1.
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
2.
Imamah (Shia)
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In Shia Islam, the imamah is the doctrine that the figures known as imams are rightfully the central figures of the ummah, the entire Shiite system of doctrine focuses on the imamah. These Imams have the role of providing commentary and interpretation of the Quran as well as guidance to their followers as is the case of the living Imams of the Nizari Ismaili tariqah. According to Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, the Imam is a means through which humans receive divine grace, because He brings men closer to obedience, as fulfilling the human being is his wish, it is logical that God appoints Imams to subject man to his wishes. So his existence and his deeds display two forms of grace of God toward man, the word Imām denotes a person who stands or walks in front. For Sunni Islam, the word is used to mean a person who leads the course of prayer in the mosque. It also means the head of a madhhab, all Muslims believe that Muhammad had said, To whomsoever I am Mawla, Ali is his Mawla. This hadith has been narrated in different ways by different sources in no less than 45 hadith books of both Sunni and Shia collections. This hadith has also narrated by the collector of hadiths, al-Tirmidhi,3713, as well as Ibn Maajah,121. The major point of conflict between the Sunni and the Shia is in the interpretation of the word Mawla, for the Shia the word means Lord and Master and has the same elevated significance as when the term had been used to address Muhammad himself during his lifetime. However, for the Sunnis the word means the beloved or the revered and has no other significance at all. Each succession dispute brought forth a different tariqah within Shia Islam, each Shia tariqah followed its own particular Imams dynasty, thus resulting in different numbers of Imams for each particular Shia tariqah. When the dynastic line of the separating successor Imam ended with no heir to succeed him, then either he or his successor was believed to have gone into concealment. The Shia tariqah with a majority of adherents are the Twelvers who are known as the Shia. After that come the Nizari Ismailis commonly known as the Ismailis, the Druze tariqah initially were part of the Fatimid Ismailis and separated from them after the death of the Fatimid Imam and Caliph al Hakim Bi Amrillah. The Shia Sevener tariqah no longer exists, another small tariqah is the Zaidi Shias, also known as the Fivers and who do not believe in The Occultation of their last Imam. Although all these different Shia tariqahs belong to the Shia group in Islam, the Shia Nizari Ismailis by definition have to have a present and living Imam until the end of time. Thus if any living Nizari Ismaili Imam fails to leave behind a successor after him then the Nizari Ismailism’s cardinal principle would be broken and it’s very raison dêtre would come to an end. They refer to the verse 5,3 of Quran which was revealed to the prophet when he appointed Ali as his successor at the day of Ghadir Khumm, regarding 17,71, no age can be without an Imam
3.
Twelver
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Twelver Shia Islam or Imamiyyah is the largest branch of Shia Islam. Twelver belief is based on the Quran and the message of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad attested in hadith, according to Shia tradition, the Mahdis tenure will coincide with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, who is to assist the Mahdi against the Masih ad-Dajjal. Twelvers believe that the Twelve Imams are the spiritual and political successors to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Iran is the only country with state religion as Shia Islam. They also differ in the role and overall definition of an Imam, alevis in Turkey and Albania and Alawis in Syria share belief in the Twelve Imams with Twelvers, but their theological doctrines are remarkably different. The Twelvers are also known by names, The Shiah is commonly used as a synonym for Twelvers since this branch comprises the majority group in Shia Islam. Shia refers to a group of Muslims who believe that the succession to Muhammad must remain in his family for specific members who are designated by a divine appointment, tabatabaei states that the word referred to the partisans of Ali at the time of Muhammad himself. Jafari refers exclusively to the Twelver Juridical school which is followed by the majority of Shias and it also refers to the minority Akhbaris who advocate a distinct juridical approach within Jafari Jurisprudence. The term is derived from the name of Jafar al-Sadiq who is considered by the Twelvers to be their Sixth Imām, Jafar al-Sadiq is also respected and referenced by the founders of the Sunni Hanafi and Maliki schools of jurisprudence. Imami or Imamiyyah or Imamite is a reference to the Twelver belief in the infallibility of the Imāms, Ali is quoted as arguing that unity of God means that he has no like, he is not subject to numeration and is not divisible either in reality or imagination. On another occasion, he is quoted saying, The first step of religion is to accept, understand, the correct form of belief in his unity is to realize that he is so absolutely pure and above nature that nothing can be added to or subtracted from his being. That is, one should realize there is no difference between his person and his attributes, and his attributes should not be differentiated or distinguished from his person. Sayyid Haydar Amuli a prominent Shia mystic and philosopher defines God as alone in being, along with his names, his attributes, his actions, the totality of being therefore is he, through him, comes from him, and returns to him. God is not a next to or above other beings, his creatures, he is being. The divine unitude does not have the meaning of a unity, among, next to. For, if there were being other than he, God would no longer be the Unique, as this Divine Essence is infinite, his qualities are the same as his essence, Essentially there is one Reality which is one and indivisible. According to Twelvers theology, Tawhid consists of several aspects including Tawhid of the Essence, the attributes, the creatorship, Tawhid of the essence of God means his essence is one and peerless. Regarding this, Quran 112 states, Say, He is Allah, One, Allah and he neither begets nor is born, Nor is there to Him any equivalent. Tawhid of the attributes means Gods names and attributes have no other reality than His essence, Ali argues that Every attributes testifies to its being other than the object to which it is attributed, and every such object in turn testifies to its being other than the attribute
4.
Shia Islam
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Shia is a branch of Islam which holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor. Shia Islam primarily contrasts with Sunni Islam, whose adherents believe that Muhammad did not appoint a successor, instead they consider Abu Bakr to be the correct Caliph. Adherents of Shia Islam are called Shias of Ali, Shias or the Shia as a collective or Shii individually, Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam, in 2009, Shia Muslims constituted 10–13% of the worlds Muslim population. Twelver Shia is the largest branch of Shia Islam, in 2012 it was estimated that perhaps 85 percent of Shias were Twelvers. Shia Islam is based on the Quran and the message of Muhammad attested in hadith, Shia consider Ali to have been divinely appointed as the successor to Muhammad, and as the first Imam. The word Shia means follower and is the form of the historic phrase shīʻatu ʻAlī, meaning followers of Ali, faction of Ali. Shia and Shiism are forms used in English, while Shiite or Shiite, as well as Shia, the term for the first time was used at the time of Muhammad. At present, the word refers to the Muslims who believe that the leadership of the community after Muhammad belongs to Ali, nawbakhti states that the term Shia refers to a group of Muslims that at the time of Muhammad and after him regarded Ali as the Imam and Caliph. Al-Shahrastani expresses that the term Shia refers to those who believe that Ali is designated as the Heir, Imam and caliph by Muhammad, for the Shia, this conviction is implicit in the Quran and history of Islam. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing, Shia search for the true meaning of the revelation to get the purpose of the life blood and the human destiny. Shia Muslims believe that just as a prophet is appointed by God alone and they believe God chose Ali to be Muhammads successor, infallible, the first caliph of Islam. The Shias believe that Muhammad designated Ali as his successor by Gods command, Ali was Muhammads first cousin and closest living male relative as well as his son-in-law, having married Muhammads daughter Fatimah. Ali would eventually become the fourth Muslim caliph, after the Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad ordered the gathering of Muslims at the pond of Khumm and it was there that Shia Muslims believe Muhammad nominated Ali to be his successor. The hadith of the pond of Khumm was narrated on 18th of Dhu al-Hijjah of 10 AH in the Islamic calendar at a place called Ghadir Khumm, located near the city of al-Juhfah, Saudi Arabia. Muhammad there stated, Shia Muslims believe this to be Muhammads appointment of Ali as his successor, when Muhammad died in 632 CE, Ali and Muhammads closest relatives made the funeral arrangements. While they were preparing his body, Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali and his family accepted the appointment for the sake of unity in the early Muslim community. Alis rule over the early Muslim community was often contested, as a result, he had to struggle to maintain his power against the groups who betrayed him after giving allegiance to his succession, or those who wished to take his position. This dispute eventually led to the First Fitna, which was the first major civil war within the Islamic Caliphate, the Fitna began as a series of revolts fought against Ali ibn Abi Talib, caused by the assassination of his political predecessor, Uthman ibn Affan
5.
Common Era
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Common Era or Current Era is a year-numbering system for the Julian and Gregorian calendars that refers to the years since the start of this era, i. e. since AD1. The preceding era is referred to as before the Common or Current Era, the Current Era notation system can be used as a secular alternative to the Dionysian era system, which distinguishes eras as AD and BC. The two notation systems are equivalent, thus 2017 CE corresponds to AD2017 and 400 BCE corresponds to 400 BC. The year-numbering system for the Gregorian calendar is the most widespread civil calendar used in the world today. For decades, it has been the standard, recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations. The expression has been traced back to Latin usage to 1615, as vulgaris aerae, the term Common Era can be found in English as early as 1708, and became more widely used in the mid-19th century by Jewish academics. He attempted to number years from a reference date, an event he referred to as the Incarnation of Jesus. Dionysius labeled the column of the table in which he introduced the new era as Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, numbering years in this manner became more widespread in Europe with its usage by Bede in England in 731. Bede also introduced the practice of dating years before what he supposed was the year of birth of Jesus, in 1422, Portugal became the last Western European country to switch to the system begun by Dionysius. The first use of the Latin term vulgaris aerae discovered so far was in a 1615 book by Johannes Kepler, Kepler uses it again in a 1616 table of ephemerides, and again in 1617. A1635 English edition of that book has the title page in English – so far, a 1701 book edited by John LeClerc includes Before Christ according to the Vulgar Æra,6. A1716 book in English by Dean Humphrey Prideaux says, before the beginning of the vulgar æra, a 1796 book uses the term vulgar era of the nativity. The first so-far-discovered usage of Christian Era is as the Latin phrase aerae christianae on the page of a 1584 theology book. In 1649, the Latin phrase æræ Christianæ appeared in the title of an English almanac, a 1652 ephemeris is the first instance so-far-found for English usage of Christian Era. The English phrase common Era appears at least as early as 1708, a 1759 history book uses common æra in a generic sense, to refer to the common era of the Jews. The first-so-far found usage of the phrase before the era is in a 1770 work that also uses common era and vulgar era as synonyms. The 1797 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica uses the terms vulgar era, the Catholic Encyclopedia in at least one article reports all three terms being commonly understood by the early 20th century. Thus, the era of the Jews, the common era of the Mahometans, common era of the world
6.
Medina
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Medina, also transliterated as Madīnah, is a city in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia that is also the capital of the Al Madinah Region. The city contains al-Masjid an-Nabawi, which is the place of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It served as the base of Islam in its first century where the early Muslim community developed. Medina is home to the three oldest mosques, namely the Quba Mosque, al-Masjid an-Nabawi, and Masjid al-Qiblatayn, Muslims believe that the chronologically final surahs of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad in Medina, and are called Medinan surahs in contrast to the earlier Meccan surahs. Similar to Mecca, non-Muslims are forbidden from entering the core of Medina or the city centre by the national government. The Arabic word al-Madīnah simply means the city, before the advent of Islam, the city was known as Yathrib. The word Yathrib has been recorded in Surat al-Ahzab of the Quran, an alternative name is al-Madīnah an-Nabawīyah or al-Madīna-tu an-Nabī. As of 2010, the city of Medina has a population of 1,183,205, in addition to its Arab inhabitants, during the pre-Islamic era Yathrib was inhabited by Jewish tribes. Later the citys name was changed to al-Madīna-tu n-Nabī or al-Madīnatu l-Munawwarah, Medina is celebrated for containing al-Masjid an-Nabawi and also as the city which gave refuge to him and his followers, and so ranks as the second holiest city of Islam, after Mecca. Muhammad was buried in Medina, under the Green Dome, as were the first two Rashidun caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar, who were buried next to him in what used to be Muhammads house. Medina is 210 miles north of Mecca and about 120 miles from the Red Sea coast and it is situated in the most fertile part of all the Hejaz territory, the streams of the vicinity tending to converge in this locality. An immense plain extends to the south, in every direction the view is bounded by hills and mountains. The historic city formed an oval, surrounded by a wall,30 to 40 feet high, dating from the 12th century CE. Of its four gates, the Bab-al-Salam, or Egyptian gate, was remarkable for its beauty, beyond the walls of the city, west and south were suburbs consisting of low houses, yards, gardens and plantations. These suburbs also had walls and gates, almost all of the historic city has been demolished in the Saudi era. The rebuilt city is centred on the vastly expanded al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the graves of Fatimah and Hasan, across from the mosque at Jannat al-Baqi, and Abu Bakr, and of Umar, the second caliph, are also here. The mosque dates back to the time of Muhammad, but has been twice reconstructed, because of the Saudi governments religious policy and concern that historic sites could become the focus for idolatry, much of Medinas Islamic physical heritage has been altered. Medinas importance as a religious site derives from the presence of al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the mosque was expanded by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I
7.
Abbasid Caliphate
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The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Abbasid dynasty descended from Muhammads youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and they ruled as caliphs, for most of their period from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after assuming authority over the Muslim empire from the Umayyads in 750 CE. The Abbasid caliphate first centered its government in Kufa, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, the political power of the caliphs largely ended with the rise of the Buyids and the Seljuq Turks. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was reduced to a ceremonial religious function. The capital city of Baghdad became a center of science, culture, philosophy and this period of cultural fruition ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Abbasid line of rulers, and Muslim culture in general, though lacking in political power, the dynasty continued to claim authority in religious matters until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. The Abbasid caliphs were Arabs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad, the Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Prophet Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer bloodline to Muhammad. The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character, according to Ira Lapidus, The Abbasid revolt was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Marw with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali. The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, Muhammad ibn Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign for the return of power to the family of Prophet Muhammad, the Hashimites, in Persia during the reign of Umar II. During the reign of Marwan II, this culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam. On 9 June 747, Abu Muslim successfully initiated a revolt against Umayyad rule. Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslims command when the hostilities began in Merv. General Qahtaba followed the fleeing governor Nasr ibn Sayyar west defeating the Umayyads at the Battle of Nishapur, the Battle of Gorgan, after this loss, Marwan fled to Egypt, where he was subsequently assassinated. The remainder of his family, barring one male, were also eliminated, immediately after their victory, As-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas. Barmakids, who were instrumental in building Baghdad, introduced the worlds first recorded paper mill in Baghdad, As-Saffah focused on putting down numerous rebellions in Syria and Mesopotamia. The Byzantines conducted raids during these early distractions, the first change the Abbasids, under Al-Mansur, made was to move the empires capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762, a new position, that of the vizier, was also established to delegate central authority, and even greater authority was delegated to local emirs. During Al-Mansurs time control of Al-Andalus was lost, and the Shiites revolted and were defeated a year later at the Battle of Bakhamra, the Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads
8.
Samarra
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Sāmarrā is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate,125 kilometers north of Baghdad, in 2003 the city had an estimated population of 348,700. Samarra was once in the Sunni Triangle of violence during the violence in Iraq. In the medieval times, Samarra was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, in 2007, UNESCO named Samarra one of its World Heritage Sites. The remains of prehistoric Samarra were first excavated between 1911 and 1914 by the German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld, Samarra became the type site for the Samarra culture. Since 1946, the notebooks, letters, unpublished excavation reports and photographs have been in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, the civilization flourished alongside the Ubaid period, as one of the first town states in the Near East. It lasted from 5,500 BCE and eventually collapsed in 3,900 BCE, a city of Sur-marrati is insecurely identified with a fortified Assyrian site of Assyrian at al-Huwaysh on the Tigris opposite modern Samarra. The State Archives of Assyria Online identifies Surimarrat as the site of Samarra. In 836 the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim founded a new capital at the banks of the Tigris, here he built extensive palace complexes surrounded by garrison settlements for his guards, mostly drawn from Central Asia and Iran or North Africa. Although quite often called Mamluk slave soldiers, their status was quite elevated, for his son al-Mutazz he built the large palace Bulkuwara. Samarra remained the residence of the caliph until 892, when al-Mutadid eventually returned to Baghdad, the city declined but maintained a mint until the early 10th century. After the collapse of the Abbasid empire in about 940 Samarra was abandoned and its population returned to Baghdad and the city rapidly declined. Its field of ruins is the only metropolis of late antiquity which is available for serious archaeology. This has made it an important pilgrimage centre for the Twelvers, in addition, Hakimah and Narjis, female relatives of the Muhammad and the Imams, held in high esteem by Muslims, are buried there, making this mosque one of the most significant sites of worship. In the eighteenth century, one of the most bloody battles of the 1730–1735 Ottoman–Persian War, the Battle of Samarra, took place, the engagement decided the fate of Ottoman Iraq and kept it under Istanbuls suzerainty until the First World War. Many local people were displaced by the dam, resulting in an increase in Samarras population, Samarra is a key city in Saladin Governorate, a major part of the so-called Sunni Triangle where insurgents were active during the Iraq War. Though Samarra is famous for its Shii holy sites, including the tombs of several Shii Imams, tensions arose between Sunnis and the Shia during the Iraq War. On February 22,2006, the dome of the al-Askari Mosque was bombed, setting off a period of rioting
9.
Al-Mu'tazz
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Al-Mutazz was the title of the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from 866 to 869, during the Anarchy at Samarra. Placed upon the throne by the Turks, he proved but too apt a pupil of his Turkish masters and he became the caliph at 19 he was the youngest Abbasaid Caliph to assume power. He was surrounded by parties jealous of the other. At Samarra, the Turks were having problems with the Westerners, while the Arabs and Persians at Baghdad, first he put to death the former Caliph al-Mustain. Then his own brother Al-Mueiyyad, being heir to the throne, was also cruelly put to death. Also another brother, Abu Ahmed, who had led the troops in the late struggle on his side, was thrown into prison. The Turks attempted his release, but al-Mutazz, the more alarmed, resolved on his death and he was smothered in a downy robe, and the body was then exposed before the Court, as if, being without mark of violence, he had died a natural death. The revenues were squandered at the reckless Court, and little was left to pay the troops, the city guards at the Capital surrounded the palace at Baghdad, demanding for their pay. The Governor wrote to al-Mutazz for an advance, but he, prompted by the Turks, replied that if the guards were needed for himself, he himself might pay them, if for the Caliph, he cared not for them. Thereupon the insurgency was renewed, the mob refused to let the Caliph be named in the Mosque, before the revolt was put down, the Governor had to burn one of the bridges, and set fire to an adjoining bazaar, in order to keep the rebels off. But the next year all joined together—Turks, Africans, and Persians—stormed the palace for their pay, the armys pay having been withheld, Salih son of Wasif, one of the rebels, seized the personal secretaries of al-Mutazz and demanded the money embezzled or concealed by them. There being no answer but an empty treasury, they were put in irons, the Caliph implored the rebels to release his private secretary, but they were deaf to his plea. The accounts of the ministers were seized, but nothing could be extracted from them. Salih, and another rebel Musa, planned to depose al-Mutazz, followed by a clamorous troop, they seated themselves at the palace gate, and called for the Caliph to come out. Not suspecting treachery, Caliph called them in, entering, they beat him with clubs and kicked him, then dragging him by his torn robes outside, they left him seated there in the scorching heat of a mid summer sun. He was then shut up in a room alone without food or water and this text is adapted from William Muirs public domain, The Caliphate, Its Rise, Decline, and Fall
10.
Al-Askari Shrine
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Al ‘Askarī Shrine or the ‘Askariyya Shrine is a Shī‘ah Muslim holy site in the Iraqi city of Sāmarrā125 km from Baghdad. It is one of the most important Shī‘ah Shrines in the world, adjacent to the shrine is a mosque, which is called Al-Askari Mosque. The remaining clock tower was destroyed in July 2007. The dome and minarets were repaired and the mosque reopened in April 2009, the remains of the 10th and 11th Shī‘ah Imāms, ‘Alī al-Hādī and his son Hasan al-‘Askarī, known as, al-‘Askariyyain, rest at the shrine. Also buried within the Mosque are, Hakimah Khātūn, sister of ‘Alī al-Hādī, and Narjis Khātūn, adjacent to this shrine is another mosque, built over the location where the Twelfth or Hidden Imām, Muħammad al-Mahdī first entered the Minor Occultation. The ‘Askariyya Shrine is also known as the Tomb or Mausoleum of the Two Imāms, time magazine reported at the time of the 2006 bombing that, al-Askari one of Shiite Islams holiest sites, exceeded in veneration only by the shrines of Najaf and Karbala. Even Samarras Sunnis hold al-Askari in high esteem, the expression to swear by the shrine is routinely used by both communities. The Imāms ‘Alī al-Hādī and Hassan al-‘Askarī lived under house arrest in the part of Samarra that had been Caliph al-Mutasims military camp, as a result, they are known as the ‘Askariyyain Dwellers in the Camp. They died and were buried in their house on Abī Ahmad Street near the mosque built by Mu‘tasim, a later tradition attributes their deaths to poison. Nasir ad-Din Shah Qajar undertook the latest remodelling of the shrine in 1868, covered in 72,000 gold pieces and surrounded by walls of light blue tiles, the dome was a dominant feature of the Samarra skyline. It was approximately 20 m in diameter by 68 m high, on 22 February 2006, at 6,55 am local time explosions occurred at the mosque, effectively destroying its golden dome and severely damaging the mosque. Two bombs were set off by five to seven men dressed as personnel of the Iraqi Special Forces who entered the shrine during the morning. At around 8 am on 13 June 2007, operatives belonging to al-Qaeda in Iraq destroyed the two remaining 36 m -high golden minarets flanking the domes ruins, in late 2007, the Iraqi government conducted a contract with a Turkish company to rebuild the mosque. The Iraqi government later cancelled the contract due to delays by the Turkish company, as of April 2009, the golden dome and the minarets have been restored and the shrine reopened to visitors. Bab Saghir Destruction of early Islamic heritage sites in Saudi Arabia Damage to Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War Holiest sites in Islam Jannatul Baqee Jannatul Mualla Hammer, Joshua, Becherer, Max. Abstract, In 2006, sectarian violence engulfed Iraq after terrorists destroyed the Mosque of the Golden Dome, today, Sunnis and Shiites are working together to restore the shrine and the war-torn city. ICOMOS Heritage at Risk 2006/2007, Iraq, Askariya Shrine Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Records of Samarra Expeditions, Shiite Shrine Complex Collections Search Center, S. I. R. I. S. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 7, Records of Samarra Expeditions, 1906–1945 Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, images of the destruction, before and after BBC picture gallery BBC video NYT picture gallery Disappointment in Samarra
11.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
12.
Muhammad al-Jawad
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Muhammad ibn ‘Alī ibn Mūsā was the ninth of the Twelve Imams and a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. He was also called Abu Jafar, Ibn al-Ridha, al-Jawād and his role is celebrated by the largest branch of Shia Islam, the Twelver or Athnā‘ashariyyah branch. According to Shiite accounts, he was poisoned by his wife and died at age 25, Al-Jawad was born circa April 12,811, in Medina. He was born to his father, Ali al-Ridha and a mother whose name, according to Kulaini, his mother was a bondmaid from Nubia named Habibi. However, some say that she was Khaizaran, a girl from the Byzantine Empire, others believe she belonged to the household of Maria al-Qibtiyya, who was the slave mother of Muhammads young son Ibrahim. Al-Jawads father, Ali al-Ridha, knew that his son should take the position of Imamate after him, when al-Jawad was four, his father received a summons from the Abbasid Caliph, al-Mamun, asking him to be al-Mamuns successor. Al-Ridha left the four-year-old al-Jawad behind in Medina to respond to the summons, the Shiites questioned whether a child of that age could take on his fathers responsibility as an Imamate if something happened to his father. In response, al-Ridha used to tell the story of Jesus, as a young child, Muhammad al-Jawad earned the name al-Jawad. When his father was away, people gathered by al-Jawads door in hopes of gaining help, al-Jawads caregivers had him leave his house only through another exit to avoid them. Upon hearing this, his father wrote a letter to advising his son not to listen to those who told him not to use the main gate. He wrote that the other came from stinginess and a fear that someone else might receive goodness from al-Jawad. Al-Ridha wrote, Whenever you want to go out, keep some gold, no one should ask you for anything without your giving it to him. If one of your uncles asks you to be pious to him, do not give him less than fifty dinars, if one of your aunts asks you, do not give her less than twenty-five dinars and you may give her more if you want. Al-Jawads age at the time of his fathers death in Korasan is unknown, with his fathers death, al-Jawad became a young Imam. According to Shia beliefs, al-Jawad acted like an adult and possessed extraordinary knowledge, Shia beliefs liken this to Jesus, who was called to leadership and his prophetic mission while still a child. Accounts differ as to al-Ridhas death and subsequent events, one account states that al-Mamun poisoned al-Ridha, and then summoned al-Jawad to Baghdad in order to marry his daughter, Ummul Fadhl. This apparently provoked strenuous objections by the Abbasids, according to Yaqubi, al-Mamun gave al-Jawad one hundred thousand Dirham and said, Surely I would like to be a grandfather in the line of the Apostle of God and of Ali ibn Abu Talib. Another account states that al-Mamuns first meeting with al-Jawad was coincidental, according to this account, al-Mamun was hunting when he happened upon a group of boys including al-Jawad, who were playing
13.
Hasan al-Askari
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Hasan ibn Ali ibn Muhammad was the 11th Imam of Twelver Shia Islam, after his father Ali al-Hadi. He was also called Abu Muhammad and Ibn al-Ridha, because Samarra, the city where he lived, was a garrison town, he is generally known as al-Askari. It was known that many Shia were looking forward to the succession of his son, Muhammad al-Mahdi, as they believed him to be the twelfth Imam, who was destined to remove injustice from the world. Hasan al-Askari was born during a period when his father Ali al-Hadi, there is doubt as to whether al-Askari was born in Medina or Samarra. According to authentic shia hadith he was born in Medina on the 10th of Rabiul Akhar 232 Hijri, the period of his imamate was 6 years. He was taken along with his family to Samarra in the year 230,231 or 232 A. H. and was there under house arrest. In Samarra, al-Askari spent most of his reading the Quran. According to Shia accounts, however, it is part of the knowledge given to all Imams to be able to speak all human languages. It is said that even as a child, al-Askari was endowed with divine knowledge, one day a man passed by him, and saw that he was crying. The man told him he would buy a toy that he play with. No. said al-Askari, We have not been created for play, the man was amazed at this answer and said, Then, what for have we been created. The man said Where have you got this from, Al-Askari said, From the saying of God, Did you then think that We had created you in vain. The man was confused, so he said, What has happened to you while you are guiltless, Al-Askari said, Be away from me. I have seen my mother set fire to big pieces of firewood, but fire is not lit except with small pieces, and I fear that I shall be from the small pieces of the firewood of the Hell. Al-Askaris mother, as in the case of the majority of The Twelve Imams, was a girl who was honoured after bearing children with the title Umm walad. Her given name was Hadith, though some say she was called Susan, Ghazala, Salil, Al-Askari had other brothers, and among them was Ja’far who was also known as Jafar al-Zaki or Jaffar-us-Sani. His other brother was Husayn, and together he and al-Askari were known as as-Sibtayn, various legends relate to al-Askaris wife, Narjis Khatun. It is said that al-Askaris father, Ali al-Hadi, wrote a letter in the script of Rûm, put it in a red purse, with 220 Dinars, and gave it to his friend Bashar ibn Sulaiman
14.
Al-Mutawakkil
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Abu’l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim bi’llāh, better known by his regnal name al-Mutawakkil ʿAlā ’llāh was an Abbasid caliph who reigned in Samarra from 847 until 861. His assassination on 11 December 861 by the Turkish guard with the support of his son, al-Muntasir, the future al-Mutawakkil was born on February/March 822 to the Abbasid prince Abu Ishaq Muhammad and a slave concubine from Khwarazm called Shuja. His early life is obscure, as he played no role in political affairs until the death of his older half-brother, al-Wathiq, al-Wathiqs death was unexpected, and although he had a young son, he had not designated a successor. Ibn al-Zayyat initially proposed al-Wathiqs son Muhammad, but due to his youth he was passed over, and instead the council chose the 26-year-old Jafar, the officials obviously hoped that the new Caliph would prove a pliable puppet, like al-Wathiq. Al-Mutawakkils first target was the vizier Ibn al-Zayyat, against whom he harboured a grudge over the way he had disrespected him in the past. According to al-Tabari, when al-Wathiq had grown angry and suspicious at his brother, not only had Ibn al-Zayyat kept the Abbasid prince waiting until he finished going through his correspondence, but even mocked him, in the presence of others, for coming to him seeking assistance. Not only that, but when the prince left, Ibn al-Zayyat wrote to the Caliph to complain about his appearance, noting that he was dressed in effeminate fashion. As a result, al-Wathiq had his brother summoned to court, Al-Mutawakkil came in a brand-new court dress, hoping to mollify the Caliph, but instead al-Wathiq ordered that his hair be shorn off, and al-Mutawakkil be struck in the face with it. In later times, al-Mutawakkil confessed that he had never been so distressed by anything in his life than by public humiliation. Thus, on 22 September 847, he sent Itakh to summon Ibn al-Zayyat as if for an audience, instead, the vizier was brought to Itakhs residence, where he was placed under house arrest. His possessions were confiscated, and he was tortured to death, in 848, however, he was persuaded to go to the pilgrimage, and laid down his powers, only to be arrested on his return. His possessions were confiscated—reportedly, in his house alone the Caliphs agents found one million gold dinars and he died of thirst in prison on 21 December 849. One Mahmud ibn al-Faraj al-Nayshapuri arose claiming to be a prophet and he and some followers were arrested in Baghdad. He was imprisoned, beaten and on June 18,850 he died, in A. H.236 al-Mutawakkil issued a decree requiring all Christians and Jews in his realm including Jerusalem and Caesarea to wear a yellow hood and belt to distinguish them from Muslims. In A. H.237 Armenians rebelled and defeated and killed the Abbasid governor, Al-Mutawakkil sent his general Bugha al-Kabir to handle this. Bugha scored successes this year and the year he attacked and burned Tiflis. That year the Byzantines attacked Damietta, in A. H.240 the police chief in Homs killed a prominent person stirring an uprising. When the next year saw a revolt against this new police chief, as Christians had joined in the second round of disturbances, the caliph had Christians expelled from Homs
15.
Berbers
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Berbers or Amazighen are an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa. They are distributed in an area stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, historically, they spoke Berber languages, which together form the Berber branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. The majority of Berbers are predominantly Sunni Muslim, the Berber identity is usually wider than language and ethnicity, and encompasses the entire history and geography of North Africa. Berbers are not an entirely homogeneous ethnicity and they encompass a range of phenotypes, societies and ancestries, the unifying forces for the Berber people may be their shared language, or a collective identification with Berber heritage and history. There are some twenty-five to thirty million Berber speakers in North Africa, the number of ethnic Berbers is far greater, as a large part of the Berbers have acquired other languages over the course of many decades or centuries, and no longer speak Berber today. The majority of North Africas population is believed to be Berber in origin, Berbers call themselves some variant of the word i-Mazigh-en, possibly meaning free people or noble men. The name likely had its ancient parallel in the Roman and Greek names for Berbers, dihya or Kahina was a religious and military leader who led a fierce Berber resistance against the Arab-Muslim expansion in Northwest Africa. Kusaila was a leader of the Awraba tribe of the Berber people. A history by a Roman consul in Africa made the first reference of the barbarian to describe Numidia. The use of the term Berber spread in the following the arrival of the Vandals during their major invasions. The English term was introduced in the 19th century, replacing the earlier Barbary, for the historian Abraham Isaac Laredo the name Amazigh could be derived from the name of the ancestor Mezeg which is the translation of biblical ancestor Dedan son of Sheba in the Targum. According to Leo Africanus, Amazigh meant free man, though this has been disputed, further, it also has a cognate in the Tuareg word Amajegh, meaning noble. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines mentioned various tribes with similar names living in Greater Libya in the areas where Berbers were later found, later tribal names differ from the classical sources, but are probably still related to the modern Amazigh. The Meshwesh tribe among them represents the first thus identified from the field, all those names are similar and perhaps foreign renditions of the name used by the Berbers in general for themselves, Imazighen. The Maghreb region in northwestern Africa is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers from at least 10,000 BC, local cave paintings, which have been dated to twelve millennia before present, have been found in the Tassili nAjjer region of southern Algeria. Other rock art has been observed in Tadrart Acacus in the Libyan desert, a Neolithic society, marked by domestication and subsistence agriculture, developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean region of northern Africa between 6000 and 2000 BC. This type of life, richly depicted in the Tassili nAjjer cave paintings of southeastern Algeria, prehistorical Tifinagh scripts were also found in the Oran region. During the pre-Roman era, several independent states existed before the king Masinissa unified the people of Numidia
16.
Ali al-Ridha
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He was an Imam of knowledge according to the Zaydi Shia school and Sufis. He lived in a period when Abbasid caliphs were facing numerous difficulties, the Caliph Al-Mamun sought out a remedy for this problem by appointing Al-Ridha as his successor, through whom he could be involved in worldly affairs. However, according to the Shia view, when Al-Mamun saw that the Imam gained even more popularity, the Imam was buried in a village in Khorasan, which afterwards gained the name Mashhad, meaning the place of martyrdom. On the eleventh of Dhu al-Qidah,148 AH, a son was born in the house of Imam Musa al-Kadhim in Medina. He was named Ali and titled al-Ridha, however in the Shia sources he is commonly called Abu’l-Ḥasan al-Ṯānī so as not to be confused with his father and his father was known as Abu’l-Ḥasan al-Awwal. He was born one month after the death of his grandfather, Jafar as-Sādiq and his mother, Najmah, was also a distinguished and pious lady. She was purchased and freed by Bibi Hamidah Khatun, the wife of Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, disputes exist regarding the number of his offspring and their names. A group of say that they were five sons and one daughter, and that they were, Muhammad al- Qani, al-Hasan, Ja’far, Ibrahim, al-Husayn. Sabt ibn al-Jawzi, in his work Tadhkiratul-Khawass, says that the sons were only four and he described among Shia Narrations as the second abul hasan in contrary of first Abul Hasan who was his father Imam Musa Kazim. As such, Makhzumi says that one day Musa al-Kadhim summoned and gathered us and entitled him as his executor and successor. Yazid ibn Salit has also related a similar narration from the seventh Imam when he met him on his way to Mecca, Ali, whose name is the same as the First and the forth Imam, is the Imam after me. Ali al-Ridha was not looked upon favorably by Hārūn Rashīd, after the death of Harun al-Rashid in 809, Haruns two sons began fighting for control of the Abbasid Empire. One son, Al-Amin, had an Arab mother and thus had the support of Arabs, while his half-brother Al-Mamun had a Persian mother, after defeating his brother, al-Mamun faced many insurrections from the followers of the Prophets family in many areas. Thirdly, he intended it to fool other Shias into believing that his government was not so bad after all, and fourthly, he wanted to keep a close watch over the Imam of the Shias himself, so that nothing could happen without al-Mamuns knowledge. Word spread quickly among al-Mamuns circles that al-Mamun was not sincere in his offer to make Ali ibn Musa al-Ridha the Crown Prince, Al-Mamun also became paranoid and thought that al-Ridha would see through it as well, and so would his Shias. In order to quiet the doubts of the people, al-Mamun first offered al-Ridha the caliphate itself, if the caliphate does not belong to you, then it is not permissible for you to give me that which does not belong to you. Al-Mamun kept trying to make his offer seem sincere and kept re-offering the caliphate, if you do not accept the position of Crown Prince in my government, I will follow through on the same threat. Al-Ridha said he would accept, under the condition that none of the affairs of government would be his and he would neither appoint anyone, nor dismiss
17.
Musa al-Kadhim
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Mūsá ibn Ja‘far al-Kāzim, also called Abūl-Hasan, Abū Abd Allah, Abū Ibrāhīm, and al-Kāzim, was the seventh Shiite Imam after his father Jafar al-Sadiq. He is regarded by Sunnis as a scholar, and was a contemporary of the Abbasid caliphs Al-Mansur, Al-Hadi, Al-Mahdi. He was imprisoned several times, finally dying in Baghdad in the Sindi ibn Shahak prison, Ali al-Ridha, the eighth Imām, and Fatemah Masume were among his children. Musa al-Kadhim was born during the conflict between the Abbasids and Umayyads, and was four years old when As-Saffah, the first Abbasid Caliph and his mother, Hamidah, was a former slave from either Berbery or Andalusia. Al-Kadhim was brought up in a family, with nine sisters. His oldest brother Ismail predeceased his father Jafar al-Sadiq, who held the position of Imam, according to Twelver Shiites, Musa was chosen by divine order and decree of his father as the next Imam. According to some sources, al-Kadhim was religiously minded as a child, Muhammad Baqir Majlisi relates an incident where Abū Ḥanīfa called on Jafar al-Sadiq to ask his advice. While there, he encountered al-Kadhim, who was five years old. Hanifa asked al-Kadhim the question meant for his father, saying, Boy, does it issue from Allah or from the servant. Therefore, the partner has no right to punish the weak for a sin in which they are equal, or it issues from the servant. So if He wills to pardon, and if He wills to punish, upon hearing this, Hanifa left, saying that the answer had been good enough for him. In another incident, Abū Ḥanīfa complained to al-Sadiq, saying, I have seen your son, Musa and he did not prevent them from that. The Imam ordered his son to be brought him. Al-Khadhim replied Yes, father, the One to Whom I pray is nearer to me than them, Allah, the Great and Almighty, says, We are nearer to him than the jugular vein. On hearing this response, the Imam rose, hugged his son, Musa al-Kadhim was said to be a gentle and tolerant man. He was called al-Kadhim because he was kind, forgiving and generous toward the people who treated him in a bad manner or were unfriendly towards him, ibn Khallikan said that when a man had spoken ill of him he sent him a purse of money. One such incident concerned a man who cursed al-Kadhims grandfather, Imam Ali, the Imams followers intended to kill the man, but al-Kadhim prevented them. He went to the farm in the outskirts of Medina
18.
Al-Mu'tasim
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Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd, better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtaṣim bi’llāh, was the eighth Abbasid caliph, ruling from 833 to his death in 842. A younger son of Harun al-Rashid, he rose to prominence through his formation of an army composed predominantly of Turkish slave-soldiers. When al-Mamun died unexpectedly on campaign in August 833, al-Mutasim was thus well placed to succeed him, overriding the claims of his nephew, al-Mutasim continued many of his brothers policies, like the partnership with the Tahirids, who ruled Khurasan and Baghdad on behalf of the Abbasids. With the support of the powerful chief qādī, Ahmad ibn Abi Duwad, he continued to implement the doctrine of Mutazilism, although personally disinterested in literary pursuits, al-Mutasim also nurtured the scientific renaissance begun under al-Mamun. In other ways, however, his reign marks a departure and a moment in Islamic history, with the creation of a new regime centred on the military. In 836, a new capital was established at Samarra to symbolize this new regime and this strengthened the position of the Turks and their principal leaders, Ashinas, Wasif, Itakh, and Bugha. Another prominent member of al-Mutasims inner circle, the prince of Ushrusana, al-Afshin, fell foul of his enemies at court and was overthrown, al-Mutasims reign was also marked by continuous warfare. His generals led the fight against internal rebellions, al-Mutasim himself led a major campaign in 838 against the Byzantine Empire, with his armies defeating Emperor Theophilos and sacking the city of Amorium. The Amorium campaign was celebrated, and became a cornerstone of caliphal propaganda. October 796, or in AH179 and his parents were the Caliph Harun al-Rashid and Marida, an otherwise unknown slave concubine. Marida was born in Kufa, but her family hailed from Soghdia, as an adult, including during his caliphate, he was commonly called by his kunya, Abu Ishaq. Al-Tabari describes the adult Abu Ishaq as fair-complexioned, with a beard the hair tips of which were red and the end of which was square and streaked with red. As one of Haruns younger sons, Abu Ishaq was initially of little consequence, during his stay in Mecca, his troops defeated and captured a pro-Alid leader who had raided the pilgrim caravans. He also led the pilgrimage in the year, but no details are known. 814/5, Abu Ishaq began forming his corps of Turkish troops, the nature and identity of al-Mutasims Turkish slave soldiers is a controversial subject, with both the ethnic label and the slave status of its members disputed. Al-Tabari mentions that in 819 Abu Ishaq commanded a force sent against some Kharijite rebels, during this campaign, one of the Turkish ghilmān placed himself between a Kharijite lancer and the future caliph, shouting, Recognize me. To express his appreciation, Abu Ishaq on that same day granted this man the name Ashinas, Egypt had just been brought back under caliphal authority and pacified after the tumults of the civil war by Ibn Tahir, but the situation remained volatile. When Abu Ishaqs governor, Umayr ibn al-Walid, tried to raise taxes, in 830, Umayr tried to forcibly subdue the rebels, but was ambushed and killed along with many of his troops
19.
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
20.
2006 al-Askari mosque bombing
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The 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing occurred at the al-Askari mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra, on February 22,2006, at about 6,44 a. m. local time. The attack on the mosque, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, is not claimed by any group, the mosque was severely damaged, but none were injured in the blast. On February 22,2006, at 6,44 a. m. explosions occurred at al-Askari Mosque, effectively destroying its golden dome, several men wearing military uniforms, had earlier entered the mosque, tied up the guards there and set explosives, resulting in the blast. Two bombs were set off by five to seven men dressed as personnel of the Iraqi special forces who entered the shrine during the morning, no injuries were reported following the bombing. However, the wall of the shrine was damaged by the bombs, causing the dome to collapse. Following the blast, American and Iraqi forces surrounded the shrine, five police officers responsible for protecting the mosque were taken into custody. The dome had been repaired by April 2009 and the shrine reopened to visitors, no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on the mosque. Abu Qudama confessed to taking part in the attack on al-Askari mosque in Samarra, the group then spent the rest of the night rigging the mosque with bombs. At dawn the next day, they detonated the explosives, bringing down the dome, in May 2007, also Iraqi officials blamed Al Qaeda of the attack. Before his death, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi listed among his goals the incitement of a war between Iraqs Shiites and Sunnis. In September 2006, Iraqi officials announced the capture of Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi in connection with the bombing, al-Badri was killed in August 2007. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the United States and Israel for the attack and he claimed that these heinous acts are committed by a group of Zionists and occupiers that have failed. As a result of the bombing, there was widespread violence throughout Iraq, according to the Sunni Clerical Association of Muslim Scholars,168 mosques were attacked in the two days following the bombing, while ten imams were murdered and fifteen others kidnapped. The Shiite controlled Interior Ministry said it could only confirm figures for Baghdad, the normal daily patrols of US coalition forces and Iraqi security forces were temporarily suspended in Baghdad during the few days following the bombing. In Najaf, shops were closed, while residents gathered at the citys 1920 Revolution Square for demonstrations, in Al Diwaniyah, all mosques, shops and markets were closed. Three Sunni Muslim clerics were shot dead by Shia militiamen, groups of armed men in civil vehicles seen in the streets. Up to 21 Sunni mosques were attacked in reprisals for the bombing, the attacks included shootings and acts of arson. Three mosques were destroyed by explosives
21.
Al-Mansur
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Al-Mansur or Abu Jafar Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Mansur was the second Abbasid Caliph reigning from 136 AH to 158 AH and succeeding his brother Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah. Al-Mansur is generally regarded as the founder of the Abbasid Caliphate, one of the largest polities in world history. He is also known for founding the city of Madinat al-Salam which was to become the core of imperial Baghdad. Al-Mansur was born at the home of the Abbasid family after their emigration from the Hejaz in 95 AH and he reigned from Dhu al-Hijjah 136 AH until Dhu al-Hijjah 158 AH. In 762 he founded as new residence and palace city Madinat as-Salam. Al-Mansur was concerned with the solidity of his regime after the death of his brother Abul Abbas, in 754 he defeated Abdallah ibn Alis bid for the Caliphate, and in 755 he arranged the assassination of Abu Muslim. When Isa ibn Musa, al-Mansurs intended successor, fell under suspicion of corruption, al-Mahdi was appointed in his stead, like his elder brother Saffah he wanted to unite the land, so he got rid of all of his opposition. It was under al-Mansur that a committee, mostly made up of Syriac-speaking Christians, was set up in Baghdad with the purpose of translating extant Greek works into Arabic. Due to the Abbasids orientation toward the East, many Persians came to play a role in the Empire. This was in contrast to the preceding Umayyad era, in which non-Arabs were kept out of these affairs. In 756, al-Mansur sent over 4,000 Arab mercenaries to assist the Chinese in the An Shi Rebellion against An Lushan, after the war, al-Mansur was referred to as A-pu-cha-fo in the Chinese Tang Annals. Al-Mansur died in 775 on his way to Mecca to make hajj and he was buried somewhere along the way in one of hundreds of graves dug in order to hide his body from the Umayyads. He was succeeded by his son, al-Mahdi, according to a number of sources, Abu Hanifa an-Numan was imprisoned by al-Mansur. There is also an account of foreboding verses al-Mansur saw written on the wall just before his death, when al-Mansur died, the caliphates treasury contained 600,000 dirhams and fourteen million dinars. In 2008, MBC1 depicted the life and leadership of al-Mansur in a series aired during the holy month of Ramadan. Masudi, The Meadows of Gold, The Abbasids, transl, Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone, Kegan Paul, London and New York,1989 Kennedy, Hugh, When Baghdad Ruled The Muslim World, Cambridge, Da Capo Press,2004
22.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
23.
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
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Baghdad
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Baghdad is the capital of the Republic of Iraq. The population of Baghdad, as of 2016, is approximately 8,765,000 making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab world, and the second largest city in Western Asia. Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century, within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic world. This, in addition to housing several key institutions, garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the Centre of Learning. Throughout the High Middle Ages, Baghdad was considered to be the largest city in the world with a population of 1,200,000 people. The city was destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state in 1938, in contemporary times, the city has often faced severe infrastructural damage, most recently due to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent Iraq War that lasted until December 2011. In recent years, the city has been subjected to insurgency attacks. As of 2012, Baghdad was listed as one of the least hospitable places in the world to live, the site where the city of Baghdad developed has been populated for millennia. By the 8th century AD, several villages had developed there, including a Persian hamlet called Baghdad, the name is of Indo-European origin and a Middle Persian compound of Bagh god and dād given by, translating to Bestowed by God or Gods gift. In Old Persian the first element can be traced to boghu and is related to Slavic bog god, a similar term in Middle Persian is the name Mithradāt, known in English by its Hellenistic form Mithridates, meaning gift of Mithra. There are a number of locations in the wider region whose names are compounds of the word bagh, including Baghlan. The name of the town Baghdati in Georgia shares the same etymological origins, when the Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur, founded a completely new city for his capital, he chose the name Madinat al-Salaam or City of Peace. This was the name on coins, weights, and other official usage. By the 11th century, Baghdad became almost the exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis, after the fall of the Umayyads, the first Muslim dynasty, the victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital whence they could rule. They chose a site north of the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon, on 30 July 762, the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city, mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic empire under the Abbasids. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying, This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward. The citys growth was helped by its excellent location, based on at least two factors, it had control over strategic and trading routes along the Tigris, the abundance of water in a dry climate
25.
Wilferd Madelung
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Wilferd Ferdinand Madelung is a scholar of Islam. He was born in Stuttgart, Germany, where he completed his education at Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium. His family moved to the United States in 1947, in 1952, he went to Egypt and stayed there for a year. During his stay, the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, initiated by the Free Officers and he also met Ihsan Abbas, the famous scholar of Islamic history. On leaving Egypt he went back to Germany and completed his Ph. D in 1957, in 1958 he was sent to Iraq by the German government to work at its embassy there. Shortly after his arrival in Baghdad, Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim overthrew the regime in the military coup known as the 14 July Revolution. Madelung stayed in Iraq two more years, subsequently, he taught at the University of Chicago. Madelung was Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford from 1978 to 1998 and he has written extensively on the early history of Islam, as well as on Islamic sects such as the Shia and the Ismailis. He has served on the boards of several academic journals including the Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies. - The Succession to Muhammad, Cambridge University Press,1997 Madelung, W. and Walker, - An Ismaili Heresiography, Leiden,1998 Madelung, W. and Walker, P. - The Advent of the Fatimids, A Contemporary Shii Witness, I. B
26.
Free will
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Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action. It is closely linked to the concepts of responsibility, praise, guilt, sin and it is also connected with the concepts of advice, persuasion, deliberation, and prohibition. Traditionally, only actions that are freely willed are seen as deserving credit or blame, There are numerous different concerns about threats to the possibility of free will, varying by how exactly it is conceived, which is a matter of some debate. Some conceive free will to be the capacity to make choices in which the outcome has not been determined by past events, determinism suggests that only one course of events is possible, which is inconsistent with the existence of such free will. This problem has been identified in ancient Greek philosophy, and remains a focus of philosophical debate. In contrast, compatibilists hold that free will is compatible with determinism, compatibilists thus consider the debate between libertarians and hard determinists over free will vs determinism a false dilemma. Different compatibilists offer very different definitions of free will even means. Contemporary compatibilists instead identify free will as a capacity, such as to direct ones behavior in a way responsive to reason. The underlying questions are whether we have control over our actions, and if so, what sort of control and these questions predate the early Greek stoics, and some modern philosophers lament the lack of progress over all these millennia. On one hand, humans have a sense of freedom. On the other hand, a feeling of free will could be mistaken. The conflict between intuitively felt freedom and natural law arises when either causal closure or physical determinism is asserted, with causal closure, no physical event has a cause outside the physical domain, and with physical determinism, the future is determined entirely by preceding events. The puzzle of reconciling free will with a universe is known as the problem of free will or sometimes referred to as the dilemma of determinism. This dilemma leads to a dilemma as well, How are we to assign responsibility for our actions if they are caused entirely by past events. Compatibilists maintain that mental reality is not of itself causally effective, classical compatibilists have addressed the dilemma of free will by arguing that free will holds as long as we are not externally constrained or coerced. Modern compatibilists make a distinction between freedom of will and freedom of action, that is, separating freedom of choice from the freedom to enact it, given that humans all experience a sense of free will, some modern compatibilists think it is necessary to accommodate this intuition. Compatibilists often associate freedom of will with the ability to make rational decisions, a different approach to the dilemma is that of incompatibilists, namely, that if the world is deterministic then, our feeling that we are free to choose an action is simply an illusion. Metaphysical libertarianism is the form of incompatibilism which posits that determinism is false, yet even with physical indeterminism, arguments have been made against libertarianism in that it is difficult to assign Origination
27.
Hashemites
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The House of Hashim, better known as the Hashemites Hashmi, are the royal family of the Hejaz, Iraq, and Jordan. Their eponymous ancestor is Hashim ibn Abd Manaf, great-grandfather of the Islamic prophet and his sons Abdullah and Faisal assumed the thrones of Jordan and Iraq in 1921. The dynasty is the oldest ruling dynasty in the Islamic World, the early history of the Hashemites saw them in a continuous struggle against the Umayyads for control over who would be the caliph or successor to Muhammad. The Umayyads were of the tribe as the Hashemites, but a different clan. After the overthrow of the Umayyads, the Abbasids would present themselves as representatives of the Hashemites, as they claimed descent from Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, an uncle of Muhammad. Muhammads father had died before he was born, and his mother died while he was a child, so Muhammad was raised by his uncle Abu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, chief of the Hashemites. From the 10th century onwards, the sharif of Mecca and its Emir was, by traditional agreement, before World War I, Hussein bin Ali of the Hashemite Dhawu-Awn clan ruled the Hejaz on behalf of the Ottoman sultan. For some time it had been the practice of the Sublime Porte to appoint the Emir of Mecca from among a group of candidates. In 1908, Hussein bin Ali was appointed to the Emirate of Mecca and he found himself increasingly at odds with the Young Turks in control at Istanbul, while he strove to secure his familys position as hereditary Emirs. Sharif Hussein bin Ali rebelled against the rule of the Ottomans during the Arab Revolt of 1916. Between 1917 and 1924, after the collapse of Ottoman power, Hussein bin Ali ruled an independent Hejaz, of which he proclaimed himself king and his supporters are sometimes referred to as Sharifians or the Sharifian party. Hussein bin Alis chief rival in the Arabian Peninsula, the king of the Najd, Ibn Saud, annexed the Hejaz in 1925 and established his own son, Faysal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the region was later incorporated into Saudi Arabia. Hussein bin Ali had five sons, Ali, who succeeded to the throne of Hejaz before its loss to the Saud family in 1925. Abdullah, became the amir of Transjordan in 1921 and king of Jordan in 1946, Faisal, briefly proclaimed King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria in 1920, became King of Iraq in 1921. Prince Zeid bin Hussein, who moved to Jordan when his brothers grandson, King Faisal II of Iraq, was overthrown, hassan, died at a young age. Line of succession to the Jordanian throne Line of succession to the Iraqi throne Hashemite Lineage
28.
Banu Hashim
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Banū Hāshim is a clan in the Quraysh tribe with a unique maternal bloodline of Israelite ancestry through Salma bint Amr of Banu Najjar. This makes Banu Hashim both an Ishmaelite and Israelite tribe, the Islamic prophet, Muhammad was a member of this Arab tribe, his great-grandfather was Hashim ibn Abd Manaf, for whom the tribe is named. Members of this clan are referred to as Hashemites, descendants of Muhammed usually carry the titles Sayyid, Syed, Hashmi, Sayed and Sharif, or the Ashraf clan. Today, two sovereign monarchs - Abdullah II of Jordan and Muhammad VI of Morocco and erstwhile royal family of Libya are considered to be a part of Banu Hashim, amongst pre-Islamic Arabs, people classified themselves according to their tribe, their clan, and then their house/family. There were two major tribal kinds, the Adnanites and the Qahtanites, Banu Hashim is one of the clans of the Quraysh tribe, and is an Adnanite tribe. The House of Abdul-Muttalib of Banu Hashim comprised nobility in pre-Islamic Mecca, with time, the Kaaba had come to be occupied by some hundreds of idols. It was into the House Abd al-Muttalib of Banu Hashim of Quraysh that Muhammad was born, at the age of 40, his establishment of Islam set him at odds with the established powers in Mecca. After 13 years, the Muslim community of Mecca migrated to the city of Yathrib to avoid their often murderous persecution by the non-believers of Mecca, with the conquest of Mecca, the city was captured by the army of Islam. The Kaabah was cleansed of idols and became the centre of pilgrimage for Muslims, the two major lines of descent of Muhammad are those of his two grandsons, Al-Hasan and Al-Husain, born of the union of his daughter Fatimah and his cousin and son-in-law Ali. Muhammad besought the love of the Muslims on his grandsons, thus their descendants have become spiritual aristocracy among the Muslims, the descendants of Muhammads grandsons are known by the titles of sayed, sayyid, syed and sharif. Although not 100% complete in its scope the resulting Kitab al-Ashraf, kept at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul is one of the best sources of evidence of descent from Muhammad
29.
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
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God
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In monotheism, God is conceived of as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith. The concept of God as described by most theologians includes the attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, divine simplicity, many theologians also describe God as being omnibenevolent and all loving. Furthermore, some religions attribute only a purely grammatical gender to God, incorporeity and corporeity of God are related to conceptions of transcendence and immanence of God, with positions of synthesis such as the immanent transcendence of Chinese theology. God has been conceived as personal or impersonal. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator, in pantheism, God is the universe itself. In atheism, God is not believed to exist, while God is deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism, God has also been conceived as the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable existent. Many notable philosophers have developed arguments for and against the existence of God, there are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about Gods identity and attributes. In the ancient Egyptian era of Atenism, possibly the earliest recorded monotheistic religion, this deity was called Aten, premised on being the one true Supreme Being and creator of the universe. In the Hebrew Bible and Judaism, He Who Is, I Am that I Am, in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, God, consubstantial in three persons, is called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Judaism, it is common to refer to God by the titular names Elohim or Adonai, in Islam, the name Allah is used, while Muslims also have a multitude of titular names for God. In Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a concept of God. In Chinese religion, God is conceived as the progenitor of the universe, intrinsic to it, other religions have names for God, for instance, Baha in the Baháí Faith, Waheguru in Sikhism, and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism. The earliest written form of the Germanic word God comes from the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus, the English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic * ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form * ǵhu-tó-m was likely based on the root * ǵhau-, in the English language, the capitalized form of God continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic God and gods in polytheism. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism, God is also given a proper name, in many translations of the Bible, when the word LORD is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton. Allāh is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians and Jews meaning The God, Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism. Mazda, or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå and it is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā, means intelligence or wisdom. Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European mn̩sdʰeh1, literally meaning placing ones mind, Waheguru is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God
31.
Moses in Islam
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Mûsâ ibn Amram known as Moses in the Hebrew Bible, considered a prophet, messenger, and leader in Islam, is the most frequently mentioned individual in the Quran. The Quran states that Moses was sent by God to the Pharaoh of Egypt, Moses is mentioned more in the Quran than any other individual, and his life is narrated and recounted more than that of any other prophet. According to Islam, all Muslims must have faith in every prophet and messenger which includes Moses, the Quran states, Also mention in the Book Moses, for he was specially chosen, and he was a messenger a prophet. And we called him from the side of Mount, and made him draw near to Us. And, out of Our Mercy, We gave him his brother Aaron, Moses is considered to be a prophetic predecessor to Muhammad. Generally attributed the tale of Moses as a parallel to the life of Muhammad. Islamic literature also describes a parallel between their believers and the incidents occurred in their lifetimes. The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is considered similar to the migration made by the followers of Muhammad, moreover, according to Islamic tradition, Moses was one of the many prophets Muhammad met in the event of the Miraj, when he ascended through the seven heavens. Moses is further revered in Islamic literature, which expands upon the incidents of his life, according to Islamic tradition, Musa was born into a family of Israelites living in Egypt. Of his family, Islamic tradition generally names his father Imran, corresponding to the Amram of the Hebrew Bible, Islam states that Moses was born in a time when the ruling Pharaoh had enslaved the Israelites after the time of the prophet Joseph. Islamic literature further states that the experts of economics in Pharaohs court advised him that killing the male infants of the Israelites, therefore, they suggested that the male infants should be killed in one year but spared the next. Aaron was born in the year in which infants were spared, according to Islamic tradition, Mosess mother suckled him secretly during this period. The Quran states that when they were in danger of being caught God inspired her to put him in a basket and set him adrift on the Nile and she instructed her daughter to follow the course of the ark and to report back to her. As the daughter followed the ark along the riverbank, Moses was discovered by the Pharaohs wife, Asiya, the Quran states that when Asiya ordered wet nurses for Moses, Moses refused to be breastfed. Islamic tradition states that this was because God had forbidden Moses from being fed by any wet nurse as to reunite his mother with him. His sister worried that Moses had not been fed for some time, therefore, she appeared to the Pharaoh and informed him that she knew someone, Islamic tradition states that after being questioned, she was ordered to bring the woman being discussed. The sister brought their mother who fed Moses and thereafter she was appointed as the wet nurse of Moses, according to Israiliyat hadith, during his childhood when Moses was playing on Pharaohs lap and he grabbed the Pharaohs beard. This action prompted the Pharaoh to consider Moses as the Israelite who would overthrow him, the Pharaoh decided to kill Moses but stopped after the Pharaohs wife interceded and argued that he was just an infant, and due to her intercession the Pharaoh decided to test Moses
32.
Jesus in Islam
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The Quran and most Hadith mention Jesus to have been born a pure boy to Mary as the result of virginal conception, similar to the event of the Annunciation in Christianity. Like all prophets in Islamic thought, Jesus is also called a Muslim, in Islam, Jesus is believed to have been the precursor to Muhammad, attributing the name Ahmad to someone who would follow Jesus. Muslim tradition believes Jesus will return to earth near the Day of Judgment to restore justice, the narrative has been recounted with variations and additions by Islamic historians over the centuries. Secluded in a church, she is joined by a man named Joseph. Mary is later described as a widow, without mention of a previous husband, the account of the birth of Jesus follows the Qurans narrative, adding that the birth occurred in Bethlehem beside a palm tree with a manger. The work The Meadows of Gold by Al-Masudi, an Arab historian and geographer, al-Athir writes about how Jesus as a young boy helped to detect a thief, and about bringing a boy back to life which Jesus was accused of having killed. Al-Athir makes a point believing Marys pregnancy to have lasted not nine or eight months and his basis is that this understanding is closer to where the Quran says Mary conceived him and retired with him to a distant place. The virgin birth of Jesus is announced to Mary by the angel Gabriel while Mary is being raised in the Temple after having been pledged to God by her mother. Gabriel states she is honored over all women of all nations and has brought her glad tidings of a holy son. A hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah, one of the earliest companions of Muhammad, quotes Muhammad, a baby who is touched like that gives a cry. The only exceptions are Mary and her son, the angel declares the son is to be named Jesus, the Messiah, proclaiming he will be called a great prophet, being the Spirit of God and Word of God, who will receive al-Injīl. The angel tells Mary that Jesus will speak in infancy and, Mary, responding how she could conceive and have a child when no man had touched her, was told by the angel that God can decree what He wills, and it shall come to pass. A spirit from none other than God, So that he raise the dead. Mary, overcome by the pains of childbirth, is provided a stream of water under her feet from which she could drink, as Mary carried baby Jesus back to the temple, she was asked by the temple elders about the child. Having been commanded by Gabriel to a vow of silence, she points to the infant Jesus and the infant proclaims. Peace be upon me, the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive. Jesus speaking from the cradle is mentioned as one of six miracles in the Quran, the speaking infant narrative is also found in the Syriac Infancy Gospel, a pre-Islamic sixth century work. Many moral stories and miraculous events of Jesus youth are mentioned in Qisas al-anbiya, books composed over the centuries about pre-Islamic prophets and it is generally agreed that Jesus spoke Aramaic, the common language of Judea in the first century AD and the region at-large. Tradition believes Jesus mission was to the people of Israel, his status as a prophet confirmed by numerous miracles, from this basis reflected upon all previous prophets through the lens of Muslim identity, Jesus is no more than a messenger repeating the same message of the ages
33.
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
34.
Battle of Siffin
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The Battle of Siffin occurred during the First Fitna, or first Muslim civil war, with the main engagement taking place from July 26 to July 28. It was fought between First Imam of Shi‘as and the Fourth Caliph of Sunnis, Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Islamic state expanded very quickly under Muhammad and the first three caliphs. As new areas joined the Islamic polity, they benefited from free trade while trading with other areas under Islamic rule, so as to encourage commerce. The Muslims paid Zakat on their wealth to the poor, since the Constitution of Medina was drafted by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the Jews and the Christians continued to use their own laws under Islamic rule and had their own judges. Therefore, they paid for policing for the protection of their property. Before Muhammad united the Arabs, the Arabs had been divided and the Byzantines and the Sassanid had their own client tribes that they used to pay to fight on their behalf. In 639, Muawiyah I was appointed the Governor of Syria by Umar after his elder brother Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan died in a plague and this resulted in the defeat of the Byzantine navy at the Battle of the Masts in 655, opening up the Mediterranean. 500 Byzantine ships were destroyed in the battle, and Emperor Constans II was almost killed, under the instructions of the caliph Uthman ibn al-Affan, Muawiyah then prepared for the siege of Constantinople. The rapid Muslim conquest of Syria and Egypt and the consequent Byzantine losses in manpower, the Sassanid Dynasty in Persia had already collapsed. Each wanted the capital of the newly established Islamic state to be in their area, previously, the second caliph Umar was very firm on the governors and his spies kept an eye on them. If he felt that a governor or a commander was becoming attracted to wealth or did not meet the required administrative standards, early Muslim armies stayed in encampments away from cities because Umar feared that they might become attracted to wealth and luxury. Some cities also had agreements with the Muslims, such as during the Siege of Jerusalem in 637 CE. As Uthman ibn al-Affan grew older, Marwan I, a relative of Muawiyah I, slipped into the vacuum and became his secretary, slowly assuming more control, Marwan I had previously been excluded from positions of responsibility. Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, the son of Abu Bakr and the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muhammad bin Abi Hudhaifa. After the Battle of the Camel, Ali returned from Basra to Kufa in Rajab of 36 A. H, the Iraqis wanted the capital of the newly established Islamic State to be in Kufa so as to bring revenues into their area and oppose Syria. They convinced Ali to come to Kufa and establish the capital in Kufa, Ali listened to them and moved the capital to Kufa. Ali ibn Abi Talib tried to settle matters peacefully by sending an envoy to Syria and he chose Jarir, who was the chief of Banu Bajila and governor of Hamdan. But Muawiya refused giving allegiance to Ali until he punished men in his Army who murdered Uthman, in Syria, incitement to commotion continued unabated
35.
Battle of the Camel
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The Battle of the Camel, sometimes called the Battle of Jamal or the Battle of Bassorah, took place at Basra, Iraq on 7 November 656. Aisha heard about the killing of Uthman, the third Caliph, at the time she was on a pilgrimage to Mecca. It was on this journey that she became so angered by his death, and the naming of Ali as the fourth caliph. She gained support of the big city of Basra and, for the first time and this battle is now known as the First Fitna, or Muslim civil war. Talhah and Zubeir asked Ali for permission to make the pilgrimage and he granted it and they departed. The Medina people wanted to know Ali’s point of view about war against Muslims, by asking his view about Muawiyah I and his refusal to give Ali his allegiance. So they sent Ziyad Bin Hanzalah of Tamim who was set on getting the caliphate of Ali because Uthman had died, however, they went to Basra, and not Medina where the crime happened. He went back and told the people in Medina that Ali wanted to confront Muawiyah, in Iraq many people hated the Syrians following the Byzantine-Sassanid Wars. Aisha, Talhah and Zubayr ibn al-Awam set off from Makah on their way to Iraq to ask Ali to arrest Uthman ibn Affans killers, everyone then went to Basra, which was the beginning of the first civil war in Islam. Some historians put the number at around 3000 people, Zubair and Talha then went out to meet Ali. Not all Basra was with them, bani Bakr, the tribe once led by the second Caliph, joined the army of Ali. Bani Temim decided to remain neutral, some chieftains of the Kufa tribes contacted their tribes living in Basra. A chieftain contacted Ali to settle the matter, Ali did not want to fight and agreed to negotiate. He then contacted Aisha and spoke to her, Is it not wise to shed the blood of five thousand for the punishment of five hundred and she agreed to settle the matter. Ali then met Talha and Zubair and told them about the prophecy of Muhammad, Alis cousin Zubair said to him, What a tragedy that the Muslims who had acquired the strength of a rock are going to be smashed by colliding with one another. Talha and Zubair did not want to fight and left the field, everyone was happy except the people who had killed Uthman and the supporters of the Qurra, who later became the Khawarij. They thought that if a settlement was reached, they would not be safe, the Qurra launched a night attack and started burning the tents. Ali tried to restrain his men but no one was listening, everyone thought that the other party had committed breach of trust
36.
Imam
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Imam is the name of an Islamic leadership position. It is most commonly used as the title of a leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, serve as community leaders, the Sunni branch of Islam does not have imams in the same sense as the Shia, an important distinction often overlooked by those outside of the Islamic faith. Friday sermon is most often given by an appointed imam, all mosques have an imam to lead the prayers, even though it may sometimes just be a member from the gathered congregation rather than an officially appointed salaried person. Women imams may only lead amongst female-only congregations, the person that should be chosen, according to Hadith, is one who has most knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah and is of good character, the age being irrelevant. The term is used for a recognized religious scholar or authority in Islam, often for the founding scholars of the four Sunni madhhabs. It may also refer to the Muslim scholars who created the analytical sciences related to Hadith or it may refer to the heads of the Prophet Muhammads family in their generational times, Imams have a meaning more central to belief, referring to leaders of the community. Twelver and Ismaili Shia believe that these imams are chosen by God to be perfect examples for the faithful and they also believe that all the imams chosen are free from committing any sin, impeccability which is called ismah. These leaders must be followed since they are appointed by God, here follows a list of the Twelvers imams, Fatimah, also Fatimah al-Zahraa, daughter of Muhammed, is also considered infallible but not an Imam. Shia believe that the last Imam will one day return, see Imamah and List of Ismaili imams for Ismaili imams. At times, imams have held both secular and religious authority and this was the case in Oman among the Kharijite or Ibadi sects. At times, the imams were elected, at other times the position was inherited, as with the Yaruba dynasty from 1624 and 1742. The Imamate of Futa Jallon was a Fulani state in West Africa where secular power alternated between two lines of hereditary Imams, or almami, in the Zaidi Shiite sect, imams were secular as well as spiritual leaders who held power in Yemen for more than a thousand years. In 897, a Zaidi ruler, al-Hadi ilal-Haqq Yahya, founded a line of such imams, ruhollah Khomeini and his successor Ali Khamenei are officially referred to as Imams in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Several Iranian places and institutions are named Imam Khomeini, including a city, an airport, a hospital. Women as imams Mufti Encyclopædia Britannica Online, center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University. Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Muslim world, vol.1, encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Translated by Sherrard, Liadain, Sherrard, Philip, london, Kegan Paul International in association with Islamic Publications for The Institute of Ismaili Studies
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The Fourteen Infallibles
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The Fourteen Infallibles in Twelver Shia Islam are the Islamic prophet Muhammad, his daughter Fatima Zahra, and the Twelve Imams. All are considered to be infallible under the concept of Ismah. Accordingly, they have the power to commit sin but by their nature are able to avoid doing so, the Infallibles are believed to follow only Gods desire in their actions because of their supreme righteousness, consciousness, and love for God. They are also regarded as being immune to error in matters, in calling people to religion. Shias believe the Fourteen Infallibles are superior to the rest of creation, Ahl al-Bayt Ahl al-Kisa Imamah Ismah Shia Islam Twelve Imams Twelvers Encyclopedias Ahmed, M. Mukarram. The Concept of Mahdi in Twelver Shiism, encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. The Divine Guide in Early Shiism, The Sources of Esotericism in Islam, the Spirituality of Shii Islam, Belief and Practices. Ahl Al-Bayt The Celestial Beings on the Earth, archived from the original on October 6,2014. Kegan Paul International in association with Islamic Publications for The Institute of Ismaili Studies, theology of Discontent, The Ideological Foundation of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The Shiite Religion, A History of Islam in Persia and Irak, a Brief Biography of Hazrat Fatima. A Brief Biography of Imam Hasan al-Askari, archived from the original on February 20,2015. Muslim Identities, An Introduction to Islam, dictionary of Qur’ānic Terms and Concepts. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, Dabashi, Hamid, Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza, expectation of the Millennium, Shiism in History. The life of Imām Zayn al ‘Abidin, archived from the original on August 16,2014. The Life of Imam Muhammad Al-Jawad, archived from the original on July 13,2014. The scale of wisdom, a compendium of Shia Hadith, imamate, The vicegerency of the Holy Prophet. The Just Ruler in Shīʻite Islam, The Comprehensive Authority of the Jurist in Imamite Jurisprudence, the Most Learned of the Shia, The Institution of the Marja Taqlid
38.
Vizier
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A vizier is a high-ranking political advisor or minister. In modern usage, the term has been used for ministers in the Arab world, Iran, Turkey, East Africa Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It is also used in the only absolute Asian monarchy. It is given to the current King Hassanal Bolkiahs second brother, in Brunei, an ordinary vizier is known as Pengiran Temenggong. The word entered into English in 1562 from the Turkish vezir, Wazir itself has two possible etymologies, The most accepted etymology is that it is derived from the Arabic wazara, from the Semitic root W-Z-R. The word is mentioned in the Quran, where Aaron is described as the wazir of Moses, on the other hand, the presence of a Middle Persian word vizīr or vicīr, cognate to the Avestan vīcira, meaning decreer or arbitrator, could possibly indicate an Indo-European origin. In modern Turkey, there is no usage of vezir for any ministry as suggested in the description above, the Muslim office of vizier, which spread from the Persians, Turks, Arabs and Mongols and neighboring peoples, arose under the first Abbasid caliphs. The vizier stood between sovereign and subjects, representing the former in all matters touching the latter, if one such vizier is the prime minister, he may hold the title of Grand Vizier or another title. In Al-Andalus appointed by the Caliph of Cordoba, similarly in many of the emirates and sultanates of the taifas which the caliphate was broken up into. In Muslim Egypt, the most populous Arab country, Under the Fatimid Caliphs. Again since the end of Ottoman rule, remarkably since 1857 (i. e. before the last Wali, Ismail Pasha, was raised Khedive. During the days of the Ottoman Empire, the Grand Vizier was the—often de facto minister, second only to the Sultan and was the leader of the Divan. Vizier was also the title of some Ottoman provincial governors, use of the title indicating a greater degree of autonomy for the province involved. In the Sherifian kingdom of Morocco, a Sadr al-Azam was in office until 22 November 1955, Grand Vizier, Chief Minister or Prime Minister. Wazir al-Amala, Minister for the Interior, Wazir al-Bahr, Minister of the Sea, i. e. for the Navy/ Marine. Wazir al-Harb, Minister for the Army or Minister for War, Wazir al-Qalam, Minister of the Pen. In Oman the Hami/Sultans Chief minister was styled Wazir till 1966, Viziers to the Sultans of Zanzibar, since 1890 filled by British, also known as First ministers, the British Resident s, an extremely direct form of indirect rule. Grand Viziers to the Sultan of Sokoto – this is however disputed, the title Waziri is apparently a derivative of this word, and is a highly regarded chieftaincy title in most of northern Nigeria
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Dirham
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Dirham, dirhem or dirhm is a unit of currency in several Arab states and formerly, the related unit of mass in the Ottoman Empire and Persian states. The name derives from the ancient Greek currency the drachma, in the late Ottoman Empire, the standard dirham was 3.207 g,400 dirhem equal one oka. In Egypt in 1895, it was equivalent to 47.661 troy grains, there is currently a movement within the Islamic world to revive the Dirham as a unit of mass for measuring silver, although the exact value is disputed. The word dirham comes from drachma, the Greek coin, the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire controlled the Levant and traded with Arabia, circulating the coin there in pre-Islamic times and afterward. It was this currency which was adopted as an Arab word, then near the end of the 7th century the coin became an Islamic currency bearing the name of the sovereign
