Islamic History

Ahmadiyya – A Brief History & Info about Ahmadiyya Community

December 7, 2015 by Admin Leave a Comment

Ahmadiyya

The Ahmadiyya movement was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in the Punjab province of British India in 1889, at a time of competition for converts among new Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Christian reform and missionary movements. Divisions among Sunni Muslims on appropriate responses following the failure in 1857 of a widespread rebellion against the British were reflected in the growth of new religious movements in the north west, particularly at Deoband and Aligarh. Ghulam Ahmad’s claims to be the recipient of esoteric spiritual knowledge, transmitted to him through visions, attracted attention in such a setting. Doctrinally, he aroused hostility among Sunnis mainly because of his own claim to prophethood. His definition of jihad as concerned with “cleansing of souls,” rather than with military struggle, was less controversial at a stage when most Muslims had accepted the practical necessity of acquiesence to British rule. Some have viewed the insights that drew disciples to him as sufistic in essence, though his denunciation of rivals caused detractors to question the spirituality of the movement.

History of Ahmadiyya

In 1889, shortly after publishing his first book Al-Barahin al-Ahmadiyya (Ahmadiyya proofs; 4 vols, 1880–1884), Ghulam Ahmad began to initiate disciples. His claims two years later that he was both masih (messiah) and mahdi (rightly guided one), and subsequent claims to powers of prophethood, caused outrage among Muslims, which was expressed in tracts and newspapers and in fatawa condemning him for denying the doctrine of khatm al-nabuwwa (finality of Muhammad’s prophethood). Public controversies also marked relations with his non-Muslim rivals, notably the Arya Samaj Hindu revivalist leaders with whom he clashed frequently, especially after he claimed to be an avatar of Krisna, and with Protestant Christian missionaries in the Punjab. Christians objected to his view that Jesus had died naturally in Kashmir, and that Ghulam Ahmad was the promised “second messiah.” He cultivated good relations, however, with the British colonial authorities who appreciated his advocacy of loyalty to the Raj. Although his personal dynamism, including the fear he inspired through the issuing of death prophecies, was responsible for his notoriety among his Punjab enemies, it also drew many initiates, mainly from Sunni Islam. On his death, a disciple, Maulvi Nur al-Din, became his khalifa (successor; 1908–1914). The movement took stronger institutional form on 27 December 1891, when Ghulam Ahmad called the first annual gathering at Qadiyan, subsequently the center for all Ahmadi activities.

Newspapers were soon established, including Al- Hakam (1897) and The Review of Religions (1902). Directed by Ghulam Ahmad that Ahmadis should demand separate categorization from Sunnis in the 1901 census, and that non- Ahmadi Muslims were kafirs (unbelievers), that intensified Sunni hostility. The community nevertheless prospered. Although scorned for their allegedly low social origins, many Ahmadis were of middle-class professional status (landowners, entrepreneurs, doctors, and lawyers). Those of lower origins took advantage of opportunities offered within the community to raise their educational level and hence status. Many Ahmadi women were well educated. Numbers rose to approximately nineteen thousand in Punjab by 1911, rising to about twenty-nine thousand by 1921. Careful marriage arrangements, as well as missionary activity, helped increase the membership, which then spread outside India, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia, through well-organized overseas missionary programs.

A split in 1914 divided the movement in the Punjab but did not obstruct progress, for those who remained at Qadiyan, and the new, Lahore-based, secessionary branch, continued to use similar missionary and disciplinary methods to consolidate their communities. Differing mainly on understandings of Ghulam Ahmad’s status, the Qadiyanis retained the caliphal leadership, whose incumbents (since 1914 the sons and grandsons of Ghulam Ahmad) have reinforced belief in the founder’s prophetic claims. The Lahoris, organized as the Ahmadiyya Anjuman-e Isha _at-e Islam, regarded Ghulam Ahmad as the “mujaddid [reformer] of the fourteenth century,” and are less easily distinguishable from Sunni Muslims, except in holding Ghulam Ahmad to have been the “promised messiah.” The crucial difference over prophethood has maintained the separate identities of the branches wherever Ahmadiyya has since spread, although missionary work among non-Muslims, especially overseas, tends to stress common ground in Islam. While Ghulam Ahmad’s direct successors, notably his son, the second caliph, Bashir al-Din Mahmud Ahmad, together with Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, have contributed the most influential publications to Qadiyani proselytism, the Lahoris received notable intellectual and missionary leadership from Maulana Muhammad _Ali in the Punjab, and Khwaja Kamal al-Din in London.

During the period of overt nationalist struggle in India in the 1920s and 1930s some Lahoris began to support wider Indian-Muslim agendas. Even though Zafrullah Khan was made president of the Muslim League conference in 1931, most Qadiyanis maintained their strong pro-British stance while clashing verbally and violently with some militant Sunni movements, notably the Ahrars. Yet both groups’ generally loyal stance ensured them considerable practical protection against possible recriminations from Muslims while colonial rule lasted

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

Abd Al-Malik Ibn Marwan | Umayyad Caliph

October 5, 2014 by Admin Leave a Comment

ABD AL-MALIK IBN MARWAN

‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan was the Umayyad caliph who ruled from 65/685 until 86/705. He inherited a fractured polity from his father, who was apparently murdered in his sleep by one of his wives. The rebel Ibn al-Zubayr controlled the holy sites in the Hijaz, along with signiﬁcant areas of Iraq, where both he and ‘Abd al-Malik confronted ‘Alid and Kharijite rebels. Only Syria remained ﬁrmly in Umayyad hands, and even there ‘Abd al-Malik faced a revolt led by ‘Amr b. Sa‘id al-Asdaq, a family rival, in 69/688–689. These internal threats forced ‘Abd alMalik to sign a treaty with the Byzantines, paying them tribute in 70/689–690. He was able to restore order and consolidate his power by 73/692. ‘Abd al Malik continued to face occasional revolts in Iraq and farther east in Khurasan, but his viceroy Hajjaj ibn Yusuf contained these threats ably (and sometimes viciously).

‘Abd al-Malik devoted the remainder of his reign to centralizing power in the capital at Damascus. He depended on his own family for sensitive positions, which was in contrast with his predecessors’ reliance on local elites. He used his powerful Syrian army to crush any provincial resistance. ‘Abd al-Malik introduced the ﬁrst distinctly Islamic coinage. In contrast with older Muslim coins, which were based on Byzantine models, ‘Abd al-Malik’s coins were devoid of pictorial images and included Qur’anic phrases instead. The remarkable uniformity of these coins demonstrates the degree to which ‘Abd al-Malik centralized the control of minting money. His coins remained the model for coins through out the Umayyad and ‘Abbasid periods. In addition, ‘Abd al-Malik began the long process of establishing Arabic as the standard administrative language of the realm and invested heavily in agricultural development, particularly in Iraq and the Hijaz. At his death in 86/705 at the age of 60, he was succeeded by al-Walid, the ﬁrst of four of his sons to ascend to the caliphate.

Al Andalus | History of Islam in Spain

October 5, 2014 by Admin Leave a Comment

Andalus, Al-Andalus

ANDALUS, Al-Andalus is the geographic term used to denote those areas of modern Spain that came under Muslim control in the Middle Ages. Today, the term (Spanish, Andalucía) refers to a particular territory located in southern Spain. Al-Andalus or Muslim Spain (both terms will be used interchangeably), with its famous mosques, irrigated gardens, developments in poetry, philosophy, and science, is often referred to as the cultural golden age of Islam. The actual Muslim presence there lasted 781 years (711–1492 C.E.) and its inﬂuence on everything from architecture to science is still palpable. For the sake of convenience, what follows is divided into three parts: history and main developments, cultural achievements, and the Jews of al-Andalus.

History and Main Developments

Prior to the arrival of the Muslims, Spain was under the control of the Visigoths, who maintained ﬁrm control of the region with the help of a rigid church hierarchy. In 711, Arab and Berber forces, under the leadership of Tariq b. Ziyad, defeated the Visigothic King Rodrigo at the River Barbate. The Arab armies tried to move as far as France but were eventually repelled in 732 by Charles Martel. During the ﬁrst decades after 711, al-Andalus functioned as a frontier outpost with the Umayyad caliph in Damascus appointing its governor. Around the year 750, however, a dynastic struggle in the East led to change in rule from the Umayyads to the Abbasids. Signiﬁcantly, in 756, an Umayyad prince by the name of Abd al-Rahman I arrived in Spain. He was able to gain sufﬁcient political support there, thereby creating an independent and sovereign state, referred to as the Marwanid dynasty, based in Cordoba.

The high point of the Marwanid dynasty occurred during the rule of Abd al-Rahman III, who reigned for ﬁfty years (912–961). This coincided with a period of stability after he had subdued revolting factions and stopped the advances of the neighboring Christians—something his predecessors had been unable to accomplish. He was also responsible for the construction of the monumental royal city, Madinat alZahra, just outside of Cordoba. Under his rule, Cordoba became a true cosmopolitan center, rivaling the great cities of the Islamic East and far surpassing the capitals of Western Europe. After the death of Abd al-Rahman III, the central caliphate gradually fragmented into a number of smaller kingdoms ruled by various “party kings” (muluk al-tawaif). The history of al-Andalus in the eleventh-century is one of gradual diminishment as various Christian monarchs attempted to encroach upon the area held by the Muslims, an area that they felt compromised the national and religious unity of Spain. This re-conquering (Spanish, Reconquista) became so vigorous that the various Muslim kingdoms had no choice but to seek help from the Almoravids, a dynasty based in North Africa. The result was that al-Andalus, for all intents and purposes, lost its independence, becoming little more than an annex of a government situated in North Africa.

In 1147, the puritanical Almohades, another dynasty based in North Africa, invaded Spain. This dynasty was determined to put an end to the religious laxity that they witnessed among the Andalusian intellectual and courtier classes. They demanded, inter alia, the conversion of all Christians and Jews to Islam. It was during this period that many Jews left Spain: the majority went north to Christian territories. According to some modern commentators, the Almohade invasion signaled the end of one of the most fascinating and eclectic eras of world history.

By the thirteenth century, al-Andalus was essentially comprised of Granada and its immediate environs. Here the Nasrid dynasty, with its royal palace in the al-Hamra (Alhambra), ruled as quasi-vassals of the Christian king. The Alhambra, with its open courts, fountains, and irrigated gardens, is today one of the best preserved medieval castles in Europe. In 1492, under the leadership of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, the Reconquista was completed. All those who were not Christian (i.e., Muslims and Jews) were expelled from Spain.

Cultural Achievements

From a cultural and philosophical perspective, the achievements associated with the inhabitants of al-Andalus are unrivalled. The Marwanid capital, Cordoba, alone had over seventy libraries, which encouraged many great architects and scientists to settle there. The caliphs and rich patrons, in turn, established schools to translate classical philosophic and scientiﬁc texts into Arabic. Although the center at Cordoba gradually fragmented into a number of kingdoms, there nevertheless ensued a rich intellectual, cultural, and social landscape that was grounded on the notion of adab, the polite ideal of cultured living that developed in the courts of medieval Islam. The adab (pl., udaba) was an individual deﬁned by his social graces, literary tastes, and ingenuity in manipulating language.

One of the main developments within Andalusian literature was the muwashshah. The muwashshah, which seems to have originated in the ninth century, is a genre of stanzaic poetry whose main body is composed in classical Arabic with its ending written in vernacular, often in the form of a quotation (kharja). The main themes were devoted to love, wine, and panegyric; eventually, this genre proved popular among Suﬁs (e.g., ibn Arabi). The muwashshah was also a popular genre among non-Muslims, especially among Hebrew poets.

Al-Andalus is also associated with some of the most famous names of Islamic intellectual history. Unlike the great majority of philosophers in the Muslim East, the overarching concern of Andalusian Islamic thinkers was political science. Questions that they entertained were: What constitutes the perfect state? How can such a state be realized? What is the relationship between religion and the politics? And, what should the philosopher, who ﬁnds himself in an unjust state, do? Another important feature of Islamic philosophy in alAndalus was an overwhelming interest in intellectual mysticism, which stressed that the true end of the individual was the contact (ittisal) between the human intellect and the Divine Intellect.

Philosophy in al-Andalus reached a high-point with Ibn Bajja (d. 1139). His Tadbir al-mutawahhid (Governance of the solitary) examines the fate of a lone individual who seeks truth in the midst of a city that is concerned primarily with ﬁnancial gain and carnal pleasures. Such an individual must, according to Ibn Bajja, seek out other like-minded individuals and avoid discussing philosophy with non-philosophers. Ibn Tufayl (d. 1185) picks up this theme in his philosophical novel Hayy ibn Yaqzan. The goal of this work is to show that the unaided human intellect is capable of discovering Truth without the aid of divine revelation. Ibn Tufayl, according to tradition, was also responsible for encouraging the young Ibn Rushd (d. 1198) to write his commentaries on the works of Aristotle. Within this context, Ibn Rushd wrote not one but three commentaries to virtually the entire Aristotelian corpus. These commentaries, in their Latin translations, were the staple of the European curriculum until relatively recently.

Suﬁsm, or Islamic mysticism, was also a prominent feature of the intellectual and cultural life of al-Andalus. In fact, one of the most important Suﬁs, Ibn Arabi (d. 1240), was born in Murcia in southeastern Spain. After a mystical conversion as a teenager, he set out on a life of asceticism and wanderings. Ibn Arabi essentially interpreted the entire Islamic tradition (jurisprudence, the Quran, hadith, philosophy) through a mystical prism.

The Jews of al-Andalus

The culture of al-Andalus would also have a tremendous impact on non-Muslim communities living there. The adab ideal (mentioned in the previous section) proved to be very attractive to the local population (both Jewish and Christian), who adopted the cosmopolitan ideals of Islamicate culture, including the use of Arabic. Within the history of Jewish civilization, al-Andalus (Hebrew, ha-Sefarad) holds a special place. Legend has it that the Jews not only welcomed, but also physically helped, the Muslims conquer the oppressive Visigoth rulers. The cooperativeness of the Jews and their ability to integrate into Andalusian Arab society subsequently createdan environment in which Jews ﬂourished. Arabic gradually replaced Aramaic as the language of communication among Jews: By adopting Arabic (although they would write it in Hebrew characters, and today this is called Judeo-Arabic), Jews inherited a rich cultural and scientiﬁc vocabulary. It was during the tenth century, for example, that Jews ﬁrst began to write secular poetry (although written in Hebrew, it employed Arabic prosody, form, and style).

The names of famous Jews who lived in al-Andalus reads like a “who’s who” list of Jewish civilization. Shmuel haNagid (993–1055), for example, became the prime minister (wazir) of Granada. His responsibilities included being in charge of the army (i.e., having control over Muslim soldiers), in effect becoming one of the most powerful Jews between Biblical times and the present day. His poetry recounting battles is among the most expressive of the tradition. The fact that a Jew could attain such a prominent position within Muslim society reveals much about Jewish-Muslim relations in Spain. Other famous Hebrew poets included Moshe ibn Ezra (d.1138) and Judah Halevi (d.1141), whose sacred poetry is still part of the Jewish liturgy. Al-Andalus was also the birthplace of the most famous Jewish philosopher: Moses Maimonides (d.1204), who attempted to show the compatibility between religion and philosophy by arguing that the former was based not on superstition, but rational principles. In sum, al-Andalus was not only a region, but also represented a way of life that Muslims and Jews look back at with fondness. With its rich contributions to science, literature, architecture, and interfaith relations, al-Andalus played a prominent role in Islamic history.

Shah Abbas I of Safavid Dynasty

October 4, 2014 by Admin Leave a Comment

Shah Abbas I Biography

Shah Abbas I, the ﬁfth ruler of the Safavid dynasty, ruled Iran from 1587 until 1629, the year of his death. Shah Abbas came to power at a time when tribal unrest and foreign invasion had greatly reduced Iran’s territory. Once on the throne he set out to regain the lands and authority that had been lost by his immediate successors. His defeat of the Uzbeks in the northeast and the peace he made with the Ottoman Empire, Iran’s archenemy, enabled Shah Abbas to reform Iran’s military and ﬁnancial system. He diminished the military power of the tribes by creating a standing army composed of slave soldiers who were loyal only to him. These so-called ghulams (military slaves) were mostly Armenians and Georgians captured during raids in the Caucasus. In order to increase the revenue needed for these reforms the shah centralized state control, which included the appointment of ghulams to high administrative positions.

With the same intent he fostered trade by reestablishing road security and by building many caravan series throughout the country. Under Shah Abbas, Isfahan became Iran’s capital and most important city, endowed with a new commercial and administrative center grouped around a splendid square that survives today. His genius further manifested itself in his military skills and his astute foreign policy. He halted the eastward expansion of the Ottomans, defeating them and taking Baghdad in 1623. To encourage trade and thus gain treasure, he welcomed European merchants to the Persian Gulf. He also allowed Christian missionaries to settle in his country; hopeful that this might win him allies among European powers in his anti-Ottoman struggle. Famously down to earth, Shah Abbas was a pragmatic ruler who could be cruel as well as generous. Rare among Iranian kings, he is today remembered as a ruler who was concerned about his own people.

Aligarh Movement Introduction & Importance in Indian History

February 5, 2012 by Admin Leave a Comment

Aligarh Movement in Sub-Continent/ Aligarh Institute in India

The north Indian city of Aligarh, site of Aligarh Muslim University, has played a leading role in the political life and intellectual history of South Asian Muslims since the middle of the nineteenth century. The importance of Aligarh arose initially under the leadership of Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817–1898). Through a series of organizations and institutions, the “Aligarh movement” (the social, cultural, and political movement founded by Sayyid Ahmad Khan) sought to prepare Muslims for changes in technology, social life, and politics associated with British rule, the rise of nationalism, and the conditions of modernity. In 1865, Aligarh became the headquarters of the Aligarh Scientiﬁc Society, and, in 1875, the Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental College, the forerunner of the university established there in 1920. Aligarh was the ﬁrst headquarters of the Muslim League, a party established in 1906 to secure recognition of Muslims as a separate political community within India, a concept that ultimately led in 1947 to the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan as a separate nation-state for South Asian Muslims. After partition, the Aligarh Muslim University remained one of a small group of national universities in India.
In its early years, the Aligarh College attracted patronage and recruited students from Muslim communities throughout India, both Sunni and Shia, as well as signiﬁcant numbers of Hindus. Aside from some short-lived efforts to include Arabic studies and Urdu as a language of instruction, the college followed the standard British imperial curriculum. Ofﬁcial British patronage became more signiﬁcant after 1887, when Sayyid Ahmad Khan called for Muslim opposition to the newly founded Indian National Congress. In the twentieth century, Aligarh became an arena for opposing political tendencies among Muslims, including supporters of Indian nationalism and international socialism, as well as of Muslim separatism. Aligarh graduates achieved prominence as writers, jurists, and political leaders. At the same time, Aligarh was the target of much opposition, particularly for its association with social reform and religious modernism. In 1906 the Aligarh Zenana Madrasa provided separate education for girls, and became the Aligarh Women’s College in 1925. When Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan died in 1898, his successors initiated a campaign to establish an autonomous, allIndia educational system for Muslims under the auspices of an afﬁliating university. The university established in 1920, however, was conﬁned to Aligarh and remained under British control. In response, Mohandas K. Gandhi and two Aligarh graduates, the brothers Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali, led a noncooperation campaign that established an alternative nationalist institution, the Jamia Millia Islamiya, outside the campus gates and subsequently relocated to Delhi. In the ﬁnal years before independence and partition, Aligarh students toured India on behalf of the Pakistan cause, though others devoted themselves to the ideal of a united and secular India.
Zakir Hussain, the ﬁrst postindependence vice chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, and later president of India, succeeded in preserving the university’s Muslim identity as a way of preparing Muslims for full participation in national life. A center for Urdu writers and historians of Mughal India, many of them Marxists, the university has so far been able to fend off efforts to undermine its role as an national center for Indian Muslims.

Hazrat Aisha Siddiqa | Hazrat Ayesha Biography & History

December 20, 2011 by Admin 23 Comments

Hazrat Aisha Siddiqa(614–678 C.E.)
Aisha bint Abi Bakr was the favorite wife of the prophet Muhammad and signiﬁcant religious and political ﬁgure in early Islam. The daughter of Umm Ruman and one of the Prophet’s companions, Abu Bakr (the ﬁrst caliph of Islam after the death of the Prophet), she married Muhammad at a young age. Her intelligence, beauty, and spirited personality are well recorded in historical sources. The hadith tradition records a unique level of intimacy shared by the Prophet and Aisha. They bathed in the same water, he prayed while she lay stretched out in front of him, he received revelation when they were under the same blanket, and he expressed a desire to be moved to Aisha’s chambers when he knew his death was approaching.

Affection and playfulness also characterized their relationship. They raced with each other and enjoyed listening to the singing of Ethiopian singers together. The Prophet related that when Aisha was pleased with him, she would swear “By the God of Muhammad” and when she was annoyed with him she would swear “By the God of Abraham.” She regularly engaged the Prophet on issues of revelation and religion. Recognizing her intelligence and perceptiveness, he told the Muslims “Take two-thirds of your religion from al-Humayra,” the term of affection referring to the rosy-cheeked Aisha.

A scandal once surrounded Aisha, who was mistakenly left behind during a caravan rest stop on an expedition with the Prophet. She returned to Medina escorted by a young man who had found her waiting alone. Amid the ensuing gossip and speculation about Aisha’s ﬁdelity, one of the Prophet’s companions, Ali, advised Muhammad to divorce her. This caused her to bear deep resentment against Ali, which manifested itself in her later opposition to him as Muhammad’s successor. Finally a Quranic revelation exonerated her of all suspected wrongdoing, proclaiming her innocence. This same revelation established the punishment for false accusations of adultery.
In the lifetime of the Prophet she, together with Muhammad’s other wives, was referred to as “Mother of the Believers.” She is known to have transmitted approximately 1,210 traditions (hadiths), only 300 of which are included in the canonical hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim. She is said to have transmitted hadith to at least eighty-ﬁve Muslims, as well as to have corrected inaccuracies in the hadiths reported by some of the Prophet’s male companions.

After the death of the Prophet, she was critical of the third caliph, Uthman, but also called his killers to accountability during the caliphate of Ali. Together with the Companions Zubair and Talha, she mobilized opposition to Ali, culminating in the Battle of the Camel (656 C.E.). The name of the battle reﬂects the centrality of Aisha’s role in the conﬂict, seated on her camel in the middle of the battleﬁeld. This struggle over succession marked the development of a major civil war (called ﬁtna) in Islam, which ultimately contributed to one of the most signiﬁcant religious and political divisions in the Muslim world. The representations of Aisha in subsequent Shiite and Sunni polemics reﬂected some of the historical antagonisms between the two. Many Shiite Muslims reviled Aisha, whereas Sunni Muslims embraced her as a revered wife of the Prophet. Tradition holds that she was consulted on theological, legal, and other religious issues, and was also known for her poetic skills. She is buried at al-Baqi in Medina.

Note: All the information above is is taken from some neutral websites and encyclopedia and we tried our best to avoid any controversial details or views related to particular sect in above mentioned information.

Mansa Musa Biography, Birth Date, Bio, History, King of Mali

August 7, 2011 by Admin 13 Comments

One of the most famous emperors of the medieval Western Sudanic kingdom of Mali, Mansa Musa reigned from about 1312 to 1337. He extended the kingdom of Mali by bringing under its suzerainty many non-Mandingo people of the Sahel. Many sources, including the Arabic author al-_Umari (1301–1394), described Mansa Musa as a pious Muslim, and as one of the medieval rulers whose contribution to the spread of Islam in the Western Sudan was the most significant. One of the most noted events of Mansa Musa’s reign was his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1312. On his way, Mansa Musa visited Egypt during the reign of the Mamluk sultan, Nasir b. Qala_un. Mansa Musa, it has been reported, was accompanied by thousands of peoples and camels laden with gold. He gave huge quantities of gold to the sultan of Egypt.

Mansa Musa’s stay in Egypt was one of the main events of the year 1312. He distributed so much gold that the price of this precious metal dropped. Perhaps because of the notoriety he gained by this pilgrimage, Mali started to appear in maps drawn by European cartographers.
Mansa Musa’s reign supported a flowering in Malian scholarship and architecture. He commissioned al-Sahili, the Andalusian poet and man of letters, to design mosques and other buildings in Mali. Mansa Musa attracted scholars and brought back books of Islamic jurisprudence to the libraries Mali. He also began sending students to Islamic universities in North Africa. He built Qur_anic schools, and established the Friday congregational prayer in Mali.

Hasan Ibn Ali Biography, Bio, History, Death, Who is Hassan

July 28, 2011 by Admin 2 Comments

Hasan ibn _Ali ibn Abi Talib was the grandson of the prophet Muhammad and the second Shi_ite imam. Born in Medina in 624, three years after the hijra, he died at age forty-six in Medina in 670. In Shi_ite parables he and his brother Husayn, the third imam, are figured as two alternative political strategies against injustice in the world and in politics. Hasan embodies the path of patience, which allows the enemy slowly to demonstrate unworthiness and lose any claim to legitimacy.
Husayn embodies the path of armed revolt. After the death of his father, _Ali bin Talib, the first imam, Mu_awiya became caliph. According to the Shi_ite account, Hasan should have succeeded his father. Hasan was an important rawi (reciter) and interpreter of the hadith and sunna (sayings and practices) of the Prophet and his Companions, reflecting the role of the imams in having access also to the divine meanings of revelation. But Hasan was too weak politically to challenge Mu_awiya for the leadership of the community. After Mu_awiya attempted to have him assasinated, and many of his followers abandoned him, Hasan came to an understanding with Mu_awiya, wherein Hasan was sent to live in Medina, while Mu_awiya promised that leadership would revert to the family of the Prophet upon his death. But Mu_awiya broke his promise by appointing his son Yazid to succeed him, and convinced Ja_da, Hasan’s wife, to poison the imam. In addition to paying Ja_da, Mu_awiyya also promised to marry her to his son and heir, Yazid. The giving of poisoned water is the inverse of the denial of water to Husayn on the battlefield of Karbala, where the third imam was martyred by the forces of Yazid. Imam Husayn’s revolt subsequently disgraced Yazid, and created in him the archetypal figure of evil in Shi_ite stories of injustice.

This parable structure is also encoded in a hadith quoted by Mohammad Baqer Majlesi, the preeminent mujtahed of the seventeenth century. On Id al-Fitr, according to the hadith, Gabriel descended with a gift of new white clothes for each of the Prophet’s grandsons. The Prophet said that the grandsons were used to colored clothes. So Gabriel asked each boy what color he wanted. Hasan chose green, Husayn red. While the clothes were being dyed, Gabriel wept. He explained: Hasan’s choice of green meant that he would be martyred by poisoning, and his body would turn green, and Husayn’s choice of red meant he would be martyred and his blood would turn the ground red.
Hasan is buried in Medina with a green banner on his mausoleum. Husayn is buried in Karbala with a red banner, the sign of a martyr whose revenge is yet to come. Sunni accounts of early Islamic history deny that Hasan was poisoned, claiming he died of consumption. Sunni accounts also stress the temporary shift of power to Damascus under Mu_awiya and Yazid, but since revenues came mainly from Iraq, power eventually shifted to Baghdad. For Shi_a, Hasan’s story is a precursor to Husayn’s martyrdom,
which is the overarching cosmic and paradigmatic story of existential tragedy, of injustice in this world triumphing often by force over justice, and of the duty of a true Muslim to sacrifice himself, to witness for truth and justice.

Marwan Bin Al-Hakam Biography, History & Detail

July 19, 2011 by Admin 1 Comment

Marwan/Marwan bin Hakam
Marwan b. al-Hakam b. Abi al-_As, Abu _Abd al-Malik, the eponym of the Marwanid branch of the Umayyads, reigned for several months in 684 and 685 C.E. He was one of the Companions of Muhammad and the cousin of _Uthman b. _Affan (r. 644–656), the third caliph of Islam. Marwan was appointed secretary to _Uthman during his caliphate because of his knowledge of the Qur_an and became the caliph’s closest advisor. He probably encouraged the caliph to compile the Qur_an. Much of Marwan’s wealth came from the rich plunder he obtained during an expedition to North Africa, which he invested in properties in Medina. Despite objection from many Medinans, Marwan influenced _Uthman to appoint his brother, Harith b. Hakam, to oversee the market of Medina.

Marwan was viewed as an ambitious man and his influence on the caliph was generally regarded as negative. When Egyptian malcontents negotiated a political settlement with _Uthman, Marwan is believed to have written a letter ordering the execution of the Egyptians concerned. It was the discovery of this letter by the Egyptians that led to _Uthman’s being besieged and murdered in his home in 656. This event is remembered as “the battle of the house,” or yawm al-dar.
Marwan was wounded while trying to protect _Uthman. He later fought in the Battle of the Camel with _A_isha against _Ali, for _Ali would neither investigate nor punish the murderers of _Uthman. Later, Marwan swore allegiance to _Ali, but joined the ranks of Mu_awiya when _Ali was murdered. He was appointed governor of Medina by the caliph Mu_awiyya b. Abi Sufyan (r. 661–680), and served in this capacity from 661 to 668 and again from 674 to 677. Mu_awiyya was succeeded by his son, Yazid, who died in 683, followed by Yazid’s son, Mu_awiya II, who died a few months later. Meanwhile, the hostility provoked by Yazid during his brief caliphate, which saw the death of Husayn b. _Ali, the battle of the Harra (a stronghold in Medina), and the onslaught against Mecca, had brought _Abdullah b. al-Zubayr great popularity. Al-Zubayr was acclaimed caliph of the region extending from the Hijaz (a region in western Saudi Arabia) to Iraq. The Umayyads were thus forced to look beyond the Sufyanid family for a leader. At this point, frustrated by inadequate leadership, tribal loyalties that had been submerged by the uniting forces of Islam emerged once again. The faction led by Ibn Bahdal, chief of the Kalbi clan, proclaimed Marwan caliph, while the faction led by al-Dahhaq b. Ways al-Fihri supported Ibn al- Zubayr. When the two factions met at the battle of Marj Rahat it was Marwan who won the day Marwan immediately consolidated his position: He married Fakhita bt. Abi Hashim, the widow of Yazid, vowing that the latter’s son, Khalid b. Yazid, would be his successor. Once appointed caliph, however, he first replaced Egypt’s Zubayrid governor with his son, _Abd al-_Aziz. Then, reneging on his promise to Fakhita, he named his eldest son, _Abd al-Malik, heir to the caliphate. Finally, having defeated Mus_ab b. al- Zubayr, the brother of his rival caliph in Mecca, he sent his general, _Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad, to capture Iraq.
Marwan died in 685, murdered by his wife, Fakhita, before Iraq was taken. His son, _Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705), successfully consolidated the Umayyad caliphate under the Marwanid banner.

Ibn Khuldun Biography, Work in Sociology

June 24, 2011 by Admin Leave a Comment

IBN KHALDUN (1332–1406)
_Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al-Hasan, better known as Ibn Khaldun, was born in the North African region of Ifriqiyah (Tunis) in 1332. Well known and controversial in his time, his Muqaddima (Introduction), has become one of the best-known and important works on medieval historiography for modern scholars. Ibn Khaldun was also actively involved in the politics of the period and traveled extensively across Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East. He died in Cairo on 16 March 1406.
Ibn Khaldun came from an influential family that had originally settled in Andalusia at the beginning of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Shortly before the beginning of the Reconquista his ancestors migrated to Tunis, where they became important administrators in local governments.

His father, however, worked primarily as a jurist and a scholar. Because of his father’s position as a legal scholar, Ibn Khaldun was able to attain an education from some of the most famous North African scholars of the age. In the midfourteenth century the western Berber Marinid tribe invaded Tunis and established a short-lived dynasty. The Marinids imported a large number of legal scholars and theologians into Tunis and for a short period Ibn Khaldun, at this time in his mid-teens, was able to learn from a wide array of scholars in a variety of fields. The Marinid occupation of Tunis was, however, short and by the time Ibn Khaldun was seventeen most of the great scholars had already left Tunis for Fez, Morocco.
The Marinid occupation of Tunis left its mark on the young scholar. He came to see the period as a model for the historical development and decline of Islamic societies. He argued that Islamic societies followed a specific path of development and decline whereby desert tribes invade a given society and infuse it with a sense of vitality and what he called asabiyya (group solidarity). _Asabiyya becomes the foundation for all social relations and provides the fundamental motives for cultural, intellectual, and economic development. Over time, however, the sense of group solidarity breaks down, followed by a slow period of decline until a new group asserts itself into society and brings with it a new sense of _asabiyya. The withdrawal of the Marinids back into Morocco left an intellectual and political vacuum in Tunis, and by 1353 Ibn Khaldun decided to migrate west to Fez. In Fez, Ibn Khaldun rose quickly into the inner circle of the Marinid sultan Ibn Abi _Amr. By 1357 he fell out of favor with the sultan and was
thrown in prison until Ibn Abi _Amr’s death in 1358. Ibn Khaldun appears to have attempted to remain involved in the changing political situation, but by 1359 he decided to retire from politics and accepted a position as a judge. By 1362 his position became so untenable that he was forced to flee to Granada. Over the next twelve years Ibn Khaldun continued to involve himself in the politics of Spain and North Africa. By his late forties, however, he had tired of politics and decided to return to scholarship once again. He wrote a number of works during this period and appears to have begun developing many of his ideas on history and sociology. He wrote his Muqaddima to his world history (Kitab al-_Ibar) between 1375 and 1379, as well as a number of other important works. By 1378, Ibn Khaldun returned to Tunis to work as a scholar and teacher. His ideas, however, were considered threatening by several of his peers and he was forced to flee to Cairo in 1382. In Cairo, Ibn Khaldun continued to teach and write, and by 1399 was appointed judge. In 1400 he accompanied the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir to Syria during the invasion of Timur and was involved in negotiations with the Mongol leader for the surrender of Damascus. As had previously been the case, Ibn Khaldun frequently ran afoul of political powers and was dismissed from his judgeship upon his return. Over
the remaining six years of his life he was appointed and dismissed from the judiciary five more times.
Ibn Khaldun remained a controversial figure even after his death. His Muqaddima, and to a lesser extent his other writings, were both respected and reviled by later scholars. In the Muqaddima, Ibn Khaldun sets forth a clear exposition of his theory of social and historical development and decline. He describes the various Islamic sciences, their development, and the process of professionalization that scholars had to endure to become certified by their contemporaries as qualified academics. This process of professional certification, according to Ibn Khaldun, which had become so extensive by the medieval period that it prevented scholars of in-depth knowledge in any one field, was one of the factors that led Muslim societies to decline. His theories about the decline of Muslim society would influence late-nineteenth and twentiethcentury Muslim scholars who embraced Ibn Khaldun’s theories as evidence of the need for renewal of Islamic culture and thought.