Encyclopaedia Of Islam Research Articles

More about Adiabene

This paper draws attention to a few objects and items of information which should have been included in a previous study on Nineveh and its neighbourhood during the Post-Assyrian and Greco-Parthian periods (Reade 1998). For earlier periods, see now the Reallexikon der Assyriologie entry on Nineveh (Reade 2000), although this regrettably cites only once an important volume of papers edited by Parpola and Whiting (1997); for later periods the Mosul entry in the Encyclopaedia of Islam is invaluable (Honigmann and Bosworth 1991). References below to museum objects, archives, drawings and photographs are all to the collections of the British Museum; they are kept unless otherwise stated in the Department of the Ancient Near East (formerly Western Asiatic Antiquities), and are published by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.

10-12世紀における王権の象徴に関する一考察

According to Ibn Khaldun's the Muqqadima, “A sovereign's privileged symbol is his special paraphernalia. There is flag raising, beating of the drums and the blowing of trumpets and horns.” In a broad sense, nawba is the term used to designate a military musical band, but their early instruments were only drums. In other words, “beating drums” can replace nawba.The research in medieval Islamic studies has tended to emphasize not nawba but khutba (the address from the minbar in the mosque) and sikka (coinage). This brief article aims at analyzing chronologically the formation and the development of nawba from the Buwayhid to the Saljuqid period.According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition), nawba has the purpose to announce the prayer time by beating a drum in the gateways of governor's palaces and residences. Under the 'Abbasid dynasty, only the caliph had this privilege. In 945 (or 946), when the Buwayhid's sovereign Ahmad (later his title is Mu'izz al-Dawla, d. 967) entered Baghdad, the capital of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, he demanded that drums be beaten in the palaces. As a result, the privilege of nawba was granted to Mu'izz al-Dawla, in the form of the three-fold nawba, excepting madina al-salam (Baghdad). The Buwayhid's sovereigns, that is amir al-umara', bestowed the right of nawba on his subjects, and this nawba became the custom after the Adud al-Dawla (d. 982) period.In 1055, when the Saljuqid's sovereign Tughril-Bek (d. 1063) entered Baghdad, the Caliph bestowed the drum and trumpet upon him. With changes in the times, this right was granted to subjects. They freely beat their drums in the gateways of their residences or military tents to declare control over their domains. After that, in Persian the five-fold nawba (panj nowbat) came to mean insistence upon kingship.In this way, during the medieval Islamic period, the nawba was an important factor in considering kingship.

Iran and Islam

Students of Classical Islam Now Have Several Substantial English-language reference works at their disposal. Foremost among these is the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam (henceforth EI2) an imposing enterprise which attempts to cover all aspects of Islam in all lands from the time of the Prophet until the present. This noble ambition has carried the price of slow progress. Publication began in 1952 and after nearly half a century the work is still not complete. In the meantime The Encyclopedia of Religion and The Dictionary of the Middle Ages have appeared and been completed. Although the purview of these two works is much broader than the religion of Islam and the Islamic world, they contain many articles of considerable interest to Islamicists. Since the publication of its first fascicle in 1982, the Encyclopaedia Iranica has been supplementing these distinguished works, and eight volumes of a projected twenty have now been completed.

Islamic Art and Architecture in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.

The second edition of The Encyclopaedia of Islam (EI/2), published since 1954 by E.J. Brill in Leiden, is well known as an unparalleled scholarly reference for the history and culture of the Islamic lands. By late summer 1994, the Encyclopaedia had reached the entry Riḍā Shāh in the middle of the eighth volume. The volumes, each approximately 1000 pages long, are lodes of information about the people, places, events and ideas of Islamic history and thought; but simply by handling the volumes, a reader would never realize that the visual arts were an important component of Islamic culture. There are very few illustrations, none of them in color. Even to the most unsophisticated eye, EI/2 is a dense, ponderous, and user-antagonistic reference tool. Nevertheless, it is a useful resource for the history of art and architecture in the Islamic lands, particularly to those who already know something about Islamic civilization, although the reader must be an experienced miner to discover the ore-bearing strata.

Historiens et Archéologues: actes de la 3e session d'histoire médiévale de Carcassonne, 28 août—1 septembre 1990 (review)

178 Short notices Reprints of good books are always useful. But they can be twice as useful If they are accompanied by a few pages telling the reader what advances have been made since the date of first publication. John Melville-Jones Department of Classics and Ancient History University of Western Australia Gouzy, Nicolas, ed., Historiens et Archiologues: actes de la 3e session d histoire midiivale de Carcassonne, 28 aout—1 septembre 1990 (Heresis: collection d'birdsiologie ntedievale. Editions de textes— Recherche, No. 2), Berne, Peter Lang, 1992; paper; pp. 437; R.R.P. SF56.00. O n fhst consideration, it might seem curious that archaeology could offer much information about heresy. However, the present volume, clearly and excellently edited, with numerous fine monochrome illustrations and appropriate diagrams, will answer any doubters. The Centre P"n6 Nelli is active in researching and encouraging interest in the history of Catharism in southern France. Its journal Heresis, in association with which the present volume is published, amply reports its industry and research activity. There are twenty four papers in this collection, devoted to a wide variety of topics concerning southern French Catholic and Cathar life in the later Middle Ages. Five papers offer general reflections on the interconnections between archaeology and history. A similar number contribute to various projects seeking to establish more firmly the physical dimensions of life in the fortified residences of Languedoc in the later Middle Ages, with one essay on the urban topography, architecture, and art history of medieval Narbonne. Other papers cover the physical history and role of churches in the formation of medieval villages, funerary archaeology and anthropology, physical anthropology, the role such sciences as pollen analysis and the study of carbonised wood can play, subterranean food and water storage, pastoral activity, and transhumance. Perhaps more interesting to historians may be thefiveessays devoted to Montsegur, celebrated in connection with its mysterious lost treasure (see W . Birks and R. A. Gilbert, The Treasure of Montsigur: a study of the Cathar heresy and the nature ofthe Cathar secret [1987]) and the intriguing view that it might have been a Cathar 'last days' temple, rather than a fort as such (Femand Niel, Les Cathares de Montsigur [1973]). Several authors, by Short notices 179 way of asides, indicate then antipathy towards Niel's views. Careful sociological and physical examination confirms the normal function of a fort, but one at the centre of the clandestine resistance of the Cathars in the last days of the persecution (see esp. pp. 345, 352, 359, 382, 423). The detailed picture presented in this volume of the activity associated with the citadel of Montsfigur in its last agonies is a valuable and intriguingly concrete addition to the source materials avaUable to those interested in the saga of Catbarism in medieval Europe. The collection as a whole should appealto.thegrowing number of scholars interested in sources for medieval social conditions that go beyond the written word. John O. Ward Department of History Sydney University Lewis, Bernard, ed., 77je- world of Islam: faith, people, culture, London, Thames and Hudson, 1992; rev. ed.; paper; pp. 360; 490 illustrations; R.R.P. AUS$49.95. This is a reissue of the 1976 edition. Most of the contributors are first-rate scholars and well-known experts in thenfieldsand their treatments have, on the whole, stood the test of time. It is, however, unfortunate, that more extensive additions and/or revisions have not been made for the 1992 edition in view of the many new developments in Islamic studies symbolized by the new Encyclopaedia of Islam. Thus Roger M . Savory's contribution on Iran entided 'Land of the lion and the sun: the flowering of Iranian civilization', which relies on the unifying concept of the monarchy as one of the distinguishing features of the Iranian tradition within Islam, has been 'updated' awkwardly by adding a paragraph on the Shah's deposition and death in exile, and mentioning the establishment of the Islamic republic of Iran, but leaving out any discussion of the profound changes of the 1980s. This is clearly inadequate. H e concludes that: 'one of the most striking features of the Khumayni (sic) regime has been its policy of...

The Cherkess on Yugoslav Territory (A Supplement to the article “Cherkess” inthe Encyclopaedia of Islam)

(1991). The Cherkess on Yugoslav Territory (A Supplement to the article “Cherkess” in the Encyclopaedia of Islam) Central Asian Survey: Vol. 10, North Caucasus Issue, pp. 65-79.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam and its index

The Encyclopaedia of Islam and its index

Report on the encyclopaedia of Islam

The second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam (= EI2) was begun after World War II, when it was felt that a work originally conceived at the beginning of the century needed updating and in large measure rewriting. However, the new edition was to appear only in English and French instead of the English, French and German of the first one, and this has simplified production problems, although even now the delay in publication between the receipt of typescripts and actual publication is in considerable measure caused by the need to translate all material from English to French or vice-versa before articles can be IBM typed in Leiden as the first stage in printing. Of the editorial committee of the early 1950s, Gibb, Kramers, Levi-Provencal and Schacht, none now remains alive, and the present editors comprise C.E.Bosworth (University of Manchester), E.van Donzel (Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden), B.Lewis (Princeton University) and Ch.Pellat (University of Paris, Sorbonne). An executive committee, whose role is in fact an honorary rather than an active one, comprises prominent Western orientalists together with a number of associate members from the Islamic lands themselves. As with the first edition, Messrs E.J.Brill of Leiden supply the central secretarial service and act as publishers and printers.

Ibn Abi 'L-Surūr and His Works

Several biographical notices on the seventeenth-century Egyptian chronicler Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Muḥammad Abi ‘l-Surūr b. Muḥammad b. ‘Alī al-Bakrī al-Ṣiddīqī al-Miṣrī al-Shāfi’ī al-Wārthī al-Ash’arī sibṭ Abi ‘l-Ḥasan, better known as Ibn Abi ‘l-Surūr, have been written in more than one language, but most of them contain misleading, and sometimes erroneous, statements about his birth and death dates and works. The new edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, for instance, in its brief notice ‘al-Bakrī, b. Abi ‘l-Surūr’, states that this is the ‘name of two Arab historians of the notable family of Egyptian shaykhs of the Bakriyya ṭarīḳa’, viz. (1) Muḥammad b. Abi ‘l-Surūr b. Muḥammad b. ‘Alī al-Ṣiddīḳī al-Miṣrī, d. 1028/1619; (2) Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Abi ‘l-Surūr Shams al-Dīn Abū ‘Abdallāh, son of the above, b. c. 1005/1596, d. c. 1060/1650. While the entry ‘ al-Bakrī b. Abi ‘l-Surūr’ really refers to the first, it does not, as such, apply to the alleged second historian whose identity, supposed works, and relationship to the first have to be established. The notice, moreover, gives wrong dates and erroneously ascribes some of the works of Ibn Abi ‘l-Surūr to his supposed son.

Man, nafs, rūḥ, 'aql

This essay takes for granted articles in the Encyclopaedia of Islam and papers by D. B. Macdonald and W. E. Calverley but a brief summary may be allowed. Nafs and rūh were used loosely to mean almost anything connected with life, but acquired new meanings as the years went by. Men differed about the nature and activity of all three constituents of man. ‘Soul’ is almost the equivalent of nafs in its precise sense though it may be hard at times to decide if ‘self’ is not more appropriate. It is easier to admit the existence of soul than to define it for it has neither genus nor proprium; any definition is imperfect and any description inadequate. It is part of the world soul as intellect is part of the world intellect, it is part of the spirit of God, torn off by the instrumentality of intellect, it is simple, incorruptible, and unchangeable. Many were the suggestions; it is a compound of constituents (rukn), union of elements('unsur), a self-moving accident, hot spirit, a nature in perpetual motion. It is a living substance(jawhar) but is not in the body in the same way as rūh is. Another idea is close to a Jewish view that all souls are one and are made different by the influences of the spheres and stars through or by which they pass on their journey to earth. The threefold division of soul into vegetal, animal, and rational was known and may have something to do with the religious division into the soul at rest in faith, the censorious soul, and the lusting soul. Instead of censorious the meaning ‘changeable’ is also given.8 A variant is that a believer has three souls while a hypocrite and an unbeliever have each one.

Dustūr. A survey of the Constitutions of the Arab and Muslim States. Reprinted, with additional material, from the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam, Brill, Leiden, 1966, 124 pp.

Dustūr. A survey of the Constitutions of the Arab and Muslim States. Reprinted, with additional material, from the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam, Brill, Leiden, 1966, 124 pp.

The Political Attitudes of the Mu'tazilah

The following is an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of Mu'tazilite theology by looking at the political attitudes of its exponents. I am much indebted to H. S. Nyberg's pioneer work, notably his article Mu'tazila in the Encyclopedia of Islam and his edition of Kitāb al-Intiṣār. If different conclusions are reached, that is because his work has made possible a more radical estimate of the sources.

An Interpretation of The Different Accounts of the Visit of The Tamīm Delegation to the Prophet in A.H. 9

OF all the delegations that are said to have come to pay homage to the Prophet in Madina in A.H. 9, none received so much attention from Arab historians as the delegation of the trībe of Tamlm. They tell1 of a boasting competition between members of the delegation and representatives of the Prophet, which resulted in their defeat and subsequent conversion to Islam. This explanation of the conversion of the Tamīmīs, which was accepted in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2 does not appear, however, to be warranted by the circumstances. Moreover, the confusion apparent in the whole story casts grave doubt at least on its details as well as on the degree of importance usually assigned to it, and, furthermore, the poems connected with the story appear to be of later date.

SOME NOTEWORTHY MANUSCRIPTS OF THE POEMS OF ABU'L-ʿALĀʾ AL-MAʿARRĪ

A particular feature in the philological teaching of al-Tibrizi (for an account of whom see Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v., and Brockelmann, i, 33I, S., i, 492) was the great role allotted to the poetical works of his teacher, Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri. This predilection for Abu'l-'Alas work became traditional in the Baghdad school of philologists in the 6th/I2th century, who were mostly al-Tibrizi's pupils, or pupils of al-Tibrizi's pupils. It is therefore, no coincidence that the most important manuscripts of al-Ma'arri's poems come from members of this school. The legend runs that al-Tibrizi wanted to study al-Azhari's dictionary, al-Tahdhtb fi'l-Lugha, under the guidance of a teacher. He put the bulky volumes in a sack and carried them so poor was he from his native town of Tabriz to Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, where Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri, in his retreat, attracted pupils from distant countries by his fame as a poet and grammarian. That curious copy of al-Azhari's book could still be seen in the I3th century, or at least so people said, in one of the libraries of Baghdad. It looked as if it had long been in water. That was the effect of the sweat that penetrated through the sack during the long journey and made the leaves of the book wet. (Ibn al-Qifti, Inbdh alRuwdt fi Anbdh al-Nuhdt, quoted by Ibn Khallikan (Wiistenfeld), no. 8Io.) This copy of the Tahdhib al-Lugha belonging to al-Tibrizi, which he studied with Abu'l-'Ala', has not come down to us, and we are thus unable to test the truth of the story chemically. We have, however, other surviving documents to bear witness of al-Tibrizi's years of study with Abu'l-'Ala' and his veneration for the memory and the works of his master. We have several manuscripts of Abu'l-'Alas main poetical compositions, the Siqt al-Zand and the Luzim md Id yalzam, which are material evidence of courses given by al-Tibrizi on the works of Abu'l-'Ala', and at least one of them also of al-Tibrizi's studies under Abu'l-'Alra.

La science arabe et son rôle dans l'évolution scientifique mondiale

IT is only within the last half-century that systematic investigations have been made into the part played by Islam in the development of science. Earlier estimates of its importance were mainly conjectural and thus variable, religious prejudice tending to depreciation and the principle omne ignotum pro magnifico to exaggeration. One of the first serious attempts to set the inquiry upon a proper basis, by direct reference to original sources, was made by M. P. E. Berthelot, who in 1893 published the Arabic text of certain Muslim alchemical treatises in his "Chimie au Moyen Âge". Other very valuable pioneer work was carried out by E. Wiedemann (on Arabic chemistry and physics), M. Steinschneider (mainly bibliographical), H. Suter (on Muslim mathematicians), E. G. Browne, L. Leclerc and L. Choulant (medicine), and M. J. de Goeje (geography). More recently, Muslim chemistry and mineralogy have been closely studied by J. Ruska, H. E. Stapleton and P. Kraus; medicine (particularly ophthalmology) by M. Meyerhof; mathematics by Salih Zaki of Istanbul; and Muslim philosophic thought in general by Baron Carra de Vaux and De Lacy O'Leary. This list, though representative, includes only a small fraction of the large band of scholars to whom the publication of very numerous Arabic texts—with translations, commentaries, glossaries, notes, and all the other impedimenta of learning— is due. Complementing these labours, and indeed often their condition precedent, are such monumental works of reference as the "Encyclopaedia of Islam" (now successfully completed), C. Brockel-mann's "Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur", and G. Sarton's "Introduction to the History of Science". La science arabe et son role dans l'evolution scientifique mondiale Par Aldo Mieli. Avec quelques additions de Henri-Paul-Joseph Renaud Max Meyerhof Julius Ruska. Pp. xix + 388. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, Ltd., 1939.) 12.50 guilders.

A Persian Inscription on the Minaret of Saveh

HE Middle Ages are out of fashion at the present moment with archaeologists in the Near East, and the importance of prehistoric discoveries leaves little interest over for buried Islamic cities. By the time that such an interest may be expected to revive, one of the chief monuments of the early twelfth century in Persia will only too probably have been destroyed for ever. This is the minaret of Saveh (about 80 miles south-west of Tehran), built of and decorated from top to bottom with burnt bricks in a delicate tracery of geometric patterns and Cufic script. This minaret is mentioned in the Encyclopedia of Islam (p. 184, s.v. Sava): Dieulafoy dates it to the Ghaznavid period, but a comparison with a similar minaret at Khusrawgird (Khurasan A.H. 505, A.D. IIII) suggests that it is of the same period. At the time of writing the above, Professor Minorsky had not seen the text of the middle band of inscription on the minaret itself, and asked me, if possible, to go and examine it. It appears not to have been published hitherto, and corroborates his dating exactly: it gives part of the titles and the name of the prince of the time, viz. ... ed Dunya wa ed Din, Abu Shuja', Muhammad ibn Malikshah (A.D. 1117). There are three bands of script: the upper, only partly decipherable, includes the usual invocation (basmala); the lower consists of the words la nabiy ba'd Muhammad (Muhammad is the last of the prophets) repeated. The minaret is in a perfect state of preservation except for a band about io feet high round the bottom, where people in need of building material have pulled away the bricks, so that now the base is undermined and threatens collapse. Upham Pope visited Saveh some years ago, and left a small sum with the governor there, sufficient to provide for the restoration (which is quite a simple affair). When I visited the place in I93I, nothing had been done, nor did there appear to be any sign of future activity in the matter. Saveh is out of the way of usual traffic: to reach it one must drive for several hours over a particularly bumpy track from Qum. It was once an important city on the great silk route: when that road, in the time of the Mongols, shifted slightly to the north, Saveh and its neighbour Aveh sank into their present insignificance. The outline of the walls of the old town can still be seen under the ground, far beyond the present area of habitation; and the inhabitants spent their time for many years digging shallow holes into the site and obtaining exquisite pottery which they sold to a Mr. Noah (?) from Paris, who dealt in antiques. This destructive traffic has happily been stopped by the present Persian laws of export: when I visited the town, a number of these relics were still about, dug up before the knowledge came that Noah's visits were to cease, and I bought them. The site has been a good deal spoilt by these diggings: but it is so large, and was so prosperous a city, that it would still well repay an excavator; and there is the great advantage that the ancient city is mostly outside the modern town, and has therefore been very little built over during the five centuries that followed its decay.

Ibn Jubayr's Visit to Al-Medina

IT WAS in the century before Marco Polo that the famous Arabian traveller, Ibn Jubayr, kept a journal of his interesting journeys in the east. He had finished his studies in Granada and occupied himself there as secretary to the Governor. When he was thirtyeight years old, however, he began travelling. First he went to Alexandria (1183 A. D.), then to Jerusalem, from there to Medina, and thence to Mecca. From he journeyed to Damascus, then he accompanied a caravan that wended its way across the desert to Mosul and Baghdad. From Baghdad he went to Sicily (1185 A. D.) and returned from there to his home in Granada. Only two manuscripts of this Journal (Rihla), are known to be extant at the present time. One of these is in the University Library at Leyden. It is a copy that was made in in the year 1470 A. D. This manuscript was first edited by William Wright and was published in Leyden (1852), but it was further revised by M. J. de Goeje and a second edition was published in the Gibb Memorial Series in 1907. In his Italian translation of this work Professor Schiaparelli has mentioned that there is a second manuscript of the Rihla in the library of the leading mosque at Fez. The Journal of Ibn Jubayr has not as yet been translated into English, but the articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (eleventh edition) on Mecca and Medina , and also the more recent articles in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, show how largely the western orientalists have relied on Ibn Jubayr's descriptions of these sacred cities, for they were written at the time when the Muhammadan Empire was at its best. This is especially true of Medina, and it is of interest to note details of construction which such articles are forced to omit. For in 1256 A. D. the beautiful Mosque of the Prophet was burned down, so that what Ibn Jubayr wrote about it in 1184 is the last first-hand information available, and in grandeur and beauty of decoration the mosque that was burned is considered to have surpassed any mosque that has since been built to take its place. 26

AL‐SHAFI'I (MUHAMMAD IBN IDRIS) FOUNDER OF A LAW SCHOOL

The following was given as one of a course of lectures delivered in the Newman School of Missions, Jerusalem. It appears here as it was given but with a few minor changes. The great debt, verbal and otherwise, to Dr. Macdonald will be obvious to anyone familiar with his book on “Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory.” The anecdotes are mostly taken from the Encyclopedia of Islam and Yaqut's Dictionary of learned men, edited by Dr. Margoliouth.)

WINE IN ISLAM1

The Muslim WorldVolume 18, Issue 4 p. 365-373 WINE IN ISLAM1 A. J. Wensinck, A. J. Wensinck Leyden University.Search for more papers by this author A. J. Wensinck, A. J. Wensinck Leyden University.Search for more papers by this author First published: October 1928 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-1913.1928.tb00742.x 1 This article appears in the Encyclopedia of Islam (Leyden) of which Prof. A. J. Wensinck is co-editor. It is reprinted on request in reply to many inquiries on the subject, and by special permission. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume18, Issue4October 1928Pages 365-373 RelatedInformation

AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY IN ISLAM

This article is reprinted by the kind permission of the Editors from the Encyclopaedia of Islam at present being published at Leyden, Vol. II, pp. 670b–675b. The editor of this magazine and the author of the article gratefully acknowledge this generous permission. We are the more grateful because it will call attention to an Encyclopaedia that is invaluable to all students of Islam, but because of its price inaccessible to most missionaries.—Editor