NIZAM AL-DIN
Nizam al-Din Awliya’ (1244–1325 CE) was the
most renowned Sufi saint of medieval South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh).
He was a scholar ofhadith (tradition) and an exponent of juridical independence
(ijtihad). He systematized the core
practices of the Chishti Sufi community and spread its institutions, making the
Chishti community the most characteristically South Asian Sufi group. His
contribution to Persianate Islamic culture in Hindustan is vast. His given name
was Muhammad Nizam al-Din, and a nickname, Awliya’
(Saints), evolved from his early titles: Sultan-i Masha’ikh (Ruler of Spiritual Masters) and Mahbub-i Ilahi
(God’s Beloved).
Life
Nizam al-Din was born in Badaun, north of
Delhi. Mongol invasions exiled his parents’ families from Bukhara; his father
died during his childhood. Raised by his mother, Bibi Zulaykha, he held her as
an exemplar of ascetic and mystical women. She supported him while he studied
Qur’an, hadith, and jurisprudence (usul
al-fiqh). At sixteen, he migrated to Delhi and studied hadith with Mawlana
Kamal al-Din Zahid.
While in Delhi, he heard of a Sufi master
named Shaykh Farid al-Din Ganj-i Shakar. The Shaykh’s brother commented on his
aim to become a judge (qadi), to which he replied, ‘‘Don’t become a judge become
something else.’’ Listening to Qur’an 57:16, ‘‘Has not the time arrived for
true believers that their hearts should humbly engage in remembrance of God?,’’
he abandoned his ambition to instead ‘‘become something else.’’
Shaykh Farid al-Din greeted him with a poem: ‘‘Burning
of separation from you has singed so many hearts/Flooding of desire for you has
ravaged so many souls.’’ He initiated Nizam al-Din into the Chishti Sufi practices
of rapturous love, disciplined poverty, and poetic sensitivity. Nizam al-Din
became his spiritual successor (khalifa) at age twenty-three, and he settled in
Ghiyathpu ¨r, outside Delhi. He built a popular devotional center (jama ‘at-khana or khanaqah), confronted the rulers, and trained
disciples. He refused to marry or raise children (see Lawrence, 1994).
Teachings
Mu‘in al-Din Hasan Chishti (d. 1236) brought
the Chishti order from Afghanistan. Teaching that a Sufi cultivates
‘‘generosity like a river, magnanimity like the sun, and humility like the
earth,’’ he distilled universal teachings from Islam, attracting Hindu devotees
while extolling Muhammad as the perfect human being and Imam ‘Ali as the
exemplary Sufi. He adapted Hindu devotional hymns to create the Chishti institution
of sama‘.
Musical devotion has roots in Persianate Sufism, but Chishti masters elevated
it to a central practice.
Nizam al-Din’s teachings can be summarized in
three statements. First, service to the needy is better than ritual worship;
the way to knowledge of God (ma‘rifa) is
bringing happiness to others. Arguing that this was the best way to imitate the
Prophet Muhammad, Nizam al-Din made a pun that equated Prophethood (payghambari) with ‘‘bearing the
sorrows of others’’(pay-i ghamm bari).
Second, the presence of God is found among the destitute. To this end, Nizam
al-Din emphasized a hadith: ‘‘All people are God’s family, and the most beloved
of people are those who do most good for God’s family.’’ Third, egoism is
idolatry. The following anecdote reveals his compassion and tolerance with
regard to interfaith relationships. Walking with Amir Khusraw, wearing his cap
tilted, Nizam al-Din observed Hindus praying to the sun; he approved of their
worship, paraphrasing Qur’an 22:66: ‘‘To every community there is a religious way
and a direction for prayer’’(har qawm
ra-st rahi dini o qiblah gahi). Amir Khusraw spontaneously added, ‘‘Every community has a right
way and a direction to pray/and I turn in prayer to face the captivating one whose cap’s awry’’(man qiblah rast kardam janib-i kaj-kulahi).
This conversation makes for a rhyming couplet
that is sung in Qawwali performances.
Nizam al-Din advocated three practical means
to realize these teachings. First, find a spiritual master and serve him (pir-muridi). Second, embrace poverty and
renounce hoarding (tark-i dunya).
Third, nourish the heart through devotional music (sama‘). Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq (r. 1320–1325 CE)
entertained criticism from legalistic scholars that Islamic law forbade such
music. The Shaykh debated in court and defended the practice with hadith
reports.
Community
Nizam al-Din was a skilled organizer who
brought into his devotional center disciples of all classes. He codified the
rules of living at devotional centers; in finance, he relied on voluntary gifts
(futuh) rather than royal land grants
(jagirdari). Members daily gave away
everything beyond basic needs and maintained a communal
kitchen(langar-khanah)that fed the needy by the thousands. Nizam al-Din refused
to meet Sultans face to face, which was in contrast with their Suhrawardi peers
in South Asia. Nizam al-Din oversaw the expansion of the Chishti community by
sending delegates across the Delhi Sultanate, which expanded to Bengal,
Rajastan, and Gujarat and which, by 1310 CE, encompassed the Deccan. Delegates
set up devotional centers based on Nizam al-Din’s model.
Nizam al-Din attracted followers of high
quality. He insisted that his inner circle study Islamic sciences (usul al-din) before he granted
successorship (khilafat). His chief
successor, Shaykh Nasir al-Din (d. 1356), was a scholar of Qur’an and Arabic
grammar whose Sufi discourses (see Khayr
al-Majalis) are interwoven with hadith reports. Other disciples were more
musical, like Burhan al-Din Gharib (d. 1337), who oversaw the spread of the
Chishti community in Gujarat through his rapturous dance (see Ernst, 1992).
Nizam al-Din’s disciples included courtier
poets. Amir Khusraw (d. 1325) created Persian love poems (ghazal), Hindawi poems in praise of Nizam al-Din based on Krishna devotion
imagery, and musical settings of Islamic prayers and praise that defined the tradition
of Qawwali singing. Amir Hasan Sijzi (1254–1336) wrote down Nizam al-Din’s oral
Sufi discourses in a unique record, Fawa’id
al-Fu’ad (see Lawrence, 1992), spawning a genre of Sufi literature (malfuzat) that was adopted by other
South Asian Sufi communities.
Legacy
Although Nizam al-Din wrote no books, the
historian Barani left a record of his personality. His followers enriched South
Asian literature and music. Their Persian prose formed a unique genre at the
interface between oral discourses and written records, and their Persian poetry
set the standard for ghazals throughout the early modern period. Their sung
poetry sparked the use of vernacular South Asian languages in Sufi communities
(Hindawi, Punjabi, and Gujarati, and, later, Deccani Urdu).
Nizam al-Din’s legacy includes his tomb
complex (dargah), built by rulers of
the Tughluq dynasty (1320–1451) and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526), who chose to
be buried near it although they ruled from Agra. Mughal rulers (1535–1865)
patronized his tomb. In later Mughal times, it became a centerpiece of
spiritual life in Delhi through The Procession of the Flower-Sellers (see Lewis,
2002), a parade from the Red Fort to the tomb of Nizam al-Din and on to Mehrauli,
near the Qutb Minar. Nizam al-Din’s tomb remains one of the most popular
Islamic sites in independent India, and the Chishti community he formalized
continues to be the most active Sufi community in South Asia.
Primary Sources
Hussayni,
Sayyid Muhammad Akbar.Jawami‘ al-Kalim: Malfuzat-i Muhammad Gisu Daraz.Kanpur:
Intizami Press, 1936.
Khurd, Amir.
Siyar al-Awliya’. Delhi: Chirangi Lal Muhibb-i Hind Press, 1320 A.H. Qalandar,
Hamid.Khayr al-Majalis: Malfuaat-i Nasir alDin Chishti. Aligarh Muslim
University, 1959.
Further Reading
Digby, Simon. ‘‘Tabarrukat and Succession
Among the Great Chishti Shaykhs.’’ InDelhi through the Ages: Essays in Urban
History, Culture and Society,ed. R.E. Frykenberg. Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1986.
Ernst,
Carl.Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi
Center. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992.
Ernst, Carl,
and Bruce Lawrence.Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia and
Beyond.New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Habib,
Muhammad.Life and Works of Hazrat Amir Khusro of Delhi. Aligarh Muslim
University, 1927.
Lawrence,
Bruce.Notes From a Distant Flute: The Existent Literature of Pre-Mughal Indian
Sufism. Tehran: Imperial Academy of Philosophy, 1978.
———. ‘‘The
Early Chishti Approach to Sama‘.’’ InIslamic Society and Culture: Essays in
Honor of Aziz Ahmad,eds. Milton Israel and N.K. Wagle. Delhi: Manohar, 1983.
———,
transl.Nizam al-Din Awliya: Morals for the Heart. Mawa, NJ: Paulist Press,
1992.
———.
‘‘Honoring Women through Sexual Abstinence: Lessons From the Spiritual Practice
of a Pre-modern South Asian Sufi Master, Nizam al-Din Awliya.’’Journal of
Turkish Studies18 (1994): 149–61.
Lewis,
Charles.Mehrauli: A View From the Qutb. Delhi: Harper Collins India, 2002.
Nizami,
Khaliq Ahmad.The Life and Times of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya. Delhi: Idarah-i
Adabyat-i Delli, 1991.
Qureishi,
Regula Burkhardt.Sufi Music in India and Pakistan: Sound, Context and Meaning
in Qawwali. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Safi, Omid.
‘‘The Sufi Path of Love in Iran and India.’’ InA Pearl in Wine: Essays on the
Life, Music and Sufism of Hazrat Inayat
Khan,ed. Zia Inayat Khan. New Lebanon: Omega Press, 2001.
Schimmel,
Annemarie.Islam in the Indian Sub-Continent. Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1980.
Zarcone,
Thierry. ‘‘Central Asian Influence on the Early Development of the Chishtiyya
Sufi Order in India.’’ In The Making of Indo-Persian Culture,eds. Muzaffar Alam,
Franc¸oise Delvoye, and Marc Garborieau. New Delhi: Manohar, 2000.
NIZAM AL-MULK, ABU ‘ALI B. ‘ALI
AL-TUSI,
Abu ‘Ali b. ‘Ali al-Tusi Nizam al-Mulk was an
influential Seljuk vizier and educational patron. He was born in Tus in Khurasan
(eastern Iran) in AH 408/ 1018 CE, the son of a Ghaznavid tax collector; little
is known of his early life. By 445/1054, he was in the service of Alp Arslan,
who was then a lieutenant in eastern Khurasan for his father, the Seljuk Sultan
Chaghri Beg. Soon after Alp Arslan’s accession to the sultanate after the death
of his uncle Tughril Beg, Nizam al-Mulk was appointed vizier after he had
contrived the execution of his rival al-Kunduri, formerly Tughril Beg’s vizier.
The period of Nizam al-Mulk’s greatest
influence upon the affairs of the Seljuk empire began after the death of Alp
Arslan in 465/1072. The early years of the reign of Alp Arslan’s successor, the
eighteen-yearold Malikshah, were completely dominated by his vizier. Eventually,
however, rival interests at court and Malikshah’s own desire to be rid of the
man who for twenty years was the real ruler of the empire led to Nizam al-Mulk’s
downfall. He was murdered in 485/1092, apparently by an agent of the assassin
leader Hassan-i Sabbah at the instigation of the vizier’s enemies at court.
Nizam al-Mulk founded a chain of madrasas
(Islamic schools) in the main cities of Persia, Iraq, and the Jazira. His motive
was perhaps to assert Seljuk Sunnism against Fatimid and other Shi’i interests
by training a cadre of reliable, Sunni-oriented officials to run the Seljuk
empire. His political desiderata and the means of achieving them were
articulated in the Siyasat-nama (Treatise
on Government), which was made up of fifty chapters of advice illustrated
by historical anecdotes.
Further Reading
Bosworth,
C.E. ‘‘The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World (AD
1000–1217).’’ In The Cambridge
History of
the Iranian World, vol. 5, ed. J.A. Boyle. Cambridge, 1968.
Nizam al-Mulk.Siya¢sat-Na¢ma
(The Book of Government, or Rules for Kings), transl. H. Darke. London, 1960.
NUMBERS
A variety of number systems were used in
medieval Islamic civilization:
1.
The Hindu–Arabic system is the modern decimal position system for writing
integer numbers by means of ten symbols: the modern forms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9, and 0. The system was developed in India around 500 CE and probably
transmitted by Indian scholars to Baghdad around 775 CE. The numbers were
described in a small treatise about arithmetic by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
around 830 in Baghdad. The name al-Khwarizmi indicates that he was from Khwarizm,
now Khiwa in modern Uzbekistan. He also authored an influential work about
algebra. His treatise about arithmetic is lost in Arabic, but it was transmitted
into Latin in the twelfth century. His name was Latinized as Algorismi, hence the modern word algorism or algorithm for methods of
computation in general.
In or after the tenth century, two varieties
of the symbols emerged: the Eastern forms, which are still used in Egypt, the
Middle East, Iran, and Pakistan; and the Western forms, which were used in
North Africa and Spain and which are the immediate precursors of the modern
shapes.
The words cipher
and zero are both derived (via Latin cipherum
and zephirum) from the Arabic word sifr,meaning
‘‘empty place,’’ which was used for the zero. This Arabic word sifr is, in
turn, a translation from the Sanskrit term shunya,which the Indian
mathematicians used for zero. Contrary to what is sometimes believed, the zero
was not invented by Islamic mathematicians but rather adopted by them from
India.
The decimal position system never became very
popular in medieval Islamic civilization; it was used mainly for the writing of
very large numbers. Al-Khwarizmi and later mathematicians illustrated the
system by means of the famous chessboard problem: if we put one grain on the first
cell of the chessboard, two grains on the second, four grains on the third, eight
grains on the fourth, and so on, what is the total number of grains on the
chessboard?
The total number can be written in the ‘‘Indian’’
system as 18,446,744,073,709,551,615. The decimal position system was
transmitted to Christian Europe by the Latin translation of al-Khwarizmi’s work
and also by the Italian mathematician Leonardi Fibonacci. During the late twelfth
century, Fibonacci learned the system in the city of Bougie (Algeria) and then
on his return wrote an explanation of the system in his Liber Abaci, which
became influential in Europe. It took until the Renaissance for the system to
be firmly established in Europe. The modern forms of the symbols were fixed
after the development of printing.
2.
The abjad system can be used to write integer numbers between 1 and 1999. In
the Arabic alphabet (and also in the Greek alphabet and the alphabets of the
other Semitic languages), each letter has a numeric value between 1 and 1000.
The nameabjadis a combination of the letters with values between 1 and 4: alif ¼1, ba’ ¼2, jim ¼3, and dal ¼4. The
numeric values of the letters are the integers from 1 to 9, the tens from 10 to
90, the hundreds from 100 to 900, and 1000 for the letter ghayn. Numbers between 1 and 1999 are formed from a combination of
these letters, thus 1024¼ ghayn-kaf-dal
(kaf¼20).
3.
The medieval Islamic astronomers used the sexagesimal system that had been
invented in ancient Babylonia and that is still used today for writing angles
in degrees, minutes, and seconds. The system was also used by the later Greek astronomers,
including Ptolemy. The Greeks indicated the individual numbers by a system
similar to the Arabic abjad system. Each letter of the Greek alphabet has a
numeric value, thus alpha¼1, beta¼2, theta
¼9, and so on. The Islamic astronomers applied the same system to the Arabic
alphabet according to the abjad system, which has been explained above. This
system was called the ‘‘numbers of the astronomers,’’ and it was very popular.
For numbers larger than 1000, the astronomers in the Eastern Islamic world occasionally
used the Hindu–Arabic numbers.
4.
Examples of other, less-popular systems are the Coptic numbers used in Egypt
and the siyaq numbers used in bookkeeping. In many Arabic texts, numbers are
written out in words: for example, ‘‘twenty-three.’’ Computation and trading
were often done without number symbols; the traders possessed an elaborate system
of finger reckoning.
Further Reading
Folkerts,
M., ed.Die Alteste Lateinische Schrift ber das Indische Rechnen Nach
al-Hwarizmi. Munchen: Verlag der Bayerischen Academie der Wissenschaften, 1997.
Ifrah,
G.From One to Zero: A Universal History of Numbers.New York: Viking Press,
1985. Kunitzsch, Paul. ‘‘The Transmission of Hindu-Arabic
Numerals
Reconsidered.’’ InThe Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives,eds.
J.P. Hogendijk and A.I. Sabra, 3–21. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2003.
Saidan, A.S.
The Arithmetic of al-Uqlidisi. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1978.
NUR AL-DIN IBN ZANGI
Nur al-Din Mahmud (d. 1174 CE) was the second
son of the Turkish warlord Zangi and, like his father, a leading figure in the
Muslim opposition to the Crusader states established in the Syrian littoral as
a result of the First Crusade (1097–1099). Zangi had been murdered shortly
after he had taken Edessa from the Crusaders in 1144, and Nur al-Din, initially
operating from his base in Aleppo, made permanent the Muslim reconquest of
Edessa in 1146 and then expanded his campaigns against the remaining Latin states.
Shortly after the failed Second Crusade, Nur al-Din inflicted a serious defeat
on the Principality of Antioch. By 1154, Nur al-Din took over control of Damascus
from the Muslim Burid dynasty. From this base, he took several steps to support
the ulama and their clarion calls for jihad (holy war) against the Franks. He
constructed and endowed centers of learning and worship.
Within a decade after establishing Damascus
as the capital of lands under his control, Nur al-Din’s attention was drawn to the
succession struggles within Fatimid Egypt, which were in turn complicated by Crusader
invasions from the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1164, 1167, and 1168, Nur al-Din
sent armies to Egypt led by his Kurdish General Shirkuh. Shirkuh died on this
last campaign, and he was succeeded in command by his nephew Salah al-Din Yusuf
ibn Ayyub (subsequently known to the Crusaders as Saladin), who quickly took
control of Egypt, ruling it but recognizing Nur al-Din as his overlord. When Nur
al-Din died in 1174, Saladin quickly moved against Nur al-Din’s heirs and
subordinated their holdings to his growing realm.
Further Reading
Elise´eff,
Nikita.Nur al-Din. Un Grand Prince Musulman de Syrie au Temps des Croisades,3
vols. Damascus: Institut Franc¸ais de Damas, 1967.
Holt,
P.M.The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the Eleventh Century to
1517.Longman, 1986
NUR JAHAN
Nur Jahan (born Mihrunnisa) was one of the
most powerful figures in seventeenth-century Mughal government, literature, and
art. She was born in 1577 CE in Kandahar to a noble and ambitious Persian
family, fleeing Persia for better prospects at Akbar’s court in Fatehpur-Sikri.
In 1594, she was married to ‘Ali Quli Khan Istajlu, a Persian soldier likewise
seeking his fortune in India, with whom she produced a daughter, Ladli Begam.
She was widowed in 1607 at the age of thirty and was invited to the Mughal
court to be a lady-in-waiting to one of the stepmothers of the Emperor
Jahangir.
She met Jahangir in the palace bazaar at the
Agra Fort in 1611 and married him two months later. In 1614, he named her Nur Jahan (Light of the World), a sign
of her central role in his life and at court. Indeed, he became so incapacitated
by addictions that she gained enormous influence over him and de facto power
over the empire. One sign of this was her minting gold and silver coins, an act
that was traditionally reserved for the sovereign alone. A contemporary
European observer wrote that Jahangir ‘‘hath one Wife, or Queen, whom he esteems
and favours above all other Women; and his whole Empire is govern’d at this day
by her counsel.’’ Nur Jahan’s success was due equally to an astute sense of
politics and diplomacy and to her family’s support and parallel rise to power.
Her father held the title of I‘tmad
alDawla (Pillar of the Government), and her brother similarly held high
office in the court of Jahangir and later Shah Jahan. Although Nur Jahan never
bore a child for Jahangir, her family was nonetheless enmeshed with the Mughal
line: Ladli Begam married one of Jahangir’s sons and produced a daughter, and Shah
Jahan married Nur Jahan’s niece, for whom he built the Taj Mahal.
As a result of gifts, court stipends, and her
own business acumen, Nur Jahan became extremely wealthy and could patronize
literature, art, architecture, and fashion with taste that extended to imported
European luxury goods. Her innovations in these areas included new weaves and
prints for textiles, clothing designs, and gourmet recipes with artistic presentation.
In addition, she was a connoisseur of painting and an accomplished poet in both
Arabic and Persian. She seems to have played a role in almost all imperial
architectural commissions during the period of her marriage to Jahangir. Not
only was she the principal patron of the Nur Mahal Serai (Jalandhar) on the Agra–Lahore
Road, the renovated Ram Bagh (Agra), the Nur Manzil Garden (Agra), the Tomb of
I’tmad al-Dawla (Agra), the Pattar Mosque (Srinagar), and her own tomb near
Jahangir’s in Shahdara (Lahore), but she also clearly played an important role
in the design of the many imperial gardens built along the shores of Lake Dal
in Kashmir.
Even before the death of her husband in 1627,
Nur Jahan schemed against the future emperor, Shah Jahan, and on his accession
she was sent to live her last years in Lahore with her daughter. Her house stood
in the same garden enclosure where she built her tomb, and she was buried there
upon her death in 1645.
Further Reading
Findly,
Ellison Banks.Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India. New York and Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1993.
Pant,
Chandra.Nur Jahan and Her Family.Allahabad: Dan Dewal Publishing, 1978.
NUSAYRIS
Nusayrism is a syncretistic religion with a
close affinity to Shi‘ism. Most of its adherents live in Syria and the
southeastern regions of present Turkey. In Syria, the Nusayris constitute more
than one million (about twelve percent of the population). They live chiefly in
the mountainous areas of Latakia, known as Jabal al-‘Alawiyyin, on the country’s
northwest coast, where they represent close to two-thirds of the populace.
The original name of the sect is Nusayriyya,after Muhammad ibn Nusayr, a
disciple of the Imams ‘Ali al-Hadi (d. 868 CE) and al-Hasan al-‘Askari (d.
873–4), the tenth and eleventh imams of Twelver Shi‘ism. The modern name of the
sect is‘Alawis; this name was adopted at the beginning of the twentieth century
to underscore the sect’s links with ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib ra, the common ancestor
of all of the Shi‘i factions.
Despite the important role played by Ibn
Nusayr during the formative phase of Nusayrism, the real founder and
promulgator of the Nusayri faith seems to have been al-Husayn ibn Hamdan
al-Khasibi (d. ca. 957).
During the early years of the twelfth century,
the Crusaders conquered part of the mountainous region of Latakia. During the
Mamluk period, unsuccessful attempts were made to convert the Nusayris to Sunni
Islam.
For most of the Ottoman period, the Nusayris were
recognized as a distinctive group with the right to maintain an autonomous
judicial apparatus. Modern Western interest in the Nusayri religion began during
the mid-nineteenth century. A pioneering monograph about the Nusayris, Histoire et Religion des Nosairis, was
published by the noted French scholar Rene ´Dussaud in Paris in 1900. An
important source for the study of
Nusayrism in modern times is
al-Bakura al-Sulaymaniyya fi Kashf Asrar al-Diyana al-Nusayriyya, a description
and refutation of the Nusayri religion that was written by Sulayman alAdhani, a
Nusayri convert to Christianity from the town of Adhana in southern Turkey.
The Nusayris again came to the fore during
the period of the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon (from 1920). France
promoted their integration into the ranks of the French army and even granted them
autonomy in the Jabal al-‘Alawiyyin region. Their presence in the French army
prepared the ground for their later inclusion in the army of an independent
Syria. The Nusayris are the only minority to have succeeded in assuming power
in their own country.
Like the rival Druze religion, Nusayrism is shrouded
in mystery, its secrets being the exclusive prerogative of the initiated (khassa), whereas the uninitiated (‘amma) are kept strictly separate. In
essence, Nusayrism is an antinomian religion, and the religious obligations are
limited to moral prescriptions.
The Nusayris believe that the deity
manifested itself in history in the form of a trinity. This trinitarian revelation
is believed to be a theophany that has recurred in seven eras (called akwar, adwar, or qubab) throughout the
course of history. According to the Nusayri trinitarian doctrine, two entities
or persons(aqanim)emanated from the supreme aspect of the deity. This supreme
aspect, calledma‘na(meaning, essence), is sometimes identified with God
Himself. The second is the ism (Name)
or hijab (Veil). The third entity is
the bab (Gate), which is the gate
through which the believer may contemplate the mystery of divinity. This
trinity has been incarnated in historical or mythical persons. During the
seventh and last cycle, the ‘‘Muhammadan cycle’’ that opens the Muslim era, the
trinity was incarnated in three central figures of early Islam: ‘Ali ra as the
ma‘na, Muhammad s.a.w was the ism, and Salman the Persian as the bab, from whence
comes the acrostic sirr ‘A[yn] M[im] S[in] (i.e., the mystery of ‘Ali,
Muhammad, and Salman).
The syncretistic nature of the Nusayri
religion is also evident in its calendar, which is replete with festivals from
diverse origins: Christian, Persian, and Muslim (both Sunni and Shi‘i).
However, being regarded by the Muslim world as heretics has not prevented the
Nusayris from seeing themselves as monotheists (muwahhida or muwahhidun).
Among the Nusayris in Syria, there are
currently two distinct trends. The more conservative members of the community,
living mainly in the Jabal al-‘Alawiyyin region, adhere steadfastly to the
traditional creeds and rituals of the sect. Alternatively, others are becoming
assimilated into Twelver Shi‘ism and in fact identify themselves as Shi‘is.
This is taking place mainly in cities, where these individuals have come under
the influence of Shi‘i communities.
Further Reading
Al-Adhani,
Sulayman.al-Bakura al-Sulyamaniyya.Beirut. (Partial English translation in
Salisbury, E. ‘‘‘The Book of Sulaimaˆn’s First Ripe Fruit Disclosing the
Mysteries of the Nusairian Religion’ by Sulaimaˆn Effendi of Adhanah.’’Journal
of the American Oriental Society 8 (1864): 227–308.)
Bar-Asher,
M.M. ‘‘Sur Les E´ le ´ments Chre´tiens de la Religion
Nusayrite-‘Alawite.’’Journal Asiatique289 (2001): 185–216.
———. ‘‘The
Iranian Component of the Nusayri Religion.’’ Iran41 (2003): 217–27.
Bar-Asher,
M.M., and A. Kofsky.The Nusayri-‘Alawi Religion: An Enquiry into Its Theology
and Liturgy.Leiden, 2002.
Dussaud,
R.Histoire et Religion des Nosairis.Paris, 1900.
Lyde, S.The
Asian Mystery: The Ansaireeh or Nusairis of Syria.London, 1860.
Moosa,
M.Extremist Shi‘ites: The Ghulat Sects.New York, 1988.
Al-Tabarani,
Abu Sa‘id Maymun ibn Qasim.Kitab Sabil Rahat al-Arwah wa-Dalil al-Surur
wa-l-Afrah ila Faliq alAsbah al-Ma‘ruf bi-Majmu‘ al-A‘yad,ed. R. Strothmann.
Der Islam27 (1944–1946).
Al-Tawil,
Muhammad Amin Ghalib.Ta’rikh al-‘Alawiyyin. Beirut.
O¨LJEITU¨ (ULJAYTU)
O¨ljeitu ¨ (Ar. Uljaytu) was the eighth
Mongol Ilkhanid ruler of Persia and Iraq. Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad Khudabandah
Uljaytu was born in AH 680/1282 CE and succeeded his brother Ghazan as ilkhan on Dhu ’l-Hijja 703/July–August
1304 and reigned until 716/ 1316. Ghazan, Uljaytu’s predecessor, had converted to
Islam in 694/1295. Uljaytu continued the practice, begun under his brother, of
rebuilding and reestablishing the schools and mosques that had been destroyed
by previous Mongol rulers. Shortly after he succeeded his brother as ilkhan in
703/1304, Uljaytu declared Islam as the official religion of all areas within
his realm. During his reign, Uljaytu engaged in extensive patronage of
religious institutions and scholarship. He was aided in the central
administration of the dynasty by three primary officials: the wazirs, Rashid
al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani, Sa‘d alDin Muhammad Sawaj, and Taj al-Din ‘Ali Shah
Gilani, who replaced Sa‘d al-Din after his fall from favor and execution in
711/1312. Uljaytu also relied extensively on Qutlughshah as senior commander of
his armies (amir).
Uljaytu’s reign asilkhan was characterized by
both the ongoing external effort to win success over the Mamluks by subjugating
Syria and Egypt, and the internal struggle to consolidate his kingdom in the face
of challenges from several independent Mongol chiefs. Uljaytu’s acceptance of
Islam did not prevent him from reaching out to European kings and Christian
authorities in Europe for support in his struggle against the Mamluks. He sent
letters to Edward I of England, King Philip the Fair of France, and Pope
Clement V expressing his desire for a concerted action against the Mamluks.
Internally, one of the first steps undertaken by Uljaytu to gain control over
independent Mongol provinces came in 705/1306 when he launched an attack on
Fakhr al-Din, the ruler (malik) of the Kart dynasty that controlled Harat. The
expedition was unsuccessful and Uljaytu’s commander, Danishmand Bahadur, was
killed in a conspiracy organized by one of his officers, Jamal al-Din Muhammad
Sam.
In the following year, Uljaytu set out on a
campaign against the province of Gilan on the Caspian Sea, not far from his
newly established dynastic capital of Sultaniyah. It is likely that Uljaytu saw
the conquest of Gilan as necessary for generating revenue for financing his
long-term goal of challenging Mamluk dominance of Syria and Egypt. In part due to
its harsh climate and difficult-to-navigate geography, the small kingdom of
Gilan was able to resist Mongol conquest during the period of Uljaytu’s
predecessors. In 706/1307, Uljaytu mounted an elaborate invasion of Gilan, ordering
his commanders to lead armies into the province from four different points: Chupan
entered Gilan from the Northwest, Tughan and Mu’min were sent to the eastern
province of Gurjiyan, his senior amir, Qutlughshah, descended on the city from
Khalkhal, and Uljaytu himself advanced on Gilan through Kurandasht, Lawshan on the
Shahrud, Daylaman, and finally entering Lahijan. There is considerable debate
concerning the outcome of Uljaytu’s expedition to Gilan. Persian contemporary
sources have largely described the attempt to subjugate Gilan as successful. In
addition, Arabic sources, particularly Mamluk chroniclers, appear to confirm
this view, with variation in the time and sequence of events between the two
historiographical traditions. It appears that the Mongol armies suffered a
number of significant losses during the campaign, including the death of Uljaytu’s
senior amir, Qutlughshah. The ilkhan was ultimately successful in establishing
Mongol sovereignty over the province and its resources.
In 712/1312–1313, Uljaytu launched what was
to be the last Mongol offensive against Mamluk territory. The Ilkhanid army
marched from Mawsil and reached the walls of Rahbat al-Sham on the Euphrates in Ramadan/December of that year.
The inhabitants of the city defended the invasion fiercely and after almost
three weeks of fighting, lacking the provisions, Uljaytu ordered his troops to
withdraw. Following the unsuccessful invasion, Uljaytu began to engage in
conciliatory diplomacy with the Mamluks, and in 723/1323, al-Nasir Muhammad
concluded a peace treaty with his son and successor, Abu Sa‘id.
Contemporary biographical sources on Uljaytu
reveal a high degree of ambiguity concerning the details of his conversion to
Islam. His conversion to Islam was preceded by a series of religious
affiliations, from being baptized as a Christian, to later becoming Buddhist,
before finally accepting Shi‘ism. At the time of his conversion to Islam,
Uljaytu initially became an adherent to the Hanafi madhhab. This is perhaps a result of the early Hanafi influence
during his time as governor of Khurasan. Uljaytu later adopted the Shafi‘i
madhhabunder the influence of the Shafi‘i scholar, Nizam al-Din ‘Abd al-Malik
al-Maraghi, and his wazir, Rashid al-Din. However, Uljaytu continued to encourage
religious debates and exchanges at his court and surrounded himself with scholars
of all legal schools and theological persuasions. Uljaytu invited the erudite
Shi‘i scholar al-‘Allama al-Hilli to join his court for the purpose of furthering
religious debate. In Rajab 709/December 1309, al-‘Allama al-Hilli accompanied
Uljaytu on avisit to the tomb of Salman al-Farisi at Mada’in. Though the issue
of which of the Shi‘i scholars in the court of Uljaytu was responsible for the
conversion of theilkhan to Shi‘ism is contested in the contemporary sources from
the period, Uljaytu publicly converted to Shi‘ism in Sha‘ban 709/January 1310.
The existent documentary and literary sources
from the period after Uljaytu‘s conversion are replete with accounts of his efforts
to propagate Islam more generally and Shi‘ism in particular. The ilkhan
sponsored several legal and theological debates between al-‘Allamah al-Hilli and
Sunni scholars in the court from the years 710/1311 to 716/1316. Shortly
thereafter, Uljaytu established the madrasah
sayyarah, which was a mobile school founded to accompany the ilkhan whenever
he traveled. Positions in the madrasah
sayyarah were apparently reserved for scholars with a close relationship
with theilkhan. The famous eighthfourteenth-century traveler, Ibn Battuta,
although generally displeased with the degree of what he deemed to be Shi‘i heresy
on his visit to Iraq and Iran, provides extensive details concerning the endowed
religious institutions he observed in Mongol domains during the reigns of
Uljaytu and his son, Abu Sa‘id. Furthermore, Ibn Battuta and other contemporary
observers provided important numismatic evidence related to Uljaytu’s efforts
to promote Shi‘ism. Uljaytu eliminated the names of the Sunnikhulafa’
alrashidunfrom coins and ordered coins minted honoring the Twelve Shi‘i Imams.
He also ordered that the names of the Twelve Imams be in the Friday prayer.
Furthermore, Uljaytu transferred the
Ilkhanate capital from Tabriz to Sultaniyah, where he sought to establish a
large religious institution in the city to rival the size of the one
established by Rashid al-Din in the Rab‘-i Rashidi. Uljaytu also completed work
on his large and intricately decorated tomb prior to his death, and his
magnificent tomb is one of the greatest examples of Mongol architecture that
still survives. The funerary complex built by Uljaytu includes several prayer
halls, spaces for reciting the Qur’an, and residence halls. The largest copy of
the Qur’an made in the period, an enormous (seventy-two by fifty centimeters)
thirty-part manuscript transcribed in Baghdad between 706/1306 and 710/1313, was
also endowed to Uljaytu’s funerary complex at Sultaniya. Although the other
contemporary buildings surrounding the tomb did not survive, there was a large
congregational mosque with a monumental portal leading to a large central
courtyard with four iwans, a domed sanctuary, and an adjacent khanaqah.
In addition to the lavish building that
Uljaytu engaged in at Sultaniyah and the endowment of formal institutions, he
also served as patron for individual scholars. Uljaytu continued to support the
renowned observatory and school for the study of philosophy and mathematics at
Maragha, endowed first by Hulagu in 657/1258 under the direction of Nasir
al-Din al-Tusi and completed during the reign of Hulagu’s successor, Abaqa (663–683/1265–1284).
Uljaytu died in his bed at Sultaniyah 17
December 1316/1 Shawwal 716. He was thirty-six years old. Quite extraordinary
for a reigning Mongol ilkhan, he is believed to have died of natural causes,
related to a protracted struggle with a stomach ailment.
Further Reading
al-Abru,
‘Abd Allah ibn Lutf Allah Hafiz.Dhayl-i jami‘ altawarikh-i Rashidi. Edited by
Khan Baba Bayani. Tehran: Intisharat-I Danishgah-i Tehran, 1350/1971.
Abu’l-Fida’,
Isma‘il ibn ‘Ali ibn Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Taqi al-Din ‘Umar ibn Shahanshah
ibn ‘Ayyub. alMukhtasar fi akhbar al-bashar. Edited by Muhammad Zaynahum,
Muhammad ‘Azab, and Yahya Sayyid Husayn. Cairo: Dar al-Ma‘arif, 1998–1999.
(Mukhtasar
ta’rikh al-bashar) The Memoirs of a Syrian Prince Abu’l-Fida’, Sultan of Hamah
(672–732/1273– 1331). Translated by P.M. Holt. Freiburger Islamstudien, vol. 9.
Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1983. al-Amin, Hasan.Mustadrakat a‘yan al-shi‘a. 10 vols.
Beirut:
Dar al-Ta‘aruf
lil-Matbu‘at, 1419/1999.
al-Amin,
Muhsin.A‘yan al-shi‘a. 15 vols. Beirut: Dar alTa‘aruf lil-Matbu‘at, 1420/2000. Amitai-Preiss,
Reuven. ‘‘Mongol Imperial Ideology and the Ilkhanid War Against the Mamluks.’’
In The Mongol Empire & Its Legacy,edited by Reuven Amitai-Preiss and David
O. Morgan. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
Amuli, Shams
al-Din Muhammad ibn Mahmud.Nafa’is alfunun fi ara’is al-‘uyun. Tehran:
1309/1891–1892.
Bausani,
Alessandro. ‘‘Religion under the Mongols.’’ In The Cambridge History of
Iran,edited by J. A. Boyle, 397–406. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968.
Blair,
Sheila. ‘‘The Mongol Capital of Sultaniyya ‘The Imperial’.’’Iran, Journal of the
BritishInstitute of Persian Studies24 (1986): 139–151.
‘‘Sultaniyya.’’
EI(2): 9:859b. Ibn Battutah, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah.Rihlat Ibn Battuta:
al-musammat tuhfat al-nuzzar fi ghara’ib al-amsar. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub
al-‘Ilmiyya, no date given. Ibn al-Dawadari, Abu Bakr ibn ‘Abd Allah.Kanz
al-durar wa jami‘ al-ghurar: masadir ta’rikh misr al-islamiyya. Cairo: Qism
al-Dirasat al-Islamiyya, al-Ma‘had alAlmani lil-Athar bi-l-Qahira, 1960–1982.
Ibn
al-Fuwati, Kamal al-Din ‘Abd al-Razzaq. Kitab alhawadith li-mu’allif min
al-qarn al-thamin. Edited by Bashshar ‘Awwad Ma‘ruf and ‘Imad ‘Abd al-Salam Ra’uf.
Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami, 1997.
al-Hawadith
al-jami‘a wa-l-tajarib al-nafi‘a fi l-mi’a alsabi‘a. Baghdad: Matba‘at
al-Furat, 1351/1932.
Majma‘
al-adab fi mu‘jam al-alqab. Edited by Muhammad Kazim. Tehran: Mu’assasat
al-Tiba‘a wa-l-Nashr Wizara al-Thaqafa wa-l-Irshad al-Islami, 1995/1416.
Ibn Hajar
al-‘Asqalani, Shihab al-Din.al-Durar al-kamina fi a‘yan al-mi’a al-thamina. 5
vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub alHaditha, 1966–1967.
Ibn Kathir,
‘Imad al-Din Isma‘il ibn ‘Umar.al-Bidaya wa-lnihaya fi l-ta’rikh. 14 vols.
Edited by Ahmad Abu Muslim. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1997.
al-Khwansari,
Muhammad Baqir. Rawdat al-jannat fi ahwal al-‘ulama’ wa-l-sadat. 8 vols.
Beirut: al-Dar alIslamiyya, 1991.
al-Isbahani,
Mirza ‘Abd Allah Afandi.Riyad al-‘ulama’ wa hiyad al-fudala’. 6 vols. Edited by
Ahmad al-Husayni. Qum: Matba‘at al-Khayyam, 1980.
Riyad
al-‘ulama’ wa hiyad al-fudala’. 7 vols. Edited by al-Sayyid Mahmud al-Mar‘ashi
and al-Sayyid Ahmad al-Husayni. Qum: Maktabat Ayat Allah al-Mar‘ashi al-‘Amma,
1401/1980–81.
Ibn Taghri
Birdi, Abu’l-Mahasin Yusuf. al-Nujum alzahirah fi muluk Misr wa-l-Qahira.
Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1348–1392/1929–1972.
Melville,
Charles. ‘‘The Ilkhan Oljeitu¨’s Conquest of Gilan (1307): Rumour or Reality.’’
In The Mongol Empire & Its Legacy, edited by Reuven Amitai-Preiss and David
O. Morgan. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
Qashani,
Abu’l-Qasim ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Ali.Ta’rikh-i Uljaytu. Tehran: Bangah-i Tarjumah va
Nashr-i Kitab, 1348/1969.
al-Rashid
al-Din, Fadl Allah.Jami‘ al-Tawarikh: Ta’rikh alMaghul. Translated into Arabic
by Muhammad Sadiq Nashat, Muhammad Musa Hindawi, and Fu’ad ‘Abd alMu‘ti
al-Sayyad. 2 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Arabiyya, 1960.
al-Safadi,
Salah al-Din Khalil ibn Aybak. al-Wafi bi-lwafayat. 29 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Ihya’
lil-Turath al-‘Arabi lil-Tiba‘a wa-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzi‘, 1420/2000.
Spuler,
Bertold.Die Mongolen in Iran: Politik, Verwaltung and Kultur der Ilchanzeit.
Berlin: Academie-Verlag, 1968, 1220–1350.
al-Tihrani,
Agha Buzurg.al-Dhari‘a ila tasanif al-shi‘a.26 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Adwa’,
1983.
Tabaqat
a‘lam al-shi‘a. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, 1971–1975.
Wassaf, ‘Abd
Allah ibn Fadl Allah.Ta’rikh-i Wassaf alhadra dar ahwal-i salatin
mughul[Tajziyat al-amsar wa tazjiyat al-a‘sar]. Tehran: Bunyad-i Farhang-i
Iran, 1967
OMAN
The name ‘Oman’ has been used since classical
times to describe southeastern Arabia. It was referred to thus by early Arab accounts,
and the name continued in use throughout the medieval and later periods.
After the death of Muhammad s.a.w the Prophet (632 CE), Oman became part of the
Islamic caliphate. Many of its people, primarily from the Azd tribes, migrated
to Basra during the early Islamic period and formed an important part of the
Umayyad army. Led by al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra, they also played an important
role in domestic affairs in Iraq.
During the Umayyad period, the Omani
emigrants in Iraq maintained close contact with Oman itself, and many of them
returned home after the failure of the Yazid ibn al-Muhallab uprising in 723
CE. In Basra, many Omanis supported the nascent Ibadi movement, named after
‘Abdallah ibn Ibad, an early Khariji leader who rejected the use of violence
against an unjust ruler. Thus they formed the nucleus of the Ibadi sect.
The Imamate in Oman
After the downfall of the Umayyads in 749–750
CE, the history of Oman can be divided into two geographical areas. The coast
was dominated for much of the time by external powers and was heavily
influenced by political and military vicissitudes until the arrival of the Portuguese
at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
In the interior, the Ibadi Imamate was
established in 750 CE, eventually emerging as a separate religious sect adopted
by the majority of Omanis. In time, Ibadism became both a sect and a political system,
which has profoundly affected the structure of Omani society and history. For
Ibadis, spiritualand political authority meets in the body of one person, the
Imam of the community and its legal jurist in secular and religious matters. He
has full freedom in practice, limited only by the constraints of jurisprudence
as interpreted or seen by the Imam.
Despite many attacks, the Ibadi Imamate
developed into an institution that was defended strongly by Omanis for centuries.
Political conditions and external dangers obliged its adherents to coalesce
into an integrated community in order to guarantee their survival.
Oman’s history has been greatly influenced by
Ibadi thought. Also of importance was the Nabhani period (twelfth to seventeenth
centuries CE), when there was a flowering of local literature and culture, which
can be seen in the rich literature of the Nabhanis, especially their poetry.
Making use of the monsoon winds, Omani ships sailed
to Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, selling local produce such as dates, and
pearls, frankincense, and imported goods. On the return voyages they brought
items such as perfumes, ivory, silk, sandalwood, spices, and rice.
Because of this active trade, many Omanis settled
in East Africa and Southeast Asia, spreading both Arabic culture and Islam.
Oman’s rising power and economic strength led in due course to the emergence of
the Ya‘ariba dynasty in 1624 CE. This became a regional power, dominating much
of the East African coast and initiating a new era in Oman’s modern history.
Further Reading
al-Rawas,
I.Oman in Early Islamic History. Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 2000.
Ennami, A.
K. ‘‘Studies in Ibadism.’’ Ph.D. dissertation. Cambridge: University of
Cambridge, 1971.
Ibn Ruzayq.
History of the Imams and Seyyids of Oman. Translated by George P. Badger.
London: Hakluyt Society, 1871.
Miles, S.
B.The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf. London: Frank Cass, 1966.
Naboodah, H.
‘‘Eastern Arabia in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries A.D.’’ Ph.D. dissertation.
United Kingdom: University of Exeter, 1989.
———. ‘‘Banu
Nabhan in the Omani Sources.’’New Arabian Studies4 (1997): 181–195.
———. ‘‘The
Ibadi Movement: A Study of Its Early Development and Ideas.’’Digest of Middle
East Studies,12 (Fall 2003): 1–18.
Potts, D.
T.The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press,
1990 (reprinted 1992).
Sirhan Ibn
Sa‘id.Annals of Oman. Translated by E. C. Ross. Cambridge: The Oleander Press,
1984.
Wilkinson,
John C.The Imamate Tradition of Oman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1987.
ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS
One
Thousand and One Nights is an anonymous collection of Arabic tales. In
Baghdad, by the AH second/eighth CE century, a Persian book titled Hazar Afsaneh (The Thousand Tales) had
been translated into Arabic. It then
circulated under a new Arabic title, Alf
Layla wa Layla (A Thousand and One Nights).
However, this version no longer exists. The
oldest extant manuscripts date from the fifteenth century, and further different
versions from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In these, some elements
have changed completely (the tales told by Shahrazad) and others slightly (the
opening story of the two kings), while the formal organization of the book has not
changed. We know this because its overall structure still corresponds to the
description given by Ibn al-Nadim in his fourth-/tenth-century bibliography, al-Fihrist. It consists of an opening
story inside which, each night, other stories are told. The use of embedded
stories is a narrative technique that probably comes from India. From a
theoretical viewpoint, it raises important questions about the purposes of storytelling.
The frame story, which introduces Shahrazad,
continues to fulfill its original function, although the events which it reports
are slightly different from those described by Ibn al-Nadim. (More
significantly, a comparison of the framework of the Thousand and One Nights,as we now know it, with that of the Hundred and One Nights, an abridged
North African version, shows that the latter is an older version; this is
clearly important to an understanding of the development of the Nights.)
Entirely new are the tales told by Shahrazad,
which immediately follow the opening of the frame (The Merchant and the Genie, The Fisherman and the Genie).They constitute
a new corpus, which went through two phases.
The first phase was one of literary
conceptualization. In terms of Arabic literary theory, the stories in Thousand
and One Nightswere fictitious (khurafat,
sing.khurafa). When they were adopted into Arabic, the story that was placed at
the beginning of the book was the one which, to Arabic thinking, represented The
khurafa par excellence, that of The Merchant
and the Genie. All versions of the Nights begin with this story, and from
the functional, thematic, and ideological points of view, it conditions the
choice of stories that form the core of the work in all its extant forms (for
example,The Fisherman and the Genie, The
Porter and the Three Ladies, The Story of the Three Apples, The Story of the
Hunchback,and the tales included therein). From the functional viewpoint, the story of didactic intent (mathal) yields place to the marvelous tale (‘ajab), with the
added feature, characteristic of the
khurafa, that each successive tale
must be more astonishing. The Nights as a
whole bear the imprint of this new function; their aim is to surprise and astound, and only incidentally to teach a lesson. From the thematic
viewpoint, the notions of justice and injustice provide a continuous link, with
the drama of the tales arising from the fact that the punishment is always
incredibly disproportionate to the crime. Lastly, from an ideological
viewpoint, the process of embedding is used specifically to express what may be
termed a Near Eastern (that is, Islamo-Judeo-Christian) outlook, in which a
story is told in irrevocable exchange for a human life, as if it were a
righteous deed.
The second phase was one of compilation. As
the collection grew in size it came to include various registers of Arabic
literature, from historical anecdotes only a few lines long and derived from
high literature (see Adab) to folk tales (see Folk Literature) and tales of
chivalry (see Sira) stretching over hundreds of pages. The resulting mixture
was a middling literature comprising hundreds of story cycles in a diction
lying somewhere between classical and colloquial Arabic. It is anonymous and
above all freely creative, in the sense that any redactor could make his own
changes to it. Consequently, most manuscripts, editions, and even translations
of the Nights include new stories, in addition to the common core previously
mentioned, and sometimes the same story will be found with considerable
variations. The most striking instance of this is the translation of Antoine
Galland (1704–1715), which includes numerous Arab folktales, such as those of
Aladdin and Ali Baba, which had never belonged to theNights. Thus a translation
such as that of Richard Burton (1885–1888, online at www.geocities.com/jcbyers2000/toc.htm#burton1) may be considered as
representative in its way of the variedNightscorpus as the Bulaq edition of
1835 with 1001 nights and Muhsin Mahdi’s 1984 edition with only 282.
Further Reading
Abbott,
Nabia. ‘‘A Ninth-Century Fragment of the Thousand Nights, New Lighton the Early
History of the Arabian Nights.’’Journal of Near Eastern StudiesVIII no 3 (July
1949): 129–164, 132–133.
Chraı¨bi,
Aboubakr.Contes nouveaux des Mille et une nuits. Paris: Librairie d’Ame´rique
et d’Orient Jean Maisonneuve Successeur, 1996.
———.
‘‘Situation, Motivation, and Action in The Arabian Nights.’’ InThe Arabian
Nights Encyclopedia,edited by Ulrich Marzolph and Richard van Leeuwen, with the
collaboration of Hassan Wassouf. Denver: ABC-Clio 2004.
Dodge,
Bayard (Ed and Trans).The Fihrist of al-Nadıˆm: A Tenth-Century Survey of
Muslim Culture. 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.
Gaudefroy-Demombynes,
Maurice (Trans).Les Cent et Une Nuits. Paris: Sindbad, 1982 (1911).
Gerhardt,
Mia.The Art of Story-Telling. Leyde: Brill, 1963
Ghazoul,
Ferial.The Arabian Nights: A Structural Analysis. Cairo: Cairo Associated
Institution, 1980.
Haddawy,
Husain (Trans).The Arabian Nights. London: W. W. Norton, 1990.
———
(Trans).The Arabian Nights II : Sindbad and Other Popular Stories. London: W.
W. Norton, 1995.
Irwin,
Robert.The Arabian Nights: A Companion. London: Allen Lane (The Penguin) Press,
1994.
Mottahedeh,
Roy P. ‘‘’Ajaˆ’ib in The Thousand and One Nights.’’ InThe Thousand and One
Nights in Arabic Literature and Society, edited by Richard C. Hovannisian and
Georges Sabagh. Cambridge University Press, 1997..
OPHTHALMOLOGY
Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine
devoted to the study of diseases of the eye and their cures. Physicians from
all religious groups within the medieval Islamic world, where eye diseases were
common, avidly studied this branch of medicine. From many sources, they
compiled in Arabic considerable information on this topic and added new
observations of their own. All this information served as the common body of
knowledge on ophthalmology in the Muslim world until the nineteenth century.
The earliest treatise on this subject the Greek, Syriac, and other special
textbooks being lost was written by the Christian court physician in Baghdad,
Yuhanna ibn Masawaih (777–857). This book, Daghal
al-‘ayn (The Alteration of the Eye), which provided the first known description
of pannus, was a mixture of information that was soon superceded by the work of
Ibn Masawaih’s student and coreligionist, Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809–877). Hunayn’s al-‘Ashr maqalat fi ‘l-‘ayn (The
Ten Treatises on the Eye) was the first systematic textbook on ophthalmology. He wrote it over many years, completing it while at the
height of his glory as a translator and medical practitioner in Baghdad, under the caliph al-Mutawakkil (r.
847–861). Based primarily on Galen,
it described the structure of the eye
and its relationship to the brain, vision, health, and disease, the causes of eye diseases, remedies for eye diseases, the treatment of eye
diseases, and compound remedies for eye diseases. This book also contained the earliest known anatomy of
the eye.
Ophthalmology reached its height of
understanding in the works of two other Christians, ‘Ali b. ‘Isa (d. in the
first half of the eleventh century) and his contemporary, ‘Ammar al-Mawsili.
‘Ali, who practiced in Baghdad, wrote Tadhkirat
al-kahhalin (The Promptuary for Ophthalmologists), the most comprehensive
book on ophthalmology in Arabic to survive in the original format. Based on
Hunayn, Galen, and other authors of antiquity, it described at length the
anatomy of the eye, external and internal diseases of the eye and their
treatment (including conjunctivitis, cataracts, and trachoma), and numerous
remedies and their effect on the eye. The work Tadhkira became the standard resource on the subject. More original,
however, was ‘Ammar, who was born in Mosul but eventually practiced in Egypt
during the reign of al-Hakim (996–1020). HisMuntakhab
fi ‘ilaj al-‘ayn (The Select Work on the Treatment of the Eye) combined a
succinct account of ophthalmology with noteworthy descriptions of cataract
surgery. Subsequent work on
ophthalmology was overwhelmingly derived from Hunayn, ‘Ali, and ‘Ammar. It was epitomized,
with some notable discussion of trachoma and its sequelae, by the Muslim Ibn
al-Nafis (d. 1288), who was born in
Damascus and went on to become the
personal physician of Sultan Baybarsin Egypt (r. 1260–1277), in his Kitab al-Muhadhdhab fi ‘l-kuhl (The
Perfected Book on Ophthalmology). The
works of Hunayn, ‘Ali, and probably ‘Ammar were translated into Latin in the Middle Ages and formed the basis of ophthalmology in Europe
until the firsthalf of the eighteenth century.
Primary Sources
‘Abd
al-‘Aziz al-Sulami. Questions and Answers for Physicians. Translated and edited
by Gary Leiser and Noury Al-Khaledy. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
‘Ali ibn
‘Isa.Memorandum Book of a Tenth-Century Oculist (His Tadhkira). Translated by
C. A. Wood from the German translation. Chicago: Northwestern University Press,
1936.
‘Ammar
al-Mawsili.The Cataract Operations of ‘Ammar ibn ‘Ali al-Mawsili. Translated by
Max Meyerhof. Barcelona: Masnou, 1937.
Hunayn ibn
Ishaq.The Book of the Ten Treatises on the Eye. Translated and edited by Max
Meyerhof. Cairo: Government Press, 1928.
Further Reading
Savage-Smith,
Emilie. ‘‘Ibn Nafı¯s’sPerfected Book on Ophthalmology and His Treatment of
Trachoma and Its Sequelae.’’Journal for the History of Arab Science,4 (1980):
147–187
OPTICS
Optics, as a scientific discipline that
explores the nature and comportment of vision and light, finds its earliest
methodic roots in Euclid’s elementary treatise the Optika (ca. 300 BCE), which
eventually was geometrically systematized by Ptolemy (d. ca. 165 CE). According
to those polymaths, vision results from the emission of actual light rays from
the eye, which take the shape of a cone whose vertex is at the center of the
eye and its base on the surfaces of visible objects. This optical theory
reconfirmed Plato’s account in the Timaeus,
wherein it was stated that vision is attributed to the soul’s non consuming
fire, which provides the eye with a light that gets emitted into the surrounding
air to meet lit objects. This picture was also affirmed in Galen’s (d. ca. 200
CE) anatomy of the eye, whereby he argued that vision occurs due to the eye’s
spirit, which passes through the luminous channels of the optical nerve and is
radiated unto the external environment as a light ray that travels at an infinite
velocity. A similar observation regarding the speed of light was also made by
Heron of Alexandria (d. 75 CE) in his work Catoptrics.
These mathematical ‘‘emission’’ theories of vision contrasted the physical ‘‘intromission’’
accounts of sight, like what is encountered in Aristotle’s De anima (Tract on the Soul), wherein it was ambivalently stated
that visual perception results from the introduction of the form of the visible
object without its matter into the eye. Although the channels of the
transmission of Euclid’s Greek Optika were indeterminate, its Arabic version was preserved under
the title Kitab Uqlidus fi ikhtilaf al-manazir.
As for Ptolemy’s text, it is known from its Greek source, whereas its Arabic
rendition is only recoverable from fragments of Latin translations. One of the
earliest engagements with optics in Islam may be traced back to Hunayn ibn
Ishaq’s (d. ca. 873) Galenic studies and al-Kindi’s (d. ca. 870 CE)
commentaries on Euclid’sOptika; the latter surviving in Latin under the titleDe
aspectibusand were directed by philosophical speculations more than geometric demonstrations.
The most remarkable accomplishment in the science of optics is ultimately
achieved in Ibn al-Haytham’s (Alhazen; d. ca. 1039) monumental Kitab al-manazir (The Optics; ca. 1027),
which was translated into Latin as De
aspectibus (ca. 1270 CE) and had a focal impact on the unfolding of the
perspective tradition in the history of medieval science and Renaissance art.
Gathering the findings of the Ancients, Ibn al-Haytham was able to overcome the
main dispute over the nature of vision between the Greek mathematicians and
physicists. Rejecting the claim that vision occurs by way of the emission of a
light ray from the eye, Ibn al-Haytham systematized the intromission account of
vision by demonstrating that seeing results from the introduction of the rays
of light into the eye in the shape of a virtual conical model. He moreover
supplemented his Optics with a Treatise
on Light (Risala fi l-Daw’)that studied the radiating dispersion of light
across transparent media in a rectilinear propagation. His optical writings did
also incorporate catoptrical explorations of reflection on planar, spherical,
cylindrical, parabolic, and conical mirrors. He also integrated the study of
lenses and magnification within the science of optics, as well as verify his
theoretical hypotheses with controlled tests and experimental installations.
The refraction of light also constituted a central subject in his Optics that assisted him in his
explorations in astronomy and meteorology. Although his optical tradition was comprehensively
studied and integrated within the European Latin scientific impetus, it,
unfortunately, confronted a period of long interruption in transmission within
the medieval Islamic civilization. A parallel engagement in ocular
investigations is noted in Ibn Sina’s (Avicenna, d. 1037 CE) critical espousal of
the Aristotelian theory of vision, which classified optics as a branch of
physics rather than mathematics. However, in diverging from Aristotle’s
Meteorology, Ibn Sina ultimately advanced an alternate explanation of the
phenomenon of the rainbow. Following his tradition, Nasir al-Din Tusi (d. 1274
CE) wrote a commentary on Euclid’s Optika
that did not show signs of being aware of the optical writings of Ibn
al-Haytham. However, the most notable progress in optics, which built on Ibn
al-Haytham’s results and disseminated them, is creditably attributed to Tanqih al-manazir (The Revision of the
Optics) by Kamal alDin al-Farisi (d. 1320 CE). Informed by Ibn Sina’s writings,
Kamal al-Din revised Ibn al-Haytham’s elucidation of the nature of the rainbow
and the halo. Using geometrical constructs to demonstrate how the rainbow
results from the refraction of light falling on individual raindrops, Kamal
al-Din further substantiated his hypothesis by experimentally modeling this process
on the passage of light through a spherical vessel filled with water. Following
this latest advancement in classical optics, the study of vision in the Muslim
world did not progress beyond synoptic summarizations of earlier sources.
Primary Sources
Euclid.The
Arabic Version of Euclid’s Optics: Kitab Uqlidus fi Ikhtilaf al-Manazir. Edited
and translated by Elaheh Kheirandish. Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1999.
Ibn
al-Haytham.Kitab al-manazir. Edited by Abdelhamid I. Sabra. Kuwait: National
Council for Culture, Arts and Letters, 1983.
———.The
Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, Books I-III, On Direct Vision. Translated by
Abdelhamid I. Sabra. London: The Warburg Institute, University of London, 1989.
Ibn Sina.
Kitab al-shifa’, Kitab al-nafs. Edited by Fazlur Rahman. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1960.
Further Reading
Beshara,
Saleh O.Ibn al-Haytham’s Optics: A Study of the Origins of Experimental
Science. Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1977.
Gu¨l,
Russell. ‘‘The Emergence of Physiological Optics.’’ In Encyclopedia of the History
of Arabic Science. Vol. II. Edited by Roshdi Rashed and Re´gis More´lon. London
and New York: Routledge, 1996.
Lindberg,
David C.Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1976.
———. ‘‘The
Western Reception of Arabic Optics.’’ In Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic
Science.Vol. II. Edited by Roshdi Rashed and Re´gis More´lon. London and New
York: Routledge, 1996.
Rashed,
Roshdi. ‘‘Geometrical Optics.’’ InEncyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science.
Vol. II. Edited by Roshdi Rashed and Re´gis More´lon. London and New York: Routledge,
1996.
———.Optique
et mathe´matiques, recherches sur la pense´e sceintifique en arabe. Aldershot:
Variorum Reprints, 1992.
Sabra,
Abdelhamid I. ‘‘The Physical and the Mathematical in Ibn al-Haytham’s Theory of
Light and Vision.’’ In The Commemoration Volume of Biruni International
Congress in Tehran. Vol. 38. Tehran: High Council of Culture and Arts, 1976.
———.
‘‘Sensation and Inference in Alhazen’s Theory of Visual Perception.’’ InStudies
in Perception: Interrelations in the History of Philosophy and Science,Edited
by Peter K. Machamer and Robert G. Turnbull. Ohio: Ohio State University Press,
1978.
———.
‘‘Optics, Islamic.’’ InDictionary of the Middle Ages. Vol. 9. Edited by Joseph
R. Strayer. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1987.
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