achieve momen- alized. After the establishment of the French Protectorate
tary power. (1881), Zaytuna reformed its traditional programs to include
a more modern and scientific system of instruction. In the
More recent interpretations have pointed to the multiple beginning of the twentieth century it bred a generation of
ways in which zar participants distill the lessons of history, Islamic reformist thinkers and played an important role for
reflect upon their subordinate status, and assess the relevance Tunisian and Algerian nationalist movements.
of cultural values by conjuring up images of amoral, foreign,
and powerful spirits. Far from constituting a refuge from After the independence of Tunisia (1956), Zaytuna beoppressive reality, zar is seen as a cultural resource that came part of the state university and its library was integrated
transcends the context of illness and is drawn upon by people within the National Library of Tunis.
to make sense of certain problems and experiences of everyday life. See also Education; Law.

See also African Culture and Islam; Miracles. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abdel Moula, Mahmoud. L’Université Zaytounienne et la société
BIBLIOGRAPHY Tunisienne. Tunis: Maison Tiers-Monde, 1984.
Boddy, Janice. Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the
Zar Cult in Northern Sudan. Madison: University of Wis- Claudia Gazzini
consin Press, 1989.
Lewis, Ioan M.; Al-Safi, Ahmed; and Hurreiz, Sayyid, eds.
Women’s Medicine: The Zar-Bori Cult in Africa and Beyond.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991. ZIYARA See Pilgrimage: Ziyara

Islam and the Muslim World 747
Glossary

Pronunciation Key

Symbol Sound Symbol Sound
VOWELS a sat CONSONANTS dh then
ah father h horse
au mouse kh ch as in the German Bach
ay pay or the Scottish Loch
e feet sh shake
i in th thin
oo boot
glottal stop, the sound
u foot in uh-oh (between the
uh and the oh)
 voiced pharyngeal fricative

The syllable stress is indicated by italics. A doubled vowel such as in the word “ke-taab” indicates that the vowel should be said twice
as long as a vowel in English.


Abd (Ar., ahbd): scripture (the book), and specifically refers to Jews, Chris-
“Servant.” Used with one of the names of God, such as
Abd tians, and Sabians (Q. 5:72 “Those who believe [in the
Allah “Servant of God” or
Abd al-Rahim, “Servant of the Quran] those who follow the Jewish [Scriptures] and the
Compassionate One” or
Abduh, “His servant.”
Abd also Sabians and the Christians any who believe in Allah and the
means “slave,” comparable to ghulam (Per.) or mamluk (Ar.) Last Day and work righteousness, on them shall be no fear
nor shall they grieve.”) Later Muslim rulers extended the
Abu (Ar., ah-boo):
interpretation of ahl al-kitab to include Zoroastrians, Hindus,
“Father.” Used in the construct “Abu + son’s name,” such as Mandaeans, and Buddhists, among others. As such, ahl al-
“Abu Husayn,” to mean the father of Husayn. Often, it is the
kitab have a specific protected status and freedom of religion
kunya or the name by which a person is known. Abu can also
within Muslim society, which the “pagan” Arabs did not
mean “the place of,” such as Abu Dhabi (the place of the
enjoy.
gazelle) or “the one that has.” “Abu” can also be written as
Aba or Abi, as in
Ali b. Abi Talib. Amir al-Muminin (Ar., ah-meer al-mu-min-een):
Adhan (Ar., a-dhaan): “Commander of the Faithful.” This title was adopted by
“Call to prayer.” The early Muslim community in Medina is
Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second leader of the Muslim
said to have debated how to summon their worshippers; community after the death of Muhammad, and was used by
Muhammad suggested the human voice. Thus, most mosques subsequent caliphs, heads of states, and sultans to signify their
have their own muezzin, trained in the art of recitation, who religiosity and religious authority.
calls worshippers to prayer five times a day.
Ansar (Ar., an-sahr):
Ahl al-kitab (Ar., ahl al-ke-taab): “The helpers”, a designation referring to the people of
“People of the Book.” Mentioned in the Quran, this phrase Medina who aided Muhammad following the hijra (emigraliterally refers to religious communities who have a written tion) from Mecca to Medina.

Glossary

Aya (Ar., ah-yah pl., Ayat ah-yaat): status and the jiziya tax do not exist in contemporary nation-
A verse in the Quran; a sign. states.

Ayatollah (ah-yah-tul-lah): Dhu-l-Hijja (Ar., dhul-hij-jah):
A Shi’ite theologian who has completed the following: 14 The twelfth month of the Islamic calendar and the month in
subjects of elementary study, independent study, and qualifi- which the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, takes place.
cations of a mujtahid (practitioner of independent legal rea-
Emir/Amir (Ar., Per., ah-meer):
soning) through oral examination. An ayatollah must also
A prince, ruler or commander, but early usage also included a
have attained a reputation amongst his peers, students and
military commander.
laity in knowledge and piety.
Faqih (Ar., fa-keeh):
Baraka (Ar., bah-rah-kah):
A jurist, thus one who would be an expert in shari
a, especially
Blessings of God. fiqh.
Bid
a (Ar., bid-ah): Al-Fatiha (Ar., al-fa-tee-hah):
“Innovation.” A point of view or interpretation used in The opening chapter of the Quran, consisting of seven ayat
Islamic law or practice, but which is not present in the Sunna (verses). This chapter is said in prayers as well as at significant
of the Prophet, and is therefore unacceptable to “traditional- times, such as marriage.
ists” who rely on the traditions (hadith) of Muhammad.
Fatwa (Ar., fat-wah):
Bint (Ar., bint): “Legal opinion.” Issued by a mufti or some other recognized
“Daughter.” Used to designate the father-daughter relation- and qualified scholar, a fatwa is a legal or advisory opinion in
ship, such as Fatima bint Muhammad, and abbreviated in answer to a specific question or a broader issue facing the
English as “bt.” community.

Caliph: Fiqh (Ar., fik):
“Successor.” A title used by Muslim rulers to indicate their “Jurisprudence.” The science of studying the shari
a.
connection to Muhammad’s leadership over the Muslim
Fitna (Ar., fit-nah):
community. The title did not indicate, however, any sort of
connection with the divine or spiritual supremacy. First used to describe the violent factional dissension that
took place in the early Islamic community, it denotes Mus-
Companions: lims fighting Muslims, and as such signals the end of Muslim
Most Sunni scholars believe that all those who converted to unity, and the domination of chaos and irreligiosity. Fitna is
Islam during Muhammad’s lifetime and who had contact with also used to describe temptations that test believers’ religious
him are to be considered among his “Companions” with an commitments.
ensuing righteous status. They are the primary transmitters Futuhat (Ar., fuh-tuh-haat):
of hadith, and it is to these people that the contemporary
The conquest of territory by Muslim armies.
Salafiyya movements look for guidance. Because of the contentious relationships among some of this first generation of Hadith (Ar., ha-deeth, pl., ahadith a-ha-deeth):
Muslims, Shi
a scholars are more selective in terms of who The utterances, opinions, or rulings of the prophet Muhamthey consider a Companion. mad. According to the methods through which they have
been collected and verified in the three centuries following
Da
wa (Ar., dah
-wah): his death, two elements are essential to a reliable hadith: a
“Call.” The missionary aspect of Islam in which Muslims continuous, verifiable isnad (chain of transmitters), and a
encourage non-practicing Muslims to practice again (or prac- correspondence (or absence of contradiction to) the Quran.
tice according to a particular ideological view) and encourage The Hadith, along with the Sunna and the Qur’an are the
non-Muslims to convert to Islam. main sources for Islamic law. Sunnis and Shi
ites share many
ahadith, but have different isnads.
Dhikr (Ar., dhikr):
“Remembrance.” An individual or collective ritual, usually Hajj (Ar., haj):
involving chanting, where participants invoke the names and The pilgrimage rite to Mecca, one of the essential requireattributes of God. Dhikr is a central element in Sufi practice ment of being a Muslim. Muslims come from all over the
and spirituality. world to participate once a year in the Hajj, commemorating
Abraham’s building of the Ka
ba and the difficult experiences
Dhimmi (Ar., dhim-mee): of Hagar and Isma
il. The Hajj is required of Muslims once in
Protected groups of non-Muslims living under Muslim rule, their lifetime, but only if physically and financially able to do
primarily People of the Book (ahl al-kitab). Dhimmis were so—they cannot leave behind debts, and they must have paid
required to pay a tax (jiziya) and were not allowed to serve in the zakat on the resources they use to go on Hajj. After a
the army, although many rose to prominence as scholars, person completes the pilgrimage, a man is called a Hajj or
government advisors and officers, and physicians. Both dhimmi Hajji and a woman is called a Hajja.

750 Islam and the Muslim World
Glossary

Halal (Ar., hah-laal): Ijma
(Ar., ij-mah):
Permitted according to Islamic law. The use of the word also “Scholarly consensus,” and one of the main methods for
signifies a slaughtering technique that sanctifies meat for developing and interpreting Islamic law.
Muslims.
Ijtihad (Ar., ij-ti-haad):
Hanafi (Ar., ha-na-fee): “Independent legal judgement.” The interpretation of law
One of the four Sunni schools of Islamic law, named after Abu based on individual reasoning.
Hanifa (699–767).

Ilm (Ar., ilm, pl.
Ulum, u-luum):
Hanbali (Ar., han-baal-ee): In religious terms,
ilm means knowledge and also gives us the
One of the four Sunni schools of Islamic law, named after word “ulema” (religious scholars) meaning those who are
Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780–855) knowledgeable. In both the historical and contemporary
Muslim world,
ilm also means “science.”
Haram (Ar., hah-raam):

Ilm al-Rijal (Ar., ilm-ul-ri-jaal):
Forbidden in Islamic law, such as the consumption of pork
The study of the people who transmitted the hadith (sayings
and alcohol are haram.
and practices of Muhammad) and who are mentioned in the
Haram (hah-ram): isnads (chains of transmission). Biographies of these early
Muslims are the topic of many books and provides material
A holy place, a sanctuary. Mecca is referred to as Masjid alfor judging the soundness or believability of each hadith.
Haram and the al-Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem is the location of the Dome of the Rock and the Masjid al-Aqsa. Imam (Ar., Per., ee-maam):
Among Sunnis, an imam is a legal scholar or the prayer leader
Hijra (Ar., hij-rah):
in a mosque. Among Shi
ite communities, an imam is an
“Emigration.” This term refers to the journey of Muhammad infallible guide to the community, descended from the family
from Mecca to Medina in 622 C.E. and marks the beginning of of the Prophet. The Twelver Shi
ites believe that there were
the Muslim (lunar) calendar, known by the same name, twelve imams, the last one of which went into occultation
abbreviated as A.H. (Arabic Hijra or Hegira) (hiding) and will return one day as the mahdi.
Hizb (Ar., hizb): Imami (Ar., ee-maam-ee):
A political party or movement, as in Hizb Allah (Party of Twelver Shi
ites or Imamai Shi
ites. See Shi
ites.
God) in Lebanon.
Iman (Ar., ee-maan):

Ibadat (Ar., e-baa-daat): “Faith.”
Devotional acts of worship.
Islam (Ar., Is-lahm):
h
Ibadis (Ibadiyya) (Ar., e-ba -de-ya): The religion of Islam. Someone who follows Islam is a
See Khawarij. Muslim, which means that he or she believes that there is no
god but God and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.
Ibn (Ar., i-bin): The word Islam, meaning “surrender” comes from the Arabic
“Son.” Used in the construct of names to indicate the son- root (s-l-m) which denotes wholeness, peace, and safety,
father relationship, thus Ibn Hasan is the “son of Hasan”. suggesting that these are the qualities one achieves through
Often it is the name by which people are known, their kunya, surrendering oneself to God.
although it does not necessarily reflect their father’s name,
such as Ibn Sina or Ibn Rushd. In Arabic, when “ibn” occurs Isma
ili (Ar., is-ma-ee-lee):
between names it is pronounced or written as “bin,” as in
Ali Shi
ites who disagreed with the main body of Shi
a over the
bin Abi Talib. “Ibn” is oftentimes abbreviated in English as identity of the seventh Imam. The Isma
ilis followed Ja
far al-
“b.” as in
Ali b. Abi Talib. Sadiq’s eldest son Isma
il, while the majority (called the
Imamis or Twelvers) followed his younger son Musa al-

Id al-Adha (Ar., eed-ul-ahd-hah): Kazim. Because of the split over the identity of the Seventh
“Feast of Sacrifice.” This celebration marks the end of the Imam, the Isma
ilis are also called Seveners, and the Agha
hajj (pilgrimage) when pilgrims sacrifice an animal as part of Khan is the current head of the Nizari sect of the Isma
ilis.
their hajj ritual, and which Muslims also do all over the world Isra (Ar., is-rah):
(and donate a portion of it to the poor). It falls on the 10th of
Muhammad’s Night Journey (al-Isra wal-Mi
raj); see mi
raj.
the month of Dhu-l-Hijja, and is also called al-
Id al-Kabir
(the big Feast) or Bayram. Jahiliyya (Ar., ja-hi-lee-yah):
“Time of Ignorance.” The Arabic and Muslim way of refer-

Id al-Fitr (Ar., eed-ul-fit-r):
ring to pre-Islamic history in the Arabian peninusula.
“Feast of Fast-breaking.” This occasion marks the end of the
month of Ramadan, the month of fasting. Special
Id prayers Jami
(Ar., jaa-mi):
are offered in the morning, and children and adults often get A congregational mosque for Friday prayers, as opposed to a
new clothes. Also called al-
Id al-Saghir (the smaller Feast). masjid or a musalla. Jami
s are usually quite large in order to

Islam and the Muslim World 751
Glossary

hold the entire population who will pray and listen to the Kunya (kun-yah):
khitab or sermon of an imam. Another name by which a person is known, which is often the
more commonly used and well-known than the person’s
Jihad (Ar., ji-haad):
given name. In many cases the kunya will be the “Father of,”
“Struggle.” Over time, the concept of a “jihad” has developed “Son of,” “Mother of,” or “Daughter of” construction. For
to include both the greater jihad, or the struggle by the
example, the 11th century Persian scientist Abu
Ali alindividual to be a righteous Muslim, and the lesser jihad, or
Husayn ibn
Abdallah ibn Sina is referred to only as Ibn Sina
the struggle to fight oppression and defend the Muslim
and the ninth century writer Abu
Uthman Amr b. Bahr alcommunity. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Asia
Fuqaymi al-Basri is known as al-Jahiz (the bug-eyed).
and Africa witnessed reform movements that embarked on
jihads to reform the Muslim communities and to fight colo- Madhhab (Ar., madh-hab, pl., madhahib):
nial rule. More recently, certain groups have interpreted the A school of thought in traditional Islamic scholarship, such as
concept of jihad to mean to fight non-Muslims.
in law and theology. Among Sunni Muslims, four schools of
Jinn (or Jinni) (Ar., jin): law are recognized, named after the eminent scholars whose
Invisible, supernatural creatures, mentioned in the Quran, juridical works they were based on: Hanafi, Maliki, Hanbali,
and who can be good or bad. Shafi
i. The Shi
ites follow the Ja
fari school, named after the
sixth Imam, Ja
far al-Sadiq, along with the ijtihad of living
Jum
a (Ar., joo-mah): scholars of eminence.
“Friday.” The word also is used to describe the Jum
a mosque
of a particular city (see Jami
) or salat al-jum
a (Friday prayers). Madrasa (Ar., ma-dra-sa):
“School.” Historically a madrasa refers to a Sunni Muslim
Ka
ba (Ar., kah-bah): college where shari
a and other Islamic sciences were taught,
The name of the sacred, cube-shaped building located in the while currently a madrasa refers to any school, religious or
Haram in Mecca. The Black Stone is set in a silver frame in secular, private or public.
one of the lower corners and the whole building is covered by
an embroidered cloth (kiswa). Muslims pray towards the Maliki (Ar., maa-lik-ee):
Ka
ba and circumambulate it during hajj. Muslims believe One of the four Sunni schools of law, named after Malik Ibn
that the Ka
ba was constructed by Abraham and Isma
il (see Anas (715–795).
Q.2: 127–129).
Masjid (Ar., mas-jid, pl., Masajid) :
Kalam (Ar., ka-laam): Mosque.
“Theology.”
Maulid (Mawlid) (Ar., mau-lid):
Karbala (kahr-bah-lah):
A yearly birthday celebration for the prophet Muhammad or
The burial site of Husayn bin
Ali, the grandson of Muhama famous saint, common in Egypt and North Africa.
mad, located in southern Iraq, south of Baghdad, and a
popular place of pilgrimage for Shi
ites. Mi
raj (Ar., mi-rahj):
Khawarij (Kharajites) (Ar., kha-waa-rij): Part of the al-Isra wal-Mi
raj, Muhammad’s night journey
An early sect of Islam that advocated a strict and puritanical (Q. 17:1) that took him to the seven heavens.
interpretation of religious dogma. They believed that any
Mihrab (Ar., mih-rahb):
Muslim was qualified to lead the community (in antithesis to
The recessed arched niche in the mosque indicating direction
Shi
a beliefs), but also held that mortal sins had the effect of
making a Muslim into a non-believer and deserving of death. of prayer towards Mecca. It is often highly decorated.
A group of Kharajites murdered
Ali, thereby inadvertantly Minaret:
facilitating the rise to power of the Umayyads, who sup-
The tower or raised section of a mosque from where the
pressed them. Although largely wiped out, a major branch of
muezzin gives the call to prayer. Historically, these towers
the Kharajite movement, the Ibadiyya, continue to exist today
have staircases inside so that the muezzin could climb the
in Oman and east Africa.
stairs and issue the call to prayer from a balcony. Today, most
Al-Khulafa al-Rashidun (The Rightly-guided Caliphs, Ar., al- calls to prayer are broadcast from loudspeakers attached to
khu-la-fa ar-raa-shi-doon): the minaret.
Sunni Muslims call the first four Caliphs who led the Muslim
community the Rightly-guided Caliphs: Abu Bakr,
Umar, Muezzin (Moo-az-zin, Ar., muadh-dhin):

Uthman, and
Ali. After these men, who were selected by the The person who gives the call to prayer (adhan). Men or boys
community, rule was taken over by the Umayyad dynasty are chosen for this position for a variety of reasons, among
who assumed hereditary rule. Shi
a and Ibadis do not use the them because of the quality of their voice; as an honor to that
term “al-khulafa al-rashidun.” person for their service; or as a means of employment.

Khutba (Ar., khut-bah): Mufti (Ar., muf-tee):
The sermon during Friday prayers that is often delivered by Chief Islamic jurist and a scholar who can issue fatwas or legal
an imam. opinions.

752 Islam and the Muslim World
Glossary

Muhajirun (Ar., mu-haa-ji-roon): mores in order to achieve the best society. Originally coined
The Muslims who immigrated to Medina with Muhammad by Muhammad
Abduh in the late 19th century, the term
in 622 C.E., and who were helped by the Ansar, the Medinans initially was meant as a reform movement to end corruption
who aided them and became part of the fledgling Muslim in society and to address the issues of the modern world.
community. However, the term “Salafi” has come to have a much more
extreme and coercive meaning, particularly as Wahhabi and
Mujtahid (Ar., muj-taa-hid): other groups have forced their own definitions of Salafi ideals
A religious scholar who practices independent legal judge- en masse on their populations (and others).
ment and reasoning (ijtihad) to form a legal opinion.
Salat (Ar., sah-laht):
Muslim (Ar., mus-lim): “Prayer.” Prayer is one of the pillars of Muslim devotional
A follower of Islam. life. Muslims pray five times a day, a practice which takes a
Nabi (Ar., na-bee): few minutes and can be done in a mosque or any clean place.
In order to pray, Muslims must be in a state of cleanliness,
A prophet of God. In Islam, this includes the prophets from
achieved by doing wudu (ablutions).
the Judeo-Christian tradition, such as Moses, Abraham, Jesus,
among many others. Saum (Sawm) (Ar., saum, pl., Siyam):
PBUH: See S.A.W. “Fasting.” For Muslims a fast from food and liquids takes
place from sunrise to sunset, and occurs for a month during
Qadi (Ar., kah-dee): Ramadan as well as other special occasions and recommended
A judge whose responsibilities are in the areas of religious times. See Ramadan.
law.
Shafi
i (Ar., sha-fi-ee):
Qibla (Ar., kib-la): One of the four schools of Sunni law, named after the Imam
The direction of prayer, i.e., the direction of Mecca. The al-Shafi
i (d. 820).
direction is often marked in a mosque by a mihrab, which
traditionally takes the shape of an arched niche in the qibla Shahada (Ar., sha-haa-da):
wall. “Profession of faith.” The shahada is the major pillar of
Muslim doctrine and must be said with intention in order to
Qiyas (Ar., kee-yas): become a Muslim: “There is no god but God and Muhammad
Analogical reasoning used in Islamic law. is the messenger of God.”
Quran (also written as Koran) (Ar., kuh-rahn): Shari
a (Ar., sha-ree-a):
The Muslim Holy Book. Muslims consider the Quran to be “Islamic law.” The Qur’an, Hadith (sayings of the Prophet),
the divine revelation of God to humankind and the basis for and the Sunna (practices) are the basis for scholars and judges
living a right and just life as a Muslim. As the word of God, it to determine shari
a. With no central authority deciding legal
is untranslatable and is only the Quran in the language of issues, four schools (madhhabs) have emerged in Sunni law,
revelation (Arabic). Muslims recite portions of the Quran in although most scholars warn against blind adherence to a
their prayers. The Quran consists of suras (chapters) which particular school (taqlid), and instead promote ijtihad (indeare arranged by length; therefore, the Quran does not follow pendent reasoning and legal judgement) as a means to best
a narrative or chronological order. understand shari
a at any particular time and situation. While
Ramadan (Ar., rah-mah-dahn): Shi
ites follow their own Ja
fari school, they do not follow a
fixed canon of law because Shi
ite theologians continue to
The lunar month in which Muslims fast from food, drink,
practice ijtihad to this day. Among the Shi
a, there are a
smoking, sex, and gossip (among other things) from sunrise
number of living scholars of eminence among whom the laity
until sunset. It falls on the ninth month of the Muslim lunar
chose to follow in matters of shari
a to find fresh answers to
calendar, and ends with the
Id al-Fitr.
current problems.
Rasul (Ar., rah-suhl):
Shaykh (Sheikh, Ar., shaykh):
A messenger of God.
Used as a title of respect, shaykh can refer to a religious
S.A.W. (Sahl-allah
ah-lay-he wa-sal-lam): scholar, the leader of a Sufi order, the head of a tribe or
“Prayers and peace of God be upon him.” Muslim invocation village, or an old man.
after writing or mentioning the name of Muhammad. Also
Shi
ite (she-ite):
rendered in English as PBUH (Peace be upon Him).
Derived from their name, shi
t
Ali, or “the party of
Ali”, the
Sahaba (Ar., sah-hah-bah): Shi
a are one of the major groups of Muslims; the other being
See Companions. Sunni. The Shi
ite believe that rule of the community (led by
an Imam) should be through
Ali and the descendants of the
Salafi (Ar., sa-la-fee): Prophet through his daughter Fatima who was married to
A term used by Muslims to denote a thinker or a movement
Ali. They split into smaller divisions, over disagreements
who idealizes the time of the Prophet and thinks that contem- about the inheritance of the office of imam (see Isma
ili).
porary Muslim societies must return to those standards and Today they make up about 15% of the Muslim population

Islam and the Muslim World 753
Glossary

and predominate or have significant minorities in Iran, Iraq, Ulema (uh-lah-ma
Ar., sing.
Alim, pl.,
Ulama):
Lebanon, Yemen, and other Arabian Gulf states. A scholar or learned person in the Islamic sciences, such as
fiqh and shari
a.
Sufism (Ar., Tasawwuf) :
An understanding of Islam that emphasizes mystical or spiri- Umma (Ar., um-mah):
tual practice. A Sufi is a practitioner of Sufism, and different The community of Muslim believers.
groups or tariqas (“paths”) have different relationships with

Umra (Ar., um-ra)
orthodox practices, varying in time and place. Traditionally,
A visit to Mecca outside of the hajj period, and thought of as a
Sufi orders have been run by a shaykh (Ar.) or a pir (Per.),
“lesser pilgrimage.”
whom students (murids) follow closely. Also associated historically with Sufism are khanqas, zawiyas, and ribats, resi- Wali (waa-lee):
dences and centers of spiritual practice. “A friend of God.” The term is used by Shi
ites to describe

Ali. Sunnis also use the term when talking about Muslim
Sunna (Ar., sun-nah):
holy men and women who they believe have intercessional
The practices, actions, and behavior of the prophet Muham- powers with God, a popular practice and condemned by the
mad. These are stories about him recorded by his compan- orthodoxy.
ions and family in the same style as the hadith. The Sunna,
along with the Hadith and Quran, comprise the main sources Waqf (Ar., wahkf):
of Islamic law. “Sunna” is also a legal term used to describe a An endowment from which revenues from a particular prop-
Muslim practice that is recommended (but not required), as erty or business are allotted for a specific public service or
in it is sunna to hold a celebratory feast (walima) for a building, often set up by an individual or his or her family.
wedding. Many medieval mosques, madrasas, hospitals and other buildings had endowments associated with them that provided
Sunni (Ar., sun-nee): their running expenses, salaries, etc., and the practice contin-
The largest group of Muslim adherents, the Sunni emphasize ues to this day.
the Sunna (actions of Muhammad), the hadith (sayings of the
Prophet) and the Qur’an. Through these sources they have Wazir/Vizir/Vizier (Ar., wah-zeer, Per., vah-zeer)
developed four schools of law (madhhabs). They are the The advisor to a ruler, and usually a person with great power.
largest percentage of Muslims, making up approximately 85 Wudu (Ar., wu-doo
):
percent of worshippers today.
“Ablutions.” Before prayer, Muslims must complete ablu-
Sura (Ar., soo-rah): tions, cleaning their hands, feet, face, ears, mouth, and nose
(in a prescribed process). Being in a state of wudu can carry
A chapter of the Qur’an. Each chapter is referred to by a
over from prayer to prayer if nothing takes place to break the
number (114 total), and by a name, as in Surat al-Qamr (the
state of cleanliness, such as going to the bathroom, passing
Sura of the Moon) or Surat Maryam (the Sura of Mary), and
gas, or sexual relations, among other things. Following sexual
contains any number of ayat (verses), ranging from 3 to 286.
relations, menstruation, and childbirth, believers must per-
Tafsir (Ar., taf-seer): form ghusul, which requires the whole body to be cleaned.
Interpretation of the Quran. Zakat (Ar., za-kaat):
“Tithe or alms.” Another of the five pillars required of
Tahara (Ar., tah-hah-rah):
Muslims, zakat is a tithe that is to be paid each year by all
“Purification,” and can also refer to circumcision.
Muslim adults in the amount of 2.5% of their income and
Tariqa (ta-ree-ka): wealth. Shi
ites also pay a khums or one-fifth on all excess
wealth.
“Path or way.” A term used in Sufi practices, to refer to a
spiritual path or a specific discipline of Sufi thought following Ziyara (Ar., Per., zee-yah-rah):
a particular master. Visits to a holy shrine, particular tombs of walis and holy
people.
Ta
ziyeh (Per., ta-zee-yah) (Ar., ta
ziya):
Performances conducted among the Shi
ites commemorat- Zuhd (Ar., zuhd):
ing the martyrdom of Husayn ibn
Ali at Karbala. Asceticism, a Sufi practice.

754 Islam and the Muslim World
Appendix

Genealogies
Umayyad Caliphs
Tribe of Qaraysh (5th–8th centuries, C.E.)
Early Tariquas (Sufi brotherhoods) and their Founders
Isma’ili Imams
Shi
a Imams

Timelines
Islam in Central and East Asia 600–2003 C.E.
Islam in Europe and Africa 600–2003 C.E.
Islam in South and Southeast Asia 700–2003 C.E.
Islam in Southwest Asia 570–2003 C.E.
Life of Muhammad 570–632 C.E.

Genealogies

Umayyad Caliphs
Umayyah

Harb Abu l-
As

Abu-Sufyan (c. 565–653; Meccan chief)
Affan al-Hakam

Yazid 2. Mu
awiya I r. 661–680 Umm-Habibah⫽Muhammad
(Gov. of Syria, 639) (Gov. of Syria, 639–661) the Prophet
(d. 632)

3. Yazid I r. 680–683

4. Mu
awiya II r. 683 Umm-Kulthum and Ruqayyah⫽1.
Uthman r. 644–656 5. Marwan I
(figurehead) r. 683–685 (chief aide
to
Uthman, 644–656;
never generally recognized
as caliph

Muhammad 6.
Abd-al-Malik r. 685–705
Abd-al-
Aziz
(generally recognized from 692) (Gov. of Egypt)

7. al-Walid I r. 705–715 8. Sulayman r. 715–717 10. Yazid II r. 720–724 11. Hisham r. 724–743

15. Marwan II 9.
Umar II
r. 744–750 13. Yazid III r. 744 14. Ibrahim r. 744 12. al-Walid II r. 743–744 r. 717–720
Mu
awiyah


Abd-al-Rahman I
(emir at Córdova;
ancestor of the
Spanish caliphs)
Claimants to the caliphate or caliphs are set in bold type, and are sequentially numbered.

SOURCE: Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1974.

Genealogies

The Tribe of Quraysh (5th–8 th centuries, C.E.)

Qusayy (founder of Quraysh)


Abd-Manaf

Hashim (clan) Muttalib
Abd-Shams (clan) Nawfal (clan)
(clan associated
with Hashim)

Abd al-Muttalib Umayya

Abu Talib Abu Lahab
Abdallah⫽Amina
Abbas Hamza Abu ’l-
As Harb

Muhammad ⴝKhadjah b. Khuwaylid
Abdallah
Affan al-Hakam

ⴝ
Aisha b. Abu-Bakr b. Abu Quhafa of Taym clan Abu SufyanⴝHind
⫽Hafsa b.
Umar b. al-Khattab of
Adi clan
⫽Umm Habiba b. Abu Sufyan

Ja
far al-Tayyar
Aliⴝ Fatima Zaynab Umm-Kulthum and Ruqayyah⫽
Uthman Marwan Mu
awiya

Hasan Husayn
Abd al-Malik Yazid

People influential in Muhammad's life, or who later became influential figures, are set in boldfaced type. Most of the men in the geneology had sons not
mentioned here due to space considerations.

SOURCE: Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1974.

758 Islam and the Muslim World
Genealogies

Early tariqas (Sufi brotherhoods) and their founders

al-Junayd, d. 910

Ahmad al-Ghazali (d. 1126)


Abdallah al-Ansari
Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani
Abd al-Qahir al-Suhrawardi
(d. 1089), Herat (d. 1166), Baghdad; (d. 1168)
Qadiriyya

Abu-Hafs
Umar
al-Suhrawardi (d. 1234)
Suhrawardiyya
Yusuf al-Hamadani Ahmad b. al-Rifa
i Najm al-Din
(d. 1140), "khwajagan," (d. 1182), Iraq: Kubra (d. 1221)
Transoxania Rifa
iyya Kubrawiyya

Abu ’l-Hasan

Abd al-Khaliq al-Shadhili
Ghujdawani (d. 1258); Jalal al-Din
(d. 1220) Shadiliyya Rumi (d. 1273);
Mevleviyya
Ahmad al-Yasavi (d. 1166) Ahmad al-Badawi
Yasaviyya; infl. on (d. 1276), Egypt;
Turkish Sufism Badawiyya

Mu
in al-Din Chishti
(d. 1236), Ajmer; Chishtiyya
Baha al-Din
Naqshband
(d. 1389); Hajji Bektash (d. c. 1338);
Naqshbandiyya Bektashiyya

SOURCE: Hodgson, M. G. S. Venture of Islam. Vol. 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. Quoted in Lapidus, Ira M. A History of
Islamic Societies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Islam and the Muslim World 759
Genealogies

Isma
ili Imams


Ali (d. 661)

Hasan (d. 669) Husayn (d. 680)

Zayn al-
Abidin (d. 714)

Muhammad al-Baqir (d. 731)

Ja
far al-Sadiq (d. 765)

Isma
il (d. 760)

Muhammad al-Mahdi and
Concealed Imams

Fatimids
Ubaydallah al-Mahdi (d. 934)

al-Qa
im (d. 946)

al-Mansur (d. 953)

al-Mu
izz (d. 975)

al-
Aziz (d. 996)

al-Hakim (d. 1021)

al-Zahir (d. 1036)

al-Mustansir (d. 1094)
Assassins
Hasan al-Sabbah (da
i) (d. 1124) Nizar Muhammad al-Musta
li (d. 1101)
Buzurg Ummid (d. 1138)
Number of al-Hafiz (d. 1149) al-Amir (d. 1130)
Muhammad (d. 1162) successors
uncertain al-Tayyib (disappeared 1130)
Hasan II (d. 1166)
al-Zafir (d. 1154)
Muhammad II (d. 1210)
al-Fa
iz (d. 1160)
Hasan III (d. 1221)
al-
Adid (d. 1171)
Muhammad III (d. 1255)
Tayyibis, hidden imams
Khwurshah, surrendered 1256 to present

modern Nizari imams

SOURCE: Hodgson, M.G.S. The Order of Assassins. New York: AMS Press, 1995. Quoted in Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

760 Islam and the Muslim World
Shi
i Imams

Ja
far 1.
Ali al-
Abbas
(d. 661)


Abdallah
Abdallah
(by Fatima) (by Fatima) (by Hanafi woman)
2. Hasan 3. Husayn Muhammad b. al-Hanifiyya
(d. 669) (d. 680) (d. 700)

Ali
Mu
awiya

Islam and the Muslim World
4.
Ali (Zayn al-‘Abidin)
Abu Hashim
(d. 714)
(d. 716)
Zayd Hasan
Muhammad


Abdallah Ibrahim
Abdallah 5. Muhammad al-Baqir Zayd
b. Mu
awiya (d. c. 758) (d. 731) (d. 740)
(d. 746) Ibrahim al-Saffah al-Mansur
(d. 748) (d. 754) (d. 775)
Yahya Ibrahim Muhammad Idris
(d. 763) al-Nafs 6. Ja
far al-Sadiq Yahya
Isa
al-Zakiya (d. 765) (d. 743) (d. 783)
(d. 762) The Abbasid Caliphs
Ibrahim Tabataba

Ahmad
(d. 860)
Muhammad 7. Isma
il 7. Musa al-Kazim
b. Tabataba al-Qasim (d. 760) (d. 799)
(d. 815) (d. 860)

8.
Ali al-Rida
(d. 818)
Zayd
Muhammad
Husayn al-Mahdi 9. Muhammad al-Jawad
(d. 835)

Hasan Muhammad
(d. 884) (d. 900) The Qarmatians 10.
Ali al-Hadi
(d. 868)
Yahya al-Hadi
Ubaydallah
(d. 911) (d. 934)
Zaydi Imams 11. Hasan al-
Askari
of Tabaristan (d. 874)

12. Muhammad al-Mahdi
Zaydi Imams The Fatimid
of the Yemen Caliphs

The "Twelver" or Imami Shi
a

Genealogies

SOURCE: Peters, F. E. Allah's Commonwealth. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973. Quoted in Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Shi
a imam lineage.
Timelines

ISLAM IN CENTRAL AND EAST ASIA 600–2003 C.E. 737
Death of the Khan in Tukharistan.
Tang begin to unite China.
Fall of the Western Turkish empire.
664 741
Arab conquest of Kabul. Sogdians restored to their native land.
671 742
Arab armies cross Oxus (Amu Carya). Congregational mosque built in Balkh.
681 743
Arabs cross into Transoxania and spend winter. Partisans of
Ali revolt in Khurasan.
683 745
Civil war in Khurasan. Foundation of Uighur Empire in Central Asia (Chinese
Turkestan, to 840).
Eastern Turks invade Transoxania. 747
Abu Muslim arrives in Khurasan.
Umayyad rule restored in Khurasan. 748
Chinese destroy Suyab.
Qutayba ibn Muslim marches into Khurasan.
Defeat of Tang Chinese by Arab forces at battle of Talas
711 River; end of Arab advances in Central Asia.
Eastern Turks conquer western Central Asia.
712 Prince of Ushrusana sends embassy to China.
Arabs conquer Khwarizm; Eastern Turks take Samarkand. 753
713 Walls and defensive towers constructed at Samarkand.
Qutayba ibn Muslim reaches Ferghana; first mosque built in 763
Bukhara. Tang China is invaded by Tibetans.
725 766
Restoration of Balkh. Qarluqs occupy Suyab.
729 783
Muslim rule restored in Bukhara. Defensive walls constructed near Bukhara.
733 792
Famine in Khurasan. Qarluqs expelled from Ferghana.

Timelines

794 1090
Subjugation of Ushrusana; new congregational mosque built Shi
a Ismailis (of Alamut, Assassins) emerge as major force in
in Bukhara. North Persia (to 1256).

806 1123
Rafi
bin Layth revolts in Samarkand. Rubaiyat (quatrains) of Omar Khayyam; also his Algebra, for
which he is more celebrated in his homeland, Persia.
Famine in Khurasan. 1188
Nizami’s Layla and Majnun, a Persian recasting of perennially
819 popular pre-Islamic love story in verse.
Founding of Samanid dynasty in Khurasan and Transoxania
(to 1005). 1206
Mongols united by Temujin, proclaimed Genghis Khan; The
820 Great Yasa, law code of the Mongols promulgated by Gen-
The Tughuzghuz take Ushrusana. ghis Khan; Mongols begin conquest of Central Asia.
830 1211
Tahirids proclaim independence at Khurasan. Mongols begin conquest of northern (Jin) China.
867 1219
Founding of Saffarid dynasty in east Persia (to 1495). Mongol invasion of Khwarizm Empire.
868 1227
The Diamond Sutra, world’s oldest surviving printed work. Death of Genghis Khan.
907 1229
End of the Tang dynasty in China, Arab disruption of trans- Ogodai elected Great Khan.
Asian trade.
1231
916 Mongols reconquer resurgent Empire of the Khwarizm Shah.
Foundation of Khitan Empire.
1233
947 Mongols take Jin capital, Kaifeng.
Khitans invade northern China, establishing Lao dynasty at
Beijing. 1235
Walled city built at Karakorum as fixed Mongol capital.
Foundation of Afghan Ghaznavid dynasty. 1237
Start of Mongol conquest of Russia.
Paper money introduced in China. 1253–1255
William of Rubruck crosses Asia to Karakorum.
Song dynasty unites China. 1256
Il-Khanate established in Persia, successor state to Mongols
992 (to 1353); Hulegu crosses Oxus.
Establishment of Qarakhanid dynasty in Transoxania (to
1211). 1258
Sa
di’s Gulistan, major popular classic of Persian literature.
1020
Firdowsi’s Shahnameh—Book of Kings, Persia’s national epic. 1259
Great Khan Mongke dies.
1038
Beginning of Seliuk dynasty, the first major Turkish Muslim 1264
empire (to 1194). Kublai defeats rival for title of Great Khan, ending civil war.

c. 1040 1265
Seliuk Turks conquer Afghanistan and East Persia. Death of Hulegu.

c. 1045 1271–1295
Movable type printing invented in China. Marco Polo travels throughout Asia, returning by ship through
Persian Gulf.
1077
Seljuk governors in Oxus region establish separate state of 1274
Khwarizm Shah (to 1231). First Mongol attempt to invade Japan defeated.

764 Islam and the Muslim World
Timelines

1275 1443
Marco Polo reaches Kublai Khan’s summer palace at Shangdu Great Library at Herat, Persia founded.
(Xanadu).
1499
1279 Rise to power of Safavids in Persia.
Foundation of Yuan dynasty, Yuan take over Southern Song.
1500
1281 Shaybanid dynasty, of Mongol descent, assumes control of
Second failed Mongol invasion of Japan. Transoxania (to 1598).
1292 1501
Marco Polo given task of escorting Mongol princess to Accession of Shah Isma
il I; beginning of Safavid dynasty in
Hormuz. Persia (to 1732) .
1294 1534–1535
Death of Kublai Khan. Safavid war with Ottomans, who capture Tabriz and Baghdad.
1295 1553–1555
Conversion of the Il-Khan Ghazan to Islam. Safavid war with Ottomans.
1320 1557
Outbreak of plague in Yunnan province. Foundation of Portuguese colony at Macao.
1320–1330 1578–1590
Mongol armies help spread plague throughout China. Safavid war with Ottomans.
1330
1581
Plague reaches northeastern China.
Yermak begins Russian conquest of Siberia.
1335
1598
Rebellions against Mongol rule in China.
Anthony and Robert Sherley travel to Persia, where they
1335 meet Shah
Abbas.
Mongol wazir Ghiyath al-Din in Tabriz commissions an
1603
illustrated Shahnameh, a fine example of a Persian illuminated
Foundation of Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan.
manuscript (called the Demotte Shahnameh).
1627
1346
Herbert’s travels in Persia.
Plague reaches coast of Black Sea.

1368 1636
Establishment of the Ming dynasty. Manchus establish Qing imperial rule at Mukden.

1379 1644
Timur marches on Urgench. Qing forces enter Beijing.

1395 1689
Sack of New Sarai, capital of Golden Horde. Treaty of Nerchinsk agrees Russian and Chinese spheres of
influence in East Asia.
1405
Beginning of Ming admiral Zheng He’s seven voyages to 1722–1736
Indian Ocean (to 1433). Subjugation of Afghans by Persia.

1405 1730–1734
The Rigistan, Samarkand, built by Timur and one of the Suppression of Khazaks by Russia.
glories of his capital; End of Ming campaign against Mongols.
1736
c. 1433 Nadir Shah becomes Shah of Persia.
Construction of ocean-going junks banned by Ming.
1747
1439 Foundation of Afghanistan by Ahmad Khan Abdali.
Poggio Bracciolini records Asian journeys of Niccolo Conti.
1751
1449 Tibet, Dzungaria, Turkestan, and the Tarrm Basin overrun
Mongols defeat Chinese and capture the emperor. by Qing Chinese.

Islam and the Muslim World 765
Timelines

1758–1759 1945
Qing campaigns against Kalmyks. Stalin begins transfer of ethnic-minority peoples to labor
camps in Siberia.
1786
Start of Qajar dynasty in Persia. 1946–1949
Chinese Civil War between Nationalists and Communists.
1839–1842
Afghans under Dost Muhammad defeat British in First Afghan 1955
War. Afghan government supports movement for separation of
Pakhtunistan from Pakistan.
1840–1842
1962
Opium War, British attacks force trading concessions from
China. Land reform in Iran reduces power and influence of religious
establishment.
1850s
1973
Widespread Muslim rebellions against Qing rule in China.
Rebellion in Afghanistan.
1855–1873 1979
Jihad of Yunnan Muslims, ends 1873. Islamic revolution in Iran, deposition of shah, proclamation
of Islamic republic.
1863–1873
Northwest uprising in Uighur domains of Qing empire, 1979
largest Muslim jihad in East Asia. Deposition of monarchy in Afghanistan, Soviet invasion and
civil war.
1864
Establishment of Russian control in Kalmykia (Semipalatinsk) . 1989
Crushing of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing.
1868–1870
Suppression of Muslim states of Bukhara and Samarkand by 1989
Russia. Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan.

1878–1879 1990–1891
Second Afghan War, British attempt to invade Afghanistan, Collapse of U.S.S.R. creation of Central Asian republics;
which is coming under Russian influence. Islamic revival throughout region.

1909 1995
Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later British Petroleum) founded Taliban militia reignites Afghan civil war.
in Iran. 1996
1911 Taliban forces capture Kabul.
Qing dynasty overthrown by Sun Yat Sen’s nationalists and 2001
Republic of China declared. Saudi millionaire Usama bin Ladin identified as mastermind
behind al-Qa
ida attacks on New York and Washington on
1925
11 September; U.S. demands his extradition from Afghanistan.
Reza Shah deposes last Qajar shah and is proclaimed ruler of
Iran. He introduces Western-style reforms. 2001
U.S.-led coalition declares “war on terrorism,” coalition
1941 forces attack and overthrow Taliban regime in Afghanistan in
Abdication of Reza Shah, his son, Muhammad Reza Shah response to al-Qa
ida terrorist attacks.
Pahlavi, succeeds him.
2001
1945 Reformist Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is relected
Atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki force Japanese with 77.4 percent of the votes, running on an Islamic democsurrender in World War II. racy platform against hard-liners and conservative clerics.
1945 2002
(August) U.S.S.R. declares war on Japan. Chechen independence movement continues attacks on Russia; seizes theater with 700 hostages.
1945
(August) Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. 2002
Afghani Loya Jerga, or grand council, elects Hamid Karzai as
1945 interim head of state; he selects an administration to serve
(September) Japanese surrender. until 2004.

766 Islam and the Muslim World
Timelines

2003 789
Thousands fill the Iranian streets in wide scale anti-government Idrisids establish power in Northwest Africa (Morocco, to
protests of political and economic conditions. 926).
Adapted from: Lunde, Paul. Islam: Faith, Culture, History. 790
New York: DK Publishing, Inc., 2002. Beginnings of Viking raids on western Europe.

ISLAM IN EUROPE AND AFRICA 600–2003 C.E. Start of Aghlabid dynasty in Tunis.

c. 800
624 Emergence of trading towns such as Manda and Kilwa on
Visigoths expel last Byzantine garrisons from southern Iberia. East African coast.
626 800
Constantinople besieged by Sassanids, Avars, and Slavs. Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo
III in Rome.
635–642
Conquest of Egypt by Arabs. 827
Crete and Sicily attacked by Aghlabids.
Foundation of Fustat (Egypt) and Great Mosque by
Amr ibn 830
al-
As. Foundation of Great Mosque at Kayrawan.
647 839
Arab invasion of Tripolitania. Swedes travel through Russia to Constantinople, opening of
river trade from Baltic to Black Sea.
Byzantine Emperor Constans II invades Italy and sacks Rome. 844
Vikings attack Seville.
Arab conquest of North Africa extended beyond Tripoli to 847
the West. Muslim raiders burn outskirts of Rome.

670 862
Annexation of Tunisia, founding of the city of Kayrawan. Novgorod founded by Rurik the Viking.

680 863
Arab armies reach Atlantic at Morocco. Saints Cyril and Methodius sent as Orthodox Christian
missionaries to Moravia.
Invasion of Iberian Peninsula by Tariq, conquest of Visigothic 868
kingdom (by 714). Ahmad Ibn Tulun founds the Tulunid dynasty in Egypt (to
905), control spreads to Syria.
Muslim capture of Toledo. 876
Building of mosque of Ibn Tulun, Cairo, based on Great
714 Mosque at Samarra.
South and Central Spain effectively under Muslim control.
718 Kiev becomes capital of new Russian state.
Christian victory at battle of Covadonga temporarily halts
Muslim advance in Iberian Peninsula. 896
Magyars start to settle in Danube basin.
Arab armies halted at Poitiers, France. 899–905

Abbasid campaign against Egypt.
Revived Umayyad dynasty established at Cordoba by
Abd al- c. 900
Rahman (to 1031). Arab dhows (sailing ships) begin to ply the coastal routes of
East Africa, as far south as Sofala.
Foundation of Great Mosque at Cordoba, extended in four c. 900
phases (832–848, 929–961, 961–976, 987). First sighting of Greenland by Viking seamen.

Islam and the Muslim World 767
Timelines

905 1076

Abbasids take over Egypt. King of Ghana converts to Islam.

910 1085
Shi
ite Fatimids expel Aghlabids from Tunis, extend power to Christian forces under Alfonso VI of Leon take Toledo.
Egypt and Syria and claim caliphate (to 1171).
1086
928 Almoravids enter Spain.
Ruler of Cordoba,
Abd al-Rahman III, takes title of caliph.
1091
936 Completion of Norman conquest of Sicily.
Cordoba palace complex of Madiniat al-Zahra begun.
1094
969 Christian warlord El Cid takes Valencia.
Fatimids conquer Egypt, founded city of Cairo.
1095
970 Byzantine empire appeals for aid to pope, who preaches in
Al-Azhar University established in Cairo. France to raise support.
972 c. 1110
Zirid dynasty, of Berber origin, rule Tunisia and E Algeria, Onset of serious desiccation of Sahel region.
based at Kayrawan (to 1148).
1126
976–1009
Birth of Muslim philosopher Averroes (Ibn Rushd) in Cordoba.
Decline of Arab power in Iberia.
1128
Almohad religious revival order starts takeover of Almoravid
Ghana captures Berber town of Awdaghost, gaining control
dominions in North Africa and Iberia (1130–1269).
of southern portion of trans- Saharan trade route.
1132
c. 1000
Palatine Chapel at Palermo, unique blend of Romanesque,
Arab merchants begin to set up trading states in Ethiopian
Byzantine, and Islamic architectural elements.
Highlands.
1136
1015
Independence of Russian state of Novgorod.
Hammadids, offshoot of Zirids, rule East Algeria (to 1152).
1137
1025
Union of Aragon and Catalonia.
Death of great Byzantine emperor, Basil II (the Bulgar
Slayer). 1147
1031 Almohads established in Morocco and southern Spain.
Beginning of Christian reconquest (Reconquista) of Spain. 1147
1041 Second Crusade; Lisbon taken from Moors; Holy Roman
Zirids of Ifriqiya gain independence. Emperor Conrad defeated by Turks at Dorylaeum.

1048 1154
Fatimids lose control of Ifriqiya (Tunisia). Building of Chartres Cathedral.

1050 1169
King of Takrur converts to Islam. Shi
ite Fatimid dynasty in Egypt suppressed by Saladin.

1054 1171
Final schism between Roman and Orthodox churches. Founding of Ayyubid sultanate in Egypt (to 1260).

1066 1172
Battle of Hastings, Norman conquest of England. Great Mosque at Seville, intended to be the largest in the
world, and the Giralda, a great square minaret.
1071
Completion of St. Mark’s basilica, focus of public religious 1174
life in Venice. Saladin becomes Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria (to 1193).

1076 1184
Ghana falls to Almoravids. Completion of citadel at Cairo.

768 Islam and the Muslim World
Timelines

1189 1261
Start of Third Crusade. Michael Palaeologus recaptures Constantinople and restores
Byzantine Empire.
1189
Succession of Richard I the Lionheart. 1269
Marinids inflict final defeat on Almohads in Morocco.
1194
Emperor Henry VI crowned King of Sicily. 1270
Death of Louis IX outside walls of Tunis.
1196
Marinids take control of Morocco (to 1485). 1273
Foundation of Alhambra Palace at Granada.
1200
Emergence of Hausa city-states, which come to dominate 1282
sub-Saharan trade. French driven from Sicily, which passes to Aragon.

1200 1306–1310
Rise of Mali in West Africa. Hospitallers conquer Rhodes, which becomes their base.
1204 1312
Fourth Crusade never reaches Holy Land; Crusaders sack Knights Templar Order accused of heresy and suppressed by
Constantinople; Venetian gains in Adriatic and Peloponnese. Pope.
1208 1324
Crusade against Cathars, or Albigensians, in southern France. Pilgrimage to Mecca by Mansa Musa of Mali.
1212 1325
Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, decisive defeat of Almohads by Ibn Battuta’s first pilgrimage to Mecca.
Christians in Iberia.
1331
1226 lbn Battuta’s voyage to the Swahili cities of East Africa.
Creation of the Golden Horde, Mongol state in south Russia
(to 1502). 1347
Marinids take Tunis.
1228
Start of collapse of Almohad Empire in North Africa. 1348–135
Black Death reaches Europe and North Africa.
1228
Hafsid dynasty established at Tunis (to 1574). 1352
Ibn Battuta’s travels to the Mali Empire.
1230
Establishment of Nasrid kingdom of Granada Muslim strong- 1354
hold in southern Spain (to 1492). First Ottoman conquests in Southeast Europe at Gallipoli,
Ottomans advance into Europe.
1230
Establishment of the Mali Empire. 1366
Capture of Edirne (Adrianople) by Ottomans.
1236
Christian reconquest of Cordoba. 1378
Beginning of Great Schism in Catholic church (to 1417).
1241
Mongols invade Poland and Hungary. 1381
Peasants’ Revolt in England.
1248
Christian reconquest of Seville. 1389
Battle of Kosovo, Ottomans gain control of Balkans.
1250–1254
First of Louis IX’s crusades; Invasion of Egypt ends in defeat 1393
at Mansura; Louis captured and ransomed. Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria.

c.1250 1396
Building of stone mosques in Swahili city-states. Bayazid defeats crusader army at Nicopolis.

1250 1415
Mali Empire at its greatest extent. Portuguese capture Ceuta in Morocco.

Islam and the Muslim World 769
Timelines

1430 1529
Sultans of Kilwa begin grand building program. Unsuccessful Turkish siege of Vienna.

1442 1538
Al-Maqrizi writes detailed topographical survey of Egypt. Holy League against the Turks formed.

1453 1540
Constantinople falls to Ottoman sultan Mehmed II. Portuguese come to the aid of Ethiopia against Ahmad Gran.
1459 1543
Annexation of Serbia by Ottomans. Death of Ahmad Gran, shot by a Portuguese musketeer.
1464 1546
Beginning of Songay expansion under Sunni Ali. Songhay destroys Mali Empire.
1469 1547
Marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, Negotiated peace acknowledges Ottoman control of most of
union of Castile and Aragon (1479). Hungary.
1480 1562
Muscovy throws off Mongol yoke. After inconclusive skirmishes, Ottomans gain Transylvania.
1484 1565
Ottoman Turks capture Akkerman at mouth of Dniester. Ottoman siege of Malta fails.
1492 1571
Columbus, in search of Asia, reaches Caribbean. Ottomans take Cyprus from Venetians, at battle of Lepanto
1492 Ottoman navy defeated by united Christian fleet off Greek
coast.
Muslim Granada falls to Spain.
1578
1494
Treaty of Tordesillas divides western hemisphere between Moroccans crush invading Portuguese.
Spain and Portugal. 1580
1502 Union of Spanish and Portuguese crowns.
First slaves taken to the New World. 1588
1505 English defeat Spanish Armada.
First Portuguese trading posts in East Africa. 1591
1511 Moroccan invaders destroy Songhay Empire.
Sadian dynasty comes to power in Morocco (to 1659).
1618
1517 Thirty Years War in Europe (to 1648).
Ottomans conquer Mamluks in Egypt.
c.1660
1519 Collapse of Mali Empire.
Charles V elected Holy Roman Emperor.
1664
1519–1522 Turkish advance on Vienna turned back at battle of St.
Magellan begins and del Cano completes first global Gotthard.
circumnavigation.
1682
1521 Peter the Great becomes czar of Russia.
Sulayman takes Belgrade.
1683
1521 Siege of Vienna ends in Ottoman defeat.
Siege of Rhodes under Knights of St. John by Ottomans.
1698
1526 Arabs from Oman capture Mombasa.
Battle of Mohacs, Ottoman invasion of Hungary.
1699
1529 Peace of Karlowitz confirms Austrian conquests from
Ahmad Gran leads jihad against Ethiopia. Ottomans.

770 Islam and the Muslim World
Timelines

1701 1852
Start of Asante’s rise to prominence.
Umar Tal conquers the Senegal valley.

1705 1853
Foundation of Husaynid dynasty in Tunis, which rules until Russians defeat Turkish navy at Sinop.
1957.
1854–1856
1716–1718 Crimean War, French and British support Ottoman Turks
Further Austrian victories, including capture of Belgrade against Russia.
from Ottomans.
1861
1729
Umar Tal’s forces conquer Segu.
Portuguese leave East Africa following attacks from Oman.
1861
1730 Abolition of serfdom in Russia.
Revival of Bomu Empire in central Africa.
1863
c. 1730 Al-Hajj
Umar Tal clashes with French in Senegal Valley and
Emergence of Fulbe confederation of Futa Jallon. creates a Muslim empire, invades Timbuktu.
1757 1864
Muhammad III becomes Sultan of Morocco.
Umar Tal is killed attemping to suppress Fulani rebellion.
1768 1869
War between Russia and the Ottomans. Opening of Suez Canal.
1776 1877–1878
Abd al-Qadir leads Muslims in jihad along the Senegal River. Russia, Serbia, and Montenegro at war with Turkey.
1798 1878
Occupation of Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte, defeat of Treaty of San Stefano negotiated by Russia and Turkey.
Egyptians at battle of the Pyramids Battle of the Nile, British
fleet defeats French. 1878
Berlin Congress independence of Serbia, Montenegro, and
1804 Romania from Ottomans.
Fulani leader,
Uthman dan Fodio declares jihad and conquers Hausa city-states. 1881
Tunisia occupied by French.
1804
Muhammad
Ali becomes Viceroy of Egypt. 1882
Revolt in Egypt, occupation by British.
1804
Napoleon proclaimed Emperor of France. 1882
Beginning of major Jewish emigration from Russian Empire.
1807
Hausa kings replaced by Fulani emirs. 1884
Berlin Conference on Africa; Samory Toure proclaims his
1816 Islamic theocracy in West Africa.
Inspired by
Uthman dan Fodio, Amadu Lobbo launches
jihad in Masina. 1885
Bulgaria granted Eastern Rumelia.
1820
Egyptians invade Sudan. 1887
Bulgaria independent of Ottoman empire.
1820

Uthman dan Fodio establishes Sokoto Fulani Kingdom. 1893
French conquer Dahomey.
1821–1833
Greek War of Independence from Ottomans. 1904
French create federation of French West Africa.
1830
French invasion of Algeria, Algiers occupied. 1908
Bulgaria declares full independence.
1840
Ottoman Empire under threat from Egypt, saved by British 1908
and Austrian intervention. Bosnia-Herzegovina annexed by Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Islam and the Muslim World 771
Timelines

1911 1954
Libya occupied by Italy. Algerian uprising against French rule.

1912 1960
Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro form Balkan Fifteen African countries gain independence.
League, First Balkan War.
1963
1912–1913 Foundation of Organization of African Unity (OAU).
Balkan Wars. Ottomans lose most of their remaining European lands. 1974
Revised Yugoslav constitution grants Kosovo autonomy.
1914
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo pre- 1981
cipitates start of World War I (to 1918). President Sadat of Egypt assassinated by Islamic
fundamentalists.
1914
(Oct) Turkey closes Dardanelles. 1983
Islamic law imposed in Sudan.
1915
Gallipoli landings Establishment of Salonican front. 1986
U.S. bombs Libya in retaliation for terrorist attacks.
1917
U.S. declares war on Central Powers, Bolshevik revolution in 1987
Russia. Famine in Ethiopia.
1918 1989
End of World War I. Fundamentalists seize power in Sudan.
1919 1989–1990
Treaty of Versailles creates a new European order. Collapse of Communism in Europe.
1920 1991
(Aug) Treaty of Sevres. Islamic Salvation Front poised to win Algerian general election, army cancels second round of voting.
1920
Inauguration of League of Nations. 1991
1922 Start of civil war in Yugoslavia.
U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) is formed. 1991
1929 Unsuccessful coup attempt in U.S.S.R., disintegration of
Soviet Union.
Wall Street Crash.
1991
1939
Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia declare independence from
(September) Invasion of Poland by Germany and Soviet
Yugoslavia.
Union, outbreak of World War II.

1941 1992
Germans and Italians advance into Egypt. Civil war in Georgia, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

1942 1994
British defeat Germans at El Alamein. Russian troops invade Chechnya.

1942 1995
Plans for Final Solution agreed at Wansee. Peace agreement (Dayton Accord) ends the Bosnian war,
U.N. troops remain.
1945
(May) Germany surrenders. 1998
U.S. bombs Sudan and Afghanistan in retaliation for al-
1945 Qa
ida bombing of U.S. institutions in Kenya and Tanzania.
Yalta Conference, origins of Cold War.
1998
1949 Slobodan Milosevic sends troops into areas controlled by
Formation of NATO. Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

772 Islam and the Muslim World
Timelines

1999 1191–1193
Kosovo Peace talks collapse NATO begins bombing campaign. Afghan Ghurids defeat Raiputs and seize Delhi and much of
North India.
2000
Milosevic forced to step down. c. 1200
Muslim Sufi saint, Mu
in al-Din Chishti, founds first Sufi
2001 order in North Indian subcontinent.
Milosevic arrested to face charges of war crimes in Bosnia and
Kosovo. 1206
Breakaway Mamluk (Slave) dynasty, under Aibak, establishes
2003 Delhi Sultanate.
European reluctance to support attack on Iraq; only Britain
and Spain support the United States. 1258
First Mongol expedition to Annam.
2003
Turkish parliament votes against the use of its soil for U.S. c. 1280
attacks on Iraq, despite the offer of $26 billion in aid and loan Mongol invasions of Southeast Asia destroy Pagan and eclipse
guarantees. Dai Viet.

2003 1283
(March 19) United States launches massive air attack on Iraq; Expeditions against Annam and Champa.
U.S., British and Australian troops enter Iraq.
1287
2003 Mongol expedition to Pagan.
Enormous anti-war protests rock Europe reaching as high as
750,000 in London. 1288
Kublai Khan abandons attempt to subdue Annam and Champa.
2003
Liberian government and rebels sign a peace deal; outside 1293
forces enter the country to maintain stability and protect Failed Mongol invasion of Java.
civilians.
1295
Adapted from: Lunde, Paul. Islam: Faith, Culture, History. Conversion of Sultan of Achin (Sumatra) to Islam, which
New York: DK Publishing, Inc., 2002. spreads over much of the East Indies.

1320
Muhammad ibn Tughluq succeeds to Sultanate of Delhi.
ISLAM IN SOUTH & SOUTHEAST ASIA 700–2003 C.E.
1334–1341
711–712 Ibn Battuta serves as qadi (judge) in Delhi.
Arab conquest of Sind introduces Islam to South Asia.
1336
c. 750 Rebellion against Tughluqs marks beginning of Vijayanagara
Muslim merchants establish Islam in Kerala, southwest India. Empire.

c. 800 1345–1346
Arab ships sailing as far as China. Ibn Battuta visits Southeast Asia and China.

977 1345
Founding of Ghaznavid dynasty in North India (to 1186). Hasan Gangu, governor of Tughluq Deccani domains, revolts and founds Bahmani kingdom.
Mahmud of Ghazni extends rule into northwest India. 1398
Timur’s invasion of India, sack of Delhi leads to fall of
c. 1025 Tughluq dynasty.
Conquest of Punjab by Ghaznavids.
1445
1030 Conversion of Malacca (Malaya) to Islam.
Tower of Victory built by Mahmud of Ghazni, Muslim
conqueror of North India. c. 1450
Islam spreads over much of East Indies.
1186
Raids by Muhammad al-Ghur herald decline of Ghaznavid 1487–1489
dynasty, and of Buddhism, in North India. Portuguese Pero de Covilha sails through Red Sea to India.

Islam and the Muslim World 773
Timelines

1498 1728
Vasco da Gama rounds Cape of Good Hope and reaches Marathas defeat Nizam of Hyderabad and gain supremacy
India. over Deccan with subsequent territorial expansion.
1502 1739
First published map to show correct general shape of India, Sack of Delhi by Persians and Afghans under Nadir Shah.
by Alberto Cantino.
1744–1763
1507 Anglo-French (Camatic) wars, eclipse of French power in
Portuguese victory over Ottoman and Arab fleet at Diu. South Asia.
1509–1516 1749
Portuguese voyages to Moluccas, Malacca, and Macao. Mysore starts to become major power in southern North
1510 India.
Portuguese conquest of Goa; Goa made capital of all Portu- 1757
guese possessions in Asia. Expansion of Gurkha (Neiali) domains over much of
1511–1512 Himalayas.
Portuguese establish base in Malacca and reach Moluccas. 1757
1517 Battle of Plassey, British victors, over combined French and
First Portuguese trading mission to China. Mogul force establishes British power in Bengal.

1526 1761
Babur conquers Delhi and founds Mogul Empire. Defeat by Afghans temporarily ends Maratha hegemony over
northern North India.
1538
Failure of Ottoman blockade of Portuguese at Diu. 1761
British destroy French power in North India following sei-
1556 zure of Pondicherry.
Akbar becomes Mogul emperor (to 1605); reign marked by
territorial expansion and cordial Hindu-Muslim relations. 1767
Appointment of James Rennell as first Surveyor-General of
1600 Bengal, beginning of Survey of India.
Founding of British East India Company.
1775
1627 First Anglo-Maratha war (to 1782).
Shah Jahan becomes Mogul emperor.
1782
c. 1647 Treaty ending first Anglo-Maratha war results in territorial
Completion of Atlas of India by Sadiq Isfahani. losses for Marathas.
1653 1788
Completion of Taj Mahal for Shah Jahan’s wife. Occupation of Delhi, Maratha territorial apogee, Mogul
1658 rulers become puppets of Marathas.
Aurangzeb becomes Mogul emperor; empire reaches maxi- 1799
mum extent during his reign (to 1701).
Conquest of Mysore ends challenge to British power in
c 1660 southern North India.
Gujaratis make earliest known North Indian nautical charts. 1803
c. 1700 Second Anglo-Maratha war leads to British acquisition of
Probable commencement of Mogul military mapping. Delhi.

1707 1815
Death of Aurangzeb heralds decline of Mogul power in Victory in Anglo-Gurkha war extends British possessions
North India. into the Himalayas.

c. 1720 1818
Marathas start to expand over most of India. Third Anglo-Maratha war ends in Maratha defeat.

1724 1819
Independent rule over Deccan by Nizam of Hyderabad Stamford Raffles, of the British East India company, founds
hastens disintegration of empire. Singapore.

774 Islam and the Muslim World
Timelines

1849 1945
British annex Punjab after two Sikh wars. Sukarno and Ho Chi Minh declare independence for Indonesia and Vietnam respectively.
1857
Last Mogul emperor, the Maratha puppet Bahadur Shah II, 1947
dethroned and exiled by British. India and Pakistan gain independence.

1857–1859 1947
Revolt (Mutiny) attempts to oust British from India May 30, New independent dominions of India (Hindu) and Pakistan
1857: Lucknow mutiny. June 27, 1857 massacre of British (Muslim) are born.
evacuees at Cawnpore.
1947
1858 Start of Indo-Pakistani War fought over Jammu and Kashmir;
(March 22) British retake Lucknow after twenty-day siege. U.N. ceasefire line agreed in 1949.

1859 1949
Timor divided between Netherlands and Portugal. Indonesia gains independence from the Dutch.

1873 1952
Dutch attack on Achin sultanate in Sumatra. First Indian general election won by Congress Party.

1876 1954
Queen Victoria declared Empress of India, and a viceroy Sukarno abrogates union with Dutch and declares unitary
appointed as her representative. state of Indonesia.

1956
1885
Pakistan constituted as Islamic Republic.
Foundation of Indian National Congress.
1957
1904
Malaya granted independence from Britain, despite ongoing
Partition of Bengal; nationalist agitation in North India.
Communist insurrection.
1906
1958
Foundation of All-India Muslim League. Abortive secessionist uprisings in Baluchistan, Pakistan.
1918 1963
Indian contribution to World War I earns it membership in Federation of Malaysia incorporates Singapore, Sarawak, and
League of Nations. Sabah, along with Malaya.
1919 1965
Amritsar massacre leads to surge in North Indian nationalism. Second inconclusive Indo-Pakistani war over Jammu and
Kashmir.
1920
Mahatma Gandhi gains control of Indian National Congress. 1965
Failed Marxist coup and military countercoup in Indonesia
1920
ends Sukarno regime.
Start of civil disobedience campaigns by Gandhi in support of
independence struggle. 1971
Secession of East Pakistan leads to creation of Bangladesh;
1926–1927 Third IndoPakistani war as India intervenes.
Rebellion against Dutch rule in Java and Sumatra.
1975
1942 Indonesia annexes East Timor.
Indonesia, Indochina, Malaya, the Philippines, New Guinea,
and Singapore seized by Japan. 1989–
Revival of violent insurrection against Indian rule in Jammu
1942 and Kashmir.
(February) Surrender of British forces to Japan in Singapore.
1998
1942 Economic crisis in Indonesia leads to overthrow of government.
(March) Dutch surrender East Indies to Japan.
1999
1945 Referendum in East Timor produces overwhelming vote for
India becomes U.N. charter member. independence.

Islam and the Muslim World 775
Timelines

2001 637
Attack on North Indian parliament by Muslim terrorists Arab conquest of Mesopotamia.
leads to increased tensionbetween North India and Pakistan
over Kashmir. 637
Arabs capture Ctesiphon.
2002
East Timor officially declares independence from Indonesia. 637
Arabs defeat Persians at al-Qadisiya; Jerusalem seized.
2003
Indian and Pakistan resume diplomatic, trade, and transpor- 638
tation ties. Foundation of first mosque in Kufa.

Adapted from: Lunde, Paul. Islam: Faith, Culture, History. 641
New York: DK Publishing, Inc., 2002. Arabs capture Nineveh and invade Armenia.

ISLAM IN SOUTHWEST ASIA 570–2003 C.E. Muslims invade Persia, Sassanid Empire falls.

570 Death of
Umar,
Uthman appointed caliph.
Birth of Muhammad in Mecca.
595 Assassination of
Uthman;
Ali, son-in-law of Muhammad
First marriage of Muhammad to Khadija, a merchant. chosen as the fourth caliph but struggles for control of
610 caliphate (to 661).
Muhammad receives first revelation. 660
611 Mu
awiya proclaimed caliph in Damascus.
Arabs invade Mesopotamia. 661
611–626
Ali assassinated; beginning of Umayyad Caliphate (to 750).
Sassanid armies capture Jerusalem and overrun Asia Minor. 670
622 Reconstruction of mosque in Kufa.
Muhammad’s emigration with followers to Yathrib (Medina), 683
the Hijra, and the start of the Islamic calendar.
Anti-caliphate movement based in Mecca (to 693).
Qibla oriented toward Jerusalem.
Building of Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, completed 692.
Muhammad’s rejection of links with Judaism.
Burning of the Ka
ba; anti-caliph executed.
Muhammad’s pilgrimage to Mecca.
Great Mosques of Damascus and Medina built, al-Aqsa
630 Mosque in Jerusalem.
Orientation of qibla is altered toward Ka
ba in Mecca.
632 Abbasid Caliphate established in Baghdad.
Death of Muhammad in Medina, sucession of Abu Bakr (to
634), beginning of Arab expansion in Arabian peninsula.
Umayyad Caliphate is overthrown in Damascus, succeeded
633–637 by the Abbasid Dynasty (to 1258).
Muslims conquer Syria.
634 Al-Mansur becomes caliph in Baghdad (to 775).
Caliphate of
Umar (to 644), conquest of Palestine and Syria.
635 Under Abbasid Caliphate, new interest in seafaring, focused
Arab armies cross Euphrates. on Persian Gulf routes.

636 762
Byzantine army routed by Muslims on Yarmuk River. Abbasid capital moved to Mesopotamia; founding of Baghdad.

776 Islam and the Muslim World
Timelines

786 950
Harun al-Rashid becomes caliph; Baghdad becomes center of Death of philosopher al-Farabi.
arts and learning.
809 Al-Mas
udi’s major historical/geographical work The Mead-
Death of Harun al-Rashid, start of civil war between al-Amin ows of Gold.
and al-Mamun (ends 813).
813 Fatimids establish control of Damascus.
Reign of al-Mamun, development of sciences and math in
the Arab and Islamic world.
Seljuk Turks enter lands of caliphate.
Death of al-Shafi.
Byzantine forces threaten to take Jerusalem.
1005
Baghdad terrorized by Turkish slave troops. Abbasid Caliph
Al-Sufi’s Geography, (now in St. Petersburg) probably oldest
al-Mu
tasim builds new capital at Samarra.
extant illustrated Arabic manuscript.
848 1009
Foundation of Great Mosque at Samarra with monumental Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
spiral minaret.
1055
860 Seljuks capture Baghdad, ruling in the name of the Abbasid
Zaidi Imams rise to power in Yemen; rule intermittently to caliph.
1281.
1069
862 Seljuks take Konya (Iconium).
Qubba al-Sulaybiya mausoleum, Samarra; first monumental
Islamic tomb. 1071
Seljuks under Alp Arslan defeat Byzantines at Manzikert.
Byzantines annihilate Arab forces to stem Muslim advance in 1077
Anatolia. Seljuk province established in Anatolia with capital first at
Nicaea and then Konya, dynasty comes to be known as the
869 Seljuks of Rum (to 1307).
Revolt of black slaves in southern Iraq.
1078
892 Seljuks take Damascus.
Capital of Abbasid Caliphate shifts back from Samarra to
Baghdad. 1079
Seljuks take Jerusalem.
1084
Shi
ite Qarmatians establish power base in central Arabia.
Fall of Antioch to Seljuks.
1092
Shi
ite Buwayhids (Buyids) establish power base in Persia,
Abbasid wazir Nizam al-Mulk murdered by Isma
ili assassin.
Iraq; rule in name of Abbasid Caliphate (to 1082).
1094
Seljuk dynasty of Syria founded with capital at Aleppo.
Final text of Quran codified.
1096
First Crusade.
Turkic troops in pay of Buwayhids take effective control of
Abbasid Caliphate. 1098
Crusaders take Antioch.
Persian Buwayhids conquer Baghdad but allow caliph to 1099
reign as figurehead. Jerusalem captured by crusaders, Godfrey of Bouillon elected
King of Jerusalem.
Hamdanids establish power base in Syria and Lebanon (to c. 1118
1004). Crusading order of Knights Templar founded in Jerusalem.

Islam and the Muslim World 777
Timelines

1124 1204
Crusaders capture Tyre. Maimonides’ The Guide to the Perplexed.

1127 1206
Zangid dynasty of Seljuk governors control Syria and Citadel of Damascus completed.
Mesopotamia to 1222, initiate Muslim counteroffensive against
crusaders. 1225
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II inherits Kingdom of
c. 1130 Jerusalem.
Hospital of St John of Jerusalem (the Hospitallers) becomes
military order. 1229
Frederick negotiates agreement which wins back control
1144 over Jerusalem.
Edessa conquered by Zangi, governor of Mosul.
1229
1145 Rasulids control Yemen (to 1454).
The Friday Mosque at Isfahan.
1237
1148 Huand Khatun Mosque, mausoleum, madrasa, and baths at
Crusaders abandon siege of Damascus. Kayser, central Turkey; major complex endowed by Seljuk
noblewoman.
1151
Last Christian stronghold in County of Edessa falls to Nur al- 1250
Din. Mamluks, military caste from Caucasus, take over Syria,
Egypt, and Hejaz (to 1517).
1163
Iplici Mosque at Konya, probably the first to have a campa- 1256–1257
nile (tower) minaret. Assassins’ stronghold at Alamut falls to Hulegu.

1174 1258
Saladin takes Damascus. Sack of Baghdad and fall of Abbasid Caliphate, Hulegu
founds Il-Khanate.
1183
Saladin takes Aleppo. 1260
Hulegu invades Syria; Mongols suffer first major defeat at
1187
Ayn Jalut.
Saladin defeats crusader armies at Hattin, takes Jerusalem
and Acre. 1268
Mamluks capture Antioch from crusaders.
1188
Saladin completes conquest of Latin kingdoms in Levant, 1281
Christians reduced to coastal enclaves. Succession of Osman I, beginning of Ottoman dynasty (to
1924) and first phase of expansion.
1188
The Mosque at Rabat, like Seville, intended to be the largest c. 1302
in the world. Last Christian territory in Levant falls to Mamluks.

1190 1314
Frederick I (Barbarossa) drowned in Anatolia on way to Holy Rashid al-Din’s Jami
al-tawarikh, Persian history of Mongol
Land. conquest.

1191–1192 1326
Third Crusade, Richard I of England recovers some of Ottomans capture Byzantine city of Bursa and make it their
territory taken by Saladin, including Jaffa and Acre, fails to capital.
take Jerusalem.
1336
1192 Birth of Timur.
Richard I of England makes treaty with Saladin.
1345
1193 Ottomans annex Emirate of Karasi, empire reaches
Death of Saladin. Dardanelles.

1197 1347
Order of Teutonic Knights established in the Holy Land. Black Death reaches Baghdad and Constantinople.

778 Islam and the Muslim World
Timelines

1370 1514
Beginning of Timur’s conquests, Timurid successors rule his Selim defeats Safavids at Caldiran.
empire to 1506.
1516–1517
1372 Ottomans conquer Syria, Egypt, the Hijaz, and Yemen.
Kitab hayyat al-hayyawan by al-Damiri, encyclopaedic collec-
1517
tion of tales traditions and scientific observations concerning
Selim I orders construction of Ottoman fleet at Suez, Portuanimals.
guese attack on Jedda repulsed.
1378 1520
Foundation of Ak Koyunlu, state based on Turkoman tribes- Sulayman the Magnificent becomes Ottoman sultan (to 1566).
men in East Anatolia, Azerbaijan, Zagros mountains (to
1508). 1525
Ottomans defeat Portuguese fleet in Red Sea.
c. 1380
Foundation of Janissary corps by Ottomans. 1528
Safavids take Baghdad from Kurdish usurper.
1380
1534
Timur launches series of attacks on Persia.
Sulayman retakes Baghdad from Safavids.
1384
1538
Herat rebels, Timur suppresses ruling dynasty.
Ottomans subjugate Yemen and Aden and occupy port of
1387 Basra on Persian Gulf.
Isfahan rebels, in reprisal, Timur kills 70,000 people, build- 1546
ing towers with their skulls. Ottomans retake Basra after revolt.
1388–1391 1551–1552
Timur wages war against Mongol Khanate of the Golden Ottomans fail to oust Portuguese from Hormuz.
Horde.
1566
1389 Sulayman succeeded by Selim II.
Accession of Bayezid I.
1588
1393
Abbas I (the Great) becomes Safavid shah.
Sack of Baghdad by Timur. 1592
1400 Zaydi imans regain control of Yemen, and rule until 1962.
Sack of Aleppo and Damascus by Timur. 1598
Isfahan becomes imperial Safavid capital.
1401
Sack of Baghdad by Timur. 1603–1619
Safavid war with Ottomans, in first year
Abbas recaptures
1402 Tabriz.
Ottomans defeated by Timur at Ankara.
1604
1405
Abbas conquers Erivan, Shirvan, and Kars.
Death of Timur.
1672
1406 Greatest extent of Ottoman Empire.
Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddima, the first attempt in any language
c. 1750
to elucidate the laws governing the rise and fall of civilizations.
Emergence of Wahhabi reform movement in Arabia.
1461 1774
Ottomans take Christian city of Trebizond. Ottoman decline follows Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca.
1502 1806
Italian Lodovico di Varthema visits Arabia disguised as an Wahhabis take Mecca.
Arab.
1812
1512 Burckhardt first European to find Petra, ancient capital of
Accession of Ottoman ruler Selim I. Nabataea.

Islam and the Muslim World 779
Timelines

1812 1916–1918
Egyptian forces retake Mecca and Medina. Arab Revolt, Saudi tribes supported by British rise against
Turks.
1814
Burckhardt visits Mecca. 1917
Balfour Declaration declares British support for creation of
1818 Jewish state in Palestine; British take Baghdad; British take
Sadleir is first European to make east-west crossing of Ara- Jerusalem.
bian peninsula.
1918
1818 Battle of Megiddo; Collapse of Ottoman Empire, Turkish
Wahhabi movement suppressed by Egyptian forces. surrender.
1839–1861 1919
Sultan
Abd al-Majid I makes series of liberal Tanzimat Greek forces land at Smyrna; Kemal Pasha breaks away from
decrees. authority of Istanbul government.
1843 1920
Fortunes of Sa
ud family restored by Faisal. Armenia cedes half its territory to Turkey.
1853 1921
Richard Burton visits Mecca and Medina in Arab disguise. Turkish Nationalist government established in Ankara.
1876–1878
1922
Doughty’s Arabian journeys.
Turks recapture Smyrna.
c. 1880
1923
Birth of
Abd al-
Aziz ibn Sa
ud in Kuwait.
Foundation of modern Turkey by Kemal Ataturk.
1887
1923
Riyadh taken by Rashidis, who dominate Najd.
(July) Treaty of Lausanne recognizes Turkish sovereignty
1888 over Smyrna and eastern Thrace.
Publication of Doughty’s classic Travels in Arabia Deserta.
1926
c. 1900 Ibn Sa
ud crowns himself King of the Hejaz and Sultan of
Baku oil fields in Azerbaijan producing half the world’s oil. Najd.

1902 1927
Ibn Sa
ud reclaims his patrimony by capturing Riyadh. Oil discovered in Iraq.

1905 1932
Jewish National Fund established to buy land in Palestine. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia proclaimed.

1908 1933
Ottoman sultan deposed in Young Turk Revolution. U.S. company, Standard Oil of California, granted concession in Saudi Arabia.
1914
Ottomans declare jihad, ally with Germany and Austria 1936
(Central Powers) against Allies. Arab revolt in Palestine against British occupation and Jewish
immigration.
1915
About one million Armenians massacred or deported by 1938
Turks. Commercial quantities of oil discovered in Saudi Arabia.

1915 1944
(February) First Turkish attempt to capture Suez. Standard Oil reformed as ARAMCO (Arabian American Oil
Company).
1916
(February) Russians take Erzurum. 1945
Foundation of Arab League.
1916
(April) British surrender to Turks at Kut al-Amara in 1947
Mesopotamia. U.N. partition of Palestine.

780 Islam and the Muslim World
Timelines

1948 1990
Foundation of state of Israel leads to war, invading Arab (November 29) U.N. resolution authorizes members to use
armies repulsed in Israel; some 725,000 Palestinians made “all necessary means” against Iraq.
refugees.
1991
1956 (January) U.N. deadline for Iraqi withdrawal passes, Opera-
Suez crisis, Israel, France, and Britain invade Egypt; fail to tion Desert Storm begins with bombing of Iraqi troops and
block Egypt’s nationalization of Suez Canal. installations.

1958 1991
Oil strikes in United Arab Emirates. (February 24) Allied land offensive in Iraq.

1961 1991
Foundation of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting (February 28) Ceasefire in war in Iraq.
Countries (OPEC).
1993
1967 Oslo Accords between Israel and PLO based on principle of
Egypt closes Gulf of Aqaba to Israel; Israel defeats Egypt and “Land for Peace.”
other Arab nations in Six Day War; Israel occupies Sinai,
Gaza, Golan Heights, and the West Bank including Jerusalem. 1993
Islamic countries issue Cairo Declaration to curb
1973 fundamentalism.
Arab states fail to defeat Israel in Yom Kippur War.
1995
1973 Israeli-PLO agreement extends Palestinian self-rule within
OPEC restricts flow of oil to world markets, raises price of the West Bank.
crude oil by 200%, oil crisis causes inflation and economic
slowdown. 2000
Ariel Sharon’s visit to Dome of the Rock inflames Israeli-
1977 Palestinian violence.
Start of Middle East peace process.
2001
1978 Sharon becomes Israeli premier, violence continues.
Camp David summit between Egypt, Israel, and U.S.
2002
1979 (February 17) Saudi Crown Prince
Abdallah proposes full
Egypt and Israel sign peace treaty based on Camp David Arab normalization with Israel in return for withdrawal to
accords. 1967 boundaries.

1979 2002
Islamic revolution in Iran, deposition of shah, proclamation Iraq allows unconditional return of U.N. weapons inspectors.
of Islamic republic.
2002
1980 Elections in Morocco, dominated by the Socialist Union of
Start of Iran-Iraq War. Popular Forces (USFP). The king appoints a non-party
figure, former interior minister Driss Jettou, as Prime Minister.
1981
Fifty-two American embassy staff held hostage in Tehran 2002
since 1979 are freed. Parliamentary elections in Bahrain (the first in 30 years, and
the first with female enfranchisement) are boycotted by the
1982 four main opposition parties, after amendment by Shaykh
Israel invades Lebanon. Hamad for an appointed second chamber. The turn-out is 53
percent with disproportionately low Shi
a representation.
1988
End of Iran-Iraq War. 2003
Turkish parliament fails to approve the use of its soil for U.S.
1990 attacks on Iraq, despite the offer of $26 billion in aid and loan
(August 2) Iraq invades Kuwait, U.N. demands Iraq’s imme- guarantees.
diate withdrawal.
2003
1990 Yasser Arafat nominates Mahmud Abbas as Prime Minister in
(August 7) U.S. troops sent to Gulf. Palestine, who is approved by the Palestine Legislative Council.

Islam and the Muslim World 781
Timelines

2003 615
(March 19) U.S. and British invade Iraq and appoint an Hamza accepts Islam. First Muslim migration to Abyssinia.
interim government.
Umar becomes a Muslim.

2003 616
Bush administration announces the “Roadmap” for “a Per- General boycott of Banu Hashim. Return of the first emigrants.
manent Two-State Solution” between the Israelis and the
Palestinians. 617
Second migration of Muslims to Abyssinia.
Adapted from: Lunde, Paul. Islam: Faith, Culture, History.
New York: DK Publishing, Inc., 2002. 619
Death of Abu Talib. Death of Khadija. Muhammad seeks
tribal protection and preaches Islam in Taif.
LIFE OF MUHAMMAD 570–632 C.E. 620
Muhammad’s engagement to
Aisha bint Abu Bakr. First
570 C.E. converts of Aws and Khazraj from Yathrib.
Abraha, the Christian king in South Arabia, leads an abortive
attack on Mecca, “The Year of the Elephant.” Death of 621

Abdallah, the Prophet’s father. Muhammad’s birth (August First meeting of al-
Aqaba. Al-Isra and al-Mi
raj (night
20). journey and ascent to heaven).

570–575 622
Muhammad’s nurture by Halima and residence at Banu Sa
d. Second meeting of al-
Aqaba. Attempted assassination of the
Persian conquest of Yemen. Expulsion of the Christian Prophet by the Meccans. July 16, the Hijra, the Prophet’s
Abyssinians. migration to Yathrib, henceforth called Medina, from madinat
al-nabiyy (the city of the Prophet).
575–
Persecution of Christians in Yemen by the Jewish King Dhu 622 C.E.
Nuwas. The Prophet builds a mosque and residence. Establishment
of Islamic brotherhood as new social order. The Prophet
575–597 founds the first Islamic state. The Covenant of Medina.
Persian dominion in Yemen. Muhammad marries
Aisha. The call to prayer (adhan) is
instituted.
Abdallah ibn Salam accepts Islam. The Jews
576 attempt to split the Aws-Khazraj coalition.
Death of Amina, the Prophet’s mother.
578 Hamza’s campaign against the Meccans near Yanbu
. Cam-
Death of the Prophet’s grandfather,
Abd al-Muttalib. Guardi- paign of al-Kharrar.
anship of the Prophet passes to his uncle Abu Talib.
582 Campaign against Waddan. The incident of Finhas. Cam-
Muhammad’s first journey to Syria. Meeting with Bahira, a paign of Buwat. Campaign of al-
Ushayra.
Christian monk.
586 Institution of Ka
ba in Mecca as qiblah (direction of prayer).
Muhammad’s employment by Khadija. Campaign of Badr (first Muslim victory). Campaign of Banu
Qaynuqa
.
Muhammad’s second journey to Syria. Muhammad marries 624
Khadija. Campaign of Banu Sulaym. Campaign of Dhu Amarr. Campaign of al-Qarada.
Muhammad helps rebuild the Ka
ba. 625
Muhammad’s marriage to Hafsa, widow, daughter of
Umar.
Beginning of the revelation of the Quran and the call to 625
prophethood. Khadija,
Ali, and Abu Bakr accept Islam in that Campaign of Hamra al-Asad. Marriage of
Ali to Fatima, the
order. Prophet’s daughter. Treachery against Islam at Bir Ma
una.
Campaign of Banu al-Nadir.
Muhammad begins publicly preaching Islam. Confrontation 626
with the Meccans. Campaign of Uhud; martyrdom of Hamza.

782 Islam and the Muslim World
Timelines

626 630
First campaign of Dawmat al-Jandal. Campaign of Mecca. The Meccans accept Islam. Destruction
of the idols and cleansing of the Ka
ba. Conversion of the
Arab tribes in the Hijaz. Campaign of Hawazin at Hunayn.
Campaign of al Muraysi
. Hadith al-Ifk (libel) against
Aisha. 631
Campaign of al-Khandaq (The Ditch). Campaign of Banu Second Muslim pilgrimage (led by Abu Bakr).
Qurayda.
The Christian delegation of Najran (Yemen) visits Medina
628 and is incorporated into the Islamic state as a constituent
Second campaign of Dawmat al-Jandal. Campaign of Fadak. umma in that state. The Year of Deputations: the Arab tribes
Campaign of Khaybar. Al-Hudaybiya Peace Treaty with enter Islam and pledge their loyalty.
Mecca. The Prophet sends delegates to present Islam to the
neighboring monarchs. 632
Death of Muhammad’s son Ibrahim. Last pilgrimage of the
Prophet. Completion of the revelation of the Quran.
First Muslim hajj. Khalid ibn al-Walid and
Amr ibn al-
As 632
become Muslims. Death of the Prophet. The campaign of Muta.
Adapted from: al-Faruqi, Isma’il R., and Lamya’ al-Faruqi ,
629 Lois. Cultural Atlas of Islam. New York: Macmillan; London:
Killing of Muslim missionaries at Dhat al-Talh. Collier: 1986.

Islam and the Muslim World 783
Index
Page links created automatically - disregard ones formed not from page numbers

Boldfaced page numbers indicate main article on the subject. Italicized page numbers reference photos or illustrations.

A
Abd al-
Aziz (son of Muhammad b.
Abdallah b. Ibrahim al-Najdi,
Aaliyah, 45 Sa
ud), 728 Shaykh, 6
Aaron, 37
Abd al-Baha (
Abd al-Baha
Abbas,
Abdallah ibn
Abbas, 672
Abaqa, 701 also known as
Abbas Effendi), 1–2,
Abdallah ibn Sa
ud, 728
99, 100, 101
Abdallah Khan, 135

Abbas I, shah of Iran (Persia), 1,
See also Bahaallah; Bahai faith
Abd al-Malik b. Marwan, Umayyad
218, 437

Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis (also known caliph
See also Safavid and Qajar
as Ben Badis), 2, 366 and Dome of the Rock, 74, 118,
Empires
See also Reform: in Arab Middle 125, 183, 223, 315

Abbas II, shah of Iran (Persia), 218 East and North Africa; Salafiyya monetary reforms of, 151, 195
Abbasid Empire, 207–210
Abd al-Hamid II (
Abdulhamid II), 5, silver box of, 78
architecture of, 72–73 153, 172, 341, 342, 376, 464, 465, succession of, 223, 435
caliphs of, 118–121, 654 505, 520, 653, 656, 678, 738,
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal, 4
Christianity under, 144–145 739, 740
da
wa network of, 173
conversion during, 362
Abd al-Hamid Kishk (Shaykh), 2–3 and foreign aid, 197
decorative arts of, 79
Abd al-Haqq Dihlawi, 637 influence on Arab League, 69
end of, 134, 207–208
Abd al-Jabbar (Qadi
Abd al-Jabbar b. language use by, 61
eunuchs of, 233 Ahmad al-Hamadani), 3, 247 pan-Arabism of, 412, 465, 519
monetary policy of, 151–152 See also Kalam; Mu
tazilites, and political modernization,
poetry and literature of, 65, 242 Mu
tazila 460, 538
political organization under,
Abd al-Karim al-Jili, 51 Soviet support for, 156
541–542
Abd al-Karim al-Maghili, 84 youth support for, 741
prosperity of, 98–99 See also Nationalism: Arab; Pan-

Abd al-Karim al-Qushayri, 455
rise of, 132, 207, 591, 623 Arabism

Abd al-Karim Sorush (Hassan Haj-
See also Byzantine Empire; Mahdi,
Abd al-Qadir (al-Jilani), 4–5, 344,
Faraj Dabbagh), 3–4, 279, 469,
Sadiq al-; Rashid, Harun al-; 638, 682
471, 552, 578, 616, 628, 741
Umayyad Empire See also Tasawwuf
See also Iran, Islamic Republic of;

Abd al-
Aziz (d. 1801), 6 Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi, 469

Abd al-
Aziz (d. 1823), 730
Abdallah, Shaykh Muhammad, 640
Abd al-Qahir al-Baghdadi, 83

Abd al-
Aziz (d. 1824), 169, 170
Abdallah, king of Jordan, 347
Abd al-Quddus Gangohi, 637

Abd al-
Aziz ibn Baz (1910–1999), 108 Abdallah II, khan of Bukhara, 112
Abd al-Rahim, Shah, 730

Abd al-
Aziz ibn Sa
ud, 519, 609, 611
Abdallah al-Mahdi, 628
Abd al-Rahman I (731–788), 46,

Abd al-
Aziz Khan (r. Abdallah b. Mas
ud, 563 65, 362
1645–1681), 135
Abd Allah b.
Abbas, 36
Abd al-Rahman II (788–852), 362

Abd al-
Aziz (son of
Abd al-
Abdallah b. Ahmad al-Nasafi, 9
Abd al-Rahman III (891–961), 46,
Rahman), 729
Abdallah b.
Ali, 445 362, 587

Abd al-
Aziz (son of Marwan), 435
Abdallah b. Ibad al-Tamim, 390
Abd al-Rahman al-Awza
i, 406

Page links created automatically - disregard ones formed not from page numbers
Index: Volume 1 pp. 1–416; Volume 2 pp. 417–747


Abd al-Rahman al-Sa
di, 694 Abu
Abdallah al-Humaydi, 182 Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi, 8

Abd-al-Rahman b. Muljam, 36 Abu
Abdallah al-Qurtubi, 673 Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. Muhammad al-

Abd al-Rahman Kawakibi, 5, 342, Abu
Abdallah al-Shirazi, 105 Sarifini, 8
469, 503, 577 Abu
Abdallah Muhammad al- Abu Ja
far, 591
See also Modernization, political: Khwarazmi, 139 Abu Ja
far al-Mansur, 97
Administrative, military, and Abu
Abdullah al-Basri, 3 Abu Jafar al-Tusi, 674
judicial reform; Modernization, Abu Ahmad Nasr, 443 Abu Ja
far Muhammad ibn Musa alpolitical: Authoritarianism and Abu
Ala al-Ma
arri, 455 Khwarazmi, 130, 469
democratization; Modernization, Abu al-
Abbas (Abu ’l-Abbas al-Saffah), Abu ’l-
Abbas, 591
political: Constitutionalism; Abbasid caliph, 97, 207 Abul-
Abbas al-Qalanisi, 83
Modernization, political: Abu al-Faraj Runi, 528
Participation, political Abu ’l-Fayz Khan, 135
Abu
Ali al-Farmadhi, 275
movements, and parties Abu ’l-Fazl, 33
Abu
Ali al-Jubbai, 82

Abd al-Rahman (r. 1889–1902), 729 Abul-Fida of Hama, 659
Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi, 9

Abd al-Raziq,
Ali, 319, 470, 551, 577, Abu ’l-Ghazi Khan, 135
Abu al-Muayyad Muhammad b.
614, 668 Abu ’l-Hasan al-Ash
ari, 82
Mahmud al-Khwarizmi, 9

Abd al-Razzaq al-San
ani, 286, Abu ’l-Hasan al-Bahili, 83, 105
Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd, 38
287, 288 Abu ’l-Hasan
Ali ibn al-Nu
man al-
Abu al-Tabarsi (d. 1153), 674

Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri, 5–6, 461 Qayrawani, 92
Abu Bakr (Abu Bakr b. Abi
See also Law; Modernization, Quhafa), 7–8 Abu ’l-Hasan al-Rustughfeni, 443
political: Constitutionalism Abu ’l-Hasan Bani-Sadr, 9–10, 357
as father of
Aisha, 7, 33

Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad Ibn, 6, on hijra, 299 See also Iran, Islamic Republic of;
108, 389, 452, 468, 483, 536, 575, succession of, 35, 117, 422, 481, Revolution: Islamic revolution
580, 610, 676, 706, 727–728 548, 573, 585, 621, 654, 667 in Iran
See also Wahhabiyya See also Caliphate; Succession Abu ’l-Hassan al-Amiri, 225

Abduh (Abdu), Muhammad, 6–7 Abu Bakr al-Asamm, 10 Abu ’l-Hudhayl al-
Allaf (Muhammad
and dialectical method, 385 Abu Bakr al-Baqillani, 83 b. al-Hudhayl b.
Ubaydallah alfollowers of, 5 Abu Bakr al-Jassas, 409 Abdi), 10, 247
fundamentalism of, 262 Abu Bakr al-Khwarizmi, 297 See also Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila
on hadith, 286 Abu Bakr b. Mas
ud al-Kasani, 9 Abu ’l-Husayn al-Basri, 3
on Islamic unity, 342
Abu Bakr Gumi, 8 Abu ’l-Khattab, 369
modernism of, 83, 433, 456, 609,
See also Modern thought; Political Abu ’l-Khayr Khan, 135
668, 674, 676
Islam; Wahhabiyya Abu ’l-Mal
ali al-Juwayni, 274
on nationalism, 503
Abu Bakr Ibn
Abd al-Rahman, 406 Abu ’l-Muin al-Nasafi, 443
political philosophy of, 551,
575–577 Abu Bakr ibn
Umar, 475 Abu ’l-Qasem Kashani, 10–11
as publisher, 7, 13 Abu Bakr Muhammad, 443 See also Fedaiyan-e Islam; Iran,
on Quranic interpretation, Abu Bakr Qaffal al-Shashi, 139 Islamic Republic of; Majlis;
267–268 Abu Bilal Mirdas b. Hudayr b. Mossadeq, Mohammad
reforms advocated by, 104, Udayya, 390 Abu ’l-Qasim al-Balkhi (al-Ka
bi), 443
172, 345 Abu Bishr Matta, 182 Abu ’l-Yusr al-Pazdavi, 443
on welfare, 440 Abu Dawud, 286
Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, 83
See also Afghani, Jamal al-Din; Abu Dharr Ghifari, 35
Abu Mansur ibn Tahrir al-
Reform: in Arab Middle East Abu Dulama, 321 Baghdadi, 181
and North Africa; Rida, Rashid; Abu Hafs al-Bukhari, 139
Salafiyya Abu Ma
shar al-Balkhi, 86, 139
Abu Hanifa (Abu Hanifa al-Nu
man b.

Abdulaziz, 376, 738 Abu Musa al-Ash
ari (Abu Musa
Thabit b. Zurti), 8–9, 11, 92, 406,

Abdulhamid II. See
Abd al-Hamid II Ash
ari), 36, 405
407–408, 417, 586–587, 734
Abdullah b. Yasin, 475 Abu Mushir al-Ghassani, 449
See also Law; Madhhab

Abdullahi ibn Muhammad (Khalifa Abu Muslim, 132, 207, 223, 591
Abu Hashim al-Jubbai, 3

Abdullahi), 422–423 Abu Muti
al-Balkhi, 9
Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (d. 1023),

Abdul Qadir Bedil, 643 209, 225 Abu Naddara, 342
Abida Parveen, 304 Abu Ishaq al-
Ayyash, 3 Abu Nasr Al-Farabi, 248
Abortion rights, 227–228, 228, 566 Abu Ishaq al-Isfaraini, 83 Abu Nuwas, 65, 209, 523
Abraha, Abbyssinian ruler of Arabia, Abu Ishaq al-Kazaruni, 680 Abu Rashid al-Nisaburi, 3
55, 381 Abu Ishaq al-Mu
tasim, 208 Abu Rayya, Mahmud, 286, 668
Abraham. See Ibrahim (Abraham) Abu Ishaq al-Nazzam, 10 Abu Sa
id al-Khudri, 286
Abu
Abbas Ahmad al-Farghani, 139 Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi, 11, 226 Abu Sa
id al-Sirafi, 182

786 Islam and the Muslim World
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Abu Sa
id b. Abil-Khayr, 140 See also Pan-Islam; Reform: in Ahl al-kalam (speculative
Abu Sa
id b. Abu l-Khayr, 141, 680 Arab Middle East and North theologians), 667
Abu Sayyaf, 648 Africa Ahl al-kitab (people of the book),
Abu Sufyan (Sakhr ibn Harb ibn Afghan Interim Government 27–29, 144, 162, 381, 452,
Umayyah), 477 (AIG), 490 534, 584
Abu Sulayman al-Sijistani, 282 Afghanistan See also Christianity and Islam;
Abu Tammam, 65 mujahidin in, 490–491 Islam and other religions;
Russian occupation of, 108 Judaism and Islam; Minorities:
Abu Turab (Father of Dust), 37
use of Arabic language in, 62 dhimmis
Abu
Uthman
Amr ibn al-Jahiz, 182
women in, 509–510 Ahl al-ra
y (people of considered
Abu Walid Hisham, 78
See also Taliban opinion), 27, 406, 667
Abu Ya
la, 286
Afghan Service Bureau Front (maktab Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama
at, 389, 390
Abu Ya
la b. al-Farra, 548–549 al-khidma li-l-mujahin al-
arab, Ahl al-sunna wal-jama
a, 82, 668
Abu Ya
qub al-Shahham, 10 MAK), 559 Ahl-e Hadis (Ahl-al Hadith, Ahl-i
Abu Yazid al-Bistami, 455, 685
Aflaq, Michel, 106, 460, 503, 519 Hadith), 26–27, 176
Abu Yusuf, 9, 406, 408, 542, 654 “Afrabia,” 252 See also Deoband;
Abu Zaid, Nasr, 178, 534 Africa, Islam in, 13–19, 15, 16, 20, 21 Fundamentalism
Abu Zakariya ibn Masawayh, 295 See also Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al- Ahl-e haqq, 453
Abu Zayd, Nasr Hamid, 298, 319 Ghazi; Ahmad Ibn Idris; Hajj Ahl-e Quran (people of the
Aceh (Indonesia). See Acheh Salim Suwari, al-; Suyuti, al-; Quran), 668
Acheh (Indonesia), 507–508, 644 Tariqa; Zar
Ahmad, Bashir al-Din Mahmud, 30
Adab (pl., udaba), 12 African culture and Islam, 19–24
Ahmad, Jalal Al-e (Al-i), 529, 733
as “belles lettres,” 66 See also Africa, Islam in; Bamba,
Ahmad, Khurshid, 174
development of, 225, 282 Ahmad; Timbuktu; Touba
Ahmad, Mirza Ghulam, 30, 32,
as ideal court behavior, 47, 48 (Senegal); Zar
172, 453
and moral pedagogy, 225–226 Afro-Islamic literature, 24
See also Ahmadiyya
multiple meanings of, 63 Afsaneh (Romance), 528
Ahmad, Mirza Tahir (Hazrat Mizrza
See also Arabic literature; Ethics Aga Khan, 24–25, 26
Tahir Ahmad Khalifatul Masih IV),
and social issues See also Khojas; Nizari
31, 31

Ada (custom), 11–12, 651 Aga Khan III (Sir Sultan Muhammad
Ahmad, Nazir, 716
See also Africa, Islam in; American Shah), 24–25, 25, 393, 629
Ahmad, Qazi Husain, 371, 372, 372
culture and Islam; Law; South Aga Khan I (Imam Hasan
Ali
Asia, Islam in; Southeast Asian Ahmad al-Ahsai, Shaykh, 95, 620
Shah), 24
culture and Islam Ahmad al-Badawi, 533
Aga Khan II (Shah Ali Shah), 24
Adalat Party, 156 Ahmad al-Bakkai, 402
Aga Khan IV (Shah Karim al-
Adam, 50, 50, 51 Husayni), 25, 511, 629 Ahmad al-Radhkani, 274
Adhan (call to prayer), 13, 71, 178, Aga Khan Development Network, 25 Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Quduri, 9
179, 428, 494, 708 Aghajari, Hashem, 743 Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Tahawi, 9
See also Devotional life;
Ibadat; Agha Khan, Karim Khan, 351 Ahmad b. Musa (Shah Cheragh), tomb
Masjid Agha Muhammad Khan, 387 of, 351
Adivar, Halide Edib, 470 Agriculture, 194, 195 Ahmad Baba, 308
Adoption, 229 Ahaba (sahaba, Companions), 8, 231 Ahmad-e Jam, 140

Adud al-Dawla, Buwayhid ruler of Ahbash movement, 690 Ahmad Gran (Ahmad ibn Gran; “the
Iraq, 65 left-handed”). See Ahmad ibn
Ahl al-bayt (“people of the house”),

Adud al-Din al-Iji, 83 Ibrahim al-Ghazi
25–26, 37, 121, 349, 624, 654
Adultery, 33, 270 Ahmad ibn Abi Ya
qub al-Ya
qubi, 130
See also Hadith; Imam; Imamate;
Afaq Khwaja, 136 Karbala; Mahdi; Sayyid; Sharif; Ahmad ibn
Ali ibn Abu l-Qasm al-
Affliction, rites of, 600 Shi
a: Imami (Twelver); Shi
a: Khayqani, 125
Afghani, Jamal al-Din, 13 Isma
ili Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Ahmad
Ahl al-dhimma (people of the Gran; Ahmad ibn Gran), 14,
fundamentalism of, 262, 341
protective covenant), 144, 162, 361, 29, 231
influence on
Abduh, 7
modernism of, 155, 456, 638, 733 362, 381 See also Africa, Islam in; Ethiopia;
and pan-Islam, 520 Ahl al-Hadith (people of the Jihad
political philosophy of, 551 traditions), 27, 334, 406, 668 Ahmad Ibn Idris, 29–30
reforms advocated by, 172, 578 See also Ibn Hanbal; Kalam; See also Africa, Islam in; Tariqa;
revivalism of, 467, 609, 616 Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila; Tasawwuf; Wahhabiyya
social philosophy of, 252 Traditionalism Ahmad ibn Nasr al-Khuza
i, 449

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Ahmadiyya, 30–32, 31, 46, 172, Akhundzada, Mirza Fath Ali, 614 Al-Busa
idi, Sayyid Sa
id b. Sultan b.
453, 708 Akiba, Rabbi, 53 Sa
id, 664
See also Ahmad, Mirza Ghulam; Akram, Wali, 709 Al-Busiri, 177
Pakistan, Islamic Republic of; Aksaray (Turkey), 666 Al-Bustani, Butrus, 342
South Asia, Islam in Aksum (ancient Abyssinia), 14, 55 Alchemy, 613
Ahmadiyya Anjuman-e Isha
at-e
Ala, Husayn, 256 Alcohol, prohibition of, 181
Islam, 30
Ala al-Din Khalji, 660 Al-Dahhaq b. Ways al-Fihri, 435
Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid, 32 Al-
Abbas b. al-Ahnaf, 65 Al-Darimi, 286, 337
in Aligarh, 38, 39, 304, 469 Al-
Abbas (uncle of Muhammad), 224 Al-Dhahab, Suwar, 347
on ethnic identity, 343 Al-Dhahabi, Shams al-Din, 8, 9
Al-Adab (periodical), 67
on hadith, 286
Al-
Adil, 658 Al-Din, Ahmad Hamid, 350
modernism of, 155, 433, 456,
Aladza Mosque (Foca), 103 Al-Din, Khwaja Kamal, 30
581, 609, 638, 668, 676, 716
Al-Afghani,
Abd al-Hakim, 9 Al-Din, Maulvi Nur, 30, 32
on rationalism, 468
See also Aligarh (India); Al-Ahkam al-sultaniyya (The Al-Din, Tahir Jalal, 582
Education; Liberalism, Islamic; ordinances of government), 548 Alem-i Nisvan (Women’s world), 265
Modernism; Modern thought; Al-Afghani, Jamal al-Din. See Afghani, Alexander the Great, 54, 391, 526
Pakistan, Islamic Republic of; Jamal al-Din Alexius, Byzantine emperor, 145
South Asia, Islam in; Urdu Al-Ahmadnagri,
Abd al-Nabi, 225 Al-Farabi, 35, 307, 550, 612
language, literature, and poetry Al-
Ali Ayyub, 658, 659 Al-Farra, 280
Ahmad Shah Abdali Durrani, 638 Al-
Allama al-Hilli, 34 Al-Faruqi, Isma
il, 174
Ahmad Shah Masud, 676 Al-Amin, caliph (r. 809–813), 120, 259 Al-Fatiha, 562
Ahmed Niyazi Bey, 739 Al-Amin, Imam Jamil (H. Rap Brown), Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage
Ahmed, Qazi Husain. See Ahmad, Qazi 44, 45 Foundation, 694
Husain Al-Amin bin Ali Mazrui, 445 Al-Gama
a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic
AIG (Afghan Interim Al-Amir, 628 Group), 365, 466
Government), 490 Al-
Amir, Fatimid caliph, 152 Algeria
Aini, Sadriddin, 528 Al-Amjad Bahramshah, 659 economy of, 634
AIOC (Anglo-Iranian Oil Company), Al-Aqsa Intifada, 740 independence of, 425
476, 504 Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, 355 Islamic reformist movement in, 2,

Aisha (
Aisha bint Abu Bakr), 32–33 Al-Aqsa Mosque (Jerusalem), 314, 315 365–366, 417, 461, 466, 616
on character of the Prophet, nationalism in, 2
Al-Asad, Bashar, 347, 461
225, 320 political represion in, 463
Al-Asad, Hafiz, 347, 460
and gender constructs, 269, 734 resistance to French colonialism
Al-
Ashmawi, Muhammad Sa
id, 319
married to the Prophet, 7, in, 4–5
Al-Ashraf Khalil, 166 socialism in, 633
33, 479
Al-
Attar,
Issam, 346 Sufism in, 682
opposition to
Ali from, 35,

Alavi, Bozorg, 528 veiling in, 722
260, 621
See also
Ali; Bukhari, al-; Fitna; Alavid Shi
ism, 619 waqf of, 731
Muhammad; Shi
a: Early; Sunna
Alawid dynasty (Morocco), 26 See also Islamic Salvation Front;
Al-Awza
i, 417 Reform: in Arab Middle East
Aisyiah (“way of
Aisha”), 735
Al-
Ayn, Qorrat (Tahereh, “the Pure and North Africa

Ajaib (“wondrous”) literary
One”), 96 Algerian Muslim Congress, 2
tradition, 129
Al-
Aziz Billah, Fatimid caliph, 92 Al-Hadi, 207, 429

Ajami (written) literature, 15
Al-Azmeh, Aziz, 307 Al-Hadi ila al-Haqq al-Mubin, 630
Akbar (Jalal al-Din Akbar), 33–34, 73,
Al-Babuya al-Qummi, 286 Al-Hafiz, 628
213, 303, 342–343, 363, 637
Al-Baghdadi, 297 Al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf, 312, 390, 429
See also Mogul Empire; South
Asia, Islam in Al-Balkhi, Abu Zayd Ahmad ibn Sahl, Al-Hakam, 30
130–131 Al-Hakam II, 414, 415
Akhbariyya, 34, 627, 717–718
Albania Al-Hakim, 71, 203, 414, 452
See also Law; Mu
tazilites,
Mu
tazila; Shi
a: Imami independence of, 102, 103 Al-Hakim al-Shahid al-Marwazi, 409
(Twelver) Muslim population of, 103, 236 Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, 454, 607, 685
Akhlaq (khuluq, manners, ethics), Al-Bashir, Omar, 348 Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, 453
34–35, 225 Al-Battani (Albategnius), 612 Al-Hallaj (d. 922), 176, 685
See also Adab; Ethics and social Al-Bishri, Tariq, 577 Al-Hallaj ibn Yusuf, 130, 151
issues; Falsafa Al-Bitar, Salah al-Din, 503 Alhambra (al-Hamra), 47, 47, 74, 376
Akhund (Persian, "religious Al-Buhturi, 65 Al-Haqq, Sami, 374
leader"), 473 Al-Busa
idi, Ahmad b. Sa
id, 664 Al-Haqqani, Shaykh Nazim, 44

788 Islam and the Muslim World
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Al-Haraka al-Islamiyya, 172 Aligarh Zenana Madrasa (later Aligarh Al-Malik al-Nasir Muhammad ibn
Al-Haramayn al-Juwayni, imam, Women’s College), 39 Qalawun, 662
83, 717
Ali ibn al-
Abbas al-Majusa, 295 Al-Malik al-Salih, 165, 166, 662
Al-harb al-muqaddasa (holy war), 158
Ali ibn Abi Talib. See
Ali Al-Manar, 7, 577, 597, 631
Al-Harbiyya, 658
Ali ibn Talib. See
Ali Al-Mansur (Abu Ja
far al-Mansur), 97,
Al-Hariri, 79
Ali Jalayiri, 308 97, 120, 130, 207, 295, 408,
Al-Hasan, Maulana Mahmud, 391 Al-
Iji, 307 591, 678
Al-Hasanat, Abu, 375
Ali Jurjani, 139 Al-Maqrizi, 130, 389
Al-Hasan b. Zayd, 630 Al-ilah (“the god”), 39 Al-Mas
udi, Abu ’l-Hasan
Ali ibn al-
Al-Humaydi, 286
Alim, emir of Bukhara, 113 Husayn, 130
Al-Hurr al-Amili, 34
Alim Khan, 136 Al-Mawardi, 121–122, 444, 449, 548,
Al-Husri, Sati
, 503, 518
Ali Mohammad, 95 588, 652, 654–655
Al-Husri al-Qayrawani, 320
Ali Muttaqi, 637 Almohad dynasty (Almohades), 47, 362
Ali, Muhammad (Cassius Clay), 44
Ali Pasha, 678, 738 Almoravid dynasty. See Moravids
Ali, Noble Drew, 708
Ali Riza Bey, 88 Alms, collecting of, 95

Ali, Chiragh, 433, 668 Al-Isbahani, 370 Al-Mu
azzam, 658

Ali, Hajji Mirza Sayyed, 96 Al-Isfahani (d. 967), 66 Al-Mubarrad, 280

Ali, Maulana Muhammad, 30
Ali-Sher Nawai, 222 Al-Muhallab, 390

Ali, Muhammad (Albanian, Al-Islam (Malaya), 582 Al-Mu
izz li-Din Allah, Fatimid caliph,
1769–1849), 60, 66, 196, 204, 92, 130
Al-Istakhri, Abu Ishaq ibn Muhammad
485–486, 575, 728 al-Farisi, 130, 131 Al-mulk lillah (dominion belongs to

Ali, Muhammad (Indian, brother of God), 81

Ali Suavi, 738
Shaukat
Ali), 39, 391 Al-Muntaqid (The critic), 2
Al-Jahiz, 66, 209, 320

Ali, Shaukat, 39, 391 al-Jami
al-sahih (The sound Al-Muntazar (“the Awaited One”), 625

Ali (
Ali ibn Talib;
Ali ibn Abi Talib), collection), 114 Al-Muqaddasi, Abu
Abdallah
35–38, 36 Al-Jazeera, 463, 508 Muhammad, 131
as ahl al-bayt, 26, 350 Al-Jazuli, 177 Al-Muqanna
, 429
followers of, 35, 117, 171, 390, Al-Jilani,
Abd al-Qadir, 177, 588, 682 Al-Muqtadir, 208
427, 585, 624 Al-Muslimin, 631
al-Junayd (Junayd; of Baghdad), 275,
grave of, 141 Al-Mustansir, 628
290, 685
images of, 36 Al-Mutanabbi, 65, 211
Al-Kamil, Ayyubid sultan, 152, 658
monetary policy of, 151
Al-Kassas, Sa
d, 711 Al-Mu
tasim, 152, 428, 448
opposition to, 33, 35–36, 223,
Al-Kazimayn mosque (Baghdad), 209 Al-Mutawakkil, caliph of Baghdad, 72,
259–260
Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad, 280 84, 208, 387, 428, 449, 587
succession of, 573, 621–628
tomb of, 26, 36, 88 Al-Khansa, 64, 734 Al-Nabulsi, 185
See also Caliphate; Imamate; Shi
a: Al-Khu
i Foundation, 393 Al-Nadim, 429
Early; Succession Al-Kulini, 286, 369 Al-Namara (Syria), inscription

Ali al-Karaki, 511 Al-Kunduri, Seljuk wazir, 83 from, 58
Ali al-Naqi, imam, 88 Allah, 39–41 Al-Nasai, 286

Ali b.
Abdallah, 445 attributes of (sifat Allah), 83 Al-Nasir, Mamluk sultan, 336

Ali b. Abi Bakr al-Marghinani, 9 future vision of (ruyat Allah), 83 Al-Nasir li-Din Allah (Al-Nasir,

Ali b. Ibrahim al-Qummi, 455 images of, 40, 78 Caliph, li-Din Allah; r. 1180–1225),

Ali b. Mitham Bahrani, 38 pre-Islamic worship of, 55 120, 134, 264, 658

Ali b. Muhammad al-Yunini, 114 in Quran, 565 Al-Nasir Muhammad b. alspeech of (kalam Allah), 83 Qalawun, 338

Ali b. Musa al-Rida, 427, 623
See also Asnam; Quran; Shirk Alp Arslan, 665
tomb of, 26, 436–437
Al-Lakani, 83 Al-Qadi al-Nu
man, 628
Al-Idrisi, al-Sharif, 129
al-Laknawi,
Abd al-Hayy, 228 Al-Qadir, 120, 122, 449
Aligarh (India), 30, 38–39, 469, 581
Allat, 84, 85 Al-Qahira. See Cairo (Egypt)
See also Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid;
Education; Modernism; Al-Latif, Qadi
Abd, 374 Al-Qaim, 120, 449
Pakistan, Islamic Republic of; Alliance Israelite Universelle, 205
Alqamah Ibn Qays, 406
South Asia, Islam in; Urdu All-India Khilafat Committee, 374 Al-Qaradawi, Yusuf, 286
language, literature, and poetry All-India Muslim League, 343 Al-Qasim b. Ibrahim al-Rassi, 630
Aligarh movement, 155 Al-Maghili, 17 Al-Qushayri, wife of, 734
Aligarh Muslim University, 39, 304 Al-Mahdi (r. 775–785), 207, 429 Al-Rabita al-Qalamiyya (The Pen
Aligarh Scientific Society, 32, 38 Al-Malik al-Kamil, 164 Club), 67

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Al-Razi (al-Rhazes), Abu Bakr Amelikites, 52 Antiochus III, Seleucid king of
Muhammed ibn Zakariyya, 295, American culture and Islam, Syria, 54
446, 523 41–45, 245 Anvari, 525
Al-Sabah, Shaykh Jaber al-Almed, 466 See also Americas, Islam in the;
Aoun, Michel, 412
Al-Sa
di, 308 Farrakhan, Louis; Malcolm X; Apollo (periodical), 67
Al-Sahili, 430 Muhammad, Warith Deen;
Aql (intellect), 38, 142, 398
Al-Salimi, 185 Nation of Islam Aquino, Corazon, 648
Al-Sanhuri,
Abd al-Razzaq. See
Abd American Muslim Council, 713 Arab (
arab), definition of, 51, 107
al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri American Muslim Mission, 710 Arabesque designs, 20–21, 79–80
Al-Sattar,
Abd, 375 American Muslim Movement, 245 Arabia, definition of, 51
Al-Sayyid, Ridwan, 160 American Society of Muslims (ASM), Arabia, pre-Islam, 50–58, 52, 144
Al-Sha
bi, 8 43, 44, 712, 713 See also Arabic language; Arabic
Al-Shadhili (Al-Shadili), Abu ’l-Hasan, See also Nation of Islam literature; Asabiyya;
178, 682 Americas Muhammad; Sassanian Empire
Al-Shafti, Muhammad Baqir, 310 Islam in the, 45–46 Arabian Nights, 66, 68, 292, 523, 572
Al-Shahid al-Thani, 511 use of Arabic language in, 62 Arabic alphabet, 124
Al-Sharif al-Murtada, 717 See also American culture and Arabic language, 58–63
Al-Shaykh al-Mufid, 549, 717 Islam; United States, Islam calligraphy in, 123–125
Al-Shihab (The meteor), 2 in the development of, 51, 53, 57, 58,
Al-Shiqaqi, Fathi, 365 Amin, Qasim, 470 278–279, 591
Al-Sibai, Mustafa, 346 Amir al-muminin (commander of the diglossia in, 61–62
Al-Siddiq (“the truthful”), 7 faithful), 4, 38, 113, 663 dominance in Islam, 13, 51,
Al-Sila, 189 Amirshahi, Mahshid, 529 60–61, 340, 586

Ammar b. Yasir, 36 and ethnic identity, 232
Al-Siyalkuti, 83
Islamic modes of thought
Al-Sumatrani, Samsuddin, 651
Ammiyya (darija, Low Arabic), 60
expressed in, 23
Al-Tabarani, 286
Amr b. al-
As (
Amr b.
As), 36, 115 Jewish use of, 60
Al-Tabarsi (d. 1158), 351
Amr b. al-
As al-Sahmi, 402 in North Africa, 17
Al-Taftazani, 655
Amr b.
As. See
Amr b. al-
As spread of, 58–60, 118, 223
Al-Tahtawi, Rifa
a Rafi
, 66, 318, 342,
Amr b. Dinar, 287 as symbol of Arab nationalism,
551, 575
Amr b. Luhayy, 84–85 60–61
Altaic (Turkic) languages, and ethnic
Amr ibn al-
As, 36, 115 used by Jews in al-Andalus, 48
identity, 232 as world language, 62

Amr Makki, 290
Al-Taif, women of, 256 See also African culture and Islam;
Amu Darya delta, 132
Al-Tawhidi (d. 1010), 320 Arabic literature; Grammar and
Amulets (talismanic charms), 18–19,
Al-Tawwabun (the penitents), 623 lexicography; Identity, Muslim;
20, 22, 51 Pan-Arabism; Persian language
Al-Tayalisi, 286
Anas b. (ibn) Malik, 8 and literature; Quran; South
Al-Thani, Shaykh Hamad bin
Andalus, al-, 46–49, 65–66, 235–236, Asian culture and Islam; Urdu
Khalifa, 463
282, 362 language, literature, and poetry
Al-Tibb al-Nahawi (Medicine of the
See also European culture and Arabic literature, 56–57, 63–68,
Prophet), 446
Islam; Judaism and Islam 320–321
Al-Turmidhi, 286
Anecdotes (nawadir), 320 See also Arabic language;
Al-Tusi, al-Shaykh, 286, 351, 717
Angels, 49–51, 50, 584 Biography and hagiography;
Al-
Umari, 429
See also Mi
raj; Religious beliefs Historical writing; Persian
Al-
Urwa al-wuthqa (“The firmest language and literature; Quran
grip”), 7, 13, 597 Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC),
476, 504 Arab-Israeli conflict, 198–199
Al-
Uzza, 84, 85
Aniconism, 78 Arab-Israeli War (1948–1949),
Al-Walid I, caliph, 72, 79, 118, 450 105, 460
Al-Walid II, caliph, 653 Anis, 715
Arab-Israeli War (1973), 197
Al-Waqai
al-Misriyya (Egyptian Anjuman-e Sipahan-e Sahaba, 374
Arab League, 68–69, 290, 503
events), 7 An-Na
im,
Abdullahi, 471, 590
See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal;
Al-Wathiq, 428, 448–449 Anqarawi, Isma
il, 359
Jami
at al-Duwal al-
Arabiyya

Alyaiyya, 36 Ansar al-Islam, 173
(League of Arab States);
Al-Ya
qubi, 233 Ansar (helpers), 35, 340, 422, 719 Organization of the Islamic
Al-Zahrawi, Abu ’l-Qasim, 295, 447 Ansari, 685 Conference
Al-Zawahiri, Ayman, 509, 559 Antiapartheid, 292–293 Arab nationalism. See Nationalism:
Al-Zuhri, 287, 406 Antioch, Principality of, 163, 166 Arab

790 Islam and the Muslim World
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Arabshahid dynasty, 135–136
Askari, Hasan, 174 Augustus, Roman emperor, 52
Arab Socialist Union (Egypt), 4, Askiya Muhammad (Muhammad b. AUMA (Association des Uléma
465, 633 Abi Bakr Ture, also known as Musulmanes Algériens), 2, 366, 609
Arab Summit, 69 Askiya al-Hajj Muhammad), 17, 84 Aurangzeb (Awrangzib), 213, 303, 304,
Arafat, plains of, 312 See also Africa, Islam in; African 343, 637

Arafat, Yasir, 355 culture and Islam Austro-Hungarian Empire, 102
Aramaic language, 48 ASM (American Society of Muslims), Autobiography of Malcolm X, 426
43, 44, 712, 713 Averroes. See Ibn Rushd
Archimedes, 494
See also Nation of Islam Avicenna. See Ibn Sina
Architecture, 69–75
Asnam (“idols”), 84–85 Awami (People’s) League, 90–92,
basic components of, 69, 70, 70
indigenous African, 20 See also Allah; Shirk 91, 640
of madrasa, 418 Assasins (Nizari Isma
ilis), 85–86 See also Pakistan, Islamic Republic
in mosques, 70–73, 72, 440–441 See also Crusades; Shi
a: Isma
ili of; South Asia, Islam in
in Muslim Balkans, 103 Association des Uléma Musulmanes Awrangzib (Aurangzeb), 213, 303, 304,
in North America, 42, 42, 43 Algériens (AUMA), 2, 366, 609 343, 637
residential, 75 Association for the removal of A
yan-amir system, 292
secular, 74–75, 78–79 innovation and the establishment of Ayat al-Kursi (Verses of the
in shrines and mausoleums, 73–74 the sunna, 8 Throne), 563
in South Asia, 643–644 Association for the Union of Ayatollah (Ar., ayatullah), 92
See also Adhan; Art; Dome of Ottomans, 739 See also Hojjat al-Islam;
the Rock; Holy cities; Jami
; Association of Algerian Muslim Ulema Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah;
Manar, manara; Mashhad (Association des Uléma Marja
al-taqlid; Shi
a: Imami
(mausoleum); Masjid; Mihrab; Musulmanes Algériens, AUMA), 2, (Twelver)
Minbar (mimbar); Religious 366, 609 Ayat (verses), 95
institutions Association of Muslim Social Ayn al-Qudat al-Hamadhani, 226, 433

Aref, 528 Scientists, 712 Ayoub, Mahmoud, 174
Aretas III, 53 Association of Scholars of India Ayyub, 657
Aribi tribe, 58 (Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Hind, JUH),
Ayyubid sultanate, 74, 116, 164, 543,
Aristotle, 35, 48, 234, 249, 252, 397, 177, 371, 374, 390, 443, 638
608, 657–660, 659
399, 401, 494, 612, 695 See also Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e
See also Cairo; Caliphate;
criticism of, 359 Islam; South Asia, Islam in
Crusades; Delhi sultanate;
Arkoun, Mohammed (Mohamed), Astarabadi, Muhammad Amin al-
Education; Ghaznavid sultanate;
286, 327 (Muhammad Mumin), 34, 317,
Mamluk sultanate; Saladin;
Army of Islam, 344 717–718
Seljuk sultanate; Sultanates:
Army of Pure (Lashkar-e Taiba Astrology, 86, 613 Modern
[Tayyiba]), 27, 490 See also Astronomy; Science,
Ayyuqi, 526
Ar-Raniri, Nuruddin, 651 Islam and
Azad, Abu ’l (Abul) Kalam Maulana,
Art, 75–82, 77, 78, 214, 302, 398, 400 Astronomy, 86–88, 87, 299–300, 391, 639–640
612–613
See also Architecture; Calligraphy; Azad, Muhammad Husain, 716
Mihrab See also Astrology; Biruni, al-;
Azal, Subh-e. See Mirza Yahya
Hijiri calendar; Science, Islam
Arya Samaj, 304 Azalis, 96, 100, 453
and; Translation

Asabiyya (tribal loyalty), 82, 107, Azari, Farah, 627

Ata b. Abi Rabah, 8
335, 699 Azhar, al- (Cairo), 92–93, 115, 171,

Ata b. Rabah, 287
See also Ibn Khaldun 205–206, 414, 416

Atabat (exalted thresholds), 88
Asad, Muhammad, 471 See also Education; Madrasa;
See also Holy cities; Mashhad
Asadi of Tus, 526 Zaytuna
(mausoleum)
Asante, Kingdom of, 18–19, 21
Azzam,
Abdallah, 108, 559
Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal, 88–90, 89,
Asas (foundation), 37
103, 150, 205, 342, 419, 459, 505,
Ash
ab, 320–321 512, 614, 690, 733 B
Ashab al-hadith, 667 See also Nationalism: Turkish; Baba Farid Shakarganj, 303
Ash
arites, Ash
aira, 82–84, 105, 696 Revolution: Modern; Babangida, Ibrahim, 8
See also Kalam; Mu
tazilites, Secularism, Islam; Young Turks Baba Qasim, tomb of, 40
Mu
tazila
Athman ibn
Affan. See
Uthman ibn Baba Taher, 524
Ash
at b. Qays Kindi, 36
Affan Bab (“gate”), 95

Asim, 432
Auda,
Abd al-
Aziz, 365 Babiyya (Babi movement), 1, 95–96,
Asim Degal, 386 Augustine, Saint, 248, 251 99, 100, 101, 453

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See also Bab (Sayyed
Ali Bamba, Amadou, 21 Bazargan, Mehdi, 106–107, 413,
Muhammad); Bahaallah; Bahai Bambara Kingdom of Segu, 17 459, 578
faith Bangladesh, independence of, 91, See also Iran, Islamic Republic of;
Babri Masjid, 305, 640–641 581, 640 Liberation Movement of Iran;
Bab (Sayyed
Ali Muhammad), 96–97, Bangladesh Farmers, Workers, and Reform: in Iran; Revolution:
99, 100, 453 People’s League (Bangladesh Islamic revolution in Iran
See also Babiyya; Bahaallah; Krishak Sramik Awami League, Bedouin, 107, 161, 279, 699
Bahai faith BAKSAL), 91 See also Arabia, pre-Islam;
Babur, Zahir al-Din Muhammad, 135, Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami
Asabiyya; Ibn Khaldun
212–213, 222, 637 League (BAKSAL), 91 Begin, Menachem, 605
Badayuni,
Abd al-Hamid, 375 Bangladesh National Party (BNP), 91 Behbehani, Simin, 528
Baghdad, 97–99, 98 Banna, Hasan al-, 104–105, 172, 262, Bek, 134
Arabization of, 59 276, 345, 346, 433–434, 468, 537, Bektashiyya, 26, 103, 682, 708
capture by Safavids (1623), 1 551, 577 Belhadj,
Ali, 366
development of, 208 See also Ikhwan al-Muslimin Bell, Catherine, 598
establishment of, 207 Bello, Ahmadu, 8, 664
Banu Hashim, 25, 273, 585
inner city of, 98
Banu Nadir, 361 Bello, Muhammad, 664
Mongol invasion of (1258), 99
Banu Qaynuqa
, 361 Ben Ali, Zine el Abidine, 112
See also Abbasid Empire;
Caliphate; Revolution: Classical Banu Qurayza, 361 Ben Badis. See
Abd al-Hamid Ibn
Islam; Revolution: Islamic Baqi Billah (billah), Muhammad, Badis
revolution in Iran; Revolution: 632, 637 Bengali language, 90
Modern Baqillani, al- (Qadi Abu Bakr Benjedid, Chadli, 366, 417
Baghdad Pact (Central Treaty Muhammad b. al-Tayyib b. Berber tribes, 161, 223, 232
Organization, CENTRO), 517 Muhammad), 105–106 Bergson, Henry, 250
Baha al-Din al-
Amili, 320 See also Ash
arites, Ash
aira; Bernard, Calaude, 447
Bahaallah (Mirza Husayn
Ali Nuri), Kalam Bethlehem, 148
96, 97, 99–100, 100, 101, 453 Baqir al-Bihbihani, 718 Bharata Janata Party (BJP), 640–641
See also
Abd al-Baha; Bab Baqt (pact), 17 Bhutto, Benazir, 518, 735, 735
(Sayyed
Ali Muhammad); Bara Gumbad mosque (Dehli), 73 Bhutto, Zulfiqar (Zulfikar; Zulfiker)
Bahai faith Baraka (blessing), 18, 22, 81, 254 Ali Khan, 90, 375, 517
Bahadur Shah II Zafar, 214, 638, 715 Barelwi, Sayyid Ahmad. See Khan, Bid
a, 6, 34, 107–108, 329, 533, 575,
Bahai faith, 100–101, 310, 453 Reza of Bareilly (Ahmad Reza 727–728
See also
Abd al-Baha; Babiyya; Khan Barelwi) See also Religious institutions;
Bahaallah Barelwi (Bareilly) movement, 389–390, Sunna
Bahar, Mohammad Taqi, 528 672, 683 Bidel of Patna, 528
Bahira, 143 Barforush, Molla Mohammad
Ali Bikar al-anwar (The oceans of
Bahmani dynasty, 636 (Qoddus, “the Most Holy”), 96 lights), 626
Bahrain Bari, Maulana Abdul, 391 Bilad al-Sudan (land of the blacks), 16
economy of, 199, 201 Bar Kochba, Simon, 53 Bilal, 7
independence of, 425 Bilqis, queen of Sheba, 269
Bashani, Maulana, 90
Bahram I, 428 Bin Ladin, Usama, 365, 491, 509, 559,
Bashir, Hasan
Umar, 700
Bahrani, Shaykh Yusuf al-, 718 609–610, 674, 677–678
Basri, Hasan (al-), 106, 685
Bahshamiyya, 3 See also Fundamentalism; Jihad;
See also Kalam; Tasawwuf
Bahu, Sultan, 303 Qa
ida, al-; Qutb, Sayyid;
Bastami, Molla
Ali, 95
BAKSAL (Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Terrorism; Wahhabiyya
Ba
th Party, 106, 156, 460–461, 503,
Awami League), 91 Biography and hagiography, 109–110
519, 595, 633
Balkans, Islam in the, 101–104, 102, See also Arabic literature;
See also Nationalism: Arab Genealogy; Historical writing
236, 239
Battle of the Camel (656 C.E.), 33, 260, Birth control (contraception), 228, 229
See also Europe, Islam in;
Ottoman Empire 435, 621, 734
Birth rituals, 332
Balkhi, Jalal al-Din Mohammad-e, See Bawa Muhaiyuddin, tomb of, 683
Biruni, al- (Abu ’l-Rayhan Muhammad
Rumi, Jalaluddin Baybars, 166, 662 ibn Ahmad al-Biruni), 87, 110, 129,
Bälz, Kilian, 535 Bayezid I, Ottoman sultan, 222 139, 303, 523, 635
Bamba, Ahmad, 21, 104, 694 Bay Khatun, 734 See also Astronomy; Historical
See also Africa, Islam in; Bayt al-hikma (house of wisdom), 145, writing; Knowledge; Science,
Colonialism; Tariqa; Touba 203, 281, 282, 295, 414, 612 Islam and
(Senegal) Bayt al-mal (Treasury), 424 Bishr b. al-Walid, 9

792 Islam and the Muslim World
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Bishr b. Ghiyas al-Marisi, 10 Burial, 175 See also Biruni, al-; Ibn Battuta;
Bitar, Salah al-Din al-, 106 Burqa, 556, 677 Ibn Khaldun; Persian language
BJP (Bharata Janata Party), 640–641 Bush, George W., 44, 509, 692 and literature
Black Muslim movement, 241 Buyid (Buwayhid) dynasty, 121, 207, “Cassette preachers,” 2–3
The Blind Owl, 529 474, 542, 584, 587 Caussin de Perceval, Armand-
Blyden, Dr. Edward Wilmot, 696 Pierre, 515
Buyid family, 120
BNP (Bangladesh National Party), 91 Center for the Propoagation of Islamic
Buyuk Millet Mejlisi (Grand National
Truths, 619
Body, significance of, 110–111 Assembly, Turkey), 425
Central Asia, Islam in, 132–138
See also Circumcision; Gender; Byzantine Empire, 210–211

Ibadat See also Central Asian culture
architecture of, 70
and Islam; Communism;
Bolkiah, Hassanal, 647 decorative arts of, 79
Reform: in Muslim communities
Bookmaking, 76 See also Christianity and Islam;
of the Russian Empire
Bopp, Franz, 515 Expansion, of Islam
Central Asian culture and Islam,
Bori (spirit possession) cult, 19, 21–22 138–141
Bornu, state of, 17 C See also Central Asia, Islam in;
Borujerdi, Grand Ayatollah, 255 Cairo (al-Qahira, Egypt), 26, 92, Maturidi, al-; Pilgrimage:
Bosnia 115–116, 116, 663 Ziyara; Tasawwuf
after the Dayton Peace See also Ayyubid sultanate; Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Accords, 103 Ghaznavid sultanate; Mamluk covert funding of al-Qa
ida
civil war in, 103 sultanate; Seljuk sultanate by, 559
Islam in, 102–103, 104 Iranian coup organized by,
Cairo Genizah, 53
Bourghiba, Habib, 111–112, 327–328 592, 741
Calendrical rituals, 331–332, 599–600
See also Modernization, political: support of Afghan resistance
See also Hijri calendar
Constitutionalism; Secularism, by, 108
Islamic Caliphate, 116–123, 474, 584–587,
Central Treaty Organization
651–656
Bouteflika,
Abd al-
Aziz, 366 (CENTRO), 517
functions of, 121–122
Bowen, John, 178 Ceramics, 77–78, 78,80–81
genealogy of, 119, 484
Brahmo Samaj, 304 Cevdet Pasha, Ahmad (Jevdet Pasha,
universal, 153
Brelwi, Ahmad, 344 Ahmet), 270, 376–377
See also Abbasid Empire;
British East India Company, 304, 638 See also Modernization, political:
Kharijites, Khawarij; Monarchy;
Brown, H. Rap. See Jamil al-Amin, Administrative, military, and
Ottoman Empire; Umayyad
Imam (H. Rap Brown) judicial reform
Empire
Brunei Chador, 556
Calligraphy, 59, 123–126, 124,
independence of, 647 Chaghatay, 134, 212, 222
441, 673
Islam in, 644 Chagri Beg, 665
in books, 76, 125
prayer in, 179 Chalcedonian Christianity, 143, 144
in mosques, 73, 74, 191
sultanate of, 474, 664–665 Chand, Prem, 716
in Quran, 59, 123, 125
Buddhism Charlemagne, 572
styles of, 81–82
in Central Asia, 139 See also Arabic language; Arabic Charles Martell, 46
in South Asia, 641 literature; Art Chehab, Fouad, 412
Bukhara, khanate and emirate of, Childhood, 141–142
Camel (dromedary), 52, 54, 58, 107
112–114, 133 See also Circumcision; Education;
Camp David peace accords, 69,
See also Central Asia, Islam in; Gender; Marriage
290, 605
Central Asian culture and Islam China, People’s Republic of
Capitalism, 126–128, 214
Bukhari, al- (Muhammad b. Isma
il al- Islam in, 136, 187–189, 188,
Bukhari), 114, 139, 261, 268, 286, See also Communism; Economy
190, 244
294, 370, 390, 668 and economic institutions;
Sufism in, 682
Globalization
See also Hadith See also East Asia, Islam in
Capital punishment (death penalty),
Bulgaria Chinese Communist Party, 188–189
175, 227
independence of, 102 Chishtiyya, 632, 682
Muslim population of, Caravanseries, 74–75
Chisti, Mu
in al-Din, 682
103–104, 236 Carlyle, Thomas, 516
Chosroes, Sassanian emperor
Bulleh Shah, 303 Carnap, Rudolf, 400 (Khosrow), 143
Buraq, 49, 79, 114 Carpet pages, in manuscripts, 80 Christianity and Islam, 142–148
See also Mi
raj; Tasawwuf Carpet weaving, 76–77 in al-Andalus, 47, 362
Burhan al-Din
Ali al-Marghinani, 139 Carter, Jimmy, 592, 605 in Arabia, 55
Burhan al-Din al-Zarnuji, 202 Cartography and geography, 128–132 in Central Asia, 139

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in Ethiopia, 14 Constitutionalism, 463–465, See also Dar al-islam
in Nubian kingdoms (Egypt), 17 470–471, 595 Dar al-hijra (abode of migration), 729
respect between, 27–28 See also Majlis Dar al-hiyyad (land of neutrality), 231
See also Balkans, Islam in the; Contraception. See Birth control Dar al-
ilm (house of knowledge), 415
Crusades; European culture and Conversion, 41, 160–163 Dar al-islam, 28, 158, 161, 169–170,
Islam; Islam and other religions; 339, 361, 377, 379, 638
of Christians and Jews, 47,
Judaism and Islam; Religious
102, 362 See also Dar al-harb
beliefs
of Hindus, 303–304 Dar al-kufr (realm of disbelief),
Christian missionaries, 1, 146, 379 of Turkic peoples, 133 18, 713
Chubak, Sadeq, 529 See also Da
wa; Expansion, of Dar al-salam (Abode of Peace),
Chuck D. (rapper), 45 Islam; Minorities: dhimmis; 97, 376
CIA. See Central Intelligence Agency Tasawwuf Dar al-suhl (territory of peaceful
(CIA) Copernicus, Nicolas, 613 covenant), 160, 378
Ciller, Tansu, 224, 574, 735 Corbin, Henry, 359, 656 Dar al-
Ulum Deoband, 176, 206, 304
Circumcision (khitan), 148–149, 330, Cordoba (al-Andalus), 46, 47, 414 Dara Shikoh (Dara Shukoh; Dara
332, 436 Council for American-Islamic Shokuh), 213, 303, 363, 528, 637
See also
Ada; Body, significance Relations, 712, 713 Darius I, Archaemenid king of
of; Gender; Law Council for Cultural Revolution, 742 Persia, 54
Cisneros, Cardinal, 415 CPU (Committee for Progress and Darul Arqam movement, 690
Cloning, 230 Union), 739–740 Darul Islam, 373
Clothing, 45, 111, 149–151, 150, 150, Crusade for Reconstruction, 522 Dasht-e Qipchaq, 132
441, 677 Crusades, 17, 85, 145, 163–167, 165, Dashti,
Ali, 483
See also Art; Body, significance of; 362, 382, 608, 657–658 Daud b.
Ajabshah, 629
Khirqa; Veiling See also Christianity and Islam; Daud b. Khalaf, 417
Coca-Cola logo, 278 Saladin Da
wa, 161, 170–174, 451, 538
Coinage, 118, 151–152, 152, 195, 424 Cultural Revolution Council (Iran), 3 See also Conversion; Expansion, of
See also Economy and economic Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Republican Islam; Jama
ate-e Islami; Shari
a
institutions; Law; Networks, People’s Party), 89, 459 Da
wah Academy (Pakistan), 173
Muslim CUP (Committee for Union and Dawat al Islam movement, 390
Colonialism, 21, 152–155, 508, 645 Progress), 521, 595, 739 Dawla, 174–175, 551, 590
See also Fundamentalism; Currency. See Coinage See also Hukuma al-islamiyya, al-
Orientalism Custom. See
Ada (Islamic government); Ibn
Color, use of, 80–81 Cyprus, use of Arabic language in, 62 Khaldun; Political organization;
Commerce. See Capitalism; Trade Shari
a
Commission of the International Dawla Islamiyya (“Islamic state”), 175
D
Crescent, 278 Dawud al-Isfehani, 410
Da Afghanistan da Talibano Islami
Committee for Progress and Union DDII (Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah
Tahrik (The AFghan Islamic
(CPU), 739–740 Indonesia), 646
Movement of Taliban). See Taliban
Committee for (of) Union and Death, 175–176, 565, 649
Dabir, 715
Progress (CUP), 521, 595, 739 See also
Ibadat; Jahannam; Janna;
Dagh, 715
Communication, rites of, 598 Pilgrimage: Ziyara
Dahlan, Ahmad, 487, 582
Communion, rites of, 600 Death penalty. See Capital punishment
Daily rituals, 332
Communism, 155–157 (death penalty)
See also Salat
See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal; Declaration on Human Rights in Islam
Dajjal (“the Deceiver”), 261, 421
Ba
th Party; Political (Cairo, 1990), 278–279, 318
organization; Political thought; Dakwah movement, 647
Decorative themes, in Islamic art,
Socialism Dalang (shadowplay puppeteers), 649 78–82, 441
Confederation of the Iranian Students Damascus, 144, 313 Deedat, Ahmed, 173
in the United States and See also Umayyad Empire Delhi sultanate, 73, 243, 303, 474,
Europe, 741 “Damascus Covenant,” 53 636, 660–661
Conflict and violence, 157–160 Daneshvar, Simin, 529 See also Ghaznavid sultanate;
See also Fitna;
Ibadat; Jihad; Dante Alighieri, 455 Mamluk sultanate; Seljuk
Political Islam Daqiqi, 139, 525 sultanate
Constantine I (“the Great”), Byzantine Darabi, Sayyed Yahya, 96 Democracy movements, 462–463
emperor, 28, 53, 183, 314 Dar al-harb (“house of war”), 28, Democratic Front for the Liberation
Constantinople, 210, 211, 223 158, 169, 210, 339, 361, 377–378, of Palestine (DFLP), 156
Constantinus Africanus, 296 452, 581 Democratic Party (DP), 459, 512, 513

794 Islam and the Muslim World
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Deoband (India), 30, 176–177, 227, Dome of the Rock (al-Haram al- political modernization in, 460,
371, 420, 581, 638, 677 Sharif), 70, 74, 118, 125, 183, 462, 575
See also Education; Jam
iyat 183–185, 184, 223, 315, 332 Sufism in, 690

Ulama-e Islam; Law; South See also Architecture; Holy cities use of Arabic language in, 61
Asia, Islam in; Tablighi Jama
at Domestic architecture, 75 veiling in, 723
Descartes, René, 248, 397 Double-truth theory, 249, 337 See also Fatimid dynasty; Mamluk
Dowlatabadi, Mahmoud, 529 sultanate
Destour (constitutionalist)
movement, 112 DP (Democratic Party), 459, 512, 513 Egyptian Communist Party, 156
Destourian Socialist Party, 112 Dreams, 185 Egyptian Feminist Union, 276
Devine Styler (rapper), 45 Druze religion, 453, 707–708 Egyptian Land Reform Law of
Du
a, 185–186, 332, 598 1952, 196
Devotional life, 177–179, 178, 179
See also Devotional life;
Ibadat Elahi, Imam, 712
See also Adhan; Dhikhj; Du
a;
Dupuis, Joseph, 18 Elahi nameh, 527

Ibadat; Tasawwuf
Durkheim, Émile, 597 El-Bizri, Nader, 400
Devsirme (forced recruitment), 102
Durrani, Ahmad Shah, 136 El-Fadl, Khaled Abou, 261
Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia
(DDII), 646 Dustour Party, 609 El Zein, Abdul Hamid, 178
DFLP (Democratic Front for the Dutch East India Company, 426 Emir, 134
Liberation of Palestine), 156 Empires, 207–224
Dhikr (chant) practices, 22, 687 E Abbasid (See Abbasid Empire)
Byanztine (See Byzantine Empire)
Dhikr (remembrance), 173, 178, Early North Arabic language, 58
Mogul (See Mogul Empire)
179–180, 389, 495, 673, 681, East Africa, Islam in, 14–16, 20, 244
Mongol and Il-Khanid (See
687, 688 East African Muslim Welfare
Mongol and Il-Khanid Empires)
See also Devotional life;
Ibadat; Society, 25
Ottoman (See Ottoman Empire)
Tasawwuf East Asia, Islam in, 187–190 Safavid and Qajar (See Safavid and
Dhimmi (protected) status, 28, 144, See also East Asian culture and Qajar Empires)
219, 340, 361, 378, 382–383, Islam; South Asia, Islam in; Sassanian (See Sassanian Empire)
451–452 Southeast Asia, Islam in Timurid (See Timurid Empire)
See also Minorities: dhimmis East Asian culture and Islam, 190–193 Umayyad (See Umayyad Empire)
Dhu al-Nun, 685 See also East Asia, Islam in Empiricism, 469
Dhu l-Qarnayn, 391 Eastern Christianity, 143 Engineering Association of Iran, 106
Dhu Nuwas, Yusuf, 55 Economy and economic institutions, Ennahda (Renaissance Party, hizb al-
Dietary laws, 180–181 193–202 nahda), 273
See also Fatwa; Ijtihad; Madhhab; See also Capitalism; Coinage; Enver Bey, 739
Mufti; Shari
a Riba; Waqf Enver Pasha, 344, 521
Dikka (platform), 71 Edessa, County of, 163, 164
Eraqi, 528
Dinar, Islamic, 152 Education, 202–206, 206 Erbakan, Necmeddin, 224, 238, 466,
Din-e Ilahi (Universal Religion of musical, 495 512, 574
of women, 22, 25, 39, 741
God), 637 See also Modernization, political:
See also Azhar, al-; Deoband;
Diocletian, Roman emperor, 53 Participation, political
Knowledge; Madrasa;
Diop, Sokna Magat, 22 movements, and parties;
Modernization, political:
Dirar b. Amr, 10 Political Islam
Administrative, military, and
Disciplinary Force (Niru-ye Esack, Farid, 471
judicial reform; Science,
entezami), 402 Esen Buqa, 134
Islam and
Dishonor killings, 257–258 Egalitarianism, 469–470
Eshqi, Mirzadeh, 528
Disputation, 181–182, 282 Egypt E
tesami, Parvin, 528
See also Christianity and Islam; Arab nationalism in, 503 Ethics and social issues, 34–35, 44,
Kalam British occupation of, 7 224–231, 565–567
Dissimulation. See Taqiyya communism in, 156 See also Fatwa; Futuwwa; Ghazali,
constitutionalism in, 464, 470 al-; Homosexuality; Ibn
Diversity. See Ethnicity
economy of, 199, 200 Khaldun; Law; Shari
a
Divorce (talaq), 182–183, 266
education in, 205–206 Ethiopia
See also Gender; Law; Marriage
freed from Ottoman rule, 66 Christianity in, 231
Diwan Dawat al-Islam (Indonesia), 173 Islamic jihad movement in, 29
independence of, 425, 458
Diwan group (poets), 67 Islam in, 13, 14, 17 Islam in, 14, 24, 231–232
Diwan (military register), 117, music in, 493 See also Africa, Islam in; Ahmad
118, 272 native courts in, 7 ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi; Ottoman
Diya al-Din Barani, 303 political Arabism in, 342, 595 Empire

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Ethnicity (ethnic identity), 232–233, See also American culture and See also Africa, Islam in;
340, 533–534, 706 Islam; Malcolm X; Muhammad, Sultanates: Modern
See also Pluralism: Legal and Elijah; Nation of Islam; United Fidais (devotees), 85–86
ethno-religious; Tribe States, Islam in the Figural imagery, 78–79
Euclid, 612, 695 Farrokhi, 525 Fiqh, 226–227, 397, 405, 613–614,
Eunuchs, 233–234 Farrokhzad, Forugh, 529 618, 703, 704, 728
See also Gender; Harem Farsi language, 522 Fiqh al-nafs (discernment of the
Europe, Islam in, 235–239, 237, Faruqi dynasty of Kandesh, 636 soul), 226
238, 245 Fasi, Muhammad
Allal al-, 254, 705 Fiqh Council of North America, 712
See also European culture and See also Reform: in Arab Middle Firangi Mahal (Lucknow), 581
Islam East and North Africa; Salafiyya Firdawsi, 139, 343, 661
European culture and Islam, 234–235 FATAH (harakat al-tahrir al-watani al- Firoz Shah Tughlaq, 660
See also Andalus, al-; Balkans, filastini), 291, 355 FIS (Front Islamique du Salut), 238,
Islam in the; Europe, Islam in Fateh
Ali Khan, Nusrat, 689 365–366, 417, 461, 466
Euthanasia, 230 Fath
Ali Shah, 24 See also
Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis;
Everlast (rapper), 45 Fatima, 254–255 Madani,
Abbasi
Exchange, rites of, 600 as ahl al-bayt, 26, 349 Fitna (civil war), 33, 117, 158,
Expansion, of Islam, 58, 75, 142, 161, descendants of, 611 259–261, 453, 590, 621, 693
237, 239–245, 243, 277 titles of, 92, 254 Fitrat, Abdalrauf (
Abd al-Ra
uf
See also Conversion; Da
wa; Jihad; tomb of, 26, 254 Fitrat), 469
Tasawwuf on transmission of Prophet’s FitzGerald, Edwqard, 524
tradition, 734
Expediency Council (Iran), 294 Five Percenters, 45
See also Abu Bakr;
Ali; Biography
Ezra (prophet), 28 Five Pillars, 142
and hagiography; Hasan;
Husayn; Shi
a: Early; Succession Fiver Shi
a. See Shi
a: Zaydi (Fiver)
F Fatima al-Ma
suma (Fatimah al- Fleischer, Heinrich L., 515
Fadlallah (Fadl Allah), Ayatullah Ma
sumah), tomb of, 26, 351, 562 FLN (Front de Libération Nationale),
Muhammad Husayn, 227, 228–229, Fatimi, Husayn, 256 156, 366, 417, 461, 633
247, 309–310 Fatimid dynasty, 115, 121, 171, 542, Focolare movement, 712
See also Political Islam 587, 628 Foi et pratique, 238
Faidherbe (French governor in eunuchs of, 233 Folklore, folk Islam. See Vernacular
Senegal), 17 Fatwa al-qalb (dictates of the Islam
Faith (iman), 703 heart), 226 Folk medicine, 294
Faiz, Ahmad Faiz, 716 Fatwa (legal opinion), 255 Forqan, 476
Fakhita bt. Abi Hashim, 435 against Babi heretics, 95 Fosterage, 229
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (Fakhr al-Din See also Law; Mufti; Religious Foucault, Michel, 457
Razi), 83, 249, 673 institutions; Rushdie, Salman Four-iwan mosque, 73
Fakhr al-Din Gorgani, 526 Faysal, king of Saudi Arabia, 173, 293, Francis of Assisi, 145
Fakhr al-Islam
Ali b. Muhammad al- 515, 521 Frankincense, 54
Pazdawi, 139 Faysal b. Husayn, 99 Franks (ifranj), 164
Fakhreddin, Rizaeddin bin (Rida al-din Fazilet Party. See Virtue (Fazilat) Party Frederick I, emperor of Germany, 164
bin Fakr al-din), 469 Fedaiyan-e Islam, 11, 255–256 Frederick II, emperor of Germany,
Falsafa, 247–253 See also Fundamentalism; Political 164, 658
See also Ibn Rushd; Ibn Sina; Islam Freedom Movement of Iran, 742
Kalam; Law; Tasawwuf; Wajib Fedaiyan Organization, 742 Free Officers movement (Egypt), 5,
al-wujud Fedayin-e Islam (Devotees of 346, 460, 538, 569, 595
Falsafatuna (Our philosophy), 606 Islam), 594 Free Verse movement, 67
Family planning, 227, 229 Federation of Islamic Association, 709 Freud, Sigmund, 597
Fannon, Franz, 516 Feminism, 256–258, 276 Front de Libération Nationale (FLN),
Faraj, Muhammad
Abd al-Salam, 365 See also Gender 156, 366, 417, 461, 633
Fard, W. D., 709 Ferdausi of Tus, 525 Front Islamique du Salut (FIS, Islamic
Farghana valley, 132 Ferdinand II, king of Aragon, 47 Salvation Front), 238, 365–366,
Farid al-Din
Attar, 455, 527, 603 Ferhat Pasha Mosque (Banja 417, 461, 466
Farisi, 281 Luka), 103 See also
Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis;
Farrakhan, Louis (Louis Eugene Ferqeh-ye Komunist-e Iran, 156 Madani,
Abbasi
Walcott), 44, 253–254, 505, 707, Fez (headgear), 89, 150 Fuat Pasha (Fuat Pasas), 678, 738
710, 713 Fez (Morocco), 258–259 Fulfulde language, 697

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Fundamentalism, 147, 155, Ghaliyun, Burhan, 319 Ghulams (military slaves), 1, 218,
261–263, 536 Ghana 542, 661
See also
Abduh, Muhammad; Islamic architecture of, 21 Ghunaimi, Muhammad al-, 160
Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-; Islam in, 18 Ghurak, Sogdian king, 132
Banna, Hasan al-; Ghazali, Ghannoushi, Rashid al- (Ghannouchi, GIA (Groupe Islamique Armé), 366
Muhammad al-; Ghazali, Rachid al-), 273, 577, 616 Gibb, H. A. R., 696
Zaynab al-; Ibn Taymiyya; See also Political Islam Gibb, Hamilton, 515
Ikhwan al-Muslimin; Jama
at-e
Ghassanids, 55 Girls’ Secrets, 459
Islami; Khomeini, Ayatollah
Ghayba(t), al- (the hiding), 273–274 Glassware, 77–78
Ruhollah; Maududi, Abu l-A
la;
Political Islam; Qutb, Sayyid; See also Imamate; Shi
a: Imami Globalization, 147, 235, 276–279, 615
Rida, Rashid; Salafiyya; Tablighi (Twelver) See also Internet; Networks,
Jama
at; Velayat-e Faqih; Ghazali, al- (Abu Hamid Muhammad Muslim
Wahhabiyya bin Muhammad al-Ghazali), Gnawa (spirit possession) cult, 19
Fusha (al-
arabiyya, High Arabic), 60 274–275
Gnosticism, 397, 428, 620, 673
Futuh al-Haramayn (The conquests of accusations against ahl al-kitab
God-Worshiping Socialists, 619
the holy sites), 129 by, 28
Gokalp, Ziya, 505, 740
Futuwwa, 120, 263–264, 740 biography of, 109
on birth control, 229 Gok Tepe, massacre at, 137
See also Youth movements Golestan, 527–528
on conversion, 160
criticism of Ibn Sina and al-Farabi Gordianus III, Roman emperor, 55
G by, 249, 274 Gordon, Gen. Charles, 422
Gabriel (Jibrail, Jibril), 49, 170, 455 criticism of philosophy by, 248 Government, Islamic. See Hukuma al-
Gagnier, John, 516 on disputation, 182 Islamiyya, al- (Islamic government)
Galawdewos, Ethiopian emperor, 29 ethical tradition of, 35, 226 Grammar and lexicography, 279–281
Galen, 294, 446, 612 on hadith, 286 See also Arabic language; Arabic
Gallus, Aelius, 52 on hell, 370, 502 literature; Quran
Gandhi, Mohandas K. (Mahatma on knowledge, 397, 399–400
Granada (al-Andalus), 47, 236
Gandhi), 39, 304, 305, 391, on medicine, 296
Grand Mosque, floorplan of, 532
458, 640 on political legitimacy, 122
on renewal, 675 Grand National Assembly, Turkey
Garad Abun, amir of Adal, 29
respect for, 310 (Buyuk Millet Mejlisi), 425
Gharbzadegi, 529
on self, 250 Great Mosque (Jami
Masjid) of Delhi,
Gasprinskii (Gaspirali), Isma
il Bay 73, 439
strict interpretation of shari
a
(Bey), 265, 469, 579, 609, 676
by, 270 Great Mosque of Basra, 72
See also Education; Feminism
on succession, 655 Great Mosque of Cordoba, 71
Gazi Husrevbegova Mosque
on Sufism, 685–686 Great Mosque of Damascus, 70, 72,
(Sarajevo), 103
on sunna, 667, 668 79, 118, 376
GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), as teacher, 83, 665 tomb of John the Baptist in, 144
201, 519 on ulema, 704
Great Mosque of Djenné, 73
Gehenna. See Jahannam and Usuliyya, 717
Gender, 22–23, 42–43, 265–272, Great Mosque of Fatehpur Sikri, 73,
on welfare, 440
710–711 74, 213
See also Ash
arites, Ash
aira;
See also Divorce; Feminism; Falsafa; Kalam; Law; Tasawwuf Great Mosque of Isfahan, 73
Ghazali, Zaynab al-; Marriage; Ghazali, Muhammad al-, 275–276, Great Mosque of Kufa, 72
Masculinities 388, 523, 577 Great Mosque of Samarra, 72–73
Genealogy, 272–273 See also Political Islam Great National Assembly (Turkey), 89
See also Biography and Ghazali, Zaynab al- (Zaynab al- Greece
hagiography; Historical writing; Ghazali al-Jabili), 110, 178, 271, independence of, 102
Tariqa 276, 735 Muslim population of, 104
Genghis (Chinggis) Khan, 112, 134, See also Banna, Hasan al-; Ikhwan Greek civilization, 281–283, 396, 427,
211, 236 al-Muslimin; Political Islam 612, 695
Genizot (religious treasuries), 53 Ghazi, Ahmad b. Ibrahim al-. See See also Africa, Islam in; Americas,
Geography. See Cartography and Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi Islam in the; Falsafa; Islam
geography Ghaznavid sultanate, 243, 528, 543, and other religions; South Asia,
Geometric decorations, 79–80 635–636, 661–662 Islam in; Southeast Asia,
Gerard of Lombardy, 296 See also Persian language, Islam in
Ghadiri of Medina, 320 literature, and poetry; Seljuk Green Book, 557
Ghadir Khumm, 37, 621 sultanate Gregorian calendar, 89
Ghalib, 528, 689, 715 Ghiyas al-Din Balban, 660 Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA), 366

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Grunebaum, Gustave von, 515 Halevi, Judah, 48 Hasan al-
Askari, 88, 274, 625
Guilds, rise of, 195 Hali, Altaf Husayn (Husain), 457, 716 Hasan (Hasan ibn
Ali ibn Abi Talib),
Guinea, Islamic architecture of, 20 Halk Firkasi (People’s Party), 89 26, 254, 293, 619, 621
Gulen Community movement, Hallaj, al- (Husayn ibn Mansur al- See also Ahl al-bayt; Imamate;
512–513 Hallaj), 51, 289–290 Shi
a: Early; Succession
Guler, Fethullah, 512 See also Heresiography; Kharijites, Hasan Sabbah, 85
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Khawarij; Mahdi; Muhasibi, al-; Hashemi-Rafsanjani,
Ali-Akbar, 294,
201, 519 Tasawwuf 358, 402
Gumi, Abu Bakr. See Abu Bakr Gumi HAMAS (Hamas; harakat al- See also Iran, Islamic Republic of;
Gunbad-e Qabus, 74 muqawamat al-Islamiyyah, Islamic Revolution: Revolution in Iran
Gundissalinus, Domenicus, 296 Resistance Movement), 290–291, Hashim, Yahya, 309
Guru Nanak, 303 355, 365, 366, 732, 741 Hashimite dynasty (Iraq and
Gwandu, emirate of, 664 See also Arab League; Jordan), 26
Fundamentalism; Intifada; Hashish, 85–86
Lebanon; Majlis; Martyrdom; Hashishi (“low-class rabble”), 85
H
Terrorism
Hachani,
Abdelkader, 366 Hashwiya (promoters of farce), 695
Hamdullahi, state of, 17
Hadarat al-Islam, 631 Hassan b. Thabit, 64
Hamid al-Din Kirmani, 248
HADI (Human Assistance and Hassan Haj-Faraj Dabbagh. See
Abd
Development International), 354 Hamilton, Charles, 638 al-Karim Sorush
Hadith (traditions of the Prophet), Hammad b. Abi Sulayman, 9 Hathout, Maher, 712
285–288 Hammad Ibn Abu Sulayman, 406 Hatim al-Tai, 317
calligraphy of, 81 Hammams (public baths), 69, 76 Hausaland (Nigeria), Islam in, 19,
and education, 202 Hamza, use of, 58 21–22
as history, 307 Hanafi, Hassan (Hasan), 471, 577 Hausa language, 62, 697
history of, 109, 286–288 Hanafi school, 8, 9, 11, 408, 410, 417, Haykal, Muhammad Husayn, 67, 483
reliance on, 27, 285–286, 418, 534, 588, 686 Hazarawi, Ghauth, 374
338–339, 668 in Central Asia, 138, 139, 140 Hazhir,
Abd al-Husayn, 11, 255
systematic collection of, 120, 139,
Ha-Nagid, Shmuel, 48 Hazrat
Ali, shrine of, 731
286, 335, 336–337, 496
Hanbali school, 27, 410–411, 417, 450, Healing, 22, 294–296, 650–651, 724
transmission of, 33, 285, 286–287,
534, 588, 668, 686 See also Medicine; Miracles; South
496, 631–632
See also Succession Hanim, Sefika, 265 Asian culture and Islam;
Hadramawt, kingdom of, 54 Haqq al-
arab, 535 Southeast Asian culture and
Hafez of Shiraz, 527 Harakat al-Ansar (Movement of the Islam
Hafizi Isma
ili, 628–629 Ansar—Helpers of prophet Hebrew language, and ethnic
Muhammad in Medina), 490 identity, 232
Hafsa, 734
Harakat al-ittijah al-islami (Islamic Hedayat, Sadeq, 529
Hagar (Haggar), mother of Ishmael,
Tendency Movement), 273 Heidegger, Martin, 250, 400, 401
24, 299, 311, 312
Hagia Sophia (Constantinople), 73 Harakat al-jihad al-Islami (Islamic Heraclius, Byzantine emperor,
Jihad Movement), 365 143, 314
Hagiography. See Biography and
hagiography Harakat al-muqawamat al-Islamiyyah Heresies. See Heresiography;
(HAMAS, Islamic Resistance Kharijites, Khawarij
Haidar, Qurratulain, 716
Movement). See HAMAS Heresiography, 296–299
Haifa (Israel), Bahai Shrine of the Bab
in, 101 Harakat al-tahrir al-watani al-filastini See also Bid
a; Hadith; Hallaj, al-;
(FATAH), 291, 355 Historical writing; Islam and
Haile Selasse, Ethiopian emperor, 231
Harakat-e Inqilab-e Islami (Islamic other religions; Kalam; Quran;
Haji Hassanatul Bolkiah Mu
izzidin
Revolutionary Movement), 490 Shari
a
Waddaulah, 664–665
Haram (coverd sanctuary), 71 Herodotus, 52
Hajj. See Pilgrimage: Hajj
Hajj Salim Suwari, al-, 18, 289 Harem (haram), 74, 233, 291–292 Hezbollah (Hizb Allah, Hizbullah,
See also Africa, Islam in; Islam See also Gender; Marriage; Purdah “party of God”), 247, 263,
and other religions; Networks, Harith al-Muhasibi, 83, 226, 275 309–310, 412, 522, 741
Muslim Harith b. Hakam, 435 Hicks, Col. William, 422
Haj
Umar al-Tal, al-, 289 Haron, Abdullah, 292–293 Hijab (veil). See Veiling
See also Africa, Islam in; See also Africa, Islam in; Modern Hijazi love poetry, 65
Caliphate;
Ibadat thought Hijra, 299
Hakki, Izmirli Ismail, 83 Hasan, Maulana In
amul, 672 first, 14, 231, 479
Halabi, Mahmood-e, 310 Hasan, Riffat, 271 of Muhammad, 7, 299

798 Islam and the Muslim World
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night journey (isra) of Hizb (litany), 178 Husayn, Taha, 67, 325–326
Muhammad, 74, 114, Hizb Tahrir (Liberation Party), 713 See also Arabic literature; Modern
454–455, 673 Hizbullah (Hezbollah, Hizb Allah, thought
See also Astronomy; Mi
raj; “party of God”), 247, 263, Husayn Bayqara, Timurid sultan, 135
Muhammad 309–310, 412, 522, 741 Husayn (Husayn b.
Ali b. Abi Talib),
Hijri calendar, 299–300, 300 Hodgson, Marshall, 364–365, 584 322–325
See also Astronomy Hojjat al-Islam (“Proof of Islam”), as ahl al-bayt, 26
Hikma, bayt al-. See Bayt al-hikma; 92, 310 birth of, 254, 322
Education See also Ayatollah (Ar., ayatullah); martyrdom of, 317, 331, 433,
Hikmat al-ishraq (The wisdom of Shi
a: Imami (Twelver) 435, 574, 599, 623, 624–625,
illuminationist dawning), 626 Hojjatiyya Society, 310–311 643, 679, 691
Hilli,
Allama al- (Hasan b. Yusuf al- See also Bahai faith; Revolution: succession of, 118, 223, 260, 322
Hilli), 301, 359, 510, 679, 717 Islamic revolution in Iran tomb of, 26, 88, 293, 387, 728
See also Hilli, Muhaqqiq al-; Law; See also Imamate; Martyrdom;
Holidays, 43–44
Shi
a: Imami (Twelver) Shi
a: Early; Shi
a: Imami
Holy cities, 311–316
(Twelver); Succession
Hilli, Ibn Idris al-, 717 See also Caliphate; Dome of the
Husayni, Hajj Amin al-, 325
Hilli, Muhaqqiq al- (Muhaqqiq al-Hilli Rock;
Ibadat; Mi
raj;
Husayn, Saddam. See Hussein, Saddam
Ja
far b. al-Hasan), 301, 510, 549, Muhammad
679, 717 Husayn Va
ez Kashfi. See Hosayn Vaez
Homosexuality, 230, 316–317
Kashifi
See also Hilli,
Allama al-; Law; See also Eunuchs; Gender
Shi
a: Imami (Twelver) Husayn Wa
iz al-Kashifi. SeeHosayn
Hosayn, Safavid shah of Iran, 218, 219
Vaez Kashifi
Hilm (propriety), 320 Hosayniyya, 317
Hussain, Zakir, 39
Hind bint
Utba, 734 See also Rawza-khani; Ta
ziya
Hussayn, Shah, 637
Hindu architecture, 73 (Ta
ziye)
Hussein, King of Jordan, 347,
Hinduism and Islam, 27, 301–306, Hosayn Vaez Kashifi (Hosein Va
ez-e
466, 475
342–343, 363, 640–641, 641–642 Kashefi), 527, 574, 626, 691
Hussein (Husayn), Saddam, 26, 393,
See also Akbar; South Asia, Islam Hospitality and Islam, 317–318
460, 472, 501
in; South Asian culture and Housing, 75
See also Ba
th Party;
Islam Hoxha, Enver, 103 Modernization, political:
Hindu Mahasabha, 304 Hudud laws, enforcement of, 257–258 Administrative, military and
Hip-hop culture, 45 Hukuma al-Islamiyya, al- (Islamic judicial reform; Nationalism:
Hirawi, Muhammad Sharif, 359 government), 318 Arab; Pan-Arabism
Hisba (“reckoning”), 306, 490 See also Political Islam Huwayra, 734
See also Ethics and social issues; Hulegu (Hulagu; Il Khan), 134, 212, Huxley, Julian, 597
Law; Political organization 549, 701
Hisham b. Abel al-Malik, 151 Human Assistance and Development I
Hisham b. al-Hakam, 369 International (HADI), 354
Ibadat, 177, 327–333
Historical writing, 306–309 Human rights, 277, 278–279, See also Devotional life; Law;
See also Arabic literature; 318–319, 567 Shari
a
Biography and hagiography; See also Ethics and social issues; Ibadis, 390, 453
Heresiography; Ibn Khaldun; Gender; Law; Organization of Iblis (Satan), 51, 584
Tabari, al- the Islamic Conference;
Ibn
Abbas, 280, 455
History (tarikh). See Historical writing Secularism, Islamic; Shari
a
Ibn
Abd Rabbih, 320
Hitti, Phillip, 515 Human sexuality, 230
Ibn Abi al-Wafa, 8
HIV/AIDS virus, 229 See also Homosexuality
Ibn Abi
Amr, 336
See also Political Islam Humayun, 213, 637
Ibn Abi Duad, Ahmad, 448, 449
Hizb Allah. See Hezbollah Hume, David, 250, 401
Ibn Abi Shayba, 286
Hizb al-Mojahidin (Party of Humor, 319–322
Ibn Abi Usaybi
a, 307
Mojahidin), 490, 491 Hunayn ibn Ishaq, 145, 185, 295, 695
Ibn Abu Zayd al-Qayrawani, 105
Hizb al-nahda (Renaissance Party, Huq, Shamsul, 90
Ibn al-
Adim, 307
Ennahda), 273 Hurgronje, Snouck, 178
Ibn al-
Arabi (Ibn
Arabi; Muhammad
Hizb al-watani, al- (“National” or Hurriyet (Freedom), 387, 738
ibn
Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-
“Patriotic” Party), 342 Husain,
Abdullah, 716
Arabi al-Tai al-Hatimi), 28, 48,
Hizb-e Islami (Party of Islam), 490 Husain, Intizar, 716 213, 303, 333–334, 339, 391, 607,
Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islam-ye Afghanistan Husain, Sayyid Nazir, 27 683, 686, 727
(Islamic Unity Party of Husayba, 734 See also Falsafa; Kalam; Tasawwuf;
Afghanistan), 490 Husayn, amir, 221 Wahdat al-wujud

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Ibn al-Athir, 164 Ibn Jinni, 281 ethical tradition of, 35
Ibn al-Bawwab, 76 Ibn Jurayi, 287 impact on European culture,
Ibn al-Farid, 689 Ibn Juzayy, 334 248–249
Ibn al-Hajib, 717 Ibn Kathir, 370, 555 on knowledge, 398, 400–401
on medicine, 295, 447, 613
Ibn al-Hajj, 203 Ibn Khaldun (
Abd al-Rahman [aron mi
raj, 455
Ibn al-Hanafiyya, 260 Rahman] b. Muhammad b.
political philosophy of, 550
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), 613 Muhammad b. Abu Bakr
as scientist, 203
Muhammad b. al-Hasan), 335–336
Ibn al-Jawzi, 320, 673 on self, 250
on Bedouin, 107
Ibn al-Mi
mar, 264 and theory of universals, 249, 338
on dawla, 174
Ibn al-Muqaffa
, 66, 400, 408, on wajib al-wujud, 729–730
on ethics, 226
523, 654 writing in Persian, 523
on folk medicine, 294
Ibn al-Mutahhar al-Hilli, 549 See also Falsafa; Wajib al-wujud
on history, 307, 469
Ibn al-Nadim, 125, 131, 181, 612 Ibn Sirin, 185
and maps, 129
Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (Ibn political philosophy of, 550–551 Ibn Taymiyya (Taqi al-Din Ahmad
Qayyim al-Jawziyya), 226, 370, 410, political thought of, 82 Ibn Taymiyya), 338–339
446, 468 reputation of, 236 on caliphate, 122, 655
Ibn al-Zubayr,
Abdallah (Ibn Zubayr, and spread of Arabic language, 59 criticism of Ibn Sina by, 249,

Abdallah), 118, 223, 260, 311–312, on succession, 655 339, 686
332, 435 unitarian views of, 251 criticism of philosophy by, 248
Ibn Arabi (Ibn al-
Arabi; Muhammad See also
Asabiyya; Falsafa on dhimmi, 452
ibn
Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al- Ibn Khallikan, 307 fundamentalism of, 262

Arabi al-Tai al-Hatimi), 28, 48, Ibn Killis, Ya
qub, 92 on intercession by shaykhs, 306
213, 303, 333–334, 339, 391, 607, neo-Hanbali doctrines of, 6, 410,
Ibn Kullab, 83
683, 686, 727 450, 668
Ibn Maja (Abu
Abdallah Muhammad
on “oneness,” 727
See also Falsafa; Kalam; Tasawwuf; b. Yazid), 286, 336–337
opposition to bid
a, 108
Wahdat al-wujud See also Hadith political views of, 549
Ibn
Ata Allah, 688 Ibn Mansur al-Hajjaj, 433 reforms advocated by, 172
Ibn Babuya, 369 Ibn Manzur, 281 revivalism of, 468, 675
Ibn Badis,
Abd al-Hamid. See
Abd al- Ibn Mas
ud, 406 traditionalism of, 695
Hamid Ibn Badis Ibn Mattawayh, 3 See also Fundamentalism; Law;
Ibn Bahdal, 435 Ibn Miskawayh, 35 Reform: in Arab Middle East
Ibn Bajja, 48, 550, 612 Ibn Mujahid al-Tai, 83, 105 and North Africa;
Ibn Battuta (Abu
Abdallah Ibn Nubata, 395 Traditionalism
Muhammad ibn
Abdallah ibn Ibn Nujaym, 9 Ibn Tufayl, 48, 249
Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Shams al- Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (Ibn al- Ibn Tulun, mosque of, 115
Din al-Lawati al-Tanji), 17, 109, Qayyim al-Jawziyya), 226, 370, 410, Ibn Tumart, 696
141, 162, 259, 334, 507, 696 446, 468 Ibn Yasin (
Abdallah Ibn Yasin al-
See also Cartography and Ibn Qudame, 410 Jazuli), 475
geography; Travel and travelers Ibn Zubayr,
Abdallah (Ibn al-Zubayr,
Ibn Qutayba(h), 185, 320, 474, 672
Ibn Ezra, Moshe, 48 Ibn Rushd (Averroes), 337
Abdallah), 118, 223, 260, 311–312,
Ibn Furak, 83 332, 435
commentaries on works of
Ibn Hanbal (Ahmad b. Muhammad Aristotle by, 48, 234, 249, 337 Ibrahim (Abraham), 25, 37, 80, 184,
Ibn Hanbal), 27, 82, 286, 334–335, impact of Ibn Sina on, 249 311, 312
370, 410, 417, 448, 450, 489, 538, impact on European culture, 234 circumcision of, 149
587, 668, 694–695 reputation of, 236 hospitality of, 317
See also Ahl al-Hadith; Hadith; as scientist, 203, 612 as imam, 349
Kalam; Law; Mu
tazilites, and Sunni theology, 83 and monotheism, 84, 85, 530
Mu
tazila See also Falsafa; Law Ibrahim al-Nakhai, 8, 406
Ibn Hawqal, Abu al-Qasim Ibn Sab
in, 433 Ibrahim b. al-Mahdi, 449
Muhammad, 131 Ibn Sa
d, 109, 272, 307, 455, 554, 610 Ibrahim b. Zibriqan, 286
Ibn Haytham, 295 Ibn Shaddad, 307 Ibrahim Lodi, 212, 637
Ibn Hazm of Córdoba, 28, 297–298, Ibn Shahin, 185 Ice Cube (rapper), 45
345, 410, 717 Ibn Sina (Abu
Ali ibn Sina, Avicenna), ICMI (Indonesian Muslim
Ibn Hisham, 286, 287, 455 337–338 Intellectuals’ Association), 646
Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad (d. 767), 120, on angels, 51 ICP (Iraqi Communist Party), 156
286, 287, 307, 432, 455, 482, 672 in Central Asia, 139 ICSC (Islamic Center of Southern
Ibn Jama
a, 549 on dreams, 185 California), 713

800 Islam and the Muslim World
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Id al-Adha, 599–600 See also Falsafa; Shi
a: Isma
ili Shi
a Nizari Isma
ili Muslims
Identity, Muslim, 339–344 Ilbars, sultan, 392 in, 26
See also
Abd al-Qadir, Amir; Ilham (inspiration), 37 spread of Islam in, 122–123, 552

Abduh, Muhammad; Afghani, Il-Khanid Empire. See Mongol and Il- veneration of saints in, 724
Jamal al-Din al-; Ataturk, Khanid Empires waqf of, 732
Mustafa Kemal; Balkans, Islam See also Ahmadiyya; Mogul
Ilkhanid Sultaniya mausoleum
in the; Dar al-harb; Dar al- Empire
(Iljeytu), 74
Islam; Ethnicity; Kemal, Indian Congress of Islamic Scholars.

Ilm al-akhlaq (science of innate
Namek; Pan-Islam; See Association of Scholars of India
dispositions), 225
Secularization; Shaykh al-Islam; (Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Hind, JUH)

Ilm al-jadal (science of
Umma; Wahhabiyya; Young Indian National Congress (INC)
disputation), 181
Ottomans; Young Turks allies of, 177, 640
Idolatry, 78, 84–85
Ilm al-kalam (science of theology),
formation of, 305
385, 611
Idris b.
Abdallah, 258 opposition to, 32, 39, 343

Ilm al-rijal (science of the men),
Idris b. Idris, 258 Indo-European languages, and ethnic
109, 611
IFM (Iran Freedom Movement), 413 identity, 232

Ilm (knowledge), 202, 397, 566,
Ifranj (“Franks”), 733 Indonesia
611, 703
Iftar (meal at the end of the fasting colonization of, 645
See also Knowledge
day), 44 independence of, 645–647
Iltizam (political commitment), 67
Ihy al-sunna, 668 Islam in, 161, 507–508, 644
Iltutmish, 660
IIIT (International Institute of Islamic money-changing in, 128
Thought), 174 Iltuzer, Inaq, 392 music in, 493
Ijma
(consensus), 11, 387, 407, 409, Ilyas, Mawlana (Maulana) Muhammad, pancasila ideology of, 147
534, 535, 613 172–173, 641, 671 reform in, 582–583, 645
Ijtihad (independent legal judgment), Ilyas Shahi dynasty, 636 socialist movements in, 470
344–345 Imam, Muhammad Jumat, 22 Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals’
and Arab revivalism, 5, 155, 608 Imama (leadership), 3 Association (ICMI), 646
of ayatollah, 92 Imamate, 37–38, 350–351 Industrialization, 194–195,
criticism of, 34, 171–172 See also Ghayba(t), al-; Mahdi; 196–197, 214
and Islamic reform, 6, 172, 577, Shi
a: Imami (Twelver); Shi
a: Industrial Revolution, 234
580, 619, 675, 718, 728 Zaydi (Fiver) Inheritance, 127, 142
and legal pluralism, 534 Imami Shi
a. See Shi
a: Imami See also Genealogy
in Libya, 557 (Twelver) Insan-i kamil (perfect man), 33
needed in present, 7
Imamiyya, division of, 34 International Association of
and rationalism, 468–469
See also Law; Madhhab; Reform: Imam (leader), 37, 42, 349–350, 624 Sufism, 683
in Arab Middle East and North Imamzadah, 351–352 International Covenant on Civil and
Africa; Shari
a See also Devotional life; Dreams; Political Rights, 279
Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Ikhwan al- Imam; Pilgrimage: Ziyara; International Institute of Islamic
Muslimun; Muslim Brotherhood), Religious beliefs; Religious Thought (IIIT), 174
345–348 institutions International Islamic Law
affiliates of, 290 Iman Mahfuz, amir of Zaila, 29 Commission, 278
and Arab nationalism, 519
Imdadullah, Hajji, 638 International Islamic University of
and da
wa, 172 IMF (International Monetary Fund), Malaysia, 278
in Egypt, 4, 471, 537 152, 200 International Labor Organization,
founding of, 104, 105 Immigrants, legal status of, 238 UN, 348
fundamentalism of, 262, 676 Immigration. See Migration International Monetary Fund (IMF),
politicization of, 466
Imru al-Qays, “King of the Arabs,” 58 152, 200
purpose of, 105
Inalcik, Halil, 664 Internet, 45, 62, 178, 276, 327,
in Sudan, 700
INC. See Indian National Congress 352–355, 364, 510
women in, 276
youth in, 741 India See also Globalization; Networks,
See also Banna, Hasan al-; Ahl-e Hadis (Ahl-al Hadith) in, Muslim
Fundamentalism; Qutb, Sayyid; 26–27 Interservices Intelligence (ISI),
Reform: in Arab Middle East British colonial influence in, Pakistan, 676
and North Africa; Turabi, 33–34, 154, 169, 304 Intifada (uprising), 290, 355–356,
Hasan al- customary law in, 12 365, 740
Ikhwan al-Safa ("Brethren of Purity," education in, 205, 206 See also Conflict and violence;
"Fellowship of the Pure"), 348–349 Persian literature in, 528 HAMAS; Human rights

Islam and the Muslim World 801
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IOMS (Islamic Organization for constitutionalism in, 464 Islamic Charter Front (Jabbat al-
Medical Sciences), 447 economy of, 634 Mithaq al-Islami), 347
IPCI (Islamic Propagation Centre independence of, 425 Islamic Communist Party
International), 173 political modernization in, 460 (Indonesia), 470
Iqama, 13 religious legitimacy in, 26 Islamic Community. See Jama
at-e
Iqbal, Muhammad, 252, 343, 345, revolution in, 595 Islami (JI)
356, 457, 468–469, 528, 609, 638, socialism in, 633 Islamic Consultative Assembly
683, 716 youth programs in, 744 (Iran), 425
See also Liberalism, Islamic; See also Ba
th Party Islamic Development Bank, 152, 278
Persian language and literature; Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), 156 Islamic Educational, Scientific, and
South Asia, Islam in; Urdu Irhab, 692 Cultural Organization, 278
language, literature, and poetry See also Terrorism Islamic Fiqh Academy (Islamic Figh
Iqta
, 542, 658, 660, 662, 665 IRP. See Islamic Republic Party Committee). See Organization of
Iqtisadune (Our economics), 606 Irrigation, 194 the Islamic Conference (OIC)
Irada (free will), 83 Isabella I, queen of Spain, 47 Islamic Foundation, 174
Iran Isfahani, Shaykh Muhammad Islamic fundamentalism. See
Arab conquest of, 132 Hasan, 718 Fundamentalism
clothing of, 150 Isfahan (Iran, Persia), 1, 218 Islamic Global Front for Combating
communism in, 156 Ishaq ibn Hunayn, 695 Jews and Crusaders, 559
constitutionalism in, 465, Islamic Group, The (al-Gama
a al-
Ishraqi school, 359
470, 595 Islamiyya), 365, 466
See also Falsafa; Ibn al-
Arabi;
education in, 205 Islamic Horizons, 366, 712
ethnic (national) identity in, Mulla Sadra; Tasawwuf; Wahdat
al-wujud IslamiCity in Cyberspace, 354
343–344
ISI (Interservices Intelligence), Islamic Jihad, 365
gender reform in, 271
Pakistan, 676 in Egypt, 365, 466
human rights in, 279
fundamentalism of, 262
independence of, 458 Islah (reform), 575
ideology of, 27
madrasa of, 419 Islam-shenasi (Islamology), 619
militarism of, 346, 355
modernization of, 458–459, 466 Islam, spread of. See Expansion, of in Palestine, 309, 365
nationalism in, 503–504 Islam See also Ikhwan al-Muslimin;
reform in, 577–579 Islam and Islamic (terminology), Political Islam; Qa
ida, al-
Safavid rule of, 217 359–360, 471, 712 Islamic Jihad Movement (Harakat alspread of Islam in, 219
See also Islamicate society jihad al-Islami), 365
student movement in, 741–743
Islam and other religions, 23–24, Islamic Law and Constitution, 444
Sufism in, 683
360–364 Islamic Liberation Movement, 347
use of Arabic language in, 62
use of Persian language in, 60 See also Andalus, al-; Central Asia, Islamic Mission to America (Brooklyn,
veiling in, 723 Islam in; Christianity and Islam; NY), 709
women’s rights in, 278 Dar al-harb; Dar al-Islam; East Islamic Organization for Medical
See also Revolution: Islamic Asia, Islam in; European culture Sciences (IOMS), 447
revolution in Iran and Islam; Expansion, of Islam; Islamic Propagation Centre
Iran, Islamic Republic of, 9–10, 106, Hinduism and Islam; Hospitality International (IPCI), 173
146, 356–358, 357, 394, 425, 463, and Islam; Internet; Judaism and
Islamic Republic Party (IRP), 10, 358,
538–539, 577–579, 591–594, 596 Islam; Modernism; Networks,
388, 594
See also Abu ’l-Hasan Bani-Sadr; Muslim; Orientalism; Science,
Islamic Resistance Movement (harakat
Hashemi-Rafsanjani,
Ali-Akbar; Islam and; South Asia, Islam in;
al-muqawamat al-Islamiyyah,
Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah; Theology; Umma; Vernacular
HAMAS). See HAMAS
Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi; Islam
Islamic Revolutionary Movement
Revolution: Islamic revolution Islamic Amal, 522
(Harakat-e Inqilab-e Islami), 490
in Iran Islamicate society, 364–365 Islamic Salvation Front (Front
Iran Freedom Movement (IFM), 413 See also Islam and Islamic Islamique du Salut, FIS), 238,
Iranian Islamic Information (terminology) 365–366, 417, 461, 466
Organization, 173 Islamic Brotherhood Party (Syria), See also
Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis;
Iranian Women’s Solidarity 346–347 Madani,
Abbasi
Group, 627 Islamic Call Society (Jam
iyat al- Islamic Society (Jam
iyat-e Islami),
Iranian Writer’s Congress, 528 Da
wah al-Islamiyya), 173 238, 490
Iraq Islamic Center of Southern California Islamic Society of North America
autocratic state in, 462 (ICSC), 713 (ISNA), 27, 43, 44, 366, 366–367,
communism in, 156 Islamic Charter Front, 700 497, 711–712, 713

802 Islam and the Muslim World
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Islamic Tendency Movement (harakat Ja
far, 678 See also Jam
iyat-e (Jam
iyat)
al-ittijah al-islami), 273 Ja
far al-Khuldi, 632
Ulama-e Islam; South Asia,
Islamic Union (Itihad-e Islami), 490 Ja
far al-Sadiq, 121, 169, 170, Islam in
Islamic Union Party (Indonesia), 470 369–370, 625, 628 Jam
iyat-e (Jam
iyat)
Ulama-e Islam
Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan See also Imamate; Law; Succession (JUI), 177, 374–375, 676, 677
(Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islam-ye Ja
fari school, 369, 386, 625 See also Deoband; Jam
iyat-e
Afghanistan), 490 Jahangir, Asma, 271 (Jam
iyat)
Ulama-e Hind; South
Islamic Work Party, 347 Asia, Islam in; Taliban
Jahangir, Hina Jilani, 271
Islamization. See Islam: spread of Jam
iyat-e (Jam
iyat)
Ulama-e Pakistan
Jahangir, Nur al-Din, 213, 302, 637
Islamization of Knowledge (JUP), 375, 390
Jahannam (hell), 175, 370, 375, 501
project, 147 See also Deoband; Jam
iyat-e
See also Calligraphy; Janna; Law;
Islam noir (black Islam), 18 (Jam
iyat)
Ulama-e Hind;
Muhammad; Quran; Tafsir
Isma
il, son of Ja
far, 350 Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Islam;
Jahiliyya (ignorance), 370–371, 397, South Asia, Islam in
Isma
il I, Shah, 36, 99, 135, 217, 367, 444, 479, 538
386, 626, 637, 704 Jam
iyyat al-ikhwan al-Muslimin
See also Arabia, pre-Islam; (Society of the Muslim
See also Safavid and Qajar Modern thought; Political
Empires Brothers), 345
Islam; Qutb, Sayyid
Isma
il b. Mis
ada al-Isma
ili, 274 Jammu and Kashmir Liberation
Jahm b. Safwan, 427, 448 Front, 490
Isma
il II, Shah, 218 Jakhanke Muslims, 697–698 Janna (paradise), 175, 375–376, 501
Isma
ili Shi
a. See Shi
a: Isma
ili Jalal al-din al-Suyuti, 84, 107 See also Calligraphy; Jahannam;
Isma
il Pasha, 116 Jama
a Islamiyya, 741 Law; Muhammad; Quran;
Isma
il Samani, 133 Jama
at-e Islami (JI, Islamic Tafsir
Isma
il Shahid, Shah, 730 Community), 262, 304, 371–373, Jannat
Aden (Garden of Eden), 376
ISNA. See Islamic Society of North 372, 375, 444, 502, 641, 672, 676 Jannat al-Khuld (Garden of
America See also Maududi, Abu l-A
la; eternity), 376
Israel Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Japan, Islam in, 189
creation of, 458 Jama
at izalat al-bid
a wa-iqamat as- Jariri school, 671
defeat of Egypt by (1967), 4, sunna (Association for the removal
460, 521 Javadi, Fattaneh Hajj Sayyed, 529
of innovation and for the
economy of, 199 Jawhar al-Siqilli, Egyptian general,
establishment of the sunna), 8
relations with Arab League, 69 92, 115
Jamalzadih, Mohammad-
Ali, 529
Israfil, 49 Jerusalem, 163, 164, 314–316,
James, William, 250
Istiqlal (Independence) Party, 254 332, 362
Jami, 527
Ithna
Ashari, 393 See also Dome of the Rock; Holy
Jami
(to gather), 71, 373, 437
Itihad-e Islami (Islamic Union), 490 cities
See also
Ibadat; Masjid; Religious
Ittifak-i Muslumanlar (Union of Jesus Christ, 28, 554, 615
institutions
muslims), 265 Jevdet Pasha (Ahmet Jevdet Pasha;
Jami
a Milli
a (Milliya) Islamiya,
Ittisal (contact), 48 Cevdet Pasha, Ahmad), 270,
39, 639
376–377
Iwan, 73 Jami
at al-Duwal al-
Arabiyya (League

Izrail, 49 See also Modernization, political:
of Arab States), 68, 175
Administrative, military, and

Izz al-Din al-Qassam Briades, 291 See also Arab League judicial reform
Jamil al-Amin, Imam (H. Rap Brown), Jihad
J 44, 45, 373–374
as “cleansing of soul,” 30, 158
Jabal
Amil, 386 See also American culture and and martyrdom, 432
Jabbar, Kareem Abdul, 44 Islam; Americas, Islam in the; meaning of, 158–160,
Jabbat al-Mithaq al-Islami (Islamic Nation of Islam 377–379, 378
Charter Front), 347 Jami
masjid (congregational mosque), as obligation, 365
Jabha al-Islamiyya li-l-inqadh, al-. See 71, 439 and spread of Islam, 239, 590
Islamic Salvation Front Jamishid b.
Abdullah, 664 See also Conflict and violence;
Jabha-e Nijat-e Milli-ye Afghanistan Jam
iyat al-Da
wah al-Islamiyya Terrorism
(National Liberation Front of (Islamic Call Society), 173 Jihad Organization (Tanzim al-
Afghanistan), 490 Jami
yat al-Da
wah wal-Irshad, 172 Jihad), 365
Jabir al-Hayyan, 369 Jam
iyat-e (Jam
iyat) Islami (Islamic JI (Jama
at-e Islami, Islamic
Jabriyya, 631 Society), 238, 490 Community), 262, 304, 371–373,
Ja
da, 293 Jam
iyat-e (Jam
iyat)
Ulama-e Hind 375, 444, 502, 641, 672, 676
Ja
d b. Dirham, 427 (JUH), 177, 371, 374, 375, 390, See also Maududi, Abu l-A
la;
Jadidism, 137, 579–580, 609 443, 638 Pakistan, Islamic Republic of

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Jinnah, Muhammad
Ali, 90, 304, 343, Jurassic 5 (rapper), 45 Kashmir, 27, 640
379–380, 380, 517, 640 Jurjani, 281 See also Pakistan, Islamic
See also Pakistan, Islamic Jurjis Bukhtishu, 446 Republic of
Republic of Justice and Development Party, Kasravi, Ahmad, 255, 683
Jinn (invisible supernatural creatures), 460, 466 Katyan Minaret (Bukhara), 113
22, 39, 51, 55, 294 Justinian I, 446 Kawakibi,
Abd al-Rahman. See
Abd
JIU. See JUI (Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Juula (traders), 18 al-Rahman Kawakibi
Islam) Kay Kavus b. Voshmgir, 527
Jizya (poll tax on non-Muslims), 138, Kazamayn, tombs in, 88
K
157, 158, 161, 162, 213, 219, 240,
Ka
ba (Kaaba; Ka
aba; of Mecca), 55, Kebek, 134
361, 451, 542, 660
71, 183, 311, 311, 312, 370, 376, Kefir, 233
Jochi (the “Golden Horde”), 134
428, 478, 480, 530, 561 Kelidar, 529
John of Damascus, 28, 144, 181, 516
schematic of, 129–130 Kemal, Namik (Namek), 341, 342,
Johnson, P. Nathaniel (Shaykh Ahmad textiles of, 80 387–388, 470, 738, 739
Din), 708
Kabbani, Shaykh Hisham, 683 See also Young Ottomans
Jones, Sir William, 523, 638, 684
Kabir (died c. 1448), 303 Kenya, Islam in, 14, 15
Jordan
Kabir of Benares (1440–1518), Khadija bint
Ali, 734
economy of, 199, 200–201 637, 642
independence of, 425, 458 Khadija bint (b.) Khuwaylid, 381,
Kadri, Chereffe, 713 478, 734
Muslim Brotherhood in, 347
Kafir (unbeliever), 30, 452 Khadija bint Muhammad, 734
opposition to socialism in, 634
political modernization in, Kahin (soothsayer), 279 Khaki, 81
460, 462 Kalam, 247, 385, 397 Khalid, Khalid Muhammad, 388
political opposition in, 463 See also Ash
arites, Ash
aira; See also Ghazali, Muhammad alreligious legitimacy in, 26 Disputation; Falsafa; Khalid b. Yazid, 295, 414, 435
Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, 290 Knowledge; Murjiites, Murjia;
Khalidi, Tarif, 307
Josephus, Flavius, 148 Quran
Khalifa (successor), 30, 37, 116, 318,
Judah, son of Jacob, 8 Kalam allah, 83, 385
652, 653–654, 663
Judaism and Islam, 380–384 Kalila wa Dimna, 523, 527
See also Caliphate
in al-Andalus, 47, 48 Kalyan Minaret, 113
Khalili, Khalil Allah, 528
in Arabia, 53 Kandhalavi (Kandhlawi), Maulana
Khalil ibn Ishaq al-Jundi, 597
and heresy, 297 Muhammad Zakariyya, 177, 672
Khalil Jibran, Jibran, 67
respect between, 27–28, 361 Kane, Big Daddy, 45
Khalil-Sultan, 222
See also Christianity and Islam; Kano Chronicle, 20
Khalwatiyya, 26
Islam and other religions; Kano (Nigeria), 385–386, 435
Minorities: dhimmis Khamanei, Ayatollah Sayyed
Ali, 358,
See also Africa, Islam in; Marwa,
Judeo-Arabic language, 48, 60 388, 430, 627, 722
Muhammad;
Uthman Dan
Judicial reform, 461, 557–558 Fodio See also Iran, Islamic Republic of;
Revolution: Islamic revolution
Juha, 321 Kant, Immanuel, 250, 401, 516
in Iran
JUH (Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Hind), 177, Karaki, Shaykh
Ali (also known as Al-
Muhaqqiq al-Thani), 386–387 Khamriyyat (wine poetry), 64, 65
371, 374, 375, 390, 443, 638
See also Isma
il I, Shah; Safavid Khan, 134, 388
See also Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e
Islam; South Asia, Islam in and Qajar Empires; Shaykh al- Khan,
Abd al-Ghaffar, 639
JUI (Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Islam), 177, Islam; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver); Khan, Hazrat Inayat, 44, 683, 689
374–375, 676, 677 Tahmasp I, Shah Khan, Miza Malkom, 318
See also Deoband; Jam
iyat-e KARAMA (Muslim Women Lawyer’s Khan, Reza of Bareilly (Ahmad Reza

Ulama-e Hind; South Asia, Committee for Human Rights), 43 Khan Barelwi), 176, 343, 375,
Islam in; Taliban Karamokho Alfa, 697 389–390, 581, 638
Junayd (al-Junayd; of Baghdad), 275, Karbala (Iraq), 323–325, 387, 433, See also Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e
290, 685 599, 624, 691 Pakistan; Khilafat movement;
Jund-e Shapur (Jundi-Shapur), pilgrimage to, 36 South Asia, Islam in;
446, 695 tomb of Husayn in, 26, 88, 293, Wahhabiyya
JUP (Jam
iyat-e
Ulama-e Pakistan), 387, 728 Khan, Sir Sayyid. See Ahmad Khan,
375, 390 See also
Ali; Husayn; Quran; Sir Sayyid
See also Deoband; Jam
iyat-e Rawza-khani; Shi
a: Early Khan, Gen. Yahya, 91

Ulama-e Hind; Jam
iyat-e Kartir, 428 Khanqa (Khanaqa, Khanga), 389

Ulama-e Islam; South Asia, Kashani, Abu ’l-Qasem, 255–256 See also Architecture; Tariqa;
Islam in Kashan pottery, 80–81 Tasawwuf

804 Islam and the Muslim World
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Khans (inns), 69, 75 Khudabanda, Ilkhanid sultan, 301 Kufr (unbelief), 143, 327, 492,
Khaqani of Shirvan, 525 Khudai Khidmatgar (“Servents of 534, 566
Kharijites, Khawarij, 118, 121, 390, God”) movement, 639 Kuleli Conspiracy, 738
432, 453, 541, 548, 573, 585–586, Khudi (individuality), 356 Kumijani, Shihab al-Din, 359
621, 653 Khuluq. See Akhlaq Kunta Sidi
Ali, 402
See also Law Khurasan, 132 Kunti, Mukhtar al- (Al-Shaykh Sidi-
Kharja (quotation), 48 Khushrow, emir of Delhi, 528 Mukhtar al-Kabir al-Kunti),
Khassaki Mosque (Baghdad), 450 Khusraw I Anushirwan, Sassanian king 402–403
Khatami, Mohammad, 278, 358, 459, of Persia, 55 See also Africa, Islam in; Tariqa;
579, 742 Khutba al-jum
a, 394 Tasawwuf; Timbuktu
Khatm al-nabuwwa (finality of Khutba (sermon), 71, 394–396, 396, Kurdish separatism, 460
Muhammad’s prophethood), 30, 32 437, 451 Kuttab (school), 142, 203, 205
Khatmiyya, 29 See also Arabic language;
Ibadat; Kuwait
Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi, 575 Masjid; Minbar (mimbar); constitutionalism in, 464–465
Khayyam,
Omar, 524 Religious institutions independence of, 425
Khidr, al-, 390–391, 680, 685 Khutbat al-bayan, 38 Iraqi invasion of, 69
See also Prophets Khwaja
Abd al-Khaliq youth programs in, 744
Khilafat movement, 177, 390, Ghijduvani, 140
391–392, 520, 638 Khwaja
Abd al-Samad, 643
L
See also South Asia, Islam in Khwaja
Ubaydullah Ahrar, 140
Lahore (India), 30
Khirbat al-Mafjar, 74 Khwarazm, 132, 222, 392
Lahuti, Abu ’l-Qasem, 528
Khirbat al-Minya, 74 See also Khiva, khanate of
Lakhmids, 55
Khirqa (cloak), 391, 392, 441 Khwarazmshah Muhammad, 133, 134
Lakshar Jihad, 582
See also Clothing; Khilafat Killing, ethos of, 227, 566
Land ownership, 196
movement; Tasawwuf Kindi, al- (Abu Yusuf Ya
qub Ibn
Ishaq al-Sabbah Al-Kindi), 248, Lane, Edward W., 178, 515
Khiva (Khwarazm), khanate of, 136,
392–393 396–397 Language
See also Central Asia, Islam in; See also Falsafa; Mu
tazilites, and ethnic identity, 232
Central Asian culture and Islam Mu
tazila grammar and lexicography,
Kindi, Shurayh b. al-Harith al-, 558 279–281
Khoi, Abo l Qasem (Sayyed Abo l-
Kisa (people of the mantle), 26 See also Arabic language; Persian
Qasem Musavi), 393
Kitab al-
ayn, 280–281 language and literature; Urdu
Khojas, 393
language, literature, and poetry
See also Aga Khan; Nizari; South Kitab al-kharaj (Book of taxation),
542, 654 Lashkar-e Taiba (Lashkar-e Taybiyya;
Asia, Islam in
Kitab al-masalik wa al-mamalik (Book Army of Pure), 27, 490
Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah,
of roads and kingdoms), KMMS, Lashkar Jihad, 647
393–394
exile of, 10, 88, 394, 459 129, 130, 131 Last Day, 584
fatwa against Rushdie of, 277, 603 Kitab al-sultan (Book of Latin America, Islam in, 45–46
fundamentalism of, 263 sovereignty), 474 Law, 5–6, 11–12, 405–411, 405, 407,
ideology of, 11, 430, 549 Kitab al-Sunan, 502 408, 613–614, 668
on interdependence of theology Kitab al-tawhid (Book of unity), 727 See also Hanafi school; Hanbali
and philosophy, 248 Kitab Sibawayhi, 280 school; Madhhab; Maliki school;
and Iranian cultural revolution, 3 Kitchener, Sir Herbert, 422, 423 Shafi
i school; Shari
a
on martyrdom, 323 Kiyais, 649–650 Lawrence, T. E., 519
opposition to Bahai, 310 Lazar, Serbian prince, 102
Kiyan Circle (halqe Kiyan), 578–579
political philosophy of, 551, 552
Knowledge, 202–203, 397–402, 566 League of Arab States (Jamai
at alreligious legitimacy of, 26
See also Ghazali, al-; Ibn Sina; Duwal al-
Arabiyya), 68, 175
return to power of, 357, 358, 465,
Mulla Sadra; Tasawwuf; See also Arab League
538, 593–594, 722
on role of ulema, 704 Theology; Tusi, Nasir al-Din League of Nations, 25
social philosophy of, 252 Komiteh (Komiteh-ha-ye Enghelab, Lebanese Communist Party, 156
youth support for, 741–742 Revolutionary Committees), 402 Lebanon, 411–413
See also Iran, Islamic Republic of; See also Revolution: Islamic constitutionalism in, 464
Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi; revolution in Iran economy of, 199–200
Revolution: Islamic revolution Korea, Islam in, 189 independence of, 425, 458
in Iran Kosovo, civil war in, 103 political modernization in, 460
Khomeinism, 146 Kubra, Najm al-Din, 140 Sufism in, 690
Khosrow, 248, 636, 643, 661 Kufic script, 125 use of Arabic language in, 61–62

Islam and the Muslim World 805
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See also Fadlallah, Muhammad Madhhab (school of law), 34, Mahr (dower), 42, 182, 424, 431
Husayn; Hizb Allah; Sadr, 417–418, 584, 731 See also Divorce; Law; Marriage
Musa al- See also Abu Hanifa; Ibn Hanbal; Mahsati of Ganja, 524
Leewenhock, Antoni van, 447 Kalam; Law; Malik Ibn Anas; Maimonides, Moses (Musa ibn
Leibnitz, Gottfried von, 400, 516 Shafi
i, al-; Shi
a: Imami Maimun Maimonides), 48, 295, 382
Lexicography (Arabic). See Grammar (Twelver) Maitatsine. See Marwa, Muhammad
and lexicography Madinat al-Zahira of Cordoba, 74 Majles-e Shura-ye Melli (National
Liberal democracy, 462–463 Madinat al-Zahra (al-Andalus), 46 Consultative Assembly, Iran), 425
Liberalism, 413 Madjid, Nurcholish, 614, 646 Majlis al-shura (advisory council),
See also Modern thought Madrasa (seminary), 92, 203–204, 205, 105, 345
206, 373, 415, 418–421, 420, Majlis (assembly), 278, 357, 425, 459
Liberation Movement of Iran (LMI,
511, 588 See also Modernization, political:
Nehzat-e azadi-ye Iran), 413–414
See also Aligarn; Azhar, al-; Constitutionalism; Political
See also Bazargan, Mehdi; Iran,
Deoband; Education organization
Islamic Republic of
Maghazi, 451 Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir
Libna Dingil, Ethiopian emperor, 29
See also Military raid (Mohammad Baqer; Muhammad
Libraries, 414–416
Maghreb, Islam in, 13, 16 Baqir b. Muhammad Taqi Majlisi),
See also Education; Mamun 37, 219, 293, 425–426, 626
Magic (Ar. sihr), 178
Libya Majlisi, Muhammad Taqi al- (d. 1659/
Mahaz-e Milli-ye Islami-ye
autocratic state in, 462 Afghanistan (National Islamic 1660), 34
political modernization in, Front of Afghanistan), 490 Makassar, Shaykh Yusuf (
Ali Shaykh
460, 557 Yusuf), 426
Mahdawi movement, 637
revolution in, 595 See also Africa, Islam in; Southeast
Mahdi, Sadiq (Siddiq) al-, 347,
socialism in, 634 Asia, Islam in; Tariqa
421–422
Sufism in, 682 Makhdum-e A
zam, 136
Mahdi, tomb of the, 423
Liebnitz, Gottried von. See Leibnitz, MAK (maktab al-khidma li-l-mujahin
Mahdi (“rightly guided one”), 421
Gottried von al-
arab, Afghan Service Bureau
Ghulam Ahmad as, 30, 32
Life-cycle rituals, 332, 598 Front), 559
Muhammad (son of Hasan al-
Lij Iyasu, emperor of Ethiopia, 14
Askari) as, 274, 591 Maktabi of Shiraz, 526
LIKUD Party, 355 prediction of, 261, 591 Malaka, 226
Lisan al-
Arab, 281 return of, 274, 625 Malawi, Islam in, 13, 22
Literacy, 414 See also Fitna; Hadith; Imam; Malay language, 651
Literature. See Arabic literature; Mahdist state, Mahdiyya; Malay Muslim Monarchy, 665
Persian language and literature; Religious beliefs; Shi
a: Early; Malaysia
Urdu language, literature, and Shi
a: Imami (Twelver) colonization of, 645
poetry Mahdist state, Mahdiyya, 155, independence of, 647
Liwali Muhammad bin
Uthman 422–424 Islam in, 328, 644
Mazrui, 445 See also Africa, Islam in; Islam reform in, 582–583, 645
LMI (Liberation Movement of Iran), and other religions; Mahdi; Sufism in, 690
413–414 Muhammad Ahmad ibn sultanate in, 474

Abdullah; Zar Malcolm, Sir John, 684
Locke, John, 251
Mahfuz, Nagib, 67, 68, 68 Malcolm X, 44, 245, 426, 505,
Logical positivism, 249
Mahjar, 67 530, 709
Lokman, Seyyid, 129
Mahmoud of Ghazni (Mahmud of See also American culture and
Lotf
Ali Khan, 745
Ghazna), 302, 303, 415, 525, 635 Islam; Conversion; Farrakhan,
Louis IX, king of France, 165, 658
Mahmud, Mufti, 374 Louis; Muhammad, Elijah;
Lull, Raymond, 145 Nation of Islam
Mahmud (Afghan leader), 219
Mahmud (Mahmut) II (Ottoman Malebranche, Nicolas, 247
M sultan), 150, 678 Malekshah, 665
Maccibo ibn Abubakar, Mahmud (Ghaznavid sultan), 139, Malfuzat (records of audiences), 109
Muhammad, 664 661–662 Mali, Empire of
Macedonia, Muslim population of, 103 Mahmud ibn
Umar al- Islamic architecture of, 16, 20, 21
Madani,
Abbasi, 366, 417 Zamakhshari, 673 Islam in, 17, 18, 429–430
See also Islamic Salvation Front; Mahmud Ka
ti, 694 use of Arabic language in, 62
Political organization; Reform: Mahmut II. See Mahmud II See also Timbuktu
in Arab Middle East and North Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental College, Mali, Republic of. See Mali, Empire of
Africa Aligarh (India). See Muhammadan Malik, 148
Madhdiyya movement, 22 Anglo-Oriental College Malik (angel), 370, 502

806 Islam and the Muslim World
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Malik Ashtar, 36 Maqamat (Seances or Sessions), 79 Masruq Ibn al-Ajda, 406
Malik Ibn (b.) Anas, 11, 160, 286, 287, Maqassari, Taanta Salmanka al-. See Mass
ud Sa
d Salman, 661
313, 417, 426–427, 586–587, 667 Makassar, Shaykh Yusuf Mas
ud, 133, 139, 661, 665
See also Africa, Islam in; Law; Maraboutism, 724 Mas
ud Sa
d Salman, 525, 528
Madhhab Mar
ashi library (Qom), 416 Ma
sum (impeccable), 37
Maliki school, 11, 14, 183, 408, 417, Marib, dam at, 54, 55, 56 Material culture, 440–442
418, 427, 534, 588, 686 Ma
rifa (knowledge), 397, 611 See also African culture and Islam;
Malik-Shah, 549 Marja
al-taqlid, 388, 430, 549, American culture and Islam;
Malta, use of Arabic language in, 62 593, 718 Architecture; Art; Calligraphy;
Mamluk sultanate, 662–663 See also Shi
a: Imami (Twelver); Central Asian culture and Islam;
architecture of, 74 Taqlid; Ulema Clothing; European culture and
creation of, 166, 662 Marrakesh Islam; Music; South Asian
decorative arts of, 80 Almoravid mosque at, 80 culture and Islam; Southeast
in East Africa, 17 Saadi capital in, 259 Asian culture and Islam
eunuchs of, 233 Mathematics, 613
Marriage, 42, 266, 424, 430–431,
political organization under,
510, 598 Matrilineal descent, 142
543, 544
See also Divorce; Gender; Law; Maturidi, al- (Abu Mansur Muhammad
success of, 116, 121
Mahr; Polygamy b. Muhammad), 139, 442–443
use of Arabic language in, 60
waqf of, 731 Marsajawayh, 695 See also Ash
arites, Ash
aira;
See also Delhi sultanate; Marthiya (poetic dirge), 64 Central Asia, Islam in; Kalam;
Ghaznavid sultanate; Seljuk Martyrdom, 387, 431–434 Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila
sultanate See also Banna, Hasan al-; Maturidite school, 83, 442
Mamun, al- (Abu ’l-
Abbas
Abdallah Expansion, of Islam; Husayn; Maududi, Abu l-A
la, 172, 262, 286,
al-Mamun), 427–428
Ibadat; Imamate; Jihad; 304, 345, 366, 371, 372, 443–444,
caliphate of, 207, 259, 587 Kharijites, Khawarij; Ta
ziya 457, 468, 537, 551, 552, 641, 669,
Christianity under, 145 Marwa, Muhammad (Maitatsine), 692, 716
coinage of, 151 434–435 See also Jama
at-e Islami; Political
conquest of Central Asia by, 132 See also Africa, Islam in; Kano Islam
and education, 203 (Nigeria); Mahdi Maulid (Mawlid), 737
libraries of, 414 Marwanid dynasty, 46, 118 Mauss, Marcell, 226
silver globe of, 130 Marwan (Marwan b. al-Hakam b. Mawarannahr (Transoxiana,
succession of, 120 Abi al-
As, Abu
Abd al-Malik), Transoxania), 132
translations under, 281, 282 435–436 Mawdud, 661
See also Caliphate; Fitna; Mihna;
succession of, 118, 223 Mawla (master, friend), 37, 473
Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila;
See also Caliphate; Succession Mazahir-e
Ulum (Saharanpur), 177
Succession
Masculinities, 436
Manar, manara (minaret), 71, 428 Mazalim, 444–445, 535
See also Body, significance of;
See also Adhan; Architecture; See also Caliphate; Law; Religious
Feminism; Gender;
Masjid institutions
Homosexuality
Manat, 84, 85 Mazhar ul Islam, 716
Mashhad (Iran), 26, 436–437, 438
Manchu Empire, 136 Mazrui,
Ali A., 252
See also Pilgrimage: Hajj;
Mande, Islam among, 20 Mazrui (Ar., Mazru
i), 445, 745
Pilgrimage: Ziyara; Shi
a: Imami
Mandela, Nelson, 426 See also Africa, Islam in; Zanzibar,
(Twelver)
Mangistu Haile-Mariam, 231 Sa
idi sultanate of
Mashhad (mausoleum), 74, 433
Mani, 428, 429 Mbaruk bin Rashid, 445
Masih-i maw
ud (promised
Manicheanism, 139, 428–429 Messiah), 32 McMahon, Sir Henry, 519
See also Islam and other religions Masih (messiah), 30, 554 Mecca, 55, 158, 311–312, 311, 332,
Mansa Musa, 17, 429–430, 606 Masina, state of, 17 437, 531
See also Africa, Islam in See also Holy cities; Ka
ba (Mecca)
Masjid, 71, 373, 437–440, 650
Mansa Sulayman, 17 Media, perception of Muslims in, 44
See also
Ibadat; Khutba; Manar,
Mansur, Hasan
Ali, 256 manara; Mihrab; Minbar Medicine, 445–448, 613
Mansur al-Namari, 97 (mimbar); Religious institutions See also Body, significance of;
Manteq al-Tayr, 527 Maslaha (public interest), 7, 11, 226, Ethics and social issues; Falsafa;
Manto, Sa
adat Hasan, 716 440, 577 Healing; Science, Islam and
Manuchehri, 525 See also
Abduh, Muhammad; Medina (Yathrib), 52, 53, 54–55, 71,
Maps. See Cartography and geography Ethics and social issues; Ghazali, 312–314, 313, 361, 479, 705
Maqama (rhymed prose), 66 al-; Law; Shari
a Jews in, 381, 479

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as model for political See also Ahmad, Mirza Ghulam; authoritarianism and
organization, 540 Ahmadiyya; Babiyya; Bab democratization, 462–463
Muhammad’s house in, 70–71, (Sayyed
Ali Muhammad); See also Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal;
71, 437 Bahaallah; Bahai faith; Political Islam; Qadhafi,
Prophet’s Mosque in, 313, 314 Kharijites, Khawarij Mu
ammar al-; Reform: in Arab
See also Holy cities Miqdad, 35 Middle East and North Africa;
Mehmed Said Halim Pasha, 344 Miracles, 454 Reform: in Iran; Revolution,
Mehmet II (Mehmed), Ottoman modern
See also Mi
raj; Muhammad;
sultan, 130, 211, 340, 561 constitutionalism, 463–465,
Prophets
Mehmet IV, Ottoman sultan, 216 470–471, 595
Mi
raj (ascension of the Prophet),
See also Majlis
Memphis, 115 36, 38, 49, 114, 184, 331,
participation, political
Menilik, emperor of Ethiopia, 14 454–456, 599
movements, and parties,
Mernissi, Fatima, 110, 271, 483 See also Buraq; Holy cities; 465–467
Messianism, 590
Ibadat; Miracles See also Communism; Erbakan,
Metal-working, 77–78, 80 Mir Damad, 359, 386, 399 Necmeddin; Ikhan al-Muslimin;
Metatron, 49 Mir Sayyid
Ali, 643 Nationalism: Arab; Nationalism:
Mevlevi (Maulaviyya) order, 601, 602, Mir Taqi Mir, 715 Iranian; Nationalism, Turkish;
682, 683, 686, 690, 708 Miryam Begum, 219 Pan-Islam; Political Islam;
Mian, Dudu, 581 Mirza, 134 Socialism
Michael (Mikail, Mikal), 49 political philosophy of, 551–552
Mirza, Iraj, 528
“Middle Arabic” language, 60 Modern thought, 467–472
Mirza Husayn
Ali Nuri. See
“Middle East,” 458 See also
Abd al-Karim Sorush;
Bahaallah
Middle Persian language, 60 Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-;
Mirza Yahya (Subh-e Azal), 96,
Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid;
Midhat Pasha, 376 99, 100
Capitalism; Communism;
Migration, 155, 198, 236–237 Mirza-ye Qommi, 561 Feminism; Gender; Iqbal,
Mihna (religious inquisition), 27, 120, Misbach, Hadji Mohammad, 470 Muhammad; Liberalism,
427, 448–450, 587, 654, 694 Miskawayh, 225 Islamic; Modernism; Pluralism:
See also Caliphate; Disputation; MNLF (Moro National Liberation Legal and ethno-religious;
Ibn Hanbal; Imamate; Ma
mun, Front), 647–648 Pluralism: Political; Qutb,
al-; Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila; Sayyid; Rahman, Fazlur;
Mobilization (Basji) Corps, 522, 741
Quran Science, Islam and;
Modarressi, Hossein, 547
Mihrab, 20, 71, 438, 450 Secularization; Shari
ati,
Ali;
Modernism, 155, 456
See also Architecture; Art; Wali Allah, Shah
See also
Abduh, Muhammad;
Devotional life; Masjid Mo
ezzi, 525
Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-;
Military raid, 450–451 Mogul (Mughal) Empire, 32,
Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid; Iqbal,
See also Conflict and violence; 212–214, 214
Muhammad; Liberalism,
Da
wa; Expansion, of Islam; architecture of, 73, 213
Islamic; Modern thought;
Jihad conversion during, 362, 363
Rahman, Fazlur
Mill, John Stuart, 251 and ethnic identity, 342–343
Modernity, 456–458
Millet system, 232, 340, 362, 383, 411, Islam in, 637–638
See also
Abduh, Muhammad;
534, 738 miniature painting of, 80, 214
Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-;
Milli Gorus, 238 political organization under, 545
Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid; Iqbal,
Milli Nizam Partisi (National Order use of Persian language in, 60
Muhammad; Liberalism,
Party), 224 See also Political organization
Islamic; Maududi, Abu l-A
la;
Milli Selâmet Partisi (National Mohamed, Mahathir, 647
Modern thought
Salvation Party), 238, 460 Mohammed, W. D. See Muhammad,
Modernization, political
Mina, campsite at, 312 Warith Deen
administrative, military, and
Minaeans (kindgom of Ma
in), 54, 58 Mohammad al-Taqi, imam, 88
judicial reform, 458–462
Minaret. See Manar, manara Mohammad Khodabandeh, 218
See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal;
Minbar (mimbar, “pulpit”), 71,
Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri; Mohammedanism, 360
437, 451 Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal; Iran, Mojahedin-e Khalq (The People’s
See also Masjid; Mihrab Islamic Republic of; Islamic Warriors), 472
Minorities Salvation Front; Khomeini, See also Iran, Islamic Republic of;
dhimmis, 162, 303, 340, 378, Ayatollah Ruhollah; Mosaddeq, Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah;
451–452, 635 Mohammad; Muhammad Reza Political Islam; Shari
ati,
Ali
See also Dhimmi (protected) status Shah Pahlevi; Revolution: Mojahidin. See Mujahidin
offshoots of Islam, 452–454 Islamic revolution in Iran Mojrem, 526

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Mojtahed-Shabestari, Mohammad, Mosques, 42, 43, 70–73, 72, 148, 188, defense of Islam by, 157–158
473, 578 192, 209, 235, 311, 313, 315, dreams of, 185
See also Reform: in Iran 440–441, 585, 635, 650 ethical character of, 34
Mollabashi, 473–474 in China, 188, 191, 192 favorite wife of, 32–33
See also Molla; Nader Shah See also Adhan; Architecture; hospitality of, 317–318
Jami
; Manar, manara; Masjid; house of, 70–71, 71
Afshar; Safavid and Qajar
Minbar (mimbar); Religious humor of, 320
Empires; Ulema
institutions images of, 159
Molla Hosayn Boshrui. See Mulla
Mostar, bridge at, 103 migration to Yathrib
Hosayn Boshrui
Motahhari, Mortaza, 476 (Medina), 478
Molla (religious leader), 473 miracles of, 454
See also Khomeini, Ayatollah
See also Ulema on poetry, 64
Ruhollah; Reform: in Iran;
Monarchy, 474–475, 541, 663 prophecies foretelling the coming
Revolution: Islamic revolution
See also Caliphate; Political in Iran; Velayat-e Faqih of, 28
organization recognition of, 28
Mouride Brotherhood. See Muridiyya
Money lending, 126 relics of, 111
Brotherhood
Mongol and Il-Khanid Empires, sira (biography) of, 66, 109, 120,
Mourning, 175, 317
211–212 143, 381, 482
Movement of the Ansar—Helpers of
and caliphate, 655 successors of, 116–123, 480–481,
prophet Muhammad in Medina
destruction by, 121 484, 541, 573, 584–587, 622,
(Harakat al-Ansar), 490
end of, 134 651–656
Mozaffar, Shaykh Mohammad tomb of, 78, 233, 314
political organization under, 542, Reza, 718 virtues of, 225
543–544 Mozambique, Islam in, 14, 23 See also Arabia, pre-Islamic;
rise of, 134
MSA. See Muslim Student Association Biography and hagiography;
and spread of Islam, 236,
of North America Caliphate; Hadith; Holy cities;
363, 382
Mtumwa, Shaykha Binti, 22 Mi
raj; Quran; Shi
a: Early;
See also Political organization
Mu
adha al-
Adawiyya, 571 Succession; Sunna; Tasawwuf
Monophysite Christianity, 17, 143
Muadhdhin (muezzin, “caller”), Muhammad, Elijah (Elijah Poole), 43,
Monotheism, 39, 252, 381
71, 178 245, 253, 426, 486–487, 505,
See also Allah 709, 710
Mu
allaqat (“suspended odes”), 57, 370
Moorish Science Temple, 41, 708–709 See also American culture and
Mu
amalat (social ethics), 327, 430
Moravids (Almoravid dynasty), 47, Islam; Americas, Islam in the;
Mu
awiya b. Yazid (Mu
awiya II),
362, 475, 606, 696 223, 435 Farrakhan, Louis; Malcolm X;
See also Andalus, al- Mu
awiya (Mu
awiya b. Abi [Abu] Muhammad, Warith Deen;
Moriscos, 45 Sufyan), 477 Nation of Islam
Morocco monetary policy of, 151 Muhammad, Miyan Tufail, 371
economy of, 199, 200 opposition to
Ali from, 35, 36 Muhammad, Warith Deen
independence of, 425 succession of, 118, 223, 260, 293, (Warithudeen; Wallace D.;
Islam in, 19, 254 477, 623 Mohammed, W. D.), 43, 44, 45,
music in, 495 See also Caliphate; Karbala; 253, 383–384, 487, 488, 505, 710,
opposition to socialism in, 634 Kharijites, Khawarij; Succession 712, 713
political modernization in, Muaz Ibn Jabal, 406 See also American culture and
460, 462 Mubarak, Hosni, 200, 346, 464, 466 Islam; Farrakhan, Louis;
religious legitimacy in, 26 Mudanya Armistice (1922), 89 Malcolm X; Muhammad, Elijah;
ulema of, 705 Mudros Armistice (1918), 89 Nation of Islam; United States,
veneration of saints in, 724 Islam in the
Mufti, 478
Moro National Liberation Front Muhammad Ahmad ibn
Abdullah
See also Fatwa; Qadi (kadi, kazi)
(MNLF), 647–648 (
Abhullah), 421, 422, 485
Mughal Empire. See Mogul Empire
Mosaddeq, Dr. Mohammad, 11, 106, tomb of, 422, 423
Muhajirun (emigrants), 340, 371
156, 255–256, 310, 413, 459, 476, See also Mahdi
Muhammad, 478–485
504, 592, 741 Muhammad al-Amin, 207, 427
as ahl al-bayt, 26
See also Nationalism: Iranian Muhammad al-Baqir, 625
birthday (maulid; mawlid) of, 108,
Mos Def, 45 Muhammad al-Darazi, 453
177, 191–192, 389, 482, 599,
Moses, 390 649, 737 Muhammad al-Hanifiyya, 421
Mosque of al-Hakim, Fatimid changing image of, 481–483 Muhammad
Ali, dynasty of, 485–486
(Cairo), 71 and Christianity, 143 See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal;
Mosque of the Mogul emporer Shah cloak of, 38 Modernization, political:
Jahan, 439 conversion of jinni by, 51 Authoritarianism and

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democratization; Nationalism: See also Khomeini, Ayatollah Muqatil ibn Sulayman (d. 804), 672
Arab; Reform: in Arab Middle Ruhollah; Modernization, Murad, Khurram, 174
East and North Africa; political: Authoritarianism and Murad, amir of Bukhara, 113
Revolution: Modern democratization; Revolution:
Murad IV, Ottoman sultan, 99
Muhammad al-Mahdi (died ca. Islamic revolution in Iran
Muridiyya (Mouride; Murid)
874), 421 Muhammad’s Army, 347
Brotherhood, 21, 104, 694
Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya Muhammad Shah, 213, 664
Murjiites, Murjia, 138, 492, 591, 653
(Muhammad b.
Abdallah b. al- Muhammad Shibani Khan, 135
See also Kharijites, Khawarij
Hasan al-Muthanna), 486, 623 Muhammad (son of Hasan al-

Askari), 274 Murtada al-Ansari (Murtada Ansari),
See also Ahl al-bayt; Imamate;
Muhammad Speaks, 486 430, 718, 722
Mahdi; Succession
Muhammad’s Youth, 346 Muruwwa (manliness), 436
Muhammad al-Shaybani, 9, 407,
408–409 Muhammad Tughluq, 660 Musa al-Kazim, imam, 88
Muhammadan (Mahomedan) Anglo- Muhanna, Ahmad, 309 Musa al-Sadr, Imam, 412
Oriental College, Aligarh (India), Muharram, 323, 324, 324, 331, Mus
ab b. al-Zubayr, 435
32, 38–39 488–489, 599, 623, 715 Musharraf, Gen. Pervez, 518
“Muhammadan Paths” (turuq See also Husayn; Karbala; Ritual; Music, 304, 441–442, 492–496,
Muhammadiyya), 154 Shi
a: Early; Ta
ziya (Ta
ziye) 688–689
Muhammadan Union, 344 Muhasibi, al- (Harith ibn Asad al- See also Arabic literature; Persian
Muhammad
Ashiq, 730 Muhasibi), 226, 290, 489 language and literature; Quran;
Muhammad b.
Abdallah, 427 See also Ibn Hanbal; Tasawwuf Umm Kulthum; Urdu language,
Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Dhahabi, 227 Muhsin Fayd al-Kashani, 34 literature, and poetry
Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Sarakhsi Muhtasib, 489–490 Musical instruments, 493, 495
(Shams al-Aimma), 9, 139 See also Hisba; Political Muslim American Society. See
Muhammad b.
Ali al-Sanusi, 537 organization American Society of Muslims
Muhammad b.
Ali al-Shawkani, 537, Muhyi al-Din ibn al-
Arabi (Muhyi al- Muslim b. al-Hajjaj, 139, 451, 668
630, 668 Din Ibn Arabi), 455, 673 Muslim Brotherhood. See Ikhwan al-
Mu
izz al-Dawla, 691 Muslimin
Muhammad b. Isma
il al-Bukhari, 139
Mu
izz al-Din, 115 Muslim Brothers’ Society (Sudan), 347
Muhammad b. Khalaf, 418
Mujaddidi, Sibghatallah, 490
Muhammad b. Kunta b. Zazam, 402 Muslim Community Association, 497
Mujaddid (reformer, renewer of Islam),
Muhammad b. Makki (al-Shahid al- Muslim (d. 874), 286, 370
30, 32, 140, 453, 675
Awwal), 386 Muslim Ibn al-Hajjaj, 496
See also Tajdid
Muhammad b. Musa al- See also Bukhari, al-; Hadith
Mujahedin-e Khalq, 594
Khwarazmi, 139 Muslim Journal, 712
Mujahid, 280
Muhammad b. Muslim, 369 Muslim League
Mujahidin (guerilla), 108, 490–491,
Muhammad b. Rashid, 729 in Awami (People’s) League, 90
491, 676, 692
Muhammad b. Sa
ud, amir, 6, 610, 728 formation of, 305
See also Political Islam; Taliban
Muhammad Bey, 463 leadership of, 31
Mujahidun. See Mujahidin
Muhammad bin Qasun, 580 Mujib, Shaykh (Bangabandhu), 91 opposition to, 371
Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliori, 637 principles of, 39
Mujtahids, 34
Muhammad ibn Isma
il, 628 support for, 375
Mujun (obscene poetry), 65
Muhammad ibn (b.) Qasim, 635, 642 on two-nation theory, 374,
Mukhtar, al-, 251, 260, 421
375, 640
Muhammad ibn Saud, 676 Mukhtasar, 597
Muhammadiyya (Muhammadiyah), 27, Muslim News (South Africa), 293
Mulla (Molla) Hosayn Boshrui, 95,
29, 469, 487, 582, 645, 735 Muslim Student Association of North
96, 97
See also Reform: in Southeast Asia America (MSA), 45, 352, 354, 366,
Mulla Muhammad Tahir Qummi, 34
496–497
Muhammad Jayasi, 689 Mulla Sadra (Sadr ad-Din Shirazi),
See also Islamic Society of North
Muhammad Mahdi (d. 1504), 421 248, 249, 351, 359, 401, 491–492,
626, 687 America; United States, Islam
Muhammad
Omar Mujahid, Mulla,
in; Youth movements
676, 677, 678 See also Falsafa; Ibn al-
Arabi; Ibn
Sina; Ishraqi school Muslim Sunrise, 708
Muhammad Rahim, khan of
Bukhara, 113 Munkar, 49, 432, 584 Muslim (terminology), 360
Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi Muqarnas, 74 Muslim Women Lawyer’s Committee
(Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi), Muqatil, 280 for Human Rights (KARAMA), 43
88, 205, 294, 357, 458, 465, 466, Muqatil b. Sulayman al-Balkhi (d. c. Muslim Women’s Association, 276
487–488, 504, 592–593, 741 767), 454 Muslim Women’s League, 43

810 Islam and the Muslim World
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Muslim World League (Rabitat al- See also Holy cities; Karbala; Nationalism

Alam al-Islami), 8, 69, 173, Mashhad (Iran) Algerian, 2
444, 521 Najda b.
Amir al-Hanafi, 390 Arab, 60–61, 465, 502–503, 633
Mustafa Fazil, 738 Najib (Naguib), Muhammad, 4 See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal;
Mustafa II, 561 Najm al-Din al-Tufi, 226
Abd al-Rahman Kawakibi;
Mustafa Na
ima, 308 Nakir, 49, 432, 584
Abduh, Muhammad; Afghani,
Mustafa Resit Pasha (Pasa), 376, Jamal al-Din al-; Arab League;
Names, Islamic, 44–45, 272–273
678, 738 Ba
th Party; Pan-Arabism; Pan-
See also Genealogy
Islam; Reform: in Arab Middle
Mustamin, 452 Nanak, 642, 661 East and North Africa
Mutahhari, Morteza, 578 NAP (National Awami Party), 374 in art, 75–76
Mutamar al-
Alam al-Islami, 521 Napoleon I (Napoleon Bonaparte), 66, development of, 234–235
Mutarrif b. Shihab, 630 146, 363 in India, 374
Mutarrifiiyya, 630 Naqqash, Selim, 342 Iranian, 503–504
Mutasarrifiya, 411, 412 Naqshband, Baha al-Din, 140 See also Iran, Islamic Republic
Mu
tazilites, Mu
tazila, 3, 10, 27, 335, Naqshbandi brotherhood of; Mosaddeq, Mohammad;
427, 497, 586, 630, 703 (Naqshbandiyya), 343, 513, 580, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi;
See also
Abd al-Jabbar; Ma
mun, 632, 675, 680, 682, 683 Revolution: Islamic revolution
al-; Mihna Naraqi, Molla Ahmad (Ahmad al- in Iran
Muthanna, Muhammad Ibn
Abdallah, Naraqi), 718, 722 Turkish, 103, 341–342, 504–505
al-. See Muhammad al-Nafs al- See also Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal;
Nar (fire), 370, 375, 501–502
Zakiyya Balkans, Islam in the; Nur
See also Death; Ghazali, al-;
Movement; Nursi, Said;
Muwahiddun (Unitarians), 468, 727 Jahannam; Janna; Muhammad;
Ottoman Empire; Pan-Islam;
Muwashshah (strophic poetry), Quran; Tafsir
Young Ottomans; Young Turks
47–48, 66 Nasai, al- (Abu
Abd al-Rahman b. See also Pan-Arabism
Muzaffar, Chandra, 469
Ali b. Shu
ayb), 502
National Liberation Front (Front de
Muzdallifa, 312 See also Hadith Libération Nationale, FLN), 156,
Muzzafar al-Din, emir of Bukhara, 113 Naser al-Din Shah, 96, 691 366, 417, 461, 633
Myrrh, 54 Naser Khosrow. See Nasir Khusraw National Liberation Front of
Mystical poetry, 527 Nasib (love poetry), 64–65 Afghanistan (Jabha-e Nijat-e Milli-
Mysticism, 248–249, 252–253 Nasir bin
Abdallah Mazrui, 445 ye Afghanistan), 490
Nasir Khusraw (Naser Khosrow), 248, National Liberation Movement
N 250, 251, 525, 527 (Iran), 106
Nabataean culture, 52–53, 54 Naskh script, 125 National Order Party (Milli Nizam
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, 174 Partisi), 224
Nabonidus, 52, 381
Nasr II, 525 National (Patriotic) Party (al-hizb al-
Nader Shah Afshar, 136, 499
Nasrallah, emir of Bukhara, 113 watani), 342
See also Abbas I, Shah; Madhhab
Nasrallah, Hassan, 310 National Resurgence Party (Iran), 459
Nadir Shah, 113, 212, 214, 392, 638
Nasr Allah Monshi, 527 National Salvation Party (Milli
Nafaqa (maintenance), 431
Nasralla Sfeir, Cardinal, 413 Selâmet Partisi), 238, 460
Nafi
, 8
Nasr b. Sayyar, 132 Nation of Islam (NOI)
Nafi
b. al-Azraq al-Hanafi, 390
Nasrid dynasty, 47 acculturation in, 44
Nafud, 52 beliefs of, 245, 253
Nahda, al- (Arab Renaissance), 60, 66, Nassef, Malak Hifni, 735
description of, 505–506
345, 366 Nasser, Jamal
Abd al-. See
Abd aldevelopment of, 43, 486–487, 707
Nahdlatul (Nahdatul) Ulama (NU), Nasser, Jamal
and hip-hop culture, 45
499–500, 645, 646–647, 735 Nasserism, 460 mixing of Islamic and American
See also Southeast Asia, Islam Nasta
liq script, 125–126 practices in, 41, 453
in; Southeast Asian culture and National Awami Party (NAP), 374 opinion of Jews in, 383
Islam National Consultative Assembly, Iran See also Farrakhan, Louis;
Naini, Muhammad Husayn (Majles-e Shura-ye Melli), 425 Malcolm X; Muhammad, Elijah;
(Mohammad Hosayn), National Front (Iran), 10, 11 Muhammad, Warith Deen;
500–501, 614 National Islamic Community, 373 United States, Islam in the
See also Modernization, political: National Islamic Front (NIF), 347, Native Deen, 45
Constitutionalism; Nationalism: 348, 700 Nawaz Sharif, Mian Mohammad, 518
Iranian National Islamic Front of Afghanistan Nawruz, 506
Najaf (Iraq), 501 (Mahaz-e Milli-ye Islami-ye See also
Ibadat; Ritual; Vernacular
tomb of
Ali in, 26, 36, 88, 501 Afghanistan), 490 Islam

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Nazi, 324 NOI. See Nation of Islam production of, 197–198, 199, 460
Nazzam, al- (Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. Non-Aligned Movement, 4 Oman
Sayyar al-Nazzam), 247, 506–507 Nongovernmental organizations independence of, 425
See also Kalam; Mu
tazilites, (NGOs), 278, 583 Islam in, 15, 474
Mu
tazila North Africa sultantate of, 664
N’Dour, Youssou, 689 economy of, 200
Onsori, 525
Nearchus of Crete, 54 Islam in, 14, 16–17, 237, 244 OPEC (Organization of Petroleum
Nehzat-e azadi-ye Iran (Liberation reform in, 575–577 Exporting Countries), 198, 710
Movement of Iran, LMI), 413–414 use of Arabic in, 59, 61 Organization of African Unity, 69
Neo-Destour movement (and party), North America, Islam in. See American Organization of Afro-American
111, 112 culture and Islam Unity, 426
Neoplatonism, 83, 396, 656, 695 North American Council for Muslim Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Nestorian Christianity, 143 Women, 43 Countries (OPEC), 198, 710
Nestorius, 446 Northeast Africa, Islam in, 14 Organization of the Islamic
Netton, Ian, 178 Nu
aym b. Hammad, 261 Conference (OIC), 515
Networks, Muslim, 507–510 Nuh al-
Ayyar, 263 on cloning, 230
See also Globalization; Ibn Nu
mani, Shibli, 83, 109 on euthanasia, 230
Battuta; Internet; Qa
ida, al-; Numayri, Ja
far al-, 421, 590, 700 formation of, 278, 521
Travel and travelers NU (Nahdlatul Ulama), 499–500, on human rights, 317
645, 646–647, 735 membership in, 278
New Arabic language, 58–59
and monetary policy, 152
New Persian (Farsi) language, 60 See also Southeast Asia, Islam
on organ transplantation, 229
Nezam al-Molk. See Nizam al-Mulk in; Southeast Asian culture and
relations with Arab League, 69
Nezami, 526–527 Islam
on reproductive rights, 228
Nichomachus, 613 Nuqrashi, Mahmud Fahmi al-, 105
See also Pan-Islam
Nicolaus of Damascus, 695 Nur al-Din b. Zangi d. 1174), 164,
Organization of the Islamic Jihad,
608, 657
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 251 310, 365
Nur al-Din Raniri (d. 1658), 308
NIF (National Islamic Front), 347, See also Islamic Jihad
Nurani, Shah Ahmad, 375
348, 700 Organ transplantation and
Nur b. al-Mujahid, Imam, 29
Niger Buckle, Islam in, 17 donation, 229
Nurcu. See Nur Movement
Nigeria Orientalism, 146–147, 154, 363, 467,
Nur (divine light), 37, 38 515–516, 684
British colonialism in, 17–18, 23
Islamic reform movement in, 8 Nuri, Fazlallah (Hajj Shaykh Fazlallah See also Colonialism
Islam in, 20, 21–22, 23 b. Mulla
Abbas Mazandarani
Origen, 55
See also Kano (Nigeria); Sokoto, Tehrani), 513
Osman II, 545
sultanate of See also Reform: in Iran;
Ottoman Empire, 102, 214–217
Nikah, 431, 510 Revolution: Islamic revolution
architecture of, 73
in Iran
See also Marriage banknote from, 152
Nur Movement, 512–513
Ni
mat Allah al-Jazairi, 320 carpet weaving of, 77
See also Erbakan, Necmeddin;
Ni
matollahi Sufi order. See Tasawwuf constitutional reform in, 737–739
Nursi, Said; Secularization;
Nimeiri (Numayri), Col. Ja
far, 347 conversion during, 362
Young Ottomans
Niyabat-e
Amma, 510–511 decline of, 89, 214, 458
Nursi, Bediuzzaman Said, 512, decorative arts of, 80
See also Hilli,
Allama al-; Hilli, 513, 683
Muhhaqqiq al-; Shi
a: Imami defeated by Safavids (1623), 1
See also Nur Movement; Young economy of, 216
(Twelver); Ulema; Velayat-e
Ottomans; Young Turks and ethnic (national) identity,
Faqih
Nushuz (disobedience), 431 340–341
Nizam al-Din Awliya, 636
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, 304 eunuchs of, 233
Nizam al-Din Azami, Mufti , 228,
expansion of, 102, 102, 145–146,
229, 230
O 214, 236, 237
Nizam al-Mulk (Hasan b.
Ali b. Ishaq historiography of, 308–309
al-Tusi), 83, 275, 419, 511, 527, Occasionalism, 247–248
language reform during, 697
543, 549, 665 Occultism, 51
legitimacy of, 122–123
See also Assassins; Education; Office for Consolidating Unity, 743
military technology of, 234
Madrasa Ögodei (Ögedi), 134, 212 political organization under,
Nizari (Nizari Isma
ili Muslims), OIC. See Organization of the Islamic 544–545
24–25, 511–512, 629 Conference rise of, 243
See also Aga Khan; Khojas; Shi
a: Oil (petroleum) use of Ottoman Turkish language
Isma
ili dependency on, 201 in, 60

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See also Balkans, Islam in the; Pan-Malayan Islamic Party (Partai hagiography; Biruni, al-;
Christianity and Islam; Europe, Islam Se-Malayasia, PAS), 539, 647 Ghazali, al-; Grammar and
Islam in; Expansion, of Islam; Pansuri, Hamzah, 651 lexicography; Hadith; Historical
Judaism and Islam; Kemal, Pan-Turanism, 521–522 writing; Ibn Sina; Iqbal,
Namek; Nur Movement; Nursi, See also Balkans, Islam in the; Muhammad; Libraries; Rumi,
Said; Young Ottomans Central Asia, Islam in; Ottoman Jalaluddin; Tabari, al-; Urdu
Ottoman Freedom Society, 739 Empire; Pan-Arabism; Pan- language, literature, and poetry;
Ottomanism, 738, 740 Islam Vernacular Islam
Ozbek Khan of the Golden PA (Palestinian Authority), 68, 355 Peter I (“the Great”), 392
Horde, 134 Papermaking, 123, 414 Peter the Hermit, 145
Paris Club, 200 PFLP-GC (Popular Front for the
P Parsipur, Shahrnush, 529 Liberation of Palestine-General
Padwick, Constance, 177 Partai Islam Se-Malayasia (Pan- Command), 156
Pakistan, Islamic Republic of, 517–518 Malayan Islamic Party, PAS), 647 PFLP (Popular Front for the
creation of, 39, 147, 305, 380, Party for Unity and Development Liberation of Palestine), 156
444, 552, 581, 616 (Partei Persatuan Pembangunan, Philip II, king of France, 164
education in, 206, 206 PPP), 647 Philippines
military jihad in, 27 Party of Islam (Hizb-e Islami), 490 colonization of, 645
opposition to, 177 Party of Mojahidin (Hizb al- independence of, 647–648
reform in, 581 Mojahidin), 490, 491 Islam in, 644
Sufism in, 690 Parwez, Ghulam Ahmad, 286, 668 Phillipus, M. Julius (Philip the Arab),
veneration of saints in, 724 Pasdaran (Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Roman emperor, 55
See also Awami (People’s) League; Enghelab-e Eslami), 357, 358, 402, Philo of Alexandria, 148, 385
Jinnah, Muhammad
Ali; South 522, 594
Philosophical writers, 225–226
Asia, Islam in See also Iran, Islamic Republic of;
Philosophy
Pakistan National Alliance (PNA), 375 Revolution: Islamic revolution
political, 550–551
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), 90, in Iran
371, 375, 518 and theology, 248–253
PAS (Partai Islam Se-Malayasia, Pan-
See also Ethics and social issues;
Palace of al-Qahira, 74 Malayan Islamic Party), 539, 647
Kalam; Knowledge; Science,
Palaces, Islamic, 74 Pate sultanate, 664
Islam and
Palaestina Salutaris (or Tertia), 53 Patriarchy, 22, 268, 480
Pietist writers, 225–226
Palestine Liberation Organization See also Masculinities
Pilgrimage
(PLO) Patrilineal descent, 142
Hajj, 129, 311, 327, 329, 332,
in Arab League, 68 Patriotic Alliance, 738
480, 529–533, 531, 532,
emergence of, 412 Patriotic (National) Party (al-hizb al-
567, 568
and HAMAS, 290 watani), 342
See also
Ibadat; Ritual
and intifada, 355 Patriotism, 43–44
Ziyara, 141, 312, 332, 351, 533,
peace accords signed by, 198 Paul, Saint, 28, 53, 455
recognition of Israel by, 355 562, 650, 688
Pen Club, The (Al-Rabita al- See also Ibn Hanbal; Saint;
Palestinian Authority (PA), 68, 355 Qalamiyya), 67 Tasawwuf
Palestinian Brotherhood, 290 People’s League. See Awami (People’s) See also Holy cities; Travel and
Pan-African Congress, 293 League travelers
Pan-Africanism, 426 People’s Party (Halk Firkasi), 89 Pirenne, Henri, 193–194
Pan-Arabism, 4, 147, 462, 518–519 Periplus of the Erythraean Sea Piri Reis, Muhyiddin, 129
See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal; (anon.), 54
Pir (sage), 38, 724
Arabic language; Arab League; Persatuan Islam Istri, 735
Plato, 35, 250, 252, 282, 399, 400,
Ba
th Party; Ikhwan al- Persepolis, 343
494, 695
Muslimin; Nationalism: Arab; Persian language and literature,
Pan-Islam; Pan-Turanism; PLO. See Palestine Liberation
522–529
Revolution: Modern Organization
calligraphy in, 125–126
Pan-Islam, 13, 155, 519–521 Plotinus, 250, 252, 399, 401, 695
development of, 60, 213, 241,
See also Afghani, Jamal al-Din 523, 637, 689 Pluralism
al-; Caliphate; Khilafat figural representation in, 79 legal and ethno-religious, 471,
movement; Organization of the and historiography, 307–308 533–535
Islamic Conference; Ottoman in South Asia, 643 See also
Ada; Hadith; Law;
Empire; Pan-Arabism; Pan- spread of, 62 Quran; Shari
a; Sunna
Turanism; Young Turks See also Arabic language; Arabic political, 535–536
Panjantan pak (the five pure ones), 26 literature; Biography and PNA (Pakistan National Alliance), 375

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PNF (Progressive National Popular Front for the Liberation of See also Fatwa; Law; Mufti;
Front), 156 Palestine-General Command Religious institutions
Pocock, Edward, 516 (PFLP-GC), 156 Qadiriyya, 8, 17, 22, 632, 682, 683
Poetico-Quranic koine, 58 Popular Front for the Liberation of Qadiyan (India), 30
Poetry Palestine (PFLP), 156 Qa
ida, al- (al-Qaeda), 27, 108, 146,
modern, 67 Porphyry, 695 365, 509, 559–560, 610, 674, 676,
in Muslim Balkans, 103 PPP (Pakistan People’s Party), 90, 678, 741
Persian, 523–527 371, 375, 518 See also Bin Ladin, Usama;
pre-Islamic, 57–58, 63–64 PPP (Partei Persatuan Pembangunan, Fundamentalism; Qutb, Sayyid;
status of, 63 Party for Unity and Terrorism
and Sufism, 688–689 Development), 647 Qa
im (the one who rises at the end of
types of, 64–66 Prayer time), 95
Urdu, 714–715 call to (See Adhan;
Ibadat) Qajar Empire. See Safavid and Qajar
See also Arabic literature; Persian direction of (See Qibla [direction Empires
language and literature; Urdu of prayer]) Qala-e-Kuhna mosque, 73
language, literature, and poetry See also Salat Qalandar movement, 688
Polisario (Saharan independence Preaching. See Khutba Qalawan, Mamluk sultan of Egypt,
movement), 607 Predestination (qadr), 584, 703 116, 166
Political humor, 321–322 Proclus, 695 Qalawun, 662
Political Islam, 23, 363, 463, 536–540 Progressive National Front Qalmaqs (Kalmyks, Oyrats), 135
See also Banna, Hasan al-; (PNF), 156 Qanun, 534, 544, 560–561
Fundamentalism; Ikhwan al- Property, 553–554 See also Law; Modernization,
Muslimin; Islam and Islamic See also Economy and economic political: Administrative,
law (terminology); Maududi, institutions; Waqf military, and judicial reform;
Abu l-A
la; Qutb, Sayyid; Prophet. See Muhammad Political organization; Shari
a
Revolution: Islamic revolution Prophets, 554–555, 565, 583 Qanun al-dawla, 175
in Iran; Salafiyya; Secularization; See also Islam and other religions; Qanun fi al-tibb (Qanun fi ’l-tibb; Ibn
Shari
a Muhammad; Quran Sina), 447, 560, 613
Political organization, 540–545 Protestant fundamentalism, 147 Qarakhanid dynasty, 133
See also Abbasid Empire; Ptolemy, Claudius, 54, 86–87, 612 Qarmitiyya, 312
Byzantine Empire; Caliphate; Puberty, 141 Qasidas (odes), 56–57, 63, 64, 67,
Delhi sultanate; Ghaznavid Public Enemy (rapper), 45 525, 715
sultanate; Mamluk sultanate; Pulpit. See Minbar (mimbar) Qasim, Gen.
Abd al-Karim, 595
Mogul Empire; Mongol and
Punt, land of, 54 Qasr al-Hayr, 74
Il-Khanid Empires; Ottoman
Purdah (female seclusion), 22, Qataban, kingdom of, 54
Empire; Qanun; Safavid and
555–556, 642 Qatar, independence of, 425
Qajar Empires; Sassanian
See also Gender; Harem; Veiling Qatari b. al-Fujaa, 390
Empire; Seljuk sultanate;
Timurid Empire; Umayyad Purification (tahara), of the body, Qatran, 525
Empire 110–111, 148–149 Qavami of Rayy, 527
Pythagoras, 494 Qaydu, 134
Political rituals, 600
Political thought, 282–283, 545–552 Qays b. Sa
d b.
Ubada, 36
See also Caliphate; Imamate; Iran, Q Qayyum al-asma, 95, 97
Islamic Republic of; Law; Qabbani, Nizar, 67 Qazaqs (freebooters), 135
Modernization, political: Qabila (tribe), 699 Qibla (direction of prayer), 71, 87,
Constitutionalism; Monarchy; See also Tribe 438, 450, 561
Pakistan, Islamic Republic of; Qaboos b. Sa
id, 664 See also Devotional life; Law;
Political Islam; Reform: in Arab Qabus nameh, 527 Science, Islam and
Middle East and North Africa; Qada (court judgment), 255 Qiblatyn Mosque (Medina), 314
Reform: in Iran; Shari
a; Shi
a: Qadariyya, 631, 653 Qipcaq Turkic language, 60
Imami (Twelver); Succession; Qadhdhafi (Qaddafi), Mu
mar Qit
a (Persian poetry specimens), 126
Ulema (Mu
ammar) al-, 173, 462, 557 Qiyam (Islamic values) association, 417
Polo, Marco, 85, 161, 244, 507, 511 See also Modernization, political: Qiyas (analogical reasoning), 11,
Polygamy (polygyny), 22, 479, Authoritarianism and 344–345, 408, 409–410, 534,
552–553, 711 democratization 613, 617
See also Gender; Marriage Qadi al-Baydawi, 83 Qizilbash (redheads), 217, 218
Polytheism, 55 Qadi al-Fadil, 658 Qoddus (Barforushi, Molla
Poole, Elijah. See Muhammad, Elijah Qadi (kadi, kazi), 478, 557–558 Mohammad
Ali), 96

814 Islam and the Muslim World
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Qom (Iran), 26, 561–562 Quwwat al-Islam (Delhi), 73 See also Abu Bakr;
Ali; Fitna;
See also Mashhad (Iran); Imam;
Umar;
Uthman ibn
Pilgrimage: Ziyara; Revolution: R
Affan
Islamic revolution in Iran Rabbani, Burhan al-Din, 490, 676 Rashti, Sayyid Kazim, 620
Qoqand (Khuqand), khanate of, 136 Rabi
a al-
Adawiyya, 734 Rashtriya Swayamsevak (Svayamsevak)
Q-Tip (rapper), 45 Rabi
a of Basra (Rabi
a al-
Adawiyya), Sangh (RSS), 304, 640
Queen Latifah, 45 571, 685 Rationalism, 468–469, 617
Quli Khan, Imam, 135 See also Saint; Tasawwuf Ravanipur, Moniru, 529
Quraishi, Asifa, 271 Rabiat al-Ra
y, 406 RAWA (Revolutionary Association of
Quran, 562–568 Rabin, Yitzhak, 355 the Women of Afghanistan), 510
content of, 564–568 Rabitat al-
Alam al-Islami (Muslim Rawdat al-shuhada
(The garden of the
and education, 206, 202 World League), 8, 69, 173, martyrs), 626
on gender, 265–267 444, 521 Rawi (“reciter,” “transmitter”), 57,
healing power of, 650–651 Rabwa (Pakistan), 31 63, 293
illuminated copies of, 76, 80, 125 Race and Slavery in the Middle East, 534 Rawza-khani, 574, 691
interpretation of, 279–280 Racial categories, and ethnic See also Husayn; Ta
ziya
islam in, 359–360 identity, 233 (Ta
ziyeh)
language of, 564 Rafi al-Din, 638 Ray (personal opinion), 8
as oral discourse, 563, 695–696 Rafi
al-Din, Shah, 730 Raza Library (Rampur), 416
original collection of, 279, 280, Rafi
b. Layth, 132 Razmara, Hosayn (Hajji)
Ali, 11, 255
482, 719
Rafsanjani,
Ali-Akbar Hashemi-. See
rb tribes, 58
passages addressing Christians
Hashemi-Rafsanjani,
Ali-Akbar RCC (Revolutionary Command
in, 143
Raghib al-Isfahani (died c. 1108), 226 Council), 464, 503
political thought in, 546
Rahil (bucolic poetry), 64 Reagan, Ronald, 44, 294
precursors to, 27–28
primacy of, 11 Rahman, Ataur, 90 Reconquista, of al-Andalus, 47, 65,
recitation of, 493–494 Rahman, Fazl al-, 374 145, 362
revelation of, 37, 58, 157, 279 Rahman, Fazlur, 286, 571–572, 609 The Reconstruction of Religious Thought
structure of, 563–564 See also Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid; in Islam, 457, 609
sword verse (ayat al-sayf) of, Ibn Sina; Modern thought; Wali Reconstructionalism, 249
157, 161 Allah, Shah Red Fort (Delhi), 74, 214
women in, 734 Rahman, Shaykh Mujibur Refah Partisi (Welfare Party), 224,
as written word, 563 (Mujibar), 90 460, 466, 470, 574
See also Allah; Calligraphy; Rahman, Ziaur, 91 See also Erbakan, Necmeddin;
Devotional life; Ethics and Rajae (president of Iran), 388 Modernization, political:
social issues; Human rights; RajaI, 10 Participation, political

Ibadat; Jahannam; Janna; Law; Rajavi, Mas
ud, 472 movements, and parties
Mihna; Muhammad; Pilgrimage: Rajaz (meter poetry), 64 Reform
Hajj; Prophets; Ritual Rakhi Bahini, 91 in Arab Middle East and North
Quraysh (Qureish) tribe, 37, 55, 96, Ramadan Africa, 17, 575–577
118, 272, 349, 484, 564, 655 See also
Abd al-Rahman
end of, 44
Qureishi, Asifa, 270 fasting during, 327–328, 568 Kawakibi;
Abd al-Wahhab,
Qurtubi, al-, 370 observance of, 331, 567, 599 Muhammad Ibn;
Abduh,
Qurun al-inhitat, 66 purification during, 111 Muhammad; Banna, Hasan al-;
Qusayr Amra (Jordan), bathhouse Ramadan, Tariq, 734 Ghazali, Muhammad al-;
at, 79 Ramanujan, A. K., 723 Ikhwan al-Muslimin; Qutb,
Qushayri, 685 Rashad, Ahmad, 44 Sayyid; Rida, Rashid; Salafiyya;
Qutayba b. Muslim, 132 Tajdid; Turabi, Hasan al-;
Rashid, Harun al-, 120, 132, 207, 208,
Wahhabiyya
Qutb, Muhammad, 108 259, 427, 436, 572–573
in Iran, 577–579
Qutb, Sayyid, 3, 108, 262, 327, 346, See also Abbasid Empire;
See also
Abd al-Karim Sorush;
371, 383, 452, 468, 537, 538, Caliphate
Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-;
551, 560, 568–569, 577, 631, 674, Rashid al-Din (d. 1318), 308
Bazargan, Mehdi; Khomeini,
692, 733 Rashid al-Din Sinan (d. 1193), 85 Ayatollah Ruhollah; Mojtahed-
See also Banna, Hasan al-; Ikhwan Rashid bin Salim, 445 Shabestari, Muhammad;
al-Muslimin Rashidiyya/Dandarawiyya, 29 Shari
ati,
Ali
Qutb al-Din Aibek, 660 Rashidun, end of, 36 in Muslim communities of the
Qutham b.
ABbas, 141 Rashidun (“rightly guided” caliphs), Russian Empire, 579–580
Qu
ud (quietism), 261 118, 481, 573–574, 623, 652 See also Gasprinskii, Isma
il Bay

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in South Asia, 580–582 See also Modernization, political: Ruh (spirit), 49, 227
See also Ahmad Khan, Sir Sayyid; Constitutionalism; Reform: in Rumi, Jalaluddin (Jalal al-Din Rumi,
Wali Allah, Shah Arab Middle East and North Jalal al-Din Mohammad-e Balkhi),
in Southeast Asia, 582–583 Africa; Young Turks 601, 601–602, 601
Reformasi (reformation) Revolutionary Association of the biblical models in works by, 28
movement, 583 Women of Afghanistan on jihad, 158, 434
Regionalism, Arab (iqlimiyya), 61 (RAWA), 510 life of, 601–602
Religious affiliation, and ethnic Revolutionary Command Council master of, 253, 391
identity, 232 (RCC), 464, 503 mystical poetry of, 527, 686
Revolutionary Council (Iran), 294 popularity of, 44
Religious beliefs, 583–584
Revolutionary Guards Corps. See as refugee, 666
See also Angels; Kalam
Pasdaran tomb of, 683
Religious institutions, development of, in work by Muhammad Iqbal, 356
Reza Ruzbeh, 3
584–590 works by, 602
Reza Shah (Pahlavi; Pahlevi), 205, 310,
See also Abbasid Empire; Arabic See also Persian language and
458, 504, 591, 596, 691
language;
Ibadat; Identity, literature
Muslim; Islam and Islamic See also Modernization, political:
Ruqayyah, 351, 719
Authoritarianism and
(terminology); Khirqa; Khutba; Rushdie, Salman, 238, 277, 394, 603,
Democratization
Masjid; Material culture; 603–604
Sassanian Empire; Umayyad Riba, 596–597
See also Arabic literature; Persian
Empire See also Economy and economic
language and literature; South
Renaissance Party (Hizb al-nahda, institutions
Asia, Islam in; Urdu language,
Ennahda), 273 Richard I (“the Lionheart”), king of
literature, and poetry
England, 164, 608
Renan, Ernest, 515 Russia, conquest of western Central
Rida, Rashid (Muhammad Rashid
Reproduction, modern technology of, Asia by, 136–137
Rida), 5, 7, 104, 172, 262, 286, 342,
228–229 Russian Empire, Muslim communities
551, 577, 597, 609
Republican Brothers, 590 of, 579–580
See also
Abduh, Muhammad
See also Modernity; Reform: in See also Gasprinskii, Isma
il Bay;
Riegl, Alois, 79
Arab Middle East and North Reform: in Arab Middle East
Rifai, Ken
an, 683 and North Africa; Reform: in
Africa
Rifa
iyya, 682 Iran; Reform: in South Asia
Republican People’s Party (RPP,
Rihla (book of travels), 698 Rusva, Muhammad Hadi, 716
Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), 89, 459
Ritual, 597–601 Ruzbihan Baqli, 680
Residential architecture, 75
See also Circumcision; Death;
Resurrected Nation, 253

Ibadat; Khutba; Law; Marriage;
Resurrection (barzakh), 176, 565 S
Pigrimage: Hajj
Review of Religions, The, 30 Saadawi, Nawal, 257
Ritual calendar, 331–332, 599–600
Revivalism, 467–468, 615 Saba, 526
See also Hijri calendar
Revival of the Religious Scholars Saba Banat (Fustat), 74
Rituale Romanum, 597
(Nahdlatul Ulama, NU), 499–500, Sabeans (kingdom of Sheba), 27,
Roba
iyyat (quatrain), 524 54, 58
645, 646–647
Robertson-Smith, William, 597 Sabziwari, 359
See also Southeast Asia, Islam
Rodrigo, Visigoth king, 46 Sa
d al-Din al-Taftazani, 83, 139
in; Southeast Asian culture and
Roger II, Norman king of Sicily, 129 Sadat, Anwar al-, 605
Islam
Romance literature, 526–527 abolition of Arab Socialist Union
Revolution
Roman Empire by, 4
classical Islam, 590–591
control of Arabia by, 52–53, 54 assassination of, 262, 346, 365
See also Abbasid Empire;
invasions of Arabia by, 52, 55 opposition to, 3
Assassins; Fitna; Shi
a: Early;
Romania and political modernization,
Succession; Umayyad Empire
Islamic revolution in Iran, 9–10, independence of, 102 460, 538
Muslim population of, 104 See also
Abd al-Nasser, Jamal;
106, 146, 356–358, 394, 425,
RPP (Republican People’s Party), Reform: in Arab Middle East
463, 538–539, 577–579,
89, 459 and North Africa
591–594, 592, 594, 596
See also Imamate; Iran, Islamic RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), Sa
di of Shiraz, 527
Republic of; Khomeini, 304, 640 Sadiq, Ja
far al-. See Ja
far al-Sadiq
Ayatollah Ruhollah; Majlis; Rub al-Khali (“the Empty Sadiq, Muhammad, 708
Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi; Quarter”), 52 Sadr, 605–606
Velayat-e faqih Rudaki, 139, 525 Sadr, Muhammad Baqir al-, 606
modern, 595–596 Rufus of Ephesus, 695 Sadr, Musa al-, 606

816 Islam and the Muslim World
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See also Imamate; Lebanon; See also
Abduh, Muhammad; Saudi dynasty, 610–611
Political Islam; Revolution: Ijtihad; Muhammadiyya SAVAK (Iranian Ministry of Security),
Modern (Muhammadiyah); Nationalism: 459, 592
Sadr al-Din, 642 Arab; Wahhabiyya Savushun, 529
Safavi, Navvab-e (Sayyed Mujtaba Mir Salah al-Din b. Ayyub. See Saladin Sawm (abstention), 328–329
Lauhi), 255 Salar Jung Museum Library Sayf al-Dawla, prince of Aleppo,
Safavid and Qajar Empires, 217–219 (Hyderabad, Deccan), 416 65, 211
carpet weaving of, 77 Salat (prayer), 71, 107, 160, 177–178, Sayf al-Din al-Amidi, 83, 717
conversion during, 362 327, 329–331, 330, 437, 567–568, Sayyed
Ali Muhammad. See Bab
legitimacy of, 95–96, 626 598, 667, 696 (Sayyed
Ali Muhammad)
origins of, 26 Saleh bin Allawi, 610 Sayyed Kazem Rashti, 95, 97
political organization under, 545 See also Africa, Islam in; Tariqa Sayyed Muhammad Reza, 96
rulers of, 1 Sales, Mehdi Akhavan-e, 528 Sayyid, 26, 273, 611
ta
ziya during, 691
Salih b.
Abd al-Quddus, 10 See also Sharif
use of Persian language in, 60
Salihiyya, 29 Sayyida Hurra, Sulayhid queen, 269
See also
Abbas I, shah of Iran
(Persia); Isma
il I, Shah; Majlisi, Saljuq. See Seljuk sultanate Sayyid
Ajall Shams al-Din, 191
Muhammad Baqir; Political Salman al-Farsi, 35 Sayyid
Ali II, 664
organization; Tahmasp I, Shah Samanid dynasty, 60, 132–133, 139, Sayyida Nafisa, 734
Safavid Islam, 619 542, 543 Sayyida Ruqayya, mausoleum of, 74
Safawiyya, 26, 682 Samarkand Sayyida Zaynab, 254
Safi, Louay M., 160 mausoleum of Tamerland (Gur-e tomb of, 26, 351
Safi, shah of Iran (Persia), 218 Amir) in, 222 Sayyid Bargash Bin Sa
id, 746
Safi al-Din, Shaykh, 217 tile mosaic from, 77 Sayyid Muhammad Jawnpuri, 637
Sahabi, Ezzatollah, 414 Samarqandi, al-, 370 Sayyid Sa
id bin Sultan, 445, 745
Sahabi, Yadollah, 413 Samarra (Iraq), 79, 88 Sayyid Sharif al-Jurjani, 83
Sahara, 16–17, 606–607 Sanai of Ghazna, 525, 527 Sayyid Sultan, 637
See also Globalization; Networks, Sanhuri,
Abd al-Razzaq, al-. See
Abd Sazman-e Mojahedin-e Khalq-e Iran
Muslim al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri (Organization of the Iranian
Sahel Sanjar, Seljuk sultan, 133, 665 People’s Religious Warriors), 472
description of, 20 Sanusi, Sanusi Lamido, 353 The School Principal, 529
Islam in, 16, 17 Sanusiyya, 29, 682 Science, Islam and, 611–614
Sahib b. Abbad, Buyid wazir, 3 Sanyal, Usha, 178 See also Astrology; Astronomy;
Sahl ibn
Abdallah al-Tustari, 673 Sarakhsi, 409 Education; Falsafa; Ghazali, al-;
Said,
Ali Ahmad (Adunis), 67 Sardar, Ziauddin, 353 Ibn al-
Arabi; Ibn Khaldun; Ibn
Sina; Ikhwan al-Safa; Law;
Said, Edward, 154, 515–516 Sarraj, 685
Modernity; Quran
Sa
id al-Su
ada (Cairo), 680 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 516
Scientific Society (of Aligarh). See
Sa
id b. Mansur, 286 Sassanian Empire, 55, 219, 219–221,
Aligarh Scientific Society
Sa
id Ibn al-Musayyab, 406 220, 549
SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty
Saint (wali), 108, 332, 607–608, See also Islam and other religions;
Organization), 517
649, 724 Minorities: dhimmis
Sebeos, Armenian bishop, 143
See also Biography and Satuq Bughra Khan, 133
Sebuktigin, 661
hagiography; Ibn al-
Arabi; Sa
ud, Shaykh, 387
Secular architecture, 74–75
Mi
raj; Silsila; Sunna; Tariqa; Sauda, 715
Tasawwuf; Ulema decoration of, 78–79
Saudi Arabia
Secularism, Islamic, 614–615
Saj
(rhymed poetry), 57, 64 constitutionalism in, 465, 470
See also Modernism; Modernity;
Saladin (Salah al-Din Yusuf b. al- education in, 205
Secularization
Ayyubi), 116, 121, 145, 164, 166, independence of, 425, 458
166, 184, 315, 362, 389, 608, 656, Secularization, 615–616
legal reform in, 461
657–659, 659 See also Pakistan, Islamic Republic
madrasa of, 419
See also Crusades of; Reform: in Arab Middle East
opposition to socialism in, 634
and North Africa; Reform: in
Salafiyya, 608–610 political modernization in, 460
Iran
in Africa, 22 political repression in, 463
Sufism in, 683 Self-blame (malama), 688
in Algeria, 2, 366
and da
wa, 172 ulema of, 704–705 Self-flagellation, 488, 489, 627
origin of, 7, 468, 536–537, veiling in, 723 Self-realization, 251
575–577 Wahhabi ideology in, 108, 729 Selim I, caliph, 340, 662
in Southeast Asia, 582 youth programs in, 744 Selim III, caliph, 656

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Selimiye Cami (Mosque of Selim, Shahrukh, 134, 135, 222, 436 Shi
at
Ali (
Ali’s Party), 36
Edirne), 73, 103, 235 Sha
ir (poet), 63, 279 Shibani, Muhammad, 112
Seljuk sultanate, 665–666, 666 Shakur, Tupoc, 44–45 Shihab al-Din Abu
Abdallah
architecture of, 73 Shalah, Ramadan, 365 Yaqut, 129
control by, 120 Shaltut, Mahmud, 160, 609, 618 Shihab al-Din Ahmad b.
Abd allanguages used in, 60 See also Reform: in Arab Middle Qadir, 29
political organization under, 543 East and North Africa Shirazi, Fathallah, 359
religious thought under, 139 Shamil, Shaykh, 682 Shirazi, Qutb al-Din, 359
rise of, 133, 587, 665 Shamil of Daghistan, 344 Shirk (association), 84, 143, 492, 583,
See also Ghaznavid sultanate; 630–631
Shamlu, Ahmad, 528
Nizam al-Mulk
Shams-e Tabrizi, 253, 391 See also Allah; Arabia, pre-Islamic;
Seljuq. See Seljuk sultanate Asnam; Modern thought;
Shapur I, Sassanian emperor of Persia,
Semites, Arabian origin of, 54 Political Islam; Qutb, Sayyid
55, 220
Semitic languages, 52, 54 Sha
rawi, Huda, 735 Shirkuh, 657
distribution of, 58 Shari
a (Islamic law), 23, 35, 121–122, Shi
r (periodical), 67
and ethnic identity, 232 407, 618–619 Shi
r (poetry), 64, 397
Senegal See also Law See also Poetry
Islamic architecture of, 20 Shari
ati,
Ali, 434, 472, 578, 619, Shirazi
Ali Muhammad. See Bab
Islam in, 18, 20, 21, 22 627, 741 (Sayyed
Ali Muhhammad; Shirazi
Senses, 398–399 See also Reform: in Iran
Ali Muhhammad)
Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enghelab-e Eslami Shari
at-Shangalaji, Reza-Qoli, 578, Shivaji, 213
(Revolutionary Guards Corps). See 619–620 Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, 2, 100, 101
Pasdaran See also Muhammad Reza Shah Shrines and mausoleums, 73–74, 555,
Sepehri, Sohrab, 529 Pahlevi; Reform: in Iran; Shi
a: 681–682, 683, 688, 724
Seraj al-Akhbar, 528 Imami (Twelver) Shura (consultation), 36, 318, 371, 463
Serbia, independence of, 102 Shari
atullah, Haji (Hajji), 581, Shurayh Ibn al-Harith, 406
Seri Sultan Berkat, 664 638, 643 Shu
ubiyya, 586
Severus, Claudius, 53 Sharif, 26, 619 Siba
i, Mustafa al-, 631
Seyyed
Ala al-din Husayn, shrine See also Sayyid See also Ikhwan al-Muslimin
of, 351 Sharif Husayn, 519 Sibawayh (Sibawayhi; Abu Bishr
Amr
Shabib b. Yazid al-Shaybani, 390 Sharon, Ariel, 355 ibn
Uthman), 209, 280
Shadhiliyya, 682 Shaykh al-Islam, 544, 620, 636 Siddiq Hasan Khan, Maulana, 27
Shafi
i, al- (Muhammad ibn Idris al- See also Ottoman Empire; Safavid Sidi Muhammad, 403
Shafi
i), 9, 11, 107, 148, 407, and Qajar Empires Sikandar Lodi, sultan, 73
409–410, 411, 417, 586–587, Shaykh al-ta
ifa, 700–701 Sikhism, 363
616–618, 667 Shaykhiyya, 620–621 Silsila (chain of spiritual transmission),
tomb of, 116 See also Shi
a: Early; Shi
a: Imami 140, 631–632, 680
See also Law; Madhhab (Twelver) See also Khilafat movement;
Shafi
i school, 11, 14, 139, 417, 534, Sheil, Lady, 691 Tariqa
588, 617, 686 Sher Shah, 73 Sinan ibn Thabit, 295
Shagari, Shehu, 8, 664 Sher Shah Sur (Suri), 33, 637 Sinasi, Ibahim, 738
Shah. See Monarchy Shi
a Sindh, conquest of, 635
Shah, Idries, 321 Early, 171, 453, 585, 621–624 Sira (life of the Prophet), 381
Shahab al-Din (Mu
izz al-Din See also Abbasid Empire; Shi
a: Siraj al-Din Abu Hafs
Umar Ibn al-
Muhammad), 660 Imami (Twelver); Umayyad Wardi, 129
Shahada (profession of faith), 39, 160, Empire Sira (life of the Prophet), 66, 109, 120,
263, 327, 332, 432, 678, 723 Imami (Twelver), 95, 121, 273, 143, 482
Shahid, Syed Ismail, 581 350, 351, 369, 418, 622,
Sirhindi, Shaykh Ahmad, 343, 632,
Shah Jahan (Shahjahan), 73, 74, 624–628
637, 675
and ahl al-bayt, 26
213, 637 See also Falsafa; Ibn al-
Arabi;
and Akhbariyya, 34
Shah nameh (“Book of kings”), South Asia, Islam in; Tasawwuf;
See also Taqiyya; Usuliyya
525–526, 661, 675 Wahdat al-wujud
Isma
ili, 350–351, 628–629
Shahpur I, Sassanian ruler, 428 See also Da
wa; Khojas; Nizari Sister Clara Muhammad Schools, 712
Shahrastani, 297, 298 Zaydi (Fiver), 350, 629–630 Sister Souljah, 45
Shahrazuri, Shams al-Din, 359 See also Shafi
i, al-; Shi
a: Early; Six Pens (al-aqlam al-sitta) scripts,
Shahruhr (Shahrur), Muhammad, 279, Shi
a: Imami (Twelver); Shi
a: 125, 126
319, 577 Isma
ili Skirkuh, 164

818 Islam and the Muslim World
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Slametan (kenduri), 649 Southeast Europe. See Balkans, Islam Sulami, Abu
Abd al-Rahman al-,
Slave trade, 15, 45–46, 54, 162 in the 455, 684
SNCC (Student Non-Violent Spain. See Andalus, al- Sulami,
Izz al-Din Ibn
Abd al-Salam
Coordinating Committee), 373 State Islamic Studies Institute al-, 226
Socialism, 632–634 (Indonesia), 583 Sulayman b.
Abd al-Malik, 653
See also Communism; Straight Path, 352, 354 Sulayman I. See Suleyman I (“the
Modernization, political: Student Non-Violent Coordinating Maginificent”)
Participation, political Committee (SNCC), 373 Sulayman II. See Suleyman II
movements, and parties Styles of Beyond (rapper), 45 Suleiman, Shah (r. 1666–1694), 425
Society of Iranian Calligraphers Subhan Quli Khan, 135 Suleyman I (“the Magnificent”),
(Anjuman-e Khushnvisan-e Sub-Saharan Africa, Islam in. See Ottoman sultan, 99, 102, 129, 184,
Iran), 126 Africa, Islam in 215, 387, 544
Society of the Muslim Brothers Succession, 116–123, 480–481, 484, Suleyman (Sulayman) II (r.
(Jam
iyyat al-ikhwan al- 541, 573, 584–587, 622, 651–656 1620–1666), Ottoman sultan, 80
Muslimin), 345 Suleymaniyyeh (Istanbul), 414, 416
See also Abbasid Empire; Abu
See also Ikhwan al-Muslimin Sultan. See Monarchy
Bakr; Caliphate; Islam and other
Society of the Muslim Brothers of religions; Tasawwuf;
Umar; Sultanates
Syria, 631 Umayyad Empire Ayyubid. See Ayyubid sultanate
Sokoto, sultanate of, 17, 664, 719 Sudan Delhi. See Delhi sultanate
Solayman, Safavid shah of Iran, 218 Ghaznavid. See Ghaznavid
European colonialism in,
Solomon, 51 sultanate
17–18, 23
Somalia, Islam in, 14 Mamluk. See Mamluk sultanate
Islam in, 16, 17, 23, 331, 461
Sonbol, Amira, 271 modern, 663–665
Mahdist state in, 155, 422–424
See also Caliphate; Monarchy;
Songhai (Songhay) Empire, 17, 84 Muslim Brotherhood in, 347–348
Succession
Sophronius, 314 political modernization in,
Seljuk. See Seljuk sultanate
Sorcery, 22, 294 460, 590
Sultan Husayn, Shah, 425, 473
Sorush,
Abd al-Karim. See
Abd al- revolution in, 595
Sunan Kalijaga, 649
Karim Sorush (Hassan Haj-Faraj Suez Canal Company, 4, 197
Sunna, 11, 107, 148, 285, 286–287,
Dabbagh) Suez Crisis (1956), 4
334–335, 666–669
South Africa, Islam in, 13 Sufi brotherhoods
See also Bid
a; Hadith; Law;
South America, Islam in, 45–46 opposition to, 2, 8
Modern thought; Muhammad;
South Arabian language, 58 spiritual lineage of, 26 Quran; Religious institutions
South Asia in West Africa, 21
Sunnat al-awalin (sunna of the
architecture of, 73 women in, 22
ancients), 667
Islam in, 243–244, 634–641, 639 See also Tasawwuf (Sufism)
Sunnat Allah (sunna of God), 667
reform in, 580–581 Sufi Order (in) of the West, 44, 354
Sunni. See Shi
a; Succession; Sunna
See also Hinduism and Islam; Sufism. See Tasawwuf
Supreme Council of the Youth, 742
South Asian culture and Islam Sufi Women Organization, 710
Supreme Muslim Council, 324
South Asian culture and Islam, Sufyan al-Thawri, 9, 160, 417, 571
Suqs (marketplaces), 69, 75
641–644 Sufyani, 261
Surat al-ard (Picture of the earth), 130
See also Hinduism and Islam; Suharto, 487, 583, 646, 647
Surkati, Syeikh Ahmad, 469
South Asia, Islam in; Urdu Suhl (peace process), 158
language, literature, and poetry Suwar al-aqalim (Pictures of the
Suhrawardi, al- (Shaykh Shihab ad-Din climes/climates), 130
Southeast Asia Yahya b. Amirak Suhrawardi), 249, Suwarian tradition, 18–19
Islam in, 244, 644–648, 646 252, 359, 399, 433, 626, 656–657,
reform in, 582–583 Suyuti, al-, 370, 669
686–687
See also Muhammadiyya See also Arabic language; Hadith;
See also Falsafa; Ishraqi school;
(Muhammadiyah); Nahdlatul Ijtihad; Tasawwuf
Tasawwuf
Ulama (NU); Reform: in South Swahili Islam, 20
Suhrawardi,
Umar, 264
Asia; Southeast Asian culture Swahili language, 14–15, 23, 62, 697
Suhrawardiyya, 632, 682
and Islam Syair poetry, 651
Southeast Asian culture and Islam, Suhrawardy, Husain Shaheed, 90
Syr Darya valley, 132
648–651 Sukarno, 646
Syria
See also
Ada;
Ibadat; Southeast Sukarnoputri, Megawati, 582, 735 autocratic state in, 462
Asia, Islam in Sukayna, 657 economy of, 201, 634
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization See also Ahl al-bayt; Law education in, 205
(SEATO), 517 Sukkari, Ahmad al-, 345 independence of, 425, 458

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Muslim Brotherhood in, 346–347 See also Mojahidin; Political Islam; Muhammad; Mulla Sadra;
political modernization in, 460 Qa
ida, al- Persian language and literature;
revolution in, 595 Taliqani, Ayatollah, 434 Pilgrimage: Ziyara; Rabi
a of
socialism in, 633, 634 Tamkin (submission), 431 Basra; Rumi, Jalaluddin; Shi
a:
use of Arabic language in, 61–62 Tangsir, 529 Imami (Twelver); Sufi
withdrawal from United Arab brotherhoods; Suhrawardi, al-;
Tansen, 304
Republic, 4 Tariqa; Urdu language,
Tanzania, Islam in, 14, 15, 21, 22, 664
youth programs in, 744 literature, and poetry
See also Ba
th Party Tanzil (revelation), 37
Tasvir-i efkar (Description of
Syrian Communist Party, 156 Tanzim al-Jihad (Jihad
ideas), 738
Organization), 365
Tawhid (“unity” ideology), 49, 252,
Tanzimat (Reformation), 204, 387,
T 402, 535, 575, 583, 630, 723
504, 678, 738
Tabaqat (ranks or classes), 109 Ta
wil (spiritual exegesis), 38, 672
See also Modernization, political:
Tabari, al- (Abu Ja
far Muhammad ibn Administrative, military, and Tayammum (ritual ablution with
Jarir al-Tabari), 26, 129, 185, 210, judicial reform; Ottoman sand), 8
286, 307, 370, 454, 523, 671, Empire; Young Turks Taym-Allah b. Tha
laba, 8
673, 734 Ta
ziya (Ta
ziyeh), 691
Taqiyya, 678–679
See also Historical writing; Quran See also Hosayniyya; Rawza-khani;
See also Shi
a: Imami (Twelver)
Tabatabai, Muhammad Husayn, 252 Taqiyya
Taqlid (blind imitation), 679–680,
Tabatabai, Sayyed Ziya al-Din, 596 703, 718 Temo, Ibrahim, 103
Tabi
un (Followers), 8 rejection of, 29, 155, 172, 608, Tercuman (Interpreter), 265
Tablighi Jama
at (Missionary Party), 619, 675 Terrorism, 559–560, 609,
172–173, 177, 238, 262, 304, 635, See also Ijtihad; Madhhab; Marja
691–693, 710
641, 671–672, 683, 713 al-taqlid; Muhtasib; Shi
a: See also Bin Ladin, Usama;
See also South Asia, Islam in; Imami (Twelver) Conflict and violence; HAMAS;
Traditionalism Taqrib (rapprochement), 627 Intifada; Qa
ida, al-; Taliban
Tadhkira (memorial), 109, 179 Taraqqi, Goli, 529 Textiles, 76–77, 80, 441
Tafsir (commentaries on the Quran), Tarim basin (Chinese or East See also Clothing
131, 672–674 Turkistan), 132 Thabit b. Qurrah, 695
See also Calligraphy; Law; Tariqa, 22, 29, 35, 584, 588, Tha
lab, 280
Muhammad; Quran 680–684 681
Tha
labi, 555
Taha, Mahmud Muhammad, 590 See also Dhikr; Khirqa;
Thanawi, Ihtisham al-Haqq, 374
Taha Husayn (Hussein). See Husayn, Pilgrimage: Ziyara; Tasawwuf
Taha Thanawi, Maulana Ashraf
Ali, 176
Tariq b. Ziyad, 46
Tahara (purity), 598 Thanvi, Ashraf
Ali, 683
Tarjama (biography), 109
Tahereh (Al-
Ayn, Qorrat), 96 Thaqafi, Mukhtar al-, 623, 693
Tarjuman (The interpreter), 579, 609
Tahir b. Husayn, 132 See also Muhammad al-Nafs al-
Tarzi, Mahmud, 528
Tahmasp I, Shah, 217–218, 386, Zakiyya; Shi
a: Early; Succession
Tasawwuf (Sufism), 684–690
526, 675 Theology. See Disputation;
in al-Andalus, 48
See also Safavid and Qajar Kalam; Law
caliphs of, 481
Empires Theophrastus, 54
in Central Asia, 140
Ta
if Agreement (Document of criticism of, 18 Third Reich, Muslims in, 236
National Understanding), 412 development of, 29, 684–688 Thomas Aquinas, Saint, 234, 248, 249
Tajdid (renewal), 444, 575, 675–676 dhikr in, 180 Tijaniyya, 8, 17
See also Ijtihad; Reform: in Arab ethical tradition in, 35 Tile mosaics, 77
Middle East and North Africa; and falsafa, 247 Tillich, Paul, 473
Reform: in South Asia; Taqlid modernization of, 22, 689–690 Timar system, 215–216, 544
Tajlu Khanum, 217 in North America, 44
Timbuktu, 16, 23, 694
Taj Mahal, 73, 74, 213, 376, 428 practices of, 40, 688–689
See also Africa, Islam in; Kunti,
revivalism by, 21
Takiya Dawlat (Tehran), 691 Mukhtar al-; Mali, Empire of
spread of Islam by, 17, 102,
Takwin (to bring into existence), 83 Timekeeping, 299–300
161–162
Talbi, Mohamed, 471 Timurid Empire, 221–222
in the United States, 709–710
Talbi, Mohammad, 174 See also Arabic literature; driven from Bukhara, 112
Taleqani, Ayatollah Mahmud, 413, 578 Ash
arites, Ash
aira; Basri, metal-working of, 78
Talha (Talhah), 35, 260, 621 Hasan al-; Ghazali, al-; Hallaj, rise of, 134
Taliban, 177, 375, 420, 490, al-; Ibn al-
Arabi; Ibn Sina; See also Delhi sultanate; Political
676–678, 735 Ibn Taymiyya; Jami
; Madrasa; organization

820 Islam and the Muslim World
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Index: Volume 1 pp. 1–416; Volume 2 pp. 417–747

Timur (Tamerlane), 134–135, 139, socialism in, 633 Umar Tal, 17
212, 221–222, 363, 528, 636 Turabi, Hasan al-, 347, 348, 539, 577,
Umar (
Umar ibn al-Khattab), 705
Titles, Islamic. See Sayyid; Sharif; 676, 700 on bid
a, 107
Shaykh al-Islam Turanshah, 165–166 caliphate of, 117, 223, 314–315
Tolui, 212 Turgesh confederation, 132 on Islamic calendar, 299
Tomb of the Samanids (Bukhara), 74 Turkestan, jade mines in Khotan, 78 monetary policy of, 151
Topkapi Palace, 74, 233 Turkey political organization under, 541
Toqtamysh, 222 clothing of, 149–150 succession of, 573, 667
Torsonzadeh, Mirza, 528 constitutionalism in, 465, treatment of dhimmi under,
470, 595 452, 623
Touba (Senegal), 21, 104, 694
economy of, 276 welfare policy of, 440
See also Africa, Islam in; Bamba,
education in, 205 See also Caliphate; Law;
Ahmad; Tariqa
independence of, 89, 425, Successiom
Trade
458, 505 Umayyad (Umayyid) Empire, 222–224
in Arabia, 52, 53, 54
legal code in, 431 in al-Andalus, 46, 362
and conversion, 161–162
modernization of, 459–460, architecture of, 72, 74, 118
in modern era, 195–196
462, 733 caliphs of, 118, 119, 223, 223,
in Safavid and Qajar Empires,
music in, 493 623, 652–653
1, 218
nationalism in, 103, 341–342, Christianity under, 144
routes across the Muslim world,
504–505 end of, 132
509,
Sufism in, 683, 690 monetary policy of, 151
and trading networks, 507
tobacco production in, 196 poetry of, 64–65
trans-Saharan, 16, 20, 606
Turkish language use in, 13 political organization under, 541
See also Slave trade
use of Anatolian Arabic language spread of Islam under, 242, 586
Traditionalism, 617, 694–695
in, 62 success of, 122
See also Hadith; Ibn Hanbal; Ibn See also Abbasid Empire; Arabic
veiling in, 723
Taymiyya; Mihna language; Arabic literature;
Turki, 728–729
Trajan, Roman emperor, 53 Byzantine Empire; Dome of
Turkic (Altaic) languages, and ethnic
Translation, 281, 282, 612, 695–698 the Rock; Husayn; Islam and
identity, 232
See also Arabic language; Ibn Islamic (terminology); Karbala;
Turkish Hearth (Türk Ocagi), 740
Battuta; Persian language and Kharijites, Khawarij; Marwan;
Turner, Victor, 598
literature; Quran; Science, Mu
awiya;
Umar
Islam and Tusi, Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan
Umayyid. See Mu
awiya; Umayyad
(Shaykh al-Ta
ifa), 274, 501,
Travel and travelers, 698–699 Empire
700–701
See also Biruni, al-; Ibn Battuta; Umma, 705–706
Tusi, Nasir al-Din, 35, 248, 249, 250,
Ibn Khaldun; Pilgrimage: Hajj call to, 170
401, 474, 550, 701
Tribe, 699–700 changes in meaning of, 360
See also Falsafa; Khojas
See also
Asabiyya; Bedouin; development of, 587
Twelver Shi
a. See Shi
a: Imami
Ethnicity ethnic diversity in, 21, 533
(Twelver)
Trinity, Christian doctrine of, 28 membership in, 138, 160–161,
Tripoli, County of, 163, 166 340, 381
U in South Asia, 371
True Path Party, 224, 574
UAR (United Arab Republic), 519 See also
Ibadat; Modern thought
Truth, 566

Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad, 435 Umm Kulthum (1904?–1975),
Tuareg-Berbers, 22

Ubaydullah, 135 706–707
Tudeh (Labor-Communist) Party, 156,

Ubeydullah Ibn
Utbah, 406 See also Music
476, 522, 594

Udhri (love poetry), 64–65 Umm Kulthum (daughter of Fatima),
Tughril Beg, 665
Ulema, 202–203, 547, 703–705 254, 719
Tughtil III, 665
See also Knowledge; Law; Umm Ruman, 33
Tukolor Muslim empire
(Senegambia), 289 Madrasa; Qadi (kadi, kazi); Umm
Umara, 734
Shari
a; Shi
a: Imami (Twelver); UMNO (United Malay Nationalist
Tunisia
Shi
a: Isma
ili; Succession Organization), 647
constitutionalism in, 463, 470
Ulugh Beg ibn Shahrukh, 135, Union and Progress Party, 505
divorce in, 183
222, 469 Union of Muslims (Ittifak-i
economy of, 199, 200
Fatimid dynasty in, 115
Umara b.
Aqil al-Khatafi, 97 Muslumanlar), 265
independence of, 111, 112,
Umar
Ali Saifuddin III, 664 United Arab Emirates (UAE),
425, 747
Umar Ibn
Abd al-Aziz, 406 463, 676
Marinids in, 336
Umar ibn Sayyid, 707 United Arab Republic (UAR), 4, 342,
political modernization in, 462
Umar Khan, 136 503, 519, 595, 632

Islam and the Muslim World 821
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Index: Volume 1 pp. 1–416; Volume 2 pp. 417–747

United Malay Nationalist See also Caliphate; Fitna; Khutba; Wali Allah, 607
Organization (UMNO), 647 Religious institutions; Shi
a: Wali Allah (Dihlawi; Dehlawi), Shah,
United Nations, 69, 277, 315 Early; Successiom 26, 176, 468–469, 536, 580–581,
See also International Labor Uways al-Qarani, 680 637–638, 643, 668, 675, 728, 730
Organization, UN Uzbek era, 134–135, 140 See also Deoband; South Asia,
United Nations Charter of Human Uzbekistan, use of Arabic language Islam in; Tasawwuf
Rights, 318 in, 62 Walima (wedding banquet), 42
United States Wali songo (holy men), 649, 650
embassy in Tehran, 357 V Waliullah, shah of Delhi, 343
Islam in, 42, 43, 707–714, Vahed (Unity), 95 Wang Daiyu, 688
723–724 Van Gennep, Arnold, 598 Waqf (trusts), 127, 196, 233, 290, 419,
opposition to communism by, 156 Varangians (Vikings), 195 554, 730–732
Sufism in, 709–710 See also Economy and economic
Veiling (hijab), 111, 150, 358, 711,
See also American culture and institutions; HAMAS; Law
721–722, 723
Islam; Farrakhan, Louis;
See also Clothing; Gender; Waraqa ibn Nawfal, 143, 381
Gender; Islamic Society of
Harem; Law; Purdah Wasat (middle ground), 346
North America; Malcolm X;
Muhammad, Elijah; Velayat-e faqih, 263, 538, 552, 578, Wasf (description), 64
Muhammad, Warith Deen; 593, 594, 627, 682, 722–723 Washington, D.C., Islamic
Muslim Student Association of See also Hukuma al-Islamiyya, al-; architecture in, 42
North America; Nation of Islam Shi
a: Imami (Twelver) Wasi (inheritor), 37
Universal House of Justice (Bahai Verband islamischer Wasil ibn
Ata, 10, 247
faith), 100, 101 Kulturzentren, 238 Wazifa (pension), 732

Uqba b. Nafi
al-Fihri, 402 Vernacular Islam, 723–725 See also Political organization

Urabi Pasha, 342 See also Arabic language; Persian Wazir (prime minister), 732–733
language and literature; Urdu
Urban II, pope, 145, 163 See also Abbasid Empire;
language, literature, and poetry
Urban bias, 197 Caliphate; Umayyad Empire
Via Trajana Nova, 53
Urbanization, 195, 235 Weber, Max, 128, 663, 664
Violence. See Conflict and violence;
Urdu language, literature, and poetry, Welfare. See Maslaha (public interest)
Terrorism
32, 90, 109, 213, 241, 637, Welfare Party. See Refah Partisi
Virtue (Fazilat; Fazilet) Party, 224,
714–717 715 Wellhausen, Julian, 515
460, 466
See also Pakistan, Islamic Republic West, concept of in Islam, 733–734
Visigoths, 46, 48
of; South Asia, Islam in; South See also Crusades; European
Asian cuture and Islam Visual anthropology, 178
culture and Islam; Islam and

Urwab (private area), 111 Vizier. See Wazir
other religions

Urwa Ibn al-Zubayr, 406 West Africa
Usul-e Jadid (“New Method” schools), W Islamic architecture of, 20, 73
469, 579 Wadud, Amina, 710–711 Islam in, 17–18, 20, 244
Usuliyya, 34, 549, 627, 717–718 Wadud-Muhsin, Amina, 268, 271, 471 use of Arabic language in, 62
Usuman, 386 Wahdat al-wujud (“oneness of being”), Westermarck, Edward, 178

Uthman al-Batti, 9 333, 401, 727 Whitehead, Alfred North, 250,

Uthman al-Tawil, 10 See also Falsafa; Ibn al-
Arabi; 400, 401

Uthman b.
Ali al-Zayla
i, 9 Sirhindi, Shaykh Ahmad; Witchcraft, 22
Tasawwuf

Uthman b. Bishr, amir, 6 Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 250, 251
Wahhabiyya, 27, 108, 146, 161, 344,

Uthman dan Fodio, 17, 22, 403, 537, Witu, sultanate of, 664
575, 676, 727–729, 728
664, 697, 707, 719 WLUML (Women Living Under
See also
Abd al-Wahhab,
See also Africa, Islam in; Muslim Laws), 353, 509
Muhammad Ibn
Caliphate; Kano (Nigeria) Women
Wahid, Abdurrahman, 646

Uthmani, Shabbir Ahmad, 374 biographies of, 110
Wahy (revelation), 37, 350, 667

Uthman (
Athman) ibn
Affan in East Asian culture, 192, 192
(
Uthman b. al-
Affan), 719 Wajed, Shaykh Hasina, 735
education of, 22, 25, 39, 741
caliphate of, 117, 435 Wajib al-wujud (necessary existence), public roles of, 267, 734–735
collection of Quranic verses 40, 248, 401, 729–730 rights of, 278, 353
under, 279, 280, 482 See also Falsafa; Ibn Sina in Southeast Asia, 651
criticism of, 33, 35 Wajid, Shaykh Hasina, 91 in the United States, 710–711
murder of, 35, 117, 223, 259, 435 Walaya (Institution of the Friends of See also Feminism; Gender; Law
political organization under, 541 God), 37 Women Living Under Muslim Laws
succession of, 573 Wali. See Saint (WLUML), 353, 509

822 Islam and the Muslim World
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Index: Volume 1 pp. 1–416; Volume 2 pp. 417–747

Woodworking, 80 political modernization in, Zakat (alms tax), 7, 161, 240, 327, 394,
World Assembly of Muslim 460, 462 422, 480, 553
Youth, 173 political opposition in, 463 Zand, Karim Khan, 745
World Bank, 200 revolution in, 595 Zandaqa, 429
World Community of al-Islam in the socialism in, 633
Zangi (Zengi), 164, 657
West, 710 youth programs in, 744
Zanjani, Molla Mohammad
Ali Hojjat
World Council of Churches, 173 Yohannes IV, Ethiopian emperor, 231
al-Islam, 96
World Council of Mosques, 173 Yom Kippur (Six Day) War (1967), 4,
Zanzibar, Sa
idi sultanate of, 14, 15,
460, 521
World Health Organization (WHO) 664, 745–746, 746
Collaborating Research Center, 447 Yongle, Chinese emperor, 187
See also Africa, Islam in; Mazrui
World Muslim Committee for Da
wah Yoruba, 22
(Ar., Mazru
i)
and Relief, 173 Young Ottomans, 155, 341, 737–739
Zar, 746–747
World Supreme Council for the See also Pan-Islam; Reform: in
See also African culture and Islam;
Affairs of Mosques, 8 Arab Middle East and North
Miracles
Writing. See Calligraphy Africa
Zar (spirit possession) cult, 22
Young Turks, 1, 89, 103, 341, 344,
387, 505, 595, 739–740 Zauq, 715
Y Zawahiri, Ayman, 365
See also Modernization, political:
Yadigarid dynasty, 392 Zawiyas, 389
Administrative, military, and
Yahya, Bin
Abdullah Ramiya, 737 judicial reform; Revolution: Zaydan, Jurji, 308
See also Africa, Islam in; Tariqa Modern; Young Ottomans Zayd b.
Ali, 286, 350, 625, 629
Yahya b. Bishr, 10 Youth movements, 43, 740–744 Zayd b. Thabit, 7, 719
Yahya b. Yahya, 286 See also Futuwwa; HAMAS; Zaydi (Fiver) Shi
a. See Shi
a: Zaydi
Yahya Hamid al-Din, 630 Ikhwan al-Muslimin; Khomeini, (Fiver)
Yamin, Muhammad, 309 Ayatollah Ruhollah; Muslim Zaynab bt.
Ali, 627, 691
Yan Tatsine, 435 Student Association of North
Zaynab (Sayyida Zaynam), 254
Ya
qub Bek, 136 America; Qa
ida, altomb of, 26, 351
Yaqut, 555 Yugoslavia, independence of, 103
Zaytuna (Tunis), 747
Yasavi, Khwaja Ahmad, 140 Yunus Emre, 689
See also Education; Law
Yasin, Shaykh Amad, 291 Yushij, Nima, 528
Zeroual, Liamine, 366
Yathrib. See Medina (Yathrib) Yusuf, Maulana Muhammad, 672
Zheng He, 187
Yazdgard III, 219 Yusuf Ali,
Abdullah, 744
See also Quran; Translation Zia, Khaleda, 91
Yazdi, Ebrahim, 414
Yusuf ibn Tashufin, 475 Zia ul-Haq, 31, 270, 372, 518
Yazdi, Sayyed Mohammad Kazem, 718
Yusuf of Balasahgun, 133 Zib al-Nesa Makhfi, 528
Yazdi, Ayatollah Tabatabai, 501
Ziya Barani, 660
Yazid I, Umayyad caliph, 118, 223,
260, 293, 311, 387, 435 Z Ziya Pasha (Pasa), 738
Yazid III, Umayyad caliph, 653 Zafar Shahi dynasty, 636 Ziyara. See Pilgrimage: Ziyara
Yazid b. Harun, 9 Zafrullah Khan, Sir Muhammad, Zoroastrianism, 27, 55, 143,
Yazid b. Walid, 27 30, 31 219–220, 654
Yazidis, 453 Zahida Khatun, 666 Zubayr (supporter of
Ali), 35,
Zahiri school, 410, 411, 417, 418, 668 260, 621
Yemen
civil war in, 4 Zahra, Muhammad Abu, 160 Zubd (asceticism), 109
communism in, 156 Zajjaji, 281 Zulla, 70–71
independence of, 425 Zakariyya
ibn Muhammad al- Zurara b. A
yan, 369
legal reform in, 461 Qazwini, 129 Zurti (Zuta), 8

Islam and the Muslim World 823
Abbas I, Shah
A detail from a miniature seventeenth-century
fresco from Chehel Sotun's Palace depicts
‘Abbas I (1571–1629), the fifth Safavid Shah,
who ruled Iran from 1587 until his death. He
regained lands and authority in a period when
invasion and tribal unrest had destabilized Iran.
‘Abbas I also made peace with the Ottoman
Empire and reformed Iran’s military and financial system. The Art Archive/Palace of Chihil
Soutoun Isfahan/Dagli Orti

Angels
A sixteenth-century depiction of the
angel Jibril guiding Muhammad to
heaven on Buraq (a heavenly winged
horse). This is from the Khamsa
(Five poems) of Nizami, 1539–1543,
and was made for the Safavid ruler
Tahmasp I. © Art Resource, NY
Arabia, Pre-Islam
Alabaster stele, first century C.E. from
Yemen, depicting camel drivers. The pre-
Islamic invention of the north Arabian camel
saddle around the beginning of the first millennium allowed for the control and extension of trade by the camel-breeding tribes
and their integration into sedentary society.
The Art Archive/Collection Antonovich/Dagli
Orti

Architecture
The courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, also known as the Great Mosque, built between
706 and 714 by the Umayyad dynasty, who used Byzantine mosaic artists to decorate the architectural
structures with images of plants, jewelry, and Qur’anic inscriptions. The small structure visible at the
lower left is for performing ablutions prior to prayer. © Carmen Redondo/Corbis
Cartography and Geography
The Mediterranean Sea as depicted in
an eleventh-century Arabic geographical
manuscript (Kitab al-masalik wa almamalik) of al-Istakhri. By the thirteenth century, copies of maps proliferated and circulated all over the Islamic
world. The Art Archive/National Library
Cairo/Dagli Orti

Bukhara, Khanate
and Emirate of
The arched entrance to the
Miri-Arab Madrasa, built
circa 1536, in Bukhara,
Uzbekistan. This structure is
decorated with intricate tile
mosaic set in floral and calligraphic designs. © Diego
Lezama Orezzoli/Corbis
Clothing
Turkish man and woman wearing traditional attire from the Milas region of Turkey, as shown in this 1801 French print. The
Turkish mode of dress for both men and women usually involved loose trousers and a shirt topped with various jackets, vests, and
long coats: layering was an important element of the aesthetic. Collection of Charlotte Jirousek
Clothing
A Palestinian woman in traditional Arab dress, the thawb, which is based on the tunic, a common garment in the region since the
Roman era. It is suitable for desert heat as it provides protection from the sun as well as ventilation. Cornell Costume and Textile Collection
Conflict and Violence
A mosque destroyed in the
Bosnian war (1992–1995), in the
central Bosnian village of
Ahmici. In January 2000, after
sixteen months of testimony
from 158 witnesses, U.N. judges
in the Hague, Netherlands, convicted five Bosnian Croat militiamen for participating in a killing
spree in Ahmici which left more
than one hundred Muslim men,
women, and children dead, and
every Muslim home burnt to the
ground. AP/Wide World Photos

Empires: Mongol and Il-Khanid
A page from Rashid al-Din's (d. 1318, wazir
to Ghazan Khan) Compendium of Chronicles
manuscript depicts Mongol leader Genghis
Khan and his sons. Although the Mongols
battled Islam in the early years of their rise to
power, Mongol conquests ultimately spread
Islam throughout Central Asia. © Art
Resource, NY
Empires: Safavid and Qajar
A seventeenth-century painting of
Shah Tahmasp, a long time leader of
the Safavid Empire, receiving the
Mogul Emperor Humayun. Shah
Tahmasp’s court prioritized culture;
illuminated manuscripts produced
during his reign are of the highest
quality known. © SEF/Art Resource, NY

European Culture and Islam
Aristotle depicted with students of physical science in the manuscript The Best Maxims and
Most Precious Dictums by al-Mubashshir, who composed it through 1048 and 1049. The
manuscript was translated into Spanish in 1250, although al-Mubashshir's name was
dropped, and from there into Latin, French, Provencal, and English. Until the sixteenth
century, Europe was only familiar with the Greek philosophical tradition through the extensive Arabic descriptions, translations, commentaries, and analyses of these works. The Art
Archive/Topkapi Museum Istanbul/Dagli Orti
Falsafa
This detail from a fresco by Filipino Lippi
(1457–1504) depicts Ibn Sina (980–1037), a Persian
mathematician. A major figure in Islamic thought, Ibn
Sina was heavily influenced by Aristotle, and in turn
influenced the Catholic thinker St. Thomas Aquinas,
who in his own work mentioned Ibn Sina over five
hundred times. © Scala/Art Resource, NY

Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta (1304–1368/69) of Tangier, Morocco, traveled
an estimated eighty thousand miles across three continents.
It was the longest known overland journey until the steam
engine came into existence. XNR Productions/Gale

EUROPE
ATLANTIC New Saray Aral
OCEAN Venice Astrakhan Sea ASIA
Constantinople Bukhara
Erzerum Beijing
Konya Caspian Samarqand
Granada Mardin Tabriz Sea
Tangier Tunis Aleppo
Damascus Gazna
Fez Isfahan
Jerusalem Baghdad
Marrakesh Shiraz Hangzhou
Cairo Basra Delhi
Hormuz
Quanzhou
Re

Medina Sylhet
Guangzhou
d

Cambay
Chittagong
Aydhab Mecca Daulatabad
Arabian
Sea

Timbuktu Zafar
AFRICA Sea
Aden
Calicut

Male Samudra
Mogadishu
ATLANTIC OCEAN
INDIAN OCEAN
Travels of Ibn Battuta
1325—1354 Kilwa N
1325—26 1330—32 1345—46 0 1,000 2,000 mi.
1326—27 1332—33 1346—49 0 1,000 2,000 km
1328—30 1333—45 1349—54 AUSTRALIA
Marriage
A candid photo from the wedding ceremony of a Muslim couple in Karachi, Pakistan. © Charles Lenars/Corbis

Southeast Asian Culture and Islam
Wayang, a traditional shadow play, on a wooden stage in Kota Baharu, Malaysia. In Indonesia, shadow
play puppeteers, along with other specialists such as healers, spirit mediums, shamans, and midwives,
combine ancient local religious customs with Islamic elements. © Goh Chai Hin/Corbis
Miracles
From the Fine flower of histories (Zubdat
al-Tawarikh) by Luqman (1583), a depiction of the legend of the Seven Sleepers
of Ephesus, referred to in the Qur'an
(18:9–31) as the Companions of the
Cave. The Qur'an states that the young
men, having publicly declared their
belief and faith in God, hid from
persecution in the cave where God put
them and their dog to sleep for 309
years. The Art Archive/Turkish and
Islamic Art Museum Istanbul/Dagli Orti

Mi‘raj
A 1583 Turkish painting depicts Muhammad’s vision of
Ascension or mi‘raj. In most versions of the night journey and
ascension narrative, Muhammad is asleep in Mecca, awakened
by angels, and borne to Jerusalem by the magical creature
Buraq. In Jerusalem, Muhammad prays in the Temple with
Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, before being accompanied to
heaven by the angel Gabriel (Jibril). The Art Archive/Turkish
and Islamic Art Museum Istanbul/Harper Collins Publishers
South Asia, Islam in
A late-eighteenth-century depiction of
the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan
(1592–1666). Shah Jahan ruled from
1628 to 1658 and helped push Mogul
rule as far east as Burma. The Art
Archive/Victoria and Albert Museum
London/Sally Chappell

Pakistan, Islamic Republic of
The Badshahi Mosque (1674) in Lahore, Pakistan. When the British relinquished control of the Indian subcontinent
on August 14, 1947, Pakistan (including what is now Bangladesh) achieved independence as a separate homeland for
Muslims apart from India’s Hindu majority. © Arvind Garg/Corbis
Pilgrimage: Hajj
On a rocky hill known as the
Mountain of Mercy (Jabal al-
Rahma), near the holy city of
Mecca, approximately two
million pilgrims gather at the
site of Muhammad’s last sermon fourteen centuries ago.
AP/Wide World Photos

Qur’an
Qur’an, with sura headings in Naskhi script. The Qur’an contains 114 suras or chapters, arranged by length,
thus the text as a whole does not have a clear narrative pattern. It is also divided into thirty equal parts for
reading over the course of a month. The Art Archive/Private Collection/Eileen Tweedy
Qur’an
A man in Chuinguetti, Mauritania, holding an old copy of the Qur’an. Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the divine revelations of
God, and it is therefore unalterable and untranslatable. Muslim prayers require worshippers to recite verses of the Qur’an, such as
the Fatiha (the opening sura) as well as other chapters. Muslim children learn to recite the short chapters at an early age and are
taught their meaning and context from family members and teachers. © Nik Wheeler/Corbis
Medicine
Anatomical drawing of the body showing the heart, arteries,
liver, and intestines from the 1390 Tashrih-e badan-e insan
(Anatomy of the human body) by Mansur ibn Muhammad
ibn Ilyas al-Balkhi. The Art Archive/British Library

Science, Islam and
A yellow copper astrolabe from the fourteenth
century. This medieval instrument was used to
measure the height of stars from the horizon.
The Art Archive/National Museum Damascus
Syria/Dagli Orti
Shi‘a, Early
This Safavid fresco from the seventeenth century
depicts Imam Shah Zayd (presumably Zayd b. ‘Ali)
preaching during the seventh-century schism within
Islam. © SEF/Art Resource, NY

Persian Language and Literature
A Persian manuscript dating from
1650. Though the Arabic language is
the most prestigious and commonly
used language in Islam, by the tenth
century the Persian language reemerged, after a period of disuse, as
suitable for discussion of science, arts,
and philosophy. Persian prose literature
encompasses a huge number of texts,
from serial picaresque adventures to
world histories and philosophical and
mystical treatises. The Art
Archive/Museum of Islamic Art
Cairo/Dagli Orti
Sahara
The Taghit oasis of the Sahara Desert. This
oasis exists to the west of the Grand Erg
Occidental, the second largest cluster of sand
dunes in Algeria. © Jose Fuste Raga/Corbis

Travel and Travelers
Part of a Catalan map of southern Spain and
North Africa depicting king Mansa Musi of Mali
and a Saharan merchant, by Abraham Cresques,
circa 1375. By the time of the Empire of Mali
(circa 1200–1400 C.E.), parts of Mali’s ruling class
had adopted Islam, although earlier, local religions persisted as well. The Art Archive