Ibshihi, al-
Ibshihi, al- (1388-c.1446). Egyptian author of one of the most famous anthologies of Arabic literature.
Ibshihi, al- (1388-c.1446). Egyptian author of one of the most famous anthologies of Arabic literature.
Idi Amin
Idi Amin (Idi Amin Dada Oumee) (1924/1925, Koboko, Uganda - August 16, 2003, Jiddah, Saudi Arabia). President of Uganda (1971-1979). Born in Koboko of Muslim parents, Amin received a primary education before joining the British colonial army in 1946. He was one of only two native officers in Uganda’s military forces when the country became independent in 1962. A supporter of President Milton Obote, Amin rose quickly through the ranks and was promoted to major general and commander of the armed forces in 1968. However, in January 1971, Amin overthrew Obote. As president, Amin followed an erratic, tyrannical, and increasingly bloody course that left the country in shambles. He expelled some 50,000 Asians in 1972, nationalized foreign companies, and had up to 300,000 Ugandans killed. The economy collapsed, and in 1979, Amin was overthrown by an invasion force from Tanzania supported by Ugandan rebels. Amin found refuge in Saudi Arabia.
A member of the small Kakwa ethnic group of northwestern Uganda, Amin had little formal education and joined the King’s African Rifles of the British colonial army in 1946 as an assistant cook. He quickly rose through the ranks, serving in the Allied forces’ Burma (Myanmar) campaign during World War II and in the British action against the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya (1952–56). Amin was one of the few Ugandan soldiers elevated to officer rank before Ugandan independence in 1962, and he became closely associated with the new nation’s prime minister and president, Milton Obote. He was made chief of the army and air force (1966–70). Conflict with Obote arose, however, and on January 25, 1971, Amin staged a successful military coup. He became president and chief of the armed forces in 1971, field marshal in 1975, and life president in 1976.
Amin ruled directly, shunning the delegation of power. He was noted for his abrupt changes of mood, from buffoonery to shrewdness, from gentleness to tyranny. He was often extreme in his nationalism. He expelled all Asians from Uganda in 1972, an action that led to the breakdown of Uganda’s economy, and he publicly insulted Great Britain and the United States as well as numerous world leaders. A Muslim, he reversed Uganda’s amicable relations with Israel and befriended Libya and the Palestinians. In July 1976 he was personally involved in the hijacking of a French airliner to Entebbe. He also took tribalism, a long-standing problem in Uganda, to its extreme by allegedly ordering the persecution of Acholi, Lango, and other ethnic groups. Amin came to be known as the “Butcher of Uganda” for his brutality, and it is believed that some 300,000 people were killed and countless others tortured during his presidency.
In October 1978 Amin ordered an attack on Tanzania. Aided by Ugandan nationalists, Tanzanian troops eventually overpowered the Ugandan army. As the Tanzanian-led forces neared Kampala, Uganda’s capital, on April 13, 1979, Amin fled the city. Escaping first to Libya, he finally settled in Saudi Arabia.
Amin stayed for a number of years on the top two floors of the Novotel Hotel on Palestine Road in Jeddah. Having covered the war for the BBC as chief Africa correspondent, in 1980 Brian Barron, in partnership with cameraman Mohammed Amin of Visnews in Nairobi, located Amin and secured the first interview with him since his deposition.
Amin held that Uganda needed him and never expressed remorse for the nature of his regime. In 1989, he attempted to return to Uganda, apparently to lead an armed group organized by Colonel Juma Oris. He reached Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), before Zairian President Mobutu forced him to return to Saudi Arabia.
On July 20, 2003, one of Amin's wives, Madina, reported that he was in a coma and near death at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She pleaded with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to allow him to return to die in Uganda. Museveni replied that Amin would have to "answer for his sins the moment he was brought back." Amin died in Saudi Arabia on August 16, 2003. He was buried in Ruwais Cemetery in Jeddah.
A polygamist, Idi Amin married at least six women, three of whom he divorced. He married his first and second wives, Malyamu and Kay, in 1966. The next year, he married Nora and then Nalongo Madina in 1972. On March 26, 1974, he announced on Radio Uganda that he had divorced Malyamu, Nora and Kay. Malyamu was arrested in Tororo on the Kenyan border in April 1974 and accused of attempting to smuggle a bolt of fabric into Kenya. She later moved to London. Kay died on August 13, 1974. Her body was found dismembered. In August 1975, during the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit meeting in Kampala, Amin married Sarah Kyolaba. Sarah's boyfriend, whom she had been living with before she met Amin, vanished and was never heard from again. According to The Monitor, Amin married again a few months before his death in 2003.
Sources differ widely on the number of children Amin fathered; most say that he had 30 to 45. Until 2003, Taban Amin, Idi Amin's eldest son, was the leader of West Nile Bank Front (WNBF), a rebel group opposed to the government of Yoweri Museveni. In 2005, he was offered amnesty by Museveni, and in 2006, he was appointed Deputy Director General of the Internal Security Organisation. Another of Amin’s sons, Haji Ali Amin, ran for election as Chairman (i.e. mayor) of Njeru Town Council in 2002 but was not elected. In early 2007, the award-winning film The Last King of Scotland prompted one of his sons, Jaffar Amin, to speak out in his father's defense. Jaffar Amin said he was writing a book to rehabilitate his father's reputation.
On August 3, 2007, Faisal Wangita, one of Amin's sons, was convicted for playing a role in a murder in London.
Idi Amin has been featured in a number of films, documentaries and books including the following:
Films
* Victory at Entebbe (1976), a TV film about Operation Entebbe. Julius Harris plays Amin in a comic, almost vaudeville-type, manner. Godfrey Cambridge had originally been cast as Amin in the production, but died of a heart attack on the set.
* Raid on Entebbe (1977), a film depicting the events of Operation Entebbe. Yaphet Kotto plays Amin as a charismatic, but short-tempered, political and military leader.
* Mivtsa Yonatan (1977) (also known as Operation Thunderbolt), an Israeli film about Operation Entebbe. Jamaican-born British actor Mark Heath plays Amin who first appears angered at the German terrorists for the airplane hijacking and setting up their base at Entebbe Airport, but he later changes his mood to supporting them over news of Israel's agreement to the hijackers' demands.
* Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981), a film recreating Idi Amin's atrocities. Amin is played by Kenyan actor Joseph Olita.
* The Naked Gun (1988), a comedy film which begins portraying Idi Amin (played by Prince Hughes) along with characters depicting other world leaders such as Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ruhollah Khomeini, and Muammar al-Gaddafi who are meeting in Beirut, Lebanon to conspire a plan to attack the United States.
* Mississippi Masala (1991), a film depicting the resettlement of an Indian family after the expulsion of Asians from Uganda by Idi Amin. Joseph Olita again plays Amin in a cameo.
* The Last King of Scotland (2006), a film adaptation of Giles Foden's 1998 fictional novel of the same name. For his portrayal of Idi Amin in this film, actor Forest Whitaker won the Academy Award for Best Actor, a BAFTA, the Screen Actors' Guild award for Best Actor (Drama), and a Golden Globe.
* In the 1989 Indian TV film, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, the character Kasozi sometimes makes an unusual noise while sleeping. There is a legend in the hostel that he did that when he was dreaming about Idi Amin, who 'had killed his pop or something...'
Documentaries
* General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974), directed by French filmmaker Barbet Schroeder.
* Idi Amin: Monster in Disguise (1997), a television documentary directed by Greg Baker.
* The Man Who Ate His Archbishop's Liver? (2004), a television documentary written, produced and directed by Elizabeth C. Jones for Associated-Rediffusion and Channel 4.
* The Man Who Stole Uganda (1971), World In Action first broadcast April 5, 1971.
* Inside Idi Amin's Terror Machine (1979), World In Action first broadcast June 13, 1979.
Books
* State of Blood: The Inside Story of Idi Amin (1977) by Henry Kyemba
* The General Is Up by Peter Nazareth
* Ghosts of Kampala: The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1980) by George Ivan Smith
* The Last King of Scotland (1998) by Giles Foden (fictional)
* Idi Amin Dada: Hitler in Africa (1977) by Thomas Patrick Melady
* General Amin (1975) by David Martin
* The Collected Bulletins of Idi Amin (1974) and Further Bulletins of President Idi Amin (1975) by Alan Coren, portraying Amin as an amiable, if murderous, buffoon in charge of a tin-pot dictatorship. Alan was also responsible in part for a music release - "The Collected Broadcasts of Idi Amin". It was a British comedy album parodying Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, released in 1975 on Transatlantic Records. It was performed by John Bird and written by Alan Coren, based on columns he wrote for Punch magazine.
* I Love Idi Amin: The Story of Triumph under Fire in the Midst of Suffering and Persecution in Uganda (1977) by Festo Kivengere
* Impassioned for Freedom: Uganda, Struggle Against Idi Amin (2006) by Eriya Kategaya
* The Feast of the Nine Virgins (2001) by Jameela Siddiqi
* Bombay Gardens (2006) by Jameela Siddiqi
* A Distant Grief (1979) by F. Kefa Sempangi
* Kahawa (1981) by Donald E. Westlake
* Confessions of Idi Amin: The chilling, explosive expose of Africa's most evil man - in his own words (1977) compiled by Trevor Donald
* Child of Dandelions, Governor General Award Finalist (2008) Shenaaz Nanji
Idi Amin Dada Oumee see Idi Amin
Oumee, Idi Amin Dada see Idi Amin
Idi Amin (Idi Amin Dada Oumee) (1924/1925, Koboko, Uganda - August 16, 2003, Jiddah, Saudi Arabia). President of Uganda (1971-1979). Born in Koboko of Muslim parents, Amin received a primary education before joining the British colonial army in 1946. He was one of only two native officers in Uganda’s military forces when the country became independent in 1962. A supporter of President Milton Obote, Amin rose quickly through the ranks and was promoted to major general and commander of the armed forces in 1968. However, in January 1971, Amin overthrew Obote. As president, Amin followed an erratic, tyrannical, and increasingly bloody course that left the country in shambles. He expelled some 50,000 Asians in 1972, nationalized foreign companies, and had up to 300,000 Ugandans killed. The economy collapsed, and in 1979, Amin was overthrown by an invasion force from Tanzania supported by Ugandan rebels. Amin found refuge in Saudi Arabia.
A member of the small Kakwa ethnic group of northwestern Uganda, Amin had little formal education and joined the King’s African Rifles of the British colonial army in 1946 as an assistant cook. He quickly rose through the ranks, serving in the Allied forces’ Burma (Myanmar) campaign during World War II and in the British action against the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya (1952–56). Amin was one of the few Ugandan soldiers elevated to officer rank before Ugandan independence in 1962, and he became closely associated with the new nation’s prime minister and president, Milton Obote. He was made chief of the army and air force (1966–70). Conflict with Obote arose, however, and on January 25, 1971, Amin staged a successful military coup. He became president and chief of the armed forces in 1971, field marshal in 1975, and life president in 1976.
Amin ruled directly, shunning the delegation of power. He was noted for his abrupt changes of mood, from buffoonery to shrewdness, from gentleness to tyranny. He was often extreme in his nationalism. He expelled all Asians from Uganda in 1972, an action that led to the breakdown of Uganda’s economy, and he publicly insulted Great Britain and the United States as well as numerous world leaders. A Muslim, he reversed Uganda’s amicable relations with Israel and befriended Libya and the Palestinians. In July 1976 he was personally involved in the hijacking of a French airliner to Entebbe. He also took tribalism, a long-standing problem in Uganda, to its extreme by allegedly ordering the persecution of Acholi, Lango, and other ethnic groups. Amin came to be known as the “Butcher of Uganda” for his brutality, and it is believed that some 300,000 people were killed and countless others tortured during his presidency.
In October 1978 Amin ordered an attack on Tanzania. Aided by Ugandan nationalists, Tanzanian troops eventually overpowered the Ugandan army. As the Tanzanian-led forces neared Kampala, Uganda’s capital, on April 13, 1979, Amin fled the city. Escaping first to Libya, he finally settled in Saudi Arabia.
Amin stayed for a number of years on the top two floors of the Novotel Hotel on Palestine Road in Jeddah. Having covered the war for the BBC as chief Africa correspondent, in 1980 Brian Barron, in partnership with cameraman Mohammed Amin of Visnews in Nairobi, located Amin and secured the first interview with him since his deposition.
Amin held that Uganda needed him and never expressed remorse for the nature of his regime. In 1989, he attempted to return to Uganda, apparently to lead an armed group organized by Colonel Juma Oris. He reached Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), before Zairian President Mobutu forced him to return to Saudi Arabia.
On July 20, 2003, one of Amin's wives, Madina, reported that he was in a coma and near death at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She pleaded with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to allow him to return to die in Uganda. Museveni replied that Amin would have to "answer for his sins the moment he was brought back." Amin died in Saudi Arabia on August 16, 2003. He was buried in Ruwais Cemetery in Jeddah.
A polygamist, Idi Amin married at least six women, three of whom he divorced. He married his first and second wives, Malyamu and Kay, in 1966. The next year, he married Nora and then Nalongo Madina in 1972. On March 26, 1974, he announced on Radio Uganda that he had divorced Malyamu, Nora and Kay. Malyamu was arrested in Tororo on the Kenyan border in April 1974 and accused of attempting to smuggle a bolt of fabric into Kenya. She later moved to London. Kay died on August 13, 1974. Her body was found dismembered. In August 1975, during the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit meeting in Kampala, Amin married Sarah Kyolaba. Sarah's boyfriend, whom she had been living with before she met Amin, vanished and was never heard from again. According to The Monitor, Amin married again a few months before his death in 2003.
Sources differ widely on the number of children Amin fathered; most say that he had 30 to 45. Until 2003, Taban Amin, Idi Amin's eldest son, was the leader of West Nile Bank Front (WNBF), a rebel group opposed to the government of Yoweri Museveni. In 2005, he was offered amnesty by Museveni, and in 2006, he was appointed Deputy Director General of the Internal Security Organisation. Another of Amin’s sons, Haji Ali Amin, ran for election as Chairman (i.e. mayor) of Njeru Town Council in 2002 but was not elected. In early 2007, the award-winning film The Last King of Scotland prompted one of his sons, Jaffar Amin, to speak out in his father's defense. Jaffar Amin said he was writing a book to rehabilitate his father's reputation.
On August 3, 2007, Faisal Wangita, one of Amin's sons, was convicted for playing a role in a murder in London.
Idi Amin has been featured in a number of films, documentaries and books including the following:
Films
* Victory at Entebbe (1976), a TV film about Operation Entebbe. Julius Harris plays Amin in a comic, almost vaudeville-type, manner. Godfrey Cambridge had originally been cast as Amin in the production, but died of a heart attack on the set.
* Raid on Entebbe (1977), a film depicting the events of Operation Entebbe. Yaphet Kotto plays Amin as a charismatic, but short-tempered, political and military leader.
* Mivtsa Yonatan (1977) (also known as Operation Thunderbolt), an Israeli film about Operation Entebbe. Jamaican-born British actor Mark Heath plays Amin who first appears angered at the German terrorists for the airplane hijacking and setting up their base at Entebbe Airport, but he later changes his mood to supporting them over news of Israel's agreement to the hijackers' demands.
* Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981), a film recreating Idi Amin's atrocities. Amin is played by Kenyan actor Joseph Olita.
* The Naked Gun (1988), a comedy film which begins portraying Idi Amin (played by Prince Hughes) along with characters depicting other world leaders such as Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ruhollah Khomeini, and Muammar al-Gaddafi who are meeting in Beirut, Lebanon to conspire a plan to attack the United States.
* Mississippi Masala (1991), a film depicting the resettlement of an Indian family after the expulsion of Asians from Uganda by Idi Amin. Joseph Olita again plays Amin in a cameo.
* The Last King of Scotland (2006), a film adaptation of Giles Foden's 1998 fictional novel of the same name. For his portrayal of Idi Amin in this film, actor Forest Whitaker won the Academy Award for Best Actor, a BAFTA, the Screen Actors' Guild award for Best Actor (Drama), and a Golden Globe.
* In the 1989 Indian TV film, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, the character Kasozi sometimes makes an unusual noise while sleeping. There is a legend in the hostel that he did that when he was dreaming about Idi Amin, who 'had killed his pop or something...'
Documentaries
* General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974), directed by French filmmaker Barbet Schroeder.
* Idi Amin: Monster in Disguise (1997), a television documentary directed by Greg Baker.
* The Man Who Ate His Archbishop's Liver? (2004), a television documentary written, produced and directed by Elizabeth C. Jones for Associated-Rediffusion and Channel 4.
* The Man Who Stole Uganda (1971), World In Action first broadcast April 5, 1971.
* Inside Idi Amin's Terror Machine (1979), World In Action first broadcast June 13, 1979.
Books
* State of Blood: The Inside Story of Idi Amin (1977) by Henry Kyemba
* The General Is Up by Peter Nazareth
* Ghosts of Kampala: The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1980) by George Ivan Smith
* The Last King of Scotland (1998) by Giles Foden (fictional)
* Idi Amin Dada: Hitler in Africa (1977) by Thomas Patrick Melady
* General Amin (1975) by David Martin
* The Collected Bulletins of Idi Amin (1974) and Further Bulletins of President Idi Amin (1975) by Alan Coren, portraying Amin as an amiable, if murderous, buffoon in charge of a tin-pot dictatorship. Alan was also responsible in part for a music release - "The Collected Broadcasts of Idi Amin". It was a British comedy album parodying Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, released in 1975 on Transatlantic Records. It was performed by John Bird and written by Alan Coren, based on columns he wrote for Punch magazine.
* I Love Idi Amin: The Story of Triumph under Fire in the Midst of Suffering and Persecution in Uganda (1977) by Festo Kivengere
* Impassioned for Freedom: Uganda, Struggle Against Idi Amin (2006) by Eriya Kategaya
* The Feast of the Nine Virgins (2001) by Jameela Siddiqi
* Bombay Gardens (2006) by Jameela Siddiqi
* A Distant Grief (1979) by F. Kefa Sempangi
* Kahawa (1981) by Donald E. Westlake
* Confessions of Idi Amin: The chilling, explosive expose of Africa's most evil man - in his own words (1977) compiled by Trevor Donald
* Child of Dandelions, Governor General Award Finalist (2008) Shenaaz Nanji
Idi Amin Dada Oumee see Idi Amin
Oumee, Idi Amin Dada see Idi Amin
Idris
Idris (Idriz) (Enoch) (Nabiyullah Idris). Non-biblical figure mentioned twice in the Qur‘an at Suras 19:57-58 and 21:85-86. Idris has been identified both with the biblical prophet Enoch and with Hermes of mythological fame. Hermes, in turn, was sometimes linked to Idris/Enoch by pseudo-scientific medieval Muslim commentators. Other times, Idris/Hermes was linked to a person who allegedly appeared in Babylonia after the flood and revived the study of talismanic and other esoteric sciences before migrating to Egypt. Idris/Hermes sparked the imagination of numerous Muslim writers and, through them, some early Renaissance scholars.
Enoch is a figure in the Generations of Adam. Enoch is described as Adam's greatx4 grandson, through Seth, and the text reads--uniquely in the Generations--that Enoch "walked with God: and he was not; for God took him," avoiding the mortal death ascribed to Adam's other descendants. Additionally, Enoch is described as the father of Methuselah and great-grandfather of Noah (Genesis 5:22-29).
Despite the brief descriptions of him, Enoch is one of the main two focal points for much of the 1st millennium BC Jewish mysticism, notably in the Book of Enoch.
In Islam, he is usually referred to as Idris and is regarded as a prophet. Additionally, Enoch is important in some Christian denominations: he features in the Latter Day Saint Movement, and is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church on July 26.
The Qur'an refers to Enoch as Idris, meaning the instructor, regarding him as a man of truth and a prophet, as well as a model of patience. Popular Muslim traditions credit Idris as inventor of astronomy, writing, and arithmetic. Idris is often described as having been compelled to defend his life with the sword, against the depraved children of earth. Among his lesser inventions, in popular Muslim tradition, were said to be scales, to enable just weights, and tailoring.
He is mentioned twice in the Quran in the following verses:
19:56-57
21:85-86
The person whom the Qur’an mentions twice under the name Idris or Idriz is most frequently identified with the seventh patriarch in the book of Genesis, more rarely with Elijah or al-Khidr. Astrologers and alchemists identified him with Hermes (in Arabic, Hirmis).
Idris, or Idriz, is a prophet of Islam. There are four verses related to the Prophet Idris in the Qur'an. These are found as consecutive verses in the surahs Maryam (Mary) and Al-Anbiya (The Prophets).
In a hadith Idris is mentioned as one of the earlier prophets that spoke with the Prophet Muhammed in one of the heavens during Mi'raj.
In Islamic tradition, Idris is a predecessor prophet before Noah (Arabic: Nuh). Idris is credited with learning many useful skills or inventing things which humans now use such as writing, mathematics, astronomy, etc". According to Islamic tradition, his time was one when many people had forgotten God, and the world was thus punished with a drought. However, Idris prayed for them, and it began to rain, ending the drought.
In Islamic tradition, according to the book The Prophet of God Enoch: Nabiyullah Idris, Idris and Enoch are the same person. He is mentioned in the Qur'an as being so preferred by God that God raised Idris to Heaven. (In the Enoch book of the bible preserved by the Ethiopian church, we also read that he was raised up by God). Idris is said to have come back from heaven in the area of Gizan (current day Giza in Egypt) where he taught people writing, and he described how he saw in his journey the sources of water (i.e. the Snow caps of mountains, especially in the polar areas) and the reasons behind astronomy. He described different skies where he saw imprisoned devils and Jinns tormented by the angels, some of whom are awaiting punishment, and some awaiting release. Idris is a prominent prophet between Adam and Noah for Muslims.
One non-traditional explanation for the building of the pyramids is that they were built in reverence to him, since it is the area where he was said to have ascended back to heaven.
Enoch see Idris
Idriz see Idris
Nabiyullah Idris see Idris
Idris (Idriz) (Enoch) (Nabiyullah Idris). Non-biblical figure mentioned twice in the Qur‘an at Suras 19:57-58 and 21:85-86. Idris has been identified both with the biblical prophet Enoch and with Hermes of mythological fame. Hermes, in turn, was sometimes linked to Idris/Enoch by pseudo-scientific medieval Muslim commentators. Other times, Idris/Hermes was linked to a person who allegedly appeared in Babylonia after the flood and revived the study of talismanic and other esoteric sciences before migrating to Egypt. Idris/Hermes sparked the imagination of numerous Muslim writers and, through them, some early Renaissance scholars.
Enoch is a figure in the Generations of Adam. Enoch is described as Adam's greatx4 grandson, through Seth, and the text reads--uniquely in the Generations--that Enoch "walked with God: and he was not; for God took him," avoiding the mortal death ascribed to Adam's other descendants. Additionally, Enoch is described as the father of Methuselah and great-grandfather of Noah (Genesis 5:22-29).
Despite the brief descriptions of him, Enoch is one of the main two focal points for much of the 1st millennium BC Jewish mysticism, notably in the Book of Enoch.
In Islam, he is usually referred to as Idris and is regarded as a prophet. Additionally, Enoch is important in some Christian denominations: he features in the Latter Day Saint Movement, and is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church on July 26.
The Qur'an refers to Enoch as Idris, meaning the instructor, regarding him as a man of truth and a prophet, as well as a model of patience. Popular Muslim traditions credit Idris as inventor of astronomy, writing, and arithmetic. Idris is often described as having been compelled to defend his life with the sword, against the depraved children of earth. Among his lesser inventions, in popular Muslim tradition, were said to be scales, to enable just weights, and tailoring.
He is mentioned twice in the Quran in the following verses:
19:56-57
21:85-86
The person whom the Qur’an mentions twice under the name Idris or Idriz is most frequently identified with the seventh patriarch in the book of Genesis, more rarely with Elijah or al-Khidr. Astrologers and alchemists identified him with Hermes (in Arabic, Hirmis).
Idris, or Idriz, is a prophet of Islam. There are four verses related to the Prophet Idris in the Qur'an. These are found as consecutive verses in the surahs Maryam (Mary) and Al-Anbiya (The Prophets).
In a hadith Idris is mentioned as one of the earlier prophets that spoke with the Prophet Muhammed in one of the heavens during Mi'raj.
In Islamic tradition, Idris is a predecessor prophet before Noah (Arabic: Nuh). Idris is credited with learning many useful skills or inventing things which humans now use such as writing, mathematics, astronomy, etc". According to Islamic tradition, his time was one when many people had forgotten God, and the world was thus punished with a drought. However, Idris prayed for them, and it began to rain, ending the drought.
In Islamic tradition, according to the book The Prophet of God Enoch: Nabiyullah Idris, Idris and Enoch are the same person. He is mentioned in the Qur'an as being so preferred by God that God raised Idris to Heaven. (In the Enoch book of the bible preserved by the Ethiopian church, we also read that he was raised up by God). Idris is said to have come back from heaven in the area of Gizan (current day Giza in Egypt) where he taught people writing, and he described how he saw in his journey the sources of water (i.e. the Snow caps of mountains, especially in the polar areas) and the reasons behind astronomy. He described different skies where he saw imprisoned devils and Jinns tormented by the angels, some of whom are awaiting punishment, and some awaiting release. Idris is a prominent prophet between Adam and Noah for Muslims.
One non-traditional explanation for the building of the pyramids is that they were built in reverence to him, since it is the area where he was said to have ascended back to heaven.
Enoch see Idris
Idriz see Idris
Nabiyullah Idris see Idris
Idris
Idris (1849-1916). Sultan of Perak. He was the son of a bendahara (chief minister) and great-grandson of a sultan of Perak, Idris at first supported his cousin, Sultan Abdullah, against James W. W. Birch, a British officer who had been appointed as an “adviser” to Perak, but did not join the Perak rising in November 1875. Idris later served on the State Council and as judge of the Supreme Court. In 1887, although he was not in direct line according to the Perak custom of rotation, Idris succeeded his father-in-law, Yusuf, to the throne. A staunch believer in British “protection,” Idris was much respected by the British, but at the 1903 durbar (official reception), he deprecated the increasing centralization of the Federated Malay States.
Idris (1849-1916). Sultan of Perak. He was the son of a bendahara (chief minister) and great-grandson of a sultan of Perak, Idris at first supported his cousin, Sultan Abdullah, against James W. W. Birch, a British officer who had been appointed as an “adviser” to Perak, but did not join the Perak rising in November 1875. Idris later served on the State Council and as judge of the Supreme Court. In 1887, although he was not in direct line according to the Perak custom of rotation, Idris succeeded his father-in-law, Yusuf, to the throne. A staunch believer in British “protection,” Idris was much respected by the British, but at the 1903 durbar (official reception), he deprecated the increasing centralization of the Federated Malay States.
Idris I
Idris I (Idris ibn Abdullah) (al-Akbar) (d. 793). Founder of the Idrisid dynasty (r.788-793). Of ‘Alid descent, he escaped the massacre at Fakhkh in 786 and settled at Walila (Volubilis), from where he consolidated his authority in the valley of the Wargha.
Proclaimed imam by Berber tribes in northern Morocco, Idris I extended his territory as far as Tlemcen in 789 and founded Fez. Poisoned in 793, probably at the instigation of Harun al-Rashid, he is regarded as the national saint of Morocco. His son, Idris II (r. 793-828, ruling imam from 804) settled more and more Andalusian and Tunisians, developed Fez into the capital, and consolidated political power. When the son of Idris II, Muhammad (828-836), divided the realm between his eight brothers in 836, the dynasty fell apart, and was destroyed by internal power struggles.
In 788, Idris I became involved in an anti-‘Abbasid revolt near Mecca and was forced into exile to escape the persecution of Harun al-Rashid, the ‘Abbasid caliph of Baghdad. Idris sought refuge in present day Morocco, which some fifty years earlier had shaken caliphal rule. There he was welcomed by a recently converted Berber tribe, the Banu Awrabah. These Berbers were impressed with the idea of having a descendant of the Prophet to lead them and soon made Idris their chief. He rapidly united the Berber tribes of the area into a confederacy, and from this union emerged the first independent Islamic dynasty in Morocco.
Idris’s rule was short-lived. He was poisoned in 793 by an agent of Harun al-Rashid. Idris left no male heir at the time of his death, but he did leave behind a pregnant concubine, and it was her child, Idris II, who was to continue his father’s work.
Akbar, al- see Idris I
Idris ibn Abdullah see Idris I
Idris I (Idris ibn Abdullah) (al-Akbar) (d. 793). Founder of the Idrisid dynasty (r.788-793). Of ‘Alid descent, he escaped the massacre at Fakhkh in 786 and settled at Walila (Volubilis), from where he consolidated his authority in the valley of the Wargha.
Proclaimed imam by Berber tribes in northern Morocco, Idris I extended his territory as far as Tlemcen in 789 and founded Fez. Poisoned in 793, probably at the instigation of Harun al-Rashid, he is regarded as the national saint of Morocco. His son, Idris II (r. 793-828, ruling imam from 804) settled more and more Andalusian and Tunisians, developed Fez into the capital, and consolidated political power. When the son of Idris II, Muhammad (828-836), divided the realm between his eight brothers in 836, the dynasty fell apart, and was destroyed by internal power struggles.
In 788, Idris I became involved in an anti-‘Abbasid revolt near Mecca and was forced into exile to escape the persecution of Harun al-Rashid, the ‘Abbasid caliph of Baghdad. Idris sought refuge in present day Morocco, which some fifty years earlier had shaken caliphal rule. There he was welcomed by a recently converted Berber tribe, the Banu Awrabah. These Berbers were impressed with the idea of having a descendant of the Prophet to lead them and soon made Idris their chief. He rapidly united the Berber tribes of the area into a confederacy, and from this union emerged the first independent Islamic dynasty in Morocco.
Idris’s rule was short-lived. He was poisoned in 793 by an agent of Harun al-Rashid. Idris left no male heir at the time of his death, but he did leave behind a pregnant concubine, and it was her child, Idris II, who was to continue his father’s work.
Akbar, al- see Idris I
Idris ibn Abdullah see Idris I
Idris I
Idris I (Sayyid Muhammad Idris bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Senussi) (March 12, 1890 – May 25, 1983). King of Libya from 1951 until the coup of 1969. Idris was born on March 13, 1890, in Jarabub, Cyrenaica. In 1902, he succeeded his father as leader of the Sufi brotherhood Sanusiyya in Cyrenaica. Due to his being underage, the active rule rested with his cousin, Ahmadu ash-Sharif.
In 1916, Idris became the ruler of the Sanusiyya, and in 1917, with the agreement of Arcoma with the Italians, Idris obtained support for his rule in inland Cyrenaica.
In 1919, a Cyrenaican parliament was established, and Idris began to receive financial support from the Italians. In 1922, Idris went into exile in Egypt, after the Italians had started to wage military campaigns against the Libyan hinterland. From Egypt, Idris directed his followers.
In 1942, Idris returned to Libya after Great Britain had occupied Libya. Idris then formed an official government. In December 1951, after representatives from Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan had decided to establish a constitutional monarchy, Idris became king of Libya. Libya then declared its independence.
On September 1, 1969, while Idris was in Turkey for medical treatment, he was deposed by the Libyan army under the leadership of Colonel Gadhafi in a bloodless coup. Idris eventually went into exile in Egypt.
In 1974, Idris was convicted in absentia for corruption by a Libyan court.
On May 25, 1983, Idris died in Cairo, Egypt.
Idris‘ politics were very conservative, and he was not active in the pan-Arab identification and with Arab nationalism, ideologies that were very strong during this period.
The political structures under Idris were based upon tribal structures. Townsmen and tribal leaders were strong in each of their regions, but they all supported the king. Stability was further helped by political and military support from his Western allies.
Sayyid Muhammad Idris bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Senussi see Idris I
Idris I (Sayyid Muhammad Idris bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Senussi) (March 12, 1890 – May 25, 1983). King of Libya from 1951 until the coup of 1969. Idris was born on March 13, 1890, in Jarabub, Cyrenaica. In 1902, he succeeded his father as leader of the Sufi brotherhood Sanusiyya in Cyrenaica. Due to his being underage, the active rule rested with his cousin, Ahmadu ash-Sharif.
In 1916, Idris became the ruler of the Sanusiyya, and in 1917, with the agreement of Arcoma with the Italians, Idris obtained support for his rule in inland Cyrenaica.
In 1919, a Cyrenaican parliament was established, and Idris began to receive financial support from the Italians. In 1922, Idris went into exile in Egypt, after the Italians had started to wage military campaigns against the Libyan hinterland. From Egypt, Idris directed his followers.
In 1942, Idris returned to Libya after Great Britain had occupied Libya. Idris then formed an official government. In December 1951, after representatives from Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan had decided to establish a constitutional monarchy, Idris became king of Libya. Libya then declared its independence.
On September 1, 1969, while Idris was in Turkey for medical treatment, he was deposed by the Libyan army under the leadership of Colonel Gadhafi in a bloodless coup. Idris eventually went into exile in Egypt.
In 1974, Idris was convicted in absentia for corruption by a Libyan court.
On May 25, 1983, Idris died in Cairo, Egypt.
Idris‘ politics were very conservative, and he was not active in the pan-Arab identification and with Arab nationalism, ideologies that were very strong during this period.
The political structures under Idris were based upon tribal structures. Townsmen and tribal leaders were strong in each of their regions, but they all supported the king. Stability was further helped by political and military support from his Western allies.
Sayyid Muhammad Idris bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Senussi see Idris I
Idris II
Idris II (al-Ashgar) (al-Azhar) (793-828). Ruler of the Idrisid dynasty of North Africa, and especially Morocco. He attempted to end the Berber predominance near Fez. He refounded the city of Fez and began to unify the Maghrib under Islam. His tomb in the mosque of the Chorfa remains the object of veneration.
Proclaimed imam by Berber tribes in northern Morocco, Idris I extended his territory as far as Tlemcen in 789 and founded Fez. Poisoned in 793, probably at the instigation of Harun al-Rashid, he is regarded as the national saint of Morocco. His son, Idris II (r. 793-828, ruling imam from 804) settled more and more Andalusian and Tunisians, developed Fez into the capital, and consolidated political power. When the son of Idris II, Muhammad (828-836), divided the realm between his eight brothers in 836, the dynasty fell apart, and was destroyed by internal power struggles.
In 788, Idris I became involved in an anti-‘Abbasid revolt near Mecca and was forced into exile to escape the persecution of Harun al-Rashid, the ‘Abbasid caliph of Baghdad. Idris sought refuge in present day Morocco, which some fifty years earlier had shaken caliphal rule. There he was welcomed by a recently converted Berber tribe, the Banu Awrabah. These Berbers were impressed with the idea of having a descendant of the Prophet to lead them and soon made Idris their chief. He rapidly united the Berber tribes of the area into a confederacy, and from this union emerged the first independent Islamic dynasty in Morocco.
Idris’s rule was short-lived. He was poisoned in 793 by an agent of Harun al-Rashid. Idris left no male heir at the time of his death, but he did leave behind a pregnant concubine, and it was her child, Idris II, who was to continue his father’s work.
Idris II was the true founder of the modern Moroccan state. Although his father had subjugated and converted many tribes adhering to Christianity, Judaism, or indigenous religions, he still remained dependent on the Awrabah tribe. Idris II stressed the Islamic-Arab character of Morocco in an attempt to detach himself from the Awrabah, inviting Arab chiefs and warriors from Spain to his court. In 809, Idris II achieved what could be considered one of the most durable and important results of the dynasty – the refounding of the city of Fez. Originally founded in 789 by Idris I, Fez was still a Berber market town when Idris II decided to establish his authority independently from the Awrabah and make Fez his capital city. The arrival of several waves of immigrants, first from Cordoba and later from Tunisia, gave Fez a definitive Arab character.
Among his political achievements, Idris II managed to consolidate under his rule most of what is today northern Morocco. To stabilize the government he organized Morocco’s first true makhzan (central government), an Arabic concept hitherto unknown to the Berber tribes of the region. In addition, the construction of the Qarawiyin and Andalus mosques as well as the Qarawiyin University, the oldest in the Muslim world, helped make Fez an important cultural and religious center.
Idris II was succeeded by his son Muhammad II. While retaining the title of imam and rule over the capital, Muhammad divided his father’s kingdom among his brothers, demonstrating a departure from the political sagacity that had been evident in both his father and grandfather. This also effectively undermined centralized control held by the Idrisids, as sections of the royal family and tribal groups engaged in a long struggle for power that characterized later Idrisid rule. Although a strong centralized state was not established in the Idrisid era, the political role of the sharifs was confirmed and has remained a significant element in Moroccan politics ever since. {See also Idrisids.}
Idris II (791 - 828 AD) was son of Idris I, the founder of the Idrisid dynasty in North Africa. He was born in Volubilis (nowadays in Morocco) two months after the death of his father.
[edit] History
The death of Idris I, and the resulting destabilisation of the fledgling Idrisid dynasty state, delighted the Caliph in Baghdad. However, two months later, Kenza, the wife of Idris I who was the daughter of Ishaq ben Mohammed the chief of the Awarba tribe, gave birth to Idriss II, who became a quick prodigy. In reference to Idris II, the historian Rom Landau, says: "In the lore of the Moroccans, Idris II was a being of almost magical attributes. An exceptional young man he certainly must have been. At many points we are reminded of one of the greatest sages of Islam, Ibn Sina or Avicenna. At the age of four, Idris apparently could read, at five write, at eight he knew the Koran by heart, and by then is said to have mastered the wisdom of all the outstanding savants. He was of real physical strength as well, and when he became officially sovereign in 805 at the age of thirteen, he had already accomplished feats of endurance that men twice his age could not emulate. His profound Islamic faith enhanced all these advantages and increased the veneration accorded him."
Twenty years after his father had done so, Idris II refounded the city Fez on the left bank of the River Fez, opposite to where his father had founded it on the right bank. From there, Idris II began to unify Magreb under Islam, establishing its firm allegiance to the belief. After spending 19 years pursuing such purposes, this prodigy died at 35 in 828. For twelve hundred years after, the tradition of monarchy, established by Idris I and II, were continued. Idris II, who married a descendant of Suleyman the sultan of Tlemcen (a brother of Idriss I) was the father of twelve sons: Muhammed, Abdullah, Aïssa, Idriss, Ahmed, Jaâfar, Yahia, Qassim, Omar, Ali, Daoud and Hamza.
Preceded by
Idris I Idrisid dynasty
802–828 Succeeded by
Muhammad ibn Idris
Stub icon This Moroccan biogra
Ashgar, al- see Idris II
Azhar, al- see Idris II
Idris II (al-Ashgar) (al-Azhar) (793-828). Ruler of the Idrisid dynasty of North Africa, and especially Morocco. He attempted to end the Berber predominance near Fez. He refounded the city of Fez and began to unify the Maghrib under Islam. His tomb in the mosque of the Chorfa remains the object of veneration.
Proclaimed imam by Berber tribes in northern Morocco, Idris I extended his territory as far as Tlemcen in 789 and founded Fez. Poisoned in 793, probably at the instigation of Harun al-Rashid, he is regarded as the national saint of Morocco. His son, Idris II (r. 793-828, ruling imam from 804) settled more and more Andalusian and Tunisians, developed Fez into the capital, and consolidated political power. When the son of Idris II, Muhammad (828-836), divided the realm between his eight brothers in 836, the dynasty fell apart, and was destroyed by internal power struggles.
In 788, Idris I became involved in an anti-‘Abbasid revolt near Mecca and was forced into exile to escape the persecution of Harun al-Rashid, the ‘Abbasid caliph of Baghdad. Idris sought refuge in present day Morocco, which some fifty years earlier had shaken caliphal rule. There he was welcomed by a recently converted Berber tribe, the Banu Awrabah. These Berbers were impressed with the idea of having a descendant of the Prophet to lead them and soon made Idris their chief. He rapidly united the Berber tribes of the area into a confederacy, and from this union emerged the first independent Islamic dynasty in Morocco.
Idris’s rule was short-lived. He was poisoned in 793 by an agent of Harun al-Rashid. Idris left no male heir at the time of his death, but he did leave behind a pregnant concubine, and it was her child, Idris II, who was to continue his father’s work.
Idris II was the true founder of the modern Moroccan state. Although his father had subjugated and converted many tribes adhering to Christianity, Judaism, or indigenous religions, he still remained dependent on the Awrabah tribe. Idris II stressed the Islamic-Arab character of Morocco in an attempt to detach himself from the Awrabah, inviting Arab chiefs and warriors from Spain to his court. In 809, Idris II achieved what could be considered one of the most durable and important results of the dynasty – the refounding of the city of Fez. Originally founded in 789 by Idris I, Fez was still a Berber market town when Idris II decided to establish his authority independently from the Awrabah and make Fez his capital city. The arrival of several waves of immigrants, first from Cordoba and later from Tunisia, gave Fez a definitive Arab character.
Among his political achievements, Idris II managed to consolidate under his rule most of what is today northern Morocco. To stabilize the government he organized Morocco’s first true makhzan (central government), an Arabic concept hitherto unknown to the Berber tribes of the region. In addition, the construction of the Qarawiyin and Andalus mosques as well as the Qarawiyin University, the oldest in the Muslim world, helped make Fez an important cultural and religious center.
Idris II was succeeded by his son Muhammad II. While retaining the title of imam and rule over the capital, Muhammad divided his father’s kingdom among his brothers, demonstrating a departure from the political sagacity that had been evident in both his father and grandfather. This also effectively undermined centralized control held by the Idrisids, as sections of the royal family and tribal groups engaged in a long struggle for power that characterized later Idrisid rule. Although a strong centralized state was not established in the Idrisid era, the political role of the sharifs was confirmed and has remained a significant element in Moroccan politics ever since. {See also Idrisids.}
Idris II (791 - 828 AD) was son of Idris I, the founder of the Idrisid dynasty in North Africa. He was born in Volubilis (nowadays in Morocco) two months after the death of his father.
[edit] History
The death of Idris I, and the resulting destabilisation of the fledgling Idrisid dynasty state, delighted the Caliph in Baghdad. However, two months later, Kenza, the wife of Idris I who was the daughter of Ishaq ben Mohammed the chief of the Awarba tribe, gave birth to Idriss II, who became a quick prodigy. In reference to Idris II, the historian Rom Landau, says: "In the lore of the Moroccans, Idris II was a being of almost magical attributes. An exceptional young man he certainly must have been. At many points we are reminded of one of the greatest sages of Islam, Ibn Sina or Avicenna. At the age of four, Idris apparently could read, at five write, at eight he knew the Koran by heart, and by then is said to have mastered the wisdom of all the outstanding savants. He was of real physical strength as well, and when he became officially sovereign in 805 at the age of thirteen, he had already accomplished feats of endurance that men twice his age could not emulate. His profound Islamic faith enhanced all these advantages and increased the veneration accorded him."
Twenty years after his father had done so, Idris II refounded the city Fez on the left bank of the River Fez, opposite to where his father had founded it on the right bank. From there, Idris II began to unify Magreb under Islam, establishing its firm allegiance to the belief. After spending 19 years pursuing such purposes, this prodigy died at 35 in 828. For twelve hundred years after, the tradition of monarchy, established by Idris I and II, were continued. Idris II, who married a descendant of Suleyman the sultan of Tlemcen (a brother of Idriss I) was the father of twelve sons: Muhammed, Abdullah, Aïssa, Idriss, Ahmed, Jaâfar, Yahia, Qassim, Omar, Ali, Daoud and Hamza.
Preceded by
Idris I Idrisid dynasty
802–828 Succeeded by
Muhammad ibn Idris
Stub icon This Moroccan biogra
Ashgar, al- see Idris II
Azhar, al- see Idris II
Idris Aloma
Idris Aloma (c. 1542-1619[?]). Ruler of the Kanuri Empire of Bornu. He rebuilt the declining state, introduced new military administrative tactics, and encouraged the spread of Islam. He is the most famous mai (ruler) in the 1000 year history of the Sefawa dynasty of Kanem-Bornu, largely because he had his own chronicler, Imam Ahmed ibn Fartua, who recorded an “official” history.
Idris‘ father, mai ‘Ali, had died after ruling only one year (c.1545). The throne then passed to another branch of the family. Idris‘ mother was a princess of the Bulala people who had driven the Kanuri out of Kanem years before. Fearing that the reigning mai would make an attempt on Idris‘ life, she sent him to her family at Kanem to be raised. According to Kanuri tradition, the throne finally fell to a woman Aisa Kili Ngirmaramma who, although from the other branch of the family, handed over the crown to Idris around 1570.
Idris ascended during a difficult period. Externally, the Bulala remained strong antagonists, the Hausa states regularly raided Bornu, and Taureg and Tega nomads harassed the northern frontiers of the empire. Internally, Bornu was recovering from a long famine, and there was a continuing threat of interdynastic strife. Idris solved his problems by building a strong army. Early in his reign, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca, where he was impressed with firearms. After his return, he brought Turkish musketeers into his army to train an elite corps. He also built up a large infantry and a cavalry of the nobility, impressively uniformed. For long range expeditions, he created a special camel cavalry. Idris personally led many military campaigns and was generally successful. His most important victory was against the Bulala of Kanem. Although he was unable to reintegrate Kanem into the empire, Bornu became suzerain over it, and formal boundaries were established.
Idris’s administrative reforms reduced the possibility of revolt. The territories outside his immediate control were ruled by trustworthy appointees, rather than by relatives who might try to break away, as had happened earlier in the history of the empire. He financed the state through taxes, tribute, and the slave trade. Although he did not design his administration to conform with Islamic law, his chronicler depicts him as a devout Muslim who instituted an Islamic judicial system, built mosques, and established a hostel in Mecca. He made diplomatic contacts with the sultans of Turkey and Morocco, apparently to obtain aid in defending Bornu’s northern borders. Scholars have placed his death at various times between 1603 and 1619. It is believed that he died while putting down a revolt. He was succeeded by three of his sons.
Aloma, Idris see Idris Aloma
Idris Aloma (c. 1542-1619[?]). Ruler of the Kanuri Empire of Bornu. He rebuilt the declining state, introduced new military administrative tactics, and encouraged the spread of Islam. He is the most famous mai (ruler) in the 1000 year history of the Sefawa dynasty of Kanem-Bornu, largely because he had his own chronicler, Imam Ahmed ibn Fartua, who recorded an “official” history.
Idris‘ father, mai ‘Ali, had died after ruling only one year (c.1545). The throne then passed to another branch of the family. Idris‘ mother was a princess of the Bulala people who had driven the Kanuri out of Kanem years before. Fearing that the reigning mai would make an attempt on Idris‘ life, she sent him to her family at Kanem to be raised. According to Kanuri tradition, the throne finally fell to a woman Aisa Kili Ngirmaramma who, although from the other branch of the family, handed over the crown to Idris around 1570.
Idris ascended during a difficult period. Externally, the Bulala remained strong antagonists, the Hausa states regularly raided Bornu, and Taureg and Tega nomads harassed the northern frontiers of the empire. Internally, Bornu was recovering from a long famine, and there was a continuing threat of interdynastic strife. Idris solved his problems by building a strong army. Early in his reign, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca, where he was impressed with firearms. After his return, he brought Turkish musketeers into his army to train an elite corps. He also built up a large infantry and a cavalry of the nobility, impressively uniformed. For long range expeditions, he created a special camel cavalry. Idris personally led many military campaigns and was generally successful. His most important victory was against the Bulala of Kanem. Although he was unable to reintegrate Kanem into the empire, Bornu became suzerain over it, and formal boundaries were established.
Idris’s administrative reforms reduced the possibility of revolt. The territories outside his immediate control were ruled by trustworthy appointees, rather than by relatives who might try to break away, as had happened earlier in the history of the empire. He financed the state through taxes, tribute, and the slave trade. Although he did not design his administration to conform with Islamic law, his chronicler depicts him as a devout Muslim who instituted an Islamic judicial system, built mosques, and established a hostel in Mecca. He made diplomatic contacts with the sultans of Turkey and Morocco, apparently to obtain aid in defending Bornu’s northern borders. Scholars have placed his death at various times between 1603 and 1619. It is believed that he died while putting down a revolt. He was succeeded by three of his sons.
Aloma, Idris see Idris Aloma
Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-(Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Idrisi) (al-Sharif al-Idrisi) (Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Idres Ash-Sharif) (Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani al-Sabti) (al-Sharif al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi) (Dreses) (1100-1165/1166). Arab geographer, scientist, and author of one of the greatest geographic works of the medieval world.
Widely travelled throughout the Mediterranean region, he joined the court of Roger II of Sicily in about 1145 and worked in Palermo the remainder of his life. His major works include a silver planisphere showing a world map, a sectional map of the world, and a geography text (the Book of Roger) that contains information about his own travels and reports from persons sent from Sicily to obtain new information.
Al-Idrisi owes his fame to The Book of Roger, which he produced in 1154 on the orders of Roger II, the Norman king of Sicily. Al-Idrisi is best known in the West as a geographer, who made a globe of silver -- a sphere weighing 400 kilograms for King Roger II of Sicily. Some scholars regard him as the greatest geographer and cartographer of the Middle Ages. He also made original contributions in the study of medicinal plants.
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Idres Ash-Sharif was born in 1100 in Ceuta (North Africa) but he was raised and educated in Cordova in Spain. He is also known by his short name al-Sharif al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi.
Al-Idrisi was educated in Cordova. As was common with Muslim geographers, he traveled to many distant places, including Europe, to gather geographical data. The Muslim geographers by his time had already made accurate measurements of the Earth’s surface, and several maps of the whole world were available. Al-Idrisi added this available knowledge to his own findings. It is for this comprehensive knowledge of all parts of the known world that he became famous and began to get the attention of European sea navigators and military planners.
Al-Idrisi’s fame and competence eventually led to the attention of Roger II, the Norman King of Sicily, who invited him to produce an up-to-date world map. Sicily was under Muslim rule before King Roger, and Muslim works were freely available for transmission to Europe through the Latin West. Al-Idrisi procured a ball of silver weighing approximately 400 kilograms and meticulously recorded on it the known continents with trade routes, lakes and rivers, major cities, and plains and mountains. His globe was accompanied by his book Al-Kitab al-Rujari (Roger’s Book). He also made a representation of the known world on a disk.
Al-Idrisi’s book Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq (The Delight of Him Who Desires to Journey Through the Climates) is a geographical encyclopedia which contains detailed maps and information on European countries, Africa and Asia. Later, he compiled a more comprehensive encyclopedia, entitled Rawd-Unnas wa-Nuzhat al-Nafs (Pleasure of Men and Delight of Souls). Al-Idrisi’s knowledge of the Niger above Timbuktu, the Sudan, and of the head waters of the Nile was remarkable for its accuracy.
Al-Idrisi also made major contributions in the science of medicinal plants and wrote several books. The most popular among them is entitled Kitab al-Jami-li-Sifat Ashtat al-Nabatat. He reviewed and synthesized all the literature on the subject of medicinal plants and associated drugs available to him from Muslim scientists and added to it his research collected from his travels. He contributed this material to the subject of botany with emphasis on medicinal plants. He describes the names of the drugs in several languages including Berber, Syriac, Persian, Hindi, Greek, and Latin. Idrisi also wrote on zoology and fauna.
Al-Idrisi became famous in Europe more than other Muslim geographers because ships and navigators from the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Mediterranenan frequented Sicily, which is located near the middle of the Mediterranean. Several of al-Idrisi’s books were translated into Latin and his books on geography were popular for several centuries. The translation of one of his books was published in 1619 in Rome. This translation was an abridged edition and the translator did not give credit to al-Idrisi. It is interesting that Europe took several centuries to make use of his globe and the world map. Christopher Columbus used the map which was originally taken from al-Idrisi’s work.
Al-Idrisi wrote about the empires of the western and central Sudanic regions of Africa and the east African city-states in his most famous work of world geography, The Book of Roger. The work, named for its commissioner Roger II, the Norman king of Sicily, was completed in 1154. Al-Idrisi was the first Arabic author to impute a European origin to the Sudanic states, perhaps because he wrote shortly after the conquests of Ghana by the north African Muslim Almoravids. He incorrectly reported that the Niger River flowed to the west, thereby creating much confusion among later geographers and explorers.
A world traveler, al-Idrisi’s collaboration with the Norman king of Sicily, Roger II, produced a major geography and several significant maps of the medieval world. These works served as models for productions in the field for more than five hundred years.
Al-Idrisi, whose full name was Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ‘Abd Allah ibn Idris al-Hammudi al-Hasani al-Idrisi, was born in 1100 in Sabtah (now Ceuta), Morocco. As his full name indicates, he was a Shi‘a Muslim, descended from the Prophet Muhammad, of the noble house of Alavi Idris, claimants to the caliphate. His family had migrated from Malaga and Algeciras in Spain to Sabtah and Tangiers in the eleventh century, and al-Idrisi studied in Cordoba, the capital of Islamic Spain.
Al-Idrisi was a student of medicine, a poet, a world traveler, and a merchant-adventurer. His wanderings, which began at age sixteen, eventually took al-Idrisi on the routes of many of the historic Muslim conquests. He traveled far and wide across much of the known world -- west to Madeira and the Canary Islands, north to France and England, and east to Asia Minor and Central Asia -- meticulously gathering information along the way about what he saw and what lay beyond.
A natural curiosity about the world, along with the wealth and freedom to satisfy it, was probably the principal motivation behind these journeys. Al-Idrisi’s identity as a great noble and a descendant of Muhammad periodically put his life in danger from assassins hired by rival Islamic noble houses or religious factions. This ever present danger probably kept him on the move. Whatever the cause of his wanderings, they gradually gained for him the reputation of a worldly-wise and learned man. Under the pretext of offering him protection from his enemies, but probably because of his growing fame as a scholar and traveler, in 1140 the Norman Christian king of Sicily, Roger II, invited al-Idrisi to join his court. Al-Idrisi’s acceptance of the offer led to a twenty-year stay at the Sicilian court and initiated a fifteen-year geographic and cartographic collaboration with Roger.
Sicily had been granted to Roger II and the Normans under the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1139, and he promptly made Palermo his capital. Before the coming of the Normans, Palermo also had been the capital of Islamic Sicily. During the Middle Ages, under both the Muslims and the Normans, Palermo was a major crossroads of the Mediterranean world. It was a traditional meeting place for sailors, merchants, pilgrims, crusaders, scholars, adventurers, and other travelers.
During Roger’s reign, Palermo also became an intellectual center of medieval Europe. Roger was interested in fostering learning of any kind, and he was generous with his patronage. Perhaps for pragmatic reasons of expansionism and trade, Roger was devoted to geography. Undoubtedly, he believed that al-Idrisi’s princely status might help him further his own political aims. In any case, he seems to have been dissatisfied with the existing Arabic and Greek works on geography and cartography. Thus, one of the major reasons for the summons to al-Idrisi.
At Roger’s court, al-Idrisi was honored as a noble, scholar, and traveler, and it was there that his real fame as a geographer and cartographer came. During the fifteen years of their collaboration, al-Idrisi produced a celestial globe, a disk-shaped 1.5 by 3.5 meter tablet map of the known world, and many other maps. The globe and the world map were made of solid silver, weighing 450 Roman pounds. The globe and map in turn were based on al-Idrisi’s encyclopedic geography, Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq (The Book of the Pleasure Excursion of One Who is Eager to Traverse the Regions of the World -- 1154, also known as Kitab ar-Rujari, or Book of Roger), which was completed under Roger’s patronage.
The world map and presumably also the globe fell into the hands of a mob in 1160 and were smashed, but many of the seventy manuscript maps made by al-Idrisi from the world map shortly before Roger’s death in 1154 luckily survived. Sadly, no complete version of Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq survives in any language. It first appeared in the West in Rome in an abridged version in1592 and was translated into Latin in Paris in 1619, but no full translation into English ever has been made.
After the death of Roger, al-Idrisi continued to work for his son and successor, King William I (William the Bad), and wrote another geographic treatise. No complete version of this second book survives either, but a shortened version, a seventy-three map atlas, remains.
In about 1160, al-Idrisi left Sicily for his native Morocco to live out his life, where sometime between 1164 and 1166 he died, probably near Sabtah.
Al-Idrisi’s great world map was a monument to medieval Islamic geography and cartography, but today it exists only in several reconstructions created by scholars from the surviving fragments of his works. It was divided into seven horizontal climatic zones (probably derived from the classical Greco-Roman worldview and the works of Ptolemy), each divided vertically into eleven sections to create a primitive grid, a system of longitude and latitude for more accurate place location. The map also contained a wealth of information, an abundance of detail, and a degree of clarity rarely achieved previously. It was most accurate for the Mediterranean region: perhaps understandably, Sicily is shown as an exceptionally large island. Its accuracy and detail also extended elsewhere. For example, al-Idrisi showed the source of the Nile River as an unnamed lake in Central Africa. Yet, while his maps were drawn very correctly for the time, they were not drawn mathematically.
On al-Idrisi’s world map, the Islamic and Norman worlds were joined. In preparation for the creation of al-Idrisi’s maps and geographies, Roger had sent out reliable agents and draftsmen to collect data from many lands. Al-Idrisi relied heavily on classic Muslim sources, such as the works of al-Khwarizmi and al-Masudi, and classic Greek, Roman, and Hellenistic sources, such as the works of Ptolemy, the father of modern geography and cartography. Al-Idrisi’s grid system (but not his projections) probably was based on those of Ptolemy and a copy of Ptolemy’s altered version of the world map of Marinus of Tyre. As his great world map demonstrates, however, al-Idrisi was often much more than a mere modifier of Ptolemy. Al-Idrisi also utilized Indian astronomical studies. Yet, perhaps most important, he relied heavily on his own journeys and those of other travelers for reliable information.
Al-Idrisi’s work was far more influential than Ptolemy’s in the East, but less so in Europe. Still, his maps opened European eyes to some of what the Muslims knew about Africa and Asia in the Middle Ages. Perhaps because he spent much of his adult life in the service of the Christian kings of Sicily, for centuries -- even into the twentieth century -- al-Idrisi and his achievements were ignored by Muslim scholars. In so doing, they deprived their Western counterparts of a fuller understanding of him as well. Only recently has al-Idrisi’s full impact begun to be realized, especially within the context of the study of the history of science and the history of cartography.
In short, al-Idrisi represents by far the best example of Islamic-Christian scientific collaboration in the Middle Ages in geography. Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq was the most important geographic work of the period, and in its various forms it served as a major European and Muslim textbook for several centuries. Maps clearly based on those of al-Idrisi were produced well into the seventeenth century. He applied scientific methodology and precision to the heretofore largely imaginative arts of geography and cartography. Al-Idrisi truly deserved the epithet “Strabo of the Arabs,” which was applied to him in his own lifetime.
Abu 'Abd Allah al-Idrisi see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Qurtubi, al-Sharif al-Idrisi al- see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Idres Ash-Sharif see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Sharif al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi, al- see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Dreses see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Strabo of the Arabs see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-(Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Idrisi) (al-Sharif al-Idrisi) (Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Idres Ash-Sharif) (Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani al-Sabti) (al-Sharif al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi) (Dreses) (1100-1165/1166). Arab geographer, scientist, and author of one of the greatest geographic works of the medieval world.
Widely travelled throughout the Mediterranean region, he joined the court of Roger II of Sicily in about 1145 and worked in Palermo the remainder of his life. His major works include a silver planisphere showing a world map, a sectional map of the world, and a geography text (the Book of Roger) that contains information about his own travels and reports from persons sent from Sicily to obtain new information.
Al-Idrisi owes his fame to The Book of Roger, which he produced in 1154 on the orders of Roger II, the Norman king of Sicily. Al-Idrisi is best known in the West as a geographer, who made a globe of silver -- a sphere weighing 400 kilograms for King Roger II of Sicily. Some scholars regard him as the greatest geographer and cartographer of the Middle Ages. He also made original contributions in the study of medicinal plants.
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Idres Ash-Sharif was born in 1100 in Ceuta (North Africa) but he was raised and educated in Cordova in Spain. He is also known by his short name al-Sharif al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi.
Al-Idrisi was educated in Cordova. As was common with Muslim geographers, he traveled to many distant places, including Europe, to gather geographical data. The Muslim geographers by his time had already made accurate measurements of the Earth’s surface, and several maps of the whole world were available. Al-Idrisi added this available knowledge to his own findings. It is for this comprehensive knowledge of all parts of the known world that he became famous and began to get the attention of European sea navigators and military planners.
Al-Idrisi’s fame and competence eventually led to the attention of Roger II, the Norman King of Sicily, who invited him to produce an up-to-date world map. Sicily was under Muslim rule before King Roger, and Muslim works were freely available for transmission to Europe through the Latin West. Al-Idrisi procured a ball of silver weighing approximately 400 kilograms and meticulously recorded on it the known continents with trade routes, lakes and rivers, major cities, and plains and mountains. His globe was accompanied by his book Al-Kitab al-Rujari (Roger’s Book). He also made a representation of the known world on a disk.
Al-Idrisi’s book Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq (The Delight of Him Who Desires to Journey Through the Climates) is a geographical encyclopedia which contains detailed maps and information on European countries, Africa and Asia. Later, he compiled a more comprehensive encyclopedia, entitled Rawd-Unnas wa-Nuzhat al-Nafs (Pleasure of Men and Delight of Souls). Al-Idrisi’s knowledge of the Niger above Timbuktu, the Sudan, and of the head waters of the Nile was remarkable for its accuracy.
Al-Idrisi also made major contributions in the science of medicinal plants and wrote several books. The most popular among them is entitled Kitab al-Jami-li-Sifat Ashtat al-Nabatat. He reviewed and synthesized all the literature on the subject of medicinal plants and associated drugs available to him from Muslim scientists and added to it his research collected from his travels. He contributed this material to the subject of botany with emphasis on medicinal plants. He describes the names of the drugs in several languages including Berber, Syriac, Persian, Hindi, Greek, and Latin. Idrisi also wrote on zoology and fauna.
Al-Idrisi became famous in Europe more than other Muslim geographers because ships and navigators from the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Mediterranenan frequented Sicily, which is located near the middle of the Mediterranean. Several of al-Idrisi’s books were translated into Latin and his books on geography were popular for several centuries. The translation of one of his books was published in 1619 in Rome. This translation was an abridged edition and the translator did not give credit to al-Idrisi. It is interesting that Europe took several centuries to make use of his globe and the world map. Christopher Columbus used the map which was originally taken from al-Idrisi’s work.
Al-Idrisi wrote about the empires of the western and central Sudanic regions of Africa and the east African city-states in his most famous work of world geography, The Book of Roger. The work, named for its commissioner Roger II, the Norman king of Sicily, was completed in 1154. Al-Idrisi was the first Arabic author to impute a European origin to the Sudanic states, perhaps because he wrote shortly after the conquests of Ghana by the north African Muslim Almoravids. He incorrectly reported that the Niger River flowed to the west, thereby creating much confusion among later geographers and explorers.
A world traveler, al-Idrisi’s collaboration with the Norman king of Sicily, Roger II, produced a major geography and several significant maps of the medieval world. These works served as models for productions in the field for more than five hundred years.
Al-Idrisi, whose full name was Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ‘Abd Allah ibn Idris al-Hammudi al-Hasani al-Idrisi, was born in 1100 in Sabtah (now Ceuta), Morocco. As his full name indicates, he was a Shi‘a Muslim, descended from the Prophet Muhammad, of the noble house of Alavi Idris, claimants to the caliphate. His family had migrated from Malaga and Algeciras in Spain to Sabtah and Tangiers in the eleventh century, and al-Idrisi studied in Cordoba, the capital of Islamic Spain.
Al-Idrisi was a student of medicine, a poet, a world traveler, and a merchant-adventurer. His wanderings, which began at age sixteen, eventually took al-Idrisi on the routes of many of the historic Muslim conquests. He traveled far and wide across much of the known world -- west to Madeira and the Canary Islands, north to France and England, and east to Asia Minor and Central Asia -- meticulously gathering information along the way about what he saw and what lay beyond.
A natural curiosity about the world, along with the wealth and freedom to satisfy it, was probably the principal motivation behind these journeys. Al-Idrisi’s identity as a great noble and a descendant of Muhammad periodically put his life in danger from assassins hired by rival Islamic noble houses or religious factions. This ever present danger probably kept him on the move. Whatever the cause of his wanderings, they gradually gained for him the reputation of a worldly-wise and learned man. Under the pretext of offering him protection from his enemies, but probably because of his growing fame as a scholar and traveler, in 1140 the Norman Christian king of Sicily, Roger II, invited al-Idrisi to join his court. Al-Idrisi’s acceptance of the offer led to a twenty-year stay at the Sicilian court and initiated a fifteen-year geographic and cartographic collaboration with Roger.
Sicily had been granted to Roger II and the Normans under the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1139, and he promptly made Palermo his capital. Before the coming of the Normans, Palermo also had been the capital of Islamic Sicily. During the Middle Ages, under both the Muslims and the Normans, Palermo was a major crossroads of the Mediterranean world. It was a traditional meeting place for sailors, merchants, pilgrims, crusaders, scholars, adventurers, and other travelers.
During Roger’s reign, Palermo also became an intellectual center of medieval Europe. Roger was interested in fostering learning of any kind, and he was generous with his patronage. Perhaps for pragmatic reasons of expansionism and trade, Roger was devoted to geography. Undoubtedly, he believed that al-Idrisi’s princely status might help him further his own political aims. In any case, he seems to have been dissatisfied with the existing Arabic and Greek works on geography and cartography. Thus, one of the major reasons for the summons to al-Idrisi.
At Roger’s court, al-Idrisi was honored as a noble, scholar, and traveler, and it was there that his real fame as a geographer and cartographer came. During the fifteen years of their collaboration, al-Idrisi produced a celestial globe, a disk-shaped 1.5 by 3.5 meter tablet map of the known world, and many other maps. The globe and the world map were made of solid silver, weighing 450 Roman pounds. The globe and map in turn were based on al-Idrisi’s encyclopedic geography, Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq (The Book of the Pleasure Excursion of One Who is Eager to Traverse the Regions of the World -- 1154, also known as Kitab ar-Rujari, or Book of Roger), which was completed under Roger’s patronage.
The world map and presumably also the globe fell into the hands of a mob in 1160 and were smashed, but many of the seventy manuscript maps made by al-Idrisi from the world map shortly before Roger’s death in 1154 luckily survived. Sadly, no complete version of Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq survives in any language. It first appeared in the West in Rome in an abridged version in1592 and was translated into Latin in Paris in 1619, but no full translation into English ever has been made.
After the death of Roger, al-Idrisi continued to work for his son and successor, King William I (William the Bad), and wrote another geographic treatise. No complete version of this second book survives either, but a shortened version, a seventy-three map atlas, remains.
In about 1160, al-Idrisi left Sicily for his native Morocco to live out his life, where sometime between 1164 and 1166 he died, probably near Sabtah.
Al-Idrisi’s great world map was a monument to medieval Islamic geography and cartography, but today it exists only in several reconstructions created by scholars from the surviving fragments of his works. It was divided into seven horizontal climatic zones (probably derived from the classical Greco-Roman worldview and the works of Ptolemy), each divided vertically into eleven sections to create a primitive grid, a system of longitude and latitude for more accurate place location. The map also contained a wealth of information, an abundance of detail, and a degree of clarity rarely achieved previously. It was most accurate for the Mediterranean region: perhaps understandably, Sicily is shown as an exceptionally large island. Its accuracy and detail also extended elsewhere. For example, al-Idrisi showed the source of the Nile River as an unnamed lake in Central Africa. Yet, while his maps were drawn very correctly for the time, they were not drawn mathematically.
On al-Idrisi’s world map, the Islamic and Norman worlds were joined. In preparation for the creation of al-Idrisi’s maps and geographies, Roger had sent out reliable agents and draftsmen to collect data from many lands. Al-Idrisi relied heavily on classic Muslim sources, such as the works of al-Khwarizmi and al-Masudi, and classic Greek, Roman, and Hellenistic sources, such as the works of Ptolemy, the father of modern geography and cartography. Al-Idrisi’s grid system (but not his projections) probably was based on those of Ptolemy and a copy of Ptolemy’s altered version of the world map of Marinus of Tyre. As his great world map demonstrates, however, al-Idrisi was often much more than a mere modifier of Ptolemy. Al-Idrisi also utilized Indian astronomical studies. Yet, perhaps most important, he relied heavily on his own journeys and those of other travelers for reliable information.
Al-Idrisi’s work was far more influential than Ptolemy’s in the East, but less so in Europe. Still, his maps opened European eyes to some of what the Muslims knew about Africa and Asia in the Middle Ages. Perhaps because he spent much of his adult life in the service of the Christian kings of Sicily, for centuries -- even into the twentieth century -- al-Idrisi and his achievements were ignored by Muslim scholars. In so doing, they deprived their Western counterparts of a fuller understanding of him as well. Only recently has al-Idrisi’s full impact begun to be realized, especially within the context of the study of the history of science and the history of cartography.
In short, al-Idrisi represents by far the best example of Islamic-Christian scientific collaboration in the Middle Ages in geography. Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq was the most important geographic work of the period, and in its various forms it served as a major European and Muslim textbook for several centuries. Maps clearly based on those of al-Idrisi were produced well into the seventeenth century. He applied scientific methodology and precision to the heretofore largely imaginative arts of geography and cartography. Al-Idrisi truly deserved the epithet “Strabo of the Arabs,” which was applied to him in his own lifetime.
Abu 'Abd Allah al-Idrisi see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Qurtubi, al-Sharif al-Idrisi al- see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Idres Ash-Sharif see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Sharif al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi, al- see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Dreses see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Strabo of the Arabs see Idrisi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Idrisids
Idrisids (Adarisa). First independent dynasty in Morocco (r.788-974). Their main capitals were Walila, and from 807, Fez. The Idrisids were founded by Idris I ibn Abdallah (r. 788-793), a descendant of the Prophet’s grandson, al-Hasan, who survived the massacre of the Abbasids following a revolt in Ali’s family in 786 and fled to Walila (Morocco). The Idrisids were thus connected with the line of the Shi‘a Imams.
Proclaimed imam by Berber tribes in northern Morocco, Idris I extended his territory as far as Tlemcen in 789 and founded Fez. Poisoned in 793, probably at the instigation of Harun al-Rashid, he is regarded as the national saint of Morocco. His son, Idris II (r. 793-828, ruling imam from 804) settled more and more Andalusian and Tunisians, developed Fez into the capital, and consolidated political power. When the son of Idris II, Muhammad (828-836), divided the realm between his eight brothers in 836, the dynasty fell apart, and was destroyed by internal power struggles.
In 788, Idris I became involved in an anti-‘Abbasid revolt near Mecca and was forced into exile to escape the persecution of Harun al-Rashid, the ‘Abbasid caliph of Baghdad. Idris sought refuge in present day Morocco, which some fifty years earlier had shaken caliphal rule. There he was welcomed by a recently converted Berber tribe, the Banu Awrabah. These Berbers were impressed with the idea of having a descendant of the Prophet to lead them and soon made Idris their chief. He rapidly united the Berber tribes of the area into a confederacy, and from this union emerged the first independent Islamic dynasty in Morocco.
Idris’s rule was short-lived. He was poisoned in 793 by an agent of Harun al-Rashid. Idris left no male heir at the time of his death, but he did leave behind a pregnant concubine, and it was her child, Idris II, who was to continue his father’s work.
Idris II was the true founder of the modern Moroccan state. Although his father had subjugated and converted many tribes adhering to Christianity, Judaism, or indigenous religions, he still remained dependent on the Awrabah tribe. Idris II stressed the Islamic-Arab character of Morocco in an attempt to detach himself from the Awrabah, inviting Arab chiefs and warriors from Spain to his court. In 809, Idris II achieved what could be considered one of the most durable and important results of the dynasty – the refounding of the city of Fez. Originally founded in 789 by Idris I, Fez was still a Berber market town when Idris II decided to establish his authority independently from the Awrabah and make Fez his capital city. The arrival of several waves of immigrants, first from Cordoba and later from Tunisia, gave Fez a definitive Arab character.
Among his political achievements, Idris II managed to consolidate under his rule most of what is today northern Morocco. To stabilize the government he organized Morocco’s first true makhzan (central government), an Arabic concept hitherto unknown to the Berber tribes of the region. In addition, the construction of the Qarawiyin and Andalus mosques as well as the Qarawiyin University, the oldest in the Muslim world, helped make Fez an important cultural and religious center.
Idris II was succeeded by his son Muhammad II. While retaining the title of imam and rule over the capital, Muhammad divided his father’s kingdom among his brothers, demonstrating a departure from the political sagacity that had been evident in both his father and grandfather. This also effectively undermined centralized control held by the Idrisids, as sections of the royal family and tribal groups engaged in a long struggle for power that characterized later Idrisid rule. Although a strong centralized state was not established in the Idrisid era, the political role of the sharifs was confirmed and has remained a significant element in Moroccan politics ever since.
Yahya I ibn Muhammad (r. 849-863) founded in 859 the two great mosques of Fez, that of the Qarawiyyin and that of al-Andalus.
After 917, the Idrisids fell first under the sovereignty of the Fatimids and from 932 of the Spanish Umayyads, who attacked Morocco on numerous occasions and forced the Idrisids from power. After various attempts at retreiving poltical freedom, the last Idrisids were captured by the troops of the Spanish Umayyads in the Rif and northwest Morocco in 974 and then deported to Cordoba, where the last ruler died in 985.
The Idrisid legacy was a foundation for independent Moroccan monarchic rule and sharifian political power.
A branch of the puritanical Idrisiya brotherhood arose in Yemen. Ahmad al-Idrisi, ruled from 1911 to 1934 over the highlands of Asir (on the Red Sea coast between the Hijaz and Yemen), until the highlands were annexed by Saudi Arabia.
A list of the Idrisid rulers includes:
* Idriss I - (788-791)
* Idris II - (791-828)
* Muhammad ibn Idris - (828-836)
* Ali ibn Idris, known as "Ali I" - (836-848)
* Yahya ibn Muhammad, known as "Yahya I" - (848-864)
* Yahya ibn Yahya, known as "Yahya II" - (864-874)
* Ali ibn Umar, known as "Ali II" - (874-883)
* Yahya ibn Al-Qassim, known as "Yahya III" - (883-904)
* Yahya ibn Idris ibn Umar, known as "Yahya IV" - (904-917)
* Fatimid overlordship - (922-925)
* Al-Hajjam al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Qassim - (925-927)
* Fatimid overlordship - (927-937)
* Al Qasim Guennoun - (937-948)
* Abu l-Aish Ahmad - (948-954)
* Al-Hasan ibn Guennoun, known as "Hassan II" - (954-974)
* Ali, Caliph of Cordoba in 1016
Adarisa see Idrisids
Idrisids (Adarisa). First independent dynasty in Morocco (r.788-974). Their main capitals were Walila, and from 807, Fez. The Idrisids were founded by Idris I ibn Abdallah (r. 788-793), a descendant of the Prophet’s grandson, al-Hasan, who survived the massacre of the Abbasids following a revolt in Ali’s family in 786 and fled to Walila (Morocco). The Idrisids were thus connected with the line of the Shi‘a Imams.
Proclaimed imam by Berber tribes in northern Morocco, Idris I extended his territory as far as Tlemcen in 789 and founded Fez. Poisoned in 793, probably at the instigation of Harun al-Rashid, he is regarded as the national saint of Morocco. His son, Idris II (r. 793-828, ruling imam from 804) settled more and more Andalusian and Tunisians, developed Fez into the capital, and consolidated political power. When the son of Idris II, Muhammad (828-836), divided the realm between his eight brothers in 836, the dynasty fell apart, and was destroyed by internal power struggles.
In 788, Idris I became involved in an anti-‘Abbasid revolt near Mecca and was forced into exile to escape the persecution of Harun al-Rashid, the ‘Abbasid caliph of Baghdad. Idris sought refuge in present day Morocco, which some fifty years earlier had shaken caliphal rule. There he was welcomed by a recently converted Berber tribe, the Banu Awrabah. These Berbers were impressed with the idea of having a descendant of the Prophet to lead them and soon made Idris their chief. He rapidly united the Berber tribes of the area into a confederacy, and from this union emerged the first independent Islamic dynasty in Morocco.
Idris’s rule was short-lived. He was poisoned in 793 by an agent of Harun al-Rashid. Idris left no male heir at the time of his death, but he did leave behind a pregnant concubine, and it was her child, Idris II, who was to continue his father’s work.
Idris II was the true founder of the modern Moroccan state. Although his father had subjugated and converted many tribes adhering to Christianity, Judaism, or indigenous religions, he still remained dependent on the Awrabah tribe. Idris II stressed the Islamic-Arab character of Morocco in an attempt to detach himself from the Awrabah, inviting Arab chiefs and warriors from Spain to his court. In 809, Idris II achieved what could be considered one of the most durable and important results of the dynasty – the refounding of the city of Fez. Originally founded in 789 by Idris I, Fez was still a Berber market town when Idris II decided to establish his authority independently from the Awrabah and make Fez his capital city. The arrival of several waves of immigrants, first from Cordoba and later from Tunisia, gave Fez a definitive Arab character.
Among his political achievements, Idris II managed to consolidate under his rule most of what is today northern Morocco. To stabilize the government he organized Morocco’s first true makhzan (central government), an Arabic concept hitherto unknown to the Berber tribes of the region. In addition, the construction of the Qarawiyin and Andalus mosques as well as the Qarawiyin University, the oldest in the Muslim world, helped make Fez an important cultural and religious center.
Idris II was succeeded by his son Muhammad II. While retaining the title of imam and rule over the capital, Muhammad divided his father’s kingdom among his brothers, demonstrating a departure from the political sagacity that had been evident in both his father and grandfather. This also effectively undermined centralized control held by the Idrisids, as sections of the royal family and tribal groups engaged in a long struggle for power that characterized later Idrisid rule. Although a strong centralized state was not established in the Idrisid era, the political role of the sharifs was confirmed and has remained a significant element in Moroccan politics ever since.
Yahya I ibn Muhammad (r. 849-863) founded in 859 the two great mosques of Fez, that of the Qarawiyyin and that of al-Andalus.
After 917, the Idrisids fell first under the sovereignty of the Fatimids and from 932 of the Spanish Umayyads, who attacked Morocco on numerous occasions and forced the Idrisids from power. After various attempts at retreiving poltical freedom, the last Idrisids were captured by the troops of the Spanish Umayyads in the Rif and northwest Morocco in 974 and then deported to Cordoba, where the last ruler died in 985.
The Idrisid legacy was a foundation for independent Moroccan monarchic rule and sharifian political power.
A branch of the puritanical Idrisiya brotherhood arose in Yemen. Ahmad al-Idrisi, ruled from 1911 to 1934 over the highlands of Asir (on the Red Sea coast between the Hijaz and Yemen), until the highlands were annexed by Saudi Arabia.
A list of the Idrisid rulers includes:
* Idriss I - (788-791)
* Idris II - (791-828)
* Muhammad ibn Idris - (828-836)
* Ali ibn Idris, known as "Ali I" - (836-848)
* Yahya ibn Muhammad, known as "Yahya I" - (848-864)
* Yahya ibn Yahya, known as "Yahya II" - (864-874)
* Ali ibn Umar, known as "Ali II" - (874-883)
* Yahya ibn Al-Qassim, known as "Yahya III" - (883-904)
* Yahya ibn Idris ibn Umar, known as "Yahya IV" - (904-917)
* Fatimid overlordship - (922-925)
* Al-Hajjam al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Qassim - (925-927)
* Fatimid overlordship - (927-937)
* Al Qasim Guennoun - (937-948)
* Abu l-Aish Ahmad - (948-954)
* Al-Hasan ibn Guennoun, known as "Hassan II" - (954-974)
* Ali, Caliph of Cordoba in 1016
Adarisa see Idrisids
Idrisiyah
Idrisiyah. The thought and teachings of Ahmad ibn Idris (1749/50-1837) gave rise to a spiritual tradition and various Sufi orders. The term Idrisiyah is used here in two senses: (1) to refer to various Sufi brotherhoods and schools established by his students, and (2) to the tariqah established by his descendants over a generation after Ibn Idris’s death.
In its first sense, Idrisiyah may be used to describe the geographically very widespread and multi-faceted tradition derived from Ahmad ibn Idris through his numerous students. By no means have all the branches of this tradition been fully charted. Within the Idrisiyah tradition, one can distinguish a group of students, direct and indirect, including the Egyptians ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Haqq al-Qusi (1788-1877) and Muhammad Nur al-Din al-Husayni (1813-1887), who spread knowledge of Ibn Idris’s prayers and litanies in Egypt and the Balkans. There were several such figures within the Ottoman Empire. Similar figures elsewhere include the noted Sudanese teacher Muhammad al-Majdhub (d. 1832) from the Majadhib holy clan. Most of these figures did not attempt to establish tariqahs as such.
Ahmad ibn Idris himself did not attempt to found any form of organized brotherhood. Although earlier writers have described a conflict over spiritual succession following the master’s death, in reality his students seem each to have gone his own way. His senior students Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Sanusi, and Muhammad ‘Uthman al-Mirghani worked to establish their own orders, the Sanusiyah and Khatmiyah, respectively. A Sudanese student, Ibrahim al-Rashid al-Duwayhi (1813-1874), seems to have been recognized at least by Ibn Idris’s sons as their father’s spiritual heir. He established a tariqah called the Idrisiyah, but later known as the Rashidiyah. This order spread in the Hejaz, India, Somalia, and the Sudan.
After his death in Mecca, Ibrahim al-Rashid’s nephew al-Shaykh ibn Muhammad al-Duwayhi (c. 1845-1919) took over the order, which became known as the Salihiyah. The Salihiyah spread widely in Somalia, where one of its most active proponents was the Somali leader Muhammad ‘Abd Allah Hasan (1864-1920), the so-called “Mad Mullah” who led Somali resistance to the British, Italians, and Ethiopians. From Somalia, the Salihiyah tariqah spread along the East African coast as far as Zanzibar. Much less is known of the diffusion of the Idrisiyah, Salihiyah (and later, the Dandarawiyah) tariqah to Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia from about the 1880s onward, presumably by pilgrims returning from the holy cities. There is now a considerable literature on this tradition in the various Malay languages, including translations of Ibn Idris’s prayers.
An important and vigorous offshoot of the Salihiyah was established by the Egyptian Muhammad Ahmad al-Dandarawi (d. 1910/11) and his son, Abu al-‘Abbas (d. 1953). The Dandarawiyah spread in Egypt, where it has become one of the most active and influential brotherhoods, as well as in Syria, Somalia and East Africa, Europe, and Malaysia. Several scholars within the Dandarawiyah tradition, including the Egyptian Muhammad ibn Khalil al-Hajrasi (d. 1910) and the Syrian Muhammad Baha‘ al-Din al-Baytar (d. 1910), wrote extensive commentaries on the prayers and litanies of Ibn Idris.
Ibn Idris’s eldest son, known as Muhammad al-Qutb (1803/04-1889), lived his long life in seclusion in Yemen. It was a younger son, ‘Abd al-‘Al (otherwise ‘Abd al-Muta ‘al, 1830/31-1878), who worked actively to propagate his father’s way in Egypt and the Sudan. Educated by al-Sanusi, whom he accompanied to Cyrenaica, ‘Abd al-‘Al left the Sanusiyah after al-Sanusi’s death in 1859. He settled first in Egypt at al-Zayniyya (Luxor) where his father had lived from 1813 to 1816. Until today, this has remained the center of the Idrisiyah family and order in Egypt. He then traveled in the northern Sudan, where he married several times. He died and was buried in Dongola. It was ‘Abd al-‘Al’s son Muhammad al-Sharif (1866/67-1937) and his son Mirghani al-Idrisi (d. 1959) who consolidated the Idrisiyah in both Upper Egypt and the Sudan.
In contrast to the Khatmiyah and Sanusiyah, the Idrisiyah of Egypt and the Sudan have never played a particularly overt political role. Membership has remained small and confined to particular tribes or regions. Generally a “silent” dhikr is practiced, and no attempt has been made to “modernize” the order. In Egypt, there is a small offshoot founded by Salih ibn Muhammad al-Ja‘fari (d. 1981), and al-Azhar ‘alim who published numerous works by or on Ibn Idris.
An exception to this political quietism was the career of Ibn Idris’s great-grandson Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Idrisi (1876-1923). Sometimes called “al-Yamani,” he was often referred to in contemporary European sources as “The Idrisi.” Born in Asir, he studied in Mecca, at al-Azhar in Cairo, and with the Sanusiyah in Libya before spending a period with his Idrisi relatives in Egypt and the Sudan. In 1905/06 he returned to Asir and in the following year led a successful revolt against the local Turkish administration. Between 1908 and 1932, the Idrisi state of Asir was a factor of some importance in the politics of Arabia. Al-Idrisi negotiated with the Italians, the Young Turks, and the British, published a proclamation denouncing the Ottoman state and urging Arab independence, and built up a local army. After his death, the state rapidly declined and was peacefully absorbed into the Saudi state in 1932.
Idrisiyah. The thought and teachings of Ahmad ibn Idris (1749/50-1837) gave rise to a spiritual tradition and various Sufi orders. The term Idrisiyah is used here in two senses: (1) to refer to various Sufi brotherhoods and schools established by his students, and (2) to the tariqah established by his descendants over a generation after Ibn Idris’s death.
In its first sense, Idrisiyah may be used to describe the geographically very widespread and multi-faceted tradition derived from Ahmad ibn Idris through his numerous students. By no means have all the branches of this tradition been fully charted. Within the Idrisiyah tradition, one can distinguish a group of students, direct and indirect, including the Egyptians ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Haqq al-Qusi (1788-1877) and Muhammad Nur al-Din al-Husayni (1813-1887), who spread knowledge of Ibn Idris’s prayers and litanies in Egypt and the Balkans. There were several such figures within the Ottoman Empire. Similar figures elsewhere include the noted Sudanese teacher Muhammad al-Majdhub (d. 1832) from the Majadhib holy clan. Most of these figures did not attempt to establish tariqahs as such.
Ahmad ibn Idris himself did not attempt to found any form of organized brotherhood. Although earlier writers have described a conflict over spiritual succession following the master’s death, in reality his students seem each to have gone his own way. His senior students Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Sanusi, and Muhammad ‘Uthman al-Mirghani worked to establish their own orders, the Sanusiyah and Khatmiyah, respectively. A Sudanese student, Ibrahim al-Rashid al-Duwayhi (1813-1874), seems to have been recognized at least by Ibn Idris’s sons as their father’s spiritual heir. He established a tariqah called the Idrisiyah, but later known as the Rashidiyah. This order spread in the Hejaz, India, Somalia, and the Sudan.
After his death in Mecca, Ibrahim al-Rashid’s nephew al-Shaykh ibn Muhammad al-Duwayhi (c. 1845-1919) took over the order, which became known as the Salihiyah. The Salihiyah spread widely in Somalia, where one of its most active proponents was the Somali leader Muhammad ‘Abd Allah Hasan (1864-1920), the so-called “Mad Mullah” who led Somali resistance to the British, Italians, and Ethiopians. From Somalia, the Salihiyah tariqah spread along the East African coast as far as Zanzibar. Much less is known of the diffusion of the Idrisiyah, Salihiyah (and later, the Dandarawiyah) tariqah to Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia from about the 1880s onward, presumably by pilgrims returning from the holy cities. There is now a considerable literature on this tradition in the various Malay languages, including translations of Ibn Idris’s prayers.
An important and vigorous offshoot of the Salihiyah was established by the Egyptian Muhammad Ahmad al-Dandarawi (d. 1910/11) and his son, Abu al-‘Abbas (d. 1953). The Dandarawiyah spread in Egypt, where it has become one of the most active and influential brotherhoods, as well as in Syria, Somalia and East Africa, Europe, and Malaysia. Several scholars within the Dandarawiyah tradition, including the Egyptian Muhammad ibn Khalil al-Hajrasi (d. 1910) and the Syrian Muhammad Baha‘ al-Din al-Baytar (d. 1910), wrote extensive commentaries on the prayers and litanies of Ibn Idris.
Ibn Idris’s eldest son, known as Muhammad al-Qutb (1803/04-1889), lived his long life in seclusion in Yemen. It was a younger son, ‘Abd al-‘Al (otherwise ‘Abd al-Muta ‘al, 1830/31-1878), who worked actively to propagate his father’s way in Egypt and the Sudan. Educated by al-Sanusi, whom he accompanied to Cyrenaica, ‘Abd al-‘Al left the Sanusiyah after al-Sanusi’s death in 1859. He settled first in Egypt at al-Zayniyya (Luxor) where his father had lived from 1813 to 1816. Until today, this has remained the center of the Idrisiyah family and order in Egypt. He then traveled in the northern Sudan, where he married several times. He died and was buried in Dongola. It was ‘Abd al-‘Al’s son Muhammad al-Sharif (1866/67-1937) and his son Mirghani al-Idrisi (d. 1959) who consolidated the Idrisiyah in both Upper Egypt and the Sudan.
In contrast to the Khatmiyah and Sanusiyah, the Idrisiyah of Egypt and the Sudan have never played a particularly overt political role. Membership has remained small and confined to particular tribes or regions. Generally a “silent” dhikr is practiced, and no attempt has been made to “modernize” the order. In Egypt, there is a small offshoot founded by Salih ibn Muhammad al-Ja‘fari (d. 1981), and al-Azhar ‘alim who published numerous works by or on Ibn Idris.
An exception to this political quietism was the career of Ibn Idris’s great-grandson Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Idrisi (1876-1923). Sometimes called “al-Yamani,” he was often referred to in contemporary European sources as “The Idrisi.” Born in Asir, he studied in Mecca, at al-Azhar in Cairo, and with the Sanusiyah in Libya before spending a period with his Idrisi relatives in Egypt and the Sudan. In 1905/06 he returned to Asir and in the following year led a successful revolt against the local Turkish administration. Between 1908 and 1932, the Idrisi state of Asir was a factor of some importance in the politics of Arabia. Al-Idrisi negotiated with the Italians, the Young Turks, and the British, published a proclamation denouncing the Ottoman state and urging Arab independence, and built up a local army. After his death, the state rapidly declined and was peacefully absorbed into the Saudi state in 1932.
Idris Katagarmabe
Idris Katagarmabe (d. c. 1526). Ruler of the Kanuri state of Bornu from around 1503 to around 1526. His father, ‘Ali Gaji, had ended a long period of strife between two families within the Sefawa royal dynasty. Idris thus felt strong enough to march against the Bulala people, who had forced the Kanuri to abandon Kanem for Bornu in the late 14th century. He defeated the Bulala in two campaigns, and briefly reoccupied the old Kanem capital. Despite these victories, the Bulala state remained more powerful than Bornu according to Leo Africanus.
Katagarmabe, Idris see Idris Katagarmabe
Idris Katagarmabe (d. c. 1526). Ruler of the Kanuri state of Bornu from around 1503 to around 1526. His father, ‘Ali Gaji, had ended a long period of strife between two families within the Sefawa royal dynasty. Idris thus felt strong enough to march against the Bulala people, who had forced the Kanuri to abandon Kanem for Bornu in the late 14th century. He defeated the Bulala in two campaigns, and briefly reoccupied the old Kanem capital. Despite these victories, the Bulala state remained more powerful than Bornu according to Leo Africanus.
Katagarmabe, Idris see Idris Katagarmabe
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