Khubayb ibn ‘Adi al-Ansari
Khubayb ibn ‘Adi al-Ansari. One of the first martyrs of Islam, killed by tribesmen of Libyan after the battle of Uhud in 625.
Ansari, Khubayb ibn 'Adi al- see Khubayb ibn ‘Adi al-Ansari.
Khubayb ibn ‘Adi al-Ansari. One of the first martyrs of Islam, killed by tribesmen of Libyan after the battle of Uhud in 625.
Ansari, Khubayb ibn 'Adi al- see Khubayb ibn ‘Adi al-Ansari.
Khuda Bakhsh
Khuda Bakhsh (August 2, 1842 - August 3, 1908). Bibliophile of Muslim India. He was the founder of the celebrated Oriental Public Library at Patna. By 1891, when the collection of manuscripts collected by his father and by himself was made into a pious endowment (in Arabic, waqf), it had reached the number of 4,000. Educated at Patna and Calcutta, in 1880, he was appointed Governor Pleader at Patna.and in 1881 the title of Khan Bahadur was conferred upon him.for his social service. He was elevated to the position of Chief Justice of Nizam's Court Hyderabad for a period of three years in 1895.
In spite of having all these titles and positions, it was his library that was has passion. He spent whatever he earned on his library and, as a result, became penniless in his later years. He had to borrow money to obtain medical treatment. The Bengali government made him an 8000 rupee grant. He died on August 3, 1908 and was buried in the premises of his beloved library.
The Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library is one of the national libraries of India. It is known for its rare collection of Persian and Arabic manuscripts. It also hosts paintings made during the Rajput and Mughal eras of India.
Bakhsh, Khuda see Khuda Bakhsh
Khuda Bakhsh (August 2, 1842 - August 3, 1908). Bibliophile of Muslim India. He was the founder of the celebrated Oriental Public Library at Patna. By 1891, when the collection of manuscripts collected by his father and by himself was made into a pious endowment (in Arabic, waqf), it had reached the number of 4,000. Educated at Patna and Calcutta, in 1880, he was appointed Governor Pleader at Patna.and in 1881 the title of Khan Bahadur was conferred upon him.for his social service. He was elevated to the position of Chief Justice of Nizam's Court Hyderabad for a period of three years in 1895.
In spite of having all these titles and positions, it was his library that was has passion. He spent whatever he earned on his library and, as a result, became penniless in his later years. He had to borrow money to obtain medical treatment. The Bengali government made him an 8000 rupee grant. He died on August 3, 1908 and was buried in the premises of his beloved library.
The Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library is one of the national libraries of India. It is known for its rare collection of Persian and Arabic manuscripts. It also hosts paintings made during the Rajput and Mughal eras of India.
Bakhsh, Khuda see Khuda Bakhsh
Khuda’i Khidmatgar
Khuda’i Khidmatgar (“servants of God”). Also known as the Red Shirts. An organization of Pakhtun (Pathan) nationalists in India’s North-West Frontier Province. Founded in 1929/1930 as the volunteers of the Afghan Jirga, they were incorporated into the Indian National Congress in 1931 under the leadership of Abdul Ghaffar Khan. They were organized along quasi-military lines but included a pledge of non-violence in their rules of conduct. They opposed the creation of Pakistan and after independence worked for Pakhtun autonomy until they were declared illegal in June 1948.
The Red Shirt movement, in support of the Indian National Congress, was an action started by Abdul Ghaffar Khan of the North-West Frontier Province of India in 1930. Ghaffar Khan was a Pashtun who greatly admired Mahatma Gandhi and his nonviolent principles and saw support for the Congress as a way of pressing his grievances against the British frontier regime. He was called the Frontier Gandhi. His followers were pledged to nonviolence, and they derived their popular title from the red color of their shirts.
In the 1937 election under the new Government of India Act, the Congress Party, supported by the Red Shirts, won a majority and formed a ministry under Ghaffar Khan’s brother, Khan Sahib, which, with interludes, remained in office until the 1947 partition. In that year the Frontier Province, faced with the choice between India and Pakistan, opted for Pakistan in a plebiscite. Ghaffar Khan then advocated Pakhtunistan—the concept of an independent Pashtun state, drawn from both the Pakistan and Afghan frontier districts. The Pakistan government suppressed both this movement and the Red Shirts.
Khidmatgar, Khuda'i see Khuda’i Khidmatgar
"Servants of God" see Khuda’i Khidmatgar
Red Shirts see Khuda’i Khidmatgar
Khuda’i Khidmatgar (“servants of God”). Also known as the Red Shirts. An organization of Pakhtun (Pathan) nationalists in India’s North-West Frontier Province. Founded in 1929/1930 as the volunteers of the Afghan Jirga, they were incorporated into the Indian National Congress in 1931 under the leadership of Abdul Ghaffar Khan. They were organized along quasi-military lines but included a pledge of non-violence in their rules of conduct. They opposed the creation of Pakistan and after independence worked for Pakhtun autonomy until they were declared illegal in June 1948.
The Red Shirt movement, in support of the Indian National Congress, was an action started by Abdul Ghaffar Khan of the North-West Frontier Province of India in 1930. Ghaffar Khan was a Pashtun who greatly admired Mahatma Gandhi and his nonviolent principles and saw support for the Congress as a way of pressing his grievances against the British frontier regime. He was called the Frontier Gandhi. His followers were pledged to nonviolence, and they derived their popular title from the red color of their shirts.
In the 1937 election under the new Government of India Act, the Congress Party, supported by the Red Shirts, won a majority and formed a ministry under Ghaffar Khan’s brother, Khan Sahib, which, with interludes, remained in office until the 1947 partition. In that year the Frontier Province, faced with the choice between India and Pakistan, opted for Pakistan in a plebiscite. Ghaffar Khan then advocated Pakhtunistan—the concept of an independent Pashtun state, drawn from both the Pakistan and Afghan frontier districts. The Pakistan government suppressed both this movement and the Red Shirts.
Khidmatgar, Khuda'i see Khuda’i Khidmatgar
"Servants of God" see Khuda’i Khidmatgar
Red Shirts see Khuda’i Khidmatgar
Khujandi, Abu Mahmud Hamid al-
Khujandi, Abu Mahmud Hamid al- (Abu Mahmud Hamid al-Khujandi) (Abu Mahmoud Khujandi) (Abu Mahmood Khujandi) (Abu Mahmud Hamid ibn al-Khidr Al-Khujandi) (b. ca. 940-1000). Astronomer and mathematician. He constructed astronomical instruments, the most important among them being the sextant which he made in order to determine the obliquity of
Abu Mahmood Khujandi was a Persian astronomer and mathematician who lived in the late 10th century and helped build an observatory near the city of Ray (near today's Tehran) in Iran. He was born in Khujand (now Tajikistan) in about 940, and died in 1000. A bronze bust of the astronomer is present in a park in modern-day Khujand.
The few facts about Khujandi's life that are known come from both his surviving writings and comments made by Nassereddin Tusi. From Tusi's comments it is fairly certain that Khujandi was one of the rulers of the Mongol tribe in the Khudzhand region, and thus must have come from the nobility.
In Islamic astronomy, Khujandi worked under the patronage of the Buwayhid Amirs at the observatory near Ray, Iran, where he is known to have constructed the first huge mural sextant in 994.
Al-Khujandi determined the axial tilt to be 23°32'19" (23.53°) for the year 994. He noted that measurements by earlier astronomers had found higher values (Indians: 24°; Ptolemy 23° 51') and thus discovered that the axial tilt is not constant but is in fact (currently) decreasing. His measurement of the axial tilt was however about 2 minutes too small, probably due to his heavy instrument settling over the course of the observations.
In Islamic mathematics, Khujandi stated a special case of Fermat's last theorem for n = 3, but his attempted proof of the theorem was incorrect. The law of sines may have also been discovered by Khujandi, but it is uncertain whether he discovered it first, or whether Abu Nasr Mansur, Abul Wafa or Nasir al-Din al-Tusi discovered it first.
Abu Mahmud Hamid al-Khujandi see Khujandi, Abu Mahmud Hamid al-
Abu Mahmoud Khujandi see Khujandi, Abu Mahmud Hamid al-
Abu Mahmood Khujandi see Khujandi, Abu Mahmud Hamid al-
Abu Mahmud Hamid ibn al-Khidr Al-Khujandi see Khujandi, Abu Mahmud Hamid al-
Khujandi, Abu Mahmud Hamid al- (Abu Mahmud Hamid al-Khujandi) (Abu Mahmoud Khujandi) (Abu Mahmood Khujandi) (Abu Mahmud Hamid ibn al-Khidr Al-Khujandi) (b. ca. 940-1000). Astronomer and mathematician. He constructed astronomical instruments, the most important among them being the sextant which he made in order to determine the obliquity of
Abu Mahmood Khujandi was a Persian astronomer and mathematician who lived in the late 10th century and helped build an observatory near the city of Ray (near today's Tehran) in Iran. He was born in Khujand (now Tajikistan) in about 940, and died in 1000. A bronze bust of the astronomer is present in a park in modern-day Khujand.
The few facts about Khujandi's life that are known come from both his surviving writings and comments made by Nassereddin Tusi. From Tusi's comments it is fairly certain that Khujandi was one of the rulers of the Mongol tribe in the Khudzhand region, and thus must have come from the nobility.
In Islamic astronomy, Khujandi worked under the patronage of the Buwayhid Amirs at the observatory near Ray, Iran, where he is known to have constructed the first huge mural sextant in 994.
Al-Khujandi determined the axial tilt to be 23°32'19" (23.53°) for the year 994. He noted that measurements by earlier astronomers had found higher values (Indians: 24°; Ptolemy 23° 51') and thus discovered that the axial tilt is not constant but is in fact (currently) decreasing. His measurement of the axial tilt was however about 2 minutes too small, probably due to his heavy instrument settling over the course of the observations.
In Islamic mathematics, Khujandi stated a special case of Fermat's last theorem for n = 3, but his attempted proof of the theorem was incorrect. The law of sines may have also been discovered by Khujandi, but it is uncertain whether he discovered it first, or whether Abu Nasr Mansur, Abul Wafa or Nasir al-Din al-Tusi discovered it first.
Abu Mahmud Hamid al-Khujandi see Khujandi, Abu Mahmud Hamid al-
Abu Mahmoud Khujandi see Khujandi, Abu Mahmud Hamid al-
Abu Mahmood Khujandi see Khujandi, Abu Mahmud Hamid al-
Abu Mahmud Hamid ibn al-Khidr Al-Khujandi see Khujandi, Abu Mahmud Hamid al-
Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun
Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun (b. 864). Ruler of the Tulunid dynasty of Egypt and Syria (r.884-896). The ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Mu‘tamid regarded him as an usurper, but in the end Khumarawayh acknowledged ‘Abbasid sovereignty. In return he was granted the de jure governorship of Egypt and Syria and Caliph al-Mu‘tadid took Khumarawayh’s daughter, Qatr al-Nada, as a bride for himself instead of for his son ‘Ali. The splendid nuptials lived on in chronicles and folk-literature.
Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun (b. 864). Ruler of the Tulunid dynasty of Egypt and Syria (r.884-896). The ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Mu‘tamid regarded him as an usurper, but in the end Khumarawayh acknowledged ‘Abbasid sovereignty. In return he was granted the de jure governorship of Egypt and Syria and Caliph al-Mu‘tadid took Khumarawayh’s daughter, Qatr al-Nada, as a bride for himself instead of for his son ‘Ali. The splendid nuptials lived on in chronicles and folk-literature.
Khunji, Fadl Allah ibn Ruzbihan
Khunji, Fadl Allah ibn Ruzbihan (Fadl Allah ibn Ruzbihan Khunji) (1455-1521). Persian religious scholar and political writer. He was a staunch Sunni who fiercely opposed the Shi‘a Safavid Shah Isma‘il, left Persia and fled to Ozbeg Transoxiana.
Fadl Allah ibn Ruzbihan Khunji see Khunji, Fadl Allah ibn Ruzbihan
Khunji, Fadl Allah ibn Ruzbihan (Fadl Allah ibn Ruzbihan Khunji) (1455-1521). Persian religious scholar and political writer. He was a staunch Sunni who fiercely opposed the Shi‘a Safavid Shah Isma‘il, left Persia and fled to Ozbeg Transoxiana.
Fadl Allah ibn Ruzbihan Khunji see Khunji, Fadl Allah ibn Ruzbihan
Khurasan, Banu
Khurasan, Banu (Banu Khurasan). Dynasty which governed Tunis (r.1062-1128 and 1148-1159).
Banu Khurasan see Khurasan, Banu
Khurasan, Banu (Banu Khurasan). Dynasty which governed Tunis (r.1062-1128 and 1148-1159).
Banu Khurasan see Khurasan, Banu
Khurasani, Akhund Mulla
Khurasani, Akhund Mulla (Akhund Mulla Khurasani) (1839-1911). Shi‘a mujtahid from Tus in Iran. Since 1906, his name has been associated with the Persian Constitutional Revolution as one of its most influential supporters.
Akhund Mulla Khurasani see Khurasani, Akhund Mulla
Khurasani, Akhund Mulla (Akhund Mulla Khurasani) (1839-1911). Shi‘a mujtahid from Tus in Iran. Since 1906, his name has been associated with the Persian Constitutional Revolution as one of its most influential supporters.
Akhund Mulla Khurasani see Khurasani, Akhund Mulla
Khurramiyya
Khurramiyya (Khurramdiniyya). Farsi term which literally means “joyous.” The Khurramiyya was an Iranian incarnationist sect that insisted on purity. The Khurramiyya was a religious movement founded by Mazdak in the late fifth century, and of various Iranian, anti-Arab sects which developed out of it under the impact of certain extremist Shi‘a doctrines.
Khurramdiniyya see Khurramiyya
Khurramiyya (Khurramdiniyya). Farsi term which literally means “joyous.” The Khurramiyya was an Iranian incarnationist sect that insisted on purity. The Khurramiyya was a religious movement founded by Mazdak in the late fifth century, and of various Iranian, anti-Arab sects which developed out of it under the impact of certain extremist Shi‘a doctrines.
Khurramdiniyya see Khurramiyya
Khurrem
Khurrem (Khasseki Sultan) (Roxelana). Beloved wife of the Ottoman Sultan Sulayman II. According to tradition, she was of Polish origin. She had many pious bequests executed in Istanbul, Edirne, Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. In 1541, she moved to the Topkapi Palace. With a woman lodged for the first time at the political center, there began the rule of women (“the Reign of Women”), during which the policies of the Ottoman Empire were directed by a succession of foreign favorites, which lasted until the death of Sultan Murad IV’s mother in 1651. Due largely to Khurrem’s intrigues, her son Selim remained alone to succeed his father.
Khasseki Sultan see Khurrem
Roxalena see Khurrem
Khurrem (Khasseki Sultan) (Roxelana). Beloved wife of the Ottoman Sultan Sulayman II. According to tradition, she was of Polish origin. She had many pious bequests executed in Istanbul, Edirne, Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. In 1541, she moved to the Topkapi Palace. With a woman lodged for the first time at the political center, there began the rule of women (“the Reign of Women”), during which the policies of the Ottoman Empire were directed by a succession of foreign favorites, which lasted until the death of Sultan Murad IV’s mother in 1651. Due largely to Khurrem’s intrigues, her son Selim remained alone to succeed his father.
Khasseki Sultan see Khurrem
Roxalena see Khurrem
Khurshid
Khurshid. Name given in epic romances to a daughter of the emperor of Byzantium as the lover of Jamshid, a mythological king..
Khurshid. Name given in epic romances to a daughter of the emperor of Byzantium as the lover of Jamshid, a mythological king..
Khurshid
Khurshid. Dabuyid prince of Tabaristan (r.740-761). His rebellion against the ‘Abbasid caliph was subdued in 760.
Khurshid. Dabuyid prince of Tabaristan (r.740-761). His rebellion against the ‘Abbasid caliph was subdued in 760.
Khushhal Khan Khatak
Khushhal Khan Khatak (1613-1689). Pathan (Pashtun) (Pakhtun) poet and warrior chieftain. He lived in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains. He is recognized as the national poet of the Pashtun and became known as the "Afghan Warrior Poet." His poetry consists of more than 45,000 poems and he wrote more than 100 books. His more famous books are Baz Nama, Fazal Nama, Dister Nama and Farrah Nama.
Khushal Khan Khattak was a Pashtun warrior, poet and tribal chief of the Khattak tribe. He wrote in Pashto during the reign of the Mughal emperors in the seventeenth century, and admonished Afghans to forsake their divisive tendencies and unite. He was a renowned fighter who became known as the "Afghan Warrior Poet". He lived in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains in what is now the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of western Pakistan.
Khushal Khan was the son of Shahbaz Khan and was born in Akora (now in Nowshera District, Pakistan). His grandfather, Malik Akoray, was the first Khattak to enjoy widespread fame during the reign of the Mughal King Jalal-ud-din Akbar. Akoray moved from Teri (a village in Karak District) to Sarai Akora, the town which Akoray founded and built. Akoray cooperated with the Mughals to safeguard the trunk route and was generously rewarded for his assistance. The Akor Khels, a clan named after Akoray, still hold a prominent position in the Khattak tribe. The Khattak tribe of Khushhal Khan now (2007) lives in areas of Karak, Kohat, Nowshera, Peshawar, Mardan and in other parts of the North-West Frontier Province.
Khushhal Khan’s life can be divided into two important parts — during his adult life he was mostly engaged in the service of the Mughal King, and during his old age he was preoccupied with the idea of the unification of the Pashtuns.
His first involvement in war occurred when he was just 13 years old. Shah Jehan appointed him as the tribal chief and Mansabdar at the age of 28 after the death of his father. By appointment of the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, Khushhal succeeded his father in 1641, but in 1658, Aurangzeb, Shah Jahan's successor, locked him away as a prisoner in the Gwalior fortress.
After Khushhal was permitted to return to Pashtun dominated areas (now constituting the NWFP), he incited the Afghans to rebel against the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.
Along with the Rajputs, the Pashtun tribesmen of the Empire were considered the bedrock of the Mughal Army. They were crucial defenders of the Mughal Empire from the threat of invasion from the West. The Pashtun revolt in 1672 was triggered when soldiers under the orders of the Mughal Governor Amir Khan attempted to molest women of the Safi tribe in what is now Kunar. The Safi tribes attacked the soldiers. This attack provoked a reprisal, which triggered a general revolt of most of the tribes. Attempting to reassert his authority, Amir Khan led a large Mughal Army to the Khyber pass. There the army was surrounded by tribesmen and routed, with only four men, including the Governor, managing to escape.
After that the revolt spread, with the Mughals suffering a near total collapse of their authority along the Pashtun belt. The closure of the important Attock-to-Kabul trade route along the Grand Trunk road was particularly critical. By 1674, the situation had deteriorated to a point where Aurangzeb himself camped at Attock to personally take charge. Switching to diplomacy and bribery along with force of arms, the Mughals eventually split the rebellion and while they never managed to wield effective authority outside the main trade route, the revolt was partially suppressed. However, the long term anarchy on the Mughal frontier that prevailed as a consequence ensured that Nadir Shah's forces half a century later faced little resistance on the road to Delhi.
Forced to flee after the Mughals reasserted control, Khushal Khan died after many years of attempting to unite the various Pakhtun tribes together. His grave carries the inscription: da afghan pa nang me watarla tura, nanagyalai da zamana khushal khattak yam "I have taken up the sword to defend the pride of the Afghan, I am Khushal Khattak, the honorable man of the age." Khushhal Khan Khattak died on February 25, 1689, in Dambara.
The poetry of Khushal Khan consists of more than 45,000 poems. According to some historians, the number of books written by him is more than 200. His more famous books are Baz Nama, Fazal Nama, Distar Nama and Farrah Nama.
Khatak, Khushhal Khan see Khushhal Khan Khatak
Afghan Warrior Poet see Khushhal Khan Khatak
Khushhal Khan Khatak (1613-1689). Pathan (Pashtun) (Pakhtun) poet and warrior chieftain. He lived in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains. He is recognized as the national poet of the Pashtun and became known as the "Afghan Warrior Poet." His poetry consists of more than 45,000 poems and he wrote more than 100 books. His more famous books are Baz Nama, Fazal Nama, Dister Nama and Farrah Nama.
Khushal Khan Khattak was a Pashtun warrior, poet and tribal chief of the Khattak tribe. He wrote in Pashto during the reign of the Mughal emperors in the seventeenth century, and admonished Afghans to forsake their divisive tendencies and unite. He was a renowned fighter who became known as the "Afghan Warrior Poet". He lived in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains in what is now the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of western Pakistan.
Khushal Khan was the son of Shahbaz Khan and was born in Akora (now in Nowshera District, Pakistan). His grandfather, Malik Akoray, was the first Khattak to enjoy widespread fame during the reign of the Mughal King Jalal-ud-din Akbar. Akoray moved from Teri (a village in Karak District) to Sarai Akora, the town which Akoray founded and built. Akoray cooperated with the Mughals to safeguard the trunk route and was generously rewarded for his assistance. The Akor Khels, a clan named after Akoray, still hold a prominent position in the Khattak tribe. The Khattak tribe of Khushhal Khan now (2007) lives in areas of Karak, Kohat, Nowshera, Peshawar, Mardan and in other parts of the North-West Frontier Province.
Khushhal Khan’s life can be divided into two important parts — during his adult life he was mostly engaged in the service of the Mughal King, and during his old age he was preoccupied with the idea of the unification of the Pashtuns.
His first involvement in war occurred when he was just 13 years old. Shah Jehan appointed him as the tribal chief and Mansabdar at the age of 28 after the death of his father. By appointment of the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, Khushhal succeeded his father in 1641, but in 1658, Aurangzeb, Shah Jahan's successor, locked him away as a prisoner in the Gwalior fortress.
After Khushhal was permitted to return to Pashtun dominated areas (now constituting the NWFP), he incited the Afghans to rebel against the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.
Along with the Rajputs, the Pashtun tribesmen of the Empire were considered the bedrock of the Mughal Army. They were crucial defenders of the Mughal Empire from the threat of invasion from the West. The Pashtun revolt in 1672 was triggered when soldiers under the orders of the Mughal Governor Amir Khan attempted to molest women of the Safi tribe in what is now Kunar. The Safi tribes attacked the soldiers. This attack provoked a reprisal, which triggered a general revolt of most of the tribes. Attempting to reassert his authority, Amir Khan led a large Mughal Army to the Khyber pass. There the army was surrounded by tribesmen and routed, with only four men, including the Governor, managing to escape.
After that the revolt spread, with the Mughals suffering a near total collapse of their authority along the Pashtun belt. The closure of the important Attock-to-Kabul trade route along the Grand Trunk road was particularly critical. By 1674, the situation had deteriorated to a point where Aurangzeb himself camped at Attock to personally take charge. Switching to diplomacy and bribery along with force of arms, the Mughals eventually split the rebellion and while they never managed to wield effective authority outside the main trade route, the revolt was partially suppressed. However, the long term anarchy on the Mughal frontier that prevailed as a consequence ensured that Nadir Shah's forces half a century later faced little resistance on the road to Delhi.
Forced to flee after the Mughals reasserted control, Khushal Khan died after many years of attempting to unite the various Pakhtun tribes together. His grave carries the inscription: da afghan pa nang me watarla tura, nanagyalai da zamana khushal khattak yam "I have taken up the sword to defend the pride of the Afghan, I am Khushal Khattak, the honorable man of the age." Khushhal Khan Khattak died on February 25, 1689, in Dambara.
The poetry of Khushal Khan consists of more than 45,000 poems. According to some historians, the number of books written by him is more than 200. His more famous books are Baz Nama, Fazal Nama, Distar Nama and Farrah Nama.
Khatak, Khushhal Khan see Khushhal Khan Khatak
Afghan Warrior Poet see Khushhal Khan Khatak
Khusraw II Parwiz
Khusraw II Parwiz. (Khosrau II) (Khosrow II) (Chosroes II) (Xosrov II) (Parvez -- "the Ever Victorious") (d. 628). The twenty-second Sassanid (Sasanian) King of Persia, reigning from 590 to 628. He was the son of Hormizd IV (reigned 579–590) and grandson of Khosrau I (reigned 531–579). He was the last great ruler of this dynasty before the invading Arabs overran the Persian Empire. In 602, he overthrew al-Nu‘man III ibn al-Mundhir and established direct Persian rule. Shirin, known from the very popular theme of Farhad and Shirin, was his favorite wife. Some historians note that the game of chess was invented during the reign of Khusraw II Parwiz.
Khosrow II, byname Khusraw II Parvīz (Persian: “Khusraw the Victorious”), was the Sāsānian king of Persia (reigned 590–628), under whom the Sasanian empire achieved its greatest expansion. Defeated at last in a war with the Byzantines, he was deposed in a palace revolution and executed.
The son of Hormizd IV, Khosrow was proclaimed king in 590 in turbulent times. Hormizd’s general, Bahrām Chūbīn, after his defeat by the Byzantine army at Lazica, had been openly insulted by the king. During a subsequent palace revolt led by Bostām and Bindōē (brothers-in-law of Hormizd), which culminated in the king’s assassination, Bahrām Chūbīn renounced the allegiance of his army to the monarchy and forced the new king Khosrow to flee to Mesopotamia. Khosrow’s pursuers were held off by the military tactics of his uncle Bindōē, until eventually the Byzantine emperor Maurice provided Khosrow with forces to defeat his adversary. Bahrām Chūbīn was subsequently assassinated.
Insecure and unpopular, Khosrow now eliminated those connected with his father’s murder, including Bindōē, on whose support he had relied. Although he retained a bodyguard of Byzantine legionaries, he resented the Byzantine presence in Armenia, which he had been forced to cede. Using the murder of Maurice (602) and his replacement as emperor by Phocas as a pretext and encouraged by the fact that Narces, who had commanded the Byzantine force that established Khosrow on the throne, refused to recognize Phocas, Khosrow’s armies invaded Armenia and Mesopotamia. The Byzantine forces in Mesopotamia were weak, and the towns of Dara, Amida, and Edessa soon fell (604). Crossing the Euphrates, Khosrow took Hierapolis and Beroea (Aleppo). Internal dissensions made the eastern Byzantine provinces easy prey, and Armenia and central Asia Minor were overrun by the Persians—though apparently not permanently occupied or administered. Nor was the Persian advance checked when Heraclius became emperor in 610 and sued for peace.
A second invasion of Mesopotamia, by Khosrow’s ablest general, Shahrbarāz, took place in 613. Damascus was taken in that year, and in 614 Jerusalem fell. The Holy Sepulchre was destroyed and the True Cross carried to Ctesiphon. Although Khosrow himself was generally tolerant of Christianity, Shahrbarāz permitted thousands of Christian prisoners to be tortured by his Jewish aides. In 616 Alexandria was captured, and in 617 Chalcedon (opposite Byzantium), which had long been under siege by another of Khosrow’s generals, Shāhīn, finally fell to the Persians.
This tide of conquest was turned by Heraclius in a series of brilliant campaigns between 622 and 627. Since he retained command of the sea, Heraclius was able to sail to Issus and rout the Persian army near the Armenian border. In alliance with the Khazar kingdom north of the Caucasus, he invaded Armenia again in 623, gaining victory over the King’s army near Canzaca. The town and fire temple were destroyed, together with the temple at Lake Urmia, traditionally associated with Zoroaster. The campaigns of 624 and 625 ranged across northern Syria and Mesopotamia and culminated in a reversal for Shahrbarāz’ forces on the river Saras.
Khosrow rallied his forces in 626 and, in alliance with the Avars, a people who were also in conflict with Byzantium at this time, sent one army to besiege Constantinople and another to oppose Heraclius. Constantinople held, and Shāhīn was defeated; the Persian second force was outmaneuvered in 628 by Heraclius’ brave dash to Dastagird, the royal residence 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Ctesiphon. An important but indecisive battle was fought near Nineveh, but, as the Byzantine army re-approached Dastagird, Khosrow fled. His letters calling Shahrbarāz to his aid had been intercepted, and, although his resources were by now drastically reduced, he refused peace terms.
Khosrow’s prestige was shattered, and he was now sick. The execution of Shahrbarāz and the desecration of Shāhīn’s corpse were followed by revolution in the royal household. Khosrow was condemned to death and executed (628), and his youngest son and heir, Mardānshāh, was murdered before his eyes. His eldest son, Kavadh (Qobad) II, Shērōē, signed the peace.
Khosrow was a serious patron of the arts; silverworking and carpet weaving reached their peak during his reign. Sources tell of the enormous “Spring of Khosrow,” a carpet whose design was a garden. A splendid silver dish in the Bibliothèque Nationale is thought to depict him in the traditional Sāsānian royal hunt. Most authorities attribute to Khosrow II the grottos at Taq-e Bostan (Kermanshah), taking them as evidence of a renaissance of rock sculpture in his reign. The reliefs depict the King in hunting scenes and standing motionless listening to a group of harpists—a reminder of the famous musicians Bārbad and Sarkash, who were kept at Khosrow’s court. His architectural work is chiefly known from the ruins of the enormous palace Imirat-e Khosrow near Qasr-e Shīrīn (near Khānaqīn) and at nearby Hawsk-Kuri. A provincial palace exists at Qaṣr al-Mushattā, Jordan.
Booty and taxes brought Khosrow enormous wealth, including thousands of elephants, camels, horses, and women. The 9th-century Arab historian aṭ-Ṭabarī describes his golden throne supported by legs of rubies, as well as such curios as a piece of malleable gold and an asbestos napkin. But, despite widespread trade connections and the amassing of individual fortunes, there is no evidence that the economy flourished. High taxation and the uncertainties of war did nothing for the merchant class. By creating a military aristocracy, Khosrow II had weakened the authority of the king, while his administrative reforms and bureaucratic centralization removed the power of regional dynasties and their feudal armies, which might have resisted the invasion of the Arabs 12 years after Khosrow’s death. Already in 611 the Arabs had inflicted a defeat on the Sāsānian army at Dhu-Qar. The destruction by Khosrow II of the Christian Arab states of the Lakhmids and Ghassānids in Syria and western Iraq was a further factor exposing Iran to Arab attack.
Khosrow is also remembered in Islamic tradition to be the Persian king to whom Muhammad had sent a messenger, Abdullah ibn Hudhafah as-Sahmi, along with a letter in which Khosrow was asked to preach the religion of Islam. The letter read:
"In the name of God, Most Gracious, Ever Merciful
"From Muhammad, Messenger of God, to Chosroes, Ruler of Persia. Peace be on him who follows the guidance, believes in God and His Messenger and bears witness that there is no one worthy of worship save God, the One, without associate, and that Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger. I invite you to the Call of God, as I am the Messenger of God to the whole of mankind, so that I may warn every living person and so that the truth may become clear and the judgment of God may overtake the disbelievers. I call upon you to accept Islam and thus make yourself secure. If you turn away, you will bear the sins of your Zoroastrian subjects."
The Persian historian Tabari reported that in outrage, Khosrow tore up Muhammad's letter and commanded Badhan, his vassal ruler of Yemen, to dispatch two valiant men to identify, seize and bring this man from Hijaz (Muhammad) to him. Meanwhile, back in Madinah, Abdullah told Muhammad how Khosrow had torn his letter to pieces and Muhammad's only reply was, "May his kingdom tear apart", and predicted that Khosrow's own son would kill him. The narration carries on with accounts of their encounter and dialogue with Muhammad and conversion of Badhan (Bāzān) and the whole Yemenite Persians to Islam subsequent to receipt of shocking tidings of Khosrow’s murder by his own son, Kavadh II.
The love of Khosrow for his Christian wife Shīrīn was celebrated by the poets, especially by the 12th-century poet Neẓāmī in Khosrow-va-Shīrīn.
Khosrau II see Khusraw II Parwiz.
Khosrow II see Khusraw II Parwiz.
Chosroes II see Khusraw II Parwiz.
Xosrov II see Khusraw II Parwiz.
Parvez see Khusraw II Parwiz.
The Ever Victorious see Khusraw II Parwiz.
Khusraw II Parwiz. (Khosrau II) (Khosrow II) (Chosroes II) (Xosrov II) (Parvez -- "the Ever Victorious") (d. 628). The twenty-second Sassanid (Sasanian) King of Persia, reigning from 590 to 628. He was the son of Hormizd IV (reigned 579–590) and grandson of Khosrau I (reigned 531–579). He was the last great ruler of this dynasty before the invading Arabs overran the Persian Empire. In 602, he overthrew al-Nu‘man III ibn al-Mundhir and established direct Persian rule. Shirin, known from the very popular theme of Farhad and Shirin, was his favorite wife. Some historians note that the game of chess was invented during the reign of Khusraw II Parwiz.
Khosrow II, byname Khusraw II Parvīz (Persian: “Khusraw the Victorious”), was the Sāsānian king of Persia (reigned 590–628), under whom the Sasanian empire achieved its greatest expansion. Defeated at last in a war with the Byzantines, he was deposed in a palace revolution and executed.
The son of Hormizd IV, Khosrow was proclaimed king in 590 in turbulent times. Hormizd’s general, Bahrām Chūbīn, after his defeat by the Byzantine army at Lazica, had been openly insulted by the king. During a subsequent palace revolt led by Bostām and Bindōē (brothers-in-law of Hormizd), which culminated in the king’s assassination, Bahrām Chūbīn renounced the allegiance of his army to the monarchy and forced the new king Khosrow to flee to Mesopotamia. Khosrow’s pursuers were held off by the military tactics of his uncle Bindōē, until eventually the Byzantine emperor Maurice provided Khosrow with forces to defeat his adversary. Bahrām Chūbīn was subsequently assassinated.
Insecure and unpopular, Khosrow now eliminated those connected with his father’s murder, including Bindōē, on whose support he had relied. Although he retained a bodyguard of Byzantine legionaries, he resented the Byzantine presence in Armenia, which he had been forced to cede. Using the murder of Maurice (602) and his replacement as emperor by Phocas as a pretext and encouraged by the fact that Narces, who had commanded the Byzantine force that established Khosrow on the throne, refused to recognize Phocas, Khosrow’s armies invaded Armenia and Mesopotamia. The Byzantine forces in Mesopotamia were weak, and the towns of Dara, Amida, and Edessa soon fell (604). Crossing the Euphrates, Khosrow took Hierapolis and Beroea (Aleppo). Internal dissensions made the eastern Byzantine provinces easy prey, and Armenia and central Asia Minor were overrun by the Persians—though apparently not permanently occupied or administered. Nor was the Persian advance checked when Heraclius became emperor in 610 and sued for peace.
A second invasion of Mesopotamia, by Khosrow’s ablest general, Shahrbarāz, took place in 613. Damascus was taken in that year, and in 614 Jerusalem fell. The Holy Sepulchre was destroyed and the True Cross carried to Ctesiphon. Although Khosrow himself was generally tolerant of Christianity, Shahrbarāz permitted thousands of Christian prisoners to be tortured by his Jewish aides. In 616 Alexandria was captured, and in 617 Chalcedon (opposite Byzantium), which had long been under siege by another of Khosrow’s generals, Shāhīn, finally fell to the Persians.
This tide of conquest was turned by Heraclius in a series of brilliant campaigns between 622 and 627. Since he retained command of the sea, Heraclius was able to sail to Issus and rout the Persian army near the Armenian border. In alliance with the Khazar kingdom north of the Caucasus, he invaded Armenia again in 623, gaining victory over the King’s army near Canzaca. The town and fire temple were destroyed, together with the temple at Lake Urmia, traditionally associated with Zoroaster. The campaigns of 624 and 625 ranged across northern Syria and Mesopotamia and culminated in a reversal for Shahrbarāz’ forces on the river Saras.
Khosrow rallied his forces in 626 and, in alliance with the Avars, a people who were also in conflict with Byzantium at this time, sent one army to besiege Constantinople and another to oppose Heraclius. Constantinople held, and Shāhīn was defeated; the Persian second force was outmaneuvered in 628 by Heraclius’ brave dash to Dastagird, the royal residence 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Ctesiphon. An important but indecisive battle was fought near Nineveh, but, as the Byzantine army re-approached Dastagird, Khosrow fled. His letters calling Shahrbarāz to his aid had been intercepted, and, although his resources were by now drastically reduced, he refused peace terms.
Khosrow’s prestige was shattered, and he was now sick. The execution of Shahrbarāz and the desecration of Shāhīn’s corpse were followed by revolution in the royal household. Khosrow was condemned to death and executed (628), and his youngest son and heir, Mardānshāh, was murdered before his eyes. His eldest son, Kavadh (Qobad) II, Shērōē, signed the peace.
Khosrow was a serious patron of the arts; silverworking and carpet weaving reached their peak during his reign. Sources tell of the enormous “Spring of Khosrow,” a carpet whose design was a garden. A splendid silver dish in the Bibliothèque Nationale is thought to depict him in the traditional Sāsānian royal hunt. Most authorities attribute to Khosrow II the grottos at Taq-e Bostan (Kermanshah), taking them as evidence of a renaissance of rock sculpture in his reign. The reliefs depict the King in hunting scenes and standing motionless listening to a group of harpists—a reminder of the famous musicians Bārbad and Sarkash, who were kept at Khosrow’s court. His architectural work is chiefly known from the ruins of the enormous palace Imirat-e Khosrow near Qasr-e Shīrīn (near Khānaqīn) and at nearby Hawsk-Kuri. A provincial palace exists at Qaṣr al-Mushattā, Jordan.
Booty and taxes brought Khosrow enormous wealth, including thousands of elephants, camels, horses, and women. The 9th-century Arab historian aṭ-Ṭabarī describes his golden throne supported by legs of rubies, as well as such curios as a piece of malleable gold and an asbestos napkin. But, despite widespread trade connections and the amassing of individual fortunes, there is no evidence that the economy flourished. High taxation and the uncertainties of war did nothing for the merchant class. By creating a military aristocracy, Khosrow II had weakened the authority of the king, while his administrative reforms and bureaucratic centralization removed the power of regional dynasties and their feudal armies, which might have resisted the invasion of the Arabs 12 years after Khosrow’s death. Already in 611 the Arabs had inflicted a defeat on the Sāsānian army at Dhu-Qar. The destruction by Khosrow II of the Christian Arab states of the Lakhmids and Ghassānids in Syria and western Iraq was a further factor exposing Iran to Arab attack.
Khosrow is also remembered in Islamic tradition to be the Persian king to whom Muhammad had sent a messenger, Abdullah ibn Hudhafah as-Sahmi, along with a letter in which Khosrow was asked to preach the religion of Islam. The letter read:
"In the name of God, Most Gracious, Ever Merciful
"From Muhammad, Messenger of God, to Chosroes, Ruler of Persia. Peace be on him who follows the guidance, believes in God and His Messenger and bears witness that there is no one worthy of worship save God, the One, without associate, and that Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger. I invite you to the Call of God, as I am the Messenger of God to the whole of mankind, so that I may warn every living person and so that the truth may become clear and the judgment of God may overtake the disbelievers. I call upon you to accept Islam and thus make yourself secure. If you turn away, you will bear the sins of your Zoroastrian subjects."
The Persian historian Tabari reported that in outrage, Khosrow tore up Muhammad's letter and commanded Badhan, his vassal ruler of Yemen, to dispatch two valiant men to identify, seize and bring this man from Hijaz (Muhammad) to him. Meanwhile, back in Madinah, Abdullah told Muhammad how Khosrow had torn his letter to pieces and Muhammad's only reply was, "May his kingdom tear apart", and predicted that Khosrow's own son would kill him. The narration carries on with accounts of their encounter and dialogue with Muhammad and conversion of Badhan (Bāzān) and the whole Yemenite Persians to Islam subsequent to receipt of shocking tidings of Khosrow’s murder by his own son, Kavadh II.
The love of Khosrow for his Christian wife Shīrīn was celebrated by the poets, especially by the 12th-century poet Neẓāmī in Khosrow-va-Shīrīn.
Khosrau II see Khusraw II Parwiz.
Khosrow II see Khusraw II Parwiz.
Chosroes II see Khusraw II Parwiz.
Xosrov II see Khusraw II Parwiz.
Parvez see Khusraw II Parwiz.
The Ever Victorious see Khusraw II Parwiz.
Khusraw Firuz
Khusraw Firuz (al-Malik al-Rahim) (Abu Nasr Khusrau Firuz) (Abu Nasr al-Malik al-Rahim Khusraw Firuz) (1009-1059). Last Buyid ruler of Fars and Khuzistan (Iraq). He ruled from October 1048 to 1055. The son of Abu Kalijar, upon his father's death, he took the throne in Baghdad with the title "al-Malik al-Rahim." The Buyid state came to an end when the Seljuk Toghrul took control of Iraq in 1055. Khusraw Firuz died a prisoner in Ray in 1059.
Firuz, Khusraw see Khusraw Firuz
Malik al-Rahim, al- see Khusraw Firuz
Rahim, al-Malik al- see Khusraw Firuz
Abu Nasr al-Malik al-Rahim Khusraw Firuz see Khusraw Firuz
Abu Nasr Khusrau Firuz see Khusraw Firuz
Khusraw Firuz (al-Malik al-Rahim) (Abu Nasr Khusrau Firuz) (Abu Nasr al-Malik al-Rahim Khusraw Firuz) (1009-1059). Last Buyid ruler of Fars and Khuzistan (Iraq). He ruled from October 1048 to 1055. The son of Abu Kalijar, upon his father's death, he took the throne in Baghdad with the title "al-Malik al-Rahim." The Buyid state came to an end when the Seljuk Toghrul took control of Iraq in 1055. Khusraw Firuz died a prisoner in Ray in 1059.
Firuz, Khusraw see Khusraw Firuz
Malik al-Rahim, al- see Khusraw Firuz
Rahim, al-Malik al- see Khusraw Firuz
Abu Nasr al-Malik al-Rahim Khusraw Firuz see Khusraw Firuz
Abu Nasr Khusrau Firuz see Khusraw Firuz
Khuza‘a
Khuza‘a (Banu Khuza'a). Ancient tribe of obscure origin, whose main area of abode was between Mecca and Medina and who had close relations with the Quraysh. A branch of this tribe, the Ka‘b ibn ‘Amr, played a decisive role in the struggle between Mecca and the Prophet. Their meritorious attitude is fairly reflected in Muslim hadith.
At an unknown date the Banu Khuza'a wrested control of the Mecca Valley and its well from the Banu Jarham. In the fifth century of the Christian calendar, the Banu Khuza'a lost their authority over the Ka'ba to the allied tribe of the Quraysh.led by Qusai ibn Kilab, who had married a woman from the Khuza'a. The Khuza'a became allies of the Quraysh and fought with them in the Year of the Elephant (570) against the forces of Abraha.
In 630, the Khuza'a were attacked by the Banu Bakr, allies of the Quraysh. Since the Khuza'a had by that time allied with Muhammad, this attack constituted a breach of the Treaty of Hudaybiyya. The Treaty of Hudaybiyya had brought about a truce between the Muslims and the Quraysh. The breach of the truce led to renew hostilities and ultimately to the Muslim conquest of Mecca.
Banu Khuza'a see Khuza‘a
Khuza‘a (Banu Khuza'a). Ancient tribe of obscure origin, whose main area of abode was between Mecca and Medina and who had close relations with the Quraysh. A branch of this tribe, the Ka‘b ibn ‘Amr, played a decisive role in the struggle between Mecca and the Prophet. Their meritorious attitude is fairly reflected in Muslim hadith.
At an unknown date the Banu Khuza'a wrested control of the Mecca Valley and its well from the Banu Jarham. In the fifth century of the Christian calendar, the Banu Khuza'a lost their authority over the Ka'ba to the allied tribe of the Quraysh.led by Qusai ibn Kilab, who had married a woman from the Khuza'a. The Khuza'a became allies of the Quraysh and fought with them in the Year of the Elephant (570) against the forces of Abraha.
In 630, the Khuza'a were attacked by the Banu Bakr, allies of the Quraysh. Since the Khuza'a had by that time allied with Muhammad, this attack constituted a breach of the Treaty of Hudaybiyya. The Treaty of Hudaybiyya had brought about a truce between the Muslims and the Quraysh. The breach of the truce led to renew hostilities and ultimately to the Muslim conquest of Mecca.
Banu Khuza'a see Khuza‘a
Khwafi Khan, Muhammad Hashim
Khwafi Khan, Muhammad Hashim (Muhammad Hashim Khwafi Khan) (Khwafi Muhammad Hashim Khan Nizam al-Mulk) (c.1664-1732). Persian historian. He is known for his history of the Indian branch of the Timurid dynasties, the most valuable parts being the accounts of the Mughal Emperors Shah Jahan I and Aurangzib.
Muhammad Hashim Khwafi Khan see Khwafi Khan, Muhammad Hashim
Khwafi Muhammad Hashim Khan Nizam al-Mulk see Khwafi Khan, Muhammad Hashim
Khwafi Khan, Muhammad Hashim (Muhammad Hashim Khwafi Khan) (Khwafi Muhammad Hashim Khan Nizam al-Mulk) (c.1664-1732). Persian historian. He is known for his history of the Indian branch of the Timurid dynasties, the most valuable parts being the accounts of the Mughal Emperors Shah Jahan I and Aurangzib.
Muhammad Hashim Khwafi Khan see Khwafi Khan, Muhammad Hashim
Khwafi Muhammad Hashim Khan Nizam al-Mulk see Khwafi Khan, Muhammad Hashim
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (Abu Isma'il 'Abdullah ibn Abi Mansour Mohammad) (Khajah Abdullah Ansari) (1006-1088/1089). Also called Pir-i Herat (“Sufi Master of Herat”). A brilliant youth, he studied in Nishapur under Shafi‘ite teachers but later adopted the more severe Hanbali school. He was born in Herat and spent most of his life in that city. A much celebrated Sufi poet and philosopher and “mystic of love,” he became a “mystic of tawhid” -- the “mystic of unity.” He wrote both in Arabic and Persian. His Arabic poetry is said to contain more than 6,000 couplets, and his Persian poetry is said to amount to about 14,000 verses. His most famous work, Munajat Namah (Dialogues with God), is considered a masterpiece of Persian literature. His tomb is in Gazargah, near Herat, amid ruins from the Timurid period.
Abu Ismaïl Abdullah ibn Abi-Mansour Mohammad or Khajah Abdullah Ansari of Herat was a famous Persian Sufi who lived in the 11th century in Herat (then Khorasan, now a city of Afghanistan). He is known as the Pious of Herat as he lived and died in Herat city. He is also known as "Shaikul Mashayekh" [Master of (Sufi) Masters] and his other title was "Shaikhul Islam".
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari was the disciple of Shaikh Abul Hassan Kharaqani, for whom he had deep respect. He wrote several books on Islamic mysticism and philosophy in Persian and Arabic. His most famous work is "Munajat Namah" (literally 'Litanies or dialogues with God'), which is considered a masterpiece of Persian literature. After his death, his students and disciples compiled his teachings about the Tafsir of Qu'ran, and named it "Kashful Asrar". This is the best and lengthiest Sufi Tafsir of Qu'ran, being published several times in 10 volumes.
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari excelled in the knowledge of Hadith, history, and Ilm ul-Ansaab. He used to avoid the company of the rich, powerful and the influential. His yearly majlis-e-wa'az was attended by people from far and wide. Whatever his disciples and followers used to present to him was handed over to the poor and the needy. He is said to have had a very impressive personality, and used to dress gracefully. One of his most significant and ardent followers was Imam Ibn Taymiyah.
He practiced the Hanbali fiqh, one of the four Sunni schools of law or jurisprudence. His shrine, built during the Timurid Dynasty, is a popular pilgrimage site for Persians/Tajiks.
The books (in Persian) of Khwaja Abdullah Ansari include:
* Munajat Namah
* Nasayeh
* Zad-ul Arefeen
* Kanz-ul Salikeen
* Haft Hesar
* Elahi Namah
* Muhabbat Namah
* Qalandar Namah
* Resala-é Del o Jan
* Resala-é Waredat
* Sad Maidan
* Resala Manaqib Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal
The books (in Arabic) of Khwaja Abdullah Ansari include:
* Anwar al-Tahqeeq
* Zem al-Kalam
* Manāzel al-Sā'erīn
* Kitaab al-Frooq
* Kitaab al-Arba'een
Ansari, Khwaja Abdullah see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Pir-i Herat see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Sufi Master of Herat see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Abu Isma'il 'Abdullah ibn Abi Mansour Mohammad see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Shaikhul Mashayekh see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Mystic of Love see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (Abu Isma'il 'Abdullah ibn Abi Mansour Mohammad) (Khajah Abdullah Ansari) (1006-1088/1089). Also called Pir-i Herat (“Sufi Master of Herat”). A brilliant youth, he studied in Nishapur under Shafi‘ite teachers but later adopted the more severe Hanbali school. He was born in Herat and spent most of his life in that city. A much celebrated Sufi poet and philosopher and “mystic of love,” he became a “mystic of tawhid” -- the “mystic of unity.” He wrote both in Arabic and Persian. His Arabic poetry is said to contain more than 6,000 couplets, and his Persian poetry is said to amount to about 14,000 verses. His most famous work, Munajat Namah (Dialogues with God), is considered a masterpiece of Persian literature. His tomb is in Gazargah, near Herat, amid ruins from the Timurid period.
Abu Ismaïl Abdullah ibn Abi-Mansour Mohammad or Khajah Abdullah Ansari of Herat was a famous Persian Sufi who lived in the 11th century in Herat (then Khorasan, now a city of Afghanistan). He is known as the Pious of Herat as he lived and died in Herat city. He is also known as "Shaikul Mashayekh" [Master of (Sufi) Masters] and his other title was "Shaikhul Islam".
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari was the disciple of Shaikh Abul Hassan Kharaqani, for whom he had deep respect. He wrote several books on Islamic mysticism and philosophy in Persian and Arabic. His most famous work is "Munajat Namah" (literally 'Litanies or dialogues with God'), which is considered a masterpiece of Persian literature. After his death, his students and disciples compiled his teachings about the Tafsir of Qu'ran, and named it "Kashful Asrar". This is the best and lengthiest Sufi Tafsir of Qu'ran, being published several times in 10 volumes.
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari excelled in the knowledge of Hadith, history, and Ilm ul-Ansaab. He used to avoid the company of the rich, powerful and the influential. His yearly majlis-e-wa'az was attended by people from far and wide. Whatever his disciples and followers used to present to him was handed over to the poor and the needy. He is said to have had a very impressive personality, and used to dress gracefully. One of his most significant and ardent followers was Imam Ibn Taymiyah.
He practiced the Hanbali fiqh, one of the four Sunni schools of law or jurisprudence. His shrine, built during the Timurid Dynasty, is a popular pilgrimage site for Persians/Tajiks.
The books (in Persian) of Khwaja Abdullah Ansari include:
* Munajat Namah
* Nasayeh
* Zad-ul Arefeen
* Kanz-ul Salikeen
* Haft Hesar
* Elahi Namah
* Muhabbat Namah
* Qalandar Namah
* Resala-é Del o Jan
* Resala-é Waredat
* Sad Maidan
* Resala Manaqib Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal
The books (in Arabic) of Khwaja Abdullah Ansari include:
* Anwar al-Tahqeeq
* Zem al-Kalam
* Manāzel al-Sā'erīn
* Kitaab al-Frooq
* Kitaab al-Arba'een
Ansari, Khwaja Abdullah see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Pir-i Herat see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Sufi Master of Herat see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Abu Isma'il 'Abdullah ibn Abi Mansour Mohammad see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Shaikhul Mashayekh see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Mystic of Love see Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Khwaja ‘Ubayd Allah Ahrar
Khwaja ‘Ubayd Allah Ahrar (1404-1490). Shaykh of the Naqshbandiyya order. Under his guidance, the order became firmly rooted in Central Asia.
Ahrar, Khwaja 'Ubayd Allah see Khwaja ‘Ubayd Allah Ahrar
Khwaja ‘Ubayd Allah Ahrar (1404-1490). Shaykh of the Naqshbandiyya order. Under his guidance, the order became firmly rooted in Central Asia.
Ahrar, Khwaja 'Ubayd Allah see Khwaja ‘Ubayd Allah Ahrar
Khwaju, Kamal al-Din
Khwaju, Kamal al-Din (Kamal al-Din Khwaju) (Khwaju Kermani) (1280-1352). Persian poet from Kirman. He attained celebrity as an ingenious and skillful ghazal writer. He is buried in Shiraz, Iran, and his tomb is a popular tourist attraction today.
Kamal al-Din Khwaju see Khwaju, Kamal al-Din
Khwaju Kermani see Khwaju, Kamal al-Din
Kermani, Khwaju see Khwaju, Kamal al-Din
Khwaju, Kamal al-Din (Kamal al-Din Khwaju) (Khwaju Kermani) (1280-1352). Persian poet from Kirman. He attained celebrity as an ingenious and skillful ghazal writer. He is buried in Shiraz, Iran, and his tomb is a popular tourist attraction today.
Kamal al-Din Khwaju see Khwaju, Kamal al-Din
Khwaju Kermani see Khwaju, Kamal al-Din
Kermani, Khwaju see Khwaju, Kamal al-Din
Khwandamir
Khwandamir (Khvandamir) (Muhammad Khwandamir) (Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad Khwandamir) (Ghiyāś ad-Dīn Moḥammad Khwāndamīr) (c.1475-c.1535). Surname of the Persian historian Ghiyath al-Din. His most valuable work is a general history from the earliest times down to the end of the reign of Shah Isma‘il. He was born in Herat and was buried in Delhi.
Khvandamir see Khwandamir
Muhammad Khwandamir see Khwandamir
Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad Khwandamir see Khwandamir
Ghiyāś ad-Dīn Moḥammad Khwāndamīr see Khwandamir
Khwandamir (Khvandamir) (Muhammad Khwandamir) (Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad Khwandamir) (Ghiyāś ad-Dīn Moḥammad Khwāndamīr) (c.1475-c.1535). Surname of the Persian historian Ghiyath al-Din. His most valuable work is a general history from the earliest times down to the end of the reign of Shah Isma‘il. He was born in Herat and was buried in Delhi.
Khvandamir see Khwandamir
Muhammad Khwandamir see Khwandamir
Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad Khwandamir see Khwandamir
Ghiyāś ad-Dīn Moḥammad Khwāndamīr see Khwandamir
Khwansari, Sayyid Mirza
Khwansari, Sayyid Mirza (Sayyid Mirza Khwansari) (1811-1895). Persian religious scholar and writer. He is best known for a biographical dictionary, which has enjoyed a great reputation.
Sayyid Mirza Khwansari see Khwansari, Sayyid Mirza
Khwansari, Sayyid Mirza (Sayyid Mirza Khwansari) (1811-1895). Persian religious scholar and writer. He is best known for a biographical dictionary, which has enjoyed a great reputation.
Sayyid Mirza Khwansari see Khwansari, Sayyid Mirza
Khwansari, Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi
Khwansari, Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi (Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi Khwansari). Twentieth century Shi‘a mujtahid of distinguished piety. He was recognized as marja’-i taqlid and, among other things, sanctioned Mosaddeq’s measures towards the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi Khwansari see Khwansari, Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi
Khwansari, Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi (Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi Khwansari). Twentieth century Shi‘a mujtahid of distinguished piety. He was recognized as marja’-i taqlid and, among other things, sanctioned Mosaddeq’s measures towards the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi Khwansari see Khwansari, Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi
Khwarazmi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Khwarazmi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al- (Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Khwarazmi). See Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-.
Abu 'Abd Allah al-Khwarazmi see Khwarazmi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarazmi see Khwarazmi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Khwarazmi, Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa see Khwarazmi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Khwarazmi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al- (Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Khwarazmi). See Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-.
Abu 'Abd Allah al-Khwarazmi see Khwarazmi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarazmi see Khwarazmi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Khwarazmi, Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa see Khwarazmi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Khwarazmi, Abu Bakr al-
Khwarazmi, Abu Bakr al- (Abu Bakr al-Khwarazmi) (934-993). Arabic poet and writer. He was the author of an excellent diwan and fine epistles. He was famed for his prodigious memory.
Abu Bakr al-Khwarazmi see Khwarazmi, Abu Bakr al-
Khwarazmi, Abu Bakr al- (Abu Bakr al-Khwarazmi) (934-993). Arabic poet and writer. He was the author of an excellent diwan and fine epistles. He was famed for his prodigious memory.
Abu Bakr al-Khwarazmi see Khwarazmi, Abu Bakr al-
Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al- (Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarazmi) (Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi) (Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi) (Algorizm) (c,770-c.840). Mathematician, astronomer and geographer. His name still lies in the term algorithm. His Algebra (in Arabic, al-jabr) was translated partially by Robert of Chester as Liber algebras et almucabola, and shortly afterwards by Gerard of Cremona as De jebra et almucabola. In this way, there was introduced into Europe a science completely unknown until then. Almost at the same time an adaptation of his Arithmetic using Hindu-Arabic numerals, which today are “Arabic numerals,” was made known in Spain in a Latin version by John of Seville.
Al-Khwarazmi was born in Khwarizm (Kheva), a town south of the Oxus River in present day Uzbekistan. His parents migrated to a place south of Baghdad when he was a child. The exact date of his birth is not known. It has been established from his contributions that he flourished under Khalifah (Caliph) al-Mamun who reigned from 813 to 833 at Baghdad. Al-Khwarizmi is best known for introducing the mathematical concept algorithm, which is named after him.
Al-Khwarizmi was one of the greatest mathematicians that ever lived. He was the founder of several branches and basic concepts of mathematics. He is also famous as an astronomer and geographer. Al-Khwarizmi influenced mathematical thought to a greater extent than any other medieval writer. He is recognized as the founder of algebra, as he not only initiated the subject in a systematic form but also developed it to the extent of giving analytical solutions of linear and quadratic equations. The name algebra is derived from al-Khwarizmi’s famous book Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah. Al-Khwarizmi developed in detail trigonometric tables containing the sine functions, which were later extrapolated to tangent functions. Al-Khwarizmi also developed the calculus of two errors, which led him to the concept of differentiation. He also refined the geometric representation of conic sections.
The influence of al-Khwarizmi on the growth of mathematics, astronomy and geography is well established in history. His approach was systematic and logical, and not only did he bring together the then prevailing knowledge on various branches of science but also enriched it through his original contributions. He synthesized Greek and Hindu knowledge and also contained his own contribution of fundamental importance to mathematics and science. He adopted the use of zero, a numeral of fundamental importance, leading up to the so-called arithmetic of positions and the decimal system. His pioneering work on the system of numerals is well known as Algorithm, or Algorizm. In addition to introducing the Arabic numerals, he developed several arithmetical procedures, including operations on fractions.
In addition to an important treatise on astronomy, al-Khwarizmi wrote a book on astronomical tables. Several of his books were translated into Latin in the early twelfth century by Adelard of Bath and Gerard of Cremona. The treatise on arithmetic (Kitab al-Jam‘a wal-Tafreeq bil Hisab al-Hindi, and the one on algebra (al-Maqala fi Hisab al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah), are known only from Latin translations. It was this later translation which introduced the new mathematics to Europe -- to the West. Until this translation was made, the new math was unknown to Europeans. Al-Khwarizmi’s Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah was used until the sixteenth century as the principal mathematical text book of European universities. His astronomical tables were also translated into European languages and, later, into Chinese.
The contribution of al-Khwarizmi to geography is also outstanding. He not only revised Ptolemy’s views on geography, but also corrected them in detail. Seventy geographers worked under Khwarizimi’s leadership and they produced the first map of the then known world in 830. He is also reported to have collaborated in the degree measurements ordered by khalifah (Caliph) Mamun al-Rashid that were aimed at measuring the volume and circumference of the earth. His geography book entitled Kitab Surat-al-Ard, including maps, was also translated. His other contributions include original work related to clocks, sundials and astrolabes. He also wrote Kitab al-Tarikh and Kitab al-Rukhmat (on sundials). Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi died around 840.
Very little is known of the life of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. The name al-Khwarismi means literally “the man from Khwarizm;” the epithet may also, however, be interpreted to indicate the origin of one’s “stock.” The historian al-Tabari asserts that al-Khwarizmi actually came from Qutrubull, a district not far from Baghdad, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Some sources even give his place of birth as Baghdad. Historians do agree that he lived in Baghdad in the early ninth century under the caliphates of al-Ma’mun and al-Mu‘tasim, whose reigns spanned the years from 813 to 842.
In Kitab al-Fihrist (Book of Chronicles -- c. 987), Ibn Abi Yaqub al-Nadim’s entry on al-Khwarizmi reads: al-Khwarizmi. His name was Muhammad ibn Musa and his family origin was from Khwarazm. He was temporarily associated with the Treasury of the “House of Wisdom” of al-Ma’mun. He was one of the leading scholars in astronomy. People both before and after the observations [conducted under al-Ma’mun] used to rely on his first and second zijes [astronomical tables] which were both known by the name Sindhind. His books are (as follows): (1) the Zij, in two [editions], the first and second; (2) the book on sundials; (3) the book on the use of the astrolabe; (4) the book on the construction of the astrolabe; and (5) the [chronicle].
Al-Nadim’s list is, however, incomplete. He mentions only the astronomical studies and omits an algebra, an arithmetic, a study of the quadrivium, and an adaptation of Ptolemy’s geography. Al-Khwarizmi was apparently well-known in Baghdad for his scholarly works on astronomy and mathematics. His inheritance tables on the distribution of money were widely used.
Al-Khwarizmi is credited by early Arab scholars Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) and Katib Celebi (1609-1657) with being the first mathematician to write about algebra. The word “algebra” comes from the second word of the title, Kitab al-jabr wa al-muquabalah. It is his best known work. Literally, the title means “the book of integration and equation.” It contained rules for arithmetical solutions of linear and quadratic equations, for elementary geometry, and for inheritance problems concerning the distribution of wealth according to proportions. The algebra was based on a long tradition originating in Babylonian mathematics of the early second millennium B.C.T. When it was first translated into Latin in the twelfth century, the rules for the distribution of wealth, which had been so popular in the Near East, were omitted. Translated into English from a Latin version in 1915 by Louis Charles Karpinski, the book opens with a pious exhortation which reveals al-Khwarizmi’s belief in an ordered universe. In the same introduction, al-Khwarizmi describes three kinds of numbers, “roots, squares, and numbers.”
The first six chapters of al-Khwarizmi’s algebra deal with the following mathematical relationships: “Concerning roots equal to roots,” “Concerning squares equal to numbers,” “Concerning roots equal to numbers,” “Concerning squares and roots equal to numbers,” “Concerning squares and numbers equal to roots,” and “Concerning roots and numbers equal to a square.” These chapters are followed by illustrative geometrical demonstrations and then many problems with their solutions.Some of his problems are purely formal, whereas others appear in practical contexts. An interesting chapter on mercantile transactions asserts that “mercantile transactions and all things pertaining thereto involve two ideas and four numbers.”
For Muslims, al-Khwarizmis astronomical works are perhaps even more important than his algebra. His astronomical tables were used for accurate timekeeping. In Islam, the times of the five daily prayers are determined by the apparent position of the sun in the sky and vary naturally throughout the year. In al-Khwarizmi’s work on the construction and use of the astrolabe, the times of midday and afternoon prayers are determined by measuring shadow lengths. These timekeeping techniques were widely used for centuries.
Al-Khwarizmi also created tables to compute the local direction of Mecca. This is fundamental to Muslims because it is the direction in which they face when they pray, bury their dead, and perform various ritual acts. It is no wonder that in Islamic texts, al-Khwarizmi is referred to as “the astronomer.”
Al-Khwarizmi’s book on arithmetic has been preserved in only one version. Translated into Latin and published in Rome in 1857 by Prince Baldassare Boncompagni, al-Khwarizmi’s Algoritmi de numero indorum appears as part 1 of a volume entitled Tratti d’aritmetica. The title means “al-Khwarizmi concerning the Hindu art of numbering.” This is the derivation of the word “algorithm.” The arithmetic introduced Arabic numerals and the art of calculating by decimal notation. The only copy of this work is in the Cambridge University library.
Al-Khwarizmi’s study of the quadrivium -- the medieval curriculum of arithmetic, music, astronomy, and geometry -- is entitled Liber y sagogarum Alchorismi in artem astronomican a magistro A. compositus (1126). It was the first of al-Khwarizmi’s writings to appear in Europe. The identity of the writer “A” is not certain, but he is assumed to be the scholar Adelard of Bath, who is known as the translator of al-Khwarizmi’s tables. These trigonometric tables were among the first of the Arabic studies in mathematics to appear in Europe.
Al-Khwarizmi enjoyed an excellent reputation among his fellow Arab scholars. Some of his numerical examples were repeated for centuries, becoming so standardized that many subsequent mathematicians did not consider it necessary to acknowledge al-Khwarizmi as the source.
The geography Kitab surat al-ard (Book of the Form of the Earth) differs in several respects from Ptolemy’s geography. Like Ptolemy’s, it is a description of a world map and contains a list of the coordinates of the principal places on it, but al-Khwarizmi’s arrangement is radically different, and it is clear that the map to which it refers is not the same as the map which Ptolemy described. It is supposed that al-Khwarizmi’s world map was the one constructed for al-Ma’mun. This map was an improvement over Ptolemy’s, correcting distortions in the supposed length of the Mediterranean. It was far more accurate, too, in its description of the areas under Islamic rule. Because it contained errors of its own, however, the geography written by al-Khwarizmi failed to replace the Ptolemaic geography used in Europe.
Al-Khwarizmi’s importance in the history of mathematics is not debatable. Two notable arithmetic books, Alexander de Villa Dei’s Carmen de Algorismo (twelfth century) and Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Algorismus vulgaris (thirteenth century), owe much to al-Khwarizmi’s arithmetic and were widely used for several hundred years. In the ninth century, Abu Kamil drew on al-Khwarizmi’s works for his own writings on algebra. In turn, Leonardo of Pisa, a thirteenth century scholar, was influenced by Abu Kamil. Numerous commentaries on Abu Kamil’s work kept al-Khwarizmi’s influence alive in the Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance.
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarazmi see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Kharizmi see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Kharizmi, Muhammad ibn Musa al- see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Khwarizmi, Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Algorizm see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al- (Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarazmi) (Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi) (Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi) (Algorizm) (c,770-c.840). Mathematician, astronomer and geographer. His name still lies in the term algorithm. His Algebra (in Arabic, al-jabr) was translated partially by Robert of Chester as Liber algebras et almucabola, and shortly afterwards by Gerard of Cremona as De jebra et almucabola. In this way, there was introduced into Europe a science completely unknown until then. Almost at the same time an adaptation of his Arithmetic using Hindu-Arabic numerals, which today are “Arabic numerals,” was made known in Spain in a Latin version by John of Seville.
Al-Khwarazmi was born in Khwarizm (Kheva), a town south of the Oxus River in present day Uzbekistan. His parents migrated to a place south of Baghdad when he was a child. The exact date of his birth is not known. It has been established from his contributions that he flourished under Khalifah (Caliph) al-Mamun who reigned from 813 to 833 at Baghdad. Al-Khwarizmi is best known for introducing the mathematical concept algorithm, which is named after him.
Al-Khwarizmi was one of the greatest mathematicians that ever lived. He was the founder of several branches and basic concepts of mathematics. He is also famous as an astronomer and geographer. Al-Khwarizmi influenced mathematical thought to a greater extent than any other medieval writer. He is recognized as the founder of algebra, as he not only initiated the subject in a systematic form but also developed it to the extent of giving analytical solutions of linear and quadratic equations. The name algebra is derived from al-Khwarizmi’s famous book Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah. Al-Khwarizmi developed in detail trigonometric tables containing the sine functions, which were later extrapolated to tangent functions. Al-Khwarizmi also developed the calculus of two errors, which led him to the concept of differentiation. He also refined the geometric representation of conic sections.
The influence of al-Khwarizmi on the growth of mathematics, astronomy and geography is well established in history. His approach was systematic and logical, and not only did he bring together the then prevailing knowledge on various branches of science but also enriched it through his original contributions. He synthesized Greek and Hindu knowledge and also contained his own contribution of fundamental importance to mathematics and science. He adopted the use of zero, a numeral of fundamental importance, leading up to the so-called arithmetic of positions and the decimal system. His pioneering work on the system of numerals is well known as Algorithm, or Algorizm. In addition to introducing the Arabic numerals, he developed several arithmetical procedures, including operations on fractions.
In addition to an important treatise on astronomy, al-Khwarizmi wrote a book on astronomical tables. Several of his books were translated into Latin in the early twelfth century by Adelard of Bath and Gerard of Cremona. The treatise on arithmetic (Kitab al-Jam‘a wal-Tafreeq bil Hisab al-Hindi, and the one on algebra (al-Maqala fi Hisab al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah), are known only from Latin translations. It was this later translation which introduced the new mathematics to Europe -- to the West. Until this translation was made, the new math was unknown to Europeans. Al-Khwarizmi’s Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah was used until the sixteenth century as the principal mathematical text book of European universities. His astronomical tables were also translated into European languages and, later, into Chinese.
The contribution of al-Khwarizmi to geography is also outstanding. He not only revised Ptolemy’s views on geography, but also corrected them in detail. Seventy geographers worked under Khwarizimi’s leadership and they produced the first map of the then known world in 830. He is also reported to have collaborated in the degree measurements ordered by khalifah (Caliph) Mamun al-Rashid that were aimed at measuring the volume and circumference of the earth. His geography book entitled Kitab Surat-al-Ard, including maps, was also translated. His other contributions include original work related to clocks, sundials and astrolabes. He also wrote Kitab al-Tarikh and Kitab al-Rukhmat (on sundials). Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi died around 840.
Very little is known of the life of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. The name al-Khwarismi means literally “the man from Khwarizm;” the epithet may also, however, be interpreted to indicate the origin of one’s “stock.” The historian al-Tabari asserts that al-Khwarizmi actually came from Qutrubull, a district not far from Baghdad, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Some sources even give his place of birth as Baghdad. Historians do agree that he lived in Baghdad in the early ninth century under the caliphates of al-Ma’mun and al-Mu‘tasim, whose reigns spanned the years from 813 to 842.
In Kitab al-Fihrist (Book of Chronicles -- c. 987), Ibn Abi Yaqub al-Nadim’s entry on al-Khwarizmi reads: al-Khwarizmi. His name was Muhammad ibn Musa and his family origin was from Khwarazm. He was temporarily associated with the Treasury of the “House of Wisdom” of al-Ma’mun. He was one of the leading scholars in astronomy. People both before and after the observations [conducted under al-Ma’mun] used to rely on his first and second zijes [astronomical tables] which were both known by the name Sindhind. His books are (as follows): (1) the Zij, in two [editions], the first and second; (2) the book on sundials; (3) the book on the use of the astrolabe; (4) the book on the construction of the astrolabe; and (5) the [chronicle].
Al-Nadim’s list is, however, incomplete. He mentions only the astronomical studies and omits an algebra, an arithmetic, a study of the quadrivium, and an adaptation of Ptolemy’s geography. Al-Khwarizmi was apparently well-known in Baghdad for his scholarly works on astronomy and mathematics. His inheritance tables on the distribution of money were widely used.
Al-Khwarizmi is credited by early Arab scholars Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) and Katib Celebi (1609-1657) with being the first mathematician to write about algebra. The word “algebra” comes from the second word of the title, Kitab al-jabr wa al-muquabalah. It is his best known work. Literally, the title means “the book of integration and equation.” It contained rules for arithmetical solutions of linear and quadratic equations, for elementary geometry, and for inheritance problems concerning the distribution of wealth according to proportions. The algebra was based on a long tradition originating in Babylonian mathematics of the early second millennium B.C.T. When it was first translated into Latin in the twelfth century, the rules for the distribution of wealth, which had been so popular in the Near East, were omitted. Translated into English from a Latin version in 1915 by Louis Charles Karpinski, the book opens with a pious exhortation which reveals al-Khwarizmi’s belief in an ordered universe. In the same introduction, al-Khwarizmi describes three kinds of numbers, “roots, squares, and numbers.”
The first six chapters of al-Khwarizmi’s algebra deal with the following mathematical relationships: “Concerning roots equal to roots,” “Concerning squares equal to numbers,” “Concerning roots equal to numbers,” “Concerning squares and roots equal to numbers,” “Concerning squares and numbers equal to roots,” and “Concerning roots and numbers equal to a square.” These chapters are followed by illustrative geometrical demonstrations and then many problems with their solutions.Some of his problems are purely formal, whereas others appear in practical contexts. An interesting chapter on mercantile transactions asserts that “mercantile transactions and all things pertaining thereto involve two ideas and four numbers.”
For Muslims, al-Khwarizmis astronomical works are perhaps even more important than his algebra. His astronomical tables were used for accurate timekeeping. In Islam, the times of the five daily prayers are determined by the apparent position of the sun in the sky and vary naturally throughout the year. In al-Khwarizmi’s work on the construction and use of the astrolabe, the times of midday and afternoon prayers are determined by measuring shadow lengths. These timekeeping techniques were widely used for centuries.
Al-Khwarizmi also created tables to compute the local direction of Mecca. This is fundamental to Muslims because it is the direction in which they face when they pray, bury their dead, and perform various ritual acts. It is no wonder that in Islamic texts, al-Khwarizmi is referred to as “the astronomer.”
Al-Khwarizmi’s book on arithmetic has been preserved in only one version. Translated into Latin and published in Rome in 1857 by Prince Baldassare Boncompagni, al-Khwarizmi’s Algoritmi de numero indorum appears as part 1 of a volume entitled Tratti d’aritmetica. The title means “al-Khwarizmi concerning the Hindu art of numbering.” This is the derivation of the word “algorithm.” The arithmetic introduced Arabic numerals and the art of calculating by decimal notation. The only copy of this work is in the Cambridge University library.
Al-Khwarizmi’s study of the quadrivium -- the medieval curriculum of arithmetic, music, astronomy, and geometry -- is entitled Liber y sagogarum Alchorismi in artem astronomican a magistro A. compositus (1126). It was the first of al-Khwarizmi’s writings to appear in Europe. The identity of the writer “A” is not certain, but he is assumed to be the scholar Adelard of Bath, who is known as the translator of al-Khwarizmi’s tables. These trigonometric tables were among the first of the Arabic studies in mathematics to appear in Europe.
Al-Khwarizmi enjoyed an excellent reputation among his fellow Arab scholars. Some of his numerical examples were repeated for centuries, becoming so standardized that many subsequent mathematicians did not consider it necessary to acknowledge al-Khwarizmi as the source.
The geography Kitab surat al-ard (Book of the Form of the Earth) differs in several respects from Ptolemy’s geography. Like Ptolemy’s, it is a description of a world map and contains a list of the coordinates of the principal places on it, but al-Khwarizmi’s arrangement is radically different, and it is clear that the map to which it refers is not the same as the map which Ptolemy described. It is supposed that al-Khwarizmi’s world map was the one constructed for al-Ma’mun. This map was an improvement over Ptolemy’s, correcting distortions in the supposed length of the Mediterranean. It was far more accurate, too, in its description of the areas under Islamic rule. Because it contained errors of its own, however, the geography written by al-Khwarizmi failed to replace the Ptolemaic geography used in Europe.
Al-Khwarizmi’s importance in the history of mathematics is not debatable. Two notable arithmetic books, Alexander de Villa Dei’s Carmen de Algorismo (twelfth century) and Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Algorismus vulgaris (thirteenth century), owe much to al-Khwarizmi’s arithmetic and were widely used for several hundred years. In the ninth century, Abu Kamil drew on al-Khwarizmi’s works for his own writings on algebra. In turn, Leonardo of Pisa, a thirteenth century scholar, was influenced by Abu Kamil. Numerous commentaries on Abu Kamil’s work kept al-Khwarizmi’s influence alive in the Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance.
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarazmi see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Kharizmi see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Kharizmi, Muhammad ibn Musa al- see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Khwarizmi, Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Algorizm see Khwarazmi, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Musa al-
Khwarazmshah
Khwarazmshah. Title of sovereignty assumed by various dynasties who served as independent rulers of Khwarazm in both pre-Islamic and Islamic times. After the Arab conquest of Khwarazm in the early eighth century of the Christian calendar, the local dynasty remained nominally in power, but after the establishment of a secure hegemony by the rival Iranian dynasty of the Samanids in neighboring Khurasan (r.819-1005), any measure of real independence the Khwarazmshahs had previously possessed was effectively nullified.
The title passed to a succession of different rulers who, while titular heads of state, were in fact subservient to other regional powers, notably the Ghaznavids, who rose to prominence at the turn of the eleventh century. After three centuries of indeterminate rule, Khwarazmian independence was brought to a decisive end in 1042 with the imposition of direct rule over the province by the Seljuk Sultan Toghril Beg, who ruled in Nishapur. The title was revived once again in 1098 by a Turkish military governor named Bilge Tegin who ruled under the Islamic name Qutb al-Din Muhammad, and from the time of his son Atsiz (r.1128-1156) the bearers of the title ruled independently in both name and fact. It was during this last restoration of Khwarazmshah rule by a Turkic dynasty -- which boasted a title now stripped of most of its meaning as a claim to sovereignty over the predominantly Iranian peoples of the Ustyurt Plateau -- that the title and position achieved its greatest fame and notoriety under the successors of Atsiz. They stood as imperial competitors and military rivals on an equal footing with the Mongol chiefs and their armies, who were attempting to establish unchallenged domination over the Dasht-i Kipchak and surrounding areas in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.
The Khwarazm-Shahs comprised a Turkish dynasty in Khwarazmia (Transoxiana), later also in Turkestan, Afghanistan, Iran, and parts of Iraq (1077-1231). Their main capitals were Kuna Urgench and, from 1212 onward, Samarkand. The term Khwarazm-Shah is the ancient title of the rulers of Khwarazm, used regularly in the early Islamic period until the Mongol invasion, and sporadically thereafter. The dynasty’s founder, Anushtegin (1077-1097), came to prominence under the Seljuks, who appointed him governor of Khwarazmia. Under Qutb al-Din Muhammad (1097-1128) and Ala al-Din Aziz (1128-1156) the empire achieved substantial autonomy, expanded into Khorasan, and fell into conflict with the Seljuks from 1135. Il-Arslan (r. 1156-1172) appropriated the eastern Seljuks empire in 1157; Ala al-Din Tekish (r. 1172-1200) prevailed as the Seljuks’ successor in Iran and became the new protector of the caliph in Baghdad. The greatest expansion took place under Ala al-Din Muhammad (r. 1200-1220). After 1206, he took possession of the Ghurid empire in Afghanistan, moved through Transoxiana, and out towards Mongolia in the east, removing the Qarakhanids from Samarkand in 1212. In 1218, he provoked the invasion of the hordes of Jenghiz Khan and during his escape witnessed the collapse of his empire. His son, Jalal al-Din (r. 1220-1231) was murdered after a hazardous life as a fugitive. Subsequently, the empire fell to the Mongols.
Khwarazmshah. Title of sovereignty assumed by various dynasties who served as independent rulers of Khwarazm in both pre-Islamic and Islamic times. After the Arab conquest of Khwarazm in the early eighth century of the Christian calendar, the local dynasty remained nominally in power, but after the establishment of a secure hegemony by the rival Iranian dynasty of the Samanids in neighboring Khurasan (r.819-1005), any measure of real independence the Khwarazmshahs had previously possessed was effectively nullified.
The title passed to a succession of different rulers who, while titular heads of state, were in fact subservient to other regional powers, notably the Ghaznavids, who rose to prominence at the turn of the eleventh century. After three centuries of indeterminate rule, Khwarazmian independence was brought to a decisive end in 1042 with the imposition of direct rule over the province by the Seljuk Sultan Toghril Beg, who ruled in Nishapur. The title was revived once again in 1098 by a Turkish military governor named Bilge Tegin who ruled under the Islamic name Qutb al-Din Muhammad, and from the time of his son Atsiz (r.1128-1156) the bearers of the title ruled independently in both name and fact. It was during this last restoration of Khwarazmshah rule by a Turkic dynasty -- which boasted a title now stripped of most of its meaning as a claim to sovereignty over the predominantly Iranian peoples of the Ustyurt Plateau -- that the title and position achieved its greatest fame and notoriety under the successors of Atsiz. They stood as imperial competitors and military rivals on an equal footing with the Mongol chiefs and their armies, who were attempting to establish unchallenged domination over the Dasht-i Kipchak and surrounding areas in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.
The Khwarazm-Shahs comprised a Turkish dynasty in Khwarazmia (Transoxiana), later also in Turkestan, Afghanistan, Iran, and parts of Iraq (1077-1231). Their main capitals were Kuna Urgench and, from 1212 onward, Samarkand. The term Khwarazm-Shah is the ancient title of the rulers of Khwarazm, used regularly in the early Islamic period until the Mongol invasion, and sporadically thereafter. The dynasty’s founder, Anushtegin (1077-1097), came to prominence under the Seljuks, who appointed him governor of Khwarazmia. Under Qutb al-Din Muhammad (1097-1128) and Ala al-Din Aziz (1128-1156) the empire achieved substantial autonomy, expanded into Khorasan, and fell into conflict with the Seljuks from 1135. Il-Arslan (r. 1156-1172) appropriated the eastern Seljuks empire in 1157; Ala al-Din Tekish (r. 1172-1200) prevailed as the Seljuks’ successor in Iran and became the new protector of the caliph in Baghdad. The greatest expansion took place under Ala al-Din Muhammad (r. 1200-1220). After 1206, he took possession of the Ghurid empire in Afghanistan, moved through Transoxiana, and out towards Mongolia in the east, removing the Qarakhanids from Samarkand in 1212. In 1218, he provoked the invasion of the hordes of Jenghiz Khan and during his escape witnessed the collapse of his empire. His son, Jalal al-Din (r. 1220-1231) was murdered after a hazardous life as a fugitive. Subsequently, the empire fell to the Mongols.
Kiarostami, Abbas
Abbas Kiarostami (b. June 22, 1940, Tehrān, Iran — d. July 4, 2016, Paris, France) was an Iranian director-writer known for experimenting with the boundaries between reality and fiction.
Kiarostami studied painting and graphic arts at the University of Tehrān and spent a period designing posters, illustrating children’s books, and directing advertisements and film credit sequences. He was hired in 1969 by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults to establish its film division. The institute produced his first film as a director, the lyrical short Nān va kūcheh (1970; Bread and Alley), which featured elements that would define his later work: improvised performances, documentary textures, and real-life rhythms. His first feature, Mosāfer (1974; The Traveler), about a rebellious village boy determined to go to Tehran and watch a football (soccer) match, is an indelible portrait of a troubled adolescent. In the 1980s, Kiarostami’s documentaries Avalihā (1984; First Graders) and Mashq-e shab (1989; Homework) offered insight into the lives of Iranian schoolchildren.
In the Koker trilogy, named for the village where much of the trilogy takes place, Kiarostami moved from his traditional subject matter of the moral lives of children to explore the overlap between films and reality. In Khaneh-ye dust kojast? (1987; Where Is the Friend’s Home?), an eight-year-old boy must return his friend’s notebook, but he does not know where his friend lives. The second film, endegi va digar hich (1992; And Life Goes On…, or Life and Nothing More), follows the journey of the director (played by an actor) of Where Is the Friend’s Home? to Koker, damaged by a severe earthquake since the first film, to find the young boy who starred in that movie. And Life Goes On… was also the first of Kiarostami’s films centered around a car trip, a motif he would return to often in his career. The final film in the trilogy, ir-e darakhtan-e evton (1994; Through the Olive Trees), is about an actor’s difficult romantic pursuit of a fellow actress during the filming of And Life Goes On…. During this period Kiarostami also made Namay-e nadik (1990; Close-Up), which tells the true story of a film buff who swindled an upper-class Tehrān family by pretending to be noted director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The film buff, the family, and Makhmalbaf all played themselves. The Koker trilogy and Close-Up brought Kiarostami international acclaim.
Kiarostami's screenplay for Jafar Panahi's Bādkonak-e sefīd (1995; The White Balloon), a look at life through the eyes of a seven-year-old girl, further increased his reputation.
In Taʿm-e gīlās (1997; Taste of Cherry), a man drives around the hills outside Tehrān trying to find someone who will bury him after he commits suicide. Much of the film’s action unfolds in long scenes of conversation set in the protagonist’s car. Taste of Cherry shared the Palme d’Or with Imamura Shohei's Unagi (The Eel) at the 1997 Cannes film festival. Bād mā rā khāhad bord (1999; The Wind Will Carry Us) tells the story of an engineer who travels with a film crew to a remote mountain village to document a funeral ceremony. The film is told in an elliptical style, with many characters remaining offscreen entirely.
ABC Africa (2001) is a documentary about Ugandan orphans whose parents died of AIDS or were killed in the civil war, and it was the first of several features Kiarostami shot entirely by using digital video. With 10 (2002) Kiarostami took advantage of the creative freedom offered by lightweight digital video equipment to do a film of 10 scenes set entirely in the front seat of a car. A young divorced woman drives around Tehrān and has conversations with her son and a diverse group of women who form a cross section of contemporary Iran. Five: 5 Long Takes Dedicated to Yasujiro Ou (2003) is five scenes of a seashore shot without camera movement in a style inspired by that of Japanese director Ou Yasujiro, and it began a period of Kiarostami’s work in which he made films that eschewed narrative. In Shīrīn (2008) members of an audience of women watch a film inspired by Nezami's romantic epic poem Khosrow o-Shīrīn (“
Khosrow and Shīrīn”). The film consists, except for the credits, of close-ups of the women, and the film-within-the-film about Khosrow and Shīrīn is heard but never shown.
Copie conforme (2010; Certified Copy) was Kiarostami’s first narrative feature film since 10 and the first he shot outside Iran. In Tuscany a gallery owner (played by Juliette Binoche, who appeared in Shīrīn) invites an art historian (William Shimell) to tour the countryside with her. However, the true nature of their relationship is ambiguous in that sometimes they act as a long-married couple and sometimes they seem to have just met. Like Someone in Love (2012), which was shot in Japan, is about a young prostitute, her fiancé, and one of her clients, an elderly writer, and is another of Kiarostami’s films that features many driving scenes.
Kiarostami’s films garnered numerous awards throughout his career. In 2004 he received the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for theatre/film.
Kimweri ye Nyumbai
Kimweri ye Nyumbai (d. 1868). Ruler of the Kilindi empire (of Tanzania) and one of the most powerful nineteenth century east Africans. Kimweri came to power very early in the nineteenth century. Kimweri was the fifth member of the Kilindi clan to rule Usambara in northeastern Tanzania. The Kilindi clan was founded by Mbega in the 1700s. During his reign of approximately 60 years, Kimweri extended Kilindi rule from his capital at Vuga over the Swahili and Arab towns on the coast. Little is known about Kimweri before 1848. However, in 1848, Kimweri was visited by a literate European and his history began to be known. During the early 1850s, Kimweri clashed with the Zanzibari ruler Sayyid Said over control of the coastal towns but in 1853 an accommodation was worked out by which a sort of condominium administration was established along the coast. Kimweri oversaw an extensive trade in ivory, and some slaves, to the coast. During this period, Kimweri took the title Sultan. Thereafter his successors were also known as Sultan. After his death in 1868, Usambara fell into a civil war, which ended only when the Germans occupied the country in 1890.
Kimweri ye Nyumbai (d. 1868). Ruler of the Kilindi empire (of Tanzania) and one of the most powerful nineteenth century east Africans. Kimweri came to power very early in the nineteenth century. Kimweri was the fifth member of the Kilindi clan to rule Usambara in northeastern Tanzania. The Kilindi clan was founded by Mbega in the 1700s. During his reign of approximately 60 years, Kimweri extended Kilindi rule from his capital at Vuga over the Swahili and Arab towns on the coast. Little is known about Kimweri before 1848. However, in 1848, Kimweri was visited by a literate European and his history began to be known. During the early 1850s, Kimweri clashed with the Zanzibari ruler Sayyid Said over control of the coastal towns but in 1853 an accommodation was worked out by which a sort of condominium administration was established along the coast. Kimweri oversaw an extensive trade in ivory, and some slaves, to the coast. During this period, Kimweri took the title Sultan. Thereafter his successors were also known as Sultan. After his death in 1868, Usambara fell into a civil war, which ended only when the Germans occupied the country in 1890.
Kinda
Kinda (Kindah) (Kindites). South Arabian tribal group, whose descent, real or imaginary, from Kahlan correctly identifies them as Arabs and distinguishes them from Himyar and other non-Arab inhabitants of South Arabia. The tribe spread all over Arabia in the fifth and sixth centuries, from the south to the center to the north. Although the Kinda had its heyday in pre-Islamic times, it retained some of its power and influence in the time of the Prophet and later. Branches of the Kinda carved out for themselves short-lived principalities in Muslim Spain in the eleventh century during the period of the so-called Muluk al-Tawa’if.
The Kindah, in full Kindat al-Mulūk (Arabic: “The Royal Kindah”), was ancient Arabian tribe that was especially prominent during the late 5th and 6th centuries of the Christian calendar, when it made one of the first attempts in central Arabia to unite various tribes around a central authority. The Kindah originated in the area west of Ḥaḍramawt in southern Arabia. At the end of the 5th century of the Christian calendar, however, they were led by Ḥujr Ākil al-Murār, the traditional founder of the dynasty, into central and northern Arabia. There they successfully united a number of tribes into a loose confederacy. Ḥujr’s grandson, al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAmr, was the most renowned of the Kindah kings. Al-Ḥārith invaded Iraq and captured al-Ḥīrah, the capital of the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir III. About 529, however, al-Mundhir regained the city and killed al-Ḥārith, together with about 50 other members of the royal family—a devastating blow to Kindah power.
After al-Ḥārith’s death, the kingdom split up into four tribes—Asad, Taghlib, Qays, and Kinānah—each led by a Kindah prince. The tribes feuded constantly, and, after about the middle of the 6th century, the Kindah princes were forced by the local tribesmen to withdraw once more to southern Arabia.
During Muslim times, descendants of the Royal Kindah continued to hold prominent court positions, and one branch of the tribe gained great influence in Spain. The famous Arabian poet Imruʾ al-Qays (d. c. 540) was from the Kindah tribe.
Kindah see Kinda
Kindites see Kinda
Kindat al-Muluk see Kinda
Kinda (Kindah) (Kindites). South Arabian tribal group, whose descent, real or imaginary, from Kahlan correctly identifies them as Arabs and distinguishes them from Himyar and other non-Arab inhabitants of South Arabia. The tribe spread all over Arabia in the fifth and sixth centuries, from the south to the center to the north. Although the Kinda had its heyday in pre-Islamic times, it retained some of its power and influence in the time of the Prophet and later. Branches of the Kinda carved out for themselves short-lived principalities in Muslim Spain in the eleventh century during the period of the so-called Muluk al-Tawa’if.
The Kindah, in full Kindat al-Mulūk (Arabic: “The Royal Kindah”), was ancient Arabian tribe that was especially prominent during the late 5th and 6th centuries of the Christian calendar, when it made one of the first attempts in central Arabia to unite various tribes around a central authority. The Kindah originated in the area west of Ḥaḍramawt in southern Arabia. At the end of the 5th century of the Christian calendar, however, they were led by Ḥujr Ākil al-Murār, the traditional founder of the dynasty, into central and northern Arabia. There they successfully united a number of tribes into a loose confederacy. Ḥujr’s grandson, al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAmr, was the most renowned of the Kindah kings. Al-Ḥārith invaded Iraq and captured al-Ḥīrah, the capital of the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir III. About 529, however, al-Mundhir regained the city and killed al-Ḥārith, together with about 50 other members of the royal family—a devastating blow to Kindah power.
After al-Ḥārith’s death, the kingdom split up into four tribes—Asad, Taghlib, Qays, and Kinānah—each led by a Kindah prince. The tribes feuded constantly, and, after about the middle of the 6th century, the Kindah princes were forced by the local tribesmen to withdraw once more to southern Arabia.
During Muslim times, descendants of the Royal Kindah continued to hold prominent court positions, and one branch of the tribe gained great influence in Spain. The famous Arabian poet Imruʾ al-Qays (d. c. 540) was from the Kindah tribe.
Kindah see Kinda
Kindites see Kinda
Kindat al-Muluk see Kinda
Kindi, ‘Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al-
Kindi, ‘Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al- (‘Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al-Kindi). Name given to the author, probably a Nestorian Christian, of a defense of Christianity during the ninth or tenth century. The defense, which is also a refutation of Islam, is presented in the form of a letter written in response to that of a Muslim friend, named ‘Abd Allah ibn Isma‘il al-Hashimi, who invited his correspondent to embrace Islam. The letter was translated into Latin in1141 by Peter of Toledo and revised by Peter of Poitiers and played a very important role, in the East as well as in the West, in the polemic between Christians and Muslims.
'Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al-Kindi see Kindi, ‘Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al-
Kindi, ‘Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al- (‘Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al-Kindi). Name given to the author, probably a Nestorian Christian, of a defense of Christianity during the ninth or tenth century. The defense, which is also a refutation of Islam, is presented in the form of a letter written in response to that of a Muslim friend, named ‘Abd Allah ibn Isma‘il al-Hashimi, who invited his correspondent to embrace Islam. The letter was translated into Latin in1141 by Peter of Toledo and revised by Peter of Poitiers and played a very important role, in the East as well as in the West, in the polemic between Christians and Muslims.
'Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al-Kindi see Kindi, ‘Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al-
Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-
Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al- (Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi) (Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi)(Alkindus) (c.801-873). Arab scholar and philosopher. He was a companion of the ‘Abbasid Caliphs al-Ma’mun and al-Mu‘tasim, and probably had a tendency towards Mu‘tazilism. He is known as “the philosopher of the Arabs,” and has survived as a universal scholar and as an astrologer. He is among a small number of Muslim scientists who made original contributions in many various fields. Al-Kindi was a philosopher, astronomer, physician, mathematician, physicist, and geographer. He also was an expert in music.
Al-Kindi was born Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi in Basra [Kufa?] in what is today Iraq. His father worked for Khalifah (Caliph) Harun al-Rashid. He was educated in Baghdad. It was in the latter city that he spent his life and died. Acclaimed “philosopher of the Arabs,” he is said by one famous medieval biographer to have been renowned for his excursions into Greek, Persian, and Indian wisdom and for his detailed knowledge of astronomy. Another medieval biographer claims that al-Kindi was exceedingly knowledgeable in medicine, philosophy, arithmetic, logic, and geometry, in addition to being skilled as a translator and editor of Greek philosophical works. Moreover, in a famous medieval collection of wisdom literature, it is reported that al-Kindi served in the Abbasid court under the caliphs al-Ma’mun (r. 813-833) and al-Mu‘tasim (r. 833-842) as a tutor and was pre-eminent as an astrologer. The list of his books is extensive and, although he is not known to have been schooled in the traditional Islamic sciences, includes works that focus on subjects of a theological and jurisprudential character.
Al-Kindi was the first physician who systematically determined the dosage for most drugs. It greatly helped in the development of dosage standards (prescriptions) for patients. In the field of Chemistry, al-Kindi argued that base metals cannot be converted to precious metals and that chemical reactions cannot produce transformation of basic elements. He made important contributions to the Arabic system of numerals. In addition, he contributed to spherical geometry while assisting al-Khwarizmi in astronomical studies. Al-Kindi’s original work provided the foundation for modern arithmetic. He also made original contributions to geometrical optics, a special field of physics, and wrote a book on it. Several centuries later, al-Kindi’s work inspired Roger Bacon.
Al-Kindi researched on the scientific aspects of music. He stated that the various notes that combine to produce harmony have a specific pitch, and the degree of harmony depends on the frequency of notes. Further, he provided a method for the determination of pitch. Al-Kindi stated that when a sound is produced it generates waves in the air, which strike the eardrum.
Al-Kindi wrote more than two hundred forty books. Among them are sixteen books on astronomy, twenty-two each on medicine and philosophy, twelve on physics, thirty-two on geometry, eleven on arithmetic, nine on logic, four on the number system, seven on music and five on psychology. In addition, he wrote monographs on astronomical instruments, tides, rocks and precious stones.
Gerard of Cremona translated many of his scientific books into Latin. These books include Ikhtiyarat al-Ayyam, al-Mosiqa, Risalah dar Tanjim, Ilahyat-e Aristu, Mad-o-Jazr and Adviyah Murakkaba. Al-Kindi’s influence on the development of physics, mathematics, medicine, philosophy and music lasted for several centuries.
Although he is credited with over 200 works, less than a tenth have come down to the present. Today, al-Kindi is remembered primarily as the author of a treatise on metaphysics, Fi al-Falsafat al-Ula (On First Philosophy). However, it is his Treatise on the Utterances of Socrates -- his Risala fi Alfaz Suqrat -- which is all but ignored, that contains the seminal foundation of Islamic political thought.
The Risala fi Alfaz Suqrat can be characterized as a turning back from the apparent assuredness of Aristotle to the tentative probing of Socrates. Differently stated, al-Kindi’s reflections on Plato and Aristotle led him to praise the life of Socrates, the Socrates who had renounced physical and metaphysical speculation in order to concentrate on the day-to-day speech and actions of his fellow citizens. This choice allowed al-Kindi to provide for a limited kind of philosophical inquiry and at the same time to vouchsafe the claims of revelation. Al-Kindi’s observations about Aristotle and Socrates may have influenced al-Razi’s later portrait of Socrates in the justly famous Kitab al-Sira al-Falsafiyya (Book on the Philosophic Life), thereby setting in motion the series of reflections that lead to al-Farabi’s founding of Islamic political philosophy.
In the Risala fi Kammiyyat Kutub Aristutalis wa ma yuhtaj ilaih fi Tahsil al-Falsafa (Treatise on the Number of Aristotle’s Books and What Is Needed to Attain Philosophy), al-Kindi admits his inability to provide a rational account of human existence or its end and thus to ground political inquiry. Even his Risala fi al-Hila li-Daf’ al-Ahzan (Treatise on the Device for Driving Away Sorrows), with its allegory of human existence, ends in a similar admission.
The allegory of the ship in al-Kindi’s Treatise on the Device for Driving Away Sorrows makes the broad point that all possessions, not merely superfluous ones, cause sorrow and threaten to harm us. Our passage through this world of destruction, al-Kindi says, is like that of people embarked upon a ship “to a goal, their own resting place, that they are intent upon.” When the ship stops so that the passengers may attend to their needs, some do so quickly and return to wide, commodious seats. Others -- who also tend quickly to their needs but pause to gaze upon the beautiful surrounding sights and enjoy the delightful aromas -- return to narrower, less comfortable seats. Yet others -- who tend to their needs but collect various objects along the way -- find oly cramped seating and are greatly discomforted by the objects they have gathered. Finally, others wander far off from the ship, so immersed in the surrounding natural beauty and the objects to be collected that they forget their present need and even the purpose of the voyage. Of these, those who hear the ship’s captain call and return before it sails, find terribly uncomfortable quarters. Others wander so far away that they never hear the captain’s call and, left behind, perish in horrible ways. Those who return to the ship burdened with objects suffer so, due to their cramped quarters, the stench of their decaying possessions, and the effort they expend in caring for them, that most become sick and some even die. Only the first two groups arrive safely, though those in the second group are somewhat ill at ease due to their more narrow seats.
For al-Kindi, those passengers who endanger themselves and others by their quest for possessions are like the unjust we encounter in daily life. Conversely, the just must be those who attend to their needs or business quickly and do not permit themselves to become burdened with acquisitions or even to be side-tracked into momentary pleasures. The passengers are all bound for their homeland, but it is not clear where they are heading. At one point, al-Kindi claims that we are going to “the true world” and at another that the ship is supposed to bring us to “our true homelands.” There is no doubt, however, that whether the destination be one or many, it can be reached only by acquiring the habits that eschew material possessions.
The allegory emphasizes the voyage and the conduct of the passengers. But the vessel is no ship of state nor the captain its governor. The ship is merely a vehicle of transport here, and the captain evinces no desire to police the passengers. Nor is anything said about the route followed by the ship. As one who calls to the passengers, however, the captain may be compared to a prophet. Like a prophet, he calls only once. Those who do not heed the call are left to their misery, even to their perdition. Yet the content of the call is empty; it merely warns about the imminent departure of the ship. The captain offers no guidance about what to bring or leave. He merely calls.
The compilation of sayings ascribed to al-Kindi in the Muntakhab Siwan al-Hikma and those he sets down in his Risala fi Alfaz Suqrat (Treatise on the Utterances of Socrates) also encourage the pursuit of the ascetic life. In this work, al-Kindi and Socrates are portrayed as men aloof from the worldly concerns of most people. As men who have learned to turn their thoughts away from possession and to think about how to live a truly free human life. Each account consists of anecdotes and pithy statements attributed to Socrates and to al-Kindi respectively, some of which reinforce things said in the treatise about Aristotle’s philosophy and in the treatise about the avoidance of sorrows.
Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi see Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-
Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi see Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-
Alkindus see Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-
The Philosopher of the Arabs see Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-
Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al- (Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi) (Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi)(Alkindus) (c.801-873). Arab scholar and philosopher. He was a companion of the ‘Abbasid Caliphs al-Ma’mun and al-Mu‘tasim, and probably had a tendency towards Mu‘tazilism. He is known as “the philosopher of the Arabs,” and has survived as a universal scholar and as an astrologer. He is among a small number of Muslim scientists who made original contributions in many various fields. Al-Kindi was a philosopher, astronomer, physician, mathematician, physicist, and geographer. He also was an expert in music.
Al-Kindi was born Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi in Basra [Kufa?] in what is today Iraq. His father worked for Khalifah (Caliph) Harun al-Rashid. He was educated in Baghdad. It was in the latter city that he spent his life and died. Acclaimed “philosopher of the Arabs,” he is said by one famous medieval biographer to have been renowned for his excursions into Greek, Persian, and Indian wisdom and for his detailed knowledge of astronomy. Another medieval biographer claims that al-Kindi was exceedingly knowledgeable in medicine, philosophy, arithmetic, logic, and geometry, in addition to being skilled as a translator and editor of Greek philosophical works. Moreover, in a famous medieval collection of wisdom literature, it is reported that al-Kindi served in the Abbasid court under the caliphs al-Ma’mun (r. 813-833) and al-Mu‘tasim (r. 833-842) as a tutor and was pre-eminent as an astrologer. The list of his books is extensive and, although he is not known to have been schooled in the traditional Islamic sciences, includes works that focus on subjects of a theological and jurisprudential character.
Al-Kindi was the first physician who systematically determined the dosage for most drugs. It greatly helped in the development of dosage standards (prescriptions) for patients. In the field of Chemistry, al-Kindi argued that base metals cannot be converted to precious metals and that chemical reactions cannot produce transformation of basic elements. He made important contributions to the Arabic system of numerals. In addition, he contributed to spherical geometry while assisting al-Khwarizmi in astronomical studies. Al-Kindi’s original work provided the foundation for modern arithmetic. He also made original contributions to geometrical optics, a special field of physics, and wrote a book on it. Several centuries later, al-Kindi’s work inspired Roger Bacon.
Al-Kindi researched on the scientific aspects of music. He stated that the various notes that combine to produce harmony have a specific pitch, and the degree of harmony depends on the frequency of notes. Further, he provided a method for the determination of pitch. Al-Kindi stated that when a sound is produced it generates waves in the air, which strike the eardrum.
Al-Kindi wrote more than two hundred forty books. Among them are sixteen books on astronomy, twenty-two each on medicine and philosophy, twelve on physics, thirty-two on geometry, eleven on arithmetic, nine on logic, four on the number system, seven on music and five on psychology. In addition, he wrote monographs on astronomical instruments, tides, rocks and precious stones.
Gerard of Cremona translated many of his scientific books into Latin. These books include Ikhtiyarat al-Ayyam, al-Mosiqa, Risalah dar Tanjim, Ilahyat-e Aristu, Mad-o-Jazr and Adviyah Murakkaba. Al-Kindi’s influence on the development of physics, mathematics, medicine, philosophy and music lasted for several centuries.
Although he is credited with over 200 works, less than a tenth have come down to the present. Today, al-Kindi is remembered primarily as the author of a treatise on metaphysics, Fi al-Falsafat al-Ula (On First Philosophy). However, it is his Treatise on the Utterances of Socrates -- his Risala fi Alfaz Suqrat -- which is all but ignored, that contains the seminal foundation of Islamic political thought.
The Risala fi Alfaz Suqrat can be characterized as a turning back from the apparent assuredness of Aristotle to the tentative probing of Socrates. Differently stated, al-Kindi’s reflections on Plato and Aristotle led him to praise the life of Socrates, the Socrates who had renounced physical and metaphysical speculation in order to concentrate on the day-to-day speech and actions of his fellow citizens. This choice allowed al-Kindi to provide for a limited kind of philosophical inquiry and at the same time to vouchsafe the claims of revelation. Al-Kindi’s observations about Aristotle and Socrates may have influenced al-Razi’s later portrait of Socrates in the justly famous Kitab al-Sira al-Falsafiyya (Book on the Philosophic Life), thereby setting in motion the series of reflections that lead to al-Farabi’s founding of Islamic political philosophy.
In the Risala fi Kammiyyat Kutub Aristutalis wa ma yuhtaj ilaih fi Tahsil al-Falsafa (Treatise on the Number of Aristotle’s Books and What Is Needed to Attain Philosophy), al-Kindi admits his inability to provide a rational account of human existence or its end and thus to ground political inquiry. Even his Risala fi al-Hila li-Daf’ al-Ahzan (Treatise on the Device for Driving Away Sorrows), with its allegory of human existence, ends in a similar admission.
The allegory of the ship in al-Kindi’s Treatise on the Device for Driving Away Sorrows makes the broad point that all possessions, not merely superfluous ones, cause sorrow and threaten to harm us. Our passage through this world of destruction, al-Kindi says, is like that of people embarked upon a ship “to a goal, their own resting place, that they are intent upon.” When the ship stops so that the passengers may attend to their needs, some do so quickly and return to wide, commodious seats. Others -- who also tend quickly to their needs but pause to gaze upon the beautiful surrounding sights and enjoy the delightful aromas -- return to narrower, less comfortable seats. Yet others -- who tend to their needs but collect various objects along the way -- find oly cramped seating and are greatly discomforted by the objects they have gathered. Finally, others wander far off from the ship, so immersed in the surrounding natural beauty and the objects to be collected that they forget their present need and even the purpose of the voyage. Of these, those who hear the ship’s captain call and return before it sails, find terribly uncomfortable quarters. Others wander so far away that they never hear the captain’s call and, left behind, perish in horrible ways. Those who return to the ship burdened with objects suffer so, due to their cramped quarters, the stench of their decaying possessions, and the effort they expend in caring for them, that most become sick and some even die. Only the first two groups arrive safely, though those in the second group are somewhat ill at ease due to their more narrow seats.
For al-Kindi, those passengers who endanger themselves and others by their quest for possessions are like the unjust we encounter in daily life. Conversely, the just must be those who attend to their needs or business quickly and do not permit themselves to become burdened with acquisitions or even to be side-tracked into momentary pleasures. The passengers are all bound for their homeland, but it is not clear where they are heading. At one point, al-Kindi claims that we are going to “the true world” and at another that the ship is supposed to bring us to “our true homelands.” There is no doubt, however, that whether the destination be one or many, it can be reached only by acquiring the habits that eschew material possessions.
The allegory emphasizes the voyage and the conduct of the passengers. But the vessel is no ship of state nor the captain its governor. The ship is merely a vehicle of transport here, and the captain evinces no desire to police the passengers. Nor is anything said about the route followed by the ship. As one who calls to the passengers, however, the captain may be compared to a prophet. Like a prophet, he calls only once. Those who do not heed the call are left to their misery, even to their perdition. Yet the content of the call is empty; it merely warns about the imminent departure of the ship. The captain offers no guidance about what to bring or leave. He merely calls.
The compilation of sayings ascribed to al-Kindi in the Muntakhab Siwan al-Hikma and those he sets down in his Risala fi Alfaz Suqrat (Treatise on the Utterances of Socrates) also encourage the pursuit of the ascetic life. In this work, al-Kindi and Socrates are portrayed as men aloof from the worldly concerns of most people. As men who have learned to turn their thoughts away from possession and to think about how to live a truly free human life. Each account consists of anecdotes and pithy statements attributed to Socrates and to al-Kindi respectively, some of which reinforce things said in the treatise about Aristotle’s philosophy and in the treatise about the avoidance of sorrows.
Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi see Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-
Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi see Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-
Alkindus see Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-
The Philosopher of the Arabs see Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-
Kipchaks
Kipchaks (Kypchaks) (Kipczaks) (Qipchaqs) (Qypchaqs) (Kıpçaklar) Loosely organized, nomadic, Turkic tribal confederation (deriving from the Kimek-Kipchak union) that dominated the steppes from the Danube to Kazakhstan from the eleventh to the early thirteenth century. The western grouping was also called Cuman (“pallid ones”), and elements of the eastern grouping were known as Kangli. Their movements contributed to the Ghuzz (Oghuz) and Pecheneg migrations.
The Kipchaks were involved in the domestic affairs of Rus, the Khwarazmshahi state (through marital and military ties), and Georgia (where they helped to drive out the Seljuks). They assisted in the creation of the second Bulghar empire and became a major source of ghulams (military slaves) for the Islamic world. These ghulams later formed the Mameluke state in Syria and Egypt (1250-1517) and constituted the “slave kings” of the Delhi sultanate (1206-1290). Thus, Iltutmish (1211-1236) claimed descent from the royal clan of the Olberli, a Kipchak tribe of the Volga region.
The lack of central authority not only blunted their attacks on sedentary societies, but left them ill-prepared to face the Mongols of Jenghiz Khan. They were conquered in 1237. In time, the Kipchaks turkicized the Tatars of the Golden and White Hordes, giving rise to the Kipchak Turkic peoples of the Soviet Union. Kipchak families were also prominent in the service of the Yuan dynasty in China, and sizable numbers of them settled in Hungary in flight from the Mongols.
The Kuman, or western Kipchak tribes, fled to Hungary, and some of their warriors became mercenaries for the Latin crusaders and the Byzantines. Members of the Bahri dynasty, the first dynasty of Mamluks in Egypt, were Kipchaks; one of the most prominent examples was Sultan Baybars, born in Solhat, Crimea. Some Kipchaks served in the Yuan dynasty and became the Kharchins.
Cuman see Kipchaks
"Pallid Ones" see Kipchaks
Kangli see Kipchaks
Kypchaks see Kipchaks
Kipczaks see Kipchaks
Qipchaqs see Kipchaks
Kipchaks (Kypchaks) (Kipczaks) (Qipchaqs) (Qypchaqs) (Kıpçaklar) Loosely organized, nomadic, Turkic tribal confederation (deriving from the Kimek-Kipchak union) that dominated the steppes from the Danube to Kazakhstan from the eleventh to the early thirteenth century. The western grouping was also called Cuman (“pallid ones”), and elements of the eastern grouping were known as Kangli. Their movements contributed to the Ghuzz (Oghuz) and Pecheneg migrations.
The Kipchaks were involved in the domestic affairs of Rus, the Khwarazmshahi state (through marital and military ties), and Georgia (where they helped to drive out the Seljuks). They assisted in the creation of the second Bulghar empire and became a major source of ghulams (military slaves) for the Islamic world. These ghulams later formed the Mameluke state in Syria and Egypt (1250-1517) and constituted the “slave kings” of the Delhi sultanate (1206-1290). Thus, Iltutmish (1211-1236) claimed descent from the royal clan of the Olberli, a Kipchak tribe of the Volga region.
The lack of central authority not only blunted their attacks on sedentary societies, but left them ill-prepared to face the Mongols of Jenghiz Khan. They were conquered in 1237. In time, the Kipchaks turkicized the Tatars of the Golden and White Hordes, giving rise to the Kipchak Turkic peoples of the Soviet Union. Kipchak families were also prominent in the service of the Yuan dynasty in China, and sizable numbers of them settled in Hungary in flight from the Mongols.
The Kuman, or western Kipchak tribes, fled to Hungary, and some of their warriors became mercenaries for the Latin crusaders and the Byzantines. Members of the Bahri dynasty, the first dynasty of Mamluks in Egypt, were Kipchaks; one of the most prominent examples was Sultan Baybars, born in Solhat, Crimea. Some Kipchaks served in the Yuan dynasty and became the Kharchins.
Cuman see Kipchaks
"Pallid Ones" see Kipchaks
Kangli see Kipchaks
Kypchaks see Kipchaks
Kipczaks see Kipchaks
Qipchaqs see Kipchaks
Kiram, Esmail II
Esmail Kiram II (also spelled as Ismael Kiram II) (November 9, 1939 - September 19, 2015) was the self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu in the Philippines from March 12, 2001 until his death.
Kirghiz
Kirghiz (Kirgiz) (Kyrgyz). Turkish people of Central Asia. About 840, they conquered the lands of the Uyghur in Mongolia, and exported musk to the Muslim lands. They were driven out of Mongolia by the Karakhitai, had to submit to Jenghiz Khan, and afterwards to the Kalmuks and the Russians, who established their rule in 1864.
The etymology of the ethnonym “Kirghiz” is not clear, but most Turkologists believe it to be a compound of two Turkic words: girgh (forty) and qiz (girl, daughter), which means, according to the Kirghiz, “descendants of the 40 maidens.” Since about the middle of the eighteenth century the Kirghiz have occupied the Pamir-Altai ranges in Kirghizstan and Afghanistan and the Kunlun and the Tien Shan in China.
The Kirghiz had embraced Islam by the sixteenth century, becoming Sunni followers of the Hanafi school of shari‘a. Because of their nomadic way of life, Western writers have often considered the Kirghiz to be nominally religious and their Islam full of Central Asian shamanistic beliefs and rituals. However, the Kirghiz commitment to Islam and their practice of Islam prior to the Bolshevik Revolution seems to have been as strong as that of any other sedentary or nomadic people in the Muslim world.
Until 1978, the small number of Kirghiz in Afghanistan were probably the only Kirghiz who were able to continue their traditional pastoral nomadic mode of subsistence and to perpetuate their social organization without any significant direct outside interference. They had been able to create a rather stable niche for themselves within the pre-1978 context in Afghanistan. Following the Marxist coup, they decided to leave their mountain retreat in the Afghan Pamirs. Resettled in eastern Turkey, they are now confronted by the challenge to build a new future.
In China, Communist government policies towards all pastoralists has been, and remains, their eventual sedentarization and transformation into agricultural communes. The policies towards the minorities envisage their eventual assimilation into the larger Han culture and politics. However, in practice, government policies regarding minorities and nomads in Xinjiang have been determined both by the social realities in the area and by the changing nature of Soviet and Chinese political relations in the past three decades.
Three distinct phases have marked Chinese policies towards the peoples of Xinjiang. First, from 1949 to 1957 the Chinese were confronted by strong anti-Communist and anti-Han resistance in Xinjiang from the Muslim populations, nomadic and sedentary alike. The Chinese response was moderate and gradual, aimed at strengthening state power by pacifying or eliminating the resistance leadership. Only in 1955 did the government begin to organize the Kirghiz into mutual aid teams and cooperatives organized along the traditional oruq (patrilineage) structure.
The second phase coincided with Mao’s Great Leap Forward of 1958-1960. The principal aim of this policy was the formation of communes and a socialist upsurge. No special economic or ethnic peculiarities of people were tolerated, and the anti-Islamic and anti-nomadic campaign was strong. The Great Leap Forward policy caused a great influx of Hans into Xinjiang. Reaction towards the radical policies resulted in a grain crisis, and the authorities decided to put some of the pastoralists’ pasture lands under the plow. The nomadic population reportedly slaughtered large numbers of livestock during this phase, and in the face of growing political disputes between the Chinese and the Soviets a large number of pastoralists in northwestern Xinjiang, among them some Kirghiz, joined in the exodus across the border to the Soviet Union, causing the “Ili Crisis” of 1962.
The third phase of the Chinese policies was particularly influenced by the Sino-Soviet split. In many instances a reversal in their Great Leap Forward policies occurred. The pastoral communes are believed to have remained as nominal enterprises, although they were nothing more than earlier forms of cooperatives located near various settlement points. Kirghiz oruq once again became the basic unit of the production brigades, who enjoy certain material incentives and partial ownership of the herds. Undoubtedly, the Kirghiz have benefitted to some extent from Peking’s laissez-faire approach to ruling its ethnic minorities along the Xinjiang-Soviet frontier.
By the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Kirghiz in Central Asia had lost much of their land to Slavic colonists, and their alienation and resentment towards the Russians led to a major rebellion in 1916. When the Bolsheviks established control over the area in 1918, the Kirghiz territories were incorporated with various other provinces in Turkestan. As in the earlier period, Kirghiz lands were expropriated and given to Russian settlers. Confronted with the anti-Communist armed resistance of the so-called Basmachi movement in the area, the Bolsheviks adopted a more conciliatory policy, and during the land reform of 1920-1921 some of Kirghiz lands were returned to them. In 1924, a Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast’ was created, a number of leading Kirghiz intellectuals were recruited into the administration and the traditional structure of Kirghiz society and pastoral nomadic economy was left intact. In February 1926, the Kirghiz Oblast’ was elevated to an autonomous Soviet socialist republic, and ten years later, in 1936, it was accepted as Kirghiz S.S.R.
Despite the concessions offered during the early 1920s, the Russians dominated all aspects of government and party structure. When Kirghiz intellectuals openly expressed their frustrations, many of them were incarcerated or exiled. The real change of policy came about in 1928, when Stalin set out to “de-nomadize” and collectivize the Kirghiz. This agrarian revolution of 1927-1928 was met by widespread slaughter of livestock and the exodus of large numbers of Kirghiz and Kazakhs into Xinjiang in China. Despite the turmoil, significant progress was made in the development of education and health care during this period.
Industrial development in Kirghizia expanded after World War II. However, the industrial economy, which emphasized power production, non-ferrous metallurgy, construction material, fossil fuel extraction, woodworking, textiles, sugar refining and meat packing, was dominated by the Slavs. The great majority of the Kirghiz are still herding through pastoral collectives.
Kirgiz see Kirghiz
Kyrgyz see Kirghiz
Kirghiz (Kirgiz) (Kyrgyz). Turkish people of Central Asia. About 840, they conquered the lands of the Uyghur in Mongolia, and exported musk to the Muslim lands. They were driven out of Mongolia by the Karakhitai, had to submit to Jenghiz Khan, and afterwards to the Kalmuks and the Russians, who established their rule in 1864.
The etymology of the ethnonym “Kirghiz” is not clear, but most Turkologists believe it to be a compound of two Turkic words: girgh (forty) and qiz (girl, daughter), which means, according to the Kirghiz, “descendants of the 40 maidens.” Since about the middle of the eighteenth century the Kirghiz have occupied the Pamir-Altai ranges in Kirghizstan and Afghanistan and the Kunlun and the Tien Shan in China.
The Kirghiz had embraced Islam by the sixteenth century, becoming Sunni followers of the Hanafi school of shari‘a. Because of their nomadic way of life, Western writers have often considered the Kirghiz to be nominally religious and their Islam full of Central Asian shamanistic beliefs and rituals. However, the Kirghiz commitment to Islam and their practice of Islam prior to the Bolshevik Revolution seems to have been as strong as that of any other sedentary or nomadic people in the Muslim world.
Until 1978, the small number of Kirghiz in Afghanistan were probably the only Kirghiz who were able to continue their traditional pastoral nomadic mode of subsistence and to perpetuate their social organization without any significant direct outside interference. They had been able to create a rather stable niche for themselves within the pre-1978 context in Afghanistan. Following the Marxist coup, they decided to leave their mountain retreat in the Afghan Pamirs. Resettled in eastern Turkey, they are now confronted by the challenge to build a new future.
In China, Communist government policies towards all pastoralists has been, and remains, their eventual sedentarization and transformation into agricultural communes. The policies towards the minorities envisage their eventual assimilation into the larger Han culture and politics. However, in practice, government policies regarding minorities and nomads in Xinjiang have been determined both by the social realities in the area and by the changing nature of Soviet and Chinese political relations in the past three decades.
Three distinct phases have marked Chinese policies towards the peoples of Xinjiang. First, from 1949 to 1957 the Chinese were confronted by strong anti-Communist and anti-Han resistance in Xinjiang from the Muslim populations, nomadic and sedentary alike. The Chinese response was moderate and gradual, aimed at strengthening state power by pacifying or eliminating the resistance leadership. Only in 1955 did the government begin to organize the Kirghiz into mutual aid teams and cooperatives organized along the traditional oruq (patrilineage) structure.
The second phase coincided with Mao’s Great Leap Forward of 1958-1960. The principal aim of this policy was the formation of communes and a socialist upsurge. No special economic or ethnic peculiarities of people were tolerated, and the anti-Islamic and anti-nomadic campaign was strong. The Great Leap Forward policy caused a great influx of Hans into Xinjiang. Reaction towards the radical policies resulted in a grain crisis, and the authorities decided to put some of the pastoralists’ pasture lands under the plow. The nomadic population reportedly slaughtered large numbers of livestock during this phase, and in the face of growing political disputes between the Chinese and the Soviets a large number of pastoralists in northwestern Xinjiang, among them some Kirghiz, joined in the exodus across the border to the Soviet Union, causing the “Ili Crisis” of 1962.
The third phase of the Chinese policies was particularly influenced by the Sino-Soviet split. In many instances a reversal in their Great Leap Forward policies occurred. The pastoral communes are believed to have remained as nominal enterprises, although they were nothing more than earlier forms of cooperatives located near various settlement points. Kirghiz oruq once again became the basic unit of the production brigades, who enjoy certain material incentives and partial ownership of the herds. Undoubtedly, the Kirghiz have benefitted to some extent from Peking’s laissez-faire approach to ruling its ethnic minorities along the Xinjiang-Soviet frontier.
By the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Kirghiz in Central Asia had lost much of their land to Slavic colonists, and their alienation and resentment towards the Russians led to a major rebellion in 1916. When the Bolsheviks established control over the area in 1918, the Kirghiz territories were incorporated with various other provinces in Turkestan. As in the earlier period, Kirghiz lands were expropriated and given to Russian settlers. Confronted with the anti-Communist armed resistance of the so-called Basmachi movement in the area, the Bolsheviks adopted a more conciliatory policy, and during the land reform of 1920-1921 some of Kirghiz lands were returned to them. In 1924, a Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast’ was created, a number of leading Kirghiz intellectuals were recruited into the administration and the traditional structure of Kirghiz society and pastoral nomadic economy was left intact. In February 1926, the Kirghiz Oblast’ was elevated to an autonomous Soviet socialist republic, and ten years later, in 1936, it was accepted as Kirghiz S.S.R.
Despite the concessions offered during the early 1920s, the Russians dominated all aspects of government and party structure. When Kirghiz intellectuals openly expressed their frustrations, many of them were incarcerated or exiled. The real change of policy came about in 1928, when Stalin set out to “de-nomadize” and collectivize the Kirghiz. This agrarian revolution of 1927-1928 was met by widespread slaughter of livestock and the exodus of large numbers of Kirghiz and Kazakhs into Xinjiang in China. Despite the turmoil, significant progress was made in the development of education and health care during this period.
Industrial development in Kirghizia expanded after World War II. However, the industrial economy, which emphasized power production, non-ferrous metallurgy, construction material, fossil fuel extraction, woodworking, textiles, sugar refining and meat packing, was dominated by the Slavs. The great majority of the Kirghiz are still herding through pastoral collectives.
Kirgiz see Kirghiz
Kyrgyz see Kirghiz
Kirgiz
Kirgiz. See Kirghiz.
Kirghiz see Kirgiz.
Kirgiz. See Kirghiz.
Kirghiz see Kirgiz.
Kirmani, Hamid al-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd Allah al- (Hamid al-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Kirmani) (Hamid al–Din Abu’l–Hasan Ahmad ibn ‘Abdallah al–Kirmani) (d. 1020). Propagandist of the Fatimids. He was the author of many works on the theory of the Imamate and on Isma‘ili philosophy.
Hamid al-Kirmani was of Persian origin. He appears to have spent the greater part of his life as a Fatimid da'i (missionary) in Iraq and in the central and western parts of Iran. Al-Kirmani was part of the official Fatimid campaign against dissident da'is, who had also proclaimed al-Hakim's divinity. In Cairo, he produced several works in refutation of the Druze movement and religion. Subsequently, al-Kirmani returned to Iraq where he completed his last and magnum opus, Rahat al-aql.
A prolific writer, al-Kirmani was one of the most learned theologians of the Fatimid times.
Hamid al–Din Abu’l–Hasan Ahmad ibn ‘Abdallah al–Kirmani was a Persian Isma'ili scholar who served as a da'i, theologian and philosopher under the Fatimid caliph-imam al-Hakim bi Amr Allah. His prominent works are:
* Rahat al-‘aql (Peace of Mind, or Comfort of Reason), completed in 1020 and considered his magnum opus
* Al-Aqwal al-dhahabiya, refuting al-Razi's argument against the necessity of revelation
* Kitab al
-riyad, a book that propounds the early Isma'ili cosmology.
Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, a prominent Ismaili da’i or missionary, was one of the most learned Ismaili theologians and philosophers of the Fatimid period. Al-Kirmani rose to prominence during the reign of Fatimid Caliph-Imam al-Hakim (r.996-1021).
Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani’s date of birth remains unknown, but he was of Persian origin and was probably born in the province of Kirman. He seems to have spent the greater part of his life as a Fatimid da’i in Iraq, having been particularly active in Baghdad and Basra.
The central headquarters of the Fatimid da’wa in Cairo considered him the most learned Ismaili theologian of the time. It was in that capacity that al-Kirmani played an important role in refuting the extremist ideas of some of the da’is. Al-Kirmani was summoned in 1014 or shortly earlier to Cairo where he produced several works to disclaim the extremist doctrines. Al-Kirmani’s writings, which were widely circulated, were to some extent successful in checking the spread of the extremist doctrines.
Of his corpus of nearly thirty works, only eighteen seem to have survived. One of his important works, also his final work, is the Rahat al-aql (Peace of Mind). In this work, Al-Kirmani intended to provide the reader an opportunity to understand how to obtain the eternal life of the mind, the paradise of reason, in a constantly changing world.
Hamid al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Kirmani see Kirmani, Hamid al-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-
Hamid al–Din Abu’l–Hasan Ahmad ibn ‘Abdallah al–Kirmani see Kirmani, Hamid al-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-
Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, a prominent Ismaili da’i or missionary, was one of the most learned Ismaili theologians and philosophers of the Fatimid period. Al-Kirmani rose to prominence during the reign of Fatimid Caliph-Imam al-Hakim (r.996-1021).
Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani’s date of birth remains unknown, but he was of Persian origin and was probably born in the province of Kirman. He seems to have spent the greater part of his life as a Fatimid da’i in Iraq, having been particularly active in Baghdad and Basra.
The central headquarters of the Fatimid da’wa in Cairo considered him the most learned Ismaili theologian of the time. It was in that capacity that al-Kirmani played an important role in refuting the extremist ideas of some of the da’is. Al-Kirmani was summoned in 1014 or shortly earlier to Cairo where he produced several works to disclaim the extremist doctrines. Al-Kirmani’s writings, which were widely circulated, were to some extent successful in checking the spread of the extremist doctrines.
Of his corpus of nearly thirty works, only eighteen seem to have survived. One of his important works, also his final work, is the Rahat al-aql (Peace of Mind). In this work, Al-Kirmani intended to provide the reader an opportunity to understand how to obtain the eternal life of the mind, the paradise of reason, in a constantly changing world.
Hamid al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Kirmani see Kirmani, Hamid al-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-
Hamid al–Din Abu’l–Hasan Ahmad ibn ‘Abdallah al–Kirmani see Kirmani, Hamid al-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-
Kisa’i, al-
Kisa’i, al-. Name of origin given to the unknown author of the famous Stories of the Prophets (Qisas al-Anbiya), an Arabic work on the lives of the prophets and pious men prior to the Prophet. The identity of the author remains an enigma.
Because the lives of biblical figures (":prophets" in the Muslim tradition) were covered only briefly in the Qur'an, Muslim scholars, poets, historians, and storytellers felt free to elaborate, clothing the bare bones descriptions from the Qur'an with flesh and blood. Authors of these texts drew on many traditions available to medieval Islamic civilization such as those of Asia, Africa, China, and Europe. Many of these scholars were also authors of commentaries on the Qur'an. However, unlike the commentaries which follow the order and structure of the Qur'an itself, the Qisas told its stories of the prophets in chronological order.
The Qisas usually begin with the creation of the world and its various creatures including angels, and culminating in God's masterpiece, Adam. Sometimes the author incorporated related local folklore or oral traditions, and many of the tales in the Qisas echo medieval Christian and Jewish stories.
Kisa’i, al-. Name of origin given to the unknown author of the famous Stories of the Prophets (Qisas al-Anbiya), an Arabic work on the lives of the prophets and pious men prior to the Prophet. The identity of the author remains an enigma.
Because the lives of biblical figures (":prophets" in the Muslim tradition) were covered only briefly in the Qur'an, Muslim scholars, poets, historians, and storytellers felt free to elaborate, clothing the bare bones descriptions from the Qur'an with flesh and blood. Authors of these texts drew on many traditions available to medieval Islamic civilization such as those of Asia, Africa, China, and Europe. Many of these scholars were also authors of commentaries on the Qur'an. However, unlike the commentaries which follow the order and structure of the Qur'an itself, the Qisas told its stories of the prophets in chronological order.
The Qisas usually begin with the creation of the world and its various creatures including angels, and culminating in God's masterpiece, Adam. Sometimes the author incorporated related local folklore or oral traditions, and many of the tales in the Qisas echo medieval Christian and Jewish stories.
Kisa’i, Abu’l-Hasan al-
Kisa’i, Abu’l-Hasan al- (Abu’l-Hasan al-Kisa’i) (c. 737-805). Arab philologist and “reader” of the Qur’an, of Persian origin. He is said to have stayed for some time among the Bedouins in order to become fully conversant in Arabic. He is the real founder of the grammatical school of Kufa. His discussion with Sibawayhi, the prominent grammarian of the school of Basra, became famous.
Abu'l-Hasan al-Kisa'i see Kisa’i, Abu’l-Hasan al-
Kisa’i, Abu’l-Hasan al- (Abu’l-Hasan al-Kisa’i) (c. 737-805). Arab philologist and “reader” of the Qur’an, of Persian origin. He is said to have stayed for some time among the Bedouins in order to become fully conversant in Arabic. He is the real founder of the grammatical school of Kufa. His discussion with Sibawayhi, the prominent grammarian of the school of Basra, became famous.
Abu'l-Hasan al-Kisa'i see Kisa’i, Abu’l-Hasan al-
Kisa’i, Majd al-Din
Kisa’i, Majd al-Din (Majd al-Din Kisa’i) (953-1000). Persian poet from Marw.
Majd al-Din Kisa'i see Kisa’i, Majd al-Din
Kisa’i, Majd al-Din (Majd al-Din Kisa’i) (953-1000). Persian poet from Marw.
Majd al-Din Kisa'i see Kisa’i, Majd al-Din
Kisakurek
Kisakurek (Necip Fazil Kisakurek) (Ahmet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek) (May 26, 1904 - May 25, 1983). A Turkish poet, playwright, and essayist. One of the most striking figures of modern Turkish literature, Necip Fazil combined in his life concerns for literary style and political ideology. Today he is remembered primarily for the second, but in fact his poetry, prose, journalism, and theater bring together experimentation with form and concerns about the cultural identity of the modern Turk.
Necip Fazil was born in Istanbul in 1904 to a family with ancient roots in the town of Maras in southeastern Turkey. The early death of his father and the somewhat retiring role of his mother in the family strengthened the influence on him of his grandparents, who had strong, idiosyncratic personalities. From his grandfather, he acquired a knowledge of Ottoman culture and history. From his grandmother, he absorbed her attempts to join the stream of Western culture and to imitate Western manners, shaped by her immersion in French novels. These sources instilled in the boy a curiosity about the West that eventually led to his reasonably wide knowledge of European culture. It also generated a suspicion of the suitability of western European values and of westernization in general as a model for Turkish modernization. This concern increased as he aged and grew into the primary focus of his later years.
He irregularly attended a number of the schools that during the nineteenth century had replaced the traditional madrasah (seminary) with programs copied from western European schools. After a five year stint, he dropped out of the Naval Cadet School in Istanbul. While registered at the Faculty of Philosophy of Istanbul University, he won a government scholarship for study abroad in 1921. As a student in Paris he refined his knowledge of French literature and culture but never received a university degree. He pursued a bohemian lifestyle, some traces of which remained for the rest of his life.
Upon his return, he worked in various banks and taught at the Conservatory of Arts in Ankara, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, and at Robert College, an American missionary school with strict academic standards. His poetic pieces and short stories appeared in such Istanbul literary magazines as Yeni Mecmua, Milli Mecmua, Anadolu, Hayat, and Varlik in the 1920s. His earliest pieces show a pervasive pessimism and often highlight motifs of boredom, despair, or death combined with a search for identity.
His versification was in the modern Turkish “syllabic” style, in which he showed an originality that brought him to the attention of the literary establishment. His poems show the influence of French symbolism promoted by his predecessor Ahmet Hasim but also have aspects reminiscent of the worldview of Ottoman Sufism. Orhan Okay has described such cultural mixture and use of themes from Western sources as characteristic of Turkish writers who lived through the transformation of the Ottoman Empire. With the establishment of the Turkish Republic (1923) the change of values from Islamic to secular, at work since the nineteenth century, was greatly accelerated. For Necip Fazil, the transformation brought up the problem of achieving a degree of authenticity amid the clash of two cultures, a dilemma prominent in his plays of the 1930s, such as Tohum (The Seed) and especially Bir adam yaratmak (To Create a Man).
To resolve these matters, Necip Fazil adopted a philosophy that placed the East and Islam at the foundation of his outlook on life. In his autobiography Ove ben (He and Myself) he ascribed this change to the influence of a shaykh of the Naqshbandi order, Abdulhakim Arvasi, whose path he followed thereafter. Although ideologically committed to Islam, Necip Fazil never abandoned a frankly Western way of life, nor did he succeed in erasing the bohemianism of his early days, which brought him repeatedly to the gambling table.
His adoption by the younger generation of Turkish conservatives at a time when Turkish nationalism was giving way to the stronger influence of Islam may be attributed to the theme of a revival of the East first broached in his periodical (The Great East [1943-1978]), where he presented a critique of the emptiness of the basic social and humanistic philosophy of republican Turkey. Although frequently interrupted for long periods, the journal and the themes found in its columns, which reappeared in a number of collected essays, make up a compendium that younger conservative Turks use for ideological guidance.
Necip Fazil Kisakurek died in Istanbul on May 25, 1983.
Ahmet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek (May 26, 1904 – May 25, 1983) was a Turkish poet, novelist, playwright and philosopher. He is also known with his initials NFK. He was noticed by the French philosopher Henri Bergson, while Necip Fazıl had been a student of his in Sorbonne during the 1920s. In his poetries, it is possible to realize the influences of Bergson.[citation needed][vague]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Biography
* 2 Literary career
* 3 Bibliography
o 3.1 Poetry
o 3.2 Novels
o 3.3 Stories
o 3.4 Memoirs
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links
[edit] Biography
In his own words, he was born in "a huge mansion in Çemberlitaş, on one of the streets descending towards Sultanahmet" in 1904. His father was Abdülbaki Fazıl Bey who held several posts including deputy judge in Bursa, public prosecuter in Gebze and finally, judge in Kadıköy. His mother was an emigree from Crete. He was raised at the Çemberlitaş mansion of his paternal grandfather Kısakürekzade Mehmet Hilmi Efendi of Maraş who named his grandson after his own father, Ahmet Necib as well as his son, Fazıl.
Necib Fazıl learned to read and write from his grandfather at the age of five. After graduating from the French School in Gedikpaşa, he continued his education in various schools, also including Robert College of Istanbul as well as the Naval School. He received religious courses from Ahmed Hamdi of Akseki and history courses from Yahya Kemal at the Naval School but he was actually influenced by İbrahim Aşkî, whom he defined to have "penetrated into deep and private areas in many inner and outer sciences from literature and philosophy to mathematics and physics". İbrahim Aşkî provided his first contact with Sufism even at a "plan of skin over skin". "After completing candidate and combat classes" of Naval School, Kısakürek entered the Philosophy Department of Darülfünûn and graduated from there (1921-1924). One of his closest friends in philosophy was Hasan Ali Yücel. He was educated in Paris for one year with the scholarship provided by the Ministry of National Education (1924-1925). He worked at the posts of official and inspector at Holland, Osmanlı and İş Banks after returning home (1926-1939), and gave lectures at the Faculty of Linguistics and History and Geography and the State Conservatoire in Ankara and the Academy of Fine Arts in İstanbul (1939-1942). Having established a relation with the press in his youth, Kısakürek quit civil service to earn his living from writing and magazines.
Nacip Fazıl Kısakürek died in his house at Erenköy after an illness that "lasted long but did not impair his intellectual activity and writing" (25 May 1983) and was buried in the graveyard on the ridge of Eyüp after an eventful funeral.
Necip Fazıl was awarded the First Prize of C.H.P. Play Contest in 1947 with his play Sabır Taşı. Kısakürek was awarded the titles of "Great Cultural Gift" by the Ministry of Culture (25 May 1980) and "Greatest Living Poet of Turkish" by the Foundation of Turkish Literature upon the 75th anniversary of his birth.
[edit] Literary career
In his own words, having "learned to read and to write from his grandfather in very young ages", Kısakürek became "crazy about fimitless, trivia reading" until the age of twelve starting from "groups of sentences belonging to lower class writers of the French". He writes as follows: "My interest climbing up to the works such as (Pol ve Virjini), (Graziyella), (La-dam-d-kamelya), (Zavallı Necdet) claiming to be sensational and literary, eventually transformed into an illness and surrounded my nights and days as a net". Having been involved in literature with such a reading passion, Necip Fazıl states that his "poetry started at the age of twelve" and that his mother said "how much I would like you to be a poet" by showing the "poetry notebook of a girl with tuberculosis" lying on the bed next to his mother's bed when he went to visit her staying at the hospital, and adds: "My mother's wish appeared to me as something that I fed inside but I was not aware of until twelve. The motive of existence itself. I decided inside with my eyes on the snow hurling on the window of the hospital room and the wind howling; I will be a poet! And I became".
The first published poem of Necip Fazıl is "Kitabe" poem that he later included in his book Örümcek Ağı with the title "Bir Mezar Taşı" and it was published in the Yeni Mecmua dated 1 July 1923.
After this date Kısakürek expanded his reputation until 1939 with his poems and articles published in magazines such as Yeni Mecmua, Milhi Mecmua, Anadolu, Hayat and Varlık and Cumhuriyet newspaper.
After returning home from Paris in 1925, Necip Fazıl stayed in Ankara intermittently but during long periods and in his third visit he published a magazine called Ağaç on 14 March 1936 by providing the support of some banks. Ağaç, the writers of which included Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Ahmet Kutsi Tecer and Mustafa Şekip Tunç, decided to follow a spiritualist and idealist line on the contrary to the materialist and Marxian ideas supported by the writers such as Burhan Belge, Vedat Nedim Tör, Şevket Süreyya Aydemir and İsmail Husrev Tökin of closed Kadro magazine owned by Yakup Kadri and which influenced the intellectuals of the time greatly. Kısakürek later transferred to Ağaç magazine published during six volumes in Ankara to İstanbul, however, unable to establish a viable reader base, the magazine was closed at the 17th volume.
Necip Fazıl this time published the magazine called Büyük Doğu in 1943 which also had religious and political identity, fronted the rulers with Büyük Doğu that he published intermittently as weekly, daily and monthly until 1978, he was prosecuted because of his articles and publications and the magazine was closed several times. Particularly objecting to secularism and supporting Sultan Abdul Hamid II, Necip Fazıl gradually became one of the leaders of the Islamist section. It should be stated that as in Ağaç, the writers' cadre is quite cosmopolitan in the first volumes of Büyük Doğu as well. From Bedri Rahmi to Sait Faik, many signatures of the new literature are seen on the pages of the magazine.
However, as Necip Fazıl transformed Büyük Doğu into an outlet of particularly religious quarrel, these writers withdrew from the pages one after another. Upon the collection of Büyük Doğu in 1947, Necip Fazıl also published a political humor magazine called Borazan, which he could publish only three volumes between November-December.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Poetry
* Örümcek Ağı (1925) (Spider Web)
* Kaldırımlar (1928) (Pavements)
* Ben ve Ötesi (1932) (Me and the Rest)
* Sonsuzluk Kervanı (1955) (Caravan of Infinity)
* Çile (1962) (Pain)
* Şiirlerim (My poems) (1969)
* Esselâm (1973) (Welcome)
* Çile (1974) (Pain)
* Bu Yağmur (This rain)
[edit] Novels
* Aynadaki Yalan (1980) (The Lie in the Mirror)
* Kafa Kağıdı (1984-Published as a series in Milliyet newspaper)
[edit] Stories
* Birkaç Hikaye Birkaç Tahlil (1932) (Some Stories and Some Research)
* Ruh Burkuntularından Hikayeler (1964) (Stories From Broken Souls)
* Hikayelerim (1970) (My Stories)
[edit] Memoirs
* Cinnet Mustatili (1955) (Rectangle of the Possessed)
* Hac (1973) (Hajj)
* O ve Ben (1974) (It/He and I)
* Bâbıâli (1975) (The High Door)
[edit] See also
Necip Fazil Kisakurek see Kisakurek
Ahmet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek see Kisakurek
Kisakurek (Necip Fazil Kisakurek) (Ahmet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek) (May 26, 1904 - May 25, 1983). A Turkish poet, playwright, and essayist. One of the most striking figures of modern Turkish literature, Necip Fazil combined in his life concerns for literary style and political ideology. Today he is remembered primarily for the second, but in fact his poetry, prose, journalism, and theater bring together experimentation with form and concerns about the cultural identity of the modern Turk.
Necip Fazil was born in Istanbul in 1904 to a family with ancient roots in the town of Maras in southeastern Turkey. The early death of his father and the somewhat retiring role of his mother in the family strengthened the influence on him of his grandparents, who had strong, idiosyncratic personalities. From his grandfather, he acquired a knowledge of Ottoman culture and history. From his grandmother, he absorbed her attempts to join the stream of Western culture and to imitate Western manners, shaped by her immersion in French novels. These sources instilled in the boy a curiosity about the West that eventually led to his reasonably wide knowledge of European culture. It also generated a suspicion of the suitability of western European values and of westernization in general as a model for Turkish modernization. This concern increased as he aged and grew into the primary focus of his later years.
He irregularly attended a number of the schools that during the nineteenth century had replaced the traditional madrasah (seminary) with programs copied from western European schools. After a five year stint, he dropped out of the Naval Cadet School in Istanbul. While registered at the Faculty of Philosophy of Istanbul University, he won a government scholarship for study abroad in 1921. As a student in Paris he refined his knowledge of French literature and culture but never received a university degree. He pursued a bohemian lifestyle, some traces of which remained for the rest of his life.
Upon his return, he worked in various banks and taught at the Conservatory of Arts in Ankara, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, and at Robert College, an American missionary school with strict academic standards. His poetic pieces and short stories appeared in such Istanbul literary magazines as Yeni Mecmua, Milli Mecmua, Anadolu, Hayat, and Varlik in the 1920s. His earliest pieces show a pervasive pessimism and often highlight motifs of boredom, despair, or death combined with a search for identity.
His versification was in the modern Turkish “syllabic” style, in which he showed an originality that brought him to the attention of the literary establishment. His poems show the influence of French symbolism promoted by his predecessor Ahmet Hasim but also have aspects reminiscent of the worldview of Ottoman Sufism. Orhan Okay has described such cultural mixture and use of themes from Western sources as characteristic of Turkish writers who lived through the transformation of the Ottoman Empire. With the establishment of the Turkish Republic (1923) the change of values from Islamic to secular, at work since the nineteenth century, was greatly accelerated. For Necip Fazil, the transformation brought up the problem of achieving a degree of authenticity amid the clash of two cultures, a dilemma prominent in his plays of the 1930s, such as Tohum (The Seed) and especially Bir adam yaratmak (To Create a Man).
To resolve these matters, Necip Fazil adopted a philosophy that placed the East and Islam at the foundation of his outlook on life. In his autobiography Ove ben (He and Myself) he ascribed this change to the influence of a shaykh of the Naqshbandi order, Abdulhakim Arvasi, whose path he followed thereafter. Although ideologically committed to Islam, Necip Fazil never abandoned a frankly Western way of life, nor did he succeed in erasing the bohemianism of his early days, which brought him repeatedly to the gambling table.
His adoption by the younger generation of Turkish conservatives at a time when Turkish nationalism was giving way to the stronger influence of Islam may be attributed to the theme of a revival of the East first broached in his periodical (The Great East [1943-1978]), where he presented a critique of the emptiness of the basic social and humanistic philosophy of republican Turkey. Although frequently interrupted for long periods, the journal and the themes found in its columns, which reappeared in a number of collected essays, make up a compendium that younger conservative Turks use for ideological guidance.
Necip Fazil Kisakurek died in Istanbul on May 25, 1983.
Ahmet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek (May 26, 1904 – May 25, 1983) was a Turkish poet, novelist, playwright and philosopher. He is also known with his initials NFK. He was noticed by the French philosopher Henri Bergson, while Necip Fazıl had been a student of his in Sorbonne during the 1920s. In his poetries, it is possible to realize the influences of Bergson.[citation needed][vague]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Biography
* 2 Literary career
* 3 Bibliography
o 3.1 Poetry
o 3.2 Novels
o 3.3 Stories
o 3.4 Memoirs
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links
[edit] Biography
In his own words, he was born in "a huge mansion in Çemberlitaş, on one of the streets descending towards Sultanahmet" in 1904. His father was Abdülbaki Fazıl Bey who held several posts including deputy judge in Bursa, public prosecuter in Gebze and finally, judge in Kadıköy. His mother was an emigree from Crete. He was raised at the Çemberlitaş mansion of his paternal grandfather Kısakürekzade Mehmet Hilmi Efendi of Maraş who named his grandson after his own father, Ahmet Necib as well as his son, Fazıl.
Necib Fazıl learned to read and write from his grandfather at the age of five. After graduating from the French School in Gedikpaşa, he continued his education in various schools, also including Robert College of Istanbul as well as the Naval School. He received religious courses from Ahmed Hamdi of Akseki and history courses from Yahya Kemal at the Naval School but he was actually influenced by İbrahim Aşkî, whom he defined to have "penetrated into deep and private areas in many inner and outer sciences from literature and philosophy to mathematics and physics". İbrahim Aşkî provided his first contact with Sufism even at a "plan of skin over skin". "After completing candidate and combat classes" of Naval School, Kısakürek entered the Philosophy Department of Darülfünûn and graduated from there (1921-1924). One of his closest friends in philosophy was Hasan Ali Yücel. He was educated in Paris for one year with the scholarship provided by the Ministry of National Education (1924-1925). He worked at the posts of official and inspector at Holland, Osmanlı and İş Banks after returning home (1926-1939), and gave lectures at the Faculty of Linguistics and History and Geography and the State Conservatoire in Ankara and the Academy of Fine Arts in İstanbul (1939-1942). Having established a relation with the press in his youth, Kısakürek quit civil service to earn his living from writing and magazines.
Nacip Fazıl Kısakürek died in his house at Erenköy after an illness that "lasted long but did not impair his intellectual activity and writing" (25 May 1983) and was buried in the graveyard on the ridge of Eyüp after an eventful funeral.
Necip Fazıl was awarded the First Prize of C.H.P. Play Contest in 1947 with his play Sabır Taşı. Kısakürek was awarded the titles of "Great Cultural Gift" by the Ministry of Culture (25 May 1980) and "Greatest Living Poet of Turkish" by the Foundation of Turkish Literature upon the 75th anniversary of his birth.
[edit] Literary career
In his own words, having "learned to read and to write from his grandfather in very young ages", Kısakürek became "crazy about fimitless, trivia reading" until the age of twelve starting from "groups of sentences belonging to lower class writers of the French". He writes as follows: "My interest climbing up to the works such as (Pol ve Virjini), (Graziyella), (La-dam-d-kamelya), (Zavallı Necdet) claiming to be sensational and literary, eventually transformed into an illness and surrounded my nights and days as a net". Having been involved in literature with such a reading passion, Necip Fazıl states that his "poetry started at the age of twelve" and that his mother said "how much I would like you to be a poet" by showing the "poetry notebook of a girl with tuberculosis" lying on the bed next to his mother's bed when he went to visit her staying at the hospital, and adds: "My mother's wish appeared to me as something that I fed inside but I was not aware of until twelve. The motive of existence itself. I decided inside with my eyes on the snow hurling on the window of the hospital room and the wind howling; I will be a poet! And I became".
The first published poem of Necip Fazıl is "Kitabe" poem that he later included in his book Örümcek Ağı with the title "Bir Mezar Taşı" and it was published in the Yeni Mecmua dated 1 July 1923.
After this date Kısakürek expanded his reputation until 1939 with his poems and articles published in magazines such as Yeni Mecmua, Milhi Mecmua, Anadolu, Hayat and Varlık and Cumhuriyet newspaper.
After returning home from Paris in 1925, Necip Fazıl stayed in Ankara intermittently but during long periods and in his third visit he published a magazine called Ağaç on 14 March 1936 by providing the support of some banks. Ağaç, the writers of which included Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Ahmet Kutsi Tecer and Mustafa Şekip Tunç, decided to follow a spiritualist and idealist line on the contrary to the materialist and Marxian ideas supported by the writers such as Burhan Belge, Vedat Nedim Tör, Şevket Süreyya Aydemir and İsmail Husrev Tökin of closed Kadro magazine owned by Yakup Kadri and which influenced the intellectuals of the time greatly. Kısakürek later transferred to Ağaç magazine published during six volumes in Ankara to İstanbul, however, unable to establish a viable reader base, the magazine was closed at the 17th volume.
Necip Fazıl this time published the magazine called Büyük Doğu in 1943 which also had religious and political identity, fronted the rulers with Büyük Doğu that he published intermittently as weekly, daily and monthly until 1978, he was prosecuted because of his articles and publications and the magazine was closed several times. Particularly objecting to secularism and supporting Sultan Abdul Hamid II, Necip Fazıl gradually became one of the leaders of the Islamist section. It should be stated that as in Ağaç, the writers' cadre is quite cosmopolitan in the first volumes of Büyük Doğu as well. From Bedri Rahmi to Sait Faik, many signatures of the new literature are seen on the pages of the magazine.
However, as Necip Fazıl transformed Büyük Doğu into an outlet of particularly religious quarrel, these writers withdrew from the pages one after another. Upon the collection of Büyük Doğu in 1947, Necip Fazıl also published a political humor magazine called Borazan, which he could publish only three volumes between November-December.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Poetry
* Örümcek Ağı (1925) (Spider Web)
* Kaldırımlar (1928) (Pavements)
* Ben ve Ötesi (1932) (Me and the Rest)
* Sonsuzluk Kervanı (1955) (Caravan of Infinity)
* Çile (1962) (Pain)
* Şiirlerim (My poems) (1969)
* Esselâm (1973) (Welcome)
* Çile (1974) (Pain)
* Bu Yağmur (This rain)
[edit] Novels
* Aynadaki Yalan (1980) (The Lie in the Mirror)
* Kafa Kağıdı (1984-Published as a series in Milliyet newspaper)
[edit] Stories
* Birkaç Hikaye Birkaç Tahlil (1932) (Some Stories and Some Research)
* Ruh Burkuntularından Hikayeler (1964) (Stories From Broken Souls)
* Hikayelerim (1970) (My Stories)
[edit] Memoirs
* Cinnet Mustatili (1955) (Rectangle of the Possessed)
* Hac (1973) (Hajj)
* O ve Ben (1974) (It/He and I)
* Bâbıâli (1975) (The High Door)
[edit] See also
Necip Fazil Kisakurek see Kisakurek
Ahmet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek see Kisakurek
Kishk
Kishk (‘Abd al-Hamid Kishk) (Shaykh ‘Abd al-Hamid ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Muhammad Kishk) (Sheikh Abdul-Hamid Kishk) (1933 - December 6, 1996). Egyptian preacher, known to many of his followers as Shaykh ‘Abd al-Hamid. Born in 1933, in Shubrakhit, a village not far from Damanhur, Kishk went to school in Alexandria and became blind at the age of twelve. Graduating from the usul al-din (dogmatics) faculty of al-Azhar, he worked for some time in the service of the Egyptian awqaf (religious endowment) ministry as a mosque preacher and imam.
From May 5, 1964 until August 28, 1981, Kishk was an independent preacher in the ‘Ayn al-Hayah Mosque in Misr wa-’l-Sudan Street in the Cairene quarter known as Hada’iq al-Qubbahi. This mosque is also known as the Masjid al-Malik. It was from here that his fame and popularity spread. Under the regime of President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1952-1970), Kishk came into conflict with the authorities over several questions. For instance, he refused to give a fatwa that approved of the death sentence imposed by the regime on Sayyid Qutb in 1966; and he avoided answering the question of Arab socialism’s compatibility with Islam. By such attitudes he identified himself as a dissident, and he consequently spent time in prison.
Under the regime of Anwar el-Sadat (1970-1981), Kishk’s sermons became immensely popular. In these, he continued to criticize sharply any behavior that he regarded as a deviation from the norms of Islam. However, the regime was a little more tolerant of such criticisms, since it needed the support of the Islamic movement in the struggle against “communism and atheism.” Nevertheless, Shaykh Kishk, unlike Islamists such as Shaykh al-Sha‘rawi, did not appear on state run television or publish in the official printed media.
In spite of the official media boycott, Kishk’s sermons were widely distributed on cassette tapes, as were, in the same period, those by the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who came to power in 1979. Hence, the Western media have sometimes called Kishk an Egyptian Khomeini. It is now more obvious than it was in the 1980s that the resemblance between the two men was superficial at best. Whereas Khomeini founded a revolutionary movement that came to power in Iran and survived the death of its founder by years, Kishk’s political views (as far as they can be found in his books) resemble a form of anarchism. He wrote, for instance, with great nostalgia about the days when there were no policemen to stop people and ask for their driver’s licenses, or frontier guards to ask for passports and entry or exit visas. Those were the days when the Muslims conquered the world, so Kishk wants his audience to remember.
Anarchism, obviously, is too strong and too Western a word to describe the traditional dislike for rulers and government officials in the Middle East and elsewhere. This common attitude is perhaps best put into words by Sa‘d Zaghlul (1857-1927); prime minister of Egypt from January to November 1924, who once remarked that Egypt’s citizens tend to look at their rulers in the same way a bird looks at the hunter.
The emphasis in Kishk’s preaching falls on personal and private piety, not on something as transitory as worldly power. The shaykh is occupied with the end of the world, the miracles of the Sufi saints, the metaphysics of the soul, eschatology, and death. Nevertheless, in a politically tense atmosphere the statements he makes about this world may easily be understood as veiled demands for the introduction of a theocracy, especially by those who are in favor, or in fear, of an Islamic theocracy. There can, however, be little doubt that many in the shaykh’s audiences, in the traditions of the Islamic quietist Sufi movements, are only superficially, or not at all, interested in political (Islamic) utopias.
“The believer’s creed must be compressed into: loving God,” Kishk once wrote. It is not plausible, although, admittedly possible, that such an emphasis on love, also known from Islamic mysticism, accompanies political ambitions, revolutionary schemes, and participation in the struggle for worldly power. Yet Kishk’s social criticisms may be thought to imply political consequences. In a sermon on December 12, 1980, he attacked not only Jews, Crhistians, lax Muslims, and a former rector of al-Azhar University, but also a soccer captain and a businessman who was reported to have presented his wife with an expensive coat. Since the shaykh was intermittently sent to jail, one has to assume that those in power were concerned about the force of such sweeping criticisms.
In the first days of September 1981, on the eve of the assassination of Sadat, which took place on October 6, Kishk was again thrown into prison. He shared this fate with 1,526 others of all political persuasions who were put under “precautionary arrest.” In anticipation of the publication of a complete official list of detainees, the first page of Al-ahram on September 4 noted the imprisonment of Kishk along with a small number of prominent Egyptians. In spite of controls on the media, the shaykh’s fame had clearly spread.
On January 24-25, 1982, Kishk was released from detention. In February, the Egyptian semi-official weekly devoted to religious affairs, Al-liwa’ al-islami, contained minor contributions by Kishk – an indication that a compromise with the regime of Hosni Mubarak had been reached. His books and cassette tapes were to be freely available (they still were in 1993), but his life as a public preacher was over – for the time being at least. His mosque in Cairo has since been transformed into a public health center.
Kishk’s uniqueness wss closely connected to the way in which he chanted his sermons. His voice expressed nostalgia for the Kingdom of Heaven in a way that moved many members of his audiences. According to Kishk, the greater jihad -- the greater struggle -- is a continuous struggle aimed at subduing one's baser nature and attuning oneself to God's moral standards. It is the basis for personal moral development, creating pious and philanthropic activisim, promoting justice and prosperity in society, while combating ignorance, injustice, and oppression. As a result of this greater jihad, Islam heals those societies which follow its guidance and are built on consciences which have been awakened and hearts which have been illuminated by the light of belief.
Kishk died on December 6, 1996.
'Abd al-Hamid Kishk see Kishk
Kishk, 'Abd al-Hamid see Kishk
'Abd al-Hamid 'Abd al-'Aziz Muhammad Kishk see Kishk
Sheikh Abdul-Hamid Kishk see Kishk
Kishk (‘Abd al-Hamid Kishk) (Shaykh ‘Abd al-Hamid ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Muhammad Kishk) (Sheikh Abdul-Hamid Kishk) (1933 - December 6, 1996). Egyptian preacher, known to many of his followers as Shaykh ‘Abd al-Hamid. Born in 1933, in Shubrakhit, a village not far from Damanhur, Kishk went to school in Alexandria and became blind at the age of twelve. Graduating from the usul al-din (dogmatics) faculty of al-Azhar, he worked for some time in the service of the Egyptian awqaf (religious endowment) ministry as a mosque preacher and imam.
From May 5, 1964 until August 28, 1981, Kishk was an independent preacher in the ‘Ayn al-Hayah Mosque in Misr wa-’l-Sudan Street in the Cairene quarter known as Hada’iq al-Qubbahi. This mosque is also known as the Masjid al-Malik. It was from here that his fame and popularity spread. Under the regime of President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1952-1970), Kishk came into conflict with the authorities over several questions. For instance, he refused to give a fatwa that approved of the death sentence imposed by the regime on Sayyid Qutb in 1966; and he avoided answering the question of Arab socialism’s compatibility with Islam. By such attitudes he identified himself as a dissident, and he consequently spent time in prison.
Under the regime of Anwar el-Sadat (1970-1981), Kishk’s sermons became immensely popular. In these, he continued to criticize sharply any behavior that he regarded as a deviation from the norms of Islam. However, the regime was a little more tolerant of such criticisms, since it needed the support of the Islamic movement in the struggle against “communism and atheism.” Nevertheless, Shaykh Kishk, unlike Islamists such as Shaykh al-Sha‘rawi, did not appear on state run television or publish in the official printed media.
In spite of the official media boycott, Kishk’s sermons were widely distributed on cassette tapes, as were, in the same period, those by the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who came to power in 1979. Hence, the Western media have sometimes called Kishk an Egyptian Khomeini. It is now more obvious than it was in the 1980s that the resemblance between the two men was superficial at best. Whereas Khomeini founded a revolutionary movement that came to power in Iran and survived the death of its founder by years, Kishk’s political views (as far as they can be found in his books) resemble a form of anarchism. He wrote, for instance, with great nostalgia about the days when there were no policemen to stop people and ask for their driver’s licenses, or frontier guards to ask for passports and entry or exit visas. Those were the days when the Muslims conquered the world, so Kishk wants his audience to remember.
Anarchism, obviously, is too strong and too Western a word to describe the traditional dislike for rulers and government officials in the Middle East and elsewhere. This common attitude is perhaps best put into words by Sa‘d Zaghlul (1857-1927); prime minister of Egypt from January to November 1924, who once remarked that Egypt’s citizens tend to look at their rulers in the same way a bird looks at the hunter.
The emphasis in Kishk’s preaching falls on personal and private piety, not on something as transitory as worldly power. The shaykh is occupied with the end of the world, the miracles of the Sufi saints, the metaphysics of the soul, eschatology, and death. Nevertheless, in a politically tense atmosphere the statements he makes about this world may easily be understood as veiled demands for the introduction of a theocracy, especially by those who are in favor, or in fear, of an Islamic theocracy. There can, however, be little doubt that many in the shaykh’s audiences, in the traditions of the Islamic quietist Sufi movements, are only superficially, or not at all, interested in political (Islamic) utopias.
“The believer’s creed must be compressed into: loving God,” Kishk once wrote. It is not plausible, although, admittedly possible, that such an emphasis on love, also known from Islamic mysticism, accompanies political ambitions, revolutionary schemes, and participation in the struggle for worldly power. Yet Kishk’s social criticisms may be thought to imply political consequences. In a sermon on December 12, 1980, he attacked not only Jews, Crhistians, lax Muslims, and a former rector of al-Azhar University, but also a soccer captain and a businessman who was reported to have presented his wife with an expensive coat. Since the shaykh was intermittently sent to jail, one has to assume that those in power were concerned about the force of such sweeping criticisms.
In the first days of September 1981, on the eve of the assassination of Sadat, which took place on October 6, Kishk was again thrown into prison. He shared this fate with 1,526 others of all political persuasions who were put under “precautionary arrest.” In anticipation of the publication of a complete official list of detainees, the first page of Al-ahram on September 4 noted the imprisonment of Kishk along with a small number of prominent Egyptians. In spite of controls on the media, the shaykh’s fame had clearly spread.
On January 24-25, 1982, Kishk was released from detention. In February, the Egyptian semi-official weekly devoted to religious affairs, Al-liwa’ al-islami, contained minor contributions by Kishk – an indication that a compromise with the regime of Hosni Mubarak had been reached. His books and cassette tapes were to be freely available (they still were in 1993), but his life as a public preacher was over – for the time being at least. His mosque in Cairo has since been transformed into a public health center.
Kishk’s uniqueness wss closely connected to the way in which he chanted his sermons. His voice expressed nostalgia for the Kingdom of Heaven in a way that moved many members of his audiences. According to Kishk, the greater jihad -- the greater struggle -- is a continuous struggle aimed at subduing one's baser nature and attuning oneself to God's moral standards. It is the basis for personal moral development, creating pious and philanthropic activisim, promoting justice and prosperity in society, while combating ignorance, injustice, and oppression. As a result of this greater jihad, Islam heals those societies which follow its guidance and are built on consciences which have been awakened and hearts which have been illuminated by the light of belief.
Kishk died on December 6, 1996.
'Abd al-Hamid Kishk see Kishk
Kishk, 'Abd al-Hamid see Kishk
'Abd al-Hamid 'Abd al-'Aziz Muhammad Kishk see Kishk
Sheikh Abdul-Hamid Kishk see Kishk
Kizilbash
Kizilbash (Qizilbash) (Ottoman Turkish for "Crimson/Red Heads") (Qezelbash) (Qazilbash). Name given to Turkish tribal groups who supported the Safavids beginning in the fifteenth century of the Christian calendar, referring to the distinctive red headgear they wore. It is sometimes used to refer to both the Safavid religious ideology and the Safavids in general.
The Kizilbash originally consisted largely of converts to the Safavid cause from seven major Turkish uymaqs (loosely, “tribes”) but soon expanded to include most of the large uymaqs of the period. While in the early period one could become a Kizilbash simply by converting to the cause of the Safavids, in a short time (at least by Shah Isma’il’s reign at the beginning of the sixteenth century) membership in the Kizilbash was restricted to members of certain uymaqs.
The Kizil bash came to be a “closed class group with specific military functions” and were distinguished from all other members of the Safavid state. The terms Turk and Tajik were loosely employed to refer to the members of the Kizilbash and the predominantly Persian-speaking elite, respectively. The former, under the early Safavids, comprised the military and governmental elite of the state, but many Tajiks acquired major government positions in time, and the distinctions of the roles are not altogether clear. The term fell out of use with the end of the Safavid dynasty and became used almost exclusively for the heterodox Shi’ite religious beliefs espoused by the Safavids.
The description Kizilbash is still used in Afghanistan to refer to an urban middle class of Turkish origin believed to have immigrated originally during the reign of Nadir Shah. The largest community of Kizilbash in Afghanistan is in Kabul, but their population is undetermined.
Red Heads see Kizilbash
Qizilbash see Kizilbash
Crimson Heads see Kizilbash
Qezelbash see Kizilbash
Qazilbash see Kizilbash
Kizilbash (Qizilbash) (Ottoman Turkish for "Crimson/Red Heads") (Qezelbash) (Qazilbash). Name given to Turkish tribal groups who supported the Safavids beginning in the fifteenth century of the Christian calendar, referring to the distinctive red headgear they wore. It is sometimes used to refer to both the Safavid religious ideology and the Safavids in general.
The Kizilbash originally consisted largely of converts to the Safavid cause from seven major Turkish uymaqs (loosely, “tribes”) but soon expanded to include most of the large uymaqs of the period. While in the early period one could become a Kizilbash simply by converting to the cause of the Safavids, in a short time (at least by Shah Isma’il’s reign at the beginning of the sixteenth century) membership in the Kizilbash was restricted to members of certain uymaqs.
The Kizil bash came to be a “closed class group with specific military functions” and were distinguished from all other members of the Safavid state. The terms Turk and Tajik were loosely employed to refer to the members of the Kizilbash and the predominantly Persian-speaking elite, respectively. The former, under the early Safavids, comprised the military and governmental elite of the state, but many Tajiks acquired major government positions in time, and the distinctions of the roles are not altogether clear. The term fell out of use with the end of the Safavid dynasty and became used almost exclusively for the heterodox Shi’ite religious beliefs espoused by the Safavids.
The description Kizilbash is still used in Afghanistan to refer to an urban middle class of Turkish origin believed to have immigrated originally during the reign of Nadir Shah. The largest community of Kizilbash in Afghanistan is in Kabul, but their population is undetermined.
Red Heads see Kizilbash
Qizilbash see Kizilbash
Crimson Heads see Kizilbash
Qezelbash see Kizilbash
Qazilbash see Kizilbash
Kohistanis
Kohistanis. The remote valleys of the Indus, Swat and Dir Kohistan regions of northern Pakistan are a haven for numerous ethnic groups called by outsiders Kohistanis, “people of the mountains.” The unwritten Indo-Iranian languages spoken by these peoples indicate a common phylogenetic relationship, but beyond the scanty linguistic evidence little is known of their historical interrelationships. Some ten generations ago, they were converted from their polytheistic Aryan beliefs to Sunni Islam by Pushtun from Swat, who also displaced many of them from a formerly wider territory. Since then, the Pushtun have continued to exert considerable, cultural, economic and political influence over the less numerous Kohistanis.
"People of the Mountains" see Kohistanis.
Kohistanis. The remote valleys of the Indus, Swat and Dir Kohistan regions of northern Pakistan are a haven for numerous ethnic groups called by outsiders Kohistanis, “people of the mountains.” The unwritten Indo-Iranian languages spoken by these peoples indicate a common phylogenetic relationship, but beyond the scanty linguistic evidence little is known of their historical interrelationships. Some ten generations ago, they were converted from their polytheistic Aryan beliefs to Sunni Islam by Pushtun from Swat, who also displaced many of them from a formerly wider territory. Since then, the Pushtun have continued to exert considerable, cultural, economic and political influence over the less numerous Kohistanis.
"People of the Mountains" see Kohistanis.
Komiteh
Komiteh. Revolutionary committees active in the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Komitehs arose in the fall of 1978 when students and young people formed neighborhood defense units against government backed clubwielders who attacked protesters and set fire to shops, stores, and schools. Initially, the Komitehs were comprised of individuals with differing political ideologies and were not directed by any central authority. Two processes brought them under the control of the fundamentalist clergy, who employed them as a coercive organ. First, many members who had supported a democratic revolutionary outcome voluntarily left these organizations in the face of increasing authoritarianism. Second, in the summer of 1979, the clergy initiated an ideological purge of the Komitehs, dismissing forty thousand who did not meet with their ideological approval. The purified Komiteh members were largely drawn from the lower middle class, urban poor, and recent rural migrants.
With the collapse of the monarchy in February 1979, the Komitehs mobilized offensively to arrest and punish officials of the shah’s regime. Many Komiteh members had armed themselves with weapons confiscated during attacks on army barracks in the last two days of the revolutionary conflicts in February. During the first six months of the Islamic Republic, the Komitehs arrested a large number of officials and executed more than 220 police and army officers, SAVAK (secret police officials), and politicians linked to the monarchy. Over the next five years, they imprisoned numerous non-political Baha’is, executing more than 200.
Liberal and nationalist political leaders who remained in the government, such as Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan and President Abol-Hasan Bani Sadr, repeatedly complained about the arbitrary nature of Komiteh activities. There were even some large scale demonstrations in Tehran against the repressive measures taken by the Komitehs. In response to growing criticism, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stated in late February 1979 that as soon as the government was in complete control of the cities, the Komitehs should relinquish their power and avoid involvement in government affairs. In mid-April, however, Khomeini, recognizing the threat posed by mounting social and ideological cleavages, modified his stand, declaring that the Komitehs needed purging, not dissolution. He stated that as long as corrupt individuals existed, there was a need for the Komitehs.
As the revolutionary coalition broke down and new conflicts emerged within the Islamic Republic, the Komitehs directed their attention against those who opposed fundamentalist rule. The Komitehs were significant in the dissolution of Workers’ Councils that sprang up in factories, the closure of colleges and universities throughout the country beginning in 1980, the repression of liberals aligned with President Bani Sadr in 1981, and the armed struggle against the socialist Islamic group, the Mujahidin-i Khalq, during the early 1980s. In addition, the Komitehs were instrumental in the arrest and execution of more than seven thousand leftist, Kurdish, and Turkmen opponents of the regime between 1981 and 1984.
By 1984, with the repression of the opposition virtually complete, the Komitehs moved out of the local mosques, where most of them had been headquartered. Their tasks were redefined and directed toward controlling smuggling and drug trafficking, and enforcing the use of the veil by women. In 1991, they were incorporated into the regular police force and ceased to exist as an independent entity.
Armed Islamic revolutionary group in Iran. Prior to merging with the official armed forces in 1991, the Komitehs (Islamic Revolutionary Committees) developed out of mosque-based revolutionaries in Tehran in 1978. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini gave them official status in 1979, as did the Iranian majles (legislature) in 1983. The Komitehs served as a type of police force, combating drug trafficking, "immoral" behavior, as well as working against groups opposing the new regime.
Komiteh. Revolutionary committees active in the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Komitehs arose in the fall of 1978 when students and young people formed neighborhood defense units against government backed clubwielders who attacked protesters and set fire to shops, stores, and schools. Initially, the Komitehs were comprised of individuals with differing political ideologies and were not directed by any central authority. Two processes brought them under the control of the fundamentalist clergy, who employed them as a coercive organ. First, many members who had supported a democratic revolutionary outcome voluntarily left these organizations in the face of increasing authoritarianism. Second, in the summer of 1979, the clergy initiated an ideological purge of the Komitehs, dismissing forty thousand who did not meet with their ideological approval. The purified Komiteh members were largely drawn from the lower middle class, urban poor, and recent rural migrants.
With the collapse of the monarchy in February 1979, the Komitehs mobilized offensively to arrest and punish officials of the shah’s regime. Many Komiteh members had armed themselves with weapons confiscated during attacks on army barracks in the last two days of the revolutionary conflicts in February. During the first six months of the Islamic Republic, the Komitehs arrested a large number of officials and executed more than 220 police and army officers, SAVAK (secret police officials), and politicians linked to the monarchy. Over the next five years, they imprisoned numerous non-political Baha’is, executing more than 200.
Liberal and nationalist political leaders who remained in the government, such as Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan and President Abol-Hasan Bani Sadr, repeatedly complained about the arbitrary nature of Komiteh activities. There were even some large scale demonstrations in Tehran against the repressive measures taken by the Komitehs. In response to growing criticism, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stated in late February 1979 that as soon as the government was in complete control of the cities, the Komitehs should relinquish their power and avoid involvement in government affairs. In mid-April, however, Khomeini, recognizing the threat posed by mounting social and ideological cleavages, modified his stand, declaring that the Komitehs needed purging, not dissolution. He stated that as long as corrupt individuals existed, there was a need for the Komitehs.
As the revolutionary coalition broke down and new conflicts emerged within the Islamic Republic, the Komitehs directed their attention against those who opposed fundamentalist rule. The Komitehs were significant in the dissolution of Workers’ Councils that sprang up in factories, the closure of colleges and universities throughout the country beginning in 1980, the repression of liberals aligned with President Bani Sadr in 1981, and the armed struggle against the socialist Islamic group, the Mujahidin-i Khalq, during the early 1980s. In addition, the Komitehs were instrumental in the arrest and execution of more than seven thousand leftist, Kurdish, and Turkmen opponents of the regime between 1981 and 1984.
By 1984, with the repression of the opposition virtually complete, the Komitehs moved out of the local mosques, where most of them had been headquartered. Their tasks were redefined and directed toward controlling smuggling and drug trafficking, and enforcing the use of the veil by women. In 1991, they were incorporated into the regular police force and ceased to exist as an independent entity.
Armed Islamic revolutionary group in Iran. Prior to merging with the official armed forces in 1991, the Komitehs (Islamic Revolutionary Committees) developed out of mosque-based revolutionaries in Tehran in 1978. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini gave them official status in 1979, as did the Iranian majles (legislature) in 1983. The Komitehs served as a type of police force, combating drug trafficking, "immoral" behavior, as well as working against groups opposing the new regime.
Koprulu
Koprulu. Family of Ottoman viziers. The Koprulus originated in Albania; rose to prominence in the latter half of the seventeenth century and dominated Ottoman life for much of that period, bringing a halt for some time to the decline of the empire, instituting internal reforms and gaining new conquests. The leading members of the family -- the Koprulu family members who became Ottoman grand viziers -- were Koprulu Mehmed Pasha (1578? -1661); his elder son Koprulu Fadil Ahmed Pasha (Abu’l-‘Abbas) (1635-1676); his younger son Fadil Mustafa Pasha (1637-1691); ‘Amuja-zade Huseyin Pasha (d. 1702), nephew of Mehmed Pasha; and Nu‘man Pasha (1670-1719), the eldest son of Fadil Mustafa Pasha.
The Köprülü family (also Albanian: Qyprilliu) was an Ottoman noble family originating from Albania. The family provided six Grand Viziers, (including Kara Mustafa Pasha who was a stepson) with several others becoming high-ranking officers. Notable modern descendants include Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, a prominent historian of Turkish literature. Members of the family continue to live in Turkey or the United States.
In the history of the Ottoman Empire, the Köprülü Viziers have a reputation for dynamism in a state that would later show signs of decline and stagnation. The early viziers in particular focused on military campaigns that extended the Empire's power. This, however came to an end after the disastrous Battle of Vienna launched by Kara Mustafa Pasha
.
The name, life span, tenure as Grand Vizier and name of the Sultan served for the Koprulu viziers follows:
Köprülü Mehmet Pasha 1583–1661 1656–1661 Mehmed IV
Köprülü Fazıl Ahmet Pasha 1635–1676 1661–1676 Mehmed IV
Kara Mustafa Pasha (1) 1634–1683 1676–1683 Mehmed IV, Suleiman II
Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha 1637–1691 1689–1691 Suleiman II, Ahmed II
Köprülü Hüseyin Pasha died in 1702 1697–1702 Mustafa II
Köprülü Numan Pasha died in 1719 1710–1711 Ahmed III
Köprülü Abdullah Pasha died in 1735 1723–1735 Ahmed III, Mahmud I
(1) Kara Mustafa Pasha had been adopted by the Köprülü family and was the brother-in-law of Köprülü Fazıl Ahmet Pasha.
Qyprilliu see Koprulu.
Koprulu. Family of Ottoman viziers. The Koprulus originated in Albania; rose to prominence in the latter half of the seventeenth century and dominated Ottoman life for much of that period, bringing a halt for some time to the decline of the empire, instituting internal reforms and gaining new conquests. The leading members of the family -- the Koprulu family members who became Ottoman grand viziers -- were Koprulu Mehmed Pasha (1578? -1661); his elder son Koprulu Fadil Ahmed Pasha (Abu’l-‘Abbas) (1635-1676); his younger son Fadil Mustafa Pasha (1637-1691); ‘Amuja-zade Huseyin Pasha (d. 1702), nephew of Mehmed Pasha; and Nu‘man Pasha (1670-1719), the eldest son of Fadil Mustafa Pasha.
The Köprülü family (also Albanian: Qyprilliu) was an Ottoman noble family originating from Albania. The family provided six Grand Viziers, (including Kara Mustafa Pasha who was a stepson) with several others becoming high-ranking officers. Notable modern descendants include Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, a prominent historian of Turkish literature. Members of the family continue to live in Turkey or the United States.
In the history of the Ottoman Empire, the Köprülü Viziers have a reputation for dynamism in a state that would later show signs of decline and stagnation. The early viziers in particular focused on military campaigns that extended the Empire's power. This, however came to an end after the disastrous Battle of Vienna launched by Kara Mustafa Pasha
.
The name, life span, tenure as Grand Vizier and name of the Sultan served for the Koprulu viziers follows:
Köprülü Mehmet Pasha 1583–1661 1656–1661 Mehmed IV
Köprülü Fazıl Ahmet Pasha 1635–1676 1661–1676 Mehmed IV
Kara Mustafa Pasha (1) 1634–1683 1676–1683 Mehmed IV, Suleiman II
Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha 1637–1691 1689–1691 Suleiman II, Ahmed II
Köprülü Hüseyin Pasha died in 1702 1697–1702 Mustafa II
Köprülü Numan Pasha died in 1719 1710–1711 Ahmed III
Köprülü Abdullah Pasha died in 1735 1723–1735 Ahmed III, Mahmud I
(1) Kara Mustafa Pasha had been adopted by the Köprülü family and was the brother-in-law of Köprülü Fazıl Ahmet Pasha.
Qyprilliu see Koprulu.
Koprulu, Mehmed Fuad
Koprulu, Mehmed Fuad (Mehmed Fuad Koprulu) (Mehmet Fuat Koprulu) (Koprulu-zade) (December 5, 1890 - June 28, 1966). Turkish scholar. He was a pioneer of Turkish studies in the modern sense known for his contributions to Ottoman history, Turkish folklore and language. His works include Origins of the Ottoman Empire, The Seljuks of Anatolia, and Islam in Anatolia After the Turkish Invasion.
Mehmed Fuad Koprulu see Koprulu, Mehmed Fuad
Koprulu-zade see Koprulu, Mehmed Fuad
Mehmet Fuat Koprulu see Koprulu, Mehmed Fuad
Koprulu, Mehmed Fuad (Mehmed Fuad Koprulu) (Mehmet Fuat Koprulu) (Koprulu-zade) (December 5, 1890 - June 28, 1966). Turkish scholar. He was a pioneer of Turkish studies in the modern sense known for his contributions to Ottoman history, Turkish folklore and language. His works include Origins of the Ottoman Empire, The Seljuks of Anatolia, and Islam in Anatolia After the Turkish Invasion.
Mehmed Fuad Koprulu see Koprulu, Mehmed Fuad
Koprulu-zade see Koprulu, Mehmed Fuad
Mehmet Fuat Koprulu see Koprulu, Mehmed Fuad
Koreans
Koreans. Islam was introduced to Korea by the contingent of Turkish troops who fought under the United Nations flag during the Korean War, 1950-1953. Two Turkish imams accompanying the troops responded to the interest of a small group of South Koreans living near their encampment. The imams instructed them in religious knowledge and the practice of Islam, setting aside a special tent to serve as a mosque and school. In September 1955, some thirty Koreans officially embraced Islam.
The new converts, in turn, attracted other followers among their countrymen. A temporaray mosque was constructed near Seoul in 1957, and by 1959 the first Korean Muslims had made the hajj, visiting various Islamic countries on the way to and from Mecca to spread the news of the growing community of Muslims in Korea. In 1963, Malaysian officials visiting the Republic of Korea made contact with Korean Muslims, resulting in the Malaysian prime minister donating funds to support the continued propagation of the faith. Before long, religious teachers from South Asia and the Middle East joined the missionary work.
The Korean Muslim Federation was organized in 1965 and was officially registered within the government’s Ministry of Culture and Information two years later. At that time, the federation had nearly 3,000 members, and one of the earliest converts, Hadji Sabri Suh, was its first president. In June 1967, the federation began publishing the Korean Islam Herald, a bimonthly and bilingual (Korean and English) newspaper, as an important instrument for the promotion of Islam. The Korean government in 1970 donated land on the outskirts of Seoul for the construction of an Islamic Center and Mosque, and a year later a delegation of Korean Muslims traveled abroad to raise funds for the proposed building. Contributions came from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dabi, Libya, Morocco, Qatar and the World Muslim League. By May 1976, the beautiful and impressive center was completed, and 55 delegates from 21 Islamic countries attended the opening ceremony.
Since its opening, the Islamic Center in Seoul has been the headquarters of the Korean Muslim Federation and the base for a variety of outreach activities such as preaching, teaching, publishing and social work. It has attracted many inquirers, a large percentage of whom have become Muslims.
One of the most dramatic instances of growth in Korean Islam is the conversion of almost the entire village of Ssan Ryung in the Kyung-gi District, some 30 miles southeast of Seoul. A native of the village, Abdullah Jeun Duck Lin, embraced Islam in 1977 while teaching in a Seoul secondary school. He returned to Ssang Ryung filled with quiet fervor to share his new faith with his relatives and neighbors.
In September 1980, the Korean Muslim Federation opened another impressive Islamic Center and Mosque in Pusan, Korea’s second largest city. Like the center in Seoul, this center provided an effective base for spreading Islam.
Koreans. Islam was introduced to Korea by the contingent of Turkish troops who fought under the United Nations flag during the Korean War, 1950-1953. Two Turkish imams accompanying the troops responded to the interest of a small group of South Koreans living near their encampment. The imams instructed them in religious knowledge and the practice of Islam, setting aside a special tent to serve as a mosque and school. In September 1955, some thirty Koreans officially embraced Islam.
The new converts, in turn, attracted other followers among their countrymen. A temporaray mosque was constructed near Seoul in 1957, and by 1959 the first Korean Muslims had made the hajj, visiting various Islamic countries on the way to and from Mecca to spread the news of the growing community of Muslims in Korea. In 1963, Malaysian officials visiting the Republic of Korea made contact with Korean Muslims, resulting in the Malaysian prime minister donating funds to support the continued propagation of the faith. Before long, religious teachers from South Asia and the Middle East joined the missionary work.
The Korean Muslim Federation was organized in 1965 and was officially registered within the government’s Ministry of Culture and Information two years later. At that time, the federation had nearly 3,000 members, and one of the earliest converts, Hadji Sabri Suh, was its first president. In June 1967, the federation began publishing the Korean Islam Herald, a bimonthly and bilingual (Korean and English) newspaper, as an important instrument for the promotion of Islam. The Korean government in 1970 donated land on the outskirts of Seoul for the construction of an Islamic Center and Mosque, and a year later a delegation of Korean Muslims traveled abroad to raise funds for the proposed building. Contributions came from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dabi, Libya, Morocco, Qatar and the World Muslim League. By May 1976, the beautiful and impressive center was completed, and 55 delegates from 21 Islamic countries attended the opening ceremony.
Since its opening, the Islamic Center in Seoul has been the headquarters of the Korean Muslim Federation and the base for a variety of outreach activities such as preaching, teaching, publishing and social work. It has attracted many inquirers, a large percentage of whom have become Muslims.
One of the most dramatic instances of growth in Korean Islam is the conversion of almost the entire village of Ssan Ryung in the Kyung-gi District, some 30 miles southeast of Seoul. A native of the village, Abdullah Jeun Duck Lin, embraced Islam in 1977 while teaching in a Seoul secondary school. He returned to Ssang Ryung filled with quiet fervor to share his new faith with his relatives and neighbors.
In September 1980, the Korean Muslim Federation opened another impressive Islamic Center and Mosque in Pusan, Korea’s second largest city. Like the center in Seoul, this center provided an effective base for spreading Islam.
Koroghlu
Koroghlu (Koroglu) (Gorogly). Rebel of the Anatolian Jelali movement in the sixteenth century and the hero of a popular romance.
In Azerbaijani, "Koroghlu" means "Son of a Blind Man" and, in Turkish, it means "Son of Grave." In the popular Azerbaijani and Turkish literature, Koroghlu is the main hero of the epic of the same name. The epic tells about the life and heroic deeds of Koroghlu, a hero of the people who struggled against unjust rulers. The epic combines the occasional romance with Robin Hood like chivalry.
Koroghlu, literally Turkish, Azerbaijani meaning "Son of a Blind Man" and Turkmen language meaning "Son of Grave," is the main hero of an epic with the same name in Azerbaijani and Turkish as well as some other Turkic languages. The epic tells about the life and heroic deeds of Koroghlu as a hero of the people who struggled against unjust rulers. The epic combines the occasional romance with Robin Hood-like chivalry.
The story has been told for many generations by the Ashik bards of Azerbaijan and Turkey and was written down mostly in the 18th century.
"Son of a Blind Man" see Koroghlu
"Son of Grave" see Koroghlu
Koroglu see Koroghlu
Gorogly see Koroghlu
Koroghlu (Koroglu) (Gorogly). Rebel of the Anatolian Jelali movement in the sixteenth century and the hero of a popular romance.
In Azerbaijani, "Koroghlu" means "Son of a Blind Man" and, in Turkish, it means "Son of Grave." In the popular Azerbaijani and Turkish literature, Koroghlu is the main hero of the epic of the same name. The epic tells about the life and heroic deeds of Koroghlu, a hero of the people who struggled against unjust rulers. The epic combines the occasional romance with Robin Hood like chivalry.
Koroghlu, literally Turkish, Azerbaijani meaning "Son of a Blind Man" and Turkmen language meaning "Son of Grave," is the main hero of an epic with the same name in Azerbaijani and Turkish as well as some other Turkic languages. The epic tells about the life and heroic deeds of Koroghlu as a hero of the people who struggled against unjust rulers. The epic combines the occasional romance with Robin Hood-like chivalry.
The story has been told for many generations by the Ashik bards of Azerbaijan and Turkey and was written down mostly in the 18th century.
"Son of a Blind Man" see Koroghlu
"Son of Grave" see Koroghlu
Koroglu see Koroghlu
Gorogly see Koroghlu
Kosem Walide
Kosem Walide (Kosem Sultana) (Mahpaykar) (c. 1589-1651). Wife of the Ottoman sultan Ahmed I and the mother of the sultans of Murad IV and Ibrahim I. She was Greek by birth, and achieved power in the first place through the harem, exercising a decisive influence in the state during the reigns of her two sons and of her grandson Muhammad IV.
The Sultana Kosem exerted her greatest influence over the Ottoman Empire during the reign of her deranged son Ibrahim I (1640-1648). With the help of the grand vizier, Mustafa Pasha, the Ottoman Empire was hers to rule. The feeble Ibrahim, was entirely absorbed in the joys of the harem, and was, therefore, devoured by lust and debauchery. The French came to call Ibrahim “Le Fou de Fourrures” because of his obsession with furs. Furs were everywhere in the harem.
Ibrahim searched the Empire for its fattest woman. She was an Armenian and Ibrahim became infatuated with her, even to the extent of declaring her to be the Governor General of Damascus. Ibrahim’s favorite ladies were allowed to take what they pleased from the bazaars, while Ibrahim’s sisters were reduced to serving the odalisques -- the slaves. In one night of madness, Ibrahim had his entire harem put in sacks and drowned.
Tales of Ibrahim’s madness spread over the empire, finally provoking the janissaries to mutiny. They marched to the Gates of Felicity and demanded the Sultan’s head. Kosem pleaded with them for several hours. Kosem finally surrendered when the janissaries promised not to kill Ibrahim but rather to re-confine him in the Golden Cage.
Once back in the Golden Cage, Ibrahim became a raving lunatic. His cries pierced through the thick walls day and night. Ten days after his incarceration, he was strangled by order of the mufti -- the chief imam.
Upon Ibrahim’s deposition, Ibrahim’s seven year old son, Muhammad (Mehmet), by Turhan Sultana, became the new sultan. However, Kosem, Muhammad’s grandmother, had no intention of relinquishing power or the office of valide sultana to either Muhammad or Turhan. Kosem refused to leave the Grand Seraglio. She refused to move to the House of Tears. Instead, she schemed to have Muhammad poisoned, so that she could elevate to the throne a young orphan prince whom she could manipulate.
By 1651, a state of war existed within the Grand Seraglio between the Kosem and Turhan camps. The janissaries supported Kosem but the new grand vizier, Koprulu Mehmed Pasha, and the rest of the palace administration favored Turhan.
Kosem conspired to admit the janissaries into the harem one night to kill the young sultan and his mother. However, Turhan had been tipped off concerning the conspiracy. Instead of her loyal janissaries, Kosem found herself confronted by the eunuch corps which was supporting Turhan and which was there to take her life.
Kosem suddenly went mad. She began stuffing precious jewels into her pockets and fled through the intricate mazes of the harem which she had known so well. Kosem crept into a small cabinet, hoping that the eunuchs would go past her and that she could hide until her janissaries came to her rescue. But a piece of her skirt caught in the door, betraying her hiding place. The eunuchs dragged her out, tore off her clothes, and took her jewels. Kosem tried to fight back, but she was only an old women struggling against the eunuchs. One of the eunuchs strangled Kosem with a curtain. After she had gasped her last breath, Kosem’s naked, bleeding body was dragged outside and flaunted before the janissaries.
Kosem had enjoyed the longest reign of any of the harem women. She had reigned there for almost fifty years.
As for Turhan, with her son a child, she assumed absolute power. While she was well liked in the harem, Turhan was a simple woman, unsophisticated in state affairs. With her death in 1687, the Reign of Women came to an end.
Kosem Sultana see Kosem Walide
Mahpaykar see Kosem Walide
Kosem Walide (Kosem Sultana) (Mahpaykar) (c. 1589-1651). Wife of the Ottoman sultan Ahmed I and the mother of the sultans of Murad IV and Ibrahim I. She was Greek by birth, and achieved power in the first place through the harem, exercising a decisive influence in the state during the reigns of her two sons and of her grandson Muhammad IV.
The Sultana Kosem exerted her greatest influence over the Ottoman Empire during the reign of her deranged son Ibrahim I (1640-1648). With the help of the grand vizier, Mustafa Pasha, the Ottoman Empire was hers to rule. The feeble Ibrahim, was entirely absorbed in the joys of the harem, and was, therefore, devoured by lust and debauchery. The French came to call Ibrahim “Le Fou de Fourrures” because of his obsession with furs. Furs were everywhere in the harem.
Ibrahim searched the Empire for its fattest woman. She was an Armenian and Ibrahim became infatuated with her, even to the extent of declaring her to be the Governor General of Damascus. Ibrahim’s favorite ladies were allowed to take what they pleased from the bazaars, while Ibrahim’s sisters were reduced to serving the odalisques -- the slaves. In one night of madness, Ibrahim had his entire harem put in sacks and drowned.
Tales of Ibrahim’s madness spread over the empire, finally provoking the janissaries to mutiny. They marched to the Gates of Felicity and demanded the Sultan’s head. Kosem pleaded with them for several hours. Kosem finally surrendered when the janissaries promised not to kill Ibrahim but rather to re-confine him in the Golden Cage.
Once back in the Golden Cage, Ibrahim became a raving lunatic. His cries pierced through the thick walls day and night. Ten days after his incarceration, he was strangled by order of the mufti -- the chief imam.
Upon Ibrahim’s deposition, Ibrahim’s seven year old son, Muhammad (Mehmet), by Turhan Sultana, became the new sultan. However, Kosem, Muhammad’s grandmother, had no intention of relinquishing power or the office of valide sultana to either Muhammad or Turhan. Kosem refused to leave the Grand Seraglio. She refused to move to the House of Tears. Instead, she schemed to have Muhammad poisoned, so that she could elevate to the throne a young orphan prince whom she could manipulate.
By 1651, a state of war existed within the Grand Seraglio between the Kosem and Turhan camps. The janissaries supported Kosem but the new grand vizier, Koprulu Mehmed Pasha, and the rest of the palace administration favored Turhan.
Kosem conspired to admit the janissaries into the harem one night to kill the young sultan and his mother. However, Turhan had been tipped off concerning the conspiracy. Instead of her loyal janissaries, Kosem found herself confronted by the eunuch corps which was supporting Turhan and which was there to take her life.
Kosem suddenly went mad. She began stuffing precious jewels into her pockets and fled through the intricate mazes of the harem which she had known so well. Kosem crept into a small cabinet, hoping that the eunuchs would go past her and that she could hide until her janissaries came to her rescue. But a piece of her skirt caught in the door, betraying her hiding place. The eunuchs dragged her out, tore off her clothes, and took her jewels. Kosem tried to fight back, but she was only an old women struggling against the eunuchs. One of the eunuchs strangled Kosem with a curtain. After she had gasped her last breath, Kosem’s naked, bleeding body was dragged outside and flaunted before the janissaries.
Kosem had enjoyed the longest reign of any of the harem women. She had reigned there for almost fifty years.
As for Turhan, with her son a child, she assumed absolute power. While she was well liked in the harem, Turhan was a simple woman, unsophisticated in state affairs. With her death in 1687, the Reign of Women came to an end.
Kosem Sultana see Kosem Walide
Mahpaykar see Kosem Walide
Kotal
Kotal (d. 1545). Founder of the Hausa state of Kebbi, which dominated Hausaland in the early sixteenth century. He was a local chief who became the first kanta (ruler) of Kebbi after he built up an army and subjugated the western Hausa states (around 1512). In 1514 to 1515, he joined Askia Muhammad, ruler of Songhay, to conquer the Tuareg to the north. The two quarrelled over division of spoils, and Kotal defeated Muhammad in battle, frustrating Songhay’s ambitions to control Hausaland. Later (around 1535), Askia Muhammad Bunkan of Songhay attacked him, but suffered a major defeat. Kotal established hs capital at Surame and ruled the Hausa states through a tribute system. Around 1545, he defeated the forces of ‘Ali ibn Idris of Bornu, but was killed in Katsina on the way home. He was succeeded by his son, Muhammad (Hamadu).
Kotal (d. 1545). Founder of the Hausa state of Kebbi, which dominated Hausaland in the early sixteenth century. He was a local chief who became the first kanta (ruler) of Kebbi after he built up an army and subjugated the western Hausa states (around 1512). In 1514 to 1515, he joined Askia Muhammad, ruler of Songhay, to conquer the Tuareg to the north. The two quarrelled over division of spoils, and Kotal defeated Muhammad in battle, frustrating Songhay’s ambitions to control Hausaland. Later (around 1535), Askia Muhammad Bunkan of Songhay attacked him, but suffered a major defeat. Kotal established hs capital at Surame and ruled the Hausa states through a tribute system. Around 1545, he defeated the forces of ‘Ali ibn Idris of Bornu, but was killed in Katsina on the way home. He was succeeded by his son, Muhammad (Hamadu).
Kotoko
Kotoko. People of Africa living south of Lake Chad. In the sixteenth century, the northern principalities, Makari and Afade, were brought under the cultural and Islamic influence of the Kanuri, while the ruler of the southern Kotoko was converted to Islam towards the end of the eighteenth century. Most of the Kotoko are now considered Muslims, and the number of those more fully committed to Islam grows steadily.
The Kotoko are primarily a riverine townspeople residing in Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria. They live along the Logone River from Bongor to Kusseri, the Chari River below Lake Chad and such rivers and tributaries as the Makari, Mani, Kusseri, Logone-Birni and Logone-Gana. There are three Kotoko villages near the Chadian capital of N’Djamena, and a member of the group is prominent in the government, but his power is limited because his ethnic backing is relatively small.
The Kotoko appear to be descendants of the Sao. At least, the Sao were there before them -- and about everyone else in this part of Africa. The Sao are said to have been giants with extraordinary strength who apparently settled in the Chari River region as far back as the fifth century. Archaeologists have found some 637 settlements in mounds, complete with ceramics, tools, weapons and statuettes. It appears the Sao were able to resist attacks by migrating groups and did not disappear until the rise of the Bornu Empire in the sixteenth century.
The modern history of the Kotoko is blended with that of the Bornu Empire, of which they were vassals or, sometimes, allies. In their fortified towns (with enormous walls sometimes 30 feet high and miles in length) along the Chari River they were able to defend themselves against the encroachments of outsiders. They claim ownership to all the land around each city, controlling its lands (and charging fees for its use) and traffic on the river, for which they charge tolls.
Legends, usually involving mythical Sao hunters, are rife about the founders of the various Kotoko towns. The leader of one town was presumably a snake whose accession to power symbolized the failure of the Sao.
Islam came to the Kotoko probably in the sixteenth century during the rise of the Bornu Empire with its many Muslim traders and mallamai (clerics). The Kusseri, (those who live along the Kusseri River) only adopted Islam in the eighteenth century.
Kotoko. People of Africa living south of Lake Chad. In the sixteenth century, the northern principalities, Makari and Afade, were brought under the cultural and Islamic influence of the Kanuri, while the ruler of the southern Kotoko was converted to Islam towards the end of the eighteenth century. Most of the Kotoko are now considered Muslims, and the number of those more fully committed to Islam grows steadily.
The Kotoko are primarily a riverine townspeople residing in Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria. They live along the Logone River from Bongor to Kusseri, the Chari River below Lake Chad and such rivers and tributaries as the Makari, Mani, Kusseri, Logone-Birni and Logone-Gana. There are three Kotoko villages near the Chadian capital of N’Djamena, and a member of the group is prominent in the government, but his power is limited because his ethnic backing is relatively small.
The Kotoko appear to be descendants of the Sao. At least, the Sao were there before them -- and about everyone else in this part of Africa. The Sao are said to have been giants with extraordinary strength who apparently settled in the Chari River region as far back as the fifth century. Archaeologists have found some 637 settlements in mounds, complete with ceramics, tools, weapons and statuettes. It appears the Sao were able to resist attacks by migrating groups and did not disappear until the rise of the Bornu Empire in the sixteenth century.
The modern history of the Kotoko is blended with that of the Bornu Empire, of which they were vassals or, sometimes, allies. In their fortified towns (with enormous walls sometimes 30 feet high and miles in length) along the Chari River they were able to defend themselves against the encroachments of outsiders. They claim ownership to all the land around each city, controlling its lands (and charging fees for its use) and traffic on the river, for which they charge tolls.
Legends, usually involving mythical Sao hunters, are rife about the founders of the various Kotoko towns. The leader of one town was presumably a snake whose accession to power symbolized the failure of the Sao.
Islam came to the Kotoko probably in the sixteenth century during the rise of the Bornu Empire with its many Muslim traders and mallamai (clerics). The Kusseri, (those who live along the Kusseri River) only adopted Islam in the eighteenth century.
Kubra, Shaykh Abu’l-Jannab
Kubra, Shaykh Abu’l-Jannab (Shaykh Abu’l-Jannab Kubra) (Najm al-Din Kubra) (1145-1221). Eponymous founder of the Kubrawiyya Sufi order. The order was one of the major ones of the Mongol period in Central Asia and Khurasan.
Najm al-Din Kubra was one of the leading shaykhs of Sufism. He was born in Khwarazm. In his youth, he traveled widely but spent a significant amount of time in Egypt under the mentorship of Shaykh Ruzbahan Misri, a Sufi master who also became Najm al-Din's father-in-law.
Najm al-Din left Egypt and returned to Khwarazm where he set up a hospice (khaniqah) and founded a number of Sufi orders. He trained many disciples who later became Sufi saints (wali) and teachers (murshid). Historians report that he was martyred, along with his disciples, on the tenth of Jamadi al-'Awwal in 1221, while defending his city against the attack by the Mongols.
There are eight works attributed to Najm al-Din Kubra, one of which Fi adab al-salikin ("The Rules of the Wayfarers"), resides in the Asian Museum. .
Shaykh Abu'l-Jannab Kubra see Kubra, Shaykh Abu’l-Jannab
Najm al-Din Kubra see Kubra, Shaykh Abu’l-Jannab
Kubra, Najm al-Din see Kubra, Shaykh Abu’l-Jannab
Kubra, Shaykh Abu’l-Jannab (Shaykh Abu’l-Jannab Kubra) (Najm al-Din Kubra) (1145-1221). Eponymous founder of the Kubrawiyya Sufi order. The order was one of the major ones of the Mongol period in Central Asia and Khurasan.
Najm al-Din Kubra was one of the leading shaykhs of Sufism. He was born in Khwarazm. In his youth, he traveled widely but spent a significant amount of time in Egypt under the mentorship of Shaykh Ruzbahan Misri, a Sufi master who also became Najm al-Din's father-in-law.
Najm al-Din left Egypt and returned to Khwarazm where he set up a hospice (khaniqah) and founded a number of Sufi orders. He trained many disciples who later became Sufi saints (wali) and teachers (murshid). Historians report that he was martyred, along with his disciples, on the tenth of Jamadi al-'Awwal in 1221, while defending his city against the attack by the Mongols.
There are eight works attributed to Najm al-Din Kubra, one of which Fi adab al-salikin ("The Rules of the Wayfarers"), resides in the Asian Museum. .
Shaykh Abu'l-Jannab Kubra see Kubra, Shaykh Abu’l-Jannab
Najm al-Din Kubra see Kubra, Shaykh Abu’l-Jannab
Kubra, Najm al-Din see Kubra, Shaykh Abu’l-Jannab
Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza
Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza (Mirza Kucak Khan Jangali) (Mirza Kuchak Khan) (Mīrzā Kūchik Khān) (Shaykh Yunus) (1880 - December 2, 1921). Persian revolutionary from Rasht. He took an active interest in the idea of Pan-Islamism, and proclaimed the Socialist Republic of Gilan ("The Red Republic of the Jungle") in 1920.
Kucak Khan was born Yunus (Younes), son of Mirza "Bozorg" (meaning "big", i.e., "Senior" in Persian), and was thus nicknamed Mirza "Kucak" (meaning "small", i.e., "Junior" in Persian) in the city of Rasht in northern Iran. He was the founder of a revolutionary movement based in the forest of Gilan in northern Iran that became known as the Nehzat-e Jangal ("Jungle movement"). This movement was an uprising against the monarchist rule of the Qajar central government of Iran. The uprising began in 1914 and lasted until 1921 when government forces led by Reza Khan crushed the dispersed forces of the "Jungle Republic."
Mirza Kucak Khan and his Russian companion were left alone in the Khalkhal mountains where they died of frostbite. His body was decapitated by a local landlord and his head was displayed in Rasht to establish the government's new hegemony over revolution and revolutionary ideas.
Today, Mirza Kucak Khan is considered to be a national hero in modern Iranian history.
Mirza Kucak Khan Jangali see Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza
Jangali, Mirza Kucak Khan see Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza
Shaykh Yunus see Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza
Yunus see Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza
Mirza Kuchak Khan see Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza
Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza (Mirza Kucak Khan Jangali) (Mirza Kuchak Khan) (Mīrzā Kūchik Khān) (Shaykh Yunus) (1880 - December 2, 1921). Persian revolutionary from Rasht. He took an active interest in the idea of Pan-Islamism, and proclaimed the Socialist Republic of Gilan ("The Red Republic of the Jungle") in 1920.
Kucak Khan was born Yunus (Younes), son of Mirza "Bozorg" (meaning "big", i.e., "Senior" in Persian), and was thus nicknamed Mirza "Kucak" (meaning "small", i.e., "Junior" in Persian) in the city of Rasht in northern Iran. He was the founder of a revolutionary movement based in the forest of Gilan in northern Iran that became known as the Nehzat-e Jangal ("Jungle movement"). This movement was an uprising against the monarchist rule of the Qajar central government of Iran. The uprising began in 1914 and lasted until 1921 when government forces led by Reza Khan crushed the dispersed forces of the "Jungle Republic."
Mirza Kucak Khan and his Russian companion were left alone in the Khalkhal mountains where they died of frostbite. His body was decapitated by a local landlord and his head was displayed in Rasht to establish the government's new hegemony over revolution and revolutionary ideas.
Today, Mirza Kucak Khan is considered to be a national hero in modern Iranian history.
Mirza Kucak Khan Jangali see Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza
Jangali, Mirza Kucak Khan see Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza
Shaykh Yunus see Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza
Yunus see Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza
Mirza Kuchak Khan see Kucak Khan Jangali, Mirza
Kucuk Sa‘id Pasha
Kucuk Sa‘id Pasha (Kucuk Mehmet Sait Pasha -- "Mehmet Sait Pasha the Small") (1830-1914). Ottoman statesman and editor of the Turkish newspaper Jerid-i-Havadis. He was seven times the Grand Vizier under Sultan Abdulhamid II, and once in the Young Turk era. He was known for his opposition to the extension of foreign influence in Turkey.
Küçük Mehmet Sait Pasha became first secretary to Sultan Abdul Hamid II shortly after the Sultan's accession, and is said to have contributed to the realizations of his majesty's design of concentrating power in his own hands. Later he became successively minister of the interior and then governor of Bursa, reaching the high post of grand vizier in 1879. He was grand vizier seven more times under Abdul Hamid, and once under his successor, Mehmed V Reşat. He was known for his opposition to the extension of foreign influence in Turkey.
In 1896, he took refuge at the British embassy at Istanbul, and, though then assured of his personal liberty and safety, remained practically a prisoner in his own house. He came into temporary prominence again during the revolution of 1908. On July 22, he succeeded Fuat Pasha as grand vizier, but on August 6 was replaced by the more liberal Kamil Pasha, at the insistence of the young Turkish committee. During the Italian crisis in 1911-12 he was again called to the grand-viziership.
Kucuk Mehmet Sait Pasha see Kucuk Sa‘id Pasha
Mehmet Sait Pasha the Small see Kucuk Sa‘id Pasha
Kucuk Sa‘id Pasha (Kucuk Mehmet Sait Pasha -- "Mehmet Sait Pasha the Small") (1830-1914). Ottoman statesman and editor of the Turkish newspaper Jerid-i-Havadis. He was seven times the Grand Vizier under Sultan Abdulhamid II, and once in the Young Turk era. He was known for his opposition to the extension of foreign influence in Turkey.
Küçük Mehmet Sait Pasha became first secretary to Sultan Abdul Hamid II shortly after the Sultan's accession, and is said to have contributed to the realizations of his majesty's design of concentrating power in his own hands. Later he became successively minister of the interior and then governor of Bursa, reaching the high post of grand vizier in 1879. He was grand vizier seven more times under Abdul Hamid, and once under his successor, Mehmed V Reşat. He was known for his opposition to the extension of foreign influence in Turkey.
In 1896, he took refuge at the British embassy at Istanbul, and, though then assured of his personal liberty and safety, remained practically a prisoner in his own house. He came into temporary prominence again during the revolution of 1908. On July 22, he succeeded Fuat Pasha as grand vizier, but on August 6 was replaced by the more liberal Kamil Pasha, at the insistence of the young Turkish committee. During the Italian crisis in 1911-12 he was again called to the grand-viziership.
Kucuk Mehmet Sait Pasha see Kucuk Sa‘id Pasha
Mehmet Sait Pasha the Small see Kucuk Sa‘id Pasha
Kufr
Kufr. Arabic word meaning “covering or concealing” as in the covering or concealing of God’s blessings. The word kufr has become synonymous with unbelief and unfaithfulness. An infidel -- an unbeliever -- is a kafir. Kufr and its synonyms are very frequently encountered in the Qur’an, where “ingratitude” is sometimes the basic meaning. The kafir will go to Jahannam -- to "Hell."
In the hadith, Muhammad is reported to have said: “When one commits fornication he is not a believer, when one steals he is not a believer, when one drinks wine he is not a believer, when one takes plunder on account of which men raise their eyes at him he is not a believer, and when one of you defrauds he is not a believer; so beware, beware!”
In early Islam, there was much controversy over what made one a kafir. Muhammad declared that even charging a fellow Muslim with kufr brings the same sin down on one’s own head if the accusation proves unfounded. It is common nonetheless to encounter denunciations of fellow Muslims as kafirs in the literature of theological dispute. The lawbooks consider the kafir to be unclean, but Jews and Christians are generally regarded less harshly in this respect, being People of the Book -- ahl al-kitab.
Kufr. Arabic word meaning “covering or concealing” as in the covering or concealing of God’s blessings. The word kufr has become synonymous with unbelief and unfaithfulness. An infidel -- an unbeliever -- is a kafir. Kufr and its synonyms are very frequently encountered in the Qur’an, where “ingratitude” is sometimes the basic meaning. The kafir will go to Jahannam -- to "Hell."
In the hadith, Muhammad is reported to have said: “When one commits fornication he is not a believer, when one steals he is not a believer, when one drinks wine he is not a believer, when one takes plunder on account of which men raise their eyes at him he is not a believer, and when one of you defrauds he is not a believer; so beware, beware!”
In early Islam, there was much controversy over what made one a kafir. Muhammad declared that even charging a fellow Muslim with kufr brings the same sin down on one’s own head if the accusation proves unfounded. It is common nonetheless to encounter denunciations of fellow Muslims as kafirs in the literature of theological dispute. The lawbooks consider the kafir to be unclean, but Jews and Christians are generally regarded less harshly in this respect, being People of the Book -- ahl al-kitab.
Kulayni, al-
Kulayni, al- (al-Kulini),Abu Ja‘far Muhammad) (Abu Ja‘far Muhammad al-Kulayni) (Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni) (Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kulayni al-Razi) (Thiqat ul-Islam) (864- 940/941). Imami transmitter of hadith. His work, known as al-Kafi, is mostly a collection of hadith of the Imams. It gained popularity through the influence of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi, and came to be considered one of the most authoritative collections of hadith on which Imami jurisprudence is based.
Al-Kulayni's work had great influence on his contemporaries and on successive generations, especially among the followers of the Shi'a Imamia faith. He took up the work of compiling hadith for the sake of arming believers with a sufficient body of traditions that could serve as a guide. While he did not write commentaries on the traditions, his preference in the traditions emphasizing reason and knowledge demonstrate his inclination towards rationalism. His work and his ratioonalistic approach in dealing with various problems paved the way for future generations in such varied fields as Islamic Science and Philosophy. This may be one of the reasons why the Shi'a have been at the forefront of developments in Islamic Science and Philosophy even though they are a historical minority.
Al-Kulayni's work and contributions include:
* Kitab al-Kafi / al-shafi (Usul al-Kafi al-shafi) - is the book of traditions.
* Kitab al-Rijal - is the assessment of persons as authorities on traditions.
* al-Radd 'ala 'l-Qaramata - "Refutation of the Carmatians",
* Rasa' il al-a'immata - "Letters of the Imams" and an anthology of poetry about the Shia Imams. Of these only Kitab al-Kafi has survived. It has eight chapters or kutubs (sing: kitab). Each kitab is divided into sections.
Kulini, al- see Kulayni, al-
Abu Ja'far Muhammad see Kulayni, al-
Abu Ja'far Muhammad al-Kulayni see Kulayni, al-
Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni see Kulayni, al-
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kulayni al-Razi see Kulayni, al-
Thiqat ul-Islam see Kulayni, al-
Kulayni, al- (al-Kulini),Abu Ja‘far Muhammad) (Abu Ja‘far Muhammad al-Kulayni) (Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni) (Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kulayni al-Razi) (Thiqat ul-Islam) (864- 940/941). Imami transmitter of hadith. His work, known as al-Kafi, is mostly a collection of hadith of the Imams. It gained popularity through the influence of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi, and came to be considered one of the most authoritative collections of hadith on which Imami jurisprudence is based.
Al-Kulayni's work had great influence on his contemporaries and on successive generations, especially among the followers of the Shi'a Imamia faith. He took up the work of compiling hadith for the sake of arming believers with a sufficient body of traditions that could serve as a guide. While he did not write commentaries on the traditions, his preference in the traditions emphasizing reason and knowledge demonstrate his inclination towards rationalism. His work and his ratioonalistic approach in dealing with various problems paved the way for future generations in such varied fields as Islamic Science and Philosophy. This may be one of the reasons why the Shi'a have been at the forefront of developments in Islamic Science and Philosophy even though they are a historical minority.
Al-Kulayni's work and contributions include:
* Kitab al-Kafi / al-shafi (Usul al-Kafi al-shafi) - is the book of traditions.
* Kitab al-Rijal - is the assessment of persons as authorities on traditions.
* al-Radd 'ala 'l-Qaramata - "Refutation of the Carmatians",
* Rasa' il al-a'immata - "Letters of the Imams" and an anthology of poetry about the Shia Imams. Of these only Kitab al-Kafi has survived. It has eight chapters or kutubs (sing: kitab). Each kitab is divided into sections.
Kulini, al- see Kulayni, al-
Abu Ja'far Muhammad see Kulayni, al-
Abu Ja'far Muhammad al-Kulayni see Kulayni, al-
Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni see Kulayni, al-
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kulayni al-Razi see Kulayni, al-
Thiqat ul-Islam see Kulayni, al-
Kumayt ibn Zayd al-Asadi, al-
Kumayt ibn Zayd al-Asadi, al- (680-743). Arab poet of Kufa. His renown, maintained by Shi‘a circles, rests on his praises aimed principally at the Prophet and at ‘Ali and his descendants.
Al-Kumayt lamented, in his poetry, that the Umayyad caliphs were not swearing allegiance to the Prophet, but rather to themselves. For this criticism, al-Kumayt was imprisoned by the Umayyads and later murdered. The poems of al-Kumayt are highly regarded by the Shi'a, in particular his lengthy composition, al-Hashimiyyat, which is among the earliest literary records of a distinctive Muslim piety towards the ahl al-bayt, the Prophet and his family.
Al-Kumayt ibn Zayd al-Asadi was an Arab poet from Kufa that used the language of the Bedouins to write poems in praise of the Umayyads, as well as ‘Ali and his family (The Great Revolutionary...). He was a schoolteacher at a local mosque until he was encouraged to write poetry instead. He wrote several series of poems including: his Mudhahhaba, his Malhama, and, arguably his most famous series, the Hashimayyat. Al-Kumayt was imprisoned by the caliph for his writings and escaped through the help of his wife. He later received a pardon from the caliph and was allowed to return to Kufa. While going to recite a poem, al-Kumayt was attacked by his Yemeni guards and killed. It is believed that the Hashimayyat and it’s supposedly pro-‘Ali poetry led to his assassination. While much of his poetry is controversial, it is generally not disputed that he wrote well of both the ‘Alids and the Umayyads.
Asadi, al-Kumayt ibn Zayd al- see Kumayt ibn Zayd al-Asadi, al-
Kumayt ibn Zayd al-Asadi, al- (680-743). Arab poet of Kufa. His renown, maintained by Shi‘a circles, rests on his praises aimed principally at the Prophet and at ‘Ali and his descendants.
Al-Kumayt lamented, in his poetry, that the Umayyad caliphs were not swearing allegiance to the Prophet, but rather to themselves. For this criticism, al-Kumayt was imprisoned by the Umayyads and later murdered. The poems of al-Kumayt are highly regarded by the Shi'a, in particular his lengthy composition, al-Hashimiyyat, which is among the earliest literary records of a distinctive Muslim piety towards the ahl al-bayt, the Prophet and his family.
Al-Kumayt ibn Zayd al-Asadi was an Arab poet from Kufa that used the language of the Bedouins to write poems in praise of the Umayyads, as well as ‘Ali and his family (The Great Revolutionary...). He was a schoolteacher at a local mosque until he was encouraged to write poetry instead. He wrote several series of poems including: his Mudhahhaba, his Malhama, and, arguably his most famous series, the Hashimayyat. Al-Kumayt was imprisoned by the caliph for his writings and escaped through the help of his wife. He later received a pardon from the caliph and was allowed to return to Kufa. While going to recite a poem, al-Kumayt was attacked by his Yemeni guards and killed. It is believed that the Hashimayyat and it’s supposedly pro-‘Ali poetry led to his assassination. While much of his poetry is controversial, it is generally not disputed that he wrote well of both the ‘Alids and the Umayyads.
Asadi, al-Kumayt ibn Zayd al- see Kumayt ibn Zayd al-Asadi, al-
Kumyk
Kumyk. The largest Turkic group in the Daghestan region is the Kumyk, whose territory includes the northeast Caucasus Mountains between the Terek and Samur rivers. While most remain agriculturalists, many have moved to the cities, especially Makhachkala, on the Caspian Sea.
The Kumyk appear to have their origins in the large waves of Turkic and Mongolian peoples who began pushing westward across the great steppes of Central Asia as early as the fifth century of the Christian calendar. As early as the middle of the eighth century, they located where many of them live today. It is possible that the Kumyk were part of the Kazi-Kumyk (Lak) Confederation, which had its capital in the town of Kumuk. Prior to their Islamization, the Kumyk were pagans, shamanists, Jews and Christians. The Arab geographer, Mas’udi, recorded that a Christian Kumyk state existed under Khazar domination in the ninth and tenth centuries.
The Kumyk were part of the Kuman-Polovtsi-Khazar-Kipchak-Turkic Confederation, which occupied the great steppes north of the Black and Caspian seas from the eighth to the sixteenth century. They separated from these larger confederations and were pushed to the lowlands of the North Caucasus steppes in the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries.
In the thirteenth century, as the Golden Horde empire was consolidating in the southern steppes of Russia, the Kumyk were pushed into the areas where they live today. Forced into geographically more cramped quarters and among non-Turkic peoples, the Kumyk began to emerge as a community with a distinct sense of identity, if not yet a nationality. Also at this time, the Kumyk began to convert to Islam, again largely through the influence of the Golden Horde. The pressure from the Golden Horde on the Kumyk to become Muslims became particularly intense after Ozbek, the Khan of the Golden Horde, converted to Islam in 1313.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Kumyk were part of the Kazi-Kumyk (Lak) principality, one of the three feudal principalities controlling Daghestan. When the leader, Shamkhol Choban, died in 1578, the Laks refused to accept the rule of his son, Sultan-But, and the center of government was moved to Buynaksh (Boynak), a major city of the Kumyk. This development further strengthened the Kumyk and allowed them to play an important role in the ensuing battles between the sons of Shamkhol Choban as well as against the advances of the Russians in the last decades of the sixteenth century, forcing the Russians to retreat temporarily in 1604. In 1640, Makhachkala became the capital of the principality. In spite of and because of the persistent Russian invasions, the Kumyk-centered principality acknowledged the sovereignty of the Safavid dynasty of Persia throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Oddly enough, it was not the direct threat and conquests of the Russians which weakened the Kumyk-centered principality but its involvement in wars with fellow Caucasians, the Kabardins and the Georgians. As a result of these intra-Caucasus wars, the Kumyk principality lost control of the lands between the Terek and Sulak rivers and lands which were largely settled by Kumyk themselves. Throughout the seventeenth century, the Kumyk participated in the wars between Russian and Ottoman empires as vassals of the Crimean Khanate.
Peter the Great (1689-1725), the first great Russian czar who sought to modernize the Russian Empire, occupied Derbend in 1722 and defeated the ailing Safavid dynasty of Persia. Peter the Great defeated the Ottomans as well, and by the Treaty of 1724 Russia secured rights to the western littoral of the Caspian Sea, which in effect ended the independence of the Kumyk principality. From this date onwards, the fortunes of the Kumyk began to decline, and by 1765 they controlled only the long strip of land along the coast. Nevertheless, despite the demise of their independence, the inability of any successor to consolidate power in Persia and the dire straits of the Ottoman Empire after the shattering rebellion of Patrona Halil in 1730 allowed the Kumyk to maintain a good deal of autonomy over their affairs.
The most significant event of nineteenth century Caucasian history was the heroic resistance of Shah Shamil (d. 1871), often referred to as the Imam, a title which reflected the messianic furor with which he fought against the Russian advances into the Caucasus during the years 1834 to 1869. The increase in the strength of the Naqshbandiyya, a militant Islamic brotherhood, in the nineteenth century additionally served as a rallying point for the forces of Shah Shamil. While the main leaders of the Shah Shamil rebellion were Avars and Chechens, many other peoples of the Caucasus joined his cause, notable among them the Kumyk. The Shah Shamil resistance movement to the Russians was the greatest Islamic and Turkic response to the Russians until the Basmachi rebellions against the Soviets after the Russian Revolution. At times Shah Shamil tied up the entire Russian armed forces. During the Crimean War (1853-1856) the Russians were forced to station nearly 250,000 men in the Caucasus, which greatly contributed to their defeat. Shah Shamil surrendered to the Russians on September 6, 1859, and this date also marks the incorporation of the Kumyk and other Daghestani peoples into the Russian empire.
Some Kumyk played a role in the early revolutionary movements which occurred in Russia in 1904-1905, especialy in Derbend. Kumyk participation in workers’ movements was influenced by the urbanization and industrialization which the Caucasus was undergoing during the twentieth century, especially in Makhachkala and Derbend and the oil-related industries in those two cities. In spite of some Kumyk participation in these revolutionary movements, most Kumyk preferred an Islamic/Turkic nationalism to communism or national socialism. On the eve of the Russian Revolution, the Kumyk played an important role in the North Caucasus peoples’ move for independence. Influenced by their deep involvement in the industrialization of the western coast of the Caspian Sea, most Kumyk favored a Turkic independence movement over an Islamic one. The common language to be adopted was Kumyk or Azeri, which would have given the Turkic peoples of the Caucasus solid linguistic ties and access to the literature of the Pan-Turanism movements centered in Baku, Kazan and the Crimea. By April 1918, after a protracted conflict with the Islamists, the Turkic group of nationalists proved successful and consolidated their ranks with the Bolsheviks, which shortly thereafter were defeated by General Bicherahov’s White Army equipped by the British in Iran. In 1920, the Bolsheviks re-established themselves in Daghestan, where the Eleventh Army defeated General Denikin’s White Army and forced the Islamists led by Imam Gotinski to retreat to the mountains. The Kumyk on January 20, 1921, became part of the Soviet system of government.
The vast majority of Kumyk are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school. Some, however, especially in the cities of Makhachkala and Derbend who have had close contact with the Azeri, are Shi'a.
Yirchi Kazak (born in 1830 or 1839) is considered the father of Kumyk literature. Some of his original work is incorporated in a volume of poetry and letters edited by the Kumyk author, Osmanov Muhammad (1840-1904) and published in 1873 in Saint Petersburg under the title, Collection of Nogay and Kumyk Folksongs. His volume includes pieces written after the Crimean War and reflects ideas of Kumyk scholars in the latter nineteenth century. The Kumyk established a press in Buynaksk early in the latter nineteenth century. The Kumyk established a press in Buynaksk early in the twentieth century, which contributed to strengthening the Kumyk language. Two of the most important and significant prose writers were Nuray Batirnurzayov and his son Zeynel-abid, both of whom wrote many works before they were shot by the White Russian forces on September 18, 1919. The literary journal Tang-Cholpan ("Morning Star") which they established had a lasting effect on Kumyk literature.
Kumyk. The largest Turkic group in the Daghestan region is the Kumyk, whose territory includes the northeast Caucasus Mountains between the Terek and Samur rivers. While most remain agriculturalists, many have moved to the cities, especially Makhachkala, on the Caspian Sea.
The Kumyk appear to have their origins in the large waves of Turkic and Mongolian peoples who began pushing westward across the great steppes of Central Asia as early as the fifth century of the Christian calendar. As early as the middle of the eighth century, they located where many of them live today. It is possible that the Kumyk were part of the Kazi-Kumyk (Lak) Confederation, which had its capital in the town of Kumuk. Prior to their Islamization, the Kumyk were pagans, shamanists, Jews and Christians. The Arab geographer, Mas’udi, recorded that a Christian Kumyk state existed under Khazar domination in the ninth and tenth centuries.
The Kumyk were part of the Kuman-Polovtsi-Khazar-Kipchak-Turkic Confederation, which occupied the great steppes north of the Black and Caspian seas from the eighth to the sixteenth century. They separated from these larger confederations and were pushed to the lowlands of the North Caucasus steppes in the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries.
In the thirteenth century, as the Golden Horde empire was consolidating in the southern steppes of Russia, the Kumyk were pushed into the areas where they live today. Forced into geographically more cramped quarters and among non-Turkic peoples, the Kumyk began to emerge as a community with a distinct sense of identity, if not yet a nationality. Also at this time, the Kumyk began to convert to Islam, again largely through the influence of the Golden Horde. The pressure from the Golden Horde on the Kumyk to become Muslims became particularly intense after Ozbek, the Khan of the Golden Horde, converted to Islam in 1313.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Kumyk were part of the Kazi-Kumyk (Lak) principality, one of the three feudal principalities controlling Daghestan. When the leader, Shamkhol Choban, died in 1578, the Laks refused to accept the rule of his son, Sultan-But, and the center of government was moved to Buynaksh (Boynak), a major city of the Kumyk. This development further strengthened the Kumyk and allowed them to play an important role in the ensuing battles between the sons of Shamkhol Choban as well as against the advances of the Russians in the last decades of the sixteenth century, forcing the Russians to retreat temporarily in 1604. In 1640, Makhachkala became the capital of the principality. In spite of and because of the persistent Russian invasions, the Kumyk-centered principality acknowledged the sovereignty of the Safavid dynasty of Persia throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Oddly enough, it was not the direct threat and conquests of the Russians which weakened the Kumyk-centered principality but its involvement in wars with fellow Caucasians, the Kabardins and the Georgians. As a result of these intra-Caucasus wars, the Kumyk principality lost control of the lands between the Terek and Sulak rivers and lands which were largely settled by Kumyk themselves. Throughout the seventeenth century, the Kumyk participated in the wars between Russian and Ottoman empires as vassals of the Crimean Khanate.
Peter the Great (1689-1725), the first great Russian czar who sought to modernize the Russian Empire, occupied Derbend in 1722 and defeated the ailing Safavid dynasty of Persia. Peter the Great defeated the Ottomans as well, and by the Treaty of 1724 Russia secured rights to the western littoral of the Caspian Sea, which in effect ended the independence of the Kumyk principality. From this date onwards, the fortunes of the Kumyk began to decline, and by 1765 they controlled only the long strip of land along the coast. Nevertheless, despite the demise of their independence, the inability of any successor to consolidate power in Persia and the dire straits of the Ottoman Empire after the shattering rebellion of Patrona Halil in 1730 allowed the Kumyk to maintain a good deal of autonomy over their affairs.
The most significant event of nineteenth century Caucasian history was the heroic resistance of Shah Shamil (d. 1871), often referred to as the Imam, a title which reflected the messianic furor with which he fought against the Russian advances into the Caucasus during the years 1834 to 1869. The increase in the strength of the Naqshbandiyya, a militant Islamic brotherhood, in the nineteenth century additionally served as a rallying point for the forces of Shah Shamil. While the main leaders of the Shah Shamil rebellion were Avars and Chechens, many other peoples of the Caucasus joined his cause, notable among them the Kumyk. The Shah Shamil resistance movement to the Russians was the greatest Islamic and Turkic response to the Russians until the Basmachi rebellions against the Soviets after the Russian Revolution. At times Shah Shamil tied up the entire Russian armed forces. During the Crimean War (1853-1856) the Russians were forced to station nearly 250,000 men in the Caucasus, which greatly contributed to their defeat. Shah Shamil surrendered to the Russians on September 6, 1859, and this date also marks the incorporation of the Kumyk and other Daghestani peoples into the Russian empire.
Some Kumyk played a role in the early revolutionary movements which occurred in Russia in 1904-1905, especialy in Derbend. Kumyk participation in workers’ movements was influenced by the urbanization and industrialization which the Caucasus was undergoing during the twentieth century, especially in Makhachkala and Derbend and the oil-related industries in those two cities. In spite of some Kumyk participation in these revolutionary movements, most Kumyk preferred an Islamic/Turkic nationalism to communism or national socialism. On the eve of the Russian Revolution, the Kumyk played an important role in the North Caucasus peoples’ move for independence. Influenced by their deep involvement in the industrialization of the western coast of the Caspian Sea, most Kumyk favored a Turkic independence movement over an Islamic one. The common language to be adopted was Kumyk or Azeri, which would have given the Turkic peoples of the Caucasus solid linguistic ties and access to the literature of the Pan-Turanism movements centered in Baku, Kazan and the Crimea. By April 1918, after a protracted conflict with the Islamists, the Turkic group of nationalists proved successful and consolidated their ranks with the Bolsheviks, which shortly thereafter were defeated by General Bicherahov’s White Army equipped by the British in Iran. In 1920, the Bolsheviks re-established themselves in Daghestan, where the Eleventh Army defeated General Denikin’s White Army and forced the Islamists led by Imam Gotinski to retreat to the mountains. The Kumyk on January 20, 1921, became part of the Soviet system of government.
The vast majority of Kumyk are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school. Some, however, especially in the cities of Makhachkala and Derbend who have had close contact with the Azeri, are Shi'a.
Yirchi Kazak (born in 1830 or 1839) is considered the father of Kumyk literature. Some of his original work is incorporated in a volume of poetry and letters edited by the Kumyk author, Osmanov Muhammad (1840-1904) and published in 1873 in Saint Petersburg under the title, Collection of Nogay and Kumyk Folksongs. His volume includes pieces written after the Crimean War and reflects ideas of Kumyk scholars in the latter nineteenth century. The Kumyk established a press in Buynaksk early in the latter nineteenth century. The Kumyk established a press in Buynaksk early in the twentieth century, which contributed to strengthening the Kumyk language. Two of the most important and significant prose writers were Nuray Batirnurzayov and his son Zeynel-abid, both of whom wrote many works before they were shot by the White Russian forces on September 18, 1919. The literary journal Tang-Cholpan ("Morning Star") which they established had a lasting effect on Kumyk literature.
Kunta
Kunta. Arabic speaking group from the southern Sahara (specifically Mali and Mauritania). Originally from Touat, the Kunta were, beginning in the eighteenth century, a religious and commercial force whose influence was felt throughout most of West Africa. They introduced the Qadiriyya to the southern Sahara.
The Kunta family (the Awlad Sidi al-Wafi) is among the best-known examples of a lineage of Islamic scholarship with widespread influence throughout Mauritania, Senegambia, and other parts of the Western Sudan.
The Kunta shaykhs and the family or clan they represent, are an outgrowth of the Kounta Bedouin peoples (likely of Berber origins) who spread throughout what is today northern Mali and southern Mauritania from the mid-sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries of the Christian calendar.
The family's history goes back to Sheikh Sidi Ahmad al-Bakka'i (d.1504) who established a Qadiri zawiya (Sufi residence) in Walata. In the 16th century, the family spread across the Sahara to Timbuktu, Agades, Bornu, Hausaland, and other places, and in the 18th century large numbers of Kunta moved to the region of the middle Niger where they established the village of Mabruk. Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti (1728-1811) united the Kunta factions by successful negotiation, and established an extensive confederation. Under his influence the Maliki school of Islamic law was reinvigorated and the Qadiriyyah order spread throughout Mauritania, the middle Niger region, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Futa Toro, and Futa Jallon. Kunta colonies in the Senegambian region became centers of Muslim teaching.
The Kunta family has historically played a leading role in Timbuktu, and have been power brokers in many states of the upper Niger.
Kunta. Arabic speaking group from the southern Sahara (specifically Mali and Mauritania). Originally from Touat, the Kunta were, beginning in the eighteenth century, a religious and commercial force whose influence was felt throughout most of West Africa. They introduced the Qadiriyya to the southern Sahara.
The Kunta family (the Awlad Sidi al-Wafi) is among the best-known examples of a lineage of Islamic scholarship with widespread influence throughout Mauritania, Senegambia, and other parts of the Western Sudan.
The Kunta shaykhs and the family or clan they represent, are an outgrowth of the Kounta Bedouin peoples (likely of Berber origins) who spread throughout what is today northern Mali and southern Mauritania from the mid-sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries of the Christian calendar.
The family's history goes back to Sheikh Sidi Ahmad al-Bakka'i (d.1504) who established a Qadiri zawiya (Sufi residence) in Walata. In the 16th century, the family spread across the Sahara to Timbuktu, Agades, Bornu, Hausaland, and other places, and in the 18th century large numbers of Kunta moved to the region of the middle Niger where they established the village of Mabruk. Sidi al-Mukhtar al-Kunti (1728-1811) united the Kunta factions by successful negotiation, and established an extensive confederation. Under his influence the Maliki school of Islamic law was reinvigorated and the Qadiriyyah order spread throughout Mauritania, the middle Niger region, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Futa Toro, and Futa Jallon. Kunta colonies in the Senegambian region became centers of Muslim teaching.
The Kunta family has historically played a leading role in Timbuktu, and have been power brokers in many states of the upper Niger.
Kurani, Ibrahim ibn al-Shahrazuri al-
Kurani, Ibrahim ibn al-Shahrazuri al- (Ibrahim ibn al-Shahrazuri al-Kurani) (1615-1690). Scholar and mystic of Kurdistan. Because of his special relationship with the Achehnese ‘Abd al-Ra’uf al-Sinkili, he had an important influence on the development of Islam in what is now Indonesia.
Ibrahim al-Kurani is one of the prominent Kurdish Muslim scholars. He became a grand shaykh in Medina. His intellectual thoughts of Sufism strongly influenced a number of his Malay-Indonesian students, including 'Abd al-Ra'uf al-Sinkili (Abdrurrauf ibn Ali al-Jawi).
Al-Kurani was a Sufi 'alim, and also a prolific writer, who mastered both esoteric and exoteric Islamic knowledge. His works involve various Islamic fields such as tafsir, hadith, fiqh, theology and Sufism. It is estimated that al-Kurani's works number close to 100.
Ibrahim ibn al-Shahrazurial-Kurani see Kurani, Ibrahim ibn al-Shahrazuri al-
Kurani, Ibrahim ibn al-Shahrazuri al- (Ibrahim ibn al-Shahrazuri al-Kurani) (1615-1690). Scholar and mystic of Kurdistan. Because of his special relationship with the Achehnese ‘Abd al-Ra’uf al-Sinkili, he had an important influence on the development of Islam in what is now Indonesia.
Ibrahim al-Kurani is one of the prominent Kurdish Muslim scholars. He became a grand shaykh in Medina. His intellectual thoughts of Sufism strongly influenced a number of his Malay-Indonesian students, including 'Abd al-Ra'uf al-Sinkili (Abdrurrauf ibn Ali al-Jawi).
Al-Kurani was a Sufi 'alim, and also a prolific writer, who mastered both esoteric and exoteric Islamic knowledge. His works involve various Islamic fields such as tafsir, hadith, fiqh, theology and Sufism. It is estimated that al-Kurani's works number close to 100.
Ibrahim ibn al-Shahrazurial-Kurani see Kurani, Ibrahim ibn al-Shahrazuri al-
Kurbuqa, Abu Sa‘id
Kurbuqa, Abu Sa‘id (Abu Sa‘id Kurbuqa) (Abu Sa'id Kur-bugha) (d. 1102). Turkish commander of the Saljuq period and lord of Mosul.
Abu Sa'id Kurbuqa see Kurbuqa, Abu Sa‘id
Kur-bugha, Abu Sa'id see Kurbuqa, Abu Sa‘id
Abu Sa'id Kur-bugha see Kurbuqa, Abu Sa‘id
Kurbuqa, Abu Sa‘id (Abu Sa‘id Kurbuqa) (Abu Sa'id Kur-bugha) (d. 1102). Turkish commander of the Saljuq period and lord of Mosul.
Abu Sa'id Kurbuqa see Kurbuqa, Abu Sa‘id
Kur-bugha, Abu Sa'id see Kurbuqa, Abu Sa‘id
Abu Sa'id Kur-bugha see Kurbuqa, Abu Sa‘id
Kurd ‘Ali, Muhammad Farid
Kurd ‘Ali, Muhammad Farid (Muhammad Farid Kurd ‘Ali) (Muhammad Kurd Ali) (1876-1953). Syrian journalist, scholar and man of letters. He is the author of a monumental history of Syria (Khitat al-Sham), and was the founder and first president of the Academy of Arabic Language (Arab Academy) in Damascus.
The writings of Kurd 'Ali embraced a wide range of subjects, but he paid special attention to the historical achievements of Arabic-Islamic civilization.and to a comparison of those achievements with the ascendancy of Western Europe. Kurd 'Ali's historical writings were intended not only to inform readers about the past but also to demonstrate the positive achievements of Arab-Islamic civilization. He believed that European progress was generated by the rediscovery of ancient knowledge during the Renaissance, and argued that Arab Muslims must become aware of the achievements of their ancestors in order to experience their own awakening and renewal..
Muhammad Kurd Ali was a notable Syrian scholar, historian and literary critic in the Arabic language. He was the founder director of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Damascus (1918) till his death.
Originally from Kurdish Sulaimaniya (the work of Mosul), Muhammad Kurd Ali learned to read and write in the kuttab where he also studied the Qu'ran. He studied the preparatory phase at Al-Rushdieya school, and then completed his secondary education at the Azarieh School.
Muhammad Kurd Ali loved writing and journalism, and developed an interest in reading books and collecting them since childhood. Although illiterate himself, his father encouraged him to acquire books, and gave him sufficient assistance to possess them. As he developed more strength in science and language, he started to read newspapers and magazines in French, Turkish and Arabic. At the age of sixteen, he was writing news and articles and was paid by the newspapers. His hobbies did not stop at this point, he loved Arabic poetry, rhyme rhetoric, and kept close company with well-known elderly scholars at the time from his country drawing on their knowledge and literature, such as: Saleem Bukhari, Sheikh Mohammed Al Mubarak, and Sheikh Taher Algaza’ri.
In 1897, he was entrusted with editing the government weekly newspaper (Sham). He carried on with this job for three years and was committed in his articles to assonance. Then Kurd Ali started corresponding with Al-Muqtataf magazine in Egypt for five years through which his fame passed through into Egypt.
Kurd Ali went to Cairo and remained there for ten months during which he worked as the editor of Al-Ra’ed Almasri (Egyptian pioneer) newspaper, and was introduced to its scientists, literary men and thinkers, thus further broadening his horizon and increasing his notoriety so much so that his name in Egypt became no less known than the most famous writers and the very best scholars of that period.
Kurd Ali returned to Damascus where he was a victim of a slander that led to orders by the Ottoman ruler to have Kurd Ali’s house searched. Kurd Ali was later proved innocent. Following this, he emigrated to Egypt in 1906, and established the monthly Al-Muqtabas magazine where he published scientific, literary and historical research. He also edited the Al-zaher newspaper and then edited Al-Mu’ayyad, another daily newspaper. He would report from the West magazines the latest news on science, civilization, invention and development; and he also translated a number of rare manuscript books so he combined both the old and the new.
Muhammad Kurd Ali returned to Damascus in 1908 after the proclamation of the Ottoman Constitution, and published the Al-Muqtabas magazine in addition to a daily newspaper he called Al-Muqtabas in collaboration with his brother Ahmed. He also founded its own press, but the Ottoman Empire harassed and fought against him and later closed the newspaper after one of the Ottoman rulers accused him of exposing the Sultan’s family in one of his articles. So he fled to Egypt and then to Europe and returned later exonerated. But the same was repeated in another charge, so he left the daily newspaper to his brother Ahmed and dedicated himself to the magazine.
Kurd Ali's alarm was intensified after the declaration of the First World War and the beginning of a revenge campaign against the ‘free Arabs’, so he closed the magazine and the newspaper. He was almost driven to the gallows like many other critics of the tyrannical regime, but was saved by a document found in the French consulate in Damascus by a staff member of the French Foreign Ministry before the war. The French staff member had paid a visit to Kurd Ali in his house and wanted to exploit his dislike of the (federals) to bring him towards the pro-French policy in the Middle East, but Kurd Ali disappointed him and advised him to alter their policy in Algeria and Tunisia. There were also similar documents like the (official publication of confidentiality) that had been sent by France's ambassador in Istanbul to the consuls of his country on Syrian lands warning them and proclaiming that Kurd Ali would only work with the Turks. This came together with other papers of this kind found through inspection of consulates early in the war. Djemal Pasha called Kurd Ali and jubilantly informed him of the news but also warned him that if he returned to opposition, he would kill him with his own pistol. Djemal Pasha then ordered the reopening of the newspaper and gave Kurd Ali financial assistance. He also appointed Kurd Ali editor of Al-Sharq (East) newspaper which was issued by the army.
After entering the Faisali Covenant and the independence of Syria from the Ottoman Empire, Kurd Ali found the opportunity to realize the dream that had long enticed him: the establishment of Arab Academy in Damascus in the manner that civilized nations do to save their heritage and maintain their language, and disseminate their literature and sciences. So, he presented the idea to the military ruler Rida Pasha al-Rikabi, who agreed to turn the Court of knowledge with its president and members into an Academy of Arabic Language in Damascus. This was on June 8, 1919, and Muhammad Kurd Ali was appointed president of the Assembly and continued to be so until his death.
Muhammad Farid Kurd 'Ali see Kurd ‘Ali, Muhammad Farid
'Ali, Muhammad Farid Kurd see Kurd ‘Ali, Muhammad Farid
Muhammad Kurd Ali see Kurd ‘Ali, Muhammad Farid
Kurd ‘Ali, Muhammad Farid (Muhammad Farid Kurd ‘Ali) (Muhammad Kurd Ali) (1876-1953). Syrian journalist, scholar and man of letters. He is the author of a monumental history of Syria (Khitat al-Sham), and was the founder and first president of the Academy of Arabic Language (Arab Academy) in Damascus.
The writings of Kurd 'Ali embraced a wide range of subjects, but he paid special attention to the historical achievements of Arabic-Islamic civilization.and to a comparison of those achievements with the ascendancy of Western Europe. Kurd 'Ali's historical writings were intended not only to inform readers about the past but also to demonstrate the positive achievements of Arab-Islamic civilization. He believed that European progress was generated by the rediscovery of ancient knowledge during the Renaissance, and argued that Arab Muslims must become aware of the achievements of their ancestors in order to experience their own awakening and renewal..
Muhammad Kurd Ali was a notable Syrian scholar, historian and literary critic in the Arabic language. He was the founder director of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Damascus (1918) till his death.
Originally from Kurdish Sulaimaniya (the work of Mosul), Muhammad Kurd Ali learned to read and write in the kuttab where he also studied the Qu'ran. He studied the preparatory phase at Al-Rushdieya school, and then completed his secondary education at the Azarieh School.
Muhammad Kurd Ali loved writing and journalism, and developed an interest in reading books and collecting them since childhood. Although illiterate himself, his father encouraged him to acquire books, and gave him sufficient assistance to possess them. As he developed more strength in science and language, he started to read newspapers and magazines in French, Turkish and Arabic. At the age of sixteen, he was writing news and articles and was paid by the newspapers. His hobbies did not stop at this point, he loved Arabic poetry, rhyme rhetoric, and kept close company with well-known elderly scholars at the time from his country drawing on their knowledge and literature, such as: Saleem Bukhari, Sheikh Mohammed Al Mubarak, and Sheikh Taher Algaza’ri.
In 1897, he was entrusted with editing the government weekly newspaper (Sham). He carried on with this job for three years and was committed in his articles to assonance. Then Kurd Ali started corresponding with Al-Muqtataf magazine in Egypt for five years through which his fame passed through into Egypt.
Kurd Ali went to Cairo and remained there for ten months during which he worked as the editor of Al-Ra’ed Almasri (Egyptian pioneer) newspaper, and was introduced to its scientists, literary men and thinkers, thus further broadening his horizon and increasing his notoriety so much so that his name in Egypt became no less known than the most famous writers and the very best scholars of that period.
Kurd Ali returned to Damascus where he was a victim of a slander that led to orders by the Ottoman ruler to have Kurd Ali’s house searched. Kurd Ali was later proved innocent. Following this, he emigrated to Egypt in 1906, and established the monthly Al-Muqtabas magazine where he published scientific, literary and historical research. He also edited the Al-zaher newspaper and then edited Al-Mu’ayyad, another daily newspaper. He would report from the West magazines the latest news on science, civilization, invention and development; and he also translated a number of rare manuscript books so he combined both the old and the new.
Muhammad Kurd Ali returned to Damascus in 1908 after the proclamation of the Ottoman Constitution, and published the Al-Muqtabas magazine in addition to a daily newspaper he called Al-Muqtabas in collaboration with his brother Ahmed. He also founded its own press, but the Ottoman Empire harassed and fought against him and later closed the newspaper after one of the Ottoman rulers accused him of exposing the Sultan’s family in one of his articles. So he fled to Egypt and then to Europe and returned later exonerated. But the same was repeated in another charge, so he left the daily newspaper to his brother Ahmed and dedicated himself to the magazine.
Kurd Ali's alarm was intensified after the declaration of the First World War and the beginning of a revenge campaign against the ‘free Arabs’, so he closed the magazine and the newspaper. He was almost driven to the gallows like many other critics of the tyrannical regime, but was saved by a document found in the French consulate in Damascus by a staff member of the French Foreign Ministry before the war. The French staff member had paid a visit to Kurd Ali in his house and wanted to exploit his dislike of the (federals) to bring him towards the pro-French policy in the Middle East, but Kurd Ali disappointed him and advised him to alter their policy in Algeria and Tunisia. There were also similar documents like the (official publication of confidentiality) that had been sent by France's ambassador in Istanbul to the consuls of his country on Syrian lands warning them and proclaiming that Kurd Ali would only work with the Turks. This came together with other papers of this kind found through inspection of consulates early in the war. Djemal Pasha called Kurd Ali and jubilantly informed him of the news but also warned him that if he returned to opposition, he would kill him with his own pistol. Djemal Pasha then ordered the reopening of the newspaper and gave Kurd Ali financial assistance. He also appointed Kurd Ali editor of Al-Sharq (East) newspaper which was issued by the army.
After entering the Faisali Covenant and the independence of Syria from the Ottoman Empire, Kurd Ali found the opportunity to realize the dream that had long enticed him: the establishment of Arab Academy in Damascus in the manner that civilized nations do to save their heritage and maintain their language, and disseminate their literature and sciences. So, he presented the idea to the military ruler Rida Pasha al-Rikabi, who agreed to turn the Court of knowledge with its president and members into an Academy of Arabic Language in Damascus. This was on June 8, 1919, and Muhammad Kurd Ali was appointed president of the Assembly and continued to be so until his death.
Muhammad Farid Kurd 'Ali see Kurd ‘Ali, Muhammad Farid
'Ali, Muhammad Farid Kurd see Kurd ‘Ali, Muhammad Farid
Muhammad Kurd Ali see Kurd ‘Ali, Muhammad Farid
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