Religion: Islam

c.570-632 Arab prophet and religious leader who founded Islam. He was born in Mecca.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Husband of Fatima (daughter of Muhammad) and 4th caliph (656-61). The debate over his right to the caliphate caused a major split in Islam into Sunni and Shiite branches.

In the Qur'an, ancestor of the Arabs through his son Ishmael. Abraham is further regarded as an ancestor of Muhammad.

Caliphate: the rulership of Islam. Caliph: the spiritual head and temporal ruler of the Islamic state.

In Islam, a recognized leader or a religious teacher.

Building for worship used by members of the Islamic faith.

City in Saudi Arabia and, as birthplace of Muhammad, the holiest city of the Islamic world and a place of annual pilgrimage.

Medina is the second holiest city in the Islamic world after Mecca, and contains the tomb of Muhammad, a focus for Muslim pilgrims during the hajj (annual pilgrimage).

In Islam, usually an initiate in a Sufi order.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Islamic shrine in Jerusalem dating from the 7th century AD that surrounds a great rock altar (an outcrop of rock) that was part of Solomon's Temple of Jerusalem. The place from which, in Muslim tradition, Muhammad ascended to heaven on his Night Journey.

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
Arabic, comprehension, from faqiha, to understand: the name used for the general science of jurisprudence relating to Islamic law.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
A tradition or the collection of the traditions of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, including his sayings and deeds, and his tacit approval of what was said or done in his presence.

The book composed of sacred writings accepted by Muslims as revelations made to Muhammad by Allah.

The religious law of Islam. As Islam makes no distinction between religion and life, Islamic law covers not only ritual but many aspects of life.

Muslim code of practice; a body of traditional law based on the sayings, actions, and guidance of the prophet Muhammad, as detailed in the Hadith and the Sirah (a biography of the prophet's life).

From Chambers 21st Century Dictionary
A compilation of the sayings and deeds of Muhammad, which is a supplement to the Koran for the more orthodox Muslim.

The Abbasid caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates, and it lasted from 750 until 1258, making it the longest of the caliphates and one that presided over great advances in science and technology until it was destroyed by the Mongols.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
1st caliph, friend, father-in-law, and successor of Muhammad. He was probably Muhammad's first convert outside the Prophet's family and alone accompanied Muhammad on the Hegira.

From Encyclopedia of African History The Fatimids (969-1073) were an Ismai'ili Shi'a dynasty that controlled Egypt and portions of North Africa and Syria in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
5th and most famous Abbasid caliph (786–809). He succeeded his brother Musa al-Hadi, fourth caliph, a year after the death of his father, Mahdi, the third caliph.

c.570-632 Arab prophet and religious leader who founded Islam. He was born in Mecca. At the age of 25 he began working as a trading agent.

The first Islamic dynasty (661–750). Their reign witnessed the return to leadership roles of the pre-Islamic Arab elite, and the rejuvenation of tribal loyalties.

1542–1605, Mughal emperor of India (1556–1605); son of Humayun, grandson of Babur. He succeeded to the throne under a regent, Bairam Khan, who rendered loyal service in expanding and consolidating the Mughal domains before he was summarily dismissed (1560) by the young king.

1784–1839, Ottoman sultan (1808–39), younger son of Abd al-Hamid I. He was raised to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) upon the deposition of his brother, Mustafa IV, and continued the reforms of his cousin, Selim III.

From Chamber's Dictionary of World History
An important Indian Muslim state (1526–1857), founded by Babur. It temporarily declined under Humayun (1530–40), who lost control to the Afghan chieftain, Sher Shah (1540–5).

Vast state founded in the late 13th cent. by Turkish tribes in Anatolia and ruled by the descendants of Osman I until its dissolution in 1918.

Iranian dynasty (1499–1736), that established Shiite Islam in Iran as an official state religion. The Safavid state provided both the territorial and societal foundations of modern Iran.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Ottoman sultan from 1520, known as the Magnificent and the Lawgiver. Under his rule, the Ottoman Empire flourished and reached its largest extent.

US-led military action against Afghanistan beginning 7 October 2001.

Series of wars and territorial conflicts between Israel and various Arab states in the Middle East since the founding of the state of Israel in May 1948. These include the war of 1948-49; the 1956 Suez War between Israel and Egypt; the Six-Day War of 1967, in which Israel captured territory from Syria and Jordan; the October War of 1973; and the 1982-85 war between Israel and Lebanon.

The war (1991) between U.S.-led UN forces and Iraq, following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Palestinian uprising, specifically between December 1987 and September 1993, during which time a loosely organized group of Palestinians (the Liberation Army of Palestine, also called Intifada) rebelled against armed Israeli troops in the occupied territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
On the 10th of Muharram in the year 680, Muhammad’s grandson Hussein was killed in a skirmish between Sunnis and the small group of Shi’ite supporters with whom he was travelling to Iraq.

The pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, one of the five basic requirements (arkan or "pillars") of Islam.

Ramadan, a significant period of fasting, reflection, and prayer for all Muslims, is a holiday in the religious tradition of Islam, one of the world's largest religions.

Also known as the Feast of Fast-Breaking, or the Lesser Feast, Id al-Fitr marks the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan and the beginning of a three-day feast.

From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
This most important feast of the Muslim calendar is the concluding rite of those performing the Hajj or Pilgrimage to Mecca. It is also known as Id al-Kabir, the Great Feast.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
The departure of the prophet Muhammad from Mecca in 622. The year of the Hegira marks the beginning of the Muslim era.

A system of doctrines proclaimed in Persia in 1844 by Ali Muhammad of Shiraz, who proclaimed himself the Bab, the living door to the twelth Imam and the knowledge of God, and sent missionaries throughout Persia.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
The Baha'i faith holds that God can be made known to humankind through manifestations that have come at various stages of human progress; prophets include Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, the Bab, and Baha Ullah.

A Muslim Shiite sect that holds Ismail, the son of Jafar as-Sadiq, as its imam.

Member of a sect of Islam that believes that Ali, a cousin of the prophet Muhammad, was his first true successor.

An umbrella term for the ascetic and mystical movements within Islam.

The largest division of Islam. Sunni Islam is the heir to the early central Islamic state, in its acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the order of succession of the first four caliphs.

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
A form of radical Islamism known after its founder, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792), from the Najd area of Arabia, ruled by local sheikhs of the house of Saud.

System of doctrines proclaimed in Persia in 1844 by Ali Muhammad of Shiraz. Influenced by the Shaykhi Shiite theology that viewed the Twelve Imams as incarnations of the Divine, Ali Muhammad proclaimed himself the Bab, the living door to the twelth Imam and the knowledge of God.

Religion founded in the 19th century from a Muslim splinter group, Babism, by the Persian Baha'u'llah. His message in essence was that all great religious leaders are manifestations of the unknowable God and all scriptures are sacred.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
African-American religious movement in the United States, split since 1976 into the American Muslim Mission and the Nation of Islam.

Islam, one of the world’s great monotheistic religions, was founded (or restored) by the Prophet Muhammad (570-632 CE), who lived in Mecca and Medina on the Arabian Peninsula.

Muslim Shiite sect that holds Ismail, the son of Jafar as-Sadiq, as its imam.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Islamic scholastic theology. Kalam was founded by al-Ashari (873-935), whose Ashariyya School was the dominant school of scholastic theology.

From Collins English Dictionary
a member of an 8th-century liberal Muslim sect, later merged into the Shiahs.

The Nation of Islam (NOI) is an Islamic movement founded in 1930s America by Wallace Fard, a white man. The original name of the movement is the Lost Found Nation of Islam in the Wilderness.

Member of a sect of Islam that believes that Ali, a cousin of the prophet Muhammad, was his first true successor.

An umbrella term for the ascetic and mystical movements within Islam. While Sufism is said to have incorporated elements of Christian monasticism, gnosticism, and Indian mysticism, its origins are traced to forms of devotion and groups of penitents (zuhhad) in the formative period of Islam.

The largest division of Islam. Sunni Islam is the heir to the early central Islamic state, in its acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the order of succession of the first four caliphs.

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
A form of radical Islamism known after its founder, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792), from the Najd area of Arabia, ruled by local sheikhs of the house of Saud.

Islamic-extremist international terrorist organization, nominally controlled by Osama bin Laden. It was responsible on 11 September 2001 for the world's single worst terrorist atrocity.

[Western education is sinful], Nigerian Islamic fundamentalist militia, officially Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad [people committed to the propagation of the Prophet's teachings and jihad].

Islamic fundamentalist organization formally founded by Sheikh Yassin Ahmed in 1988. Its militant wing, the Izzedine Al Qassam Brigades, played a major role in the Intifada.

Lebanese Shiite political party and militia. Founded in 1982 with Iranian help to oppose Israeli forces occupying S Lebanon, Hezbollah launched guerrilla attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli forces.

In The Harvard Dictionary of Music
Music is central to any world religion, and Islam is no exception. Although music and musicians have been viewed with skepticism, the Islamic context has inspired countless musical traditions throughout the world.

In Religious Holidays & Calendars
During the early years of Islam, the faith spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula into regions that are today occupied by Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan. Contrary to popular opinion, however, Muslims are not just Arabs. Muslims—followers of Islam—are found in many different ethnic groups all over the globe. In fact, Arabs make up less than 20 percent of Muslims.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Officially Jamiat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun [Arab.,=Society of Muslim Brothers], religious and political organization founded (1928) in Egypt by Hasan al-Banna.

An Islamic militant and exponent of terror as a means of political communication.

From Chamber's Dictionary of World History
A movement to unite all Muslims against the threat from Christian states.

Afghan political and religious military force that seized control of southern and central Afghanistan, including the country's capital, Kabul, in September 1996. An Islamic regime was imposed, and by the end of 1996 the Taliban controlled two-thirds of the country.