Asad - Assassins

 Asad, Hafiz al-

Asad, Hafiz al-.   See Hafiz al-Assad.
Hafiz al-Azad see Asad, Hafiz al-.

Asaf ud-Daulah
Asaf ud-Daulah (September 23, 1748 - September 21, 1797).   The fourth nawab, or ruler, of the North Indian state of Awadh (Oudh) from 1775 until his death.  A weak sovereign but an active patron of arts and letters, he reigned during the turbulent period of political decentralization following Mughal decline, when the East India Company was becoming increasingly able to manipulate his regime’s finances and policies.

Asaf ud-Daulah (Asaf-Ud-Dowlah) was the nawab wazir of Oudh from 1775 to 1797, and the son of Shuja-ud-Daulah, his mother and grandmother being the begums of Oudh, whose destruction formed one of the chief counts in the charges against Warren Hastings.

When Shuja-ud-Daulah died he left two million pounds sterling buried in the vaults of the zenana (harem). The widow and mother of the deceased prince claimed the whole of this treasure under the terms of a will which was never produced. When Warren Hastings pressed the nawab for the payment of a debt due to the British East India Company, he obtained from his mother a loan of 26 lakh (2.6 million) rupees, for which he gave her a jagir (land) of four times the value. His mother subsequently obtained 30 lakh (3 million) more in return for a full acquittal, and the recognition of her jagirs without interference for life by the Company. These jagirs were afterwards confiscated on the ground of the begum's complicity in the rising of Chai Singh.

In 1775, Asaf ud-Daulah moved the capital of Awadh from Faizabad to Lucknow and built various monuments in and around Lucknow, including the Bara Imambara.

Asaf-ud-Daulah is considered the "Architect General" of Lucknow. With the ambition to outshine the splendor of Mughal architecture, he built a number of monuments and developed the city of Lucknow into an architectural marvel. Several of the buildings survive today, including the famed Asafi Imambara, and the Qaisar Bagh area of downtown Lucknow where thousands live in resurrected buildings.

The Nawab became so famous for his generosity that it is still a well-known saying in Lucknow that "he who does not receive (livelihood) from the Lord, will receive it from Asaf-ud-Daulah" (Jisko de na Moula, usko de Asaf-ud-Dowlah).

Asaf-ud-Daulah died on September 21, 1797, in Lucknow and is buried at Bara Imambara, Lucknow.


Daulah, Asaf ud- see Asaf ud-Daulah
Asaf-Ud-Dowlah see Asaf ud-Daulah
Dowlah, Asaf-Ud- see Asaf ud-Daulah

Ashab al-Kahf
Ashab al-Kahf (“Those of the Cave”).  The name given in the Qur’an to the youths who in the Christian West are usually called the “Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.”

The Roman Martyrology mentions the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus under the date of June 27, as follows: "Commemoration of the seven Holy Sleepers of Ephesus, who, it is recounted, after undergoing martyrdom, rest in peace, await the day of resurrection." The Byzantine Calendar commemorates them with feasts on 4 August and 22 October. They are also regarded as pious in Islam, and are known as "People of the Cave" (Ashab Al-Kahf).

A legend about them tells of the falling asleep of seven young men in a cave, who wake up after a great deal of time has passed. The basic outline of the tale appears in Gregory of Tours (b. 538 - d. 594), and in Paul the Deacon's (b. 720 - d. 799) History of the Lombards. The best-known version of the story appears in Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend. Their story also appears in the Qur'an (Surah 18, verse 9-26), which also includes the mention of an accompanying dog beside them.
 
The outline of the story of the Ashab al-Kahf is that during the persecutions of the Roman emperor Decius, around 250, seven young men were accused of Christianity. They were given some time to recant their faith, but instead gave their worldly goods to the poor and retired to a mountain to pray, where they fell asleep in a cave. The emperor, seeing that the attitude of the young men towards paganism had not improved, ordered the mouth of the cave to be sealed.

300 (or 309) years passed. At some later time — usually, during the reign of Theodosius (379 - 395) — the landowner decided to open up the sealed mouth of the cave, thinking to use it as a cattle pen. He opened it and found the sleepers inside. They awoke, imagining that they had slept but one day. One of their number returned to Ephesus. He was astounded to find buildings with crosses attached; the townspeople were astounded to find a man trying to spend old coins from the reign of Decius. The bishop was summoned to interview the sleepers.  They told him their miracle story, and died praising God.
 
As the earliest versions of the legend spread from Ephesus, an early Christian catacomb came to be associated with it, attracting pilgrims. On the slopes of Mount Pion (Mount Coelian) near Ephesus (near modern Selçuk in Turkey), the 'Grotto' of the Seven Sleepers with ruins of the church built over it was excavated in 1927-28. The excavation brought to light several hundred graves which were dated to the 5th and 6th centuries. Inscriptions dedicated to the Seven Sleepers were found on the walls of the church and in the graves. The 'Grotto' is still shown to tourists.

The legend appeared in several Syriac sources before Gregory's lifetime. It was retold by Symeon Metaphrastes.

The Seven Sleepers form the subject of a homily in verse by the Edessan poet Jacob of Saruq ('Sarugh') (died 521), which was published in the Acta Sanctorum. Another 6th century version, in a Syrian manuscript in the British Museum, gives eight sleepers. There are considerable variations as to their names.
 
The legend rapidly attained a wide diffusion throughout Christendom, popularized in the West by Gregory of Tours, in his late 6th century collection of miracles, De gloria martyrum (Glory of the Martyrs).

In the 7th century, the myth gained an even wider audience when it found a mention in the Qur'an, in Sura 18, Al-Kahf, verse 9 to 14. See Islamic interpretation. According to Islamic belief, the "myth" has basis in reality, and the "7 sleepers" were pious men who experienced a miracle of God due to their piety and devotion to Tawhid (The Oneness of God).

In the following century, Paul the Deacon told the tale in his History of the Lombards but gave it a different setting:

During the period of the Crusades, bones from the sepulchres near Ephesus, identified as relics of the Seven Sleepers, were transported to Marseille, France in a large stone coffin, which remained a trophy of the church of Saint Victoire, Marseille.

The Seven Sleepers were included in the Golden Legend compilation, the most popular book of the later Middle Ages, which fixed a precise date for their resurrection, AD 378, in the reign of Theodosius.

The Islamic version is related in Surah (Chapter) Al-Kahf (18, "The Cave"), of the Qur'an. During the time of the Prophet Muhammad, the Jews of Medina challenged him to tell them the story of the sleepers knowing that none of the Arabs knew about it. According to tradition, God then sent the angel Gabriel (or Jibreel) to reveal the story to him through Surah Al-Kahf. After hearing it from him, the Jews confirmed that he told the same story they knew.

Mentioning the story in the Quran and the concurrent events that happened before revealing the story is claimed to confirm that the Quran was revealed by God and it contains only the words of God and not those of Muhammad, since it contained information that Muhammad did not know.

The legend of the seven sleepers has given origin to the word syvsover (literally seven-sleeper) in both Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, as in 'one of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus'. It has come to refer to someone who "sleeps hard and long". The word secondarily refers to a hibernating rodent, the edible dormouse. The word "Siebenschläfer" in German and "hétalvó" in Hungarian bear a meaning similar to the Scandinavian; they characterize someone who usually sleeps long, waking up later than what is considered necessary or proper. "Edible dormouse" in German is also "Siebenschläfer."


Kahf, Ashab al- see Ashab al-Kahf
“Those of the Cave" see Ashab al-Kahf
“Seven Sleepers of Ephesus” see Ashab al-Kahf
"People of the Cave" see Ashab al-Kahf

Ash‘ari, Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al-
Ash‘ari, Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al- (Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al-Ash‘ari) (Abū al-Hasan Alī ibn Ismā'īl al-Ash'arī) (874 – 936).  Muslim theologian who was the founder of orthodox scholasticism (kalam) and of the Ash‘ariyya.  Al-Ash‘ari became noted for his use of reason to support revelation and his intellectual defense of Sunnite religious beliefs.  

Al-Ash‘ari began by supporting the rationalist methods and positions of the Mu‘tazila school, but about 912 abandoned that school in favor of Hanbalite interpretations of Sunnite belief.  Indeed, al-Ash‘ari had been a student with the Mu‘tazila theologian al-Jubba’i, but came to disagree with al-Jubba’i on the question of God’s predetermination.  Al-Ash‘ari broke with al-Jubba’i and started to produce a large number of texts where he fought the teachings of Mu‘tazilism, like in the ‘al-ibana ‘an ‘usuli d-diyan --  “Clarification on the origin of religion,” as well as unbiased scientific works on Muslim groups, like the maqalatu l-‘islamiyin -- “Islamic articles.”

Against the Mu‘tazilites, al-Ash‘ari held that the Qur’an is eternal and uncreated, … not created.  Additionally, he argued that the anthropomorphic expressions in the Qur’an referring to Allah should not be interpreted as metaphors but accepted bi-la kayf (“without asking how”).  Most importantly, al-Ash‘ari originated the concept of “acquisition” (kash) with which he opposed the Mu‘tazilite doctrine of human free will.  

Al-Ash‘ari argued that Allah creates all the acts of humans but that they “acquire” these acts, thereby becoming responsible for them without creating them.  This formula preserved divine determination and sole creatorhood, while making humans responsible and thereby liable to judgment.

Al-Ash‘ari is considered to be the founder of Islamic scholasticism, as he used dialectics in order to combat Mu‘tazilism, and his techniques and theories were accepted by the conservative learned of his time.  Ash‘ari’s teaching became the dominant orientation among the Sunni schools.  

Al-Ash'ari was born in Basra, Iraq, a descendant of the famous companion of Muhammad and arbitrator at Siffin for Ali ibn Abi Talib, Abu Musa al-Ashari. He spent the greater part of his life at Baghdad. Although belonging to an orthodox family, he became a pupil of the great Mutazalite teacher al-Jubba'i (d.915), and himself remained a Mutazalite until his fortieth year. In 912 he left the Mu'tazalites and became one of its most distinguished opponents, using the philosophical methods he had learned. Al-Ash'ari then spent the remaining years of his life engaged in developing his views and in composing polemics and arguments against his former Mutazalite colleagues. He is said to have written over a hundred works, from which only four or five are known to be extant.

Al-Ash'ari was noted for his teachings on atomism, among the earliest Islamic philosophies, influenced by Greek and Hindu concepts of atoms of time and matter, and for al-Ash'ari the basis for propagating a deterministic view that Allah created every moment in time and every particle of matter. Thus cause and effect was an illusion. He nonetheless believed in free will, elaborating the thought of Dirar ibn Amr' and Abu Hanifa into a "dual agent" or "acquisition" account of free will.

While al-Ash'ari was opposed to the views of the Mu'tazili school for its over-emphasis on ijtihad (reason), he was also opposed to the views of certain orthodox schools such as the Zahiri, Mujassimite (anthropomorphist) and Muhaddithin (traditionalist) schools for their over-emphasis on taqlid (imitation) in his Istihsan al‑Khaud.




Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al-Ash‘ari see Ash‘ari, Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al-
Abū al-Hasan Alī ibn Ismā'īl al-Ash'arī see Ash‘ari, Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al-

Ash‘ariyya
Ash‘ariyya (Ash‘ari) (Ash'arites).  School of theology founded by al-Ash‘ari.  It was attacked by the Hanbalites for the use of rational arguments and by the Maturidiyya for being too conservative.  The Ash‘ariyya became the dominant school in the Arabic-speaking parts of the ‘Abbasid caliphate.

The teachings of al-Ash‘ari together with those of his principal disciples laid the basis for a doctrine that sought to occupy a middle ground between the rationalism of the Mu’tazilis and the traditionalist views of the Hanbalis.  Against the Mu’tazilis, whose views al-Ash’ari himself had once espoused, the Ash‘ari school insisted, among other things, on the following: (1) the reality of God’s eternal attributes; (2) the createdness of the Qur’an; (3) the absolute sovereignty of God over human actions, and (4) the reality of the beatific vision.  While thus accepting the substance of traditionalist doctrine, Ash‘aris, however, insisted on the legitimacy of reason as a tool for the defense of the truths of revelation.  Since the Ash‘ari position was rejected by both Mu’tazilis and Hanbalis, what early Ash‘aris had hoped would form the basis for a reconciliation of the two polar positions ended by becoming a third school of thought.  Although the position represented by al-Ash‘ari and his early defenders underwent some degree of modification in the subsequent period, repudiation of Mu‘tazili doctrine, attachment to tradition, and insistence on the value of reason as an apologetic device remained characteristic features of Ash‘ari thought during the medieval period.  Among the leading Ash‘aris of the period are al-Baqillani (d. 1013), al-Juwaini (d. 1086), and al-Ghazali (d. 1111).

From Baghdad, the main center of the early school, Ash‘arism found its way to the major centers of the Near East, especially Khurasan, where it became a major intellectual force.  Although Ash‘arism is not to be equated with the Shafi‘i school of law, it found its greatest acceptance in areas where Shafi‘i law was the dominant legal influence.  

The Ashʿari theology (Arabic: al-asha`irah) is a school of early Muslim theology founded by the theologian Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (d. 324 AH / 936 AD). The disciples of the school are known as Ash'arites, and the school is also referred to as Ash'arite school. The Ash'arite school was instrumental in drastically changing the direction of Islamic theology, separating its development radically from that of theology in the Christian world. In contrast to the Mutazilite school of Islamic theology, the Ash'arite view was that comprehension of unique nature and characteristics of God were beyond human capability. Thus, while man had free will, he had no power to create anything. It was a taqlid ("faith" or "imitation") based view which did not assume that human reason could discern morality. This doctrine is now known as occasionalism. However, a critical spirit of inquiry was far from absent in the Ash'arite school. Rather, what they lacked, was a trust in reason itself, separate from a moral code, to decide what experiments or what knowledge to pursue.

Contrary to popular opinion, the Ash'arites (or "traditionalists") were not completely traditionalist and anti-rationalist, nor were the Mutazilites (or "rationalists") completely rationalist and anti-traditionalist, as the Ash'arites did depend on rationality and the Mutazilites did depend on tradition. Their goals were the same, to affirm the transcendence and unity of God, but their doctrines were different, with the Ash'arites supporting an Islamic occasionalist doctrine and the Mutazilites supporting an Islamic metaphysics influenced by Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. For Ash'arites, taqlid only applied to the Islamic tradition and not to any other, whereas for Mutazilites, taqlid applied equally to both the Islamic and Aristotelian-Neoplatonic traditions.

Factors affecting the spread of the school of thought include a drastic shift in historical initiative, foreshadowing the later loss of Muslim Spain and Columbus' landing in the Western Hemisphere - both in 1492. But the decisive influence was most likely that of the new Ottoman Empire, which found the Ash'arite views politically useful, and were to a degree taking the advantages of Islamic technologies, sciences, and openness for granted. For some centuries thereafter, as the Ottomans pushed forth into Europe, they were able to continue taking advantage of Muslim sciences and technologies only to begin losing those advantages gradually up until The Enlightenment when European innovation finally surpassed and eventually overwhelmed that of the Muslims.

The influence of the Ash'arites is still hotly debated today. It was commonly believed that the Asharites put an end to philosophy as such in the Muslim world, with the death of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) at the end of the 12th century. While philosophy did indeed decline in the western Islamic world (Al-Andalus and the Maghreb), research has shown that philosophy continued long after in the eastern Islamic world (Persia and India), where the Ibn Sinan (Avicennian), Illuminationist and Sufi schools predominated, until Islamic philosophy reached its zenith with Mulla Sadra's existentialist school of transcendent theosophy in the 17th century.

The 12th to 14th centuries marked the peak of innovation in Muslim civilization, and this continued through to the 16th century. During this period many remarkable achievements in science, engineering and social organization were made, while the ulema began to generate a fiqh based on taqlid ("imitation based on authority") rather than on the old ijtihad. Eventually, however, modern historians think that lack of improvements in basic processes and confusion with theology and law degraded scientific methods. The rigorous means by which the Ash'arites had reached their conclusions were largely forgotten by Muslims before the Renaissance, due in large part to the success of their effort to subordinate inquiry to a prior ethics - and assume ignorance was the norm for humankind.

Modern commentators blame or laud Ash'arites for curtailing much of the Islamic world's innovation in sciences and technology, then leading the world. This innovation was not in general revived in the West until the Renaissance, and emergence of scientific method - which was based on traditional Islamic methods of ijtihad and isnad (backing or scientific citation). The Ash'arites did not reject these, amongst the ulema or learned, but they stifled these in the mosque and discouraged their application by the lay public.

The Ash'arites may have succeeded in laying the groundwork for a stable empire, and for subordinating philosophy as a process to fixed notions of ethics derived directly from Islam - perhaps this even improved the quality of life of average citizens. But it seems the historical impact was to yield the scientific and technological initiative of Western civilization to Christians in Europe.



Ash‘ari see Ash‘ariyya
Ash'arites see Ash‘ariyya

‘Ashiq Celebi
‘Ashiq Celebi (1520-1572).  Ottoman man of letters. His most important work is his Biography of the Poets.  
Celebi, 'Ashiq see ‘Ashiq Celebi

Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi (Ashkenazim).  Those who have an orientation in Judaism which developed in central, northern and the eastern part of Europe.  The name "Ashkenaz" was the name that the Jews themselves used for Germany, a name taken from Genesis 10:3.  The Ashkenazi communities were from the start organized like small cities inside a Christian city.  The Jews had their own laws, they had social contact only with each other, and they organized and armed themselves in order to protect their communities against villains and thieves.  

In Poland, the Jews often formed shtetls, small towns where they represented the majority of the inhabitants.  Beginning in the eleventh century, the Ashkenazi scholars began to develop material that is still in use in Judaism today, like the Mahzor, a work that contained prayers by poets of Germany and France.  

For the Ashkenazi Jews, the study of Hebrew, the Torah and the Talmud was more than just a way of understanding their religion, it was also a way of protecting themselves against the influence of the societies around them.

Ashkenazim and Sephardim came to develop different prayer liturgies.  Torah services, Hebrew pronunciation and ways of life.  The rituals of the Ashkenazi were of the Palestinian traditions.  Ashkenazi and Sephardi tunes for both prayers and Torah reading are different.  An Ashkenazi Torah lies flat while being read, while a Sephardi Torah stands up.  

In order to decide upon Jewish law, there are different authorities.  The Ashkenazim go by Rabbi Moses Isseries, who wrote a commentary on the Shulhan Arukh (by Rabbi Joseph Caro) citing Ashkenazi practice.  There are differences in many respects of Jewish law, from which laws women are exempt from what food one is allowed to eat on Pesach.

Today, many of the distinctions between Ashkenazim and Sephardim have disappeared.  In Israel, as well as in other countries like the United States, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews live side by side, even if they generally have separate institutions.

The language of the Ashkenazi Jews was Yiddish, a language close to German.  In modern times, Yiddish is in danger of dying out.  

Today, about ten million of the thirteen million Jews in the world are Ashkenazi.  

Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim, are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland in the west of Germany. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for the region which in modern times encompasses the country of Germany and German-speaking borderland areas. Ashkenaz is also a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10). Thus, Ashkenazim or Ashkenazi Jews are literally "German Jews."

Many Ashkenazi Jews later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in non German-speaking areas, including Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries. With them, they took and diversified Yiddish, a Germanic Jewish language that had since medieval times been the lingua franca among Ashkenazi Jews. To a much lesser extent, the Judaeo-French language Zarphatic and the Slavic-based Knaanic (Judeo-Czech) were also spoken. The Ashkenazi Jews developed a distinct culture and liturgy; influenced, to varying degrees, by interaction with surrounding peoples of Central and Eastern Europe.

Although in the 11th century they comprised only 3% of the world's Jewish population, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for (at their highest) 92% of the world's Jews in 1931 and today make up approximately 80% of Jews worldwide. Most Jewish communities with extended histories in Europe are Ashkenazim, with the exception of those associated with the Mediterranean region. The majority of the Jews who migrated from Europe to other continents in the past two centuries are Ashkenazim, Eastern Ashkenazim in particular. This is especially true in the United States, where 6 out of the 7 million American Jewish population – the largest Jewish population in the world when consistent statistical parameters are employed – is Ashkenazi, representing the world's single largest concentration of Ashkenazim.

Ashkenazim see Ashkenazi

ashraf
ashraf. Term which refers to the people who trace their lineage to the Prophet Muhammad or to the Companions of the Prophet.  In India, the term "ashraf" refers to the Mughal classes.

Ashraf refers to someone claiming descent from Muhammad by way of his daughter Fatima. The word is the plural of "sharīf" ("noble"), from "sharafa" ("to be highborn").

Like the Sada (plural of Sayyid), Ashraf often take their names from ancestry from Ali, Fatima and Muhammad.  In many Muslim societies, Ashraf evolved into an honorific denoting "master" or "gentry". More precisely, the Ashraf are descendants of Ali's elder son, Hassan, and the Sada those of Ali's younger son Husayn.

During the Abbasid period, the term was applied to all Ahl al-Bait, basically Muhammad's own family, including, for example, the descendants of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, of Ali's second wife and of the Hashemites.

During the Fatimid Dynasty, the use of the term was restricted to the descendants of Hassan and Husayn only. This restriction remained in force even after Egypt became Sunni again under the Ayyubids.

Social practice in modern Egypt does not distinguish between Ashraf and Sada. Sada Ashraf and Sayyid became a sharif's title. The distinction between Hassani Ashraf and Husayni Ashraf is not known. As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, sayyid had no meaning other than sharif in Egypt. Abdurrahman al-Gabarti felt compelled to explain that a certain as-Sayyid Ali al-Qabtan was a Mamluk and not a Sharif, as might have been mistakenly inferred from his title. The title in this case, meaning a Mamluk master, originated from the Maghribi usage of "Sidi", which was equivalent in meaning to emir or sheikh.

In modern usage, sayyid has lost its religious significance and means simply "mister".

Egyptian Ashraf received great honor and played central roles in the Sufi culture. The status of Ashraf is heritable through either the father or mother, and this class is quite large throughout Egypt.

Well aware of their distinguished descent, the Ashraf in Egypt kept genealogical records and were socially acknowledged as a religious elite. Inevitably, doubts arose concerning the descent of many claimants to the title.

Asians of East Africa
Asians of East Africa.  The Asian presence in East Africa can be traced back several centuries, but the bulk of the Asian settlement there has occurred within the last 100 years.  The overwhelming majority, about 85 percent, of the Asian Muslims of East Africa are Shi‘a and belong to one of three sects: the Ithna Ashari (Twelvers), the Nizari Ismaili (Khoja) and the Mustali Ismaili (Bohra).  Sunni Muslims (Punjabi speakers) constitute about ten to fifteen percent of the Asian Muslims and include a large Ahmadiya community.  

The precise number of Muslims in Africa is unknown, as statistics regarding religious demography in Africa are incomplete. Islam is the largest religion in Africa, followed by Christianity. Forty-five percent (45%) of the population are Muslims, forty perecent (40%) are Christians and less than fifteen (15%) are non-religious or follow African traditional religions. Islam in Africa is increasing, as many Bantu speakers embrace Islam especially in central and eastern Africa. The long and rich history of these religions in the continent has proved to be the source of many conflicts, primarily in countries where there is no clear majority, such as Tanzania, Nigeria, and Cote d'Ivoire.

Islam arrived in Africa in the earliest days of Islam, when Muslims fleeing persecution in Mecca arrived in what was then the Aksumite empire. Islam spread to Africa via passages through the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt and through Islamic Arab and Persian traders and sailors. Islam's first muezzin, Bilal ibn Ribah, was also of Northeast African (Habasha) descent.

From 1869 to 1914 Islam in Africa probably doubled in size of countries. Despite its large contribution to the makeup of the continent, Islam is predominantly concentrated in North and Northeast Africa, as well as the Sahel region. This has served to further differentiate the various cultures, customs and laws of different parts of the African continent.

Islam continued a rapid growth into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Today, backed by gulf oil cash, Muslims have increased success in proselytizing, with a growth rate, by some estimates, that is twice as fast as Christianity in Africa.

Islamic values have much in common with traditional African life: its emphasis on communal living, its clear roles for men and women, its tolerance of polygamy.

Muslim Population Percentage by Country

Country                              Population Percentage

Somalia                                          100%
Mauritania                                      100%
Western Sahara                               100%
Tunisia                                             98%
Morocco                                          98%
Algeria                                             97%
Libya                                               97%
Niger                                               96%
Senegal                                            95%
Djibouti                                            94%
Mali                                                 94%
Guinea                                             92%
The Gambia                                     90%
Egypt                                              85%
Sudan                                              80%
Sierra Leone                                     65%
Burkina Faso                                    65%
Chad                                               54%
Nigeria                                            50%
Eritrea                                            50%  
Guinea-Bissau                                 50%
Ethiopia                                          45%
Cote D'Ivoire                                  40%
Tanzania                                         35%
Benin                                              24%
Cameroon                                       22%
Central African Republic                   22%
Liberia                                            20%
Togo                                              20%
Malawi                                           20%
Mozambique                                    18%
Ghana                                             16%
Uganda                                           16%
Gabon                                             12%
Rwanda                                           10%
Democratic Republic of the Congo     10%
Kenya                                              10%
Zambia                                              5%
Namibia                                             3%
Botswana                                           3%
South Africa                                       2%
Angola                                               2%
Republic of the Congo                         2%
Lesotho                                              1%
Swaziland                                           1%
Zimbabwe                                          1%

 

‘Asim, Abu Bakr
‘Asim, Abu Bakr.  See Abu Bakr ‘Asim.

‘Askari, Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali al-
‘Askari, Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali al-.  See Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali al-‘Askari.

‘Askari, Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-
‘Askari, Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-.  See Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-‘Askari.

Asma‘i, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Quraib al-
Asma‘i, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Quraib al- (‘Abd al-Malik ibn Quraib al-Asma‘i)  (Abdul Malik Ibn al-Quraib al-Asmai) (c.740-828).  Philologist who made important contributions to zoology, botany, and animal husbandry.

‘Abd al-Malik ibn al-Quraib al-Asma‘i was born in Basra around 740.  He was a pious Arab and a good student of Arabic poetry.  Al-Asma‘i is considered to be the first Muslim scientist who contributed to zoology, botany and animal husbandry.   His famous writings include Kitab al-Ibil, Kitab al-Khalil, Kitab al-Wuhush, Kitab al-Sha, and Kitab Khalq al-Insan.  The last, a book on human anatomy, demonstrates his considerable knowledge and expertise on the subject.  

Interest in breeding of horses and camels was responsible for systematic scientific work by the Arabs as early as the seventh century of the Christian calendar.  During the Umayyad Caliphate, behavior and classification of animals and plants were studied and recorded by several scientists.  Al-Asma‘i’s work was very popular among scientists of the ninth and tenth centuries.

Later Arabic philologists owe most of their knowledge about Arabic lexicography and poetry to this scholar and to his contemporaries Abu ‘Ubayda and Abu Zayd al-Ansari (d. 830).  All of them were disciples of Abu ‘Amr ibn al-‘Ala’.  

Al-Asmai’s contributions, in addition to science, were also in Arabic poetry. He had an outstanding knowledge of the Arabic grammar and lexicography of classical Arabic. He also compiled an anthology of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry called al-Asma Iyyat. Several of his works were translated into European languages.

Al-Asmai was a disciple of Amr Ibn al’ala, and was a tutor to Harun Rashid’s son.

Al-Asma‘i died in 828.

‘Abd al-Malik ibn Quraib al-Asma‘i see Asma‘i, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Quraib al-
 Abdul Malik Ibn al-Quraib al-Asmai  see Asma‘i, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Quraib al-

Assad, al-
Assad, al-. The name that is associated with a family of Syrian politicians and leaders. 

Assad, Bashar al-
Assad, Bashar al- (Bashir al-Assad) (Bassar al-Asad) (b. September 11, 1965)  Became president of Syria on July 17, 2000, succeeding his father, Hafez al-Assad, who died on June 10, 2000.  Soon after the elder Assad’s death, the Baath Party dominated People’s Council (the Syrian Parliament) eased Bashar’s way to the presidency by amending the nation’s constitution to lower the minimum presidential age.  Bashar al-Assad was made commander of the armed forces and head of the Baath Party.  In a presidential referendum on July 10, he won 97 percent of the vote.  
 
Bashar al-Assad was born in Damascus on September 11, 1965.  The shy, unassuming second son of the president of Syria grew up in the shadow of his outgoing older brother Basil, Hafez al-Assad’s heir apparent.  Bashar studied medicine at Damascus University, becoming an ophthalmologist.  Syrians call him, “Dr. Bashar.”  When Bashar’s older brother Basil died in a January 1994 car accident, Bashar assumed the role of his father’s successor.  After Bashar al-Assad’s election, Western journalists speculated that he might prove to be a reformer and modernizer.  They were quick to observe changes of style in the new regime.  Portraits of the Assads, father and son, disappeared from public places, and the Syrian media dropped exaggerated terms of presidential respect from their reports.  In July 2000, Bashar released dozens of political prisoners.  

On the issue of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, however, Bashar reaffirmed Syria’s position on the return of the Golan Heights, lost to Israel in the 1967 war.  

Until he became President, Bashar al-Assad was not greatly involved in Syrian politics; his only political role was as head of the Syrian Computer Society, which was mainly in charge of introducing the Internet to Syria in 2001.

Al-Assad was confirmed as President by an unopposed referendum in 2001. He was expected to bring a more liberal approach to the leadership than his father. However, at best, politically and economically, Syrian life changed only slightly after 2000. Immediately after al-Assad took office a reform movement made cautious advances during the so-called Damascus Spring, and al-Assad seemed to accept this, shutting down the Mezze prison and releasing hundreds of political prisoners. The Damascus Spring, however, ground to an abrupt halt as security crackdowns commenced again within the year.

Although al-Assad ruled with a softer touch than his father, political freedoms were still extremely curtailed. Bashar resembled his father in many ways but was more subtle in reducing opposition.

Al-Assad failed to significantly modernize or liberalize the Syrian public sector.  Instead, he used the reliance of a vast amount of the population upon employment by the state as a means to maintain power. With a large number of people on the state payroll it was thought that it would be less likely that resistance movements would form since income from their government employment was virtually the only thing they had. .

Despite being re-elected in 2007, al-Assad’s position was considered by some to have been weakened by the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon following the ‘Cedar Revolution’ in 2005.

Assad opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, despite a long-standing animosity between the Syrian and Iraqi governments.  Assad's opposition was a decision that reflected the will of the majority of his people in his country. Assad used Syria's seat in one of rotating positions on the United Nations Security Council to try and prevent the invasion of Iraq. The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the accusation of Syrian involvement, and support for anti-Israeli groups, helped precipitate a crisis in relations with the United States.

Assad was criticized for Syria's presence in Lebanon (which ended in 2005), and the United States put Syria under sanctions partly because of this. Assad threatened many members of the Lebanese parliament in order to enforce the illegal accession of the pro-Syrian General Émile Lahoud to the Lebanese presidency in 1998.

The 2005 Lebanon crisis began with the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, which was blamed on Syria in the media. Assad has questioned the basis of such criticism. The main basis of the accusation is that the assassination removed an anti-Syrian political figure in an attempt to maintain influence. However, Assad argued that Syria's gradual withdrawal of troops from Lebanon, beginning in 2000, was precipitated as a result of the event. Syria remains influential in Lebanon, however, and economic activity is strongly interdependent.

Assad has repeatedly condemned the Hariri assassination. He strongly denied any Syrian involvement and promised to extradite or punish anyone found guilty of participating in the conspiracy to kill Hariri.
 
The Assad family are members of the minority Alawite sect, and members of that group have been prominent in the governmental hierarchy and army since 1963 when the Baath Party first came to power. Their origins are to be found in the Latakia region of north-west Syria. Bashar's family is originally from Qardaha, just east of Latakia. "Al Assad (or Asad)" means "the lion" in Arabic.

Officially a Republic, Syria has been under Emergency Law since 1963 and governed by the Baath Party. The head of state since 1970 has been a member of the Assad family.

Family connections are presently an important part of Syrian politics. Several close family members of Hafiz al-Assad have held positions within the government since Hafiz's rise to power. Most of the al-Assad and Makhlouf families have also grown tremendously wealthy, and parts of that fortune have reached their Alawite tribe in Qardaha and its surroundings.
 
Assad was about 189 cm (6 ft 2 in) with blue eyes. He spoke English from an intermediate to an advanced level and also spoke casual conversational French, having studied at the Franco-Arab al-Hurriyah school in Damascus, before going on to medical school at the University of Damascus Faculty of Medicine. He completed his ophthalmology residency training in the Military Hospital of Latakia and subsequently went on to receive sub-specialty training in ophthalmology at the Western Eye Hospital in London. He could not finish his formal training due to the unexpected death of his brother. Bashar was a staff colonel in the Syrian military.

Assad married Asma (Emma) Assad, née Akhras, a Syrian Sunni Muslim from Acton (west London) whom he met in the United Kingdom, where she was born and raised. They married in December 2000. On December 3, 2001, they became the parents of their first-born child, named Hafiz after his late grandfather. Zein was born on November 5, 2003, and Karim on December 16, 2004.

Beginning in March 2011, Assad faced a significant challenge to his rule when anti-government protests broke out in Syria, inspired by a wave of pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. As the Syrian security forces used lethal force against demonstrators, Assad offered a variety of concessions, first shuffling his cabinet, then announcing that he would seek to abolish Syria’s emergency law and its Supreme State Security Court, both used to suppress political opposition. However, implementation of those reforms coincided with a significant escalation of violence against protesters, drawing international condemnation for Assad and his government.

As unrest spread to new areas of the country, the government deployed tanks and troops to several cities that had become centers of protest. Reports of indiscriminate violence by security forces against civilians multiplied, bringing further criticism from human rights groups. In early May the European Union (EU) issued sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, against members of Assad’s inner circle of trusted military and security officials, many of whom were members of the Assad family. The sanctions excluded Assad, still viewed by some as a potential reformer, and singled out Assad’s brother Maher, the commander of the Republican Guard and the army’s fourth armored division, as the principal overseer of the crackdown. A week later, as violence continued unabated, the United States and the EU passed individual sanctions against Bashar al-Assad.


Bashir al-Assad see Assad, Bashar al-
Bashar al-Assad see Assad, Bashar al-
Bassar al-Asad see Assad, Bashar al-
Asad, Bassar al- see Assad, Bashar al-

Assad, Hafiz al-
Assad, Hafiz al- (Hafiz al-Assad) (Hafez al-Assad) (Hafiz al-Asad)  (October 6, 1930- June 10, 2000).  President of Syria (r. 1970-2000).  Born in Qardahah, the ninth of what would become eleven children.  In 1946, Assad joined the Ba’th Party as a student and was educated in Syrian military colleges.  In 1951, Assad started at the Homs Military Academy.  He graduated from the Homs Military Academy as an air force pilot in 1955.    Assad also received some military training (flight training) in the Soviet Union.  In 1960, Assad was one of four founders of the Military Committee.  On March 8, 1963, after the Ba’th Party seized power in Syria, with the Military Committee as a driving force, Assad became commander of the air force.

In 1966, Assad became minister of defense after participating in a coup against the civilian leaders of Syria.  In June 1967, under the leadership of Assad, Syria lost the Golan Heights to Israel, as a result of the Six Day War.  

By the end of the 1960s, Assad’s rivalry with the effective leader of Syria, Salah al-Jadid, became more and more central to Syrian politics.  Assad focused on improved military force, while Jadid focused on a socialist reformation of the Syrian society.

In February 1969, Assad became the real ruler of Syria but he kept Nuriddin Attasi as president of Syria.

On November 12, 1970, Assad had his opponents arrested, and took full control over Syria.  However, once again, he did not assume any official leading position, leaving Ahmad Khatib as president.

In February 1971, Assad staged a referendum in which he received an official 99.2% mandate in support of him becoming the country’s new president.

In January 1973, a new constitution for Syria was presented, declaring that the country was a “democratic, popular, socialist state.”  An Arab nationalist, Assad tried to improve relations with other Arab countries and cooperated closely with Egypt in the Yom Kippur War in 1973.  In October 1973, the closer relationship between Syria and Egypt, resulted in a military attack on Israel, which at first brought victory to Syria and Egypt, but ended with the defeat of both states.

In 1974, Assad performed the umra in Mecca.

In 1976, Assad intervened in the ongoing civil war in Lebanon.  He took the side of the Christians, after the Muslims rejected a peace proposal from him in January.

In June 1980 Assad survived an assassination attempt.  In 1982, he cracked down on Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama.

In November 1983, Assad suffered a heart attack.  His rivals, among them his brother, Rifaat, tried to seize control of Syria.  Tensions between Rifaat’s forces and elite forces from the army that were loyal to Hafez continued to mount.  On March 30, while on the verge of an armed conflict between the two military groups, a meeting was held between Rifaat, Hafez and their aged mother.  The outcome of this meeting, and other meetings, was that Rifaat was sent abroad as a Syrian representative, while Hafez returned to office without the challenge of Rifaat’s troops.  Once back in office, Hafez used his position to undermine his brother.

By the end of the 1980s, with the decline of the Soviet Union, Assad began to orient himself more in the direction of the West.  

In October 1991, Assad participated in the Middle East peace conference, where there were direct talks with Israel’s representatives.  Assad insisted on an uncompromising land for peace principle, requiring that Israel withdraw from the Golan Heights before any details could be decided.  In December 1991, in the fourth plebiscite on his presidency, Hafez received 99.9 percent of the vote.

In February 1999, Assad participated in the funeral for King Hussein of Jordan, to the surprise of the world media.  Later that month (on February 11), Assad was re-elected in a referendum for a new constitutional term.

In September 1999, hundreds of supporters of Hafez’ brother, Rifaat, were arrested in Damascus and Latakia.  This action was interpreted as a way of helping his son, Bashar, to get rid of all possible opponents when Hafez died.

On June 10, 2000, after repeated reports of his ill health, Assad died from a heart attack.  A few days after his passing away, his son, Bashar, took office and was elected Syria’s new president.  This was all according to Hafez’s plan.

All through his rule, Assad was the most valued ally of the Soviet Union, but he also became slightly more pro-Western in his last years in power.  However, even though he was in contact with the main leaders of the West for several years, he remained an outcast in their eyes.

The main reasons for this ostracism were several.  First, his stalemate position towards Israel, where he claimed that every inch of occupied Syrian land from 1967 should be returned to Syria (a position that was in accord with international law and United Nations resolutions).  Second, Syria’s continued presence in Lebanon (which outlasted the Israeli control over the southern parts of the country).  Third, repeated allegations that Syria was involved in international terrorism fostered the image of Assad as a problematic political figure.  Fourth, because of repeated reports of political oppression inside Syria.

Assad worked on making Syria into a leading nation in the Arab world.  In this effort he never became very successful, and he is more remembered for a negative relationship with the leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein and the king of Jordan, King Hussein, as well as his support of radical and often violent Muslim groups that are based in Lebanon and Syria.  

During his time in office, Assad was known for being one of the best informed and hardest working politicians in Southwest Asia.   He was famous for his long work sessions and working days -- many 18 hours long -- as well as his self-deprecating humor.  Assad was also well-known for a modest lifestyle, without much excess.  He lived in a normal villa in a residential neighborhood in Damascus.  However, surrounding Assad, there were several people who became wealthy thanks to the nepotism which was rampant in Syrian government and society.

Assad belonged to the Alawites, a small Shi‘a group, that through the centuries has not had national political power.  Among the main group of Syrians, the Sunnis, many would say that the Alawites are heretics.   This means that Assad lacked broad support within the Syrian population, and his survival depended on control and suppression of contending groups.  Assad early made sure that many of the important positions in the Syrian society were filled with fellow Alawites.  It is also believed that this is one of the main reasons for Assad’s continued politics of state control over the economy. After all, a liberalization would have meant that other groups in the society (Sunnis and Christians) would have gained economical force, and through this, also political force.

Assad built a political system, where the army was both a symbol of Syria’s power, as well as a techinque of controlling the country.  On more than one occasion, the army was used against Syria’s own population in order to protect political stability.

Assad also saw to the construction of an effective police state, where there were no less than 15 competing intelligence agencies.

Internally, Assad’s politics did not result in much economic progress.  The country had had a system of strong political control with almost all aspects of the economy, and many businessmen found it hard to establish companies and run them.  During the time of Assad, Syria was in several fields the least developed country.  Computer technology and telecommunications were sparsely utilized and there were minimal possibilities for private initiative in the economic life of the country.  
 
Hafez al-Assad was born in the town of Qardaha in the Latakia province of western Syria (then a French Mandate) into a minority Alawite family. He was the first member of his family to attend high school. He attended Jules Jammal High School in Lattakia from which he graduated. He joined the Baath Party in 1946 at the age of 16. Because his family had no money to send him to university, Assad went to the Syrian Military Academy and received a free higher education. He showed considerable talent and the military sent him for additional training in the Soviet Union. As a pilot during the 1950s, he flew the Gloster Meteor jet fighter, amongst other types. He rose through the ranks and became an important figure in the military.

Assad opposed the 1958 union between Syria and Egypt which created the United Arab Republic (UAR). Stationed in Cairo, he worked with other officers to end the union, sticking to his pan-Arab ideals while arguing that the UAR concentrated too much power in the hands of Gamal Abdel Nasser's regime. As a result, Assad was briefly imprisoned by the Egyptian authorities at the breakup of the union in 1961. .

In the chaos that followed the dissolution of the UAR, a coalition of left-wing groups led by the Baath Party seized power in Syria. Assad was appointed head of the air force in 1964. The state was officially ruled by Amin Hafiz, a Sunni Muslim, but was in practice dominated by a coterie of young Alawite Baathists.
 
In 1966, the Baath launched a coup d'etat within the government and cleared out the other parties from the government. Assad became Minister of Defence and wielded considerable influence over government policy. However, there was much tension between the dominant radical wing of the Baath Party, which promoted an aggressive foreign policy and rapid social reform, and Assad's more pragmatic, military-based faction. After being discredited by the failure of the Syrian military in the Six-Day War in 1967, and enraged by the aborted Syrian intervention in the Jordanian-Palestinian Black September war, the government faced conflict within its ranks. By the time President Nureddin al-Atassi and the de facto leader, deputy secretary general of the Baath Party Salah Jadid, realized the threat and ordered Assad be stripped of all party and government power, it was too late. Assad swiftly launched a bloodless intra-party coup, the Corrective Revolution of 1970. The party was purged, Atassi and Jadid jailed, and Assad loyalists installed in key posts throughout the government.

Assad inherited a dictatorial government shaped by years of unstable military rule, and lately organized along one-party lines after the Baathist coup. He increased repression and attempted to secure his domination of every sector of society through a vast web of police informers and agents. Under his rule, Syria turned genuinely authoritarian. He was made the object of a state-sponsored cult of personality, which depicted him as a wise, just, and strong leader of Syria and of the Arab world in general.

Syria under Assad never quite reached the levels of repression practiced in neighboring Iraq, ruled by a rivaling Baathist faction. Where Saddam Hussein's policies of perpetual state terrorism aimed to secure his rule through fear, Hafez al-Assad took a more sophisticated approach: rather than immediately brutalizing restive communities, his government often bribed or threatened dissidents. Only after milder forms of persuasion had failed would brute force be used. Then, the government could be counted on to act with unflinching cruelty in order to intimidate all would-be dissidents.

Whilst dictatorial, the government of Assad initially achieved some popularity for bringing stability to the country, which had experienced dozens of attempted coups since 1948. He also implemented many social reforms and infrastructure projects, notably the Thawra (Revolution) dam on the Euphrates River. It was built with Soviet assistance, and came to supply much of Syria's electricity. Public schooling and other reforms were extended to larger segments of the population, and a notable rise in living standards occurred. The government's secularism meant that many members of religious minorities, such as the Alawites, Druze, and Christians, naturally supported Assad, fearing a return to historic persecution under a Sunni Islamist successor government to Assad.

Assad also continued previous Baath policies by overseeing massive increases in Syria's military strength (again with Soviet support) and by maintaining a strong Arab nationalist position. School curricula and the state-controlled media gave much attention to the glorious past of Syria and the Arabs, and portrayed Assad's government as the lone uncorrupted champion of the Arab nation against Western imperialism and aggression. This propaganda aimed to legitimize the government, but also to unify the diverse and fractured Syrian society, and instill a sense of national pride among the populace.

In 1979, the Syrian public was shocked by a chain of assassinations which took place starting in the artillery school in Aleppo. No one could identify who was responsible for these assassinations. After almost a year, a member from the group believed to be behind the assassinations was injured and taken into custody by the Syrian intelligence system. He was identified as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood party. The party's goals were to eliminate all persons who had strong ties with the government or Baath party, focusing on Baathists who were educated and had a good reputation within the government, or army high ranking members who were relatives of Assad family or Alawites. It took The Syrian intelligence system a long time to penetrate the Muslim Brotherhood and diminish its power. Unfortunately, the Syrian security forces were, in some incidents, brutal. Many innocent civilians died in the battles between the army and the party members. Some sources estimate that the number of civilians killed was between 150,000 to 200,000. The violence damaged the national growth of the Syrian economy. The Muslim Brotherhood organization aimed to weaken the government's authority, hoping that Sunni Muslims in the army would overthrow the Alawite-dominated government.
 
In 1983, Assad suffered a heart attack and was confined to hospital. He named a six-man governing council to run the country in his absence, among them long-time Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass. All six were Sunnis, possibly because they had no independent power over his Alawite-dominated government, and were thus less likely to try to seize power. Despite this, rumors spread that Assad was dead or nearly so, and indeed his condition was serious. In 1984, Assad's brother, Rifaat al-Assad attempted to use the security forces under his control to seize power. His Defence Company troops of some 50,000 men, complete with tanks and helicopters, began putting up roadblocks throughout Damascus, and tensions between Hafez loyalists and Rifaat supporters came close to all-out war. The stand-off was not ended until Hafez, still ill, rose from his bed to reassume power and speak to the nation. He transferred command of the Defence Company and, without formal accusations, sent Rifaat on an indefinite "work visit" to France.
 
Assad's foreign policy was shaped by the relation of Syria to Israel, although this conflict both preceded him and persisted after his death. During his presidency, Syria played a major role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The war was, despite heavy losses and Israeli advances, presented by the Syrian government as a victory, as Syria regained some territory that had been occupied in 1967 through peace negotiations headed by Henry Kissinger. Since then Assad-led Syria has carefully respected the United Nations-monitored ceasefire line in the occupied Golan Heights. The Syrian government denied the state of Israel any recognition, and long preferred to refer to it as a "Zionist Entity". Only in the mid-1990s did Hafez moderate his country's policy towards Israel, as he realized the loss of Soviet support meant a different balance of power in the Middle East. Pressed by the United States, he engaged in negotiations on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, but these talks ultimately failed.

Syria deployed troops to Lebanon in 1976, officially in response to a request from the Lebanese government for Syrian military intervention during the Lebanese Civil War. It is alleged that the Syrian presence in Lebanon began earlier with its involvement in as-Saiqa, a Palestinian militia composed primarily of Syrians. The Arab League agreed to send a peacekeeping force mostly formed by Syrian troops. The initial goals were to save the Lebanese government from being overun by the Left and the Palestinian militancy. Critics allege that this eventually turned into an occupation by 1982, which is more or less not disputed within the Lebanese community. The Syrian presence ended in 2005, due to the UN resolution 1559 after the Rafiq Hariri assassination and the March 14 protests.

The hostile attitude to Israel meant vocal support for the Palestinians, but that did not translate into friendly relations with their organizations. Hafez al-Assad was always wary of independent Palestinian organizations, as he aimed to bring the Palestinian issue under Syrian control in order to use it as a political tool. He soon developed an implacable animosity towards Yassir Arafat's PLO, against which Syria fought bloody battles in Lebanon.

As Arafat allegedly moved the PLO in a more moderate direction, supposedly seeking compromise with Israel, Assad also feared regional isolation, and he resented the PLO underground's operations in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. Arafat was depicted by Syria as a rogue madman and an American marionette and, after accusing him of supporting the Hama revolt, Assad backed the 1983 Abu Musa rebellion inside Arafat's Fatah-movement. A number of unsuccessful Syrian attempts to kill Arafat were also made.

An effective strategy was undermining Arafat through support for radical groups both outside and inside the Palestine Liberation Organization. This way Syria secured some influence over PLO politics, and was also able to literally blow up any attempts at negotiation with the United States and Israel through pushing for terrorist attacks. The PLO's As-Sa'iqa faction was and is completely controlled by Syria, and under Hafez, groups such as the PFLP-GC were also turned into clients. In later years, Syria focused on supporting non-PLO Islamist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Even though Iraq was ruled by another branch of the Baath Party, Assad's relations with Saddam Hussein were extremely strained. Hostile rhetoric between the two was intense, and until Saddam's fall in 2003, Iraq was listed in Syrian passports as one of the two countries no Syrian citizen could visit (the other being Israel). But with the exception of a few border guard skirmishes and mutual support for cross-border raids by opposition groups, no heavy fighting broke out until 1991, when Syria joined the United States-led United Nations coalition to expel Iraq from Kuwait.

Assad had originally groomed his son, Basil al-Assad as his successor, but he died in a car accident in 1994. Assad then called back a second son, Bashar, and put him in intensive military and political training, with Bashar becoming a staff colonel in the military of Syria. Despite some concerns of unrest within the government, the succession ultimately went smoothly. Hafez al-Assad is buried together with Basil in a mausoleum in his hometown of Qardaha.





Hafiz al-Assad see Assad, Hafiz al-
Hafez al-Assad see Assad, Hafiz al-
Hafiz al-Asad see Assad, Hafiz al-
Asad, Hafiz al- see Assad, Hafiz al-

Assad, Rifaat al-
Assad, Rifaat al- (b. 1937). Syrian politician, the brother of the former Syrian President Hafiz al-Assad, and the uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.  

During his life, Rifaat went from being an important ally of his brother to becoming a contender for Hafiz’s position as well as his nephew’s present position.  Rifaat enjoyed support from large groups in the Syrian army, and until 1999 (when many of these supporters were arrested) he was perceived to be a viable successor of his brother.  This however, would have been against the plans of Hafiz and Bashar.  Rifaat was also active in business, especially after his return to Syria in 1992. Together with his son, Shawmar, he was successful.  

Rifaat al-Assad was born in the village of Qardaha, near Lattakia in western Syria.  He played a key role in his brother's takeover of executive power in 1970, dubbed the Corrective Revolution, and ran the elite internal security forces and the 'Defence Companies' (Saraya al-Difaa). He had a pivotal role throughout the 1970s and, until 1984, many saw him as the likely successor to Hafiz.

In February 1982, Rifaat commanded the forces that put down a Muslim Brotherhood revolt in the central city of Hama, by instructing his forces to shell the city, killing thousands of its inhabitants (reports differ between 5,000 and 40,000, the most common suggestion being around 15-20,000). This became known as the Hama Massacre.

When Hafiz al-Assad suffered from heart problems in 1983, he established a 6-member committee to run the country. Rifaat was not included, and the council consisted entirely of close Sunni Muslim loyalists to Hafiz, who were mostly lightweights in the military-security establishment. This caused unease in the Alawi-dominated officer corps, and several high-ranking officers began rallying around Rifaat, while others remained loyal to Hafiz's instructions. Rifaat's troops, then numbering more than 55,000 with tanks, artillery, aircraft and helicopters, began asserting control over Damascus, putting up posters of him.  Rifaat was clearly launching a bid to succeed his brother. Tensions between forces loyal to Hafiz and those loyal to Rifaat were extreme, but by early 1984 Hafiz had returned from his sick bed and assumed full control, at which point most officers rallied around him. In what at first seemed a compromise, Rifaat was made vice-president with responsibility for security affairs, but this proved a wholly nominal post. Command of the 'Defence Companies' was transferred to another officer, and Rifaat was then sent abroad on "an open-ended working visit". His closest supporters and others who had failed to prove their loyalty to Hafiz were purged from the army and Baath Party in the years that followed.

Although he returned for his mother's funeral in 1992, and for some time lived in Syria, Rifaat was thereafter confined to exile in France and Spain. He nominally retained the post of vice president until 1998, when he was stripped even of this. He retained a large business empire both in Syria and abroad, partly through his son Sumer. However, a 1999 crackdown -- involving armed clashes in Lattakia -- destroyed much of his remaining network in Syria.  Large numbers of Rifaat's supporters were arrested. This was seen as being tied to the issue of succession, with Rifaat having begun to position himself to succeed the ailing Hafiz, who in his turn sought to eliminate all potential competition for his designated successor, his son Bashar al-Assad.

In France, Rifaat protested the succession of Bashar to the post of president, claiming that he himself embodied the "only constitutional legality" (as vice president, alleging his dismissal was unconstitutional). He made threatening remarks about planning to return to Syria at a time of his choosing to "assume his responsibilities and fulfill the will of the people", and that while he would rule benevolently and democratically, he would do so with "the power of the people and the army" behind him.

Assamese
Assamese.   Refers to the Asamiya speaking Muslims of Assam in India.  Like Muslim communities in other parts of India, the Asamiya speaking Muslims of Assam are the product of prolonged interaction between Islam and local cultures.  They are considered less orthodox than other Indian Muslims and share many culture traits with Assamese Hindus.  Nevertheless, the basic values of Islam are the values of the Assamese Muslims.  

Assam came into contact with Islam for the first time in 1206, when a Turkish army led by Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar made an expedition to Tibet through the region.  He was followed by other Muslim invaders.  In 1532, a Muslim army under Turbak invaded Assam.  The forces of the local Ahom king defeated the Muslims, and those who were taken prisoners were settled in different parts of the state.  They married Assamese women and, after a few generations, their descendants immersed themselves so deeply into the indigenous culture that they lost whatever Islamic moorings their ancestors ever had.  Descendants of these soldiers today are called Marias.

The history of Assam’s contact with Muslims clearly suggests that they never really gained a significant foothold.  However, these early encounters contributed towards the propagation and strengthening of the Islamic faith in Assam, and some traits of Islamic culture were adopted by the indigenous population.  Furthermore, the prolonged wars between the Muslim and Assamese kings led to the growth of the Muslim population in Assam.

The consolidation of Islam in the Assam valley dates from the early part of the seventeenth century.  A Muslim saint named Shah Milan, popularly known as Azan Faqir, was the chief patron of this consolidation.  He is said to have come to Assam during the 1630s and to have proselytized and preached reform.  Through his work, as well as that of other clerics who followed him, Islam was revived among those who were nominal Muslims, on the one hand, and some indigenous population converted to Islam, on the other.  Presumably, these preachers were patronized by the Ahom rulers in their missionary work and in propagating the Islamic faith.  (The Ahoms, a Thai or Shan peoples from northern Burma, entered eastern Assam in the thirteenth century and established a kingdom that eventually included the whole of the Brahmaputra Valley.)

The Assamese people are defined by the Assamese government as the multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-linguistic people of Assam but can also refer to the Assamese-speaking Indo-Aryans of the Brahmaputra valley. Historically, the definition of the "Assamese people" has remained in flux and this has had strong political repercussions in Assam, especially in the colonial (1826-1947) and post-colonial (after 1947) periods. Attempts in the past to define the Assamese people on linguistic, cultural or ethnic basis have failed.

The lack of a definition put stumbling blocks in implementing clause 6 of the Assam Accord, an agreement signed by the activists of the Assam Movement and the Government of India in 1985. The Government of Assam formed a ministerial committee to finalize the definition of Assamese people in March 2007. To address the clause 6 issue AASU announced a definition on April 10, 2000 which was based on residency with a temporal limit: "All those whose names appeared in the 1951 National Register of Citizens and their progenies should be considered as Assamese".

In the period before 1826, the eastern part of present-day Assam was called the "Kingdom of Assam", presently known as the Ahom kingdom, and the word "Assamese" was used to refer to the subjects of this kingdom. "Assamese" was also used to refer to the soldiers that fought under the Ahom king's command that included subjects of allied kingdoms. Therefore, in this period, Assamese was a political category, not cultural or linguistic, that was used to define those associated with the Ahom kingdom.

The group that now identifies as Tai-Ahom were historically seen as "Assamese" people. However, the term "ethnic Assamese" is now associated by the Indian government at Delhi with the Assamese-speaking ethnic group of Assam. The latter group is the majority people of Assam, while the Tai-Ahoms were a dominant minority during the Ahom kingdom.

Assassins
Assassins (Nizarites) (Nizari Ismailis) (Hashshashin) (Hashishin) (Hashashiyyin) (Hashasheen).  The Hashshashin from which the word assassin is thought to originate, was the Arabic designation of the Nizari branch of the Ismā'īlī Shia Muslims during the Middle Ages. The Nizari or Hashshashin, as they were designated by their enemies, split from the Fatimid Isma'ili Empire following a dispute regarding the succession of their spiritual and political leader the Fatimid Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah.

The Assassins were an Isma‘ili sect that supported the imamate of Nizar, the successor of Badr al-Din al Jamali, the emir and vizier of the Fatimid Empire. When Nizar was defeated in battle and killed in prison, some Isma‘ilis claimed that Nizar had gone into occultation.  

In the Persian fortress Alamut, Hasan al-Sabbah predicted the return of Nizar, and instigated attacks on Sunni, Fatimid and Christian leaders.  Allegedly the members of this sect (who called themselves fida’iyyun – “those who sacrifice themselves”) were prone to take hashish, hence their name “Hashishiyyun,” or the European version, “Assassins.”

“Assassin” is the name given in medieval times by Europeans to the followers of the Nizari branch of the Isma‘iliyya sect of Shi‘ism.  The term was first applied in Syria, and then was extended to include the Persian branch of the sect.  The origin of the appellation can be traced back to the Arabic hashish, a name for Indian hemp (cannabis sativa).  

The name “assassins” was carried to Europe by the Crusaders, who were confronted by members of the Isma‘iliyya sect -- the hashishiyya -- in the hill fortresses of Syria.  The term eventually passed into various European languages in the form “assassin.”

The meaning of the word “assassin” has gone through changes reflecting the deep impact Syrian Assassins made on the imagination of Europe.  At first, it was a general name for the mysterious sect in Syria and other Islamic lands; then following Marco Polo’s description of the gardens of paradise belonging to the “Old Man of the Mountains,” whose devoted followers were ready to carry out his command to get rid of their opponents by assassination, “assassin” became a common noun meaning “murderer.”

Though it has been widely believed that Nizari leaders made secret use of hashish to give their emissaries a foretaste of the delights of paradise that awaited them on the completion of their missions of murder, this is not supported by the sources, even when the name hashishiyya is used for the Nizaris.  The term was, in all probability, applied to the Ismailis, who were despised as a minority and thus associated with the prevailing vices of the time.

The history of Assassins or the Nizaris begins with Hasan-i Sabbah (d. 1124), who seized the key fortress of Alamut, south of the Caspian, in 1090 and began an aggressive mission in northern Iran, as well as battles with the Seljuks.  

After 1092, a number of religious fanatics launched a series of spectacular attempts on the lives of leading Sunnis and other opponents.

In 1094, the Fatimid Caliph, al-Mustansir, died, and Hasan-i Sabbah did not recognize the new caliph, al-Mustali.  He and his followers transferred their allegiance to his brother Nizar.  The followers of Hasan-i Sabbah soon came at odds with both the caliph in Baghdad as well as the one in Cairo.

The Assassins developed an esoteric doctrine and at the start of the twelfth century began to extend themselves, even into the Syria of the Crusade era, under an independent grand master, the “Old Man of the Mountains.”  The Assassins’ excursion into Syria was supported by the local Shi‘a minority as the Seljuk sultanate had captured this territory.   During this time, the Assassins captured a group of castles in the Nusayriyya Mountains.  The most important of these castles were the Masyaf, from which the “The Old Man of the Mountains”, Rashid ud-Din Sinan, ruled practically independent from the main leaders of the Assassins.  Rashid made several attempts on the life of Saladin, the leader of the Ayyubids.   Whether or not these murderous commando units were ever actually under the influence of narcotics is questionable.

Between 1090 and 1256 there were eight rulers of Alamut who, as the Imams of the Isma‘ilis, played an important role in the new “summons to truth.”  Their downfall in Iran and in Syria was effected by the Mongols under Hulagu in 1256 and 1258, and the Mameluke Sultan Baybars dealt the Assassins of Syria a final blow in 1272.  

There are many legends connected to the Assassins, and most of the legends are most doubtful.  Indeed, the legends appear to be more the product of the imaginations of medieval European story tellers (including Marco Polo) rather than the product of fact.  The main theme of the stories is that the Assassins performed their acts under strong intoxication from hashish.  These acts resulted in the death of the Assassins but each Assassin would go to his death with the promise of immediate entry into paradise.  Indeed, according to the stories, many Assassins were provided a taste of the paradise to come during their training where they were provided access to sweet food and wine and beautiful and willing women.  

Of course, these stories have never been confirmed by any investigations of contemporary Isma‘ili sources, and there is good reason to believe that such a lack is a clear indication that such stories are purely fabrications.  

From the available original sources, scholars have learned that the Assassins changed the original Isma‘ili doctrine, so that acts of terrorism became a religious duty.  Growing out from their center in Kazvin, the Assassins constructed a number of strongholds all over Iran and Iraq.  The idea of a constructed paradise around Alamut was probably based upon the sayings of imam al-Kahir, where he talks about a paradise that man has already entered.  However, al-Kahir’s paradise was meant as a spiritual one.  

Despite being a minority within a minority, the Isma'ili, under the leadership of their Imams, succeeded in establishing a generational secretive underground movement against the Abbasid Caliphate. They based their ideas on Greek philosophy, mysticism, and an end to perceived corruption and greed. They would turn their revolutionary ideals into reality by establishing the first Shia state—the Fatimid Empire, spanning across the Mediterranean and Levant, with its capital in Cairo. The empire's goal was to bring scientific and social breakthroughs to all its peoples, including religious freedom.

When in 1094 the eighth Fatimid Caliph and Isma'ili Imam Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah took ill in Cairo, his powerful Vizier, Al-Afdal, took the reins of state power. Following the death of the Caliph, Vizier Al-Afdal led a palace coup, appointing the Caliph's younger son Ahmed and the vizier's brother-in-law as Caliph, dubbed Al-Musta'ali. Nizār, the heir apparent, left for Alexandria, where he was given strong local support and led another rebellion, only to be defeated and executed on his brother's orders. This caused a split in the Fatimid Empire amongst the Isma'ili.

Nizār's supporters, called the Nizāriyya or Nizari, continued his cause under the charismatic Iranian leadership of Hassan-i Sabbah, also known as the leading Isma'ili missionary "Da'i" of the secret Fatimid propaganda machine within the enemy Abbasid Caliphate. Hassan-i Sabbah successfully gained the majority support of Fatimid Shia east of Egypt within the Levant, Persia (Iran), and Iraq, and a small underground following within the Empire's heart (Egypt and the rest of North Africa). However, by breaking with the Fatimid Empire, the followers of Hassan-i Sabbah found themselves alone and outnumbered in enemy territory.

Not merely content to survive, but instead determined to build a new utopia, the Nizari formulated a strategy of gaining control of strategically important fortresses by covertly converting local inhabitants living within and around the strategically vital fortresses to Isma'ili Shi'ism and seizing control. They established a new kind of state consisting of a number of "island" fortified settlements within a sea of hostility in present day Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The formal origin of the Federation of the Assassins is marked as 1090 when Hassan-i Sabbah established his first stronghold in the Daylam at the fortress of Alamut ('The Place of the Eagle's Teaching' or "Eagles Nest"), south of the Caspian Sea. Alamut remained capital of the federation, and home of its rulers—styled "The Lords of Alamut"--until its destruction.

The power of the Hashshashin was destroyed by the Mongol warlord Hulagu Khan during the Mongol assault of Alamut on December 15, 1256. The Syrian branch of the Hashshashin was destroyed in 1273 by the Mamluk Sultan Baybars. The Hashshashin captured and held Alamut for a few months in 1275 but their political power was lost. The Mamluks continued to use the services for which the Assassins had become more widely known: Ibn Battuta recorded in the 14th century their fixed rate of pay per murder. In exchange, they were allowed to exist. Eventually, they resorted to the act of Taqq'iya (dissimulation), hiding their true identities until their Imams would awaken them.

Unable to mount a conventional military army, the Nizari developed a form of asymmetric warfare transforming the act of political assassination into a system of survival and defense against greed, corruption, injustice and foreign domination. They trained highly capable sleeper commandos (trained in languages, science, trade, and so on, not combat) known as Fedayeen, who would covertly infiltrate enemy positions and remain undercover. If Nizari civilians were facing pogroms or their forts faced imminent attack, the Fedayeen were activated to prevent an attack.

Fedayeen used their well-known deadliness for political goals without necessarily killing; for example, a victim, usually high-placed, might one morning find a Hashshashin dagger lying on his pillow upon awakening. This was a plain hint to the targeted individual that he was not safe anywhere, that maybe even his inner group of servants had been infiltrated by the assassins, and that whatever course of action had brought him into conflict with the Hashshashins would have to be stopped if he wanted to live.

Within Persian Iran, they employed their tactics directly against the Seljuk Turks, rulers who had been persecuting Nizari sects. They were meticulous in killing the targeted individual, seeking to do so without any additional casualties and loss of innocent life, although they were careful to cultivate their terrifying reputation by slaying their victims in public. Typically, they approached using a disguise, or were already sleeper agents in an entourage. Preferring a small hidden blade or dagger, they rejected poison, bows and other weapons that may have allowed the attacker to escape and live.

Within the Levant it is believed that Saladin, incensed by several almost-successful Hashshashin attempts on his life, besieged their chief Syrian stronghold of Masyaf during his reconquest of Outremer in 1176. He quickly lifted the siege after parley, and thereafter attempted to maintain good relations with the sect. The sect's own accounts tell of Rashid ad-Din Sinan stealing into Saladin's tent in the heart of his camp, and leaving a poisoned cake and a note saying "You are in our power" on Saladin's chest as he slept. Another account tells of a letter sent to Saladin's maternal uncle, vowing death to the entire royal line; perhaps no idle threat. Whatever the truth of these accounts (and likely it will remain a mystery) Saladin's uncle clearly heeded their warning, and desisted.

The Hashshashin were often motivated by outsiders. Richard the Lionheart was among those suspected of commissioning the assassination of Conrad of Montferrat. In most cases they were aimed at retaining the balance of the Hashshashin's enemies.

Notable victims include the Abbasid Vizier Nizam al-Mulk (1092), the Fatimid vizier al-Afdal (1122) (responsible for imprisoning Nizar), ibn al-Khashshab of Aleppo (1125), il-Bursuqi of Mosul (1126), Raymond II of Tripoli (1152), Conrad of Montferrat (1192), and Prince Edward (later Edward I of England) was wounded by a poisoned assassin dagger in 1271.

The library of Alamut was destroyed, along with much of their Persian power base, and thus much of the sect's own records were lost. Most accounts of the Hashshashin stem from the polemic of Arab historians of the period, and Marco Polo's accounts. Most Muslim contemporaries were hostile toward Nizari; in fact they were described using the term Batini. The term was sometimes used pejoratively to refer to those, especially Isma'ili, who discerned an inner, esoteric level of meaning (batin) in the Qur'an. This constant religious estrangement would eventually see them go so far as allying with the Occidental Christians against Muslims on a number of occasions when it suited their interests.

A popular legend derives from Marco Polo, who claimed to have visited Alamut during his journey east. The legend states that future assassins were subjected to rites similar to those of other mystery cults.  The subject was made to believe that he was in imminent danger of death. The twist was that they were drugged to simulate "dying" and later they awakened in a garden flowing with wine and served a sumptuous feast by virgins. The supplicant was then convinced he was in Heaven and that the cult's leader, Hassan-i Sabbah, was a representative of the divinity and all his orders should be followed, even unto death.

Much of the current western lore surrounding the Assassins roots from Marco Polo's supposed visit to the Syrian fortress of Alamut in 1273 (a visit widely considered fictional since the stronghold had been destroyed by the Mongols in 1256), and from returning Crusaders from the Levant who encountered their local Syrian leader Rashid ad-Din Sinan (the old man of the mountain) in the fortress of Masyaf.

The use of intoxicants is never mentioned in contemporary Ismaili sources, nor from rival Sunnis and Shia, despite their suffering from the assassination acts of that rival sect.



Nizarites see Assassins
Hashishiyyun see Assassins
hashishiyya see Assassins
Hashshashin see Assassins
Hashishin see Assassins
Nizari Ismailis see Assassins