1.
Al-Azhar Mosque
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Al-Azhar Mosque is an Egyptian mosque in Islamic Cairo. Al-Muizz li-Din Allah of the Fatimid Caliphate commissioned its construction for the established capital city in 970. Its name is thought to allude to the Islamic prophet Muhammads daughter Fatimah. It was the first mosque established in Cairo, a city that has gained the nickname the City of a Thousand Minarets. Al-Azhar University has long regarded as the foremost institution in the Islamic world for the study of Sunni theology and sharia. Over the course of its over a millennium-long history, the mosque has been alternately neglected and these moves were reversed under the Mamluk Sultanate, under whose rule numerous expansions and renovations took place. Later rulers of Egypt showed differing degrees of deference to the mosque and provided varying levels of financial assistance. Today, al-Azhar remains an influential institution in Egyptian society that is highly revered in the Sunni Muslim world. The city of Cairo was established by Gawhar al-Ṣiqillī, a Fatimid general of Greek extraction from Sicily and he originally named it al-Mansuriyya after the prior seat of the Fatimid caliphate, al-Mansuriya in modern Tunisia. The mosque, first used in 972, may have initially been named Jāmi al-Mansuriyya and it was the Caliph al-Mu’izz li-Dīn Allāh who renamed the city al-Qāhira. The name of the mosque thus became Jāmi al-Qāhira, the first transcribed in Arabic sources, the mosque acquired its current name, al-Azhar, sometime between the caliphate of al-Mu’izz and the end of the reign of the second Fatimid caliph in Egypt, al-Aziz Billah. Azhar is the form for zahrā′, meaning splendid or most resplendent. Zahrā′ is an epithet applied to Muhammads daughter Fatimah, wife of caliph Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib and she was claimed as the ancestress of al-Mu’izz and the imams of the Fatimid dynasty, one theory is that her epithet is the source for the name al-Azhar. The theory, however, is not confirmed in any Arabic source, an alternative theory is that the mosques name is derived from the names given by the Fatimid caliphs to their palaces. Those near the mosque were collectively named al-Qusur al-Zahira by al-Aziz Billah, the palaces had been completed and named prior to the mosque changing its name from Jāmi al-Qāhira to al-Azhar. The word Jāmi is derived from the Arabic root word jamaʻa, the word is used for large congregational mosques. While in classical Arabic the name for al-Azhar remains Jāmi al-Azhar, Caliph al-Mu’izz li-Din Allāh, the fourth Ismāʿīli Imam, conquered Egypt through his general Gawhar, wresting it from the Sunni Ikhshidid dynasty. By order of the Caliph, Gawhar then oversaw the construction of the enclosure of the Fatimid Caliphate and its army
2.
Cairo
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Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, with a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers, Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 9.5 million inhabitants live in proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution, Cairos metro, one of only two in Africa, ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr, the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the citys importance for the country. In Coptic the city is known as Kahire, meaning Place of the Sun, possibly referring to the ancient city of Heliopolis, the location of the ancient city is the suburb of Ain Shams. The ancient Egyptian name for the area is thought to be Khere-Ohe, The Place of Combat, sometimes the city is informally referred to as Kayro. The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance and this fortress, known as Babylon, remained the nucleus of the Roman, and, later, the Byzantine, city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, many of Cairos oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. Following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD the conqueror Amr ibn As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt, in 750, following the overthrow of the Ummayad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar as it was laid out like a military camp, a rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qattai, to the north of Fustat and closer to the river, Al Qattai was centred around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun. In 905 the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their returned to Fustat
3.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
4.
Public university
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A public university is a university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or subnational government, as opposed to private universities. Whether a national university is considered public varies from one country to another, in Egypt, Al-Azhar University opened in 975 AD as the second oldest university in the world. In Nigeria Public Universities can be established by both the Federal Government and by State Governments, students are enrolled after completing the 8-4-4 system of education and attaining a mark of C+ or above. They are also eligible for a low interest loan from the Higher Education Loan Board and they are expected to pay back the loan after completing higher education. South Africa has 23 public tertiary institutions, either categorised as a traditional university or a comprehensive university. Almost entire national universities in Brunei are public universities and these are major universities in Brunei, University of Brunei Darussalam Brunei Technological University Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University There are 40 public universities in Bangladesh. The University Grant Commission is the body for all the public universities in Bangladesh. The universities do not deal directly with the government, but with the University Grants Commission, recently many private universities are established under the Private University Act of 1992. In mainland China, nearly all universities and research institutions are public and currently, the public universities are usually run by the provincial governments, there are also circumstances where the municipal governments administer the universities. Some public universities are national, which are administered by the central government. Private undergraduate colleges do exist, which are vocational colleges sponsored by private enterprises. The majority of universities are not entitled to award bachelors degrees. Public universities usually enjoy higher reputation domestically, eight institutions are funded by the University Grants Committee. The Academy for Performing Arts also receives funding from the government, the Open University of Hong Kong is also a public university, but it is largely self-financed. The Shue Yan University is the private institution with the status of a university. There are public and private institutes in Indonesia. The government provide public universities, institutes, high schools and academies in each province, the private educational institution usually provided by religious organizations, public organizations, and some big companies. In India, most universities and nearly all research institutions are public, There are some private undergraduate colleges, mostly engineering schools, but a majority of these are affiliated to public universities
5.
Madrasa
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Madrasa is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious. The word is variously transliterated madrasah, medresa, madrassa, madraza, medrese, in the West, the word usually refers to a specific type of religious school or college for the study of the Islamic religion, though this may not be the only subject studied. In countries like India, not all students in madrasas are Muslims, the word madrasah derives from the triconsonantal Semitic root د-ر-س D-R-S to learn, study, through the wazn مفعل, mafʻal, meaning a place where something is done. Therefore, madrasah literally means a place where learning and studying take place, for example, in the Ottoman Empire during the Early Modern Period, madaris had lower schools and specialised schools where the students became known as danişmends. The usual Arabic word for a university, however, is جامعة, the Hebrew cognate midrasha also connotes the meaning of a place of learning, the related term midrash literally refers to study or learning, but has acquired mystical and religious connotations. However, in English, the term usually refers to the specifically Islamic institutions. A regular curriculum includes courses in Arabic, tafsir, sharīʻah, hadiths, mantiq, in the Ottoman Empire, during the Early Modern Period, the study of hadiths was introduced by Süleyman I. Depending on the demands, some madaris also offer additional advanced courses in Arabic literature, English and other foreign languages, as well as science. Ottoman madaris along with religious teachings also taught styles of writing, grammary, syntax, poetry, composition, natural sciences, political sciences, people of all ages attend, and many often move on to becoming imams. The certificate of an ʻālim, for example, requires approximately twelve years of study, a good number of the ḥuffāẓ are the product of the madaris. The madaris also resemble colleges, where people take evening classes, an important function of the madaris is to admit orphans and poor children in order to provide them with education and training. Madaris may enroll female students, however, they study separately from the men, the term Islamic education means education in the light of Islam itself, which is rooted in the teachings of the Quran - holy book of Muslims. Islamic education and Muslim education are not the same, because Islamic education has epistemological integration which is founded on Tawhid - Oneness or monotheism. The first institute of education was at the estate of Hazrat Zaid bin Arkam near a hill called Safa, where Hazrat Muhammad was the teacher. After Hijrah the madrasa of Suffa was established in Madina on the east side of the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi mosque, ubada ibn as-Samit was appointed there by Hazrat Muhammad as teacher and among the students. In the curriculum of the madrasa, there were teachings of The Quran, The Hadith, faraiz, tajweed, genealogy, treatises of first aid, there were also trainings of horse-riding, art of war, handwriting and calligraphy, athletics and martial arts. The first part of madrasa based education is estimated from the first day of nabuwwat to the first portion of the Umaiya caliphate and it was founded by Fāṭimah al-Fihrī, the daughter of a wealthy merchant named Muḥammad al-Fihrī. This was later followed by the establishment of al-Azhar in 959 in Cairo, niẓām al-Mulk, who would later be murdered by the Assassins, created a system of state madaris in various ʻAbbāsid cities at the end of the 11th century
6.
Sunni Islam
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Sunni Islam is the largest group of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to Sunni tradition, Muhammad did not clearly designate a successor and this contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad intended his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed him. Political tensions between Sunnis and Shias continued with varying intensity throughout Islamic history and they have been exacerbated in recent times by ethnic conflicts, as of 2009, Sunni Muslims constituted between 87–90% of the worlds Muslim population. Sunni Islam is the worlds largest religious denomination, followed by Catholicism and its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah or ahl as-sunnah for short. In English, its doctrines and practices are sometimes called Sunnism, while adherents are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis, Sunnites, Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as orthodox Islam. The Quran, together with hadith and binding juristic consensus form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam, sunnī, also commonly referred to as Sunnīism, is a term derived from sunnah meaning habit, usual practice, custom, tradition. The Muslim use of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of the prophet Muhammad, in Arabic, this branch of Islam is referred to as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah, the people of the sunnah and the community, which is commonly shortened to ahl as-sunnah. One common mistake is to assume that Sunni Islam represents a normative Islam that emerged during the period after Muhammads death, and that Sufism and Shiism developed out of Sunni Islam. This perception is due to the reliance on highly ideological sources that have been accepted as reliable historical works. Both Sunnism and Shiaism are the end products of centuries of competition between ideologies. Both sects used each other to further cement their own identities and doctrines, the first four caliphs are known among Sunnis as the Rashidun or Rightly-Guided Ones. Sunni recognition includes the aforementioned Abu Bakr as the first, Umar who established the Islamic calendar as the second, Uthman as the third, Sunnis believe that the companions of Muhammad were the best of Muslims. Support for this view is found in the Quran, according to Sunnis. Sunnis also believe that the companions were true believers since it was the companions who were given the task of compiling the Quran, furthermore, narrations that were narrated by the companions are considered by Sunnis to be a second source of knowledge of the Muslim faith. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 and released January 2011 found that there are 1.62 billion Muslims around the world, Islam does not have a formal hierarchy or clergy. Leaders are informal, and gain influence through study to become a scholar of Islamic law, according to the Islamic Center of Columbia, South Carolina, anyone with the intelligence and the will can become an Islamic scholar. During Midday Mosque services on Fridays, the congregation will choose a person to lead the service
7.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
8.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
9.
College and university rankings
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College and university rankings are rankings of institutions in higher education ordered by various combinations of various factors. Rankings have most often conducted by magazines, newspapers, websites, governments. In addition to ranking entire institutions, organizations perform rankings of specific programs, departments, various rankings mostly evaluating on institutional output by research. Some rankings evaluate institutions within a country, while others assess institutions worldwide. The subject has produced much debate about rankings usefulness and accuracy, the expanding diversity in rating methodologies and accompanying criticisms of each indicate the lack of consensus in the field. The variety of academic rankings provide an overview and insightful overlook of different academic institutions on composite capabilities in academia. For rankings of United States universities in particular, see Rankings of universities in the United States, several organizations produce worldwide university rankings, including the following. The ranking is funded by the Chinese government and its purpose was to measure the gap between Chinese and world class universities. In the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities there are no Chinese universities in the first 100 of 500 places, ARWU rankings have been cited by The Economist magazine. It has been lauded for being consistent and transparent based on an article, the education ministers of France, Norway and Denmark traveled to China to discuss and find ways to improve their rankings. ARWU does not rely on surveys and school submissions, among other criteria, ARWU includes the number of articles published by Nature or Science and the number of Nobel Prize winners and Fields Medalists. Harvard has topped the ranking for years, one of the primary criticisms of ARWUs methodology is that it is biased towards the natural sciences and English language science journals over other subjects. This Saudi Arabia-based consulting organization has published rankings of world universities since 2012. This university ranking is owned by the French consulting company and rating agency SMBG and it ranks masters and MBA in its 9 geographical regions. G-factor ranks university and college web presence by counting the number of only from other university websites. G-factor is an indicator of the popularity or importance of each universitys website from the perspectives of other institutions. The annual U. S. News Best Global Universities rankings were produced to provide insight into how universities compare globally. The Best Global Universities rankings also provide insight into how U. S. universities – which U. S. News has been ranking separately for more than 30 years – stand globally
10.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
11.
Islamic Cairo
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Islamic Cairo is a part of central Cairo noted for its historically important mosques and other Islamic monuments. It is overlooked by the Cairo Citadel, Egypt was conquered by Arab Muslims under Amr ibn al-As in 641. Alexandria was then the capital of Egypt, however, even though the Arabs admired Alexandrias glamor and wealth, they chose to establish a new capital on the east bank of the Nile. That site would not be separated by water from Medina, then the residence of the Caliph, here, the Amr ibn al-As Mosque was built, the first mosque in Africa. Later rulers added many additional mosques and palaces in the area around Amr Mosque, Fustat was established by Amr ibn al-As following the conquest of Egypt. Al-Askar, located in what is now Old Cairo, was the capital of Egypt from 750 to 868, ahmad ibn Tulun established al-Qatai as the new capital of Egypt, and it remained the capital until 905, when the Fustat once again became the capital. After Fustat was destroyed in 1168/9 to prevent its capture by the Crusaders, the capital of Egypt moved to Cairo. It took four years for the general Jawhar al-Siqilli to build Cairo and for the Fatimid Caliph al-Muizz to leave his old capital Mahdia in Tunisia and settle in the new Fatimid capital in Egypt. After Memphis, Heliopolis, Giza and the Byzantine fortress of Babylon-in-Egypt and it was the closest central location to Arabia that was accessible to the Nile. Fustat became a center of Islam during the Umayyad period. It was where the Umayyad ruler, Marwan II, made his last stand against the Abbasids, later, during the Fatimid era, Al-Qahira was officially founded in 969 as an imperial capital just to the north of Fustat. Over the centuries, Cairo grew to other local cities such as Fustat. In 1250, the soldiers or Mamluks seized Egypt and ruled from their capital at Cairo until 1517. By the 16th century, Cairo had high-rise apartment buildings where the two floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants. The city then came under British control until Egypt was granted its independence in 1922, today, Islamic Cairo includes the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, Al-Azhar University, the oldest university in the world, the Al-Hakim Mosque, and many other famous mosques and buildings. Much of this area suffers from neglect and decay, in this. In addition, as reported in the Al-Ahram Weekly, thefts at Islamic monuments inside the Darb Al-Ahmar threaten their long-term preservation, muizz Street List of World Heritage Sites in the Arab States Cairo Fustat Media related to Islamic Cairo at Wikimedia Commons Islamic Cairo travel guide from Wikivoyage
12.
Fatimid Caliphate
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The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shia Islamic caliphate that spanned a large area of North Africa, from the Red Sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. The dynasty ruled across the Mediterranean coast of Africa and ultimately made Egypt the centre of the caliphate, at its height the caliphate included in addition to Egypt varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz. The Fatimids claimed descent from Fatima bint Muhammad, the daughter of Islamic prophet Muhammad, in 921 the Fatimids established the Tunisian city of Mahdia as their new capital. In 948 they shifted their capital to Al-Mansuriya, near Kairouan in Tunisia, in 969 they conquered Egypt and established Cairo as the capital of their caliphate, Egypt became the political, cultural, and religious centre of their empire. The ruling class belonged to the Ismaili branch of Shiism, as did the leaders of the dynasty, the existence of the caliphate marked the only time the descendants of Ali through Fatimah were united to any degree and the name Fatimid refers to Fatimah. The different term Fatimite is sometimes used to refer to the caliphates subjects, after the initial conquests, the caliphate often allowed a degree of religious tolerance towards non-Ismaili sects of Islam, as well as to Jews, Maltese Christians, and Egyptian Coptic Christians. The Fatimid caliphate was also distinguished by the role of Berbers in its initial establishment and in helping its development, especially on the military. During the late eleventh and twelfth centuries the Fatimid caliphate declined rapidly and he founded the Ayyubid dynasty and incorporated the Fatimid state into the Abbasid Caliphate. The Fatimid regime lasted until the twelfth century, though its leaders made little headway in persuading the Egyptian population. The Fatimid Caliphates religious ideology originated in an Ismaili Shia movement launched in the 9th century in Salamiyah, Syria by their eighth Imam and he claimed descent through Ismail, the seventh Ismaili Imam, from Fatimah and her husband ʻAlī ibn-Abī-Tālib, the first Shīʻa Imām. Thus his name was al-Fātimiyyūn Fatimid, the eighth to tenth Imams, remained hidden and worked for the movement against the periods times rulers. According to legend, Abdullah and his son were fulfilling a prophecy that the mahdi would come from Mesopotamia to Sijilmasa. They hid among the population of Sijilmasa, then an independent emirate, for four years under the countenance of the Midrar rulers, al-Mahdi was supported by dedicated Shiite Abu Abdullah al-Shii, and al-Shii started his preaching after he encountered a group of Muslim North African during his hajj. These men bragged about the country of the Kutama in western Ifriqiya, and the hostility of the Kutama towards, and their independence from. This triggered al-Shii to travel to the region, where he started to preach the Ismaili doctrine, the Berber peasants, who had been oppressed for decades by the corrupt Aghlabid rule, would prove themselves to be a perfect basis for sedition. Instantly, al-Shii began conquering cities in the region, first Mila, then Sétif, Kairouan, and eventually Raqqada, in 909 Al-Shii sent a large expedition force to rescue the Mahdi, conquering the Khariji state of Tahert on its way there. After gaining his freedom, Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah became the leader of the state and assumed the position of imam. The Fatimids existed during the Islamic Golden Age, the dynasty was founded in 909 by the eleventh Imam ʻAbdullāh al-Mahdī Billah
13.
Quran
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The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
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Arabic literature
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Arabic literature is the writing, both prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is Adab, which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, Arabic literature emerged in the 5th century with only fragments of the written language appearing before then. The Quran, widely regarded by people as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language, would have the greatest lasting effect on Arabic culture and its literature. Arabic literature flourished during the Islamic Golden Age, but has remained vibrant to the present day, with poets, the Quran had a significant influence on the Arab language. The language used in it is called classical Arabic, and while modern Arabic is very similar and it contains injunctions, narratives, homilies, parables, direct addresses from God, instructions and even comments on itself on how it will be received and understood. It is also, paradoxically, admired for its layers of metaphor as well as its clarity, the word Quran means recitation, and in early times the text was transmitted orally. The first attempt at a written version was during the reign of the third Rightly Guided Caliph. Although it contains elements of both prose and poetry, and therefore is closest to Saj or rhymed prose, the Quran is regarded as entirely apart from these classifications, the text is believed to be divine revelation and is seen by Muslims as being eternal or uncreated. This leads to the doctrine of ijaz or inimitability of the Quran which implies that nobody can copy the works style, say, Bring you then ten chapters like unto it, and call whomsoever you can, other than God, if you speak the truth. This doctrine of ijaz possibly had a limiting effect on Arabic literature. And as to the poets, those who go astray follow them Do you not see that they wander about bewildered in every valley and this may have exerted dominance over the pre-Islamic poets of the 6th century whose popularity may have vied with the Quran amongst the people. There were a lack of significant poets until the 8th century. One notable exception was Hassan ibn Thabit who wrote poems in praise of Muhammad and was known as the prophets poet, just as the Bible has held an important place in the literature of other languages, The Quran is important to Arabic. It is the source of ideas, allusions and quotes. Aside from the Quran the hadith or tradition of what Muhammed is supposed to have said, the entire body of these acts and words are called sunnah or way and the ones regarded as sahih or genuine of them are collected into hadith. Some of the most significant collections of hadith include those by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, the research into the life and times of Muhammad, and determining the genuine parts of the sunnah, was an important early reason for scholarship in or about the Arabic language. Muhammad also inspired the first Arabic biographies, known as al-sirah al-nabawiyyah, the earliest was by Wahb ibn Munabbih, whilst covering the life of the prophet they also told of the battles and events of early Islam and have numerous digressions on older biblical traditions. Some of the earliest work studying the Arabic language was started in the name of Islam, tradition has it that the caliph Ali, after reading a copy of Quran with errors in it, asked Abu al-Aswad al-Duali to write a work codifying Arabic grammar
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Islamic studies
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Islamic studies is the academic study of Islam and Islamic culture. Islamic studies can be seen under at least two perspectives, From a secular or neutral point of view, Islamic studies do academic research on Islam and Islamic culture independent of faith. In this respect, Islamic studies neither engage in shaping Muslim faith by making Islamic theology, from a Muslim point of view, Islamic studies also do academic research on Islam and Islamic culture, but from a faithful perspective. Historically, both perspectives had been separated by the separation of the Western and Islamic worlds. They differed in their understanding of academia and were organized either in universities or madrasas, scholars of Islamic studies are called by their special field of study, as e. g. historian, sociologist, or political scientist, or in general a scholar of Islamic studies. The professional title Islamicist is dated, scholars of Islamic studies from a faithful point of view can be historians etc. too, yet they also can be called Muslim scholar, teacher of religion, cleric, or Ulama. In a Muslim context, Islamic studies is the term for the Islamic sciences. Specialists in the discipline apply methods adapted from several fields, ranging from Biblical studies and classical philology to modern history, legal history. Scholars in the field of academic Islamic studies are often referred to as Islamicists, in fact, some of the more traditional Western universities still confer degrees in Arabic and Islamic studies under the primary title of Oriental studies. This is the case, for example, at the University of Oxford, the first attempt to understand Islam as a topic of modern scholarship was within the context of 19th-century Christian European Oriental studies. Some orientalists praised the tolerance of Islamic countries in contrast with the Christian West. In the 2nd half of the 19th century, philological and historical approaches were predominant, leading in the field were German researchers like Theodore Nöldeke s study on the history of the Quran, or Ignaz Goldziher s work on the prophetic tradition. Western orientalists and Muslim scholars alike preferred to interpret the history of Islam in a conservative way and they did not question the traditional account of the early time of Islam, of Muhammad and how the Quran was written. To understand the history of Islam provides the basis to understand all aspects of Islam. Themes of special interest are, Historiography of early Islam History of the Quran Historicity of Muhammad Early Muslim conquests Kalam is one of the sciences of Islam. In Arabic, the word means discussion and refers to the Islamic tradition of seeking theological principles through dialectic, a scholar of kalam is referred to as a mutakallim. Islamic eschatology Sufism is a tradition of Islam based on the pursuit of spiritual truth as it is gradually revealed to the heart. It might also be referred to as Islamic mysticism, while other branches of Islam generally focus on exoteric aspects of religion, Sufism is mainly focused on the direct perception of truth or God through mystic practices based on divine love
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Islamic culture
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Islamic culture is a term primarily used in secular academia to describe the cultural practices common to historically Islamic people. The early forms of Muslim culture were predominantly Arab, Islamic culture generally includes all the practices which have developed around the religion of Islam, including Quranic ones such as prayer and non-Quranic such as divisions of the world in Islam. It includes as the Baul tradition of Bengal, and facilitated the conversion of most of Bengal. There are variations in the application of Islamic beliefs in different cultures, Islamic culture is itself a contentious term. Muslims live in different countries and communities, and it can be difficult to isolate points of cultural unity among Muslims. Anthropologists and historians nevertheless study Islam as an aspect of, and influence on, the noted historian of Islam, Marshall Hodgson, noted the above difficulty of religious versus secular academic usage of the words Islamic and Muslim in his three-volume work, The Venture Of Islam. He proposed to resolve it by using these terms for purely religious phenomena. However, his distinction has not been widely adopted, early Muslim literature is in Arabic, as that was the language of Muhammads communities in Mecca and Medina. As the early history of the Muslim community was focused on establishing the religion of Islam, see the articles on Quran, Hadith, and Sirah, which formed the earliest literature of the Muslim community. With the establishment of the Umayyad empire, see The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. While having no content, this secular literature was spread by the Arabs all over their empires. By the time of the Abbasid empire, Persian had become the language of Muslim World. Much of the most famous Muslim literature was written in Persian, from Rumi in Anatolia, to Nizami in the Caucasus, to Jami in Samarkand, from the 11th century, there was a growing body of Islamic literature in the Turkic languages. However, for centuries to come the official language in Turkish-speaking areas would remain Persian, in Anatolia, with the advent of the Seljuks, the practise and usage of Persian in the region would be strongly revived. A branch of the Seljuks, the Sultanate of Rum, took Persian language, art and they adopted Persian language as the official language of the empire. The Ottomans, which can roughly be seen as their eventual successors, after a period of several centuries, Ottoman Turkish had developed towards a fully accepted language of literature, which was even able to satisfy the demands of a scientific presentation. However, the number of Persian and Arabic loanwords contained in those works increased at times up to 88%. With the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish grew in importance in both poetry and prose becoming, by the beginning of the 18th century, the language of the Empire
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Ulama
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Ulama are those recognized as scholars or authorities in the religious hierarchy of the Islamic religious studies. They are the guardians of legal and religious tradition in Islam, often they are Imams of important mosques, judges, teachers in the religious faculties of universities. Most ulama specialize in fiqh, and are considered the arbiters of law by mainstream Muslims. Ulama may also include specialists in areas such as muhaddith. Ulama is the plural of the word ‘alīm, which is derived from the word ‘ilm, sources used in the development of Sharia such as hadith, Ijma, and Qias, or for Shia ulama aql, are all the province of the ulama. At times in Muslim history the ulama have even served as a branch of government. On the other hand, the term is no longer confined to the Arabic bounds and is now taken with a broader meaning, the word ‘alīm is used twice in the Quran, but not necessarily in the same manner as its application in the Muslim community today. Syed, ‘alīm in the Quran refers to scientists, indicating the high importance afforded by the Quran to the physical sciences, the formative period of Islamic jurisprudence stretches back to the time of the early Muslim communities. In this period, jurists were more concerned with issues of authority. Progress in theory began to develop with the coming of the early Muslim jurist Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafii, laws were decided based on the Ijma of the Ummah, which was most often represented by the legal scholars. In order to qualify as a scholar, it was necessary obtain a doctorate known as the ijazat attadris wa l-ifttd from a Madrasah. In many ways, classical Islamic law functioned like a constitutional law, during the Ottoman era, the term ulama was commonly applied to scholars who had completed their madrasa training and gained an icazet. They had to be an expert in all the religious sciences, in addition, the student had to have been tested and approved by higher ranking ulama. Such assessment by experts gave the ulama legitimacy in the eyes of the public, in 14th and 15th century Ottoman Empire, there were not many madrasahs, and so the ulama traveled to countries such as Persia and Egypt to further their education. Upon the conquering of Istanbul, the sultan converted eight churches into madrasahs, Ulama worked as priest-like authorities who had the role of interpreting and enforcing Islamic shariah law. These jobs were distributed between two types of ulama, the Muftis, who interpreted Shariah law, and the Qadi, the Ottomans had a strict hierarchy of ulama, with the Sheikh ul-Islam holding the highest rank. A Sheikh ul-Islam was chosen by a royal warrant amongst the qadis of important cities, the Sheikh ul-Islam had the power to confirm new sultans, but once the sultan was affirmed, the sultan retained a higher authority than the Sheik ul-Islam. The Sheikh ul-Islam issued fatwas, which were written interpretations of the Quran that had authority over the community, the Sheikh ul-Islam represented the law of shariah and in the 16th century its importance rose which led to increased power
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Muslim
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A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims will accept anyone who has publicly pronounced Shahadah as a Muslim, the shahadah states, There is no god but the God and Muhammad is the last messenger of the God. The testimony authorized by God in the Quran that can found in Surah 3,18 states, There is no god except God, which in Arabic, is the exact testimony which God Himself utters, as well as the angels and those who possess knowledge utter. The word muslim is the active participle of the verb of which islām is a verbal noun, based on the triliteral S-L-M to be whole. A female adherent is a muslima, the plural form in Arabic is muslimūn or muslimīn, and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt. The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M, the ordinary word in English is Muslim. It is sometimes transliterated as Moslem, which is an older spelling, the word Mosalman is a common equivalent for Muslim used in Central Asia. Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans, although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God. Other obsolete terms include Muslimite and Muslimist, musulmán/Mosalmán is a synonym for Muslim and is modified from Arabic. In English it was sometimes spelled Mussulman and has become archaic in usage, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi said, A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God. Islam means making ones religion and faith Gods alone. The Quran states that men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values. Thus, in Surah 3,52 of the Quran, Jesus disciples tell him, We believe in God, and you be our witness that we are Muslims. In Muslim belief, before the Quran, God had given the Tawrat to Moses, the Zabur to David and the Injil to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, home to 12. 7% of the worlds Muslims, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. About 20% of the worlds Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa, Sizable minorities are found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its population is Morocco
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Muslim world
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The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, comprising all those who adhere to the religion of Islam, or to societies where Islam is practiced. In a modern sense, these terms refer to countries where Islam is widespread. In the modern era, most of the Muslim world came under influence or colonial domination of European powers. The nation states emerged in the post-colonial era have adopted a variety of political and economic models. As of 2015, over 1.7 billion or about 23. 4% of the population are Muslims including the 4. 4% who live as minorities. Muslim history involves the history of the Islamic faith as a religion, the history of Islam began in Arabia with the Islamic prophet Muhammads first recitations of the Quran in the 7th century in the month of Ramadan. However, Islam under the Rashidun Caliphate grew rapidly, a century after the death of last Islamic prophet Muhammad, the Islamic empire extended from Spain in the west to Indus in the east. The Islamic Golden Age coincided with the Middle Ages in the Muslim world, starting with the rise of Islam and establishment of the first Islamic state in 622. The end of the age is given as 1258 with the Mongolian Sack of Baghdad, or 1492 with the completion of the Christian Reconquista of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus. The Abbasids were influenced by the Quranic injunctions and hadiths, such as the ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr, that stressed the value of knowledge. The major Islamic capital cities of Baghdad, Cairo, and Córdoba became the intellectual centers for science, philosophy, medicine. Between the 8th and 18th centuries, the use of glaze was prevalent in Islamic art. Tin-opacified glazing was one of the earliest new technologies developed by the Islamic potters, the first Islamic opaque glazes can be found as blue-painted ware in Basra, dating to around the 8th century. Another contribution was the development of fritware, originating from 9th century Iraq, other centers for innovative ceramic pottery in the Old world included Fustat, Damascus and Tabriz. The original concept is derived from a pre-Islamic Persian prototype Hezār Afsān that relied on particular Indian elements and it reached its final form by the 14th century, the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. All Arabian fantasy tales tend to be called Arabian Nights stories when translated into English, regardless of whether they appear in The Book of One Thousand and this work has been very influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, first by Antoine Galland. Imitations were written, especially in France, various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba. A famous example of Arabic poetry and Persian poetry on romance is Layla and Majnun and it is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet, which was itself said to have been inspired by a Latin version of Layla and Majnun to an extent
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Egyptian National Library and Archives
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The Egyptian National Library and Archives in Cairo is the largest library in Egypt. The second largest are the libraries of Al-Azhar University and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the National Library, the oldest government library, houses several million volumes on a wide range of topics. It is one of the largest in the world with thousands of ancient collections and it also contains a vast variety of Arabic-language and other Eastern manuscripts. The main library is a building in Ramlet Boulaq, a district of Cairo. The Egyptian National Archives are contained in an annex beside the building and it was started in 1870 by a decree from Khedive Ismail through an initiative from Ali Pasha Mubarak, the education minister at the time. In its first decades the position of director were held by German Orientalists, most notable among them were Karl Vollers and Bernhardt Moritz. Collections include a variety of manuscripts of the Quran, written on paper and parchment, with some in the early undotted Kufic script. Of Egyptian Islamic materials, there is perhaps the collection of illuminated manuscripts of the Quran in the Mamluk text-hand. There are also collections of Arabic papyri from different sites in Egypt, the library is a mine of information on early Islamic Egypts social and cultural life. Ancient Persian and Ottoman collections are also housed, the librarys great resources in manuscripts and documents include more than 57,000 of the most valuable manuscripts in the world. The manuscript collection covers a vast number of subjects, fully documented, dated and it also houses a rare number of Arabic papyri. These are related to marriage, rent, and exchange contracts, as well as records, accounts of taxes, distribution of inheritance, the oldest papyrus group dates back to the year AH87, only 444 papyri from this collection were published. Collections formed by Ahmed Taymour Pasha, Ahmed Zaki Pasha, Ahmed Talaat Bey, Moritz, Bernhardt, Additions à la collection numismatique de la Bibliothèque Khédiviale. In, Bulletin de lInstitut Egyptien, 4e sér, nicol, Norman D. el-Nabarawy, R. & Bacharach, J. L. Catalog of the Islamic Coins, Glass Weights, Dies and Medals in the Egyptian National Library, Cairo. Library of Alexandria National Archives of Egypt Official website Dar Elkotob About the Library
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Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
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Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, and Emir of Dubai. Since his accession in 2006, after the death of his brother Sheikh Maktoum, he has undertaken reforms in the UAEs government, in 2010 he launched the UAE vision 2021 with the aim of making the UAE one of the best countries in the world by 2021. He is responsible for the growth of Dubai into a city, as well as the launch of a number of major enterprises including Emirates Airline, DP World. Many of these are held by Dubai Holding, a company with multi-diversified businesses and he also drove the construction of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. An equestrian, he is the founder of the Maktoum family-owned Godolphin racing stable and the owner of Darley, in 2012, he rode the horse Madji Du Pont 160 km to take the FEI World Endurance Championship. He is a poet in his native Arabic. His mother was Sheikha Latifa bint Hamdan al-Nahyan, daughter of Hamdan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, from the age of four, he was privately tutored in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In 1955, he began his education at Al Ahmedia School. At the age of 10, he moved to Al Shaab School, in 1966, with his cousin Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, he attended the Bell Educational Trusts English Language School in the United Kingdom. He subsequently studied at the Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot and he also travelled to Italy to train as a pilot. When the new nation of the United Arab Emirates was founded on 2 December 1971, a period of uncertainty and instability followed the Union of the United Arab Emirates, including skirmishes between tribes over property straddling new borders. On 24 January 1972, the former ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah, Saqr bin Sultan Al Qasimi led an insurrectionist coup against the ruler. Sheikh Khalid had been killed in the action, leading to the accession of his brother Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi as ruler of Sharjah. In 1973, he was involved in protracted negotiations with the hijackers of JAL404, led by Japanese Red Army member Osamu Maruouka, which landed in Dubai after being hijacked as it departed Schiphol. With more than 50,000 employees in over 100 cities around the globe, the group has real estate, logistics and other investments in the United States, the United Kingdom. The companys investment group operating units include Dubai Group and Dubai International Capital and he was also behind the establishment of government-owned low cost carrier FlyDubai. Through the 1970s, as well as his role as head of Dubai Defence Force and UAE Minister of Defence, the launch budget of the airline was $10 million and its inaugural flight took place on 25 October 1985. Sheikh Mohammed made his uncle, Ahmed bin Saeed chairman of the new company, in 1991, Sheikh Mohammed merged the Jebel Ali Port and Free Zone and Port Rashid to form the Dubai Ports Authority
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Minaret
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A minaret, from Arabic, منارة manāra, lit. lighthouse, also known as Goldaste, is a distinctive architectural structure akin to a tower and typically found adjacent to mosques. Generally a tall spire with a conical or onion-shaped crown, usually either free-standing or taller than associated support structure, the basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery. Styles vary regionally and by period, minarets provide a visual focal point and are traditionally used for the Muslim call to prayer. The purpose of minarets in traditional Eastern region architecture is to serve as a system for a building in very hot climates. That buildings of middle eastern origins have such outstanding features is architecturally intentional, however in modern times, with the invention of the modern air conditioners, the purpose of minarets has changed to traditional symbol. The minaret would be equipped with a speaker that would call people to prayers in Muslim countries. In addition to providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the call to prayer is issued five times each day, dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. In most modern mosques, the adhān is called from the musallah via microphone to a system on the minaret. Around 80 years after Muhammads death, the first known minarets appeared, minarets have been described as the gate from heaven and earth, and as the Arabic language letter aleph. The massive minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia is the oldest standing minaret and its construction began during the first third of the 8th century and was completed in 836 CE. The imposing square-plan tower consists of three sections of decreasing size reaching 31.5 meters, considered as the prototype for minarets of the western Islamic world, it served as a model for many later minarets. The tallest minaret, at 210 metres is located at the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, the tallest brick minaret is Qutub Minar located in Delhi, India. In some of the oldest mosques, such as the Great Mosque of Damascus, the basic form of minarets consists of three parts, a base, shaft, and a gallery. For the base, the ground is excavated until a foundation is reached. Gravel and other supporting materials may be used as a foundation, minarets may be conical, square, cylindrical, or polygonal. Stairs circle the shaft in a fashion, providing necessary structural support to the highly elongated shaft. The gallery is a balcony that encircles the upper sections from which the muezzin may give the call to prayer, styles and architecture can vary widely according to region and time period. Here are a few styles and the localities from which they derive, Tunisia Quadrangular, turkish 1,2,4 or 6 minarets related to the size of the mosque
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University
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A university is an institution of higher education and research which grants academic degrees in various academic disciplines. Universities typically provide undergraduate education and postgraduate education, the word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means community of teachers and scholars. Universities were created in Italy and evolved from Cathedral schools for the clergy during the High Middle Ages, the original Latin word universitas refers in general to a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members, an important idea in the definition of a university is the notion of academic freedom. The first documentary evidence of this comes from early in the life of the first university, the University of Bologna adopted an academic charter, the Constitutio Habita, in 1158 or 1155, which guaranteed the right of a traveling scholar to unhindered passage in the interests of education. Today this is claimed as the origin of academic freedom and this is now widely recognised internationally - on 18 September 1988,430 university rectors signed the Magna Charta Universitatum, marking the 900th anniversary of Bolognas foundation. The number of universities signing the Magna Charta Universitatum continues to grow, the university is generally regarded as a formal institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting. The earliest universities were developed under the aegis of the Latin Church by papal bull as studia generalia and it is possible, however, that the development of cathedral schools into universities was quite rare, with the University of Paris being an exception. Later they were founded by Kings or municipal administrations. In the early period, most new universities were founded from pre-existing schools. Many historians state that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries, the first universities in Europe with a form of corporate/guild structure were the University of Bologna, the University of Paris, and the University of Oxford. The students had all the power … and dominated the masters, princes and leaders of city governments perceived the potential benefits of having a scholarly expertise develop with the ability to address difficult problems and achieve desired ends. The emergence of humanism was essential to understanding of the possible utility of universities as well as the revival of interest in knowledge gained from ancient Greek texts. The rediscovery of Aristotles works–more than 3000 pages of it would eventually be translated–fuelled a spirit of inquiry into natural processes that had begun to emerge in the 12th century. Some scholars believe that these represented one of the most important document discoveries in Western intellectual history. Richard Dales, for instance, calls the discovery of Aristotles works a turning point in the history of Western thought and this became the primary mission of lecturers, and the expectation of students. The university culture developed differently in northern Europe than it did in the south, Latin was the language of the university, used for all texts, lectures, disputations and examinations. Professors lectured on the books of Aristotle for logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, while Hippocrates, Galen, outside of these commonalities, great differences separated north and south, primarily in subject matter
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Isma'ilism
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Ismāʿīlism is a branch of Shia Islam. Ismailis believe in the oneness of God, as well as the closing of divine revelation with Muhammad, the Ismāʿīlī and the Twelvers both accept the same initial Imams from the descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah and therefore share much of their early history. Both groups see the family of Muhammad as divinely chosen, infallible, and guided by God to lead the Islamic community, Ismaili thought is heavily influenced by neoplatonism. There are also a significant number of Ismāʿīlīs in Central Asia, Ismailism shares its beginnings with other early Shi‘i sects that emerged during the succession crisis that spread throughout the early Muslim community. From the beginning, the Shia asserted the right of Ali, cousin of Muhammad and this also included his two sons, who were the grandsons of Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah. Soon after his ascendancy, Aisha, the third of the Prophets wives, claimed along with Usmans tribe, the Ummayads, ‘Ali voted against it as he believed that situation at that time demanded a peaceful resolution of the matter. Both parties could rightfully defend their claims, but due to escalated misunderstandings, following this battle, Muawiya, the Umayyad governor of Syria, also staged a revolt under the same pretences. ‘Ali led his forces against Muawiya until the side of Muawiya held copies of the Quran against their spears, ‘Ali accepted this, and an arbitration was done which ended in his favor. A group among Alis army believed that subjecting his legitimate authority to arbitration was tantamount to apostasy and this group was known as the Khawarij and ‘Ali wished to defeat their forces before they reached the cities where they would be able to blend in with the rest of the population. While he was unable to do this, he defeated their forces in subsequent battles. Regardless of these defeats, the Kharijites survived and became a problematic group in Islamic history. The Entrusted Imam is an Imam in the full sense except that the lineage of the Imamate must continue through the Permanent Imam. However, the caliphate was soon taken over by Muawiya. Even some of Ali’s early followers regarded him as “an absolute and divinely guided leader who could demand of them the kind of loyalty that would have been expected for the Prophet. ”For example, one of Ali’s supporters who also was devoted to the Prophet said to him, “our opinion is your opinion. The early followers of ‘Ali seem to have taken his guidance as “right guidance” deriving from Divine support, in other words, ‘Ali’s guidance was seen to be the expression of God’s will and the Qur’anic message. This spiritual and absolute authority of ‘Ali was known as walayah and it was inherited by his successors, the Imams. In the first century after the Prophet, the sunnah was not specifically defined as “Sunnah of the Prophet” but was used in connection to Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, Uthman. The idea of “Hadith” or traditions ascribed to the Prophet was not mainstream nor was Hadith criticism, even the earliest legal texts by Malik b
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Fatimah
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Fatimah bint Muhammad was the youngest daughter of the Islamic Nabi Muhammad and Khadijah, therefore, one of the members of Muhammads Bayt. She was a wife of ‘Ali and mother of Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn, the 11th century dynasty ruling Egypt at the time of the Crusades, the Fatimids, claimed descent from her. For Muslims, Fatimah is an example and Fatimah is one of the most popular girls names throughout the Muslim world. Fatimah is a character in the religion of Islam and is considered a role model for all Muslim women. Although there is controversy between different sects of Islam regarding her role, she is the daughter of Muhammad and is loved and venerated by all Muslims. Fatimah was born in Mecca to Khadija, the first of Muhammads wives. Twelver Shia sources, however, state that she was either two or five years after the first Quranic revelations, but that timeline would imply her mother was over fifty at the time of her birth. Fatimah had three sisters named Zainab, Umm Kulthum, and Ruqayyah and two brothers named Tayyab and Qasim respectively, Iranians celebrate Fatima Zahra’s birth anniversary which is also designated as Mothers Day in the country. Fatimah is given titles by Muslims to show their admiration of her moral and physical characteristics. The most used title is al-Zahra, meaning the shining one and she was also known as al-Batul as she spent much of her time in prayer, reciting the Quran and in other acts of worship. Besides, amongst 125 famous veneration titles, she has also honored with the title of Umm-ul-Aaima. Umm Abeeha Umm al-Hasanayn Umm al-Hasan Umm al-Husayn Umm-ul-Aaima, following the birth of Fatimah, she was personally nursed, especially she was brought up by her father, contrary to local customs where the newborn were sent to wet nurses in surrounding villages. She spent her early youth under the care of her parents in Mecca in the shadow of the tribulations suffered by her father at the hands of the Quraysh. One time, while Muhammad was performing the salat in the Kaaba, Amr ibn Hishām, Fatimah, upon hearing the news, rushed to her father and wiped away the filth while scolding the men. Following the death of her mother, Fatimah was overcome by sorrow and she was consoled by her father, who informed her that he had received word from angel Gabriel that God had built for her a palace in paradise. Many of Muhammads companions asked for Fatimahs hand in marriage, including Abu Bakr, Muhammad turned them all down, saying that he was awaiting a sign of her destiny. Ali, Muhammads cousin, also had a desire to marry Fatimah, when he went to see Muhammad, he could not vocalise his intention but remained silent. Muhammad understood the reason for his being there and prompted Ali to confirm that he had come to seek Fatimah in marriage and he suggested that Ali had a shield, which if sold, would provide sufficient money to pay the bridal gift
26.
Muhammad
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Muhammad is the prophet of Islam. From a secular historical perspective he was a religious, political, from an Islamic perspective, he was Gods Messenger sent to confirm the essential teachings of monotheism preached previously by Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is viewed as the prophet of God in all branches of Islam. Muhammad united Arabia into a single Muslim polity and ensured that his teachings, practices, born approximately 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, Muhammad was orphaned at an early age, he was raised under the care of his paternal uncle Abu Talib. Muhammad gained few early followers, and met hostility from some Meccan tribes, to escape persecution, Muhammad sent some followers to Abyssinia before he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, in Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. In December 629, after eight years of intermittent conflict with Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts, the attack went largely uncontested and Muhammad seized the city with little bloodshed. In 632, a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage, he fell ill, before his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam. The revelations, which Muhammad reported receiving until his death, form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the Word of God and around which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, Muhammads teachings and practices, found in the Hadith and sira literature, are upheld by Muslims. The name Muhammad means praiseworthy and appears four times in the Quran, Muhammad is sometimes addressed by designations deriving from his state at the time of the address, thus he is referred to as the enwrapped in Quran 73,1 and the shrouded in Quran 74,1. In Sura Al-Ahzab 33,40 God singles out Muhammad as the Seal of the Prophets, the Quran also refers to Muhammad as Aḥmad more praiseworthy. The name Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim, begins with the kunya Abū, the Quran is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe it represents the words of God revealed by the archangel Gabriel to Muhammad, the Quran, however, provides minimal assistance for Muhammads chronological biography, most Quranic verses do not provide significant historical context. An important source may be found in the works by writers of the 2nd. These include the traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad, which additional information about Muhammads life. The earliest surviving written sira is Ibn Ishaqs Life of Gods Messenger written c.767 CE, although the work was lost, this sira was used verbatim at great length by Ibn Hisham and Al-Tabari. Another early history source is the history of Muhammads campaigns by al-Waqidi, many scholars accept the earliest biographies as accurate, though their accuracy is unascertainable
27.
Ali
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‘Ali ibn Abi Talib was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic Nabi Muhammad, ruling over the Caliphate from 656 to 661 ACE, and was Imam of Shi‘ite from 632 to 661 ACE. ‘Ali was the first young male who accepted Islam, after migrating to Medina, he married Muhammads daughter Fatimah. Ali took part in the early caravan raids from Mecca and later in almost all the battles fought by the nascent Muslim community and he was appointed caliph by Muhammads Companions in 656, after Caliph Uthman ibn Affan was assassinated. ‘Alis reign saw wars and in 661, he was attacked and assassinated by a Kharijite while praying in the Great Mosque of Kufa. ‘Ali is important to various Sunni and Shi‘ite denominations politically, legislatively and spiritually, while Sunnis consider Ali the fourth and final of the Rashidun caliphs, Shi‘ites regard ‘Ali as the first Imam after Muhammad due to their interpretation of the events at Ghadir Khumm. Shias also believe that ‘Ali and the other Shi‘ite Imams are the successors to Muhammad. This disagreement split the Ummah into the Sunni and Shia branches, ‘Alis father, Abu Talib, was the custodian of the Kabah and a sheikh of the Banu Hashim, an important branch of the powerful Quraysh tribe. He was also an uncle of Muhammad, Alis mother, Fatima bint Asad, also belonged to Banu Hashim, making Ali a descendant of Ismail, the son of Ibrahim. Many sources, especially Shii ones, attest that Ali was born inside the Kaaba in the city of Mecca, according to a tradition, Muhammad was the first person whom Ali saw as he took the newborn in his hands. Muhammad named him Ali, meaning the exalted one, Muhammad had a close relationship with Alis parents. When Muhammad was orphaned and later lost his grandfather Abdul Muttalib, Ali was born two or three years after Muhammad married Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. When Ali was five or six years old, a famine occurred in and around Mecca, affecting the economic conditions of Alis father, Muhammad took Ali into his home to raise him. The second period of life began in 610 when he declared Islam at the age of 10. When Muhammad reported that he had received a revelation, Ali, then only about ten years old, believed him. According to Ibn Ishaq and some authorities, Ali was the first male to embrace Islam. Tabari adds other traditions making the claim of being the first Muslim in relation to Zayd ibn Harithah or Abu Bakr. Some historians and scholars believe Alis conversion is not worthy enough to him the first male Muslim because he was a child at the time. Hence the Shia say of Ali that his face is honoured, the Sunnis also use the honorific Karam Allahu Wajhahu, which means Gods Favour upon his Face
28.
Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah
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Abu Tamim Maad al-Muizz li-Dinillah, also spelled as al-Moezz, was the fourth Fatimid Caliph and 14th Ismaili imam, and reigned from 953 to 975. It was during his caliphate that the center of power of the Fatimid dynasty was moved from Ifriqiya to the newly conquered Egypt, fatimids founded the city of al-Qāhiratu the Victorious in 969 as the new capital of the Fāṭimid caliphate in Egypt. At the same time, Fatimid raids on Italy enabled naval superiority in the Western Mediterranean to be affirmed, at the expense of Byzantium, even capturing Sicily for a period of time. The way to Egypt was then clear for the Fāṭimids, the more so given the state of crisis that the incumbent Ikhshidid dynasty found itself in, the country fell to Jawhar in 969 without any great resistance. In Africa, the Zirids were installed as regents, in Egypt, several attacks by the Carmathians had to be fought off before the restructuring of state finances under Yaqub ibn Killis could be embarked upon. Al-Muʻizz was succeeded by his son Al-Aziz, al-Muʻizz was renowned for his tolerance of other religions, and was popular among his Jewish and Christian subjects. He is also credited for having commissioned the invention of the first fountain pen, in 953, al-Muizz demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen which held ink in a reservoir. A person can fill it with ink and write whatever he likes, the writer can put it in his sleeve or anywhere he wishes and it will not stain nor will any drop of ink leak out of it. The ink will flow only when there is an intention to write and we are unaware of anyone previously ever constructing and an indication of ‘penetrating wisdom’ to whoever contemplates it and realises its exact significance and purpose’. I exclaimed, ‘Is this possible. ’ He replied, ‘It is possible if God so wills’, Fatimid Literature rose to a certain height of prominence in the period of Al Muizz with the emergence of skilled poets like Ibn Hani al Andalusi and Ali al Tunusi. Ibn Hani was often compared to Al Mutanabbi and hailed as the Mutanabbi of the West, Coptic Christians were allowed a degree of freedom under al-Muizz. Copts were among those appointed to the highest offices of the empire and were allowed to practice their religion. Under Al-Muizz, the viceroy of Syria was Quzman ibn-Nima, a Copt who remained a Christian, the Nayrouz festival, the celebration of the Coptic New Year, was permitted though prohibitions on some of the activities, such as fire illumination and water splashing, were instituted. The relationship between al-Muizz and the Copts of Egypt has been the subject of a number of legends written later by Coptic Christians, according to Coptic sources, Pope Abraham of Alexandria ordered the Coptic community to keep vigil and to pray for three days and nights. On the third night, Pope Abraham had a dream in which Mary directed him to search for Simon the Tanner, the legend continues that with the prayers of the Coptic community, led by the Pope and Simon, the Mokattam mountain moved. This story is recounted in the book History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, according to this legend al-Muizz abdicated the throne in favor of his son, and spent the rest of his life in a monastery. This story is rejected by influential Muslim historians such as Ahmad Zaki Pasha, List of rulers of Egypt List of Shia Muslims Jad Hatem, Le Traité christologique du Calife al-Mu‘izz, le druzisme et le nusayrisme, Paris, Éd. du Cygne,2013
29.
Al-Aziz Billah
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Abu Mansur Nizar al-Aziz Billah, commonly known as al-Aziz was the fifth Caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate. Since Abdallah, the heir to the throne, had died before his father Al-Muizz li-Din Allah, under Al-Aziz, the Fatimid Empire stretched as far as Palestine and Syria. Mecca and Medina also acknowledged the suzerainty of the Fatimids, the reign of Al-Aziz was primarily significant for the strengthening of Fatimid power in Egypt and Syria, which had then only very recently been conquered. In 975 al-Aziz took control of Baniyas in an attempt to subdue the anti-Fatimid agitation of the Sunni Mahammad b. Ahmad al-Nablusi, the bedouin Tayy tribe under Mufarrij ibn Daghfal ibn al-Jarrah was defeated in Palestine 982 and finally subjugated at Damascus 983. Towards the end of his reign Al-Aziz sought to extend his power to northern Syria, the fact that they were under the suzerainty of the Byzantine Empire resulted in the outbreak of war with this great power, a conflict which would not be resolved until the reign of al-Hakim. Another notable development during al-Azizs reign was the introduction of foreign slave armies, when the Berber troops from the Maghreb continued to be successful in the wars against the Carmathians in Syria, Al-Aziz began setting up units composed of Turkish slave soldiers, or Mamelukes. Through the expansion of the bureaucracy the foundations were laid for the power of the succeeding Caliphs. His appointment of a Jewish governor over Syria/Palestine, however, led to grumbling by his Muslim subjects, as a result, Al-Aziz ordered his Christian and Jewish officials to employ more Muslims in their offices. The Egyptian economy was also nurtured, and tax revenue thereby increased, through the expansion of streets and canals, the general economic well-being was also apparent in an elaborate building programme. The reign of Al-Aziz was also culturally significant and his grand Vizir Yaqub ibn Killis founded the al-Azhar University in Cairo which went on to become the most important centre of learning in the Islamic world. Likewise a library with 200,000 volumes was built in Cairo, according to Professor Samy S. Swayd Fatimid missionaries made their Dawah in China during the reign of Al-Aziz. Al-Aziz died on 13 October 996 and his son Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah succeeded him as Caliph. Details of all Ismaili imams are available in List of Ismaili Imams
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Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
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Abū ʿAlī Manṣūr, better known by his regnal title al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh, was the sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili imam. Histories of al-Hakim can prove controversial, as views of his life. Born in 985 CE, Abu Ali Mansur was the first Fatimid ruler to have born in Egypt. Al-Ḥākim had blue eyes flecked with reddish gold, Al-Ḥākim was born on Thursday,3 Rābi‘u l-Awwal in 985. His father, Caliph Abū Mansūr al-‘Azīz bil-Lāh, had two consorts, one was an umm al-walad who is only known by the title as-Sayyidah al-‘Azīziyyah or al-‘Azīzah. She was a Melkite Christian whose two brothers were appointed patriarchs of the Melkite Church by Caliph al-‘Azīz, different sources say either one of her brothers or her father was sent by al-‘Azīz as an ambassador to Sicily. Al-‘Azīzah is considered to be the mother of Sitt al-Mulk, one of the most famous women in Islamic history, some, such as the Crusader chronicler William of Tyre, claimed that al-‘Azīzah was also the mother of Caliph al-Ḥākim, though most historians dismiss this. The sage wrote the entire Quran in the surface of a bowl. When al-Ḥākim recovered, she demanded the release of the sage in gratitude and her request was granted and the sage and his associates were freed from prison. Druze sources claim that al-Ḥākims mother was the daughter of ‘Abdu l-Lāh, one of al-Mu‘īzz li Dīn al-Lāhs sons, historians such as Delia Cortese are critical of this claim, t is more likely that this woman was in fact a wife of al-Hakim, rather than his mother. In 996, al-Ḥākims father Caliph al-‘Azīz began a trip to visit Syria, the Caliph fell ill at the beginning of the trip at Bilbeis and lay in sickbed for several days. He suffered from stone with pains in the bowels, when he felt that his end was nearing he charged Qadi Muhammad ibn an-Nu‘man and General Abū Muhammad al-Hasan ibn ‘Ammar to take care of al-Ḥākim, who was then only eleven. He then spoke to his son, Al-Ḥākim later recalled the event, I found him with nothing on his body but rags and bandages. I kissed him, and he pressed me to his bosom, exclaiming, How I grieve for thee, beloved of my heart and he then said, Go, my master, and play, for I am well. I obeyed and began to amuse myself with such as are usual with boys. Barjawan then hastened to me, and seeing me on the top of a tree, exclaimed, Come down, my boy, may God protect you. When I descended he placed on my head the turban adorned with jewels, kissed the ground before me and he then led me out in that attire and showed me to all the people, who kissed the ground before me and saluted me with the title of Khalif. On the following day, he and his new court proceeded from Bilbays to Cairo, behind the camel bearing his fathers body and they arrived shortly before evening prayer and his father was buried the next evening next to the tomb of his predecessor al-Mu‘īzz
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Al-Mustansir Billah
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Abū Tamīm Ma‘ad al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh was the eighth caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate from 1036 until 1094. He was the longest reigning Muslim ruler and he was born in Cairo on 16th Jumada II,420 AH and at the age of only eight months was declared to succeed his father. His name was Mad Abu Tamim, surnamed al-Mustansir bil-Lah and he ascended to the Fatimid Caliphate throne on 15th Shaban, 427/June 13,1036 at the age of 6. During the early years of his Caliphate, the affairs were administered by his mother. His period of Caliphate lasted for 60 years, the longest of all the caliphs, however, Fatimid power was confined to Egypt due to conquests of Seljuks in Levant and Yemen and Normans in Sicily and Malta. He has constructed a special qibla at one of a pillar in the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, at the qibla top his name is clearly engraved along with Shahada recited by public in Fatimid era specifically the phrase Ali-un-Vali-ul-lah. Meanwhile, in 454/1062 and again in 459/1067, the struggle between the Turkish and Sudanese soldiery deteriorated into open warfare, ending in a victory for the Turks. During this same period, Berber nomadic tribes from lower Egypt deliberately aggravated the distress by ravaging the countryside, destroying the embankments, as long as the calamity lasted, the condition of the country continued to decline. The protracted famine was followed inevitably by plague, whole districts were absolutely denuded of population, at length, the Turks began fighting amongst themselves. Nasir al-Dawla became so overbearing and tyrannical in his conduct that he provoked even his own followers, unfortunately, this left the city in a worse condition than ever, for it was now at the mercy of the various Turkish factions, who behaved no better than brigands. Conditions in Egypt continued to deteriorate, and unabated violence raged in the streets, list of rulers of Egypt Juyushi Mosque
32.
Ramadan
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Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad according to Islamic belief. This annual observance is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, the month lasts 29–30 days based on the visual sightings of the crescent moon, according to numerous biographical accounts compiled in the hadiths. The word Ramadan comes from the Arabic root ramiḍa or ar-ramaḍ, fasting is fardh for adult Muslims, except those who are suffering from an illness, travelling, are elderly, pregnant, breastfeeding, diabetic or going through menstrual bleeding. Fasting the month of Ramadan was made obligatory during the month of Shaban, while fasting from dawn until sunset, Muslims refrain from consuming food, drinking liquids, smoking, and engaging in sexual relations. Muslims are also instructed to refrain from behavior that may negate the reward of fasting, such as false speech. Food and drinks are served daily, before dawn and after sunset, spiritual rewards for fasting are also believed to be multiplied within the month of Ramadan. Fasting for Muslims during Ramadan typically includes the offering of salat. Chapter 2, Verse 185, of the Quran states, The month of Ramadan is that in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the criterion. And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, a number of other days. Allah desires for you ease, He desires not hardship for you, and that you should complete the period, and that you should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that perhaps you may be thankful. It is believed that the Quran was first revealed to Muhammad during the month of Ramadan which has been referred to as the best of times, the first revelation was sent down on Laylat al-Qadr which is one of the five odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan. According to hadith, all holy scriptures were sent down during Ramadan, the tablets of Ibrahim, the Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel and the Quran were sent down on 1st, 6th, 12th, 13th and 24th Ramadan respectively. According to the Quran, fasting was also obligatory for prior nations, God proclaimed to Muhammad that fasting for His sake was not a new innovation in monotheism, but rather an obligation practiced by those truly devoted to the oneness of God. The pagans of Mecca also fasted, but only on tenth day of Muharram to expiate sins, the ruling to observe fasting during Ramadan was sent down 18 months after Hijra, during the month of Shaban in the second year of Hijra in 624 CE. According to Philip Jenkins, Ramadan comes from the strict Lenten discipline of the Syrian churches, however, this suggestion is based on the orientalist idea that the Quran itself has Syrian origins, which was refuted by Muslim academics such as M. Al-Azami. The beginning and end of Ramadan are determined by the lunar Islamic calendar, hilāl is typically a day after the astronomical new moon. Since the new moon marks the beginning of the new month, however, to many Muslims, this is not in accordance with authenticated Hadiths stating that visual confirmation per region is recommended. The consistent variations of a day have existed since the time of Muhammad, Laylat al-Qadr, which in Arabic means the night of power or the night of decree, is considered the holiest night of the year
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Sharia
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Sharia, Sharia law, or Islamic law is the religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran. In Arabic, the term refers to Gods divine law and is contrasted with fiqh. The manner of its application in modern times has been a subject of dispute between Muslim traditionalists and reformists, traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources of sharia, the Quran, sunnah, qiyas, and ijma. Traditional jurisprudence distinguishes two branches of law, ʿibādāt and muʿāmalāt, which together comprise a wide range of topics. Its rulings assign actions to one of five categories, mandatory, recommended, permitted, abhorred, thus, some areas of sharia overlap with the Western notion of law while others correspond more broadly to living life in accordance with God’s will. Historically, sharia was interpreted by independent jurists, ottoman rulers achieved additional control over the legal system by promulgating their own legal code and turning muftis into state employees. Non-Muslim communities had legal autonomy, except in cases of interconfessional disputes, in the modern era, sharia-based criminal laws were widely replaced by statutes inspired by European models. Judicial procedures and legal education in the Muslim world were brought in line with European practice. While the constitutions of most Muslim-majority states contain references to sharia, legislative bodies which codified these laws sought to modernize them without abandoning their foundations in traditional jurisprudence. The Islamic revival of the late 20th century brought along calls by Islamist movements for full implementation of sharia, including reinstatement of hudud corporal punishments, in some cases, this resulted in traditionalist legal reform, while other countries witnessed juridical reinterpretation of sharia advocated by progressive reformers. The role of sharia has become a contested topic around the world, attempts to impose it on non-Muslims have caused intercommunal violence in Nigeria and may have contributed to the breakup of Sudan. Some Muslim-minority countries in Asia, Africa and Europe recognize the use of sharia-based family laws for their Muslim populations, there are ongoing debates as to whether sharia is compatible with secular forms of government, human rights, freedom of thought, and womens rights. The word sharīʿah is used by Arabic-speaking peoples of the Middle East to designate a prophetic religion in its totality, for example, sharīʿat Mūsā means law or religion of Moses and sharīʿatu-nā can mean our religion in reference to any monotheistic faith. Within Islamic discourse, šarīʿah refers to regulations governing the lives of Muslims. For many Muslims, the word means simply justice, and they will consider any law that promotes justice, Muslims of different perspectives agree in their respect for the abstract notion of sharia, but they differ in how they understand the practical implications of the term. Classical sharia, the body of rules and principles elaborated by Islamic jurists during the first centuries of Islam, historical sharia, the body of rules and interpretations developed throughout Islamic history, ranging from personal beliefs to state legislation and varying across an ideological spectrum. Classical sharia has often served as a point of reference for these variants, Contemporary sharia, the full spectrum of rules and interpretations that are developed and practiced at present
34.
Fiqh
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Figuratively, fiqh means, knowledge about Islamic legal rulings from their sources. He must look deep down into a matter and not suffice himself with just the apparent meaning, a person who only knows the appearance of a matter is not a faqīh. Conceptually, the attempt to understand divine law. Whereas shariah is immutable and infallible, fiqh is fallible and changeable, fiqh is distinguished from usul al-fiqh, the methods of legal interpretation and analysis. Fiqh is the product of application of usul al-fiqh, the product of human efforts at understanding the divine will. A hukm is a ruling in a given case. Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation in Islam, in the modern era, there are four prominent schools of fiqh within Sunni practice, plus two within Shia practice. A person trained in fiqh is known as a Faqih, the word fiqh is an Arabic term meaning deep understanding or full comprehension. Technically it refers to the body of Islamic law extracted from detailed Islamic sources and this definition is consistent amongst the jurists. In Modern Standard Arabic, fiqh has come to mean jurisprudence in general and it is separated in Sunni, shia and others. Qiyas, i. e. analogy which is deployed if Ijma or historic collective reasoning on the issue is not available. For example, the Quran states one needs to engage in prayers and fast during the month of Ramadan. Details about these issues can be found in the traditions of Muhammad, so Quran, some topics are without precedent in Islams early period. In those cases, Muslim jurists try to arrive at conclusions by other means, Sunni jurists use historical consensus of the community, a majority in the modern era also use analogy and weigh the harms and benefits of new topics, and a plurality utilizes juristic preference. The conclusions arrived at with the aid of additional tools constitute a wider array of laws than the Sharia consists of. Thus, in contrast to the sharia, fiqh is not regarded as sacred and this division of interpretation in more detailed issues has resulted in different schools of thought. This wider concept of Islamic jurisprudence is the source of a range of laws in different topics that guide Muslims in everyday life, Islamic jurisprudence covers two main areas, Rules in relation to actions, and, Rules in relation to circumstances surrounding actions. The Sunni schools are Hanafi Maliki Shafii Hanbali see Wahhabism Zahiri Qurtubi No longer exists Laythi No longer exists, the schools of Shia Islam comprise, Jafari Zaydi Entirely separate from both the Sunni and Shia traditions, Khawarij Islam has evolved its own distinct school
35.
Arabic grammar
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Arabic grammar is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with the grammar of other Semitic languages, the article focuses both on the grammar of Literary Arabic and of the colloquial spoken varieties of Arabic. The grammar of the two types is similar in its particulars. Generally, the grammar of Classical Arabic is described first, followed by the areas in which the colloquial variants tend to differ, many Arabic dialects, Maghrebi Arabic in particular also have significant vowel shifts and unusual consonant clusters. Unlike other dialects, in Maghrebi Arabic first person singular verbs begin with a n-, others have said that the earliest grammarian would have been Ibn Abi Ishaq. The schools of Basra and Kufa further developed grammatical rules in the late 8th century with the rise of Islam. From the school of Kufa, Al-Ruasi is universally acknowledged as the founder, though his own writings are considered lost, with most of the schools development undertaken by later authors. The efforts of al-Farahidi and Sibawayh consolidated Basras reputation as the school of grammar, while the Kufan school was regarding as the guardian of Arabic poetry. The differences were polarizing in some cases, with early Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi favoring the Kufan school due to its concern with poetry as a primary source. Early Arabic grammars were more or less lists of rules, without the detailed explanations which would be added in later centuries, the earliest schools were different not only in some of their views on grammatical disputes, but also their emphasis. The school of Kufa excelled in Arabic poetry and exegesis of the Quran, in addition to Islamic law, the more rationalist school of Basra, on the other hand, focused more on the formal study of grammar. For classical Arabic grammarians, the sciences are divided into five branches. At-taṣrīf اَلتَّصْرِيف determining the form of the individual words, an-naḥw اَلنَّحْو primarily concerned with inflection. Al-ishtiqāq اَلْاِشْتِقَاق examining the origin of the words, al-balāghah اَلْبَلَاغَة which elucidates stylistic quality, or eloquence. The grammar or grammars of contemporary varieties of Arabic are a different question, Classical Arabic has 28 consonantal phonemes, including two semi-vowels, which constitute the Arabic alphabet. It also has six vowel phonemes and these appear as various allophones, depending on the preceding consonant. Short vowels are not usually represented in the language, although they may be indicated with diacritics. Word stress varies from one Arabic dialect to another, a rough rule for word-stress in Classical Arabic is that it falls on the penultimate syllable of a word if that syllable is closed, and otherwise on the antepenultimate
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Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world
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Islamic astronomy comprises the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age, and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in the Middle East, Central Asia, Al-Andalus, and North Africa and these included Greek, Sassanid, and Indian works in particular, which were translated and built upon. Islamic astronomy also had an influence on Chinese astronomy and Malian astronomy, a significant number of stars in the sky, such as Aldebaran, Altair and Deneb, and astronomical terms such as alidade, azimuth, and nadir, are still referred to by their Arabic names. A large corpus of literature from Islamic astronomy remains today, numbering approximately 10,000 manuscripts scattered throughout the world, even so, a reasonably accurate picture of Islamic activity in the field of astronomy can be reconstructed. These observations were based on the rising and setting of stars. Anwa continued to be developed after Islamization by the Arabs, where Islamic astronomers added mathematical methods to their empirical observations, according to David King, after the rise of Islam, the religious obligation to determine the qibla and prayer times inspired more progress in astronomy for centuries. The first astronomical texts that were translated into Arabic were of Indian and Persian origin, another text translated was the Zij al-Shah, a collection of astronomical tables compiled in Sasanid Persia over two centuries. Fragments of texts during this period indicate that Arabs adopted the function in place of the chords of arc used in Greek trigonometry. The House of Wisdom was an established in Baghdad under Abbasid caliph Al-Mamun in the early 9th century. From this time, independent investigation into the Ptolemaic system became possible, Astronomical research was greatly supported by the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun through The House of Wisdom. Baghdad and Damascus became the centers of such activity, the caliphs not only supported this work financially, but endowed the work with formal prestige. The first major Muslim work of astronomy was Zij al-Sindh by al-Khwarizmi in 830, the work contains tables for the movements of the sun, the moon and the five planets known at the time. The work is significant as it introduced Ptolemaic concepts into Islamic sciences and this work also marks the turning point in Islamic astronomy. Hitherto, Muslim astronomers had adopted a primarily research approach to the field, translating works of others, al-Khwarizmis work marked the beginning of nontraditional methods of study and calculations. In 850, al-Farghani wrote Kitab fi Jawani, the book primarily gave a summary of Ptolemic cosmography. However, it also corrected Ptolemy based on findings of earlier Arab astronomers, al-Farghani gave revised values for the obliquity of the ecliptic, the precessional movement of the apogees of the sun and the moon, and the circumference of the earth. The book was circulated through the Muslim world, and even translated into Latin. The period when a distinctive Islamic system of astronomy flourished, the period began as the Muslim astronomers began questioning the framework of the Ptolemaic system of astronomy
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Early Islamic philosophy
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This period starts with al-Kindi in the 9th century and ends with Averroes at the end of 12th century. Early Islamic philosophy can be divided into sets of influences, branches, schools. The life of Muhammad or sira which generated both the Quran and hadith, during which philosophy was defined by Muslims as consisting in acceptance or rejection of his message. Together the sira and hadith constitute the sunnah and are validated by isnad to determine the truth of the report of any given saying of Muhammad. Key figures are Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawud, each sifted through literally millions of hadith to accept a list of under 1. This work, which was not completed until the 10th century, ilm al-Kalām is the Islamic philosophical discipline of seeking theological principles through dialectic. Kalām in Islamic practice relates to the discipline of seeking theological knowledge through debate, a scholar of kalām is referred to as a mutakallim. With Kalam, questions about the sira and hadith, as well as science and law and this period is characterized by emergence of ijtihad and the first fiqh. As the Sunnah became published and accepted, philosophy separate from Muslim theology was discouraged due to a lack of participants, during this period, traditions similar to Socratic method began to evolve, but philosophy remained subordinate to religion. Independent minds exploiting the methods of ijtihad sought to investigate the doctrines of the Quran, one of the first debates was that between partisan of the Qadar, who affirmed free will, and the Jabarites, who maintained the belief in fatalism. At the 2nd century of the Hijra, a new movement arose in the school of Basra. This new school was called Mutazilite that lasted from the 8th to 10th centuries and its principal dogmas were three, God is an absolute unity, and no attribute can be ascribed to Him. It is on account of two principles that the Mutazilities designate themselves the Partisans of Justice and Unity. All knowledge necessary for the salvation of man emanates from his reason, humans could acquire knowledge before, as well as after, Revelation and this fact makes knowledge obligatory upon all men, at all times, and in all places. This appellation became the name for all seeking philosophical demonstration in confirmation of religious principles. The first Mutakallamin had to both the orthodox and the non-Muslims, and they may be described as occupying the middle ground between those two parties. But subsequent generations were to large extent critical towards the Mutazilite school, throughout history, the place of kalam in Islamic thought has been controversial. The vast majority of the early traditional Sunni Muslim scholars have criticized or prohibited it
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Logic in Islamic philosophy
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Logic plays an important role in Islamic philosophy. The works of Hellenistic-influenced Islamic philosophers were crucial in the reception of Aristotelian logic in medieval Europe, in the area of formal logical analysis, they elaborated upon the theory of terms, propositions and syllogisms as formulated in Aristotles Categories, De interpretatione and Prior Analytics. In the spirit of Aristotle, they considered the syllogism to be the form to all rational argumentation could be reduced. Even poetics was considered as an art in some fashion by most of the major Islamic Aristotelians. Important developments made by Muslim logicians included the development of Avicennian logic as a replacement of Aristotelian logic, avicennas system of logic was responsible for the introduction of hypothetical syllogism, temporal modal logic and inductive logic. On the other hand, al-Ghazali argued that Qiyas refers to analogical reasoning in a real sense, other Islamic scholars at the time, however, argued that the term Qiyas refers to both analogical reasoning and categorical syllogism in a real sense. The first original Arabic writings on logic were produced by al-Kindi and he is also credited for categorizing logic into two separate groups, the first being idea and the second being proof. Averroes was the last major logician from al-Andalus, who wrote the most elaborate commentaries on Aristotelian logic, Avicenna developed his own system of logic known as Avicennian logic as an alternative to Aristotelian logic. By the 12th century, Avicennian logic had replaced Aristotelian logic as the dominant system of logic in the Islamic world, the first criticisms of Aristotelian logic were written by Avicenna, who produced independent treatises on logic rather than commentaries. He criticized the school of Baghdad for their devotion to Aristotle at the time. He investigated the theory of definition and classification and the quantification of the predicates of categorical propositions and its premises included modifiers such as at all times, at most times, and at some time. While Avicenna often relied on deductive reasoning in philosophy, he used a different approach in medicine, ibn Sina contributed inventively to the development of inductive logic, which he used to pioneer the idea of a syndrome. In his medical writings, Avicenna was the first to describe the methods of agreement, difference and concomitant variation which are critical to inductive logic, ibn Hazm wrote the Scope of Logic, in which he stressed on the importance of sense perception as a source of knowledge. Al-Ghazali had an important influence on the use of logic in theology, fakhr al-Din al-Razi criticised Aristotles first figure and developed a form of inductive logic, foreshadowing the system of inductive logic developed by John Stuart Mill. Islamic philosophy History of logic Rescher, Nicholas 1964, studies in the History of Arabic Logic, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press. In, Gabbay, Dov & Woods, John, Greek, Indian and Arabic Logic, Volume I of the Handbook of the History of Logic, Amsterdam, Elsevier, pp. 523–596
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Saladin
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An-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known as Saladin, was the first sultan of Egypt and Syria and the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin led the Muslim military campaign against the Crusader states in the Levant, at the height of his power, his sultanate included Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen and other parts of North Africa. When Saladins uncle Shirkuh died in 1169, al-Adid appointed Saladin vizier, in the following years, he led forays against the Crusaders in Palestine, commissioned the successful conquest of Yemen, and staved off pro-Fatimid rebellions in Upper Egypt. Not long after Nur ad-Dins death in 1174, Saladin launched his conquest of Syria, by mid-1175, Saladin had conquered Hama and Homs, inviting the animosity of his former Zengid lords, who had been the official rulers of Syria. Soon after, he defeated the Zengid army at the Battle of the Horns of Hama and was proclaimed the Sultan of Egypt. Saladin made further conquests in northern Syria and Jazira, escaping two attempts on his life by the Assassins, before returning to Egypt in 1177 to address issues there. By 1182, Saladin completed the conquest of Muslim Syria after capturing Aleppo, although the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem continued to exist until the late 13th century, its defeat at Hattin marked a turning point in its conflict with the Muslim powers of the region. Saladin died in Damascus in 1193, having given away much of his wealth to his subjects. He is buried in an adjacent to the Umayyad Mosque. Saladin has become a prominent figure in Muslim, Arab, Turkish and Kurdish culture, Saladin was born in Tikrit in modern-day Iraq. His personal name was Yusuf, Salah ad-Din is a laqab and his family was of Kurdish ancestry, and had originated from the city of Dvin in medieval Armenia. The Rawadid tribe he hailed from had been assimilated into the Arabic-speaking world by this time. Ayyub provided ferries for the army and gave refuge in Tikrit. According to Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, Saladin was born on the night his family left Tikrit. In 1139, Ayyub and his moved to Mosul, where Imad ad-Din Zengi acknowledged his debt. After the death of Zengi in 1146, his son, Nur ad-Din, became the regent of Aleppo, Saladin, who now lived in Damascus, was reported to have a particular fondness for the city, but information on his early childhood is scarce. About education, Saladin wrote children are brought up in the way in which their elders were brought up, several sources claim that during his studies he was more interested in religion than joining the military. Another factor which may have affected his interest in religion was that, during the First Crusade, in addition to Islam, Saladin had a knowledge of the genealogies, biographies, and histories of the Arabs, as well as the bloodlines of Arabian horses
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Ayyubid dynasty
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The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries, Saladin had been the vizier of Fatimid Egypt before toppling the Fatimids in 1171. Three years later, he proclaimed himself sultan following the death of his former master, most of the Kingdom of Jerusalem fell to Saladin after his victory at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. However, the Crusaders regained control of Palestines coastline in the 1190s, by then, local Muslim dynasties had driven out the Ayyubids from Yemen, the Hejaz, and parts of Mesopotamia. After his death in 1249, as-Salih Ayyub was succeeded in Egypt by al-Muazzam Turanshah, however, the latter was soon overthrown by the Mamluk generals who had repelled a Crusader invasion of the Nile Delta. This effectively ended Ayyubid power in Egypt, attempts by the emirs of Syria, led by an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo, in 1260, the Mongols sacked Aleppo and conquered the Ayyubids remaining territories soon after. The Mamluks, who expelled the Mongols, maintained the Ayyubid principality of Hama until deposing its last ruler in 1341 and this period was also marked by an Ayyubid process of vigorously strengthening Sunni Muslim dominance in the region by constructing numerous madrasas in their major cities. The progenitor of the Ayyubid dynasty, Najm ad-Din Ayyub ibn Shadhi, belonged to the Kurdish Rawadiya tribe, Ayyubs ancestors settled in the town of Dvin, in northern Armenia. The Rawadiya were the dominant Kurdish group in the Dvin district, circumstances became unfavorable in Dvin when Turkish generals seized the town from its Kurdish prince. Shadhi left with his two sons Ayyub and Asad ad-Din Shirkuh and his friend Mujahid ad-Din Bihruz—the military governor of northern Mesopotamia under the Seljuks—welcomed him and appointed him governor of Tikrit. After Shadhis death, Ayyub succeeded him in governance of the city with the assistance of his brother Shirkuh, together they managed the affairs of the city well, gaining them popularity from the local inhabitants. In the meantime, Imad ad-Din Zangi, the ruler of Mosul, was defeated by the Abbasids under Caliph al-Mustarshid, in his bid to escape the battlefield to Mosul via Tikrit, Zangi took shelter with Ayyub and sought his assistance in this task. Ayyub complied and provided Zangi and his companions boats to cross the Tigris River, as a consequence for assisting Zangi, the Abbasid authorities sought punitive measures against Ayyub. Simultaneously, in an incident, Shirkuh killed a close confidant of Bihruz on charges that he had sexually assaulted a woman in Tikrit. The Abbasid court issued arrest warrants for both Ayyub and Shirkuh, but before the brothers could be arrested, they departed Tikrit for Mosul in 1138. When they arrived in Mosul, Zangi provided them all the facilities they needed. Ayyub was made commander of Baalbek and Shirkuh entered the service of Zangis son, according to historian Abdul Ali, it was under the care and patronage of Zangi that the Ayyubid family rose to prominence. In 1164, Nur al-Din dispatched Shirkuh to lead a force to prevent the Crusaders from establishing a strong presence in an increasingly anarchic Egypt
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Shafi`i
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The Shafii madhhab is one of the four schools of Islamic law in Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Arab scholar Al-Shafi‘i, a pupil of Malik, the other three schools of Sunni jurisprudence are Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali. The Shafi school predominantly relies on the Quran and the Hadiths for Sharia, where passages of Quran and Hadiths are ambiguous, the school first seeks religious law guidance from Ijma – the consensus of Sahabah. If there was no consensus, the Shafii school relies on individual opinion of the companions of Muhammad, the Shafii school was, in the early history of Islam, the most followed ideology for Sharia. However, with the Ottoman Empires expansion and patronage, it was replaced with the Hanafi school in many parts of the Muslim world, the Shafii school of thought stipulates authority to five sources of jurisprudence. Although al-Shafiis legal methodology rejected custom or local practice as a source of law. The Shafii school also rejects two sources of Sharia that are accepted in other schools of Islam - Istihsan and Istislah. The Shafii school rejected these two principles stating that these methods rely on subjective human opinions, its potential for corruption and adjustment to political context, the foundational text for the Shafii school is Al-Risala by the founder of the school, Al-Shafii. It outlines the principles of Shafii fiqh as well as the derived jurisprudence, Al-Risala became an influential book to other Sunni Islam fiqhs as well, as the oldest surviving Arabic work on Islamic legal theory. The Shafii madhhab was spread by Al-Shafii students in Cairo, Mecca and it became widely accepted in early history of Islam. The chief representative of the Iraqi school was Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi, whilst in Khorasan and these two branches merged around Ibn al-Salah and his father, before being reviewed and refined by al-Rafii and al-Nawawi. The Shafii jurisprudence was adopted as the law during the Great Seljuq Empire, Zengid dynasty, Ayyubid dynasty and later the Mamluk Sultanate. It was also adopted by the Kathiri state in Hadhramawt and most of rule of the Sharif of Mecca. The Shafii school is presently predominant in the parts of the Muslim world, Africa, Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, eastern Egypt. Shafii school is the second largest school of Sunni madhhabs by number of adherents, however, a UNC publication considers the Maliki school as second largest, and the Hanafi madhhab the largest, with Shafii as third largest. The demographic data by each fiqh, for nation, are unavailable
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The Encyclopaedia of Islam
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The Encyclopaedia of Islam is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies published by Brill. It is considered to be the reference work in the field of Islamic studies. The first edition was published in 1913–1938, the second in 1954–2005, EI is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. Each article was written by a recognized specialist on the relevant topic, however, unsurprisingly for a work spanning 40 years until completion, not every one of them reflects recent research. The most important, authoritative work in English on Islam. Includes long, signed articles, with bibliographies, special emphasis is given in this edition to economic and social topics, but it remains the standard encyclopedic reference on the Islamic religion in English. EI is no anonymous digest of received wisdom, most of the articles are signed, and while some are hardly more than dictionary entries, others are true research pieces – in many cases the best available treatment of their subject. This reference work is of importance on topics dealing with the geography, ethnography and biography of Muslim peoples. The first edition was modeled on the Pauly-Wissowa Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, eI1 was created under the aegis of the International Union of Academies, and coordinated by Leiden University. It was published by Brill in four volumes plus supplement from 1913 to 1938 in English, German, an abridged version was published in 1953 as the Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, covering mainly law and religion. Excerpts of the SEI have been translated and published in Turkish, Arabic, the second edition of Encyclopaedia of Islam was begun in 1954 and completed in 2005, it is published by the Dutch company Brill and is available in English and French. Since 1999, has been available in form, in both CD-ROM and web-accessible versions. The point is not that this interpretation is wrong, but that the questions addressed in these often differ sharply from those which Muslims have traditionally asked about themselves. EI2 is a different matter. It began in much the way as its predecessor, but a growing proportion of the articles now come from scholars of Muslim background. Even so, the change in tone is perceptible and significant, publication of the Third Edition of EI started in 2007. It is available online, printed Parts appearing four times per year, the editorial team consists of twenty Sectional Editors and five Executive Editors. The Executive Editors are Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Everett Rowson, John Nawas, the Encyclopædia of Islam, A Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography and Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples
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