Abdürreşid İbrahim (ʿAbd al-Rashīd Ibrāhīm) Efendi (1852 or 1857–1944), a Russian Muslim Tatar and notable pan-Islamist, who belonged to the ulema (ʿulamāʾ) and served as kadı (qāḍī) in Ufa (in the Orenburg oblast , western Russia), was born in Tara (in the Tobo…
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Sultan Abdülmecid (ʿAbd al-Mecīd) I (r. 1255–77/1839–61) was the thirty-first sultan of the Ottoman dynasty. He was born on 14 Şaban (Shaʿbān)/April 1823, the eldest son of Mahmud (Maḥmūd) II (r. 1223–55/1808–39) by his second wife Bezmialem (Bezmi-i ʿĀlem, d. 1269/1853)…
Abdülmecid Firişteoğlu (ʿAbd al-Mecīd Firişteoghlu, d. after 864/1459–60) is known for his original works and translations on Ḥurūfism, and he played an important role in the spread of this mystical doctrine in Anatolia and Rumeli. His texts on Faḍlallāh Astarābādī’s (d. 796/1…
Abdülhamid II (ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd II, 22 September 1842–10 February 1918) was the thirty-fourth Ottoman sultan. He was the grandson of Mahmud II (Maḥmūd II, r. 1808–39), the second son of Abdülmecid (ʿAbd al-Majīd, r. 1839–61), and the nephew of Abdülaziz (ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, r. 1861–76…
Abdülhalim Memduh (ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Memdūḥ) was an Ottoman literary historian and writer of the “middle generation” (ara nesil) . He was born in Istanbul in 1283/1866 or 1285/1868, to Ali Ragıb (ʿAlī Rāghıb, d. 1307/1890) Bey, who was a kaymakam ( qāʾim-maqām , head offi…
Abdalan-ı Rum (Abdālān-ı Rūm, from the Tu. sing. abdal) refers to “dervishes” coming from Rum, the former Roman territories of Anatolia. They are historical figures who lived from the seventh/thirteenth century until about the end of the ninth/fifteenth century. The lite…
Abdalan-ı Rum (Ott. Turk. Abdālān-i Rūm, mod. Turk. Rum Abdallarıi, “Abdals of Rum”), is a compound term consisting of the word abdal/abdāl (with the Persian plural suffix -ān ) and the geographical name Rum (Rūm, referring to Anatolia in general and to an Ottoman p…
ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Marāghī b. Ghaybī (d. 838/1435) was the most important Persian writer on music, also a composer, lutenist, poet, painter, and calligrapher. A boon companion of the Jalāʾirid Sulṭān Ḥusayn, in 781/1379 he composed for him a new nawbah , or suite, for each ni…
Abbasquluağa Bakıxanov (Qüdsi) (b. 3 July 1794, d. mid-December 1846 N.S.) was a Russian officer and diplomat and an Azerbaijani poet, writer, and translator. Abbasqulu’s father, Mirzə Məhəmməd II, was one of the last khan s of Baku. An ally of the Russians from 1803, he as…
Abay Qunanbayuli (Russified as Abaĭ Qūnanbaev) (1845–1904) is considered the first and greatest Kazakh writer and the founder of modern Kazakh literature. He was born in 1845 in the district of Semey (Semipalatinsk) in northeastern Kazakhstan, where he also passed away in 1904…
Abarqūh is a town first mentioned in the 4th H./10th Century C.E., in the northeastern province of Fārs, belonging to the khurra (district) of Iṣṭakhr (al-Iṣṭakhrī, 96). The road from Isfahan to Shiraz, in the south, went through Abarqūh, both north to Isfahan and east to …
Abangan refers to nominal or non-practising Muslims within Javanese society. From about the middle of the nineteenth century, there emerged in Javanese society a category of people who were defined by their failure—in the eyes of the more pious—to behave as proper Muslims. T…
Abaginskiy was the pen-name of Kudrin Arxip Georgiyeviç, a Sakha (Yakut) poet, translator, and member of the writer’s union. An active socialist, he wrote a number of poems that were celebrated because of their original style, and also translated many Russian works into Sakha.…
Aaron is the biblical name for the brother of Moses, who is known as Hārūn b. ʿImrān in the Qurʾān and in Muslim tradition, with the Arabic form of the Hebrew name Aharōn likely resulting from transmission through Syriac in pre-Islamic times. Mentioned by name twenty times in …
Aaron ben Elijah of Nicomedia (d. 771/1369) was a Karaite religious philosopher, legal authority, exegete, and poet, active in Constantinople during the mid-eighth/fourteenth century. Biographical details are limited and unreliable. He or his family hailed from Nicomedia (pres…
Badīʿ al-Zamān Abū l-Qāsim Hibatallāh b. al-Ḥusayn al-Badīʿ al-Asṭurlābī (d. 534/1139–40) was an illustrious Arab scholar, physician, philosopher, astronomer, and poet, who distinguished himself in the design and construction of astronomical instruments, including astrolabes, wh…
Al-Sayyid al-Badawī (596–674/1200–76), Egypt’s greatest saint, is also one of its historically most obscure. The first reliable biographical entry in which he is mentioned is by ʿUmar b. ʿAlī b. al-Mulaqqin (d. 804/1401), whose Ṭabaqāt al-awliyā (“History of the saints”) states …
Zayn al-Dīn Khālid b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr al-Jirjī (or al-Jirjāwī) al-Waqqād al-Azharī was a prolific ninth/fifteenth-century Egyptian scholar and the author of widely used textbooks and commentaries, especially in the field of grammar. He was born in Jirjā (Upper Egypt) aroun…
Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Azharī (282–370/895–980) was an Arab lexicographer. Born in Herat, he was a pupil there of his compatriot al-Mundhirī (d. 329/941; on him, see GAS 8:194–5). As a young man, he went to Baghdad, where he met the famous grammarian al-Zajjāj (d. 311/9…
Al-Azhar , the historic centre of higher Islamic learning in Cairo, has changed significantly since the late 19th century, with new regulations and reforms resulting in an expanded role for the university. 1. From madrasa to university With the emergence of modern government adm…