Monday, October 16, 2023

2023: Yambio - Yazuri


Yambio
Yambio (Mbio) (c. 1820s-1905).  One of the most powerful of the late nineteenth century Zande rulers (1869-1905).  

Yambio’s father was the chief of the Gbudwe branch of the Zande in southwestern Sudan.  Yambio succeeded to the chieftainship on his father’s death in 1869, but by then the state had already been informally partitioned among his brothers.  Arab slavers penetrating Zande country attempted to play Yambio’s family factions off against each other.  Yambio himself consistently refused to collaborate with outsiders and strove to consolidate the Zande unaided.  

In 1870, Yambio drove an Arab slave caravan out of his territory.  Shortly afterwards, Yambio rebuffed an attempted conquest by the powerful merchant prince, al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur.

The Egyptian administration being established, at that time, in Sudan eased the problem of the slavers, but it too had designs on Zande territory.  In 1881, Yambio defeated an Egyptian force only to be attacked by a stronger army the next year.  

Yambio was captured and held prisoner until 1884, when the Mahdists troops of Muhammed ‘Ahmad freed him.  The Mahdists, who were then sweeping through Sudan, wished to use Yambio as an ally in their drive towards the Congo basin.  Yambio refused to co-operate and, instead, returned home to re-assert his authority over the Zande.  

Meanwhile, the Mahdists withdrew to consolidate their hold on central Sudan and Yambio was left to live in relative peace and prosperity for over a decade.

Yambio’s peace was shattered by Mahdist raids in 1897, but he repelled their assaults.  Two years later, the Mahdist state fell to the British-Egyptian government, and Zande country became the focus of aggressive imperial rivalry between the British from the northeast and Belgians from the southwest.

Once again, Yambio struggled to remain independent while neighboring chiefs and relatives aligned themselves with the Europeans.  In 1903 and 1904, Yambio spurned British attempts to negotiate an accommodation while Leopold’s forces massed against him along his southwestern border.

Late in 1904, Yambio led a costly and futile attack on the Belgian positions.  Terribly outmanned, Yambio was forced to fall back to await his fate.  

Early in 1905, Yambio’s demoralized troops crumbled before a combined British-Sudanese onslaught in which Yambio was killed.  

On his death, Yambio’s kingdom, which fell into British hands, was partitioned among his sons.

Mbio see Yambio


Yamin, Muhammad
Yamin, Muhammad (Muhammad Yamin) (1903 - October 17,1962).  Indonesian lyric poet.  Yamin’s Tanah Air (“Fatherland”), published in 1922 was the first collection of modern Malay verse to be published.  The “fatherland” to which Yamin there referred was Sumatra, not Indonesia.  Another volume of verse, Indonesia, Tumpah Darahku (“Indonesia, My Homeland”) appeared on October 28, 1928, the day Muhammad Yamin and his fellow nationalists resolved to revere a single -- Indonesian -- homeland, race and language.  Muhammad Yamin’s play on a Javanese historical subject -- Ken Arok dan Ken Dedes -- also appeared in 1928.  Although a pioneer in literary form, his language remains much closer to classical Malay than that of younger writers.

Muhammad Yamin was born in Talawi, Sawahlunto, in the heartland of the Minangkabau on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. He was the son of Oesman Gelar Baginda Khatib (1856-1924) the Penghulu ("Head of sub-district") of Indrapura. Oesman had five wives with whom he had sixteen children who make up a veritably influential, but incohesive, political and intellectual family in early modern Indonesian history. Other well-known sons of Oesman are Muhammad Yaman, the eldest, an educator; Djamaluddin, a renowned journalist, who later in life added to his name his nom de plume, Adinegoro; and Ramana Oesman (1924-1992), a pioneer of the Indonesian diplomatic corps.

Muhammad Yamin see Yamin, Muhammad


Yao
Yao (Wayao) (Wahyao) (Veiao) (Adjao).  Known by a variety of names -- Wayao, Wahyao, Veiao, Adjao -- that no doubt reflect their mobility over the past centuries, the Yao live in Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.  Three other peoples are sufficiently close culturally and linguistically to be grouped with the Yao.  They are the Mwera, Makua and Makonde, most of whom live in Tanzania; an unknown number live in Mozambique.  The majority -- as many as seventy-five percent -- of the Yao claim to be Sunni Muslim of the Shafi school.

The Yao claim that their traditional homeland was between the Lujenda and Rovuma rivers east of Lake Malawi.  For at least two centuries before the colonial intrusion of the late nineteenth century the Yao were active as traders bartering ivory, slaves, beeswax and tobacco for guns, gunpowder, cloth and beads.  The suppliers of these commodities were the Arab and Swahili people on the coast, who did not themselves make any major penetration into the interior until the early nineteenth century.  Not only were the Yao active in the slave trade, but slaves were also an integral part of their economic and political system before the coming of Europeans.  The rapid spread of Islam among the Yao seems to have been due partly to their long association with Arabs but much more to their suspicion of Europeans and Christian missionaries as being antagonistic to their way of life.

Before the colonial conquest the Yao lived in autonomous villages, each with a headman.  Several villages were grouped under a chief of a district. Because of the possession of slaves and workers and their value for trade, the chiefs were very powerful and only submitted to colonial rule by force of arms.  Divested of their slaves, their economic power was undermined, and until recently a headman or chief lived in a manner little different from anyone else.

The average Yao village consisted of only about a dozen houses, but it was a highly important unit of social organization.  The headman was politically powerful and belonged to the dominant matrilineage.  Matrilineal descent was the rule and produced conflicts of interest for the headman.  Whereas many men married matrilocally, the headmen often could not move and so his wives came to him.  His responsibilities to his matrikin were supposed to be preeminent, but his emoticonal links to his children sometimes conflicted with these.

In 1967, Tanzania adopted “The Arusha Declaration” with the objective of building a Socialist society.  This policy envisaged the voluntary formation of villages based on the principles of ujamaa (familyness), which is used to translate the English term “African socialism.”  By 1974, lack of enthusiasm for the policy prompted the government to pass the Villagization Act, which required that all inhabitants of the rural areas be gathered into villages.  In the case of the Yao, much larger agglomerations than had been customary were formed, in some cases involving the compulsory settlement together of Muslims and Christians and of peoples practicing both matrilineal and patrilineal descent.  The social effect of these new groupings is hard to estimate, but the combination of radically changed patterns of settlement, land tenure and authority coupled with universal primary education for boys and girls cannot but have had profound effects.  

By 1800, the Yao had become known as traders plying between the inland tribes and the Arabs on the east coast. Much of this trade was in slaves, which led eventually to clashes with European powers who were establishing control over former Yao territory in the 19th century. The Yao were never united but lived as small groups ruled by chiefs who were predominantly military and commercial leaders. 

The Yao moved into what is now the eastern region of Malawi around the 1830s, when they were active as farmers and traders. Rich in culture, tradition and music, the Yao are primarily Muslim, and count among their famous progeny two former Presidents of the Republic of Malawi, Bakili Muluzi and Joyce Banda. The Yao had close ties with the Swahili on the coast during the late 19th century, and adopted some parts of their culture, such as architecture and religion, but still kept their own national identity. Their close cooperation with the Arabs gave them access to firearms, which gave them an advantage in their many wars against neighboring peoples, such as the Ngoni and the Chewa. The Yao actively resisted the German forces that were colonizing Southeast Africa (roughly today's Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi). A particular example of Yao involvement in the resistance extended to the coastal areas of Kilwa Kivinje, Mikindani and Lindi on the southern coast of Tanzania in 1888, when the German East Africa Company officials attempted to take control of the coastal areas previously under the Sultan of Zanzibar. The Yao continued to defend their lucrative trade route from the Makanjila domains in southern Nyasa to Kilwa Kivinje over the following years, leading to the execution of one of the more prominent raiders, Hassan bin Omari (an associate of the Makanjila), in Kilwa Kivinje in 1895. On the other hand, by 1893, Harry Johnston, with his British forces, was able to declare that he had practically conquered all the Makanjila territory on the shores of Lake Nyasa. In 1890, King Machemba issued a declaration to Commander Hermann von Wissmann, stating that he was open to trade but not willing to submit to German authority. After further engagements, however, the Yao ended up surrendering to German forces.


By 1900 all Yao chiefdoms had come under German, Portuguese, or British rule.

In Zimbabwe, the Yaos arrived as immigrants and established a society in Mvurwi under the leadership of the Jalisi clan (also known as Chiteleka or Jalasi). They were among the first to bring Islam to Zimbabwe on the Great Dyke Mountain Pass. The Yao also played a major role in the Maji Maji Rebellion in German East Africa.


The Yao are an agricultural people using slash-and-burn techniques to cultivate their staples, corn (maize) and sorghum. Fish provide protein in areas near lakes or larger rivers. In Malaŵi they cultivate tobacco as an important cash crop.

The Yao live in compact villages of 75 to 100 persons under traditional headmen. These headmen, like the chiefs, succeed matrilineally, the office usually going to the eldest sister’s firstborn son. On marriage the man leaves his village to live in that of his wife, so that villages are composed basically of groups of women related through the female line, together with their spouses. Yao social life features annual initiation ceremonies involving circumcision for boys. Originally, these ceremonies were closely connected with the worship of ancestor spirits, but through Arab contact most Yao are Muslims, and the rites incorporate Islamic elements.

Wayao see Yao
Wahyao see Yao
Veiao see Yao
Adjao see Yao


Yaqut ibn ‘Abdullah
Yaqut ibn ‘Abdullah (Yaqut al-Rumi) (Shihab al-Din Abu ‘Abd Allah) (Yaqut al-Hamawi) (Yaqut ibn-'Abdullah al-Rumi al-Hamawi) (1179-1229).  Arab encyclopedist. Yaqut ibn ‘Abdullah was a Greek born in Asia Minor.  Yaqut was captured as a child and sold as a slave in Baghdad to a merchant who had him educated, and who later sent him as his agent to the Persian Gulf and to Syria.  Yaqut was freed in 1199 and became a scribe and bookseller.  

In 1213, Yaqut set out again to travel to Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Khurasan (northeast Persia).  Yaqut spent two years working in libraries at Merv, in Central Asia.  In 1218, he went on to Khiva, but had to leave, in order to escape the Mongol invasion.  He arrived in Mosul destitute, but was given assistance in reaching Aleppo.

Yaqut returned to Mosul two years later in order to finish his Geographical Dictionary (Lexicon of the Countries).  The work on the Geograpical Dictionary lasted until 1224.

While he was in Damascus, Yaqut narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Shi‘ite Muslims for his Sunnite views.

As a trader in the Persian Gulf, Yaqut travelled widely and ransacked libraries wherever he went.  He wrote on the Arab genealogies and composed a work containing biographies of men of letters.  His fame rests upon his Geographical Dictionary, which contains not only geographical information but also, under each place name, astrological and historical data, quotations from poems and a list of eminent natives of the place.

Yaqut’s other great book is his Dictionary of Learned Men.  The Dictionary of Learned Men contains biographies of all those who were in any way connected with Arabic literature.  Some sections are now lost.

Yaqut’s works, like those of most Arab compilers, are full of anecdotes and digressions.  For example, in the Dictionary of Learned Men, there is a long discussion between a Christian philosopher and a Muslim theologian.

Yaqut ibn-'Abdullah al-Rumi al-Hamawi was a Syrian biographer and geographer renowned for his encyclopedic writings on the Muslim world. "Al-Rumi" ("from Rûm") refers to his Greek (Byzantine) descent; "al-Hamawi" means that he is from Hama, Syria, and ibn-Abdullah is a reference to his father's name, Abdullah. The word yaqut means ruby.

Yaqut was sold as a slave to someone who later moved to Baghdad, Iraq. Upon recognizing his abilities, Yaqut's purchaser provided him with a good education. He was later freed and traveled a great deal. Yaqut also earned a living copying and selling manuscripts.

The works of Yaqut include:

    * Kitab mu'jam al-buldan ("Dictionary of Countries")
    * Mu'jam al-udaba' , ("Dictionary of Writers") written in 1226.
    * al-Mushtarak wadh'a wa al-Muftaraq Sa'qa.

Yaqut al-Rumi see Yaqut ibn ‘Abdullah
Shihab al-Din Abu ‘Abd Allah see Yaqut ibn ‘Abdullah
Yaqut ibn-'Abdullah al-Rumi al-Hamawi see Yaqut ibn ‘Abdullah
Yaqut al-Hamawi see Yaqut ibn ‘Abdullah


Yarbu’
Yarbu’. Name of an important group of the tribe of Tamim, whose territory stretched between al-Yamama to below the Euphrates.  On the death of the Prophet, they were the first to rebel, the prophetess Sajah being one of them.  They lent considerable support to the Kharijites and counted a number of remarkable poets. 


Ya‘rub ibn Qahtan ibn Hud
Ya‘rub ibn Qahtan ibn Hud.  Grandson of the prophet Hud, who is regarded as the ancestor of the Himyar kings.


Ya‘rubids
Ya‘rubids.  Dynasty of Oman (r. 1624-1741).  They are named after their ancestor Ya‘rub ibn Malik and ruled in al-Rustaq, Yabrin and al-Ham.  They were followed by the Al Bu Sa‘id.


Yasawi, Ahmad
Yasawi, Ahmad (Ahmad Yasawi) (Khoja Ahmed Yasavi) (Khoja Ahmat Yassawi) (Khoja Ahmat Yssawi) (Qoja Axmet Yassawi) (Xoja Ahmad Yassivi) (Ahmet Yasevi) (Ahmed Yesevi) (Ata Yesevi) (b. 1093, Sayram [Kazakhstan] - d. 1166, Hazrat-e Turkestan [Kazakhstan]).  Muslim saint from Turkestan.  He is regarded as having converted the Turks to Islam. Timur erected a splendid mausoleum in his honor in the town of Turkestan.

Ahmad Yasawi was a Turkic poet and Sufi (Muslim mystic), an early mystic who exerted a powerful influence on the development of mystical orders throughout the Turkic-speaking world. Yasawi is currently the earliest known Turkic poet who composed poetry in a Turkic dialect. He was a pioneer of popular mysticism, founded the first Turkic tariqah (order), the Yasaviyya (Yeseviye), which very quickly spread over the Turkic-speaking areas.

Yasawi made considerable efforts to spread Islam throughout Central Asia and had numerous students in the region. Yasawi's poems created a new genre of religious folk poetry in Central Asian Turkic literature and influenced many religious poets.  Yasawi made the city of Yasi into the major center of learning for the Kazakh steppes, then retired to a life of contemplation at the age of 63. He dug himself an underground cell where he spent the rest of his life.

A mausoleum was later built on the site of his grave by Tamerlane the Great in the city (today called Türkistan). The Yasaviyya Tariqah which he founded continued to be influential for several centuries afterwards, with the Yasavi Sayyid Ata Sheikhs holding a prominent position at the court of Bukhara into the 19th century. In the Yasaviyya Sufis one comes across the greatest number of the shamanistic elements compared to other Sufi Orders.

The first Turkish-Kazakh university, Ahmet Yesevi University, and lyceum, Hoca Ahmed Yesevi Lisesi, were named in his honor.

Ahmad Yasawi see Yasawi, Ahmad
Khoja Ahmed Yasavi see Yasawi, Ahmad
Khoja Ahmat Yassawi see Yasawi, Ahmad
Khoja Ahmat Yssawi see Yasawi, Ahmad
Qoja Axmet Yassawi see Yasawi, Ahmad
Xoja Ahmad Yassivi see Yasawi, Ahmad


Yaya
Yaya. Turkish term which refers to the infantryman in the Ottoman army.

Yazdi, Ibrahim
Ibrahim Yazdi, or Ebrahim Yazdi,  (Persian: ابراهیم یزدی‎‎; b. September 26, 1931, Qazvin, Iran – d. August 27, 2017, Izmir, Turkey) was an Iranian politician and diplomat who served as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in the interim government of Mehdi Bazargan,  until his resignation in November 1979, in protest at the Iran hostage crisis. From 1995 until 2017, he headed the Freedom Movement of Iran.

Yazdi studied pharmacology at the University of Tehran. Then he received a master's degree in philosophy again from the University of Tehran.

After the military coup of 1953, which deposed the government of Mohammad Mossadegh, Yazdi joined the underground National Resistance Movement of Iran, and was active in this organization from 1953 to 1960. This organization opposed to the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Yazdi traveled to the United States in 1961 to continue his education and in the United States, continued his involvement in political activities against the Shah.

Yazdi was co-founder of the Freedom Movement of Iran, Abroad, along with Mostafa Chamran, Ali Shariati, and Sadegh Qotbzadeh in 1961. They were all part of the radical external wing of the group. In 1963, Yazdi, Chamran and Ghotbzadeh went to Egypt and met the authorities to establish an anti-Shah organization in the country, which was later called SAMA, special organization for unity and action. Chamran was chosen as its military head before returning to the United States.  In 1966, Yazdi moved the headquarters of SAMA to Beirut.  In 1967, he enrolled at Baylor University and received a Ph.D. in biochemistry.  Yazdi became a naturalized United States citizen in Houston in 1971. 

Yazdi worked as a research assistant of pathology and research instructor of pharmacology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston until 1977. He also worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Houston.

In 1975, Yazdi was tried in absentia in an Iranian military court and condemned to ten years imprisonment, with orders issued for his arrest upon return to Iran. Because of his activities, he was unable to return to Iran and remained in the United States until July 1977. When Ayatollah Khomeini moved to Neauphle-le-Chateau, a Parisian suburb from Iraq in 1978, Yazdi also went to Neauphle-le-Château and began to serve as an advisor to the Ayatollah. He was also his spokesperson in Paris.

In 1978, he joined Ayatollah Khomeini in Paris where the latter had been in exile and became one of his advisors. He translated the reports of Khomeini into English in a press conference on February 3, 1979, in Tehran.  He was the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in the interim government of Mehdi Barargan,  until November 6, 1979. Yazdi proposed to celebrate 'Jerusalem Day' and his suggestion was endorsed by Khomeini in August 1979. In May 1980, he was appointed by Khomeini as head of the Kayhan newspaper.

On November 4, 1979, the United States embassy was taken over for a second time, this time by a group calling itself "Students Following the Line of the Imam (i.e. Ayatollah Khomeini)” and led by Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha, who had closer ties to certain revolutionary leaders.

As before, Yazdi was asked to go to the embassy and resolve the crisis. He asked and received permission of Khomeini to expel the occupiers, but shortly thereafter found out Khomeini had changed his mind and appeared on state television openly endorsing the takeover of the embassy. The entire cabinet of the interim government, including Yazdi and Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan, resigned in protest the next day. They stated that they opposed the embassy takeover as “contrary to the national interest of Iran”.

The embassy takeover is considered to have been motivated in part by an internal struggle between various factions within the revolutionary leadership, with Yazdi and Bazargan on one side, and more radical clergy on the other. The embassy attackers, in subsequent statements indicated that one of their primary objectives in the takeover of the United States embassy in November 1979 was to force the resignation of Yazdi, Bazargan, and the entire cabinet.

Among the areas of conflict between the two factions was the behavior of the Revolutionary Courts and the Revolutionary Committees. Yazdi and Bazargan supported a general amnesty for all members of the Shah’s regime, provided that they cease to act against the revolution. They publicly opposed the secret trials and the summary executions carried out by the Revolutionary Courts, led by Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhaali.  Bazargan and other members of the interim government called for fair and open trials for those accused of crimes committed under the Shah’s regime. The radical clerics, on the other hand, stated that the rapid trials and executions were essential to protect the revolution.

After resignation from office, Yazdi and other members of the Freedom Movement of Iran ran in elections for the first post-revolutionary Islamic Consultative Assembly or parliament. Yazdi, Bazargan, and four other members of the Freedom Movement, namely Mostafa Chamran, Ahmad Sadr, Hashem Sabbaghian, and Yadollah Sahabi, were elected. They served in the parliament from 1980 to 1984.

After the Iraqi invasion of Iran in September 1980, Yazdi fully supported the Iranian war effort against the invasion, but opposed the continuation of the war after the Iranian victory in Khorramshahr in 1982. The war continued for an additional six years. During these six years, Yazdi and others in the Freedom Movement issued several open letters to Ayatollah Khomeini opposing the continuation of the war. These letters and other public statements resulted in the firebombing of Yazdi’s residence in Tehran in 1985, and the arrest and imprisonment of several members of the Freedom Movement.

In subsequent elections in Iran for president, parliament, and city councils, Yazdi and other members of the Freedom Movement filed for candidacy but were barred from running by the Guardian Council, because of their opposition to policies and actions of the government.

After the death of Bazargan in January 1995, Yazdi was elected as leader of Freedom Movement of Iran. Under pressure from the revolutionary court prosecutor, Yazdi offered his resignation as FMI Leader on March 20, 2011, to the leadership council of the FMI. By the time of Yazdi's death, the leadership council had yet to accept his resignation and Yazdi continued to function as the leader of the Freedom Movement of Iran.

Yazdi was arrested in December 1997 for "desecrating religious sanctities" and was freed on December 26 on bail.  Even after his release, he was barred from leaving the country for many years and was summoned on a regular basis to answer questions before the revolutionary council, with his lawyer, Nobel Prize–winning Shirin Ebadi. 

On June 17, 2009, during the 2009 Iranian election protests, it was reported that Yazdi was arrested while undergoing tests at the Tehran hospital according to the Freedom Movement of Iran website. On June 22, Yazdi was released back to the hospital for a medical procedure. On December 28, 2009, Yazdi was arrested again in the wake of renewed protests, according to the Jaras reformist website.

Yazdi and several others were arrested on October 1, 2010, in Isfahan for participating in an "illegal Friday prayer." All others were freed within days. Ibrahim Yazdi remained in "temporary custody" — first in Evin prison and then in a "secure" facility under the control of Iran's security forces until March 2011. He was released in April 2011.

On August 27, 2017, Yazdi died of pancreatic cancer in Izmir, Turkey, where he was under treatment.  His body transferred to Iran and was buried in Behesht-e Zahra.  


Yazid I ibn Mu‘awiya
Yazid I ibn Mu‘awiya (Yazīd I) (Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān) (b. c. 645, Arabia — d. 683, Damascus), Umayyad Caliph (r.680-683).  As a prince he had commanded the Arab army at the siege of Constantinople.  At his accession to the throne, al-Husayn ibn ‘Ali and ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr refused to recognize him and took refuge in Mecca.  From there al-Husayn left for Iraq, where in 680 he met his death at Karbala’.  At Medina, Yazid was declared deposed when the town was taken by Muslim ibn ‘Uqba.  Yazid is described as a generous patron, who was a poet himself, and fond of music.  Alone among the caliphs he earned the title of “water engineer.” He completed his father’s administrative organization and reorganized the finances.

Yazid I was particularly noted for his suppression of a rebellion led by Ḥusayn, the son of ʿAli. The death of Ḥusayn at the Battle of Karbalaʾ (680) made him a martyr and made permanent a division in Islam between the party of ʿAli (the Shiʿites) and the majority Sunnis.

As a young man, Yazid commanded the Arab army that his father, Muʿāwiyah, sent to lay siege to Constantinople. Soon afterward he became caliph, but many of those whom his father had kept in check rebelled against him.

Although presented in many sources as a dissolute ruler, Yazīd energetically tried to continue the policies of Muʿāwiyah and kept many of the men who had been in his father’s service. He strengthened the administrative structure of the empire and improved the military defenses of Syria. The financial system was reformed. He lightened the taxation of some Christian groups and abolished the tax concessions granted to the Samaritans as a reward for aid they had rendered in the days of the Arab conquests. He concerned himself with agricultural matters and improved the irrigation system of the Damascus oasis.


Yazidi
Yazidi (Yazidiyya) (Yezidi) (Êzidî).  Name of a Kurdish tribal group and of their peculiar religion.  They are found in the districts of Mosul, Diyarbakr, Aleppo and in Armenia.  Their religion includes pagan, Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Muslim elements, but also features from Christian sects, especially the Nestorians, from Sufism, from the Sabaeans and from the Shamans.  They possess two Sacred Books: The Book of Revelation and The Black Book. God is only the Creator, not the Preserver of the world.  The active organ of the divine will is Malak Tawus or “the peacock angel,” who is the denial of evil.  Satan is the fallen angel who has been restored to God’s favor.  The Yazidis do not believe in hell, but they do accept transmigration.  Their most concrete expressions are the figures of peacocks, called sanajiq, who are seven in number, corresponding to the seven angels who took part in the creation of the world.  They consider themselves completely separated from the rest of mankind and have a high level of morality.  The annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Shaykh ‘Adi, located north of Mosul, is a strict religious duty.  Marriage is endogamous, and as a rule monogamous, except for the amir.  They practice baptism and circumcision and have burial ceremonies of their own.  The structure of Yazidi society is theocratic, consisting of laity and clergy, which is divided into six different classes. Muslim theologians hold the view that the Yazidis at one time were Muslims.  They have withstood numerous attempts at conversion and extermination by Turkish pashas and Kurdish tribes.  

Yazidis belong to Yazidism, a religion with around 700,000 members worldwide.  The largest group of Yazidis live in Iraq, near Mosul, but there are small communities in Syria, Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia.  Researchers believe that the Yazidi creed has elements from Zoroastrianism, Manicheism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  The two religious books of the Yazidis have Arabic text: Book of Revelation and Black Book.  The Yazidis call themselves Dasin, while the term Yazidism probably comes from the Persian word ized – “angel.”  The name Yazidism is moreover connected to the sixth caliph, Yazid (680-683) from Shi‘a point of view one of world history’s most hated men, and highly disliked by most Sunnis as well.  However, there is little evidence showing what role Yazid have played in the founding, or development of Yazidism.

The Yazidi pantheon has God on top, but God is only the Creator, and is no longer an acting force.  The acting forces is represented by Malak Ta’us and Shaykh Adil.  Shaykh Adil can have been caliph Yazid (there are many theories here), a man risen to divinity through transmigration, and is now an acting and good deity.

Shaykh Adil is acting in a cooperation with Malak Ta’us, the peacock angel that has fallen into disgrace, but who repents.  Malak Ta’us filled seven jars of tears through 7,000 years.  His tears were used to extinguish the fire in hell.  Therefore, there is no hell in Yazidism.  Yazidism has six minor deities, which are also honored.

The prayer in Yazidism must be performed in good distance from non-Yazidis, twice a day, and in the direction of the sun.  The prayer is dedicated to Malak Ta’us.  Saturday is the day of rest, but it is Wednesday that is the holy day.  In December, a three day fast is performed.

There is an annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Shaykh Adil, north of Mosul in Iraq, through six days in late August.  This pilgrimage is the most important ritual of Yazidism.  Central to this celebration are bathing in the river, washing of figures of Malak Ta’us, processions, music, hymns, ecstatic songs, and dances performed by the priests. Other elements are lighting of hundreds of oil lamps at the tombs of Shaykh Adil and other saints’ tombs, offerings of special foods and cooking of a sacrificed ox.  Important parts of the rituals here have never been seen by outsiders and are therefore unknown.

Childhood baptism is important, and is performed by a Shayky, a religious leader.  Circumcision for boys is performed soon after the baptism but is not compulsory.  Burials are done immediately after death, and the hands are crossed, pointing in an eastern direction.

The Yazidis are organized much like the Kurds, with tribes headed by a chief.  There are very stron ties between the laity and the religious leaders.  Almost all Yazidis speak Kurdish.  The Yazidis practice no intermarriage with other Kurds and have no communion with them.

The Yazidis believe that they are the descendants of Adam only, while the rest of the world are descendants of Eve, hence inferior.  It is impossible to convert to Yazidism, you must be born one.  The strongest punishment among Yazidis is expulsion, which means that your soul is lost forever.  Monogamy is practiced, but the chief has the right to take several wives.  Divorce is difficult to get, as this only comes from adultery, and three witnesses are needed.  But if a husband stays abroad for more than a year, he is automatically divorced from his wife, and also loses the right to remarry inside the Yazidi community.

The reason for the Yazidis reputation of being devil worshippers is connected to the other name of Malak Ta’us, Shaytan, the same name as the Qur’an’s for Satan.  But there is little suggesting that the Yazidis worships Malak Ta’us as if he was equal to the Qur’an’s or the Bible’s devil.  The Yazidis have never been regarded as Ahl al-Kitab, “people of the book,” and they have suffered much hardship from their Muslim neighbors.

The Yazidi are members of a Kurdish religion with ancient Indo-European roots. They are primarily a Kurdish-speaking people living in the Mosul region of northern Iraq, with additional communities in Transcaucasia, Armenia, Turkey, and Syria.  The traditional Yazidi communities have been in decline since the 1990s seeing many of the Yazidis emigrating to Europe, especially to Germany. Their religion, Yazidism, is a branch of Yazdânism, and is seen as a highly syncretic complex of local Kurdish beliefs and Islamic Sufi doctrine introduced to the area by Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir in the 12th century. The Yazidi believe in God as creator of the world, which he placed under the care of seven holy beings or angels, the chief of whom is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel.

Yazidiyya see Yazidi
Yezidi see Yazidi
Ezidi see Yazidi


Yazid ibn al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra al-Azdi
Yazid ibn al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra al-Azdi (672-720).   Governor of Khurasan.  He had strained relations with his brother-in-law al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, who had him imprisoned in 705.  In 708, he found support with the future Caliph Suleiman (Sulayman) at al-Ramla.  In 715, he was appointed governor of Iraq.  Yazid made himself generally hated by his extortions and was arrested at the orders of the Caliph ‘Umar II ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz. In 720, he preached open war on the Umayyads, seized Wasit but was defeated by Maslamah ibn ‘Abd al-Malik.

In 698, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (al-Hajjaj bin Yousef) appointed al-Muhallab Khurasan's governor.  In 702, al-Muhallab's son Mughirah died and al-Muhallab sent Yazid to replace him.  Soon afterwards al-Muhallab died, and al-Hajjaj appointed Yazid governor of Khurasan (Khorasan).  There Yazid confronted external and internal enemies, including some rebels entering his province who were supporters of 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath.  Yazid defeated them.  Yazid seized Nizak's fortress and made peace with him.

In 705, al-Hajjaj replace Yazid, naming al-Mufaddal governor of Khurasan.  Various reasons are suggested, including that al-Hajjaj encountered a prophecy that his successor would be named Yazid, and al-Hajjaj considered this Yazid the only one threatening enough to worry about.  Al-Hajjaj imprisoned and tortured Yazid.  In 708, Yazid, disguised, escaped and made his way to Palestine where he was granted refuge by Suleiman ibn 'Abd al-Malik.  Al-Hajjaj pressed Caliph al-Walid I who commanded his brother (Suleiman) to send him Yazid in chains.  Suleiman had his own son chained to Yazid approach the caliph and speak favoring Yazid's safety.  Al-Walid accepted this and told al-Hajjaj to desist.  Yazid returned to Suleiman and the two became very close to each other.

When Suleiman came to the throne in 715, he appointed Yazid to govern Iraq.  The next year Suleiman appointed Yazid governor of Khurasan.  Yazid fought in Jurjan and Tabaristan, personally engaging in combat.  In 718, the new caliph Umar ibn 'Abd al-Aziz dismissed Yazid.  Yazid was captured on his way to Basra and brought before Umar who intensely disliked him.  Umar imprisoned Yazid.  In 720, when Umar fell ill, Yazid escaped.  Umar died.

Yazid marched on Basra.  Many joined him.  He refused to swear allegiance to the new caliph, Yazid II.  He attacked those holding his brothers, defeated them and freed his brothers.  His son Khalid was arrested in Kufah and sent to Damascus where he remained in prison until he died.  Yazid was advised to head east, but he declined to follow this advice.  In 721, Maslamah ibn 'Abd al-Malik and al-Abbas ibn al-Walid led forces against him.  On August 25, Maslamah's troops advanced to battle, frightening some of Yazid's men who fled.  Yazid had these men beheaded.  He then rode directly at Maslamah.  Maslamah's cavalry intercepted him and cut him down.

Fighting continued.  In Wasit, Yazid's son Mu'awiyah, on news of his father's death, executed some prisoners, including Adi ibn Artat, the Basran governor who had sent Yazid to Umar in 718.  Mu'awiyah and other surviving members of Yazid's family sailed to Bahrain, then near Kirman.  They advanced to Qandabil where they were denied entrance.  There was a battle in which all but two died, those two making their way to Zabulistan.  Some captured boys were sent to Yazid II who beheaded them.


Yaziji, al-Shaykh Nasif ibn ‘Abd Allah al-
Yaziji, al-Shaykh Nasif ibn ‘Abd Allah al- (al-Shaykh Nasif ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Yaziji) (1800-1871).  Arab poet and philologist from Lebanon.  He contributed to the popularity of al-Mutanabbi in Syria and obtained fame as the last representative of the Session genre.  He also exercised great influence on modern Arabic literature.  His sons Ibrahim (1847-1906) and Khalil (1858-1889), and his daughter Warda (1838-1924) also contributed to the revival of the Arabic language.

Shaykh Nasif ibn 'Abd Allah al-Yaziji, al- see Yaziji, al-Shaykh Nasif ibn ‘Abd Allah al-


Yaziji-oghlu Ahmed
Yaziji-oghlu Ahmed (Ahmed Bijan) (d.c. 1456).  Turkish poet, brother of the Mehmed Yaziji-oghlu.  He was the author of several much-esteemed mystical works.  

Ahmed, Yaziji-oghlu see Yaziji-oghlu Ahmed
Ahmed Bijan see Yaziji-oghlu Ahmed
Bijan, Ahmed see Yaziji-oghlu Ahmed


Yaziji-oghlu Mehmed
Yaziji-oghlu Mehmed (Yaziji-zade) (d.1451).  Turkish poet.  He is known as the author of a long didactic poem, which contains a lengthy expression of the doctrines and traditions of Islam based on the Qur’an and hadith.

Mehmed, Yaziji-oghlu see Yaziji-oghlu Mehmed
Yaziji-zade see Yaziji-oghlu Mehmed


Yazuri, Abu Muhammad al-Hasan
Yazuri, Abu Muhammad al-Hasan (Abu Muhammad al-Hasan Yazuri).  Vizier and chief judge of the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustansir bi-‘llah.  When the Zirid al-Mu‘izz ibn Badis rebelled against the Fatimids in 1051, Yazuri sent the Banu Hilal and the Banu Sulaym to ravage Ifriqiya.  In the east Yazuri gave considerable financial assistance to the Turkish military leader Arslan al-Basasiri in hi rebellion against the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Qa’im.

Abu Muhammad al-Hasan Yazuri see Yazuri, Abu Muhammad al-Hasan

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

2023: Yoruba - Yousafzai

  

 Yoruba
Yoruba. The term “Yoruba” is used to identify a people having, with considerable dialectic variation, a common language (of the Kwa group of the Niger-Congo family) and a common culture, which is remarkably persistent in spite of great political, geographical and religious differences that have arisen over the past three centuries.  The language and culture are found as far from their West African origin as Brazil and Cuba, while substantial Yoruba communities are found in most West African states, especially in Sierra Leone and Ghana.  The greatest number are in southwestern Nigeria, adjacent areas of Benin and beyond in Togo.  Nearly one-half are Muslim, largely Sunni.

Recent interpretations of Yoruba traditions of origin agree in identifying Yoruba as a Sudanic people who successfully imposed their rule on an indigenous population in the forest belt of present day Nigeria.  All traditions confirm Ile-Ife as the first city of the Yoruba and the Ooni of Ife as the spiritual head from whom all other Yoruba kings derive their sanction to rule.  Urbanization among Yoruba is both basic and traditional, they have “always” lived in cities.  Prior to the wars of the nineteenth century, farming communities extended out from the cities, and hunters served as guardians of boundaries while establishing and maintaining routes for trade.  Fulani pressures from the north and colonial changes in the south forced the creation of strategic and defensible towns, such as Ibadan and Abeokuta, as well as the shifting of major cities to the south, notably Oyo.  These new cities were built in patterns which can be seen today, substantially walled, largely windowless, large family compounds with internal courtyards, the whole built along intricate access paths.

Although some Yoruba felt the influence of Islam in earlier centuries, it was not until the early nineteenth century, following the Fulani jihad in the north, that old Oyo came within Muslim influence and Ilorin fell to Muslim rule under a line of emirs that persists to the present.  By the time Fulani military pressure forced the resettlement of Oyo to the south, Islam was firmly entrenched in the Yoruba savannas -- as far, indeed, as the horse could safely go.  Thereafter, the advance of Islam in Yoruba country was peaceful.  By the 1830s, Hausa traders, some of whom were also religious teachers, had established themselves in the new city of Ibadan.  As British colonial influence grew, freedom of trade movement further facilitated proselytization.  During the second quarter of the present century, British “indirect rule,” which reinforced powers of emirs and obas (kings), led to Islamic domination in the north and a consequent rapid growth in the south.  In the forty years between 1913 and 1953, the proportion of professed Muslims in Ibadan alone increased from thirty-five to sixty percent.  Simultaneously, Christian missionaries -- many of them returned slaves from America -- were active in the south, and eventually it could be said without great exaggeration that throughout the Yoruba territories fewer than one-seventh of the people remained professed traditionalists, while the remainder divided fairly equally between Islam and Christianity.

The Yoruba numbered more than 20 million at the turn of the 21st century. They speak a language of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family.  Most Yoruba men are farmers, growing yams, corn (maize), and millet as staples and plantains, peanuts (groundnuts), beans, and peas as subsidiary crops. Cocoa is a major cash crop. Others are traders or craftsmen. Women do little farm work but control much of the complex market system—their status depends more on their own position in the marketplace than on their husbands’ status. The Yoruba have traditionally been among the most skilled and productive craftsmen of Africa. They worked at such trades as blacksmithing, weaving, leatherworking, glassmaking, and ivory and wood carving. In the 13th and 14th centuries Yoruba bronze casting using the lost-wax (cire perdue) method reached a peak of technical excellence never subsequently equaled in western Africa. Yoruba women engage in cotton spinning, basketry, and dyeing.

The Yoruba have shared a common language and culture for centuries but were probably never a single political unit. They seem to have migrated from the east to their present lands west of the lower Niger River more than a millennium ago. They eventually became the most urbanized Africans of precolonial times. They formed numerous kingdoms of various sizes, each of which was centered on a capital city or town and ruled by a hereditary king, or oba. Their towns became densely populated and eventually grew into the present-day cities of Oyo, Ile-Ife, Ilesha, Ibadan, Ilorin, Ijebu-Ode, Ikere-Ekiti, and others. Oyo developed in the 17th century into the largest of the Yoruba kingdoms, while Ile-Ife remained a town of potent religious significance as the site of the earth’s creation according to Yoruba mythology. Oyo and the other kingdoms declined in the late 18th and 19th centuries owing to disputes among minor Yoruba rulers and invasions by the Fon of Dahomey (now Benin) and the Muslim Fulani. The traditional Yoruba kingships still survive, but with only a hint of their former political power.

In a traditional Yoruba town the large and elaborate palace of the oba lies at the center, and grouped around it are the compounds of the patrilineages. The palace and the compounds are now often modern structures.

There is much diversity in social and political organization among the Yoruba, but they share many basic features. Inheritance and succession are based on patrilineal descent; members of the patrilineage live together under the authority of a headman, share certain names and taboos, worship their own deity, and have rights in lineage lands. The Yoruba also have several kinds of voluntary associations, including the egbe, a male recreational association; the aro, a mutual-aid association of farmers; and the esusu, whose members contribute a fixed amount of money and from which they can receive loans. Political authority is vested in the oba and a council of chiefs. Constituent towns each have their own ruler, who is subordinate to the oba. The oba is also a ritual leader and is considered sacred.

Many Yoruba are now Christians or Muslims, but aspects of their traditional religion survive. The traditional Yoruba religion has an elaborate hierarchy of deities, including a supreme creator and some 400 lesser gods and spirits, most of whom are associated with their own cults and priests. The Yoruba language has an extensive literature of poetry, short stories, myths, and proverbs.


Yoruba slaves
Yoruba slaves.  The Yoruba Kingdom was an ancient black kingdom located in central western Nigeria, apparently originating in the northern fringes of the forest.  Before the Europeans arrived, it was already a highly urbanized and industrialized state, experienced in the art of working iron, copper, and glassware.  It traded with the Mediterranean cities across the Sahara.  The slave trade in the area reached a high development when the Portuguese reached the Guinea or Gold Coast around 1510.  Yoruba slaves were brought in great numbers to the New World, especially to Cuba and Brazil, where they were known as Lucumi in Cuba and Nagos in Brazil.  They were usually exported through the port of Lagos on the Slave Coast.  In Brazil, they were thought to be robust, courageous, hard-working, and better tempered than other races, and they were noted for their intelligence.  In 1826, the Yoruba slaves of Bahia set up a quilombo in the hinterland at Urubu, not far from the city.  They fought valiantly against the government troops but were ultimately subdued.

A significant percentage of Africans enslaved during the Atlantic slave trade in the Americas managed to maintain the Yoruba tradition of 'Orisha' (also spelt, 'Orisa') veneration, as well as their continual belief in God, the Supreme Being, who they refer to under different names such as 'Olorun', 'Olodumare', 'Eleda', 'Olofin-Orun' and 'Eledumare'.

During the 19th century, the term 'Yoruba ' or 'Yariba' came into wider use, first confined to the Ọyọ. The term is often believed to be derived from a Hausa ethnonym for the populous people to their south, but this has not been substantiated by historians.

As an ethnic description, the word 'Yoruba' first appeared in a treatise written by the Songhai scholar Ahmed Baba (1500s) and is likely to derive from the indigenous ethnonyms Ọyọ (Oyo) or Yagba, two Yoruba-speaking groups along the northern borders of their territory. However, it is likely that the ethnonym was popularized by Hausa usage and ethnography written in Arabic and Ajami. Under the influence of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a Creole (of Aku origin) clergyman, subsequent missionaries extended the term to include all speakers of related dialects.

Aside from "Yoruba" and its variant "Yariba", this ethnic group was in different times and places known by a variety of other names, including "Yorubo", "Akú", "Okun", "Nago", "Anago" and "Ana" and "Lucumi".

Before the abolition of the slave trade, some Yoruba groups were known among Europeans as Akú, a name derived from the first words of Yoruba greetings such as Ẹ kú àárọ? 'good morning' and Ẹ kú alẹ? 'good evening.' A variant of this group is also known as the "Okun", Okun being also a form of "A ku". These are Yorubas found in parts of the states of Kogi - the "Yagba", Ekiti and Kabba.

The terms "Nago", "Anago" and "Ana" were widely used in Spanish and Portuguese documents to describe all speakers of the language. They derive from the name of a coastal Yoruba sub-group in present-day Benin. Yoruba in Francophone West Africa are still sometimes known by this ethnonym today.

In Cuba and Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking America, the Yoruba were called "Lucumi" after the phrase "O luku mi", meaning "my friend" in some dialects. This term is at present used mainly to refer to an Afro-Caribbean religion derived from the traditional Yoruba religion, more often known as Santería now becoming popular in the United States.

The origin of the Yoruba, who often refer to themselves as "Omo O'odua" (Children of Oduduwa), revolves around a man called Oduduwa who became the first Oba (meaning 'king' or 'leader' in the Yoruba language) at the Yoruba kingdom of Ile-Ife (also known as Ife), under the title of the Ooni of Ife. It was from Ile-Ife that the descendants of Oduduwa went on to find other Yoruba kingdoms such as Oyo and Ketou. One of them even managed to rule over a famous non-Yoruba-speaking kingdom towards the east of Ife as the Oba of Ile-Ibinu, which later became known as Ubini, the Edo, and finally Benin (not to be confused with the country called the Republic of Benin which was previously known as Dahomey).


Yoruk
Yoruk (Yuruk). The Yoruk of Turkey are a distinct ethnic-tribal grouping, found widely throughout Turkey but primarily along the Aegean and Mediterranean coastlines.  Unlike many groups with a unique cultural heritage in the Middle East, the Yoruk are not linguistically distinct from most of the rural populations among whom they live.  They speak the Western Turkish dialect standard in Anatolia.  

The Yoruk are Sunni of the Hanafi school of law.  What distinguishes the Yoruk is their recognition of a common history in the form of membership in, or descent from, an assortment of Turkic tribes which are presumed to have moved to Anatolia from Iran or Central Asia in the eleventh century.

As early as the reign of Bayazid I, there are accounts of Yoruk tribes in Macedonia, Thrace and elsewhere in the Balkans.  Following the conquest of Cyprus by Selim II, Yoruk groups moved to that island, where they may be found today as settled villagers.  Most historians regard the Yoruk as closely related to Turkmen tribes who came in large numbers after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, but it is also likely that indigenous nomadic pastoral populations along the coast became Turkified during the early period of Islamic rule in Anatolia.  

The term “Yoruk” is often thought to be derived from yurumek, “to walk.”  The Yoruk themselves do not make this the case, but regardless of the merits of the etymology, it is a fitting image for a nomadic people moving with their flocks of sheep and goats.

During the Ottoman period, Yoruk tribes were important politically since they were recognized by the government for purposes of taxation, the raising of military levies and local administration.  Tribal leaders, for example, supplied 52,000 troops in the eighteenth century.  Today Yoruk people contine to speak of tribes, and most of the 88 listed in 1898 as then living in Aydin and Smyrna (Izmir) provinces still can be located readily.  However, the Turkish government now does not recognize tribes or tribal leaders for administrative purposes.

Yuruk see Yoruk

Young Ottomans
Young Ottomans (Yeni Osmanlilar). The libertarian movement known as the Young Ottomans (Yeni Osmanlilar) developed the first constitutionalist ideology to appear in the Ottoman Empire.  It was influential from around 1860 to 1876.  In the first half of the nineteenth century Ottoman officials embarked on a policy of reforms that came to be known as the Tanzimat (Regulation).  The first political expressions of this reform policy were contained in two documents: the Hatt-i Humayun of Gulhane (1839), a semi-constitutional charter that promised security of person and property to all Ottoman subjects, and the Reform Edict of 1856, which covered a more diverse catalog of rights and made a special point of guaranteeing protection to the non-Muslim population of the empire.  The Reform Edict had extensive negative repercussions among Ottoman Muslims; one of its outcomes was the so-called Kuleli Conspiracy (1859).  The leader of the conspiracy was a Naqshbandi (in Turkish, Naksibendi) shaykh, and some younger officials took part in it.  This alliance of disgruntled clerics and young officials shifted during the 1860s into a more clearly liberal constitutionalist stance inspired by Western liberalism.  At that time the religious component was relegated to a secondary role, possibly because the democratic ideals expressed in recently founded journals by the young officials could reach a wider audience through their use of demotic Turkish, although at least one newspaper represented the conservative strain.

In 1865, some young civil officials in Istanbul established a secret society, the Patriotic Alliance.  With one foot in officialdom and another in journalism, these men began systematically to criticize the policy of the architects of the Tanzimat.  Among their targets were two Ottoman officials, Ali Pasa and Fuad Pasa, who had shared the direction of Ottoman internal and foreign policy.  These statesmen were accused of using westernization to establish the autocratic rule of a bureaucratic elite, of undermining Ottoman culture through their neglect of Islam as a guideline for social and political values, and of having failed to defend the interests of the Ottoman Empire against the encroachments of Western powers.  Two leaders of the Young Ottoman movement, the poet Mehmet Namuk Kemal and the administrator Ziya Bey (later Pasa), eventually had to flee from Istanbul into exile in 1867.  They organized an opposition movement in Paris and London, funded by an Ottoman-Egyptian prince who expected to use the movement for his own narrower aims.  The exiles were joined by the cleric Ali Suavi, who represented the earlier Islamic reaction to the Tanzimat and who seemed to support constitutionalism.

Kemal and Ziya soon perceived that Suavi’s ideas of democracy had a very different foundtion from theirs; Ziya himself was more conservative than Kemal.  The newspaper they published, Hurriyet (Freedom), boldly expressed democratic ideals in Turkish, but it soon had to cease publication owing to conflicts among the movement’s leaders.  After 1870, the Young Ottoman leaders returned to Turkey and continued their defense of libertarian ideals, with repeated interruptions by censorship and exile.  Their ideas were partially instrumental in inspiring civilian and military officials to dethrone Sultan Abdulaziz (r. 1861-1876), although the Young Ottomans themselves had never opposed the monarchic principle in theory.

The Young Ottomans were in part responsible for the elaboration of the first Ottoman Constitution (1876) and the short-lived Ottoman parliament it created.  Namuk Kemal’s impassioned defense of liberty as well as his fiery patriotism -- both strongly influenced by European Romanticism -- continued to be an inspiration for the Young Turks who emerged in the 1890s.

A forerunner of other Turkish nationalist groups (see Young Turks), the Young Ottomans favored converting the Turkish-dominated multi-national Ottoman Empire into a more purely Turkish state and called for the creation of a constitutional government. By 1867 the Young Ottomans had expanded from the original six (6) members to 245, including the noted poets Namık Kemal and Ziya Paşa. They were further supported financially and materially by the Egyptian prince Mustafa Fazıl and had attracted the attention of the Ottoman princes Murad and Abdülhamid.

Exiled for revolutionary activities by the grand vizier Âli Paşa in 1867, the society established itself in Paris. There it made European contacts and began publishing Hürriyet (“Freedom”), an inflammatory newspaper, subsequently smuggled into Turkey, calling on the Turkish people to demand a constitution. The return to Istanbul of Mustafa Fazıl and Namık Kemal weakened the Young Ottomans, and in 1871–72, during the amnesty declared after the death of Âli Paşa, most of them returned to Turkey. The movement, however, had lost its impetus and, except for the isolated activity of such individuals as Namık Kemal, ceased to be a factor in national affairs.

The failure of the "Young Ottoman" policies (Ottomanism) in reverting the decline of the Ottoman Empire led groups of intellectuals to search for other means. One of these groups was the Young Turks, which brought the Empire to the Second Constitutional Era and then to World War I, with the policies developed under the Three Pashas.

Yeni Osmanlilar see Young Ottomans

Young Turks
Young Turks (Jöntürkler) (Jön Türkler) (Jeunes Turcs). Name of a revolutionary group of Turkish nationalists, whose center was the Ittihad we Teraqqi Jem’iyyeti.  They initiated the rebellion against the regime of Sultan Abdulhamid II in 1908, took control of the Ottoman government, restored its constitution, and instituted westernizing reforms. The main organization of the Young Turks was the Committee of Union and Progress.

Europe designated as the “Young Turks” the opposition to Sultan Abdulhamid II’s regime (1876-1908) that restored the constitution on July 23, 1908, and ruled the Ottoman Empire until its destruction in 1918.  This opposition movement was the successor to the “Young Ottomans” who had been responsible for the promulgation of the first constitution in December 1876.  But after Abdulhamid shelved the constitution in February 1878 and dissolved the New Ottoman Association, the movement went underground or into exile.

In 1889, a new body was formed calling itself the Committee of Ottoman Union.  It soon became famous as the Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress (CUP).  It was active mainly in Europe and Egypt, and its members came from virtually every ethnic and religious community in the empire.  Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Albanians, Armenians, and Greeks united under the umbrella of Ottomanism in opposition to Hamidian autocracy.  In 1906, certain officials and military officers formed the secret Ottoman Freedom Society in the port city of Salonika.  The following year, the two bodies merged under the established name of the CUP, but it was the Salonika group that led the revolution and forced the sultan to restore the 1876 constitution.

After July 1908, the Young Turks were divided into two broad groups, both determined to maintain the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, but by rather different methods.  The Unionists emphasized unity and modernization under a centralized state as the way to progress.  The liberals, who formed the Liberal Party (Ahrar Firkasi) in 1908 and the Liberal Union in 1911, favored a decentralized polity with substantial autonomy for the non-Turkish, non-Muslim communities.  Both groups stayed away from religion as much as they could, a difficult task in an empire still organized on essentially religious lines in millets or religious communities.  In fact, the Young Turks had to undermine the traditional privileges enjoyed by the non-Muslim millets in order to create a modern state.  One such privilege permitted foreign states to act as protectors of particular permitted foreign states to act as protectors of particular millets.  Thus, Russia protected the Greek Orthodox community and France the Catholic, giving these nations power to interfere in Ottoman affairs and violating the state’s sovereignty.

The goal of maintaining a multinational, multireligious empire forced the Young Turks to adopt a dynasty based ideology of Ottomanism and to shun both nationalism and religion.  There were, however, both nationalists and Islamists in their ranks: Said Halim Pasha was an Islamist and Ziya Gokalp a nationalist, and both were prominent in the CUP.  Initially they were kept in the background, and Islam became the instrument of the conservative and reactionary opposition.  Yet even the liberals exploited it during the insurrection of April 1909 led by the Ittihad-i Muhammadi Cemiyeti.  

After this traumatic event, the Unionists became more cautious about fostering social reform that might alienate Islamist opinion influenced by such journals as Sebilurresad and Sirat-i mustakim.  Thus they emphasized the religious element in the ceremony of girding the sword of Osman when Sultan Mehmed V succeeded the deposed Abdulhamid.  On May 10, 1909, Mehmed Resad was taken to the mausoleum of his ancestor at Eyub and, in the presence of civil and religious notables, Abdulhalim Efendi, the leader of the Mevlevi order who traced his line to Mevlana Jelal ed-Din Rumi (in Arabic, Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi), girded the sword on the new sultan.

After the abortive insurrection of 1909, the two factions of the Young Turks competed for political supremacy under the watchful eye of the military high command under Mahmud Sevket Pasha, the general who had crushed the rebellion.  In July 1912, while Istanbul ws at war with Italy over Libya, a military coup brought the liberals to power, and it seemed that the CUP’s days were numbered.  But the Unionists took advantage of the defeats suffered by Ottoman armies at the hands of the Balkan states (Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece) in the war that broke out in October 1912.  In the political chaos in the capital they seized power in January 1913 and consolidated it in June by destroying the liberal opposition.

The wars with Italy and the Balkan states weakened the multinational, multireligious character of Ottomanism while strengthening its Islamic and nationalist elements.  Italy’s attack and occupation of Libya, an Arab province, boosted Islamic solidarity.  The loss of virtually all territories in the Balkans followed by the expulsions of much of their Muslim population left the empire with a predominantly Muslim/Turkish Anatolia and the Arab provinces.  This trend continued during World War I with the massacre and deportation of the Armenians from eastern Anatolia as well as the arrival of Turks from the Caucasus.

In 1913, following the example of the Jacobins in the French Revolution, the nationalist faction of the CUP organized the Committees of National Defense and Public Safety to facilitate the conduct of war.  To appease Arab opinion, Mahmud Sevket Pasha, who was born in Baghdad and claimed he was Arab, was appointed grand vizier in January 1913.  Following his assassination in June 1913, the Egyptian prince Said Halim Pasha succeeded him and led the government until February 1917 -- the longest grand vizierate of the Young Turk period.  Ottomanism strongly tinged with Islam had now become the ideology of the Young Turks.

The Islam of the Unionists, however, was ideologically different from that of the Islamists.  This is apparent from articles that appeared in Islam mecmuasi (Journal of Islam), first published in February 1914.  Unlike the Islamists, the Unionists argued that nationalism was not contrary to Islam but complemented it.  Moreover, religion had to conform to the needs of everyday life; this idea was summed up in the word on the journal’s masthead, “A Religious Life and a Living Religion.”  Islam had to be interpreted in terms of the new conditions confronting Muslims in order to be of living significance.  The writers in Islam mecmuasi went so far as to propose the separation of religion from the state.  Only this reform, they claimed, could make Islam a vital part of a Muslim’s everyday life; religious required taking measures to make religion a matter of conscience while subordinating the legal aspects of Islam to secular legislation.  The first step was the concern of religious leaders and institutions, while the second was the job of the state.  Some of these ideas were put in action by the Unionist government during the war; they were adopted wholesale by Ataturk’s republic and provided the foundations for its policy of secularization.

The Young Turks were ultimately a coalition of various reform groups that led a revolutionary movement against the authoritarian regime of Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II, which culminated in the establishment of a constitutional government. After their rise to power, the Young Turks introduced programs that promoted the modernization of the Ottoman Empire and a new spirit of Turkish nationalism. Their handling of foreign affairs, however, resulted in the dissolution of the Ottoman state.

In 1889 a group of students in the Imperial Medical Academy in Istanbul initiated a conspiracy against Abdülhamid that spread rapidly to other colleges in the city. When the plot was uncovered, many of its leaders fled abroad, mainly to Paris, where they prepared the groundwork for a future revolution against Abdülhamid. Among the most notable of the liberal émigrés was Ahmed Rıza, who became a key spokesman for the influential Young Turk organization known as the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which advocated a program of orderly reform under a strong central government and the exclusion of all foreign influence. A major rival faction was formed by Prince Sabaheddin. His group, called the League of Private Initiative and Decentralization, espoused many of the same liberal principles as those propounded by the CUP, but, unlike the latter, it favored administrative decentralization and European assistance to implement reforms.

Although the CUP and the League played a significant role in disseminating and stimulating liberal thought, the actual impetus for the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 came from groups within the empire, particularly from discontented members of the Third (3rd) Army Corps in Macedonia. Many young officers of the corps garrisoned at Salonika (now Thessaloníka, Greece) organized to form the Ottoman Liberty Society in 1906. This secret revolutionary group merged with the CUP in Paris the following year, bringing to the Young Turk ideologists the command of the 3rd Army Corps. Later in 1907 the CUP and the League of Private Initiative and Decentralization agreed, though reluctantly, to work together to achieve their common goal.

On July 3, 1908, Major Ahmed Niyazi of the 3rd Corps led a revolt against the provincial authorities in Resna. Other conspirators soon followed his example, and the rebellion rapidly spread throughout the empire. Unable to rely on government troops, Abdülhamid announced on July 23 the restoration of the 1876 constitution and recalled parliament. The Young Turks had succeeded in establishing a constitutional government, but their deep-seated ideological differences resurfaced and prevented them from taking effective control of that government until 1913, when the CUP under new leaders—the triumvirate of Talât Paşa, Ahmed Cemal Paşa, and Enver Paşa—set itself up as the real arbiter of Ottoman politics.

While in power, the Young Turks carried out administrative reforms, especially of provincial administration, that led to more centralization. They were also the first Ottoman reformers to promote industrialization. In addition, the programs of the Young Turk regime effectuated greater secularization of the legal system and provided for the education of women and better state-operated primary schools. Such positive developments in domestic affairs, however, were largely overshadowed by the disastrous consequences of the regime’s foreign policy decisions. An overly hasty appraisal of Germany’s military capability by the Young Turk leaders led them to break neutrality and enter World War I (1914–18) on the side of the Central Powers. Upon the end of the war, with defeat imminent, the CUP Cabinet resigned on October 9, 1918, less than a month before the Ottomans signed the Armistice of Mudros.

The Young Turk movement built a rich tradition of dissent that shaped the intellectual and political life of the late Ottoman period and laid the foundation for Atatürk's revolution. Most of their leaders believed that the state, not popular will, was the instrument by which social and political change would be achieved. They bequeathed to Atatürk the conviction that reformers should seize state power and then use it ruthlessly for their own ends, not to democratize society in ways that would weaken the centralized state.

Except for the shift in focus on nationalism, the official ideology of the early modern Turkish state was shaped during this period. The Young Turks who lived long enough to witness the coming into being of the Republic of Turkey saw many of their ideals realized – it was a regime based on a popular materialistic-positivist ideology and nationalism. The new regime worked to be included in western culture while exerting an anti-imperialist rhetoric and convened a parliament composed not of elected politicians but of virtually selected intellectuals working on behalf of the people without cooperating in any capacity with the 'ignorant' masses. The effect of the Young Turks on shaping the official ideology of early modern Turkey went far beyond the political changes they brought about.

Jöntürkler see Young Turks
Jon Turkler see Young Turks
Jeunes Turcs see Young Turks
Turkler, Jon see Young Turks
Turcs, Jeunes see Young Turks

 

Yousafzai, Malala

Malala Yousafzai (Malalah Yusafzay) (b. July 12, 1997, Mingora, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan). A Pakistani education activist from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She became known for her activism for rights to education and for women, especially in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. In early 2009, at the age of 11–12, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls. The following summer, a New York Times documentary was filmed about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region, culminating in the Second Battle of Swat. Yousafzai rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by South African activist Desmond Tutu.


On October 9, 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. In the days immediately following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, but later her condition improved enough for her to be sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, for intensive rehabilitation. On October 12, 2012, a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwa against those who tried to kill her, but the Taliban reiterated its intent to kill Yousafzai and her father.

The assassination attempt sparked a national and international outpouring of support for Yousafzai. The United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown launched a United Nations petition in Yousafzai's name, using the slogan "I am Malala" and demanding that all children worldwide be in school by the end of 2015 – a petition which helped lead to the ratification of Pakistan's first Right to Education Bill. In the April 29, 2013, issue of Time magazine, Yousafzai was featured on the magazine's front cover and as one of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World". She was the winner of Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize and was nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize (which was awarded to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons). On July 12, 2013, Yousafzai spoke at the United Nations to call for worldwide access to education, and in September 2013 she officially opened the Library of Birmingham.

After her recovery from her wounds, Yousafzai became a more prominent activist for the right to education.  Based in Birmingham, England, she co-founded the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization, with Shiza Shahid.  In 2013, she co-authored I Am Malala, an international best seller.  In 2013, she received the Sakharov Prize, and in 2014, she was the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi of India. Aged 17 at the time, she was the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. 


In 2015, Yousafzai was the subject of the Oscar-shortlisted documentary He Named Me Malala. The 2013, 2014 and 2015 issues of Time magazine featured her as one of the most influential people globally.  In 2017, she was awarded honorary Canadian citizenship and became the youngest person to address the House of Commons of Canada.


Yousafzai completed her secondary school education at Edgbaston High School, Birmingham in England from 2013 to 2017.  From there she won a place at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and undertook three years of study for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), graduating in 2020. She returned in 2023 to become the youngest ever Honorary Fellow at Linacre College, Oxford. 


Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, into a Sunni Muslim family of Pashtun ethnicity. She was given her first name Malala (meaning "grief stricken") after Malalai of Maiwand, a famous Pashtun poet and warrior woman from southern Afghanistan. Her last name, Yousafzai, is that of a large Pashtun tribal confederation that is predominant in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where she grew up. At her house in Mingora, she lived with her two younger brothers, her parents, and two pet chickens.

Yousafzai was educated in large part by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who was a poet, school owner, and an educational activist himself, running a chain of schools known as the Khushal Public School. She once stated to an interviewer that she would like to become a doctor, though later her father encouraged her to become a politician instead. Ziauddin referred to his daughter as something entirely special, permitting her to stay up at night and talk about politics after her two brothers had been sent to bed.

Yousafzai started speaking about education rights as early as September 2008, when her father took her to Peshawar to speak at the local press club. "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?" Yousafzai asked her audience in a speech covered by newspapers and television channels throughout the region.

Toward the end of 2008, the TTP (the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan; often called the Pakistani Taliban) announced that all girls’ schools in Swat would be shut down on January 15, 2009. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) approached Yousafzai’s father in search of someone who might blog for them about what it was like to live under TTP rule. Under the name Gul Makai, Yousafzai began writing regular entries for BBC Urdu about her daily life. She wrote from January through the beginning of March of that year 35 entries that were also translated into English. Meanwhile, the TTP shut down all girls’ schools in Swat and blew up more than 100 of them.

In February 2009 Yousafzai made her first television appearance, when she was interviewed by Pakistani journalist and talk show host Hamid Mir on the Pakistan current events show Capital Talk. In late February the TTP, responding to an increasing backlash throughout Pakistan, agreed to a cease-fire, lifted the restriction against girls, and allowed them to attend school on the condition that they wear burkas. However, violence resurged only a few months later, in May, and the Yousafzai family was forced to seek refuge outside of Swat until the Pakistani army was able to push the TTP out. In early 2009 The New York Times reporter Adam Ellick worked with Yousafzai to make a documentary, Class Dismissed, a 13-minute piece about the school shutdown. Ellick made a second film with her, titled A Schoolgirl’s Odyssey. The New York Times posted both films on its web site in 2009. That summer she met with the United States special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, and asked him to help with her effort to protect the education of girls in Pakistan.

With Yousafzai’s continuing television appearances and coverage in the local and international media, it had become apparent by December 2009 that she was the BBC’s young blogger. Once her identity was known, she began to receive widespread recognition for her activism. In October 2011, she was nominated by human rights activist Desmond Tutu for the International Children’s Peace Prize. In December of that year, she was awarded Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize (later renamed the National Malala Peace Prize).

On October 9, 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head by a TTP gunman while she was en route home from school. Fazlullah and the TTP took responsibility for the attempt on her life. She survived the attack and was flown from Peshawar to Birmingham, England, for surgery.  The incident elicited protests, and her cause was taken up around the world, including by the United Nations special envoy for global education, Gordon Brown, who introduced a petition that called for all children around the world to be back in school by 2015. That petition led to the ratification of Pakistan's first Right to Education bill. In December 2012, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari announced the launch of a $10 million education fund in Yousafzai’s honour. About the same time, the Malala Fund was established by the Vital Voices Global Partnership to support education for all girls around the world.

Yousafzai recovered, staying with her family in Birmingham, where she returned to her studies and to activism. For the first time since being shot, she made a public appearance on July 12, 2013, her 16th birthday, and addressed an audience of 500 at the United Nations in New York City, Among her many awards, in 2013 Yousafzai won the United Nations Human Rights Prize, awarded every five years. She was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in 2013 and appeared on one of the seven covers that were printed for that issue. With Christina Lamb (foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times), Yousafzai coauthored a memoir, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (2013). She also wrote the picture book Malala’s Magic Pencil (2017), which was based on her childhood. In 2014, she became the youngest person to win the Liberty Medal, awarded by the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia to public figures striving for people’s freedom throughout the world. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 but passed over that year, Yousafzai in 2014 won the prize, becoming the youngest Nobel laureate.  Yousafzai shared the prize with Kailash Satyarthi, a children's rights activist from India. She became the second Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize after 1979 Physics Nobel laureate Abdus Salam. 

Her life, before and after the attack she endured, was examined in the documentary He Named Me Malala (2015). The title referenced the fact that Yousafzai had been named for the Afghan heroine Malalai, or Malala, who purportedly led her people to victory against the British in the 1880 Battle of Maiwand.

After winning the Nobel Prize, Yousafzai continued to attend school in England—she graduated from the University of Oxford in 2020—while using her enhanced public profile to bring attention to human rights issues around the world. In July 2015, with support from the Malala Fund, she opened a girls’ school in Lebanon for refugees from the Syrian Civil War.  She discussed her work with refugees as well as her own displacement in We Are Displaced (2019).

In 2015, the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation (APPSF) banned her autobiographical book, I Am Malala, at all Pakistani private schools, with the APPSF president Mirza Kashif Ali releasing his own book against her, I Am Not Malala. His book accused Yousafzai of attacking the Pakistan Armed Forces under the pretense of female education, described her father as a "double agent" and "traitor", and denounced the Malala Fund's promotion of secular education. However, Ali pointed out that the APPSF had gone on a national strike when Yousafzai was attacked by the Pakistani Taliban. Conspiracy theorists in newspapers and social media also alleged that Yousafzai had staged her assassination attempt, or that she was an agent of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Many Pakistanis view Yousafzai as an "agent of the West", due to her Nobel prize, Oxford education and residence in England.

On March 29, 2018, Yousafzai returned to Pakistan for the first time since the 2012 shooting. Meeting Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Yousafzai gave a speech in which she said it had been her dream to return without any fear. Yousafzai then visited her hometown Mingora in the Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The APPSF, representing 173,000 private schools in Pakistan, organized an "I Am Not Malala Day" on March 30, 2018, in response to what the federation said were her "anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan" views. Yousafzai responded by saying "I am proud of my religion and country."

On November 9, 2021, Yousafzai married Asser Malik, a manager with the Pakistan Cricket Board, in Birmingham, England.

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