Bouhired
Bouhired (Djamila Bouhired) (b. 1935). Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) leader whose role in the 1957 Battle of Algiers gained her international notoriety as a symbol of resistance to French rule and of the more active role anticipated for women in independent Algeria. Through members of her family involved in the nationalist movement, Djamila Bouhired (Jamilah Buhrayd) came to the attention of Saadi Yacef, the FLN commander of the Algiers Qasbah. Yacef recruited her and other young Algerian women who could pass as Europeans when dressed in Western garb to plant bombs in cafes and other gathering places frequented by the French. The devastating bombings, which began in September 1956, sparked a concerted effort by the French army to round up FLN activists in Algiers. In April 1957, Bouhired was arrested and savagely tortured by French soldiers, but refused to divulge information about FLN leaders.
At her military trial in July, Bouhired acknowledged belonging to the FLN, but denied participating in the fatal bombing with which she was charged. In a trial marred by irregularities, Jacques Verges, her French communist attorney, was denied access to essential documents and prohibited from making a final plea in her defense. The most incriminating testimony came from a woman accused of planting bombs with Bouhired, despite the fact that her behavior showed clear signs of mental instability. Bouhired was found guilty and sentenced to death. Yacef ordered a new round of bombings and threatened to engulf the city in violence if the sentence were carried out, but the French had been systematically uncovering FLN cells in Algiers, and he was captured in August.
Outraged by both the conduct of the trial and the increasingly commonplace resort to torture by the authorities, Verges and fellow communist Georges Arnaud published a pamphlet entitled Pour Djamila Bouhired. Her case became a cause celebre as French leftists, and many others distressed by the dehumanizing aspects of the Algerian conflict, organized rallies on her behalf, as did FLN sympathizers elsewhere in Europe. Bouhired’s story was also widely publicized throughout the Arab world, where she was portrayed as a heroine of the revolution and a symbol of Algerian women.
The demonstrations reached a crescendo in March 1958, with the termination of the appeals process. Under considerable international pressure, and with the FLN threatening to reopen its bombing campaign if Bouhired were executed, French president Coty commuted her sentence to life imprisonment. She was transferred to France and remained incarcerated until the war’s end.
Thereafter, she married Verges and ran unsuccessfully for a seat in Algeria’s first National Assembly. With her husband and Zohra Drif (another of Yacef’s former agents), she edited Revolution africaine until a purge of communists forced them from their positions in 1963. She subsequently divorced Verges and pursued an entrepreneurial venture in Algiers, but did not return to public life. Bouhired’s opportunity to follow a non-traditional lifestyle and choose a career option not generally open to women before the revolution was, however, more closely related to her own personality than to any genuine change in the status of Algerian women, few of whom experienced any significant improvement in their socioeconomic status with independence.
Bouhired was one of the trio of FLN female bombers depicted in the 1966 film The Battle of Algiers. She was also depicted in the film Jamila the Algerian (1958) by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine.
Djamila Bouhired see Bouhired
Jamilah Buhrayd see Bouhired
Buhrayd, Jamilah see Bouhired
Bouhired (Djamila Bouhired) (b. 1935). Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) leader whose role in the 1957 Battle of Algiers gained her international notoriety as a symbol of resistance to French rule and of the more active role anticipated for women in independent Algeria. Through members of her family involved in the nationalist movement, Djamila Bouhired (Jamilah Buhrayd) came to the attention of Saadi Yacef, the FLN commander of the Algiers Qasbah. Yacef recruited her and other young Algerian women who could pass as Europeans when dressed in Western garb to plant bombs in cafes and other gathering places frequented by the French. The devastating bombings, which began in September 1956, sparked a concerted effort by the French army to round up FLN activists in Algiers. In April 1957, Bouhired was arrested and savagely tortured by French soldiers, but refused to divulge information about FLN leaders.
At her military trial in July, Bouhired acknowledged belonging to the FLN, but denied participating in the fatal bombing with which she was charged. In a trial marred by irregularities, Jacques Verges, her French communist attorney, was denied access to essential documents and prohibited from making a final plea in her defense. The most incriminating testimony came from a woman accused of planting bombs with Bouhired, despite the fact that her behavior showed clear signs of mental instability. Bouhired was found guilty and sentenced to death. Yacef ordered a new round of bombings and threatened to engulf the city in violence if the sentence were carried out, but the French had been systematically uncovering FLN cells in Algiers, and he was captured in August.
Outraged by both the conduct of the trial and the increasingly commonplace resort to torture by the authorities, Verges and fellow communist Georges Arnaud published a pamphlet entitled Pour Djamila Bouhired. Her case became a cause celebre as French leftists, and many others distressed by the dehumanizing aspects of the Algerian conflict, organized rallies on her behalf, as did FLN sympathizers elsewhere in Europe. Bouhired’s story was also widely publicized throughout the Arab world, where she was portrayed as a heroine of the revolution and a symbol of Algerian women.
The demonstrations reached a crescendo in March 1958, with the termination of the appeals process. Under considerable international pressure, and with the FLN threatening to reopen its bombing campaign if Bouhired were executed, French president Coty commuted her sentence to life imprisonment. She was transferred to France and remained incarcerated until the war’s end.
Thereafter, she married Verges and ran unsuccessfully for a seat in Algeria’s first National Assembly. With her husband and Zohra Drif (another of Yacef’s former agents), she edited Revolution africaine until a purge of communists forced them from their positions in 1963. She subsequently divorced Verges and pursued an entrepreneurial venture in Algiers, but did not return to public life. Bouhired’s opportunity to follow a non-traditional lifestyle and choose a career option not generally open to women before the revolution was, however, more closely related to her own personality than to any genuine change in the status of Algerian women, few of whom experienced any significant improvement in their socioeconomic status with independence.
Bouhired was one of the trio of FLN female bombers depicted in the 1966 film The Battle of Algiers. She was also depicted in the film Jamila the Algerian (1958) by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine.
Djamila Bouhired see Bouhired
Jamilah Buhrayd see Bouhired
Buhrayd, Jamilah see Bouhired
Boulmerka
Boulmerka (Hassiba Boulmerka) (b. July 10, 1968). First woman from an Arabic or African nation to win an IAAF World track championship. As a young athlete, Algerian born Hassiba Boulmerka relied heavily on her family for daily emotional support in a national climate that at one time debated imposing a ban on women that would keep them from participating in athletics. In 1991, when Boulmerka won gold in the 1500 meters at the Tokyo world track and field championships -- and became the first woman from an Arab or African nation to win a world track championship -- it was an historic achievement for women in her homeland. It was also the subject of much debate in her country. While some viewed Boulmerka as a heroine, others denounced her as a heretic for having run barelegged, contrary to the Muslim belief that, in public, women should be covered from head to toe. Boulmerka answered her critics by stating that she was a practicing Muslim but also an athlete, and that the traditional Islamic women’s clothing and headscarf would slow her speed. She followed up her performance in Tokyo with Olympic gold in the 1500 at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Hassiba Boulmerka was born on July 10, 1968 in Constantine in the north east of Algeria. Boulmerka started running as a young girl, specializing in the 800 and 1500 meters. She was successful in national and regional races, although there was not much competition. Her first major international tournament was the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, where she was eliminated in the preliminary heat of both the 800 and 1500 meters.
Boulmerka's performances slowly improved, and her big breakthrough came in 1991. The first major race she won was the 800 meters. at the Golden Gala race in Rome, Italy. A month later, she competed at the World Championships. On the last straight of the 1500 meter final, she sprinted to victory, becoming the first African woman to win an athletics world title.
Despite her remarkable performances, Boulmerka did not always receive positive attention. She was frequently bothered by fundamentalist Muslim groups in Algeria who thought she showed too much of her body when racing, and Boulmerka was forced to move to Europe to train. In spite of this, she was one of the favorites for the 1500 meter gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. In the final, she fought off Lyudmila Rogachova for the gold medal. It was Algeria's first gold medal at the Olympic Games.
Boulmerka's next two seasons were not as successful. Although she won a bronze medal at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart. In 1995, she had not won a single race going into the World Championships in Gothenburg, but this did not prevent her from winning her second world title. It was her only victory of that season, and her last major victory. She competed at the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, but sprained her ankle in the semi-finals. After the 1997 season, in which she did not bother to defend her world title, she retired from sports.
Boulmerka was later elected to the athlete's commission of the International Olympic Committee.
During her career, Boulmerka held the 1500 meters African record of 3:55.30 that was set on August 8, 1992 in Barcelona. She also held the one mile African record of 4:20.79 set in 1991 in Oslo. The record was beaten 17 years later by Gelete Burika of Ethiopia, who ran a time of 4:18.23 in 2008 .
Hassiba Boulmerka see Boulmerka
Boulmerka (Hassiba Boulmerka) (b. July 10, 1968). First woman from an Arabic or African nation to win an IAAF World track championship. As a young athlete, Algerian born Hassiba Boulmerka relied heavily on her family for daily emotional support in a national climate that at one time debated imposing a ban on women that would keep them from participating in athletics. In 1991, when Boulmerka won gold in the 1500 meters at the Tokyo world track and field championships -- and became the first woman from an Arab or African nation to win a world track championship -- it was an historic achievement for women in her homeland. It was also the subject of much debate in her country. While some viewed Boulmerka as a heroine, others denounced her as a heretic for having run barelegged, contrary to the Muslim belief that, in public, women should be covered from head to toe. Boulmerka answered her critics by stating that she was a practicing Muslim but also an athlete, and that the traditional Islamic women’s clothing and headscarf would slow her speed. She followed up her performance in Tokyo with Olympic gold in the 1500 at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Hassiba Boulmerka was born on July 10, 1968 in Constantine in the north east of Algeria. Boulmerka started running as a young girl, specializing in the 800 and 1500 meters. She was successful in national and regional races, although there was not much competition. Her first major international tournament was the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, where she was eliminated in the preliminary heat of both the 800 and 1500 meters.
Boulmerka's performances slowly improved, and her big breakthrough came in 1991. The first major race she won was the 800 meters. at the Golden Gala race in Rome, Italy. A month later, she competed at the World Championships. On the last straight of the 1500 meter final, she sprinted to victory, becoming the first African woman to win an athletics world title.
Despite her remarkable performances, Boulmerka did not always receive positive attention. She was frequently bothered by fundamentalist Muslim groups in Algeria who thought she showed too much of her body when racing, and Boulmerka was forced to move to Europe to train. In spite of this, she was one of the favorites for the 1500 meter gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. In the final, she fought off Lyudmila Rogachova for the gold medal. It was Algeria's first gold medal at the Olympic Games.
Boulmerka's next two seasons were not as successful. Although she won a bronze medal at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart. In 1995, she had not won a single race going into the World Championships in Gothenburg, but this did not prevent her from winning her second world title. It was her only victory of that season, and her last major victory. She competed at the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, but sprained her ankle in the semi-finals. After the 1997 season, in which she did not bother to defend her world title, she retired from sports.
Boulmerka was later elected to the athlete's commission of the International Olympic Committee.
During her career, Boulmerka held the 1500 meters African record of 3:55.30 that was set on August 8, 1992 in Barcelona. She also held the one mile African record of 4:20.79 set in 1991 in Oslo. The record was beaten 17 years later by Gelete Burika of Ethiopia, who ran a time of 4:18.23 in 2008 .
Hassiba Boulmerka see Boulmerka
Boumedienne
Boumedienne (Houari Boumedienne) (Houari Boumediene) (Mohamed Ben Brahim Boukharouba) (August 23, 1932 - December 27, 1978). President of Algeria (1965-1978). Originally named Muhammad Ibrahim Boukharouba (Bukharruba), he was born near Guelma and educated at the Islamic Institute in Constantine and later at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. An early member of the National Liberation Front (Front de Liberation Nationale, or FLN), he rose rapidly as guerrilla commander and in 1957 became the youngest colonel in the FLN. In 1960, he was appointed chief of staff of the army outside Algeria. After independence, Boumedienne backed Ahmed Ben Bella and became defense minister in his cabinet until June 1965, when he deposed him. Although Boumedienne held no constitutionally legitimate office, he headed the Algerian state until 1976, when a new constitution was approved. He was then elected president for a six year term. Boumedienne presided over the growth of Algeria from near bankruptcy to a leading position among Third World countries, and he was a prominent advocate of a new economic and political world order. It was under Boumedienne that Algeria became an inspiration to many of the new nations freed after the demise of French and British colonialism.
Mohamed Ben Brahim Boukharouba was born near Héliopolis in the province of Guelma and educated at the Islamic Institute in Constantine. He joined National Liberation Front (FLN) in the Algerian War of Independence in 1955, adopting Houari Boumediène as his nom-de-guèrre (from Sidi Boumediène, the name of the patron saint of the city of Tlemcen in western Algeria, where he served as an officer during the war, and Sidi El Houari, the patron saint of nearby Oran). He reached the rank of Colonel, then the highest rank in the FLN forces, and from 1960 he was chief of staff of the ALN, the FLN's military wing.
In 1962, after the vote of self-determination, Algerians declared independence and the French declared Algeria to be independent. After this time, Boumedienne headed a powerful military faction within the government, and was made defense minister with the support of the Algerian leader Ahmed Ben Bella, whose ascent to power he had assisted as chief of staff. Boumedienne grew increasingly distrustful of Ben Bella's erratic style of government and ideological puritanism, and in June 1965, Boumédienne seized power in a bloodless coup. The country's constitution and political institutions were abolished, and he ruled through a Revolutionary Council of his own (mostly military) supporters. These were mainly drawn from his companions during the war years, when he was based around the Moroccan border town of Oujda, which caused analysts to speak of the "Oujda group". (One prominent member of this circle was Boumédienne's long-time foreign minister, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who, in 1999, became Algeria's president.)
Initially lacking a personal power base, Boumedienne was seen as potentially a weak ruler, but after a botched coup attempt against him by military officers in 1967 he tightened his rule. He then remained Algeria's undisputed ruler until his death in 1978, as all potential rivals emerging from within the regime were purged or relegated to symbolic posts; among them several members of the former Oujda group.
Economically, Boumédienne turned away from Ben Bella's focus on rural Algeria and experiments in socialist cooperative businesses (l'autogéstion). Instead, he opted for a more systematic and planned program of state-driven industrialization. Algeria had virtually no advanced production at the time, but in 1971 Boumédienne nationalized the Algerian oil industry, increasing government revenue tremendously (and sparking intense protest from the French government). He then put the soaring oil and gas resources -- enhanced by the oil price shock of 1973 -- into building heavy industry, hoping to make his country the Maghreb's industrial center. His years in power were in fact marked by a reliable and consistent economic growth, but after his death in the 1980s, the drop in oil prices and increasingly evident inefficiency of the country's state-run industries, prompted a change in policy towards gradual economic liberalization.
In the 1970s, along with the expansion of state industry and oil nationalization, Boumédienne declared a series of socialist revolutions, and strengthened the leftist aspect of his regime. This allowed for a rapprochement with the hitherto suppressed remnants of the Algerian Communist Party (the PAGS), whose members were then co-opted into the regime, although without formal legalization of their party. Algeria formally remained a single-party state under the FLN, but Boumédienne's personal rule had marginalized the ex-liberation movement, and little attention was paid to the affairs of the FLN in everyday affairs. From the mid-1970s, constitutional rule was gradually reinstated and political institutions re-established. Political pluralism was not tolerated in Boumédienne's Algeria, even if a brief moment of somewhat more relaxed public debate was allowed preceding the adoption of a constitution that re-established political institutions in 1976. However, the referendum typically ended in virtually unanimous approval of the government-backed document. With the recreation of the office of President following this, Boumédienne was himself elected in a single-candidate election.
Boumédienne pursued a policy of non-alignment, maintaining good relations with both the communist bloc and the capitalist nations, and promoting third-world cooperation. In the United Nations, he called for a new world order built on equal status for western and ex-colonial nations, and brought about by a socialist-style change in political and trade relations. He sought to build a powerful third world bloc through the Non-Aligned Movement, in which he became a prominent figure. He aggressively supported anti-colonial movements across Africa and the Arab world, including the PLO, ANC, SWAPO and other groups.
A significant regional event was his 1975 pledge of support for a Western Saharan self-determination, admitting Sahrawi refugees and the Polisario guerrilla movement to Algerian territory, after Morocco and Mauritania claimed control over the territory. This ended the possibility of mending relations with Morocco, already sour after the 1963 Sand war, although there had been a modest thaw in relations during his first time in power. The heightened Moroccan-Algerian rivalry and the still unsolved Western Sahara question became a defining feature of Algerian foreign policy.
In 1978, Boumedienne's appearances became increasingly rare. After lingering in a coma for 39 days, he died of a rare blood disease, Waldenström macroglobulinemia, following unsuccessful treatment in Moscow. Rumors about his being assassinated or poisoned have surfaced occasionally in Algerian politics, perhaps due to the rarity of the disease. The death of Boumédienne left a power vacuum in Algeria which could not easily be filled; a series of military conclaves eventually agreed to sidestep the competing left- and rightwing contenders, and designate the highest-ranking military officer, Colonel Chadli Bendjedid, as a compromise selection.
Houari Boumedienne see Boumedienne
Muhammad Ibrahim Boukharouba see Boumedienne
Boukharouba, Muhammad Ibrahim see Boumedienne
Bukharruba see Boumedienne
Boumediene, Houari see Boumedienne
Boukharouba, Mohamed Ben Brahim see Boumedienne
Boumedienne (Houari Boumedienne) (Houari Boumediene) (Mohamed Ben Brahim Boukharouba) (August 23, 1932 - December 27, 1978). President of Algeria (1965-1978). Originally named Muhammad Ibrahim Boukharouba (Bukharruba), he was born near Guelma and educated at the Islamic Institute in Constantine and later at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. An early member of the National Liberation Front (Front de Liberation Nationale, or FLN), he rose rapidly as guerrilla commander and in 1957 became the youngest colonel in the FLN. In 1960, he was appointed chief of staff of the army outside Algeria. After independence, Boumedienne backed Ahmed Ben Bella and became defense minister in his cabinet until June 1965, when he deposed him. Although Boumedienne held no constitutionally legitimate office, he headed the Algerian state until 1976, when a new constitution was approved. He was then elected president for a six year term. Boumedienne presided over the growth of Algeria from near bankruptcy to a leading position among Third World countries, and he was a prominent advocate of a new economic and political world order. It was under Boumedienne that Algeria became an inspiration to many of the new nations freed after the demise of French and British colonialism.
Mohamed Ben Brahim Boukharouba was born near Héliopolis in the province of Guelma and educated at the Islamic Institute in Constantine. He joined National Liberation Front (FLN) in the Algerian War of Independence in 1955, adopting Houari Boumediène as his nom-de-guèrre (from Sidi Boumediène, the name of the patron saint of the city of Tlemcen in western Algeria, where he served as an officer during the war, and Sidi El Houari, the patron saint of nearby Oran). He reached the rank of Colonel, then the highest rank in the FLN forces, and from 1960 he was chief of staff of the ALN, the FLN's military wing.
In 1962, after the vote of self-determination, Algerians declared independence and the French declared Algeria to be independent. After this time, Boumedienne headed a powerful military faction within the government, and was made defense minister with the support of the Algerian leader Ahmed Ben Bella, whose ascent to power he had assisted as chief of staff. Boumedienne grew increasingly distrustful of Ben Bella's erratic style of government and ideological puritanism, and in June 1965, Boumédienne seized power in a bloodless coup. The country's constitution and political institutions were abolished, and he ruled through a Revolutionary Council of his own (mostly military) supporters. These were mainly drawn from his companions during the war years, when he was based around the Moroccan border town of Oujda, which caused analysts to speak of the "Oujda group". (One prominent member of this circle was Boumédienne's long-time foreign minister, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who, in 1999, became Algeria's president.)
Initially lacking a personal power base, Boumedienne was seen as potentially a weak ruler, but after a botched coup attempt against him by military officers in 1967 he tightened his rule. He then remained Algeria's undisputed ruler until his death in 1978, as all potential rivals emerging from within the regime were purged or relegated to symbolic posts; among them several members of the former Oujda group.
Economically, Boumédienne turned away from Ben Bella's focus on rural Algeria and experiments in socialist cooperative businesses (l'autogéstion). Instead, he opted for a more systematic and planned program of state-driven industrialization. Algeria had virtually no advanced production at the time, but in 1971 Boumédienne nationalized the Algerian oil industry, increasing government revenue tremendously (and sparking intense protest from the French government). He then put the soaring oil and gas resources -- enhanced by the oil price shock of 1973 -- into building heavy industry, hoping to make his country the Maghreb's industrial center. His years in power were in fact marked by a reliable and consistent economic growth, but after his death in the 1980s, the drop in oil prices and increasingly evident inefficiency of the country's state-run industries, prompted a change in policy towards gradual economic liberalization.
In the 1970s, along with the expansion of state industry and oil nationalization, Boumédienne declared a series of socialist revolutions, and strengthened the leftist aspect of his regime. This allowed for a rapprochement with the hitherto suppressed remnants of the Algerian Communist Party (the PAGS), whose members were then co-opted into the regime, although without formal legalization of their party. Algeria formally remained a single-party state under the FLN, but Boumédienne's personal rule had marginalized the ex-liberation movement, and little attention was paid to the affairs of the FLN in everyday affairs. From the mid-1970s, constitutional rule was gradually reinstated and political institutions re-established. Political pluralism was not tolerated in Boumédienne's Algeria, even if a brief moment of somewhat more relaxed public debate was allowed preceding the adoption of a constitution that re-established political institutions in 1976. However, the referendum typically ended in virtually unanimous approval of the government-backed document. With the recreation of the office of President following this, Boumédienne was himself elected in a single-candidate election.
Boumédienne pursued a policy of non-alignment, maintaining good relations with both the communist bloc and the capitalist nations, and promoting third-world cooperation. In the United Nations, he called for a new world order built on equal status for western and ex-colonial nations, and brought about by a socialist-style change in political and trade relations. He sought to build a powerful third world bloc through the Non-Aligned Movement, in which he became a prominent figure. He aggressively supported anti-colonial movements across Africa and the Arab world, including the PLO, ANC, SWAPO and other groups.
A significant regional event was his 1975 pledge of support for a Western Saharan self-determination, admitting Sahrawi refugees and the Polisario guerrilla movement to Algerian territory, after Morocco and Mauritania claimed control over the territory. This ended the possibility of mending relations with Morocco, already sour after the 1963 Sand war, although there had been a modest thaw in relations during his first time in power. The heightened Moroccan-Algerian rivalry and the still unsolved Western Sahara question became a defining feature of Algerian foreign policy.
In 1978, Boumedienne's appearances became increasingly rare. After lingering in a coma for 39 days, he died of a rare blood disease, Waldenström macroglobulinemia, following unsuccessful treatment in Moscow. Rumors about his being assassinated or poisoned have surfaced occasionally in Algerian politics, perhaps due to the rarity of the disease. The death of Boumédienne left a power vacuum in Algeria which could not easily be filled; a series of military conclaves eventually agreed to sidestep the competing left- and rightwing contenders, and designate the highest-ranking military officer, Colonel Chadli Bendjedid, as a compromise selection.
Houari Boumedienne see Boumedienne
Muhammad Ibrahim Boukharouba see Boumedienne
Boukharouba, Muhammad Ibrahim see Boumedienne
Bukharruba see Boumedienne
Boumediene, Houari see Boumedienne
Boukharouba, Mohamed Ben Brahim see Boumedienne
Bourguiba
Bourguiba (Habib Bourguiba) (Ḥabīb Būrqība) (August 3, 1903 – April 6, 2000). Tunisian statesman and the founder and first President of the Republic of Tunisia from July 25, 1957 to November 7, 1987. He is often compared to Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk because of the pro-Western reforms enacted during his presidency. During the time Bourguiba was president, education was a high priority. Bourguiba also promoted women's rights as a way to gain Western support for his regime during the Cold War. Though these set important legal precedents by prohibiting polygamy, expanding women's access to divorce, and raising the age at which girls could marry to 17 years of age - he simultaneously banned women's rights groups from organizing. The new Personal Status Code passed in August 1956 expanded women's rights, though it remains open to debate how much this transformed Tunisian society in practice. Notably, the Code also institutionalized the role of the father as head of the family, and Bourguiba himself was a patriarchal ruler. After independence, Tunisia's Jewish Community Council was abolished by the government and many Jewish areas and buildings were destroyed for "urban renewal."
Habib Bourguiba was born on August 3, 1903 in Monastir (100 miles south of Tunis). He attended school in Tunis at the famous Collège Sadiki and then at the Lycée Carnot. He obtained his Baccalaureat in 1924 and went to the University of Paris to study law and political science. While in Paris, the adult Bourguiba met Mathilde Lorrain, his lodger at that time, whom he married in 1927, and who bore him on April 9, 1927 his only son, Habib Bourguiba, Jr.
The same year Bourguiba graduated in law and political science, he went back with his newly formed family to Tunisia where he got immediately involved in the political arena by joining two newspapers: l’Etendard Tunisien (The Tunisian Flag) and Sawt At-Tunisi (The Tunisian Voice). In 1931, the French colonial authorities prosecuted him for his alleged “incitement to racial hatred”. Subsequent to this, Bourguiba launched a militant newspaper L’Action Tunisienne, laying the ground for strong action against the colonial power.
As a member of the Executive Committee of the Destour Party, Bourguiba found himself less in tune with the mainstream party vision, which culminated in the Monastir incident of August 8, 1933 relative to the burial of a naturalized Tunisian citizen. Bourguiba was pushed to resign from the committee, which led to the creation of the Neo-Destour Party in Ksar Hellal on March 2, 1934, with Bourguiba as the Secretary General of the Political Bureau. From that moment, Bourguiba set out to crisscross the country to try to enroll the majority of Tunisians from the countryside; and thus create a more popular base for his newly formed party so that he managed in a couple of years to set up more than 400 branches (cells) of the Neo-Destour.
In September 1934, the colonial representative (Resident General) Peyrouton ordered that Bourguiba be confined to Borj-Leboeuf, a remote place on the border of the Sahara desert, until April 1936 when he was released with most of his companions. After the famous popular uprising of April 9, 1938, where colonial troops opened fire on demonstrators killing and injuring hundreds of civilians, Bourguiba was once again imprisoned on June 10, 1939, along with a group of militants on charges of plotting against the state security and incitement to civil war.
At the outbreak of World War II, Bourguiba was transferred to the Teboursouk prison and then in May 1940, to the Haut Fort Saint Nicholas near Marseilles until November 18, 1942 when he was taken to Fort Montluc in Lyon. After that, he ended up in Fort Vancia in Ain until the Germans released him and took him to Chalons-sur-Saône. In a maneuver by the Germans and Italian Fascist regime to gain Bourguiba’s alliance, he was received with full honors in Rome, in January 1943, but to no avail. The Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry tried to obtain a statement in favor of the Fascists. However, on the eve of his return home, Bourguiba agreed to deliver a message to the Tunisian people by “Radio Bari”, cautioning them against “all the appetites”. Upon his return to Tunis, on April 7, 1943 Bourguiba made sure that the message he had sent from his prison in August 1942 reached the general population as well as the militants, that Germany was bound to lose the war and that Tunisia’s independence would only come after the victory of the Allies. He emphasized his position by putting it as a question of life or death for Tunisia.
After the end of World War II, Bourguiba, after many sterile efforts to open a dialogue with the French authorities, came to the conclusion that the Tunisian cause had to be brought to the attention of the world opinion. In March 1945, he left Sfax secretly, on a small fisherman’s boat, heading to Libya, and from there, on foot and on camel’s back, he managed to reach Cairo, which he used as a base for his international activity. He took part in the setting up of the Greater Maghreb Office. He travelled continuously to the different Arab countries, members of the newly born Arab League, Europe, (Switzerland, Belgium), to Asia, (Pakistan, India, Indonesia) and the United States to promote the Tunisian aspiration for independence and met with high and influential personalities to help the Tunisian cause. On September 8, 1949, Bourguiba returned to Tunis to reorganize the Party and resume his direct contact policy with the population by visiting small towns and villages throughout the country.
In April 1950, he laid out a seven-point program aiming at ending the system of direct administration in Tunisia and restoring full Tunisian sovereignty as a final step to independent statehood. In 1951, he embarked on a second round of trips to promote his program at the international level. In light of the French Government refusal to concede to national claims, Bourguiba toughened his stand and called for unlimited resistance and general insurrection. This tactic led to his arrest on January 18, 1952, and his confinement in Tabarka, then in Remada, then in La Galite and, finally, on Groix Island at the Ferte Castle.
Pierre Mendès-France became French prime minister in 1954. His positions on France’s colonial policies opened the door to Tunisian home-rule. June 1, 1955 saw the return of Bourguiba. The “Internal Autonomy Agreement” was a big step to total independence. After several arduous negotiations, independence was proclaimed on March 20, 1956, with Habib Bourguiba as president of the “National Constituent Assembly”, and Head of the Government.
On 25 July 1957, a republic was proclaimed abolishing the monarchy and investing Bourguiba with powers of President of the Republic. Bourguiba's long and powerful presidency was formative for the creation of the Tunisian state and nation.
After a failed experiment with socialist economic policies, Bourguiba embarked from the early 1970s on an economically liberal model of development spearheaded by his Prime Minister, Hédi Nouira for a ten-year period. This witnessed the flourishing of privately owned business and the consolidation of the private sector.
On the international front, Bourguiba took a pro-Western position in the Cold War, but with a fiercely defended independent foreign policy that challenged the leadership of the Arab League by Egyptian President Nasser. In March 1965, he delivered the historical Jericho Speech advocating a fair and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis based on the United Nations 1947 Resolution that created two states. In 1979, Tunis became the headquarters of the Arab League after the Camp David Accords and in 1982, it welcomed the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) leadership in Tunis, after it had been ousted from Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War.
In March 1975, the Tunisian National Assembly voted Bourguiba president for life, as an exceptional measure. In the 1980s, Bourguiba made efforts to combat both poverty and a rising Islamist opposition, spearheaded by the Nahda party.
On November 7, 1987, Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali declared President Habib Bourguiba impeached on medical grounds and constitutionally replaced him as President of Tunisia.
Bourguiba remained the President of Tunisia until November 7, 1987, when his newly-appointed Prime Minister and constitutional successor impeached him, claiming old age and health reasons as certified by Bourguiba's own doctors. During the 1990s, Bourguiba’s health was gradually destroyed by arteriosclerosis. Bourguiba lived in Monastir under government protection in the Governor's Mansion for a period of thirteen (13) years until his death on April 6, 2000. He was buried on April 8, 2000, with national honors in Monastir in the mausoleum he built.
In 1925, Habib Bourguiba met his future wife, Mathilde Lorrain, in Paris while he was studying law at the Sorbonne. She converted to Islam and chose the name Moufida Bourguiba. She bore him one son: Habib Bourguiba Jr. in April 1927. In a second wedding, he married the influential Wassila Ben Ammar and adopted a daughter, Hajer Bourguiba.
As president of Tunisia, Bourguiba was almost like a North African Ataturk. He reduced the influence of religion on society and he guaranteed the rights of women, economically, in marriage, and in social life. The foreign policy of Tunisia under Bourguiba was one which followed moderate, European–like solutions. As such, Bourguiba pursued a policy of political non-alignment but maintained close relations with France and the United States, generally taking a moderate position.
Internally, Tunisia enjoyed good economic growth during the 1960s. However, clientilism (the system where the knowledge and allegiance to people in important positions is more important than juridical rights), which was at the core of Tunisian society, became increasingly destructive to the social development and economy of the country. Under clientilism, people with the right friends or relatives came to receive concessions, without having the necessary competence. Ultimately, clientilism began to choke Tunisian society, and the weakening of Tunisian society led to Bourguiba being deposed in 1987.
Habib Bourguiba see Bourguiba
Habib Burqiba see Bourguiba
Bourguiba (Habib Bourguiba) (Ḥabīb Būrqība) (August 3, 1903 – April 6, 2000). Tunisian statesman and the founder and first President of the Republic of Tunisia from July 25, 1957 to November 7, 1987. He is often compared to Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk because of the pro-Western reforms enacted during his presidency. During the time Bourguiba was president, education was a high priority. Bourguiba also promoted women's rights as a way to gain Western support for his regime during the Cold War. Though these set important legal precedents by prohibiting polygamy, expanding women's access to divorce, and raising the age at which girls could marry to 17 years of age - he simultaneously banned women's rights groups from organizing. The new Personal Status Code passed in August 1956 expanded women's rights, though it remains open to debate how much this transformed Tunisian society in practice. Notably, the Code also institutionalized the role of the father as head of the family, and Bourguiba himself was a patriarchal ruler. After independence, Tunisia's Jewish Community Council was abolished by the government and many Jewish areas and buildings were destroyed for "urban renewal."
Habib Bourguiba was born on August 3, 1903 in Monastir (100 miles south of Tunis). He attended school in Tunis at the famous Collège Sadiki and then at the Lycée Carnot. He obtained his Baccalaureat in 1924 and went to the University of Paris to study law and political science. While in Paris, the adult Bourguiba met Mathilde Lorrain, his lodger at that time, whom he married in 1927, and who bore him on April 9, 1927 his only son, Habib Bourguiba, Jr.
The same year Bourguiba graduated in law and political science, he went back with his newly formed family to Tunisia where he got immediately involved in the political arena by joining two newspapers: l’Etendard Tunisien (The Tunisian Flag) and Sawt At-Tunisi (The Tunisian Voice). In 1931, the French colonial authorities prosecuted him for his alleged “incitement to racial hatred”. Subsequent to this, Bourguiba launched a militant newspaper L’Action Tunisienne, laying the ground for strong action against the colonial power.
As a member of the Executive Committee of the Destour Party, Bourguiba found himself less in tune with the mainstream party vision, which culminated in the Monastir incident of August 8, 1933 relative to the burial of a naturalized Tunisian citizen. Bourguiba was pushed to resign from the committee, which led to the creation of the Neo-Destour Party in Ksar Hellal on March 2, 1934, with Bourguiba as the Secretary General of the Political Bureau. From that moment, Bourguiba set out to crisscross the country to try to enroll the majority of Tunisians from the countryside; and thus create a more popular base for his newly formed party so that he managed in a couple of years to set up more than 400 branches (cells) of the Neo-Destour.
In September 1934, the colonial representative (Resident General) Peyrouton ordered that Bourguiba be confined to Borj-Leboeuf, a remote place on the border of the Sahara desert, until April 1936 when he was released with most of his companions. After the famous popular uprising of April 9, 1938, where colonial troops opened fire on demonstrators killing and injuring hundreds of civilians, Bourguiba was once again imprisoned on June 10, 1939, along with a group of militants on charges of plotting against the state security and incitement to civil war.
At the outbreak of World War II, Bourguiba was transferred to the Teboursouk prison and then in May 1940, to the Haut Fort Saint Nicholas near Marseilles until November 18, 1942 when he was taken to Fort Montluc in Lyon. After that, he ended up in Fort Vancia in Ain until the Germans released him and took him to Chalons-sur-Saône. In a maneuver by the Germans and Italian Fascist regime to gain Bourguiba’s alliance, he was received with full honors in Rome, in January 1943, but to no avail. The Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry tried to obtain a statement in favor of the Fascists. However, on the eve of his return home, Bourguiba agreed to deliver a message to the Tunisian people by “Radio Bari”, cautioning them against “all the appetites”. Upon his return to Tunis, on April 7, 1943 Bourguiba made sure that the message he had sent from his prison in August 1942 reached the general population as well as the militants, that Germany was bound to lose the war and that Tunisia’s independence would only come after the victory of the Allies. He emphasized his position by putting it as a question of life or death for Tunisia.
After the end of World War II, Bourguiba, after many sterile efforts to open a dialogue with the French authorities, came to the conclusion that the Tunisian cause had to be brought to the attention of the world opinion. In March 1945, he left Sfax secretly, on a small fisherman’s boat, heading to Libya, and from there, on foot and on camel’s back, he managed to reach Cairo, which he used as a base for his international activity. He took part in the setting up of the Greater Maghreb Office. He travelled continuously to the different Arab countries, members of the newly born Arab League, Europe, (Switzerland, Belgium), to Asia, (Pakistan, India, Indonesia) and the United States to promote the Tunisian aspiration for independence and met with high and influential personalities to help the Tunisian cause. On September 8, 1949, Bourguiba returned to Tunis to reorganize the Party and resume his direct contact policy with the population by visiting small towns and villages throughout the country.
In April 1950, he laid out a seven-point program aiming at ending the system of direct administration in Tunisia and restoring full Tunisian sovereignty as a final step to independent statehood. In 1951, he embarked on a second round of trips to promote his program at the international level. In light of the French Government refusal to concede to national claims, Bourguiba toughened his stand and called for unlimited resistance and general insurrection. This tactic led to his arrest on January 18, 1952, and his confinement in Tabarka, then in Remada, then in La Galite and, finally, on Groix Island at the Ferte Castle.
Pierre Mendès-France became French prime minister in 1954. His positions on France’s colonial policies opened the door to Tunisian home-rule. June 1, 1955 saw the return of Bourguiba. The “Internal Autonomy Agreement” was a big step to total independence. After several arduous negotiations, independence was proclaimed on March 20, 1956, with Habib Bourguiba as president of the “National Constituent Assembly”, and Head of the Government.
On 25 July 1957, a republic was proclaimed abolishing the monarchy and investing Bourguiba with powers of President of the Republic. Bourguiba's long and powerful presidency was formative for the creation of the Tunisian state and nation.
After a failed experiment with socialist economic policies, Bourguiba embarked from the early 1970s on an economically liberal model of development spearheaded by his Prime Minister, Hédi Nouira for a ten-year period. This witnessed the flourishing of privately owned business and the consolidation of the private sector.
On the international front, Bourguiba took a pro-Western position in the Cold War, but with a fiercely defended independent foreign policy that challenged the leadership of the Arab League by Egyptian President Nasser. In March 1965, he delivered the historical Jericho Speech advocating a fair and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis based on the United Nations 1947 Resolution that created two states. In 1979, Tunis became the headquarters of the Arab League after the Camp David Accords and in 1982, it welcomed the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) leadership in Tunis, after it had been ousted from Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War.
In March 1975, the Tunisian National Assembly voted Bourguiba president for life, as an exceptional measure. In the 1980s, Bourguiba made efforts to combat both poverty and a rising Islamist opposition, spearheaded by the Nahda party.
On November 7, 1987, Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali declared President Habib Bourguiba impeached on medical grounds and constitutionally replaced him as President of Tunisia.
Bourguiba remained the President of Tunisia until November 7, 1987, when his newly-appointed Prime Minister and constitutional successor impeached him, claiming old age and health reasons as certified by Bourguiba's own doctors. During the 1990s, Bourguiba’s health was gradually destroyed by arteriosclerosis. Bourguiba lived in Monastir under government protection in the Governor's Mansion for a period of thirteen (13) years until his death on April 6, 2000. He was buried on April 8, 2000, with national honors in Monastir in the mausoleum he built.
In 1925, Habib Bourguiba met his future wife, Mathilde Lorrain, in Paris while he was studying law at the Sorbonne. She converted to Islam and chose the name Moufida Bourguiba. She bore him one son: Habib Bourguiba Jr. in April 1927. In a second wedding, he married the influential Wassila Ben Ammar and adopted a daughter, Hajer Bourguiba.
As president of Tunisia, Bourguiba was almost like a North African Ataturk. He reduced the influence of religion on society and he guaranteed the rights of women, economically, in marriage, and in social life. The foreign policy of Tunisia under Bourguiba was one which followed moderate, European–like solutions. As such, Bourguiba pursued a policy of political non-alignment but maintained close relations with France and the United States, generally taking a moderate position.
Internally, Tunisia enjoyed good economic growth during the 1960s. However, clientilism (the system where the knowledge and allegiance to people in important positions is more important than juridical rights), which was at the core of Tunisian society, became increasingly destructive to the social development and economy of the country. Under clientilism, people with the right friends or relatives came to receive concessions, without having the necessary competence. Ultimately, clientilism began to choke Tunisian society, and the weakening of Tunisian society led to Bourguiba being deposed in 1987.
Habib Bourguiba see Bourguiba
Habib Burqiba see Bourguiba
Boutaib
Boutaib (Moulay Brahim Boutaib). Moroccan runner who won the 10,000 meters at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea.
Moulay Brahim Boutaib see Boutaib
Boutaib (Moulay Brahim Boutaib). Moroccan runner who won the 10,000 meters at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea.
Moulay Brahim Boutaib see Boutaib
Bouteflika
Bouteflika (Abdelaziz Bouteflika) (b. 1937). President of Algeria . He was also Algeria’s foreign minister from 1963 to 1979 and the minister of youth, sport and tourism from 1962 to 1963.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika was born on March 2, 1937 in Oujda, French Morocco. He was the first child of his mother and the second child of his father (Fatima, his half-sister, preceded him). Bouteflika has three half-sisters (Fatima, Yamina, and Aïcha), as well as four brothers (Abdelghani, Mustapha, Abderahim and Saïd) and one sister (Latifa). Saïd served as Abdelaziz Bouteflika's personal physician.
Bouteflika lived and studied in Algeria until he joined the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) in 1956, at the age of 19. (Bouteflika joined the ALN (Armee de liberation nationale) which was part of the FLN (Front de Liberation Nationale)). He started as controller, making reports on the conditions at the Moroccan border and in west Algeria, but later became the administrative secretary of Houari Boumédienne. He emerged as one of the closest collaborators of the influential Boumédienne, and a core member of his Oujda group. In 1962, upon the arrival of independence, Bouteflika aligned with Boumédienne and the border armies in support of Ahmed Ben Bella against the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.
After Algeria's independence in 1962, Bouteflika became deputy of Tlemcen in the Constituent Assembly and Minister for Youth and Sport in the government led by Ahmed Ben Bella. The following year, he was appointed as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and would remain in the post until the death of President Houari Boumédienne in 1978.
On Boumédienne's unexpected death in 1978, Bouteflika was seen as one of the two main candidates to succeed the powerful president. Bouteflika was thought to represent the party's "right wing" that was more open to economic reform and rapprochement with the West. Colonel Mohamed Salah Yahiaoui represented the "boumédiennist" left wing. In the end, the military opted for a compromise candidate, the senior army colonel Chadli Bendjedid. Bouteflika was reassigned the role of Minister of State, but successively lost power as Bendjedid's policies of "de-Boumédiennisation" marginalized the old guard.
After six years abroad, Bouteflika came back and rejoined the Central Committee of the FLN in 1989, after the country had entered a troubled period of unrest and disorganized attempts at reform, with power-struggles between Bendjedid and a group of army generals paralyzing decision-making. In 1992, the reform process ended abruptly when the army took power and scrapped elections that were about to bring the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front to power. This triggered a civil war that would last throughout the 1990s. During this period, Bouteflika stayed on the sidelines, with little presence in the media and no political role. In January 1994, Bouteflika is said to have refused the Army’s proposal to succeed the assassinated president, Mohamed Boudiaf. Bouteflika claimed later that this was because the army would not grant him full control over the armed forces. Instead, General Liamine Zéroual became President.
In 1999, Zéroual unexpectedly stepped down and announced early elections. The reasons behind his decision remain unclear, but it was widely claimed that his pro-reconciliation policies towards the Islamist insurgency had incurred the wrath of a hard-line faction in the armed forces; or that some other disagreement with the military, which still dominated politics, lay behind the schism. Bouteflika ran for President as an independent candidate, supported by the military. He was elected with seventy-four percent (74%) of the votes. All other candidates withdrew from the election immediately prior to the vote, citing fraud concerns. Bouteflika subsequently organized a referendum on his policies to restore peace and security to Algeria (involving amnesties for Islamist guerrillas) and to test his support among his countrymen after the contested election. He won the referendum with eighty-one percent (81%) of the vote.
During his first mandate Bouteflika launched a five year economic plan (2000-2004), called the Support Plan for Economic Recovery (PSRE: Plan de Soutien à la Relance Economique). The plan was a package of various sub-plans such as the National Plan for Agricultural Development (PNDA: Plan National pour le Développement Agricole), aimed at boosting agricultural production. Other sub-plans included the construction of social housing units, roads, and other infrastructure projects. The PSRE totaled $7 billion worth of spending, and produced satisfactory results with the economy averaging higher than 5% annual growth rates, with a peak of 6.3% in the year 2003. Bouteflika also pushed through a fiscal reform which contributed to the economic revival.
Bouteflika was also active on the international scene, presiding over what many have characterized as Algeria's return to international affairs, after almost a decade of international isolation. He presided over the African Union in 2000, secured the Algiers Peace Treaty between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and supported peace efforts in the African Great Lakes Region. He also secured a friendship treaty with neighboring Spain in 2002, and welcomed president Chirac of France on a state visit to Algiers in 2003. This was intended as a prelude to the signature of a friendship treaty.
Algeria was particularly active in African relations, and in mending ties with the West, as well as trying to some extent to resurrect its role in the declining non-Aligned movement. However, Algeria played a more limited role in Arab politics, its other traditional sphere of interest. Relations with the Kingdom of Morocco remained quite tense, with diplomatic clashes on the issue of the Western Sahara, despite some expectations of a thaw in 1999, which was also the year of Mohamed VI's accession to the throne in Morocco.
On April 8, 2004, Bouteflika was re-elected by an unexpectedly high eighty-five percent (85%) of the vote in an election that was accepted by OSCE observers as a free and fair election, despite minor irregularities. This was contested by his rival and former Chief of Staff Ali Benflis. Several opponents alleged that the election had not been fair, and pointed to extensive state control over the broadcast media. The electoral victory was widely seen as a confirmation of Bouteflika's strengthened control over the state apparatus, and many saw the following retirement of longtime armed forces commander General Mohammed Lamari in the light of this. He and military commanders allied to him were thought to have opposed Bouteflika's bid for a second term and backed Benflis. Other major military power-brokers would be re-assigned to minor posts or withdraw from politics in the years that followed, underlining Bouteflika's gradual monopolizing of decision-making.
During the first year of his second term, President Bouteflika held a referendum on his "Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation", inspired by the 1995 "Sant'Egidio Platform" document. Bouteflika's plan aimed at concluding his efforts of ending the civil war, from a political and judicial point of view. He obtained large popular support with this referendum and instructed the government and Parliament to work on the technical details of its implementation. Critics claimed that the plan would only grant immunity to members of the armed forces responsible for crimes, as well as to terrorists and argued for a plan similar to South Africa's "truth and reconciliation commission" to be adopted instead. Bouteflika dismissed the calls, claiming that each country needs to find its own solutions to ending painful chapters of its history. He received large political support on this issue from both the Islamist and the Nationalist camps, and from parts of the Democratic opposition.
The amnesty plan was rejected by the main remaining insurgent group, the GSPC, although perhaps as many as several hundred fighters still left their hideouts to claim amnesty. The group's warfare against the Algerian state continued despite the reconciliation plan, although Bouteflika's government claimed the amnesty plan had an impact in removing support for the group. In 2006, the GSPC was officially accepted as a branch of al-Qaida (al-Qaeda) in a video message by Ayman al-Zawahiri. Soon thereafter, it changed its name to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Bouteflika kept the amnesty option open – apparently open-ended despite the end of the deadline stipulated by the reconciliation law – while simultaneously pursuing the rebel group militarily. Algerian forces scored several major captures of GSPC/AQIM commanders, but the groups top leadership remained at large, and armed activity was frequent in Kabylie, with AQIM-connected smuggling networks active in parts of the desert south. Unlike in previous years, AQIM began using suicide attack tactics and in 2007-2008 launched several major attacks in Algiers and other big cities.
The first year of Bouteflika's second term also featured a new five year plan. The Complementary Plan for Economic Growth Support (PCSC: Plan Complementaire de la Croissance Economique) aimed for the construction of 1 million housing units, the creation of 2 million jobs, the completion of the East-West 1200 kilometer long highway, the completion of the Algiers subway project, the delivery of the new Algiers airport, and other similar large scale infrastructure projects. The PCSC totaled $60 billion of spending over the five year period. Bouteflika also aimed to bring down the external debt from $21 billion to $12 billion in the same time. He also obtained from Parliament the reform of the law governing the oil and gas industries, despite initial opposition from the workers unions. However, Bouteflika stepped back from this position, supporting amendments to the hydrocarbon law in 2006, which proposed watering down some of the clauses of the 2005 legislation relating to the role of SONATRACH, the state owned oil and gas company, in new developments. It also proposes new provisions enabling the country to benefit from windfall taxes on foreign investors in times of high prices. Bouteflika also put up for sale 1300 public sector companies, and achieved privatization of about 150 of them, mainly in the tourism, food processing, cement, construction material and chemical industries.
On the international scene, Bouteflika's second term saw diplomatic tensions rise with France due to the controversial voting by the French Parliament of a law ordering French history school books to teach that French colonization had positive effects abroad, especially in North Africa. The diplomatic crisis which ensued put on hold the signing of a friendship treaty with France (February 23, 2004, re-endorsed in December 2005). Ties to Russia have been strengthened by large imports of Russian military hardware – about 7 billion United States dollars were spent in one single purchase – although relations entered a rocky phase, at least temporarily, when Algeria refused to accept some MiG fighter jets due to their allegedly poor quality. Bouteflika has also carefully cultivated a relationship with China, with exchanges of state visits between the two countries.
Algeria remained involved in Arab affairs, and saw a somewhat growing role there. In 2004 Bouteflika organized the Arab League Summit and became President of the Arab League for one year. However, his calls for reform of the League did not gain sufficient support to pass during the Algiers summit. Like in previous years since the late 1980s, Algeria kept a relatively low profile in the Palestine and Iraq issues. Algeria remained preoccupied with the Western Sahara issue, counter-lobbying Moroccan attempts to gain international acceptance for Moroccan-ruled autonomy in the disputed territory, at the expense of Polisario's (and Algeria's) calls for the long-since decided self-determination referendum to finally be held. Relations with Morocco therefore remained poor, and Algeria in 2008 repeatedly refused to answer Moroccan demands to open the common land border, which has been closed since 1994. Both Morocco and Algeria have since approximately 2005 spent several billion dollars in what could be described as an arms race between them, mainly on modernizing and expanding their air forces.
In sub-Saharan Africa, a major concern of Bouteflika's Algeria was on-and-off Tuareg rebellions in northern Mali. Algeria asserted itself forcefully as mediator in the conflict, perhaps underlining its growing regional influence. Algerian interest was driven by its extensive interests in the region: smuggling routes as well as legal economic activity crossed the virtually unguarded borderlands, and refugees from the conflict entered southern Algeria to mix with the Touareg populations there. Also, the area was known as a hideout of a southern branch of AQIM, further heightening Algeria's interest in the area. Compromise peace agreements were reached in 2007 and 2008, both mediated by Algiers. The related Touareg revolt in neighboring Niger did not see the same Algerian involvement, even if the anti-government MNJ movement had on at least one occasion called for Algerian mediation similar to in Mali. Algeria's involvement in Africa had otherwise been concerned with supporting the African Union, and been marked by a rapidly strengthening coordination with South Africa, which, among other things, emerged as Algeria's main ally on the Western Sahara issue.
All in all, Algeria's foreign policy under Bouteflika remained hinged on the same axis as under earlier governments, emphasizing South-South ties, especially with growing Third World powers (China, South Africa, Brazil, etc) and guarding the country's independence in decision-making vis-a-vis the West, although simultaneously striving for good trade relations and non-confrontational political relations with the EU and USA.
President of Vietnam Nguyen Minh Triet on July 16, 2009 met with Bouteflika on the sidelines of the 15th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Egypt. President Triet and Bouteflika agreed that the two countries still had great potential for development of political and trade relations. Triet thanked the Algerian government for creating favorable conditions for the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group to invest in oil and gas exploration in Algeria.
Bouteflika was admitted to a hospital in France on November 26, 2005, reportedly suffering from a gastric ulcer hemorrhage, and was discharged three weeks later. However, the length of time for which this normally publicity-loving leader remained virtually incommunicado led to rumors that he was critically ill with stomach cancer. He checked into the hospital again in April 2006.
Bouteflika appointed a new Prime Minister, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, in 2006. Belkhadem then announced plans to amend the Algerian Constitution to allow the President to run for office indefinitely and increase his powers. This was widely regarded as aimed to let Bouteflika run for president a third term, and he did not deny that he planned to do so. A referendum was originally scheduled for 2007, but was cancelled for reasons that were never explained. In 2008, Belkhadem was again shifted out of the premiership and his predecessor Ahmed Ouyahia brought in, having also come out in favor of the constitutional amendment.
The Council of Ministers announced on November 3, 2008 that the planned constitutional revision would remove the presidential term limit previously included in Article 74. Bouteflika announced his independent candidacy for a third term on February 12, 2009. On April 10, 2009, it was announced that Bouteflika had won the presidential election, obtaining a new five-year term. Opposition parties criticized Bouteflika's victory, due to the fact that several parties had boycotted the election.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika see Bouteflika
Bouteflika (Abdelaziz Bouteflika) (b. 1937). President of Algeria . He was also Algeria’s foreign minister from 1963 to 1979 and the minister of youth, sport and tourism from 1962 to 1963.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika was born on March 2, 1937 in Oujda, French Morocco. He was the first child of his mother and the second child of his father (Fatima, his half-sister, preceded him). Bouteflika has three half-sisters (Fatima, Yamina, and Aïcha), as well as four brothers (Abdelghani, Mustapha, Abderahim and Saïd) and one sister (Latifa). Saïd served as Abdelaziz Bouteflika's personal physician.
Bouteflika lived and studied in Algeria until he joined the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) in 1956, at the age of 19. (Bouteflika joined the ALN (Armee de liberation nationale) which was part of the FLN (Front de Liberation Nationale)). He started as controller, making reports on the conditions at the Moroccan border and in west Algeria, but later became the administrative secretary of Houari Boumédienne. He emerged as one of the closest collaborators of the influential Boumédienne, and a core member of his Oujda group. In 1962, upon the arrival of independence, Bouteflika aligned with Boumédienne and the border armies in support of Ahmed Ben Bella against the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.
After Algeria's independence in 1962, Bouteflika became deputy of Tlemcen in the Constituent Assembly and Minister for Youth and Sport in the government led by Ahmed Ben Bella. The following year, he was appointed as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and would remain in the post until the death of President Houari Boumédienne in 1978.
On Boumédienne's unexpected death in 1978, Bouteflika was seen as one of the two main candidates to succeed the powerful president. Bouteflika was thought to represent the party's "right wing" that was more open to economic reform and rapprochement with the West. Colonel Mohamed Salah Yahiaoui represented the "boumédiennist" left wing. In the end, the military opted for a compromise candidate, the senior army colonel Chadli Bendjedid. Bouteflika was reassigned the role of Minister of State, but successively lost power as Bendjedid's policies of "de-Boumédiennisation" marginalized the old guard.
After six years abroad, Bouteflika came back and rejoined the Central Committee of the FLN in 1989, after the country had entered a troubled period of unrest and disorganized attempts at reform, with power-struggles between Bendjedid and a group of army generals paralyzing decision-making. In 1992, the reform process ended abruptly when the army took power and scrapped elections that were about to bring the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front to power. This triggered a civil war that would last throughout the 1990s. During this period, Bouteflika stayed on the sidelines, with little presence in the media and no political role. In January 1994, Bouteflika is said to have refused the Army’s proposal to succeed the assassinated president, Mohamed Boudiaf. Bouteflika claimed later that this was because the army would not grant him full control over the armed forces. Instead, General Liamine Zéroual became President.
In 1999, Zéroual unexpectedly stepped down and announced early elections. The reasons behind his decision remain unclear, but it was widely claimed that his pro-reconciliation policies towards the Islamist insurgency had incurred the wrath of a hard-line faction in the armed forces; or that some other disagreement with the military, which still dominated politics, lay behind the schism. Bouteflika ran for President as an independent candidate, supported by the military. He was elected with seventy-four percent (74%) of the votes. All other candidates withdrew from the election immediately prior to the vote, citing fraud concerns. Bouteflika subsequently organized a referendum on his policies to restore peace and security to Algeria (involving amnesties for Islamist guerrillas) and to test his support among his countrymen after the contested election. He won the referendum with eighty-one percent (81%) of the vote.
During his first mandate Bouteflika launched a five year economic plan (2000-2004), called the Support Plan for Economic Recovery (PSRE: Plan de Soutien à la Relance Economique). The plan was a package of various sub-plans such as the National Plan for Agricultural Development (PNDA: Plan National pour le Développement Agricole), aimed at boosting agricultural production. Other sub-plans included the construction of social housing units, roads, and other infrastructure projects. The PSRE totaled $7 billion worth of spending, and produced satisfactory results with the economy averaging higher than 5% annual growth rates, with a peak of 6.3% in the year 2003. Bouteflika also pushed through a fiscal reform which contributed to the economic revival.
Bouteflika was also active on the international scene, presiding over what many have characterized as Algeria's return to international affairs, after almost a decade of international isolation. He presided over the African Union in 2000, secured the Algiers Peace Treaty between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and supported peace efforts in the African Great Lakes Region. He also secured a friendship treaty with neighboring Spain in 2002, and welcomed president Chirac of France on a state visit to Algiers in 2003. This was intended as a prelude to the signature of a friendship treaty.
Algeria was particularly active in African relations, and in mending ties with the West, as well as trying to some extent to resurrect its role in the declining non-Aligned movement. However, Algeria played a more limited role in Arab politics, its other traditional sphere of interest. Relations with the Kingdom of Morocco remained quite tense, with diplomatic clashes on the issue of the Western Sahara, despite some expectations of a thaw in 1999, which was also the year of Mohamed VI's accession to the throne in Morocco.
On April 8, 2004, Bouteflika was re-elected by an unexpectedly high eighty-five percent (85%) of the vote in an election that was accepted by OSCE observers as a free and fair election, despite minor irregularities. This was contested by his rival and former Chief of Staff Ali Benflis. Several opponents alleged that the election had not been fair, and pointed to extensive state control over the broadcast media. The electoral victory was widely seen as a confirmation of Bouteflika's strengthened control over the state apparatus, and many saw the following retirement of longtime armed forces commander General Mohammed Lamari in the light of this. He and military commanders allied to him were thought to have opposed Bouteflika's bid for a second term and backed Benflis. Other major military power-brokers would be re-assigned to minor posts or withdraw from politics in the years that followed, underlining Bouteflika's gradual monopolizing of decision-making.
During the first year of his second term, President Bouteflika held a referendum on his "Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation", inspired by the 1995 "Sant'Egidio Platform" document. Bouteflika's plan aimed at concluding his efforts of ending the civil war, from a political and judicial point of view. He obtained large popular support with this referendum and instructed the government and Parliament to work on the technical details of its implementation. Critics claimed that the plan would only grant immunity to members of the armed forces responsible for crimes, as well as to terrorists and argued for a plan similar to South Africa's "truth and reconciliation commission" to be adopted instead. Bouteflika dismissed the calls, claiming that each country needs to find its own solutions to ending painful chapters of its history. He received large political support on this issue from both the Islamist and the Nationalist camps, and from parts of the Democratic opposition.
The amnesty plan was rejected by the main remaining insurgent group, the GSPC, although perhaps as many as several hundred fighters still left their hideouts to claim amnesty. The group's warfare against the Algerian state continued despite the reconciliation plan, although Bouteflika's government claimed the amnesty plan had an impact in removing support for the group. In 2006, the GSPC was officially accepted as a branch of al-Qaida (al-Qaeda) in a video message by Ayman al-Zawahiri. Soon thereafter, it changed its name to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Bouteflika kept the amnesty option open – apparently open-ended despite the end of the deadline stipulated by the reconciliation law – while simultaneously pursuing the rebel group militarily. Algerian forces scored several major captures of GSPC/AQIM commanders, but the groups top leadership remained at large, and armed activity was frequent in Kabylie, with AQIM-connected smuggling networks active in parts of the desert south. Unlike in previous years, AQIM began using suicide attack tactics and in 2007-2008 launched several major attacks in Algiers and other big cities.
The first year of Bouteflika's second term also featured a new five year plan. The Complementary Plan for Economic Growth Support (PCSC: Plan Complementaire de la Croissance Economique) aimed for the construction of 1 million housing units, the creation of 2 million jobs, the completion of the East-West 1200 kilometer long highway, the completion of the Algiers subway project, the delivery of the new Algiers airport, and other similar large scale infrastructure projects. The PCSC totaled $60 billion of spending over the five year period. Bouteflika also aimed to bring down the external debt from $21 billion to $12 billion in the same time. He also obtained from Parliament the reform of the law governing the oil and gas industries, despite initial opposition from the workers unions. However, Bouteflika stepped back from this position, supporting amendments to the hydrocarbon law in 2006, which proposed watering down some of the clauses of the 2005 legislation relating to the role of SONATRACH, the state owned oil and gas company, in new developments. It also proposes new provisions enabling the country to benefit from windfall taxes on foreign investors in times of high prices. Bouteflika also put up for sale 1300 public sector companies, and achieved privatization of about 150 of them, mainly in the tourism, food processing, cement, construction material and chemical industries.
On the international scene, Bouteflika's second term saw diplomatic tensions rise with France due to the controversial voting by the French Parliament of a law ordering French history school books to teach that French colonization had positive effects abroad, especially in North Africa. The diplomatic crisis which ensued put on hold the signing of a friendship treaty with France (February 23, 2004, re-endorsed in December 2005). Ties to Russia have been strengthened by large imports of Russian military hardware – about 7 billion United States dollars were spent in one single purchase – although relations entered a rocky phase, at least temporarily, when Algeria refused to accept some MiG fighter jets due to their allegedly poor quality. Bouteflika has also carefully cultivated a relationship with China, with exchanges of state visits between the two countries.
Algeria remained involved in Arab affairs, and saw a somewhat growing role there. In 2004 Bouteflika organized the Arab League Summit and became President of the Arab League for one year. However, his calls for reform of the League did not gain sufficient support to pass during the Algiers summit. Like in previous years since the late 1980s, Algeria kept a relatively low profile in the Palestine and Iraq issues. Algeria remained preoccupied with the Western Sahara issue, counter-lobbying Moroccan attempts to gain international acceptance for Moroccan-ruled autonomy in the disputed territory, at the expense of Polisario's (and Algeria's) calls for the long-since decided self-determination referendum to finally be held. Relations with Morocco therefore remained poor, and Algeria in 2008 repeatedly refused to answer Moroccan demands to open the common land border, which has been closed since 1994. Both Morocco and Algeria have since approximately 2005 spent several billion dollars in what could be described as an arms race between them, mainly on modernizing and expanding their air forces.
In sub-Saharan Africa, a major concern of Bouteflika's Algeria was on-and-off Tuareg rebellions in northern Mali. Algeria asserted itself forcefully as mediator in the conflict, perhaps underlining its growing regional influence. Algerian interest was driven by its extensive interests in the region: smuggling routes as well as legal economic activity crossed the virtually unguarded borderlands, and refugees from the conflict entered southern Algeria to mix with the Touareg populations there. Also, the area was known as a hideout of a southern branch of AQIM, further heightening Algeria's interest in the area. Compromise peace agreements were reached in 2007 and 2008, both mediated by Algiers. The related Touareg revolt in neighboring Niger did not see the same Algerian involvement, even if the anti-government MNJ movement had on at least one occasion called for Algerian mediation similar to in Mali. Algeria's involvement in Africa had otherwise been concerned with supporting the African Union, and been marked by a rapidly strengthening coordination with South Africa, which, among other things, emerged as Algeria's main ally on the Western Sahara issue.
All in all, Algeria's foreign policy under Bouteflika remained hinged on the same axis as under earlier governments, emphasizing South-South ties, especially with growing Third World powers (China, South Africa, Brazil, etc) and guarding the country's independence in decision-making vis-a-vis the West, although simultaneously striving for good trade relations and non-confrontational political relations with the EU and USA.
President of Vietnam Nguyen Minh Triet on July 16, 2009 met with Bouteflika on the sidelines of the 15th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Egypt. President Triet and Bouteflika agreed that the two countries still had great potential for development of political and trade relations. Triet thanked the Algerian government for creating favorable conditions for the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group to invest in oil and gas exploration in Algeria.
Bouteflika was admitted to a hospital in France on November 26, 2005, reportedly suffering from a gastric ulcer hemorrhage, and was discharged three weeks later. However, the length of time for which this normally publicity-loving leader remained virtually incommunicado led to rumors that he was critically ill with stomach cancer. He checked into the hospital again in April 2006.
Bouteflika appointed a new Prime Minister, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, in 2006. Belkhadem then announced plans to amend the Algerian Constitution to allow the President to run for office indefinitely and increase his powers. This was widely regarded as aimed to let Bouteflika run for president a third term, and he did not deny that he planned to do so. A referendum was originally scheduled for 2007, but was cancelled for reasons that were never explained. In 2008, Belkhadem was again shifted out of the premiership and his predecessor Ahmed Ouyahia brought in, having also come out in favor of the constitutional amendment.
The Council of Ministers announced on November 3, 2008 that the planned constitutional revision would remove the presidential term limit previously included in Article 74. Bouteflika announced his independent candidacy for a third term on February 12, 2009. On April 10, 2009, it was announced that Bouteflika had won the presidential election, obtaining a new five-year term. Opposition parties criticized Bouteflika's victory, due to the fact that several parties had boycotted the election.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika see Bouteflika
Brahui
Brahui. Group of tribes distinguished linguistically from neighboring Indo-Iranian speaking Pushtun and Baluch by their Dravidian language. Their presence in South Asia, separated by more than 1,000 miles from the Dravidian tongues of south India, has long been a puzzle to linguists. The Brahui homeland is Kalat, a district of Pakistan. However, some Brahui also reside in Afghanistan. Brahuis are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims, but sectarianism is not emphasized.
Until the independence of Pakistan in 1947, Brahui tribes were loosely united in a confederacy under the Ahmadzais, a ruling dynasty which established itself in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. The origins of the Brahui confederacy were obscure, but evidence suggests that the need for stable access to winter grazing areas in Kachhi was a precipitating factor, the Brahui being largely nomadic at that time. The confederacy was essentially limited to military activities. It never succeeded in suppressing conflicts among the tribes, nor did it collect taxes from them.
In the nineteenth century the British, concerned about Russian expansion in Central Asia, established a formal relationship with the Khan of the Ahmadzais. In return for the right to a permanent military presence in Kalat and to control foreign relations, the British paid annual subsidies to the Khan and the chiefs. A railway, telegraph and roads were constructed, linking Kalat with the empire. Internally, however, the khanate continued to function in traditional ways.
The Brahui were isolated from the independence movement, and the Khan evidenced considerable reluctance to join the new nation of Pakistan. Party politics, weakly developed in all Pakistan, were virtually non-existent in Kalat. The Khan finally signed the Instruments of Accession in 1948, and the period afterwards was one of increasing national integration.
The problem of national penetration and replacement of tribal governance was exacerbated by the fact that there are no cities in Kalat. There are several towns which serve as administrative and commercial centers, but very few Brahui were town dwellers. During the period from 1950 to 1970, the national government concentrated on establishing a network of services based on the towns. These had a minimal effect on the rural and nomadic population. Tribesmen continued to depend on the sardars. The sardars, in turn, became middlemen, holding appointed or elected government offices at the national and local levels. They continued to collect traditional taxes and to provide administrative and mediation functions for their tribesmen.
Brahuis are Sunni Muslims. The extended family is a cultural ideal, with a preference for marriage within the patrilineal clan. The Brahui language is related to the Dravidian tongues of South India, and its presence in Southwest Asia is something of a linguistic mystery.
The Brahui habitat is divided among the two mountainous areas of Sarawan and Jhalawan and the lowland Kachhi Plain. Historically, sheep and goat pastoralism was widely practiced, and families lived in small nomadic camps. Under British paramountcy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, cultivation expanded and many nomads settled in transhumant villages, where they planted grains and vegetables, migrating with their animals to the lowlands in winter. Recently, there has been substantial investment in irrigation accompanied by full sedentarization.
The Brahui were politically unified in a chiefdom headed by the Ahmadzai dynasty from around 1666 to Pakistan independence in 1947. The khanate controlled the non-tribal cultivators of Kachhi, exacting tribute. Political centralization was weakly developed, each tribal chief in effect a petty khan within his own territory. With the postindependence rise of Baluch nationalism, ethnic distinctions between Brahui and neighboring Baluch, never sharply defined, have become even more fluid, and many tribesmen who support local autonomy now claim Baluch identity.
The Brahui people or Brohi people are a Dravidian ethnic group of about 2.2 million people with the majority found in Kalat, Pakistan, but also found in smaller numbers in neighboring Afghanistan, India, and Iran. They are closely linked to the Baloch with whom they have substantially intermingled and whose cultural traits they have absorbed. Linguistically they were believed to be a remnant of the inhabitants of the Indus Valley civilization. The Brahui language, also called Bravi, has been theorized as the remnant of a North Dravidian language. Due to its isolation from the other Dravidian tongues it has considerable Balochi vocabulary and counting begins with Balochi numbers. There is no distinct indigenous script for Brahui; like Balochi it is written in Perso-Arabic alphabet. Brahui is spoken in the following areas: Merv area of Turkmenistan, Sindh, Zahedan and Zabol in Iranian Balochistan, southern parts of Afghanistan, Pakistani Balochistan and with the bulk in the Jhalawan region.
There are three main theories regarding the Brahui that have been proposed by academics. One theory is that they are an ancient hold-over of some sort of Dravidian origin that descended from the people of the Indus Valley civilization.
Another theory is that they are migrants from northern India who arrived in the region either before the Aryan invasion, but probably before the Baloch. Over the centuries, due to their location, the Brahui have mixed with Iranian peoples as well as with the Indo-Aryan people(s), notably the Sindhis and other groups and culturally more closely resemble their neighbors.
The third is that they used to be a Baloch tribe living in Iran in the mountain known as "Koh-e-Al Burz" or "Burz Koh", where they survived by looting the nearby Iranian villages. The Iranian farmers, after growing tired of getting their villages looted, went to the Iranian Emperor Nosherwan. After listening to the farmers' problems, Nosherwan rounded up his troops and attacked the Balochs living in "Koh-e-Al Burz". Most of the men, women and children of the balochis were slaughtered, a few that survived, under the leadership of their Sardar, Mir Qambar, entered the area now known as Balochistan and passed through Seestan, Chaghi etc. Finally they reached Jhalawan. The tall mountains of Jhalawan reminded theses Baloch of their old home so they settled there. Kalat and its surroundings, at that time, were ruled by a Hindu family who spoke a Dravidian language. The Baloch who went there were called Burz-Kohi because of their original abode (Koh-e-Al Burz). This Burz-kohi with time evolved into Brohi and then Brahui. The Burz-Kohi's married the local women of Jhalawan and Kalat and, with time, their own language was abandoned by them. They started speaking the local Dravidian language with an incorporation of a few words of their old mother-tongue, Balochi, into it. When the other Baloch from Iraq and Arabia arrived and saw these Brahuis speaking this language, they named the language after the tribe that spoke it.
The Brahuis are almost entirely Muslim, usually of the Sunni sect.
Brohi see Brahui.
Brahui. Group of tribes distinguished linguistically from neighboring Indo-Iranian speaking Pushtun and Baluch by their Dravidian language. Their presence in South Asia, separated by more than 1,000 miles from the Dravidian tongues of south India, has long been a puzzle to linguists. The Brahui homeland is Kalat, a district of Pakistan. However, some Brahui also reside in Afghanistan. Brahuis are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims, but sectarianism is not emphasized.
Until the independence of Pakistan in 1947, Brahui tribes were loosely united in a confederacy under the Ahmadzais, a ruling dynasty which established itself in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. The origins of the Brahui confederacy were obscure, but evidence suggests that the need for stable access to winter grazing areas in Kachhi was a precipitating factor, the Brahui being largely nomadic at that time. The confederacy was essentially limited to military activities. It never succeeded in suppressing conflicts among the tribes, nor did it collect taxes from them.
In the nineteenth century the British, concerned about Russian expansion in Central Asia, established a formal relationship with the Khan of the Ahmadzais. In return for the right to a permanent military presence in Kalat and to control foreign relations, the British paid annual subsidies to the Khan and the chiefs. A railway, telegraph and roads were constructed, linking Kalat with the empire. Internally, however, the khanate continued to function in traditional ways.
The Brahui were isolated from the independence movement, and the Khan evidenced considerable reluctance to join the new nation of Pakistan. Party politics, weakly developed in all Pakistan, were virtually non-existent in Kalat. The Khan finally signed the Instruments of Accession in 1948, and the period afterwards was one of increasing national integration.
The problem of national penetration and replacement of tribal governance was exacerbated by the fact that there are no cities in Kalat. There are several towns which serve as administrative and commercial centers, but very few Brahui were town dwellers. During the period from 1950 to 1970, the national government concentrated on establishing a network of services based on the towns. These had a minimal effect on the rural and nomadic population. Tribesmen continued to depend on the sardars. The sardars, in turn, became middlemen, holding appointed or elected government offices at the national and local levels. They continued to collect traditional taxes and to provide administrative and mediation functions for their tribesmen.
Brahuis are Sunni Muslims. The extended family is a cultural ideal, with a preference for marriage within the patrilineal clan. The Brahui language is related to the Dravidian tongues of South India, and its presence in Southwest Asia is something of a linguistic mystery.
The Brahui habitat is divided among the two mountainous areas of Sarawan and Jhalawan and the lowland Kachhi Plain. Historically, sheep and goat pastoralism was widely practiced, and families lived in small nomadic camps. Under British paramountcy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, cultivation expanded and many nomads settled in transhumant villages, where they planted grains and vegetables, migrating with their animals to the lowlands in winter. Recently, there has been substantial investment in irrigation accompanied by full sedentarization.
The Brahui were politically unified in a chiefdom headed by the Ahmadzai dynasty from around 1666 to Pakistan independence in 1947. The khanate controlled the non-tribal cultivators of Kachhi, exacting tribute. Political centralization was weakly developed, each tribal chief in effect a petty khan within his own territory. With the postindependence rise of Baluch nationalism, ethnic distinctions between Brahui and neighboring Baluch, never sharply defined, have become even more fluid, and many tribesmen who support local autonomy now claim Baluch identity.
The Brahui people or Brohi people are a Dravidian ethnic group of about 2.2 million people with the majority found in Kalat, Pakistan, but also found in smaller numbers in neighboring Afghanistan, India, and Iran. They are closely linked to the Baloch with whom they have substantially intermingled and whose cultural traits they have absorbed. Linguistically they were believed to be a remnant of the inhabitants of the Indus Valley civilization. The Brahui language, also called Bravi, has been theorized as the remnant of a North Dravidian language. Due to its isolation from the other Dravidian tongues it has considerable Balochi vocabulary and counting begins with Balochi numbers. There is no distinct indigenous script for Brahui; like Balochi it is written in Perso-Arabic alphabet. Brahui is spoken in the following areas: Merv area of Turkmenistan, Sindh, Zahedan and Zabol in Iranian Balochistan, southern parts of Afghanistan, Pakistani Balochistan and with the bulk in the Jhalawan region.
There are three main theories regarding the Brahui that have been proposed by academics. One theory is that they are an ancient hold-over of some sort of Dravidian origin that descended from the people of the Indus Valley civilization.
Another theory is that they are migrants from northern India who arrived in the region either before the Aryan invasion, but probably before the Baloch. Over the centuries, due to their location, the Brahui have mixed with Iranian peoples as well as with the Indo-Aryan people(s), notably the Sindhis and other groups and culturally more closely resemble their neighbors.
The third is that they used to be a Baloch tribe living in Iran in the mountain known as "Koh-e-Al Burz" or "Burz Koh", where they survived by looting the nearby Iranian villages. The Iranian farmers, after growing tired of getting their villages looted, went to the Iranian Emperor Nosherwan. After listening to the farmers' problems, Nosherwan rounded up his troops and attacked the Balochs living in "Koh-e-Al Burz". Most of the men, women and children of the balochis were slaughtered, a few that survived, under the leadership of their Sardar, Mir Qambar, entered the area now known as Balochistan and passed through Seestan, Chaghi etc. Finally they reached Jhalawan. The tall mountains of Jhalawan reminded theses Baloch of their old home so they settled there. Kalat and its surroundings, at that time, were ruled by a Hindu family who spoke a Dravidian language. The Baloch who went there were called Burz-Kohi because of their original abode (Koh-e-Al Burz). This Burz-kohi with time evolved into Brohi and then Brahui. The Burz-Kohi's married the local women of Jhalawan and Kalat and, with time, their own language was abandoned by them. They started speaking the local Dravidian language with an incorporation of a few words of their old mother-tongue, Balochi, into it. When the other Baloch from Iraq and Arabia arrived and saw these Brahuis speaking this language, they named the language after the tribe that spoke it.
The Brahuis are almost entirely Muslim, usually of the Sunni sect.
Brohi see Brahui.
Brotherhood
Brotherhood. Term used for congregations in Islam that are partly set apart from the general community of Islam. The term ‘al-Ikhwaan is used for religio-political groups stretching back in time to the Wahhabis of Arabia and is used today for groups of Islamists. For Sufis, the Arabic term tariqa is used to designate the congregation of Sufis centered around the same leader. The term tariqa is translated as “brotherhood,” even though such a translation is less than accurate.
The Ikhwan (Arabic for brothers) was the Islamic religious militia which formed the main military force of the Arabian ruler Ibn Saud and played a key role in establishing him as ruler of most of the Arabian Peninsula, in his new state of Saudi Arabia. The Ikhwan were made up of Bedouin tribes. This militant religious brotherhood declared that they were dedicated to the purification and the unification of Islam. This movement had aimed at breaking up the tribes and settling the Bedu around the wells and oases. They felt that the nomadic life was incompatible with the strict conformity of Islam. Ibn Saud had risen to power on this movement. Later the Ikhwan rebelled when Ibn Saud forbade them to raid into neighboring states. After the conquest of the Hejaz in 1926 brought all of the current Saudi state under Ibn Saud's control, the monarch found himself in some conflict with elements of the Ikhwan. He crushed their power at the Battle of Sabilla in 1930, following which the militia was reorganized into the Saudi Arabian National Guard.
'al-Ikhwaan see Brotherhood.
Ikhwan see Brotherhood.
Brotherhood. Term used for congregations in Islam that are partly set apart from the general community of Islam. The term ‘al-Ikhwaan is used for religio-political groups stretching back in time to the Wahhabis of Arabia and is used today for groups of Islamists. For Sufis, the Arabic term tariqa is used to designate the congregation of Sufis centered around the same leader. The term tariqa is translated as “brotherhood,” even though such a translation is less than accurate.
The Ikhwan (Arabic for brothers) was the Islamic religious militia which formed the main military force of the Arabian ruler Ibn Saud and played a key role in establishing him as ruler of most of the Arabian Peninsula, in his new state of Saudi Arabia. The Ikhwan were made up of Bedouin tribes. This militant religious brotherhood declared that they were dedicated to the purification and the unification of Islam. This movement had aimed at breaking up the tribes and settling the Bedu around the wells and oases. They felt that the nomadic life was incompatible with the strict conformity of Islam. Ibn Saud had risen to power on this movement. Later the Ikhwan rebelled when Ibn Saud forbade them to raid into neighboring states. After the conquest of the Hejaz in 1926 brought all of the current Saudi state under Ibn Saud's control, the monarch found himself in some conflict with elements of the Ikhwan. He crushed their power at the Battle of Sabilla in 1930, following which the militia was reorganized into the Saudi Arabian National Guard.
'al-Ikhwaan see Brotherhood.
Ikhwan see Brotherhood.
Bubakar Biro
Bubakar Biro (d. 1896). Ruler of the Fula state of Futa Jalon (r.1890-1896). He shared power in alternating two year periods with Oumarou Bademba, leader of the rival ruling house in Futa. During the last period of Bubakar’s reign the French tried to enforce a protectorate over the state. He tried to negotiate, but was forced to fight. He was defeated and then killed by Oumarou Bademba, who had French support. His death brought to an end the unique political system in Futa Jalon, which had operated (in theory, if not always in practice) since 1840.
Biro, Bubakar see Bubakar Biro
Bubakar Biro (d. 1896). Ruler of the Fula state of Futa Jalon (r.1890-1896). He shared power in alternating two year periods with Oumarou Bademba, leader of the rival ruling house in Futa. During the last period of Bubakar’s reign the French tried to enforce a protectorate over the state. He tried to negotiate, but was forced to fight. He was defeated and then killed by Oumarou Bademba, who had French support. His death brought to an end the unique political system in Futa Jalon, which had operated (in theory, if not always in practice) since 1840.
Biro, Bubakar see Bubakar Biro
Buba Yero
Buba Yero. Nineteenth century Fula emir of Gombe and a representative of Islamic leader ‘Uthman dan Fodio in the southern part of the empire. He began his conquest of Bauchi and Gombe before ‘Uthman declared the jihad (holy war). He is said to have been punished by ‘Uthman, or his son Muhammad Bello, for his aggressiveness by forfeiting some of his newly won lands. In 1807, he aided the rebel Fula of Bornu to the north in wresting away the western part of that empire in the name of `Uthman. When he tried to extend his own holdings westward he came into conflict with Yakuba, emir of Bauchi, so he concentrated on southward expansion, reaching as far as Muri.
Yero, Buba see Buba Yero.
Buba Yero. Nineteenth century Fula emir of Gombe and a representative of Islamic leader ‘Uthman dan Fodio in the southern part of the empire. He began his conquest of Bauchi and Gombe before ‘Uthman declared the jihad (holy war). He is said to have been punished by ‘Uthman, or his son Muhammad Bello, for his aggressiveness by forfeiting some of his newly won lands. In 1807, he aided the rebel Fula of Bornu to the north in wresting away the western part of that empire in the name of `Uthman. When he tried to extend his own holdings westward he came into conflict with Yakuba, emir of Bauchi, so he concentrated on southward expansion, reaching as far as Muri.
Yero, Buba see Buba Yero.
Budi Utomo
Budi Utomo (Boedi Oetomo). Cultural organization that contributed to the national awakening of Indonesia early in the twentieth century. Inspired by a visit of Dr. Wahidin Soedirohoesodo (1857-1917), students of the medical school at Weltvreden formed Budi Utomo (“beautiful endeavor”) in May 1908. It attempted to promote Javanese interests through modern education in both Western languages and science and in traditional Javanese culture, implicitly rejecting any Islamic way to modernization. At its peak in 1910, the organization had ten thousand members but waned thereafter because it was seen as too exclusively the organization of the lower ranks of the traditional Javanese aristocracy (priyayi). It contributed to the building of Indonesian national sentiment that grew to a flood in the following decade.
Budi Utomo (also Boedi Oetomo; "Pure Endeavor"), founded on May 20, 1908, was the first native political society in the Dutch East Indies. Today, the year 1908 is commemorated as the birth year of its "nationalist awakening." In 2008, the Indonesian government marked a centennial celebration of the modern birth of nationalist aspirations.
The founder of Budi Utomo was a pensioned government doctor who felt that native intellectuals should improve the masses in education and culture. The society held its first congress in May 1908. The congress was a gathering of students in Batavia. The first leader was Dr. Wahidin Soedirohoesodo, but by the organization's first major gathering in Yogyakarta in October 1908, he stepped aside for younger organizers.
The membership was a very high class of natives, government officials and intellectuals, confined very largely in Java and the Javanese. The furtherance of popular education became the main activity. Few branches expanded the activity into native commerce and industry. Tjipto Mangunkusumo, who would later found the more radical Indische Partij, expanded the scope of the society to include more working classes, and also the rest of the Indïes outside of Java. The organization enjoyed a rapid growth. In 1910, the society had 10,000 members enrolled in 40 branches. At the same time, it received official recognition from the colonial government.
Budi Utomo's primary aim was at first not political. However, it gradually shifted toward political aims with representatives in the conservative Volksraad (the People's Council) and in the provincial councils in Java. Budi Utomo officially dissolved in 1935, but it has marked the first nationalist movement in the early twentieth century. After dissolution, some of the members joined the largest political party of its time, the moderate Greater Indonesian Party (Parindra). In keeping with the outlook of Budi Utomo, former members—whether in the Volksraad or Parindra—insisted on the Indonesian language for all public statements.
The use of Budi Utomo to mark the inception of modern nationalism in Indonesia is not without controversy. Although many scholars agree that Budi Utomo was likely the first modern indigenous political organization, others question its value as an index of Indonesian nationality.
Boedi Oetomo see Budi Utomo
Utomo, Budi see Budi Utomo
Oetomo, Boedi see Budi Utomo
“beautiful endeavor” see Budi Utomo
"Pure Endeavor" see Budi Utomo
Budi Utomo (Boedi Oetomo). Cultural organization that contributed to the national awakening of Indonesia early in the twentieth century. Inspired by a visit of Dr. Wahidin Soedirohoesodo (1857-1917), students of the medical school at Weltvreden formed Budi Utomo (“beautiful endeavor”) in May 1908. It attempted to promote Javanese interests through modern education in both Western languages and science and in traditional Javanese culture, implicitly rejecting any Islamic way to modernization. At its peak in 1910, the organization had ten thousand members but waned thereafter because it was seen as too exclusively the organization of the lower ranks of the traditional Javanese aristocracy (priyayi). It contributed to the building of Indonesian national sentiment that grew to a flood in the following decade.
Budi Utomo (also Boedi Oetomo; "Pure Endeavor"), founded on May 20, 1908, was the first native political society in the Dutch East Indies. Today, the year 1908 is commemorated as the birth year of its "nationalist awakening." In 2008, the Indonesian government marked a centennial celebration of the modern birth of nationalist aspirations.
The founder of Budi Utomo was a pensioned government doctor who felt that native intellectuals should improve the masses in education and culture. The society held its first congress in May 1908. The congress was a gathering of students in Batavia. The first leader was Dr. Wahidin Soedirohoesodo, but by the organization's first major gathering in Yogyakarta in October 1908, he stepped aside for younger organizers.
The membership was a very high class of natives, government officials and intellectuals, confined very largely in Java and the Javanese. The furtherance of popular education became the main activity. Few branches expanded the activity into native commerce and industry. Tjipto Mangunkusumo, who would later found the more radical Indische Partij, expanded the scope of the society to include more working classes, and also the rest of the Indïes outside of Java. The organization enjoyed a rapid growth. In 1910, the society had 10,000 members enrolled in 40 branches. At the same time, it received official recognition from the colonial government.
Budi Utomo's primary aim was at first not political. However, it gradually shifted toward political aims with representatives in the conservative Volksraad (the People's Council) and in the provincial councils in Java. Budi Utomo officially dissolved in 1935, but it has marked the first nationalist movement in the early twentieth century. After dissolution, some of the members joined the largest political party of its time, the moderate Greater Indonesian Party (Parindra). In keeping with the outlook of Budi Utomo, former members—whether in the Volksraad or Parindra—insisted on the Indonesian language for all public statements.
The use of Budi Utomo to mark the inception of modern nationalism in Indonesia is not without controversy. Although many scholars agree that Budi Utomo was likely the first modern indigenous political organization, others question its value as an index of Indonesian nationality.
Boedi Oetomo see Budi Utomo
Utomo, Budi see Budi Utomo
Oetomo, Boedi see Budi Utomo
“beautiful endeavor” see Budi Utomo
"Pure Endeavor" see Budi Utomo
Buduma
Buduma. One of the oldest and traditionally the most warlike group of inhabitants around the islands of Lake Chad are the Buduma, who call themselves and their language Yedina. Some of these islands they share with the Kuri. The word “Buduma” is of Kanembu origin and means either “grass” or “free.” If the former, it describes the environment in which the people live -- aquatic reeds and grasses, papyrus and floating islands. If the latter, it describes their independence from formal government to the extent of freedom to raid their neighbors for cattle, the basis of Buduma economy.
Islam became the religion of the Buduma only after 1910, when French colonialism subdued their warlike behavior. Previously, the Buduma worshiped the god Kumani, founder of the world. He first created trees, then grass, then man, the only being in possession of reason, which, in some way, has led the Buduma to consider the eldest of the family stupid. Kumani lived only a few feet above the ground, so that it was forbidden to pound grain into flour with the usual long pestle of fear of striking him (Buduma use millstones to grind grains in contrast to the more common mortar-pestle pounding technique). Associated with the god Kumani were spirit cults with priests whose function was to keep the many spirits contented. Vestiges of spirit worship continues within the Islam practiced by the Buduma today.
The Buduma are predominantly fishers and cattle-herders. In the past, the Buduma carried out violent raids on the cattle herds of their neighbors. They were feared villains with aggressive reputations. Thus, they were respected and left alone for many years, protected by their own habitat of water and reeds. Although their neighbors call them Buduma, meaning "people of the grass (or reeds)," they prefer to be called Yedina. Their language is known as Yidena.
Buduma. One of the oldest and traditionally the most warlike group of inhabitants around the islands of Lake Chad are the Buduma, who call themselves and their language Yedina. Some of these islands they share with the Kuri. The word “Buduma” is of Kanembu origin and means either “grass” or “free.” If the former, it describes the environment in which the people live -- aquatic reeds and grasses, papyrus and floating islands. If the latter, it describes their independence from formal government to the extent of freedom to raid their neighbors for cattle, the basis of Buduma economy.
Islam became the religion of the Buduma only after 1910, when French colonialism subdued their warlike behavior. Previously, the Buduma worshiped the god Kumani, founder of the world. He first created trees, then grass, then man, the only being in possession of reason, which, in some way, has led the Buduma to consider the eldest of the family stupid. Kumani lived only a few feet above the ground, so that it was forbidden to pound grain into flour with the usual long pestle of fear of striking him (Buduma use millstones to grind grains in contrast to the more common mortar-pestle pounding technique). Associated with the god Kumani were spirit cults with priests whose function was to keep the many spirits contented. Vestiges of spirit worship continues within the Islam practiced by the Buduma today.
The Buduma are predominantly fishers and cattle-herders. In the past, the Buduma carried out violent raids on the cattle herds of their neighbors. They were feared villains with aggressive reputations. Thus, they were respected and left alone for many years, protected by their own habitat of water and reeds. Although their neighbors call them Buduma, meaning "people of the grass (or reeds)," they prefer to be called Yedina. Their language is known as Yidena.
Bugis
Bugis. One of the largest and best known societies in Indonesia, the Bugis live in Southwest Sulawesi Province. They share the area with others, including, in descending order of size, the Makassarese (Muslims), Toraja (half Christian, half traditionalist) and the Mandar (Muslim). Bugis predominate in the center of the province and are a majority of the inhabitants of Pare-Pare, the second largest city and a major port. Ujung Pandang, the largest city and provincial capital, has a mixed Bugis and Makassarese population, and the regencies to the south are composed largely of the latter group. While the northeast section of the province is the site of the oldest Bugis kingdom, Luwu, the rest of the northern regencies are inhabited by Sa’dan Toraja and Mandar peoples.
Unlike the rather hazy histories of Islam elsewhere in Indonesia, in South Sulawesi Islamic conversion can be said to have begun with the official adoption of the religion by the king of Makassarese Gowa in 1605. Gowa proceeded to establish Islam by force over most of the Bugis area so that by 1611 the majority of Bugis were under the rule of a professed Muslim.
Bugis, or Buginese, comprise the largest of four ethnic groups inhabiting South Sulawesi (Celebes). By the seventeenth century, they had been converted to Islam. In the last third of that century, a stream of Bugis refugees began appearing in various parts of Southeast Asia, and the migration continued well into the eighteenth century, providing a constant infusion of new blood for the settlements made by the original Bugis groups and enabling them to retain strong cultural ties with their previous homelands. The exodus followed the defeat of the Makassarese kingdom of Goa by the Dutch and their Buginese allies in 1667 and 1669. It is argued that a new oppressive overlord system, introduced by the ruler of Bone, Arung Palakka, and enforced by his Dutch allies, forced the Bugis to leave their homelands.
Skilled soldiers, merchants, and seamen, the Bugis had a significant impact on Southeast Asia, particularly on the relatively underpopulated Malay world. Bugis settlements were made in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, and Buginese groups seized power in Johor and attained powerful positions in other states. In the mid-eighteenth century they founded their own state of Selangor, encompassing rich tin fields in the Malay Peninsula that had been previously subject to Johor. Their pattern of widely spread yet interconnected settlement allowed the Bugis to dominate intra-archipelago trade by the late eighteenth century, making first Riau and then Singapore the center of their operations. They were employed widely as mercenaries, especially by the Dutch, who nevertheless feared them as “pirates and smugglers.” The British, however, tended to admire Bugis industry and enterprise. The Bugis are also notable for their chronicles, which celebrate the deeds of their ancestors and are more factual in style than is normally the case in this genre of Southeast Asian literature.
The Bugis are the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, the southwestern province of Sulawesi, Indonesia's third largest island. Although many Bugis live in the large port cities of Makassar and Parepare, the majority are farmers who grow wet rice on the lowland plains to the north and west of the town of Maros. The name Bugis is an exonym which represents an older form of the name; (To) Ugi is the endonym.
The Bugis speak a distinct regional language in addition to Indonesian, called Basa Ugi, Bugis or Buginese. In reality, there are a several dialects, some of which are sufficiently different from others to be considered separate languages. The Bugis belong to the South Sulawesi language group; other members include Makasar, Toraja, Mandar and Enrekang, each being a series of dialects.
In historical European literature, the Bugis have a reputation for being fierce, war-like, and industrious. Honor, status, and rank are of great importance to the Bugis. They are a self-sufficient people who have a positive self-image and are very confident of their own abilities. As the most numerous group in the region, they have had considerable influence on their neighbors.
The homeland of the Bugis is the area around Lake Tempe and Lake Sidenreng in the Walennae Depression in the southwest peninsula. It was here that the ancestors of the present-day Bugis settled, probably in the mid- to late second millennium BC. The area is rich in fish and wildlife and the annual fluctuation of Lake Tempe (a reservoir lake for the Bila and Walennae rivers) allows speculative planting of wet rice, while the hills can be farmed by swidden or shifting cultivation, wet rice, gathering and hunting. Around 1200 C.C., the availability of prestigious imported goods including Chinese and Southeast Asian ceramics and Gujerati print-block textiles, coupled with newly discovered sources of iron ore in Luwu, stimulated an agrarian revolution which expanded from the great lakes region into the lowland plains to the east, south and west of the Walennae depression. This led over the next 400 years to the development of the major kingdoms of South Sulawesi, and the social transformation of chiefly societies into hierarchical proto-states.
The conclusion in 1669 of a protracted civil war led to a diaspora of Bugis and their entry into the politics of peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. The Bugis played an important role in defeating Jambi and had a significant influence in the Sultanate of Johor. Apart from the Malays, another influential faction in Johor at that time was the Minangkabau. Both the Bugis and the Minangkabau realized how the death of Sultan Mahmud II had provided them with the chance to exert power in Johor. Under the leadership of Daeng Parani, the descendants of two families settled on the Linggi and Selangor rivers and became the power behind the Johor throne, with the creation of the office of the Yang Dipertuan Muda (Yam Tuan Muda), or Bugis underking.
Long before European colonialists extended their influence into the area, the Makasar, the Bajau, and the Bugis built elegant, ocean-going schooners in which they plied the trade routes. Intrepid, they travelled as far east as the Aru Islands, off New Guinea, where they traded in the skins of birds of paradise and medicinal masoya bark, and to northern Australia, where they exchanged shells, birds'-nests and mother-of-pearl for knives and salt with Aboriginal tribes. The products of the forest and sea that they brought back were avidly sought after in the markets and entrepots of Asia, where the Bugis bartered for opium, silk, cotton, firearms and gunpowder.
The Bugis sailors left their mark and culture on an area of the northern Australian coast which stretches over two thousand kilometers from the Kimberley to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Throughout these parts of northern Australia, there is much evidence of a significant Bugis presence. There are the remains of Bugis buildings on islands, Bugis words have become part of the Aboriginal languages and Bugis men and their craft feature in the indigenous art of the people of Arnhem Land. Each year, the Bugis sailors would sail down on the northwestern monsoon in their wooden pinisi. They would stay in Australian waters for several months to trade and take trepang (or dried sea cucumber) before returning to Makassar on the dry season off shore winds.
Most present-day Bugis earn their living as rice farmers, traders or fishermen. Women help with the agricultural cycle and work in the homes. Some women still weave the silk sarongs worn on festive occasions by men and women.
Most Bugis live in stilted houses, sometimes three meters (9 ft) or more off the ground, with plank walls and floors. During growing season, some family members may reside in little huts dispersed among the fields.
Many of the marriages are still arranged by parents and ideally take place between cousins. A newlywed couple often lives with the wife's family for the first few years of their marriage. Divorce is a fairly common occurrence, particularly when the married couple are still in their teens.
The Bugis' diet consists mainly of rice, maize, fish, chicken, vegetables, fruit and coffee. On festive occasions, goat is served as a special dish. Visual and performing arts, such as dance and recitations of epic poetry have largely been replaced by modern entertainments such as karaoke.
The Bugi culture also recognizes five separate genders that are necessary to keep the world in balance and harmony. These include makkunrai (feminine woman), calabai (feminine man), calalai (masculine female), oroané (masculine man), and bissu (embodying both male and female energies, revered as a shaman).
In the early 1600s, the Minangkabau ulema, Dato Ri Bandang, Dato Ri Tiro, and Dato Ri Patimang spread Islam in South Sulawesi. The Bugis converted from indigenous animistic practices and beliefs to Islam. A few west coast rulers converted to Christianity in the mid-sixteenth century but failure by the Portuguese at Malacca to provide priests meant that this did not last. By 1611, all the Makasar and Bugis kingdoms had converted to Islam, though pockets of animists remained amongst the Bugis To Lotang at Amparita and the Makasar Konja in Bulukumba persist to this day. Practices originating in the pre-Islamic period also survive, such as ancestor veneration and spirit possession, although such practices are less inclined to be performed by the current generation as now most are educated in Islam.
Buginese see Bugis.
Bugis. One of the largest and best known societies in Indonesia, the Bugis live in Southwest Sulawesi Province. They share the area with others, including, in descending order of size, the Makassarese (Muslims), Toraja (half Christian, half traditionalist) and the Mandar (Muslim). Bugis predominate in the center of the province and are a majority of the inhabitants of Pare-Pare, the second largest city and a major port. Ujung Pandang, the largest city and provincial capital, has a mixed Bugis and Makassarese population, and the regencies to the south are composed largely of the latter group. While the northeast section of the province is the site of the oldest Bugis kingdom, Luwu, the rest of the northern regencies are inhabited by Sa’dan Toraja and Mandar peoples.
Unlike the rather hazy histories of Islam elsewhere in Indonesia, in South Sulawesi Islamic conversion can be said to have begun with the official adoption of the religion by the king of Makassarese Gowa in 1605. Gowa proceeded to establish Islam by force over most of the Bugis area so that by 1611 the majority of Bugis were under the rule of a professed Muslim.
Bugis, or Buginese, comprise the largest of four ethnic groups inhabiting South Sulawesi (Celebes). By the seventeenth century, they had been converted to Islam. In the last third of that century, a stream of Bugis refugees began appearing in various parts of Southeast Asia, and the migration continued well into the eighteenth century, providing a constant infusion of new blood for the settlements made by the original Bugis groups and enabling them to retain strong cultural ties with their previous homelands. The exodus followed the defeat of the Makassarese kingdom of Goa by the Dutch and their Buginese allies in 1667 and 1669. It is argued that a new oppressive overlord system, introduced by the ruler of Bone, Arung Palakka, and enforced by his Dutch allies, forced the Bugis to leave their homelands.
Skilled soldiers, merchants, and seamen, the Bugis had a significant impact on Southeast Asia, particularly on the relatively underpopulated Malay world. Bugis settlements were made in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, and Buginese groups seized power in Johor and attained powerful positions in other states. In the mid-eighteenth century they founded their own state of Selangor, encompassing rich tin fields in the Malay Peninsula that had been previously subject to Johor. Their pattern of widely spread yet interconnected settlement allowed the Bugis to dominate intra-archipelago trade by the late eighteenth century, making first Riau and then Singapore the center of their operations. They were employed widely as mercenaries, especially by the Dutch, who nevertheless feared them as “pirates and smugglers.” The British, however, tended to admire Bugis industry and enterprise. The Bugis are also notable for their chronicles, which celebrate the deeds of their ancestors and are more factual in style than is normally the case in this genre of Southeast Asian literature.
The Bugis are the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, the southwestern province of Sulawesi, Indonesia's third largest island. Although many Bugis live in the large port cities of Makassar and Parepare, the majority are farmers who grow wet rice on the lowland plains to the north and west of the town of Maros. The name Bugis is an exonym which represents an older form of the name; (To) Ugi is the endonym.
The Bugis speak a distinct regional language in addition to Indonesian, called Basa Ugi, Bugis or Buginese. In reality, there are a several dialects, some of which are sufficiently different from others to be considered separate languages. The Bugis belong to the South Sulawesi language group; other members include Makasar, Toraja, Mandar and Enrekang, each being a series of dialects.
In historical European literature, the Bugis have a reputation for being fierce, war-like, and industrious. Honor, status, and rank are of great importance to the Bugis. They are a self-sufficient people who have a positive self-image and are very confident of their own abilities. As the most numerous group in the region, they have had considerable influence on their neighbors.
The homeland of the Bugis is the area around Lake Tempe and Lake Sidenreng in the Walennae Depression in the southwest peninsula. It was here that the ancestors of the present-day Bugis settled, probably in the mid- to late second millennium BC. The area is rich in fish and wildlife and the annual fluctuation of Lake Tempe (a reservoir lake for the Bila and Walennae rivers) allows speculative planting of wet rice, while the hills can be farmed by swidden or shifting cultivation, wet rice, gathering and hunting. Around 1200 C.C., the availability of prestigious imported goods including Chinese and Southeast Asian ceramics and Gujerati print-block textiles, coupled with newly discovered sources of iron ore in Luwu, stimulated an agrarian revolution which expanded from the great lakes region into the lowland plains to the east, south and west of the Walennae depression. This led over the next 400 years to the development of the major kingdoms of South Sulawesi, and the social transformation of chiefly societies into hierarchical proto-states.
The conclusion in 1669 of a protracted civil war led to a diaspora of Bugis and their entry into the politics of peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. The Bugis played an important role in defeating Jambi and had a significant influence in the Sultanate of Johor. Apart from the Malays, another influential faction in Johor at that time was the Minangkabau. Both the Bugis and the Minangkabau realized how the death of Sultan Mahmud II had provided them with the chance to exert power in Johor. Under the leadership of Daeng Parani, the descendants of two families settled on the Linggi and Selangor rivers and became the power behind the Johor throne, with the creation of the office of the Yang Dipertuan Muda (Yam Tuan Muda), or Bugis underking.
Long before European colonialists extended their influence into the area, the Makasar, the Bajau, and the Bugis built elegant, ocean-going schooners in which they plied the trade routes. Intrepid, they travelled as far east as the Aru Islands, off New Guinea, where they traded in the skins of birds of paradise and medicinal masoya bark, and to northern Australia, where they exchanged shells, birds'-nests and mother-of-pearl for knives and salt with Aboriginal tribes. The products of the forest and sea that they brought back were avidly sought after in the markets and entrepots of Asia, where the Bugis bartered for opium, silk, cotton, firearms and gunpowder.
The Bugis sailors left their mark and culture on an area of the northern Australian coast which stretches over two thousand kilometers from the Kimberley to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Throughout these parts of northern Australia, there is much evidence of a significant Bugis presence. There are the remains of Bugis buildings on islands, Bugis words have become part of the Aboriginal languages and Bugis men and their craft feature in the indigenous art of the people of Arnhem Land. Each year, the Bugis sailors would sail down on the northwestern monsoon in their wooden pinisi. They would stay in Australian waters for several months to trade and take trepang (or dried sea cucumber) before returning to Makassar on the dry season off shore winds.
Most present-day Bugis earn their living as rice farmers, traders or fishermen. Women help with the agricultural cycle and work in the homes. Some women still weave the silk sarongs worn on festive occasions by men and women.
Most Bugis live in stilted houses, sometimes three meters (9 ft) or more off the ground, with plank walls and floors. During growing season, some family members may reside in little huts dispersed among the fields.
Many of the marriages are still arranged by parents and ideally take place between cousins. A newlywed couple often lives with the wife's family for the first few years of their marriage. Divorce is a fairly common occurrence, particularly when the married couple are still in their teens.
The Bugis' diet consists mainly of rice, maize, fish, chicken, vegetables, fruit and coffee. On festive occasions, goat is served as a special dish. Visual and performing arts, such as dance and recitations of epic poetry have largely been replaced by modern entertainments such as karaoke.
The Bugi culture also recognizes five separate genders that are necessary to keep the world in balance and harmony. These include makkunrai (feminine woman), calabai (feminine man), calalai (masculine female), oroané (masculine man), and bissu (embodying both male and female energies, revered as a shaman).
In the early 1600s, the Minangkabau ulema, Dato Ri Bandang, Dato Ri Tiro, and Dato Ri Patimang spread Islam in South Sulawesi. The Bugis converted from indigenous animistic practices and beliefs to Islam. A few west coast rulers converted to Christianity in the mid-sixteenth century but failure by the Portuguese at Malacca to provide priests meant that this did not last. By 1611, all the Makasar and Bugis kingdoms had converted to Islam, though pockets of animists remained amongst the Bugis To Lotang at Amparita and the Makasar Konja in Bulukumba persist to this day. Practices originating in the pre-Islamic period also survive, such as ancestor veneration and spirit possession, although such practices are less inclined to be performed by the current generation as now most are educated in Islam.
Buginese see Bugis.
Buhturi
Buhturi (Abu ‘Ubada al-Buhturi) (al-Walid ibn 'Ubayd Allah al-Buhturi) (820-897). Arab poet and anthologist. He had a brilliant career as court poet under the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil and maintained his position in the troubled period which followed.
Buhturi was an Arabian poet born at Hierapolis Bambyce in Syria, between Aleppo and the Euphrates. Like Abu Tammam, he was of the tribe of Tai. While still young, Buhturi went to visit Abu Tammam at Homs, and was commended to the authorities at Ma'arrat an-Nu'man, who gave him a pension of 4000 dirhems yearly. Later he went to Baghdad, where he wrote verses in praise of the caliph al-Mutawakkil and of the members of his court. Although long resident in Baghdad, he devoted much of his poetry to the praise of Aleppo, and much of his love-poetry is dedicated to Aiwa, a maiden of that city. He died at Manbij in 897.
His poetry was collected and edited twice in the 10th century, arranged in one edition alphabetically (i.e. according to the last consonant in each line); in the other according to subject. It was published in Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in 1883. Like Abu Tammam, he made a collection of early poems also known as the Hamasah.
Abu ‘Ubada al-Buhturi see Buhturi
Walid ibn 'Ubayd Allah al-Buhturi, al- see Buhturi
Buhturi (Abu ‘Ubada al-Buhturi) (al-Walid ibn 'Ubayd Allah al-Buhturi) (820-897). Arab poet and anthologist. He had a brilliant career as court poet under the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil and maintained his position in the troubled period which followed.
Buhturi was an Arabian poet born at Hierapolis Bambyce in Syria, between Aleppo and the Euphrates. Like Abu Tammam, he was of the tribe of Tai. While still young, Buhturi went to visit Abu Tammam at Homs, and was commended to the authorities at Ma'arrat an-Nu'man, who gave him a pension of 4000 dirhems yearly. Later he went to Baghdad, where he wrote verses in praise of the caliph al-Mutawakkil and of the members of his court. Although long resident in Baghdad, he devoted much of his poetry to the praise of Aleppo, and much of his love-poetry is dedicated to Aiwa, a maiden of that city. He died at Manbij in 897.
His poetry was collected and edited twice in the 10th century, arranged in one edition alphabetically (i.e. according to the last consonant in each line); in the other according to subject. It was published in Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in 1883. Like Abu Tammam, he made a collection of early poems also known as the Hamasah.
Abu ‘Ubada al-Buhturi see Buhturi
Walid ibn 'Ubayd Allah al-Buhturi, al- see Buhturi
Bukhari
Bukhari (Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Bukhari) (810-870). Arab scholar. Born in Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan). As a youth he began traveling throughout the Muslim world collecting the oral traditions of the prophet Muhammad. Of the more than 600,000 traditions he collected, he compiled 7275 of them in al-Salih (The Genuine) or al-Jami al-Sahih (The Authentic Collection). Al-Salih is regarded by orthodox Muslims, the Sunnites, as being surpassed in importance only by the Qur’an. Following a theologicial dispute, al-Bukhari was banished to Kartank, near Samarkand (now in Uzbekistan), where he died. His tomb has been the destination of many pilgrimages.
Al-Bukhari is best known and revered for his encyclopedic collection of Hadith, al-Jami al-Sahih (“The Authentic Collection”). Often viewed popularly in Islam and until recently in modern scholarship as the first to assemble a comprehensive, critically selected, topically arranged corpus of the most reliable hadith, Bukhari must now be seen as one whose work followed and was based upon previous written collections. This does not diminish, however, his book’s importance among Muslims as, along with the Sahih of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, the most respected source for reports of Muhammad’s words and deeds.
Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, popularly known as al-Bukhari, or Imam Bukhari, was a famous Sunni Islamic scholar of Bukharian/Persian (Tajik) ancestry, best known for authoring the hadith collection named Sahih Bukhari, a collection which Sunni Muslims regard as the most authentic of all hadith compilations and the most authoritative book after the Qur'an.
His full name is Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Mughirah ibn Bardizbah al-Bukhari. He was born in 810 in the city of Bukhara (which was a part of Khorason at that time), in what is today Uzbekistan. His father, Ismail ibn Ibrahim, was a known hadith scholar who died while he was young.
At age of sixteen, al-Bukhari, together with his brother and widowed mother made the pilgrimage to Mecca (Makkah). From there he made a series of travels in order to increase his knowledge of hadith. He went through all the important centers of Islamic learning of his time, talked to scholars and exchanged information on hadith. It is said that he heard from over 1,000 men, and learned over 600,000 traditions, both authentic and rejected ones.
After sixteen years' absence he returned to Bukhara, and there drew up his al-Jami' al-Sahih, a collection of 7,275 tested traditions, arranged in chapters so as to afford bases for a complete system of jurisprudence without the use of speculative law.
His book is highly regarded among Sunni Muslims, and considered the most authentic collection of hadith (a minority of Sunni scholars consider Sahih Muslim, compiled by Bukhari's student Imam Muslim, more authentic). Most Sunni scholars consider it second only to the Qur'an in terms of authenticity. He also composed other books, including al-Adab al-Mufrad, which is a collection of hadiths on ethics and manners, as well as two books containing biographies of hadith narrators.
In the year 864, he settled in Nishapur. It was in Nishapur (Neyshabour) that he met Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. He would be considered his student, and eventually collector and organizer of hadith collection Sahih Muslim which is considered second only to that of al-Bukhari. Political problems led him to move to Khartank, a village near Bukhara where he died in the year 870.
His works include:
Al-Jami' al-Sahih, also known as Sahih Bukhari
Al Adab Al Mufrad, Guidance in Good Manners and Etiquette for Muslims
al-Tarikh al-Kabir, The Great History, containing biographies of narrators, with a rating of each
al-Tarikh al-Saghir - The Little History, an abridged version of the Great History
Khalq Af-aal Al-'Ibaad
Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Bukhari see Bukhari
Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Mughirah ibn Bardizbah al-Bukhari see Bukhari
Bukhari (Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Bukhari) (810-870). Arab scholar. Born in Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan). As a youth he began traveling throughout the Muslim world collecting the oral traditions of the prophet Muhammad. Of the more than 600,000 traditions he collected, he compiled 7275 of them in al-Salih (The Genuine) or al-Jami al-Sahih (The Authentic Collection). Al-Salih is regarded by orthodox Muslims, the Sunnites, as being surpassed in importance only by the Qur’an. Following a theologicial dispute, al-Bukhari was banished to Kartank, near Samarkand (now in Uzbekistan), where he died. His tomb has been the destination of many pilgrimages.
Al-Bukhari is best known and revered for his encyclopedic collection of Hadith, al-Jami al-Sahih (“The Authentic Collection”). Often viewed popularly in Islam and until recently in modern scholarship as the first to assemble a comprehensive, critically selected, topically arranged corpus of the most reliable hadith, Bukhari must now be seen as one whose work followed and was based upon previous written collections. This does not diminish, however, his book’s importance among Muslims as, along with the Sahih of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, the most respected source for reports of Muhammad’s words and deeds.
Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, popularly known as al-Bukhari, or Imam Bukhari, was a famous Sunni Islamic scholar of Bukharian/Persian (Tajik) ancestry, best known for authoring the hadith collection named Sahih Bukhari, a collection which Sunni Muslims regard as the most authentic of all hadith compilations and the most authoritative book after the Qur'an.
His full name is Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Mughirah ibn Bardizbah al-Bukhari. He was born in 810 in the city of Bukhara (which was a part of Khorason at that time), in what is today Uzbekistan. His father, Ismail ibn Ibrahim, was a known hadith scholar who died while he was young.
At age of sixteen, al-Bukhari, together with his brother and widowed mother made the pilgrimage to Mecca (Makkah). From there he made a series of travels in order to increase his knowledge of hadith. He went through all the important centers of Islamic learning of his time, talked to scholars and exchanged information on hadith. It is said that he heard from over 1,000 men, and learned over 600,000 traditions, both authentic and rejected ones.
After sixteen years' absence he returned to Bukhara, and there drew up his al-Jami' al-Sahih, a collection of 7,275 tested traditions, arranged in chapters so as to afford bases for a complete system of jurisprudence without the use of speculative law.
His book is highly regarded among Sunni Muslims, and considered the most authentic collection of hadith (a minority of Sunni scholars consider Sahih Muslim, compiled by Bukhari's student Imam Muslim, more authentic). Most Sunni scholars consider it second only to the Qur'an in terms of authenticity. He also composed other books, including al-Adab al-Mufrad, which is a collection of hadiths on ethics and manners, as well as two books containing biographies of hadith narrators.
In the year 864, he settled in Nishapur. It was in Nishapur (Neyshabour) that he met Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. He would be considered his student, and eventually collector and organizer of hadith collection Sahih Muslim which is considered second only to that of al-Bukhari. Political problems led him to move to Khartank, a village near Bukhara where he died in the year 870.
His works include:
Al-Jami' al-Sahih, also known as Sahih Bukhari
Al Adab Al Mufrad, Guidance in Good Manners and Etiquette for Muslims
al-Tarikh al-Kabir, The Great History, containing biographies of narrators, with a rating of each
al-Tarikh al-Saghir - The Little History, an abridged version of the Great History
Khalq Af-aal Al-'Ibaad
Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Bukhari see Bukhari
Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Mughirah ibn Bardizbah al-Bukhari see Bukhari
Bukhar-Khuda
Bukhar-Khuda. Title of the rulers of Bukhara in Sasanid and early Islamic times. The bukhar-khudas were descended from an old, rich, and powerful family of dihqans who had made most of the common people their peasants and servants. The consort of the bukhar-khuda was known as the khatun; a regency headed by her was in power in Bukhara when the Arab Muslims arrived there. In Sasanid times, the bukhar-khudas enjoyed the status of autonomous frontier princes; they preserved this prestige in early Islamic times by paying tribute to the caliphs and becoming nominal Muslims. The last of the bukhar-khudas in this sense was stripped of the title to his estates by the Samanid amir Isma‘il (r. 892-907) in an effort to centralize the government. He continued to receive an annual payment from the state until his death in 913 or 914. His descendants remained in villages near Bukhara for some time thereafter.
Bukhar-Khuda. Title of the rulers of Bukhara in Sasanid and early Islamic times. The bukhar-khudas were descended from an old, rich, and powerful family of dihqans who had made most of the common people their peasants and servants. The consort of the bukhar-khuda was known as the khatun; a regency headed by her was in power in Bukhara when the Arab Muslims arrived there. In Sasanid times, the bukhar-khudas enjoyed the status of autonomous frontier princes; they preserved this prestige in early Islamic times by paying tribute to the caliphs and becoming nominal Muslims. The last of the bukhar-khudas in this sense was stripped of the title to his estates by the Samanid amir Isma‘il (r. 892-907) in an effort to centralize the government. He continued to receive an annual payment from the state until his death in 913 or 914. His descendants remained in villages near Bukhara for some time thereafter.
Bulghars
Bulghars (Bulgars) (Bolgars). Name of a Turkic people by whom two states, one on the Volga, the other on the Danube, were founded in the early Middle Ages.
The Bulgars (also Bolgars, Bulghars, Huno-Bulgars or Proto-Bulgarians) were originally semi-nomadic people, probably of Turkic descent, originating in Central Asia, who from the 2nd century onwards settled in different parts of Europe. In the 7th century the Bulgars established the states of Great Bulgaria, Volga Bulgaria and the First Bulgarian Empire in three separate locations of the continent. The Bulgar language spoken by the Bulgar elites was a member of the Oghuric branch of the Turkic language family, alongside with Hunnic, Khazar and Turkic Avar. They used a script known as the Kuban alphabet, a member of the family of the Old Turkic script.
Initially the Bulgars conquered the steppes north of the Caucasus and around the banks of the river Volga (then Itil). Between 377 and 453 C.C., the Bulgars, alongside the Huns, conquered territories well into Central and Western Europe. After Attila's death in 453, and the subsequent disintegration of the Hunnic Empire, the Bulgars dispersed mostly to the eastern and southeastern parts of Europe. Archaeological finds from the Ukrainian steppe suggest that the early Bulgars had the typical culture of the nomadic equestrians of Central Asia, who migrated seasonally in pursuit of pastures. From the 7th century, however they rapidly began to settle down, planted crops and became skilled blacksmiths, stone masons and carpenters. Most scholars consider the influence of the neighboring Sarmatians, as the main factor that changed the Bulgars' material culture. Some historians claim the Bulgars were of mixed Sarmatian origin. However, the origin and language of the Bulgars has been the subject of debate for over a century. The leading current theory is that their elite at least may have spoken a Turkic language and were close relatives of the Huns. Also, it must be taken into account that in their later history in Eastern Europe there was close co-habitation between the Bulgars and the Alans - an Eastern Iranian-speaking group. Contemporaneous sources like Procopius, Agathias and Menander called the Bulgars "Huns" while others, like the Byzantine Patriarch Michael II of Antioch, called them "Scythians" or "Sarmatians", but this latter identification was probably due to the Byzantine tradition of naming peoples geographically.
In the early 2nd century, some groups of Bulgars migrated from Central Asia to the European continent and settled on the plains between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. The Bulgars appear (under the ethnonym of ‘Bulensii’) in certain Latin versions of Ptolemy’s second century of the Christian calendar mapping, shown as occupying the territory along the northwest coast of Black Sea east of Axiacus River (Southern Bug).
Between 351 and 389, some of the Bulgars crossed the Caucasus to settle in Armenia. Swept by the Hunnish wave at the beginning of the 4th century, other Bulgar tribes broke loose from their settlements in Central Asia to migrate to the fertile lands along the lower valleys of the rivers Donets and Don and the Azov seashore, assimilating what was left of the Sarmatians. Some of these remained for centuries in their new settlements, whereas others moved on with the Huns towards Central Europe, settling in Pannonia.
Those Bulgars took part in the Hun raids on Central and Western Europe between 377 and 453. After the death of Attila in 453, and the subsequent disintegration of the Hunnish empire, the Bulgar tribes dispersed mostly to the eastern and southeastern parts of Europe.
At the end of the 5th century (probably in the years 480, 486, and 488) the Bulgars fought against the Ostrogoths as allies of the Byzantine emperor Zeno. From 493 they carried out frequent attacks on the western territories of the Byzantine Empire. Later raids were carried out at the end of the 5th century and the beginning of the 6th century.
In the middle of the 6th century, war broke out between the two main Bulgar tribes, the Kutrigur and Utigur. To the west, the Kutrigurs fell under Avar dominion and became influential within the Khaganate. The eastern Utigurs fell under the western Göktürk empire in 568.
United under Kubrat or Kurt of the Dulo clan (supposedly identical to the ruler mentioned by Arabic chronicler At-Tabari under the name of Shahriar), the joined forces of the Utigur and Kutrigur Bulgars, and probably the Bulgar Onogurs, broke loose from the Turkic khanate in the 630s. They formed an independent state, the Onogundur-Bulgar (Oghondor-blkar or Olhontor-blkar) Empire, often called by Byzantine sources "the Old Great Bulgaria". The empire was situated between the lower course of the Danube to the west, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea to the south, the Kuban River to the east, and the Donets River to the north. It is assumed that the state capital was Phanagoria, an ancient city on the Taman peninsula. However, the archaeological evidence shows that the city became predominantly Bulgar only after Kubrat's death and the consequent disintegration of his state.
The legend tells that on his death-bed, Khan Kubrat had his sons gather sticks and bring them to him, which he then bundled together and told his eldest son Bayan to break the bundle. Bayan failed under the strength of the combined sticks, and, after the rest of the sons failed this test as well, Kubrat took the sticks back, separated each one, and broke them all one-by-one even in his weakened state. Then he told his sons the words "Unity makes strength", which has become a very popular Bulgarian slogan and now appears on the modern Bulgarian coat of arms. It is notable that this story occurs also in Chinese and Japanese historic legends.
Kubrat's sons, however, did not heed the advice of their father. Soon after the death of Kubrat around 665, the Khazar expansion eventually led to the dissolution of Great Bulgaria.
The khan’s eldest son, Batbayan (also Bayan or Boyan), remained the ruler of the land north of the Black and the Azov Seas, which was, however, soon subdued by the Khazars. Those Bulgars converted to Judaism in the 9th century, along with the Khazars. The Balkars in Kabardino-Balkaria may be the descendants of this Bulgar branch.
Another Bulgar tribe, led by Kubrat’s second son Kotrag, migrated to the confluence of the Volga and Kama Rivers in what is now Russia. The present-day republics of Tatarstan and Chuvashia are considered to be the descendants of Volga Bulgaria in terms of territory and people, but only Chuvash is thought to be similar to the old Bulgar language.
A third Bulgar tribe, led by the youngest son Asparukh, moved westward, occupying today’s southern Bessarabia. After a successful war with Byzantium in 680, Asparukh's khanate settled in Dobrudja and conquered later Moesia Superior. It was recognized as an independent state under the subsequent treaty signed with the Byzantine Empire and emperor Constantine IV Pogonatus in 681. The same year is usually regarded as the year of the establishment of modern Bulgaria.
A fourth group of Bulgars, ruled by Kuber, existed in Pannonia. After breaking off Avar overlordship, they moved on to Macedonia. Bulgarian scholar Kuber was a son of Kubrat. Kuber's Bulgars formed a khanate in Macedonia, which joined Slavs to attack the Byzantine Empire. In addition this group of around 70,000 people, included the descendents of Roman captives of various ethnicities that had been re-settled in Pannonia by the Avars.
The fifth and smallest group, of Alcek (also transliterated as 'Altsek' and 'Altcek' or 'Ducca Alzeco'), after many wanderings, ended up led by Emnetzur and settled mainly in Italy, near Naples in the Benevento and Salerno provinces.
Tribes thought to have been Bulgar in origin include:
Utigurs
Kupi-bulgar
Duchi-bulkar
Chdar-bulkar
Kutrigurs (Kotrags)
After the dissolution of Great Bulgaria these tribes formed:
Asparukh’s Horde
Batbayan's Horde
Kotrag's Horde
Kuber’s Horde
Alcek’s Horde
Bulgars see Bulghars
Bolgars see Bulghars
Bulghars (Bulgars) (Bolgars). Name of a Turkic people by whom two states, one on the Volga, the other on the Danube, were founded in the early Middle Ages.
The Bulgars (also Bolgars, Bulghars, Huno-Bulgars or Proto-Bulgarians) were originally semi-nomadic people, probably of Turkic descent, originating in Central Asia, who from the 2nd century onwards settled in different parts of Europe. In the 7th century the Bulgars established the states of Great Bulgaria, Volga Bulgaria and the First Bulgarian Empire in three separate locations of the continent. The Bulgar language spoken by the Bulgar elites was a member of the Oghuric branch of the Turkic language family, alongside with Hunnic, Khazar and Turkic Avar. They used a script known as the Kuban alphabet, a member of the family of the Old Turkic script.
Initially the Bulgars conquered the steppes north of the Caucasus and around the banks of the river Volga (then Itil). Between 377 and 453 C.C., the Bulgars, alongside the Huns, conquered territories well into Central and Western Europe. After Attila's death in 453, and the subsequent disintegration of the Hunnic Empire, the Bulgars dispersed mostly to the eastern and southeastern parts of Europe. Archaeological finds from the Ukrainian steppe suggest that the early Bulgars had the typical culture of the nomadic equestrians of Central Asia, who migrated seasonally in pursuit of pastures. From the 7th century, however they rapidly began to settle down, planted crops and became skilled blacksmiths, stone masons and carpenters. Most scholars consider the influence of the neighboring Sarmatians, as the main factor that changed the Bulgars' material culture. Some historians claim the Bulgars were of mixed Sarmatian origin. However, the origin and language of the Bulgars has been the subject of debate for over a century. The leading current theory is that their elite at least may have spoken a Turkic language and were close relatives of the Huns. Also, it must be taken into account that in their later history in Eastern Europe there was close co-habitation between the Bulgars and the Alans - an Eastern Iranian-speaking group. Contemporaneous sources like Procopius, Agathias and Menander called the Bulgars "Huns" while others, like the Byzantine Patriarch Michael II of Antioch, called them "Scythians" or "Sarmatians", but this latter identification was probably due to the Byzantine tradition of naming peoples geographically.
In the early 2nd century, some groups of Bulgars migrated from Central Asia to the European continent and settled on the plains between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. The Bulgars appear (under the ethnonym of ‘Bulensii’) in certain Latin versions of Ptolemy’s second century of the Christian calendar mapping, shown as occupying the territory along the northwest coast of Black Sea east of Axiacus River (Southern Bug).
Between 351 and 389, some of the Bulgars crossed the Caucasus to settle in Armenia. Swept by the Hunnish wave at the beginning of the 4th century, other Bulgar tribes broke loose from their settlements in Central Asia to migrate to the fertile lands along the lower valleys of the rivers Donets and Don and the Azov seashore, assimilating what was left of the Sarmatians. Some of these remained for centuries in their new settlements, whereas others moved on with the Huns towards Central Europe, settling in Pannonia.
Those Bulgars took part in the Hun raids on Central and Western Europe between 377 and 453. After the death of Attila in 453, and the subsequent disintegration of the Hunnish empire, the Bulgar tribes dispersed mostly to the eastern and southeastern parts of Europe.
At the end of the 5th century (probably in the years 480, 486, and 488) the Bulgars fought against the Ostrogoths as allies of the Byzantine emperor Zeno. From 493 they carried out frequent attacks on the western territories of the Byzantine Empire. Later raids were carried out at the end of the 5th century and the beginning of the 6th century.
In the middle of the 6th century, war broke out between the two main Bulgar tribes, the Kutrigur and Utigur. To the west, the Kutrigurs fell under Avar dominion and became influential within the Khaganate. The eastern Utigurs fell under the western Göktürk empire in 568.
United under Kubrat or Kurt of the Dulo clan (supposedly identical to the ruler mentioned by Arabic chronicler At-Tabari under the name of Shahriar), the joined forces of the Utigur and Kutrigur Bulgars, and probably the Bulgar Onogurs, broke loose from the Turkic khanate in the 630s. They formed an independent state, the Onogundur-Bulgar (Oghondor-blkar or Olhontor-blkar) Empire, often called by Byzantine sources "the Old Great Bulgaria". The empire was situated between the lower course of the Danube to the west, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea to the south, the Kuban River to the east, and the Donets River to the north. It is assumed that the state capital was Phanagoria, an ancient city on the Taman peninsula. However, the archaeological evidence shows that the city became predominantly Bulgar only after Kubrat's death and the consequent disintegration of his state.
The legend tells that on his death-bed, Khan Kubrat had his sons gather sticks and bring them to him, which he then bundled together and told his eldest son Bayan to break the bundle. Bayan failed under the strength of the combined sticks, and, after the rest of the sons failed this test as well, Kubrat took the sticks back, separated each one, and broke them all one-by-one even in his weakened state. Then he told his sons the words "Unity makes strength", which has become a very popular Bulgarian slogan and now appears on the modern Bulgarian coat of arms. It is notable that this story occurs also in Chinese and Japanese historic legends.
Kubrat's sons, however, did not heed the advice of their father. Soon after the death of Kubrat around 665, the Khazar expansion eventually led to the dissolution of Great Bulgaria.
The khan’s eldest son, Batbayan (also Bayan or Boyan), remained the ruler of the land north of the Black and the Azov Seas, which was, however, soon subdued by the Khazars. Those Bulgars converted to Judaism in the 9th century, along with the Khazars. The Balkars in Kabardino-Balkaria may be the descendants of this Bulgar branch.
Another Bulgar tribe, led by Kubrat’s second son Kotrag, migrated to the confluence of the Volga and Kama Rivers in what is now Russia. The present-day republics of Tatarstan and Chuvashia are considered to be the descendants of Volga Bulgaria in terms of territory and people, but only Chuvash is thought to be similar to the old Bulgar language.
A third Bulgar tribe, led by the youngest son Asparukh, moved westward, occupying today’s southern Bessarabia. After a successful war with Byzantium in 680, Asparukh's khanate settled in Dobrudja and conquered later Moesia Superior. It was recognized as an independent state under the subsequent treaty signed with the Byzantine Empire and emperor Constantine IV Pogonatus in 681. The same year is usually regarded as the year of the establishment of modern Bulgaria.
A fourth group of Bulgars, ruled by Kuber, existed in Pannonia. After breaking off Avar overlordship, they moved on to Macedonia. Bulgarian scholar Kuber was a son of Kubrat. Kuber's Bulgars formed a khanate in Macedonia, which joined Slavs to attack the Byzantine Empire. In addition this group of around 70,000 people, included the descendents of Roman captives of various ethnicities that had been re-settled in Pannonia by the Avars.
The fifth and smallest group, of Alcek (also transliterated as 'Altsek' and 'Altcek' or 'Ducca Alzeco'), after many wanderings, ended up led by Emnetzur and settled mainly in Italy, near Naples in the Benevento and Salerno provinces.
Tribes thought to have been Bulgar in origin include:
Utigurs
Kupi-bulgar
Duchi-bulkar
Chdar-bulkar
Kutrigurs (Kotrags)
After the dissolution of Great Bulgaria these tribes formed:
Asparukh’s Horde
Batbayan's Horde
Kotrag's Horde
Kuber’s Horde
Alcek’s Horde
Bulgars see Bulghars
Bolgars see Bulghars
Bunnag
Bunnag. Name of a family of political and economic leaders in Siam from the early seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century. The Bunnag family is descended from a pair of Persian-speaking brothers who arrived in Ayudhya from the Persian Gulf in 1602. The elder, Sheikh Ahmad, married a Siamese woman and entered the service of the Phrakhlang (a ministry of civil government), dealing with Muslim traders from the west. Soon he headed that ministry, and later he became prime minister. His son and grandson continued in that position until 1685, and throughout the century the family played an important role in court politics. Throughout the eighteenth century, they retained control of units of Phrakhlang and Kalahom (the military department and organ of provincial government) and included several chao-phraya (ministers) in their ranks.
The nineteenth century role of the family was secured by a fortuitous kin relationship: King Rama I’s chief queen, mother of Rama II, was the sister of the mother of Chaophraya Mahasena (Bunnag, from whom comes the family name), who was the kalahom under Rama I. His Chaophraya Phrakhlang (Dit Bunnag), concurrently controlled both the Kalahom and the Phrakhlang through most of Rama III’s reign and helped bring Prince Mongkut to the throne in 1851. Dit’s son, Somdet Chaophraya Sisuriyawong (Chuang Bunnag), was the dominant figure in Siam from 1851 until his death in 1883, and various of his sons and nephews rose to ministerial rank in the early twentieth century.
Regularly at the center of power for three hundred years, the family’s leading members seem consistently to have been politically astute, alert to the importance of the economic dimensions of power, and well informed of events and conditions in the world outside Siam. Throughout the nineteenth century they could be counted among the kingdom’s few “progressives,” favoring conciliatory relations with the West.
The House of Bunnag was a powerful Siamese noble family of Persian descent. By the nineteenth century, their power reached its zenith, as they were favored by the Chakri monarchs and monopolized high-ranking titles. Three Somdet Chao Phrayas came from the Bunnag family - Prayurawongse, Pichaiyat, and Sri Suriyawongse. They played a key role in the government and foreign relations of Early Rattanakosin. However, after the Front Palace Crisis, the Bunnags gradually withdrew from Siamese politics as Chulalongkorn sought to undo the power of nobility and pursued centralization, though the Bunnags continued to fill important official ranks.
Bunnag. Name of a family of political and economic leaders in Siam from the early seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century. The Bunnag family is descended from a pair of Persian-speaking brothers who arrived in Ayudhya from the Persian Gulf in 1602. The elder, Sheikh Ahmad, married a Siamese woman and entered the service of the Phrakhlang (a ministry of civil government), dealing with Muslim traders from the west. Soon he headed that ministry, and later he became prime minister. His son and grandson continued in that position until 1685, and throughout the century the family played an important role in court politics. Throughout the eighteenth century, they retained control of units of Phrakhlang and Kalahom (the military department and organ of provincial government) and included several chao-phraya (ministers) in their ranks.
The nineteenth century role of the family was secured by a fortuitous kin relationship: King Rama I’s chief queen, mother of Rama II, was the sister of the mother of Chaophraya Mahasena (Bunnag, from whom comes the family name), who was the kalahom under Rama I. His Chaophraya Phrakhlang (Dit Bunnag), concurrently controlled both the Kalahom and the Phrakhlang through most of Rama III’s reign and helped bring Prince Mongkut to the throne in 1851. Dit’s son, Somdet Chaophraya Sisuriyawong (Chuang Bunnag), was the dominant figure in Siam from 1851 until his death in 1883, and various of his sons and nephews rose to ministerial rank in the early twentieth century.
Regularly at the center of power for three hundred years, the family’s leading members seem consistently to have been politically astute, alert to the importance of the economic dimensions of power, and well informed of events and conditions in the world outside Siam. Throughout the nineteenth century they could be counted among the kingdom’s few “progressives,” favoring conciliatory relations with the West.
The House of Bunnag was a powerful Siamese noble family of Persian descent. By the nineteenth century, their power reached its zenith, as they were favored by the Chakri monarchs and monopolized high-ranking titles. Three Somdet Chao Phrayas came from the Bunnag family - Prayurawongse, Pichaiyat, and Sri Suriyawongse. They played a key role in the government and foreign relations of Early Rattanakosin. However, after the Front Palace Crisis, the Bunnags gradually withdrew from Siamese politics as Chulalongkorn sought to undo the power of nobility and pursued centralization, though the Bunnags continued to fill important official ranks.
Buraq
Buraq. Fabulous beast on which the Prophet Muhammad is said to have ridden when he made his miraculous night journey. The word “Buraq” means “lightning.” Al-Buraq was a heavenly mount upon which Muhammad is supposed to have ridden on his night journey -- his Mi’raj -- from Mecca to Jerusalem and then through the seven heavens. Al-Buraq was also Abraham’s mount in post-Quranic legend. Al-Buraq is usually depicted as a mare with a woman’s head and a peacock’s tail.
Al-Burāq is a miraculous steed, described as a creature from the heavens which transported the prophets. The most commonly told story is how in the 7th century, al-Buraq carried the prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and back during the Isra and Mi'raj or "Night Journey", which is the title of one of the chapters of the Qur'an.
According to tradition, the Night Journey took place 12 years after Muhammad became a prophet. Muhammad had been in his home city of Mecca, at his cousin's home (the house of Ummu Hani' binti Abu Thalib) in Isha'a prayer. Afterwards, Muhammad went to the Masjid Al-Haram mosque. While he was resting between Baitullah and Hijir Ismail, suddenly the angel Jibril (Gabriel) appeared to him. After this, al-Buraq arrived. Muhammad mounted the beast, and in the company of Jibril, they traveled to the "farthest mosque". The location of this mosque was not explicitly stated, but is generally accepted to mean Jerusalem. At this location, Muhammad dismounted from al-Buraq, prayed, and then once again mounted al-Buraq and was taken to the various heavens, to meet Allah. Muhammad was instructed to tell his followers five times per day that they were to offer prayers. Al-Buraq then transported Muhammad back to Mecca.
Al-Buraq was also said to have transported Abraham when he visited his wife Hagar and son Ishmael. According to tradition, Abraham lived with one wife in Syria, but al-Buraq would transport him in the morning to Mecca to see his family there, and take him back in the evening to his Syrian wife.
In the 1920's, part of the Western Wall, the only remaining part of the Second Temple in the Old City of Jerusalem, began being referred to as the Al-Buraq Wall. It had that name because it was said that Muhammad had tied al-Buraq to that wall during the Night Journey.
Two airlines have been named after the Buraq: Buraq Air of Libya, and the former Bouraq Indonesia Airlines of Indonesia (closed in 2006).
“lightning” see Buraq.
Buraq. Fabulous beast on which the Prophet Muhammad is said to have ridden when he made his miraculous night journey. The word “Buraq” means “lightning.” Al-Buraq was a heavenly mount upon which Muhammad is supposed to have ridden on his night journey -- his Mi’raj -- from Mecca to Jerusalem and then through the seven heavens. Al-Buraq was also Abraham’s mount in post-Quranic legend. Al-Buraq is usually depicted as a mare with a woman’s head and a peacock’s tail.
Al-Burāq is a miraculous steed, described as a creature from the heavens which transported the prophets. The most commonly told story is how in the 7th century, al-Buraq carried the prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and back during the Isra and Mi'raj or "Night Journey", which is the title of one of the chapters of the Qur'an.
According to tradition, the Night Journey took place 12 years after Muhammad became a prophet. Muhammad had been in his home city of Mecca, at his cousin's home (the house of Ummu Hani' binti Abu Thalib) in Isha'a prayer. Afterwards, Muhammad went to the Masjid Al-Haram mosque. While he was resting between Baitullah and Hijir Ismail, suddenly the angel Jibril (Gabriel) appeared to him. After this, al-Buraq arrived. Muhammad mounted the beast, and in the company of Jibril, they traveled to the "farthest mosque". The location of this mosque was not explicitly stated, but is generally accepted to mean Jerusalem. At this location, Muhammad dismounted from al-Buraq, prayed, and then once again mounted al-Buraq and was taken to the various heavens, to meet Allah. Muhammad was instructed to tell his followers five times per day that they were to offer prayers. Al-Buraq then transported Muhammad back to Mecca.
Al-Buraq was also said to have transported Abraham when he visited his wife Hagar and son Ishmael. According to tradition, Abraham lived with one wife in Syria, but al-Buraq would transport him in the morning to Mecca to see his family there, and take him back in the evening to his Syrian wife.
In the 1920's, part of the Western Wall, the only remaining part of the Second Temple in the Old City of Jerusalem, began being referred to as the Al-Buraq Wall. It had that name because it was said that Muhammad had tied al-Buraq to that wall during the Night Journey.
Two airlines have been named after the Buraq: Buraq Air of Libya, and the former Bouraq Indonesia Airlines of Indonesia (closed in 2006).
“lightning” see Buraq.
Burhanuddin Harahap
Burhanuddin Harahap (1917-1987). Ninth Prime Minister of Indonesia. Trained as a lawyer, Burhanuddin represented the Masjumi (Masyumi) Party, the political party uniting several Islamic organizations, in successive national parliaments from 1946. From August 11, 1955 to March 20, 1956, he headed a coalition of Islamic and socialist parties hostile to the Partai Nasional Indonesia (PNI). This government oversaw the general elections of September 1955 and dissolved the Netherlands-Indonesian Union in February 1956. In February 1958, alarmed by the growing power of Sukarno, the Partai Nasional Indonesia, and the Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI), Burhanuddin joined the PRRI (Pemerintah Revolusioner Republik Indonesia – “Revolutionary Government of the Indonesian Republic”) rebellion in Sumatra, for which he was jailed from 1962 to 1965.
Harahap, Burhanuddin see Burhanuddin Harahap
Burhanuddin Harahap (1917-1987). Ninth Prime Minister of Indonesia. Trained as a lawyer, Burhanuddin represented the Masjumi (Masyumi) Party, the political party uniting several Islamic organizations, in successive national parliaments from 1946. From August 11, 1955 to March 20, 1956, he headed a coalition of Islamic and socialist parties hostile to the Partai Nasional Indonesia (PNI). This government oversaw the general elections of September 1955 and dissolved the Netherlands-Indonesian Union in February 1956. In February 1958, alarmed by the growing power of Sukarno, the Partai Nasional Indonesia, and the Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI), Burhanuddin joined the PRRI (Pemerintah Revolusioner Republik Indonesia – “Revolutionary Government of the Indonesian Republic”) rebellion in Sumatra, for which he was jailed from 1962 to 1965.
Harahap, Burhanuddin see Burhanuddin Harahap
Burhanuddin, Sayyidna Muhammad (b. 1915). Head of the Da’udi Bohra Isma‘ili community and fifty-second occupant of the office of da‘i mutlaq (“absolute summoner”). The office held by Burhanuddin originated in Yemen in 1138 when the heir to the Fatimid caliphate, the twenty-first imam al-Tayyib, chose seclusion. The Isma‘ili community believes that since then the imamate has continued in seclusion in the progeny of al-Tayyib and that prior preparations had been made by his predecessors to ensure that the Fatimid Isma‘ili mission would continue through the da‘i mutlaq. The da‘i thus represents the secluded imam and operates with the imam’s authority. He carries out virtually all the imam’s religious and juridical functions and sustains the social structure of the community of believers. The present da‘i resides in Bombay, the headquarters of the mission having been transferred to India from Yemen in 1567. Like his predecessors, he is greatly revered by his followers.
Burhanuddin received his religious and administrative training during the leadership of his renowned father and predecessor, Tahir Sayf al-Din and succeeded him in 1965. He led his community into an era of fresh vibrancy and renewed zeal by devoting his efforts to the preservation of the Fatimid Isma‘ili heritage in a number of ways. He ushered in a spiritual reawakening by requiring his followers to adhere closely to Qur’anic injunctions in their everyday lives. He emphasized adherence to Islamic business ethics that include the prohibition of interest and institutionalized interest-free loan schemes to cater for the community’s borrowing needs. He strengthened the age-old Shi‘a practice of lamenting the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn. The annual gatherings to mourn the martyrdom during the first ten days of Muharram (‘Ashura’) became the major spiritual expression of the community, with thousands of Bohras attending the sermons of the da‘i, which are relayed live to Bohra centers all over the world. He promoted the blending of secular and religious studies by initiating Islam-oriented schools which attempt to provide an integrated education in an Islamic atmosphere. Finally, he undertook the restoration of Fatimid relics and has promoted Fatimid architecture and design in the construction of a large number of mosques, mausolea, and other public buildings all over the world. The most important of such works has been the restoration in 1980 of al-Jami‘ al-Anwar, the grand mosque in Cairo built by the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim (996-1021).
Sayyidna Burhanuddin was an accomplished scholar. He personally supervised the curriculum of the Arabic academy al-Jami‘ah al-Sayfiyah where his followers received religious training. He was the author of several books on Isma‘ili religious thought and he composed thousands of verses in Arabic on supplication and in praise of the Prophet, imams and da‘is. He received honorary doctorates from al-Azhar University (1966) and from Aligarh Muslim University (1966).
He frequently visited Da’udi Bohra centers all over the world to personally imbue Islamic values in his followers, a practice he continued even at an advanced age. He spent many hours each day in attending to the needs of the Da’udi Bohras, who sought his advice on all aspects of life, even on mundane matters such as the choice of name of a newborn. His charitable endeavors, promotion of institutes and trusts for educational and economic welfare, support of projects on environmental issues, and renovation activities earned him international recognition, including the highest civilian honors of Egypt (1976) and Jordan (1981).
Sayyidna Muhammad Burhanuddin see Burhanuddin, Sayyidna Muhammad
Sayyidna Burhanuddin was an accomplished scholar. He personally supervised the curriculum of the Arabic academy al-Jami‘ah al-Sayfiyah where his followers received religious training. He was the author of several books on Isma‘ili religious thought and he composed thousands of verses in Arabic on supplication and in praise of the Prophet, imams and da‘is. He received honorary doctorates from al-Azhar University (1966) and from Aligarh Muslim University (1966).
He frequently visited Da’udi Bohra centers all over the world to personally imbue Islamic values in his followers, a practice he continued even at an advanced age. He spent many hours each day in attending to the needs of the Da’udi Bohras, who sought his advice on all aspects of life, even on mundane matters such as the choice of name of a newborn. His charitable endeavors, promotion of institutes and trusts for educational and economic welfare, support of projects on environmental issues, and renovation activities earned him international recognition, including the highest civilian honors of Egypt (1976) and Jordan (1981).
Sayyidna Muhammad Burhanuddin see Burhanuddin, Sayyidna Muhammad
Burids
Burids. Dynasty of Turkish origin which reigned in Damascus (1104-1154). It was founded by the atabeg Tughtigin, and endured until the city was captured by the Zangid Nur al-Din Mahmud.
The Burid dynasty was a Turkish dynasty which ruled over Damascus in the early 12th century. The first Burid ruler, Toghtekin, began as a servant to the Seljuk ruler of Damascus, Duqaq. Following Duqaq's death in 1104, he seized the city for himself. His family ruled the city until 1154, when it was taken by the Zengid ruler of Aleppo, Nur ed-Din. The Burids defeated the Crusaders in the Battle of Marj es-Suffar.
Burid Emirs of Damascus
Toghtekin (Saif-ul-Islam Zahir ud-Din Toghtekin) 1104-1128
Buri (Taj ul-Mulk Buri) 1128-1132
Ismail (Shams ul-Mulk Isma'il) 1132-1135
Mahmud (Shihab ud-Din Mahmud) 1135-1139
Muhammad (Djamal ud-Din Muhammad) 1139-1140
Unur (Regent) 1140-1149
Mujir ud-Din (Mujir ud-Din Abaq) 1140 (1149)-1154
Burids. Dynasty of Turkish origin which reigned in Damascus (1104-1154). It was founded by the atabeg Tughtigin, and endured until the city was captured by the Zangid Nur al-Din Mahmud.
The Burid dynasty was a Turkish dynasty which ruled over Damascus in the early 12th century. The first Burid ruler, Toghtekin, began as a servant to the Seljuk ruler of Damascus, Duqaq. Following Duqaq's death in 1104, he seized the city for himself. His family ruled the city until 1154, when it was taken by the Zengid ruler of Aleppo, Nur ed-Din. The Burids defeated the Crusaders in the Battle of Marj es-Suffar.
Burid Emirs of Damascus
Toghtekin (Saif-ul-Islam Zahir ud-Din Toghtekin) 1104-1128
Buri (Taj ul-Mulk Buri) 1128-1132
Ismail (Shams ul-Mulk Isma'il) 1132-1135
Mahmud (Shihab ud-Din Mahmud) 1135-1139
Muhammad (Djamal ud-Din Muhammad) 1139-1140
Unur (Regent) 1140-1149
Mujir ud-Din (Mujir ud-Din Abaq) 1140 (1149)-1154
Burmese
Burmese. Of the Muslims in Burma, about thirty-six percent are essentially Burmese. The rest are, or are the descendants of, Indians, Arabs and Persians who formed the original nucleus of Muslims and came to Burma early in the history of Islam or who arrived during the British conquest, which sparked waves of Indian Muslim and Hindu immigration. A few are Chinese Muslims called Panthay or Huizui. Many Burmese Muslims are not pure Burmese, although they all speak Burmese. For no known etymological reason, they are called Zerbadees. They are sons or descendants of a variety of combinations of people: (1) Indian Muslim fathers and Burmese Buddhist mothers, whether or not they converted to Islam; (2) Indian Muslim fathers and Burmese Muslim mothers; (3) Burmese Muslim fathers and Burmese mothers who then converted to Islam; (4) Burmerse Muslim mothers and Burmese fathers who converted to Islam; and (5) Burmese Muslim fathers and mothers.
There are two groups of Burmese Muslims who are native to Burma. One is the native Burmese, who speak Burmese and reflect Burmese culture. The other is the Muslims of Arakan.
The Mayu district in northern Arakan, overwhelmingly Muslim, has been under separate frontier administration distinct from the rest of Arakan since 1961. This special status in deference to the Muslim character of the population came in the wake of the Mujahid rebellion, which raged sporadically and violently in Arakan between 1948 and 1961, on a background of social and economic tensions between Arakanese Muslims and Buddhists, reciprocal killings and population displacements.
Unlike Indian Muslims in Burma, Burmese Muslims have been slow to organize. Indian Muslims were organized as long ago as 1922, when they created a branch of the Indian Congress Party in Burma. Not until 1946, did Burmese Muslims in upper Burma organize by founding the Jamiyyat al-Ulama, Burma. Two years later, the Indian and Burmese Muslims joined to form a single organization by the same name. Unity between the two groups was short lived. They split in 1958 over personal rivalries as well as disagreements on matters of pro-Indian or pro-Burmese orientation.
Antagonisms between Indian and Burmese Muslims have prevented them from uniting into a single organization. However, they do cooperate in promoting celebrations of the Prophet’s birthday (Maulud), which include mass rallies, essay contests, lectures and sermons in the mosques and other competitions, plus processions. They also cooperate in supporting the Dar al-Muin (Society for Welfare), which today confines itself to the problems of burial rites for Muslims, caring for the mausoleum of the last Mughal emperor, Saraj al-Din Bahadur Shah, and lobbying against Prime Minister U Nu’s declaration making Buddhism the state religion, prior to General Ne-Win’s military coup in 1962.
While personal relations between Muslims and Buddhist Burmese have generally been amicable, there have been times of strife. Tensions flared into violence in 1938 incited by economic disparities as well as religious contentions. Buddhists resented the increasing prominence of Indian Muslims in the British controlled government and in business. They resented Muslim intermarriage with Burmese women because of the temporary nature of such marriages in which Indian Muslims returning to India abandoned their native wives. Not until 1953 did Burma pass a law which, over Muslim objections, gave women the right to divorce in the event they were abandoned. Since the 1962 revolution, after which all Muslim political activity was halted and emigration of Indians encouraged by the nationalization of all branches of the country’s commerce, did overt rivalry between Muslims and Buddhists diminish.
Burmese. Of the Muslims in Burma, about thirty-six percent are essentially Burmese. The rest are, or are the descendants of, Indians, Arabs and Persians who formed the original nucleus of Muslims and came to Burma early in the history of Islam or who arrived during the British conquest, which sparked waves of Indian Muslim and Hindu immigration. A few are Chinese Muslims called Panthay or Huizui. Many Burmese Muslims are not pure Burmese, although they all speak Burmese. For no known etymological reason, they are called Zerbadees. They are sons or descendants of a variety of combinations of people: (1) Indian Muslim fathers and Burmese Buddhist mothers, whether or not they converted to Islam; (2) Indian Muslim fathers and Burmese Muslim mothers; (3) Burmese Muslim fathers and Burmese mothers who then converted to Islam; (4) Burmerse Muslim mothers and Burmese fathers who converted to Islam; and (5) Burmese Muslim fathers and mothers.
There are two groups of Burmese Muslims who are native to Burma. One is the native Burmese, who speak Burmese and reflect Burmese culture. The other is the Muslims of Arakan.
The Mayu district in northern Arakan, overwhelmingly Muslim, has been under separate frontier administration distinct from the rest of Arakan since 1961. This special status in deference to the Muslim character of the population came in the wake of the Mujahid rebellion, which raged sporadically and violently in Arakan between 1948 and 1961, on a background of social and economic tensions between Arakanese Muslims and Buddhists, reciprocal killings and population displacements.
Unlike Indian Muslims in Burma, Burmese Muslims have been slow to organize. Indian Muslims were organized as long ago as 1922, when they created a branch of the Indian Congress Party in Burma. Not until 1946, did Burmese Muslims in upper Burma organize by founding the Jamiyyat al-Ulama, Burma. Two years later, the Indian and Burmese Muslims joined to form a single organization by the same name. Unity between the two groups was short lived. They split in 1958 over personal rivalries as well as disagreements on matters of pro-Indian or pro-Burmese orientation.
Antagonisms between Indian and Burmese Muslims have prevented them from uniting into a single organization. However, they do cooperate in promoting celebrations of the Prophet’s birthday (Maulud), which include mass rallies, essay contests, lectures and sermons in the mosques and other competitions, plus processions. They also cooperate in supporting the Dar al-Muin (Society for Welfare), which today confines itself to the problems of burial rites for Muslims, caring for the mausoleum of the last Mughal emperor, Saraj al-Din Bahadur Shah, and lobbying against Prime Minister U Nu’s declaration making Buddhism the state religion, prior to General Ne-Win’s military coup in 1962.
While personal relations between Muslims and Buddhist Burmese have generally been amicable, there have been times of strife. Tensions flared into violence in 1938 incited by economic disparities as well as religious contentions. Buddhists resented the increasing prominence of Indian Muslims in the British controlled government and in business. They resented Muslim intermarriage with Burmese women because of the temporary nature of such marriages in which Indian Muslims returning to India abandoned their native wives. Not until 1953 did Burma pass a law which, over Muslim objections, gave women the right to divorce in the event they were abandoned. Since the 1962 revolution, after which all Muslim political activity was halted and emigration of Indians encouraged by the nationalization of all branches of the country’s commerce, did overt rivalry between Muslims and Buddhists diminish.
Burujirdi
Burujirdi (Hajji Aqa Husayn Tabataba’i Burujirdi) (Hajji Aqa Husayn Tabataba’i) (Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi) (1875 - March 30, 1961). Greatest religious authority of the Shi‘a world in his time. Under his guidance, the Qum Circle for Religious Studies became the most important clerical center of Shi‘ism. He was also concerned with Sunni-Shi‘a relations and entered into correspondence with Azhar rectors such as Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut (d.1963). In the arena of politics, Burujirdi remained rather inactive, but at times he favored the shah of Iran.
Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi (1875-1961) was a Twelver Shi'a Marja and the leading Marja in Iran from roughly 1947 to his death in 1961.
Borujerdi (Burujirdi) was born in the city of Borujerd in the province of Lorestan in Iran, hence the surname. In his youth, Borujerdi studied under a number of Shi'ite masters of Islamic jurisprudence such as Mohammad-Kazem Khorasani and Aqa Zia Iraqi, and specialized in fiqh. He studied the fiqahat of all the Islamic schools of thought, not just his own, along with the science of rijal. Though he is known for citing masoomeen to support many of his deductions, Borujerdi is known for elucidating many aspects himself and was an influential fiqh jurist in his own right. He had a strong influence on Islamic scholars like Morteza Motahhari and Ayatollah Shaikh Husain Montazeri.
Borujerdi revived the hawza of Qom in 1945, which had waned after the death in 1937 of its founder, Shaykh Abdul Karim Ha'iri. When Sayyid Abul Hassan Isfahani died the following year, the majority of Shi'a accepted Ayatullah Borujerdi as Marja'-e-Taqlid. Borujerdi was the sole marja "in the Shi'a world" from 1945-6 until his death in 1961.
Borujerdi was the first Marja' to look beyond Iraq and Iran. He sent Sayyid Muhaqqiqi to Hamburg, Germany, Aqa-e-Shari'at to Karachi, Pakistan, Al-Faqihi to Madinah and Sayyid Musa Sadr to Lebanon.
He established cordial relations with Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut, the grand Shaykh of Al-Azhar. Together, the two scholars established the "House for Bringing Muslim Sects Nearer" in Cairo. Shaltut issued a famous fatwa accepting the Shi'a faith as one of the recognized sects of Islam.
Unlike many clergy and temporal rulers, Borujerdi and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, are said to have had cordial and mutually beneficial relations, starting with a visit by the Shah to Borujerdi's hospital room in 1944. Borujerdi is said to have generally remained aloof from politics and given the Shah his "tacit support," while the Shah did not follow his father's harsh anti-clericalism (for example he exempted clergy from military service), and until Borujerdi's death occasionally visited the cleric.
Borujerdi's belief in quietism, or separation of church from state, extended to keeping silent in public on such issues as Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadeq and the end of his campaign to nationalize and control the British-owned oil industry in Iran, and the Baghdad Pact alliance with the United States and Great Britain. It is thought that as a reward for this support the Shah ensured more religious instruction in state schools and tightened control of cinemas and other offensive secular entertainment during Moharram.
Ayatollah Borujerdi passively opposed the Pahlavi regime's agrarian reforms, which he called "agrarian destruction." In his view, the confiscations of large concentrations of landholdings of aristocrats and clergy by the Pahlavi shahs disrupted the fabric of rural life and eroded religious institutions.
Future revolutionary Ruhollah Khomeini was an underling of Borujerdi and Borujerdi forbade him to take part in political activities, a ban which only ended with Borujerdi's death.
Borujerdi died in Qom on March 30, 1961. The Shah proclaimed three days of mourning and attended a memorial service in his honor.
Hajji Aqa Husayn Tabataba’i Burujirdi see Burujirdi
Hajji Aqa Husayn Tabataba’i see Burujirdi
Tabataba'i, Hajji Aqa Husayn see Burujirdi
Borujerdi, Seyyed Hossein see Burujirdi
Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi see Burujirdi
Burujirdi (Hajji Aqa Husayn Tabataba’i Burujirdi) (Hajji Aqa Husayn Tabataba’i) (Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi) (1875 - March 30, 1961). Greatest religious authority of the Shi‘a world in his time. Under his guidance, the Qum Circle for Religious Studies became the most important clerical center of Shi‘ism. He was also concerned with Sunni-Shi‘a relations and entered into correspondence with Azhar rectors such as Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut (d.1963). In the arena of politics, Burujirdi remained rather inactive, but at times he favored the shah of Iran.
Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi (1875-1961) was a Twelver Shi'a Marja and the leading Marja in Iran from roughly 1947 to his death in 1961.
Borujerdi (Burujirdi) was born in the city of Borujerd in the province of Lorestan in Iran, hence the surname. In his youth, Borujerdi studied under a number of Shi'ite masters of Islamic jurisprudence such as Mohammad-Kazem Khorasani and Aqa Zia Iraqi, and specialized in fiqh. He studied the fiqahat of all the Islamic schools of thought, not just his own, along with the science of rijal. Though he is known for citing masoomeen to support many of his deductions, Borujerdi is known for elucidating many aspects himself and was an influential fiqh jurist in his own right. He had a strong influence on Islamic scholars like Morteza Motahhari and Ayatollah Shaikh Husain Montazeri.
Borujerdi revived the hawza of Qom in 1945, which had waned after the death in 1937 of its founder, Shaykh Abdul Karim Ha'iri. When Sayyid Abul Hassan Isfahani died the following year, the majority of Shi'a accepted Ayatullah Borujerdi as Marja'-e-Taqlid. Borujerdi was the sole marja "in the Shi'a world" from 1945-6 until his death in 1961.
Borujerdi was the first Marja' to look beyond Iraq and Iran. He sent Sayyid Muhaqqiqi to Hamburg, Germany, Aqa-e-Shari'at to Karachi, Pakistan, Al-Faqihi to Madinah and Sayyid Musa Sadr to Lebanon.
He established cordial relations with Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut, the grand Shaykh of Al-Azhar. Together, the two scholars established the "House for Bringing Muslim Sects Nearer" in Cairo. Shaltut issued a famous fatwa accepting the Shi'a faith as one of the recognized sects of Islam.
Unlike many clergy and temporal rulers, Borujerdi and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, are said to have had cordial and mutually beneficial relations, starting with a visit by the Shah to Borujerdi's hospital room in 1944. Borujerdi is said to have generally remained aloof from politics and given the Shah his "tacit support," while the Shah did not follow his father's harsh anti-clericalism (for example he exempted clergy from military service), and until Borujerdi's death occasionally visited the cleric.
Borujerdi's belief in quietism, or separation of church from state, extended to keeping silent in public on such issues as Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadeq and the end of his campaign to nationalize and control the British-owned oil industry in Iran, and the Baghdad Pact alliance with the United States and Great Britain. It is thought that as a reward for this support the Shah ensured more religious instruction in state schools and tightened control of cinemas and other offensive secular entertainment during Moharram.
Ayatollah Borujerdi passively opposed the Pahlavi regime's agrarian reforms, which he called "agrarian destruction." In his view, the confiscations of large concentrations of landholdings of aristocrats and clergy by the Pahlavi shahs disrupted the fabric of rural life and eroded religious institutions.
Future revolutionary Ruhollah Khomeini was an underling of Borujerdi and Borujerdi forbade him to take part in political activities, a ban which only ended with Borujerdi's death.
Borujerdi died in Qom on March 30, 1961. The Shah proclaimed three days of mourning and attended a memorial service in his honor.
Hajji Aqa Husayn Tabataba’i Burujirdi see Burujirdi
Hajji Aqa Husayn Tabataba’i see Burujirdi
Tabataba'i, Hajji Aqa Husayn see Burujirdi
Borujerdi, Seyyed Hossein see Burujirdi
Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi see Burujirdi
Burusho
Burusho (Brusho). The towering, silver gray peaks of the Karakorum and Hindu Kush ranges dominate the arid highland of northeastern Pakistan. There, in a sharply cleft valley that skirts the base of the 25,550 foot Mount Rakaposhi, reside the Burusho, a Muslim people of distinct langage and culture. Their oasis-like settlements spread along the slopes overlooking the mid-section of the Hunza River and the southern banks of the tributary Nagar River are typically found at altitudes of 6,500 to 10,500 feet. Formerly, the Burusho were the dominant groupings in the twin kingdoms of Hunza and Nagar, which controlled the right and left banks of the Hunza and Nagar rivers, respectively, with Hunza encompassing all Wakhi lands to the north. While the Burusho are often referred to as the Hunzakuts or Nagarkuts, these terms, meaning the “people of Hunza” and the “people of Nagar,” are applicable to the Shin, Wakhi and Dom populations of these kingdoms as well.
For most of their recorded past, Hunza and Nagar paid token allegiance to the ruling powers of Chinese Turkestan and Kahmir, while retaining effective political autonomy and independent military capabilities. The two states intermittently engaged in warfare over territory and raided the caravans travelling the Silk route along their northern frontiers. In 1891, they were defeated and occupied by a British led expeditionary force in a move designed to pre-empt Russian and Chinese expansion. Subsequently, under the dominion of the colonial government, Hunza and Nagar enjoyed much the same status as did the other princely states of the subcontinent. Both states were abolished and their mirs (rulers) retired on pensions by 1974.
About two-thirds of the Burusho of Hunza term themselves Ismaili or Maulai. They belong to the Nizari sect headed by the Aga Khan. The remaining one-third and all of the Burusho of Nagar are described simply as Shi‘a. According to local tradition, Islam was carried to Hunza by Shi'as from Kashmir via the court of the Balti king, Abda Khan III, who was converted during a period of exile in Badakhshan sometime about the year 1800. The two sects maintain separate local religious facilities, mosques and matam sarai (“mourning places”) for the former, jamaat khana (“followers’ houses”) for the latter.
The Burusho or Brusho people live in the Hunza, Nagar, and Yasin valleys of northern Pakistan. There are also over 300 Burusho living in Srinagar, India. They are predominantly Muslims. Their language, Burushaski, has not been shown to be related to any other. They have an East Asian genetic contribution, suggesting that at least some of their ancestry originates north of the Himalayas.
The Hunza people, or Hunzakuts, descend from the principality of Hunza. They live alongside the Wakhi and the Shina. The Wakhi reside in the upper part of Hunza locally called Gojal. Wakhis also inhabit the bordering regions of China, Tajikstan and Afghanistan and also live in Gizar and Chitral district of Pakistan. The Shina-speaking people live in the southern part of Hunza. They cme from Chilas, Gilgit, and other Shina-speaking areas of Pakistan.
The Hunzakuts and the region of Hunza had one of the highest literacy rates as compared to other similar districts in Pakistan. Hunza was a major tourist attraction in Pakistan, and many Pakistani as well as foreign tourist traveled to the region to enjoy the picturesque landscape and stunning mountains of the area. The district had many modern amenities and was quite advanced by Asian standards. Local legend states that Hunza may have been associated with the lost kingdom of Shangri La. The people of Hunza were by some noted for their exceptionally long life expectancy, others described this as a longevity narrative and cite a life expectancy of 53 years for men and 52 for women, although with a high standard deviation.
Burusho legend maintains that they descend from the village of Baltir, which had been founded by a soldier left behind from the army of Alexander the Great—a legend common to much of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. However, genetic evidence only supports a Balkan genetic component in the Afghan Pashtun, not the Burusho.
In 2008, the Macedonian Institute for Strategic Researches organized a visit by Hunza Prince Ghazanfar Ali Khan and Princess Rani Atiqa as descendants of the Alexandran army. The Hunza delegation was welcomed at the Skopje Airport by the country's prime minister Nikola Gruevski, the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church Archbishop Stephen and the then-mayor of Skopje Trifun Kostovski. Academics dismiss the idea as pseudoscience, and doubts exist that party leaders actually believe the claims either. This political support of a connection with the Hunza paralleled earlier Greek relations with the neighboring Kalash people of Pakistan, who also claimed Alexandran ancestry.
Hunzakuts see Burusho
Nagarkuts see Burusho
Brusho see Burusho
Burusho (Brusho). The towering, silver gray peaks of the Karakorum and Hindu Kush ranges dominate the arid highland of northeastern Pakistan. There, in a sharply cleft valley that skirts the base of the 25,550 foot Mount Rakaposhi, reside the Burusho, a Muslim people of distinct langage and culture. Their oasis-like settlements spread along the slopes overlooking the mid-section of the Hunza River and the southern banks of the tributary Nagar River are typically found at altitudes of 6,500 to 10,500 feet. Formerly, the Burusho were the dominant groupings in the twin kingdoms of Hunza and Nagar, which controlled the right and left banks of the Hunza and Nagar rivers, respectively, with Hunza encompassing all Wakhi lands to the north. While the Burusho are often referred to as the Hunzakuts or Nagarkuts, these terms, meaning the “people of Hunza” and the “people of Nagar,” are applicable to the Shin, Wakhi and Dom populations of these kingdoms as well.
For most of their recorded past, Hunza and Nagar paid token allegiance to the ruling powers of Chinese Turkestan and Kahmir, while retaining effective political autonomy and independent military capabilities. The two states intermittently engaged in warfare over territory and raided the caravans travelling the Silk route along their northern frontiers. In 1891, they were defeated and occupied by a British led expeditionary force in a move designed to pre-empt Russian and Chinese expansion. Subsequently, under the dominion of the colonial government, Hunza and Nagar enjoyed much the same status as did the other princely states of the subcontinent. Both states were abolished and their mirs (rulers) retired on pensions by 1974.
About two-thirds of the Burusho of Hunza term themselves Ismaili or Maulai. They belong to the Nizari sect headed by the Aga Khan. The remaining one-third and all of the Burusho of Nagar are described simply as Shi‘a. According to local tradition, Islam was carried to Hunza by Shi'as from Kashmir via the court of the Balti king, Abda Khan III, who was converted during a period of exile in Badakhshan sometime about the year 1800. The two sects maintain separate local religious facilities, mosques and matam sarai (“mourning places”) for the former, jamaat khana (“followers’ houses”) for the latter.
The Burusho or Brusho people live in the Hunza, Nagar, and Yasin valleys of northern Pakistan. There are also over 300 Burusho living in Srinagar, India. They are predominantly Muslims. Their language, Burushaski, has not been shown to be related to any other. They have an East Asian genetic contribution, suggesting that at least some of their ancestry originates north of the Himalayas.
The Hunza people, or Hunzakuts, descend from the principality of Hunza. They live alongside the Wakhi and the Shina. The Wakhi reside in the upper part of Hunza locally called Gojal. Wakhis also inhabit the bordering regions of China, Tajikstan and Afghanistan and also live in Gizar and Chitral district of Pakistan. The Shina-speaking people live in the southern part of Hunza. They cme from Chilas, Gilgit, and other Shina-speaking areas of Pakistan.
The Hunzakuts and the region of Hunza had one of the highest literacy rates as compared to other similar districts in Pakistan. Hunza was a major tourist attraction in Pakistan, and many Pakistani as well as foreign tourist traveled to the region to enjoy the picturesque landscape and stunning mountains of the area. The district had many modern amenities and was quite advanced by Asian standards. Local legend states that Hunza may have been associated with the lost kingdom of Shangri La. The people of Hunza were by some noted for their exceptionally long life expectancy, others described this as a longevity narrative and cite a life expectancy of 53 years for men and 52 for women, although with a high standard deviation.
Burusho legend maintains that they descend from the village of Baltir, which had been founded by a soldier left behind from the army of Alexander the Great—a legend common to much of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. However, genetic evidence only supports a Balkan genetic component in the Afghan Pashtun, not the Burusho.
In 2008, the Macedonian Institute for Strategic Researches organized a visit by Hunza Prince Ghazanfar Ali Khan and Princess Rani Atiqa as descendants of the Alexandran army. The Hunza delegation was welcomed at the Skopje Airport by the country's prime minister Nikola Gruevski, the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church Archbishop Stephen and the then-mayor of Skopje Trifun Kostovski. Academics dismiss the idea as pseudoscience, and doubts exist that party leaders actually believe the claims either. This political support of a connection with the Hunza paralleled earlier Greek relations with the neighboring Kalash people of Pakistan, who also claimed Alexandran ancestry.
Hunzakuts see Burusho
Nagarkuts see Burusho
Brusho see Burusho
Bu Sa‘id
Bu Sa‘id. Name of the ruling dynasty of Oman. The sultan of Zanzibar, of the same dynasty, was deposed in 1964. The dynasty was founded by Ahmad ibn Sa‘id, the governor of Suhar in Oman under the Ya‘rubid Imam, who assumed the title of Imam in 1749. The greatest ruler of the united empire of Oman and Zanzibar was Sa‘id ibn Sultan.
Ahmad ibn Saʿīd, who had been governor of Ṣuhār, Oman, in the 1740s under the Persian Yaʿrubids, managed to displace the Yaʿrubids by about 1749 and become imam of Oman and of Zanzibar, Pemba, and Kilwa in East Africa. His successors—known as sayyids or, later, as sultans—expanded their possessions in the late 18th century to include Bahrain in the Persian Gulf and Bandar-e ʿAbbās, Hormuz, and Qeshm (all in Iran). In 1798 the threat of the militant Wahhābīs (a fundamentalist Islamic sect in central Arabia) caused Sulṭān ibn Ahmad (reigned 1792–1804) to conclude a treaty with the East India Company that would assure a British presence in Muscat (Masqaṭ), the Āl Bū Saʿīdī capital, which was an important port on the trade route to India.
Under Saʿīd ibn Sulṭān (reigned 1806–56), the Āl Bū Saʿīd family reached the peak of its influence. Saʿīd established treaties with the United States (1833) and France (1844), strengthened his ties with Great Britain, and placed the East African Arab and Swahili colonies from Mogadishu (Muqdisho) to Cape Delgado under his suzerainty. The equilibrium of the sultanate was still threatened by Wahhābī attacks and tribal unrest in the mountains, but, with British aid, Saʿīd kept them in check. In 1854, out of gratitude for such support, the sayyid gave Great Britain the Khurīyā Murīyā Islands.
On Saʿīd’s death in 1856, the Āl Bū Saʿīdī dominions were divided by the British between Saʿīd’s two sons: Oman came under Thuwaynī’s rule (1856–66), while Zanzibar went to Mājid (r. 1856–70). In Zanzibar, the Āl Bū Saʿīd family remained in power even under the British protectorate (1890–1963) but were overthrown in 1964 when Zanzibar was incorporated into Tanzania.
In Oman an opposition movement that was organized in the mountains in 1901 by ʿĪsā ibn Ṣālih threatened the Āl Bū Saʿīd family until a treaty, known as the Treaty of Al-Sib (September 25, 1920), was signed between Imam ʿĪsā ibn Ṣālih and Sultan Taymūr ibn Fayṣal (r. 1913–32), by virtue of which Sultan Taymūr ruled over the coastal provinces and Imam ʿĪsā over the interior. Opposition broke out again in 1954 when the tribes appealed to Saudi Arabia for aid in establishing an independent principality, but Sultan Saʿīd ibn Taymūr (r. 1932–70) was able to put down the rebellion with British aid.
In the mid-1960s, a Marxist-led rebellion broke out in the southern Dhofar region. This and other concerns eventually prompted the ouster of Sultan Saʿīd by his son, Qaboos bin Said (Qābūs ibn Saʿīd; r. 1970– ). Qaboos began the first programs to modernize Oman’s infrastructure, social programs, and government bureaucracy. The sultanate adopted a foreign policy that encouraged foreign investment, maintained ties with British and American interests, and aligned itself with the moderate Arab powers.
The ruling Al-Busaid dynasty descends from Sayyid Mubarak al-Saidi al-Azdy, of the Banu Hiba, a clan belonging to the Hiwani tribe of Yemen. His great great-grandson, Sayyid Ahmad bin Said, was elected as Imam in 1744, after the extinction of the Ya'rubi dynasty. His son, Sayyid Said bin Ahmad, seized temporal power in 1775. Elected as Imam on his father's death in 1783, Said was himself excluded from temporal power by his own sons in 1786. He died in 1811 (or 1803), the last elected Imam of Oman. The dynasty reached its zenith during the reign of Sayyid Said bin Sultan (r. 1806-1856), when Oman became the center of a vast sea-borne empire along the coasts and islands of eastern Africa and the Persian Gulf.
After 1958 Said ibn Taimur established his residence at Al Hisn near Salalah, in Dhofar, where he remained permanently except for periodic visits to London. By retiring to the south from Muscat, Said ibn Taimur was not only more secure from assassination but was also no longer obligated to meet frequently with tribal shaykhs and distribute subsidies and thereby avoided depleting the treasury. He married Dhofari wives, one of whom bore him his only heir, Qabus ibn Said, and two daughters. Above all, Said ibn Taimur created his personal fiefdom and sought to arrest modernization by enforcing antiquated laws, public executions, and slavery of people of African descent. The isolation and xenophobia that he forced on the country and on Dhofar in particular left Oman grossly underdeveloped, despite increasing oil export revenues in the late 1960s.
Qabus ibn Said spent his early years isolated within the royal palace. At the instigation of his father's British advisers, Qabus ibn Said was permitted to go to Britain in 1958 for his education. He spent two years at a small private school, where he acquired mastery of the English language. In 1960 he was enrolled in the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, and, after graduating from a two-year course of study, served for several months with British units stationed in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). After a world tour and studies in London, he returned to Oman in December 1964. His father, however, refused to entrust him with a responsible role in the government or military and instead sequestered him in the palace in Salalah. Qabus ibn Said's more cosmopolitan and progressive views were incompatible with his father's conservatism and isolationism, which Qabus ibn Said considered detrimental to the country's development. With the tacit endorsement of the British, who saw thirty-year-old Qabus ibn Said as an agreeable alternative, Qabus ibn Said and a number of alienated political elite overthrew Said ibn Taimur in a palace coup d'état on July 23, 1970. Said ibn Taimur withdrew to London, where he died in 1972.
Bu Sa‘id. Name of the ruling dynasty of Oman. The sultan of Zanzibar, of the same dynasty, was deposed in 1964. The dynasty was founded by Ahmad ibn Sa‘id, the governor of Suhar in Oman under the Ya‘rubid Imam, who assumed the title of Imam in 1749. The greatest ruler of the united empire of Oman and Zanzibar was Sa‘id ibn Sultan.
Ahmad ibn Saʿīd, who had been governor of Ṣuhār, Oman, in the 1740s under the Persian Yaʿrubids, managed to displace the Yaʿrubids by about 1749 and become imam of Oman and of Zanzibar, Pemba, and Kilwa in East Africa. His successors—known as sayyids or, later, as sultans—expanded their possessions in the late 18th century to include Bahrain in the Persian Gulf and Bandar-e ʿAbbās, Hormuz, and Qeshm (all in Iran). In 1798 the threat of the militant Wahhābīs (a fundamentalist Islamic sect in central Arabia) caused Sulṭān ibn Ahmad (reigned 1792–1804) to conclude a treaty with the East India Company that would assure a British presence in Muscat (Masqaṭ), the Āl Bū Saʿīdī capital, which was an important port on the trade route to India.
Under Saʿīd ibn Sulṭān (reigned 1806–56), the Āl Bū Saʿīd family reached the peak of its influence. Saʿīd established treaties with the United States (1833) and France (1844), strengthened his ties with Great Britain, and placed the East African Arab and Swahili colonies from Mogadishu (Muqdisho) to Cape Delgado under his suzerainty. The equilibrium of the sultanate was still threatened by Wahhābī attacks and tribal unrest in the mountains, but, with British aid, Saʿīd kept them in check. In 1854, out of gratitude for such support, the sayyid gave Great Britain the Khurīyā Murīyā Islands.
On Saʿīd’s death in 1856, the Āl Bū Saʿīdī dominions were divided by the British between Saʿīd’s two sons: Oman came under Thuwaynī’s rule (1856–66), while Zanzibar went to Mājid (r. 1856–70). In Zanzibar, the Āl Bū Saʿīd family remained in power even under the British protectorate (1890–1963) but were overthrown in 1964 when Zanzibar was incorporated into Tanzania.
In Oman an opposition movement that was organized in the mountains in 1901 by ʿĪsā ibn Ṣālih threatened the Āl Bū Saʿīd family until a treaty, known as the Treaty of Al-Sib (September 25, 1920), was signed between Imam ʿĪsā ibn Ṣālih and Sultan Taymūr ibn Fayṣal (r. 1913–32), by virtue of which Sultan Taymūr ruled over the coastal provinces and Imam ʿĪsā over the interior. Opposition broke out again in 1954 when the tribes appealed to Saudi Arabia for aid in establishing an independent principality, but Sultan Saʿīd ibn Taymūr (r. 1932–70) was able to put down the rebellion with British aid.
In the mid-1960s, a Marxist-led rebellion broke out in the southern Dhofar region. This and other concerns eventually prompted the ouster of Sultan Saʿīd by his son, Qaboos bin Said (Qābūs ibn Saʿīd; r. 1970– ). Qaboos began the first programs to modernize Oman’s infrastructure, social programs, and government bureaucracy. The sultanate adopted a foreign policy that encouraged foreign investment, maintained ties with British and American interests, and aligned itself with the moderate Arab powers.
The ruling Al-Busaid dynasty descends from Sayyid Mubarak al-Saidi al-Azdy, of the Banu Hiba, a clan belonging to the Hiwani tribe of Yemen. His great great-grandson, Sayyid Ahmad bin Said, was elected as Imam in 1744, after the extinction of the Ya'rubi dynasty. His son, Sayyid Said bin Ahmad, seized temporal power in 1775. Elected as Imam on his father's death in 1783, Said was himself excluded from temporal power by his own sons in 1786. He died in 1811 (or 1803), the last elected Imam of Oman. The dynasty reached its zenith during the reign of Sayyid Said bin Sultan (r. 1806-1856), when Oman became the center of a vast sea-borne empire along the coasts and islands of eastern Africa and the Persian Gulf.
After 1958 Said ibn Taimur established his residence at Al Hisn near Salalah, in Dhofar, where he remained permanently except for periodic visits to London. By retiring to the south from Muscat, Said ibn Taimur was not only more secure from assassination but was also no longer obligated to meet frequently with tribal shaykhs and distribute subsidies and thereby avoided depleting the treasury. He married Dhofari wives, one of whom bore him his only heir, Qabus ibn Said, and two daughters. Above all, Said ibn Taimur created his personal fiefdom and sought to arrest modernization by enforcing antiquated laws, public executions, and slavery of people of African descent. The isolation and xenophobia that he forced on the country and on Dhofar in particular left Oman grossly underdeveloped, despite increasing oil export revenues in the late 1960s.
Qabus ibn Said spent his early years isolated within the royal palace. At the instigation of his father's British advisers, Qabus ibn Said was permitted to go to Britain in 1958 for his education. He spent two years at a small private school, where he acquired mastery of the English language. In 1960 he was enrolled in the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, and, after graduating from a two-year course of study, served for several months with British units stationed in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). After a world tour and studies in London, he returned to Oman in December 1964. His father, however, refused to entrust him with a responsible role in the government or military and instead sequestered him in the palace in Salalah. Qabus ibn Said's more cosmopolitan and progressive views were incompatible with his father's conservatism and isolationism, which Qabus ibn Said considered detrimental to the country's development. With the tacit endorsement of the British, who saw thirty-year-old Qabus ibn Said as an agreeable alternative, Qabus ibn Said and a number of alienated political elite overthrew Said ibn Taimur in a palace coup d'état on July 23, 1970. Said ibn Taimur withdrew to London, where he died in 1972.
Busaidis
Busaidis. Dynasty which ruled Zanzibar (r.1840-1964). The Busaidi dynasty originated in Oman. The dynasty usurped the older Yarubi dynasty in 1741.
During the eighteenth century, the Busaidi intensified long-standing Omani commercial operations along the East African coast. The early Omani Sultans held the dynastic title of “Imam.” “Imam” is a general Arabic term for Muslim prayer-leaders. However, the term “imam” is sometimes used as a dynastic title by secular rulers of Islamic states.
The use of the title “imam” as a designation was later changed to “Sayyid” (of “Seyyid”) by Sayyid Said. Said moved his capital to Zanzibar in 1840, but he continued to exercise control over Oman.
On Said’s death in 1856, the Busaidi divided into two lines. Sayyid’s son Thuwain ruled in Oman, while another son, Majid, ruled in Zanzibar. This separation was formalized by British arbitration in 1861. Thereafter the Zanzibari line was independent of Oman.
During the late nineteenth century, the Busaidi maintained territorial “governors” on the African mainland, but their effective control was limited to a few coastal towns, such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.
In 1890, the Busaidi accepted a British protectorate. Independence was restored in 1964, but an immediate African revolution threw the Busaidi out and led to the merger of Zanzibar and Tanganyika as the United Republic of Tanzania.
Busaidis. Dynasty which ruled Zanzibar (r.1840-1964). The Busaidi dynasty originated in Oman. The dynasty usurped the older Yarubi dynasty in 1741.
During the eighteenth century, the Busaidi intensified long-standing Omani commercial operations along the East African coast. The early Omani Sultans held the dynastic title of “Imam.” “Imam” is a general Arabic term for Muslim prayer-leaders. However, the term “imam” is sometimes used as a dynastic title by secular rulers of Islamic states.
The use of the title “imam” as a designation was later changed to “Sayyid” (of “Seyyid”) by Sayyid Said. Said moved his capital to Zanzibar in 1840, but he continued to exercise control over Oman.
On Said’s death in 1856, the Busaidi divided into two lines. Sayyid’s son Thuwain ruled in Oman, while another son, Majid, ruled in Zanzibar. This separation was formalized by British arbitration in 1861. Thereafter the Zanzibari line was independent of Oman.
During the late nineteenth century, the Busaidi maintained territorial “governors” on the African mainland, but their effective control was limited to a few coastal towns, such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.
In 1890, the Busaidi accepted a British protectorate. Independence was restored in 1964, but an immediate African revolution threw the Busaidi out and led to the merger of Zanzibar and Tanganyika as the United Republic of Tanzania.
Busiri
Busiri (Sharaf al-Din al-Busiri) (Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Sa'id ul-Busiri) (Sharaf al-Din Muhammad ibn Sa'id al-Busiri al-Sanhaji) (1211 [1212], Abusir or Dilas, Egypt - 1294 [1295], Alexandria, Egypt). Egyptian poet of Berber origin. He was a skilled calligrapher, a traditionist and a celebrated reciter of the Qur’an, but his name has been immortalized by the burda ode, a poem in praise of the Prophet.
Būsīrī was an Egyptian poet who lived in Egypt, where he wrote under the patronage of Ibn Hinna, the vizier. His poems seem to have been wholly on religious subjects. The most famous of these is the so-called "Poem of the Mantle" ("Poem of the Scarf"), "Nahj El-Burduh" in Arabic. It is entirely in praise of the prophet Muhammad, who cured the poet of paralysis by appearing to him in a dream and wrapping him in a mantle. The poem has had a unique history. Even in the poet's lifetime, it was regarded as sacred. Up to the present time, its verses are used as amulets. It is employed in the lamentations for the dead, and it has been frequently edited and made the basis for other poems. New poems have been made by interpolating four or six lines after each line of the original.
Būṣīrī also worked as a copyist, being known for his calligraphy, and held various official posts under the Mamelūkes.
Sharaf al-Din al-Busiri see Busiri
Busiri (Sharaf al-Din al-Busiri) (Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Sa'id ul-Busiri) (Sharaf al-Din Muhammad ibn Sa'id al-Busiri al-Sanhaji) (1211 [1212], Abusir or Dilas, Egypt - 1294 [1295], Alexandria, Egypt). Egyptian poet of Berber origin. He was a skilled calligrapher, a traditionist and a celebrated reciter of the Qur’an, but his name has been immortalized by the burda ode, a poem in praise of the Prophet.
Būsīrī was an Egyptian poet who lived in Egypt, where he wrote under the patronage of Ibn Hinna, the vizier. His poems seem to have been wholly on religious subjects. The most famous of these is the so-called "Poem of the Mantle" ("Poem of the Scarf"), "Nahj El-Burduh" in Arabic. It is entirely in praise of the prophet Muhammad, who cured the poet of paralysis by appearing to him in a dream and wrapping him in a mantle. The poem has had a unique history. Even in the poet's lifetime, it was regarded as sacred. Up to the present time, its verses are used as amulets. It is employed in the lamentations for the dead, and it has been frequently edited and made the basis for other poems. New poems have been made by interpolating four or six lines after each line of the original.
Būṣīrī also worked as a copyist, being known for his calligraphy, and held various official posts under the Mamelūkes.
Sharaf al-Din al-Busiri see Busiri
Bustani, al-
Bustani, al-. Lebanese family distinguished in the field of Arabic literature during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They represent the various stages of the renaissance of Arabic literature.
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Butrus al-Bustani (Boutros al-Boustani) (January 1819 - May 1, 1883) was a notable Arabic writer and scholar from present day Lebanon.
Al-Bustani was born to a Maronite Christian family in the village of Dibbiye in the Chouf region, in January 1819. He received a primary education in the village school, where he attracted the attention of his teacher, Father Mikhail al-Boustani, because of his keen intelligence.
Father al-Boustani recommended al-Bustani to the Bishop of Sidon and Beiteddine, Abdullah al-Boustani, who sent him at the age of 11 to the school at ‘Ayn Warqa, the most famous school of that period, to continue his studies there. At 'Ayn Waraqa, al-Bustani learned Syriac and Latin. He spent ten years there and learned several foreign languages including French, Italian and English.
While working to translate the Bible, al-Bustani learned Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and perfected Syriac and Latin.
In Beirut, he came into contact with the American Protestant missionaries with whom he worked closely until his death on May 1, 1883.
In the social, national and political spheres, al-Bustani founded associations with a view to forming a national élite and launched a series of appeals for unity in his magazine Nafir Suriya.
In the educational field, al-Bustani taught in the schools of the Protestant missionaries at ‘Ubey before founding his own National School in 1863. At the same time, he compiled and published several school textbooks and dictionaries to become known famously as the "Master and Father of the Arabic Renaissance".
In the cultural/scientific fields, al-Bustani published a fortnightly review, two daily newspapers and an encyclopedia Al-Muhit al Muhit ("The Ocean of Oceans"), the first Arabic encyclopedia. In addition to these activities, he began work, together with Eli Smith and Cornelius Van Dyck of the American Mission, on a translation of the Bible into Arabic known as the Smith-Van Dyke translation.
In addition to creating the first modern Arabic encyclopedia, Muhit al Muhit (The Ocean of Oceans), al-Bustani is best known for founding the National School in Beirut.
The prolific output and groundbreaking work of al-Bustani led to the creation of modern Arabic expository prose. While educated by westerners and a strong advocate of western technology, al-Bustani was a fierce nationalist, playing a decisive role in formulating the principles of Arab nationalism.
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Suleyman al-Bustani (Suleyman al-Boustani) (1856-1925) was born in Bkheshtin, Lebanon. He was a statesman, teacher, poet and historian. He was a Maronite Catholic and hailed from a prominent family well known for their pioneering contributions to the Arab renaissance of the late 19th century known as the Nahda. A nephew of Butrus al-Bustani, he was famous for translating Homer's Iliad into Arabic, introducing its poetic style into the Arabic language. His political front saw him as the minister of finance in the last Ottoman government before its collapse.
Bustani, al-. Lebanese family distinguished in the field of Arabic literature during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They represent the various stages of the renaissance of Arabic literature.
****************
Butrus al-Bustani (Boutros al-Boustani) (January 1819 - May 1, 1883) was a notable Arabic writer and scholar from present day Lebanon.
Al-Bustani was born to a Maronite Christian family in the village of Dibbiye in the Chouf region, in January 1819. He received a primary education in the village school, where he attracted the attention of his teacher, Father Mikhail al-Boustani, because of his keen intelligence.
Father al-Boustani recommended al-Bustani to the Bishop of Sidon and Beiteddine, Abdullah al-Boustani, who sent him at the age of 11 to the school at ‘Ayn Warqa, the most famous school of that period, to continue his studies there. At 'Ayn Waraqa, al-Bustani learned Syriac and Latin. He spent ten years there and learned several foreign languages including French, Italian and English.
While working to translate the Bible, al-Bustani learned Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and perfected Syriac and Latin.
In Beirut, he came into contact with the American Protestant missionaries with whom he worked closely until his death on May 1, 1883.
In the social, national and political spheres, al-Bustani founded associations with a view to forming a national élite and launched a series of appeals for unity in his magazine Nafir Suriya.
In the educational field, al-Bustani taught in the schools of the Protestant missionaries at ‘Ubey before founding his own National School in 1863. At the same time, he compiled and published several school textbooks and dictionaries to become known famously as the "Master and Father of the Arabic Renaissance".
In the cultural/scientific fields, al-Bustani published a fortnightly review, two daily newspapers and an encyclopedia Al-Muhit al Muhit ("The Ocean of Oceans"), the first Arabic encyclopedia. In addition to these activities, he began work, together with Eli Smith and Cornelius Van Dyck of the American Mission, on a translation of the Bible into Arabic known as the Smith-Van Dyke translation.
In addition to creating the first modern Arabic encyclopedia, Muhit al Muhit (The Ocean of Oceans), al-Bustani is best known for founding the National School in Beirut.
The prolific output and groundbreaking work of al-Bustani led to the creation of modern Arabic expository prose. While educated by westerners and a strong advocate of western technology, al-Bustani was a fierce nationalist, playing a decisive role in formulating the principles of Arab nationalism.
**********
Suleyman al-Bustani (Suleyman al-Boustani) (1856-1925) was born in Bkheshtin, Lebanon. He was a statesman, teacher, poet and historian. He was a Maronite Catholic and hailed from a prominent family well known for their pioneering contributions to the Arab renaissance of the late 19th century known as the Nahda. A nephew of Butrus al-Bustani, he was famous for translating Homer's Iliad into Arabic, introducing its poetic style into the Arabic language. His political front saw him as the minister of finance in the last Ottoman government before its collapse.
Butonese
Butonese. Inhabitants of the islands of Buton and Muna which lie to the southeast of Sulawesi, one of the Greater Sunda Islands of Indonesia. The name “Butonese” is often used for the inhabitants of both islands and also for those of the smaller islands of the same area, like the Tukang Besi Islands, east of Buton. For many centuries, all of these islands, plus part of the Sulawesi mainland, constituted a single political unit, the Sultanate of Buton. Nearly all Butonese are Sunni Muslims. Inhabitants of the area professing another religion are usually of outside origin. However, the Islam observed by the Butonese reflects their unique past.
Little is known of the history of Buton before the coming of Islam. Some historical sources say the people of Ternate brought Islam to the Butonese after having defeated them in a war. It is known that by the end of the sixteenth century Buton was a Muslim country ruled by a sultan. As the sultanate was enlarged with the addition of conquered and allied area, an adapted organization of the state had to be established in which the rights and duties of all citizens and authorities were laid down. Such a regulation was installed in the beginning of the sixteenth century and was maintained until the beginning of the twentieth century, when it was rendered inoperative by the Dutch colonial government. It became ceremonial until it was officially abolished after the independence of Indonesia.
According to their own tradition, migrants from Johore established the kingdom of Buton, probably in the beginning of the fifteenth century. The kings (raja) had relations with the Hindu kingdom Mojopahit on Java and probably were also Hindu. The sixth raja converted to Islam in 1540, and so became the first sultan. Under his reign, the whole kingdom was formally converted to Islam. It is clear from western records that Buton lay at a strategic point on the route from Java and Makassar (South Sulawesi) to the Moluccas, the heart of Indonesian spice production. Especially in the first half of the seventeenth century it was difficult for Buton to maintain its independence in the power struggle between the two Indonesian sultanates of Makassar and Ternate (North Moluccas), in which the Dutch East India Company, VOC, also played an important role. In 1613, Buton entered into the first contract with the VOC, during a meeting between the fourth sultan, La Elangi, and the first Governor-General, Pieter Both. With this contract Buton sought support for its independence from Makassar and Ternate. Only after the sultanate of Makassar had been subjugated by the VOC in the years 1667-1669 did Buton become free from this power struggle. From then on Buton formed part of the territory administered under the Pax Neerlandica. During the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries the sultanate of Buton managed to remain an independent kingdom. The government of the Netherlands-Indies was not really powerful enough in the nineteenth century to intervene effectively. But this changed at the beginning of the twentieth century. A new contract was imposed in 1906, which stated that the government could interfere in the sultanate's internal matters. Although it was "self-governing," Buton was then definitely part of the colonial system. The foundations were laid for entirely new sociocultural and economic developments, especially in connection with government, education, health services, and the economy. It was one more step toward complete integration in the socio-political system of the Indies, and after 1949 in the state of Indonesia. This integration, or incorporation, culminated in 1960 with the dissolution of the sultanate a few months after the death of the last sultan.
Islam is dominant in this area, although in the southern part of Muna there lives a small number of Christians (Roman Catholics), and in the regions (kecamatan) of Rumbia and Poleang, among the roughly 40,000 inhabitants Protestant Christianity is dominant. Because of the way Islam was adopted by and disseminated from the center to the villages, the knowledge of Islam in the villages is rather limited. It was the policy of the elite to spread the religious knowledge to the villages in a limited way, so as to keep them dependent. In the center itself, Islam was accepted in the form of mysticism, or Sufism, which flowered in the beginning of the seventeenth century in Aceh, and from there apparently influenced Buton. Probably Sufism was rather in accordance with the Hinduistic beliefs that preceded Islam here. One remarkable feature of this Sufism in the center of the sultanate Wolio was a belief in reincarnation, which still exists in the present Buton, especially in the center. In the villages the belief in reincarnation was not very strong and was considered to be an official part of Islam as disseminated from the center. Nowadays a more orthodox form of Islam is disseminated throughout Indonesia, via instruction in the state schools by official teachers, and by the provision of sermons (chotbah) to all the villages for reading during the Friday service.
Various supernatural beings play a role in village life, including guardian spirits of houses, praus, and villages; harvest beings; possession spirits who cause illness; and helpful spirits who provide guidance. The spirits of deceased kin, the arwah, still play an important role in the life of the Butonese. They can help their still-living relatives, but can also cause illnesses when they are disturbed by the behavior of these relatives.
In the former sultanate, the religious council (sarana agama or sarana hukumu) was in charge of all religious matters as far as they were associated with Islam. The council had its seat in the central mosque (mesydid agung) in the kraton of Wolio. This council still existed in 1981 but in a limited form, and its main function, the close cooperation with the center of power, the sultan, and the sarana of Wolio, for the well-being of the sultanate, was lost after 1960. In former times there was also an integration of Islam and traditional adat. So four of the twelve moji (or modin—those who call for prayer) were called bisa and had the special task, accomplished through inner strength obtained by asceticism (beramal), to safeguard the kingdom against natural disasters and attacks by enemies. In this work they cooperated closely with the sultan, who had the same task. The mosque in the capital Baubau is now the official center of Islam in the kabupaten of Buton. Officials and most of the Islamic people living in Baubau attend Friday prayers and the Islamic ceremonies in this mosque. In the Muslim villages there are village mosques (the langgar), and the religious officials needed to organize the Friday prayers and some of the ceremonies, insofar as they are known in the villages. In Rongi there still was a religious council (the satana agama). In addition to Islam, there are the traditional beliefs in supernatural beings and forces; several types of people with special knowledge of this supernatural world play a role in Buton society as mediators between those beings and the common people in cases of illness and uncertainty.
In the Muslim towns and villages the main Muslim holidays are celebrated, although in the villages knowledge of these ceremonies is less than complete. In the center, most of the ceremonies contain elements of traditional Butonese religion. In the capitals and the Christian villages, the Christian feasts and ceremonies are held in the way that is usual in Indonesian churches.
With the dissolution of the sultanate, most of the court arts disappeared. Today, some efforts are being made to revive the old court dances. Butonese culture was not rich in traditional forms of art.
Traditional healers (pande' or bisa in Rongi) still play an important role, especially in villages that are isolated from the capitals of the sub-districts (kecamatan), where at present there are clinics (puskesmas) with modern medical personnel. The traditional healers usually find supernatural causes for the illnesses and prescribe prayers, offerings, or other rituals to neutralize these causes. The Butonese had an extensive knowledge of medicinal herbs and leaves.
For Muslims, funerals follow Muslim rites mixed with some traditional elements. On the one hand the Butonese Muslim knows and more or less believes Muslim teachings about the last day (hari kiamat) and the weighing of the good and the bad, going to heaven and hell. On the other hand there is still a strong belief in reincarnation, and many Butonese can tell into which child a grandfather, grandmother, or other deceased relative has returned.
Butonese. Inhabitants of the islands of Buton and Muna which lie to the southeast of Sulawesi, one of the Greater Sunda Islands of Indonesia. The name “Butonese” is often used for the inhabitants of both islands and also for those of the smaller islands of the same area, like the Tukang Besi Islands, east of Buton. For many centuries, all of these islands, plus part of the Sulawesi mainland, constituted a single political unit, the Sultanate of Buton. Nearly all Butonese are Sunni Muslims. Inhabitants of the area professing another religion are usually of outside origin. However, the Islam observed by the Butonese reflects their unique past.
Little is known of the history of Buton before the coming of Islam. Some historical sources say the people of Ternate brought Islam to the Butonese after having defeated them in a war. It is known that by the end of the sixteenth century Buton was a Muslim country ruled by a sultan. As the sultanate was enlarged with the addition of conquered and allied area, an adapted organization of the state had to be established in which the rights and duties of all citizens and authorities were laid down. Such a regulation was installed in the beginning of the sixteenth century and was maintained until the beginning of the twentieth century, when it was rendered inoperative by the Dutch colonial government. It became ceremonial until it was officially abolished after the independence of Indonesia.
According to their own tradition, migrants from Johore established the kingdom of Buton, probably in the beginning of the fifteenth century. The kings (raja) had relations with the Hindu kingdom Mojopahit on Java and probably were also Hindu. The sixth raja converted to Islam in 1540, and so became the first sultan. Under his reign, the whole kingdom was formally converted to Islam. It is clear from western records that Buton lay at a strategic point on the route from Java and Makassar (South Sulawesi) to the Moluccas, the heart of Indonesian spice production. Especially in the first half of the seventeenth century it was difficult for Buton to maintain its independence in the power struggle between the two Indonesian sultanates of Makassar and Ternate (North Moluccas), in which the Dutch East India Company, VOC, also played an important role. In 1613, Buton entered into the first contract with the VOC, during a meeting between the fourth sultan, La Elangi, and the first Governor-General, Pieter Both. With this contract Buton sought support for its independence from Makassar and Ternate. Only after the sultanate of Makassar had been subjugated by the VOC in the years 1667-1669 did Buton become free from this power struggle. From then on Buton formed part of the territory administered under the Pax Neerlandica. During the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries the sultanate of Buton managed to remain an independent kingdom. The government of the Netherlands-Indies was not really powerful enough in the nineteenth century to intervene effectively. But this changed at the beginning of the twentieth century. A new contract was imposed in 1906, which stated that the government could interfere in the sultanate's internal matters. Although it was "self-governing," Buton was then definitely part of the colonial system. The foundations were laid for entirely new sociocultural and economic developments, especially in connection with government, education, health services, and the economy. It was one more step toward complete integration in the socio-political system of the Indies, and after 1949 in the state of Indonesia. This integration, or incorporation, culminated in 1960 with the dissolution of the sultanate a few months after the death of the last sultan.
Islam is dominant in this area, although in the southern part of Muna there lives a small number of Christians (Roman Catholics), and in the regions (kecamatan) of Rumbia and Poleang, among the roughly 40,000 inhabitants Protestant Christianity is dominant. Because of the way Islam was adopted by and disseminated from the center to the villages, the knowledge of Islam in the villages is rather limited. It was the policy of the elite to spread the religious knowledge to the villages in a limited way, so as to keep them dependent. In the center itself, Islam was accepted in the form of mysticism, or Sufism, which flowered in the beginning of the seventeenth century in Aceh, and from there apparently influenced Buton. Probably Sufism was rather in accordance with the Hinduistic beliefs that preceded Islam here. One remarkable feature of this Sufism in the center of the sultanate Wolio was a belief in reincarnation, which still exists in the present Buton, especially in the center. In the villages the belief in reincarnation was not very strong and was considered to be an official part of Islam as disseminated from the center. Nowadays a more orthodox form of Islam is disseminated throughout Indonesia, via instruction in the state schools by official teachers, and by the provision of sermons (chotbah) to all the villages for reading during the Friday service.
Various supernatural beings play a role in village life, including guardian spirits of houses, praus, and villages; harvest beings; possession spirits who cause illness; and helpful spirits who provide guidance. The spirits of deceased kin, the arwah, still play an important role in the life of the Butonese. They can help their still-living relatives, but can also cause illnesses when they are disturbed by the behavior of these relatives.
In the former sultanate, the religious council (sarana agama or sarana hukumu) was in charge of all religious matters as far as they were associated with Islam. The council had its seat in the central mosque (mesydid agung) in the kraton of Wolio. This council still existed in 1981 but in a limited form, and its main function, the close cooperation with the center of power, the sultan, and the sarana of Wolio, for the well-being of the sultanate, was lost after 1960. In former times there was also an integration of Islam and traditional adat. So four of the twelve moji (or modin—those who call for prayer) were called bisa and had the special task, accomplished through inner strength obtained by asceticism (beramal), to safeguard the kingdom against natural disasters and attacks by enemies. In this work they cooperated closely with the sultan, who had the same task. The mosque in the capital Baubau is now the official center of Islam in the kabupaten of Buton. Officials and most of the Islamic people living in Baubau attend Friday prayers and the Islamic ceremonies in this mosque. In the Muslim villages there are village mosques (the langgar), and the religious officials needed to organize the Friday prayers and some of the ceremonies, insofar as they are known in the villages. In Rongi there still was a religious council (the satana agama). In addition to Islam, there are the traditional beliefs in supernatural beings and forces; several types of people with special knowledge of this supernatural world play a role in Buton society as mediators between those beings and the common people in cases of illness and uncertainty.
In the Muslim towns and villages the main Muslim holidays are celebrated, although in the villages knowledge of these ceremonies is less than complete. In the center, most of the ceremonies contain elements of traditional Butonese religion. In the capitals and the Christian villages, the Christian feasts and ceremonies are held in the way that is usual in Indonesian churches.
With the dissolution of the sultanate, most of the court arts disappeared. Today, some efforts are being made to revive the old court dances. Butonese culture was not rich in traditional forms of art.
Traditional healers (pande' or bisa in Rongi) still play an important role, especially in villages that are isolated from the capitals of the sub-districts (kecamatan), where at present there are clinics (puskesmas) with modern medical personnel. The traditional healers usually find supernatural causes for the illnesses and prescribe prayers, offerings, or other rituals to neutralize these causes. The Butonese had an extensive knowledge of medicinal herbs and leaves.
For Muslims, funerals follow Muslim rites mixed with some traditional elements. On the one hand the Butonese Muslim knows and more or less believes Muslim teachings about the last day (hari kiamat) and the weighing of the good and the bad, going to heaven and hell. On the other hand there is still a strong belief in reincarnation, and many Butonese can tell into which child a grandfather, grandmother, or other deceased relative has returned.
Butr, al-
Butr, al-. Name given to one of the two confederations of tribes who constitute the Berbers, the other being the al-Baranis.
Berbers are the ancient inhabitants of North Africa, but rarely have they formed an actual kingdom or separate nation state. Ranging anywhere between 15-50 million, depending on how they are classified, the Berbers have influenced the culture and religion of Roman North Africa and played key roles in the spread of Islam and its culture in North Africa, Spain, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Taken together, these dynamics have over time helped to redefine the field of Berber identity and its socio-political representations and symbols, making it an even more important issue in the 21st century.
Butr, al-. Name given to one of the two confederations of tribes who constitute the Berbers, the other being the al-Baranis.
Berbers are the ancient inhabitants of North Africa, but rarely have they formed an actual kingdom or separate nation state. Ranging anywhere between 15-50 million, depending on how they are classified, the Berbers have influenced the culture and religion of Roman North Africa and played key roles in the spread of Islam and its culture in North Africa, Spain, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Taken together, these dynamics have over time helped to redefine the field of Berber identity and its socio-political representations and symbols, making it an even more important issue in the 21st century.
Buwayhids
Buwayhids. See Buyids.
Buwayhids. See Buyids.
Buyids
Buyids (Buwayhids). Dynasty which was comprised of the members of the family of Shi‘a Persians who settled south of the Caspian Sea. The Buyid dynasty conquered and ruled Iran and Iraq from 932 to 1055. The Buyid dynasty marked the “Iranian intermezzo” between the Arab domination of early Islam and the Saljuq occupation of Baghdad in 1055. There was a line in Fars and Khuzistan, one in Kirman, one in Jibal, with branches in Hamadan, Isfahan and Rayy, and one in Iraq. The recognized ‘Abbasid caliph was only a figurehead. The Buyids patronized literature and science of a traditionally Arabic character, but also showed a genuine interest in neo-Persian literature. The Buyid dynasty is also known as the Buwayhid dynasty.
Buyids were also known as the Buwayhids, a Dailamite (Iranian) dynasty in western Iran and Mesopotamia (932/945-1056/1062). The Banu Bayah or Banu Buwaih originated in the highlands of Dailam (near the southwestern shores of the Caspian Sea) and traced their origins back to the ancient Iranian kings. Their name comes from Abu Shudya Buyah, a common fisherman (or woodcutter) who rose to power under the Samanids and Ziyarids. His three sons conquered territory for themselves and were given honorary caliphal titles. Ali Imad al-Dawla (r. 932-949) conquered Fars (where his dynastic branch ruled up to 1055, from 1012 also in Iraq); Hasan Rukn al-Dawla (r. 932-976) conquered Rayy, Hamadan, and Isfahan (where his branch ruled up to 1023); and Ahmad Muizz al-Dawla (r. 932-967) conquered Iraq, Ahwaz, and Kerman (where his branch ruled up to 1012).
After serving briefly in the forces of the Samanids, the Buyids joined the forces of Mardavij ibn Ziyar, who had seized control of the Caspian provinces and central Iran. During the period of confusion immediately preceding and following the assassination of Mardavij in 935, Ali was able to take possession of the province of Fars; Hasan established himself in Jibal (the mountains of west-central Iran); and Ahmad took provinces to the southeast (Kerman) and southwest (Khuzistan). The youngest brother, Ahmad, involved himself in the political intrigues surrounding the Abbasid court in Iraq and was “invited” to occupy Baghdad in 945. The Buyid dynasty thus came to include three essentially autonomous branches ruling three distinct geographical areas. Relations between the various branches were not always harmonious, but it was generally recognized that the eldest member of the family had the greatest authority.
When Ahmad occupied Baghdad in 945, he established a protectorate over the 'Abbasid caliphate (up to 1055). The most important Buyid ruler was Ali’s son, Khusraw Adud al-Dawla (Adud al-Daula Fana Khusrau), who became head of the dynasty, then in 977 gained control over Iraqi territories, extending his power base still further. The closest approach to true unity of the three Buyid branches came during Khusraw’s reign. Khusraw governed Iraq, Fars and Kerman from 978 to 983.
The Buyid state was from beginning to end a military enterprise held together and expanded by ties of blood kinship, tribal and ethnic solidarity, mercenary interests, and various religious and social loyalties. Aside from the family itself, one solid base of power for the dynasty consisted of the tribesmen from Dailam enrolled in the Buyid army. These Dailamites were famous as fierce fighters and were probably the best infantrymen of their time. Many had entered the service of the 'Abbasid caliphs.
It is likely that the Dailamites facilitated or encouraged the Buyid takeover of Iraq. The Buyid forces also came to include many Turkish “slave troops,” primarily cavalrymen, and mercenaries of various ethnic backgrounds. The Buyid ruler was, in a real sense, simply the commander in chief of these military forces. To retain the loyalty of the military, the Buyids relied on two main devices: payment in cash to the lower ranks of troops and the award of iqta (i.e., fiscal control of landed estates) to the more important officers and officials of the government.
As a dynasty that owed its existence to simple military force, the Buyids were at pains to find ways to legitimize their rule in the eyes of their civilian subjects. This was done in part by extensive and judicious use of a traditional persianized bureaucracy, but it also required considerable innovation in political thinking, especially since the 'Abbasid caliph, nominal head of the Sunni Muslim world, was under Buyid domination.
On one level, the Buyids appealed to anti-Arab and non-Islamic sentiments by posing as the true heirs of Sasanid Iran. Thus, some of the early Buyids minted coins bearing inscriptions in Pahlavi rather than Arabic. They depicted the ruler dressed as an Iranian king and using as his title shahanshah (“king of kings”). Adud al-Daula had a genealogy invented and imposed on the official historiography that portrayed the Buyids as actual descendants of the Sasanid Shah Bahram Gur.
The Buyids also tended to protect the remaining Zoroastrian population against Muslim harassment and appointed Zoroastrians to high office. Yet at the same time, the Buyids also attempted to legitimize their position in Islamic terms. They continued to support the existence of the 'Abbasid caliphate but openly promoted the concept that the caliphs had delegated legitimate political authority to the Buyid commanders. This process was symbolized by the caliph’s bestowal of Arabo-Muslim honorific titles, such as Mu’izz al-Daula, “strengthener of the empire,” on the Buyids, who then used them as regnal titles.
The Buyid effort to appeal to both Iranian and Islamic constituencies may explain another important aspect of their policy -- the elevation of Imami, or Twelver, Shi‘ism to the stature of an official state religion, or at least as an equal to the four Sunni schools of Islam. This religious policy can be explained in part by the fact that the Dailamite homeland of the Buyids had resisted Muslim colonization and had only recently begun to be converted by (mostly Zaidi) Shi‘ite missionaries.
Insofar as the Buyids had been exposed to Islam, it was probably in its Shi‘ite manifestation. The policy was also politically expedient, however, in that it attracted the support of the Shi‘ite population of Baghdad and Iraq and served to blunt the appeal of the Buyids’ most immediate rivals -- the Fatimids of Egypt, the Hamdanids of Syria, and the Qarmatis of Iraq -- all of whom were Shi’ites. In any case, the Buyids were responsible for introducing the organization of descendants of the Prophet under the leadership of a chief (naqib), and they also promoted the feast of Ghadir Khumm, the Ashura commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn, the rebuilding of Shi‘ite shrines, the use of a Shi‘ite call to prayer, public cursing of Mu‘awiya, and the patronage of Twelver religious scholars. They did not, however, contemplate replacing the 'Abbasids with an Alid caliphate. This has generally been explained as cynical political calculation on the part of the Buyids, but it may also have been based on the belief that the Abbasids, as relatives of the Prophet Muhammad, were actually a Shi‘ite dynasty, an idea that figured prominently in early 'Abbasid propaganda and that the Buyids clearly revived in their official historiography.
Culturally, the Buyid period was one of the most brilliant in Islamic history. The Buyids and their ministers, such as the great Sahib ibn al-Abbad, were famous patrons of the arts. They maintained libraries at Rayy, Shiraz, and Isfahan and sponsored works dealing with history, geography, poetry, calligraphy, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy. Prominent cultural personalities in Buyid realms included, to mention only a few, the philosopher Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the poet Mutanabbi, the bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim, the historians Hilal al-Sabi and Miskawaih, and the anthologist Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani.
The great failure of the Buyids was their inability to become anything more than a purely provincial dynasty. They were hemmed in on all sides by powerful adversaries -- the Byzantines to the north, the Fatimids to the west, the Samanids and Ghaznavids to the east -- and they were unable to break through on any front. As a consequence, they could not revive the trade that had been diverted from the Persian Gulf to Fatimid Egypt, and the progressive impoverishment of Iraq and western Iran continued. Thus weakened, the Buyids could not maintain the loyalty of their mercenary forces, control urban rioting, or prevent the disputes between the different branches of the family that plagued the dynasty during its final years. In 1029, the Ghaznavids took control of the Jibal from the Buyids, and by 1055 the staunchly Sunni Seljuk Turks had seized almost all their remaining territory, including Baghdad. The last branch of the Buyid dynasty, centered in the city of Fars, was destroyed by the Shabankara Kurds in 1062.
The following is a list of the different lines of the dynasty:
In Fars and Khuzistan (934-1062):
934 ‘Imad al-Dawla ‘Ali (Jibal)
949 ‘Adud al-Dawla Fana-Khusraw (Kirman)
983 Sharaf al-Dawla Shirzil
990 Samsam al-Dawla Marzuban (Kirman; Iraq)
998 Baha’ al-Dawla Firuz (Kirman)
1012 Sultan al-Dawla
1021 Musharrif al-Dawla Hasan
1024 ‘Imad al-Dawla Marzuban (Kirman)
1048 al-Malik al-Rahim Khusraw-Firuz
1055-1062 Fulad-Sutun (in Fars only)
Power in Fars seized by the Kurdish chief Fadluya
In Kerman (Kirman) (936-1048):
936 Mu‘izz al-Dawla Ahmad (Iraq)
949 ‘Adud al-Dawla Fana-Khusraw (Fars/Khuzistan)
983 Samsam al-Dawla Marzuban (Fars/Khuzistan; Iraq)
998 Baha’ al-Dawla Firuz (Fars/Khuzistan)
1012 Qiwam al-Dawla
1028-1048 ‘Imad al-Dawla Marzuban (Fars/Khuzistan)
Saljuq line of Qawurd
In Jibal (932-977):
932 ‘Imad al-Dawla ‘Ali (Fars/Khuzistan)
947-977 Rukn al-Dawla Hasan
In Hamadan and Isfahan (977-1028):
977 Mu’ayyid al-Dawla Buya
983 Fakhr al-Dawla ‘Ali (Rayy)
997 Shams al-Dawla
1021-1028 Sama’ al-Dawla (under Kakuyid suzerainty)
In Rayy (977-1029):
977 Fakhr al-Dawla ‘Ali (Hamadan/Isfahan)
997 Majd al-Dawla Rustam
Ghaznavid conquest
In Iraq (945-1055):
945 Mu‘izz al-Dawla Ahmad (Kirman)
967 ‘Izz al-Dawla Bakhtiyar
978 ‘Adud al-Dawla Fana-Khusraw (Fars/Khuzistan; Kirman)
983 Samsam al-Dawla Marzuban (Fars/Khuzistan; Kirman)
987 Sharaf al-Dawla Shirzil (Fars/Khuzistan)
989 Baha’ al-Dawla Firuz (Fars/Khuzistan; Kirman)
1012 Sultan al-Dawla (Fars/Khuzistan)
1021 Musharrif al-Dawla Hasan (Fars/Khuzistan)
1025 Jalal al-Dawla Shirzil
1044 ‘Imad al-Din Marzuban (Fars/Khuzistan; Kirman)
1048-1055 al-Malik al-Rahim Khusraw-Firuz (Fars/Khuzistan)
Saljuq occupation of Baghdad
Buwayhids see Buyids
Buyids (Buwayhids). Dynasty which was comprised of the members of the family of Shi‘a Persians who settled south of the Caspian Sea. The Buyid dynasty conquered and ruled Iran and Iraq from 932 to 1055. The Buyid dynasty marked the “Iranian intermezzo” between the Arab domination of early Islam and the Saljuq occupation of Baghdad in 1055. There was a line in Fars and Khuzistan, one in Kirman, one in Jibal, with branches in Hamadan, Isfahan and Rayy, and one in Iraq. The recognized ‘Abbasid caliph was only a figurehead. The Buyids patronized literature and science of a traditionally Arabic character, but also showed a genuine interest in neo-Persian literature. The Buyid dynasty is also known as the Buwayhid dynasty.
Buyids were also known as the Buwayhids, a Dailamite (Iranian) dynasty in western Iran and Mesopotamia (932/945-1056/1062). The Banu Bayah or Banu Buwaih originated in the highlands of Dailam (near the southwestern shores of the Caspian Sea) and traced their origins back to the ancient Iranian kings. Their name comes from Abu Shudya Buyah, a common fisherman (or woodcutter) who rose to power under the Samanids and Ziyarids. His three sons conquered territory for themselves and were given honorary caliphal titles. Ali Imad al-Dawla (r. 932-949) conquered Fars (where his dynastic branch ruled up to 1055, from 1012 also in Iraq); Hasan Rukn al-Dawla (r. 932-976) conquered Rayy, Hamadan, and Isfahan (where his branch ruled up to 1023); and Ahmad Muizz al-Dawla (r. 932-967) conquered Iraq, Ahwaz, and Kerman (where his branch ruled up to 1012).
After serving briefly in the forces of the Samanids, the Buyids joined the forces of Mardavij ibn Ziyar, who had seized control of the Caspian provinces and central Iran. During the period of confusion immediately preceding and following the assassination of Mardavij in 935, Ali was able to take possession of the province of Fars; Hasan established himself in Jibal (the mountains of west-central Iran); and Ahmad took provinces to the southeast (Kerman) and southwest (Khuzistan). The youngest brother, Ahmad, involved himself in the political intrigues surrounding the Abbasid court in Iraq and was “invited” to occupy Baghdad in 945. The Buyid dynasty thus came to include three essentially autonomous branches ruling three distinct geographical areas. Relations between the various branches were not always harmonious, but it was generally recognized that the eldest member of the family had the greatest authority.
When Ahmad occupied Baghdad in 945, he established a protectorate over the 'Abbasid caliphate (up to 1055). The most important Buyid ruler was Ali’s son, Khusraw Adud al-Dawla (Adud al-Daula Fana Khusrau), who became head of the dynasty, then in 977 gained control over Iraqi territories, extending his power base still further. The closest approach to true unity of the three Buyid branches came during Khusraw’s reign. Khusraw governed Iraq, Fars and Kerman from 978 to 983.
The Buyid state was from beginning to end a military enterprise held together and expanded by ties of blood kinship, tribal and ethnic solidarity, mercenary interests, and various religious and social loyalties. Aside from the family itself, one solid base of power for the dynasty consisted of the tribesmen from Dailam enrolled in the Buyid army. These Dailamites were famous as fierce fighters and were probably the best infantrymen of their time. Many had entered the service of the 'Abbasid caliphs.
It is likely that the Dailamites facilitated or encouraged the Buyid takeover of Iraq. The Buyid forces also came to include many Turkish “slave troops,” primarily cavalrymen, and mercenaries of various ethnic backgrounds. The Buyid ruler was, in a real sense, simply the commander in chief of these military forces. To retain the loyalty of the military, the Buyids relied on two main devices: payment in cash to the lower ranks of troops and the award of iqta (i.e., fiscal control of landed estates) to the more important officers and officials of the government.
As a dynasty that owed its existence to simple military force, the Buyids were at pains to find ways to legitimize their rule in the eyes of their civilian subjects. This was done in part by extensive and judicious use of a traditional persianized bureaucracy, but it also required considerable innovation in political thinking, especially since the 'Abbasid caliph, nominal head of the Sunni Muslim world, was under Buyid domination.
On one level, the Buyids appealed to anti-Arab and non-Islamic sentiments by posing as the true heirs of Sasanid Iran. Thus, some of the early Buyids minted coins bearing inscriptions in Pahlavi rather than Arabic. They depicted the ruler dressed as an Iranian king and using as his title shahanshah (“king of kings”). Adud al-Daula had a genealogy invented and imposed on the official historiography that portrayed the Buyids as actual descendants of the Sasanid Shah Bahram Gur.
The Buyids also tended to protect the remaining Zoroastrian population against Muslim harassment and appointed Zoroastrians to high office. Yet at the same time, the Buyids also attempted to legitimize their position in Islamic terms. They continued to support the existence of the 'Abbasid caliphate but openly promoted the concept that the caliphs had delegated legitimate political authority to the Buyid commanders. This process was symbolized by the caliph’s bestowal of Arabo-Muslim honorific titles, such as Mu’izz al-Daula, “strengthener of the empire,” on the Buyids, who then used them as regnal titles.
The Buyid effort to appeal to both Iranian and Islamic constituencies may explain another important aspect of their policy -- the elevation of Imami, or Twelver, Shi‘ism to the stature of an official state religion, or at least as an equal to the four Sunni schools of Islam. This religious policy can be explained in part by the fact that the Dailamite homeland of the Buyids had resisted Muslim colonization and had only recently begun to be converted by (mostly Zaidi) Shi‘ite missionaries.
Insofar as the Buyids had been exposed to Islam, it was probably in its Shi‘ite manifestation. The policy was also politically expedient, however, in that it attracted the support of the Shi‘ite population of Baghdad and Iraq and served to blunt the appeal of the Buyids’ most immediate rivals -- the Fatimids of Egypt, the Hamdanids of Syria, and the Qarmatis of Iraq -- all of whom were Shi’ites. In any case, the Buyids were responsible for introducing the organization of descendants of the Prophet under the leadership of a chief (naqib), and they also promoted the feast of Ghadir Khumm, the Ashura commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn, the rebuilding of Shi‘ite shrines, the use of a Shi‘ite call to prayer, public cursing of Mu‘awiya, and the patronage of Twelver religious scholars. They did not, however, contemplate replacing the 'Abbasids with an Alid caliphate. This has generally been explained as cynical political calculation on the part of the Buyids, but it may also have been based on the belief that the Abbasids, as relatives of the Prophet Muhammad, were actually a Shi‘ite dynasty, an idea that figured prominently in early 'Abbasid propaganda and that the Buyids clearly revived in their official historiography.
Culturally, the Buyid period was one of the most brilliant in Islamic history. The Buyids and their ministers, such as the great Sahib ibn al-Abbad, were famous patrons of the arts. They maintained libraries at Rayy, Shiraz, and Isfahan and sponsored works dealing with history, geography, poetry, calligraphy, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy. Prominent cultural personalities in Buyid realms included, to mention only a few, the philosopher Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the poet Mutanabbi, the bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim, the historians Hilal al-Sabi and Miskawaih, and the anthologist Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani.
The great failure of the Buyids was their inability to become anything more than a purely provincial dynasty. They were hemmed in on all sides by powerful adversaries -- the Byzantines to the north, the Fatimids to the west, the Samanids and Ghaznavids to the east -- and they were unable to break through on any front. As a consequence, they could not revive the trade that had been diverted from the Persian Gulf to Fatimid Egypt, and the progressive impoverishment of Iraq and western Iran continued. Thus weakened, the Buyids could not maintain the loyalty of their mercenary forces, control urban rioting, or prevent the disputes between the different branches of the family that plagued the dynasty during its final years. In 1029, the Ghaznavids took control of the Jibal from the Buyids, and by 1055 the staunchly Sunni Seljuk Turks had seized almost all their remaining territory, including Baghdad. The last branch of the Buyid dynasty, centered in the city of Fars, was destroyed by the Shabankara Kurds in 1062.
The following is a list of the different lines of the dynasty:
In Fars and Khuzistan (934-1062):
934 ‘Imad al-Dawla ‘Ali (Jibal)
949 ‘Adud al-Dawla Fana-Khusraw (Kirman)
983 Sharaf al-Dawla Shirzil
990 Samsam al-Dawla Marzuban (Kirman; Iraq)
998 Baha’ al-Dawla Firuz (Kirman)
1012 Sultan al-Dawla
1021 Musharrif al-Dawla Hasan
1024 ‘Imad al-Dawla Marzuban (Kirman)
1048 al-Malik al-Rahim Khusraw-Firuz
1055-1062 Fulad-Sutun (in Fars only)
Power in Fars seized by the Kurdish chief Fadluya
In Kerman (Kirman) (936-1048):
936 Mu‘izz al-Dawla Ahmad (Iraq)
949 ‘Adud al-Dawla Fana-Khusraw (Fars/Khuzistan)
983 Samsam al-Dawla Marzuban (Fars/Khuzistan; Iraq)
998 Baha’ al-Dawla Firuz (Fars/Khuzistan)
1012 Qiwam al-Dawla
1028-1048 ‘Imad al-Dawla Marzuban (Fars/Khuzistan)
Saljuq line of Qawurd
In Jibal (932-977):
932 ‘Imad al-Dawla ‘Ali (Fars/Khuzistan)
947-977 Rukn al-Dawla Hasan
In Hamadan and Isfahan (977-1028):
977 Mu’ayyid al-Dawla Buya
983 Fakhr al-Dawla ‘Ali (Rayy)
997 Shams al-Dawla
1021-1028 Sama’ al-Dawla (under Kakuyid suzerainty)
In Rayy (977-1029):
977 Fakhr al-Dawla ‘Ali (Hamadan/Isfahan)
997 Majd al-Dawla Rustam
Ghaznavid conquest
In Iraq (945-1055):
945 Mu‘izz al-Dawla Ahmad (Kirman)
967 ‘Izz al-Dawla Bakhtiyar
978 ‘Adud al-Dawla Fana-Khusraw (Fars/Khuzistan; Kirman)
983 Samsam al-Dawla Marzuban (Fars/Khuzistan; Kirman)
987 Sharaf al-Dawla Shirzil (Fars/Khuzistan)
989 Baha’ al-Dawla Firuz (Fars/Khuzistan; Kirman)
1012 Sultan al-Dawla (Fars/Khuzistan)
1021 Musharrif al-Dawla Hasan (Fars/Khuzistan)
1025 Jalal al-Dawla Shirzil
1044 ‘Imad al-Din Marzuban (Fars/Khuzistan; Kirman)
1048-1055 al-Malik al-Rahim Khusraw-Firuz (Fars/Khuzistan)
Saljuq occupation of Baghdad
Buwayhids see Buyids
bwana
bwana. Swahili form of address, roughly equivalent to “mister” in English. Occasionally, it is used as an honorific title connoting “master,” or as part of a proper name.
bwana. Swahili form of address, roughly equivalent to “mister” in English. Occasionally, it is used as an honorific title connoting “master,” or as part of a proper name.
Cachalia, Amina
Amina Cachalia (b. Amina Asvat; June 28, 1930 Vereeniging, South Africa – d. January 31, 2013, Johannesburg, South Africa) was a longtime friend and ally of Nelson Mandela. Her late husband was political activist Yusuf Cachalia.
Cachalia was born Amina Asvat, the ninth of eleven children in Vereeniging, South Africa, on June 28, 1930. Her parents were political activists Ebrahim and Fatima Asvat. She began campaigning against Apartheid and racial discrimination as a teenager. She became a women's rights activist, often focusing on economic issues, such as financial independence for women.
Amina and Yusuf Cachalia were friends of Nelson Mandela before his imprisonment at Robben Island in 1962. She became a staunch anti-apartheid activist. She spent fifteen years under house arrest throughout the 1960s and 1970s. She was the treasurer of the Federation of South African Women (Fedsaw), a leading supporter of the Federation of Transvaal Women, and a member of both the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress and Transvaal Indian Congress during the Apartheid era.
In 1995, Mandela asked Cachalia to marry him. At the time, he had been separated from his wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Cachalia turned down Mandela's proposal because she said that "I'm my own person and that I had just recently lost my husband whom I had enormous regard for". Mandela divorced Madikizela-Mandela a year later and married Graca Machel in 1998.
Cachalia was elected to the National Assembly of South Africa in the 1994 South African general election, the country's first with universal adult suffrage. In 2004, she was awarded the Order of Luthuli in Bronze for her contributions to gender and racial equality and democracy.
After her death, in March 2013, her autobiography When Hope and History Rhyme was published.
Cachalia died at Milpark Hospital in Parktown West, Johannesburg, January 31, 2013, aged 82. The cause of death was complications following an emergency operation due to a perforated ulcer.
Her funeral was held in her home in Parkview, Johannesburg, according to traditional Muslim customs. It was attended by South African President Jacob Zuma, former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, ANC Deputy Cyril Ramaphosa, former First Lady Graca Machel, former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and fellow activisti Ahmed Kathrada, among others.
Cafre
Cafre. Black slave, often a Muslim, brought to Brazil from Africa.
Cafre. Black slave, often a Muslim, brought to Brazil from Africa.
Cain and Abel
Cain and Abel (in Arabic, Qabil wa-Habil). Two sons of Adam who are mentioned in the Qur’an at Sura 5:30-35. It is the story of Cain and Abel which forms the basis for the prohibition against murder in Islam.
Cain and Abel have long been understood as the first and second sons of Adam and Eve in the religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Their story is told in the Bible and Torah at Genesis 4:1-16 and the Qur'an at 5:26-32. However the Greek New Testament says of Cain that "he was from the wicked one". This assertion is also found in Jewish legend, that the serpent (Hebrew nahash) from the Garden of Eden was father to firstborn Cain.
In all versions, Cain is an arable farmer and his younger brother Abel is a shepherd. Cain is portrayed as sinful, committing the first murder by killing his brother, after God has rejected his offerings of produce but accepted the animal sacrifices brought by Abel.
The oldest known copy of the Biblical narration is from the 1st century Dead Sea Scrolls. Cain and Abel also appear in a number of other texts, and the story is the subject of various interpretations. Abel, the first murder victim, is sometimes seen as the first martyr; while Cain, the first murderer, is sometimes seen as a progenitor of evil. A few scholars suggest the pericope may have been based on a Sumerian story representing the conflict between nomadic shepherds and settled farmers. Others think that it may refer to the days in which agriculture began to replace the ways of the hunter-gatherer.
Allusions to Cain and Abel as an archetype of fratricide persist in numerous references and retellings, through medieval art and Shakespearean works up to present day fiction.
Cain and Abel are traditional English renderings of the Hebrew names Qayin and Havel. The original text did not provide vowels. Abel's name has the same three consonants as a root thought to have originally meant "breath", but is known from the Bible primarily as a metaphor for what is "elusive", especially the "vanity" of human enterprise. In the Islamic tradition, Abel is named as Hābīl, while Cain is named as Qābīl. Although their story is cited in the Quran, neither of them is mentioned by name. Cain is called Qayen in the Ethiopian version of Genesis. The Greek of the New Testament refers to Cain three times, using two syllables ka-in for the name.
The inherent selfishness of Cain, his jealousy, rivalry, and aggression are central to the story. The disconnection between Cain and his higher nature is so great that he fails to understand and master his lower self even in the face of God's wisdom and hospitality. The account in The Qur'an [5.27-32], similar to one given in The Torah, also strongly implies that Cain's motivation was the rejection of his offering to God, but this is an implication and not explicitly clear.
Though Genesis depicts Cain's motive in killing Abel as simply being one of jealousy concerning God's favoritism of Abel, this is not the view of many extra-biblical works. The Midrash and the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan both record that the real motive involved the desire of women. According to Midrashic tradition, Cain and Abel each had twin sisters, whom they were to marry. The Midrash records that Abel's promised wife was the more beautiful. Cain would not consent to this arrangement Adam proposed to refer the question to God by means of a sacrifice. God rejected Cain's sacrifice, signifying His disapproval of his marriage with Aclima, and Cain slew his brother in a fit of jealousy.
In Islam tradition as enunciated in Ibn Hisham's summary of Ibn Ishaq's Sirah, Adam and Eve had forty children consisting of twenty pairs of twins. Each pair of twins consisted of one male and one female and the twin brother and sister were considered married to each other. However, in the case of Cain and Abel, Adam commanded Cain to marry the twin sister of Abel, and Abel to marry the twin sister of Cain. Abel agreed with this arrangement and was happy with it, but Cain did not. Cain's twin was deemed to be beautiful and Cain wanted her for himself. According to Islamic tradition, Adam attempted to mediate the dispute by requiring Cain and Abel to make sacrifices to God. Whichever sacrifice God chose would indicate the one who would have Cain's twin as a mate. In accord with the Biblical story, God favored Abel's sacrifice. Cain in a fit of jealous rage slew Abel.
According to the Qur'an, Cain (Kabil) buried Abel (Habil), prompted to do so by a single raven scratching the ground, on God's command. The Qur'an states that upon seeing the raven, Cain regretted his action [al-Ma'idah:27-31], and that rather than being cursed by God, since He had not done so before, God chose to create a law against murder:
"If anyone slew a person – be it for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people; and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people."
According to Shi'a Muslim belief, Abel is buried in Nabi Habeel Mosque, located west of Damascus, in Syria.
Habil wa-Qabil see Cain and Abel
Qabil wa-Habil see Cain and Abel
Cain and Abel (in Arabic, Qabil wa-Habil). Two sons of Adam who are mentioned in the Qur’an at Sura 5:30-35. It is the story of Cain and Abel which forms the basis for the prohibition against murder in Islam.
Cain and Abel have long been understood as the first and second sons of Adam and Eve in the religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Their story is told in the Bible and Torah at Genesis 4:1-16 and the Qur'an at 5:26-32. However the Greek New Testament says of Cain that "he was from the wicked one". This assertion is also found in Jewish legend, that the serpent (Hebrew nahash) from the Garden of Eden was father to firstborn Cain.
In all versions, Cain is an arable farmer and his younger brother Abel is a shepherd. Cain is portrayed as sinful, committing the first murder by killing his brother, after God has rejected his offerings of produce but accepted the animal sacrifices brought by Abel.
The oldest known copy of the Biblical narration is from the 1st century Dead Sea Scrolls. Cain and Abel also appear in a number of other texts, and the story is the subject of various interpretations. Abel, the first murder victim, is sometimes seen as the first martyr; while Cain, the first murderer, is sometimes seen as a progenitor of evil. A few scholars suggest the pericope may have been based on a Sumerian story representing the conflict between nomadic shepherds and settled farmers. Others think that it may refer to the days in which agriculture began to replace the ways of the hunter-gatherer.
Allusions to Cain and Abel as an archetype of fratricide persist in numerous references and retellings, through medieval art and Shakespearean works up to present day fiction.
Cain and Abel are traditional English renderings of the Hebrew names Qayin and Havel. The original text did not provide vowels. Abel's name has the same three consonants as a root thought to have originally meant "breath", but is known from the Bible primarily as a metaphor for what is "elusive", especially the "vanity" of human enterprise. In the Islamic tradition, Abel is named as Hābīl, while Cain is named as Qābīl. Although their story is cited in the Quran, neither of them is mentioned by name. Cain is called Qayen in the Ethiopian version of Genesis. The Greek of the New Testament refers to Cain three times, using two syllables ka-in for the name.
The inherent selfishness of Cain, his jealousy, rivalry, and aggression are central to the story. The disconnection between Cain and his higher nature is so great that he fails to understand and master his lower self even in the face of God's wisdom and hospitality. The account in The Qur'an [5.27-32], similar to one given in The Torah, also strongly implies that Cain's motivation was the rejection of his offering to God, but this is an implication and not explicitly clear.
Though Genesis depicts Cain's motive in killing Abel as simply being one of jealousy concerning God's favoritism of Abel, this is not the view of many extra-biblical works. The Midrash and the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan both record that the real motive involved the desire of women. According to Midrashic tradition, Cain and Abel each had twin sisters, whom they were to marry. The Midrash records that Abel's promised wife was the more beautiful. Cain would not consent to this arrangement Adam proposed to refer the question to God by means of a sacrifice. God rejected Cain's sacrifice, signifying His disapproval of his marriage with Aclima, and Cain slew his brother in a fit of jealousy.
In Islam tradition as enunciated in Ibn Hisham's summary of Ibn Ishaq's Sirah, Adam and Eve had forty children consisting of twenty pairs of twins. Each pair of twins consisted of one male and one female and the twin brother and sister were considered married to each other. However, in the case of Cain and Abel, Adam commanded Cain to marry the twin sister of Abel, and Abel to marry the twin sister of Cain. Abel agreed with this arrangement and was happy with it, but Cain did not. Cain's twin was deemed to be beautiful and Cain wanted her for himself. According to Islamic tradition, Adam attempted to mediate the dispute by requiring Cain and Abel to make sacrifices to God. Whichever sacrifice God chose would indicate the one who would have Cain's twin as a mate. In accord with the Biblical story, God favored Abel's sacrifice. Cain in a fit of jealous rage slew Abel.
According to the Qur'an, Cain (Kabil) buried Abel (Habil), prompted to do so by a single raven scratching the ground, on God's command. The Qur'an states that upon seeing the raven, Cain regretted his action [al-Ma'idah:27-31], and that rather than being cursed by God, since He had not done so before, God chose to create a law against murder:
"If anyone slew a person – be it for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people; and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people."
According to Shi'a Muslim belief, Abel is buried in Nabi Habeel Mosque, located west of Damascus, in Syria.
Habil wa-Qabil see Cain and Abel
Qabil wa-Habil see Cain and Abel
Calafate
Calafate (Manoel Calafate). Brazilian Muslim slave who played a leading role in the unsuccessful Hausa uprising of 1835 in Bahia, Brazil.
Manoel Calafate see Calafate
Calafate, Manoel see Calafate
Calafate (Manoel Calafate). Brazilian Muslim slave who played a leading role in the unsuccessful Hausa uprising of 1835 in Bahia, Brazil.
Manoel Calafate see Calafate
Calafate, Manoel see Calafate
caliphs
caliphs. Supreme leaders of the Muslim community. The caliphs were deemed to be the successors of the Prophet Muhammad. Under Muhammad, the Muslim state was a theocracy with the sharia, the religious and moral principles of Islam, as the law of the land. The caliphs, Muhammad’s successors, were both secular and religious leaders. They were not empowered, however, to promulgate dogma, because it was considered that the revelation of the faith had been completed by Muhammad.
The Sunnites (followers of the Sunna, the body of Islamic custom or the Way of the Prophet) who constitute a majority of Muslims, generally consider the period of the first four caliphs the golden age of Islam. Other sects, however, as they were formed, came to regard this period and subsequent caliphates differently, and as a result great hostility has frequently arisen between the Sunnites and other Muslims, such as the Shi‘ites, concerning the caliphate. During the course of Islamic history the issue of the caliphate probably has created more dissension than any other article of faith.
Based on the examples of the first four Rashidun – “rightly guided” -- caliphs and companions of the Prophet, the Sunnites formulated the following requirements of the caliphate: the caliph should be an Arab of the Prophet Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh. He should be elected to his office and approved by a council of elders representing the Muslim community; and he should be responsible for enforcing divine law and spreading Islam by whatever means necessary, including war. In the history of the caliphate, however, all these requirements were rarely met.
The Shi‘ites, in contrast, believing that the Prophet himself had designated his son-in-law, ‘Ali, as both his temporal and spiritual successor, accepted only Ali’s descendants (by Fatima, Muhammad’s daughter) as legitimate claimants to the caliphate.
Muhammad died in 632, leaving no instructions for the future government of the Muslim community. A group of Islamic leaders met in Medina (now in Saudi Arabia), the capital of the Muslim world at that time, and elected Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s father-in-law and closest associate, to lead the community. Abu Bakr took for himself the title khalifat Rasul Allah (in Arabic, “successor to the Messenger of God”), from which the term caliph (in Arabic, khalifah, -- “successor”) is derived.
Umar I (581?-644) became the second caliph in 634. On his deathbed, Abu Bakr had designated Umar as his successor, and all the important members of the Muslim community immediately accepted Umar’s succession. Under his leadership, the first great expansion of Islam outside of Arabia took place. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and the northern part of Mesopotamia became Islamic territories, and the armies of the Persian Empire were routed several times. Umar added the title amir-al-muminin (in Arabic, “commander of the believers”) to that of caliph.
After Umar’s death in 644, Uthman ibn Affan (575?-656), Muhammad’s son-in-law and one of his first converts, was appointed the third caliph by a panel of six Meccan electors. Although an elderly man, he carried on Umar’s policy of territorial expansion. Eventually, however, Uthman earned the enmity of many of his subjects, who felt he favored the Meccan aristocracy in political and commercial affairs. Uthman also antagonized the Islamic preachers by issuing an official text of the Qur’an, with an accompanying order to destroy all other versions. Rebellious Muslim troops from al-Kufah (Iraq) and Egypt besieged Uthman in Medina and assassinated him in 656.
'Ali, a cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, was acknowledged as the fourth caliph by the Medinans and the rebellious Muslim troops. Muawiyah I (d. 680), then governor of Syria, refused to recognize 'Ali as caliph and called for vengeance for the death of Uthman who was Muawiyah’s kinsman. In 657, the rival parties met at Siffin, on a plain in northern Syria, near the site of the modern city of ar-Raqqah. There, after an inconclusive battle, they agreed to arbitrate the dispute. 'Ali found himself being considered as a mere candidate for the caliphate on equal grounds with Muawiyah. Angered by this indignity, and with 'Ali for submitting to it, a group of his followers, later known as the Kharijites, deserted and vowed to assassinate both 'Ali and Muawiyah. They succeeded in killing only 'Ali. 'Ali’s son, al-Hasan (c.624-669), then claimed (in 661) the still disputed caliphate but abdicated within a few months under pressure from Muawiyah’s supporters, who greatly outnumbered 'Ali’s followers, the Shi‘ites.
The Umayyad caliphs were descendants of aristocratic caravan merchants, the Umayya, to which Muawiyah, the first Umayyad caliph, belonged. Muawiyah (r. 661-680) restored stability to the Muslim community after 'Ali’s assassination. He moved the capital of Islam from Medina to Damascus, bringing the Muslim rulers into contact with the more advanced cultural and administrative traditions of the Byzantine Empire. Muawiyah also dispensed with the practice of electing the caliph by designating his son Yazid (d. 683) as heir apparent. The principle of election was acknowledged formally, however, by having the council of elders pledge to support the designated heir. The practice of hereditary succession continued throughout the Umayyad dynasty and in subsequent dynasties as well. Many Muslims, however, later disapproved of it as a deviation from the essential nature of Islam.
Yazid I (r. 680-683) succeeded his father but was faced immediately with two rebellions, each supporting a rival claimant to the caliphate. The Kufan Shi‘ites recognized 'Ali’s second son (and the Prophet’s grandson), al-Husayn (c. 629-669), as caliph. Thus encouraged, al-Husayn left Medina for al-Kurah, despite warning that Yazid’s troops had quelled the Kufic uprising. On the plain of Karbala, in Iraq, he and his small escort were intercepted and slaughtered. This event, more than any other, marks the true beginning of the Shi‘ite schism. A second rebellion by Meccans was not finally quelled until the caliphate of Abdal-Malik (r. 685-705), Yazid’s third successor.
Shi‘ite, Kharijite, and other groups of Muslims and non-Arabic converts (in Arabic, mawali) frequently revolted against the Umayyads. The mawali accused the Umayyads of religious laxity and of indifference to their demands for full brotherhood in the Muslim community. Umayyad caliphs, nevertheless, vastly enlarged the Muslim empire and created a bureaucracy capable of administering it. Under the Umayyads, Muslim armies swept eastward to the borders of India and China, westward across North Africa to the Atlantic Ocean, then northward through Spain and over the Pyrenees Mountains into France, where the Frankish infantry under the Carolingian ruler Charles Martel checked them near Poitiers in 732.
The Umayyads were overthrown by a combination of Shi‘ite, Iranian, and other Muslim and non-Muslim groups dissatisifed with the Umayyad regime. The rebels were led by the Abbasid family, descendant of the Prophet’s uncle Abbas. From about 718, the Abbasids had plotted to take the caliphate, sending agents into various parts of the Muslim empire to spread propaganda against the Umayyads. By 747, they had secured enough support to organize a rebellion in northern Iran that led to the defeat of the Umayyad caliphate three years later. The Abbasids executed most of the Umayyad family, moved the capital of the empire to Baghdad, and assimilated much of the pomp and ceremony of the former Persian monarchy into their own courts.
Beginning in 750 with Abu al-Abbas (721?-754), the Abbasid caliphate lasted five centuries. It is the most durable and most famous Islamic dynasty. The Abbasids became patrons of learning and encouraged religious observance. They were the first Muslim rulers to become leaders of an Islamic civilization and protectors of the religion rather than merely an Arab aristocracy imposing an Arab civilization on conquered lands. Under their caliphate Baghdad replaced Medina as the center of theological activity, industry and commerce developed greatly, and the Islamic empire reached a peak of material and intellectual achievement.
The eighth and ninth century caliphs Harun ar-Rashid and his son Abdullah al-Mamun (r. 813-833) are especially renowned for their encouragement of intellectual pursuit and for the splendor of their courts. During their reigns, scholars were invited to the court to debate various topics, and translations were made from Greek, Persian, and Syriac works. Embassies also were exchanged with Charlemagne, emperor of the West.
Later in the ninth century, the Abbasid caliphs increasingly began to delegate administrative responsibility to ministers of state and other government officials and to lose control over their Baghdad guards. As they gradually gave up personal political power, the caliphs placed more and more emphasis on their role as protectors of the faith. One result of this change in emphasis was the increased persecution of heretics and non-Muslims. About the same time, several successful revolts in the eastern provinces led to the establishment of independent principalities. And independent caliphates were subsequently established in North Africa and in Spain. Eventually, the power of the Abbasids barely extended outside Baghdad, and by the middle of the tenth century, the Abbasid caliphs had virtually no power, serving merely as figureheads at the mercy of the military commanders. The final defeat of the Abbasid dynasty came from outside the Muslim world, when al-Mustasim (r. 1242-1258) was put to death by the invading Mongols at the order of Hulagu Khan (1217-1265), the grandson of Jenghiz Khan.
When the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, two members of the Abbasid family escaped to Egypt, where they took refuge with Baybars I, the Mameluke sultan. Each was named caliph, successively, by the sultan, but they were allowed to assume only religious duties, and the descendants of the second caliph remained politically powerless under the Mameluke sultans.
During the decline of Abbasid power, two rival caliphates were established, one in North Africa and another in Spain. The first, ruled by the Fatimid dynasty, was founded by Ubayd Allah (d. 933), who proclaimed himself caliph in Tunisia in 909. The Fatimids were Shi‘ites, claiming descent from Fatima (thus the name Fatimid), Muhammad’s daughter, and her husband 'Ali, the fourth caliph. At the height of its power, in the latter half of the tenth century, the Fatimid caliphate constituted a serious threat to the Abbasids in Baghdad. The Fatimids ruled most of northern Africa from Egypt to present-day Algeria, as well as Sicily and Syria. In addition the Fatimids claimed allegiance of other Shi‘ites, both within and outside their domain. They sent missionaries from their capital in Cairo to the rest of the Muslim world, proclaiming the Fatimid caliphs to be infallible and sinless and the bearers of divine illumination handed down directly from 'Ali. Their dynasty was overthrown in 1171 by Saladin, sultan of Egypt.
The second rival caliphate was established by Abd ar-Rahman III, who proclaimed himself caliph in Spain in 929. He was the descendant of an Umayyad prince who fled the Abbasid massacre of his family and settled (in 755) in Spain. The Umayyad dynasty of Spain, responsible for a brilliant period in Spanish history, ruled from its capital in Cordoba until 1031, when the caliphate broke up into numerous petty states.
From about the thirteenth century various monarchs throughout the Muslim world, particularly the Ottoman sultans, assumed the title caliph indiscriminately without regard to the prescribed requirements of the caliphate. The title held little significance for the Ottoman sultans until their empire began to decline. In the nineteenth century, with the advent of Christian powers in Southwest Asia, the sultan began to emphasize his role as caliph in an effort to gain the support of Muslims living outside his realm. The Ottoman Empire collapsed during World War I (1914-1918). After the war, Turkish nationalists deposed the Sultan, and the caliphate was finally abolished (March 1924) by the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
The abolition of the caliphate brought consternation to many sections of the Muslim world, and protests were directed against the action of the Turkish government. Subsequently, King Hussein ibn 'Ali (1856-1931) of al-Hijaz (Hejaz, now part of Saudi Arabia) laid claim to the title by virtue of his direct descent from the Prophet and his control of the two holy cities, Mecca and Medina. His claim, however, received little attention outside of Palestine, Syria, and parts of Arabia. The conquest (1925) of al-Hijaz by Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, ruler of Najd, Arabia, made Hussein’s claim even less significant.
An international Muslim congress held in Cairo in 1926 to choose an acceptable successor to the caliphate proved abortive, resulting only in an appeal to the Muslims of the world to work together to re-establish a caliphate. Ever since World War II, however, the preoccupation of Muslim nations has been with national independence and economic problems, and the issue of the caliphate has been tabled.
Sunni (Rashidun) Caliphs
Abu Bakr 632-634
Umar 634-644
Uthman 644-656
‘Ali 656-661
Ummawiyya (Umayyad) Caliphs
Mu‘awiyya I 661-680
Yazid I 680-683
Mu‘awiyya II 683-684
Marwan ibn al-Hakam 684-685
Abu al-Malik 685-705
Al-Walid 705-715
Sulayman 715-717
Umar ibn Abdul Aziz 717-720
Yazid II 720-724
Hisham 724-743
Al-Walid II 743-744
Yazid III 744
Ibrahim 744
Marwan al-Himar 744-750
Abbasids
As-Saffah 749-754
Al-Mansur 754-775
Muhammad al-Mahdi 775-785
Al-Hadi 785-786
Harun ar-Rashid 786-809
Al-Amin ibn Harun 809-813
Al-Ma‘mun ibn Harun 813-833
Al-Mu‘tasim ibn Harun 833-842
Al-Wathiq 842-847
Al-Mutawakkil 847-861
Al-Muntasir 861-862
Al-Musta’in 862-866
Al-Mu’tazz 866-869
Al-Muhtadi 869-870
Al-Mu‘tamid 870-892
Al-Mu‘tadid 892-902
Al-Muktafi ibn al-Mu‘tadid 902-908
Muqtadir bi’llahi ibn al-Mu‘tadid 908-932
Al-Qahir bi’llahi ibn al-Mu‘tadid 932-934
Al-Radi bi’llahi ibn al-Muqtadir 934-940
Al-Mutaqqi li’llahi ibn al-Muqtadir 940-944
Al-Mustakfi bi’llahi ibn al-Muktafi 944-946
Al-Muti’ ibn al-Muqtadir 946-974
Al-Tai’i’ ibn al-Mut’ 974-991
Al-Qadir bi-amri’llah 991-1031
Al-Qa’im 1031-1075
Al-Muqtadi 1075-1094
Al-Mustazhir 1094-1118
Al-Mustarshid 1118-1135
Ar-Rashid 1135-1136
Al-Muqtafi 1136-1160
Al-Mustanjid 1160-1170
Al-Mustadi’ 1170-1180
An-Nasir li-Dini llah 1180-1225
Az-Zahir 1225-1226
Al-Mustansir 1226-1242
Al-Musta’sim 1242-1258
caliphs. Supreme leaders of the Muslim community. The caliphs were deemed to be the successors of the Prophet Muhammad. Under Muhammad, the Muslim state was a theocracy with the sharia, the religious and moral principles of Islam, as the law of the land. The caliphs, Muhammad’s successors, were both secular and religious leaders. They were not empowered, however, to promulgate dogma, because it was considered that the revelation of the faith had been completed by Muhammad.
The Sunnites (followers of the Sunna, the body of Islamic custom or the Way of the Prophet) who constitute a majority of Muslims, generally consider the period of the first four caliphs the golden age of Islam. Other sects, however, as they were formed, came to regard this period and subsequent caliphates differently, and as a result great hostility has frequently arisen between the Sunnites and other Muslims, such as the Shi‘ites, concerning the caliphate. During the course of Islamic history the issue of the caliphate probably has created more dissension than any other article of faith.
Based on the examples of the first four Rashidun – “rightly guided” -- caliphs and companions of the Prophet, the Sunnites formulated the following requirements of the caliphate: the caliph should be an Arab of the Prophet Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh. He should be elected to his office and approved by a council of elders representing the Muslim community; and he should be responsible for enforcing divine law and spreading Islam by whatever means necessary, including war. In the history of the caliphate, however, all these requirements were rarely met.
The Shi‘ites, in contrast, believing that the Prophet himself had designated his son-in-law, ‘Ali, as both his temporal and spiritual successor, accepted only Ali’s descendants (by Fatima, Muhammad’s daughter) as legitimate claimants to the caliphate.
Muhammad died in 632, leaving no instructions for the future government of the Muslim community. A group of Islamic leaders met in Medina (now in Saudi Arabia), the capital of the Muslim world at that time, and elected Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s father-in-law and closest associate, to lead the community. Abu Bakr took for himself the title khalifat Rasul Allah (in Arabic, “successor to the Messenger of God”), from which the term caliph (in Arabic, khalifah, -- “successor”) is derived.
Umar I (581?-644) became the second caliph in 634. On his deathbed, Abu Bakr had designated Umar as his successor, and all the important members of the Muslim community immediately accepted Umar’s succession. Under his leadership, the first great expansion of Islam outside of Arabia took place. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and the northern part of Mesopotamia became Islamic territories, and the armies of the Persian Empire were routed several times. Umar added the title amir-al-muminin (in Arabic, “commander of the believers”) to that of caliph.
After Umar’s death in 644, Uthman ibn Affan (575?-656), Muhammad’s son-in-law and one of his first converts, was appointed the third caliph by a panel of six Meccan electors. Although an elderly man, he carried on Umar’s policy of territorial expansion. Eventually, however, Uthman earned the enmity of many of his subjects, who felt he favored the Meccan aristocracy in political and commercial affairs. Uthman also antagonized the Islamic preachers by issuing an official text of the Qur’an, with an accompanying order to destroy all other versions. Rebellious Muslim troops from al-Kufah (Iraq) and Egypt besieged Uthman in Medina and assassinated him in 656.
'Ali, a cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, was acknowledged as the fourth caliph by the Medinans and the rebellious Muslim troops. Muawiyah I (d. 680), then governor of Syria, refused to recognize 'Ali as caliph and called for vengeance for the death of Uthman who was Muawiyah’s kinsman. In 657, the rival parties met at Siffin, on a plain in northern Syria, near the site of the modern city of ar-Raqqah. There, after an inconclusive battle, they agreed to arbitrate the dispute. 'Ali found himself being considered as a mere candidate for the caliphate on equal grounds with Muawiyah. Angered by this indignity, and with 'Ali for submitting to it, a group of his followers, later known as the Kharijites, deserted and vowed to assassinate both 'Ali and Muawiyah. They succeeded in killing only 'Ali. 'Ali’s son, al-Hasan (c.624-669), then claimed (in 661) the still disputed caliphate but abdicated within a few months under pressure from Muawiyah’s supporters, who greatly outnumbered 'Ali’s followers, the Shi‘ites.
The Umayyad caliphs were descendants of aristocratic caravan merchants, the Umayya, to which Muawiyah, the first Umayyad caliph, belonged. Muawiyah (r. 661-680) restored stability to the Muslim community after 'Ali’s assassination. He moved the capital of Islam from Medina to Damascus, bringing the Muslim rulers into contact with the more advanced cultural and administrative traditions of the Byzantine Empire. Muawiyah also dispensed with the practice of electing the caliph by designating his son Yazid (d. 683) as heir apparent. The principle of election was acknowledged formally, however, by having the council of elders pledge to support the designated heir. The practice of hereditary succession continued throughout the Umayyad dynasty and in subsequent dynasties as well. Many Muslims, however, later disapproved of it as a deviation from the essential nature of Islam.
Yazid I (r. 680-683) succeeded his father but was faced immediately with two rebellions, each supporting a rival claimant to the caliphate. The Kufan Shi‘ites recognized 'Ali’s second son (and the Prophet’s grandson), al-Husayn (c. 629-669), as caliph. Thus encouraged, al-Husayn left Medina for al-Kurah, despite warning that Yazid’s troops had quelled the Kufic uprising. On the plain of Karbala, in Iraq, he and his small escort were intercepted and slaughtered. This event, more than any other, marks the true beginning of the Shi‘ite schism. A second rebellion by Meccans was not finally quelled until the caliphate of Abdal-Malik (r. 685-705), Yazid’s third successor.
Shi‘ite, Kharijite, and other groups of Muslims and non-Arabic converts (in Arabic, mawali) frequently revolted against the Umayyads. The mawali accused the Umayyads of religious laxity and of indifference to their demands for full brotherhood in the Muslim community. Umayyad caliphs, nevertheless, vastly enlarged the Muslim empire and created a bureaucracy capable of administering it. Under the Umayyads, Muslim armies swept eastward to the borders of India and China, westward across North Africa to the Atlantic Ocean, then northward through Spain and over the Pyrenees Mountains into France, where the Frankish infantry under the Carolingian ruler Charles Martel checked them near Poitiers in 732.
The Umayyads were overthrown by a combination of Shi‘ite, Iranian, and other Muslim and non-Muslim groups dissatisifed with the Umayyad regime. The rebels were led by the Abbasid family, descendant of the Prophet’s uncle Abbas. From about 718, the Abbasids had plotted to take the caliphate, sending agents into various parts of the Muslim empire to spread propaganda against the Umayyads. By 747, they had secured enough support to organize a rebellion in northern Iran that led to the defeat of the Umayyad caliphate three years later. The Abbasids executed most of the Umayyad family, moved the capital of the empire to Baghdad, and assimilated much of the pomp and ceremony of the former Persian monarchy into their own courts.
Beginning in 750 with Abu al-Abbas (721?-754), the Abbasid caliphate lasted five centuries. It is the most durable and most famous Islamic dynasty. The Abbasids became patrons of learning and encouraged religious observance. They were the first Muslim rulers to become leaders of an Islamic civilization and protectors of the religion rather than merely an Arab aristocracy imposing an Arab civilization on conquered lands. Under their caliphate Baghdad replaced Medina as the center of theological activity, industry and commerce developed greatly, and the Islamic empire reached a peak of material and intellectual achievement.
The eighth and ninth century caliphs Harun ar-Rashid and his son Abdullah al-Mamun (r. 813-833) are especially renowned for their encouragement of intellectual pursuit and for the splendor of their courts. During their reigns, scholars were invited to the court to debate various topics, and translations were made from Greek, Persian, and Syriac works. Embassies also were exchanged with Charlemagne, emperor of the West.
Later in the ninth century, the Abbasid caliphs increasingly began to delegate administrative responsibility to ministers of state and other government officials and to lose control over their Baghdad guards. As they gradually gave up personal political power, the caliphs placed more and more emphasis on their role as protectors of the faith. One result of this change in emphasis was the increased persecution of heretics and non-Muslims. About the same time, several successful revolts in the eastern provinces led to the establishment of independent principalities. And independent caliphates were subsequently established in North Africa and in Spain. Eventually, the power of the Abbasids barely extended outside Baghdad, and by the middle of the tenth century, the Abbasid caliphs had virtually no power, serving merely as figureheads at the mercy of the military commanders. The final defeat of the Abbasid dynasty came from outside the Muslim world, when al-Mustasim (r. 1242-1258) was put to death by the invading Mongols at the order of Hulagu Khan (1217-1265), the grandson of Jenghiz Khan.
When the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, two members of the Abbasid family escaped to Egypt, where they took refuge with Baybars I, the Mameluke sultan. Each was named caliph, successively, by the sultan, but they were allowed to assume only religious duties, and the descendants of the second caliph remained politically powerless under the Mameluke sultans.
During the decline of Abbasid power, two rival caliphates were established, one in North Africa and another in Spain. The first, ruled by the Fatimid dynasty, was founded by Ubayd Allah (d. 933), who proclaimed himself caliph in Tunisia in 909. The Fatimids were Shi‘ites, claiming descent from Fatima (thus the name Fatimid), Muhammad’s daughter, and her husband 'Ali, the fourth caliph. At the height of its power, in the latter half of the tenth century, the Fatimid caliphate constituted a serious threat to the Abbasids in Baghdad. The Fatimids ruled most of northern Africa from Egypt to present-day Algeria, as well as Sicily and Syria. In addition the Fatimids claimed allegiance of other Shi‘ites, both within and outside their domain. They sent missionaries from their capital in Cairo to the rest of the Muslim world, proclaiming the Fatimid caliphs to be infallible and sinless and the bearers of divine illumination handed down directly from 'Ali. Their dynasty was overthrown in 1171 by Saladin, sultan of Egypt.
The second rival caliphate was established by Abd ar-Rahman III, who proclaimed himself caliph in Spain in 929. He was the descendant of an Umayyad prince who fled the Abbasid massacre of his family and settled (in 755) in Spain. The Umayyad dynasty of Spain, responsible for a brilliant period in Spanish history, ruled from its capital in Cordoba until 1031, when the caliphate broke up into numerous petty states.
From about the thirteenth century various monarchs throughout the Muslim world, particularly the Ottoman sultans, assumed the title caliph indiscriminately without regard to the prescribed requirements of the caliphate. The title held little significance for the Ottoman sultans until their empire began to decline. In the nineteenth century, with the advent of Christian powers in Southwest Asia, the sultan began to emphasize his role as caliph in an effort to gain the support of Muslims living outside his realm. The Ottoman Empire collapsed during World War I (1914-1918). After the war, Turkish nationalists deposed the Sultan, and the caliphate was finally abolished (March 1924) by the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
The abolition of the caliphate brought consternation to many sections of the Muslim world, and protests were directed against the action of the Turkish government. Subsequently, King Hussein ibn 'Ali (1856-1931) of al-Hijaz (Hejaz, now part of Saudi Arabia) laid claim to the title by virtue of his direct descent from the Prophet and his control of the two holy cities, Mecca and Medina. His claim, however, received little attention outside of Palestine, Syria, and parts of Arabia. The conquest (1925) of al-Hijaz by Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, ruler of Najd, Arabia, made Hussein’s claim even less significant.
An international Muslim congress held in Cairo in 1926 to choose an acceptable successor to the caliphate proved abortive, resulting only in an appeal to the Muslims of the world to work together to re-establish a caliphate. Ever since World War II, however, the preoccupation of Muslim nations has been with national independence and economic problems, and the issue of the caliphate has been tabled.
Sunni (Rashidun) Caliphs
Abu Bakr 632-634
Umar 634-644
Uthman 644-656
‘Ali 656-661
Ummawiyya (Umayyad) Caliphs
Mu‘awiyya I 661-680
Yazid I 680-683
Mu‘awiyya II 683-684
Marwan ibn al-Hakam 684-685
Abu al-Malik 685-705
Al-Walid 705-715
Sulayman 715-717
Umar ibn Abdul Aziz 717-720
Yazid II 720-724
Hisham 724-743
Al-Walid II 743-744
Yazid III 744
Ibrahim 744
Marwan al-Himar 744-750
Abbasids
As-Saffah 749-754
Al-Mansur 754-775
Muhammad al-Mahdi 775-785
Al-Hadi 785-786
Harun ar-Rashid 786-809
Al-Amin ibn Harun 809-813
Al-Ma‘mun ibn Harun 813-833
Al-Mu‘tasim ibn Harun 833-842
Al-Wathiq 842-847
Al-Mutawakkil 847-861
Al-Muntasir 861-862
Al-Musta’in 862-866
Al-Mu’tazz 866-869
Al-Muhtadi 869-870
Al-Mu‘tamid 870-892
Al-Mu‘tadid 892-902
Al-Muktafi ibn al-Mu‘tadid 902-908
Muqtadir bi’llahi ibn al-Mu‘tadid 908-932
Al-Qahir bi’llahi ibn al-Mu‘tadid 932-934
Al-Radi bi’llahi ibn al-Muqtadir 934-940
Al-Mutaqqi li’llahi ibn al-Muqtadir 940-944
Al-Mustakfi bi’llahi ibn al-Muktafi 944-946
Al-Muti’ ibn al-Muqtadir 946-974
Al-Tai’i’ ibn al-Mut’ 974-991
Al-Qadir bi-amri’llah 991-1031
Al-Qa’im 1031-1075
Al-Muqtadi 1075-1094
Al-Mustazhir 1094-1118
Al-Mustarshid 1118-1135
Ar-Rashid 1135-1136
Al-Muqtafi 1136-1160
Al-Mustanjid 1160-1170
Al-Mustadi’ 1170-1180
An-Nasir li-Dini llah 1180-1225
Az-Zahir 1225-1226
Al-Mustansir 1226-1242
Al-Musta’sim 1242-1258
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